Clarke Case Study

CSR 3/13/13 Going Green The company Clarke is a family company that has grown, since 1946, and is now the largest Mosquito Abatement firm out of all the districts in the US. They have been involved in the industry since 1927 when John Clark Sr. wrote the legislation that established the Mosquito Abatement District in the state of Illinois. The main goal was to produce a full, high-quality selection of products for the Mosquito Abatement Districts, taxpayer-funded municipal regions; individual administered, and state government entities.Starting out with their mission to provide pesticide applications, they have grown to turnkey mosquito management systems, which include necessary personnel, chemical, and public education equipment. This case involves the company Clarke and their efforts to go green, and focus on environmental CSR, which seems to be what most companies are trying to do now-a-days. Consumers see going green as a company who is producing goods that are not harmful to th e environment. It projects an overall better image for the company, which in return pleases environmentalists and helps to generate a better customer database a larger profit.It also gives companies a way to be innovative with their products and differentiate themselves from all of their competitors in the market, and promotes a global initiative to provide a better overall living environment for the consumers. Their overall goal was to be able to shift their industry and bring in a new business model that would be able to change the industry in a positive way and give them an upper hand on their competition. They followed four core values, which are: 1. Extend the Reach: Responding to the growing interest in environmentalism. . Innovate: Helping their company grow with new products. 3. Sustainability 4. One Clark: Creating a culture of shared aspirations. Over the course of time, Clarke’s new developed product called â€Å"Natular†, was redeveloped and made environmen t friendly for multiple aquatic habitats such as lakes, ponds, retention ponds, and potable water containers. The main issue that the company faces is that they are having difficulty adding this product because it would potentially alter the overall consumers that they have.And with the company trying to go green, this product does not really promote the â€Å"going green’ initiative, mainly because the fact of the matter is that this product is still a pesticide. It seems a bit contradicting to go green when you are producing pesticide products. Question: How does a company become a pesticide leader, demonstrating environmental responsibility in everything it does, in a way that is both profitable and credible to its customers, employees and other stakeholders?The question stated above is what the main issue that was discussed in their recent meeting, and how they could go about solving this issue without sabotaging their business as a whole and losing their current custome rs. I believe that the bottom line is that they can go green but by what methods can you use to begin the process being that they are the industry that they are. The type of industry that they are in are already making products that have been know to harm the environment, not by choice to harm the environment, but that’s typically what they do when consumers use them for the things that they are used for.In this case killing mosquitos. Which also in the long run can be very costly for the companies because there are specific regulations that they are to follow that are enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency, and they can also shut down any operations that Clarke has going on if the suspect that they are in fact not following the regulations that they are to abide by, and that could make it more difficult to create new products that could help them promote going green.With their four goals that I mentioned earlier, they should really have no problem with trying to imp lement new CSR strategies that would eventually make them more environment friendly. They just have to be sure that they abide by regulations and continue working to develop their products to be more environment friendly until they achieve their overall goal.

Creating a Living Newspaper

Reflection on Y, F, Z Living Newspaper Scene The idea of the â€Å"Living Newspaper† is an ingenious way in theatre to depict real life in an artistic way and amplify the feelings of the actual event. So, naturally when you assigned us to create our own â€Å"Living Newspaper† I was ecstatic to get started. The group I worked with and I decided to choose between finding a newspaper on a cult group or an exorcism, though I preferred the exorcist idea, we decided to go with cults because during our research we found it very fascinating that there were so many cases and different types of cults.During our research we found there were multiple different kinds of cults, some good, some bad, but most focused on the end of the world or the end of their world and how they would be able to spend eternity, and most usually had manipulative and violent leaders. One such case was the Y, F, Z Ranch where the leader Warren Jeff’s is accused of committing multiple accounts of i ncest and rape, though that was still not as interesting to us as the fact, that all the girls that belonged to this cult, were in a sense brainwashed.The fact that somebody or a group of people could be tricked into thinking that something so sinister was the way of a god was ludicrous. As a group we all wanted to add or own tweak the piece, my own personal contribution was the in the beginning of the scene I wanted there to be sheets in front of the actors playing the rap victims of the cult and you would see â€Å"Warren Jeff’s† shadow come up to each one and imitate the act of raping them. I wanted this to highlight the silent motif we played with.Though, of course in the time we had we had to be realistic with our scene so the sheets didn’t happen, we still continued with the most important theme of silence which is what I intended for my contribution. What I took away as an actor from this piece is how different it is to play a real person rather then a ch aracter and how much it bends and changes the methods of the acting I was use too. And personally from this piece I realized how difficult it is to work when there are so many people disorganized people trying to voice their opinion. But, I did enjoy the experience.

David Fletcher Essay

David Fletcher, a heavily overworked portfolio manager of the Emerging Growth Fund at a New York investment management firm, plans to ramp-up a team of research-analysts. He wishes to delegate a part of his workload to this team. The case explores the problems that David faces at various stages of introducing new members in his team. It also touches upon the challenges faced by a typically task oriented person while engaging in a team building exercise. Is David Fletcher successful? As an individual, David Fletcher is extremely successful at his job. An economics major and a Harward business school graduate, he started his career as a securities analyst in a New York based brokerage firm. He cut through the ranks in relatively quick time and very soon he was handled the responsibility of two of the most aggressive mutual funds of his time. David continued his stellar performances in these funds even as he took them to 10 times their original/starting value. In the words of his colleagues and close cronies, David was not only a detail and decision oriented person but was also a person who was extremely familiar with the art and the science of portfolio management. In the latter half of his described career, David joined Paul Jenkins to form the Jenkins Fletcher partners where he managed a portfolio of 150+ million US$ single handedly. David’s performances in the various roles he assumed during his career amply justify his credibility as an individual and as a professional (portfolio manager). As a team player, colleagues acknowledged David’s acumen in the field of portfolio management. In a way, David commanded respect from his colleagues and superiors alike which is testament to the fact that David was an internal cog in the teams that he worked in. As a team manager, David’s success is questionable. I wish to analyze his stint at building and thereafter leading and managing a team at Fletcher Jenkins partners to substantiate my aforementioned stance. This brings me to address a more pertinent question first, What was David’s motivation to build a team? As mentioned previously, David is a highly overworked portfolio manager. Being the best at what he does, in a way, acts as a detriment to his position as he has to juggle with multiple tasks at a time. As one of the main portfolio managers of Jenkins Fletchers partners, David manages a huge pile of investor’s money (to the tune of 150 million US$) from a total fund size of 400 million US$. If managing a fund wasn’t enough, David also has to do the research of the industries/markets from which he builds his portfolio himself. He is often faced with an information overload which prompts him to look for individuals who can assist him in doing justice to his task. As I delved deeper into the case, I realized that David’s intention behind building a team, in a manner, was to ensure the success of his portfolio irrespective of how the success was achieved. David was so clinical in his pursuit of focusing on his fund’s performance that he became oblivious to the imbalance in his team. In consequence, this approach had David lose two of his critical team members. In the following section, I wish to analyze the core factors that contributed towards David’s relative lack of success as a team manager. Why did David’s pursuit of building an effective team not achieve the desired success? There were multiple mistakes that Fletcher made while ramping up his team of research analysts. Some of his shortcomings are blaringly evident in his interactions with his subordinates and colleagues. Take the case of Stephanie Whitley, with whom he shared a very close relationship. In his haste to recruit Doyle, Fletcher completely overlooked the act of taking Stephanie into confidence. The lack of consent and thought for how he would fit into the company’s culture and moreover how he would gel with Stephanie Whitley became evident when tension grew between Doyle and Whitley. At a time when both Whitley and Doyle should have provided inputs to each other in their work, most of their time was spent and therefore rendered unproductive in ego-trips rather than on focusing on their work. To make matters worse, Fletcher failed to resolve the conflict by taking a passive approach. In fact, Fletcher admitted that he did not actively try to resolve the conflicts which culminated in it being stretched all the way till one of the affected parties – Doyle left the firm. In his methodology of approaching people problems, David Fletcher has exudes callousness. At some plane, it just seems as though Fletcher does not aim at forging relationships with his team members but just tries to leverage their skills and synergies to achieve his final outcome – performance of his portfolio. Fletcher’s callousness is evident in the way he hypothesizes Whitley’s problem as being one of requiring more attention. Fletcher’s attitude caused him to lose credibility with Whitley to such an extent that she did not even confide in him about her decision to quit the job at Fletcher Jenkins partners. Also, in his handling of Doyle, the new associate, Fletcher exudes a certain degree of inflexibility. Doyle, according to the case is excellent in his job at managing portfolios of large Hi-Tech product companies. Even as he joined, Doyle started to research upon stocks of emerging stocks in the same market. Obviously, Doyle was unsuccessful at the beginning because of a probable longer ‘unlearning curve’. It is evident that Fletcher allows Doyle to move on in a bid to retain Whitley, however the situation could have been better handled by firstly resolving the personal differences and thereafter by infusing some confidence in Doyle – In that way Fletcher could have retained both his critical employees. Can we see any positives from Fletcher’s behavior thereafter? Yes. In a bid to learn from his past mistakes, Fletcher does try and make a conscious attempt to get new employees acquainted with his existing team before recruiting them. As is evident during the discussions on recruiting Mary Robinson, Fletcher actually has Rachel Kindred meet Mary Robinson in person at Boston. This, he presumes, shall allow them to reach to an understanding of each other as persons before establishing their compatibility as colleagues. Even in this case, however, he does not use the same procedure of recruitment with Robert Fiske. The case is left open-ended at this point, so it might not be an argument one can convincingly hold against Fletcher. What can we learn from this case, Is this practically feasible? This case, in itself is an excellent example of how callousness towards understanding people’s problems can end up disrupting the performance of a team. I hail from a successful Sales team in the IT sector. From personal experience, I can attest that it is usually not feasible to take the entire team into confidence before the recruitment of a new team member. However, broad level interaction issues – such as the one witnessed in the case can definitely be addressed at the outset. Secondly, I believe that the efforts taken to recruit a team member or to build a team are directly proportional to the criticality of the task carried out by the team. I have witnessed this factor at my workplace and this was evident in the case as well. In my experience, I have witnessed that during the recruitment of a candidate for the role of a business development manager, prospective candidates were actually flown down to the UK at my company’s expense. This role was obviously highly critical for our company’s prospects and the efforts taken by the company were commensurate to the same. In the context of the case, it is interesting to note the background of David Fletcher. He happens to be a Portfolio manager. As a part of his core job itself, he is responsible to pick multiple stocks by looking at their behavior. In totality, his job is to pick up such stocks that would be completely synergistic and thereby build a winning/high performing portfolio. If a direct analogy is drawn to the way Fletcher picks his team, this is the base principle on which he should have picked his team as well. It is only on recruiting perfect complements in his team that Fletcher could have ensured a synergistic performance in his team. Why is this case relevant to me as a person? I wish to embark on a career in financial services wherein I might be assuming a role similar to that assumed by David. It is said that â€Å"If you wish to go quickly, go alone but if you wish to go far, go together. † To go together effectively, it would be imperative for me to contribute towards building a strong team. For this, I would not only have to trust my own instincts but would also have to trust my team members and enable them to realize their self worth. Effectively, it is only when the self interests of team members are aligned with the team interest, that a team is successful.

Diseases among Elderly People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Diseases among Elderly People - Essay Example thromboxane A2 that promotes a cascade of events leading ultimately to clot formation. Increased homocysteine levels affect the inner lining of the arterial wall, and thus have long been implicated in the causation of thrombosis (Scott, J. and Weir, D., 1996). In fact, increased homocysetine levels associated with syndrome of homocysteinuria are acknowledged to be a cause of intravascular thrombosis. It has been observed that plasma homocysteine is normally converted to methionine co-factored by folic acid correlates in the body. When this reaction is impaired due to deficiency of cobalamine; since cobalamine regulates folate metabolism, it is deranged leading to elevated homocysteine levels (Mayer, E.L., Jacobsen, D.W., and Robinson, K., 1996). High plasma homocysteine, thus, will predispose to increased thrombosis, although it is not yet known whether hyperhomocysteinaemia due to folic acid deficiency predisposes to thrombosis or alters its response to treatment (Welch, G.N. and Loscalzo, J., 1998). This proposal aims to study the effect of folic acid on the elderly in terms of risk of coronary artery disease as relevant to prevention of thrombosis in preexisting atherosclerotic heart disease in terms of incidence of myocardial infarction (Bots, M.L. et al., 1999).Increasingly, healthcare is focusing towards prevention of disease rather than treating it after the catastrophe happens. Coronary artery disease manifested by acute myocardial infraction is one of the most common diagnoses in developed countries throughout the world. The mortality rate of the disease is 30% with over half the patients expiring even before they are able to reach the hospital. Survival from a heart...Research nurses will screen the medical records and exclude patients who have a history of coronary heart diseases or patients who are taking drugs known to interfere with folic acid, or taking vitamin supplements containing folic acid. Patients will be eligible for inclusion if aged 65 years or more and if their medical histories include two or more of the following conditions: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, obesity or smoking. All eligible individuals will receive a letter from the hospital explaining the study, followed by a telephone call inviting them to attend the first visit and instructing them to fast from midnight the night before the visit. At the first visit, all baseline measurements will be taken. Research nurses will take general information, such as, name, age, sex, phone number, address, smoking history, marital status, socioeconomic factors, and the names and phone numbers of two or three friends or relatives who always know how to reach the participants. Drugs history including aspirin or other anticoagulants, antihypertensive, anti-angina, and lipid-lowering drugs will be reviewed. Study procedures will be explained to all subjects. Subjects who are unlikely to complete follow-up due to plans to move or due to disease likely to be fatal within 4 years, or unwilling to participate will be excluded from the study. Ethics: All subjects will be explained the study protocol, and a written informed consent will

Mergers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mergers - Essay Example rgers are part of reforming a business which involve two companies coming together to create a big organization that pleases shareholders (Albizzatti and Sias 35-28). One factor that may make two companies succeed in merging is by integrating their data thus it will be easier to achieve the shareholders value. According to Gaughan (2009), this strategy is mostly used in tough economic times where those companies which cannot survive the competition in the market are bought-off by the strong companies in the market. Stanwick (16-11) descries that this enables the companies to improve their competitive nature as other companies merge hoping to increase their share in the market and thus will produce more than they would have if they were to operate by themselves. This study shows the possibilities that would make a company such as SLP want to merge with another one. It will also show how the mergers are financed and finally it shows the second and the third company to be chosen as a merger giving reasons for each. In my opinion if I was to pick a company to merge with between Dell and Intel it would be Dell. This is because it has more benefits to the company than Intel. Perry and Herd (19-12) shows that Dell is a multinational company and it already has a big market share all over the world which has been estimated to be 20 percent. This advantage would make SLP Company be in a position of venturing the global market as Dell would increase its industrial visibility. Dell is a company that deals with computers and SLP Company is involved in vehicles. Their merging type would be in the form of extending their product as the businesses are different but the products are somehow related. If Dell was to takeover SLP it would achieve more benefits of economies of scale as the size would increase as well as its product line. To pay for the deal the best way would be through fixed value stock. This is where the shares are fixed in that the buyer’s shareholders may run

Medical uses of algae Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words - 1

Medical uses of algae - Research Paper Example They include both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Algae both live and dead are being used by the humans. The fossil algal diatomite deposits in the shape of light but strong rocks are used as building materials and filtration media in water purification systems and swimming pools. Some fossil algae like Botryococcus are sources oil-rich deposits. Some other species of green algae are grown for obtaining bio chemicals for applications in medicine and cosmetics. The nuisance blue-green algae have beneficial uses especially Spirulina which is used as dietary supplement. The blue-green algae are better known as fresh water nuisance organisms which form as dense blooms affecting human activities through toxins generated by them, by clogging water courses and affecting recreational activities (Bellinger and Sigee). Alage has been described as organisms containing chlorophyll made up of one cell or grouped together in colonies or with many cells and at times joining together as simple tissues. Their sizes vary from unicellular of 3-10 um microns to giant kelps up to 70 mg long capable of growing 50 cm per day. They are found all over the earth in the sea, rivers, and lakes, also on soils and walls, in animal and plants (as symbionts-partners collaborating together) and it can just grow anywhere where light is available to conduct photosynthesis. Thus, alage are heterogeneous and identified in two major types: microalgae and microalgae. Microalgae grow in bentheic and littoral habitats and also in the ocean waters as Phytoplankton that comprises species such as diatoms, (bacillariophyta), dinoflagellates (dinophyta), green and yellow-brown flagellates (Chlorophyta; prasino-phyta; prymnesiophyta; cryptophyta, chrysophyta and rhaphdiophyta) and blue-green algae (cyano-phyta) (Gamal 1). Microalgal phyla provide chemical and pharmacological compounds besides bioactive compounds of marine resources back to compounds marine

What are the major advantages and disadvantages of the four principles Essay

What are the major advantages and disadvantages of the four principles approach to health care ethics - Essay Example In the 1970s, theologian James Childress and philosopher Tom Beauchamp came up with the ‘four principles’ approach (Beauchamp 1994, p.35). They enrolled the four principles, which they believed could be considered over each other when making an ethical decision on matters pertaining to medicine. There has been a substantial evolution of the Principles of Biomedical Ethics since the first version of its kind of theory and the requirements of particular circumstances. Principlism has specifically changed into a realistic approach for ethical decision-making focusing on ethical principles of justice, autonomy, non-maleficence and beneficence. Principlism is usually attained from, and is consistent with many theological approaches, social and even ethical advances towards ethical decision-making. The advancement, which is pluralist in nature, is quite necessary when one has to make an ethical verdict in a society or institution because clusters of pluralist fields by descrip tion can concur with neither certain ethical theories nor their explanations. The adequate state rather is that majority of people and communities would concur that there exists an extensive concurrence on the common values of justice, non-maleficence, beneficence and autonomy. Justice The principle of justice means allotting the benefits and saddles of a particular verdict fairly. It demands for proper allotment of benefits, risks and expenses evenly. In the present era, communities are enlightened co-operations that are principled by ethical and legal features of justice that give meaning to the support requisites. Individuals in a community get fair treatment if they receive due and just treatment. The phrase ‘distributive justice’ brings out the meaning of impartial,... Center of discussion in this paper is Principlism, also known as the ‘four principles’ approach refers to a set of moral codes and principles that are employed by decision makers to arrive at decisions in any particular profession. The four principles related to the way of conduct in health. The principles include beneficence, justice, Non-maleficence and autonomy, which is the acknowledgement of a person’s right to make judgments and hold views based on personal beliefs and views. Each principle defines different affairs of concern in health. The principles have their basing in morality required in health. The preference over the four kinds of ethical principles as the structure for ethical decisions making in medical ethics originates partly from proficient background and responsibilities. The virtues and requirements of health professionals have constantly been edged by professional pledges to issue medical care and ensure protection of patients from system fai lure, harm or ailment. Although Beauchamp and Childress’s ethics try to set up on this structure, they considerably move away from it as they try to encompass parts of ethics that have been deserted traditionally in principles of health care, mainly via the ethics of respect for justice and independence. The four principles are required to issue a complete structure for biomedical ethics, but the common structure is only theoretical and is on standby until it gets advanced specification.

Testing Speaking Skills Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Testing Speaking Skills - Assignment Example Speaking skills comprise the ability to understand the content of what is taught or spoken by the second person and providing the right response in terms of language and grammar. The difficulty in testing speaking skills is when large number of students needs to be addressed and tested. Test speaking is an arduous task. There is no question about that. And when the number of students to be tested is large, the problem is compounded both in terms of the content of the test and the time to devote to each student. It is well nigh impossible to test a large number of students by one or a handful of teachers. It may not be possible to hire a large number of teachers for the purpose if certain techniques, such as the computer, are adopted that could mitigate the problem to a good measure. (Oral Skills). There are certain dos and don'ts for testing. Testing must be planned in advance. There must be a good time gap between planning the test and carrying out the testing of speaking. In the meantime, there must be time for modifications or corrections. There must be a method for testing. The method must be selected keeping the students and the syllabus in mind. Then the person conducting the test must bear in mind that no testing is without anxiety. There must be some room for the tested to face and overcome anxiety. These are the dos. The don'ts are: never add any question outside the syllabus. If there are some tricky questions, keep the students informed that certain questions are bound to be testy, but they are within the syllabus. Do not ask more questions than the time set for answers (Functional Testing). Use the Computer The computer era has firmly set its grip over every individual and organization. The time has come when large number of students can be tested for speaking skills based on the use of the computer. However, the computer is just a machine. It is up to the teachers to use software with the questionnaire and audio receptivity to perform tests successfully on the large number of students. The computer can be effectively used for testing speaking skills. It is one medium that can be used in effectively teaching large number of students, and also testing large number of students. And this can be done in comparatively short duration of time. The content must be planned and drawn up appropriately so that students are able to get it on screen with a few

Who benefits from islamophobia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Who benefits from islamophobia - Essay Example taken part in Germany, in France mosques are being attacked, and legislative measures are continuously being enacted to suppress Muslim rights in the west (Gottschalk & Greenberg, 2008). Similar to 19th century travelers, American Christian Zionist leaders connect Islam categorically with violence. Hagee announces, â€Å"Islam not only condones violence; it commands it. A tree is known by its fruit, and the fruit produced by Islam is fourteen hundred years of violence and bloodshed around the world† (Hagee, 2007). In order to support such an allegation, Hagee remarks that the Qur’an requires the amputation of a hand or foot of someone who resists Islam, saying, â€Å"In America, cutting off someone’s hand or feet because he would not accept your religion is unthinkable – but the Islamic Bible commands it†(Hagee, 2006). The concept underlying the Islam jihad is literally attacking unbelievers for the purpose of converting them to Islam. They do this through persuasion or by force. Mohammed and his successors attacked their surrounding neighbors offensively to spread Islam. These were offensive and defensive wars that forced the affected to submit to Allah or rather face the danger of being crashed. According to Christian Zionist leaders, the offensive violent jihad incites the determination of the Muslims to dominate the world and to force every inhabitant of the globe to follow their religion, Islam (Hagee, 2007). Hagee demonstrate a similar view of the Qur’an that requires Muslim nations to fight any non-Muslim nation regardless of its superiority to advance their cause of dominating the world. The Muslims across the world are devotedly committed to Israel’s obliteration according to Christian Zionist leaders. They do this by claiming that Muhammad dreamed of Islamic world domination, Hagee warning that, â€Å"The first step in fulfilling Muhammad’s dream is the destruction of Israel† (Hagee, 2006). The work published by Samuel Huntington, one of

Shortage of Nurses in Ashford General Hospital Essay

Shortage of Nurses in Ashford General Hospital - Essay Example Moreover, Ashford Hospital together with the other affected hospitals can work together with the universities and colleges so that the student under training can help the existing nurses in the hospitals. Besides, in satisfying the shortage of the nurses, these hospitals should properly reward their nurses so as to act as motivation for the students who are willing to join the profession. It is also the duty of the human resource manager maintain age diversity in the hospitals, for instance, staff should be made of people of different ages so that when a certain group is retiring then there is new blood in the system (Nottingham, et al, 2012). Moreover, proper leadership should also be implemented so as to take care of the welfare of the nurses. In this light, cultural diversity is important because patients can feel that they are well represented. Lastly proper record keeping in the hospital is another fundamental idea that can help curb the shortage of the nurses. Record keeping en hances transparency in work, and resource management will be liable responsible for all the activities that are taking place in the hospitals.IntroductionSeveral Hospitals are victims of nurses’ shortage until the issue has become a national concern in the United States of America. The shortage does affect not only the patients, but also the administration, physicians, nurses and many other stakeholders in the system. In this paper, I have dealt with various factors that lead to the shortage of nurses in different hospitals.

High Feeding Costs Limit Dive Time Essay Example for Free

High Feeding Costs Limit Dive Time Essay Despite their massive appearance, the largest whales (and also the largest predators) have shorter dive time compared to other smaller fishes. Our hypothesis is that ‘lunge-feeding’ (the whales’ feeding behavior), is energetically expensive resulting to inability to dive at lower depths and at longer time intervals. This study is aimed at determining how and why the largest whales exhibit shorter dives by examining how lunge-feeding affects their behavior and dive duration. Methods In order to determine how and why the largest whales exhibit shorter dive times compared to other fishes, we have to study how its lunge-feeding behavior affects whales’ overall behavior and their dive time limit. In gathering data, we used remote sensing techniques. In this experiment, we used the TDR â€Å"time/depth recorders† technique since it is the most applicable method considering that the subjects were not in a controlled environment. The TDRs actually recorded the oxygen level of each tagged whale. After some time, the TDRs were collected and the results were analyzed through specialized software that translates the data from the TDRs. Results showed that the whales move faster when at the ascent (or climbing) portion of the dive while it showed that whales move significantly slower during descent. Recovery time spent at the surface was also viewed as an important factor in determining the effect of lunge-feeding. Our tests showed that there is a correlation between the number of lunges and the time spent recovering at the surface. Finally, using optimality models, we were able to compare the results of the actual study to the predicted outcome. The result was a common cost for lunge dives which indicated the high energy cost during lunge dives resulting to shorter dive duration. Results and Discussion Results of this experiment showed that there is a relationship between the number of lunges and the surface recovery intervals. The TDR analysis showed that whales move faster during ascent and move significantly slower when at descent. This indicated that lunge-feeding is energetically expensive. We were able to measure the high energy cost of lunge-feeding using the remote sensing technique. Whales usually recover at the surface after each dive and the length of stay at the surface is relative to the number of lunges it makes during the dive. The more lunges the whales make during feeding, the more time it spent at the surface for recovery. The optimality models showed the relative differences between the lunging-costly model versus the no-cost model. In the lunging-costly model, observed forage depths, vertical speed, number of lunges, time spent recovering at the surface, are some of the variables that were examined to provide an outright solution. Conclusion Based on the results of this experiment, it has been found out that lunge-feeding in large whales is an energetically expensive activity. Using the TDR technique to record the energy cost of lunge, we were able to deduce that the more lunges a whale makes, the more time it spends recovering at the surface, usually regaining oxygen levels. Therefore, the high energy requirements of lunge-feeding limit the dive time and depth of dive in large whales. Reference: Acevedo-Gutierrez, A. , Croll, D. A. , and Tershy, B. R. (2002). â€Å"High Feeding Costs Limit Dive Time in the Largest Whales†. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 205, 1747-1753.

Historical Book Analysis Assignment Essay Example for Free

Historical Book Analysis Assignment Essay History, it has often been said, is as much a story of individual people as it is of places, events and larger circumstances. This is especially true when considering pivotal figures from American history, for in the stories of pivotal historical figures, the saga of the growth of America can often be seen. Such is the case with first lady, political activist and women’s rights pioneer Abigail Adams and former American slave, orator and anti-slavery advocate Frederick Douglass. It is with these two prominent historic figures in mind that two historical books about them, Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave will be discussed. Upon conclusion of the research, not only will two historical icons be better understood, but also, two key works about these people will be as well. Main Character of Each Work As was mentioned in the Introduction to this paper, two historical books as well as the people who were the main characters of those books would be discussed. Understanding the books first requires an understanding of the backgrounds of each of these main characters respectively. Abigail Adams, for all of the achievements that her life would hold, was not the product of fine universities or finishing schools; rather, she was for the most part an educated woman, and someone who possessed a great deal of inner drive and instinct, which more than made up for the lack of formal education. The wife of John Adams, who was a founding father of the United States and would eventually become president of the nation, Abigail managed the family farm, took care of the children, and showed a great streak of independence while John, early in his political career, was compelled to travel internationally. Abigail shared her husband’s passion for American independence, with one glaring exception- she did not subscribe to the idea that all men were created equal. For Abigail, there certainly was room to tolerate slavery, but this is not to say that Abigail felt the same about gender issues. One could fairly classify Abigail as a feminist, which she continued to advocate when she accompanied her husband to the White House. Overall, while not perfect, Abigail Adams contributed a great deal to the cause of women’s rights and by some accounts, aided her husband significantly during his presidency (Withey). Like Abigail Adams, Frederick Douglass was not the most formally educated man, but through sheer determination and a high level of natural intelligence, in time became one of the most articulate men in America, slave or free (Douglass). Early evidence of Douglass’ yearning for freedom and equality in a nation which promised this but only delivered to select races can be seen in his escape from slavery and refuge in northern free territory as a young man. This escape not only allowed him to pursue his own destiny, but also allowed him to seek the same for every man, with the abolition of slavery as Douglass’ main ambition. In fact, it was Douglass’ personal experience as a slave which gave him the credibility and passion that he required in order to be able to see the abolition of slavery to completion. Historical Events that Involved the Main Characters of Each Work When comparing Adams and Douglass, it can fairly be said that each of them were similarly exposed to extraordinary circumstances that inspired them to action, while being impaired to a certain extent by limitations that society attempted to place on them. In both cases as well, each of these individuals used that adversity not as a roadblock to future progress, but as a catapult to bigger and better things. Abigail Adams entered the stage of American history at a time when the role of the president as well as first lady was far from well defined, as well as a time when women were largely regarded as subordinates to their husbands and not worthy of equal opportunities or education. In the midst of all of these circumstances, Adams devoted a great deal of her energies in assisting her husband-some say too much- in the duties of the presidency and set the protocol for first ladies to come. Also, Adams chose as her cause the equality of women in all areas of society, making her an early pioneer for women’s equality. Like Adams, Frederick Douglass came upon the American scene at a time when pivotal issues were still undecided; for all of the talk of liberty and justice for all, Douglass had to flee from an environment whereby he was owned, like property, by another human being, as were tens of thousands of other African-Americans. Also, Douglass fearlessly spoke out against the evils of slavery, and became an influential resource for none other than Abraham Lincoln, who would become known in history as The Great Emancipator.

Evaluating The Front Office Practices Of Kurrajong Hotel Tourism Essay

Evaluating The Front Office Practices Of Kurrajong Hotel Tourism Essay The term hospitality can be specified as the friendly response and handling of strangers. The hospitality industry comprises of businesses and institutions that allow for lodging, food and other services to travellers. The friendly response and handling of guests is the duty of the people who work in the hospitality industry (Foster, 2009). In present hospitality industry is growing at an immense rate and increasing occupancy rates and revenue by ameliorating customer experience is the aim of modern organizations. To achieve these results, management of hotels need to understand the needs of their customers and have to align their needs with their Front-Office operations as it is one of the most viewable aspects of hospitality industry. The topic discussed here is the Front Office practices of hospitality industry as it is one of most significant aspects of the industry in concern to attainment of success. The front office allows for services to hotel guests beyond the elemental duties of getting them into and out of their rooms so it can be said that it plays a prominent role in the industry (Front Office Overview, 2009). The significance of this operational topic will be discussed through a rational approach that will involve all essential aspects and theories. First of all a literature review will be completed on the selected topic and then the theory associated to the topic will be researched and observed how it fits with the real world of hospitality. Subsequent to this, we will research what are the politics, policies and practices of selected topic and what the implications of these politics, policies are and practices on the operational staff, the management and most of all the customers. Afterwards an appropriate research model will be used to evaluate the selected topic and the nature of topic will be stated along with the explanation of its importance in the industry and the benefits that will be achieved by analyzing it. An appropriate theory related with the selected operational topic will be researched so that the compatibility among the Front office practices and that theory can be identified for reaching at conclusion. In this whole process the management and the staff of Hotel Kurrajong will be interviewed so that some effective criteria can be developed to measure the compatibility between theory and topic. Front Office Practices Businesses and hospitality industry for attaining assured success always determine which part of their organization will have contact with customers. In this concern front office is the customer interface area. It directs to deal with customer demands and anticipations, appropriating the back office and other departments to go forward to focus on tasks which affirm the running of the organization and hotel as well as supporting the efforts of the front office (Key Concepts in Operations Management, 1984). Similar is the case with hotel Kurrajong, Canberra. The front office of the hotel manages the delivery of service systems to the customer, allowing the hotel staff not to be exhibited and supercharged by customer demands, thereby disseminating the demands and handling the capability of the hotel. Front Office is a term employed in hotels to comprehend the several sections which deal with reservations, room allocation, reception, service delivery, billing and payments. Front office is only one of the sections within a hotel (Bardi, 2006). This front office practices are essential in present as the first contact most potential guests would have with a hotel is with its telephone switch-board, which is a function of front office (Abbott Lewry, 1999). Telephone operator addresses the customers and connects them to someone in the reservations department, who considers their booking and handles following correspondence like confirmations, alterations or cancellations. When the guest arrives in the hotel, they may be aided by a uniformed guard, though this is not so common in present. In any situation the guests have to go to the reception desk to record and receive their room key. In addition to this, throughout their stay in hotel guests may well have chances to go back to reception a number of times, at a time for information or to find out messages if any and sometime for assistance with tickets or further journey. Apart from all these aspects, guests have to call front office at the end of their stay in order to hand over his room key and carry on with their bills of food and staying (Abbott Lewry, 1999). All these activities of front office related with guests do not end their association with the hotel. It is the responsibility of front office staff to keep their guests registration forms for a specific time period and the effective use of the data it contains (Abbott Lewry, 1999). The front office staff of the hotel can make use of guests data for an assortment of follow-up communications, which are planned by hotel to get their guests to come back at sometime. All these distinctive aspects are the specific job of front office. Front office is an American term, which is used in place of older word reception. The term has been replaced with the time because the older term only covers that staffs that comes into direct, face-to-face contact with the guests (Bardi, 2006). On the other hand, the term front office is broadly used to depict the altogether range of front of house sections that are as follows: Uniformed staff Reservations Switchboard Reception Enquiries Guest Relations Bill office Cashier (Abbott Lewry, 1999). The front office, which is conventionally known as reception, is the focal point of most activities within a hospitality business, whether it is a prominent or small hotel, a cruise liner, a holiday centre, a time-share resort or a youth hostel (Front Office Operations in Hospitality, 2010). Similar is the situation with Hotel Kurrajong, Canberra. The management of Kurrajong hotel primarily manages its front office practices as they are aware with the fact that the front office is the above all place where a guest has direct contact with the business, and is also the most noticeable of all departments. If this department, is managed effectively and efficiently, can direct towards the predetermined objectives of hotel management. For the hospitality industry the front office is a term consented as admitting back of house obligations, like switchboard, accounts, cashier and night audit, concierge, front desk and guest services (Front Office Operations in Hospitality, 2010). The management of hotel and the industry believes that the learners who want to come in the hospitality industry, mainly in the hotel sector, will attain various benefits with an explicit apprehension of front office operations. By developing skills in front office operations, admitting advanced reservations, guest registration and guest accounting processes a learner can attain immense success in the industry (Front Office Overview, 2009). The industry requires learners to make effective use of the front office systems, from traditional manual systems to advanced fully-incorporated computerised systems (Front Office Operations in Hospitality, 2010). In addition to this for gaining foothold, newcomers also need to learn about the means in which data, like room occupancy statistics are used to evaluate performance. Interdepartmental collaboration and communication are critical to the success of any hospitality business, and front office practices and staffs are way to this. The newcomers coming to this present growing industry need to develop a superior apprehension of how the front office associates to other departments, for instance housekeeping, food and beverage, sales and marketing and accounts. For the effective management of Front Office practices it is essential that the management of Kurrajong Hotel, tailor its front office procedures with its business as otherwise it would not be possible to manage these practices effectively and generate desired results (Front Office Overview, 2009). The management and its staff should develop a thorough checklist that covers crucial front office goals and aims so that all aspects can be managed accordingly. The front office procedures of hotel should be managed in a way that can reflect the overall business environment. In this way, it can be said that the practice of front office is not as easy as it appears as until or unless it is not managed effectively cannot appeal guests. The hotel management need to evaluate it continuously as in these operations there is always room for improvement. By identifying the room for improvement management of hotel can easily create and implement suitable strategies. Theory related to Front Office Practices The theory related to the selected operational topic of Front Office Practices is Employee Empowerment. Employee empowerment is a theory or philosophy that is used to evince the means in which non-managerial staff can make independent decisions without conferring with their boss or manager. These self-directed decisions can be diminutive or great relying upon the level of power with which the company regards to provide employees. Employee empowerment in organizations and associations can begin with training and altering an entire company to an empowerment model. On the other hand it simply means allowing employees with the capability to make some decisions on their own. The present era in which business organizations are operating is of intense competition, growing intricacy, elevated uncertainty and marginal profits. Complying with the extreme challenges confounded by such surroundings is only probable through team work, cooperative effort, invention and compliance (Bilal, 2010). The only answer to deal with this environment lies in bringing about modification to persist competitive. Consequently, conducting and handling change has become a key obligation and one of the significant success factors for present leaders and managers in most of the grownup organizations all over the world. Although, organizational change is a multifaceted procedure concerning numerous interconnected aspects of an organization but changes if made prominently in one function of the organization often have reflective consequences on other functions (Employee Empowerment, 2010). In most of the organizations and the one with conservative management, any change attempt invites opposition from assorted directions, most especially from within, because the managers experience endangered to lose authority, while most of the employees have the concern of losing the job or some of the gains in an altered, competence-based, result-oriented work setting. So, for prospering alteration attempts, a holistic, people-concentrated approach embracing conventional aspects like structure and schemes, as well as unceremonious aspects, like culture, communications, employee benefit, etc. is necessitated (Bilal, 2010). From last some years it has been seen that time-honoured stratified command and control organizations have been ineffectively contending to arrive at an edge over their rivals, while relatively liberal organizations with flatter schemes, which regarded their employees throughout the conceptualization, designing and effectuation levels of change, succeeded in accomplishing far ameliorated results to comply with the increasing requirements for quality and adaptability through well-liked change brought about through empowerment of its employees (Employee Empowerment, 2010). In this way, it can be said that an organization cannot attain desired results from change without the participation and ownership of the change by its employees. This significance of employee involvement developed the concept of employee empowerment (Bilal, 2010). With these kinds of beliefs it becomes apparent that before bringing about any change for improvement, efforts need to be made for creating a sense of ownership amongst the employees of the organization. The sense of ownership among employees can be produced through following measures: Developing an energetic, ground-breaking, knowledge environment where people are incessantly seeking novel ways to gratify customers and have the autonomy to try out their groundbreaking thoughts (Potterfield, 1999). Giving small personal advantages to employees and worrying about their well being and health. Adopting decentralization and allocation of several functions to grassroots level, which fundamentally intends that the employees of organization should be given more liberty to take go-ahead and computed risks when required, without asking from their seniors and devoid of any dread of reprimand (Bilal, 2010). Nowadays, empowered and endowed employee is the main component of organizational success, which is also true for Kurrajong Hotel. For managing its all different functions it is essential that the hotel employs productive employees. The most significant method of management that hotel can adopt in present is employee empowerment (Johnson, 2002). This practice will assist the hotel in employing the people liable for the work procedures and the people who acknowledge the procedures and the aspects of quality. By appropriating autonomy and feedback to its front office staff, the management of hotel can make its empowerment process successful (Potterfield, 1999). Employee empowerment does not intend that the management is no more accountable for functioning or for conducting the hotel rather it means that by empowering employees management becomes responsible to create and promote a setting in which it is evident that employee input is coveted and cultured (Doughty, n.d.). The management must believe and communicate with its employees for empowering them to a maximum extent. The practice of employee empowerment will assist the hotel management in creating a working environment where every employee is appropriated to make his own determinations in explicit work-related positions (Johnson, 2002). This will increase the employees accountability towards his work place, his morale and the quality of their work life. Preferably, when an employee feels enthroned in an organization, he will be more fertile, devoted and more convinced. The most prominent aspects related with employee empowerment are effective communication and participative management. It is known that participation and satisfaction are strongly associated with inspiration and execution. With the help of employee empowerment the management of hotel will become able to delegate more responsibility directly to its front office employees (Doughty, n.d.). This in turn will assist in identifying the latent of employees to distinguish troubles and to formulate actions to figure out those troubles. Front office employees are the most important asset of any hotel so it is essential that the management of Kurrajong Hotel empower its employees so that they can experience satisfaction in their achievements (Doughty, n.d.). By empowering its front office staff, the hotel management can effectively develop a sense of responsibility and the knowledge among their employees that in turn will gratify employees as they will become aware with the fact that their organization is concerned about them and their success (Johnson, 2002). This theory and practice of employee empowerment can be effectively related with the Front-office practices of Kurrajong Hotel and that in turn will result in the effective management of front office aspects of hotel. Relation among Employee Empowerment and Front Office Practices Employee Empowerment is the most well-liked theory among modern management and organization diligences, which amends the decisional powers of employees and affirms their personal development. It is the most appropriate management apprehension deliberating the acquainting of an organization with employees, demonstrating that they were honoured by the managerial level and heightening their involvement to their work. In the labor concentrated tourism sector, the practice of employee empowerment play a significant role. It increases the productivity of employees and ensures the organizational competence (Pride, Hughes Kapoor, 2009). The stability and victory of present hotel enterprises like Kurrajong hotel which give precedence to customer satisfaction and personnel satisfaction devolve on the quality of personnel and on an uninterrupted enhancement in this quality. This theory of employee employment is related with the Front office practices of Kurrajong Hotel, as it can be related with its front office employees and managers in an effective and efficient manner. The management of Kurrajong hotel is aware with the fact, that the basic source of rendering competitive advantage and the customer satisfaction in their hotel is its employees (Cogner Kanungo, 1998). By applying employee empowerment practices, the management of hotel can significantly increase the productivity of its front office staff that in turn will increase the organizational efficiency. This increasing interest in employee empowerment within the hospitality industry is related with some of the fundamental themes distinguished in the evolution of HRM generally that is deriving competitive advantage through enhanced service quality. Mainly, it has been believed that in hospitality industry service deliverers (front office employees) play a critical role in influencing the extent and quality of customer experience and satisfaction (Lashley, 1995) and due to this it is said that the industry players should definitely apply the practice of employee empowerment. An employee of the hotel must make decision at the same time with the time of event, and must exercise this decision due to the consumer conscious and competitiveness and this can only be done by giving them authority and power to make decisions (Pride, Hughes Kapoor, 2009). On the other hand, if some mistake is committed by employees, a resolution can be discovered and feedback can be done but all this necessitates empowerment of front office employees and managers of hotel. With the evaluation of the use of empowerment in service sector organizations it is identified that in present a number of different fleshes of employee empowerment practices are being implemented in real life (Cogner Kanungo, 1998). These diverse approaches demonstrate a variety of managerial significances being enforced which are grounded on diverse precepts of business troubles, needs for bringing in empowerment and comprehended gains to be arrived at through empowerment. The conception that empowerment can be employed as a term to distinguish diverse go-aheads allows for a expedient rhetoric which evokes that empowerment is in standard a good thing and develops a win-win condition for employees and managers (Pride, Hughes Kapoor, 2009). The compounding of customer and employee satisfaction, conducts to enhanced organizational functioning, repeat business and word of mouth recommendations and in ameliorated employee morale, altered effort and inferior turnover and absenteeism, as well as in originality and advancement (Hales Klidas, 1998). Research Study for evidencing Relation among Employee Empowerment and Front Office Practices With the above discussion it is clear that the theory and concept of employee empowerment is significantly related with selected Front office practices of Kurrajong Hotel, but for evidencing it with rational justifications, a research study will be undertaken here. The nature of topic selected for research is of qualitative and descriptive research. This study involves qualitative phenomenon, i.e., investigating the reasons of human behaviour. This research aims at discovering the underlying motives and desires of hospitality industry employees as it is essential in present because employees are the only most viewable aspects of hotels and hospitality organizations. Purpose of the Research: The significant aim of this research is to find valuable results by trying out the efficiency of the employee empowerment variables ascertained by theoretical information, by means of survey method to be applied to management and staff of Kurrajong Hotel. In regard to attain the predetermined purpose, questionnaires are used for the management and front office employees. Importance of Research: The immense success of all functions carried out in tourism sector admitted in the service sector devolves on the human factor. The persistence of selected hotel furnishing services in the tourism sector relies on the quality level of its selected personnel and on the uninterrupted augmentation of this quality. The increasing rivalry among hotel enterprises functioning all over the world and in the Canberra, in the perspective of customer satisfaction, augments the significance of the employee. Accordingly, the opinion of employee empowerment is regarded as a mean for the hotel to attain its objectives. With the identification of its significance in its hotel, the management of hotel can substantially apply it in their work environment that in turn will direct it towards the augmented customer satisfaction (Guzel, Tukelturk Ozkul, 2008). On the other hand, another prominent reason of this research study is to identify the importance of employee empowerment and to understand the perception of this approach through management and employees and to elucidate the circumstances of success. Research Methodologies: The research will be completed by making use of various methodologies and the theoretical information that will assist in arriving at meaningful results. The observation and questionnaire methodologies are two forms of the survey methodology that can be used in the selected study. For questionnaire, the research will made use of a specific sample group of management and employees and will identify the facts related to the employee empowerment and Front office practices. The methodologies selected are effective and will significantly help in providing a proper direction to the research and in proceeding systematically. Research Design: The research design is descriptive and qualitative as the questionnaires, literature review and observation methodologies are used. The research design of this study should aim at accomplishing the pre decided goals and objectives of the research. The responses that will be collected through the questionnaires will help in finding out the significant facts (Fink, 2002). Justification for the Selected Research Methodologies: The selected observation and questionnaire methodology will be helpful in finding the facts related to the topic of the research. These methods are selected as they are the right and absolute methodologies for the research. It aims at minimizing the errors in the research and proves to be helpful and highly beneficial for the present as well as the future researchers. The survey methodology has many advantages and is considered as a very useful method of conducting research. First of all, survey methodology is a very efficient technique which is used to collect data from a large number of people through questionnaires and when the sample size is small through observation and interview (Cohen, Manion Morrison, 2007). Sample: The sample for the questionnaires comprises of 30 top management executives and 50 front office employees. The questionnaires are e-mailed to the top management and Front office employees. Time flexibility is given to the professionals and front office staff to answer the questionnaires so that they would not answer any question in hurry and give proper and right answers of the questions asked in the questionnaire. The questions in the questionnaire were close-ended and not open ended so that there were less chances of biasness in the research. Reliability Validity of the methodology: Survey method has a strong reliability but the validity of the method is not so strong. The survey method also has some tests for measuring the reliability and validity of the survey conducted. The reliability test that can be used here is alternate-form reliability (Cohen, Manion Morrison, 2007). In this test, the questions are reworded. Even their order could be changed; but the aspect of behaviour of the items should not differ. This compels the respondent to read the question carefully and reduce the practice effect. For measuring the validity of the content, another test known as content validity test can also be conducted. Observation methodology: Observation methodology is very useful in finding out the behavioural facts associated with the selected topic of study. So, it can be very meaningful methodology for finding out the relationship between empowerment and front office practices. This methodology is used to serve the formulated research purpose and is a scientific tool of data collection (Cohen, Manion Morrison, 2007). The observation methodology here is very helpful in attaining the objectives of the research. It will give a spontaneous picture of the activities of the front office staff and the effect of empowerment on their tasks and performance. Questionnaire Methodology: In this methodology, two questionnaires are framed one for management and one for front office staff, which involve a set of questions. The questionnaire consisted of close ended questions including the topics relating to front office practices and effect of empowerment on their practices. This methodology of attaining data will increase the accuracy of the results and will help in forming the important results for the research (Cohen, Manion Morrison, 2007). It also aims at fulfilling the targets and objectives of the research by asking the right and required answers to the respondents. Significant findings are made with the help of the responses obtained through the questionnaires which will be discussed later in the findings section of the paper. Analysis of Findings The findings of the research are demonstrated in three groups. First group involves demographic features of managers, employees and organization itself. Second group depicts attitudes of the managers towards the front office employees empowerment and third group involves attitude of front office employees of hotel towards their empowerment. Findings related with the Demographic Characteristics of Managers Employees: The aspects related with demographic characteristics that need to be filled in questionnaire are the gender, the department, the working time period in the sector, the working year in the Kurrajong hotel and the number of hospitality organizations for which manager or employee has worked previously (Lashley, 1999). On the bases of demographic characteristics it is found that from 30 managers 83.3% are men and 16.7% of managers are women. On the other hand 70% of 50 front office employees are men and 30% of 50 front office employees are female. In addition to the dominance of male members the age of the managers and employees who fulfilled the questionnaire is between 29-38 18-38. On the other hand, the majority of the managers are working from last 8 and more years and employed in Kurrajong hotel for 1-3 years. This information demonstrate that the managers working in hotel have worked in the sector from last several years but their working time period in Kurrajong hotel is short which shows that they often switch their enterprises. Apart from managers, the working period of employees in sector is between 4-7 years and their working period of existing organization is between 1-3 years (Guzel, Tukelturk Ozkul, 2008). Findings related with Attitude of Managers towards Employees Empowerment The industry players are aware with the fact that human factor is very important in management of a hotel and due to this; this research aims to discover the attitude of hotel managers to the process of employees empowerment and the significance level of these positions (Pardo, 2003). For identifying the attitude of managers 5-point Likert Scale is applied. With this analysis it is identified that the most significant aspects for managers in concern to empowerment are allowing for essential training to employees and restructuring of the environment in compliance with the subject, proclamation of objectives and goals to the employees, furnishing a reformist business condition, rendering employee allegiance and gratification by means of all these actions (Lashley, 1995) As a result, it can be summarized that the managers of Kurrajong Hotel give substantial importance to the employee empowerment as they know that with this front office employees will become more competent in performing their duties and tasks. Attitude of Front Office Employees toward Empowerment By analyzing the attitudes of front office employees towards the empowerment, it can be said that the employees believes if they are provided with chances of success and are rendered with positive environment and opportunity to make decisions they performance level increase significantly (Pardo, 2003). Conclusion The notion of employee empowerment means that the working person could take part in determinations pertaining to his job and could get the substantive training in order to arrive at competent stage. Whereas Front Office practices includes all essential reception related tasks of hotel (Lashley, 1995). This theory of empowerment is critically related with Front office practices and this relation is evaluated in this study in regard to Kurrajong hotel and the conclusions below have been arrived at. Managers generally attach importance to the employee empowerment as they are aware with the fact that until or unless front office employees do not have power to take decisions it is not possible for them to satisfy the coming guests and travellers. For resolving their queries and problems, it is essential that they have power to take spontaneous decisions (Pardo, 2003). For enhancing this practice of empowerment with Front office practices it is essential that the managers of the hotel give training to front office employees and modify their environment, exposed them to targets and encourage them with ideas of invention and originality. With this discussion it is clear that by adopting practice of employee empowerment the management of Kurrajong hotel can significantly expand the responsibility area of its front office employees that in turn will aid in accomplishing the needs of hotel customers ((Lashley, 1995). The analysis demonstrates that the managers of hotel are not giving substantial attention to this practice employee empowerment whereas by assigning authority to its front office staff it can effectively augment their motivation and performance in regard to satisfying the needs of customers in the most effective and unique way. For attaining the exclusive benefits of the practice of employee empowerment, it is essential that the management should relate it with their organizational structure and management apprehension (Ozdilli, 2003). Despite of the role of managers, it is also essential that front office employees of the hotel also take part in decision making process on different subjects so that they become aware with the problems and troubles they may find or confront some day. The management of hotel should also allow them to take part and should encourage them to offer proposals and should allow appropriate material and moral rewards. In addition to this, the management of hotel should analyse the hotels employee selection and evaluation process and the employees appropriate f

Artificial Intelligence: Where does it fit? Essay -- Technology Artifi

Artificial Intelligence: Where does it fit? Machines in the future will not be able to differentiate between man and machine, and neither will humans; except that machines will be active: working, learning, developing new technology. Humans on the other hand, have no choice but to watch from our glass boxes because machines have become so advanced and we would only interfere. Maybe the future won’t look exactly like that, but truthfully, computers will reach human intelligence someday. They have already surpassed our calculation abilities and our speed of processing information. But we can still hold on to our intelligence for now. Artificial intelligence, the science and engineering of making intelligent machines through intelligent programs, is not just about modeling human behavior. It’s more about making life easier and better by developing new tools with advanced capabilities. Artificial intelligence, like technology, advances rapidly as time moves on. It needs to be worked on before considered satisfactory, let alone perfect. Computers have many similarities to humans like neural impulses to digital technology or being programmed to function in a certain manner. A computer is given commands and specific outputs for corresponding commands. Humans are taught to act or not act in specific ways. We have automatic responses such as fear, hunger, and happiness. We’ve been programmed to react differently to various stimulants. Great progress has been made by developers of artificial intelligence, but there remain large gaps between humans and machines. Physically, humans have bodies with senses. Machines could have bodies— like robots—but they are still unable to sense the physical world and react to it. H... ... If computers overtake the workplace, professionals sacrifice their dignity: there will no longer be an emphasis on skill level because the computer makes the decisions. Mistakes would be inexcusable, although humans are not flawless. Humans would not be credited for achievements because computers will have done all the computation, planning and presentation. The value of a human life will decrease as the computer climbs the corporate ladder. If humans continue to do what we do best, look out for ourselves. We’ll realize that artificial intelligence should be made to supplement humans, not to replace them. We should not rely on computers as much as we rely on our instincts and judgments. If we allow machines without bodies and without minds to take over our world, what would our purpose be? Would we have existed just to bring artificial intelligence about?

Nutrition - Teaching our Children to Eat Well Essay -- Health Nutritio

Nutrition - Teaching our Children to Eat Well When I look back at my experience through elementary and secondary school, and think about school lunch my memories are not cherished. The gray messy masses that smell and jiggle in a nebulous blob while the lunch lady deposits it onto my tray. No, those were not fond memories at all. I do remember having to look at the month ahead with my mother, because she wanted me to eat at least eat one school prepared meal a week. These were tough decisions for an elementary student, with picky taste in food. I remember most of the students in my class eating the chocolate cake or the cookies as the main course of their meal. Now that I look back on this, I realize how foolish it was that teachers did not pay better attention to our diets. American's "sweet tooth is tied to sour health" according to Jane Brody of The New York Times. We are "squeezing out nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products that can help to prevent disease." A nutritionally complete diet should involve no more than ten percent of its calories from added sugar; "American children now consume nearly twice that amount. The average teenager derives 19 percent of calories from added sugar, with the average boy consuming 34 teaspoons and the average girl consuming 24 teaspoons of added sugar daily, according to Federal surveys. Younger children, too, have diets far sweeter than desirable: 6- to 11-year-olds get 18 percent of their calories from added sugars" (Brody, 7). Yikes, these numbers do not look good when trying to promote nutrition, but how does one teach children to eat things like vegetables? Some children do not like to eat the vegetables that are given to them because they are not quite sure what is in the mushroom surprise. A lot of children just do not like school lunches, while others really enjoy them. Some may think that they are fattening, rubber in them, too greasy and unhealthy. While others find them more convenient, taking some chaos out of their morning routine, since they do not need to pack a lunch, or worry about what to eat. Nancy Polk, for the New York Times, wrote why in the past 5 years, the regulations for the School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children needed to be put in effect. This drastically changed the way we feed American youth. They specifically looked at makin... ...bits for life. Life-long learning and health have been proven to go hand in hand, teaching our children to eat well is just as important as teaching them to read. This might be the key to unlocking a whole new power. A power for learning. A power that will someday set the standard for the world in which we live. Bibliography: Brody, Jane. "Increasingly, America's Sweet Tooth Is Tied to Sour Health." New York Times. New York. September 21, 1999. Friedman, BJ. "Nutrient Intake of Children Eating School Breakfast." American Dietetic Association. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Chicago. February 1999. Gottlieb, Robert. "The State: In Reforming Schools, Don't Forget Students' Stomachs." The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. California. December 27, 1998. "Guidelines for School Health Programs to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating." Journal of School Health. Washington D.C. January 1997, Vol. 67, No. 1. "Healthy School Meals†¦Healthy Kids! A Leadership Guide for School Decision-Makers." Food and Consumer Service (USDA). Washington D.C. 1997. Polk, Nancy. "Better School Lunches, Fitter Children." New York Times. New York. February 21, 1999.

Mastering the Art of Losing in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem, One Art :: Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art

Mastering the Art of Losing in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem, One Art In the poem â€Å" One Art† by Elizabeth Bishop, the act of losing is raised to the level of an art form. Losing is, according to Bishop, something not to be mastered or dreaded. However, the irony is that Bishop struggles to believe her own hypothesis-- that losing â€Å"... isn’t hard to master...† yet â€Å"... is no disaster...† ( lines 1-3). Naming the poem â€Å" One Art† was done to show that the art of losing is one of many and loss is not to be taken as disaster or failure. Bishop maintains that most physical things, such as keys and watches, possess the inherent the desire to be lost. She knows that society is familiar with everyday loss, such as keys. Mastering this practice seems uniform and Bishop tries to convince that it is not disaster. However in line 10, the diction switches from the third person to being the first person narrator. Now, the loss is personal- that of a person or relationship. She is not only convincing everyone else that loss is no importance but trying and hoping to convince herself as well. The contrast here is, that both physical things and mental desires can be lost, but they should be taken emotionally the same, as suggested. Bishop writes with humor and makes tragedy into a parody. Exclamation marks and a clever rhyming scheme helps to create a silly sing- song poem, justifying that losing things mentally and physically has no shame. In this villanelle the rhyme scheme employed is A-B-A, with continual repetition of the words â€Å"master† and â€Å" disaster", reinforcing the universal point that: The art of losing isn’t hard to master so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. ( lines 1-3) Stating â€Å"Write It† ( line 19) , â€Å" And Look!† ( line 10) are climactic points in which the speaker wishes to believe herself, that losing really is no disaster, so she must see it, and write it. In the beginning, the poem seems bubbly and unremorseful but as it develops, the speaker shows her real passion for something lost, â€Å".

Financial Comparison of Ryanair and British Airways Essay

Ryanair is considered as the pioneer of the low-cost business model, while British Airways is constantly ranked amongst the world’s best legacy carriers. Both of these airlines are dominant companies in their segment with high passenger numbers and vast network coverage. Therefore the following question rises – how these airlines are different in terms of finance and which business model is more fruitful in the middle of an economic downturn? In order to find the answer a thorough financial investigation has been conducted relying on the data outlined in the airlines’ annual reports. In the first section of the report the emphasis is put on the current financial situation of the airlines, while outlining the existing sources of finance. These sources are investigated thoroughly in the second part. The final section evaluates the possible or available sources to finance future investments. Review of Ryanair’s and British Airway’s current financial situation Ryanair in the fiscal year of 2012 has generated a total of â‚ ¬4,390.2m operating revenue mainly through scheduled revenues. The company has increased its operating revenues since 2010 by â‚ ¬1,2bn primarily due to fare increases. In 2012 the total operating expense was â‚ ¬3,707m. This is also the peak in the last three years, mostly attributable to fuel and oil costs, which have almost doubled since 2010. Hence the net profit for the 2012 fiscal year was â‚ ¬560.4m, the highest in the history of the company. British Airways in the fiscal year ended 2011 December 31 accounted a profit of  £672m after paying the taxes. This can be considered as a significant improvement after 2010’s profit of  £170m. These figures do not provide enough in-depth information on the airlines’ real situation. In order to identify the sources of finance and the real position of BA and Ryanair further investigation with the use of ratios is required. Liquidity Current ratio is a liquidity measure that compares the liquid or current assets of the airline with its current liabilities. (Atrill, McLaney 2002) For the fiscal year of 2012 Ryanair’s CR was 2.1355, which represents high liquidity. Generally the higher ratio is considered to be the better. According to Morrell the industry general ratio is 1.00. This suggests that Ryanair is capable of financing its short term commitments towards banks and suppliers However, it must be noticed that the airline has significantly high cash reserves, namely â‚ ¬2.7bn. Such rate suggests for the banks and suppliers that the company is low risk for investment and has high liquidity, but also proposes that the cash is being accumulated to finance future aircraft orders or other investments. The fact that the cash reserves has grown with â‚ ¬1.2bn in the last two years also underpins these assumptions.(Morrell 2007) British Airways has a low current ratio of 0.7531. It points out the problem that BA cannot finance its current assets from its current liabilities. Thus, it can be assumed that the short term debts are financed through the more expensive long term loans. The company’s cash reserves are  £1.7bn, which is considerably lower in comparison to Ryanair’s reserves. This can result in higher interest rates as the airline is not considered as a safe investment for lenders. According to Moody’s credit rating company BA’s credit ratings were B1 and BB in 2011. Also being a legacy airline BA works with more third party suppliers like travel agents and these issues can mean that the pay-outs are delayed. It is important to note that Ryanair and the low-cost business model do not use travel agents. Performance and earning The operating margin gives an indication of management efficiency in controlling costs and increasing revenues as it represents the operating profit as the percentage of total revenues. Comparing to last year’s results, both airline’s ratios have remained flat, namely 14% for Ryanair and 5.2% for BA. It means that on every pound or euro BA makes  £0.05 profit, while Ryanair â‚ ¬0.14. However, the low-cost model seems to be more profitable, but it must be taken into account that they are also operating in a lower cost structure. Also, BA has managed to generate a positive operational margin as in 2008 and 2009 its values were negative. Return on Equity (RoE) is the net profit after interest and tax expressed as percentage of shareholder’s funds. BA has achieved a 26.2% RoE in 2011, while the same value for Ryanair was 16.9%. It means that BA is making more profit from the shareholders money. The shareholder’s money is only the one-third of BA’s asset, while Ryanair is half founded by the investors. Solvency Gearing ratio is a measurement of the contribution of long-term lenders to the long term capital structure of a business. Ryanair’s gearing ratio was 53.98% in 2012, which is considerably high for a low-cost airline. In other words it means that the company is financed half from borrowing and half from own capital. The lower the gearing ratio of the airline the greater the firm’s capacity to borrow more money at a lower interest rate, due to the lower risk to banks and lenders. Oppositely, BA has an even higher gearing ratio of 65.5%. Around one third of British Airways’ capital is funded by the shareholders, while the remaining is sourced from long-term loans and debts. The following table summarises the previously outlined performance and liquidity ratios of the airlines. BA( £) Airline Ryanair(â‚ ¬) 9,987 Total revenue 4,390.2m 672m Profit after tax 560.4m 0,7531 Current Ratio 2,135 63,80% Gearing Ratio 53,98% 570m Cash Reserve 2708m 26.2% ROE 16.9% 5.2% Operating Margin 14% Fleet commitments Ryanair Replacing the aircrafts is not only increases the airline’s prestige but can mean a significant reduction in operating costs as the new generation of aircrafts are much more fuel efficient or can carry more passengers than the predecessors. As the core of the LCC business model Ryanair only flies Boeing 737-800s thus reducing the maintenance costs significantly. The carrier has one live contract from 2005 with the American aircraft manufacturer that covers the procurement of 197 brand new 737800s for which the unit cost is $51m. (Ryanair 2012) ï‚ · Ryanair’s long-term debt for aircraft commitments, including current maturities was â‚ ¬3,625.2m at March 31, 2012. The airline has funded a significant portion of its acquisition of new aircraft and equipment through borrowings under facilities provided by international financial institutions on the basis of guarantees issued by Ex-Im Bank. At the end of fiscal year 2012 the carrier had a fleet of 294 Boeing aircraft of which 199 were funded by Ex-Im Bank guaranteed financing. Other sources to cover aircraft costs are Japanese Operating Leases with call options (30 aircrafts) and commercial debt financing (6 aircrafts). According to the bookings, 235 aircraft are owned by Ryanair, which are financed through long-term bank loans. Operational leases funded 59 aircrafts at March 31, which means that Ryanair operate these aircrafts, but does not own them. The aircrafts are leased to provide flexibility within the aircraft delivery programme. 55 aircrafts is being financed through fix-rate debts, while for the remaining 4 aircraft Ryanair is paying variable rental payments. Out of the 25 aircraft, which has been delivered in the 2012 financial year, 11 were funded through sale-and-leaseback financing and the remainder through Ex-Im Bank guaranteed financing. To convert a portion of the floating-rate debts into the fixed rate debts, Ryanair has used interest rate swaps and cross currency rate swaps. As a result â‚ ¬1,314.7m of the aircraft loans are remained at floating rates. The remaining â‚ ¬2,310.5m is in fixed-rate euro-denominated debts with the maturities of 7 to 12 years. On all of the above mentioned borrowings the weighted average interest rate was 2.9%. The effective rate is the rough estimate for the weighted average cost of capital. It is calculated by dividing the interest paid for the year with the long term borrowings. For Ryanair it is 3.01%, which is really close to their given figures. Accordingly their cost of long term borrowings is 109.2m, which can be considered as low. The low rate also represents trust from the lenders and investors. But, on the other hand it must be noted that at March 31, 2012 aircrafts with a net book value of â‚ ¬4.8bn were mortgaged to lenders as security for loans. This may be the explanation for the low interest rates. In general, Ryanair has been able to generate sufficient funds from operations to meet its nonaircraft acquisition-related working capital requirements. Between 2008 and 2012 March Ryanair had sold and re-delivered a total of 39 aircrafts and also the company plans to dispose 8 additional before March 2014. Ryanair may choose to dispose of aircraft through sale and or non-renewal of the operating leases as they expiree between 2012 and 2013. In the next year the company has a total obligations of â‚ ¬1,143.3m out of which the third, around â‚ ¬571.8m is â€Å"purchase obligations†, i.e. buying the remaining 15 aircrafts. Each of the aircraft loans have similar terms – maturity of 12 years from drawdown date and being secured by a first priority mortgage. The overall aircraft debts (â‚ ¬3,625.2m) represent around 80% of all long-term liabilities, hence if the airline is capable of paying these commitments Ryanair should be able to preserve its current financial status in the upcoming years. As it can be seen the low cost carrier Ryanair has built up a well-functioning system to finance all its aircrafts, including the 15 Boeing 737s that will be delivered in the future. Furthermore by currency swapping and low interest rates the company is in total control of its costs. British Airways The transparency of BA’s financial situation is significantly lower comparing it to Ryanair’s. This can be explained in two ways, either they prefer not to reveal their financial strategy and sources as it can provide valuable information for the competitors or the company does not have the adequate financial background to finance its long term commitments. British Airways has a completely different fleet to cover both its short- and long-haul routes. The fleet is owned by the company or held in finance and operational leases. The 245 aircrafts take up two thirds ( £5.7bn) of the company’s total non-current assets. Also, 95% of the overall revenue is generated through the fleet. The aircrafts comprise different sized jets from various manufacturers making the operational and maintenance costs higher. In the annual report of year ended in December 31, 2011 BA outlined its current fleet and future aircraft deliveries and options. These include 50 firm orders and 84 options. The new fleet is made up from A320s, A380s, Boeing 777-300s and 787s, which are expected to enter service between 2012 and 2017. Furthermore, in Note 13 the airline states that the cost of these aircrafts is going to be  £4.1bn. But, no other information is provided about the sources that will cover these expenditures, thus it can be assumed that the future cash flows contain relevant information on these funds, but they have not been published yet. (British Airways 2012) The non-current liabilities of loans, finance- and operational leases add up to  £4.904, which is 30% more than Ryanair’s â‚ ¬3.8bn total long-term commitments. According to BA the bank and other loans at the end of 2011 equalled  £1,324m, comprised of fixed- and floating rate loans.  £693m is in floating-rate debts, while the remaining  £823m is in fixed rate loans and bonds. The average interest rate for the fixed rate debts is around 6.5%, which is significantly higher than Ryanair’s 2.9%. The floating rate loans are generally determined to be 0,5%+LIBOR. The lenders consider the airline as a higher risk firm that is why the interest rates are higher. Generally, the loans are repayable between 2014 and 2018, with one exception none of the loans need to be repaid until 2014 and on. Such conditions allow BA to use the debt to generate cash in the next 2-4 years. BA uses finance leases and hire contracts to acquire aircraft. These leases have both renewal options and purchase options. The total finance lease contracts worth  £2.227bn and similarly like Ryanair, it consist of different currencies namely US dollar, Euro, Japanese yen and Sterling. The non-current side of these contracts are  £1.12b, but around half of this is due obligatory in five or more years. Four of the new 777-300s are being leased through GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS). The finance lease agreements are mainly in place to fund the existing fleet. Therefore additional leases are required, if the new fleet is wished to be funded through such construction. The operating leases for BA’s aircraft range from five years and some leases contain options for renewal. However, this type of contract accounts for only  £316m of which is  £253 is not payable within one year. Comparing to 2010 BA has halved its operational leases from  £635m, it can be assumed that company took the lease contract for an aircraft or more, which was expected to be delivered in 2011, but it has been delayed so the company terminated the contractual agreement until the new aircrafts are delivered. Accordingly, it can be assumed that operational lease commitments are going to rise in the next two financial years. Unlike Ryanair, British Airways does not provide any kind of information about the structure of the leases. The following assumption can be made though; BA offered worse interest terms with the loan contracts than Ryanair because of its weaker liquidity and performance. British Airway’s effective rate shows the same trend as its 4.301%. The company paid  £161m in 2011 as cost for long term borrowings. Financing in the short run As it has been outlined above, Ryanair has a current ratio of 2.1, which provides a solid base for the assumption that the airline is financing its short-term liabilities from its current assets and operational profit. In fact Ryanair could repay all its short term liabilities from its â‚ ¬2.7bn cash reserve and would still be left with â‚ ¬0.9bn cash. Moreover, Ryanair’s current liabilities are half of BA’s short run commitments. In less than 1 year Ryanair will need to finance 1,1bn for obligations, like current maturities of long term debts and purchase obligations. But then again, Ryanair has the capacity to pay these. BA is more interesting in the short run as the airline’s current ratio is 0.75. Logically the question arises – if the short-term liabilities cannot be covered from the operating revenue then how is it financed? Possibly the long-term loans are used in such case which is leading to future liquidity issues. The main problem is the â€Å"trade and other payables† entry which accounts for  £3,117m within current liabilities. But, from this total amount the real credit is  £1,457m, which is the money BA owes to creditors like suppliers and travel agents. The remaining are mostly prepaid flights that the airline will accomplish in the new financial year. Having the suppliers wait for their money is a way to improve cash flow. The cash operating cycle for the company has been calculated by dividing the trade payables with operation expenses (less employee costs and depreciation). The average pay out period for British Airways is 80.1 days, which can be considered as high and nevertheless it also shores up the liquidity problems of the airline. On the other hand, Ryanair makes these to the creditors payments within 22.1 days. Note 28 describes BA’s liquidity risk in more detail. The results suggest that within the next 12 months British Airways is going to need around  £2.203bn to finance all its commitments for that period. Where the money is coming from? This question remains unanswered, but it can be presumed that BA is going to need new sources to fund this  £2.203bn short-term liability combined with the  £4.1bn commitments for the new fleets. Shareholders’ equity and dividend policy Ryanair has significant retained earnings, namely â‚ ¬2.4bn, even though there was a â‚ ¬500m dividend pay-out in 2010 October and also a similar sized one is planned in 2012 November. Seeing the results and pay-outs it can be assumed that the shareholders are happy with the dividend policy and this can serve as a basis for future capital injections, if necessary. On the other hand BA’s directors declare that no dividend to be paid for the years of 2011, 2010 and 2009. Such dividend strategy can be explained by the airline’s current liquidity problems. Depreciation Both companies included their depreciation strategies in the annual reports. Ryanair states accounts the Boeings for 23 years, while British Airways calculate with 18-25 years of lifetime for their aircrafts. From these numbers it can be assumed to lower the depreciation costs the amortisation rates are underestimated by both airlines thus saving millions in the accounts. British Airways 50 2012-2017  £4.104bn 4.301%  £161m  £3.683bn  £4.904bn Data not disclosed 80.1 days 31 March 2012 Airline Fleet commitments (no. of aircrafts) Delivery date Capital commitments for new aircrafts Effective rate Long term cost of borrowing/year Total current liabilities Total non-current liabilities Total non-current liabilities for fleet Average pay out period Financial year ended Ryanair 193 2007-2014 ~$10bn 3.01% â‚ ¬109.2m â‚ ¬1.815bn â‚ ¬3.879bn â‚ ¬3,625bn 22.1 days 31 December 2011 Future financing Ryanair Through the analysis of the financial statements it has been revealed that Ryanair has a stable financial structure that is capable to fund the various liabilities in the short- and long-run. The remaining aircraft deliveries are funded through operational revenues and cash reserves. But, it must be kept in mind that the latest fleet contract is from 2005 and all aircrafts will be delivered by 2014. The next couple of months are going to be important in terms of long term strategy for Ryanair. The accumulated cash reserves point that the airline is preparing for some sort of investment. It can be the acquisition of Aer Lingus or the procurement of new aircrafts. The acquisition of the Irish carrier is currently delayed by the EU, but Ryanair is putting all the effort to buy become major shareholder in the firm, which would enable them to appear on the long-haul market through Aer Lingus. It also has been outlined in the annual report that Boeing has granted to give significantly lower prices for Ryanair in return of bulk orders, promotional and other activities. In other words, they are inspiring the airline to go invest into a new fleet in the middle of an economic downturn. In such case the shareholders might be willing to finance the new requirements as they are kept â€Å"happy† and also the airline has been maintaining a steady growth rate both in profits and network coverage. Banks are also aware of the securitized aircrafts also of the vast amount of cash reserves. This background could enable Ryanair to obtain loans with lower interest rate. Ryanair is aware of the favourable contract conditions with Ex-Im Bank as the carrier has stated that they expect any future commitments or guarantees issued by Ex-Im Bank to contain similar conditions. Any inability to obtain financing for the new aircraft on advantageous term might have an adverse effect on the business, operations and financial conditions. However, easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou calls for a slower fleet expansion plans in the next years as he believes that the annual growth is not equal with the number of aircrafts on order. Ryanair should also consider this perspective of growth as they ground 80 of their aircraft for the winter period. A great bulk of aircrafts without sufficient demand could destabilise the airline’s financial position and could make Ryanair to reassess its financial sources. (Rothwell 2012) British Airways Additionally to the current-liability problems (see above), the other main financial issue for BA is to pay for the new fleet. Like mentioned above the company has firm orders for 50 aircrafts for  £4.1bn and options for additional 84. The following question needs to be answered pretty soon – who is going to lend money for British Airways? How much is it going to cost the airline? ï‚ · The British flag carrier could try to increase its funds from shareholders money, but it can be assumed that due to the lack of the profitable dividend policy shareholders are not ready to invest more money into the airline. Also, BA belongs to International Airlines Group (IAG) which also incorporates the Spanish carrier Iberia. The problem is Iberia is making losses, thus even if British Airways makes profit this or next year IAG is going to use that money to reduce the losses at Iberia. In other words, the Spanish carrier is pulling British Airways back at the moment. Shareholders may consider additional funds risky, therefore BA need to show that it can preserve its leading position as a legacy airline. ï‚ · Cash can be generated by selling off assets or reducing costs. In December 2011 BA had only  £39m available-for-sale financial asset. The airline has different amount of equities in various companies – these could be sold as well to gain cash in the short run. By selling aircrafts, which are not necessary needed, the airline could generate income. It would not be unreasonable if BA focused more on the long-haul routes and would reduce the number of aircrafts (114) flying within Europe as the company may not be making sufficient operational profit on some of these routes due to the low cost carriers. The third option for the company to finance its future commitments is to obtain loans from banks, financial institutes or sovereign wealth funds. The latter is a possible solution as Chinese or Gulf wealth funds could be willing to inject capital into the airline, but the question is at what interest rate? The lenders know that BA is struggling with the payment of the shortterm liabilities and they are using the long-term loans, the â€Å"more expensive† money to fund the operational commitments, hence the interest rate for the credit can expected to be high. This would solve the liquidity question in the upcoming years, but such financial funding would also mean difficulties in the period after 5 years. However, if the carrier can continue its recovery from the downturn then there is a good chance for a financially stable British Airways that can pay all its liabilities. Financial and operational leases may work, but they would only relate to the aircrafts. Also, it can be assumed from the drop in the operational lease that BA has these contracts ready and sorted out, they are not just not live as the new aircrafts have not been delivered yet. Conclusion The report has investigated two different business model’s financial structure. Results show the quantity’s victory over quality. Ryanair can maintain its market leading position and increase profits from year to year. This is attributable to the steady and well-functioning financial and operational system, which enables growth, investments and also controls liabilities and aircraft commitments. The search for new financial sources is only necessary, if Ryanair decides on a fleet expansion plan and the airline cannot agree with Ex-Im Bank about future fleet procurement. On the other hand, British Airways seem to struggle with its existing funds hence new financial sources are required to survive the upcoming years. The decision on these funds is hard as in BA’s current situation none of them can be called advantageous. But, to choose the best solution financial advice is recommended for the carrier. Despite all the differences, the two airlines have one thing in common – the next twelve months are going to have a great effect on both carriers’ long term operations. Reference list ATRILL, P. and MCLANEY, E., eds, 2002. Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists Fourth edn. Pearson Education Limited. BRITISH AIRWAYS, 2012. Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2011. British Airways. MORRELL, P.S., ed, 2007. Airline Finance Fourth edn. Ashgate.