• Login
HIRE WRITER NOW

Analysis of Business Models of L’Oreal through Business Model Canvas and SWOT Analysis

Pages:6

L’Oreal Group is a French-based pioneer beauty company that was founded in 1909. The tag line of L’Oreal is “sharing beauty with all.” The company operates through two working divisions Cosmetics Division and Body Shop Division. Not only is it the first cosmetics company in the world, but it also is the top one(Medgadget). Having thirty-six brands, the company is based in more than 150 countries. By 2018, the company had registered 505 patents with 26.9 billion euros of sales. This section attempts to explain the business model of L’Oreal and its strengths and weaknesses by employing business model canvass and SWOT analysis, respectively.

But before moving on, L’Oreal’s commitment to sustainability is so outstanding that it deserves a separate mention. L’Oreal’s involvement in the organic beauty products industry, as well as its astonishing sustainability, has allowed it to retain its prestigious position for many years. L’Oreal launched a brand new line of organic products in 2018. The organic beauty industry only in France grew by 7%, much more than the traditional beauty industry, with worth over 400 million euros (Mansfield-Devine). Not only has the launch of this organic line totally resonated with the customers’ demands, but it also has crowned the entrepreneurial spirit of L’Oreal, keeping its leadership status in the industry unchallenged. This initiative of L’Oreal where meets the market demands and garner customer satisfaction, also is a support program for the farmers of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region in France from where all the raw material to be used in the new line, particularly the extra virgin olive oil, are collected (Mira). L’Oreal’s “bringing responsible beauty to all” tag line for organic products, again triumphs the market which is considered plagued, by customers, with brutal practices of animal testing, torturing animals for excavating material to be used in beauty products, particularly fragrances, and the frequent usage of harmful chemicals like aluminium and mercury. Hence L’Oreal’s commitment and continuation with using plant-based ingredients for more than 115 years have made it the industry leader(Organic Beauty for All), not just in terms of its’ earning but also earning customers’ hearts and caring for its’ surroundings beyond any doubt. Similarly, just the way L’Oreal has been concerned about the health of its customers, it also has been equally careful about planet earth. For the purpose of sustainability, in 2013, L’Oreal initiated “sharing beauty with all” campaign; a series of commitments which it had to meet by 2020. The latest report that L’Oreal published was its progress report in this lieu for 2018. These commitments were divided into four pillars and measure and address the impact of activities throughout the value chain. Through these commitments, L’Oreal has contributed to all seventeen goals set out by the United Nations, as mentioned in the 2018 progress report. It is rare, if not totally non-existent, to see a beauty giant stick to sustainable practices but also publish its progress report, and hence is the most popular strength of L’Oreal(L’Oreal).

The business model canvas can be used to comprehend any businesses strategies and models in a straightforward way quite efficiently. Business model canvas can provide not only insights about one’s own business but also that of one’s competitors.(The Business Model Canvas: Tool to Help You Understand a Business Model).

The first segment of canvas on the extreme right is about customers of any firm; that of L’Oreal is men and women who are really careful about their appearances. The second segment, which lies in the middle of the canvas, highlights the value propositions. L’Oreal offers sustainability, “bringing responsible beauty to all,” “high quality and prestige,” and being the “world’s largest cosmetics company.” The third segment; channels of supplying, lying on the left side of the first one, includes stores, promoting events, social media campaigns(Repositório Do ISCTE-IUL), pharmacies, and regional distributors. Fourth segment; customer relationships lying just above the 3rd segment includes customer loyalty, brand awareness and aspiration, and also 900 million euros investment in finding alternatives to animal testing. The fifth segment lying in the bottom right corner highlights revenue streaming, which includes the sale of products. The sixth segment sheds light on the key activities of the firm. For L’Oreal, it primarily includes, R&D (L’Oreal), sales, production, and “dermatology, toxicology, tissue engineering, and biopharmaceutical research fields”. The seventh segment, resources, is probably one of the most important ones. It includes brand, “intellectual properties, production facilities, and its distribution network. The “share and care” social program for employees as well as communities, rewards and recognitions, and the top non-technology patent holder in the USA, human skin 3D printing.” Eight segment being key partners is also an essential one. The fashion industry, media houses, advertising agencies, influential personalities, distribution network, investors and shareholders, suppliers and subsidiaries like the Body Shop and Lancome. The last segment; cost structure includes all the expenditures on the process from creating, delivering to earning revenues. Creating process would include branding efforts and ensuing promotions, then delivering will include distribution, and paying employees, and runningR&D facilities and factories.

Based on this canvas, the following section draws up an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to L’Oreal(Bhasin).

Being the largest beauty enterprise in the world is one of the significant strengths of L’Oreal. Next up is its continuous and unhindered investment in R&D(Ambuja Solvex). Not only is the quality of L’Oreal products is top-notch, but its brand portfolio is also a very prestigious one. The marketing campaigns of each brand of L’Oreal and strong media communications are also a strong suit of L’Oreal. L’Oreal is divided into many sub-divisions. This stands out as its weakness as handling a lot of subdivisions of L’Oreal, conducting magnanimous operations has the potential to cause many discrepancies. Its budget for human resource management is also enormous as around eighty-thousand employees are working in L’Oreal(BFM Business). Extreme competition from Sunsilk and Head & Shoulders shampoos, produced by other industry giants HUL’s and P&G’s, respectively, against L’Oreal’s Garnier, is one of the most prominent weaknesses of L’Oreal.

Personal hygiene, concerns about physical appearance are only going to heighten the demand of the beauty industry. So this area holds vast potential opportunities for L’Oreal as many animal rights artists are demanding an end to animal testing. Hence this objective of L’Oreal, as mentioned above,to uphold the sustainability commitments will surely shoot L’Oreal’s sales as organizations advocating animal rights get more vocal(Amberg and Fogarassay).

The ever increasing competition as the cosmetics industry grows poses a constant threat to L’Oreal(Collins). Besides, demand from the consumers also keeps updating and changing, so it is comparatively tougher for L’Oreal to cope with the ever-evolving demands cosmetic industry (Rajput). Secondly, having so many sub-brands divide the revenues accordingly. But if the economy faces any setback, then all the lines of any company face the cash crunch. The Covid-19 pandemic also has wiped out many businesses and has also affected L’Oreal. Besides owing to the division of labour and integration, if a unit of L’Oreal in one state faces setbacks, ones in the other countries will also bear its brunt.

 

References

Amberg, Nora and Csaba Fogarassay. “Green Consumer Behavior in the Cosmetics Market.” MDPI. Last modified July 30, 2019. 30 7 2019. <https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/8/3/137/htm. >.

  1. Ambuja Solvex. “Importance of Research and Development for the Cosmetic Industry.” .” 22 3 2019. <https://www.ambujasolvex.com/blog/importance-of-research-and-development-for-the-cosmetic-industry/. >.
  2. BFM Business. “Soumier, Stéphane. L’Oreal Annual Report 2018. .” 2018. <https://www.loreal-finance.com/system/files/2019-10/LOreal_2018_Annual_Report_0.pdf.>.
  3. Bhasin, Hitesh. “”SWOT Analysis of L’oreal – L’oreal SWOT Analysis.” .” 21 4 2019. <https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-loreal-2/. >.
  4. Collins, Allison. Fast Beauty: New Business Models Cause Industry-wide Shift. 15 5 2018. <https://wwd.com/beauty-industry-news/beauty-features/fast-beauty-new-business-models-cause-industry-wide-shift-1202648539/.>.
  5. L’Oreal. “L’Oréal’s Model of Innovation: Strong Research.” n.d. L’Oréal – L’Oréal Group | World Leader in Beauty | Official Website.<https://www.loreal.com/research-and-innovation/our-innovation-model>.
  6. —. Sharing Beauty With All; The L’Oreal Sustainability Commitment. Progress Report. Paris: L’Oreal, 2018.
  7. Mansfield-Devine, Patricia. “L’Oréal unveils new organic beauty brand, La Provencale Bio.” 12 10 2018. Cosmetics Business.<https://www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/news/article_page/LOreal_unveils_new_organic_beauty_brand_La_Provencale_Bio/148024>.
  8. “Global Cosmetics Market 2019 Key Players, Trends, Sales, Supply, Demand, Analysis and Forecast 2025.” 23 9 2019. <https://www.medgadget.com/2019/09/global-cosmetics-market-2019-key-players-trends-sales-supply-demand-analysis-and-forecast-2025.html. >.
  9. Mira, Nicola. “L’Oréal launches organic skin and body care brand La Provençale Bio.” 5 10 2018. Fashion Network.<https://ww.fashionnetwork.com/news/L-oreal-launches-organic-skin-and-body-care-brand-la-provencale-bio,1021399.html>.
  10. “Organic Beauty for All.” 2019. <https://www.loreal-finance.com/en/annual-report-2019/consumer-products-3-3-0/organic-beauty-for-all-3-3-3/>.
  11. Rajput, Nilesh. Cosmetics Market Size, Share, Industry Trends and Analysis. n.d. <https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/cosmetics-market.>.
  12. Repositório Do ISCTE-IUL. “:The Impact of Influencers in the Consumer’s Purchase Intention: the Cosmetic IndustryNovember 27, 2020.” n.d. <https://repositorio.iscte-iul.pt/handle/10071/19346.>.
  13. “The Business Model Canvas: Tool to Help You Understand a Business Model.” Business Models Inc. . 21 4 2017. <https://www.businessmodelsinc.com/about-bmi/tools/business-model-canvas/.>.
  14. Zito, Sara. “Business Model Adaptation in the Cosmetic Industry; The Nyx Professional makeup case.” 2017. The Luiss Guido Carli University Degree Thesis.<https://tesi.luiss.it/19715/1/190281_ZITO_SARA.pdf.>.

Title: How have Watch Brands been using Influencer Marketing on Instagram to dominate the Watch Market in the past 5 years

International Business Strategy Unilever UK

 

 

Types of Market Structures

Pages:4

 Q3

  1. Discuss the key characteristics of three main market structures, perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly?

The four main market structures that exist in the 21st century’s capitalist world are perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly. Each structure differs in terms of the number of firms (sellers) and buyers, freedom of entry, nature of products offered, and the demand for certain products within any market. This feature delves into finding out the essential characteristics of perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly and how one differs from others.

Perfect competition denotes a market structure that can simply be put be described as the “free market.” The number of buyers and sellers in this market is numerous, which means that buyers are not forced to buy their essentials from only a few sellers, and neither can sellers sell only to a selected few customer base. Restrictions for new-comer sellers in such a market are negligible. Hence there is considerable competition among the sellers, which makes them want to excel in their services as a result of which buyers have many options about substitutes, quality, and prices. Besides, in such a market, no seller has the absolute power to influence or determine rates individually. As far as firm revenues are concerned, firms operating in perfect competitive markets earn zero net profits because when firms start making positive economic profits in the outset, more firms enter the industry considering it a valuable one. However, with the ensuing competition, prices drop, causing losses and the exit by many firms that entered the market. This lead towards higher supplier by fewer firms which earn them profit, but the net profit remains zero at the end.

The second prominent market structure is the monopolistic structure in which there is only one seller, although buyers are many. In the monopolistic markets, due to the lack of competition, the seller determines prices as they desire and making supernormal profits. There is no threat to the hegemony of the single seller as there exist enormous restrictions for entering the particular market in the form of licenses, patents, the technological superiority of the hegemon, lack of substitutes, and control over raw material or other essential products needed for the manufacturing of any product.

In the oligopoly market structure, there are various sellers but still less than in the perfect market structure. Each seller has a significant share in any industry overall. Because the competition is relatively nominal as compared to the perfect competition, so the firms set prices as per their wishes in this structure too. Often times, firms functioning in such structures also collude together to set prices or outputs at certain levels to earn almost supernormal profits. They adopt this colluding technique because, at the peak of their collaboration, they cumulatively act as a monopoly. For this purpose, they may also lower their supplies so that the collective output equals just to that of a monopolistic structure. Nonetheless, they somehow compete via different advertising techniques, etc. however, there also exist some factors that might call-off collusion. For example, in several places, the fixation of prices by the firms is illegal as in the United States. Moreover, when the only competitors in the market are one’s arch competitors, then it gets challenging to cooperate over something that will affect one’s earnings and profits. Similarly, price-leadership is also a significant characteristic of the oligopolistic market structure. In this mechanism, that can also be described as parallel pricing, the dominant seller in the market set a price, and the rest of the sellers have to follow because they will not be able to afford to compete with the dominant seller by selling at higher rates.

  1. How does a monopoly market differs from a perfectly competitive market? Which is more preferable for consumers? Use a diagram to assist your discussion.

Monopolistic market structure is precisely opposite of the perfect competition market structure. In the former one, there exists only one supplier of any product or service. In the later one, there exist a lot of many suppliers, and customers have numerous alternatives to choose from in terms of the supplier or even the product or service. In the monopolistic market, prices are determined as per the wishes of the market hegemons who always try to earn supernormal profits whereas, in perfect competition, market prices are driven by rivalry among many competitors, which leads toward providing better quality products at lower prices to the customers. However, this is not the case in the monopolistic markets, where consumers are forced to t buy the available products mostly at unreasonably high rates. This factor can lead to innovation stagnation as the suppliers will not bother to improve their services because they are aware of the fact that the customers do not have any other alternative and will stay loyal to them although forcefully. On the other hand, in the perfect competition markets, competition leads towards production of more output, as also depicted in the graph, and innovation aimed at improving services or the quality of the products that any firm offers, which in turn makes the lives of the consumers easier as time passes.

 

For the reasons mentioned above, one can safely state that consumers prefer perfect competitive market structures all around the world over the monopoly market structure. Consumers in the perfect competition market have complete information about the products or services that they are consuming, as in about the processes and materials adopted for manufacturing and providing products and services, respectively, by a firm.They are also provided with a number of alternatives as well as with ample supply of outputs.

 

Perfect competition markets are an epitome of the free market, a concept mainly believed to have been proposed by eighteenth-century Scottish political economist Adam Smith. As advocated by Smith, such markets are regulated by an “invisible hand” that keeps the order of the market intact, particularly the prices, as clearly manifested in a perfect competition market. It is, however, important to note that perfect competitive markets do not exist in today’s world. The agriculture sector also only comes a little close to this structure.

From thegraph as well as from the analysis presented above, it can also be deduced that monopolistic market structures thrive at the expense of the consumers’ economic interests and producer surplus is far greater than the consumer surplus as also depicted in the below diagram.

Therefore consumers widely acknowledge that their needs get exploited in such a system and hence despise it over the perfect competition market.

How celebrity endorsements in advertising has evolved over the past 30 years

Pages:5

Thesis Statement:

Celebrity appearances in advertisements have evolved massively throughout the years.

 

Celebrity appearances in advertisements are a prevalent theme found in many countries that is used to attract consumers. 

(A.1) It has been estimated that the instantaneous purchase of consumers towards a particular product that has been promoted by a celebrity is dependent on three factors: product attributes, price considerations, the attributed performance of the celebrity. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895717710002979

(A.2) The theme of celebrity advertisements is prevalent throughout the globe as 30% of the advertisements published in Western countries, 60% of the advertisements published in Asian countries, and around 25% of the advertisements published on TVs in the US.

https://www.intechopen.com/books/advancing-insights-on-brand-management/celebrity-endorsement-developing-a-brand-image-in-housing-ads

(A.3) Magnini et al. (2010) proposed a new construct called celebrity power. Sometimes celebrity power can be so strong that it is the only selection criterion for an endorser. According to Magnini et al. (2010), celebrity power is most likely associated with physical attractiveness, but future research is needed to understand this concept. But it has been understood that celebrities possess inherent news value caused by their celebrity status (Corbett and Mori 1999)

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3cd6/7083b06d80965d3426d463e826a816dad5f0.pdf

 

It is important to point out the massive changes this theme has seen through time.

(B.1) it has been proved that celebrity endorsement is most widely used marketing tool that can become the leverage to create the brand awareness in the mind of consumers, build up the brand image and enhance the brand favorability level in the consumer’s world.

http://www.sci-int.com/pdf/636328003998075004.pdf

(B.2) In the 1950s, every type of product was endorsed by celebrities. At times, the celebrities accepted non-monetary payments such as chocolates for doing a chocolate commercial, unlike in today’s era, where Brad Pitt earned about $4 million for a single Super Bowl advertisement.

In the 1960s, the advent of television led to a drastic increase in the advertisement budget. For instance, the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson Co. saw its budget grow from $78 million in 1945 to $173 million in 1955 and $250 million in 1960.

In 1970s a more systematic approach was followed. The Cola Wars took place that were the allure for celebrities

The 1980s was all about were predominantly about monetary and capitalistic gains. Unparalleled mergers of advertising agencies created large scale international reach for brands, while brands were also acquired in major deals. All this money brought celebrities on the get-go in the form of huge sponsorship deals. For example, Pepsi launched its campaign featuring Michael Jackson: He signed two separate deals with Pepsi in the 1980s, amounting to more than $20 million and fully cooperating with the Pepsi brand into the MJ brand. “It was game-changing,” said Brian Murphy, Executive VP of Branded Entertainment. “You couldn’t separate the tour from the endorsement from the licensing of the music, and then the integration of the music into the Pepsi fabric. If you pulled any one of those pieces apart, it really took away from what the campaign was all about.” It was the starting of the star driving the campaign in a way that had never been witnessed before.

The 1990s is known to be a time of fragmentation in the market of buyers, because of the growing force of immigrant and minority communities and the opportunities that new technologies brought about to marketers. By the 1990s, two thirds of the hundred largest advertisers had newfound ownership. Ad Age termed it “the decade of the deal” with good reason. A more widespread and diverse consumer base resulted in niche markets and focused campaigns. At the same time, agencies are looking to harbor trust, and more complex deals integrated marketing communications services into their deals to advertisers. Diverse campaigns offering promotions, PR, and online advertising, created a platform for the vast brand ambassador roles that would expand throughout the next 20 years.

https://insights.digitalmediasolutions.com/articles/history-celebrity-endorsements

(B.3) The symbiotic relationship between star, brand, and marketing campaign has some of its roots in the world of hip hop. It wasn’t just Mr. Clooney working his magic overseas. Many A-listers regularly represented brands in Europe and Asia in the early 2000s, including Angelina Jolie and Leonard DiCaprio. These endorsements were very lucrative for them and their brands internationally. It remains relatively uncommon, however, for stars of a certain stature to do television commercials in America.

With the arrival of social media and its role as an advertising game-changer, differentiating between influencer marketing and celebrity endorsements is a complex business. Print ads feature many top celebrities. Thus, in the 2010s, the goal was to make the brand interesting and relevant for the youth. The campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa became hugely successful and set the bar high for other campaigns to follow. The 30-second advertisement starring Isaiah Mustafa was aired a few days before the Super Bowl and also the day after the game was played. Due to its appeal and humor, it quickly went viral. This was one of the most successful campaigns in the history of influencer marketing.

https://insights.digitalmediasolutions.com/articles/history-celebrity-endorsements

 

Some important patterns have been traced in the theme of celebrity appearances in advertisements.

(C.1) Millennials often trust influencers. They consider peers and thought leaders more than celebrities. Hence, with all the social media getting prevalent, a celebrity can post about a brand or charity, and his/her fans will see the message instantly. Celebrity endorsements are used to increase brand awareness and recall (Dhotre&Bhola, 2010).

https://www.revistaespacios.com/a18v39n06/a18v39n06p28.pdf

(C.2) Erdogan summarizes the benefits and advantages of celebrity use as increased attention, image polishing, brand introduction, and brand repositioning, and underpinning global campaigns.

https://zenodo.org/record/1091894/files/9997953.pdf

(C.3) US marketing research suggests that Generation Z teens (born 1995–2010) and Millennials (born 1981–1994), men or Black or African Americans are more likely to be influenced by celebrities with whom they share similar demographic characteristics.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6801952/

 

Today’s celebrity involvement in advertisements is quite different from that of in the past.

(D.1) Today, advertising appearances by movie stars can also be lucrative, earning for some as much as $10 million in one year (Schiller 2006; Stone, Joseph and Jones 2003)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27749658?seq=1

(D.2) Once a celebrity endorsement grabs their attention, consumers are assumed to become more interested in the advertised object as compared with a non-endorsed or other-endorsed object. This is due to the fact that celebrities possess inherent news value caused by their celebrity status (Corbett and Mori 1999). As a result, object recall and recognition is assumed to be enhanced due to greater message elaboration (*Petty et al. 1983).

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-016-0503-8

(D.3) Some advertisers sought out those athletes with a higher potential to become bad boys; some thought they worked better. Reporter Peter Newcomb mentioned 20-year-old tennis star Andre Agassi and all his temper tantrums. “America loves a guy who can make big bucks and then thumb his nose at the world,” said sports psychologist William Beausay. “Society has changed over the last 30 years. We went from a society where people had respect for one another to where the primary concern is for oneself.”

https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=4AoyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=How+celebrity+endorsements+in+advertising+has+evolved+over+the+past+30+years&source=bl&ots=W2skQmFne9&sig=ACfU3U1eKUHhwJDhKFOUVs2yA7Pc_p8EFA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjb7ainnOPoAhVERBoKHXYvA0o4ChDoATABegQIDBAl#v=onepage&q=How%20celebrity%20endorsements%20in%20advertising%20has%20evolved%20over%20the%20past%2030%20years&f=falseEndorsements in Advertising: A Social History

 

 

 

 

 

Critical Reflection under Second Language Teaching

Pages:5

Critical Reflection

The lesson plan for second language teaching aimed at helping students learn the English language in the most comfortable way that can help them adopt fluency in daily routine. Learning a second language is different in many ways for a young student, for instance, in terms of environment where language acquisition is taking place. The process is unique and different that allows students to develop inherent abilities to understand new vocabulary as well as the content. This experience allowed me to know the essential characteristics of students and offered me a chance to know students better in their speaking and listening.

The lesson plan helped me acquire an understanding of writing skills and how it is significant for students. When they practice short speaking stories with families and peers, it enhances their ability to learn family-oriented vocabulary. The second language learning experience is significant in the sense of participation in a new world of vocabulary, words, and exposure (Montero-Melis, Jaeger &Bylund, 2016). The need for language learning to young students is related to the short and long run. The language approach help students keep motivated to produce output and internalize a language that is not related to memorization. These outcomes have a positive effect on students’ learning, so encourage them to attain fluency.

The language approach made me think about self-motivation. Under this process, students can better understand communication problems. According to language research studies, learning a language is critical to acquire the necessary skills and expertise that help in expressing own personality. My experience of language teaching allowed me to pass an integral concept of learning to students and practice more and more to get rid of mistakes. Most of the students feel shy when they mistake, but the purpose of this lesson plan was to help them gain confidence. The gained knowledge and acquired learning create short term planning of skill development for students when they interact with their families (Lightbown&Spada, 2012).

In my experience, my students in previous lessons listen to stories, when teachers described different people of the community and their interaction. Students learned from this kind of sties about their interaction purpose, family behavior, and community. Due to this practice, students get to know about classroom activities, community-based learning, and understanding of family norms. With the best method, students acquire new words, new meanings, and unique attributes to display emotions and describe themselves (Sahragard&Mallahi, 2014). I believe such understanding to students is significant to move forward in life and explore new things.

A focus on information in LMS is the basic level for students. With the common understanding of classroom practices, students developed attention, listening skills, and knowledge about family (Lightbown&Spada, 2012). The imagination trees helped students gain knowledge of the family. I learned that the role of the teacher is significant in assisting students in learning with fun and engaging them in carrying out certain practices. My assessment for learners was based on their activities, which was related to their understanding of vocabulary, pronunciation and written practices. From this process, I gained the insights that making mistakes is a basic need, and by this weakness, all students will acquire strengths.

Teaching a second language to allow teachers to equip them with competency required to perform in this modern world. (Gibbons, 2014)  The dynamic patterns of this world need well-established concepts of students about knowledge and understanding. English, as a second language itself, needs the expertise to perform with diligence. Learning and second language acquisition are based on language acquisition models. This process is significant in processing new information and conduct tasks in the secondary language (Gibbons, 2014). To enhance the learning of students, language learning strategies are used, and I believe these strategies have affected students in many terms; for instance, career choice, nationality, age, gender, and motivation are some factors that impact secondary language learning acquisition.

My experience allowed me to assess the level of involvement and understanding that every student had with its syllabus. I think teachers’ interaction plays a crucial role in developing concepts. During the lessons and after it, student’s involvement allows teachers to know about their involvement style and learning aspects (Bagheri, 2015).

Being a teacher of the second language, my focus of understanding and delivery is related to capable students. I acquired knowledge that the degree of mistakes and vocabulary pronunciation should be focused much when students are directed to memorize a new concept. I also gathered the idea about student’s participation in how much is necessary to get involved in a new lesson to gain new knowledge. If students participate with confidence and act in a new session, it is most likely that they are enjoying their learning and ready to get into the modern world (Alimirzaloo&Hashemnezhad, 2015).

Many studies have focused on second language teaching practices and requirements to help students gain more understanding; I believe that it is crucial to involve students by instilling them need to interact with others. I think cognitive techniques by teachers should be applied in the classroom to understand students more. Teachers should improve their level to make students aware of a new language, its role in life, its importance, and the significance of communication. Thinking skills also matter a lot and facilitate new language learning because unfamiliar language reflects some issues that students face. Still, thinking skills can increase students’ awareness and develop their language autonomy.  To me, this secondlanguage teaching experience is significant to gain new insights about transforming knowledge and practical to learn ways to improve my skills. I monitored students while writing, speaking, and reading, and it helped me get to know where they are weak and what their strengths are. I also got an understanding of improvement in how I should improve to support students’ performance better. For example, family tree understanding is common for some kids but difficult for others, so I helped them with specific real-life examples to understand the idea.

Current lesson plan is weak in terms of parents’ interaction and logic making steps that can manage learning difficulty. These weaknesses are hindering the way of improving students’ learning. One of the approaches to improve the teaching plan would involve developing a rich curriculum and developing a learner focused partnerships with parents. The teaching plan could be improved by incorporating these strategies. In future teaching plan, I could consider sequence steps to improve students’ learning and incorporate parent opinion. This will help improving the lesson plan.

 

References

Alimirzaloo, E., &Hashemnezhad, H. (2015). An investigation on the relationship between critical thinking skills, language learning strategies, and thinking styles of Iranian EFL learners. International Journal Of Research Studies In Language Learning, 4(5). doi: 10.5861/ijrsll.2015.1106

Bagheri, F. (2015). The Relationship between Critical Thinking and Language Learning Strategies of EFL Learners. Journal Of Language Teaching And Research, 6(5), 969. doi: 10.17507/jltr.0605.08

Gibbons, P. (2014). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning (2nd ed., pp. 23-48). Heinemann.

Lightbown, P., &Spada, N. (2012). How languages are learned (4th ed., pp. 35-74). Oxford University Press.

Montero-Melis, G., Jaeger, T., &Bylund, E. (2016). Thinking Is Modulated by Recent Linguistic Experience: Second Language Priming Affects Perceived Event Similarity. Language Learning, 66(3), 636-665. doi: 10.1111/lang.12172

Sahragard, R., &Mallahi, O. (2014). Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Language Learning Styles, Writing Proficiency and Self-assessment. Procedia – Social And Behavioral Sciences, 98, 1611-1620. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.585

Differentiation in Teaching a critical appraisal of the literature

Different methods of assessment in educational systems

Educational Inequality Issues in China

 

Facial Door Lock

Pages:10

1.    Summary/Purpose

Samsung is a Korean company and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic equipment. It was established in 1938. Samsung’s goal is to use its talents and technologies to create the latest and improved products and services, and to contribute to global development. With the development of the smart home industry, smart door locks are alsobecoming common. However, as an emerging industry, smart door locks have some shortcomings that need to be improved, such asthreat of system hacking and information theft. Samsung’s new generation of facial recognition smart door locks will effectively solve these problems and provide a more flexible and convenient unlocking solution.

The potential targeted customer base of this industry is the working class that works long shifts and have been working for quite some time. To understand the profile of the said product better it is vital to know the features of the smart lock. Samsung’s door lock offers three features simultaneously. They are facial recognition feature, a pressure sensor, and a quick alarm system. This mechanism of triple checks can maximize the safety of the family. In addition, the said product also has very reasonable pricingso that mostof the working classcan afford it.In order to promote the products, online advertising options will be availed,whereas the products will also be displayed at flagship stores for experiencing first hand. The advantages that this next generation of smart door lock has to offer can make it earn a considerable place in the relative market.

 

 

 

2.    The Function of the Company

The Samsung Group is the largest multinational enterprise in South Korea. The Samsung Group includes many international affiliated companies with businesses in electronics, finance, machinery, insurance, chemistry, artificial intelligence, and many other fields. Regarding smart door locks, Samsung’s current products are SHD, SHP, SHS, DP, and P series. The price range is between 596CAD and 1380CAD. The unlocking methods include fingerprint, key, password, swipe card, mobile phone, and APP. The system can be supported through IOS as well as android, and is powered by batteries. Keeping this setup in mind, an attempt will be made by our company to innovate the smart door locks system even more than that of Samsung.The name of our product is Facial Recognition Door Lock, which will be commonly known as FDL1. The launching of our product has the potential to revolutionize the smart door locks industry. The utmost priority of our company and the major goal of our product is to ensure the personal as well as economic safety of our customers. In addition to that, our company has also been looking into ways by employing which our customers on long distances from their homes can be completely assured of the safety of their properties.This feature will help us attract the working class, particularly the workers in the flying industry who are almost always away from their homes. Secondly, our company has also taken into proper consideration the purchasing power of the targeted customer base,and we can state with full confidence that the said customer base amply possess the resources to spend on this necessity, and it will not be a burden for them.

As far as the functioning of the pressure-sensing and one-button alarm feature in our product is concerned, it will allow the customers to be aware of any sort of intrusion. This feature will operate through sensing excessive pressure, and the owner of the property will be notified of this either through an alarm system or through a mobile application. Many other previous shortcomings have also been solved through this smart system.

Moreover, not only have we paid attention only to the quality of our product, its advertising and marketing have been our primary focus as well. We have also allocated massive resources to after-sale services i.e., maintenance services for our valued customers. For the advertising purpose, to promote our product,its ads will be given on all popular social networking sites, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. In addition, we will provide customers with an opportunity to experience samples before buying, and with the option to adjust the products according to customers custom recommendations and requirements. When the product is released, we will provide customers with an unconditional 15-day return and three-year warranty option. Therefore, not only will we provide our customers with high-quality products but complete services regarding the product will also be present. Hence, we have enough competitive edge to occupy a considerable place in the market.

 

3.    Research Plan & Potential Competitors

It is a well-known fact that many households have already set up smart door locks to make their lives more convenient and safe. However, many of our competitors only provide a touch screen panel to enter code and or biometric options, but if the electricity ever fails or its mechanism jams, the lock needs to be destroyed to get in or out. On the other hand, our Samsung smart door locks allow entrance not only through entering a password and biometric scanner, but it also provides key way to deal with some emergencies. One can also access the house by using Bluetooth. This technology makes door locks safer because residents can track the history of access. So, this idea offers more ways to enter by using smart door locks. Besides, our product will be easier to use for all age groups particularly, for senior citizens. They will have options to choose from. We are also aware that many competitive products have set up build-in alarm technology to protect households against robberies. To overcome this highly competitive feature, we have coupled a type of pinhole camera in the base of that technology, which means people can completely know what is going on outside the door. This method can make the household safer and record evidence in certain situations. Besides, many products in the market have also connected the smart door locks with Wi-Fi technology besides providing the master control panel controlled through Wi-Fifor major household appliances and lighting systems. It can determine the need for turning on/OFF household appliances based on the presence of human beings (Park et al., 2009). We have to admit that this type of function helps achieve home automation. However, in the past decade, we have proved that firewalls, IDSs, IPSs, and air-gap isolation can’t provide complete protection, as attackers can evade all types of separation and infect an organization’s network by using malware (Guri&Bykhovsky, 2019). If the smart home locks are connected with other devices closely, hackers have more opportunities to attack electronic devices and get one’s private information. Furthermore, through this technique, they can also breach the smart door locks and put one’s house into a dangerous situation. Using SDS technology can perfectly solve this problem because any access would need Bluetooth,which uses a double encryption system to prevent privacy leakage.

Moreover, our product has two more very important features. Fist of them is automatic locking. We will add a motion sensor and voice sensor in the rooms. If there is no motion and voice in a certain period of time, the door will be locked automatically, which can prevent the situation that someone forgetful goes through or accidentally forgetting to lock the door. This is a recheck system that can make the house mare safe. We also recognize the weakness of the smart door lock, which is high power consumption. So, we prepare to solve this problem by using a more durable battery and a low volume warning. It can remind one of recharging in case of lock doesn’t work, and residents can’t get in.

 

4.    Objectives Key Issues

Samsung’s smart home is already widely known. Nowadays, many people use smart things. SmartThings has become an important line of Samsung products. The line includes many products that have made people’s life more convenient. According to a survey, the value of digital door locks increased to USD 2.13 billion in 2017. Researchers have estimated that the growth rate of smart door locks will be 27.2% from 2018 to 2026. On the downside, due to the popularity of smart door locks and the loopholes associated with them, the rate of burglary rose to 66%. The security problems of smart door locks are becoming more and more dangerous (Goodin, 2016).

The first key issue in this field is a software security issue. Each smart door lock allows everyone to download an application that can control any digital door lock, so people can use this software to check the situation of the home or the digital door lock. In addition to it, there are some other vulnerabilities; for example, one can steal or even guess the PIN code to open the smart lock. PIN code is the important information for the digital door lock. There are also some other applications that can affect the work of this application, such as disabling the holiday mode or setting off a false fire alarm. These malicious applications which appear in the SmartThings application store use bugs to enable thieves to permanently and secretly access customers houses.

The second key issue is about OAuth. Researchers have found that some people use the defective parts of SmartThings to cause OAuth. OAuth refers to allowing users to allow third-party applications to access private resources stored by the user on a website, such as photos, videos, and passwords. The researchers found that these people would use this flaw to open smart door locks. First, they will send a link to the users who have the smart door lock, asking the victim to click this link. This link apparently takes the victim to the actual SmartThings HTTPS website, and there seems nothing wrong while logging in (Greenberg, 2016). Finally, when the victim logs in, a message is sent to the thief, and he can utilize the victims login information about the door lock application to steal the PIN code.

5.      Way Forward

Based on these critical issues, the researchers have concluded that the new generation of smart door locks needs to strengthen the security management of the application. The researchers have recommended installing a facial recognition system on the door lock, which is also an essential feature of our product. First of all, it can eliminate the danger of stealing the pin code. Because it is not easy to copy someone’s facial features. For example, recently, in biometric door locks, many thieves use tape to steal the victim’s fingerprints and access the victim’s home to steal. Secondly, this feature also strengthens the safety factor of the door. First of all, the new generation of smart door locks can be installed with gravity sensors on the door locks. When someone maliciously destroys the door lock, an alarm sound can be issued to alert the users. Thirdly, the identification application is also installed on this system. This system can help users identify visitors separately. For example, when a user’s friend visits more than 5 times, the application software will ask the user to choose whether to record this person as a familiar person. At the same time, when a stranger stays at the user’s door for more than 10 minutes, the application software of the door lock will automatically send a message to the user to alert the user to pay attention to safety. This can significantly enhance the safety factor. The fourth is to prevent other malicious programs from stealing important user information. For the new generation of smart door lock applications, researchers suggest adding a security layer and strong anti-virus software to protect the users’ privacy and information, such as PIN codes. The security layer can prevent users from clickingOAuth, which can protect the users’ important data(Lodderstedt, 2018). Also, a strong anti-virus option will stop the application from scanning unnecessarily hence defending against malware. At the same time, researchers can configure it to meet the specific needs of users on any device and the entire network. It provides real-time protection (Rubenking, 2018). These ways solutions can curb the limitations that came with the previous smart door locks.

 

 

6.    Promotion Plan

The purpose of our advertising is to let people know that our products have excellent quality. We will put our advertisements on our own website and some apps which are really popular, such as Instagram and Facebook. These apps will give more people know-how and information about our company and our products. At the beginning of the career, in order to attract customers to buy our products, we will give them more rights. They can return within ten days even without any reason, and they will have three years warranty. If they want to try it first, they will also be able to try our products in our company. It will be exactly the same door that we will sell to our customers. They can buy it if they are satisfied with the product. In addition, when we will launch the newer products, our customers will have a great opportunity to trade in the old one and get the new one at a discounted price. For our marketing plan, first, we choose to establish and operate our company in London, Ontario. Because all the natives live in this city, and they know this city very well. If the locals of this area seem interested in our products and find them useful, we will continue to expand our company to other provinces and countries. What we really want to achieve is that customers can get through our smart doors to have a safer life. Secondly, we will encourage our customers to try our products. We will find some local distributors and offer each of them 3 to 5 products to let them have a try at our products. In addition, we will have a company membership. The membership will be divided into different levels. When one buys more products, onewill be ata higher level in the membership and will have more privilege. Thirdly, when the customers who have already purchased the door introduce our products to more people, they will have a 10% discount.

7.    Conclusion

Overall, there are many different types of smart door locks in the market because of the booming industry. Samsung’s original smart door locks have some major security issues, which cannot guarantee users’ safety and privacy.However, the facial recognition door locks are designed to ensure the safety of families and property and improve the flaws in the original digital door locks. For the Facial door lock, there are some new features, such as the alarm system, and options to prevent the invasion of malware. Our main agenda is not profiteering, but the citizens’ safety. Our company offers the customers a lot of rights, such as that they can try the product first, can return within ten days without any reason and can have three years warranty as well. We will read the customers’ feedback carefully and give the customers safer environments to live in.

 

 

8.    References

  1. Greenberg, A. (2016, May 2). Flaws in Samsung’s ‘Smart’ Home Let Hackers Unlock
  2. Doors and Set Off Fire Alarms. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2016/05/flaws-samsungs-smart-home-let-hackers-unlock-doors-set-off-fire-alarms/
  3. Goodin, D. (2016, May 2). Samsung Smart Home flaws let hackers make keys to
  4. Front door. Retrieved from https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/samsung-smart-home-flaws-lets-hackers-make-keys-to-front-door/
  5. Guri, M., &Bykhovsky, M. (2019, May). aIR-Jumper: Covert air-gap
  6. Exfiltration/infiltration via security cameras & infrared (IR). 82.
  7. https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167404818307193
  8. Lodderstedt, T. (2018, November 9). Why you should stop using the OAuth implicit
  9. grant!. Retrieved from https://medium.com/oauth-2/why-you-should-stop-using-the-oauth-implicit-grant-2436ced1c926
  10. Park, Y., Sthapit, P., Pyun, J. (20l9). Smart digital door lock for the home automation.
  11. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5396038
  12. Rubenking, N. J. (2018, November 26). 7 Signs You Have Malware and How to Get
  13. Rid of It. Retrieved from https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/7-signs-you-have-malware-and-how-to-get-rid-of-it

 

Should Parents Assist their Children in Selecting Major?

Pages:11

Should Parents Assist their Children in Selecting Major Choosing a particular subject as a major is one of the vital decisions that decide a child’s future. Some parents want to make their children pick a carrier that they best see fit for them and look for the majors in studies that are relevant in that particular field. Imbalance in any of these predicaments could lead either the parent to impose something the child doesn’t want that would lead the child to become wholly misguided and stressed out. On the other hand, if the child chooses a major of their own without parents’ consent, that can lead to regret later. This essay will address whether parents should play an active role in making their children choose majors for higher education? 

When parents directly get involved in their children’s education and homework routine, they get to know their child’s actual interests and his likes and dislikes. As every child of the same parent has a different caliber, capabilities, and his or her own born talents. Some children are interested in Art subjects; some like to work on scientific projects, some like outdoor activities and games. When parents get involved in their kids day to day school activities, it gives them a clear understanding of their child’s weaknesses. Where the kids require improvement and need more guidance and help. Some scientific researches have proven that people are not born with any particular talent. As per Prof.Gill Crozier, Director of the Centre for Educational Research in Equalities of University of Roehampton, London, UK, “The notion of parental involvement tends to be regarded as a unified concept and accepted unproblematic as desirable by all concerned”(Crozier, 222)

Having a comparatively genius brain is one thing, but some capabilities need to be discovered. It’s just not enough to find any hidden talent or interest, but to polish, it further would make a difference.Darcy lyness in her study discusses kids with self-esteem as,feel liked and accepted, feel confident, feel proud of what they can do, think good things about themselves, believe in themselvesShe further says“Kids who feel good about themselves have the confidence to try new things. They are more likely to try their best. They feel proud of what they can do”(Lyness, 1)Hence, p0arents who try to make a healthy and friendly bond with their child can make their child more confident and of strong character. Parents supporting their children in their interests would help them become more passionate in their fields.

Parents who works in various professions understands all the implications of their work. “Parents influence the level of education or training that their children achieve; the knowledge they have about work and different occupations; the beliefs and attitudes they have to working; and the motivation they have to succeed. Most of this is learned unconsciously – children and teenagers absorb their parent’s attitudes and expectations of them as they grow up.(qualifax, 1) They  can do it so by gradually making them aware of their future responsibilities as an adult. They should teach them the benefits of choosing the right careers but, at the same time, pursue their passions side by side throughout their life.Mutual discussion is one of the most integral parts of choosing a significant subject for a child. The critical question that what you want to be is a half-hearted question asked by the parents as they have a carrier in their mind that they want the kid to have. It is wrong for either of them to cut the connection of thorough discussion while selecting a subject as a major as both of them have their concerns regarding the choices that the other one would have.

Career selection is the most crucial decision in any person’s whole life. Because wrong career selection would ultimately affect a child’s whole future in a very adverse way.Fizer in his study quotes “The people who most affect a student’s choice of major are friends,parents, teachers, and alumni. The people affecting a student’s career choice tend to provide more insight about the career field including factors such as how big of a salary it offers, how fast a student can advance, or the benefits that come with that job field”(Fizer, 12)

Experience is also another edge that parents have over their children as they have spent their lives and gone through good and bad choices. They know the consequences of wrong academic choices leading to life-long struggles and regrets. As research by Waterford “It helps to think of parent involvement as the first step to parent engagement. While teachers can advise parents on some things, parents also have important information about their child that teachers might not know. Both can bring perspectives to the table that enrich a student’s learning experience.  (Waterford,1)They can help the child choose wisely in terms of Academics majors and help the child avoid these hurdles. Yet the same experience can help them understand not to force their own choices on the child and help him/ her choose astutely.

If the parents aim their children to fulfill their unfinished/ incomplete desires, that certainly is a setback that can lead the children to have difficulties later. If a parent wanted to be an engineer, and couldn’t and want their child to be one, without asking his/ her interests, it is unfair and quite unjust. As per the study conducted by Eddie Brummelman,“From the early days of psychology, theorists have observed that parents sometimes transfer their own unfulfilled ambitions onto their child. We propose that parents are especially inclined to do so when they see their child as part of themselves, more so than as a separate individual.” (Brummelman, 1)  The parent should not force any decision on the child just based on their shortcoming on unfulfilled dreams. If the child had no interest in the carrier that they esteemed of choosing, it would be extremely unfair to force the child. If there is no freedom of choice, the child will suffer the consequences of the unjust decisions of the parents. The child must be given the liberty to choose freely from their perspective. They must be at least be discussed to have an understanding of their mind and choices.

Children are often under an immense amount of pressure regarding academics, and if the child is left alone in that regard, it becomes difficult for them to choose both. Hence, parents should take out some time to help the children with Academic choices. J.T. O’Donnell in an article writes “College graduates feel so much pressure these days to build an amazing career straight out of school.If they aren’t setting the world on fire with their greatness, then they are convinced something is wrong with them.” (O’Donnell, 2) In terms of choosing a major subject and opting in terms of both their interest, capabilities. It will build trust in them, as well. Parents who actively participate in the child’s education tend to realize their potential and understanding towards a particular subject.

Parents tend to have an understanding of strengths of their children. Prof. Lea Waters from Melbourne Graduate School of Education, refers to the importance of strength bases parenting. “Strength-based parenting is an approach where parents deliberately identify and cultivate positive states, processes and qualities in their children. It’s about connecting your kids with their inborn strengths such as strengths of character (eg. humor, kindness) as well as their talents such as writing or sporting ability.(Waters, 1) These strengths are the inner resources contained within our kids that help boost their life satisfaction. ” While children don’t know anything about the corporate world, parents understand the importance of children working on the studies that they have strengths in. They can guide them regarding the emerging roles and professions? What are the newly highest paying jobs? In some cases, children might go for such careers that are not worth paying.

So Parents can act the best guide to let him opt for his career after checking their child’s potential as well as the current job market scenarios. As per the findings of Prof. Lea Waters, research shows that children and teenagers who have strength-based parents: Have higher levels of life satisfaction, Have a better understanding of their own strengths, Cope with conflict in more pro-active ways, Use their strengths to help them meet homework deadlines, Have lower levels of stress.. (Waters, 3)Hence, parents should respond proactively to educate children for the best available options. They can do it so by gradually making them aware of their future responsibilities as an adult. They should teach them the benefits of choosing the right careers but, at the same time, pursue their passions side by side throughout their life. If the child aims to pursue a passion, as it can become difficult to follow a passion while pursuing a different carrier, both being the same aids in helping the child excel. Career selection is the most crucial decision in any person’s whole life.

Their involvement lets them excel and prepare them for the beginning of their life to seek all the opportunities so that they can easily choose careers and make it their passion in the long run.Kathleen Cotton in her article writes about the effect of parent involvement in schools. “Is parent involvement a valuable, if largely untapped, resource for schools struggling to provide state-of-the -art instruction with diminishing funds–a way to instill pride and interest in schooling, increase student achievement, and enhance a sense of community and commitment? Or is it one more responsibility to add to overburdened teachers and administrators–or even a threat to the autonomy and professionalism of the schools?” (Cotton, 1) Students, with this participation grow in confidence and become successful. Parents that carefully observe their child’s capabilities and their deep curiosities in the things they like the most. Being an adult and experienced parents are capable of analyzing a child’s passion and the best suitable job roles in accordance. Parents being passive at this predicament can negatively impact the child and also make them think as if the parent is not much interested in my choices.

Parents that ignore their children end up ruining their academic carriers. While others let them make their decisions on their own and not help them to choose the best ones. So that they can learn from their own experiences. Kendra cherry in an article describes about the effects of uninvolved parenting. “The children of uninvolved parents generally perform poorly in nearly every area of life. These children tend to display deficits in cognition, attachment, emotional skills, and social skills. Due to the lack of emotional responsiveness and love from their caretakers, children raised by uninvolved parents may have difficulty forming attachments later in life. (Cherry, 3)

It gives them a sense of protection that whatever they want, their parents will not punish them for making the wrong decision. It will make them more confident in making the right decisions in the future and will learn from there past mistakes. Just because the elder brother or parent chose a line of study isn’t reason enough for the child to make that decision as well. Studies have proved that people who tend to choose professions they love and are passionate about are more confident, Successful, and dedicated in their fields. As per the study conducted byABIGAIL BEALL from daily mail, Nurses’ daughters are more likely to follow in their parents’ footsteps, Scientist fathers have scientist daughters at 3.9 above the overall rate, Mothers who work in law are more likely to have sons with legal careers Twins had the biggest tendency to choose the same occupation, at 24.7% (BEALL, 2) Not letting a child excel as per their own passion is cruel. Choosing a career, according to passion, makes the individual feel free of stress and burden. It gives a sense of empowerment and personal freedom. Due to which that person does not bound to do the duties that he doesn’t really like at all.

Children that are gifted, their parents can guide them side by side, they won’t have to face the pressures of making tough choices alone in such predicaments. Some children are sensitive and are less confident in making the more significant decisions of their lives. As per a study Parents of gifted children are typically the single most important influence in their child’s development, outlook, and fulfillment of talent. In addition to being their child’s primary caregivers, parents of gifted children alternately function as “mentor,” “praiser,” “disciplinarian,” “playmate,” “teacher,” and sometimes “best friend”—to name just a few. Parents are truly the guardians and nurturers of their children’s talents. (Alvino, 1)Parents that tend to see that gift in their children and be their biggest support can help the child excel immensely.

It can be concluded that parents can be the best model in preparing their children more confident and build their personalities strong enough to face the demanding situations of their life bravely. Parents should always be supportive, encouraging, and backing their children in each phase of their life. It will make them self-sufficient. Choosing the right career is still a very confusing and risk-taking decision for some people with different career interests. It still confuses people that they are going for the right choice. Just because it’s their passion without knowing that it might not be the best career option in the long run. So Parents can act the best guide to let him opt for his career after checking their child’s potential as well as the current job market scenarios.

Similarly, there are a lot of more significant decisions that every individual has to make for himself during the different phases of their life Parents can aid children in improving their decision-making skills by guiding them to choose the most suitable major leading to a carrier. Career decisions can either make a person’s life or entirely ruin it forever. Hence parents can help and support children in making the right decisions at the beginning. This will gradually build their confidence in making the more significant decisions of their life on their own when there is no one to guide them.

Works Cited

 

Alvino, James. Considerations and Strategies for Parenting the Gifted Child . 1995. https://nrcgt.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/953/2015/03/rm95218.pdf. 10 4 2020.

BEALL, ABIGAIL. Taking over the family business: Children tend to make career choices based on what jobs their parents and siblings have. 3 2016. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3504404/Taking-family-business-Children-tend-make-career-choices-based-jobs-parents-siblings-have.html. 10 4 2020.

Brummelman, Eddie. My Child Redeems My Broken Dreams: On Parents Transferring Their Unfulfilled Ambitions onto Their Child. 2013. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0065360. 10 4 2020.

Cherry, Kendra. Uninvolved Parenting. 17 7 2019. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-uninvolved-parenting-2794958. 17 4 2020.

Cotton, Kathleen. “Parent Involvement in Education.” (1989). http://multiculturaleducole.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/55317746/ParentInvolvementiEducation.pdf.

Crozier, Gill. Parental involvement: Who wants it? 2011 https://www.tandfonline.com. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09620219900200045. 17 4 2020.

Fizer, Darren. Factors Affecting Career Choices of College Students Enrolled in Agriculture. 2013. https://www.utm.edu/departments/msanr/_pdfs/Fizer_Research_Project_Final.pdf. 10 4 2020.

HU, WINNIE. Forced to Pick a Major in High School. 2007. http://www.csun.edu/pubrels/clips/Aug07/08-16-07H.pdf. 6 4 2020.

Kohn, Alfie. Choices for Children. 1993. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ470490. 9 4 2020.

Lyness, D’Arcy. Your Child’s Self-Esteem. 2020. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/self-esteem.html. 10 4 2020.

O’Donnell, J.T. 3 Ways Parents Can Help Their Kids Avoid a Post-Graduation Career Meltdown. 26 3 2019. https://www.inc.com/jt-odonnell/3-ways-parents-can-help-their-kids-avoid-a-post-graduation-career-meltdown.html. 17 4 2020.

Page, Beverly A. “A parents’ guide to understanding the behavior of gifted children.” (2010): 39-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783198309552725.

qualifax. The Parent’s Role in Career Selection. 2020. https://www.qualifax.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=179&Itemid=207. 9 4 2020.

Sandler, Howard M. “Why Do Parents Become Involved in Their Children’s Education?” https://journals.sagepub.com (1997). https://doi.org/10.3102%2F00346543067001003.

waterford.org. How Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success. 1q 2018. https://www.waterford.org/education/how-parent-involvment-leads-to-student-success/. 10 4 2020.

Waters, Lea. THE VALUE OF STRENGTH-BASED PARENTING. 2016. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ367a My research shows that children and teenagers who have strength-based parents:916. 10 4 2020.

 

No bold necessary.  Also, Major isn’t plural and does not contain a possessive ‘s [ME1]

 

You can simply call it an essay or paper, not a study. [ME2]

 

 

Need to directly quote your source and provide analysis.  [ME3]

 

This isn’t cited correctly and needs a direct quote. [ME4]

 

Who is this?  Also, do not begin with a quote but with your own idea.   [ME5]

 

Who is this?  Also, do not begin with a quote but with your own idea.   [ME6]

 

Topic sentences are needed before you bring in a source.  Also, are you paraphrasing the entire paragraph?  Why the author name and parenthesis at the end?   [ME7]

 

Who is this and what is their expertise?  What article did you get the quote from?  This all needs to be clear for the reader. [ME8]

 

 

Why is this an element in your essay and not typed by you?  Did you cut and paste this from somewhere else?  Confusing. [ME9]

 

Problems of Children Being Abused

Differentiation in Teaching a critical appraisal of the literature

 

A Critical evaluation for an organization to have one common recruitment and selection strategy which HR practitioners believe will be the challenges for the recruitment and selection of workers from Europe, considering the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Pages:

Introduction

            The dynamic rise in the trends and practices of globalization and internationalism in the past few decades has yielded a great number of benefits and advantages to the business organizations and companies around the globe. It has equipped them with the tools and resources required to not only strengthen their businesses in the local markets, but it has also enabled them to explore and expand their business activities to markets which had previously been impenetrable. The practices of globalization have eliminated the limitations imposed by geographical borders and barriers and have opened new opportunities and avenues for the business community in a similar fashion as it has done for the rest of the world.

Firstly, the essay looks at the concept of expatriation and its role in the growth of multinational organizations in the modern world. Secondly, it evaluates the framework of international human resource management presented by Perlmutter (1969) and analyzes the impact of ethnocentrism on the progress of modern day business organizations. Thirdly, it presents some of the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing an expatriation strategy for multinational corporations and provides the example of Coca Cola, which utilizes expat managers for its multinational business operations. Lastly, the essay looks at some of the challenges and implications for human resource practitioners posed by Brexit as they attempt to develop a common and an effective recruitment and selection strategy.

Expatriation

Siljanen and Lämsä (2009) suggest that “expatriation in the traditional sense refers to individuals working in subsidiary offices of multinational enterprises in different parts of the world.” The concept of expatriation in multinational enterprises also falls in line with the ethnocentric approach to recruitment put forward by Perlmutter (1969). His ethnocentric approach to staffing argues for the recruitment and selection of managers of the same nationality as the parent organization. The development of a recruitment strategy involving the processes of expatriation is, therefore, central to the ethnocentric approach to recruitment and selection.

Minbaeva and Michailova (2004), through their research work on the topic, argue that the multinational business organizations and their managerial leaderships rely heavily on the practices of expatriation in order to conduct their business operations and activities in subsidiary offices in an effective and efficient manner(Minbaeva and Michailova, 2004). They also suggest that “the primary goal of expatriation was explicit and well-defined control and coordination: by relocating expatriates, parent organizations have been able to exert control and achieve global integration across subsidiaries” (Minbaeva and Michailova, 2004).

However, given the developments and the evolutions that have characterized global business operations and strategies over the past few decades, the nature of expatriate assignments and projects has also changed(Harzing, 2001). The expatriate employees and managers today are not only expected to maintain organizational control within the subsidiary offices of the company, but they are also expected to develop the local talent within the subsidiary units in accordance with the company’s vision and to support the effective transfer of skill and knowledge from the organizational headquarters to the local offices. (Harris et al., 2003)

 

Perlmutter’s Typologies and Ethnocentrism

            The work of Perlmutter (1969) is considered by many to be fundamental in the domain of human resource management practices in order to effectively deal with the evolving relationships and dynamics that exist between a corporate headquarter and its subsidiaries (Minbaeva and Michailova, 2004). The EPRG model of human resource management presented by Perlmutter is considered to be a significant tool in order to understand the relationship between the headquarter of a multinational company and its subsidiary offices situated in foreign counties. The EPRG framework involves four basic principles namely ethnocentrism, polycentrism, regio-centrism, and geo-centrism(Onodugo et al., 2017).

The Polycentric approach to recruitment revolves around the idea that multinational corporations restrict their hiring practices for subsidiary offices by only recruiting management native to the country in which the foreign office operates. The polycentric approach allows for the organization to understand the local cultures, business practices, and other dynamics that influence market operations in a more effective and efficient manner(Lakshman et al., 2017). The regio-centric approach to hiring, on the other hand, focuses on the recruitment and selection of managers and employees from countries in which the organization operates. Similarly, the geocentric approach to recruitment and selection in multinational organizations refers to the hiring of the best and the most skillful employee irrespective of the nationality that he may belong to. The geocentric approach enables the company to fill its organizational ranks with the most suitable managers that can take the company forward. (COLLINGS and SCULLION, 2006)

The ethnocentric approach to human resource recruitment and selection focuses on the deployment of managers from the organization’s headquarters to its subsidiary offices. The ethnocentric approach calls for the recruitment and selection of subsidiary management that is essentially of the same nationality as the location of the parent company. Banai (1992) argues that the “general rationale behind the ethnocentric approach is that the staff from the parent country would represent the interests of the headquarters effectively and link well with the parent country”(Banai, 1992). The ethnocentric approach to recruitment and selection generally involves four primary stages, namely self-selection, the creation of a candidate pool, capabilities assessment, and identifying the most suitable candidate for the foreign role. (Michailova et al., 2017)

The ethnocentric, polycentric, geocentric, and regiocentric approaches to international staffing can be utilized solely or in combination with one another depending on the workforce requirement and the nature of the international job responsibility(Isiaka et al., 2016). The selection of the best possible hiring approach for multinational business operations is influenced by range of factors and dynamics including monetary resources, time constraints, immigration procedures, sensitivity of the foreign job, impact of culture and language etc. The managerial leadership of multinational enterprises should, therefore, critically evaluate and analyze such factors associated with international hiring before deciding on a common recruitment and selection policy for its subsidiary offices. (Thoo and Kaliannan, 2013)

 

Merits and Demerits of Using Expats

            Using expatriate employees and managers for foreign and subsidiary offices and divisions is one of the most common human resource and management practices used by the multinational organizations today. There are many merits and advantages of deploying expatriate employees and managers in subsidiary divisions that the organizations can exploit in their bid to strengthen and expand its business operations and activities. Firstly, it allows the managerial leadership of the organization to maintain their control over the business activities and operations of the subsidiaries(Yamin and Andersson, 2011). Secondly, it keeps the strategies and practices of the subsidiary employees in line with the strategic goals and objectives that the organizational headquarters has set and, ultimately, helps them in achieving such goals in an effective and efficient manner. Lastly, the usage of employees as expatriates enables the organization to transfer essential knowledge and skills to subsidiary offices. It also allows the management to instill and cultivate a culture of leadership within its foreign offices in order to foster leadership and managerial qualities amongst the employees of the subsidiaries. This, in turn, enables the organization to not only prepare managerial leaders for the future, but it also helps in the retention of the best employees (Harzing, 2001).

However, there are certain demerits and disadvantages that are also associated with the deployment of expat employees and managers in subsidiary offices. One of the primary disadvantages of using expatriate employees in subsidiaries is creating a culture of control and centralization. Expatriate managers are most commonly used to exercise and maintain control of the subsidiary and foreign business operations and activities. Hence, it can develop a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction within the workers of the subsidiary offices if they believe that expat managers restrict their freedom and workplace independence. Another disadvantage of having expat employees and managers is related to the costs of implementing such strategies(Gabriela, 2013). The procedure of sending expat employees and managers to foreign offices can be very costly and time consuming for the organization as immigration and residential processes tend to be both lengthy and expensive. It is also evident from research surrounding the topic that expat employees are prone to high burn out rates. Due to demanding nature of expat assignments and lack of knowledge of local cultures, expats are generally called back earlier than the life of the project. This can be regarded as another substantial disadvantage of using expat employees(Bossard and Peterson, 2005).

 

Coca Cola, Expats, and International HRM

            The Coca Cola Company is one of the leading multinational organizations in the world that utilize the strategy of deploying expat employees and managers to its foreign offices in a bid to manage business operations and activities in an effective and productive manner. The cola giant is present in nearly every corner of the world and sends expat managers to conduct its business operations effectively. The same is the case of Coca Cola UK which operates as the European headquarters of the multinational giant. Coca Cola UK generally sends its UK managers on expat assignments to its European subsidiary offices, but its approach is not ethnocentrism only as the company also utilizes polycentric and geocentric approaches depending on the workforce requirements. The company deploys expat employees to foreign offices primarily due either a lack of domestically available talent or a lack of appropriate experience amongst the managerial leadership within the subsidiary office in consideration(Baruch et al., 2002).

The selection of the right employee for the expatriation assignment also depends on a number of factors and dynamics. The nature of the expat project plays a critical role in the process of evaluation and selection. Similarly, the time limitations and monetary constraints are also critical in order to undertake such a decision. The cross-cultural suitability of the expat manager is, arguably, the most significant factor in the process as the success or failure of the project substantially depends on how well the expat manager is able to connect with the employees in the foreign office(Harvey and Moeller, 2009).

 

The Brexit Challenge

The issue of United Kingdom’s ongoing departure from the European Union (EU) is one of the most significant challenges for multinationals having business operations and offices both within the UK and in any other EU member countries. Brexit poses a number of different yet complex challenges and problems for the human resource practitioners of such multinational enterprises and severely impacts the recruitment and selection strategies that such organizations adopt. The managerial leadership, along with the human resource experts, of such entities have to address the issues and challenges created by Brexit in an effective and efficient manner in order to maintain the effectiveness of their recruitment and selection processes, so thatthe company maintains its growth and progress(Elliott and Stewart, 2017).

The most fundamental challenge that Brexit poses for the recruitment and selection strategy of a multinational enterprise is the issue immigration. The rules and regulations regarding the immigration of workers to and from other EU member countries are bound to change. It can severelyimpact the operational activities of the multinational enterprises as many expat employees and managers will have to obtain documentations in accordance with the new laws post Brexit. Another significant concern for the multinational companies is the retention of its existing workforce. The current organizational workforce might be comprised of employees belonging to other EU nationalities and their retention after Brexit becomes a major concern for the multinational organizations. If the human resource practitioners do not act effectively, the companies are at risk of not only losing potential best performing employees but then also face a significant challenge in filling vacant positions due to a shortage of talent caused by lack of foreign workers(Teague and Donaghey, 2018).

 

Conclusion

            It can be concluded that a common recruitment and selection strategy can be developed to an extent for a multinational company with business operations in UK and France through the utilization of one or a combination of international staffing approaches discussed. The example of Coca Cola UK suggests that, when used properly, expat employees and managers can unlock several avenues of growth and progress for the company. The issue of Brexit, however, is a significant challenge that needs to be tackled effectively so that the multinational organizations can gain the most out of efficient recruitment and selection processes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Banai, M., 1992. The ethnocentric staffing policy in multinational corporations a self-fulfilling prophecy. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 3, 451–472.

Baruch, Y., Steele, D.J., Quantrill, G.A., 2002. Management of expatriation and repatriation for novice global player. Int. J. Manpow.

Bossard, A.B., Peterson, R.B., 2005. The repatriate experience as seen by American expatriates. J. World Bus. 40, 9–28.

COLLINGS, D.G., SCULLION, H., 2006. Approaches to international staffing, in: Global Staffing. Routledge, pp. 33–54.

Elliott, C., Stewart, J., 2017. What are the (C) HRD implications of Brexit? A personal reflection? Taylor & Francis.

Gabriela, S.C., 2013. Expat-a Challenge for Employers. Ovidius Univ. Ann. Ser. Econ. Sci. 13.

Harris, H., Brewster, C., Sparrow, P., 2003. International human resource management. CIPD Publishing.

Harvey, M., Moeller, M., 2009. Expatriate mangers: A historical review. Int. J. Manag. Rev. 11, 275–296.

Harzing, A.-W., 2001. Of bears, bumble-bees, and spiders: The role of expatriates in controlling foreign subsidiaries. J. World Bus. 36, 366–379.

Isiaka, S.B., Aliyu, M.O., Abogunrin, A.P., Aremu, N.S., Abdullah, A.S., 2016. A Conceptual Analysis of Global Human Resource Practices: Challenges and Prosp. Covenant J. Bus. Soc. Sci. 7.

Lakshman, S., Lakshman, C., Estay, C., 2017. The relationship between MNCs’ strategies and executive staffing. Int. J. Organ. Anal.

Michailova, S., Piekkari, R., Storgaard, M., Tienari, J., 2017. Rethinking ethnocentrism in international business research. Glob. Strategy J. 7, 335–353.

Minbaeva, D.B., Michailova, S., 2004. Knowledge transfer and expatriation in multinational corporations: The role of disseminative capacity. Empl. Relat. 26, 663–679. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450410562236

Onodugo, V.A., Adeleke, B.S., Ike, R.N., 2017. Ethnocentric Behaviour and Business Performance of Multinational Enterprises (MNES): Evidence From South-West Nigeria. Int. J. Adv. Eng. Manag. Sci. 3, 98–106. https://doi.org/10.24001/ijaems.3.2.17

Perlmutter, H., 1969. The tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation. ColumbiaJournal of World Business, 4, 9-18. Perlmutter94Columbia J. World Business1969.

Siljanen, T., Lämsä, A.-M., 2009. The changing nature of expatriation: exploring cross-cultural adaptation through narrativity. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 20, 1468–1486. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190902983298

Teague, P., Donaghey, J., 2018. Brexit: EU social policy and the UK employment model. Ind. Relat. J. 49, 512–533.

Thoo, L., Kaliannan, M., 2013. International HR Assignment in Recruiting and Selecting: Challenges, Failures and Best Practices. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Stud. 3, 143.

Yamin, M., Andersson, U., 2011. Subsidiary importance in the MNC: What role does internal embeddedness play? Int. Bus. Rev. 20, 151–162.

 

Philosophy Essay

Pages:5

ESSAY OUTLINE

  1. Introduction
  1. Introductory statement : God is Omnipotent and Wholly Good; His Creation of a world of contrast is as a result of His causal laws
  2. Thesis: God could have made people both free and incapable of wrongdoing.
    1. Body
  3. Mackie’s views regarding the cause of evil
  4. Freedom of free will from God
  5. Levels of evil
  6. Mackie’s views as a series of questions; Paradoxes and Dilemmas
  7. God’s choices and Men’s choices
  8. Van Inwagen’s views
  9. The world consists of dire evils
  10. God should have the ability to rid the world from these evils.
  11. Plantinga’s Free Will defense and Inwagen’s assertions
  12. Inwagen asserts that God does not exist
  13. Argument put forth by FWD that a perfect world can’t be real.
  14. Van Inwagen’s states reasons and explanations
  15. God does exist but He must have reasons to let evil happen
  16. His reasons are unknown
    • Conclusion
  • Inwagen clarifies Mackie’s concepts and provides an insight to the dilemmas posed by him and states reasons therein.

Essay

God could have made people both free and incapable of wrongdoing. Summarize and assess both Mackie’s and Van Inwagen’s views on this point. Does Van Inwagen help you understand Mackie? Does he adequately reply to Mackie? What would Mackie say to the usual believer’s idea that God is like a parent who lets children make their own mistakes.

God is considered to be an entity that is wholly amalgamated with goodness, benevolence, and mercy. He is considered to be an omnipotent being whose abilities are limitless, He can do what he wants, but His purpose, as analyzed by philosophers and theists is that of promoting goodness, rather than eradicating evil entirely from the world. However, God did create a contrasting world, whereby good and wrongdoing co-exist, and one’s existence complements the existence of the other. Similarly, evil has to exist as a counterpart to good which implies that if there were no wrong in the world, there could be no good either, that a world free of wrongdoing would be nothing but a false illusion that can only exist in one’s mind, because God has formulated causal laws that, upon analysis, prove that contrast enhances the beauty and therefore, a universe having both good and evil is better than one that is free of evil. (Feinburg,2015)

Regarding the cause of sin, famous Australian philosopher J.L Mackie is of the view that crime and iniquity exist because of the endowment of freedom of free will from God to human beings who are flawed and independent beings, and their actions reflect likewise. Hence, the existence of evil should not directly be attributed to God, because there are levels of evil, at the first level, sin is justified as an imperative component in goodness at the second level; however, evil at the second level is not justified but is still attributed to human beings, and as a result, God is absolved from the responsibility. If God being omnipotent and the epitome of goodness in His entirety did not create men such that they should be “innocent automata,” act right under all circumstances and not commit any act of wrongdoing whatsoever,  this rightfully argues that it is better for men to act freely, even if that means making mistakes. This makes freedom to be treated as goodness on the third level, higher than the preceding levels, which makes it more precious, and therefore, it is accompanied by its counterpart, the second-order evil.

Moreover, Mackie also puts forth the question that if God made men such that in their free choices they sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they always freely choose the good? This question then brings to light the feature of choice, a choice that God made, to not create the world such that no evil existed in it. The actions and subsequent choices made by men can be free only if it is assumed that they cannot be predicted by their traits that God created.  This ultimately leads to paradoxical claims regarding freedom and poses several questions regarding the random nature and credibility of freedom as a higher-order good. Mackie demonstrates his views, hence, as a series of paradoxes and dilemmas where there is no right answer to the numerous questions that arise from God’s omnipotence and His preference of making the world and humans prone to evil when He is assumed to have both elimination and creation powers.
Nevertheless, Notre Dame, Professor Peter Van Inwagen believes that the world consists of dire offenses, some of which are too ghastly to be spoken of, and if a God existed, He would do whatever it takes to wipe those off from the face of the world, but since we see no proof of that, Inwagen altogether negates the existence of God. In his opinion, omnipotence and moral perfection are attributes of God, and keeping in view these attributes; He should be able to create a world free and incapable of wrongdoing and sinful behavior. (Feinburg,2015)

This leads us further towards Plantinga’s Free Will Defense, which states the argument that it is intrinsically impossible to picture the world as ideal, and hence a morally perfect universe cannot be actualized. God, in fact, brings such a world in reality where moral imperfections exist, even if that implies that the existence of wrongful acts and the existence of God is compatible. (Pruss, 2012). Coming back to Inwagen’s views, God’s non-negotiable attributes mainly omnipotence and moral perfection are also further complemented by Him knowing about everything and another argument is established which states that God must be aware of the substantial evil that exists and assuming that He is, that should be sufficient for the argument that since He is morally perfect, he must want the world to be free of these evils. And His omnipotence should overcome every obstacle there is to eradicate these horrible wrongs. But yet we witness longlasting, terrible wrongs, leading us to another argument; God does not exist.
However, Peter Van Inwagen asserts also that God must have reasons to let evil happen, and these reasons are called theodicy. Theodicy can take another form too, defense, in that also the content is fairly similar, but there are real possibilities that must cater as reasons for God letting human beings do the sins that they do and not refrain them from wrongdoing, that may be due to freedom, or that may be due to Him having a greater good in mind which will only come about by allowing for these evils.  (Feinburg,2015)

In conclusion, I hereby affirm that Inwagen indeed aids in understanding the views of Mackie better, and He also offers an explanation to the arguments and paradoxical claims put forth by Mackie. His views must not be considered a reply to Mackie, rather a clarification of things in his views that posed as a dilemma to Mackie, as well as the rest of the world. I believe that Mackie left off at an incomplete stance, and Van Inwagen not only completed his sentences but also offered apt explanations of his reasons via the use of stories and analogies, like any philosopher would do. Mackie would probably agree to a usual believer’s idea of thinking of God as a parent who lets children make and learn from their own mistakes, predicting that a greater good will come out of the lessons they learn from this freedom of theirs in the long term.

References :

  • Sie M. (1998) Goodwill, Determinism and Justification. In: Bransen J., Cuypers S.E. (eds) Human Action, Deliberation and Causation. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 77. Springer, Dordrecht
  • God and the Ethics of Belief: New Essays in Philosophy of Religion, Andrew Chignell and Andrew Dole, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 77-98.
  • Russ, Alexander. “A Counterexample to Plantinga’s Free Will Defense – Volume 29, Issue 4, October 2012.” Faith and Philosophy, 4 Apr. 2020,
  • Feinberg, Joel, and Russ Shafer-Landau. Reason And Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy. Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2015.

Essay: idea of “fate”

 

Strategic Overview – European Aviation Industry

Pages:14

Executive Summary:

The report portrays a fundamental analysis of European Airline Industry with particular focus on Ryanair. Initially the report highlights the overview of European industry and demonstrates the key importance and highlights of the industry. After discussing industry overview, the report touches upon the introduction of Ryanair and carries out following analysis to strategically analyze the profitability and position of Ryanair.

The report used analytical tools like PESTLE, VRIO and Porter Five Forces analysis to recommend few useful strategies for Ryanair for the long term and sustainable profitability.

Introduction:

The main task of this report is to study the European Airline Industry and Ryanair to apply strategic and management concepts about Strategic Choice and Strategic Position. To assess the attractiveness of the European Airline industry, we would be using tools like Porter Five Forces Analysis to evaluate the competitive forces of the industry. We would also incorporate PESTEL analysis to do scenario analysis by which we would be able to judge the key opportunities and threats related to Ryanair. Moreover, VRIO analysis would also be used further to determine the capabilities and resources of the chosen airline.

The main target of this report would be to do the strategic analysis of the current position of Ryanair and suggest appropriate strategic choices for Ryanair.

Overview – Aviation Industry:

The aviation industry has never been as vital as it is in the current era; rapidly increasing interconnectedness among countries and growing levels of globalization have provided this industry a definitive boast. Global traffic of air travel passengers has increased by an average annual growth rate of 6.58% from 2010 to 2019, whereas the revenue of commercial airlines worldwide grew at a CAGR of 4.5% during the same tenure. Moreover, as per IATA, consumers are expected to spend around a total of $908 billion, amounting to approximately 1% of the total global GDP, on air travel in 2020. All of these statistics help us in understanding the current and future potential associated with the aviation industry.(IATA, 2019)

The aviation sector’s performance heavily relies on macroeconomic factors like GDP growth, level of personal income, and unemployment rate; any sluggishness in such factors can negatively impact the revenues of the sector. Furthermore, the dynamics of the aviation sector tend to vary from region to region. The European market is way different than that of the United States of America, where one key distinguishing factor between the two markets is “fragmentation.” Four airline groups control an 80% share of the total aviation market. In contrast, the European market is far more segregated, which results in fierce competition and a high level of rivalry among competing peers. Airliners in Europe are now taking robust and innovative measures like cost-cutting and utilization of technologies to remain competitive and sustainable in the current environment.(CAPA, 2019)

Moreover, in recent days, COVID 19 has severely damaged the revenue of the aviation industry; most of the Global, including several European airlines, is grounded as due to the ban on traveling. Amid such circumstances, Flybe has collapsed, and Norwegian Air stock has lost about 70% of its value in March 2020, with no end to the crisis in sight. Other key issues that are or will hinder the growth of the European aviation sector are geopolitical issues, slowing down of local economies, rise in the cost of maintenance, and increased rate of the cost of borrowing. (IATA, 2019)

As per the executive board of Lufthansa Group, the largest airline of Europe, the group has reduced its unit costs of operations for the fourth year in succession;

“2019 was another demanding year for the European airline industry. Slower economic growth worldwide, trade disputes, uncertainty surrounding Brexit, overcapacities the resulting price erosion also affected the performance of the Lufthansa Group.”

Overview – Ryanair:

Ryanair is one of the largest airline groups of Europe, which started in 1996 with just 12 aircraft; currently, the airline has more than 450 aircraft with around 19,000 aviation professionals. Ryanair also owns other small airlines like Lauda, Malta Air, Buzz, and Ryanair DAC.(Ryanair, 2019)

Ryanair claims to carry approximately 154 million passengers every yearfrom 82 different bases on more than 2,400 flights daily. The airline group travels over 200 destinations in 40 different countries. (Ryanair, 2019)

Competitive Forces Analysis (Porter Five Forces):

The intensity of Industry Rivalry:

Generally, the aviation industry is considered as one of the most competitive industries where the rivalry among the peers are very rigid. As it is challenging to differentiate the services from other competing peers, the airliners have to be very keen and determined to offer the best services at the most optimal prices. As mentioned in the overview paragraph, Lufthansa Group has successfully cut its operating cost per unit for the 4th consecutive year; such an attitude has to be a must if airliners want to survive and thrive in this throat, reducing competitive environment. Other aspects that make the aviation industry very high in the rivalry is negligible consumer switching cost, overcapacity, and high concentration. (Laurence Frost, 2020)

As a general rule, the more competitors, the more intense the rivalry; the European aviation industry is very highly fragmented with several large and small carriers. The population of the European Union is roughly 50% more than that of the United States of America, amounting to 500 million approximately. But in the USA there are just ten airlines which carry millions of passengers in a year. In contrast, the European aviation industry is quite splintered, having 20 airlines that are comparably equal in size.(Natasha Frost, 2019)

Due to a large number of aviation players, overcapacity is another factor that comes into play when considering industry rivalry. However, European airlines have understood this issue and are gradually slowing their pace of the growing number of seats. In 2019, the number of available seats increased by a mere 3.1%, the slowest since 2013, and lower than the ten-year CAGR (2009 to 2019) of 4.5%. (CAPA, 2019)

The threat of Potential Entrants:

The risk of potential new entrants is generally considered low in the aviation sector amid its requirement of significant capital, regulatory issues, need of highly technical staff, and the cost advantage to large players due to economies of scale.

Establishing an airline from scratch and entering into a market that is already highly fragmented with players that have deep pockets is a tough task. However, airliners these days have opted lease and rental model instead of purchasing aircraft, still, the initial amount of capital required is staggering. Amid high risks attached to the aviation sector, the cost of raising money is also higher than the average lending rates. As per the financial statements of the Lufthansa group, the weighted average cost of capital in 2019 was 4.2%; even though Lufthansa is one of the biggest names of the aviation sector, its cost of capital is higher than the standard lending rates.

Other hindrances in entering the aviation sector are acquiring the licenses and fulfilling other regulatory requirements, which can be time and capital consuming. Recruiting and retaining technical aviation professionals in a highly competitive industry is another key hurdle. Finally, airline groups gain from economies of scale, and so players who have bigger fleets are advantageous over players who are small in comparison.

All of the above-discussed factors make entering into the aviation industry difficult, which means high barriers to entry.

Bargaining Power of Buyers:

Considering the aspects that the aviation industry is highly splintered, service is homogeneous, several substitutes are available (number of airlines), the negligible switching cost for consumers and a large number of frequent air travelers are very price sensitive; this makes us conclude that the bargaining power of buyers is substantially high.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

Suppliers of the aviation industry can be segregated in few categories like; suppliers of aircraft and providers of maintenance services (giants like Airbus and Boeing), fuel suppliers, catering suppliers, and hoteliers who rent out their rooms to the transit passengers and aircraft operators.

Bargaining power of suppliers that supply aircraft, their parts, and maintenance services to the aviation industry is robustly secure as the number of such suppliers is quite concentrated. Amid such circumstances, several large airliners are investing heavily in research and development and trying to move towards backward integrations.

The bargaining powers of other suppliers, like fuel, catering, and hotel rooms, are not that strong.

The Threat of Substitutes:

The aviation industry on an industry level doesn’t face any risk of substitutes; however, the substantial threat of substitutes exist when talking at a level of the company. As mentioned previously, the homogeneous nature of service, no cost of switching from one company to another for consumers, a large number of players, and intense competitive rivalry enlarge the threat of substitute of the airline groups.

It matters a great deal these days that how an airliner can differentiate itself from the other competing players, and if we analyze carefully, we can see notable attributes on which a plane can differentiate itself from other players.

PESTLE Analysis

Political:

Being an international airline, it is of crucial importance that airline keeps its harmony with the political forces of the region where it travels. Political factors play a very fundamental role in the profitability of any airline; moreover, who successful an airline is in making its revenue sustainable heavily relies on its political linkages. Several political threats can hinder the growth of Ryanair and damage profitability.(Ryanair, 2019)(Laurence Frost, 2020)
Increase in taxes: If the government decides to increase the taxes on air travel, it will negatively impact the profitability of Ryanair. People will lessen their air travel and would prefer to use other means of local travel like buses and trains. What Ryanair can do is to anticipate any such hike in the tax rate beforehand and make strategies to deal with such an increase in taxes.(Ryanair, 2019)(Natasha Frost, 2019)
BREXIT: Another key challenge faced by all European airlines, including Ryanair, is of BREXIT. Ryanair is a persistent traveler in Europe, and flying to and from England is a prevalent and profitable route. However, till now, no objection or ruling putting restrictions or ban on crossing the air space of England has been coming out, but still, it remains a threat. Ryanair should envisage new destinations and shouldn’t be dependent on just a single goal. (Ryanair, 2019)

Fuel Cost: One of the main operating expenses for all airline groups is off fuel, which highly depends on the geopolitical environment of the world. Any heat up among key oil players like Saudi Arab, Russian, Iran, or USA can shoot up the prices of crude oil. However, it is so challenging to hedge such risk, Ryanair should strategize the usages of derivatives to minimize the risk and should also focus on increasing the fuel storage.

Economical:

A macroeconomic indicator such as interest, inflation rates, GDP growth rate can have a straightforward impact on the performance of the airline sector. During the financial crisis of 2009, several airlines went into severe losses. Slow growth in the economy of the region can severely harm the business of the airline. Sluggish growth of GDP can give rise to unemployment and lower the income level, which can result in lower revenue as people will give up business and leisure traveling.(Sean D.Barrett, 2014)

Another critical impact of the economy on the financial health of Ryanair could be of the weakening of Euro in which the company maintains its books. (Natasha Frost, 2019)

Social:

The current era has been dominated by millennials who are obsessed with traveling. Such demographic changes can have a positive impact on the revenues of Ryanair. However, to take complete advantage of such demographic and social changes, Ryanair should focus on what these millennials want. The management should focus on their likes and dislikes and should introduce customized services for the younger generation.(CAPA, 2019)

Technological:

Technology has been rapidly changing the travel and logistics industry. If we analyze the taxi industry, now it is being ruled by tech giants like Uber and Lyft. Tech gurus are predicting that such massive innovations can also disrupt the airline industry. To be relevant and sustainable in this era, Ryanair should embrace technological advances. It should allow secure booking systems through an app or mobile phone with quick and secure payments. (Laurence Frost, 2020)

Legal:

One of the critical challenges faced by European Airlines currently is off dealing with two regulatory bodies, the European Union and England. This will surely present a tough time for Ryanair. (Natasha Frost, 2019)

Environmental:

The world has started to worry about the carbon emissions and other pollutants been released by industries and automotive sectors. Airlines are also facing the heat as planes emit a little amount of carbon while traveling. To deal with these issues effectively, Ryanair should invest in research and development and improve its fuel efficiency, which will help in reducing carbon emissions. (CAPA, 2019)

Scenario Analysis

Case Scenario 1: Rising of regulatory issues after BREXIT

Brexit has happened now the decision remains pending that what changes would European airlines face in terms of regulations regarding air boundaries. Would there be new clauses or restrictions for the airlines entering the boundary of England or not. This issue can rise troubles for Ryanair and can hurt its profitability a England is one of the key destinations for Ryanair.

Case Scenario 2: Hike in the crude oil prices

As discussed in the PESTLE analysis, crude oil prices are highly dependent on geopolitical environment, any upheaval in the tension between key oil states like KSA, USA or Russia can push the oil prices up. If there is a hike in oil prices it can severely hurt the profit margins of Ryanair.

Case Scenario 3: Slow-down in the regional economy

As mentioned above, revenue of airline industry highly correlates with the performance of global and regional economies. Any sign of slow down or sluggishness can impact negatively on the profitability of Ryanair.

Case 4: More restrictions on Carbon Emission:

As the world has started to worry over the grave issue of global warming due to high emissions of carbon particles, it has raised new issues for global airline industry as one of the main sources of carbon emission is the burning of jet fuel. If such movement against the carbon emissions take pace, it can create problems for Ryanair which can result in low revenue.

 

VRIO Analysis:

 

Resources / Capabilities Value Rareness Inimitable Organization Competitive Advantage
Low operating costs Yes No No Yes Sustained/Above Normal
Global and Local Presence Yes Yes Yes Yes Sustained/Above Normal
Large Fleet Yes No No Yes Sustained/Normal
Strong Brand Portfolio Yes No Yes Yes Sustained/Above Normal

 

For VRIO analysis, five most essential and critical resources/capabilities have been picked, which are its ability to operate at low cost, widespread global and local presence, its large fleet, and robust portfolio of brands.

Low Operating Costs:

The fundamental reason behind the success of Ryanair is its ability to function at a little cost. This ability indeed provides value, but when it comes to rareness, it might not be the only airline to do so. There are several low cost operating airlines like Southwest or Airjet. However, it is not effortlessly perfect and the organization itself is very well organized to take advantage of this capability; hence it is a sustained competitive advantage. (Ryanair, 2019)(Paolo Malighettia Stefano Palearia Renato Redondib, 2009)(Thomas M. Box,, 2005)(Friedrich Gröteke and Wolfgang Kerber, 2016)

Global and Local Presence:

Ryanair enjoys a ubiquitous presence, both locally and globally. Such resources provide great value in terms of economies of scale, are also rare, and very hard to imitate. Moreover, the organization is very well poised to take full advantage of this resource. Hence it is a sustained competitive advantage. (Ryanair, 2019)

Large Fleet:

Another reason for how Ryanair has been so successful in providing low fare flights. A resource which indeed offers excellent value but isn’t rare as there are several airlines which have even larger fleets. Whereas the organization in itself is very well established to enjoy the benefits.(Alberta Giorgi e Luca Raffini, 2015)

Strong Brand Portfolio:

Ryanair is a parent group of few other aviation giants which provides an ultimate edge to its consumer preferences and competitive advantage. A strong brand portfolio, however, is not rare, but indeed it is hard to imitate, hence being a sustained competitive advantage of Ryanair.(John F.O’Connell, 2005)

Strategic Choices Ryanair should adopt to improve its chances of being persistently profitable:

 

After a thorough analysis of strategic position of Ryanair, we can recommend few strategies to the management to improve its chances of being persistently profitable:

  1. As it has been observed by our analysis that its key strength is that it is a very low cost operator, the airline should continue the trend and should invest more in research and development by which it can introduce other different ways to cut cost further ahead.
  2. Technology is taking over almost all industries; in order to remain profitable and sustainable the Ryanair should focus on new technological advances and embrace new innovation by which it can make it further easier for the travelers to travel and book flight tickets.
  3. Try to be more environment friendly by investing in new planes which have better fuel efficiencies.
  4. Build good relationships with regulators and institutions.

 Bibliography

Alberta Giorgi e Luca Raffini, 2015. Love and Ryanair : academic researchers’ mobility. Mobilidade Científica & Imigração Qualificada.

CAPA, 2019. European Airlines: 2020 outlook characterised by uncertainty. CAPA, 26 december.

Friedrich Gröteke and Wolfgang Kerber, 2016. The Case of Ryanair – EU State Aid Policy on the Wrong Runway. ORDO.

IATA, 2019. Annual Report 2019, s.l.: IATA.

IATA, 2019. ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY, s.l.: IATA.

John F.O’Connell, 2005. Passengers’ perceptions of low cost airlines and full service carriers: A case study involving Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines. Journal of Air Transport Management.

Laurence Frost, 2020. Coronavirus to drive European airline industry shakeout. Reuters, 19 March.

Natasha Frost, 2019. European airlines are confronting the same grim reality their US counterparts faced decades ago. Quartz, 6 November.

Paolo Malighettia Stefano Palearia Renato Redondib, 2009. Pricing strategies of low-cost airlines: The Ryanair case study. Journal of Air Transport Management.

Ryanair, 2019. Annual Report 2019, s.l.: Ryanair.

Sean D.Barrett, 2014. The sustainability of the Ryanair model. International Journal of Transport Management.

Thomas M. Box,, 2005. RYANAIR (2005): SUCCESSFUL LOW COST LEADERSHIP. JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY FOR CASE STUDIES.

The industrial pollution in china

Market Entry Strategy of Shell

Strategic Plan of Youvic Technologies

 

 

Managing Corporate Social Responsibility

Pages:5

In the first chapter, the author has discussed the basic concept of corporate social responsibility and its relation to an organization’s mission, stakeholders, and its culture. CSR is the deliberate actions that a firm applies as it follows its own mission and accomplishes its apparent compulsion to stakeholders, including staff, the environment, communities, and civilisation as a whole. Internal and external communication is essential for the CSR process. Numerouseconomicallyefficaciousfirms have been slated for making and causing environmental harms that their CSR programs address (e.g., Wad dock, 2007). CSR actions should not be proposed to misdirect open observations or shroud bad behaviours. Or maybe, the choice to grasp CSR is essentially perplexing and ought to be predicated on the information that it will help create and execute a sound hidden procedure. This present book’s procedure situated structure is grounded in a correspondence viewpoint that recognizes a partnership’s association with partners, culture, political frameworks, and financial frameworks. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

In the second chapter, the author describes and explains strategic CSR. When more prominent organizations incorporate CSR in their organizational plans and goals it becomes strategic CSR. Organizations can gain a competitive advantage using strategic CSR by minimizing wastes, reducing costs, producing organic food, which will ultimately help society satisfy their social concerns. There are 4motives & CSR alongside 2 dimensions of CSR. It is esteem driven, cause-oriented, stakeholder/ partner-driven, or delivered as per the desires. Hence, it can be concluded that it is vital while alongside other relevant conventional business targets. The CSR model is a ceaseless procedure that includes 5 phases. The principal arranges is Scanning and observing, second is leading developmental research, thirdly making the CSR activity, fourthly conveying the CSR activity, and in conclusion, directing assessment, and giving input. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

In the next chapter, the author has explained the whole CSR scanning and monitoring process. This is the first stage of the CSR model. Scanning is done from the environment to seek threats and opportunities. It causes the associations to occupy their attention on the rising social and ecological issues that could influence the CSR-related impressions of the association. In opposition to checking, observing includes evaluating responses to current CSR activities. Observing is a significantly more constrained methodology than checking in light of the fact that it is limited to winning CSR endeavours. Though, Scanning may distinguish a CSR related issue and rank it generally high as a worry. The two procedures ought to go with consistently to get a preferred position for the association. The stakeholders of the organization should be involved in the scanning and monitoring process. Regular analysis of the CSR issues conducted by the stakeholder committee would help them identify the specific CSR issues that need attention. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

The next step of the CSR model is Formative Research. The formative research analyses the CSR issues in detail which are selected from scanning and monitoring. It provides all the necessary information required for selecting the most important CSR concern and converting it into a CSR initiative. Not many organizations have the budget and time to deal with all the CSR concerns. Formative research helps management to take action quickly with all the essential info available. The expectations of stakeholders should be met while finalizing the CSR initiatives. This can be done by using two of the approaches that are expectation gap and alignment approaches. The gaps cannot be neglected as stakeholders can become offensive because CSR initiatives will not be aligned to societal concerns. Corporations are mostly interested in only those CSR concerns which will have a positive influence over the stakeholders and society. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

 

The next chapter discusses the formulation of CSR initiatives, decision making of the top management to shortlist and prioritize CSR concerns. This stage involves the mutual understanding of all the parties taking part in decision making. There can be a clash between the stakeholders due to their different interests and views on CSR which is a natural part of the final decision-making process. Stakeholder concerns should be taken due to three important characteristics. The first factor is stakeholder authority, second is the legality and third is a demand by the stakeholder. These are considered Salience factors. The management should figure out the financial cost and return on investment of the selected CSR initiative. The CSR objectives should be identified as the process of CSR initiative and its outcomes. The stakeholders should also create some assessment methods and standards to analyse the effectiveness of CSR objectives. Stakeholders’ involvement helps the corporation determine their impact on decision making and the effects of outcomes and CSR concerns affecting the Stakeholders. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

In the next part, after creating a CSR initiative is to present it to all the concerned stakeholders whether external or internal. The employees working inside the organization are the internal stakeholders. Whereas everyone who gets directly affected by the CSR initiative decision or have a mutual interest in the organization. Initially, the internal stakeholders should be informed about the CSR decision. They will help the organization in communicating the decision to the external stakeholders. To avoid any reaction from the internal or external stakeholders before the announcement of the CSR initiative decision, management should make a sound plan to deal with all the opposing acts. Ultimately the management should make a decision of communication method used to deliver and report the final CSR initiative decision. As stakeholders are interested in receiving an authentic report on CSR initiatives so that they can provide their feedback. Currently, there is no hard and fast rule for delivering CSR reports so organizations can provide the information according to their desire. But this step is crucial as it has a vital part for the whole strategic process. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

The next step is the process of evaluation based on which feedback is provided regarding the CSR initiative decision. The process of evaluation involves systematic procedures for the analysis of the CSR initiatives and the objectives being involved obtained or not. Management should not rely solely on stakeholder concerns but also take into consideration other factors as well. In some cases organizations focus on satisfying the stakeholder’s concerns only. To get a clear understanding of the results of CSR, the outcomes of the objectives should be analysed. It provides a translucent picture of the facts that how efficiently and to what extent CSR initiatives have served the concerns of the stakeholders or the organization. The results would help financial stakeholders get a clear understanding of the exact return on investment. In some cases, non-tangible benefits cannot be estimated after the implementation of CSR initiatives. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

In the last part of the book, the author has discussed are the problems and issues for fulfilling the CSR initiatives. Problems that arise and affect the CSR initiative can be dealt with easily by taking supportive managerial actions. The CSR initiatives are helping the society in several ways. The supervisors in any organization should do a profound thought process on every process of CSR initiative. There are several benefits of CSR initiatives and their implementation in the corporate sector. It helps to decrease child labour ratio and poverty, improve human rights, pursue social justice, and help people live healthier lives. Many organizations are working together on the same cause to create and implement effective CSR initiatives for the betterment of society. (Timothy Coombs, 2012)

References

 

Timothy Coombs, S. J. (2012). Managing corporate social responsibility : a communication approach. Wiley Online Library.

 

Debate on Corporate Social Responsibility Summary

 

FEELING PANICKED ABOUT YOUR ASSIGNMENT?

GET PROFESSIONAL HELP IN NO TIME

GET YOUR PAPER NOW
Our free essay samples can be used to generate ideas and to get aid in doing your reports. This service is for those students who are either busy or find difficulty writing reports.

Menu Links

USEFULL LINKS

  • Free Citation Generator
  • Free Online Plagiarism Checker
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Acceptable Use Policy

REACH US

  • +1 302 2022739
  • info@essaysupport.com
  • 23 Street, New York, NY 5500
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

Copyright © Essay Support – All Rights Reserved 2020 — Designed by IT Daftar

Crazy Offer!

25% off

on your first order

ORDER NOW