Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Essay

Born July 8, 1926 in Zurich, Switzerland Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was the oldest of triplets, Erika and Eva of Protestant Christian parents. In 1957 she graduated from the University of Zurich Medical School. She was induced in the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2007 and the recipient of twenty various honorary degrees throughout her career. She suffered two miscarriages, and eventually had a son, Kenneth, and a daughter, Barbara. In 1995 Kà ¼bler-Ross suffered a series of strokes which left her partially paralyzed on her left side. She died in 2004 of natural causes. Upon reading Kubler-Ross’ book, Questions and Answers On Death and Dying, I found that it is set up in a question and answer/advise format. The questions evolved from various formats, such as workshops, lectures and seminars. It is her belief that the process of dying or learning one has a terminal illness processes in five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. After reviewing my own experience with the passing of my son in 2000, I believe her hypothesis is correct. If more caregivers offered some type of this psychological counseling, many people could possibly deal with death and dying a little easier. During her work and volunteer missions, she found that many people, including families, and doctors, either avoided talking with the dying person or didn’t know what to say to them. By addressing this problem through seminars, lectures and books her hope was to familiarize family, care-givers and professionals with what dying people are thinking and feeling. By being familiar with some of the issues, denial of death would hopefully pass and the patients wouldn’t feel so alone in the dying process. It is noted in the book, that often times the terminally ill person doesn’t really want to talk about their impending death. The want to talk about â€Å"tomorrow†. What are the plans for tomorrow, what will the weather be tomorrow ~ indicating they still often hold a glimmer of hope for survival or an after-life. She often referred to death as â€Å"the  greatest mystery in science.† I would have to agree with this in certain situations. Although as human beings we know we will not live forever, we know some will pass away through terminal illness, some will die by accident ~ the mystery begins to enter when we question â€Å"When† and â€Å"Why†. Her lifelong dedication of helping the terminally ill, as well as their families and friends to deal with loss and death lives on through the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, established in her name in 2004. This foundation is volunteer based working mainly with the ideal Kubler-Ross established during her lifetime. The foundation presents options to dying people such as in-home nursing care so people can come to their final rest in a more comfortable environment often times with their family and clergy at their side. Kubler-Ross dedicated a large portion of her life volunteering for various entities. The first noted was at the age of 13 she volunteered to help Polish war victim at the beginning of World War II. This lead her to become active with the International Voluntary Service for Peace, which was also established shortly after World War II. This group currently has over 3000 voluntary projects worldwide. Kubler-Ross’ research, volunteerism and theories is her legacy to any and all facing death, including the patient, the families, the doctors and scholars. Reference 1) Elisabeth Kà ¼bler-Ross Foundation website 2) Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 07:49, Apr 28, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/elisabeth-kubler-ross-262762.

Physical Exercise Effect on Adolescents

Physical exercises is very important to the body of a normal human being as they have several benefits mainly for the aged people. Some researchers have examined how the human intelligence is affected by physical exercise. In the The executive function in human has been facilitated by the physical exercise. Although some exercises are very simple they are very important to our body because they can enhance our mental functions and development. Very many years ago during the time of the ancient Greeks there was a belief that the intelligent ability is highly affected by the physical exercise that a person takes. Evaluation of the relationship between the children intelligence and physical exercise has not been yet done (Kirkendall, 1986). From some researches that where done very recently, it was discovered that fitness is in terms of academic intelligence or achievements. In most cases the students who get very good grades in their exams are associated positively with physical exercises. According to the California department of education the kids who perform better in they academically are physically fit. Having daily physical exercises is very important will help a student to increase her reading skills, in mathematics subject and also in the science subjects. The time lost during the physical exercises doesn’t affect the performance of a student, but instead it helps boost their grade According to a meta-analysis that was done on 16 studies by the use of true experimental designs, there is a very great relationship between physical activity and the academic achievement of a student along a list of some measurements which include the intelligent quotient, the academic achievements memory and mathematics tests. The results after this study showed that all these categories are affected positively by physical activities except memory According to the finding, fitness may have a relationship with cognitive function. Fitness cannot provide any understanding of the mechanism by which the brain can be affected by aerobic fitness in kids. Participation in the physical activity by the children may be affected some factors like socioeconomic status and this make it very difficult to the influence of fitness. The importance of the research that was done recently was to determine and know more about hoe the brain function of the child is related to high or low fitness of children. As a person ages their mental acclivity is affected by physical exercises. Some experiments where done on animals and human. From the results out of the experiments, it was found that the number of exercises that a person does in several weeks’ changes the way the brain functions and this triggers cognition and behavior. As one is doing the physical exercises, there are some biological responses in both muscles and organs of a person and this changes the structure and the way the brain functions (Dishman et al. 2006). If physical exercise had the same impact on children like in the adults, their mental activity in education would be improved. People must be engaged in both physical and activities and aerobic fitness. This is because they are related to the p3 and the behavioral performance in adults. The adults who are always in physical and aerobic exercises have very great amplitude of the p3 and it is always have very fast latency. According to this finding, one can understand that the aerobic exercise may influence neuroelectric concomitants of attentiveness allocation of the working memory and the processing speed of a human being. In the highly fit people you can observe very fast and more accurate behaviors. According tot the results from the findings, the process which is involved in behavioral response in the human body has a great relationship with the aerobic exercise. When we compare the performance of the stimulus tasks between children and young adults, we are able to note a very big difference. The children have a lower performance of stimulus compared to that of the young adults. This is as a result of very complex as they include the maturation of the course of action concerned in operational memory and inhibitory function and the development of some regions in the brains. Research has been done on the P3 ad has resulted to the improvement of the brain and consequent cognitive processes in the children. There is very long p3 latency in preadolescent children Compared to the adults and this shows a very low speed in cognitive processing. The findings regarding the p3 are not very clear although the children indicate very high results or n defense in amplitude when compared to that of the adults. Cognition is a term that is used to describe several processes in the human brain which include working planning response and scheduling. After the analysis of the researches done, it is revealed that aerobic performance has an effect on the cognitive performance. The conclusion was that the level of fitness determines the volatility of ones brain and the link is very strong. Improved cognition in children is greatly related to the physical activity that they take. It doesn’t matter the type of exercise they take but the fact is that all of them affect the mental activity. The young children and young elementary are greatly affected by the physical activity that they always take. In order to increase your intelligence you can take very many physical activities but increasing your brain power will can for shifts in the way you live and think. When you take very regular physical exercises, you can be sure of getting increase of 10-15 of IQ points. This is very simply and it can easily fit in your daily activities and program.

Cultural Awarness on Venezuela Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cultural Awarness on Venezuela - Essay Example Apart from its stunning scenery, Venezuela moreover is abundant with natural wealth that the rest of the worldwide public is hurried to get at. Inappropriately latest bullying to the land-living, folks, and administration have overpowered the republic into close devastation (Duarte et al). Venezuelas countrywide populace is almost comparable to that of most other South American nations, with a blend of primary aboriginal inhabitants, a huge Spanish arrival, and noteworthy residents of African descent. There have also been distinguished Latin American and European immigrations in the past two epochs. Even with these diverse inhabitants, conversely, Venezuela has one of the greatest established state identities in the landmass. This state firmness is almost certainly due to dual factors: Venezuela has an enormously lesser fashionable manifestation of native groups to challenge the national solidity, and secondly up until the 1990s Venezuela boasted an unbelievably sturdy national budget. Venezuela has a federalist government, which comprises of policymaking, jurisdictive, and legal branches. The policymaking branch is led by a generally chosen president who remains in power for five years. The jurisdictive branch encompasses Congress that is separated into a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. The Chamber of Deputies mirrors the nations provincial picture, whereas the Senate comprises of two legislatures from every state and the capitals centralized locality. Venezuelas uppermost justice body is that of the Supreme Court, whose fellows are picked out by the legislative body of Assembly. The Venezuelan military contains an expected eighty thousand fellows alienated into the army, air force and navy. The country has by tradition upheld stumpy levels of security expenses, be an average of only 1.5 percent of its GDP. Venezuela has had enduring significant skirmishes with adjacent Colombia and Guyana, which further heightened in the 80s. From the time

Organizational Innovation and Change - Critical Thinking Mod 6 - Role Essay

Organizational Innovation and Change - Critical Thinking Mod 6 - Role of Vision at Mentor Graphics - Essay Example an organization and is able to achieve intrepid changes; it encourages assurance and trust and has emotional appeal to the elementary human requirements and desire. That is why it is important for an organization and the vision fail may cause organization failure thus must be formulated vigilantly and should be changed very cautiously as per requirement. At Mentor graphics vision was used as per requirement, the very first vision â€Å"Built something that people will buy† was not well thought and the others did not cover the actual need but were formulated as needed even forcefully somehow. According to Lussier and Achua (2009) a vision should be motivating; it should not only be economic but must express organization’s philosophy so that the customers may develop a personal connection with the organization. It actually weakened the company because right from the start the company was not clear about its future. Vision generation is similar to picture generation of excellence in business. Therefore, it cannot be successful unless future consideration is there. Whereas all the visions formulated by the company were based on the present situation of the organization. Vision is supposed to be dealt as a way of irrefutable situations (Scott, 1993). There is not only one but many visions formed by the company each falling in the failure category of different kind. In the broader terms the visions made were mostly inadequate. That means there walk was different from the talk, they were irrelevant, disconnected and little participating. Vision should deal with the better future and a different situation instead of following the present problem. The vision should have the relevant content, what is included in the vision should be given importance. The way it is used is the other issue. The context of the vision content should relate to each other. The way vision was introduced and changed at the company was not focusing on the upcoming growth but what was analyzed

Movie Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Movie Analysis - Research Paper Example The second boss that is Dr. Julia Harris played by Jennifer Aniston lacks openness in the sense that she is often shown as resorting to a traditional top down approach towards leadership with her assistant Dale. Julia, like Dave is also an in-conscientious in the sense that she does not hesitate from blackmailing Dale to clinch sexual favors. The third boss that is Bobby is a cocaine addict and an immoral son of Kurt’s late boss Jack. Bobby turns out to be an incompetent leader who though being in charge simply has no idea as of what one is supposed to do. Bobby is shown to be pathetically, emotionally unstable. In his self inflicted delusionary approach towards reality, Bobby considers himself to be a gift to women, intellect, and humor and to the life in general. In reality he is a huge disappointment to his late father and vehemently envious of Jack’s relationship with Kurt. The movie is a moving depiction of as to how big five personality dimensions give way to personalities with varied behavior patterns. In that context, the article Attraction to Employment Advertisements: Advertisement Wording and Personality Characteristics by Stevens and Szmerekovsky does stress the tendency of the employees to gravitate to such jobs as are in consonance with their personality dimensions (2010). This study demonstrated that individuals with a conscientious personality were more attracted towards employment advertisements which stressed conscientiousness. Similarly, individuals with an open mindset were found to have a predilection for employment advertisements that laid stress on openness as an essential job requirement. In the context of the movie, the three employees, Nick, Dale and Kurt unluckily found themselves in a work environment that was starkly contrary to their set of personality dimensions, thereby pushing them to try to eliminate their bosses. One other article, Personality and

Fairytail analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Fairytail analysis - Essay Example On the other hand, Cinderella does not cease doing good and being compassionate towards those who mistreat her. Finally, although she did not have fine linen like her sisters to attend the kings ball, her godmother comes to her aid and makes it happen. Later, she ends up being the beautiful princess that the king marries. Her good nature overrides the evil against her, and she ends up the most successful of all. Perraults ‘Cinderella’ is modest, depicting that humility uplifts the less fortunate and warning us through its moral that pride comes before a fall. In his story, Perrault exclusively illustrates humility and its consequences and what can consequently happen to the proud. Humility, compassion and kindness have been depicted throughout the story. Cinderella’s mother dies leaving her under the care of her evil step mother who continuously mistreats her. Her step sisters are no good either. Despite her circumstances, she at no time stops doing good. ‘The poor girl suffered silently, and never said a word to her father.’ She did all the house chores as her sisters adorned themselves; slept in the worst place while the rest enjoyed the luxury of well furnished rooms. None of these made her complain; instead, she kept all the pain to herself and not a single time did she stop carrying out her chores. Cinderella is not invited to the ball and has no quality linen to dress for the occasion; however, this does not stop her from helping her sisters choose the best dress for the occasion. She even goes ahead to make their hair in the best way possible. Perrault asserts, "She had exemplary ideas and marvelous advices on how they could fix their hair and dress appropriately" (Perrault). When the king throws a ball, her step sisters spend their entire time chatting about it and preparing themselves. They even make fun of her that she would be the laughing-stock if she appeared at the ball. Although they despise her,

Accounting research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Accounting - Research Paper Example Some researchers consider that some of the modern day accounting procedures such as receipts and ledgers were in practice during those periods but in a different way (King, 2006). Some scholars believe that writing originated from early inventory scripts at ancient warehouses more than twenty centuries ago. The idea that numerical calculating systems were in print language, does not surprise many archeologists and historians who continue to acknowledge that the version of human civilization entangles in the history of commerce (King, 2006). The details of the origin of monetary systems and commerce help in providing a historical description of the beginnings and advancement of accountancy, as commerce and accounting ran concurrently ever since their corresponding early development. It is for this reason that scholars often see accounting history as being inseparable from the history of business and finance (History of Accounting). This paper discusses the history of accounting from the early stages of recordings on clay tablets to present day generally accepted accounting principles. The paper highlights the major phases of accounting as well as the contribution of different governments and persons in the advancement of accounting systems. The double entry system of accounting originated in Assyrian, Chaldaean, and Sumerian civilizations at the home of the oldest commerce records. Financial strength of farmers coupled with increasing trading activities led to the expansion of businesses among communities residing in and around Mesopotamian valley. During this period, Babylonian became famous for the language of politics and business that spread to all the areas of Near East. Leaders held most domestic animals and land. They gave extensive importance to record-keeping practices. Accounting records were noted when sellers gave price quotations under authentication of an agreement (Chatfield, 1996). Accounting practices

Conceptual paper on marketing of your choice Research

Conceptual on marketing of your choice - Research Paper Example Sustainability is relative to the societal concept, which means that tourism resources must be under control to ensure an environment free from pollution. Besides, it focuses on depletion and must be applied appropriately in a way that benefit the future generation. With many concerns of environment, tourism industry has since adopted the concept of sustainability. As such, it has remained an important concept towards environmental sustainability. Mayon (2013), clarifies that there is a wide range of possibilities by, which the public spend holiday activities and leisure time. Touring and exploring the environment is one of the leisure activities that most people love. Whereas, some members of the public may decide to seek for the nature walk in the jungle far away from home, others may decide to utilize such an opportunity in luxurious hotels. Regardless of any form of leisure, precautions must be taken to ensure that its negative impacts to the environment are avoided. It has also been pointed out that tourism exert pressure to the environment around the destinations that are frequented by members of the public. In essence, a tour around coastal terrain causes an impact to the communities, especially around areas that are mostly dominated by visitors. In certain environments, hotels and lodges have been built taking up land that initially played an important host to both living organisms and the society that are also critical to the ecosystem. Besides, campsites and bone fire that are used as alternative accommodation to warm the environment during at night have also attributed to massive degradation of the environment. The above activities enhance the rate of landslides and depletion of water catchment areas. Eventually, the environment becomes even much more eroded when raw toxic wastes from restaurants are released into water bodies hence increasing the rate of

The Composer Benjamin Britten Essay Example for Free

The Composer Benjamin Britten Essay On November 22, 1913, the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of Music, was born a child who showed a great interest and talent in music. Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft in Suffolk. Though his father was a dentist, he had great interest in music, and his mother also was an amateur singer, and so it could be said that Britten inherited his interest in music from his parents. Even as a child, he could compose creatively. Benjamin Britten was educated at Gresham’s School. In 1927, Britten started his private training with Frank Bridge, an eminent English composer. He also studied under John Ireland at the Royal College of Music and under Ralph Vaughan Williams. After his graduation, Britten was very clear about his future. He was determined to be a composer and composed music for a number of plays. His first notable compositions were the Sinfonietta and A Boy was Born, and from there his fame grew, and he was Benjamin Britten 2 popular. In 1936, Benjamin met tenor Peter Pears, which set off a great relationship. Peter Pears was his inspiration, and they eventually became partners. Peter Pears had a great influence on his life and his music, and to him, Britten had composed a number of songs. Peter had a great influence on Britten, both in his personal life as well as his professional life. He was among the greatest English composers of the 20th century. Though some critics found Benjamin’s social and sexual relationships not appropriate of a young English musician, his perfect technique and his knack of treating the traditional musical forms with originality and freshness compensated the charges. He was excused from army service and was allowed to practice his composition work provided he performed as a pianist at concerts at wartime sponsored by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. Over the years, he had also started writing for operas. As an opera composer, Benjamin Britten gained worldwide reputation. It is indeed interesting to note that he was the first musician to be honored with the title of â€Å"Lord† by the Queen. He also was approached for writing for special occasions. Benjamin went to America for some time but later returned to England. In 1945, with his opera Peter Grimes, Benjamin became a celebrity. It was a great success. His successive operas like the Church Parables were also greatly appreciated. Benjamin’s best known orchestral music, popularly known as The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, a tribute to the great composer Henry Purcell, is very informative. His Reflections on a Theme of Dowland is also a tribute, this time to the lutenist John Dowland, which is indeed a moving Benjamin Britten 3 performance. Benjamin Britten was an outstanding English composer popular throughout the world. In 1948, he successfully planned the first Aldeburgh Music Festival which later became an annual event. Benjamin also excelled in chamber music, his notable ones being Cello Sonata and three Cello Suites. Benjamin often worked with the renowned poet W. H. Auden who offered the texts for which Britten provided music. Britten was awarded the Order of Merit in March 1965. This was his most treasured honor. Since its inception in 1902, only two people had got it prior to Britten. He also won the Robert O. Anderson Aspen Award in the Humanities. He was the first musician to be honored with the title of Baron. During the latter years of his life, Benjamin often complained of ill health. In May 1973, he had an open heart surgery which made him an invalid for life. He still attended the London premiere of Death in Venice in October 1973. He then traveled to Germany and Italy. According to Pears, Britten was not scared of death. On December 4, 1976, in his hometown in Suffolk, he died of a heart attack. He is buried in the resting place of the Aldeburgh Parish Church with his colleague Peter Pears resting in peace adjacent to his grave. Benjamin Britten 4 Works Cited 2007 Naxos Digital Services, Britten Benjamin, biography [Electronic Version] Retrieved on June 6, 2007, from www. naxos. com

The Study Of Error Analysis | Essay

The Study Of Error Analysis | Essay S.P. Corder is the parent of the scientific method that focuses on the errors learners make. He is considered as one of the main exponents of Error Analysis and that actually became a recognized part of applied linguistics. In Corders article (1967), entitled The significance of learners errors, the author investigates error analysis from a completely different perspective. Whereas, before Corder, errors used to be seen as defects that needed to be eliminated without giving too much attention to their role in second language acquisition, with Corder we begin to see how errors are indispensable for the learners themselves. In fact, according to Corder, errors could be regarded as a device the learner uses in order to learn the language. He states, we interpret his incorrect utterances as being evidence that he is in the process of acquiring language (p. 165). Lightbown and Spada (2006) agree with Corders claim that error analysis sights to discover and describe different kinds of erro rs with the intention of understanding how students attain a second language. Corders argument that learners errors are signals of actual learning is supported by another researcher of error analysis, James M. Hendrickson (1978), who points out, not only do all language learners necessarily produce errors when they communicate, but systematic analysis of errors can provide useful insights into the processes of language acquisition (p. 388). Thus, they both celebrate the fact that errors are significant and essential in the study of Second Language Acquisition. Corder demonstrates that not only do errors play a crucial role to the individual who can learn from these errors, but also to the teachers as they are able to track each students progress, and even to the researchers as they demonstrate how a language acquired and what strategies the learners use. Related to this, is the concept of how many errors are due to the fact that the learner uses structures, which derive from the native language. In Corders view, the possession of ones native language is facilitative, as errors in this case represent evidence of ones learning strategies. Dulay and Burt (1974) in their study maintain the same idea. In other words, they endorse that the childs errors are not indicators of faulty learning nor a need for instructional intervention (p. 135). To put it succinctly, they emphasize that making errors is vital in the learning process, and learners need to know the kind of errors they utter. Hence, before moving on the next notion that Corders article researches, it is essential to report the distinction that the author makes between systematic and non-systematic errors. Unsystematic errors occur in ones native language; Corder calls these mistakes and asserts that they are not significant to the process of language learning. On the other hand, he defines errors the systematic ones that are likely to occur repeatedly and that are not recognized by the learners. Such insight plays a significant role in linguistic research, and in the way linguists look at errors, understand them, and apply their outcomes to improve language competence. Moreover, Corder suggests that when a learner makes an error, the most efficient way to teach him/her the correct form is not by simply giving the correct answer to him/her, but by introducing a self-correctability criterion, in which the learner has to discover and find the correct linguistic form. In this way, learners should be given ample opportunities and sufficient time to self-correct. The standard way of thinking about error correction is that its purpose is to improve learners accuracy and language acquisition. I have always believed that providing students with immediate corrective and constructive feedback would have helped them acquire a new language better. When I was in high school, I used to think that it was the teachers responsibility to offer us, learners, corrections of our errors and that we were supposed to follow teachers instructions firmly. However, as a teacher, I have a totally different point of view. I support the idea that the audio-lingual approach to teaching a language is helpful in the sense that we learn grammar through memorization of dialogues and drills, but I find Corders argument of making language teaching in a more humanistic and less mechanistic way to be more persuasive. With this new trend comes the idea of learners different needs and styles. I currently learn basic Cantonese and Spanish through behaviorist theory. I am not yet a fluent speaker of those two languages but I put more efforts to acquire these language strands via repetition and mimicry. Although I find this to be an interesting and fascinating learning process, on closer examination I admire the idea that language teaching now follows more modern theories, which take into account students needs and wants. Because students are different from one another, they may react differently to their teachers error correction. Therefore, it is extremely critical that we, as language teachers, create a safe and supportive classroom environment in which our students can feel confident and at their ease about expressing their thoughts and ideas freely without suffering the threat or embarrassment of having each one of their incorrect language utterances corrected. As Mark R. Freiermuth (1997) advocates in his essay, errors are inevitable in the language classroom, but they should be addressed in a rational and consistent manner (p.6). In conclusion, although the study of error analysis is still quite speculative as we do not have a well-defined answer for who should correct the errors, when they should be corrected, and how they should be brought to the learners attention, we should keep in mind that there are techniques and strategies for error correction that we ought to implement in our classrooms. Interestingly, as I mentioned earlier, Corder views errors deriving from the learners L1 not as inhibitory, but as something that could aid to their learning growth, whether the learners are children or adults. As we studied in this class, many could count as factors for the L1 transfer errors in the acquisition of English. Among these are age, motivation, intelligence, time of exposure to the target language, place and purpose of learning English. Those can surely influence SLA and in some cases they can obstruct communication. It is our job, therefore, to provide our students with constant support and guidance, and ensure a pleasant and growing ambience.

Strategic Management Approaches For Managing Change

Strategic Management Approaches For Managing Change The subject for this intended research will focus on problem-solving and how organizations can successfully manage change during difficult periods of economic development by relying on the integration of strategic management approaches so they can become learning organizations. It will use the UAE government as the organization to be profiled, with its employees for the questionnaire survey to obtain useful data into what changes are needed in the UAE government for achieving its overall objectives. Since managing change requires identifying weaknesses and developing strategies for turning them into strengths, strategic management techniques are very effective. There will be both primary and secondary deductive research methods using theories for testing data. Although there are many different drivers for change in organizations, developing nations like the UAE and its government must undergo extensive restructurization that requires recognizing change as an ongoing process affecting all departments, employees and processes. Change management theories support the need for strategic management approaches being implemented for companies or governments to become learning organizations that can continuously adapt to the unpredictable dynamics of economic, social and infrastructure change. Organizations that refuse to adapt to change often become inefficient and obsolete, so it is in their own best interest to learn how to adjust their leadership and management processes to gain knowledge about and become skilled at adaptation. Introduction Change is a continuous process where organizations either adapt to their new environment or they will not survive. Organizational change requires major restructurization on all levels to accomplish the overall goals of managerial expectations exceeding results to compel employees to perform better. Change management refers to considering problems as opportunities for future improvement that can help organizations achieve their goals. Managing change for organizations means learning how to convince managers that investing in the resolution of present problems is a worthwhile risk that can result in long-term success. Managing change must be performed at the highest managerial level and all throughout the organization if it is to be effective for the long term. Managing change also involves persuading employees that the risk of altering their current performance is worth the future higher performance levels they will eventually reach. Change management relates to learning how to proper ly manage change through extensive knowledge management and job skills training to upgrade all employee performance which will gradually result in higher organizational performance. Strategic change management approaches for managing change are the most effective methods of developing learning organizations that can suitably adapt to change. Research Question Are strategic change management approaches for managing change the most effective methods of developing learning organizations so they can suitably adapt to change? Research Objectives Intended Outcomes Some of the main research objectives and outcomes for this project will involve: Determining which change management strategies are useful for managing organizational change Explaining how strategic management approaches can help manage change Describing what organizational learning strategies are and how they help companies become continuous learning organizations able to suitably adapt to and successfully manage change Company Background The organization that will be researched and profiled for this dissertation will be the UAE government which was established in 1974. This organization focuses on creating and implementing strategic policies, plans and procedures for the development of the local UAE infrastructure. This includes assisting the UAE President and UAE Ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in handling all responsibilities and delegating authority to carry out his strategic plans. The government is in charge of all UAE governmental Ministries and agencies. This office manages, supervises and reviews all activities related to the UAE government, including construction development projects they sponsor, service and IT development, and governmental performance improvement programs (Mohammed, 2010, 1-6) (Ali, 2010, 1-3). Background of Problem: Etisalats Challenges To Managing Change There are several problems and challenges that Etisalat is currently dealing with in order to improve their global market positioning, such as: Contrasting processes of change response-Etisalat has been using two different methods of adapting to change that are working together well, which has helped them deal with many issues within the company; however, these two strategies are also causing some internal problems dealing with communication and teamwork among the global offices Etisalats specialization in the telecommunications industry has allowed for increased communication between employees and management, yet it reduces the chances for expansion worldwide Etisalats diversification uses strategic alliances with global suppliers, which helps expand to international markets, yet decreases communication internally Etisalats management changed the organizational culture from a hierarchal authority to using workplace teams, which has been difficult for managers and employees to adjust to and led to resistance to change strategies (Mohammed, 2010, 1-6) (Ali, 2010, 1-3). Etisalats main issues all deal with how the company has been expanding so quickly that the employees and management are not communicating well together. They are not working well in teams and that reduces overall efficiency. The company has been having trouble adapting to the external PEST industry changes and internal SWOT company changes as well, which has led to many redundancies and high overhead costs. The company has also been adding new firms through acquisition and expanding to new countries with different cultures, so employees speaking different languages and having diverse cultural traditions and business practices may not be blending well with the UAE processes and systems. Etisalat has to develop many different global strategies that all focus on integration and collaboration. Etisalat has been focusing on expansion without concentrating on coping with the consequences of such major internal company and employee changes, which has created a lot of tension and resentment. Employees who do not have job satisfaction do not perform well and often end up quitting. There are also managerial problems in the decision-making that appear to come from a lack of international business experience. The company may need to hire more experienced global business managers who have been running multinational operations for other firms and who are already familiar with the problems involved. Etisalat may also be suffering from too rapid expansion and globalization that could cause them to have major problems later on if they do not properly address them now (Mohammed, 2010, 1-6) (Ali, 2010, 1-3). Etisalat managers do not have the capabilities of dealing with multicultural environments very well since they did not have those issues before. They also do not have any type of cultural diversity awareness programs in their HRM strategies that could help all employees learn how to adapt to global workplace environments. The company has to adopt new technologies and implement them into the workplace to increase efficiencies and core competencies. The company also seems to need a better organizational culture that is more productive and visionary so they can adapt to changes in the market. The management team must be dedicated to identifying all changes that must be made and integrating proper strategies to deal with them. They must adopt more e-ordering systems and online strategies for increasing production and customer services. They also appear to need tactics for embracing change rather than resisting it from all levels of management and employees. The company needs to incorpora te strategies that focus on money management, generation of new sales revenues and increasing profitability for the long-term (Mohammed, 2010, 1-6) (Ali, 2010, 1-3). Etisalats Change Management Strategic Direction Etisalats managers hope to alter their strategic direction to include change management approaches that will allow them to: Expand to new countries by profiling target markets preferences and demands Etisalat must develop a comprehensive HRM change management strategy allowing for increased efficiency, productivity, communication and teambuilding Adopt online e-marketing strategies to appeal to global markets Develop a streamlined strategy that coordinates management and employee communication and teamworking (Mohammed, 2010, 1-6) (Ali, 2010, 1-3). Literature Review: Justification of Research on Managing Change Li (2001) states managing change means analyzing the organizations gaps between employee and company actual performance and the anticipated results expected by management. For change management to be successful, theoretical strategic management strategies must be effectively integrated into organizational real-world scenarios. Managing change requires companies to prepare ahead of time for uncertainty by developing their employees individual potential and turning their firms into continuous learning organizations. To avoid the usual resistance to change that often comes from organizational restructurization, change management strategies help managers better communicate with employees to focus on learning and training programs to adapt to the changes needed for long-term success and market leadership (Hiatt, 2003, 55-68) (Tucker, 1991, 44-56). According to Kruger (2003), effectively managing organizational change means planning for uncertainty, and learning how to adapt to all types of changes, such as economic change, personnel change, leadership or managerial change, technological change or industry change. Organizational change management theories refer to managing change as a long-term ongoing process where various drivers of change are identified and appropriate strategies are formulated to alter managers and employees performance, attitudes and behaviors. Managing change during recessions like the recent period relates to taking on new technologies to become more innovative, efficient and productive. It refers to learning about market competition to know the strategies rivals are pursuing to develop more effective approaches to counteract them (Adler, 2007, 56-72). Change Management Prosci (1998) developed the ADKAR Model for providing assistance to organizations that required change management strategies. This model helps employees and management adapt to the changes in business strategies, duties, procedures and attitude adjustments needed for organizational transformation. Prosci also feels developing action plans for both professional and personal change management is the key to successful implementation and less resistance. Since there are many barriers to change within organizations, Prosci believes that acknowledging them so they can be properly addressed is the most effective means of overcoming change management issues. Kraus (2008) feels global change management must include identifying obstacles in employee attitudes and behavior to create stronger information and communication strategies (Golding, 2008, 82-104) (Hiatt, 2003, 55-68). Change Management Indicator Chart Source: Kempster, 2010. The change management indicator chart explains the practices for adopting change, including establishing the vision and leadership for the organization, knowing the workforces personality traits, understanding the workforces behavior and attitudes toward the change process, what the impact of the changes will be on the staff, the nature of the changes to be implemented, and realizing how the changes will alter the attitudes of employees and managers for the long term (Martel, 2008, 112-117). Garrett (2007) states increasing awareness of the changes needed, explaining why they are necessary, gaining appropriate feedback, and building employee participation in the change process are all essential components in change initiatives. Stacey (2008) feels organizational change management must include a full restructurization of all departments to properly adapt to global changes in the market. This example of a configuration management database explains how the main divisions that must adopt change management policies and processes include: resource management, financial management, service desk and future planning with strategic management (Georgiades, 2008, 216-224) (Golding, 2008, 82-104). Strategic Management Strategic management involves a comprehensive organizational set of corporate, business and functional strategies for defining the companys objectives, vision and mission using a Balanced Scorecard approach to assess overall performance and progress in reaching its long-term goals. Arieu (2007) feels strategic management is a continuous process for evaluating the competitors, business and industry to achieve objectives and goals. Strategic management is supported by Porters many theories that focus on gaining competitive advantages to face rivals in competitive environments (Hill, 2009, 59-75). Organizational Learning Organizational learning relates to various models of transforming companies into learning organizations by helping them become adaptive. Lamb (1984) feels organizational learning must include the adoption of new technologies and innovations to compete with rivals. Continuous learning is a necessary part of employee development that the HR Department provides with courses, job skills training and work experience. Learning organizations actively promote and facilitate collective learning as a part of the change management process (Beckhard, 2005, 161-182) (Peters, 2008, 113-126). Research Methodology Sosa believes epistemology is considered the philosophical theory of knowledge related to the meaning of knowledge and what restrictions there are to gaining and understanding it. Epistemology refers to comprehending knowledge, what others know, how it can be acquired, how it was gained in the past, and why it is significant in life. Epistemological study relates to evaluating the nature of all knowledge and how it refers to beliefs, justification and truth. It explains how knowledge can be produced and why there is sometimes skeptism about knowledge claims due to the way it was obtained. These explanations relate to this research project because they show how important epistemology is to conducting research studies and why the knowledge gained from them must be accurate and verifiable for it to be applied to future real-world situations (Brigley, 2005, 119-125). Research Design Data Collection This project will use both primary and secondary deductive research methods with epistemological interpretivism approaches to gain valuable insight into how well the company can adapt to change. The methodology for this project will research how to gain a comprehensive overview of what challenges the company faces coping with market and consumer demand changes and what change management strategies will help them improve their business for the future. The primary research methods will involve conducting a survey using a 10-question survey questionnaire that can be passed out to a random sample group of 50 Etisalat employees aged 24-30 years old. This sample group will be emailed the survey to fill out and then it will be collected to analyze the results. Deductive Inductive Reasoning in Research Source: King, 2008. The progression in the chart shows how in research methodology, deductive reasoning is a top-down approach that goes from thinking about a theory, forming a hypothesis, observing the participants in the research study, and using the data for confirming the theory. However, in inductive reasoning, it is a bottom-up approach where observation is the initial start for the researcher, where they search for behavioral patterns, make a tentative hypothesis, develop a theory, and then confirm that theory as a result of it being justified from the data (Yin, 2008, 128-137). Qualitative Research Methods Source: Bradley, 2006. The model explains the elements of qualitative research methods, which include soft systems methodology (SSM), Delphi study, action research, field experiments, focus groups, case studies, and interviews. Qualitative research also includes conversation analysis, content analysis, repertory grid with photo sorting, cognitive mapping, laddering and structural analysis. It involves phenomenological description, ethnomethodology, projective techniques and critical discourse analysis. Qualitative research methods also use narrative interviews, grounded theory, participant observation, ethnographic interviews, log books and diaries, phenomenography, ethnography and thick descriptions (Jankowicz, 2007, 118-134) (Kelly, 2006, 118-129). This projects research process will involve using both quantitative and qualitative research methods which will allow for data to be calculated into a statistical analysis format and then evaluated in an overall analysis to provide an accurate perspective on the sample groups responses. There will also be an in-depth tape recorded half-hour personal interview conducted with an Etisalat manager to gain insight into their future change management strategies for the long term. All surveys and interviews will be anonymous to protect the confidentiality of the sample group and participants and all ethical guidelines will be adhered to so the research can be used for the future as a framework for improving change management strategies. The information will be analyzed and the results calculated into percentages for overall analysis. The secondary methods will involve research of academic journals, textbooks, library books and newspaper articles related to strategies for managing change. Code of Ethics Limitations All ethical codes will be adhered to during this project to protect the integrity of the research proposed. It will conform to all global ethical research standards to achieve its research objectives, including avoiding plagiarism, using suitable in-text references and citations to give credit to theorists, and allowing the survey participants to be anonymous to protect their privacy and identity to ensure their jobs will not be in jeopardy. There should not be any major limitations to gathering the data since I have already spoken to the management and they have agreed to allow the survey. Action Plan 1st week: begin researching Internet for journals and library for books 2nd week: make questions for survey questionnaire 3rd week: take notes on articles and books, work on how to format research data 4th week: distribute the survey to employees 5th week: collect surveys and put together statistical results for analysis 6th week: analyze results of survey and interviews 7th week: begin writing final draft of paper 8th week: perform all editing and complete final paper Conclusion Many multinational corporations are enduring in todays highly competitive business environments as they learn how to adopt change management strategies to become learning organizations that can appropriately handle multicultural markets, new technological developments and e-tactics to coping with change. This type of strategy would benefit both managers and employees as they learn how to cope with new problems and people who may have different ways of communicating with others at work. Etisalat also appears to be having difficulty understanding how competitive it is in global markets, since they have been previously only focusing on regional expansion. They may have to have their management take more seminars, lectures and training programs on how to cope with global workplace environments during globalization and expansion. Etisalat can gain a competitive advantage over rivals in the market by integrating new change management strategies that allow for better managerial decisions an d continuous learning HRM training programs.

William Shakespeares Macbeth :: essays research papers

In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the prophecy of three witches drives the noble Thane's ambition beyond that of morality. His relationships with others, his dignity, and his sense of self-worth are all sacrificed for the title of King. The witches' prophecy inflates Macbeth's ambition and ego, causing him to take destiny into his own hands. Happiness, however, did not foresee his gain and eventually ruin was all that found him. At the beginning of the play Macbeth was a dedicated soldier for Scotland and its King, Duncan. He risked his life fighting for honor and the King's favor. After the battle with Norway, where he proved himself so by wining for his country, the witches told him of his destiny. After their first premonition was proved to be true, the witches words of, "King hereafter" (1.3.) began to affect Macbeth's ego. He wanted to be King and after Malcolm was said to be the next heir to the throne, Macbeth felt the only way he was to be King was to murder Duncan. Even after his plan reported to his wife, the doubts were still there, but he pushed them aside and betrayed the King regardless. For even Lady Macbeth longed to be queen and saw the murder necessary. His ambition just grew and grew. With every new obstacle he faced, killing seemed to be the only option. The witches' prophecy even affected his relationships. At the beginning of the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were extremely close they shared everything together. They loved each other and it was evident. After the murder of Duncan though Lady Macbeth began to feel remorse but the new King (Macbeth) made justifications for the action. From then on when Macbeth saw fit an action of malice the Queen was not to no of it. They isolated themselves from one another while Macbeth's own desire was tearing them apart. He also began killing people he respected as men and friends. When Banquo was told that he would be the father to a line of Kings Macbeth saw this as a huge threat to his well earned thrown. He hired men to kill him not thinking twice about it until the guilt made him mad. At one time he respected Macduff but now seeing him as a traitor he killed his wife and children with no remorse at all. He began to think of only himself and the throne that gave him no content.

Birth And Upbringing :: essays research papers

Birth And Upbringing MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a small town on the western coast of India, which was then one of the many tiny states in Kathiawar. He was born in middle class family of Vaishya caste. His grandfather had risen to be the Dewan or Prime Minister of Porbandar and was succeeded by his son Karamchand who was the father of Mohandas. Putlibai, Mohandas's mother, was a saintly character, gentle and devout, and left a deep impress on her son's mind. Mohandas went to an elementary school in Porbandar, where he found it difficult to master the multiplication tables. "My intellect must have been sluggish and my memory raw", he recalled with candour many years later. He was seven when his family moved to Rajkot, another state in Kathiawar, where his father became Dewan. There he attended a primary school and later joined a high school. Though conscientious he was a "mediocre student" and was excessively shy and timid. While his school record gave no indication of his future greatness, there was one incident which was significant. A British school inspector came to examine the boys and set a spelling test. Mohandas made a mistake which the class teacher noticed. The latter motioned to him to copy the correct spelling from his neighbour's slate. Mohandas refused to take the hint and was later chided for his "stupidity". We can also discover in the little boy a hint of that passion for reforming others which later became so dominant a trait of the Mahatma, though in this case the zeal almost led him astray. Impelled by a desire to reform a friend of his elder brother's, one Sheikh Mehtab, he cultivated his company and imbibed habits which he had to regret later. This friend convinced him that the British could rule India because they lived on meat which gave them the necessary strength. So Mohandas who came on orthodox vegetarian family took to tasting meat clandestinely, for patriotic reasons. But apart from the inherited vegetarian sentiment which made him feel, after he had once swallowed a piece, as if "a live goat were bleating inside me", he had to wrestle with the knowledge that such clandestine repasts would have to be hidden from his parents which would entail falsehood on his part. This he was reluctant to do. And so after a few such experiments he gave up the idea, consoling hims elf with the reflection : "When they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat openly.

Indian Roller Essay

The Indian Roller is a stocky bird about 26–27 cm long and can only be confused within its range with the migratory European Roller. The breast is brownish and not blue as in the European Roller. The crown and vent are blue. The primaries are deep purplish blue with a band of pale blue. The tail is sky blue with a terminal band of Prussian blue and the central feathers are dull green. The neck and throat are purplish lilac with white shaft streaks. The bare patch around the eye is ochre in colour. The three forward toes are united at the base.[2] Rollers have a long and compressed bill with a curved upper edge and a hooked tip. The nostril is long and exposed and there are long rictal bristles at the base of the bill.[3][4] Three subspecies are usually recognized. The nominate form is found from West Asia (Iraq, Arabia) toBangladesh and north of the Vindhyas mountain ranges. The subspecies indicus is found in peninsularIndia and Sri Lanka. The southern form has a darker reddish collar on the hind neck which is missing in the nominate form. The race affinis of northeastern India and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Yunnan,Indochina) is sometimes considered a full species, but within the Indian region, it is seen to intergradewith benghalensis. The form affinis is darker, larger and has a purplish brown and unstreaked face and breast.[2] It has underwing coverts in a deeper shade of blue.[3][5] main Physical appearance : Indian Roller is also called Blue Jay. It is 13 inch long and is striking blue in colour. Indian Roller weighs around 80 -100 g. It’s eyes and bill are black. It has a large head and short neck. Its crown, lower wings and tail are blue green in colour. The throat and upper breast are purple in colour. The back and abdomen are gray in colour. Males and females are similar in appearance. Presence in India : Indian Roller is found in the foot hills of the Himalayas, Southern India and Western India. It can also be spotted in the Corbett National Park, Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, Rajaji National Park, Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, Nagarhole National Park and Kanha National Park in India. Species : The other two species of Indian Roller include European Roller (Coracias garrulus), and Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) Habitat : Indian Roller prefers open ground, cultivated fields, local parks and cities at lower elevation. Diet : Indian Roller is omnivorous. It mainly feeds on frogs. It also favours lizards, acorns, grasshoppers, crickets, Butterflies and moths. Reproduction : Incubation takes 18 – 20 days. It lays 4- 5 eggs in the month of March or April. . Males perform ornate sexual displays during the mating season. The eggs are white in colour. It lay eggs in hole in the trees. The Young are fledged between 17 -20 days. Both the males and females take care of the young ones. Conservation status : Indian Roller is considered as sacred among the Hindus. It has been given the status of State Bird of Karnataka in India. They are sometimes haunted for sports and food. Lifespan : The longevity of Indian Roller exceeds up to 17 years of age.

Carnival Case Issues

SPRING 2013 – GLOBAL STRATEGY AND POLICY MAN4720009_2013S_11202: , Schwartz: Tuesday and Thursday 9:30 to 10:50 AM – LA 331 GLOBAL STRATEGY AND POLICY MAN4720009_2013S_11202 Spring, 2013 Prepared for Professor Harry Schwartz, March 14, 2013 by the following students: Robert OndercikZ8384Finance Ron AbrahamZ4458Accounting Jenna FranzoneZ3483Business Management Tabitha Palmisano Z0857Marketing Jeffrey VonZ7035Accounting Aaron SchneiderZ0653Business Management Sabine BorgesZ7510Accounting 1. Current Situation: CRITICAL CASE ISSUES Human Relations (CI #1) Employee and Labor LawsuitsEmployees of Carnival are claiming unfair working conditions with poor compensation. (CI #2) Succession Mr. Arison stepping down in the future, who will run company, third generation Arison or someone else. Operation/Logistics (CI #3) The Costa Concordia Cruise Ship lawsuit Cruise ship laying on side, environmental risk, and lawsuits from crash. (CI #4) The Carnival Triumph dead at Gulf of Mexico Pending lawsuits from this event, leading to more negative publicity (CI #5) US Corporate Tax Congress continues to try to charge Corporate taxes on Carnival, but has failed recently. This could change soon. Marketing CI #6) Serving on 20 % of Americans It becomes expensive for customers to get to ports to cruise, discouraging some customers from cruising. Carnival Corporation & plc is currently the largest cruise company in the world and is among the most profitable and financially strong leisure travel companies in the world. Carnival Corporation & PLC’s portfolio of cruise brands in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia are comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Ibero Cruises, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).Collected, these brands operate 100 ships totaling 203,000 lower berths with nine new ships scheduled to be delivered between March 2013 and March 2016. Carnival Corpo ration & PLC is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices. A. CURRENT PERFORMANCE Carnival reported net income for the year 2012 decreased to $1. 3 billion compared to $1. 9 billion for the prior year due primarily to a combination of lower revenues and higher fuel prices.Revenues declined $410 million primarily as a result of the Costa Concordia incident. Net revenue yields declined 2. 5 percent due primarily to lower cruise ticket prices and occupancies for the Costa brand. Excluding Costa, Carnival was able to maintain year 2012 net revenue yields in line with the prior year. Even with the many challenges faced in 2012, Carnival generated $3 billion of cash from operations, more than enough to fund our net capital investments of $1. 8 billion.All of the subsequent free cash flow was then returned to shareholders. Carnivals regular quarterly dividend of $0. 25 per share, combined with a special year-end dividend of $0. 50 per share, re sulted in $1. 2 billion of distributions to their shareholders. Carnival also purchased 2. 6 million of the company’s shares in the open market at a cost of $90 million during 2012. B. STRATEGIC POSTURE * Carnival remains dedicated to profitably growing our cruise business and driving returns on capital higher. Carnival will continue to increase their fleet through a measured pace of two to three new ship introductions each year. Some of these vessels are expected to replace existing capacity from the possible sales of older, less-efficient ships * Currently, Carnival has nine cruise ships scheduled for delivery through March 2016. * In addition, Carnival is focused on the growth of developing cruise regions. During the previous five years, Carnival has doubled their guest sourcing from up-and-coming markets, a trend Carnival expects will continue in the future. CI #6) * Carnival and its Operating Lines place the uppermost importance on guest health, safety and security. Carn ivals objective is to maintain an exceptional health, safety and security record. As well as constantly strive to better our health, safety and security standards and procedures. (CI #3 and 4) 1. Mission â€Å"Carnival Corporation & plc mission is to take the world on vacation and deliver exceptional experiences that appeal to a large variety of consumers, all at an outstanding value. † 2. ObjectivesTo our stakeholders, this mean: Consumers | Take the world on vacation and deliver exceptional experiences that appeal to a large variety of consumers, all at an outstanding value| Employees | Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Employees. Carnival considers their employee and union relations generally to be good| Business Partners | Carnival shall communicate with our business partners frequently to ensure that we receive high-quality products and services and that our ships receive the goods and services that they need to operate sustainably. Shareholders| The strength of their p eople, values, culture and mission has driven superior returns for their shareholders. A dollar invested in Carnival stock 25 years ago would be worth 19 times that today, representing a total return almost twice that of the S&P 500 over the same period. | Communities | Carnival strives each and every year to make a difference in their homeports and various regions around the world in need.During the past year Carnival Corporation & plc gave nearly $10 million to charitable organizations, including a $2 million donation to support Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. | 3. Strategies * Carnival now has its ships in ports that are within reasonable driving range for a good portion of the country. Galveston, San Diego, Mobile, New Orleans, Charleston, Baltimore and New York all have Carnival ships sailing from their ports, making it cheaper and easier for more Americans to cruise. CI #6) * Identify those managers responsible for implementing health, environmental, safety and security perfor mance and ensure that there are clear lines of accountability. (CI #3 and 4) * Promptly report and properly investigate all incident and take appropriate action to prevent recurrence (CI #3 and 4) * Establish and act upon goals and objectives to continually improve our performance * Continue to publicly report to and maintain open dialogue and cooperation with key stakeholders (CI #3 and 4) * Carnival operates Under Section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code; certain non-U.S. corporations (such as our North American cruise ship businesses) are not subject to U. S. federal income tax or branch profits tax on U. S. source income derived from, or incidental to, the international operation of a ship or ships. (CI #5) * Since defueling on Costa Concordia began until 7 a. m. Feb. 17, a total of 251,492 gallons of fuel have been pumped out of 4 tanks located on the ship. (CI #3) * According to Costa Cruise, a total of 377,237 gallons of fuel is still onboard in 13 tanks.Following the schedul e drawn up by the Neri/Smit Salvage experts, if sea and weather conditions remain favorable, all of the fuel still on board the vessel should be removed within three weeks. (CI #3) * Carnival has several defined contribution plans available to most of their employees. Carnival also has single-employer defined benefit pension plans, which cover some of their shipboard and shore side employees. (CI #1) 4. Policies Protecting the health, safety and security of Carnivals passengers, guests, employees and all others working on behalf of the Company * Protecting the environment, including the marine environment in which Carnivals vessels sail and the communities in which we operate * Continue to follow Carnivals Corporate Standards which go considerably beyond the requirements of current environmental law and regulations. * Carnival is primarily a foreign corporations engaged in the business of operating cruise ships in international transportation. (CI #5) Key Executives:Mickey Arison: C hairman and CEO of Carnival Corporations David Bernstein: CFO and senior Vice President of Carnival Corporations Howard S. Frank: Vice Chairman and Chief operating officer Alan B. Buckelew: CEO and President of Princess cruises Gerald R. Cahill: CEO and President of Carnival Cruise lines Larry Freedman: Chief Accounting Officer and Vice President-Controller Michael Thamm: CEO of Costa Crociere, S. p. A. Arnaldo Perez: Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Stein Kruse: President and CEO of Holland America Line David Dingle: CEO of Carnival UKMichael Ungerer: President of AIDA Cruises Board Members: Mickey Arison: (Internal) President since 1979 and CEO since 1990 Howard Frank: (Internal) Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Carnival Corporations since 1993, and Chief Operating Officer since 2003. Pier Foschi: (Internal) on the board of directors for Carnival Corporation since 2003. Chairman and CEO of costa crociene SpA. A vice chairman of confitama, the federati on of Italian ship owners. Robert Dickinson: (Internal) Director of Carnival Corporation since 1987 and of carnival plc. since 2003.He served as president from 1993-2007 and CEO of Carnival cruise lines from 2003-2007. Jonathon Band: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc. Since 2010. Stuart Subotnick: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation since 1987 and of carnival plc. Since 2003. Richard Glasier: (External) Director at carnival corporation and carnival plc. since 2004. From 1995-2002 he was executive vice president and CFO of royal Caribbean cruises. Arnold Donald: (External) Director of carnival corporation since 2001 and a director of carnival plc. ince 2003. Modesto Maidique Ph. D: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation since 1994 and of carnival plc. since 2003. He also served as FIUs president from 1986-2009. John Parker: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation since 2003 and of Carnival plc. since 2000. He served as Deputy Chairman of Ca rnival plc. from 2002-2003 Laura Weil: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation and carnival plc. since 2007 Peter Ratcliffe: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation since 2003 and director of Carnival plc. since 2000. 003 to 2007 he served as the CEO of P&O Princess cruises. Randall Weisenburger: (External) Director of Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc. since 2007 Debra Kelly- Ennis: (External) Elected to the committee of the carnival Corporation and carnival plc. in January 2012. Conflicts of Interest: Richard Glasier was once the CEO of Argosy gaming and although no longer the CEO he still is a chairman and major shareholder of the company. Argosy gaming mostly deals with casinos but also operates riverboat gambling cruises.There is a definite conflict of interest because he is not only concerned with the success of Carnival Corporation but also Argosy gaming success as well. Even though he is not the CEO anymore he still converses with the top management of Argosy and is up to date about what’s going on within the company as well as knowing about what’s going on in Carnival too. This means he might have information on the companies such as release dates for new ships or new specials that he cannot share with the board members of the other company and if he did it would be ethically wrong.Therein lies the conflict of interest, if he was not on both board then there would be no conflict. Being on both boards is a conflict of interest because he is not only concerned with the success of Carnival but also Argosy gaming as well. Since 2010, Start Subotnick has been the president and CEO of Metromedia. Metromedia is a holding company that has many subsidiaries that operate in various activities such as restaurants, internet, software technology, and more. The main conflict of interest for Subotnick is that Metromedia develops software for the hospitality industry.Since Carnival uses hospitality software to perform most tasks such as when you get checked at the port to the server on the cruise ship placing your dinner order, it would be in Subotnicks best interest to try to get Carnival to use Metromedia’s software. This is a conflict of interest because it might not be what’s best for the Carnival but it what’s best for Metromedia. Mickey Arison: Mickey Arison, CEO and chairman of Carnival Corporation is #64 on Forbes billionaire list in the United States. His father ted Arison founded carnival cruises in 1972. Mickey started working for the company in sales.He quickly moved up the ranks not just because of who his father was but because he was hard working and had great ideas. In 1979 he became president and finally in 1990 he became the CEO and he currently still holds that position. He turned carnival into what it is today, which is the world’s largest and most successful cruise ship company. Mickey said the best lessoned he learned from his father was to â€Å"hire good people to ru n your businesses, give them the support they need to be successful, and let them do the job you hired them to do. He is known for his â€Å"hands-on† or â€Å"open door management style. He lets his employees’ do their own thing because he knows that they will do it right and he doesn’t have to be watching over them in order for things to get done because he hired the right people. Micky Arison goes above and beyond what a manager does. He is to say the least a competent manager. His company has been the most successful and recognizable cruise line in the world for over two decades. Arison learned the basics of the company from the bottom so he could really understand the company and make better decision for the company as a whole down the road.He directed his company to make many acquisitions, including their most important, the acquisition of the P&O princess cruises. Royal Caribbean also wanted to acquire the line so it was not an easy fight. Luckily for Ar ison they got it and with the acquisition it made them a clear industry leader. David Bernstein: David Bernstein Started with carnival in 2003 as vice president and treasurer. He was then promoted in 2007 to senior vice president and CFO. AS CFO and VP of carnival he overlooks all finance, treasury, insurance, accounting, tax, and investor relations. Howard Frank:Howard frank has been Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Carnival Corporations since 1993, and Chief Operating Officer since 2003. He is responsible for the corporate-wide business strategies. He works closely with all carnival corporation management, especially with Mickey Arison. He provides oversight to Mr. Arison of the companies many worldwide ventures. He also serves as a chairman of the executive committee of the cruise line international association. (CLIA) Partnership Management: Based on the information gathered the Carnival Corporation shows a partnership management model. They have many characteristics o f this model. There is a high degree of involvement by top management and an equally high degree of involvement from its board members especially since their CEO is also their chairman and they also have a few other top guys on the board. * This enables the top management and board members’ to work more closely with each other to develop strategies and to converse on a daily basis about the many things going on in the company. * Howard frank who is the vice chairman of the board is known for working closely with all management of Carnival Corporation& plc, As well as with Micky Arison himself, the CEO and chairman of carnival.When disaster strikes the company’s senior management team and board members take on the responsibility for what’s going on and work together to come up with the best strategy to fix the problem. * Also the board creates committees by matching certain members’ functions to their expertise. For instance, David Bernstein was promoted t o senior vice president and Chief financial officer in 2007 because of his expertise in finances. He was the CFO of Cunard line and Seabourn cruise line for five years and before that he held various financial positions at royal Caribbean for seven years. Carnivals board consists of 15 members. 3-A. External Environment: Opportunities and Threats A. Natural Physical Environment: Sustainability Issues 1A. Opportunities a. The climate could be a benefactor since nice weather usually attracts tourism and cruising. 1B. Threats a. When the weather is not pleasant on the coasts of the United States, there may be a negative impact on the number of cruise ships sailing since the shipping ports are located in these areas. For example, during the hurricane season, cruises along the Atlantic and Gulf coast do not set sail due to danger the storm may bring. . The weather in places like Europe, is not as threatening when it comes down to storms compared to the United States. This lessens the deg ree of one threat in the European market for Carnival cruise lines. B. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 1. Opportunities Economic: * | Potentially expand their luxury liners which can cause an increase in revenue. (CI#2)| * | Increase their capacity of their cruises by 30-40%. (CI#2) | * | Offer more travel destinations that they currently do not offer, such as China, India, and various countries in South America (CI#2) | Technological: | Improvement of the technology on the cruise. | * | Working on their home web page since millions of people visit this site daily. They can improve their format so that it would be better understood and easier to navigate by people in foreign countries. | * | Using more technological machines for the cleaning staff; for example, to check off each room that was cleaned or is in need for something, such as towels, toiletries, blankets, etc. (C#1)| Political-legal: * | Avoiding paying some of the taxes that other companies in the same industry pay for. CI#5)Ship was te disposal is highly unregulated; waste is dumped off shore without any consequences from a legal point of view. (CI#5)| Sociocultural: * | The diversity of customers that are traveling with Carnival Cruise Lines for their vacation get-away is very large. (#CI2)| * | Brand name is well known among the society. | * | Reached an agreement with Italy's Fincantieri shipyard to build a 2,660-passenger vessel for Holland America and a 4,000-passenger vessel for Carnival. Ships should be delivered by 2015. This will generate more revenue in the future. CI#2)Some people take a cruise with carnival just to gamble in the casino because some states do not have any casinos at all. | 2. Threats Economic: * | Prices of fuel constantly increase. (CI#6)| * | One of the biggest weaknesses that the company and the industry itself are facing is hurricanes and bad weather during specific seasons. Revenues go down, refunds go up. | Technological: * | Technological problems on-board which can be a big t hreat for Carnival. For example, the latest incidence was last month. Carnival ship was stuck at sea for almost a week because of technological mishaps.This caused many lawsuits, refunds, and a bad reputation for the brand. (CI#1)| | | Political-legal: * | Progressive accumulation in water waste caused the cruise line to pay millions in fines. | * | More regulators are trying to force Carnival and other cruise line companies to pay more taxes. (CI#5)Major law-suits of the sinking Costa Concordia. (CI#3)| | | Sociocultural: * | Seasick; some people can’t take a cruise because they get seasick after a while. People that suffer from this generally do not board lengthy cruises. | * | Most people do not eat at the higher class restaurants because the dining room is complementary.Most passengers are generally not looking to spend more money on a cruise that was already paid for and clearly states that it is â€Å"all inclusive†. (CI#6)| * | For some people cruises can be ver y pricy. (CI#6)| | | 2. Some of these opportunities and threats are different in other parts of the world because of different climate, economical issues, and different regulations. III. Internal Environment: Strengths and Weaknesses A. Corporate structure 1. Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc operate under a dual listed corporation structure with primary stock listings in the United States and the United Kingdom.Carnival corporate structure is based on the concept of â€Å"profit center. † a. The decision making authority is decentralized. b. The corporation is a fleet organization worldwide. For the most part, most of Carnival business runs in North America and Europe. 2. Carnival keeps telling its employees this phrase: â€Å"do one thing and do it better than anyone else†. Well that could sound very promising, but from a personal experience I enjoyed royal Caribbean a lot more than I did with carnival. Whatever the CEO preaches to the employees does not really j ustify the truth.To clarify, Micky Arison the CEO of the company quotes: â€Å"Carnival doesn’t view a cruise the way Procter & Gamble would view toothpaste or Dial would view soap. Each of Carnival’s lines has its own personality and corporate focus. † (CI#2) 3. The current structure of the company is pretty much consistent with all of its objectives, strategies, policies and programs, as shown and seen in their financial report their profit keeps increasing. (CI#2) 4. The structure of Carnival cruise is very similar to the other cruise companies that strive to succeed and make money.B. Corporate culture 1. Carnival Corporation maintains a friendly, family-like atmosphere on all of its ships. I agree to this based on my previous experience on their ships. ( CI#1) 2. In my opinion, the corporate culture is consistent with current situations of objectives, strategies, policies and programs. They have an â€Å"open door† policy where each and every employee can communicate with upper division managers and let their voice to be heard, and the reason for that is to benefit the employee and potentially even benefit the company. CI#1) 3. â€Å"Unique to the cruising industry is its promotion to protect the environment. The core values include preserving the marine environment and, in particular, the pristine condition of the waters upon which our vessels sail. † This statement is posted on the Carnival website and is the biggest flaw that I have noticed with the company. They are constantly polluting the water, dumping trash into the water, and they contribute a great deal to air pollution. Therefore the statement above is not accurate. (CI#4) 4.Carnival employs a variety of different kinds of people from various different cultural backgrounds. Many employees that work for Carnival have different ethnic backgrounds but are all being treated equally(CI#1) 5. The company does take into consideration the value of cultures of each nati on the company operates in. This is shown in the diversity of Carnival employees and their cultural backgrounds from all around the world. (CI#1) 3-B. Corporate Resources – Finance IV. All numbers in millions except for ratios | 2012| | 2011| | 2010| | | Carnival| RC| Carnival| RC| Carnival| RC|Revenues| 15,382| 7,688| 15,793| 7,537| 14,469| 6,753| Operating Income| 1,642| 403| 2,255| 932| 2,347| 803| Net Income| 1,298| 18| 1,912| 607| 1,978| 515| Net Profit Margin| 8. 4%| 0. 2%| 12. 1%| 8. 1%| 13. 7%| 7. 6%| EPS| 1. 67| 0. 08| 2. 42| 2. 80| 2. 47 | 2. 4| OperatingCash Flows| 2,999| 1,382| 3,766| 1,456| 3,818| 1,663| Debt to AssetRatio| 39%| 58%| 38%| 58%| 39%| 60%| V. Financial Analysis The chart above displays a list of relevant figures and ratios for the Carnival Corporation. It is important to highlight that some of these numbers show increasingly negative results each year.If this negative trend continues it would represent a significant problem for the company, as it wo uld become unprofitable. But how does Carnival compare to others in the industry? Two key players dominate the cruise industry. According to a report by Cruise Market Watch, Carnival Corporation controls 48% of the market share, Royal Caribbean controls 23%, while the rest is controlled in small portions by over 30 other companies (Cruise Market Watch). By generating double the revenues of Royal Caribbean, Carnival is clearly the leader in this industry.For the purpose of this section of the paper, we analyzed the financial statements of Carnival Corporation to measure the health of the company. We will also use financial ratios which best allow us to compare Carnival side by side to its smaller but closest competitor, Royal Caribbean. A notable decline can be seen in the operating income. This figure is considered by analysts to be one of the most important on financial statements because it reflects to a great extend the strength of the company and success of its core business ope rations (Kennon).Operating income is arrived at by subtracting operating costs and expenses from gross revenues. It is the profit that is left to invest, expand, pay debt, distribute to shareholders, and achieve other objectives that a company may have (Kennon). For Carnival Corporation, Operating income declined 27% from 2011 to 2012. Let’s see why. Carnival mainly generates its revenue from the sale of cruise tickets and onboard items and services (Carnival). Although revenue has remained stable in the past years, operating income has been declining which indicates that the company is making less and less profit of the revenue it generates.This could be due to several reasons, but in the case of Carnival Corporation, there are two major factors. One is the rising price of fuel. Cruise companies are heavily dependent on fuel and any change in its price has a significant impact on the company’s financials (Carnival). From 2011 to 2012, the carnival’s fuel expens e increased 7% or $188 million. Another factor that has affected profits for the company is accidents. In its annual report for fiscal year ending 2011, Carnival Corporation included a note to its shareholders regarding the tragic event of the Costa Ship (Carnival).It states that the company takes careful measures to prevent accidents such as the Costa cruise incident (Carnival). In the 2012 Income Statement, Carnival Corporation reported $28 million for â€Å"ship incident-related expenses that were not covered by insurance, including a $10 million insurance deductible related to third party personal injury liabilities (Carnival) CI#3. It is safe to expect that in the 2013 financial statements, Carnival Corporation will again report incident expenses not covered by insurance and possibly higher ones due to the â€Å"Triumph† ship incident CI#4.Although Carnival’s decline in operating income is significant, Royal Caribbean’s 56% decline truly is worrying. Even though Royal Caribbean had nothing to do with the Costa ship incident, there were indirect consequences that affected the company. Royal Caribbean had to report a $413. 9 million impairment loss because â€Å"booking volumes and pricing are down substantially in Spain due to the impact of additional austerity measures there, the lingering impact of the Costa Concordia tragedy and other factors†(Royal Caribbean).Now let’s compare the two companies in terms of efficiency generating profit. The profit margin ratio shows how much after-tax profits are generated by each dollar of sales (Kennon). It is a good indicator of how efficiently a company manages its resources and how well it keeps costs under control. Carnival Corporation has an 8% profit margin. In other words, of every dollar that the company receives from sales, only eight cents represent profit. With expenses increasing more than revenues each year, a low profit margin represents another sign of potential unpro fitability.However, taking into consideration Royal Caribbean’s 0. 2% profit margin, which means that they keep much less than a penny for every dollar they sell, Carnival Corporation is performing much better than Royal Caribbean. Off course, there are additional expenses that are not calculated in operating income like interest and tax expenses. It is worth mentioning that carnival corporation currently does not pay any U. S. federal income taxes because it qualifies for the benefits of section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code (Carnival). Section 883 basically states that some non-U.S. corporations that generate income from the operation of ships are not subject to federal income tax in the United States (Carnival). However, the closing of this tax loophole could become a potential threat for Carnival, as it would significantly affect their net income in subsequent years CI #5. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia confronted representatives of the cruise industry in a h earing last year (Walker). Senator Rockefeller questioned why Carnival, a company that sells to many American and extensively benefits from the resources of forty U. S. ederal agencies, gets to pay no federal income taxes (Walker). Let’s analyze the Debt to Asset ratio, measured with total assets and total liabilities. Carnival Corporation has a 38% Debt to Asset ratio which by itself represents an okay picture. More specifically this means that debt was used to finance 38% of the assets. On the other hand, Royal Caribbean has a 58% debt to asset ratio which indicates that the company may run into problems borrowing more money in the future. For its debt, Carnival paid $336 million in interest in 2012, a healthy amount compared to the $2. 3 billion operating income (Kennon).Operating income divided by interest expense gives us interest coverage ratio, which indicates problems when it is below 1. 5 (Kennon). But carnival has a 4. 8 interest coverage ratio which means that ther e is still room for earnings to decrease before the company would default on bonds and loans for not being able to keep up with interest (Kennon). But will Carnival be able to meet short-term liabilities? The current ratio is short-term indicator of the company’s ability to pay its short-term liabilities from short-term assets; how much of current assets are available to cover current liabilities (Kennon).A healthy current ratio is greater than 2, but for Carnival Corporation’s is only 0. 25 which indicates that meeting current obligation could be a problem for the company (Kennon). But again we see that Royal Caribbean may have a bigger of a problem since their current ratio is only 0. 08. Another important factor to point out from the financial statements is that operating cash flows show a declining trend. From 2011 to 2012, cooperating cash flows declined 20%.What this means is that unless the current trends change, the company may start running out of cash and bec ome unable to fulfill its obligations, which could lead the company into filing for bankruptcy. Interestingly, Royal Caribbean’s cash flows also declined 20%. However, it is worth mentioning that cruise companies have the advantage of receiving money for unearned revenues because cruise tickets are generally paid in advance. It’s like getting loans at 0% interest. Another important figure to analyze is Earnings per Share (EPS), which is especially important to stockholders.Carnival’s $1. 67 EPS means that if net income was divided amongst all outstanding shares, investors would receive $1. 67 per each share owned. Although a good EPS does not necessarily represent company strength or weakness, its changes affect the price of a company’s stock and therefore it is one of the most looked at figures by investors (Kennon). Based on EPS only, Royal Caribbean may not be an attractive choice of stock since their EPS is only $0. 08. Corporate Resources – Ma rketing Product (Service) Carnival sells cruise tickets for vacations around the globe.Although Carnival markets the experience on the cruises as the vacation destination, their ships go to hundreds of destinations worldwide. Carnival sells numerous products and services onboard either directly or through independent concessionaries from which a commission is collected. Some of the onboard products and services offered that are not included in the ticket price include â€Å"liquor and some non-alcoholic beverage sales, shore excursions, casino gaming, gift shop sales, photo sales, full service spas, communication services, art sales, a wide variety of dining options and laundry services† (Carnival).Moreover, Carnival offers shore excursions and activities, and depending on the destinations, it owns or has stake in hotels where customers are offered a stay in a vacation package. In addition, carnival owns or leases private islands where it operates â€Å"among other things, b each bars and restaurants, water sports, sky lifts, cabana rentals and a surf rider attraction† (Carnival). Promotion: Carnival’s annual report states that each of its brands has â€Å"comprehensive† advertising programs designed to attract the local market. The principal mediums used for marketing and advertising are television, magazine, radio, outdoor billboards, direct mail, e-mail, online websites, online advertising and social media† (carnival). Social media’s utilized are facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. In 2012, Carnival’s facebook pages reached over five million â€Å"likes†. In addition, Carnival has â€Å"past guest recognition programs† designed to give past guest’s incentives such as reduced prices and gifts in order to create customer loyalty.Price: Through its many brands, ships, and packages, Carnival claims to provide an option for every generation, taste, lifestyle, and off course, budget. The co mpany categorizes their â€Å"cruise experiences† as contemporary, premium, and luxury. A contemporary experience is the cheapest and most casual alternative, lasting a week or less. A premium experience is designed for experienced consumers with an emphasis on quality, comfort and style and lasts from a week to two weeks.The most expensive alternative is the luxurious, which provides high standards of accommodation and service in a smaller cruise. All cruise tickets include dining and entertainment but other options are available at additional prices. Carnival’s brands all offer special promotions, early booking or past guest recognition programs that reduce the regular price of a vacation. But regardless of the type of experience and discounts taken, cruise ticket prices can vary due to many factors including demand and season.To have little bit of an idea of prices we went through the steps of booking a vacation on carnivals website. The first thing we noticed on th e carnival-U. S. website was a sale of â€Å"up to $200 off + free upgrades for 3-5 day sailings† or â€Å"up to $400 off + free upgrades for 6+ day sailings. Using this sale, for travel in July and departing from Miami on a cruise to Bahamas, the cheapest alternative per person came out to be $330. On the other hand, high-end vacations can cost thousands of dollars. Place: Consumers can always book their cruise vacation directly on the company’s website.But according to Carnival Corporation, their cruise vacations are sold â€Å"mainly through travel agents, including wholesalers, general sales agents and tour operators that serve our guests in their local markets† (Carnival). Accordingly, the company puts a lot of emphasis on their relationship with travel agents. Carnival provides additional commission incentives to travel agents in order to motivate them to sell more of carnival’s vacations. Carnival also provides agents with educational tools such a s training seminars, online courses, and videos for them to better understand and sell Carnival’s products and services (Carnival). . TASK ENVIRONMENT Threat of New Entrants: medium * Economies of scale: expansion of current companies is the greatest weapon against new entrants. The few leading companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, ; Disney, purchase or build larger ships or renovate older ships. Carnival, the leading giant of the industry, â€Å"As of January 2011, the company operated 98 cruise ships with a passenger capacity of 191,464 berths. The company operates through four segments: North America cruise brands; Europe, Australia and Asia (EAA) cruise brands; cruise support; and tour and other. (â€Å"Global hotels†, 2012) * Government regulations: as a global industry, it is very difficult for government of any particular countries to impose regulations. Therefore lack of enforcement or adherence to regulations regarding employment, safety, and health requireme nts make it less bureaucratic for a new entrant. * Capital requirements: large capital is required to own and maintain a ship. * Product differentiation: many companies offer a variety of theme cruises to attract or cater to different needs or preferences. It is an opportunity for a new comer although quite difficult to grasp. Access to ports cannot be so easily obtained. There are very few ports embarkations in populated cities. Giant companies sometimes share ownership of ports when they financially contribute with state government to build them. Rivalry: medium high * Capacity growth: the cruise industry is driven by capacity maximization; every square inch of space must be utilized to accommodate and maximize the experience of the passenger. * Service characteristics: cruises and ships are designed to cater to the various ‘wants’ and preferences of different demographic around the world.Many cruise lines difference themselves by the amenities or destinations they pr ovide or offer. This uniqueness in the service adds an edge to the competitive field. Creativity is key in designing cruise themes that respond to or attract unexploited market niches. * Rate of industry growth: based on various reports the industry is growing at a much slower pace in North America than Europe and Australia. The slow growth may be because of the economic downturn that we are facing or it may be the result of how difficult it is for the cruise industry to reach the wallets of more Americans. Number of competitors: the industry is somewhat fragmented and few competitors have a hand in multiple niches. Competition is very high in the industry because they are fighting for a bite of a pie that is already small. The companies try to maximize their revenues by offering attractive prices and exotic destinations to customers. (Lester, Thyne, ; Weeden, 2011) * Switching cost: can be high or low based on the type of cruise that is analyzed. Threat of Substitute Products or Se rvices: medium high * Existence of substitutes: land-based vacations are the biggest threat to the industry.The cost is half or one third less expensive, the vacationer has more control in land than over sea, greater sense of security towards land than sea. Although land transportation does not provide the sea experience that a cruise does, it is by far preferred to sea transportation. Also, a cruise is considered a luxury item and can be compared to the purchase or acquisition of luxurious items such as jewelry, high-class automobiles or whatever else discretionary money is used for. A cruise is not a necessity; it is a choice, a reward or a gift to oneself or loved ones.The rating of medium high is mostly due because of the fact that choosing a cruise over a road trip, a flight, a hotel is determined by preference and affordability. * Switching cost: the only cost is the loss of the experience of the cruise. Power of Buyers: medium low * As a luxury item, the cost of a cruise is n ot negotiable. The expectation of a high cost is lightly brushed with the hope that a cruise will not drain a savings account. The buyer does not have a significant influence on the price. Prices are more inelastic than elastic. Backward integration is quite impossible, the capital necessary to lease or purchase a ship is over tens of thousands dollars. Average passengers cannot afford it. * Alternative suppliers do exist but high product differentiation does not allow the buyer to compare oranges with oranges, more likely the buyer has a choice between grapes or oranges. Moreover, the same company under different names may offer different theme or budget cruise. Cruise companies own more than one cruise lines, therefore choosing one cruise line over another may not represent a competitor’s advantage.Carnival and Royal Caribbean cater to different income brackets, Windstar offers exotic destinations for adventurers, Disney Cruise Lines are more family oriented. (Deep sea, 201 2). * Due to the hefty price of a cruise, the buyer has a high expectation about the service. The demands and expectations of buyers greatly influence the marketing techniques and expansion projects that cruise companies undertake. Brand recognition is a magnet to create and retain customers and helps increase demands. Power of Suppliers: medium high * Supplier dominance: only a few companies build ships, provide staff and services to cruise companies. Forward integration for suppliers is less likely but backward integration for the cruise line industry is highly possible. Carnival uses backward integration to reduce costs and retain control of how its ships are built. * Product and services that the suppliers provide to cruise lines is very unique and specific to that industry; switching cost is high. What these suppliers make or produce can only be sold to the cruise industry. * Economies of scale: purchasing industry is very important to the supplier. All the major cruise compani es own at least 5 to 10 cruise lines; which strengthen their purchasing power.However, there are not that many suppliers to choose from. Having limited purchasing options, increases the power of the suppliers. Relative Power of Other Stakeholders: very high * Special interest groups: environmental activists voice their concerns to the industry and directing their attention to fuel emissions, waste water dumping and few others. Thousands gallons of sewage and water bathroom water are discharged untreated in the ocean daily. Onboard observers are placed on ships that use ports in Alaska to ensure that wastewater is sanitized before being dumped in the ocean (Klein, 2011).In his article, Klein also indicated in his article that the daily fuel emission of one cruse ship could be equivalent of that of thousands of cars. * Loyal customers: their perception regarding the safety of the industry affects their decision about whether to use discretionary money on a cruise or elsewhere. It also taints their views of the brand recognition. They are less likely to refer that cruise line or to become repeat customers. * Travel agencies: most cruises are sold and advertised by travel agencies.Travel agencies are described by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA, 2011) as ‘the distribution channel offering the best service† to the cruise industry. * Government regulations: even though some of the big companies have headquarters in the USA, they are incorporated in Antillean territories such as Panama, Bahamas, and Virgin Islands. Doting a ship with a flag registered in countries like Liberia and Panama, becomes a convenient avoidance tool that shields the cruise companies from adhering to labor and environmental laws, health and safety regulations, and most importantly avoid paying corporate taxes. Airlines industry: they provide means of transportation to different ports (from one state or one country to another), when airfares are high, it adds to the cos t of transportation to a port. To overcome this dependence more ports are being built in areas that can be driven to. * Local communities: when a cruise ship arrives at a destination, the community of that foreign location receives the passengers. How passengers and the cruise line are received affect how the cruise experience is perceived. * Global workforce: many describe the work environment as ‘sweat ship’ and it does not project positively on the companies.In the cruise industry, employees are in contact with passengers 24 hours a day and for several days; an unhappy or miserable employee is contagious. It does affect indirectly the bottom line of the company. Lack of respect, living quarters, rigorous demands of the job, being underpaid, language and culture differences separate the cruise workforce from the visibles and the invisibles. The cruise industry is part of the service sector; an unhappy, mistreated, undervalued workforce does not contribute to a pleasan t experience for the passenger (Agaard, Larsen, ; Marnburg, 2012). SWOT ANALYSISStrengths:1- wide variety of theme cruises Case issue #6 2- largest ship capacity Case issue #63- backward integration4- heavily invest in marketing Case issue #65- experienced managenent Case issue #1, #3 ; #4| Weaknesses:1- Corporate culture regarding ship workforce Case issue #12- PR handling of current sea tragedies Case issue #3 ; #43- HR: employee training and recruitment Case issue #1| Opportunities:1- partnership with travel agencies Case issue #62- leader in environment protection ; safety Case issue #3 ; #43- Adopt a global standard of ethics ; conduct Case issue #14- develop a positive rapport with ship workers Case issue #15- treat labor force as valuable contributors Case issue #1| Threats:1- Extra costs (taxes, cleaner waste water) Case issue #52- slow growth of North American market3- workforce motivation Case issue #14- land-based transportation and hotel resorts Case issue #65- brand rec ognition mudded by sea tragedies Case issue #3 ; #4| MODIFIED TOWSSO Cross referencing * The capability of backward integration puts Carnival in a better position to build ships that are safer friendlier to the environment while controlling costs. S3, O2 Case issue #3 ; #4 * Experienced management can develop standards that could help improve the workforce environment on board. S5, O3, O4, O5 Case issue #1 * Sharing marketing techniques with travel agents may improve and strengthen their relationship. O4, S1| WO Cross referencing * The tone starts at the top. A workforce that feels valued and adequately paid strengthens the base of any company. W1, O3, O4, O5 Case issue #1 * Actions speak louder than words. W2, O2, Case issue #3 ; #4 * Treating employees as valuable contributors helps HR in their recruitment strategy.W3, O5 Case issue #1| ST Cross referencing * Experienced management can use their expertise to create a working environment that empowers and values the ship employees. S5, T3 Case issue #1 * Marketing techniques is the best weapon to weaken the threat of substitutes and ‘clean’ the brand. S4, T2, T4. T5 | WT Cross referencing * When morale is low, ‘the ship may sink’. Employees are the foundation of companies, the weaker the base, the less solid is the company. W1, W3, T3 Case issue #1 * A PR is the voice of the company. After a tragedy, responsibility, reassurance, and compensation is key in re-building confidence. The opposite drills the hole deeper. W2, T4, T5 Case issue #3 ; #4| 5. EVALUATE STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES Alternative #1Pause/Proceed with Caution Strategy: Proceed with caution until they are able to evaluate how the new tax and fuel regulations will affect the company and how to go about decreasing lawsuits due to employee exploitation and onboard guest safety. (CI #1, 3, 4, 5) Pros: * Customers will continue to do business with Carnival if they feel that they are working to improve the ship’s safety. * Employees put forth more effort if they do not feel as though the company is taking advantage of them and increased motivation from the staff can increase the company’s bottom line. Cons: * Only making small changes gives the competition a chance to catch up. * Nothing can be done to stop new regulations, so the company is bound to lose profits if there is an increase to fuel prices and taxes. Alternative #2No-Change Strategy: Since Carnival Corporation ; PLC has the largest ship and passenger capacity in the cruise industry with many diverse brands they can continue to do what they have been doing and hope they remain ahead of the competition even with the replacement of Mr. Arison in the future (CI #2). Pros: * Carnival is already one of the most profitable cruising companies with a 47% market share in the UK, 68% in Italy, 51% in Germany and 45% in France, so they are dominating the global market competing mainly with Royal Caribbean. * Doing nothing new gives the company time to fix some of the current issues. Cons: * Competition could pass and take control of market if Carnival sits idly by especially with growing customer concerns about safety of the ships. Profits are already decreasing from previous years so doing nothing new could keep the company from enjoying profits that could be acquired with innovative ideas. Alternative #3 Horizontal Growth Concentration Strategy: Carnival can increase operations in the current European market as well as reaching out to new regions (CI #6). Pros: * Carnival derives a majority of its revenue (nearly 52%) from US customers which is currently on the decline, so it would be beneficial to tap into other markets around the world. * Carnival already has market presence in Europe, so it would not be as difficult to increase capacity in that region as opposed to starting fresh somewhere else. Cons: The value of the dollar against Euro appreciated from 1. 60 in January 2010 to 1. 53 by April 2010 against the Pound . If the dollar strengthens it would record lower revenue than is actually earned. * The European economy is also faltered, so profits are not guaranteed and an increase in operations could instead cause a company lose. RECOMMENDATION I would recommend that Carnival begin with the pause and proceed with caution strategy for at least 1 to 2 years. This would give them time to get the company back in line with the aspiration of earlier business days when the safety and satisfaction of customers and employees came before the profits of the corporation (CI #1,3).Once they are back on track I would then recommend for Carnival to go forward with the horizontal growth. It is in their best interest to reach out to untapped markets particularly since there is a decline in the current US regions and they are looking for ways to increase revenues since Carnival is only currently reaching 20% of the total US market (CI #6). Growing horizontally in any market has significant financial implicatio ns for a cruise company. Considering that the newest Carnival Dream-class ships cost $740 million each (Shipcruise. org), it is a very expensive strategy to implement. In addition, the company would have to engage in research, planning, training, and marketing activities which can be very costly.Because Carnival’s balance sheet shows $465 million in cash, it will most likely be necessary for the company to borrow money to finance their growth. But borrowing money would not cause any problems for Carnival Corporation because as we analyzed earlier, the company has a healthy interest coverage ratio which measures the ability to pay interest on outstanding debt (Kennon). Although it is costly and risky, investing the money to expand into new and existing markets now, Carnival would have the potential to increase its revenues in the future years to offset the increasing costs. Carnival is already in the process of building two new ships to be entered to service in 2013 and 2014 a nd estimates that these two new ships will increase their passenger capacity by 19% (Carnival).Also, a continuous growth by the largest company in the industry could drive some of its competitors out of business and capture a larger market segment. 6-A. Implementation After an extensive in-depth review of the Carnival Corporation ; PLC, it is apparent, as with any large corporation it has many strengths and weaknesses. Carnival and its subsidiaries have a dominating; nearly 50% market share and strong support base among its customers. With plenty of loyal customers, and many recognizable and respected brands it would  appear to have few  problems. However, despite all the good attributes, several recent negative events have arisen concerning both  safety and corporate concerns, which have shaken the company and its shareholders. 6-B.What must be done?  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1. Shareholder Confidence  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2. Safety Concerns  ·Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3. Impr ovements and New Ship Building Action Steps| Responsibility| Start-End  | Financial impacts| Questions? | Concern:| WHO? | WHEN? | HOW MUCH? | What Must be done? |   |   |   |   | | 1. Shareholder Confidence| Micky Arison (CEO), Upper Management| 4/1/13-Ongoing| Determine Future Earnings|   | 2. Safety Concerns| Upper Management,Howard S. Frank (COO)| 4/1/13- 12/31/13| Cost of Training and current safety assessment|   | 3. Improvements and New Ship Building| Upper Management, Design Team,David Bernstein (CFO)| 4/1/13- 4/1/16| Set budget for cost of research|Shareholder Confidence Over the last 5 years Carnival's stock price has  collapsed. Granted, the worldwide economy has endured one of the worst periods in history, but In 2008 the stock was trading roughly 15% higher than what it is today, and between that time it fell as much as 70% to the 2009 lows. I believe Micky Arison (CEO) should be focusing on how to re-energize and grow the company in the face of some ver y difficult times. I believe this could be achieved by continuing to expand to new entrant markets in Asia, Europe and Australia. The United States has been saturated for some time, with little growth and shrinking profit margins due to fierce competition.In addition the company must provide a great experience for clientele in order to ensure repeat business, which is essential to Carnival's success. Safety Concerns Over the last couple years Carnival has experienced several bad events and even worse publicity. This has caused many to suspect wrong doings and create concerns over safety. Incidents like the MS Costa Concordia in 2012, which was one of the worst  disasters in modern cruising history, in which 34 people were killed and the ship was a total loss costing nearly 600 million dollars are a nightmare for a cruise line. In a more recent case, the Carnival Triumph endured an engine fire disabling the ship and causing the boat to be stranded at sea for several days.Although n o one was hurt, it  caused a severe inconvenience to the passengers and crew. Tales of rotten food and overflowing toilets ran for several days on international media. Safety should always be of utmost concern with any industry. The last thing people want or need is to have a feeling of insecurity  on a vacation. Cruises overall have been very safe for many years but still in the back of many people’s minds the thought of the Titanic lingers. Carnival needs to make sure people know that safety is  the top priority of the Carnival Corporation. Although it shouldn’t be pushed to the point where people get scared, it definitely needs to be continuously addressed.Carnival needs to constantly implement the most modern safety techniques and they must educate the crew how to keep passengers as safe as possible. Improvements and New Ship Building Because of the fierce competition in the cruise industry it is vital to constantly upgrade older ships and build larger and mo re desirable new ships with more features and amenities. A new trend in the industry over the last couple decades is to build bigger and bigger ships. Cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean have been very successful over the last decade by initially building  100,000 Gross Tons ships. Since then the Oasis Class that is well over 200,000 Gross Tons has been put in service. Carnival and its subsidiaries aren’t necessarily building the biggest ships but they are uilding larger ones as well. I believe this is very important because more and more people are going on cruises for the entertainment rather than the ports. Many cruise goers are like the typical individual who want the newest and the best and this is the reason it is pivotal for Carnival to keep up with the new trends of constant upgrades and services. 6-C. How should it be put into action? Action Steps| Responsibility| Start-End  | Financial impacts| Questions? | Concern:| WHO? | WHEN? | HOW MUCH? | How should it be put in action? |   | Micky Arison (CEO), Howard S. Frank (COO), Upper Management| 4/1/13| Determine budget in conjunction with finance dept. |Concerning safety, it must be a top priority to follow the standard government mandated procedures, which are given to the entire Cruise Industry. Carnival can go above and beyond this by simple measures such as drills and employee training. They can go beyond the recommend amount of life jacket and lifeboat requirements. I believe the biggest concern is to hold top officials such as the Captain responsible for such disasters as the MS Costa Concordia. Carnival is doing a great job in terms of shipbuilding and upgrades. They have kept up with the competition so in my personal opinion I believe the company needs to make security a given so that passengers focus on the amenities of the cruise ship.The company should also take guest recommendations seriously and look at what competitors such as Royal Caribbean are doing in newer ships and follo w as well. As for the Shareholders it is important for Carnival to insure that it is strong and well managed, generating consistent profits and growth. This is very important to any shareholder and I believe this can be achieved by expanding to new markets in  Asia, Europe and Australia. Logistics is also important to have available ships to move to these new ports to expand. 6-D. Who should do it and when should it take place? Action Steps| Responsibility| Start-End  | Financial impacts| Questions? | Concern:| WHO? | WHEN? | HOW MUCH? |Who Should Do it and when should it take place? |   | Micky Arison (CEO) Howard S. Frank (COO), Upper Management,  | 4/1/13| Determine budget in conjunction with finance dept. | Carnival and its subsidiaries future expansion and safety goals need to be implemented and enforced at senior management levels in order for the employees to know that it truly is important to the company's success. It takes a strong leader to do what’s necessa ry for future growth and fend off new fierce competition within the industry. It is important to start as soon as possible because the competitors within the industry will try to take advantage of Carnival's recent problems.I believe safety is a big concern with two major issues within a year of each other. This has brought bad press and will most likely follow up with loss of customers in the future. 6-E How much will it cost? Action Steps| Responsibility| Start-End  | Financial impacts| Questions? | Concern:| WHO? | WHEN? | HOW MUCH? | How much will it Cost? |   | Upper Management,Micky Arison (CEO),David Bernstein (CFO)| 4/1/13| Set budget for cost of research| Modern cruise ships  cost no less then 250 million dollars, with the most expensive costing well over 1 billion dollars. Carnival as well as the rest of the industry has absorbed these costs by constantly upgrading ships every year or two rather then building many ships at once.They also have sold older ships to othe r cruise lines, or even created new cruise lines with their older ships to cut costs and continue making more money with new locations around the world. As far as safety is a concerned it shouldn’t cost much considering a large amount of the cost of new cruise ships is equipping them with the most modern safety equipment available. It is very important for the employees be able to use and know this safety equipment because it is worthless if the staff doesn’t know how to use such equipment. Work Cited Carnival PLC. (2012, March 03). Carnival corporatoion ; plc 2012 annual report. Retrieved from http://phx. corporate-ir. et/phoenix. zhtml? c=140690;p=irol-reportsother2 Carnival PLC. (2010, March 03). Carnival corporatoion ; plc 2010 sustainability report fiscal year 2010. Retrieved from http://phx. corporate-ir. net/phoenix. zhtml? c=140690;p=irol-sustainability_env Carnival Corporation ; PLC. 2012 Annual Report. Washington, DC. 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