Assignment requires you to perform a strategic review of Asda Essay

Assignment requires you to perform a strategic review of Asda - Essay Example The system also tracks individual customer’s consumption pattern and offers them suggestions and special offers and discounts on products that they often buy. Asda realises that its major work force is dependent on human resources, so they provide extensive training to their employees. Acquisition by Walmart has enhanced its presence in the non-food retail market. Within five years, Asda’s non-food retail chain has increased its offering to more than 12,000 merchandize. 5 Asda is one of the leading supermarket chains in Europe, which was acquired by Walmart in 1999. It operates as one of the largest grocery store and it also sells a variety of products including apparels, household items, books, etc. After its acquisition by Walmart, Asda is supported financially and also in its operations by providing cheaper resources. Asda has its core competence in food retail, but it has now expanded in to the non-food sector as well. The company faces steep competition from fellow companies like Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison’s. The product offering in the retail sector is highly standardized, so the companies try new ways to differentiate themselves on the basis of service quality and brand valuation. Market environmental factors like tax imposition and business regulations often pose hindrance on retail business. Asda Stores Ltd., headquartered in Leeds, West Yorkshire, is a British retail supermarket chain which caters in sections like food, clothing, toys, general merchandise and financial services. In 1999, Walmart wanted to penetrate into the British market, so they lobbied with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair and acquired Asda for  £ 6.7 billion, winning a bid from rival Kingfisher plc. The main competitors of Asda are J Sainsbury plc, Tesco plc and WM Morrison Supermarket plc. Over the years, Asda has managed to position itself as UK’s cheapest retail supermarket. As of 2012, Asda’s operating profit increased by  £51 million to  £857

Piracy Ruining the Music Industry Essay Example for Free

Piracy Ruining the Music Industry Essay For many people, music is a large part of their lives. They listen to it to as often as they can. In their cars, while they work out, study, and many other daily activities. But does anyone think about how important music is to those who work in the music industry? Some people buy CD’s, others may buy digital copies online (often referred to as mp3’s). However, there are others who download free copies of music from file sharing websites, such as FrostWire and Napster. This is a crime, and many people are not aware of it. There needs to more stringent measure to protect the music industry from these acts of piracy and copyright infringements. Piracy has affected the music industry drastically over the years. It would appear all is well for those in the recording industry. However, the music industry is worth more than half of what it was in 1999 and the decline doesnt look as if it will improve. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) reported that in 1999, the revenue for music sales topped $14.6 billion. Over time, total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009 (Alexandra. â€Å"The History of Recording Industry Sales, 1973-2010†). File sharing is the reason for the decline in album sales over the years. Because it is so easy to get free music, people do not find a need to purchase it. In 1984, the Supreme Court, ruled in the Universal City Studios vs. Sony Corporation case, that home recording of copyrighted materials, would be legal under the fair use provision (Stevens, Law of Cornell.). The decision was made so that it would be legal for home users to make copies of copyrighted material without obtaining any permission of the copyright holder to do so. This ruling covered music, television shows, and movies. Many people argued that they wanted to be able to use the recording devices that they purchased. There needs to be new laws to reflect the change in technology since that time. In 1984 we did not have the different file sharing sites that gave people the opportunity to upload their recordings. Piracy is very popular in many countries. This is because many cultures are interested in the American lifestyle. It is very hard for other cultures to obtain American media, so they rely on file-sharing websites to stay connected. This has affected the American economy drastically. There has been a loss of around 71,060 jobs, a decrease of worker earnings of 2.7 billion dollars and a loss of U.S tax revenue of 422 million dollars. It is estimated that the cost of piracy in the global economy in 2012 was 35.4 billion dollars, and 12.5 billion dollars affecting the music industry individually. (Goldman,† Musics lost decade: Sales cut in half†) The U.S. government has attempted to prevent piracy by bringing lawsuits against companies such as, LimeWire, Mega Upload, and Pirate Bay. Sites such as these may be stopped, but within months another company begins a similar or more-improved service. â€Å"Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD?† questioned an angry Britney Spears in an industry-funded advert. â€Å"It’s the same thing, people going into the computers and loggin’ on and stealing our music.† Piracy is ruining the entertainment industry. The music industry has a diminished profitability, and significant job loss has occurred, and will only get worse, unless there are more stringent measures to regulate the internet and its’ file-sharing sites.

Narco Analysis And Brain Mapping Tests

Narco Analysis And Brain Mapping Tests

Defining the Conception on God Essay -- Baruch Spinoza, philosophical a

What must be factual for anything to be factual, what must exist for anything to be in existence? For Spinoza, before you can fully comprehend Ethics you have to be familiar with metaphysics. Metaphysic concerns itself with the fundamental principles that characterize all; metaphysic is the ground from which everything comes from. This is the rationale for why he initiates Ethics with God and nature as an entirety before he ever begins to converse on the human mind. Spinoza was anti-religious in his stance; he did not articulate of a God on a theological or religious aspect but as a metaphysic aspect on the nature of reality. Spinoza concurs with the religious conception that there is in reality an intimate relationship between man and God but not by the Christian notion on the relationship, his ideas on this connection is very diverse from those views of Christians. Spinoza believed nature to be one and god to be one. This is to pronounce that the mind and body are equally truthful and human nature is actually one in itself. This consideration demonstrates that man is united to God in Spinoza’s observation. Spinoza uses the geometrical method to help those understand God and human nature, he knew one would have to follow the natural order of entities because before one can fully comprehend human nature, they have to be aware of the basic truth of the nature of reality as a whole. To truly understand God and the order of nature you must first establish an understanding of the universal laws of nature, Spinoza use of the geometrical method helps do just that. The geometrical method is very logically and is used to recognize the basic truths of nature from the start and the laws that govern thought and extension, this being all th... ...ruly desires is one free. The power of God itself which is in all of us in some sense a lesser or greater degree. This is also to say that existence just doesn’t happen to exist, it necessary because it is infinite and eternal. Existence is what has to exist for anything to exist, so if anything exists than is in fact God who exists. With the use of the geometrical method, Spinoza is able to identify and make the conception of God intelligible to one. Giving one the ability to understand God and the human nature so that one can fully understand Ethics by this method. Since one cannot fully comprehend human nature until they are aware of the basic truth of the nature of reality. For the human mind to have the basic substance to understand oneself including nature and God, by thought and extension, showing that every mind is in fact capable of understanding God.

The Role Of Management Accounting Accounting Essay

The function of Management Accounting is to utilize and supply accounting information to directors in a company, and by utilizing these accounting information directors will be able to do better concern determinations that allow the company to be better equipped i the control and direction maps. Compared with Financial Accounting, the information provided by Management Accounting is for dynamic tendency, instead than historical information. Management Accounting involves theoretical accounts that based on grades of abstraction to assist directors doing determinations, non based on instances like Financial Accounting does. Besides, Management Accounting is supplying information for directors within a peculiar company, it is different to Financial Accounting which provides information for external users such as creditors, public regulators and stockholders. Information provided by Management Accounting is non publically reported, it is confidential and merely used by internal directors . Furthermore, Management Accounting normally uses direction information system to carry through different directors ‘ demands, whereas Fiscal Accounting frequently refers to general fiscal accounting criterions. This essay will foremost discourse direction accounting base on the documents published by Chandler ( 1977 ) and Hoskin & A ; Macve ( 1990 ) , so one invention in direction accounting will be discussed ( the balanced scorecard ) . Finally a decision will be made. The Transformation of Large ‘Modern Business Enterprise ‘ In 1977, Alfred Chandler published a really celebrated book that is called â€Å" The Visible Hand † . This book has now become an of import academic resource in the field of direction accounting. In the debut to this book, Chandler ( 1977 ) was peculiarly interested in one thing: the transmutation of the American economic system. He stated that the transmutation was from more of less theoretical theoretical accounts of competitory companies to a group of big corporations. Chandler ( 1977 ) defined the modern concern endeavor with two most important alterations: a ) the corporations all have many degrees of direction with different degree of power, instead than the traditional organizational construction where merely the top direction has all the determination powers ; B ) the administrations are all managed by salaried executives, unlike before where directors were limited to the corporation proprietors and stockholders. Such alterations happened really rapidly at the termina l of the nineteenth century. Chandler ( 1977 ) suggested that the competitory market which was driven by ‘the unseeable manus ‘ turned into a market full of oligopolies, and the resources become controlled by the corporate directors, hence, ‘the unseeable manus ‘ suggested by Adam Smith has become ‘the seeable manus ‘ . Chandler ( 1977 ) proposed 8 propositions to demo the procedure of transmutation: In the America, when administrative coordination output higher rate of net incomes than market mechanism coordination, the traditional administrations were replaced by the modern multi-unit endeavors. The multi-unit endeavors created managerial hierarchies. When the economic activities increased to a certain degree, administrative coordination became more efficient than market mechanism coordination. The managerial hierarchy created by these administrations became a beginning of power, permanency and sustainable growing. Such procedure made director including comptrollers go more proficient and professional. Because of the fifth proposition, the multi-unit concerns increased in size and their diverseness, and different direction including accounting were separated from the ownership. Rather than increasing current net income, directors started to concentrate on the long term growing of the administrations. As these endeavors grew, they altered the basic construction of major sectors and of the economic system as a whole. What is more, Hoskin and Macve ( 1990 ) suggested that directors have to go ‘literate ‘ , which means that they have to be able to execute their functions by utilizing writing-based organizational systems. Meanwhile, they suggested that â€Å" to undergo a formal Management Education is to travel back to the beginning: competition, fright of failure, norms, tragets, success, position. † ( Hoskin & A ; Macve, 1990, p22 ) . The Balanced Scorecard During the period of recent decennaries, the field of direction accounting has developed many inventions and new thoughts, including activity based direction, strategic cost direction, economic value added and mark bing. Such constructs have become more and more popular and are on a regular basis discussed in different direction accounting books. Presents, these constructs have besides been introduced into pattern in many administrations. One of the inventions in direction accounting stated by Seal et Al ( 2012 ) is the balanced scorecard. Balanced Scorecard was originally introduced by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. Traditionally, fiscal studies provided information to demo how an administration performed historically, but non much information offered about how the administration might execute in the hereafter. For case, an administration may take to decelerate down the bringing clip in order to increase current net income rate. However, this action may ensue in reduced net incomes in the hereafter due to cut down client satisfaction. In order to work out this issue, as a public presentation measuring system, the balanced scorecard does non merely see beyond standard fiscal steps, but it besides take client, larning steps and concern procedure into consideration: a ) Financial position: involves steps including economic value added, runing income, and return on capital employed ; B ) Customer position: involves steps such as client keeping, market portion in mark sections, and client satisfaction ; degree Celsius ) Learning and growing position: involves steps including employee keeping, skill sets, and employee satisfaction ; d ) Business procedure position: involves steps including quality, throughput, and costs etc. These four positions can be concluded in a diagram, which is shown as Diagram 1. Diagram 1 showed that balances exist between internal and external steps ; subjective and nonsubjective step ; and public presentation consequences and the drivers of future consequences. There is non merely engagement of these four positions, but besides a logic nexus. Because larning and growing improves the concern procedures, which lead to a better value to the client, which once more in bend improves the fiscal public presentation. Diagram 1: Balanced Scorecard ( Beginning: ) There are many advantages of the balanced scorecard. First, by analyzing the four positions of the overall public presentation, administrations are able to obtain a balanced position of organizational public presentations. Compared with the traditional methods which merely analyses if the finance state of affairs is healthy or non within a company, the balanced scorecard provides a more overall image for administrations to happen out if they are traveling towards their organizational ends. The balanced scorecard enables administrations to detect non merely the fiscal public presentation, but besides other positions such as degree of client satisfaction, the concern processes, and employee preparation etc. What is more, the balanced scorecard method does non merely look at the immediate hereafter, it evaluates the organizational public presentations in a more dynamic manner. If an accountant notices that the administration is non making good and he/she has realized the fiscal undersid e line, normally the suggestion provided to directors are to work out the immediate issues. Such actions frequently ignored the long term effects to the administration. The balanced scorecard attack enables the administrations to do better determinations for their aims at short, medium and long tally at a glimpse. Last but non least, by using the scheme of a balanced scorecard, the administrations can do certain that the strategic actions they implemented will consequences in the results that they desired. For illustration, the administrations can inquire themselves: will increase the monetary value of a peculiar merchandise contribute to the companies in the long tally? The reply will depend on whether the consumers are happy about the merchandise, or whether the procedures associated with doing that merchandise better the quality of that merchandise. On the other manus, a few research workers have suggested there are besides disadvantages to the balanced scorecard attack. First, t his method may be clip devouring, as administrations have to be after out their aims for each positions, so interrupt the aims down and eventually make up one's mind how to make the ends. Second, even though the balanced scorecard provides an overall image in the four positions for administrations, it does non intend that these positions build the whole image. It merely involves limited fiscal information. Therefore, it is suggested that the balanced scorecard has to be a portion of a bigger acquisition and growing scheme for administrations. Finally, the same balanced scorecard does non use to all administrations ‘ state of affairss. It is strongly recommended that administrations need to gain their ain prosodies, otherwise the balanced scorecard may be meaningless. Furthermore, many academic research workers argue that the cause-and-effect relationship between indexs on the balanced scorecard can non be supported. Some indexs will non needfully take to a satisfactory result. For illustration, client satisfaction and increased degree of net income. Besides, faculty members suggested that the balanced scorecard does non take rivals ‘ actions into consideration, therefore it does non offer a specific wage system. The balanced scorecard attack has a closed relationship with modern concern endeavor. As we discussed in the old subdivision, direction became separated from ownership. Thus the balanced scored card has offered administrations to hold a overall image, so give different undertakings to directors with different duties. Therefore, the balanced scorecard to some extent encourages administrations to reassign to one of modern concern endeavor. Decision In decision, this essay has reviewed the book published by Chandler ( 1977 ) , and the article wrote by Hoskin & A ; Macve ( 1990 ) . By discoursing the suggestions and analysis stated by these writers, the cardinal characteristics of the construction and processes that involved in the transmutations of modern concern endeavors have been defined. Chandler ( 1977 ) proposed eight propositions that he thought changed the UK concern market from a market driven by ‘the unseeable manus ‘ to a market that the directors apportioning the resources, so that the market is replaced by ‘the seeable manus ‘ . Hoskin nd Macve ( 1990 ) in add-on suggested two other factors influenced the market. Besides, one of the recent invention in direction accounting – the balanced scorecard is critically discussed, and the grounds showed that the balanced scorecard attack has to some extent transformed concerns who adopted this attack into one of the modern concern endeavor. How ever, there are some concerns when utilizing this attack. In my sentiment, the field of direction accounting still has a batch to be discovered, and its inventions are ever closely associated with the market state of affairs.

Boorstin Critique Essay

Boorstin Critique Essay Boorstin Critique Essay William Smith Modern American History Boorstin Critique 29JAN09 American History has been presented in many forms. Students today often receive it in a textbook format or something of that sort. The writing style and format is usually based on giving facts is succession, thus leaving the reader disconnected from history learning. These textbooks are based on a broad fact timeline; they ignore the smaller revolutions that do not occur on battlefields. The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel Boorstin does something different. It brings the reader into American History and allows him to understand the little things that shaped American life. Boorstin has written an interesting book that allows the reader look at American History in an atypical way. The book’s strengths and weaknesses engaged me in a unique way, compared to the styles presented to me in my previous experience. Boorstin begins the book with a fascinating thesis that ultimately explains his presiding theme. I found this thesis to be interesting because of its unordin ary take on an ordinary theme of history. Many history textbooks simply base their content on each major revolution that occurred in the time period they wish to analyze. Common history books provide a chronology of events that often ignore individuals and community feeling, while focusing on government or majority leaders. Boorstin’s thesis states that he will not be doing this. He takes the ordinary theme of revolution and surprisingly chooses to focus on the smaller, more subtle revolutions that occurred in places that you could find all over America. He argues that the changes that occurred in the country happened in places you would not think to look. This fact provided me with a hook, being that he intended to explain what it felt like to be an American rather than simply providing a timeline. The next step for me was to discover if the evidence was there, and feel history in a different way. Boorstin proves his points in a very persuasive way. He takes a specific idea or theory and gives many examples to prove it or strengthen it. For example, his main theory of American Gos of this include, Rockefeller, G. Stanley Hall, John Dewey,

Civil War journals essays

North and South/Civil War journals essays 1. After the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly. In addition to being an abolitionist tract, Uncle Tom's Cabin was also a reflection of life as it was in the mid-nineteenth century. A kinder version of Shelby appears as the Southerner in the journal entries below. I haven't the time to read, as my good wife has. But what she told me this evening, about a book that has been circulating among her friends, makes me hopeful that before too long this horror of slavery will be over. I can scarce bear to cross the border into Maryland, what with the owning of slaves so close to home. I can't look into their eyes, the slaves I meet when I go down into that place. I have heard rumblings about Baltimore, how it provides passage for those poor folks escaping cruelty and being owned by another. I hope my children might be spared dealing with this, but perhaps not as they're almost grown. I'm afraid that if it takes war to change things, that war will be right here. Gettysburg isn't far from Maryland, and from those people I meet down there at market, I suspect they'd do just about anything to keep their slaves. Except maybe in Baltimore, but that's a Sodom of a different sort. I near flung that book into the fire, except it isn't cold enough for a fire. I shouldn't have ever taught my overseer to read. I thought it might be convenient for me, and it is. But I'm afraid he'll get his hands on that thing and take it into his head to lead a revolt. And he has nothing to revolt for. I keep him well. I let him marry. I even let him teach his two children to read. I can't see what the fuss is about anyway. I don't know anyone like that Mr. Legree. All those I know keep their slaves clothed, fed, sheltered and happy, which is more than I can say for my life sometimes. When all the bills come due and the tobacco hasn't sold well, and I have to go ...