The UK Economy and International Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 12

The UK Economy and International Trade - Essay Example This essay declares that monopolistic competition is clearly seen in industries such as banking, electronics, fashion and garments, food manufacturing, fast food retail, and almost all personal and professional service industries like hair styling and grooming. For these industries, there are many suppliers whose products are easily substituted for each other; and although differentiation is created in the mind of the buyer, the difference is not so insurmountable that another brand more conveniently accessible could not substitute for the other, first choice. In contrast, an oligopoly exists where only few competitors operate. Unlike in monopolistic competition, wherein the actions of competitors do not influence the others, in oligopoly, output decisions of individual firms have a decisive influence on the course of action the other firms decide to take. In an oligopoly, the following elements are present: A good example of an oligopoly is the market for diamonds, which is dominate d by De Beers, which corners 60% of the market, and other, relatively recently established, diamond firms in Canada, Russia and Australia. De Beers had once monopolized the diamond trade by buying out all its competitors and controlling the price. As more diamond deposits were discovered, De Beers was compelled to try a new tact, veering away from the diamond cartel, and instead embarking on brand strategy. Other oligopolies exist in the industries that produce automobile, cigarettes, cruise ships, and aluminum.  

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 10

Assignment Example In essence, meditation plays a crucial role in this religion and with this; many people have embraced different methods of meditation. Meditation The purpose of meditation is to still the brain, relax the body, and boost concentration. Many of the skills learnt in meditation produces an understanding that this practice focuses on the notion of the mind. Meditation develops the mental ability of developing love and kindness for the self and others. In other words, meditation sweetens the mind. There major types of meditation include the following. Tranquillity Meditation (Samatha) The main purpose of Tranquillity or Samatha meditation is to still the brain and improve its concentration. This meditation helps an individual to develop through four stages. These include detachment from sorrow and suffering and embracing the consciousness of joy and happiness, having logic reasoning in life, pure thoughts, and embracing virtues that promote the well-being of people. Insight Meditation/Vip assana Insight meditation helps an individual to realize important truths of life. A person who practices this meditation hopes to embrace the truths of suffering, impermanence, and no-self. The practice of this meditation concentrates on improving the mind. The most methods prescribed to develop a sober mindfulness are walking, sitting, and mindfulness of daily activities. Walking mindfulness is often practiced in retreats and monasteries, especially in regions such as Theravada. Gaining this mindfulness requires one to find a quiet place, takes some time to relax, and attempts to concentrate on the sensations and movements of walking. This practice brings an individual closer to the insight of understanding the fundamental truths of impermanence and no-self. Sitting Meditation is very similar to walking meditation. However, the focus of this meditation is on the breadth instead of walking. A person practising this meditation focuses the breath and its observation. The ultimate goa l of this practice is to enhance truth on no-self, impermanence, and suffering. Mindfulness of Everyday Activities emphasizes more on the skills learned in sitting and walking. This mindfulness helps an individual to participate fully in everything he or she does (Religion Facts, 2013). Loving-Kindness Meditation/ Metta Bhavana Loving and kindness are important virtues of Buddhism and this meditation is a way of obtaining and developing these virtues. The purpose of this meditation is to develop the mental component of having love for the self and others. The practitioner evokes the feelings of love and kindness to those around him. Still, he or she radiates feelings of unconditional love and acceptance. This meditation helps people to live in harmony with one another. As people learn to love one another, it brings forth unity, joy, happiness, and peace in the society. This meditation also helps people to be kind with one another regardless of the cultural, ethnicity, or race differ ences. Discursive Meditations A successful participation of this meditation helps one to elevate the mind and cultivate awesome and wholesome feelings. A poem, a hymn, or a passage from Dhamma or any inspiring literature can create these feelings. Most Buddhists set aside a few minutes to study and reflect upon an inspiring teaching. This allows one to reflect upon human values, dignity, and integrity. Countries where Meditation Rites are Practiced According to Religion Facts (2013), Japan and China largely

Kant Paper 2 Essay Example for Free

Kant Paper 2 Essay In this assignment you are going to present Kantian arguments against the taking of recreational drugs that are currently illegal in the U. S. , such as heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. Do not discuss laws or illegality; just stick to the questions as they are written and number your answers. Use the following maxim: In order to maximize my pleasure, I will take recreational drugs whenever I feel like it. 1. Explain why this maxim is self-defeating, i. e. could not be imagined as a universal law for all rational beings. This should include what a world would look like in which all rational beings followed the maxim and why you could not achieve the purpose or end of the maxim in such a world. Kant thinks that we are not really in freedom if we are only looking for pleasure or desire and avoiding pains. By meeting our instinctive needs and become slaves of our desires and impulse. 2. Explain why following this maxim (i. e. taking recreational drugs) would interfere with your fulfilling imperfect duties to yourself and to other people. Imperfect duties are laxer duties, which means you will be free to choose what you want to do to promote yourself. We choose to exercise to get health but we can accord our ability to set the exercise schedule. Taking recreational drugs to maximize our pleasure can’t provide us any promotion to neither to ourselves nor to the society besides getting high temporary. It is a process do not need you do anything to yourself or to society except taking drugs. And if everyone are addict to bring by drugs their life will get worse because they find that they can get pleasure so easily. And finally people may stop doing anything to get pleasure because they already have. 3. Explain why following this maxim fails to treat yourself with respect. Kant believe that human being’s rational ability make us different and distinguish with animals. 4. Explain why following this maxim would likely lead you to fail to treat other people with respect. As usual, papers are to be typed, standard font, double-spaced and run @1,000 wds. (@4 pp. ). Do not present an introduction. Answer each question separately and number your answers appropriately.

Saint Anthony Of Padua Patron Saint Of Lost Things Religion Essay

Saint Anthony Of Padua Patron Saint Of Lost Things Religion Essay Saint Anthony was a 13th century Franciscan Monk, Preacher and miracle worker. His birth name was Franciscan Thaumaturgust. When Franciscan Thaumaturgust became a Franciscan monk he was given the name of Anthony. Saint Anthony was born nearly 800 years ago in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal. Saint Anthony was loyal to his church and deeply in love with God. His knowledge of the scripture and insight was incredible. According to Nugent, he was called in his day The Hammer of Heretics and The Ark of the Testament. (Nugent XIV). According to Steinbrock, Saint Anthony became a Franciscan monk because of the death in 1220 of five Franciscan monks (St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus) who had been completely faithful to the Catholic Church. They were decapitated and their bodies were mutilated in Morocco, North Africa. Saint Anthony, wanting to follow in their footsteps of martyrdom, became a Franciscan monk. After the joining the Franciscan order, he only lived for ten more years (Steinbrock). Saint Anthony believed that a preachers goal must be to bring listeners to repentance and a total and genuine desire to turn away from sin, not just major sins, but all sins. Saint Anthony practiced sincere sorrow, through confession and designed all of his sermons around penance, with the intention of amendment and sorrow when confessing sin. (Nugent XIV) According to Saunders, St. Anthony was credited with many miracles during his lifetime. One miracle happened in Limoges, France while he was preaching on Holy Thursday at St. Pierre du Queriox Church. During his sermon he remembered that he was supposed to sing a lesson in the Divine Office, back where he lived at his monastery. It was then reported that he appeared simultaneously preaching in the church and singing the lesson at the monastery (Saunders). Another miracle attributed to St. Anthony is that he received an apparition of Baby Jesus. One night before Saint Anthony went to bed he decided to read the Bible. All of a sudden while reading, he saw Baby Jesus lying on the Bible and in his arms. Baby Jesus began touching and loving St. Anthonys face. This is why most photos of Saint Anthony are of him holding the Baby Jesus (Saunders). On October 3, 1226 Anthony traveled through La Provence, and returned to Italy. During this expedition another miracle happened to him. St. Anthony was burnt out by the long journey. He and his accomplice entered the house of a poor woman and she offered them wine and bread. In her haste to serve them the women forgot to cap the wine-barrel. St. Anthonys accomplice then broke his wine glass. Anthony immediately began to pray. Suddenly the glass was magically put back together in front of their eyes, and the empty barrel went from no wine to full with wine (Knight). Saint Anthony was elected Minister Provincial of Emilia after his return from Italy. But on May 30th, 1230 he decided to spend more time preaching so he resigned the office at the General Chapter of Assisi, and retired to the Convent of Padua. The last Lent he preached was in 1231. Over 30,000 people came from all parts of the world to see and hear him speak. The last sermons for Saint Anthony spoke of the wrongness of hatred and enmity. (Knight) Saint Anthony became very ill in 1231 and went to the woodland retreat, Camposampiero with two other monks for relaxation. Anthony lived in a cell built for him under the branches of a walnut tree. After his stay on the way back to Padua, Saint Anthony died at age 35. On the 13th of June in 1231, at the Poor Clare convent at Arcella, the great speaker was announced dead (Nugent 79). According to Saunders, right after his death the children in the streets started crying, The holy Father is dead. St. Anthony is dead. Thirty years upon his burial, people opened his vault and found his body had vanished in thin air, except for his tongue. St. Bonaventure grabbed the tongue and kissed it. According to Saunders, Saint Bonaventure then exclaimed, O Blessed tongue that had always praised the Lord, and made others bless Him, now it is evident what great merit thou hast before God. To this day, many people have received miracles at the tomb of St. Anthony in Padua (Saunders). According to Saunders, Pope Pius XII declared St. Anthony a Doctor of the Church on January 16, 1946. Many people around the world continue to pray to St. Anthony for strength and sorrowful repentance, as well as for help in finding lost items (Saunders).

Victorian Law Reform Commitee :: essays research papers

Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee Functions The functions of the Committee, as defined by Section 12 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, are: 1) To inquire into, consider and report to the Parliament on any proposal, matter or thing concerned with – a. Legal, constitutional or parliamentary reform; b. The administration of justice; c. Law reform. 2) It is not a function of the Law Reform Committee to inquire into, consider or report to the Parliament on any proposal, matter of thing concerned with a. The joint standing orders of the Parliament; b. The standing orders or rules of practice of the Council or of the Assembly. Inquiry into Administration of Justice Offences Terms of Reference Law Reform Committee of Parliament is required To inquire into, consider and report to Parliament on: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The current state of law in Victoria in relation to administration of justice offences (such as perjury, perverting the course of justice, falsifying evidence and threatening witnesses); and 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Whether these laws should be amended, and in what way, having particular regard to interstate laws and the recommendations of the Model Criminal Code Officers Committee Discussion Paper on Administration of Justice Offences (July 1997). PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA LAW REFORM COMMITTEE Inquiry into Administration of Justice Offences The Governor in Council has asked that the Law Reform Committee inquire into, consider and report to Parliament on: 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The current state of law in Victoria in relation to administration of justice offences (such as perjury, perverting the course of justice, falsifying evidence and threatening witnesses); and 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Whether these laws should be amended, and in what way, having particular regard to interstate laws and the recommendations of the Model Criminal Code Officers Committee Discussion Paper on Administration of Justice Offences (July 1997). A copy of the Committee’s terms of reference and a copy of a Discussion Paper prepared by the Committee can be obtained by telephoning (03) 9651 3644 or from the Committee’s website, http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/lawreform/ The Committee invites written submissions from individuals and organisations on any aspect of this reference. Submissions should be sent to the address below by 31 October 2003. All submissions are treated as public documents unless confidentiality is requested. Executive Officer Victorian Parliament Law Reform Committee Level 8, 35 Spring Street MELBOURNE VIC 3000 Mr Rob Hudson, MP Chair Recommendation 1 p. 55 MCCOC Model Code That a new statutory provision be created for perverting the course of justice that incorporates the common law elements of the offence so that the new provision would make it an offence to â€Å"do an act that is capable of and has a tendency to pervert the

Figuring Out My World: Alison May Essay -- Disease/Disorders

Figuring Out My World: Alison May Alison’s story is the perfect example of what many families must go through when faced with the possibility of having a child diagnosed with a learning disability. Alison was not diagnosed with visual and auditory dyslexia until the summer before entering college. However, while still a toddler, her symptoms had been brought to her mother’s attention by her sister’s teacher. Alison’s mother then noticed her habits in repeating words incorrectly and how Alison would need tactile clues to follow directions. At the recommendation of her kindergarten teacher, Alison was tested for learning disabilities and the results from the school psychologists were that she was acting stubborn or disobedient. Her family did not stop with the school’s diagnosis. They had private testing completed that confirmed Alison did not have a specific learning disability. The final word came from a relative that happened to be a psychologist. He insisted Alison would grow out of her difficulties. So Alison continued on with her entire elementary, middle and high school journey as a student and daughter with an undiagnosed learning disability. Alison spent 12 years of her life learning how to learn. She was comfortable with conversation, but could not understand directions. This caused her a lot of self-esteem issues as a young child trying to fit in with all the other kids. She felt an enormous amount of pressure at both school and home. At age seven, she finally came to the realization that she just did not understand. That is when she began to develop coping mechanisms like asking others to repeat and clarify directions, spoken or written. She used the cues of those around her, and observed her classmates and reactions... ...yslexia http://www.tsrhc.org/dyslexia-take-flight.htm †¢ Intel Reader from Intel-GE Care Innovation http://www.careinnovations.com/assistive-reading-technology Agencies for Dyslexia †¢ Catapult Learning http://www.catapultlearning.com/ †¢ Children’s Dyslexia Centers of New Jersey http://www.mlcnj.org/ †¢ Dyslexia My Life http://dyslexiamylife.org/resour3.html †¢ Bridges4Kids http://www.bridges4kids.org/states/nj.htm †¢ National Disability Rights Network http://www.ndrn.org/ Organizations for Dyslexia †¢ Dyslexia International http://www.dyslexia-international.org/index.html †¢ The International Dyslexia Association http://www.interdys.org/ †¢ American Dyslexia Association http://www.american-dyslexia-association.com/ †¢ Davis Dyslexia Association International http://www.dyslexia.com/ †¢ National Center for Learning Disabilities http://www.ncld.org/

H&M in Fast Fashion: Continued Success Essay

Q1) Evaluate the external environment in which H&M operates in. External environment refers to the challenging and complexity in which the firm operates. It is important to highlight the factors of the external environment because it is very critical to the success of the firm. PESTEL model and Porter’s 5 Forces (P5F) models will be used to evaluate the external environment of H&M. These models will determine how challenging and attractive the environment is for H&M. 1. PESTEL PESTEL highlights 6 environmental forces namely political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal (Johnson, et al. 2014). This model analyses the general environment that influences the industry and the organisations in it as well as how challenging the environment is to operate. 1.1 POLITICAL H&M is subjected to political pressures from the labour rights movement especially in low-wage countries. H&M has outsourced its manufacturing line to low-cost countries. H&M has no or little control over the operation in those countries. Hence, the firm would be closely scrutinised by the labour rights movement to spot any abuse in the rights of employee e.g. poor working condition. Government expansion and international trade policies would greatly impact the growth of the industry and increases competition. Threat 1.2 ECONOMIC H&M will not be spared from the increase in cotton prices and rising product cost in Asia. Economic downturn will have an impact on all the stakeholders in the environment especially the customers. Demand for luxury goods would decline for customers who are price-sensitive. They would then consider H&M competitors that offers similar goods which is are much cheaper than H&M or  go for substitutes. Threat 1.3 SOCIAL Due to the ‘fast fashion’ business, customers taste in high fashion is constantly evolving. Customers are now more educated and their demand for good quality products at low prices have increased. H&M could meet the needs of the customer as it has the advantage of being a first mover in the fast fashion business. Opportunity 1.4 TECHNOLOGICAL The emergence of technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allows organisations to reach out to its customers more quickly and effectively. H&M uses these online social platforms as a way to be closer to their customers as well as sharing and updating its activities to its fanbase. Opportunity 1.5 ECOLOGICAL Due to education and high awareness of the importance of conserving and going ‘green’, H&M has created a special collection of clothing line using sustainable or eco-friendly materials. Opportunity 1.6 LEGAL Legal refers to the restriction or liberalisation of legislative and regulatory constraints or changes. Organisation in the environment would not be able to avoid this particular external environment factor therefore organisation has to embrace this legal aspect. Liberalisation of the international trade has resulted in an increase of the number of suppliers globally and hence intensifying the competition among manufacturers in low-wage countries Threat From the PESTEL analysis, H&M is in a moderately competitive environment where both threats and opportunities factors are in equal balance. Therefore, H&M has to exploit the opportunities available in social, technological and ecological factors. As for the threats, H&M has to embrace them and develop strategies to overcome or steer away from them too. 2. Porter’s 5 Forces (P5F) P5F helps to identify the attractiveness of an industry in terms of 5 competitive forces namely; threat of entry, threat of substitute, power of buyers, power of suppliers and the extent of rivalry between competitors (Johnson, et al. 2014). 2.1 THREAT OF ENTRY Factor H L Case evidence Effect (High/low) Scale of experience Needs large capital to compete with the incumbents in the environment. Low Access to supply /distribution channels Plenty of suppliers available to choose from. High Expected retaliation Costly to compete with incumbent as they have the economies of scale. Low Legislation or government action Liberalisation of international trade has resulted in the increase of number of suppliers. High Differentiation There is differentiation in style and concept of the apparel industry. High High threat of new entries would indicate that the industry is attractive and and could decrease the profit margin of H&M e.g.UNIQLO. However, these competitors must have sufficient financial resources to compete with the current incumbent in the industry. These new entries would have to build up experience over time in order to be on par with existing competitors. The competitive rivalry is moderately high because the market is fragmented and there are few major incumbents in the industry. With intense rivalry e.g. Zara, each competitor is vigorously competing against the rest in order to have a market share in this apparel industry. From the P5F analysis, H&M is operating is a highly attractive market where the threats of entry is high, threats of substitute is low, power of buyer is high, power of supplier is low and high rivalry. Overall, H&M is operating in a highly competitive and attractive external environment. Therefore H&M must take steps to look into its resources and identify its strategic capabilities in order to stay ahead of the competition. Q2a) Identify and discuss the strategic capabilities of H&M. Strategic capabilities refer to the capabilities of an organisation that contributes to its long-term survival or competitive advantage (Johnson, et al. 2014). The components of strategic capabilities are resources (what the firm has) and competences (what they do well). The table below lists down all the resources and competences of H&M. This table also identifies the type of capabilities for each competences namely threshold and distinctive capabilities. Threshold capabilities refer to competences that are needed for the organisation to meet the necessary requirements to compete in a given market; and distinctive capabilities look into competences that are required to achieve competitive advantage (Johnson, et al. 2014). Resources Competences Type of capabilities Organisational resources Competent leader who has a good business acumen Distinctive Physical resources Stores position in the best location Threshold Rapid expansion into other countries and new markets Threshold Has 2206 stores in 43 countries Distinctive Ability to deliver collection within a month of initial design Distinctive Efficient integrated logistic team Distinctive Technological resources Owns its own clothing line and trends Distinctive Human resources 200 talented designers and pattern makers Distinctive Empowerment of store managers with autonomy Threshold Collaboration with famous designers to produce new collection Distinctive Innovation resources Building creative window and store displays Distinctive Created a special collection using sustainable materials (CSR) Threshold Reputational resources Pioneered in ‘fast-fashion’ business Distinctive Emphasize ‘cheap and chic’ business model Distinctive Strong branding Distinctive Culture Instils the importance of core values in employees Threshold Strong corporate culture (spirit of H&M) – Encourages experimentation, trial and error learning, decision making, initiatives, try new ideas Distinctive Information technology (IT) Efficient reporting of sales Threshold Establishment of strong social media presence Threshold Effective information sharing software Threshold Based on the table above, H&M has more distinctive capabilities than threshold. H&M now could recognise the different types of capabilities and which are the ones the organisation should focus on and turn them into sustainable competitive advantage generating above average returns. H&M has to put more effort in the distinctive capabilities such as competent leadership, physical assets such as stores, its ever-changing collection of designer clothes, integrated logistics function, its talented employees, successful collaborations, creative window display, its fast-fashion business model, strong branding and lastly its strong corporate culture. With the SWOT analysis, H&M has to continue its efforts strengthening its strength so that it would give the organisation an advantage over its rivals. As for its weaknesses, H&M could either eliminate or work on weaknesses by turning them into strengths. H&M should seize the opportunities when the time is right. Lastly, threats should be avoided or steer away from them. Identify the key issues, challenges and opportunities facing H&M. The key issues of H&M are whether their existing resources, capabilities, practices and knowledge are sufficient to keep up with competition. Another key issue is the threat of new and vigorous entrants. The answer to these is yes, H&M could keep up with the competition due to substantial resources, strategic distinctive capabilities, strong value creating activities, strong practices and knowledge. H&M challenges would be revitalising and redefining its strategic capabilities in order to be sustainable in this apparel industry. H&M has to keep up with the latest fashion trends and continue to explore other avenues to create value to its value chain activities. Another challenge is to stay ahead of its competitors especially the threats by new and vigorous new entrants, by moving fast and reaching large market based by applying a simple business model – ‘cheap and chic’. The opportunities would be v enturing into new areas where H&M has yet to explore e.g. online shopping, opening the largest store in the world on Fifth Avenue, New York. H&M has to evaluate if these opportunities could give them the competitive edge against its competitors and generating an above average returns. Based on preceding analysis, formulate and discuss appropriate strategies that you would recommend to H&M in order for it to achieve above-average returns in the future. H&M is now operating a cost leadership strategy. This strategy involves becoming the lowest-cost organisation in the industry (Johnson, et al. 2014). Cost leadership strategy is an integrated set of actions taken to produce goods or services with features that are acceptable to customers at the lowest cost (Ireland, Hoskisson and Hitt 2013) Based on preceding analysis, it is timely for H&M to review its business level strategy. Cost leadership strategy is not always the best strategy for H&M as there will always be the risk of being undercut on price especially during the economic downturn. Secondly, low cost has always been associated with cheap quality goods where products barely meet the market standard. H&M should be considering using the lock-in business strategy. This strategy is where customers become dependen t on H&M and are unable to use another supplier without substantial switching cost. With this lock-in strategy, copycats and substitutes of H&M products would have a hard time attracting customers. With customers securely locked in, H&M could charge prices which are well above cost. Lock-in strategies can be achieved in two ways mainly controlling complementary products/services and creating a proprietary industry standard (Johnson, et al. 2014). Another strategy which H&M could consider is differentiation strategies. Differentiation involves uniqueness along some dimensions that are sufficiently valued by customers to allow a price premium. Based on H&M’s strategic capabilities, one of its competitive advantage competences is having its own clothing line and trends. The fashion house could use this competency to carry out the differentiation strategy. With H&M’s large pool of over 200 talented designers and collaboration with famous top designers, customers would be willing to pay more for the latest style and fashion. With the unpredictability of the fashion industry, H&M has to be able to stay well ahead of its major competitors by reviewing its strategic capab ilities from time to time. Capabilities need to change and evolved into dynamic capabilities. Only dynamic capabilities have what it takes to be the key driver towards strategic change. Like what fashion model, Heidi Klum, from the fashion industry always said, â€Å"Today you are in but tomorrow, you might be out!† The same goes to the chosen strategy of H&M, cost leadership might  work today, but it won’t be the correct strategy tomorrow. Bibliography Ireland, R. Duane, Robert E. Hoskisson, and Michael A. Hitt. The Management of Strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2013. Johnson, Gerry, Richard Whittington, Kevan Scholes, Duncan Angwin , and Patrick Regner. Exploring Strategy. Harlow: Pearson, 2014.