Romeo and Juliet essay Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet essay Essay Marco has shown him whose boss and Eddie does not like it. This scene is also left in the audience because the curtain then closes, so this is the picture put into their heads last. A Scene of triumph, a scene of warning, it says dont mess with me, or my brother! Because I will always win. Millers stage directions are also very important here. This is why A View from the Bridge is a play and not a book. The audience need to see Marcos face of warning and Eddies grin vanish as he realises whats just happened. This would not be written effectively enough for the audience to understand this is such a dramatic action in the play. Because to a reader this seems like another game, like there still getting a long fine. But the stage directions his chair raised like a weapon over Eddies head. These stage directions show that this is no longer a fun family game, but a competition and a threat. We open again; Alfieri makes the audience aware that Rodolfo and Catherine are alone, for the first time. In this scene we can clearly see that Eddie has got to her he has Catherine anxious and scared that Rodolfo might only want his papers. She starts by questioning him, whether or not he would be willing to relocate back to Italy if the circumstances allow it. Suppose I want to live in Italy. Rodolfo thinks that Catherine is joking as he says you going to marry somebody rich? Then Catherine quickly shows him she is not joking No I mean live there- you and me (His smile vanishing) Rodolfo becomes disappointed in Catherine as she is taking Eddies words to heart. Thy continue their conversation and Catherine brings up the real problem, Im afraid of Eddie here. Rodolfo is so angry not at Catherine, but Eddies poisonous words that have corrupted his loves mouth. He gets angry you think I would carry on my back the rest of my days a women I didnt love just to be an American? this rhetorical question hives effect to the sentence. It leaves Catherine with no choice but to say no and to agree. And unwisely this leads to a large fall in Eddies status. Theres nobody here now, come inside. ( He leads her towards the bedroom) At this point Eddie appears and he is drunk. Already the audience can see that this is a recipe for disaster. Catherine and Rodolfo are in the bedroom, and Eddie is drunk, so not quite able to control himself. When he sees Rodolfo and Catherine come out of the bedroom, he is angry. As any father would be if in his situation, but Eddie is angry for a different reason, he is jealous of Rodolfo. Pack it up. Go ahead. Get your stuff and get outa here. When Catherine makes a move to go with Rodolfo, Eddie is angry and takes what he wants. He doesnt ask, he just takes it. (He reaches out suddenly, draws her to him, and as she strives to free herself he kisses her on the mouth. This disgusting and selfish move from Eddie only causes more problems. He has just forced the girl he raised like a daughter to kiss him. It is at this point we as the audience truly learn of Eddies true desires. Then the ironic line follows. Stop that! Have respect for her! Rodolfo is now demanding respect, but for Catherine. After Eddies countless demands that Rodolfo doesnt respect him or Catherine the roles have now reversed and it is Eddie needing told. Then Eddie takes it all as a joke and kisses Rodolfo as well. Eddie has taken it to far by now. And he is almost at a point where he cannot climb back up to the top. You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole that a word that you gave a way. Eddie had almost reached this point, where a million dollars would be easier to get back than his respect. He snitched on his whole family I want to report something. Illegal immigrants. Two of them. Eddies respect has gone. Theres no way of retrieving it now. His name, his family this is a huge step in the scale, telling on his own family and ruining their lives. In this play Eddie becomes very selfish, I want my name he says this like someone has taken it from him, when he has taken it from himself. You used to be different when he is the one that has clearly changed. Beatrices line IM no different shows us that every one is noticing the change in Eddie now. Is Eddie the victim? No he is not. Eddie is the culprit through and through this play, and now every one knows it. When the immigration officers come, Beatrice knows straight away. Oh, Jesus, Eddie. oh, my God, my God What did you do? Eddie denies it, but everyone knows, Catherine knows, Beatrice knows, Marco knows, Rodolfo knows, even the neighbourhood knows, Eddie Carbone is a traitor to his family. A guy do a thing like that, hows he gonna show his face? And o add insult to injury, Marco points him out in front of every one. That one! I accuse that one! he is too disgusted to use his name, but just points. He killed my children! That one stole the food from my children! Miller uses this line because he is showing the audience this is it. The end. Marco will go back to Italy, to no work and no money to feed his family. Eddie, who once helped, killed his family. Eddie should be humbled, he should be quiet. He has accomplished hat he wanted. But he is still hung over about his name. Only blood is good? Beatrice tries to tell Eddie that Marco comes in peace; he wants this to be over. But Marco is beyond kissing Eddies hand. Ad Eddie is beyond letting him. In both these stubborn mens eyes there is only malice and hatred. Te only way to solve this, is to confront it like a man. Eddie Carbone! shouting his name is almost a challenge, Eddie repeats his name three times, as though confirming that it is HIS name, and he wants it. Maybe hes come to apologize, heh Marco? For what you said to me in front of the whole neighbourhood? Wipin the neighbourhood with my name like a dirty rag! I want my name Marco! his next step has he lunges for Marco looks as though he is going to physically take his name from Marco. When it is irretrievable. But Marco shows his strength again another step in Eddies decline. Animal! You go on your knees to me! The tears are in Eddies eyes. Everyone knows he has taken it too far, even him. But he cannot quit now. He lunges towards Marco as Marco flips the blade and delivers a fatal blow. Eddie has gone. He is not Eddie anymore. He lost himself trying to get what he wanted to most. His inappropriate love for Catherine was his downfall. Mans jealously over powered him and no one could help him come back. He finally gives up on his deathbed he appears as though he is going to tell B of, why did you let this happen then he dies in her arms, with the words My B! He loves B but it is to late now. Alfieris closing statement reminds us of the beginning, Most of the time we settle for half, and I like it better. If Eddie Carbone had settled for his half, Catherine and Rodolfo would have been happily married, Marco would have enough money to go to his family and Eddie and Beatrice would continue to love. Eddie would have respect. But he was greedy; he wanted the whole apple not just a bite. This story does not have a happy ending, as you would expect it to. It leaves us guessing, but Eddies greed incapacitates those around him. The audience is left with no doubt in their minds at what happens next. And they cant help thinking; this is not a story that has never happened before. This tale happens all over the world, men take what the want and give nothing back. And yet, it is better to settle for half, it must be! And so I mourn him- I admit it- with a certain alarm! Abigail Craig-A View From the Bridge Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Personal Narrative- First Love and Missed Opportunities :: Personal Narrative Writing

Personal Narrative- First Love and Missed Opportunities As a sophomore my workload consists mainly of three very different classes. But within the first week I had something to tie them together; love, to be more specific, first love. In my bible study class, the professor wanted to illustrate the human ability to recall detailed information regarding personally important events. He posed the question â€Å"How many of you remember your first love?† and went on to say how we should approach bible study with a degree of passion. The question was posed again in my science history class, illustrating the love the people we were going to study (Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton) had for their professions. A few days later in creative writing, we described an author’s passion for basketball as his first love. Our professor pauses to place a question before the group. â€Å"How many of you can remember your first love?† A triple coincidence in my classes? Or maybe a theme for the year two thousand. Perhaps the weather was maki ng my professors nostalgic. Who knows? It would be prudent to note that I’m not a particularly attractive individual. I am a short, overweight man with no lack of body hair. Suffice to say I have not been in an intimate situation since playing house at the age of six. None the less each time the question was posed before the class, I raised my hand. After all, it seemed like almost everyone was responding and it wasn’t as if I were weird or anything. I may not have had a first love to remember, but I still remember vividly my first crush. Her name was Kelly and I had the hots for her through junior high and early high school. We met in junior high band. We both played French Horn and sat next to each other every day. I was first attracted to her by the things we had in common. We both had the tendency to follow the school rules. Like me, she liked writing and we later developed an interest in Biology. We were simply like-minded. She would finish my thoughts when speaking and tended to focus on the things I found important. Then, I started to have totally irrational feelings for her. The hairs on the back of my neck would stand with excitement any time she was near me. Her presence was always on my mind whenever she was in the same room.

Mentoring Student Nurses in Theatre Essay

The Operating theatre is an alien environment for students and may be deemed hostile and uninviting. The role of mentors in such a specialised environment is to encourage interaction rather than passivity and utilise every learning opportunity that exists. Students should be encouraged to reflect on those experiences in a structured manner, to assist in their development of meaningful reflection, which is a valuable tool for throughout their career (Quinn 2000). The aim of this assignment is to critically analyse and reflect upon an innovation, that relates to learning and assessing in the practice environment of theatres. The learning outcomes 1, 2 and 4 will be the focus for this assignment because I feel they are the most relevant for reflecting on my innovation as they cover the Importance of the student and mentor relationship in relation to their learning experience, the opportunities and limitations to learning in practice and the evaluation of learning theories and teaching strategies to facilitate the integration of theory and practice. The innovation was a learning package titled ‘Airway equipment & techniques in the theatre setting†. The pack was designed to be a basic insite into the different pieces of equipment and the techniques used and was presented to a second year student nurse, as part of a teaching session. Bruner (1961) explains that when presenting new information to students, the way the material is structured is important to overall learning. He believed that if students understand the basic structure of a subject they will find out much of the finer detail themselves. Spouse(2001) recognised that observation can aid in increased understanding, whilst practice can increase competence, provided the necessary knowledge is in place, in order to facilitate comprehension. I believe that understanding the basics of airway management is a valuable and transferable skill that the student can utilise in any clinical setting. Quinn (2000) who formulated a student-centrered approach to learning, visualising the mentor as a helper and facilitator for and providing of, resources for learning, being someone who shares feelings as well as knowledge with their students. Before introducing some of the techniques and equipment used in airway management, i knew it was important to discuss with the student their level of knowledge and experience. Airway management may be an area that they believe is unique to the theatre environment. In discussion with the student prior to the teaching session, i explained that in every clinical area there is an emergency resusitation trolley, consisting of a defibrillator, emergency drugs and one of the essential components on each one is an airway tray, each containing the equipment that is described in my innovation. During our conversation it was established that during their previous placements, no aspects of airway management had been covered. On previous placements they had been shown where the emergency trolley was kept, but there had not been any formal teaching to familiarise them with the components. Airway management and equipment was therefore not something they felt they understood very well, despite this they showed a keen interest in learning more about the them, acknowledging that although specialised, airway management skills are highly transferable to any setting. Welsh and Swann (2002) believe it is essential to assess a students prior knowledge as this establishes a baseline for development and is a prerequisite for planning future learning. By making the time to discuss the students previous learning experiences at the beginning of their placement, it gives an opportunity for the mentor and student to develop the learning outcomes that need to be achieved and discuss how they wish to achieve them. Learning, according to Rogers (1983) is based on three key factors that exist in the relationship between mentors and students. The first factor being genuineness, were the mentor should come across as a ‘real person’, therefore able to develop a normal relationship with their student. I feel that by welcoming my student to theatres I achieved this. Trust and acceptance, being that the mentor should see and accept their student as an individual, that is worthy of their care and respect. Finally, the empathatic understanding by the mentor, by being able to see things from the students perspective and act appropriately in response to this. Smith (1992) supports that student nurses feel better able to care for patients when they feel cared for by their mentor and clinical staff. After the teaching session the student kept the learning pack to use as a source of reference, for throughout their placement, when observing the equipment being used in everyday practice. To assess the effectiveness of the innovation the student was asked to complete a questionnaire, to evaluate what they had learned from being provided with the pack, as well as an evaluation form to help me understand how the student felt about the teaching session. I felt comfortable throughout the teaching session and the student asked questions openly, which I encouraged them to do. Allen (2005) stated that a good mentor should be open and honest as well as be able to take advice and criticism. According to Neary (1997) and Gray and Smith (2000), most students believe that a successful assessment outcome depends on having a good working relationship with the mentor. A mentor should support the current version of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards (2008b) and note that there are several reasons for supporting learning in practice: ‘to provide support and guidance to the student when learning new skills, applying new knowledge and transferring existing knowledge and competence to a new context of practice’ (pg 36); to act as a resource; to manage the learning; and to observe the practice to ensure outcomes and competencies are met (as defined by the NMC). Whilst these standards are mainly aimed at student nurses the term ‘student’ could be applied to those learning, even when they are registered nurses as they are participating in lifelong learning. Students feeling welcome and valued when they arrive will assist with their learning throughout the placement. According to Quinn (2000) identifying the learning needs of the student is best approached at the beginning of the placement. How students interact with the learning environment is important, particularly in the context of life long learning and continuing professional development. As in all specialised areas there are procedures that need to be understood and learned as the student progresses along the professional curve. ( Radford and Hunt 1999). As a mentor in the theatre setting, I have learned to identify areas that could be improved for student learning, such as Techniques that are ‘every day’ to the staff as professionals and the jargon that they use, can be seen as bizarre and seemingly difficult to learn for the student. The idea was to produce an eye catching innovation . A visually attractive and an uncomplicated style of teaching was applied, using indicators for further study for future, current or past theatre placement students. This was to encourage self-directed learning (Ghazi & Henshaw 1998) and avoid over-whelming the student with too much information which may create anxiety and fear. An important aspect of reducing anxiety for students is their introduction to the placement area. This is something that every registered nurse can relate to because we can all remember being student nurses ourselves and can all recall our ‘good’ and ‘bad’ placements easily, the ‘bad’ often being when everything still felt unfamiliar sometimes weeks into a placement area. Swann (2005) identified that an essential component of the mentor/mentored relationship is communication. Hutchinson (2003) supports this by stating that an environment is not just the physical area but also the attitudes of staff. The student nurse on placement in theatres was introduced to firstly their mentor, who after a friendly introduction took the student to the locker room to show them where they could leave their belongings and get changed. Once changed into theatre scrubs they were taken through the department and in each area they were introduced to the staff and the allocated mentors for that area. The health and safety aspects of the department and the fire procedure was also explained. In theatres students have frequently commented on their initial anxieties when coming for a placement. Sampson (2006) carried out a study to identify why there was a shortage of student’s choosing theatres for a clinical placement. Findings suggest that there has been a dramatic fall in the number of students coming to work in theatres and students are not choosing this area due to fear and anxiety about this specialised, unknown environment. When anxiety is high, an individual is immobilised, perceptions are narrowed and learning is impeded (Meisenhelder, 1987) Positive ways to motivate and encourage learning is described by Sampson (2006) as making learning interesting, ensuring relevance to learners’ needs, reinforcing positive not negative aspects and giving students responsibility for learning. By providing the student with the learning pack, it allowed them to take some responsibility for their learning. Silen-Lipponen et al (2004) identified that students have difficulties combining theoretical and clinical knowledge in the learning process, but the perioperative environment can enhance student education by integrating theory, and practice and developing skills in reflection. These knowledge and skills are required by the NMC (2008) standards of proficiency for pre-registration nurses which state that; safe and effective practice requires a sound underpinning of the theoretical knowledge, which informs practice, and must therefore reflect breadth of practice and learning. Much evidence exists which suggests that the perioperative clinical area is an invaluable learning environment and it is essential that student nurses are aware of the learning opportunities available within this diverse clinical area (. Silen-Lipponen et al 2004) Factors that may inhibit learning for students can be described as internal or external in nature. The most common barriers have been identified by many authors (AshCroft, Foreman-peck 1994, Reece and Walker(2000) and Quinn(2000), they include pressure of time and workload, lack of support from the organisation and family. The learning pack was innovated and planned to assist myself in teaching and to provide the student with the most appropriate teaching for their level of learning. Before beginning the teaching session, i encouraged the student to openly ask questions, as the teaching session was based on explaining the contents of the teaching pack, which they would be using throughout their allocation. Scouse (2001) recognised that observation can aid increased understanding, whilst practice can increase competence, provided the necessary knowledge is in place to facilitate comprehension. Reece and Walker (2002) identified that our perception of learning will affect how we teach. Therefore before we explore how to teach, we must understand how people learn. Learning is a relatively permanent change, usually brought about intentionally. Jarvis (1983) highlighted three domains of learning that are important for any healthcare professional. Cognitive, affective and psychomotor show that learning can occur from teaching, study or the assimilation of information and skills as a result of experience. The clinical environment offers a challenge in relation to the choices of strategy available to facilitate learning. Oliver and Endersby (1994) suggest that most teaching in practice areas deal with skills, including interpersonal and management skills. The elements of the educational taxonomy considers that any learning topic has robe considered from three perspectives in relation to what a student has to learn. To apply these using a component of the innovation and given to a student nurse, with something such as teaching a student how to apply an oxygen mask to a patient, the psychomotor skill would be for the student to be able to select and open the face mask, correctly assemble and then connect it to the oxygen source, then document appropriately. It is not enough just to be able to assemble the mask and administer oxygen, for cognitive skills, the student should should also be able to understand why they are giving the patient oxygen, it’s effects and the correct observations. It should not be forgotten that receiving the oxygen is a patient. To be competent with affective skills the student must display the appropriate communication and interpersonal skills. Quinn (2000) stated that mentors can often tend to use strategies they find useful but must be conscious of the preferred learning style of the student. There are three main theories of learning, behaviourism, cognitivism and humanism. Each looks at learning from a different perspective. Along with learning theories it is vital to consider the mentor/student relationship and the learning environment, as these can help or hinder learning (Gray and Smith 2000). Behaviourism is the response gained from behaviour. Cognitive theory focuses on psychological processes that are involved in the acquisition, organisation and use of knowledge (knowles 1990). Austell (1987) advocated the concept of an ‘advanced organiser’. This is a strategy introduced in advance of new material for example, teaching theory before practising a skill. The student was taught the importance of knowing the correct airway management of the unconscious patient in the recovery room, this aided their understanding of which airway equipment or technique was used and why. The learning package and teaching session combined with a perfect learning environment within the theatre and recovery settings, allowed the student the opportunity to apply theory to practice. Fretwell (1985) stated that an ideal learning environment is seen as one in which the educational needs of the student are met. Along with knowledge of the learning domains, it also useful to consider the learning styles of the students. One of the most often cited model is that of Honey and Mumford cited in Howard, 1999, p 110) of the activist, pragmatist, theorist and reflector. Acknowledging these aspects, along with the use of different teaching strategies, Howard (1999) suggested enabling the learning to be adult-centred rather than following a teacher driven agenda. Noone (2009), on discussing a nursing curriculum, suggests that it should integrate three aspects: the cognitive/intellectual; the skills-base; and the ethical comportment/behavioural one. Whilst the one-off session about airway management can’t be compared to a full programme of education, it does, never-the-less, incorporate each of these aspects. There is knowledge of the anatomy and physiology, the use of airway adjuncts and the respect for dignity, by utilising good communication skills are all apparent. By accounting for learning theories, the learning environment, strategies for teaching and learning styles, I have been able to reflect on this experience and discovered areas I can make improvements or change. Theories of learning helped me to acknowledge the relevance of behaviours, knowledge, comprehension and feelings while teaching students, I will use this knowledge to further develop my skills in teaching. The fact that reflection takes place is important as it contributes to the continuing development of a practitioner and facilitates the development of effective practice (johns 2000). To reflect on my innovation i will follow the framework of Gibbs’ (1998) reflective cycle, which I believe is thorough and logical. I developed a learning package for student nurses to learn, understand and develop knowledge in the skills required for the different ways to manage a patients airway, within the theatre setting. The pack consisted of airway management equipment and techniques ranging from the most basic to advanced. I presented it to a second year student that was on placement in theatres. My aim was that the student would learn the basics of airway management, some of which they would be able to put into practice in the recovery room under supervision, such as removal of a patients laryngeal mask. Whilst i was developing the teaching plan and the innovation, I refreshed my own knowledge, making me feel more confident to present the session. The evaluation form that was completed by the student was very positive, I will therefore feel less apprehensive the next time I do a teaching session. The learning pack helped the student to become familiar with the airway equipment and techniques easily. Feedback from the student showed that the pictures and brief descriptions, provided enough information to enable them to recall that information, whilst observing the equipment and techniques being used in practice. This type of learning style could be associated with Dunn (1984) who describes the Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic (VAK) model. When a student nurse has a placement in theatre, the unfamiliar environment and uniforms can be quite daunting. Many things can can be done to promote a good learning environment that meets the needs of the learners. There is a need to help the students understand the learning opportunities available to them and give them support. The student was introduced to the theatre team, on the first day of their placement and I explained about the different routines compare with their knowledge of the ward placements they had been to. The student was initially very nervous, but by providing reassurances and familiarising them with the layout and routine for theatre, they soon settled into their placement and became part of our team. I asked the student following the teaching session to complete an evaluation form. I believe my teaching approach worked well and the student achieved all of their learning objectives. I am certain that during the students placement I maintained a professional but approachable attitude and encouraged them to ask questions when they felt they needed to. Overall I feel that I have learned that the foundation for being a good mentor is in building a good working relationship with the student. Achieving this will underpin every other aspect of being their mentor. Time spent working with the student should be utilised well with plenty of opportunity for discussions. Once a rapport has developed, as a mentor I should display insight into the students needs which will show a degree of empathatic understanding, which will make them more at ease. I now understand the significance of a conducive learning environment so that the student Feels comfortable in the unfamiliar setting and feels supported. The theoretical knowledge of learning theories and teaching strategies that I have gained will enable me to meet the requirements of each individual student needs.

Herman Miller Inc Essay

From the headquarters of Herman Miller Inc. , Curt Pullen talks amid the unmistakable pounding sounds and commotion associated with a construction work site about his company’s plan to rebound from the recession. Pullen, the firm’s executive vice president and president of North America, says the workers are installing new lower-height Herman Miller workstations designed to accommodate a growing trend in offices toward more open, collaborative environments. The new product, called Canvas, is part of the company’s market-shift strategy after the demand for office furniture fell hard during the economic downturn. The plan also involves diversifying into the health care and academic furniture markets and more emphasis on emerging economies. The plan appears to be paying off. For the first time in nearly four years the company reported two consecutive quarters of double-digit percentage sales growth after releasing its second-quarter earnings statement on Dec 15th. Orders in the second quarter rose 34% to $462 million. CEO Brian Walker noted the company’s expanded market reach as a contributing factor to growth. Significant increases occurred in international markets where sales rose 33%. In 2010 the company acquired UK-based ergonomic workstation manufacturer Colebrook Bosson Saunders and purchased assets from Australian furniture maker Living Edge Group. In 2008, the company announced a partnership with China’s Posh Office Systems Ltd. to expand in the Asia-Pacific region. The company attributed a year-end surge to gains in its international, health care, learning and retail vertical markets. The expanding health care industry has become one of the company’s key growth targets. One of the more recent expansions into the health care field came on Jan. 31 when Herman Miller completed its acquisition of health care furniture manufacturer Nemschoff Chairs LLC based in Sheboygan, Wis. Herman Miller designed the Canvas workstation at a lower height than traditional workstations to facilitate a workplace trend toward more collaborative environments. The design also allows more light into work areas and saves space, the company says. Including sinks and headwalls, to be reconfigured to meet patient needs. 2. Business Strategy: Broad Differentiation Strategies This strategy pursues the buyer’s needs and preference to make them satisfied with the product. And to be different from other rivals, the product must have unique product attributes that a wide range of buyers find appealing and worth paying for. The strategy achieves its aim when an attractively large numbers of buyers find the customer buyer value proposition. Herman miller is pursuing this strategy as we refer to the case study that their products are based on the design which is designed according to the people who use the furniture. Like the president of Herman Miller said: ‘people are important not the furniture. Furniture should be useful’. Besides, this company emphasizes on product design and environmental friendly, these are two basic things that they have been practicing for many decades. Furthermore, they also invest more in research and development for product innovation. Take an example of office design product, Herman Miller’s Insight and Exploration team observed various workplaces to analyze how people collaborate and the ways in which their interactions vary over the course of a day, and throughout the life of a project by differentiating the subtleties of how, when, where, and why people connect independent of content or industry. Senior Researcher Shilpi Kumar notes that, â€Å"outlining these collaborative work behaviors will empower designers and decision makers with a greater understanding for how people really work, and will enable more informed choices in regards to office spaces. Herman Miller takes advantage of the growing desire for green products to create a better world and increase ergonomic furniture, because the consumers are willing to pay a premium for such quality and social responsible product. Since the designer of Herman Miller emphasized quality, excellence, and the continual improvement of their products, obviously one of their product which is designed by Charles and Ray Eames since its launch in 1950 had developed from plastic chair to wood chair in 2000. She also confirmed that this wood chair is 100 times recyclable since Herman Miller is concerned about environmental friendly, and Eames Molded Wood Side Chair earns â€Å"Gold† award at NeoCon 2013 in the Guest Seating category. 3. Functional strategy: Research and Development (R&D) This category focuses on strategy that is concerned with the actions in managing particular functions within a business especially in R&D. In terms of Herman Miller R&D, they invested in research and development (R&D) financially. Although there was downturn in financial, Herman Miller still invested tens of millions of dollars in R&D. The investment in R&D was code named Purple. A result of investment in R&D was an outgrowth of project Purple. The goal of this project was to spread beyond the boundaries of normal business. Herman miller created a special team called the accessories team in which the team-identified a potential growth area. This team is made to recruit people with different disciplines needed to support that goal. In addition, this team focuses on contributing ideas to the success of the team from all resources and also to develop a particular product as it goes through that piece of work. This project is in line with functional strategy of R&D in which a company’s product development represents the plan for keeping the company’s product in accordance with what buyers are looking for (Thompson et al, 2014). In the case of Herman Miller Inc, they began with research in every real design solution in which the exploitation and insights of the best research leads to human-centered design and problem solving. Herman Miller Inc is doing many things for R&D in the case of education, sustainability, performance, healthcare, manufacturing, architectures design and ergonomics. Herman Miller Inc has its major R&D activities and projects, i. e. its way to support and develop a company’s product. According to Herman Miller’s financial statement for fiscal years 2006-2011, there was a decline in design and research in 2009 due to the ongoing economic downturn. Figure 1. 1: Spending on Design and research So far, they have done some research projects regarding education such as; student’s research work behaviors behind innovation spaces. In the fall 2012, there was a project Herman Miller funded as a way of investing in the next generation of workers by giving students the chance to apply what hey learn in a real-world setting. Herman Miller wanted them to look at the business objective of the company. Besides Herman Miller providing the funds, the employees of the company also participated in the project. After the field research, the goal of this project was that the students shared what they had learned from going to the company for a workshop. The company also wanted to discover more about places that encourage creativity and the places of creative people. Besides Herman Miller providing the funds, the employee of the company also participated in the project. In regarding with the research in technology, the research starts by understanding which technological trends are creating new behaviors in the workplace. So from that, they can produce new design solution. Over the last three years, a group of designers, engineers, and researchers, the Insight Herman Miller and Exploration Team (I & E) has focused on emerging technologies and how they alter social behavior in the workplace. Herman Miller’s goal is to identify the technology trends that are relevant to the office and also understanding new behaviors that allow the designers, architects and manufacturers to bring new workplace design. For healthcare, Herman Miller Healthcare saw the opportunity to study and analyze by doing the research from the discussion of Bluewater health in which prior to design development and also the satisfaction and safety of patients and staff members. Herman Miller Healthcare is sponsoring a research project that will explore how changes in the built environment have affected staff in three important areas: Ambulatory Care, Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department. 3 4. Functional Strategies: Marketing Marketing is one of the strategies used under functional strategy. First and foremost, Herman Miller products were sold internationally through wholly owned subsidiaries in countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, China, India, and the Netherlands. Hence, they use the international strategy to compete its products in each country. In other words, they use the foreign subsidiary strategies because it seemed that they prefer to have a direct control over all aspects of operating in a foreign country that is the reason why they established wholly owned subsidiaries. As a result, this strategy was successful as their brand was recognized by customers and increased customer base spreading over 100 countries. Moreover, they used green marketing strategy to sell their products. This is because they mainly focus on environmental friendly such as Mirra chair, one of their products which was made of 45 percent recycled materials, and 96 percent of its material were recyclable. Therefore, the chairs used 100 percent renewable energy. Due to this strategy used, Mirra chair was recorded as one of the Top 10 Green Products by Architectural Record and Environmental Building News. Hence, this can indicate the success of using this strategy. In addition, Herman Miller engaged in cooperating advertising with strategic partners. As the example of Hilton Garden Inns which they equipped the Mirra chair in some room and on the desk in the room, was a card that explain how to adjust the chair while also providing the advertisement of Herman Miller’s website, how to purchase the products. Likewise, this is one of the advertising used to promote their products by using the strategic partner. As a result, they can reduce the advertising cost and gain more brand awareness. . Operating Strategy: Lean Production Initially, at Spring Lake, Herman Miller had invested in a giant robot assembly that welded supports inside file cabinet housings, including a tractor-trailer-length automated welding line with 1,000 sensors to drive labor completely out of the process. Unfortunately, big customers like Hewlett-Packard and AT&T were pulling their orders of 100 instead of 500 and some wanted file cabinets in two weeks instead of six with much higher quality. The Spring Lake plant could not deliver, and certainly not for the lower prices customers demanded. 995, they adapted Toyota’s leading-edge formula for plant-floor management into an approach they called the Herman Miller Performance System (Booz&co. , 2010, para 20). Based on the above quote, it depicted that Herman Miller’s decision to employ Herman Miller Performance System (HMPS); lean production, was to maintain efficiencies and cost savings by minimizing the amount of inventory on hand through a just-in-time process. To ensure a fluid flow on the order – driven production, Herman Miller collaborated with reliable and strategic suppliers. HMPS created competitive advantage through large assembly – manufacturing based. For example, direct materials and components purchased as needed to meet the demand and some suppliers delivered parts to Herman Miller production facilities five or six times per day. This resulted in a standard lead time of 10 to 20 days for majority of the products and low inventories on hand. Interestingly, HMPS managed to increase the variable costs rather than fixed costs while retaining proprietary control over manufacturing process. It was reported that â€Å"the plant managers across Herman Miller have learned that the best-run plants rely on people, not machines. Only people can solve problems to make assembly lines go faster, run cheaper, and deliver higher quality† (Booz&co. , 2010, para 25). Therefore, it can be concluded that labor intensive approach tend to outperform machine intensive approach especially when the products demand further customization with limited time and the majority of industry products are built to each customer’s unique order. Question 2: Culture at HMI: healthy and largely supportive of good strategy execution. Herman Miller had codified its long-practiced organizational values, intended as a basic for uniting all employees, building relationship, and contributing to society. Herman Miller started in 1905 with the Star Furniture Company and created the Herman Miller furniture company with his son in law named Dirk Jan De Pree. From the beginning, De Pree committed himself to treating all workers as individuals with specials talents and potential. This was part of Herman Miller’s corporate culture which continued to generate respect for all employees and take advantage of the diversity of skills possessed by all. This is one of the functional strategies in corporate culture in Herman Miller Inc in which included the company’s approach to people management, procedures and operating practices that provide the guidelines for the behavior of the company. The impact of this culture became one of the competitive advantages that make strong management and employee satisfaction in the company. The business principles and ethical standard of Herman Miller are the management practices as the key of company’s culture. Herman Miller was one of the furniture company named to Fast Company’s â€Å"Most Innovative Companies† in both 2008 and 2010. Herman Miller had pursued a path of reinvention and renewal. Herman Miller has many ways to develop their products and its culture is also unique. Through the growing of the company, Herman Miller maintains the relationship with the employees. Herman Miller’s commitment to innovation included sharing ideas and opinions from the employees. On January 1979, Herman Miller established new organization structures that included all employees were to be given the opportunity to discuss new plan in small group settings. In addition, Herman Miller also established a plan in which all employees became shareholders. Herman Miller Inc. also focuses on more efficient and environmentally friendly by taking a major initiative in 1981. It is in line with a better world value which is pursuing sustainability and environmental policy. They established environmental quality action team whose goal was to coordinate environmental programs worldwide that involves many employees. A Herman Miller’s culture is grounded in and resides to certain core value and some sets for ethical behavior. Herman Miller had long practiced organizational values that were still used in 2012. The values are as basis for uniting all employees, building relationship, adapt the implied attitude, behaviors and work practices. The company adopted inclusiveness which means they include all the expressions of human talent and potential that society offers. As mentioned before, Herman Miller corporate culture continued to create respect to all employees and looking for and utilizing the skills possessed by anyone. The second value is design in which it is important to Herman Miller Inc. in order to make innovative products. It is the way for them for looking at the world and how it can work. The results of this value are Herman Miller established many innovative products and designs. In 1971 and 1984, they introduced products based on ergonomics principles such as the Ergon chair and Equa chair. For another groundbreaking design, it introduced the Aeron chair which was almost added to New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent design collection in 1990. Other important values are based on Herman Miller’s best performance that focuses on enriching the lives of employees, customers and create value for the shareholders. The result of this value has made Herman Miller share the gains and pains with the employees especially about the compensation. All employees received a base pay and they also participated in a profit sharing program where they received stock in accordance to the company’s financial performance. The company also offered to the employees the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), retirement income plan, offered annual bonus to all employees based on company’s performance, and in regard to profit sharing both the employees and executives have same calculation of bonus potential. High performance culture In Herman Miller Inc. there is a strong sense of involvement on the part of company personnel and emphasis on individual initiative and creativity. Two of the greatest strengths lie behind our heritage of research-driven design. Respecting and encouraging risks, exploring new ideas and freedom of speech. Owners actively committed to the life of the community called Herman Miller, pride in doing things right, sharing in its success and risks. The strengths and payoff really comes in when engaging in people’s own problems, solutions and behavior. Performance is required at the highest level possible. Herman Miller enriches employees’ lives, delight its customers, and create value for its shareholders. Herman Miller includes all the express human talent and potential, everyone should have a chance to realize his or her potential regardless of color, gender, age, sexual orientation. It believes that skill; different educational background could bring the company uniqueness. Adaptive Culture Herman Miller always keep innovating its products to serve their customers better. Herman Miller’s corporate culture, which continued to generate respect for all employees, had fueled the quest to tap the diversity of gifts and skill held by all. The company designs products according to what people want the most, and it is a way of looking at the world and how it works or does not. To design a solution, rather than simply devising one, required research, thought sometime starting over, listening and humility. Manager and employees support each other in dealing with working environment. Herman Miller designed the Canvas workstation, at a lower height than traditional workstations to facilitate a workplace trend toward more collaborative environments. The design also allows more light into work areas and saves space, the company says. Additionally, the company also keeps changing its production designs from time to time according to the needs of the people and follow ergonomic system. Herman Miller hired much expertise to design its furniture, and it is costly to spend on R;D but company the company was willing to take risks on new innovation. Financial performance Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 Revenue ($ millions) $ 2,012. 1 $1,630. 0 $1,318. 8 $1,649. 2 R;D to Sales Ratio R;D/Sale 51. 2 / 2,012. 1 = 2. 5 % 45. 7 / 1,630. 0 = 2. 8 % 40. 5 / 1,318. 8 = 3. 1 % 45. 8 / 1,649. 2 = 2. 8 % Table 2. : HMI’s Revenues and R;D to Sales ratio from 2008 to 2011 Figure 2. 1: Research and development (R;D) to Sales ratio from 2008 to 2011 The above graph shows the trend of R;D sales ratio which increases from year 2008 until 2010. However, it decreased slightly in 2011 due to low R;D investment because of recession. However, it is not clear whether measuring the R;D ratio is a good metric to represent its efficiency towards a company. This is because it takes into consideration the R;D expenses rather than R;D investment thus it is easy to manipulate the number by lowering the R;D expenditure. Even, in the balance sheet of Herman Miller, the R;D investment is not disclosed under assets. If R;D is capitalized as asset, then it depicts the efficiency of R;D towards business revenues. In brief, due to that constraint, we assume that at least the R;D sales ratio increases and contributes positively towards Herman Miller’s business structure as Herman Miller invests heavily in R;D to create the furniture. Figure 2. 2: HMI’s Revenues from 2008 to 2011 The above graph illustrates that the trend of sales revenue decreases from year 2008 until 2010. However, it started to increase in year 2011. Thus, in brief, Herman Miller is improving in their sales through investment in Research and Development and produces competitive design. Question 3: HMI’s Financial situation: prior years and its competitors 1. HMI’s financial situation In order to measure the financial performance of Herman Miller Inc, we have used different ratios, such as liquidity, profitability, leverage and activity ratios. Besides, we also compare the financial performance of HMI in relation to its competitors – HNI and Steelcase Inc from 2008 until 2012 based on the above mention ratios. For our case, we have used the current ratio to measure the extent to which the three companies (HMI, HNI and Steelcase) can meet their short term obligations as shown in the figure below. Figure 3. 1: HMI’s current ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the current ratios for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , their current ratio showed some slight increase of about 1 percent from 2008 to 2009. However, a drop of about 21 percent was xperienced in 2010 but they were still able to maintain a current ratio of greater than 1. In the year 2011 and 2012, there had been a tremendous increase in their current ratio to 1. 76 and 1. 81 respectively. This current ratio of greater than 1 provides additional cushion against unforeseeable contingencies that may arise in the short term. In the case of HNI, their current ratio showed a moderate increase of about 7 percen t from 2008 to 2009. However, for the subsequent years, HNI experienced a decrease in their current ratio of approximately 10 percent from 2010 all the way to 2012. Nonetheless, they were able to maintain a current ratio of at least 1 to ensure that the value of their current assets covers at least the amount of their short term obligations. As for Steelcase, their current ratio showed a moderate increase of about 8 percent from 2008 to 2010. On the other hand, the company experienced a decrease of roughly 8 percent in the year 2011 but they were still able to maintain a current ratio of greater than 1. However, Steelcase managed to have an increase in their current ratio from 1. 37 in 2011 to 1. 52 in 2012. Overall, Herman Miller Inc. as shown a significant increasing trend in their current ratio as compared to the other two companies. This may suggest improved liquidity of the company or a more conservative approach to working capital management. ii. Profitability ratios: Profitability ratios measure management’s overall effectiveness as shown by the returns generated on sales and investment. There are a number of ratios under profitability but for our case, we have used the Return on Assets (ROA) to measure the after-tax profits per dollar of assets and Gross Profit Margin which measures the total margin available to cover operating expenses and yield a profit. These two ratios have been used to evaluate the three companies (HMI, HNI and Steelcase). Figure 3. 2. 1: HMI’s return on asset ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the Return on Assets for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , there has been a decreasing trend of ROA in the year 2008 to 2010 from 19 percent to 4 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is deteriorating. Nevertheless, rom the year 2010 to the year 2012, the company has shown some slight increasing trend of ROA from 4 percent to 9 percent respectively. This indicates that the company’s profitability is quite improving over the years. When it comes to HNI, it has also shown a high decreasing trend of ROA in the year 2008 to 2011 from 5 percent to -0. 6 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is extremely deteriorating. However , in the year 2012, there was an increase of about 4 percent as compared to the previous year. The company was able to move from -0. 6 percent to 3. 8 percent. This signifies that the company’s profitability is slightly improving. Lastly for Steelcase, there has also been a high decreasing trend of ROA from the year 2008 to 2010 with about 6 percent and -0. 8 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is extremely deteriorating. However, there was a slight increasing trend of ROA in 2011 and 2012 of 1. 02 percent and 3. 33 percent respectively. This means that the company’s profitability is somewhat improving. Overall, Herman Miller Inc. has shown a considerable increasing trend in their ROA over the years as compared to the other two companies. This may imply effective use of assets and creation of high margins by the company as well as gauging how well the company uses its financing from borrowing and bonds. Figure 3. 2. 2: HMI’s gross profit ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the Gross Profit Margin for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , there has been a slight decrease of the Gross Profit Margin in the year 2008 to 2009 from 34. 72 percent to 32. 37 percent respectively. However, from the year 2010 to the year 2012, the company has shown some slight increase in their Gross Profit Margin from 32. 49 percent to 34. 26 percent respectively. This indicates that the company can make a reasonable profit. For HNI, there has been an increasing trend of the Gross Profit Margin from the year 2008 to 2011 with about 33. 66 percent and 34. 6 percent respectively. However, in the year 2012, there was a slight decrease of about 1. 3 percent as compared to the previous year. The company’s Gross Profit Margin moved from 34. 86 percent to 34. 39 percent. This also signifies that the company can make a reasonable profit. Lastly for Steelcase, it has shown a slight decreasing trend of Gross Profit Margin from the year 2008 to 2010 with 32. 12 percent and 28. 35 percent respectively. However, there was a slight increasing trend of Gross Profit Margin in the subsequent years amounting to 29. 5 percent in 2012. This means that the company can still make a reasonable profit. Overall, HNI has shown a steady increasing trend in their Gross Profit Margin over the years as compared to the other two companies. This may indicate how efficiently the company is using its materials and labor in the production process and gives an indication of the pricing, cost structure, and production efficiency of the company. iii. Leverage ratios This ratio is used to determine the companies’ financing methods, or the ability to meet the obligations. There are many ratios to calculate leverage but the important factors include debt, interest expenses, equity and assets. In this section, we will examine two ratios which are debt to assets and debt to equity ratios. Figure 3. 3. 1: HMI’s debt to asset ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The debt to asset ratio gives us a quick measure of the amount of debt that the company has on its balance sheets compared to its assets. In general, the debt to asset ratio for Herman Miller fluctuated over the years as compared to its competitors – HNI and Steel case. In 2008, the debt to equity ratio for Herman Miller was above 80 percent and rose approximately to 100 percent in 2009, whereas this ratio was just about 61 percent and 57 percent for HNI and Steel case respectively in 2008; and about 58 percent in 2009 for both competitors. This indicated that almost 100 percent of Herman Miller’s assets were financed by debt or creditors which implied that the Company has high level of leverage and risk, while its competitors had roughly 50 percent of their assets financed by the owners. However, Herman Miller’s ratio significantly dropped in 2010 to about 40 percent which was below its competitors who almost maintained their position over the years. In 2012, 70 percent of Herman Miller’s assets were financed by debt. In general, although the company debt to assets ratio is still high in relation to its competitors, the financial performance of the company is improving after the financial crisis. However, the Company needs to further reduce the amount of debt resulting to the reduction of risk; this is because it may affect the company’s survival in the long-run. Figure 3. 3. 2: HMI’s debt to equity ratio versus its competitors’ ratio A debt-to-equity ratio measures the amount of debt a company uses to fund its business for every dollar of equity it has. In other words, it is a measure of a company’s ability to repay its obligations. Generally companies with less debt equity ratio are less risky than the companies with high ratios. As we can see from the graphs, Herman Miller Inc. has the highest ratio over the year in relation to the other companies. For instance, its ratio fluctuated significantly over the years which were at 32. 7 and 94. 91 in 2008 and 2009 respectively. This might be due to the effect of the financial crisis, which caused the company to increase its debt financing heavily. Also, this indicates that the company had substantial high amount of debt as compared to equity which can endanger the long term survival of the firm since the company may not be able to generate enough cash to satisfy its debt obl igations. Meanwhile, debt to equity ratio for HNI and Steel case was roughly lower than 2, which was acceptable for large public companies. For Herman Miller, however, this ratio sharply dropped over the next years to just about 8. 62 in 2010 and 2. 37 in 2012. In contrast, its competitors still can maintain their ratio below two over the next years. In order to improve this ratio, Herman Miller had sold its common stock and tried to lower the mount debt financing, this can be seen by the amount of long-term debt decreasing. This implies that the company’s financial performance has been improving after the financial crisis. In terms of leverage, overall, it can be said that the performance of the company has been improving over the years and regaining its position in the furniture market after the economic downturn. Although it may not do well as compared to its competitors in terms of financing the debt and equity, there is a sign of improvement and effort in positioning its self in the market industry in U. S. iv. Activity Ratios Figure 3. 4. 1: HMI’s Inventory turnover ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The inventory turnover is commonly used to measure the operational efficiency in managing its assets. Based on the figure 4. 1 illustrated above, in 2009, Herman Miller Inc. has the highest ratio compared to other years. This high ratio could indicate two conditions, such as; whether the company has strong sales during the year or it has an ineffective buying activity. However, it is perceived that the company did have strong sales proven from the lowest level of inventory and high sales revenue which are seen in the annual report during the year. While in 2010, Herman Miller Inc. ’s turnover ratio drops significantly compared to the other years. Its cost of sales for the year has the lowest and showed a decrement of 24% from previous year which simultaneously contribute to low ratio as well as indicating the lack of effectiveness particularly in turning its inventory into sales. One of the reasons is that it could be due to the recession which highly affected the company, and hence making them to reduce the cost of sales. However, Herman Miller Inc is getting better in turning its inventory into sales proven from the increment of its ratio by year. Additionally, compared to competitors, the position of the ratio shown for Herman Miller Inc. is located somewhat in the middle. Steelcase is somewhat faster in turning their inventory into sales compared to others. In contrast, HNI has the lowest rate. This proves that Steelcase is more effective in managing its operational assets. Figure 3. 4. 2: HMI’s Average collection period versus its competitors’ ratio Average collection period is the number of days it takes a company to collect its account receivables. As illustrated from the figure 4. 2 above, Herman Miller is getting better in obtaining its receivables shown by the average days taken which was from 58 days in 2008 and 34 days in 2012. This demonstrates that Herman miller Inc. onstantly improve its credit policy effectiveness confirmed by a dramatic slump by years. Comparing to other competitors, originally HNI was the most effective company in managing its credit term policy, as the company only took 38 days in collecting its account receivables compared to Steelcase or Herman Miller. However, the company ended up to be the highest rate at 2012 showing that it is not effective in evaluating company’s credit policy. As a result, when a company possesses a lower average collection period, it is seen as optimal as it indicates that the company does not take very long to turn its receivables into cash. . HMI’s current strategies: an issues of need to change its strategies during poor economic conditions The current Herman Miller strategy which focuses on growth strategy, through innovative products and related diversification made the company to survive the Great Depression early in its history, multiple recessions in 20th century and in early 21st century the company recovered from the dot-com bust and was able to continue expanding overseas. The furniture industry is an economically volatile industry. The office furniture segment of the industry was hit hard by the recession. Industry sales decreased 26. 5 percent during the 2009 economic downturn. However, because of the innovative and diversification, Herman Miller was able to outperform its competitors in terms of sales and profitability, during that time Herman Mill’s sales dropped by 19% which is relatively low in comparison with its competitors HNI Corporation and Steelcase which had dropped by 33 percent and 28% respectively. The furniture industry is at its maturity stage, thus Innovation is crucial to the company’s survival. If Herman Miller continues to successfully innovate, it will enable them to compete in the market strongly. The industry had been negatively impacted telecommunication which had reduced the need office furniture. Yet, more employees were spending more hours in front of the computer screens than ever before. Because of Herman Miller’s effective innovation, they were able to respond to the need of ergonomically correct office furniture that had helped to decrease fatigue and injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. In summary, the company does not need to radically alter its main strategy which focuses more on innovation and diversification as it’s the reason they were not dramatically hit by recessions and competitions among the rivals. 3. Recommendation: i. Reduced current benefit and incentive schemes There are several incentives that had been eliminated by Herman Miller’s management due to the economic downturn in 2009. The suspend of 401(k) contribution plans (saving contribution plan), cut-off 15 percent of current workforce and 10 percent reduction in salary for remaining workforce had been implemented during the crisis. However the pay cuts was discontinued because of Herman Miller’s quick turnaround. The company was stable starting the year 2011, but the selling, general, and administrative were the highest contribution of the operating expenses. Specifically, â€Å"†¦$3. million and $16. 6 million of additional operating expenses during fiscal 2011 due to the reinstatement of all of our employee benefits and employee incentive expenses† (Herman Miller’s Annual Report, 2011). The company believed that the large benefit and incentives had created motivated and skilful employees which are the key of its competitive advantage. Even though the company has increased in sales as compared to the year 2010, it is important to cut the costs by eliminating some of the less important incentives schemes and benefits such as $100 rebate on a bike purchase, concierge services and one-site services to name a few. Previously, the company had eliminated the 401(k) contribution plan so that they could stop providing some percentage on the employees’ contribution. It is crucial since it could allow the company to save a significant amount of money in the long run (Richardson, 2009). It can be done by communicating the problems and issues which need to be addressed to the staff before they get out of hand. Address the problems proportionately and regular communication could make the staff be aware on their role to support the company throughout the economy downturn. By having it, the staff might accept the decision positively and provide effort to help the company to fully recover after the recession (‘Recession Business Cost Cutting†, 2013). ii. Reduction in company’s cost of sales According to Herman Miller’s Annual Report (2011), the increase in cost of sales for the year 2011 was due to the increase in sales volume that was driven primarily by cost leverage on higher production, which was partially offset by deeper discounting, higher employee benefit and incentive costs, and higher costs of key direct materials, most notably steel and steel components. Besides that, the cost of direct material increased as compared to previous years which there was increase in the cost of commodities and the increase in discounting, which has the effect of reducing net sales The costs of certain manufacturing materials used in producing finished products are sensitive to the volatility of commodity market price. The cost of direct labor and overhead were increased due to increase in product volume while the cost of freight expenses had increased during the year because of increase in product volume as well as increase in fuel costs in 2011. First recommendation to cut the cost of sales in terms of direct material is substituting lower cost material where possible to replace the expensive one and each angle should be considered for better decision. For example, the substitution of carbon steel to replace expensive stainless steel could reduce the cost but the corrosion protection might not last longer. This method should be applied if only the benefit from the substitution is higher than the cost of reduction in quality (Lewis, n. d. ). Second recommendation is by eliminating unnecessary product features to reduce cost. The company should produce a product that really suits customers’ preferences in buying their products. For example, the company should identify whether customers are purchasing its products because of their unique looks, lower price or high quality. If customers buy the products because of their lower price, unique features may not be needed (Lewis, n. d. ). Third recommendation which is the most effective one is by hedging the price of the steel through futures contract. According to Herman Miller’s Annual Report (2011): The company believes market prices for commodities in the near term may move higher and acknowledges that over time increases on its key direct materials and assembly components are likely. Consequently, it views the prospect of such increases as an outlook risk to the business† (p. 34). By locking the price in the contract, it could eliminate any risk of price volatility (â€Å"Hedging in Practice†, 2013). For example, if there is a huge possibility that the price of steel will increase in a certain period of time. Due to that, the company will engage in future contract and lock-in the price for a specific period in the future. Regardless of increase in steel price, the company is eligible to buy the commodity at a lower lock-in price as stated in the agreed future contract. Conclusion Herman Miller Inc. has implemented different strategies in order to improve its performance and expand its self in furniture market, such as diversified strategy, broad differentiation strategy, green marketing, product development and innovation. In addition, besides focusing on those strategies to achieve the business goals, the company also concerns about how it communicates and treat its employees. â€Å"All workers as individuals ith special talents and potential† can be considered as one of the healthy culture at Herman Miller since 1927 and the Company continued to generate respect for all employees and fueled the quest to tap diversity of gifts and skills held by all. According to one of the verse in chapter 42 of the Qur’an: â€Å"Those who hearken to their Lord, and establish regular Prayer; who (cond uct) their affairs by mutual Consultation; who spend out of what We bestow on them for Sustenance† (Quran 42:38) The verse above explains the importance of mutual consent in making a decision. Islam encourages Muslims to decide their affairs by consulting with those who will be affected by the decision. Thus, in the case of Herman Miller, it empowers its employees and nurture participative decision making so that the employees feel as part of the company. Surviving in matured furniture industry and the economic volatility such as recession, demand full cooperation from the whole organization. It is not easy to integrate the diverse nature of employees with different backgrounds and behaviors to achieve goal congruence. Thus, Herman Miller’s healthy culture leads to its employee’s readiness to accept any relevant decision by Herman Miller such as cutting their salaries as the employees work with Herman Miller and not just work for it. Furthermore, in term of design value, the designer team of Herman Miller always emphasized on quality, excellence, and the continual improvement of their products. â€Å"At Herman Miller the products we made decade ago are still sold after today, and products we make today we will do for a decade to come. † All in all, Herman Miller should pursue its current strategies and continue to expand those strategies such as product innovation, diversification and so on. We believe that these strategies have made and will make Herman Miller one of an outstanding and award winning Company. They will continue to provide the Company with the ability to renew and reinvent itself in the furniture market and outperform its rivals in the future. From the explanation above, it gives us a broad view of how the company’s long-term strategy and objective affects all their business: from product design to decision-making process to the culture of the Company.

A School-based Management and Supervision Model Essays

A School-based Management and Supervision Model Essays A School-based Management and Supervision Model Essay A School-based Management and Supervision Model Essay linguistic communication school decision makers may wish to see that if a big per centum of the staff at an EFL school ( and hence concerns ) are English this may make tensenesss with the local population that are wholly alone to Argentina and the UK. Furthermore, the usage of the term Falklands is widely regarded as a fake pas in EFL schoolrooms in Argentina and is likely to do offense to even mild-mannered pupils. Malvinas is the name given to the Islands by South Americans and should be used to avoid possible jobs. Another possible job with using English Language instructors is the proliferation of short-course certifications, such as TEFL certifications or similar makings, that qualify’ the holder to learn English abroad Suleyman argues that learning English is badly hampered by the fact that instructors are on the whole, non-specifically educated instructors. Surely his position is given weight but the fact that p upils can now derive a TEFL certification over the cyberspace after merely 24 hours of self-study. Unless the school has an in-depth cognition of the quality of TEFL learning at each establishment that offers it ( an unbelievable figure ) so one all TEFL enfranchisements would look to offer the same making regardless of how good it was taught and for how long the pupil attended preparation.2. Methodology:Methodology is considered to be the chief variable in implementing the course of study and it can be characterized as the stuffs, activities, undertakings, and larning experiences selected by the instructor. In no other capable country of instruction has at that place been so much stuff to take from including text editions, online learning undertakings, press releases and activities. There are 1000s of web pages for EFL instructors. Many EFL research workers question the value of commercially-produced text editions as they are designed with an oculus to gross revenues. Most are publ ished in Britain and America and many EFL instructors complain that they do non include cultural values of their place states. Teachers in Language schools in Argentina must be peculiar aware of the tensenesss mentioned before between the UK and Argentina but arguably they should be more cognizant of the deep-seated bitterness of the United States throughout South America including Argentina. This makes the cultural imperialism’ of EFL textbooks peculiar hard for EFL instructors in South America. Given the scope of pick of learning stuff, decision makers and instructors should work together to choose those texts that do non do tenseness in an Argentinean schoolroom.3. Learners and demands analysis:Suleyman argues that the demand for so many different signifiers of analysis make EFL schools unique from any other signifier of educational constitution or concern. Goal analysis, public presentation analysis, environment analysis, undertaking analysis, content analysis, resource a nalysis and needs analysis brand EFL learning differentiate from the other capable country instruction. All course of study are foremost developed on demands analysis. Needs are associated with single scholars, as they change and displacement during the period of a class, demands are best addressed at the degree of schoolroom direction, where an EFL instructor can choose appropriate techniques and stuffs to suit persons. And this places the instructor at the Centre of the determination devising procedure. In no other capable country, is the instructor in such a complex state of affairs like this. Therefore despite the demand to use decision makers who are committed to collaborating and join forcesing with their instructors, it is the instructors who are at the Centre of a successful linguistic communication school. It is they who are in direct control of the course of study and must accommodate the course of study as the ability or inability of the category alterations. As Argentina is a Spanish-speaking state with really small English spoken in the Urban countries beyond the large metropoliss, it is arguable that, depending on location, linguistic communication schools in this state should seek to use experient linguistic communication instructors who are in a much better place to measure the English speech production development potency of non-English talkers. Newly qualified instructors with small experience arguably run the hazard of stagnating the acquisition of a category and this, in bend, will impact the repute and concern success of the school through negative viva-voce promotion.4. Goals and aims:Goals and aims are rather varied in EFL schools and seldom are ends set, or state of affairss and functions devised that are appropriate for foreign linguistic communication scholars. Some focal point on EAP ( English for Academic Purposes ) , some focal point on ESP ( English for Specific Purposes ) and some others on communicative competency. Su leyman ( 2005 ) argues that there is no the fact that there is no consensus yet on what communicative competency is serves to foreground the deficiency of communicating between TEFL professionals and schools worldwide. The impression of communicative competency entails four competencies, which are normally referred to as grammatical competency, sociolinguistic competency, discourse competency, and strategic competency. However, managerial patterns in EFL scenes seem constantly to concentrate on grammatical competency. There is no specific best instruction technique’ for Argentina as a whole but instructors are, once more, here responsible for measuring merely precisely what it is that the category before them are looking for from their EFL school experience. They could be pre-prepared for this by decision makers offering Grammatical Classs individually to Sociolinguistic or Conversational Classes. If anything, interrupting down the English linguistic communication into it assorted constituents represents more chance for the concern of an English Language School. 5. Course of study:Types of course of study are so complex and each EFL school has different syllabus type like grammatical, lexical, grammatical-lexical, situational, topic-based, fanciful, functional-notional, assorted or multi-strand , procedural, procedure. The course of study will alter depending on the analysis of the instructor so hence small specific advice can be applied to Argentina as a whole as degrees of advancement will differ harmonizing to instructor, pupil, school, country, etc.6. Appraisal and rating procedure:It is at this point in the appraisal of linguistic communication proficiency that a deficiency of consensus begins. Language research workers openly acknowledge this quandary ( Richards, 1991 ) . The complexness of linguistic communication and the deficiency of consensus as to the exact nature of linguistic communication proficiency are critical for one cardinal ground. Each linguistic communication proficiency trial should be based on a defendable theoretic al account or definition of linguistic communication proficiency. Each EFL school uses a different checklist for English linguistic communication proficiency trial choice. It is up to each single school, whether in Argentina or non, to pass on with other linguistic communication school to seek and set up – together – a best method of proving. It is in all of their involvements to make so as a more aligned international system will enable the school to measure better its ain public presentation and will enable possible pupils to judge the quality of the establishment before they commit to paying fees. In an effort to set up a best-practice method, EFL instructors and decision makers within schools could make worse than for focal point on the work of Berube ( 2004 ) . Giving suggestions for plan decision makers to measure the effectivity of their ESL plans over clip, Berube includes treatments on the types of informations to utilize, how to roll up the information, and how to use what one finds to measuring the advancement of pupils. Program rating can, should and must be used to supply for the uninterrupted betterment of ESL direction in schools. 7. Resources:The sum and sort of resources available are of import, but particularly of import is the manner they are allocated. In EFL plans, the assignment of instructors to categories is one of the most ambitious considerations in resource allotment. In EFL instruction, more resources such as an audio-visual research lab, T.V. , tapes, and so on, are needed than for any other capable country instruction. This is true for any linguistic communication school in any state. Decision The jobs that beset ESL schools worldwide are non, normally, related to the national environment that they operate within. Therefore it is moderately hard to propose factors specific to Argentina that would do runing a linguistic communication school in this state peculiarly hard or troublesome. Similarly, issues identified by Suleyman as unique to linguistic communication schools, and hence definitely countries of possible betterment, are applicable to linguistic communication schools globally and non merely in Argentina, Britain or any other single state. If the analysis in this essay has shown anything it is that linguistic communication schools lack a communicative web and a methodological analysis of best-practise. This deficiency of communicating is as common between two neighboring schools as it is between two schools on opposite sides of the Earth. There is besides clear grounds to propose that communicatingwithinlinguistic communication schools is non every bit good as it sh ould be. Therefore the suggestions made in this essay with relation to schools in Argentina are applicable to EFL schools by and large merely as wider, general positions are applicable to Argentinean schools. Language learning professionals need to cognize where they are and where they are traveling. EFL schools need to develop a policy, and manage this in relation to their resources ; they need to guarantee that they and the people in them can alter and develop. Changes in EFL learning have been go oning at ever-faster rates and in ever-increasing complexness but possibly the biggest issue remains that EFL instructors continue to stay in the best place to judge the advancement of the pupils in their schoolroom and so can accommodate a course of study and learning method around their observations. Given that this is true, set uping an international best pattern remains improbable and the success of a linguistic communication school will go on to depend on the quality of the instruction within it. . Bibliography Suleyman, D, G ( 2005 ) ; A School based Management and Supervision Model in EFL Schools ; The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 1, January 2005 Berube, B ( 2000 ) ; Pull offing ESL Programs in Rural and Small Urban Schools ; Alexandria, VA ; Teacher of English to talkers of other linguistic communications Inc Pollard, L ( 2004 ) ; How to Put Up a Language School: Tips and arrows on get downing, fiting and advancing an ESL school ; www.tefl.net – 02/08/05 Goker, S. D. ( 2004 ) ; Brooding direction and supervising in EFL schools ; Nicosia ; Mavi Publications LTD. Richards, J. ( 1991 ) ; Brooding instruction in 2nd linguistic communication schoolrooms ; Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press

US and Mexico Border Fence Pros and Cons

US and Mexico Border Fence Pros and Cons The southern border of the United States shared with Mexico spans almost 2,000 miles. Walls, fences, and virtual walls of sensors and cameras monitored by the U.S. Border Patrol are already built along one-third of the border (approximately 670 miles) to secure the border and cut down on illegal immigration. Americans are split on the border barrier issue. While most people are in favor of increasing the security of the borders, others are concerned that the negative impacts do not outweigh the benefits. The U.S. government views the Mexican border as an important part of its overall homeland security initiative. Cost of the Border Barrier The price tag currently sits at $7 billion for border fencing and related infrastructure like pedestrian and vehicle fencing with lifetime maintenance costs expected to exceed $50 billion. The Trump Administration and Mexican Border Enhancement As a major part of his platform during the 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump called for the construction of a much larger, fortified wall along the entire 2,000-mile-long Mexico–United States border, claiming Mexico would pay for its construction, which he estimated at $8 to $12 billion. Other estimates brought the cost of the wall closer to $15 to $25 billion. On January 25, 2017, the Trump administration signed a Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Executive Order to commence the building of the border wall. In response, Mexican President Enrique Peà ±a Nieto said his country would not pay for the wall under any circumstances and canceled a scheduled meeting with Trump at the White House, seemingly straining relations between the two presidents. With the possibility of Mexico paying for any part of the wall  apparently off the table, the Trump administration used existing funds to begin construction of a small section of the new wall, along with improvements to existing sections of the wall in early March 2018. On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed an omnibus government spending bill dedicating $1.6 billion to the construction of the remainder of the wall. As he signed the bill, Trump referred to the $1.6 billion as â€Å"an initial down payment† on the estimated nearly $10 billion needed to fence the entire border. The funds  will pay for construction of about 25 miles (40 kilometers) of a new wall along levees in the Texas Rio Grande Valley, as well as repair and upgrades to existing walls and anti-vehicle devices.   The Great 2019 Border Wall Government Shutdown The issue of the border barrier, and especially the politics behind it, escalated dramatically in January 2019, when Congress refused to include $5.7 billion requested by President Trump for the construction of steel border fencing in a bill funding the operations of nine of the 15 federal executive branch agencies. On December 22, 2019, the resulting stalemate between the White House and the now Democrat-controlled House resulted in what, by January 12, had become the longest lasting government shutdown in U.S. history. On January 8, President Trump, calling the situation on the Mexican border a â€Å"humanitarian crisis,† threatened to declare a national emergency, allowing him to go around Congress by ordering the use of already allocated funds for construction of the border barrier. In a letter to Congress, the White House Office of Management and Budget estimate that the funds requested by President Trump would allow for the construction of about 234 miles of steel fencing to be added to what was by then the 580 miles of barrier already in place at a cost of around $24.4 million per mile, exclusive of ongoing maintenance. While the resulting 814 miles of barrier  fencing would leave approximately 1,140 miles of the 1,954-mile long border still free of barriers, the Department of Homeland Security had earlier stated that not all of the remaining border needed to be fenced. Border Patrol officials suggested that the inherent dangers of trying to cross rugged, desolate desert areas on foot made fencing unnecessary. On January 19, Democrats rejected another immigration reform and border security package offered by President Trump, refusing to negotiate until and unless he ended the government shutdown. On February 15, 2019, President Trump signed a compromise Homeland Security spending bill providing $1.375 billion for 55 miles of new border fencing. The same day, he made good on his threat to declare a national emergency to build the wall. Under the terms of the emergency proclamation, $3.5 billion was redirected from the Defense Department’s military construction budget to the construction of new border wall. In addition, he used executive orders to redirect another $3.1 billion from the Departments of Defense and Treasury’s drug interdiction programs to wall building. White House officials said the combined money would pay for at least 234 miles â€Å"of new physical barrier† along the border. While no further details were provided, President Trump stated in a Twitter post on March 8, 2019, that, â€Å"The Wall is being built and is well under construction.† History of the Border Barrier In 1924, Congress created the U.S. Border Patrol. Illegal immigration increased in the late 1970s, but it was in the 1990s when drug trafficking and illegal immigration had a major uptick and concerns about the nations security became an important issue. Border Control agents and the military succeeded in reducing the number of smugglers and illegal crossings for a period of time, but once the military left, activity again increased. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., homeland security was again a priority. Many ideas were tossed around during the next few years on what could be done to permanently secure the border. And, in 2006, the Secure Fence Act was passed to build 700 miles of double-reinforced security fencing in areas along the border prone to drug trafficking and illegal immigration. President Bush also deployed 6,000 National Guardsmen to the Mexico border to assist with border control. Reasons for the Border Barrier Historically, policing borders has been integral to the preservation of nations around the globe for centuries. The construction of a barrier to safeguard American citizens from illegal activities is considered by some to be in the  best interest of the nation.  The pros of a border barrier include overall homeland security, the cost of lost tax revenue and strain on government resources and the past successes of border enforcement. Rising Cost of Illegal Immigration Illegal immigration  is estimated to cost the United States millions of dollars, and according to Trump, $113 billion a year in lost income tax revenue. Illegal immigration is considered a strain on government spending by overburdening social welfare, health, and education programs. Border Enforcement Past Success The use of physical barriers and high-tech surveillance equipment increases the probability of apprehension and have shown some success. Arizona has been the epicenter of crossings by illegal immigrants for several years. In one year, authorities apprehended 8,600 people trying to enter the U.S. illegally in the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range used for air-to-ground bombing practice by Air Force pilots. The number of people caught crossing San Diegos border illegally has also dropped dramatically. In the early 1990s, about 600,000 people attempted to cross the border illegally. After the construction of a fence and increased  border patrols,  that number dropped to 39,000 in 2015. Reasons Against the Border Barrier The question of the effectiveness of a physical barrier that has workarounds is a significant concern to those opposed to a border barrier. The barrier has been criticized for being easy to get around. Some methods include digging under it, sometimes using complex tunnel systems, climbing the fence and using wire cutters to remove barbed-wire or locating and digging holes in vulnerable sections of the border. Many people have also traveled by boat through the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Coast or fly in and overstay their visas. There are other concerns such as the message it sends to our neighbors and the rest of the world and the human toll of crossing the border. In addition, a border wall affects wildlife on both sides, fragmenting the habitat and disrupting essential animal migration patterns.   Message to the World A segment of the American population feels that the United States should send a message of freedom and hope to those seeking a better way of life instead of sending a keep out message at our border. It is suggested that the answer does not lie in barriers; it entails  comprehensive immigration reform, which means these immigration issues need fixing, instead of building fences, which are as effective as putting a bandage on a gaping wound. In addition, a border barrier divides the land of three indigenous nations. Human Toll on Crossing the Border Barriers wont stop people from wanting a better life. And in some cases, theyre willing to pay the highest price for the opportunity. People smugglers, called coyotes, charge astronomical fees for passage. When smuggling costs rise, it becomes less cost-effective for individuals to travel back and forth for seasonal work, so they remain in the U.S. Now the whole family must make the trip to keep everyone together. Children, infants and the elderly attempt to cross. The conditions are extreme and some people will go for days without food or water. According to the Human Rights National Commission of Mexico and the American Civil Liberties Union, almost 5,000 people have died attempting to crossing the border between 1994 and 2007. Environmental Impact Most environmentalists oppose the border barrier. Physical barriers hinder migrating wildlife, and plans show the fence will fragment wildlife refuges and private sanctuaries. Conservation groups are appalled that the Department of Homeland Security is bypassing dozens of environmental and land-management laws in order to build the border fence. More than 30 laws are being waived, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Updated by Robert Longley

Child J and Langford E (2011) Exploring the learning experiences of Essay

Child J and Langford E (2011) Exploring the learning experiences of nursing students with dyslexia - Essay Example However, the title somehow implies that it is a research study concerning how nursing students with dyslexia naturally learn and behave in the classroom setting. Nevertheless, the study is actually one focused on how nursing students with dyslexia should be able to cope with the rigors of clinical practice, not of classroom work. Therefore, the title should have been â€Å"Exploring the learning experiences and coping mechanisms during clinical practice of nursing students with dyslexia.† As to the authors, both are credible. Both Jenny Child and Elizabeth Langford are senior lecturers of adult nursing of the University of England. Therefore, their profession as well as the fact that they are members of the faculty of a prestigious British university makes them credible. However, it would have been better if it was clearly stated that both authors were nurses, although it is most likely so. Moreover, the abstract does summarize the key components of the study: the aim, the met hod used, findings and conclusions. However, it should have had elaborated a little bit more on the three points that it mentioned in the Findings summary section. Just like the abstract, the rationale for undertaking the research is clearly outlined. In fact, the research study flowed smoothly from its aim to how it was conducted and to the results that it yielded. Moreover, the aim of the research is clearly addressed. Nevertheless, the authors say that the study aims to â€Å"examine the learning experiences† of nursing students with schizophrenia. This examination of learning experiences may not have exactly been in a traditional classroom but are actually of a clinical setting. Furthermore, the statement of the aim of the study should have been at least two sentences for such length. There must also be an â€Å"and† between the word â€Å"placements† and the phrase â€Å"to establish ways,† and this syntax problem may somehow disrupt an average stude nt’s reading. Regarding the ethical issues, the study clearly states that â€Å"the participants gave informed consent in writing to take part in the study† (Child & Langford 2011). This statement alone implies the idea that care has been taken to ensure that the proper ethical issues have been addressed in the study. Moreover, individual interviews have been conducted obviously in order to make sure that the privacy of the nursing student is protected. Moreover, there is a separate subsection called â€Å"Ethical considerations,† where it is stated that the study has been approved by the university ethics committee and that programme managers have also expressed their prior approval to it. Still, more on the subject of ethics, the questions used in the interviews of nursing students have been properly structured so as not to get any of the participants to be emotionally hurt. For example, only the words â€Å"disabilities† and â€Å"difficulties† have been used to refer to a possible case of dyslexia, which was not mentioned in the original questionnaire. Moreover, the data taken from the questionnaires have been â€Å"anonymised† in order to protect the identity of the participants (Child & Langford 2011). There seems to be no available literature on what type of questionnaire should be made available to students with dyslexia but the questionnaire used in this study seems very practical