Homebase Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Homebase - Coursework Example The balanced scorecard tool is explained before designing the scorecard for the case company. Also the use of the balanced scorecard in the performance evaluation and monitoring of the modern businesses are discussed. Both the balanced scorecard outcomes and the designed strategy map are explained and analyzed to provide suitable recommendations to the Board of Directors of Homebase for deciding on the future strategic direction of the company. The recommendations are given with the aim of supporting the management of Homebase to take suitable corporate and business decisions and devise the appropriate strategies for the achievement of the business goals and objectives and for implementing the formulated strategies in the most efficient and value adding manner. Homebase  is a home improvement retail company based in the United Kingdom. The company operates in the segment of home improvement and garden centre and is a subsidiary of the famous Home Retail Group. Homebase operates with 323 outlets across different locations in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The company is a highly successful retailer in the United Kingdom which has recorded a profit of GBP 18.9 million in the financial year 2013-2014. Also, the revenues for the company were recorded to have a value of GBP 1.46 billion in the financial year of 2013-2014 as per the annual report published by the company. The vision of the company is to provide the customer groups in the country with a wide range of home improvement products and services within a differentiated environment. The company aims to provide both convenience and value for its customers through its operations (Crawford, 2008). Homebase uses a number of strategies in its operational, financial, human resource management and other business functions for the purpose of developing consistency in its service provision and for creating competiveness and success in the dynamic business environment in which it functions. The

Business Stategy - Transforming Sanofi-Aventis Essay

Business Stategy - Transforming Sanofi-Aventis - Essay Example (Fred Pringle, Brian H. Kleiner. 1997) Sanofi-Aventis’s product portfolio includes in it leading medicines for cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, sleep disorders and other healthcare problems. The main objective of Sanofi-Aventis’s research and development is to provide the patients with efficient medicines at the right time. And for diseases that are difficult to treat, they try to provide real patient benefit by multiplying their scientific approaches. This is also the reason why clinical trials are carried out to treat diseases. (Philippe Hermel, Annie Bartoli. 2001) Sanofi-Aventis makes sure that research doesn’t fail to take into account the complexities of human body. TRENDS OF PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY First of all we need to examine the trends of pharmaceutical industry which include structural changes that have led to important transformations, industry’s very strong dependence on research and development and some significant factors leading a future sales growth. (Fred Pringle, Brian H. Kleiner. 1997) Environmental analysis (PEST) Increasing political attention In the recent years, importance of healthcare as a component of social welfare has increased as a result of which the industry has been receiving increased political attention. ... So, Sanofi-Aventis is playing a very unique role as good health is an essential social and personal requirement. The pharmaceutical companies nowadays are trying hard to maintain good communications with the society because of the increasing media attention. Technological advances The industry players are adapting to the new environments faster than ever. All this is being forced by modern technological and scientific advances in science. These advances have also led to an increased expenditure on R&D by companies to promote further innovation. Legal environment Pharmaceutical industry is a very highly regulated industry. There are a lot of legal and compliance overheads that the company has to bear as a result. Porter’s five forces: Barrier to entry: patent restrictions and really high research and development costs are the major barriers to entry for new entrants. Industry competition: competition in the industry is very high. The advantage is for innovators. Suppliers: the power of suppliers is very low. Buyer: buyer power is also low in the industry. Substitutes: because of patents there are less substitutes but there are more substitutes after patents expire. Increased competition in the industry The competition in this industry is intense. There have been a lot of new entrants in the industry lately also a number of mergers and acquisitions have taken place. Therefore, the changing face of pharmaceutical industry suggests that competitive advantage is being redefined all the time. In order to achieve sustainable growth and maintain presence the key industry players are changing their organizational structures. Structural changes There is a

The graveyard book

The graveyard book A happy childhood is often described as one characterized by love, family, and a sense of security. Many adults are wont to complain that some disruptive behavior is due to some distant unfortunate event in their childhood which may have affected their coping mechanisms as they matured, a commonplace, yet unpleasant, statement widely accepted by psychiatrists. A certain question now arises in my medically inclined mind: what would psychiatrists predict for the little boy Nobody Owens? Nobody, or Bod, is the main character of Neil Gaimans The Graveyard Book, the strange yet enlightening tale of a boy who was orphaned early in life and was then adopted by a charming couple, Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who turn out to be ghosts. The story is set in the fictional village of Old Town, a sleepy little village with a dreamlike quality about it. Within this quiet stretch of land is a graveyard, now unused and abandoned. It has been turned into a nature reserve and it is in this precise location that Bod finds himself as he escapes the murderer of his family. Raised by the graveyards phantasmal inhabitants and his mysterious guardian Silas, Bod grows up into a curious and pleasant boy. He encounters ghouls, werewolves, and a monstrous slithering creature hiding beneath the hill of the graveyard. He also manages to make friends with a girl, who visits the graveyard from time to time. While he is growing up, he is taught to read, to fade through walls and slip through shadows, and other uncanny abilities. Surprisingly entertaining despite the occasional macabre and hair-raising plights, Edinger (2009) calls Gaimans creation a novel of wonderweaving a tale of unforgettable enchantment. Common themes of familial closeness and zest for life are cleverly incorporated into this masterpiece. The subtleties with which these cherished values are imparted to readers are completely endearing. While I read the book, I was entranced to the point that I could not help but nervously look over my shoulder to see if there was a ghoul-gate opening its jaws to swallow me into the dark city of Ghulheim, leading me to doubt if this truly was a childrens book. Although I generally do not favor the style which Howard (2009) describes as the episodic nature of the book, I found it completely appropriate for this tale. Since it is a childrens book, one would expect a story that can be told in chapters, thus making it easier for parents to read a portion of the story every night before bedtime. Finally, admit ting that the book was influenced by Rudyard Kiplings The Jungle Book by no means diminishes Gaimans skill in delivering this tale. For this reason, he was awarded the Newbery Medal which honors outstanding contribution to American childrens literature. Going back to my original question, I continue to wonder what conclusions psychiatrists would draw up regarding Bod. After all, his family was murdered, he was raised in a graveyard by specters, and he has been in so many frightening situations enough to terrify a full-grown man. Would they say that he would grow up to be a disturbed young man because of his experiences? Or would those same experiences have molded him to become stronger than the rest of us? Personally, I believe the love and warmth with which Bods ghost family accepted him has already made up for the loss of his real one. Whichever the case, I only make this point to show how curious I am about what Bod will ultimately become. As Gaimans daughter Maddy so nonchalantly asked after her father read her the first chapter he wrote, I, too, can only ask, What happens next? One thing is certain though, with Bods enthusiasm to live his life to the fullest, his life outside the safety of the graveyard would be peppered with new adventures and characters as elaborate and lively as those resting in his home. REFERENCES: Anonymous,.(2009,April). Childrens Book Awards 2009. Bulletin of the Center for Childrens Books,62(8),343-345. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID:1673481801). Edinger,M..(2009,February). Raised by Ghosts. New York Times Book Review,BR.15. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID:1647333051). Howard,E..(2009,July). Neil Gaiman.The Horn Book Magazine,85(4),351-354. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID:1786166631). Hunt,J..(2010,January). The Graveyard Book.The Horn Book Magazine,86(1),18. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from Academic Research Library. (Document ID:1936022361).

Guilt and Shame in Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Robinson Crus

Guilt and Shame in Some Thoughts Concerning Education and Robinson Crusoe  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   In Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century England, a major transition was occurring; attitudes were shifting towards a more sensibility-based perspective, in which the "warrior" mentality of earlier times was falling out of fashion, in favor of sensitive "gentlemen." Such gentlemen were expected to be morally sound, well-educated, "enlightened." Yet, despite all this, men were still expected to be masculine to be able to take control of a situation or solve a particular problem. John Locke postulated that all of this could be encouraged in young men via their education. Sadly, he found that no educational program at the time was up to the task. He argued that one of the foremost goals of education should be responsible self-government, or the ability to determine properly what to do and what not to do without an external authority commanding it. This ideal became very en vogue among sensible folk at this time many Englishmen (as well as other Europeans) wanted to be so moral ly upright that they need only answer to themselves. Locke, of course, had some thoughts on this, and those thoughts revolved chiefly around (of all things) shame. Some Thoughts Concerning Education was first published by Locke in 1693. The ideas it advocated were progressive, even by today's standards. One point he makes very clear is that physical rewards and punishments (as a system of encouraging morally-correct behavior) are ineffective in raising children to be responsible, moral adults (38 - 39). As an alternative, he suggested the following: Esteem and disgrace are, of all others, the most powerful incentives to the mind, when once it is brought to relish ... ...other is standing nearby with a scornful eye, but true self-governance is about much more than that. Locke knew this to be true, and I think it's obvious that Defoe agreed emphatically enough to base one of the most successful novels in history on very similar views.    Works Cited Bredvold, Louis I. The Natural History of Sensibility. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1962 Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. New York: Bantam Books, 1991 ("Defoe") Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe, Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1975 ("Norton") Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education, The Works of John Locke, vol. 9. London: 1823 Moore, C. Backgrounds of English Literature 1700-1760. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1953 Yolton, John W. John Locke and Education. New York: Random House, Inc., 1971   

India of My Dreams Essay

Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom With these words of Pandit Nehru, on 15th August at the stroke of the midnight hour India declared itself independent from the British rule. As the Union Jack was being brought down and the Indian tricolor flew up the hopes and aspiration of the Indian founding fathers were completed. Sixty years after the birth of this massive and diverse nation though there has been considerable progress, the overall picture of life in the country is depressing. With increasing prices and growing unemployment, the common man remains as poor as he had been. Though education has spread, its standard and quality have received a set – back. Nor is the political scene very encouraging. While the working of democracy is not satisfactory, the forces of religion, provincialism and linguism pose a threat to the unity of the country. Our leaders lack the qualities of idealism, integrity and self – sacrifice, which were abundantly in evidence during the days of the struggle for freedom. In this bleak situation, it is natural for the youth of the country to have a vision of a stronger India. In the same way I have a vision too – a fearless, strong, self reliant India. I visualize my country way ahead of other nations all round the globe in every aspect, whether its development in any field or showing its military might or being a fore-runner in technological advancement, skills and prosperity. I visualize India being a country that will provide equality of opportunity to one and all irrespective of caste, creed, and sex. A place that will provide optimum scope for development of latent skills of an individual and then to use it for the welfare of the nation. I strive for such a country wherein the poorest of the poor feel that this is his country in building which his voice has its due importance. I wish for a constitution, which will release India from all thraldom and patronage, and give her, if needed, the right to sin. I dream of a nation where nobody is illiterate and nobody sleeps hungry, where there is no distinction on the basis of genre, religion or caste, where justice to a common man is neither denied or deleted, where corruption in public life does not exist, where criminals do not occupy ministerial berths nor enter legislative assemblies, where merit counts in every sphere of life, where jobs cannot be purchased, where criminals have to spend the rest of their lives behind the bars and where the intellectuals like Amartya Sen do not have to leave the country’s shore for higher research and recognition. Today India is grappling with divided states, poverty, and population on the one hand and a mà ©lange of languages, traditions, festivals, religions, cultures which poses a problem but my vision for India is a country where the Kirtans from Gurudwaras, and Azan from Mosques, the Bhajans from Temples and chiming of the bells from churches merge and mingle and produce a harmonious, melodious, tune of humanity. I dream of a casteless and a perfect India of which all Indians can be truly proud of. My vision of India may sound like a dreamer’s agenda but the day every Indian citizen realizes his responsibility towards his country my vision would be reality. At last I would like to conclude with the words of Sir Rabindranath Tagore: WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Interpretations of American History Essay

There has been a notable change in the American History from the last 400 years until now. At the beginning the American History the subjects that the historians interpreted were politics, diplomacy and war. The only people who could do the interpreting were only white male Americans. The contemporary American historians wrote nearly about everything that affected everybody. This times were very different from what they are now, when you read history, you are reading the historian’s point of view or encounter with the world. The historians were fully dedicated to this, they spend hours, days, years of their life’s to prove the reality comes away. They were characterized by nationality or their school of thought. The historians can be Jeffersonian liberal, nationalist, progressive, feminist or postmodernist; for example, Perry Miller in the twentieth century American liberalism, Kenneth Stampp’s was engaged with the civil rights movement, Kathryn Sklar’s ideas were feminist (p. 72). In those times everything was like they African American people couldn’t be historians, because they only accepted white male Americans, also they were male chauvinist, women couldn’t be historians and not only that, they were excluded from everything, they didn’t have the right to vote, to be in the politics, work, they Jimenez 2 could not do anything. History is successful when it tells you how things where, the only thing that could take you there was the imagination, but now, with all the technology that we have, we even can make a picture or a sketch of how the things were. basing on the things that had been found also. One of the things that the historians did, they constantly criticize, correct and supplement other historian point of view, they get closer to the truth arguing with one another. Historiography reminds you that history is not a closed book, is a reminder that there is always something to argue in history, it make us think or see what was before everything, the changes that have been in the growth of America, politics changes, racial justice, sex, differences in the society, education, labor. There has been a notorious change or evolution on how America has change. There are four stages in which the writing of American history has passed: the providential, the rationalist, the nationalist and the professional. The providential history in the United States from the seventeenth and eighteenth, ministers and magistrates and wrote a made of form of providential history. The puritans who settled in the United States believed that they were chosen by god that led to the form of their history to a holy chronicle one. Puritans used this form of writing for all men anybody that believed in god. The rationalism, they were very different with the providential because they didn’t believed that they were only chosen by god, they believed that opinions or actions should act on reason and knowledge not on their religious belief. They were ruled by the natural law was the idea of Newton, Locke, and the French philosophers (p. 75). The rationalist Jimenez 3 historians were the educated class in the colonies, the new story they told was of progress and reason. most of the historians of the eighteenth century were layer-politicians, planter-aristocrats, merchants or professionals. Tomas Jefferson was influenced by this movement and later on write a book named Notes on the State of Virginia in 1785. This book allow to men to discover and pursue their destiny and believed that they were free. After that, no one was free from slavery. This proves that the history during the rationalism the politicians only tells you what you want to hear, like right now it happens the same, everything was and is only about wealth, power, rights. In nationalist history changed the fact that in this stage the women contributed and argue in theirs perspectives or points of view. historians of women rewrote the story of America from the beginning to the recent past. They did not give women a place in the existing narratives, they just reconceived whole fields of history. An example of the women historians were Hanna Adams, Susanna Rowson, Elizabeth Peabody, and Emma Willard (p. 76) The professional historians started by the middles class that became educated through college or university which became commonly to only white males. History became a profession and the only way to access was to practice it and be at a advanced level in the subject. Their high opinion on distinguish scientifically and prove the truth from a romantic notion. In this time we can see through what has passed American History and learned about the different changes that our history has had, and also this has help to have America Jimenez 4 how is it now. Right now we see the thing different, for example, women can vote, women can do a lot more things that they couldn’t in the past, there is no slavery, everyone is free and follow their dreams and conquer their goals and that’s a big change.