Effective School Leadership

The elements of effective school leadership combines a variety of attributes. Although all these attributes are important, four are critical and essential in the success of a school leader. The first essential attribute is that a leader must model character by being principle-centered. The second essential attribute is that the main role of the school leader is to be an instructional leader. The third essential attribute is to align people. Finally, the fourth essential attribute is to establish direction for the school.These four attributes work in conjunction to promote the goal of the effective school deader: student achievement. Principle-centered An effective school leader models character by being principle-centered. Principles are guidelines for conduct that have demonstrated lasting value (Covey, 2004). Specifically, an effective leader exhibits integrity, fairness, and acts in an ethical manner. Knuth and Banks (2006) assert in their Essential Leadership Model that first and foremost, effective leadership is character dependent.They go on to explain that to be able to effectively lead schools, authentic leaders with strong character display fairness, integrity, and ethical behavior. A highly effective leader builds the character of their staff by being a role model (Mclean, 2003). A leader must develop their own voice and then be clear about their own guiding principles to effectively model the behavior they expect of others (Souses and Poster, 2008). Covey (2004) describes integrity as an interdependent reality, that each individual is treated by the same set of principles.A leaders fulfills expectations and creates a foundation of trust. Integrity encompasses fairness and ethics. Effective leaders who have integrity function fairly and in an ethical manner. Leaders committing to these virtuous principles maintain n enduring responsibility to student success, teacher growth, and quality school environments. Ethical behavior by effective leaders includ es a commitment to all students regardless of which race, gender, religious, or socioeconomic category they fall in.Leaders value ethnic diversity by taking action to ensure a quality education for every child. This commitment represents an uncompromising pursuit to do what is fair (Robbins and Alva, 2004). Instructional Leader Effective school leaders are instructional leaders. Highly effective principals have a passion for learning (Mclean, 2003). According to Chairman (2013), the educational leader is the overall leader of instruction. Administrators must be actively engaged in the professional growth and learning of the school staff.Effective leaders understand that they are directly responsible for learning and influence student achievement outcomes by their actions (Robbins and Alva, 2004). Fallen (2014) conveyed that the role of an effective principal is to lead teachers in learning to improve their instruction, while working alongside them understanding what works and what d oes not. Learning leaders model the pursuit of knowledge regarding effective reactive, inspiring staff members to create an environment where risk taking and experimentation are valued and mistakes are the prelude to new knowledge and understanding (Robbins and Alva, 2004).Instructional leaders recognize that trying and failing is more beneficial than never trying at all. An effective instructional leader ensures that every student has the opportunity to learn. Proclaiming the statement â€Å"all can learn† is too easy. Effective leaders develop programs differentiated to meet the needs of small groups of students in their schools because they know that one size rarely fits all. This rage to step out of the box and broaden their knowledge base is a characteristic of highly effective administrators.Instructional leaders are continually thinking, planning, and developing ways to improve instruction and engage more students (Mclean, 2003). Effective school leaders are frequently presenting research-based strategies to increase their staffs' capacity to instruct with the goal of student achievement. Aligning People An effective school leader aligns people by creating a culture of communication and collaboration, and by developing relationships among staff, students, families and communities. The actions off single person are unlikely to produce impacting changes; instead a team effort is required.Solid trust, strong relationships, deep competence, core confidence, group collaboration, and individual accountability are required to effect change; to get exceptional things done, effective school leaders have to enable others to act (Souses and Poster, 2008). Effective school leaders demonstrate the skills and temperaments to foster a sense of belonging throughout the staff; they address the needs of others, share their time and knowledge, communicate clearly and concisely, and develop supportive relationships characterized by rust and respect (Knuth and Banks, 2006). A highly effective leader is a communicator.Whether it be listening, writing, speaking, or reading, successful principals are communicating nearly 100% of the time. Shaping organizational behavior and practice relies on the fundamental leadership skill of communicating with clarity and precision (Robbins and Alva, 2004). Fostering a culture of professional collaboration is a trait of effective principals (Knuth and Banks, 2006). Effective school leaders make it possible for others to do quality work (Souses and Poster, 2008). Student learning is examined when principals directly influence how teachers learn together (Fallen, 2014).Leaders, working collaboratively as professionals who believe in continuous growth, produce teachers that will succeed. Collaboration emerges as relationships shift between staff members, progressing from congeniality to cooperation to collegiality. Professional Learning Communities are a result of this shift, culminating with a focus of helping al l students achieve and learn (Robbins and Alva, 2004). Human relations are the base of leadership. Effective school leaders actively engage staff, families, ND community to share the responsibility of student achievement. Forging these relationships creates tremendous power (Robbins and Alva, 2004).The success of a leader is dependent on the ability to build and sustain human relationships. The quality of these relationships matters most when completion off goal is the objective. A relationship characterized by mutual respect and confidence will overcome the greatest challenges (Souses and Poster, 2008). Highly effective principals will bring out the best in their staff members (Mclean, 2003). Establishing Direction Effective school leaders establish direction for their staff and school. Leaders are expected to have a sense of direction and a concern for the future of their school; this ability is vision (Souses and Poster, 2008).Leaders develop a vision of the future, while impleme nting strategies for the changes needed to accomplish that vision. Effective school leaders keep people moving in the right direction by motivating and inspiring each step of the process (Cotter, 1990). Clarity of vision, compared to other leadership qualities, is what separates leaders from other credible people (Souses and Poster, 2008). Leaders inspire and enlist others in a shared vision. Effective school leaders eave a desire to never settle for status quo; they push change, even when it is uncomfortable for others.Highly effective leaders are change masters. They are flexible, futuristic, and realistic leaders who motivate and manage change that endures. These leaders are able to envision what low-performing or even failing schools will look like after their mission has been achieved (Mclean, 2003). They then create and implement a plan to increase student achievement. By establishing the direction of their school, effective leaders are able to challenge the process and ventur e out in search of opportunities o innovate, grow, and improve (Souses and Poster, 2008).Conclusion Souses and Poster (2008) stated that leadership is an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to us all. A school leader must be effective to gain student achievement as its primary outcome. There are four attributes that are critical and essential in the success of an effective school leader. First, a school leader must model character by being principle-centered. Second, a school leader is to be an instructional leader. Next, the school leader must have the capacity to align people through communication, collaboration, and developing relationships. Effective School Leadership Effective School leadership today must combine the traditional school leadership duties such as teacher evaluation, budgeting, scheduling, and facilities maintenance with a deep involvement with specific aspects of teaching and learning.Some key elements of Instructional leadership and what I believe to be most important and effective elements in the leadership role include the following:Prioritization: Instructional Leaders make adult learning a priority and set high expectations for performance (NAESP, 2001). While leaders cannot neglect other duties, teaching and learning is where the majority of a leader’s scheduled time needs to be allocated.Visible Presence: Placing the focus on learning objectives, modeling behaviors of learning, and designing programs and activities on instruction are essential for instructional leadership (Whitaker, 1997). Having leaders as teachers of instruction serves as a model for many teachers who may struggle with certain concepts and can help build trust and relationships.Curriculum: Principals need to know about the changing concepts of curriculum (Approaches to Leadership). The goal of any leader should be to increase student achievement; therefore, the curriculum, instruction, and assessments must all be aligned with the standards. Leaders need to be knowledgeable with curriculum and state standards and provide professional development and continuous learning for adults.Data: In their focus on improving achievement, effective leaders use multiple sources of information to assess performance (NAESP, 2001). Many leaders use data to help guide the instructional focus and professional development for teachers. Effective leaders skillfully gather information that determines how well a school organization is meeting goals and use that information to refine strategies designed to meet or extend the goals.Effective leaders make student success pivotal to their work and,  accordingly, pay attention to and communicate about i nstruction, curriculum, and student mastery of learning objectives, and are visible in the school. Learning needs to occur throughout an organization, and instructional leaders need to become participants in the learning process in order to shape and encourage the implementation of effective learning models in their schools. To illustrate, effective leaders don't just arrange for professional development; rather, they participate in staff training provided to their staffs.Additionally, good leaders foster the idea of working together as a valuable enterprise because they understand that this kind of collaborative learning community ultimately will build trust, collective responsibility, and a school wide focus on improved student learning (Mendez-Morse, 1991).

Haw Par Value Chain & Financial Ratios Analysis Essay

1. PART ONE 1.1 Introduction Haw Par Corporation Limited is a multinational corporation engaged in healthcare, leisure businesses securities and real estate investment, among which we will mainly focus on Haw Par’s traditional business sector-the healthcare segment, which includes 9 subsidiaries (Annual report, 2010). Based on revenues generated and locations of manufacturing facilities, two prominent geographical markets, Asia and America, are selected for discussion. We will look into the competitive environment of the corporation, and the generic strategies adopted to survive in the environment. Then we will investigate operations within Haw Par by analyzing its value chain activities, and propose improvements to enhance its competitive advantages. Lastly, we will identify the top risks imposed to the corporation. 1.2 Competitive Environment – Michael Porter’s Five-Forces Model 1.2.1 Threat of New Entrants Initial capital requirement of entering the healthcare industry is high, including investment in property, plant, equipment and research and development. Moreover, compliance burden with various regulations is heavy, as illustrated by the warning letter received by Haw Par from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. Besides, its scale of business, well-establish brand and distribution network are difficult to imitate. Thus, the threat of new entrant is low. 1.2.2 Threat of Substitute Currently, Haw Par’s healthcare products mainly consist of traditional herbal medicines and newly developed chemical products. The substitutes of herbal medicines are mostly western chemical medicines. We can see that Haw Par is actively responding to the challenge of chemical medicines. However, the existing pharmaceutical companies are very strong, and their products are more competitive on the whole. Therefore, the threat of substitutes is medium. 1.2.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers The products of healthcare division are mainly traditional Chinese medicine oil and its related products, as well as muscle rub, spray and gel (Hoover’s, 2011). As the products are generally medications for daily use, the majority of buyers are individual consumers. Hence, the buyers’ bargaining power is weak. However, if the buyers’ group is large, for example, wholesalers or retailers, the bargaining power of buyer could be moderate or high (ME Porter, 2000). 1.2.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers Due to Haw Par’s broad product lines, it would have contracted with vast suppliers for the procurement of various crude materials. The main ingredients are common Chinese medicines (Alternative Health Supplies, 2005). The company may choose from a wide range of suppliers. In general, bargaining power of suppliers is low. 1.2.5 Industry Competitors Haw Par has distinguished itself from small and medium size medicine oil businesses by its branding and broad market distribution, yet it is still involved in intense competition with business of comparable market share, for example, Biosensors International and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited which is a main competitor both in Asian and American market. In 2010, Sun Pharmaceutical’s deal with Taro Pharmaceutical Industries boosted Sun’s dermatology and topical products in U.S which might deeply affect Haw Par’s extension market. Generally rivalry among existing firms is high (Hoover’s, 2011). 1.3 Competitive Strategies – Michael Porter’s Three Generic Strategies The general global economic climate took a favorable turn in 09-10, boosting the consumer confidence. On the other hand, the competitive environment of the business is challenged by the intense competition and rising costs (PM Danzon, 2000). To enhance the performance of the business, Haw Par had responded â€Å"by introducing more products that will appeal to a larger group of consumers and by conducting more intensive marketing† (Wee Cho Yaw, 2010). The generic strategy adopted by the business is focus differentiation. The business focused on selective markets and products to raise entry barrier. For example, Haw Par launch a new product in 2011—Tiger Balm Active Muscle Rub which focused on a certain buyer segment—sporting enthusiasts. It also endeavored to distinguish itself by branding as well as adding uniqueness and value to products. One such example comes from Tiger Balm Medicated Plaster, a product with combined functions of energizing body and relieving pains. To do branding, Haw Par increased popularity by sponsoring public events such as marathons in Singapore, and advertising in national magazines in America (Haw Par, 2010). Besides, it also undertook social responsibility by contributing to charities, such as organizing the fundraising event â€Å"The Tiger Balm Record Roar† which supported the Society for the Physically Disabled (Haw Par, 2010). This focus differentiation strategy helped lower the degree of substitutability of other companies’ products and reduce the level of competition. 1.4 Top Three Business Risks The top risk was the intense competition from existing companies, as this would directly affect the percentage of market share owned by Haw Par, and hence its profitability. The second risk was the rising cost of raw materials, which was also an industry-wide problem that might limit a company’s development. Another risk was the failure of compliance with regulations, which had only emerged in the US market, but certainly reflected defects in Haw Par’s internal control. 1.4.1 Intense Competition from Existing Companies Haw Par Corp Ltd faced strong competition from a number of multinational corporations. According to the Competitive Landscape Singapore, in 2011, Haw Par ranks the third in the healthcare sector for market capitalization. The companies listed in Appendix 1 are the major competitors of Haw Par Healthcare Limited in Singapore. Besides, although Haw Par’s healthcare products were distributed to 150 countries via 70 distributors, it still faced high risk from competitors which could render its market share shrink in the health-care area (Haw Par, 2010). To mitigate this risk, Haw Par managed to boost its market shares through improvement of Tiger Balm brand by advertising, sales promotions and the extension of manufacturing line. Another strategy adopted was to diversify product line to broaden customer choices so that consumers would be more likely to choose Haw Par’s product and hence this risk would be minimized. 1.4.2 Increase in Costs of Raw Materials Due to upwards general inflationary pressure, unit price of herbal materials for traditional Chinese medicine was expected to rise. Haw Par also expressed serious concerns in its annual report on rising costs of raw materials and operating activities that would erode its profitability in healthcare sector. This would be one of the reasons why gross profit slipped 3.52% while net profit raised 88.50% in 2010, compared with 2009. To neutralize the negative impact, Haw Par put emphasis on expanding its product portfolio to cater for more customers (The edge, 2011). 1.4.3 Failure to Comply with Regulations and Provisions When Haw Par was expanding its market in foreign countries, it faced challenges in conforming to the different regulations and standards. For example, an inspection on Haw Par’s manufacturing facilities by FDA, discovered â€Å"significant violations of Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for finished pharmaceuticals† (FDA, 2010). Failure of conforming to regulations would pose a potential threat of being banned in specific markets, which would negatively affect revenue, brand image and social acceptance. To mitigate this risk, Haw Par shall immediately review the unqualified production and procurement practice while proposing appropriate remedies. Furthermore, Haw Par shall also seek opportunity to make appeal to the public so as to restore and conserve its corporate image. 1.5 Value Chain Activities – Primary Activities 1.5.1 Inbound Logistics For Haw Par’s health-care segment, inbound logistics contains management of raw materials, inventory control, warehousing and even returns to suppliers. Efficient inventory management system is an essential factor in boosting profits for Haw Par, by enhancing efficiency and thus reducing expenses. 1.5.2 Operations In the operating process, value is created through transforming the raw materials into final products. Unfortunately, Haw Par Healthcare was warned by FDA about mislabelled products and inadequacies (FDA, 2010). In this case, Haw Par failed to show itself â€Å"to be capable to detecting potential impurities†. Therefore Haw Par Healthcare should improve its testing and packaging operations, so as to maintain its product quality to secure current market position (CBS Interactive, 2010). 1.5.3 Outbound Logistics Though possessing a worldwide distributing network covering 70 countries, Haw Par continued expanding its markets. Nevertheless, Haw Par’s healthcare manufacturing facilities were centralized in its major markets, so as to reduce the costs and improve the overall efficiency. 1.5.4 Marketing and Sales Haw Par focused on marketing activities to boost sales and build brand image, as discussed in competitive strategies. According to the General Manager Ah Kuan Han, Haw Par would intensify substantial advertising activities to enlarge consumer bases (The Business Times, April 1st 2010). According to the horizontal analysis of income statement, the sales and marketing expense increased by 6.00% in 2010. Furthermore, with the already widespread fame, Haw Par was striving to expend its market in UK, America, Caribbean and other parts of world through its comprehensive marketing and sales strategies (The Business Times, 2009). 1.5.5 Service Haw Par has built the Tiger Balm website to facilitate serving its customers. The website provides a wide range of information about its products. Haw Par also provides experience sharing service on its website, through which past users can share their experience with others. 1.6 Value Chain Activities – Support Activities 1.6.1 General Administration A strong and effective board of directors would bring Haw Par to success, by supporting the whole Haw Par Corporation through the activities including planning, general management, risk management, and so on. Good management and information systems would increase operating efficiencies as well as improving the company’s image. 1.6.2 Human Resource Management Haw Par has been recruiting a large pool of staffs. More significantly, Haw Par emphasized on maintaining high quality employees, as evidenced in its advertisement of hiring o-level and above diploma holders as laboratory technicians. (Jobstreet.com, 2011) 1.6.3 Technology Development Haw Par has been actively engaged in technology development, indicated by its â€Å"launching of line extensions on a slate of new products that would address lifestyle needs of modern consumers† (Haw Paw, 2010), which would secure Haw Par’s long term competitiveness in the market. Yet Haw Par shall continue its efforts in innovation to further strengthen market power and improve efficiency. 1.6.4 Procurement As the ingredients of Haw Par’s product are mainly traditional herbs supplied from China, India and Malaysia, the cost of materials from these suppliers is relatively low. However, the procurement activity still needs to be further improved. As mentioned above, Haw Par received a warning letter from FDA which identified a problem of unqualified suppliers. Thus, apart from outsourcing cheaper raw material from suppliers, Haw Par should keep monitoring its suppliers regularly to ensure reliability. 2.2 Financial Ratios Analysis The following sessions will assess the profitability, liquidity (including operating efficiency) and solvency of Haw Par in 2009 and 2010, and account for any substantial fluctuation emerged, through analyzing relevant financial ratios respectively. One of Haw Par’s major competitors – Sun pharmaceutical industries Ltd. is also referred to for comparison. 2.2.1 Profitability Analysis Ratios adopted here include net profit margin, gross profit margin, return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share. The net profit margin of Haw Par nearly doubled from 46.10% to 86.90%. Such a rise is aligned with the increase in sales revenue from $124m to $130m, mainly due to the recovering global economy. As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated, the world real GDP growth is 1.4% and 2.5% for 2009 and 2010 respectively, while for Asian countries the growth was estimated to be 5.5% and 7.0% (Michael Mussa, 2009). As an Asian company, Haw Par has benefited greatly from the economic recovery. However, the gross profit margin displays a slight decrease from 58.25% to 56.20%. This can be partially attributed to rising material costs and operating expenses. Haw Par reported a 7.51% increase in costs of sales while Sun Pharmaceutical reported a 28.3% rise in the costs of sales. Consistent with the trend shown in profit margins, the return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share ratios are also nearly doubled, owing to a better economic environment. Though the total assets and owners’ equity increased due to the market expansion in America, the increase is insufficient to offset the effect of a strong rebound in net income. In short, ratios concerning the profitability manifest a rising trend, and thus we conclude that Haw Par’s profitability has improved from 2009 to 2010 by tapping the opportunity of the warming global economic climate. It also outperformed its competitor, Sun Pharmaceutical, which reported an 8.62% fall in income from operation in 2009-2010(Sun Pharmaceutical, 2010). 2.2.2 Liquidity and Efficiency Analysis Ratios adopted here comprise of current ratio, quick ratio, assets and fixed asset turnover, inventory and receivable turnover, average days in inventory, and average days of receivables. Quick ratio and current ratio are used to assess group’s ability to pay the current liabilities due within one year. The current ratio of Haw Par dropped from 12.57 to 12.09 because of the fair value losses in its investment in United Overseas Bank Limited and disposal of available-for-sale financial assets (Haw Par, 2010). However, the quick ratio, a more stringent measure on liquidity, indicated a rise from 2.70 to 3.31. The contradictory result is actually justifiable on the basis of the very reasons just mentioned. Due to an increase in cash and net accounts receivable, the quick ratio increased, it can be concluded that Haw Par demonstrated a greater capability in meeting its short term bond obligations. The assets turnover and fixed assets turnover ratios assess the group’s ability to generate revenue for each dollar invested in assets and fixed assets respectively. Haw Par’s assets turnover experienced a slight drop from 0.07 to 0.06, while its fixed assets turnover increased from 2.73 to 2.91. Possible explanation would be the group’s heavier investment in subsidiaries and inventories, which increased the total assets, resulting in lower asset turnover ratio. Since the fluctuations on both indicators are insignificant, it is unconvincing to say that Haw Par’s management efficiency improved. The inventory turnover ratio and average days in inventory assess how fast the company is selling its inventories. From 2009 to 2010, the inventory turnover declined from 8.19 to 7.41 and average days in inventory lengthened from 44.59 to 49.29. This is attributed to a 52.30% increase in inventory. These two indicated that Haw Par’s inventory management became less efficient. However, Haw Par might have accumulated inventory purposely to counteract the negative impact of rising raw material costs. The receivable turnover and average days of receivables both indicated the improved efficiency in collecting receivables. While the receivable turnover rose from 6.17 to 6.99, the average days of receivables fell accordingly from 59.20 to 52.23 days. It is discussed earlier that sales revenue increased sharply. Besides higher sales revenue, another factor accounting for this may be a better economic situation under which fewer customers face liquidity problem. In all, though its current ratio decreased slightly, Haw Par still retains its ability to cover short-term debt. However, there is still room for Haw Par to enhance its operating efficiency. It may improve the inventory and receivable management system to boost its business performance. 2.2.3 Solvency Ratio Analysis Ratios adopted for solvency analysis are debt to assets and cash acquisition. The debt to asset ratio reflects the degree of reliance on creditor finance. Haw Par’s debt to asset decreased from 0.047 to 0.045, indicating Haw Par’s improvement of financing strategy by financing more on equity. Two possible explanations for that change may be: (1) Sufficient cash flow allowed Haw Par to rely less on loans. (2) The promising trend in economy helped restore confidence of shareholders who in turn invested actively, as evidenced by the rise in share capital. The cash acquisition ratio nearly doubled from 5.92 to 9.40. The numerator, net cash from operation, plummeted by more than half; however, the denominator, cash paid for PPE, fell more dramatically by two thirds. The two fluctuations as a whole resulted in a rise in cash acquisition ratio, giving a positive indication on Haw Par’s solvency situation. As the two ratios suggested, it seems plausible that Haw Par has improved its solvency. However, its competitor Sun Pharmaceutical, with the debt to assets ratio of merely 0.026, has outperformed Haw Par in solvency. It is still possible for Haw Par to improve further. 3. CONCLUSION To conclude, though benefited from the overall economic recovery, Haw Par was also surrounded by risks and challenges in the competitive environment. However, it has been actively engaged in product innovation and adopted pertinent strategies, especially in marketing sector. Haw Par’s responses were fairly effective in tackling the above-mentioned problems, as proven by its successful financial year. So far, Haw Par has been tapping the benefits of economies of scale, enjoying the opportunities in the emerging Asian market and taking advantage of the global economic recovery. Yet in the contestable market where the barrier to entry is minimal in the long run, Haw Par should continue to strive hard so as to maintain its competitiveness in the ever-changing business world.

Orphan Trains Essay

Throughout the generations America has transformed and evolved drastically to become the nation it is today. Many can argue that several things have happened in America that are what shaped it to the country it is today industrially, socially and economically. A man by the name of Charles brace had a dream of getting underprivileged children off the streets and gave them the tools and opportunities to live great normal lives. Between 1854- 1929 an estimated 200,000 American children, some orphaned or half-orphaned, others abandoned- but all in need of families- traveled west by rail as part of a â€Å"placing out† program started by Charles, called the Children’s Aid Society. (Warren, 4) This dream exploded around the U. S into what is now known as The Orphan Train Movement; a movement that sparked opportunity and new life for underprivileged children. Early on in American History, children who were left by their families were usually left to be cared for by their relatives or neighbors. There were very few services at the time to help struggling families in need, or to even rescue children. It was in the late 1800’s and even as late as the 1900’s where laws advocating children’s rights were being enacted. The only places where children could be left at the time were Orphanages and most were extremely overcrowded and uncomfortable. Children were not given much time or attention or even food. Adoption was not yet universally popular at the time, and there were not many laws protecting the rights of children. Often times in a lower to middle class household a family relied on its children to work in order to make ends meet. For many families it was a struggle but manageable, however, for others it was just too much and this lead to many children being left on the streets of major cities, like New York and Manhattan. Charles Brace originally arrived in New York City in 1848 to study Theology but could not help but notice the overflow of abandoned children living on the streets. Brace had made a trip to Europe, where he saw first-hand how orphans were being taken by charitable organizations to areas where they were better off with families that would raise them as their own children. After this trip Charles decided to take that concept and start his own. By 1853 Charles Brace founded the Children’s Aid Society, which was derived from the same principles he witnessed in an Institute during his time in Germany. Charles’ goal was to give children access to education as well as jobs who would not have had the opportunity otherwise. A quote from Charles Brace says â€Å"The best of all Asylums for the outcast child is the farmers’ home. The great duty is to get these children of unhappy fortune utterly out of their surroundings and to send them away to kind Christian homes in the country. In 1854 Brace sent the first group of forty six children to Michigan. Within a week of arrival, they all had homes to live in. It was clear that his idea would be extremely promising. Pretty soon thousands of children were being placed out, from the streets, even from jail. Later, Charles derived a plan to be able to send kids where they could learn a skill, contribute to society, and (ideally) be a part of a family. This sparked a huge movement for the early stages of modern adoption. Charles Brace was the first to really come up with the idea of a â€Å"relocation program† on a major scale. The ultimate goal for Charles Brace was for the children to have the opportunity to be transformed out in the country as opposed to the desperate living conditions they would face in the City. It may seem as though Charles Brace just stole an idea he once saw in Europe and later made a fortune of it here in America, however this is not the case. Brace put in a lot of his own effort before placing out children in masses. Charles truly cared for the well-being of every child. In the City, he sent out physicians and nurses to offer medical care and started a daycare center for mothers who had to work. Brace set up lodging houses for newsboys and set up schools to teach children trades or occupations to support themselves. He also made it possible for underprivileged children to receive free school lunches. (This now exists to today as free or reduced lunch, based on family income). A big contributing factor to the idea Brace came up with as far as †placing out west†, was that he felt families with good hearts in small towns and on farms, would take the children in as their own, educate them, and also provide them with a religious upbringing. In return, these children would contribute their hard work and labor to the family which was expected from any child at that time. The only exception to this was extremely privileged children who were brought up from wealth. There are numerous positive outcomes that came from the orphan trains but also a few negative ones. Usually, groups of about thirty to forty children would travel together on the trains. When the orphan trains arrived to their designated towns, everyone in those towns would gather around for the â€Å"viewing†. The most common way the children were viewed, were at churches or big buildings that included stages or a way to see the children from afar. This process was the most daunting and humiliating for the children. In the book We Rode the Orphan Trains by Andrea Warren she writes, â€Å"As Hazelle Latimer, now deceased, who rode an orphan train to Texas in 1918, she remembered, â€Å"We were lined up on the stage and all I could see was wall-to-wall people. They surrounded us, made us turn around, lift our skirts to see if our legs were straight, and open our mouths to show our teeth. A very humiliating day†. Warren, 49) On the other hand there were several children who found loving new families, and were raised with comfort and support. â€Å"For most of our history, until the twentieth century, the social worth of children was understood primarily in terms of economic rather than emotional value†¦. From the earliest age when a child could hold a spinning card, she was likely engaged in household industry. By the age of twelve or so most children were treated as adult producers’’(Jalongo, 2010) It was not always easy for some, children would be separated from their brothers and sisters a lot of the time. There were several instances where children would grow up and later find their lost relatives after the sometimes, inevitable separation caused by the orphan trains. Even though the separation was wrenching, the majority of the children involved In the Orphan Train movement grew up to be well-rounded people and used the tools they learned growing up to carry on in their adulthood. Many cases of children being mistreated in their new homes, or treated as servants, could have been avoided. The Children’s Aid Society had agents who’s duty was to make frequent checkups on the children in their homes but with poor documentation and increasing number of children it seemed to be a lost cause. The New York Foundling Hospital was second to the Children’s Aid Society in placing children. In these days, a hospital could mean more than just treating a bad wound or giving you medical attention. It could also mean receiving care other than medical. Sisters for Charity, lead by Sister Irene, were in charge of caring for the children left at the hospital. They set up cradles where children could be left and in many instances, infants and toddlers would be left with notes on them. Notes would say things such as â€Å"Agustus, born October 16, 1879. Take good care of my darling. † (Warren, 15) The sisters soon received countless children that were being dropped off by mothers or families who could not care for them. It was not long before they began to develop the same mindset as Charles Brace and only hope that the best situation for a child is to be living in a home with a family. Soon, the sisters were sending many of their small children out west to pre-assigned catholic homes. Soon after, another type of trend of the orphan trains began and was known as â€Å"baby trains†. They were of great interest to the public and people often would come in crowds to watch children be united with their new families. The orphan trains and the baby trains were very similar in how they overall operated as a whole however, there were a few key differences. The Sisters worked in conjunction with Priests throughout the Midwest and South in an effort to place these children in Catholic families. While the Children’s Aid Society requested that the children they place be given spiritual training (the choice of religion was left up to the â€Å"adoptive† family), the Foundling Hospital’s placements were strictly to Catholic families. â€Å"Probably the largest difference in how the Foundling Hospital placed their children is that the children were not sent out to be â€Å"randomly† adopted from a town hall or opera house, but were â€Å"requested† ahead of time by families who wanted a child. †(Dipasquale) In a sense it was much more organized and civil the way the Sisters handled the infants. The Orphan Trains ended in 1930 for numerous reasons, the most affective of these are; a decreased need for farm labor, and the onset of the Great Depression. Even though these two organizations were very different in some aspects they were both primarily the key functions of the Orphan Train Movement. Without a doubt this movement was life-changing and unfortunately resides as a much unheard of occurrence in our history lessons in the present day. Several people now have extreme mixed reviews about the Orphan Trains and what its true motives were. Charles Brace was a man who sought to give opportunity to the lives of those which at the time were almost invisible to society or just a form of cheap labor. â€Å"When a charitable organization takes action, it is out of a desire to help its clients, yet a determination of whether those actions represented a stride forward often occurs much later, when subsequent generations take the long view back†. (Jalongo ) The Orphan Trains were not of much use anymore after the start of the Great Depression. Social Service agencies had begun placing children in foster homes with the intention of restoring them back to their original families. Immigrants that were coming to America were making a much easier transition, and had new programs available to them that would help them get jobs and housing. Since the majority of the children of the Orphan Train Movement were from families of immigrants, this is a great indication of why the Orphan Trains were no longer in need. Today the Orphan Train Heritage Society of America exists and works to help spread the word about the orphan trains. A movement that is relatively unknown to our society today, could quite accurately be referred to as the same movement that was the beginning of foster care and modern adoption in America. It is estimated that about 2 million people in America today are descendants of an orphan train rider. 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Question 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Consumer experience and Luxury Branding - Essay Example   There are various ways in which the consumers experience fashion retail on a global scale. These experiences can either be seen or felt. The first experience is psychological or emotional. Saprikis, Chouliara, and Broekhuizen (2010, p.2) observed that an individual’s purchasing choices are influenced by four major psychological factors, including perception, motivation, learning, beliefs, and attitude. Liu and Forsythe (2010, p.83) illustrate that the intention of the customer to shop is positively linked with the attitude towards purchasing, and affects their decision-making and purchasing behavior. Khitoliya (2014, p.18) argue that perceived usefulness, convenience, and perceived enjoyment are the dominant factors that affect consumer perceptions about a brand. Cao, Xu, and Douma add that enjoyment in intrinsic motivation. When a customer enjoys a product, it impacts positively on the sales of that particular brand. It is equally important to note that when the employees are motivated and satisfied with their job, it translates into a good feeling to the customer since they are able to interact well with the staff and get quality products that make them be satisfied. Schmitt claims that products and services that emerge from the brand’s real soul connect psychologically to the consumers. As a result, it generates emotionally positive experience from the customers. Zara uses emotional client experience of increased self-confidence, self-esteem, and happiness to meet the customer preferences.

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Banking Crises in UK - Essay Example By doing so, banks are actually diverting their resources to potentially unproductive activities as the regulatory compliance may not directly provide the desired benefits in terms of monetary return. The emerging trends in the regulations in the financial as well as corporate markets are increasing in numbers and intensity as the increasing mismanagement and corporate scandals have forced regulatory authorities to look for the legal frameworks which help achieve the organizations more transparency as well as flexibility in their approach and responsibilities towards all the stakeholders in the firms. Some of the external events like the 9/11 incidents also played a major role in bringing in the new regulations into place so that traditional business channels specially the financial institutions are not being used for potentially harmful activities including terrorism. It was because of these reasons that regulations like BASEL II, Sarbanes Oxley, and The European Commissions Financial Services Action Plan were enforced to rationalize and revamp the existing regulatory framework. Thus the challenges are various to the banking sector as a whole and to the UK financial sector especially as London is now largely being considered as the international hub of the financial activities all over the world. In order to The essay will look into the present crisis banking sector is facing currently all over the world and UK especially. External environment for the UK Banking and Finance Companies In order to analyze the external environment for the UK Banking and finance companies, it is very important that we need to take a very comprehensive view of the factors involved into the overall banking scenario in the world. The globalization is taking its roots on more firm basis and it is because of this reason that the economic resources are being shifting from the more developed countries to the emerging economies such as China, Brazil, India and Russia. The emergence of the BRIC has therefore effectively shifted the economic resources and with it the economic activities therefore now since most of the activities are being performed in those geographical locations therefore like all other businesses, the banks are also shifting themselves to these locations to concentrate on the market development and penetration into these countries. (Hale, 2004). Thus the trends in globalization are forcing banks and other financial institutions in UK to face challenges from the banks working in those areas as most of the international syndications are being done by the regional banks in those regions and the overall market share of the UK Banks is shrinking. Further to this, banking sector over the period of time has seen a period of consolidation allowing a wave of mergers and acquisitions. Banks, over the period of time has improved their competencies by acquiring and merging with more efficient banks in order to gain more and more market space. Further Information technology is a new and emerging trend in the market which suggests that the banks are increasingly becoming more competitive in this area.(Grealish,2004) One of the most important challenges that are being faced by the UK Banks is the fact that the impact of US subprime mortgages is going to hit or have already hit the UK banks. The subprime mortgage crisis which has started into US is slowly being engulfing

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Supply chain relationship management - Research Proposal Example The first benefit is that it results in job creation. Such kind of jobs results in various roles for the employees like managers, sales, distributors, warehousing etc. There are mainly two classification of retailing depending on the identification of products. It was necessary to allow grouping of the products on the basis of the forecast methods, replenishment methods, planning system etc. The two classifications are Functional or staple products and Innovative Products. There are many challenges in retail supply chain. One challenge is that it can be very costly if the supply chain is not properly designed. There are many other glitches which are both external and internal to the business. Another major problem facing them is Suppler Reliability. If any supplier fails to do any of his function then there will be no product for them to sell (Coyle, Langley, Gibson, Novack and Bardi, 2008, p. 211). This can result in result in loss of consumers, lost profits and declining sales turn over. Hence in the process of selection of supplier it is very important to choose any reliable supplier. In today’s scenario, potential markets and outsourcing can have a major impact on the way a retail supply chain is structured. Presence of low cost for innovative products from Asian and China countries has resulted in paradigm shift to global manufacturing from local manufacturing. Hence this affects the supply chain in terms of cost and complexity. Bullying happens in retail sector where the companies like Wal-Mart have been accused of bullying small retail outlets. Retail stores are now taking full potential of the technology by carrying out many of their activities online. Hence such devices have increased the efficiency of small and medium retail business. But the main point of contention is that it could take forever for the company to generate returns on their investment (Mentzer, 2001, p. 186). The data

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(Microeconomics) - Assignment Example It also assists government to take advantages of expenses associated with clerical works. Moreover, government can effectively avert unhealthy market competitions. 3. Utilities such as water, gas, and electricity are some of the examples of natural monopolies. Government must set price ceilings in national monopoly markets since products and services under this category are necessities that people may buy at any higher prices. 4. In both the cases, profit must be zero in long run equilibrium. Firms are affected by changes in demand conditions under both cases. A major similarity between monopolistic competition and perfect competition is that competition in pursuit of profit encourages efficient resource movements. 5. In the case of a monopolistically competitive firm, demand will increase and average cost will increase in the long run. Under such circumstance, monopolistically competitive firms end up making zero economic profits. 6. A monopolistically competitive firm chooses the level of output where marginal cost equals marginal revenue. The firm maximizes its profits so as to achieve this situation; and it is called short run equilibrium of the firm. This condition adds to the price fixation flexibility of the firm. Moreover, it enables the firm to rapidly adjust with unexpected market fluctuations. b. Availability of different varieties of breakfast cereals gives an opportunity for consumers to distinguish them on the ground of their quality and price. It also gives consumers chance to buy their most preferred

Gabriel urbain faure And His requiem mass Essay Example for Free

Gabriel urbain faure And His requiem mass Essay â€Å"Gabriel Faure is regarded as the master of the French art song, or melodie. His works ranged from Classical, when in his early years he emulated the style of Haydn and Mendelssohn, to Romantic, and finally to an ascetic 20th century aesthetic† (â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). Gabriel Urbain Faure was born in 1845 in a town called Pamiers. It has been said that even at an early age, his potentials as a musician were already evident and noticeable. It was not given much attention by his parents, because at that time, they were in the belief that sending Faure to school to receive formal learning was of more importance. In fact, it was Faure’s teacher that noted his talents in music. Consequently, this teacher suggested to Faure’s parents that their child be sent to Paris to study in Niedermeyer, a religious music school. From the age of nine, Faure studied music at the Ecole Niedermeyer, the ‘Ecole de musique religieuse et classique’, where Saint-Saens was a member of staff. Saint-Saens had been lifelong friends with Faure and later said that he owed everything to him, introducing him not only to traditional music and composers such as Mozart and Bach but also to controversial composers such as Wagner whom he admired, but was one of few composers of his generation not to come under his influence and also Lizst. Saint-Saens encouraged and helped him to get his music published. From then on, he was able to meet and encounter different individuals who played major roles in the life of Faure. He served as an organist in one of the churches in Rennes. Then, in 1870, â€Å"the Franco-Prussian War broke out and Faure was enlisted into the First Regiment of the Imperial Light Infantry as a messenger† (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). After the war, Faure was once again an organist, but in another church this time. When Saint-Saens retired in 1877 Faure took over his post as choirmaster. Faure would remain at the Madeleine for almost 20 years. He also taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire, becoming director in 1905, and his pupils included Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. Gabriel Faure’s Music A perusal of different accounts concerning the life and music of Gabriel Faure would show that he always strived to be different. For instance, in the field of music, regardless of how popular a type of music was, Faure will come in and try to change it, in order for the same to reflect his views and emotions; he wanted to be unique and different from the usual. The subtlety of Faure’s music, and his concentration on the small-scale, led many to criticise him for lacking depth, a judgement based on the mistaken premise that the bigger and bolder a composer’s music the more worthwhile it must be (Bawden J. â€Å"Gabriel Faure). As to what Faure found himself interested in in the field of music, it has been said that The majority of Faures piano music up to 1871 had mainly been romantic songs. Poems by Hugo, Gautier, and Baudelaire, had been recommended to him by his teachers. His early songs hint at his developing originality but were written in the strict classical style he had learned in school. It was characteristic of Faure, however, to constantly renew himself in his compositions. He always wanted to try something new, something different that no one else had done; and he never followed the fads of his day, prefering instead to follow his heart. Thus his songs show a continuous personal and unique evolution (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). It is this courage of his to change things, however, that made him face certain setbacks in his career when he joined the Madeleine as its choirmaster. There are individuals in his field who were not in favor of the changes that Gabriel Faure was introducing into the system. As a choirmaster, Faure would always find himself in disagreement with members of the clergy. â€Å"The clergy were only concerned with keeping the congregation happy; and so their musical preferences were for popular, operatic-styled church music that was all the rage, rather than for enlightening religious music† (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). Hence, it was quite difficult for Faure to introduce the changes that he wanted. As will be discussed further, Gabriel Faure’s most popular work which depicts his love for uniqueness is his Requiem Mass, which totally differs from the traditional Requiem. In fact, In Armand Vivets book on French sacred music he wrote of the first performance, Immediately the ceremony was over. The vicar called Faure into the sacristy and questioned him as follows: What was that mass for the dead youve just conducted? It was a requiem of my own composition. Monsieur Faure, we dont need all these novelties; the Madeleines repertoire is quite rich enough, just content yourself with that. Family and Marriage Gabriel Faure was once engaged to Marianne Viadot. In 1877, Faure asked for Marianne’s hand in marriage. It took quite a while, but eventually, the lady gave a positive response to the proposal posted by the bachelor. The problem was Marianne kept on postponing the date of their wedding, and â€Å"this continued delay was more than Faure could handle and he complained vehemently. Marianne used his outburst of frustration as an excuse to break off their engagement for good† (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). True, the failed engagement to Marianne Viardot made Gabriel Faure sad and depressed, but later on, he would find himself recovering from this hurdle and agreeing to his friend, Marguerite Baugnies’ suggestion of being in an arranged marriage. Mme. Baugnies found three possible young ladies who belonged to the artistic world: the daughters of Octave Feuillet and George Feydeau who were both writers; and the daughter of Emmanuel Fremiet, a well-known sculptor of the day. Unable to make up his mind, Faure hastily wrote the names down on slips of paper, placed them in a hat, and randomly picked Marie Fremiet, daughter of the sculptor. After a brief engagement, the wedding took place on March 27th, 1883 in Paris. (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). In 1883 Faure married Marie Fremiet, with whom he had two sons. In order to support his family Faure spent most of his time in organising daily services at the Eglise de la Madeleine and teaching piano and harmony lessons. He only had time to compose during the summers. He earned almost no money from his compositions because his publisher bought them, copyright and all, for 50 francs each. During this period Gabriel Faure wrote several large scale works, in addition to many piano pieces and songs, but he destroyed many of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements in order to re-use motives(â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). It could be his unique way of choosing his bride that led to an unhappy marriage. Later on, he would find out that he didn’t really share much in common with his wife. They talked less and grew apart despite being gifted with two children. In an account by Martin, she said that the couple would write each other letters to communicate even both of them were in one and the same city. The Latter Part of Faure’s Life â€Å"The last two decades of Gabriel Faures life were marked by his steady rise to fame, his increasing health problems, and the new love in his life. After serving as choirmaster for nineteen years, he became organist at the Madeleine in 1896. In the same year he also became Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire† (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). After his stint as organist, he joined the Paris Conservatoire as its director. It could be said that his success would have continued further, if not for the health problems that Faure had been experiencing. In 1902, Faure was having problems with is hearing. Martin would say that this problem was hereditary as Faure’s brother also had the same problem. His hearing problem, however, was not an obstacle to his finding another chance to love again. The output of Faure had greatly reduced because of his responsibilities at the conservatoire combined with his loss of hearing . during the World War I, he remained in France and retired from the Conservatoire at the age of 75. in the same year he received the Grand-Croix of the Legion d’Honneur, an honor rare for a musician. â€Å"In 1900 at the premiere of Promethee, Faure met and fell in love with Marguerite Hasselmans. She was born in 1876 and even though Faure was the same age as her father, nevertheless, they stayed together until the end of his life in 1924† (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). Gabriel Faure died in Paris from pneumonia in 1924. He was given a state funeral at the Eglise de la Madeleine and is buried in the Cimetiere de Passy in Paris (â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). Legacy as a Composer and Music Teacher Aside from his numerous musical masterpieces described as elegant, introspective and intimate, Faure made an enormous mark on his younger contemporaries as an influential teacher and mentor. One of his students, Nadia Boulanger, herself known arguably as the greatest classical music teacher of all-time, is an achievement enough. Among other distinguished composition students are Ravel, Koechlin and Enescu (â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). â€Å"Although he wrote several works involving a full orchestra, his particular talent lay within the more intimate musical forms – songs, piano music and chamber music. His somewhat austere style and highly individual, impressionistic harmonic language contrasts markedly with the music of the Austro-German tradition which dominated European music from the time of Beethoven until well into the twentieth century†(Bawden, â€Å"Requiem†). â€Å"Gabriel Faure served as inspiration for crafting flexibility into their works. As performers, teachers, talented administrators, and church musicians they understood the fine art of composing pearls with limited forces which could then be jeweled for the concert hall† (McCauley M. , â€Å"Requiem†). The Requiem Mass of Faure â€Å"The Requiem flourished during the Renaissance period, despite during the 14th century when the Roman church limited the amount of times the Requiem was performed and of what chants it consisted† (Green, â€Å"The Requiem Mass†). As earlier pointed out, Faure’s love for trying out new things is best mirrored in his Requiem Mass. His Requiem Mass is different from the traditional Requiem being played in the chapels and churches and that time. â€Å"By the time of the first performance, on January 16 1888, there were five movements: an Introit and Kyrie, the Sanctus, Pie Jesu, Agnus Dei, and In Paradisum. To perform the work, Faure called for a mixed choir with divided tenors and basses, a soprano soloist, an orchestra of low strings (violas, cellos, and double basses), harp, timpani, and organ, with a violin solo in the Sanctus. He added an Offertoire in 1889, and added a setting of the Libera Me that he had written for baritone and organ some twelve years earlier. He added horns, trumpets, and trombones to the orchestra, and a baritone soloist, and this version was first performed at the Madeleine in January of 1893† (â€Å"Chorale Music Notes†). Compared to the Missa pro defunctis, Faure changed portions of the text in his setting of the Requiem Mass. In the Libera me and Offertory for example, he left out certain words or repeated others so that the movement became more musically balanced and the words more clearly heard. The Libera me and In Paradisum actually dont belong to the Missa pro defunctis but to the Office for the Dead. Libera me is the prayer for absolution which follows the Requiem Mass; and the In Paradisum is spoken outside the church at the moment of burial. The use of this last text in particular shows how much Faure wanted to break from tradition (Martin, â€Å"Gabriel Faure†). The most important feature of the Requiem mass is the reflection of the emotions and views of Faure towards the idea of death. Faure was recorded to have said My Requiem has been said to express no fear of death; it has been called a lullaby of death. But that is how I feel about death; a happy deliverance, a reaching for a happy deliverance, rather than a mournful passing Perhaps I have sought to depart from what is conventional because for so long I was organist at services of interment. Im fed up with that. I wanted to do something different (â€Å"Requiem-Gabriel Faure†). This kind of view made his Requiem lack the vibe of sadness and terror. In fact, some writers would say that there is a certain tone of sweetness in Faure’s Requiem, something that one cannot normally expect from any form of music associated with death. As confirmed by Bawden, †the prevailing mood is one of peacefulness and serenity, and the work has often been described, quite justly, as a Requiem without the Last Judgement† (â€Å"Requiem†). Faure originally designed this work to be functional for church services with appropriately conservative accompaniment: the organ supplemented by harp, tympani and strings generally omitting violins except in the Sanctus. The technique of backing off the violins for a more somber effect may have been an idea borrowed from Brahms (McCauley, â€Å"Requiem†). Besides numerous motets and a mass written for liturgical use, theres no question that Gabriel Faures best known choral work is the Messe de Requiem. Written between 1887 and 1890, the Requiem was written not for the death of his father, but as another experiment in Faures endless quest to write music that was new and different (â€Å"Requiem†). Despite the discouraging start, Faures Requiem did become popular during his lifetime and was played throughout Europe. Today it is still very popular and has been recorded more than any of his other works. REFERENCE Martin, S. â€Å" Gabriel Faure- A Biography†. http://w3. rz-berlin. mpg. de/cmp/faure. html Green, A. â€Å"The Requiem Mass† http://classicalmusic. about. com/od/classicalmusic101/a/requiemmass. htm â€Å"Online Guide to Requiem† http://requiemonline. tripod. com/ â€Å"Faure, Gabriel- Biography†. http://www. naxos. com/composerinfo/Gabriel_Faure/26049. htm â€Å"Requiem†. http://www. classiccat. net/faure_g/biography. htm â€Å"Gabriel Faure†. http://www. basicfamouspeople. com/index. php? aid=4340 Asiado, T. (2008). â€Å"Gabriel Faure Brief Biography†. http://great-teachers. suite101. com/article. cfm/gabriel_faure_brief_biography â€Å"Masses of Requiem†. http://www. newadvent. org/cathen/12776d. htm â€Å"Requiem†. http://requiemonline. tripod. com/history/masshistory. htm â€Å"Chorale Music Notes†. http://members. macconnect. com/users/j/jimbob/classical/Faure_Requiem. html â€Å"Gabriel Faure- Requiem†. http://www. beijingifc. org/index. php? option=com_contenttask=viewid=28Itemid=36 â€Å"Requiem†. http://www. orbilat. com/Encyclopaedia/R/Requiem. html Bawden, J. (2006). â€Å"Gabriel Faure- Requiem†. http://www. choirs. org. uk/prognotes/faure%20requiem. htm McCauley, M. â€Å"Requiem†. http://www. halway. com/mchorale/faure/program. html

Overview of Portfolio Theories

Overview of Portfolio Theories Introduction The word â€Å"Portfolio† can be defined as; the totality of decisions determining an individuals future prospects† (Sharpe, 1970). Portfolio can consist of many types of assets such as plant, property, real and financial assets (P.A Bowen, 1984). Portfolio theories propose how rational and prudent investors should use their due diligence to diversify their investments to optimize their portfolios, and how a risky asset should be priced as compared to less risky asset. People have been investing in the different assets class since decades but then they realize the importance of risk and its negative implications, if not treated effectively. Every investor has his own tolerance of risk and investors defines it in his ability of taking it. The portfolio theories have been derived over time in order to effectively measure the risk and how it can be reduced by diversify in their asset. Article 1: â€Å"The Legacy of Modern Portfolio Theory† This article covers the highlights of modern portfolio theory, describing how risk and its effects are measured and how planning and asset allocation can help you do something about it. Modern portfolio theory is the theoretical conflicting of conventional stock picking. It is being put forward by the economists, who try to understand the phenomena of the market as a whole, instead of business analysts, who look for individual investment opportunities. Investments are explained statistically, as how much investor expected long-term return rate and their expected short-term volatility. It measures how much expected return can deviate much worse than average an investments bad years are likely to be. The goal of the theory is to identify your adequate level of risk tolerance, and then to come up with a portfolio with the maximum expected return for that level of standard deviation (risk). The portfolio it assumes that the investment universe consists only of two market securities, the risk free asset and risky assets. But the actual investment universe is much broader than that being put forward. The optimal level of investment is to invest on efficient frontier but doing this would mean to calculate the millions of covariance among the securities. This calculation could make the life of analyst as difficult as one could have ever imagined. To think practically, its better to put portfolio theory to work means investing in a limited number of index securities rather than a huge number of individual stocks and bonds. Index investing is the point the where portfolio theory starts to rely on the efficient market hypothesis. When you buy an index based portfolio strategy youre allocating your money the same way the whole market is which is a high-quality thing if you believe the market has a plan and it is efficient. This is why portfolio theory is one of the branches of economics rather than finance: instead of only studying financial statements and different financial ratios, you study the aggregate behavior of investors, some of whom seemingly have studied financial statements so that market valuations will reflect their due diligence and prudence. Article 2: â€Å"Theory of portfolio and risk based on incremental entropy† The article has used incremental entropy to optimize the portfolios. This novel portfolio theory has been based on incremental entropy that carries on some facet of Markowitzs (1959, 1991) theory, but it highlights that the incremental speed of capital is a more objective criterion for assessing portfolios. The performance of the portfolio just cannot be justified with the returns because we have to keep in mind the risk of achieving those returns. Given the probability forecasts of returns, we can obtain the best possible investment ratio. Combining the new portfolio theory and the general theory of information, we can approach a meaning-explicit measure, which represents the increment of capital-increasing speed after information is provided. The article has used example to make it more clear that as we try to become rich within days there involve high risk of even losing those money which we at-least own at present. The ineffective investment is like a coin toss either you have al l the money in your pocket or you end having nothing in your pocket. The same being very risk averse would not help you become rich. You there has to be a balance in selecting the portfolio and this article explain the optimal investment ratio. (pg 1) Markowitz explains us that an efficient portfolio is either a portfolio that offers the maximum expected return for a given level of risk, or one with the minimum level of risk for a given expected return. There is no objective criterion to define the maximum effectiveness of a portfolio given the expected return and risk level and different expects have different view about it. The Markowitzs efficient portfolio tells us about the indifference curve of the investor and about the market portfolio. It is not the portfolio which we need for the fastest increment of capital. So, this article has derived a new mathematical model. The model explains that when gain and loss are have equal chance of occurring, if the loss is up to 100 percent, one should not risk more than 50 percent of fund no matter how lofty the possible gain might be. This conclusion has a great importance and significant for risky investments, such as futures, options, etc. Most of the new investors of future markets lose all of their money very fast because the investment ratios are not well controlled and generally too large. we can obtain the optimal ratios of investments in different securities or assets when probability forecasts of returns are given. Comparison with Markowitzs theory The new theory supports Markowitzs conclusions that investment risk can be reduced by effective portfolio, but there are some obvious differences: The new theory uses geometric mean return as the objective criterion for optimizing portfolio and gives some formulas for optimizing investment ratios; and . The new theory makes use of extent and possibility of gain and loss rather than expectation of return and standard deviation (risk) of the return to explain investment value. Article 3: â€Å"On the competitive theory and practice of portfolio selection† To select an optimal level of portfolio has always been a basic and fundamental problem in the field of computation finance. There are lots of securities are available including the cash and the basic online problem is to agree on a portfolio for the ith trading period based on the series of price for the scheduled i-1 trading period. There has been increasing interest but also mounting uncertainty relating to the value of competitive theory of online portfolio selection algorithms. Competitive analysis is based on the worst and most unexpected case scenarios and viewpoint; such a point of view is conflicting with the most widely used analysis and theories being adopted by the investors based on the statistical models and assumptions. Surprisingly in some of the initial experiments result shows that some algorithms which have enjoyed a highly regarded repute seems to outperform the historical sequence of data when seen in relation to competitive worst case scenarios. The emerging com petitive theory and the algorithms are directly related to the studies in information theory and computational learning theory, in fact some of the algorithms have been the broken new ground and set new standards within the information and computational theory learning based communities. The one of the primary goal and objective of this paper is understand the extent to which competitive portfolio algorithms are in reality learning and are they really contributing to the welfare of the investor. In order to find out so they have used set of different strategies this can be adapted to data sequence. This is being presented in a mixture of both strong theoretical and experimental results. It has also been compared with the performance of existing and new algorithms and respects to standard series of the historical sequence data and it also present the experiments from other three data sequence. It is being concluded that there is huge potential for selecting portfolio through algorith ms that are being derived from competitive force and as well as derived from the statistical properties of data. Article 4: â€Å"International property Portfolio Strategies† The article talks about the investment decisions regarding real estate, and try to put in the Markowitz mean variance formula to analyze the real estate market. They are not confined only to local real estate diversification but they are also including international diversification. Markowitz mean variance continuum and graph is useful in analyzing the efficient securities, and they help in the selection of an optimal portfolio on envelope curve taking into account the risk preferences of an investor. But when analysts try to incorporate real estate market to the Markowitz theory the major problems regarding liquidity, heterogeneity, indivisibility and information are faced by them which restrict them from further optimal analysis. Many investors have tried to support the theory to make a portfolio by considering property as asset like equity and bond investments; although there are a lot of differences among the characteristics of assets discussed above, but one can diversify its portfolio by investing in real assets, analysts argue. The discussion was dominated by the concept of international diversification of assets including real estate. To support the analysis in UK the (Sweeney , 1988-1989) work in cited most of the times, he came up with the famous model of real estate to come up with efficient diversification strategy, he used rental value of for different countries and came up with the model of risk return theory; after that a lot of analysts including: [Baum and Schofield (1991), Brà ¼hl and Lizieri (1994), Gordon (1991), Hartzell et al. (1993), Johnson (1993), Sweeney (1993), Vo(1993) and Wurtzebach (1990)], have come up with analysis to support international diversification; but the result was som ehow was not justifying the inculcation of real estate to portfolio theory, because those assets were not correlated at all when inspected for the risk return behavior during last decade or so. This can be attributed to the failure of mean variance model to produce results, the main problems facing would be regarding data collection, technicalities, omitted categories, and ex post analysis. This is almost irrational and impossible to find the most efficient way to diversify a portfolio by including real asset as a separate asset, because of area problems, different locality, pricing conditions, economic conditions, liquidity differences, and data collection problems. As real estate market is highly uncorrelated even within the industry so the data sets are very difficult to find for analysis because of lack of empirical data on this market. Article 5: â€Å"Different risk measures: different portfolio compositions?† Choosing the suitable portfolio of assets in which to invest is an essential component of fund management. A large percentage of portfolio selection decisions were based on a qualitative basis, however quantitative approaches to selection are increasingly being employed. Markowitz (1952) established a quantitative framework for asset selection into a portfolio that is now well known. The measure of risk used in portfolio optimization models is the variance. Variance calculates how much deviation could be expected from the set of portfolio. The alternative methods of risk have their own theoretical and practical advantages and it is atypical that they are not used widely by investors. One of the reason may be because of the difficulty and complexity of understanding such models and then practically implementing those models and to decide in which measure of risk is best and gives the most realistic and useful results. It is important to identify the common risk measure and without doi ng so any attempt to measure the risk would be useless exercise. In order to cope with this, another approach is considered that is to comparing the portfolio holdings produced by different risk measures, rather than the traditional risk return trade-off. It is than being observed that whether the risk measures used produce asset allocations that are essentially the same or very different. In order to probe this concern this study tested the proposition that different measures of risk produce minimum risk portfolios that are essentially the same in terms of asset allocations, using monthly data over the period January 1987 to December 2002. The results show that the optimal portfolio compositions formed by different risk measures vary quite noticeably from measure to measure. These finding are very useful and have a practical implication for the investors because it recommend that the choice of risk model depends entirely on the individuals attitude to risk rather than any theoretic al or practical advantages of one model over another. It has been concluded that different investors have they indifference curve different from other and some of them like to take more risk as compare to other who are happy at earning low but safe returns. Conclusion It is being concluded that risk is more of a subjective term and different analysts and investor measures and perceive it in their own way. In todays word not even a single person can underestimate the importance of risk in selecting a security and emphasized is been given to diversification through proper portfolio selection process and everyone tries to optimize their returns given a certain level of risk. In order to do so they are using different statistical measures those have been derived over time to calculate risk. So selection of such method is limited to the understanding of a certain method to a certain investor and their effectiveness of results as compare to other methods.

Verb And Argument English Language Essay

Verb And Argument English Language Essay Abstract: This paper examines thematic/argument structure of the predicate used in the sentences, the sentences were constructed by a researcher on a random basis, and the focus of the study was on the thematic structure and theta role of verbs used in this sentences, more specifically the thematic /argument structure of the verbs used in main clauses of the report. Objectives of the study: Indentifying the thematic structure of the verbs used in this sentences Identifying the argument structure(theta role) of the predicate in this sentences Questions of the study: What are the thematic structure of the verbs used in this sentences What are theta roles of these arguments? Scope of the study: This study aims to identify thematic/argument structure of the predicates used in the following sentences: Mary plants her flowers in the garden by the lake The professor of syntax told a story to his students The boy laughed in the classroom They cut it with a knife The old building of the congress collapsed at 02:00 PM Your head master is buying you a laptop in your birthday The doctor came yesterday The ball fell down The focus of the analysis will be on thematic/argument structure of verbs used in these sentences. Literature review: Verb and argument: Mark Newson (2006) stated that, to explain and understand the difference between lexical and functional categories, we need to know and introduce concepts related with how the part of the sentence related to each other to complete the meaning of that sentence the following example explains that the Professor teaches the students here in this sentence there is an event which can be described as (teaching), and this event is involving two individuals or participants, the professor and the students, and this participants related in a particular way, so the professor is the one doing the teaching and the students are the one getting taught. Thus the verb describes the character of event and both the professor and the students refer to the elements participated in this event, so the word functions as the verb is so called predicate whereas the one functions as nouns is so called argument, thus what participants (arguments) can be involved in the sentence or event is determined by the meaning of a particular sentence like take for example the following examples: Stephen is sleeping John gives Mary some flowers In these sentence Stephen is only one participant in the event of sleeping, so one argument, but in the second sentence consist three participants which are John, Mary and some flowers, thus three arguments, it clear that from the examples verb like sleep takes only one argument whereas verb like give takes at least three arguments to complete its meaning. Bas Aerts (2001) posited that English sentences can be described in two ways, functionally and formally, for example the sentence the boy eats banana consist of subject which is the boy and predicator (verb) which is eats and direct object which is a banana, so the subject and direct object are filled by noun phrases whereas the predicator is filled by a verb, so the verb eats cannot form a sentence by itself, but it needs other elements to construct a meaningful sentence, as it clear that from above sentence that eat needs who was done the act of eating something and was being eaten, thus the one who does the of eating and something that was being eaten are so called arguments or participants. Leonad H. Babby (2009) explained that, one of the most important theories of generative syntax is dealing with the notion that syntax is a projection of the lexicon, mainly to propose explicit theories of the construction between the semantics and morphosytactic structure, he added that it is correct if by lexicon we understand predicate argument structure so the sentences main syntactic structure (vP) is immediately projection of verb (v) argument structure, or the argument structure of any sentence based on grammatical (syntactic) relation is determined by the verb (v). Thete-roles David Adger (2002) stated that the word like teach does not express a complete thought on its own, minimally the word teach expresses a relationship between objects, which one teaches other, in comparison with the word like sleep which needs only one object, the object that sleeps, teach and sleep in contrast with word like gives, which involves three objects, someone gives something to someone, these words express concepts which some of these concepts are necessary to human computational system that related to the meaning of the words, so a predicate can be used in characterization of a situation, but this predicate needs other linguistics elements to complete the thought as explained above with teach, sleep and give. When a predicate involves one other element to complete the thought then a predicate is one-place predicate like in sleep, and when it needs two or three, then a predicate is two-place or three-place predicate. By going back to the words sleep, teach and give, we can combine these verbs with other participants to construct the following sentences: John sleeps Ali is teaching the girl Mary gives Nina a pen In the first sentence the predicate is combined with the theme which is one-place predicate, in the second one the predicate combined with agent and benefactive which is two-place predicate, and for the last one the predicate is combined with source, benefactive and theme which is three-place predicate, Thus these properties are linguistically so called thematic roles or theta roles which related to the lexicon semantics, so if someone talks about the number of thematic roles that a predicate assigns, he refers to theta roles and each theta roles assigns only one role in the sentence. Martin Haiden (2005) added that according to Chomsky (1981) each argument assigns only one theta role, and each theta role assigns only one argument. List of theta roles Radford (2009) listed the theta roles as: Theme: shows the effect of someones action e.g. the ball fell down Agent: shows someone does the action e.g. Kim is swimming Experience: shows the entity experiencing the psychological state e.g. they love Mary Locative: shows the place which something situated or takes place e.g. he rolled the ball down the hill Goal: shows the distinction of some other entity e.g. the student lives in KL Source: which shows the entity from which something moves e.g. Mona came from London Instrument: shows the instrument used to do some action e.g. Ahmed opened the door with key. Data analysis This involved indentifying the thematic/argument structure of the predicates used in the sentences The first procedure in analyzing the data involved indentifying the thematic structure of the predicates in this sentences The next step is identifying the theta roles of the predicate arguments. Identification of argument structure: The arguments of the verb are those phrases which complete the meaning of verb. Identification of thematic structure: Thematic structure (theta-role) is the role in which the argument of the verb played. Findings: According to the analysis, verbs differ in the they employ the argument and thematic structure, each verb needs only a limited number of argument, thereby English verbs can be classified according to the argument and thematic structure to: first: accusative verb, which is verb with tow arguments e.g. the verb plant and buy, the second: ditransitive verb, which is a verb with three arguments e.g. the verb told, the third type of the verb is unergative which is verb with one argument and this argument must assign the role of agent, the fourth type is unaccusative which is the verb with one argument and this argument must assign the role as theme thus can differ it from unergative, and the last type is instrument verb which is the verb with instrument as one of its arguments, this classification is based on the data only, more specifically these types are only the types used in this study.

Comparing Sexuality in Greys Riders of the Purple Sage and Doctorows

Sexuality of the Frontierswoman in Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage and Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times The presentation of femininity in Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times is a strong departure from the heroine of Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage. Through the metaphor of the gun as the embodiment of masculinity, both authors closely examine the complexities of the sexualized relationship of a frontierswoman to the men of her society. Doctorow mirrors the tensions present in Grey's novel though Molly acts as an extraordinarily different vision of what the West required of a woman than Jane Withersteen. Both novels reach a sexual climax as the heroine engages the men of her society in a violent action of blood and birth. Though it is a more desolate and harsh portrayal of a woman's station, Doctorow places Molly in a similar situation as the victim of her society to the more traditional Riders of the Purple Sage. While Jane Withersteen is certainly not subjected to violence in the same way that the Bad Man from Bodie raped, beat and nearly killed Molly, Jane is still victimized by her community. Doctorow's portrayal of the conflict is abstracted in ways that Grey's is not. In choosing to call Turner "The Bad Man from Bodie" for the majority of the novel, Doctorow makes him more an abstract notion of violence rather than the more human figure of jealousy Mormon Elder, Tull. However, in spite of the abstractness in Doctorow's characterization, Jane is presented as an outsider in her community and is offered up as a sacrifice to the peace, much in the same way that Blue exhorts Molly to reenter Avery's saloon. From this communal point of victimization, however, Doctorow departs from the gender conventions es... ... Pass. The falling rubble acts as the hymen restored, preserving Jane and Lassiter and Fay inside the womb, inside Eden. Thus, both novels examine the highly sexual tensions between the predominate female figures and the idea of masculinity as encapsulated by the gun, or more abstractly a weapon. Doctorow, though the tensions parallel Grey's, counters the older work on nearly every point, finally culminating in a recognition of the horror that frontier society creates. Much like the action of his novel, Grey retreats into a more idyllic vision of the West. However, he does admit the complexity of the gendered roles in the Western, though not to the extent that Doctorow casts the action in an Oedipal drama. Works Cited Doctorow, E. L. Welcome to Hard Times. New York: Penguin, 1998. Grey, Zane. Riders of the Purple Sage. New York: Penguin, 1990.