Research on Hero Honda Essay Example

Research on Hero Honda Essay MARKET analysis OF HERO HONDA MOTORS LIMITED. [pic] [pic] A Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Submitted by sUBMITTED TO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A project cannot be said to be the work of an individual. A project is a combination of views and ides, suggestions and contributions of many people. I am extremely thankful to my project guide who gave me an opportunity to do this project report as a part of the curriculum. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Hero Honda Company Staff dealers whose valuable information throughout my project work. Also I wish to thank all the respondents who gave me some of their valuable time to fill up the questionnaires, without which the project study wouldn’t have been a success. TABLE OF CONTENTS OBJECTIVES SCOPE OF THE PROJECT grand success. Information regarding the market share, cost factors, the marketing and promotional strategies etc was collected from primary data sources. INTRODUCTION HISTORY ABOUT THE CHAIRMAN Brijmohan Lall Munjal – Seeding a Dream [pic] Dont dream if you cant fulfill your dreams Brijmohan Lall Munjal is often fond of saying. The founder and patriarch of the $ 2. 8 billion Hero Group is your classic first generation entrepreneur. He is a man who started small, dreamt big and used a combination of grit and perseverance to create one of the countrys largest corporate groups and the Worlds No. 1 Two Wheeler Company. Instinctive from a young age, Brijmohan Lall made a rather unusual start in life. Around the time when the freedom movement in India was taking shape in the late 1920s, he walked into a newly opened  Gurukul  (Indian heritage school) near his home in Kamalia (now in Pakistan). He was only six years old then. We will write a custom essay sample on Research on Hero Honda specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Research on Hero Honda specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Research on Hero Honda specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Thus began an extraordinary tale of courage and perseverance. Brijmohan began his business story after partition in 1947, when he and his brothers relocated to Ludhiana. The family set up a company that provided poor people with basic transport (cycles). Three decades later, as India evolved, he added a second crucial chapter which visualized affordable and technologically superior transport to millions of middle class Indians. The rest is history. Building Relationships When Brijmohan and his brothers started out, there was no concept of organized dealer networks. Companies just produced, and most dealers functioned like traders. Brijmohan changed the rules of the business by trusting his gut instincts; introducing business norms that were ahead of their time, and by investing in strategic relationships. Brijmohan built a series of bonds and networks with hundreds of family members, vendors, dealers and employees. Much like the Japanese keiretsu system, these networks are now the glue that holds the Hero Group together. Thanks to the relationships that we have nurtured so passionately in the Hero Family, the younger generations of some of our bicycle dealers have become dealers of Hero Honda. These relationships have survived through generations through bad times and good times the patriarch now reminiscences. Besides bonding with his vendors and dealers, Brijmohan has been personally responsible for kindling a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst his employees, and today, 40 of his former employees are successful entrepreneurs. Staying Ahead Though not technically qualified in the conventional sense, few of his contemporaries have understood the dynamics of technology better than Brijmohan Lall has. He could always visualize the applicability of technology before others could. For example, in the 1980s, when all two-wheeler companies in India opted for two-stroke engine technology, Brijmohan preferred a four-stoke engine a technology that dramatically increased fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance costs. This technology was one of the biggest reasons for Hero Hondas stupendous success. Time and again, Brijmohan managed to steal a march over his industry peers. For example, when Honda Motors of Japan was looking for a collaborator in the 1980s, the Hero Group was not high up the pecking order initially as there were other more eligible and established suitors. Yet it didnt take long for the astute Japanese to realize that the Hero Group and Honda had much more in common than earlier perceived; there a sharp focus on financial and raw material management, and employee turnover was low. Honda officials were also amazed to find that the Munjals were already practicing Just-in-time-inventory at the time (JIT). It turned out that Brijmohan Lalls aspiration to provide cheap transportation to Indias poor by default ensured lean and cost-effective operations. This in turn increased vendor efficiency and led to near-zero inventories. A Corporate Citizen A frugal upbringing and a value system modeled on the famous Gurukul system which stresses the sanctity of the teacher-pupil relationship imbibed in Brijmohan a strong sense of social commitment and responsibility. There is a special place in his heart for Ludhiana, the city where he took roots. Today, Ludhiana is a modern, bustling city, but Brijmohan has played no mean role in its evolution. Several schools and educational institutions in Ludhiana owe their existence to the Munjal family. The Ludhiana Stock Exchange owes its existence to Brijmohans vision as does the Ludhiana Flying Club. Hes also set up the not-for-profit Dayanand Medical College and Hospital-an institute now rated as one of the best medical colleges in India, in terms of infrastructure, quality of staff and alumni profile. In and around Dharuhera, near the first Hero Honda plant, Brijmohan and his family have left their stamp of philanthropy. The Raman Kant Munjal Foundation which Brijmohan set up in memory of his eldest son, today runs a higher secondary school and a very modern and well-equipped 100-bed hospital at Dharuhera. The group has also adopted numerous villages and provides education, vocational training, drinking water, roads, streetlights nd sewerage. AUTO INDUSTRY- A REVIEW INTRODUCTION The Rs. 5500 crore Indian two wheeler segment is the second largest market fin the world after China. India’s two wheeler production is the third largest in the world after Japan and China. India has a well- developed two wheeler market with around 25 million households owning two-wheeler. The I ndian two wheeler industry made a modest beginning in the early 1950 when Automobile Product of India ( API ) started manufacturing scooter in India. Until 1958. API and Enfield( motorcycle) were the only two in production. In 1948, Bajaj auto began trading in imported Vespa scooter and the three – wheeler- finally, in 1960’s. it set up shop to manufacturer them in technical collaboration with piggaio of Italy. The agreement expired in 1971. In the initial stages, the scooters segment was regulated regime, foreign company was not allowed to operate in India, and waiting time for getting Bajaj scooters was as high as 12 years. Java, and escort. While the Enfield bullet was a four strokes bike, the Java and Rajdoot were two-strokes bikes. The motorcycles industry was originally dominated by Enfield with 350 cc bikes. The motorcycles industry was cc segment. The two wheelers segment was opened up to foreign competition in the mid 1980’s which saw the entry of the Japanese manufactures into the country. Classification of the Industry The two-wheeler segment can be categorized into the scooter, mopeds, and motorcycles. Motorcycles: this segment has shown the best performance in the recent years. The market leaders in this section are Bajaj Auto. TVS, Mahindra, Hero Honda. [The splendor is the most popular segment among motorcycles. ] Two Wheeler Industry It wasn’t an easy year for the two wheeler industry. Rising interest rates and the economic slowdown resulted in delayed consumer decision making and a rise in loan defaults. Over the course of the year, banks withdrew financing facilities from satellite towns. The share of financing, which had increased rapidly to 50-60 per cent of the total retail sales by early 2007, has now come down to below 30 per cent. This came as a major setback for the two-wheeler industry. Ongoing government investments very clearly emphasis inclusive growth through improved connectivity, job-creation and improving quality of life. The rural road outlay has been upped by close to 60 per cent, the budget for the Urban Renewal Mission has been hiked by 87 per cent, and fund allocation to the ongoing National Highways program has been upped by 23 per cent. Importantly, India has added fresh impetus to its flagship job creation program for rural India: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. During 2008-09, this scheme, which provides 100 guaranteed days of work a day for the country’s rural poor, provided employment opportunities to more than 44 million households last year; a year ago, 33 million households were covered. During the year, there have been important developments in two-wheeler industry. The competition has strengthened though there are hardly any new entrants into the industry. There is an increasing emphasis on price and this has led to cost cutting efforts all across the industry, thereby, making the customer an ultimate beneficiary. The trend also saw introduction of new motorcycles with capacity ranging from 100 to 250cc bikes. We anticipate that many more new models will be launched during the year and provide customers plenty of choice at competitive prices. Businesses cannot consistently grow at 25-30 per cent. Each business has a tendency to taper and plateau after attaining a particular size. An annual growth rate of 10-12 per cent over a period of time is extremely healthy. The TCS study rankings are conducted at the motorcycle segment-level to provide comparisons among similar groups of motorcycles. Motorcycles ranking highest in their respective segments for TCS are: Hero Honda splendor plus (best standard motorcycle segment); Bajaj pulser (best executive motorcycle segment); Hero Honda karizma (best premium motorcycle segment); and Royal Enfield Bullet Electra (best cruiser motorcycle segment). The relatively low score for the executive segment indicates that most manufacturers have fallen short of meeting the high expectations of these buyers,. Production, sales growth of the industry The two-wheeler companies have been operating at high capacities due to high growth rates between 2009 and 2008. The growth is expected to lead to increase in the capacities from present 52 lakh units t o 65 lakhs per annum in the year 2009-10, whereas the actual production estimates by that period at an estimated growth rate of 18% is only 60 lakhs. Charts showing two-wheeler industry growth rates Demand In India the two-wheeler provide an easy and popular mode of personal transport for the middle classes. With public transportation system being inadequate and ineffective the demand for the two-wheeler is likely to rise. The two-wheeler sales are expected to touch the 5 million mark by the end of the decade as against the annual sales of 35,49,271 in 2008-09. Technology With liberalization and the increasing competition. The two- wheeler industry has witnessed technological changes. The four- stroke engine is being introduced in place of the traditional populations and fuel inefficient two stroke engine. The smaller capacity engine with the electronic fuel injection is also being used. Bajaj auto is now feeling the need to increase its technological competence. Wit the competition cashing in on the technological competence for their collaborators. Emphasizes being laid on lighter and fuel- efficient vehicles. A class of vehicle having fuel efficiency of a moped and sleekness and style of the motorcycles called scooterette is growing. The vehicles offer a fuel efficiency of 60-65 km p/h. They enter into new segment,Bajaj Auto has come out with TVS with Scooty pep and Hero Honda has come out with a Pleasure and upgraded version of sleek. Government policy The excise duty on two-wheeler , which has previous 10 percent to 30 percent according to the engine capacity, was rationalized is only two categories size. 15 percent for 75 cc engine capacity and 25 percent for above 75 cc engine capacity the excise duty structure has been left untouched since the 1993-94 budget. Marketing and The Distribution Like any other emerging country, India experienced the knock-on effects of the global crisis during the year in review. The effects were felt through the monetary, financial and real channels. Drying up of global finance impacted from the middle of the fiscal impacted domestic capital finance; and corporate earnings came off peaks. In April 2009, Reserve Bank of India predicted that the Indian economys growth for 2008-09 would slow to 6. 6 per cent, breaking an excellent five-year growth sequence. There were two dimensions to the economic slowdown. In the first half, inflation ran into double digits as a result of the global crude shock and the global food grain shortage. To control inflation, the RBI clamped down on money supply, and reduced liquidity in the economy. By the time inflation started coming under control, domestic interest rates started shooting up. Meanwhile, the global crisis erupted, putting further pressure on liquidity levels. By October 2008, slowdown was clearly apparent in export-intensive sectors, both in the manufacturing and service side. By December, the slowdown turned into de-growth. The cutback in demand from Europe and the US was so sharp that even a competitive rupee, which devalued by around 12 per cent during the year, couldnt act as a buffer. By December 2008, the growth momentum of the first six months was lost. Planned investment projects were shelved; live projects faced a shortage of funds as credit flows dried up. As money became dearer, pay packets became slimmer and risk aversion grew both from the demand and supply side. Compulsions of coalition politics at the Centre and the impending Lok Sabha elections didnt help either, and slowed down reforms and implementation of projects, particularly in critical sectors like roads, ports and power. The worst hit was the manufacturing sector. From the second half of the financial year, the index of industrial production contracted on three occasions, remained close to zero on two occasions, and was mildly positive only once. Two –Wheeler Financing Though two-wheeler are the most preferred from of transport in India,the fact remains that it is a lower end market product. Most two-wheeler manufacturer like Bajaj Auto and kinetic engineering have set up their own finance company since organized financiers do not think the returns are particularly attractive. The argument given by some financiers is that the price of a Yamaha or Hero Honda is so high that people prefer to buy a second hand car instead. This is particularly true of small town where people desire to own a car and they have the means the two wheeler is then only a second vehicle for the family. MARKET MECHANICS: Since 1985, when the first Hero Honda it has been and instant hit. A mileage miser with just about adequate performance further backed by image of Honda and Hero Cycles brand of aggressive marketing, it climbed up the sales chart outselling every other motorcycle by ten of thousands every year. Over the years, company has received its share of accolades, including the National Association of India Award against 200 contenders. SEGMENTATION, TARGETING POSITIONING From the current segmentation, targeting positioning and consumer surveys we found that our client has targeted the following segments: ? Congested areas of urban cities. Males/Females between the age group of 18-36 ? Middle class people , mostly officials executives The client analysis from our questionnaire it was found that our client has targeted the right segment HHML is overlooking one feature in bike which is its low maintenance cost and reliability (i. e. less chances of breakdown) which is absent in its competitors. Therefore, in order to meet the sales target, two option are ava ilable with the client, one is to redesign the bike and second is to reposition the bike as â€Å"Bike with one time investment†. Since redesigning of bike may involve a big task and huge investment therefore we recommended repositioning the bike. COMPANY PROFILE The Hero Honda story began with a simple vision – the vision of a mobile and an empowered India, powered by Hero Honda. This vision was driven by Hero Hondas commitment to customer, quality and excellence, and while doing so, maintain the highest standards of ethics and societal responsibilities. Twenty five years and 25 million two wheelers later, Hero Honda is closer to fulfilling this dream. This vision is the driving force behind everything that we do at Hero Honda. We understood that the fastest way to turn that dream into a reality is by remaining focused on that vision. There were many unknowns but we kept faith, and today, Hero Honda has been the largest two wheeler company in the world for eight consecutive years. Our growth has kept compounding. The company crossed the ten million unit milestone over a 19-year span. In the new millennium, Hero Honda has scaled this to 15 million units in just five years! In fact, during the year in review, Hero Honda sold more two wheelers than the second, third and fourth placed two-wheeler company put together. With Hero Honda, the domestic two wheeler market was able to show positive growth during the year in review. Without Hero Honda, the domestic market would have actually shrunk. Over the course of two and a half decades, and three successive joint venture agreements later, both partners have fine-tuned and perfected their roles as joint venture partners. What the two partners did was something quite basic. They simply stuck to their respective strengths. As one of the worlds technology leaders in the automotive sector, Honda has been able to consistently provide technical know-how, design specifications and R innovations. This has led to the development of world class, value for- money motorcycles and scooters for the Indian market. On its part, the Hero Group has taken on the singular and onerous responsibility of creating world-class manufacturing facilities with robust processes, building the supply chain, setting up an extensive distribution networks and providing insights into the mind of the Indian customer. Since both partners continue to focus on their respective strengths, they have been able to complement each other. In the process, Hero Honda is recognized today as one of the most successful joint ventures in the world. It is therefore no surprise that there are more Hero Honda bikes on this countrys roads than the total population of some European countries put together! The companys meteoric growth in the two-wheeler market in India stems from an intrinsic ability to reach out and come closer to its customers, with every passing year. Hero Hondas bikes are sold and serviced through a network of over 3500 customer touch points, comprising a mix of dealers, service centres and stockists located across rural and urban India. Hero Honda has built two world-class manufacturing facilities at Dharuhera and Gurgaon in Haryana, and its third and most sophisticated plant at Haridwar has just completed a full year of operations. It is difficult to imagine that all this has happened in the span of just two and a half decades! The best is yet to come. During the year in review, Hero Honda powered its way in a market that, for all practical purposes, was feeling the full effects of the economic slowdown in India. With an economic recovery now clearly on the cards, Hero Honda is all set to ride into another summit. As Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the Chairman, Hero Honda Motors succinctly puts it, We pioneered Indias two wheeler industry, weve steered it through difficult times; now it is our responsibility to set the pace again. . New Models The company has a large portfolio of brands, with the money-spinners being mainly Splendor Plus (the worlds largest selling bike) and Passion. However, the company claims it was the launch of the 150cc CBZ and 225cc KARIZMA which established Hero Honda as an inspirational brand. The launch of CBZ and KARIZMA got us into a different league altogether. Although the sales are just about 3,000 a month, it made us an overall bike company†, Hero Honda would launch a new model of the KARIZMA by the end of current year, the Managing Director, Mr. brijmohanlal Munjal, said. Meanwhile, the company is yet to decide on the location of its proposed Fourth manufacturing unit. The feasibility study is on, he said, adding that the new plant was likely to come up in the next 18 months. New launches are likely to help Hero Honda gain a market share in the coming quarters. Hero Honda Motors Ltd, has launched a new 100-cc four-stroke bike, CD deluxe and Dawn is likely to be phased out of the market once the new model sells 10,000 plus units per month. Sales Performance Hero Honda went against the grain and created a growth trajectory all of its own. Sales of the company grew by over 11 per cent in volume terms and in value terms; they grew by over 19 per cent. Effectively, this helped the company end the year with a market share of around 60 per cent. This robust performance helped the company increase earnings margin 120 basis points—a remarkable feat, considering that elsewhere in the world, the automobile industry went through its worst year in recent history. Hero Honda’s performance in its silver jubilee year helped it retain its position as the world’s largest two wheeler company for the eighth year in a row. It also helped the company cross the 25 million unit mark—becoming the first company in India to reach this milestone. Last year, two new models were launched, namely CBZ XTREME and HUNK to address super-style and economy segments. Passion pro has found its position firm amongst Indian models, only next to Splendor, the largest selling bike in the world in terms of sales performance. CBZ was re-launched as CBZ XTREME, in April 2007, with changes and value additions to cater to specific needs of the customers. Reportedly CBZ XTREME is doing well in its segments and has sold over 10,000 units in the initial months itself. Hero Honda has targeted a sale of over 3 million bikes for the year 2009-10. This effort is supplemented by a major launch this year, in October end; this bike will have some exclusive features and will be in the 200cc plus range. There are some ambitious programmes of launching a new range of bikes with technical support from Honda in the coming years. With a slew of such measures the capacity available at present locations can at best support two-million production target at the existing plants. The company, therefore, is looking at the possibility of setting up a third plant to meet the future demand and for which techno-economic study is in progress. New Initiatives Customer and customer satisfaction is the purpose of our being an entity. To increasingly understand him and make him part of our ongoing business. Customer related initiative has been the increase of warranty period to three years since July 2008. This has attracted a great deal of customer attention. During the year the company has added nearly a hundred dealerships and SSPs. In terms of sheer numbers, the network has grown by 16% during the year 2008-09. We would endeavor to increase our reach to every corner of this country. Plans for the future In the previous year, the domestic two-wheeler industry entered a period of de-growth. However, this was arrested in 2008-09, largely on the back of Hero Hondas performance. After the blip of last year, the two-wheeler industry went back to a growth phase, largely driven by Hero Honda and exports. The industry clocked total volumes of 8. 5 million during the year in review, a growth of 5 per cent compared to a fall of 5 per cent in the previous year. The pace of growth was lower in the domestic market, where the industry clocked sales of 7. 43 million, a rise of only 2. 60 per cent. This, however, was a significant improvement over previous year when the industry had shrunk by 8 per cent. Motorcycles continue to constitute the largest chunk of the two-wheeler industry, and during the year in review, accounted for four fifth of sales. Interestingly, for the second year in succession, scooters increased their share in the two-wheeler pie from 14 per cent to 16 per cent. This is clearly a trend reversal from the last 10 years, where the share of scooters in the two-wheeler pie had been shrinking. Changing lifestyles among women, and the introduction of feature-rich, high-quality scooters possibly has much to do with the revival in demand The entry segment – made up of basic 100 cc bikes -Had started slowing two years ago, and during the year in review, sales in this segment were down by more than 15 per cent. This could be attributed to the fact that deluxe segment bikes have become affordable on account of a 4 per cent excise cut, 1 per cent reduction in CST and the special package of reduction in excise duty in December, which most manufacturers passed on to the consumers. The deluxe segment-made up of value for money and feature-rich bikes in the 100-125 cc category-grew by 15. 2 per cent. The 125-250 cc category-grew at 8. 8 per cent. The pace of growth has fallen from last years levels. There is no doubt that the higher interest rates have brought down growth. Nevertheless, this segment was still able to clock a growth rate in high single digits mainly because of the excitement caused by a slew of new models that came into this segment during the year. The bigger story, of course, is that buyers in small-town India and rural India, as well as employees of the state and Central government, were relatively less affected by the slowdown, and this benefitted the two wheeler industry. VISION Hero Honda now the leader in the two wheeler industry. Leaders are not born, they evolve over time. It all started on the auspicious. â€Å"Baisakhi Day† the 13th of April 1984, when the Hero Honda Motor Company joined hands. On its journey to take on the No. 1 morale, Hero Honda created some prominent milestones†¦.. This leadership has been achieved only because of its philosophy to excel in all areas. In fact, passion to excel is a credo of the entire Hero Honda family and is a way of life in Hero Honda. The changing Scenario of increasing competition and the entry of new brands has made the credo even more relevant. It serves as a constant reminder to ensure excellence in providing service to the customer. They are providing outstanding customer service. It is in keeping with Hero Honda’s own passionate commitment to provide ultimate customer satisfaction. Today, they consistently meet and exceed all requirement on quality, cost and delivery. OBJECTIVES Hero Honda’s mission is to strive for synergy between technology, systems and human resources, to produce products and services that meet the quality, performance and price aspirations of its customers. At the same time maintain the highest standards of ethics and social responsibilities. This mission is what drives Hero Honda to new heights in excellence and helps the organization forge a unique and mutually beneficial relationship with all its stake holders. ACHIEVEMENTS AWARDS AND ACCOLADES |Year |Awards Recognitions | |2009 |ET Awards for Corporate Excellence   Hero Honda is the winner of the â€Å"Company of the Year award for 2008 09. | | | |2008 |NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008   Hero Honda Wins the Coveted NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008| | | | | |Top Gear Design Awards 2008   Hunk Bike of the Year Award | | | | | |NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards   NDTV â€Å"Viewers’ Choice Award† to Hunk in Bike category | | | | | |India Times Mindscape and Savile Row ( A Forbes Group Venture ) Loyalty Awards   â€Å"Customer and Brand Loyalty Award† | | |in Automobile (two-wheeler) sector | | | | | Asian Retail Congress A ward for Retail Excellence  (Strategies and Solutions of business innovation and | | |transformation) Best Customer Loyalty Program in Automobile category | | | | | |NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards   Bike Manufacturer of the year | | | | | |Overdrive Magazine   Bike Manufacturer of the year | | | | | |TNS Voice of the Customer Awards: | | | | | |No. 1 executive motorcycle Splendor NXG | | |No. 1 standard motorcycle CD Deluxe | | |No. remium motorcycle CBZ Xtreme | | | | |2007 |The NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards 2007 in the following category: | | | | | |Overall Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme | | |Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme (up to 150 cc category) | | |Bike Technology of the Year Glamour PGM FI | | | | | |Auto Tech of the Year Glamour PGM FI by Overdrive Magazine. | | | | | |Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme by Overdrive Magazine. | | | | | |Ranked CBZ X-treme Bike of the Year by B S Motoring Magazine   | | | | | |â€Å"Most Trusted Company† , by TNS Voice of the Customer Awards 2006. | | | | | |CD Deluxe rated as No 1 standard motorcycle by TNS Voice of the Customer Awards 2006. | |2006 |Adjudged 7th Top Indian Company by Wallstreet Journal Asia (Top Indian Two Wheeler Company). | | | | | |One of the 8 Indian companies to enter the Forbes top 200 list of world’s most reputed companies. | | | | | |No. 1 in automobile industry by TNS  Corporate Social Responsibility Award. | |Best in its class awards for each category by  TNS Total Customer Satisfaction Awards 2006: | | | | | |Splendor Plus (Executive) | | |CD Deluxe (Entry) | | |Pleasure (Gearless Scooters) | | | | | |Splendor Passion Top two models in two wheeler category by ET Brand Equity Survey 2006. | | | | | |Adjudged 7th Top Indian Company by Wallstreet Journal Asia (Top Indian Two Wheeler Company). | | | | |Top Indian company in the Automobile Two Wheeler sector by Dun Bradstreet   American Express Corporate Awards | | |2006. | | | | | |Her o Honda Splendor rated as Indias most preferred two-wheeler brand at the  Awaaz Consumer Awards 2006. | | | | | |Certificate of Export Excellence for outstanding export performance during 2003-04 for two-wheeler three- wheelers | | |- Complete (Non SSI) by Engineering Export Promotion Council. | |The NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards 2006 in the following category: | | | | | |Bike Maker of the Year | | |Bike of the Year Achiever | | |Bike of the Year Achiever (up to 150 cc category) | | |Bike of the Year Glamour (up to 125 cc category) | | |NDTV Viewers Choice Award to Glamour in the bike category | | | | |2005 |Awaaz Consumer Awards 2005 Indias most preferred two-wheeler brand by CNBC in the Automobiles category. | | |Bike Maker of the Year Award by Overdrive Magazine. | | |ICWAI National Award for Excellence (Second) in Cost Management 2004 in the private sector category by ICWAI. | | |10th Motilal Oswal Wealth Creator Award for as the most consistent wealth creato r for the period 1991-2005. | |2004 |Winner of the Review 200 Asias Leading Companies Award (3rd Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |GVC Level 1 (Highest Rating) by CRISIL for corporate Governance. | |Adjudged as the Best Value Creator Large Size Companies 2003-04 by The Outlook Money. | | |Corporate Excellence Award 2004 by Indian Institute of Materials Management. | | |Adjudged as the Organization with Innovative HR Practices by HT Power Jobs for HR Excellence. | | |ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2004 by The Institute of Company Secretaries of India. | |2003 |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (3rd Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |Most Respected Company in Automobile Sector by Business World. | | |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | |2002 |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (4th Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |Company of the Year of ET Awards for Corporate Excellence. | | |Ranked 4th in Overall Best Managed Company category, ranked 3rd in Best Financial Management and Best | | |Operational Efficiency category, ranked 6th in Overall Best Investor Relations category, by Asiamoney. | | |Highest Wealth Creating Company of the Year Award by the Money. | | |GVC Level 1 (Highest Rating) by CRISIL for Corporate Governance. | |2001 |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | | |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (9th Rank amongst the top 10 Indian Companies). | |Winner of Three Leaves Award for showing Corporate Environment Responsibility in the Automobile Sector by Centre for | | |Science Environment. | |1999 |National Productivity Award for the Best Productivity Award in the category of Automobile Tractor presented by Vice| | |President of India. | |1995 |The Analyst Award 1995 presented to Hero Honda Motors Ltd. on being ranked 9th amongst the most investor rew arding | | |companies in India. | |1995 |National Award for outstanding contribution to the Development of Indian Small Scale Industry (NSIC Award Presented| | |by President of India). | |1991 |Economic Times-Harvard Business School Award for Corporate Performance to Hero Honda Motors Ltd. | SALES [pic] MARKET SHARE METHODOLOGY The project involves the study of four- strokes bike segment in two wheeler industry sector, which involved: 1. Market survey/ Researches 2. Meeting the retailers and the customers 3. Desk Research RESEARCH APPROACH I did two types of surveys (Data source): PRIMARY SURVEY 1. P/S T1 was done visiting Hero Honda Motors Ltd. Corporate office, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar regarding segmentation, targeting and positioning of their brands in the two wheeler sector. A lot of desk research was also done. 2. P/S T2 conducted by visiting Hero Honda Motors Ltd. And retailers of Hero Honda {Khanna Automobiles ESS AAY Agencies , auto needs(INDIA) Pvt. Ltd). Basic objective was to know their product price, distribution channel, their customers , their process of segmentation ,targeting and positioning in the problems faced by the customers and lastly their views about the model. 3. P/S T3 conducted by taking views of the customers using this model of Hero Honda i. e. Hero Honda splendor. Their view points About the model, their grievances/ complaints about it. Last but not the least their views about modification required in it. RESEARCH INSTRUMENT The research instrument used was a structural questionnaire. It was formulated after detailed discussion. SAMPLING PLAN a) sampling unit: The sampling unit constituted the people in the middle income going in for bikes. ) sampling size: the sample size consists of 45 customers, out of which 5 refused to fill the questionnaire and 5 forms were found incomplete. c) sampling procedure : Convenience sampling. B) SECONDARY SURVEY 1) S/S T1 was conducted gaining information from different magazines newspaper. And on company from their annual reports and balance sheets and their website. 2) Promotional strategies used at present like sponsoring programme and various event which have no direct bearing on the product. However the main focus is to influence youth- the largest group. e. g. Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Review of Literature This chapter presents an exhaustive literature review of quality dimension in marketing strategies. The discussion in this chapter is centered on how more the quality dimension in marketing strategies understood as part of this research. Furthermore, this chapter explores the topic specific to the industries viz. Two Wheeler Industry. The term marketing strategies began to find its way into the academic marketing literature only in the late 1980’s. The first use of the term is attributable to Professor Leonard Berry of Texas A M University in an American Marketing Association presentation in 1983. The literature on marketing strategies in the early 1990’s for the most part did not approach the subject from the consumer’s perspective. There were of course notable exceptions. In 1990, John Czepiel, Professor of Marketing at the New York University observed that a marketplace based marketing strategies is â€Å"the mutual recognition of some special status between exchange partners. (Czepiel, 1990). Susan Fournier refers to what marketing is supposed to be â€Å"the epitome of customer orientation† (Fournier, 1999). The literature in services marketing, in recognition of such facts, defines marketing as the attraction, maintenance and enhancement of marketing strategies (Berry, 1997), or attracting, developing and retaining marketing strategies (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991). Traditional measures of service marketing strategies The primary outcome measures of marketing strategies, satisfaction and quality, have an extensive literature in both the product and service fields yet, particularly in the services literature, there are still some lack of conceptual distinction between the two constructs. Since it is reasonable to assume a high level of correlation between the two constructs, most studies adopt one or the other measure, often without any discussion of the justification for the choice. Satisfaction has proven to be an elusive construct to capture. Much of the literature on satisfaction focuses on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm as a means of identifying the process by which customers make satisfaction evaluations. Within this paradigm, satisfaction occurs when expectations are confirmed or positively disconfirmed. Measures generally focus on assessing disconfirmation at the attribute level although recent extensions of the model include affective dimensions and emotions (Oliver, 1991). Several alternatives to the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm have been proposed. Some suggest that values are better predictors of satisfaction because values are more enduring than pre-purchase expectations. Others question the expectancy-disconfirmation model as being overly dependent on situational induced factors. As an alternative they proposed the comparison level model, which suggests that consumers examine each product attribute against a reference set of attribute levels. Each of these theories has been supported in empirical studies. Yet none has been overwhelmingly accepted as an adequate explanation for consumer post-purchase evaluations. Perhaps this is because satisfaction with a product or service has traditionally been studied as a unidimensional construct. However, in many studies, researchers have found that satisfaction is not a unidimensional construct (Leigh 1987). In fact for many products and services the use of an overall, summary satisfaction measure may mask important diagnostic information about the nature of satisfaction, its determinants and consequences. Further, the nature of these dimensions may vary across services. Another explanation for the inadequacies of existing satisfaction measures may lie in questions raised in the consumer behaviour literature regarding the emphasis placed on satisfaction research as the main method of post-purchase evaluations. Woodruff and Gardial have suggested that while satisfaction describes the customers reaction to the value received from a particular offering, customer value describes the nature of the marketing strategies between user and product. With few exceptions (Gardial et al. , 1992; Woodruff and Gardial, 1996), studies of post-purchase evaluation do not address the possible marketing strategies between value and satisfaction / dissatisfaction. Yet, as discussed in Woodruff and Gardial (1996) the perception of receiving added value is critical to understanding the nature of the relationship. Relationships, which are not perceived as being mutually beneficial, are terminated. The importance of value to the service experience may explain the use of quality as another measure of service effectiveness as in econometric terms value equals quality divided by cost. Regardless of the paradigm, traditional measures of satisfaction used in the service sector operationalize the concept on a discrete transaction basis and generally assess the construct from only one partners point of view. Yet it is clear that service relationships are built upon repeated encounters and are dyadic. If the intention is to evaluate satisfaction with the relationship, current measures of satisfaction seem inadequate. Researchers often distinguish between satisfaction and quality based on a longitudinal dimension with satisfaction seen as a transaction specific evaluation while quality represents a long-run overall evaluation or attitude. However, the distinction between satisfaction and quality in service delivery has become blurred (Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991). In fact Zeithaml et al. , (1990) define quality as meeting or exceeding customer expectations, the traditional definition of satisfaction within an expectancy disconfirmation paradigm. One of the most prominent measures of service quality is the SERVQUAL measure based on Parasuraman et al. (1985) gap model. This model suggests that differences between consumers expectations about the performance of a general class of service providers and their assessment of the actual performance of a specific firm in that class drives perceptions of quality. The measurement of quality is functionally identical to satisfaction measures based on the expectancy-disconfirmation model. The distinction arises primarily from the nature of the items or attributes used. Another approach to SERVQUAL is simple performance measures. The marketing literature provides considerable evidence that this approach is superior to the expectations-performance gap model (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Woodruff, et al. , 1983). In a test of their performance-only (SERVPERF) model, Cronin and Taylor provide evidence that performance explains more of the variation in service quality than does SERVQUAL (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Both SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are global measures of service quality. The use of a global measure in the evaluation of service relationships may, however, not be adequate. Particularly in service relationships relying on social and structural bonding mechanisms which have increasing levels of customization, a global measure may not provide the details necessary to fully assess the strengths/weaknesses of the relationship. Quality measures, like satisfaction measures have been criticized as being largely unidimensional (Zeithaml, 1988). Though SERVQUAL is an attempt to correct for this deficiency there are still other dimensions, which may lead to a purchase experience particularly as that occurs in a marketing strategies context. Zeithaml (1988) recognized these failings and proposed a model from an exploratory study utilizing a means-end hierarchy to investigate the marketing strategies between price, quality and value. The resulting model indicates that perceived quality is one of many concepts (i. e. , perceived sacrifice, high-level abstractions, intrinsic attributes) that result in perceived value which then leads to purchase. Obviously satisfaction and quality are important concepts in the evaluation of service relationships. Both are necessary but not sufficient to good relationships. However, much controversy surrounds these constructs and their marketing strategies (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman et al. , 1994; Teas, 1993). Some literature suggests that satisfaction is an antecedent of service quality (e. g. , Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991) while Parasuraman et al. (1985) suggest that perceived service quality leads to satisfaction. Cronin and Taylor (1992) in their test of SERVPERF found evidence that the latter is in fact the correct causal order. Thus it appears that to adequately evaluate service relationships, both concepts must be measured to account for the ongoing nature of the relationship. Relationships are a multiplex phenomenon. The nature of the marketing strategies depends on the kinds of satisfaction desired by the parties involved; the clients may seek socio-emotional provisions and/or instrumental provisions, and may allow these concerns to determine their focus in the relationship. Thus their behavioral intentions may depend on the provision criterion. The relations also depend on whether the types of bonds are substantively grounded or emotionally based. This view reinforces the presence of such variables as trust, which are primarily socioemotional, and the more instrumental provisions such as legal, planning and technical bonds, which partly reflect the variable commitment. The conceptualization of such variables cannot be completely socioemotional or instrumental, and in the interests of clarity and functionality, the definitions of the antecedent states of loyalty in the marketing strategies are based on trust, intimacy, etc. But it reinforces the basic assumptions in the model. That the presence of attitudinal variables like trust also play a role and they determine the overall benefits (provisions) perceived even in a business relationship. Thus, it is not solely direct commercial value related considerations but also such attitudinal considerations, which go beyond the service interaction or episode, which determine loyalty. Marketing strategies strength can be seen as the resistance to disruption of the relationship. The marketing strategies are developed partly on a basis of evaluations made and partly as a result of bonding and commitment (Strobacka, Strandvik and Gronross, 1994). Thus the strength of marketing strategies can be derived only partly from behavioural variables since they only give an indication (Hoekstra, 1993) . In most studies when measuring marketing strategies strength one indicator at a time is used. Since a behavioural and a mental dimension can be distinguished in a marketing strategies (Poiesz and Van Raaji, 1993, Storm, 1991), the individual indicator can be behavioural (descriptive) or mental (attitudinal) in nature. From the behavioural point of view indicators like length of the relationship, recency, frequency, monetary value and regularity are used most often to get an idea of marketing strategies strength. Another behavioral indicator could be whether the customer simultaneously uses also competing companies or only uses company X (Liljander and Strandvik, 1994). From the mental viewpoint a variable like satisfaction, involvement, perceived switching costs, long-term expectations, trust and commitment has been used as an indicator of marketing strategies strength. Typically, commitment and trust are seen as central to the marketing strategies paradigm of relational partners, and are posited as key mediating variables (KMV) (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Morgan and Hunts KMV model rests on the assumptions that these two are key because they encourage marketers to work at preserving the marketing strategies investments with partners/clients, resist short term gains which may be lesser than expected benefits of staying on in the relationship, and as they view potentially high risk actions as acceptable since they expect that partners will not act opportunistically. Further, both the key variables should be present for the existence of the loyal behaviour patterns indicated here. Satisfaction plays a major role here, and leads to trust when some other antecedent conditions are satisfied, like shared values and goals, dependence based on stable expectation/perception of performance, and perceived switching costs. The notion of sharing is central to the conveyance of meaning. People and entities to whom we feel closest and who mean the most to us are generally those with whom we have a great deal in common. They share the same values they demonstrate what Duck (1994) refers to as shared meaning. In the same way, it is proposed that commitment follows trust later on the ladder, and though some commitment elements start forming at this stage, the fuller commitment only follows when there is the antecedent of trust itself, which has led to the other more direct, definitive antecedents, like the various bonds and the positive attitude to interaction with each other. Commitment, defined as the attitude towards interacting with each other, coupled with the bonds of various types, is a determinant of marketing strategies strength (Liljander and Strandvik, 1995). Marketing strategies strength is closely related to loyalty, or behaviors, which reflect loyalty like recommendations, repurchase intentions and actual repurchase, etc. Storbacka, Strandvik and Gronroos, 1995). Marketing literature talks about four sources of consumer trust:- †¢ Generalized trust (derived from social norms) †¢ System trust (rule of law, regulations, contracts, bureaucracy professionals) †¢ Pe rsonality based trust (general tendency to trust/distrust determined by personality traits) †¢ Process based trust (developed through repeated interactions, firm/brand specific, interpersonal) A customer’s first encounter with a service firm is his or her first ‘moment of truth’ and is a potential first step on a road leading away from reliance on generalized, system and personality based trust towards a reliance on process based trust. Because system and generalized trust are held in common by members of society and are equally available to all firms, they offer less potential for competitive advantage. By building process based trust, however, service firms can encourage customer retention and gain competitive advantage (Barney and Hansen, 1994). Trust is a multidimensional construct with cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions and recent empirical investigations (Cummings and Bromiley, 1996) have supported this theorizing. In relationships, individuals trust cognitively based on their knowledge of their partner’s character, they trust affectively based on their emotion towards their partners and they trust behaviorally by taking actions that display trust in their partners. Previous conceptualization s of trust in marketing research has tended to emphasize the cognitive dimension. The affective dimension of trust has been largely ignored in the literature. However, more recently, marketing researchers have examined social support behaviour in service relationships (Adelman and Ahuvia, 1995; Adelman, Ahuvia and Goodwin, 1993), which engender affective trust. Trust is built up when there are assurances of higher and stable levels of satisfaction (the exceeding of expectations, every time, in the service quality approach), and there is lower risk perceived, security, a feeling of reliability about the supplier, and assistance. This level of service quality obviously builds trust, and can explain the threshold of satisfaction which precedes a change in loyalty behaviour, for some additional benefits are being offered, and the interactions assume a greater number of dimensions. Trust will lead to sharing of goals and values, as at this stage, assistance is expected and also given, in achieving goals that are perceived to be for the common good of both partners. Dwyer et al. (1987) marketing strategies development process model posits that with time, a marketing strategies moves along a continuum from awareness to commitment and the latter represents the highest stage of relational bonding. It must be acknowledged that the possibilities for creating and managing trust and commitment in relationships may be limited (Gronroos, 1994). A natural consequence of this may be the stage of opening up, giving more and accurate feedback by sharing more vital knowledge, which corresponds to intimacy. Marketing strategies literature also enriches the explanation of why there is sharing, and also why that sharing seems to provide a jump in the level of loyalty related behaviour. Intimacy talks of socioemotional benefits, which strengthen the relationship; and it implies a sharing of vital information, sharing socially and psychologically. In service quality terms, this would imply an increase in satisfaction due to more need areas being satisfied, as needs other than the usual instrumental provisions are being satisfied. Here the type of marketing strategies positive, cemented through socioemotional provisions including bonds such as social, planning, clubs, etc and a positive attitude towards interacting with each other. This directly impacts marketing strategies strength and hence loyalty. The difference between marketing strategies strength and customer loyalty is the difference between the object. The object of customer loyalty maybe either the service provider/firm or a particular service worker. The former is referred to as service loyalty, the latter as personal loyalty. High levels of customer trust towards the firm’s employees would be expected to translate into positive attitudes towards the firm and high levels of customer commitment to the firm ‘s employees would expect customer patronage of the firm. Therefore when a customer has a strong marketing strategies with multiple personnel from the firm, researchers suggest a direct path between marketing strategies strength and true customer loyalty to the service firm. Customer satisfaction with a company’s products or services is often seen as the key to a company’s success and long-term competitiveness. In the context of marketing strategies marketing, customer satisfaction is often viewed as a central determinant of customer retention. However there is a need to look beyond customer satisfaction as several studies have established that higher levels of customer satisfaction may not always result in higher levels of customer loyalty. A few empirical investigations in this area indicate that a direct marketing strategy between these constructs is weak or even non-existent. Some studies suggest satisfied customers may not be sufficient to create loyal customers (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Fornell, 1992; Oliver, 2000). These studies tend to support Reichheld’s (1993) argument that customer satisfaction is not a surrogate for customer loyalty. In recent times, customer satisfaction has gained new attention within the context of the paradigm shift from transactional marketing to marketing strategies marketing (Gronroos, 1994; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994), which refers â€Å"to all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges (Morgan and Hunt 1994). In numerous publications, satisfaction has been treated as the necessary premise for the retention of customers and therefore has moved to the forefront of relational marketing approaches (Rust and Zahorik, 1993). Kotler sums this up when he states: â€Å"The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction† (Kotler, 1994). Consequently, customer satisfaction has developed extensively as a basic construct for monitoring and controlling activities in the marketing strategies marketing concept. There are obviously aspects of marketing strategies strength other than customer satisfaction. These include, for instance, the existence of bonds between the customer and the provider. These bonds function as switching barriers beside customer satisfaction. Another dimension relates to the customers (and the providers) commitment to the relationship. Commitment might be based on customers intentions and plans for the future. Within the interaction approach and network approach to industrial marketing six different types of bonds have been suggested (Dwyer et al. , 1987). These are social bonds, technological bonds, knowledge bonds, planning bonds, and legal/economic bonds. Although these six bonds can also be found in consumer markets, they are somewhat limited for this purpose. In addition to these bonds, Liljander and Strandvik (1995) have suggested that the consumer may also have geographical, cultural, ideological and psychological bonds to a service provider. They propose that ten different types of bond can be identified in the consumer market: legal, economic, technological, geographical, time, knowledge, social, cultural, ideological and psychological. Liljander and Strandvik (1995) argue that the first five bonds-legal, economic, technological, and geographical and time bonds constitute effective exit barriers for the consumer. They can be seen as contextual factors that cannot easily be influenced by the customer but can be observed and managed by the service firm. They are more likely to be perceived in a negative sense than the other five bonds. It is, for example, associated with high costs for the customer to switch banks if she is tied up with a mortgage in one bank. These bonds can prevent the customer from switching banks even when the service given is of low quality. The other five bonds- knowledge, social, cultural, ideological and psychological bonds, represent perceptual factors, which are difficult to measure and manage by the firm. For example the cultural, ideological and psychological are directly connected to the customers values and preferences. A psychological bond, where the customer is convinced of the superiority of a bank, is probably a very effective exit barrier. The consequence of bonds is that the customer might accept lower levels of service quality, compared with other service companies, without breaking the relationship. Quality dimension of marketing strategies: Studies specific to Two-wheeler Industry One of the ways in which companies have tried to establish bonds is through the loyalty programs. Loyalty programs recently gained considerable practical and academic attention in the context of marketing management. The fundamental managerial objective of these programs is to reward loyal customer behaviour with special services or rebates and thereby at the same time to promote this loyal behaviour in order to realize the economic benefit of long term business strategies (Reichheld 1993, Sharp and Sharp 2008). The extent to which loyalty program actually achieve this objective has become increasingly the subject of scientific study (Strauss et al. , 2002, Verhoef, 2007, Yi and Jeon, 2004, Noordhoff et al. , 2008). Usually, such studies have focused on the question of how strong the supposed connection between participation in a loyalty program and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty actually is. Marketing Research on loyalty programs has increased in the last years. The effect of loyalty programs on loyalty and their critical success factors were investigated in the context off various industry settings such as automotive industry (Stauss et al. , 2005), financial services (Bolton et al. , 2007), retail stores (Noordhoff et al. , 2008). The results of an empirical study of Stauss et al. (2002) indicate that the membership in an automotive customer club has a remarkable impact on the marketing strategies. Bolton et al. (2001) shows that participants of a loyalty program of a financial services provider actually tend to realize increased revenues and higher service usage levels and to overlook negative service experience. Noordhoff et al. (2008) is of the contention that a small number of alternative loyalty programs in a market and only little familiarity off customers with these programs positively affect the success of the program. This is in accordance with the results of the study of researchers who finds especially high levels of spurious loyalty among members of frequent flyer programs who are participating in several different programs. According to Stauss, Schmidt and Schoeler (2002), â€Å"More and more companies are implementing loyalty programs in order to enhance their knowledge of their customers, to identify their valuable customers, to differentiate and give personal attention to these valuable customers and especially to raise profits by increasing customer retention and by enabling a more efficient use of marketing goals†. They are of the opinion that few firms systematically verify whether the program they implemented actually achieve these goals. The consequences could be that the programs do not achieve the retention effect aimed at or even that the overall marketing strategies with the firm is weakened. Zins (2007) in his study of the commercial two wheeler industries opines that if loyal customer needs to be traced, three conceptual perspect

How to Talk about Your Career When Youre Out of a Job

How to Talk about Your Career When Youre Out of a Job In a culture where your job is often linked to your identity, being unemployed can make social interaction tough. You don’t want to put an awkward damper on the conversation, but you do need a quick answer to that inevitable question, â€Å"So, what do you do?† Here are some ideas on how to keep the conversation flowing (and possibly gain a new professional contact!):1. Avoid using the word â€Å"unemployed,† instead talk about your â€Å"transition.†Try statements like, â€Å"I was formerly with Company XY, but am looking to transition to a smaller, more focused company † or â€Å"I’m hoping to transition to a new department in my field, so I’m currently on the hunt for marketing jobs instead of admin.†2. Talk about your field–no need to mention a specific job.You don’t need to name a company when you talk about your career: â€Å"I’m in book sales–I specialize in young adult fiction.† Stateme nts like this are the truth, and can open the door to a conversation about your skill sets and what you might be looking for in the future.3. Change the subject to activities you take part in outside of your career.Responses like, â€Å"I’m currently looking for work, but in the meantime, I volunteer at my local animal shelter† are a graceful way to answer the question and discuss interesting projects close to your heart.Even if you’re unemployed, you’re still the same talented person with a collection of interests and skills to discuss in any social situation. Always present yourself as capable and confident about the future to come–and open to making new networking contacts!How To Introduce Yourself When You’re UnemployedRead More at Careerealism

Ancient Rome Essay Example for Free (#2)

Ancient Rome Essay During the Han Empire of China and the Roman Empire of the Mediterranean World were both had advanced technology for their time. Han China’s attitude toward manufacturing and labor was more positive than the Romans who had a more class divided society, therefore causing attitudes toward labor and technology to be looked down upon. The Hans respect technology and the people who use it. In China, 2nd century B. C. E. a government official stated that he wanted to organize their labor force with the use of technology so they could help to prevent a disaster from occurring when and if a flood takes place. This could help the people from getting hurt and their property from getting destroyed (Doc. 1). Huan Guan, a Han government official during the first century B. C. E. was concerned about the lack of technology and poor government policy that is affecting the people. Haun Guan was trying to say to the Han government that using convict labor to make tools and monopoly on salt and iron is causing devastating affects towards the people and feels that the government can solve this problem by using the available technologies. Even though Haun Guan is a government official himself, he shows interest in helping the people and is very critical towards the current government policies that are in place (Doc. 2). Huan Tan, a upper class Han philosopher during 20 C. E. is expressing his appreciation of the progress that technology has had since the emperor’s first invention . Huan Tan also expresses how technology has benefited the Chinese people and feels that technology is a â€Å"gift† from the enlightened emperors (Doc. 3). A Han government sponsored speaker, around 200 C. E. states how a Han governor, Tu Shih, cared deeply for the Chinese people and used the advanced technology to help benefit them. This government sponsored speaker emphasizes how much the inventions helped minimize the amount of human labor that the people did (Doc. 4). This is interesting because he was hired by the government to talk to people who might be losing faith in the Han Dynasty and he basically glorified the information way more than it actually was. On the other hand, the Romans felt that working with your hands was vulgar and seemed to heavily look down upon technology and whoever used it. Cicero, an upper class Roman political leader from Italy during the 1st century B. C. E. states that anyone who works with their hands are vulgar and looks greatly down upon craftsmen and hired workers. Cicero then goes on stating that â€Å"gentlemen do not work with their hands. †(Doc. 5) It seems that Cicero lacks a huge respect for inventions and inventors and feels like technology is indeed necessary, but not for the â€Å"enlightened minds†. Plutarch, a Greek born roman citizen during the 1st century Roman Empire, expresses Gaius Gracchus’ road building enterprises and continues to explain how the Roman upper class does appreciate technology that benefits the upper class (Doc. 6). Plutarch does show appreciation towards technology, but only because it benefits himself, as well as the rest of the upper class. He does not go on to mention how it helped the commoners in any way, because it most likely didn’t help anyone but the upper class. Seneca, an upper class philosopher and advisor to Emperor Nero, from the 1st century Roman Empire, states that it takes someone nimble and sharp to make inventions but craftsmen don’t have great minds. Seneca goes on to say that he does â€Å"not believe that tools and crafts were invented by wise men† (Doc. 7). Seneca lacks respect for craftsmen and is basically saying that they are not as smart as he is, and degrades their achievements and abilities that they have. He isn’t concerned about any of the tools or inventions that are made by these craftsmen because he feels since he is an upperclassmen, he would never use them for the fact that they would be degrading to his specific class in society. Frontinus, a Roman general, governor of Britain, and water commissioner from the 1st century C. E. of the Roman Empire discusses how he praises the Roman aqueducts and their uses in Rome. He talks about how intelligent the designs are and how much it benefits the public (Doc. 8). It was quite interesting how highly was talking about the aqueducts. He talked about how amazing they were to the other Roman officials so they could see he was doing a good job as water commissioner, which is why he talked so highly of the aqueducts, because that’s his job. A point of view that is missing from these documents that could further help to the discussion of the Han and Rome attitudes towards technology would be the commoners. All eight of these documents were of the point of view from government officials or other upperclassmen. It would’ve helped to see an argument made by the commoners from both empires because that’s who the technology is affecting-the commoners. Although the technology is also affecting the upperclassmen, it would have made a better argument to have someone who is more â€Å"exposed† to the technology in their everyday lives. The people of the Han Empire did have a more optimistic approach towards technology, while the Roman Empire looked at technology as a more negative thing. The Hans took more into consideration of how it would benefit the commoners, unlike the Romans who didn’t mention the commoners in any of their arguments. Although both Empires did use technology, some thought more highly of it than others. Ancient Rome. (2017, Jan 01).

Saudi ARAMCO Compensation Scheme Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Saudi ARAMCO Compensation Scheme - Assignment Example Given that the company operates in over 200 nations across the globe, it is faced with the need to make a choice of whether to globally standardize their products and thus benefit from economies of scale operation (Bell 12). It is also faced with the need to adapt their products to a specific market segment or adopt integrated approaches that simultaneously make use of both approaches. Much literature has been produce regarding the external and uncontrollable factors that may impact on the company’s strategic positioning. This study is meant to look at the internal variables and the externalities in order to derive the â€Å"best fit† tactical and strategic approach. The paper seeks to illustrate how the company’s tactics and international strategy harmoniously work after a deep consideration of the external forces existing in the global market. Organizational and strategic effectiveness are very vital for the success of any business organization, although they are very different. According to Bell (57-9), strategic positioning is unique in the sense that it seeks to integrate both organizational and strategic effectiveness in a manner that serves to differentiate a business organization in the market place and thus drive success. When looking at a product strategy, management in a borderless world does not necessarily mean managing by the ave rages. It does not also mean that to make a product appealing to the customers means removing the localization of the product. It rather means setting the stage for the management of the product to thrive locally and internationally. The company sells non-alcoholic beverages and it currently operates in more than 200 countries globally. The company is famous for its innovative soft drink, â€Å"Coca-Cola† although it can presently boast of over 230 brands. It employs almost 30,000 people across the world. It is noted that 80% of the company’s profit and 70% of its

Technology and Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Technology and Education - Essay Example This study is vital as it can help in gaining a deeper understanding of the connection between technology and education. The paper will be divided into five sections. The first section is the introduction wherein the background of the study, the focus of research, and it significance and the structure of the paper are given. It guides the reader as to what may be expected from the entire study. The second section deals with the various learning theories. Discussion of constructivism, behaviourism, and audio-visual theories will be undertaken. These theories of learning provide a solid framework in which to understand the connection between use of technology and student-learning improvement. The third section will centre in laying down the advantages, limitations, and impact of the theories of learning to the integration of technology to education. This section highlights the presupposition that as each theory explains the reality of technology in education, its influence on the actual integration of technology in education varies. The fourth section will deal with the analysis. In this part of the pape r, BF Skinner’s behaviourism will be given more focus. Finally, the last segment of the paper will be the conclusion wherein the summary of the discussion as well as the position of the paper pertinent to the issue raise in this study will be given. In the end, theories of learning, especially behaviourism establishes a framework where technology becomes the tool, not just in learning but also in developing and re-enforcing positive behaviours towards learning. The Theories Three fundamental theories of learning will be discussed in this paper, namely, constructivism, audio-visual theories, and behaviourism. The selected theories provide an opportunity to see the theories of learning within a spectrum with constructivism on one side and behaviourism on the other end. Meanwhile, audio-visual theories present developments in technology have effect learning as it is

Nature of Knowledge Essay Example for Free

Nature of Knowledge Essay In the study of knowledge we distinguish between knowledge by acquaintance, in essence to know someone or know of something. Ability knowledge is for example to know how to swim or how to ride a bike. And, our main concern, propositional knowledge that is sentences or statements that can be either true or false. To have knowledge one needs to have a belief and for this belief to be true. The following text will show how true belief, even if it is justified in a rational way, does not suffice for knowledge. Take Nina, she is walking by some slot machines in the casino. She feels drawn to one of the machines, and believes it is her lucky day and that she will win because of the nice appealing colors on the slot machine. She places her bet, the wheels spin and line up three lucky 7’s, she wins and her belief turns out to be a true one. But while her belief being true, intuitively this do not suffice for knowledge, as it is easy to ascribe this winning to pure chance. Even if different suppositions may justify Nina’s belief in winning, it is natural to think that what Nina lacks in this situation to have knowledge, is justification. And also for this justification to be strong enough for Nina to be a rational being in believing she will win, without need to turn to superstition or vagueness to explain her belief. But even if Nina where to have a justified true belief, which she formed in a rational way, it is easy to show that this neither suffice for knowledge. Say Nina is a con girl, she has tricked the manager of the slot machine manufacturer to give her a manual, showing all the results the machine can produce, together with a serial number for each spin which is also displayed on the slot machine. So it is easy to look down in the manual what the next result will be. It is noon and Nina is now standing in front of the slot machine in the casino. She reads the serial number in the display and matches it in her manual. The next spin will line up three lucky 7’s and win. She places her bet and spins the wheel. Unbeknown to Nina there was an error when printing the manual so all the numbers are mixed up, making the manual useless. And this day the casino owner celebrates his 60th birthday by letting all the machines go off program at noon and give every placed bet at that time the three lucky 7’s line up. Nina’s justified belief turned out to be true, but due to lucky and unlucky circumstances we do not ascribe knowledge to Nina in this situation. Nina was responsible and rational when forming her belief, considering she went the length to trick the boss to give her the manual to see which spins win. If her goal is to win at slots, she was responsible when gathering evidence and responsible and rational in believing her evidence. And even if this example showed that an agent with a justified true belief formed in a rational and responsible way, do not necessarily have knowledge. It is easy to see that even if the agent lacks knowledge, she will often be successful in reaching her goals, because of the rational way she gains justification for her beliefs. Though it is not sufficient or may not even be necessary to have justified true beliefs when trying to grasp the nature of knowledge. Bibliography: Pritchard D. (2006) What is this thing called knowledge?, Routledge, Oxon

Capital Punishment Essay: Hypocrisy of the Death Penalty

The Hypocrisy of the Death Penalty If there is a desire by the American people to maintain the death penalty, let us at least be spared the hypocrisy of a justification by example.   The death penalty is a penalty, to be sure, a frightful torture, both physical and moral, but it provides no sure example except a demoralizing one. It punishes, but it forestalls nothing; indeed, it may even arouse the impulse to murder. It hardly seems to exist, except for the man who suffers it-- in his soul for months and years, in his body during the desperate and violent hour when he is cut in two without suppressing his life. Let us call it by the name which, for lack of any other nobility, will at least give the nobility of truth, and let us recognize it for what it is essentially: a revenge. A punishment that penalizes without forestalling is indeed called revenge. It is a quasi-arithmetical reply made by society to whoever breaks its primordial law. That reply is as old as man; it is called the law of retaliation. Whoever has done me harm must suffer harm; whoever has put out my eye m...

Hinduism Research Paper

â€Å"Hinduism and Modernity† The writings on Hinduism and modernity by David Smith are an interesting read due to the juxtaposition of two opposite (per the author) concepts filled with examples that are traditional and modern with a spirit of understanding that is the hallmark of modern times. The opening examples of the Ganesha idols drinking milk being ridiculed by a modern day press in India serves well to remind us that our thinking or â€Å"theorisation† has become rigidly scientific and we have developed a sceptical bias towards what we cannot understand or explain.For me, the process of reading this section and sorting the confusion of thoughts thereafter enough to write about, involved several attempts to reading, writing and letting it go. As I read through this section with much anticipation, I found myself struggling to capture the essence of the writings of Kant, Weber, Marx, Hegel and others. After numerous readings, I realised that I was reading about mo dernity through the perspective of western philosophical writers and social thinkers. My eastern heritage and western education had somehow missed adequate information on both Hinduism and a balanced approach to modernity.As I read the writings of Smith, shortly after the first page, the expectation of deepening my understanding of Hinduism was pushed to the back burner and I received an education on western philosophical and social thought. That was disappointing because I had hoped to learn more about Hinduism and its place in the modern day. My expectation was that somehow the author would reconcile so called rational theorisations (that I too am very attached to) and the in-explainable Hindu concepts that I was familiar with.Unfortunately, other than seeing shadows of faith based thinking in Hegel, the section on Hinduism and modernity abruptly ends with little or no understanding on Hinduism and the assortment of modern day theorists do not bridge the intellectual divide betwee n the two concepts. A couple of days after reading this section and failing to write any thoughts, I suddenly realised another obstacle in my thinking. When I lived in India, amidst the Indian culture, I had come to accept Hinduism as the â€Å"modern† religion as opposed to Christianity or Islam.The basis of this label was that Hinduism lacked a book or structured definitions and paid no attention to conversion of others to Hinduism. As an organised religion, it was wonderfully ambiguous, largely spiritual and open to individual expression. It was okay to discard rituals or practices that did not my approval. That essence of Hinduism that I carried from my stay in India was a sharp contrast to the author’s perspective of Hinduism being the example of a â€Å"traditional† religion, and perhaps a far cry from modernity.My personal thought is that Hinduism, like philosophical or social theory has over the last 2000 plus years been defined by male dominated patriar chal societies. Like the cream on homemade Indian yogurt, that layer needs to be peeled away to study the essence of Hinduism or modernity and understand the closeness they share. European Discovery of Hinduism from â€Å"Hinduism and Modernity† The European discovery of Hinduism spans a period from the 15th century when the ports of Goa opened up for the Portuguese traders to the 18th century when the British begin to live in India and acculturate themselves with some of the Indian traditions.In these three hundred years, India seemed to change from an isolated country hidden from the world, to a country that could no longer hide its spices, its riches and its culture. Sadly though, the discovery of Hinduism for non Indians did not have a clear theoretical base, and was dependant on a largely oral and abstractly written sparse Hindu religious/cultural history, during a time when the Indian society was not open to sharing with the outside world.As a result, the accounts of Hi nduism written by visitors depicted the Hindu religion as grotesque or insipid, by European writers who travelled to India and experienced the culture from their biblical eyes. The practice of sati, the deification of kings, the extreme deprivation of Brahmans and the overly sexualised art altogether presented a confusing picture that could not be corrected, because the language of India was not understood by the Europeans. To their sensibilities, the ways of the Indians were horrifying to say the least. Read also  Arya Samaj at  https://essaysamurai.co.uk/arya-samaj/The Europeans in India, who could have had the opportunity to experience the Hindu culture first hand, also were kept at the fringes by the Indians, as per the writings of Bentinck in 1807. It seemed as though their (European) â€Å"needs† and â€Å"business† were â€Å"taken care† for them, without them disturbing the hierarchy and the dictates of the local culture. At this point, it seems as though the hierarchical society in India was interchangeably used to represent the Hindu religion. There seemed to be very little understanding of the Hindu religion apart from the social structure, with the teachings of he religion being a closely guarded secret, by the priests and the wealthy. The fact that that Indians were not open to foreigners examining their religion is evident from Bernier’s writings. Bernier’s base of atomism of Gassendi could have led to a productive exchange between the European and Indian culture, however, it seemed as if he gave up because he could not visualise a coherent Hindu cosmological theory and the â€Å"pundit† who was his only source of information, did not have enough skills to dialogue.There were sporadic writings through this time, for example by Abraham Roger, 1649, themed on â€Å"Paganism† that attempted to describe the Hindu culture of India, but at some point they tended to disintegrate into a judgemental dismissal of the body of knowledge that was very different to say the least. There always seemed to be enough examples to create caricatures and convince the western world, that India was not worthy of serious enquiry.All in all, from a modern day perspective, it seems that the Indians had created multiple layers to protect themselves from invaders, missionaries, scholars, traders all of them having an agenda to rip open the cultural centre and expose the vulnerability to the world. So it seems that visitors were kept at bay, given spices, gold, and sent on their way. The resistance also came from an established social structure and was maintained by those in power, for whom, it made sense to keep up the confusing and diffused aura, so they may profit as the privileged few who understood both sides.Marx and Weber’s writings in the 19th century are also historical sources of information on this time, although Marx did not write anything that helped the world understand Hinduism. Webers’s writings did contain some key concepts which were central to the Hindus, such as â€Å"Samskaras† or â€Å"Karma† but also contained some extreme views which were more true of Webers’ own personal struggles and growth. It was not until the late 18th century, under the colonial rule by the British, that Indians met westerners as friends, who wanted to understand or join the Indian culture, without an agenda.Around that time, Indians within India had also begun to look be yond their borders and the environment seemed ready for cultural exchange. The exchanges thereafter where both the Indian and the British culture absorbed elements from each other created an environment where a genuine interest could sustain and studies could be done. Dayananda Saraswati from â€Å"A Source-Book of Modern Hinduism† Dear Sikander Bhaiya, I came across something interesting and wanted to share it with you. I’m taking a class in Hinduism, about 10,000 miles away from home, and learning about Dayananda Saraswati, who as it turns out, is the founder of our Arya Samaj sect.You may recognize the Arja Samaj nurseries near our house, well here is some information behind the teachings at these schools. As my professor says, Swami Dayananda was born into a Brahmin family in 19th century India. But one point you should know is that his real name is Mool Shankar and he was born in Gujrat. He found the Arya Samaj, meaning cultural organization, after an impacting ev ent during the night of Shivratri. When mice ran all over Shiva and ate the offerings given to him, he could not understand why the idol could not defend himself from a mouse.Then, after the death of his sister from cholera, he no longer believed and degraded idol worship. That is when he created the Arya Samaj movement for people who do not believe in idol worship. Nevertheless, Swami Dayananda did not form the Arya Samaj based on this one principle, looking at Hinduism as a whole he rejected all the â€Å"falsehood† and created an body who believed in all the good in Hinduism. Swami Dayananda studied believed in the Vedic scriptures. One such notion he believed in was Moksha. Moksha is the escape from the reincarnation cycle and to finally become one with God.But, I personally believe that reincarnation is not bad and have no desire to escape this cycle. Why would one not appreciate the life God has given us and instead escape life to be absorbed into the soul of the Divine Spirit? As Swami Dayananda proclaims Moksha â€Å"is not emancipation but death or annihilation†. Death and annihilation are not words that come with a good meaning. Not everyone should be influenced to reach Moksha but instead be grateful for and enjoy what God has given us. Education is the sector in which Swami Dayananda made the most progress. For one, he wanted the Veda Bhashya to be translated into English in order to pread the information contained in these scriptures to the Europeans. He also believed in equal education for all. At his point of time in history women were not given the same rights as men and were often left to take upon simple maiden tasks. But he stated that this would cause â€Å"warfare in the house†. Women will also be wanted as teachers in all girls’ school and knowledgeable enough to be involved in administrative affairs. In addition, Swami Dayananda urged teachers and their scholars not to give into corrupt acts that could prevent teaching or learning.I think he wanted to ensure that people and their actions were not what kept them from acquiring knowledge. I greatly support Swami Dayananda’s belief that marriage should be Swayamvara. He believes that a man and a women should â€Å"suit each other† before marriage so they will be happier. In addition, he condemns child marriage, which usually results in women becoming widowed at a young age. This is such a pervasive phenomenon that completely stopping child marriage has still not occurred in India. Instead he added another custom that women can remarry as long as they were not â€Å"consummated† in their first marriage.This allows women to live a normal married life later on. I hope this letter has given you some light on Dayananda Saraswati and his Arya Samaj principles. Read on about this great Indian leader, his principles are inspiring. – Tanya Ramakrishna Paramahansa, from â€Å"A Source Book of Modern Hinduism† Ramakr ishna Paramahansa was a famous follower of Bhakti traditions of 19th century India. He was born into a poor Brahmin Vaishnava family in a Bengal village where he devoted his life to â€Å"strenuous spiritual discipline† (Richards,63) to reach union with the Divine, whom for Ramakrishna was Kali.He became a priest of the Dakshineswar Kali Temple near Kolkata, the city where his portrait hangs on every corner. Ramakrishna understood that Hinduism is like a shoreless ocean but still has two main facets Bhakti and Jnana, methods to become union with the Divine. He had chosen the Bhakti path to reach full consciousness with his Divine Mother, Kali. But he does not narrow his view of religion and God to only Kali. I agree with Ramakrishna when he says that God comes in various forms and as one becomes more devoted to God they begin to understand the wholeness of God’s existence in this universe.When one sees Kali, the idol, with a naked eye they see black. But her color can be compared to the blue sky, as one approaches the sky they realize it has no color. Yet, the sky is nowhere and everywhere, just like Kali. So, as one comes closer to Kali you will see her without color. Indians believed that there once existed Asuras , demons, who were tall, dark skinned and out to harm. Kali is a goddess who absorbed the negative physical attributes of the Asuras, hence her dark colored skin, but on the inside is a goddess who embodies Shakti, empowerment and strength.In India, Kali is considered the most powerful women who kills all evil and absorbs their poison so others are void of it. She is a powerful female warrior, which goes against the stereotype that men are the ones who hold the strength and power to fight. Hinduism as a religion gives great power to women, unlike the society which strips women of their influence. I strongly support Ramakrishna’s perspective that â€Å"each religion is only a path leading to God† (Richard, 65). I admire t he many rivers into one ocean analogy used to describe his idea of different religions but only one God.He was accepting of all other religions and believed â€Å"it is not good to feel that one’s religion alone is true and all others are false† (Richard, 65). One can see that equality was important to Ramakrishna whether it was through religion, the caste system or gender rules. He illustrated that by finding love for God, one’s mind, body and soul no longer belong as a part of the cast system. In addition, during Ramakrishna’s time in history women were not given the same rights as men and were often demeaned.But his belief that women should be worshiped as â€Å"embodiments of the Divine Mother† (Richard, 73) severed this separation. I greatly admire Ramakrishna as he demonstrates his idea of ‘duties’ undertaken by people for name and fame, resulting in an individual’s ego. Duties that are made and carried out by one’s self is not as selfless as those completed as they are presented. Success from carrying out ‘duties’ is what creates a person’s ego. The ego makes people individuals and separates them into ‘you’ and ‘I’. But God sees everyone as one and wishes others would see the same.The only means by which all individuals can become one is by â€Å"going away from the world into solitude† (Richard, 69). This moves the individual away from the distractions of the Maya and allows one to concentrate on the inner self to develop the love of God. With the love of God and as part of one, they are no longer an individual ego. Mahatma Gandhi from â€Å"Gandhi’s Key Writings: In Search of Unity† Let me tell you about a man named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who is known as Mahatma, meaning great soul, Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was born in 1869 to a Vaishnava family.His mother and father were greatly religious people and influenced his percep tion of the world. However, growing up, he realized he was not a man of religion but of ethics. His interest in ethics drove him to study Law in London, England. With a background in Law, Mahatma Gandhi set out to create equality and morality amongst the people. His first attempt was in South Africa where he went to attain civil rights for the 62,000 Indians living there as laborers. At that time, Indians were not allowed to vote and were deprived of many other human rights.The civil rights movement lead by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa is where he found Satyagraha. Satyagraha as a theoretical principle was first introduced in Mahatma Gandhi’s book Hind Swaraj and he shows how he used this philosophical principle in South Africa through his book Satyagraha In South Africa. Satyagraha is a theory that â€Å"recognizes the universal possibility of goodness and virtue† (Suhrud,78). The original Gujurati title of Mahatma Gandhi’s book is Dakshin Africa Na Satyagrah a No Itihas (Suhrud, 77) when translated into English it would read â€Å"A History of Satyagraha in South Africa†.However, Mahatma Gandhi had a strong stance between the words ‘Itihas’ and ‘History’, even though they can be considered direct translations of each other. He believed that Itihas in English means ‘it’s so happened’ as opposed to ‘history’ because for him history is associated with a past filled with wars and hatred. This is a glimpse of how Mahatma Gandhi coined the term Satyagraha as a â€Å"soul force† that is completely void of violence. (Suhrud, 77) Satyagraha’s meaning has many faces and the theory itself comes along with many values, but the real meaning of Satyagraha is â€Å"holding on to truth†.According to Mahatma Gandhi this meaning should insinuate love and firmness, bringing about non-violence. This is a separate term from passive resistance, because the latter is still considered a weapon using violence. In fact, one of the principles of Satyagraha is ‘Ahimsa’ meaning non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi started the Satyagraha struggle in South Africa with a series of non-violent protests. One such act was the burning of registration certificates at a community bonfire. This bonfire was an act of defiance against the Asiatic Registration Act of 1907.The means by which Gandhi took a stance against the act broke the law, hence he took the corresponding punishment i. e. multiple blows to the head. As a Satyagrahi, Gandhi did not respond to the violent punishment but instead attempted to get back on his feet and continue burning the registration certificates. Due to Gandhi’s persistence, he was thrown in jail for not succumbing to the police. This is one brutal example of how Mahatma Gandhi implemented Satyagraha in South Africa.Mahatma Gandhi believed that morals and ethics were essential in order to create unity amongst societies and the people within them. From moral and ethics he derived a dogma known as Satyagraha whose core values are truth and ahimsa. Mahatma Gandhi adopted this attitude and applied it in any of his rebellious acts in South Africa. This was an astute strategy he created, so regardless of his actions that stood against the power, he was still ethically correct, making it more difficult for the authorities to bring him down. In this manner, Mahatma Gandhi attained civil rights for the Indians in South Africa.

Accounting Terminology Essay

Each of the following statements may (or may not) describe one of these technical terms. For each statement, indicate the accounting term described, or answer â€Å"None† if the statement does not correctly describe any of the terms. a. The level of sales at which revenue exactly equals costs and expenses. Break-even point. b. Costs remain unchanged despite changes in sales volume. Fixed Costs. c. The span over which output is likely to vary and assumptions about cost behavior generally remain valid. Relevant Range. d. Sales revenue less variable costs and expenses. Contribution margin. e. Unit sales price minus variable cost per unit. Unit contribution margin. f. The reduction in unit cost achieved from a higher level of output. Economics of scale. g. Costs the respond to changes in sales volume by less than a proportionate amount. Semi variable costs. h. Operating income less variable costs. â€Å"None†. Exercise 20.7 – Using Cost-Volume-Profit Formulas Exercise 21.2 – Home Depot’s Financial Statements: Incremental, Sunk, and Opportunity Costs Read the footnote in Appendix A referring to Home Depot’s decision to close all of its remaining big box stores in China. Write a short paragraph identifying the incremental, sunk and opportunity costs associated with this decision. Assume that any cost savings will be invested elsewhere in more productive stores. Incremental costs relate to the difference in costs between alternative courses of action and incremental revenues. The incremental costs that would be that would occur from either remodeling or closing Home Depot an existing location would include cost of materials, overhead from the actual physical remodel, labor that includes employee pay for rearranging and moving merchandise during a remodel if it occurred, designing and planning costs. Opportunity costs are important factors when it comes to decision making because they define the costs of taking some action in terms of the value foregone or that’s given up due to a particular action taken place. Opportunity costs of remolding would include profits on lost sales if the store is closed during remodeling, loss of current sales due to decrease in customer traffic (due to excessive noise, smell, dirt and inconveniences. Stores could potentially lose profit if they are not able to stock the full line of products or keep items stocked during a remodel. Whereas a sunk cost is an outlay that has been irrevocably incurred at some time in the past; sunk costs cannot be changed no matter what course of action is taken and are irrelevant for purposes of decision making involving the future. Sunk costs related to either remodeling of the store that would need to be taken into consideration include original costs of the current store (decorations, paint, shelves, displays, carpet) and designs that will need to be replaced or removed during either remodeling or closing. Exercise 21.6 – Incremental Analysis: Make or Buy Decision The cost to Swank Company of manufacturing 15,000 units of a particular part is $135,000, of which $60,000 is fixed and $75,000 is variable. The company can buy the part from an outside supplier for $6 per unit. Fixed costs will remain the  same regardless of Swank’s decision. Should the company buy the part or continue to manufacture it? Prepare a comparative schedule in the format illustrated in Exhibit 21-6. It would be more beneficial for the company to manufacture the part rather than buy it from an outside provider. Brief Exercise 22.9 – Flows of Costs through Manufacturing Accounts The President of Cold Moo Ice Cream Company, a chain of ice cream stores in the Midwest, was unhappy with the actual six-month profit figures for the  company recently prepared by the CFO. The president asked the CFO for a profit breakdown, by store, of the actual six-month results. When the President received the report, he was extremely upset and called the CFO, into his office. The President stated, â€Å"These reports show that each store in the chain is profitable, but our company results are unprofitable! How can this be?† The CFO pointed out that each store was allowed to set prices for ice cream based on its cost structure. However, the stores’ cost structures did not include headquarters costs of the costs of advertising and delivery of products. What are the three characteristics for operating a successful responsibility accounting system? Consider whether the accounting system at Cold Moo Ice Cream Company includes the three characteristics of a successful responsibility accounting system. How could the responsibility accounting system at Cold Moo be improved? As the Textbook states, â€Å"measuring performance along the lines of management responsibility is an important function. A responsibility accounting system holds individual managers accountable for the performance of the business centers under their control and provides top management with information useful in identifying strengths and weaknesses among units throughout the organization.† The three characteristics of a successful operating accounting system will include budgets, will measure the performance, and contain timely performance reports. â€Å"Budgets serve as performance targets for each subunit in an organization. The accounting system will measure the performance of each responsibility center, and timely performance reports are prepared that compare the actual performance of each center with the amounts budgeted.† When reports are preformed frequently, it allows center managers to be able to keep their performances on target, and helps with the evaluation of the managers. It does not appear hat Cold Moo Ice Cream is following the timely reports method of the accounting system, which is essential to ensuring the financial information is accurate as possible, and to improve this aspect should be more intertwined with the actual budget and more accurately present how the performance of the store is measured. To do so the responsibility income statement should also be presented, this  contains not only the operating results of a particular part of a business but also the revenue and expenses of each profit center within that part, which could be extremely important to see how those centers within the same area measure and stack up against one another. For the responsibility income statement to be informative and useful it should essentially and efficiently be able to detail Variable Costs, Contribution Margin, Fixed Costs, Traceable Fixed Costs and Common Fixed Costs. In addition, fixed costs that are common to both product lines amount to $125,000.00. Instructions a. Prepare Chocolatiers’ responsibility income statement for the current month. Report the responsibility margin for each product line and income from operations for the company as a whole. Also include columns showing all dollar amounts as percentages of sales. b. According to the analysis performed in part a, which product line is more profitable? Should the common fixed costs be considered when determining the profitability of individual product lines? Why or why not? According the analysis in part a, the solid product line is more profitable. When determining profitability of any product line, common fixed costs should not be considered. Only the costs that are directly traceable to the product lines should be included. Common fixed costs are not directly traceable to any product, as they are arbitrarily allocated in proportion to a chosen factor, for example, machine hour or square feet of a certain space occupied. c. Chocolatiers has $15,000.00 to be used in advertising for one of the two product lines and expects that the expenditure will result in additional sales of $50,000.00. How should the company decide which product line to advertise? The effects of this campaign will typically be in both sales and variable costs, and therefore the company should select the product line based on which product will have the highest contribution margin ratio, which is the  percentage of sales, service revenues or selling price that remains after all variable costs and variable expenses have been covered. This method takes into consideration the limited time frame of the advertising campaign, where fixed costs will most likely not be affected.