Persuasive Speech Lacrosse Games - 1198 Words

I heard the faint high pitched beeping of my alarm clock as I opened my sleep covered eyes. I attempted to roll out from under my covers but immediately retreated as I felt the chilly spring air touch my skin. While I was mustering up the motivation to get out of bed, I glanced at my alarm clock. â€Å"11:00 AM† it read in boxy, glowing numbers. Had I really slept in that long? I finally rose from my bed, traveling down the stairs to make myself some breakfast. â€Å"Hi, girl!† I greeted my dog where she was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. I smiled to myself as I turned on some music, opened the fridge to retrieve some eggs, and turned on the stove. It felt like a fine Saturday morning until I remembered that I had a lacrosse game later†¦show more content†¦This only made me more nervous and upset. The sound of the car shutting off snapped me out of the thoughts and back into reality as my dad alerted me we were at our destination. We walked together to the field, the spikes on the bottom of my cleats clicking with each step on the parking lot pavement. A huge field with onlookers filling the bleachers on the far side came into view, lit up by the soft evening light. I spotted the girls on my team and my tired looking grey-haired coach. Me and my dad split up, me going to warm up with my team and my dad going to sit with the team parents. As I was passing with my teammates I watched the opposing team carefully. I observed how neat their drills were and how accurate their shots and passes were. They all looked so athletic and that really made me doubt myself. How was I supposed to prove to everyone that I was a good player if I had to play against a team this good? What if I mess up and the other team completely destroys my team? The loud buzzer that ended the warm ups sounded and both teams went to their side of the field. My coach called today’s starters out, and luckily he didn’t choose me. Rel ieved, I went to go sit on one of the hard metal chairs they provided for the teams on the sidelines. The chairs were uncomfortable but that didn’t bother me. I had other things on my mind. I sat shivering watching the events of the gameShow MoreRelatedMedia Violence9754 Words   |  40 Pagesenforced by officers. The same simulations are now used in television and video games to impress the youthful audience, but without the same safeguard. In fact, some software on the market enables children to manipulate the scenes in a game to simulate their own environments by scanning in pictures of their school hallways, and morphing the faces of teachers and other students onto the bodies of the targets, making the game more real. Some advertisements for these kinds of software programs even promiseRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pagesa book that can help transform dry and rather remote concepts into practical reality, and lead to lively class discussions, and even debates. In the gentle environment of the classroom, students can hone their analytical skills and also their persuasive skills—not selling products but selling their ideas—and defend them against critical scrutiny. This is great practice for the arena of business to come. NEW TO THIS EDITION In contrast to the early editions, which examined only notable mistakes

Supply Chain Management In Indian Retail Industry - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 13 Words: 4018 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Industry Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Retail, one of Indias largest industries, has presently emerged as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries of our times with several players entering the market. Accounting for over 10 per cent of the countrys GDP and around eight per cent of the employment retailing in India is gradually inching its way toward becoming the next boom industry. As the contemporary retail sector in India is reflected in sprawling shopping centers, multiplex malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment and food all under one roof, the concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and consumer buying behavior, ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Supply Chain Management In Indian Retail Industry" essay for you Create order This has also contributed to large scale investments in the real estate sector with major national and global players investing in developing the infrastructure and construction of the retailing business. The trends that are driving the growth of the retail sector in India are ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Low share of organized retailing ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Falling real estate prices ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Increase in disposable income and customer aspiration ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Increase in expenditure for luxury items Another credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working population. In India, hefty pay-packets, nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing working-women population are emerging opportunities in the services sector. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India which now boast of retailing almost all the pref erences of life Apparel Accessories, Appliances, Electronics, Cosmetics and Toiletries, Home Office Products, Travel and Leisure and many more. With this the retail sector in India is witnessing a rejuvenation as traditional markets make way for new formats such as departmental stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and specialty stores. The retailing configuration in India is fast developing as shopping malls are increasingly becoming familiar in large cities. When it comes to development of retail space specially the malls, the Tier II cities are no longer behind in the race. If development plans till 2007 is studied it shows the projection of 220 shopping malls, with 139 malls in metros and the remaining 81 in the Tier II cities. The government of states like Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) are very upbeat about permitting the use of land for commercial development thus increasing the availability of land for retail space; thus making NCR render to 50% of the malls in I ndia. India is being seen as a potential goldmine for retail investors from over the world and latest research has rated India as the top destination for retailers for an attractive emerging retail market. Indias vast middle class and its almost untapped retail industry are key attractions for global retail giants wanting to enter newer markets. Even though India has well over 5 million retail outlets, the country sorely lacks anything that can resemble a retailing industry in the modern sense of the term. This presents international retailing specialists with a great opportunity. The organized retail sector is expected to grow stronger than GDP growth in the next five years driven by changing lifestyles, burgeoning income and favorable demographic outline. Another cap to the retailing industry in India is allowing 51% FDI in single brand outlet. The government is now set to initiate a second wave of reforms in the segment by liberalizing investment norms further. This will no t only favor the retail sector develop in terms of design concept, construction quality and providing modern amenities but will also help in creating a consumer-friendly environment. Retail industry in India is at the crossroads but the future of the consumer markets is promising as the market is growing, government policies are becoming more favorable and emerging technologies are facilitating operations in India. And this upsurge in the retail industry has made India a promising destination for retail investors and at the same time has impelled investments in the real estate sector. As foreign investors cautiously test the Indian Markets for investments in the retail sector, local companies and joint ventures are expected to be more advantageously positioned than the purely foreign ones in the evolving Indias organized retailing industry. Objective of the Study To understand the Importance of Supply Chain Decisions and Supply Chain Modeling Approaches in the retail majors, and try to understand the significant role played by the logistics and the supply chain system of the retailers on the economies of scale of the organization Literature Review Importance of Logistics SCM A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers. Supply chains exist in both service and manufacturing organizations, although the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry and firm to firm. Below is an example of a very simple supply chain for a single product, where raw material is procured from vendors, transformed into finished goods in a single step, and then transported to distribution centers, and ultimately, customers. Realistic supply chains have multiple end products with shared components, facilities and capacities. The flow of materials is not always along an arbores cent network, various modes of transportation may be considered, and the bill of materials for the end items may be both deep and large. Trad itionally, marketing, distribution, planning, manufacturing, and the purchasing organizations along the supply chain operated independently. These organizations have their own objectives and these are often conflicting. Marketings objectives of high customer service and maximum sales dollars, conflict with manufacturing and distribution goals. Many manufacturing operations are designed to maximize throughput and lower costs with little consideration for the impact on inventory levels and distribution capabilities. Purchasing contracts are often negotiated with very little information beyond historical buying patterns. The result of these factors is that there is not a single, integrated plan for the organizationthere were as many plans as businesses. Clearly, there is need for a mechanism through which these different functions can be integrated together. Supply chain management is a strategy through which such integration can be achieved. Supply chain management is typically vie wed to lie between fully vertically integrated firms, where the entire material flow is owned by a single firm and those where each channel member operates independently. Therefore coordination between the various players in the chain is key in its effective management. Cooper and Ellram [1993] compare supply chain management to a well-balanced and well-practiced relay team. Such a team is more competitive when each player knows how to be positioned for the hand-off. The relationships are the strongest between players who directly pass the baton, but the entire team needs to make a coordinated effort to win the race. Research Problem To understand the intricacies involved with the following aspect of supply chain management Supply Chain Decisions We classify the decisions for supply chain management into two broad categories strategic and operational. As the term implies, strategic decisions are made typically over a longer time horizon. These are closely linked to the corporate strategy (they sometimes {it are} the corporate strategy), and guide supply chain policies from a design perspective. On the other hand, operational decisions are short term, and focus on activities over a day-to-day basis. The effort in these type of decisions is to effectively and efficiently manage the product flow in the strategically planned supply chain. There are four major decision areas in supply chain management: 1) location, 2) production, 3) inventory, and 4) transportation (distribution), and there are both strategic and operational elements in each of these decision areas. Location Decisions The geographic pla cement of production facilities, stocking points, and sourcing points is the natural first step in creating a supply chain. The location of facilities involves a commitment of resources to a long-term plan. Once the size, number, and location of these are determined, so are the possible paths by which the product flows through to the final customer. These decisions are of great significance to a firm since they represent the basic strategy for accessing customer markets, and will have a considerable impact on revenue, cost, and level of service. These decisions should be determined by an optimization routine that considers production costs, taxes, duties and duty drawback, tariffs, local content, distribution costs, production limitations, etc. (See Arntzen, Brown, Harrison and Trafton [1995] for a thorough discussion of these aspects.) Although location decisions are primarily strategic, they also have implications on an operational level. Production Decisions The strategic decisions include what products to produce, and which plants to produce them in, allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to DCs, and DCs to customer markets. As before, these decisions have a big impact on the revenues, costs and customer service levels of the firm. These decisions assume the existence of the facilities, but determine the exact path(s) through which a product flows to and from these facilities. Another critical issue is the capacity of the manufacturing facilitiesand this largely depends on the degree of vertical integration within the firm. Operational decisions focus on detailed production scheduling. These decisions include the construction of the master production schedules, scheduling production on machines, and equipment maintenance. Other considerations include workload balancing, and quality control measures at a production facility. Supply Chain Modeling Approaches Clearly, each of the above two levels of decisions require a different perspective. The strategic decisions are, for the most part, global or all encompassing in that they try to integrate various aspects of the supply chain. Consequently, the models that describe these decisions are huge, and require a considerable amount of data. Often due to the enormity of data requirements, and the broad scope of decisions, these models provide approximate solutions to the decisions they describe. The operational decisions, meanwhile, address the day to day operation of the supply chain. Therefore the models that describe them are often very specific in nature. Due to their narrow perspective, these models often consider great detail and provide very good, if not optimal, solutions to the operational decisions. To facilitate a concise review of the literature, and at the same time attempting to accommodate the above polarity in modeling, we divide the modeling approaches into three areas N etwork Design, Rough Cut methods, and simulation based methods. The network design methods, for the most part, provide normative models for the more strategic decisions. These models typically cover the four major decision areas described earlier, and focus more on the design aspect of the supply chain; the establishment of the network and the associated flows on them. Rough cut methods, on the other hand, give guiding policies for the operational decisions. These models typically assume a single site (i.e., ignore the network) and add supply chain characteristics to it, such as explicitly considering the sites relation to the others in the network. Simulation methods are a method by which a comprehensive supply chain model can be analyzed, considering both strategic and operational elements however, as with all simulation models; one can only evaluate the effectiveness of a pre specified policy rather than develop new policy. It is the traditional question of What If? versus Whats Best? Network Design Methods As the very name suggests, these methods determine the location of production, stocking, and sourcing facilities, and paths the product(s) take through them. Such methods tend to be large scale, and used generally at the inception of the supply chain. The earliest work in this area, although the term supply chain was not in vogue, was by Geoffrion and Graves [1974]. They introduce a multi-commodity logistics network design model for optimizing annualized finished product flows from plants to the DCs to the final customers. Geoffrion and Powers [1993] later give a review of the evolution of distribution strategies over the past twenty years, describing how the descendants of the above model can accommodate more echelons and cross commodity detail. Breitman and Lucas [1987] attempt to provide a framework for a comprehensive model of a production-distribution system, PLANETS, that is used to decide what products to produce, where and how to produce it, which markets to pursue and what resources to use. Parts of this ambitious project were successfully implemented at General Motors. Cohen and Lee [1985] develop a conceptual framework for manufacturing strategy analysis, where they describe a series of stochastic sub- models, that considers annualized product flows from raw material vendors via intermediate plants and distribution echelons to the final customers. They use heuristic methods to link and optimize these sub- models. They later give an integrated and readable exposition of their models and methods in Cohen and Lee [1988]. Cohen and Lee [1989] present a normative model for resource deployment in a global manufacturing and distribution network. Global after-tax profit (profit-local taxes) is maximized through the design of facility network and control of material flows within the network. The cost structure consists of variable and fixed costs for material procurement, production, distribution and transportation. They validate the model by applying it to analyze the global manufacturing strategies of a personal computer manufacturer. Finally, Arntzen, Brown, Harrison, and Trafton [1995] provide the most comprehensive deterministic model for supply chain management. The objective function minimizes a combination of cost and time elements. Examples of cost elements include purchasing, manufacturing, pipeline inventory, transportation costs between various sites, duties, and taxes. Time elements include manufacturing lead times and transit times. Unique to this model was the explicit consideration of duty and their recovery as the product flowed through different countries. Implementation of this model at the Digital Equipment Corporation has produced spectacular results savings in the order of $100 million dollars. Rough Cut Methods These models form the bulk of the supply chain literature, and typically deal with the more operational or tactical decisions. Most of the integrative research (from a supply chain context) in the literature seems to take on an inventory management perspective. In fact, the term Supply Chain first appears in the literature as an inventory management approach. The thrust of the rough cut models is the development of inventory control policies, considering several levels or echelons together. These models have come to be known as multi-level or multi-echelon inventory control models. For a review the reader is directed to Vollman et al. [1992]. Multi-echelon inventory theory has been very successfully used in industry. Cohen et al. [1990] describe OPTIMIZER, one of the most complex models to date to manage IBMs spare parts inventory. They develop efficient algorithms and sophisticated data structures to achieve large scale systems integration. Significance of the Study The key aspects of retail marketing are an attitude of mind. The 2004 NRF Foundation/American Express 2004 Customer Service survey showed 99 percent of shoppers report customer service being important when deciding to make a purchase, NRF reported. The most important elements of good customer service to traditional shoppers revolve around retail employees and the store environment, according to the survey, with nearly two thirds of shoppers finding it extremely important for retail employees to be courteous (67 percent) and treat shoppers like valued customers (65 percent). The report also stated consumers dislike being pressured to buy merchandise (69 percent) and find it extremely important that employees are available to ask for help (61 percent). Environmental factor for them is a neat and clean store, which 60 percent of shoppers said is extremely important. Retail marketing decisions are driven by what the shoppers need and want. Consumers are individuals who purchase products or services for personal consumption and in the retail context it is critical to realize that management can not be effective unless it has an understanding of the process of how retail consumers make decisions and act in relation to retail products. Blackwell, Miniard and Engel (2000) define the initial step of this decision-making process as need recognition in terms of emotional and psychological needs recognition. However the extent to which the consumer intends to resolve the problem depends on the relative perceived importance of the problem to them and the degree of difference between the current and desired situation. If the problem recognition is of a sufficiently strong degree then information search and evaluation of alternatives stages will occur. What the customers regard as value and what they buy is decisive. It can therefore be seen that potential customers go through a series of stages before they choose a brand or product to purchase. Hence branding strategies used by retailers need to be aware of elements in these first stages which might have an effect on later choices. Additionally a determinant of the degree to which customers evaluate a brand is their level of involvement, i.e. high levels of involvement mean extensive evaluation processes, (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 1989). Price is often seen as an indicator of involvement level because people spend more time searching and comparing prices. The essential elements While many elements may make up a firms retail marketing mix, the essential elements may include  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Store location,  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  merchandise assortments  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Store ambience,  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  customer service,  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  price,  ·Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  Communication with customers Research Methodology Research methodologies play a vital role in defining the effectiveness and success of the research carried out. I have used Case study approach in understanding the difficulties that have occurred. Methodology in the process of research can be defined as a framework which helps us in understanding the research process or they can be defined as the mechanisms utilized for collecting the data for interpretation to deliver the best outcomes. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) states thatÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬- the design of the research is covered by the notion of fitness for purposeÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬- which help in determining the methodology and research design. The process of research is an urge of searching for the facts that leads to a path of initiating a new technology/knowledge. Paradigm of Research Research paradigm may be defined as the assumptions made by an individual in order to guide him to deliver the best outcomes. The paradigm of the research can be understood based on the three levels The research methodology is well understood by the following assumptions: The three research paradigms which are considered important to conduct the research effectively by (Oates, 2006) are stated below: Positivism Constructivism and Critical Theory. Research Methodologies used: Qualitative Vs Quantitative A research can be either of the forms of the inquiry I, e Qualitative or Quantitative. Qualitative research method is the one that concentrates on identifying the complexity in the nature and ate also attempts in answering the questions WHY? And HOW? This kind of researches can be done only by the humans participating in the real world context mainly because of the ability of the humans to understand, confine and then co-relate them in real practice. Quantitative research method follows a very organized approach. Quantitative methods are basically utilized to understand the depth of the problem which answers the questions like HOW MANY? Inductive and Deductive: Inductive way of research is the one that comprises of the assumptions made previously about a topic and theories are build later taking this assumption as the base which means a solution is developed based on the assumption made rather than testing to prove whether or not the assumption made i s correct or wrong, where as the deductive approach comprises of the established hypothesis which is chosen initially and tested to verify the truth in it. Oates (2006) and Hyde (2000) state that both the inductive and deductive approaches make use of qualitative and quantitative process and several methods of collecting data during their research. The research approach that has been chosen for my dissertation concentrates on getting the inputs from various participants/victims (such as students, a technical consultant and a) in order to deliver a solution from the improvements that have generated from the previous problems. The current research makes use of the inductive way of approach for proposing an effective solution for the difficulties in the research depending on the observations, action and the practice. It utilizes not just quantitative but also qualitative inquiry modes. Suitable methodologies for this research  · Action research: (Elliott, 1978) has stated that action research ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢combines the diagnosis with reflection and focuses on the issues that are practical identified by the participants which are complex and at the same time which are capable of being changedÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬-. A new concept has emerged about how the action research can find out several ways of integrating themselves to obtain the sustainable organizational development (Mc Niff and Whitehead 2000). Case study approach: This kind of research methodology is mainly used for building the theories to analyze the complex problems. Case study approach gives a clear understanding of the possible events like the organization, people and the social movement. Case study is defined as the ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢the study of a complexity of a specific instance for understanding the activities in the context of the real worldÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬- (Helen Simons, 2009). A case study approach focuses on the real world context in a much detailed way. It takes a specific case in the firm or an institution rather than testing the generalized theory. The four stages involved in this approach: Design Conduct Analyze and Developing the conclusions and implications. (Yin.R,1994) Data collection: There are several ways of collecting the data as stated by (Cohen,Manion and Morrison, 2007) and supported by (Elliot, 1991) are as follows: Questionnaires Conducting tests Interviews Role play Accounts This type of data collecting methods are mainly used when the researcher needs the following aspects (Oates, 2006) Necessity to acquire the clear view When asking the complex questions using open-ended method or whose logic should be expressed differently to different individuals. To express the feelings, emotions and experiences which cannot be observed easily when using predefined questionnaire method. Conclusion At present most retailers in India comprise invested majorly into the front end, but comparatively little on the back end and supply chain. Still in countries like the USA, Germany and England, where organized retail is highly developed; supply chain efficiency is a major unease. The trend of retail sector in India is different from other countries around the world. The organized retail sector in India is highly fragmented and there are huge inefficiencies in the supply chain. In India, Future group derives significant economies of scale in managing their supply chain. With more than 170000 products, the company maintains a strong supplier relationship in a partnership mode, avoiding the exploitative supplier buyer transactional philosophy. The IT enabled back-end operations and supply chain management increases the reliability and efficiency of the business. As part of the operation, Future Group is also undertaking to reduce its warehousing costs through a consolidation pr ocess. In a country like India, where most retail stores are located in the heart of the city-where rents are high and storage space is scarce-supply chain management has even more serious business implications. Future Logistics now handles two-and-a-half million SKUs (or stock keeping units) a day across the Future Groups various retail formats around the country. By 2010, this number is expected to increase to more than 30 million SKUs a day. Even with 98% accuracy, some 600,000 pieces will not be delivered correctly, resulting in an estimated sales loss of more than Rs 4 crore a day. The biggest driver in consumer logistics is going to be zero defect in managing the supply chain. While infrastructure, technology, automation, processes and people will all play an important role, zero defect can only be achieved through vertical integration across the entire supply chain-from raw material supply, production, wholesale and retail. The different parts of the supply chain will no l onger be able to work in silos as they do today. Need for efficient logistics Before heading for transformation in-depth of logistics, let us first have a fleeting look through the need of good logistics system in India: Ensure coordination: To ensure perfect coordination with in various units of a retail venture like suppliers, manufacturers, and vendors. Perfect timings: To ensure that consumers get the right product at the right time and at the right place. Continuous supply: To ensure resourceful supply to retail stores across various geographic areas is seamless and consistent. Continuous growth: To achieve profitable and sustainable growth of retail operations in the long run. Optimum inventory: To achieve optimal inventory levels and reduce wastage of products.

Analysis Of Steve Greenberg And Michael Weinreb - 892 Words

Authors have many strategies when it comes to winning over their reader to their side on a topic even if it means that they will target their opponent to make them look bad. In the articles by Steve Greenberg and Michael Weinreb we will look at the way they try to get the reader to join into their opinion of the topic by appeal to the persons logos, pathos, and ethos. By doing looking at the articles and breaking them down we can see how the author makes his argument by using rhetorical strategies and logical fallacies. The authors start off by using a logical fallacy, ad hominem, to try to get their readers on their side emotionally and ethically. In the article written by Steve Greenberg, in the first sentence of his article he changes the name of his friend to Ogre. This is just because his friend is a cardinal fan and by his mood the reader can tell that he does not think fondly of the cubs. This makes the reader think of his friend as an ugly beast that does not think to logica lly. This brings the reader to his side, because when they hear what the Ogre has to say they will not take it serious. They will associate what the friend says with a half-witted beast that is a disgusting, so whatever is said cannot be a correct. On the other hand, the article written by Michael Weinreb uses ad hominem to do the same thing as Steve but he calls out Jim Harbaugh for his crazy tactics. In his article he describes Harbaugh as bat feces and a freak because of his actions in

Racial Prejudice An Understanding Of Prejudice And...

Racial Prejudice A child is born without any preconceived notions or beliefs, they are Society’s projects to mold and shape for the future. From the day a child is born he or she begins to learn beliefs that will be carried through life. In fact, according to Stephanie Pappas â€Å"Kids develop an understanding of prejudice and discrimination in a fairly predictable manner. Between the ages of 3 and 6, they begin to understand and use stereotypes† (Pappas, â€Å"Young Kids Take Parents’ Word on Prejudice†). Additionally, Angela Oswalt states â€Å"Children who observe their parents making racist, prejudiced remarks or acting in prejudiced and discriminatory ways learn to be racist, prejudiced and discriminatory in those same ways. Such children may find themselves discriminating against others â€Å"just because† (Oswalt, â€Å"Prejudice†). I was born in South Georgia during the 1960’s and attended elementary school in a small predominately white town. There was a segregation between the white and African American parts of town with separate schools, grocery stores, and churches. During these years we were not allowed to have any friends that were not white. My parents always stated that they were not prejudice but their actions spoke to the contrary. Bush 2 During the 1970’s the family moved to Maryland where communities and schools were completely integrated. This time was my first experience with children of other races, cultures and religious beliefs. I felt comfortable with theShow MoreRelatedPrejudice Or Pre Judgement Is An Age Old, World Wide, Unavoidable Problem1075 Words   |  5 PagesBrandon McClean Ms. Chang English 9-1 18 April 2016 Overcoming Prejudice Prejudice or pre-judgement is an age-old, world-wide, unavoidable problem in society. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes the negative impact prejudice can have on others. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson and Arthur â€Å"Boo† Radley all face differing forms of discrimination because in their own way, each one is different than the typical citizen of Maycomb County. While trying to help others and do the right thing, allRead MoreSociological Theories Of Prejudice And Racism1645 Words   |  7 PagesSociological Theories of Prejudice and Racism Functionalist theory argues for race and ethnic relations to be functional and thus supply to the melodic conduct and strength of society, racial and ethnic minorities must assimilate into that society. Assimilation is a process by which a minority becomes socially, economically, and culturally absorbed within the dominant society. 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We use prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination all too often andRead MoreThe Effects Of Prejudice On Children And Young People1502 Words   |  7 PagesPrejudice is an opinion or attitude about a group of people that is based upon lack of understanding or incorrect information. It is making assumptions about children and young people because they belong to a particular group. Prejudiced attitudes can all too often be found among children, even at a very young age. Research has shown that children are capable of holding prejudices and negative attitudes towards others from the age of three. The re are so many pressures on children to fit in and to

Barbie Doll Essay Research Paper Margie Pearcy free essay sample

Barbie Doll Essay, Research Paper Margie Pearcy # 8217 ; s Barbie Doll Margie Pearcy # 8217 ; s Barbie Doll inside informations the image that society undertakings upon and expects from its immature female population. From an early age these immature adult females struggle to conform to the criterions that society has defined for them. The consequences frequently are black, taking to emotional struggles that are frequently hard if non impossible to decide. Beautiful, flawless dolls such as Barbie are often the first beginning of association that small misss have with the values placed on them by society. Parents give small yearlings dolls, illumination ranges, and cherry-candy coloured lip rouges ( 2-4 ) for toies. This would look guiltless plenty, but already the guidelines are being set for what society at big expects misss to be. At this immature age, small misss can non truly differ from what is expected since they are under the complete influence of their parents. Engulfed with these types of nowadayss, the kid is already larning her function in society. In pubescence, during these most disruptive old ages, the miss kid is covering a barbarous blow by a equal who tells her she has a large olfactory organ and fat legs ( 5-6 ) . Here we see the beginning of the struggle that will blight the immature miss. The second of stanza of Barbie Doll demonstrates the interior struggle these immature misss are sing as they become acutely cognizant of how different they may be from what society perceives as the ideal female. Although a miss can be healthy and intelligent, it is non expected for her to possess the physical qualities of strong weaponries and back, abundant sexual thrust and manual sleight ( 8-9 ) . These epitomize male traits, and immature misss begin to comprehend these as negative and unnatural for themselves. Feeling less than Page 2 worthy or valuable, the miss feels she owes society an apology for possessing these features ( 10 ) . Percy drive the point place by composing, everyone saw a fat olfactory organ on large legs ( 11 ) . This line emphasizes the ugliness the miss feels by non mensurating up to be the perfect or ideal female, a criterion set by society. At this point, the miss begins the battle to accomplish the ideal female character, that Barbie Doll image with the perfect face, hair, and unrealistic figure. Not merely does society set criterions for physical properties, it besides dictates stereotyped behaviour of the female toward members of the opposite sex. The miss is told to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercising, diet, smile, and wheedle ( 12-14 ) to pull work forces. She is to use manners that are actuall Ys fake, non a true representation of what she is on the interior. In add-on to experiencing she must look beautiful and thin, the miss is pressured to move in a pretentious mode to be accepted by society as an ideal member of her sex. She must play up to work forces and state and make things that will bolster the male self-importance and solidify her function as the ultimate female. This type of programming instills a sense of losing one’s inner ego. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt ( 15-16 ) symbolizes this loss of ego and a alteration in the girl’s attitude. As a consequence of compromising or losing her true ego to the demands of society, the immature girl/woman is confronted with the realisation that life this bogus being has left her alone, empty, and in hurting. Dejected and depressed, she symbolically cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up ( 17-18 ) . The girl’s emotional agony is so intense that she chooses decease as the sol ution to stop her hurting and to counterbalance for losing her true individuality, the Page 3 one society failed to acknowledge and raising. In the 4th and concluding stanza of Barbie Doll Pearcy utilizes dry imagination to convey to the readers the senseless mode in which society positions immature adult females. The miss is seen in her coffin with the mortician # 8217 ; s cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty olfactory organ ( 20-21 ) . These images continue the travesty and hide the effects that society has inflicted on its victim. Her caretakers have her dressed in a pink and white nightgown ( 22 ) in order to keep the ultimate feminine image. Tragically and ironically, the miss is recognized as reasonably merely in decease as noted in line 23. Even here, nevertheless, society fails to see the existent individual. They see the image that a ill-conceived society has created. The writer writes, Consummation at last ( 24 ) to convey to us that in decease the miss has achieved society # 8217 ; s end for her, to model her into a existent life Barbie Doll. To every adult female a happy stoping ( 25 ) continues society # 8217 ; s misrepresentation that a adult female is happy and fulfilled if she possesses physical beauty and Acts of the Apostless in a certain mode. Barbie Doll offers a sad but realistic position of the drastic effects that can happen from life in a society that Judgess immature adult females by unrealistic, false, and superficial values. Too frequently society fails immature adult females by declining to acknowledge, appreciate, and value true beauty, that which lies in immature misss # 8217 ; Black Marias, liquors, and characters. These are the lone true things that make a immature lady beautiful, and the lone qualities that can supply permanent felicity. 31d

Event Management in Australia-Free-Samples-Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Event Management in Australia. Answer: Introduction Art, music and other cultural events are of very importance in the modern day society as it touches the emotional world and illuminate the inner self of human with the improvement of economy, wellbeing, society and education. Australia has a rich history of art and cultural events (McRobbie 2013). However, the way of organization of these cultural events have been changed tremendously. A range of newer events such as international film festivals, writers festivals, music festivals, new age festivals have occupied the slots of cultural events and people are attending the events irrespective of their socio-economic status or age (Mair and Whitford 2013). The Prime purpose of this assignment is to relate these new age events as a part of Australian traditional events. Further, the way these events affects the Australian economics, political, philosophical, social and historical aspects will be discussed. Finally, the way these events stands out in relation to operation, management, sust ainability, technology and management practices will be discussed properly. Timeline of events in Australia Art, music and cultural events are deeply embedded in the Australian history and it can be understood from the research study by the Australian government. This research states that, 83% of Australian population believes that art and cultural events are important for the development of society and they want to be a part of it (Art Nation 2015). Currently Australia hosts several music and film events that is famous worldwide such as Melbourne and Adelaide international film festivals, Splendour in the grass, lost paradise, harbor life, stereosonic, subsonic and many more. These events are not very new in the Australian culture and according to The Sydney Morning Herald (2010), the first music concert organized in Australia was Maleny folk festival in 1987 and since then there is a huge number of events that has been organized and financially became successful. Other than these, there is a number of different festivals such as Melbourne food and wine festival, Tropfest (the largest sho rt film festival), Sydney mardi gras (the LGBT community festival) and Vivid festival (the largest light, music and ideological festival in the world) has been organized and became big success in the event industry (Newstead 2013). Different aspects of these events Social These music and art related events have broader impact on the Australian society.The most important effect of these events on the Australian society is the multiculturalism. According to the Australian government council, the government is keen to develop multiculturalism in Australian society as it helps to sprout talent and ability within individuals and arts and music concerts are helping them to achieve this target. The success of these vents to promote social harmony and peace is such that from 2013 to 2015, 76% of population of major cities and 67% population of remote and very remote areas have attended such events every year (Art Nation 2015). Political The Australian govern is always been supportive for the art and music concerts in Australia. There are a number of music organizations such as the national opera, Opera Australia, the concert orchestras that are supported by the national government and from funding to land, allotment and transporting artists.The government bear all the cost of these events. Furthermore, the local government takes responsibility to help these events with physical facilities and employs event officers to encourage local art and craft activities (Tonkin 2012). However, there are different governmental policies that should comply with the event organization process such as environmental pollution level, public disturbance policies, noise pollution levels and staging policies.On the other hand, these concerts helps to display the political drawbacks and loopholes to the society through their music. For example, Warumpi band (1985), that used to highlight the indigenous issues of Australian government thro ugh their concerts (Tonkin 2012). Philosophical The philosophical aspect of music and art events in Australia is evident from the fact that despite of failure of big Australian events related to music, the attendance of people in such music concerts has increased from the last decade. These events has acquired a place in viewers heart. Hundreds of smaller events have been organized that offer better experience with appreciation to culturally rich artists. Therefore, philosophical impact of these events has made the Australian society competent to cultural richness (Newstead 2013). Economic Nearly entire Australian population has been visited art galleries, attended live concerts or attended film or food festivals in 2013 (94%), which describes the economical aspect of these public events in Australia (Australian Leisure Management 2016). Despite the fact that the urban Australia has improved infrastructure for art and music concerts, the attendance of rural population in such concerts proves the involvement of such events in Australian lifestyle. People have spent more than $200,000 and 11% f their household income in such concerts in year 2012 (Australian Leisure Management 2016). The importance can also be understood from the data given by the Australian Council for the Arts (2015) that determined that 40%of international visitor were involved in art related concerts in Australia and over 2.4 million artists have visited Australia in 2013-14. Furthermore, the statistical data shows that Australian cultural sector contributes $50 billion in the Australian GDP and with in that, $4.2 billion comes from these arts related events (Australian Council for The Arts 2017). Factors that make this successful events stand out Operations This section is the most important factor for event management as it is responsible for co-ordination, integration and implementationsof all the planned practices in the vent to make it engaging and successful. This involves adaptation to innovations, flexibility towards methodologies and providing the best service to the viewers and artists within the pre-decided funds. However, the most important factor is viewer engagement (Newstead 2013). The flow of the event should be engaging, otherwise bigger events with proper operational management becomes unsuccessful. One such example is the failure of Bonnaroo and Rebounded, which attracted 38 percent fewer and lowest crowd respectively than their previous attendees (ABC News 2015). Risk factors The primary risk factors for success of any art or music related concert is lack of a proper risk management system. These concerts determines gathering of millions of public gather gathering at one place and therefore different risk factors such as alcohol, minors, transportation, physical activities, size of the event, sales and fire, explosives and combustibles should be taken care of (Steffen et al. 2012). The organizers of music concert Stereosonic utilized security tools such as CCTV cameras in every angle of the concert ground, further they recruited 1000 people for the security and volunteering services and collaborated with the local police and armed forces to combat any adverse situation. Therefore, better risk management system and operations skills makes these events stand out from those, that spend all the money in organizations and neglects security factors (Aloini, Dulmin and Mininno 2012). Sustainability The relation of sustainability in the success or failure of event can be of three types and according toYeoman et al. (2012), there are three primary pillars of sustainability. These are economic success, social effects and environmental aspects. The way of pertaining to these, factors are different in every event. The economic sustainability factors inhabits local economic progress, growth, innovation, fair trade, profitable business performance, increased market capacity, better return on investments and equal sharing of profit. It is very important for the event to address the economic sustainability by providing the organizer of the event with proper amount of profit.However, if other two pillars of sustainability are not strong, the event becomes a big failure, such as the failure of Bonnaroo and Sasquatch festival in Australia in 2017 (Hall 2012). Furthermore, the social sustainabilityincorporates social justice, equity, heritage, health and safety norms, and labour standards so that the workers and organizing employees rights can be protected (Naiman 2012). Therefore, compliance of these norms determines the success of such event. Finally, the environmental sustainable factor involves proper resource utilization, air, water and sound pollution, energy efficiency, emission reduction and protection of biodiversity. While organization of such events, these factors need to be protected as without these, the government cannot grant the permission. Hence, for the successful completion of the events, compliance to environmental sustainability factors is must (Hall 2012). Technology Technological use in event management has a broader and aspect. This aspect can be utilized in safety and health related purposes in events, fund distribution and planning of the event and distribution of the tickets. Using social, print and digital media in the advertisement and marketing of the events ensures participation that is more public and it ensures more revenue generation than events that sells tickets on the counters. Further, utilizing technologies in safety and security determines proper security of attendees and impose public interest on the event (Hollnagel 2014). Conclusion Music concerts, film festivals and art galleries are the modern way to celebrate the richness of art and craft of the different culture. Australia has its own history of rich cultural events and with time, the form of these eventshas been changed. Nowadays, this country celebrate its social competency and multiculturalism with music concerts, food and art festivals, writers concerts and film festivals. These events have different effects of the social, political, economic and philosophical factors, which have been discussed in this report. Further, different management factors such as operational activities, sustainability, technology, risk management skill has been discussed, and their role in the success and failure of the events is mentioned thoroughly. Finally, it could be said that cultural competency is important for diversification of human society and these events helps to fulfill this goal. References ABC News 2015.Goodbye Soundwave, hello boutique music festivals. [online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-16/jones-goodbye-soundwave,-hello-boutique-music-festivals/7033172 Aloini, D., Dulmin, R. and Mininno, V., 2012. Risk assessment in ERP projects.Information Systems,37(3), pp.183-199. Art Nation 2015.An Overview of Australian Arts. [online] Australiacouncil.gov.au. Available at: https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/arts-nation-final-27-feb-54f5f492882da.pdf Australian Council For the Arts 2015.The arts matter to Australia, and the data shows it | Australia Council. [online] Australiacouncil.gov.au. Available at: https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/news/media-centre/media-releases/the-arts-matter-to-australia-and-the-data-shows-it/ Australian Council for The Arts 2017.Arts Nation An Overview of Australian Arts. [online] Australiacouncil.gov.au. Available at: https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/the-cultural-economy-fact-shee-54f5fce276550.pdf Australian Leisure Management 2016.Eventbrite research shows Australians love festivals - Australasian Leisure Management. [online] Ausleisure.com.au. Available at: https://www.ausleisure.com.au/news/eventbrite-research-shows-australians-love-festivals/ Hall, C.M., 2012. Sustainable mega-events: Beyond the myth of balanced approaches to mega-event sustainability.Event Management,16(2), pp.119-131. Hollnagel, E., 2014.Safety-I and safetyII: the past and future of safety management, 1st Edn, pp. 107-125, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Mair, J. and Whitford, M., 2013. An exploration of events research: event topics, themes and emerging trends.International Journal of Event and Festival Management,4(1), pp.6-30. McRobbie, A., 2013.In the culture society: Art, fashion and popular music, 1st Edn, pp. 3-22, Routledge. Music in Australia 2018.Australian Music Festivals - Music in Australia - Knowledge Base. [online] Musicinaustralia.org.au. Available at: https://musicinaustralia.org.au/index.php?title=Australian_Music_Festivals Naiman, R.J. ed., 2012.Watershed management: balancing sustainability and environmental change, 1st Edn, pp. 234-267, Springer Science Business Media. Newstead, A. 2013.Show's Over: A Recent History Of Aussie Music Festival Troubles - Tone Deaf. [online] Tone Deaf. Available at: https://tonedeaf.com.au/shows-over-a-recent-history-of-aussie-music-festival-troubles/ Steffen, R., Bouchama, A., Johansson, A., Dvorak, J., Isla, N., Smallwood, C. and Memish, Z.A., 2012. Non-communicable health risks during mass gatherings.The Lancet infectious diseases,12(2), pp.142-149. The Sydney Morning Herald. 2010.Timeline: Australian music festivals. [online] Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/timeline-australian-music-festivals-20101118-17yht Tonkin, C. 2012.Australian Music Politics: Wheres The Power The Passion?. [online] tonedeaf.com.au. Available at: https://tonedeaf.com.au/australian-music-politics-power-passion/ Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S. and McMahon-Beattie, U. eds., 2012.Festival and events management, 1st Edn, 124-167, Routledge.

Northern Rock Risk Management Essay Example

Northern Rock: Risk Management Essay Northern Rock plc Risk Management Home Assignment Northern Rock plc Risk Management Home Assignment Authors: Serghei Leahu Alexandru Mangir Mihail Mavrin Seminar leader: Herbert Windsor Authors: Serghei Leahu Alexandru Mangir Mihail Mavrin Seminar leader: Herbert Windsor Table of Contents Executive summary2 Economic and financial environment description3 Causes and circumstances of incurred losses5 Errors by the organisation8 Errors by internal and external supervising authorities10 The internal authorities10 The external authorities10 Effects on other commercial organisations12 Conclusions14 References15 Executive summary According to the House of Common’s Treasury Committee’s Fifth Report of Session 2007-08 â€Å"The run on the Rock†, on the evening of Thursday 13 September 2007 at 8. 30 PM the BBC announced that Northern Rock plc had asked for and received emergency financial support from the Bank of England. The terms of the funding facility were finalised in the early hours of Friday 14 September and announced at 7. 00 AM that day. That day, long queues began to form outside some of Northern Rock’s branches; later, its website collapsed and its phone lines were reported to be jammed. The first bank run in the United Kingdom since Victorian times was underway. The purpose of this home assignment is to critically discuss the Northern Rock plc bank run from a faulty risk management perspective. We seek to examine what were the causes of the collapse of Britain’s fifth largest mortgage lender, associated consequences for both the bank and other financial institutions (both domestic and international), the way authorities coped with this event and possible lessons to be drawn about proper and improper risk management. Economic and financial environment description We will write a custom essay sample on Northern Rock: Risk Management specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Northern Rock: Risk Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Northern Rock: Risk Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer For a better understanding of the details of risk management problems that engulfed Northern Rock plc, it is of vital importance to first and foremost take a look at the financial environment during the period of the loss. Real GDP growth projections as of 4 April 2007 Country/Region| 2006| 2007| 2008| United States| 3,25| 2,25| 2,5| Western Europe| 2,75| 2,5| 2,25| United Kingdom| 2,75| 2,75| 2,5| Other West Europe| 3,75| 3| 2,75| Euro area| 2,75| 2,5| 2| Emerging markets| 7,25| 6,5| 6,25| World(WEO weights)| 5,25| 4,25| 4,25| In August of 2007, the UK found itself affected by global financial chaos. Citing bank Credit Europe (2007), the liquidity crisis originated from the US subprime mortgage market. In mainland Europe, the crisis is believed to have been triggered when French based bank BNP Paribas suspended three of its investment funds that were exposed to the US markets that traded toxic assets, as reported by BBC News on 9 August 2007. As a result, share prices plummeted and banks would not continue lending to each other. So, all major central banks around the world started injecting liquidity into their domestic markets in similar attempts. The European Central Bank sought to calm the tide by reportedly pumping $130 billion in the European banking system. It sought to satisfy Eurozone liquidity demands as fast as possible, unlike the Bank of England who left UK banks claims for liquidity unsettled. The Bank of England did not follow suit and took no contingency measures in order to protect against moral hazard. Their rationalisation was that an injection would induce banks to take on more liquidity risk, resting sound knowing that the Bank of England would find a way to save them. Injecting money into economy to prevent crisis have two major risks, first one is slowing growth too much in case of trying to avoid issuing new money, and second one is that inflation pressures will rise in case of issuing too much , at the end even with a greater slowdown. Due to these risks, the bank of England did not inject money into the UK financial system. Also, behind the economic environment a large effect on any business has the political environment. Its effects are even greater during a period of critical time in financial systems where trust and confidence is very significant. In the UK for example, the financial system is regulated by the Tripartite system: the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury. According to Aldrick (2007), although their roles are clear, there was no overarching authority when the crisis struck, which meant that everyone was pointing fingers around, but nobody was able to take the large chunk of responsibility for reactionary measures. In retrospect, how come Northern Rock, out of all of the UK’s financial institutions, proved to be the weakest link? Why had the credit crunch affected it in such drastic fashion? Was it a victim of its own doing or were other external forces involved in the bank run? We aim to answer these questions under following headings. Causes and circumstances of incurred losses According to ex-Unilever, British Gas and KPMG manager Mike Barnato, risk is the antagonist of opportunity. No ships would ever leave port if captains wanted to avoid risks associated with sea travel. Therefore, risk must be managed in order to achieve objectives at all levels: private, corporate, state. However, the old-fashioned approach to risk management such as detect risk, measure probability, gauge effect, and identify reactions, habitually disregards broader people and strategic matters. As stated by the Financial Services Authority, liquidity risk is defined as â€Å"the risk that a firm, although balance-sheet solvent, cannot maintain or generate sufficient cash resources to meet its payment obligations in full as they fall due, or can only do so at materially disadvantageous terms. † Originally established as a building society, Northern Rock demutualised in October of 1997 and became a plc. The banks consolidated balance sheet grew no less than sixfold, as a result of a complete overhaul in its corporate strategy. According to the Treasury Committee Report (2008), CEO Mr Adam Applegarth claimed that Northern Rocks assets increase by 20% plus or minus 5% for the last 17 years. Sustainability for the high growth of assets was to come from a restructuring of its liabilities. The year 1999 marked the beginning of the so-called originate and distribute model, which involved originating or purchasing loans and transferring them to SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicle), which in turn package these loans into collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) to sell to third party investors. Approximately 50% of Northern Rocks funding (coming from securitised notes) was provided by SPV Granite, registered in Jersey. The constantly growing funding need was due to be met by means of securitising bonds using a LLP (Limited Liability Partnership), which allowed the bank to continue holding its assets and issue asset-backed securities on their basis. This was a lucrative and quite secure deal for investors. As wholesale funding dramatically increased, the proportion of retail deposits as means of funding gradually decreased, by 2006 totalling 22. 4% of total equity and liabilities as opposed to no less than 62% in 1997. It is a widely acclaimed fact that the Northern Rock crisis was caused by an verly aggressive business model, which relied mainly on wholesale market funding, rather than its own deposits. Rapid growth was understandable, because funding from deposits would nowhere near be as potentially high as wholesale funding. Nevertheless, this reliance exposed the bank to an imminent liquidity risk. UK money markets were bound to be hit by a liquidity crisis, following tension in the US as the F eds interest rate was all over the place. The first half of 2007 saw mortgage lending go up by 31% compared to the same period of 2006. Northern Rocks loan book quality was a clear sight for sore eyes, as lending quality drastically decreased. The bank was giving away mortgages left and right to customers whose credit worthiness was shady to say the least. It is no surprise that many similarities can be drawn between Northern Rocks business model and the business model of US mortgage lenders. However, surprising is the fact that Northern Rocks management apparently did not attempt to manage the obvious liquidity and operational risks having examples of mortgage lenders over the Atlantic that were clearly pushing the envelope. According to the Treasury Committee Report (2008), on 9 August 2007 it became crystal clear that Northern Rock would face severe problems if the money markets continued to be frozen as they were. It was on that day that the banks traders noted a dislocation in the market for its funding. This was the effect of a global financial system shock triggered by the US subprime mortgage market. While this shock was originally credit based and it did not directly expose Northern Rock to the dreaded liquidity risk, its effects questioned the value of asset-backed securities and related products held by large financial institutions around the world. Overall market liquidity was very shaky due to the fact that holders of asset-backed securities did not have information regarding loan quality and default rates, to which originators of these securities did have access, so the funding of these financial instruments became problematic. As Northern Rock was running low on cash since its last securitisation in May and another one was due in September at the earliest, the liquidity freeze hit the bank with disastrously poor timing. Even so, better timing would not have saved it from trouble, due to the prolonged duration of this drying up of money markets. Northern Rocks business model was unique in the sense that the central part of its business strategy was securitisation. The bank relied heavily on short-term funds, while as most banks opt for marginal securitisation of assets. In addition, a property of this aggressive model is that it exposes a bank to the so-called LPHI risk (low probability-high impact). In essence, the low probability is derived from the fact that the drying up of money and capital markets on a large scale is improbable. The high impact relates to the almost exclusive reliance on high liquidity for the bank to be able to fund its operations. According to David Llewellyn, citing his work The Northern Rock Crisis: A Multi-dimensional Problem, in the context of Northern Rock, the LPHI risk is composed of three micro risks: a) the risk of the bank being unable to re-receive funds that reached maturity, (b) the risk of being unable to securitise the planned mortgages, (c) the cost of funding would rise relative to the mortgage loans it kept on its balance sheet. A pivotal role in the subsequent events linked to Northern Rocks failure was the run on deposits which equalled about ? billion, dubbed The run on the Rock by the media, which took place from Friday 14 September to Monday 17 September. Once the run had begun, two factors kept its momentum: a) depositors were becoming more and more aware of the fact that Northern Rock would cease to be a going concern, were the run to continue; (b) deposits above ? 2,000 were not guaranteed in full to customers, which dramatically increased the awareness of a large amount of depositors that previously were not in touch with the shocking scale of their potential losses. As a result, the Bank of England had to implement an immediate emergency facility programme for the bank, which was previously considered as a backstop, rather than a reactionary safety net. Naturally, customers acted completely rationally and logically seeking to save their deposits by joining in on the run having heard about the distress of their bank on the news. This psychological factor shifted the issue from being one of the Northern Rock customers to a rather large scale crisis that affected any persons belief in the banking system. As a result, the following months saw the Government discussing takeover offers from various companies, notably Virgin Group, Olivant, JC Flowers, Lloyds TSB. However, according to an announcement by Northern Rock, all the bids were rejected, because they were materially below the previous trading value. As such, according to Elliot, Seager and Inman (2007), the Government arranged an emergency legislation to nationalise the bank, in the event that takeover bids fail. On 17 February 2008, following unsuccessful bids to take over Northern Rock, Mr Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that the bank was to be nationalised, as mentioned by BBC (2008). Errors by the organisation â€Å"Northern Rocks risk management framework is designed to maintain and continually improve the established processes and tools for the identification, assessment, control and monitoring of existing and future risks. Northern Rocks approach provides a mechanism for the active identification, assessment and communication of risks throughout the business†. Northern Rock Community Report (2006) We will soon come to prove that the above statement is completely false. First and foremost, it must be noted that the Board and management team of Northern Rock rightfully took a large chunk of blame for their irresponsible and incompetent actions. In the chase for rapid growth and profits through securitisation, they clearly missed out on a basic principle of risk management which is the diversification (spreading) of risk. While Northern Rocks management and Board clearly placed all of their eggs in one basket, it was obvious that should an improbable (although completely unavoidable) liquidity shock hit the UK markets, theyd be in head spinning trouble. The bank had a proper approach to risk management. It covered liquidity, credit, operational and market risk, which were described in detail in its filing for the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Northern Rocks assets were looking strong, therefore credit risk was insignificant. In terms of market risk, FOREX and interest rate fluctuation exposures were managed properly Nonetheless, its management clearly did not take into consideration the fact that if the access to short-term funding was impeded, it would end up facing a huge liquidity crisis. Therefore, as the US sub-prime mortgage crisis (mortgage backed securities were the meat of Northern Rocks funding) unravelled, the bank became exposed to liquidity risk. In addition, the management apparently did not have a plan B to funds its activities in case the money markets dried up – an operational risk. The Tripartite authorities might be frowned up as being short-sighted in respect to the Northern Rock case. However, the banks CEO, Mr Applegarth, and his Board are the ones responsible of failure to identify the risks associated with their aggressive and reckless business model, or for being foolish enough to indeed identify the risks, but deciding to ignore them, in hopes that bad luck would strike elsewhere. The need to balance risk appetite and return is a basic business principle, however risk must be managed consciously, continuously and actively. Steve Boyle, in his article Avoiding the next Northern Rock goes so say that it is important to note that although the contemporary business model (coupled with legal frameworks and regulators) encourages companies to ignore inconvenient truths, ultimately the companies themselves are to blame for their failure to handle their risk appetite. It is surprising to find out that CEO Mr Applegarth did not respond to the Bank of Englands interest rate increase in any reasonable way. Liquidity conditions were tightening up on a global scale for a fair amount of time and although these were not drastic enough to raise a panic, the bare minimum questions How are we prepared for this? Are we at all prepared? should have been raised. Despite obvious indicators of an unstable interest rate environment, Northern Rock continued giving out mortgages for 125% of house valuation, paying little to no respect to risk management. Did Mr Adam Applegarth even want to see the impending funding shrinkage? Probably, by sitting down and giving it an objective though he would spot the effect of rising interest rates on the UK financial markets. As stated in the Treasury Committee Report (2008), Northern Rock’s continued expansionary lending policy required the continued success of its funding strategy at a time when there were indications of potential problems on the funding side. Although the Bank of England was keen to identify the potential risk of wholesale funding for banks should the money markets lose its liquidity, the managers at Northern Rock did not heed this warning. The reliance on short and medium term funding was not met with any kind of standby facility, leaving liquidity risk completely uninsured. This high risk, reckless strategy was formulated by the Board and overseen by long serving directors. Yet, it was not met with any kind of restraining from the Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Risk Committee, internal audit staff, which is at the very least surprising. In reality, the Board and management kept ploughing at their reckless business model, believing that standby facilities are a waste of money. Errors by internal and external supervising authorities The internal authorities One cannot detach internal control from corporate governance, because it is the Boards responsibility to monitor significant risks and to ensure that internal controls are effectively involved in their proper evaluation and handling, but most importantly the Board must always induce internal controls to be cautious while dealing with risk because of their ever elusive nature. It is quite a possibility that Northern Rocks internal controls were not up to par and were giving out the rest of the company completely the wrong message. As stated in an article on cimaglobal. com, Northern Rocks filings to the SEC give the impression that its main concern was regulatory conformance, rather than its overall control environment. According to the Treasury Committee Report (2008), part of the oversight of the liquidity strategy of Northern Rock was conducted by its Risk Committee, chaired at the time by Sir Derek Wanless, a non-executive member of the Board of Northern Rock. Sir Derek Wanless is reported to have said that the Risk Committee looked at the issues of [their] funding strategy and what the risks were†. He went on to defend the role of the Board and the Risk Committee, telling the Treasury Committee that â€Å"The Risk Committee and the Board did [their] job, in my view, properly through this period. The external authorities The external regulation of Northern Rock plc was conducted by the Financial Services Authority spanning from 2005 to 2007. Its handling of the events of August-September 2007 received wide criticism. In the following paragraphs we aim to describe the poor regulation of Northern Rock that went hand in hand with mismanagement that ultimately led to its collapse. Citing the Treasury Committee Report (2008) on Northern Rocks failure entitled The run on the Rock, London School of Economics Professor Willem H. Buiter was found stating that â€Å"The FSA did not properly supervise Northern Rock. It failed to recognise the risk attached to Northern Rock’s funding model. Stress testing was inadequate. † According to an IMF working paper, a stress test is termed as the revaluation of a portfolio using different sets of assumptions, the goal of which is to assess the sensitivity of the portfolio to changes in various risk factors. It is curious to find out that while the FSA had been highly unsatisfied with Northern Rocks stress testing procedures; it did not notify the banks management team to immediately adjust these procedures. In addition, while the Board did continue to conduct stress testing, their methods were inadequate and the Financial Services Authority failed in its duty to guide the Board towards ensuring that the bank was ready to handle a market shock. A prime indicator of running a big risk financial plan is rapid expansion. The FSA had acknowledged obvious red flags concerning the banks rapid market share expansion, as well as decreases in share price from February 2007 which translated into Northern Rocks extremely risky business model. Yet, the regulator merely underwent into a greater regulatory engagement, which pretty much failed to target the root weakness – the funding model. As mentioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer quoted in the Treasury Committee Report (2008), the FSA did not deem liquidity regulation as important as solvency regulation. It brings up the question whether the FSA is actually competent of handling liquidity related shocks at all. We believe that this was a substantial failure in regulation, which eventually no less than fuelled the forthcoming chain of events. An increase of 30. 3% of Northern Rocks interim dividend was made public on 25 July 2007. This was the result of, as CEO Mr Adam Applegarth put it when you get your Basel II approval, the relative risk weighting of certain assets in your balance sheet changes [†¦] our risk weighting for residential mortgages came down from 50% to 15%, which clearly requires less capital behind it, which explains the increased dividend. Unfortunately, we are of the same opinion as the Treasury Committee Report (2008), which notes that this approval came at the most untimely moments. In doing so, the FSA allowed Northern Rock to singlehandedly weaken their own balance sheet at a time when the FSA was itself battling liquidity problems in the financial sector. The support operation announcement by the Tripartite authorities was apparently to be treated with great delicacy, because they were aware that it might have the complete opposite effect than calming the depositors. We, the authors, believe that the authorities acted extremely rashly in the whole process of stating the Government guarantee of supporting Northern Rock through its crisis. They failed to plan the announcement prior to 16 September 2007. It is also worrisome that the announcement was not made before the markets opened the following day. This led to a delay in the guarantee until the evening of the fourth day after the run started, which made the bank run even more prolonged and severely damaged the already whimpering health of the bank. Yet another area of concern is that the Financial Services Authority completely overlooked the fact that Northern Rocks CEO was not a qualified banker, albeit he possessed significant work experience. Mr Adam Applegarth did not have any training qualification and as such, this absence ought to raise major question marks. To sum up, Northern Rocks failure was not entirely the fault of its management; it was also the fault of its regulator, the Financial Services Authority. Evidently, sufficient resources were not assigned to the watching of a banks business model that was so obviously screaming Look at me! Moreover, the FSA did not seem to give the air of confidence of a supervising authority that knew how to handle a particular financial institution rather than targeting an aggregate group. Effects on other commercial organisations It was on the 9th of August when the world changed. Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock plc CEO The effect of Northern Rock crisis spread shockwaves all around the financial markets and most importantly to the UK, adding an unexpected swing to an already unstable financial situation that could go from bad to worse in an instant. As said before, on 9 August 2007 money markets froze and the short-term funding that Northern Rock so heavily relied upon (it made up roughly 60% of the right side of its balance sheet) squeezed considerably. The Northern Rock crisis was a signal which raised awareness of other banks with a similarly risky business model on upcoming problems and showed the need to concentrate on actively managing liquidity and operational risk. In the midst of the crisis, it was evident that banks became reluctant to ask the Bank of England for liquidity facilities, because it might have been treated as Northern Rock clones. Furthermore, such facilities were obviously not going to be offered in a confidential manner. Even if the Bank of England did keep things hushed, word would spread anyway and a simple case of extra liquidity claim would cause devastating panic. The Newcastle-upon-Tyne based bank was the first of its kind, the first in a notable list of banks that were nationalised during the crisis that took the United Kingdom by storm. Next on the list came Bradford and Bingley, Heritable Bank and Kaupthing Edge which were all also nationalised. The nationalisation of Northern Rock increased national debt by an additional ? 00 billion, which was due to be settled by no later than June-July of 2010. In addition, The Bank of England pledged to pay off Northern Rocks debts consisting of the following: * loans (approximately ? 25 billion ) * guarantees (approximately ? 30  billion) * value of company (approximately ? 1 billion) Another consequence of this failure was that Northern Rock was responsible for about one fifth of all mortgage business. With its collapse and also in close cooperation with the overall mortgage crisis, it struck individuals at the heart of their fears – uncertainty. At least 2,000 employees were dismissed as a result of the collapse, even if Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of the Development Agency stated that there was a demand in qualified Northern Rock bank workers and that there was a big chance of a slight increase in unemployment level. Also, hedge funds and investment banks were also affected, workers seeing their spending power reduced by lower bonuses, or even curtailed by job losses. Finally, the cuts are a blow for job prospects in north-east England where Northern Rock was one of the biggest employers. Lloyds TSB was keen on helping Northern Rock reduce the size of its balance sheet, in a deal that would allow some Northern Rock customers to receive new mortgages at the end of their fixed-rates. A Forbes article (2008) mentions that customers would be exempt from the standard lenders application fee and Lloyds would pay a commission fee to Northern Rock for every successful mortgage deal (the maximum loan-to-value ratio being 80%). As such, Lloyds took advantage of the Newcastle based banks troubles in a lucrative deal for more or less both parties. The case of Northern Rock revealed a problem with the FSAs handling of liquidity based crises. A new assembly of supervisors to review supervision of high impact firms such as Northern Rock was employed. In addition, staffing and training increased to not allow such incidents to affect public opinion so drastically, because a portion of it was clearly unsatisfied with the FSAs role in the debacle. As suggested by internal auditors, high-impact firms would be reviewed annually and their performance checked every six months. Furthermore, the Financial Services Authority would concentrate a larger part of its time and effort to be prepared to react to future liquidity shocks. On 24 May 2008 Legal amp; General, SRM Global, RAB Capital and the Shareholders Action Group (150,000 of the banks small investors) joined forces in the legal action against the Government after the nationalisation announcement. As written by Sean Farrell for the Independent (2008), shareholders believe that the Bank of England rigged the process for compensating Northern Rocks investors, because a sovereign valuator must accept that the bank was not a going concern. Lamp;G wished to see to that share valuation would be conducted on an impartial basis, without the dogmatic conventions enforced by the Treasury. According to Simon Evans (2008), at the end of July 2008 the valuation of Northern Rock would be delegated to 2 of 10 firms that applied, in spite of threats of legal repercussions. Monaco based hedge fund SRM Global stated that a negligence case of high stature would be opened on anyone that would partake in the role of valuing the poisoned chalice, considering that the hedge fund owned shares in value of 11% at Northern Rock before its nationalisation. Unsurprisingly, few forms expressed their interest in the valuation process, because the Treasury had imposed a number of restrictions for potential valuators. Northern Rock was a just a drop in the ocean of the financial peril that followed. The difficulty for the financial markets and ordinary people was that at that point nobody knew where thunder would strike next and who would be its next victim. Conclusions At present, business at Northern Rock plc is looking quite optimistic. It is known that the restructuring of the bank and the overhaul of the boardroom paved the road for a future re-entry into the commercial banking sector with a new formula for success. Also, a new debt reduction strategy was adopted, with the bank repaying its loans well ahead of maturity, with a little under ? 9 billion remaining to be paid as at 9 March 2009. Based on the above discussion, several key lessons can be learned such as that companies ought to move beyond box ticking by sacrificing performance for conformance. Also, risk management is absolutely essential to undertake in todays constantly changing financial environment where anything can happen at any time. As for the institutions delegated to supervise, we would like to stress a few recommendations: * liquidity assistance arrangements must be timely and inspire confidence * external supervisors such as the FSA must have a solid plan of corrective action * legal framework must exist in order to prevent the collapse of a bank that is enduring troubles with departments or functions of systemic importance