Immigration Case Study :: Immigration Immigrant Essays Papers

Immigration Case Study Four hours a week, discussing the issues of immigration, combined with a mountain of reading on the topic will eventually have an effect on a person's every day outlook. I discovered as much during my last semester at University. The absence of thought was more than made up for in the ensuing semester, as the ideas we discussed in class oozed into my daydreams, my personal time, and my personal associations. And if all that hadn?t happened, I never would have met Rosa. I came down the stairs in the hotel reservation center where I work and slid down the worn, but very clean tiles towards the employee?s break room. As had become a habit in the past few weeks, I was thinking over the most recent reading from SOC 331. This one was by Jo Ann Koltyk?New Pioneers in the Heartland, Hmong Life in Wisconsin. It told the story of several Hmong refugees who were carving out a new life for themselves in Wisconsin. It was filled with statistics and numbers, but what always came back to me when I least expected it was the people, and the faces that I dreamed up for them. Sometimes I would try to see out from inside those faces and watch how folks reacted to me, wondering if they wanted me to leave and go back ?home.? But, of course, being a white boy from Utah, I was one of the least qualified for that little piece of introspection. Rosa was mopping the otherwise empty break room. I didn?t know her name at that point. In fact I had never given her more than a friendly smile before side-stepping her custodian cart, and heading back to the time clock. I had heard her speaking in Spanish to the few other janitors, all of whom worked the late shift like me on the weekends. I worked poor hours because I was relatively new in my department. They worked them, I assumed because no one wanted to see floors being mopped during the day. As I stepped into the room this time, I looked at the woman who was cleaning the tiles for me and discovered that I was impressed. Immigration Case Study :: Immigration Immigrant Essays Papers Immigration Case Study Four hours a week, discussing the issues of immigration, combined with a mountain of reading on the topic will eventually have an effect on a person's every day outlook. I discovered as much during my last semester at University. The absence of thought was more than made up for in the ensuing semester, as the ideas we discussed in class oozed into my daydreams, my personal time, and my personal associations. And if all that hadn?t happened, I never would have met Rosa. I came down the stairs in the hotel reservation center where I work and slid down the worn, but very clean tiles towards the employee?s break room. As had become a habit in the past few weeks, I was thinking over the most recent reading from SOC 331. This one was by Jo Ann Koltyk?New Pioneers in the Heartland, Hmong Life in Wisconsin. It told the story of several Hmong refugees who were carving out a new life for themselves in Wisconsin. It was filled with statistics and numbers, but what always came back to me when I least expected it was the people, and the faces that I dreamed up for them. Sometimes I would try to see out from inside those faces and watch how folks reacted to me, wondering if they wanted me to leave and go back ?home.? But, of course, being a white boy from Utah, I was one of the least qualified for that little piece of introspection. Rosa was mopping the otherwise empty break room. I didn?t know her name at that point. In fact I had never given her more than a friendly smile before side-stepping her custodian cart, and heading back to the time clock. I had heard her speaking in Spanish to the few other janitors, all of whom worked the late shift like me on the weekends. I worked poor hours because I was relatively new in my department. They worked them, I assumed because no one wanted to see floors being mopped during the day. As I stepped into the room this time, I looked at the woman who was cleaning the tiles for me and discovered that I was impressed.

Self-delusion In Death Of A Sa :: essays research papers

In Arthur Miller’s drama “Death of a Salesman'; the protagonist is a character by the name of Willy Loman. Willy suffers from self-delusion and is obsessed with a desire to succeed. Willy’s family is strongly influenced by his actions, which contributes to their own self-delusions. Willy has an extremely large ego and fabricates most if not all of his success. He brags about how much money he makes inflating his sales commissions to his wife Linda. Willy is too proud to accept a job from Charley yet he seems to have no problem accepted money from him to make ends meet. Willy says; “I’m keeping strict accounts'; (1683) of the money Charley gives him, but has no intention of ever repaying the debt. Willy wants to be recognized, liked and admired. In Willy’s mind success is linked to how well a person is liked. He exaggerates how well liked and respected he really is and tells his sons Biff and Happy in order for them to be truly successful they must first be well liked. Linda is an enabler and is codependent on Willy. She encourages him and participates in his delusions. Linda is unselfish and her life revolves around Willy and the boys. Despite what she might think or feel personally she tries to influence Biff and Happy to listen to their father stating; “attention must be paid'; and encouraging them to participate in his delusions. By giving into Willy, trying to keep peace in the family and trying to avoid hurting him she is actually causing more harm than good. Biff is irresponsible and unable to find happiness. He learned from Willy the way to achieve success is through lying, stealing, and powerful acquaintances. His disillusionment with his father stems from the discovery of Willy’s adulterous relationship and unfaithfulness to his mother. Biff becomes frustrated with his mother when she defends Willy. He rebels against success and authority taking pleasure in defying his father. He does try to face the trut h and has a sense of moral responsibility. Biff has inherited some of Willy’s best traits. He believes there is a better life out there for him, but not as a salesman. He wants to be outside working with his hands, which ironically is when Willy seems to be truly happy and when he feels he has been successful at something. Happy has inherited the worst of Willy’s traits.

Florence by Alice Childress Essays -- Florence Alice Childress Essays

Florence by Alice Childress This 1950 play by Alice Childress takes place in a train station waiting room in a very small town in the south. The play describes how Miss Whitney, an old black woman, discovers that her premonition of the success of her daughter, Florence, as a black actress is undesirably similar to that of a racist, white society. This troubling discovery has just as strong an impact on the reader as it does on Miss Whitney. This drama teaches the reader how the views and opinions of individuals or groups can influence other individuals or groups to approach situations with the same reaction, although their views and opinions may be opposite. Marge, Miss Whitney's other daughter, first introduces this frame of mind to as she accompanies Miss Whitney at the train station. They sit in the "colored" section of the train station while Miss Whitney awaits a train to Harlem to convince Florence to come back home to the south. Florence fled to Harlem with ambition of being an actress. After she calls home to ask for money, Marge is convinced that Florence will fail because she is a black woman attempting to make it in a business dominated by whites in a racially segregated society. Although Miss Whitney seems to have a little bit more faith in Florence, she still wants to convince Florence to come back home. They even have a check ready to pay for her trip home, which is causing them to be late on their rent. This reveals to us that they are willing to sacrifice a little in order to prevent Florence from possibly failing in her quest for success. As Marge speaks to her mother she reveals her mentality in regards to Florence's situation, "She ain't gonna get rich up there and we can't afford t... ...a powerful message. Before Miss Whitney's conversation with Mrs. Carter, she felt Florence wouldn't make it as an actress. After realizing that a racist white woman felt the same way, Miss Whitney reevaluated her reasons for wanting Florence to come home. Realizing her reason's weren't much different, she felt the best thing to do is to encourage Florence to follow her dream no matter how hard it may be to achieve, rather than make her believe it was impossible, just as the white society wanted her to believe. Once this message is conveyed to the reader you can't help but look upon your own past and wonder if you've ever been guilty of letting somebody else's opinions influence what you believe is or isn't possible. This play teaches us to be more open-minded as well as not being a hypocrite. This play is a masterpiece by Alice Childress to say the least.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas- Critical Analysis

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by Alethea Chong (Ally) ~ Critical Analysis ~ The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a novel that was written by John Boyne. It was first published in 2006. John Boyne was born in Ireland 1971 and is the author of six novels. His novels were published in over 30 languages. Because people were inspired by The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, it has now been made into a featured film. The story The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas revolves around the friendship between a 9 year old German boy and a Jewish boy who is in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.Bruno the German boy is at Auschwitz because his father is the Commandant of the camp. This story shows Bruno’s innocence and the friendship between him and Shmuel. It also reveals the brutality of the Germans to the Jews in World War II. There are many themes that runs through the story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I have chosen friendship brutality and fear as the themes I will discuss. Friendship is the most important among the three major themes.An example of the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel was shown by Bruno when he shared his food with Shmuel when he was hungry. Another example was when they played together and confided in each other. Thus a bond of friendship was developed. My final example of friendship was when Bruno helped Shmuel look for his Papa. Bruno had helped a friend in need. However, they did not succeed in finding Shmuel’s father. Both boys tragically ended their short lives in the gas chambers. Brutality is also one of the important themes in the novel.This is clearly defined when Lieutenant Kotler has beaten Pavel up just because he had spilled some wine on the Lieutenant. Also, an example of brutality would be when Lieutenant Kotler hits Shmuel as he was unfairly accused of stealing food.. This is very brutal as no one should ever abuse a child even if they are Jewish. The last exampled of brutality is the way the Germans treat the Jews. They locked th em up in death camps and concentration camps. The German were very brutal, they show no compassion or mercy to the Jews.The last theme that I believe is important is fear. An example of fear was shown by Pavel. He was afraid to disrespect the Lieutenant as he was easily provoked and might do something unpleasant to Pavel. Lieutenant Kotler was also feared by Bruno and Shmuel. They had to be very careful with everything they said to him. They would be in deep trouble if Lieutenant Kotler found out the truth about their friendship. The final example of fear is how afraid the whole world is of the Nazis because they were very powerful. No one dared go against the Nazis.In conclusion, I believe that this is an excellent and remarkable story. It shows how powerful friendship really is. It also demonstrates how brutal human behavior can be. Although the story’s ending was melancholy, there was always hope, friendship and love. I truly enjoyed this story, I learned something about h istory in a way that made me feel and sympathize for the innocent lives which were lost. The author did a terrific job by making the characters so realistic and interesting. The ending was very surprising and devastating.

Compare and Contrast: Capital One 360 to Dezurik

Company OverviewFrom an operations management perspective, we compared and contrasted Capital One 360 to Dezurik. We looked at many different aspects of both businesses in relation to various operational and business elements. We conclude that both corporations have significant differences based on manufacturing versus service operations. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, which was founded in 1928, while Capital One 360 is a pure service company that was founded in 2013. Dezurik designs and manufactures valves for use in commercial and residential applications. Capital One 360 provides online banking options to consumers in the United States.Topics CoveredOur goal in this business report is to compare and contrast Capital One 360 and Dezurik based upon the following categories:Service vs Manufacturing contrastBusiness and Operations StrategyProcess Design and Supply Chain, Flow ChartTQM, Jit, Six SigmaKanban, KaizanSWOT AnalysisCapacity PlanningLayout and DesignRecommendations In summary, both companies are making short and long-term adjustments to prepare themselves for the years ahead. By implementing our original  recommendations within each company, they will both become more efficient and effective companies as a whole.Manufacturing often provides services, and services often provide tangible goods. Dezurik is a pure manufacturing company, whereas Capital One 360 is a pure service company. Dezurik designs, develops, and manufactures tangible products that are valves and inventories them inside their manufacturing facility. Dezuriks plant equipment is used solely for the production of their valves and related products. The dezurik manufacturing company has low customer contact and a longer customer response time. In contrast to Dezuriks pure manufacturing company, Capital One 360’s pure service corporation handles their business much differently.Capital One 360 has intangible products that cannot be inventoried. Capital one 360 has high custo mer contact and can be reached 24/7. They offer many different ways to service customers such as in their cafes, calling and talking to a real capital one associate, blogging, and also offer a mobile app. The cafà © allows customers to interact with Capital One 360 employees and the employees working behind the counter are educated in their business. Capital One 360 has a short response time; customers can go online to access their accounts which saves them time and money. They are also labor intensive and have around 450 associates working in their St. Cloud office.Although Dezurik and Capital One 360 differ in terms of service vs manufacturing, they share many similarities. Both corporations use technology. Dezurik uses modern up-to-date technology in the machines they use to manufacture valves, as well as in their 3-D solid modeling of valve parts and assemblies. Capital One 360 also uses technology by offering services over the web, phone, ATM or by mail. Both companies have qu ality, productivity, and response issues that must be dealt with on a daily basis to maintain customer satisfaction. Both companies must have forecast demand and each will have capacity, layout and location issues.Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 have business and operations strategies in place to ensure success in their respective businesses. Dezurik has a strategy of giving their customers high quality products that will withstand the test of time.   Capital One 360 wants to give the consumer an easy to use product that is incredibly efficient and environmentally friendly. Both companies have  strategies that are similar, while others are completely different from each other. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, needs to focus more of their work on their manufacturing process.In order to produce the valves they need, they must regulate their supply to correlate with their demand. This can be shown in their manufacturing process. Dezurik has some valves that they are ma ss producing all of the time. They also are able to take on project builds for custom sizes and designs. These are two different segments of Dezurik which require two different business strategies. The first strategy that Dezurik has is to be continuously producing their standard size valves. This is a fairly straight forward operations strategy. Keep up with the demand for the valves, and at the same time maintain an efficient product assembly line. The second strategy has to do with their special product order segment. They do this in several different ways.The first is to complete the projects in house, which shares the same as the previous strategy. The second strategy is to have one of their teams build and complete their projects on site. This typically happens when they work on a project with components that are too big to build in house. The business strategy for Dezurik is much different. They want to become the largest producer of valves in the world. They do this by outso urcing some of their components to China, which brings down production costs. They also need to be certified to be sold in other countries around the world. They are trying to expand internationally and build up partnerships and relationships with governments and companies from around the world. In order to keep these relationships intact, Dezurik has a full time service team that travels around the world to ensure that their products are working correctly and that they have satisfied customers.Capital One 360 shares some similarities with Dezurik in their business strategies, but is completely different with their operations strategies. To begin, Capital One 360 is a pure service company. They have around the clock customer service to provide help and services to their customers. This is similar to Dezurik, but on a much larger scale. Since Capital One 360 has no physical locations, they need a much larger service department to help satisfy the demands of their customers. Their ser vice department does differ in that they do not need to travel around the world to help their customers, rather they can do it all from their computer with just a few clicks of the mouse.Capital One  360 has a unique business strategy for the banking industry. All of their banking business is done online. This means they have no physical banks. Also, all the money they have is virtual. This means they will need a large technical service department to help keep everything that is online, sorted out. Their operations strategies are different from Dezurik in several ways. First, Capital One 360 does everything online. They do have a sale department, but they never have to leave their cubicle to make a sale. This is different than Dezurik who may have to send their sales person out to a job site in order to ensure that the product they receive will be correct.While these two companies do share business strategies, their operational strategies do tend to be further apart from each othe r. Dezuriks process design supports product manufacturability and defines their product characteristics of appearance, materials, dimensions, and performance standards. Dezurik’s process design starts with the idea that customers need better valves. Dezurik uses a hands-on philosophy that begins with design. They then use modern computer aided design systems to construct 3-D models of valves and assemblies. From here, the models are transferred to an area where stress tests are performed on the models. The final step in Dezurik’s process design is continually analyzing and adding safety factors to the models to ensure long-term reliability.The flow chart inside Dezurik’s manufacturing facility starts at the loading docks. Here, ready to go shipments of valves are placed. As you enter further into the facility, the size of the valves placed in inventory decrease from 72 ’’all the way down to 3’’. This ensures that heavier and harder to move valves are placed closer to the loading dock to improve efficiency. Dezurik also uses intermittent operations, which means they produce a variety of products in lower volumes. Intermittent operations are used because different valves have different processing needs. This causes the workers to perform different tasks, and during the tour we learned that some workers switched stations on a daily basis. Dezurik has multiple buyers who want different specifications for every valve they receive.This creates a batch process within the manufacturing facility allowing Dezurik to separate one customers order from another customers order. Dezurik’s designing process and consideration consists of make-to-order strategy. Moving away from Dezurik and into Capital One 360, there is contrast in the design of services that  Capital One 360 has vs Dezurik’s design of goods. Capital One 360’s service design is unique in that the service and entire service concept are bein g designed. However, they are similar in which product and service design must match the need and preferences of the targeted customer group. Capital One 360’s flow chart differs from Dezuriks flow chart. Capital One 360 does not flow from one end of the building to the other in a line; instead they have different floors within their building where they communicate back and forth.This creates a batch process where each floor is a batch working on a different project then the other floors. This is also called intermittent operations where Capital One’s resources are grouped together by function. The overall efficiency at Capital One 360 is around 65%. Both Capital One 360 and Dezurik have Total Quality Management plans in place to help ensure that their customers get the products and services that they want. Capital One 360 has different banking plans that have been developed to help cover a wide range of customers. Basically, they have standardized their products to he lp ensure efficiency and to keep costs lower.Dezurik on the other hand, has many different products and services that can be produced based on what the customer wants. This may not be as efficient, but it gives them the advantage in securing business that cannot be obtained by companies that incorporate standardization. Dezurik also does a ton of product testing to ensure that the customer is getting a product that is guaranteed to last a long time. Capital One 360 and Dezurik also work with JIT. Just In time production can be shown more effectively in Dezurik since it is a pure manufacturing company. They use a pull system for production which causes them to have an inventory of their products. They can increase or decrease their production of certain models based upon forecasting.Capital One 360 does not focus as much on Just-in-Time manufacturing, rather they spend more of their time using TQM and respect for people. Since they are purely a service company, They are constantly wo rking with people to ensure that they have an enjoyable experience banking with Capital One 360. If Capital One 360 doesn’t respect their customers, it would be extremely easy for their customers to take their business to another bank. Like Capital One360, they also need to focus on TQM. They need to constantly be updating their products and services to give the customer want they want. They need to be surveying and working with their customers all the time to help them  develop effective strategies in the online banking world.Capital One 360 does focus a lot on Six Sigma. They have people in house that are constantly working to help make the company more efficient and effective. Basically, there are only four defects per million opportunities. This forces Capital One 360 to run incredibly lean. A few ways they do this is by going completely paperless. This saves a ton of money, as well as paper. Another way Six Sigma has been useful to Capital One 360 is in processing time . They have reduced the amount of time it takes to pull up and process a customer when they are on a service call. This is critical because the faster they can make their customer service process, the faster they can help more people. By doing some serious improvements to Capital One 360, they have become incredibly lean and efficient. This is different than Dezurik.They can’t run Six Sigma because they take on custom jobs. These can be made more efficient, but to run a whole company Six Sigma test just is not practical.Dezurik follows Kaizen, continuous improvement, which requires the company to continually strive to get better at manufacturing valves through learning and problem solving. One way they comply to Kaizen is in their testing room, where they test their valves to see where any improvement can be made. Dezurik uses a pull system where communication is made possible through the use of kanban cards. These kanban cards consist of the product name, the part number, an d the quantity that needs to be produced. The kanban cards are attached to a group of Dezurik’s products.When the employees need products from a preceding workstation, they pass the kanban to that station. This kanban authorizes the worker at the preceding station to produce the amount of goods specified on the kanban. These kanban cards are placed in visible areas for everyone to see. There are as many kanban cards in the system as there are batches of products or valves. This allows Dezurik to continually improve the efficiency of their system. In contrast, Capital One 360 does not have kanban cards, but they do follow the Kaizen approach of continuous improvement. Capital One 360 is constantly trying to help their customers save time and money. They are doing this in part by offering simple financial products such as giving fee-free checking and savings that they can access from their own computers. They are also continually trying  to find ways to outpace and outperform their competitors.This approach forces Capital One 360 to continually improve their business functions in order to get a step ahead of competitors. Layout and design for Both companies is incredibly different. Dezurik, being a pure manufacturing company, has their main office, and they also have a large warehouse where they manufacture their valves. The front office of Dezurik is rather old. This works for them because they don’t necessarily need to keep up with the newest, up-to-date technology to make their valves. Instead of investing money into their office, they have spent more of their money investing into newer, more efficient machines in their warehouse. They have also changed some of their design to allow for a more efficient production process. They run a pull process at Dezurik. At one end of the plant, they take in all of their supplies.The supplies then get put into an inventory rack until they are needed. The supplies are then distributed throughout the factory to where they are assembled. The first area you walk into from the supply area is where all of the standardized valves are made. They have multiple stations where one person is running about four machines constantly. These are very efficient. This is because they have outsourced the production of their standard valves to China for manufacturing. The next segment of the plant is made up of several assembly lines that produce other varieties of products. The other side of the warehouse is where all of the large valves are made. They are made here because they typically are too large to be moved across the entire plant. This end of the warehouse is also where their products get painted.The paint booths are strategically placed at the end of the assembly lines so that as soon as the products are manufactured, they can be painted. They then get sent off to testing. All the valves they make are tested to ensure that the product can withstand the pressures of daily use for years. After th e products are tested, they are either loaded onto trucks and sent off, or put into the warehouse until they are needed. Capital One 360 has a completely different layout than Dezurik. To start out, They are in a very modern building located right in the middle of downtown St. Cloud. When walking in the door of Capital One 360, the first thing you will notice is that you are in an ultra-modern cafà ©. Since Capital One 360 doesn’t have physical banking locations, the cafes are the closest thing that people can get.These cafes are not just for a cup of  coffee either, the people who work at these cafes are a highly knowledgeable sales associate who can make you a latte and sell you a checking account at the same time. This is for people who are either curious, or just not as comfortable with starting a new bank account online. Once past the cafà ©, Capital One 360 pretty much looks like almost every other office building except for a few key features. The first is that All the departments are located separate from each other. Sales is located on one floor, while fraud protection is located on another floor. Capital One 360 also has an interesting layout design. The cubicles are very different from your traditional office building.To start, they run diagonally across the entire floor. They also are much shorter than a normal cubicle. This is so people can locate each other without having to walk across the office to find out they are not there. They also are not enclosed. This promotes an open workspace that allows people to communicate information quickly and efficiently. Another interesting aspect is that they only have about 60 percent of their office filled with employees. This is so that they can grow and add on employees at any time. The new employees can start and have their own functional workspace instantly.Capital One 360 also has a central command area located right in the middle of the office. This is where security works. Also this comman d center has TV monitors that are linked up with their other offices around the country. This feature is so they all can be working together with their offices all around the country. If something happens at their Delaware office, they can get it verified by their office in St. Cloud.Capacity planning within Capital One 360 and Dezurik are decisions that depend tremendously upon forecasts of demand. These forecasts determine the size of current and future capacity needs. Capital One 360 recently put their capacity planning into effect when they purchased ING Direct and moved into a new building downtown St. Cloud. Capital One 360 made the choice to expand now enabling it to meet customer demand not only for now, but also in the future. If Capital One 360 planned its capacity incorrectly, they may find that they don’t have enough output capability to meet customer demands, or has too much capacity sitting idle. Capital One 360’s move into the new building required long- term commitments and expensive resources.This move  of purchasing a new building came in anticipation of greater demand from their customers. To measure Capital One 360’s capacity, you need the amount of available capacity and the effectiveness of capacity use. From our tour of Capital One 360, we determined that their capacity was operating at an efficient level. When examining Dezurik’s capacity planning, we looked at their recent expansion. In 2011, Dezurik acquired two water and wastewater brands and then in 2012 Dezurik acquired a valve company. This tells us that Dezurik is expanding to meet customer demands in the future. These recent acquires to Dezurik increases capacity and allows them to meet customer demands as well as sales.We can reasonably measure Dezurik’s capacity by measuring their input, which is labor hours, with their output, which are valves per shift. However this is not a very effective method to measure capacity because Dezurik produce s many types of valves. We believe that Dezurik is having success because of its focused factory that responds more efficiently to demand. In todays’ world, large factories need to be more flexible and focused, and from the tour, we believe Dezurik is doing a good job of staying agile within the industry.This will help Dezurik identify long-term capacity requirements in their forecasts of future demand. In Dezuriks planning for capacity, they have strategic and tactical decisions. Their strategic decisions consist of what investments in new machines and equipment it should make, and by the looks of it, they are investing in new machines that increase automation and decrease manual labor. Their tactical decisions consist of planning their workforce, inventories, and day-to-day use of machines. From the tour, we learned that some of the new machines run 24 hours a day. Dezurik and Capital One 360 have similarities in their capacity planning, that being that they are both prepar ing for long-term and high customer demands in the future.Let’s look at some of the strengths of Dezurik. The first strength is that they make a high quality product. Also, they have a very efficient production process for their standardized products. Another pro for Dezurik is they are working hard to become more efficient. They are implementing all sorts of new machines to help speed up and improve the manufacturing process. There are multiple weaknesses that plague Dezurik. To start, they are not an efficient company. This is mainly due to the poor layout of their production area.A second weakness is that they have begun to outsource some of their products to  China. This can be a negative because if they get a bad shipment, it can take over 6 weeks to be corrected. This could become a huge problem if they get the wrong product sent multiple times. There are a few opportunities that Dezurik can expand into. For starters, they are putting in a new paint booth. This will h elp cut down on time. Before, they outsourced their paint of some products to a place in Alexandria. This means that the product had to leave and come back before it can be shipped out.They are also making their assembly line more efficient which will really help them improve the speed at which they can produce valves. Dezurik does have some threats that they have to deal with looking into the future. The biggest threat will be imports from China and other places. These places have very low labor costs, and they also don’t have the same environmental regulations that we do. This means that they are able to produce similar products at a much cheaper price. The only flaw is that these products also tend to be of a much lower quality. This is why Dezurik has not been highly affected by this threat. Capital One 360 has multiple strengths as well. The first is they are incredible efficient.By not using any paper, they are able to cut down on the amount of waste that they have. No physical banks helps to cut down on their carbon footprint too. Second, by utilizing standardization, they are able to run a very lean company. These strengths can also be some of their weaknesses. Having no locations means that people have to do all of their banking online, or over the phone. They cannot go to the bank to talk to a person, rather they have to call into their customer service lines and do all of their problem solving over the phone. There are some opportunities that Capital One 360 has that they are taking advantage of. They are targeting the younger generation. This is because they are appealing to the tech savvy crowd.They younger generation tends to be more familiar with technology. They will be able to expand into this younger generation, and this is where their greatest opportunity will lie. In the world of banking, there are threats all over the place. For starters, all the banks are going to online banking. Most of these banks also have physical locations tha t people can go to when they have questions. Also, you will tend to be more of a number at Capital One 360. At the smaller banks, people will know you by name, and the service will be more  personal. If Capital One 360 can deal with these threats, they will be able to succeed in a threat filled environment.There are a few recommendations that could be made for both Dezurik and Capital One 360. To Start with Dezurik, we would recommend that they make some serious improvements to their factory layout. They should be able to take the supplies right off the truck and instantly put them into production. They could implement a better JIT strategy. They are doing a good job of spreading their business around the world. We would also recommend that Dezurik should go paperless. Its more sustainable, and it would help them to move towards and electronic inventory system. This would speed up their order processing time, and make them more efficient. For Capital One 360, we would recommend th at they begin to open more cafes around the United States.These are a tangible part of Capital One 360 that consumers can actually go. Also, they could provide their users with more banking options. Giving their customers banking options can be key in making them feel like they are more than just a number to Capital One 360.In Conclusion, Both Dezurik and Capital One 360 are both leaders in their respective industries. Dezurik, being a purely manufacturing company, is run completely different from Capital One 360. Being a bank, Capital One focuses their efforts on its services. This means they are more frequently talking to consumers while providing them with a service. Dezurik focuses its efforts on their manufacturing operations. Both companies compare and contrast greatly in relation to various operational elements. Overall, these are two strong companies that are innovative and leading the way in their respective fields.

Marketing Strategy of Tung Lok Essay

Mode of entry: In international marketing, modes of entry indicate the risk of foreign market represents, the amount of resources required and how the company can enter the market. Political risk and financial risk are the two major factor that Tung Lok will assess to understand deeper the United Kingdom markets before investing in. The purpose of the political risk assessment is to evaluate the political stability of UK. The changes in a country’s political structure and policies can cause the loss of the investment or business. There are 3 main types of political risks here: Ownership risk Operation risk Transfer risk Naturally, UK government will favor the local companies than the foreign companies in order to encourage the domestic economic development. So the foreign companies will counter many policies which can lead to the end of their business such as Expropriation and Confiscation. The company’s assets will be seized and an amount of compensation will be paid to the owners, which is a form of expropriation. Confiscation is a transfer of the ownership from the foreign company to a host company without any compensation. The foreign company cannot be operated by entirely foreigners as the foreign worker quota is limited. The government will demand a partial transfer of ownership and management to the local and implant regulations so that a large share of the product is locally produced and the main profit remains in the country. This process is domestication. While shifting funds between countries, many companies running overseas are facing common problems, for example, shortage of foreign currency in the local bank. Government officials drag on the negotiation as foreign company requires more approval letters and documents. High tax and government price control of the import affect the competitiveness of the company as the input price increases. To deal with these problems, long term contracts should be formed with the potential and essential partner companies to ensure sustainable resources. In order to penetrate the UK’s market, Tung Lok can approach in an direct way like franchising. A local restaurant or company will cooperate  with Tung Lok and the name of the restaurant will be Tung Lok too. Facilities, decoration and operation will be in Tung Lok’s control and adjustment, however, the staffs, crew members or the food supply will be recruited locally. This method makes sure that Tung Lok holds a stable business ground even though 30% of the profit stays back in UK. Target market Tung Lok restaurants are famous about their Cantonese–cooking style which offers exclusive collections of refined dinners and continually attract the loyal followings. Each of the restaurants offers various courses of dining concept targeted at different market segments, from budget individuals to high-income customers. The primary market is the British who earn a middle or upper income. Chinese food can be popular and the intensity is raising but Britain is the largest market in the world and the land of opportunity. The main menu consists of many traditional Chinese dishes at an average or slightly above average price. The restaurant will be located further to the center of London to cut cost of the rental, however, near to some business and office district like Canary Wharf in Tower Hamlets, London with high concentration of shops and businesses. Officers can prefer a quick bite at the Asian restaurant with a warm and relaxing atmosphere. The secondary target market is the British Asian in UK, which consists of 8% of the total UK population, 63 million people in 2013. The British Asian is highly brand loyalty and favorite the Chinese cuisine. Tung Lok restaurants commit to bring the finest and freshest of the food to the customers with the upmost care in the most authentic Cantonese style. The group not only brings a Asian kitchen to UK but also the entire culture and tradition to experience here in Tung Lok. Marketing positioning As a newly launched restaurant in the region, Tung Lok aims to establish and stabilize the business in the first 4 months instead of maximize the profit generator. This period of time is crucial to Tung Lok as the initial image and reputation will position in the customers’ minds and slowly but steady build up the brand loyalty. Certainly, the prices in the menu are final and, best, kept constant throughout the business. Since the priority is quality over price for the starting period, promotion and advertisement can be  published in the newspaper and around the area. The restaurant is not confident that the first month will have any profit due to the intensive investment and slow business, however, a possible goal to strive for. Deals and happy hours are common to attract new customers’ attention with family deal combo and crowded group of officers. Saving cost does not mean treating the staffs poorly as outstanding food must come with good services. Staffs must be provided uniforms and chef must be equipped with sufficient kitchen tools and raw materials. Trainings are provided to all the crew and facilities must be maintained to the upmost level of cleanness and tidiness. Safety and standardization must be set as the foundation despite the costly price. Fierce competition from local shops will snatch the customers away and customers can unconsciously deny Chinese food. So the taste of the food will be edited slightly to suit the local’s appetite closer but not removing the authenticity of the dish. Marketing objective: A detailed schedule shall be prepared and filed in Singapore to propose to UK authority for approval to launch our restaurant at the end of 2013. From January 2014 to June 2014, 1 team needs to research and study the local trends of food favor and appetite to create most suitable dishes in Cantonese style but suitable for the British. Another team will investigate and liaise with a Britain company to find a location for the restaurant. The restaurant will be in operation in latest October 2014 and till the end of 2014, the restaurant will set a goal to create 10% of customers’ awareness through any means like advertising and promotions. Executive Summary  Tung Lok Group is a chain of Chinese restaurants paved the modern Chinese cuisine in Singapore. The first restaurant was opened in October 1980 at Corthorne Orchid Singapore. The dishes here are served in Cantonese-cooking style and attract a lot of diners’ attention. Currently, Tung Lok Group consists of 40 restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, and China bearing the famous hallmark reputation of high-quality food, exceptional service and outstanding design. Andrew Tjoe is the executive chairman and the very founder of Tung Lok. In 2012, due to many external factors such as economic crisis, raising completion and internal factors like closure of 6 Tung Lok  restaurants, the revenue decline to S$86.6 million from 94.3 million from past years. However, Tung Lok still has a higher gross margin of 71.6% from 69.9%, meaning Tung Lok’s business is operating profitably. The Asia market has become saturated of Chinese cuisine. A raising need for a new market to invest in is very necessary. So a faraway land decided to place the Group’s future in is London, England. Locally the Chinese cuisine restaurants have appeared for a long time but the intensiveness is low, moreover, their category and nature are totally different from Tung Lok. Cantonese-cooking style is not properly introduced in London and most of the restaurants serve non-authentic or similar recipe. A fresh and enormous market like United Kingdom is very potential and promising for Tung Lok to bloom.

Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)

Why would anyone consider Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)? It’s a scenario that’s seen all too often—a chronically ill woman is suffering in severe excruciating pain daily and feels like she’s become a burden to her family, a lonely man is suffering with a life-limiting illness and has no family to offer any care or support to him. These individuals have lost their independence and feel like they have no quality of life left to live. Great strides have been made to improve end-of-life care through palliative care and hospice programs, but sometimes that’s just not enough. In America, the care that is offered to the elderly and the chronically ill is less than ideal. Statistics show that an estimated 40-70% of patients die in pain and another 50-60% die feeling shortness of breath. Ninety percent of the nursing homes where patients go to receive 24-hour nursing care are seriously understaffed. Patients who are home and have care provided by family o ften feel like they are a burden on their caregivers. The cost of hiring in-home caregivers support is not covered by Medicare or state and federal Medicaid systems. Caregivers often suffer from physical, emotional, financial, psychological and social strain. A person may feel as if they have lost all control of their life when they suffer from chronic and life-limiting illnesses. The body isn’t doing what it should and there is no way to stop it.Therefore, a person my feel like they can regain some control through Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). If they can’t control the illness, they can at least control the way they die. Suffering has always been a part of human existence. Since the beginning of medicine there have been requests made to end this suffering by means of physician-assisted suicide.Physician-assisted suicide is when a patient voluntarily choses to terminate their own life by the administration of a legal substance with the assistance of a physician eit her directly or indirectly. The patient is provided a medical means and/or knowledge to commit suicide by a physician. The life-ending act is performed by the patient and not the physician. Recent studies show that approximately 57% of physicians practicing today have received a request for physician-assisted suicide in some form or  another.There are many alternatives to PAS that exist. Unrelieved physical suffering may have been greater in the past, but now modern medicine has more knowledge and skills to relieve suffering than ever before. If all patients had access to careful assessment and optimal symptom control and supportive care, palliative care specialists believe that most patients with life-threatening illnesses suffering could be sufficiently reduced to eliminate their desire for a quick death. When the patient’s desire prevails, there are other available avenues to relieve the suffering and avoid prolonging life against their wishes. The driving force behind p atients seeking physician-assisted suicide is quality of life.In October 1997, physician-assisted suicide became legal in the state of Oregon. By the end of the year 2000, approximately 70 people had utilized the physician-assisted suicide law to end their lives. One hundred percent of these cases reported that individuals were not able to take care for themselves and make their own decisions and loss of autonomy. Eighty-six percent of these cases reported that individuals were suffering from loss of dignity and the ability to participate in enjoyable activities.Currently, physician-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana. Oregon was the first to pass the Death with Dignity Act in 1997. The requirements for attending/prescribing or consulting with a physician to write a prescription are listed in the following table. Washington followed suit passing the Death with Dignity Act in 2008, and Montana passed the Rights of Terminally III Act in 2009.Table 1. S afeguards and Guidelines in the Oregon Act1. Requires the patient give a fully informed, voluntary decision. 2. Applies only to the last 6 months of the patient’s life. 3. Makes it mandatory that a second opinion by a qualified physician be given that the patient has fewer than 6 months to live. 4. Requires two oral requests by the patient.5. Requires a written request by the patient. 6. Allows cancellation of the request at any time. 7. Makes it mandatory that a 15-day waiting period occurs after the first oral request. 8. Makes it mandatory that 48-hours (2 days) elapse after the patient makes a written request to receive the medication. 9. Punishes anyone who uses coercion on a patient to use the Act. 10. Provides for psychological counseling if either of the patient’s physicians thinks the patient needs counseling. 11. Recommends the patient inform his/her next of kin.12. Excludes nonresidents of Oregon from taking part. 13. Mandates participating physicians are li censed in Oregon. 14. Mandates Health Division Review. 15. Does not authorize mercy killing or active euthanasia. Source: Compassion & Choices of Oregon, 2009b.Physician-assisted suicide is illegal in Canada. In the Netherlands, it is legal under certain circumstances, and the right to choose physician-assisted suicide remains highly favored. Physician-assisted suicide is also illegal in the United Kingdom. They currently focus on palliative care. Under strictly defined regulations, physician-assisted suicide is legal in the following countries: Australia, Columbia, and Japan. The legalization of physician-assisted suicide remains controversial.The topic periodically comes up for intense attention. Organized medicine agrees on two principles: 1. Physicians have an obligation to relieve pain and suffering and to promote the dignity of dying patients in their care. 2. The principle of patient bodily integrity requires that physicians must respect patients’ competent decisions t o forgo life-sustaining treatment. There are four main points argued against the acceptance and legalization of physician-assisted suicide along with their counter argument. Improved Access to Hospice and Palliative CareWith quality end-of-life care being made available through hospice and palliative care programs, there is no reason for anyone to seek physician-assisted suicide. In the United States, there are over 4,500 hospice agencies. Millions of people don’t have access to the hospice agencies because of the restrictions on funding and the inflexibility of the Medicare Hospice Benefit requiring patients to have a life expectancy of six  months or less. Counter argument: Rare cases of persistent and untreatable suffering will still exist even with improved access to quality end-of-life care. Hospice and palliative care aren’t always sufficient to treat severe suffering. Limits on Patient AutonomyPhysician-assisted suicide requires the assistance of another perso n. In the opinion of Bouvia vs. Superior Court, â€Å"the right to dies is an integral part of our right to control our own destinies so long as the rights of others are not affected,† was determined. Our society threatens physician-assisted suicide by worsening the value of human life. The sanctity of life is the responsibility of society to preserve it. Counter argument: Physicians who are requested to help to end a patients’ life have the right to decline on the basis of conscientious objection. The â€Å"Slippery Slope† to Social DepravityThere is concern to the opposition to physician-assisted suicide being allowed with euthanasia not too far behind. Without the consent of individuals in physical handicap, the elderly, the demented, the individuals with mental illness, and the homeless, there is a slippery slope toward euthanasia without the consent of the individuals is deemed â€Å"useless† by society. Counter argument: The â€Å"slippery slopeâ⠂¬  would not be allowed to happen within our highly cultured societies. Violation of the Hippocratic OathThe Hippocratic Oath states that a physician’s obligation is primum non nocere, â€Å"first, do no harm.† The direct contrast to that is physician-assisted suicide, where killing a patient is deliberately regarded as harm. Counter argument: According to an individual patient’s needs, the Hippocratic Oath should not be interpreted. Alternatives to Physician-Assisted SuicideThose opposing to physician-assisted suicide argue that there are legal and morally ethical alternatives to assisted death. Patients have the right to refuse any further medical treatments that may prolong the death, including the medications. Counter argument: Life-sustaining measures to live and  still suffer are not relied on by some patients. Withholding life-sustaining treatments would only prolong suffering for these patients. Another argument is that patients can, and often do, de cide to stop eating and drinking to speed up their death. Within one to three weeks afterwards, the death will usually occur, and it would be reported as a â€Å"good death.†Counter argument: One to three weeks of intense suffering is too much for any one person to have to put up with. This debate has yet to see any final resolution. Physician-assisted suicide may become more of a reality in our society because of the undercurrent of public support. The United States Supreme Court handed down two cases central to physician-assisted suicide in 1997: Vacco vs. Quill and Gregoire vs. Glucksberg. In both case, it was determined that there was no constitutional right on the grounds of equal protection or personal liberty to the physician-assisted suicide. Both constitutional history and the Western Civilization trends were argued by the court and generally worked against reading the Constitution that way.The court was sensitive in its decision to the prospect of unintended and unw anted consequences that might follow the recognition of a Constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. However, it was never said that physician-assisted suicide would ever be legitimate. It was concluded that the states of the Union could decide the matter for themselves. Requests for physician-assisted suicide should be taken very seriously. Responses to these requests should be compassionate and immediate. There are six steps that should physicians should take when responding to requests for physician-assisted suicides: Step 1: Clarify the RequestStep 2: Determine the Root Causes Step 3: Affirm Your Commitment to Care for the Patient Step 4: Address the Root Causes of the Request Step 5: Educate the Patient About Legal Alternatives for Comfort and Control Step 6: Seek Counseling from Trusted Colleagues and AdvisorsStep 1: Clarify the RequestThe physician should talk to the patient about what suffering means to them. Determine if their point of view can be defined. Listen c arefully to their request paying specific attention to the nature of the request. Calmly ask questions to extract the specifics of their request and why they’re  requesting such help. Ask directed and detailed questions to learn whether the patient is imagining an unlikely or preventable future. Listen to the patient’s answers with sympathy but not as if you’re endorsing their request to their perception of what they consider to be a worthless life. The physician must be fully aware of his or her own biases in order to effectively respond to the patient’s needs. If the idea of suicide is offensive to the physician, the patient may feel his or her disapprobation and worry about abandonment.Step 2: Determine the Root CausesThe physician needs to assess the patient’s underlying causes for requesting physician-assisted suicide. The patient’s request may be a failure of the physician in addressing the needs of the patient. The attributes of suf fering should be focused on: physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and practical concerns. The physician should evaluate to see if the patient is having some type of clinical depression or common fear about their future outlook. The patient may be worrying about suffering with pain or other symptoms, loss of control or independence, a sense of abandonment, loneliness, indignity, a loss of their self-image, or being a burden to someone.Step 3: Affirm Your Commitment to Care for the PatientThe fear of abandonment is often felt in patients as they face the end-of-life. They want to be assured that someone will be with them at this time in their life. The physician should listen to and acknowledge the feelings and fears that the patient may express. They should commit to helping the patient find answers to their concerns. The physician should commit to the patient as well as the patient’s family and anyone who is close to the patient that they will continue to be the patien t’s physician until their life has ended.Step 4: Address the Root Causes of the RequestA patient’s request for a quick death is caused by some type of suffering on their behalf. They physician should discuss with the patient their health care preferences and goals. Alternative approaches or services should be discussed at this time with the patient. The physician should be able to determine if supportive counseling is needed for the patient.Step 5: Educate the Patient about Legal Alternatives for Control and ComfortPatients often have misconceptions about the benefits of requesting physician-assisted suicide. They may not be aware of the emotional effort that goes into planning for physician-assisted suicide. They also may not be aware of the emotional strain on family and friends. The physician should discuss the legal alternatives to physician-assisted suicide.The legal alternatives include refusal of treatment, withdrawal of treatment, declining oral intake, and end -of-life sedation. The patient should be made aware that they have a right to decline or consent to any treatment or hospitalization, but that their declining of treatment will not affect their ability to receive high quality end-of-life care. The patient should also be made aware that they have the right to stop any treatment at any time including the stopping of any fluids or nutrition.Patients suffering with unbearable and unmanageable pain may be approaching their last days or hours of life, and the only option available to them is end-of-life sedation. Before the end-of-life sedation should be considered for a patient, the attending physician and members of the health care team should know that all available therapies were tried. This option has to be agreed upon with the patient and their families with the patient have the final say so if they are capable of making the decision for themselves.Step 6: Consult with ColleaguesPhysician-assisted suicide requests are the most chall enging situations that physicians have to face in their practice of medicine. The physicians often hesitate to involve others in these situations for reasons about personal issues being raised, convictions about the inappropriateness of talking about death and concerns about the legal implications of the situation. The personal, ethical and legal ramifications for physician-assisted suicides should be supported by a trusted colleague or advisor of the physician. The trusted colleague could be a mentor, peer, religious advisor, or ethics consultants.Support may also come from nurses, social workers, chaplains, or other members involved in the care of the patient. Physician-assisted suicide requests should be a sign to the physician that a patient’s needs are not being met and that further evaluation is needed to identify the elements contributing to the patient’s suffering. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to the question of physician-assisted suicide. Patients ha ve  the right to withhold and withdraw life-sustaining procedures. Patients also have the right to receive powerful medication for pain relief and sedation. Physicians who oppose physician-assisted suicide do not always have to prescribe lethal medication.