Custom Definition in the Study of Sociology

A custom is defined as a cultural idea that describes a regular, patterned behavior that is considered characteristic of life in a social system. Shaking hands, bowing, and kissing—all customs—are methods of greeting people. The method most commonly used in a given society helps distinguish one culture from another. Key Takeaways A custom is a pattern of behavior that is followed by members of a particular culture, for example, shaking hands upon meeting someone.Customs foster social harmony and unity within a group.If a law goes against an established social custom, the law may be difficult to uphold. The loss of cultural norms, such as customs, can cause a grief reaction that leads to mourning. The Origins of Customs Customs can persist for generations, as new members of a society learn about existing customs through a process of socialization. Generally, as a member of society, most people adhere to customs without any real understanding of why they exist or how they got started.   Societal customs often begin out of habit. A man clasps the hand of another upon first greeting him. The other man—and perhaps still others who are observing— take note. When they meet someone on the street later, they extend a hand. After a while, the handshaking action becomes habitual and takes on a life of its own. The Importance of Customs   Over time, customs become the laws of social life, and because customs are so important to social harmony, breaking them can theoretically result in an upheaval that has little or nothing to do with the custom itself—particularly when the reasons perceived for breaking it have no bearing in fact.  For example, after handshaking becomes a norm, an individual who declines to offer his hand upon meeting another may be looked down upon and or perceived as being suspicious. Why wont he shake hands? Whats wrong with him? Assuming that a handshake is a very important custom, consider what might happen if an entire segment of a population suddenly decided to stop shaking hands. Animosity might grow between those who continued to shake hands and those who did not. This anger and unease might even escalate. Those who continue to shake hands might assume the non-shakers refuse to participate because theyre unwashed or dirty. Or perhaps, those who no longer shake hands have come to believe theyre superior and dont want to sully themselves by touching an inferior person. Its for reasons such as these that conservative forces often warn that breaking customs can result in the decline of society. While this may be true in some instances, more progressive voices argue that in order for society to evolve, certain customs must be left behind. When Custom Meets Law   Sometimes a political group seizes on a particular societal custom and, for one reason or another, works to legislate it. An example of this would be Prohibition. When temperance forces in the United States came into a position of prominence, they lobbied to make the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcohol illegal. Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in January 1919 and the law was enacted a year later.   While a popular concept, temperance  was never accepted as a custom by American society as a whole. Consuming alcohol was never declared illegal or unconstitutional, and plenty of citizens continued to find ways to make, move, and buy alcohol despite the laws contravening those actions. The failure of Prohibition demonstrates that when customs and laws promote similar thinking and values, the law is more likely to be successful, while aws that are not backed by custom and acceptance are more likely to fail. Congress repealed the 18th Amendment in 1933.   Customs Across Cultures Different cultures, of course, have different customs, which means that something that may be an established tradition in one society may not be in another. For example, in the United States, cereal is considered a traditional breakfast food, but in other cultures, breakfast might include dishes such as soup or vegetables. While customs tend to be more entrenched in less industrialized societies, they exist in all types of societies, regardless of how industrialized they are or to what level of literacy the populace has risen. Some customs are so strongly entrenched in a society (i.e. circumcision, both male and female) that they continue to flourish regardless of outside influences or attempts at intervention. When Customs Migrate While you cant pack them up neatly in a suitcase, customs are one of the most important things people take with them when they leave their native societies–for whatever reason—to immigrate and settle elsewhere. Immigration has a huge impact on cultural diversity and on the whole, many of the customs immigrants bring with them serve to enrich and broaden the cultures of their new homes. Customs that center on music, the arts, and culinary traditions are often the first to be accepted and assimilated into a new culture. On the other hand, customs that focus on religious beliefs, the traditional roles of men and women, and languages that are perceived to be foreign, are often met with resistance. Mourning the Loss of Customs According to the World Psychiatry Association (WPA) the impact of moving from one society to another can have deep psychological implications. Individuals who migrate experience multiple stresses that can impact their mental well being, including the loss of cultural norms, religious customs, and social support systems, report Dinesh Bhugra and Matthew Becker, authors of a study on the phenomenon who go on to explain that such cultural adjustments speak to the very concept of self. As a result of the trauma many refugees experience, the rate of mental illness in that population segment is on the rise. The loss of ones social structure and culture can cause a grief reaction, Bhugra and Becker note. Migration involves the loss of the familiar, including language (especially colloquial and dialect), attitudes, values, social structures, and support networks. Sources Bhugra, Dinesh; Becker, Matthew A. â€Å"Migration, Cultural Bereavement and Cultural Identity.† World Psychiatry, February 2004

The French Military Leader Of The Revolutionary War

Marie – Joseph Paul Yves Roch Guilbert du Motier, Maquis de Lafayette (1757 – 1834) was a French military leader who played a large role in America’s victory in the Revolutionary War. He was a tall fiery man with high status and a large adoration for American liberty (Boy’s Life). He devoted everything in his life at the time to join the rebels as well as risked being imprisoned for disobedience. His connections through his wealth and his own personal excitement for the rebel leaders’ beliefs gave America a large boost that lead to their victory (UXL). Lafayette was born on the 6th of September 1757 in Chavanic, France. He never got to see his father who died at the Battle of Minden in the Seven Year’s War when Lafayette was only a year old. His mother was not usually around before her death when Lafayette was thirteen but he had his grandmother and aunts. He had a Jesuit priest as a tutor and later attended College du Plesssis for three years. With a family tradition of military service, he decided to go to a military academy in Vesailles. Lafayette became one of the king’s Musketeers in 1777. By the age of sixteen he was married to Marie Adienne Francoise de Noailles (UXL). In August of 1775, Lafayette attended a dinner party hosted by the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke spoke very greatly of the rebel leaders in America. This made Lafayette very amazed at what was going on in the thirteen colonies and decided to go to America to join the rebels. He was not however grantedShow MoreRelated Napoleon Betrayed the Revolution Essay1320 Words   |  6 Pagesrevolution’, it has to be determined what is the French revolution? And what are the revolutionary ideals that Napoleon allegedly betrayed? If Napoleon betrayed the Revolution then he betrayed the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. However if Napoleon did not betray the revolution, he consolidated the revolutionary ideals. 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Breast Cancer Essay free essay sample

Breast Cancer Breast Cancer is a cancer that forms in tissues of the breast, usually the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple) and lobules (glands that make milk). It occurs in both men and women, although male breast cancer is rare. Anyone women could be at risk for breast cancer but, there are factors that make some women more susceptible to breast cancer than others. A risk factor is anything that affects your chances of getting a particular disease. Some can be controlled and some can’t. The ones you can control are genetics or family history, and environmental exposures or behaviors that might have happened in the past. The current and future behaviors can be controlled like exercise and a good diet. You also need to watch other exposures like tobacco use and high alcohol use because these are all things that could cause breast cancer. There are things you can do to reduce the risk of breast cancer and they are listed below: †¢Limit alcohol-The more alcohol you drink the greater the risk of getting breast cancer. We will write a custom essay sample on Breast Cancer Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page †¢Control your weight-Being overweight increases your chances for breast cancer. †¢Plenty of exercise-keeping yourself active will help maintain weight and that will make your risk lower. †¢Breast feeding Discontinue hormone therapy-Long term hormone therapy can cause you to be higher risk for breast cancer. †¢Avoid exposure to environmental pollutions These listed above is what needs to be avoided to make your risk at getting breast cancer lower. If you have a family history of breast cancer and you smoke or drink often then you are at way higher risk than those that doesn’t drink or smoke. I think that smoking and drinking is harmful to our bodies but I do drink a drink every now and then but I don’t smoke anymore so I believe that I am getting healthier than I used to be and this should help in the risk factors of breast cancer. Things we can do to prevent breast cancer is eat more leafy vegetables and grains and also blueberries have been known to even kill bad cells. Are women the only ones susceptible to breast cancer? Absolutely not! There have been cases were a man will get breast cancer and it is rare but it has happened. Men do need to check the same areas women do just to make sure that if they would get it that it could be caught soon enough. Exercise will help prevent the chances of getting breast cancer as well, studies show that exercising about 2 hours er week (swimming, walking, jogging, hiking, and riding a bicycle will reduce a women’s chance of getting breast cancer by 20%. Early detection is the key to beating or fighting a chronic disease like breast cancer and any other cancer or disease out there. Finding it early enough makes it easy for your body to fight it off and beat it and it also makes it easier for the doctors to help you beat it. There are also ways to make sure that you keep an eye on things yourself and that is by self-examination and the doctors say that every woman needs to do this at least 2 a month. If there is ever any doubt and you think that something is wrong then make a doctor’s appointment right away. In conclusion, besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women. Just fewer than 30% of cancers in women are breast cancers. That is why it is important to do self-examinations and always go to doctors’ visits to make sure you are healthy. We’ve all heard the saying â€Å"your life depends on it† well this is very true for women when it comes to breast cancer.

Statistics Final free essay sample

For females was 7. 11 with a standard deviation of 1. 13 For males was 11. 29 with a standard deviation of 3. 25. It seems that there is a significant difference between the average shoe sizes for females and for males. To find out a more correct answer, let’s conduct an independent sample t-test in the following. Denote by the average shoe sizes for males and females, respectively. Here are the two hypotheses: Null hypothesis H0: Alternative hypothesis Ha: We conduct an independent sample t-test using Excel, and obtain the following output (see sheet T-TEST) -Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances| | | | | shoe size(female)| shoe size (male)| Mean| 7. 111111111| 11. 29411765| Variance| 1. 281045752| 3. 251838235| Observations| 18| 17| Hypothesized Mean Difference| 0| Â  | df| 27| Â  | t Stat| -8. 165111165| Â  | P(Tlt;=t) one-tail| 4. 52926E-09| Â  | t Critical one-tail| 1. 703288423| Â  | P(Tlt;=t) two-tail| 9. 05852E-09| Â  | t Critical two-tail| 2. 051830493| Â  | From the above output, we can see that the p-value is 9. 05852E-09, which is smaller than 0. 05 (if we select a 0. 05 significance level). We will write a custom essay sample on Statistics Final or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So, we should reject the null hypothesis H0. At a 0. 5 level of significance level, we conclude that there is a significant difference between the average shoe size for females and the average shoe size for the males. We can also test if there is a significant difference between the average height for females and the average height for the males. Denote by the average heights for males and females, respectively. Here are the two hypotheses: Null hypothesis H0: Alternative hypothesis Ha: We conduct an independent sample t-test using Excel, and obtain the following output (see t-test-height) t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances| | | | | height (F)| height(M)| Mean| 66. 66666667| 71. 5294118| Variance| 11. 88235294| 9. 867647059| Observations| 18| 17| Hypothesized Mean Difference| 0| | df| 33| | t Stat| -4. 207413941| | P(Tlt;=t) one-tail| 9. 30285E-05| | t Critical one-tail| 1. 692360258| | P(Tlt;=t) two-tail| 0. 000186057| | t Critical two-tail| 2. 034515287| | From the abov e output, we can see that the p-value is 0. 000186, which is smaller than 0. 05 (if we select a 0. 05 significance level). So, we should reject the null hypothesis H0. At a 0. 05 level of significance level, we conclude that there is a significant difference between the average height for females and the average height for the males. Conclusion: According to above analysis, we have found that there is a strong positive correlation between the shoe sizes and heights. We also found that there is a significant difference between the average shoe size for males and the average shoe size for the females, and there is a significant difference between the average height for females and the average height for the males. So, it would not be good if they would change their business model to include only one size of shoes – regardless of height or gender of the wearer. Some other information to review: The Size Difference * According to the Brannock Device, the most common sizing device, in the United States mens shoe sizes are one size larger than womens. That is to say, if a man wears a size 9, it is a size 10 in womens shoes. Other Differences * Aside from the most obvious difference in length, womens shoes are also made narrower than mens shoes. This is because mens feet are wider than womens, because women generally have higher arches than men. Read more: The Difference Between Mens and Womens Shoe Sizes in the United States | eHow. om http://www. ehow. com/about_6553389_difference-shoe-sizes-united-states. html#ixzz2I3g2pyrS By allowing Nyke shoe factory to change their business model to only manufacturing ONE shoe size, regardless of height or gender can be a catastrophic financial problem for their business, which could lead and result into a total loss and shut down of the company. I would STRONGLY DISAGREE to allow the NYKE SHOE COMPANY to change their model from what the y have now to only allowing one sized shoe to be manufactured.

An Understanding of Managment Tools The WritePass Journal

An Understanding of Managment Tools An Understanding of Managment Tools IntroductionReferencesRelated Introduction With some 740 stores in 54 countries, the Spanish clothing retailer Zara has hit on a formula for supply chain management that works by challenging conventional wisdom. This excerpt from a recent Harvard Business Review profile on how Zara’s supply chain communicates, allowing it to design, produce, and deliver a garment in fifteen days. Zara’s history began in 1963 when Amancio Ortega Gaona opened Confecciones GOA in La Coruà ±a, to manufacture women’s pyjamas and lingerie products for garment wholesalers. In 1975, after a German customer cancelled a sizable order, the firm opened its first Zara retail shop in La Coruà ±a. The original intention was simply to have an outlet for cancelled orders. However, the experience taught the firm the importance of a ‘marriage’ between manufacturing and retailing a lesson that has guided the evolution of the company ever since. From a starting point of six stores in 1979, the company established retail operations in all the major Spanish cities during the 1980’s. In 1985, Confecciones GOA created Inditex as the head of the corporate group. In 1988, the first Zara store outside Spain opened in Porto, Portugal, followed shortly by a store in New York City in 1989 and Paris in 1990. However, the real ‘step-up’ in foreign expansion took place during the 1990s when Inditex entered 29 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. In parallel with its overseas expansion, Inditex diversified its retail offering by another adjacency expansion with new brands like Pull and Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius to meet new customer segments. However, Zara still count for eighty per cent of Inditex’s revenue. Each of Inditex’s brands operates independently, but shares the commitment to supply fashion at affordable prices and all employ similar management models for the control of the total supply chain to maximize speed to market. Fig 1 illustrates Inditex’s expansion. The figure imitates the stem of a tree, which gain a new circle for every year that goes by. The circles indicate the different expansion Inditex has accomplished, moving from being a fabric to opening its first store and to opening other clothing chains. These types of expansions justify as adjacency expansion. Adjacency expansion draws the skills in the core business to build a competitive advantage in a new adjacent competitive arena in order to target different customer segments. This adjacency expansion has lead to the need of changing Inditex’s core business. Inditex has shifted from being a fabric working towards several retailers, to becoming a big concern covering most parts of the production as well as the final sale. To grow into a new adjacency around a once-successful core business is the critical factor in 75 per cent of today’s total business disasters. The American grocery chains Wal-Mart and Kmart illustrate an example on difficulties in adjacency expansion. They both open their first grocery store in 1962. Wal-Mart successfully moved into adjacency such as Sam’s Club, electronics and Mexico, one by one. Kmart however, struggled more with the expansion. They moved from books to sporting goods and even to a chain of department stores in Czechoslovakia. This drifted Kmart into bankruptcy. Showing that even though they started out equally, the different choose of steps in adjacency expansion lead one to be a big failure and the other to be one of USA most respected companies. Another example is Nike versus Reebok, which in 1990 had almost equal revenue. While Nike had a clear strategy, consisting of a repeatable process it had developed and refined over a decade, to attack one sport after another with the help of different famous athletes, Reebok’s path was a mystery to those covering the company. They expanded in different directions and as their core shoe business was doing badly, they kept on expanding into new unconnected arias. In addition, Nike’s strong adjacencies expansion made it even harder for Reebok to increase the total sale and ended up decreasing its revenue. It is not easy to know which expansion that is the right expansion. However, after studying adjacencies expansion in over 100 companies, Chris Zook presents primary six ways to expand the boundaries of business .Fig 2 illustrates these expansions. This is trough new businesses, forward integration, new geographies, new channels, new customer segments or new products. In parallel to Inditex’s, Zara has accomplished several adjacencies expansions during its history. One of two main expansions is by moving from selling women’s underwear and pyjamas to regular clothes, shoes, handbags and even make-up. This signifies product adjacencies by marketing a new product or service to core customers. This is one of the most commonly pursued and highest potential adjacencies. The other main growth is by expanding into selling men’s wear and children’s wear. These customer adjacencies modifying a proven product or technology to enter a very new market segment and are a major adjacency move for most companies. In addition, Zara continuously expand their business by successfully opening new stores around the world and at the same time enlarge their local industry by expanding the focused production in Spain. Geographic adjacencies move into new geographic areas, is a type of adjacency expansion that companies consistently underestimate in complexity. Zara has also achieved new business adjacencies by opening Zara Home, a store that sell accessories to the home like kitchen wear and bedclothes. With this, it builds a new business around a strong capability and essentially repositioning it. This is the rarest form of adjacency move, and the most difficult to achieve success with. In addition, Zara has also expanded with channel adjacencies by offering a small proportion of its collection on Internet sale. Although this is more for promotion, it is still a channel adjacency expansion. All of Zara’s different expansion fits into the primary six ways to expire the boundaries of business. Fig. 3 illustrated that Zara has expanded in every direction. Finding a repeatable method of moving into new adjacencies, one after the other has a clear benefit in the learning curve. This contributes to competitive advantage making the adjacencies better and faster each time. Zara’s supply chain In an interview with CNN, Jose Maria Castellano, chief executive at Inditex, talked about Zara’s supply chain and indicated its unusual structure by saying: Investment banks used to say that this model did not work, but we have shown that it gives us more flexibility in production, sales and stock management, At a Zara store, customers can several times a week find new products. The whole collection is in limited supply and they achieve a tempting exclusivity by only displaying a few items, even though the stores are spacious. It makes the customer think, This green shirt fits me, and there is only one on the rack. If I dont buy it now, Ill lose my chance. Zara has built a concept around ‘fast fashion’. Moving away from the traditionally one collection per session, Zara continually design, produce and deliver new styles. They base their business on demand instead of forecasting. Picking up what people wear on the street, at the university or at a nightclub, Zara’s designer’s catches ideas for new styles and can present them in a Zara store only two weeks later, while most of the competitors has a lead-time over three months. This makes Zara always able to offer the latest fashion in it store, leading to more sale and fewer discounts. Such a retail concept depends on the regular creation and rapid replacement of small batches of new goods. Zara’s designers create approximately 40,000 new designs annually and select 10,000 of them for production. Some of them resemble the latest fashion design creations. Zara often beats the high-fashion houses to the market and offers almost the same products, made with less expensive fabric, to much lower prices. This fast fashion system depends on a constant exchange of information throughout every part of Zara’s supply chain. From customers to store managers, store managers to market specialists and designers, designers to production staff, buyers to subcontractors, warehouse managers to distributors, and so on. Most companies insert layers of bureaucracy that can bog down communication between departments. Zaras organization, operational procedures, performance measures, and even its office layouts, all are designed to make information transfer easy. Zaras single, centralized design and production centre is in Inditex headquarters in La Coruà ±a. It consists of three spacious halls, one for each of the three clothing lines, women, men and children. Unlike most companies, which try to remove unnecessary labour to cut costs, Zara makes a point of running three parallel, but operationally distinct, product families. Though it is more expensive to operate three channels, the information flow for each channel is fast, direct, and unencumbered by problems in other channels, making the overall supply chain more responsive. Each clothing line has separate design, sales, and procurement and production-planning staffs. A store may receive three different calls from La Coruà ±a in one week from a market specialist in each channel; a factory making shirts may deal simultaneously with two Zara managers, one for mens shirts and another for childrens shirts. In each hall, floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Spanish countryside reinforce a sense of cheery informality and openness. Unlike companies that sequester their design staffs, Zaras cadre of 200 designers sits right in the centre of the production process. The designers are usually in their twenties and got the job because of their enthusiasm and talent, no prima donnas allowed. Split among the three lines, they work next to the market specialists and procurement and production planners. Large circular tables play host to spontaneous meetings. Racks of the latest fashion magazines and catalogues fill the walls. A small prototype shop has been set up in the corner of each hall, which encourages everyone to comment on new garments as they evolve. The physical and organizational proximity of the three groups increases both the speed and the quality of the design process. Designers can fast and easy check initial sketches with colleagues. Market specialists, who are in constant touch with store managers and many of whom have been store managers themselves, provide quick feedback about the look of the new designs (style, colour, fabric, and so on) and suggest possible market price points. Procurement and production planners make preliminary, but crucial, estimates of manufacturing costs and available capacity. The cross-functional teams can examine prototypes in the hall, choose a design, and commit resources for its production and introduction in a few hours, if necessary. Once the team selects a prototype for production, the designers refine colours and textures on a computer-aided design system. If the item is to be made in one of Zara’s factories, they transmit the specs directly to the relevant cutting machines and other systems in that factory. Bar codes track the cut pieces as they converts into garments through the various steps involved in production, including sewing operations, distribution, and delivery to the stores, where the communication cycle began. Zara manufacture approximately fifty per cent of its products in its own network of 22 Spanish factories, 18 of which are located in and around the La Coruà ±a complex, and use around 500 subcontractors located close to the head office for all sewing operations. Zara closely monitor these sewing operations to ensure quality, compliance with labour laws, and adherence to the production schedule. The subcontractors are responsible for picking up and deliver the production items to the factory. Here each piece is inspected during ironing, placed in plastic bags and sent to the distribution centre. The other half of its products are procured from 400 outside suppliers, seventy per cent of which are in Europe, and most of the rest in Asia. Many of the European suppliers are located in Spain and Portugal, close to the headquarters. Zara exploits this geographical proximity in order to ensure quick response to Zara’s orders. From Asia, Zara procures basic products and those for which the region has a clear cost or quality advantage. Having the factories in and near Spain gives Zara a tremendous amount of control and flexibility. The location of the production can be seen as a cost trade-off with the cost saved on transportation. Although the increased cost in production will not be offset by the cost reduction in transportation concerning the labour cost is on average 17-20 times the cost in Asia. For its in-house production, Zara obtain forty per cent of its fabric supply from another Inditex-owned subsidiary. The rest of the fabrics come from a range of 260 other suppliers, none account for more than four per cent of Zara’s total production in order to minimize any dependency on single suppliers and encourage maximum responsiveness from them. Most of the fabrics are ordered un-dyed and dyed in one of Inditex manufacturing facilities. By having its own dying facility Zara can quicker respond to demands and it gain less inventory by not storing every fabric in a range of colours. Moreover, if one fabric is not used it can easily be used next season independent of the colures of the next trend. All products pass through Zara’s major distribution centre in La Coruà ±a. In addition, it also has a smaller distribution centre in Zaragoza. The trucks, which run on a bus schedule, deliver to the stores twice a week, using a maximum of 24 hours to stores inside Europe and 48 hours in America. All in all this supply chain, as illustrated in Fig 4, is giving a lead-time on two to four weeks, with a price thirty per cent higher than its competitors and a need to discount only 18 percent of its production. Outsource Zara is careful about the way it deploys the latest information technology tools to facilitate these informal exchanges. Customized handheld computers support the connection between the retail stores and La Coruà ±a. These PDA’s supplement regular, often weekly, phone conversations between the store managers and the market specialists assigned to them. Through the PDA’s and telephone conversations, stores transmit all kinds of information to La Coruà ±a, such hard data as orders and sales trends and such soft data as customer reactions and the buzz around a new style. While any company can use PDA’s to communicate, Zara’s flat organization ensures that important conversations do not fall through the bureaucratic cracks. The constant flow of updated data eases the bullwhip effect, the tendency of supply chains and all open-loop information systems to amplify small disturbances. A small change in retail orders, for example, can result in wide fluctuations in factory orders after transmitting through wholesalers and distributors. In an industry that traditionally allows retailers to change a maximum of twenty per cent of their orders once the season has started, Zara lets them adjust forty to fifty percent. In this way, Zara avoids costly overproduction and the subsequent sales and discounting prevalent in the industry. The insistent introduction of new products in small quantities, ironically, reduces the usual costs associated with running out of any particular item. Indeed, Zara makes a virtue of stock-outs. Empty racks do not drive customers to other stores because the shoppers can always choose form new things. Being out of stock in one item helps sell another, since people are often happy to snatch what they can. In fact, Zara has an informal policy of moving unsold items after two or three weeks. This can be an expensive practice for a typical store, but since Zara stores receive small shipments and carry little inventory, the risks are small, unsold items account for less than ten per cent of stock, compared with the industry average of 17 to twenty per cent. Furthermore, new merchandise displayed in limited quantities and the short window of opportunity for purchasing items motivate people to visit Zara’s shops more frequently than they visit other stores. Consumers in central London , for example, visit the average store four times annually, but Zaras customers visit its shops an average of 17 times a year. The high traffic in the stores circumvents the need for advertising: Zara devotes just 0.3 per cent of its sales on ads, while its rivals spend three to four per cent. References ZARA Outsourcing = http://industrialeducation.blogspot.com/2009/08/study-of-supply-chain-zara-fast-fashion.html (31/03/11)

Nissan culture Essay Example

Nissan culture Essay Example Nissan culture Essay Nissan culture Essay Product recall Opportunity 1 -Growing demand for environmental friendly vehicles 2-Growth with new strategic partnerships 3-lingering fuel price Threats 1- Decreasing fuel price 2-Piercing competition among automobile companies 3- Natural Disasters 4-lingering cost of raw materials 5-Appreciating Yen exchange rate He was successful to change the profitability of the factory by implementing strategies such as cutting unnecessary expenses by closing inefficient sites, reducing workforces, utilizing less expensive materials, sharing operations with Renault, introducing new products. He improve the efficiency and flexibility of his business and inspire sense of internationalism. A. He could change the atmosphere of his company from a local firm to an international one. The first step to reach this goal was the incentive scheme for mangers who can learn English. By encouraging them and making English as official language of Ionians, he made his company culture closer to a global firm. B . Global strategy view Ionians strategy in purchasing, engineering and production became global. It invested 45 million dollars in its engineering centre near Tokyo to combine its engineering and production activities in one place. Not only Ionians had factories in key markets such as Britain, France and the US but also the cites in China, Taiwan and the Philippines were built to make use of low labors cost in these countries . Shoguns focus on R was a key role in his success. By reinvesting 5% of net sales in new technologies, the Mississippi planet only introduced four models in less than eight months. All these characteristics mentioned, depict that Chosen is a Visionary Leader. To differentiate Ionians position from its competitors and become distinguished in global scale. The nature of Niacins international strategy creates a level of management in which having international vision, allocating resources and participating in international markets are high priorities.

CCI - Exploiting new ventures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CCI - Exploiting new ventures - Essay Example The day to day affairs of the in-company ventures are handled by the business unit management, whereas, the organization management monitors and controls the overall performance of various business units. Joint ventures, whether local or worldwide, are the organizations engrossing two or more companies merging for an interim period to commence a specific project. Joint ventures may engage two or more companies from a single or more countries. International joint ventures in particular are becoming more popular, especially in businesses where a specific project involves huge amount of cost, for e.g. exploration of oil and gas and minerals and metals handling processes. The basic reason behind this type of venture is always to reduce related costs. A spin-out corporate venture is one when a company breaks up its various sections as independent and stand alone businesses or companies. The split company takes its associated assets, properties, products, related technologies and etc from its parent company. Agilent technology is an example of a spin out venture of Hewlett-Packard