Thursday, October 31, 2019

3 question for 2 case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

3 question for 2 - Case Study Example 21). Children Act 1989, section 47. The Act outlines the duty to enquire where there are grounds to believe that a child is being subjected to physical, emotional and sexual harm or neglect currently or in future. A89, section 44, local authorities or other concerned individuals to follow a court procedure to remove a child who is in immediate danger It stipulates that the child should remain in a safe place or access to a child is authorized where it is unreasonably denied. If Jamie is prone to immediate danger while living in Tim’s house, an Emergency Protection Order could be applied. This would take at least 8 days giving the local authority time to assess the situation and decide on how to protect Jamie. They may put him under foster care. Children Act 1989, Schedule 2 outlines the powers of local authorities to provide assistance in areas of finance, counselling and other services that might cut down on the effect of disability in a household. The Children Act 1989 contains an important principle of partnership. This means that social service providers must work in conjunction with the families to protect the child and closely with other institutions like schools. Family Law Act 1996, section 42 which provides for a re non-molestation order. Breach of this order is an offence. It also covers domestic violence protection and orders between sections 24 and 30 of the Crime and Security Act. This is relevant for Rose’s protection. She might seek a non-molestation order against Tim to stop him from assaulting her. Tim would be arrested if he breaches the order (Harris-Short, Miles, 2011, p. 257). Rose is being harassed by Tim and this brings up fear of violence. If Tim is charged he might be ordered to stay away from Rose and breach of this order would lead to arrest (Great Britain, 2014, p. 159). The Act Data Protection of 1998 and data protection principles,

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Personality or behavior - Organizational Behavior HRM Case Study

Personality or behavior - Organizational Behavior HRM - Case Study Example The concept of personality has a broad definition from a psychological perspective. Nonetheless, the most reasonable definition asserts that personality is the personal characteristics that result in a consistent pattern of behavior, thoughts, and emotions (Ajzen, 2005; Stuart-Kotze, 2006). Specifically, personality is an arguably permanent aspect of an individual influenced by culture, family, life experiences, group membership, and beliefs. Consequently, personality is consistent, impacts behaviors and action, and expresses multiple concepts such as thoughts and feelings.On the other hand, a behavior is the action resulting from our values and beliefs. From a psychological viewpoint, a behavior is a response to external and internal stimuli that produce externally visible outcomes influenced by experience and a change in attitude. Therefore, personal behavior is flexible as affected by organizational culture and ethical beliefs supported by a company (Ajzen, 2005). Consequently, th e difference between behavior and personality is that the latter is rigid and permanent while the former is flexible and changeable to fit in a particular culture. Specifically, this is because changing the substance of personality such as attitudes, principles, philosophies, and ambitions is difficult (Stuart-Kotze, 2006).The Big Five personality model is a combination of broad domains of personality Specifically, this model is essential as it aids in understanding different trait in personality without overlapping.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Competitive Enviroment Of Mobilink Telenor

Competitive Enviroment Of Mobilink Telenor At the achievement of 100 million customers PTA has released interesting figures. A very obvious trend shows enormous growth of mobile density. Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone are currently giving each other a tough challenge, Warid and Zong are also increasing their market share and in upcoming days the overall cellular environment will be facing more challenges. Though existing mobile operators are using aggressive and innovative methods of marketing to increase the consumer count, the issue faced is the rivalry. The competition between the stakeholders is also challenged by the newer investments making it essential for old players to know their methodologies and to preserve their market share. Mobilink is a prime example of companies facing this challenge. A large number of users were gained by aggressive strategies of Telenor and that helped Telenor to establish in a lesser period. However, next inline challenge for any giants is to retain what they have gained and always keep their strategies aligned with new methods of marketing. 1.2 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT: The major scope of my thesis is to analyze Telenor and Mobilink telecommunication companies on following three aspects, organizational standards/policies, competitive behaviors and the customer behaviors. I have analyzed their business and marketing strategies by examining their advertisement war and marketing tactics. 1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: I have used the following research methodologies in writing this thesis: Going through Mobilink and Telenor websites. Collected information from Mobilink and Telenor Employees. Obtained research papers from Mobilink and Telenor. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 TELECOMMUNICATION SECTOR IN PAKISTAN: Marketers are foreseeing promising potential in future growth in the telecommunication industry on the basis of the previous 5 years that have shown a rapid and enormous growth in this sector. Government of Pakistan is taking serious interest in the expansion of this industry and funding for the growth and it has a firm belief that this sector will provide quality services to the general public of this country. 2.2 SWOT Analysis: SWOT is basically a method to evaluate an organizations environment. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is widely used by the marketers to do an investigation on key issues exist in an organization. It divides the aspects in two halves; one is the external aspect that covers up the opportunities and threats, while the internal aspects are the strengths and weaknesses of a business. It is quite easy to adopt and it helps in identifying the main apprehensions and tries to infuse their remedies in the marketing objectives. 2.2.1 Strengths: Strengths are the attributes that adds up value to a company and make it stand out among other because of the customers positive attitude towards those attributes. Strengths include the specialties in marketing tactics, new and innovative products and services, quality of their internal and external processes, and the market value of that business venture. 2.2.2 Weaknesses: Weaknesses are the negative attributes of a business and it majorly indicates the loose holes in marking techniques. It also indicates the poorly managed internal and external processes, bad management, bad fame because of low quality products and services and lack of innovative ideas. 2.2.3 Opportunities: Opportunities can be best illustrate as the new options that can make a business more strong and open up ways to grab new markets by the use of new technologies, market trends, or by implementing innovative ideas for earning huge revenue and strengthening the businesss position in the competitive market. 2.2.4 Threats: Threats are the upcoming disasters that can make a businesss position fragile in the market place. These can be the lower prices offered by a competitor, better and innovative products and services offered by a competitor, new rival emerging in the market, etc. 2.3 MARKETING MIX: Marketing Mix are 4Ps of marketing study, which includes product, place, promotion and price but for the industry of services, it is taken up to the next level that embraces physical evidence, process and people. This concept gives the marketing professionals the flexibility to alter the current offers they have for their customers and make new innovative offers by manipulating these 7Ps. 2.4 CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: For any business, the behavior of the customers and their buying patterns are of great importance. A customer buying behavior is precisely classified in the following four aspects. This classification helps in creating new products and services and identifying potential customer. The first and foremost aspect is the Cultural background of the customer that includes its attitude and thinking directions that roots down to the core values its family and society make up of. Another aspect is the Social factors that strongly reflect in its choices and decisions; it is basically about the social environment it possesses because it truly affects a persons mind set. Third aspect is about the Personal Characteristics that includes the social and economic status, personality, age group and intrinsic uniqueness. Last but not the least aspect is about the psychological Characteristics that comprises of the insights, motivation and way of approaching towards different things. All of the above fac tors influence the decision making of a buyer. 2.5 CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS: Marketing professionals use different tactics to study the purchasers mind and make strategies to use this information in improving the sales of their products or services. There are several things that are running up in the purchasers mind at the time of purchasing; these things are the information available to the purchaser, the alternatives, acknowledgement and his personal preferences. 2.6 SEGMENTATION: The identification of purchasers in a market place who owns similar necessities and acquires identical manners is called as segmentation. 2.7 TARGETING: After the completion of segmentation, marketing professionals picks up a segment of market place to keep it in focus. 2.8 MARKET COVERAGE APPROACH: Organizations put together their planned strategies to attain specific targets and mile stones and as the time passes by, these planned strategies are altered by keeping in mind the growing needs of in-focused markets. The in-focused market is a deposit of purchasers who have recognizable needs and these needs are recognized by companies to offer new products and services for benefiting the market. There is an approach called as market converge approach that facilitates an organization to construct the right strategy for its in-focused market. We can divide the market converge strategies into three broad categories: Undifferentiated strategy: this strategy states that a company provides undifferentiated products to customers at lower cost after identifying their needs. Differentiated strategy: this strategy states that a company provides a product that is profitable and full fills the need of a certain segment of market. The product is actually differentiated on certain factors that include its features, prices and availability but the quality of the product should be maintained at a reasonable level. Concentrated strategy: this strategy states that a company brings up a product after identifying the gap in the marked which was not earlier identified, the most money-making strategy is positioned marketing. 2.9 POSITIONING: Positing is about valuing a products position within the market and it is done after segmentation and aiming a customer class. Positing depends on the perception of the person who is evaluating a products position and it always varies and so does its results. MOBILINK 3 INTRODUCTION OF MOBILINK Mobilink has started its operation being the subsidiary of Orascom Telecom .Currently is the market giant in Pakistan Telecommunication industry because of having the leading number of subscribers which exceeds 31 million and its still increasing day by day. Mobilink is a market ruler in terms of its expansion. Mobilink is so delighted on taking initiative as a cellular service provider. Mobilink is the so delighted to provide high-tech telecommunication solutions to its privileged customers nationwide. Mobilink puts forward exclusive and specially designed packages to its customers nation wide having diverse needs, it includes all type of subscribers like individuals, business personals, and corporate tariff plans. Mobilink offers Postpaid and prepaid tariff plans to its privileged subscribers. These solutions are competitive and balanced packages in the current fierce market competition. It also offers various Value Added Services. Mobilinks strongest point is its far and wide coverage that covers 9000 regions and localities inside the country and over 130 other countries worldwide for international roaming services. 3.1 Products Mobilink is offering two different types of tariff plans, one is Jazz that is offered to the masses of the society of all classes and it is better for keeping control on cellular expenses. Prepaid service has so many different packages for different type of users. While, the other service that is Indigo is for society that can afford to pay monthly bills. It has a wide range of packages for different type of users and they are based on the level of usage of the service. 3.2 Value Added Services Info Services Home SMS Translator Call / SMS Blocking Power Tools Info Services Reverse Auction SMS Filter SIM NIC Services Package Info Service SMS Search Islamic Portal Holy Sayings Kisan Service My PowerTools 3.3 Sales Tactics Mobilink also led the way up for opening up franchises nationwide and it has over 500 franchises which provide different services to its customers. Mobilink has over 800 sub dealers too that help it in expanding its network and quality services. The basic idea behind opening up a franchise is to provide help to its customers that are encountering any issues or problems in the communication service. Franchises also provide facilities for bill payments, sales, etc. Mobilink has hired proficient personnel who are dedicating working for providing help and support to Mobilinks privileged subscribers. 3.5 Mobilink Core capability: Research and development is always a core competency for every service providing organization that wants to compete in the fierce market war and Mobilink has it all as well as its employees. Mobilink takes pride in its hardworking and proficient professionals that makes it a market leader by dedicatedly working for its growth and integrity. The research and development department always takes part in launching new products and services for the sake of its customer and Mobilink knows who to keep its customers bind and pleased. It launches innovative products and services to the market that adds up its value, like the recently launched Jazz Jazba. 3.6 Operational Targets To lift and improve market share: Mobilink is trying to lift and improve its market share by investing in various other business like wireless solutions and broadband internet offers. It is putting up efforts in not only sustaining its current market positions that possess almost 40 % market share as well as trying to increase it. Mobilink is keen in making up a positive image in its subscribers mind and wants to increase its horizon from telecommunication industry to other businesses as well. It has offered infinity click service for Karachi people and also organizing different activates for making things better at both ends. To keep its position of having largest customers: Mobilink wants to keep the title of having largest number of customer nationwide and for keeping this pride, it has to bring fresh and exciting offers for keeping its customer satisfied as there are other service providers are also in the market like, ufone, warid, Telenor and zong; all of these companies are providing their services on cheaper rates than Mobilink and that is the main point of concern for this market giant. Workers Growth and development: Mobilink takes great pride in its reliable and skilled workforce that is the main reason behind its success. Mobilink values its employees and always tries to improve their technical and interpersonal skills by proper training, recruiting and evaluating current employees by appraisals. Mobilinks HRM department is effective and keen to grab the best professionals from the market place and make them real treasure for the company. 3.7 Business Strategies at Mobilink There are three most important functioning strategies: Commercial Strategy Production Strategy Operational Strategy Commercial Strategy Commercial strategy focuses on the overall range of products and services which actually in total encompasses the companys product line, different methods and processes through which a company interrelate its products to its business. Early mobilink only focused on its internal expansion but due to increase in competition they have changed their strategy and now working with other telecomm companies for example Mobilink started to work with Citi bank, Atlas Bank and KASB for the online bill payment system. Production Strategy Mobilink production strategy focuses on putting together its profitable products hence maintaining and strengthening its business position which will also benefit them in the long term. To continue its production Mobilink has always worked with its research and development department to distinguish its product from other competitors on the basis of network simplicity, as compare to its competitors. Mobilink has created their product and services unique through: Promotion/Advertisements Mobilink have an enormously impressive marketing team who designs and promotes its packages and services by keeping in mind the variations in consumer behavior of customers. Mobilink has been advertising and promoting its offerings through different media like Electronic media. Promoting its new products through Print Media like glossy magazine, tabloids and Billboards. They have nominated different sportsmen and celebrities as their brand ambassador. 3.9 Operational Strategy As the cellular companies continue to launch new services and products, they are implementing new and innovative strategies to beat their competitors. Most of the companies has started to focus on low cost strategy, by offering cheaper rates they comprise on service quality, on the other hand Mobilink stands firm on its quality service strategy, they dont comprise on quality at all, this is also the reason that its rates are on higher side but its loyal customers understand and appreciate Mobilinks efforts to maintain the quality management hence they dont switch to other companies. 3.10 Mobilink Infinity Mobilink introduced Wimax wireless technology which doesnt need any telephone lines or any kind of cables to connect to the work internet. Mobilink Infinity fulfils the requirement of a user who wants to access the internet with fast speed and unlimited downloads. Mobilink Infinity is available in different packages for the home users. A subscriber either can use a dongle or a modem to connect to internet. CORPORATE COMMUINCATION SOLUTIONS Mobilink Infinity introduced several last mile connectivity solutions for corporate user and organizations through which high speed connectivity can be achieved. These solutions include wireless solutions, microwave solutions, VSAT, Optical fiber and xDSL. Currently Mobilink has the state of art optical fiber network being commissioned across the country covering all the regions and cities of Pakistan. MOBILINK GENIE: Through Mobilink genie a user can pay bills through Mobilink connection. This solution is designed to comfort the lifes of its users by saving their time. You can pay your utility bills as well as Mobilink bills through this package from anywhere and anytime. 3.12 SWOT ANALYSIS OF MOBILINK Strengths à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Its main source of power is the foundation of its robust, indispensable and balanced marketing strategy, which is proposed to fulfill the needs and requirements of its customers. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink has been generating high revenues in past years which enable them to invest heavily to improve its infrastructure, technology and research and development areas. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ First Mover advantage. First company to launch GSM service in country à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ At present Mobilink has the largest market share, they have the most cellular users in the country also their revenue earnings are highest as compare to other companies. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink was first to launch the Blackberry services in Pakistan and currently they have the most users of this service. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink is the first cellular company which launched the mobile services in the northern regions of Pakistan. Weaknesses à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Even though Mobilink is covering whole country but still its rates are on the higher side, because of this particular matter Mobilink lost their share values in previous years. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink has been less investing and focusing on the Advertisement as compare to its competitors, this is one reason which can harm them in future as their customers will start switching to other networks. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ It has been found that Mobilinks network is usually busy in densely populated areas. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ PTA has fined Mobilink twice because of its bad service and user complains. So they need to stress on giving improved services to its existing users rather on development of its network. Opportunities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink can expand and extend their existing share by targeting young generation as Ufone and Telenor has been doing, they can also introduce new packages for old age people, but these packages must be introduced keeping in mind the pocket of every targeted segment. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink can use their brand name and image to target new customers as well as retain their existing users for this they need to implement innovative promotion techniques. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ By working on CRM system Mobilink can enhance its relationship marketing procedures which will benefit them to achieve their goals. Threats à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The new entrant Zong has come up with very cheaper rates due to which cellular consumers especially youngsters are shifting to Zong. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Telenor is now offering better postpaid packages and services for business and high class users. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Current price war between all cellular companies might result in a situation when only brand images and names will be important for new cellular user. 3.13 BCG Matrix I have examined Mobilinks products and services through BCG Matrix. Following are the main products: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink Indigo à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink Jazz à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mobilink Blackberry Services Cash Cow Mobilink Indigo is the cash cow for Mobilink. Likewise Mobilink Blackberry services help Mobilink to generate good amount of revenue as it is mostly use by business class. Star Mobilink Jazz is the star for the Mobilink, this is one package whose users will keep on growing. Question Mark Jazz one, Jazz easy, club red are question Mark for Mobilink because more or less similar packages are also offered by its competitors. Dog At present no product or service of Mobilink comes under the dog category. TELENOR 4.1 INTRODUCTION OF TELENOR: Telenor is basically a Norway based telecommunication service provider and it has a major place in telecommunication industry worldwide. Its operative in quite many countries around the globe. Its main operation office is in Islamabad and main regional offices are in Karachi and Lahore. Telenor has expanded and increased massively since its founding and has achieved several objective to meet its goal. They have currently 24% market share with more than 23 million users. They are among the top cellular companies around the globe, Telenor has been investing hugely to improve their infrastructure so that they can reach every remote location of the country. 4.1 Organizational Principles: Produce trouble-free resolutions People at Telenor have a great interest in producing simple, easy and hassle free solutions for their customers. Their motto is to make peoples life easy and simple by providing quality services. Maintain Promise People at Telenor always put their best efforts to get the work done. They believe in producing the best possible solutions for their privileged customers. They never sacrifice over quality to provide solutions and offerings. Keep moving Telenor have the best resources to deliver the goals. They make every effort to bring energy to the work they get done. Every product they create appears better and finer. They are always keen and eager about everything that is related to their trade and subscribers. Social endurance Telenor has people that are quite familiar with the area they are operating and they love being gelled up with the local society by respecting and valuing their social and moral values. They never compel a uniform strategy globally but they actually wish to gel up with the local people anywhere they operate. Telenors main operational approach is to expand their market value by capitalizing on its subscribers all over the world and to increase the companys efficiency and out but by integrating work efficient and advanced marketing techniques with diverse business ventures. The focused chief points are as follows: Buildup their rank as a global cellular provider Telenor is very keen and eager to position themselves as the top and largest mobile operator not only in Pakistan but also. They have been collaborating with other top mobile operators in order to seek new ideas and strategies so they can strengthen their operations and ability of producing better services. To reach every remote area Telenor is keen enough to renovate their operations in all the remote regions. Their presence in every part of the country will make them a bigger operator. By establishing an integrated communication they can support and give value to their users in a better and efficient way. Worldwide harmonization Telenor intelligently use its worldwide harmonization program for grabbing the local market in mobile operational services. It assure its control by this using this program and take advantages. In current cellular market condition it has been very important for operators to come up with effective strategies also being aware of other strategies which are used by their rivals. Giving value addition to customers through offering cheap packages and value added services. 4.5.1 Production Strategy Customers are the main focus of attention for Telenor, everything they do, make, forecast is for their valuable customers. Telenors business strategy entitles its customers to grow and increase their interest and loyalty with Telenor. Their strategy, vision and mission is a representation of the social values of its customers, these are the main factors which differentiate them for others. To achieve its vision and goal Telenor has always come up with exceptional business strategies which are essential in helping the local culture and getting to the already forecasted plans and goals. Moreover a top serving management makes it easier for the bottom management to accomplish all these typical issues and task. Telenor doesnt sacrifice the ethical rules and regulation in order to implement its business strategies. All the international ethical procedures are adopted and applied with strict monitoring; they have a very strict code of behavior for all the employees. 4.5.2 Telenor strategies: Telenor achieves its motives and goals by implementing following strategies: Societal Commitment Telenor is always keen to perform all the social obligation that are important and they strive to purpose valuable products and services to various sects worldwide and they want to take part in socio-economic growth of the region and they take it as their responsibility and trying to improve it by all means. Delivering best Quality Telenor is more than a service carrier for the societies it serves and has become an essential part of their business thus contributes to the economic growth. Since Telenor buys so many products and services itself to serve its customers. To ensure that best services are provided to customers, Telenor ensures the quality of products and services it acquire from market. The standards of services we commit to our customers are what we demand from sellers and service providers, serving our business. Partnership: Coalition and responsiveness is quite important with other organizations either public or private institutes. Education and exploration Starting up, holding up and running exploration programs with education session and other competitions. Administering specific Processes Telenor organizes different events, including seminars, sessions and conferences related to the fields in which Telenor is operating. Fulfilling Commitments They always fulfill their commitments and if its not the case, they are always present to help and lead others. Vibrant Being vibrant is being energetic and having a passion for excellence and achievement. Inventive Being inventive is all about innovating new and amazing services and products that can bring up maturity to the organization. Accountable Being accountable is all about keeping promises and being committed and devoted to work that can lead to a good reputation and market good will. 4.6 Forecasted targets Aspects 2010-11 2014-15 Telenor share 24% 45% Market saturation 11% 35% Income share 9% 35% Impulsive Brand Awareness 22% 85% 4.8 Consumer Oriented Approach: Basically segmentation is done for dividing a market in various segments and then identifying need for every portion. It is necessary for researching and finding gaps and opportunity and it can help in keeping track of the progress too. Telenor has a subscriber oriented approach and it wants to give top priority services to its subscribers. It has divided the market into different segment for the ease. Comparison of Mobilink and Telenor : Feature Mobilink Telenor Product Maturates Mature Growing Share 40% 24% Exposure 1100 cities 900 cities Brands Jazz, Octane, Indigo TalkShawk, Telenor DJuice Marketing function Outstanding Standard 4.9 Approaches for Segmentation: As Telenor have various departments and divisions responsible for their products hence they have diverse and unique segmentation strategy for their each product and service, moreover they have different strategy even for the promotion programs split. They always pay more attention on their loyal customers. Efficient and effective market surveys and researches are done in order to get the customer feedback then the total market needs and potential is analyzed and calculated finally in the end buying power of consumer is analyzed for each n every segment. Telenor has an assorted segmentation strategy and a different marketing program is build up for each market segment. Telenor is always very concerned about its privileged customers and because different people look for different settlements and their needs for services always vary. A level of markets potential is approximated for each segment and it helps in setting targets and designing different strategies and making policies for increasing the sales. 4.10 Approaches for Pricing: Telenor approach for pricing is very simple; they started by targeting the young generation. Because of the tough competition every Telecom company have to be very flexible in their pricing approaches and offerings. You can lose your customers very easily and cheaply if you are rates are not up to the standards and needs of consumer Cellular companies keep on launching new packages with best and revise prices so that their customers remain stuck to their products and services Launching of Djuice and TalkShawk are the excellent examples of how Telenor targeted the youngsters, as the young generation is more price sensitive as compare to business Telenors follows the simple standard business models while creating their pricing strategies. They have come up with best offerings; every now and then they are launching more exciting and cheap packages for their customers. One example of this is their current Persona package which fulfils the demand of a business and corporate user. 4.11 Approaches for Promotion: Telenor approach and idea for promoting and advertising of it products and services is completely different from other cellular companies. They are using every possible available medium of communication to communicate with their targeted customers. Their main focus and goal regarding promotions is to become the top cellular company of the country by increasing their market share along with providing them the value they deserve 4.12 Media Advertising: In todays television channels boom advertising plays an important role to represent and pass the message of a service provider to its customer. Through advertsising telenor has been easily hitting the factors which affect the consumer decision making process. In current cellular media war Telenor has managed to retain its value by appropriate advertising strategy by selecting countries famous personalities in their promotion campaigns. 4.13 FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION SYSTEM Availability: For Telenor, production is about offering a vast variety of packages and it is working quite well in providing amazing and innovative packages with high-tech facilities Telenor is leading the market in providing quality high-tech services and making them available for everyone. Business Centers: Telenor has it business centers and sales service centers in major cities for all the technical and non technical queries. These centers provide facility to the subscribers fo

Friday, October 25, 2019

Larnyx Cancer :: essays research papers

Cancer Information: Larynx Cancer  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Larynx cancer is a cancer that effects the larynx, or voice box, in people; it can also be called laryngeal cancer. The cancer occurs most frequently in people over the age of fifty-four and in black males. The larynx is approximately two inches long and is located below the nose passage way and above the trachea. Tumors can develop anywhere in the three parts of the larynx, the glottis, supraglottis, and subglottis. When the cancer spreads to other parts of the body it is called metastatic cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Symptoms for this type of cancer depend mainly on the size and location of the tumor. Most cases of larynx cancer occurs in the glottis area, or vocal cord section. When a tumor develops in this area it is usually painless, but almost always results in hoarseness and a change in the person’s voice. If the tumor occurs in the supraglottis, or the section above the vocal cords, it may cause a lump in the throat, sore throat, or earaches. When the tumor develops in the area where the larynx and trachea join, subglottis, the person experiences trouble in breathing, very noisy breathing. Constant coughing or a feeling of a lump that doesn’t go away are also signs of larynx cancer. Tumor development in the subglottis is very unusual and rare. As a tumor grows it may cause pain, weight loss, bad breath, frequent choking on food, and hard swallowing. Only qualified doctors are able to tell if any of the signs are really symptoms of the cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A person with larynx cancer can be treated according to the person’s age, general health, and preferences. The size of the tumor, location of the tumor, and whether the cancer has spread or not also plays a major role in determining the type of treatment. Treatment can be done by local therapy or systemic therapy. In local therapy there is a choice of radiation therapy, surgery, or a combination of both. The only choice in systemic therapy is chemotherapy. When radiation therapy is used high-energy rays damage the cancerous cells and stops them from growing larger. A patient treated by radiation has a better chance of keeping his or her voice after the treatment. Treatment usually last for five days per week for five to six weeks. Surgery is used when the tumor continues to grow even after radiation has been applied. Larnyx Cancer :: essays research papers Cancer Information: Larynx Cancer  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Larynx cancer is a cancer that effects the larynx, or voice box, in people; it can also be called laryngeal cancer. The cancer occurs most frequently in people over the age of fifty-four and in black males. The larynx is approximately two inches long and is located below the nose passage way and above the trachea. Tumors can develop anywhere in the three parts of the larynx, the glottis, supraglottis, and subglottis. When the cancer spreads to other parts of the body it is called metastatic cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Symptoms for this type of cancer depend mainly on the size and location of the tumor. Most cases of larynx cancer occurs in the glottis area, or vocal cord section. When a tumor develops in this area it is usually painless, but almost always results in hoarseness and a change in the person’s voice. If the tumor occurs in the supraglottis, or the section above the vocal cords, it may cause a lump in the throat, sore throat, or earaches. When the tumor develops in the area where the larynx and trachea join, subglottis, the person experiences trouble in breathing, very noisy breathing. Constant coughing or a feeling of a lump that doesn’t go away are also signs of larynx cancer. Tumor development in the subglottis is very unusual and rare. As a tumor grows it may cause pain, weight loss, bad breath, frequent choking on food, and hard swallowing. Only qualified doctors are able to tell if any of the signs are really symptoms of the cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A person with larynx cancer can be treated according to the person’s age, general health, and preferences. The size of the tumor, location of the tumor, and whether the cancer has spread or not also plays a major role in determining the type of treatment. Treatment can be done by local therapy or systemic therapy. In local therapy there is a choice of radiation therapy, surgery, or a combination of both. The only choice in systemic therapy is chemotherapy. When radiation therapy is used high-energy rays damage the cancerous cells and stops them from growing larger. A patient treated by radiation has a better chance of keeping his or her voice after the treatment. Treatment usually last for five days per week for five to six weeks. Surgery is used when the tumor continues to grow even after radiation has been applied.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Marketing Plan with SWOT Analysis

nowledge is the most significant economic and social force of the 21st century, and higher education will see its importance and influence to grow in the coming decades. At the same time, as in other industries and sectors, extraordinary, rapid change has become a constant for institutions of higher education. This dynamic environment provides challenges and opportunities as well, which Is why Trine university Marketing 303 class has spent the last eight weeks putting together a comprehensive marketing plan process to examine a variety of marketing and enrollment issues facing Trine university outreach campuses.Since its beginning in 1884 in Angola, Indiana, Trine University has experienced significant periods of growth and change while preparing students for career success. While this growth and change mainly took place at the University's mall campus, It Is now entering a new phase of growth and change. This growth and change is happening with Trine university outreach campuses. Tr ine University's mission for the outreach campuses is â€Å"to provide accessible educational opportunities that are responsive to the needs of today's diverse population and lead to meaningful careers and lifelong learning.To accomplish our session, we have set forth the following goals: Acquire our own learning facility Higher enrollment rate Promote associates, bachelors, and master degrees to spark more interest in attending the campus Add new degrees to current programs Offer tuition discounts and incentives Make scheduling classes easier and more available Reach out to Individuals and employers In the community wishing to better their education Achieve top school ranking in community To guide and later help assess the marketing plan and its effectiveness, the Marketing 303 class produced a SOOT analysis to help provide direction and serve as basis for the development of a marketing plan which promotes Trine university's outreach campuses. We hope to accomplish this by assessi ng what we perceive to be the university's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to achieving these strategies.A section with these results is presented later in the marketing plan in its entirety, but a few comments are listed below. Trine University views undergraduate education as central to its mission and will students to be productive, contributing members of society. To sustain Trine University reputation of overall excellence in selected areas of graduate and repressions education, resources will be focused on creating and strengthening areas of graduate study in a manner that is responsive to regional needs. To promote the recruitment, retention, and success of its students, Trine University will provide an environment rich in human diversity, with dedicated support services, in an outstanding instructional facilities.Trine University will create an empowered group of diverse, unified, committed and motivated employees who will focus their collective ski lls, talents, and knowledge toward realization of the university mission and vision. Trine University believes that continuous planning and evaluation are needed to effectively chart the future of the university outreach campuses, and therefore will increase its self-assessment. Trine University will secure, allocate or redirect human, physical and financial resources in a manner that enhances the university mission and vision. The two initial targets for Trine University will be high school students and students looking to pursue their bachelor degree that already has associates.Priority, however, will be given to high school students because we will be able to reach out to them nice they will be starting their degree from fresh. Gone are the days when marketing and communication offices can control the content produced about universities. The internet has emerged as a place where users are active, co-creators of content and social networking in mainstream. Social media has surpass ed e-mail as an online activity. More than ever, relevant, timely and engaging content is key in any marketing campaign. In the past year, Trine University Backbone, Twitter and Youth presence are on the rise and changing the way the students and the university are communicating.To effectively communicate and market to existing and prospective student, Trine University must use a variety of strategies, based on the target audience communication style, and constantly re-evaluate its marketing methods and messages to meet our diverse student population. Trine currently has a student enrollment of 1,791 students per year. They are projected to grow at approximately 8. 1% per year making their enrollment 1,935 in 2013 and 2,091 in 2014. They currently have a tuition cost of $25,400. 00 per year and $1 ,600. 00 in other expenses (such as books, lab fees & other miscellaneous costs). Trine has 52. 5 million per year in annual sales and 1. 53 million in net income.Trine's tuition is higher than Harrison College and II-JPL'S but less than Indiana Wesleyan. The organizational structure of Trine University outreach campuses will appear in its entirety in a later section; however, the following few comments will briefly summarize Marketing 303 class' ideas on a working organizational structure. We and students to feel there is a local individual they can physically call or go see in an office setting. This individual will act as a liaison between the Student Support Specialist and Trine University's main campus. This will help promote the feeling that Trine University is committed to the growth of its outreach campuses.A successful marketing plan depends upon how well a company can blend its people and get the job done. If everyone is on the same page and know what it is they are striving to accomplish, the possibilities of success, are endless. Performance of this plan must be measured, and this means standards must be developed against which performance can be evaluate d. The importance of proper and timely evaluation cannot be overlooked. Communication between the business and the customer is essential for success. Customers will often try a new product â€Å"one time†. If they are not pleased with the product they will look elsewhere. UNIVERSITY DESCRIPTION There's a time and place for thinking and doing.We make both happen at Trine University. Founded in 1884, we're known for our rigorous academic programs, exceptional faculty, and hands-on experiences that lead to real-world, skill-based knowledge. The results are phenomenal. The rate at which Trine students find work related to their majors within six months of graduation-?at 92 percent-?is among the highest in the country. Our graduates' starting salaries exceed the national average in every category. Explore – Experience – Excel We're a private, non-denominational institution that grants associates, bachelors, and master's degrees in more than 30 programs on campus, onl ine, and at four regional education centers.With only 1 ,450 students, our small class sizes ensure one-on-one attention with faculty who bring their own workplace experience into the classroom. We focus on active participation through more than 60 student organizations, competitive intercollegiate athletics, and extensive co-pop and internship opportunities. You will also find our nationally recognized education affordable. We award more than $10 million in grants and scholarships annually; more than 90 percent of our students receive some form of financial aid. STRATEGIC FOCUS AND PLAN Mission Trine University mission for the outreach campuses is â€Å"to provide accessible educational opportunities that are responsive to the needs of today's diverse population and lead to meaningful careers and lifelong learning.Goals For future years, Trine University-Columbus seeks to achieve the following goals: Reach out to individuals and employers in the community wishing to better their C ore Competency and Sustainable Competitive Advantage In terms of core competency, Trine University outreach campuses seek to achieve ability by 1) providing high-quality learning experiences not only in learning but also in hands on projects and by 2) providing outstanding graduates to be successful. To translate these core competencies into a sustainable competitive advantage, Trine University outreach campuses will work closely with their students to achieve the best satisfactory education possible.SITUATION ANALYSIS The ultimate goal of Marketing 303 class is to produce a SOOT analysis which will elf provide direction and serve as a basis for the development of a marketing plan to promote Trine University's outreach campuses. We hope to accomplish this by assessing what we perceive to be Trine University strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SOOT Analysts Marketing 303 class produced a SOOT analysis. Strengths: Responsiveness to students and education needs Academica lly able students Effective teaching Supportive environment for teaching and learning Demonstrable results Substantial scholarship / financial aid resources and support Weaknesses: Distinguishing qualities and identity not well knownLack of strong, pervasive presence in the external community Operational structure of regional outreach campuses Too large a percentage of classes taught by part-timers Limited resources for faculty, staff, and students of regional outreach campuses Adjustment to pressures of growth Make presence known Expand recruitment starting at the high school level More conversations and partnerships with local employers Developing and even better niche within the rapidly developing market for on- demand education Expand possible technological competitive advantage – technology has made programs from around the state, nation and world accessible to anyone with an internet connection so a student can still feel like they are getting a true classroom environme nt Responsiveness to students – although responsiveness to students is a strength of Trine University, it also offers the opportunity for more rewarding efforts.Students are more than customers; they are participants in, contributors to, and products of a highly structured learning environment and developmental process Threats: Pressure to grow at expense of quality Growing competition from nearby universities – physically and virtually Recruiting and retain high quality faculty and staff given increasing competition Rapidly advancing technology poses the most far-reaching, unavoidable, and unpredictable threat to institutional stability and competitiveness Enhancing and maintaining access to the University for minority, low income, and first-generation students Possible uncertainty of off-campus operations Competitors Indiana Wesleyan University Phoenix University Harrison College PICKUP Ivy Tech Target Audience High School Students College Students Ethnic Community C ommunity Members Customer Profile Profiles help us to gain a deeper understanding of the audiences we are trying to reach by providing details into demographics, technocracies, chirography's and alee and lifestyles (VAL'S). High School Student Profile Demographics 16-18 years old County Resident Limited income Live with parents Technocracies Immersed in technology Active in social networks – text and chat are primary Chirography's Generation Me – seeks attention, feedback, lofty beliefs Value and Lifestyles (VAL'S)- Experiences High resource group motivated by self-expression Energetic, active and social College Student Profile 18-25 years old Work part-time May have children Living on their own for the first time Receive financial aid Ethnic Community Member Profile Spanish speakingBicameral Limited understanding of higher education environment Prefer traditional media Those who favor speaking English to speaking Spanish, use more technology Strong family values Chall enged by family barriers to education Impressionable and likely to emulate people they admire Motivated by achievement Community Member Profile Age 26 + County business leader – owners and managers Financially stable with expendable income Parents of high school age children Have access to technology, but not avid users Use internet to research products / services Predominantly e-mail users Use some social networks Values reputation and success Values education as a way to accomplish goals Successful people who get satisfaction from their career and family MARKETING PRODUCT FOCUS This section describes the 1 year marketing and product objectives for Trine University-outreach campus and the target markets, points of difference, and positioning.Marketing and Product Objectives Current markets. Current markets will be grown by expanding student awareness of the Columbus campus. New markets. By the end of the first year, we hope to have new students and a huge population growth t o our campus. New products. By adding associates degrees, we see more expansion of students. Target Markets Two initial targets for Trine University outreach campus will be high school students and students looking to pursue their bachelor degree that already has their associates. Priority, however will be given to high school students because will be able to reach out to them since they will be starting their degree from fresh.Points of Difference Continuous improvements in education Qualified personnel Uniqueness of its professional service More diversity in student body Positioning students or hard to identify. We are hoping to position it easier on students to identify who we are, what we stand for and why they should attend our campus. Marketing Program The four marketing mix elements of the Trine University Marketing Plan are detailed below with the purpose of increasing the overall visibility of Trine University outreach campuses. Product Strategy Product line Trine Universit y grants associate, baccalaureate, and master's degrees through exceptional programs offering career-oriented, hands-on learning and student- focused teaching via Trine's 450-acre main residential campus in Angola, but also at he eight outreach campuses listed below.Avon Columbus Fort Wayne Howe Indianapolis Alligators Chervil's South Bend Warsaw Unique Product Quality Trine University understands and appreciates that the students have many choices in achieving their educational goals. Trine is committed to providing students with an innovative learning experience that many other institutions do not offer. Trine students should expect, Quality Trine continuously evaluates and assesses each degree program, student experiences, and student employment success Nationally recognized examinations ND certifications ensure Trine students have the edge to secure employment at a rate of nearly 92 percent Affordability Various Scholarships and Financial Aid Programs are available to students w ho qualify U. S.News & World Report ranks Trine as one of the top colleges and universities whose graduates carry the least amount of debt Ninety-eight percent of No expiration date on transfer credits from any accredited College or University Convenience and Flexibility Eight week accelerated courses Face-to-Face classes at outreach campuses or online courses available anytime, anyplace, anywhere Attention Trine brings workplace and educational experience into the classroom via well respected faculty to combine theory with hands-on learning They challenge you with rigorous academics but offer support and personal attention Technologically Advanced The laptop program ensures all students have the same technology and advantages inside and outside the classroom textbooks reduce the cost of textbooks by nearly 50 percent while also providing new tools such as the electronic highlighter, electronic note taking, note sharing, and the ability to collaborate with other students Packaging P ersonal attention is Trine's hallmark. It is the packaging that makes them standout among other universities and colleges. Students are not Just a number but the future. Trine University takes this seriously and assists the students in their endeavors to Explore – Experience – Excel in all they do not Just while a Trine University student, but when they move into their chosen career. Price Strategy Students want the best value, high-quality education at a price they can afford. Trine University works hard to excel at both.Our hands-on learning and personal attention room dedicated professors provide the edge you, the student, need to launch a successful career or move up in your current organization. Trine University is an affordable private university with costs in the mid-range for private colleges in Indiana. Our graduates enter the workforce carrying the least amount of debt among graduates nationwide, according to U. S. News and World Report. Promotion Strategy Ke y promotion marketing strategies will be a combination of the following marketing channels in an effort to reach potential students. Mass marketing combined with targeted campaigns are designed to maximize communication.Traditional Media Develop new print and presentation materials to connect with potential students Use past students success stories to help motivate current and potential students TV/ Radio Print Outdoor Traditional Media Add video Develop text message options for accessing information about Trine Web advertising E-mail marketing Mobile-to-mobile Social Media Start or continue to build a Backbone community Connect with the business community via social networking Backbone Blobs and micro blobs You Tube Earned Media Create a public relations campaign to get Trine University key messages in the news Use the media to further position Trine University as the premier provider of tomorrow's workforce Print editorial coverage TV/Radio broadcast coverage Web coverage through blobs Promotions Place (Distribution) Strategy Trine University will attract other students by using a mixture of traditional and online advertising strategies listed above to create a grassroots marketing campaign. Trine will recruit current students to fill these outreach campuses marketing positions. It will further demonstrate that personal touch that Trine University is so noted for.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

J.J Reddick

What is rounding? Rounding a number means approximating it. A rounded number is often easier to use, understand, and remember than the precise number. In MyFinanceLab most of our answers are rounded decimal numbers. A decimal number has three parts: The whole number part, the decimal point and the decimal part. For example: [pic] So, in order to round a decimal number we basically round the decimal part of it. These are the two basic steps for rounding decimals to a place value to the right of the decimal point Step 1: Locate the digit to the right of the given place value.Step 2: If this digit is 5 or greater, add 1 to the digit in the given place value and delete all digits to its right. If this digit is less than 5, delete all digits to the right of the given place value. For example: Round 736. 2359 to the nearest hundredth. Solution: Step 1: We locate the digit to the right of the hundredths place Step 2: Since the digit to the right is 5, we add 1 to the digit in the hundredths place and delete all digits to the right of the hundredths place.Thus, 736. 2359 rounded to the nearest hundredth is 736. 24 Rounding in MyFinanceLab In MyFinanceLab we use input instructions to indicate the place value to which you must round your final answer(s). For example: Let’s say your final answer is 736. 2359. †¢ You must enter 736. 2 if the input instruction is: Round to the nearest tenth. †¢ You must enter 736. 24 if the input instruction is: Round to the nearest hundredth. Note: Other typical input instruction in MyFinanceLab isRound to the nearest cent if the final answer is in currency units. †¢ You should enter 736. 236 if the input instruction is: Round to three decimal places. Now, let’s use a simple Time Value of Money (TVM) question you may encounter in MyFinanceLab. | | |Problem Example: Comparing Interest for Various Compounding Periods.If $1,000 is invested at 8% compounded | |annually, | |monthly, | |what is the amount after 5 y ear? (Round to the nearest cent. ) | To solve this problem without using a financial calculator or a spreadsheet, we need to use the compound interest, future value, formula: [pic] where, i |= |r/m | |FV |= |future value at the end of n periods | |PV |= |present value | |r |= |annual rate | |m |= |number of compounding periods per year | |i |= |rate per compounding period | |n |= |Total number of compounding periods | Solution: a. Compounding annually means that there is one interest payment period per year. So, n = 5 and i = r = 0. 08. [pic] [pic] [pic] Therefore, rounded to the nearest cent, the final answer is $1,469. 33 b. Compounding monthly means that there are twelve interest payments per year. So, n = 12(5) = 60 and i = 0. 08/12 = [pic] [pic] [pic] Therefore, rounded to the nearest cent, the final answer is $1,489. 85 | |This TVM example helps us to understand a basic rounding principle in MyFinanceLab: â€Å"Do not round until the final answer. † As you | |can see in part a. after solving the expression [pic]we leave it unrounded and use as many digits as possible in its decimal part. | |The same happens in part b with the other exponential expression. | | | |Take another look at part b. because rounding i to a small number of decimal places, such as 0. 007 or 0. 0067, would have resulted | |in round-off errors.So, to avoid this, use as many decimal places as your calculator is capable of displaying. | Tips: If you want to calculate TVM problems, mathematical calculations are relatively straightforward. However, as you will see, TVM calculations are easier using a financial calculator or spreadsheet. But, no matter what method you use – equation, financial calculators, or spreadsheets, you get the same answer because they all use the same formula and concept. These are some tips for solving TVM questions. Calculator Tips: †¢ Set your calculator to display at least five decimal places or to floating decimal place (nine decimal places). †¢ Set your calculator to one payment per year.Adjust this setting if necessary. †¢ Set your calculator to the â€Å"end† mode. Adjust this setting if necessary. Excel Tips: †¢ Take advantage of the formula help that Excel offers. †¢ If you are lost, click on â€Å"Help†. †¢ Be careful about rounding variables. For example, suppose you’re dealing with the interest rate 6. 99% compounded monthly. This means you will need to enter the interest rate per month, which is = 6. 99%/12, and since you are performing division in the cell, you need to put an â€Å"=† sign before the division is performed. Don’t round the result of 0. 0699/12 to 0. 58 and enter 0. 58 as i. Instead, enter =6. 99%/12 or as a decimal =0. 0699/12 for i.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Paradise essays

Paradise essays This story is all about a stunner, a charming teen. Her name is Belle. Let me tell you her sorrowful past. Her family, cousins and relatives rejected her. Because, she is the only one who do things wrong all the time. She can get what she wants every time, everyday, whenever she wants. But she doesnt do the things she have to, so her parents told her that; she cannot get whatever she wants anytime, anymore. Therefore, Belle rebelled, by running away from home. She use to graduate college, but she went to her boy friends house. Moreover, talk about everything. After  ½ year, Belle and her boy friend Tony got married. Before they got married, they already had two children. One is a girl named Julian and the other one is named Juliana, they are both female. Julian is 2 months older than her sister Juliana is. So it means Julian is already 11 months and her younger sister Juliana is 9 months old. But Belle is too young to have babies, right? Then after they got married, Of course they will not let the Honeymoon pass by. And so on. After months, Belle had another baby, and it is a girl, so they both named it Julie Anne. And she is just 9 months, when her sister Julian is already 1 year old, and her sister Juliana is already 12 months old. Belle is only 16 when she rebelled, and when she got married, she is only 17, and now, she had three daughters, she is only 18! Still young to have babies... Belle thought that her family was better than her childhood family when she was younger. But that belief is gone. When she saw Tony, her husband, making Love with someone else and that someone is her younger sister... Belle never thought that she could see her sister, even in that way. So Belle was surprised to see her sister, and more surprised to see her husband making love with her younger sister Anna Rose. Tony is a smart simple and dazzling man, neat and responsible. But when Tony got home. He saw her wife Belle cleaning up h...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Financial Institutions and Economic Growth Essays

Financial Institutions and Economic Growth Essays Financial Institutions and Economic Growth Essay Financial Institutions and Economic Growth Essay 2000). Other things being equal, better-off and more dynamic societies have not only a larger amount of available resources out of which to save but also a higher propensity to do so. Throughout these years, the Scandinavian countries would appear to have been at an advantage in both respects relative to southern Europe. Before we analyse this relationship, however, we must deal with two potential distortions. The first concerns the probability that not all the financial resources considered in the preceding sections originated domestically. At a time of great international factor mobility, a poorer economy might well have a weaker domestic supply of savings to fuel its financial development, but be able to compensate this by attracting foreign-owned capital. On the other hand, more developed financial systems might reinforce their advantage by drawing in, additionally, large amounts of funds from abroad. Table 7 shows that at the end of our perio such net inflows were indeed contributing significantly to the growth of all financial systems but far more in the Scandinavian case. The latter’s superiority in attracting domestic resources was thus matched by a similar strength in the international sphere, a fact that has been noted before (Rousseau and Sylla, 2001). On the other hand, this did not alter much our previous ranking of these countries and still leaves to be explained the considerable gap between the two groups of countries in terms of financial liabilities per capita. table 7 about here] A second potential source of distortion was the effect of hoarding on financial activity. Given the alleged inclination of southern Europeans towards this form of storing wealth, as might befit traditional peasant societies, it seems fair to ask how much of the region’s weaker institutional savings performance was due to this. For the sake of argument, we suppose that Scandinav ian countries were too advanced, socially and culturally, to engage in such practices. We further assume that in southern Europe this concealed wealth would have taken the form mainly of gold coin silver would have been too bulky – and therefore the stock of this type of specie would have been its upper limit. In the late 19th century, this varied between ? 1. 4 and ? 2. 4 per capita, for Italy and Portugal respectively, with Spain somewhere in between (Zamagni, 1993; Reis, 1992; Tortella, 1974). Even if we admit that as much as half of this was hoarded, this would have entailed only a small correction of the figures in table 7, of about ? per capita, thus leaving its essential findings untouched. [15] Recent evidence based on more than seventy developed and less developed economies, between 1960 and 1995, have established a strong correlation between indicators of private savings and financial development. More importantly, they also provide us with regression estimates that quantify the positive influence of per capita GDP on the savings rate (Beck et al. , 2 000). The lack of any comparable evidence for earlier times prevents us from replicating this exercise here but we can follow another, less exact approach. This rests on the assumption of linearity in the relationship between the two variables, which is suggested by the behaviour of the underdeveloped economies that comprise this sample. Using the data in Prados (2000), we find that average differences, between Scandinavia and southern Europe, of income per capita were respectively 12 % in 1880 and 25% in 1913, and we shall presume that the gap between gross savings must have been similar. The differential in domestic per capita savings absorbed by the financial systems was, however, much greater, respectively of the order of 30 and 100%. This strongly suggests that besides the effect on financial development of levels of income and savings, other factors, mainly of an exogenous nature, must have played an important part too by causing economic agents to channel different shares of their spare resources to the financial systems of their respective countries. Three features of any financial system are bound to affect the inclination of savers to enter into lasting relationships with its institutions and markets and, in particular, to entrust them with funds. One is accessibility to users, another is suitability to their specific needs, a third is trust. In what follows we shall concentrate exclusively on the corporate financial sector because, in contrast, differences among countries in the development of their respective stock markets appear relatively minor. In the Scandinavian countries, the volume of private securities was considerably greater than that of state bonds, whereas in Spain, Portugal and Italy the opposite prevailed. Yet when we put all of these financial instruments together, the aggregate volume per capita is relatively uniform throughout the sample. Moreover, the information regarding national stock markets suggests that inter-country regulatory divergences were not substantial at this time and where they existed, this would not have made much difference to global outcomes (Fohlin, 2002). [16] Recent research on the post 1960 period has argued that cross country differences in legal and accounting systems help account for differences in financial development (Levine et al, 2000: 31) and similar claims have been made in a far broader historical perspective (Sandberg, 1978; Sylla, Tilly and Tortella, 1999). An overview of the legislation governing corporate financial activity does not suggest, however, that this was a major cause of the divergence we have been examining here. This is not to say that there was absolute regulatory uniformity within the sample or that the legal framework had no impact on other aspects of the financial history of these countries. Rather, there could and was an influence but the effect was not necessarily important in the present context. The Norwegian-Swedish comparison illustrates this. Regulation restricted the lending policies of savings banks in the latter country while it was quite liberal in the former. As a result, the Norwegian savings sector flourished and even took on the functions of commercial banks. In Sweden, on the other hand, it did only half as well and was overshadowed by the commercial sector, which in Norway was comparatively weak (Egge, 1983; Nordvik, 1993). Globally, however, the two countries achieved very similar results in terms of the assets gathered by the financial corporate sector as a whole, only through different structures. There are three ways in which the time-path of regulation could have influenced the evolution of commercial banking, yet in all of them a surprising degree of international uniformity is encountered. Barriers to entry is one of them. After a highly restrictive first half of the nineteenth century, which was dominated by specially chartered national privileged banks of issue created to deal with pressing monetary and fiscal problems, in the 1850s and 1860s it became relatively easy to found joint stock commercial banks with limited liability. This new ease of incorporation opened the system to competition, vastly increased the number of institutions and allowed them the freedom to open branches, which in some countries proliferated and in others not. The second area is that of the limits placed on the scope and type of business banks might undertake. Typically, rules defining lending policies were few and on the whole were quite liberal. In some cases, banks were simply governed by the general law on joint stock companies, while in others they were placed under a specific banking code (Grossman, 2001). Towards the end of the 19th century, however, and as a consequence of various crises, regulation was tightened in some countries, but it is unclear whether this entailed much change. The evidence is that the enforcement of bank legislation was on the whole lenient, in the spirit of Liberalism, and the institutions dealt with were often allowed to evade it when this was found expedient (Fritz, 1988). The ease with which Norwegian banks overcame the strictures of usury laws is an eloquent illustration of this (Knutsen, 2003). 17] Finally, a fully centralised note issuing regime does not appear to have produced results that were inferior, in terms of financial development, to those where multiple issue was in place. Despite the contemporary belief that commercial banks that had a right of issue enjoyed a business advantage over deposit banks, one finds instances of both regimes both in Scandinavia and southern Europe with no obvious impact on global financial performance. [18] Mortgage banking based on the issue of bonds, which was for profit in some countries, but not in others, displayed the most significant degree of regulatory variety. In Spain and Portugal, national monopolies were established from the start, while Italy experimented with regional ones and went over to a national one in 1890. They therefore tended all towards large loans and large denomination bonds. In Scandinavia, Sweden and Denmark were very liberal on this score, but Norway had a state mortgage bank. Table 5 reveals that in the long run, however, this mattered less to the respective shares of this sector than might be expected. In Denmark, mortgage bonds were very important but Sweden was on the level of the monopolistic countries, while Spain, with a similar set of rules, did frankly worse than all others, including Portugal,. When it comes to non-commercial, small scale, local and often cooperative banking, it is essential to remember first that this was a era in which two quite different types of saver supplied the resources of financial institutions and arguably constituted quite separate segments of the market (Verdier, 1996)[19]. The well-to-do deposited with or bought the shares of commercial banks, while middle and low income people prefered to entrust their savings to local savings banks, credit co-operatives and the like (Vittas, 1997). This being so, in societies where both kinds of institution had a significant presence, as happened in Scandinavia, the financial system was likely to collect a larger portion of savings. In Spain and Portugal, the weakness of the savings sector was such that it meant that a majority of the population in effect had little access to the system as a whole. Consequently, the volume of savings per capita gathered was smaller. Italy was able to do better than the Iberian peninsula because of a considerable and varied movement of thrift organisations prevalently in the northern half of the country that tapped, the savings of the humble and middle class people, whether rural or urban. It is far from evident, however, that national dissimilarities in legislative framework were responsible for this kind of institution to evolve to such contrasting extents. In all countries considered, thrift institutions were supported by local or national authorities in a variety of ways, with deposit guarantees and, perhaps most important of all, with tax exemptions. Arguably though, on the assumption that there was market segmentation, this would hardly have diverted funds from the commercial joint stock sector, which was the principal alternative. Until the 1880s, the general norm was absence of legislation, complete ease of entry, an enormous multiplicity of statutory arrangements and only slight restriction on the uses to which savings could be applied. Full and proper regulation had to await the 1880s 1875 in Sweden but, in the event, was of a very mild nature. [20] Supervision, accounting rules and some operating limits were introduced, against the solid resistance of the thrift institutions themselves, but by most accounts this barely influenced the sector’s level of activity (Bruck et al. , 1995; Hansen, 2001). One of the principal aims of regulation was to stimulate trust in the system by deterring irregularities and imposing transparency on its operations. As we have just seen, Scandinavias superiority in mobilising resources does not seem to have owed much to a better set of rules and regulations. From the publics point of view, a more reassuring indicator of trustworthiness was how a system performed, not its rules, and here stability of markets and institutions was doubtless the factor that would affect the inflow of savings. Whilst all countries were prone to turbulence and its savers and investors suffered losses as a result, between 1860 and the First World War, the southern European record seems to have been by far theworst. One instructive sign of this is the mortality of commercial banks. Complete data are only available for Spain, Italy and Denmark but are highly revealing. In Spain, aside from the earlier devastation wrought by the crisis of 1864-6, of the 117 banks founded after 1874, only 60 were still open in 1914 (Tortella, 1974). The losses to Italian commercial banking during three critical periods were similarly substantial: 42 out of the 143 in existence, in 1873-9; 21 out of the 161, in 1888-93; and 11 out of the 163, in 1902-4 (Mattia, 1967). In Denmark, of the 160 banks created between 1845 and 1914, only 20 failed. A second measure is the variance around the trend of a global systemic indicator such as total assets. Available information covers only the same three countries but the result, now comprehending all types of banks, fully confirms the earlier finding. [21] The stability of the Danish financial system was significantly greater than that of the Italian one, with the Spanish one a long way behind. If a stable financial environment meant anything to savers, then Scandinavia appears to have enjoyed a considerable from this point of view. Several factors can explain this contrast but two especially should command our attention. One is structure, the other is policy. As regards the first, Scandinavian economies enjoyed the benefit which, in southern Europe, Italy had over Portugal and Spain – of a relatively larger not-for-profit financial sector, which was less crisis prone than commercial banks. 22] This was due to several characteristics inherent in such institutions. They had better and cheaper information on the risks posed by clients, lower costs of administration and greater ease in enforcing repayments. Moreover they were less likely to suffer runs by depositors, who knew them well. In addition, they often enjoyed some form of group deposit-insurance, and normally enjoyed deposit guarantees from governments, local authorities or simply groups of local notables. Lastly, because unlike commercial banks they were not under pressure from shareholders to produce high dividends, they did not have to lend to projects with higher returns but also higher risks. Their image of conservatism more often than not was matched by reality even though they had to contend with the instability that is usually associated with a small scale. [23] Given how frequent and severe national bouts of financial instability could be, one has to ask whether domestic counter cyclical policies might not have influenced the attractiveness of these financial systems. As regards government intervention, the low priority given at the time to such policies rules out a significant role for this factor. On the other hand, national banks of issue were just beginning to play the part, informally, of money market regulators, something that would only be enshrined in their charters after the First World War. The timing of their assumption of lender of last resort status matches poorly the way in which these economies responded to financial shocks. In Denmark and Sweden, two highly stable systems, came to this early, between the 1860s and the 1870s, but so did in Portugal and Italy the Banca Nazionale, the Bank of Italy’s predecessor was already behaving as a bankers’ bank in the 1860s (Hansen, 1991; Lindgren and Sjogren, 2002; Reis, 1999; Polsi, 1996). On the other hand, Norway and Spain were both latecomers to this field, respectively in the late 1890s and just before the War and yet were at opposite ends of the league table for financial stability (Egge, 1983; Tortella, 1974). 24] While proto-central banking may not have been a major determinant of the closeness between savers and financial institutions, accessibility clearly was. The ease with which economic agents could approach the system mattered a great deal in establishing a relationship with it. One dimension was physical location, distance, ease of travel – and this was an important reason for the success of the Danish ‘parish savings ban ks’ (Guinnane and Henriksen, 1998). Another was the suitability for those involved of the institutions available to them. Savers would more readily supply an institution with funds if, other things being equal, they felt welcome, understood the procedures, knew the people they had to deal with and could easily satisfy burocratic requirements, e. g. minimum size of deposit. In other words, not all institutions and markets served equally well for everyone and this must have had an impact on the propensity to accept the liabilities offered by the system. As Table 8 shows, a considerable disparity existed during these years in the supply of outlets that each system offered. This is one more spect of the enormous distance that separated our two groups of countries, in this case the number of inhabitants per financial outlet, and also brings to light a ranking that matches exactly the ranking presented in table 1. In particular, Italy, which had a density five to eight times that of Portugal and Spain but was five times below the levels of Denmark, Norway or Sweden, had the financial system that managed to at tract the greatest volume of savings of southern Europe. Besides the number, the spatial distribution of these outlets also seems relevant. In Spain and Portugal, financial institutions were an urban phenomenon and were concentrated in the major centres. In Scandinavia, the opposite was the case. A large proportion of financial outlets was in small towns and hamlets. They were therefore close to country people, who were the majority of the country’s population. Thrift institutions were ‘local organizations, formed and run by local people to further what they saw as local goals’ (Guinnane and Henriksen, 1998: 52). . [table 8 about here] Altogether then, perhaps the most important factor in explaining differences in financial development lay in each society’s propensity to accept non-commercial banking in its midst. Scandinavia’s greater overall capacity to mobilise funds mainly derived from the strength of its thrift sector in all its forms, and this arose because so many people there were prepared to join these movements. Since this cannot be ascribed to major income dissimilarities, nor to diversity in regulation, nor even to the rise of central banking, only two explanations seem to remain available. Verdier’s (1996) standpoint is that it was political struggles that lay at the heart of the matter. In Denmark, Sweden and Norway, centrifugal political forces were important and prevented the state’s wish to centralize banking, thereby absorbing the resources of the periphery in order to finance central public expenditure. As a result decentralized thrift banking flourished. In the south of Europe, the opposite happened and consequently non-profit banking was suffocated by the pressure from a centralizing state intent on draining the financial resources of the periphery. There are two objections to this. The first is that what the state wanted these resources for was to finance the public debt, not central public expenditure, and here the contrast between the two regions could not have been greater. As we saw earlier, southern European countries were indeed voracious consumers in this respect. Secondly, we must also not ignore that in these countries finance for the public debt typically does not seem to have come from their peripheries, nor from provincial banks. Rather, it tended to be held personally and was accumulated at the centre, where saving propensities were apparently higher. This would explain why provincial commercial banking was able to expand in Portugal, Spain and Italy during this period, in spite of their huge public debt commitments (Reis, 2003). Perhaps a more fruitful enquiry should ask why, in the latter countries, except for a small group of wealthy and educated citizens, most of the provincial population appeared remote from institutional saving. For this we have to try and understand the roots of the stronger impulses in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to create small thrift organisations in terms of the stronger presence of certain social and cultural conditions in these countries (Guinnane, 1994; Galassi, 2000). A basic ingredient was trust, a form of social capital that involved a readiness to accept peer control and to enter into common ventures with other economic agents beyond one’s immediate social circle, which required that direct monitoring and control was left to others. Societies, like in Scandinavia, founded on a prosperous middle sized peasantry, that experienced successful agrarian reform at the end of the Ancien Regime, and where a more even distribution of income was present, seem to have provided an environment in which such attitudes could flourish. In contrast, apparently this was not the situation in Portugal and Spain, or Italy s south. In Italy, where in some regions only limited liability credit cooperatives (banche popolare) were common, by the 1880s clearly those in the south had much greater difficulty in attracting members’ and their deposits. As a result, they relied much more on share capital and rediscounts at large banks, and tended therefore to have to hide defaults in their accounts. This in turn exacerbated the problem of trust between members and management, the latter usually from a higher social stratum, and fostered a low-trust equilibrium (Ahearn, 2000). A second element in this approach emerges from the analysis of the early development of modern financial intermediaries, which appeared in Scandinavia already in the first half of the nineteenth century and which very much depended on the degree of human capital endowment present. Nilsson, Pettersen and Svensson (1999) have shown how literacy in the Swedish countryside before 1850 was associated with the rise in the use of sophisticated credit instruments and probably created a fertile seed-bed for the activity of localised credit institutions. Again, southern Europe was woefully behind in this field, with rates of illiteracy that were still 50 per cent or more in 1900 compared to negligible figures in their northern counterparts. A greater readiness on the part of Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to accept contract money, particularly in small denominations, may be another expression of this cultural dimension. 25] Finally, one should not neglect the influence of the strength of local sentiment in this matter. Its importance has been remarked upon a propos of Denmark (Hansen, 1982), as it has in the case of Italy, the only southern economy where local thrift organizations developed to a significant degree (Polsi, 1996). 5. Why Scandinavian systems recycled liabil ities better In comparing national differences in financial intermediation, the second major question of this paper has to do with the efficiency with which the funds gathered by each system were transformed into credits to the private sector. From this point of view, three circumstances help us understand the efficiency loss of about one half the measures the distance in this respect between the two groups of countries. Possibly the most important one was the more or less chronic difficulty associated with public finance in southern Europe, in contrast to its generally healthy condition in Scandinavia. For the former, this meant a crushing weight of Public Debt holdings and a scant application of these resources to growth inducing purposes. For the second group, not only was this burden far lighter but the resources thus absorbed were also used more effectively for investment. A further implication, of a more structural nature, was that the problem of an oversized public debt stimulated the emergence in Italy, Spain and Portugal of oversized national banks of issue, which dominated their respective commercial banking sectors, as we saw in section 3, and were the least efficient of all corporate institutions at recycling funds into credits. Why Italy, Spain and Portugal should have been consistently unable to break the grip of budget deficits and of a pyramiding Public Debt is an issue which plunges its roots deeply into the 19th century political, social and military histories of these countries. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do justice here to such a complex problem. One should note, however, that unstable political institutions, a weak public administration and an excessively powerful military were present in the region throughout the period, unlike what happened in the Scandinavian periphery. As a result, southern European governments found it hard to discipline expenditure, whilst the revenue-to-GDP elasticity tended to be very low as a result of the public administration’s incapacity to increase revenue sufficiently and diversify its sources. A strong military tended to embroil the country in occasional internal or external costly conflicts that had to be paid for mostly by means of fiscal and monetary unorthodoxy, and was an ever present factor of political instability. Public borrowing in itself was not the difficulty, since the Scandinavians engaged in it without harm. What was dammaging about it to the southern Europeans was its scale, which dwarfed other efforts at mobilising resources, and its use largely to pay off earlier borrowing and maintain a costly ineffective machinery of government. Negative structural effects on southern Europe were not confined to the politically motivated â€Å"excessive† development of their national banks of issue. The socio-cultural reasons that explained the greater prevalence in Scandinavian financial systems of thrift institutions can also be invoked here in explaining their higher global transformation ratios encountered in table 6 above. Less clear, on the other hand, is whether these factors also help explain the fact that, in every type of institution, this region unmistakably led southern Europe in terms of capacity to recycle its liabilities into credit. Two features of the financial environment appear more helpful in this respect. The first is the difference in the degree of risk that financial institutions had to face. This made it possible for the Scnadinavian ones to immobilise smaller proportions of total assets as reserves, or to avoid tying up resources in safe state bonds. The goals and the quality of management is the second circumstnace to account for differences in the proportion of idle assets in the portfolios of corporate financial institutions. Possibly, southern European managers were simply reacting reasonably to a riskier investment climate by allocating funds with greater prudence and conservatism than Scandinavian ones needed to. On the other hand, it has been hypothesized (Berthelemy and Varoudakis, 1996: 301) that ‘the technical efficiency of the financial sector is an increasing function of the collected volume of savings [and] that learning-by-doing effects also exist in intermediation activities’. Poor management has been claimed for both Portugal and Spain (Reis, n. d. ; Sudria, 1994) though comparisons with Scandinavia have yet to be carried out and the case therefore remains open. As regards Portugal in particular, it has been shown, following Hinderlitter and Rockoff (19.. ), that, after taking risk differences into account, the share of unused funds in the balance sheet of commercial banks was greater than could be justified by reference to practices in contemporary major financial centres. Finally, the high returns on government issued liabilities in southern European caused resources to be diverted away from private credit operations in contrast to Scandinavia where the yield of such holdings was comparatively less attractive and better alternative investment opportunities seem to have been more numerous. 6. Conclusion During the course of the long second half of the 19th century, the southern and the northern peripheries of Europe followed contrasting paths of financial development. This led to quite disparate results in the supply of credit to the non-state non-bank part of their economies and justifies perhaps speaking of a â€Å"Scandinavian†, as opposed to a â€Å"southern European† type of financial system. Having quantified these differences, this paper argues that the gap is large enough to justify the view that finance contributed to the divergence in economic growth between the two regions. To address the reasons for the substantial efficiency differential between southern European and Scandinavian financial systems, it was necessary to break this down into the two basic functions that financial systems carry out. One concerned the mobilization of savings as financial liabilities of these systems. The second revolved around the conversion of these liabilities into credits to the non-financial private sector. Southern European countries were losers in both instances. The analysis of the first of these brought to light that Scandinavian institutions were capable of mobilizing comparatively more resources than their southern counterparts, the exception being in state bonds, where the latter led by a clear margin. The second dimension of this study revealed that Scandinavian institutions were also capable, type by type but equally in toto, of extracting a larger quantity of credit from their laibilities in order to make them available to the productive sectors of the economy. To some extent these contrasts were caused by endogenous conditions. The simple fact is that Italy, Portugal and Spain were consistently poorer and were becoming increasingly so. This affected their volume of savings but also probably lessened the demand for the financial outlets that enabled savers to recycle these funds as institutional financial liabilities. On the other hand, exogenous factors probably also played an important part in helping to understand fully the process of financial development in these two regions. Essentially, three aspects are involved here. Regulatory conditions have loomed large in many analyses of this type but do not appear to have had a significant impact on the global outcomes picked up here, although they probably shaped some of the structural differences observed. A much stronger case can be made instead for the part of political, social and cultural factors in driving a wedge between the financial development paths that we have observed above. The last two were instrumental in leading to a greater development in Scandinavia of the non-commercial bank sector. This was responsible for diversifying the supply of financial outlets, attracting an much greater volume of savings per capita and then ensuring that a larger proportion of such funds became available for investment purposes. In all their complexity, political factors probably mattered most of all because they translated savings into a huge mass of state issued liabilities that stifled the expansion of the other parts of the system in the southern countries. At the same time, having helped to mobilize these funds, politics then became responsible for their sterilisation as financial instruments. When all is taken into account, it is this which perhaps explains the best part of the great financial divide between our two sets of countries. Of politics it can always be said that it might have been otherwise and this may seem a trivial conclusion. To claim this, however, would be to ignore the fact politics and institutions have long histories too and that path dependency is not solely the preserve of economic phenomena. References A’Hearn, B. (2000). Could southern Italians cooperate? Banche Popolari in the Mezzogiorno. Journal of Economic History 60, pp. 67-93. Aleotti, A. (1990). Borsa e Industria. 1869-1989: Cento Anni di Rapporti Difficili. : Edizioni di Comunita. Beck, T. , Levine, R. and Loayza, N. (2000). Finance and the sources of growth. Journal of Financial Economics 58, pp. 261-300. Berthelemy, J. C. and Varoudakis, A. (1996). Economic growth, convergence clubs and the role of financial development. Oxford Economic Papers 48, pp. 300-28. Broder, A. (1976). Les investissements etrangers en Espagne au XIXe siecle: methodologie et quantification. Revue d’Histoire Economique et Sociale 54, pp. 29-63. Bruck, C. (ed. ). (1995). Les Caisses dEpargne en Europe. Paris: Editions de l’Epargne, 2 vols. Calomiris, C. (1995). The Costs of Rejecting Universal Banking: American Finance in the German Mirror, 1870-1914 in N. Lamoureaux and D. M. Graff (eds), The Coordination of Activity within and between Firms (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Cameron, R. (1967). Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization. New York: Oxford University Press. Cameron, R. (ed. ). (1992). Fina

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Different Types of Metaphors

Different Types of Metaphors Metaphors arent merely the candy sprinkles on the doughnut of language, not just embellishments to the music of poetry and prose. Metaphors are ways of thinking- and also ways of shaping the thoughts of others. All people, every day, speak and write, and think in metaphors. In fact, its hard to imagine how people would get by without them. And because figurative comparisons lie at the heart of language and thought, they have been picked apart by scholars in a variety of disciplines. Types of Metaphors There are countless ways of looking at metaphors, thinking about them, and using them. There are countless ways of looking at metaphors, thinking about them, and using them. But in deference to the metaphorical blackbirds of Wallace Stevens (The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds./It was a small part of the pantomime), here are a few of them. Absolute: A metaphor in which one of the terms (the tenor) cant be readily distinguished from the other (the vehicle).Complex: A metaphor in which the literal meaning is expressed through more than one figurative term (a combination of primary metaphors).Conceptual: A metaphor in which one idea (or conceptual domain) is understood in terms of another.Conventional: A familiar comparison that doesnt call attention to itself as a figure of speech.Creative: An original comparison that calls attention to itself as a figure of speech.Dead: A figure of speech that has lost its force and imaginative effectiveness through frequent use.Extended: A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.Mixed: A succession of incongruous or ludicrous comparisons.Primary: A basic intuitively understood metaphor such as knowing is seeing or time is motion that may be combined with other primary metaphors to produce complex metaphors. Root: An image, narrative, or fact that shapes an individuals perception of the world and interpretation of reality.Submerged: A type of metaphor in which one of the terms (either the vehicle or tenor) is implied rather than stated explicitly.Therapeutic: A metaphor used by a therapist to assist a client in the process of personal transformation.Visual: The representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by way of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity. Regardless of the types of metaphors you favor, keep in mind Aristotles observation 2,500 years ago in Rhetoric: Those words are most pleasant which give us new knowledge. Strange words have no meaning for us; common terms we know already. It is metaphor which gives us most of this pleasure.