Result of Survey About Consumer's Buying Preferences towards Essay

Result of Survey About Consumer's Buying Preferences towards Technological Goods Produced using Sustainable Business Practices - Essay Example II. Introduction Knowing the preference of a market or determining how will consumer respond towards a certain good is critical to a business success especially when it is about to introduce a product in the market. The information regarding the market’s preference, behaviour or response towards a certain product is critical because this will give the company an idea whether to push through with the product or not and if ever it will push through with the product, on how will it position itself in the market that would optimize its success. In the case of this paper, the research will determine the consumer buying preference towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Albeit it is ideal to produce products using sustainable business practices, it is not yet known whether there will be a business incentive in terms of market acceptance in the market of Dubai towards green products. This paper will attempt to determine Consumer buying preferences t owards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices and if they are, what particular consumer demographics are susceptible to it so that a company can focus on a particular segment of the market to optimize its success. III. Description of methodology The information used in research paper came from primary data through the form of a survey. The survey had 40 respondents from the Dubai market. The demographics of the market are consumers age 30-60 above, who have a source of income of USD 20,000 to USD 59,000 that ranged from single people to couples with family. Suffice to say that the respondents were a fair representative of consumers of technological goods. The purpose of the survey however was to determine their preference towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. Albeit it is the ideal business practice, it is yet to be determined if sustainable business practice can translate to sales and ultimately profit. The survey came in the form of a questionnaire which requires respondents to indicate their age, gender, approximate annual income and civil status. The questionnaires were designed to be simple to easily determine consumer response towards technological goods produced using sustainable business practices. IV. Analysis of the data from the survey The result of the survey was an eye opener as well as encouraging. For one, there are already segments in the market who particularly conscious about the company’s business practice and in fact has a bearing in their purchase decisions. Survey result showed that the age group 35 to 39 and 40 to 44 strongly agreed that consumer should completely stop buying products that are unsustainable to the environment. This indicates that a particular segment in the market has a strong opinion about the environment friendliness of a product. This is being supported by another statistical data that these age groups are responsive to the environmentally sustaina ble practice of a company. Age group 35 to 39, 40 to 44 and 45 to 49 proved to be willing to pay extra as long as the product/s is/are environmentally friendly. They would also ask or inquire about the business practice of a company of which they deemed to be important in the decision making process of purchasing their electronic goods. Consumers also do not merely associate environment friendliness to energy consumption because respondents on all age group did

Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses Research Paper

Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses - Research Paper Example If the nurse fails to observe her duty with sincerity, it would become very difficult for the doctors to perform their jobs. A professional nurse must be competent enough to meet the standards defined by clinics and hospitals and must have proper education regarding the field (Blais, 2006). A professional nurse must reflect professionalism from her attitude and behavior towards the assigned responsibilities. It is of extreme importance that the nurses are sincere to their job and duties because they have got many lives at stake (Child & Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2004). Nursing has been stereotyped with many other characters and professions. It is a general conception that nurses are only female and if male nurses are seen in the profession, they are generally resembled to female and are considered gay. Male nurses are usually not treated with the same respect that they deserve. It is a common belief that the people who adopt nursing are dropouts from universities and are failures (S. Summers & H. Summers, 2009). It is also considered that students who are weak in their studies and are not interested in studying are sent to study nursing. It is also considered that the nurses are working for the doctor, whereas actually they work under the doctor’s guidance and have the responsibility to update the doctor. In reality nurses are figures of sincere devotion, care, patience and strength. The strength, sincerity, feeling of care, love for the people and selflessness are some attributes that should be present in a nurse (Chitty & Black, 2011). The nurse plays a major role in curing the patient by providing the patient with psychological support and reviving the patients who have lost hope to recover. It is one of the major roles played by a nurse, which is generally not known by the people. Oftentimes a nurse can do what doctors cannot. Doctors can only treat the patient with medicines, but the psychological support can only be given by the nurse, and that plays a major role in curing the patient. A nurse also plays a role of a teacher. She helps the patient to get to know about their health condition in detail. This role is not known by many people in general either (Guine?e, 1970). My role model in nursing is Callista Roy. She is a complete woman and an outstanding nurse who has strived to serve the patients with all her heart and soul. Her views and concepts regarding this profession are very unique and practical. It is a general misconception that nurses have a very easy job as they just follow the doctor’s order. Nurses are responsible for doing much more than that. They have the responsibility to support the patient throughout his recovery process, remain attentive and alert during their entire working time in order to take timely actions which could otherwise lead to serious consequences. Their sincere duty can save lives while on the other hand, any mishandling or irresponsibility can lead to death of patients concerne d. They are obliged to remain aware of the patient’s conditions more than a doctor and update the doctors regularly (Blais, 2006). It is the core responsibility of a nurse to treat patients without any discrimination of cast, color or creed. A nurse must see each patient as a suffering human only and nothing other than that (Allen, 2001). A nurse

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Essay Example for Free

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Essay In his book, ‘post-traumatic stress disorder source book’, Schiraldi, Glenn identifies three major causes of post-traumatic stress disorder. These are, â€Å"intentional Human causes (the most difficult to recover from), unintentional Human causes and the acts of Nature (least complex and can be resolved quickly)† (Schiraldi, 2000: pg.4). The intentional human causes include those traumatic events that are intentionally caused or triggered by humans. These events include war, rape, physical torture, robbery with violence, use of bombs and explosions, killing someone, kidnapping and holding others hostage. Unintentional human causes involve those traumatic events that occur accidentally. These include car accidents, plane crash, collapse of a building, fire and exposure to nuclear reactants. There are also post-traumatic stress disorders that are caused by events of nature. These natural catastrophes are always more severe and disastrous. It includes earthquakes, flood, drought, outbreak of certain diseases, hurricanes and occurrence of volcanic activities. Other cause that may trigger post-traumatic stress disorder involves the changes in the normal biochemical rate in the brain which results to a condition known as Neuroendocrinology. Apart from this condition, morphological changes in the brain have also been identified as another cause of post-traumatic stress disorder. Various studies have shown that the existence of amygdale in the brain usually result to the development of emotional flashbacks. These flashbacks are mainly those related to worry and horror. Genetics have also been identified as another cause leading to post-traumatic stress disorder. Various studies in genetics have shown that some characteristics that are possessed by a parent who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are sometimes passed on to the children. These characteristics that are usually passed to the children include violence and aggressiveness. Signs and symptoms: The signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder usually manifest itself within three to four months following the trauma. In other cases, these symptoms might last for a year or even several years. The symptoms in most cases manifest in various ways as discussed below. 1) Recurring memories: Memories and experiences of the real traumatic event usually re-emerge in form of dreams, images and thoughts. The re-emergence of these memories is usually unexpected and the victim usually undergoes difficult moment since the memories are so hard to bear. Such memories in most cases inflict feelings of fear to the victim, anger and also guilt. In his book, Schiraldi Glenn provides an example to this scenario by stating that, â€Å"a survivor of a Russian prisoner-of –war camp often daydreams, absorbed in unpleasant memories and out of touch with his surroundings. A number of cues can trigger this re-experience, including thin soup, walking in the woods, Russian music, a harsh rebuke by a supervisor, or any unpleasant confrontation. Sometimes there is no apparent connection to the thoughts or feelings that are replayed,† (Schiraldi, 2000: pg 7). Recurring memories usually manifest in terms of nightmares. These nightmares in most cases reflect the accurate traumatic events or almost similar events as those of the real trauma. Most individuals who experience nightmares in most cases do not get enough sleep as they are being interrupted by the imaginations. Recurring memories can also manifest in terms of flash backs. Flash backs makes an individual feel as if the real traumatic events are being revived and can influence the behavior and the feelings of an individual. 2) Arousal: Post-traumatic stress disorder is also characterized by over reaction of an individual to any event that seems to cause panic. The victims’ reaction becomes spontaneous due to the sensitivity of the nervous system as a result of destructive traumatic events. The reaction of an individual to even smaller interruptions is as spontaneous as the bigger ones. As a result of arousal, an individual usually develops difficulties in falling asleep, lacks concentration, becomes short tempered, overcautious, develops fear to the recurrence of the same event, becomes over expectant to disasters and overprotective. 3) Avoidance or numbing: Because the thoughts of traumatic events are very painful to most of the victims, most people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder usually look for various ways of avoiding the reminders to such events. In most cases, they avoid talking about it while in other instances they restrict their minds from thinking about such events. Most of the victims therefore end up staying indoors to avoid coming in contact to reminders of the tragic events. 4) The normal routine of an individual is disrupted: One losses interest in his/her future ambitions due to too much cautiousness and the avoidance of exploring different avenues and mingling with other people to gain more knowledge. Victims of post-traumatic stress disorder are therefore in most cases locked in their own world. Treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder: Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is mainly aimed at relieving symptoms because there is no treatment that can completely wipe out the post-traumatic stress disorder. Treatment can therefore be achieved by use of two methods. These include use of drugs and non-drug treatment methods. Non-drug treatments involve the following; a) Cognitive therapy: It is believed that different ways of thinking can lead to various mental disorders including the post-traumatic stress disorder. Therefore, during the cognitive therapy, the patient is advised on various thinking patterns and how to avoid false perceptions and thoughts. They are also thought on the importance of thinking positively and constructively. At the end of every session, each and every patient is given an assignment to go and try it out at home (http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain). b) Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: This treatment usually involves therapist asking the patient to think about any traumatic occurrence. As the patient is thinking about the event, the therapist moves his/her fingers so that the patient can follow it with his/her eyes (Schmeltzer Bhagar, 2007). It is not clear how this treatment works but after a couple of therapy session, most of the patients are no longer worried by the thoughts of the event. c) Individual Help: This involves all the individuals having the same signs coming up together. The patients can then share their experiences and learn from one another on the possible ways of overcoming the trauma. Medication treatment: a) Antidepressant drugs: These drugs are in real sense used in the treatment of depression but it has also been found out to suppress the post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. They usually work by blocking the chemicals in the brain that lead to the development of the symptoms. These drugs usually take two to four weeks or even months before their results can be noticed. b) Benzodiazepines: These drugs are used for short term mainly to reduce the chances of an individual not falling asleep and also to get rid of those symptoms leading to sleep interruptions. The problem with this drug is that they are not effective if taken for a longer period of time. The patient is supposed to use it within two to three weeks (Rose Armstrong 1997). Prevention: Post-traumatic stress can be prevented by employing the following measures; 1) Debriefing: This technique is usually employed to soldiers after war and also to those victims that underwent through events of natural catastrophes (Schmeltzer Bhagar, 2007). It mainly involves victims exchanging feelings and thoughts about the tragic event. 2) Immediate therapy: Studies have shown that incase an individual is provided with therapy within the first two weeks of trauma, the chances of individual developing long term post-traumatic stress disorder is drastically reduced. 3) Taking short medication drugs: Drugs such as benzodiazepine when taken by the victim immediately, the chances of him/her developing long-term symptoms is also reduced. Conclusion: Though most of the victims of post-traumatic stress take long to experience the symptoms; it is very crucial that an individual who is suffering from trauma seek for help immediately. The treatment that the victim is able to obtain will be very useful as it will suppress the long term symptoms from re-emerging. Victims of trauma that usually don’t get treatment can be completely crippled by the post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Some victims may feel guilt of surviving a tragic event or not providing enough assistance to those who perished. These may negatively affect on the normalcy of an individual.

Transcontinental Runs :: Running Athletics Papers

Transcontinental Runs One of the most distinct features of humans exists in the fact that we are innately motivated to achieve certain goals. We are in essence a species of curiosity, always testing how much stress we can take both mentally and physically. There have been many people over the years that tested their mental and physical states, but few can say they put their very existence to the limit like James Shapiro and Bhaktimarga Swami. Shapiro, an American runner and author, completed a virtually solo run across the United States in 1980, covering 3,026 miles in eighty days of trials and tribulations.(Shapiro preface) Swami, a Hare Krishna monk in Canada, is well on his way to completing his trek across his native land.(Internet 96) It was the age of 33 in 1980 when Shapiro started to run from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.(Shapiro preface) While the distance of over three thousand miles seems near impossible, Shapiro had plenty of experience in ultra-running prior to his trip. He began running in his early youth, participating on his schools’ track teams. He enjoyed little success in these early races but was confident that one day he would find a long distance where he could excel. In 1975, after witnessing the Boston Marathon, Shapiro decided that he would run a marathon himself. Five years and thousands of miles later Shapiro had run several marathons and even ultramarathons up to fifty miles long. But the thought of the solo venture across America was not a glimmer in Shapiro's eye until he met two runners who had run the length of England across America. He then made it a point to train twenty miles a day for eight weeks up until his departure in July of 1980.(Shapiro preface) If he finish ed he would join a select group of twelve living runners that have mastered comparable runs.(Shapiro preface) After catching a one way flight to California from his native state of New York, Shapiro settled on Dillon Beach as his starting point for its beauty and openness.(Shapiro preface) Shapiro was going to have to get used to this sense of openness, for except for parts of Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming where a car accompanied him for hydration purposes, he would be traveling the open lands of America alone. "It was scary to sense how alone I was going to be and how much I would have to live with myself, and be comfortable doing so.

Because It Is Running by

Because It Is Running By – 2. Delprove A. â€Å"This is Edie, Wil, said his mother. She’s going to be helping me out. [†¦] When was this decided? he said. † Edie meets Wil, opposites meet. In Because It Is Running By these two main characters, Wil and Edie, meet when Wil’s mother hires Edie to help out with some chores. As the first quote might allude to, Wil is not very happy with Edie coming into his life. Eventually Wil seems to accept Edie as they spend some time together and get to talk. One thing leads to another and one day Wil invites Edie out and buys her a drink. When Wil realizes that Edie is leaving soon, he accuses his mother of throwing Edie out of the house. Edie is heading for Marrakesh, Morocco and, as the text ends, Wil is with Edie and Wil suggests that he could go to Morocco. Wil is a young man who is not in his teenage years anymore. He lives with his mother and has probably done so most of his life. We know that he has never left Great Britain and, at this point, the only woman in his life is his mother. We don’t know much of Edie’s past. We only know of where she is now and where she’s going. These two main characters have completely different approaches to life. Edie is staying with his mother where everything is safe, while Edie dares to enter new areas unknowing of what will happen. â€Å"Never been abroad. Never been on an aeroplane. I’m just a fucking peasant. † â€Å"Don’t do that, she said. † â€Å"I seen you thinking it, he said. With your Pernod and your fancy accent† [†¦] â€Å"I think you are where you are. † I think this is a very interesting dialogue between Wil and Edie, which gives us some idea of who our main characters are, especially Wil. Wil is very much aware of his lifestyle, within the safety borders, and the dialogue might indicate that he is somewhat ashamed of it. When later, he says that â€Å"I could go to Morocco†, he is probably fascinated by Edie and her way of life. He wants to see what happens if you leave the comfort zone. All in all, the last sentence of the text basically sums up Wil’s way of life: â€Å"[†¦] things continuing in the same way. † While Edie is the opposite who has only been at their place during summer, until she is moving on to another distant location – which is fascinating to Wil. There are several themes in this text: relationship between a mother and her son, relationship between a boy and a girl. But in my opinion the main theme is breaking the comfort zone or, as the old Latin phrase goes, Carpe Diem – seize the day. Wil probably had his reasons for living with his mom, but if you’re too scared to go anywhere else, who knows, you might just end up dying as the same â€Å"fucking peasant† that you have been your entire life. The title of the text, Because It Is Running By, could refer to Wil who is just letting life run by, instead of getting the best out of it and becoming a part of it. Text 4, Making the decision to take a gap year, deals with this matter. There are many things to worry about when leaving the comfort zone, such as loneliness and language problems. But all these factors are just a part of the adventure that life is supposed to be. You can’t know what experiences you’re missing out if you’re well pleased with where you are. It’s our life and our responsibility to get the best out of it – seize the day or die regretting the time you lost. Picture 1, Desired Freedom, shows a man leaning, with his arms, against the window and a dove painted on the wall. Like Wil and Edie; the man and the dove are opposites. Since there are no bars on the window we can conclude that he is not in prison. But then again, this man has probably imprisoned himself, by not living life to the fullest. He has only spectated life from the sidelines, but he doesn’t dare to go to the other side of that window and experience what it’s like. The dove, on the other hand, is completely free. And the dove knows what to do to survive. Its mother might have fed it at first, but eventually it has to live life on its own. Even if that means going to dangerous territories to find food, the dove knows that it must be done in order to survive. It doesn’t wait in its own prison and end up dying in regret. Which way of life would you rather imitate? B. Because It Is Running By is a text which is basically built up of dialogues, with remarks from a narrator. Since there are many dialogues in the text, it is written in colloquial language. That means a large amount of very short sentences, which aren’t necessarily grammatically correct. An example of this is the above-mentioned dialogue: â€Å"Never been abroad. Never been on an aeroplane. I’m just a fucking peasant. † â€Å"Don’t do that, she said. † â€Å"I seen you thinking it, he said. † However, typical slang used in colloquial language, such as â€Å"gonna† and â€Å"wanna† is not used in the text. The text is not written with formal language and there are very few difficult words. The text can be rather annoying to read, due to the fact that there are many stops throughout the text, caused by small sentences. Also, Wil often jumps from one subject to another, which can be frustrating for the reader. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Song: Avenged Sevenfold – Seize The Day

East Orchids

THE CASE STUDY OF EAST ORCHIDS AREAS OF CONSIDERATION: The East Orchids is an orchid farm in the campus grounds of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. It was formally opened on May 31, 1989, by Mr. and Mrs. Max Prieto. East Orchids sold both cut flowers and plants. As a typical with orhidariums, the farm has a 3,000 sq. m. Canopy enclosure of green netting that covering a huge inventory of orchids. HISTORY The Prieto’s family was one of the prominent families in Davao, where Mr. Prieto was a former mayor. It was during the term of Mr. Prieto that his wife Princess became interested in orchids. The decision to breed orchids was very arbitrary and definitely not for the purpose of putting up a business. The East Orchids was started as a hobby of Mrs. Prieto before it was organized as a business. She got curious when her friends were into orchids. She bought a couple and decided to try to take care of them just for fun until she became obsessed with them. She treated the orchids like her babies that she felt that she just had to take care of them. Mrs. Prieto’s orchid collection grew. Soon, the orchids filled the entire garden and were running over into their driveway and some of them had to place outside the house. Soon, neigbors and nearby flower shops were offering to buy cut flowers from her. At first, she simply gave the flowers but as the offer increased she began selling these. It was when the orchids alarmed to take over every living space in the home of family Prietos that Mrs. Prieto decided to sell the whole plants. Because of enormous money was coming into their way, they started to think about orchids as a business. In 1989, when the Prieto’s family moved to Manila due to Mr. Prieto’s commitment, they also made up their minds to lease 5,000 sq. m. of land from University of the Philippines at the lease price of P12,000. 00 a year. They invested to clear up the land which was originally the garbage dump and for the net enclosure and putting other facilities to start their business. OBJECTIVE The Prieto’s family is planning for the expansion of their orchid farm in either Davao or Los Banos and Antipolo. The goal of this case is to determine if the East Orchids has the capabilities to exploit such opportunities. S. W. O. T. ANALYSIS The strengths the EAST ORCHIDS †¢The price is a bit lower than other competitors which will attract more customers to buy on them. †¢The overhead expenses are much lower †¢The location is very accessible The weaknesses of the EAST ORCHIDS †¢No internal control in the business and the owner has no management background †¢The owner is lenient in financial aspects of the business †¢No business plan was made before starting the Orchids farm, just started out as the hobby. †¢The workers are not well-trained The opportunities of the EAST ORCHIDS The East Orchids has the greater chance to expand if just to have proper management and new technologies and skills to improve the cultivation of orchids at minimal cost †¢It can compete to others because of low prices †¢The orchids are saleable even the onset of the rainy season doesn’t seem to threaten a reductions in sales The threats of the EAST ORCHIDS †¢The workers might hike because they are not-well compensated †¢There are no new technologies in improving the orchids growing †¢ The approaching termination of the lease contract to University of the Philippines. COURSE OF ALTERNATIVE TO DETERMINE THE OBJECTIVES ALTERNATIVESADVANTAGESDISADVANTAGES 1. )Training program and study for the expansion of orchid farmsThe owner should broaden her knowledge in cultivating the orchids though she already had personal experience in raising the orchids. The owner should attend proper training in order to cut costs and know some new technologies to improve her orchid’s farm. And also she should study on how to run a business and have basic accounting knowledge. She should know the operations of her business and focus on the financial aspects. If she will attend the training and seminars regarding orchids business it will be expensive and time consuming on her part. 2. )Hire an expert or managerIn expanding the East Orchids, it should have a manager, who is knowledgeable about orchids business and have a management background, to help the owner in managing the business because it is already a big business to handle by an owner who has no formal training on orchid growing and business management. Additional employee which may ask for a high salary and the owner has no control to run the business all by herself because has to consider the opinion of the manager first. . )Evaluating the operations of the business and make a business plan for expansionTo determine business plan will make a business success. The owner should evaluate first the business operation if it is doing well and know what should have to do to meet the goal. In determining the financial aspects of the business the owner will see the capabilities of the co mpany to expand or not. It will hold back the expansion due to procedure in evaluating and making a business plan and also it will be expensive RECOMMENDATIONS Alternative no. , there should be proper evaluation of the financial statements of the East Orchids to determine the cash position and the results of the operations. And SWOT analysis should be taken into consideration so that Mrs. Prieto should understand her business she would know what these are and how to improve such weaknesses and how to combat the threats on her business. CONCLUSIONS Some additional questions that must be taken into consideration that might help in expanding their business are: 1. Is East Orchids really a profitable enterprise? If it is so, do the margins justify the company’s existence? If not, what justifies the company’s existence? Based on Figure 1 below shows that the company has very minimal margins and that margins do not justify the company’s existence if it will continue to be like that. The East Orchids should so something about their business operation and what strategies to be apply for them to boost their revenues. EAST ORCHIDS UP Compound, Diliman, Quezon City Sales:(average sales for 3 months 200,000 x 4 quarters)P 800,000. 00 less: Cost ( 30% of sales) 240,000. 00 Gross Sales 560,000. 00 less: Operating expenses Salaries (10 boys @ P1,200. 00x 12 months)P 144,000. 0 Ferilizer ( P 5,000 x 12 months) 60,000. 00 Water bill ( P 6,000 x 12 months) 72,000. 00 Electric bill (P15,000 x 12 months) 180,000. 00 456,000. 00 Estimated Net incomeP 104,000. 00 2. How is Mrs. Prieto, who is not a trained orchid or businesswoman, able to compete with established orchid growers? Mrs. Prieto has interest, skills and talents in growing business and she is a ble compete in the sense that she has this marketing strategy of lower prices which attracts the customers to buy orchids to East Orchids. 3. Should the Prietos push through with their plans to expand their business? Would such expansion compatible with the Mrs. Prieto’s current method of managing the business? I think the Prietos should hold back first their plans to expand their business until they see the problem with their business. Mrs Prieto’s current method of managing the business is not compatible if they will expand because it will require proper accounting system and competent manager who knows the orchid farms operation. 4. Is she a true entrepreneur? Mrs. Prieto is not a true entrepreneur although she has interest and skills in growing orchids but her attitude does not illustrate being a true entrepreneur. East Orchids THE CASE STUDY OF EAST ORCHIDS AREAS OF CONSIDERATION: The East Orchids is an orchid farm in the campus grounds of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. It was formally opened on May 31, 1989, by Mr. and Mrs. Max Prieto. East Orchids sold both cut flowers and plants. As a typical with orhidariums, the farm has a 3,000 sq. m. Canopy enclosure of green netting that covering a huge inventory of orchids. HISTORY The Prieto’s family was one of the prominent families in Davao, where Mr. Prieto was a former mayor. It was during the term of Mr. Prieto that his wife Princess became interested in orchids. The decision to breed orchids was very arbitrary and definitely not for the purpose of putting up a business. The East Orchids was started as a hobby of Mrs. Prieto before it was organized as a business. She got curious when her friends were into orchids. She bought a couple and decided to try to take care of them just for fun until she became obsessed with them. She treated the orchids like her babies that she felt that she just had to take care of them. Mrs. Prieto’s orchid collection grew. Soon, the orchids filled the entire garden and were running over into their driveway and some of them had to place outside the house. Soon, neigbors and nearby flower shops were offering to buy cut flowers from her. At first, she simply gave the flowers but as the offer increased she began selling these. It was when the orchids alarmed to take over every living space in the home of family Prietos that Mrs. Prieto decided to sell the whole plants. Because of enormous money was coming into their way, they started to think about orchids as a business. In 1989, when the Prieto’s family moved to Manila due to Mr. Prieto’s commitment, they also made up their minds to lease 5,000 sq. m. of land from University of the Philippines at the lease price of P12,000. 00 a year. They invested to clear up the land which was originally the garbage dump and for the net enclosure and putting other facilities to start their business. OBJECTIVE The Prieto’s family is planning for the expansion of their orchid farm in either Davao or Los Banos and Antipolo. The goal of this case is to determine if the East Orchids has the capabilities to exploit such opportunities. S. W. O. T. ANALYSIS The strengths the EAST ORCHIDS †¢The price is a bit lower than other competitors which will attract more customers to buy on them. †¢The overhead expenses are much lower †¢The location is very accessible The weaknesses of the EAST ORCHIDS †¢No internal control in the business and the owner has no management background †¢The owner is lenient in financial aspects of the business †¢No business plan was made before starting the Orchids farm, just started out as the hobby. †¢The workers are not well-trained The opportunities of the EAST ORCHIDS The East Orchids has the greater chance to expand if just to have proper management and new technologies and skills to improve the cultivation of orchids at minimal cost †¢It can compete to others because of low prices †¢The orchids are saleable even the onset of the rainy season doesn’t seem to threaten a reductions in sales The threats of the EAST ORCHIDS †¢The workers might hike because they are not-well compensated †¢There are no new technologies in improving the orchids growing †¢ The approaching termination of the lease contract to University of the Philippines. COURSE OF ALTERNATIVE TO DETERMINE THE OBJECTIVES ALTERNATIVESADVANTAGESDISADVANTAGES 1. )Training program and study for the expansion of orchid farmsThe owner should broaden her knowledge in cultivating the orchids though she already had personal experience in raising the orchids. The owner should attend proper training in order to cut costs and know some new technologies to improve her orchid’s farm. And also she should study on how to run a business and have basic accounting knowledge. She should know the operations of her business and focus on the financial aspects. If she will attend the training and seminars regarding orchids business it will be expensive and time consuming on her part. 2. )Hire an expert or managerIn expanding the East Orchids, it should have a manager, who is knowledgeable about orchids business and have a management background, to help the owner in managing the business because it is already a big business to handle by an owner who has no formal training on orchid growing and business management. Additional employee which may ask for a high salary and the owner has no control to run the business all by herself because has to consider the opinion of the manager first. . )Evaluating the operations of the business and make a business plan for expansionTo determine business plan will make a business success. The owner should evaluate first the business operation if it is doing well and know what should have to do to meet the goal. In determining the financial aspects of the business the owner will see the capabilities of the co mpany to expand or not. It will hold back the expansion due to procedure in evaluating and making a business plan and also it will be expensive RECOMMENDATIONS Alternative no. , there should be proper evaluation of the financial statements of the East Orchids to determine the cash position and the results of the operations. And SWOT analysis should be taken into consideration so that Mrs. Prieto should understand her business she would know what these are and how to improve such weaknesses and how to combat the threats on her business. CONCLUSIONS Some additional questions that must be taken into consideration that might help in expanding their business are: 1. Is East Orchids really a profitable enterprise? If it is so, do the margins justify the company’s existence? If not, what justifies the company’s existence? Based on Figure 1 below shows that the company has very minimal margins and that margins do not justify the company’s existence if it will continue to be like that. The East Orchids should so something about their business operation and what strategies to be apply for them to boost their revenues. EAST ORCHIDS UP Compound, Diliman, Quezon City Sales:(average sales for 3 months 200,000 x 4 quarters)P 800,000. 00 less: Cost ( 30% of sales) 240,000. 00 Gross Sales 560,000. 00 less: Operating expenses Salaries (10 boys @ P1,200. 00x 12 months)P 144,000. 0 Ferilizer ( P 5,000 x 12 months) 60,000. 00 Water bill ( P 6,000 x 12 months) 72,000. 00 Electric bill (P15,000 x 12 months) 180,000. 00 456,000. 00 Estimated Net incomeP 104,000. 00 2. How is Mrs. Prieto, who is not a trained orchid or businesswoman, able to compete with established orchid growers? Mrs. Prieto has interest, skills and talents in growing business and she is a ble compete in the sense that she has this marketing strategy of lower prices which attracts the customers to buy orchids to East Orchids. 3. Should the Prietos push through with their plans to expand their business? Would such expansion compatible with the Mrs. Prieto’s current method of managing the business? I think the Prietos should hold back first their plans to expand their business until they see the problem with their business. Mrs Prieto’s current method of managing the business is not compatible if they will expand because it will require proper accounting system and competent manager who knows the orchid farms operation. 4. Is she a true entrepreneur? Mrs. Prieto is not a true entrepreneur although she has interest and skills in growing orchids but her attitude does not illustrate being a true entrepreneur.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio Essay Example

Waist Waist-to-Hip Ratio Paper Waist-to-Hip Ratio Paper It can be seen that the relationship is linear between the WHR, i. e. the lower the WHR value the more attractive the image is considered to be. Whereas, the BMI the data is not linearly related and that the lower the BMI score the image seems to be unattractive and the higher the BMI score the image is also considered to be unattractive. As the BMI is not linearly related a quadratic formula had to be used in order to better predict the rating. Therefore the residuals had to be analysed in order to justify this. Graphs 5 and 6 show the distribution of the residuals for the attractiveness rating and the relationship of them with the fitted values, respectively. The residuals were distributed normally and the relationship seemed linear, but seemed to have a high variance. Similarly with the residuals of WHR (graphs 7 and 8), residuals were normally distributed and an approximate linear relationship with the fitted values. However, the residuals for the BMI, although normally distributed (graph 9), did not have a linear relationship with their fitted values (graph 10). So a quadratic formula was used which resulted in a much smoother parabola (graph 11) showing the same relationship from graph 3 but more clearly. As all the residuals were approximately normally distributed regression analysis was valid and applied (table 1) using the quadratic (BMI2) as one of the predictors. This resulted in only just under 30% (R-sq = 29. 0%) of the variance being explained by the three predictors. This was probably due to other contributing factors that were not taken into account during the experiment such as the gender of the subjects, cultural differences e. t. c. An analysis of the variance was applied and resulted in a very highly significant variance ratio (874. 55) suggesting that both the BMI and WHR were significant contributing factors. The first table of best subsets (table 3) shows that the WHR is the more influential of the two factors. However, only 29% of the variance has been explained and this is not much, so could be inaccurate. So, a cubic formula was tried and this resulted in a more accurate regression equation (table 4) and a greater proportion of the variance was explained (46. 4%). The best subsets (table 6) showed that the BMI was the best contributing factor with the WHR second. The analysis of variance (table 5) confirmed that the significance of the two factors in predicting the attractiveness rating had increased (variance ratio = 1390. 05). The same test was done to discover if using a formula with the power 4 would make a more accurate predictor. This was true and R-sq = 48. 8%, so the accuracy was beginning to plateau off at around 50%. The best subsets of the power four attempted, however was impossible to compute as the correlation was too high. Using firstly, the quadratic allowed a relationship between the three values WHR, BMI and attractiveness to be formulated and plotted against one another (graph 12). This shows that the relationship between the BMI and the attractiveness is always curved, however, the height and elevation of the curve always depends upon the WHR. The values are greatest for attractiveness where WHR is high and the BMI is in the middle of the range. This contradicts graph 4 where the lower the WHR the more attractive the image is considered to be. However, graph 4 only takes into account the influence of WHR alone, not the joint influence of both factors together like graph 12. Greater information could be been obtained if the subjects were asked their gender before rating the images. This would have allowed insight into whether males perception of attractiveness if different to that of womens. Also the age of the subjects could have been varied to see if the age of the individual has an affect on their perception of attractiveness. This has been researched by Fallon and Rozin (1989, cited in Singh 1994) as womens perception is thinner than that of mens ideal. This also works the opposite way, as the age and gender of the images could have been varied to see if either one has an effect upon attractiveness. Cultural differences both of the subject and of the image should be investigated. If the culture of the subject influences their perception, or if, for example, the colour of the person in the image matters to the subject. Are coloured people considered to be less, more or indifferent in their attractiveness to other different coloured people? Also, geographical differences, whether the ideal image of attractiveness varies between the populations of different countries. Yu and Shepard (1998, cited in Tovee Cornelissen 1999) have investigated this and among their findings concluded that Americans prefer higher WHRs to the English. Possibly a more important and more interesting factor could be eating disorders and the effect that they have upon the individuals perception of attractiveness. With the medias representation and obsession with supermodels there has been a steady increase of eating disorders among the population. This rise was predicted by the studies of Agras (1987 cited in Morris et al 1989) when the change in the body shape of women began to appear in fashion magazines. To conclude at first the WHR seemed to be the more important contributing factor (table 3) however, when using a cubic and the power of 4 the accuracy began to increase and it became apparent that the BMI was quite considerably the more influential of the two factors (BMI = 11. 3% and WHR = 9. 8%). This is supported by other research; however, there are many other contributing factors such as, age, culture and eating disorders, which need further investigation. References Morris, A. et al (1989). The changing shape of female fashion Models. Journal of Eating Disorders. 8: 593-596. Singh, D. (1994) Ideal female Body Shape: The role of body weight and Waist-to-Hip Ratio. Journal of Eating Disorders 16:283-288. Singh, D. (1994) Is thin really beautiful and good? Relationship between Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and female attractiveness. Personal and Individual Differences 16: 123-132 Tovee, M. J. Cornelissen, P. L (1999). The mystery of Female beauty Journal of Nature 399, 215-216