Real World Negotiation Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Real World Negotiation Paper - Assignment Example Additionally, the increase would also see my employer acquiring maximum and satisfying service from me. Informed by the fact that successful negotiation is mainly realized through proper preparations, possess effective communication skills, being able to control emotions and having greatclossing the deal skills, I embarked on the quest for having a salary increase. As part of my preparation to face her and negotiate for my salary increment, I prepared myself in various ways as I have discussed below: I started by preparing a logical argument and evidence that could support and make my claim logical. Informed by the fact that activities key during the preparation process include developing position of strength, and establishing a foundation for success and developing confidence, I chose to start my preparation by coming up with a very strong argument as to why I felt the urge to approach my employer and demand for salary increase and why I stood a chance to see my salary being increas ed without much objection. I went on to compose evidence that will support all my arguments although in order to make my demand reasonable and realistic. I also considered my argument to be the demand for the increase to be because of rise in the cost of living and the supporting evidence was that other employers within the region had seen their salary being increased, inflation had resulted to the fall of value of money which in turned had reduced my purchasing power and therefore the amount I was being paid did too little to satisfy all my needs, there was also a general increase in price of commodities which demanded for more money than I was earning before and finally that it was also meant to be a sign of appreciation to for the good job the I had been doing for my employee for so long. I also went on to consider the amount of salary increase that I expect. I went on with my preparation process of computing and coming up with an amount of money that I was to propose as my incre ment. I choose to come up with the maximum amount and reasonable amount of my salary increase that I expected from my employer and also the minimum amount that I was to expect in the course of the negotiation process. As part of my preparation I also choose to come with a formal letter and send it early enough to notify and prepare my employee over the setting of the negotiation date and this was also meant to prepare my employer psychologically over considering my pay rise. Since my employer was never around and were never met so easily, I also considered my grooming as part of my preparation. This was because my personal appearance and outlook was also to play an important at either building my reputation or destroying it. I also knew that smartness played a critical role towards boosting my confidence. During the negation day, all went well and as planned, the negotiation date was set in advance and in consideration to the schedule of both sides not interfering with the any of ou r activities. On the negotiation d

The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay Example for Free

The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay In the past, present, and undoubtedly in the future, deceptive individuals take advantage of the anxieties and fears of society. When a societys insecurities are exposed and raw, a disconcerted mood spreads throughout the people. This contagion can engulf an entire population and become like a living entity, causing people to act rashly and hypocritically. Whether or not the fear is justified, a convincing individual can exploit a certain mentality called mob psychology. Mob psychology involves manipulating the hysteria of a crowd to fulfill ones desires. In Arthur Millers The Crucible, Abigail Williams and other characters spread a fear of witches in the Puritan town of Salem. The fear that they spread ends up permeating their community and dominating the lives of everyone in the town. The psychological phenomenon known as mass hysteria has an important effect on the events in The Crucible. The Crucible contains many important events that precede the madness that ensues by the end of the play. Abigail Williams, for instance, has a love affair with John Proctor, and wants Proctor to leave his wife Elizabeth for her. Another character with a hidden agenda is Mr. Thomas Putnam, who hopes to take over some of his neighbors land. To amplify the situation, a group of girls are questioned by ministers for performing witch-like rituals in the forest. A Puritan belief of the 17th century is that the devil and other demons live in the forest, and that witchcraft is performed there as well. Dissembling citizens begin to accuse others of witchcraft, with a very selfish motive. As John Proctor describes the  hysteria that ensues,vengeance is walking Salem (1079). The vengeance that Proctor is talking about is the motive for all the accusers. The accusers are able to get away with injustices in the court because the townspeople are extremely afraid of witchcraft, and thus are eager to annihilate any signs of it. The mass hysteria also has an incredible effect later in the play, when the witchcraft trials take place. Many people are being convicted with very  insubstantial testimony, and with no tangible evidence at all. This is because the people of the town have been surrounded by the witchcraft frenzy so much, that they ignore their conscience. They become infatuated with the existence of witches, and seek to eradicate them. Since the people of Salem are very vulnerable, It is not hard to see how many could have been led to believe that the time of confusion had been brought upon them by deep and darkling forces (1036). The Puritans believe that all evil and disorder is linked to the Devil. At the trial, even people as wise as Reverend Hale are confused as to what is the truth and what is false. This is an example of illusion vs. reality, because so many people are crying witch, that it becomes impossible to discern the people that have selfish intent from those that actually believe in witchcraft. The mass hysteria causes the citizens to assume the defendants are guilty before they are officially tried. Though the hysteria in the Salem witch trials takes place in 17th century Massachusetts, a more modern version of this psychological phenomenon takes place during the 1950s. The hearings of Senator Joe McCarthy also utilize mob psychology for the benefit of an individual. McCarthy uses the fear of an attack by the Communist Soviet Union to build up hype in order to develop his political career. This fear that, in America,  any man who is reactionary in his views is open to the charge of alliance with the Red hell (1052), is an example of the fears people have of Communist infiltration. The Red hell  mentioned by the narrator is the Communist Party, and during the 1950s, one would be tried for treason if he or she is accused of being affiliated with this unfavorable party. The reaction of the people to this hype is just as McCarthy expects. The people become frightened and the truth becomes hazy. As a mechanism of defense, people begin to scapegoat each other. When high officials are eventually accused, the entire idea is dropped, and the emotions return back to normal. This is a parallel to the part Rebecca Nurse has in The Crucible. She is a highly respected community figure, and when she is accused of witchcraft, people begin to reevaluate the validity of the claims. In other great literary works, the theme of mass hysteria is present to show the hypocritical side of society or in portraying effective ways of persuading a crowd. One such instance of persuasion is in William Shakespeares, Julius Caesar. The character Mark Antony speaks to the mourners at Caesars funeral, which are completely against him, and he turns the crowd entirely in his favor. Mark Antony uses verbal tools such as sarcasm and repetition to turn the crowd in his favor, so that he might have people help him retaliate against Caesars murderers. The phenomenon of mass hysteria strongly influences the events in literature, and parallels can be drawn between those events and modern events. The Crucible is a powerful example of mass hysteria invading a population like a rampant virus consuming its host.

The Leitmotif of Pursuit in Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles Essay

The Leitmotif of Pursuit in Tess of the d'Urbervilles      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pursuit recurs in Tess of the d'Urbervilles as a strong leitmotif.   Starting with their first encounter, Alec Stoke-d'Urbervile lusts after Tess with his desire for steadily increasing thereafter.   He withholds the crucial information that he is not her cousin, and they in fact have no familial relationship whatsoever. While under the impression he is her cousin, Alec uses this ignorance to get closer to her. Feeding her strawberries in an obviously erotic manner momentarily appeases his lustful hunger.   His longing for her never abates from contact with Tess - perhaps even the opposite might be said: the more contact he has with her, the more he seems to want her.   Alec, ... ...e only way to stop this vicious cycle of pursuit is death.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Angel's description of Tess as Demeter, the goddess of chastity, and as Artemis, goddess of the hunt, seems quite fitting for Tess.   Tess Durbeyfield is, as Hardy's subtitle indicates, a pure woman and as the men in the novel demonstrate by their actions, a hunted animal. 3      

What is postmodernism?

Modernity and postmodernism are terms used to describe different eras in the development of human societies. It is different from most sociological perspectives in that it has no over arching theory. Some think that western societies have moved from an era of modernity to post modernity, but others do not agree. The debate between modernity and postmodernism tends to be about to what extent society has changed, and so which theoretical approach is the most appropriate. Modernism began as a way of describing the ideas that emerged during the decline of medieval society. There were three main elements modernism, economic, political and cultural. Modernist thinking supports the idea that the purpose of learning is to better the human condition. Postmodernism opposes each of the assumptions of modernism. They say there is no such thing as valid or invalid knowledge, they see knowledge as a form of control rather then liberation and that grand theories are inadmissible. Postmodernism began to have a significant effect on sociology in the 1980's. Most postmodernists believe that conventional approaches are no longer relevant to sociology, and must be discarded, approaches such as Marxism, functionalism and feminism they claim, were useful in explaining how society operated in previous eras but are no longer relevant to today's society. Modern theorists such as Durkhiem and Weber claim to be able to provide a comprehensive and definitive theory of society. Post modernists claim that this is not possible. Postmodernists claim that enlightenment has been abandoned in contemporary society. They claim people no longer believe in the inevitability of progress and the capacity of science to explain all. People are more pessimistic and no longer believe that grand theories such as Marxism and functionalism are able to explain society. There is now a much wider set of beliefs. French postmodernist writer Jean-Francois Lyotard argues that post-industrial society and so post-modern culture began to develop at the end to of the 1950's, although the rate of development varies between countries. Lyotard agrees that the advance of postmodernism undermines metanarratives of social progress, and people no longer believe that reason can conquer superstition. Lyotard's explanation of how postmodernism has come about is somewhat vague, although he seems to attribute most importance to technology. He believes postmodernism rest upon the â€Å"miniaturisation and commercialisation† of machines. Computer technology has become the principal force of production. He claims that post-modern society is founded on the production and exchange of knowledge and predicts that future wars will be about the control of knowledge as opposed to territorial disputes. It has been suggested that Lyotard's theory sounds very similar to a Marxist criticism of capitalism, but postmodernism offers the possibility of tolerance, in which humans are not all corrupted by metanarratives. However critics have pointed out that wile Lyotard repeatedly critic's metanarratives in his theory he himself has huge generalisations about the direction of human development. He also provides little evidence to support his theory. Marxist critic Terry Eagelton has pointed out that Lyotard's key concept in the development in human society is technical language, and he says this is nothing more than a justification for capitalism and the pursuit of profit regardless of human consequence. Jean Baudrillard is also regarded as a post-modern theorist. Like Lyotard he sees societies as having entered a new and distinctive phase. Unlike Lyotard, and indeed most postmodernists he is rather pessimistic about the outcome of these changes. Baudrillard argues that society is no longer based production and economic forces involving material goods (in direct contradiction of Marxism). He says they have been replaced by the buying and selling of signs and images, which have no relation to material reality. To him society is based upon production and exchange of free-floating images that have little or no connection to what they actually represent. Baudrillard differs from Lyotard in that he sees humans as trapped in a type of powerless uniformity and not being liberated by diversity. He too is vague in explaining how exactly postmodernism has come about. Unlike Lyotard he attaches significance to the television and mass media as an important factor. Critics have argued however that Baudrillards writing is very abstract. It offers examples to illustrate arguments and no systematic evidence. It has been suggested that Baudrillard was so immersed in his theory that to some extent he lost his grip on reality, as in later work he went on to suggest that the gulf war did not exist, but was just a series of images produced by the media, with no evidence that they were real. One of the most inflection sociologists to reject the claims of postmodernism is Anthony Giddens. He does not accept that enlightenment thinking must be abandoned and that metanarratives no longer have a place. He believes postmodernity may develop in the future but unlike sociologist such as David Harvey he does not accept that we have entered an era of post modernity. He does however think that significant changes have taken place within modernity and claims that we are in a period of late modernity. He says that when we move into an era of post modernity there will be four main institutional structures present in society. These are, multi-layered democratic participation, demilitarisation, and humanisation of technology, post scarcity system. He does admit that his idea of a post modern society is a rather idyllic one, as it is hard to imagine richer countries sharing their wealth with poorer countries for example, but is willing to except it may happen in the future. His theory is backed up only by occasional example rather than systematic evidence, however it remains the main opposition to post modernism theories. The main criticism of postmodernism is that it is paradoxical. How can you have a general theory that argues that general theories are no longer relevant? However many consider postmodernism to be an important area of sociology even if they do not believe society has yet reached that stage in development.

Inside Job Documentary Film Essay

The ‘Inside Job’ film (documentary film) draws parallel views to the referenced text â€Å"Impact on Accounting† of this course coupled with the associated research executed during the past weeks with respect to understanding the cause of the financial crisis. The documentary film zeros in on the contributory factors of the financial crisis such as falling interest rates, securitization of home mortgages and credit default swaps (derivatives). Other stunning contributory factors expressed in the documentary film were greed in addition to the deregulation and an unsupervised financial industry by the Federal government. Snyder (2011) reported that, â€Å"There have been several deregulations in the financial and housing markets over the past 30 years. Some of these include The Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board establishing adjustable mortgages, the 1982 Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act establishing a secondary mortgage market, the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act allowing commercial and investment banks to merge, and the 2004 SECs deregulation of investment banks, allowing investment banks to increase their leverage ratio from 12:1 to 30:1.† (pages 1-16) After researching the cause of the financial crisis, though seemingly insignificant to some, one of the fastening screws that assisted in the great fall with respect to the financial industry was falling interest rates. During the early 2000s the United States economy began to slow down and in an effort to rejuvenate this downward condition the Federal Reserve introduced a stimulation project to cut interest rates to induce customer spending. Investors took advantage of this stimulus exercise as the return on mortgage backed securities was attractive and as a result there was a boost and desire to purchase such securities. Consequently, lending  institutions became very excited as the demand for mortgage backed securities increased and thus the quest began to write more mortgages. Hence, the qualifying standards for loan approvals were done away with allowing a prospective home owner getting approval with ‘zero-down’. The introduction of no payment down increased the likelihood of failure to pay by borrowers and this default risk thereof was disregarded. Another supporting aspect of the documentary film with respect to the cause of the financial crisis was securitization. Historically during the safe age, a home mortgage was a loan contract between the borrower and financial institution which was supported by tangible property used as collateral. Such loans would be held until the full loan obligation has been satisfied in the long term. Conversely to the days of old, financial institutions sought new innovative means to generate income and came up with securitization of home mortgages. In this sense, during the 1990’s, home mortgages were not held to maturity but instead the high risk home mortgages were, bundled, repackaged and resold creating mortgage backed securities whereby income is received when homeowners satisfied their home mortgage obligation. Despondently, when borrowers defaulted on their home mortgages, investors suffered dearly as losses were realized, consequently, financial institutions collapsed and unemployment rose above its usual average rate. Other research has concluded that derivatives also played a chief role in the financial crisis. Derivatives are financial contracts between two parties of which the value can derived with not affiliation to the good or service. For example, a buyer can purchase an option agreement to buy a good or service in the future at an agreed price within a specified time frame. Within the given period the buyer may exercise the right to purchase or chose not to upon weighing the benefits of the option contract with the current market conditions. One type of derivatives that aided in the financial crisis was credit default swaps (CDS) which allowed investors to participate in naked CDS purchases without having legal ownership of the insured property. CDS is an innovative and prevalent derivative which is similar to an insurance contract that permits investors to transfer risk to other parties who are more qualified and willing to bear it, thus making it very attractive risk mitigation tool. CDS became extremely popular and experienced an unprecedented demand up to the latter part of 2007. However, since the derivatives market was not regulated companies such as AIG which sold billions of swaps without collateral or reserves to satisfy potential losses. According to Hobbs (2011), at the end of 2007 AIG credit debt obligation totaled $562 billion which was shockingly ironic that an insurance company would fail to hedge such substantial risk. Charles Ferguson’s award winning documentary film ‘Inside Job’ narrated by Matt Damon surveyed the deregulation of the financial industry and explored how the lack of good ethical banking practices assisted in creating the financial crisis. This jaw dropping documentary in its fearless interviews and prying identified greed and deregulation by the Federal government as principle causes of the financial crisis. At the twilight of 1981 the Ronal Regan administration made the deregulation of the financial industry top priority and the highest order of business in an effort to restore economic prosperity. Froese (2011) stated that, â€Å"The campaign trend of deregulation was followed through by the Bill Clinton and George Bush administration team.† (p. 59-75). According to Maxwell (2011), â€Å"The documentary film sets out to prove the idea by first pointing to the 1980s, when deregulation of the financial industry in the US allowed banks and loan companies to begin taking bigger risks with depositors’ money.† (p.16) The documentary film exposed the recycling of top bank executives being integrated into key government positions even after having full knowledge of misconduct and unethical behavior driven by greed. The greed for lavish lifestyle such as having six airplanes, helicopters, yachts, beachfront homes and penthouses was evident in the documentary film. Apparently, the more money top bankers earned the more they seem to want. The root of this greed was driven by huge compensation and hefty bonuses. According to Ferguson (2010), Richard Fuld the CEO of Lehman Brothers actually was hardly ever seen on the trading floor as he went out of his way to avoid contact with other employees even to the extent of extent of installing a personal elevator that took him to his office undetected. These chief top guns even went to the extent to cheat the government of taxes by understating their  income. Sterngold (2011) reported that, â€Å" Oliver Budde, a former lawyer for the financial services firm Lehman Brothers, has charged that the bankrupt company’s former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Richard S. Fuld lied to Congress when stating the amount of his salary and other compensation from 2000-2007. Budde, whose duties included preparing Lehman’s financial statements on executive salaries, says that Fuld understated the amount of his earnings by hundreds of millions of dollars.† (p, 56-59). Under the Regan administration CEO of the treasury, ML Donald deregulated the Savings and Loans which created a platform for unsafe investments by allowing hundreds of financially dead institutions to continue to operate while making more risky loans. Within 10 years hundreds of Savings and Loans companies became insolvent which resulted in 124 billion dollars of tax payers’ money. Greenspan supported Charles Keating’s business plans verifying that they were sound, proficient and without risk. It was later discovered that Keating who owned one of the Savings and Loans companies in California, used investors’ money to support his personal company and eventually went to prison as a result. While on the other hand, Greenspan was promoted appointed as president of the Federal Reserve by Ronald Ragan and was reappointed by Clinton and Bush administration to police the big bucks. It was also alleged that Greenspan received a kickback of 40,000 for validating Keating’s report Keating afloat in the industry. Deregulation continued under the Clinton administration congress overturned the Glass-Steagall Act by passing the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act which facilitated the Citigroup merger. Further, despite the cries to regulate the derivatives industry, Alan Greenspan in addition to other congressmen brought about the Commodity Futures Modernization Act banning all regulation in the derivatives market. Other new theories that developed from the documentary film were economists, credit rating agencies and top executives have all contributed to the financial crisis. It was unthinkable that reputable economists failed miserably to disclose any conflict of interest regarding their economic research report concerning economic trend. According to Ferguson (2010), economist Frederic Mishkin stated in his economic research report that  Iceland’s economy had already adjusted to financial liberalization and that while prudential regulation and supervision was quite strong, however, the banking industry in Iceland exploded shortly after the report. Frederic was paid $124,000 by the Iceland government to write the report even though the report proved to be very wrong. Another economist, Robert Glenn Hubbard former head of President Bush council of economic advisors, when asked whether there is and conflict of interest of economists he avoided the question and stated that most economist are not wealthy people. The documentary exposed him for having an annual salary of $150,000 as a board member of Met Life and that he formally served on the board of Capmark Financial Corporation, a mortgage institution that went bankrupt during the bubble. The documentary film brought the curtains down on credit rating agencies as it provided undeniable evidence of their involvement in the financial crisis . The three credit agencies namely, Standard & Poor, Moody’s, and Fitch misrepresented the credit rating of companies such as Lehman Brother, Merrill Lynch, AIG and Bear Sterns as they were all given credit rating of AA and above just weeks prior to becoming bankrupt. Questions were put to the governor of the Federal Reserve, Frederic Mishkin whether he was aware of excellent credit ratings and as in the past he danced around the question without providing clear answer. In 2008 Frederic Mishkin resigned in the height of the economic crisis and said that this coward move was owed to him reviewing some university book. Investors depend heavily on security rating for decision making. Clearly if a security has been classified as AAA and AA ratings, they appear to be as safe as government bonds. Instead, investors were deceived into investing in insolvent companies as a result of the ratings provided thereof. Continuing, top executives were also woven in the fabric of the financial crisis whereby top Chief Executive Officers walked away with top dollars. It is said that follow the money to solve the crime. The documentary film listed top guns such as Lehman Brothers CEO, Richard Fuld who reaped in 485 million, AIG’s CEO went smiling with earnings of 315 million and Merrill Lynch raked in 161 million of severance bonus. Other culprits named were Bear Sterns CEO and especially Goldman Sachs top executives. Apparently, these top executives had much knowledge of their falling companies and cooked the books so that investors would believe otherwise. What come out of the documentary film was that executives were rewarded for selling subprime mortgage investments as if it was top priority. Below are exhibits A and B and key players in the financial crisis: Exhibit A Major Players identifies in Week 2 Exhibit B Major Players in Inside Job Film 1. Homeowners 2. Financial / lending institutions 3. Wall Street 4. Federal Government 5. Securities Exchange Commission 1. Homeowners 2. Financial / lending institutions 3. Wall Street 4. Federal Government 5. Securities Exchange Commission 6. Economist 7. Credit Rating Agencies 8. Top Executives The new players pulled from the documentary film are economists, credit agencies and top banking executives. Economists were apparently paid handsomely to produce favorable reports of which most did not disclose their connected conflict of interest. Credit rating agencies also provided falsified rating to dying institutions and as a result investors were misinformed and consequently realized losses which could have been prevented. Lastly top banking officials were recycled throughout the government and other top ranking banks. They were driven by greed and  received compensation of up to 485 million dollars. Bringing it all together, I strongly believe that they were all in it together with the object to rape the economy of its finances and so they did successfully without being prosecuted. APA Format References Global Economic Crisis Resource Center (2010). Global economic crisis: Impact on accounting. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning Snyder, T. (2011). How did deregulation and financial innovations impact housing, wealth, and output?. Journal Of Finance & Accountancy, Hobbs, J. (2011). Financial Derivatives, the Mismanagement of Risk and the Case of AIG. CPCU Ejournal, 1-8. Ferguson, C. (Director) & Marrs, A. (Producer). (2010) Inside Job [Motion Picture]. United States: Sony Picture Classics Froese, R. (2011). THE LIMITS OF INSIDE JOB: CRISIS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE BURDEN OF CAPITALISM. Studies In Political Economy: A Socialist Review, (88), 59-75. Sterngold, J. (2010). Who Cares About Another $200 Million?. Bloomberg Businessweek, (4177), 56-59. Maxwell, C. (2011). Inside the crash. Director (00123242), 65(4), 16.

Class Identity in Feudal Japan - Fun Facts and Examples

Class Identity in Feudal Japan s Feudal Japan had a four-tiered social structure based on the principle of military preparedness. At the top were the daimyo and their samurai retainers. Three varieties of commoners stood below the samurai: farmers, craftsmen, and merchants. Other people were excluded entirely from the hierarchy, and assigned to unpleasant or unclean duties such as leather tanning, butchering animals and executing condemned criminals.  They are politely known as burakumin, or people of the village. In its basic outline, this system seems very rigid and absolute. However, the system was both more fluid and more interesting than the short description implies. Here are some examples of how the feudal Japanese social system actually functioned in peoples daily lives. If a woman from a common family got engaged to a samurai, she could be officially adopted by a second samurai family. This circumvented the ban on commoners and samurai intermarrying. When a horse, ox or other large farm animal died, it became the property of the local outcasts. It did not matter if the animal had been the personal property of a farmer, or if its body was on a daimyos land; once it was dead, only the eta had any right to it. For more than 200 years, from 1600 to 1868, the entire Japanese social structure revolved around support of the samurai military establishment. During that time period, though, there were no major wars. Most samurai served as bureaucrats. The samurai class basically lived on a form of social security. They were paid a set stipend, in rice, and did not get raises for cost-of-living increases. As a result, some samurai families had to turn to the manufacture of small goods like umbrellas or toothpicks to make a living. They would secretly pass these items on to peddlers to sell. Although there were separate laws for the samurai class, most laws applied to all three types of commoners equally. Samurai and commoners even had different kinds of mailing addresses. The commoners were identified by which imperial province they lived in, while samurai were identified by which daimyos domain they served. Commoners who tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide because of love were considered criminals, but they could not be executed. (That would just give them their wish, right?) So, they became outcast non-persons, or hinin, instead. Being an outcast wasnt necessarily a grinding existence. One headman of the Edo (Tokyo) outcasts, named Danzaemon, wore two swords like a samurai and enjoyed the privileges normally associated with a minor daimyo. To maintain the distinction between samurai and commoners, the government conducted raids called sword hunts or katanagari. Commoners discovered with swords, daggers or firearms would be put to death. Of course, this also discouraged peasant uprisings. Commoners were not allowed to have surnames (family names) unless they had been awarded one for special service to their daimyo. Although the eta class of outcasts was associated with the disposal of animal carcasses and the execution of criminals, most actually made their living by farming. Their unclean duties were just a side-line. Still, they could not be considered in the same class as commoner farmers, because they were outcasts. People with Hansens disease (also called leprosy) lived segregated in the hinin community. However, on the Lunar New Year and Midsummers Eve, they would go out into the city to perform monoyoshi (a celebration ritual) in front of peoples homes. The townspeople then rewarded them with food or cash. As with the western Halloween tradition, if the reward was not sufficient, the lepers would play a prank or steal something. Blind Japanese remained in the class to which they were born - samurai, farmer, etc. - so long as they stayed in the family home. If they ventured out to work as story-tellers, masseurs, or beggers, then they had to join the blind persons guild, which was a self-governing social group outside of the four-tier system. Some commoners, called gomune, took on the role of wandering performers and beggers that would normally have been within the outcasts domain. As soon as the gomune stopped begging and settled down to farming or craft-work, however, they regained their status as commoners. They were not condemned to remain outcasts. Source Howell, David L. Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Nature of the sales environment. Essay Example

Nature of the sales environment. Essay Example Nature of the sales environment. Paper Nature of the sales environment. Paper For example, a swimmer has to do practice regularly for hours in order to keep them fit for competitions. Even though the swimmer has succeeded in number of competition he has to work out regularly, everyday in order to defend his position at the highest level. During his training swimmer should focus on the mistakes which had made in the past competitions, also should train and prepare himself in such a way that shouldnt repeat the same mistakes in future. There is an analogy between the competitive sports and salesmanship. As like in sports salesperson has to master the art of selling he products of the enterprise to the customers. The sales person himself should learn the fundamentals of selling and master them in order to get best results. The nature of sales personality depends on certain extent on heredity and environment. An intelligent salesman would combine the study and actual practice of the fundamentals by analysis. (Management-hub, 201 2) Many studies have been conducted on understanding the customer and uncovering why some sales seem so easy and others seem almost impossible, even when the salesperson is using the same technique. In fact, he correct environment for customers to purchase and have business dealings with companies is a science. There are many rules and verifiable factors that can either increase or decrease the likelihood of making a sale. To understand the findings of these studies, everyone need to examine the common points listed below. (Sale Creators, 2007) 1. Leave the customer in their comfort zone. 2. Let the customer see you want to help and serve. 3. Do not feel hurried or pressured. 4. Do not hurry or pressure your customer. 5. Have effective human relations communications skills. . Have the sales environment maintained, clean and uncluttered. To increase a buyers receptiveness, a business has to take the findings of the points above and replace or correct any area that might be a concern for their customer. Every customer has anxieties when they meet a new person for the first time, or when they are in a new environment like a shop or store. This anxiety comes from the always present unknowns with a new encounter. A lot Of people have similar thought of or expressed these statements at one time in their lives. This is what defines their comfort zones. When comfort ones are challenged to expand humans often fight the process. Many times nobody do not want to change from what is comfortable. The removal of any of these buying anxieties creates a more positive sales environment. (Sale Creators, 2007) Pete Keno says: that generally in the business, it is necessary to find efficient methods of changing the sales environment. This might be necessary while the company evaluates it profitability during a sales year and finds they have experienced a loss. Transforming the sales environment will be no easy job for a company, however management can achieve this through utilizing the eve major factors of sales success. It is essential that every sales staff, including the managers, are trained in 5 features of sales strategies; defining the sales campaign, sales motivation, sales presentation, sales methodologies, and sales leadership skills. These five vital elements of sales techniques will arm your company with a successful sales team, the backbone of a companys overall profitability and long-term viability. Sales Success, 201 2) The first sale success will need in changing the sales environment is defining the sales operation. This begins with knowing targets Of client including demographic factors like age, educational background, earnings level, geographic location, and ethnicity. By knowing whom to go after with a product or service, available efficiently develop the companys sales presentation. A sales team needs the proper amoun t of time to prepare an effective sales technique when making the presentation. This consists of correct training in the next part of the five armor elements of sales success, sales methodologies. Provide the workers proper training including online programs and in-house training so people would be ready to stay updated tit modern sales presentation trends. Giving the sales team the required training would assist to stay motivated to do the best possible job in their sales efforts for any company. When the success of the company relies upon changing the sales environment, equip your sales team with the very best tools offered by training them sales techniques. Sales Success, 201 2) As was discussed, role of selling plays an important thing for any business, but for example, international selling for economic survival of every country, because it permits to have the balance between their export earnings and import expenditure also known as the balance of payments. (Jobber and Lancaster, 1997) Economy Watch news wrote out: that the UK is the 7th leading importer a nd the 1 lath leading exporter in the world. Accordingly, the UK holds a massive trade deficit with the rest of the world, second only to the US. In 201 0, UK imports were worth US 546. 5 billion dollar with exports valued at only LOSSES. 6 billion dollar. Despite recent attempts by the government to reduce the trade deficit, the latest data from Auks Office of National Statistics points to an ever-widening trade gap. Since the beginning of 2011 , Auks monthly trade deficit has hit record levels of more than E billion per month. The monthly deficit in the Suffer 2011 is also exceeding the previous record level of E. 5 billion per month reached in 2007. The increase in Auks budget deficit has also affected Auks trade deficit. Therefore, the Auks austerity plan to cut down public spending is necessary in order to reduce the trade deficit as well. So here is seen how necessarily international sales for UK in a whole. (Economy Watch, 201 2) Importing is when an individual or cuisines brings goods or services into the UK from another country. Careful consideration as to the practicalities needs to be given if intend to imports goods; this may include how to get the goods into the country, as well as the legal requirements. Under UK law, a number of legal responsibilities are imposed on a company, if wish to import goods in the ASK. One of the first and probably most important duties being that will have to check if the Department for Business, Innovation Skills (IBIS) requires business to have a license. (Inbreed, 2012) By the way selling overseas is different compared to he domestic market, it however, provides individual firms with a number of benefits. As access to international markets becomes easier and more companies enter those markets, the competition between companies becomes harder, no matter which industry they Operate in. Donaldson (2006) notes that even if the company does not do business abroad it is more likely to face competition from foreign firms in their home market, therefore by deciding to sell abroad it becomes more competitive and less vulnerable to economic crises. Other benefits are the opportunity for companies to achieve cost savings through increased economies of scale, as well as greater sales and faster growth due to demand in other markets which in turn can compensate the loss in the domestic market. All these is now possible due to technology which allows firms to control and coordinate operations globally because through the invention of internet and telecommunication the interaction with external customers and suppliers became much quicker and easier. Another important factor is Language because the first challenge when dealing with international markets is to overcome the language barrier. It is especially crucial in direct selling. Good knowledge of the another language will make sales easier and can make a dramatic difference because the salesperson has greater access to a local society and no interpreter is required. Companies usually translating theirs product advertising in local language, for example, umbra the ILK sports manufacturer had to withdraw a whole range of trainers called Gallon, after a number of complains from individuals and other organizations regarding its name. This is because Gallon was the name of the gas used to murder millions of Jews in concentration camps. This problem exists in any foreign company not only for UK firms; Chevrolet Nova also suffered poor sales in Latin America because No VA in Spanish translated as does not go . Honda introduced their new car Fiat into Nordic countries in 2001. Fifthly had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that fit was an old word used in vulgar language in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it Honda Jazz. The Swedish furniture giant KEA somehow agreed upon the name fretful for one of its new desks. All these examples show that the companies were not fully aware of the translation and meaning of their brand names implied in the native languages of the markets they were dealing with, which proves and study of the language would have saved them a lot of money. Quintessential, 2010) This proves that differences in culture creates some ethical dilemmas or misbehaver and in order to overcome potential pitfalls the companies should refer to the help of specialists such as a cross cultural consultant, who would examine words, images, pictures, and colors to ensure that they fit well with the targeted market. Also companies must do cross cultural training to equip their r epresentatives with the knowledge of two or three cultures that are likely to be at the table during a negotiation, as well as pay more attention to marketing and advertising requirements in overseas markets. Quintessential, 201 0) Also possible to add that, any material intended for import is sourced consistently with the legal and ethical review requirements in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. When an individual, establishment or organization imports material for research, it is good practice for approval to be obtained room a research ethics authority or the local equivalent in the source country beforehand. Many countries have research ethics arrangements which operate to agreed standards. The ethical review in the source country may, in some cases, be considered to provide suitable assurances for the importing of material into SKI market. Human Tissue Authority, 2012) For example, tobacco manufactures use different pricing depending on the country they import to, in the UK cigarettes are more expensive than in Russia or some European countries, because of the high import tariffs and taxes imposed by he UK government. Political factors can also affect methods of selling that companies choose to distribute their products, Poppy Corporation that used direct selling techniques failed to enter Japan market because this form of selling is considered by the government as a base for criminal activity. In order to comply with Japans regulations Poppy should have changed its business plan to selling its products in retail stores. (Inbreed, 2012) Other difficult area of management is Sales forecasting. Most managers believe they are good at forecasting. However, forecasts made usually turn UT to be wrong. Marketers argue about whether sales forecasting is a science or an art. The short answer is that it is a bit of both. Businesses are forced to look well ahead in order to plan their investments, launch new products, decide when to close or withdraw products and so on. The sales forecasting process is a critical one for most businesses. Key decisions that are derived from a sales forecast include: Employment levels required Promotional mix Investment in production capacity For example, accurately forecasting sales and building a sales plan can help o manage production, staff and financing needs more effectively and possibly avoid unforeseen cash flow problems. While its always wise to expect the unexpected, a well-constructed sales plan, combined with accurate sales forecasting, can allow to spend more time developing business rather than responding to day-to-day developments in sales and marketing. (Tutor to you, 201 2) In conclusion, it is definitely possible to state: that on nature of selling in general affects a lot of important aspects, because with the development of the UK and global market individual companies have been effected in different ways. To avoid any negative impacts, companies should include and underline all arguments which was stated above. The main responsibility of the Sales managers is to meet and interact with a variety of customers including their own employees so as to understand the real needs of customers and devise qualitative and effective plans to meet the requirements of the customers. Some companies were waited success, they discovered new opportunities for expansion and growth, while others faced fierce competition and struggled to overcome the external pressure caused y cultural, ethical, economic, legal and political and other differences.