Saturday, August 31, 2019

Online Billing System Essay

POS, Inventory System, Networking and Web Based System are one of the most useful systems for the company. Nowadays, because of our technologies it’s easy to transfer the different information in different branch of company with the help of our computers and also the system. Almost all businesses use a POS process. There are many reasons for this. Many businesses have multiple locations. POS can help to automate transactions and it can records all the sales in the organization or we can say it can use it to make transaction easier. Every employee can also see all the transaction that has been made. Inventory System can be used for transactional updates or it can view all the available stocks and display out of stock products or items. Inventory System can have many advantages and are suitable in availability and display the in and out of stocks products. Networking’s usually use to connect the POS and Inventory system to all branches of the CreamlineDairy Corporation. Web Based System has many advantages and is preferable in POS, inventory and networking particularly notifying your outstanding sale. The company have been encountering some problem in terms of no link depot and main plant. They want to connect to the other branch, or we can say they want to view their point of sale and inventory system to their entire branch. The purpose of our system is to let every branch of Creamline be updated to the transactions of sale by the help of networking. The develop system will be a great help to the employee but of course for the manager even if they are not in the organization. Creamline Dairy Corporation located at Unit 701 Prestige tower condominium, F. Ortigas Jr. Ave.(Fromely Emerald Ave.), Ortigas Center Pasig City 1605 Philippines.Creamline’s plant and head office is located at Bldg. 5210, C.M. Recto Highway, Clark FreeportZone, Pampangga.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Chapter 8 Mishkin Notes

An Economic Analysis of Financial Structure Why do Financial Institutions Exist? (Why is Indirect Finance so Important? ) Chapter 8 Chapter Preview W e take a closer look at why financial institutions exist and how they promote economic efficiency. Topics include: †¢ A Few Basic Facts About Financial Structure †¢ Transaction Costs †¢ Asymmetric Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard Chapter Preview (cont. ) †¢ The Lemons Problem: How Adverse Selection Influences Financial Structure †¢ How Moral Hazard Affects the Choice Between Debt and Equity Contracts †¢ How Moral Hazard Influences Financial Structure in Debt Markets 1Basic Facts About Financial Structure Throughout the World †¢ The chart on the next slide shows how non-financial business get external funding in the U. S. , Germany, Japan, and Canada. †¢ Notice that, although many aspects of these countries are quite different, the sources of financing are somewhat consistent, with t he U. S. being different in its focus on debt. Sources of External Finance Copyright  © 2007 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. 8-5 Eight Basic Facts of Financial Structure 1. Stocks are not the most important source of external financing for businesses [Direct Finance] 2. Issuing marketable debt and equity ecurities is not the primary way in which businesses finance their operations [Direct Finance] 2 Eight Basic Facts of Financial Structure 3. Indirect finance, which involves the activities of financial intermediaries, is m any times more important than direct finance, in which businesses raise funds directly from lenders in financial markets. 4. Financial intermediaries, particularly banks, are the most important source of external funds used to finance businesses. Eight Basic Facts of Financial Structure 5. The financial system is among the most heavily regulated sectors of economy. 6. Only large, well -established corporations ave easy access to securities markets t o finance their activities. Eight Basic Facts of Financial Structure 7. Collateral is a prevalent feature of debt contracts for both households and businesses. 8. Debt contracts are typically extremely complicated legal documents that place substantial restrictions on the behavior of the borrowers. 3 W hy is Indirect Finance so Important? †¢ Transactions Cost †¢ Information Cost Transaction Costs †¢ Financial intermediaries to reduce transaction costs (and make profits) through – †¢ Economies of scale †¢ Expertise †¢ Read the municipal bond article. Transaction Costs †¢ Transactions costs ? ? ? E. g. a $5,000 investment only allows you to purchase 100 shares @ $50 / share (equity) No diversification Bonds even worse—most have a $1,000 size 4 Transaction Costs †¢ Financial intermediaries make profits by reducing transactions costs – Take advantage of economies of scale (example: mutual funds) – Develop expertise to l ower transactions costs – provide investors with liquidity and diversification Information Costs – Asymmetric Information †¢ symmetric information—the case where all parties to a transaction or contract have the same information. †¢ In many situations, this is not the case. We refer to this as asymmetric information.Asymmetric Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard †¢ We will focus on two specific forms of asymmetric information: ? Adverse selection ? Moral hazard 5 Asymmetric Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard †¢ Adverse Selection 1. Occurs when one party in a transaction has better information than the other party 2. Before transaction occurs 3. Potential borrowers most likely to produce adverse outcome are ones most likely to seek loan The Lemons Problem: How Adverse Selection Influences Financial Structure †¢ If quality cannot be assessed, the buyer is willing to pay at m ost a price that reflects the average qu ality Sellers of good quality items will not want to sell at the price for average quality †¢ The buyer will decide not to buy at all because all that is left in the market is poor quality items †¢ This result, when bad quality pushes good quality from the m arket because of an information gap, is known as â€Å"adverse selection† †¢ This problem explains fact 2 and partially explains fact 1 Asymmetric Information: Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard †¢ Moral Hazard 1. Occurs when one party has an incentive to behave differently once an agreement is made between parties 2. After transaction occurs 3. Hazard that borrower has incentives to ngage in undesirable (immoral) activities making it more likely that won't pay loan back 6 Health Insurance †¢ Symmetric Information: Suppose, if you get sick, drugs cost $10,000/year †¢ Everyone has a 1/10 chance of getting sick †¢ Solution – Insurance will be offered at $1,000 per year Health Insura nce – Symmetric Information continued †¢ Suppose 10% of the population (2 out of 20) is sickly and has a 50%(1/2) chance of getting sick – independent. †¢ Other 90% (18 people) only has 1/18 chance of getting sick. †¢ This information in known to everyone. †¢ How do you price the insurance? Health Insurance – Symmetric Information ontinued †¢ Sickly types pay? †¢ Healthy types pay? 7 Health Insurance – Asymmetric Information Adverse Selection †¢ Same as previous example, but one’s type (sick or healthy) is private information. Suppose insurance company offers policy at $1,000 per year? Suppose insurance company offers policy at $1,000 per year? †¢ Sickly type happy to save $4,000. †¢ Healthy drop out and go without insurance. †¢ Adverse selection: Bad quality pushes good quality from the market because of an information gap. 8 How about charging less say $555. 56 to everyone? How about charging less say $555. 56 to everyone? Break even on the healthy type, but lose on sickly type. †¢ Only way for insurance company in this case to break even is to charge $5,000 ? Healthy will go without insurance. Adverse Selection and Financial Structure Lemons Problem in Securities Markets †¢ Suppose investors cannot distinguish between good and bad securities, willing to pay only the average of the good and bad securities’ values. †¢ Result: Good securities undervalued and firms won’t issue them; bad securities overvalued, so too many issued. 9 Lemons Problem in Securities Markets †¢ Investors won’t want to buy bad securities, so m arket won’t function well. ?Explains Facts 1 and 2 ? Also explains Fact 6: only large well established firms have access to securities m arkets †¢ Bad quality pushes good quality from the m arket because of an information gap. Tools to Help Solve Adverse Selection Problems †¢ Private Production and Sale of Information ? Free-rider problem interferes with this solution †¢ Government Regulation to Increase Information (explains Fact # 5) Tools to Help Solve Adverse Selection Problems †¢ Financial Intermediation ? Analogy to solution to lemons problem provided by used car dealers ? Avoid free-rider problem by making private loans (explains Fact # 3 and # 4) ?Also explains fact #6—large firms are more likely to use direct instead of indirect financing 10 Tools to Help Solve Adverse Selection Problems †¢ Collateral and Net Worth ? Explains Fact # 7 How Moral Hazard Affects the Choice Between Debt and Equity Contracts †¢ Called the Principal -Agent Problem ? Principal: less information (stockholder) ? Agent: more information (manager) †¢ Separation of ownership and control of the firm ? Managers pursue personal benefits and power rather than the profitability of the firm Tools to help solve the Principal-Agent Problem: †¢ Monitoring ? Expensive †¢ G overnment regulation to increase information Fact 5 †¢ Financial Intermediation ? Venture capital firms provides the equity and place there own people in management †¢ Debt Contracts ? Reduces the need to monitor as long as borrower is performing. Explains Fact 1, why debt is used more than equity 11 How Moral Hazard Influences Financial Structure in Debt Markets †¢ Even with the advantages just described, debt is still subject to moral hazard. ? Debt may create an incentive to take on very risky projects. How Moral Hazard Influences Financial Structure in Debt Markets †¢ Most debt contracts require the borrower to pay a fixed amount (interest) and keep any ash flow above this amount. †¢ For example, suppose a firm owes $100 in interest, but only has $90? It is essentially bankrupt. The firm â€Å"has nothing to lose† by looking for â€Å"risky† projects to raise the needed cash. Tools to Help Solve Moral Hazard in Debt Contracts Lenders need t o find ways ensure that borrower’s do not take on too much risk. ? A good legal contract ? Bonds and loans often carry restrictive covenants †¢ Restrict how funds are used Require minimum net worth, collateral, bank balance, credit rating. †¢ Financial Intermediaries have special advantages in monitoring[Facts 3 and 4] ? 12 STOP HERE!! 13

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Tegan case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tegan - Case Study Example and Baven (1994) and Domberger (1998), this concept has been formally defined as â€Å"an activity where the supplier provides for the delivery of goods and/or services that would previously have been offered in-house by the buyer organization in a predetermined agreement† (Tho, 2005, â€Å"Agreeing the Definition of Outsourcing†). In keeping with this brief introduction, the current research will aim at evaluating the decision of Tegan, Inc. (Tegan) to outsource its accounts payable (A/P) project and recommending one or more feasible options from among those that had already been identified by the organization. As has been mentioned in the introduction, the decision that had been taken by Tegan while outsourcing it’s crucial A/P project will be evaluated under this heading. Considerable efforts will be made to identify the reason behind outsourcing, the major outsourcing challenge, and the tradeoffs in requirement analysis (performed by Hrad Technika – a Czechoslovakian IT company). Subsequently, the choice of development methodology will be discussed and problems pertaining to scope and requirements will also be analyzed. Finally, light will also be shed on the IT-management failures of the organization. It has been reported that despite sluggish sales, Tegan had managed to grown constantly all through its life. On being approached by the Chinese toy maker Fan Li in May 2007, Tegan could not apprehend that the inclusion of this accessory line would lead to a situation where the increase in orders will not match with that in sales growth. However, the contract was perceived to be a mismatch because of wide differences that existed between the two companies in terms of pricing – while Tegan’s products came at an average price of  £50, Fan Li often priced its accessories below  £5. It has been observed that the profit margin being in the range of 1 percent the major concern at Tegan was the error-free management of the A/P process. As the A/P process at

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Facilitate your personal development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Facilitate your personal development - Essay Example 1. CONSISTENCY Consistency is a very important element to maintain our output while working. One can only do it by periodically checking of his or her performance. For example, we can maintain a diary from the moment we start our work. Say every week, we check our performance whether it is increasing or decreasing. If decreasing, what is the reason behind it? We are our best judge. No one knows you better than you yourself. So you are you best teacher. One easy way of accomplishing tasks can be done by breaking it into smaller segments. By checking ourselves time to time we can ensure and maintain our optimum performance. Use hand written task checklists in which each step has to be ticked off to ensure consistency in method of task completion. (Gurcheik, 2012) Having a white board in the work area with all relevant work information is a one good method of maintaining your consistency. Another way to check yourself would be to ask your supervisor as how is your performance, whether t here is improvement or not. If not what are the areas where you need to improve. 2. TRAINING No one is perfect; we all know it and we should always accept it. In order to train oneself, the person needs to know his or her strengths and weaknesses first. Doing SWOT analysis (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threats) of oneself is very helpful in this situation. Once we do that we will realize our weaknesses we need to find out how to overcome these. All employees with duty for performance management must receive training to help them manage performance effectively. This should include information on the objectives of performance management, how it will operate and what their role will be. Employees will also need training in how to set their objectives and training in other aspects of the system. (Garger, 1999) We can always take help from our colleagues or our seniors. Being honest with our own self will always be helpful in improving ourselves. We need to start concentrating on ou r weaknesses and gradually overcoming these. 3. RECORD KEEPING As discussed in the first topic of consistency, one needs to maintain a diary to keep a check on the evaluation, in the similar fashion we also need to record our improvement. Unless and until we know the progress we will not be able to judge our improvement. It is very important to understand and know whether our training is actually helping us improve or not. A small example can be, whether we being able to meet our daily targets or we are exceeding our targets. (Gurcheik, 2012) 4. KEEPING EXPECTATION HIGH Each and every company has a performance management process. We all know it. This is no secret. But we need to make sure that we are confident in ourselves that we have the capability to improve. As it is said self motivation is the best motivation. The company will eventually lay down the process for you, but we need to be ready with a positive attitude towards it. As quoted, â€Å"Everything that is â€Å"rewardi ng† about working for a particular employer or everything an employee gets as a result of their employment† (Davis, 2007). This statement is very true because at the end of the day it is a mutual understanding between the employee and the employer. The company wants us to perform and this is their way to help ourselves improve and perform better. Let us be positive about it. (Boyett & Jimmy, 2000) If

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Risk Communication Plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Risk Communication Plan - Term Paper Example Risk communication is needed to create public trust in risk management and promote awareness of the specific risk issues (Sellnow 85). The specific objectives of communicating the issues related to the rainstorm risk may include educating and informing people about the risk, changing the audience behaviours and providing disaster warnings (Lundgren and McMakin 107). For example, one can use statistical comparisons to show the Glades County residents that there are still vulnerable to flash floods, storms and lightning. Behavioural change and guidance during emergencies would involve encouraging people to evacuate to open elevated places and avoid buildings during rain storms. A risk communication plan would be very important in risk management because the assessors can analyse the audience and plan for the most appropriate communication strategies suitable for these people. Additionally, a risk communication plan enables provision of accurate and detailed information about the risk and its potential outcomes. For example, rain storms are accompanied by lightning, storms and floods, which may lead to death and destruction of property. Pre-planning would help the risk managers to prepare in advance the aids of communication needed for the awareness campaigns or seminars. Consensus and crisis communication efforts would be appropriate in achieving the set objectives in the risk management initiative to be carried out in Glades County, Florida. In consensus communication, the involved communicators will need to agree with the audience through understanding their concerns and beliefs. In this way, they can agree on certain solutions, which are acceptable to the all the stakeholders (Lundgren and McMakin 109). For example, the communicators should identify the distinct beliefs and concerns of the people of Glades in categories of age, level of income, health status and ethnic groups. Old, poor or disabled people will most

Monday, August 26, 2019

Market Entry Strategy of Kraft Foods Group Essay

Market Entry Strategy of Kraft Foods Group - Essay Example Apart from this, the quantity of resources is also extremely high within the region of the country which acts as a catalyst for the nation. This helps the nation in increasing its position and prosperity regarding wines in the global perspectives as compared to others (Levitt, 2007). Along with this, the capital resource of the nation is also quite high that proved effective in increasing its production quantity to increase the reputation and attractiveness in the market. Varieties of wine in Greece:Greece produces a majority of the varieties of grapes such as Macedonia, thrace, Epirus, thessalia, sterea ellada, Peloponnese and many others. These varieties of grapes helps in manufacturing varied types of wines such as red wines, white wines. This is mainly due to the Mediterranean climate and rainy winters that helped in the development of the finest quality of grapes (Porter, 2011). Therefore, the demand and total sale of the product of wine is higher to its excellent taste. 1.1.2 H uman resources: The education level of the citizens in the region of Greece is comparatively higher as compared to its neighboring nations. So, the rate of unemployment is quite lower rather than others (Porter, 2008). Therefore, the literacy rate of the labors within the region of Greece is lower as compared to its adjoining regions and this acted as a boon for the organisation functioning in the section of wine. However, the skill to handle advanced machines is quite lower among the individual of Greece, but it need to be improved in future.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Use of 5 Fluorouracil Pumps in Gastro-Intestinal Patients Research Paper

The Use of 5 Fluorouracil Pumps in Gastro-Intestinal Patients - Research Paper Example The authors reported a study involving 26 patients suffering from gastrointestinal cancers and other epithelial-related conditions. These subjects were administered to continuous intravenous infusion of the medication using a portable pump. From the 26 observed patients who were placed under continuous observation, four realized full remission, another four showed a partial response to the therapy. From 12 of the patients, the disease remained stable. The response rate from the study was 33%. Twenty from the total number showed significant improvement as reflected from their overall quality of life and performance status after the therapy. The information showed a 9.5 months median survival. The study showed that continuing the infusion of 5-fluorouracil results in palliative value, from patients suffering from gastrointestinal or other neoplasma condition, related to epithelial origin. In administering the therapy, the usage of portable pumps makes the model cost effective and a pra ctical outpatient model of treatment for these patients. This paper is an audit report of 5 fluorouracil (5FU) pumps as used on gastro-intestinal patients, accounting for the information given to patients and the areas of information deficiency when administering the therapy (Cascinu et al., 1999). Background information on the use of 5 fluorouracil (5FU) pumps The service evaluation was instigated by the Forever Healthy cancer support, which is a cancer support agency operating in the US and also extending its supports services and information provision to many other different regions across the world. The reasons for undertaking the service evaluation included the information gaps evident in the usage of the model, despite the fact that the area has been studied extensively. An example of the deficiencies in information includes that communicated to the patients as well as the team administering this therapy. Some of the areas of information deficiency include the lack of knowledg e on how to control the side effects resulting from the therapy. For instance, an overdose of 5-FU results in severe side effects such as neutropenia, diarrhea, and hand/foot syndrome. On the other hand, a low dosage of the medication does not produce any results or therapeutic effect. Further, there is a possibility of individual therapeutic balance existing between the benefits and the side effects expected. As a result, based on understanding of the expected benefits and the effects of this therapy on the users, the organization saw that there is a need to offer more information to the patients. Based on the better information, they will make better decision and more logical choices when using the service, as opposed to the current use – which may be affected by the lack of comprehensive information. Based on the information delivered to the users, more information on the individual-based application of the therapy, as well as the benefit-threats balance, more areas of inf ormation will be uncovered, leading to better results from the therapy. For instance, more information on the usage of the administered dosage depending on the body characteristics of the patients will be of great importance to the usage of the therapy.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

The relationship between teenager and their family Essay

The relationship between teenager and their family - Essay Example Data from the NSFG suggest that female adolescents born to intact families face a lower risk of early sexual debut while female adolescents, experiencing parental separation and multiple transitions in family structure have a higher risk of early sexual debut. Moreover, the Hong Kong case study establishes that adolescents with a dysfunction family and a poor family relationship are more likely to hazard to take drugs. Recently, the presence of strained relationships between teenagers and their parents as well as the disintegration within families demeans the influence of parental or family advice on teenagers. This forces teenagers to trust their peers, which coerces them to adopt immoral and unethical behaviors like drug and substance abuse and early sexual intercourse. It is clear that the increase in the strength of youths peer relationships demeans the interaction between teenagers and their families. Notably, cognitive and emotional maturity affects the quality of peer relationships that changes during adolescence. As teenagers seek to assert their individuality and independence, they derive frequent conflict between teens and their parents (Oswalt, 2014). However, as they approach maturity, they develop mature relationships with their parents and their colleagues since they have the capacity to make important decisions about their lives. Indeed, as adolescents approach maturity, they no longer depend on family social support since their colleagues develop the capacity to offer emotional support and comfort and sensible advice (Oswalt, 2014). A three years study by Dr. McGues group assesses the relationship dimensions conflict with parents and perceived warmth of the relationship with parents at age 11 and then again at age 14 (aboutkidshealth, 2010). The study established a decline in the perceived quality of relationships between

Friday, August 23, 2019

Applying innovation idea of Grameen Phone(Grameen Bank Project) in the Research Paper

Applying innovation idea of Grameen Phone(Grameen Bank Project) in the new geographical location (Perhaps Kazakhstan) - Research Paper Example An exhaustive analysis of this business model shows that among the superfluity of explanations, three essentials are generally notable: The product or service anticipated for the clienteles. The manner in which the company is structured so as to provide this product and service to its clients. The profits concept. Social businesses could be viewed as a detachment of social private enterprise, which comprises both profit and non-profit ingenuities, and which could be notable from conservative entrepreneurship. Therefore, a social business is a novel formula of business that could be positioned anywhere between a profit-making and a non-profit-making business enterprise.2 In the year1996, in partnership with other three overseas enterprises, the Grameen Bank formed a mobile phone firm, the Grameen Phone, to spread telephone facilities through Bangladesh. Without any land-line facility in most of the Bangladeshi villages, mobile phone know-how was vital to usher the country into the ele ctronic communication age. By thought-provoking the conventional knowledge and rules of business, Grameen Phone had opened a novel market. In relation to the Grameen Phone innovation policy, its application in Kazakhstan would indeed be a real benefit when considering that the country has some imbalances in terms of poverty levels. It would allow most of the poor or middle class persons to access loans that would enable them change their financial stature. Precedencies for the innovation strategy are all hypothetically. To achieve long-standing strategic policies and innovation methods defies the distinctive focus that deals with developing a suitable environment to let the mechanisms of the Grameen Phone innovation policy. The worldwide practice demonstrates that a country: in this case Kazakhstan, with a market economy can collaborate with the private segment stakeholders in essential alterations in the economy.3 A good example of this case scenario is that of the current China wh ich also follows the innovation policy of teamwork with the private sector in scheming strategic innovation and industrial development ways. 1) Investment co-ordination- Like in most parts of Kazakhstan, the unfledged markets are not in a position to evaluate the demand for new improved quality services and 4products to be manufactured through development of the production channels. This investment innovation co-ordination model policy recommends certain dimensions at both the state and private establishments. 2) Business collaboration development ingenuities. Hands-on state business collaboration strategy could be unswervingly targeted to reinforce business contacts in the following groupings: Particular groups of investors formulate innovative market areas and are an indicator on information on invention criteria. Purveyors of equipment permit production involvement alongside it. Purveyors of inputs add to generation of new innovative ideas and invention approaches while consideri ng challengers as a rich basis for new concepts.5 Countries with unfledged market may require a facilitator to stimulate the snowballing market allowance and business collaboration procedures. Founded on the global experience, the approach implementation ought to put emphasis at initiatives pursuing investments synchronization and expansion of business collabor

The Controversy of Government Subsidized Student Loans Research Paper

The Controversy of Government Subsidized Student Loans - Research Paper Example Besides, students must fill the application of the loans in order to determine the persons who are in need if the loan and to what amount should the loan be of benefit to them. The following article, therefore, outlines the loans that the students receive and the benefits of the loans towards the students and the state. The essay also covers the controversy that arises as a result of the loans. The controversy is because the role of the loans does not materialize since most of the students are not capable of servicing their debts. There is the need of the lenders to find other ways to make sure that the whole perspective of supporting the higher learning education is successful. The reference list is a provision at the completion of the document. The instance is in a manner to authenticate the propositions therein. Student’s loans refer to aids that are in forms of funds that are given to students to be of assistance in paying their taxes, to buy books and to help in their living. The loans are very different from other loans since they have very low interest rates. The loans exist because most students do not have the capability of taking care of the tuition fees once they enroll in a higher learning institution. However, t5he students are repayable once a student completes his or her studies. If a student does not repay, there is mostly a cost to penalize the act in an instance of discouraging the same from happening. The main argument that arises is that not all students are capable of repaying the loans since not all the students tend to acquire job opportunities. Therefore, some of the penalties that the lender of the student loans imposes may not be enough reason to do against defaulters (Houck, 2008). From another perspective, the loans that the government lends to students tend to be a huge portion of the national budget. Besides, the education system is a continuous process that becomes a yearly expense.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Frankenstein and Paradise Lost Essay Example for Free

Frankenstein and Paradise Lost Essay Shelleys story of a creature created by Victor Frankenstein has striking similarities to Miltons Paradise Lost from the outset, as the second letter in the novel that documents Frankensteins misfortune, is sent from Archangel. Satan was an archangel before he was banished from heaven for challenging God, and we know that he was supposedly perfect. Frankenstein sought to make a human being in perfection, although both the creature and Satan fell from grace at the hand of their creators. The opening line of Paradise Lost underpins the correlation between the tales; Paradise Lost opens with the lines, Of Mans first disobedience, and the fruit, Of that forbidden tree, this is referring to Adam who took forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and was therefore exiled by God. This story of Eden and mans downfall has obviously influenced Shelley as Frankensteins pursuit of nature to her hiding places is what led to the demise of himself and his family. Miltons Satan challenges God; Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit and this echoes in Shelleys novel and Miltons poem, as he tells us that heaven hides nothing from thy view. Yet both Satan and Frankenstein want more than nature has to offer, and the irony in the events leading up to the monsters creation are highlighted, by Shelleys use of dark and gothic descriptions of foraging in vaults and charnel-houses, and how the worm inherited the wonders of the eye and brain.. This dark depiction echoes the fate of Frankenstein, the monster and Miltons Satan, as they all endure an experience of Hell; Frankensteins personal hell was of of intense tortures such as no language can describe, and his endurance of a deep, dark, death like solitude, ironically echoes his creations feelings of loneliness and despair. The monster however, considered Satan as the fitter emblem of his condition and continued sufferings, but his hell was also a personal one, to be lived out on earth, and unfortunately alone. Satan, at least, had his host of rebel angels and had experience of a father and being loved, his demise was through choice, as was Frankensteins. It is Satan and the monster who initially invoke the readers compassion, as the monster seems of a benevolent nature as he watched the beloved De Lacy family and took pleasure in aiding their labours. He also shows altruistic behaviour in saving a drowning girl, and lighting a fire to warm his creator, making him possibly more sympathetic than Frankenstein, who forgot his family in his aspirations to become greater than his nature will allow. The monster states, after reading Paradise Lost and other literature he has found after eating the metaphorical apple, that sorrow only increased with knowledge, as he became aware from the De Laceys, of such things as love and acceptance that he came to long for. His good intent could also be interpreted on his hearing Saphie play music that he found so entrancingly beautiful that they at once drew tears of sorrow and of delight from my eyes. Satans ruin also came from his pursuit of knowledge, leading both men to their exile from the people they sought acceptance from. According to Stephen Boyd*, Shelleys husband believed that men are not inherently corrupt, and that they are perfectible, adding to the influence of Frankenstein being to blame for the monsters feelings of vengeance to all mankind, and Frankensteins own corruption when trying to discover the elixir of life. Shelley portrays the monster in child-like ways throughout the novel, as he learns empirically; it was a long time before I was able to distinguish between the operations of my various senses, and he burns himself with fire as a child with no awareness would. This allows the reader to feel some empathy towards this wretched creature, as we imagine an abandoned child, but also reinforces her exploration of human nature as potentially good. Frankenstein and the creature both state they were formed for peaceful happiness, like Miltons Adam, making them perfect antiheroes. It could be argued that the monsters rejection is what made him commit such heinous crimes against Frankensteins loved ones, as the rejection he continually faced made him wretched. We could see Shelley taking the stance that man made a monster, and man also made him monstrous. As the monster lives in a hut, we are reminded that he doesnt only live outside physically, but emotionally as he is a mere voyeur of family life while watching the De Lacys, and this social exclusion is to blame for his murderous behaviour, again relating to Satan who was excluded my his creator. We could again relate this to Satan who is looking for earth and is also racked with deep despair, as are Shelleys characters. Frankenstein also resembles God, as he created his own version of Adam, and the monster that he constantly refers to as fiend and devil reminds him; You, my creator, abhor me.. his plea resounds through the humanity of every reader who has ever felt alone or incomplete, but these feelings however are to be changed as the monster commits heinous crimes against the humanity he once longed for, and on his final rejection he cries; oh, earth the mildness of my nature had fled, and all within me was turned to bitterness and gall. This is when the role of God is transferred from Frankenstein and to the monster who will now decide his fate.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management

Leadership Styles in Knowledge Management This research paper aims to study the three basic leadership styles widely practiced in the organizations as well as the emerging concept of knowledge management and examine individually the relationship of these leadership roles on the knowledge management. The three leadership styles under focus are: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The purpose of this research is to identify which leadership style is more effective in relation with the knowledge management. Hence, to help organizations make the best use of this phenomenon and increase their knowledge sharing among different hierarchical levels to exercise maximum levels of learning and innovation in their work environment. It will also enable corporations to gain the competitive advantage with respect to their human capital and. When it is discovered that which managerial style has the positive impact on the knowledge management, it will result into employee empowerment and motivation. Among the important finding s are that effective knowledge management or knowledge sharing processes lead to a competent work environment and the employees get more involved with their jobs as they feel that their ideas are valued. Moreover, they tend to get more creative and challenging, but these behaviors are majorly dependent upon the managers attitude and whether he or she encourages such contributions or interferences from the subordinates and is flexible and open to change and innovation. In the outcomes, transformational leadership has proved to positive relationship with knowledge management and that of the laissez-faire has a negative effect on it. This paper has derived findings through extensive study of literature reviews on these main concepts which is based on theoretical researches. Keywords: Knowledge management, Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership, laissez-faire, Communication. Introduction: Background of study: In this research we are going to study the various factors affecting the issue of Knowledge Management among employees and how can it become most useful for the growth of an organization. The concept of Knowledge Management basically is about the knowledge an individual possesses about anything and this particular kind is referred to as tacit knowledge which is usually gained through personal observation, experience, values and beliefs. Such form of knowledge is usually exhibited in informal settings and could not be formally written or documented into a proposal to the manager. As it is something that can cross an employees mind instantaneously but he or she might not feel confident to share their idea openly in the given atmosphere, where they might think it would sound insignificant or absurd to others. To sum up, the purpose of knowledge management is to provide strategies, processes and technology to amplify the overall organizations learning (Satyadas et al., 2001). Moreover, s ystem oriented view is highly being emphasized and companies are installing technology applications ranging from traditional data-processing areas to expert networks enabling expert-to-expert communication. These systems are designed to store and make profit from the existing explicit, implicit as well as tacit knowledge of organizations. Hence, they facilitate the flow of knowledge in the processes and also record the information that which employee has put in the knowledge and how its implementation could help the organization, so that the right person should get the reward fairly and it is done as an act of encouragement for others. In todays world of immense market competition and rivalry among brands, there is an increasing need of formulating progressive organizational strategies constantly for a companys survival. There organizations are now paying most attention to the notion of innovation, which is majorly generated from the employees. Hence, it is highly important for an o rganization to have a culture that is flexible, open to new ideas, adaptive to change and appreciative of contribution of knowledge. Hence if the sharing of knowledge from individuals is encouraged and valued, it can enable a company to be competitive and help in achieving its goals, provided it is in relevance with the problem. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) Moreover, if that knowledge is used and followed through, it gives a sense of recognition, achievement and personal satisfaction as well as a sense of belonging. It matters most especially to the senior employees who do not much care about the other lower components of the Maslows motivation theory of hierarchy, as those needs are already fulfilled at this stage. Leadership Styles are at the center of Knowledge Management importance and approaches that have caught the attention of researchers and scholars for long periods. Overly technical view of Knowledge Management seems to downplay the importance of soft factors that impact the Knowledge Management phenomena. Significance of study: Managing knowledge and intellectual capital has become the key drivers of new knowledge and new ideas to the innovation process, to new innovative products, services and solutions. It helps in better achieving and even exceeding the objectives. (Knowledge Management in Health Science Libraries, 2007) The purpose of knowledge management should not be to become just knowledgeable but to be able to create, transfer and apply knowledge with aim of better achieving the objectives. Problem Statement: The current competitive setting of organizations and the changing management paradigm has highlighted the importance of Leadership Styles on Knowledge Management. Identifying Leadership Styles that promote concept and practice of Knowledge Management is crucial as the growth and competitiveness of organizations in new-age economy. Research Question: What are the different leadership styles that affect knowledge management in organization? What are the ways in which different leadership styles affect knowledge management? Purpose of study: The purpose of this study is to examine the different roles of leadership in the knowledge management and how this has an impact on the overall organization. Research objectives: To identify and evaluate different roles of leadership To examine the impact of these different roles of leadership on knowledge management Delimitation: Only few educational institutes are surveyed for the primary research from Rawalpindi and Islamabad only. Literature Review: Knowledge management has been identified as one of the most important resources that contribute to the competitive advantage of an organization. Behavioral and interpersonal skills are most often known as the essentials for successful knowledge management. Knowledge can be within individuals or within the relationships between the individuals groups or sub groups. Without verbal or even the non verbal communication the only way to organize knowledge transfer would be to move around people holding the relevant knowledge. (Ferenc, 2003) For many years it had not been studied despite its importance in this information age; only recently leadership theories and researches have addressed the role of leadership in knowledge management. Researchers (Beron et al. 2006), (Viitala, 2004) suggested that the design and building management information system is one way in which leaders at the top of a corporate have an impact on organizational performance. Recent development in the organizational knowledge literature stresses the importance of knowledge management to building a sustainable competitive advantage. (Bogner and Bansal, 2007) and to the importance of leadership for the success of knowledge management. Recently the growing information systems and knowledge management have continuously stressed the lack of leadership support for the failure of many knowledge management projects. (Davenport et al. 1998), (Chandrashekhar, 2009). It has been found that 42 percent of an organizations knowledge resides in the minds of the employees (Clark and Rollo, 2001); therefore it is dependent upon the leaders how to make the best use of it. Furthermore, as discovered by Doppelt (2003) that in order to achieve sustainability in a corporation, leadership is the key, because a competent and committed leader encourages dialogue which as a result leads to change and so barriers such as sticking to old ideas and cultural frameworks, past practices, tunnel vision and such approaches tha t come in the way to draw new progressive visions for the future. According to the researchers Jong and Hartog (2007) and Aragon-Correa (2007) every leadership style has its own pros and cons; but transformational leadership is more attentive and engaging with the sub-ordinates and encourages them to be creative and focuses on the firms learning and innovation. Whereas, Bass (1985) presented that transactional leaders are not much involved with the subordinates work unless there is a need when a problem arises. On the other hand, he also stated that transformational leaders motivate their workforce, rouses their intellectual skills and acts as role models for them. Moreover, they also have the quality of inspiring the employees into acquiring goal accomplishing skills and improve their performance in achieving the corporate vision (Nemanich and Kellar, 2007). Also, they train, encourage and support their subordinates keenly and optimistically and promote individual and team spirit a mong them. Consequently, it is paid back in the form of boosting employees performance in their tasks and bringing high returns from them (Yulk, 2006; Boerner et al, 2007). Information management: Information as now a day includes both physical and electronic information. Now its the organizations and its structures that must be capable of managing that information throughout the information lifecycle regardless of its sources and formats. Thus the focus on information management is the ability of organization to capture, manage, preserve, store and deliver the right information to right people at right time. Information management becomes the corporate responsibility that needs to be addressed and followed from the senior level management to the front line management. Information is the key asset for an organization and thus should be treated as corporate asset. (Information Management) And it must be made available to everyone and must be shared. People management: Knowledge is the main driver for organizations performance. It affects performance by making it possible for people to perform well. So the instrument by which knowledge affects the performance is through people. So knowledge management must be people focused (Wiig, 2004) (Corral, 1999) Cindy Johnson, Director of Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing at Texas Instruments states: Knowledge management is really about recognizing that regardless of what business you are in, you are competing based on the knowledge of your employees. They way of making knowledge available has evolved over time. It started with family clans where knowledge was passed from father to son by the process of learning. With the new ideas of working in teams, groups, and as institutions, people work closer to benefit from the knowledge of each other. Process Management: Knowledge management is considered as an approach where the employees of the companies would leverage from the buried knowledge that was held closely to them. This enabled the evolution of the term learning organizations where knowledge is always evolving and is being made assessable to all the employees who are eager to attain it and apply it. The focus on improving, re-engineering and managing business process is considered as corporate assets. The companies are taking charge of how they will deliver value to their customers by focusing on process effectiveness and efficiency. While KM and process engineering was evolving at the same time, there were no efforts to combine them in the same architecture. KM has always been focusing on the best practices and proven practices but it had failed to understand how valuable the fusion of process and knowledge can be. So process management gives the ability to view, manage, evaluate, and adapt the business activities, applications, and peop le in organizations to achieve goals. And to achieve these goals there is a need for the management of knowledge where people get an easy access to share and create knowledge (Records, September 2005). Leadership and knowledge management: There is no doubt about it that leaders are the ones who set the standards for others in the organizations and they are one of the biggest driving forces who inspire and motivate them to achieve what they meant to achieve so leaders have direct impact on how organizations should see and deal with knowledge management but if knowledge management is not being conducted on all levels in the organization starting from the top then it would not be as effective as expected (Singh S. K., 2008) Leaders have vital role to play on every level to manage the knowledge but particularly CEO should take part in this process because if he would take it seriously and feel that there is really a need of managing this thing like other practices in the organization then the rest of the people also take it seriously. Organizations with strong cultures and promising compensation programs will not succeed without committed and responsible managers. According to Singh it is the major responsibility of top executives of the organizations to make such strategies and create such values in the organizations which encourage employees to share, create and value knowledge and leaders should provide them with the opportunities to do so and then afterwards measures should be taken to evaluate employees behaviors, attitudes and productivity that are required for effective knowledge management (Singh S. K., 2008) Four broad approaches were studied to understand the leaders and leadership through the trait approach, the contingency approach, the behavior approach and the transformational approach and some of the approaches does have a role in knowledge management but they are not enough to understand knowledge management systematically. The trait approach does have impact on knowledge management and considers it important thing for leaders, contingency and behavior approach also considers knowledge management vital for effective leaders. The transformational approach also support this phenomena that information creation, keeping and sharing facilitates in obtaining shared vision and values in the organization (Lakshman, 2007). Leaders self realization of importance of knowledge management really matters in the effectiveness of knowledge managements practices in the organization and realization is needed in two dimensions, one internal other external. Internally it is achieved by establishing technological and socio-cognitive ways of managing knowledge and externally it is by realization of valuing customer focused knowledge management (lakshman, 2009). Information revolution changes way of doing things in the corporate context, it enhanced the value of time and customers need quick Reponses with relevant and useful knowledge of the products and services so that transformed the process of leadership too by speeding up the inputs, requirement of quick and customized information regarding product and its functions which further builds competition in the business environment. Likewise he emphasizes the need for knowledge managers to achieve and maintain equilibrium between motivating team members with urgency and providing them with time and space to reflect. To become the knowledge sharing and managing organization, leaders have to take the responsibility and have to choose the appropriate leadership style to lead the organization effectively. (Viitala, 2004) Transformational leadership: A framework was established to implement quality management within an organization actually a system of profound knowledge .While implementing it leadership and knowledge management were measured and it was found that in order to implement such system leaders required should be participative, collaborative and inspiring (Gapp, 2002) Transformational leadership have potential to effect employees perceptions through the returns that organization get in the form of human capital benefits and these leaders also have potential to make those benefits greater by adding them in the knowledge management processes, encouraging inter personal communication among employees and creating organizational culture. (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011) It is possible for transformational leadership to enhance organizational innovation through creating a participative environment or culture and it can do so directly or indirectly by changing organizations culture which encourages knowledge sharing and management in the organization. It is in the control of transformational leadership to promote such culture so the employees have autonomy to speak about their experiences and knowledge. (Nguyen Mohamed, 2011) There is relation between magnitude of knowledge acquisitions and transformational leadership. In todays challenging world organizational culture should be more empowered and that is achieved by transformational leadership which encourage people to be open about their choices and decisions. (D.Politis, 2001) He encouraged the role of participative leadership, it is this leadership style which relies heavily on the leader functioning as a facilitator rather than simply a leader who orders and wants his assignments done in time. Employee would not be comfortable in sharing knowledge unless employee knows that he/she would be supported by their leaders. Finally, (C.B.Crawford, 2005) argued that there is a clear relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge management in organizations. Crawfords research is pre empirical and made the point very clearly that empirical testing is needed to understand the relationship of transformational leadership and organizational knowledge constructs. Crawfords research provides some basis from which to speculate that transformational leadership might be a causative factor influencing greater knowledge management skills. Transformational leadership and personal innovation are linked. It was found that transformational leaders are more innovative than transactional and laisse-faire leaders. Innovation is considered to be the key factor for knowledge leaders; innovation is the name of managing and creating information and knowledge through different ways. Transactional Leadership: The second variable we are studying in this research, affecting the knowledge management in organizations is the transactional leadership style. This style of leadership is influenced by the concept of reward and punishment; such leaders believe that the employees performance is mainly dependent upon these two factors. That means that when there is an incentive the workers put in their best effort and the reward is in monetary terms in most of the cases; while when they fail to achieve the set target they ought to be punished. (Oshagbemi Ocholi, 2006) Similarly, transactional leaders impose their authority on their followers to take work from them and clearly state what they want and also give employees the opportunity to get detailed information and guidance before they accept an assignment. Such leaders emphasize on present issues; they do not get involved with the employees tasks unless a need arises and in the beginning of a project they provide the workers with all the resource s needed for its completion and after that the task becomes totally the responsibility of the workers (Bass, Cacioppe, Gronn, Hughes.et.al, Popper, Zakkai, 2002).Transactional leadership has two major components, contingent reward and management by exception (MBE). Here, contingent reward means the reward that an employee is promised by the manager, to be acquired if the required target is achieved by him or her and the MBE approach is used to make sure that one should never fail to achieve the desired result due to the resource constraint. Leaders must be clear in explaining what they actually expect and the organizational goal is achieved they must give the recognition. It was also extracted from that manual that MBE is of two types, passive and active. In MBE active, the leader clarifies the standards to be followed and also defines the unacceptable standards of work and are likely to punish if they are not followed. In this strategy, mistakes and errors are identified and steps are taken to correct them. While, in MBE passive, the leader plays a passive role who does not clarify the standards or the requirements to be met by the employees, but only gets involved when there is an obvious issue. Hence, in this case passive style is not considered to be un systematic in correcting the negative issues. (Ogunlana, 2008) Transactional leaders pay more attention to physical and security needs of the employees. The relationship between the leader and the subordinates mainly revolves around the attraction of reward system as a return for their efforts. It is also said that in transactional leadership one person takes the initiative to make a contact with others in order to make a contract of exchanging functions for the benefit of the organization (Birasnav, Rangnekar, Dalpati, 2011). Laissez-faire: Whereas, the third variable in this study is the laissez-faire leadership style, in which the leader gives complete freedom to the employees to make decisions regarding the completion of a task while answering their questions wherever they find problems and the workers are provided with all the necessary resources and tools for that by the leader. Apart from that only little guidance is provided by the leaders and the followers are expected to solve problems on their own (C.B. Crawford, 2005). This strategy is successful in case the workforce is highly experienced, skilled and capable of their jobs, otherwise if the labor lacks these expertise, the researchers recommend it to be an ineffective and the weakest form of leadership which yields poor productivity for the organization, as there are some workers which are unable to solve problems and meet deadlines on their own. Although, in such situations the work environment is quite relaxed, free of work pressure and without interferenc e from the manager, but still it brings frustration and demonization among the teams when they are unable to produce the desired results, without the required feedback and assistance from the manager. But laissez-faire strategy contributes to the employee empowerment and it gives a visionary worker the opportunity to perform according to his or her own will. Lassiz- faire is a leader who always runs away when there is a need to make an important decision or when there is a serious problem (Ogunlana, 2008). The phenomenon of knowledge management is applicable on the whole organizational structure, taking into all the levels of hierarchy. While studied empirically it was discovered that the relationship between the different components of knowledge management and transformational leadership, transactional leadership and self-management have a link with the accomplishment of knowledge forms. Moreover the leaders should be able to give an empowering environment to the employees. Although according to the empirical findings, which are quite limited in this aspect, as well as the theoretical assumptions of a number of authors, there is a need for participative collaborative leadership style in order to facilitate the flow of knowledge. Hence it was pointed out that empirical testing of the knowledge attributes in an organization should be carried out, to find out the relationship between the management of knowledge and transactional leadership in a firm. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) The researcher selected a sample of 1,046 males and females enrolled in liberal classes who were side by side employed in different economic sectors. In the first round they were asked to answer the questions based on the behavioral aspects of knowledge management in which the questions taken from the Barth (2003) typology of personal knowledge management categories. In the round they were asked to fill in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5-S (MLQ) derived from Bass (1985) which comprised of scales measuring the attributes of the three leadership styles: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. The scales ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree and as a measure for superior performance or as a self-report measure. But he used the MLQ as a self-report of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership characteristics. Finally, in the last round, the respondents were asked about their demographics considered important for the research including se x, age, years of employment, education, career type, position at work and use of technology. While conducting the analysis, only the position variable was used that described the respondents as senior managers or executive, supervisors and at entry level. Though the basic purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the knowledge management attributes and the transformational leadership style. In the end various correlations were found that determined the degree of the relationship between the knowledge management behaviors and transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership. Eventually, the outcome of the investigation concluded that the variables leadership and knowledge management are significantly related, both in the organizational setting as well as in theoretical context. The most important results included that there exists a strong relationship between knowledge management and transformational leadership. Moreover, transactional leadership, i t was discovered that as knowledge management is technical in nature, the more effective management style would be transactional. Furthermore, transactional leaders are more goal oriented and not much concerned about the personal development of the sub-ordinates. In addition, another finding was that transactional leadership had strong correlations with knowledge management and contingent reward and it had considerable negative correlation with management by exception. On the other hand, it was analyzed that laissez-faire came out to have a negative effect on knowledge management, which indicates that a leaders role is very essential in managing knowledge behaviors in corporate. Consequently, the negative correlation between the two components indicated an inverse relationship, which means that when knowledge management behavior increases, the extent of laissez-faire decreases (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Additionally that investigation also showed that the hierarchical position an employee has in a company also has a link with the knowledge management, as people handing more information are expected to possess more skill and grip on building knowledge management capabilities. Likewise, leadership attributes are practiced and exerted most according to the position an individual holds; the more the responsibility, the greater the actions of a leader exhibited, to succeed in following an aim or achieving a goal. As a result, there were higher levels of transformational leadership witnessed as the position in a corporate increased, whereas transactional and laissez faire got less. Hence, the position in the hierarchy is also crucial in examining the relationship between knowledge management and leadership attributes; and that variable proved to be predictive of knowledge management, just like transformational leadership. Only transformational leadership style, not transactional or laisse z-faire was related to the impact of position on knowledge management. In that investigation, it was concluded that transformational strategies worked best even where the most technical skills were required, in modern corporate environments as compared to transactional or laissez-faire and are more successful in other organizational constructs too because of their person-centered approach. Whereas, transactional strategies did not enhance knowledge management behavior and laissez-faire leadership slowed it to a significant extent. Furthermore, the higher the positions got in a corporate for individuals; they dealt with knowledge more effectively, because they then adopted more of transformational strategies. But in the significance, leadership is of much greater value than the position variable, effecting knowledge management. (C.B. Crawford, 2005) Laissez-faire as leadership style exhibits ineffectiveness, unproductiveness and dissatisfaction. These leaders avoid interfering in the followers jobs and stay away from taking the responsibility their position demands and also avoid developing a relationship with the subordinates. (Ogunlana, 2008) Proposed Methodology: The sampling method that we will use is purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique. Subjects would be selected because of we will be able to select people of interest and exclude who do not suit the purpose of research. The sector chosen for this study is educational sector, coordinators and head of departments would be researchers respondents. Total sample will be 100 individuals.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Intensity Of Competitive Rivalry Marketing Essay

Intensity Of Competitive Rivalry Marketing Essay Fraser Neave Holding Bhd has 3 business portfolios which are soft drink, dairies product and property. The soft drink division has developed its own brands such as 100Plus and Seasons. Dairies product division is producing sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juice and ice cream. FN properties is to unlock the value of land acquired and held by the company. There are external environmental factors will affect the company to achieve their mission which catogorized under PEST section. An economic factor affected the company growth which subsidy of sugar is being removed by government. Porters 5 forces used to evaluate the industry competitive environment. There are threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and Rivalry among existing firm. 100Plus has developed strong brand and gain 88% of market share which posted entry barrier to new entrant. Soft drink and Dairies products are very less degree of differentiation with competitors. Therefore, buyers are allowed to compare product especially price is factor buyers considered the most. Those suppliers who still getting sugar subsidy have greater power because many companies are looking for lower sugar cost. In addition, there are few big players in beverage and dairy product in the industry, the intensity of competition is very strong. GE model was applied to evaluate attractiveness of different business portfolios. Economic was used as industry attractiveness factor and brand strength as business strength. FN properties doesnt have strong brand among the property industry. But the company has strong brand such as 100Plus, Season and also sweetened condensed milk in Malaysia. However, the economic factor wasnt always favourable to all division. Efficiency and Effectiveness in utilizing liabilities in funding related assets of business portfolio is evaluated by ratio analysis. The company portfolios have high current ratio because the liabilities have reduced. And 100Plus has gain over 88% of market share in the isotonic drink segment. Introduction Fraser Neave holding Bhd. (FN) was incorporated at year 1883 when founders John Fraser and David Chalmers Neave formed a company named Singapore Straits Aerated Water Company in Singapore. Few years later, FN was consolidated and enter the food beverage industry. FN has its own vision to become the leading total beverage company in Malaysia and the region and their mission is to be a world-class multinational enterprise providing superior returns to their shareholders, excellent value for their customers and a rewarding career for their employees. FN Company is one of the Malaysia well known beverage company which the famous product is the isotonic drinks 100plus launched at year 1984. FN produce wide range of beverage that can be classified as soft drinks, dairies, non-carbonated beverages as well as separate business property. They were launching the sweetened condensed filled milk in year 1973, and the acquisition of Nestlà ©s canned milk business in Thailand and Malaysia in year 2007. Other than that FN high quality canned milk was also gain excellent reputation in Malaysia. This product is largely use as beverage mixers in coffee, tea and chocolate drinks and now canned milk has successfully to export this product to more than 20 countries around the world. In addition, the halal certification offers strong reassurance to Muslim customers in the growing Halal markets in the Middle East and Africa. FN Company was awarded The Readers Digest Trusted Brand from year 2005 to 2008, Media Magazine Top 1000 Asian Brands 2007 and so on. It proves that their customer was confident when using their products since they are concern about their health and safety quality. FN Company was continuously improve their quality and brands to challenges the marketplace and to become the leader. FN Company is also well-known company that caring about the social environment and working environment. They implemented and executed various environmental stewardship and launched numerous recycling campaigns in schools to inculcate good environmental habits among young people and thus, create awareness on the importance of recycling. FN Company also set-up a RM1.2 million funds named Chairmans Award to encourage educational excellence and to identify high-achievers among children of FN Groups employees. FN Company has accomplished a safety record of zero accident (no loss time accident) accumulated from 1 February 2007 to 21 September 2009 with a total 962 days or 2.3 million working hours. Zero environmental compliance status has achieved. FN Company has three main businesses which are soft drinks, dairy products and property. (Fn.com.my, About us) Soft Drink FN Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd represent Malaysias largest soft drinks manufacturer and distributor. There are four manufacturing plants nationwide, including its state of the art facility at its headquarters in Shah Alam, Selangor. Their products are 100PLUS, FN Fun Flavours, FN Originals, SEASONS, Ice Mountain and Fruit Tree. The company operated in 1936 when FN Ltd obtained the franchise of Coca-Cola in Singapore and Malaysia. Later that FN Coca-Cola (M) Sdn Bhd (FNCC) was born and license agreement would end in September 2011, the company renamed as FNBM. In Malaysia, 100PLUS is a outstanding local success story, cover 90 percent share of the isotonic drinks market and also the No.1 ready to drink (RTD) brand in Malaysia. For non-carbonated portfolio, SEASONS is currently No.2 in Asian drinks category while Fruit Tree continue to grow within the juice segment. The soft drinks division perform well during the festive periods and continue to pursue world class excellence in distribution so that the products are readily available with focus on market execution. Over the years, FNBM has used few strategic measures that emphasize on its brand presence by invested in advertising and promotions, product availability and operational efficiency. In April 2010, FNBM was selected to become distributor of Red Bull energy drinks in Malaysia and has improved FNBMs beverage portfolio. (Fn.com.my, Soft drink) Dairies Products FN Dairies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd has produced variety of products such as sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juice and ice cream.In 1959, FNs dairy business had constructed Southeast Asias first sweetened condensed milk plant in Petaling Jaya while joint venture with Beautrice Foods of Chicago, USA. The Carnation Company from US joined the partnership in 1965 to form Premier Milk as the manufacturing arm. The Group continually pursues product innovation and invention, more products adding into portfolio and after that the Group had a successful journey into ice cream business. In 1989, the Group purchased the interests of Beatrice Foods and restructured its dairy operations under FN Dairies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. It was expanded further with the acquisition of Magnolia in 1995. In 1998, the Group started its pasteurised business. Today, FNs dairies division has a vision of being Malaysias leading dairy and food marketer with world class products, standards and capabilities forming part and parcel of its offerings. In 2011, FN Dairies (Malaysia) disposed off its entire ice cream business to FN Creameries (M) Sdn Bhd. (Fn.com.my, Dairies Product) Property FN Properties is one of business unit of Fraser Neave Holdings Berhad, the purpose is to further add in value of land acquired and held by the company by developing into real estate property. The very first property developed at Jalan Foss by FN is the former FN factory land that has been developed into for commercial use which called Fraser Business Park. The development is leaded by FNs underlying philosophy which is being socially responsible corporate citizen. The key value of the business unit lies within the emphasizing of creating innovative design with high class application towards the development, leaving its occupant a feel of the modern and future alike features. FN Properties is expected to launch more properties in the future as its properties units are being recognized to be fill with innovative design and product development that particularly focus on FN brand name feature. In the far future, the division will focus on redeveloping of existing Premier Milk plant into a landmark in Petaling Jaya.(Fn.com.my, Property) PEST Mission: To be a world-class multinational enterprise providing superior returns to our shareholders, excellent value for our customers and a rewarding career for our employees. Vision: To become the leading total beverage company in Malaysia and the region. Every company has their mission and vision statement served as overall purpose of business. The mission and vision statement above are set by FN. There are external environmental issues have or will affect FN to achieve their mission. These external environmental issues are being categorized according to PEST(EL) model. PEST(EL) model is to analyze the external environment issues of company. It categorized environment issues into political, economic, social, technological, ecological and legal influences. Economic Improving growth prospect of Malaysia, Thailand and the region brings more income to FN as is signals economy are in good condition and peoples are willing to spend hence will increase sales in that particular region. The growth prospects include rising of Malaysia GDP in year 2010 that is approximately 10% compare to 4.5% in 2009 that rise from some major factor of manufacturing industry production with a double digit growth of 16.9% in year 2010. ASEAN countries are growing quick in their economy thus putting FN a favourable factor in growing of profits.(Annual Report 2009 pg 013) FN has built up positive consumer sentiment to their product. For example 100PLUS, isotonic drink that is specialized for sportsmen to retain the metabolism. It is a concept well-built that it is voted number 1 isotonic drinks in Malaysia since its introduction in 1983. That well-built positive sentiment brings others drinks of FN to be well marketable. It is the consumer sentiment to the products enhance d the profitability factor of FN towards other competitor thus is at an advantage in the market. (Annual Report 2010 pg 043 044) Political Government had put initiative to boost spending of consumer with new economic model (NEM), with this model being pursue, Malaysia economic boost as consumer purchasing power increases and are advised to spend. FN will get benefit by provide goods to be sold to the market hence boosting sales. FN products are all Halal hence are entitled for Halal Hub Tax Incentive. The incentive offered had decreased FN some percentage of tax liability to the government. It made FN more profitable compare to those companies which does not qualified for the incentive. (Annual Report 2011 pg 028) Government has removed subsidy of fuel and sugar has put an impact to FN as most of the FN core businesses needed large amount of sugar which is dairies and soft drink business. The withdrawal of sugar subsidy lower the overall profit of the FN although there is a large improve a sales but the profit doesnt show much improvement as the sugar cost increases. Withdrawals of fuel subsidy did also impact on FN as the cost of their internal and external distribution cost increases thus reduces profit. (Annual Report 2011 pg 037) Technological In the beginning of 2011, FN introduced new product, Ice Mountain and it has faster share gain among bottler waters player which established 5% market share in Malaysia. (Annual Report 2011 pg 035) FN launched new beverage Zesta across Malaysia in October 2011.Zesta has remarkably great tasting berry soda flavored soda. It contents the Guarana tropical berries that originate from Amazon, South America. In addition, Guarana tropical berries invigorate the body and mind. Zesta is an extension of our already large array of FN beverages, a beverage that was initiated to complement our existing range of FN brands, creating a transition vehicle for our growing band of consumers, said Dato Ng Jui Sia, CEO of Fraser Neave Holdings Bhd. FN believes that Zesta is the illustration of growing trends for beverage enhanced soda. (Zesta 2011) Environmental Sichuan Earthquake of May 2008 has caused the raw material cost increase and companys profit is affected. Natural disaster is beyond expectation and control of the company. Profit before interest and tax in 2008 grew only 5%. This environmental factor has affected company to achieve their mission. Natural disaster would serve as obstacle that FN provide superior returns to shareholders. (Annual Report 2008 pg 052) Porters 5 forces Today, Fraser Neave Holdings Bhd (FN) has extended business at more than 20 countries worldwide and established itself as a regional player. So that, FN need use Porters five forces model to analysis and understanding the nature of the competitive environment. FN has a lot of benefits from using Porters five forces model. They can ensure that management considers a wide range of potential impacts when devising strategy. They allow the division of the work in environmental analysis and make decision in time. In addition, Porters five forces also help to develop effective strategies to raise FN profitability, power, and competitive position in an industry. Porters five forces is divided into threat of entry, intensity of competitive rivalry, threat of substitute product, bargaining power of buyer and bargaining power of suppliers. Threat of entry Threat of entry is new entrants into market will bring extra capacity and intensify competition. The strength of the threat from new entrants will depend upon the strength of the barriers to entry and the likely response of existing competition to a new entrant. FN produce two new soft drink FN Clearly Citrus and Zesta were launched in soft drink market at year 2011. Zesta and FN Clearly Citrus was getting customer support and the new produces also have a higher demand from the buyer. Zesta sales would attract other competitors enter into tsoda market, it will be posted a threat on FN market sales. (Zesta 2011) Bargaining power of supplier Bargaining power of suppliers definition with the stronger power of suppliers in an industry the more difficult it is for firms within that sector to make a profit. It is because suppliers can determine the terms and conditions on which business is conducted. Most of the products are contented sugar, sugar is essential for production. Malaysian Government has removed sugar subsidies on selective basis and subsidy for Dairies Malaysia was removed. Increased of sugar cost and global commodity cost forced price of Sweetened Condensed Milk increased by 25%. However, sugar subsidy was removed on selective basis which means FN can look for suppliers whose sugar subsidies werent removed. In addition, competitors will also search for new suppliers and it may not easy to reduce cost as low as before. Apart from that, FN may have to concern about any switching cost for current suppliers. Bargaining power of buyer Bargaining power of buyer sense of the powerful buyer can force price cuts and quality improvement. The government removed sugar subsidy, FN material cost increased and affected the product selling price increased. In 2011, Sweetened Condensed Milk has increased 25% of the price which cause the demand reduced. Revenue and profit was decline during the year. Buyers also have full information about the soft drink and dairy product market. They should know which company product cheaper, more health and best quality. FN need to retain the customer by improving product quality and introduce new product. Buyers always have different choice for their beverage and dairy product. Apart from that, same type of competitors product will be display nearby companys products. For example, Jusco will be placing same type of products together which allowed buyers to search easily. There is low switching cost for buyers. Beside, degree of product differentiation is low which customer may feel all bran ds are similar. This threat is more difficult to control, because FN management need to concentrate on changing buyers preference and also maximize the shareholders wealth. Threat of substitute product Porters 5 forces have indicated that the threat of substitute product is the other firms within the industry has offers similar product with similar benefits for the customer. This threat may affects the competitive environment of the company and influence our ability to achieve profitability. On FN Magnolia have offers Pasteurised Milk and Sterilised Milk. The range of the customers is children and adults. The Pasteurised Fresh Milk can be enjoyed chilled or warm, plain or mixed with other foods or beverages and they innovate into Lo-Fat Hi-Cal Milk provide less fat and more healthier of the Fresh Milk for our body. However, Marigold has offers HL Milk is low-fat milk No.1 in Malaysia. HL Milk has perfect balance of nutrients for everyone in the family and it consists high in calcium and protein, low in fat and lactose and fortified with 9 essential vitamins to supplement healthier lifestyle. Marigold HL Milk is first choice for the customers who are caring health conscious. FN should innovation their milk product provide more healthy to attract or retain consumer choices. Another competitor is Dutch Lady has provided a Dutch Lady Milk powder for satisfy customer needs who want mix it with other coffee or tea favour and it has a rich and creamy taste and allowed to dilute in hot or cold water easily. Furthermore, Dutch Lady also has provided different formulations to cater to children of different ages to promote their brain development and healthy growth. Therefore, most of the mother would choose Dutch Lady Milk products of their children rather than choose FN milk products. FN SEASONS offers soft drink products are leaders in countrys most comprehensive range of consumer, catering to every occasion. The Soya range provides protein nourishment while the Chrysanthemum and Grass Jelly provides healthier refreshment with less sugar let FN SEASONS become best quality and healthy drinks. However, they are having lesser favors for the customer choose. YEOS have more favors, such as Lychee drink, Sugarcane drink, Bandung Rose drink, coconut juice, soursop drink and guava drink for the customer to choice. Hence, consumers who are Sugarcane drink lover may change its option to YEOS products. Although there are many competitors for isotonic drink, 100Plus still able to gain over 88% of the market share. Company has done a lot promotion for 100Plus which the reason 100Plus is successfully gain more than half of the market share. (Annual Report 2010 pg 036) Intensity of competitive rivalry Intensity of competitive rivalry among competitors in the industry strives to companies to gain competitive advantage over the rivals and drives the profit of the rivals firm to zero. The company can gains the competitive advantage by several ways, such as pricing policy, improving the products differentiation with other and exploiting relationships with suppliers. If can gain more competitive advantage over competitors can increase the profitability of the company. FN only provided soft drink products and dairy products, appears less competitive advantage compare with others. Nowadays, people more have health conscious when they buying products may choice to buy the products which consists more nutrition. In food and beverage industry also have many company has provide more diet product to satisfied the requirements of the different customers. Dutch Lady Low Fat Yoghurt is a healthy snack and it will enhance the absorption of nutrients, ensuring digestive system stays healthy. It contains Vitamin A, C and E, calcium and Active Live Cultures. In Addition, the Marigold have offer the Yogurt and cultured milk Vitagen which have consists nutrition products for the body. The Vitagen has billions of live probiotic cultures to helps maintain a healthy digestive system. Probiotic cultures in VITAGEN can withstand bile and acidic stomach juices and reach the intestines alive to fight harmful bacteria in the intestines. Furthermore, the Yoghurt contains live and active cultures help digestion and promote a healthy digestive system and calcium for the development of strong bones and teeth. Marigold also has offers Jelly is a great-tasting double-layered jelly that is filled with fresh fruits. Its cool and refreshing taste makes it great for everyone in the family and contains no preservatives and is a healthy alternative to fruits after a hearty meal. This makes Marigold become Malaysias first and only pasteurised Jelly. Beside, sugar subsidy was removed on selective basis which posted unfair competitive environment to FN. And it also created very intense pricing war for soft drink and dairy product. In order to protect the revenue while still retain consumer loyalty, the price of sweetened condensed milk increase 25%. This all is key reasons that the consumer may change favors to this type of products. To gain competitive advantage, FN should provide more nutrition products for the customers have more choose. Porters national competitive advantage diamond Porters diamond model suggests that there are inherent reasons why some nations and industries within nations are more competitive than others on a global scale. The argument is that the national home base of an organisation provides organisations with specific factors which will potentially create competitive advantages on a global scale. (Michael Porter 1990) Porters diamond model consist of four conditions of national advantage which are factor conditions, demand conditions, related and supporting industries and firm strategy, structure and rivalry. Factor conditions Factor condition is about important elements that exist in a company which lead to national competitive advantage. It can be country specific or industry specific. FN Dairies had constructed plant in Pulau Indah costs RM350 million and will be completed within the second half of 2011. The new plant promotes cutting edge green technology which would have huge gains in water, energy and environmental conservation. With existence of this plant, FN Dairies could be on the top list of worlds largest producers of canned milk. (Annual Report 2011 pg 41) An increase in production line is an advantage of the company. FN had launched a new RM45 million polyethylene terephthalate (PET) monoblock production line which is the first in Asia Pacific. This able to done all the things in only one production line, for example blow bottles, fill and pack all carbonate soft drinks products. (Annual Report 2010 pg 32) FN has the latest innovation and technology that bring advantages to them. With this latest technology, FN can enhance its operations by continuing improve production lines. FN can produce more products in effective and efficient way. In addition, the new machineries increase as the production lines increases. The warehouse management system has implemented to make operation work run smoothly. Besides, the introduction of new sales forecasting tools helps in manufacturing, if sales forecast is low, the manufacturer will produce less stock. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) Supply chain act as an important role in a business. Without supply, production would not be carried out. Improvement in supply chain lead to high efficiency of production and logistic by upgrade the systems. FN introduce higher level of operational automation and inventory management to ensure the manufacturing process has no error. Besides, the product quality management has to make sure that the products are in acceptable quality and safety measures are enhanced in order the product would not harm people. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) Demand conditions Secondly, the demand conditions state that if the local market for a product is larger and more demanding at home than in foreign markets, local firms potentially put more emphasis on improvements than foreign companies. This will potentially increase the global competitiveness of local exporting companies. FN non-carbonated portfolio has slightly increased from 25.4 per cent to 28 per cent in soft drinks business. This represent there is a growing demand for drinks. During the year, FN included fruit teas and juices to its range of soft drinks, and launch new drink called Zesta recently catering consumers of this segment. The ability to innovate, differentiate and manufacture new product lines will bring advantages such as gain more market share. (Zesta 2011) FN Fruit Tree released five new flavours in bottle form which are orange, apple, lychee, blackcurrant and mango. As the demand increases, Fruit Tree has becoming one of the fastest growing categories in Malaysia. The new flavours are the extension to the Fruit Tree cans range and the research shows that consumer preference toward these flavours compared to other brand in the market. (Annual Report 2010 pg 36) FN Holding Berhad has built a new warehouse in Kuching which triple larger than previous warehouse capacity to improve the quality of service and make sure delivery to customers is on time. Furthermore, it utilised advanced warehousing technology such as high selective racking, super flat flooring and Very Narrow Aisleway (VNA) trucks. (Annual Report 2009 pg 38) Related and supporting industries Thirdly, the related and supporting industries mean that when local supporting industries and suppliers are competitive, home country companies will potentially get more cost efficient and receive more innovative products. In February 2010, 100PLUS signed a partnership agreement with AirAsia Berhad, officially sell 100PLUS on AirAsia flights which depart from Malaysia. AirAsia Berhad is a Malaysia top airlines company, being a partner of AirAsia Berhad has a real competitive advantage for FN. This agreement is a big step for division to extend business offshore. Passenger dehydration happened frequently in air travel, with 100PLUS the passenger can get over the dehydration. Support from AirAsia is like an advertisement effect, whenever there is a flight, there is an appearance of 100PLUS. (Annual Report 2010 pg 038) Firm strategy, structure and rivalry Structure and management system can affect competitiveness. FN is running beverage and dairies business in addition to food business too. FN buy 23.08 per cent share in Cocoaland Holdings Berhad. Cocoaland is a major snack food manufacturer in Malaysia. FN is diversifying the business risk to various subsidiaries. FN develop the food business to supplement beverage and dairies business. As the Malaysia grow into high income economy country, the consumption of middle income will increase and food business will be benefited. (Annual Report 2010 pg 9) GE model 3 portfolio business Property Dairy product Soft drink GE business matrix Industry Attractiveness- Economic Factor Business Strength- Brand Strength High Medium Low High Investment/ Growth Soft drinkSelective Growth Selectivity Medium Dairy productSelective Growth Selectivity Harvest/Divest Low Selectivity Property businessHarvest/Divest Harvest/Divest FNs business has divided into 3 portfolio and that are Soft Drinks, Dairy Products and Properties. First of all, we will use the environmental factor and brand strength as the industry attractiveness factors and business factors benchmark. Soft Drinks FNs core soft drinks business portfolio will be classified at the classes of selective growth. The company soft drinks 100plus and Zesta are popular in Malaysia and have helped the company in bringing certain level of stable income.100plus as the companys core product have promoting an active lifestyle and healthy living to consumer. Many events have been run to promote 100plus as it is isotonic drink of choice at major sporting events. 100plus is present at top sports events such as Piala Malaysia Final 2011 100plus Tunku Abdul Razak Cup, KL Marathon 2011 and so on to continue building prestigious images of 100plus to consumers. Profit of division has been growing from year 2007 to 2011. However, sugar subsidy withdrawn by Malaysian Government has major impact on price of sugar. The division has lesser growth rate for year 2011. In addition, global commodity cost has increased which is unfavorable economic factor. Soft Drink division has very high brand strength but economic factors are not really favourable to the division. Dairy Products FNs dairy products will be classified at the classes of selectivity. Companys dairy products have included sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pasteurised milk, UHT milk, juices and ice cream. Dairy Products also suffered from withdrawal of sugar subsidy and global commodity price increased in 2011. FNs dairy products business has classified at selectivity, with medium level of attractiveness and medium business strength on the dairy products. Although the product Milo is popular in Malaysia, Milo is not owned by FN, it was franchised. This product reduces business strength as it is not the only major player in the market. The dairy products will seem less attractive to the investors to consider investing because the deliberate of the milk market is very costly. In addition, the cost for hire workers and the cost to obtain technology for producing the dairy products are costly for subsequent production of dairy products. Moreover, the dairy products license also difficult to be approved by the government. New entrant will find difficult to entry, because the market has been controlled and played by a few major competitors. New entrant will find difficulty to enter to the market as these factors created entry barriers. Properties FNs property business is unlocking the value of land holding by the company. The economic factor of the company placed at medium level because volatile commodity and financial market. The company is more concentrated in the soft drink products and has no initiative to promote companys property to the public, not many people knows that FN has already entered into properties. FNs property business is non-comparable with beverage business that seems to be so successful and FNs property business strength is low in this industry. The property business that has high profitability in the industry will attract more investors to invest. The government encourage removing of old building and build more new business park in order to bring in more prosperity to our country. Moreover, our property business is at growth stage because it is newly introduced into the industry, hence it does not have strong business strength on the property business. Ratio analysis and Key performance Indicators Revenue of continuing operation continues to grow from 2009 to 2010 by 11.2% and 2010 to 2011 7.6%. In 2010, the revenue is able to grow better than 2011 due to improved economic conditions. Malaysia Government has

Monday, August 19, 2019

Reflections on Shevchenkos Kateryna Essay -- Poetry Analysis

Purpose Statement The purpose of this research paper is to discover why Taras Shevchenko uses of women in his poetry. Along with the poem â€Å"Kateryna†, women are used quite heavily by the author. The women in his poetry appear to symbolize the czarist imposition of serfdom in the Ukraine. The irony was written when his own freedom was purchased by a friend. Women are usually seen as becoming impregnated by Moscals and then abandon by their impregnators. Shevchenko desire is to reveal how the czars imprison the Ukrainian people just as women are put into a prison by the seduction of the soldiers from Moscow. Problem Statement Taras Shevchenko, through his poem, "Kateryna," was addressing the issue of Petersburg imposing serfdom upon the Ukraine. He used the symbol of women who gave themselves to the Moscals soldiers. The problem Shevchenko perceived was twofold. He was concerned about how Ukraine purity was being filed by the introduction of Russian genes by these women's pregnancies. The second was Russian interference into everyday Ukrainian life as symbolized by the pregnant women being abandoned by the Moscal soldier. Introduction Not taking into account all challenges and difficulties, Taras Shevchenko, ninetieth century Ukrainian romantic national poet, wrote in Ukrainian and about Ukraine. He demonstrated that the Ukrainian language deserves literary attention and in turn rekindling a latent Ukrainian national spirit. George Luckyj writes â€Å"Shevchenko provided in his poems the raison d’à ªtre of the modern Ukrainian nation. The mythic poet became a national prophet†. Thus his first importance to Ukraine is clear: his works for the first time proved the intellectual maturity of the Ukrainian language and culture. Although... ...uel before your grief. (Shevchenko) Works Cited "Early Ukrainian Identity: The Case of Taras Shevchenko." Perspectives Student Journal of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Winter 2004. Web. 4 May 2012. Luckyj, George S.N. "The Archetype of the Bastard in Shevchenko's Poetry." Shevchenko and the critics, 1861-1980. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980. pp. 386-394. Rudnichenko, Nataliya. Being a women in Ukraine. Welcome to Ukraine n.d. Web. 5 May 2012. Shevchenko, Taras. "If You but Knew." 1961. Shevchenko Poetry. Taras Shevchenko Museum. n.d. Web. 6 May 2012. Shevchenko, Taras. "Katerina." 1960. Electronic Library of Ukraine Literature. University of Toronto. n.d. Web. 5 May 2012. Zheleznova, Irina, John Weir and Olga Shartse. "Selected Works by Taras Shevchenko." Spring, 1984. The Modern Language Journal , Vol. 68, No. 1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 89-90.