Food and beverage sector in the consumption service

Food and beverage sector in the consumption service The service consists of four categories which are people processing (direct at a customer), possession processing (direct at customers physical possessions), mental stimulus processing (direct at peoples mind), and information processing (use technology direct at a customers assets). The people and possession processing are based on tangible service while the mental stimulus and information processing are based on intangible service. In this assignment we choose the food and beverage sector in the service consumption which is based on people processing service. This is a common sector on worldwide. It is the daily routine and needs for everyone. In this sector, different people have different tastes of food, so it will split into different food and beverage sector such as Western, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and other foods form different countries. As a customer, we have three-stage model of service consumption in buying and using a service of our choice, which are pre-purchase stage, service encounter, and post-purchase stage. The Secret Sanctuary is the restaurant that we are chosen. It not just provided the food and beverage service, it also provide the accommodation service. Actually, it is called Secret Sanctuary Boutique Cottage Kuching and created by Cyril Lim. The Secret Sanctuary is a unique boutique cottage located inside Taman Stutong Indah at Jalan Setia Raja (JG blogs 2009). It is like Minangkabau or Padang style house and exotic garden. The Secret Sanctuary is a peaceful garden because it provides a great place for a quiet retreat to get away from the hectic busy city life (JG blogs 2009). This place is for customers to find inner peace, creativity, beauty, love and truth (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). The Secret Sanctuary classifies as a three star hotel, that provides room service, restaurant service, and facilities available service which is waterfall pool, Jacuzzi, stream room, fish spa, open air hot tub, garden shower, gym, Wi-Fi access, and BBQ. For the facilities available service, they jus t provide to those customer who wish to pay RM30 per person (RM15 per children) for the charged of use the facilities available (Cyril 2010). The Secret Sanctuary provides the restaurant service to the guests and also the outsider customers. The foods of its restaurant are based on western foods. THE THREE-STAGE MODEL OF SERVICE CONSUMPTION Pre-purchase stage The pre-purchase is first stage model of service consumption. Pre-purchase is defined as a series of information acquires according to consumer-specific decision making evaluation, which recognize salient information from different resources depending on situation (Hoffman, 1998). Pre-purchase can also being defined as customer decision on their initial decision making pertaining to their purchase of a product or service that being reflected by their underlying needs (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). At pre-purchase stage, we start to be aware of our needs and wants. Such awareness of our needs and wants enable further consideration into the decision making process in later stage, service encounter. It also enables a further implementation of information search and alternative evaluation in pre purchase stage. We awareness needs a restaurant for our friendship reunion and we wants provide the western food and beverage services. This tangible service is based on people processing that provide service directed at the customer. Under information search stage, it plays a relative important role in defining our needs and wants as discussed earlier. When we decide what to the service needed, we will seek for information prior our consumption. Such information search can either be active or passive, depending on the level of involvement and perceived risk associated to the search of information. Active and passive information search normally provided by family, friends, colleagues, advertisement, mass media or organization. For our information search, that is provided by our friends. In addition, information search can also come from both internal and external sources. For example of internal information search are personal preferences and self involvement. Oppositely, external information search such as internet, catalog, and advertisement. Such purchase of service is considered limited decision making mainly because consumers unlikely will purchase such service on the daily basis. This also define the level o f low involvement consumer have on purchasing such service. We information search also come from internet search and Privilege Book which can provide our restaurants information and the environment. Apart from information search and awareness of our needs in consumption service, at pre-purchase stage, we also do alternatives search. Such alternative search enables us to have more choices on our consumption. When we from information search, we have three alternative choices which are Tray Cafe, Secret Sanctuary, and Friends n Family. At this stage, we are concern on our choices between different service provided by both Secret Sanctuary and its competitors which are Tray Cafe and Friends n Family. We not only evaluate the service provided by Secret Sanctuary, but also similar service provided by other competing service providers. Tray Cafe is a memories restaurant that they provide a wall to let customers write down their comments and inside the restaurants memories. But the Tray Cafe does not have a seat to provide a group customers seat on together. However, the Friends n Family is an ordinary western food restaurant and they provide less choice of the food and beverage. As for Secret Sanctuary, it not just a restaurant, it also is a unique Boutique Cottage. The Secret Sanctuary has a graceful environment provide to customers. It can provide a seat like a peaceful garden for our friendship reunion. For our decision making, we are discussing on Facebook and compare the entire three restaurants. After discussion, we are decide to choose the Secret Sanctuary because its service and environment provide be close to our needs Service encounter After making a pre-purchase decision, we will consume a service encounter of the Secret Sanctuary. A service encounter is a period of time during the customer interacts directly with a service provider. Secret Sanctuary is providing us the tangible service (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The service encounters as moment of truth which is metaphor by Richard Normann. The point of Normann is a service organizations life of the relationship that is at stake on building long-term relationships with their customers (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The Secret Sanctuary is our decision for friendship reunion place. The Secret Sanctuary is our decision for friendship reunion place. We requests from them to provide the food and beverage service and the happy environment possess a peaceful sanctuary for away from the hectic busy city life and also providing a memorable reunion for us. Throughout service delivery between customers and organization that consists of different level of services which is high-contact services and low-contact services. Most of the restaurants are focuses on customers service rather than inanimate objects (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). But, Secret Sanctuary is focuses on customers service and also the exterior and interior of its building, equipment, physical facilities and furnishing. Secret Sanctuary not only a restaurant, it also is a boutique cottage. It provide a garden style home-stay, is a great place for us because we does not feel the hectic busy city life but a peaceful garden. It is providing high-contact service on their environment and the facilities to their customers. For their low-contact service as customers undertake the self-service on beverage and take order. To conceptualize the service factory as a system that integrated marketing, operations, and customers themselves. It is known as the servuction system which is combining the terms service and production. This conceptual framework to embrace three overlapping elements, there are service operations, service delivery and service marketing system (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The service operations can be divided into those relating to the service provider and those relating to the tangible services such as equipment and physical facilities (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). The Secret Sanctuary is satisfied our requirement because it provides us a graceful and freedom environment (high-contact service). In Secret Sanctuary, we needs to go their bar counter and take an order by self (low-contact service). Service delivery is concerned with the process of delivery between the product service and customer (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). During the service delivery, the customer will start evaluating the quality of service they are receiving and deciding whether its services meet their expectation. The Secret Sanctuary is a restaurant to provide the western foods. For their restaurant services, they does no provide the service delivery on beverage which is undertake our self-service from their bar counter. But, they were providing the food delivery service on customer seat. In addition, they have prepare a book in the bar counter which is for customer to write down their feeling of the Secret Sanctuary and leave down the contact number, so they can inform them to come their event together. The service marketing system of Secret Sanctuary is a full-service of accommodation and restaurant. The Secret Sanctuary is providing the best facilities to attract customer such as waterfall pool, fish spa, BBQ, and Wi-Fi access. Additional service encounter, they are through their sites to introduce their services and also provide the map of their place. Post-purchase stage After service encounter, we then enter the post-purchase phase. During the post purchase stage, we will evaluate the service performance that we have received and compare it with our prior expectations (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). Post purchase produce satisfaction and loyalty, which are aim of most marketing strategies. The product is evaluated to dissatisfaction or satisfaction. If it is dissatisfaction, customer may produce complaints. The complaints must be handling properly to reserve dissatisfaction. If it is satisfaction, loyalty may perform and the customer is committed to the service. Comparison of the Secret Sanctuarys service performance with our received and prior expectations, it satisfied our prior expectations. Whatever it is expensive than Tray Cafe and Friends n Family, but it provide us the foods service with the best behavior of their employees, comfortable and graceful environment. Therefore, we are satisfaction its employees service behavior and the environment provided. Post purchase dissonance is a doubt or anxiety about the correctness of ones decision after a purchase has been made (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). Customers satisfaction is a purpose of the proximity between the customers expectations and the services perceived performance. If the performance is below the customers expectations, then the customer will be dissatisfied and will suffer the consequences resulting from the mismatch. Dissatisfied customers will reduce the cognitive dissonance and customer will exhibits risk-reducing behavior. Although the Secret Sanctuary satisfied our expectations, but if we were go frequently that prices provide is expensive for us. So, we will loyal in occasionally. Customers may attempt to modify the facts of the purchase scenario, mostly by reducing the proposed price paid for the goods when it meets dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is the feeling experienced by a customer whose expectations have not been met by a service. However, the purchase has resulted in complete dissatisfaction and goods returning are not probable, this strategy is to hide the good away in an attempt to forget about the purchase. On the other hand, word-of-mouth (WOM) plays an important role in the advertising. Word-of-mouth is used to reduce the cognitive dissonance following a major purchase decision. Nevertheless, word-of-mouth serves functions of ego defense otherwise as a means of enhancing the status of the information giver, as well as dissonance reduction. Purchase satisfaction is the ultimate goal of marketing. It results when perceptions of product performance match expectations that are at, or above, the minimum desired performance level (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). It happens when the purchase expectations are fulfilled; there is a tendency for customers to repurchase and loyalty to the services. Repeat purchase is a pattern of customer behavior that involves the purchase of the same product or services over time (Lovelock Wirtz 2004). However, consumers develop certain expectations about the ability of a product to fulfill instrumental and symbolic needs. If the services meet the needs, satisfaction is likely to result. In the other round, if the expectations are not meet, dissatisfaction is being experiences. In this case, we are satisfied about the services provided by Secret Sanctuary. Secret Sanctuary provided us the delicious food and a garden style home-stay for our reunion. In addition, it is a great place for a quiet retreat to get away from our hectic busy city life, so, it let us enjoyed and relax for our reunion on this place (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). The owner of Secret Sanctuary (Cyril Lim) ever said that, this little cottage is also for those who want to enjoy the sights and sounds of this hidden island paradise. This place will give an ambience of local culture as well as Zen living all under one roof (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). While in our future intention, we cannot go there frequently. Our reason is although the Secret Sanctuary provides us the satisfaction services but their price of food and beverage are expensive, so, we do not have ability to go there frequently. However, we will go there occasionally. CONCLUSION As a result of overall performance, we should through the three-stage model of service consumption before buying or using the service of our choice. When we decide our event, we start to be aware of our needs and wants. For we awareness our needs and wants, we enable a further implementation of information search and alternative evaluation in pre-purchase stage. After that, we enable consideration into decision making process in later stage, service encounter. During the service encounter, we will request service from our chosen supplier and service delivery. After service encounter, the customers then enter the post-purchase phase. At post-purchase stage, customers evaluate the service performance they have received and compare it with their prior expectations. Finally, the customers will make a future intentions whether they loyalty or disloyalty on their chosen supplier. As a conclusion of Secret Sanctuary, it is a unique boutique cottage for accommodation and restaurant business. It provides the service of our needs and wants. Secret Sanctuary let us to enjoy the sights and sounds of this hidden island paradise for our reunion (Travel Borneo Blog 2010). We are satisfaction about their delicious food (western food) and its building style. In future intention, we were going there occasionally because the price of food is expensive and we do not have ability to go frequently.

Marine Corps

I want to be a Marine Corps Officer to serve my country. It is in my blood That is my first priority and will always be my first priority. Yes, it is great that an NROTC scholarship would pay for my tuition and fees and so on. However, one cannot put a price on the pride and dignity of being an officer in the Marine Corps. No one in the world has greater talent, leadership, and determination to take the initiative, than a Marine Officer. Through Varsity sports, DECA, and over sixty community service hours, I’ve learned how to lead a team, work with others to accomplish a mission, and that being a leader is hard work. However, there is no doubt that I am ready and willing to take on the challenge of being a leader. A leader of men who are the proudest and most feared warriors in this world, a leader of Marines. I live for challenges like these and I am mentally, physically, and morally capable of achieving this dream of mine. This career I strive for is something I’ve wanted to do since the first day I spoke with a Marine Corps recruiter. Marines have something about them that seperate themselves from the other military branches. That â€Å"something† is what I am looking for and is what I need. I believe the Marine Corps can make me into something greater than myself, something that demands greatness. The only thing I am missing is the oppurtunity. Give me the oppurtunity to prove to you and our country that I am a leader and that I have what it takes to become one of the few who can lead Marines.

A Glimpse at Bernard Maybeck Architectural Works

Just imagine looking at a full scale drawing? Well that was just one of Maybeck’s ways of studying his design. His works are blend of possibility and actuality and the reason why the blending of unrelated styles became a success in his works (Matthews, 2008). His love on experimenting designs is very much seen in his Buena Vista Way studio because it looks like a laboratory and at the same time a house.This visionary Architect and described as the Gothic man of the 20th Century believes that every architectural problem requires an original solution. He addresses the housing crisis during the World War 1 by making generic floor plans called small houses or the workers houses. Most of his house design works infused the garden with the house structure. He never uses one type of specifications for the finishes but leave it to his Clients to make the decision.However, most of his works are made up of wood and timber (see photo of a community hall on page 3) for which reason why som e of his drawings did not came into reality because of the scarcity of lumber and failure on the part of the timber supplier. Design Studio Small House The gauge of success for a famous work is its revival when Bill Buchanan an architect whom he mentored enlivens his heritage in Oregon by adopting Maybeck standards for the design of 1000 dwellings on a steep hill on a 630 Acre land parcel near Harbor Hill.Bill Buchanan believes that his mentor ideas are still in proportion of meeting the requirements for affordable housing. Maybeck’s flexibility 80 years ago can now be answered by the existing technology when at the time of his mentor’s life is quite difficult to undertake for example, the inclusion of garden on rooftops which makes a plant difficult to tend and the bedroom oriented towards the sky when ninety years ago is inconvenient due to the lack of technology with regards to thermal protection for buildings.Keith Pepper Brooklyn city council member also believes in the potential of the revival of the famous Californian Architect by persuading that good designs are an economic potential (Week, 2000). Recently the Oregon’s Department of Transportation rerouted part of Highway 101 which will allow part of downtown to return to Maybeck’s original plan and provision of funding for the reconstruction of the design.

Populism - Definition in American Politics

Populism - Definition in American Politics President  Donald Trump was repeatedly described as a populist during the 2016 presidential race. Trump styled himself as a populist during his flamboyantly provocative campaign, The New York Times wrote, claiming to hear, understand and channel the working-class Americans so wrongly ignored by other leaders. Asked Politico:  Is  Donald Trump the Perfect Populist, one with broader appeal to the right and the center than his predecessors in recent American political history? The Christian Science Monitor opined that Trumps unique populism promises a change in governance perhaps equal to parts of the New Deal or the early years of the Reagan revolution. But what, exactly, is populism? And what does it mean to be a populist? There are many definitions. Definition of Populism Populism is generally defined as a way of speaking and campaigning on behalf of the needs of the people or the little man as opposed to the well-to-do elite. Populist rhetoric frames issues such as the economy, for example, as the  angry, aggrieved and neglected struggling to overcome a corrupt oppressor, whoever that oppressor may be. George Packer, a veteran political journalist for The New Yorker, described populism as a stance and a rhetoric more than an ideology or a set of positions. It speaks of a battle of good against evil, demanding simple answers to difficult problems.   History of Populism Populism has its roots in the grassroots formation of the Peoples and Populist parties in the late 1800s. The Peoples Party was founded in Kansas in 1890 amid depression and a widespread belief among farmers and laborers that the government was dominated by large money interests, the political historian William Safire wrote. A national party with similar interests, the Populist Party, was founded a year later, in 1891. The national party fought for public ownership of railroads, the telephone system, and an income tax that would demand more from wealthier Americans. The latter idea is a common populist idea used in modern elections. It is similar to the Buffett Rule, which would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The Populist Party died in 1908 but many of its ideals linger on today. The national partys platform read, in part: We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench. The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions. The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of those, in turn, despise the republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes- tramps and millionaires. Populist Ideas Modern populism typically is sympathetic to the struggles of white, middle-class Americans and portrays Wall Street bankers, undocumented workers, and U.S. trade partners including China as evil.  Populist ideas including heavily taxing the wealthiest Americans, tightening security along the U.S. border with Mexico, raising the minimum wage, expanding Social Security and imposing stiff tariffs on trade with other countries in an attempt to keep American jobs from going overseas.   Populist Politicians The first real populist presidential candidate was the Populist Partys nominee for president in the 1892 election. The nominee, General James B. Weaver, won 22 electoral votes and more than 1 million actual votes. In modern times, Weavers campaign would have been considered a great success; independents typically garner only a small share of the vote. William Jennings Bryan is perhaps the most famous populist in American history. The Wall Street Journal once described Bryan as the Trump before Trump. His speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1896, which  was said to have roused the crowd to a frenzy, aimed to advance the interests of small Midwestern farmers who felt they were being taken advantage of by the banks. Bryan wanted to move to a bimetallic gold-silver standard.   Huey Long, who served as the governor of Louisiana and a U.S. senator, was also considered a populist. He railed against wealthy plutocrats and their bloated fortunes and proposed to impose steep taxes on the richest Americans and distribute the revenue to the poor still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. Long, who had presidential aspirations, wanted to set a minimum annual income of $2,500. Robert M. La Follette Sr. was a congressman and governor of Wisconsin who took on corrupt politicians and big business, which he believed had a dangerously oversized influence on matters of public interest.   Thomas E. Watson of Georgia was an early populist and the partys vice presidential hopeful  in 1896. Watson had won a seat in Congress by supporting the reclamation of large tracts of land granted to corporations, abolishing national banks, eliminating paper money, and cutting taxes on low-income citizens, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.  He was  also  a southern demagogue and bigot, according to the Encyclopedia.  Watson wrote of the threat of immigrants to  America: The scum of creation has been dumped on us. Some of our principal cities are more foreign than American. The most dangerous and corrupting hordes of the Old World have invaded us. The vice and crime which they have planted in our midst are sickening and terrifying. What brought these Goths and Vandals to our shores? The manufacturers are mainly to blame. They wanted cheap labor: and they didn’t care a curse how much harm to our future might be the consequence of their heartless policy. Trump routinely inveighed against the establishment in his successful presidential campaign. He regularly promised to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., an unflattering portrayal of the Capitol as a corrupt playground for plutocrats, special interests, lobbyists and fat, out-of-touch lawmakers. Decades of failure in Washington, and decades of special interest  dealing must come to an end. We have to break the cycle of corruption, and we have to give new voices a chance to go into government service, Trump stated.   The independent presidential candidate Ross Perot was similar in style and rhetoric to Trump. Perot fared well by building his campaign on voter resentment of the establishment, or the political elite, in 1992. He won a  startling 19 percent of the popular vote that year. Donald Trump and Populism So is Donald Trump a populist? He certainly used populist expressions during his campaign, portraying his supporters as American workers who have not seen their financial status improve since the end of the Great Recession and those neglected by the political and societal elite. Trump, and for that matter Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, spoke to a class of blue-collar, struggling middle-class voters who believe the economy was rigged. Michael Kazin, the author of  The Populist Persuasion, told Slate in 2016: Trump expresses one aspect of populism, which is anger at the establishment and various elites. He believes Americans have been betrayed by those elites. But the other side of populism is a sense of a moral people, people who’ve been betrayed for some reason and have a distinct identity, whether they are workers, farmers, or taxpayers. Whereas with Trump, I don’t really get much of a sense of who the people are. Of course journalists say he’s talking mostly to white working-class people, but he doesn’t say that. Wrote Politico: Trump’s platform combines positions that are shared by many populists but are anathema to movement conservatives- a defense of Social Security, a guarantee of universal health care, economic nationalist trade policies. President Barack Obama, who Trump succeeded in the White House, took issue with labeling Trump a populist, however. Said Obama: â€Å"Somebody else who has never shown any regard for workers, has never fought on behalf of social justice issues or making sure that poor kids are getting a decent shot at life or have health care - in fact, have worked against economic opportunity for workers and ordinary people, they don’t suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. Indeed, some of Trumps critics accused him of phony populism, of using populist rhetoric during the campaign but of wanting to abandon his populist platform once in office. Analyses of Trumps tax proposals found that the biggest benefactors would be the wealthiest Americans. Trump, after winning the election, also recruited fellow billionaires and lobbyists to play roles in his White House. He also walked back some of his fiery campaign rhetoric on cracking down on Wall Street and rounding up and deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally.

Language Notes on the Use of Aint in English

Language Notes on the Use of Aint in English As far as I know, only one rule of English usage has ever made its way into a childrens jump-rope rhyme: Dont say aint or your mother will faint,Your father will fall in a bucket of paint,Your sister will cry, your brother will die,Your cat and dog will call the FBI. Though frequently heard in casual speech, aint has been described as the most stigmatized word in English. Dictionaries usually label it dialectal or nonstandard, while some purists even deny its right to exist, insisting that aint isnt a word. What is it about this simple negative contraction that agitates language mavens and spreads fear on the playground? As these notes demonstrate, the answer is surprisingly complex. Grammar and Usage[The] two meanings of grammarhow the language functions and how it ought to functionare easily confused. To clarify the distinction, consider the expression aint. Unless used intentionally to add colloquial flavor, aint is unacceptable because its use is considered nonstandard. Yet taken strictly as a part of speech, the term functions perfectly well as a verb. Whether it appears in a declarative sentence (I aint going) or an interrogative sentence (Aint I going?), it conforms to the normal pattern for all verbs in the English language. Although readers may not approve of its use, they cannot argue that it is ungrammatical in such sentences.(Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu, Handbook of Technical Writing, 10th ed. Bedford/St. Martins, 2012) A Brief History of AintAint has had an unusual history. Its a shortened form of several wordsam not, are not, is not, has not and have not. It appears in written English in the 18th century in various plays and novels, first as ant and then as aint. During the 19th century, it was widely used in representations of regional dialect, especially Cockney speech in the UK, and became a distinctive feature of colloquial American English. But when we look at who is using the form in 19th-century novels, such as those by Dickens and Trollope, we find that the characters are often professional and upper-class. Thats unusual: to find a form simultaneously used at both ends of the social spectrum. Even as recently as 1907, in a commentary on society called The Social Fetich, Lady Agnes Grove was defending aint I as respectable upper-class colloquial speechand condemning arent I!She was in a rapidly diminishing minority. Prescriptive grammarians had taken against aint, and it would soon become universally condemned as a leading marker of uneducated usage.(David Crystal, The Story of English in 100 Words. St. Martins Press, 2012) Collocational AintIn Present-Day English, aint is stigmatized even though linguistically it is formed by the same rule speakers use to form arent and other nonstigmatized contracted auxiliary verbs. . . . [T]here is nothing linguistically wrong with it; in fact, aint is used by many speakers in certain fixed expressions and to convey a certain rhetorical effect: It aint over yet! You aint seen nothing yet! If it aint broke, dont fix it.(Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction. Wadsworth, 2010 Prissy, Ridiculous, and Unpopular Alternatives to Aint I?As linguistic scholars have frequently pointed out, it is unfortunate that aint I? is unpopular in educated speech, for the phrase fills a long-felt need. Am I not? is too prissy for down-to-earth people; amnt I? is ridiculous; and arent I?, though popular in England, has never really caught on in America. With a sentence like the one under discussion [Im your best friend, aint I?] you are practically in a linguistic trapthere is no way out unless you are willing to choose between appearing illiterate, sounding prissy, or feeling ridiculous.(Norman Lewis, Word Power Made Easy. Simon Schuster, 1979) Class ActsA correlation exists between the use of aint and social class, i.e. it is more frequent in lower-class speech. In upper-class speech it is indicative of a personal relationship and an informal situation . . . and is employed when the other person knows that the speaker is using aint for stylistic effect, rather than from ignorance or lack of education (Feagin 1979: 217). Since the form is such a strong school-induced shibboleth, informants tend to suppress it in (more formal) interview situations.(Traute Ewers, The Origin of American Black English: Be-Forms in the Hoodoo Texts. Walter de Gruyter, 1995) Gender ActsThere is still in the American popular mind a notion that aint, for all its faults, is masculine, while arent is not simply feminine, but effeminate. In Thomas Bergers novel The Feud (1983), Tony, a high school student, finds that good grammar must take a back seat to his public sexual identity. Tony defends his use of the masculine aint against his girlfriend Eva s objection that it is a sign of ignorance: I dont like to talk like a girl. Somebody might think I was a pansy.(Dennis E. Baron, Grammar and Gender. Yale University Press, 1986) And that aint all. But for now well have to agree with the editors of The American Heritage Book of English Usage: Aint is a word that aint had it easy.

Information Technology in Supply Chain Management Essay

Information Technology in Supply Chain Management - Essay Example This led way to the concept of forming a network of resources, raw materials, components and finished products rolling in and out of a factory, coined as supply chain management. Supply chain management is the discipline of managing the movement of raw materials into an organisation and the finished products out of the organisation. SCM is an approach that encompasses every process concerned in manufacturing a product, from source to consumption. There has to be a linkage between the suppliers that provide inputs, manufacturing and service support operations that transform the inputs into products and services, and the distribution and local service providers that localize the product (Chase. et al., 2003). This involves building a network that allows a flow of materials, without a break or hitch, throughout the process of production. This flow is fuelled by co-operation, and co-ordination among the diverse channel partners. Supply chain management thrives on improving efficiency and reducing cost of production by focusing on the core competencies of a company. Functions such as procurement of raw materials and distribution of products are outsourced to companies that are better equipped and more cost-efficient to perform them. Strategic planning is necessary to develop a network to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient, costs less and delivers high quality and value to customers. Information technology has helped integrate the various components of SCM by building a network that aids in sharing necessary data between all supply chain partners within a system. 5. Information Technology in Supply Chain Management (800 words) Today the survival of most companies depends on intelligent supply chain decisions. Firms today have to take full advantage of the internet to become more responsive and to better penetrate customer markets (Chase. et al., 2003). With the advent of IT and internet, communication between supply chain partners has become easier and more cost-efficient. Internet has paved way for integrating the varied partners in the SCM system, to bring them closer through the power of electronic communication. Automating SCM is the process of building an electronic information network for transactions among supplier-manufacturer-retailer-customer in virtual space using IT. Every company in a large supply chain or distribution chain is dependent on each other. Thus, the unit of value creation has shifted from individual firms to value-networks that consist of partner firms and their close collaboration. SCM consists of choosing what work to outsource to suppliers (make vs. buy) and selecting suppliers to use and negotiating contracts - both the legalities and the culture of the supply chain relationships. (Milak, 2006) One area where Ford and Toyota have diverged is supplier relations. Armed with cost and quality control at the process level, Toyota can concentrate on a value-based enterprise product strategy focused on customer value. Instead of building and maintaining collaborative supplier strategies, Ford and other American companies concentrate their expertise on mere cost-cutting strategies. Toyota recognizes that fulfilling the enterprise potential of TPS requires a substantial

Morrison Supermarket LTD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Morrison Supermarket LTD - Essay Example All these and many other distinguishing features have helped the Morrisons to grow over the years (Morrisons, 2010). As the scale of operations continue to grow bigger for the Morrisons, the stakes tend to get higher; with such an expanded business setup, the decision makers at the company believe that they are exposed to certain degree of risks as well. According to them, if there is some incident that interrupts their manufacturing or distribution units, it might overall affect the flow of business (Morrisons, 2010). Further, the operating systems used by most of the company members are at the verge of completing their age, in this way the company will have to devise a new IT policy along with replacement of old systems, with the new ones (Morrisons, 2010). With respect to the exceptional growth attained by the Morrisons in the last five years, the company has decided to expand its business. Some of the future goals that the company has set for itself include establishing of a nation-wide distribution chain all over UK; an increase of 1.5 million square foot of selling space; improved access for the customers (Morrisons, 2010). Keeping these growth objectives intact, the company wants to maintain a highly skilled operating team that could ensure corporate social framework. The company wants to maximize its profits by establishing cost effective production units, and gaining direct access to agricultural produce. Moreover, the use of environmental friendly operations is among the key objectives for the success of the company in future. Expansion of the business by devising sound IT policy has become inevitable, so the company considers E-marketing as opportunity for enhancement of services (Morrisons, 2010). The perception of customers about a particular brand evolves with the experience they gain after using or consuming products/services offered by a