Text and tradition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Text and tradition - Essay Example Socrates objects, pointing to existence of various Gods and, as a result, different ways of pleasing them; there is a logical contradiction when one the same action can be represented at the same time pious and improper: Later Euthyphro modifies definition by saying that pious is something that causes unanimously positive reaction in all Gods without exception (and vice versa). Socrates in reply formulates "Euthyphro`s dilemma": the act is pious because it is dear to Gods or it is dear to Gods because it is pious in nature? â€Å"And a thing is not seen because it is visible, but conversely, visible because it is seen; nor is a thing led because it is in the state of being led, or carried because it is in the state of being carried, but the converse of this. And now I think, Euthyphro, that my meaning will be intelligible; and my meaning is, that any state of action or passion implies previous action or passion" Socrates offers his own variant of the definition combining piety with justice. However, reflections on this concept, make the interlocutors reject such definition because all pious is fair, thus not all fair is pious. Attempt to specify the concept of justice leads Socrates and Euthyphro to the thought that justice involves interaction with Gods in this or that sense. Euthyphro formulates the definition according to which piety is intervened with sacrificing and praying. However, both interlocutors agree that sacrificing is reasonable in case when someone needs gifts while Gods cannot require anything, and, therefore, the acts of praying and sacrificing do not make sense and cannot solely characterize piety. On the contrary these acts remind trade. As a result Socrates and Euthyphro return to the thought that piety is a gratification to God. The general sense of "Euthyphro" is clear. It is correct that piety is a gratification to Gods but it is not exact. It is also correct that piety is an aspiration to justice but it is not precise as well.

The roles of strategic planning and implementation

The roles of strategic planning and implementation Strategic planning refers to defining an organizations strategies, direction of guidelines, and making decisions on how the organization allocates its resources to pursue those strategies. The key resources of an organization include capital, land, properties and people (workforce). Allocation of such resources is a major function of strategic planning process. A company may use different techniques to implement its strategic planning such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis, PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological) analysis, STEER (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological and Regulatory) analysis, and EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic, Social, Technological, Economic and Legal) analysis. Whatever the analysis technique is, the main purpose of making strategic planning for business is to set out the future courses of actions for an organization. Strategic planning process deals with the following questions: What do we do? For whom do we do it? and How do we excel it? or How can we beat or avoid competition? (Bradford Duncan, page 1). Strategic planning is typically being made for 3 to 5 calendar years for most of the business organizations. However, some companies set their vision for up to 20 years. STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS The preparatory phase of starting any new business both for profit making and not for profit organization relies greatly on setting strategies and making appropriate strategic planning. In order to do so, an organization analyses its current situation, objectives and marketing plans. Analysis of current situation mostly deals with the previous years Business Trend analysis, Market analysis, Competitive analysis, Market segmentation, Marketing mix, SWOT analysis, Positioning-analyzing perceptions and analyzing Sources of information. A companys Objectives and Marketing plans deal with the future Marketing strategies, Desired market segmentation, Desired marketing-mix, TOWS-based objectives as a result of the SWOT, Positions and perceptual gaps and Yearly sales forecasts. APPROACHES TO STRATEGIC PLANNING Among numerous approaches of making strategic planning, most organizations typically follow a three step process called Situation-Target-Path technique, where an organization evaluates the current situation of the business and how it came about, defines its goals and objectives, and maps a possible route to implement those goals and objectives. There is an alternative to this approach called Draw-See-Think approach, where the company draws the ideal image or the desired end-states, sees todays situation and persisting gaps from the ideal and its possible reason, thinks what specific actions must be taken to close the gap between todays situation and ideal state. FOR PROFIT AND NON-PROFIT STRATEGIC PLANNING Different organization carries out the strategic planning process differently. This variation in strategic planning process depends more on the size and nature of the organization rather the profit/non-profit status of the entities. Small size organizations whether profit or not for profit carry out their strategic planning almost similarly that differs from large organizations. On the other hand, large for profit or large non-profit organizations tend to conduct similar planning activities that are different from those conducted in small organizations. However, there are some differences in strategic planning process in terms of profit or non-profit status of the organization by the following criteria: Non profit organizations give more emphasize on board development, fundraising and volunteer management, where in profit making organizations, emphasize is placed on activities to maximize profits more. ROLES OF STRATEGIC PLANNING Strategic planning plays an important role in the business area and also in the public areas such as education, healthcare or government. It is practiced and implemented widely everywhere both informally and formally. In any business organization the roles of strategic planning depend on the nature of the organizations leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organizations environment, size of the organization, expertise of the planners etc. According to the diverse goals or objectives of different business entity, various technique of strategic planning is used, for example, goal-based strategic planning, issue-based, organic or scenario-based strategic planning, etc. But in general, strategic planning serves the following purposes in almost every organization: à ¢- º Clearly defines the purpose of the organizations and set the objectives or goals à ¢- º Communicate those goals and objectives to the organizations constituents à ¢- º Develop a sense of ownership of the plan à ¢- º Use the organizations resources most effectively by focusing on key priorities à ¢- º Provide a base from which progress can be measured à ¢- º Listen to everyones opinion to build consensus about where the organization is going à ¢- º Focus more on production most effectively and efficiently in order to grow the production à ¢- º Works as a bridge between staffs/employees and board of directors à ¢- º Helps in team work with employees/staff and board members à ¢- º Works as a glue that keeps board members together à ¢- º Produce a sense of satisfaction among planners, especially around a common vision à ¢- º Solves major problems in the organization It was thought in the old days that only the big enterprises need formulate strategies and adopt a strategic planning process. But with the span of time, the business environment has changed to a great extent. Todays business environment has become more competitive and challenging. To survive in this competition, any organization whether big or small should come forward with the best quality products or services that will satisfy the changing requirements of the customers. Customers have become choosier as they are getting more alternative products and services. They will take the products that will best serve their requirements, in terms of quality or price. Satisfying these customers is not so easy job. For that, an organization must come forward with the best products/services to remain in the leading position. For that reason, every business organization, small or big needs to formulate and implement its business strategies. Only the good strategies can make an organization succe ssful in todays competition and helps them to survive. Bigger companies will always be ahead in this race, as they have got rigorous strategies that are being planned and implemented throughout each of their levels. Smaller companies always thrive for survival and try to grow bigger. Strategic planning provides an organization direction. With the help of this, organizations can know their position in the industry and take appropriate measures for future growth and expansion. Strategic planning also help them to process day to day business functions, which are very important to run the business successfully. A companys mission/vision can never be attained without a proper strategic planning and the objectives of the company can not be achieved without it. A strategic planning process helps an organization in meeting the following perspectives: Focused purpose: Strategic planning helps the organizations to define their short term business purposes clearly, i.e. where they want to see themselves in a year or two years of time, making the profit targets, segmenting their market, and making different marketing mix. Strategic planning ensures that mission is realistic and achievable and being taken with due considerations of current business trend and analysis. Good planning serves the best interests of the stakeholders. Moreover, it defines a point of differentiation. Future Perspectives: In considering the future perspectives of an organization, the strategic planning clearly defines the long term objectives, i.e. the vision of the organization, identifies the long-term interests of the stakeholders, and provides a foundation for decision-making to the management of the organization. Strategic advantage: Strategic planning helps an organization achieving the competitive advantage over others and makes it clearly understood to all the stakeholders of the company. It also increases the employee productivity by clearly presenting the roles and duties they need to serve for the organization. External assessment: A good strategic planning helps an organization in assessing the external factors outside the business entity, which is very important to be successful and to remain ahead of the competition. An external assessment reflects an organizations approaches to gather and analyze essential market data, e.g. studying macro and micro economic information, identifying industry opportunities and threats, and understanding what it takes to be successful in a given market. Customer profiles: Customer profiling is an external business assessment by the organization that define reasons why the customers should buy its products or services and the benefits persisting with such products. It also defines the reason why the customers should not buy some products or services, assess the customers bargaining power. Moreover, strategic planning helps the organization know the customers preferences of different choices of distribution channels. Industry and competitive analysis: This is an important component of business strategy that helps the organization in identifying the primary competitors in the industry, determines potential and indirect competitors, also identifies their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, helps the organization in assessing the threats of substitute products or services or new entrants into the market place. A good planning helps the organization in comparing growth rate with industry standard, and evaluates ongoing market process. Environmental assessment: Strategic planning does the following to assess the business environment for the organization; identifying the regulatory requirements; Assessing vulnerability to adverse business cycle, summarizing opportunities and threats due to economic condition, new technology, demographic structure, legal or political events, socio-cultural norms, and the natural environment. Assessing key success factors: Strategic planning helps the organization in assessing the key success factors in doing business. Key success factors are identified with a critical thinking process that includes implementation of critical thinking process; measuring competitive intensity; setting the demand of products or services within the market; defining key drivers to success within the industry; and consistently monitoring key influences within the industry. Internal assessment: By making strategic plans, an organization can assess its internal factors which help the organization to evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses. Self assessment is very vital to sustain as a successful business entity. An organizations internal assessment process refers to the evaluation of its management process which includes: Finance: Strategic planning determines whether an organization has enough fund available for investment or for ongoing business functions; sets up a comprehensive pricing model; keep the consistency of performance within a range of financial goal; makes a targeted long ranged financial plan; employs a cost benefit approach to resource allocation; makes a financial plan that allow flexibility and economic or environmental disruption. Research development: Having a strategic planning process empowers an organization to integrate all appropriate departments with RD, maintain a creative and innovative process; and ensures that RD department has all required resources to fulfill its functions. Production: Strategic planning program helps an organization to integrate all of its departments to support the production process; maintains that the production process is cost-effective, flexible, fast and responsive. Marketing: Strategies helps an organization in making coordination among all the departments to support marketing, defining marketing plans, branding the products or services, usage of database to track all the customers and market information, promotion of the products or services, and monitoring the ROI of all marketing campaigns. Sales Distribution: By planning its strategies, an organization consistently achieves sales goals, ensures that its sales personnel have got the required skills to achieve plan are being provided with necessary information to achieve their goals, employs a well defined sales management process, and coordinates all other departments to support sales process. Customer servicing: If the organization takes the appropriate strategic planning, then it can define the standard of its customer service, meet the customers expectations, measure the satisfaction level of the customers, achieve the customer loyalty by building a high commitment between employees and managers, and maintain a customer relationship management system that provides critical service information to make the best decision IMPLEMENTATION OF PLANNING PROCESS After formulating the strategies, a firms main concern is how to implement those selected strategies. This is done by means programs, budgets and procedures that involve the firms resources and motivation of the staffs to achieve such objectives. In order to ensure that the planning process is not a document that ends up collecting dust on the shelf, an organization should follow some guidelines that will ensure that the planning is being implemented. An organization can do that by involving people who will be responsible for implementing the plan, can make a cross functional team combining representatives from each department who will be liable to ensure that the plan is realistic and collaborative. In order to that, the organization must continue asking them whether the plans are realistic or not, or can they really achieve all their goals or not. The organization can organize the overall strategic plan into small action plans. In the overall planning document, the organization should specify who is doing what and by when it is going to be implemented. Some organizations may elect to include the action plans in a separate document from the strategic plan, which would include only the mission, vision, values, key issues and goals, and strategies. The organization should also specify and clarify the plans implementation roles and responsibilities in the implementation section of the plan and make a regular review on the progress of the implementation plan. Translating the strategic plans actions into job descriptions can stimulate the implementation process quicker. When people involved in any process know that the action plans will be regularly reviewed, then the implementers tend to do their jobs before they are being checked. So organization needs to review the plan time to time and communicate with the personnel involved in the process. Moreover, the organization can integrate the plans goals and objectives into chief executives performance review, this will get the implementation process more importance as the chief executives involvement and support in the plan is a major driver to the plans implementation. Regular feedback on the implementation plan from the planning participants to the executive committee is also very important in strategy implementation. Make sure that the organization has designated rotating checkers to verify if each implementer completes his/her assigned tasks. The organization should also grow an attitude of helping each other among the implementers in the strategy implantation program. The way by which the strategies are being implemented can have a significant impact on whether it will be successful or not. For this reason, care must be taken to communicate the strategies among implementers. For a sustained and successful strategies carried out by an organization, the implemented strategies must be regularly viewed and monitored, and necessary adjustments should be made time to time. Bradford and Duncan (2000). Simplified Strategic Planning. Chandler House. Patrick L. Burkhart and Suzanne Reuss (1993). Successful Strategic Planning: A Guide for Nonprofit Agencies and Organizations. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_planning http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/str_plan/str_plan.htm Mintzberg, Henry, Lampel, J., Ahlstrand, B., Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour through the Wilds of Strategic Management

Death Camp Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout history, injustices on humanity have been visible. The Jewish Holocaust has to be one of the most prominent. In 1933, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler sanctioned anti-Jew campaigns that included the Nuremberg Laws, which defined the meaning of being Jewish based on ancestry. Because of these laws, Jews were isolated from society. This was only a meager element of what European Jews had yet to endure. Jews were progressively forced out of the German Economy, and their assets were turned over to the German government and the public. With the degradation of the Jewish people came organized demonstrations by the Germans. Businesses were destroyed, synagogues demolished, and nearly a hundred Jews killed. In many ways this was the start of Hitler and his Nazi’s Aryanization. In a meeting of Hitler’s elite officials, the idea of complete annihilation of Jews in Europe was manufactured. In 1938 the Nazi’s plan for the Jewish people were outlined in â€Å"The Final Solution.† This was a plan that included deportation, exploitation, and eventually extermination of European Jews. Derivations from â€Å"The Final Solution† were concentration and death camps of Germany and Poland and other parts of Nazi controlled Europe. In September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland. Jews that remained in German controlled territories were taken to ghettos and/or concentration camps that were set up to alienate Jews from the rest of the public. The quality of l...

Corporate Social Responsibility Task

The partnership is employee owned (these employees are Often called members or partners) and so they state that their purpose is â€Å"the happiness of all our members, through their worthwhile, satisfying employment in a successful business† The next business researched was McDonald's which is the largest global fast food restaurant in the world. It has over 34000 stores located around the world that serve around 68 million people a day (equivalent to the population of the K). McDonald's has often been criticized for its effect on the environment and its customers due to its low quality products.Its main competition is KEF and Burger King although to combat this McDonald's offers a larger product range with KEF mainly focusing on chicken and Burger King mainly offering burgers. To help promote their food to children they use a clown mascot that they also use for their charities that support children e. G the Ronald McDonald House charity which offers temporary homes for famil ies with close relatives who are in a distant hospital. The Final business researched was SAD which is owned by Wall-Mart, the largest private employer in the world and the second largest public reparation in the world.SAD got its name from the merger of Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Limited and Acquits (a small chain of supermarkets) with the AS coming from Acquits and the DAD coming from Dairies. SAD has had various problems with false advertising in the past usually due to showing items in adverts for sales that are not included in the sale. SAD manufactures and sells its own range of clothes called George. SAD employs 175,000 employees and 565 stores in the ASK. Its mission statement is â€Å"to be Britain's best value retailer exceeding customer needs always. All of these organizations have been put under pressure in recent years to act responsibly and show good corporate social responsibility. The main pressure on these businesses comes from pressure groups which are group s such as Greenback who put pressure on businesses who damage the environment. These groups can have a substantial effect on a business as they can use various protest methods to reduce the profits of a business. These methods include calling for boycotts, deterring ethical consumers, picketing and even suing the business.All these methods cause negative publicity for the equines which deters customers from going to the store as its actions may not follow their ethical beliefs. Negative publicity can also affect share prices as this publicity can be an indicator that the profits of the business fall drop soon due to some of their customers being deterred. The main organization have researched that has been effected by this is McDonald's who has been targeted by various environmental groups in the past and is now being targeted by PETA who has done investigations into McDonald's and has set up whom. Cruelty. Com which publicizes how McDonald's mistreats animals. This is likely to det er customers from going to McDonald's and cause it to lose a small amount of its market. Although it is being targeted negatively by some pressure groups, other groups have recently sat reed to us port its new CEO-friendly initiatives and employment strategies which has improved the company's image a lot. Another organization that has been effected negatively is SAD who have been targeted by Labor Behind the Label and War on Want who have shown various suppliers of SAD to be underpaying workers.This would affect ethical consumers as they would be deterred from supporting SAD and its u pliers by buying their products and some may protest against SAD in other ways. Pressure groups can also help a business if it shows advancement in particular CAR fields. The John Lewis Partnership is the main business that I've researched that has benefited from positive publicity from pressure groups as it has received various awards from pressure groups for having good suppliers and caring for the e nvironment.One of their recent awards, the good pig award, allowed the company to advertise that they sourced their pork products from high welfare farms which would increase the likelihood hat an ethical consumer would purchase that product. Many of the Actions taken by pressure groups would not work without ethical consumers. Ethical consumers are people who purchase goods based partly on them being ethically right.An example of this is people who buy fair trade products which are often more expensive than non-fair trade products but help support the producers of those products. These consumers are very important for the pressure groups as it can allow them to get customers to boycott certain products or retailers. This also allows pressure groups to influence the decisions of a business as they can reduce the profits of a business or alternatively if the business is doing well in some aspect of CAR they can give them an award that will attract ethical consumers to them.An example of the power of ethical consumerism is that McDonald's has been forced to alter its view on the environment with it being linked to rainforest's destruction and over packaging of products whereas now it has some of the best packaging in the fast food industry and has decreased its effect on the rainforest's. The main way ethical consumerism has affected SAD is through the reduces it sells with them now stocking a large range of fair-trade and free range products to encourage ethical consumers to go to SAD instead of its competitors.This has caused SAD to decrease its profit margin on these products as these products cost more for SAD to buy which may have lost them money for a short time but would increase their sales due to greater Customer retention. The John Lewis Partnership has benefited a lot from ethical consumerism with many of its products aimed at ethical consumers and a lot of its customers choosing to shop their because of their view on business.This allows them to main tain a good customer base as ethical consumers are likely to keep shopping at John Lewis Partnership stores so long as they continue to make ethical decisions. Often the main way a business promotes it is being socially responsible is through its investments. This helps to maintain a good relationship with pressure groups and advertises the business to ethical consumers. An example of this is McDonald's who promote their investment into fuelling over 50% of their trucks with bodiless and continually researching ways to reduce their packaging waste.Most socially responsible investments made by a business have other benefits too such as the bodiless they make themselves which reduces fuelling costs and decreasing waste packaging means they don't have to buy as much of the raw materials for the packaging. The John Lewis Partnership promotes its socially responsible actions a lot. An example of this is that it has invested into an awards program called the Waitress Supplier Awards which rewards suppliers for improving their environmental performance. This has helped Waitress improve its suppliers so that ethical groups will continue to support Waitress.This also advertises to consumers that Waitress are trying to improve the CAR Of their suppliers and not just their stores. SAD gain substantial benefits from advertising its socially responsible actions. One way it has benefited is through better employment as it advertises its employment benefits, such as access to its skills academy, to gain a better standard of employees. It also benefits by advertising the various things it is doing for the local community, such as supporting a local athlete, which would help the local community see some of the good aspects to having an SAD in their community.All 3 of the businesses I have researched have benefited from their positive CAR which has helped them grow. The John Lewis Partnership has benefited a lot from the good publicity it has received from various organizations that report on CAR to the extent that it has become the industries leader for ethical consumers. This has allowed their stores to offer their goods at a higher price than their competitors as their customers are willing to pay more for an ethically sourced product.As they have a history of ethical consumerism they have been able to maintain customer loyalty as it is less keel for them to make an unethical business decision. John Lewis has also used its employment benefits to maintain a good work force with it giving its employees a large percentage of the profits (usually in the form of a bonus worth 2 months pay). These benefits increase employee loyalty and make the John Lewis Partnership a more attractive option for job seekers. This allows the stores to be more selective when employing new members of staff so that they can get the best person for the job.This also allows them to create a more diverse workforce so that they can find out bout different ways to market products tow ards people of a different age, culture, ethnicity, sex and background. McDonald's has benefited from the positive publicity from its socially responsible actions a lot because in the past many pressure groups have given McDonald's negative publicity on its effects on the environment, its packaging and its effects on the consumers health. Over recent years though it has advertised what it has done to combat these issues to such an extent that it has now won a lot of environmental awards.This has helped to increase its ethical consumer customer base and in turn increase its profits. The main area McDonald's has benefited from good CAR is in its recruitment. Due to McDonald's offering its employees a good range of benefits it has been named one of the Auk's top employers. This helps promote McDonald's to potential employees and helps retain employees which is essential for McDonald's as most Of their franchise owners are previous employees. SAD has benefited a lot though the loyalty o f its customers. This is due to them maintaining a good price for their products while still doing a lot for their CAR.This has meant that the business has not had to invest in club cards which it says cost â€Å"hundreds of millions of pounds† and only reward â€Å"people who can afford to spend the most†. Instead it explains that it uses that money to reduce the cost oftener products â€Å"across the board for everyone. † This allows them to advertise that they have more products cheaper than Deco's than Deco's have of SAD. This draws in new customers and maintains customer loyalty as customers believe it is the best option for them to shop there. SAD have offered a lot of benefits to employees with cheaper stock offerings and various qualifications available. Corporate Social Responsibility task One thing it has done is source a lot Of its products from local suppliers e. G. All Waitress fresh chicken, beef and pork, bacon, duck and goose are sourced room the [J which helps local communities as it increases the profits of the local suppliers and allows them to expand which allows them to increase their workforce. Increasing the suppliers workforce helps the community as it decreases unemployment rates and increases the amount of money that stays in the community.This is very important to local communities as usually 95% of a business's income is taken away from the local community but by altering its supply methods and improving its employee bonuses John Lewis removes a lot less. Another way the John Lewis Partnership has had a positive impact on the coal community is through its employee bonuses which are substantially larger than most other supermarkets. This helps the local community as it gives the employees more disposable income which is likely to be spent in the local community.It also helps employees to maintain financial stability through the Christmas period which would help the community as there would not be as many community members in debt after Christmas. The John Lewis Partnership has also helped the local community through its community matters scheme which offers its employees the opportunity to work with the community on local projects. This combined with their investment of Ell million into the local community has benefited their local communities a lot.This helps the local community as it not only gives them the funds to make a change but access to a large workforce to get it done. The final way the John Lewis Partnership helps the local community is by using diverse recruitment methods which helps different parts of the local community to learn about each other's cultures and helps people who would find it hard to get a job. An example of this is their elderly recruitment which provides jobs to elderly people who normally would fi nd it hard to get a job.This would also set an example for other business in the area and so increase diverse recruitment methods in other businesses. The John Lewis Partnership also has a negative impact on local communities as its Waitress products are often a higher price than other supermarkets which could cause problems for people with money troubles as they would not be able to afford as much. This may also cause a class divide in some areas as some would be financially able to shop at John Lewis or Waitress whereas other would not and so this may split the community.The John Lewis Partnership has also been linked to an increase in house rises as people are willing to pay more for a house located near a Waitress. This effect has been noticed by estate agents in areas that a Waitress has been built nearby with some claiming it increases house prices by up to 25%. This would affect people who want to move into the area as they may find fewer houses in their budget. This would al so affect the diversity of the local community as it would reduce the amount of people who have a lower income in the area.This would however have a positive impact on people already living in the area as their house value would increase. The final negative impact that Waitress has had is that in some communities it has caused traffic problems as people from the local area flock in to use the store. This would affect the environment as some of these people would have driven further than normal so that they can use Waitress rather than a different store. This would also affect the local area which would become more congested and would have to spend Moore to maintain the roads.Overall I think that the John Lewis partnership is good for the local community as it offers the local community a range of high quality products and has advanced ethical consumerism a lot. Also the main negative impacts John Lewis has are difficult for them to change and they are still trying to improve on thes e effects such as offering a value range to make Waitress a more affordable option and looking to decrease its impact on congestion such as at its Guilford site which is located near a large junction they have paid for the council to improve the roads.McDonald's McDonald's is probably the most improved business I have researched as it has received a lot of negative publicity on its CAR choices in the past but is now trying to improve its public image. One way it has done this is by advertising its various green schemes that reduce the impact they have on the environment. The most visual form of this environmental change is their packaging which has been altered so it is now more biodegradable and smaller.This helps the local community as it makes it easier for the council to deal with any litter that is dropped by a customer and it reduces the amount of waste McDonald's contributes to the local land fill. Another way McDonald's green schemes have helped the local community is that i t has increased its local product sourcing. This decreases the air miles of he food and reduces the amount of money that is removed from the local community. This helps support local agriculture which is at threat due to other companies sourcing products from overseas.This also helps to support the local economy as a transnational corporation usually removes a lot of money from local communities and so the more money it spends on local produce the less impact it has on the local economy. McDonald's also helps the local community by bringing a lot of jobs to their community and hiring people with little or no experience which helps some members of the local community improve their ability to work. This also helps people in higher education as often McDonald's working hours are quite flexible and so they can work their without it affecting their education.The final way they are trying to help the local community is by decreasing the amount of litter found around the community. They ar e doing this by funding local council bins and putting litter bins outside of their restaurants. This helps the local community as it makes it a cleaner place and improves its image which would increase the amount of people who would want to visit the area. This also helps reduce the cost for the council when dealing with an areas litter problem. McDonald's has had substantial negative impacts on the local community as well.The main impact it has had is on the health of the local people as many of their best selling products are unhealthy and the products that are healthy have been criticized as they often do not appeal to their customer base. This is shown in a daily mail article called â€Å"McDonald's shares fall as customers shun new healthier items on the menu† that links recent price drops to customers rejecting the healthier McDonald's products. Although McDonald's are trying to combat litter in their local communities, they are one of the main causers of it. This is s hown by a 2009 survey that McDonald's packaging makes up for a third of the Auk's litter.Also a lot of their delivery packaging contributes to local landfills which if filled would have to be expanded or a new local site would have to be created which would decrease the appeal of the local area. Overall I think that McDonald's is bad for the local community as although it is trying to reduce its impact on the local community it still has a strong impact on the local populations' health and the cleanliness of the surrounding area. This would decrease the appeal of the area which may lead to problems such s a decrease in house prices, less tourism and less people visiting the area to use the local shops.As I have mentioned above, McDonald's is often criticized for it negative effects on the customer's health and its low sales in its healthy options. To decrease these negative effects McDonald's should look to invest in research on improving the nutritional value of their food. This re search should include trials of various food ideas in some of their stores so that they can work out which ones to spread chain wide and which to improve on. After improving the healthiness of their product range they should then Penn a large amount of money on a new advertising campaign that advertises the largest changes e. . A large decrease in calories or saturated fat in their burgers. This should also include a look at their Other positive improvements such as their care for the environment and anything else related to the welfare of their customers and the environment they live in. Due to McDonald's advertisement of its healthier product range the company's image should improve. This should help to set up a business deal with a new healthy food partner such as Real Foods, Weight watchers, Wellness Foods or another healthy food company who would be happier to e associated with a healthier McDonald's.With one of these healthy food company McDonald's should work with them to try and improve the taste of their healthier product range so that it seems a more attractive option to customers. This would allow McDonald's to gain a larger customer base as then only other large fast food chain that can advertise the healthiness of its food is subway who McDonald's could take customers from. This could also be used to try and appeal to a larger customer base as some organizations, such as weight watchers, offer their own food range for people who are dieting.If they sold weight watchers dieting products or certified some of their own products as recommended by a healthy food company then they would probably attract a lot of new customers as their main competition, KEF and Burger King do not offer any specific dieting products. Another benefit of this is that they could work with a company such as Real Foods to increase the amount of special diet foods on their menu. This would increase their customer base as it would attract people that are vegetarian, vegan or hav e an allergy to things like gluten or wheat.This improvement would greatly improve McDonald's image as they would come the market leader in healthy fast food which, with its environmental work, would alter the view of groups such as PETA who would not target them as much. This image change would also increase the amount of children (one of their prime demographics) that go to McDonald's as parents would be happier to take them if they had healthy food. SAD SAD benefits the local community mainly through its SAD foundation program which supports a lot of small charities located around the ILK.This is especially helpful to the local community as most businesses only support arguer charities but as SAD has this program it can donate to smaller charities that need the money to improve their functionality in the local community. So far this year the program has donated almost E3000000 to a wide variety of charities which often offer specialist support for members of the community. Anothe r way SAD is helping the local community is through its new plan to give Store space to local authorities, businesses, voluntary groups and educational services.It is giving this space as a lot more customers are buying online and so the stores do not need as much space for stock. This helps the local community as it means that customers are more likely to find out about various groups and community projects in their community. The final way SAD has had a positive impact on the local community is through its community life program which offers customers the opportunity to vote on what SAD should do with the money it plans on investing in the local community. This helps the local community as it increases the relativity of the changes for the local community.This also encourages other groups to consult the community more due to the increased advertisement they receive from voters. SAD has also had a negative community due to where it's building. A lot of Sad's stores are deliberately located near another supermarket to try and reduce its profits. The problem with this is that often they can't find a suitable site near enough and so use planning loopholes and other methods such as paying for an improved transport system to secure sites that aren't meant to be built on.This affects the community negatively because it is likely that there would have been a reason for the council not wanting the supermarket being built there (e. G. The site had natural beauty). This also effects where the average shopper purchases goods as many of these stores are located out of town or on the edge of towns many people are drawn away from the shopping area Of the town and so are less likely to purchase something from that area. Due to Sad's delivery service many of their Lorries have to go into smaller towns to make deliveries.This poses problems for the local community as they may not have the infrastructure needed for Lorries to travel through their town which could cause damage to the roads and congestion. This effects the local community as the council would have to pay for any damage one to the road and the local people may find it harder to get to their destination. Like other supermarkets, SAD cause 2 main problems, increased traffic and a decrease in business for local shops.

High School and Graduation Essay

Graduation is a goal that everyone wants to accomplish in life. Whether it is from daycare, middle school, high school, or college, it’s a major accomplishment. Graduation from high school was something that I always looked forward to. The fact that it took twelve years of grading school to get a diploma made it more exciting and made me more anxious. Graduation also comes with an emotional impact. Especially when you’ve spent half of your life growing and learning to love your fellow classmates. From making best friends in kindergarten, to making pointless enemies in middle school. We never know how big of a deal it is until high school. That is when we realize that it starts the countdown of how many days that we have left with each other. We never really realize how much we will miss everyone and everything until the closer we approach graduation. Cherish every moment! The actual day of graduation contains the most emotion for some and most excitement for others. For me, it was both. I remember the exact feeling of waking up that morning. The smell of a huge breakfast meal aroused me. It was my day. I was beyond anxious and excited. Almost so anxious to the point of an anxiety attack but so excited to the point of a panic attack. Waking up and realizing that this was my first official day of a graduate was so amazing. I was going to college. I was getting the chance to fulfill my dreams. I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing the meal and looking at my momma and crying. I sure was going to miss this. The home cooked meals and family gatherings would be missed the most. After graduation, the summer before my new beginning, was different. I felt like an adult. My parents treated me more like an adult. Going out with friends and staying out late was great. I still remember going to Orientation at Ole Miss. Meeting new people and learning the campus. Not having to worry about high school and going to meet teachers was wonderful. Life was beginning for me! Graduating from high school has changed my life dramatically. I am now a freshman in college and I love it. My first week was amazing, everything was crazy. My legs are still sore as I type this. The University of Mississippi should be named the University of Hills. There are hills galore! It seems as if everything is always busy on campus. People running around like headless chicken. I also enjoy the freedom of college. No curfew is great! As far as family goes, I miss them like crazy! Phone calls from my mother comes in seem to come like every ten minutes. So, as far as graduating goes, it’s a great experience. Comes with many different emotions. Some good emotions and some bad emotions. We realize how much we actually care for your peers. It is always fun and a great learning experience to begin a new chapter in life. I will never forget my graduation day, from beginning to end. Walking across the stage with the biggest Kool-Aid smile, hearing loved ones scream and chant my name, and looking my principal, Mike Martin, in the eyes as he hand me my diploma telling me congratulations. I’ve learned to cherish every moment I spend with my peers. I never knew I’d miss something that I hated doing so much. As I said before, cherish EVERY moment!!