Marketing plan for a driving instructor business

Marketing plan for a driving instructor business Introduction Our e-business task was assigned by James Hill of Driving Pass Ltd. Driving Pass is a well-established driving instructor company that was set up in 1970 by James Hill. James has since then employed 7 more instructors to keep the business competitive and to allow more flexibility with lessons thus achieving higher sales. Driving Pass has a great success rate hence the company name Driving Pass that was adapted in 1984. The creation of Driving Pass was very successful as the company name and identity is strong. James has hired me to investigate and report on their e-business venture that will lead to future growth and increase competitive advantage. 1 in every 2 driving students, pass the driving test in Wexford. The pass rate for March 2009 to March 2010 was at 48.5%. Industry Analysis The driving instructor industry services the needs of customers who require training on how to drive. The majority being new provisional license holders with the aim to pass their test or the odd customer that may only require a refresher course. The demand for more driving instructors is increasing year on year throughout the world. The driving instructor industry is very competitive in major counties of Ireland. Due to the increase of more drivers on the road and more accidents occurring, this has changed regulations in order to make Irelands roads safer. The driving instructor industry from the prospective of e-business has great potential if created and aimed correctly. Web sites nowadays is a must have tool in order to reach new and existing customers as the driving instructor market is very competitive. Driving instructors are based all around the world and the location of the driving instructor is restricted to the local geographical areas in which the instructor besides. Industry Size, Trends, Outlook The size of the driving instructor industry is massive and has started to become excessive in relation to the supply of instructors. Trends are changing and the youthful approach is becoming more and more successful on the e-business side of things. It is hard to distinguish which driving instructor is the right one for the customer looking at web sites, each customer will react differently by looking at the different web sites out there. Main focus is based on the attractiveness of the web site. Does it have the wow factor? Does it hook people in to explore the site? Is it easy to explore the site? This will be looked at in more detail throughout this report. Product/Service We are selling a service to customers who want to learn and become successful in passing their driving test. We provide hourly sessions for a fee in return we teach the customer the rules of road, techniques and how to drive. Driving Pass started off with teaching learner drivers to drive cars only up until 1992 when the introduction of rigid and articulated trucks which proved to be successful. The initial introduction of these new services was very expensive due to the price of the vehicles, but has significantly diversified what Driving pass has to offer compared to other local instructors. What we offer online The products and services listed below are provided on www.drivingpass.ie to ensure that the customer has all the correct information and is attracted to our company by first impressions and professionalism: Home page Qualification Information About us Information Contact us Details Site Map Guidance Rigid Articulated Truck Driving Information Gift Vouchers Sales Promotions Useful Links Information Downloads Rules of the Road (PDF) Statistics Pass Rates Games Parking Games Amusement Customers View Quotes of Customers Advertising Mini Ads (Car Insurance) Target Market The target market must be large enough to enable Driving Pass to succeed. By having an online presence to attract this market, it is entirely dependent on the web site design. The size of the market is determined by how many potential customers and also the number of competitors within our market. To segment our market we will look at the following factors: Geographical The geographical location that our target market is in will be Co. Wexford. The population of Co. Wexford was in the region of 132,000, based on the last census in 2006. Demographic The demographics of our market are the younger generation aged between 17-26 years old and also the mature generation aged between 27-40 years old. Target Customers Our target market is aimed at ambitious people of all ages who need or want to pass their driving test whether it is for a job or for independence. Driving Pass also target commercial customers that require rigid truck or articulated truck licences. Regulatory Environment Driving instructors regulations are included in the Road Traffic Act 1968. Driving instructors must be on the RSAs register of approved driving instructors or otherwise face a à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2,000 fine or six month imprisonment. These driving regulations are in place to standardise the quality and skills of driving instructors in Ireland. http://www.rsa.ie/Utility/Driving-Instructors1/Regulations/ Six Goals for business Success Mission statement for drivingpass.ie is to teach people how to drive in an effective and a professional manner whilst providing accurate information in the preparation for success. Driving Pass have six goals that we feel are critical in the setting up of their e-business venture and to achieve success. Youthful image of website Instant message of success Easy to use and navigate Useful information and contacts made clear Rules of the road free download Theory test online and fun games Prepare presentation to sell website idea and what the outcome would be An e-business website can be a simple homepage, but to attract and interest our market it must be lively and vibrant in order to encourage customer return. An e-business website gives Driving Pass a new tool to promote, inform, sell and will enable Driving Pass to reach out the customers in every area within the target market and also outside. An effective e-business website makes it easy for customers to do business with you as they can attain information about Driving Pass 24hrs a day. Value Proposition Driving Pass is fully committed to helping their customers gain the knowledge of the rules and techniques of driving. Customers will choose Driving Pass over our competitors because we are reliable, successful and have the best pass rate in Wexford. Driving Pass not only caters for the category B but also provides the same tuition for categories C1, C, D1, D, EB, EC1, EC, ED1 and ED which has broadened our market and filled the gap that most other instructors have not done. Advantages of e-business reduced costs, time and effort to make and process sales better customer service attract new customers Benefits to your customers are: 24-hour access, accurate and fast information, convenience can do some things not possible or easy to do elsewhere a way to find information about you and your product or service http://www.business.vic.gov.au/busvicwr/_assets/main/lib60208/sbv_infosheet_setting_up_an_ebusiness_website.pdf Business Models Affiliate Revenue Model This provides purchase opportunities, by offering a referral fee to affiliated partner sites. This will only generate money if the affiliates purchase. If an affiliate does not generate sales, then no money is transacted. This model is very popular on the web and the variations of these are banner exchange and (PPC) pay-per-click Advertising Revenue Model This is critical to a new e-business, which Driving Pass effectively is, as getting the name out there informs customer of your presence and what you have to offer. For a small online based company there are several options for advertising which would involve a small budget. The ones which will be considered are the use of Click Through advertising on Google, the ability to advertise on Facebook and point of sale advertising. What Driving Pass offer online www.drivingpass.ie is a vibrant and youthful website that has plenty of information, offers, tests and games to keep our customers interested. This is what our website has to offer: Vital information including the rules of the road free download. Practice theory tests online Useful links regarding the success of passing Mini parking games online Up to date statistics on all of our customers pass/fail Gift vouchers online Special offers online Maps of test routes to study Identification of target markets Based on the lifestyle of individuals or past driving experience, our customers needs may differ. Young learner drivers usually take longer and require more attention to the physical driving aspect. The more mature learner drivers are usually on tight schedules around work and home and have to take lessons during lunch or evenings. The main attention is drawn to the rules of the road and refresher course for the mature learners. For our more intense lessons, is the commercial learner driver, who requires more technical and detailed training. Within our industry we have divided them into segments as follows: Beginner Drivers Mature Drivers Commercial Drivers http://wsj.miniplan.com/spv/3166/4.cfm Competitor analysis rank 3-5 indirect direct Direct comeptitors John Bail Owen Doyle Dane Tyghe Martin Scallan Stephen Murphy Lorcan Merrigan Joe Long Margaret Cunningham Seamus Murphy Craig Healy Indirect Competitors Family members Driving simulators Competitor analysis grid Competitors Website Analysis These websites will be analysed by looking at the following: The Home Page. The Purchase Portal a sense of security. Ease of Navigation. Differentiating Factors. Availability of Contact Information and ease of use. John Bail (http://johnbailschofmotoring.vpweb.ie/default.html) This website is very bland and does not utilise the full width of the page. John Bail could use this extra space for advertising of insurance companies or useful links. There is no inclusion of approved driving instructor logo and really just pushes the fact that they are in business for over 30 years. On this site John used a picture of a customer after their first lesson along with a quote stating how brilliant the instructor was. This website only had three tabs which were home, about us and contact us. There was not a great deal of information put onto these pages and was not very appealing or eye catching with regards to layout and information provided. Dane Tyghe (http://www.letsdrive.ie/) The first good thing that stood out was that he has a section on the home page about what the customer thinks. This is always a good idea as a potential customer will like to see what other customers think of the service provided. In the introductory paragraph Dane clearly outlines the type of vehicles he will provide driving lessons in and then also provides contact information for a driving instructor that will provide lessons for the ones he does not cater for. I dont necessarily think this is a great point to put in the introduction as he should be trying to sell his service and information about him as opposed to praising another instructor. Half of the paragraph is about another instructor and I think this space would be better utilised by either leaving it blank as sometime too much text can be off putting for people to read or else fill in more info about his business. On the home page at the bottom there is an eye grabbing section in red print which states that not all of hi s offers are on the website but if a customer would like to find out more about them that they should ring the number supplied. This is a good idea as it will encourage a potential customer to ring and enquire about the offers and once they make contact with him they might be more likely to book a lesson. The home page also states that within the website you will find free information and advice on the driving test. There are 9 tabs that are available on the website. Also put in about approved driving instructor which gives the customer confidence in their service. Owen Doyle (http://www.owendoyleschoolofmotoring.com/): This website really stood out with the ig logo for approved driving instructor. By mentioning that the car is dual control might give more confidence to the more nervous learner. The website also states that cars are available for the driving test. This is a very important point to include as many new learner drivers will not possess or be able to attain a car for their driving test. Also it is a good idea as if a learner is getting lessons in the same car they will be more comfortable to do their test in the same car as they will be familiar with the overall manoeuvring of the car. Good use of slogan gets going with Owen. Also states on home page that they offer gift vouchers which stand out. People might just specifically be researching driving instructors with the intention to purchase gift vouchers for a family member friend so immediately they can see on the home page that this offer is available. The word contact is in bright red and does draw your attention to this sentence. I t also states that he is qualified RSA driving instructor which is something which should be included in the website as it gives the customer confidence in his teaching abilities. The website also says that he is very patient and conducts his lessons in a friendly manner. This will make the customer feel more relaxed as some learner drivers may feel a bit anxious about the instructor perhaps being a bit aggressive if theyre having difficulties and also knowing that he is patient will reassure them. It states that his school of motoring covers the whole of county wexford so is covering a wide geographic area compared to some instructors which may only cover areas in wexford town. Maintenance Website maintenance is really only required for larger businesses and not for small businesses like driving instructors. The reason for this, is driving instructors, do not really have to update their websites as much as corporate companies. To maintain a website for a driving instructor, you could outsource this for around à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬20 per hour or monthly contracts for around à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬100 which will also compare your website against your competitors to achieve greater advantage. This may not suit some driving instructors if business is not good and may have to revert back to maintaining their websites in house. Domain Name The name Driving Pass is still available and would be a great opportunity for the company to use this name as it is the name of your company and the major objectives of the website must be to increase the ranking on Google, specifically in Ireland. This is difficult to achieve and subject to a lot of speculation. The easiest way to achieve this is by paying for it also known as click through advertising, whereby every time the link is clicked a sum must be paid to stay high in the rankings. www.drivingpass.ie Conclusion Recommendations training facebook Facebook have a facility where your advertisement is only delivered to the profile you determine. The advantage of this is the ability to reach out to your audience. An advert can be tailored and delivered to the target audience based on keywords in the demographic profile and geographic location. If this is carefully done and the profile which is being aimed for is well known then this can have high success. Executive Summary Driving Pass is a successful school of motoring company and their main purpose is to ultimately make Irish roads safer by carefully teaching and coaching learner drivers. The location of the business is set up in Co. Wexford. As driving instructors is a highly competitive profession, it is imperative that Driving Pass utilise the web as a means of communicating to potential customers all the benefits their company can provide them.

Corporate Strategy of Tesco

{draw:frame} An evaluation of Tesco’s competitive position within the food industry market. Corporate strategy ASB-4004. December the 14th 2009. Shahbaz Ansari- abpa40, 500 200603 Word count- 3300 excluding references, appendices, and tables. Contents page Introduction P3 History P3 Business strategy P3 Corporate strategy P3 Company values P3 Value chain P4 Joint Ventures and Mergers and Acquisitions P4 PESTEL analysis P5 Competitors P7 Figure 1: Tesco’s main competitors P7 Figure 2: Ansoff matrix for Tesco’s marketing strategy P8 Figure 3: Tesco’s sub-bran poisition in the United Kingdom P9 Figure 4: Tesco’s competition in the UK P10 Figure 5: Tesco’s internal competition P10 Core competencies P11 Human Resource P12 Recommendations P13 Conclusions P14 References P15 Appendices P17 Appendix 1: Retail Competitors Analysis by Mintel P17 Appendix 2: Leading UK food retailers, market shares, 2008 P18 Appendix 3: Tesco UK store formats, 2008/09 P 19 Introduction The company that our group has chosen to analyse is Tesco. Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen who began his new venture by selling surplus groceries from a stall in the east end of London; One his first day he made ? 1 profit and ? 4 of sales (Tescoplc. com [history]). Tesco has come a long way since then and is now one of the largest food retailers in the world, operating around 2,318 stores and employing over 326,000 people. Not only has Tesco managed to monopolise the food sector, they have also diversified into a number of other sectors, some of which being insurance, mobile networks, clothing, and electronics. However, this report shall have a focus of the food sector in the United Kingdom. Albeit that Tesco has 2,200 stores locally, it is categorised as operating in a globalised environment. Currently Tesco has stores in seven European countries; the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and the Republic of Ireland. Furthermore also operates in Asia, stores can be found in China, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan (Tescoplc. com [community plan]; Tescoplc. com [core UK]). The long term business strategy of Tesco is currently fivefold; to be a successful international retailer; to grow the core UK business; to be as strong in the non-food arena as the food arena; to develop retailing services- such as tesco. com, Telecoms, and Tesco personal finance; and to put community at the heart of what they do (Tescopl. com [long term strategy]). How Tesco chose to implement the corporate strategy is via a steering wheel model; that all of the key elements of the business, customers, operations, people, finance, and community, are dealt with an equal and balanced scorecard (Tescoplc. om [CR strategy]). It has been stated by Tesco that the steering wheel has been implemented to place emphasis on the fact that corporate responsibility is not a specialist function in Tesco, it is a part of everybody’s job every day (Tescoplc. com [CR strategy]). Tesco works off the business value that their â€Å"core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their li fetime loyalty† (Tescoplc. com [our values]). Great emphasis is placed within â€Å"people†, without their customers and employees Tesco’s success would not have been possible. For the remainder of this report the variables that can affect Tesco’s competitive advantage shall be considered and evaluated. Value chain When considering the value chain of Tesco there are a number of primary variables that can either add value (+), lose value (-), or have the potential to add value (P+). For the primary activities; Inbound logistics These have an integral importance in the creation of the value chain as they provide the earliest opportunity to create value, therefore because of the elements related to the logistics Tesco try to achieve and maintain the level of consumer choice in store (+). The efficiency of distribution system of Tesco does need to be improved (+), and the quality control system should be managed by the company efficiently so that the cost of losses are not imposed upon the customers (P+). Operations Tesco’s core operations are service orientated and these services involve opening and closing the store, shelf maintenance, and replenishing the stock (+). Outbound logistics The main emphasis for this stage in the chain is delivering the product to the customer (+), the customer service that is provided (+) and the implementation of the trolley service which is convenient for the customer (+). Marketing and sales The Tesco Clubcard gives discounts and provides loyalty to customers (+), selling healthy and environmentally friendly products (+), and Tesco’s advertisements and new policies on using recycled products to help Tesco come â€Å"carbon free by 2050† (+). Joint Ventures and mergers and acquisitions In 2008, Tesco made an agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland to buy 50% of their shareholding. This allowed Tesco to build up Tesco Personal Finance. Tesco currently offer financial products such as home insurance and a credit card. However, Tesco wishes to offer a full service retail bank. The reason for wanting to embark on this new venture is because owning its own bank would not just increase Tesco’s revenue, it would also attract new customers and provide a further service for its existing loyal customers, which other competitors do not offer (REFERENCE PLEASE YOUNG). In 1999 a French hypermarket chain named â€Å"Carrefour† tried to enter the Korean market but it failed. This was due to the fact that the Korean population had a preference for domestic supermarket chains, which this was not as the owners failed to localise the store (REFERENCE PLEASE YOUNG). Interestingly Tesco attempted to enter the South Korean market in 1999 as a joint venture with Samsung. It was named â€Å"Samsung Homeplus Tesco† and was extremely successful due to the recognition by the Koreans that it was a domestic retailer. By joining forces with a Korean business Tesco was given an instant competitive advantage and the opportunity to thrive: â€Å"it has now become one of Koreas leading retailers and there are currently 30 hypermarkets and two super express stores† (Kollewe, 2004). Finally, in 2008 Tesco acquired a Korean supermarket chain named Homever which was owned by the E-land group in Korea. Tesco paid ? 958 million to take over the 36 stores that the group owned (Walker, 2008). The takeover will not only increase Tesco’s revenue, in a country that they have already been successful in, but will also enable Tesco to gain knowledge of the Far East and Asian markets through merging the two companies, this hopefully should enable them to be just as successful within these new markets. PESTEL analysis for Tesco Political Due to operating in a global environment, Tesco is largely influenced by the political and legislative conditions of these countries, as well as the European Union enforcing governing rules. The government legislation for employment encourages retailers to provide work for a variant of people, ranging from flexible, lowered paid, and locally based jobs to highly skilled, highly paid, and centrally-located jobs (Balchin, 1994). This piece of legislation also allows for the various demographics to be given work opportunities, such as students, senior citizens, disabled people, people from various ethnic backgrounds, and working parents. This gives Tesco a competitive advantage as it produces loyal employees. Economical The recession has caused the unemployment level in the United Kingdom to soar over 28. 93 million (Office for national statistics). As economical factors are likely to influence demand, cost, price, and profits, these figures should make Tesco’s management feel particularly apprehensive. Although Tescos international business does bring in a high amount of profit, they are still largely dependent on the UK market. If the unemployment rates continue to soar, the slowdown of the UK food market could have a severely detrimental effect on Tesco’s. Social British customers have become â€Å"one stop† shoppers. Due to this movement, Tesco has been able to successfully diversify their company into a range of different markets. One can now not only buy their weekly shop but can purchase personal insurance, electronic goods, clothing, and a range of other products from Tesco. com. Technological This particular variable of the macro-environment has helped to develop many of Tesco’s products and has not only been indicative of the company’s satisfaction but also that of the customer’s. Due to services such as Tesco. om, the self checkout service and the Tesco Clubcard, the customer satisfaction levels have increased due to more personalised shopping, goods that are readily available, and convenience. However, due to the modern use of technology, it does allow for job cuts as face to face services have been replaced. Environmental Tesco has put in place measures to ensure that their company helps in the fight to l ower carbon emissions. Their challenge is to achieve a 30% reduction of the carbon impact of the Tesco’s supply chain by 2020 and to become a zero carbon business by 2050 (Tescoplc. om [Press release, 2009]). Implementations in the forms of using green clubcard points in order to encourage environmentally friendly, carbon conscious purchasing; the â€Å"buy one get one free later† scheme, that allows customers to acquire their free product at a later date to reduce waste; and are striving to reduce packaging, reduced carrier bag use, and increase recycling, this year alone they have reduced carrier bag usage by 53% (Tescopl. com [Press release, 2009]). Legal There are certain government legislatives and policies that Tescos have to abide by and have a direct impact on their performance. Bodies such as the Food Retailing Commission (FRC), who prevent companies from demanding payments from suppliers and changing agreed prices without notice. Government policies for monopoly and the reduction of the buyer’s power can limit entry into the sector (Mintel report, 2004). Competitors The market leader of food retailers in UK is Tesco. It has 26. 2% (including non-retail is 31. 5%) market share, 2,115 stores and ? 34,874 million sales (Mintel, Food Retailing, 2008, details in Appendix 1). J Sainsbury which has 823 stores and 13. 5 (16. 5) % market share is in the second position. The third one is Asda group, and it gains 13. (15. 1) % market share with less than half of the Sainsbury stores number. The forth player in food retailing market is Wm Morrison Group which holds 9. 5(11. 7) % market share. â€Å"The top four account for 63% of all food retailers’ sales (after adjusting for fuel sales) and dominate the market for main food shopping. (Mintel, Food Reta iling, 2008)† â€Å"British supermarkets are typically evaluated by potential customers by two sets of criteria: the perceived price levels charged and the quality of service offered interns of range of goods, quality of merchandise, opening hours, and store environment (Bradley, 2003). {draw:g} Figure 1: Tesco’s main competitors adapted from Mintel report, 2009, (see appendix 1). As Tesco is in the middle of the position map, it has the opportunities to expand its product line to meet the up-market needs, or to have some discount products get the down-market interests, but the competition level in this position is very high. It is necessary to look at how Tesco still hold the No. 1 position in UK food-retailing industry. {draw:g} Figure 2: Ansoff matrix to analyse Tesco’s marketing strategy. Tesco started in the UK food retailing market and the business is maturing. â€Å"Sales density and market share growth are both slowing, and UK space is becoming a smaller part of the whole (Leahy, 2008). † AlthoughTesco will still plan to open more stroes in UK, â€Å"80% will open outside of the UK in 2009 (Mintel, Food Retailing, 2008)†. The opportunities for Tesco are: 1. Taking advantages of the food retailing value chain to continue to grow internationall by market development, and 2. Providing non-food products/services to the loyal customers in food retailing area by product development. Figure 3: Tesco’s sub-bran poisition in the United Kingdom. {draw:g} The above figure summaries the sub-brands of Tesco with two main factors: the customer perceived convenience and the product range (Food vs. Non-food). In order to hold and increase the market share, what Tesco is trying to do is to to set a small number of big stores which could be the best choice to purchase the products when the customer have enough time. Meanwhile, there are more than one thousand express/One Stop stores which could be convenient for the customers daily life purchase. When considering the competitive advantages, our group uses Poter’s â€Å"Five Forces† (1980) to analyze Tesco competition in the UK and international markets. In the UK, Tesco bulits the barriers for new entrants (high fixed cost and difficult to get suppliers), cooperates with local suppliers (strong relationship with farmers), uses Clubcard for retaining customers (Customer loyalty), and in the food retailing there is no specific substitutes. {draw:g} Figure 4: Tesco’s competition in the United Kingdom. draw:g} In the international markets, the situation will be different. Tesco should build relationship with the international suppliers, promote its brand to the international customers, provide products differentiation to avoid the threat from substitutes and potential entrants and compete with the international competitors which may already have strong supplier chains. Figure 5: Tesco internal markets competition. Core competencies There are two issues as the core competencies of Tesco. One is the employees, and another is the customers. The staffs determine the competitiveness through the internal of the business, whereas the customers determine the external environment the profitability of the business† (Kotler and Keller, 2009). Especially, when the business is in the downturn, Tesco needs to spend more time to do the research on how to satisfy the customers better than its competitors’. The ultimate goal of Tesco is to reduce the cost for the customers. Since Asda enter the UK market with the introduction of parity strategy, the main players in supermarkets has faced a fierce competition which based on the low-cost strategy. At that period of time (1980s), some of the main supermarkets had been replaced which was related to a low customer loyalty. People had a wide range of choice with a cheaper price. Until the Clubcard was established, customers have become more relevant to the supermarket. Although a Clubcard itself does not create loyalty, it can be a medium to produce the Tesco points (which can be accumulated and exchange the goods/money within Tesco, source from: Assen, Van den Berg, and Pietersma, 2009). Tesco notice that the total customer satisfaction experience can create the generate loyalty towards ‘a pull strategy’ which is better than a direct promotion that is based on a low-cost products (a push strategy). According to Tesco's annual report, â€Å"In the first 6 months of the club card introduction, without any advertising case, Tesco have achieved about 17% of the â€Å"customer spontaneous usage. † Based on this research, it is obviously to see that a Tesco Clubcard can not only enhance the customers’ loyalties, but also can create a customer relationship management (CRM) for Tesco. Tesco can get the information from CRM and analyze it to find those most valuable customers. On one hand it can reduce the cost and make Tesco to target more efficiently and effectively. On the other hand this may improve the company's service quality and customer satisfaction. Club card activity is successful and remarkable. Customers like these activities, as well as the store managers. It gives the opportunity to create a communication channel for the managers and the customers sharing knowledge. Tesco is trying to treat its customers as â€Å"shareholders†. In addition, Tesco must learn and adjust their marketing strategy to meet their customers’ needs. That means if Tesco can notice the changing of the customers’ needs more quick than its competitors. Their competitors will lose their customers’ satisfaction and this is one of the most important competencies of Tesco, especially the critical successful factor in UK. Human Resource Tescos distinctive strategic resources and assets can be found in its employees. The HR department in Tescos has been strategically integrated in the overall plans; management utilizes HR whenever they are making decisions (Beardwell J. 004). HR department helps in the building of the company through the following: – creating new plans and techniques to measure and reduce labour turnover. It has played a crucial role in aiding diversification into new business sectors. Their slogan ‘Every Little Helps’ is part of their ethos and is also inculcated in the training progr ams offered to their employees (Armstrong, M 2005) Tescos focuses on high commitment through the HR department by incorporating all employees; by discussing its strategic directions. The major challenge to Tescos is ensuring that all employees are aware of the roles assigned and how these various roles and actions can affect the ‘big Tescos picture’ (Whitelock, N. 2003). As a result, training has increased within the organization with high value placed on employees through the offer of basic and extended training. (Beardwell J. 2004). The increment in employee training within the organization is as a result of HR adopting a proactive strategic role and not an administrative one. The stance taken by HR is that by equipping the employees with the skills that they need to work will in the long run lead to increased growth. (Mullins, L. 2005) Career development is also looked at. This is in light of the changing employment market and employees feeling less secure in their jobs. A disadvantage of this is that since these skills are transferrable, they could in the long run be of benefit to their competitors. Though the merits of training the employees outweigh the demerits, employee shift or movement should not be overlooked. Marchington M & Wilkinson, A 1997) In terms of sustainability, developing employees through T&D and education are imperative because these are the most important factors in determining long-term business profitability. This can also be achieved by fully exploiting the wealth of knowledge within the organization; its employees. (Armstrong, M 2005) It aims to integrate learning as part of it business culture because learning is seen as an inte gral way of being flexible which has a long term organizational value thus maintaining its huge step ahead of its competition. In conclusion, Tescos integrating HR as part of its strategy and focusing on the training of its employees has made them feel a part of the overall strategy which in turn has lead to higher employee commitment. This long run effect gives Tescos the added value it needs in the competitive retail market. Recommendations There are a number of recommendations that can be specified which could enable Tesco to grow into more dominant brand and have even more success both locally and internationally. Tesco’s growth largely depends on its non-food products, these account for over 25% of its sales (not including petrol), and it is these areas that are the key to Tesco’s future success. The main emphasis should now be on developing new and innovative strategies so that these areas can blossom. Already it has been noted that Tesco beauty section is only second to boots, and their skin care range is the fastest growing range in all supermarkets. However, they do face stiff competition from Asda’s and Sainsbury’s clothing range. If Tesco wishes to be viewed as the number one â€Å"one stop shop† then more efforts need to be placed into the non-food areas otherwise customers shall use a different supermarket that do satisfy all their consumer needs. Currently there is a serious cause for concern that our carbon foot print needs to be decreased drastically. All supermarkets have a high level of waste; cardboard, plastics, paper. This problem needs to be address, although Tesco has stated that they wish to be carbon free by 2050, they need to ensure that this dream becomes a realisation. They can reduce these variables by having less packaging on products, promoting recycling, and disposing with plastic bags all together and instead implement long life bags that the customer brings to the store when they visit. Tesco have been extremely successful in many foreign markets through joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. They have acquired a lot of useful knowledge about the Korean market and now hopefully will flourish in the Asian and Far East market. This shall only happen though if they bring not only their own values but adopt the ones of the country that they are entering. Finally, further steps need to be taken into promoting Tesco’s banking service. If this venture does go ahead they will be an unstoppable force. Conclusion Tesco is a remarkable chain. Although it is leading in its market and is attempting to conquer the international world, it is the values that they uphold that are second to none. It is the emphasis on â€Å"its people† that have allowed them to be so successful; by continuously trying to provide better and faster services of a high quality, and investing time and money in its employees is why they have so many loyal customers. Tescos are known for innovation, they have now become a one stop store, not only can one acquire the weekly shop but now can obtain insurance, home furnishing, clothing, and electrical goods. It is for reasons such as these that they have always been able to stay one step ahead of their competitors. Word count – 3300 References Armstrong, M (2005) (9th Edition) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice Kogan Page, London Assen, M. , V. , Van den Berg, G. , and Pietersma. , P. 2009) Key Management Models: The 60+ models every manager needs to know, 2nd edition, Balchin A. (1994) Part-time workers in the multiple retail sector: small change from employment protection legislation? , Employee Relations, Vol. 16 Issue 7, pp. 43-57. Beardwell, J and Claydon, T. (2004) (4th Edition) Human Resource Management A Contemporary Approach Prentice Hall, Harlow. Bradley, F. (2003) â€Å"Building competitive brands†, Strategic Marketing in the customer driven organization, 1st E dition, London: John Wiley & Sons Ltd Press Kotler, P and Keller, K. L. (2009) Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control, Prentice-Hall. Kollewe, J. (2004) cited at http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/news/tesco-raises-stake-in-korean-venture-544724. html. Assessed by 28 Nov, 2009 Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, A. (1996) Core Personnel and Development IPD Publishing, London. Mintel report. (2004) Food retailing- UK, Retail intelligence, November. Mintel International Group Ltd (2008) Food Retailing, UK, November 2008 (Nov 2008). http://0-academic. mintel. com. unicat. bangor. ac. k/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=395621/display/id=280627. Assessed 16th Nov, 2009. Mintel International Group Ltd (2009) Food Retailing, UK, _November 2009 _(Nov 2009) http://0-academic. mintel. com. unicat. bangor. ac. uk/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=395621/display/id=280627/display/id=395621. Assessed 4th Dec, 2009. Mullins, L (2005) (7th Edition) Management and Organisational Behaviour Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Edinburgh Office of national statistics cited in http://www. tatistics. gov. uk/cci/nugget. asp? ID=12. Found on the 27/22/09. Palmer, A. & Worthington, I. (1992) â€Å"Marketing: an overview†, The Business and Marketing Environment, 1st Edition, London: McGraw Hill Press. Porter, M. , E (1980) cited in Johnson, G. & Scholes, K. (1997) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 4th Edition, London: Prentice Hall Press. Tesco community plan cited in http://www. tescoplc. com/plc/corporate_responsibility_09/approach/cr_strategy/community_plan/. Tesco core UK cited in

Modern Art Essay

The Post-Industrial Era in which we live in now is characterized by the extraordinary rate in development of technology. In sixty years we have managed to completely redesign every aspect of our lives in a way in which we allow technology to do most of the work. Whether we like it or not technology will keep evolving, and as it evolves it will impact aspects of society differently. The evolution of technology has had a very negative impact on artistic values in society and in aesthetics. In his essay â€Å"The Art of Collecting Lightbulbs,† Kimmelman exposes characteristics and qualities contained in art making. As Richard Restak explains in his essay â€Å"Attention Deficit: The Brain syndrome of Our Era,† Technology serves not only as an ally but also as a distraction from our daily activities. As a distraction it also serves as an escape from peoples daily routines, a place formerly occupied by art. Technology also facilitates the process of critical thinking and inhibits creative imagination, this turns out to be gravely detrimental to artistic development. As Technology distracts more people it will take away from the small group of people who are actually passionate about art. Technology now provides an escape from reality to those who need it. This niche was formerly occupied by art. Before Post-Industrial times people would rely on art to release their thoughts, whether it was on a canvas or a sheet of music. Modernly it is much easier to watch TV, play video games, or browse the web, than to set up a canvas to paint. The ease that technology brings with it makes our brains lazy. More often than not we chose to do those activities, which require less energy. This generally wouldn’t be a problem if the issue was choosing the elevator over the stairs, but when it begins influencing the activities we chose to do as a pastime, energy/thought intensive activities, such as art, will suffer. As stated by Restak, â€Å" In our contemporary society speed is the standard applied to almost everything that we do.†(339) This turns out to be very true when analyzed using a quote by David Shenk used by Restak. â€Å" We often feel life going by much faster than we wish, as we are carried forward from meeting to meeting, call to call, errand to errand. We have less time to ourselves and we are expected to improve our performance and output year after year.†(337) With this type of pressure we are not to blame for wanting to take the easy way out, but technology is. As we find lest time for ourselves, we find less time to release our, already hindered, creative thoughts in the form of art. Undoubtedly, if the dentist from Kimmelman’s essay lived in today’s world he would not have half of the time he had in his days to collect light bulbs. That is because I took an extraordinary deal of dedication, and most importantly, attention for him to collect over 75,000 light bulbs (217). Before it affects the time that we actually have to conduct artistic activities, technology already thwarts our ability to think creatively. As Restak quotes â€Å"The clutter, noise, and constant barrage of information that surround us daily contribute to the hectic pace of our modern lives, in which it is often difficult simply to remain mindful in the moment† (336). Being flooded with imagery, sound and text messages, our brain has to divide its attention to respond to all of these simultaneously. â€Å"Our brain literally changes its organization and functioning to accommodate the abundance of stimulation forced on it by the modern world† (Restak 332). So that even if we do have time for art our mind is divided and not able to think creatively. Hugh Alfred Hicks shares a story with Michael Kimmelman in which he was in Paris at a metro station and spotted a tungsten light bulb from the 1920s and took it for his collection (Kimmelman 217). It would be much more difficult for him to spot the same light bulb in a metro station in Paris today, as he would be bombarded by images, live changing screens with times, and advertising. His thoughts about his collection would likely the last thoughts in his mind. Creative thinking is on a downhill spiral. With the Internet we don’t have to wonder about anything anymore. Long gone are the days where we would have to imagine what the Great Wall of China looks like. We no longer have to yearn for answers with passion and fulfill a newly carved void in our minds; all we have to do now is Google images: â€Å"Great Wall of China.† This instant gratification (although convenient) overwhelms our ability to imagine. Our brains are lazy and after years of instantly answering our own questions, we become unable to create pictures in our head. This turns out to be harmful to creating art, as the first ingredient for art making is creativity. Not only is creative thinking decreasing due to technology, so is the actual population of artists. Not modern artists (as in graphic designers etc.) but classical artists. Technology provides us a virtual reality in which classical art is not involved. Although this is seen by most as the evolution of art, it is actually the demise of classical art. The wonderment of impressionist or French realist art has become a rarity. In the modern world we have not time or enough attention span to concentrate on such elaborate pieces. This is partly due to a phenomenon described by Restak, â€Å"The most widespread consequential speed-up of our time is the onrush in images- the speed at which they zip through the world, the speed at which they give way to more of the same, the tempo at which they move†(339). This seemingly never ending onrush of imagery takes away from our ability to sit still and analyze one single image. Since we are accustomed to quick changes in images and visual stimuli, we lack the patience to appreciate classical art pieces. A quote used by Restak of Blaise Pascal provides a good illustration of why this art is on the decline. â€Å"Most of the evils in life arise from a man’s being unable to sit still in a room†(334). As if we weren’t already disperse with all the technology that we carry around, being worried about our texts and tweets, our thoughts are also dispersed, this allows only for quick less elaborate imagery to get through to us. Since our brains are lazy and take the path of least resistance, most classical forms of Art cannot fill that niche. There are very few people left who can actually appreciate 40 minute long Mozart concertos. The radio now plays 4 minute longs songs and actually speeds them up so that they are shorter. Restak explains that our lack of attention has actually become somewhat normal. â€Å"Many personality characteristics we formerly labeled as dysfunctional, such as hyperactivity, impulsiveness and easy distractibility, are now almost norm†(335). In a world where these attributes are norm there is no room for overly detailed portraits or grand escalating music pieces. Our brains are rewired for instant gratification, a gratification seldom found in classical art. As technology helps our society advance to create a more highly efficient less wasteful machine, we can expect leisurely activities to suffer, mainly art. Technology makes it so that we are in more than two places at once whether we like it or not. This creates a split of thoughts in our brains. We try but are unable to, process two tasks at once. Our brains are pushed to jump back and forth between two or more different sections, which handle different parts of our thought process. While all of this is going on, the last thought in our brains is art. As we devote more and more time to our gadgets and videogames, we devote less time to creating and appreciating art.

Book Report On The Novel Xvi - 916 Words

Book XVI: Telemachus comes to the house of Eumaeus, where the servant greets him warmly. In accordance with Athene’s directions, Telemachus asks Eumaeus to go and tell Penelope that her son is home. Once Eumaeus leaves, Athene appears outside and calls Odysseus out. She turns him back into his normal form, and he goes back into the house. He tells Telemachus who he is. Telemachus, though doubtful at first, eventually accepts that it is Odysseus, his father. The two devise a plan for taking revenge on the suitors. As Eumaeus returns, Athene appears again and turns Odysseus back into an old man in preparation for the plan. Book XVII: Acting according to their plan, Odysseus asks for Eumaeus to take him to the house of Odysseus so he can beg, and Telemachus orders the swineherd to do it. Before the two leave, however, Telemachus himself returns to his mother. He goes down to the gathering place, where Theoclymenus is, and she soon joins them. Telemachus tells her about all that happened on his voyage. Later, Odysseus and Eumaeus come to the house of the former. Eumaeus enters first, and Odysseus soon comes inside. Athene instructs Odysseus to beg for food from each of the suitors to test their character. Though some of the suitors give him food, Antonius harms him. Telemachus is angry, but he listens to his father’s earlier words and does not do anything. Penelope then asks Eumaeus to bring the beggar to her, so she can question him and see if he knows anything about theShow MoreRelatedEssay on media and its influence on the public1591 Words   |  7 PagesStates; on one side of the dispute are the beliefs that the media is too opinionated. On the other side are the beliefs that the media is just a simple informer that just reports the facts. The main issue for both of these beliefs is: does the media affect opinions on the issues from opinionated reports, or does it just report the facts that public may already know? 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