Gender Inequality Essay -- Sexual Inequality

It is only recently that sociology has begun to explore the topic of gender. Before this, inequalities within society were based primarily on factors such as social class and status. This paper will discuss gender itself: what makes us who we are and how we are represented. It will also explore discrimination towards women throughout history, focusing mainly on women and the right to vote, inequalities between males and females in the work place and how gender is represented in the media. The term ‘gender’ was coined by John Money in 1955: â€Å"Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively† (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In sociological terms, gender is a division between men and women which is clear in society throughout the past - for example, in Ancient Egypt with the idea that there was little point in teaching women to read and write. Gender inequalities can be seen throughout many different aspects of our daily lives – from the gender pay gap, to gender discrimination in television adverts. These inequalities are accepted readily in today’s society and most fail to see that direct gender discrimination is still very much a problem in society today. In 1988, Bretl and Cantor conducted a study into gender representation in television programs and advertisements. It was found that women were more likely to be filmed in a domestic situation and portrayed as being unemployed, working part-time or in low paying jobs such as catering and sales. It was also found that 90% of the time a narrator would be male, and women were more likely than men to be seen advertising household goods (Furnham, A. Mak, T. 1999, 414). It... ...eadmin/DU/Academics/course_material/hrge_04.pdf (Accessed 19/10/11) Wright, O (2011). ‘Princesses to be given equality of succession’, I newspaper. OECD (2002) ‘Women at work: who are they and how are they faring?’ http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/58/18960381.pdf (Accessed 18/10/11) Arnst, C. (2007) ‘Women and the Pay Gap’ Bloomberg Businessweek http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2007/04/working_women_a.html (Accessed 17/10/11) Carmen, D. (2007) ‘Why do men earn more? Just because’ Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5735341 (Accessed 17/10/11) Barclay, A. Clarke, G. Drew, A. Morrison, I. (2007) Higher Modern Studies Course Notes. Leckie and Leckie. Allen, K. (2010) ‘Equal pay for women not likely till 2067, says research’ The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/19/equal-pay-women-2057 (Accessed 23/10/11)

Analysis of Commercial Bank Balance Sheet

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION DEFINITION_ OF COMMERCIAL BANK_ *â€Å"Banks and other deposit taking institutions are financial intermediaries whose assets consist overwhelmingly of loans to a wide variety of borrowers and whose liabilities consist overwhelmingly of deposits. † THE ECONOMICS OF MONEY BANKING AND FINANCE 3rd* Edition PETER HOWELLS & KEITH BAIN Pg 32 A sound system of banking is very important for any economy. Commercial banks are directly related to the payment system of the economy. Generally most commercial banks are controlled by the central bank of that particular country. The central bank can never allow the banking system to fail because if banks start to fail the payment system will fail. They may allow some banks to fail but the government will never allow big banks or the whole payment system to collapse. This is very evident from the recent where government have pumped in huge amount of money to save the so called â€Å"too big to fail† banks. Banks helps in the payment services through various kinds of deposits, debit cards and credit cards ANALYSIS OF COMMERCIAL BANK BALANCE SHEET For my assignment I have picked up Lloyds TSB as my bank. Lloyds TSB is one of the four biggest bank in the UK. I have taken 2007 annual report as the group has published only the 2008 interim report. The second item which we see in Lloyds TSB balance sheet is loan and advances to banks. It reflects the interbank relationship. This figure has fallen for most of the commercial bank and also for Lloyds TSB there is an decrease of 16. 50%. This is due to the financial crisis which has hit banking sector very badly and many banks have failed as a result. Llyods TSB gives loans to customer just like any other commercial bank and bank charge an interest for giving loans which is higher than the interest on deposit. But there is always a default risk attached with the loan which the bank gives. Commercial Banks gives different kinds of loans starting from mortgage, education loan, overdraft facility etc. In case of Lloyds TSB mortgage comes out to be 48. 4% of loans to customer. And thing we should bear in mind is that mortgage are long term loan and it can be for 30 years as well. Customer Accounts got an increase of 11% and there is an increase of 11% from 2006 to 2007. LIABILITIES OF LLOYDS TSB Lloyds TSB is also having some fixed deposit like Certificates of deposit. In these deposits customers cannot withdraw there money before a specified time and they also receive some interest as well. Second are the commercial papers which are unsecured promissory notes to meet short term obligations. Certificate of Deposit comes to around 14,995 million GBP and commercial paper is 17,388 million GBP for Lloyds TSB. Lloyds TSB is also having reserves after paying reserves. This reserve can be used in case of emergency or any unexpected risks The main risks that commercial banks face due to their exposure to different kinds of assets and liabilities are liquidity risks, market risk and credit risk. Lloyds TSB faces liquidity risk because of deposit in central bank. They have a deposit of 4330 million GBP. This means that they cannot give this amount as loans because it’s stuck with the central bank. This amount has increased considerably from 2006 to 2007. The bank faces liquidity risk because of their mismatch in assets and liabilities side. The group liquidity risk exposure is 33,185 million GBP. The main sources of liquidity risk for the bank are deposits from banks and customer accounts. As we seen above the assets of Lloyds TSB are long term whereas the liabilities are short term. The commercial bank is the main source of payment service in any economy. Whenever bank gives loan they are exposed to default risk. Default risk arises whenever a company or individual is unable to meets its obligation on interest or principle payment of the loan. The bank faces asymmetric information problem as well. Though the bank does proper due diligence before giving out any loans but asymmetric information problem cannot be ruled out with any banks at all. Due to asymmetric information we have adverse selection and moral hazard problem. Adverse selection problem comes to picture before entering into the transaction. In short the bank has to filter the good borrowers and the bad borrowers. Sometimes the bank may give loan to the bad borrowers and may suffer of this. Though banks have put checks like credit history before making out the loan but adverse selection problem cannot be neglected completely. The other problem which is created because of asymmetric information is moral hazard problem. The moral hazard problem starts after the bank has sanctioned the loan. Borrowers may get into undesirable activities. The main objective for which the loan was sanctioned may never get fulfilled. The other side of moral hazard problem is the conflict of interest between the borrower and the bank. Borrowers may try to act on their interest rather than the interest of the bank. Banks like Lloyds TSB can overcome the problems of adverse selection and moral hazards if they have proper check and control on their customers but rarely any bank achieves 100% success in these problems. These are two most important risks which any financial intermediary faces in order to serve their most important duty i. e. ayment services to the economy. Just like any other financial institution the group also faces credit risk. {text:bookmark-start} â€Å"Credit risk {text:bookmark-end} is risk due to uncertainty in a counterparty's (also called an {text:bookmark-start} obligor {text:bookmark-end} ‘s or {text:bookmark-start} credit's {text:bookmark-end} ) ability to meet its obligations. Because there are many types of counterparties—from individuals to sovereign governments—and many different types of obligations—from auto loans to derivatives transactions—credit risk takes many forms. † (www. riskglossary. om). After the group’s acquisition of Halifax of Scotland, the credit rating of the bank has come down. In order to counter credit risk credit rating plays a very important role. The group exposure to credit risk is 356,860 million GBP. PART 2 Asset Liability Management â€Å"The ALM group within a bank has been concerned with control of interest rate risk on the balance sheet. For some bank it may be equally important to manage interest rate risk arising from off balance sheet, but it is instructive to look at the traditional methods and progress to the relatively new procedures. (HEFFERNAN, SHELAGH A. 2005) Moreover banks have mismatch in maturity of their asset and liability. Banks use asset liability management to manage interest rate risk, mar ket risk and credit risk. Let’s take an example where all deposits are on fixed rate of interest but all loans are made on floating rate of interest. Commercial banks mainly use three types of markets to cover these risks. These are money market, capital market and derivative market. Capital Market is generally used by large companies or governments to raise funds for the long period. Capital market can be of two types like primary market, securities are traded for the first time and secondary market, and in this securities are traded after they are traded in the primary market. Another subdivision of capital market is bond market and stock market. There are various stock market around the world like London Stock Exchange, whereas bond market includes different kinds of bonds like government bonds (US Treasury bills), foreign bonds etc. One of the most important changes in this market is the development of asset backed securities. text:bookmark-start} â€Å"Securitization {text:bookmark-end} is a financial transaction in which assets are pooled and securities representing interests in the pool are issued†. (http://www. riskglossary. com/) When securitization is backed by any assets such as student loan, mortgages this becomes asset backed security. Lloyds TSB also securitizes its assets in order to overcome its liquidity problem. The process of securitizati on has become quite complex with the introduction of Collateralized Debt Obligation, Collateralized Loan Obligation etc. And these complex securities are the heart of the financial crisis. Lloyds TSB is not having much exposure to these complex securities. Banks get into off balance sheet activities to get more profit. It helps the bank to get fee income. One more advantage of off balance sheet activity is that it does not appear into the balance sheet of the bank. The derivative market is also used by the bank to hedge their risks. â€Å"By their nature, derivatives instruments can be used for hedging different types of risks. Owing to this, banks and insurance companies use derivatives in the management of their Asset Liability Management† (Cornelius Nandyal, 2001). The derivative market is going through lot of new changes. Regulators are trying to put lot of new regulations in order to bring transparency. Banks use interest rate swaps, credit default swaps, total return swap, credit linked notes etc. But different people have different views on derivatives. According to Warren Buffet derivatives are weapon of mass destruction and can act as time bombs in the future. Whereas Alan Greenspan says â€Å"Derivatives have permitted the unbundling of financial risks. Because risks can be unbundled, individual financial instruments now can be analyzed in terms of their common underlying risk factors, and risks can be managed on a portfolio basis†. Banks have also used money market for asset liability management. The most important organ of the money market is the interbank market. In interbank market banks with surplus lend to bank with deficit. This market is severely hit by the recent financial crisis. Banks don’t know about the financial soundness of the bank to which they are lending. This has increased the liquidity problem of the bank. Other types of market are the gilt repo, commercial paper market and the certificate of deposit market. As we have seen above Lloyds TSB invest in commercial paper and certificate of deposit. Securitization and the Global Financial Crisis DIAGRAMATIC EXPLANATION OF SECURITIZATION: {draw:frame} Source: http://www. usbancortrusteeservices. com/images/ygpa7_chart_offering_structure_ptnm. pg The recent crisis started because of the sub prime mortgage loans that originated in the USA. But these loans were repackaged and sold all round the world, so this crisis which began in USA became a worldwide crisis. Securitization gives banks lot more leverage. The seeds of the recent crisis were sown in when the Federal Reserve made interest rates around 1% and the economy was pumped with lot of cash. Banks started giving these loans as mortgage to the s ub prime customers, without any credit check and at very easy terms and condition. Once interest rate started to increase in 2004, borrowers started to default on their loans. With the increase of interest rates house prices started to come down. Credit rating agencies who gave these securities AAA rating made these securities junk. The assumption on which these rating agencies were working was that house prices will keep raisingin the future as well. â€Å"The combination of low capital requirements imposed on AAA-rated assets and a commonly held perception that they were â€Å"safe,† allowed banks to hold on to any senior tranches that were not sold to investors. But when the structured finance market collapsed in late 2007, the investment banks found themselves holding hundreds of billions of dollars of low-quality asset pools, many of which consisted of leveraged buy-outs loans, subprime mortgages, and bonds from CDO’s in process-that is, where the tranches had not yet been sold to other investors. † (Coval et al, 2008) No one knows the worth of these complex securities which the banks are holding. Banks have stopped lending to each other because no one is sure of how much the other bank is holding. So interbank market is almost closed.

Sony’s Environment Analysis

Executive Summary Sony Corp. acquired Ericsson’s shares in their 50-50 joint venture Sony Ericsson early this year and rebranded it into Sony Mobile, a wholly own subsidiary of Sony Corp. The aim of this audit is to analysis current situation of Sony Mobile and suggests how Sony Mobile could compete in such competitive market It started with analysis about the mobile phone market. It then gave an overview about Sony Mobile and STP analysis. This audit used Porter 5 Forces to analyse the current situation of Sony Mobile.PEST and SWOT analysis were used to determine the external macro and micro environment and Sony Mobile’s internal strength and weakness. It also analysed Sony Mobile’s main competitors in the industry and used the marketing mix to analyse its marketing strategy. Finally, the audit gave evaluation of the current situation and gave recommendations. Industry Background Market Size: The global mobile phone industry consists of all analog and digital ha ndsets used for mobile telephony (Marketline, 2009). Mobile phone industry is a very fast growing and competitive industry with many big players like Nokia, Samsung, LG, HTC, RIM, Apple, etc.According to International Telecommunication Union (2011), total number of mobile subscriber worldwide has reached 5,981 millions. The breakdown of subscription by regions extracted from ITU is as follow: Source: ITU Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, in its report in 2012 reported that total number of mobile phone shipped in 2011 is 1,775 million units. Total sales of smartphone in 2011 have reached 491. 4 millions, around 27. 7% of total mobile phone sales. (IDC, 2011) Market Growth In 2012, mobile phone industry operating profits rose more than 44% annually (Strategy Analytics, 2012).This is a very impressive growth for any industry thanks to the creation and expansion of 3G and 4G net-works. That led to the demand for 3G and 4G mobile handset g lobally. Total number of mobile phones rose by 11. 1% (Gartner, 2012) and total number of smartphone rose by 61. 3%. (IDC, 2012) Market Trend In 2007, the first iPhone was introduced to the market and it changed the game. Apple created a new trend to the mobile phone industry, the trend of smartphone. Since then to now, Apple has sold more than 200 million iPhones, customers started to pick up smartphone instead of feature phone and producer started to follow the trend.Samsung came up with its Galaxy series, Nokia with its N series, etc. Currently, iPhone and Galaxy from Apple and Samsung are the two best-selling smartphone models worldwide. The two models are being priced quite high but multi-million of them have been sold. The two tech giant, Apple and Samsung continue to lead the market and enjoy the lion's share of global revenues and profits, thanks to the weak performance of other giant such as Nokia, Motorola and LG. Below chart showed the change in market share of top 5 smar tphone vendors. Market ShareNokia’s market share is declining year by year but still, it is holding the largest pie of the cake. Taiwanese mobile producer HTC, Korean giants Samsung and LG are becoming stronger and stronger, Research in Motion has always has its certain share in the market and Apple with its Swiss army knife iPhone, is becoming a biggest threat to all competitors in the industry. The market share of the industry is as follow: In such market, competing in this industry would be difficult enough, but to be a market leader will be even more challenging. Sony Mobile, successor ofSony Ericsson which has the financial support of Sony Corp. and the technology and market share of Ericsson, has always strived to be the top player in mobile industry. Company Background – Sony History Akio Morita & Masaru Iuka founded the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in 1946. It was then renamed into Sony Corp. in 1958 due to the belief that a company’s name should be as short and easy to remember as possible. Its headquarters is in Japan but its presence is all over the world and in almost any industry. Howard Stringer is currently appointed as Sony Corp. chairman and CEO.In 2001, Sony joint venture with Ericsson and introduce to the mobile phone industry a new player Sony Ericsson. The milestone marking the success of this joint venture is in 2003 when Sony Ericsson launched the camera phone. It was the combination between the famous Sony cyber shot digital camera and the Ericsson mobile phone technology. However, very soon after, in 2011, due to the significant decline in sales over several years, Ericsson wanted to withdraw from the joint venture. Taking the opportunity, instead of closing down Sony Ericsson, Sony bought Ericsson shares and it became a fully own subsidiary of Sony Corp.It is now dealing with over 2500 contractors worldwide. The current workforce of Sony is around 9400 employees under the leadership of Kunimasa Suzuki, the newly-appointed CEO of Sony Mobile Communications. Sales and Finance As indicated in its 2011 fourth quarter financial statements, Sony Mobile, formerly known as Sony Ericsson report a loss of 247 million euro. It is a decline of 374% from 2010. The lost was due to the rise in competitiveness of the market. It also reflect the unfavourable macroeconomic and the effects of the flood in Thailand in November 2011.The company have shifted from selling feature phones to smartphones. Its Android-based smartphone sales in the fourth quarter increased 65% year-on-year. Sony Mobile have the total units sale during the 2011 fourth quarter is 9 million, it is a decrease of 20% from last year. The decrease in sales is the result of the shift from feature phones to smart phones. The number of feature phones was significantly dropped due to the change in strategy but the increase in smartphone sale is too little to offset the loss in sales despite the fact that the sale in Xperia smartphones to date has reached 28 million.Sales for the quarter were approximately â‚ ¬1. 3 billion, 80% of which is from Xperia smartphones. This has emphasized the company's shift in strategy from selling feature phones to selling smartphones. The gross profit margin was 24%. It is a decrease compare to 30% the same quarter last year and 27% in the previous quarter. The decrease in gross profit margin show the difficulties of Sony in sales due to the increasing in market competitiveness with the rise of many innovative, creative and strong competitors such as Nokia, Samsung, Apple.The price competition is affecting Sony gross profit margin and it also one of the reason led to the loss of Sony Mobile during this quarter. Due to the difficulties and the shift in strategies and the restructuring program mentioned above, Sony Ericsson ended the quarter with a net loss of â‚ ¬207 million. Cash flow from operating activities during the quarter was negative Euro 26 million. External borrowings were Euro 19 milli on during the quarter. Total borrowings were Euro 742 million at the end of the quarter. Total cash balances at December 31, 2011 were Euro 442 million. Business objectives:Sony Mobile is aiming to challenge the market leaders in smartphone producers. They want to integrate Sony Corp. technology into their phones in order to compete with others smartphone vendor like Apple or Samsung. They want to gain market share any try to become number one market leader. â€Å"Sony will change† as quoted by the current President and the CEO of Sony Corp. , Sony is reinventing itself to deliver a new, unique and exciting experience for its customers around the world. Sony is now moving fully towards giving an all-in-one solution through its new array of smartphones powered by android operating system.SONY STP ALALYSIS (Segmentation Targeting and Positioning): In marketing most important things are the marketing segmentation and the marketing mix. Even if you come up with a best product and if you do not use the right marketing strategies the result can be devastating. Sony is one of the electronic companies in the world but it cannot be attributed just to the technology and the innovation. Sony's marketing segmentation consists of four different lines: 1) Mobile phones 2) Sony music 3) Sony pictures (Play Station) ) Electronics (TV, camera, walkman, computer, MP3 players) Source: http://www. consumerpsychologist. com/cb_Segmentation. html Segmentation: Sony takes an effort to understand its customers as much as possible. The marketing segmentation makes the process more efficient and effective. It divides the market into small pieces and targets people who belong to the same group and feel the same desire for a product. Sony mobile aims to target the mid-end to high-end market and they offer high quality product irrespective of the cost.Sony mobile works on the design of handset to make it more stylish. Segmentation can be done in four categories: * Demographic * Geo graphic * Psychographic * Behavioural Demographic: Marketers typically consider for a broader vision of socioeconomic characteristic as demographic variables. Demographic characteristic that marketers commonly use to segment markets include age, sex, race, education, occupation and social class. Sony mobiles have different variety of handsets. For example, Sony launched mobiles of different range i. e. Sony Xperia P, Sony Xperia S, Sony Xperia U.These new generation mobiles are targeted for young and middle aged people. As these smartphone mobiles have latest features like Reality Display powered by the Mobile BRAVIA ® Engine HD, Clear Audio and xLOUD Sony audio technologies, a next generation PlayStation for gaming, HD camera, and social networking. It is targeted for business people as it is said â€Å"Your office is where you are†, this shows that it has excellent business capabilities. Geographic: Market is divided into different regions as one or more geographic region s cause customers to differ from one region to other.Sony has different marketing strategies for different regions, as in some regions of India; more people are attracted for loud and clear music while some regions are more in social networking. For such regions Sony launched mobiles like Sony Xperia sola, Xperia P. Largest market segment is China with 1,023 million mobile subscribers. India is second with 919 million and USA top the three with 331 million subscribers. Psychographic: Psychographic factors are also been used to segment markets, as it is divided into lifestyle, motives, etc.Lifestyle analysis provides a broad view of buyers, as it is categorised like hobbies, sports, entertainment, social events, shopping and many more. For business driven customer, Sony came up with smartphone Xperia S as a tool for their business. Also for entertainment and social networking consumers, Sony’s smartphones include features to enable the same. Behavioural: Behavioural is classif ied in some categories like Brand Loyalty, Price Sensitivity, and benefit expectation. Some of the consumers look out for brand loyalty as, Sony designed the new Smartphone which target for such customers.As price is another factor, for which the consumers check, Sony came out with price of range S$650-S$750 for Xperia S, Xperia P which has latest features. Targeting: Sony mobile is currently trying to target mid-end to higher-end market by rolling out lower priced handsets. Sony mobiles use the newest and greatest technology to appeal to their customers. The people who are most interested in staying up to date with the newest technology are usually men of the ages 18-30. Sony mobiles are more targeting for entertainment with communication.They are targeting for young and middle aged group, who are more interested in new features and latest technology. Young aged group consumers i. e. 18-25, are more attracted towards Smartphone’s having features like entertainment, social ne tworking, and camera. For which Sony is targeting these age groups with Xperia’s new versions. Sony mobile communication is also targeting for business group consumers by using excellent business features. Positioning Sony Mobile is currently focusing only on the higher end of mobile phone, the smart phone segment. They position their product as high class mobile phones.With their continuous innovation in technology, they are trying to lower the cost and produce entry-level smart phone models (telecomlead, 2012) but the image of a higher class mobile phone is still their main focus. Sony Mobile has an advantage that they inherited the image and brand name of Sony Corp. When people think of Sony, they think of high class, innovative, high-tech and best quality product. Sony Mobile is trying to re-assure customer that image through their products. PORTER’s 5 PORTER’s 5 forces analysis helps to study the market’s structure which would identify the companyâ⠂¬â„¢s attractiveness and long-run profitability. . Threat of new entrants Considering the amount of capital required to setup a mobile phone manufacturing company, the threat of new entrants are relatively low. Though few companies crop up once in a while, it is not feasible to challenge big players such as Sony. 2. Bargaining power of suppliers Sony currently has got very limited number suppliers when it comes to their chips. Since android supports only specific number of chips, Sony needs to make sure that they maintain a good working relation with such companies. Qualcomm, NVidia and ARM are such company who provides required chipsets to Sony.But in terms of other parts for their mobile, they are flexible and for few parts such as camera, they have got their own manufacturing units. 3. Bargaining power of Buyers Like in majority of the companies, bargaining power of the buyers are the prime criteria to which the companies aim to cater. All the major companies are trying to endle ssly to the catch up with the customer’s demand through offering unique features. Each Customer perceive value in a different way, thus it is very important to keep up with the customer’s expectation. 4. Threat of Substitute Products/ServicesDue to high competition in the market currently, there are high numbers of choices a customer can make while selecting their mobile. Also there is no switching cost involved except for the cost of the mobile phone. Unless 5. Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors Competition is extremely fierce between the existing mobile phone manufacturers. Competitors such as Samsung, Nokia, HTC and LG are continuously coming out with new features in a regular interval. The competitors make sure their products stand out through actively promoting them even before the launch. PEST Analysis:This is a framework where the management/strategy consultants use to get an overview of the external Macro-environment in which the organization operates. PEST factors play an important role in the value creation opportunities of a strategy. These factors are usually being considered as either threats or opportunities. Political Factors: Political factors for Sony can be changed at any time. The Government holds the power to change any policies and regulations which may affect Sony at the time. Also the recession may become reduced, therefore resulting in better trades for Sony. Government decisions an affect the organization up to high extent. Even this would affect Sony’s competitors. The laws which can affect Sony Corporation would consist of new international policies. Internationally the Government may change or increase trading restrictions which would definitely change the way Sony works, because it needs to trade. Government also has the power to change minimum wage, tax, VAT etc. These are also the factors which lead Sony to rank low compared to other competitors. Sony Mobiles are present in many countries worldwide; the p olitical pressure in each of them would affect them one way or the other.Economical Factors: The economic growth has shrunk which means that the growth of the economy is negative. Economically, due to this many changes occur such as the interest and exchanges rates. Due to the recession being deducted in the near future exchange rates may also decrease, however steadily. Sony must be aware of any trading restrictions the Government has made. Since Sony is an international company the exchange rates is different to whichever country they trade with. If the exchange rates in different countries have changed, Sony works out what prices are their products being sold at and whether it would be worth it.Sony Mobile formulates new strategies with respect to segmentation and to check on with the new price of products being launched in different markets due to the changes in these exchange rates. Also low growth in the National income of most of the countries has been resulted in low demand of the firm’s products. Because of these increasing costs and problems Sony Mobile company had to reduce the size of its organisation as it was in the year 2010, the global economic climate has a negative effect on Sony mobiles and as a direct result of this it was necessary to rebuilt and reduce the size of the organisation around the world.Social Factors: Socially, Sony Corporation would be predicted to do well. The company has already gained a lot of reputation because of the quality products and services they provide. Technology has been improved by a mass majority. Sony may even have new competitors which may impact on them. Sony must ensure that they stay ahead of technology. They must be able to create revolutionary equipment for people because that what their company would rely on to stay alive. Companies such as Microsoft and Apple would also do the same. People have trends which Sony must learn so that they may create products which can relate towards them.For examp le, many young adults tend to listen to music; therefore Sony would create products which may allow people to listen to music anywhere at any time. People will have different tastes of style, trends, activities etc. Sony must also improve their work of ideas so that they can still please their customers and that they have adapted with the ageing of the company. Technological Factors: Having new technology Sony creates and innovates products for e. g. Sony’s 12MP camera in Xperia S and their Bravia engine based HD display. This is all possible due to the technological advances.With the latest technology it is possible for Sony mobiles to reduce costs, improve quality, and lead to innovation and new developments. These products benefit the company as well as its customers. Sony mobile works around the latest technology. In order to lead with their competitors they have to stay updated every time and regularly research and develop. It depends on technology so that it may provide efficient productivity of work internationally. Sony uses upgraded and new technology to increase its productivity level and to stay ahead of its competitors.Sony uses new technology to conduct its research and development which would help the business create new products using customer information and also by conducting market research. SWOT Favourable Sony’s presence around world is given the fact that it is one of those strongest established Japanese brand. It is present in almost all the countries around the world. Sony, established in 1946 one of those world renowned companies known for their innovation and quality of products till date. They have a very strong brand name and have a magnitude of products under their brand.They are the leaders when it comes to their display unit in the mobiles as well as the camera. Apple’s Iphone 4S and Samsung’s Galaxy SIII buy their camera unit from Sony. Unfavourable Unfortunately with the lack of innovation and not kee ping up with the competition, Sony is no more a leader or even in the top 5 of the mobile phone manufacturers in the world. With more people moving towards the smart phone segment, Sony has lost out to its competitors such as Samsung, Apple, HTC, etc. Sony’s adaptation to the latest mobile technology is also at its slowest.While its competitors are moving towards the next generation technology Sony is very slow with even announcing its next generation product roadmaps. Sony currently is lacking in innovation unlike till few years back. Despite having a previous generation technology their product pricing is a tad bit higher than its competitors. Opportunities Sony has got an opportunity to tap into the lower segment market with their high quality product offering. Currently all the mobile manufacturers are very focused in their higher end and higher mid value segment market.Sony who is already a marketing leader in portable gaming service can integrate such technology into th eir mobiles and offer a unique product which will set the apart from their competitors. While all of their products currently using Google’s Android OS, they should provide faster software updates to their products. These days the operating system used also one of the decisive factors while buying a mobile. Threat Currently Samsung, Nokia and HTC are aggressively releasing their new generation smartphones and promoting the same.While other manufacturers such as LG, Motorola and Research in motion are coming out with newer product of next generation smart phone in order to stay competitive. Sony’s market share is decreasing slowly and their advertisement campaign hardly has any reach to its target segment. Competitor Analysis For the completive analysis, we’ll look at the major mobile phone manufacturers in the market. We’ll look at their strength and weaknesses, strategy and objectives. Samsung Korean Giant Samsung is one of the leading mobile manufacture rs in the world.Currently Samsung is the world’s largest smart phone maker with the sales of 45 million smartphones in the first quarter of 2012. Samsung’s strong hold is with its mid segment to the high end segment products, comprising majorly of the smartphone sporting the Google’s Android OS. Samsung is aggressively competing with Apple in the top end segment of the smart phone. Samsung’s Galaxy S line is their flagship models and are one of the highest selling products in the smartphone industry. For the first quarter of 2012, Samsung holds a market share of 23. 5% and 29. 1% of global mobile phone market and global smart phone market respectively.Nokia Nokia is one of the direct competitors of Sony from the early days. Despite its declining market share, Nokia is still the largest mobile phone maker in the world. With its strong low segment models and the recent tie up with Microsoft for their Windows Mobile OS. Nokia is aggressively trying to get so me of shares in the smartphone market. They have already strategically placed their products in the mid segment and high end segment market, ranging from Lumia 610 to the Lumia 900. HTC HTC is next big competitor to Sony. HTC trademark comes from their very quick releases of the new generation products.HTC was the first to come out the initial batch of touch screen smartphones and also the first to come out with the mobile under Android platform. HTC’s current flagship product lines are their â€Å"One† Series and are aggressively promoting it all over the world. Their strategy is to release their product ahead of the competitors and gain a good amount of market share. HTC is project itself as a very good multimedia mobile and have acquired Beats Electronic. HTC also acquired majority of the stake in â€Å"VIA Technology†, one of the major chipset makers on July 6, 2011. MotorolaThe Patent powerhouse Motorola is also on decline with respect to its market share. Motorola lacks the consistency when it comes to their market share. The threat to Sony comes from the fact that Google has acquired â€Å"Motorola Mobility† and that in the near future it’ll revamped to compete with the bigger players including Apple. Currently Motorola is doing a fair amount of sales with its â€Å"Droid RAZR† product and has got couple of more release lined up for the next generation mobiles. Apple Competitor Analysis would not complete without analysing Apple. Apple’s dominance in the market with its IPhone is unbeaten.With their aggressive marketing and innovative design, they are in the lead along with Samsung. Apple currently sports a big fan following for their products and holds a very high market share in the smartphone and tablet segment. Despite having only very less number of products in their portfolio, Apple manages post a huge profit when compared to others. In the first quarter of 2012, Apple holds a market share of 24. 2% in the smart phone segment, an 88. 7% increase from the first quarter of 2011. This scenario is bound to continue for the upcoming years. Other Players:Research In Motion (RIM), LG, ZTE are other big competitors to Sony. ZTE and LG are holding a market share of 4. 8% and 3. 4% respectively in the global mobile phone market. Whereas, Research in Motion’s market share in the smart phone is down to 6. 7% and are planning on targeting the mass market instead of restricting themselves to the business class users. Thus from the above analysis, it is evident that Sony is facing with a high amount competition and is in a very tough spot. Marketing Mix Marketing Mix is a different kind of choices organizations makes in the process of introducing a product or service to the market.The 4Ps is one of the methods used to analyse the market mix. 5. 1 Product In the Fiscal year 2011, Sony began to shift the focus of its mobile phone business exclusively to smartphones. So currently Sony Mo bile Corporation has got a very low number of products under its wing. It has got only two product lines namely â€Å"BRAVIA† and â€Å"XPERIA† range of mobile phones. The â€Å"BRAVIA† branded line of phones are exclusive to their Japanese market and there are about five models under it. For rest of the world the â€Å"XPERIA† ranges of mobile phones are being sold.First introduced back in 2008, Sony after revamping their product line retained only this series which sports the Google’s Android OS. Sony currently has got about six models under the â€Å"XPERIA† series. Sony’s flagship model â€Å"Xperia S† comes with one of the best camera in the market with its 12 Mega Pixel Sensor. With their â€Å"Xperia† product line up, Sony is trying to offer an all-round functionality offering. It is also coming up with 7 new models which will target the various segment users. Sony also has got two Tablet models namely â€Å"Sony Tablet P† and â€Å"Sony Tablet S†. Currently all of Sony’s models are featuring android and are touchscreen.Sony also has got range of Accessories to support the functionality of their mobile phones such as headset, wrist strap and customized chargers. 5. 2 Price Pricing is one of the key areas to be successful in the market and is one of the frequently investigated marketing strategies as related with quality. The perception of Sony’s superior quality is still preserved with their current models and it comes at a higher cost of production. This makes their models costing higher than its competitor with the similar product. Currently Sony’s cheapest model comes at the cost of about SG$400 and their flagship model â€Å"XPERIA S† costing about SG$700. . 3 Place Sony currently retails its mobile phone through four primary channels – traditional multi-brand shops, retail chains, local stores and also through their exclusive branded stor es. Sony also sells their product online through their own web store and also through online e-commerce websites such as newegg (US), amazon (US), flipkart (India) and other country specific e-commerce portals. Sony also sells its product with tie up the national operators of the respective country. Sony mobile takes the inherent advantages of the Sony brand and strengthens the marketing field and publicity.Build an outstanding Sony branded shop in shop and point of sale and re-establish the brand image of Sony mobile market and marketing in a wide range. And realize the integration of other businesses with the Sony Group. It means selling the smart phones in Sony home appliances and other Sony line of business sales channels online shop. In order to achieve the effective integration – Sony mobile channels the resources to the Sony Group. 5. 4 Promotion Sony Mobile currently trying to establish its â€Å"Sony† brand name after the name change from â€Å"Sony Ericssonà ¢â‚¬ .Currently Sony is trying hard to be a follower and it is currently promoting its Xperia smartphone through various communications medium such as Television advertisement, press, Internet and social websites, and road shows. Sony is also actively sponsoring various public events and also through. They are also aggressively promoting their models through the network operators by providing the mobiles at a subsidized rate upon contract. Evaluation & Recommendation From the marketing audit, it is quite evident that Sony is currently facing lots of challenges, while trying to establish its revamped image with their smartphones.They have put in strategies to gain more market shares and introducing new smartphones to keep up with the recent market development. With its strong foundation, Sony can improve their positioning in the market with strategically placed steps. Sony need to focus on delivering products that would cater to wide segment of customers. They should make sure that they come out with latest technology products on par with its competitors. Sony should bring back their innovative culture they once had and focus on becoming the market leader.They should leverage on their strong foundation with the multitude technological products under them. Sony currently does not have any low cost solution; this is a very big shift from their previous strategy wherein they had products targeting all range of customers. It is recommended they try to focus on providing low cost solution and fill in the void. Currently all the major companies are focusing their resource to compete in the mid-range to high end mobile products, leaving enough opportunity in the lower end segment of the mobile market.With the right price to feature ratio in this segment, Sony can gain a very good market share that will enable to them to recapture their past position in the near future, especially in the developing countries like India where such low price solution will attract a huge number of customers. Though Sony has got an extensive distribution network, they can provide a direct to customer model through their website which can enable them to engage the customers directly without a need of the resellers; they are already doing such model through their direct stores.With more users opting to purchase their products through the e-commerce websites, such a solution will add some good value to the company. Sony should make sure their products are marketed properly such a way they highlight the target feature for the respective target group. Thus with right products and marketing strategy, Sony Mobile Corporation can make sure that they reach their objectivity of gaining more market share. LIST OF REFERENCE Fourth quarter mobile phone industry overview | asymco. 2012. Fourth quarter mobile phone industry overview | asymco. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. asymco. om/2011/01/31/fourth-quarter-mobile-phone-industry-overview/. Global mobile statistics 2012 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking. 2012. Global mobile statistics 2012 Part A: Mobile subscribers; handset market share; mobile operators | mobiThinking. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mobithinking. com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/a#subscribers. Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011 With 47 Percent Growth. 2012. Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011 With 47 Percent Growth. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. artner. com/it/page. jsp? id=1924314. Key Global Telecom Indicators for the World Telecommunication Service Sector. 2012. Key Global Telecom Indicators for the World Telecommunication Service Sector. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. itu. int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/KeyTelecom. html. Worldwide Smartphone Market Continues to Soar, Carrying Samsung Into the Top Position in Total Mobile Phone and Smartphone Shipments, According to IDC – prUS23 455612. 2012. Worldwide Smartphone Market Continues to Soar, Carrying Samsung Into the Top Position in Total Mobile Phone and Smartphone Shipments, According to IDC – prUS23455612. ONLINE] Available at: http://www. idc. com/getdoc. jsp? containerId=prUS23455612. Global Mobile-Phone Sales and Market Share: Summary – Bloomberg. 2012. Global Mobile-Phone Sales and Market Share: Summary – Bloomberg. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www. bloomberg. com/news/2011-11-15/global-mobile-phone-sales-and-market-share-summary-table-. html. Mobile Phone Industry Profits Surge 44% in Q1 2012 . 2012. Mobile Phone Industry Profits Surge 44% in Q1 2012 . [ONLINE] Available at: http://blogs. strategyanalytics. com/WDS/post/2012/05/30/Mobile-Phone-Industry-

Culture and Personality

Personality: Boas and Benedict According to Franz Boas, pioneer of Psychological Anthropology or the study of the relationship between culture and personality, personality is obtained thru culture and not biology. His theory called Cultural Relativism gives a comprehensive understanding of the underlying relationship between culture and personality. Boas’ student Ruth Benedict expounded the research on the effect of culture to personality through studying cultural various patterns and themes.Although she admitted that the global cultural diffusion has made the cultural patterns of civilized societies are difficult to trace, primitive societies located at the remote areas have preserved their shared personalities through their values, beliefs and rituals. When Benedict wrote her book Patterns of Culture, she mentioned her comparison of the cultural patterns of two different northern American Indian groups as well as an Indian group located off-coast of Papua New Guinea.In her s tudy, she found out that although they are from similar genetic collection, these groups have significant differences in their respective value systems. For instance, one tribe’s idea of a â€Å"good man† differentiates to that of another. Her book, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture, included a detailed description of Japanese belief and value system as well as a hypothesis on the reason behind the actions of the Japanese during World War II. PERSONALITY: MARGARET MEAD Arguably, Margaret Mead was one of the leading anthropologists of the 20th century.Being a student of Boas, Mead extended the school’s knowledge in culture and personality as she focused from the American culture to the whole Western World. She travelled to Samoa and she found out that the societies there have uniform value systems, and thus, they share common personality traits. In the culture of Samoan tribes, it was noted that until individuals reach the age of 15- 1 6, when they are to be subjected to marital rituals, they do not have significant roles in terms of social life. In fact, children are ignored by their parents and the rest of the society until after they reach puberty.Girls are taught to see boys as their enemies. The effect of this portion of the Samoan culture is that children tend to be either aggressive to gain attention, or passive due to the lack of affection and love from their significant others. SEX? DIFFERENCES AND PERSONALITY Evolution and genetics are believed to have brought about differences in personality traits as determined by the biological sex of a person. As explained by the Theory of Sexual Selection, males compete to attract females, so men are more likely to be aggressive and competitive than women.However, nowadays we may see that more and more women become aggressive in competing against other women for a man. Our culture greatly contributes to the development of our beliefs and values. For this reason, bot h cultural psychologists and social anthropologists believe that culture affects one’s personality. In addition, gender differences also influence the personality traits a person possesses. Read more: Does culture affect our personality? – Individual Traits and Culture.

Armenian Language

anNadine Abo Laban 900113591 Gap paper 2 (Armenian Language) Introduction The guest speaker who graced us with her presence was Alyssah Depoya, who is of Armenian origin. According to Alyssah, all pure Armenians last names end with â€Å"yan† which acts as an indicator of whether the person is of pure Armenian origin. Armenia is a mountainous country located in the South Caucasus region in Eurasia. It is bordered by Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran (â€Å"Armenia†, n. d). Armenian people have a very rich and dense culture. It is one of the world’s oldest civilizations.Armenia was also the very first country to embrace Christianity as its religion. The Armenian culture has been shaped and influenced by many other countries due to the several invasions that their people had to endure. It has been conquered by the Persians, Greeks, Mongols, Byzantines, Ottomans, Arabs, Romans and Russians. The most brutal invasion was when the Ottoman Turks took over Armenia, ki lling its people and leaving them to starve to death. During the Ottoman take over between 600,000 and 1. 5 million Armenians were killed, leaving this massacre to be the very first genocide of the 20th century.Moreover, Turkey denies such a massacre having occurred and claims till this present day that death casualties were a minimum. Armenia houses a population of 3,140,000 citizens. However the total Armenian population is 5,924,320. They are wide spread over Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Cyprus, Estonia, Georgia, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Palestine, Russia, united states and Syria (Lewis, 2013). Facts about the language According to my research from the Ethonologue and Wikipedia, there are 5,924,320 speakers of Armenian all over the world.The language belongs to the Indo-European language family and has several dialects. Most linguists identify the language as a separate branch under the indo European family. You can also call the Armenian language by Armjanski Yazyk, Ena, Ermeni Dili, Ermenice, Somkhuri. Before the creation of an Armenian alphabet, the Armenians used Greek and Aramaic characters. In 405 AD, the 36 characters of the Armenian alphabet were introduced. However, during the middle ages two more characters were introduced to the already existing alphabet so they can spell out borrowed foreign words.There are two different dialects of the Armenian languages used till this day. There is the Eastern classical Armenian, and the western, which is more commonly spoken by the people. The western dialect is mainly used outside of the republic of Armenia, whereas eastern is used both inside and outside the country. Report on the speaker’s presentation Fortunately, everything Alyssah informed us about coincided with my research. She was very entertaining and did not miss a detail about what we needed to know.

Feminist Majority Foundation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Feminist Majority Foundation - Essay Example In order to implement these functional aims, Feminist Majority Foundation â€Å"engages in research and public policy development, public education programs, grassroots organizing projects, leadership training and development programs† (Feminist Majority Foundation 2). The organization’s functionality primarily focuses on research and action for women’s social, political and political empowerment. The Feminist Majority, the foundation’s sister organization, aims at the feminization of the public policy-making, employment and electoral processes at home and abroad, as the foundation acknowledges, â€Å"Our research and action programs focus on advancing the legal, social and political equality of women with men, countering the backlash to women's advancement, and recruiting and training young feminists to encourage future leadership for the feminist movement† (Choice Campus). Also the foundation’s functional structure is program-oriented and t he organization is currently running twelve programs: a. Choices Campus Leadership Program b. Women’s Health and Research c. Campaign to Help Afghan Women and Girls d. National Clinic Access Project e. National Center for Women and Policing f. Education Equity Project g. Media Archival Program h. Women and the Media/Communications Program i. Global Reproductive Health Program j. Global Women’s Empowerment Program k. Feminist Leadership and Empowerment Program l. Online Organizing and Education Program (Feminist Majority Foundation 3) FMF’s Working Definition of Feminism and Feminist Inspired by the fact that the majority of the women in the United States identify themselves as feminist, the foundation has proposed its working definitions of feminism as well as feminist in order to use it in research and action on women’s equality and empowerment. The foundation defines feminism as "the policy, practice or advocacy of political, economic, and social equali ty for women† and a feminist as a person- both male and female- who holds the feminist beliefs and advocates feminism. Since according to the organization’s view women are subjects to inferiority, inequality and injustice irrespective of countries, societies and communities all over the world, the organization holds that feminism is a global movement. Necessarily the organization’s working area is extended globally. The FMF’s Contribution to the Fight for Feminist Causes The foundation has organized numerous campaigns that are harmonious its mission at home and abroad. From 1989 to 1992, the FMF has worked for the Feminization of Power in order to increase the women’s representation in the public offices as well as the policy-making zone of the country. During those years, the foundation recruited a remarkable number of women who were selected for the public offices. Consequently women’s representation was doubled in the Congress. During the campaign from 1989 to 1992 the Foundation’s primary goal was focused on the ballot initiatives, through programs raising awareness among the college students. In 1990, it organized the students against the anti-choice ballot initiatives in Oregon and Iowa. In Iowa it worked for achieving support for the state’

Criminal Justice Management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Criminal Justice Management - Research Paper Example There are disturbing issues of police’s inefficiency and brutality: how could these areas of the police system be transformed? What are the ethical considerations the police must follow so as to create a dynamic environment for their operations? How can the police improve their service delivery through the formulation and implementation of good policies? It is important that all the issues raised above must be strictly considered before the police could successfully carry out their duties as a criminal justice organization. However, there are different organizational models in practice; which one would be the most applicable for the police system? And how would the criminal justice system react to the implementation of a possibly new management process? This paper critically looks at the significant points outlined in the foregoing with a view to finding the appropriate management system that would make the police become a viable arm of the general criminal justice system. The contemporary management processes in the police are evident in the three major procedures used by this criminal justice organization. Traditional techniques of supervision, leadership and management are still much in place at most police organizations worldwide. These three elements of police management have been instrumental to the current level of success in policing as the prevalence of crime has been drastically reduced in recent years (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). (i) Supervision of the police officers: Undertaking supervisory actions on the activities of the police personnel has been deemed an active procedure to keep the police force on its feet and ensure efficient performance of the police officers (Iannone and Iannone, 2000). The purposes of maintaining constant supervision of the police personnel include but not limited to (i) making sure that they are persistently reminded of their duties as security operatives, protecting the lives of people in the society; (ii)