Project Team Involvement in a Merger

Writing Admission Essay

Writing Admission Essay Writing Admission Essay Writing Admission Essay Most of the law schools require you to write a personal statement in which you must present yourself. A personal statement allows the reader to see an applicant as an individual who differs from other applicants. It is very important that your personal statement reflects you and your life as honestly as possible. Admission essay is your opportunity to talk directly with the admissions committee. It is your chance to help the admissions committee see you as a person.Your personal statement will determine whether you are being accepted or rejected by a school of your choice. Nevertheless, it is necessary to write an admission essay honestly, in an interesting way, and with proper structure. Admission Essay Writing The most important element of an essay is an evidence of your own thoughts. Admission essay topic usually presents one central question and develops a thesis, the answer to the question. Usually, you have to explain or defend your thesis with reasons and evidence gained from your own personal experience. You are expected to impress the commission with interesting thoughts gained from reading or research. It is advisable to make an outline which should include an introduction, body, and conclusion. College Admission Essay Whilewriting admission essay, many students face the problem deciding which information to include. Think about the topic of your admission essay, than create a list of your own experienced and interests, then choose the most interesting events from your life. While writing college admission essay you should also mention why you have decided to enter the chosen college and how you plan to use your life achievements in college. Your job is to sell yourself and distinguish yourself from other applicants. Everyone has qualities that are unique. Read also:http://.com/blog/college-admission-essay-topics Demonstrate your ability to think and express ideas clearly and effectively. Show motivation and capacity to succeed in college. The reason you are asked to write an admission essay is to compare the degree of similarity in research interests between you and the faculty member you wish to work with. However, your research interests should be relevant to the proposed field of study. Additionally, you should show in your college essay that you have basic knowledge in the chosen field of study. There are several different ways you can structure your essay, but the most common format includes an introduction, a body, and a concluding paragraph. Prepare an outline and create several drafts! Order Custom Admission Essay You know that writing a good admission essay is not easy and most of the students struggle with creating a powerful personal statement.is here to help college applicants with admission essay writing of any urgency. Even if you have only 12 hours left until submission, we can help you! Interesting posts: Essay Writing Tips Conclusion Writing Thesis Writing Hamlet Thesis Dissertation Service

Contamination and remediation of soil Assignment

Contamination and remediation of soil - Assignment Example Thermal desorption system The basic process of DHTD system has been illustrated in the figure 1 given below. The soil is dried through heating it directly with the help of a rotary dryer made up from a high temperature alloy. The rotary dryer comprises of a natural-gas-fired burner that has the capability to heat the feed material up to a temperature of about 550oC or 1,022oF. The rate of heating the feed soil by using the rotary dryer is primarily based upon the moisture present in the soil, the size distribution of the soil particles, and the discharge temperature of the soil. The processed-gas is conveyed to the emission control system from the discharge hood that receives the gas from the rotary dryer. The emission control system consists of the dual cyclones, evaporative cooler, thermal oxidizer, bag house, quench, draft fans with dual induction, supply system of sodium hydroxide, acid gas scrubber, stack, and continuous emissions monitoring system. The natural-gas-fired burner of the rotary dryer is basically fitted with the thermal oxidizer that functions between the temperature ranges of 930oC to 1000oC. The gas is cooled down by spraying an air atomized water stream at the top portion of the evaporative cooler. The bag house conveys the gas to a quench chamber and a packed scrubber through the induced draft fans. Then, in order to remove acid gases from the gas, a pH controlled water stream passes again through the scrubber before the stack discharges the gas to the atmosphere. A double tipping valve, steam hood, pug-mill, steam duct, stacking conveyor and shuttle conveyor are used in the construction of a cooling and handling system for the treated soil. The double tipping valve is used to discharge the soil from the rotary dryer to the pug-mill. The pug-mill also, receives the combined dust streams, through a series of screw conveyors, from the bag house and the dual cyclones. Then the soil is cooled and moisturized through spraying water in to the p ug-mill. Subsequently, the shuttle conveyor passes the cooled and moisturized soil discharged from the pug-mill to a stacking conveyor that, in turn, passes it to the stockpile of the treated soil. The steam-duct transfers the stream discharged from the pug-mill in to the evaporative cooler. The stockpiles of 500 ton each hold the treated soil until they are analyzed for complying with the treatment criteria. Figure 1: The Overview of the DHTD System (Troxler et al. 2010)2. Project Schedule The table 1 given below presents the major milestones related to the implementation and licensing of the thermal treatment plant project. Table 1: Project Schedule (Troxler et al. 2010)2. Commissioning Trials The testing sequence proposed for the selected approach at the site included a process comprising of two stages. In the first stage, the plant processes the non-contaminated soil in order to ascertain that all of the electrical, mechanical, and control equipments are working properly. Then, in the second stage, the plant processes the above-average concentration of the contaminated material which takes about 6 to 7 hours. EPA observed, in the preliminary review of the EIS, that the testing sequence should not include a one-step change from ‘0’ to above average concentration of the contaminant material. Demonstrated performance is required by EPA throughout the range of soil contamination. EPA also, suggests that the

Recruitment of Employees in the Field of Property Market of Hong Kong Research Proposal

Recruitment of Employees in the Field of Property Market of Hong Kong - Research Proposal Example The growth in the world economy has created opportunities for many people around the world thus reducing the gap between higher and middle class. Increase in earning capabilities gave rise to spending capabilities resulting in the real estate boom which was also the cause of latest economic recession during 2008. The boom in real estate was seen all over the world which pumped the stock market prices of many companies involved and manufacturing products required for construction. The strengthening economic relations with the Mainland have maintained Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center and a regional business hub. The overall residential property market staged a strong rebound in 2009 and is continuing in 2010 (Hong Kong Property Market Report 2010). In view of the economic strengthening of Hong Kong, it is necessary that human resource is managed effectively. It is evident from the report that property market is booming once again after the looming recessio n and the boom also creates employment opportunities. Human resource management is important in property market because efficient employees need to be recruited and appointed in a suitable position so as to gain the competitive edge over the rivals and at the same time it is also necessary to retain the employees by implementing various promotional schemes. The 2007 credit crisis engulfed the whole world into its ambit badly affecting the real estate boom. However, the recent report by Global Property Guide (1) in its Mid-2010 Property Recommendation mentioned that the world’s property markets are recovering slowly and steadily. According to the Global Property Guide’s survey, it is revealed from the official housing price statistics that 19 out of 36 countries experienced house price increase during the year to end Q1 2010.  Ã‚  

Public Administration and Apply Behaviorist Theory to a Work Issue Essay

Public Administration and Apply Behaviorist Theory to a Work Issue - Essay Example Each of these concepts describes the change in a person’s behavior and the reason for such changes. The conditioned response relates to an activity that results due to a different incident. The next concept of behaviorist theory is aversive behavior. (Plaud, 1998). A person might exhibit a certain kind of behavior in response to a particular situation. This might be due to the disinterest towards the situation. Reinforcement aims at controlling the negative consequences of a behavior which helps in improving a person’s behavior. Consequences are one among the most important concepts of the behaviorist theory. A consequence generally arises from a particular decision or an action. Consequences generally turn out to be positive or negative depending on the behavior of the person. (Dewey, 1999). The situation too plays a major role in deciding the consequence of an action. These key concepts are generally applied to almost all the problems in varied areas. But these concep ts would perfectly suit an organization that deals with more number of problems and issues related to every single department of its. When comparing the other problems, the issue relating to the company’s production. The most common issue is the decline in the quality of the product a company manufactures.

ICT in Private and Government Organisations

ICT in Private and Government Organisations The term I.C.T, otherwise known as Information and Communication Technology, encompasses quite a wide range of the scope of multi-dimensional communication infrastructures and systems employed for enhancing effective communications in business and public organisation.   As implied by the abbreviation and also the full meaning of it, the said communication occurs at different levels and for different purposes, some of which has to be secured, but all of them share one thing in common: they are all enhanced through computers and electronic networks.In recent times, almost every organisation is dependent or assisted with one type of communication equipment or another and the fact that such communication infrastructures can be easily linked to Information Technologies could be claimed as prove of the importance of I.C.T in organisations.   To make this argument more clear, it is necessary to pinpoint some specific organisations, both private and governmental whose operation will collapse or highly hindered, should the I.C.T aspect of it be removed or for some reason cease to function. To make the picture clearer, the organisations to be analysed will be categorised and then individual organisation will now be placed undo the category they belong to before they are further analysed.   The major categories are Private and Governmental and thereafter we look at how the chains are connected and interwoven. This sector is divisible into various other major sub-categories namely:1.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Security: These are organisations such as the security agents including the police, army, customs, immigration officers, civil defence corps, and also the secret agents.   In this sector there is a lot of communication and information exchange going on, some of which are beyond the British borders, e.g. our soldiers in Iraq has to make constant uninterrupted communications via phones, internet, and other satellite-linked, wireless technology networks.   They also need to communicate with one another both as groups or platoons and also as individual.   Here, the communication network has to be as secured as can be. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Social: This relates to everything from financial help to psychological helps and also political helps for foreigners such as asylum seekers and other classes of immigrants.   At this level also communication and efficient information transfer is a necessity.   Help-line telephone services that is installed with up- to-date software for managing calls, sometime on a 24-hour basis and transferring such calls automatically to the officer responsible for each individual cases and also to maintain an orderly queue where necessary. A log of all the official activities is created and stored in the appropriate database, which is connected via LAN networking system and thus the internet or intranet network system to transfer the logged cases to other concerned offices within the department or to the outside near and fear government departments for preparing statistical data (such as spreadsheets), prepare budgets or to inform deliberations on crucial social issues, such as how to manage illegal migration into the country. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Commercial: Sometimes, the government is also involved in commercial ventures, especially in the area of social amenities, such as electricity, telecommunications, transportation, agriculture, and some special production sectors, e.g. exploration and export of mineral resources. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Education: Governments role in the education sector is very high. From nurseries to University education and adults literacy and vocational trainings, the governments hands will always be found in the pie.   To effectively plan and monitor the activities in this sector, the government need to be well equipped with the relevant I.C.T. infrastructures.   A good database that is interpreted and organised by a good spreadsheet software.   Appropriate networking facilities that will link every arm of this education systems ladder to the monitoring departments and sections must be in place.It must be noted here also that each of the education levels have their individual basic I.C.T needs.   For example, At the secondary school level, the teacher manages his classes, schedules and attendance register from a laptop computer, running probably on Windows XP Professional Operating System and installed with Bromcoms Winfolder which is currently version 2.03.   This soft ware is the one that collects daily register for the teacher from the schools server, which is equipped with Bromcoms e-School MIS version is 2.10.2, the softwares that prepares the register ready for the other day. The teachers laptop is either connected either via the CAT5e cables to the Ethernet LAN port which links him to the server, or connected wirelessly via network cards. The server which probably runs on Microsoft SQL houses the schools database and connects to the outside network system via optic fibres of the type Fibre Optic Multimode GBIC (1.25Gb/s bi-directional). The server is secured against power interruptions through the use of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). UPS is a battery system that enables to server to carry on functioning for a period of time in the event of a power outage, or enough time for it to safely shut down if the power outage is for an extended period.The teacher takes class attendance to ascertain that all the registered pupils are in attendanc e and send same via the internet to the data base which is equally connected to back-up storage outside of the school premises to secure against accidental data loss. The library system is another complex I.C.T. system that is active both locally and also on the network to the outside, running on effective software that facilitates an dynamically updated warehouse of information about the whereabouts of library materials and also for calling materials that is in urgent need, or have overstayed with the borrower. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Health: Health is wealth as the saying goes.   The governments involvement in the health sector in deep and this ranges from procurement of hospital equipments to physical maintenance of the hospital premises-employment and payment of wages.   Monitoring of all the activities at the health sector is quite important and this often is done in real time or through other communication channels including writing on paper, which is printed out on a printer connected to computer system connected to both intranet and internet networks.   The health sector is undoubtedly another fertile soil for the I.C.T. systems.   If we have to start analysing the way in which the hospital, as an entity, operates on a daily basis; we will see how appointments are booked on phone, and the doctors secretaries will keep a log of the appointments, having sent a notice to the concerned doctors calendar of schedule.   The patient may have to be sent a printed letter of notification as a reminder of the appointment date and time.   All these activities are also stored in the departments database, which is sent automatically to the hospitals central database, which probably is equipped with multiple hard drives in a RAID array to allow the system to continue functioning in the event of the loss of any one hard drive and also back-up tape drive, which allows a back-up of vital information and for several copies of this data to be kept off site. The doctors, office and consulting room is equipped with computers, which run on up-to-date Operating Systems and also have special software featuring medical encyclopedia, and maybe old cases database, from which they could compare difficult cases and find solutions via the network. The doctors always record their finding on Dictaphones and this is probably for sharing with other colleagues for knowledges sake, but our concern here is that all these equipments are I.C.T based.Heart-beat monitors, incubators, ultra-scan equip ments, X-ray and physiotherapy equipments and many more are scattered all around the hospital.   Patients survive on dialysis machines, which are monitored through computer and network systems. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Administration:   For administration purposes at all levels of governance is the process dependent on I.C.T infrastructures: Databases, civil registration numbers, national insurance number, passports and national identity cards, budgeting, population distribution and statistics, elections, and many more functions of the government are done via reliable I.C.T. infrastructures. Looking at the private sector, there is much more application of the I.C.T. equipments.   This sector can be further sub divided into the following categories:1.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Commercial:†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Transport:   From Land to air and the sea, transportation is deeply dependent on I.C.T. infrastructures.   From Scheduling to announcements, you will always find I.C.T.   Take the train services for example, most trains in the UK runs on electric and are scheduled and monitored in real time.   Apart from the internal daily runs of this system, the travellers are also included in the chain via e-commerce, such as internet booking and ticketing; the credit card and debit card accessible ticket kiosks are erected for self-services and you can also receive train and coach schedules on your mobile phones in the form of short text messages.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Manufacturing: Most manufacturing outfits, especially those involved in the production of continuous process products, su ch as cars, telephones, plastics, dairy products, breweries, etc, are engaging the services of different types of industrial robots for their operation.   These robots or programmable production lines are mostly 100% dependent, because daily running of them depends on information communicated through I.C.T media and the whole activities is afterwards, logged for records purpose and also to monitor the process and know when the machine should be over hauled.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Banking and Finance:   Financial institution today are one of the organisations that depend to a high degree on I.C.T. Imagine what the day will be like for the banks and other money markets operators, e.g. Stockbrokers, without their I.C.T. systems. No computers, no internet connections, no printers, no telephones.   How will international banking thrive without the internet?   How about the credit and debit cards? The situation is better imagined than experienced.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Insurance:   Ins urance organisations are more or less like banks.   They need a sound I.C.T system for a smooth running of their business every second of the day.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Supply Chain sector:   With the advent of e-commerce, supply chain sector is undergoing some kind of revolution right now.   Tesco Supermarket is a testimony to this fact.   Other than the fact that they need a good database for managing their wares, they also use laser scanners, bar code readers for both price tags and security of the wares.   They also use mobile phones to communicate and collaborate towards, customer satisfaction and use public address systems to make announcements.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Communication: The story of I.C.T in organisations can never be complete without mentioning the communication sector, whose daily operations are entirely dependent on I.C.T infrastructures.   From   mobile telephony, featuring mobile phones (with camera, video recorder with playback functionalities, MP3, r adio, WAP, Interactive games, chatting, internet, and now T.V; and PDAs with GPS functionalities for navigating continents. Letters are sent within seconds via email messaging, people chat online in written form and also verbally in real time.   It was first on the internet that it was possible to see the person you are chatting with via the web cam.   Pictures and digital music (MP3) is another mystery of the internet communication and information exchange of limitless magnitude. Now we are having internet television and online cinemas.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Advertisement: This sectors business revolves around I.CT. very much. They use computers for graphic design, store information, make and edit video materials and digital animations, scanning and printing are part of their daily activities.   These cannot be done without I.C.T infrastructures.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consultancy Services: This organisation requires a good database, and sound network system.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Heal th: This is similar to that of the government sector earlier mentioned.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Agriculture: Cow milking, feeding and branding and monitoring have all gone hi-tech.   This is made possible through I.C.T.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Education: The story in the private sector in not much different from that of the government sector.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Journalism:   From news gathering to editing to disseminating, everything in this sector is I.C.T related: Video recorders, digital cameras, Dictaphones, electronic typewriters, computers, etc, are their instrument of office.†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Others: There are many more areas to be cited.2.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Non-profit organisations: Though they are not profit oriented, these organisations still require I.C.T. based equipments such as telephones and Personal Computers (PC) with internet connections, good printers, fax machines and scanners for their daily operations.   Their major areas of operation is as listed:†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   S ocial Help†¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Environmental Fig. 1. A chart showing I.C.T-related sectors of the human endeavours and some examples of the infrastructures.Conclusion:The role of I.C.T in many organisations surrounding our lives cannot be underestimated.   They are the pivot on which our entire system revolves.

Free Essays - A Personal Utopia in Brave New World :: Brave New World

A Personal Utopia:   An Analysis of a Key Passage in Brave New World   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The key passage of Aldous Huxley’s Brace New World takes place after John has been arrested and is a conversation with Mond.   When John and Mond speak of ideal societies, a major part of Brave New World, the aspect of human nature which makes us search continuously for our personal Utopia, becomes apparent.   In Mond’s study, the sacrifices each character makes in order to find a Utopia are interconnected.   The search for a personal Utopia reveals Huxley’s view on human nature of sacrificing everything to live with self-fulfillment.   Ã‚  The connection of the sacrifices each character makes is shown in the study, helping the reader understand that it is human nature to sacrifice something to live a more fulfilling life.   One sees that all, except Helmholtz and John, are willing to give up an important part of them so they can feel fulfilled.   Mond is willing to sacrifice the one thing dearest to him- science.   He says he gave it up in hope of Controllership.   He got what he paid for by continuing his interest in science, â€Å"By choosing to serve happiness.     Other people’s-not mine.† [235], or by serving stability instead of collapsing the fragile social structure.   At the beginning, Bernard was willing to give up his position in the new world so he could further his studies in finding a society more suited to his needs; but, in the end, he did not want to give up his rank and failed in finding an ideal society.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It becomes apparent that anyone who will not give up a major part of themself will fail in their quest for a greater society.   John is not willing to give up anything, be it antiques to happiness.   In the end, however, he ended up making the ultimate sacrifice- his life.   By ending his life, he escaped into what his society’s religion believed to be a Utopia; it is better known as heaven.   Meanwhile, Helmholtz is able to somewhat adapt to any surronding and makes the sacrifices as needed, that is the reason he was not biased to any other cultures.   There are still faults in his beliefs, thanks to hynopaedia. Helmholtz cannot understand Othello, he is not accustomed   to the social inability the book thrives on.   He was still by far the most able, and willing, to understand John’s society.

Marketing Plan for the Body Shop Essay

Concealer is very popular and its market growth stable because of concealer is very useful to cover the imperfection on the skin. The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Concealer, which launched in 2009, is this marketing plan’s character. Tea Tree Concealer is a handy portable stick to conceal blemishes which without over drying the skin. It also produce with organic tea tree oil. Tea tree oil’s ingredient renowned for its anti-bacterial benefits and an infusion perfect to help blemished skin. Based on the SWOT analysis of Tea Tree Concealer, it mentions that Tea Tree Concealer needs to be more popular and needs to uses the gender segmentation that to enlarge the market with the men’s market because the demand of men’s cosmetics market is increasing especially of the concealer. Therefore, the marketing objectives are to enhance the promotion of Tea Tree Concealer that can increase 5-10% sales in short term; and in long term, The Body Shop can develop a Men’s Tea Tree Concealer to satisfy men’s satisfaction of concealer that the concealer can take care about men’s face skin. For the marketing strategies, for short term, the body shop can use promotion tools, such as advertising in Facebook, beauty magazines and promote next to the MTR escalator. Also, the body shop can give general customers 5-10% off discount for buying Tea Tree Concealer. And the VIP can get one more discount after the new product has got 5-10% discount. Moreover, The Body Shop can give out the sample for people like and share the post on The Body Shop’s Facebook page, after that show it to the staff, then they can get one  sample; and The Body Shop can have corporation with Mannings and Watsons. If people consume above $150, they can get a sample of The Body Shop. For long term, The Body Shop can use marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion), to increase the sales of Tea Tree Concealer and to open up the men’s concealer market, a men’s product that calls â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. In product strategy, The Body Shop can put in money on Research & Development, to develop the â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. In pricing strategy, Market-Penetration pricing is the company choice on setting price because the tea tree collection of The Body Shop is famous in Hong Kong but the tea tree concealer is not familiar with the men. In promotion strategy, The Body Shop can set up a special counter in shops, which is the company promotional product. Some salesperson will promote the new product as men may feel shy to buy make-up product so set up a counter is every shop help the company to find some target. Also, the company will give out some sample if people click ‘like’ in Facebook fans page and to have video promotional campaign, people who have tried to use our product can join this competition. The users have to make a video about the feedback from using new tea tree concealer; the top 10 participants who obtained highest ‘like’ on their video clips can win $1500 cash. For the marketing budget, Statement of Comprehensive Income that it is for the Promotion of Tea Tree Concealer & Men’s Tea Tree Concealer, it shows that it will have a profit in the end of the promotion of Tea Tree Concealer and also have a profit in develop a Men’s Tea Tree Concealer. ————————————————- Contents | Page| 1. Introduction | 4| 2. Current Marketing Situation Analysis * Background Information * Current Market Analysis * Competitor Analysis| 5 – 9| 3. SWOT Analysis| 10 – 11| 4. Marketing Objectives * Short Term * Long Term| 12| 5. Marketing Strategies * Short Term(Advertisement, Discount, Sample, Sponsorship) * Long Term(Marketing mix : Product, Price, Place and Promotion)| 13 – 15| 6. Marketing Tactics * Short Term * Long Term| 16 – 17| 7. Marketing Budget| 18 – 19| 8. Conclusion| 20| 9. Bibliography| 21| 10. Appendices| 22 – 28| ————————————————- Introduction â€Å"Do you want to be more beautiful?† Without doubt, ladies want to show the most beautiful face to others; therefore, they use lots of cosmetics, such as concealer, face primer, eye primer, lipgloss and eyebrow pencil. A lot of people strongly believed that concealer is the most useful cosmetics than others, because concealer is very useful to cover the imperfection on the skin. It is an important character which it can give people a better appearance. Thus, we decided to have a marketing plan for the concealer. Moreover, organic issue is very popular that it started in the past few years, for example, organic food and the products must produce with organic materials. So, we decided that the concealer must produce with organic materials. Finally, The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Concealer, which launched in 2009, has been the character in this marketing plan because Tea Tree Concealer is a concealer which it produces with organic tea tree oil. Tea tree oil’s ingredient renowned for its anti-bacterial benefits and an infusion perfect to help blemished skin The Body Shop uses the gender segmentation that the consumer market is mainly women. We can know from the lots of products collections are mainly decided for female, for instance, Vineyard Peach, Extra Virgin Minerals etc. Although cosmetics’ consumer market is mainly women, the demand of men’s cosmetics market is increasing especially of the concealer. This is because men need a better appearance that it is good for their work and interpersonal relationship. Therefore, The Body Shop needs to enlarge the market with the men’s market. Not only the women market is important, but also the men market. This marketing plan suggests some marketing strategies, which uses marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion), to increase the sales of Tea Tree Concealer and to open up the men’s concealer market, a men’s product that calls â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. For increasing sales of Tea Tree Concealer, we can mainly use promotion tools, such as advertising; and promotion mix strategies, such as push strategy and pull strategy. For open up the men’s concealer market, we can use product strategy, price strategy, place strategy and promotion strategy, to promote the new product, â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. The marketing plan for Tea Tree Concealer is presented as follow. ————————————————- Current Marketing Situation Analysis Background Information * L’Orà ©al – Company Overview The L’Orà ©al Group is the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company. Over 500 brands and many thousands of individual products such as hair color, permanents, hair styling, body and skin care, cleansers, makeup and fragrances five worldwide research and development centers. There are two in France and one in the U.S, Japan and China. On 17 March 2006, L’Orà ©al purchased cosmetics company The Body Shop for  £652 million. Their slogan is â€Å"Because we’re worth it too† and the Head office is in the Centre Eugà ¨ne Schueller in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris. In 2003, L’Orà ©al announced its 19th consecutive year of double-digit growth. In 2007, L’Orà ©al was ranked 353 in the Fortune Global 500. The targeted markets of L’Orà ©al are mass, professional, luxury, and active cosmetics markets.They own interests in various activities such as fine chemicals, health, finance, design, advertising, insurance. * The Body Shop – Company Overview The Body Shop International plc, a part of the L’Orà ©al family, which specialized in producing beauty and cosmetics products. It is founded in the UK in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. There are more than 2,400 stores in 61 countries including Thailand, Australia and America. â€Å"The business of business should not just be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.’’ –said Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop. The Body Shop creates a non-animal-testing and a fair trading company image. Every product is animal cruelty free and it is the first international cosmetics brand to be recognized under the Humane Cosmetics Standard for its Against Animal Testing policy. The Body Shop believes in fair trade, had set up own fair trade programme, called Community Trade. Community Trade works over 30 suppliers in more than 20 countries, providing over 25,000 people across the globe with essential income to build their futures. The Body Shop has five core values, which are Support Community Trade, Defend Human Rights, Against Animal Testing, Activate Self-Esteem and Protect Our Planet. Current Market Analysis * L’Orà ©al / The Body Shop In this section, we will divide into three parts related to market analyses. Frist, the market share of the L’Oreal in the world as The Body Shop is under this brand. Second, the market share of The Body Shop in the world and Hong Kong. Third, explain the target group and their needs of The Body Shop. First, the L’Oreal is a worldwide brand which its shops located in 130 countries. The largest market of the L’Oreal is Asia, Pacific, followed by Western Europe and Northern America, which means Asia has a very high potential to keep increasing. From the graph next to, Asia, Pacific share nearly one-third of the worldwide cosmetic market. Also, from the expectation of Euromonitor, the market share in Asia Pacific will be changed in 2013, the share of China will increase from 22% to 28 % Breakdown of the worldwide cosmetics market Breakdown of the worldwide cosmetics market Moreover, due to the improvement of the technology and increase in quality of life, more and more cosmetic products appear in the market, causing keen competition. In 2011, the L’Oreal is act as leading role in the world, which is 20% of sales more than the other. Second, The Body Shop promotes using organic material and adopting community fair trade, that’s suit the taste of people in the world which have a higher standard of environmental friendly. As the result, The Body Shop has become one of the top 20 cosmetic brands of the world in 2011. Furthermore, compare the sales in the past two years of The Body Shop, the sale increased from 2010 to 2011 in Western Europe and the New Market. The New Market refers to Asia, Pacific Area, for example, China and Middle East. Although we cannot judge that the market share has increased, we can compare the proportion of sales by geographic. The New Market increased 1.4% form 46.9% in 2010 to 48.3% in 2011. This means The New Market has become more important to The Body Shop. The Body Shop uses the gender segmentation that the consumer market is mainly women. We can know from the product collections of Vineyard Peach, Extra Virgin Minerals etc. These products are mainly decided for female, as skin  in different between female and male. Also, the Body Shop promotes using organic materials to make their products. Citizens improve their sense of environment, so the reasons for citizens to choose their cosmetic products not only force on the quality of the product but the level of environment friendly of the product. Furthermore, The Body Shop buys the raw materials under a fair trade system which they have fulfilled their social responsibility, the farmer can earn more compare to other products which do not adapt fair trade. Customers will consider this point as their decision criterion. Lastly, ‘there is only one way to beautiful, nature’s way.’ This slogan is very impressive for nowadays customers. It’s because there is a lot o f news or report point out that chemical has been put into cosmetic products. Also, as the quality of life increased, customers are willing to spend more money to buy nature products. * Concealer Market Concealer is very popular and its market growth stable because of concealer is very useful to cover the imperfection on the skin. It is an important character that it can give people a better appearance. This product is mainly used by women, but use among men is increasing. The concealer is a type of makeup used to cover under-eye circles, pimples and other small blemishes visible on the skin.The concealer also can cover redness and even body flaws such as birthmarks, scars and vitiligo. The market of concealer has intense competition, for instance, The Body Shop(Product name: Tea Tree Concealer), Bobbi Brown(Product name: Creamy Concealer), Cle de Peau Beaute(Product Name: Concealer), Beauty Tech(Product Name: Ice-cream Concealer ), MAC(Product Name: Select Cover Up), Shu Uemura(Product Name: Point Cealer) etc. Also, some of the concealer is especially for a part of skin: for example, whole face, under-eye circles, pimples. * Product Review – Tea Tree Concealer (The Body Shop) We are focus on The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Concealer, which launched in 2009. Tea Tree Concealer is a handy portable stick to conceal blemishes which without over drying the skin. It also produce with organic tea tree oil. Tea tree oil’s ingredient renowned for its anti-bacterial benefits and an infusion perfect to help blemished skin. Also, it traditionally used to promote healthy-looking skin and has fantastic skin moisturising properties. It costs HK$139 / 4.5g (2012’s price). Competitor Analysis * Jurlique Jurlique has spent 25 years to explore the organic and biodynamic ingredients and our unique Bio inherent â„ ¢ process to create the purest, most powerful skin care. From biodynamic farms in South Australia, the leading natural innovation, we have to unlock the potential of the combination of nature and science to create an effective product is beautiful. Just means you healthy, beautiful skin. The Jurlique farm: Their factory on the farm lived a pampered life. Jurlique’s founders searched the world’s richest, most clean on Earth, to build our farm. They found that, in Adelaide (Adelaide Hills). Today, this pristine environment is a wide variety of plants, herbs and flowers, and provides the natural forces Jurlique high performance mixed. As the only Australian beauty brand, our own certified biodynamic farm (NASAA, the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Australia certification), we can prove the purity of our harvest. We follow strict organic and biodynamic farming principles, in order to achieve our recognition. In order to maintain a perfect nature, we tend to pick the crop of hand-sorted. The nature of the work and do not oppose it, and we strive to create a richer soil, which means healthy plants, extract and more effective products. So this is a natural process, better farming more beautiful skin. Benefits: It is a natural skin tones covering cream, in order to help to reduce the appearance of defects. Also, it can help balance oily skin surface sebum moderate and can help protect environmental aggressors. Ingredients: The witch hazel extract objects and tea tree oil help to gently clean and moderate sebum in the skin surface. The marigolds and self-healing extract offers comfortable performance and help rebalance the sensitivity. Aloe extract and glycerin strongly hydrate, and helps to soften the skin. Grapefruit seed extract contains antioxidant properties and helps protect the skin against environmental damage. * Oriflame Oriflame was founded in Sweden in 1967 by Hanlin brothers, has become an international market in more than 60 countries around the world. Cosmetics direct selling company. Oriflame has a wide variety of innovative product lines, Sweden, natural beauty products â€Å"by 360 Million independent sales consultants are sold worldwide, and has created more than 1.5 billion euros a year in sales. It is natural beauty products from Sweden. Oriflame offers industry-leading career opportunities, and help people to earn income from the first day of added while moving. The goal of the current personal dreams and ambitions, this is our unique the career concept – â€Å"the creation of wealth today, tomorrow achievements Dream.† Respect for people and nature, become the basis of the company’s operating Philosophy, and is reflected in the company’s social and environmental policies. Oriflame co-founder of the World Children’s Fund, and contributions to numerous global philanthropy projects. Oriflame is a listed companies, the stock is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchange. ————————————————- SWOT Analysis We are focus on The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Concealer, which launched in 2009. We use the SWOT Analysis to analyse Tea Tree Concealer’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths The Body Shop International plc is a part of the L’Orà ©al Corporate group. L’Orà ©al Corporate has a lot of capital, it can support The Body Shop International plc’s finance and it can have some large scale promotional campaign without consider financial problem. Also, the L’Orà ©al Corporate is the largest cosmetics and beauty company in the world. It is famous, so, The Body Shop International plc can use the L’Orà ©al Corporate’s brand name to have some promotion and it will be more effectively. Furthermore, the Body Shop International plc has a positive reputation and image because of their non-animal-testing and fair trading company image. It can attract some customers, who support non-animal-testing and fair trading, to buy the products. For the Tea Tree Concealer part, one of its strengths is that it is a handy portable stick. This is because customers can easily bring it goes out and leave in somewhere easily. After use the Tea Tree Concealer, it will be without over drying the skin and it is good for our skin too. Moreover, the Tea Tree Concealer is made of organic tea tree oil, which is not only an infusion perfect to help blemished skin, but it can also attract customers, who support using organic raw material, to buy it. Weaknesses The Tea Tree Concealer only has one color tone, it is not suitable for every because different people have different skin color. It only has one color tone that it can satisfy a little part of customers but not lots of customers. Without doubt, everyone has different skin, such as dry skin, oily skin, combination skin, normal skin and sensitive skin. The Tea Tree Concealer only has one type and it also cannot satisfy lots of people, only a little part of customers can use it. Also, as we all know, The Body Shop International plc is founded in the UK in 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. It is a western company and their products might be more suitable for foreign people. Therefore, the Tea Tree Concealer may not be suitable for Asian. It cannot satisfy more people. Opportunities First of all, many existing cosmetics and skin-care products were tested on animals before they promote to the market in order to make sure the usage of them will not harm human bodies. However, The Body Shop against animals testing, every one of the products is animal cruelty free and vegetarian, which means we do not destroy the habitat of the animals and us. As a result, this is an opportunity of us to promote our product with this special characteristic. The second one is that the product have not taken care the men’s market. The skins of men and women are not the same, so do the needs of them. If we still only focus on the women’s market, our sales would only stay in the same level, so we should not only focus on the women’s needs but also the men’s to enlarge the market. As a result, this becomes one of the opportunities for the company to expand the men’s market and to increase sales volume. Third, the Body Shop is supporting Community Fair Trade, for example in Kenya. Most of the products contain Community Trade ingredients. This can attract customers who are also supporting Community Fair Trade. The body shop is also defending human rights, in order to treat all people in a fair and open fashion, to respect and value their integrity. Last, we are seeking and sustaining natural materials, and using planet’s resources wisely. These are the ways how we approach our environmental target, protect our planet. Threats The competition from competitors such as Jurlique’s natural skin tones covering cream who are also at the same level is keen. They are also providing same type of products and which are inexpensive to attract our same target groups. As a result, we have to consider about what are our vantages and extent them to get more awareness. Furthermore, the brand image of The Body Shop has become old, and is it not that attractive to the new young customers. So there is a need for The Body Shop to rebuild the image into fashion and vitality. ————————————————- Marketing Objectives Our marketing objective has two parts, one is short term and other one is long term. We will explain as follow. Short Term Based on the SWOT analysis of Tea Tree Concealer, it mentions that Tea Tree Concealer needs to be more popular. Therefore, the marketing objective is to enhance the promotion of Tea Tree Concealer that can increase 5-10% sales in short term. It means that we will increase 5-10% sales of Tea Tree Concealer in 5 months. Long Term As for the long term objectives of The Body Shop, it mainly has two steps want to achieve. 1. Develop a new tea tree concealer for men From different researches in the market, we know that the make-up market for men is now expanding; more men are more focus on their appearance for different perspectives. Therefore, The Body Shop should invent a new tea tree concealer for men only, which can focus on the needs of men, such as promotes healing of acne, keeps your skin elastic and improves appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. As a result, the company would like our research and development department can invent a men concealer within nine months’ time. 2. Sale 10000 concealer within six months The company aims at maximizing the profit of the company. If The Body Shop promotes the new product, â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†, its focus on the needs of men, so The Body Shop can increase its profit as it promotes a new men product. The company will have a questionnaire in the future so that we can know more about our market, for example, setting our target group, the price that people can accept, which promotion strategies is the best for our market. As a result, we would like to sell 10,000 pieces of concealer within six months’ time, which is a measurable objective. ————————————————- Marketing Strategies Short term To mention the short term objective of the Body Shop, we mainly want to attract some new customers by the new products. On the other hand, we also need to make the original customers continues to consume on our brand. And thus, we have discussed four mainly short term strategy to achieve our aim. 1. Advertisement The Body Shop can have three major ways to show our advertisement. The first one is Facebook. Nowadays, Facebook is a popular website to let people share their feelings and photos. And Facebook in Hong Kong is also necessary to people. Thus, do promotion on Facebook is an effective way to make more people know our new products. The second one is magazines. Magazines major target is office workers and the teenagers, and this target group is same as our products. Therefore, promotion on the magazines one big page can easy to let our targets know our new products. And the third one is promote next to the MTR escalator. MTR has many streams of people every day. And it is free when the people are standing on the escalator. So, display on the escalator advertisement board is also easy to let people know our promotion. 2. Discount For the general customers, The Body Shop can give them 5-10% off discount. And the VIP can get one more discount after the new product has got 5-10% discount. It will be effective that the cheaper price can make the people try it and also it can conveniently to attract more people being The Body Shop VIP. 3. Sample The Body Shop can give out the sample more effectiveness. If we just commonly give out the sample on the street will wreck the value of product. And thus, we have planned to ask people like and share the post on Facebook, after that show it to the staff, then they can get one sample. This method can let people try our new product and also indirectly help our brand having a promotion simultaneously. 4. Sponsorship We try to have corporation with Mannings and Watsons. If people consume above $150, they can get a sample of Body Shop. Sponsorship can provides a great means of broadening our competitive edge by improving our company’s image prestige and credibility by supporting events that your target market finds attractive. Long term For the long term plan for the Body Shop, the company purposes one and half year plan, which help the Body Shop to achieve the goals on developing a new tea tree concealer for men and increase the sale for product. The company will divide the plan into 4Ps. Product: As we all know, the make-up market for men is now expending so the Body Shop should grab this golden opportunity to develop a new tea tree concealer for men only. The skin is different between men and women, the company should focus on the needs of the men’s skin purpose. The company target group is based on beneficial segmentation because our product is only for men who have acnes on their faces. Although we all know that the cost for Research & Development is very high, the company think that people will also come and buy our product. Recently the company has done a survey on the Body Shop and its products. The interviewees thought the Body Shop is popularization, people are able to afford the price range. Therefore, we think put in money on R & D, later on, the Body Shop not only can earn the profit, also earn the advertisement benefit as they not only care about women but also men. Price: Market-Penetration pricing is the company choice on setting price. The tea tree collection of the Body Shop is famous in Hong Kong but the tea tree concealer is not familiar with the men. Therefore, we decide that when the product first enters to the market, the company will set a relatively low price so that it can attract more customers and get feedback from the public. People will consider buying our product because of low price, after they have used, they can re-buy the company’s product. Moreover, in market there is just a little amount of concealer that is only men, our product must keep a competition with other products because if the price set very low from the average, other competitors will also set a very low price, this cannot help the company to maximize the profit, it will greater the loss. If we set a high price, people are not willing to buy the company product as there are other concealers available in the market. The company set a price on $159 per new tree concealer for men which is a reasonable price. Place: In order to let more people to know more about the new tea tree concealer for men, the company will set up a special counter in shops, which is the company promotional product. Some salesperson will promote the new product as men may feel shy to buy make-up product so set up a counter is every shop help the company to find some target. Promotion: First, the company will give out some sample if people click ‘like’ in Facebook fans page, with the advance of technology and the common of using smart phone, people are more easy to obtain different information online, so Facebook is an efficient channel to promote the new tea tree concealer. The  company will maximum given out 10000 sample tea tree concealer. Second, the company decides to have video promotional campaign, people who have tried to use our product can join this competition. The users have to make a video about the feedback from using new tea tree concealer; the top 10 participants who obtained highest ‘like’ on their video clips can win $1500 cash. In this way, we enjoy a promotional advantage as participants will share their video clip for one another so that more people will know about our product. Also, the participants can show a positive experience for the public, the public can see the positive sides of using the new tea tree concealer. ————————————————- Marketing Tactics The short term and long term’s action plan is presented as follow. It shows the different strategies use in different time. Short term Magazine Promotion Facebook Promotion Sample Sponsorship MTR Advertisement Discount 1st month 2nd month 3rd month 4th month 5th month Magazine Promotion Facebook Promotion Sample Sponsorship MTR Advertisement Discount 1st month 2nd month 3rd month 4th month 5th month Long term Research and Development of New Product Review Video Promotional Campaign Facebook Promotion Sample 1st 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th Months Research and Development of New Product Review Video Promotional Campaign Facebook Promotion Sample 1st 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th Months ————————————————- Marketing Budget | THE BODY SHOP| | | Statement of Comprehensive Income| | | (for the Promotion of Tea Tree Concealer & Men’s Tea Tree Concealer )| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Short Term (5 months)*| | Long Term (18 months)*| | | | | | Note| | HK$| | HK$| | | Sales| | | 1| | 4,170,000| | 1,590,000| | | Less: Cost of Goods sold| 2| | 1,876,500| | 715,500| | | Gross Profit| | | | 2,293,500| | 874,500| | | | | | | | | | | | | Expenses| | | | | | | | | | Advertising Expenses| | 3| | (520,000)| | -| | | Samples Expenses| | 4| | (646,350)| | (238,500)| | | Research and Development Expenses| 5| | -| | (400,000)| | | Promotional Booth| | 6| | -| | (29,500)| | | Video Promotional Campaign| 7| | -| | (15,000)| | | | | | | | (1,166,350)| | (683,000)| | | | | | | | | | | | | Net Profit| | | | | 1,127,150| | 191,500| | | | | | | | | | | | Statement of Comprehensive Income *Before having promotion, the sales is HK$ 3,750,000 in 5 months. **Long term’s sales period is 6 months. Note: 1. Sales: * Short term: HK$ 139 x 30,000 = HK$ 4,170,000 Sold 200 pieces of concealers a day; sold 30,000 pieces of concealers in 5 months. * Long term: HK$ 159 x 10,000 = HK$ 1,590,000 Sold 10,000 pieces of concealers in a half year. 2. Cost of Goods sold: According to Prudence concept, the cost of concealer is 45% of the price. * Short term: HK$ 4,170,000 x 45% = HK$ 1,876,500 * Long term: HK$ 1,590,000 x 45% = HK$ 715,500 3. Advertising Expenses: HK$ 1 x 500,000 + HK$ 20,000 = HK$ 520,000 $1 /page in magazine; 50 magazines; MTR Advertising Expenses HK$ 20,000/month. 4. Samples Expenses: The sample size will be the 1/3 of the original size, the cost of the sample also be the 1/3 of the original cost. * Short term: HK$ 20.85 x 31,000 = HK$ 646,350 Each sample costs HK$ 20.85 (HK$ 139 x 45% x 1/3); 31,000 pieces of sample. * Long term: HK$ 23.85 x 10,000 = HK$ 238,500 Each sample costs HK$ 23.85 (HK$ 159 x 45% x 1/3); 10,000 pieces of sample. 5. Research and Development Expenses: These expenses include research information’s cost and develop the Men’s Tea Tree Concealer’s cost. Around cost HK$ 400,000. 6. Promotional Booth: HK$ 500 x 59 = HK$ 29,500 Each store has a promotional Booth; It costs around HK$ 500 for each. The Body Shop has 49 stores in Hong Kong. And it has 10 booths as spare. 7. Video Promotional Campaign: HK$ 1,500 x 10 = HK$ 15,000 Each winner has $1500 cash. There are 10 winners in total. ————————————————- ————————————————- Conclusion In conclusion, based on the SWOT analysis of Tea Tree Concealer, it mentions that Tea Tree Concealer needs to be more popular and needs to uses the gender segmentation that to enlarge the market with the men’s market because the demand of men’s cosmetics market is increasing especially of the concealer. Therefore, the marketing objectives are to enhance the promotion of Tea Tree Concealer that can increase 5-10% sales in short term; and in long term, The Body Shop can develop a Men’s Tea Tree Concealer to satisfy  men’s satisfaction of concealer that the concealer can take care about men’s face skin. For the marketing strategies, for short term, the body shop can use promotion tools, such as advertising in Facebook, beauty magazines and promote next to the MTR escalator. Also, the body shop can give general customers 5-10% off discount for buying Tea Tree Concealer. And the VIP can get one more discount after the new product has got 5-10% discount. Moreover, The Body Shop can give out the sample for people like and share the post on The Body Shop’s Facebook page, after that show it to the staff, then they can get one sample; and The Body Shop can have corporation with Mannings and Watsons. If people consume above $150, they can get a sample of The Body Shop. For long term, The Body Shop can uses marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion), to increase the sales of Tea Tree Concealer and to open up the men’s concealer market, a men’s product that calls â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. In product strategy, The Body Shop can put in money on Research & Development, to develop the â€Å"Men’s Tea Tree Concealer†. In pricing strategy, Market-Penetration pricing is the company choice on setting price because the tea tree collection of The Body Shop is famous in Hong Kong but the tea tree concealer is not familiar with the men. In promotion strategy, The Body Shop can set up a special counter in shops, which is the company promotional product. Some salesperson will promote the new product as men may feel shy to buy make-up product so set up a counter is every shop help the company to find some target. Also, the company will give out some sample if people click ‘like’ in Facebook fans page and to have video promotional campaign, people who have tried to use our product can join this competition. The users have to make a video about the feedback from using new tea tree concealer; the top 10 participants who obtained highest ‘like’ on their video clips can win $1500 cash. For the marketing budget, Statement of Comprehensive Income that it is for the Promotion of Tea Tree Concealer & Men’s Tea Tree Concealer, it shows that it will have a profit in the end of the promotion of Tea Tree Concealer and also have a profit in develop a Men’s Tea Tree Concealer. ————————————————- Bibliography * The Body Shop (seen on 20th September 2012) http://www.thebodyshop.com.hk/tc/index.aspx * The Body Shop – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (seen on 20th September 2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bodyshop * L’Orà ©al (seen on 20th September 2012) http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx * L’Orà ©al – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (seen on 20th September 2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loreal_Kids * Oriflame (seen on 8th November 2012) http://gb.oriflame.com/ * Oriflame – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (seen on 8th November 2012) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriflame * Jurlique (seen on 8th November 2012) http://www.jurlique.com/ * Skin Care – Jurlique – Hong Kong (seen on 8th November 2012) http://www.jurlique.hk/catalog/main.php?cPath=1 ————————————————- ————————————————- Appendices 1. Sample of the Questionnaire Questionnaire on The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Concealer| Hello, we are students of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Morrison Hill), we are conducting a project of Marketing, and is currently conducting a survey about The Body Shop Tea Tree Concealer. All of the information you provide in this questionnaire will not be used for commercial purposes, and destroyed at the end of the project-based learning. 1. What is your personal feeling or opinion towards â€Å"The Body Shop†? (1 is very bad while 5 is very good) Ã¥  £ 1 Ã¥  £ 2 Ã¥  £ 3 Ã¥  £ 4 Ã¥  £ 5 2. Which of the following vocabularies is/are to describe â€Å"The Body Shop†? (Can choose more than 1 answers) Ã¥  £ popularization Ã¥  £ with enterprise conscience Ã¥  £ expensive products Ã¥  £ good quality of products Ã¥  £ poor quality of products Ã¥  £ othersï ¼Å¡_______________ 3. Have you ever seen the tea tree concealer of The Body Shop? Ã¥  £ Yes ( go to question 4) Ã¥  £ No (go to question 5) 4. Have you ever bought this tea tree concealer before? Ã¥  £ Yes ( go to question 6) Ã¥  £ No (go to question 7) 5. As our product helps to protect from anti-bacterial and it is an infusion perfect to help blemished skin. Moreover, it promotes healthy-looking skin and has fantastic skin moisturizing properties. The size of the tea tree concealer is 4.5g which cost $139. After knowing the benefit out product, will you consider to buy it? Ã¥  £ Yes ( go to question 6) Ã¥  £ No (go to question 7) 6. Why will you choose to buy or consider our product? (Can choose more than 1 answers) (can choose more than 1 choice) Ã¥  £ Price consideration Ã¥  £ functions Ã¥  £ coupons Ã¥  £ influence by media Ã¥  £ functions of other brand’s products Ã¥  £ Others:_______________ 7. Why won’t you choose to buy or consider our product? (Can choose more than 1 answer) (can choose more than 1 choice) Ã¥  £ Price consideration Ã¥  £ functions Ã¥  £ Personal feeling Ã¥  £ I don’t do any make-up Ã¥  £ functions of other brand’s products Ã¥  £ Others:_______________ 8. What ways can attract you to buy our product? (Can choose more than 1 answer) (can choose more than 1 choice) Ã¥  £ Advertisement Ã¥  £ Discount / coupon Ã¥  £ Sample Ã¥  £ Gift / Present Ã¥  £ Others:_______________ 9. What is you gender? Ã¥  £ Female Ã¥  £ Male 10. What is your age group? Ã¥  £ 18 or below Ã¥  £ 19-25 Ã¥  £ 26-32 Ã¥  £ 33-39 Ã¥  £ 40 or above 11. What is you occupation? Ã¥  £ Banking / Finance Ã¥  £ Engineering Ã¥  £ Building / Construction Ã¥  £ Hotel / Tourism Ã¥  £ Education Ã¥  £ Retailing Ã¥  £ Beauty Care Ã¥  £ Others:_______________ ~ Thank You!! ~| The company has made an online questionnaire which is relate to this topic, as Cantonese is a common language in Hong Kong so the company decided to upload a Cantonese version to the public. The link is as follow: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dGNfd3ppOXNxc3JTVUVZMUdtdFVIS3c6MQ#gid=0 2. Result of the Survey 1. What is your personal feeling or opinion towards â€Å"The Body Shop†? (1 is very bad while 5 is very good) Before the company asks questions about the concealer, some background information about the brand name is needed. This question ask the interviewees to give marks on The Body Shop, the average marks is 3.83, nearly 70% of interviewees give more than the average marks so the Body Shop have a positive image in public. 2. Which of the following vocabularies is/are to describe â€Å"The Body Shop†? (Can choose more than 1 answers) As mentioned above, the Body Shop has a positive image so the company would like to know more about the opinions from the public. More than 80% of interviewees responded that the Body Shop is popular is Hong Kong, there are lots of shops in different parts. 32% and 52% of interviewees think the Body Shop run its business with enterprise conscience and the product quality is high respectively. However, 11% and 4% of interviewees have negative image on the Body Shop, they think the products are quite expensive and the quality is not really good. Therefore, we may consider the price while setting for the new tea tree concealer for men. 3. Have you ever seen the tea tree concealer of The Body Shop? The company should have some evaluation meeting on the promotion strategy on tea tree concealer as the nearly 60% of them have never seen the tea tree concealer before which cannot help the company to increase sales. Only 40% have ever seen the concealer before, this reflects the promotion is not strong enough. 4. Have you ever bought this tea tree concealer before? There are totally 59 interviewees responded that they have seen tea tree concealer before but only 40 of them which is nearly 70% have bought before, this seems to be a huge number. However, overall speaking, for all the interviewees, there are only 29% of them bought it. This is not a good situation because only few amounts of people have bought before. 5. As our product helps to protect from anti-bacterial and it is an infusion perfect to help blemished skin. Moreover, it promotes healthy-looking skin and has fantastic skin moisturizing properties. The size of the tea tree concealer is 4.5g which cost $139. After knowing the benefit out product, will you consider to buy it? For another 79 interviewees, 50 of them will consider to buy tea tree concealer, which is 63%. This means there is higher potential for our market to expand. It’s because the public don’t know about the advantages of the tea tree product. From this question, we know that our promotion is not strong enough so we have to improve in future. Also, people may consider about the benefit of the product which is an important element for customers to choose. 6. Why will you choose to buy or consider our product? (Can choose more than 1 answers) For this question, the number of interviewees have to answer is 90, this question aim to find the reason for customer to consider buying our product. 77of the interviewees think that the functions and benefits is very important, 74 of them think the price is reasonable to afford, this means people are consider about the quality and price. Moreover, affected by the other competitors and brands, people will choose to buy the tea tree concealer from the Body Shop. So when the company decides to develop the new tea tree concealer for men, some specific function should be added on in order to attract more people to buy. 7. Why won’t you choose to buy or consider our product? (Can choose more than 1 answer) For this question, the number of interviewees have to answer this question is 48. 25 of them responded they don’t make –up so this group of people is not the company target. 27 of them think the price is relatively high which is a disadvantage, also there have to face the competition from other brands, so people will affect by other company. 8. What ways can attract you to buy our product? (Can choose more than 1 answer) (can choose more than 1 choice) In order to set the company promotional strategy, this question ask about which ways can attract people to buy the tea tree concealer. 85% of them think discounts and coupons are very attractive for them to buy. Moreover, give out samples is also a good way to promote the tea tree concealer. 92 of the interviewees think that gift is quite attractive as they can try to us our product. If the feedback is good, they will re-buy the company’s product. 9. What is you gender? For this questionnaire, there are 87 males and 51 females have answered our questionnaire. 10. What is your age group? Nearly half of the interviewees belong to age between 19 and 25 and 30% are belong to age between 26 and 32. 11. What is you occupation? 33% of the interviewees are students who don’t have enough buying power which may affect our result a little bit. Moreover, the remaining interviewees are

Pharmaceutical Engineering

Pharmaceutical Engineering Introduction Recently, the pharmaceutical industry has grappled with an increased cost in production partly because of uncertainty with regards to the necessities for regulatory compliance. Of particular interest is the validation of particularly the automation systems as well as the accreditation of Practices for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Pharmaceutical Engineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Initially, the existence of many yet acceptable interpretations of these regulatory requirements led to confusion between manufacturers leading to inconsistencies in processing practices. With the inception of these practices, a part from increased costs in production, there has been a decrease in the rate at which new products come to market. (World Health Organization, 1997) In the year 1994, a body representing the pharmaceutical engineers in conjunction with both the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed on a common course that led to the creation of Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides. These guides are aimed at aiding pharmaceutical manufacturers â€Å"in the design, construction and commissioning of facilities that comply with the requirements of FDA† (ISPE Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides for New and Renovated Facilities, 1999). As such, pharmaceutical industries are required to meet the current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) which ought to coincide with the entire governing laws and policies. The joint interpretation of these regulations is important for the purpose of consistency, flexibility and enhancement of innovative approach in the design, construction and validation. The scope of this guideline is limited to the development of new products as well as the existing ones which tend to have limited baseline description. However, these guidelines are not intended to substitute the existing laws and regulations which apply to the same. To supplement this document, there is need to incorporate the existing laws and regulations to the same for the purpose of completeness. Basically, this guide owes its guidance from the following sensitive parameters: the critical processing step, product exposure, level of protection, critical parameters, critical instruments and systems, Good Engineering Practice (GEP) and enhanced documentation.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More With regards to critical processing step, this is significant in defining consistent regulatory requirements and as such, it specifies the extent of product exposure and the level of protection. However, due to environmental regulations upon a specific methodology employed, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are used hence; this enhances fle xibility in manufacturing designs thereby reducing the processing costs within the regulatory requirements. With regards to critical parameters, this has an effect on the quality of a product. This ought to be identified, regularly checked and controlled to maintain the product quality. In order to identify these parameters, manufacturers should have knowledge about the processing steps and as such document the rational for afterward examination. Critical parameters define critical instruments and systems and just like the parameters, they require in-depth documentation. As regards GEP’s, the guide requires that all processing elements in a facility to â€Å"routinely undergo some form of commissioning† (Milton, 2002). Basically all the engineering aspects of a processing system needs to be inspected regularly, tested and above all recorded down for documentation. GEP requires that prior to setting of the plant, all the stakeholders be involved in â€Å"the planning, design, construction and commissioning phases to ensure systems are documented once† (Latham, 1995). Enhanced documentation is a plus to the Good Engineering Practices. The essence of doing an exhaustive documentation stems from the fact that most systems and commissioning documents do not undergo regular update long after inception. Regulations entail change control with respect to certain document. Moreover, validation for the regular inspection of the critical systems to enhance consistency in quality has to be supported by documentation (Wichmann, 1997). Guide with respect to design of sterile manufacturing facilities Traditionally, the design and construction of a Bulk pharmaceutical chemical (BPC) plant is just like a chemical manufacturing plant and as such, they have ceased from being pharmaceutical dosage-form industries.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Pharmaceutical Engineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn M ore While chemical manufacturers give tolerances for traces of contaminants in the final product, â€Å"pharmaceutical facility and processing design requires provision for minimizing cross contamination and trace contamination† (International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), 2009). In the ISPE guide concerning the recent facility design of BPC, the principles are based on the dosage-form pharmaceutical industries. Consequently, the guideline has become a vital tool in helping a project team meet the minimum restrictions for a facility design in line with cGMPs requirements. Just like in BPC, ISPE gives guidelines with respect to sterile chemicals manufacture in ‘Sterile Manufacturing Guide’. This document was obtained courtesy of great minds in the pharmaceutical fraternity composed of a task force of 50 personalities. The essence of this guide which dwells on engineering issues is meant at providing cost efficient facilities. It generally focuses on t he aseptic processes that ultimately lead to terminal sterility of the final product. The primary features of this guide are: Product requirement, â€Å"GMP critical parameters† and â€Å"Critical Devices†, Terminal sterilization, Aseptic processing area, Protection of the product, Flow of people and material, integrated facility design, Barrier-isolator technology, Consistent HVAC principles, In operation condition for HVAC, Good Engineering Practice, Direct impact systems, Enhanced documentation and Indirect impact systems (International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), 2007). The product requirement decides the vital aseptic needs of a given facility and as such, the ‘critical parameters’ can be established. The aseptic processing area is a region where formulation of the product takes place after which is packaged and sealed. This is a critical area where control of persons a nd materials ought to be perfect to bar cross contamination. An efficient way of a voiding this is by barrier-isolator technology which ought to be incorporated in the design initially during installation. HVAC principles give the baselines for aseptic manufacturing processes. Engineers and designers should take heed of this stage of operation where â€Å"regulators are particularly interested with the in the environment during in-operation condition† (Orange Guide, 2007). This is so because it is believed that this is the time when the product may be exposed. Designers should be in a position to identify the potential sources of microbial/ particulate contamination and the ways of ensuring quality air free of contamination.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Baseline standards also come in handy in the selection of materials as well as finishes since this impact directly on the quality of the final product. It would be insignificant for one to spend much in instrumentation and control yet the no GMP is achieved. As regards Good Engineering Practice, this needs to be applied to the entire facility to ensure compliance of the product with respect to quality needs. This guide brings forth the term ‘direct Impact System’ which basically means the facilities which have a direct impact on the product. Moreover, it highlights the term ‘Indirect Impact System’ which generally means the opposite of the former term. These systems ought to be â€Å"supported by enhanced documentation† (International Cleanroom Standards, 2007). Qualification for compressed air The facilities designed to support pharmaceutical operations ought to comply with the GEP and cGMP. These systems just like as it has been stated initially, t hey may have either direct or indirect impact on the quality of the product. The former system ought to be comprehensively documented and inspected with respect to critical GMPs limits. The stakeholders should agree on the degree of qualifications prior to the installation process. The impact assessment process is represented in the flowchart below: With regards to direct system, the fundamental parameters that ought to be analyzed are: purified water, water for injection, clean steam and HVAC and compressed special gas. The indirect systems that need to be checked are raw water treatment, cooling system, effluent treatment, heating system and boiler house. Commissioning overview normally takes â€Å"equipments from installation to operation as well as incorporating a systematic method for testing and documentation† (European Commission, 2005). Both commissioning and validation procedures come up with equipment lists, component lists, utility verification forms, systematic drawings and operating procedures. However, while validation focuses on user responsibility, commissioning focuses on supplier responsibility. Moreover, while validation is approved by the quality assurance team, commissioning is approved by engineering project team. Since compressed air system is a direct system, qualification work is needed. User Requirement Specification (URS) requires that quality of air be generated from the system at generation and point of use is determined. Furthermore, it calls for safety measure and prevention of contamination. Qualification for Nitrogen gas Air monitoring methods are used to regulate the emission of dangerous gases in the environment by keeping them within the set emission limits. The gases with limited emission limit include Carbon monoxide, compounds of Nitrogen Oxides, Ozone, Sulphur Dioxide and Hazardous air pollutants. The roles of industries are to mitigate these toxic emissions within safe limits. This is achievable through â€Å" Air Pollution Control Devices that include: Mechanical collectors (Hepa filters), Hazardous solvents (thermal oxidation, gas absorption scrubbers and adsorption) and selective catalytic reduction techniques† (Daly, 1985). Qualification for Steam systems Steam is widely used in processing of pharmaceutical products important for treatment. Steam exhaust from boilers also referred to as utility steam come in contact with products directly acting as potential source of ‘direct impact system’. This may be in form of condensate which settles on the products depositing contaminants (rust and additives) on the product. The quality of steam is determined by the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) which determines the final quality of the product. Steam comes in handy when carrying sterilization processes that include: Manufacture of Injectable or Parenteral solutions, which are always sterile. Biopharmaceutical manufacturing and manufacture of sterile solution e.g. ophtha lmic products (D’Elia 1994). Clean steam may cause contamination through humidification among other forms of contamination. Clean steam system design enhances formation of quality products. This is achieved by: â€Å"avoidance of corrosion, prevention of entry of contaminants into the system and, preventing microbial growth in the system† (Reeuwijk, 1998). For the purpose of validation process of steam utility, a sequential process ensures generation clean steam: â€Å"Develop a User Requirement Specification (URS), develop a Functional Specification (FS), Undergo Design Qualification (DQ), Installer Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ) and finally Performance Qualification (PfQ)† (Commission Directive 2003 EC, 2003). Conclusion In a conclusion, for any pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, the need for ISPE Guide in the initial installation of facilities is vital to minimize cost due to redesigning of the entire system. The validation and commiss ioning of the processes should be done for once and for all by involving all the stakeholders to limit redesigning costs. Essentially, by implementing ISPE guidelines one will have basically met all the requirements for accreditation procedures set for pharmaceutical industry. This is so because it coincides with the requirements for FDA and WHO (Heinemann, 2003) Bibliography Commission Directive 2003 EC, 2003. Laying dawn the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice in respect of medicinal products for human use and investigational medicinal products for human use. London: Department of Health. D’Elia, L., 1994. â€Å"Bioprocess Engineering-Systems, Equipments Facilities†.Utility for Biotechnology Production Plants. New York City: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Daly B., 1985. Woods practical guide to fan engineering. Colchester, Woods of Colchester Ltd. Third impression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. European Commission, 2005. The rules governing medicinal products in the European Community, Volume IV. Good manufacturing practice for medicinal products. European Commission. Brussels: ViVio. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cen.eu/Pages/default.aspx Heinemann, D., 2003. Good Laboratory and Clinical Practices, Techniques for the Quality Assurance Newnnes, Oxford. International Cleanroom Standards, 2007. International Organization for Standardization. Brussels: ViVio. Available at: https://www.iso.org/developing-standards.html International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), 2009. Quality Risk Management – 09. London: Department of Health. Web. International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), 2007. Good Manufacturing Practice Guide for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients 07 , London: Department of Health. Retrieved from: ISPE Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides for New and Renovated Facilities, 1999. Sterile Manufacturing Facilities, First Edition . London: Department of Health. Latham, T., 1995. â€Å"Clean Steam Systems†. Pharmaceutical Engineering.15 (2), p. 3. Milton, A., 2002. GLP Quality Audit Manual. Interpharm Press, third edition, ISBN 1-57491-106-6 (2002). Orange Guide, 2007.Rules and Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Distributors, commonly known as the, MHRA, February 2007, New York University Press. Reeuwijk, P., 1998. FAO Soils Bulletin 74, Guidelines for quality management in soil and plant laboratories, New York University Press. Wichmann, B., 1997. Software in scientific computing, National Physical Laboratory. Measurement Good Practice Guide No. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. World Health Organization, 1997. Quality Assurance of Pharmaceuticals. A compendium of guidelines and related materials, Volume 1. Geneva: ILO Publications.

Core Values-Nestle Essays

Core Values-Nestle Essays Core Values-Nestle Paper Core Values-Nestle Paper Core Values and Intercultural Management Sep 29,2007 00:00 by admin Core Values and Intercultural Management Case Study: Nestle In 2001, Nestle was the largest and most diversified food company in the world, with nearly 500 factories in more than 100 countries. In fact, over the period 1867–2000 it surpassed other food manufacturers and purchasers of agricultural raw materials in scale of operations. Over 230,000 people worldwide work in Nestles factories, research laboratories and offices. In 1999 Nestle generated a total income of 4,007 million Swiss francs. This case study is based on a series of interviews with prominent Nestle managers engaged in strengthening Nestles core values. Niels Christiansen, Vice President, Public Affairs of Nestle SA, explains that even though 98 per cent of Nestle operations are outside Switzerland, the company still originated in Switzerland. The corporate headquarters is located in Switzerland. Hence some Swiss cultural values are an integral part of Nestle core values. Many Swiss values are embedded in the Nestle General Management and Leadership Principles and the Nestle Corporate Business Principles. These Principles reflect not only Nestles basic corporate values, but some of the Swissness of the company as well. What has been described as the Swissness of the company refers to the pragmatic and resultsoriented nature of the Principles. The Nestle General Management and Leadership Principles are presented in our case study on communications and intercultural management (see Chapter 2). The box on page 87 reproduces the Nestle Corporate Business Principles. NESTLE CORPORATE BUSINESS PRINCIPLES Nestle is committed to the following business principles in all countries taking into account local legislation, culture and religious practice: Nestles business objective, and that of management and employees at all levels, is to manufacture and market the companys products in such a way as to create value that can be sustained over the long term for customers, shareholders, employees, business partners and the large number of national economies in which Nestle operates. Nestle does not favour short-term profit at the expense of successful long-term business development, but recognizes the need to generate profit each year in order to maintain the support of the financial markets, and to finance investments. Nestle believes that, as a general rule, legislation is the most effective safeguard of ethical conduct, although in certain areas, additional guidance to management and employees, in the form of voluntary business principles, is beneficial in order to ensure that the highest standards are met throughout the organization. Nestle is conscious of the fact that the success of a corporation is a reflection of the professionalism, conduct and ethical values of its management and employees, therefore recruitment of the right people and ongoing training and development are crucial. Nestle recognizes that consumers have a legitimate interest in the company behind the Nestle brands, and the way in which the Nestle company operates. Although core values can be propagated across a multicultural corporation in a variety of ways, Nestle adopts certain approaches that are characteristic of it. These approaches have been used consistently and for a considerable length of time, even though the companys various Principles have been written down only recently. One important approach is careful and meticulous selection of personnel. This approach has been enshrined in the Nestle Corporate Business Principles. Potential employees are assessed as to whether they possess the attributes that would enable them to fit into the Nestle way of life. An assessment is also made of whether they can achieve complete integration into Nestle culture over time. Nestles selection process has been so effective that most of its employees have pursued a lifetime career, spanning at least 30 years with the company. This lifetime association with Nestle enables employees to completely imbibe and operationalize the Nestle core values. Additionally, new recruits are given extensive coaching as well as training, to ensure that they fully understand Nestles core values. Both the Nestle Management and Leadership Principles document and the Nestle Corporate Business Principles document contain personal messages from the CEO. The CEO, as well as all senior managers, make it clear that they expect all employees to subscribe to and implement the company core values. Of course, members of the top management echelon also live the core values themselves so that they serve as role models. Nestle uses extensively another means to propagate its core values: its international management cadre. Members of this cadre go from country to country working as managers in different Nestle branches. These international management cadre managers ensure that the Nestle core values are institutionalized at all Nestle locations. They occupy a significant proportion of the key positions at all Nestle branches, and can therefore exert a tremendous amount of influence. All managers of Nestle, irrespective of ethnic origin or geographic location, are part of the Nestle culture and share the same core values. Additionally, by rotation, they spend some time at the Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland. During the initial stages of their career, Nestle employees (from all over the world) attend residential training programmes at Vevey, which are of approximately one months duration. These programmes reinforce the core values which Nestle employees have already assimilated. They also make Nestle employees realize that regardless of where they are from, they all share these core values. Although Nestles core values are the glue that holds together all its managers distributed across more than 100 countries, the company is also sensitive to local cultures. Brabeck, CEO of Nestle, has remarked, Since Nestles activities in Switzerland, its country of origin, account for less than 2 per cent of its global turnover, Nestle learned very early to respect the social, political and cultural traditions of all countries in which the products are produced and sold, and to be a highly decentralized people and products oriented company rather than a systems oriented company. The interesting question that presents itself is, how does Nestle manage the dialectic between having well-entrenched core values, and respecting national cultures? Vietnam is a country in which Nestle has established a branch only recently (in 1996). It is a challenging country in which to start operations. In the first instance, it is a communist country with a state controlled market. Additionally, the cultural ethos and ambience of Vietnam are quite unique. When Nestle started its branch in Vietnam, it had to embed and institutionalize its core values there from scratch. Nestles initial step was to translate the two documents, Nestle Management and Leadership Principles, and Nestle Corporate Business Principles, into Vietnamese. During translation, it was found that some concepts could not be translated literally. Literal translations would lead to some loss of intended meaning. Hence, some of the concepts were elucidated using Vietnamese metaphors and symbols. For example, recourse was made to the metaphor of the family. The sort of relationship that Nestle expects from employees was compared to the sort of relationship that exists between family members. The importance of teamwork and team spirit was likewise advocated by reference to family values. Thus, a document was created especially for Nestle Vietnam that encapsulated the Nestle core values in the local idiom. This document is given to every employee who joins the branch. Before employees can join Nestle Vietnam, they have to satisfy the recruitment criteria. This includes whether the prospective employees can understand and appreciate the core values of Nestle, and align themselves with these core values. Individuals who will be unable to operationalize Nestle core values, because of either their background or their personality, are screened out. The background of a prospective employee is thoroughly checked. This is to ascertain what kinds of influence have conditioned him or her. At Nestle branches that have been in existence for some time, considerable autonomy is given to line managers in the matter of recruitment. In start-up branches like Nestle Vietnam, however, the HR department and top management are very closely involved in the recruitment process. They admit into their fold only those individuals who can subscribe to Nestle core values. Nestle believes that if employees are deficient in technical skills, but have the appropriate attitudes and values, they can be trained and learn those skills. On the other hand, values are more difficult to change. If prospective employees have attitudes incompatible with Nestles core values, then no amount of coaching can successfully bring them in line with Nestles expectations. One of the core values of Nestle is that its employees should have intercultural competencies and be able to interact effectively with people from all over the world. Hence, as part of the recruitment process at Nestle Vietnam, prospective employees attitudes to foreigners are assessed. Also assessed is how they view people from other parts of Vietnam. Preference is given to prospective employees who are tolerant and liberal thinking, and have experience of associating with people from diverse backgrounds. Sometimes it transpires that prospective employees would not like to work with foreigners from other parts of Asia, such as Malaysians, Japanese or Taiwanese. They do not mind working with Europeans, however. In such cases, Nestle Vietnam tries to ascertain whether the prejudice emanates from ignorance or from a deep-rooted emotion. If it is the former, training and coaching can eradicate the prejudice, as can first-hand experience of working with Malaysian, Japanese or Taiwanese managers. This is particularly true of young recruits who are perceived as being malleable. They are very receptive to being guided by a coach or mentor, much more so than in the case of their European counterparts. Thien Luong Van My, currently Issues Manager Public Affairs at Nestle headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, and Country Head of Nestle Vietnam for the period 1996–2000, comments: They really enjoy this coaching like from an elder brother to a younger brother or sister. They really like to be guided not only about how they should work, but about how they should behave as well. And we pay a lot of importance to our newly joined recruits patterns of interaction. We observe them closely. And the elder brother recommends to his younger sibling how he can improve himself. This system appears to be working for us. We started in 1996 with three employees. I had a driver and a secretary. Today, there are 300 employees with Nestle Vietnam, all of whom are committed to Nestles core values. The core value of team spirit had to be nurtured with special effort at Nestle Vietnam in its early years. It is the experience of Nestle Vietnam that the Vietnamese are a fairly individualistic people. They may be loyal to a small group of people who are usually family members. Nestle Vietnam was in its crucial initial six years when headed by Thien, who is Vietnamese and grew up there. He therefore positioned himself as the patriarch of the company, somebody who could be considered an uncle or elder brother. He then capitalized on his position to encourage team spirit. He also ensured that team spirit was propagated in a manner appropriate to the Vietnamese culture. For instance, a practice integral to Vietnamese culture is showing respect and deference to elders. At Nestle Vietnam, a few units are headed by individuals who are younger than a few of their subordinates. A careful watch is kept on these individuals, to ascertain whether they treat those subordinates who are older than them with respect and regard. Nestle Vietnam has tried to design approaches for institutionalizing the Principles that comprise the Nestle core values. For example, consider the Nestle Corporate Business Principle regarding protection of the environment: Nestle integrates environmental policies, programs, and practices into each business as an element of management in all its functions, develops, designs and operates facilities and conducts its activities taking into consideration the efficient use of energy and materials, the sustainable use of renewable resources, the minimization of adverse environmental impact and waste generation, and the safe and responsible disposal of residual wastes, applies Nestle internal standards suitable to local conditions in those regions where specific environmental legislation is not yet in place, improves environmental protection relevant to its activities on a continuous basis, provides appropriate information, communication and training to build internal and external understanding about its environmental commitment and action. Nestle Vietnam has had to work very hard to inculcate the value of conducting business in an environmentally sound manner amongst its employees. Many of the non-management staff come from rustic backgrounds with no higher education. Hence, courses are organized regularly so that these staff members can be educated on how to conduct themselves in an environmentally friendly fashion. When any staff members deviate from the Nestle standards for hygiene and environmental protection, their lapse is pointed out to them. Newly joined staff members have to be told that trash should not be littered anywhere, but should be put into garbage bins. On one occasion, a newly joined member of the cleaning staff was asked to clean the warehouse adjacent to a Nestle factory. He was asked to do this on a Sunday when there were no senior managers at the factory site. While cleaning, he threw some discarded paints and oil into the drainage system. It was entirely a spontaneous act. Fortunately, a manager came to know about this occurrence the following day, and the drainage system was stopped before it discharged its contents into a river flowing nearby. If the paints and oil had found their way into the river, a major catastrophe would have resulted. After this incident, Nestle Vietnam provided even more stringent instructions about hygiene and environment protection to its entire staff. Another core value that had to be addressed explicitly by Nestle Vietnam was one termed Conflict of Interest in the Nestle Corporate Business Principles document. This core value stated that Nestle requires its management and employees to avoid personal activities and financial interests that could conflict, or appear to conflict, with their jobs. In Vietnam, it is customary for people to hold more than one job. They might work for half a day at a primary job, and then be employed elsewhere, in a job that is in some way competitive with the primary job. Nestle Vietnam has had to adopt a firm stance here. Thien and the other expatriate Nestle employees who set up Nestle Vietnam were succeeded by Vietnamese managers in early 2001. This has contributed to institutionalizing the Nestle core values at the branch. It also signifies that the branch has assimilated the Nestle core values. In fact, the job success of Thien and his expatriate colleagues is being evaluated in terms of the performance of their successors. Inferences Fostering of uniform core values in a global corporation is a key to successful intercultural management The challenge of intercultural management for organizations lies in the appropriate juxtaposition of corporate culture and ethnic cultures. This is the challenge that Nestle, with its many, many branches located all around the globe, had to grapple with constantly. Ultimately, however, corporate culture transcends ethnic culture. In other words, corporate culture, which is governed by the organizations core values, is superordinate to other cultures such as ethnic culture. This has been the mode of functioning of all the organizations profiled in this book: Nestle, Credit Suisse, BMW, International Committee of the Red Cross, IBM, ICAS and so on. These companies have not specifically articulated that this is their mode of functioning. It may not even be recognized as a conscious strategy by the top management echelons. Certainly, the key players in the individual companies are not aware that this is a mode of functioning shared by high-performance transnational organizations. Nonetheless, we record in this book that this is the case. The core values of an organization determine the nature of its corporate culture. The corporate culture can influence the mind-sets of its employees, which in turn will have been shaped by a wide variety of factors. For individual employees, one of these factors is definitely their ethnic culture. When an organization has branches in different locations and cultures, it is inevitable that those branches are affected by local cultures in more ways than one. In the first instance, the products and services offered by the organization must find a resonance in the local culture. Otherwise there would be no market for those products and services. Thus, Nestle offers many food products that are culture-specific in that they reflect the food preferences of the local consumers. One of Nestles food products is Maggi instant noodles. These noodles are available in a wide variety of cultures, and offer a feature that is appreciated in all these cultures they can be prepared in a matter of minutes. However, the noodles are concocted differently in different cultures. In Switzerland, for instance, the noodles are sold with a cheese garnish. In India, Maggi masala noodles are a runaway success. Maggi masala noodles have a pungent, spicy flavour, which might not find favour in Switzerland. Likewise, Maggi noodles as sold in Switzerland would be too bland for the average Indian. Local cultures can impact on organizations in more complex ways, however. They can influence (though not determine) corporate culture. This happens when a significant number of employees of an organization hail from a specific ethnic culture. The corporate culture of Nestle has a certain Swissness about it, as observed by Hans Johr, Assistant Vice-President at Nestle headquarters. This is to be expected, since Nestle originated in Switzerland, and is headquartered in that country. However, the fact that Vietnamese personnel staff Nestle Vietnam signifies that elements of Vietnamese culture that are venerable are incorporated into Nestle Vietnam. This enables the Vietnamese workforce to be productive and happy. For instance, the notion of projecting the CEO of Nestle Vietnam as a father figure, who can then engage in team building by encouraging employees to think of each other as siblings, was an approach that reflected Vietnamese culture. This is a case where the dialectic between corporate culture and ethnic culture has been managed successfully. This in fact is an objective of intercultural management: to harmonize the juxtaposition of corporate cultures and ethnic cultures. However, there may be individual employees whose cultural backgrounds give rise to values that conflict with the core values of an organization. The resulting dissonance can be resolved satisfactorily by the employees either leaving the organization, or modifying their values. In other words, the core values of an organization are superordinate. The International Committee of the Red Cross faces the dilemma of dealing continuously with conflicts between corporate culture and ethnic culture. For example, in Afghanistan they are determined not to uphold conventional local attitudes to the treatment of women. If this entails having to enact a more diminished role in Afghanistan, then so be it. The dialectic between corporate culture and ethnic culture has been described by Nestle as follows: The Companys business practices are designed to promote a sense of identification among all employees all over the world, and apply a number of common rules, while at the same time adapting the expression of these rules to local customs and traditions (Nestle Corporate Business Principles). This of course is easier said than done. However, it must be emphasized that high-performance companies have strong cultures with well-defined core values. These core values are capable of adaptation to local customs, traditions and cultures. They cannot be supplanted by the values of other cultures.