External audit on Carnival Corporation

When considering what type of environment analysis to do certain things should be taken into consideration this is do to with the fact that different industries will have different requirement. For example Carnival in a multinational company so it may be more concerned with political issues then local customer perceptions or the customer demographics. Johnson & Scholes (1999), David (2001) and Lynch (2000) all agree that organisations or managers should adjust and change according to an environment analysis. Mullins (1999), Johnson & Scholes (1999) and Lynch (2000) all agree that a good starting point for an external analysis would be the ‘PEST' analysis. ‘PEST' means political, economic, socio-cultural and technological (see appendix 1). The PEST analysis is only a very general analysis of the external environment. This is why another audit should be used to â€Å"inform and guide analysis† (Johnson & Scholes, 1999: 104). If a company wants to plan for the future Johnson & Scholes (1999), Lynch (2000) and Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel (1998) all agree that the ‘scenario planning' is all about the long term. Johnson & Scholes (1999) and Lynch (2000)' agree it is one way to help companies looking into the future. One thing that companies must understand is that â€Å"scenarios are concerned with peering into the future, not predicting the future† (Lynch, 2000: 111) Scenario planning is about considering factors that could affect the company for example if there was a terrorist attack in the future on one of the Carnival cruise liners. What steps could be taken to prevent the attack or to make sure that the customers are safe? In all industries customers are the ones that buy the product or use the service this may be other companies or the general public. This is why analysing the customers and market segmentation is very important. It is important for organisations to understand that customers â€Å"have different characteristics and needs† (Johnson & Scholes, 1999: 129). Lynch (2000) states that there are three important issues that should be conceded when analysing the organisations customers. The first is to identify the organisation customers and market. The second is its segmentations and its strategic implications. The final one is the role of the customer service and quality. Porter's Five Forces model (see appendix 2) is a more in-depth analysis of an organisation it focuses more on strategy so companies can develop opportunities and protect them self from threats. The five forces are: 1. The bargaining power of suppliers; 2. The bargaining power of buyers; 3. The threat of potential new entry; 4. The threat of substitutes; 5. The extent of competitive rivalry. (Lynch, 2000:125) One of the best ways to describe Porter's Five Forces Model is: â€Å"†¦ a high force can be regarded as a threat because it is likely to reduce profit. A low force, in contrast, can be viewed as an opportunity because it may allow the company to earn greater profits.† (Wheelen & Hunger, 1998: 61) It is argued that customers are the most important part of the business: â€Å"Customers demand satisfaction and expect more. It is no longer sufficient to merely satisfy customers They need to be delighted, both internally and Externally.†(Mullins, 1999: 869) This is why customer analysis is so important to Carnival with out any customers the company would not generate any revenue. One thing that they do know it that the disposable income of young couples and families has increased over the last fifty years. What they are trying to do it tell the target market that cruising is an alternative vacation available for everyone. Carnival believes that 93 percent of North Americans have not taken a cruise at some stage. This gives then a target of almost 100 percent of North Americans that they can attract, to go on one of their cruises. This is due to the fact that they can try and attract the people that have already been on a cruise. Carnival is the first modern Cruise Company and tries to promote its ships as ‘fun ships'. With a price that can compete with land based vacation resorts. This is why they are the leaders and innovators of the cruising industry. They know that the cruising industry have three main market segments. The first is contemporary then premium and finally luxury this is why they have entered into all three market segments. One thing that is very important to Carnival is the customer service that they provide. As well as a high level of service they want to offer a product that will attract the customers. This is why they offer a package that will allow passengers to stop at exotic ports of call as well as a premier restaurant service. What they are trying communicate is that the ship is not just a means of transport but the vacation it self and the ports of calls are bonuses for the customers. This is why they offer such entertainment as live music, dancing, night-clubs, movies as well as a casino this is the entertainment in the evenings. Carnival wants to offer a high level of service this is why their holidays start when you bags are tagged for the ship. After that moment you would not need to pick your bags up because it would be delivered to your cabin. When on board waiter on the ship will offer you drink while they help you to find your way around. With a restaurant service that could rival any top land based restaurant in terms of variety in food and wine. With this sort of service they can keep on attracting the customers that in turn create the profits that the organisation wants.

Did all Americans benefit from the boom in the 1920’s? Essay

The USA had massive industries and had lots of natural recourses. The post First World War boom started for a number of different reasons particularly the rise of new industries and new methods of industrialisation. It led the world in new technologies. It developed technology such as automobiles, telephones, and electrical appliances. America sold to Europe as well as to a domestic market and therefore national wealth grew. Henry Ford’s car plants employed many workers to assemble the cars, and many more were employed in supply industries such as steel, leather, glass and rubber. In addition there were thousands of people working in road construction for the cars to run on. Because of general prosperity many people could now buy products on credit or borrow money from the banks easily. Many of the Americans believed that they had a right to prosper; they wanted to have a nice house, a job and lots of food. People believed that the best way of life was to spend as much money as possible. The First World War also contributed to the boom, other countries who had borrowed money started to pay some of the money they owed with interest. Europe imported goods from America to help build up their own economies. The older industries such as coal, leather and textiles didn’t do to well. Coal had competition from oil and electricity which was being used at a bigger rate than coal. Leather and textiles didn’t have much competition from other countries but there was competition from man made materials. Also there was competition from the Southern States were the labourers were paid less for longer hours. The growth of industry made it worse for the ordinary people because they weren’t needed to do they’re jobs anymore because their jobs were taken over by machines which could do the work in half the time. 32% percent of America’s income went richest 5% of the population, 10% percent of the income was shared out between the poorest 42% of the people. The unemployed people included many of the poor whites but there was a bigger majority of unemployed blacks and Hispanic immigrants. Approximately 42% of Americans now lived below the poverty line and they didn’t even have enough money to buy food, clothing, housing, heating or any of the bare necessities for their families. Even though many of these people could not afford to buy products, the amount of goods had doubled. The farming industries were hit quite badly too. There was competition between the efficient Canadian farmers in the north who were importing wheat at much cheaper prices so America rather brought from them. America had also put tariffs onto exports and therefore Europe weren’t importing as much produce as they used to. There were many rural banks that went bankrupt because farmers weren’t getting enough money back to pay the banks. Another factor was that the population in America was falling and therefore there was less demand for the produce and there was tons of wheat that no one wanted. The farmers were producing enough food for exporting and for the country but there weren’t enough people to eat all of the food. There was enough food for the farmers and fourteen other families. At this time many Because of the introduction of technology and machinery less labourers were needed and in the 1920’s six million rural Americans were unemployed. These people didn’t have the right expertise to be employed in the cities. Three quarters of a million blacks were also unemployed when they lost their jobs on the farms. In conclusion, we can see that the boom did not bring prosperity to all. Rather, while the urban population, in particular those involved in the new industries as well as the middle classes generally certainly benefited during the ‘boom years’, the rural population particularly in the grain belt suffered as a result of over production and shrinking markets.

Racism and imperialism Essay

Our new global â€Å"frontiers† or â€Å"contact zones† come into view more noticeably in the Black Atlantic that links African Americans with West Africans in W. E. B. Du Bois’s and Zora Neale Hurston’s twentieth-century narratives and thus far still proposes the boundaries separating Euro-American from African-American cultural traditions in the United States. W. E. B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk All through his long career and its many different phases, W. E. B. Du Bois continually criticized the United States for following imperialist aims both at home and abroad. He as well is one of the few modern American thinkers to recognize U. S. imperialism to be different from earlier forms of Eurocolonialism and to antedate significantly the Spanish-American War. For Du Bois, U. S. imperialism initiates in slavery and depends on racism to legitimate colonial practices of territorial conquest, economic power, and psychological defeat. Du Bois understands U. S. slavery to be particularly modern, to the extent that it is footed on particular racial distinctions he argues were unknown in earlier forms of serfdom and enslavement. He may well agree regarding the persistence of human unkindness throughout history, however he sees it deployed in a different way in the modern period. In the modern work of colonial domination and its methodical, therefore imperial, application to peoples defined thereby as â€Å"other,† Du Bois judges the United States to have taken the lead. Du Bois’s theory of racial imperialism is intensely contemporary on the economic roots of all imperialisms. However Du Bois comes the closest of the American intellectuals critical of U. S. imperialism before World War II to understanding U. S. imperialism as a neoimperialism of the postmodern sort we at present relate with the political control of spheres of influence, the corporate manipulation of foreign cultures to create new markets, as well as the exportation of American lifestyles by way of such cultural products as literature and film. For the reason that Du Bois understood race and class to be the critically related fictions by which modern nations justified the unfair distribution of wealth and consequently power, he viewed with special lucidity the extent to which cultural work was indispensable to colonial hierarchies both at home and abroad. For this very reason, Du Bois as well understood the power of culture to combat imperialism by challenging such hierarchies and building influential coalitions of the oppressed to resist domination. As Du Bois grew older and angrier regarding the unrecognized involvement of the United States in colonial ventures around the world, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and at home, he authorized an increasingly rigid economic thesis that is both rudely Marxist and inquisitively blind to the enthusiastic imperialism of the Stalinism he espoused. This turn in Du Bois’s career has often distracted scholars from the delicacy of his earlier discussions of the United States as an imperial power and its novel use of culture to disguise and naturalize its practices of domination. Given the propensity of even America’s most energetic modern critics to localize its imperialism in such specific foreign ventures as the Spanish-American War and the general myopia of Americans until quite lately in regard to the imbrication of U. S. racism and imperialism, Du Bois is a precursor of contemporary cultural and postcolonial criticisms of the role culture has played in disguising the imperialist practices of the United States. Wrong as Du Bois was about Stalinism and in his predictions of the predictable victory of socialism in the twentieth century, his persistence on connecting cultural analyses to their economic consequences as well ought to be heard by contemporary cultural critics. Particularly in his writings before the mid-1930s, Du Bois as well experimented with a combination of literary, historical, sociological, and political discourses that might work together as a â€Å"counter-discourse† to the fantastic narrative of U. S. ideology. The multigeneric qualities of The Souls of Black Folk is methodically modern in its respective challenges to conventional modes of representation, this works as well involve an implicit critique of the privileged and intentionally inaccessible oratory. Determined to challenge hierarchies of race, class, and gender, Du Bois understood how powerfully social authority depended on forms of cultural capital traditionally unavailable to African Americans. Du Bois understood from his earliest works that African-American intellectuals and artists would have to offer alternative cultural resources to challenge such subjective however entrenched powers Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston’s criticism of racial and gender hierarchies in the United States and in our foreign policies toward other nations, particularly in the Caribbean, presents another variation on the cultural response to U. S. imperialism. Unlike W. E. B. Du Bois, Hurston does not constantly and rigidly condemn U. S. intervention in the economic, political, and social spheres of other nations, although she obviously connects domestic racism and sexism with neoimperialist foreign policies, particularly those directed at Third World countries. As well Hurston does not romanticize modern or historical Africa, although she argues constantly for the recognition of how African cultural influences have contributed considerably to the artistic, intellectual, as well as social achievements of African-Americans. In a similar manner, Hurston refuses to romanticize colonized peoples as solely victimized by their conquerors; she goes to substantial lengths to illustrate how the process of decolonization, in Haiti, for instance, has too often brought tyrants to power who have rationalized their injustices on grounds of national sovereignty plus strident anti-colonialism. Hurston condemns all the tyrannies she witnesses, and she therefore estranges herself from U. S. nationalists of various sorts, African nationalists, and Communist critics of U. S. imperialism. At the same time, Hurston often appears to universalize the thesis that â€Å"power corrupts. † in a way that trivializes concrete solutions to the problems she identifies in the United States and the Caribbean. Thus far behind Hurston’s contempt for arbitrary power, whether wielded by white or black tyrants, and her disrespect for those who render righteous their own victimization, there is Hurston’s strong commitment to democratic rule and her conviction that solidarity among different victimized peoples will both authorize them and effect appropriate social reforms. These reforms include for Hurston an end to racial and gender hierarchies and the extension of economic opportunities to underprivileged groups, both within the United States and internationally. The utopian model for such social reforms is a truly democratic society in the United States, in spite of Hurston’s consistent criticism of social inequalities in the United States footed on race and gender. On the one hand, Hurston alleged that Euro-American culture, society, and psychology had much to learn from African-American forms of knowledge and experience; in her utopian moments, she imagines white America transformed and redeemed by such knowledge. On the other hand, she implicit the prevalence of a white ideology that treated much of African-American knowledge as â€Å"backward,† â€Å"superstitious,† and â€Å"primitive,† while whites turned these very characteristics into aspects of an exoticized and fashionable â€Å"negritude. † What some critics have referred to as Hurston’s â€Å"coding† of her narratives must be understood as her primary mode of narration, whose intention is to transform attitudes and feelings, together with preconceived ideas, rather than only â€Å"hiding† her intentions to protect her benefaction. Learning to read the â€Å"double consciousness† of Hurston’s coded narratives is itself a way of transgressing the boundary separating African American from white American, even as it respects the social and historical differences of the racism that has yet to be overcome. â€Å"Mules and Men† is frequently treated together for generic reasons, for the reason that it is major instance of Hurston’s work as folklorist and anthropologist. This book is as well interpreted by some critics as using literary techniques that foresee Hurston’s major fiction. It is the premeditated forgetting of this history of tangled fates and therefore of cultural realities that Hurston condemns in the official histories of the United States and that we ought to class as an imperative aspect of U. S. cultural imperialism. Hurston did not reject firmly the idea of the United States as â€Å"global policeman† or the prospect of U. S. foreign policies, particularly in the Caribbean, contributing to democratic ends. In this regard, she was by no means unusual among majority and minority U. S. intellectuals in the 1930s and 1940s. Hurston understood the ongoing racism and sexism in the United States as forms of colonial domination, which needed strategies of resistance that at times, complement more open anti-colonial and post-colonial struggles around the world. Never did she puzzle the realism of social stratifications by race, class, and gender with her ideals for democratic social, legal, as well as human practices. Furthermore it is the conflict between Hurston’s strategies for enlightening and resisting such oppression at home and abroad and her ideals for the spread of democratic institutions, particularly as they are represented by the promise of U. S. democracy that often contributes to the opposing quality of her political judgments or the impression of her apolitical stance. Hurston’s politics are frequently bound up with her own personality as a progressive, â€Å"new Negro,† exemplifying urban sophistication and specialized education, who sought to connect the rural and Afro-Caribbean heritage of African Americans with their modern future. References: W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Greenwich, Conn. , 1961), 42-43. Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men (NewYork: Harper-Collins, 1990), p. 294

Final exam case study's answers Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Final exam 's answers - Case Study Example The marine project is likely to boost tourism by transforming Queensland into a home of Australia’s largest tourism infrastructure development that will lure both tourists and international investment. Therefore, the research problem in this case study is the feasibility of the Queensland Government Multibillion Marine project, its allied socio-economic benefits, and impacts, especially to the environment and the residents. Purpose statement The purpose of this research is to establish the viability of the Broadwater Marine Project proposed by the Queensland Government and its potential impacts on the tourism and construction sectors, the environment and the livelihoods of the residents adjacent to the Broadwater. Significance of the Research This research is significant because these findings will provide justifiable evidence concerning the viability of the Broadwater Marine project, and its potential impacts on the environment and the residents of the Spit. This information will be useful for all the stakeholders in the Broadway Marine project because it will provide a formidable foundation for planning to maximise the benefits while limiting the impacts on the environment and the residents of the Spit. ... What are some of the socio-economic benefits of the Broadwater Marine Project to both the government and the residents of the Spit? d. What are some of the potential environmental and social impacts of the Broadwater Marine Project? e. How can the social and environmental negative impacts of the Broadwater Marine Project be reduced, and where possible eliminated all together? Q.2 1) The Research Philosophy The research philosophy that best fits the research questions and objectives is Positivism, an ideology that is characterised by hypothesis/theory testing through measurement of observable social realities. According to the positivists, the social world exists objectively and independently, knowledge is viable only is it is based on the observable reality and that universal theoretical models explaining cause-effect relationships are generalizable and can be used to predict outcomes. The research objectives can be best achieved if the research is guided by values of the positivism philosophy such as reason, truth and validity; the research will focus purely on observable facts. The research data will be gathered through direct observation and experience, measured empirically using quantitative methods such as statistical analysis, surveys and experiments. The viability of the Broadwater Marine project, its perceived socio-economic benefits to the Queensland Government and the Spit residents, and its potential environmental and social impacts can be measured empirically. Positivism provides the relevant tools for data gathering i.e. through observation and experience, measuring using quantitative methods- surveys and experiments, and statistical analysis; given the vast scope of this research, it must be

Comparing and Contrasting the legislative, executive, and judicial Essay

Comparing and Contrasting the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the American government and the government of Kuwait - Essay Example In this paper we are going to compare and contrast the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the American government and Kuwait government. The constitution of the United States government is aimed at ensuring a strong and fair national government while at the same time ensuring the freedoms of individuals are protected from abuse by the government. America is a presidential system of government with three branches; the executive, legislature and the judiciary. Each arm of the government has its own function but its powers are checked by the other arms of government. For example, the legislature makes laws while the judiciary ensures the laws are in line with the constitution. The executive arm of government is headed by the president who is democratically elected by the entire country. The president serves for a term of four years whereby fresh elections are held to elect a new president. The president is the head of state and government and is also the commander in chief of the armed forces. He/she is also entrusted with the duty of negotiating treaties on behalf of the government. The president has the power to appoi nt or remove cabinet ministers, Supreme Court judges and other government officials. The executive also comprises of the vice president and cabinet ministers who are nominated by the president. The cabinet consists of fifteen members who represent the government departments. The role of the executive is to enforce laws which are formulated by the legislature. The president signs bills into law making the laws official and enforceable (USA.gov). Unlike the American government, the executive branch of Kuwait government is headed by a constitutional hereditary emirate. The Amir is the head of state while the prime minister is the head of government. The Amir is not elected by the entire nation but inherits the position from the Al Sabah family. Kuwait does not have a

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 15

Assignment - Essay Example However, they have to learn that they cannot have a perfect plan (Honig, 265). They have to keep trying in order to succeed in the life of business. The secret of effectiveness in any field lies within one’s ability to keep trying until he or she meets success. The timid cannot be a leader or a manager for the sake of argument because he or she has to call the shots, and without confidence they cannot do their jobs. The company named as Apple became the status symbol of innovation in recent years, and the secret lied in the culture of the company. The late CEO of the organization, Steve Jobs introduced the flatter organizational structure for the first in the era of tall organizations with the setup of command and control. The featured corporate leader always believed in the power of innovation, and he struggled thoroughly in order to construct the organization that valued innovative thinking. The company innovated at a product level by introducing newness at an organizational one first. The company brought second order change, and the first order followed the regime on its own. The innovation at an organizational level gave the employees freedom to think creatively and the managers at the company stayed available for their employees so that they can share their thoughts in a free environment (Young and Simon, 168). The company stated openly that it considers its human resources as the most vit al assets of all. The company focused on development of an urge to become better in the employees, and it paid off the Apple in the long run, but the chain of innovation broke recently because the leadership changed, and they tried to undo the development of Jobs that they do not understand and comprehend. The new leadership changed the organization, and destroyed it beyond recognition, and as a result, the turnover rates grew in all

Trade and labour standards Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 15000 words

Trade and labour standards - Dissertation Example As such, in June 1998, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was adopted. This development served to force the member states of the ILO. Another important outcome was that it was emphatically prohibited to employ labour standards for protectionist trade purposes. These principles and rights are first, freedom of association and actual recognition of a right to collective bargaining. Second, proscription of any form of compulsory or forced labour. Third, elimination of child labour. Fourth, prohibition of any form of discrimination, with respect to occupation and employment (Policy Brief. International Trade and Core Labour Standards, 2000). The ILO’s follow – up mechanism, in this context, is a significant development in its ability to address the difficulties arising from economic liberalisation at the international level. This system makes it possible to review the relevant progress made by the member states that have not ratified the core l abour standards conventions. A major supporter of this mechanism is the US which has made significant monetary contribution. The US has proposed a system that would assess the influence of international labour standards on international trade and the aims of the GATT (Grace, 2005). This US stance has resulted in the adoption of the basic labour standards of the ILO as the fundamental norms for worker rights. During the 1996, ministerial conference at Singapore, the US called upon the ILO – WTO cooperation to make themselves reciprocally supportive. In addition, it was also stated that there was an urgent need to promote a trading system that was non – discriminatory and transparent. Thereafter, at the 1999 Seattle ministerial meeting of the WTO, the US recommended certain explicit issues for consideration. Some of these were the relationship between social protection, core labour standards and trade; forced labour and trade; positive trade incentives; and derogation on account of trade from national labour standards (Grace, 2005). The extant standards relating to labour are not under the control of the rules and disciplines of the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, some member states of the European Union (EU) and a few nations of North America have expressed the opinion that the WTO should address this issue. It is the firm belief of these countries that such a course of action is indispensable for strengthening public confidence in the international trading system and the WTO (Trade and Labour Standards, 2011). It is the firm conviction of these nations that the WTO should pursue the denial of rights, such as the freedom to engage in collective bargaining, freedom of association, eradication of discrimination in the workplace and workplace abuse. It has been suggested by these countries that these issues can be brought into the WTO, by the strategy of constituting a working group to analyse the norms related to trade and labour (Trade and Labour Standards, 2011). This initiative is believed to better the conditions of all the workers of the world. Views relating to international labour standards admit of considerable divergence. Social and labour activists are seized with the inexorable increase of imports from countries that have scant