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Free Thesis Statement on Factors in Enhancing Employees' Performance in Healthcare Centre

Free Thesis Statement   Factors in Enhancing Employees' Performance in Healthcare Centre     <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; text-autospace: none; margin-bottom: 10.0pt"> The human resource department or the HRD of a healthcare centre is the only one department wherein a good decision is being carried out from the start of their hiring process up to the point of the promotion and retention. Their planning and organizational model of application is affected through the series of changes that might affect the entire healthcare organization.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; text-autospace: none; margin-bottom: 10.0pt"> People, as the key for the organization, needs to increase their performances of the people creates an impact in the organization towards the performance. Therefore, it is important that the strategies that can deliver the essential performance is through the training according to their roles and understanding the important of their role in the organization, thus increasing the working morale of the employees.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; text-autospace: none; margin-bottom: 10.0pt"> Because of the continuous cycle of economic uncertainties and issues on competitive advantage, the healthcare organization expects much on the efforts and performances of the employees. Much of it, the organizations should formulate different kind of practices to boost the competencies within the workforce of healthcare centre. </li>

Free Thesis Statement on Factors in Enhancing Employees' Performance in Healthcare Centre

Free Thesis Statement Factors in Enhancing Employees' Performance in Healthcare Centre The human resource departm...

OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT: GLAXOSMITHKLINE

OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT: GLAXOSMITHKLINE   Introduction             In any given week, a large percentage of adults in the United Kingdom use some form of medication, half of these prescribed by a doctor. Sales of creams, ointments, vitamins, herbal supplements, headache pills, digestive aids, and other over-the-counter medications amount to a large sum of money. The pharmaceutical industry comprises of physical products which can be packaged, stored, and shipped, a primary reason this part of health production is truly international.             Yet, the pharmaceutical industry is in an increasingly complex and dynamic environment. There have been a lot of changes in recent years in the pharmaceutical industry and this trend is likely to continue. The opening of markets, increased buyer cost sensitivity, global competition and technological advances have increased levels of uncertainty. There has been an inexorable rise in patient expectations, increased costs of health-care and the inability of economies to meet the increased costs. Consequently, governments have introduced a number of measures aimed at increasing competition and accountability and thus reducing costs (2002). The top brand name blockbuster drugs have more than $2 billion in annual sales, and a single drug can make or break a company. The largest pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline) each have more than $30 billion in sales. For this paper, the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline will be used for discussion. GlaxoSmithKline is the world's largest pharmaceutical company with pro forma sales of 15 billion pounds ($22.5 billion). It has leading market positions in four classes of therapeutics. GlaxoSmithKline has number-one positions in central nervous system drugs, anti-infectives, respiratory products and vaccines. It also has the number-two position in gastrointestinal and metabolic drug sales, taking into account the Kytril, Famvir and Vectavir divestitures, according to the company. It holds an 11.6 percent share of the central nervous system drug market, 6.1 percent of the gastrointestinal and metabolic drug market, 16.7 percent of the anti-infective market, 17.7 percent of the respiratory market, and 26 percent of the vaccines market. Change is never easy, and the merger between Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham in December 2000 to create GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals certainly caused a lot of change as the organization chose the best structures, systems and solutions with which to move forward. Now, nearly seven years on, information management (IM) is emerging with an improved, streamlined information service to serve research and development (R&D) business needs with a holistic article access strategy, of which document delivery is recognized as an important part. This situation is changing as new methods of accessing full text emerge. Funds that flow into GlaxoSMithKline are used in a variety of ways. For example, they are used to support research and development efforts as the pharmaceutical company seeks to develop newer and better drugs before their competitors. These funds are also used to support marketing and promotional efforts needed to get physicians to prescribe their drug rather than a competitor’s drug. In addition, some of these funds are used to cover the costs of manufacturing, distribution, and administration that go along with any production process, and a portion of these funds are profits, which are either given to stockholders in the form of dividends or reinvested in the company in the form of retained earnings (2004). A breakout of the uses of funds is shown in the table below:   Uses of Funds for Pharmaceutical Products ________________________________________________________________ Cost of goods                                               30% Research & development                          13% Sales, Marketing, administrations                        31% Taxes                                                               6% Net income                                                   20% Source: CMS Health Care Industry Update – Pharmaceuticals, 2003.               Before being able to analyze and comprehend the strategy used for a pharmaceutical company, it is important to first understand industry structure and competition. The market of pharmaceutical products can be divided into three segments based on the type of buyer: individual patients, group purchasers, and government ( 2004). The competition for sales differs significantly across these segments.             The structure of the pharmaceutical industry is dictated by a single fact: the large and important costs are all sunk costs. The value of a drug depends on how useful it is in treating disease, not how many years it took to conduct clinical trials or perfect the production process, nor on the number of failed projects the company had to fund in order to get a winner. Research and testing to bring a pill to market costs so much more than manufacturing that there is essentially no rational connection between price and cost, however measured. Instead, value and price depend on therapeutic effectiveness (1998).             Marketing creates additional divergence between price and “unit cost” because the value of each pill increases as it becomes better and better known as a brand name drug. While clinical value may not depend on marketing, economic value does. Once the drug is launched in the market, any distinction between the value added from increased therapeutic effectiveness and the value added from increased marketing is not wonderful.             Once GlaxoSmithKline marketing launches a drug, the brand name is worth something even if the drug has been superceded by superior competitors. The brand-name version will often continue to sell at the old high price even after the patent has expired in order to capture the consumer surplus of customers who are not price sensitive.             In addition to broadening its product portfolio, GlaxoSmithKline has strengthened its sales and marketing position. The merger creates a company with one of the drug industry's largest sales and marketing forces. It has more than 40,000 sales and marketing personnel throughout the world, including roughly 8,000 representatives in the US. Overall, the combined company will have 100,000 employees.   Part A To some, providing a global service may feel a little daunting and it certainly does have its complications – differing copyright laws being just one of them – but on other levels it feels like the most logical way of providing a service which when it comes down to it, is the same whatever country you happen to be in. When Jean-Pierre Garnier became boss of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham when they merged four years ago, he realized that without huge innovation the company was at risk. Increasing competition from other pharmaceuticals and practically empty pipelines meant that Garnier had to rethink how the firm could maintain its 7 percent market share. His solution was Tadataka Yamada, his top researcher, who was instructed to find a totally new way to discover drugs. It is easy to understand why quality is of utmost importance in the field of pharmaceuticals. Alongside other industries where safety is critical, the pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated and for obvious reasons: mistakes in product design or production can have severe, even fatal, consequences for patients (1999). To ensure a place in the emerging market, given today’s competitive environment, industries must achieve internationally accepted quality levels. Global competition calls for higher levels of quality, efficiency and service. As the pursuit for global manufacturing expanded, several standards organizations worldwide developed guidelines on quality. Terms like quality control, quality assurance, quality management, quality policy, quality plan, quality system, etc., acquired different or conflicting meanings in different countries. However, it is all easier said than done. Pharmaceutical companies cannot make new drugs just at a whim. Neither can they sell them as easily. These processes have to go through certifications and quality management. There are certain series of standards such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Recognizing that there was a need of standardization for quality management as well as for quality assurance, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), headquartered in Geneva, established ISO-TC - which was a technical committee on quality - to write new quality standards (1996). There creates the basis for thorough and unambiguous documentation and that each pharmaceutical product runs through various stages of the quality control process during production - from the laboratory analysis of the base materials and tests during each individual production stage right through to the final checks (1993). These tests and checks, for example, verify that the active agent content and its release correspond precisely with the manufacturing specifications. When numbering individual production batches and managing test and release information, provides the manufacturer with assistance (2002). More extensive analysis options are also available, enabling product quality to be tracked through analyses of the number and type of fault reports per batch. This industry solution is also augmented by options for total quality control in the production of medications and sample data for various administration forms For example, pharmaceutical companies need to accurately weigh out all the substances and materials according to the formulas prescribed by the authorities before production actually begins. (2002) The security of documents in the pharmaceutical industry has become a critical issue since the advent of electronic data transfer. The regulations also require that secure, computer-generated, time-stamped audit trails are used to record the date and time of operator entries and actions that create, modify or delete electronic records.   èAdvantages             Expectations of the standard, for the most part, are based on previous experiences or claims made for it cited in the literature of the major ISO certification bodies, such as the British Standards Institute (BSI), Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) and SGS as well as from empirical research studies. Among the cited benefits of ISO 9000 are: <ul type="disc" style="margin-bottom: 0in"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> increased market opportunities, as customers will see you as more effective and better organised; </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> reduced costs; </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> stronger reputation in the eyes of stakeholders; </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> reduced waste (time and materials); </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> win more business through complying with an internationally recognised and respected standard; </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> compete more effectively through increased customer satisfaction (SGS, 2001); </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> improved management control; and </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> higher profit margins, sales per employee and a higher profit per employee than the industry average (1993). </li> </ul> Empirical studies conducted in the USA ( 1994) and in the UK (1996) found that the main external benefit of the standard was higher perceived quality by the customer, the main internal benefit being better documentation. The preservation of reliable records depends in part upon the maintenance of essential metadata as it is a vital tool in helping an organization fulfill the recordkeeping specifications required by external bodies, including compliance with ISO 9000 requirements. The purpose of the guidelines is to improve the quality of products and services while increasing productivity and reducing costs. This standard has increased the importance and profile of many records management programs. Organizations have always kept records, but prior to ISO 9000 such managers considered them to be a necessary evil instead of an essential component of a quality system (2002).  (1996) found the highest ranked benefit to be improved efficiency, followed by an improved awareness of procedural problems – both internal benefits.   èDisadvantages              (1997) outlined ten main criticisms of ISO 9000 including: (2) quality by inspection is not quality; (b) too heavy reliance on people’s and, in particular, assessors’ interpretation of quality; and (c) when people are subjected to external controls, they will be inclined to pay attention only to those things which are affected by those controls.              (1996) identified eight major disappointments with becoming ISO 9000-certified. The main one cited was the time required to write the associated manuals, while the high cost of implementation came a close second. Of the seven major problems of the standard, once it was implemented ( 1996), the highest ranked was the high cost of maintaining the standard, closely followed by the high volume of paper work.              (2001), while agreeing that ISO 9000 was based on good intentions, suggested the following problems with the standard: (a) the fact that the standard creates unnecessary paper work is unquestionable; (b) the four main areas of cost (time, training, consultants, and registration) may never actually be recouped; (c) the standard may interfere with new and better ways of operating; and the standard is too general and not industry-specific.               Part B Comparing the contribution of TQM and ISO, it will be found that the companies adopting TQM achieve higher improvement than those adopting ISO at all levels of application. Companies which had fully implemented ISO had an average improvement of 36 per cent, while companies which had fully implemented TQM had an average improvement of 99 per cent. The comparison shows that TQM as a whole is more beneficial than ISO (1999). The ISO 9000 series is currently used in more than 90 countries. The standards that it provides apply to a variety of areas of manufacturing and service organizations. The standards developed by ISO and the implementation of these standards are voluntary. ISO does not have any legislative power and is not a part of any government or the United Nations. Governments as well as individual companies make the decision to voluntarily integrate ISO standards into their systems on a voluntary basis. Also, many companies decide to implement ISO 9000 to reduce costs related to quality problems such as after-the-fact inspections, warranty costs, and rework. ISO 9000 is also implemented to have an edge over the competition. A few governments require that some industries meet the international standards that ISO 9000 has created. On the other hand, the total quality management (TQM) philosophy of many organizations stresses a systematic, integrated, consistent, organization-wide perspective involving everyone and everything (1999). Quality standards for pharmaceuticals have been built up over the years from experts from industry, pharmacopoeial authorities, regulatory agencies and academia and are based on experience and the need to safeguard the safety and efficacy of the product, for the sake of the patient’s health (2002).             Pharmaceutical companies also followed the path of achieving a quality certification; namely, ISO 9000 accreditation, in the pursuit of excellence (1993). Certification is attractive as a means of impressing new customers and convincing existing ones that they are dealing with a progressive company, which is continually seeking improvements. However, certification was seen as a stepping-stone on the journey towards excellence. Certification was found to represent a milestone, a recognition that progress is being made and that TQM efforts are paying off. Enthusiasm for TQM can quickly fade if there are no tangible results. The survey indicates that commitment to TQM among senior management is high. Strong leadership has directed companies to attempt to make the TQM process “belong to the company” and so foster employees ownership.             Total quality management has demonstrated its potential to be a successful way for organizations to eliminate costs, improve productivity and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace (1999). One of the main elements of TQM is the need for adequate customer focus. Companies have to identify current and future consumers’ needs and their level of satisfaction and loyalty. It is foreseeable that in the future global consumers will become increasingly demanding, in particular with the development of TQM in the less-advanced countries (e.g. China, South America and South-East Asia). Any changes which are made have to be undertaken with customer’s needs given full consideration, therefore this TQM dimension constitutes a stimulus to business innovation ( 1999). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a great awareness of the need to provide a greater level of protection than was required by simple legal compliance led to the development and adoption of internal global EHS standards by all the heritage companies that merged to form GlaxoSmithKline. These standards defined the ways of working that met or exceeded legal and regulatory requirements in all countries in which heritage GlaxoSmithKline companies did business. Compliance with both legal requirements and internal standards were tracked through routine audits of all manufacturing and research and development operations ( 2004).             Total quality management strategy at GlaxoSmithKline called for establishing a formalized, ongoing quality assurance program that would improve the company's efficiency and enhance service to customers, which would help the company to grow and become more profitable. ISO certification requires that the company develop a quality-management system to ensure that products and services conform to customer requirements. The system must be subject to continual performance improvement. There is perhaps no better way to demonstrate return in a service industry than through measurable quality of service and ISO certification to be a powerful tool in measuring and maintaining customer satisfaction ( 1993). TQM led to measurable bottom-line benefits and many other organizations was quick to follow down the TQM route to quality ( 1990). Henceforth, the TQM adoption strategies suggested that many had simply attempted processes that could be described as overlay and resulted in low levels of ownership and poor integration far from being of advantage to quality management, it became counter-productive with staff losing motivation and are able to demonstrate quality improvements with concomitant improvements in production and decrease in costs (1996). A successful implementation of TQM can lead to improvements in the quality of products and services, reductions in the waste of resources, and overall increases in efficiency and productivity. Such improvements contribute to good customer relations, growth in market share and sustained competitive advantage (1990). The benefit of the use of management systems has recently been demonstrated by the ability of the company to maintain its levels of compliance and environment, health and safety performance during the last merger of companies to form GlaxoSmithKline. The company is now embarking on a programme to embed sustainable development into the fabric of the operations. The initial phase is to look at natural resource utilization, both to improve efficiencies and to examine the possibility of a greater reliance on renewable resources. The emphasis at present is to develop and implement processes in research and development, procurement, capital expenditures and other related areas. These areas will be controlled through the use of management systems and then tracked by audits (2004). There is a commonality between TQM and ISO in terms of contribution. For both factors, the contribution from “little use” to “much use” increases slightly. The contribution increases dramatically at the high use stage. This result has many implications. Theoretically, it suggests a learning effect in applying quality methods. Practically, the suggestion is that companies should not be half-hearted in applying quality methods, and that companies should not be frustrated at the slow contribution of quality methods at their earlier stage of application. It also suggests the necessity of continuous improvement.

OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT: GLAXOSMITHKLINE

OPERATIONS & LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT: GLAXOSMITHKLINE Introduction In any given week, a large percentage of adults i...

Strategic Brand Management of Café de Coral – Hong Kong

Strategic Brand Management Café de Coral – Hong Kong   Company Background             Café de Coral is the largest Chinese restaurant chain in the world. It is listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange. Café de Coral has different business operations and has managed to expand its business worldwide. “Major operations include fast food outlets, institutional catering, specialty restaurants, food manufacturing, distribution and other overseas food and beverage businesses” ().   Profile             Café de Coral is Hong Kong’s leading fast-food brand. The company is the undisputed market leader in Hong Kong and is currently serving an average of 300,000 customers everyday. The company boasts its broad experience in the food and catering industry that made them the biggest and most successful brand in Hong Kong. The company’s 34 years of proven experience has made them one of the market leaders in Asia.  Product             café de Coral offers a wide array of food to choose from. Its specially designed menu aims to meet every customer’s tastes and budgets. Café de Coral offers 100 items on the menu that are intended for customers that seek good food, fun dining experience and affordable prices. The food items are regularly rotated to offer the customers a variety of choices. The standard menus range from western cuisine to traditional Chinese dishes. The company also introduces new and innovative products regularly. Place Every restaurant is strategically located to reach the target markets and attract potential customers. Restaurants are located in different mixed use district, business core, shopping centers, industrial areas, private and public and housing estates. The restaurants are modern in terms of designs and have warm ambiance that encourages maximum customer flow.  People The staff at Café de Coral are friendly and warm. They are dedicated and energetic. The service team is properly trained in order to render high quality service to Café de Coral’s valued customers. Café de Corals customers are diverse. People from all walks of life and different backgrounds come to Café de Coral to experience the state of the art ambiance, best food and high quality service.  Promotion "Achieving A Hundred Points of Excellence" has been our commitment to our customers and is now a household catch phrase. As part of our on going campaign to strengthen the Café de Coral Brand, proactive advertising campaigns are launched on a continual basis. Through the campaign, the brand image has been further enhanced by positioning Café de Coral as a place not just for best taste and value meals but also a popular meeting place for all walks of life () Prospect Café de Coral is dedicated to accommodating changing market needs and continues to uphold its reputation and status as the leader in the field of food service. Total dining experience is continuously being enriched by developing new products and constantly improving the facilities and incorporating exiting design concepts. The company is looking forward to establishing a stronger market lead in the Chinese market. Café de Coral is planning for China expansion.   History             The first Café de Coral opened in 1968 on Sugar Street, Causeway Bay. After years of hard work, Café de Coral evolved from a single outlet to a leading Chinese fast food chain with over 120 restaurants, serving over 300,000 customersdaily ().   Products and Services Provided Signature Products  "Baked Pork Chop with Rice", "Hot Pot", "Chicken in Glutinous Rice" and "Tea with Milk" are all signature products of Café de Coral with huge success, but we don't just stop there. We want to be better than the best and we never stop evaluating our signature products to make improvements, so that you always get the best without even having to ask for it. Premium Ingredients  Besides our well established menu, Café de Coral also explores into the realm of the newest tastes. We even introduced luxurious dishes that used to be served only in the most prestigious hotels and high-end dining restaurants, such as our Winter Melon Soup that comes in one-person portion, Shark's Fin Soup, King Size Scallop and Campedore Soup. You always get the best food with the best value for money at Café de Coral. Quality Control  Café de Coral insists so much on food quality that we set the strictest standard for every step, from merchandizing, cooking to storage. We also hire an independent team to examine and evaluate the quality of food at each branch. And you, as our customer, of course have the say - we conduct surveys regularly to understand what you need in terms of food and services ().   Services  A Hundred Points of Excellence    "A Hundred Points of Excellence" is our motto and every one of the 10,000 Café de Coral employees treats "customer satisfaction" as a mission. We try our best to improve our service and food every minute so that you always get the best.     Staff Training Café de Coral provides training for employees on all levels regularly, to refine their individual skills and to improve their co-operation skills as a team. "Mystery shoppers" program is conducted to reveal the real service quality and employee's attitude. This auto-amelioration is surely one vital step in elevating the standard of service ().   Brand Development Strategy             One of the most important brand strategies that Cafe de Coral must develop is creating consumer demand by using advertising and promotion. The company must be able to communicate the brand effectively to the consumers. Café de Coral must continuously launch advertising campaigns in order to strengthen its Brand. Advertisements will be primarily used to build marketing relationship between the consumers and the company’s brand. The company is continuously growing with the aid of effective marketing studies that aim to identify opportunities for expansion, targeted marketing opportunities and discover new niches. The company is growing in a breath-taking rate with over 330 outlets in Asia Pacific region, and over 200 quick service restaurants in North America. The company has expanded its operations, which now include fast food, institutional catering, specialty restaurants, food manufacturing, distribution and other overseas food and beverage enterprises. The company is also determined to sustain customer loyalty by continuously improving the products, the ambiance of the restaurant and maintaining a high level of service quality. Café de Coral has developed a reputation of being both the best place to eat best taste and value meals and a place where from different backgrounds and social levels can meet and mingle. According to  (2000), the company offers a diverse menu so that the customers would visit more than once a week and have a different selection to choose from each time (p.22).  Café de Coral offers a menu that is specially designed to meet the tastes and budgets of every customer. It also introduces new products and seasonal products regularly. The stores are well designed and have a warm and relaxing environment that attracts different people. The stores are strategically located in areas where they can reach their target market and can gain access to potential customers.   Brand Elements 1. Memorability and Recognition             The company must employ different advertisement campaigns in order to make the mainstay customers and potential customers remember the company and its products and service more. Because of the effective advertisements, Café de Coral is easily recognized and recalled by the customers. The company has successfully created a recognizable identity among their many communications and product lines. The company’s “Achieving a Hundred Points of Excellence’ has earned wide recognition and memorability among its customers. 2. Meaningfulness             The company must use brand names, brand logos, brand symbols, brand slogans and brand characters that are descriptive, persuasive and interesting in order to attract the customers. These can be combinations of both visual and verbal approaches.   Brand Positioning             Category Membership is important in establishing and sustaining the company’s brand position. Attributes and image must be used to provide rationales that will give consumers reason to believe that Café de Coral’s brand has the benefit that implies membership in a category. Brand attribute must be used in order to create a point of difference. It is very important for the company to inform the customers of Café de Coral’s membership before stating its point-of-difference in relation to other category members. It is well known that Café de Coral is a fast food restaurant but it is important that the customers know what sets Café de Coral apart from other quick service restaurants such as McDonalds. The company must develop concurrent marketing programs where one features membership and the other the point-of-difference. Developing compelling points of difference is crucial to effective brand positioning. Café de Coral is known as the largest Chinese quick service restaurant chain in the world. The point of difference between Café de Coral and its biggest competitor, McDonalds is the menu, ambiance and service style. The company must focus on highlighting this edge and product development and improvements. The advertisement must convince the customers that Café de Coral offers the more superior products, ambiance and service quality together with affordable prices. The Role of Marketing Mix             The four P’s of marketing mix are important in controlling the internal and external constraints of the marketing environment. 1. Products are the tangible and physical products as well as services. 2. Price decision is important in creating a competitive brand. 3. Distribution is about delivering the products and services to the customers 4. Promotion deals with communicating the product or service to the customers and making a favorable image of the product or service in the minds of the customers.   Contradictory Arguments             Café de Coral is one of the largest Chinese quick service restaurant chains in the world. One major strategy of Café de Coral is advertising. Advertisement is important in gaining customer attention. However advertising alone is not enough to sustain its status and create new opportunities for expansion. Café de Coral must build its success on product innovation and marketing excellence, backed up by an uncompromising commitment to quality customer service. Its marketplace is fast changing and competitive, characterized by increasingly sophisticated customers and ever-tighter profit margins. To sustain its leadership position in this demanding environment, Café de Coral must find a way to improve customer experience while enhancing operating efficiency and reducing costs.   Recommendations             A carefully formulated marketing Mix is important in positioning Café de Coral in the customers’ minds. The elements of the marketing mix (product, promotion, price and distribution) are essential in order to carry out a brand management strategy. The aim of the marketing mix is to create a favorable customer view of Café de Coral using promotional messages, pricing strategy, mode of distribution and the product and service appearance.   1. Products             Café de Coral’s products and services are important in creating a favorable image of the company in the customers’ minds. This image is reflected in the customers’ perceptions and feelings about the products and services. Attention must be given to the benefits that the customers get from Café de Coral’s products and services. The customers must be convinced that the company is capable of giving them the benefits that they expect in order to attract them. Product decisions should include quality, features, options, style, brand name, packaging, services, and returns. Special attention must be given to quality.             Quality reflects differences among products or differences among services. As long as it is possible to create differences among products then it should be possible to create differences in quality. Even in cases where it is difficult to create differences, producers can still try to promote products through ‘perceived’ quality differences, i.e. the way in which they are perceived by the customer. Quality is a relative value that people attribute to things. It reflects people’s expectations concerning a product or service and how well it will provide the various benefits they require from using it. Fortunately, large groups of people have shared ideas about quality and it is possible to produce and market products and services that will meet with the perceptions of large groups of customers. Groups of customers sharing a common perception of a particular level of quality form market segments. A firm can direct its promotional messages to these groups of customers provided that it knows how to reach them. Product quality contributes to business profitability. It has been found to be positively related to market share and return on investment over a wide range of products and in different market situations (2000). 2. Promotion             Café de Coral’s products and services must be noticed and must be trusted by the customers. This can only be achieved through an advertisement campaign that stands out. Advertisements must be able to catch the customers’ attention and deliver the message in an original way that will ensure customer memorablity and recognition. The advertisements of Café de Coral must not only inform but it must also entertain to be able to attract customer attention and interest. Café de Coral must give emphasis to images because they have the “capacity to capture the essence of a thousand words” (2000). 3. Price             Due to stiff competition, Café de Coral must maintain a competition-oriented pricing. 4. Distribution             The distribution process of Café de Coral is direct distribution. Through direct distribution, the company has more control over marketing activities and reduces time spent in the channel.

Strategic Brand Management of Café de Coral – Hong Kong

Strategic Brand Management Café de Coral – Hong Kong Company Background Café de Coral is the largest Chinese restaurant ...

Ethnicity, Race, Psychology and Culture

Racism does not move tidily and unchanged through time. It assumes new forms and articulates new antagonisms in different situations.   INTRODUCTION               The term “racism” is often used in a loose and unreflective way to describe the hostile or negative feelings of one ethnic group or “people” toward another and the actions resulting from such attitudes. But sometimes the antipathy of one group toward another is expressed and acted upon with a single-mindedness and brutality that go far beyond the group-centered prejudice and snobbery that seem to constitute an almost universal human failing (2002). Racism refers to any theory or doctrine stating that inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, hair texture, and the like, determine behavior patterns, personality traits, or intellectual abilities. In practice, racism typically takes the form of a claim that some human races are superior to others. An abuse of the concept of differences among peoples, it has contributed to the practices of discrimination and prejudice among groups in many parts of the world.             Racism was a prevalent ideology in Europe and America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Racist theories about supposed physical and intellectual superiority were advanced by , both of whom insisted that supreme among the races were members of the mythical Nordic, or Aryan, race. Nazi Germany under  based its extermination of millions of Jews and other non-Aryans on this theory of race supremacy and the corollary concept of racial purity. The term for “race” in Western European languages did have relevant antecedent meanings associated with animal husbandry and aristocratic lineages. The recognition of superior breeds of horses and dogs obviously foreshadowed the biological ranking of human beings with differing physical traits. Heredity was commonly associated with blood, and titled families were thought to manifest their royal or noble blood through recurring somatic characteristics. In 1611 a Spanish dictionary included among the definitions of raza an honorific use—“a caste or quality of authentic horses”— and a pejorative one, as referring to a lineage that included Jewish or Moorish ancestors. The “blood libels” against Jews that began in the Middle Ages were rooted in a belief that blood could convey sacred or magical properties. The notion, implicit in these accusations, that Christian blood differed from Jewish was clearly affirmed in the sixteenth century Spanish conception of limpieza de sangre. But the fact that different varieties of animals of the same species could interbreed, as could all humans, meant that such premodern hereditarianism did not threaten the orthodox belief in the essential unity of humankind. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and beyond, the term “race” or its equivalent was also frequently used to refer to nations or peoples—as in “the English race” or “the French race.” Whenever and wherever it was used, however, the term implied that “races” had stable and presumably unchangeable characteristics (2002). The modern theory of race is to be traced to the 18th century with the scientific studies of  who propagated the theory of several basic racial types, the noblest being the "Caucasians" or white groups. The pseudo-science of race blossomed in the 19th century thanks to the writings of some authors – doctrines that would prove so lethal in the 20th century in the hands of the Nazis. Unwittingly, cultural anthropologists added grist to the mill of the racists by their studies of racial types and anatomies and formulation of racial categories, genotypes, and biological differences (2004). The phrase has been more often than not misapplied, as  insists in his latest work, Racism: A Short History. A professor of sociology at Stanford University and author of significant works on anti-black racism,  offers a concisely lucid analysis of the origins of racism, which he defines as hostile or negative feelings of one group towards another and actions that result. The defining traits of race are innate or unchangeable, e.g., skin pigmentation. "Racism exists when one ethnic group or historical collectivity dominates, excludes, or seeks to eliminate another on the basis of differences that it believes are hereditary or unalterable." A racist doesn't hate a person for "what he believes but for what he is." A racist state such as South Africa under the apartheid regime or Nazi Germany legalizes racism and develops a hierarchy to promote and enforce its racist ideology. Race and racism have become foci of interest in the social sciences. In the past two decades there has been a noticeable expansion in scholarship and research about race and racism in contemporary societies. This has been reflected in a growing body of theoretical and empirically based work on various facets of race and racism in both contemporary societies and historical periods. Although much of this research has historically been located within the discipline of sociology, a notable feature of recent trends has been the growth of research in disciplines such as anthropology, politics, geography, media and cultural studies, law and the humanities (2004). This paper will attempt to discuss the premise “Racism does not move tidily and unchanged through time. It assumes new forms and articulates new antagonisms in different situations,” with emphasis on the origins of racism and how it evolved through the years.   BODY   As an ideology, racism has been on the wane since the 1940s, although in a few countries, such as South Africa, it has had the support of the political leadership. In other countries it lingers on as a folk mythology. The overwhelming bulk of scientific opinion in both the social and the biological sciences, however, now rejects the notion that large human populations, such as the so-called white, black, and yellow races, behave differently because of their physical appearance, or that they can be said to be genetically superior or inferior to one another. Genetic differences between population groups do exist, of course. None of these group differences, however, has yet been shown to affect personality, intelligence, or, indeed, any ability that significantly relates to social behavior. In recent years the term racism has been at times misapplied to various related but distinct social attitudes and occurrences. For example, feelings of cultural superiority based on language, religion, morality, manners, or some other aspect of culture are sometimes labeled as racist, but the proper term for such feelings is ethnocentrism. Another loose usage of the term is the notion of institutional racism – meaning any practice that results, intentionally or otherwise, in differential representation of different human groups. Recent theorizing on the nature of racism suggests that over the last few decades it has come to be expressed in more subtle and ambiguous ways because while many white people proclaim egalitarian values, their cognitions and behavior are influenced by prejudices that are buried deep in their psyche. This leads to the possibility that those who perpetrate and those who experience racism may have different interpretations of events that involve racism ( 2001). Thus, race remains a determining factor in both cognitive processing and social action, and racism is still experienced by minority groups, much to the bemusement of the `racist-non-racist' perpetrators, who may believe that they are neither prejudiced nor racist. The perpetrators and the victims of subtle and covert forms of racism probably have different perceptions and understandings of interactions, due in part to the nature of contemporary racism, which may be marked by conditions of ambiguity, and by denial on the part of the perpetrators. So, as  (2001) has argued, rather than disqualifying the views of targets of racism, as has been the case in previous research, the observations of those who experience everyday racism may be more relevant in identifying hidden and subtle racism. The causes of racism are complex and cannot be reduced to a single factor. Its rise and fall are often linked with real conflicts of interest and competition for scarce resources. Historically, racism has commonly accompanied slavery, colonialism, and other forms of exploitation and gross inequality. In other cases, relatively powerless groups that have felt threatened by social and economic instability have blamed other powerless groups for their predicament. Racism is frequently an irrational reaction to a real or perceived threat to the status quo. Racism is rooted on religion. Anti-Judaism became antisemitism whenever it turned into a consuming hatred that made getting rid of Jews seem preferable to trying to convert them, and antisemitism became racism when the belief took hold that Jews were intrinsically and organically evil rather than merely having false beliefs and wrong dispositions (2002). Racism is now increasingly used to mean something far beyond its dictionary definition. It is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted who are beating at western Europe's doors, the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place. It is a racism, that is, that cannot be color-coded, directed as it is at poor whites as well, and is therefore passed off as xenophobia, a "natural" fear of strangers ( 2005). In the modern era the underlying assumption of "racism" is a belief that differences in the culture, values, and/or practices of some ethnic/religious groups are "too different" and are likely to threaten "community values" and social cohesion. Note the evolution: as belief in racial differences and racial superiority wanes in polite society, some parties expand the meaning of racism to condemn political decisions such as worrying about too much immigration (even of poor whites), preferring one's own culture, fearing radical Islam, and implementing effective counterterrorist measures (2005). This attempt to delegitimize political differences must be rejected. Racism refers only to racial issues, not to views on immigration, culture, religion, ideology, law enforcement, or military strategy. But it cannot be denied that racism has taken many forms and has evolved or changed through the decades. It did assume new forms and articulates new antagonisms in different situations. Specific forms of racism exist, like institutional racism and individual racism. First, we must make the familiar distinction between institutional and individual racism. Institutional racism refers to specific institutions or pervasive social forms that embody racism or racial injustice—such as word-of-mouth recruiting at a mostly white company, which leaves potential racial minority applicants at a disadvantage; or educational institutions failing to provide an atmosphere and services sensitive to the experiential and cultural differences of racial minority students, thus failing to provide equal educational opportunity for those students. By individual racism is meant any racism on the part of individuals, which can include actions, beliefs, attitudes, even feelings. The most common forms of individual attitudinal racism are bigotry, prejudice, and a belief in one's racial superiority, and these attitudes prompt many forms of racist behavior. However, individual racist acts can be unintentionally racist, particularly in institutionally racist contexts, where an individual is simply doing her job or conforming with "standard practice" so that her actions have racially discriminatory effect, but not the motivation (1999). The terms racism and racist are distinctly moral or morally charged. In speaking of a "racist remark", a "racist stereotype", or a "racist policy", people condemn in strong terms the object in question. In the dominant culture in some countries, to accuse someone of a racist action or a racist sentiment or belief is to charge him with a serious moral failure, and most people wish very much to avoid being thought to be or being called, "racist” (1999). Racism is a racial, socio-political and psychological phenomenon that occurs within a context of racial differences; it involves a set of beliefs about and attitudes toward a different racial group(s), which are rooted systemically and sustained institutionally within a larger context of political and economic hegemony (1994). In other words, the true nature of racism is only masked when conceptualizes as the biased generalization of one racial group about another racial group. Racism is only masked when conceptualized as the biased generalizations of one racial group about another racial group. Racism is inextricably linked to the distribution of wealth and the "distribution of resources across groups." G.M.  argues that racist institutions are controlled by white people who attempt to regulate "a reservoir of cheap and coercible labor for the rest of the country.” The 'evidence' of fundamental differences between white 'Caucasian' and 'Negro' was seemingly overwhelming, and all to the latter's detriment. One aspect of this was the previously mentioned endurance of 'physiognomical' (including phrenological) thinking. A sense that physical form reflected underlying psychological character endowed physical anthropological descriptions with a powerful racist rhetorical force. To measure 'facial angle', prognathousness, blackness, and brain size was to quantify proximity to a European aesthetic-cum-psychological ideal, which was tantamount to measuring degree of evolutionary advancement. While this occasionally backfired (e.g. greater European hairiness), the implications could usually be evaded by special adaptational pleading (hair was retained in the colder northern climate). A low brow, a protruding jaw, and small skull possessed psychological meanings which were felt to be self-evident, almost matters of direct perception (1997). From a legal standpoint there are ways that a person can deal with racism in law enforcement and the workplace when he or she is aware of constitutional rights and the law ( 2002). Racial inequality is one big problem of racism. No doubt labor market discrimination has diminished in the past sixty years, and whites are clearly less prejudiced today than they were in 1940. But these developments tell us very little about contemporary patterns of racial discrimination and racial inequality ( 2003). But at present, this is not so prevalent and many other forms already exist. Some feel that to discuss racism, one has to be political. Well, racism by definition is political because it is centered on power. Racism is more than race prejudice and/or bigotry. It is more than individual attitudes and actions. It is the collective actions of a dominant racial group. Racial prejudice becomes racism when one group's racial prejudices are enforced by the systems and institutions of a society, giving power and privilege based on skin color to the group in power. The psychological aspect of racism begins with the rise of Spencerian and Darwinian evolutionary theory in the 1850s, when   and  cousin  opened the Psychological discussion. In traditional Christian cosmology, 'Mankind's' basic unity was an article of faith: we are all descendants of Noah's sons and daughters-in-law. This seemingly explained the main varieties of physique and colour with which Europeans were familiar-white Europeans, brown Asians and black Africans (1997). By 1800 the broader European perspective had fundamentally altered. Imperial expansion, and accelerating technological sophistication, gave ideas of intrinsic European superiority ever more credibility. The Enlightenment notion of history as progressive and directional made it inevitable that differences between peoples and cultures would eventually be construed evaluatively as reflecting relative levels of advancement (1997). This entire episode has implications beyond the race issue, bearing directly on current debates about the social construction of science. There is a continuing desire to see science as containing some transcendental core immune to the impact of 'external' factors such as funding and ideological interests. It may now be grudgingly admitted that the appeal of evolutionary theory as a metaphor and rationale for capitalism contributed to its acceptance and cultural impact but beneath that, it will be said, exists some 'pure' a historical scientific nucleus of objective knowledge. In the case of the extensive scientific work on race, however, this certainly seems highly dubious. To put it bluntly, all this research was on something which was not there. All that exists is a vast range of human morphological diversity. The very concept of 'race’ was entirely a product of non-scientific forces, and no core of objective scientific knowledge about it, no enduring gains in scientific understanding, were obtained. That this diversity per se can be partly explained in evolutionary terms may be admitted, but the ‘race’ concept and its hierarchical progressivist interpretation prevented any permanent 'scientific progress' in understanding it. If this is so, 'Scientific Racism’ provides a clear case where apparently normal natural science can be conducted in terms bearing little relationship to any existing 'transfactual' natural phenomenon, and is only explicable in strong social constructionist terms ( 1997). One can therefore trace the origins of the two main forms of modern racism — the color-coded white supremacist variety and the essentialist version of antisemitism—to the late medieval and early modern periods. Since the idiom of this period was primarily religious rather than naturalistic or scientific, it could only be through some special act of God that some peoples could have been consigned to pariah status or slavery. But any such invocation of what might be called supernaturalist racism came into conflict with the main thrust of Christianity—the salvation of the entire human race, which, according to the New Testament, was of “one blood.” It was because he argued from this perspective that Las Casas was more persuasive than Sepu´lveda. On a popular level the great curses served to make it easier for Christians to treat other human beings as less than human ( 2002). The notion that there was a single pan-European or “white” race was slow to develop and did not crystallize until the eighteenth century. Direct encounters with Africans had of course made Europeans aware of their own light pigmentation, but in other contexts whiteness, as opposed to national and religious affiliations, was not a conscious identity or seen as a source of specific inherited traits. At a time when social inequality based on birth was the general rule among Europeans themselves, color-coded racism had little scope for autonomous development. In the New World, where European pigmentation could be readily compared to that of black slaves or copper-toned Indians, color soon became one—but only one—of several salient identities ( 2002). As we have seen, something that can be legitimately described as racism existed well before the twentieth or even the late nineteenth century. Prejudice and discrimination, fortified by ideologies claiming that the differences between human groups of apparently divergent ancestry are immutable and have implications for social inclusion or ranking, have a history that goes back to the late Middle Ages. But racist principles were not fully codified into laws effectively enforced by the state or made a central concern of public policy until the emergence of what I will call “overtly racist regimes” during the past century.  conception of American and South African segregation as the “highest stage of white supremacy” draws attention to the relation between modernization and legalized racism. When the unequal treatment of people based on their race is bureaucratized and “rationalized” in the Weberian sense, one can say that racism has been modernized. The most deadly outcome of a racist regime—the Holocaust—required more than antisemitic ideology and sentiment. It was thoroughly dependent, as  has emphasized, on modern bureaucratic methods and advanced technology (2002). It is widely believed that racism remains a major international problem at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The term is used in some countries and in some circles to describe hostility and discrimination directed against a group for virtually any reason. The French, for example, sometimes use the term to describe biases founded on age, gender, or sexual orientation. Usually, however, the act of racializing the Other seizes upon differences that are “ethnic” in some sense. According to political scientist , ethnicity “is based on a myth of collective ancestry, which usually carries with it traits believed to be innate. Some notion of ascription, however diluted, and affinity deriving from it are inseparable from the concept of ethnicity.” The marks or identifiers usually associated with ethnicity are language, religion, customs, and physical characteristics (inborn or acquired). One or more (sometimes all) may serve as sources of ethnic divisiveness; any one of them can provoke disdain, discrimination, or violence on the part of another group that does not share the trait or traits that have come to define ethnic Otherness. It is justifiable, as I once did in an essay, to describe the essence of racism as ethnicity made hierarchical, or, in other words, making difference invidious and disadvantageous through the application of power. But, as the preceding chapters of this book suggest, I would now put more stress than I did then on the presence and articulation of a belief that the defining traits are innate or unchangeable. Pigmentation, however, is not the only supposedly indelible mark of difference upon which racism can be based, as the history of antisemitism clearly demonstrates (Fredrickson, 2002). Unfortunately, racism survives at the present, and this exists in many forms. If racism is not dead, it is less intense and intellectually respectable than it was a century or even a half-century ago. But human beings continue to mistreat other human beings on the basis of their ethnic identities. In a sense we may have returned to the chronological starting point of this inquiry. Before “the invention of racism” Christians persecuted Jews and Muslims because of their beliefs and the behavior that was associated with them. The Crusades were not fought under the banner of white, Aryan, or Indo-European superiority or the divine right of the Herrenvolk to rule over lesser breeds. The conflicts were defined in what we would today call cultural rather than racial terms. Of course, as has been often shown in this study, the line between “culturalism” and racism is not difficult to cross. Culture and even religion can become essentialized to the point that they can serve as a functional equivalent of biological racism, as has to some extent occurred recently in the perception of blacks in the United States and Britain, and of Muslims in several predominantly Christian nations (2002). According to a well-known philosophical maxim, the last thing a fish notices is the water. Things that are unproblematic seem natural and tend to go unnoticed. Fish take the water they swim in for granted, just as European Americans take their race as a given, as normal. White Americans may face difficulties in life—problems having to do with money, religion, or family—but race is not one of them. White Americans can be sanguine about racial matters because their race has not been (until recently) visible to the society in which they live. They cannot see how this society produces advantages for them because these benefits seem so natural that they are taken for granted, experienced as wholly legitimate. They literally do not see how race permeates America's institutions—the very rules of the game—and its distribution of opportunities and wealth (2003). In the new conventional wisdom about race, white racism is regarded as a remnant from the past because most whites no longer express bigoted attitudes or racial hatred. Racial realists conclude that racism has ended because of the massive change in white attitudes toward blacks over the past sixty years. For example, more than half of all whites once believed that blacks were intellectually inferior. In 1994, however, only 13 percent of whites believed that blacks had “less in-born ability to learn” than whites. Whites also used to favor school segregation by overwhelming majorities, but now 90 percent favor school integration. In the 1940s whites believed they should be favored in competition for jobs. Today, on the other hand, whites unanimously agree that “blacks and whites should have an equal chance to compete for jobs (2003). To racial realists, this evidence means that the color line has been radically altered. Those of us who came of age in the 1960s grew up in a society where racism was overt. It was difficult to ignore or deny; the evidence of segregation was often as stark as the lettering on a “whites only” sign. The visibility of racial discrimination, together with the moral power of the civil rights movement, mobilized people of all races against  laws and ushered in landmark civil rights legislation to end it. Divided into black and white, the world was relatively uncomplicated, and the options were straightforward. One favored either integration or segregation ( 2003). Looking beyond plain old-fashioned racism, however, the another reason race matters is that the most important source of continuing racial disparities in many countries is still the legacy of past patterns of discrimination and racially coded patterns of disinvestment. Disaccumulation, as it is called, persists today in good part because the people of the many countries never moved with sufficient seriousness to remedy it. This is both the most crucial reality to understand in comprehending the problem of durable racial inequality in the twenty-first century, and the one that seems hardest for many people to fully grasp—because this kind of racism is largely invisible. Much of the debate about race in many nations today still revolves around the question of whether ongoing racial disparities in schooling, jobs, income, incarceration, and other realms are mainly the result of current overt discrimination or the result of flawed culture and behavior of people of color. As we have demonstrated throughout this book, the correct answer is neither. Most of the current gap in life-chances and various measures of performance between blacks and whites reflects the legacy of past decisions—decisions that cumulatively resulted in a profound imbalance in the most fundamental structures of opportunity and support in many countries (2003). In America, for example, in housing, in education, in transportation, in employment policy, and in income support/social insurance policy, the choices that systematically disadvantaged black Americans were also ones that, by design or otherwise, benefited white Americans. These policies, in combination and over generations, have had enormous and pervasive consequences. In debates about racism within the United States, some take the position that black people cannot be racist and that only white people can be racist. Others hold a very different view. They say that racism is not confined to one group, that members of any ethnic or racial group can be racist against members of any other group, and that racism on the part of blacks (or Asians or Asian Americans, and so on) is no better or worse than racism on the part of whites. All racism is equal, according to this second view (1999). Additionally, it is important to understand that the key element to racism is the fact that there is a hegemonic relation of oppressor to oppressed. Certain beliefs and attitudes are necessary for being a racist but they are not sufficient -- what is needed are institutional frameworks or social mechanisms through which such beliefs and attitudes are enacted to oppress a particular people (1994).   CONCLUSION   The term racism is now increasingly used to mean something far beyond its dictionary definition. This is because racism is not a stagnant thing and is constantly evolving and changing. Racism is no longer just about color, it is a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories. It is a racism, that is, that cannot be color-coded, directed as it is at poor whites and Asians as well. Racism includes aspects of discrimination in education, work, religion, income, and many more.

Ethnicity, Race, Psychology and Culture

Racism does not move tidily and unchanged through time. It assumes new forms and articulates new antagonisms in different situations. ...