How to Write a College Application Essay Guidelines and Advices - Paperell.com

How to Write a College Application Essay Guidelines and Advices How to Write a College Application Essay: Guidelines and Advices Admission to college or university involves writing an application essay. In most cases, a correctly designed motivation letter is 50% of the entrance to the educational institute of your dreams. That’s why you should not take writing it lightly.A college application essay outline (motivation letter) is a text on 1-2 pages, where the candidate describes his/her interests (academic), experience, goals, life position, and achievements. This paper format can tell a lot about the author.First, the selection committee will be able to get an idea about the personality of the candidate, his/her ability to think critically, and to analyze the situation.Second, the ability of the candidateto   logically, coherently and grammatically correctly expresses his/her thoughts in writing.You should agree! Based on a college application essay, you can draw certain conclusions about the candidate who dreams about a diploma from a world reknown university – that’s why you need to write this paper perfectly.What Is The Goal Of This Paper?The main purpose of the college application essay format is to convince members of the admissions committee you are the most suitable candidate and should give preference to you. With the help of an outline, you establish communication with the members of the admission committee. To be successful, you should:Know what the audience expects from you;Know what you want from the learning process in college;Be able to tell about unique qualities that make you special.Main Steps For Writing A Flawless Admission Essay For CollegeYou can download templates of a motivation letter in English and write your letter in their image and likeness, or even buy an essay for college. But, it will be more reliable if you try, guided by general recommendations to write your personal text.If you do not know how to start a college application essay, learn the formats:Not structured. You can freely express your goals, objectives, and describe your e xperience, personal qualities, and achievements.A form of answers to questions. Such a paper, as a rule, is written by candidates who apply for MBA programs. In this case, the motivation letter will consist of short essay-answers to certain questions. It looks like an autobiographical paper.The introduction part of your motivation letter should include information about your attitude to the subject, and here it is important to answer the following questions:Why do you want to study this subject?How did you prove your desire to study this subject?What other aspects of academic life do you find interesting (for example, in other disciplines)?In the next part of writing a college application essay, write with a perspective for the future. You, like every student, start your education with a bachelor’s degree. But there is a possibility that you continue your studies in a master’s or graduate school. If you continue your education by enrolling in graduate school, which dir ection will you choose? That’s what you need to talk about. It is important to be specific and talk about the direction of your studies, even if this is a highly specialized area, you need to demonstrate your maximum awareness.Having completed the part of the letter devoted to the argument/problem/situation. Show your potential in other aspects that are not related to the subject you have chosen, both in the academic sense and in general. In this part, it is necessary to write about your school achievements. For example, about reading and writing, awards, etc. Tell about your extracurricular activities in detail, describing your achievements and talents, talk about plans for the future. How do you see your career and whether you are going to take an academic vacation? How much do your plans correspond to the university course you have chosen?Helpful Tips That Will Make Your Admission Paper IdealIf you are not sure how to write a college application essay and make it perfect, just follow these tips:Show the most interesting facts at the beginning of the letter – guarantee that the letter will be read to the end.Ask for help if you need it! Only a flawless paper can guarantee your success and that is why, when writing you can benefit from using our reliable college application writing service. It will increase your chances to be accepted.Facts should be logically and accurately arranged in such a way that the reader can see your development in both personal and professional spheres.Divide the text into paragraphs. Use word-bundles to move from one paragraph to another, make each paragraph of your letter a mini-story with a string, culmination, and a logical outcome.It is always smart to prepare an essay outline for college before you start writing.Start the introduction to make the admission officer read your letter till the end. Make it interesting: use quotes, a description of an event from life, an unusual fact, tell about unique ideas and add p ersonal information. Use a hook to grab the readers’ attention.A conclusion is an equally important part of the letter. The conclusion should leave a positive impression on the admission officer of what has been read. In conclusion, you do not need to summarize each paragraph, but you can present the problems proposed in the letter from a different angle, link them to more global problems, or focus on your goals and motivation.Edit the letter in several stages. First, just write the text, after a day or two, proofread it and look for grammatical and spelling mistakes. For this, you can use an application essay writing service to check all mistakes.Try to avoid clichà ©s and overused words (totally, awesome, etc.), not bearing any information phrases.An admission paper should in no case turn into a resume, it should supplement information to the selection committee about you, and not give them the same information that they can read in the summary.Choose your topic wisely! Av oid dangerous ambiguous topics, refrain from presenting thoughts on politics or religion, especially if your point of view is too different from an ordinarily accepted one.Use simple words and expressions, do not complicate the reader’s perception of the text, and most importantly – do not write too much, no one will read about you a novel in three volumes.

Foreign Spelling Conventions in English

Foreign Spelling Conventions in English Foreign Spelling Conventions in English Foreign Spelling Conventions in English By Maeve Maddox In a recent post I discussed the letter c and the sounds it represents in English words. I said that the English letter c â€Å"does not have a sound of its own.† A reader pointed out that in other languages that use the Roman alphabet, c has a distinctive, palatal sound. So it has, and English has appropriated some Italian words in which the letter c does represent that sound, for example, cello cinquecento ciao ciabatta sotto voce Medici One reason for spelling irregularities in English is the fact that many foreign borrowings have brought foreign spelling conventions with them. In addition to words in which c stands for the Italian c, we have German words in which the letters s and z follow German spelling conventions. According to German spelling rules, an initial s followed by p or t is pronounced /sh/. Depending upon the context and the speech habits of the speaker, many Americans observe the German rule in pronouncing spiel and strudel. Charles Elster comes down on the side of SPEEL rather than SHPEEL, but he allows for the fact that many American speakers do say SHPEEL without jocular intent, so for them, SHPEEL is acceptable usage. German z is not pronounced like English z. For example, the name Mozart sounds as if it has a t in it: MOHT-sahrt. Unfortunately, some unschooled radio announcers pronounce it â€Å"MOH-zahrt.† Another example of a German z-word in English is Alzheimer as in â€Å"Alzheimer’s disease†: AHLTS-hy-murz. Generally speaking, English spelling is badly taught in the schools. True, our spelling is challenging, but constant whining about â€Å"how hard† English spelling is does children a disservice–especially when it comes from the teachers. For example, instead of presenting concerto in a spelling list as if it were just one more English word with a crazy third sound for c, the teacher could point out that it’s an Italian borrowing and that Italian speakers sometimes pronounce c the way we do, and sometimes they pronounce it as /tch/. Doing this with foreign borrowings that have not been completely anglicized would not only improve children’s spelling, but would also open a window on the world for them. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Grammar Test 1Do you "orient" yourself, or "orientate" yourself?Types of Plots

How interest rates affect peoples purchasing decisions Assignment

How interest rates affect peoples purchasing decisions - Assignment Example The paper explores four types of writing at our most recent workshop. They are summary, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Some of the key differences between them were highlighted. An analysis provides a detailed examination of an article in order to make inferences while an evaluation is an informed judgment arising from an assessment or appraisal of a situation. A summary provides a brief but concise version of an article while a synthesis involves combining separate elements into a coherent and connected whole in order to make a new point. The level of interest rate determines whether people save or consume. At higher levels of interest, some persons save more and consume less. According to Pashigian, a higher interest rate makes current consumption relatively more expensive compared with future consumption. This is a result of the substitution effect that induces the consumer to reduce current consumption and save more. A rise in the interest rate also leads to an increase in wealth for savers as it increases the returns to savings. However, when the interest rate falls there is less or no incentive to save and so people prefer to spend their income on consumer items such as cars, clothing, jewelry, and appliances. Some of these consumer items are financed through borrowing. This confirms the fact that people tend to spend more on consumer items when interest rates are low.

Analyze a Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analyze a - Case Study Example IMPORTANT FACTS SURROUNDING THE CASE Multitouch technology is probably more flexible as compared to single-touch technology. The technology allows users to perform exceptional gestures using one or more fingers. The technology facilitates users to interact with objects on the smartphone or computer screen without using mouse, clicking buttons or striking keys. In other words, it overcomes the difficulties of using mouse or keyboards and thus enables the users to access and interact with objects on the screen, who are physically unable to grasp mouse (New To The Touch, â€Å"Interactive Session: Technology†). Accordingly, the key advantage of multitouch technology is that users can perform various actions on the screen using their fingers to interrelate with these objects on the screen instead of merely depending on mouse or keyboard. The multitouch technology allows users to browse and navigate internet, zoom in and out images and web pages on the computer screen or smartphone as well as it enables users to shuffle and organize applications on the screen. Another important advantage of mutitouch technology is that students at elementary level are offered with ‘easy- to- use’ computer. Moreover, multitouch technology also provides significant opportunities for commercial sectors. Notably, business consumers can interact and place orders with retailers and make virtual video calls simply with the use of their fingers (New To The Touch, â€Å"Interactive Session: Technology†). KEY ISSUES There are various issues related to people, organization and technology that must be addressed if any business considers systems and computers with multitouch. It is vital to address employees who are not technology savvy as well as those employees who are impervious to change. The cost of implementing and maintaining multitouch interface is also quite high (New To The Touch, â€Å"Interactive Session: Technology†). ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION I t is also crucial to address the organization’s adaption towards technology, its goals and information technology (IT) expertise within the organization. As far as the technology is concerned, it is imperative to address cost associated with implementation and maintenance. Additionally, another course of action should include the fact that employees should be provided with adequate training to handle the intricacies associated with mutitouch interface. Correspondingly, addressing all these components effectively will facilitate the business to avail the opportunities provided by multitouch technology in the best possible manner (New to the Touch, â€Å"Interactive Session: Technology†). Effective leadership is essential for successful implementation of multitouch screen within the organization (New To The Touch, â€Å"Interactive Session: Technology†). EVALUATING EACH COURSES OF ACTION Addressing the issues effectively will enable the companies to avail the sign ificant advantages arising from the use of multitouch interfaces. Multitouch technology implemented within the IT infrastructure of the organizations will enable the management to conduct its business transaction smoothly. In this regard, it can be said that rendering proper training regarding the technology will also allow employees within the organizations to perform their various activities smoothly that would in turn immensely benefit the organization. Moreover, the multitouch interf

J.C. Penney’s “Fair and Square” Pricing Strategy Essay Example for Free

J.C. Penney’s â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing Strategy Essay Retailing is hard, and that’s what Steve [Jobs] said to me when we started stores at Apple. — Ron Johnson, CEO, J.C. Penney1 It was August 2012 and the release of second quarter earnings was looming for Ron Johnson, the chief executive officer of J.C. Penney, one of America’s first department stores. Johnson, HBS ’84, had intimated to Wall Street that the retailer’s second quarter results were likely to miss expectations again, following dismal first quarter results that had sent the company’s stock price careening to less than half of its February 2012 value of a share. The Q1 news released in May was grim: a $163 million loss, same store revenue down 19%, and the number of customers shopping in J.C. Penney stores down 10%. These results were particularly disheartening given the company’s radical repositioning of its business model and its brand in February 2012. The centerpiece of the repositioning initiative was a switch from J.C. Penney’s existing high-low pricing strategy, in which the retailer ran frequent sales to offer customers deep discounts off of its higher list prices, to a new strategy the company dubbed â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing. â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing was meant to simplify J.C. Penney’s pricing structure and make it more straightforward for customers to shop. It offered great prices every day, with less frequent price promotions. The company touted its new pricing strategy as offering â€Å"no games, no gimmicks† and invited consumers to â€Å"do the math† to see how it offered them cheaper prices on a regular basis with less hassle. Moving away from high-low pricing was a massive shift for J.C. Penney. In 2011, the retailer spent $1.2 billion to execute 590 different sales events and promotions2 and generated 72% of its $17.3 billion in annual revenue from products sold at steep discounts of more than 50% off of the initial list price.3 Wall Street was initially  supportive of the company’s plans for change. Investors, who sent J.C. Penney’s stock soaring up 24% following the announcement of the new pricing plan, viewed it as a way for J.C. Penney to escape the ruthless downward spiral of escalating price promotions that gripped America’s retailers struggling to survive the economic recession. But by mid-summer 2012, customers and shareholders appeared to be voting with their feet, leaving the retailer in droves. Was Johnson’s new pricing strategy misguided or was it just a matter of time before customers fully embraced it? Johnson was under enormous pressure to turn things around quickly as the all-important back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons were imminent. Many voices were calling on him to consider changing the pricing strategy again. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ HBS Professor Elie Ofek and Professor Jill Avery (Simmons School of Management) prepared this case. This case was developed from published sources. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2012, 2013 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for use only by Jack Cherewatti in MKTG MGMT taught by S. Adam Brasel Boston College from November 2014 to May 2015. For the exclusive use of J. Cherewatti 513-036 J.C. Penney’s â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing Strategy Company Background Johnson was at the helm of what at one time was considered America’s most  venerated department store. Once the largest department store chain in the country with over 2,000 stores, as of 2012, the 110 year old retailer operated 1,100 stores, claiming to serve more than half of America’s households with 41 million square feet of retail space. Founded by James Cash Penney in 1902, the company’s first outlet was opened in a Wyoming mining town under the name â€Å"The Golden Rule,† that signified its philosophy of treating customers the way Penney himself wished to be treated. Johnson believed that his â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing plan corresponded to the founder’s beliefs, â€Å"Now if you go back to the founding of this company, James Cash Penney believed in everyday fair prices. He said, ‘We don’t mark goods up just to mark them down. We don’t believe in sales.’†4 The company enjoyed years of rapid growt h and expansion. By its 50th anniversary, annual sales exceeded $1 billion. It initially offered consumers one stop shopping as a mass merchandiser, selling soft goods, such as clothing, as well as hard goods, such as appliances, hardware, electronics, and sporting goods. Its retail business was joined by a mail order catalog in 1963 and an ecommerce website in 1998. However, following tough times in the 1980’s, the company reorganized, phasing out its hard goods lines and refocusing on its soft goods to become a fashion oriented department store. But by its 100th anniversary, the company appeared to be running out of steam. Price-oriented mass merchandisers, such as Walmart and Target, had garnered the lower end of the market, while higher end department stores, such as Macy’s and Nordstrom’s, were catering to the upwardly mobile middle class. Although the economic recession of 2008 was difficult for all retailers due to consumers’ increasing frugality, middle market retailers, like J.C. Penney and Sears, were hit the hardest. By 2011, J.C. Penney’s stores were old, often disorganized, and faded, and the brand and its merchandise were starting to feel dated. About 400 of its stores were located in small towns, such as Alpena, Michigan with a population of a little over 10,000. In such towns, there were often only few, if any, other department stores. The remaining 700 or so stores were located in major metropolitan areas, often in suburban malls, such as the Northshore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts (15 miles north of Boston). Following years of store closings, sales malaise, declining market share,  slumping earnings, and weak stock market performance, activist investor and hedge fund manager, William Ackman (HBS ’92) obtained an 18% majority shareholder position in the company in 2010–2011. He was determined to turn J.C Penney around and extract its value, much of which was locked up in its vast real estate holdings that were estimated to be worth $11 billion.5 J.C. Penney owned 400 of its retail stores and paid low rents (an average of less than $5 per square foot) for the remainder. Specialty stores like Gap paid much higher rents (around $40 per square foot) for their retail space.6 Looking to shake up the company, Ackman was instrumental in luring Johnson to take the CEO position. Johnson was a big catch. In the 1990s, he was vice president of merchandising at Target where he helped transform the mass merchandiser into a hot retail brand selling stylish yet affordable products. During his time there, Johnson negotiated a contract with designer Michael Graves, beginning Target’s profitable partnerships with high end designers, which enhanced its brand image as a chic, fashion-forward retailer. Starting in 2000, he worked with Steve Jobs to develop the wildly successful Apple retail stores. Johnson was the brainchild behind the â€Å"Genius Bars† concept, a free technical help and support area staffed by knowledgeable customer service representatives, widely touted as one of the most innovative retail concepts of the last decade. Johnson was regarded by many as creative and determined; according to a friend, â€Å"What people loved more about him than his talent was his persistence. He was just relentless.†7 Johnson’s deep retail experience combined with his wholesome charisma and boyish enthusiasm made him the perfect change agent. The media dubbed him the â€Å"Steve Jobs of the retail industry† and on the day his appointment was announced J.C. Penney’s stock jumped 18%. An Industry under Pressure J.C. Penney’s 2011 sales were lower than they were in the 1990s and the retail landscape was getting more competitive. Department stores, in particular, were under increased pressure. New retail formats, such as big box retailers like Walmart that operated free standing supercenters selling mass merchandise and small specialty stores like Gap and J. Crew that were located in shopping malls and offered specialized merchandise, were squeezing department stores out of the market (see Exhibit 2). An emerging challenge came from large international clothing retailers, such as HM and ZARA, that were aggressively entering the U.S. market. These retailers relied on shorter product life cycles and partnerships with top designers to offer fast-fashion merchandise at relatively low prices. Johnson explained the challenge as he stepped into his new role: Over the past 30 years the department store has become a less relevant part of the retail infrastructure, largely because of decisions the stores have made. As America exploded with big box and specialty stores and new shopping formats, department stores abdicated their unique role instead of engaging the competition. They retreated from categories and assortments that made them distinctive. Department stores were once the most popular places for Americans to shop, offering distinctive merchandise in elegant settings that provided special services, such as tearooms, salons, and on-site tailoring, and served as social hubs. Johnson reminisced, â€Å"In the golden age of department stores, America’s families came for more than just to shop. They were able to have fun experiences and were offered a range of useful services. . . . If we want to transform the department store, we have to understand what happened. These stores were a pillar of the community.†9 Johnson, unlike others, believed that department stores could be revived. â€Å"There’s no reason department stores can’t flourish. They can be people’s favorite place to shop. They’ve got all these strategic advantages—the lowest cost of real estate, exceptional access to merchandise, scale to create enormous marketing power, colocation with specialty stores. And people like stores  with huge assortments and one-stop shopping.†10 J.C. Penney’s performance had been lackluster for quite some time, and the retailer was losing market share even within the shrinking department store channel (see Exhibits 3 and 4). Competitors Macy’s and Kohl’s were nipping at J.C. Penney’s business from both the high and low end. The average J.C. Penney customer only visited a store four times per year and sales per square foot ($156) were low compared to those of its competitors and the specialty stores Johnson hoped to emulate (Gap $30011, Apple $5,626 in sales per square foot). 12 Department stores and big box stores had increased their promotional budgets since the outbreak of the Great Recession in 2007 and most used blockbuster sales, coupons, and frequent price promotion to drive purchases. According to consulting firm A.T. Kearney, more than 40% of the items Americans bought in 2011 were bought on sale, up from 10% in 1990.13 Many retailers were eager to wean shoppers off of the big discounts that had become commonplace. Competition was also increasing from online retailing. Yet Johnson believed brick and mortar stores were still relevant, â€Å"Physical stores are still the primary way people acquire merchandise and I think that will be true 50 years from now. . . . A store has got to be much more than a place to acquire merchandise. It’s got to help people enrich their lives. If the store just fulfills a specific product need, it’s not creating new types of value for the consumer. It’s transacting. Any website can do that.†14 Many of J.C. Penney’s largest competitors, such as Macy’s, seemed to have a different  view and were investing heavily in their e-commerce operations and in catering to what they called the â€Å"omnichannel† consumer, who accessed the retailer through the web, on mobile devices or in physical stores (often as part of the same purchase decision). Although it had been a pioneer in multi-channel commerce, with 2001 combined cata log and web sales of nearly $3.4 billion, J.C. Penney’s ecommerce sales had stagnated over the last three years while those of Macy’s and Kohl’s had grown substantially during the same time frame.15 (See Exhibit 5 for E-commerce sales growth). J.C. Penney’s Radical Makeover Following his appointment in November 2011, Johnson determined that nothing short of a complete overhaul would solve J.C. Penney’s problems. Just two months after taking the helm, Johnson and his newly recruited leadership team, culled largely from Apple and Target, announced a radical repositioning of the J.C. Penney business model and brand. Following the announcement, Forbes magazine dubbed J.C. Penney the most interesting retail story of the year, proclaiming, â€Å"This week, Johnson took a sledgehammer to the J.C. Penney way of doing business. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve seen in retail since Apple opened stores, again with Johnson at the helm.†16 The turnaround plan evoked J.C. Penney’s founding spirit, and Johnson declared it a reclamation of the company’s heritage. J.C. Penney’s website announced, â€Å"Over 100 years ago, James Cash Penney founded his company on the principle of treating customers the way he wanted to b e treated himself: fair and square. Today, rooted in its rich heritage, J.C. Penney Company, Inc. is re-imagining every aspect of its business in order to reclaim its birthright and become America’s favorite store. . . . At every visit, customers will discover straightforward Fair and Square Pricing.†17 The four-year plan involved several distinct, yet integrated elements that touched every part of the business and were designed to recreate a golden age department store that appealed to all Americans, across age, income, and geographic demographics. As Johnson explained, â€Å"We are going to rethink every aspect of our business, boldly pursue change, and create long-term shareholder value, as we become America’s favorite store. Every initiative we pursue will be guided by our core value to treat customers as we would like to be treated—fair and square.†18 New Logo J.C. Penney had been tinkering with its brand logo, changing it three times in three years. In 2011, the company asked the public for help in redesigning the logo in a crowd-sourcing experiment. The winning design was submitted by a University of Cincinnati student and was unveiled with much fanfare via social media. In 2012, Johnson scrapped this design and hired an agency to redesign the logo once again. The new logo evoked the American flag with red, white, and blue colors and the letters â€Å"jcp† in lower case font within a square that represented the new â€Å"Fair and Square† mantra. J.C. Penney, which many affectionately called â€Å"Penney’s† would now be known as â€Å"jcp.† (See Exhibit 6 for the new logo.) New Brand Spokesperson One of the most exciting and controversial developments of the plan was the announcement of comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as the new brand spokesperson. DeGeneres, who once worked at a J.C. Penney store as a teenager in Louisiana, appeared in television advertising, developed J.C. Penney themed skits for her popular talk show, and tweeted about the company on Twitter. Johnson proclaimed DeGeneres to be â€Å"one of the most fun and vibrant people in entertainment today, with great warmth and a down-to-earth attitude. . . . Importantly, we share the same fundamental values as Ellen.†19 Shortly after DeGeneres’ advertising debut, the conservative Christian group One Million Moms took offense, citing DeGeneres’ homosexuality as  problematic for the brand’s image and its traditional family shopper demographic. The group asked its members to boycott J.C. Penney and to call their local store manager to ask for DeGeneres’ removal as spokesperson. DeGeneres went on the offensive to defend her personal values and to reassert her relationship with her fans and with J.C. Penney, producing a witty, yet heartfelt response delivered on her talk show that quickly went viral on the social web. A firestorm erupted and played out on J.C. Penney’s Facebook page, where both pro- and anti-gay posters pledged their support for and/or rejection of the retailer. J.C. Penney survived the controversy by standing firmly behind its choice of spokesperson. The protest event generated significant positive press for the company and Facebook feedback was more positive than negative. Riding the wave of publicity, J.C. Penney went on to feature two gay dads in a widely touted Father’s Day advertising campaign. New Store Design While the new logo and spokesperson were short-term fixes that could be executed quickly, Johnson knew from his experience at Apple that, to really make a difference, he had to make significant changes to the product offering, a longer term proposition. He embarked on a multi-year plan to re-energize and redesign J.C. Penney’s product offering and its merchandising at retail. He began by forging new supplier relationships with top brands like Martha Stewart and hot designers like Nanette Lepore to create J.C. Penney-specific merchandise lines, a strategy reminiscent of Target. He then went to work to improve the quality of J.C. Penney’s sagging and dated private label brands, Worthington, St. John’s Bay, The Original Arizona Jeans Co, and Stafford, to reinvigorate them and restore their brand integrity. These efforts could also build on J.C. Penney’s recent purchase of the Liz Claiborne brands (which, among others, included Liz Claiborne branded apparel, L ucky Jeans, Kate Spade and Juicy Couture) and the ongoing opening of about 300 Sephora locations inside J.C. Penney stores, which offered a select set of Sephora beauty care products. 20 He envisioned the in-store retail environment as a series of interactive specialty â€Å"Shops,† along a visually engaging and vibrant â€Å"Street,† with a central â€Å"Square† that would serve as the social hub of the store. J.C. Penney’s vast array of  merchandise, currently hung on crowded racks and shelves, would be regrouped and merchandised in 80-100 â€Å"stores-within-a-store,† each meant to simulate the buying experience of a specialty shop. The first shop to appear was devoted to jeans and featured a denim bar, trained fit specialists, and Levi’s innovative Curve ID program that helped women find the right jeans for their body type (see Exhibit 7). Plans for future shops included Joe Fresh and Mango. The company planned to install two to three new shops each month, beginning in August 2012, over a four year period. Many of the shops were designed to pull in younger shoppers, a deficit in J.C. Penney’s current customer base. The â€Å"Street† would consist of wider aisles with a fresh, clean look, more streamlined with less signage and bold, colorful, upscale graphics featuring the square from the new logo (see Exhibit 8). Each month would have its own unique personality and color-coded signage that changed the look of the store to freshen its appeal. Ten thousand square feet at the center of the store would be designated for the â€Å"Town Square.† In this area, J.C. Penney planned to offer complimentary services, such as gift wrapping, and special promotional events to create fun and excitement. During the summer of 2012, the company offered free hot dogs and ice cream, free â€Å"Go USA† Olympic t-shirts during the Summer Olympics, and free back-to-school haircuts for school children. Johnson summarized his vision for the new environment, â€Å"We are going to make the store a place people love to come-just to come. We’ll transform the buying experience not unlike what we did at Apple.†21 New Sales Structure To support the new retail environment, Johnson needed to re-energize J.C. Penney’s sales force. His goal was to create a team of specialists who were product experts, much like Apple’s Geniuses. J.C. Penney sales clerks had always been paid commissions based on how much they sold. This system encouraged sales clerks to sell aggressively to customers. Johnson felt that this aggressive sales culture did not fit with the new â€Å"Fair and Square† positioning and set out to change it by eliminating all sales commissions. It was a controversial decision, especially among the sales employees, many of whom had just been through a wave of layoffs and were nervous about keeping their jobs. Johnson explained his rationale for the change, â€Å"A lot of great retailers don’t use commissions. We never used them at Apple. . . . And I think it’s a better thing to do to pay people in advance for what you want them to do and let them look in the customers’ hearts and try to help them. . . . We think we’ve got a great way to do business for the middle class, where we really put a big bear hug around the middle class and help them look better and live better every day.† 22 But some employees expressed dissatisfaction, â€Å"I must take offense at Ron Johnson’s reason for eliminating commission. Ron Johnson should remember that J.C. Penney is not Target, we are better. When people come into our store they expect to be greeted, they expect someone to be available to help, they expect good service,† said a sales associate. Another associate claimed, â€Å"I lost about $250 per pay period and Mr. Johnson thinks this is FAIR and SQUARE. From all of J.C. Penney’s little workers, this stinks.† Another lamented, â€Å"We long-term employees are heartbroken at what we see around us. Ron Johnson may have a grand plan, and it may work, but we feel like he is destroying ‘us’ in the process of implementation. It has become an awful place to work, short-staffed to the point that we struggle to properly service what customers we do have.†23 But without a doubt, the cornerstone of the change program was a new pricing scheme that many believed to be the riskiest part of the strategy. The New Pricing Strategy Looking at the numbers, Johnson believed that he needed to address the existing high-low pricing structure that had gotten out of control. J.C.  Penney’s customers had become hooked on the deals; over the past ten years, the average discount to get customers to buy went from 38% to 60%24. â€Å"At some point you, as a brand, just look desperate. J.C. Penney spent over $1 billion [on price promotion], and the customer didn’t even pay attention,† he agonized.25 In his first report to shareholders, he spoke about the detrimental long term effects of excessive price promotions, â€Å"Plagued by the ‘games’ of the industry over the last several decades, retailers-including J.C. Penneybarraged customers with a constant stream of promotions that proved to be ineffective. Each time we participated in this pricing war, we were discounting our brand and eroding the trust and loyalty of our customers.† The company announced its â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing plan in January 2012. The plan had three pricing tiers. First, the company reduced prices by an average of 40% to offer consumers an â€Å"Every Day Fair and Square† price. Second, every month the company ran a â€Å"Month Long Values Event† with special pricing on seasonal items, marked down an additional 20-29%, meant to coincide with events such as Back-to-School and Father’s Day. Third, every first and third Friday of each month (paydays for many working Americans) were designated â€Å"Best Price Fridays,† where J.C. Penney would offer special deals on items it was looking to liquidate, about 20% of the store’s stock, at deals of about 1/3 off of the every day price. Each price point was supported by unique signage at retail, (see Exhibit 9). J.C. Penney eliminated its famous â€Å"Doorbuster† sales, such as those that it traditionally held on Black Friday, the day after Tha nksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year, that featured outrageously low prices on  over 500 items from 4:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Exhibit 10 shows an example of the different price tiers. Importantly, J.C. Penney avoided using the words â€Å"sale† and â€Å"clearance† in its messaging of the new program to consumers. Said Johnson, â€Å"Sale is not in our vocabulary. . . . Every item in the store is priced to be its best price every day.†27 The â€Å"Fair and Square† price was the only price listed on the price tag, moving J.C. Penney away from the practice of listing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) and the sale price, which was intended to show customers how much they were saving relative to somewhat fictitious list price. In the highly competitive world of retailing, nearly no one priced goods at the MSRP. Breaking with another retailing best-practice, J.C. Penney ended all of its â€Å"Fair and Square† prices with .00 instead of .99, rounding up to the nearest dollar. Johnson also instituted a no restrictions â€Å"Happy Returns† return policy, designed to take the hassle out of returning items, eve n without a receipt. In effect, the new plan combined elements of two traditional pricing strategies. The â€Å"Every Day Fair and Square† prices represented an everyday-low-price (EDLP) strategy, while the â€Å"Month Long Values† and â€Å"Best Price Fridays† maintained some emphasis on high-low pricing. High-low pricing strategies are intended to allow retailers to use price discrimination to maximize the average price paid by customers who differ in their willingness to pay. Customers who are highly price sensitive wait for sale days to purchase, use coupons and rebates, scour the crowded clearance racks to find a bargain, and take advantage of retailer’s door buster specials on big shopping days like Black Friday. Customers who are less price sensitive buy when it is convenient for them, tend not to use coupons and rebates due to the time it takes to clip and organize them, and rarely join in on door buster specials or clearance sales. Thus, the retailer reaps higher non-sale prices from many of their purchases. However, given the predominance of high-low pricing strategies across retailers in today’s marketplace, even less price-sensitive consumers had become savvy about waiting for sales to buy or comparing across retailers to find the store offering the best prices that week. Instantaneous price comparisons were  getting easier, given the rise of mobile applications that allowed a consumer to scan a bar code on a product and find the lowest price for it at online retailers and nearby stores. Kohl’s was an aggressive high-low retailer, featuring small electronic signs on shelves throughout the store that displayed original prices and discounted prices. These signs allowed Kohl’s the flexibility to change prices instantly, to facilitate frequent, short-term sales. Marketing consultant Jonathan Salem Baskin offered his thoughts on the high-low practice retailers engage in, â€Å"When no price is ‘the’ price for an item, it means that instead retailers engage customers in a constant cat-andmouse game in pursuit of the truth. No individual store can own sale pricing; each simply participates in a round-robin of discounted offers that its competitors have and/or will again match.†28 Johnson felt that today’s retail customer was savvy, â€Å"The customer knows the right price. To think you can fool a customer is kind of crazy.†2 EDLP pricing strategies, such as that offered by Walmart, promise consumers that they will pay the same, low price every day. This frees customers from waiting for sale periods to purchase, and eliminates the need for retailers to offer coupons to drive purchase or to engage in constant advertising of price promotions via weekly newspaper circulars. EDLP is designed to make customers feel comfortable purchasing at the retailer without worrying that they could be getting a better deal somewhere else or at another time. In general, most department store retailers used high/low pricing strategies. Macy’s and Sears had flirted with EDLP pricing in the past; but both had largely abandoned it once they realized how addicted department store customers were to sales, coupons, and other discount programs. Although  Macy’s still offered a limited set of items at an â€Å"everyday value† price, it heavily supplemented this practice with aggressive coupons and frequent sales events for the majority of the goods it carried. Macy’s customer Marietta Landon summarized the promotion addicted retail climate, â€Å"Especially Macy’s—they make every weekend a sale with saving passes and advertising galore.†30 The new pricing strategy was a big shift for J.C. Penney, a company known and loved for its JCP Cash coupons distributed to customers via direct mail and email, its RedZone Clearance aisles, and its weekly circulars advertising that week’s price specials. The â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing program would eliminate all coupons and weekly circulars; instead the company would distribute a high quality, editorial content-heavy glossy magazine each month to highlight its Monthly Values. The 96page magazine was as much a branding vehicle as it was a promotional one. $80 million in promotional funding would support each Monthly Value event. J.C. Penney now promised its customers that they would not have to â€Å"jump through hoops to get a good price†. Johnson hailed the strategy for its simplicity and transparency and the way it respected customers, â€Å"People are disgusted with the lack of integrity on pricing,†31 adding that â€Å"We want shoppers to shop on their terms, not ours.† Johnson intimated that â€Å"By setting our store monthly and maintaining our best prices for an entire month, we feel confident that customers will love shopping when it is convenient for them, rather than when it is expedient for us.†32 Michael Francis, J.C. Penney’s new president, was excited about the new pricing moves, â€Å"We are redefining the J.C. Penney brand so we become a store for all Americans, by offering an experience they cannot get anywhere else. This will start by freeing consumers from the barrage of promotions and undifferentiated shopping experiences they have become used to and replacing it with something entirely fresh and new that is evident in every aspect of our store.†33 He added, â€Å"It will be a breath of much-needed fresh air and give [customers] reasons to visit J.C. Penney more often than ever before. Our objective is to make our customers love to shop again.†34 Francis was recruited by Johnson from Target and offered a signing bonus of $12 million  and a total compensation package worth $44.7 million. He was charged with managing the marketing and merchandising efforts. Reactions to â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing  Industry observers could not contain their strong opinions on the new pricing strategy. Some called the move â€Å"refreshing, daring and probably exactly what the retailer needs,† noting that â€Å"it’s a shocking move for any retailer, let alone a department store where high-low pricing and promotions have long been the norm.†35 But others were far more skeptical. Pricing consultant Rafi Mohammed proclaimed, â€Å"J.C. Penney lacks the differentiation to make this pricing strategy successful. . . . When selling a relatively undifferentiated product, the only lever to generate higher sales is discounts. Even worse, if competitors drop prices on comparable products, J.C. Penney’s hands are tied-it is a sitting duck that can’t respond.†36 Mohammed also noted, â€Å"J.C. Penney’s Every Day prices will not be as low as the biggest discounts that it once offered. Instead, its pitch to customers is why play the â€Å"wait for the rock-bottom price† game when Penney offers â€Å"pretty good† prices every day?†37 Ignoring the skeptics, Johnson was committed to his new pricing plan, rolling it out across all stores on February 1st, after deciding not to conduct market research to test its appeal with customers, â€Å"We debated whether there was a way to test. . . . We would have needed everyone to run the old business model and would have had to add new people to run a test in 10 percent of our stores. . . . We knew the customer would love the new strategy. We decided to get on with our future.†38 Based on his experience at Apple, Johnson also believed that  customers didn’t always know what they wanted; it was up to companies to lead the way, â€Å"You can’t follow the customer. You’ve got to lead your customers—anticipate their needs and meet those needs, even before they know what they want.†39 A lot was riding on the decision. COO Mike Kramer explained, â€Å"We are fundamentally reimagining every aspect of our business and we fully expect the bold and strategic changes we are making to our operations will result in improved profitability. This should enable us to fund the transformation of J.C. Penney’s store experience, while at the same time returning value to shareholders with steady earnings growth.†40 Communicating â€Å"Fair and Square† DeGeneres was featured in a new advertising campaign to usher in the new â€Å"Fair and Square† positioning. Bearing the tagline â€Å"Enough. Is. Enough,† the campaign encouraged consumers to revolt against complex pricing structures, never-ending sales, an overabundance of direct mail circulars and coupons cluttering their mailboxes, and the hassles of returning unwanted products without a receipt. In the ads, DeGeneres travels back in time to ancient Rome, Edwardian England, and the Wild West to learn if today’s confusing price environment was always the norm. She encourages customers to reject the crazy price environment. The creative campaign was witty and contemporary; many found it reminiscent of Target’s award-winning advertising. It was quite a departure from J.C. Penney’s previous campaigns that were more typical of department store messaging. Launched during the Academy Awards broadcast, the ads appeared to be a hit with consumers. Ace Metrix reported that the ads scored well above average on persuasion and watchability metrics and achieved a personal best score for J.C. Penney.41 Initial Results In the first three months following the launch, 67% of products sold at J.C. Penney were purchased at the â€Å"Fair and Square† price, the highest price the retailer listed. Johnson could not hold back his satisfaction, â€Å"This is profound. People are now buying at the first price, [the] right price. That’s the dream of every retailer.†42 However, trouble was looming on the horizon. Through mid-March, mothers, a critically important target market for most department stores, steadily scored J.C. Penney lower on valueperception scores. These women, suddenly not receiving coupons and not seeing the weekly price promotions in the circulars, were downgrading their opinion of whether J.C. Penney offered good value for the money.43 This was despite the fact that J.C. Penney’s prices during the time period were actually quite competitive. A Deutsche Bank analyst report showed that for a random basket of 50 identical items, J.C. Penney was 9% cheaper than Macy’s, and 26% cheaper than Kohl’s. Consumer research firm BIGInsight reported negativity among adults 18+ for whether J.C. Penney’s advertising campaign was â€Å"Hot or Not?† and showed Macy’s gaining ground on J.C. Penney in women’s apparel shopping trips following the launch (See Exhibit 11). Morgan Stanley’s Michelle Clark reported consumer survey results revealing that â€Å"Shoppers think that the J.C. Penney of old actually offered better value than the â€Å"fair and square† model introduced a few months ago. Of the consumers who had been inside a J.C. Penney store since February, more cited higher prices (rather than lower) at the department store. In fact, only 16% of shoppers associated â€Å"Best Prices† with JCP. Furthermore, customers cited that bargains were harder to find and fewer aisles with deals were evident (see Exhibit 12).45 Loyal J.C. Penney customers were moving away from the retailer. One shopper, Wendy Ruud, complained that she was no longer receiving coupons from J.C. Penney and was shopping more frequently at Target and Walmart, â€Å"The closest J.C. Penney is about a half hour away from me. If I don’t get a special  discount, it’s not worth the trip,† she said.46 Another shopper e-mailed the Huffington Post saying, â€Å"They are catering to the younger shopper, and it isn’t the younger shopper that kept them afloat.†47 A third who considered herself â€Å"frumpy and proud,† commented, â€Å"He’s working hard to ‘de-frump’ the store without considering that many if not most of its customers might have shopped there precisely because they like the more conservative frumpy look.† 48 These early indicators played out in J.C. Penney’s first earnings report following the launch of the new plan. Johnson had to announce a significant earnings loss ($163 million) based on plummeting sales revenues (-19% overall, with e-commerce sales dropping 28%), gross margin compression (from 40.5% to 37.6%), and decreasing customer conversion. Johnson asked investors to be patient, calling the first quarter sales drop â€Å"the price we’re paying to get integrity back.†49 He held fast to his convictions, â€Å"We had to make the bold step. It’s one big year we have to go through. It’s really hard but we’ll get through it.†50 Investors showed no patience, sending the company’s stock down 20%, the biggest single day drop in over four decades.51 The critics did not waste time to pile on Johnson. Time columnist Brad Tuttle wrote, JC Penney’s message seems to be one that some shoppers don’t want to hear. They like playing games and hunting for deals, and the markdown from the original price is how they keep score. By eliminating coupons and most â€Å"sales,† JC Penney has been saying it doesn’t want to play games anymore. That sounds wonderful, but among certain shoppers, it’s the equivalent of grabbing the ball and taking it home. No more games, no more fun-and not much reason to visit JC Penney on a regular basis anymore. If, for the most part, a store’s prices are going to remain the same tomorrow, and next week, and the month after that, there’s not much incentive to browse the aisles for special deals today.52 A Forbes columnist concurred, â€Å"By taking away the weekly sales customers loved, Johnson abandoned his core JCP shopping enthusiasts. In effect, signaling to the core JCP enthusiastsshoppers who have sustained J.C. Penney through its years of retail muddling, that they no longer mattered. He confused them, and he pissed them off.†53 The Motley Fool sarcastically  quipped, â€Å"The silver lining in J.C. Penney’s awful report is that Sears [struggling with its own dismal results] has someone it can laugh at now.†54 Macy’s CFO Karen Hoguet was crowing that her company was benefiting from J.C. Penney’s missteps, reporting that sales in Macy’s stores that shared a mall with J.C. Penney were up significantly since the changes.55 And J.C. Penney’s apparel suppliers were becoming anxious, as their sales dropped precipitously, some as much as 70% over the prior year. One prominent supplier indicated that he was increasing his business with Kohl’s to make up for the shortfalls at J.C. Penney.56 These developments were sobering for Johnson yet he remained unfazed, â€Å"It’s been tougher than we anticipated†¦You know, we expected to be down. We are down a little more than we thought, but not enough to change the strategy†¦We’re treating this company as a startup†¦We’re inventing a whole new model to do business†¦It is a one year transition that’s part of a multi-year transformation. But once we get to one year of de-promoting or repurchasing our integrity, I fully expect us to grow. And so we’ve just got to get through that year. And we’ll get through it.†57 Speaking at Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference in July, Johnson reiterated his support for the new pricing strategy, claiming that his board was â€Å"totally supportive†. When asked if he had a contingency plan whereby the company would revert back to high/low pricing, Johnson swore it was not in the cards, â€Å"It won’t happen while I’m here because I know it’s not the right thing to do. And I know this is what connects completely with our own unique heritage. And every longstanding company has a DNA in its core that  typically goes back to its founder. And when you reconnect with that, that’s when good things happen. That’s what Wal-Mart has had to do. And it’s really led to great success. That’s what Apple had to do when Steve came back. That’s what we’re going to do.†58 Making Some Adjustments As J.C. Penney management tried to decipher the disappointing results, much of the blame was put on the marketing execution and on customers’ stubborn reliance on price promotions. Mike Kramer, J.C. Penney’s new chief operating officer expressed his frustration, â€Å"Coupons, that drug. We did not realize how deep some of our customers were into this. . . . We have got to wean them off this and educate our consumers.†59 Johnson blamed the marketing execution, claiming that it failed to clearly communicate the new pricing strategy, â€Å"Our execution wasn’t what we needed. Our pricing is kind of confusing. Our marketing kind of overreached [Now] the most important thing is to educate consumers on the price changes and make sure the core customer understands J.C. Penney still has products they love, at exceptional value, every day.†60 Francis took the fall for the poor earnings, abruptly leaving the company a mere eight months after he started as pr esident. Following Francis’ departure, Johnson took responsibility for marketing and merchandising, believing that customers just didn’t understand the story behind â€Å"Fair and Square.† He tweaked the marketing plan, adding five additional â€Å"Best Price Fridays† to the calendar, including the important Fridays anchoring Memorial Day Weekend and Black Friday. The advertising creative was changed to incorporate a harder-hitting â€Å"Do the Math† positioning (See Exhibit 13 for an example). In June, J.C. Penney reintroduced the â€Å"S† word â€Å"sale† into its advertising to help clarify that its Best Price Friday deals actually extended through the weekend until all inventory was sold. Under pressure, Johnson speculated what his old mentor, Steve Jobs, who passed away in October 2011, would have advised, â€Å"I think Steve’s advice would be don’t worry about what others say. Trust your instincts. Do the right thing†¦Stay the course. But he would also say the essence is in the simplicity. And so he would have liked where we are going on pricing, but he would have said ‘You’ve got to clean it up. You’ve got to be more direct’.†61 Johnson buckled down, â€Å"What you can’t do is chicken out.  If you had looked at the data on the Genius Bar after a year and a half, we should have taken it out of the store. But it was something I believed in with every bone in my body.†62 He continued, â€Å"The world moves by innovators and innovators have to have the courage to imagine something that hasn’t been done before and the conviction to see it through†¦It is really hard. It takes a lot of courage. You’ve got to be able to have a few arrows shot in your back.

Doctor-Assisted Suicide Should be Legalized Essay examples -- Euthanas

â€Å"Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.† ― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being One of the most controversial topics that is being debated today, both morally and legally, is assisted suicide, sometimes known as active euthanasia. Assisted suicide is the act of directly intervening in order to end the life of a terminally ill patient (i.e. administering a large amount of sleeping pills). The word "euthanasia", comes from Latin "eu" for "good" and "thanatos" for "death" (OCRT 1). Many people in this country are existing in a "living death", suffering on a day to day basis. The Declaration of Independence endows three basic rights to all Americans: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Living in constant pain and agony is a violation of these most basic rights. Terminal illnesses compromise the well being of not only the patient, but also their families, friends, and doctors. People are entitled to request that their life be terminated through medical methods in situations which destroy any hope for quality of life. Many people are against an assisted suicide system. While religion plays a major role in the opposition of euthanasia (many religions, including Christianity and Judaism, are not only against assisted suicide but suicide altogether), the heart of their opposition is the fact that an elderly or poor patient may be coerced into choosing euthanasia by cost-conscious family members or their doctors (Klaidman 62). They feel that an exploitation of a euthanasia system is inevitable. However, these abuses and exploitations can be prevented through a strict regu... ... 1-2). Works Cited "Before the Court, the Sanctity of Life and Death." Various authors. The New York Times . 5 Jan. 2007. Bernards, Neal, ed. Euthanasia . Opposing Viewpoints Ser. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1989. "Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide." 2013. Web. 17 April 2015 http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Euthanasiaandassistedsuicide/Pages/Introduction.aspx Flanders, Stephen A. Suicide . Library in a Book Ser. New York: Facts on File, 2011. Klaidman, Daniel and Reibstein, Larry. "Weighing the Right to Die." Newsweek . 13th Jan. 2013 Long, Robert Emmet, ed. Suicide . The Reference Shelf Ser. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1995. "Doctor-Assisted Suicide." Web. 17 April 2015 http://endlink.lurie.northwestern.edu/physician_assisted_suicide_debate/what.cfm Van Beima, David. "Is There a Right to Die?" Time . 13th Jan. 2013: 60-61. Doctor-Assisted Suicide Should be Legalized Essay examples -- Euthanas â€Å"Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.† ― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being One of the most controversial topics that is being debated today, both morally and legally, is assisted suicide, sometimes known as active euthanasia. Assisted suicide is the act of directly intervening in order to end the life of a terminally ill patient (i.e. administering a large amount of sleeping pills). The word "euthanasia", comes from Latin "eu" for "good" and "thanatos" for "death" (OCRT 1). Many people in this country are existing in a "living death", suffering on a day to day basis. The Declaration of Independence endows three basic rights to all Americans: Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Living in constant pain and agony is a violation of these most basic rights. Terminal illnesses compromise the well being of not only the patient, but also their families, friends, and doctors. People are entitled to request that their life be terminated through medical methods in situations which destroy any hope for quality of life. Many people are against an assisted suicide system. While religion plays a major role in the opposition of euthanasia (many religions, including Christianity and Judaism, are not only against assisted suicide but suicide altogether), the heart of their opposition is the fact that an elderly or poor patient may be coerced into choosing euthanasia by cost-conscious family members or their doctors (Klaidman 62). They feel that an exploitation of a euthanasia system is inevitable. However, these abuses and exploitations can be prevented through a strict regu... ... 1-2). Works Cited "Before the Court, the Sanctity of Life and Death." Various authors. The New York Times . 5 Jan. 2007. Bernards, Neal, ed. Euthanasia . Opposing Viewpoints Ser. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1989. "Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide." 2013. Web. 17 April 2015 http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Euthanasiaandassistedsuicide/Pages/Introduction.aspx Flanders, Stephen A. Suicide . Library in a Book Ser. New York: Facts on File, 2011. Klaidman, Daniel and Reibstein, Larry. "Weighing the Right to Die." Newsweek . 13th Jan. 2013 Long, Robert Emmet, ed. Suicide . The Reference Shelf Ser. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1995. "Doctor-Assisted Suicide." Web. 17 April 2015 http://endlink.lurie.northwestern.edu/physician_assisted_suicide_debate/what.cfm Van Beima, David. "Is There a Right to Die?" Time . 13th Jan. 2013: 60-61.

Discerning Contemporary Approaches towards Effective Education

The pursuit of learning, it must be argued, is an activity that brings into perfection the finest essence of human persons. And the reason for this, as I have mentioned in my previous paper, is quite self-evident: to engage in learning – or any activity analogous to the purposeful acquisition of knowledge – is to nurture the gifts which, at best, summarily render humanity as creatures cut above the rest – i. e. , freewill and rationality (Moore and Bruder 67). Thus, the supreme importance of creating welcome avenues for learning needs to be considered as a task second to none.At the very least, all human persons are, by virtue of their innate superiority, necessitated to constantly strive to create windows of opportunities for higher learning, as well as address ebbs of challenges which, if left unchecked, may end up frustrating the correct methodologies to progressive learning. In view of such felt need, this paper argues for the necessity of framing forward-loo king goals that can best address the contemporary challenges, which otherwise can pose serious threats to the attainment of quality education.To this end, this study deems it appropriate to limit the discussion into unraveling three concrete goals that may be adopted, in the hope of addressing contemporary concerns to education: first, to rethink the model of educational Psychology operative on most learning institution; second, to revolutionize classroom management towards greater inclusion and participation; and third, to re-conceptualize the appreciation of education as that which prepares students for a greater role in the society later on in their otherwise brief lives.It needs to be firstly pointed out however that in itself, education cannot be reduced into these three goals. The human mind, it needs to be argued, is capable of learning many facets of knowledge; and as a consequence, the goals with which each learning facet takes can be taken distinctly from others. For insta nce, if one were to pursue an education in Engineering, the specific goals with which his or her learning process takes must see through the need to develop one’s knowledge of precise mathematical theories on the one hand, and skills relative to concrete application of calculated findings on the other hand.The goal of a person studying Engineering therefore falls more into the acquisition of a knowledge that integrates abstract mathematical theories with concrete skills in fine arts and drawing. One does not compare such goal with, say educating someone who, while mentally impaired, manifests strains of learning nevertheless. The point in contention here lies in the plain recognition that learning can and must always be construed with its varying goals, â€Å"depending on the learner’s frame and chosen field of competence† (Ten Dam and Volman 282).Three Forward-Looking Goals It merits firstly arguing that there is a need to rethink the model of Educational Psych ology operative on many learning institutions nowadays. Herein it would be necessary to cite that there appears to be two major schools of thought being adopted into the conduct of present-day education: the behaviorist and cognitive paradigms. On the one hand, the behaviorist model of education is most often gleaned on learning strategies that take students as ‘passive learners’ – i. e. , as mere reactors to learning stimuli.The stance, as it were, takes on a highly stereotyped understanding of human behavior; it â€Å"takes the mind of a child as a tabula rasa upon which the message of experience is to be written† (Wartofsky 113). On the other hand, the cognitive model of education adopts a paradigm which is exactly the opposite of the behaviorist model. It believes that learning instruction has to promote the mental abilities already intrinsic to human persons, even before they enter their respective learning places – they are mere mental process es that need to be unraveled.When a learner is therefore taken under the acute lenses of cognitive philosophy, the process of developing the unique abilities of abstraction, analysis, cognition, deconstruction, problem solving and self-reflection are the aspects that act as the crux of one’s learning. There is, however, a danger in choosing only one paradigm to adopt. On the one hand, it is certainly unwise to take learners as though they were programmed to uncritically absorb everything that they are being taught.Learning is not entirely about external influences. On the other hand, it is equally self-defeating to regard students as process-induced organisms, without recourse to appreciating their concrete situations. Learning is not completely about internal processes. This is why, it is imperative to rethink the psychological model of Educational. At best, what appears to be a more promising model to adopt is that which seeks to integrate these twin paradigms into a compre hensive model for education.Concretely, this can be achieved by taking learners as â€Å"highly structured organisms, who in their own unique ways, do try to ‘make sense’ of their life experiences in a manner that is not only active but also constructive† (Wartofsky 113). In other words, what Wartofsky correctly notes stems from a keen, if not correct observation that learning is much more than the acquisition of knowledge and the development of innate skills. Learning, instead, brings into fruition one’s knowledge and skills, by charting how one is able to successfully apply these concepts into prolific results.Secondly, the telling need to revolutionize the pedagogies and strategies pertinent to effective classroom instruction represents an unmistakably rapidly-growing concern for most educational institutions. At the very least, the old model of traditional instruction needs to be supplanted with better strategies which are now available in the field. L earning, it needs to be noted, is a delicate process; it must be attended to only by acceptable approaches and inviting programs. For such reason, Kounin believes that classroom management is of the essence in the entire learning process – i.e. , â€Å"good classroom management† must be considered as an indispensable requisite to student’s learning† (qtd. in Emmer and Stough 104). And there are reasons to think the manner by which educators create and design appropriate classroom management styles spells the difference between the welcome promotion of learning and the unfortunate frustration of the same. On the one hand, revolutionizing the contemporary approach to learning necessitates a thorough re-evaluation of the technical aspects of classroom management.This re-evaluation process entails, still according to the suggestions of Kounin, putting a fair amount of effort and energy to apply all the three aspects of classroom management into the learning en vironment: first, to ensure that â€Å"preparations† relative to academic programs and campus regulations are properly articulated and clearly outlined so as to facilitate their effective implementation; second, to determine head-on whether or not the interaction transpiring between the educator and learners during the â€Å"actual† learning process are marked by appropriateness and facility; and third, to determine a program that assesses and monitors how educators are able to â€Å"control† the environment for learning (Vasa 64-66).One may correctly notice that this specific program seeks to guide the learning process before it is undertaken, during its implementation and after the process has been completed. Simply put, the process is comprehensive. And it is with good reasons that a learning institution must adopt such a revolutionary program to guide their respective educational goals and visions into welcome fruition. On the other hand, it has to be likewi se appreciated that any effort to revolutionize classroom management cannot stop at ensuring that the aforesaid technical aspects work effectively in the service of efficiency and facility. With equal or more emphasis, there is a need to revolutionize, in a manner being drastic but progressive, the fundamental concept of the learning process itself.Herein, it is wise to reminded what P. Freire has to say about the matter – i. e. , learning cannot be seen as an asymmetrical process, where teachers dole out incremental nuggets of knowledge and students receive them uncritically as though they were nothing but repositories of data and information. When a learning institution engages in this type of one-way instruction, Freire believes that it adopts an unmistakably restrictive â€Å"banking concept of education†. He believes that under this model, â€Å"knowledge is (considered as) a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consid er to know nothing† (Friere).Instead, Freire maintains that classroom instructions, as indeed the entire process of education, have to revolutionized so as to cater to the need to â€Å"strive for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality† (Freire). For only when educators see the supreme importance of promoting the learner’s concrete appropriation of his or her learning can learning environments break free from the traditional spoon-feeding model of instruction that has long plagued the many educational systems. Thirdly, there is a certainly a need to re-orient the goal of education in respect to its duty to prepare the learners in discerning their chosen vocations relative the needs of the society later on. Nowadays, education is often seen as a personal ticket to success; an instrument which yields a higher rate of success to the top.More and more therefore, the call to recover the thrust of education from this highly individualistic frame becomes even more relevant. As indeed, the need to underscore the intricate relations between the goals of education and the needs of the society cannot be under-appreciated. In ways of more than one, learning is really about participating in the network of relationships latched in humanity’s basic sociality. Learning is indeed about â€Å"the increasing ability to participate in the social and culture practices which are considered important in the society† (Ten Dam and Volman 285). And this does not entail seeing the education of students as a precursor their filling up certain stereotyped roles which a society demands.Ten Dam and Volman believes that â€Å"adequate participation† in the society â€Å"does not mean behaving according to a fixed set of norms, but being able to deal flexibly with the differences and other choices and possibilities† (284). Thus, learning is about empowering the students to discover their inner gifts while they are at school so that they can use them for the sake of society’s wellbeing later. In the ultimate analysis, it must be recognized that â€Å"the content of education has† indeed something â€Å"to do with society’s need for people who are prepared for the conditions of life in a civil society† (Daniliuk 13). To briefly conclude, this paper ends with a thought that affirms the abiding necessity of conceiving forward-looking goals to help address the contemporary conduct of education.Time is indeed changing fast; and so is the manner by which the world understands education and human learning. In order to adapt, challenges must be met with equivalent responses and adequate solutions. Three concrete suggestions have been raised in this paper: to re-conceptualize the model of educational Psychology, to revolutionize classroom management approaches, and to recover the role of education in respect to the needs of the society. Surely, there are still a lot more chall enges to hurdle; a lot more Goliaths to slay. For the time being, the world can rest assured that for as long as concrete steps are being framed to address educational issues, there can be little doubt that humanity’s can always strive for constant learning. References Daniliuk, A. â€Å"The Role of Education in the Formation of a Civil Society†. Russian Education   Ã‚   and Society, 50, 5, 2008. Emmer, E. & Stough, L. â€Å"Classroom Management: A Critical Part of Educational   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Psychology,   Ã‚   with Implications for Teacher Education†. Educational Psychologist, 32, 2, 2001. Freire, P. â€Å"The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education†. Ten Dam, G. & Volman M. â€Å"Educating for Adulthood or for Citizenship: Social Competence as   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   an Educational Goal†. European Journal of Education, 42, 2, 2007. Vasa, S. (1984). â€Å"Classroom Management: Selected Overview of Literature†. Teacher Education   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Monograph, 1, pp. 64-74. Wartofsky, M. â€Å"On the Creation and Transformation of Norms of Human Development†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leonard Cirillo & Seymour Wapner, editors. Value Presuppositions in Theories of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Human Development. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986.   

Leadership Reflection

Personal Leadership Reflection My whole life I’ve been fascinated with great leaders and had been fortunate to be in close proximity with some of the people leaders of my country at a very young age. You see, my family’s business is politics or public service as it is often referred to in the United States. My grandfather was among the very few that had the opportunity to get a college education in the U. K. in the 1940s before we gained independence in 1961. They were trained as leaders to run the country when the British left.As a kid growing up I watched many of the leaders in my country including my mother and father, uncle and aunts, interact, nurture, motivate and empower their people. All these people have had an important role in shaping my life and helped me develop my own unique leadership style. Leadership is define as â€Å"the process by which individual exerts influence over other people and inspires, motivates and directs their activities to help achieve group or organizational goals. (Contemporary Management P317) When I think of great leaders that I try to emulate, I always think of people like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Colin Powell to name a few. These three are not only transformational leaders but they transcends race, culture and boundaries in their leadership roles. I would characterize my leadership style as that of transformational leader, because I nurture, inspire, motivate and empower my people not only to get the best out of them but to also put them in positions to achieve self-actualization according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.I have had some leadership role working with a diverse group in terms of age, race and gender, and they appreciate my down to earth and very approachable style with everyone I deal with. I engage in transformational leadership by being attune with our industry and leading my people with a bold vision that inspires and challenge them to be creative and bold while nurturing t heir talents. I would not be the kind of leader I am today without the help of aforementioned individuals.Whenever I see someone in a leadership position, I try to learn from him or her. Whether the example is positive or negative, there are lessons I can learn and apply (or not apply) to my own leadership style. I will build upon this foundation by listening and staying attune with the rank and file even as the organization grows. I am currently working on improving my communication of expectations for my working relationships.I will ask specific questions to best understand the working environment within the organization. Leaders set the example. I will be honest with myself and with others. I will seek feedback and utilize this information for personal improvement. Leaders are also dedicated and hardworking and I will continue to work hard because my people deserves it. These are all influenced in some way by my ethnicity, national culture and maybe my gender as well.I am remembe red by people I worked with previously as someone who is knowledgeable and who cares, someone who always did his best. I will not accept the status quo when the status quo can be improved. I will continuously push myself to learn and observe so that I can remain a highly effective leader who supports others and myself in all that I do. My leadership style will continue to evolve and show up in who I am and how I am in both personal and professional relationships.

Bank of America Investment Potential

Bank of America Investment Potential Introduction In this report, the Bank of America Corporation (BAC) share price is analysed in the context of the current economic situation and the companys performance. The latter is described through the analysis of the companys financial statements and is compared to the performance of the primary BAC competitors.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Bank of America Investment Potential specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In terms of the industry, BAC is in an extremely strong position; still, the current performance of the company is worse than would be expected. The beta of BAC demonstrates that its share price is relatively stable, and significant changes are not to be expected in the near future. At the same time, given the air of uncertainty that is characteristic of the current economic situation, both the drop and the increase can occur, which is why â€Å"hold† proposition appears to be the most reasonable option. Economy: General Overview Global Economy The importance of the economic context for the investment decision development has been highlighted, for example, by Damodaran (2006), Bodie, Kane and Marcus (2011), Bloom (2014), or Lofthouse (2001) as a part of fundamental analysis. Indeed, the changes on the micro- and macroeconomic levels tend to affect the performance of most companies. Consequently, determining the specifics of current global and domestic economic situation may be helpful for an investment decision. According to the Bank of America Corporation [BAC] (2015a), throughout 2014, the economic growth of the major markets appeared to be modest and uncertain, with Japanese market contracting, Greek problem destabilising the eurozone, and Russia suffering from the sanctions and oil prices drop (BAC 2015a, p. 20). The United Nations [UN] (2015) confirms that the global economic expansion rate has been 2.6% in 2014, which is lower than the precrisis level (p. 5). The mone tary policy adjustments that are being made, for example, in Japan and China, can increase instability (UN 2015). The pre-crisis international trade rates are still not achieved, and even though they are projected to proceed with the â€Å"sluggish growth†, risks the geopolitical conflicts undermine this possibility (UN 2015, p. 6). Indeed, the situation in the market can be determined by non-economic factors as well, particularly those that can be classified as â€Å"bad news† (Bloom 2014, pp. 161). UN (2015) confirms that the political conflicts of the recent months contribute to the restriction of the global economic growth. The actions of ISIS and the recent terrorist attacks are among these conflicts. Indeed, apart from the direct damage to the property, such outbursts can significantly harm tourism and create a decline in consumption as people grow wary of visiting downtowns. Apart from that, these events almost definitely result in increased security expenses an d can potentially damage international trade if national borders become less open (Buttonwood Column 2015; Laird 2015).Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More All these problems are the direct effect of terrorism on the economy and are expected to be relatively short-lived (Buttonwood Column 2015) Apart from that, the growing anxiety (if not panic) contributes to the general feeling of uncertainty and insecurity, which also tends to reduce the investment activity (Laird 2015; Bloom 2014). Therefore, the current global economic situation will be significantly affected by this sense of insecurity. Another global economic problem is the oil prices decrease. The increase in the US oil production, which has led to the decline in oil prices, might be considered a plus from the political point of view as it reduces the oil-trading possibilities of ISIS (Chafuen 2015). Apart fro m that, the reduction is obviously beneficial for the customers, but, in other respects, lower oil prices damage the global economy. This damage is primarily caused by the difficulties experienced by the oil industry that include, for example, the reduction of employment in the sector as well as the decrease in wages (Kawa 2015). The UN (2015) forecasts are uncertain: while the possibility of further economic growth is pointed out in the report on the world economic prospects, it is also highlighted that there exist â€Å"significant downside risks for the developed countries, especially European ones and Japan (p. 5). In general, it can be concluded, that the global economy is currently in a state of uncertainty, and many challenges need to be taken into account. US Economy According to BAC (2015), throughout 2014, the US economy was still recovering from the Great Recession, but the significant figures were showing some improvement. Those include the GDP growth that has reached 2 .3%, the decrease in the unemployment rate (5.6%), and the growth of consumption (BAC 2015a, p. 20). In the third quarter of 2015, the GDP of the US increased by 2.1% and the personal disposable income grew by 0.4 %; the US net investment position, however, proceeds to be characterised by liabilities exceeding assets (US Bureau of Economic Analysis 2015). The UN (2015) encourages the Federal Reserve to adjust the interest rates that are indeed expected to be increased; the outcomes of this decision are still unclear (Eavis Picker 2015; Kaletsky 2015). Other significant features of the US economy, as Chafuen (2015) points out, include the increase in the US debt and the disputes over the healthcare policy of the President. The latter has a significant impact on the economy of the country including the reduction of productivity and the increase in the full-time employment cost.Advertising We will write a custom report sample on Bank of America Investment Potential specificall y for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Still, in general, the economic situation in the US appears to be more stable and positive-looking than that of the world, even though the aftermaths of the crisis are still noticeable. At the same time, it should be pointed out that the UN (2015) is cautious about making predictions before the interest rates increase. Therefore, it can be concluded that the economic situation in the US is also somewhat vague, especially in the light of the global economic uncertainty. Bank of America Corporation BAC: Overview Founded in 1874, BAC is an international company that offers products and services in the following segments: â€Å"consumer and business banking, consumer real estate services, global wealth and investment management, global banking, and global markets† (BAC 2015a, p. 16; Bloomberg Business 2015). As of 2014, BAC serves about 80% of the US population as it operates in 50 states; apart from that, the compan y is operating internationally in 35 countries; the total number of the company’s customers amounts to 48 million consumers and 4,800 baking centres (BAC 2015a, p. 20). The primary competitors of BAC are the JPMorgan Chase Co, Wells Fargo Company, and Citigroup Inc. Currently, BAC outperforms the latter in the terms of most ratios and parameters, including the market cap, quarterly revenue growth, net income, and price-to-earning ratio. Concerning the latter ratio as well as quarterly revenue growth, BAC also outperforms JPMorgan Chase Co (12.85 as compared to 11.35), but in relation to other parameters, BAC is performing less successfully than the two other organizations (Yahoo Finance 2015a). According to Forbes (2015a), BAC ranks #11 in assets and #37 in market value among the world’s biggest public companies. It is also among Forbes (2015a) Most Valuable Brands list ranked #72. To compare, Wells Fargo is ranked 10 in the list of the biggest public companies (For bes 2015b). These facts show that BAC competes with the strongest players in the market and is being successful. Still, as can be seen from the company’s financial statements, BAC has been underperforming recently. Since the crisis, the profitability ratios of the company have been decreasing, which is natural. At the same time, the data per common share and efficiency ratios have been growing: for example, the return on equity increased from 0.96 in 2011 to 7.13 in 2013 (BAC 2015, pp. 25). In 2013, all the mentioned ratios increased, but in 2014, performance worsened again.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Still, in the terms of efficiency, the 2014 ratios outperform those of the years before 2013 (for example, the return on equity in 2014 equals 2.92). At the same time, it should be mentioned that the long-term debt of BAC has decreased by 3% and total liabilities have decreased 4.5%. According to BAC (2015) this is the result of the company’s intent to decrease its long-term debts and short-term borrowings (p. 25). Investment-relevant conclusions from the data are presented in the following sections. BAC: SWOT SWOT analysis is concerned with determining the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The first two factors describe the company’s inner state while the second part is concerned with the outer influence (Lofthouse 2001, pp. 126-127). The SWOT analysis has been extremely popular as a strategic planning tool due to its advantages: the analysis, which is easy to perform, allows one to have a look at the company’s state and define the areas that require attention along with areas that can provide the necessary options and resources. At the same time, the analysis has been criticised for its disadvantages that include excessive simplicity, vagueness, generalization, and subjectivity of the factors choice (Helms Nixon 2010, pp. 234-235). However, it should be pointed out that all these disadvantages are the innate qualities of SWOT; in other words, the tool is not meant to provide the detailed scheme of a company’s position. The SWOT overview can provide the information about the companys position and future possibilities, which is necessary for this report. The subjectivity of the analysis, however, stays a significant limitation to the analysis. The strengths of BAC are numerous: they include its size, which presupposes a sufficient amount of resources; its age and the consequent experience; its reputation and brand that attract customers. It should be separately pointed out that the brand of the com pany is very likely to attract American customers. Another advantage is the Merrill Lynch, once acquired by BAC, that is now considered to be #1 investment research team (Gasparino 2008; BAC 2015a). The efficiency ratios for the company are quite high; they also suggest that BAC management is quite competent. For the point of view of weaknesses, it should be mentioned that the performance of the company has been deteriorating. This factor is a symptom rather than the weakness itself, but it can signify the weaknesses that would be visible to an insider. Given the facts that the BAC financial report provides numerous reasons for the performance deterioration, both internal and external, this report will consider the performance itself as a weakness that needs to be eliminated. Another potential weakness is the companys reliance on the US market. Still, since BAC has already been expanding into other countries, it can be concluded that the said reliance is not too significant. At the same time, it is obvious that the Bank of America is most popular in the US, and not in other states. The most obvious opportunities of BAC include expansion, primarily, the expansion into other countries and the development of the already penetrated ones to decrease the company’s reliance on the US market. Apart from that, BAC is known for fast expansion through acquisitions and has been successfully carrying out this line of action (Gasparino 2008). The major threats to the BAC, naturally, include the consequences of the crisis and the competition. The latter has been described, and it is obvious, that BAC is performing well, even though the competition is capable of reducing its chances for improved performance. As for the crisis, while the economy of the US is recovering, the problems are still reflected in the consequences that include reduced consumption or lower investment activity (Bloom 2014). These threats need to be managed appropriately, and a giant company like B AC has all the resources to do so. BAC: Share Price Analysis BAC share price is currently $17.43, with the market cap amounting to $181.49 billion (Yahoo Finance 2015a). The share price has been growing, albeit unsteadily, since its rather significant post-crisis fall; the close price in 2014 was $17.89, which is lower than the highest price of 2010, but higher than its close price (BAC 2015a). With the help of historical share prices for the past three years and those of NYSE Composite, the beta of BAC share was estimated to range between 0.52 and 0.82 (Bank of America Corporation 2015b; Yahoo Finance 2015b). It is optimal to compare the beta of a company to a benchmark for the industry (Damodaran, 2006). According to Damodaran (2015), this figure ranges from low to normal for the banking sector in the US (that is 0.81). Lower-beta stocks are less risky; therefore, it can be concluded that BAC is relatively stable, especially when compared to the industry (Bodie, Kane Marcus 2011, p. 577; Damodaran, 2006). This factor may suggest that extreme growth of the price is not to be expected, but it could be regarded as a particularly positive one in the context of the current economic situation. Indeed, in the situation of uncertainty, caused both by economic and political upheavals, people are likely to seek stability. In this respect, BAC has all the advantages needed: it is a long-existing bank with high reputation and a brand name that is bound to attract American customers at the very least. Therefore, if the current uncertainty existing in the market is going to affect the prices of BAC shares in any way, the way is most likely to be positive. The lowering profitability of the company is a much less appealing factor. It is alleviated by the fact that the liabilities of BAC are being reduced purposefully, and that the efficiency ratios are growing in comparison to the previous years (with the exception of the year 2013). The income decrease can be explained by the aftershocks of the recession as well as the new political and economic shocks. As BAC (2015a) determines it, the numerous reasons for the deteriorating performance include increased expenses (in particular, concerning market-related premium amortization) and decreased consumer loan balances. In general, the performance of the year 2013 allows one to suggest that BAC is capable of recovering after the recession; the reputation, experience, and brand name of the company all contribute to this impression. It should be pointed out that the company is performing well in terms of the industry, competing with the world’s largest banks and outperforming some of the competitors in a number of parameters. Therefore, it can be concluded, that the shares of the company would not be expected to drop significantly as a result of deteriorating performance, and the performance is not unlikely to improve in the future. Given the strength of the company’s position, its share price is unlikely to decrease dramatically despite all the mentioned challenges. At the same time, and the next year is more likely to demonstrate how the company is coping with the new difficulties caused by the slow growth of the economy and political upheavals. In this report, it is concluded that the BAC share price has all the chances of increasing or decreasing by a relatively small amount in the next year depending on the way it will respond to the new global economic challenges; therefore, the proposition for it would be to hold. Conclusion The current economic situation is rather unfavourable than favourable, and the challenges that it poses have to be met appropriately. An old, reputed, large international company like BAC is perfectly capable of managing the upcoming threats. The performance of the company has been somewhat deficient, which, however, is the tendency of the world economy nowadays, and, in the terms of the industry, BAC is among the most successful banks. The new year, however, can be characterised by the high uncertainty and anxiety caused by economic and (mostly) politic upheavals. Therefore, as a result of the global uncertainty, the proposal suggested in the report is to hold. Reference List Bank of America Corporation 2015a, 2014 Annual Report, http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/71/71595/AR2014.pdf. Bank of America Corporation 2015b, Historical Price Lookup, http://investor.bankofamerica.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71595p=irol-stocklookup. Bloom, N 2014, Fluctuations in Uncertainty, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 153-176. Bloomberg Business 2015, Bank of America Corp, bloomberg.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot_article.asp?ticker=BAC. Bodie, Z, Kane, A Marcus, A 2011, Investments, 10th ed, McGraw Hill, Boston, MA. Chafuen, A 2015, The U.S. Economy in 2015: Challenges and Opportunities, Forbes, 1 January, forbes.com/sites/alejandrochafuen/2015/01/01/the-u-s-economy-in-2015-challenges-and-opportunities/. D amodaran, A 2006, Security Analysis for Investment and Cash Finance, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J. Damodaran, A 2015, Betas by Sector (US), http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/Betas.html. Eavis, P Picker, L 2015, As Investors Shun Debt, Banks Are Left Holding the Bag, The New York Times, 19 November, nytimes.com/2015/11/20/business/dealbook/as-investors-shun-debt-banks-are-left-holding-the-bag.html?ref=topics. Forbes 2015a, Bank of America, forbes.com/companies/bank-of-america/. Forbes 2015b, Wells Fargo, forbes.com/companies/wells-fargo/. Gasparino, C 2008, Bank of America to Buy Merrill Lynch for $50 Billion, CNBC, 14 September, cnbc.com/id/26708319. Helms, M Nixon, J 2010, Exploring SWOT analysis – where are we now?’ Journal of Strategy and Management, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 215-251. Kaletsky, A 2015, What a US interest rate rise really means for the dollar, The Guardian, 17 November, theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/17/what-a-us-interest-rate-rise-rea lly-means-for-the-dollar. Kawa, L 2015, Four Ways the Oil Price Crash Is Hurting the Global Economy, Bloomberg Business, 8 October, bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-07/four-ways-the-oil-price-crash-is-hurting-the-global-economy. Laird, L 2015, The Paris Attacks and the Economic Impact of Terrorism, Forbes, 16 November, forbes.com/sites/laurielaird/2015/11/16/the-paris-attacks-and-the-economic-impact-of-terrorism/. Lofthouse, S 2001, Investment management, 2nd edn, Wiley, Chichester, West Sussex, UK. United Nations 2015, World Economic Situation and Prospects 2015, un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wesp/wesp_archive/2015wesp_full_en.pdf. US Bureau of Economic Analysis 2015, U.S. Economy at a Glance: Perspective from the BEA Accounts, bea.gov/newsreleases/glance.htmp. Yahoo Finance 2015a, Bank of America Corporation, http://finance.yahoo.com/q/p?s=BAC+Press+Releases. Yahoo Finance 2015b, NYSE Composite, http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=%5ENYA.