MRI business has been exceedingly increasing in the past decade. People are seeking out these services which in the past were too costly and quite difficult to find. However, it is important to note that MRI services have also not been as easy to access as they should. Opening an MRI business center therefore seems like a wise and enlightening decision especially where the demand is taken into account. Demand for MRI continues to increase, therefore necessitating the opening of such centers which provide quality decisions. However, like any other business there are other internal and external factors that may affect the business and profit. Often entrepreneurs focus too much on dealing with external factors such as competition and resource sourcing and simply forget the importance of other factors such as pricing and economic situations which are dire to the success of the business.
The strength of a new business is completely dependent on the ability of the entrepreneur to maneuver and factor in all factors that are directly or indirectly related to the business. Pricing of MRI services for example is not simply a matter of an amount that would generate significant profits. It is also important to consider and take into account, the customer needs, the state of the market and the competitor’s rate. When developing a business philosophy, it is important for DR. Hughes to consider the strengths of the business structure, the business idea and quality of product. Based on these strengths the structure of the new business can be easily identified and used to ensure guaranteed success. With the information presented in this report changes can be made to the structure and ideas easier entry into the market.
The pricing strategy of the company plays a major role in determining the response of the consumers to the product being offered. The beginning of a pricing strategy requires that the company to engage in research to understand and evaluate the importance of the service being offered to the consumer. MRI services for example are not granted as some form of option, they are often a required necessity. This gives the company more space through which they can maneuver the costs of the services being offered. On the other hand, there are other competitors offering the same which means that guesswork in terms of pricing could indeed become quite costly to the business in terms of the target market and attracting the right clientele.
Perhaps the most important thing to note is that price is often used to communicate quality of the service being offered. On the one hand when a service is too costly according to the consumer standards the market may not be able to access the same service. On the other hand when MRI services become too cheap, consumers are likely to think that the quality is low according to the market standards. MRIs are related directly to the health of an individual which is the one area where people are often unwilling to compromise. When it comes to the health of a person, quality speaks much more than cost. People need to be able to afford the MRI services while at the same time getting quality for what they are spending. For this reason, pricing of the product needs to be based on the fundamentals of pricing elasticity.
Price elasticity
Price elasticity often works when the company seeks to determine how price will be affected by changes in demand. MRI services are not usually based much on demand since the demand is mainly based on the suspicion of disease. However, like with any services being offered there are often fluctuations are often present. The problem is that when fluctuations occur, the company can be caught off guard. These fluctuations often lead to increased losses and can provide loopholes for competition. In the case of demand, the biggest sensitivity is often towards price changes. Even for the most loyal of clients, any changes in price could lead to increased fluctuation of the demand with customers either creating an increased demand or reducing the demand. Price elasticity is the biggest and easiest way to regulate and determine the right price. It allows the company to adjust significantly to any changes in the demand. When calculating the elasticity, results of the calculation are often easy to identify and calculate.
For each company, including the MRI Company the important thing to note is that the products can remain inelastic. Inelasticity allows the products to increase demand even when significant changes are made to the pricing strategy. Whether the price increases or lowers, demand remains stagnant increasing because the product is ideally one that is a complete necessity. The basic element is that there is a desire to have clients who whether through simple marketing, advertising or pricing, the service offered by the company should be such that clients cannot survive without the services being offered. This means considering the needs of the different target markets and adjusting accordingly.
Considerations and advantages of price elasticity to the center
MRI is a necessity and not a luxury: this is an important consideration, where services are concerned. Elastic services include luxuries which one can do without. The MRI services fall into the two categories of both elastic and inelastic. On the one hand, MRI is often used to identify conditions which cannot be merely construed using simple x-rays and other methods of determining diseases. However, there has been an increase of lectures, articles and academic research which is determined to reduce the use of MRI in determining the nature of disease and injury. On the one hand therefore, MRI’s are quite the necessity while on the other they may be considered a slight albeit very slight luxury.
Another aspect to be considered is that the Oakville Open MRI clinic is not the first of its kind within the targeted market. There exists at least two other competitors offering quite similar services. This means that while the MRI services maybe a complete necessity, making the pricing more inelastic, the existence of completion means clients can opt for one or more centers making the demand more elastic and therefore the pricing. Through simple marketing strategies it is possible to set apart the MRI center from the competition. However, fluctuations in demand are more likely even though the product is a necessity. When it comes to provision of necessary services, entrepreneurs may fail to consider the slight chance of demand fluctuation brought on by changes in pricing. This could lead to detrimental pricing mistakes which in turn are quite costly to the growth and survival of an expensive venture such as MRI centers.
Competition and substitution: as mentioned above, demand is often fluctuating in necessary services simply because consumers and clients can either get the same service from competitors or in fact substitute the same service. (Mowen and Minor 1998) gives an example of sandwiches which are a popular lunch option for the working class. Majority of the working class are often eating sandwiches sometimes on a daily basis. The working class accounts for at least 85% of the target market of the sandwich chains. Despite this dependence which often translates to the sandwich being a necessity, when one chain increases the price of a sandwich by even a small margin, the consumers often do a massive shift to the substitute or alternative offered by the competition. This translates an inelastic market to one which is in fact quite fluid with the demand for a product being dictated by the pricing of the same product.
When it comes to the MRI services being offered by the clinic there is not only need for differentiation but also the desire to create a unique gap which competition may find hard to deal with. This unique niche gives the company more leeway when it comes to setting the price of the products. In addition, price increases and decreases should be well thought out. Increasing the price of MRI services may seem ideal but in the same way, it is most likely to drive consumers away. In this elastic market, the idea for Dr. Hughes is to find a unique standpoint, something that competition is not offering something that would either justify increasing costs or at least make the move of clients more costly.
What is the actual cost of an MRI: in the current market consumers are often faced with varying prices when seeking MRI services. In one place the services could be costly mainly because of the nature of machines used and even the ambience of the center. The important thing is to determine the actual cost of the product being offered in the market. With the actual cost, there are less chances of fluctuation.in considering the actual cost, it is important to take note of the psychological pricing. While the price of an MRI may not fluctuate by much, increase in cents on the purchase of necessary tools could easily make a significant change to the pricing. The change though small when distributed to the products, could easily become highly costly. Small changes make the product seem much more costly to the consumer. (Anderson and Poulfelt 2006) states that a product which costs $99.99 is usually attracting more consumers than one which costs $100 simply because the psychological notion informs the consumer than one is way much cheaper than it actually is.
All goods in the marketing during the lifetime of the business become elastic at one point or another. What is most important to note is that consumers will definitely and often in many cases find an alternative and substitute for the current product. For example an increase in the cost of an MRI may in fact cause allot of grumbling while consumers still continue to seek out the service. The dissatisfaction however will lead to seeking out alternatives that are much cheaper and more stable in terms of pricing.
Demand For Open MRI Services
(Reisman 2002) states clearly that when we are born we inherit a good amount of stock in terms of health. This stock can be equated to the simple assets that are bought. When an asset such as a car or even building is bought it comes with a stock of good health. It requires little if any maintenance or service. As it ages however the demand for maintenance services, repair and management increases. The same holds true for our own health, as we age the body begins to demand that the depreciated health factors are taken into consideration. This increases the level of demand for various healthcare services. Taking this into consideration therefore, it follows that as we age we begin to have a need for and seek out open MRI services which can be used to detect conditions and injuries that beginning to take over our bodies.
An analysis of the above theoretical assumption on the demand for healthcare services and as such open MRI services reveals the following:
As a human being continues to age the rate of depreciation in terms of health increases. They become more susceptible to diseases and conditions which decrease their productivity and the body’s ability to heal itself.
As the rate of health depreciation increases, people become more willing to invest high amounts of money to offset the process. The cost of treatment does not seem to matter with people moving heaven and earth for the simple hope that they can turn the clock.
As the general income of the target market for open MRI increase, the more people are willing to spend on the service.
Factors affecting demand for MRI services
Income of the target market
When it comes to healthcare it is often common for entrepreneurs to make the wrong assumption that individuals will pay anything to get a cure. They simply ignore external factors to the business such as income of the target market. It is true that individuals are often more than willing to pay as much as is demanded in order to get a cure. However there are two factors to take into consideration when it comes to income and MRI demand:
MRI services are often employed as a form of prognosis rather than treatment. Open MRI is often used to determine the condition which the individual seems to be suffering from. In many cases it is an option as opposed to other forms of detection. Based on this therefore, it is possible that many people may feel they cannot afford the cost of the diagnosis and therefore opt to do away with the same.
MRI services occur before the individual is instilled fear of the rate of depreciation in the body. Without an MRI many people would go on and continue with life blissfully unaware of the rate at which their bodies are depreciating. Because they are unaware, they are often less willing to spend much when it comes to the service. In fact many consumers and patients often see the MRI as a service that has been forced on them by the doctors.
MRI services are shrouded by a coat of ignorance with very few of the targeted consumers understanding the importance of the service. The lack of knowledge heavily influences the desire of consumers to spend their income on the service.
Complementary services
Normally, consumers do not in turn just walk into a center and demand MRI services. With this type of healthcare service knowledge is vital. In the past, during the first ages when MRI was used, the services were exclusive to specific large institutions which could afford to maintain and purchase the required machinery. In addition, there were very few if any individuals who could understand the results drawn from the MRI. As such consumers often remained in the dark, unaware of the importance and vital usage of the MRI services. Today, there is still a large number of consumers who remain unaware of the role that MRI services can play in diagnosis and early detection of diseases. Complementary services are services which must be used concurrently with the service being offered. The demand for one service is therefore directly related to the demand for another service. In the case for MRI services there are two distinguishable and important services.
Doctor’s services are the first creator of demand. When patients feel unwell, they first go to the doctor where suggestions of an MRI are made. Doctors are therefore responsible for recommending the service and in some cases recommending the particular center where the MRI should be taken.
Once the MRI has been done, there are experts who can interpret the results. Sometimes these are the doctors and sometimes they are not. Either way, a center which lacks someone who can skillfully decipher the information in the MRI is often left with little if any form of demand. The MRI makes no sense if no one is aware what it has brought forth.
Substitutes and competition
Oakville as a county lacks open centers and this will be the first open MRI center which in itself opens a high level of demand. However, just because it is the only open MRI center doesn’t mean that there is no competition. On the one hand, there has been increased focus on the dangers and possible challenges of being subjected to MRI. Studies have shown that sometimes MRIs can lead to the development of complications that were previously not there. There are those who indicate that the data and information from these studies is skewed. However, the fear created by such results has led patients to seek out alternatives. MRIs have become the last option rather than the first choice in terms of diagnosis. Doctors who are proponents of the dangers of MRIs are often influencing patients to learn and seek out alternative diagnosis measures.
Secondly, there exists a similar center although it’s is quite a distance. Unfortunately, the Memphis center itself is quite large and popular drawing clientele from all over the state. With the high demand, the center is often able to cut the costs of its services significantly something which the new Oakville open MRI center may not be able to sustain. Competition therefore becomes an important factor. Furthermore, there are tests which though best done in an open MRI center can also be accomplished in the many closed MRI centers which are all over the county. Such services are often more popular and in high demand throughout. When it comes to pricing and market share therefore competition will heavily influence demand for the product.
Available consumers
The healthcare industry is one which the number of available consumers is always present even though it is often fluctuating. Fluctuation is simply because of the nature of health. When people are more exposed to toxins the demand for healthcare services and therefore MRIs is quite significant. The Oakville County is one in which the baby boomers generation is in plenty. This aging population is susceptible to injury and illness. Considering that there is no other open MRI center the demand for the service seems to be already set. However there are several factors to take into consideration when determining the availability of consumers for MRI services:
The already available consumers need to have the knowledge and awareness with regard to the importance of MRI services. For this generation MRI is a service they might as well do without. Without the right knowledge they become unwilling to spend on the service. In this case, the target market and consumers are available but they are not taking advantage of the product.
The availability of the consumers today does not automatically translate to availability in ten years. There are chances that fewer people will need MRI services in the future and even greater chances that competition may open a center in the future further decreasing the demand for the services.
The service itself must be such that consumers feel they cannot do without the service. This creates its own level of demand and allows for word of mouth marketing. Advertisements and marketing can only go so far, consumers who experience the product are better tools of educating others and making them aware of the availability of the service.
Factors Influencing The Supply
Price of the factors of production
It has already been established that Oakville County is an area ripe with demand for open MRI services. Since majority of people are often unwilling to compromise when it comes to their healthcare it follows therefore that they are more than willing to spend to ensure their won health. However, there have been few if any attempts to increase the supply of Open MRI despite the existing demand. (Leenders 2006) states that one of the most major considerations is the importance of inputs. The cost of inputs in providing a service can put off even the most willing of investors. Factors of production in the provision of MRI services can be divided to the following:
Machinery and tools: MRI works best in diagnosis simply because of the machinery and tools employed to determine ailments. These machineries are often quite costly with many having to be imported. In the past for example, only large hospitals could afford the cost of machinery that would support an MRI center. The machinery and tools are highly differentiated for the diagnosis of various ailments. It follows therefore that the expected cost of investment would be very high. In some cases, it is often too high for individual investors to consider especially because the profits and return on the investment may not be quick, immediate and sustainable.
Unlike other services which can be provided, executed and managed by any individual, MRI services require trained experts. There are doctors who though understanding the importance of the tests and often recommending them cannot attempt to successful diagnose an ailment with the MRI machinery and tools. Often they may also require help in understanding and interpreting the results in order to advice on the best method of treatment, medication of the ailment or therapy. Unfortunately, the demand for radiologists and such experts is quite high making provision of the service quite difficult. Even though the machinery maybe available, if there are not experts to make use of the same then the investment is null and void. Increased human resource flow due to the demand of the skill can also prove to be detrimental to the supply of the services.
It is clear that the input required for the provision of MRI services is not only costly, in terms of purchase of machinery and payment of experts, it is also low in terms of supply. This makes provision of MRI services quite difficult.
Government policies and regulations
The healthcare industry is one of the most heavily regulated and restricted industries in the country and globally today. There are more and more regulations which some up daily to protect the consumer. Concerns have been raised that whereas the consumer is heavily guarded the institutions themselves are not well protected and are often left to suffer many consequences which come from exposure. Restrictions are important because of the importance and value that is often placed on the health of human beings. However, this often means that investors who have spent greatly in terms of acquiring the right equipment, tools and expertise to run an MRI center may have to spend even more in terms of meeting the regulations and restrictions of the government. Restrictions are often placed with regard to:
The number and type of employees who should be within the center as long as it is open. Should the entrepreneur e unable to support the number of employees, then they are not allowed to operate curtailing the supply of the service. Further, there are some skills which are difficult to come by with very few institutions providing training and therefore even fewer experts who are required according to law to be within the center. The cost and difficulty of finding these employees makes supply of the same product and service quite difficult.
MRI services cannot just be provided from any premises. Due to the danger of the rays transmitted from the machinery, the government has laid out requirements in terms of space and design of the center. This often translates to increased cost especially in terms of space which is why many of the open MRI centers are often located in large hospitals which can afford the space. On the other hand, it is also quite difficult to meet the architectural requirements of the space often specified in government manuals. The space may have to have been built originally as an MRI center which is quite difficult or be re-designed to fit the purpose of the provision of MRI. Either way, the difficulty is accessing the right premises limits the desire to invest in MRI centers.
Licensing and the constant need to upgrade in order to remain relevant and legal is an issue that limits the number of people willing to invest in this kind of business. If the requirements are not carefully considered, it is quite possible to be operating an illegal center.
Impact of utility on demand of MRI
Utility is interpreted with regard to how much satisfaction a consumer gets from a particular product. When a consumer experiences a product for the first time, this experience often provides a background , a foundation to which the consumer returns in order to make a choice for later use. Businesses often strive to give the consumer greatest satisfaction with the first trial. Utility is often the measure of satisfaction of wants and needs by the use of the product. In this case, consumers often try to access open MRI for the simple reason of diagnosis. A complete diagnosis, which includes all the facts therefore meets the utility demand for the services of the product. The following are some of the potential effects of utility:
Understanding the value of the product: to the business, MRI has great value and this is why they seek to provide the said service. However, it is also important to note that the consumer’s value and the value of the business can be completely different. In order to engage in productive marketing, it is important to understand the value of the service to the consumer. Utility allows the business to understand exactly what they can expect from the service, how close the service comes to meet their needs and the role that the service plays in the life of the consumer. When a product has great value to the consumer, they are more willing to pay for the same increasing demand and market for the product.
Explains demand: there are many factors that affect demand but the best in explaining demand is the utility theorem. When consumers are highly satisfied with the services of center, they are more willing to not only spend on the same product but also to encourage others to pay for the same services. The utility factor also explains the negative slope of demand. With the introduction of a new open MRI center, the first and only one in the region, demand will definitely be high. But as consumers make use of the product, the demand begins to decrease becoming lower. Continued use makes the demand and desire to use the service much lower, consumers begin to seek out alternatives and substitutes and indeed find ways through which they can probably avoid the service. This decreases demand significantly, a factor which the company should be prepared for.
Determination of optimum consumption: this is the highest level of demand, where the demand is not only sufficient but indeed ideal for the business. At this stage the business enjoys sufficient profit and income to not only manage costs but also to expand. Optimum demand can only be achieved when the products ideally address the needs of the consumer completely. This means that the consumer has no desire to seek out other alternatives but is indeed completely satisfied with the service offered by the company. Consumers therefore desire to consume the product which meets all their needs.
Management of profits: profit is created when the sales value is much higher than the input and cost of providing a service. For the MRI center the cost of providing a singular service can be quite costly, however as the service becomes useful, it creates its own demand increasing the probability of making profit from the same product. Profits are often managed through creation of increased demand which maintains the profit level. With increased demand growth becomes a reality rather than simply a goal. There is an increased chance of creating a niche with more profits. Where the peak demand for MRI services remains unchanged, the return on the investment though high is quite possible. On the same level, there is the possibility of using the peak demand to bring about greater growth and stabilizing the performance of the business. Profits during peak demand are maintained to be used during the times of low demand so that the business does not suffer unduly. In this way, during the low demand season quality services are still available to the consumer at the same cost without hurting or injuring the survival chances of the business.
Meeting consumer needs: when the utility of the business is high, it simply translates to the business being able to meet the consumer needs. A business that meets the needs of the consumer directly is able to maintain a high demand and create its own niche which completion cannot meet. A niche is often created to give the business greater advantage over the competition. A niche allows the business to get the advantage of higher income without investing as much as the competition. This is often known as the law of increased value for much less. What happens is the company invests more in the simple aspects of the business, those aspects which meet the specific MRI needs of the consumer. In doing so, profit is generated from the uniqueness of the service being offered.
Managed Care And Demand
Managed care is deigned to decrease the cost of healthcare while at the same time ensuring that all patients receive basic, quality healthcare. The demand for healthcare services in itself is quite high with consumers seeking to improve their health deficiency rate. However, the cost of healthcare has previously been a misguiding factor when it came to accessing healthcare. Majority of the people who need healthcare can barely afford basic care. MRI services for example are often found to be beyond the average affordability rate for a good portion of the population. For the MRI center, becoming a center of managed care is one of the ways to ensure a steady demand for services. While the payment maybe lower, it would be more efficient to increase demand and maintain the same even in the low demand season.
Lower costs: the managed care is often designed to ensure affordability of the services to every individual. MRI services have often been found to be quite costly. Being a first step in diagnosing illness, MRI is quite important. Despite the importance, it is possible that patients will not be able to access the service in good time. The lack of affordability on the other hand also ensures that the demand for the service is often low and continues to become lower as income decreases. Managed care allows the service to become affordable thereby increasing demand, (Harris 1998).
Accreditation: when the Oakville open MRI center successfully becomes part of the managed care system, it will gain free accreditation. Accreditation is the one way to gain publicity and therefore trust of the consumers. Consumers are more likely to engage with a service provider who has been accredited by the government. When it comes to health, individuals are less likely to rely on publicity and advertisement in selection of a place where they can be diagnosed and treated. The government is often partnering with centers that provide services which are of high quality. The process of vetting the clinic is quite long and tedious. Only the best of the best are allowed to partner with the government. Credentials are carefully analyzed not just for the clinic but also the employees within. The process gains trust of the consumers increasing the demand for the services offered within the clinic.
Management of the pricing: perhaps the biggest concern for the company and clinic is the pricing strategy. With MRI services guesswork cannot work, a simple but clear strategy needs to be employed to ensure success in attracting consumers. When the services become too costly, despite their importance and the availability of the services still many more will have a hard time accessing the same services. Managed care allows all people to have access to the services. Considering that the clinic is the first and only one offering open MRI services, it is likely that the ensuing demand from managed care will increase the income significantly. Such income increase will indeed justify the lower costs that are charged to through the managed care system. Pricing is already determined through the managed care system. Because the pricing agreement has been reached so that the clinic can continue to get profits while at the same time ensuring that all patients can afford, the continue to be competitive the clinic can continue to offer excellent quality services while maintaining affordability. Clients therefore have more reasons to visit the clinic.
Approval systems: the managed care system often relies heavily on approval. For a cost to be deductible, it must be approved. Two aspects of this affect the demand of the services being provided any the clinic. First, the process of approval sometimes may take much longer than expected. As such clients are more likely to move on to other centers where the payment maybe higher but the service will be provided immediately. There are cases where the patients are not willing to wait for the approval, especially where they have encountered a health scare which is often almost always. This means that demand will lower very greatly where the approval process is quite strict. Secondly, it is also important to note that despite the waiting, there are cases where the MRI scans may not be approved. In this case, patients often take out their anger on the clinic rather than the managed care institution.
Restrictions and privacy: there are cases where the individuals clearly do not want to visit the clinic simply because it is under managed care. This is especially the case where they feel roper restrictions have not been made to ensure the privacy of the information they will give to the clinic. The clinic must give details of the procedures the patients have undergone to the managing institution. Majority of the people feel that such information should be private. Demand therefore lowers as individuals attempt to protect their privacy.
Financial Analysis
The financial analysis of the company includes some assumptions which have been made with regard to the proposed MRI business. To begin with, the past decade has seen a sharp increase in interest rates. Borrowing of capital, mortgage and general financing of the business investments has become a very costly measure. It is expected that even though there was a significant increase, the analysts and business experts indicate that measures taken by the government to reduce the interest rate are working and will indeed lead to a stabilization of interest rates. The current interest rate stands at 10% and it is expected that the long term interest rate required to finance the business will stand at the same for a long time. Secondly, the government and especially state governments have been striving to create an atmosphere where investment is likely to yield higher profits. To encourage new entrepreneurs and also boost the growth of the economy through business ventures such governments have focused on stabilization of taxation rate. Currently, the Memphis center pays at least 30% of the total income to taxes. The same is expected of the Oakville center although the percentage is expected to decrease by year five of operations.
Projected profit
(Forsyth 2002) states that no new business will be able to make any plans and indeed prepare for the unexpected if there is no significant idea as to what they are working towards. Project profit allows the entrepreneur in this case Dr. Hughes to determine what amount of income is sufficient to reach the breakeven point and surpass it. According to the financial reviews provided by the Memphis center, sales have decreases in the past few years. The decrease in income suggests that reaching the point of break-even maybe more difficult. However, even with decreased sales, the proximity of the center which is much nearer than Memphis is likely to attract the right clients. Income sales projections are therefore expected to increase in the next few years. In the first year, the business does not expect to make any profit, in fact the business projections cushion against expected loss. The loss is mainly due to the fact that much investment will be made in terms of purchasing tools and machinery and hiring the right expertise. The expenses will therefore supersede the expected income. However for the next few years, the company is expected to make some profit, sufficient enough to increase growth and make the MRI Company quite competitive.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Sales growth
152.34%
10.45%
7.62%
Gross margin
60.00%
60.00%
60.00%
Administrative costs
108%
62%
42.2%
Net profit
-72.23%
3.2%
6.2%
Administrative costs as seen in the table above will be quite high in the first year. The projection is based on the costs that will be needed to begin providing MRI services. These include hiring new staff, making stationery purchases and registering for the required licenses. These administrative costs could also include training for the new staff in management of an MRI clinic. As such, the projected loss for the first year can be accounted for by the expected expenditure. During the second year, majority of the costs will be based mostly on replenishing what was first purchased. The cost therefore significantly decreases to 60% allowing for the first profits of 3.2% to be experienced.
Future expected investments
The Memphis open MRI center boasts more assets and publicity as compared to the center opening in Oakville. The state of technology continues to change especially when it comes to managing health care. It is expected and projected that changes will continue, with new and fancier ways of completing MRIs being discovered. At the current state, the pursuit is for faster and cheaper MRIs for each institution. With such discoveries there are several investments expected in the future and that will impact significantly on the financial status of the clinic:
Purchase of new tools and machinery: in the next five years the machinery required for MRIs may remain the same, however the simpler tools for day to day operations are expected to change significantly. With the changes, clients will be drawn to the clinic that is a leader is adopting the changing policies and as such providing better and more unique services.
Training for staff: a significant error has been noted in the operations of the Memphis MRI clinic. Much of the staff remains with the original training, having not updated or even improved their skills. The result is that the services are almost always of lower quality and tasks are pricing difficult to perform especially where changes in tools have been made. Instead of hiring now staff every time there is a change, the Oakville center will instead focus on training the current staff to ensure they are highly equipped and strategically placed to manage any changes.
Software: perhaps the biggest and most significant investment to be made will be in terms of software used to deliver services to the clients. Whereas the current software is highly placed within the market, there are newer and better software being produced daily. It is expected that the business will indeed need to invest periodically in changing the software. This will allow the clinic to serve clients much better and faster. With high quality delivery of services, the clinic can expect to rank highly, attract a variety of new clients and make significant increases in income and profit.
Valuation of the business
This is mainly highlighting some of the strengths that the business has which can have a financial advantage to the business. Although there exists another open MRI center and several closed MRI centers within the proximity of Oakville center, there are several advantages that the center has in comparison, these include:
Proximity: the new Oakville open MRI center will be the first of its kind within the county. There exists another center but it is 200 miles away. This center will therefore have the advantage of being the nearest and therefore most recommendable center for the residents.
State of the art machinery: the Memphis center continues to rely on machinery that has not been recently updated. The Oakville center has the advantage of starting out with high quality, state of the art machinery. This will allow for faster and more efficient delivery of services.
Expertise: having worked and held a career as a doctor for a long time, Dr. Hughes brings with him a wealth of expertise upon which the success of the center will be based. Clients and customers are more likely to trust a center run by a doctor. This provides free publicity for the clinic ensuring its success in generating income almost from the start.
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The debate on racism is one that has been existing for quite a while. The majority of today’s leaders are often attempting to convince the masses that racism is no longer an issue. In the system of the world, there are continued differences between individuals. There will always exist people of different classes, people who dress differently and who have different beliefs and norm systems. The fact is that as long as human beings continue to exist, the nature of difference will continue to exist. The problem is not the difference but rather how people behave within the difference. Each factor causes some individuals to feel entitled to treat people who are different from them in varying degrees of favor or otherwise. One of the biggest issues and causes of difference has always been racism.
In the past, identifying people of a different race was easy from the color of skin, accent, and even other socio-cultural factors such as level of education. However, today urbanization and the global web have created a system where interaction between people of different races has increased inter-racialism. ,Also continued education has led to increased tolerance as the socio-cultural differences become lower. In this aspect, many assume that the issue of racism has become irrelevant. However, stereotyping based on race, the color of the skin, and religion in some cases has become much worse than before. Traditionally, what was termed as open racism was common that is, people were openly discriminated against and looked down upon because of the color of their skin. Today, however, what is most common is forms of silent racism which are often difficult to identify even for the victims.
Reports from politicians and even some media platforms indicate that racism does not exist. Instead, they insist that racism has been replaced by the simple dislike of individuals. The reasons are given for these include:
Race as a normal category
The race is often treated as a biological category which also connotes social behavior and categories which in turn produce an acceptable culture. (Hurley 1998) suggests that whiteness continues to be considered some form of superiority. According to this report, the majority of the individuals who are interracial are a product or by-product of individuals seeking out whiteness which often is thought of as owning some sort of superior property. The failure to be white means that one is missing something that should be owned or possess something that is of less value than the whiteness. As history has shown us there will always exist a race that is far more superior than the others. Although inter-racialism has increased making identification of different races much more difficult, there have also been increased sightings of situations where people have been stereotyped not based on their affects both the organization and its employees. The effects of culture but more on the race they belong to. People identify naturally with the race they belong to; they are often first identified with the race before anything else. Whereas, there are other major accomplishments of the individual, race continues to be the first form of identification. Taking, for example, the election of Barrack Obama as an American president, years down the line individuals still refer to him as the black president. He may be Muslim, a man, and have other traits but the first instinct of what we see is his race.
Considering the movie Gran Torin, a movie that focuses more on the remedies for pure racists rather than romanticizing the notion of racism, Kowalski the main character seems to imagine that he has a god-given right to be a racist based on his birthright which is simply being born white. Because he is biologically disposed to being white, and his members of the family are in the same way white he feels that he has a right to belittle the others. Whatever activities he undertakes including the simple mowing of his lawn are an attempt to live up to the race to which he has been born. From this, we can gather that particular sociocultural behavior arise out of the biological race. Because one is of a particular race, they behave in a particular matter, pursue particular interests and naturally seek out others who behave in the same way. (Williams 2004) for example, in his study found that people are more inclined to associate acts of violence with black individuals rather than whit. This is despite continuous efforts to raise awareness of the success of the African American community. Simply because of race, people in the modern world are self-consciously likely to judge and hold individuals accountable for acts that they have not committed. In the same way (Merino 2009) conducted research that supported this hypothesis, in his study he found that professors and teachers in higher institutions of education were more likely to favor and support the education of white males. In his study, he in fact found that even black professors who should be more inclined to favor the black students tended to give a slightly higher form of favors to the white students. This simply means that they have naturally been inclined and nurtured to give the white race supremacy even when it comes to their own race.
Black as a right
It is important to note that whereas stereotyping continues to exist, with many writers indicating that individuals of all races are seeking out the white supremacy gene, the other side of the debate insists that racism only exists because individuals of the presumed lower races are often highlighting matters which they consider to be stereotyping. For example, two individuals of different races go to an interview. It is important to note that each of these individuals has different skills and experience. The company chooses the right candidate, but if the African American candidate is not hired, they will definitely make an issue out of it. The issue will no longer focus on the skills and the ability of the candidate to fit into the company but more on race. At the same length, the media often tends to portray the black American as a victim as opposed to an even elusive, increasingly strong, and alluring white race.
This is not just for the black American race but also for other minority races that are portrayed in the media. In media, for example, the Asian Americans are often thought of as docile, respectful, and quiet. This means that they are often segregated in jobs such as the army and security where toughness maybe required. In the same movie, gran Torino the main character in the movie Hmong is shown in the same stereotypical picture. He is respectful even when insulted and treated unfairly by the white racialist. Stereotypes are not only directed towards behavior but are in fact credited for the development of specific cultures within specific races. For example, (Cleaver 2003) found that individuals of particular races developed specific accents and semantics in languages despite the areas of study and circle of interaction. The accent is developed because individuals wish to identify with a particular lower class. In the postmodern world, there is an increased fascination with being the victim. People are often willing to identify with the victim, as a particular status especially as given by the media seems to come with being a victim. Issues that are not even based on an acre, become racial profiling as people continue to identify more and more with the victim status. A recent story was published in the media, where a young girl, Abigail has been denied entry into the University of Texas. She seemed to be more focused on the fact that she should have gained entry into the university not because she was qualified or had met the university status but simply because she is black. This sense of entitlement where the victim seems to have more rights than the victimizer is one that has encouraged racism. Individuals work less, gain even fewer skills, and have no significant qualifications but simply ignore these factors and instead focus more on the fact they are of a particular race and therefore have been racially profiled or racially victimized. In the same way, the white supremacist is seeking to increase their significant status, the smaller races are continually seeking to become victims in their everyday interactions.
Why the difference in race matters
Perhaps the biggest question for every discussion based on racism is the importance of the difference. We have already concluded that we are different, we are designed to be different but why is the human mind often focused on the difference and especially on the difference in the race? What is it that fascinates individuals about race and what can be done to improve the statuses of relationships dependent on race?
Identity: perhaps the most important factor when it comes to race is that it provides some form of identity for individuals. Even those born of two races and more, tend to focus their identification on a particular race. Inter-racial individuals often act, behave, and adopt the social infrastructure improvement like healthcare institutions, libraries and schools. Furthermore, if the local culture of the particular race with which they identify. The first thing that individuals identify with is the general race to which they belong. Before they move on to social classes, to ethnic groups, and particular smaller groupings; they are first of a particular gender and race. As the issue of gender becomes more and more ambiguous, individuals in the postmodern world have become focused and centered on race. With increased inter-racialism, it should be that individuals become less centered on the matter of race. However, it has become an important aspect of identification. People seek out their history, even paying large amounts of money to experts who can trace their roots because they feel the need to identify with a particular race.
The development of particular behavior trends simply because others of their race behave in the same way. Malik in slum Dog Millionaire provides an excellent example. The young man is not only bright; he is also an instant millionaire. One would expect that his behavior would change significantly but he continues to identify with people of his race who are extremely poor and live in the slums. It is on this basis, purely that he continues living in the slum as we see at the beginning of the movie. He is more comfortable where others like him exist.
Development of specific enriching culture: because people identify with a particular race, they are more likely to develop a culture that is assumed to be the norm of the society within which they existed. This means a wide variety of enriched United States (Arroyo, 2001). The Japanese culture. Some anthropologists in fact argue that if whiteness did not exist, some issues which have been resolved would remain unsolved. In the same way, the existence of racism where two races are forever in the conflict has forced the coming together of individuals to resolve matters that are of particular interest to their race. Scientists and even researchers are often driven by the issues and challenges that have informed their history. In the one place, for example, the existence and prevalence of polio within particular African American societies have led to a lot of research by people of this particular race which indeed have led to the development of vaccines that have curbed the spread. In the past in history, the focus was mainly on social castes and classes. People worked in the same United States (Arroyo, 2001). The Japanese culture, in the same sort of system only differentiated by social classes. However as the race became a factor and people began interacting, the culture intermingled bringing enrichment to history that had not been felt before. From art to clothing to language everything has evolved to include a richer and more refined form of United States (Arroyo, 2001). The Japanese culture. Whereas the supporters of whiteness indicate that the world is now more directed towards the development of completely white United States (Arroyo, 2001). The Japanese culture, this is not exactly true. Each of the cultures that have interacted with the white culture has influenced this culture making it less white and more of an interracial culture richly informed by the different cultures.
Conclusion
Whiteness has come under heavy criticism, with the minority groups often pointing out that they are an excuse for segregation and discrimination. Whiteness developed from a continued concern that what was considered a superior race would soon lose its privileges and position. As inter-racialism increases individuals who were once at the top of their ladder are slowly being replaced by those they looked upon as lower races. Today, it is common to find people of minority races in senior positions in companies, accomplishing just as much or even more than their counterparts in the white race. The media often portrays people from the lower social races as the main reason behind the social and economic problems facing the country. The old racism remains as part of today’s modern world although it is much less in its appearance. It is uncommon to find the use of vulgar language and violence by people from particular races to others. However, common stereotypes and behavior and even segregated neighborhoods for people of particular races are still common and continue to exist even with increased modernism.
References
Cleaver, K. N. (2009). Racism, civil rights, and feminism. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Hurley, J. A. (1998). Racism. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press
Top of Form
Merino, N. (2009). Racism. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.Bottom of Form
Williams, M. E. (2004). Racism. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.
With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.
Mitchell’s and Malkogianni’s “KSA-Edition Traveller 4 Student’s Book” provides important domains for material design evaluation. Accordingly, English language teaching materials discovered to play vital role in numerous language classrooms. Dahmarden (2009) noted that in recent times, numerous debates have emerged among English language teaching professionals concerning the manner in which the textbooks play in the learning of English as foreign language. Textbooks argued to be highly irrelevant and were rigid in the language learning process. Writings by Hutchinson and Torres, (1994) explain that textbooks are “strait jackets” that negatively affect diminishing effect on classroom creativity which will eventually make them redundant. However, the prediction has failed with the thriving of textbooks that brings organisation to the entire learning lesson. Cunningsworth (1995) highlighted that textbooks supports the language course in material presentation, communicative interaction, ideas and activities stimulation, and provide reference source for pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Accordingly, textbooks create the platform concerning the manner in which language input learners receive and practice language within a classroom. Some of the areas, which they influence, include lessons content, taught skill balancing, and the practice type which student engages. Parrish (2004) noted that textbooks ensure consistency, logical progression, and structure within a language classroom. The aspects of learning English in high school have become a fundamental wish and focus of individuals across the globe. Mehrak and Masoumeh (2012) highlighted the increasing demand of English language learning across the globe. This has made the extensive relevance of English language textbooks in order to enhance the learning experience of individuals. An example of the rising appreciation of English language learning as a second language is the introduction of English language into the academic syllabus of Saudi Arabia at the secondary level.
The wide range of English language textbooks often provides learners and teachers with choices for the optimum learning experience. However, there remains difficulty in selecting the most suitable materials for the English learning process. Grant (1987) highlighted that there is no perfect textbook as adaptability to features vary across the books. Relating the teaching style with the textbook is a major focus for evaluating textbooks for suitability in the classroom learning. Epstein and Ormiston (2007) explained that evaluation should be carefully conducted in order to determine the suitability with the style of the teachers. There are numerous evaluation methods for English language textbooks as various checklists and requirements for selecting the appropriate material.
Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or English as Foreign Language (EFL) students have made it imperative to conduct the evaluation of textbooks in determining their suitability. This report will be evaluating the section 1b of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia version of high school English Language. This module taught in 45 minutes with focus on vocabulary, grammar, and learning for teenagers ESOL learners. The motivation for this ESOL learner is to become proficient in English language to the level, which they can be of international relevance and contribute to the global participation of KSA. Considering that English is a major language in international relations, according to Mehrak and colleague, it has become evident that these learners become the new generation of Saudis with high level of English language proficiency for global participation.
Ozsevic (2010) asserted that communicative language teaching (CLT) is important to enable learners focus on communication and better exchange of ideas through the learnt language. CLT often enable improved language learning through continuous communication. The Epstein et al. (2007) proposed the evaluation checklist would be used for the CLT in the classroom. This is based on the presence of suitable items in the checklist with respect to the focus of this paper. This report initiated by discussing the class profile and the lesson justification. The criteria present within the checklist discussed using relevant theories after which the application conducted. Hutchinson (1987) asserts that evaluation to be “matter of judging the fitness of something for a particular purpose” (p. 41). This highlighted the purpose of this report in discovering whether the lesson evaluated in this material is fit or the purpose of language learning.
Class profile
Understanding the class profile provide a vivid context for which the evaluation can be conducted. This provides an intricate insight into the nature of the learners in terms of age, gender, current proficiency level, socio-cultural background. In this lesson, the learners are between 14 and 15 years of age. These are college students who have limited English language proficiency. Undeniably, main goal of their learning is to acquire sufficient proficiency in order to be able to express them at the University, communicate with foreigners, and get jobs. Some of the learners focused on learning English language in order to pass international language proficiency test such as IELTS in order to study abroad. The classroom consists of 35 students. The classroom is female only and the entire nationalities are Saudi Arabia. The learners are at the intermediate level. The learners have basic literacy skills as they have prior formal teaching of EFL. In this light, they are seeking improvements in order to be more proficient. The entire class is single with different degree of enthusiasm among the learners.
Lesson justification
Learning English based on the CLT involve the reading and speaking session. As indicated, the session enhances the communication ability based on the topic read. Evans et al. (2010) asserted that the desire to read by students is based on interest in a particular topic or the presence of viable information. What’s more, use of reading in the language class hinged on enabling the students to understanding the concepts they read. Goodman was cited by Gibbons (2002) that reading provides three types of language knowledge which include world’s knowledge (semantic knowledge), Knowledge of the language structure (syntactic knowledge), and knowledge of sound-letter relationships (graphophonic knowledge). This enables the simultaneous use of the three knowledge concepts in enhancing their proficiency during communication. Because reading does not require any device, it enables effective classroom based conduct while achieving the desired result. Reading is the conscious and unconscious process through the application of strategies for reconstructing the meaning of the assumed intention of the author (Mikulecky, 2008).
Furthermore it offers the language learners to formulate independent pattern of understanding which form the basis for communication with colleagues in a class. In this light, the lesson is justified to enhance the English learning of the participants as it enhances the understanding and various language components of participants.
CLT based Evaluation Criteria
Epstien et al. (2007) identified 11 factors in form of a checklist for evaluating language materials. This checklist contains detail features that a material must possess certified and provide effective language learning experience. In essence, these checklists provide the basis for evaluating the materials in this report.
First, Language Teaching Materials (LTM) should reflect context and ensure that language is learnt beyond the level of sentence alone: The major focus of CLT is to ensure that the process of language teaching emphasize communication that is entrenched in the understanding and meaning formulation of texts by individual students (Weddel, 2009). In this light, the material unnecessarily focused on just the sentence but corresponding support into the communicative ability of learners. The LTM should ensure that communication competence enhanced more than the textual context of the materials.
Integrating the skills will ensure that students will be able to engage in effective communication. Communication and proficiency in a language require proficiency in reading, writing, and pronunciation, listening and speaking (Cunningsworth, 1995). In terms of language learning development, language-learning materials should incorporate the manner in which the grammar of learners developed. The skills should be fundamental focus of LTMs. Hong (2009) asserted that the language skills must be included within the learning context of the students. Another way, which the skills integration of the skills appreciated, is the allowance for flexibility in communication in a particular language. The integration will ensure that learners can enhance their communication in different aspects and media.
Third, the implementation of LTM should stimulate the motivation of students by adopting activities and techniques of student interest.Topics that used by teachers must be that which will stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of students. Hong (2009) emphasised that when the topics being used interest students, learning will be more enjoyable and enhanced. Motivation of students is important language teaching and topics used should directly contribute to achieving it. Language skills are imperative in the use of CLT in a class. According to Stoller (2004), the content of language teaching should be interesting in order to enhance both the content knowledge and language skills.
Furthermore, LTM should enable the expression of ideas by learners using their creativity, knowledge, experience, and intelligence. According to Ketabi & Talebinezhad (2009) noted that the reading material during language learning must be able to stimulate the understanding in which the experience of the learner can present what was read in their own views. LTM should be able to enhance the ability of the learners to create their own understanding patterns used to present their knowledge. The materials should enable the extension of proficiency beyond linguistic structure concretised in the experience of learners in order to enable intelligent and creative driven communication.
As shown, LTM must demonstrate authenticity. Within the CLT practice, LTM must be able to stimulate the communication in an authentic manner. The authenticity of the LTM should be in an understandable manner in order to enable learners have that communicative relationship with them. Harwood (2010) highlighted that materials including newspaper front page, an airport scene and a television program can be used to develop communication in a realistic manner despite the content being authentic. The authenticity of the LTM enables it to be a viable supplement to teaching.
Subsequently, instructions for both teachers and students should be included in a clear manner within the LTM. As indicated, LTM should contain distinct instructions on how to go about use and what is expected from the teachers and students. — asserted that individual lesson and activity should contain instructions for teachers and students concerning the methods to adopt. Having the instruction will enable the role and responsibility for the activities and lessons is easier to define while enhancing the learning patterns of students. The instruction will bring the desire and objectives of the LTM concerning each lesson into reality with the enhanced proficiency of learner. Instruction should be able to direct the learning pattern associated with lessons in an LTM. It is expected that every instruction in LTM would have been tested and piloted in order to fine tune it towards making it clear and distinct.
The activities in LTM should be sequenced suitably and address the objectives. A distinct separation of each learning stage conducted. This includes clear definition of the beginning and ending of each stage. Parrish (2004) noted that LTM must be designed in a manner in which stages dovetail into each other as the learners’ progress. With each part of the LTM having objectives, defining the lessons in a sequential manner will ensure a serial development of students.
Next, LTM should avoid cultural bias and stereotyping by becoming culturally sensitive. It is asserted that learning activities should accommodate the difference in language, literacy and cognitive levels. LTM must be able to accommodate different learning dimensions, styles, preferences and intelligences. The accommodation of the differences in learners should reflect in the type of topics and discussions in LTM considering that it might be offensive to students. In essence, evaluating a material should focus on the absence of topics that are racially, politically, socially or religiously sensitive (Safarnavadeh, 2004).
LTM must demonstrate flexibility which will enable the adaptation of the learning and teaching contexts that is suitable for individuals. LTM must enable the teacher creativity in a way in which teaching can be adapted towards the individual context of the needs of each learner. LTM must show their focus on individualised learning in this feature. In essence, teachers must be able to use LTM to fashion out the best way in which both teaching and learning conducted in an individualised context. In essence, LTM must provide avenue in which users can localised the learning experience with respect to individual needs of learners (Stoller, 2004). In some cases, the LTM should be able to support the use of supplementary aids as required for individual learners.
Additionally, LTM should be attractive with respect to design and layout. In language learning, LTM primarily presented in a manner in which it attracts the learner is essential. The LTM layout and design mainly conducted in a manner that exudes quality and shows various fascinating illustrative designs. Masuhara et al. (2008) explained that LTM must combine variety of exciting features including diagrams, paintings, simulated documents and intriguing illustrations. In this light, the interest of the learners supported and enhanced. When the design and layout of a book is attractive, it makes learners become fascinated and willing to use for learning language.
Finally, LTM should focus on the development of oral communication towards achieving accuracy and fluency. Since CLT is concerned with communication, interaction in the new language is fundamental to the learning process. Rahman (2010) noted that oral communication is fundamental in the language learning process. Lessons within LTM should enable the achievement of language fluency and accuracy that exhibit correct grammatical structure. The LTM should enhance the communicative abilities of learners through oral communication. In essence, activities and lessons in the LTM should focus on the oral communication competence of learners.
Material evaluation
The evaluation of the material depicted in table 1 using the eleven criteria discussed earlier.
Criteria
Evaluation
Language Teaching Materials (LTM) should reflect context and ensure that language is learnt beyond the level of sentence alone.
The material was discovered to offer language learning listening and speaking. It enables students to exercise their pronunciation skills through the speaking exercise. The listening exercises develop new grammatical expressions and ways of using English words.
Language Skills such as speaking and listening requires integration within the LTM
The entire exercise in the focused on developing the different language skills. With direct emphasis on writing, reading, listening, vocabulary and speaking as individual activity, it can be expressed that the integration is effective.
The implementation of LTM should stimulate the motivation of students by adopting activities and techniques of student interest
The use of foreign language as the topic for discussion will enable students to express themselves on the best way to learn. The techniques adopted will stimulate the students with exercises such as vocabulary replacement, asking about their language learning feelings and essay writing.
LTM should enable the expression of ideas by learners through the use of their creativity, knowledge, experience and intelligence
The lesson enable flexibility at every activity for example, the listening activity allows students to create their own words in answering the question. The expression of ideas is free as the lesson does not allow rigid and strictness in participation. The experience, knowledge and intelligence of students are accepted in the essay, vocabulary and grammar exercise.
LTM must demonstrate Authenticity
The lesson within the LTM is authentic through the use of various means for depicting learning. The use of pictures during the reading activity is evidence. The use of audio, picture and text in the lesson demonstrate authenticity in the learning.
Instructions for both teachers and students should be included in a clear manner within the LTM
Clear instruction on each aspect of the lesson was clearly defined. The lesson prepares a background briefing or question with respect to each activity before initiation. This enables the teachers to prepare the students while the students have abundant preparation for each activity.
Activities in LTM should be sequenced suitably and address the objectives
The lesson is structured in a sequential manner. Starting with reading and concluding with writing, it shows the support for increasing cognitive language learning which will climax in the written presentation of ability.
LTM should avoid cultural bias and stereotyping by becoming culturally sensitive
The content of the lesson does not exhibit any sort of bias, preference, or stereotyping. The topic used is not of any sort of offensive nature.
LTM must demonstrate flexibility which will enable the adaptation of the learning and teaching contexts that is suitable for individuals
This lesson enables the adaptation of the teaching contexts for individuals. This is evident in the manner in which the tasks and activities were structured. For example, the listening task can be done individually. This will enable individualised learning process. The writing activity can be done in an individualised manner through the selection of different topics for each student. The reading activity is another means of contextual adaptation that can be tailored to individual area of interest.
LTM should be attractive with respect to design and layout
This material in the design and layout is attractive. The use of colour, placement of content and images makes it attractive. The content layout supports the distinctive nature of each lesson area together with details concerning each activity. The separation of the pages and colour coding for each task aspect is impressive and increase the quality of the handbook as a whole. The use of signage in terms of arrows, line number and cut out in each lesson is impressive.
LTM should focus on the development of oral communication towards achieving accuracy and fluency
This lesson is evidently focused on building more than language structure into language fluency and accuracy. The vocabulary, grammar and speaking activity focuses on improving oral communication.
Conclusively, it remains evident that evaluating LTM must be a function of more than one checklist highlighting criteria for quality and suitability. It is evident that lessons within and LTM when evaluated against the features will provide the basis for making recommendations. It demonstrated that effective language learning require LTM that enhance and support the teachers’ effort. The lesson evaluated in this report showed that the material is of high academic value. It shows qualities, which makes it suitable for the language learning in Saudi Arabia. It became evident that the design of the lesson reflects effective piloting of the steps together with sequential detailing of activities. It is clear that this material is of high standard and quality. Nevertheless, some critical points highlighted in the improvement of the lesson are important. The size of the material would have become bigger in order to give more space for the content in each page. This will provide additional allowance for content layout. This will enhance the allowance of users to have space for specific lesson notes and improved content size.
With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.
Brooklyn Pizza is a home delivery operation with 300 stores in towns and cities throughout the UK. All of these are franchised, with each franchisee operating between 3 and 7 outlets. Lakeside Villages is a holiday village concept with four locations in the UK – the northwest, Midlands, East Anglia, and the southwest. There are some aspects of the seven key result areas that they are likely to manage in similar ways. These are mostly due to statutory or regulatory requirements. Hence both companies adopt COSHH procedures to handle dangerous substances, both have public liability insurance, and both comply with health and safety legislation. Likewise, they will conform to employment practices as laid down by the employment laws of the UK, such as paying at or above minimum wage, as well as directives from the European Union, such as the Working Hours Directive. Also, both companies would encourage so-called ‘best practices’, such as those advocated by Kavanaugh and Ninemeier (1999) about labor management, or by Jones (2010a) in terms of employee recognition schemes.
Most of Brooklyn’s ‘assets’ are owned and managed by their franchisees. Brooklyn assists in finding suitable sites for each store, which are typically leased by the franchisee. Brooklyn also assists in fitting out the store with the right plant and equipment – such as refrigerated storage, preparation areas, pizza ovens, soft drink dispensers, and so on. To ensure franchisees comply with the company’s policies on health and safety, food hygiene, and premises and equipment maintenance and cleanliness, the stores are likely to be visited and audited every month by an Area Manager. There will be standard operating procedures (sops) in all these areas, as well as SOPS for food production. To help ensure cleanliness and hygiene, storage and production areas need to incorporate easy to clean surfaces, coved flooring, and effective screens and openings to control for pests (Jones, 1994). Food waste will be minimized by following standard recipes, using weighing and portion control devices, and holding materials at the correct temperature.
Although Brooklyn has no materials of great value, minor pilferage and stock loss in-store is a possibility. To make it less easy for employees to behave dishonestly, managers should have the following policies (Jones, 2010b) – spot checks on entrance and exit, employee policies eating and drinking on the job, monitoring of rubbish disposal, and policies about what personal property is allowed on-premises and where it is to kept.
Another major challenge for Brooklyn’s is cash security and the safety of their delivery employees. Pizzas are typically delivered by drivers on scooters or mopeds to homes within a 3-kilometer radius of the store. Most customers pay for their pizza with cash. Hence it is not unknown for drivers to be robbed and assaulted, either before or after they deliver the pizza, some have even had their scooters stolen or damaged. To minimize this Brooklyn should ensure drivers carry the minimum of cash on them, train their staff in how to minimize risk to themselves and what to do in the event of an incident, and liaise closely with local law enforcement officers. Recently Brooklyn has encouraged customers to place orders via the internet and through their own mobile phone app. Ordering in this way means that customers pay by credit or debit card in advance, thereby reducing the amount of cash handled.
Improving Employee Performance
All ‘employees’, in the Brooklyn franchise system, work for the franchisees. However, Brooklyn provides detailed specifications in the franchise agreement of the human resource policies and practices it expects its franchisees to follow. Brooklyn focuses on managing its franchisees and supporting their success. To his end, they have withdrawn franchise agreements from their less successful or less motivated partners, and awarded more stores to their successful ones. This means that over the last five years the number of franchisees has gone down from 120 to about 60, whilst the number of stores operated on average has gone up from just over two per franchisee to nearly five per franchisee. During this time customer satisfaction scores have consistently risen.
Since employees in each store and hired by and paid by franchisees, an issue for Brooklyn is the extent to which a shared organizational culture amongst all employees (Jones, 2010a) is desirable and possible. Given that Brooklyn is a national chain it is very concerned about its brand and its reputation, and hence it is likely to promulgate a vision and culture designed to support this. Hence Brooklyn needs to reinforce in its franchises that their success is based on both the Brooklyn ‘system’ (ie SOPs, IT systems, and so on) and the Brooklyn culture. The franchises will then take this and encourage this in their employees. The company, therefore, needs to create heroes, rituals, and events (Jones, 2010a) to reinforce the culture amongst franchisees. It can create ‘heroes’ by recognizing franchisees who perform to the highest level (in such things as sales revenue, employee turnover, and quality audits). It can have ‘rituals’ such as monthly, quarterly, or annual events where headquarters staff and franchisees get together to discuss performance, plans and recognize high performers. Although much of employee training is likely to be on-the-job, Brooklyn could create some DVD or computer-based training that all employees were required to undertake on topics such as the history of the company, basic food hygiene, and so on. These training materials could reinforce the Brooklyn culture, as do those of the Hilton University (Whitelaw, 2008).
Capacity management
The Pizza outlets largely adopt a chase demand strategy (Sasser et al, 1978). That is to say, pizzas are made to order and employees are scheduled according to forecast levels of demand. Franchisees should be provided with software and training that enable them to forecast likely demand and they can devise staff rotas using an internet-based labor scheduling system(Whitelaw, 2008). This system ensures that they have the right combination of production workers and delivery staff on duty to meet demand. During peak periods, such as weekend evenings, this may mean up to 40 staff working in the stores, and 60 delivery staff. Stores will be staffed very flexibly, with a relatively small number of full-time staff, and a large number of part-timers to reflect the variation in peaks and troughs in the business.
Brooklyn is also likely to engage in some demand management. Its menu is the same everywhere and it will always have signature items on it. But to promote sales, it will also develop new pizza concepts and dishes to stimulate both new and existing customers. Moreover, it may also stimulate demand by having special offers (discounts or two-for-ones) during periods of low demand, such as mid-week, or the Summer.
Improving Productivity
The two main areas for productivity improvement in the home delivery business are materials (mainly food and soft drinks) and labor. In the area of materials processing, Brooklyn is likely to be constantly looking for ways to redesign the production system by better workplace design and improved work processes (Mill, 2008). This likely to focus on the core technology – namely the pizza oven – and the time this takes to produce a good product. But it should also look at the ergonomics of the preparation area, where pizza bases are made and toppings added.
Labour productivity is likely to be achieved by highly efficient scheduling of staff, hence the proposed use of an internet-based system, linked to a forecasting system. Employee performance can also be improved – as discussed above.
Managing Profitability
Brooklyn has two types of cost – manufacturing (making the pizza) and service (delivering it to the customer). To control production costs, Brooklyn will have several systems in place, already referred to above (SOPs, standard recipes, and portion control). It should also have an inventory management system that is integrated with its point-of-sale (POS) system. This will ensure each store is replenished based on what is sold.
To control service costs, Heskett et al (2007) argue that volume must be high and repeat sales generated. Volume is largely achieved by locating the stores in the right areas and high profile advertising and promotions on national television. Repeat business then depends on the product and speed of delivery meeting customer expectations. If the other KRAs are managed well, as outlined in this report, then this will be achieved.
Managing Service
A key feature of Brooklyn’s “service concept” (Heskett, 1986) is the speed of delivery. There is an industry-standard that pizzas should be delivered to the customer’s door within 30 minutes. This time is made up of two main processes – producing the product (ie make, cook and pack the pizza) and transporting it to the customer. With regards to transportation time, all stores must be located in high population areas to maximize demand, but the delivery time will vary according to how close the customer is to the store.
Hence Brooklyn needs to concentrate its efforts to improve service on reducing production time. In this sector, it takes about 17 minutes on average to prepare the product ready for delivery. If 1 or 2 minutes can be shaved off this time, the speed of delivery for every customer will be improved.
Managing Quality
Brooklyn’s processes are relatively straightforward, so its basic approach to quality is quality control (QC). The systems it has in place to control manufacturing profitability (inventory controls, standard recipes, portion control devices) also serve to ensure a consistent product. Delivering quality will also be helped by poka-yokes (Afify, 2008) that are incorporated into their equipment. Their refrigerators will have temperature sensors and thermostats to ensure they are maintained at the correct temperature, with an alarm alerting managers if a fault occurs. There will be similar devices on each of the pizza ovens that they use.
As a result, quality should be controlled at two key points in the process. First, the product should be checked before leaving the store to ensure that it conforms to specification and matches the customer’s order. In particular, the pizza should be checked using a probe thermometer to ensure it is at the specified temperature. Second, delivery drivers should record the time at which they delivered the order, through some kind of mobile device (such as an app on a mobile phone).
Lakeside Villages
This service concept is complex since it is made up of accommodation, leisure, and sports facilities, restaurants, and shops. This report will try to focus on the village as a whole rather than these different service systems
Protecting Assets
A major feature of the Lakeside service concept (Heskett et al 1990) is its ‘servicescape’ (Namasivayam and Lin, 2008) which is the natural environment – woods, lakes, streams, trails, paths, and so on. It is a key asset that has to be protected in a variety of ways. A major threat could be fire, during periods of dry weather, especially since there are patios outside each villa on which guests can have bar-b-ques. Hence Lakeside should ensure that appropriate fire fighting equipment (such as water-based extinguishers and brushes to dampen fires) is located at appropriate places around the village. Whilst all employees should be trained in fire-fighting (not just outside but for indoor events too), Lakeside should ensure that specific staff is scheduled at all times to make up a ‘fire-response team’ that can be sent to an outbreak as soon as it is alerted. Customers can also be ‘trained’ by having information on noticeboards and/or inside their villas about what to do in the event of a fire.
Lakeside also needs to ensure the integrity of its perimeter fencing, as well as carefully control access onto the village. With cars parked in car parks, sited away from the rest of the village, guest safety is increased, but cars are vulnerable because they are not close to the public areas. The car park should therefore have a highly effective CCTV system that is monitored 24 hours a day to ensure that cars are not stolen or broken into.
Whilst having a safe and secure environment is part of Lakeside’s appeal, this can lead to guests being complacent about the security of their belongings. Since the village covers a large area, many guests bring their own bicycles to ride the trails and get from their villa to the village facilities. But these are easily stolen if not locked. Likewise, guests may leave their villas unlocked or windows open, so that these may be broken into. Whilst it is possible that such theft may be done by a guest, the most likely cause of this is an intruder. This is why the perimeter fence should be secure and regularly checked to delay and deter intrusion. Also, all staff should be trained to look out for suspicious behavior and report it immediately, whilst customers can also be ‘trained’ to be vigilant and careful through publicity material located in the villa.
Improving Employee Performance
Blah, blah, blah (Lockwood,2011)
Managing Capacity
Lakeside has adopted all three approaches to managing capacity. By definition, it has a level capacity (Sasser et al, 1978) in that each village has a fixed number of bed spaces. But it has made this even more rigid by only enabling guests to check-in and out on Mondays or Fridays. This means that there is no ‘displacement effect’ (Shoemaker and Gorin, 2008) ie guests staying for 1 or 2 nights blocking out space that could be sold for longer periods of time.
To fill these mid-week and weekend blocks, lakeside has adopted a demand management strategy, since it prices each 3 or 4-day break differently according to the time of year. Mid-week breaks are generally cheaper (per night) than weekend breaks. Breaks during school holidays are always the most expensive.
Finally, each village ‘chases demand’ in terms of how it manages its workforce. It employs a large number of part-time staff, who only work on Mondays and Fridays, to clean the 500+ villas and apartments in each village. It also schedules more full-time leisure, retail, and food service staff to cover these changeover days, as the village is particularly busy with some guests departing late and others arriving early.
Improving Productivity
In such a complex environment, operational productivity can be improved if customers use the village effectively. Lakeside is fortunate to have a high level of repeat customers, who are likely to do so (Heskett, 2007).
Managing Profitability
Blah, blah, blah (Lockwood,2011)
Managing Service
Blah, blah, blah (Lockwood,2011)
Managing Quality
Managing quality may also be supported by loyal customers who act on behalf of Lakeside as quality ‘inspectors’ (Canziani, 2008) – that is to say, they identify quality breakdowns or problems occurring to other guests, as well as themselves, and report them to management so that they can be put right as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Bringing it all together, drawing comparisons and conflicts between the two operations, and summarising why this is appropriate
References
Afify, M. (2008) Quality Management, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 295-338
Canziani, B.F. (2008) The Hospitality Customer: their role in service blueprints, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 63-90
Heskett, J.L. (1986) Managing in the Service Economy, Harvard Business Press: Boston
Heskett, J.L., Sasser, W.E. and Hart, C. (2007) Service Breakthroughs: Changing the Rules of the Game, Free Press
Heskett, J. L. and Schlesinger, L.A. (1997) The Service Profit Chain, Free Press
Johns, N. (1994) Foodservice Layout and Design in Jones, P. with Merricks, P. (1994) The Management of Foodservice Operations Cassell: London, 59-77
Jones, P. (2010a) Managing Employees, Handout in ULearn, University of Surrey
Jones, P. (2010b) Loss Control and Asset Management, Handout in ULearn, University of Surrey
Kavanaugh, R.R., and Ninemeier, J.D. (1999) Managing Productivity and Controlling Labor Costs. CHA Certification Study Guide, 1, 145.
Mill, R. C. (2008) Managing Labour Productivity, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 269-294
Namasivayam, K. and Lin, I.Y. (2008) The Servicescape, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 43-62
Sasser, W.E., Wyckoff, D.D., and Olsen, M. (1978) The Management of Service Operations, Allyn & Bacon: Boston
Shoemaker, S. and Gorin, T. (2008) Revenue Management, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 237-268
Whitelaw, P. A. (2008) ICT and Hospitality Operations, in Jones, P. (2008) The Handbook of Hospitality Operations and Information Management, Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, 167-184
With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance work majorly focusses on testing, implementing and designing of internal controls to ensure implicated processes of financial information production are correctly completed. Additionally, it ensures that the generated financial information is reliable. The paper analyzes Trinity Industries, a company that made processes and information technology changes in order to be compliant with the new set of SOX regulations.
Decisive elements
Two elements play a crucial role in the final decisions to engage SOX compliance. The first of these elements was enhanced financial disclosures. These are internal controls that are necessary to ensure that the most accurate data and records are kept with regard to finances in each department and in the entire company. Two aspects play a role in the efficiency of financial reporting and these are: timely report which allow for the right decisions to be made in good time for the benefit of the company. The second is accuracy, where small errors can be very costly in the financial analysis and decisions. The second element considered was investor confidence. The company relies on investors to inject capital which is then used to run and implement executive decisions. Braganza and Franken (2007) points out that investor confidence allows the company to enjoy high returns as the risk involved is perceived to be much lower.
There are several aspects that play a crucial role in ensuring proper financial reporting. Montana (2007) highlights that all these aspects can be summarized into enhanced financial disclosures. The fourth chapter of SOX compliance describes enhanced financial disclosures as reporting measures which include balanced equations and reports. Internal controls ensure accurate reports, through daily reporting and evaluation of the systems and their weakness. The company does not rely on one system for financial reporting but rather supplements one system with the other often comparing results not on an annual or monthly basis but rather on a daily basis. This shows and identifies errors at an early stage so that they can be traced, identified and corrected before they accumulate making such identification difficult.
Marital weakness
This is defined as a weakness in the system and reporting that could lead to the misstatement of the materials in the financial and interim statements. Material weakness is a major concern for two reasons: the first is that the company is often assumed to be unable to run without proper access to material. Material is therefore the most basic component for the running of the company. On the other hand, misquoting and misstatement of the material component could lead to high losses and risk on either side. Understatement could lead to misquotation of profits on products which may otherwise not be existing. Overstatement on the other hand could expose the company to the risk of loss, and closure of profitable product lines and departments.
Trinity material weakness
The trinity management requires monthly reconciliation of all financial reports. This is a requirement which has been clearly stated in the company reports. However, there lack a proper and structured process which includes responsibility for each company official with regard to their role in ensuring the successful running of the financial reconciliation. Because of this, the reconciliation is often ignored or completed hurriedly. This has resulted in the company having to endure higher risks and explore due to faulty accounting and poor reports. The report highlights the lack of segregation of duties which also includes improper security in system access controls. There are instances where transactions have been poorly recorded or recorded after a while, which in turn means that the reports produced during such duration lack the accuracy that is necessary to ensure impact decisions from the management and executive for the company.
PCAOB regarding the concept of material weakness
PCAOB highlights that the first step towards addressing the challenge of material weakness is recording and documenting all forms of fraud within the system. This also means giving special attention to the risk of fraud. Senior management should be in the forefront of identifying potential points of fraud and addressing them before the actual event. Trinity has often fallen victim of fraud by leaving the system open so that it is profitable to engage in fraud without being identified and such action ahs often proven quite costly to the company. Cannon and Byers (2006) indicates that PCAOB relies heavily on the auditor to identify the previous and current misstatement of company. The auditor is trained and has the skill to identify and make known material misstatement. In some cases, management is yet to identify any form of material misstatement. It is also a requirement for the management to restate previous cases of material misstatement and measures that have been put in place to correct such misstatement as a form of evaluation
Trinity success
Trinity success was hinged on the development of the project management.
Pilot SOX projects
Gain insight into the amount of time and effort process and control documentation would require and the kinds of control gaps Trinity
Partnering with oracle.
Allowed for the building of a right system, training and access to independent auditor
Accounting Service Center (ASC),
Which provided centralized, outsourced
Services for routine, organization-wide transaction processing
Such as billing, payroll, and AP
Project planning and development
Developing the right structures for the process of SOX compliance. Making a case for the need of participating in the process
Project scoping
Identifying the right methodology for all participants
Conclusion
The paper discussed some of the critical elements to the decisive success of the Trinity Industries Company in its first year of compliance. Moreover, it discussed some of the internal controls significant in preparing reliable and accurate financial reports. Moreover, the paper defined what a material weakness is in terms of compliance to SOX. Assessment has also been done on the material weaknesses that are specific to Trinity. standards addressed in PCAOB in regard to material weaknesses concept in development of internal controls compliance has been analyzed. Lastly, some of the factors that made Trinity Industries be successful has ben described and illustrated in a process flowchart
References
Braganza, A., & Franken, A. (2007). SOX, compliance, and power relationships. Communications of the ACM, 50(9), 97-102.
Cannon, J. C., & Byers, M. (2006). Compliance deconstructed. Queue, 4(7), 30-37.
Montana, J. (2007). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: five years later: corporate America still finds SOX compliance requirements to be burdensome, vague, and frustrating. Information Management Journal, 41(6), 48-53.
With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.
Childhood and adulthood are not only two diverse eras in our lives but also equally significant. Every individual was once a child even if they have grown old. Childhood is a stage of life in which every individual must pass to grow up and age as well. Childhood can be simply defined as the age of a time when one is still growing up. It is habitually compared with the era of infancy in which we are still newborns. On the other hand, adulthood can be defined as the time in one’s life when one is grown up nevertheless one might still be developing as an individual. This paper aims at looking into both the differences and similarities between childhood and adulthood.
First and foremost this paper will discuss the differences between childhood and adulthood. Childhood is the period when one should do according to their paternities rules, and observe the rules set at their institution or wherever they operate from failure to which consequences will follow. Contrarily, during adulthood one is independent they are allowed to do what they think is right according to themselves and are allowed to choose things like where to stay, what they desire to consume, as well as what work they can do.
2. Responsibility
On the same note, childhood is usually considered as the era of one’s life in which they need a lot of attention, individuals are eyeing at them and enchanting attention of their requirements. Whereas during adulthood, everyone is expected to be more responsible and take care of themselves that is to cater to their financial needs and be morally responsible for their doings.
3. Freedom
Though most people say that grownups have extra duties than kids, they as well have a better grade of liberty. For instance the case of traveling. Children rarely travel alone without the presence of an adult while adults travel to wherever they want to anytime at their own convenient time. The second example is the decision of what to do during the day. Grownups are not required to seek permission to decide on what to do with their day (Mills, Giddings, Herting, Meuwese, Blakemore, Crone, & Tamnes, 2016). On the other hand, children usually need to ask their parents if they can do somethings and they definitely cannot do it during school hours.
4. Knowledge
Adults have acquired too much understanding and skill of the realm than kids. Notably, this understanding can come from recognized schooling or informal education that is from interacting with different individuals that is even the elderly people who have accrued more knowledge over the days.
5. Parenthood
Kids always look up to their paternities for affection and leadership. However, this is still an aspect of their affiliation with their parentages when they convert grownups, as grownups they might as well become parentages themselves. Additionally, very frequently, their knowledge of infancy help to nature the kinds of parentages that they convert throughout parenthood. Then, during their time, their kids might use them as their replicas when they come to be parentages themselves. Therefore, it is significant to continuously endeavor to be an affectionate, respectable parental as we are thus becoming a perfect role model for our kids to track (Mills, Giddings, Herting, Meuwese, Blakemore, Crone, & Tamnes, 2016).
6. Memories
Grownups have built up a greater store of memories than kids have. In fact, they habitually cannot remember anything past their third or fourth year of life: several of their infancy memories are lost to them. Resultantly, grownups have more of a lengthier past, and unlikelier store of knowledge than kids do. It is said that the more you live the more you learn therefore adults have lived longer which’s why they have many memories than kids who only years old or even months. Adults tend to remember more things than kids.
Similarities
On the same token, there are similarities between adulthood and childhood. Although there are several differences there are similarities as well. Both children and adults still require friends and other individuals around them. There is no doubt that every individual needs someone to lean on regardless of their age. Kids tend to lean on their parent’s shoulder in case of anything while adults have their friends who they can tell whatever they are going through or in case they need any help whether financial or emotional.
Both adults and children are always learning new things about others or themselves. Although children are enthusiastic to learn and adults as well want to learn too. Learning happens at any age it is a continuous process and it is inevitable at any stage of one’s age. Thus both kids and adults strive to learn and gain more knowledge and understanding about individuals according to Storey, (2019).
In conclusion, there are certain dissimilarities between infancy and parenthood. Nevertheless, this dissimilarity is not constantly as strident as one might reason. Then of course, and everybody is a person with their personal knowledge of being a kid and then growing into a grownup. Though there are similarities as well. Therefore it is the responsibility of every individual to enjoy and learn about life at each stage of their lives.
References
Mills, K. L., Giddings, A. L., Herting, M. M., Meuwese, R., Blakemore, S. J., Crone, E. A., … & Tamnes, C. K. (2016). Structural brain development between childhood and adulthood: convergence across four longitudinal samples. Neuroimage, 141, 273-281.
Storey, M. (2019). Engaging minds and hearts: Social and emotional learning in English Language Arts. Language and Literacy, 21(1), 122-139.
With a student-centered approach, I create engaging and informative blog posts that tackle relevant topics for students. My content aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed academically and beyond.
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