Strategic Marketing Management Planning and Control Assignment

Strategic Marketing Management Planning and Control - Assignment Example For this, the Asian Star Corporation has to make a strategic marketing plan at the corporate level. Strategic planning refers to the process of maintaining and developing a strategic fit between the capabilities and goals of an organization and its varying opportunities in the market. The Asian Star Corporation should find the game plan for its growth and survival in the long run provided with its specific objectives, opportunities, resources, and situation. This should be the focus of its strategic planning. The stages for rest of the planning in the firm are set by the strategic planning. The annual plans, strategic and long-range plans are usually prepared by the companies. The long-range and annual plans deal with the current businesses of the company and the way to keep its continual operation whereas the strategic plan constitutes an adaptation of firm to take benefit of opportunities in its rapidly changing environment (Aaker, 2001). The Asian Star Corporation at its corporate level should start the process of its strategic planning by defining its overall mission and purpo se. The mission should then be turned into detailed supporting objectives guiding the whole company. Next, it should be decided that what portfolio of products and businesses is best for the company. Each product and business, in turn, should develop detailed marketing and other departmental plans to support the companywide plan (Drummond, Ensor and Ashford, 2001, pp.4-5). A mission statement is a statement of purpose of organization stating what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. So the Asian Star Corporation should develop its formal mission statement stating details like what is its current business and what should be its future business, who is its customer and what do consumers value. A clear and well-defined mission statement can give better financial and organizational performance to Asian Star Corporation.

Fuel and energy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fuel and energy - Case Study Example Cutting trees, air pollution, water pollution etc. are some of the after-effects that tend to destroy the delicate balance of the nature. Traditionally we've been using oil and gas for all of our energy requirements. But over the years, with growing realisation of threat to environment and fast depleting natural resources, governments around the world have started making efforts to see that how best we can adjust our lifestyle in such a manner that the future generations do not face acute shortage of energy and a healthy living environment. It is no secret that our energy needs are growing day by day, but at the same time, the supplies of oil and gas are shrinking. It is said that each drop of oil which we use in seconds takes millions of years to develop through the natural process (Smale, 2004). Therefore, it is certain that a day will come when the oil sources around the world will dry up. The North Sea production has certainly led to the transformation of UK oil industry, but at the same time industry analysts have expressed their views from time to time that the production has peaked and we must prepare for a lif e after oil (Murray, 2004). Though due to the recessionary trends the crude oil prices have come down, but the manner in which these prices were on their way up till sometime back, were a serious cause of worry for the government. Therefore, we need to plan in such a manner that the country finds itself prepared for any eventuality in the coming years. Well, we can always call upon the citizens to make judicious use of energy to preserve the sources for long, but such measures would prove to be short-term measures only. Damage to environment by the use of oil and gas is another very important aspect which has forced us to think about greener alternatives. Planning for the long-term would involve use of renewable fuel sources. This is an alternative which can help the country in adopting a holistic approach towards making use of cleaner fuels. Organic fuel is one such alternative which promises to be a dependable alternative for our energy needs. Plants, animals as well as human beings absorb some amount of solar energy which is stored in the body in the form of fats, sugars or starches. If we can extract this energy for reuse, it is termed as organic fuel. As compared to fossil fuels, such organic fuels are far more environment friendly. Though, theoretically all plants are supposed to have this property, but there are some plants which have more of such ability. In fact when Rudolph Diesel developed Diesel in 1895, he also made use of oil extracted from sunflower, rape, peanuts and palm. But, with the discovery of fossil fuels, the petrochemical industry came to being. As we enter into the 21st century, the need for saving on our res ources becomes more prominent. In order to have a smooth transition, Bio-fuel technology is divided into three generations1; First-generation bio-fuel technology makes use of what we eat Second-generation technology makes use of what we throw away. Third-generation bio-fuels will subsequently be produced from some plants which were earlier considered to be of little use. The amount of carbon dioxide that melts into the atmosphere as a result of our routine actions creates damaging footprints of carbon. In fact at times, we unknowingly tend to perform some actions which lead to an increase in our carbon footprints on the environment,

Effects of Adverse Perinatal Outcomes (APO)

Effects of Adverse Perinatal Outcomes (APO) Specific Aims Adverse perinatal outcomes (APO) include infants birth defects, maternal pregnant and obstetric complications. Birth defects, including major congenital malformation (MCM) and minor anomaly (MA), become the leading causes of infant morbidity, mortality, and years of potential life lost in the United States.1 Low birth weight (LBW), abnormal condition of new born (ACNB), preterm birth, and Developmental Delay or Disability (DDD) are also birth anomalies that impacts the infants health.2-5 The association of in utero exposure to teratogenic medications with infant birth defects and other anomalies has been widely investigated.6,7 The literature has shown that taking antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) poses an increased risk of having child with congenital malformations in women with epilepsy.79 The most common MCMs caused by in utero exposure to AEDs are orofacial clefts, cardiac abnormalities, neural tube defects, urologic defects, and skeletal abnormalities.80 In utero exposure to valproate, the most teratogenic AED, was associated with elevated risk of impaired cognitive function for children at 3 years of age, and reduced cognitive abilities for children at 6 years old.98,101 However, study results for many medications, such as antidepressants, opioids, antipsychotics, and antibiotics, are inconsistent for fetal safety.[1*-8*] The limited data source and rare incidence of birth defects, ACNBs, and other anomalies restrain the study power, and makes some studies inconclusiv e.8-10 Our long term goal is to determine the association between teratogenic effects of medications that mothers exposed during pregnancy and infants birth defects. The major objective of this study is to build a linked database in Rhode Island (RI) to facilitate the subsequent research on teratogenic effects of medication in RI population. The birth defects and birth certificates data from the Department of Health (DoH) and pharmacy claims from the Medicaid program offer an essential resource to investigate these aims. The availability of hospital diagnoses and birth records offers a significant advantage for investigating birth defects with corresponding clinical conditions in large population with a longitudinal approach. Our team is well suited to conduct this research given extensive expertise in contemporary pharmacoepidemiology, many years of experience on drug safety research, prior drug utilization and birth defects study with the linked data from another state, and clinical expertise from obstetric and gynecologic physicians. Our specific aims are to generate a linked data and investigate the medication utilization and assess the corresponding birth defects with the following efforts: Aim 1: To build a linked database that includes mothers medications prescribed during pregnancy and subsequent adverse perinatal outcomes. We hypothesize that the data from two state departments can be internally linked using identifiers. Mothers medication prescriptions will be extracted from Medicaid claims provided by the RI Executive Office of Health Human Services (EOHHS). The adverse perinatal outcomes include: MCMs, MAs, abnormal conditions of new born, fetal death, and low birth weight, and maternal adverse pregnancy and obstetrical complications. All of these outcomes will be obtained from birth certificates, institutional and professional claims that are collected and managed by RI Department of Health (DoH). These two parts of data will be linked by the deterministic or probabilistic linking strategy using mothers medical record number, name, and date of born. We will apply for IRB approval with a waiver of informed consent by RI DoH, EOHHS, Brown, and URI. Aim 2: To characterize the patterns of medication use in women during pregnancy. We hypothesize that medication use in women during pregnancy changes in recent years. Many medications, such as AEDs, statin, or angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), have been classified as teratogens and categorized as D or X by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, studies have found that these teratogenic drugs still have been prescribed to pregnant women.5-7 Some medications with contradictive results reported from the literature may have increased use in pregnant women. We will examine the prescribing patterns of these medications in pregnant women with varied age, race, comorbidities, co-medications, as well as medication types and doses. The utilization pattern will be delineated in secular trends and mapped geographically, as will facility, provider, and state-level variations. Aim 3: To assess infants birth defects and birth anomalies using advanced statistical model. We will identify all corresponding birth defects, including MCM, MA, LBW, ACNB, DDD, preterm birth, and fetal death and compare the birth defect rates in mothers with varied demographic characteristics and medication exposure. Previous studies have suggested that the LVM can be used to combine four specific birth defects together to create a severity index.16-18 We hypothesize that this LVM can be improved and optimized to combine any number of components with a proper weight on severity and frequency to evaluate the overall health status of infants. B. Significance and Innovation Birth defects occur in 3 5% of children born in the United States and account for 20% of all infant deaths.1,2 During 2010-2012, RI DoH identified 1,390 newborns with at least one birth defect.3 The rate of birth defects in RI increased by 14.2% from 2008 to 2012.3 It was reported that 2-3% of birth defects are due to teratogen-induced malformations, which refer to malformations resulting from environmental or in utero exposure to teratogens.4 In the United States, about 3 million people currently live with teratogen-induced malformations.4 The FDA defined the pregnancy category to enforce the labeling of drugs with respect to their effects on pregnant women. Some medications, such as AEDs, statin, or ACEs, have been classified in FDA pregnant category D or X due to their teratogenic effects. Previous studies reported a two- to three-fold increase in the malformation rate among infants with in utero exposure to AEDs.21,22,81,82 The incidence rates in infants with in utero exposure to AEDs were 3.1% to 9.0% for MCMs, 37% for one MA, and 11% for two MAs.21,80-83 The risk of malformations for infants with in utero exposure to valproate is 7.3-fold higher than that of non-exposed, and 4-fold higher than those exposed to all other AEDs.7 Some widely used medications, such as antidepressants, opioids, antipsychotics, and antibiotics, tend to have increased utilization in pregnant women while the results from teratogenic studies are controversial and inclusive.[1*-8*] It is difficult to distinguish between the real non-inferior results and power deficiency owing to rare outcomes. It has led to an urgent need to determine the fetal safety of these medications and prevent teratogenic medications prescribing to pregnant women. However, the limited data source and rare incidence of birth defect outcomes impact the study power, and makes studies inconclusive.8-10 Traditional claims data (data from Medicaid or private health plans) is not suitable for birth defect research as it only contains medical information for either mother or infant, not both. Birth certificates or birth defects data doesnt include mothers medication information. As such, to investigate utilization patterns and teratogenic effects of medications, we need to link mothers pharmacy claims with infants birth defects assessments. The linkage should be conducted in a secure data server with patients identifiers. The main goal of this proposed one-year pilot study is to collaborate with the RI EOHHS and RI DOH and generate a linked statewide dataset that includes mothers pharmacy claims and infants birth defect outcomes. This linked dataset will facilitate the researchers in Brown and URI to conduct studies regarding drug-induced birth defects in RI and provide a potential for combining RI linked data with the linked data from other states to conducting drug teratogenic studies in large population. Innovation This proposed study will generate a linked data with combining Medicaid pharmacy claims from the RI EOHHS and birth certificates and birth defects from the RI DOH. This would make RI become the fourth state that possesses the linked mother-infant data in the United States, besides California, Texas, and Florida. Our approach will provide a large linked dataset to facilitate the researchers from URI and Brown to conduct drug-induced birth defects studies. This linked dataset will provide a potential for future drug teratogenic research in large population with combining the RI linked data with the linked data from other states. Our approach will employ state of the art, innovative pharmacoepidemiologic study designs and statistical models, to improve the study power and efficiency. A latent variable model will be employed in this study to combine all birth defects outcomes into a continuous severity score to assess the overall infants morbidity and mortality. C. Approach Data Sources This study is based on a statewide, retrospective 11-year data sources: RI birth certificates and birth defects from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2016. In Rhode Island, birth certificates are collected in the hospital within 24 to 48 hours after the baby birth. The RI DoH collects and manages birth certificate data for all infants born in RI. Birth dates and places for infants, and demographic characteristics for infants, mothers, and fathers are all recorded in birth certificates. The RI Birth Defects dataset consists of birth defects registry data prepared and maintained by RI DoH. Infant birth defects, including MCMs and MAs, were identified 0-365 days after live birth from hospital inpatient and outpatient claims. This study includes infants who were born in RI between January 01, 2006 and December 31, 2016. Medication information will be provided by the RI EOHHS. The data is comprised of eligibility, medical, and pharmacy claims for services from inpatient hospitals, outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, and pharmacies from January 01 2005 to December 31 2016. Brief demographics for enrolled members are included in Medicaid claims data, such as age, gender, race, residency, etc. Medicaid claims data do not include claims for managed care or Medicare enrollees. We excluded patients with dual eligibility, and thus restricted the drug exposure cohort to pregnant women who were only in the fee-for-service or primary care case management program. Each data source will be cleaned first, and then linked with other corresponding datasets using a multi-step linkage approach in which three methods of linkage are applied in sequence Deterministic, Fuzzy Matching, and Probabilistic.156 Records will be first matched deterministically, based on exact matches of unique combinations of personal identifiers including Social Security Numbers, Date of Birth, and Mothers Names (used for the linkage of BVS to Medicaid only). Records that cannot be exactly matched due to missing or poor data quality will be linked using Fuzzy Matching.156,157 Fuzzy Matching allows at least one occurrence of Social Security Number digit transpositions, name misspelling, or day or month errors in birth date fields.157 Remaining unmatched records will be linked using probabilistic techniques, based on statistical weighting of combinations of personal identifiers. Probabilistic linkage involved a two-step process. 1) Deterministic matching from the first merging step empirically derived weights to the non-missing fields based on successful linkages. 2) After the unlinked data matched with several records by weights, the matches with the highest statistical probability (indicating by high weights) will be chosen. The record remained unmatched when no high weights could be obtained. Study Cohort This study includes female Rhode Island Medicaid enrollees who were older than 15 years of age, delivered a live singleton infant between January 01, 2006 and December 31, 2016, and are enrolled in the Medicaid program as identified by pregnancy status. The study cohort of mother-infant pairs will be generated by linking the Rhode Island Medicaid claims data and Rhode Island Birth defects data using strategies described above. Many women joined the Medicaid program after becoming pregnant. We excluded the women who were enrolled in Medicaid program after a positive pregnant test. More exclusion criteria for maternal-infant pair include: mothers with less than 6 months of Medicaid eligibility before pregnancy; mothers who lost Medicaid eligibility during pregnancy; mothers with dual enrollment with Medicare, HMO, or other private health plans; mothers giving multiple births; mothers with diabetes mellitus (ICD-9-CM: 249.x, 250.x, 790.29, or used of any antidiabetics during baseline), hypertension (ICD-9-CM: 401.x, 416.x, 796.2, , 997.91, 459.3, or used of any antihypertensive drugs during baseline), or HIV pre-pregnancy (ICD-9-CM: 042, 079.53, V08, V01.79, 795.71, or used of any antiretroviral drugs); Infants who were twins, triplets, quadruplets or more; outliers involving infants with birth weight less than 350 g or above 6000 g; mothers or infants missing critical information, such as infants birth weigh t, mothers demographic information, or perinatal medical information. Only less than 1% of infants are missing birth weight records in the birth certificate, these will be excluded from the study.20 Overall Study Design This is a retrospective cohort study based on linked mothers Medicaid claims and state birth registry data. The infants birth date will be the study index date. The drug exposure window will be defined as the subsequent 9-month pregnancy period after the first day of mothers last menstrual date. We will use a 6-month baseline period prior to the first date of mothers last menstrual date to obtain the baseline demographic and clinical information. Birth defect outcomes will be detected 0-365 days after the live birth. The entire study period lasts from January 01 2005 to December 31 2016. Drug Exposure Pharmacy claims in Medicaid have been approved as an accurate source for the assessment of drug exposure in observational studies.158 Mothers medication exposure during pregnancy will be obtained from Medicaid pharmacy claims using NDC codes for filled prescription medications, and the number of days for which the medication is supplied.160 The birth anomalies are associated with exposure during entire pregnancy, MCM relates to the teratogen exposure during the first trimester, and MA and LBW associates with the maternal medication exposure at the third trimester.161 Maternal medication exposure during entire pregnancy period can affect the occurrence of varied birth defects. The exposure window, thus, will be established as a period of 14 days prior to the first day of the mothers last menstrual period (LMP) to the date when infant is born. The drug exposure will be defined as any one dose of study medications dispensed during the exposure window, including which the medication is d ispensed before the exposure window but its supply days cover at least 1 day of the exposure window. Adding 14 days prior to the pregnancy is to include the conception period and the residual effects of medications. Sensitivity study will be conducted to examine the different definitions of medication exposure windows. The mothers LMP will be obtained from birth certificates. If the dates are not available in birth certificates (about 13% of LMP in birth certificates are missing), then this information will be imputed from clinical estimates.163-165 The literature suggests that LMP from birth certificates and clinical estimates agrees within 2 weeks.166 Outcome Assessment In this study, we will identify all individual adverse infant outcomes: birth defects (involving MCM and MA), ACNB, LBW, DDD, and preterm birth from the DoH birth defects data. MCM is defined as an abnormality of an essential anatomic structure that is present at birth and interferes significantly with function and/or requires major intervention.38,39 MCM includes heart malformations, urological defects, oro-facial defects, neural tube defects, and skeletal abnormalities, etc..38,40,41 Drug-induced MCMs mostly occur between the third and eighth week of gestation.44 Any impairment before three weeks is more likely to result in fatality. The fetus becomes less sensitive to teratogenic effects after the eighth week, when the organs have developed. 2-1 delineates the time window of exposure to teratogens and associated MCMs and MAs.44 MA, also called minor congenital malformations, is the abnormal morphologic feature that does not cause serious medical or cosmetic consequences45. Identification of MA can be difficult due to the definition and the easy-variable occurrence area.46 Approximately 70% of MAs occur on the face or hands.46 The prevalence of MA is less than 4% in the general population, and varies by race, ethnicity, and gender.45,46 In healthy newborns, about 15% to 20% have one MA, 0.8% have two MAs, and 0.5% have three or more MAs.46 MA mostly occurs after the eighth week of gestation, which is so-called fetal period.44 The use of teratogens during this period may induce MAs by disturbing the growth of tissues or organs.44 ACNB includes seven medical conditions for new born infants. Infants birth weight less than 2500g, 1500g, and 1000g are categorized respectively as low birth weight (LBW), very low birth weight (VLBW), and extremely low birth weight (ELBW). Infants with low birth weight are likely to be born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. In 2009, 8.16% of live born infants showed low birth weight.50 The high risk of infant mortality and morbidity associated with low birth weight has been documented.51 Although this positive association has been ameliorated over time with improved perinatal technology and intensive care, low birth weight and prematurity still have been identified as risk factors predisposing to cardiovascular dysfunction, lung disorder, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, renal diseases, autism, and developmental delay.52-56 MCM, MA, DDD, and fetal death will be collected from birth to the first 365 days of life using the ICD-9 CM code (740-759.9, 315, 768.0, 768.1) from inpatient and outpatient claims. ACNB and preterm birth will be identified from Rhode Island birth certificatedata, and one year follow ups in infant hospital discharge data. Infant birth weight is accurately recorded in the birth certificate.19 It was noted in previous studies that these birth defects outcomes are highly related to each other.59,70-75 MCM, MA, VLBW, and ELBW relate to significant morbidity, mortality, and childhood disability or serious pregnancy or obstetric complications. 58,70-75 About 6-42% of evolving cognitive dysfunction, 9-26% of neurosensory disabilities, 1-15% of blindness, and 0-9% of deafness occurred in infants born with VLBW and ELBW.71 A significantly higher risk of DDD was found in infants born with MCM (prevalence rate: 8.3, 95%CI: 7.6-9.0).72 A 44% 86% of mortality rate occurs in infants with ELBW (500-750g).73 Moreover, infants with 1, 2, or 3 MAs had a risk rate of corresponding MCMs at 3%, 10%, or 20%, respectively.46 Some risk factors, such as infant gender, maternal age, race, social-economic status, BMI, smoking, alcohol use, nulliparity, comorbidity, and comedication during pregnancy are risk factors for all of these outcomes.75-78 Latent Variable Model Liu and Roth developed an LVM to incorporate four important BD outcomes into a single measurement, the infant morbidity index, to describe an infants overall tendency to BD.13 We will apply this model to combine all birth defects outcomes defined in this study into a continuous index of overall adverse perinatal outcome (APO) in this study. The combined outcome will be evaluated in terms of validity and reliability to ensure the appropriate use of this new methodology. MCM, MA, ACNB, Fetal Death, and DDD will be categorized as a binary variable, and assumed Bernoulli distributed.21 Four levels of LBW will be modeled as a multinomial variable since the four birth weight categories are mutually exclusive and each has its own probability. The summation of the individual probabilities of birth defects outcomes equals one. The unobserved index score will be assumed log-normally distributed. Based upon the assumption of local independence, responses of individual component outcomes are independent given the latent variable.22,23 Thus, the overall probabilities of component outcomes conditional on the latent variable are equal to the products of conditional probability for each individual component outcome.21 Based on the local independence and Bayes rule, the joint distribution for component outcomes can be expressed as an integral of product of multinomial variable for conditional distribution of each component outcome and marginal distribution of latent variable.22-24 Marginal distribution of the latent variable is described as log normal. Given the observed outcomes, we can obtain the posterior distribution of the latent severity score. Furthermore, we assume that the conditional distribution of each categorical observed outcome is nonlinear function of the latent variable.13 The conditional distribution of observed outcome and the latent variable will be linked by two parameters in the non-linear function.The probability of any specific observed outcome equals to 0 when the value of the latent variable equals to 0 because the latent variable accounts for all variation of the observed component outcomes and the relationship among these component outcomes.13 In the non-linear function, the probability of an infant having an individual birth defect outcome is assumed zero if the latent variable is zero, and every normal level (no birth defect or normal weight) will be treated as a reference. The latent variable positively associates with observed outcomes. The larger the latent variable, the higher the probability of the observed outcome.13 Latent Trait Model will be conducted using SAS Proc IML. The proportion of each outcome combination will be calculated. Then each parameter will be estimated using the iteration function for EGNLS starting from iteration 0 with initialized value until the stepping coefficient is less than 10-9. The final results are the estimates of all parameters. The estimate of latent variable will be obtained by entering the computed parameters into posterior function.13 Sensitivity Studies In order to examine the proper definition of exposure window, sensitive studies will be conducted with the exposure window defined as the period of 3, 7, 21, or 30 days prior to the first day of the mothers LMP to the infants birth date. D. Timeline Table. Study Timeline of the Study. Time Period Study Progress Before 07/01/2017 Obtain IRB approval from URI, Brown, RI DoH, and RI EOHHS. Complete DUA with RI DoH and RI EOHHS. 07/01/2017 08/01/2017 Complete data linkage for specific aim 1 08/01/2017 10/01/2017 Complete data cleaning, manipulating, variable editing, and analyses for demographic and clinical characteristics 10/01/2017 01/31/2018 Complete specific aim 2 02/01/2018 02/28/2018 Submit an abstract to the annual meeting of International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISPE) 03/01/2018 06/30/2018 Complete specific aim 3 and submit a journal article

Wolfgang Kohlers Experiment And Insight Learning Essay -- essays resea

Wolfgang Kohler's Experiment and Insight Learning Have you ever been trying to figure something out that you just can't piece together and then all of a sudden have it hit you? If you have, you've experienced the type of learning called insight learning. The term insight refers to solving a problem through understanding the relationships various parts of a problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wolfgang Kohler, a Gestalt psychologist who was born in 1887 and died in 1967, used chimpanzees in the study of insight learning. Kohler who was born in Revel, Estonia and moved to the United States in 1935, did pioneering studies in the behavior of apes that showed the importance of perceptual organization and insight in learning. His groundbreaking experiment involved one of his chimpanzees, Sultan. Sultan had learned to use a stick to rake in bananas outside of his cage. This time Kohler placed the banana outside of the reach of just one stick and gave Sultan two sticks that could be fitted together to make a single pole that was long enough to reach the banana. After fiddling with the sticks for an hour or so, Sultan happened to align the sticks and in a flash of sudden inspiration, fitted the two sticks together and pulled in the banana. Kohler was impressed by Sultan's rapid â€Å"perception of relationships† and used the term insight to describe it. He noted that such insights are not learned gradually through reinforced trials. They seemed to occur in a flash when the elements a...

Ethical Decisions in the Ford Pinto Case Essay

In 1972 the national highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) put a price on life – $200 725 (adjusted for inflation). The Ford Motor Company used this data along with other statistical studies to determine the cost benefit of improving the safety of the Ford Pinto compared to the cost of loss of life. It was determined that the cost of the suggested improvements outweighed their benefits. This essay aims to address whether cost-benefit analysis is a legitimate tool and what role, if any, it should play in moral deliberation, especially when placing a monetary value on a human life. It also questions what responsibilities Ford had to its customers and what moral rights were in operation, as well as whether it would have made a difference if Ford customers knew about the decision. Discussion Cost-Benefit Analysis, is a systematic process for calculating and comparing benefits and costs of a project for two purposes; firstly to determine if it is a sound investment (justification/feasibility and secondly, to see how it compares with alternate projects (ranking/priority assignment). It works by first defining the project and any alternatives; then identifying, measuring, and valuing the benefits and costs of each. (Benefit-cost analysis, 2007) The variables employed in Fords cost-benefit analysis were; the cost of making the safety changes to millions of vehicles, the statistics quoting quantity of deaths, injuries and vehicle damage , and lastly and most controversially, the total per fatality quoted by the NHTSA, being $200,275. The latter value is what is being questioned. What is the cost of a life? Can one even put a cost on a life? The Ford motor company factored the cost of life into the decision that safety improvements outweighed their benefits. Based on the above definition, however, cost benefit analysis was a legitimate tool, but for financial decisions only. If Ford had taken a utilitarian approach to the cost benefit analysis a better moral decision might have been made. Utilitarianism is the moral doctrine that we should always act to produce the greatest possible balance of good over bad for everyone affected by our actions (Shaw, 2009). The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few† – Spock It has also been defined as; firstly, the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority, and secondly, the doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct. (dictionary. com) Fords actions could be viewed as morally correct if argued that they benefited more people by offering cheap vehicle and increasing shareholders profits, than the few people that were killed or injured. But arguing that producing the greatest possible balance of good over bad for everyone affected by our actions(Shaw, 2009) Fords decision was morally wrong because the benefits and resulting happiness of people benefitting by their decision to sell precariously unsafe vehicles would pale in comparison to the unhappiness caused by a death. As was the case, many shareholders benefitted to the detriment of a few people. So the central question is; what is the value of a human life and can it be measured extrinsically as used in the analysis. Ford met their obligation to shareholders by focussing only on financial variables, but failed in its responsibility to customers in two ways; they neglected to factor in to their analysis the intrinsic value of human life and the impact to the many of their decisions, they also failed to inform customers of the nature of the defect which would most certainly have impacted consumer behaviour. The consumer’s right to life as well as their right to making informed decisions were undermined. If Ford had not neglected to inform their customers of the defect and thus allowed the customers to make informed decisions with regards to their products, the risk associated with the defect would have passed from Ford to the customer. Had the consumer been correctly informed, they would become responsible for any results stemming from the decision to purchase the vehicle, regardless of whether the cost savings had been passed on to them or not. Conclusion Cost-benefit analysis is a legitimate financial tool. As a tool for morality it is useful but flawed as a measure of assigning a value to human life and suffering. Ford had a responsibility to it customers to protect their interests or share information with them to protect their own (the consumers) interests, particularly the most important interest; their right to life. It would not have made a moral difference if Ford had passed the savings onto their consumers, as they would have encroached on their customer right to life and their right to make an informed decision.

Islam †The Life of Muhammad Essay

A prophet is someone through whom Allah speaks. The Qur’an names 25 prophets, but tradition says there have been 124,000 in all. For Muslims, Muhammad in Allah’s last prophet, known as the ‘seal of the Prophets.’ The exact date of Muhammad’s birth in Mecca is unknown, but it is thought to have been no later than 570 AD. His father was called Abdullah, which means ‘servant of God’ and his mother Aminah- ‘peaceful’. Both were members of the Hashim clan, a sub-division of the Quraysh tribe which had lately abandoned its nomadic life as desert Bedouins and risen to dominate the trading city of Mecca. Muhammad had a sorrowful early childhood. The name Muhammad is said to have been given to him as a result of a dream his grandfather had. He is also said to have had other names, such as Abul-Qasim, Ahmad, and Mustafa. There were many legends about Muhammad. One said that before his birth his mother Aminah heard a voice telling her the child would be a great leader. Another told of a heavy shower of rain, a blessing that ended a long drought. Yet another legend was that two angels removed Muhammad’s heart, washed it clean, then weighed it against first one man, then ten, then a hundred , then a thousand. Finally they said ‘Let it be. Even if you set the whole community in the scale, he would still outweigh it.’ These stories show that Allah was preparing Muhammad for his prohetetic mission in future. His father was dead by the time of his birth and his mother died before he was six, meaning he was raised as an orphan. According to Quraysh law he was to be given to a Bedouin foster mother and sent of into the desert, and would be unable to inherit from his father’s estate. So almost from the beginning of his life he was both poor and something of an outcast from Meccan society. This shows that muslims are taught to trust in Allah’s goodness, and to accept death as a stage in their life and not the end of it. It is, however, known for certain that when he was eight Muhammad was sent to live with his uncle, a merchant called Abu Talib. From the age of 12 Abu Talib took him with him on his long trading trips, which sometimes lasted for many months. A number of stories surround Muhammad in this period of his life. One tells how he and his uncle stopped at a Christian monastery on their travels, and a monk named Bahira recognised the mark of a prophet on Muhammad’s shoulder.His future prophetic status was indicated by certain marks on his body and by miraculous signs in nature. Muhammad first worked as a camel driver, but as both his horizons and business acumen expanded, he became known as The Trusted One (al-Amin) for being fair in his dealings and honoring his obligations. The most important hadith about his early life, and the ones with some of the largest degree of unanimity, are about a trip to Syria, where he was recognised by a Christian monk as Shiloh – the non-Jewish Prophet whose coming was foretold in the book of Genesis. It seems that Muhammad, from an early age, believed himself to be Shiloh, the first and last non-Jewish Prophet who would bring the final message and warning to mankind in the last days before the end of the world. It may have been for this reason that he became something of a mystic, spending long periods of isolated meditation in the desert. From his early twenties onwards he began to have religious experiences and visions of various sorts, but was on the whole confused by their significance. He is also reported to have become a expert on the Jewish and Christian religions and to have engaged in long religious debates with both monotheists and pagans. At the age of 25 Muhammad’s social status changed markedly. He had been employed by a wealthy widow, Khadijah, to run her trading interests and, after they had prospered, she asked him to marry her. He accepted, even though she was to prove faithful, understanding and supportive wife and the marriage was happy. They had six children-two sons, Qusim and Abdullah, and four daughters, Zainab, Ruqaiyyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatima. The two boys died in infancy. The couple had only one surviving child, a daughter called Fatima who in later life became a fanatical Muslim. After her death he had several others, perhaps the best known of whom was the young Aisha. Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib fell on hard times, and Muhammad repaid his kindness by taking responsibility for his little son Ali. Another child in the house was Zaid ibn Haritha, a slave boy given to Khadijah as a present. One day Zaid’s father, who had been searching for him for years, discovered where he was and offered to buy him back. Zaid was asked what he wished to do and chose to stay with Muhammad. Muhammad was so moved that he freed the boy instantly, and raised him as his own son. At that time Mecca was tumultuous melting pot of Christianity, Judaism, and the various pagan religions practiced by the desert tribes and Meccan clans. Khadijah’s family had been exposed to monotheism, which was growing in popularity in its various forms and it is known that her uncle was a practicing Christian. In contrast, the pagan clan cults of the Qursysh in the city had become decadent, especially in their shameless worship of material goods and worldly wealth and the consequent huge disparities between rich and poor, which Muhammad, with his varied background, was able to appreciate. These problems, springing from the difficult transition of the Quraysh from nomadic poverty to sedentary merchant wealth, concerned him greatly, and social injustice-especially the treatment of orphans like himself-is the theme of many of the early surahs of the Qur’an. The cults of the pagan deser t Bedouin clans, who visited Mecca only occasionally, were equally divisive, degenerate and cruel. Human sacrifice and female infanticide were widely practiced. Each Arab tribe had its own gods and worshiped idols. The most important of these was the House of God (Ka’bah), located in Mecca itself. When Muhammad was a young man it contained 360 pagan idols, worshipped by dozens of separate tribes and clans. His clan, the Hashemites, had the honour of guarding it, through tradition which held that the monument had been re-built by their ancestors Ibrahim and Isma’il after the original- believed to have been built by Adam at the beginning of time- had fallen into disrepair. The Quyrash’s wealth was based on the dozens of pagan cults who used the Ka’bah as their central shrine. They sold idols, and Mecca’s position as a trading city was largely based on contacts made with the visiting tribes. New religions were welcomed as good for business. At first Islam was seen as just another money-making cult and Muhammad was encouraged to use the Ka’ba alongside the others in a spirit of fair and toleration. But in 613 Muhammad began preaching to the public at large, rejecting all other religions, demanding the removal of idols from the Ka’ba and therefore threatening trade. As Quyrash hostility grew Muhammad showed himself to be skillful politician as well as a learned theologian. Steadily he gathered around him the elders of minor clans and middle ranking merchants through preaching a return to the religion of Ibrahim. Whilst the Quyrash continued to ridicule him, called him a madman and an impostor. Muhammad had begun to receive Allah’s final message to mankind in the form of the Qur’an through miraculous revelations which did not come until he was – by the standards of the time- already an old man. The Qur’an Muhammad received his first revelation during the month of Ramadan in the year 610 AD when he was about 40 years old. He was engaged in one of his regular periods of solitary meditation in a cave known as Hira near the top of Mount Jabal Nur, near Mecca, when he received a visitation from the angel Gabriel(Jibreel). Muhammad had experienced religious visions before, but this was quite different. Angel Gabriel (Jibreel) commanded him to ‘Recite in the name of your Lord’, and the Prophet lost control of himself and, Muslims believe, began to speak the actual words of Allah. Eventually he was told to recite what is now the beginning of Chapter 96 of the Koran: Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from blood congealed. Recite! Your Lord is the most beneficent, who taught by the pen, taught men that which they did not know. After a short period during which he received no further revelations, they then began again and continued until the end of his life. In the 23 remaining years of his life Muhammad received a total of 114 separate revelations which were compiled as the Qur’an after his death. Muhammad was illiterate so he would repeat each revelation afterwards. Some were written down on whatever was available, from parchment to palm leaves and animals bones, but the majority, in the tradition of the times, were memorized. A year after Muhammad’s death they were collected together by his secretary, Zayd, under the supervision of a committee, shown to many of the Prophet’s companions, and agreed to be accurate. But by about thirty years after his death a number of different versions were circulating and being recited, so a definitive ‘canonical’ version was issued and sent to the four main Islam cities of Basra, Damascus, Kufh and Medina. Two of these original copies still exist today. One is in Tashkent in Soviet Uzbekistan and other is in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The text is divided into 114 surahs, each containing the words of one revelation. The number of verses, or ayahs, in each surah varies from three to 286 and totals 6,239. Each has a title, and 86 have sub-headings indicating they were received in Mecca, whilst another 28 were received in Medina. The Meccan surahs are shorter, more mystical and warn about the dangers of paganism, marked by vigorous semi-poetic language, and concerned with warnings that men would inevitably be judged by God for their behaviour in this world and severely punished if they did not mend their ways. The Medinan surahs are in general longer, less urgent in tone, and deal in great detail with aspects of Allah’s law such as the rules for declaring war, accepting converts, divorce proceedings and the mandatory punishments for various crimes – more concerne d with the solution of practical problems facing him and his followers. The structure of the Qur’an is unusual and, apparently, illogical. In general the longer Medinan surahs, given last, are at the front of the Book and shorter Meccan surahs, the earliest, at the back. There is no logical explanation for their order but at the same time Western scholars, attempting to reorganise them on this basis, have found that no other order works without splitting the surahs up into scattered verses. Sunni Muslims hold that the order was dictated by Jibree to give the Qur’an an esoteric inner meaning reflecting the Divine rather than human order of things. Acceptance of every word of the Qur’an as the literal word of Allah is a binding obligation on all Muslims. The idea that Muhammad was the author of the Qur’an, or any part of it, is rejected absolutely. At the heart of the Qur’an is the simple, repetitive warning that mankind must renounce paganism, accept Allah as the one God of all mankind and live according to his laws. The message is directly addressed to the pagans, Jews and Christians of Mecca, amongst whom Muhammad lived, complete with threats of dire consequences if they failed to mend their polytheistic ways. The first revelation received by Muhammad deals with this very theme. In another early revelation Allah openly threatens Muhammad’s brother-in-law Abu Lahab, who, as head of his Hashemite clan, had disowned Muhammad and annulled the marriage between his son and Muhammad’s daughter Fatima. Allah also shows himself to be equally angry with Abu Lahab’s wife, who had ridiculed the idea of Muhammad’s Prophethood. The Hijah Muhammad’s flight into exile is the most significant episode in the Prophet’s life apart from the revelations he received which made up the Qur’an. It marks the point in the Prophecy when Allah demanded not just a reform of the religious life of Mecca, but a total break with it. It also marks the start of jihad (Holy War – both spiritual and physical) against the pagan Quyrash and, ultimately, all those oppressing Muslims and opposing by force the spread of Allah’s word. The date of this declaration of war was later chosen as the first day of the Muslim calendar, with 622 the first year of the Age of Hijrah. By this time most of Medina’s population regarded themselves as his followers. Many, in addition, had signed military treaties with his followers in Mecca promising military aid. They now eagerly awaited Muhammad’s declaring of war. But instead, after receiving fresh revelations, he decided to first convert the nomadic Bedouins in the surrounding desert. Between 622 and 628 Muhammad set in motion the biggest tribal avalanche Arabia had ever seen. The tribal chieftains rapidly converted to Islam and joined Muhammad’s army. The process was helped by Islam’s being an entirely new religion free from the feuding assocations of both the localised pagan cults and the ‘foreign’ monotheist doctrines of Judaism and Christainity. Muhammad showed himself to be a brilliant military leader in early skirmishes with the Quyrash and this, along with further revelations promising Allah’s support and certain victory, is likely to have persuaded yet more shayks to join. In just six years Muhammad assembled an army of 10,000 Arabs – a huge force for those times – and marched with the people of Medina against Mecca. The force was so overwhelming the city was taken without resistance. Muhammad issued a general amnesty to the Quyrash and urged them, without pressure, to convert to Islam, which they slowly did. The conquest of Mecca also gave him control of the Ka’bah and he resumed his preaching to pagan pilgrims as they visited the shrine. Conversion was rapid and only nine months after the occupation of Mecca his army had grown to 30,000. More clans and tribes converted to Islam. Muhammad died at Mecca on June 8th 11 AH/632 AD. Respect is shown towards Muhammad by saying peace be upon him (PBUH). He was respected as a man who was close to God, who thought deeply and was kind and wise. Muhammad had known the Ka’ba all his life, with it’s many shines. He had also known the greed, exploitation, lack of compassion of the rich merchants. Muhammad spent his life searching for spiritual guidance, drawing ever closer to God. Islam is not just a matter of ritual prayers or fasting or feasts. It is the conscious bringing of every moment of the day, every decision, every detail of the muslim’s thoughts and actions, into deliberate line with what they accept as being the will of Allah. How is the will of Allah known? The muslim bases all decisions on the revealed words of the Holy Qur’an, the messages that were delivered, over a period of 23 years, to the inspired prophet Muhammad. Not one word in the Qur’an is believed by muslims to be the thought or teaching of Muhammad himself- although he is refered above all human beings as one od the most perfect of Allah’s messengers. Other messengers were Abraham, Moses, Jesus and, in fact, at least 24,000 prohets. Muhammad’s ministry was not based on any mircles other than the receiving of the Qur’an. Muhammad is so important to muslims because be was the last prophet, the seal of all that was revealed to the prophets before him. Muslims family life The Qur’an speaks about the family more than any other topic and deals with the rights and responsibilities of husbands and wives, divorce, orphans, inheritance and so on. The Sunnah also deals with relationships within the family: in one tradition, the Prophet says that a man is the guardian of his family and a women is guardian of her husband’s home and children. Two particular Qur’anic verses underline the Islamic view of the family: . . . he created for you mates that you may dwell in tranquillity with them and he has put love and mercy between your hearts . . . 30:21 We created you from a simple pair of a male and a female. . . that you may know each other (not that you may dispise each other) 49:13 This declares the essential equality between men and women but Islam does not see this as contradicting different roles played by men and women. For example, muslim men carry the heavy burden of family maintenance and are supposed to be the only, or the main, breadwinners supporting not only their wives and children but other married or widowed women in the family. If a man’s wife does not wish to live with his family or anyone else, he must respect her wishes. The major responsibility which falls to the woman is creating a harmonious family atmosphere and bringing up the children. Women may kake up paid work outside the home but it is not expected of them as part of the equal partnership and many muslims feel women should only do so if there is a real need for the money. Mature muslim men and women are allowed to mix at work, in public places and social gatherings. Divorce Islam allows divorce if circumstances warrant or necessitate it. Islam has permitted divorce reluctantly, neither liking nor recommending it. The Prophet of Islam has said: â€Å"Among lawful things, divorce is most disliked by Allah† Islam has not made it necessary that the grounds of divorce should be publicized. It, however; does not mean that Islam views divorce lightly. In fact, publicity of grounds may not be of any positive consequence. The grounds may not be pronounced but genuine. On the other hand, the grounds may be stated and may in reality be false. Islam does not also want washing dirty linen of private affairs in public or in the court except in exceptional circumstances. It is for this reason that court comes in as a last resort in the Islamic scheme of separation of husband and wife. The Quran states as regards grounds of divorce in very general terms: â€Å"And if you fear that the two (i.e husband and wife) may not be able to keep the limits ordered by Allah, there is no blame on either of them if she redeems herself (from the marriage tie) † (2 : 229). The general ground of divorce in the Quran, therefore, is hopeless failure of one or both parties to discharge their marital duties and to consort with each other in kindness, peace and compassion. Long absence of husband without any information, long imprisonment, refusal to provide for wife, impotence etc. are some of the grounds on which wife can ask for divorce. Either party may take steps to divorce in case of chronicle disease, insanity, deceptive misrepresentation during marriage contract, desertion etc. A Muslim male is allowed three chances, that is to say, acts of divorce on three different occasions provided that each divorce is pronounced during the time when the wife is in the period of purit y. A husband may divorce his wife once and let the Iddat (the period of waiting after divorce) pass. During the waiting period the two have the option of being reconciled. If however the waiting period passes without reconciliation, they stand fully divorced. If after the first divorce the husband is reconciled with his wife but the hostility and conflict begins all over again, he may divorce her a second time in the same manner as stated above. In this case also he can return to her during the Iddat (or waiting period). If however, after second reconciliation, he divorces the wife the third time, he can not take back the wife during the Iddat. She is totally prohibited for him. The lady, thereafter can marry any person she likes according to her choice. The wife can divorce her husband if this condition is stipulated in the marriage contract. This kind of divorce is called ‘Delegated Divorce’ (Talaq Taffiz). Marriage can also be dissolved through mutual consent. This is called Khula in the technical language of Islamic law. Marriage can also be dissolved by judicial process through the court on complaint of the wife on the grounds explained before. One of the consequences of the divorce is the commencement of waiting period for the wife. This usually lasts three months. If there is a pregnancy, it lasts as long as pregnancy lasts. The waiting period is basically a term of probation during which reconciliation can be attempted. It is also required to establish whether the wife has conceived. It also allows time for planning the future. Maintenance of wife during the waiting period is on husband. The wife can not be expelled from her place of residence and he can not in any way harass her. These will constitute moral as well as criminal offence. In case of divorce, the young children remain in the custody of their divorced mother. However, the father has to provide the cost of maintenance of young children though they remain under the custody of mother. Islamic law of divorce is based on practical considerations. The process of separation is basically a matter of husband and wife. However; when conflict arises, attempts should be made for reconciliation. It has not made judicial process obligatory in divorce for reasons explained earlier. The intervention of court has nowhere reduced the number of divorce. Judicial process in Islam is the last resort in so far as divorce is concerned. Islamic law on divorce if followed in true spirit will enhance the dignity of man and woman, reduce conflict and ensure justice. The Holy Qur’an explicitly prohibits the divorcing husbands from taking back their marriage gifts no matter how expensive or valuable these gifts might be In the case of the wife choosing to end the marriage, she has to return the marriage gifts or money to her husband. Returning the marriage gifts in this case is a fair compensation for the husband who is keen to keep his wife while she chooses to leave him. But the majority of ulamma’ have agreed that to act unfairly against the husband is not allowed and the marriage cannot be annulled by such way. The Holy Qur’an has instructed Muslim men not to take back any of the gifts they have given to their wives except in the case of the wife choosing to dissolve the marriage. Also, a woman came to the Prophet Muhammad seeking the dissolution of her marriage, she told the Prophet that she did not have any complaints against her husband’s character or manners. Her only problem was that she honestly did not like h im to the extent of not being able to live with him any longer. The Prophet asked her: â€Å"Would you give him his garden (the marriage gift he had given her) back?† she said: â€Å"Yes†. The Prophet then instructed the man to take back his garden and accept the dissolution of the marriage. The children usually stay with their mother unless she is shown to be incapable or unsuitable but she loses the right of custody of her children if she remarries. Marriage The most important ingredients in a Muslim marriage are shared values and beliefs, so that even if a couple come from different cultures and backgrounds they possess the same basic world view, attitudes and habits which will bind them together. Many Muslims seem to marry their cousins, Islam neither encourages nor refuses this practise. The prophet’s seventh wife, Zaimab bint Jahsh, was his cousin, but he only married her when she was 39 after his foster son Zaid divorced her. Cousin marriages inbreeds genetic disorders, and makes it very hard for a couple to divorce from a failed marriage if other close relatives will be offended. Muslim boys may marry Christians and Jews, but Muslim girls are not permitted to marry non- Muslims because in Islam the children have to take the religion of the father, and so w ould become non-Muslims. The prohet said : ‘A woman should only be married to a person who is good enough for her or compatible to her.’ The prophet permitted marriages between people of vastly different social status and financial backgrounds, knowing it was not these factors which made for compatibility, but what they were like in their hearts. Do not marry only for a person’s looks, their beauty might become the cause of moral decline. Do not marry for wealth, since this may become the cause of disobedience. Marry rather on the grounds of religious devotion. ( Haddith) Islam sees marriage as the only moral and legal status for a sexual relationship as it provides in public for the security and well being of man and woman. The ceremony itself is extremely simple and takes the form of a basic contract set in a social gathering. It can take place anywhere usually in a home in Muslim countries but in Britain it is most likely to be in a mosque. The imam does not need to be present and there is no fixed formula but it must be clear that both man and woman agree to the marriage and there may be readings from the Qur’an on the theme of married life. The contract- Aqd nikah- is written, as well as spoken, and bride and groom sign three copies. They keep one each and, in a Muslim country, the third is kept by officials. The Qur’an requires that the groom give the wife mahr- a sum of money or property or some other gift of value. It remains hers, whatever happens, and they agree between them what it is to be and when it is to be given. Jihad Arabic for â€Å"exerting one’s utmost efforts to a determined objective†, such objective normally being the struggle against anything that is not good. Two kinds of jihad traditionally exist for mainstream Muslims: the â€Å"greater† (al-jihad al-akbar) and the â€Å"lesser† ( al-jihad al-asghar). The greater jihad is also known as jihad al-nafs, and is understood as an individual’s inner, spiritual struggle against vice, passion, and ignorance. The lesser jihad is defined as meaning â€Å"holy war† against infidel (non-Muslim) lands and subjects. It has both legal and doctrinal significance in that it is prescribed by the Koran and mainstream Muslim hadiths (recorded sayings and actions ascribed to the Prophet Muhammad and accorded a status on a par with revelation). â€Å"Holy war† is the sole form of war that is theoretically permissable in mainstream Islam. Muslim law has traditionally divided up the world into dar al-Islam (abode of Islam) and dar al- harb (abode of war, that is, of non-Muslim rule). As Islam is the last, most superior and universal of man’s divinely ordained religions, it is believed that the entire world must ultimately surrender to its rule and law, if not its faith. Until that time, a jihad against non-Muslim neighbours and neighbouring lands is the duty of all adult, male, and able-bodied Muslims. According to this traditional view, Muslims who die in jihad automatically become martyrs of the faith and are awarded a special place in Paradise. According to the law-books, two kinds of non-Muslim enemies exist, kafir (pagans) and ahl al- kitab (people of the book). The term â€Å"people of the book† originally meant only Jews and Christians, but later on it included other groups such as followers of Zoroastrianism. â€Å"People of the book† need only submit to Muslim political authority to avoid or end jihad and may keep their original faith: their status, defined as dhimmi (a â€Å"protected† non-Muslim), is inferior to that of a Muslim and they must pay the prescribed â€Å"jizya† (poll tax). As for pagans, that is, those whom Muslims do not recognize as a â€Å"people of the book†, such as Buddhists and Hindus, they must either convert to Islam or suffer execution. This drastic alternative, however, was rarely enforced in practice. There can be no going back for a convert to Islam-be that person a dhimmi or pagan-since it is a capital offence to abandon Islam, even for a former religion with a recognized revelation. However, ways of avoiding the strict enforcement of the law were often found. Jihad can also be defensive, that is, for the purpose of protecting Muslim lands from non-Muslim incursions such as, for example, the crusades of the Christians in the Holy Land during the Middle Ages or the Spanish Reconquista. Some modern Muslim scholars have stressed the defensive aspect of jihad above others. In contrast to the Sunnis, some Muslim groups like the Imami and Bohora-Ismaili Shiites are forbidden from participating in offensive jihad. This is because for both sects the only person legitimately capable of conducting an offensive jihad is their Imam, and he is presently in occultation (that is, in hiding and incommunicado until the end of time). The two sects, however, are permitted participation in defensive jihad. I have been asked to evaluate the following statement ‘The Qur’an would be more useful to everyone if it were translated into modern English. Whether the Qur’an may be translated from its original Arabic into another language, and, if so, under what circumstances a translation may be used, has also been a matter of dispute. Nevertheless, it has been translated by Muslims and non-Muslims into a variety of languages. Today there are many versions available in English and the other major languages of the world. Although it can now be read in at least 40 languages, all translations lose part of the inspiration and meaning, and are not treated with the same respect as the original. Since the Qur’an is believed to be from Allah, every word, every letter, is sacred to muslims. It is therefore considered very important to keep the Qur’an in the language in which it was first spoken i.e. Arabic. Muslims were taught to recite it, and it must still be learnt in Arabic. As Islam spread from Arabia, its language was adopted by a number of Islamic countries, and is still spoken in these countries today. Muslims in these countries should find the Qur’an quite easy to read, even though the style of modern Arabic has naturally changed since Muhammad’s time. In other countries, muslims need to learn enough Arabic to take part in their worship and to read the Qur’an. You can find translations of the Qur’an for people who do not know Arabic, or copies with both Arabic and another language for those who do not have Arabic as their first language, but muslims do not accept these translations as proper Qur’ans. The main argument used to defend the Divine authorship of the Qur’an is the incomparable quality of writing. Much of it is composed in rhyming Arabic and the language is particularly beautiful and graceful. The surahs were given in Arabic and, since it would be a sin to alter the word of Allah, Arabic remains the sacred language of Islam. Non- Arabic speaking muslims can use translations but the Qur’an is so important to them that many learn Arabic just so they can read it in its original form. Muslims and non-believers alike agree the full power and beauty of its writing can only be appreciated in the original. But for muslims it goes further than that. Translations can only be interpretations which cannot truly say what is said in Arabic. The combination of the words and rhythms in the original language- the way the Qur’an sounds when recited- is also an important part of its power. Muslims think of the Qur’an as a complete philosophy, a comprehensive description of the universe and the entirety of the law by which people must live. The longer and later Medina surahs stress Allah’s merciful nature more fully, with extensive friendly practical advice on personal and family matters. The Qur’an is also the focus of Islamic art. Many individuals copies of the Book are major works of art in their own right – with sublime Arabic calligraphy on superb hand-made paper, and high quality decorative leather and metal work. Figurative art is forbidden by classical Islam, especially the creation of images of Allah and the Prophets, and the astonishingly fine decorative art found in many mosques is largely based on Arabic calligraphy, woven into patterns repeating passages from the Book. Even the most sceptical non-believer, Muslims insist, is forced to admit that the Qur’an is a book of immense beauty and importance – not least because it has now almost certain become the most widely read and memorised book in the world. The preface to one of the most widely available Qur’an in English, the Tahrike Tarsile translation, puts it like this: ‘The Qur’an’s miracle lies in its ability to offer at least something to non-believers and everything to believers’. Learning large parts of the the Qur’an by heart is an important part of Muslim religious devotion and children start memorising it at an early age. In many Muslim countries learning the Qur’an by heart forms the basic curriculum of primary school education. Muslims who memorise its contents in their entirety are given the honourable title of al-hafiz.

Poisons essays

Poisons essays Serious Crimes, Serious Consequences Juvenile offenders who commit adult crimes should suffer adult consequences. Juveniles are becoming repeat offenders of serious crimes such as grand theft auto, robbery, sex crimes, murder, grand larceny, kidnapping, and gang related crimes, to name a few. The repeat offences are due to a lack of severe consequences because they are being prosecuted under juvenile court systems. Teenagers commit the largest portion of all violent crime in America. While the national rate of violent crime has evened out, and the nation's population of juveniles has decreased, violent crimes committed by juveniles have increased immensely (United States F.B.I. 4). Today's juvenile justice system is centered on rehabilitation and not accountability in the way that the adult system is. The statistics of juvenile crimes indicate that this idea must change. Through consistent enforcement of law, the government will show that bad actions bring about bad consequences. Directing youth away from crime, and dealing with juveniles who commit these serious crimes, is increasing in importance as the crime rates among juveniles continue to rise. People who oppose the idea to try juveniles as adults have the opinion that the government should strengthen the rehabilitation programs for juveniles because using adult consequences is unfair to juveniles. This idea is only making crime worse because the juveniles know that they will have an easy time in the court system, unlike adults committing the exact same crime. By using the idea that juveniles should be held accountable in the court of law as adults are for committing the same crimes, we will see a significant change for the better in the juvenile crime rates. By the time a juvenile offender is finally incarcerated under the adult system, he usually has a long record of offences behind him. Holding juveniles accountable for their actions is what is needed t ...

Free Essays on Aschenputtels Secrets

â€Å"Aschenputtel’s† Secrets Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s version of â€Å"Cinderella†, â€Å"Aschenputtel† is rich with psychological, religious, and philosophical ideas. The Grimm brothers tell a seemingly simple tale of the hardships of a young girl without her mother having to face the cruelty of her new blended family. However, when read by a more mature audience the juvenile fantasy tale turns into something much more. â€Å"Aschenputtel† provides simple entertainment and a simple moral for the young reader. At an immature glance the fairy tale seems to preach to children to turn the other cheek when faced with adversity. With a deeper look it can be seen as a vastly more complex work. The many psychological, religious, and philosophical ideas inlaid by the Grimm brothers make for a much more adult story. Psychology, religion, and philosophy create and shape Aschenputtel’s character. Aschenputtel has to deal with a blended family and the coinciding sibling rivalry issues th at come with her new family. She is continuously aware of the religious implications her mother has laid upon her. Finally, the adversity she faces with her cruel family gives her a â€Å"survival-of-the-fittest† type of philosophy. Upon the introduction of Aschenputtel’s new step-mother it is told that, â€Å" The woman had brought with her into the house two daughters, who were beautiful and fair if face, but vile and black of heart† (Grimm 7). Immediately it is exposed that the new sisters are evil, they take away her pretty clothes, ridicule her and make her sleep in the hearth. The actions of the sisters blatantly obvious as typical sibling rivalry. Visibly threatened by Aschenputtel’s place in the home, they felt the necessity to mark their new territory and take advantage of Aschenputtel’s pious ways. On the other hand, Aschenputtel competes with them in a very different way. She is patient and bides her time. While the other sisters beg fo... Free Essays on Aschenputtel's Secrets Free Essays on Aschenputtel's Secrets â€Å"Aschenputtel’s† Secrets Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s version of â€Å"Cinderella†, â€Å"Aschenputtel† is rich with psychological, religious, and philosophical ideas. The Grimm brothers tell a seemingly simple tale of the hardships of a young girl without her mother having to face the cruelty of her new blended family. However, when read by a more mature audience the juvenile fantasy tale turns into something much more. â€Å"Aschenputtel† provides simple entertainment and a simple moral for the young reader. At an immature glance the fairy tale seems to preach to children to turn the other cheek when faced with adversity. With a deeper look it can be seen as a vastly more complex work. The many psychological, religious, and philosophical ideas inlaid by the Grimm brothers make for a much more adult story. Psychology, religion, and philosophy create and shape Aschenputtel’s character. Aschenputtel has to deal with a blended family and the coinciding sibling rivalry issues th at come with her new family. She is continuously aware of the religious implications her mother has laid upon her. Finally, the adversity she faces with her cruel family gives her a â€Å"survival-of-the-fittest† type of philosophy. Upon the introduction of Aschenputtel’s new step-mother it is told that, â€Å" The woman had brought with her into the house two daughters, who were beautiful and fair if face, but vile and black of heart† (Grimm 7). Immediately it is exposed that the new sisters are evil, they take away her pretty clothes, ridicule her and make her sleep in the hearth. The actions of the sisters blatantly obvious as typical sibling rivalry. Visibly threatened by Aschenputtel’s place in the home, they felt the necessity to mark their new territory and take advantage of Aschenputtel’s pious ways. On the other hand, Aschenputtel competes with them in a very different way. She is patient and bides her time. While the other sisters beg fo...

Business Rationale For Diversity Management Free Sample

CERA is a company that is working on large scale across the world. the report examines the importance of diversity management at CERA and describes the relevancy of diversity at the workplace. It has to inculcate a culture of diversity management while organizing the business. It should promote the culture in a way that everyone can see the reflection of diversity in their culture and the process. CERA has been working till now on an old model of HR recruitment but there is a necessity to keep doors opened for people from different background in order to attain cultural diversity. CERA has an issur It is recommended to incorporate principles of diversity management at the workplace in order to highlight all the important aspects of human resource management. The different aspect of diversity management is selection, recruitment, performance appraisal, training and development. Organizations need to show a commitment towards diversity and should try to integrate flexible working condition for the employees in order to attain balance at work. Moreover workplace diversity management helps in building s strong relationship with the community that helpsin enhancing the overall productivity. This process helps in improving the quality of programs and delivers an efficient service and product (Bassett?Jones, 2005). CERA has to inculcate a culture of diversity management while organizing the business. It should promote the culture in a way that everyone can see the reflection of diversity in their culture and the process. Success of the organization depends upon the ability to adopt di versity and to realize their benefits (Egan & Bendick, 2008). In order to ensure selection of diverse pool of talent it is advised to improve the HR policies which will create ample of opportunities. The HR manager should ensure recruitment of efficient candidates from the diverse pool of people through practicing diversity management at workplace (Curtis & Dreachslin, 2008). Choosing people out from a diverse pool will increase overall productivity. Moreover diversity management while recruitment and selection is not a difficult task. Reviewing HR policies timely as per the global competitive environment is suggested I order to attain objectives. It is essential to notice that a broader diversity management will help in broadening the choice. A well-managed recruitment program will help in absorbing the best candidates. This will ensure that a pool of right people is chosen to accomplish the objectives of the organization (Cooke & Saini, 2010). Diversity management focus on assembling values of t he organization and practice strategy to develop vision and organizational strategy pertaining to the requirements. Diversity management includes equal employment opportunity for every individual at workplace. This will ensure incorporating people with a different perspective and background to work under one roof. CERA needs to develop the policies focusing on promoting diversity management (Vertovec & Wessendorf, 2010). It needs to develop compliance oriented approach in order to promote diversity at workplace. The people of the organization are source of strength and competitive advantage. Diversity management has multiple impacts on the organization while considering the difficulties faced at different level. This will help in providing a competitive advantage to CERA by keeping doors opened for people from different background. This process will help in adapting effective planning at workplace. This will moreover help in improv ing innovative practice at workplace which will enhance the overall productivity. This will help in ensuring effective balance in between the desired culture and objective results. Most of the organizations are disregarding the importance of diversity at the workplace.   This has however caused a stagnant growth for those organizations to include a diverse environment at workplace (Labelle, Gargouri & Francoeur, 2010). CERA has to develop a cohesive environment that provides an opportunity for the growth by pushing various different aspects. Diversity management is correlated with the success of the organization in multiple ways which involve various cultural backgrounds (Rice, 2010). Multiculturalism is a part of diverse working environment with people from different walk of life. The diversity management looks upon the issues at multiple levels while positioning the strategic, managerial and operational functions. This practice can only be motivated if an organization imbibes  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   these functions in their culture. There should be a proper coordination in between the senior and lower level of management in order to synchronize information. Senior level executives are given responsibility to handle the multi cultural environment. This will help in enhancing the scope of the organization. CERA has to promote a multi-cultural environment by reviewing the HR plan ( Martà ­n-Alcà ¡zar, Romero-Fernà ¡ndez & Sà ¡nchez-Gardey,2012). Conventional HR policies will only land up to troubles. This practice need to be achieved through developing a cohesive environment. Diversified teams at workplace will help in managing the critical issues in an easy manner. They allow a better understanding of the issues in order to develop a multi cultural environment. Researchers have acknowledged that a multicultural environment helps in overcoming the loopholes in the organization. This provides with an insight to convert dreams into reality. CERA has to face a challenge to promote a multi cultural environment in order to seek effective result .International presence of the brand has initiated a multi cultural environment. This has created a sense of cultural awareness among employees to think with a different perspective. They are being exposed to different ideas and points and can create a workforce with a large social network group and helps in increasing the business base (Mujtaba, 2007). An organizational success and competitiveness depends upon the ability of the organization to embrace diversity by realizing the benefits. All those organizations that are handling the diversity issues at the workplace are developed according to the necessity. The beneficiary of Diversity management is the organization who gets an opportunity to expand business opportunity due to a multi cultural environment.   A company that encourages diversity management helps in inspiring the other employees in an organization.   This will provide an opportunity to handle diverse workplace issues. This will help in implementing the plans carefully (Need, 2006). Diversity management will help in providing a broad range of skills and experience to the organization that will help in providing a diverse range of customer based services. A diverse environment will benefit the organization by considering the variety of viewpoints given by individual employee while framing the business polices. This will ensure meeting out the business strategies while expanding the various opportunities. Workplace diversity is beneficial for both employee and the organization. It increases the market opportunity, recruitment and creativity and helps in meeting difficult task (Kossek, Lobel & Brown, 2006).   Diversity management helps in creating a flexible business environment in order to achieve the desired results. Flexibility and creativity at workplace will help in managing the issues in an effective manner. Moreover it will help in managing the issues occurring at a different level of an organization. This will led to recognition of various issues that occ urs at different level. CERA needs to initiate further in order to seek benefit of diversity at workplace while creating a diversified environment (Pitts, 2009). Human resource is an important part of a successful business while focusing on business strategy.   Managers understand the importance of well-trained staff in order to motivate the other employees. Successful HR departments have understood the importance of keeping efficient employees that will help in attaining goals. Business managers are responsible to communicate idea of the business to the subordinates. Diversity need to be handled in an effective manner to achieve success for attaining long term goals. Majority of business organizations has realized importance of diversity management at the workplace due to increasing complication in business. Majority of the business organization across the world are seeking opportunities to resolve the complications. CERA by far has been following the old procedure of recruiting human resource personnel. Incorporating new practices will enhance the growth opportunity. The changes taking place in the organization needs to be addressed in a manner that is necessary in developing the strength (Henry & Evans, 2007). CERA is currently operating in different countries with a diversified working environment. Under such a situation it is suggested that CERA should make its policies accordingly so that they can seek a competitive advantage against other. Business strategies need to be made keeping in mind the recruitment structure. An organization with a dynamic workforce works more efficiently when compared to other. CERA however has incorporated a multi-cultural workforce but it is advised to organize more people in order to attain growth (Wrench, 2016). It is necessary to give proper representation to the minority while managing diversity Stakeholders in today’s business scenario play a significant role in today’s competitive world. Stakeholder management and consultation has become increasingly prevalent in today’s business scenario. Stakeholder’s consultation plays an important role in accomplishing corporate social responsibility. It is seen that business that engages everyone around is able to make a consistent performance. Stakeholder consultation is important for putting a positive effect on an organization recruitment process. This helps in building positive relationships in order to shape a positive job profile. It is essential for a business organization to address competing interest or differing priorities in order to shape the priorities. This will help in acknowledge the expectation in order to achieve desired result. Gaining valuable insight and information helps stakeholders in achieving dis tinguished goals. It provides a fountain of valuable experience, insight and knowledge to recruit with a vision to achieve daunting goals. This helps in facilitating successful candidates to the organization and promotes robots stakeholders engagement that will help in achieving desired goals (Foster & Harris,2005). Below mentioned are the necessary recommendations that are suggested to Mark French according to the present HRM policies and the role of diversity management at workplace. It is advised to CERA to employ people from every background in order to attain unrealistic goals. For achieving a sustainable growth it is advised to incorporate systematic changes in overall recruitment and selection procedure which will help in establishing an effective work environment. Diversity for an organization proves to be one-size-fits all option. Firstly it is suggested to involve every individual in the organization to take the responsibility of diversity. Top management to bottom management should take responsibility to manage diversity at workplace. Diversity management is all together a complex issue needs to be resolved in a simple manner to avoid future disputes (Barak, 2013). CERA should measure progress towards achieving diversity at the workplace through managing realistic goals by developing metrics. Comparing the standard and actual outcome will help in assimilating desired result within a required time-period. CERA is advised to measure all the goals on a desired parameter set by the management previously. CERA need to put all the fiscal and human resources at place in order to incorporate the policies in the organization while changing all the necessary functioning. Company need to start planning from the ground level in order to practice diversity management. Incorporating diversity management is a tough task for an organization at an initial level but managing everything in a systematic arrangement will help the organization to achieve sustainable result (Konrad, Prasad & Pringle, 2005). System is necessary to be prepared in advance in order to promote diversity. Talent acquisition is about attracting the best out of a pool of people. Once the requirement are set it is simple to choose the most efficient person for the desired post. This will enable a multi-culture environment at the workplace. Educating everyone about the role of diversity at workplace will help in processing necessary goals. It is necessary for an organization to provide proper information to the employees about the role of diversity in order to achieve desired result in the given time frame. Training is necessary to imbibe culture of the organization within employees (Pitts & Wise, 2010). It is necessary to initiate support from the top level management in order to articulate business function. Diversity represents the cultural value of an organization where everyone is treated equally irrespective of the place where they come from. Following abovementioned policies will help in incorporating a favorable environment at the workplace which will provide a sustainable environment. It is advised to decide in advance the procedure through which the vacant position would be filed. The current vacant positions are related to senior engineer and graduate engineer. Firstly it is necessary to shortlist the candidates out of the received application. The position need to be fulfilled as per the required qualification. It is recommended to the HR manager to short list the most appropriate application and to initiate the interview process. All the shortlisted candidates need to be invited for a formal written and personal interview in order to judge their knowledge. Out of the chosen candidates a final round of interview need to carried in order to ensure the best candidate. Offer letter is given to the candidate who is chosen by the interviewer. Finally the Chosen candidate is asked to give final confirmation about the job which he has opted. It is necessary to seek all proper information in advance (Harvey & Allard, 2015). HRM is all about keeping systematic information about filing the right place in the organization. An organization can only achieve success if it recruitment team is already well-trained. In today’s competitive scenario this has become evident to recruit the best employees. CERA has to involve a diversified workforce in order to attain desired result. Assembling people from a different cultural background is necessary for attaining differential results. This has become important foot every organization around the world to include efficient workforce in order to access maximum result (Aytemiz Seymen, 2006). Advice of friends and colleagues are taken serious by maximum number of people while making employment decision.   Most of the decision made b the young generation is affected by the peer and surroundings. A career option according to them depends upon moment of choice. They are particularly opting for those career options which are advised to them by their friends. In a co mpetitive atmosphere the decision related to career options are widely affected due to numerous career options. However it has become important that the external influence for a person is causing a huge amount of pressure while guaranteeing successful career. It is affecting their mental status and providing them with an insight to make a futuristic decision (Shen, Chanda, D'netto & Monga, 2009). It is advice to CERA that they should focus on determining the relevant standard to the organization while improvising the selection procedure. Diversity is much broader than what it is considered by the organization. Human resource needs to promote broad range of policies not only in recruiting diverse workforce but to implement effective procedure. This is necessary for an organization to implement the efficient policies in the organization so that CERA can perform extraordinary by acquiring a pool of efficient workers around the world. Diverse workforce helps in achieving desired results which will help it in receiving long term growth. There is a necessity to implement selection process that understands individual differences. Every individual has a different sort of mindset and it is very important for an individual to ally all the activities to recruit the best out of all. The report is related to implication of diversity management at CERA and the studies relevant manner to at tain goals. The company has been focusing on incorporating diversified human resource in order to attain sustainability. CERA can perform extraordinary by acquiring a pool of efficient workers around the world. They have to frame systematic policies in order to achieve desired result. Aytemiz Seymen, O. (2006). The cultural diversity phenomenon in organisations and different approaches for effective cultural diversity management: a literary review.  Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal,  13(4), 296-315. Barak, M. E. M. (2013).  Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications. Bassett?Jones, N. (2005). The paradox of diversity management, creativity and innovation.  Creativity and innovation management,  14(2), 169-175. Cooke, F. L., & Saini, D. S. (2010). Diversity management in India: A study of organizations in different ownership forms and industrial sectors.  Human Resource Management,  49(3), 477-500. Curtis, E. F., & Dreachslin, J. L. (2008). Integrative literature review: Diversity management interventions and organizational performance: A synthesis of current literature.  Human Resource Development Review,  7(1), 107-134. Egan, M. L., & Bendick, M. (2008). Combining multicultural management and diversity into one course on cultural competence.  Academy of Management Learning & Education,  7(3), 387-393. Foster, C., & Harris, L. (2005). Easy to say, difficult to do: diversity management in retail.  Human Resource Management Journal,  15(3), 4-17. Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2015).  Understanding and managing diversity. Pearson. Henry, O., & Evans, A. J. (2007). Critical review of literature on workforce diversity.  African Journal of Business Management,  1(4). Konrad, A. M., Prasad, P., & Pringle, J. (Eds.). (2005).  Handbook of workplace diversity. Sage. Kossek, E. E., Lobel, S. A., & Brown, J. (2006). Human resource strategies to manage workforce diversity.  Handbook of workplace diversity, 53-74. Labelle, R., Gargouri, R. M., & Francoeur, C. (2010). Ethics, diversity management, and financial reporting quality.  Journal of Business Ethics,  93(2), 335-353. Martà ­n-Alcà ¡zar, F., Romero-Fernà ¡ndez, P. M., & Sà ¡nchez-Gardey, G. (2012). Transforming human resource management systems to cope with diversity.  Journal of Business Ethics,  107(4), 511-531. Mujtaba, B. (2007).  Workforce diversity management: Challenges, competencies and strategies  (pp. 207-229). Llumina Press. Need, W. C. D. H. P. (2006). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. Pitts, D. (2009). Diversity management, job satisfaction, and performance: Evidence from US federal agencies.  Public Administration Review,  69(2), 328-338. Pitts, D. W., & Wise, L. R. (2010). Workforce diversity in the new millennium: Prospects for research.  Review of Public Personnel Administration,  30(1), 44-69. Rice, M. F. (2010).  Diversity and public administration: Theory, issues, and perspectives. ME Sharpe. Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'netto, B., & Monga, M. (2009). Managing diversity through human resource management: An international perspective and conceptual framework.  The International Journal of Human Resource Management,  20(2), 235-251. Vertovec, S., & Wessendorf, S. (Eds.). (2010).  Multiculturalism backlash: European discourses, policies and practices. Routledge. Wrench, J. (2016).  Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the EU. Routledge. With a decade's experience in providing essay help,

Vinke Air Freight Service Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vinke Air Freight Service Company - Essay Example A brief market analysis will inform the company of the value of its services to current clients and how these factors might differ from the customer base within the overnight small package delivery market. Vinke currently serves large- and mid-sized companies who occasionally need to ship parts to meet emergency needs. The present client base certainly must value the fact that their large packages can be delivered to an airport and Vinke will transport the parts as well as arrange final delivery. In an emergency, industrial delivery scenario, Vinke’s personal attention to clients is a major benefit. In the overnight letter and small package market, however, customers are not seeking the specialized attention that has built the company’s current market. They are more interested in having their letters picked up at their location and timely delivered to the intended destination. Neither are they faced with the issues of industrial shipping. These customers are consumers f or whom overnight delivery has become ubiquitous. They don’t need specialized personal care nor are they constrained by the logistics involved in moving large manufacturing parts to meet emergency timeframes; they simply want their letters to be picked up and delivered on time.   In considering the organizational changes required by the proposed entry into the new market, and the competition already in place there, the task could prove daunting. Vinke’s current client base is industrial or manufacturing companies. These organizations can be serviced from the airport to destination. For overnight letters and small packages, the company will not be able to expect its customers to drive to their airport; Vinke will need to implement a pick-up service. They won’t be competing for a relatively small pool of clients; they will be forced to serve the general public. This will require extraordinary organizational changes. Further, rather than the occasional and urgent nature of  delivering large industrial parts that easily fill up planes with just a few orders, the new market demands will centre upon frequent handling of routine letters and small packages.  

Summary and implications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Summary and implications - Essay Example Expected sales for Eliquis for 2012 is projected to reach $395 million (Loftus , par 2). Because of the delay in the decision of the FDA, Bristol-Myers and Pfizer might experience a decline in their sales projections which might also affect its stock prices which have gone up in the past few days at the New York Stock Exchange. The FDA justified their move by stating that the additional data submitted needs more time to review (Loftus , par 6). The original date for the decision should have been March 28 (Loftus , par 11). Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Johnson & Johnson, other manufacturers of new anticlotting drugs, may consider this a favorable development because it gives them time to establish their products in the market while the competition is not yet there. This means that the company may have to adjust their sales projections because it will mean a decline in their projected sales. If the launch of the product will be delayed by three months, it means that whatever projected sales for those three months will not be realized. The delay in the decision on Eliquis is good news for Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and Johnson & Johnson. They can launch a more aggressive marketing strategy for their anticlotting drugs so that when the time comes that the FDA approves Eliquis, they have already saturated the market and may have gained loyal customers already. For the pharmaceutical industry, this should be perceived as a caveat in submitting drugs for approval of the FDA. They should make sure that all data that they submit are complete so that there will be no need for amendments later on. It will also serve as a warning to other pharmaceutical companies who intend to manufacture new anticlotting drugs that the FDA is very much concerned about bleeding risks for all patient types. In one’s opinion, the move of the FDA to delay the decision on Eliquis is good because it shows that it is concerned about the effects of the drug