History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 18

History - Essay Example The ideologies of the movement would not have gained impetus if the print media had not yet flourished, which promoted a renewed interest in the discovery of knowledge especially among the elites. One of the founding centers of the Enlightenment was France. Voltaire (1694–1778) was a French radical thinker who epitomized the Enlightenment ideals of freedom of speech and rational thought over blind faith in religion. Baron de Montesquieu (1689–1755) was another Enlightenment figure who revolutionized political discourse. He praised the republic as the best form of government and paved way for the division of the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Diderot was the architect of the Encyclopedia which was published over a period of twenty one years (1751–1772). Though the Enlightenment ideals originated in France it spread to different parts of Europe and the world. Each country saw the emergence of a bunch of radical thinkers in various fields. In England it was epitomized by Isaac Newton. John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume were the other exponents of the Enlightenment in England. In America the writings of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin created waves. It encouraged a widespread thirst for knowledge among the elites and the cultivation of scientific rationalism. Many of these philosophes set the mood for a tremendous intellectual and cultural revolution which left no stone in the society unturned. In the essay let us look at the political, economic, and scientific ripples created by the Enlightenment across the world. Many leaders of the American Revolution like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine were greatly influenced by the English and French Enlightenment thought, especially John Locke’s idea of liberalism. The Enlightenment clearly defied the absolutism of monarchy and upheld democracy. The common man was tired of being suppressed under the absolutist monarchs and they were influenced by the teachings

Telecommuting Case Study Essay Example for Free

Telecommuting Case Study Essay Telecommuting has been referred to as being the next big information technology (IT) trend. This trend aside from having financial benefits also reaps environmental benefits. The majority of people wanting or deciding to telecommute, wish to do so in order to avoid lengthy commutes by road, rail or otherwise. Telecommuting has the potential to provide significant transportation-related public benefits. (www.cnn.com) â€Å"Telecommuting is now practiced by approximately 2 million workers and could reach 7.5 to 15 million within a decade.† (http://ntl.bts.gov) These 2 million workers, now being removed form the highways, can substantially improve the congestion and air quality. Potential beneficial transportation impacts of telecommuting include reduction in highway congestion and associated lost time, reduced emission of pollutants, savings in energy and petroleum consumption, and fewer highway accidents. Computer and telecommunications advances in recent years, including computer networks and data systems, FAX machines, and electronic mail, have dramatically widened the choice of workplace for information workers and others so they can work wherever these tools are available, including at home. These technological enhancements have provided greater worker flexibility, empowerment of employees, and a reduction I of frustration from the irritation and time loss associated with commuting. â€Å"One result is that a substantial portion of the U.S. labor force, perhaps as much as 30 percent, now works at home at least part of the time.† (http://www.telecommute-now.org/telecommuting) Telecommuting does not necessarily mean that employees work at home. Satellite telework centers near or in residential areas, fully equipped with appropriate telecommunications equipment and services, can serve employees of single or multiple firms. These telework centers are usually developed based on geographical data rather than business functions. In many cases a shared facility provides a more practical and satisfactory location for telecommuting than the home, and a setting less threatening to traditional business management styles. Telecommuting is often practiced as little as one or two days each week, although it can be full-time. Telecommuters are primarily managers or professionals. However, telecommuting is highly popular to most information workers. Traffic congestion can have direct and indirect cost impacts on business activities. The direct costs of congestion that affect production costs include additional labor costs associated with longer trips made by employees during business hours, higher vehicle operating costs, and suboptimal vehicle use. â€Å"The trucking industry is both a contributor to and victim of traffic congestion. According to FHWA officials, the annual cost of truck delays on freeways is between $4.2 and $7.6 billion, based on vehicle operating costs and driver time charges. Time losses on urban streets, docking areas, etc. could range between $19.4 and $22.9 billion (excluding costs to industry such as lost sales opportunities in not having products available on time).† (U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). 2001. Traffic Congestion: Trends, Measures, and Effects.) Indirect costs of traffic congestion include increases in accidents and insurance premiums, reduced or loss of employee productivity, and increases in delivery costs. The removal of telecommuters vehicles from the highways will reduce overall congestion. All vehicles on those now less-congested roads will operate more efficiently, cleanly and safely, and the occupants will suffer less delay.

Mtv And The Madonna Phenomenon Essay -- essays research papers

MTV and The Madonna Phenomenon "Madonna's intuitive grasp on the televisual world in which we live- of the medium's possibilities for engaging spectators in diverse ways- that in part accounts for her success. She is the supreme television heroine." (E. Ann Kaplan 271) "What are the main theories which we have studied so far and how have they affected how you view television?"-This is the question which this paper is supposed to answer. Obviously there is not enough time or space in which to discuss every theory which we have touched on. As a compromise I decided to write about a topic to which almost every theory that we have discussed can be applied: MTV and the â€Å"Madonna Phenomenon†. As E. Ann Kaplan stated in her article on feminist criticism, Madonna is truly the ultimate television heroine. A discussion on contemporary popular culture and especially on media culture could never be complete without bringing up Madonna. She can be discussed in terms of feminism, ideology, hegemony and commercialism as seen in both Kaplan's as well as in John Fiske's article on British Cultural Studies. In order to properly explain how the â€Å"Madonna Phenomenon† has become such an important concept in media studies, one must look first at how influential MTV (music television) has become in the last decade. MTV addresses the â€Å"desires, fantasies, and anxieties† of young people(Kaplan 270) who have, like myself, grown up in a decade when all the traditional institutions and theories that were always respected, are being questioned. It has become the center of discussions of many young people who have grown up idolizing the figures shown on the network. MTV is a culture in itself. With it's own news, fashion and music programs it can easily be the considered the basis for the formation of thought of an entire generation. The images depicted in music videos, of androgynous stars and situations have aided in rendering the clear line between the genders rather blurry. This makes MTV an important aspect in the study of post-modern theories. Videos are often quite abstract and it is hard to figure out their true meanings. Unlike other television programming, videos are usually not made up of clear parts or scenes which produce an easily identifiable and readable image... ...nd in particular those in music videos) quite differently. I would see them,, as I had in the past as victims of the dominant ideology and the patriarchal society which we live in. Madonna proves that women can fight against the regulations which are forced onto women: that if they are sexual beings than they are nothing more than sex symbols, and that society determines how women are portrayed on television. If I could go as far as to describe Madonna in one word it would be â€Å" strong†. I not only enjoy her work but admire her ability to do what she feels like doing, even if she completely disregards society's definitions of decency. She is one of the few women in history who has never asked others to accept or like what she does. To conclude I would like to quote Madonna herself in order to demonstrate her atypical way of thinking which has brought her such undeniable success: â€Å"Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another† -Madonna â€Å"Justify my Love†

Blinds to Go Company Essay

Executive Summary: The case, based on the company Blinds to Go, emphasizes the importance of staffing in stores as they expand to meet their growth objectives. Being a manufacturer and retailer, with a unique sales model – 100% commission based and focus on customer service gave the company an advantage over its competitors. According to the senior management Quality of staff was paramount and hence their original compensation system motivated best performance and fostered a high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. To attract more recruits for its expansion phase, the management changed the compensation system from full commission to salary on the recommendation of a newly hired vice president. Sales declined and the overall staff turnover increased. Seeing this the company brought back the old culture and experienced a sales turnaround. This shift also caused another huge turnover in stores. A large percentage of voluntary turnover occurred in the first four months. The higher turnover after eight months was partly due to termination because of sales performance. The biggest challenge the company now faced was understaffing. The need for additional staff was further aggravated due to its continued push for growth and the tight US and Canadian labour markets. Another concern to be addressed was that the company had planned for 80 per cent of its expansion in US where the employees preferred the fixed pay than the company’s commission based pay structure. During this period BTG had tried several recruiting methods with varying degrees of success. With an IPO in the pipeline and plans to add on average 50 stores per year for the next five years, it was critical for the company to come up with a staffing strategy with focus on Quality of the staff and low employee turnover. The Company: Blinds To Go (BTG) was a retail fabricator of window dressings. It was started by David Shiller in 1954 in the Cote-des-Neiges district in Montreal, Canada. From the mid 1970s, BTG focussed on the sale of blinds. It was able to create a production system that reduced the delivery time frame of custom blinds from six to eight weeks to 48 hours. The reduced delivery time led to overwhelming customer response and the business flourished. The firm, realising their unique advantage of being a manufacturer and retailer simultaneously, began expansion by opening stores throughout Canada and US. By June 2000, BTG operated 120 corporate owned stores in North America. BTG expected to add 50 stores per year for the next 5 years, 80 percent of which targeted to US expansion stores. BTG’s business philosophy was that quality of staff was cardinal than the store location, customer demographics or advertising. The firm established this by experimenting with a store that was locationally disadvantaged and had declining sales. BTG was able to triple the sales of the said store in one month by deploying their ‘A’ management team and trained staff there. The four staff roles in BTG stores were 1. Sales associate 2. Selling Supervisor 3. Assistant Store manager & 4. Store Manager. Sales associates were the junior most employees and their job was to follow a set plan to help walk in customers to make a purchase. Consistent sales performers among them were promoted to selling supervisors, who were assistant store managers in training, or assistant store managers. Assistant store Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 managers were in charge of the stores in the absence of store managers. The store manager was responsible for overall store operations. The BTG selling process involved a high level of customer interaction, which set a very high level of service expectation. Their emphasis on customer satisfaction and sale closure led to higher volume of orders relative to their retail competition Original Compensation of Retail Staff: The compensation structure at Blinds To Go incentives performance based on number of sales deal closed. The commission based structure fosters the high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. This structure was believed to be a motivating factor to boost performance. High performers at BTG actually made more money than comparable retail outlet salesman. For Sales Associate the salary structure was a mix of fixed pay and variable pay with $3 – $5 comprising of fixed and 3% of sales as variable component. For Managers/Assistants the salary structure was $10,000 – $15,000/yr as fixed pay with 1.5% to 3% of overall sales as variable pay. Changes in Compensation Structure – 1996: As per the recommendations from a newly hired Vice President of store operations the compensation structure for the store staff was changed from being fully commission based to salaried. Under the new structure, the sales associated were paid Cdn $8 per hour as a fixed component. For the store managers a higher base salary component as compared to the commissions was set. The main focus of the move was to make the compensation more attractive to the prospective hires. Another change being brought was to limit the involvement of store managers in the sale process. All these changes had an adverse effect on the sales figures which showed a decrease of 10 to 30% from 1996 to 1997. The staff turnover increased to 40% from the earlier 15%. Even thought the new pay structure helped in recruiting more hires, it led to the hiring of lower calibre people. The existing good performers did not appreciate the changes, thus affecting their morale and hence their commitment to sales. To counter this adverse effect, the management introduced a variation of the commission based compensation plan in May 1998. The effect of the change could be seen in the 10 to 30% increase in store sales from the previous year. Still the BTG stores experienced a high employee turnover that year. It was probably because of the employees accustomed to fixed pay were leaving the organisation, being dissatisfied from the commission based structure. Analysis of the employee turnover reflected that the highest no of employees left the firm in the first 4 months from their hiring. Most of the new expansion plans were in US. But the people of US were uncomfortable with the 100% commission based pay structure. Thus there was a requirement in the change to the structure to adapt to the US market. Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 Channels of Recruitment To be able to attract and recruit people who had certain sales driven qualities, several channels of recruitment were harnessed to fill in the job positions. Since BTG was already understaffed and with massive growth plans (50 stores per year ) lined up, we need to analyse the various pros and cons of the channels of recruitment. Employee Referral: Current staffs refer friends and family to BTG which helped company attract candidates already briefed on the company’s ideology. This channel was very effective which is evident by its highest ratio of leads to hire. The success of the ER scheme was partially due to the fact that referrals generally continued employment excited by the opportunity that the friend or family member who is a BTG employee recounted. Though maximum hiring was effected through this channel yet this alone did not currently satisfy BTG’s hiring needs. Internet Sourcing: This is one of the non-store recruitment channels which BTG used in two ways. First, BTG solicited resumes at its blindstogo.com site. Second, DSM’s and recruiters actively searched online jobs sites like Monster.com to contact potential candidates. Currently 12 out of 143 recruits were through this channel. DSM Compensation Readjustment: DSM’s were mainly responsible for store source of recruitment mainly walk-ins and employee referrals. They had to hire 10 new sales associate every month. Their importance in recruitment process is highlighted by the fact that their salary was based on number of new staff selected rather than on sales targets. Currently 16 out of 143 sales associate were recruited through this channel in past two months. BTG Retail Recruiters: They were professional recruiters who were paid @20000/year with a bonus of $150 -$500 for each successful hire. They generate leads through cold calls, networking referrals, colleges, job fairs, Internet and employment centres. Though they had performed sub- optimally in terms of number of number of new recruits, their training had increased to enable to get in at least 4 new recruits per week. Newspaper Advertising: Newspaper channel generated the maximum number of leads but the senior management believed that this medium did not generate the quality of candidates that BTG needed. This channel attracted more of the people who did not meet the desired skills standard and core values expected by BTG in potential candidates. To be able to meet our desired staff requirements, we believe this channel needs to be harnessed to its full potential and complemented by necessary training to new recruits to enable them to meet company’s performance standards. Store Generated Leads: BTG believed in direct store walk-in mode of recruitment as well. It had put â€Å"help wanted† signs on its windows to attract potential candidates to meet its recruitment needs. But this policy was successful only in densely populated areas with high footfall. HR Strategy: Udofia, Vice Chairman BTG, is looking for a strategy that solves all the major issues currently faced by the company, which would include unstaffed stores, staffing for future expansion and high employee turnover. Following are the steps that could be taken by him to achieve its growth objectives: ï‚ · A Robust Training Module: As mentioned, the quality of staff is extremely important in the retailing business. The crunch in the labor market doesn’t give the company a flexibility to choose Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion employees on a strict criterion. A training module would help BTG to relax the criterion and increase the number of selected employees by recruiting people who are trainable. In order to keep a check on the quality of the employees, the company can recruit the employees at a trainee level with a fixed pay. The training would be mostly on the Job led by experienced Store Managers. A review system would help these selected candidates to get promoted as Sales Associate. The initial pay as a trainee would be low. But the incentive to get promoted as Sales Associate would drive them to work and learn quickly. Currently we can see that there are large numbers of people who are attracted by the Newspaper Channel and Internet. But the problem is with this medium is that it didn’t generate quality employee. By a robust training module the company would be able to hire trainable people and give them opportunities on the basis of their performance. The Promotion Structure: A scheduled review and internal promotion structure could be followed which attracts the current employees and increases the retention rate. The review can be conducted on at 2 levels, Sales Performance and Soft skills. A feedback mechanism would help the employees to work on the areas they lag. The review can be scheduled every 8 months and every employee can be given an opportunity to get promoted. The internal promotion structure could be leveraged as a tool to advertise. This would attract people who currently don’t want to join at Sales Associate Level. The promotion structure would also help in filling up the vacancies of Supervisors and Managers. Pay Structure: The pay structure for Sales Associate could be revised in a manner as explained below: According to the current pay structure, a Sales Associate is paid $6-$8 per hour or 6% of sales, whichever higher. Clearly it can be seen that the Marginal and the Poor performers are the once who are enjoying the fixed compensation system. In order to motivate them, fixed + variable compensation could be followed for these below par performers. This structure would demotivate the top performers as there will be a reduction in their salaries. So it would not be the best idea to implement this structure for top performers. A benchmark of $10000/sale/week could be set. This would not only motivate them to perform but the company also would overcome the problem of social loafing. The structure is explained below: Marginal-Poor Performers ($10000-/sales/ week) $3 per hour + 3 % of sales Leadership Program: The highly experiences set of Store Managers could be given an option to join the leadership program. Under this program the Senior Employees would take up the responsibility of the training module and help the company attain the level of quality it requires in its workforce. Their compensation could be based on the rate of conversion of trainees to Sales Associate instead of Sales. Increased Stock Options to senior and experienced Store Managers would give them a feel of ownership in the firm which is what an employee needs after serving an organisation for years.

Oprah Winfrey Commencement Speech Essay

Oprah’s audience was very receptive of her mainly because she is a respected icon known all over America. The audience was a group of diverse faculty, staff, graduates, family and friends. When Oprah started her speech welcoming the audience, she gave them an icebreaker saying she wanted to let them in on a secret to personalize her speech. She lets the audience know that her god daughter Kirby attends Stanford and she is very proud of her. Oprah uses humor throughout her speech as she says the name â€Å"Stanford† engaging the audience as she speaks. She gives personal experience in her speech to show her audience that she too had experiences throughout college that could have hindered her from being the icon she is today. Oprah uses great eye contact throughout her speech. She did not read word for word what was on her paper because most of her speech was based off her experience as a student in the past at the beginning of the speech. She gave quotes of her father and B.B. King about learning that is beautiful. She lets the graduates know that your education had just started. Her speech lead on to elaborate on how the world has so many lessons to teach. She lets the audience know that earth is like a school and our lives are the classrooms. Life will have detours and road block but the secret to learn to be open to the lessons. Self improvement will help evolve as human beings. Oprah speaks with an inviting tone keeping her audience engaged. Even though the speech is lengthy, Oprah was not repetitive. She explained a few life lessons of her own journey but still gave humor as she spoke about the main lessons of her speech. The audience was still engaged throughout her speech. Oprah was very familiar with her speech content. She spoke as if she was graduating herself and speaking like she would want to be spoken to as a graduate. Oprah’s posture was appropriate and the gestures she uses with her hands and tone of her voice made the speech stand out more towards her audience. The overall tone of the message was exciting, funny and receptive. Oprah’s speech was spoken to relate to those who were not graduates also. She wants  the audience to understand that a degree is important and you can not allow yourself or others to defer you of a goal or dream. The speech Oprah gave was ethical. She realized the majority of her audience was of the white race and she included her own racial experiences in her speech with the stories she shared. Her own experiences made up the entire speech. The graduates seemed like they were listening and understanding the speech based off the feedback they gave after she spoke. There were interactions from the audience when Oprah spoke about how she made it as the icon talk show host. Oprah conveys to her audience to learn that life is more than just making money. You have to earn it and making money has to have meaning. If you do not have meaning in making your money and making a difference to the world then money doesn’t matter. Oprah shows much inspiration in her speech that should make the audience aspire to be like her or even more. Overall, Oprah did a great job catering to the diverse audience with her speech. It did not seem rehearsed, she gave eye contact and her audience seemed engaged in her speech for the 30 minutes I analyzed it. She did a great job and kept me engaged myself.

Potato Famine essays

Potato Famine essays Hundreds of thousands were lost, another million fled to make better lives for themselves as the result of the great potato famine. Leading up to the great potato famine of Ireland, in 1800 the British Act of Union made Ireland a part of the United Kingdom. This Act removed the independent Irish Parliament in Dublin which was 500 years old, Ireland was under the jurisdiction of Britain's Imperial Parliament at Westminster, England. Even though Ireland was supposed to be represented by 100 members, the Catholics were banned from being representatives. (1) The British imposed a series of Penal Laws, which were established to punish the Irish for supporting the Catholic leader Stuart King, James II. Being that Ireland was 80 percent Catholic, the Penal Laws were meant to degrade the Irish so harshly that they would never again allow the Irish to be in a position to seriously threaten Protestant rule. Protestants owned just 10 percent of Ireland's land in 1600. In 1778, the Protestants now owned 95 percent of the land. When a Catholic landowner died, their estate would be divided equally among all of his sons, reducing the value. If any son abandoned the Catholic faith to become a Protestant, he would inherit all of his father's property. (2) It is not known for sure who exactly introduced Ireland with the potato. Some say was famous English explorer, sea captain and poet, Walter Raleigh, other believe that the potato washed up on the beaches, a shipwreck which sank off the Irish coast during a powerful storm. On thing for certain is that the potato caught on very quickly, its popularity was probably because it produced more food per acre than any that the Irish farmers had grown before. The potato was very hearty and could feed many. During times of war it was also as widely used, when the soldiers would destroy the crops, the potato would still be buried underground allowing the people ...

10 Facts on Prehistoric Art for a Case Study

10 Facts on Prehistoric Art for a Case Study Before going into the details of the facts to provided here, it is important for us to explore the times before history was actively recorded by discussing the meaning of the word ‘prehistoric’. The term prehistoric literally means ‘before history’ and it covers the thousands of years before the ancestors of man discovered writing. In prehistoric ages, Homo sapiens made use of art as the only written medium for transferring their thoughts for the sake of posterity. Prehistoric art forms are divided into three distinct eras which are: The Lower Paleolithic: which occurred 500,000 years ago and defines the period when the only art forms of Homo erectus were scratches on cave walls using animal bones. The Middle Paleolithic: this occurred 50,000-100,000 years ago and by then, man had discovered how to draw and paint crudely. The Upper Paleolithic: occurred 10,000-50,000 years ago and is defined as the period man began to paint as well as create figurines and other items for domestic use. This article will attempt to provide 10 facts that cut across the eras explained above which can be used as reference points when writing an essay on prehistoric art. Prehistoric art forms were drawn for definite purposes and these purposes were generally ritualistic and to glorify the hunt. Other prehistoric drawings depicting seasonal animals were also attempts by prehistoric man to document the seasons as they came and went. Prehistoric men truly resided in caves and carried out most of their activities in hiding. This is due to the fact that they hid from predators as well as the ever changing elements of nature. Although prehistoric men drew on sand and rocks, the ravages of time eclipsed these drawings and we have only the cave art to tell us about their culture. Prehistoric artist actively believed that depicting an object or item in art form was a way of putting a binding spell on the drawn item. Therefore while they drew animals in clear details to cast hunting spells on the animals, they abstained from drawing exact depictions of themselves in order not to create binding spells. Although the belief in one Supreme Being would come later in time, prehistoric humans believed in hunting gods and fertility goddesses as can be seen in their works of art Prehistoric Drawing and Painting Materials: the art forms in the middle and upper Paleolithic era were much more developed than the bone pickings and scratches of the lower Paleolithic era. Prehistoric artists made use of their fingers, bird feathers and animal bones as drawing tools. While for painting, prehistoric artist took advantage of the different types of clay to produce red, brown and yellow colors. And for black, charcoal  and mud mixed with cave water was used in creating the color black. Prehistoric Art and Painting Techniques: while most people associate prehistoric art with the backwardness of the cave man, prehistoric art shows otherwise. In the caves of La Vache, archaeologists discovered charcoal tracings underneath the animal paintings depicted on its walls. This showed advanced drawing techniques such as sketching to achieve accuracy. Also, hollowed bones and feathers were used as painting tools which goes to show the advanced spray painting techniques used in prehistoric art. Prehistoric Art, Sculpture and the Pictures Depicted: studies show that earlier art forms from the prehistoric era were usually drawings or animals with arrows or spears in them while humans were hardly featured till later in the middle Paleolithic. So prehistoric art forms contained mainly animals such as Bison, cattle, reindeer, mammoths and aurochs. Further analysis of prehistoric art forms showed that 75% of these art works were created by hunters while a mere 15% were created by gatherers. Human sculptures and art works began to feature in prehistoric art during the upper Paleolithic period in the form of stick sketches and the Venus figurines. Prehistoric Art and Location: prehistoric art works have been unearthed in caves and archaeological sites all over the world but the most notable mentions are:South Western France and Northern Spain which are home to over 350 sites where cave paintings have been discovered. Prehistoric art works from these regions are jointly known as Franco-Cantabrian cave art. Other notable mentions are southwestern Germany, South Africa, India and China. Where are the Oldest Cave Paintings Located? Radiocarbon dating techniques have been applied to most cave paintings found across the globe to determine their ages and the facts show that: El Castillo cave paintings in Cantabria Spain are the oldest paintings that have been discovered to date. Its age is set at approximately 39,000 BCE. Next is the Leang Timpuseng cave in Indonesia which is dated to have been painted in 37,500 BCE. Third is the Chauvet cave in France created around 30,000 BCE. Prehistoric Art and Sexual Depictions: although it took a while for prehistoric artists to start depicting humans in their paintings and sculptures, early figurines showed that the female form were more popular objects of interest than the male form. These early sculptures of women figures always followed the artistic format of a large breasted woman with protruding stomach and hip regions. They might have been viewed as sexual in this modern age. Prehistoric Art included Sculpture: Although most art works from the prehistoric age were cave drawings and paintings, the middle and lower Paleolithic age witnessed the inclusion of sculpting as a means of creating art in prehistoric times. Bas-relief techniques were used in creating sculptures as can be seen from the Venus of Laussel sculpture and prehistoric artist made use of limestone and unfired clay in sculpting these objects. Here is where we come to the end of the cool facts on prehistoric art works which can be used when drafting case study on prehistoric art. These facts were provided to aid your research and writing process if giving such a project. So do not hesitate to use them as reference points where and when the need may arise. Additionally don’t hesitate paying a visit to our 20 topics for a case study on prehistoric art as well as our genre specific guide. References: Wikipedia: Prehistoric Art.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_art Visual Art Encyclopedia: Prehistoric Art of the Stone Age.  visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric-art.htm Francis, G. (2007). Religious Awareness in Art Forms from Prehistory to Today 3-5  crossroadsnyc.com/files/Greene_CaveArt.pdf Laura, T. (2007). Introduction to Prehistoric Art, 20,000-8,000 B.C.  metmuseum.org/toah/hd/preh/hd_preh.htm Kiaren, J. (2005). Female Figurines of the Upper Paleolithic.  ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/venus-figurines-european-paleolithic-era-001548 Alan, D. (). Venus Figurines of the European Paleolithic: Symbols of Fertility or Attractiveness?  ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/venus-figurines-european-paleolithic-era-001548 Soffer, O. Adovasio, J. (2000). Textiles, Basketry, Gender and Status in the Upper Paleolithic.  unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/venus1.pdf

User Psychology How to Make Your Content Strategy More Effective

User Psychology How to Make Your Content Strategy More Effective We spend every single day making decisions. We like to think these decisions are simply choices- from getting dressed to eating dinner, or even small things like which toothpaste to buy- all driven by logic and reason. In truth, the majority of human decision-making is initially influenced by everything but  logic. A complex web of autonomic emotions, desires, and rewards fuels our every choice, and these feelings are ultimately what guide us throughout life. From a marketing perspective, this offers a powerful opportunity to generate a sense of desire and need around our products. But it isn’t enough to simply test or utilize historical data to find out what motivates people. To create desirable products, we must leverage user psychology- a method of understanding the how  and why  consumers make decisions. Armed with this kind knowledge, it becomes possible to create a content marketing strategy  that taps into customer desires and makes our products truly irresistible. How to Make Content Strategy More Effective With User PsychologyApply User Psychology to Your Content Ideas With This Template Later in this post, well cover how to brainstorm emotionally-driven content ideas that connect desires to rewards. But first, download this template to store those ideas, so youll be ready once we reach that point. Why User Psychology Matters User psychology is aimed at understanding subconscious triggers- automatic feelings that we associate with products, services, and experiences. Since triggers influence consumers at every stage of the buying cycle, learning more about them can bridge the gap between basic marketing and effective consumer influencing. Unlike traditional marketing, psychology-driven marketing doesn’t attempt to influence consumers through product features, price or value propositions. So instead of asking questions like, â€Å"How can I boost newsletter signups?† or â€Å"What piece of content is most shareable?† user psychology prompts questions like: What deep desires influence a customer to consider buying our product? When in the buying cycle does our customer feel unsure or abandon our web page? What prompted that feeling of uncertainty? What feelings arise when customers encounter our brand, and how can we strengthen them (or relieve them if they’re negative)? The core difference between traditional marketing and psychology-driven marketing is that the latter prompts marketers to think from the customer’s point of view. Understanding ELMR Effective user psychology strategies are often built upon some variation of the ELMR framework. ELMR, which stands for Emotion, Logic, Motivation, and Reward, helps you see things from the customer’s perspective, and was first coined by Brian Balfour as part of the Reforge  growth series. It’s important to first understand what each of these terms mean, before we can see how they can be applied to a content marketing strategy. Use the ELMR framework to infuse user psychology into your #content #marketing strategy:Emotion We cannot understand customer emotions without first understanding desire. Think of it this way: If a person is happy, it means one of their desires has been fulfilled. If a person is sad, it means they’ve lost or missed out on something they desire. When marketers create messaging that fulfills desire, customers are more likely to associate that product with happiness and joy. As a result, they’re more likely to make a purchase. Logic The next portion of the ELMR framework is logic. After someone has an emotional response to something, they’ll look to rationalize their emotions with a logical reason. Educating a customer about a product's facts, features and competitive details are all ways to appeal to the logical brain and make a customer more confident in their decision. Motivation To motivate someone, we first need to learn what’s preventing them from taking the desired action. How large and influential are these barriers? What can be done to make them smaller and more approachable? Reducing these barriers will make it easier to create a sense of need and motivate people to action. Reward The final portion of ELMR is reward- creating a sense of approval and validation about one’s decision. Reward can come in many forms, but most are either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards are associated with a product that offers benefit in the form of time, finances or knowledge. Extrinsic rewards tap into personal desire, and usually comprise social or career accomplishments. Recommended Reading: How to Write More Emotional Headlines That Get More Shares Applying ELMR to Your Content Strategy Applying the ELMR framework to your content marketing strategy can help you create more powerful content that in turn influences user triggers. Content that delivers well-timed triggers can drive signups, improve social engagement  and increase conversions. Applying the ELMR framework can help you create more powerful content.Content Marketing and Emotion Humans have and always will be driven by rewards, whether they’re related to finances, career, knowledge, or something else. By thinking from the customer’s point of view, content marketers can determine the rewards associated with their product. According to Nir Eyal, author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,  the most powerful triggers work in tandem with negative emotions. Negative feelings make us feel distressed and distracted. So when a marketing message or piece of content briefly relieves that negative thought, it creates an addictive trigger. As Eyal puts it, â€Å"to make a truly effective hook, we have to capitalize on users’ negative emotions.† So how do we create content that relieves a negative emotion? Consider this Instagram post from Whole Foods as an example: The copy in this post reminds customers that they should be eating an apple a day (a healthy suggestion they’ve been hearing throughout their lives). Assuming that most people don’t eat an apple a day, these words effectively tap into a sense of guilt, or fear about being unhealthy. After triggering these negative emotions, the post offers an overt push, â€Å"make it happen† and suggests a number of healthy, easy recipes. Thinking about eating the recipes in the picture offers relief from the guilt that people feel about not eating enough healthy food. This creates an addictive sense of need that entices people to walk into their nearest Whole Foods and buy a bag of apples and healthy toppings. In your content marketing strategy, consider this: What are my customers afraid of? How does my product or service alleviate that feareven if only for a moment? In your content marketing strategy, consider this: What are my customers afraid of?Content Marketing and Logic Once you’ve determined the emotions that influence your customers, you need to introduce logical rewards that justify those emotions. The logical brain is constantly searching for a quick win of support and justification, and finding a way to influence it isn’t the hard part. What’s most important is that your logical appeal is well-timed and balanced in scale and scope. That way, it creates the right amount of confirmation at the right time, without overwhelming the user or turning them away. To see how this works in blog content, take a look this article on patio furniture from retailer Crate and Barrel. This post, titled â€Å"How to Give Your Patio a Summer Makeover† is filled with logical appeals that justify buying Crate and Barrel’s products. In addition to a smattering of enticing photos featuring gorgeous summer weather (and an adorable dog to boot), the writing is filled with logical queues. In a section on choosing outdoor pillows, the post explains that they’re â€Å"stuffed with quick drying polyester fiberfill† and â€Å"polypropylene yarn.† These product details alone aren’t enough to justify purchasing the pillows. But the sentence that follows, however, is what does the trick: â€Å"In other words, they dry quickly after a rainstorm!† Summer rainstorms are common, and wet patio furniture is a common annoyance for homeowners. The fact that the pillows dry quickly after a rainstorm is a perfect justification for buying these stylish pillows over others. In your content strategy, think about how you can turn a product feature into a relatable story. What do your customers value? How can your content strategy tap into those values in a way that relates to their everyday life? Appeal to your their sense of logic. Tell them something about your story that feels impossible to refute (who can disagree with the benefit of quick-drying patio pillows, for example?). Recommended Reading: The Complete 14-Step Content Strategy That Will Boost Your By 434% Content Marketing and Motivation As we discussed earlier, the motivation portion of user psychology is about reducing barriers to purchase. When you understand the things that prevent your user from buying, you can create content that helps reduce these barriers. If your company is in the retail fashion space, for example, you might automatically think that key barriers are only financial- things like item price or shipping cost. But what about more complex barriers, like how a product fits or whether or not it can be paired well with a person’s existing wardrobe? Fashion retailer Aerie taps into such complex concerns on its branded fashion and lifestyle blog. For example, in the post â€Å"Styling the Cutout Floral Dress with Amanda Oleri† Aerie has a fashion blogger style one of its main seasonal products in her own way. This is more motivational than a simple product page because it provides styling tips from someone that the audience can relate to. This is perhaps the most effective approach for online retailers because it makes the product more approachablecustomers can visualize it for themselves. Regardless of barriers like price, people always have reservations about buying things online. Connecting to your users through an influencer or a blogger helps reduce emotional barriers around sizing, fit and style, making the thought of purchasing items feel more realistic to customers. Recommended Reading: How to Boost Engagement With Micro-Influencers the Right Way Content Marketing and Reward Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards create an opportunity to influence buyers. However, intrinsic rewards differ more from person to person, making them harder to tap into. Here’s where putting yourself in the customer’s shoes comes in handy. Think about what your target audience values most, on a personal level. Let’s say your target audience is moms. Providing their children with a memorable, happy, and joy-filled childhood is a desire of all moms.  Disney is one brand that consistently taps into these intrinsic desires because it’s based on the idea of an experienceand the happiness and joy it brings. In Disney’s online website series â€Å"Mom Panel Monday,† Disney moms have the opportunity to share what they and their families love about the theme park and other Disney experiential products. This video, â€Å"Moms Panel Monday: A Mom’s Take on Cruising with Disney Cruise Line,†Ã‚  features one mom discussing her family’s experience on a cruise. This strategy is effective because it shows immediate  rewards that a Disney Cruise might bring, like good food, live music and fun games. What’s even more powerful is that it also shows the long-term rewards, like friendships and memories, that a Disney Cruise might bring a mom and her family. By hearing another mom say things about what her family loves and what makes them happy, parents (and moms especially) are motivated to create that experience for their own kids. To truly put yourself in your customer’s shoes, think about what you might have in common with them. If you were them, what would be your primary reason for purchasing your product? Make it a habit of creating marketing content from this perspective. To truly put yourself in your customer’s shoes, think about what you might have in common with...Applying User Psychology and Content Marketing: How to Get Started User psychology’s core method, the ELMR framework, is designed to help you connect with consumers on a deeper, more personal level. It works by exposing the core triggers that motivate your customers to interact with your brand and purchase your products or services. Here are a few easy, effective ways to start applying it to your content strategy. Conduct a Brainstorming Session Before you dive in and start drafting, gather a few team members to help list all the desires a customer might associate with your product. Depending on the size of your team, try to get people from different departments (thus, different perspectives) to help you here. If you’re not sure whose perspectives might be helpful with this exercise, here are some suggestions: Marketing managers Sales representatives Product developers Founders/Leadership Customer support representatives Researchers Data analysts Reach out to your team members and let them know you need their help with a brainstorm, but leave the topic a mystery for now. It will help if everyone comes to the meeting with a fresh mind and no preconceived opinions. This way, the ideas the team comes up with together will trigger new thoughts quickly and on the spot, leading to a dynamic and effective brainstorm. Utilizing something like a whiteboard will be really helpful in jotting down ideas in a flow chart, scatter plot chart or something else that helps you organize quick thoughts. Your chart might begin to look something like this, which means you’re off to a good start: During the brainstorm be sure to write down everyone’s thoughts and ideas, even if something seems silly at the time. The benefit to brainstorming is that you never know what word or thought might ignite your next genius idea. Once your chart seems full, you can thank everyone for their help and get started on distilling the strongest ideas. Recommended Reading: The Best 30-Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Identify Rewards to Connect with your Product Next, you should start considering the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that your customers could associate with your product. It will be helpful to start a list for this somewhere that you can keep track of, like a Google Spreadsheet. Since you’ve gone through a brainstorm already, this is an opportunity to gather everything in one place, so I suggest using columns in your sheet to organize. Here’s how to do that: Open a Google Spreadsheet and use columns to store the ideas you came up with in your initial team brainstorm, similar to this: Now use additional columns to jot down intrinsic and extrinsic rewards associated with your product. If you need some ideas, here are some examples of topics that fall under each category: Let’s take the desires we identified above, for example, to identify a few rewards that someone might gain as a result of buying your product: Desire: To be more attractive   Rewards: Social acceptance, personal confidence, looking great Desire: To learn something new every day   Rewards: Impressing others, personal satisfaction, new skills Desire: To accomplish something on your own   Rewards: Sense of self-worth, personal confidence, task completion Now think about how to position those rewards clearly to customers in a meaningful and relatable way. The positioning ideas you come up with can be directly translated into new content pieces, so add those ideas to your spreadsheet in a final column for easy reference later on. Analyze Your Current Messaging Chances are, the topics and ideas you’ve identified through the process above may have led you towards value propositions and positioning statements that haven’t yet been part of your brand’s core messaging. This is a good thing! You’re now thinking about marketing from a psychological perspective. You can now take a look at your current marketing messages with fresh perspective. If you haven’t done so already, creating a "Core Message Document" can help to collect everything in one place. That will allow you to easily edit, or built upon, your brand positioning which will be reflected in all of your content pieces. Use your new psychological perspective and include these points in your Core Message Document: Vision Mission Statements. What does your product and company strive for? Think about the emotions you hope to trigger when connecting with your customers. Positioning Statement.  What do you do better than anyone else? Think about how you can help your customers gain intrinsic and extrinsic rewards most effectively. Elevator Pitch.  How would you describe your product and company in under 30 seconds? Try to touch quickly on Emotion, Logic, Motivation, and Rewards. Taglines Slogans.  What is your product or company all about? Try to elicit an emotional response or use something that a customer might quickly associate with a reward. Key Messages.  What are three things you want everyone to know about your product? Identify a few key points and jot down short paragraphs for each. This is a great place to focus on the rewards you’ve identified! Competitive Differentiation.  How do your key messages set you apart from competitors? Think about how you can help your customers achieve their desires in a way that no one else in the market can. Value Propositions. What is the value of your product in the mind of the customer? Take extra care here to stretch that psychological muscle you’ve been strengthening throughout this whole process. Benefit Statements.  What is the benefit of buying your product? You’ve already done the hard part on this one, these can be directly tied to the rewards you’ve identified. After all of this, you should have new ideas from a healthy brainstorm session to help customers psychologically connect with your product, and a hefty document full of fresh message points to weave into future content pieces. When applied to your content strategy, user psychology can create an addictive product that keeps customers coming back for more. Just remember to step out of your own head and think like your target audience- empathy drives better customer interactions, which leads to true authenticity. And as with all good marketing experiments: test, measure, and repeat.

The National Geographic Society. National Geographic website Essay

The National Geographic Society. National Geographic website - Essay Example The beautiful animals illustrated in the website connect the viewers of the website with nature. At the top of the website there are eight primary links that allow the users to visit different parts of the website. The eight primary links are photography, animals, environmental, travel, adventure, nageotv, kids, and video. The photography section has lots of different pictures of animals, nature, landscapes, among other things. The kids section has educational games children can play. The travel section has images and information about the cultures of different parts of the world. Below the primary links at the top there are secondary links in yellow. The secondary links take the users to different segments of the website. The secondary links are daily news, the magazine, maps, science, education, games, music blogs, movies, in the field, mobile, and newsletters. The daily news segment has lots of interesting articles. I read an article that stated that being bilingual delays aging effects. In the maps section there are different interactive 3D maps of the world. The magazine link has the current issue of the National Geographic magazine for the month of March 2011. The issue can be read online free of charge.

Module 1 - Case - Health Care Financial Environment Essay

Module 1 - Case - Health Care Financial Environment - Essay Example Therefore, evaluation means conducting of assessment of perceived outcomes that are often measurable through standardized performances and regulations. It means an evaluation plan helps in achieving goals and objectives that are critical in enforcing the mission statements of a particular hospital environment (Speizman, 2009). Additionally, improvement of efficiency and effectiveness becomes of part of evaluation when CFOs examine the long-term investment decisions important for strengthening contract management. Planning, on the other hand, implies that CFOs must identify a project plan that is both feasible and operational in different environments. Accordingly, planning helps in the deconstruction of perceptions to convert them into reality when evaluating goals that need immediate implementation (Tolbert et al., 2010). It means all investment decisions are strategic because they serve certain purposes approved by CFOs in their quest to streamline the overall management (Burtrie et al., 2013). In other words, planning is a part of partnership with other management processes such as evaluation to assist in controlling of organizations cash flows and other pressing

Residential Real estate property Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Residential Real estate property - Essay Example In the first quarter of 2013, the appreciation of the property was 7% in Jakarta, which the author believes that it will stay the same until the next four years. The property growth of Jakarta is in the bubble right now. He states, â€Å"My financial analysis that is based on discounted cash flow and direct capitalization, I forecast that in the next 4 years the appreciation will stay the same and in the third year, the property value of one condominium will be around $ 482,765 USD - $ 495,363.† If the condominiums investors decide to sell property, they will gain $ 577580.81 USD net sale price. Thus, investors need to sell their condominiums at maximum in the next 3 years.According to the above financial analysis, it is reasonable to take 7% appreciation for the next four years because from a rational perspective, more lower class people will upgrade to middle class. When they receive their pay role for the first time they receive their money, these group of people would want to purchase a place to live, and they would not think for the property value and others’ perspectives on behalf of the property value. Even though the price is going up, the GDP will support it. Thus, from the author’s perspectives, the demand is still high until the third year. However, after the above analysis, the author believes that Jakarta residential real estate price could go down when people start to realize that the price is not worth the property value. There is a high possibility that more people will start to think to live outside Jakarta.

Government Debt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Government Debt - Essay Example The following theories affirm that there is no alarm when government acquires debt. Attainment of key objectives in providing amenities to the citizens should be the primary concern of the government holding the people's wealth in the form of taxes, fees and fines (Burda & Wyplosz, 2005). Policy makers take account of risk factors more than the mere increase in price value of the loans before going for one. Therefore, it is imperative to say that the increase in government debt should not be a prime concern to the citizens since an amount borrowed and well spent can warrant further borrowing as the amenities set up provide an indispensable source of creating more national wealth (Gordon, 2006). As the government expands the supply of money through creating national debts, inflation is bound to occur. When the government tries to pay off this debt, the supply of money in the circulation tends to decrease causing deflation. Thus, when there is payment of any noteworthy sum of liability more than the national debt is being made at any given time; up to, ten times less, the amount is due for repayment (Gordon, 2006). This is to say if the government paid all its debt today, money supply would contract upwards by approximately ten per cent (Carlin & Soskice, 2006). This would translate into a decrease by around one third of money in circulation, and a reduction by one-third the price of the price of commodities. This adjustment period hampers the monetary trade, translating into large pay cuts and citizens not being able to afford basic amenities. This forces Companies to adjust their workforce salaries below the minimum wage rate (Wells & Krugman, 2009). It is worth denoting that a gigantic government debt should not be a bother to the citizens, as payment of this lump some debt will result to citizens bearing the complex consequences of an expensive lifestyle. It is imperative to state that a range of factors determine the coupon payment including the face value, frequency of payment and maturity of the bonds. It is vital to consider the yield on comparable investment plans in the loan repayment schedules. The government thus gets enough time to get value for the advanced loans before they are due for repayment (Pentecost, 2010). Considering the current market value of the bonds issued and debt owed, the government will pay a lower end sum amount than the amount formally lent. In case the bonds were issued to internal lenders, it significantly becomes clear that the money is ploughed back to the economy and money owed to the country’s citizens and held by the state in accomplishing fiscal objectives (Blinder and Baurnol 2010). Therefore, this implies that the size of government debt should not bother the citizens on its repayment manner as at times, the debt tends to be lower compared to the amount borrowed initially, implying that the remaining portion caters for a better and improved economy. The debt to income ratio (DTI) measures the government’s revenue that goes in settling debts (Dornbusch, Fischer & Startz, 2001). The government has a duty to cater for the welfare of its citizens and cannot collect enough revenue in taxes to cover for all the recurrent expenses, and physical developments. This necessitates for borrowing to meet the obligations and targets of the fiscal year. There is a need for

Analyze why people are so passionate about sports Essay

Analyze why people are so passionate about sports - Essay Example The craze about football, for instance, is common knowledge to fans and non-fans alike. People have passion in sports for the love of it, but most importantly, because it is enjoyable, entertaining and relaxing. The level of passion in football is quite high. Many are the instances when fans express dejection and anger when their favourite teams succumb to defeat. Passionate fans will go mad when they hear the words â€Å"after all, it was just a game.† Those who have no idea how painful it is to lose a game speak such statements. Probably they are not aware that football is a source of inspiration for most people just as books are to others. Passionate fans revere their players and teams. To them, nothing is as sweet as their teams getting to the top of the rankings where the smell of victory is strongest. English Premier League (EPL) fans are known to express this kind of passion. Some end up committing suicide following massive losses. Football games are an integral part of passionate fans. It is quite annoying to hear comments like â€Å"what is the fuss all about?† Anyway, it is wrong to blame people who have little understanding of passion or emotions. Vallerand et al. (1279) argue that there may be differences in modes of expressing passion across the world but the football language remains one. This language makes passionate fans similar in a number of ways These similarities best explain why people may be passionate about football. Living the experience of football is the most essential requirement of being a passionate fan. Mere spectating does not suffice. One has to be part of the whole experience. A passionate fan has to attend most of his or her team’s matches. My father once shocked me when he said, â€Å"If I miss a Chelsea game I may not concentrate at work for a week or so.† Moreover, being a passionate fan invites the duty of emotional engagement with the team to make the team perform well. However, fans who attend away

Government Debt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Government Debt - Essay Example The following theories affirm that there is no alarm when government acquires debt. Attainment of key objectives in providing amenities to the citizens should be the primary concern of the government holding the people's wealth in the form of taxes, fees and fines (Burda & Wyplosz, 2005). Policy makers take account of risk factors more than the mere increase in price value of the loans before going for one. Therefore, it is imperative to say that the increase in government debt should not be a prime concern to the citizens since an amount borrowed and well spent can warrant further borrowing as the amenities set up provide an indispensable source of creating more national wealth (Gordon, 2006). As the government expands the supply of money through creating national debts, inflation is bound to occur. When the government tries to pay off this debt, the supply of money in the circulation tends to decrease causing deflation. Thus, when there is payment of any noteworthy sum of liability more than the national debt is being made at any given time; up to, ten times less, the amount is due for repayment (Gordon, 2006). This is to say if the government paid all its debt today, money supply would contract upwards by approximately ten per cent (Carlin & Soskice, 2006). This would translate into a decrease by around one third of money in circulation, and a reduction by one-third the price of the price of commodities. This adjustment period hampers the monetary trade, translating into large pay cuts and citizens not being able to afford basic amenities. This forces Companies to adjust their workforce salaries below the minimum wage rate (Wells & Krugman, 2009). It is worth denoting that a gigantic government debt should not be a bother to the citizens, as payment of this lump some debt will result to citizens bearing the complex consequences of an expensive lifestyle. It is imperative to state that a range of factors determine the coupon payment including the face value, frequency of payment and maturity of the bonds. It is vital to consider the yield on comparable investment plans in the loan repayment schedules. The government thus gets enough time to get value for the advanced loans before they are due for repayment (Pentecost, 2010). Considering the current market value of the bonds issued and debt owed, the government will pay a lower end sum amount than the amount formally lent. In case the bonds were issued to internal lenders, it significantly becomes clear that the money is ploughed back to the economy and money owed to the country’s citizens and held by the state in accomplishing fiscal objectives (Blinder and Baurnol 2010). Therefore, this implies that the size of government debt should not bother the citizens on its repayment manner as at times, the debt tends to be lower compared to the amount borrowed initially, implying that the remaining portion caters for a better and improved economy. The debt to income ratio (DTI) measures the government’s revenue that goes in settling debts (Dornbusch, Fischer & Startz, 2001). The government has a duty to cater for the welfare of its citizens and cannot collect enough revenue in taxes to cover for all the recurrent expenses, and physical developments. This necessitates for borrowing to meet the obligations and targets of the fiscal year. There is a need for

Critical approaches to humanities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical approaches to humanities - Essay Example Hence, it is important for people to understand the concepts which are vital in the study of literature. Most of the literature is abundant with the conceptions about gender, race, discrimination, political conditions and social disruptions. Understanding of the biases that may exist due to a writer’s background or gender are hence important to visualize the true context of the issues discussed. This paper aims to analyze the importance that gender understanding carries in the study of literature. Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon that has a strong impact on our perception about ourselves. In the gendered society that we live in, when a person starts writing or reading he does so as a gendered individual. Every individual in this gendered society visualizes the whole group of his relative gender while going through a piece of literature. We may say that the bonds of this gendered society are very complex and strong that it becomes difficult to resist them. All the efforts to avoid the gender stereotyping go in vain. However, the gender roles that were previously defined to expose men’s power and strong status and women’s love, affection and dependence are no longer applicable. Individuals are taught about their limitations and values according to their gender. Literature plays an important role in teaching these values. However, it is important to completely understand what gender is and how gender roles evolved with time. The literature of 16th century portrays an extremely different scenario than the literature of 18th century. The 16ht century literature was more associated with men’s power, abilities and aims often denoted by the renaissance spirit, whereas, the 18th century literature is more inclined towards the fallacies of the society of that period. Women were considered as creatures that spent most of their time on useless things. The materialistic approach of women of that time was

Finance in International Markets Essay Example for Free

Finance in International Markets Essay Describe the tradeoffs that are involved for each method (such as exporting, direct foreign investment, etc. ) that Snyder could use to achieve its goal. ANSWER: Snyder can export the clubs, but the transportation expenses may be high. If could establish a subsidiary in Brazil to produce and sell the clubs, but this may require a large investment of funds. It could use licensing, in which it specifies to a Brazilian firm how to produce the clubs. In this way, it does not have to establish its own subsidiary there. b. Which method would you recommend for this firm? Justify your recommendation. ANSWER: If the amount of golf clubs to be sold in Brazil is small, it may decide to export. However, if the expected sales level is high, it may benefit from licensing. If it is confident that the expected sales level will remain high, it may be willing to establish a subsidiary. The wages are lower in Brazil, and the large investment needed to establish a subsidiary may be worthwhile. 15. Impact of Political Risk. Explain why political risk may discourage international business. Some foreign projects would have been feasible if there was no political risk, but will not be feasible because of political risk. 17. International Joint Venture. Anheuser-Busch, the producer of Budweiser and other beers, has recently expanded into Japan by engaging in a joint venture with Kirin Brewery, the largest brewery in Japan. The joint venture enables Anheuser-Busch to have its beer distributed through Kirin’s distribution channels in Japan. In addition, it can utilize Kirin’s facilities to produce beer that will be sold locally. In return, Anheuser-Busch provides information about the American beer market to Kirin. . Explain how the joint venture can enable Anheuser-Busch to achieve its objective of maximizing shareholder wealth. ANSWER: The joint venture creates a way for Anheuser-Busch to distribute Budweiser throughout Japan. It enables Anheuser-Busch to penetrate the Japanese market without requiring a substantial investment in Japan. b. Explain how the jo int venture can limit the risk of the international business. ANSWER: The joint venture has limited risk because Anheuser-Busch does not need to establish its own distribution network in Japan. Thus, Anheuser-Busch may be able to use a smaller investment for the international business, and there is a higher probability that the international business will be successful. c. Many international joint ventures are intended to circumvent barriers that normally prevent foreign competition. What barrier in Japan is Anheuser-Busch circumventing as a result of the joint venture? What barrier in the United States is Kirin circumventing as a result of the joint venture? ANSWER: Anheuser-Busch is able to benefit from Kirin’s distribution system in Japan, which would not normally be so accessible. Kirin is able to learn more about how Anheuser-Busch expanded its product across numerous countries, and therefore breaks through an â€Å"information† barrier. d. Explain how Anheuser-Busch could lose some of its market share in countries outside Japan as a result of this particular joint venture. ANSWER: Anheuser-Busch could lose some of its market share to Kirin as a result of explaining its worldwide expansion strategies to Kirin. However, it appears that Anheuser-Busch expects the potential benefits of the joint venture to outweigh any potential adverse effects.

The Concept Of Sell Then Build

The Concept Of Sell Then Build Housing market play an important role in economy of Malaysia. The demand on housing market increasing year by year since the population of Malaysia is increasing. Undoubtedly, buyers nowadays buy a house is not only for living use, but also for investment use. This criterion causes the housing market become larger than before. In addition, home-buyers who have ability nowadays also require a quality house for their living place. To support the large market, the developers act as a key role to supply the large number of housing needed and high quality houses. Therefore, housing delivery system plays an important role to supply the houses to home-buyers. Currently, there are two important housing delivery system adopted in Malaysia that is STB system and BTS system. The developers in Malaysia had implemented the conventional STB system for many decades, and with this system, developers successful to meet the housing market needed. However, there is no system can be implemented perfectly without any flaws. According to the housing provision performance in five years of Malaysian plan, it shows that the public and private sectors have over-supplying the houses needed by using STB system. Furthermore, the badly performance of supplying the housing have risen during the economic downturn and the abandoned projects occurred in 1980s and early 1990s had make the home-buyers disappointed with this situation. Thus, government had first time introduced build-then-sell (BTS) system to be implemented in 1990 to solve the abandoned housing problem. However, some of the developers claim that BTS system still not feasible to implement in Malaysia housing sector. From developers viewpoint, many considerations need to be considered such as the approval of planning process, financial supports, firm characteristic and others in implementation of a suitable housing delivery system. The Concept of Sell-Then-Build (STB) System In Malaysia, most of the developers prefer to adopt STB system as the housing delivery system in their development. With STB system, the developer is allowed to collect money from potential home-buyers before the houses being constructed. The money collected from home-buyers can use as part of the finances for the development. Therefore, the developers can reduce the bridging finance borrowed from bank or financial institution. Under STB system, house-buyers considered as one of the financiers to a development project since they part-finance the construction cost of the project via individual end-financing obtained from a financial institution (end-financier). On the other hand, the developer may obtain a bridging finance from financial institution (bridge-financier) to bridge-finance the construction costs paid out pending receipt of progressive payment from the end-financiers. There are two main purposes for a pre-sale condition. First, a pre-sale demonstrates a certain level of saleability for the development. With the STB concept, the developers can sell the houses first before they construct the housing projects. Therefore, the developers can estimates the number of houses needed to construct in a housing project. Second, with the pre-sale, it can minimise the bridging finance required to fund the cost of completion in case the developers fails to achieve further sales after the disbursement of the bridging finance(The Association of Banks in Malaysia, 2009). With the STB concept, the developer can minimise the possibility to sustain loss. The Problems Faced by Conventional Sell-Then-Build System STB system had been implemented for four decades in Malaysia and had met the target needed in housing market. However, the implementation of STB system has bring some housing problems which caused by human-being. These problems have caused many home-buyers disappointed with the housing market. Under STB system, the home-buyers face with numerous problems such as defect problems, late delivery, difficulties in getting Certificate Fitness for Occupation (CFO) and land titles approval, and abandoned projects. The latest few years, many home-buyers have complained that the poor quality of houses built by developers. There are many houses built under STB system faced with the bad defects such as walls and floors cracking, foundation sinking, roof leaking, retaining walls collapsing, septic tank not working and pipes blocking (Property Times, 2005). This situation may occur since the money had been collected from home-buyers by developers during construction period. The unethical developers will try to jerry-build the houses to gain more profit. Their irresponsibility behaviour make the bad defects occurred and they escape from the responsibility after they have collect all money. As we know that, under STB system, the un-built houses are sold to potential home-buyers by showing with a model house. However, there is a risk raised since the workmanship and design of actual house unit built by developers may be different with the model house. Additionally, the problem of late delivery of houses is always happened under STB system. Although the developers had promised to complete the houses on the specific date stated in Sales and Purchase (SP) Agreement, but the completion of the houses is always delayed from the date promised (Ng, 2007). This problem is keep occurred and make the home-buyers puzzled. Again, the difficulty to get CFO and land titles approval have make the home-buyers disappointed with the insufficient supply of housing units. The worse housing problem under STB system is the abandoned project. Since the developers can legally sold the un-built houses to home-buyers and collect money from them before construction finish, there is a risk that the developers run away with the money before the houses were completed. National Housing Buyers Association Malaysia (2006) revealed that, the developers abandon their projects when they have sold almost all the houses. The table below had been shown the abandoned project occurred from 1990 until 31st May 2009. From the table 2.1, we can know that, there are 5,484 home-buyers became the victims of abandoned projects. From developers viewpoint, the abandoned projects are only a small number from total housing development projects and not a serious problem. However, the home-buyers as victims need to bear a heavy of money loss and disappointed with the housing market in Malaysia. Over the years, there is insufficient supply of housing units which have affected most home-buyers. Therefore, the government is trying to find a solution to solve these problems. As a result, government had proposed to implement BTS system in Malaysia to avoid these problems raised again and again. The Concept of Build-Then-Sell System The concept of BTS system is definitely different with the concept of STB system. STB system allows the developers to sell the house units before they built and obtain the money from home-buyers to fund construction or secure bridge financing through joint venture arrangements with banks (Nor Aini Yusof, 2009). This may give chance to some developers managed to get away from completing their projects with few financial consequences at the expense of unsuspecting home-buyers. Under STB system, many home-buyers complaints about shoddy workmanship, late delivery of houses and abandoned projects, therefore, the government introduced four initiatives, which include the establishment of a new One Stop Centre (OSC) at local authorities, the Issuance of Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) by professionals is introduced to replace the CFO and BTS system (INTAN, 2007). The concept of BTS system is the developers must complete a housing project before they can sell it to the home-buyers (The Star, 2007). Therefore, the developers cannot collect the money from home-buyers before they complete the housing project under BTS system. The risks of housing development are shared between developers and their lending banks only. Therefore, fewer developers adopt BTS system compared to STB system since only developers with strong financial support are able to implement it. The housing projects that are built and marketed by using BTS system need not comply with the statutory standard SP agreements. As difference with STB system, the BTS system allows the developer does not receive progressive payment from end-financiers as STB system. In order for the development project to work successful, the developer need borrow higher financing from the bridge-financier to finance the project. Hence, the bank has to play an important role by providing bridging finance for the construction costs and this will increase the risk exposure of the financial institution. Generally, the banks prefer to lend loan to individual purchasers in many smaller parcels instead of lending it all to the developer in one parcel. Therefore, it is difficult for the new started companies which do not have necessary track record to convince the bank to provide them with the financing to do it in the new BTS system. It is believed that the new concept will give some impacts on the current financing practices involving the type of financial resources such as end finance and bridge finance, and the parties involved in development project are developers and bankers. It is also believed that the BTS system will leave a great impact on the developers and the whole property industry since there is only the bridging finance to fund the construction activities. In Malaysia, BTS system is not a totally alien system since a few financially strong developers with developments in prime locations have implement the complement BTS system. There are two main types of BTS system, which include complete BTS and partial BTS. The complete BTS is the developer builds the house and sells when completed CCC or CFO, there is no prior agreement as STB system, therefore, the developer entitle to sell at market price at the time of completion. On the other hand, the partial BTS is a housing delivery system which combined both BTS and STB. For partial BTS, the SP agreement is signed before the construction start and developer can collects a certain percentage as initial payment during the SP agreement being signed. The balance of the houses price will be paid after completion with CCC or CFO. The partial BTS can be 10:90, 20:80 or 30:70, the percentage of partial BTS is depend on the developer. The government is more concern to 10:90 BTS compare to other partial BTS. In fact, 10:90 system is still a Sell first then Build model since the houses are still not yet to be build at the time signing of SP agreement. However, if the developer fails to complete the project and cause the abandoned project for whatever reasons, the buyers are protected from any disastrous fallout. This option is introduced by Ministry of Housing and Local Government (MHLG) in which the 10% deposit is paid to the lawyers as down payment upon signing the SP agreement and the sale is locked-in while the balance is payable after the completion of CCC or CFO. The Stakeholders in Build-Then Sell System The word of Stakeholder means that the individuals or groups who are involved or affected either directly or indirectly by a system or program (Atkinson et al, 1997). Hence, the stakeholders of BTS system include individuals or groups whose interests or quality of life affected by the decision to apply BTS. This impacts received by those people either positively or negatively. The stakeholders in BTS system include housing developers, home-buyers, financial institutions, government, professional bodies and social activists. The details of those stakeholders are shown as Table 2.2. Stakeholders Descriptions Developer Developer is an entrepreneur. They can identify the need for a particular property product and is willing to take risk to produce it for a profit. Background of developer may be in building, estate agency, engineering, finance, law, architecture or business management. They are involved in the real process of development. Some of the developers have total responsibility for the management of every stage of a development. Whereas others are given a large amount of responsibility to a project manager, retaining a more strategic policy role. Financial institutions Developers seek a number of funds to secure the full measure of equity return from development projects. Therefore, the financial institution plays an important role to finance the projects. Such financial institutions become active developers in their own right are largely a function of the prevailing general investment climate and the particular performance of the property market. According to Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, under BTS system, banks need to make some commitment towards providing suitable funding to projects. Professional bodies Architect The architect plays a role to critical to the development process. Architect will translate the concept or idea of developer into a workable and attractive solution. Several major elements in the development process such as the acquisition of planning approval, the design of the building and the control of the building contract are fully concerned by the architect. To conform the developers do not run away with the bridge finance, architect need to prepare a report of development stage by stage to bank for bank to release money. Engineers There are several engineer involve in the construction process of the development project. They working closely with the architect and combine to ensure that the plans are structurally and that the mechanical systems will service the building effectively. The engineers involved in a development projects include structural engineer, geotechnical engineer, mechanical and electrical engineer or building services engineer and environmental engineer. Quantity surveyor The quantity surveyor is in charge with the task of cost analysis and cost control. Quantity surveyor included in the initial design deliberations and financial appraisal. Solicitor The services of a solicitor in the property development process include acquisition through the various stages of planning approval, contracts for construction, to eventual sale or leasing Table 2.2 Stakeholders in Build-Then-Sell System The Issues of Build-Then-Sell System in Malaysia Since there are a large number of abandoned projects caused by the economic downturn and developers financial inadequacy, the government introduced the implementation of BTS system. BTS system has been studied over past two decades. In early 1981, the implementation of the BTS system proposed by the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Association (Zulkilfli Abdul Ghani, 2004). A decade later, Dr. Ting Chew Peh, the then-Minister of Housing and Local Government, called for implementation of BTS in 1991. There are a lot of benefits to implement BTS system compare to STB system. First, when the developer adopts BTS system, the home-buyers have the chance to see built housing units. The home-buyers also can spot the weaknesses of the houses built and the interest of the home-buyers are protected. Home-buyer prefers to gauge quality of the house rather than simply betting on such issues based on a coloured brochure. Since the home-buyers can see the houses first before they decide to buy it, so the quality of the houses built is guaranteed. The government endorsed BTS in 1996 which reflected in the 7th Malaysian Plan in Dewan Rakyat by previous-Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad (New Strait Times, 1999). However, this is only a small portion of developers adopt the BTS system. Hence, the government offered incentives to the developers who apply either BTS or 10:90 system. The incentives include the fast-track approval for BTS projects, a waiver of the RM 200,000 deposit for a housing developers license and an exemption from the low-cost house construction quota. There are some affords have been done by government to support BTS system. First, the government has expanding the role of the current OSC. With the existing of OSC, the development applications process become simultaneously and systematically via a committee headed by council presidents and made up of other technical department officers. In addition, the other impetuses include replacing the CFO with professionally issued CCC, drafting of a Building and Common Property Act 2007 to ensure a better maintenance and management of stratified properties and waiving of the license deposit for developers who opt for the BTS system. The incentives offered to developers include the reduction of up to four months for the processing of development proposals and the option for developers to replace the quota to build low-cost homes with medium-cost homes. According to Previous Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi (2007), the approvals for selected projects such as BTS, high impact projects, government and foreign investors would be shorter than other projects. The time taken to approve projects for those selected projects will be slashed from five years to six months. In addition, CCC will replace CFO to avoid delays. However, under the CCC system, certified professionals like architects and engineers are authorized to approve buildings for vacant possession. Although professional will managed the issuance of CCC, the local authorities will continue to monitor the construction to ensure it is done according to regulations. In 2007, the government announced that the implementation of BTS and STB can be adopted parallel at the same time. Since the developer can choose whether to adopt the new BTS concept or the STB concept, therefore only a few developers have taken the governments offered incentives to implement BTS system. The developer prefer STB system rather than BTS system because developers are more familiar with STB system which has been practiced for over 50 years in Malaysia and developers did not want to take risk on the new system. Additionally, most of the developers are still unclear with the application of incentives offered by government. Under the STB system, some professional misconduct was believed to contribute to the housing industrys problems. For instance, a dishonest architect will approve project progress although the specifications do not achieved by developers. Again, many lawyers prepare their documents during the pre-construction stage and will simply walk away if the project has been abandoned. To avoid these problems occurred, most of the professional bodies believed that the BTS or 10:90 system would minimize the industrys problems and help boost the housing industry. Although the BTS concept can protects home-buyers from being stuck in case a development project is abandoned, but it cannot avoid a development project from being abandoned in the first place. The risks of property development would still exist with or without the BTS system. This is because the risks associated with property development may cause by other factors such as increases in project costs, main contractors capacity and regulatory issues which can affect whether the project can be completed or not. According to Datuk Eddy Chen (2007), the immediate past president of REHDA, there is no need to change the BTS system or its 10:90 variant since the abandoned projects are only a small portion of the millions of housing units which successfully built. However, the abandoned houses are no small matter for those home-buyers who need to pay off loans for units they will not see. From a home-buyers viewpoint, they are willing to pay a slightly price for a house as long as they are assured a high-quality house. Many people will be satisfied if they are given the chance to see and examine the completed house before deciding to buy it. Therefore, the home-buyers can accept either the BTS or 10:90 system which can reduce their risk when buying a house. According to Datuk seri Kong Cho Ha (2009), the Housing and Local Government Minister, the full BTS system would not be feasible adopted in Malaysia unless the projects are held in a hot area such as Bandar Utama. In our country, only a small amount of developers have the financial capacity to take the high risk of adopting the BTS system and the few financial institutions willing to finance a BTS project because it is risky. Therefore, it is quite hard to let all stakeholders accept the full BTS system since nobody can promise the sales of the completed houses and the return of projects. Most of the developers and financial institutions are not dare to take the risk especially in this economy downturn period. The Comparison of Planning Approval Process of Build-Then-Sell System and Sell-Then-Build System Nowadays, the approval for application of planning is preceded through OSC which will be more effective and efficient than before. To encourage the developers to implement BTS system, the approval of application of planning will be approve through the fast lane within 4 months. The planning approval will be prior given to the developer who adopts BTS system. If the development located within the location that has local planning, the approval of planning will be obtained within 67 days (2 months and 7 days). Besides, the developer who adopts STB system will obtain the approval of application of planning within 6 months. The time used in the planning approval is differs for BTS and STB system. The flowchart of application for proposal development for BTS system and STB system are shown in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2. Figure 2.1 Flowchart of Concurrent Application for Proposal Development within 4 Months (Source: Guidebook Improving the Delivery System Procedure and Process of Development Proposal and Implementation of One-Stop Centre (Second Edition), MHLG) Figure 2.2 Flowchart of Concurrent Application for Proposal Development within 6 Months (Source: Guidebook Improving the Delivery System Procedure and Process of Development Proposal and Implementation of One-Stop Centre (Second Edition), MHLG) A new set of Standard SP Agreements needs to be set up for the 10:90 system. In fact, 10:90 system is a combination of STB system and BTS system. There are no much different from STB system in the development process and the SP Agreements. To a better understanding of the various existing sale transaction and the payment systems for the different types of purchase, Table 2.3 is shown the comparison on the delivery systems. Details Completed Properties Sell-Then-Build System Build-Then-Sell System 10:90 Payment System On the signing of Sale Purchase Agreement Pay 10% of purchase price Pay 10% of Purchase Price None Pay 10% of Purchase Price Waiting period for Completion of Construction Notice of Delivery of Vacant Possession None Within 24 or 36 months or more upon Architects Certification of Completion Within 24 or 36 months or more upon Architects Certification of Completion *Within 24 or 36 months or more upon Architects Certification of Completion Buyer to complete payments 3 months from SPA Date (in normal situation) Progressive payment system in percentage (3rd Schedule) (from first 10% payment or SPA Date) while waiting for completion of construction Full payment of Purchase Price at 24 or 36 months from SPA Date depending on the regulated contract of sale 90% of Purchase Price at 24 or 36 months from SPA Date depending on the regulated contract of sale Waiting period for actual occupation with Certificate of Fitness for Occupation (CFO) None Within 14 days from Vacant Possession or longer depending on Developers architect to procure the issuance of CFO Proposed Vacant Possession with CFO *Proposed Vacant Possession with CFO Waiting period for transfer of individual/strata titles Varies on whether titles have been issued at the time of signing of SPA Varies from developer to developer Proposed Vacant Possession with issuance of titles *Proposed Vacant Possession with issuance of titles Table 2.3 Comparison on the housing delivery system (Source: National Housing Buyers Association) The Advantages of Adoption of Build-Then Sell System To encourage developers adopt BTS system as their housing delivery system, government has offered many incentives for the developers who adopt BTS system. Hence, the developers can enjoy the advantages while adopt the BTS system. In the process of planning approval, the departments involved will give priority to the developers who adopt BTS system. Therefore, the developers that implement BTS system will obtain approval of development faster than the developers who adopt STB system. They can obtain the approval through fast track of four months while the other will obtain the approval in six months. The other incentives offered include option to build medium-low cost or medium cost houses to replace the low cost houses, exemption from RM200,000 of license fee and SPA enable developer to obtain financing. In housing development, the developers are required to build low cost houses which the requirements are differ from state to state. However, the developers who adopt BTS system can replace the low cost houses by medium-low cost houses or medium cost houses. This offer allow the developer earn more money compare with the development which need to build low cost houses. Additionally, the developers are exempted from RM200,000 for license fee if they implement BTS system. Therefore, the developers save RM200,000 and use it to finance the housing project. Most of the developers claim that they are unable to support BTS system because it is hard to borrow money from bank. Therefore, the government introduces 10:90 system which the SP Agreement can be signed before construction stage. With the SP Agreement, the developer can obtain 10% deposits from home-buyers for their development. In fact, the BTS system has bring a lot of advantages to home-buyers. With the implementation of BTS system, the home-buyers can view the complete houses first before they paid the entire payment. Therefore, home-buyers no need to worry the developers run away with the money before complete the houses. Again, the home-buyers are allow to pay the houses price after the houses completed, it is less financial burden to the home-buyers during the construction stage. In BTS development, the SP Agreement gives the legal protection to the home-buyers on price guarantee. Since the developers need to complete the houses before sell to home-buyers, the quality and workmanship of the development will be enhanced. If the quality of houses is bad, the complete houses cannot sell out and the developers will sustain the loss of bad quality houses. In the past, the developers adopt STB system as their housing delivery system and there are many houses had a lot of defects and poor workmanship. Some of the developers are dishonest and use low quality materials to build the houses to earn more money. Under BTS system, if a developer builds a low quality house, the home-buyer can decide do not buy it without sustain any loss. Therefore, the quality of houses will be enhanced under BTS system. In addition, developers are required to be more professional and responsible. Under the implementation of BTS system, only the genuine developers will involve in the development field. Since the developers need to sustain most of the development cost during construction stage under BTS system, therefore incapable developers not dare to adopt BTS system. Hence, only developers who has ability and strong in financial will adopt BTS system to build quality houses for home-buyers. This can make the home-buyers increase their confidence in development sector and the market of property can be increased. The implementation of BTS system can reduce the abandoned projects in Malaysia. The main reason that BTS system can reduce abandoned house is unable developers will not involve in development which adopt BTS system as housing delivery system. In the past, some of the developers are unable to continue the development during construction stage. This situation cause the abandoned houses exist especially during economic downturn period. Moreover, the developers who have no intention of completing their housing projects will be ridded from the housing development which adopt BTS system. The developers only can obtain financial support from financial institution during the construction stage, they have no chance to run away with the payment made by home-buyers. If the developers have no intention to complete the projects, they will lose capital spent in the housing project. The home-buyers no need to worry when they buy a house under BTS system. This is because the developers will build good quality houses and build according to the specifications in the brochure. Additionally, the certificate of fitness is obtained before home-buyers make the payment for the house, therefore they no need to worry about being cheated by developer when they buy the houses under BTS system. Therefore, the BTS system should be implemented without any further delay to protect home-buyers interests and active property market. The Problems Faced in The Implementation of Build-Then-Sell System The BTS system is a new concept in housing delivery system for stakeholders in Malaysia, so there are less implement mechanisms and policies in Malaysia to expedite the implementation of BTS system (Nor Aini Yusof, 2009). Majority of the developers feel that the government is also not very clear with the concept of BTS system because the government has simply introduce the idea of BTS system without prepare a proper mechanisms for implementation of BTS system. For an example, MLHG prepared the guidelines for 10:90 model only, but did not prepare the guidelines for other model. The stakeholders have argued that the government should prepare proper procedures and guidelines for all BTS variants but not only for 10:90 system. Again, the policy makers include the central government, state government and local authorities should cooperate to promote BTS implementation and address administrative and procedural issues to smooth the functioning of BTS system. Moreover, the government offer the incentives for developers who implement full BTS system or 10:90 system only. These incentives will not help to encourage developers to adopt other BTS model and the developers will prefer to adopt STB system under this scenario. Although the government offer the incentives to motivate developers to implement BTS system, however there is negative response to the incentives. The incentives are not attractive enough to influence developers in adopting BTS because the unclear procedures and uncertainty of application process make the developers feel that the incentives were not worth for them to apply. Therefore, the government should address the procedures and application process clearly and offer the incentives to those developers who implement other BTS variant. Another problem faced by developers who adopt BTS system is a proper monitoring system does not exist in Malaysia. Many parties claim th