Steven Kerr Essay -- Business, Creativity, Diversity

As Kerr is an educator and a professor in universities and not an economist, he examines his idea or creativity in the organization by making inquires starting from top management to the bottom in the organization and also to people who knew what the buyer or customer should be; then he would run it through his network in and outside GE to cross examination and double check or assessment (Davenport et al). Kerr’s successes effectively with the standing of ideas and creativity mainly rely on his continuing exploratory research with great creative thinking skills, expertise and motivation, and they also depend on his outstanding leadership and exceptional organizational culture of innovation in GE (Davenport et al, 2003). On the issue how to link his idea to his organization or business, Kerr simply collected and gained quick feedback and recommendation about how to present or make use of the idea or creativity to his sixty-five top executives in GE; he would assessed and examined his idea with his top management team first before link it to GE (Davenport et al). Davenport, Prusak & Wilson (2003) analyzed and claimed that getting instant comment or criticism is very critical and vital for a idea, as Kerr in his interview argued: â€Å"Gaining quick feedback and translating it into action and results is what advocating ideas is all about† (p. 207). In strategic planning, management must measure or evaluate the courses of idea and creativity or development and expansion to ensure they obtain the best and maximum returns from platforms (Davenport). In ideas and organizational management, feedback, criticism and suggestion not only could turn or develop into the guidance, objective and dire ction or target and focus of innova... ...resent diversity within the labor force and â€Å"each of them will also have networks of professional associates whose knowledge they can tap in order to solve problems and accomplish tasks. Needless-to-say, diverse people will have diverse networks and provide your company with a vast and diverse meta-network at your disposal† (p.1). In short, in supporting of creativity, innovators essentially need the backing from top leaders, and without that support, many initiatives may break down or die on the vine (Harvard). For any idea to be successful, it is vital that it is aligned with company strategy; there is more likely to occur naturally when top executives involve and take the lead with a idea or creativity initiative and this is a main reason why management commitment is a key factor in the accomplishment of any idea or innovation process (Baumgarther, 2010).

Death of a Salesman: The American Tragedy

Arthur Miller’s play â€Å"Death of a Salesman† is considered by many to be a modern tragedy. In â€Å"Poetics†, Aristotle offers his description of a tragedy, and Miller’s play meets these requirements. The American Dream that the protagonist, Willy Loman, spends his life chasing, is, in itself, tragic. And that his family had the same values, the same delusions that Willy did, helps to build the case for tragedy. Aristotle defined tragedy as such:Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Tragedy, if one is to believe Aristotle, is something that causes fear and pity. In Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Death of a Salesman†, Willy Loman fails at the American Dream.T his is a common occurrence in modern America, and readers can see themselves in Willy’s shoes, creating fear. They feel sorry for Willy, because ultimately, he is the same as them. His failure is their failure. Not just pitiable, this thought is nothing less than terrifying. According to current research, all human brains have dopamine receptors. Dopamine (DA) is the predominant catecholamine neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain, where it controls a variety of functions including locomotor activity, cognition, emotion, positive reinforcement, food intake and endocrine regulation.If tragedy instills fear, an emotion, clearly a normal working DA is required. With the DA controlling emotions, such as fear and pity, it could be said that humans are hardwired to see all loss as tragic and the play, even as defined by Aristotle, is therefore a tragedy. Being able to see ones self failing, over and over again, is both pitiable and fearful. The average human can see themselves fai ling. Willy Loman’s failures and crushed dreams become their own. In his essay, â€Å"Tragedy and the Common Man†, Arthur Miller states: In this age few tragedies are written.It has often been held that the lack is due to a paucity of heroes among us, or else that modern man has had the blood drawn out of his organs of belief by the skepticism of science, and the heroic attack on life cannot feed on an attitude of reserve and circumspection. For one reason or another, we are often held to be below tragedy-or tragedy above us. The inevitable conclusion is, of course, that the tragic mode is archaic, fit only for the very highly placed, the kings or the kingly, and where this admission is not made in so many words it is most often implied.What he is saying is that, while outdated, tragedy still exists in some form, and no one is above or below it. Willy Loman wanted the American Dream. He wanted to be successful and he wanted his children to be successful. This dream per haps, is the biggest tragedy of all. The play begins when Willy is old, a salesman no longer working on salary, but for commission. He can no longer afford to support his family. All of his contacts from decades of selling are dead. He is the only one left, and he is far from successful.To Willy Loman, success is the equivalent of being well-liked. To modern man, success is having a house, a couple of cars, two point three children, Rover in the backyard and a white picket fence. There is no need to be well-liked as business can be done over the phone or via email while one is in his pajamas. Willy Loman was not well-liked. He had few friends and even less success. He struggled his life away, clawing for the next rung on the metaphorical ladder of life, and never reaching it. His sons were failures and destined to follow in his footsteps.Senile or not, Willy lived the last of his years in a complete fantasy, believing that Biff and Happy were doing well for themselves, when in reali ty, Biff was working as a farm hand and Happy was living with a new girl every week. Happy tried to reassure his father that he was going to get married and be successful. Biff seemed to throw his hands up in despair. He was content doing the work that he was, but Willy still thought of him as a failure.WILLY: How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand?In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!LINDA: He’s finding himself, Willy.WILLY: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace! (Penguin Plays, pp 16)Biff himself tells his brother that their dad mocks him all the time. He feels inadequate and lost.BIFF: †¦And whenever spring comes to where I am, I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not getting’ anywhere!What the hell am I doing, playin g around with horses, twenty-eight dollars a week! I’m thirty-four years old, I oughta be makin’ my future. That’s when I come running home. And now, I get here, and I don’t know what to do with myself. (pp22) Happy, too, in a conversation with his Biff, in clearly not content with the direction his life has gone in.HAPPY: †¦I don’t know what the hell I’m workin’ for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment—all alone. And I think of the rent I’m paying. And it’s crazy. But then, it’s what I always wanted. My own apartment, a car and plenty of women.And still, goddammit, I’m lonely. (pp 23) The severely dysfunctional Loman family is a tragedy. Biff and Happy’s constant struggle to make the grade, to be well liked, to be successful; is a tragedy. Willy, barely able to separate past from present, truth from fantasy, has raised his boys to think that the more friends they have the more successful the y will be. Willy Loman measures success in people, and he taught his sons to do the same. He is unable to understand what Biff’s problem is, though the reader finds out at a later time. The problem was Willy. Biff had it made.He was well liked. He had three scholarships coming his way. He failed math, and before summer school started he went to visit Willy on one of the many business trips he took. He finds his father with another woman and leaves, foregoing summer school, the credit and the football scholarships. Albert A. Shea considered â€Å"Death of a Salesman† to be a scathing social commentary on capitalist America. Shea wrote: Arthur Miller casts a score of darts — at advertising, credit selling, the family automobile; at the petty larceny and the subversive attitude toward sex characteristic of our time.But his main attack is against the view that a man is a fool if he does not get something — as much as possible — for nothing more than a smile, being a good fellow and having good contacts. Perhaps Arthur Miller is not casting darts at the view that man is a fool to expect something for nothing. Miller is no doubt attacking the standard good old American Dream, called a dream because that is precisely what it is— â€Å"†¦ something that somebody hopes, longs, or is ambitious for, usually something difficult to attain or far removed from present circumstances.†A dream then, that seldom becomes a reality. These hopes themselves are tragic, because, as mentioned above, they are difficult to attain. For the Lomans, they are not difficult, they are impossible. The Book Rags website writes Willy Loman died a failure by his own standards. Biff considers Willy's life a failure because he had the wrong dreams. He spent too much time convincing himself he could be a successful salesman, when what he was clear he was skilled at working with his hands.If he'd followed the right dreams, and confronted his abili ties in a realistic and honest way, he may not have been a failure, and his life might not have ended this way. Even in death, Willy Loman's plans fail; no one shows at his funeral, and his life insurance policy doesn't cover suicide. And so, at the end of it all, the reader sees, at the same time the Lomans see, that Willy is a failure. His life has consisted of numerous stories and fabrications. He has lied to his wife about how much he has sold, about how many friends he has and even about silk stockings.Willy is a perfect portrayal of the American husband in the fifties. He longs to provide for his family. He dreams about making it big. These are aspirations that he has passed on to at least one of his sons, Happy, who tells him â€Å"Pop, I told you I’m gonna retire you for life. † (pp41) to which Willy responds: â€Å"You’ll retire me for life on seventy goddam dollars a week? And your women and your car and your apartment, and you’ll retire me for life! † A summary on Homework Online offers this: Willy has lost at trying to live the American Dream and the play can be viewed as commentary about society.Willy was a man who was worked all his life by the machinery of Democracy and Free Enterprise and was then spit mercilessly out, spent like a â€Å"piece of fruit. † Joyce Carol Oates read the play in the 1950’s and now writes: His occupation, for all its adversities, was â€Å"white collar,† and his class not the one into which I’d been born; I could not recognize anyone I knew intimately in him, and certainly I could not have recognized myself, nor foreseen a time decades later when it would strike me forcibly that, for all his delusions and intellectual limitations, about which Arthur Miller is unromantically clear-eyed, Willy Loman is all of us.Indeed, Willy Loman is all of mankind, and that is perhaps the greatest tragedy of them all. Oates remarks that Willy Loman resembled none of the me n in her family when she was fourteen or fifteen, and then she realized that all of the men in her family were Willy Loman, in their own way. Aristotle’s definition of tragedy being something that creates fear and pity. Willy is both our fear and our pity.Perhaps Oates summarizes the tragic nature of Willy Loman better than anyone else:In the intervening years, Willy Loman has become our quintessential American tragic hero, our domestic Lear, spiraling toward suicide as toward an act of selfless grace, his mad scene on the heath a frantic seed-planting episode by flashlight in the midst of which the once-proud, now disintegrating man confesses, â€Å"I’ve got nobody to talk to. † His salesmanship, his family relations, his very life—all have been talk, optimistic and inflated sales rhetoric; yet, suddenly, in this powerful scene, Willy Loman realizes he has nobody to talk to; nobody to listen.Perhaps the most memorable single remark in the play is the qui et observation that Willy Loman is â€Å"liked . . . but not well-liked. † In America, this is not enough. Indeed, it is not enough in America.Works Cited:1. Poetics by Aristotle. Trans. S. H. Butcher. 21 May 2004. The University of Adelaide Library. 30 November 2006. .2. Missale, Cristina, S. Russel Nash, Susan W. Robinson, Mohamed Jaber and Marc G. Caron. â€Å"Dopamine Receptors: From Structure to Function†. Physiological Review. 78. 1 (1998): 189-225.3. â€Å"Tragedy and the Common Man†. The Literary Link. 7 October 2006. 8 December 2006. < http://theliterarylink. com/miller1. html>.4. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1949.5. â€Å"Death of a Salesman† Book Rags. 8 December 2006. .6. â€Å"Death of a Salesman†. Homework Online 8 December 2006. 8 December 2006. .7. Oates, Joyce Carol. â€Å"Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: A Celebration†. Fall 1998. USFCA. 10 December 2006. .

Latin American Politics Essay

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias is the current president of Venezuela and was born on 28th July, 1954. He is a leader who advocates for democratic socialism in his country and for Latin American Integration. He openly attacks the policy of globalization, neo-liberalism and opposes most of the foreign policies of the United States. The president is very popular and respected at home for he is able to keep the promises he made to his people for example to fight poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy and other related social ills that affected citizens. His personality and policies evoke a mixed reaction from different nations some in the Latin American region and others from abroad. Some support his ideologies while others criticize them and a good example is the United States government which refer him as a threat to the Latin America’s democracy. The reason behind this is that he tries to implement some modalities that would promote regional integration and cooperation among the Latin American nations and especially the Latin’s poor nations. This essay is going to look at how Venezuela’s foreign policies under the directions of Hugo Chavez have changed overtime. The paper will also give a brief overview of the life of Hugo Chavez and then proceed to discuss how his policies have benefited the Venezuelans back at home and affected other nations. The paper will be concluded with a recap of the key points that have been discussed. The last page of this paper is a list of the references that have been consulted, properly formatted in accordance with MLA style. After Chavez won in 2004’s referendum, he promised to uplift the living standards of his people under a program that was dubbed as â€Å"Bolivian missions† something that proved to be successful because it was favoured by the increase in oil prices. Through this, he was able to gather billion of dollars as foreign exchange which he used to boost his country’s economy which reached 9. 3 in 2005. (Painter) Venezuela’s economy mostly depends on the oil it produces. Since 1920 up to the present day, the profit that is accrued from oil exports has led to the growth and development of this nation more than one would have imagined for example the size of Caracas city doubled in the 1920-1936 period and tripled in 1940s. Despite the fact that the country exports a lot of oil to other nations, half of the population are very poor and live in slums and that is why Chavez has dedicated his efforts to eradicate poverty in his nation and to reduce the high rate of inequality that has continued to affect citizens. Currently half of the Venezuela’s population live in urban cities while the other half is in rural slums where they live in abject poverty (Mora and Hey 78) Chavez has always been trying to boost relations with other Latin Americans in a bid to achieve regional integration in fact this is one of his key foreign policies, a goal that he started to pursue after the 1997’s Summit of the Americas. Venezuela has been very vocal in advocating for the lifting of sanctions that have been imposed on Cuba and other ‘Multi polar’ ties that are imposed on other developing countries. Although Venezuela has not been enjoying warm relationship with United States, it has never experienced the military, political and economic sanctions that are imposed on other nation perhaps because of its oil producing capacity. (Painter J. ) Venezuela occupies a strategic position as far as the superpowers’ interests are concerned and the reason for this is that is supplies oil to these countries in large quantities something that made it to be ranked among the biggest oil producers in the world. Despite the fact that it was one of the primary oil suppliers to US and a role model to other Latin American nations US has never recognised the role it plays partly because of its aggressive foreign policies. Although U. S and Venezuela have not been good very friends, Venezuela continues to export oil to United States. Their relationship is from time to time affected by other factors and adding salt to the injury was the 2002’s attempted coup that led to the temporarily removal of Chavez from office with an assistance from US government something that US government denied. (Isbell) The reason why US sponsored this coup was that the Latin American oil producing countries were extending their business relations to Cuba contrary to what US would have liked. US wanted the sanctions it had imposed on Cuba to remain but its efforts were undermined by Chavez’s move to sell oil to Cuba in a bid to maximize his capital. For this reason US wanted Chavez to be removed and replaced with another one who would not interfere with the sanctions that had been imposed. Venezuela apart from starting business relations with Cuba it signed a business deal with it to increase its oil sale to Cuba something led US to deny Hugo Chavez a visa to go to its country. (Elliott) Venezuela in reaction to this started to openly oppose US policies especially after the 200’s coup attempt for example, Venezuela voted against US’ claims in the United Nations meeting that there were human rights violations in Iraq, Libya and Cuba. It also opposed the sanctions that were intended to be imposed on Peru in 2002 by the United States in respect to the agreement that was reached in Quebec’s summit. As if this was not enough, Venezuela criticised and opposed what US referred to as ‘Plan Colombia’ designed to fight the sale of narcotics in the region. The plan was to allow free antinarcotics over flights in the Latin American region, a move that was opposed because of its US military nature which was likely to cause regional conflict. (Mora and Hey 159) The US relations with Venezuela reached its worst point after the 2001 New York bombings. The US government had vowed that it would fight terrorism completely and war was waged against Afghanistan. The Venezuelan government criticised this move arguing that terrorism cannot be fought with terrorism. They shown pictures of young children who had been killed by US bombs. As their relations continued to worsen, the US government was trying to improve this relationship. The US even denied having participated in the 2002’s attempts to swap Chavez with Pedro Carmona. The only motivating factor for the United States to do this was to ensure that there was continued flow of the commodity they heavily relied on, the oil and that their power would be felt in the Latin America and especially by Fidel Castro. (Mora and Hey 155) Chavez was also been vibrant in rescuing the oil prices especially when they were on the decline in 1998. He liaised with other OPEC members and held a crisis meeting to solve the problem of the decline in oil prices. His efforts were duly paid because after this meeting the price per barrel shot up something that made his power to felt in the world. (Lotta) Although there is lot hegemony from the US government, Chavez has never allowed US government to take control over his country. He visited the OPEC countries in 1999 and specifically the Libyan and Iraq leaders Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein respectively in his trial to his business ties. In 2001 Chavez visited the Asian countries to share his support on communism both in Russia and China but this was not all that he wanted because for was trying to look for new business partners. Although he was doing this he never failed to acknowledge that though his country was at verbal war with US, it was its key oil supplier. It acknowledged this especially after it stopped to give oil subsidy to the Cuban government. (Elliot et al) In his move to improve and extend his country’s foreign policies to Asian and European countries, he killed the democracy that was enjoyed at home by Venezuela’s institutions. At the same time as democratic institutions declined, the warm relationship that had existed between other regional Latin countries was lost. His aggressive pursuance of foreign policies was counter productive as it made him forget the issues that needed immediate address back at home, â€Å"foreign policy did not contribute to the provision of adequate responses to the most urgent domestic economic and social needs† (Mora and Hey 160) Although he is criticised and demonized by many people, the way he has impacted this nation is much more than what other leaders had done. He is accused of perpetrating corruption but all in all, he is different from others in that his foreign policies have led to the increase in oil prices and to the improvement in living standards. He channelled more dollars on the fund that is used to help the less privileged in the society. Many argue that were it not for his ability to make oil prices rise he would not be in power. The argument is that Chavez can only remain in power if will be able to ensure that the price of oil will remain high. At the moment, Hugo Chavez is trying to look for new market for his oil in the Asian and western countries. This move is meant to expand Venezuela’s business relations while at the same time punishing US for pursuing aggressive goals towards it. Chavez according to Lotta R. (2007), â€Å"the third track of the oil program is to restructure Venezuela’s external trade relations away from dependence on the US as a market and source of investment capital and technical expertise. † Venezuela alone exports about 12% of petrol to United States and thus it contributes to the power that US exerts to the world. It is said that this is about half of its production and that is why it is looking for other buyers. Already the country is holding talks with Chinese and Russia governments to sell oil to them. It is also planning to sell oil to India but the problem is that Venezuela does not have its own port and is thus required to put a pipeline to pass through Columbia to china. Another problem is that China does not have money that is needed to refine Venezuela’s sulphur rich oil unlike in US where are special refineries meant for refining Venezuelan oil. Though most of foreign policies are economically focused, in 2005 he stopped buying arms from United States and looked for alternative sources, he started to buy them from Brazil Russia, Spain and China something that added strain to the relationship that had existed between Venezuela and US. He also asked all the US military personnel who were active in the service to move out Venezuela. Since he took power, the price of oil per barrel has risen from 10 US dollars to 78 US dollars. This figure would be more than this were it not for the fact that Venezuela’s oil is sold a bit cheaper due to its high percentage of sulphur impurities however, its oil has remained as competitive as that of other OPEC countries. The sharp increase in oil prices could largely be attributed to his success in politics for example, he was able to win the majority’s support. Chavez is trying to establish market for his oil in countries that are not in good relations with United States such as Iran, Russia and Belarus, â€Å"Chavez used every opportunity to disparage the United States and seek to forge solidarity with a number of states at odds with Washington† (Hanson). Political experts argue that unless Chavez devise new ways of maintaining high oil prices then his regime will soon come to an end. It is for this reason that he is trying to establish new markets. Experts see this move as a threat to the survival of US as a world power but this might not necessarily be true. These experts have mixed views on this for example, John Hopkins, a professor dismisses Chavez’s rhetoric as something insignificant while others warn that his move should not be underestimated as he has widespread support in Venezuela. In reality, Chavez is not a threat to US but all he wants is to widen his economic base and that is why he is having many trips across the world so that he would broker more economic cooperation among other oil producers. He is also trying to secure himself a seat in the United Nations Security Council a move that is vehemently opposed by the United States. In response, the US imposed some sanctions against Venezuela especially on arms importation citing the reason that Venezuela was not supportive on terrorism war. (Kozloff, 98) It is argued that if Venezuela would stop selling oil to US, oil price would shot up almost with at least 11 dollars per barrel. Some are underestimating his potential to become a world power but they should consider how the rise in oil prices in the last few months has made him popular both in his country and world wide. He used that money to foster his programs, to forge and to booster commercial ties with other nations. At the moment he (Chavez) is threatening that he would stop supplying U S with oil. (Kozloff, 99) In his foreign relations, Chavez advised other OPEC members to cut their supply so that the price of oil would increase. Although international flights to US were banned, he decided to drive from Iran to Iraq and as a result of this; the price of oil reached $25 per barrel in 2004 something different from how it was prior to this period and all this was happening when he was the president of OPEC. The upsurge in prices was also as a result of his efforts to look for other oil consumers and especially in the developed nations such as china, India and even Japan. These nations use a lot of oil leading to its shortage. To counter this move, the US government is referring him as a â€Å"negative force† and is even trying to urge Chavez neighbours to isolate him. (Elliot et al 26) The foreign policies of Hugo Chavez have greatly impacted on Venezuelans and the country at large. Chavez using the money that is got from increased oil prices to fulfil the promises that he made to his people under the mission he dubbed as Bolivian Mission. He has significantly improved the living standards of his people for example he reduced poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy. His foreign policies have been widely criticised by the western nations and more specifically the US particularly due to its move to extend its business relations to the Asian countries such as China and India and other Latin American nations that are not in good terms with US. Work Cited: Elliott, K. Ann, Hufbauer, G. C. and Schott. Economic Sanctions Reconsidered Peterson Institute, 2007 Kozloff N. Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U. S. Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. Kelly de Escobar, J. , Kelly, J. and Romero, C. A. The United States and Venezuela: Rethinking a Relationship. Routledge, 2002 Isbell, P. Hugo Chavez and the Future of Venezuelan Oil: The Resurgence of Energy Nationalism (ARI) 2007. Available at http://www. realinstitutoelcano. org/wps/portal/rielcano_eng/Content? WCM_GLO BAL_CONTEXT=/Elcano_in/Zonas_in/International+Economy/ARI+14-2007 Lotta, R. Hugo Chavez Has an Oil Strategy†¦ But Can This Lead to Liberation? 2007. Available at http://revcom. us/a/094/chavez-en. html Painter J. Is Venezuela’s oil boom set to bust? 2008. Available at http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/americas/7694757. stm Mora, F. O. and. Hey, Jeanne A. Latin American and Caribbean Foreign Policy. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003

Personal Selling

Personal Selling, relationship building and sales management Personal selling, unlike advertising or sale promotion, involves direct relationships between the seller and the prospect or customer. In a forma sense, personal selling can be defined as a two-way flow of communication between a potential buyer and a salesperson that is designed to accomplish at least three tasks: (1) identify the potential buyer’s needs; (2) match those needs to one or more of the firm’s products or services; (3) on the basis of this match, convince the buyer to purchase the product.Finally, it is a complex communication process, one still not fully understood by marketers. Importance of personal selling The importance of the personal selling function depends partially on the nature of the product. As a general rule, goods that are new and different, technically complex or expensive require more personal selling effort. The salesperson plays a key role in providing the consumer with informat ion about such products to reduce the risks involved in purchase and use.Insurance, for example, is a complex and technical product that often needs significant amounts of personal selling. It is important to remember that for many companies the salesperson represents the customer’s main link to the firm. In fact, the salesperson is the company. Therefore it is imperative that the company take advantage of this unique link. Through the efforts of the successful salesperson, a company can build relationships with customers that continue long. Personal selling is an integral of the marketing system, fulfilling two vital duties: one for customers and one for companies.Lacking relevant information, customers are likely to make poor buying decisions. For example: Doctors would have difficulty finding out about new drugs and procedures were it not for pharmaceutical salespeople. Second, salespeople act as a source of marketing intelligence for management. Marketing success depends on satisfying customers needs. If present products don’t fulfill customer needs then profitable opportunities may exist for new or improved products. If problems with a company’s products exist, then management must be quickly apprised of the fact.In either situation, salespeople are in the best position to act as the intermediary through which valuable information can be passed back and forth between product providers and buyers. The sales process Personal selling is as much an art as it is a science. The word art is used to describe that portion of the selling process that is highly creative in nature and difficult to explain. Before management selects and trains salespeople, it should have an understanding of the sales process. Obviously, the sales process will differ according to the size of the company, the nature of the product, the market and so forth.Sales objectives: 1. Information provision: Especially in case of new products or customers, the salesperson nee ds to fully explain all attributes of the product or service, answer any questions and probe for additional questions. 2. Persuasion. Once the initial product or service information is provided, the salesperson needs to focus on the following objectives: – Clearly distinguish attributes of the firm’s products or services from those of competitors. – Maximize the number of sales as a percent of presentations. Convert undecided customers into first-time buyers. – Convert first-time customers into repeat purchasers. – Sell additional or complementary items to repeat customers. – Tend to the needs of dissatisfied customers. 3. After-sake service. Whether the sale represents a first-time or repeat purchase, the salesperson needs to ensure the following objectives are met: – Delivery or installation of the product or service that meets or exceeds customer expectations. – Immediate follow-up calls and visits to address unresolved or n ew concerns. Reassurance of products or service super priority through demonstrable actions. The Sales Relationship-Building process For many years the traditional approach to selling emphasized the first-time sale of a product or service as the culmination of the sales process. Marketing concept and accompanying approach to personal selling view the initial sale as merely the first step in a long-term relationship-building process, not as the end goal. The relationship-building process which is designed to meet the objectives contains six sequential stages.These stages are (1) prospecting, (2) planning the sales call, (3) presentation, (4) responding to objections, (5) obtaining commitment/closing the sale and (6) building a long-term relationship. When a buyer and a salesperson have a close personal relationship, they both begin to rely on each other and communicate honestly. When each has a problem, they work together to solve it. Such market relationships are known as functional relationships. A person may have such a relationship with along-term medical or dental practitioner or hair-cutter.When organizations move beyond functional relationships, they develop strategic partnerships or strategic alliances. These are long-term, formal relationships in which both parties make significant commitments and investments in each other in order to pursue mutual goals and to improve the profitability of each other. Marketing managers and sales managers must make some very important decisions regarding how the sales fore should be organized. Most companies organize their sales efforts either by geography, product or customer.There are two obvious reasons why it is critical that the sales force be properly controlled. First, personal selling can be the largest marketing expense component in the final price of the product. Second, unless the sales force is somehow directed, motivated and audited on continual basis, it is likely to be less efficient than it is capable o f being. Controlling the sales force involves four key functions: (1) forecasting sales; (2) establishing sales territories and quotas, (3) analyzing expenses and (4) motivating and compensating performance.Conclusion We attempted to outline and explain the personal selling aspect of the promotion mix. An emphasis was placed on describing the importance of the relationship-building aspect of the personal selling process. For organizations that wish to continue to grow and prosper, personal selling plays an integral part in the marketing of products and services. As long as production continues to expand through the development of new and highly technical products, personal selling will continue to be an important part of marketing strategy.

Textual analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Textual analysis - Assignment Example Turkle effectively used the analytical structure to convey her ethos and logos-based evidence on the transformation happening to machines and its human users, but she lacks a conversational writing style that can engage lay people into taking her caution against humans behaving more like machines. In examining the emerging landscape of computer-mediated communication, Turkle used an analytical structure to layout the relevance and evidence of her arguments. She began with an introduction that generalizes human nature, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s diary entry in 1832. Turkle (1995) cited and agreed with Emerson’s prophecy that â€Å"dreams and beasts† are â€Å"keys† to human nature (p. 36). She expanded Emerson’s human nature assessment by adding computers. The introduction effectively prepares the audience regarding the essay’s insights on the effects of interactions between machines and humans on human nature. Furthermore, the succeed ing paragraphs explain Turkle’s evidence. ... Her conclusion, for instance, is based on the implications of using computers to live another life and to perform work and social roles, where she asked: â€Å"Are we living life on the screen or in the screen?† (Turkle, 1995, p. 39). The conclusion is effective in compelling readers to look into their own computer interactions and how it shapes their identities. The structure of the article helps readers understand the connection between what dreams and beasts can do then and what computers do now to human nature. In order to support the analytical structure and to provide evidence, Turkle employed ethos and logos. Before further discussing her claims about machines and human users, Turkle explained the ethos of her analysis. She described that she has interviewed more than a thousand computer users for the past ten years, in order to understand how people use computers and how computers interact with users (Turkle, 1995, p. 36). By providing her work experience, Turkle estab lished her ethos that can make her a convincing expert on analyzing computer-mediated communication. Aside from ethos, Turkle relied on pathos to emphasize her inferential analysis. She provided examples of how computers mimicked people successfully enough to pass as humans. A case in illustration is Julia, a â€Å"bot† that computer scientist Michel L. Mauldin of Carnegie Mellon University created. Turkle (1995) described the wide range of activities that Julia can perform, which made it seem more like human than machine, because Julia can â€Å"chat about hockey, keep track of players’ whereabouts, gossip and flirt† (p. 37). Julia presents strong evidence that machines are humanized through its ability to

Metaphysics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Metaphysics - Essay Example Although, eventually Plato's philosophical ideas could have laid the groundwork to influence the formulation of the idea of metaphysics (Walsh 1963, 34), the attempt to explain the ultimate causes and underlying nature of things, matter. The vast array of philosophers and philosophies conceptualizing the ultimate causes and underlying nature of things, familiarly known as metaphysics would most likely believe that the theory was grounded on the basic principles of Socrates rather than on his subsequent followers who had been his students. Obviously, this could be taken along the logic of passing on body of knowledge regarding metaphysics concepts by educators to students. One good way to view Socrates theory on the nature of matter is to see what were the principles developed by his successor along the ultimate causes and underlying nature of things, metaphysics. For example, according to Walsh (1963, 20), Plato expressed the idea that 'wisdom and understanding could come only if men would abandon belief for knowledge'. Obviously, this practice would engage an aggressive separation with what went before as a way of life (Walsh, 1963, 20). It also includes doing away with past behaviors. As well, it meant doing away with traditional views. Additionally, this would call for a battery of restraint.

Multimedia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Multimedia - Essay Example Digital information refers to the system of information based on discontinuous data or events. In addition, digital literacy defines the overall ability of identifying, utilizing, evaluating, creating, and manipulating information using digital technology, which incorporates the use of discrete and discontinuous values. Such data is expressed in terms of strings of zeroes and ones i.e. 0’s and 1’s, where each of these state digits being referred as a binary digit (Anon, 2009). The emergence of digital information has resulted in the introduction of and adoption of digital technology, which has provided innovations such as digital computers, laptops, digital cameras, iPads, and other digital electronics that have enhanced the digital information processing, and dissemination of digital information. The computing machines distinguish and use only the two binary values of 0’s and 1’s. Digital literacy has been adopted within the higher education because of th e technology change and the need for information access. Higher education includes tertiary institutions such as Colleges, Universities among others. Such institutions have vast number of individuals who need to access more information in terms of research, and within their studying environments to complete assignments and projects. Availability of the internet and networking technologies has efficiently enabled the access, distribution, and communication among individuals using digital literacy. Benefits of digital literacy Digital technology has led to the growth and constant adoption of digital literacy, which has promoted the following benefits. It has enabled majority of the individuals within the higher learning institutions to have constant access to information concerning their courses, performing online assessments and assignments for their academic progress. Learning course materials have been easily uploaded on the major academic sites including the various blackboard sit es for institutions for the students to easily access information, perform online assignments, and submit results for assessment. This has reduced the bulkiness of paperwork within the learning environment and reduced the time required for completion of assignments by both the students and their lecturers. Digital literacy has enabled individuals to make plans, chat with friends, get news concerning academics and the entire world, perform constant downloads for books, software, movies and music from online music stores, and access online shopping through e-commerce sites and companies (Anon, 2009). The technology has increased learner effectiveness, efficiency, engagement, and development of positive student attitudes towards learning. There has been a change in the student behavior in terms of readiness to learning, and integration of the students in the learning process of digital literacy (Underwood, 2009). Technology use Digital literacy technology can be adopted in classroom se ssions by using computing machines (personal computers and portable laptops, iPads among others) which are connected to output devices such as projectors, which output the information. The course materials including lecture notes, assignments, and student results are uploaded on the institution’s intranet, including the e-learning blackboard site and easily downloaded for use in the classrooms with students. In the workplace, such technology can be adopted through various forms such as uploading the information on the company’s site to be accessed only by authorized staff members. Also through conferencing, using digital cameras enables individuals far from their workplace to communicate and virtual conduct meetings with the present members at the offices within the company. Technology implications Digital technology