TRENDS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

TRENDS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY - Essay Example the new appearing forms of families resulting from both demographic and structural changes occurring in the world, it is still very important to categorize it for analytical purposes. According to Rappaport and Rapaport (1982), there are five types of family diversity which are very important in understanding how family diversity takes shape in real life: It results from the different access to economic and material resources that the families may posses. Social class diversity gives rise to rich and poor families in the society and is very vital in the modern world. This is because it considerable implications on the well being of the members of the family. For example, the ability of a child to access educational opportunities is greatly determined or influenced by the social class and economic well being of the family. Children from poor or underprivileged families may not have good life as compared to those from well-t-do families. It refers to the different types of family organization which develop different realities for its members. Compare for instance single parent families (where children live with only one parent) with reconstituted families (which are as a result of divorce and remarriage) with dual career families (where both parents work outside the home). Merely all families go through various stages of development and families which are in their early stages of development are quite different from those in their late stages of development. The stages of families in the life cycle lead to different experiences of family life for each individual member of the family. It results from the difference in cultural preferences and arrangements that exist around the world. In the UK the nuclear families are the typical family arrangements with children and their parents staying or living differently and independently with considerable autonomy from their kin. In china, the family arrangement is the stem family where two or more generations live

500 word essay symbolism in the short story the glass menagerie

500 word symbolism in the short story the glass menagerie - Essay Example One of the first symbols encountered by the reader is the fire escape. The fire escape represents both a literal and symbolic way to leave the house. It also represents a major them in the story – the need to escape. Williams describes the Wingfield house and makes note of the fire escape. He explains â€Å"huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation† (scene i). Certainly this is true of the Wingfield family. Tom wishes to escape from his boring job and current lifestyle because â€Å"Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse!† (scene ii). He does succeed, occasionally, in finding comfort in movies, drinking, and magic shows. The fire escape represents his ultimate path to his freedom. His regular trips onto the fire escape to smoke foreshadows the permanent abandonment of his family. In the final speech of the story, Tom states â€Å"I descended the steps of this fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space† (scene vii). Laura wishes to escape too. However, she seeks refuge not in the real world but within the house and a reality all her own. The fire escape protects her from the outside world. She wishes to isolate herself from the world where her deformity is laughed at and her shy spirit is crushed. Even when she ventures out on to the fire escape she slips representing another failed attempt at entering the real world (scene iv). is a symbol of the affection that Laura seeks and the cruelty that world offers her. Blue roses are both unusual and mysterious which reflects Lauras personality. The nick name while seemingly affectionate was actually a play on the term â€Å"pleurosis† which Laura suffered from in her childhood. Additional, the use of the name Rose pays

Primary Drawbacks of Net Present Value as Capital Budgeting Technique Assignment

Primary Drawbacks of Net Present Value as Capital Budgeting Technique - Assignment Example This entire process has multiple loopholes, for instance the uncertainty that is prevailing when it comes to estimating future cash flows of that investment opportunity is high enough to put this technique under scrutiny. Next loophole is regarding the discount rate that is used to reach the present value of a cash flow. Again the accuracy of discount rate used is of critical importance in determining the correct value of the cash flow’s present value. This makes NPV value dependent or sensitive to the value of discount rate and forecasted cash flows. Third loophole that is pretty much evident from the assessment of this tool is that this tool takes into account information that is present at the time of decision making, thus it does not take into account changes in the initial conditions of an investment opportunity. The fourth loophole that can be seen is that this tool is only applicable when projects being assessed are tangible and quantifiable. And in reality firms undert ake certain projects that are aimed at enhancing the brand equity, such projects are out of the scope of NPV (Kent & English, 2011). Question # 2: Comparison of Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return: This tool or technique is another capital budgeting technique. IRR is the discount rate that turns the net present value of forecasted cash flows from an investment opportunity equal to zero. ... A decision regarding a particular investment opportunity that is based on NPV technique will find itself under scrutiny when assessed using IRR technique. While this fact is not true for independent projects where both techniques will yield similar results, but when it comes to mutually exclusive projects (one project or the other) these tools do not yield a consistent result. The reason behind this conflict is that the set of investment opportunity that is being assessed consists of projects that vary in their size and timings of their future cash flows (Helfert, 2004). So it is clear that if a company is deciding between two investment opportunities, it will encounter a problem when it is using NPV and IRR to assess the value of these investment opportunities for the company. In this conflicting situation the company shall have to decide whether it will make its decision based on NPP or IRR (Helfert, 2004). Question # 3: Avenues to raise equity for a Profit Driven Firm: A profit dr iven firm, if assumed to be a corporation, has multiple options at its disposal to raise new equity capital. The first option that it has is to go to its existing shareholder for additional capital. The second option it has is to add more shareholders into the company by offering new share in the primary market. The third option available to a profit driven firm is that it can seek help from a venture capitalist firm; again this will be in exchange for some portion of the company’s equity. The fourth option available to the company is that it asks a bank for a loan in return for interest payments. These mentioned options are most suited to meet the company’s short-term capital requirement

500 word essay symbolism in the short story the glass menagerie

500 word symbolism in the short story the glass menagerie - Essay Example One of the first symbols encountered by the reader is the fire escape. The fire escape represents both a literal and symbolic way to leave the house. It also represents a major them in the story – the need to escape. Williams describes the Wingfield house and makes note of the fire escape. He explains â€Å"huge buildings are always burning with the slow and implacable fires of human desperation† (scene i). Certainly this is true of the Wingfield family. Tom wishes to escape from his boring job and current lifestyle because â€Å"Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse!† (scene ii). He does succeed, occasionally, in finding comfort in movies, drinking, and magic shows. The fire escape represents his ultimate path to his freedom. His regular trips onto the fire escape to smoke foreshadows the permanent abandonment of his family. In the final speech of the story, Tom states â€Å"I descended the steps of this fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space† (scene vii). Laura wishes to escape too. However, she seeks refuge not in the real world but within the house and a reality all her own. The fire escape protects her from the outside world. She wishes to isolate herself from the world where her deformity is laughed at and her shy spirit is crushed. Even when she ventures out on to the fire escape she slips representing another failed attempt at entering the real world (scene iv). is a symbol of the affection that Laura seeks and the cruelty that world offers her. Blue roses are both unusual and mysterious which reflects Lauras personality. The nick name while seemingly affectionate was actually a play on the term â€Å"pleurosis† which Laura suffered from in her childhood. Additional, the use of the name Rose pays

Contamination and Risk Assessment in Environmental Law Essay

Contamination and Risk Assessment in Environmental Law - Essay Example In a nutshell, substance, range and quantity are key in this third level. The last stage involved risk characterization that looks at the data collected and its relevance to the environmental stressor. Transparency, clarity, consistency and reason are the principles that guide this stage. Ecological risk assessment is concerned with the potential risk f substances on a whole range of organisms including birds, mammals, and reptiles in the rivers. Human health risk assessment, on the other hand, is more interested with the lives of individual beings. Both of these concepts employ the same models, however, ecological risk assessment involved foraging range omitted in human health risk assessment. Ecological risk assessment heavily relies on physical impacts of the substance. For example, it considers the physical abnormalities on the animals, changes in color of the plants among others. The national resource damage assessment and restoration (NRDAR) projects aim to rehabilitate the environment mainly land and water sources from large oil spills and effects of mining activities. The program carries assessment on the damages to the environment and push for legal action from the relevant authority. The NRDA has continued to carry out many activities for the deepwater horizon spill. Some of its activities include assessing the damage the level of impacts from the spill. The project is also interested in implementing rehabilitation for the natural resources damaged during the spill. The final plan is restoration program, which will include compensation of individuals involved.

Examples of Good and Bad Essays Essay Example for Free

Examples of Good and Bad Essays Essay To give you a sense of what is acceptable writing and what is unacceptable writing, here we present six essays. These essays are possible student answers to three assignments which are similar to assignments you might receive in class. Essays 1 and 2 deal with the following question: Professions have a tendency to develop a separate terminology that only members can follow. One reason for doing so might be described as society-serving and another might be described as self-serving. In a short essay discusses which of these two reasons do you think is more important in the case of economic jargon. Essays 3 and 4 deal with the following question: The Heisenberg principle states that there is a limit to our knowledge of reality because as we study certain physical phenomena we change them. Might a Heisenberg-type principle be relevant to economics? Write a short essay explaining why or why not. Essays 5 and 6 are responses to the following: In a Wall Street Journal article, a woman named Ms. Luhrs is quoted as saying, â€Å"If you’re continually consuming, you have to keep working, you can’t get off the treadmill.† Write a short essay explaining whether this a rational statement. After presenting all six essays we grade them and provide a brief overall assessment of the essays. We also provide some specific comments about what we liked and what we didn’t like. When you read our comments, think about the process of grading. That process has, by its nature, both an objective and a subjective element to it. The objective element of grading is the easiest. The objective part of the grade is based on considerations such as: Does the essay answer the question posed? Are the grammar, formatting, spelling, and standard elements of style up to speed? There is no debate about these relatively objective issues. For example, if you don’t answer the question you’re supposed to, you probably won’t do well on the essay. And if your paper has many grammatical mistakes, you’re in trouble. The subjective element of grading works like a wild card in the grading process. Usually, there are many ways a question can be answered. Some ways will strike a chord with your reader; some won’t. The same is true with discretionary elements of style. Some professors may like your style; some won’t. For example, Colander, the guy who wrote your textbook, has a very informal, matter of fact, style. His style turns off a number of economics professors. Some of these consider his work abominable because of that style; they assign his book nonetheless, because, on objective grounds, it is a great book. (That’s a Colander ironic stylism, in case you were wondering.) And still others, we’re happy to say, like his style. (If they didn’t the book wouldn’t sell, and the Colander text would be eliminated from the market.) The point of this example is that wild cards average out, so you shouldn’t concern yourself too much with the discretionary elements of style. If you get the objective elements right, you’ll most likely do well. So concentrate on objective elements first. Essay 1 Economist’s Jargon: Unite and Divide The economics profession’s jargon serves a variety of purposes. For example, their common terminology serves to make for more precise communication. It allows ideas to be communicated clearly and exactly. This exactness and clarity of terminology serves society by allowing economists to discuss economics with each other and with society with clarity so that other economists have a better understanding of what an economist is saying. A common terminology also serves to divide insiders from outsiders. For outsiders, for example economic students, who do not have a clue what these terms mean, economists’ terminology is exclusionary. It makes economists the gatekeepers of economic ideas. Economists’ terminology serves as a barrier to entry, restricting the supply of economists, and increasing the value of the services provided by existing economists. Which of these two reasons is the strongest? To answer that question let us consider two examples given by Amanda Benn ett, the author of The Wall Street Journal article, â€Å"Economists + Meeting = A Zillion Causes and Effects† [The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 1995]. The two examples are the concepts of externality and utility, Why do economists use these terms? Based on her article, and on my classroom experience, I would judge that, of the two reasons, the self-serving reason is the stronger. Essentially, economists create their terminology primarily to make life difficult for students. Consider the first example: externality. Why no simple call externalities â€Å"unintended side effects†? It would be much easier for students to comprehend. Or alternatively, consider the second, utilities. How much clarity can the concept, utility, provide when the text tells us that, essentially, it means happiness? If it means happiness, why not use the term, happiness? The very fact that Ms. Bennett can provide a simple translation of economists’ jargon suggests that the jargon was unneeded for precise communication. And even, if there is some value added in terms of clarity of the jargon, do its costs in additional memorization for students, outweighs the gain. For me, the answer is clearly, no. Actually, to answer anything other than economists are self-serving would show that I have not done my homework. Economists’ basic premise is that people are self-serving. Why should economists be any different. With a difficult to learn economic terminology, economists can create a monopoly position for themselves; they can restrict supply and increase price for their services. To quote the textbook, â€Å"people do what they do because it’s in their self interest.† Thus, the preponderance of the evidence suggests that economists have developed their economic jargon with their self-interest, not society’s interest, in mind. I think the self serving reason why professions develop a separate terminology that only members can follow is more important because people are greedy and always want what is good for them, not what is good for society because of the problems of the barriers to entry and the free rider and thus, the self serving reason is more important. On the other hand, it is good for society if professions develop a separate terminology that only members can follow because then everyone can understand them, and they can understand each other. A common terminology permits effective interpersonal communication, thereby resulting in clear, complete, open dialogue. So in a way, the society-serving causes of professionals’ terminology outweigh the self-serving causes because if we didn’t have it, then we wouldn’t be able to understand the weighty and eloquent locutions spoken by the eminent economists of yesteryear and today. For these reasons, I think that sometimes the society-serving reason is the most important. This the intellectual importance of the self-serving reason which is also the most important sometimes. The whole theory of the principle of rational choice theory which says that one should do that which yields the maximum marginal utility according to your self interest which is to say that selfishness is the thing that drives most people. Economists do not find it in their best selfish interest to use normal English to discuss economic theory because then everyone would be speaking it in the society, and the marginal utility is low. Instead of that, economists developed a terminology which only they could use, so people would have to attend institutions of higher learning to make it possible for them to profess economic tenets. This is called barriers to entry because people are barred from entering the world of economics by the insurmountable difficulties in attaining a sufficiently acceptable level of proficiency in the economics terminology. Barriers to entry create monopolies, market structures in which one firm makes up the entire market. Three important barriers to entry are natural ability, increasing returns to scale, and government restrictions, economics terminology can’t really be considered any of these because it’s more similar to learning by doing. Also the free rider problem undermines people’s willingness to perform service to their society further strengthening the argument that self-serving reasons have prompted economists to adopt their own terminology. Keeping people from becoming economists or talking about economics through the language barrier. This causes another dramatic consequence. The supply for economists is restricted, so that each economist who exists in the present market for economists may value their work at a higher price. So as you can see, the most important reason is the self-serving one, and subsequently, economists’ use of an economic terminology results in increased benefit to the economists at the expense of society. The society-serving reason pales in comparison. A quick skim of The Wall Street Journal on a daily basis for just a week should prove to you that the Heisenberg principle does indeed apply to economics. The Wall Street Journal provides daily analyses of economic events and economists’ perspectives on what has happened as well as what is likely to happen. The Wall Street Journal ‘s curculation is evidence that these analyses are taken seriously by both businesspeople and consumers. To see how economists’ predictions change the course of economic events, look at economists’ assessment of leading and coincidental indicators and the subsequent movement up or down in the markets for stocks and bonds. Leading indicators are used to predict what is likely to happen in the future, while coincidental indicators are used to describe the economy’s current condition. When the economists say that the indicators demonstrate that the economy is in a recession or entering a recession, consumers and businesses react immediately to prepare for the anticipated recession by reducing consumption and investing more cautiously. This often serves to hasten the onset of a recession, fullfilling the economists’ original prediction. In turn, if consumers and businesses expect good times ahead, they invest and spend their money more confidently. High levels of investment and consumption translate to strong economic growth. An examination of â€Å"Orders for Durable Goods Plunge by 6%,† [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1995] yields an example of how this cycle works. Note Marilyn Schaja’s prediction that the Fed will move toward â€Å"an easier policy stance† and the reaction of investors in the bond markets to this statement and others similar to it; the bond market soared due to speculation that interest rates might be cut soon. This is only one example of how economists’ predictions directly affect the bond market, but the bond market rises and falls dramatically each day in response to speculation about what the Fed will do or whether the economy is predicted to speed up or slow down. Other examples abound on the second page of The Wall Street Journal. But economists are not gods. They cannot know for sure what is going to happen to the economy, and they often disagree with one another. When there is a majority consensus, the Heisenberg principle operates in full force. Businesses and consumers are often susceptible to the majority opinion, and economists’ predictions will likely be fulfilled just because the predictions have been made. When all economists seem to disagree, the individual is left to make his own decisions. In this case, the outcome is less predictable, and it might seem that the observed is less likely to be affected by the process of observation. I don’t think the Hiesenberg principle can be relevent to economics because its a phisics principal. Phisics and economics are two different subjects, phisics being a natural science, and economics being a social science. I don’t think that economic predictions have anything to do with the events that they predict. The article compares economists to meteoroligists. Meterologists’ predictions don’t change the whether, so economists predictions don’t change the economy. This means that the Hieisenburg isn’t appliable. Underlying economic reasoning is economists’ analysis of individual choice. That analysis is based upon the observation that, generally, people act according to their rational self-interest, trying to get as much pleasure as possible out of life. From this proposition and subsequent measurement of pleasure, comes economists’ basic principle of rational choice: spend your money on those goods that give you the most marginal utility per dollar. An economist would use this principle to assess whether or not Ms. Luhrs’s statement is rational. If Ms. Luhrs calculated the marginal utility per dollar of leisure to be greater than that of consumption of material goods, and thus, work, her statement would be assumed to be rational by economists. The article, â€Å"When Shopping Sprees Pall, Some Seek the Simple Life,† [The Wall Street Journal, May 24, 19995] discusses that the decision is hers and that it has been made after careful thought. For example, Ms. Luhrs’s statement â€Å"It’s a freedom thing, the way I see it,† demonstrates the high value she gives to freedom, and the low value she gives to material goods. The fact that many people do not share her valuation of leisure versus material wealth is irrelevant to the issue. There is nothing in economics that says that people must want more and more material things. A second part of the principle of rational choice is the principle of diminishing marginal utility: as our consumption of an item increases, the marginal utility obtained from each unit decreases. It could be argued that Ms. Luhrs is demonstrating this principle: that after a certain point, work and consumption of material goods becomes less and less satisfying; the marginal utili ty of consumption of material goods falls. No, it is not rational because according to the economic theory, you should spend your money on those goods which yield the maximum utility per dollar. MUx/Px must equal MUy/Py. If MUx/Px is less than MUy/Py, than it is the consumer’s duty to buy more of good Y. If MUy/Py is less than MUx/Px, than the consumer must use more of good X. When you work more, you can consume more, each additional unit yielding additional, marginal utility, so you continually increase the sum of your total utility. Following the tradition of economic reasoning, more is better. She may be right about that treadmill because there is a cycle in which consumption results from work which necessitates further consumption, but theory would indicate that this is a positive, self-perpetuating cycle because increased consumption yields increased utility, therefore maximizing utility. The book says that the rule to follow is to vary consumption until the marginal utility for every dollar for one thing that you are consuming is the same as the marginal utility for every dollar for another thing that you are consuming. Ms. Luhr’s dissatisfaction from her current status in our society must come from her failure to vary her consumption of a variety of material goods. For goods, the marginal utility may start to be less than it was before after a while, and then we are advised to switch our buying to other goods. Ms. Luhr needs to find the goods which work for her. Then she wouldn’t be talking about the negative aspects of work because it is work which allows her to consume and maximize her utility. Her utils are at their highest the more she consumes. In my view Ms. Luhr is succumbing to her emotions rather than her logic because everyone knows that increased work yields increased wealth and increased utility, and this is the ultimate goal of a rational person who is acting selfishly which is how economists think people act. If Ms. Luhr were truly being selfish and self-interested, she would obtain greater satisfaction from greater consumption, but her statement is defying this tenet of rationality which is so important to economic reasoning. She doesn’t want more. She must be irrational.

Operations and Business Strategy of McDonalds

Operations and Business Strategy of McDonalds INTRODUCTION: McDonald is a very popular fast food business which is operating all over the world. It started its operations in sixties and currently it is serving worldwide chain of 30,000 restaurants. McDonald restaurant has a quality that it serves its product according to the culture of that region where they are operating. Several artifacts of modern world has been very well organized as Macdonalds famous product, promotional plan with the famed toys and films, its participation in the aid organization and its dispersion classified adds. More than 75% of McDonald is owned and operated by local men and women. Its serves more than 40million people per day. It gets about 82% of its revenue from 8 different countries which include Japan, Korea, Australia, France, Germany and USA. But the biggest achievements got by McDonald in these countries is creating a good name and brand image in peoples mind and hygiene cautions are the main driving advantage it has which helps the Macdonald to attract many customers. They have created a corporate symbol and saturated advertisement has helped the Macdonald by creating a good brand name and image of logo in the millions of people mind. Overall McDonald planned plan is called plan to succeed. There focal point is not to be the biggest fast food chain in the world but the finest fast food chain. McDonald planned philosophy in the rear this plan is generates recovered experience through the finishing of multiple proposals immediate the five factor of incomparable customer understanding. (McDonald, 2009) A key element of the MacDonald strategy since the beginning has been to own all the property on which the MacDonald was built doesnt matter the property is franchised or company owned. Rental money differs from property to property but it has been estimated that McDonald generate more money from its rents of the property than the franchise fees it charges. The success of the MacDonald since its beginning can be attributed to the customers service it provides. Each restaurant wants to have a good brand image by giving quality food and good customers services. In both field McDonald has made its name as it is providing quality and cheap food together with quality service. It has come with a limited menu but with great improvements. Another invention was the introduction of the play area. MacDonald is continuing new inventions to facilitate the mass customization process. In 2001 McDonalds began standardizing its technology its existing point of sale system with the office system in more than 11,000 stores in the United States. The company is investing in a common point of sale which will be available to use all over the world in its branches. (typepad, 2009) McDonalds make possible the replace of value by matching the money paid by customers with quality and diversity of products and services resulting to the customer feeling of having acknowledged their moneys significance and even more than what they compensated for. McDonald objective the customer happiness by food preparation the penchant to formulate the customers feels satisfied about the cost exchange. McDonald is advice for the family or friends get-together as well. MCDONALDS VISION To be the best and leading fast food provider around the globe MISSION STATEMENT McDonalds vision is to be the worlds best quick service restaurant experience. Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, value, and cleanliness so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile OPERATIONS AND BUSINESS STRATEGY Business strategy is defined as it is a long term planning of a business with specific goals and target within a specific time with the available resources. It is a management plan constructed by the top level of management in order to make the business runs in profit. In McDonald the business strategy for the company is to make food fast available to its customers at a very low competitive price but to get profit as well by reducing the cost of the product and expanding the business world wide. Operations strategies play a very important role in achieving organizational goals. By using these strategies an organization controls and maintains all of its operations. So these should make after a comprehensive marketing analysis according to capabilities and resources of an organization. Operation management strategies in McDonald are being made by made by top management. These strategies are implemented in all the branches of the McDonald and these strategies are distributed to all its franchise branches in the written form. So there are operational managers in all the branches that control all operational activities. McDonald has adopted a strategy which is based on the three sections. This strategy has emphasizing on the customer importance and customers satisfaction. As the company has increased using the information technology, it has developed new ideas to improve the operational activities of the business. With the introduction of stock control data base system, it avoids unnecessary ordering; keep the stock up to date in store. It has become very easy and time saving now to order the stock. Stockrooms are directly attached to point of sale system and the manager knows what product is moving fast and how much he should order more products. (typepad, 2009) REDUCING COST WITH MORE EFFICIENT EQUIPMENT The challenge facing the global equipment suppliers when they design the fryers for our restaurants is to develop such kind of equipment that are more energy efficient and gives better taste while improving the crew efficiency and using less cooking oil. The low down oil quantity Fryer is the next age band fryer. LOV improves cooking efficiency, simplifies filtering and cleaning, and provide enhanced environmental benefits. The LOVs ground-breaking design allows restaurants to roast the same sum of produce with in the region of 40% smaller amount oil. It in addition uses more or less 4 % a lesser amount of liveliness than average fryers. (Gallagher, 2003) In McDonald lighting represent an important role in reducing the cost of its operations. McDonald uses fluorescent low consumption lighting in the kitchen. Tests revealed that each restaurant saves 11,000kWh of electricity each year. Packaging plays an important role of McDonald brand not only for quality, integrity and safety but also in its visibility to our customers. McDonald also use its cooking oil in its transport operation which has significantly reduces the cost of operation as well. Its not policy of McDonald to make its employee work efficiently but with limited resources but it provides everything to its staff they required to do the the job efficiently and according to health and safety methods. It helps the McDonald to get more productivity and get more revenue and improve its services. In order to achieve its business strategy goals, McDonald is emphasizing more and more on reducing its cost of operational activities. In order to reduce the cost McDonalds purchases most of the vegetables especially potatoes directly from farmers, this help the McDonald not even to cut the cost of chips production but also get fresh vegetable for salad for its customers. This also helps McDonald to not get effected by the fluctuations in the market prices. (typepad, 2009) Aside from offering hamburgers and fresh fries, McDonald has start serving the family treat and as a community centre for the senior citizen. It has also start giving indoor playgrounds and promotional toys to its kids as well. As this movement begins there is an addition of extra service-oriented equipment is desired. They can carry out studies and review to improve knows which among the different possibilities serves the companys target in good way. These will involve robots to do order tacking in replace of humans, automated processes of food in McDonald has (typepad, 2009) McDonald has a policy to be in the market as a market leader. In order to keep its leadership it keeps low cost and gets more income by selling food at cheap price. Food made with the help of machine is considered more hygienic; however the continuous development in the technology McDonald and especially its employees as they have to serve quick services. Computers and smart cashiers are used by the employees so that they would not get confused and they are provided with customized database management system. These all operational activities are conducted in all the branches of McDonald worldwide in order to successfully implement the business strategy of the McDonald. MCDONALD LAYOUT, PROCESS TYPE AND USE OF TECHNOLOGIES MCDONALD KITCHEN LAYOUT The strategy refers to the overall working and general environment offered by the McDonald. It includes the personal level, service and product layout, interior and exterior. McDonald has a policy to serve the fresh food to it customers in a minimum time and at the same time they want to get as many as possible customers to get the more income. The most important thing on which McDonald operational department concentrate is the customers satisfaction. Customers satisfaction can only be achieved if it serves the customers with a good quality food in a quickly with minimum price. In order to perform this whole process McDonald has a very specific type of layout. This layout gives an easy access to the staff to serves the customers in a quick way. At the till when a staff serves the customer, staff has a everything in its reach required by the customer. (Gallagher, 2003) McDonald keep maximum number of tills opens to serves the customers and each staff takes average one minute to serves the customer. The chairs are arranged in such a way that it gives a minimum disruption to the people who are standing in the queue. In the kitchen department McDonald has selected high efficiency fryers which take minimum time to fry the chips. Operations manager has assigned the task to different staff members according to their ability. McDonald get most of the things in ready to serve form from its main headquarter which decrease the cost of producing the food and it also help the McDonald to keep the quality same all over its stores. Staff in McDonald only has to put the food in oil and it gets ready to serve. It also helps the McDonald to save lot of storage cost. In order to keep the system runs smoothly McDonald always keeps good relation with the suppliers. Their supplier makes sure that they deliver the goods to McDonald in the minimum possible time. (Swearingen, 2003) STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF LAYOUT Proper layout enables: It makes the utilization of space, equipment and people more efficient. It enables the movements of information, materials and peoples more effective. It boosts the employee morale and helps to provide him safer working conditions. It helps to improve the customers relations with clients. Flexibility Layout design mean the overall working and general environment offered by the McDonald. It includes the personal level, service and product layout, interior and exterior etc. STRATEGIES: Exterior McDonald sets its premises in proper manner to handle any number of customers easily. The building design is standard world wide but it may be have some difference in size or in exterior according to the location. It enables them to save time, satisfy their customers, comfortable environment for both employees and customers. Ray Kroc was the first person in McDonalds history who took the initative to franchise the McDonald. He also maintain the McDonald outlooks, its signs and layout same every where in the world which has directly improved the sale of the company. As it has an attractive layout and eye catching sign boards. Interior: Interiors areset to be depoliticized. In addition to new restaurant lighting, menu boards, artwork and graphics, new materials will offer choice when it comes to decor selection. Technology perks include Wi-Fi, programmed music, and video. (typepad, 2009) MCDONALDS USE OF TECHNOLOGIES McDonalds has invested a huge amount of money on creating a technology board which has help the McDonald to adopt new and new technologies in its operations with time. The main job of this board is to recommend the management to buy those kind of equipment which are very effective in saving the energy as well as are more productive. In 2001 McDonald has start investing money in the improvements of point to sale ordering system and at the same time linking the point to sale system with the back office computer in all over the world. So this thing has helped the management to know what actually happening inside the business. What customer likes and what they dislikes. McDonald has invested capital in the improvement of electronic payment system as well which has make possible to process the transactions in less than 4 seconds. (swearingen, 2003) McDonald uses the best equipment to carry out the day to day operation in its outlet. MCDONALD EXPLOTATION OF VALUE CHAIN AND QUALITY PORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Competition Restaurant industry is highly competitive industry. There are many small fast food businesses in the industry that fight each other to improve their customer base. McDonald is not exception to this. Since it establishment in 1940, MCD has excelled in this sector. Nevertheless to stay in the competition, it started with MCafe. This helped the company to stay in the business as a major fast food business. Another major step came out when McDonald started breakfast to compete with the existing businesses serving breakfast. Hence this industry is extremely competitive and the MDC should be up to date with customer taste and preferences. Quality is very important for McDonald in order to stay in the market but at the same time it has to keep the prices minimum to maintain the cost leadership. Ease of entry Although it is hard to enter in the restaurant business as it demand a lot of investment and it is hard to establish a distinct brand name as well. There is a cost of entry in the market and there is high research and development cost. Large established companies like McDonald perform compose it more easier said than done to enter and achieve something within the souk, new entrant find with the intention of they are facade with worth antagonism from offered string eating place. At the same McDonald working hard to maintain the quality same throughout the time. It is aware that if it compromise on its quality then it will make very much easier for the new entrant to attract the customers with better quality of its food products. Substitutes McDonald keeps a very close watch on its quality because it is aware that customers have many others substitutes of its food products. e.g MDC burgers, Beverages and dairy products. Strength of Suppliers The suppliers power in the fast food manufacturing is quite miniature unless the foremost feature of the item for consumption is not voluntarily on hand. Strength of Buyers Relatively strength of buyers in this industry is relatively low.(Ifm, 2009) PORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS OF VALUE CHAIN The main objectives of these kinds of activities are to give the customer a level of value which is more than the cost of activities. This has enables the McDonald to gain more profits. The primary value chain activities are: Inbound Logistics Inbound logistics is the raw material McDonald received in its warehouse and then distribute it to different branches according to their requirements McDonald has an efficient warehousing and transporting goods to its branches. All the products are made in the warehousing and goods are distributed as per the requirement of each branch. Operations It is the activities which are being conducted in order to transform the inputs into finished products and services. McDonald has a very good operation system as it has trained staff for each task in the kitchen. Most of its product is already in the ready to serve form. All they have to put them in the ovens or in the oil and the product get ready to serve in the minimum possible time which normally takes from 1-5 minutes. Outbound Logistics Outbound logistics mean to keep the finished goods in warehouses and then distribute them to different branches. McDonald has a very well established transporting system. As all of its products are prepared at the warehouse, so in order to improve the distribution process it has applied the IT technology which inform the warehouse body that which branch is running out of the products, so before the products get finished it immediately make available the product to the branch. This process is very cost effective as branches do not need to have the stock room for the goods. Marketing Sale It is a complete science that McDonald use to market its products in order to generate more sales. Service All the extra activities which are provided to customers even after the sale of goods. The primary activities are supported by : Technology development Technologies helps the McDonald to access the activities done inside the business which are as follow: Cost advantage Keep a eye on the costs and minimizing it out of the value adding actions. According to the porters five forces analysis McDonald competes with the forces which are inside the business in order to gain the maximum profitability. So it proves that business profitability is took place in the porters five forces mode. (Ifm, 2009) Further there are Secondary support activities which directly supporting the operational activities of the business. HRM department make it possible for the business to get the energetic people to perform the operations. They always keep motivating the staff to work hard. The Management makes possible to select the technology which is cost effective together with the efficiency. CONCLUSION McDonald is a very well established organization. The success of the McDonald is completely based on the extensive research of the market internal and external forces. It has done research on the people behavior of specific country, on their culture, buying power and social issue. McDonald has paid special attention on the location of the business, its interior and exterior outlook and types of technologies it going to use to get the maximum production at short time. The most important thing which it focused on was the quality and the market forces which directly affect the business. REFERENCES Publications from McDonald web site. McDonald culture and history. 2009. [online]. [Accessed on 4 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/work/companyhistory.html. Publications from biz/ed web site. McDonald. 2009. [online]. [Accessed on 5 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/mcdonalds/mcindex.htm. Publications from typepad web site. McDonalds business Strategy. 2009. [Accessed on 5 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/02/mcdonalds-business-strategy.html. GALLANGHER, S. 2003. McDonalds technology trials.[online]. [Accessed on 10 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Management/McDonalds-Technology-Trials/. SWEARINGEN, J. 2000. Operations Management, Layout Strategy. [online]. [Accessed on 11 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://online.uis.edu/spring2000/bus322/lectures/chap09/sld001.htm. Publications from Ifm website. Porters value chain. [online]. [Accessed on 23 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/paradigm/valuch.html. PAUL, J. 2005. International Business. New Delhi. 2nd Edition. Ashoke K Gosh. Publications from typepad web site. McDonalds business Strategy. 2009. [Accessed on 5 December 2009]. Available from World Wide Web: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/02/strategic-business-analysis-of-mcdonalds.html