Tesco. Ligeher Essay Example for Free

Tesco. Ligeher Essay Opening: Hallo, Ladies and Gentleman Thank you for inviting me to speak at this conference. It is a pleasure for me to be here today at the London School of Economics and it is great to see so many business students at one place. Introduction: My name is Sir Alen Iverson and I am the PR assistant at Tesco, the largest British supermarket chain. And today I would like to talk a little about retail market general. How it has developed the last couple of years. And I talk about Tesco’s current problems and finally I will comment on the company’s efforts to solve them taking the changing consumer behavior into consideration. I expect my presentation will last about 30 to 45 minutes Feel free to ask any questions, speculations or something that you cannot understand you might have during my presentation. The world and the  retailing is different from what it used to be. People wants bigger things now and that is the reason why we need to gather all the stores in one place. Shopping malls are the new today. All the small convenience stores cannot compete with the big shopping malls where you have the oppurtunity to shop all what you want. Many consumers do not have the time to run around from one shop to another to find what they are looking after, therefore the consumers prefer to shop in one big shopping mall. An example of a very successful retail outlet is Tesco. Tesco is a supermarket which contain pretty much everything you need. Tesco is gathering information about their customers through a club card, so if the customers change their way of buying Tesco will be first to know it. But you cannot knpw everything.. As the most of you probably know, then Tesc o had some of our worst years in history. In Januar we came out with a profit warning showing that we have hadlower profits as expected. Tesco’s shares have fallen 20 % and it has an expected loss of the market value of 5 billion pound sterling. After Tesco ´s many successful years we have changed our boss, CEO Chief Terry Leahy who had been CEO from march 1997 until march 2011. He made Tesco expand so much, that some thought of him to be â€Å"too successful† and he was criticised a lot because of this. The critics thought that he had forgotten to tighten the economics, and to keep focus on our driver’s values, which is Quality and Service. The new CEO is Philip Clark who ´s expected to get Tesco back on the right track. He will obviously be facing a long and hard task. We had an ill-fated price drop, which means that we went from being a quality store, to a discount store. This also meant that we did not live up to our costumers expectations. The consequences of this was that we decided to drop 182 of our branches. Then we could reconnect with the costumers and change our corporate culture. Another way that we thought we could make this possible was by introducing the new private label called Every Day Value. This would give the customers a chance to buy quality products for a reasonable price. Further more we opened a few bakeries in our stores to give the customers a better experience. Then we made some further research on our products, by asking our costumers what they thought of them, referring to design and colours. It turned out that our costumers thought our colours to be â€Å"too hard†. A result of this research was that we added softer colours of course. We at Tesco have received a lot of complaints from our customers referring to the lack of employees to give a better service and empty shelves. Thats why we ´ve planed to employ twenty thousand extra employees. So far we ´ve managed to employ an estimated 8000 new employees to improve the service and to avoid the empty shelves. In the year 2007 Tesco founded Fresh Easy in the United States of America. But Tesco should have waited. It was a really bad timing. Fresh Easy failed to take off and you could probably blame it on financial crises. Therefore we decided to shut it down. To solved these problems we have invested 150 million pounds in online shopping, which mainly is for selling non-food products. Then we made an app for the use on your phone. This will make it possible for you to shop from your phone, and go straight down to our stores and pick up our products, which of course is ready to go. By doing these things and keeping on we can now all ready see that our sales has increased by 1,3% and we will keep on investing in the stores on the United Kingdom market with about 1 billion pounds. In Tesco, we have chosen to make it possible for our customers to become members of the shop chain. That gives our customers benefits every time they shop in our stores and create loyalty to Tesco. And at the same time memberships give useful information about the shoppers purchase patterns. The weekday is very stressful for many people, so we need to make it easier to do the daily shopping. One option could be to use Internet based shopping to help the customers save time. In times where the number of smartphones are increasing, a free application that enable users to easily order product from the stores with a few finger clicks, would help people to save time and use their spare time for other useful things. One problem when you are shopping in a retail store is that you might end up in a long line. Most people shop at the same time of the day, that is, when they are getting home from work. That creates problems with long lines at the cash disk. To prevent all that wast of time waiting in line, you could install small cash disks with self-service to make the payment much faster for the busy customers. We have already seen self-service cash disks but in Tesco we think that self-service cash disk will be a part of the future shopping to a much higher degree. Finally, let me sum up the main points of my presentation on this subject: * How the retail market, the world and us customers has changed. * Tesco terrible 12 months and how we will solve the problems * Ideas of shopping in the future – E-business, but still physical stores I believe that we at Tesco have done a great job so far. But there is still a long way to go. If we want to keep on being one of the biggest companies in the world we have to keep on focusing on the constant changing culture and behaviour of our costumers. Every one of you is different and you all have different desires. We will make Tesco just the right shop for you! Thank you for listening and again my name is Alen Iverson and I hope you liked or join my speech. Thank you! [ 1 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_mall [ 2 ]. http://www.tesco.com/ [ 3 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco_Clubcard and Tesco, Philip Clarke 1 (4:03) [ 4 ]. Tescos Terrible 12 Months [ 5 ]. Tescos Terrible 12 Months [ 6 ]. Tesco: Domestic Turnaround a Priority [ 7 ]. Tescos Terrible 12 Months [ 8 ]. Tescos Terrible 12 Months and Tesco: Domestic Turnaround a Priority [ 9 ]. Tesco: Domestic Turnaround a Priority [ 10 ]. Tesco: Domestic Turnaround a Priority [ 11 ]. Tesco, Philip Clarke 1 (4:03) and 2 (4:53) [ 12 ]. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2135553/The-self-service-checkout-The-site-new-middle-class-rebellion.html [ 13 ]. Tesco, Philip Clarke 1 (4:03) and 2 (4:53)

New Deal America :: American America History

New Deal America The stock market crash of 1929 helped launch the United States and many other nations into the worst economic depression in history. The severity of the Great Depression called for federal government programs to protect the general welfare of citizens. The New Deal programs created by Franklin D. Roosevelt provided the framework for the welfare state that still serves as a basis for American public policy. All aspects of American society suffered during the Great Depression. By 1932, there were thirteen million people unemployed. There was no security for the millions who lost all of their savings in the bank failure or stock market crash. Volunteer organizations attempted to help the needy, but their resources were simply not adequate (Madaras and SoRelle 218). Hope seemed non-existent. Americans had never seen such a severe depression. They could not look to history for guidance. The New Deal was Roosevelt's attempt to restore the economy. His willingness to act decisively and experiment with new policies set him apart from previous presidents. He often said, "I have no expectation of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average"(Tindall and Shi 1238). In the first years of Roosevelt's term he worked hard to empower the federal branch. The New Deal set the precedent for 20th century liberalism. The first order of business for the Roosevelt administration was financial reform. Banking is a crucial aspect of capitalism and Roosevelt was very aware of this fact. On his second day in office, Roosevelt called Congress to meet in a special session. The outcome was the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which permitted stable banks to reopen and provided managers to those who remained in trouble. The Glass-Steagall Act separated commercial and investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. These actions all helped restore banking confidence within American people. Roosevelt ensured that it was safer to "keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress"(Tindall and Shi 1238). After accomplishing this task, the new administration was ready to solve other problems. Other financial programs included the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), and the Agriculture Adjustment Administration (AAA). The SEC functioned in regulating the stock and bond markets. The NIRA and AAA were aimed at recovery through regulation. The NIRA played a big role in restoring faith and confidence in the system and helped to increase demand and wages, but realistically it was impractical; it abandoned the American market system.

“What Do the Frankfurt School Contribute to Our Understanding of Popular Culture?”

The independent institute Frankfurt School was founded by Jewish intellectuals, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Herbert Macuse within a Nazi empowered Germany in 1923. After relocating to various parts of America, gaining exposure from Los Angeles and Hollywood lifestyle, the school returned. They took a great concern in the analysis of popular culture and the Culture Industry that had affected Germany in the 1940s. Although these changes reshaped a nation over 70 years ago, Frankfurt School’s interpretation of popular culture still relates to our own understanding today. The question is why, Adorno in particular, criticised this new behaviour in Germany’s society. The Enlightenment was introduced, which expressed individualism instead of tradition but ultimately led the way to modern capitalism and the culture industry. â€Å"Frankfurt School perspective is an obvious variant of Marxism. † (Strinati, 2004) Despite disagreeing with the Enlightenment, Adorno and Frankfurt School agreed on the Marxist theory. According to Dominic Strinati, to understand Frankfurt’s views â€Å"the school can be seen as trying to fill in a part of the picture of capitalism Marx did not deal with. (2004, 48) This provides a reappraisal of popular culture which Marx did not comment on, which we will acknowledge and see how far that it is understood by society today. Interestingly, the school focuses on the culture, not the economy or political aspects of society. However Adorno has also been criticised for his unclear and inaccurate analysis of the to pic, which will also be discussed and questioned upon. To begin, we will establish how Capitalism is the foundations of the development of popular culture. Capitalism is the political and economic system which is controlled by the individual, and not by state. Frankfurt School considered Capitalism as their opposition due to their left-wing beliefs. Though it is noticeable that the Frankfurt School believed Capitalism was more stable than what it really is. Adorno fails to mention that capitalism also has it’s faults and popular culture was not formed on this system alone. Despite this, it certainly aided it effectively. Adorno declares that the working class accept this system unforced is because businesses, advertisers and other consumers make the product that is being retailed more appealing. It doesn’t take much effort from the consumer to submit to these influences and purchase the product. This makes them feel better about themselves because they now own said product and are part of the majority that does. He introduces the term â€Å"commodity fetishism† which â€Å"is the basis†¦ of how cultural forms such as popular music can secure the continuing economic, political and ideological domination of capitalism. † (Strinati, 2004) He shows us that consumers in the capitalist society value money more than appreciating what was purchased. This â€Å"defines and dominates social relations† (Strinati, 2004, 50) The same is true today – many of us would much prefer to spend a colossal amount of money on an well-known brand commodity, say a new car or handbag, than an affordable and sensible priced one. This presents ourselves to others as a much wealthier individual, which essentially makes us feel better about ourselves. Adorno quotes this well â€Å"the real secret of success†¦ is the mere reflection of what one pays in the market for the product. (Strinati, 2004, 49) This superficial attitude expressed most of us can relate to today because we all live in a capitalist society and have experienced this need for a certain commodity. Therefore Frankfurt School has successfully helped us be aware of the root of popular culture. According to the Frankfurt school, â€Å"the culture industry reflects the consolidation of commodity fetishism. † (Strinati, 2004, 54) When the public are satisfied, cap italism will continue to work and therefore other political systems will be unsuccessful. It’s only when a system does not work does the mass culture look for new power. With the simplicity and effectiveness of the Culture Industry, the Working Class will remain content consuming. â€Å"It is so effective in doing this that the working class is no longer likely to pose a threat to the stability and continuity of capitalism. † (Strinati, 2004, 55) The industry successfully moulds and alters the tastes of the masses to suit the industry’s needs. However, the Frankfurt School do not consider that the notion of popular culture has any radical potential at this time. Instead, Adorno found that popular culture was ‘imposed’ on the people, and warned that they should only welcome it insofar as they do not get imposed. (Strinati, 2004, 55) Of course, this working class at the time was not going to take notice of the school’s negative response when they find something so welcoming and appealing. Perhaps Frankfurt did not appreciate how diverse and hybrid popular culture was. One way of looking at this would be to see Adorno’s criticism as a warning to us about the effects of the powerful culture industry, something the masses of 1940s would not understand. We are able to understand and relate to this because we all know from experience of this captivating affect that popular culture has on our lives. The school’s theory discusses that by capitalism and the culture industry working together produces ‘false needs’ for the masses, which means â€Å"people can be reconciled to capitalism, guaranteeing its stability and continuity. † (Strinati, 2004, 52) In the pursuit of profit, the industry will be ruthless to promote consumerism – to make consumers buy things they essentially do not need. These goods are advertised so effectively to the mass culture, they are tricked to believe that they genuinely need it. Think of the example from earlier with the expensive car or handbag. These false needs are created and sustained through advertisements in magazines, television, the media and from other consumers’ opinions. Therefore the consumer purchases the item: increasing the success of the industry and fulfilling the false need. The customer buys what they think they need, however remain unsatisfied and wants more. Strinati puts it very well: The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us to believe, but its object. † This is a disturbing truth that needs to be dealt with, but it appears that nobody is bothered by it, so why should it be changed? The school successfully makes it clear to us how this lifestyle is influencing us so powerfully. We are aware of this feeling of ‘false needs‘ from time to time, yet we share the same attitud e as the society in the 20th century and continue in bad habit. In particular, the school criticises the culture industry’s popular music, accusing it of two processes: standardisation and pseudo-individualisation. The customer is being fooled through the use of standardisation â€Å"popular songs are becoming more alike† (Strinati, 2004, 58) Traditional music at such as Beethoven or Mozart requires an attentive listen and expression of the imagination to hear every detail that has been put into the musical piece. Meanwhile, popular music, as described by Storey: â€Å"operates in a kind of blurred dialectic: to consume it demands inattention and distraction† (2009) which means that it requires little attention – which suits perfectly for customers with busy lives, who after a stressful day prefer to listen to something which requires less concentration. Popular music is ideal here and â€Å"satisfies the craving. † The pseudo-individualisation element of the song disguises it making it appear more unique and distinctive, often by adding a catchy chorus or beat. Frankfurt School makes us aware of this process, which still is regular in many pop songs today. Adorno compares the characteristics of both music styles and criticises the simplicity of the one dimension popular music. Here it is felt that he must be condemned for criticising with a lack of evidence or experience to prove his theory. This makes it extremely difficult for us to relate to the school because they fail to relate with us. On the other hand, it could be argued that he was writing in 1941, a time were popular music would be very different to listen to. The music industry has changed drastically in the past 70 years and the sound of ‘pop’ has been reshaped too. It has to be acknowledged that despite Adorno’s criticisms of the culture industry’s popular music, it indisputably proves to us that if we reflect on the music we listen to today we will see evidence of standardisation and pseudo-individualisation used. To conclude, it must be asked why the mass culture both then and now continues to gives into the power of capitalism and the culture industry. Adorno’s idea is â€Å"that most capitalist societies live limited, impoverished and unhappy lives† (Strinati, 2004, 61) and the reason for this is the submission from the power of commodity fetishism, escape from the real world and tragically, laziness. Strinati presses that â€Å"popular culture does not necessarily hide reality from people† but that it’s realised how difficult it is to change the world from this mindset so it becomes a matter of acceptance. It is surely â€Å"killing the desire that might let us imagine a better world. † (Storey, 2009) The Frankfurt brings to us an interesting outlook of how we could change our lives and prevent the power of capitalism and the culture industry from absolute control. Bibliography Strinati, Dominic (2004) An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture London: Routedge Storey, John (2009) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction Harlow, England

Language Is A Method Of Human Communication - 1350 Words

Language is a method of human communication, one of the most important things all humans have in common. In Dillon’s Grammar Repair textbook, she mentions that language is power and those who can exercise its power â€Å"possess a greater share of life’s privileges across the board† (1). Language greatly defines the person and how they are deceived by others. In the essays â€Å"Mother Tongue,† â€Å"The Meanings of a Word,† and â€Å"But What Do You Mean?† language is depicted as a controller of our lives in the workplace and our community. The individual’s communication methods dominated their impressions on society. In Tan’s essay, â€Å"Mother Tongue,† she explains her use of mother tongue, not only as the language her mother speaks but the language she grew up with and still uses even with her husband. Amy writes how her mother’s limited English has not only limited her mother but the way the world sees and j udges her. In her essay she states that she has described her mother’s language as â€Å"‘broken’ or ‘fractured English† (Tan 264). Labeling one’s English as broken can often label the speaker as incoherent and uneducated. Just like Tan’s mother, many who speak an imperfect language are often overlooked and ignored in our society. Language, although its purpose is to unite us, can very much as well as be used to alienate an individual. It is key to establish and define our identity and our place in the world but if we are constantly excluding people with limited English skills than we areShow MoreRelatedLanguage Is The Method Of Human Communication1008 Words   |  5 Pages There is always confusion on whether culture and language go hand in hand. Culture is something that is brought through years of tradition and it is something that we are born with. We are born with doing things a certain way because of our culture . 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