Friday, January 31, 2020

Fashion marketing Prada and Zara Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion marketing Prada and Zara - Essay Example The paper "Fashion marketing Prada and Zara" analyzes the fashion brand of Prada and Zara and its marketing. Zara is a brand of fashion under the Inditex Group. Amancio Ortega created the brand in 1975 from when it has used clear strategies to beat the tight competition and gain world recognition. The company thrives on innovation, mostly coming up with new concepts that pioneer the industry trends. The company uses lucrative strategies, choosing not to advertise its products and channel the funds to other projects. Since its inception, the company has experienced tremendous growth and has a tremendous market share in the fashion industry. Most market researchers call the brand a devastating competitor and the coverage of this product is wide, serving markets all over the world. Zara and Prada have major differences in operation and organizations, which individually lead to their success. Zara is an independent retailer, preferring to open stores in most of the cities where they thin k they can get the most customers. The company does not use any advertisements for the products or stores, unlike Prada, mostly preferring to utilize the resources to open more stores and develop the business to meet the ever-changing demands in the fashion industry. However, the company may also prefer to use franchising techniques as the route of expansion when the legal requirements forbid the company to open independently owned stores. The franchised stores operate just like the other company owned stores.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England :: European History

Meeting the Demand for Clergy in Victorian England    Many new changes came to Victorian England as a result of the age of industrialization. Where there were once small country parishes, manufacturing towns were springing up. One change resulting from industrialization was the shortage of clergy to fill the new parishes in these towns. These new parishes reflect the demographic changes of the English countryside. Rural villages grew into booming towns. Where a single parish was once sufficient, there was now a need for multiple parishes. The Church of England went about meeting these demands for new clergy in two major ways, actively recruiting men to the clergy and restructuring theological facilities and changing the requirements for ordination. These factors show us some of the upheaval and reconstruction that was going on in the Anglican Church in Victorian England. This was a direct result of the need to train a large number of clergy in a relatively short period of time. Industrialization changed the demographic make up of England. In The Victorian Church in York Edward Royle states that "As suburban development turned sparsely populated manors into thriving and populous communities, further parochial sub-division took place" (2). Where small parishes once were sufficient, the larger manufacturing towns demanded more parishes be added to minister to the larger population. In 1832 the "Church of England was in danger and quite unequipped for ministry to an emerging urban industrial society" (Parsons 16). There was a shortage of clergy because of the rapid unanticipated growth. The demand for so many clergy to be ordained quickly led to restructuring clerical requirements. This demand could be shown in mere numbers, for example: "In 1841 there were just over 14,000 clergy in England and in 1891 there were more than 24,000" (Parsons 25). In the 1840s these clergy were primarily trained at the two major universities, Oxford and Cambridge. A small percentage (14%) came from small theological colleges. Many people could not afford to send their sons to these universities for the length of time required to become ordained. The combination of the increased demand in number of clergy needed and the time restriction for development created a crisis. The result of this crisis, was the development of the lesser theological colleges for the non-ordained and vocationally trained clergy.. This caused a number of issues to be raised. The result of this trend was " the growth of non-university clergy and the inadequacy of its theological instruction" (qtd.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Organizational Behaviour Learnings

Organizational Behaviour Learnings: OB course has given me a better understanding of the behavioural processes in an organization and provided me with a guideline for tackling various situations that I am likely to come across and be better equipped to function as a future manager within any stage of my work-life. During my work life at TCS,I have come across various kind of people. Some of them being arrogant,stern,unapproachable vis-a-vis others who were friendly, helpful and always in high spirits. Initial days the question I kept asking to myself was to do all the work assigned to me by myself or should I seek help from my colleagues. It was the initial steps I was taking into an unknown corporate jungle and I was full of doubts. One of the learning’s I had was how to balance work and life. There were periods of long working hours when we will have to work extra hours and come to office during the weekends. Along with this there was continuous phone calls asking for updates and the likes during the few hours I got to spend away from work. As a beginner I was eager to do more work and take on the added responsibility. But as the pressure mounted it was affecting my physical and mental self. OB gives us an insight into such a situation upfront and offers on how to tackle them to have a balanced work-life. One other key things one has to learn is to say NO to things. Even if you are the smartest and most hardworking employee on the planet ,it is impossible to do everything by yourself. We must learn to turn down the tasks which we logically could conclude that we wont be able to finish within the timeline and also learn to delegate and share work. Pursuit of career growth is only one facet of life and we must learn to juggle between the various other roles of life also. As I took up the role of leading a team of 20 people, the various uncertainties such as whom to assign what work, how to manage deadlines coming from superiors, learning the art of allocating time between meetings and dealing with various team dynamics as a manager came to life. Task allocation had to be done judiciously, prioritizing the work at hand and assigning it to the right people. I soon had 3-4 team members who were very enthusiastic and ready to take upon more challenging tasks and on the other hand a few who were very laid back and didn’t take work seriously. The trick was in assigning the high priority challenging tasks to the first kind and the mundane tasks to the other. Alongside this I used to talk to all my team members if they were dissatisfied with what they did and how I could make work-life better for them. As we fill into the shoes of a manager, we move from an individual perspective to managing a team wherein each of the team member has to be understood and also the team dynamics. OB learning comes in handy as it teaches us about how the team dynamics differs from an individualistic point of view. I handled multiple tasks within the project and hence had to work under different people, each having his/her own take on their subordinates and they treated them differently. We should understand the nature of the people we work under and modify the way we present ourselves to them as each one’s expectations will be different. This is where Interpersonal communication and relations that we learn in OB helps us to evolve with our Boss. OB also teaches us about how to handle emotions and personality in a work environment. There were many situations where I got frustrated with my Boss or with my team mates. This naturally happens as we are working on stringent timelines and clash of ideas are likely to happen. Maintaining composure and dealing with such emotionally challenging situations can define your personality among your colleagues. Another vital factor is the motivation we expect from the work – life. Personally I always was focussed on climbing up the corporate ladder and looked forward to new challenges. During initial phases I was subjected to monotonous, time consuming work. I was going off-course and there wasn’t any motivation in me to work. My manager noticed this and after a brief talk, she understood the negative effect it was having on me and further gave me different role and responsibility which instilled new life in me to work and bought back the urge in me to perform. Understanding what you want, your hygiene and motivating factor early will enable you to enjoy your work and hence have a positive effect overall. Also the lure of an onsite was an added motivation that many employees shared in hope of earning big bucks and spending time overseas. Organizational politics is an unavoidable part for any employee . Its a social work group where biases, favouritism’s and down-play rules. I also got entangled and initially caught unaware on which side to take. There are multiple teams in parallel and taking side with one senior or group will irk the other. Here is where tactfulness and being smart counts and here we must also learn to utilise the art of persuasion. A persuader must match his emotional fervour to the audience’s ability to receive the message and use the smarter way of negotiation. Many a times during my work life I had to convince the team members about the importance of work they are doing and the impact it carries within the project. Also as a team lead I had to persuade and convince the project manager of the additional resources I needed or for extending the timelines. Another aspect that forms the crux of OB is the way of communicating yourself and making yourself being heard. In a MNC with the large work group and complex hierarchies, one must really put in the extra effort to be heard amongst the crowd. For me, I learnt the secret lies in persistence and not giving up when you are ignored. If you give up no one is going to care about what you told and its brushed aside. On the other hand if you can reason yourself and understand whom to communicate it to within the hierarchy it makes all the difference. Working as a part of an Agile team we used to have daily stand-up meetings with the onsite where each days performance was analysed and commented upon. A manager has to be prompt in explaining his team’s daily activities and resolve any conflict that occurs due to clash of ideas. A team goal is defined at the start and objectives are laid which are pursued by the team. Whilst the manager has to deal with the complexities occurring in the work place, a leader is one who has to deal with the change. We had a leader who kept a watch on the proceedings and kept looking for other alternatives, technology advancements, client requirement changes etc and incorporated some breakthrough changes which redefined the goals and objectives that was set in initial stages. The drawbacks I found in OB learning was the extend up to which these theoretical learning’s could be taken over and practically applied to the ever changing and fast paced workspace. The theories and case studies are rational and very relevant to the current organizational scenario. But the effectiveness it can deliver as a pure theory subject is what raises my concern. Unless we learn these behavioural norms in an active way like learn it while experiencing it ,these theories will remain just as a dormant learning within us. The effectiveness could be brought in by giving more role plays and real life case studies which can be solved by us by creating a virtual organizational simulation inside the four walls of a classroom.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Powerful Women and Submissive Women in Njals Saga and the...

Powerful Women V. Submissive Women by Sean Conolly Ancient societies and their cultures traditionally provided women with no access to power. It was nearly universal for women to be treated as subservient to men while being expected to behave mildly and submissively. The New Testament makes no exception. The Apostle Paul explains that through Christ, women are absolved of constraints that the social hierarchy imposes on them, but he later goes on to explain that even in Christ a religious hierarchy still exists. By acknowledging that women are inferior to men in both the social and religious circles, Paul presents women as subordinates. This contrasts with Njal’s Saga. Through the saga’s characters Gunnhild, Hallgerd, and Bergthora,†¦show more content†¦This suggestion is eventually confirmed when she successfully convinces the King to accept Hrut as a bodyguard (Njal’s Saga, 8). Even though the King is the superior, Gunnhild still possesses the ability to influence him. Her influence demonstrates her ab ility to assume and exercise a degree of power. It is through her power that Gunnhild goes on to instigate a chain of events. After having Hrut as a lover for several seasons, Gunnhild reasserts her power when Hrut asks to return to Iceland. Though she lets him return, she sends a curse along with him. She says, â€Å"If I have as much power over you as I think I have, then I cast this spell: you will not have sexual pleasure with the woman you plan to marry in Iceland, though you’ll be able to have your will with other women. Neither of us comes out of this well, because you did not tell me the truth (Njal’s Saga, 13).† The curse she places on Hrut actually comes true (Njal’s Saga, 16). Hrut cannot please his wife and Gunnhild’s desire to hold a degree of dominance over Hrut is fulfilled. Because Hrut wants to please his wife but cannot, his desires are unfulfilled. This suggests that Gunnhild’s demands and desires are superior to those of men. It is the demands and desires of a woman t hat instigate events. The author immediately presents Gunnhild in the very first significant