Modified Fingernails †Symbols of Social Essay Example for Free

Modified Fingernails – Symbols of Social Essay Western society has not been traditionally attuned to see body adornment as a form of social status. Thus over the years people in the West attribute it to less developed societies which lay emphasis on rituals. Thus body modification was seen as an articulation of values which were essentially non western. (Krakow, 1994). However this does not seem to be the case any more as a greater number of people are willing to modify their bodies thus making body beautification acceptable thereby giving a person social as well as individual identity in a society. Body modification is thus seen as enabling a person to exemplify and attenuate him or her personality through alteration of natural color, shape, tone and tenor. By decoration such as nail painting, gloss and enhancement, a person can project himself in the manner he wants others to perceive. Thus a girl with long nails, fully adorned with polish is seen as one who is in tune with the social image of somebody who has arrived in society. As greater numbers of people are adopting this mode, nail or other forms of body adornment is becoming an expression of actual position held by a person in society. Thus through external embellishments a person is able to define herself to others. Increased acceptance of this practice is indicated by forms adopted in nail adornment such as gluing of plastic to increase the length of the nails so that bright colors, paints and sparklers can be applied to these. (Andersen. Taylor. 2005) The reason for extension of nails is quite obvious, this is to enhance visibility through added length of the body object which is otherwise quite innocuous. By making it longer, the same can be decorated and made more noticeable. But the process also needs specialized treatment, which can come about at a certain level of monetary standing indicating the link between wealth and length or adornment of nails. As societies become more complex, they tend to provide opportunities to people to define their status through adornment of the body. Nails are perfect symbols of such social embellishment. The first requirement of a well kept hand is absence of manual labor. Thus there is obvious connection between a person of high society and well kept hands which indicates social as well as wealth status of a person. This has been ancient tradition and has been carried forth in the modern World. (Peters. Lock, Eds, 1999) Since a large degree of artistry of the body is now made by instruments as lasers, surgical and other tools by experts this has become expensive. Thus body art studios and fingernail manicure specialists have established high end shops, where they are able to manipulate your nails to the desired shape, size and color. By being exclusive in nature, they establish a distinction of economic status. As society has evolved thus body art has assumed proportions of social as well as wealth standing. (Jeffreys, 2000). Over a period this distinction is also translated from overall to individual social status. Thus a person who has manicured, well kept finger nails is associated with wealth as well as standing through a process of exclusion. This exclusion works first monetarily in that as it is expensive those who cannot afford it are denied an opportunity of being in the same class. In the second stage it is seen to work socially as shapes, colors and contours are so distinctive that a person wearing a superior shade of nail polish is easily identified as one who can afford it and hence ipso facto assumes higher standing. Thus from abhorrence as practices which were aboriginal to adoption of body adornment as a form of celebration of ones arrival in high society, fingernail manipulation has assumed a social symbol even in Western society today. Vantoch (1999) explored this evolution of the new American female by denoting the large number of nail adornments of different colors and shapes present in a pre teen’s room. The girl was sporting what can be described as talons, two inches long finger nails. (Vantoch, 1999). The fingernail was converted into a symbol of expression of the persona just like any other accoutrement at a very early age in life. The refined development of the art of the make up in modern times is also responsible for such an evolution. Thus nails have been converted into objects of art and ornamentation by using these for nail jewelry, nail art, air brush design, sculpturing of nails as well as providing green glitter. This has also provided a common touch thereby enhancing a wider number of females in society to higher standing. (Vantoch, 1999). Most interestingly it denotes how society has evolved, from considering these as a possible aboriginal practice to be abhorred by the West, more and more people are using it to express their state of social as well as economic evolution. The utilitarian view of nails as symbol of health has been known over the ages and is seen to continue even to this day. Thus fingernails are many times the first to be seen by a doctor. (Anatomy, 2005). Yellow or green fingernails invariably indicate ill health, a bronchial disease or other conditions which are diagnosed by the family physician. When nail problems persisted, these also indicated that the person required sustained treatment. The ultimate in nail care which has emerged is a combination of health, fashion and social status. Manicure and the higher forms of nail care and manipulation seen in advanced societies today is seen as a symbol of the rich, as one who has arrived in society and also some body who maintains good health. How long will this trend persist remains to be seen, for there are many periods in human evolution wherein short nails were as popular as long. Reference: 1. Anatomy. (2005) Anatomy of a healthy fingernail. Accessed at http://www. cnn. com/HEALTH/library/WO/00020. htmlon 23 March 2007 2. Andersen, Margaret L. Taylor, Howard F. (2005). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont : Thomson. 3. Jeffreys, Sheila. ‘Body Art’ and Social Status: Cutting, Tattooing and Piercing from a Feminist Perspective. Feminism Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 4, 409-429 (2000) 4. Krakow, A. (1994) The Total Tattoo Book , New York : Warner Books. 5. Peters, Charles, R. Lock, Andrew. (1999). Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution. Oxford : Blackwell. 6. Vantoch, Vicki. (1999). Fingernail Fashion Choices. The Washington Post. December 28, 1999. Accessed at http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-srv/style/feed/a41653-1999dec28. htm on 23 March 2007.

Essay --

Currently in international market and domestic market, there are two types of the purchasing methods purchaser uses. One method for the buying the products from the market is â€Å"spot market buying† and the second method of buying the products is with â€Å"future contract†. The on the spot method is also called â€Å"cash market† or â€Å"physical market†, where the products, currencies or commodities sold for cash and delivers the products immediately or within short period of time. For example, â€Å"oil, grains, silver, beef, sugar, natural gas, milk, and gold are done through the spot market, where the prices are the set by open market and the transfer of cash and goods takes place immediately†, and deliver as requested date in the future or within short period of time. The spot market is an instantaneous exchange for the current list or spot price for a particular commodity. With the integration of internet technology, the spot market has be come even more efficient and useful especially in the energy industry. If energy companies have large surpluses of energy, the internet can give them a chance to find buyers in current need almost immediately. Though the spot market is good for company I need â€Å"right now†, its drawback is the fluctuating prices that can cause chaos when calculating the logistics over the long term. There are several pros and cons of on spot buying, such as; it conducts the market research and supplier identification quickly in new market. Also, it provides easy access for lower value purchases. Moreover, it improves the sourcing productivity; as well as alleviates the capacity issues that enhance the productivity of plant and category buyers. Also, it provides easy platform ability for market tests across geographies Though apro... ...vent of the futures contract negotiated by Calpine, it did not fulfill the need for sodium hypochlorite, which implementing the spot market as a way to assure the efficiency of operations that would be the decision most logically made. If Calpine’s buyers or sellers know that they will be buying certain chemical in future, and selling certain number of products or energy, then they should consider taking a long term future contract for purchasing, and short tern future contract for selling the products which hedge its positions in market. So, operations ramp up, more energy needs to be supplied for the increased demand that was not accounted for in the purchase of the particular chemical Calpine ordered. Supply of the chemical dwindles and it up to the men and women at Calpine to search the spot market to find a company with a surplus looking to sell â€Å"on the spot.†

Progreso Financiero Essay

Progreso Financiero faces two critical problems. First, it is falling significantly short of its sales forecasts (Exhibit 4), causing concern for investors and employees of the company. Second, Progreso has not yet identified a clear path to profitability. There are four key drivers to underperformance at Progreso Financiero: poor sales analytics systems, improper human resource management, poor managerial decision making and ineffective compensation incentives. The collective result of these shortcomings is that Progreso’s sales employees are highly unmotivated and ill equipped to help the company realize its sales and profitability goals. In order to be effective, sales executives need to have clear selling objectives and the ability to track their performance against key performance metrics. Much to its detriment, however, Progreso Financiero does not have any systems in place to track conversion pipeline and CPA over time. This has deleterious effects both on management’s ability to accurately forecast overall sales (likely the cause of the huge discrepancy between forecasts and actual sales – see Exhibit 6) and the account executive’s ability to track potential and existing customers throughout the sales-force funnel. Indeed, Progreso Financiero suffers from low lead-to-loan conversion (~14%) as well as low customer retention (~52%), which are key drivers of underperformance in terms of sales volume and customer lifetime value vis-Ã  -vis the company’s acquisition costs. Many of Progreso’s problems can also be attributed to poor HR management. It’s decision to hire its sales managers directly from the groceries in which it sells has created channel issues with its retail partners and has also left it with a sales force that is highly inexperienced. As a result, these employees require significantly more training before they can effectively sell at a level of an experienced sales executive. Progreso’s decision to promote internally to fill its DSM positions is also highly questionable, since these employees have little to no people management experience. As such, they have a difficult time engaging and motivating their direct reports. When Gutierrez does hire outside help, he consistently makes poor decisions. Time and again he promotes individuals with little to no actual sales experience (Cortez, Caviness, Ulloa) to lead his sales team, resulting in a failure of leadership and execution. When he does hire someone with sales experience (Dudley), he choses someone that does not speak Spanish, creating a language communication barrier. The commission-based compensation structure used at Progreso is hurting the company instead of creating incentives for AEs to progressively sell more loans. While a progressive incentive structure is appropriate for Progreso – loan sales are highly contingent on the efforts of its AEs – it has not structured the incentives properly. First, the company has set a minimum threshold of 15 loan sales per month before an AE can receive a baseline commission of $18 per loan, but in 2008 employees are averaging only 7 loans per month. At the same time, employees appear relatively content simply earning the hourly $8 wage, creating an ecosystem in which the utility of the fixed salary outweighs the effort-to-outcome of doubling one’s loan sales output to earn incremental commission. Indeed, the goals are so far out of reach that AEs have given up on achieving them. This has created a principal-agent dilemma whereby the sales force is no longer aligned with the firm to achieve its aggressive sales forecasts. The low morale caused by a misaligned incentive structure is also a likely contributor to the high turnover at Progreso, which in turn impacts overall sales force productivity due to the sales learning curve and training required for each new AE. Finally, Progreso’s decision to enter into the Sears/K-Mart channels was also a strategic mistake. The foot traffic of their target customer at these stores is much lower than that of their target customer in Hispanic grocery stores. Furthermore, these channels already had a product offering in place (with Citibank) and an incentive structure of their own that encouraged Sears employees to refer business to Citibank, not Progreso. Lastly, Progreso’s agreement with Sears forced it to offer its customers a form of payment (gift cards) that limited their spending flexibility and made the offering less attractive overall. While expanding to merchant accounts increased overall volume of sales, it did so at the expense of its sales employees. As shown in Exhibit 1, Progreso’s merchant launch in September 2007 immediately precipitated a decline in its loan per employee ratio, well below the commission threshold level. Previously AEs were able, on average, to reach or surpass 15 loans per month but after the merchant launch, loans per month declined to 7 per month on average. Despite this, Progreso made no change to its commission incentive structure to accommodate for the differences in sales velocity by channel. Progreso faces two key challenges going forward. It must satisfy investors by proving that it can meet its aggressive sales forecasts and it also must outline a clear path towards profitability. Currently Progresso is spending more to acquire a customer (~$177 CPA, Exhibit 3) than it is earning in downstream value from customers acquired (~$100 CLV, Exhibit 2). In order to improve profitability of its customers, Progreso either needs to increase the margins per loan transaction or improve its retention performance. While Progreso could raise the APR and achieve a higher margin, this would to some degree tarnish its brand positioning as a low-cost, low-barrier lending company. Instead, Progreso should continue to build CRM systems that provide a deeper connection with its customers at each stage through the sales pipeline. If, for example, Progreso was able to convert 85% of new customers into repeat customers (instead of 65%), the CLV per customer would then surpass Progreso’s CPA. While Progreso could also aim to lower its acquisition cost, this is not recommended since it would require either shutting down some of its locations or decreasing overall compensation to an already discouraged sales force. Progreso should also redesign its incentive structure. First, it needs to make its commission threshold more achievable in order to align its AEs with company sales goals. To accomplish this it should eliminate the threshold requirement altogether and compensate using commission at all levels of sales (starting at 2% and rising to a 10% maximum). Secondly, it should lower the hourly wage to $6 in order to encourage its employees to earn a higher share of income through commission. In 2008 AEs sold 7 loans on average, meaning that most AEs did not earn any commission. By contrast, in the proposed compensation structure (Exhibit 5), AEs begin earning commission right away but earn a lower base salary. It is expected that this model will improve morale, even though AEs will need to double their loan count because they will have a sense of ownership right away and their incentives will be aligned with Progreso’s. Lastly, Progreso should improve the quality of its sales force by recruiting externally and hiring managers that have relevant sales experience. Every sales employee from top to bottom should be required to speak Spanish in order to improve communication. By improving the compensation structure and hiring an already knowledgeable sales force, Progreso can improve the effectiveness of each AE and actually reach the sales goals it sets for itself.

Donation Of Human Organs Organ Donation - 905 Words

Donation of Human Organs Image something tragic has happened to one of your family members. Sounds crazy right! Well what if they need a kidney, liver, or even a heart. What if they could not afford to get a transplant? What if you or someone else could donate it for them? As of June 21, 2013 there are 118,617 people waiting on life-saving organ transplant. Organ donation is a noble act, and anyone can do it. Most people that donate are the ones that do it after death. The reason for this is to help someone that needs the donation. Organ donation promotes a general principle of giving and selflessness; it would help with medical cost, and can be effective by giving someone a second chance at life. While there are penalty of reasons to donate there is one reason it is selflessness. Giving someone an organ is a selfless thing that anyone can do. 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