Why did the Allied victory occur in 1918 and not before Essay Example

Why did the Allied victory occur in 1918 and not before? Essay The First World War, at the time known as the War to end all wars, owes much of its horror and length to the slow and laborious aspect of the offensive during it, which makes it difficult to understand the precise reason for it finishing in an allied victory in 1918 and not in any of the previous years. Any number of events could have brought about the end of the war or the capitulation of one of the main protagonists, such as the Battle of the Somme, Verdun or even as early as the Battle of the Marne, but none did and in the end it was a very specific conjunction of events that set the cene for the final outcome, which we will study in this essay, focusing on the USAs late involvement in the war, the Central powers loss of momentum after they had thrown their last reserves into the fray, the culmination of the new technologies used and the disgust of war from many of the populations involved, which are all linked to each other. We will write a custom essay sample on Why did the Allied victory occur in 1918 and not before? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Why did the Allied victory occur in 1918 and not before? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Why did the Allied victory occur in 1918 and not before? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer One of the major factors of Germanys demise and more importantly of when it happened was instigated by Germany itself, which is the USAs involvement in the war. Indeed, when they decided in February 1917 to give the go-ahead for nrestricted submarine warfare, the tactic of destroying all ships, military or otherwise, going towards the British Isles, it was in full knowledge that it would in all likelihood bring the US into the war, as they had used this as their main term to not get involved earlier after the sinking of the Lusitania, but the German decided it was worth the risk to knock the British out of the war before any decisive action could be taken on the ground. This did not happen and the US did get involved with the additional incentive of the Zimmerman telegram trying to push Mexico into the war. The announcement of the USAs decision to enter the war on the allied side was made on the 6th April 1917 and it would eventually mean the downfall of the Central Powers. What the American intervention did in Europe was to set the clock ticking for Hindenburg and Ludendorff, as the Central Powers would have to come up with a way to win in the next 12-15 months . The allies knew that once the American troops arrived they would be able to use the numerical advantage the freshness of these new soldier to their advantage and the Germans, after several years of fghting ithout any reinforcements of this scale would struggle to contain them, and in the end that is exactly what happened. The fact that the arrival of the US into the war in 1917 does explain in that way the hurriedness that came into the war and why it finished at such a late date in, but it is curious in that the intervention could have heralded a much earlier victory, as it took almost two years for the end to come, but that can also be explained, as the soldiers did not arrive straight away. As the US did not have a large standing army, only 175. 000 at any time, they had to draft and train ecruits before they could be set over and this caused a delay. Add to that the delays caused by the news that Mexico was being courted by Germany to keep US out of Europe and the sinking of ships by the unrestricted submarine warfare, albeit a reduced number of them after the putting in place of the convoy system to protect ships, and it took a long time to arrive on the front and the bulk of the force only and be able to make a strong impact which would cause General Ludendorff to internally acknowledge the defeat in September and the peace agreement to be signed in November. Another country which contributed to the war ending at that precise moment was Russias withdrawal from it in 1917 after they had changed government through a socialist revolution and were on the brink of a crushing defeat from Germany, as it gave Germany the opportunity to move over one million troops to the western front from the east and accelerated events further. The troops gained from this move were some of the main protagonists in the ill-fated spring offensive of 1918 and meant that during the subsequent Allied counter attack, there were close to no troops available to be transferred to the defence, as all the German troops nvolved in the war had been used to attack France, with the few remaining being necessary in the South to protect Austro-Hungary from the Italian forces, who were still in the war even if they had suffered some serious defeats. The Russian defeat also meant that the idealists and socialist thinkers in the opposing armies finally had something to look to when they pushed for peace and an end to the war. These thoughts and wishes for peace were progressively gaining more and more followers in the conflict and it was the Germans which suffered from it most, especially at ome, as we will see later on in the essay. The German army itself and the balance of power between the two sides was also obviously a massive factor in the war lasting until the end of 1918 and not be over by Christmas as the British recruitment and the newspapers were convinced of at the start of the conflict. Throughout the war the two belligerent sides had traded the supremacy and advantage and, although they had not always been dominant, Germany had rarely been on the retreating side or been unable to trade blow with the allies and this lasted until early to mid-1918 with he Western powers taking a dramatic dominant position in the last 100 days of the conflict. Germany had always been able to use spare troops and their strategic positional advantage at certain locations to keep a certain strength in any battle, especially if they had used kept some of their forces in the reserve, but this changed when they put in place Operation Michael, the Spring offensive of the final year of the war as, aware that the arrival of American forces to the continent would give the allies an insurmountable advantage over them, they everything they had into a final offensive on the western front. Although it was extremely effective, especially due to the development of the new units known as Sturmtruppen, Storm troopers in English, used alongside creeping artillery barrage tactics, it slowed and faltered after the front line troops failed to be rotated in and out and became exhausted, the stretching of the supply line which could no longer reach the front lines, and the intensifying of Allied defences against a weakening enemy. Recovering from their defeats, the British and French troops, now combined to American reinforcements which were by now arriving at a rhythm of around 10. 0 troops a day, regrouped and launched their hundred day offensive on the depleted and disorganised army which faced them. Indeed, this was the first time since 1914 and the Battle of the Marne that the allies were able to achieve a decisive victory which pushed the Germans back over a long distance. Differently to the start of the war however, it did not turn back into a static war but became a war of movement, as well as profiting ever more until they could no longer sustain the defensive stance, meaning this was the first time they were in a position where they had no alternative but to surrender. Linked to this last push is the advancement in terms of technologies and tactics that occurred throughout the war and which contributed to the end of the war. As it drew on and the deadlock got steadily longer, both sides searched more and more for ways to break through enemy lines, with varying degrees of success, but in the end it became unsustainable to have trenches with the amount of new effective ways of getting round them as a problem. The changes started with weapons that would eliminate the enemy without taking the position outright, such as gas which the Germans tested first in 191 5 or improved artillery which both sides obtained through the war, but it got gradually more offensive and mobile, as with the use of tanks which was pioneered by the British and used in 1916 to debatable effect, or the use of assault troops like the German storm troopers which made trenches almost useless by the end of the war, given that both sides had come up with way of bypassing the problem. This translated itself into a need to return to more conventional tactics of previous wars which lasted much less time, causing the war to end at that time and not before when the deadlock could not be broken as easily and ertainly not over such distances as the ones covered by Allied troops during their devastating hundred day campaign offensive. It wasnt only on the battlefield that the victory was decided however, as there was also the home front in the countries involved, driving the government and the High Command to take certain decisions. As the war drew longer, there was a permanent need for more and more sacrifices on the part of the populations of the fghting countries as the industry suffered from the constant need of more ammunition and resources from the army, a need that was hown in October 1916 when the German government ordered for 20. 000 men a week to be deported from Belgium (Hardach, 1977, The First World War, 1914-1918, p. 8) as there was a shortage of skills labour to work in the armament factories, a sign that the local populations were having to work night and day to build weapons that would b then sent to the front and would not benefit the workers. These grievances came to a head late on in the war when the German people started demanding an end to the war and for better living conditions, which could not be given in the current circumstances. Even though there had been these conditions for a long time because of the conflict, the reason it happen at this particular moment and not earlier can be put down to two major reason: Firstly, the German industrial machine was struggling to keep up with the demands of the war, as its output had gone down to less than half of what it was before the war while the needs had, if anything, increased, meaning that the people were getting even less of what they produced and secondly, the winter of 1917 to 1918 was one of the worst on record, causing many people to die of frostbite or at the very least live in the constant cold, ringing them to a tipping point as the war went on. Added to that the spreading ideas of socialist revolution coming from the newly Communist Russia thanks to Germany and the people were close to breaking point. The ordinary people were not the only ones unhappy on the Home front for Germany, as it was also the case among the sailors stationed in the countrys Northern ports who had been stuck there and the battle of Jutland in 1916 behind a British blockade. Towards the end of the conflict, as the German forces were retreating from the Allied surge, there was a idden plan to attempt a final sea offensive, but when word somehow got the sailors, they rejected the idea and mutinied, almost rioting against their superiors. Although of course there had always been some discontent in the country from Pacifists and Communists, this was wave a protests came from such a wide range of sources that the government could do nothing and it coincided with an imminent German defeat whereas they had previously played off opposition by promising victory over the Allies. Naturally, the British and French were not immune to internal disorder, but hey were able to quell the unhappiness in their population more efficiently than their enemies and in their armies relatively so, even though the French were on the brink of a full uprising in their army directly after the Russian revolution and the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The other main protagonist in the war, Austro-Hungary, was having similar problems to those of their ally, Germany, with the added complication of their country being a collection of different cultures and ethnic minorities who each wanted their own aims achieved and were therefore close to mpossible to appease. Many of these minorities which would go on to create their own nations after the defeat of the Central Powers and the collapse of the Austro- Hungarian Empire swathe war and the difficulties their country was facing to put forwards their own claims and ambitions and the government was unable to answer those and the exterior war as well. The calls for a change in regime from these interior agents echoed those in Germany and when the two rose in 1918 and the army was the struggling to maintain the war effort, they contributed to the Allied victory. To conclude, the end of the First World War has a great many factors, as do the causes for it ending at the specific time, the most important being the USAs involvement in the conflict at a crucial point to tip the advantage in favour of the Allies and Germany exhausting its strength in the months leading up to the peace agreement, but other factors also played a big part, such as the home front in Germany and Austro-Hungary collapsing while the ones in Britain and France were still functioning better, or Russia leaving the conflict which accelerated the unfolding of all the other factors.

How to Plant the Leyland Cypress Tree in Your Landscape

How to Plant the Leyland Cypress Tree in Your Landscape A rapidly-growing evergreen when young, Leyland Cypress will easily grow three to four feet per year, even on poor soils, and can ultimately attain a height of some 50 feet. The tree forms a dense, oval or pyramidal outline when left unpruned, but the graceful, slightly pendulous branches will tolerate severe trimming to create a formal hedge, screen or windbreak. The tree quickly outgrows its space in small landscapes and is too big for most residential landscapes unless regularly trimmed. Unusually, shallow roots of the species can give in wet soil to topple large trees. Uses Scientific name: x Cupressocyparis leylandiiPronunciation: x koo-press-so-SIP-air-iss lay-LAN-dee-eyeCommon name: Leyland CypressFamily: CupressaceaeUSDA hardiness zones: 6 through 10AOrigin: not native to North AmericaUses: hedge; recommended for buffer strips around parking lots or for median strip plantings in the highway; screen; specimen; Christmas treeAvailability: generally available in many areas within its hardiness range Form Height: 35 to 50 feetSpread: 15 to 25 feetCrown uniformity: symmetrical canopy with a regular (or smooth) outline  and individuals have more or less identical crown formsCrown shape: columnar; oval; pyramidalCrown density: denseGrowth rate: fastTexture: fine Foliage Leaf arrangement: opposite/suboppositeLeaf type: simpleLeaf margin: entireLeaf shape: scale-likeLeaf venation: none, or difficult to seeLeaf type and persistence: evergreenLeaf-blade length: less than 2 inchesLeaf color: blue or blue-green; greenFall color: no fall color changeFall characteristic: not showy Structure Trunk/bark/branches: grow mostly upright and will not droop; not particularly showy; should be grown with a single leader; no thornsPruning requirement: needs little pruning to develop a strong structureBreakage: resistantCurrent year twig color: green Planting Leyland cypress trees enjoy both part shade/part sun and full sun- the tree has very forgiving light requirements. The cypress can be planted in many soils. The tree tolerates clay, loam, sand and will grow in both acidic and alkaline soils but still needs to be planted in a well-drained site. It tolerates drought conditions and is salt tolerant. When planting Leyland cypress, remember the trees mature size and fast growth rate. Planting a cypress too close is not recommended. You will be tempted to plant the seedlings too close but ten-foot spacings should be a minimum in most landscapes. Pruning Leyland Cypress is a fast grower and, if not pruned early, can get out of hand as a hedge. In the first year trim back long side shoots at the start of the growing season. Trim sides lightly in late July. The sides can be trimmed the following to year encourage denser growth. Continue to trim the sides each year leaving the leading shoot untouched until the desired height is reached. Topping and regular trimming of the sides should prevent trees from becoming increasingly large. Seiridium Canker Seiridium canker disease, also called coryneum canker is a slow-spreading fungal disease of Leyland cypress. It disfigures and damages trees, particularly in hedges and screens that are heavily pruned. Seiridium canker is usually localized on individual limbs. The limb is usually dry, dead, often discolored, with a sunken or cracked area surrounded by living tissue. You should always destroy diseased plant parts and try to avoid physical damage to plants. Sanitize pruning tools between each cut by dipping in rubbing alcohol or in a solution of chlorine bleach and water. Chemical control has proven to be difficult. Horticulturist Commentary Dr. Mike Dirr says about Leyland Cypress: ...it should be restrained at an early age before pruning becomes impossible. Additional Information Leyland Cypress grows in full sun on a wide range of soils, from acid to alkaline, but looks its best on moderately fertile soil with sufficient moisture. It is surprisingly tolerant of severe pruning, recovering nicely from even severe topping (although this is not recommended), even when half the top is removed. It grows well in clay soil and tolerates poor drainage for a short period of time. It also is very tolerant of salt spray. Some available cultivars include: ‘Castlewellan’, a more compact form with gold-tipped leaves, excellent for hedges in cool climates; ‘Leighton Green’, dense branching with dark green foliage, columnar form; ‘Haggerston Gray’, loose branches, columnarpyramidal, upturned at ends, sage-green color; ‘Naylor’s Blue’, blue-grey foliage, columnar form; ‘Silver Dust’, wide-spreading form with blue-green foliage marked with white variegations. Propagation is by cuttings from side growths.

Analisis Bimbo

Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility The most important thing in a firm is its people, because investors give what they have, but people give what they are. — Lorenzo Servitje, Grupo Bimbo founding partner By 2008, Grupo Bimbo was the leading baking company in the Americas and one of the largest in the world. It had annual sales of over $7. 4 billion, more than 100 brands and more than 97,000 worldwide associates—as Bimbo liked to call its employees. It manufactured more than 5,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) from 83 plants located in Mexico, the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. Bimbo distributed its products to more than 1 million sales outlets in 18 countries. Each of these points of sale was visited by more than 36,000 route salespersons. Its products ranged from sliced bread, buns, cookies, snack cakes, pastries, sweet baked goods, packaged food, tortillas, salted snacks, confectionary goods and goat milk sweet or â€Å"cajeta,† among other products. Bimbo was the largest Latin American-based food company and the second largest bread company in the world. For eight years in a row, Bimbo had been honored with the Socially Responsible Enterprise Award from CEMEFI, the Mexican Center for Philanthropy. Moreover, Grupo Bimbo was ranked in the 9th position of the Reputation Institute for best corporate reputation in the world. 1 The next Mexican ranked firms in the study were Grupo Modelo and Cemex in the 112th and 119th spot, respectively. Grupo Bimbo had set ambitious growth objectives beyond 2010. It wanted to become the world leader in the baking industry and one of the best food companies in the world. In order to achieve those objectives, it had embarked on an aggressive program of acquisitions in overseas markets, starting with the United States across the border, and going all the way to China. Even as we pursue an ambitious growth agenda, we cannot forget our core values and who we are as a company,† stated Don Lorenzo Servitje, the now retired 90 year old founder of the company. As Figure 1 shows, Bimbo captured its core values along the seven attributes of passion, profitability, effectiveness, team work, trust, quality, with the â€Å"person† coming at the ce nter. Under its second CEO, Roberto Servitje (now chairman of the board) and its current CEO, Daniel Servitje, the company had grown spectacularly and gained an international footprint. See Exhibit 1 for its revenue growth. â€Å"Yes, indeed we have grown ur business, not at the cost of our responsibility to society, but because of our investments in it. Going forward, however, we are a far more complex company than the one founded and 1to ensure that our values and strategy are in alignment,† asserted Daniel Servitje. Figure 1 Source: Grupo Bimbo. (In the figure above, the expression â€Å"efforts and illusions† under â€Å"profitability† is best interpreted as â€Å"efforts and aspirations. †) Mexico By 2008 Mexico was the second most populated country in Latin America (behind Brazil) with 105. 7 million inhabitants, 76% of them living in urban areas. In 2007 Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $893. 4 billion –-the second largest in Latin America behind Brazil’s GDP of $1,286. 7 billion but ahead of Argentina’s $262. 3 billion, Venezuela’s $228. 1 billion and Colombia’s 2 Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica, INEGI, www. inegi. gob, last viewed August 11, 2008. 2 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 $172 billion. Mexico was the 14th largest economy in the World. 3 Mexico’s GDP per head in 2007 was $8,219. However, Mexico was a country of contrasts: the lowest 20% of the population accounted for only 3. % of total income and the Gini coefficient was 0. 508. 4 Forty percent of Mexico’s population was considered poor, and 18% lived in extreme poverty. 5 Due to deficiencies in the public education system, the unskilled and low skilled labor pool was large and around 40% to 60% of the workforce worked in the informal sector. Mexico was ruled for 71 years by one single party, the Partido Revolucionario Insitucional, or PRI. The PRI led Mexico through a stabilizing development from 1958 to 1971 where the country industrialized and GDP grew at annual rates of 6%. From the 1970’s to the end of the 1980’s the PRI policies became very nationalistic and interventionist. This period was characterized by high inflation rates and frequent financial crises, where GDP plummeted, real incomes dropped, with high external debt and soaring interest rates. During this period, Mexico’s economy was heavily dependent on oil exports. In the 1990’s the PRI embraced free market and liberalization policies that included privatization of hundreds of state-owned firms, trade liberalization that culminated in the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, in 1994, and deregulation of various industries. After NAFTA, Mexico’s economy diversified and changed from being dependent on oil exports to manufactured goods exported mainly to the United States. After the Tequila crisis that started in 1994—where GDP plummeted 6. 2% in real terms and inflation rose above 52%—the PRI was historically defeated in the year 2000, and since then two presidents from the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) had been in power: President Fox from year 2000 to 2006 and Felipe Calderon—who by 2008 was in his second year of presidency. Despite high hopes for President Fox’s administration, his political effectiveness was severely hindered by a divided congress, and economic reforms that were needed to improve the competitiveness of the country, such as fiscal and energy reforms, were not able to pass through Congress. Felipe Calderon, at his second year of term, faced similar obstacles. He proved to be a better negotiator than President Fox. His administration had been able to pass pension reform and a mild fiscal reform. However, one of the most important reforms needed for boosting Mexico’s competitiveness and growth—energy reform—had not been able to pass. High energy costs—along with high labor costs—were limiting Mexico’s ability to compete with other exporting countries such as China. Strengthening of fiscal and monetary policies since the end of the last century had translated into macroeconomic stability but growth was not catching up with the country’s needs. Average annual growth rates since year 2000 had been 3%, insufficient to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. 6 Constraints for growth were high-cost labor and energy inputs, a weak non-oil tax base, continued dependence on US markets for exports, weak skill base and a shallow credit market. Calderon was struggling to pass the energy reform but it was hard to boost growth given high input costs and Mexico’s dependence on the slowing US economy. 3 World development indicators database, World Bank, July 2008, www. worldbank. org last viewed August 12, 2008. 4 Source: World development indicators, www. worldbank. org, last viewed 8/13/2008 and Mexico Country Profile, Economist Intelligence Unit. A high Gini coefficient indicates a high level of income inequality, 0 corresponds to perfect equality and 1 to perfect inequality with one person having all the income. Worldwide Gini coefficients range from 0. 49 in Japan to 0. 707 in Namibia (www. wikipidia. org last viewed 8/13/2008). 5 Mexico Country Brief, World Bank, www. worldbank. org, last viewed August 13, 2008. 6 Source: Banco de Mexico, www. banxico. gob, last viewed August 13, 2008. 3 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Grupo Bimbo: History The Servitje family started doing business in the baki ng industry early in the 20th century. When Lorenzo Servitje was 18 years old, his father—who had a well-known bakery called El Molino—died from a stroke. Lorenzo had to leave behind his accounting career in order to attend to his father’s bakery. On taking over, Lorenzo wanted to make the bakery something bigger and more ambitious. He wished to start a bread production and distribution business. On December 2, 1945, Bimbo was founded. It had five founding shareholders, all family members: Lorenzo Servitje and his younger brother Roberto Servitje among them. The logo, the Bimbo bear, was drawn by the wife of one of the founders. Bimbo started with only one brand, 38 workers, and 10 trucks to deliver the bread made in one plant in Mexico City. The first products were white boxed bread and toasted white bread. The production process was completely manual and rudimentary. Bimbo bread was quickly accepted by Mexico’s households because it was packed in transparent cellophane paper—instead of the traditional wax paper—which kept it fresh and also because its quality was easily seen. Another key to Bimbo’s success was its huge publicity campaign in newspapers, radio and the movies. Never before had so much been paid to publicize bread. 7 In the next few years, Bimbo quickly incorporated more products into its product line, such as whole wheat bread, sweet breads, cakes and sweet loafs. Its distribution network, however, only reached Mexico City and cities nearby. To reach other cities, Bimbo expanded its distribution system in a way similar to how newspapers were distributed at the time. By 1956, Bimbo had commissioned its first plant outside Mexico City. Having successfully built the company from scratch, in 1963, Don Lorenzo Servitje took on the role of CEO of Grupo Bimbo and his brother, Roberto Servitje, became CEO of Bimbo breads division. Over the next 15 years, the two brothers rapidly grew Bimbo’s sales to $425 million and 16,125 associates. At the beginning of the 1970’s, Bimbo opened the largest bread factory in Mexico and Latin America and one of the 10 largest factories in the world. In this factory, bread production was completely automatic. The factory produced one-and-half, big boxed bread, per second, which was completely unprecedented in Latin America. In 1979, Lorenzo Servitje handed over Grupo Bimbo’s presidency to his brother Roberto and he assumed the chairmanship of the board. In 1980, Bimbo went public with 15% of its stock in the Mexican stock exchange. The company was then valued at $12. 5 million dollars. The successful IPO gave the company confidence to expand into the United States. Bimbo sent its first trucks with bread to the U. S. to explore the possibility of catering to a burgeoning population of Hispanic consumers just north of its border. Satisfied with the existence of demand for its products, in 1987 Bimbo started to distribute products in Houston and Los Angeles. By the end of the decade, Bimbo had expanded to Central and Latin America as well. In 1997, Daniel Servitje, Lorenzo’s son, at the age of 39 with an MBA from Stanford University, became CEO of the group and continued to lead Bimbo’s internationalization effort through important acquisitions. Roberto Servitje took on the chairman’s position and Lorenzo stepped down from all formal positions. Daniel Servitje continued with the growth strategy of his predecessors, and in the year 2000, Grupo Bimbo expanded to Europe by acquiring two plants –one in Austria and the other in the Czech Republic- and in 2001 it expanded into Brazil. See Exhibits 2 and 3 for the company’s historical financial performance, and regional indicators. By 2007, the company had a sales turnover of Ps 72,294 million (or $6. 65 billion) and a net 7 â€Å"Bimbo: A 60-year History of Believe and Create† Source: www. rupobimbo. com. mx/admin/content/uploaded/Historia% 20Grupo%20Bimbo. pdf. Last viewed: July 8th, 2008. 4 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 profit of Ps 3,914 million (or $360 million). 8 Of its total sales, 67% were in Mexico, 22% in the U. S, and 11% from twelve Latin American countries. While Roberto Servitje at age 80 served as the chairman of t he board, Lorenzo Servitje at age 90 was still active in its social responsibility affairs. Products and Brands Through the years, Bimbo grew in its bread production and also added many new products and brands. With nearly 5,000 items in its portfolio, and the nearly 100 new products being added every year, the company offered something for every taste and every occasion. Many of these additions came through acquisitions of different firms and brands. Its Bimbo bread division was undoubtedly the flagship of the company, accounting for nearly 50% of all its revenues. Of its main brands, Marinela produced all sweet breads, buns and cakes. Its star product was the â€Å"gansito† or â€Å"little duck,† which was a cake filled with marmalade and covered with chocolate. By 1975, one million â€Å"gansitos† were sold daily. Barcel started off by producing candies, but by 1977 it had begun to produce a wide range of salted snacks. Production of candies was transferred to a new firm called Ricolino. By 2007, Bimbo dominated the market in the packaged bread segment in Mexico. In the salty snack category, Barcel was second to its main competitor Sabritas, owned by PepsiCo. Other important brands were Tia Rosa, which produced specialty sweet breads and flour tortillas, Milpa Real, which produced corn tortillas and Lonchibon, which made ready-to-eat food and snacks. Most of Bimbo’s internationalizations efforts were carried out through local acquisitions. Bimbo looked to acquire firms in regions and segments that provided a platform for growth. It also looked for strong brands that were complementary to its existing portfolio of products and brands, and also provided opportunities that could enable Bimbo to scale up and achieve cost savings. Exhibit 4 provides a summary overview of its various brands, the associated product lines, and their country of operation. Sales and Distribution System Bimbo had one of the largest and most complex distribution networks in the country—second only to Coca-Cola. With time, Bimbo’s distribution system had become more sophisticated and larger but qualitatively, it was essentially the same as when Bimbo started 63 years ago—products were delivered fresh directly from Bimbo depots to the retail store, there were no intermediaries in between. Bimbo products were distributed in to three different channels: supermarkets, convenience stores and through what was called the detail channel to mom pop stores (MPs). The importance of the detail channel was diminishing as MPs found it harder every day to compete with expanding supermarket chains and convenience stores that offered other services such as ready-to-eat food. In the last 10 years, the supermarket chains had grown considerably and the traditional MP channel was losing share (see Exhibit 5). Convenience stores especially, were showing strong growth as they expanded into suburban and rural areas. Moreover, large chain retailers such as Wal-Mart and Chedraui were offering banking services to their customers, thus making it harder for MPs to compete. The total grocery retail market in Mexico was estimated at $125 billion in 2007. 9 8 Foreign exchange as of December 28, 2007 was 10. 8662. Source: Diario Oficial de la Federacion. www. dof. gob. mx. Last viewed July 3rd 2008. 9 â€Å"Retailing Mexico: Country Market Insight,† Euromonitor International, May 2008 and â€Å"Top 5 Retailers in Mexico,† Planet Retail, September 2008. 5 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility All Bimbo products—from all brands and from all plants—were taken to depots from where they were distributed to all channels. In Mexico, around 40% of Bimbo’s total workforce consisted of route-sales associates. Its flagship brand, Bimbo bread, was distributed in large trucks serving metropolitan cities and towns. The rest of the brands were distributed in smaller trucks by independent sales forces. The distribution system was highly programmed. A handheld computer contained all the information on customers, their average orders, product assortments, and their detail route. That information was synchronized with Bimbo’s server at the end of each day. Mexico has nearly 1 million sales outlets, of which Bimbo reached nearly 750,000. Salesmen arrived at the depot around 6:30a. m. to load their trucks. Thanks to the handheld, they knew which products to load depending on the routes they were assigned that day. Trucks were randomly inspected to cross-check the information in the handheld with the actual physical stock in the truck. Salesmen started their routes around 7:00a. m. At each sales point, salesmen delivered products that they booked and took back products before their â€Å"shelf life† had expired. This practice was necessary to insure that consumers had access to fresh product in the market at all times. All sales information was entered into the handheld for control of daily sales. At the end of their route, salespeople returned to their appropriate depots, where stocks were checked and the recalled products were readied to be sent to an â€Å"expendio† or discount store. Salespeople had sales’ goals that they could attain through increasing sales in each store or increasing the number of clients in their â€Å"route. † Daily wages to salesmen consisted of a base salary plus commission, which was a percentage of their daily sales. Commission, on average, was more than double the base salary. On average, a Bimbo salesperson earned slightly more salary than the one usually offered by food industry for similar positions. The traditional or detail channel was the most important channel for Bimbo because it represented its largest source of sales. Bimbo supervisors were always trying to encourage their team to expand their sales points to include nontraditional outlets such as gas stations, beauty parlors, internet cafes, among others. A large fraction of low-income people, who lived in rural areas or small towns, depended on the traditional MPs to buy their groceries. 0 See Exhibit 6 for a view of three semi-urban outlets. MPs usually sold at higher prices than supermarkets but lower than convenience stores. Most MPs had a very close relationship with their clients who often relied on the credit given by the store owner for their purchases. Most of the time customers cleared their accounts by pay day. Such credit was usually not offered by convenience stores or supermarkets. In spite of its service levels, the traditional channel was slowly disappearing. It was becoming increasingly difficult for the small MPs to compete with convenience stores and supermarkets. Their stores were smaller, the product range more limited, and the layout and management of the stores less professional. MPs had to pay for most of their inventory in cash. They received almost no credit from suppliers—some distributors such as Coca Cola, Sabritas (PepsiCo. ), had only recently started to offer credit to MPs. Moreover, because their purchase volumes were relatively smaller, they received no quantity-discounts such as those offered to convenience stores and supermarkets. As a response to the needs of the MPs but also as a way of maintaining Bimbo’s most important channel, in 2004 Bimbo initiated a bold new program called â€Å"Pesito. † 10 From field visits, the case writers estimated their size to be about 250 to 500 square feet. The owners reported average daily sales of between $200 and $450, of which sodas, juice and water accounted for 50%, food-30%, and tobacco-20%. Larger stores also carried cleaning and some health and beauty products. Some carried beer. Margins varied widely by product, averaging about 20%. 6 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 09-025 Pesito During the course of their daily route selling, salesmen offered credit on purchases of Bimbo products. Store owners wanting the credit paid a flat fee of 2 pesos (20 cents) regardless of the size of the order placed. The sales person entered the credit information on to his handheld so the record of each credit could be uploaded into Bimbo’s central system once the sales person ended his daily route. At the next visit to the store—which could be anytime between two days to one week, the store owner had to pay the credit to the sales person. The sales person would then give the store owner a receipt, which was printed from the handheld and the transaction was closed. If the store owner was unable to repay the credit, for a payment of 2 pesos the credit could be rolled over, but no new transactions would be made. Many Bimbo clients recognized that â€Å"Pesito† was a way to increase their income, without having to invest in inventory, helping them to grow their business. Consequently the default rate was very low. Bimbo had different sales forces for different brands, thus there were separate Pesito programs for each brand. For example, a store could have outstanding credit with Bimbo, Marinela, Tia Rosa and Barcel. The store would appear in the Pesito accounts under four different identifiers. There were limits to the amount of credit that a sales person could give per client, in most cases the equivalent of one week’s order; and then there were overall limits per route as well. Through steady efforts by Grupo Bimbo’s route sales people, approximately 350,000 of the small store owners participated in the Pesito program and paid on time, and Bimbo’s goal was to further increase that in the coming years. Microfinance for Store Owners Don Lorenzo Servitje had, among many other of his social concerns, the idea of helping the poor through micro credits. Don Lorenzo was particularly interested in the MPs store owners because, through Bimbo, he had noticed how they lived day by day solely with the income from their store. They had no health or life insurance and Don Lorenzo noticed how many times MPs had to close due to sickness or death in the family. Store owners also had no access to the formal financial system so they had to rely on money lenders, especially to make capital improvements in the store. They seldom had resources to invest in their store to make it more productive or more attractive to customers for example by installing new equipment, refrigerators, meat cutters, or a PC to access the internet. Thus in 1994, Bimbo started an alliance with Fincomun, a microcredit institution with the goal of providing further financial services to its MP clients. The loan process with Fincomun was simple. A Bimbo salesperson could recommend a client to Fincomun. Bimbo salespeople knew their clients quite well, their business model, their cash flow, and their credit reputation. If the client accepted the offered credit, Fincomun agents visited the store and gave them a check that could be cashed at a bank. If the Bimbo sales person assisted in the follow-on collection, they were paid a small fee for the effort. Only a very small proportion of Bimbo’s clients, however, were Fincomun customers (less than 5%). By June 2008, Fincomun also offered Life and Hospitalization insurance and had 400 clients in the pilot stage of the insurance program. History of Bimbo’s Corporate Social Responsibility From its very beginnings, Bimbo prided itself on its commitment to social causes and Mexico’s development. In 1954, not even 10 years after its founding, Bimbo opened a school for workers’ 7 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility children. Since then, a percentage of Bimbo’s pre-tax profits were earmarked for social and educational causes. â€Å"I wanted to dedicate myself to something more than just making cakes and bread. I aspired to serve others,† Don Lorenzo was reputed to have said in a newspaper interview. 11 Even in hard times, Bimbo had avoided firing people and reducing the CSR budget. Roberto Servitje used to say, â€Å"Entrepreneurs are meant to create and grow, not to destroy. Over time, Bimbo’s portfolio of CSR programs had grown both in size and in sophistication. At the beginning, the programs were more geared internally, toward Bimbo’s associates. Over time, they expanded externally as well. Bimbo’s CSR programs were divided into a matrix (for a detailed description of programs see Exhibit 7). Daniel Servitje asser ted, â€Å"Our CSR programs are divided into six categories that overlap with each other. We have internal and external programs, and then we have economic, social and environmental programs. When Bimbo was founded, CSR was neither structured nor formal. It was something that we did because we believed in it; because the values of social awareness were embedded in all of us since we were children. † Martha Eugenia Hernandez, head of institutional relations and CSR and who had been at Bimbo since 1981, recalled â€Å"Don Lorenzo used to say, ‘Your left hand should never know what your right hand is giving. ’ And that was the philosophy behind CSR at that time; it was low key. † Roberto Perez Gomez, head of labor relations and a 20-year-old veteran of the company added, â€Å"With Don Lorenzo, Bimbo was a small and privately held firm; contact with associates was very personal. Even though Bimbo has grown rapidly and is now a public company, the social responsibility philosophy is still the same. Contact with associates is still personal. Daniel Servitje visits each plant every year and has annual meetings with associates of different areas. † The company’s CSR budget was determined as a percentage of its profits. This percentage was decided by a CSR committee comprised of five members of the board. The committee also decided which programs to support and to what amount. The profit percentage varied from year to year, and was determined independently for each country. Bimbo’s CSR programs were divided into four areas of commitment: Employees or Associates, Health, Environment, and the Community. Associates Since the beginning, one of our greatest concerns was our relationship with associates. We wanted people to work happily, we wanted them to identify with the company and we wanted them to be respected, having a non instrumental view of people; we wanted relations with personnel to be harmonious and cordial. With the years, the view of a highly productive firm that could also be a profoundly humane company consolidated. Profit sharing with our associates was higher than that required by law and many of our associates purchased shares with their monthly savings. 12 (Don Lorenzo Servitje13) 11 â€Å"Lorenzo Servitje: Sonar y Realizar,† Reforma, Club section, May 16, 2008. 12 Legal profit sharing in Mexico was 10%. Profit sharing in Bimbo was linked to productivity and could go from 11% to 13. 5% of profits depending on the results of the company. Source: Company information. 13 â€Å"Bimbo: A 60-Year History of Believe and Create. † Source: www. grupobimbo. com. mx/admin/content/uploaded/ Historia%20Grupo%20Bimbo. pdf. Last viewed: July 8th, 2008. 8 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 In 2005, Bimbo hired a Canadian company to analyze Bimbo’s competitive advantages. They concluded, â€Å"We have analyzed their technology. They have the best in the world. They are leaders in the markets where they are present and have a great distribution network. However, what strikes us the most is that people are committed far beyond what is normally seen in other companies. People identify with the company. We see all workers, at all levels, seeking to give the best in them. That is what truly makes them special. 14 Bimbo was rated one of Mexico’s best places to work during the last eight years. In September 2008, Grupo Bimbo as a whole had more than 97,000 associates, of which around 60,000 worked in the baking division in Mexico. Around 25% of them were international associates and 13% were women. Right from the beginning, Bimbo’s top management did not merely perceive t heir associates as a labor resource, but rather as people who were partners in Bimbo’s mission to create value. They were treated with care, and provided opportunities to grow and learn and advance their quality of life. Grow and innovate was the motto driving Bimbo’s relationship with its associates. Javier Millan, head of Human Relations, put it simply: â€Å"Our competitive advantage lies within our values, outstanding among which is the person. Viewing a person as an individual is the small difference that makes all the difference. Once they are treated that way people get involved, they become interested in the company’s objectives. † Bimbo’s programs for its associates were divided into two areas of support: economic or development. Within economic benefits, Bimbo had health assistance, support for home improvement, and help with wills and deeds. It strongly encouraged long-term retirement savings among its associates. Roberto Servitje said: â€Å"What you truly gain is what you save and invest. † Under personal development, Bimbo offered its associates various courses that covered much more than just training for the workplace. Many courses addressed personal development opportunities such as, improving communication skills, raising healthy families, and so on. There were also educational offerings that enabled associates to complete a high school program, online and on-site English proficiency courses, and a mandatory course on how businesses work and contribute to the economy (to see a description of Bimbo’s programs for its associates, see Exhibit 8). Roberto Servitje said, â€Å"The firm is what its people are, and the people are what their leaders are. † From among the many benefits provided to associates, the health and education offerings were highly valued. Mexico’s public health system was known to be inefficient. It often took long hours to be seen by a doctor and receive treatment, and many visits to the doctor before one could see a specialist. Moreover, few people had access to preventive medicine. Bimbo tried to bridge the gap by providing free complete medical exams to all associates over 40, once a year preventive medical exams for cardiovascular illnesses at Bimbo facilities and follow-up checkups for those identified as needing further monitoring and care. All Bimbo associates were covered by the Mexican government’s health plan, to which Bimbo made a contribution, as did the associates through payroll deduction. In order to enable its associates circumvent the poor system of public care, Bimbo made available its facilities for the government to operate its clinics. Because of their location most of these operated as exclusive clinics for Bimbo employees. Moreover because these clinics were on Bimbo premises, the company was able to offer better infrastructure than what would normally be available to such clinics. 14 â€Å"In Grupo Bimbo, People Make the Difference,† presentation given by Javier Millan, head of Human Relations, 2007. 9 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Health and Nutrition Within Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries (OECD), Mexico had the dubious reputation of being second in obesity rankings after the United States. 15 Recent studies16 showed that obesity in Mexico within the total population had increased during the last 60 years, but that this growth had accelerated at an alarming pace in the last 20 years. Obesity growth rates accelerated 10% to 20% in children, 30% to 40% in adolescents, and 60% to 70% in adults. The increase in obesity was most worrying in children (see Exhibit 9). The same study linked the reasons for the increase in childhood obesity to changes in eating habits, to diets high in calories, refined carbohydrates and sodas, and decrease in consumption of fruits and vegetables. This same study stated that the increase in obesity was also related to a decrease in physical activity. In Mexico, the obesity risk for children 9 to 16 years old increased 16% for each hour that they watched TV or played videogames. On average, Mexican children watched TV or played videogames 4. 1 to 6. 3 hours daily. 7 To counter the varied causes of obesity, in 2007 Bimbo launched a health program called Committed to Your Health. The program had many different components roughly divided into five areas: improving product healthiness, education in health and nutrition, promotion of physical activity, research, and being an exemplary firm in terms of health and nutrition (for details of the programs see Exhibit 10). The company published Nutrinotas, which reached 1 milli on print and online subscribers, and distributed sports and nutrition materials for 21,000 students. As part of its efforts to promote physical activity, the company staged a nationwide soccer tournament for children, Futbolito Bimbo Stars. In 2007, 46,000 children aged 9 to 12 participated in the program and the winning team travelled to Venezuela for the America’s Cup soccer tournament. In 2008, more than 50,000 children attended, winning a trip to Disney World. In its 2007 annual report, the company affirmed its commitment to health: The millions of people who enjoy our products each day count on them for quality, consistency and taste. The success lies in staying attuned to consumer tastes and trends. That means enhancing the nutritional value of our products and introducing new, healthy options. In this regard we follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization on reducing fat, salt and sugar content, and decreasing portion sizes†¦We are also innovating by adding functional ingredients to numerous products, for example, to lower cholesterol or enhance mineral absorption. We have created a range of products with less than 100 calories each; and just as importantly, we are investing in mass-market educational campaigns to encourage active, healthy lifestyles. In order to create the necessary research and development infrastructure, Grupo Bimbo had built four Innovation and Nutrition Institutes (‘Institutos de Investigacion y Nutricion de Grupo Bimbo’), two of them located in Mexico, one in the United States and one in South America. 15 World Health Organization, www. who. org last viewed July 8, 2008. 16 â€Å"Obesidad Infantil,† Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Nov. 2006. www. insp. mx/Portal/Centros/ciss/nls/boletines/ PME_14. pdf. Last viewed July 7, 2008. 17 â€Å"Obesidad Infantil,† Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Nov. 2006. www. insp. x/Portal/Centros/ciss/nls/boletines/ â€Å"PME_14. pdf. Last viewed July 7, 2008. 10 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Environment Bimbo’s programs in terms of environment protection were divided into five areas: emission reduction, saving water, saving energy, solid waste management and CSR on environmental matters through an institution dedicated to forest conservation and reforestation called â€Å"Reforestamos Mexico. † In the words of Martha Eugenia Hernandez, â€Å"we want to be a Green Company, both inside and outside. † See Exhibit 11 for the impact of its natural resource conservation effort. In 1998, Mexico suffered extensive fires in its forests; Mexico lost 800,000 hectares of forests. The government invited companies to participate in recovering lost forests. Bimbo responded speedily. Its associates raised money, and each peso donated by them was matched by Bimbo. As a result of the company’s (and its associates’) efforts, 1 million trees were planted and 8 natural areas were targeted for improvement. After that impressive achievement Bimbo’s directors decided to extend their commitment to Mexico’s forests on a more permanent basis. As a result, in 2002 Bimbo created a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the forests and trees of Mexico and named it â€Å"Reforestamos Mexico. † The administrative costs of Reforestamos Mexico was entirely borne by Bimbo, while the costs of the various projects were shared by Bimbo and other firms such as Wal-Mart, Banco Santander, Hewlett Packard, as well as individual donors. Twenty percent of Bimbo’s saving from energy conservation was used to fund Reforestamos Mexico. All Reforestamos’ employees, including the director, were independent. Its director, Ernesto Herrera, had worked for Bimbo prior to this appointment and was passionately committed to its mission. â€Å"I have worked for the environment for 10 years. For me, Reforestamos Mexico has been a dream-cometrue. I work in something that I passionately care about, and in one of the most committed companies in the world. I envision Reforestamos Mexico expanding into Latin America and working along with some of America’s most important environmental NGOs. † From the 27 people that constituted Reforestamos Mexico’s advisory board, only 3 worked for Bimbo. In addition to its Reforestamos Mexico activities, in August 2008, Grupo Bimbo announced that it had begun the use of degradable polyethylene packaging for its products, which made it the first Mexican company to use a 100% environment-friendly material. Ramon Rivera, Operations Director of Grupo Bimbo, commented, â€Å"the products packaged in degradable wrapping preserve their freshness and all of their characteristics exactly the same as those using traditional wrapping, and therefore consumers can have total confidence that the product will continue to be exactly the same. With the technology known as â€Å"d2w,† the degradation of the plastic began as soon as its useful life was over and the plastic discarded. The plastic was programmed to be consumed by bacteria and fungi in the soil, through an additive that reduced its molecular structure. This process of degradation would take a maximum period of 3-to-5 years, in comparison to the normal process that could take as lo ng as 100 to 400 years. 18 Community Bimbo was acutely aware of its close linkages to the community, and therefore had instituted various programs in support. It worked jointly with the National Development Bank for the small and micro enterprise (Nacional Financiera or NAFIN) to help its suppliers with working capital needs. Bimbo also supported many educational programs for both its suppliers and its store owners. For suppliers, Bimbo provided a course that helped them improve their business skills. The topics included cost reduction, quality improvement, and tracking operations online. For store owners, 18 Grupo Bimbo Incorporates Degradable Packaging 100% Environment Friendly, http://www. grupobimbo. com. mx/ salaprensa/index. php? fuseaction=home. oletinlangID=2bolID=212. 11 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Bimbo developed a course jointly with local universities called â€Å"the store-owner university† or â€Å"la Universidad del tendero. † This course covered basic management tools such as accounting, marketing, customer service, operations planning and control, and some basic computer skills among other things. By June 2008, Bimbo had delivered 38 classes to almost 1,000 store owners. In 2007 and 2008, through Televisa Foundation, an institution that sought the development of children and young people of Mexico, Grupo Bimbo istributed 550,000 copies of a Values Calendar and Teacher’s Support Guide, to almost all Mexican elementary schools. Each year the company invited 1 million children to visit its many plants and learn about the food industry. The company had long been a supporter of the Papalote Museo del Nino (children’s museum), providing the funding support for a school program for children from low-income communities to visit the museum. Over 4,500 children visited the museum every year as part of the program. In addition the company directly supported Crisol, an elementary school for low-income children. In addition, Grupo Bimbo supported the activities of the Mexican Foundation for Rural Development (â€Å"Fundacion Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural†), an organization with more than 40 years of experience that promoted the development of the agricultural sector, and low-income rural families. The company also supported the Center for Integrated Development of the Countryside, A. C. , (â€Å"Centro para el Desarrollo Integral del Campo, A. C. †), which benefited one of the poorest populations of Mexico in the Nayar zone. In a similar vein, the company supported various development programs for indigenous communities in areas such as health, nutrition, and education, through workshops coordinated by Foundation Mazahua Region (â€Å"Patronato Pro Zona Mazahua†) benefiting more than 20,000 people from the Mazahua area of northwestern Mexico State. All-in-all, Bimbo supported many different projects and organizations (for a list of institutions supported by Bimbo, see Exhibit 12), leading Martha Eugenia Hernandez to conclude, â€Å"We have lots of requests for help and we would love to help everyone. We want to be Santa Claus but we just cannot! It is hard to say no, but it is hard to say yes to everything. † Going Forward There was no question in Daniel Servitje’s mind that the internationalization of Bimbo’s business was important for its growth strategy. In addition to increasing Bimbo’s presence in markets such as the United States or Latin America, he also wanted to penetrate markets where Bimbo was not present or where it was just entering, such as China. An important challenge was to improve international profitability, which was lagging behind Mexico’s operations. But the leadership position it had gained in the domestic market and indeed in many markets of Latin America was something that Daniel Servitje did not want to lose sight of. He recalled the passion and commitment with which his predecessors, his father Lorenzo Servitje, and then his uncle, Roberto Servitje, had led the company. They were able to blend the company’s strategy development and its mission and values. He wondered what he could do for an encore. Bimbo was undoubtedly one of the most respected companies in Mexico. How should he go about continuing the tradition in Mexico and rest of the markets it had entered? 2 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 1 Historical Bimbo Sales 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 1980 82 84 86 88 1990 92 94 96 98 2000 02 04 06 2008 Historical Bimbo Sales (1980 =100) Source: Company information. Exhibit 2 Consolidated Income Statement (million dollars) 1980 426 225 201 150 51 (4) 1 47 24 24 0. 4 23 12. 3% 9. 1% 1997 2,302 1,123 1,179 966 214 11 (14) 211 90 121 5 126 10. 3% 7. 3% 2000 3,279 1,435 1,844 1,506 338 (8) (13) 317 130 187 5 192 12. 0% 7. 5% 2006 5,851 2,724 3,127 2,588 539 (27) 12 524 194 330 3 333 15. 6% 8. % 2007 6,653 3,138 3,515 2,926 590 (22) (36) 537 177 366 6 360 14. 0% 8. 7% USD MM Net sales Cost of sales Gross profit Operating expenses Operating income Integral financial result Other income or expenses, net Income before income taxes Income tax expense Net income before participation in partner companies Equity in income of associated companies Net income ROE ROA Source: Grupo Bimbo, 1980, 1998, 2000 and 2007 Annual report, www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed June 5th, 2008. 13 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 3 Financial Information by Region (million dollars) Mexico 1998 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 1,923 266 338 Mexico 2000 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 2,431 356 443 Mexico 2006 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 4,110 510 634 Mexico 2007 NET SALES OPERATING INCOME EBITDA 4,575 542 686 USA 364 11 23 USA 599 (9) 12 USA 1,399 21 52 USA 1,524 19 51 Latam 238 (32) (14) Latam 249 (9) 9 Latam 490 4 25 Latam 699 25 55 Total 2,524 245 348 Total 3,279 338 463 Total 5,851 539 714 Total 6,653 590 796 Source: Grupo Bimbo, 1980, 1998, 2000 and 2007 Annual report, www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed June 5, 2008. 14 509-025 -15- Exhibit 4 Bimbo’s Products and Brands Division Bimbo Mexico Mexico United States Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela China Barcel Bimbo Bakeries USA Bimbo Latin America Bimbo Asia Country Mexico Brands Bimbo, Marinela, Tia Rosa, Wonder, Milpa Real, Suandy Lara, Lonchibon, Gaby, El Globo, among others Barcel, Ricolino, Coronado, La Corona, among others Oroweat, Mrs Baird’s, Bimbo, Entenmann’s*, Thomas*, Tia Rosa, Marinela, Francisco, Old Country, Boboli*, Weber’s*, among others Bimbo, Marinela, Plus Vita, Pullman, Ideal, Holsum, Trigoro, PyC, Bontrigo, Cena, Fuchs, among others. Bimbo Source: Grupo Bimbo 2007 Annual Report. www. grupobimbo. com, last viewed Sept. 9, 2008. * Under license. Example of products 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 5 Grocery Retailers Market Share 1999 Wal-Mart Safeway Soriana OXXO Comercial Mexicana Gigante Carrefour Chedraui Costco Casa Ley Comextra 7-Eleven HEB Comercial VH Almacenes Zaragoza Casa Chapa Controladora y administradora de pastelerias Grandes superficies de Mexico Others ( Mostly â€Å"Mom Pops†) Total 0. 8 1. 4 0. 5 0. 2 0. 2 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 78. 8 100. 0 6. 6 1. 5 2 1 2 2. 4 0. 9 002 6. 1 3 1. 2 2. 6 3. 2 0. 9 2 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 78. 1 100. 0 2004 10. 2 4. 7 2. 6 3. 4 3 1 1. 9 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 0. 9 70. 4 100. 0 2005 11. 5 4. 8 2. 9 3. 4 2. 6 1. 5 1. 8 0. 6 0. 3 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 69. 4 100. 0 2006 12. 7 5. 2 4 3. 5 2. 4 2. 1 1. 7 0. 8 0. 5 0. 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 66. 1 100. 0 2007 14. 6 5. 7 4. 5 3. 6 2. 4 2. 2 1. 8 1 0. 5 0 . 3 0. 3 0. 2 0. 2 0. 1 62. 7 100. 0 Source: Retailing Mexico, Country market insight, Euromonitor International, May 08 and Retail planet. 16 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 6 Views of Semi-Urban MPs Source: Casewriters. 17 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 7 Bimbo’s CSR Programs Source: Company information. 18 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 8 †¢ Bimbo’s Programs for its Associates †¢ Development benefits: ! Development courses for associates o Personal development course: 3 day course on meditation on oneself and life. The topics ranged from ones ideals, work as a means of personal development and community contribution, the company, health and spirituality, role in society, among others. Leadership course for bosses where the motto was: The firm is what its people are and the people are what its boss is. o What is a firm: one day course on the firm? Topics were savings, investment, work, CSR and profits. The firm was explored so that associates would learn the need to have profit and how in a successful firm everyone benefited. o Family integration workshops for associates and their spouses ! Education courses: o Open schooling to associates so that they could finish middle and high school. Online English proficiency courses and on-site English courses o Support for elementary to masters education for associates in Mexico and the United States o Intensive mandatory training course on driving for all sales personnel. o Many production associates wanted to become sales people because wages were higher. Bimbo offered training in sales and driving to production associates so that they could become sales people. o Bimbo offered, in some of its production facilities, summer camps for associates’ children during the summer vacations. ! Savings: Voluntary saving program where 1 to 2% of associates’ wages were kept for a long term etirement savings program. Economic assistance: ! Health: o Bimbo organized a health week where social security came to Bimbo to do preventive medicine tests on associates such as sugar level tests, cholester ol, blood pressure, among other things. o Associates that came out bad in any of the tests were given follow-up checks up throughout the year. o Bimbo had mandatory health checks for associates over 40. o In case of severe health problem, Bimbo helped by putting pressure into the social security system so that the associate got adequate treatment. Bimbo also got private labs to make specialized tests to associates at very low prices. ! Home improvement: o Bimbo organized a home improvement fair through the Mexican institute for home equipment, IMEVI, so that associates could get home improvement credits and better prices on home improvement materials. ! Wills and deeds: o Bimbo got associates special prices with public notaries so that they could regularize their land or home by making deeds as well as wills. Bimbo also helped associates by allowing them to pay for their will or deeds procedures in a monthly basis instead of in a lump sum. Nutritionist and doctor in Bimbo offices to help associates keeping a healthier diet. Company information. Source: 19 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 9 Obesity and Overweight Prevalence in Mexican Children 1999 5. 3% 5. 9% 1999 18. 6% 2006 9. 4% 8. 7% 2006 26. 0% % Change 77. 0% 47. 0% % Change 39. 7% Obesity in children 5 to 11 year olds Boys Girls Overweight and obesity in children 5 to 11 year olds Boys and girls Source: Compiled by casewriters using data from Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricion 2006, Instituto Nacional para la Salud Publica, http://www. nsp. mx/ensanut/resultados_ensanut. pdf, last viewed July 7, 2008. Exhibit 10 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Health programs in Bimbo Social marketing campaign advocating 30 minutes of daily exercise through television commercials, billboards, radio announcements and packaging. Futbolito Bimbo Stars Tournament: Bimbo invited 46,000 children to a soccer tournament where they were given information on the need for physical activity and healthy diet. Mail and e-mail distribution of nutrinotas, an information brochure on health and nutrition, to more than 1 million people annually. Distribution of posters promoting good nutrition in 21,000 public and private schools. Distribution of the book â€Å"Living a Healthy Lifestyle† to all Bimbo’s associates throughout the world and to MPs owners. Elimination of transfats from its products. Reduced portion sizes and created products with only 100 calories Decreased fat, sugar and salt in 8% of all Bimbo’s product portfolio Fortified products with iron that was five times easier to absorb. The Public Health National Institute, in its Nutrition and Health 2006 census showed that children in Southern Mexico had an important iron deficiency. Bimbo developed products that appealed to children and met 20% of their daily iron needs Created a new bread that helped reduce cholesterol Participated in the Alliance of the Heart with Pfizer and Lala where 200,000 people were diagnosed and tested, at no cost, for cardiovascular diseases based on indicators such as cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure levels. Bimbo also made efforts to be an exemplary firm by giving talks to associates on health and nutrition, providing nutritionists for consults, having healthy menus in its cafeterias and recommendations to have physical activity in the workplace. Bimbo gave founding to many health organizations such as The Mexican Foundation for Health (FUNSALUD), The APAC foundation –providing rehabilitation for people with cerebral palsy, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Foundation –supporting programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children around the world, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, the March of Dimes –health education for pregnant women and promotion of folic acid supplements in bread and the Mexican Red Cross. Company information. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: 20 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility 509-025 Exhibit 11 †¢ Impact of Natural Resource Conservation at Bimbo Since 2003, Bimbo decreased its vehicle fleet fuel by 3. 6 million litters and increased their average kilometer per liter by 15% by improved carburetion technology engines and fuel types Since year 2000, Bimbo decreased its energy index per ton produced by 13% and the thermal energy index per ton produced by 34%. Since year 2000 Bimbo had saved 194 million liters of water or 23% of its consumption by water treatment, installing water-treatment systems in plants, collecting water from rain, among other things. By 2008 Bimbo was recycling 85% of their solid wastes through recycling policies. †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: Company information. 21 509-025 Grupo Bimbo: Growth and Social Responsibility Exhibit 12 Organizations and Institutions Supported by Bimbo, among others †¢ Educational Institutions: o Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESEM) o Escuela Bancaria y Comercial (EBC) o Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) o Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) o Instituto de Fomento e Investigacion Educativa (IFIE) Other foundations or institutions: o Televisa foundation o UNICEF o Junior League Mexico City o Papalote Children Museum: from the Support given to the museum, in 2007 4,500 children from public schools and 30,000 children from marginalized communities visited the museum o Fundacion Pro Empleo Productivo o Impulsa o Fundacion Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural o Patronato Pro-zona Mazahua o Fundacion Tarahumara o Fundacion CIE o Amigos del Museo de Arte Popular: which benefits more than 8 million Mexican artisans Relief efforts: o After the 2007 floods, Bimbo made a campaign to help associates that were damaged by the flood. Over 33,000 associates donated and donations were matched by Bimbo. o In the United States, Bim bo contributed to food drives for the tornado victims in Texas and Kansas International foundations: o Project leaders of the 21st Century (Colombia) o National Park Foundation (United States) o Toys for tots (United States) o United Way (United States) o Junior Achievement (United States) o Institute of the Americas (United States) o Amigos de las Americas (United States) o Young Women Association (YWCA) †¢ †¢ †¢ Source: Social Responsibility Report 2007, Grupo Bimbo. 22

Global Management Styles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Management Styles - Essay Example The kind of the company I would like to manage is the registered limited company in which the liability of all the members is limited to a number of shares they hold. There are various management policies that the manager of a limited company needs to follow to ensure that the company runs smoothly. In this ISO 9000, certification represents a means of internal communication to customers and other constituents. I will be required to adhere to the ISO 9000 developed framework by constantly referring to the requirements in the operational manual. I will be required to use my skills to ensure that I make proper judgment especially in cases of disagreements. The company requires filing tax returns, and it will be my responsibility to ensure that there is complete compliance. ISO 9000 standards are not for evaluating finished products or the delivered service but assure that the organization has well-documented quality management systems such as written procedures and rules. Policies requ ired by the company include the keeping of the company's records in addition to ensuring that its accounts are true and fair (Mendel, 2006). As the manager the company, managing employees and ensuring that each performs his or her duties perfectly will be of great use. ISO guidelines will be our guiding factor to rationalization or conceptualization logic. Another challenge that I may be faced with is decoupling in which the returns on assets may diverge from their normal pattern of correlation.

Using SM for Advertising and Marketing Social Media Is Increasingly Essay

Using SM for Advertising and Marketing Social Media Is Increasingly Used for PR - Essay Example Notably, in the current day context, social media is being used increasingly by the marketers in order to promote the offered products as well as services. It is basically a concept which is utilised referring to the online technologies as well as practices utilised to share views as well as information, endorse discussion and develop relationship with the customers. It is also quite significant for the communication staffs as well as policy officials for the purpose of generating awareness regarding the product. Social media services can make use of numerous formats such as text, video, audio as well as pictures for attracting the customers towards the product. In the similar context, public relation can be identified as a distinguishing function of the management that assist in the development and administration of communication, cooperation, comprehension and recognition between organisations along with community members. The main objective of the paper is to identify the increasi ng role of the social media as one of the means of advertisement for modern organisations. According to Hamill (1997), integrated marketing communication can be explained as the set of rules that is followed by marketers to communicate within the concentrated market and thus make the people aware regarding the product/service rendered. ... g communication can be explained as the set of rules that is followed by marketers to communicate within the concentrated market and thus make the people aware regarding the product/service rendered. Integrated marketing communication intends to synchronize and arrange the numerous components of promotional mix such as advertising, publicity and direct marketing, personal selling as well as sales promotion in order generate a combined customer-focused message and therefore attain the determined marketing related objectives of the organisation (Hamill, 1997). It can be stated that the tools as well as the strategies that have been utilised for the purpose of communication in the modern times have undergone tremendous changes because of the discovery of social media. It is also known as consumer-generated media. Such media demonstrates various new sources of online information that are generated, instigated, circulated and utilised by the consumer goal on enlightening each other regard ing the products, brands, issues, personalities and services (Thackeray & et. al., 2009) Social media comprises numerous forums such as online forums, word-of-mouth forums, company-sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms. In the 21st century, a detonation of internet-based messages passes via these media to generate awareness about the offered product. They have been a major factor in creating an impact on the different features of consumer behaviour along with consciousness, acquirement of the information, opinion, feeling, post-purchase communication as well as evaluation (Zwick & Dholakia, 2008) Traditional Vs New Communication In the context of traditional communication concept, the components of promotional mix are coordinated in order to create an Integrated Marketing Communication

Postwar Transformation of Canadian Identity Essay Example for Free

Postwar Transformation of Canadian Identity Essay Much can be credited on the postwar state of transformation to the state of Canada. It can be argued that, Canada went through a state of political, social and economic transformations that were built by the effects and influences of the postwar period. Amongst the broad array of scholars and historians that have stood to recommend about these transformations, Jose Igartua can be echoed in his book, â€Å"The other Quiet Revolution. † In his anthology, he has developed an attractive package of the historical background that shaped Canada between 1945 and 1971. Broadly, the aspect of Canadian national identity within the postwar period has been a hallmark of events that has continued to frustrate, obsess and fascinate its citizens, politicians and scholars across the span of many years. However, a disparity exists between these different persons in their understanding about the state of Canada as having a national identity. At one arm of the argument, some are at full denial that Canada has had anything like a national identity. The other contrasting fashion of the disparity is that, Canada even enjoys multiple of national identities with a competing portfolio to one another. However, as much as we would choose to neglect the issue of national identity in Canada, a constant reminder about the same is provided by various aspects within the Canadian society. The 20th Century was highly crucial in modeling the nature of the Canadian society. It can be argued that the postwar transformation saw Canada changing from an ethnic into a civic nationalist state. However, an important question would be in digging about when Canada got out of the British colony and thus providing itself with a national sovereignty. However, the Canadian identity changed from its entangles of the British colony which was characterized by ethnicity towards a society that had an equal share of its civic values. During the British colony to Canada, the Canadians who had a Japanese origin went through learning and emulation of the British colony both during and after World War II. This was however characterized of ethnicity between the Canadians and their colony. However, its liberation from the British colony gave it a chance of sharing its civic values where other races such as French Canadians as well as other non British racial groups were now recognized . This provided that all the groups were given the power of participating in the Canadian life parameters through shared responsibilities and resources. Elsewhere, an endurance of the ambiguities that had encroached the culture of the English Canadian identity was provided by the radical establishments of the civic modeled Canada in order to provide a well formulated intellectual activity. However, Igartua has drawn the use of Anthony Smith’s theory in explaining the context of Canadian nationalism. By and large, the Canadian shift of its former ethnic state to a civic nationalism can be argued as important historical events towards the shaping of Canadian identity. In the lieu to bridge an affirmative description to this state of transformation, different scholars such as Richard Gwyn, John Dieferbaker and Michael Ignatieff have soundly come up to explore the legitimate foundations in the change of the Canadian identity transformation. According to Igartua however, the 1960’s was a unique period in the Canadian history where it experienced a state of â€Å"Quiet Revolution† which can be equated more or less to that shaped the modern Quebec. However, the analytical exploration into the state of revolution of Canada by Igartua is established through his â€Å"argumentative statements† and a pursuit of â€Å"conventional wisdom â€Å" about the Canadians identity theory. In his acknowledgement however, though the English Canadians have not finally dispensed a truly indisputable state of national identity, it can be said that they have changed the ideal terms with which state of identity could be developed and discussed. Generally, a great challenge is posited to the fact that the identity for English- Canadian went through a state of gradual process whose beginning point was in the World War I and ended in the World War II. This saw great heights of transformations into its economic and social parameters soon after the World War II. According to Igartua however, the English Canada after 1945 had still the bondage of a British colony state in a commonwealth of British Empire. However, the fight for its liberation went on in 1946 when its liberal government made attempts of introducing a new national flag, changing its Dominion Day to become Canada Day as well as separating its citizenship. Indeed, the same was loosely echoed by the Canadians who associated it with the activities of the French and British Canada towards repudiating its national sovereignty. The same conflict also saw many liberals and conservatives being outraged by the refusal of the Canadian government in backing of Britain at the crisis of Suez Canal. Broadly, the Canadians were shallow of this fury when they noted that Britain had a narrow level of self interest to Canada or even any other commonwealth state. However, Canada was know loosing its capacity as a pure British nation despite the massive chanting and borrowing of pro-British slogans by the conservatives led by Diefenbaker and his fellow conservatives. Elsewhere, Deifenbaker was divided in Canada when he chose to posit that Britain was becoming one of the members in the European Economic Community. This was in the implication to the Canadians that they had sediments of ties to Britain which repudiated a contrasting essence of state phenomena to their obligations. Generally, the basics of Quiet Revolution for English Canadian are centered in its flag debate of 1964 and its consequent implication in its responses towards the implication of the Royal Commission on â€Å"Biculturalism and Bilingualism which was hereafter called the â€Å"B and B Commission†. Presumably, much can be said and handled in these two levels of state revolutions. Firstly, the Canadian flag debate has gone down into the historical books of a period of fountain chronological events. This saw the older and former view posited to the Canada as British state which was highly exposed by its conservative leader Diefenbaker to no longer hold any fundamental interest to the public and newspaper editors over justifying why the state was to be ruled by a conservatives parliament. Consequently, this move was historical and saw many Canadians who included a majority of francphones to have a great sigh of enthusiasm in embracing the new state flag in 1964. However, another portion gave a resignation to the same as an implication of the anti-support campaign towards the conservative rule but followers of the British colony. The rising new flag consequently saw the former â€Å"Red Ensign† and â€Å"Union Jack† which were focused as the long serviced convenient symbols were submerged under the power of the new rule . According to Igartua, this new flag had no trace about the former power of the two â€Å"nations that found Canada†. However, this new flag came as a uniquely â€Å"fitting banner† towards the emergence of a civil Canadian State. Elsewhere, the supplementary role played by the â€Å"B and B Commission† was ideally important when analyzing the state of revolution in Canada after World War II. Historically, this commission was an awakening step for the English Canada towards the Quiet Revolution issues embraced by the Quebec. Historically, many quarters predicted a back clash in their ant-campaign on nationalist philosophies that came from the Quebec City. This was also in the anti-campaign against the liberal government of the federal system. The commission also recognized and anticipated that Canada was not as perceived by many people as bifurcated state that was made of two monolithic racial /ethnic groups. However, it constituted an agglomeration of many individual persons who obliged to equality of their rights. Moreover, Igartua argued that the long held concept about individual equality finally came to loose its connotation when it came to have its ground work meaning modeled into a more universalistic and premise approach to human rights conception. This consequently saw the establishment of support towards Trudeau’s vision towards Canada which was later modeled in its official languages in the Act of 1969. Through out the historical confrontation to build up and restore the sense of national identity, English Canadians went through a back log of defining their optimistic sense of identity as a tool for political survival. The postwar Canada embraced a radical epoch into a fountain state of search for knowledge through emergence of a well structured curriculum of education. Across the board however, its plunge into wide pools of education and issues also saw Canada embracing a unique state of change into its identity. According to Igartua, text books and school curriculum within Canada seldom changed to capture a broad and highly developed state of codification towards the broad state of the Canadian identity. The former structures and modalities on societal modeling envisaged by the pre-war period were averted by the nature of the changing state of education in the country. Consequently, Canada started to enjoy a wide and promoted state of its educational and knowledge background that went even beyond the levels of many postwar countries. Generally, Canada posited a pride in a British heritage as well as imperial achievements few years after the end of world war II. However, its state of national heritage identity was precariously eroding within the 1960s to giving in less ethnocentric and more conservative view about its past . Such past chronological heritage is what was known to give non-British races, Francophenes and natives a short thrift as it was modeled by the nature of the British culture and modes of living . Importantly therefore, the educational transformation for the post war Canada was highly important in shaping its national identity. Historically, such education can be internalized as a tool that provided a positive influence in the decline of the old system of societal establishment modeled by the British colonial system to a more conservative state that was ruled by civic rule of society leadership by itself. Pursuit in the changing state of education offered an attractive state with which the native and other non-British citizens enjoyed a more lucrative fashion towards modeling their life which was not shaped and dictated by colonial majesty. According to Igartua, collective identities perceived by postwar Canadians were responsive and malleable towards the changing state of the Canadian context. To him however, the advanced and more modeled state of education did a lot to improve the state of changing national identity whose focus was from a society governed through rule and dictates to a more rational and civic society where each person played a predominant role towards its progress. It is also important to pinpoint the influence of change in art, sports and literature as an important variable in the changing course of Canadian identity,. However, the Canadians embraced such changing precepts into literature, art and sports that also defined their new status of a changed national identity. The stylistic status and capacity of its cultural imaginery was therefore changing to a more benevolent status that ignited a reservation of a more nationalistic identity. They started developing a more reformed state of national approach and models of culture which was coined towards addressing the change of its former identity towards a more Canadian nationalist identity. By and large, few other variables would be incorporated in the modalities of developing a Canadian identity. This can be factors such as the United States influence in political and economic structures that provided a cutting edge into this revolution. Elsewhere, the change in the nature of Commonwealth Empire was an important factor towards this change. Moreover, the status of immigrations provided a refuge towards a support for a refining factor in the process of Canadian refining identity. Different types of foreign immigrants were found being desirable by the Canadians towards the end of 1940s. To the Canadians, different scopes of immigrants gave them a motivation towards redefining their identity when they brought in various cultural identities from their countries of origins . This consequently influenced the identity of the English Canada. As how Edmund Burke made complains within the French revolution, any a nation could not survive and cohere if it had basis of rights and abstract compactness. However, it had to interact with wide phenomena of social structures that were engulfed and borrowed from different social Diasporas. This was true for Canada in that its Quiet Revolution was initiated by an interaction with a broad phenomena of both state and foreign phenomena which included cultural borrowings, political and social imageries. Summarily therefore, the post war Canada was characterized by a changing phenomena of its national identity that was modeled on a more civic self-ruled and democratic system of government. The same changing identity also saw a gradual change into the British colonial system into a more national state of government modeled by the rules, culture and principles of the English Canadians . It was characterized of a wide scope ideological and culture diversities. It saw a new massive reconstruction into its cultural portfolio that gave in a new framework of relationship between the state and the citizens. There was also a new re-organizement into the labor and the political structures which saw a change in the provincial administration and economic reconstruction. This period was also marked as a period with which great foundations of social and political consensus was formulated. It was provided by tools such as creeping Americanization, diffusion of societal prosperity, and the end of challenged cultural dominance. Equality and equity gradually paved its way into the Canadian societal modalities that provided an equal share of the state advantages between both the marginalized and the huge groups . Seldom therefore, the postwar culture was important and characterized by strong sense of internal tensions that contained elements of national conservatism and a broad reflection of diversity into its cultural , political and economic facets. It had a lot towards providing better structures for a more stable state of Canadian status.

Drinking, Driving,parties, And Commonsensical Solutions Essay -- Drunk

Drinking and driving is the number one killer of teenagers in America. Because of it, the teenage group is the only age group who’s number of deaths are increasing instead of decreasing. Outright denying teens of alcohol doesn’t work. That just makes young adults want alcohol even more. What’s sad about drinking under the influence cases is that every one of them could have been easily prevented. So, if you cannot deny adolescences of alcohol, why not just educate them on simple precautions that can be taken to prevent drinking and driving.One of the best and oldest ways to stop drinking under the influence is having a designated driver. It’s not a hard thing to do. Just asking someone responsible to accompany you to a party (or whatever it may be) in which you know there will be alcohol. If you don’t know if there will be alcoholic beverages served, take a responsible friend anyway just to make sure.Another good way to keep yourself from being a DUI case is to clear out your car of anything distracting. When you’re drunk, simple things can give you an incredible amount of entertainment. So, clean out your car from fuzzy dice, cellular phones, anything that can distract you. Studies show that just by doing this, your chance of having an accident can be decreased by over 25%. So, you’re already at the party and drinking beer. What can you do? For starters, you can try eating high protein food like meat, cheese, and peanuts. Foods that are rich in protein can help absorb...

Human Development

Two strands of human development are social and emotional. 2. Two stages of human development from the case study are older adulthood and adulthood. 3. Nature is what you are born with, like what you inherit from your parents, an example from the case study is that Iain and Kirsty’s daughter has brown curly hair just like Iain. 4. Nurture is what you learn as you grow up and go through life; an example of nurture from the case study is that Anne is planning on caring for her new grand-daughter when Kirsty returns to work. . Two key features of behavioural approach is Behavioural and Consequence, Behavioural meaning if a child wants something and takes a tantrum, and Consequence meaning if they are giving what they want then they will think that it is the correct way to behave and there for do it again. 6. Three key features of the social learning theory are Bonding – children connecting with people, like parents making them feel safe around them and loved.Loss – If someone dies or goes away, for example a loved one you miss them and start to feel this sense of loss in life, like an empty space has arrived that wasn’t there before. 7. Two ways in which the behavioural approach can help care workers understand human development and behaviour is , it helps them learn how to act and respond to a child’s behaviour and helps them understand how they should react to something, such as praise them for good things but tell them no it was wrong if they did something wrong. . From the case study you can understand why Jenny does not want to move into supported accommodation not only because she is happy at home but she feels secure and loved at home with her mum, and now thinks that she is getting pushed aside as her mum has remarried and is moving in with her new partner. Jenny will feel a sense of loss due to this and may also feel bereavement due to only losing her dad two year ago. Staying at home could remind.. Human Development HSV 504: Human Development-Early Memory Development Dianne Wright Post University Introduction Many human development specialists have examined memory loss of adults later in life. During the past fifty years, there have been many studies in children’s cognitive development and earlier childhood memory loss. Ernest G. Schachtel conducted studies on why people forget childhood memories as they grow older. He described the processes that could be involved in early memory loss (Crain, 2005). He was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s cognitive theory (Crain, 2005). Lev S.Vygotsky, however, described children’s early memory development as a holistic process that involved society, physiological, cultural, and economical environments. (Vygotsky, 1978) Vygotsky was influenced by Karl Marx’s theory of people’s development, noted Crain (2005). Schachtel was influenced by Sigmund Freud; both theorists seemed to agree that children learn to remember more systematica lly when prompted by a more experienced person, like their parents and caregivers (Broderick and Blewitt, 2010). Young people separated from their parents when they were children can have fragmented memories of that earlier time.There are a series of systems involved in memory loss (Lerner, Easterbrooks, and Mistry, 2003). Keywords: memory, socialization, childhood, processes, environment HSV 504: Human Development-Early memory loss Doctor Schachtel said adults lose their very early childhood memories. He says the older children get, the more early childhood memories they lose (Crain, 2005). Crain (2005) explained that Schachtel said early childhood memory loss was called â€Å"infantile amnesia† (p. 327). When they were infants people had intense experiences; however as time passed and other experiences took their place, they forgot the earlier memories (Crain, 2005).Most importantly, the earlier experiences were lost because they occurred before the child could speak. Like his predecessor Freud, Schachtel said that to some extent, early hostile and sexual feelings were repressed because they led to shame (Crain, 2005). Schachtel believed forgetting most early childhood memories was common to every experience people had during early childhood. In addition, children were socialized by caregivers and peers to change their first response to pleasure in order to conform to cultural expectations.Schachtel believed that the differences with adult’s and children’s memory loss were with how they experienced their lives. He said that adults experience their lives primarily through verbal associations (Crain, 2005), like seeing a nice shade of blue and saying what a pretty color it is. Children before one year of age experience their lives through taste and smell (Crain, 2005). As children grow up, they start to conform to the way adults and peers experience the world, yet to maintain the characterization of familiar perceptions of the world (Crain , 2005). Schachtel said that infants experience life with their senses.The most important sense is taste. Babies have more taste buds than adults do (Crain, 2005). Many times whatever they touch winds up in their mouths. In addition, the sense of smell is important to babies because they learn to identify their mother by her smell, as well as how she tastes. The sense of sight is not as important to infants as it is for older children (Crain, 2005). Schachtel identifies these senses as body senses. Temperature is felt on the body as hot and cold, they are inside senses, he said. Sight and hearing are outside senses because they are other focused. Smell and taste are inside focused (Crain, 2005).According to Schachtel, when adults experience memory categories, they have very little words to describe the tasting, smelling and feeling senses in memory (Crain, 2005). When children start to experience life by exploring new things, looking at their body functions for example, adults becom e concerned and begin socializing them to respond like themselves (Crain, 2005). Freud said the same about children being discouraged from investigating their body functions (Gay, 1998). However, he said that they are discouraged from that experience by their caregivers (Crain, 2005). It is considered rude in the west to discriminate based on smell.To say someone’s breath smells bad in public is not considered polite, so that sentiment is rarely spoken in public. Yet, body odor is the primary smell that would intrigue a very young child, said Schachtel (Crain, 2005). Their parents tell them that it is not good and the child learns to distance herself from that sensory pleasure. Schachtel also said that with passing of time the highly sensitive sensory experiences are lost to the children because they are repressed (Crain, 2005). Schachtel believed that adults are less sensitive to their earlier sensory perceptions due to socialization (Crain, 2005).The senses become defined a s either good or bad, and adults have extensive vocabulary labeling things they see, but not food that they taste or odors they smell (Crain, 2005). Schachtel further explains the only adults that would still have their earlier perceptions intact after parental and peer socialization would be creative individuals like writers and painters (Crain, 2005). When a child gets older, many things that were accepted in infancy can become less intense because their orientation changes toward the outside senses, sight and touch.Schachtel also said that babies enjoyed the warmth of protective environments (Crain, 2005). Crain (2005) added that Schachtel was a pioneer in his observations about the loss of early memories. When Schachtel started writing, no one else was aware that as people got older they lost many of their childhood memories (Crain, 2005). In the years after Schachtel had written about early memory loss, there have been several studies that have added to his insights. Crain (200 5) also stated we could lose memories earlier and faster than Schachtel said we did. Lev S.Vygotsky said that children develop within their respective cultures and societies long before they learn to speak (Crain, 2005). He also noted a children’s development involved its society, economic status, and physiological development. Vygotsky (1978) stressed that a childs’ learning processes where more than subconscious and mental; children’s development can grow within every environmental aspect of their lives. Children learn from caregivers in their respective cultures how to relate within their environments, noted Broderick & Blewitt (2010).Vygotsky said that children learned how to relate in two stages: first when parents teach them to interrelate; and then within themselves as they start to interact with their peers (Crain, 2005). Most importantly, Schachtel taught people what processes could happen inside the thinking of babies and very young children (Crain, 20 05). He also believed that parents help children put their thoughts into words by recalling what they saw at particular events, but at a cost of the children losing much of their earlier memories.In this view, Schachtel agreed with Vygotsky (Crain, 2005). Schachtel was a pioneer in the study of memory loss of young children as they grow older (Crain, 2005). According to Crain (2005), his theory has made the deepest impression on this writer who is a caseworker. As a practitioner that enters legal codes for children that have gone through many kinds of abuse and neglect, one wonders how many of those children are trying to recall their earlier memories of being separated from their parents. Some of these young people grew up in their relative’s homes.Those adults told them about their parents and some of the circumstances that caused them to be placed in foster care. Now, they are coming to the agency requesting to see their closed case records. Many of those records have phot ographs. There are court hearings that video tape their proceedings for their records. Some of Vygotsky’s findings were published abroad three years after Schachtel published his human development work (Crain, 2005). Vygotsky’s theory about children’s cognitive development was not paid attention to because his writings were banned (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010).Today both theorists are studied because Vygotsky stressed environmental involvement in cognitive development (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010); and Schachtel’s theory stressed the mental processes of human development (Crain, 2005). Schachtel and Vygotsky’s theories agree in that both said that parents, caregivers and other environmental models help children in learning new activities. Vygotsky said that since children are learning new things all the time, their abilities progress as they grow older (Crain, 2005).Schachtel said most of children’s socialization comes from parents and peers to conform to their respective society’s mode of behavior (Crain, 2005). Vygotsky’s theory of socio-cultural development resonates with many developmentalists because there has to be more to people’s development than mental processes. A whole series of systems contributes to very early memory functions as children grow up. According to Lerner, Easterbrooks, & Mistry (2003), there have been numerous studies on cognitive functions and memory.They explained that memory loss of young children as they become adults can be related to a combination of processes from neurological to sociological. In addition, there are now numerous studies discussing brain function with social and physiological developments (Lerner et al. , 2003). Lerner et. al (2003) also explained that age, lifestyle, and education are among other determinants that have influenced the changing relationships in memory processes over a person’s lifespan. Since Schachtel’s writings more than f ifty years ago on children’s memory development, there have been many studies on the same subject (Cycowicz, 2000).Human development specialists are discovering new information on memory and cognitive development. According to Wertsch (1985), Vygotsky’s works are now studied because of their holistic approaches to human development. References Broderick, P. C. & Blewitt, P. (2010). The life span: Human development for helping professionals. (3rd ed. ). Pearson: Boston, MA. Cycowicz, Y. M. (2000). Memory development and event-related brain potentials in children. Biological Psychology, 54, (174). Crain, W. C. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. 5th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson: Prentice Hall. Gay, P. (1998). Freud: A Life for Our Times. London: J. M. Dent and Sons. Lerner, R. M. , Easterbrooks, M. A. , & Mistry, J. (eds. ). (2003). Handbook of Psychology. 6, 443-461. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Human Development HSV 504: Human Development-Early Memory Development Dianne Wright Post University Introduction Many human development specialists have examined memory loss of adults later in life. During the past fifty years, there have been many studies in children’s cognitive development and earlier childhood memory loss. Ernest G. Schachtel conducted studies on why people forget childhood memories as they grow older. He described the processes that could be involved in early memory loss (Crain, 2005). He was influenced by Sigmund Freud’s cognitive theory (Crain, 2005). Lev S.Vygotsky, however, described children’s early memory development as a holistic process that involved society, physiological, cultural, and economical environments. (Vygotsky, 1978) Vygotsky was influenced by Karl Marx’s theory of people’s development, noted Crain (2005). Schachtel was influenced by Sigmund Freud; both theorists seemed to agree that children learn to remember more systematica lly when prompted by a more experienced person, like their parents and caregivers (Broderick and Blewitt, 2010). Young people separated from their parents when they were children can have fragmented memories of that earlier time.There are a series of systems involved in memory loss (Lerner, Easterbrooks, and Mistry, 2003). Keywords: memory, socialization, childhood, processes, environment HSV 504: Human Development-Early memory loss Doctor Schachtel said adults lose their very early childhood memories. He says the older children get, the more early childhood memories they lose (Crain, 2005). Crain (2005) explained that Schachtel said early childhood memory loss was called â€Å"infantile amnesia† (p. 327). When they were infants people had intense experiences; however as time passed and other experiences took their place, they forgot the earlier memories (Crain, 2005).Most importantly, the earlier experiences were lost because they occurred before the child could speak. Like his predecessor Freud, Schachtel said that to some extent, early hostile and sexual feelings were repressed because they led to shame (Crain, 2005). Schachtel believed forgetting most early childhood memories was common to every experience people had during early childhood. In addition, children were socialized by caregivers and peers to change their first response to pleasure in order to conform to cultural expectations.Schachtel believed that the differences with adult’s and children’s memory loss were with how they experienced their lives. He said that adults experience their lives primarily through verbal associations (Crain, 2005), like seeing a nice shade of blue and saying what a pretty color it is. Children before one year of age experience their lives through taste and smell (Crain, 2005). As children grow up, they start to conform to the way adults and peers experience the world, yet to maintain the characterization of familiar perceptions of the world (Crain , 2005). Schachtel said that infants experience life with their senses.The most important sense is taste. Babies have more taste buds than adults do (Crain, 2005). Many times whatever they touch winds up in their mouths. In addition, the sense of smell is important to babies because they learn to identify their mother by her smell, as well as how she tastes. The sense of sight is not as important to infants as it is for older children (Crain, 2005). Schachtel identifies these senses as body senses. Temperature is felt on the body as hot and cold, they are inside senses, he said. Sight and hearing are outside senses because they are other focused. Smell and taste are inside focused (Crain, 2005).According to Schachtel, when adults experience memory categories, they have very little words to describe the tasting, smelling and feeling senses in memory (Crain, 2005). When children start to experience life by exploring new things, looking at their body functions for example, adults becom e concerned and begin socializing them to respond like themselves (Crain, 2005). Freud said the same about children being discouraged from investigating their body functions (Gay, 1998). However, he said that they are discouraged from that experience by their caregivers (Crain, 2005). It is considered rude in the west to discriminate based on smell.To say someone’s breath smells bad in public is not considered polite, so that sentiment is rarely spoken in public. Yet, body odor is the primary smell that would intrigue a very young child, said Schachtel (Crain, 2005). Their parents tell them that it is not good and the child learns to distance herself from that sensory pleasure. Schachtel also said that with passing of time the highly sensitive sensory experiences are lost to the children because they are repressed (Crain, 2005). Schachtel believed that adults are less sensitive to their earlier sensory perceptions due to socialization (Crain, 2005).The senses become defined a s either good or bad, and adults have extensive vocabulary labeling things they see, but not food that they taste or odors they smell (Crain, 2005). Schachtel further explains the only adults that would still have their earlier perceptions intact after parental and peer socialization would be creative individuals like writers and painters (Crain, 2005). When a child gets older, many things that were accepted in infancy can become less intense because their orientation changes toward the outside senses, sight and touch.Schachtel also said that babies enjoyed the warmth of protective environments (Crain, 2005). Crain (2005) added that Schachtel was a pioneer in his observations about the loss of early memories. When Schachtel started writing, no one else was aware that as people got older they lost many of their childhood memories (Crain, 2005). In the years after Schachtel had written about early memory loss, there have been several studies that have added to his insights. Crain (200 5) also stated we could lose memories earlier and faster than Schachtel said we did. Lev S.Vygotsky said that children develop within their respective cultures and societies long before they learn to speak (Crain, 2005). He also noted a children’s development involved its society, economic status, and physiological development. Vygotsky (1978) stressed that a childs’ learning processes where more than subconscious and mental; children’s development can grow within every environmental aspect of their lives. Children learn from caregivers in their respective cultures how to relate within their environments, noted Broderick & Blewitt (2010).Vygotsky said that children learned how to relate in two stages: first when parents teach them to interrelate; and then within themselves as they start to interact with their peers (Crain, 2005). Most importantly, Schachtel taught people what processes could happen inside the thinking of babies and very young children (Crain, 20 05). He also believed that parents help children put their thoughts into words by recalling what they saw at particular events, but at a cost of the children losing much of their earlier memories.In this view, Schachtel agreed with Vygotsky (Crain, 2005). Schachtel was a pioneer in the study of memory loss of young children as they grow older (Crain, 2005). According to Crain (2005), his theory has made the deepest impression on this writer who is a caseworker. As a practitioner that enters legal codes for children that have gone through many kinds of abuse and neglect, one wonders how many of those children are trying to recall their earlier memories of being separated from their parents. Some of these young people grew up in their relative’s homes.Those adults told them about their parents and some of the circumstances that caused them to be placed in foster care. Now, they are coming to the agency requesting to see their closed case records. Many of those records have phot ographs. There are court hearings that video tape their proceedings for their records. Some of Vygotsky’s findings were published abroad three years after Schachtel published his human development work (Crain, 2005). Vygotsky’s theory about children’s cognitive development was not paid attention to because his writings were banned (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010).Today both theorists are studied because Vygotsky stressed environmental involvement in cognitive development (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010); and Schachtel’s theory stressed the mental processes of human development (Crain, 2005). Schachtel and Vygotsky’s theories agree in that both said that parents, caregivers and other environmental models help children in learning new activities. Vygotsky said that since children are learning new things all the time, their abilities progress as they grow older (Crain, 2005).Schachtel said most of children’s socialization comes from parents and peers to conform to their respective society’s mode of behavior (Crain, 2005). Vygotsky’s theory of socio-cultural development resonates with many developmentalists because there has to be more to people’s development than mental processes. A whole series of systems contributes to very early memory functions as children grow up. According to Lerner, Easterbrooks, & Mistry (2003), there have been numerous studies on cognitive functions and memory.They explained that memory loss of young children as they become adults can be related to a combination of processes from neurological to sociological. In addition, there are now numerous studies discussing brain function with social and physiological developments (Lerner et al. , 2003). Lerner et. al (2003) also explained that age, lifestyle, and education are among other determinants that have influenced the changing relationships in memory processes over a person’s lifespan. Since Schachtel’s writings more than f ifty years ago on children’s memory development, there have been many studies on the same subject (Cycowicz, 2000).Human development specialists are discovering new information on memory and cognitive development. According to Wertsch (1985), Vygotsky’s works are now studied because of their holistic approaches to human development. References Broderick, P. C. & Blewitt, P. (2010). The life span: Human development for helping professionals. (3rd ed. ). Pearson: Boston, MA. Cycowicz, Y. M. (2000). Memory development and event-related brain potentials in children. Biological Psychology, 54, (174). Crain, W. C. (2005). Theories of development: Concepts and applications. 5th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson: Prentice Hall. Gay, P. (1998). Freud: A Life for Our Times. London: J. M. Dent and Sons. Lerner, R. M. , Easterbrooks, M. A. , & Mistry, J. (eds. ). (2003). Handbook of Psychology. 6, 443-461. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.