50 lessons

50 lessons of successful management and leading your business to success. I found this site very interesting and helpful. It's like a millionare CD but much more preсize.

Social control

Social control is one of the social mechanisms, which regulates behaviour of individuals or groups and leads to conformity and acceptence of the rules of a given society or a social group.

Two basic forms of social control are:
1. Internalisation of normes and values
2. The use of sanctions (positive - rewards, negative - punishments)

Informal social control
Informal social control produces social values that are presented in individuals. They are expressed through customs, norms and mores. Individuals can be socialised consciously or subconsciously. Usually conducted by society.

Formal social control
Formal social control is expressed through law (statutes, rules, regulations against deviant behavior). Conducted by the government and organisations using law enforcement mechanism and formal sanctions (fines, imprisonment etc)

Brief notes on Sociology

Cultural capital.

Cultural capital, as a sociological concept, was first articulated by Pierre Bourdieu in his work "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction" (1973), where differences in educational outcomes in France during the 1960s were attempted to be explained. For Bourdieu cultural capital acts as a social relation within a system of exchange and includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers both power and status.
Cultural capital can be defined as a combination of knowledge, experience and connections gained by a person during his lifetime, which determines his position in the society.

Types of cultural capital:
- an embodied state (both inherited and acquired properties. NB: 'inherited' in this context is in sense of time, culture and traditions. this type of cultural capital is genrally gained from the process of socialisation)
- an objectified state (physically owned cultural capital such as paintings or sculptures, e.g. objects representing a culture)
- an institutional state (knowledge, generally accepted by society in forms if academic credentials or qualifications)



In addition to cultural capital, Bourdieu also distinguishes the following types of capital:
- economic capital (includes cash, assets)
- social capital (the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition - Bourdieu's definition)
- symbolic capital (resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige or recognition)

Business Studies vocabulary

ok, high-quality blog concept is almost completely developed.. starting of later on today. While I'm finishing off my taxation essay (yes, it DOES exist!) I'm also trying to keep up doing my daily blog..

Market segmentation - analysing the market the identify different types of consumers.

Brand positioning - the distinctive position that a brand adopts in its competitive environment to ensure that individuals in its target market can tell the brand apart from others.

Advertising elasticity - measures the extend to which change in AD spending affects demand (%change in demand /% change in AD spending)

Cash flow - the difference between incashflow and outcashflow.

Loss leader - product sold at less than cost to attract consumer to a product range.

Adverse variance - a change from a budgeted figure that leads to lower than expected profit.

Net profit margin - net profit, which is a percetage of the sales revenue.

Organisation structure - the relationship between different people and functions within an organisation.

Off-the-job training - training provided by not the place of work

On-the-job training - provided by a company you work in to actually gain required skills for doing a job

Person specification - a set of characteristics by which a person is picked for a particular job

Induction - an introductory training programme designed to familiarise new recruits with their place of work and co-workers

Empowering employees - giving employees some responsibility and power (not over a company acually)

Job enrichment - where the job is expanded vertically by giving the worker more responsibility

Job enlargement - expanding the number of tasks completed by an employee

Capacity utilisation - the percetage of a firm`s total possible production level that is being reached

Rationalisation - reorganising resources in order to cut costs

Quality control - based on inspection of the product or a sample of products

Quality assurance - a system of agreeing and meeting quality standards at each stage of production to ensure consumer satisfaction

Productivity - output per person per a period of time

Product portfolio analysis - analysing the existing product mix to help develop a balanced range of goods and services

Price taker - a firm which sets its prices at the same or similar level to those of the dominant firm in the industry

Business Studies revision course

Ok guys..
Mr. Chris suggested me to run another revision course on study week, this time it will be Business Studies revision course.

We will cover the most important topics (which you will choose) and it will be not more than 40-45 minutes a day. It will be run on Wednesday and Thursday at our school.

If you are interested, please write a comment.

Trying to do daily blog..

Should taxation patterns be changed in order to both stimulate the economy and improve economic performance?

Yes.

Outlining the importance of perception in Business Studies

First of all, what is perception? In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information. In other words, our perception of an object is how we understand it, feel it and what we think about it. We percieve everything in this world, and our perception determines our actions and feelings. But, as we all know, our perception may trick us sometimes - not all that we see and feel is true.

Why is it important to pay attention to perception in Business Studies? Well, obviously, to sell a product. The perception of a product by a consumer determines the sales. Nowadays many producers try to create correct and profitable perception of a product by branding.

According to the Model of Brand, to have a famous name of a product doesn't mean that you have a brand. A brand means correct understanding and perception of a name, because brand includes not only symbols but also associations and expiriences. There is no such thing as a loyality to a name, but there is a loyality to brand. Perception plays the key role in the distinguishing a name and a brand. However, how the perception of a name appears? According to the model, the perception of a product appears due to experience of using the product. This should also be taken in account.
Secondly, perception is a part of measuring a brand - both Saussure and Peirce used it as a part of their brand-measuring models. Brand perception is a level of expectancy of customers to a brand achieved or, in other words, an image of the brand created.

Perception could be tricked - and it is used a lot in advertising and marketing. Subliminal messages in TV advertisements, hidden pictures and images, fashion - all these influence our perception. To create proper perception of a product I would do a market research and use well-planned marketing mix, which will increase the chances of the creation of the right (needed) perception of a product.


uh.. i hope it's 300 words..

Toyota's strategy

Ok, I'm sitting in the business studies room with Lex in front of a HUUUUUGE screen (bigger than 5 Lexes) and doing a task that Mr. Chris gave as. We are supposed to create a possible strategy for Toyota as its sales are falling because of the current economics situation. Credit crunch, you know, we are all gonna die from hunger and low income, our children are not going to have a bright future and etc... awful picture. It's even worse than going to Torquay.

So, going back to Toyota topic.

Ok, sales are falling, what are they going to do? We dunno for sure, but me and Lex had a long discussion (15 seconds long) about possible ways of improving the situation and came up with some interesting points.

1. Get money from various sources of finance. They can borrow money from a bank, as many banks in different countries (for example, the UK) are trying to increase confidence by offering a big amount of loans. Even in England, the MPC has reduced interest rates to 1% recently. Or, as an alternative, sell shares or assets. By selling assets I mean selling some machinery in one branch of Toyota in Japan, for example.
2.There is a possibility of a merge. But I don't mean a vertical or a horisontal type of merging cuz it will cause the diseconomies of scale (the average cost will rise). I'm talking about lateral or diversifying types.
3. Postpone the introduction of new products such as electro-hybrid cars. They cost, on average, 3000-5000$ more than usual fuel-using cars. People dun have money anyway and oil prices are lower now, so people will not buy it. And Toyota will have to advertise this new type of cars as well to avoid information failure. If we look at Ansoff Matrix, it will be a new product in an already existing market:

Ok, finished for this week today.

Oxford markets

Today our business studies group went on a study trip to the center of Oxford to compare two markets: the Covered Market and the Gloucester Green Wednesday Market!

The Covered Market
The Covered Market is really popular in Oxford - it has many shops, which offer a variety of different goods: food, clothes, decoration stuff etc. The food prices are lower than in Sainsbury's or Tesco's, however, I would rather buy food for a higher price in a shop then in this market. I don't know why, but I suppose it's because of my stereotype about markets, as in Russia we have really awful ones where the quality of goods isn't worth even trying. But I can't deny that there are some really good places there - mmm, the cake shop is precious (and expensive :( )! The place is located in the center of the city and has a big area, but it's also so dirty and on weekends it's full of people.

The Gloucester Green Wednesday Market
The Gloucester Green Wednesday Market didn't impress me at all and I saw it before only once - in September. It works only on Wednesdays, that's why I don't think that it's possible to compare the two markets: obviously, the covered one is much more profitable.
This market is full of people and goods, I had a terrible headache while being there. It is outside on the street, so it was really cold there.
The only advantage of this market is its low prices.

But still, I enjoyed our trip a lot and I think that it's important to have some practical tasks in Business Studies such as this trip!

Emotion work

Emotion work has been defined as the management of one's own feelings or as "work done in a conscious effort to maintain the well being of a relationship" (c) Wikipedia

oh ok.. what does this mean? Frankly speaking, I have only some thought about what it might be, but I hope to understand this while writing this blog about it.

Emotions are the base of any relationships - beginning from a work sphere and ending with family life. Our emotions (even if we don't show them) help us to participate in the society and communicate with people. Our emotions are determinants of our actions and functionalising as a part of society.

Strong emotions mean a strong connection. A family should be based on srtrong emotions such as love, trust and happiness. These emotions help a family to develop as a social institute, they determine all the actions happening within a family. Every relationship is defined by an emotion.

A family structure can be analysed basing on emotions. An emotion work in a family, to my opinion, is the process of an exchange of emotions within a family as a social institute and helps to research its structure in depth. An emotion work can be applied to a family to see how strong the relationships between the members of the family are and how this family acts as a part of the modern society.
Or, alternatively, emotion works of different generations in different times could be compared to see the progress (or regress?) of a family as a part of society.

How the government deals with feral youth

i found my original way to do this sociology homework.
Why should I write such obvious things as legislation, education etc in general? Everybody will do like this!
I think it's better to discuss some particular cases of dealing with feral youth. Ok, lets start.

Free films for teenagers
oh, how great it is!
One town is offering free cinema tickets for teenagers on Friday evening. It's a very good idea as Friday evenings are the time when teenagers are more likely to have nothing to do. So, to keep them away from thinking about stealing something or getting drunk or fighting with someone, you offer them a FREE cinema evening. 'FREE' is always a magic word, you know. First of all, almost all teenagers enjoy watching films. Secondly, many films also may educate and teach teenagers something new. Thirdly, it's better to pay for a free film for a teenager than to pay for a rebuilding a house which was set on fire by a bored teenager.
And this actually works!

Increasing government spending on regulating anti-social behaviour
This is a good idea as well. 200 000 pounds extra will improve situation only if spent rationally.
Street workers, who are mentioned in the article, may be very useful in preventing youth crime. However, they must be well-trained and well-payed to make sure that the work is done properly. It will bring results and, possibly, save someone's property.
Money may also be spent on educational programms or, like in the previous article, on providing extra activities for teenagers.

Finding new activities for teenagers
Hobbies are always interesing and develop personal characteristics and skills. If teenagers have a hobby, they are less likely to commit a crime. A participation in any helpful activity will make a teenager more mature and responsible and will keep him or her away from drugs and anti-social activities.
Having a hobby, in this case it's fishing, will make a teenager feel more social accepted.

Finding a job for teenagers
A hobby is good but a job is even better - it brings even more skills and, which is also important, money!
Working for Olympics 2012 is a reason to be very proud. Crime and alcohol cannot be compared with participating in such an event!
However, it will be only in 2012..

All of these are the most interesting and helpful ways of dealing with feral youth.
Legislation (as well as any other ways of restriction) is nothing compared with giving teenagers opportunity to do something new.

Evaluation!

Haven't done this for ages! loveitloveitloveit!!!

okok, what do we have here? oh, eco-consultants!

ok, nowadays more and more people want to live the so-called 'green life'. they want to save the enviroment for their children and grandchildren, they become vegans and vegeterians, they recycle things.. their enthusiasm is so enormous, that it has become very popular and those people, who don't actually care about the enviroment, do this only because it's popular.

I might say that all the house makeovers tend to be income elastic, as people are likely to do the refurnishing or a house makeover when their income increases and they want a better place to live in. Plus, the popularity of an 'eco-life' makes it almost price inelastic, therefore, it's a very profitable business in theory. BUT!

The price of this service makes me suspect something strange. Where have you seen a makeover PLUS 90 minute consultation for 99$? On 99$ in Russia a can buy a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, that's all! Maybe the entrereneur lowered the price to attract more customers? Maybe, but this means that his market research:

a) is primary and is totally inaccurate

b) is secondary and now it's useless as lot's of things have changed since it was carried out

c) is not done at all

Because he would knew that his product is highly demanded and even might be permanently price inelastic so he wouldn't put that funny psychological price - 99$!

Ok, maybe the materials are cheap or the amount of work is not so big (but it depends on each customer - some already have almost 'eco' houses, some have totally enviroment-unfriendly houses, therefore, different amounts of work should be done), but consultations.. uh, there is something wrong here. A consultation involving expectation of a house, looking through the bills etc cannot be effective if it's only an hour and a half long! A good consultation requires a good specialist, a good specialist requires a good wage.. therefore, either the company has 1-2 consultants or it has enormous costs! Price cannot be so low, otherwise the business will fail after a week or so. Even more, they are training consultants - more costs! uh!

To my opinion, the business idea is very good, but the business plan should be redone and something should be done to the price. Maybe some market research to find out the ideal price and to bring some improvements into a business, and some advertisement to attract more customers perhaps?

Sociology hw

Explain Oakley's rise of the housewife role

okok, that's pretty interesting.

Ann Oakley is a famous sociologist, feminist and writer. She got her PhD degree in 1969 and that time she was working on a study of women's attitude to housework, where she mostly focused on medical sociology and women's health.

"A housewife is a woman; a housewife does housework".

The role of a housewife is a family role, a feminine role and a work role. Men seem to ignore that fact that it's a work role - but it really is! Whatever a woman does - looking after a child, cooking, doing housework - it all takes time and powers! 

Why is the role of a housewife a family role and a feminine role? The housewife keeps the family together, she "manages and directs affairs of household", according to Oakley. Why is it a feminine role? Look at the word - "housewife", a man obviously cannot be called a housewife. He may do the housework (well, it is almost impossible to happen in industrialised society, but nowadays..), but he will never be a housewife!

The housewife is a misstress of a household. The stability and warm in the family depends on her actions. A man can work, children may learn, but they need a base and this base is the housewife.

The main mistake is mixing up two things - being a housewife and doing the housework! A woman might work but still be a housewife. Housework is associated with a low-status work and economic dependance on a male breadwinner and not appreciated at all! Housework might mean isolation from a social life, but it depends on how much time is spend on it. According to some data in Oakley's study, in an industrialised society it takes women 3000-4000 hours a year to do the housework!

But if you are not just doing the housework, you are being a housewife as well, only you decide how much time should be spent on each 'household supporting activity'. No-one can set rules for being a housewife except for the housewife herself!

In a society women are supposed to be good mothers, good wifes and good housewifes - this is their main role. But how fair is it nowadays? 

Now men and women are becoming more equal in rights in a social life and a working life, therefore, this structure is already changing. Maybe the role of a housewife will be reviewed pretty soon, but the main role for women will still be the same (however, some things might add up to those three). Yes, that's great. But can anyone name me the role of a man in a family then? Now the stereotype of a male breadwinner is going to be crashed, so what are they going to do? Hehehe.

Why feral youth occurs

This problem is becoming more and more serious each day - children are now more likely to commit a crime. Or even harm themselves because of being stupid. Why is that?

Well, there are many factors influencing teenagers' minds.

Violence on TV is one of the most obvious factors. Nowadays everything is connected with mass media, we live in the Information Age and mostly the generation Y is brought up by TV and the internet. No doubt all those blockbusters, encouraging violence and current world affairs like wars and conflicts are having a negative effect on minds. 

Some present subcultures also encourage young people to be more violent and break the law. As the process of socialising is important for every person, young teenagers may want to impress their friends and do something 'cool'. This is because they have a need of being 'socially accepted', which, in teenagehood, is determined by friends and people of the same age as a teenager.

Family problems might affect teenage behaviour as well. According to this website, the number of children and teenagers suffering from domestic violence is growing each year. This has a direct impact on feral youth, as it's know that the enviroment affects behaviour.

25 ways to use a brick! (other 25 ways will be tomorrow)

1. Build a house

2. Kill a person

3. Lock the door

4. Break it into small pieces and make a bracelet

5. Test acid on it

6. Break nuts

7. Break it into small pieces and then throw it into birds or squirells

8. Paint it, put it into a box and give somebody as a present

9. Draw a face on it and play with it like with a doll

10. Drop it on someone's foot

11. Talk to a brick as if it's your best friend

12. Take two bricks, but a desk on them and use the construction as a small table

13. Throw it into windows

14. Put it on some papers, so the wind won't blow them away

15. Train you karate on it

16. Use it to sharpen knifes

17. Put it into liquid gold, then wait when it becomes solid and sell it

18. Put it secretly in someone's bag and see how the person is trying to carry that bag

19. Tell everybody that it's a magic brick and sell it

20. When your roommate is using a nailpolish and you can't stand the smell, just show her a brick and she will be so scared that she will never ever do something that you don't like

21. Tell everybody that a brick is your boyfriend or girlfriend and nobody will never be bothering you with asking out on a date

22. In  rush-hour enter a bus with a brick in your hand. I guarantee that no-one would dare to stump on your foot or accidentally kick you. (maybe you won't even need to pay for a bus ride)

23. Give a brick to someone

24. When your roommate is snoring so loudly just drop a brick near her bed and pretend that you are sleeping. She will never ever dare to snore again

25. Use a brick as a model and draw it in details (good drawing practise)