Marketing Strategy WH Smith Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

Marketing Strategy WH Smith Case Study - Essay Example WH Smith (WHS) was established in 1792 and went public in 1949. The retail division presently operates 542 retail stores and 127 travel stores across the country. In addition, the division operates e-retailing business through the website. The news division of WHS is UK’s largest wholesaler of newspaper and magazines. The company’s key product portfolio includes books, stationery, travel guides, greeting cards and gift packaging, art materials, entertainment products such as music and video CD’s, DVD’s, computer games and confectionery. The company derives a majority of its revenues from the UK, having divested itself of the Asia-pacific arm.Major competitors that need to be considered, looking at the diverse range of products offered, may be identified as Amazon.com, Borders Group, Barnes & Noble, Bertelsmann, Lagardere, HMV, Virgin, Woolworths, Asda, Tesco and a number of specialist small retailers.The most obvious strength of the company is its 542 reta il outlets on every high-street in the country and 127 travel stores at railway stations and airports, allowing the company to reach a wide customer base – 70% of the British public visit a WHS store at least once every year!Travel Retail is a strong performer within the retail division and recorded growth rates of 3% in revenue (Â £311 million) and an increase of 24 % in its profits in 2005 compared with the previous year. While passenger growth at airports was 2%, the sales at airport outlets grew by 7%. (Datamonitor, 2006). Distribution: WH Smith News has 47 distribution centres across the UK and delivers up to 50 million newspapers and magazines every week. All distribution centres employ state-of-the-art technology, such as 'Pick and Pack' machinery, to help to improve customer service and reduce costs. I.T. Systems: The company is in an excellent position to exploit the cutting edge Information Technology

Three reasons why I attend college Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Three reasons why I attend college - Essay Example Lastly, college education helps in contributing towards the nation’s prosperity. A few people have the privilege to access a college degree because of several economic and social reasons; it is due to these three reasons that college is important. One of the most evident benefits of college education-â€Å"and one of the reasons why I attend college†- is gaining access to employment opportunities. According to a 2013 report by the College Board dubbed â€Å"Education Pays†, people with higher education levels are more likely to be employed. In the report, Baum, Ma & Payea (p. 5) note that in the year 2011 the unemployment rate for college degree holders aged between 25 years and 34 years was 7.1 percentage points less than that for high school diploma holders. Additionally, the rate of unemployment for individuals with associate degrees and individuals who attended college but lack a degree was 4.0 and 1.6 percentage points less than that for high school diploma holders, respectively Baum et al (p. 5). Although some people may argue that the leg up for recent college graduates on their lesser educated counterparts is not a particularly comely leg currently (Bruni (n.p), a comparison of the unemployment rates bet ween college degree holders and high school diploma holders clearly reveals that college graduates have an easy time in finding jobs. Another reason why college is important is it helps to gain access to higher paying jobs. In most cases, individuals who have a college degree earn more than their less educated counterparts. According to Baum et al (p. 5), the median incomes of individuals with a bachelor’s degree but who lack advanced degrees and are employed on a full time basis in 2011 was $56,500, which is $21,100 greater than the median incomes of high school diploma holders. Additionally, high school diploma holders who were working on a full time basis earned 14 percent less than

Modern Trading Culture Essay Example for Free

Modern Trading Culture Essay With increasing competition everyday in the consumer market, the world has shifted towards modern trading concepts. The modern trading concept has two major objectives; to provide the basic necessities under one roof. Secondly, the customer should be able to touch the products in person. Metro and Macro are the examples of modern trading stores. The procedures and implementation of modern trade in other countries is different as compared withPakistanbecause of the local trading culture. Modernization of Trading Systems According to a research, retail markets tend to modernize from largely traditional trading techniques to modern trading techniques. As markets modernize, the share of traditional trade as a percentage of total trade declines slowly; suppliers, however, will continually need to adjust the amount of resources allocated to manage the traditional trade versus the modern trade. Smart suppliers manage this balancing act by accurately tracking (and often predicting) the pace at which key transitions or market evolution shifts are likely to occur. Three overarching factors affect the speed and nature of market transition. They include (1) consumer trends and purchasing behaviors in the market; (2) factors related to modern retail consolidation (Also called central buying, an approach in chain stores whereby all purchasing is done through a central or main office); and (3) disruptive factors such as the economy, special interests, and government regulation etc. InPakistanthere are a number of manufacturers for various products. The normal distribution channel is that the manufacturers use their own distributors as well as independent distributors in the market, who purchase products from the factory and then deliver to the retailers and the wholesalers. On the other hand, some retailers get products directly from the distributors while some are purchasing from the wholesalers. Big cities have thousands of outlets in the market for grocery items. If we only take the example of twin cities ofPakistan, there are around 3,000 grocery outlets including the small shops inIslamabadand inRawalpindithere are around 15,000 outlets. It is impossible for the manufacturer to reach each and every outlet so they need distributors to make the products available to the outlets. Even the distributors at times cannot reach all of the outlets, so there are wholesalers in the markets who buy the products in bulk from distributors or manufacturers. They are located in certain locations where the retailers buy the products from the wholesalers. At the end of the day, it all depends on the relationships of the retailer; if he has good relationship with the distributors and can buy the products on credit from him and even return the unsold products, or he could buy the same products from a wholesaler like an end consumer. We can say that the markets in Pakistan are divided into 2 categories with respect to retailers; first are those who are getting the products from distributors and second are those who are buying the products from wholesalers. Distributors supply the product at the retailer’s shop but retailer has to go to wholesaler to purchase a product. These consumer trends, retail consolidations, and disruptive factors heavily influence retailers’ growth strategies as well as the formats they are most likely to develop to sustain growth over the long term. As markets evolve, retailers adjust their formats and operational strategies to cater to differing shopper needs and trends-and thereby maximize retailers’ reach in an evolving market. Advantages and Disadvantages There are numerous advantages of modern trading system. There are 3 types of consumers who come to modern trading stores like Metro or Macro; 1) end users, 2) traders and 3) hoteliers. The system of modern trade influences the distributor business because retailers are now going directly to these stores and are purchasing products themselves at lesser prices. Modern trade is reducing the number of distribution channels from the factory to the retail shop. This subtraction of distribution channel increases the profit margins of both the manufacturer and the retailer. It is a convenient alternative for the end users to purchase house hold items from one place at a lesser cost. The disadvantages of modern trade is that it is adversely affecting the business of independent distributors since the manufacturer is giving different prices to the distributors and the modern trading stores .Margins of distributors have reduced and they are also loosing some of their clientele as some retailers prefer to buy products directly from these modern stores rather than distributors. Another disadvantage of modern trade inPakistanis that it has confused the end user by offering 3 different prices for the same product in the market. Those 3 pricing areas are retail shops, wholesalers and the big stores. This usually creates doubts about the quality of the products because of the price variations. Reluctance in Modern Trading Some of the manufacturers are now willing to enter into modern trading system but it also varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. If a company has a strong positioning of their products in retail outlets of a city, they would also be willing to sell their products in a big store. But on the other hand, if a company has weak positioning in the retail outlets, they would hesitate to sell their products in the modern trading stores. The distributors get fix percentage of profit from the manufacturer to sell their products to the retailers or wholesalers. Indian Market If we take the example of India, where consumer trends are very much similar to ours and have been the greatest influencer in forcing modern trade to develop. A significant demographic transition is now underway with a large, young, working population (median age of 24); more nuclear families in urban areas; an increase in the number of working women; and emerging opportunities in the service sector. Urbanization, higher household disposable income, and convenience one-stop shopping are other factors that are fueling this modern trade growth. Retail consolidation will slowly help drive modern trade growth as well. It is estimated that the Indian retail industry was worth about USD286 billion at the end of 2004; yet India remains one of the most fragmented retail sectors in the world with only 2% of total sales deriving from the modern trade. As that happens, India is likely to see a significant trend toward modern trade as retailers invest in data, technology, and infrastructure to exploit and escalate potential growth. Disruptive factors particularly government regulation are unquestionably the key â€Å"reason† foreign players have not played an influential part in triggering retail consolidation in India. However, there is no one path to modernization; markets are not dependent on global retailers as catalysts for modernization. However there are many markets where global retailers act as key catalysts, and, in fact, capture the lion’s share of the modern trade. To understandIndia’s potential future, it is useful to look at examples of three market types, and why they’ve modernized the way they did: †¢ Markets that have grown the modern trade through global players entering the market; †¢ Markets that have grown through a hybrid of global and local players; and †¢ Markets that have modernized driven almost entirely by local retailers. Government Policies The government policies play a major role in implementing modern trading system in a region. InIndia, there are some areas where the government has not allowed modern trade stores to operate. Similarly, inPakistanif the existing traders are reluctant of the entrance of modern trade stores like Metro the government has the authority to impose restrictions on such stores. Nevertheless, these kinds of stores are beneficial for the Government as they give fixed General Sales Tax (GST) and also are a foreign investment in the country. The Core Capabilities Required for Growth A core takeaway from studying market evolution is that, regardless of whether the retailer driving the modern trade is global or local, the capabilities they need to do that are largely the same! In addition to the overall management, a great modernizing retailer will require capabilities in six core areas to win in the changing environment. Finance A retailer is best served having an operating model with two key financial criteria: †¢ Generates enough cash flow to fund its expansion; and †¢ Remains relatively low debt. Retail is a cyclical and relatively low margin business. High levels of debt and interest greatly impede a retailer in growth mode and can make running the operation difficult. Most great retailers remain relatively conservatively financed. Operations The retailer is able to manage the complexity of getting merchandise from factory to shelf. Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. is aiming to get to this state through integration of an entire supply chain from farm to store, particularly with staple food commodities. Many great local retailers (e.g., HEB and Publix, twoUSregional grocery chains, and 7-11 inJapan) optimize their market position through a best-in-class supply chain, which gives them a significant competitive advantage in speed and store conditions. Brand Brand is all about a relevant and influential connection to the shopper. It is imperative for retailers to have a systematic understanding of their shoppers and be able to execute, both in and out of the store, based on that knowledge. In addition, the ability to tailor a portfolio of formats to meet different shopper/consumer needs is very helpful-especially in geographically, culturally, and economically diverse markets like India. Pantaloon is one of the Indian retailers that has begun to develop the data and analysis capabilities to do just that. As India’s infrastructure develops to support modern trade, the retailer will be able to do that more consistently. As the market evolves, both retailers and manufacturers will require the capabilities to consistently understand what motivates shoppers and consumers, in order to bring together a successful retailer strategy that serves both constituents well. The intermingling of finance and brand is pricing; the right price doesn’t necessarily mean the lowest, especially in some categories such as apparel, where a low price may be perceived as poor quality. Also, a rigorous understanding of which items are important to be low priced for competitive purposes versus which items can be margin enhancers, is one of the key criteria strong retailers use to grow in a market. When discussing people, the discussion is incomplete without the right measurements in place. As people are trained to execute at the store, retailers will have to have the right set of measures to ensure great delivery to the shopper. In addition, the focus of high capability in-market retailers’ corporate measures are usually geared toward selling to the consumer than on buying efficiencies and leveraging scale; however, our research shows that retailers who understand this and work proactively with suppliers to optimize their mutual business tend to grow faster than the market. In-store execution should come together as a result of the right brand message and effective operations that facilitate having the right merchandise in the right place. Often the simplicity of the message and the operation generally results in superior in-store execution, and this largely depends on people development and training. Relentless focus on execution details is the final differentiating factor for success.

Can Sri Lanka Apparel Industry Face Future Challenges?

Can Sri Lanka Apparel Industry Face Future Challenges? 1. Sri Lanka has traditionally been an agro-based economy from the ancient time. With the Industrial Revolution taking root in Europe and later spreading to the rest of the world, Sri Lanka too had to take its place in this scenario. Factory scale production of ready made garments in Sri Lanka had its beginnings in the early 1950s to become the largest industry in the Sri Lankan economy. During the pre-liberalization era (pre-1977), the domestic textile industry was essentially an import substitution industry confined to a few large-scale textile industries run by the government. The textile industry did not make much progress during this period. The garment industry has its origins in the mid- 1960s, but unlike the textile industry, the former was mainly run by the private sector. Initially, almost all of the garments produced were for the domestic market and there were hardly any exports during this period. A large share of the industry was in the hands of few companies. Since the importation of textiles was either banned or restricted, locally produced textiles mainly fed the garment industry. GARMENTS: All external and internal finished common clothing items such as shirts, T shirts, pants, dresses, sports clothing, fashion garments, under garments etc. APPAREL : finished clothing that can be considered as supporting clothing or accessories such as jackets, lingerie, leather clothing, knitted garments, shoes, hats, gloves, fashion accessories etc. 2. The period after the late 1970s saw a rapid expansion of the garment industry in Sri Lanka. The phenomenal growth during this period can be attributed to three major factors: a. The first is the market-oriented liberal economic policies introduced in 1977, which placed greater emphasis on the export-led industries. b. The second is the supportive measures taken by the government through the Board of Investment, such as duty free importation of industrial inputs, off-shore borrowing facilities, tax holidays or concessional taxation, etc. These measures together with the availability of labour- intensive industries such as garments. c. The next important factor which contributed to the Sri Lankan apparel industry is the Multi Fibre arrangement ( MFA ). AIM 4. The aim of this research is to discuss about the apparel industry in Sri Lanka and analyse the future challenges. CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: 1. The apparel sector had grown tremendously after introducing the open economy. Now it has become the leading export industry replacing the traditional tea and rubber. It is the most significant and dynamic contributor of Sri Lankan economy. 2. The major drawback in the Sri Lankan apparel industry is that it has not upgraded with latest technologies and modern consumer demands to compete with the other countries, mostly the South East Asian countries. National economy will definitely be affected if the country fails to address the drawbacks in the industry. 3. The aim of my research is to identify the weaknesses in the apparel sector and to suggest favourable and appropriate solutions to secure the industry. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS 4. It is hypothesized that the reason for not upgrading with the latest technology and consumer demands is lack of capital, incompatible demands and high competition.    SCOPE OF THE STUDY 5. The scope of the study covers an assessment of the ready made garment industry in Sri Lanka taking three well known factories in to consideration. Factors that had been an impact to the industry will be identified through the research and the root causes of the problem will be then be identified. Recommendations will be made for the improvement. METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION 6. The required data for the research will be drawn from the following sources; a. Primary sources Primary sources will include information collected by interviewing resource personnel in the garment sector. b. Secondary sources Information will be gathered from relevant books, journals, the internet, treaties, conventions as well as international and local enactments of relevance. CHAPTER THREE OVERVIEW OF THE APPAREL INDUSTRY HISTORY   1. The textile and clothing industry had emerged from a modest beginning in the early 1950s A few pioneering industrialists who started out on an uncertain course at this time , confident their manufacture to only some popular items of garments and catered essentially to local demand. By the end of the 1950s there was a reversal in policies and the economy moved towards restrictions on imports and a policy of import substitution in industry began to be perused. While the major basic industries were reserved for the state; a wide range of consumer goods industries were opened to the private sector , which was provide with various investment incentives and a protected market. Over the decade of the 1960s as many as 300 categories of industrial products began to be manufactured locally. Among this range of products a major item was textiles and another ready made garments, though from the outset raw materials required for the garments industry were imported. 2. It was in the late1960s that Sri Lankas ready made garments began to break into export markets. Sri Lankas shirts had found acceptability in markets such as the UK and Soviet Union and a leading shirt manufacture began exporting up to Rs:2 million worth of product annually to the USSR, within the bilateral trade agreement between Sri Lanka and the USSR. 3. Around 1972 there was a change in outlook towards the industry as existing policy was altered to allow certain sectors to adapt an export oriented approach. Special foreign exchange allocations and other fiscal and tax incentives were offered to selected export oriented industries under this package. In the first six years of the 1970s over 2500 industrial units received approval from the Local Industries Approve Committee (LIAC) and of these nearly 2000 were in the product group of Textiles and Textile based industries. By the mid 1970s wage/ pries inflation and imposition of trade quotas on exports of traditional Asian Suppliers of made-up garments such as Hong Kong , Taiwan, South ,Korea and Singapore made Sri Lanka more attractive location for the industry. New units began to be established in collaboration with foreign capital/marketing, while production was being upgraded through import. 4. The period after the late 1970s saw a rapid expansion of the clothing industry in Sri Lanka. The impressive growth witnessed during this period can be attributed to two major factors. The first is the market-oriented liberal economic policies introduced in 1977. The market friendly economic reforms, which identified the private sector as the engine of growth, places greater emphasis on the export-led industries. 5. The second important factor which contributes to the remarkable expansion of the Sri Lanka textile and clothing industry is the Multi Fibre Arrangement ( MFA ). Sri Lanka is one of the countries that benefited from the quota hopping investments. The overseas manufactures of garment who relocated their production facilities in Sri Lanka include firms from both and Newly Industrialize Countries ( NICs) in East Asian and Europe. While the NIC firms moved their operations mainly as a means of quota hopping the motivation for producers of countries such as Germany and the UK to move into Sri Lanka was the rising production costs in their home countries. Given the ability to separate to different stages of the clothing industry, these overseas producers were able to disintegrate their production lines into low-cost countries like Sri Lanka without much difficulty. Investments by these two categories of foreign manufacturers fuelled the growth of the Sri Lankan clothing industry to a lar ge extent. In fact, the factories set up as joint ventures and wholly owned foreign companies account for almost half of the total exports earning from garments. MULTI FIBRE ARRANGEMENT 6. The Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA) is a system of quotas designed to protect garment industries in first world countries by slowing down the pace of globalization. The MFA does not apply to the expanding garment trade between rich countries. 7. The MFA has had a complex but crucial impact on the development of the garment industry. In the Third World, by imposing limits on poor country exports, it encouraged investors to shop around for new countries. This because of the increase in volumes of ready made garment entering developed countries caused concern and eventually led the developed countries to seek the occurrence of The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ( GATT) to protect their markets. The reason for this concern was due to the fact that the industrialised countries never caused to be textile and garment manufactures because the industry employed a large number of women specially minorities and immigrants in the USA and Europe. GATT,s solution to the dilemma of the industrialised nations was the Multi Fibre Arrangements (MFA) which imposed quota restrictions on certain garment categories, there by limiting the quantity of apparels that could be exported to the developed countries by any single developing cou ntry. This curtailed the potential of countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, Mexico and Yugoslavia which were advanced textile manufactures. In turn it allowed countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to enter the industry with guaranteed markets. It was first introduced in 1974 and will end in 2005. As a result there was a world wide boom in the textile and apparel export industry in the mid 1980s. 200 GARMENT FACTORIES PROGRAMME (200 GFP)   8. In view of the infrastructure facilities and close proximity to the port and airport facilities etc. most textile and clothing manufacturers concentrated their operations in or around the Western province, where the countrys capital is located. As a result, unemployment one for the major problem faced by Sri Lanka continued to remain high in the other parts of the island. Growing unemployment resulted in youth unrest in most of the rural areas. Thus, in 1990,a Cabinet Sub-Committee recommended that garment factories should be opened in provincial areas other than the Western Province. Consequently, the 200 garment factories programme (200 GFP) was launched with the idea of opening at least one garment factory in each of the 200 Assistant Government Agent (AGA) divisions. The main incentive which encouraged the private sector to take part in this programme was quotas. For this purpose, the remote areas of the country were classified into three categories, namely non-difficult, difficult and most difficult. Quotas were allocated on the basis of the location for the industry. The more isolated and difficult the area, the higher was the quota allocated. While about 40 percent of the areas were identified as difficult, just over 40 percent fell within the most difficult category. The rest, just fewer than 20 percent, were classified as non difficult. In addition to quotas, the factories setup under the 200 GFP were also offered various other incentives such as tax holidays or lower corporate taxes, duty-free importation machinery and raw materials, loans from foreign currency banking units, etc. as the main thrust behind the 200 GFP was the high unemployment in the rural sector, each factory was intended to employ at least 500 workers. By the end of 1996, there were 154 factories in commercial operation under this programme, providing 76,821 employment opportunities.   CHAPTER FOUR THE ROLE OF TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY IN THE SRI LANKAN ECONOMY 1. The common features of developing countries are high rates of population growth, high rates of unemployment, low savings, insufficient capital formation, low investment, high capital output ratio, rudimentary technology and cheap skilled and unskilled labour. These countries are also mainly exporters of primary agriculture products. Further being too small to achieve economies of scale in their domestic markets, these countries have adopted export led growth policies which are designed to generate foreign exchange and expose the productive factors of the country to the stimulus of competitive influence. 2. The textile garment industry there for became the initial response of developing countries to this call for export led growth. Being a labour intensive industry requiring a small capital base. Production of textile and apparel shifted to developing countries in the 1960s. It provided employment for a large number of persons earned foreign exchange allowed for diversification of the export industry and paved the way for industrialization. Some countries attracted foreign investors by opening up free trade zones. Many critics called it textile led growth. 3. At the time Sri Lanka began to pursue liberal economic policies in 1977, the textile and clothing industry played only a minor role in the countrys economy. In the light of the broad based economic liberalisation and the benign impact of the MFA, the industry since then has recorded a remarkable growth and assumed a key role in the economy. While garments accounted for the largest share of all commodity exports (27 per cent) in 1986, it became the largest foreign exchange earner (US$ 0.4 billion) by 1992, by 1995; garments export exceeded US$ 1.5 billion, nearly half of all commodity exports. 4. Of the 21 percent contribution made by the manufacturing industries to the countrys economy in 1996, 40 per cent was from the textile and clothing sector. The growth of the garment industry was particularly rapid in 1992 and 1993 due to the attempts taken by the government under the 200 GFP decentralise the industry away from the Western Province. Although the textile and clothing sector registered a slow growth of 5.1 per cent against 14.8 per cent in 1995, it still accounted for 33.7 per cent of the growth witnessed in the private sector industrial output. (The slow growth in 1996 was primarily because of the continued power cuts due to prolong drought). According to the Ministry of industrial Development, there has been a total of 859 garment factories at the end of 2001 while the number of textile manufacturing firms stood over 140, with less than 10 companies accounting for most of the output. The largest garment factories (in terms of employment) were located within the free -trade-zones (FTZs) run by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOISL) the authority responsible for the promotion of foreign direct investment. 5. Today the textile and clothing sector has replaced the tea industry the traditional front line export industry as the leading foreign exchange earner. Specially, the growth of garment export has been highly impressive. For instance during the period 1980 to 1990 the value of apparel export increased from US $ 100 million to US $ 620 million. In terms of quantity, the exports grew from 52 million pieces to 212 million pieces during the same decade. Exports of garments, which were only 10 percent Sri Lankas total export in 1980, reached nearly half in 1993, registering in average annual increase of 30 percent. In 1996 the textile and clothing sector accounted for 46 percent of the countrys total export earning. Its share among the industrial exports reached as high as 63 percent. The highest growth, (21 percent) was in the woven fabric categories. 6. The textile and clothing sector has also been an outstanding source in generating employment opportunities. Being a highly labour intensive industry, this sector has been successful in absorbing a fairly large number of workers. By end of 2001, garment sector provided direct employment to approximately 391682 personal. The garment sector as whole represented about 14 percent of the 5.5 million of the countrys total employed work force. Approximately 40 percent of which was engaged in the textile and clothing sector. Of the total work force employed in the textile and clothing industry, more than 60 percent was with the clothing sector. CHAPTER FIVE PRESENT POSITION OF THE SRI LANKA APPAREL INDUSTRY MAJOR MARKETS OF SRI LANKA 1. Since more than 90 percent of exports from the Sri Lankas textile and clothing industries consist of ready made clothing, the focus here is on clothing. Sri Lanka currently maintains bilateral textile agreements in the context of the MFA with Canada, the EU and the USA. More than 90 percent of Sri Lankas exports of clothing are accounted by only two markets, the EU and the USA. The USA continues to account for about 60 percent of total clothing exports from Sri Lanka. About 90 percent of exports (by value) to the USA consist of quota items. The bilateral agreement between the US and Sri Lanka contains more than 30 quota categories, covering over 50 clothing items. While the quota performance against the US market is generally high, utilisation rate of certain quota categories such as knitted shirts and blouses, trousers, underwear, coveralls, and overall, terry and other pile towels etc. has reached almost 100 per cent during the recent years  [1]  . 2. The EU has been absorbing about 35 percent of Sri Lankas total exports of clothing every year. The largest buyer of Sri Lankan garments within the EU is the UK (about 45%) which is followed by Germany (about 20%), the Netherlands (about 9%), France (about 5.5%), Belgium- Luxembourg (about 5% ) and the rest Sri Lankas exports to the EU has been subject to quotas under four categories namely, trousers, blouses, shirts and jackets. The utilisation rate of quotas of the first three categories (most sensitive ones) during 1996 was 84 percent, 100 percent and 73 percent respectively, while the rate of the fourth category was nearly 30 percent. Canada continues to account for about 1.5 percent of Sri Lankas total exports of garments. While Sri Lankas bilateral textile agreement with Canada contains about 15 product categories under quotas. THE ABOLITION OF QUOTA SYSTEM 3. Sri Lankas apparel industry is now a major contributor to the countrys economy after its modest beginnings in the seventies. It represents 54% of our total exports and 71% of Sri Lankas total industrial exports. The garment exports make a direct contribution of 7% to the overall economy. The rapid growth of this industry could be attributed to the followings: a. A stable market because of the quota system. b. Low labour cost. c. Liberal economic and trade policies. d. Tax benefits and the concessions granted to the industry. 4. From its inception the quota system was a boom to Sri Lankas apparel industry. The availability of a stable market eliminated the danger of competition from established industrialists in the international field, and attracted direct foreign investment and helped Sri Lanka prosper in this industry. 5. Although the abolition of quota system in 2005 had a negative impact on the industry it also opened up an expanded free market. As such the future of the garment industry in Sri Lanka will depend on our ability to face competition. One third (1/3) of the total exports from Sri Lanka are done by 25 large scale manufacturers. These organizations are in a position to restructure and sustain themselves in a competitive market according to surveys. But the survival of the other small and medium scale industries is at stake, making the situation critical because these small and medium scale manufacturers are the biggest employers in the apparel industry  [2]  . SWOT FOR THE APPAREL INDUSTRY 8. Strengths.   The product quality level for the current market segments is considered high Reputation as a country which follows labour laws and good working conditions. The product price ranks second with large customers confirming that price quality relation of Sri Lanka is good On time delivery is the third best strength with effort towards reducing lead-times. Availability of skilled labour, educated and trainable work force and management of production capacity and ability to handle high volume orders are also considered strengths the Sri Lankan industry presently possesses. Apart from those the geographical size of the country facilitates easy movement with in the country serves a further advantage  [3]  . 9. Weaknesses. The weaknesses in the Sri Lankan industry can be listed down as follows; a. Lack of marketing skills with over dependence on buying officers, and allocation of quotas. b. Low level of marketing information, and knowledge about export marketing with hardly any marketing activities. c. Lack of fabric base and over dependence on input suppliers with long lead times d. Lack of a strong work ethic along with high absenteeism and labour turn over. e. Warm climatic condition of the country which reduces productivity f. Increasing cost of labour and availability of employment in other industries and foreign employment opportunities 10. Opportunities. To overcome the loss of orders due to the expiry of Multi Fibre Arrangement after year 2005, the position in the traditional export markets in the USA and UK by should be strengthened by establishing a strong relationship with distributors and buyers and developing an expansion strategy for the markets with good potential. Thereafter the opportunity exists to gain a higher market share by implementing an aggressive marketing strategy in the markets, where Sri Lanka has a weak positioning. Further there is a very good opportunity to capture a bigger market share in the EU: As at present Sri Lanka is not with in first 15 exporters to the EU. 11. Further opportunities exists in capturing the South Asian Market especially the High Price garments with designer wear and Intimate garments, a market where Sri Lankan Manufactures are now experts in producing and marketing. The available free trade agreements should be exploited in trade between India and Pakistan to export finished garments and to import fabric and accessories. It is also important to establish and identity for of Sri Lanka as a destination, which manufactures very high quality garments   12. Threats. The threats to the present Garment Industry are as follows; a. An intensification of the competition, especially from the sub Asian member countries, before and after the phasing out of the MFA. b. Improvement of the former socialist economies, who have a good textile industry and a large domestic Market which are highly potential and geared to meet the quality and delivery requirements especially from EU. c. The arrival of new competitors in the Asian sub continent such as Vietnam, Cambodia , Myanmar and Laos. d. Special advantages created for the USA market by the NAFTA, consolidation and other regional economic cooperation e. The increase in Sri Lankas labour costs at a faster pace than productivity f. The necessity to reduce lead time from the manufactures to the shop, and the distant suppliers inability to deliver the value added garments on time g. Successive government has not addressed the issue of low productivity, and even at this stage a government funded garment manufacturing and production management training institute has not been established and this posses a threat to the industrys future h. Geographical location of the country. Sri Lanka is located at the furthest end of the Indian Ocean, when compared with other competitive garment exporting countries, which export to the USA, EU and other wealthy nations. Almost all the countries, which are geographically located close to Sri Lanka are under developed and, low income countries struggling to survive. CHALLENGES FACED BY THE SRI LANKAN APPAREL INDUSTRY 13. In the recent past, the global garment industry has been subject to significant changes in terms of changes in consumer demands, changes in technology, and fierce competition. These changes have also filtered down to the Sri Lankan garment industry and there is now considerable pressure on the industry to each higher standard of production and service. 14. As the garment industry is a relatively low skilled and labour intensive operation, over time there has been a shifting of production from countries such as Hong Kong. South Korea and Taiwan to low wage countries such as Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. As this process of shifting (or shifting comparative advantage) has continued, Sri Lanka has gradually lost its low labour cost comparative advantage. 15. As the majority of Sri Lankan manufactures currently produce standard garments where competition is primarily based on price, Sri Lanka faces stiff competition from other developing countries of South and South East Asia where production cost is low (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). China has also emerged as a dominant force in the global apparel industry with its massive supply capability and low costs of production. These countries have a lower ranking in terms of cost of production in comparison to Sri Lanka. Given this situation, there may be a need for Sri Lanka to move some of its exports to the top end of the market as a reputable and dependable supplier of quality apparel in Asia. In the higher value clothing segment, countries such a Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are serious competitors  [4]  . 16. While Sri Lanka s global market share has been recorded at 1.5 percent, more recent estimates indicate that there has been a marginal increase, and stands at 2 percent of the global garment market. During the period 1995 to 2000, Sri Lanka maintained a 19 percent export earning growth in the garment industry. If there is a lifting of the US tariff barriers for Sri Lankas apparels, then according to some commentators there would be a significant increase of exports. As mentioned earlier, although over 90 percent of Sri Lankas garment exports are destined for the USA and the EU, Sri Lanka does not rank amongst the top exporting nations to the EU. Sri Lanka ranked 20th and 16th place among suppliers of apparel products to the EU and the USA market, respectively, in 1998. The positive feature is that the Sri Lankan garment manufacturers, in general, have built up a good rapport and sound reputation the world over. It is a great advantage when compared to her competing neighbours. 17. Buyers now have a range of sources from which to choose, and countries such as Mexico (supplying to the USA) and Turkey (supplying to the EU) have the added advantages of being in close proximity to their major markets, lower transport cost and shorter turn-around times. Moreover, Mexico and free of quota restrictions access to their major markets. 18. One factor contributing to this reduced level of price competitiveness is the increasing cost of labour in Sri Lanka compared to other garment producing nations. Labour costs have been steadily increasing and currently constitute between 15-30 percent of total production costs in the average Sri Lankan garment manufacturing firm, highlighted the hourly wage rates of a number of garment manufacturing nations and indicated that Sri Lankas competitors currently have relatively lower wage cost structures. For those competitors who gave higher wage cost structures (and higher global market shares), their strengths lie particularly in their high levels of productivity. HOW SHOULD WE FACE THE COMPETITION? 18. The researcher recommends the following changes to preserve the garment industry in Sri Lanka. Developing Skills Of Labour Force The skill level on high speed machines have been found to be in sufficient. This resulted in low efficiency levels and low Needle Down Time. Which are two important performance measurements in the garment industry. Intensive training to upgrade skill level, parallel to technological advancement is important to gain a competitive advantage in the garment industry. b. Establishment of a Government Administered Garment industry related training institute. It is recommended to the government, at least at this stage to focus on this issue, and establish a dedicated training institute for all levels of employees in the apparel industry, as the future of thee industry and employment of 350000 personnel will purely depend on countries competitiveness on productivity and cost of labour. e. Increasing Needle Down Time (1) Use of Modern Machinery Needle down time could be increased through training and use of modern advanced machinery. Introduction of modern machines as under bed trimmers and computerised machines will speed up the sewing process and assist the operator to use other advanced facilities of the machines. (2) Reduction of secondary activities Needle Down Time (NDT)could be further increased by following General Sewing Data Standards, which indicates the ideal movements by machine operators to reduced idle time and speed up the sawing process. f. Backward Integration. Due to lack of modernisation and technological advancement in the textile manufacturing sector the garment industry has to depend for its requirement on imported fabric. Therefore to be competitive backward integration is necessary, but it requires high capital expenditure- is around US $ 25-30 million. In Sri Lankan terms this is a huge investment. Therefore it is prudent for Sri Lankan to concentrate from processing stage onwards and import grey fabric from abroad. Given proximity to Asian producers fabric can be soured with minimal lead time. Joint ventures, strategic alliances, etc. will be ideal if can be so arranged. g. Export Alliance. A group of small / medium sized companies with not so unique products and only limited funds available for export market development can form an export alliance. This group of entrepreneurs exporting can exploit the market much more professionally than an individual. In addition they can benefit by sharing the very heavy marketing expenses and the orders received from buyers. h. Product Quality. As the cost of fabric constitutes a major share in the unit cost of garments, a great deal of attention has to be paid for quality controls at the fabric level. An integrated approach in quality assurance in the process from fabric to garments can be a powerful tool in using quality as a differentiation strategy for competitive advantage. i. Management of Lead Time. Lead-time taken by Sri Lankan exporters around 60-120 days is a

Essay on the Selfish Mrs. Mallard in Kate Chopins The Story of an Hour

Selfish Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour  Ã‚   Kate Chopin’s story, "The Story of an Hour," may seem to be about Mrs. Mallard’s unexpected and ironic reactions to the news of her husband’s untimely death due to a railroad disaster. At least that’s what I thought when I read the story. It seemed to me that she led a normal life with a normal marriage. She had a stable home life with a kind, loving husband who cared for her. She seemed to love him, sometimes. She had some kind of "heart trouble" (Chopin 25) that didn’t really affect her physically, until the very end. I thought Mrs. Mallard would have been saddened and filled with grief for an adequate period of time after her spouse died, but her grief passed quickly, and she embraced a new life that she seemed to be content with. Therefore I believe there is good evidence that Mrs. Mallard was an ungrateful woman who did not appreciate her husband or his love for her. That evidence is found in her selfish behavior after the death of her husband, Brently Mallard. Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to the sad news was natural, but her time spent to overcome her melancholy feelings passed too rapidly. All of a sudden she was eager to start her widowed life. Immediately after she heard the sad news of her husband’s death, "She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms" (Chopin 25). This is acceptable and understandable to me because I feel that anyone who had just lost his/her spouse would want to be comforted by a close family member. The story then reads, "When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her" (Chopin 25). I found it to be odd that she would just get up and head straight for her room. The t... ...ishness that got its just reward? Work Cited Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. Works Consulted Bender, Bert. "Kate Chopin." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. 20 vols. Ewell, Barbara C. "Kate Chopin." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. 20 vols. Magill, Frank N., ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Revised ed. Vol. 2. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. 7 vols. Seyersted, Per. "Kate Chopin." Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Eds. James E. Person, Jr. and Dennis Poupard. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984. 60 vols. Skaggs, Peggy. "Kate Chopin." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. 20 vols.

freeclo Freedom in Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange :: Clockwork Orange Essays

Freedom in A Clockwork Orange A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess tells a story about a young man and his choices of freedom. The book asks the question "is it better to have someone constantly do the right thing, or to have the freedom of choice to do the right or wrong thing". The author shows the affect of society on a human who has been institutionalized and let back into society. The author of the book goes on to show how the protagonist copes with society under his given conditions. "Georgie let go of holding his goobers apart and just let him have one in the toothless rot with his ringy fist, and that made the old veck start moaning a lot then, then out comes the blood, my brothers, real beautiful." (Page 7) This had been an occurrence that took place when the protagonist was walking down the street with no apparent intention of harming anyone. This occurrence shows the time in Alex's life where he is able to make decisions on his own, weather he chooses for those actions to be morally appropriate or not is up to his discretion. "He has no real choice, has he? Self-interest, fear of physical pain, drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice." (Page 126) This is the occurrence of Alex's life after he has been arrested for his wrong doings and has been brought to the institute. This is where the reform of Alex has occurred. He had been tortured beyond his belief. Now each time that Alex has a thought of an immoral deed he gets sick to his stomach. Alex now has no choice of doing what he wishes to do; he has no real choice. This is what the doctors and observers believe was the reform of Alex. "I could viddy myself carving the whole litso of the creeching world with my cut-throat britva. And there was the slow movement and the lovely last singing movement still to come. I was cured all right." (Page 179) The government does try to make Alex an unconditionally good person through institutionalization: however, since it is a forced goodness, conflicting his own will, a complete goodness is not attained. This shows that the reform of Alex is now over and has no significance over him.

Short Story and Selfishness William Jung

Who can promise that they have never been selfish throughout their life? Who can say out loud that they never did something that had a bad influence on others, only because of personal benefit? The answer is in the short story â€Å"The Lottery†, which was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948.The story takes place in a small town where everyone has to join the lottery, and the winner will be sacrificed for heavy crops for the town. During the lottery, everyone including Tessie Hutchinson, who wins the lottery, expresses their selfishness both consciously and unconsciously.Shirley Jackson is making a point about selfishness. To be specific, she notes that selfishness is born within mankind and lives deep inside, behind their mask of duplicity. In the story, Tessie Hutchinson symbolizes selfishness, she is a happy kind married woman before the lottery, but by the time she finds out that she actually ‘wins’ the lottery, which means she has to sacrifices for the town, i t’s when her selfishness starts to appears.When Hutchinson family is choose to have the second draw, Tessie strongly argues that â€Å"You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted, I saw you, it wasn’t fair! † (P. 6) even though she also pinches his husband Bill to draw the paper.She only worries about her family were chosen. Moreover, she only cares about herself, during the second draw, she strongly agrees about her daughters to join the lottery, which will make more chances for her to survive. Her selfishness is unavoidable even though she is a mother of a family, because selfishness is deep inside her.Beside Tessie Hutchinson who is an adult, some innocent, pure little children also contain absolute selfishness, just like Tessie’s children Bill, Jr. and Nancy. They join the second lottery with Hutchinson family although they are too young, but when they find out that they are not the one who ‘wins’ the lottery, they both â€Å"beamed and Laughed, turning around to the crowd and holding their slips of paper above their heads. † (P. 8) They delight about they didn’t get selected to sacrifice. They are happy because the one who will die are not them, but their mother.Children are not able to endure their impressions, which make them express their true emotions, in this case selfishness throughout their innocent faces unconsciously, because they are simply happy, they didn’t learn anything from others, it was just their instinct reactions that appear because of the selfishness, which born within themselves.Everyone in the village also has the exact same feelings as Bill, Jr. and Nancy, but they don’t express their feeling by reactions to others because they have more mature masks which are their faces of conscience.Before the lottery starts, everyone acts like they are nice innocent person. They talk to each other like friends, just like they really care about each other . However, when Tessie says the lottery is unfair, and should do the lottery again, the selfishness within people is no more covering by the masks of â€Å"kindness†.As they face another bad chance to die, their emotions come out right away consciously, they say â€Å"be a good sport, Tessie. † or â€Å"All of us took the same chance. † (P.6) to get away from the danger. Including Bill Hutchinson who is Tessie’s husband, he â€Å"went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. † (P. 8) to make sure she is the one who will die, and shows the slip of paper with black dot to everyone. The masks of ‘conscience’ , ‘kindness’ or even ‘love’ will lose their power in front of the selfishness when people are in an extreme situation. The masks cannot cover the true natural sense of mankind. Selfishness is something that no one can reject it.It’s something that everyone owns, but owns without a ny authority to control it. It’s something that is impossible to hide behind the masks of duplicity forever. It’s the basic and strongest devil that born within everyone.But it is possible to change the way of being selfish, by respecting others selfishness, by knowing that other people only care about themselves just like usual, and by finally realize that the easiest way to protect or gain benefit to yourself is by helping others, because devotion will always come back like a boomerang.