A Marketing Analysis Of Air Asia Marketing Essay

A Marketing Analysis Of Air Asia Marketing Essay In order to make sure that the slogan of Now Everyone Can Fly, Airasia had launched Low Fare Campaign in order to attract the customers to fly with a low fare. The objectives of this campaign are to offer low fares to customer to travel and offer discounts to the public in order to encourage more people to fly with Airasia. Moreover, this will lead to new market entry of first-time user. (Thestar, 2007) 2.0 Airasia Market analysis 2.1 PESTEL analysis Political Factor Airasia airline had planned to build a new single-runway airport in Labu, Negeri Sembilan with the Sime Darby in 2009 and been approved by the government. However, the plan has been cancelled due to the Stated-owned Malaysia Airports had tried to stop to build the new terminal and disagreement with former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir. (Flightglobal, 2009) Economic Factor In 2010, Malaysia Government had introduced one government policy which is 10 Malaysia Plan to the public in order to unleash the growth of economic. The Airport development is one of the plans as Malaysia Government expects the passengers amount will increase to 62 million in 2015. A new low cost terminal will be built by the in Kuala Lumpur International Airport for Airasia and has larger terminal. (Midfresearch, 2010) Social Cultural Factor Malaysia is the country which has 3 ethnics and the cultures are unique. Airasia believes that the communities are expecting that the airline can treat every ethnic equally. In order to do that, Airasia is practicing the meritocracy culture whereby the employees hired not based on the age and ethnic. (Airasia, 2009) Technological Factor Airasia has implemented information technology in running the operations of the airline to save the costs. The information technologies that implemented are yield management system and computer reservation system. The systems can help the airline to save the costs by recording on revenue and transactions in daily operations. (Management of Technology, 2009) Environmental Factor Airasia has invested in the latest technology and full utilization of the aircraft in protecting the environment and A320 airbus which is more efficient to operate and more save fuel is used. Airasia ticketless system and near paperless office are the strategies to cut down the waste of paper. (Airasia, 2009) Legal Factor In order to operate in Malaysia, Airasia must apply the Air Service License from the Malaysia Civil Aviation. The regulations such as Civil Aviation Act 1969 and Aviation Offences Act 1984 must be followed. (Airasia, 2004) 2.2 SWOT analysis Strength Analysis Low Cost Carrier business model is one of the strength of Airasia in order to compete in the airline industry. The second is Airasia has a very strong relationship with the government and the airline industry leaders. The third is well established of brand name in Asia Pacific. (Management of Technology, 2009) Weakness Analysis The Airasia main weakness is the airline more reliable on the out sourcing workforce. The other weaknesses are the service resource is limited and the airline is receiving many complaints on the no-refundable of the ticket canceled and the delay of flight. (Management of Technology, 2009) Opportunity Analysis The first opportunity is the ever-increasing oil price which enables Airasia to compete with other low cost airline. (Management of Technology, 2009). ASEAN Open Skies agreement that achieved which is allows Airasia to run unlimited flights among ASEANS regional is also an opportunity. (Wong, 2009) Threat Analysis The first threat is the services rates (airport departure, security charges) are controlled by the airline. The other threats are other entrance of low cost airline and the operation cost is increase due to the services that added. (Wong, 2009) 2.3Trend and Current Position 2.3.1 Airasia Trend In 2009, the low-cost carrier airline that established well had proved that has sufficient power to operate across the region in different market and economic. Airasia airline is the fast-growing and profit earning steadily airline which had increased the profit for the past. Airasia is also able to grow the market share in the Southeast Asia and had introduced the low-cost long-haul carrier whereby can offering the passenger cheaper fare. Airasia has started to have partnership with other low cost airline to reduce the airline operation costs such as ground-handling services. (Flightglobal, 2010) 2.3.2 Airasia and Competitors Current Position In Malaysia, the main competitor of Airasia is the Malaysia Airline System (MAS) which is Malaysias National Airline. In order to compete with Airasia, MAS had launched the first low cost airline which is Firefly. The airline is the test-bed in running low-cost operation. In March 2007, Malaysia Airline System had launched the first community and low cost airline which is Firefly to compete with other low cost airline. The Firefly airline is the test-bed of Malaysia Airline System in running the low-cost operation instead to test for new market segmentation and the Malaysia Airline System will adapt and expand it into national carrier if the operation of Firefly is proven success and gain stability. (Datamonitor, 2008). Due to the existing of new competitor, Airasia Malaysia has two competitors in Malaysia. However, the prices of airline ticket in Airasia is the main advantage and able to maintain current position as low-cost carrier. Particular Malaysia Airline Airasia Firefly Airfare Non RM15 RM130 Service Charge RM9 Non Non Surcharge RM76 RM47.50 RM51 Total RM85 RM62.50 RM181 (Prices Comparison for one person one way ticket to Pulau Langkawi during promotion) (Reference: Amdtaufik, 2008) 3.0 Objective 3.1 Corporate Objective The first objective of Airasia is to become the largest low cost airline organization in Asia by provide services to 3 billion people. Second objective is to attain with the lowest cost and lead to everyone can fly. The third objective is to maintain the product quality and reduce the costs. 3.2 Communication and Marketing Objectives The first communication objective of Airasia is to promote the organization, services and products through the effective communication program to the customers. The second objective is to make sure that there is a communication relationship between the Airasia and the customers and the relationship can be strengthen through the campaign awareness and brand reputation. The third objective is to expand the communication and media strategy in order to create brand or product awareness to the customers in order to achieve the organization goal. The last communication objective is to maintain the good relationship with the customers and keep updating customers with organization informations. (JobDB, 2011) 4.0 Marketing Communication Tool Low Fare Campaign 4.1Advertising In order to communicate with the target audience, Airasia is using advertising as a tool in introducing the products and services. One of the important advertising media that frequently used is the social media. The advantages of using social media are the internet enable the interactive capabilities, high selectivity by the users and the cost is low. In Airasia, the organization strongly agrees that social media is playing an important role in order for the organization to do advertising and build a consumer group that contributing trust to brand and value. Nowadays, the internet had made the people able to connect with the whole world people easily and more time is spending for online. By using social media, the messages of the products and services can be reaching out and able to share out the content of message effectively. Besides that, the social media is able to provide a channel of communication for the organization to run the activity such as low fare promotions, new product launching and news announcement. Moreover, the social media able to create a communication platform for the Airasia to connect with the people and enable the people to have more understanding on the organization. (Airasia,2009) Airasia had started the corporate blog (www.blog.airasia.com) in 2008 and Facebook (www.facebook.com/AirAsia) in 2009. The effectiveness and efficiencies of the social media enable Airasia to reach the number of fans and creating a strong relation community. For the community, they are able to get the latest information about the campaign that launched by Airasia through the social media. (Airasia, 2011) Another method of Airasia to run the advertising is using the Airspace advertising whereby the unique and effective way of advertising can be done to reach all the customers who take the flight. With the new approach of advertising and more cost saving, the messages can be reaching to large coverage of passengers.   This allows the messages of the campaign directly communicate with the passenger and can across effectively whether on the ground or in the sky. The advertisements of the campaign can be placed in the auto boarding pass, the information counter, sales office and on the passengers seats. (Airasia, 2010) Besides that, Airasia use newspaper as advertising media. By using the newspaper, the messages of the campaign can be more flexible to access to the different coverage of markets and the target audiences are different. The newspaper medias that used by Airasia in Malaysia are Star, Sin Chew Daily, China Press, Berita Harian and others. (Lee and Johnson, 2005) 4.2 Direct marketing Direct marketing is an interactive system that can helps the organization to personalized communications between them and the customers. With the help of computer and internet development nowadays, the organization is able to run two way communications for their products and services. (Lee and Johnson, 2005) In order to increase the awareness of the organization to the customers, Airasia is using direct marketing in order to encourage the interactions between organizations and allow users to be more understanding on the brand. One of the direct marketing tool that used by Airasia is the Yahoo Mobile. Airasia is promoting and sending the messages to the customers by using other website. Airasia has corporate with Yahoo Mobile whereby the organization allows Airasia mobile website to put the banner advertisement on the Yahoo mobile homepage, yahoo mail and yahoo search. The mobile users just need to access to the Yahoo Mobile and click to the Airasia banner, the link will automatically connect to the Airasia Website. By this, the customers can book the flight tickets, checking the ticket booking status and access to the promoting campaign. These services and information assessment through mobile technology has lead to the increasing in awareness of the organization and campaign promotion. Moreover, this direct marketing method had lead to the good responses from the users whereby the total click to the website is 108,405 clicks and the rate is 1.78 percent after 28days launching. (Mobilemarketer, 2009) 4.3 Public Relation There are many activities that can be carried by the public relation in order to communicate to the related party. In Airasia, one of the activities that carried out by the Public Relation is the Corporate Social Responsibility. The features in this concept are the organization shares the values and joyfulness in with the related parties. Airasia is celebrating the times of joy with the communities, practicing the communities value and traditions and delivering cares to them. There are few area that focused by the Airasia in caring out this activity. The first area is the organization work place. Airasia is practicing the meritocracy culture and the employees are hired due to their performance and ability. The elements like gender, creed, age and ethic are not considered in the hiring process. By practicing the meritocracy culture, Airasia believe that they can strive to exceed the communitys high expectation and provides equally treatment to all the communities. The second area that focused is helping the communities to pass the hard time. There was an earthquake happened in 2009 and had shocked many communities in Indonesia. At that moment, the Airasia decided to lend a hand and running the charity flight to help the victims to go out from that place. Moreover, the Airasia in Malaysia is also helping out in providing the cargo space to deliver the goods for the victims. Airasia always help the victims of disaster and providing joyfulness and hope to them. The last area that focused is minimizing the environment impact in creating greener environment. The first thing Airasia do is promoting the recycle concept to the work place environment and encourage paperless system office to be run. Moreover, self service check-in options is encouraged by the organization in order to helps in reduce the need for expensive airport infrastructure. The efficient and simple ground environment is the main policy in protecting the environment. (Airasia, 2009) 5.0 Airasia Marketing Strategies 5.1 Pull and Profile Strategy Airasia is using the Pull Strategy to deliver the low fare campaign information directly to the end-user customers. The purposes of the messages delivered are to increase the campaign awareness, encourage the customers involvement and to influence the customer perception. By these, the customer behavior and perception may be changed and lead to the purchasing of the products. Moreover, Airasia use this strategy to encourage and attract the customers to purchase airline through the website channel. For Airasia to complete and deliver the pull strategy, the method that use can be deliver the message through the social media or website by offering the low fare promotion to the customers. (Fill , 2006) Airasia is using the Profile Strategy which is using different messages in target all the stakeholders that related. The stakeholders of Airasia are customers, employees, regulators and the local communities. This strategy is including the pull selling which is requires high promoting to attract the customers and push strategy which is forces from the organization to increase the customer demand. By using this strategy through different marketing communication tools to deliver different message, Airasia is able to build up the awareness of the low fare campaign and the perception of communities toward the campaign. (Fill , 2006) 5.2 Unique Selling Propositions In order to be unique selling proposition, the strategy that used by Airasia is low cost carrier and has come out the vision of in becoming the largest low cost airline in Asia and makes the dream of average income people to fly happens. The slogan that implement for the strategy is Now Everyone Can Fly whereby the tickets prices are lower. To become differently from others airline, Airasia has implementing few strategies in order to make sure that the low fare model is possible to run. The first strategy that Airasia apply is the Safety First strategy on the maintenance of the airplane. The organization is follow the others world airline operation safety strategy and partnering with the worlds recognize repairing and maintenance manufacturer. The second strategy is the High Aircraft Utilization where the Airasia implementing the fastest turnover time in make sure the cost can be lower and productivity is high.   The third strategy is low fare and no frill whereby providing the services without promises on the quality. The last strategy is providing more different distribution channels such as Airasia Mobile and booking website for the customers to check the booking and the flight schedule informations. (Airasia, 2010) 6.0 Airasia Communication Campaign Cost Outline Cost 2008 2009 Revenue RM 2,81,526,000 RM3,072,049,000 Marketing Communication Campaign Cost (Avdertising, Direct Maketing and Public Relation) RM 5,630,520 RM 61440980 (Reference: Airasia, 2009) Airasia is using 2% of the yearly avenue to invest in the marketing communication campaign in order to create awareness of products and services among the communities. (Low, 2010) The costs that spend for 2008 are RM 5,630,520 and RM 61440980 for 2009. 7.0 Methods of measuring the effectiveness of the marketing communication There are few methods that Airasia can use to measure the effectiveness of the marketing communication in the Zero Fare Campaign. The first method is the Pre-Testing whereby the marketing communication concept, targeting group and behaviour are pre-test before the launching of campaign. This test can be done by the qualitative and quantitative method which is giving out survey forms and collect opinions. The second method is Post-Testing whereby the effectiveness of marketing communication is evaluated after the campaign launching. Airasia can use the behavioural test to measures the responses and perception of consumer on the marketing communication after Zero Fare campaign was launched. Moreover, Airasia can also use the sales test which is the measures on the sales and then will get result on the marketing communication effectiveness. The third method is Tracking Studies which is the study is involves the collection data of the consumer perception toward the campaign. Airasia can use the interview method to collect the data of consumer perception on the marketing communication of the campaign and what message that gets from the campaign. By this, the organization is able to more understand on the consumer perception and a good record for future marketing communication plan. The fourth method is Likeability test which is testing the level of consumer enjoyment on the marketing communication of the campaign. The result will lead to the sales result and the consumer satisfaction result. (Fill, 2006) Total word count: 2986 words

Herbert Spencer Essay -- essays research papers

Herbert Spencer The most extreme reflection of nineteenth-century individualism is to be found in the encyclopedic system of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903). Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were of a long English and French nonconformists, dissenters and rebels, and Spencer traces in his "Autobiography" his "conspicuous disregard" of political, religious, and social authority to the tradition of independence and dissent so long cherished by his family. Spencer’s education was informal, unconventional, and highly deficient in the more traditional studies of literature and history. His father encouraged his interest in the science and tecnology, and Spencer became an engineer. However, he practiced his profession for a few years, because he became increasingly interested in political economy, sociology, biology, and philosophy. He was a subeditor of The economist from 1848 to 1853, and then ventured into a full-time career as a free-lance author. As early as 1842 Spencer contributed to the Nonconformist a series of letters called The Proper Sphere of Government, his first major publication. It contains his political philosophy of extreme individualism and Laissez Faire, which was not much modified in his writings in the following sixty years. Spencer expresses in The Proper Sphere of Government his belief that "everything in nature has its laws," organic as well as inorganic matter. Man is subject to laws bot in his physical and spiritual essence, and "as with man individually, so with man socially." Concerning the evils of society, Spencer postulates a "self-adjusting principle" under which evils rectify themselves, provided that no one interferes with the inherent law of society. In discussing the functions of the state, Spencer is concerned with what the state should not do, rather than what it should do. Maintenance of order and administration of justice are the only two proper realms of government activity, and their purpose is "simply to defend the natural rights of man to protect person and property." The state has no business to promote religion, regulate trade and commerce, encourage colonization, aid the poor, or enforce sanitary laws. Spencer went even so far as to deny the state the right to wage war; but as he says in his Autobiogra... ...yond the ethical sanction bestowed on it by the free consent of the citizens: " The function of Liberalism in the past was that of putting a limit to the powers of the king. The functions of true Liberalism in the future will be that of putting a limit to the powers of parliaments." Spencer’s political ideas hardly changed between 1842, when he published his Proper Sphere of Government, and 1903, the year of his death. The constancy of his political thought in the face of rapidly changing social and economic scene explains why the same ideas that were the last word in radical individualism in the eighteen-forties had become the orthodox conservatism by 1900. And Spencer’s appeal to the English Liberals to return to their original individualism remained unheard, but he correctly foresaw that Conservatives would become the defenders of economic individualism. Spencer failed to see that the issue of the state intervention in the economy was essentially one of means and not of objectives, and that Laissez Faire could be progressive, dynamic, and revolutionary at one time –early 19 century-, and conservative, stagnant, and sterile at another time – late 19 century-.

Creative Writing: The Last Days of Earth Essay -- Creative Writing Essa

Destruction It was a dark, cold, cloudy day. The clouds covered the sky like a big black sheet, nothing to be seen except darkness that seemed to go on forever. This was the third day in a row that there had been complete darkness, there was no getting rid of it. This was because of ‘the meteorite.’ It was Daisy Chamberling that broke the news at her usual time, 5 o’clock. It was a horrific moment as shock was spread all over the world by this news. Usually Daisy goes on about unimportant cases but this time she was serious. That was the big moment the world changed. Although Daisy was a news caster and you would expect her to be a social woman, she wasn’t. In fact she was the complete opposite. Daisy was a bright, intelligent 40 year old woman even though she never acted it. She was a well-brought up child until her father died and she inherited all his money. That’s when she became two-faced. She spent her money like it was going out of fashion, she would criticise other people just because they weren’t up to her standards and she was too posh. She sat in her chair, in the studio, like she was royalty, ordered people like slaves and got everything she wanted, at top notch. Daisy wanted to be the best but no-one could beat the weather girl, she was the best. Everybody loved her. Chelsea was a smart, classy but beautiful girl that was down to earth about things in life. Chelsea had come so far in life without any family and was only 25 years old. She was laid back about things but aware of people’s needs and worldwide issues. She was brave and confident to show people she wasn’t a little girl but a fighting woman waiting for the right time to show that. It had been three days since the terrifying news and no... ...s atmosphere! It was on it’s way and it was coming very soon. Daisy was hustling about the streets just like everyone else trying to help or running away from fire. Everyone was saying there last goodbyes to each other and that’s when the most vital things in life hit Daisy. She wanted to be loved, she wanted to help, she didn’t want to die alone and she had lost her only friend. Daisy sat quietly on a rock, sobbing to herself and full of guilt, she wanted Chelsea. It came as fast as lightning but slow like it was stuck or snagging on something. The meteorite was sure here. It was loud as it came storming through the darkness, it blocked out the crying and screaming of people falling to their deaths. The meteorite hit the world and it was like the ‘big bang.’ it was goodbye to Daisy, goodbye to Chelsea and goodbye to the world. It was Destruction.

Science of Microwave Heating :: microwave oven

The microwave oven, a tool that we use often in our busy lives to heat up foods when we just don't have the time or patience for a conventional oven to do its work. How does this device work? It's pretty simple if we use the basics of physics to explain it. Vibrations from the high frequency radio waves cause the water and fat cells in food to generate heat through friction of the molecules. An example of this using a turkey shows the molecules positive and negative particles acting through these vibrations to cause friction. J. Carlton Gallawa -- http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html "In microwave cooking, the radio waves penetrate the food and excite water and fat molecules pretty much evenly throughout the food. There is no "heat having to migrate toward the interior by conduction". There is heat everywhere all at once because the molecules are all excited together. There are limits of course. Radio waves penetrate unevenly in thick pieces of food (they don't make it all the way to the middle), and there are also "hot spots" caused by wave interference, but you get the idea. The whole heating process is different because you are "exciting atoms" rather than "conducting heat"." -- Howstuffworks.com From Wikipedia.org: "Microwaves, also known as Super High Frequency (SHF) signals, have wavelengths approximately in the range of 30 cm (1 GHz) to 1 mm (300 GHz)." and "A microwave oven uses a magnetron microwave generator to produce microwaves at a frequency of approximately 2.4 GHz for the purpose of cooking food. Microwaves cook food by causing molecules of water and other compounds to vibrate. The vibration creates heat which warms the food. Since organic matter is made up primarily of water, food is easily cooked by this method." From http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/howcook.html: "Microwaves possess three basic characteristics: * Just as sunlight shines through a window, microwaves pass right through some materials. Materials such as glass, paper, and plastic are transparent to and generally unaffected by microwaves. * Microwaves are reflected by metal surfaces, much as a ball would bounce off a wall. The metal walls of the cooking space actually form a cavity resonator. In other words, the enclosure is designed to resonate the microwaves as they are radiated from the magnetron tube. The principle of resonance may be illustrated using sound waves. When a piano key is struck, it produces sound vibrations or sound waves. Sometimes a note is played on a piano, and an object across the room, perhaps a wineglass, can be heard vibrating and producing the same sound.

Technology and the Media Essay -- social issues

Technology and the Media In this essay, British historian and broadcaster Asa Briggs looks at how technological advances made in recent decades have created a revolution in the media, allowing people to communicate in ways they had never dreamed of. Briggs notes that although these new modes of communication—including the television, the personal computer, the Internet, and other digital technologies—are available throughout many parts of the world, these media may be used in different ways depending upon the prevailing political and social circumstances. Briggs also raises questions about the future of the media and how the unfolding media revolution will affect people’s lives. Technology and the Media The sense that the world is in the middle of a continuing communications revolution has been strong since the 1960s when television made its great breakthrough. It was then that the Canadian writer on communications, Marshall McLuhan, made his memorable statements that â€Å"the medium is the message† and that the world was becoming a global village. It was then too that the word â€Å"media† became part of daily speech, covering not only electronic media, live television, but older print media, particularly the press. Comparisons were drawn between the progress and the development of television in the 20th century and the advent and diffusion of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet much had happened between. It was not until the 19th century that the newspaper became the dominant pre-electronic medium, following in the wake of the pamphlet and the book and in the company of the periodical. It was during the 19th century also that the communications revolution speeded up, beginning with transport, the railway, and leading on through the telegraph, the telephone, radio, and motion pictures into the 20th-century world of the motor car and the airplane. Not everyone sees that process in perspective. It is important to do so. It is generally recognized, however, that the introduction of the computer in the 20th century, followed by the invention of the integrated circuit during the 1960s, radically changed the process, although its impact on the media was not immediately apparent. It now became possible to combine thousands, later millions, of individual transistors on a single chip. Computers became smaller and more powerful. They became â€Å"personal... ...ia—from books to motion pictures and from cable to satellite—endanger individual freedom? Will the opportunity of choice, offered to individuals, mean that the field of choice will be genuinely widened? May we not have more and more of the same thing?It is logical to separate out questions relating to technological developments from questions relating to ownership and control, but, in practice, visions of the future world involve bringing them together. It is difficult in present circumstances to avoid the blurring of â€Å"image† (seeing the world as it is presented to us or as we present it to ourselves) and â€Å"reality.† Can â€Å"truth† survive? The media in their mediation can create what has come to be called â€Å"virtual reality†; and Internet can offer fantasy ways of escaping from the restraints of life as it is lived to a world of cyberspace. Cyber words have multiplied during the 1980s and 1990s—from â€Å"cybernautà ¢â‚¬  to â€Å"cyborg† through a whole new vocabulary. It may well be that through an effort to chart the words that we use, and the dates when they were first used, we can achieve a greater understanding of a continuing historical process that encompasses the future as well as the past.

Ottawa Valley Food Products Case Study Essay

Ottawa Valley Food Products (OVFP) is a company which manufactures and distributes low calorie and diet food items. The employees at OVFP consist of 100 production workers and 18 management and support staff. R J Jennings is amongst these individuals and has worked for OVFP for 31 years. Even though he is able to retire, Jennings does not wish to do so any time in the near future. Jennings had a previous administrative assistant, Ella Arnold, who worked with him for 10 years. Ella, aged 58, decided to take early retirement due to deterioration in her eyesight. As Jennings’ assistant, Ella would work over time sometimes without pay, go above and beyond to make sure her job was done well including breaking previous personal commitments. By Ella doing this in her job, resulted in Jennings feeling she had a ‘sixth sense’ for her job, she even ran errands in her lunch break for him. When Ella retired, the personnel department replaced her with Mary Gregory. Mary Gregory is 24 years old and has qualifications in administration from a local community college as well as a well-known Canadian university. On her first day, Jennings phoned her using the interoffice telephone to ask her to get him a coffee and a newspaper on her way back from her break. He had asked this every morning for that past ten years before Mary had joined the company. Mary refused stating she was busy. After this, Jennings got his own coffee and newspaper, even though he purposely gave Mary a light workload. From this, Jennings just assumed it was first day nerves. OVFP had an important meeting coming up with agents who did not previously transport OVFP products. The meeting was to talk about and arrange production and shipping schedules before they signed a contract. When Jennings walked into the meeting, he found Mary talking to the agents about her weekend. He had asked Mary to leave the meeting, but she refused explaining to the agents she was not leaving. After the agents left, Jennings asked Mary to visit his office where he asked for an explanation of her behaviour during the meeting. She replied with an upset comment stating ‘she was not drafted into the army.’ Another incident occurred the next morning when Mary would not file away the reports in Jennings office. Jennings had stated at the end of Mary’s six week probation period she would no longer be needed in the company. Once the news of this was found out, Jennings was later faced with a note, handed to him by Karen Russell. The note stated he had two choices, either change his mind and allow Mary to continue with her job at the end of her probation period or all 10 of OVFP’s administrative assistants would take this further. They would go to Ottawa to state their protest on the CBC show at six o’clock. The administrative assistants were waiting for Jennings response to this in the lounge and gave him 20 minutes in order to make his decision. Assumptions made based on the report: ââ€" ªThe organization was structured properly and the business is successful. The business has been running for 30 years and has a large amount of staff and managers. ââ€" ªThere are different branches or departments that produce specialized products. The different branches manage things such as dairy, vegetables and fruits and meat products ect. ââ€" ªBecause the company is so successful; all the workers have the values and objectives towards bettering the company. The workers strive toward success in the company. ââ€" ªThe company’s marketing strategy is to produce low-calorie and diet foods to grocery stores made out of high quality ingredients. Their marketing advantage is that they sell unique healthy foods at a low cost . ââ€" ªThe company has monthly goals to attain that include having the correct products ready for certain stores and having them delivered on time to the stores. They finish their work on time frequently because they have a successful business and long term customers. ââ€" ªAll of the secretaries are female. Women are specifically hired to work as secretaries for Jennings. ââ€" ªSince all of the secretaries gathered together to meet with Jennings because they were unhappy so it can be concluded that Jennings treats most of his employees unfairly and expects too much out of them. ââ€" ªJennings asks too much of his employees sometimes. He will ask them to do things that are not in their job descriptions; such as get him coffee and pick up his dry cleaning. ââ€" ªJennings may be too comfortable at his job. He is taking his employees for granted and using them to do personal favours. Problem Statement: The senior director of Ottawa Valley Food Products, R.J. Jennings, is having issues with his replacement administrative assistant. His former assistant was very outgoing and willing to work long hours in order to please her boss and to get the work done in a timely manner. When she took an early retirement, the company hired a replacement assistant for Mr. Jennings. Over her time with the company the new assistant, Mary Gregory, was at times incapable of the workload she had been given, which her predecessor had no trouble with. Not only was Mary incompetent at times, she also seemed to have no sense of proper business etiquette. On the day of an important meeting Mary decided to entertain the client with stories of her weekend while Jennings was running late. When Jennings arrived in his office he found a less than impressed client and his assistant chatting him up. After Jennings had told her to leave the office so they could commence their meeting, which was already running late, Mary scolded Jennings telling him that it was rude for him to ask her to leave and then continued with her story. After the meeting had concluded Mary was asked into Jennings’s office where he demanded an explanation. Mary protested that the situation was through no fault of her own. Mary was told shortly after the incident that her duties would no longer be needed at the end of her six week probationary period. Mary rebutted this by rallying all the administrative assistants to Mr.Jennings office with demands to be met or they would go to the CBC NEWS in Ottawa to air a piece about their story. Jennings has to make a decis ion whether or not to disregard these actions. If the piece airs on CBC NEWS, it will be nothing but bad publicity for the company. If he decides to Leave Mary in her position, she could potentially lose clients and disrupt further office interactions. Internal (Strengths and Weaknesses): Strengths ââ€" ªThe company management is well respected and the company has been running for over 30 years and supplies to grocery store. Jennings is a respected manager and has a good reputation amongst other companies that OVFP have contracts with. ââ€" ªThe Company has a high rate of employment. OVFP employs 100 production workers and 18 management and support staff. This shows that the company is successful. The company has been able to expand and needed to hire more workers to finish the required tasks on time. ââ€" ªThe Company achieves corporate objectives as they are successful in obtaining their goals. The company creates all of the goods on time and has the products delivered to certain grocers on the requested date. ââ€" ªThe company is successful because employees share the same values in the company; aiming toward success. Management ensures the job is done and that it is done with quality. The values of the workers include completing current objectives on time and with good quality. ââ€" ªThe company’s current marketing objective is to have the goods ready for their clients on time and to have the food delivered on time. This marketing objective is a strength because the employees work hard to finish the jobs. The secretaries mainly finish their assigned jobs with unfortunately some miscommunications but they work hard to finish everything. Weaknesses ââ€" ªStructure is clearly not understood by some of the employees, as Mary was not aware of some of the duties she needed to accomplish. Also, Jennings expected a lot out of her, where are she believed that she did not need complete these tasks for him because they were in her job description. Because they did not agree on what each other must do to get the day running smoothly they had a conflict. ââ€" ªThe other secretaries wanted to meet with him because they were also not happy. Jennings does not treat his secretaries fairly and expects them to work as the pace of Ella. He expects them to answer his personal calls and do other personal favours such as work overtime without pay . ââ€" ª The company does not finish all of their objectives because Mary was not completing all of the tasks Jennings assigned for her. This is why they had a conflict. ââ€" ªIf Mary could not handle the tasks Jennings was giving her then his expectations were too high. He was asking too much of her. Potentially, he could have asked for her to do simpler tasks until she got used the environment. ââ€" ªJennings did not hire Mary, human resources hired her for him. He did not have a choice therefore he may not get along with her if he doesn’t have a say in who is his secretary. The human resource department did not know what Jennings was looking for. ââ€" ªAll of the secretaries were female. If they are all only women then they are violating human rights. ââ€" ª Human resources was not able to hire an efficient worker for the company. They did not hire someone fit for the job and made a mistake. ââ€" ªJennings may not be a good manager if he is asking too much from his employees. If they do not understand where he is coming from when he is asking them to do things for him they might not listen to him. Also, if he is being unreasonable the employees won’t bother doing what they are asked. ââ€" ª Human resources may not be the appropriate people to hire an assistant for Jennings. Jennings should be able to choose his own secretary to avoid further conflict. If he picked someone that he believes would fit the job description better than there would never have been a conflict to resolve. External Analysis: Political †¢Jennings had informed Mary that she would no longer be employed at the end of her six week probationary period. Mary has no real grounds to protest for her job but the administrative assistant Union is standing up for her. With a union involved, striking is always a possibility. The administrative assistants to a large load of the office work and filing. Without these workers the business will be running far less efficiently. Social †¢The way Ottawa Valley Food Products is perceived by the public is directly correlated to its sales. A local news piece that depicts the company in a negative image could have negative repercussions on the success of the company. Sometimes there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but if the company looks like it doesn’t care about its employees, that is tougher for the company to shake. Opportunities †¢With the administrative assistants up in arms, an opportunity has arisen to change the current hiring system. To ensure that no incidents happen in the future, it is possible to tweak our hiring techniques to make sure our employees are of a quality caliber and they have solid references. Jennings is however not the root of the problem, Mary is, and management should be looking seriously into this as well. The management of a corporation should not allow an administrative assistant to potentially ruin sales and lose the company money and clients. Threats †¢The threat of a unionized support staff is always looming. If the administrative assistants form a union it will be nearly impossible to fire unruly staff. Also unions usually bargain for more money, which would result in more overhead for the company. Ultimately a union would limit the amount of work that the assistants do, and give them more money. If the Assistants were to form a union, it could have direct correlation with the production of the company. †¢A new hiring standard is in desperate need at Ottawa Valley Food Products. Otherwise they run the risk of hiring more staff that could become problematic. If they continue to hire these types of staff, it could have detrimental effects on the productivity of the company. Alternatives courses of Action: Alternative #1 R.J can do nothing and continue to end Mary’s employment after the six – week probation period. This will force the 10 OVFP executive assistants to publicize their complaint on CBC. R.J. Jennings is a senior manager at OVFP who has been working with them for 31 years and Mary Gregory should treat him with respect and honor his requests. Advantages †¢R.J. Jennings has been employed at OVFP for 31 years and deserves a better administrative assistant. By continuing to terminate Mary’s employment he may be assigned an assistant that better meets his needs. †¢The cost of finding and training new employees with work equipment can end up being expensive but Mary wasn’t able to handle the duties necessary to be a successful assistant. The potential employees applying for the job can be strategically chosen through interviews so that time and money is not wasted if they hire a new assistant with extensive experience that can adapt to the new job easily and not require lots of training. †¢This option is easy to put into practice because nothing is required other than to document Mary Gregory’s progress until the six – week probation period has ended. During this period R.J. also is given enough time to search for and hire a new assistant that may better meet his needs. †¢By executing this option R.J. is also able to demonstrate his expectations to other coworkers. In future situations his coworkers will know what R.J. expects from his assistants. Disadvantages †¢By continuing to terminate Mary’s employment he will lose his assistant as well as having the potential to lose the other 10 executive assistants that are protesting this. As these other assistants do not agree with R.J.’s decision they may willingly quit. As well, by going public with this protest they can bring negative media attention to R.J. and OVFP, as thus may ruin future business deals or current business commitments. †¢The approach of doing nothing and continuing to end Mary’s employment after the six – week probation period could negatively affect the company. The company will now have to go through the trouble of hiring and training a new assistant, rather than to address and try to fix the problem with Mary. If R.J. does need to replace Mary and possibly other executive assistants, he may replace them with new employees that might not work out and in fact be worse than his current employees. †¢If R.J. does terminate Mary’s employment, lose other executive assistance and bring negative media attention to OVFP he also has the potential of losing his job. Other senior management might view him as harmful to the company and may look into putting him on a probationary period or ultimately terminating his position. Alternative #2 R.J. Jennings could bring Mary Gregory into his office and have a discussion about the situation and address the problems that he has with Mary. Allow Mary to see what Ella Arnold successfully did and how she completed her tasks for R.J. daily. R.J. also clearly needs to express his expectations for his assistant so Mary is able to understand what is required of her. R.J. can allow Mary to move forward from this point and demonstrate how she is qualified for this job. If she is given another chance she may meet his standards and adjust to being a successful assistant. R.J. may also be given the opportunity to see his demands from Mary’s perspective. Because Ella did tasks for R.J that was not in her job description, R.J. has come to expect this. Mary can be given the chance to explain that she is not there to bring R.J. his coffee and newspaper and how she felt at some of his requests. Advantages †¢The actual problem can be addressed and Mary can see what Ella Arnold did as R.J.’s assistant. Mary will be given a list of expectations that she must meet in order to continue her employment at OVFP. If Mary clearly knows what is expected of her she may be able to carry out her daily tasks successfully. If Mary does not agree with what is expected of her in this role or does not feel she can complete such tasks she may willing leave her position, without spurring the negative media attention. †¢R.J. is also given the opportunity to see how much more Ella did for him that was required. Mary may have a different work style than Ella and does not feel like she should have to be taken advantage of or do tasks that R.J. can carry out himself, such as getting R.J. his coffee. †¢This alternative allows the problem to be addressed between both parties. It can also promote further open communication between coworkers as R.J. is setting a positive example to address a problem. †¢Negative media attention can be avoided as the executive assistants will not be on the CBC newscast. Disadvantages †¢Mary Gregory might become defensive once in R.J.’s office. After R.J. addresses the problem with Mary she might have a different perspective on the situation and feel she isn’t in the wrong. R.J. may feel he has wasted time and effort trying to fix the problem with Mary. †¢If Mary does not agree with R.J. she might notify the other 10 OVFP executive assistants about the meeting she had and continue with the CBC newscast. If Mary does not agree with the discussion she had with R.J. it could fuel further negative comments being made during the newscast. †¢Mary might feel she is underappreciated because she’s always being compared to Ella. Alternative #3 Terminate Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant immediately without reason and without allowing the six-week probation period to expire. Mary has been given enough chances to complete what is required of her and if she still continues to struggle with the everyday tasks that R.J. assigns then she is not the right person for the assistant position. Advantages †¢Mary Gregory is no longer an employee for OVFP so they can start to find a replacement assistant immediately that can be beneficial to the company. †¢It will be easier to release Mary as an employee because she’s still on probation. †¢R.J. Jennings can get back to being an efficient, hardworking employee with no distractions to affect his work. He can find a new assistant that meets his needs and will allow him to continue to be a dedicated employee. †¢Because Mary was new to the company she does not get paid benefits or other possible layoff payments that a fulltime life employee would receive. Disadvantages †¢Employees that formed a bond or friendship with Mary might disagree with OVFP’s choice to terminate her during the probation period. These employees might show their disagreement with the company’s choice by slowing work efficiency and motivation towards their job. †¢The assistants that have threatened to appear on CBC will still do so if Mary is immediately terminated. The immediate termination may infuriate them further if Mary is fired without being given any explanation or chance to further prove her work ethic. †¢Employees might take the message in a different manner and think there not being treated fairly for the work they give to the company. The employees might think that the company feels they are replaceable and aren’t an asset towards the company’s success when that isn’t the case. This could lead to further problems such as strikes or searching for other employment. †¢Time and money will be spent during the process of finding a new assistant. Alternative #4 Allow the option to release Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant with reason. Again, Mary has been given ample opportunities to turn her work ethic around but has failed to do so. R.J could have a meeting and tell Mary she is no longer employed at OVFP as well as notify her of the reasons why she’s being let go. This can allow R.J. to clearly express his reasoning for the decision as well as allow Mary to express how she is feeling Advantages †¢R.J. would no longer have to work with an assistant he feels does not meet up to his standards. †¢By having a meeting and clearly explaining the reason for her termination it may diffuse the situation. Mary can be given the opportunity to see R.J.’s reasoning and may agree with some of the issues he has raised. It can also be a learning experience for Mary as she looks for new jobs she may know what is expected of her in an administrative position. †¢Mary can be given the opportunity for a fresh start at a new company. She may also be able to use R.J. as a reference or connection toother jobs. Although her job was terminated R.J. may want to help her future search and just cite the termination as a clash of personalities or Mary not being the right fit for the job. R.J. is also able to have a fresh start with a new assistant and may be more aware of how to express his expectations. †¢R.J.’s executive assistants will not go on CBC if Mary has been treated with respect and had the opportunity to have a discussion with R.J. Disadvantages †¢Negative publicity can still arise if Mary still feels she wasn’t treated equally and was terminated without given a fair chance. The other assistants may feel that it is still necessary to make this issue aware to the public by being on CBC. †¢Legal issues may be a possibility. Even though she’s a new employee she could address the situation with the labor board or human resources to see if there are any options regarding her termination (i.e. severance pay). †¢Disagreement with the decision to terminate Mary’s position by other employees might cause work ethic and efficiency to drop or other possibilities such as a strike or employees quitting. Recommendations and Plan of Action: The alternative chosen to resolve the problem statement is option four which is allowing the option to release Mary Gregory from OVFP as an assistant with reason. This alternative is favourable as Mary has been given numerous amounts of opportunities to adjust her work attitude, still chooses not to do so. By choosing this alternative, Jennings could have a meeting with Mary and explain to her why she is no longer an employee of OVFP. At this meeting, he is able to discuss the reasons to why she is being fired. Jennings will be able to justify his decision and let Mary express her feelings about the situation. By using this alternative Jennings will no longer have to work with Mary as he feels her work ethics are not to his standards of being his assistant. As a result of having this meeting, it can calm the situation as Mary is able to understand Jennings’ reasoning and may even agree with some of the issues he states. This could also allow Mary to learn from this when she looks for future jobs as she may have a better understanding of what is expected of her in an administrative assistant’s role. As a result of Mary’s termination this will allow her to have a new start with a different company. Finally, if Mary is treated with respect and given justification to her termination, the executive assistants may change their mind and withdraw from appearing on CBC. There were a number of different alternatives decided upon as well when analysing Mary Gregory’s position at OVFP. The first alternative for Jennings to do nothing and to continue to end Mary’s employment after her six weeks probation period would not be suitable. This is due to ten other OVFP executive assistants stating they would also leave the company if Mary was not employed after her probation period. They also stated they would publicise their complaint on CBC. This could result in bringing negative publicity to OVFP, which could potentially cause problems with future business deals or current business relationships. Also, by terminating Mary’s employment the company would have to go through the process of finding a new assistant for Jennings and then having to train them. By doing this, OVFP may find these new employees to not be as efficient as their previous executive assistants. Finally, Jennings may lose his own job by bringing negative media attention to the business from firing Mary and the other assistants going to CBC with their disagreements. OVFP senior management team may find this damaging to the company and its image, therefore possibly putting him on a probationary period or terminating his position altogether. The second alternative, Jennings bringing Mary into his office to discuss the situation and address any problems is also not suitable for resolving this issue. This is could result in Mary becoming defensive once Jennings begins to discuss issues with her. She might feel she is not in the wrong and have a different outlook on the situation at hand. As a result of this, Jennings may feel he has wasted his time trying to resolve the problems with Mary and her work attitude. Also, Mary might speak with other assistants once she finishes talking with Jennings and explain to them what happened. After this, they may still continue with the broadcast with CBC and if Mary does not agree with Jennings and his opinions then this could result in even more negative comments said during the newscast, again bringing destructive media attention to OVFP. Also, by Jennings doing this Mary feel unappreciated as he is always comparing her to his previous assistant, Ella Arnold. This could demotivate he r to completing her job to the best of her ability and carrying out everyday tasks Ella used to do for Jennings. Finally, the third alternative is terminating Mary from OVFP as an assistant without reason and terminating her position once her six week probation period has finished. This, again, would not be appropriate for resolving the situation as employees who have formed a working or friendly relationship with Mary might disagree with OVFP’s decision. By showing their support towards Mary, they may decide to show lack of care within their working attitudes and not complete their own jobs properly. This could bring a long, tiring issue for OVFP if their employees are not motivated to work and complete their jobs on time or to the highest of standards. Also, the assistants who mentioned they would appear on CBC will continue to do so if Mary is fired from her position. They may do this as they will be upset by Mary being terminated without any justification to why she is no longer needed at OVFP. Also, from this alternative employees may feel they are not being treated fairly for the work they contribute towards the company, therefore they may feel they are replaceable. As a result of this, employees will not feel an asset to the company or feel they are appreciated when the company achieves goals. Employees could strike due to this or seek employment in a different company. Finally, precious time and money will be wasted on finding new assistants to replace Mary and the ten executive assistants if they decide to leave OVFP. The response that Mary’s and the other executive assistants gave when they hear the news that Mary is being let go after her probation period may seem like the major key component in this case. But as stated is this report there are many other factors that play into this company problem. Mary may response in an understandings way when Jennings explains his reasoning for letting her go from OVFP or she may not. Either way OVFP must realise they need to make changes in the company to prevent a situation like this from happening in the future. Reorganizing the human resources hiring process is a great start. Job posting that clearly state what the employee duties are within the company, will avoid confuse among Mangers and assistants. Also having Managers involved in the hiring of their assistants with make sure that Managers are paired with assistants that meet there individual needs. Having Human Recourse make these changes, it will over all avoid future problems like this from arising, and will create happier for efficient, and loyal employees. Which will o ver all benefits the company with loyal employees more efficient employees the company will save money and put this money in things such as expanding or improving other components.

Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life

â€Å"Frozen Pizza and Other Slices of Life† Frozen pizza and other slices of life, by Antoinette Moses, is a very good book which tells us eight different stories about different people who show us the same country (England) but from their own point of view and tells us eight different stories about their particular lives. In the last four chapters, we can find other new British's point of view and many lessons from each chapter. Here is what we have learned from the last four chapters.To start with ‘Sweetie’, in this chapter, the story represents a student life, whose plot talks about Nikki Apton, a student college, who is not quite good at managing on her life. Her characteristic is the same as other students who are not able to arrange what is the priority thing to do. She is always irresponsible for the negative results that are made by her. Fashionable student ‘Nikki Apton’ leads a fun-loving life, exploiting parents for money and leaning on her friend Sue to cover up for absences at seminars. Her father loses his job and cannot subsidize her; meanwhile the bank stops her cash card.Sue complains to lecturer Mrs. Martins about the way Nikki puts pressure on her. Nikki receives a letter saying she has failed the course. She remains convinced that she has a bright future despite her academic failure. In this story, the author does not give us know the story by the main character narrating. She runs the story by Nikki, the main character, sending E-mails to her friend, her boyfriend, her parents and her lecturer. The language and style that the author uses is just daily-life words. It is easy to understand even though there is some unseen slang found.Nikki’s characteristic is like her sending Emails. She never faces up with the problems directly. She uses E-mail to deal with them. It shows that she is not quite sincere because when writing E-mail, we have to think each word over repeatedly. Sometimes, we may not mean th at as we exactly feel but have to use those sentences just because it sounds better. After finishing this chapter, Nikki reminds me to look at myself. She is the mirror that reflects my life and warns me not to do like her. The lesson that I have got from the chapter is ‘As you sow, so shall you reap. From the story, Nikki does not do her duty by herself, asking someone help and also complaining him or her when it is not what she expects. Finally, She deserves to fail in her academic at the end of the story. Next chapter is ‘The Star Reporter. ’ The plot of this chapter is associated with a student reporter, Mike, who makes the news about a flooded area near his college, and this event changes his life forever. There are three main characters in this chapter; Mike, Angela, and Carol. Mike’s characteristic is curious and sympathetic.Angela is an ambitious editor of the Student News team who does not care what is right or wrong. The last main character is Car ol, a Robbie’s mother who lives in the flooded area. She cannot accept any truth that she did. Mike, a student who was in the Student News Team, made the news about the nearby area, which had flood every year. Angela, the editor, agreed with him and sent him to give the people who lived in the flooded area an interview and also sent Sue with him in order to take the photographs. In the flooded village, Mike met Carol, who was lifting a buggy up to the stairs while carrying her baby, Robbie.While Sue was taking a photo of her, Carol was so frightened that she forgot her baby and things in her arms but covered her face instead. Luckily, Mike was fast enough to catch the baby in time. After talking with Carol, Mike was very pleasant and felt that she was a very good mother. Moreover, he was eager to know why Carol was afraid of journalist. So he returned to find more information about Carol and he discovered that she was headline in the news long ago as a child murderer. When sh e was eleven years old, she usually took care of the children around her neighbor as a babysitter.According to the news, she hit the child to make him stop crying until he died. But Carol said a child had fallen off a slide and smashed hit head. Carol was sent to a prison for young people and she had to stay there until she was sixteen. While Mike was reading the news, Angela came in and saw it. Angela took that news to the publishers and they published the news as â€Å"WE FIND CHILD KILLER’S SECRET HOME! † Carol and Robbie had to be separated from each other. Mike resigned from the college and travel abroad. At last, He gave up the idea of journalist and decided to become a teacher instead.The language and style that the author uses in this chapter is easy to understand. She often uses many dialogues in order to continue the story smoothly. In addition, she also uses metaphors to illustrate the readers. For example, she compares the Tabloids with two years old kids w ho scream when they are hungry or lose their toys because the tabloids get the readers’ attention by using a big headline. For the mood of this story, the narrator, Mike tells the story depressingly and guiltily. ‘Something that you do not intend to do can make others suffer’ is the lesson we have learned from this story.Mike does not mean to let Angela knows about Carol’s background, but Angela knows it accidentally and finally Carol had to separate from her child. Another lesson is ‘Just one mistake can change your life forever. ’ From the story, Mike decided to become a teacher instead of a journalist after this happening. The third account ‘Don’t Miss the Mozart’ is involved with Melanie, a woman who is sent to pick up a pianist, Louise Conte at the train station, but she picks up a wrong woman with misunderstanding, so she is fired from her work.Finally, she takes her revenge by abducted the pianist so that Louise Cont e will miss her concert. There are two main characters in this chapter; Melanie and Nicole Leconte. Melanie is too careless to check that the person she picks up is the real pianist. And Nicole Leconte, a university scientist from France who comes to England to do a seminar, is too innocent to realize that there is something wrong with this hospitality. Melanie was sent to the train station at Norwich, England to pick up French pianist, Louise Conte.She was a soloist who will play Mozart Concerto at festival concert. Melanie misunderstood that a French scientist, Nicole Leconte, was the pianist, so she took her to a luxurious hotel, which surprised Nicole. Nicole thought this was a surprising hospitality, but does not realize there must be something wrong. When arriving at the festival office, they just know the truth. Mel was very angry. Later, Mel took revenge on Louise Conte by disguising herself to be Conte’s driver and taking her to the north, so it made Conte miss the c oncert.The author explains the two main characters’ feeling clearly so that the readers can understand easily that this situation is an accident, Melanie does not want to mix Nicole up with Madame Conte. Moreover, the author uses hyperbole to demonstrate the readers. For example †¦Nicole heard her ask, as if it was the most marvelous surprise to find her there, at the moment†¦. Another device the author uses in this chapter is foreshadowing. According to the middle of the story, Nicole told Melanie not to miss the Mozart concerto hat would be played one evening but at the end of the story, Melanie made Louise Conte miss it.The lesson from this chapter is ‘Carelessness will lead to disaster. ’ From the story, Melanie did not check carefully that the person she met was the true pianist, Louis Conte, so she was fired from her job. The plot of the last chapter â€Å"The Shivering Mountain† is about an Italian school student, Paulo, who expects the ci ty life in England, must be fun. On the other hand, the Fowler family’s activities in their free time, which he stays with, make him annoyed and disappointed. Finally, there has an incident to make him realize why the British family loves doing those activities.There are two main characters: Paulo and Nick. The characteristics of Paulo are stubborn, grumbling and pessimistic while Nick is easy going and a nature lover. Paulo who was an Italian School student had to spend his summer with the Fowler family in England. Paulo enjoyed the city life just in the first week but after that time he found it miserable to join with the family trip to the Peak District and activities that the Fowler planned to do like going walking and bird watching. Moreover, he felt disappointed his friend’s behavior, Nick Fowler, that it was not the same as if Nick became a different person.One morning, Paulo walked alone into the hills without unawareness of the danger. Getting lost into the mi st, he almost stepped off a cliff but fortunately; Nick could help him in time. Finally, the incident brought them closer together. The language and style that author usually uses is common words and informal language. So it is easy to understand. Moreover, the author always describes the story with lots of adjectives and adverbs that make us easily imagine the pictures along with the story. The language device that author usually uses is the metaphor. It also compares two things.You can see two examples in the story: it was like being inside a cloud and you’d look like a sheep. Moreover, author also uses hyperbole as one of the language devices. From the story â€Å"The clothes, for a start, would make them laugh till they were sick†, you can see that it is impossible for someone laughing until he or she is ill. It is the technique to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but not meant to be taken literally. What I have learnt from this story is that we should adapt ourselves to the new environment. Try to learn the new activities in our leisure time of another society.And you will find sometimes the differences are not worse like you think. For example, Paulo whose family, his friends and people in Italy love spending their summer swimming, playing football and sunbathing on the beach, while the Fowler family enjoys spending their holidays living with the nature in the countryside. British family is quite the nature lover. They like looking at many kinds of birds through binoculars, walking up to a hill, sleeping in a tent. Especially, for British family to use guidebooks and maps makes Paulo surprised. It seems that people in Italy do not take an interest in a map.At last, Paulo understood why his friend, Nick, loves coming to the Peak District after he had seen a goshawk flying over his head. The story we dislike the most is ‘Don’t Miss the Mozart’ because the way Melanie solved her problem by abducting t he pianist instead of accepting he mistake is unreasonable and desperate, so we think the story should not end like this. On the other hand, our favorite story is ‘Sweetie’ because this story usually happens in daily life and in every culture. This story also reflects the college society that students have to deal with many problems.Besides the consequence of Nikki’s behavior is what she deserves. There are many reading strategies we have learned from the class can apply to this reading of narrative text. The first technique is to guess meaning from the context. From the entire stories we have read, we barely look up the word in the dictionary for. We usually try to guess the meaning from the context first. Using note-taking technique while reading is so utile that when we want to get the important detail, we can abruptly recall knowledge from the note we take before.Moreover, making an inference is one we usually use to get the implied meaning of something. It i s a crucial skill that must be mastered for us to have real comprehension. When we recall prior experiences that are similar to what we are reading, it helps us much to get the valuable lessons of each chapters. In conclusion, the stories from the fifth chapter to the last chapter reveal us the culture, the ways of life, people attitude, and the media in the United Kingdom’s society including personal thought, opportunity, and problem, media effects, and social adaptation.Because of the easy language, we can enjoy the stories and imagine along with when reading. Moreover, these stories are the common situations that can occur in everyday lives but can be the social problems by not paying attention. Finally, all the valuable lessons in every chapter reflect every aspect of people’s lives and can be applied in our daily lives. Chadaratch Kalyasiri 5311100265 Yanisa Treerat 5311100290 Tharin Rienjongdee 5311100338 Puttamas Limchaisawat 5311100443