Hamlet Madness Essays (715 words) - Characters In Hamlet

Hamlet Madness Hamlet is mad, feigns madness or his pretense turns into real madness. Outline arguments for all three and discuss. 1.Hamlet begins with guards whose main importance in the play is to give credibility to the ghost. If Hamlet were to see his father's ghost in private, the argument for his madness would greatly improve. Yet, not one, but three men together witness the ghost before even thinking to notify Hamlet. As Horatio says, being the only of the guards to play a significant role in the rest of the play, "Before my God, I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes. (I.i.56-8)" Horatio, who appears frequently throughout the play, acts as an unquestionably sane alibi to Hamlet again when framing the King with his reaction to the play. That Hamlet speaks to the ghost alone detracts somewhat from its credibility, but all the men are witness to the ghost demanding they speak alone. Horatio offers an insightful warning: What if it tempts you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason, And draw you into madness? Think of it. (I.iv.69-74) Horatio's comment may be where Hamlet gets the idea to use a plea of insanity to work out his plan. The important fact is that the ghost does not change form, but rather remains as the King and speaks to Hamlet rationally. There is also good reason for the ghost not to want the guards to know what he tells Hamlet, as the play could not proceed as it does if the guards were to hear what Hamlet did. It is the ghost of Hamlet's father who tells him, "but howsomever thou pursues this act, / Taint not thy mind. (I.v.84-5)" Later, when Hamlet sees the ghost again in his mothers room, her amazement at his madness is quite convincing. Yet one must take into consideration the careful planning of the ghost's credibility earlier in the play. After his first meeting with the ghost, Hamlet greets his friends cheerfully and acts as if the news is good rather than the devastation it really is. Horatio: What news, my lord? Hamlet: O, wonderful! Horatio: Good my lord, tell it. Hamlet: No, you will reveal it. (I.v.118-21) This is the first glimpse of Hamlet's ability and inclination to manipulate his behavior to achieve effect. Clearly Hamlet is not feeling cheerful at this moment, but if he lets the guards know the severity of the news, they might suspect its nature. Another instance of Hamlet's behavior manipulation is his meeting with Ophelia while his uncle and Polonius are hiding behind a curtain. Hamlet's affection for Ophelia has already been established in I.iii., and his complete rejection of her and what has transpired between them is clearly a hoax. Hamlet somehow suspects the eavesdroppers, just as he guesses that Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are sent by the King and Queen to question him and investigate the cause of his supposed madness in II.ii. Hamlet's actions in the play after meeting the ghost lead everyone except Horatio to believe he is crazy, yet that madness is continuously checked by an ever-present consciousness of action which never lets him lose control. For example, Hamlet questions his conduct in his soliloquy at the end of II.ii, but after careful consideration decides to go with his instinct and prove to himself without a doubt the King's guilt before proceeding rashly. Even after the King's guilt is proven with Horatio as witness, Hamlet again reflects and uses his better judgement in the soliloquy at the end of III.ii. before seeing his mother. He recognizes his passionate feelings, but tells himself to "speak daggers to her, but use none," as his father's ghost instructed. Again, when in the King's chamber, Hamlet could perform the murder, but decides not to in his better judgement to ensure that he doesn't go to heaven by dying while praying. As Hamlet tells Guildenstern in II.ii., "I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw." This statement reveals out-right Hamlet's intent to fool people with his odd behavior. This is after Polonius' enlightened comment earlier in the same scene, "though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

How to Plan a Marketing Calendar That Actually Works (Free Template)

How to Plan a Marketing Calendar That Actually Works (Free Template) Im going to be blunt. A lot of marketing calendars are really tough to use simply because they arent designed to be marketing calendar tools. And that makes it really tough to plan a marketing calendar that actually works: PDFs: Printing a free editorial calendar template like this one from   is  a great way to start  your  planning- to get the brainstorming going. From here, youll likely want a digital version thats a bit easier to update with your constant changes. Excel: Heres a free marketing calendar template from Content Marketing Institute to get you started on a digital version. But its a bit difficult to get  your team to use it when you have it locked all day as you plan. :/ Google Docs:  A spreadsheet in Google Docs/Sheets like this marketing calendar template from Crackerjack Marketing will help you solve the locking problem youd experience with Excel. This still doesnt feel like a marketing calendar, though, without a visual way to see your upcoming projects. Google Calendar:  You could also build a marketing calendar in Google Calendar. The thing is If youve followed our  advice on social media calendars, you  may schedule 30 or more social messages throughout the following weeks and months to share a single blog post  with your audience. Im sure you cant imagine copying and pasting all of those from Google Calendar into your different social networks- what a time suck! Not to mention copying and pasting all of your other content, too So What Will Help You Plan An Awesome Marketing Calendar? So where am I going with all of this? Ive read dozens of other posts on marketing calendars, editorial calendars, content marketing calendars, social media calendars- you get the picture. And I checked out  a  monster list of marketing calendar templates in a post on Crazy Eggs blog. There are tons of folks who have really good ideas of what  to include in your calendar, and starting with a template to get your brainstorming underway is a solid way to begin. So heres how to plan a marketing calendar that really works- with a few tips from us at , and a lot more from the other rock stars out there. How To Plan A #MarketingCalendar That Actually WorksStart With This Guide + Marketing Calendar Template, And Then You might just need a guide and a little something to  write on while you read this post. Ive got your back. Download the free guide that will help you implement all of this advice with actionable, step-by-step information. Youll also get a  free marketing calendar template  (plus bonus social + email marketing calendars) to help you plan all your content in advance. And when you're ready to use a tool designed to be your marketing calendar,  get started with 14 free days of . Now let's get to the good stuff. Step #1: Turn Your Marketing Strategy Into Real Content You'll Create Maybe writing a  30-page marketing strategy  isn't as important as  planning real content. It sounds harsh, but hear me out: For startups, business plans are no longer normal. In fact, they're now considered a faux pas and seen as a mere â€Å"business guess.† But that wasn’t always the case.  Before the lean startup, the business plan was a document that assumed we knew everything there was to know about our business, a plan set in stone. It was done, or so we thought. In reality, it was just a big huge guess.   Marketing plans and gigantic old strategy documents aren’t much different. They may sound novel and responsible, but the reality is that they are just guesses, too. What could content marketing strategy builders learn from the lean startup model? For a startup, business plans are no longer normal. @garrett_moonThe more time you spend strategizing, the less time you spend creating real content that will influence sales (which, let's face it, is the entire reason to plan your marketing calendar). Whether you have a marketing strategy already  or not, there are just a few things you need in your strategy to help you validate  what content to create: The now-infamous: Know your audience. This could start as simple as a customer survey, then possibly just bullet points you add into an Evernote note that help you stay in touch with your customers'  changing needs. The main point here is this: Keep it simple, especially at first. Create content. Content is data, and you get to know your customers  by creating content and measuring its impact. There's no way you will know everything about your audience until you put something out there, start communicating with them, and get their feedback. Start small. If you're thinking about doing an hourlong video or an e-book first, think again. Could you release a chapter of an e-book first to gauge its performance before you spend more time developing content on that topic? Could the same go for your monster video? If content is data, plan minimum viable content on your marketing calendar first to feel out what will truly "move the needle." (I had to sneak in a quip  like that since we're talking strategy!) That really looks like this: From here, turn your strategy into content. And  use the data from what you create to plan more: Create your content. Share it with your audience. Measure what's working. Learn what to create and where to share. Plan more content like your best-performing projects. Recommended Reading:  Here’s Why You Don’t Need A â€Å"Content Marketing Strategy† So now that you have a minimum viable marketing strategy to get started, the next step is looping in who'll help you create that content. This will help you define expectations for everyone- even if it's really only you as an all-in-one marketing team. To Do: Brainstorm  every question your audience has about your niche from knowing nothing to being an expert. From there, strategize the best forms of content  you'll use to answer their questions. This will serve as the foundation for your marketing calendar. I’d rather have a first-rate execution and second-rate strategy any time than a brilliant idea and mediocre management. - Jamie Dimon Step #2: Understand Who'll Do What Ann Handley has an awesome idea when it comes to who should be involved in your editorial flow, and thus, have access to your marketing calendar to understand when pieces will publish: A Simple Content Marketing Org Chart from Ann Handley She  says: These are roles not staff positions. Each role might be filled by one person or perhaps by a dozen, depending on the size and complexity of your own organization. Let's take a look at those roles quick: Team lead, or your strategist Editorial director Designers Content creators Curator Syndicator Analytics expert Site manager That's a pretty good list. And while that list works for Ann, it might not for you. For a small team, you  can narrow that list of roles down even further: Team lead who helps with planning, editing, publishing, and distributing Writer who turns a content idea into something your audience will love Designer (or videographer, podcaster, etc.) who takes  the writer's creation  to the next level Essentially, these folks are the ones who'll help you plan, create, and share the content  according to your marketing strategy. Get everyone on the same page now to make actually producing content a lot easier down the road. To Do: Narrow down the roles you need to create the different content types you explored in step #1. Brainstorm  who'll help you complete those projects (you're looking for names here). Get everyone on the same page to understand about how much content you can publish in a normal week. Find a marketing calendar tool that helps with project management, communication, and workflow that everyone will use. Now it's time work that marketing calendar:  Plan what topics you'll cover. Step #3: Define Your Topic Themes John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing plans out his marketing calendar based on themes. The themes help him look at a calendar that connects with topics  he wants to cover for his audience. Note that this isn't actual content yet- it's just a note of the topics he'd like to address in his content: The first step is to start making a list of your most important themes. I generally try to find three core themes and about nine supplemental themes. (Nice tidy 12 monthly themes.) Your core themes are the kinds of things that might be found on your homepage or even in the title attribute of your home page. Or, perhaps the main navigational elements of your site. While it scares me to plan 12 months ahead  because the data from your current content should help you plan new content,  this is an awesome way to plan strategically (and super efficiently) and keep your content on point. John shares exactly how he chooses themes: Start with brainstorming. Lock yourself away and start thinking about the kinds of things people ask about the most, where you make your most money, or where you see the greatest opportunities in your industry. This is often enough to create a good start to your list. Obviously, if you have a team, get them involved – they may actually know better than you. (Industry jargon that means nothing to the prospect must be left out here.) John mentions this is a nice way to get past staring at a blank marketing calendar without any clue of what content to add to it. I also love that about themes. To Do: Find the main themes from your list of customer questions in step #1. Define their biggest challenges, the areas of opportunity in your industry, and how you make the most money. Choose themes to flesh out your marketing calendar. You may want to plan a month ahead, a quarter, or the entire year.  It's whatever works for you. Personally, I'd choose weekly themes to repeat over the course of months to have tangible data as evidence to plan more content around a theme or less. This way, you'd avoid planning lots of content around a theme for an entire month without knowing if that theme is a dud. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for your entire team to see. Remember, themes aren't content; themes direct the content your team will create. Step #4: Prioritize  Your Marketing Projects Marcus Sheridan from  The Sales Lion has a simple solution to help you plan your marketing calendar based on projects that will have the biggest impact on your business. He addresses prioritizing your marketing calendar  very simply: Remember, content marketing is about generating more sales. When all is said and done, that’s what matters. He suggests  prioritizing more "Buyer's Content" instead of so much top of the funnel, inbound content. By understanding this, the aim is  to plan content on your marketing calendar that will help prospects make purchase decisions instead of purely focusing on content that's great for the top of the funnel but just generating traffic. The team at The Sales Lion even have a  simple  algorithm they use to prioritize their projects that you can use, too: Essentially, we have every client rate their planned content (be it blog titles, videos, etc.) on a scale of 1-3. A â€Å"3† score means it’s â€Å"Buyer’s Content† and therefore marked as most urgent- moving it to the top of the calendar. If it’s a â€Å"1† grade, then we’ll wait to produce this content because it’s either a top of funnel question that a buyer may be asking or even an â€Å"outside of the funnel† question/subject- meaning that although it may be relevant to the business and buyer, it doesn’t necessarily represent someone who is seriously considering making a purchase right now. From here, you can plan a balance of content focused on selling and content focused on inspiring interest in your business on your marketing calendar. To-Do: For each theme, brainstorm content you could create for that topic. Don't limit yourself at first: When you think of an idea, write it down quickly and move to the next. For those content ideas, use Marcus' algorithm to rank them with good, better, best: 1 means inbound, 3  means looking to buy. Use your best judgement to rank these just to get started. Sift through the  content ideas for every  theme. Sort them according to 3, 2, 1 to prepare a prioritized list that you'll add to your marketing calendar. And when you start planning actual pieces of content on your calendar, there are a few things to keep in mind: Step #5: Plan Your Content On Your Marketing Calendar This is the fun part! And there are many ways to do this: The Best 2018 Content Calendar Template to Get Organized All Year 2018 Social Media Content Calendar: How to Organize a Year of Posts the Easy Way 5 Lessons From The Forbes Editorial Calendar That Will Make You Better At Blog Planning How To Use A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar To Save A Ton Of Time Seven Content Calendar Examples From Awesome Brands to Inspire Your Own While editorial  calendars work particularly well for managing blogs, you can use them to organize all of your marketing. So I wanted to know how the other pros out there plan more than just blog and social media content, but a true all-in-one marketing calendar that you can also do with . Here's what they had to say: Plan Actual Pieces Of Content To Target Specific Keywords Your Audience Uses You used Marcus' algorithm to prioritize your projects, so let's make those into actual pieces of content on your calendar. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had some more solid advice on planning projects as content: Now take that list to the Google Keyword Planner and see if you can find themes that have significant volume. You must balance key terms with being too generic though. A term like â€Å"marketing† wouldn’t make sense as a theme, even for a marketing consultant, but a term like â€Å"referral marketing tactics† might. To summarize: While all of your content may be connected to a theme, choose a keyword for every single piece of content you'll publish. These may be keywords all related to the same topic, but unique enough to help you connect your different content to the terms your audience is searching for. To Do: Read this: SEO Content Strategy: How to Skyrocket Your Traffic By 594%. Select a core  keyword for every single piece of content (and related keywords)  that will publish on the magical interwebs. Then add the keywords into  your projects on your marketing calendar according to the priority you defined through Marcus' scoring  exercise. Plan Content For A Week, Month, Or Year Out Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing Institute has a lot of insight on  the content marketing process, and marketing calendars are a huge element of successful strategies turning into real content: One thing is certain: if you don’t keep an editorial/content calendar, the content doesn’t get done. - Joe Pulizzi Joe breaks it down into such a simple idea: An editorial calendar simply tracks what content you are going to cover, what tactic it’s for (blog, newsletter, etc.) and who’s responsible. [...] Best practice is to set up a master calendar for all your content initiatives, and then a separate content calendar for each initiative. Traditionally, we’ve set up editorial calendars 12 months out and then constantly change them as we tweak the marketing plan. The good news is that your themes are the year calendar, and now you're ready to plan real projects for each "initiative", as Joe calls them. So let's recap everything  you just learned, and use Joe's advice to get your projects on your marketing calendar. To Do: At this point, you have a marketing calendar with themes outlining the topics you'll cover every single month. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for the entire year (and take seasonality into account, too, for big holidays or events in your industry). You  got the entire team on board to understand their roles. Now it's time to understand how much content you can actually produce in a given week or month. Sit down with the team to plan your publishing frequency,  taking into consideration all of the  marketing projects you'll complete. You have a list of prioritized projects to complete. Now that you know how much you can complete, and the entire team is on board, plan an achievable amount of projects.  It's not worth stressing yourself out with an unrealistic amount of projects to complete. Actually Create The Content I couldn't say this better than Rebecca Lieb from (who's brilliant, by the way, and worth following) on combining your marketing calendar with a content production  process: Many editorial calendars also incorporate the production process into the mix, which is a great way to ensure content creation is on track. This can include who’s responsible for individual content elements, the due date of a first draft, who conducts the copyedit, and a date (often, with a specific time) for receiving and proofing the final draft, entering it into the CMS system (or newsletter template, or blog platform), and when it will be pushed live, or published. Where Rebecca started, Jodi Harris from Content Marketing Institute provides a  few more details to help you set up your marketing calendar: The date the piece of content will be published The topic or headline of the content piece The author of the content The owner of the content – i.e., who is in charge of making sure the content makes it from ideation to publication and promotion The current status of the content (updated as it moves through your publishing cycle) Jodi continues with a few more items to include: The channels where your content will be published: This can include only your owned channels (such as your blog, Facebook Page, website, YouTube page, email newsletters, etc.), or you can expand your tracking to include paid and earned channels, as well. Content formats: Is it a blog post? A video? A podcast? An infographic? An original image? To get more mileage from the content you create, you might want to consider repurposing it into other formats at some point. So it’s handy to keep tabs on the types of assets you have on hand right from the start. Visuals: Speaking of assets, it’s important that you don’t overlook the appeal that visuals can lend to your content, both in terms of social sharing potential and overall brand recognition. Tracking the visual elements you include in your content efforts – such as cover images, logos, illustrations, charts – will make it easier to ensure that your work has a signature look and cohesive brand identity. Topic categories: This helps make your calendars more searchable when you are looking to see about which target topics you already created a lot of content – or which you haven’t covered often enough. Keywords and other meta-data, such as meta-descriptions and SEO titles (if they differ from your headlines), which will help you keep your SEO efforts aligned with your content creation. URLs: This info can be archived as an easy way to keep your online content audits updated, or to link to older pieces of content in the new content you create. Calls to action: This helps you ensure that every piece of content you create is aligning with your company’s marketing goals. So it makes sense to simply include all of this advice  right  in your marketing  calendar as you create it. Here's how:All the actionable advice in this post will work with any format your marketing calendar takes. It's just that is actually designed to be your all-in-one marketing calendar, and helps you do all of this way more efficiently. What would your marketing  look like if you could manage all of this in one tool? Are you ready to get started? How to Plan a Marketing Calendar That Actually Works (Free Template) Im going to be blunt. A lot of marketing calendars are really tough to use simply because they arent designed to be marketing calendar tools. And that makes it really tough to plan a marketing calendar that actually works: PDFs: Printing a free editorial calendar template like this one from   is  a great way to start  your  planning- to get the brainstorming going. From here, youll likely want a digital version thats a bit easier to update with your constant changes. Excel: Heres a free marketing calendar template from Content Marketing Institute to get you started on a digital version. But its a bit difficult to get  your team to use it when you have it locked all day as you plan. :/ Google Docs:  A spreadsheet in Google Docs/Sheets like this marketing calendar template from Crackerjack Marketing will help you solve the locking problem youd experience with Excel. This still doesnt feel like a marketing calendar, though, without a visual way to see your upcoming projects. Google Calendar:  You could also build a marketing calendar in Google Calendar. The thing is If youve followed our  advice on social media calendars, you  may schedule 30 or more social messages throughout the following weeks and months to share a single blog post  with your audience. Im sure you cant imagine copying and pasting all of those from Google Calendar into your different social networks- what a time suck! Not to mention copying and pasting all of your other content, too So What Will Help You Plan An Awesome Marketing Calendar? So where am I going with all of this? Ive read dozens of other posts on marketing calendars, editorial calendars, content marketing calendars, social media calendars- you get the picture. And I checked out  a  monster list of marketing calendar templates in a post on Crazy Eggs blog. There are tons of folks who have really good ideas of what  to include in your calendar, and starting with a template to get your brainstorming underway is a solid way to begin. So heres how to plan a marketing calendar that really works- with a few tips from us at , and a lot more from the other rock stars out there. How To Plan A #MarketingCalendar That Actually WorksStart With This Guide + Marketing Calendar Template, And Then You might just need a guide and a little something to  write on while you read this post. Ive got your back. Download the free guide that will help you implement all of this advice with actionable, step-by-step information. Youll also get a  free marketing calendar template  (plus bonus social + email marketing calendars) to help you plan all your content in advance. And when you're ready to use a tool designed to be your marketing calendar,  get started with 14 free days of . Now let's get to the good stuff. Step #1: Turn Your Marketing Strategy Into Real Content You'll Create Maybe writing a  30-page marketing strategy  isn't as important as  planning real content. It sounds harsh, but hear me out: For startups, business plans are no longer normal. In fact, they're now considered a faux pas and seen as a mere â€Å"business guess.† But that wasn’t always the case.  Before the lean startup, the business plan was a document that assumed we knew everything there was to know about our business, a plan set in stone. It was done, or so we thought. In reality, it was just a big huge guess.   Marketing plans and gigantic old strategy documents aren’t much different. They may sound novel and responsible, but the reality is that they are just guesses, too. What could content marketing strategy builders learn from the lean startup model? For a startup, business plans are no longer normal. @garrett_moonThe more time you spend strategizing, the less time you spend creating real content that will influence sales (which, let's face it, is the entire reason to plan your marketing calendar). Whether you have a marketing strategy already  or not, there are just a few things you need in your strategy to help you validate  what content to create: The now-infamous: Know your audience. This could start as simple as a customer survey, then possibly just bullet points you add into an Evernote note that help you stay in touch with your customers'  changing needs. The main point here is this: Keep it simple, especially at first. Create content. Content is data, and you get to know your customers  by creating content and measuring its impact. There's no way you will know everything about your audience until you put something out there, start communicating with them, and get their feedback. Start small. If you're thinking about doing an hourlong video or an e-book first, think again. Could you release a chapter of an e-book first to gauge its performance before you spend more time developing content on that topic? Could the same go for your monster video? If content is data, plan minimum viable content on your marketing calendar first to feel out what will truly "move the needle." (I had to sneak in a quip  like that since we're talking strategy!) That really looks like this: From here, turn your strategy into content. And  use the data from what you create to plan more: Create your content. Share it with your audience. Measure what's working. Learn what to create and where to share. Plan more content like your best-performing projects. Recommended Reading:  Here’s Why You Don’t Need A â€Å"Content Marketing Strategy† So now that you have a minimum viable marketing strategy to get started, the next step is looping in who'll help you create that content. This will help you define expectations for everyone- even if it's really only you as an all-in-one marketing team. To Do: Brainstorm  every question your audience has about your niche from knowing nothing to being an expert. From there, strategize the best forms of content  you'll use to answer their questions. This will serve as the foundation for your marketing calendar. I’d rather have a first-rate execution and second-rate strategy any time than a brilliant idea and mediocre management. - Jamie Dimon Step #2: Understand Who'll Do What Ann Handley has an awesome idea when it comes to who should be involved in your editorial flow, and thus, have access to your marketing calendar to understand when pieces will publish: A Simple Content Marketing Org Chart from Ann Handley She  says: These are roles not staff positions. Each role might be filled by one person or perhaps by a dozen, depending on the size and complexity of your own organization. Let's take a look at those roles quick: Team lead, or your strategist Editorial director Designers Content creators Curator Syndicator Analytics expert Site manager That's a pretty good list. And while that list works for Ann, it might not for you. For a small team, you  can narrow that list of roles down even further: Team lead who helps with planning, editing, publishing, and distributing Writer who turns a content idea into something your audience will love Designer (or videographer, podcaster, etc.) who takes  the writer's creation  to the next level Essentially, these folks are the ones who'll help you plan, create, and share the content  according to your marketing strategy. Get everyone on the same page now to make actually producing content a lot easier down the road. To Do: Narrow down the roles you need to create the different content types you explored in step #1. Brainstorm  who'll help you complete those projects (you're looking for names here). Get everyone on the same page to understand about how much content you can publish in a normal week. Find a marketing calendar tool that helps with project management, communication, and workflow that everyone will use. Now it's time work that marketing calendar:  Plan what topics you'll cover. Step #3: Define Your Topic Themes John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing plans out his marketing calendar based on themes. The themes help him look at a calendar that connects with topics  he wants to cover for his audience. Note that this isn't actual content yet- it's just a note of the topics he'd like to address in his content: The first step is to start making a list of your most important themes. I generally try to find three core themes and about nine supplemental themes. (Nice tidy 12 monthly themes.) Your core themes are the kinds of things that might be found on your homepage or even in the title attribute of your home page. Or, perhaps the main navigational elements of your site. While it scares me to plan 12 months ahead  because the data from your current content should help you plan new content,  this is an awesome way to plan strategically (and super efficiently) and keep your content on point. John shares exactly how he chooses themes: Start with brainstorming. Lock yourself away and start thinking about the kinds of things people ask about the most, where you make your most money, or where you see the greatest opportunities in your industry. This is often enough to create a good start to your list. Obviously, if you have a team, get them involved – they may actually know better than you. (Industry jargon that means nothing to the prospect must be left out here.) John mentions this is a nice way to get past staring at a blank marketing calendar without any clue of what content to add to it. I also love that about themes. To Do: Find the main themes from your list of customer questions in step #1. Define their biggest challenges, the areas of opportunity in your industry, and how you make the most money. Choose themes to flesh out your marketing calendar. You may want to plan a month ahead, a quarter, or the entire year.  It's whatever works for you. Personally, I'd choose weekly themes to repeat over the course of months to have tangible data as evidence to plan more content around a theme or less. This way, you'd avoid planning lots of content around a theme for an entire month without knowing if that theme is a dud. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for your entire team to see. Remember, themes aren't content; themes direct the content your team will create. Step #4: Prioritize  Your Marketing Projects Marcus Sheridan from  The Sales Lion has a simple solution to help you plan your marketing calendar based on projects that will have the biggest impact on your business. He addresses prioritizing your marketing calendar  very simply: Remember, content marketing is about generating more sales. When all is said and done, that’s what matters. He suggests  prioritizing more "Buyer's Content" instead of so much top of the funnel, inbound content. By understanding this, the aim is  to plan content on your marketing calendar that will help prospects make purchase decisions instead of purely focusing on content that's great for the top of the funnel but just generating traffic. The team at The Sales Lion even have a  simple  algorithm they use to prioritize their projects that you can use, too: Essentially, we have every client rate their planned content (be it blog titles, videos, etc.) on a scale of 1-3. A â€Å"3† score means it’s â€Å"Buyer’s Content† and therefore marked as most urgent- moving it to the top of the calendar. If it’s a â€Å"1† grade, then we’ll wait to produce this content because it’s either a top of funnel question that a buyer may be asking or even an â€Å"outside of the funnel† question/subject- meaning that although it may be relevant to the business and buyer, it doesn’t necessarily represent someone who is seriously considering making a purchase right now. From here, you can plan a balance of content focused on selling and content focused on inspiring interest in your business on your marketing calendar. To-Do: For each theme, brainstorm content you could create for that topic. Don't limit yourself at first: When you think of an idea, write it down quickly and move to the next. For those content ideas, use Marcus' algorithm to rank them with good, better, best: 1 means inbound, 3  means looking to buy. Use your best judgement to rank these just to get started. Sift through the  content ideas for every  theme. Sort them according to 3, 2, 1 to prepare a prioritized list that you'll add to your marketing calendar. And when you start planning actual pieces of content on your calendar, there are a few things to keep in mind: Step #5: Plan Your Content On Your Marketing Calendar This is the fun part! And there are many ways to do this: The Best 2018 Content Calendar Template to Get Organized All Year 2018 Social Media Content Calendar: How to Organize a Year of Posts the Easy Way 5 Lessons From The Forbes Editorial Calendar That Will Make You Better At Blog Planning How To Use A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar To Save A Ton Of Time Seven Content Calendar Examples From Awesome Brands to Inspire Your Own While editorial  calendars work particularly well for managing blogs, you can use them to organize all of your marketing. So I wanted to know how the other pros out there plan more than just blog and social media content, but a true all-in-one marketing calendar that you can also do with . Here's what they had to say: Plan Actual Pieces Of Content To Target Specific Keywords Your Audience Uses You used Marcus' algorithm to prioritize your projects, so let's make those into actual pieces of content on your calendar. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had some more solid advice on planning projects as content: Now take that list to the Google Keyword Planner and see if you can find themes that have significant volume. You must balance key terms with being too generic though. A term like â€Å"marketing† wouldn’t make sense as a theme, even for a marketing consultant, but a term like â€Å"referral marketing tactics† might. To summarize: While all of your content may be connected to a theme, choose a keyword for every single piece of content you'll publish. These may be keywords all related to the same topic, but unique enough to help you connect your different content to the terms your audience is searching for. To Do: Read this: SEO Content Strategy: How to Skyrocket Your Traffic By 594%. Select a core  keyword for every single piece of content (and related keywords)  that will publish on the magical interwebs. Then add the keywords into  your projects on your marketing calendar according to the priority you defined through Marcus' scoring  exercise. Plan Content For A Week, Month, Or Year Out Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing Institute has a lot of insight on  the content marketing process, and marketing calendars are a huge element of successful strategies turning into real content: One thing is certain: if you don’t keep an editorial/content calendar, the content doesn’t get done. - Joe Pulizzi Joe breaks it down into such a simple idea: An editorial calendar simply tracks what content you are going to cover, what tactic it’s for (blog, newsletter, etc.) and who’s responsible. [...] Best practice is to set up a master calendar for all your content initiatives, and then a separate content calendar for each initiative. Traditionally, we’ve set up editorial calendars 12 months out and then constantly change them as we tweak the marketing plan. The good news is that your themes are the year calendar, and now you're ready to plan real projects for each "initiative", as Joe calls them. So let's recap everything  you just learned, and use Joe's advice to get your projects on your marketing calendar. To Do: At this point, you have a marketing calendar with themes outlining the topics you'll cover every single month. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for the entire year (and take seasonality into account, too, for big holidays or events in your industry). You  got the entire team on board to understand their roles. Now it's time to understand how much content you can actually produce in a given week or month. Sit down with the team to plan your publishing frequency,  taking into consideration all of the  marketing projects you'll complete. You have a list of prioritized projects to complete. Now that you know how much you can complete, and the entire team is on board, plan an achievable amount of projects.  It's not worth stressing yourself out with an unrealistic amount of projects to complete. Actually Create The Content I couldn't say this better than Rebecca Lieb from (who's brilliant, by the way, and worth following) on combining your marketing calendar with a content production  process: Many editorial calendars also incorporate the production process into the mix, which is a great way to ensure content creation is on track. This can include who’s responsible for individual content elements, the due date of a first draft, who conducts the copyedit, and a date (often, with a specific time) for receiving and proofing the final draft, entering it into the CMS system (or newsletter template, or blog platform), and when it will be pushed live, or published. Where Rebecca started, Jodi Harris from Content Marketing Institute provides a  few more details to help you set up your marketing calendar: The date the piece of content will be published The topic or headline of the content piece The author of the content The owner of the content – i.e., who is in charge of making sure the content makes it from ideation to publication and promotion The current status of the content (updated as it moves through your publishing cycle) Jodi continues with a few more items to include: The channels where your content will be published: This can include only your owned channels (such as your blog, Facebook Page, website, YouTube page, email newsletters, etc.), or you can expand your tracking to include paid and earned channels, as well. Content formats: Is it a blog post? A video? A podcast? An infographic? An original image? To get more mileage from the content you create, you might want to consider repurposing it into other formats at some point. So it’s handy to keep tabs on the types of assets you have on hand right from the start. Visuals: Speaking of assets, it’s important that you don’t overlook the appeal that visuals can lend to your content, both in terms of social sharing potential and overall brand recognition. Tracking the visual elements you include in your content efforts – such as cover images, logos, illustrations, charts – will make it easier to ensure that your work has a signature look and cohesive brand identity. Topic categories: This helps make your calendars more searchable when you are looking to see about which target topics you already created a lot of content – or which you haven’t covered often enough. Keywords and other meta-data, such as meta-descriptions and SEO titles (if they differ from your headlines), which will help you keep your SEO efforts aligned with your content creation. URLs: This info can be archived as an easy way to keep your online content audits updated, or to link to older pieces of content in the new content you create. Calls to action: This helps you ensure that every piece of content you create is aligning with your company’s marketing goals. So it makes sense to simply include all of this advice  right  in your marketing  calendar as you create it. Here's how:All the actionable advice in this post will work with any format your marketing calendar takes. It's just that is actually designed to be your all-in-one marketing calendar, and helps you do all of this way more efficiently. What would your marketing  look like if you could manage all of this in one tool? Are you ready to get started? How to Plan a Marketing Calendar That Actually Works (Free Template) Im going to be blunt. A lot of marketing calendars are really tough to use simply because they arent designed to be marketing calendar tools. And that makes it really tough to plan a marketing calendar that actually works: PDFs: Printing a free editorial calendar template like this one from   is  a great way to start  your  planning- to get the brainstorming going. From here, youll likely want a digital version thats a bit easier to update with your constant changes. Excel: Heres a free marketing calendar template from Content Marketing Institute to get you started on a digital version. But its a bit difficult to get  your team to use it when you have it locked all day as you plan. :/ Google Docs:  A spreadsheet in Google Docs/Sheets like this marketing calendar template from Crackerjack Marketing will help you solve the locking problem youd experience with Excel. This still doesnt feel like a marketing calendar, though, without a visual way to see your upcoming projects. Google Calendar:  You could also build a marketing calendar in Google Calendar. The thing is If youve followed our  advice on social media calendars, you  may schedule 30 or more social messages throughout the following weeks and months to share a single blog post  with your audience. Im sure you cant imagine copying and pasting all of those from Google Calendar into your different social networks- what a time suck! Not to mention copying and pasting all of your other content, too So What Will Help You Plan An Awesome Marketing Calendar? So where am I going with all of this? Ive read dozens of other posts on marketing calendars, editorial calendars, content marketing calendars, social media calendars- you get the picture. And I checked out  a  monster list of marketing calendar templates in a post on Crazy Eggs blog. There are tons of folks who have really good ideas of what  to include in your calendar, and starting with a template to get your brainstorming underway is a solid way to begin. So heres how to plan a marketing calendar that really works- with a few tips from us at , and a lot more from the other rock stars out there. How To Plan A #MarketingCalendar That Actually WorksStart With This Guide + Marketing Calendar Template, And Then You might just need a guide and a little something to  write on while you read this post. Ive got your back. Download the free guide that will help you implement all of this advice with actionable, step-by-step information. Youll also get a  free marketing calendar template  (plus bonus social + email marketing calendars) to help you plan all your content in advance. And when you're ready to use a tool designed to be your marketing calendar,  get started with 14 free days of . Now let's get to the good stuff. Step #1: Turn Your Marketing Strategy Into Real Content You'll Create Maybe writing a  30-page marketing strategy  isn't as important as  planning real content. It sounds harsh, but hear me out: For startups, business plans are no longer normal. In fact, they're now considered a faux pas and seen as a mere â€Å"business guess.† But that wasn’t always the case.  Before the lean startup, the business plan was a document that assumed we knew everything there was to know about our business, a plan set in stone. It was done, or so we thought. In reality, it was just a big huge guess.   Marketing plans and gigantic old strategy documents aren’t much different. They may sound novel and responsible, but the reality is that they are just guesses, too. What could content marketing strategy builders learn from the lean startup model? For a startup, business plans are no longer normal. @garrett_moonThe more time you spend strategizing, the less time you spend creating real content that will influence sales (which, let's face it, is the entire reason to plan your marketing calendar). Whether you have a marketing strategy already  or not, there are just a few things you need in your strategy to help you validate  what content to create: The now-infamous: Know your audience. This could start as simple as a customer survey, then possibly just bullet points you add into an Evernote note that help you stay in touch with your customers'  changing needs. The main point here is this: Keep it simple, especially at first. Create content. Content is data, and you get to know your customers  by creating content and measuring its impact. There's no way you will know everything about your audience until you put something out there, start communicating with them, and get their feedback. Start small. If you're thinking about doing an hourlong video or an e-book first, think again. Could you release a chapter of an e-book first to gauge its performance before you spend more time developing content on that topic? Could the same go for your monster video? If content is data, plan minimum viable content on your marketing calendar first to feel out what will truly "move the needle." (I had to sneak in a quip  like that since we're talking strategy!) That really looks like this: From here, turn your strategy into content. And  use the data from what you create to plan more: Create your content. Share it with your audience. Measure what's working. Learn what to create and where to share. Plan more content like your best-performing projects. Recommended Reading:  Here’s Why You Don’t Need A â€Å"Content Marketing Strategy† So now that you have a minimum viable marketing strategy to get started, the next step is looping in who'll help you create that content. This will help you define expectations for everyone- even if it's really only you as an all-in-one marketing team. To Do: Brainstorm  every question your audience has about your niche from knowing nothing to being an expert. From there, strategize the best forms of content  you'll use to answer their questions. This will serve as the foundation for your marketing calendar. I’d rather have a first-rate execution and second-rate strategy any time than a brilliant idea and mediocre management. - Jamie Dimon Step #2: Understand Who'll Do What Ann Handley has an awesome idea when it comes to who should be involved in your editorial flow, and thus, have access to your marketing calendar to understand when pieces will publish: A Simple Content Marketing Org Chart from Ann Handley She  says: These are roles not staff positions. Each role might be filled by one person or perhaps by a dozen, depending on the size and complexity of your own organization. Let's take a look at those roles quick: Team lead, or your strategist Editorial director Designers Content creators Curator Syndicator Analytics expert Site manager That's a pretty good list. And while that list works for Ann, it might not for you. For a small team, you  can narrow that list of roles down even further: Team lead who helps with planning, editing, publishing, and distributing Writer who turns a content idea into something your audience will love Designer (or videographer, podcaster, etc.) who takes  the writer's creation  to the next level Essentially, these folks are the ones who'll help you plan, create, and share the content  according to your marketing strategy. Get everyone on the same page now to make actually producing content a lot easier down the road. To Do: Narrow down the roles you need to create the different content types you explored in step #1. Brainstorm  who'll help you complete those projects (you're looking for names here). Get everyone on the same page to understand about how much content you can publish in a normal week. Find a marketing calendar tool that helps with project management, communication, and workflow that everyone will use. Now it's time work that marketing calendar:  Plan what topics you'll cover. Step #3: Define Your Topic Themes John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing plans out his marketing calendar based on themes. The themes help him look at a calendar that connects with topics  he wants to cover for his audience. Note that this isn't actual content yet- it's just a note of the topics he'd like to address in his content: The first step is to start making a list of your most important themes. I generally try to find three core themes and about nine supplemental themes. (Nice tidy 12 monthly themes.) Your core themes are the kinds of things that might be found on your homepage or even in the title attribute of your home page. Or, perhaps the main navigational elements of your site. While it scares me to plan 12 months ahead  because the data from your current content should help you plan new content,  this is an awesome way to plan strategically (and super efficiently) and keep your content on point. John shares exactly how he chooses themes: Start with brainstorming. Lock yourself away and start thinking about the kinds of things people ask about the most, where you make your most money, or where you see the greatest opportunities in your industry. This is often enough to create a good start to your list. Obviously, if you have a team, get them involved – they may actually know better than you. (Industry jargon that means nothing to the prospect must be left out here.) John mentions this is a nice way to get past staring at a blank marketing calendar without any clue of what content to add to it. I also love that about themes. To Do: Find the main themes from your list of customer questions in step #1. Define their biggest challenges, the areas of opportunity in your industry, and how you make the most money. Choose themes to flesh out your marketing calendar. You may want to plan a month ahead, a quarter, or the entire year.  It's whatever works for you. Personally, I'd choose weekly themes to repeat over the course of months to have tangible data as evidence to plan more content around a theme or less. This way, you'd avoid planning lots of content around a theme for an entire month without knowing if that theme is a dud. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for your entire team to see. Remember, themes aren't content; themes direct the content your team will create. Step #4: Prioritize  Your Marketing Projects Marcus Sheridan from  The Sales Lion has a simple solution to help you plan your marketing calendar based on projects that will have the biggest impact on your business. He addresses prioritizing your marketing calendar  very simply: Remember, content marketing is about generating more sales. When all is said and done, that’s what matters. He suggests  prioritizing more "Buyer's Content" instead of so much top of the funnel, inbound content. By understanding this, the aim is  to plan content on your marketing calendar that will help prospects make purchase decisions instead of purely focusing on content that's great for the top of the funnel but just generating traffic. The team at The Sales Lion even have a  simple  algorithm they use to prioritize their projects that you can use, too: Essentially, we have every client rate their planned content (be it blog titles, videos, etc.) on a scale of 1-3. A â€Å"3† score means it’s â€Å"Buyer’s Content† and therefore marked as most urgent- moving it to the top of the calendar. If it’s a â€Å"1† grade, then we’ll wait to produce this content because it’s either a top of funnel question that a buyer may be asking or even an â€Å"outside of the funnel† question/subject- meaning that although it may be relevant to the business and buyer, it doesn’t necessarily represent someone who is seriously considering making a purchase right now. From here, you can plan a balance of content focused on selling and content focused on inspiring interest in your business on your marketing calendar. To-Do: For each theme, brainstorm content you could create for that topic. Don't limit yourself at first: When you think of an idea, write it down quickly and move to the next. For those content ideas, use Marcus' algorithm to rank them with good, better, best: 1 means inbound, 3  means looking to buy. Use your best judgement to rank these just to get started. Sift through the  content ideas for every  theme. Sort them according to 3, 2, 1 to prepare a prioritized list that you'll add to your marketing calendar. And when you start planning actual pieces of content on your calendar, there are a few things to keep in mind: Step #5: Plan Your Content On Your Marketing Calendar This is the fun part! And there are many ways to do this: The Best 2018 Content Calendar Template to Get Organized All Year 2018 Social Media Content Calendar: How to Organize a Year of Posts the Easy Way 5 Lessons From The Forbes Editorial Calendar That Will Make You Better At Blog Planning How To Use A Content Marketing Editorial Calendar To Save A Ton Of Time Seven Content Calendar Examples From Awesome Brands to Inspire Your Own While editorial  calendars work particularly well for managing blogs, you can use them to organize all of your marketing. So I wanted to know how the other pros out there plan more than just blog and social media content, but a true all-in-one marketing calendar that you can also do with . Here's what they had to say: Plan Actual Pieces Of Content To Target Specific Keywords Your Audience Uses You used Marcus' algorithm to prioritize your projects, so let's make those into actual pieces of content on your calendar. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing had some more solid advice on planning projects as content: Now take that list to the Google Keyword Planner and see if you can find themes that have significant volume. You must balance key terms with being too generic though. A term like â€Å"marketing† wouldn’t make sense as a theme, even for a marketing consultant, but a term like â€Å"referral marketing tactics† might. To summarize: While all of your content may be connected to a theme, choose a keyword for every single piece of content you'll publish. These may be keywords all related to the same topic, but unique enough to help you connect your different content to the terms your audience is searching for. To Do: Read this: SEO Content Strategy: How to Skyrocket Your Traffic By 594%. Select a core  keyword for every single piece of content (and related keywords)  that will publish on the magical interwebs. Then add the keywords into  your projects on your marketing calendar according to the priority you defined through Marcus' scoring  exercise. Plan Content For A Week, Month, Or Year Out Joe Pulizzi from Content Marketing Institute has a lot of insight on  the content marketing process, and marketing calendars are a huge element of successful strategies turning into real content: One thing is certain: if you don’t keep an editorial/content calendar, the content doesn’t get done. - Joe Pulizzi Joe breaks it down into such a simple idea: An editorial calendar simply tracks what content you are going to cover, what tactic it’s for (blog, newsletter, etc.) and who’s responsible. [...] Best practice is to set up a master calendar for all your content initiatives, and then a separate content calendar for each initiative. Traditionally, we’ve set up editorial calendars 12 months out and then constantly change them as we tweak the marketing plan. The good news is that your themes are the year calendar, and now you're ready to plan real projects for each "initiative", as Joe calls them. So let's recap everything  you just learned, and use Joe's advice to get your projects on your marketing calendar. To Do: At this point, you have a marketing calendar with themes outlining the topics you'll cover every single month. Plan those themes on your marketing calendar for the entire year (and take seasonality into account, too, for big holidays or events in your industry). You  got the entire team on board to understand their roles. Now it's time to understand how much content you can actually produce in a given week or month. Sit down with the team to plan your publishing frequency,  taking into consideration all of the  marketing projects you'll complete. You have a list of prioritized projects to complete. Now that you know how much you can complete, and the entire team is on board, plan an achievable amount of projects.  It's not worth stressing yourself out with an unrealistic amount of projects to complete. Actually Create The Content I couldn't say this better than Rebecca Lieb from (who's brilliant, by the way, and worth following) on combining your marketing calendar with a content production  process: Many editorial calendars also incorporate the production process into the mix, which is a great way to ensure content creation is on track. This can include who’s responsible for individual content elements, the due date of a first draft, who conducts the copyedit, and a date (often, with a specific time) for receiving and proofing the final draft, entering it into the CMS system (or newsletter template, or blog platform), and when it will be pushed live, or published. Where Rebecca started, Jodi Harris from Content Marketing Institute provides a  few more details to help you set up your marketing calendar: The date the piece of content will be published The topic or headline of the content piece The author of the content The owner of the content – i.e., who is in charge of making sure the content makes it from ideation to publication and promotion The current status of the content (updated as it moves through your publishing cycle) Jodi continues with a few more items to include: The channels where your content will be published: This can include only your owned channels (such as your blog, Facebook Page, website, YouTube page, email newsletters, etc.), or you can expand your tracking to include paid and earned channels, as well. Content formats: Is it a blog post? A video? A podcast? An infographic? An original image? To get more mileage from the content you create, you might want to consider repurposing it into other formats at some point. So it’s handy to keep tabs on the types of assets you have on hand right from the start. Visuals: Speaking of assets, it’s important that you don’t overlook the appeal that visuals can lend to your content, both in terms of social sharing potential and overall brand recognition. Tracking the visual elements you include in your content efforts – such as cover images, logos, illustrations, charts – will make it easier to ensure that your work has a signature look and cohesive brand identity. Topic categories: This helps make your calendars more searchable when you are looking to see about which target topics you already created a lot of content – or which you haven’t covered often enough. Keywords and other meta-data, such as meta-descriptions and SEO titles (if they differ from your headlines), which will help you keep your SEO efforts aligned with your content creation. URLs: This info can be archived as an easy way to keep your online content audits updated, or to link to older pieces of content in the new content you create. Calls to action: This helps you ensure that every piece of content you create is aligning with your company’s marketing goals. So it makes sense to simply include all of this advice  right  in your marketing  calendar as you create it. Here's how:All the actionable advice in this post will work with any format your marketing calendar takes. It's just that is actually designed to be your all-in-one marketing calendar, and helps you do all of this way more efficiently. What would your marketing  look like if you could manage all of this in one tool? Are you ready to get started?

Corporate Social Responsibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example o work towards the fulfilment of its own interests in total disregard of the individuals whom it is representing, and in such a situation it is possible that the principal is the one most likely to suffer (Crane & Matten, 2003, p.42). In this way, it is possible for the principal–agent problem to take place, leading to the ruining of relationships which were meant to be mutually beneficial. The fact that the agent works towards the achievement of its own goals to the total detriment of the entity represented by it creates a situation where it is impossible for such entities to trust agents to handle their affairs. In this way, the agent is given the power to represent the interests of the principal, and instead of doing so, it chooses to undertake activities which not only ensure that it gains a lot from the activities, but that the interests of the principal suffer as a result. Corporate social responsibility comes about mainly because of the instances of conflict that are a part of the inconsistencies that occur between the profitability and social goals. The result is that many companies have to work towards the attainment of profits while at the same time ensuring that they act responsibly towards their employees as well as the societies that are affected by their activities. A case study conducted on Levi Strauss shows that this company makes sure that the working conditions and wages among the workers throughout its supply chain is reasonable (McWilliams & Siegel, 2001). In this way, the company is able not only to achieve the legal requirements of the countries within which it works, but it also ensures that it takes ethical responsibility over its actions as well as its employees. While this may be the case, there have been instances where because of the massive profit margins within these companies, many of their chief executives have gone out of t heir way to ensure that they gain huge salary increments. In such cases, these executive officers are often

International Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

International Business - Essay Example Pepsi-Co manufactures and sells a large variety of grain -based snacks, sweets, beverages, convenient food items. Pepsi-Co is trying to reduce the negative environmental impacts by taking optimal decisions in the scientific packaging, water, energy initiatives. From the fourth quadrants of 2007, Pepsi-Co announced a new organizational structure which is implemented in 2008. The three businesses have been added in the changed organization structure. 1. PAF- Pepsi-Co American Food including FLNA, LATIN AMERICAN SNACK BUSINSS called LAF, QFNA and also including their Gamesa business in Mexico. 2. Pepsi Co American Beverages (PAB) includes PBNA and also the others Latin American beverages. 3. Pepsi Co international which also includes the other PepsiCo business in Middle East and Africa, UK and Asia. In the first quarter of 2008, six segments were followed for 3 businesses. FLNA LAF QFNA PAB Middle East, Asia, Africa. UK & Europe. The scope of the study depends on the success and fulfilm ent of the objectives. The objective of the report is to analyse the strategic issues undertaken from 2008 including the organizational development issues and integration of the functional strategies of the business, the analysis of corporate culture and a sustainable competitive situation analysis. Methodology The methodology used here is qualitative research. The analysis is based on qualitative analysis and not quantitative analysis. The analysis is not based on the computations of mathematics; it is the judgmental analysis of the environment. The report does not include any mathematical calculation and it requires the delivery of the report in the same way. The qualitative research analysis is sourced from primary and secondary data analysis. The primary data comprises of first hand data which is collected directly from the field. For example, sample survey, population survey. But secondary research is the second hand research. Books, Magazines, Journals, Reports are the example s of the sources of secondary research. The research report in this case comprises of secondary research because primary data collection is time consuming and costly. Main Findings Strategic Management Pepsi Co. applied the diversification strategy as a part of the movement of organizational structural change. The strategic diagnosis can be done with the analysis of external and internal environment. In the changed scenario, the Market trend is as follows: Popularity of diet food items is on the rise where the calories used is low and market for non-carbonated beverages. Second dimension is on great –tasting, various flavours and styles. The consumer perception in this dimension has changed a lot. Consumer prefers the ready to drink and ready to eat products than other traditional food products and for this reason Pepsi also introduced some products under this product line. Consumer does not only limit themselves between the local brands but they want to have the flavour of g lobal branding. PESTEL stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, ecological and Legal Environment (Randall, 2001, p.78). Political Environment: After the shocking recession of 2008, the market protections increased by different governments. So the entry barrier was tough for the international market. The government tried to follow the protectionist policies even in the emerging markets. Economic Environment: During the period of recession

Critical Management Systems - Mystery Shopping Essay

Critical Management Systems - Mystery Shopping - Essay Example The retail financial services, for instance, use Mystery shopping for two reasons – research into potentially high risk areas and identify key issues in areas of concern (FSA, 2006). The checklist should also reflect the key performance indicators which is a part of the organization’s vision and mission. Mystery shoppers should be independent, critical, objective and anonymous. Each location should be visited multiple times by different shoppers. While the employees should be notified that mystery shoppers would be around, the exact time and date should not be disclosed, which should remain a mystery (Kocevar-Weidinger, Benjes-Small, Ackermann & Kinman, 2010). The shopper however needs to be trained in evaluating employee behaviour and to ensure accurate data collection. The President of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) agrees that in-person visits can capture the â€Å"soft† issues that surveys often cannot: friendliness, courtesy, names, and knowledge (CRM Magazine, 2009). Facts emerge in a natural setting and this is not always possible in an interview or any other data collection method. Mystery shopping as a research tool helps to identify whether known customer requirements are met, to assess whether communications need to be improved and to check the consistency of standards across all branches (Beck & Miao, 2003). Calvert (2005), to evaluate the effectiveness of â€Å"mystery shopping† as a technique for service evaluation, interviewed public librarians in New Zealand who have used mystery shopping. Libraries used mystery shopping for three major reasons - improving process, improving staff behaviours, and benchmarking with similar organisations. It is used as a diagnostic tool to track the service delivery process; it is used extensively in staff appraisal and most importantly, organizations send mystery shoppers to rival firms to understand their service delivery process. This helps them to benchmark against the rivals. Mystery

A Report on the effects of Gender within Crime

A Report on the effects of Gender within Crime Its often thought that when females commit a crime they are often given a lesser sentence than if they were a male and that more males commit crimes than compared to females. It is also often thought by females that feminists if tried by a male may get longer than they should because of what they stand for. This can also apply when the situation is turned around where the male is standing up for what they believe in. Most people believe that the only reason females commit a crime is to provide for her family and make sure her children are brought up in a stable environment. On the other hand females are portrayed are the people that are more likely to shoplift and other crime that are unlikely to be noticed. The work carried out on the area of females and crime is very limited as there are fewer reports. Gender and Patterns of crime Carol Smart has given a number of reasons as to why she thinks crime rates for females are neglected. Carol Smart indicates that because females commit so few crimes they as not seen as much of a threat as males are because they commit more serious crimes therefore females are considered to be less of a threat to society. She also says that in both sociology and criminology professions there are more males employed than women therefore more studies have been on a males state of mind for crime instead of womens state of mind. Also criminology is stimulated by a desire to control, behaviour that is regarded as challenging. Females have been seen as less problematic then men so they are given less attention for the crimes they have committed. Carol Smart has quoted judges who are being biased against females: It is well known that women in particular and small boys are likely to be untruthful and invent stories (Judge Sutcliffe 1976) how would the female fell in this case? She would fell like it was her fault like he had committed a crime. She also asks three very interesting questions about females and what crimes the commit and why they do. Do females really commit fewer crimes then males, or are the figures misleading? Some Sociologists have suggested that females offences are constantly under-recorded by the authorities Although females continue to commit comparatively few crimes, some people have suggested that the proportion of crimes committed by females has been increasing. According to a number of commentators this alleged increase has resulted from Womens Liberation. Is this so? Why do females who break the law commit crimes?. 2. Official Statistics, Criminality and Gender. Otto Pollak helps explain the answers to the above questions. He has looked at the figures of crimes committed by females over different countries so it is not as accurate as it would be if the U.K statistics were used. 2.1 Otto Pollak insists that the official figures are very vague level of female criminality. 2.2 Otto Pollak indicates that he thinks that a large amount of petty theft crimes are committed by females, and the asserted that such crimes that were improbable of coming to the awareness of the system. 2.3 Many unreported crimes were committed by female household servants. 2.4 Otto Pollak also insinuated that a females household roles gave them a considerable opportunity to commit such crimes like Poisoning Loved ones and sexually abusing their children. 2.5 The police, Magistrates and other law enforcement officials have a tendency to be male. Raised to be courteous, and are usually compassionate towards female offenders so that smaller quantity of females becomes apparent in the statistics. 3. Criticism of Otto Pollak Frances Heidensohn used the statistics for the U.K to point out the major flaws in Otto Pollaks argument. 3.1 Frances Heidensohn point out flaws in the statements above with his research. 3.2 Most shoplift is actually done by middle ages males rather than females. 3.3 That the time Pollak was writing there was a cut in the number of female household Servants. 3.4 Heidensohn draws awareness to the quantity of crimes performed against prostitutes by male clients, and the occurrence of male crimes in domestic life, all the evidence point towards males being significantly more likely than a female to commit aggressive and sexual offence in the solitude of their own home. 3.5 Otto Pollaks statistical study is based on insignificant data and unconfirmed statements. Heidensohn notes that the disguise of menstruation is by no means collective and changed sexual society have long since made gibberish of his view of passive, friendly females threatening revenge. 4. Evidence against the Chivalry Thesis 4.1 Steven box has re-examined the statistics from self-report studies in Britain and the USA. A few of these studies show some compassion regarding females, the greater part do not. 4.2 The Mass of verification on females committing serious offences does not give obvious foundation to view that they get given a degree of difference and more positive conduct from members of the community, police and judges. 4.2 Abigail Buckle and David P. Farrington preformed a small-scaled surveillance study of shoplifting in a British department store in southwest England in 1981. Shoplifting is one crime where the female offenders nearly match the male offenders in the official statistics. This study found that two point eight percent of the one hundred and forty-two males observed shoplifted but only one point four percent of the three hundred and sixty-one females shoplifted. Evidently this study uses far too small a sample to get an accurate assumption, but as one of the very few attempts to measure crime precisely it does prove some evidence against the Chivalry Thesis. 4.3 In 1983 David P. Farrington and Allison Morris conducted a study off sentencing in magistrate courts. They started out by noting the some official figures did imply more compassion towards females. E.g. In 1979 six point six percent of males were found guilty of indictable where as only two percent of females were convicted. Farrington and Morris examined data in sentencing for four hundred and eight offences of theft in Cambridge in the same year. Some one hundred and ten of these offences were committed by females. Although males receive more severe sentences than females, the study found that the differences disappeared when the harshness of offences was taken into account. Farrington and Morris came to the conclusion that there was no self-sufficient effect of sex on sentencing seriousness. 4.4 Roger Hood on the West midlands in 1989 carried out a more recent study the used a sample of two thousand eight hundred and eighty-four male and four hundred and thirty-three female defendants in crown courts. Hood compared the sentencing of males and females, controlling for variables which he had found affected the sentencing of men. He found that white women were give custodial sentences thirty-four percent less often than men in similar cases and black women thirty-seven percent less often. 5. Female Crime and Womens Liberation. 5.1 Freda Adler claimed that womens liberation had shown the way to a modern form of female criminal and has amplified females involvement in crime. 5.2 Freda also thinks that the biological theories are not precise and she believes that is has nothing to do with a females hormones, aggression and criminality. 5.3 In the USA between 1960 and 1972 robberies by females went up by two hundred and seventy-seven percent males by only one hundred and sixty-nine percent. Embezzlement by females rose by two hundred and eighty percent in the same period of time, whereas for males it rose by as little as fifty percent. 5.4 Overall arrests rates for females rose three times as fast as those for males and particularly among female delinquents. 5.5 why then were women becoming so much more involved in crime? Adler believed the main reason was that females were taking on male social roles in both legitimate and illegitimate areas of performance. She stressed the pace and extent of change saying: there is a tide in the affairs of females as well as males, and in the last decade it had been sweeping over barriers which have protected male prerogatives and eroding the conventional differences which once nicely defined the gender roles. 5.6 Adlers views proved to be very contentious, for the most part as they could be used to imply that the womans liberation was a bad thing. They replicated Substantial research into the question on whether female crime is increasing or not. 5.7 Adler is relying on statistics which are clearly unreliable as they are not recorded properly as stated earlier by Carol Smart and Frances Heidensohn. They believe that that system is too soft on females and that they are more likely to get away with petty crimes than males are. Sources Smart, C. Women, Crime and Criminology 1976 Pollak, O. The Criminality of women 1950 Heidensohn, F. Women and Crime 1985 Box, S. Recession, Crime and punishment 1987 Adler, F. Sisters in crime 1975

Public accountants duty to provide due professional care in all their c

The situation that Willis and Company, CPAs have found themselves in regarding Geiger Company’s claim that Willis was negligent, underscores the need for public accountants to provide due professional care in all their contractual obligations. The level of fault that Willis is liable for can vary depending on the circumstances and approaches taken in examining this situation. This fact will be evident when examining this case from the Known User Approach, the Securities Act of 1933, as well as the Securities Act of 1934. These differing options result in varying degrees of liability that Willis and Company or any CPA firm can be held accountable for. Known User Approach When considering Willis’s actions under this Known User Approach, the New York Court of Appeals set the precedent in handling future cases. The New York Court determined that CPAs are held liable for ordinary negligence solely to the CPA’s client and specifically identified third parties (Whittington & Pany, 2012). In order for this to be true though, it must be evident that the company, in this instance Geiger and the specifically identified third parties are listed as specific users of the audit reports (Whittington & Pany). In relation to the loss incurred by the bank loaning funds based on misstated financial statements, the same precedent holds true. The bank, as a third-party beneficiary, must have been specifically named as a known party to the use of the auditor’s report in order to have a claim to recover the loss sustained (Whittington & Pany). The New York Court of Appeals further states that the third-party must not only be known or listed in the auditor’s report as a user but the said third-party must have take some sort of action to prove the ... ...934 also provides a greater protection to auditors as well, because it requires of proof of both misstatement and intent to cause harm as well as reduces liability proportionally. Under the Known User Approach, auditors can be liable for ordinary negligence, but the plaintiffs bringing suit must be specifically named in the statements for their allegations to be considered. These three approaches highlight the seriousness with which auditors and CPA firms should approach all established contracts in order to lessen the liability they face in carrying out their public duties. Works Cited Conahan, J., Nolette, P., & Young, A. (2003). Securities Fraud. The American Criminal Law Review. 40(2). Ps. 1041-1107. ProQuest doi: 230355736. Whittington, R., & Pany, K. (2012). Principles of auditing and other assurances (18th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Starbucks Company Overview

Starbucks Company Overview Starbucks, a well-managed assertive company, has consistently achieved growth since its early beginnings. Starbucks is the largest retailer of specialty coffee drinks and coffee beans in the nation sold through company-owned retail outlets and supermarket chains (Starbucks Corporation, 2009). The Starbucks name has earned its place as an innovative organization that represents a sense of community and shared ideals among its customers, its employees, and the world at large and its brand is equivalent to quality.By combining its well-known name and brand with focused superior customer service, Starbucks is positioning itself in the market with enhancing both its product line and its marketing channels since it first opened its doors in 1971. Current expansion has obtained growth of over 2,000 locations throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Asia. Starbucks brings the â€Å"exciting coffee experience to its customers almost anywhereâ⠂¬  (The Gourmet Retailer, 2009). Starbucks, formerly known as Starbucks Coffee, Team and Spice was founded 1971 in Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington.The owners, two men by the names of Gerald Baldwin and Gordon Bowker used to import and roast the coffee themselves in an old industrial building next to a meat packing plant. Baldwin and Bowker founded Starbucks because they loved coffee and tea and wanted Seattle to have the best. Based on many of fundamental ideas of Alfred Peet from Peet’s Coffee and Tea in Berkeley, Baldwin and Bowker had a solid business of selling fine coffees, with 5 stores operating throughout Seattle area. Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982 as head of marketing.At Schultz’s urging, Starbucks began testing its’ first espresso bar in Seattle, on April of 1984. According to Schultz and Jones Yang (1999), â€Å"Within two months, the store was serving 800 customers a day† (p. 60). The average number of customer before the es presso bar opened was 250. After years of being in business, Gerald Baldwin and Gordon Bowker decided to sell Starbucks in March of 1987. By August of 1987, Howard Schultz bought Starbucks for $4 million dollars. On August 18, 1987, the Starbucks as we know it was born.By 1990, Starbucks had opened 84 stores. On June 26, 1992, Starbucks went public and was listed on the NASDAQ with a price of $21 a share. Starbucks for the next decade continued to expand its’ stores domestically and internationally. Starbucks also continued to widen their menu selections by offering food and specialty drinks. By the end of 1999, Starbucks had opened 2,498 stores. By 2007, Starbucks opened 15, 756 stores. From 2000 to current year, Starbucks continues to be the leader in the coffee industry. MarketRole of Government Regulations Government regulations has major implications in different aspects of Starbucks' business. First of all, being a publicly listed company, government regulations has maj or implications on financial reporting and accounting activities of the company. For example, Starbucks need to comply with strict government regulations such as Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 and other SEC/US GAAP related compliance issues pertaining to financial reporting and accounting policies. (Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, April 2003, p. ) Non adherence to such regulations can result in significant penalties and fines for Starbucks. Government regulations also play an important role in global business of Starbucks, such as import of raw materials like Coffee and international operations of the company. Changes in government policies pertaining to import duties, tariffs, etc. can impact the import pricing of Company's raw materials such as Coffee. Similarly, policies pertaining to international taxation can affect the profitability of its international subsidiaries.Government regulations also affect areas pertaining to environmental protection. As Starbucks is a socially respons ible corporation, it adheres to government regulations pertaining to environmental protection, disposal of waste, etc. Other areas where government regulations impact Starbucks operations are regulations pertaining to human resources of the company in areas such as recruitment and hiring, salary, etc. Starbucks need to comply with labor laws to avoid penalties and fines related to such laws.Starbucks also has to comply with federal and state regulations that are applicable to the organization. Issues and Opportunities Summary and Conclusion References Starbucks Corporation. (2009). Starbucks. com. Retrieved September 2, 2009, fromhttp://www. starbucks. com/aboutus/overview. asp The Gourmet Retailer. (2009). gourmetretailer. com. Retrieved September 2, 2009, fromhttp://www. gourmetretailer. com/gourmetretailer/magazine/article_display. jsp? vnu_conte nt_id=1086864 Schultz, H. , & Jones Yang, D. (1999).Pour your heart into it. How Starbucks built a company one cup at a time. New York: Hyperion. Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP (April 2003). Legal Alert: Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Compliance Update. Retrieved September 5, 2009, from http://www. sutherland. com/files/News/3523433c-b3c0-4daf-9da3-526153639409/Presentation/NewsAttachment/887a0e6b-bb72-4b68-9824-8d77f8a3de86/926210_2. pdfhttp://www. sutherland. com/files/News/3523433c-b3c0-4daf-9da3-526153639409/Presentation/NewsAttachment/887a0e6b-bb72-4b68-9824-8d77f8a3de86/926210_2. pdf

Evolution of Management Theory

ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine how management theory concerning appropriate management practices has evolved in modern times, and look at the central concerns that have guided its development. First, we examine the so-called classical management theories that emerged around the turn of the twentieth century. These include scientific management, which focuses on matching people and tasks to maximize efficiency; and administrative management, which focuses on identifying the principles that will lead to the creation of the most efficient system of organization and management.Next, we consider behavioural management theories, developed both before and after the Second World War, which focus on how managers should lead and control their workforces to increase performance. Then we discuss management science theory, which developed during the Second World War and which has become increasingly important as researchers have developed rigorous analytical and quantitative techniques to hel p managers measure and control organizational performance.Finally, we discuss business in the 1960s and 1970s and focus on the theories that were developed to help explain how the external environment affects the way organizations and managers operate. By the end of this chapter, one would understand the ways in which Management Theory has evolved over time. You will also understand how economic, political, and cultural forces have affected the development of these theories and the ways in which managers and their organizations behave. INTRODUCTIONChanges in management practices occur as managers, theorists, researchers, and consultants seek new ways to increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The driving force behind the evolution of management theory is the search for better ways to utilize organizational resources. Advances in management theory typically occur as managers and researchers find better ways to perform the principal management tasks: planning, organizing , leading, and controlling human and other organizational resources.The evolution of modern management began in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, after the industrial revolution had swept through Europe, Canada, and the United States. In the new economic climate, managers of all types of organizations—political, educational, and economic—were increasingly trying to find better ways to satisfy customers’ needs. Many major economic, technical, and cultural changes were taking place at this time. The introduction of steam power and the development of sophisticated machinery and equipment changed the way in which goods were produced, particularly in the weaving and clothing industries.Small workshops run by skilled workers who produced hand-manufactured products (a system called crafts production) were being replaced by large factories in which sophisticated machines controlled by hundreds or even thousands of unskilled or semiskilled workers made produ cts. Owners and managers of the new factories found themselves unprepared for the challenges accompanying the change from small-scale crafts production to large-scale mechanized manufacturing.Many of the managers and supervisors had only a technical orientation, and were unprepared for the social problems that occur when people work together in large groups (as in a factory or shop system). Managers began to search for new techniques to manage their organizations’ resources, and soon they began to focus on ways to increase the efficiency of the worker–task mix. CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT THEORIES One of the first schools of management thought, the classical management theory, developed during the Industrial Revolution when new problems related to the factory system began to appear.Managers were unsure of how to train employees (many of them non-English speaking immigrants) or deal with increased labor dissatisfaction, so they began to test solutions. As a result, the classic al management theory developed from efforts to find the â€Å"one best way† to perform and manage tasks. This school of thought is made up of two branches: scientific and administrative management, described in the following sections: Scientific Management Scientific Management arose because of the need to increase productivity and efficiency.The emphasis was on trying to find the best way to get the most work done by examining how the work process was actually accomplished and by scrutinizing the skills of the workforce. The classical scientific school owes its roots to several major contributors, including Frederick Taylor, Henry Gantt, and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. Frederick Taylor is often called the â€Å"father of scientific management. † Taylor believed that organizations should study tasks and develop precise procedures. Also, he developed an incentive system that paid workers more money for meeting the new standard.As a result, many theorists followed Taylor 's philosophy when developing their own principles of management. Henry Gantt, an associate of Taylor's, developed the Gantt chart, a bar graph that measures planned and completed work along each stage of production. Based on time instead of quantity, volume, or weight, this visual display chart has been a widely used planning and control tool since its development in 1910. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, a husband-and-wife team, studied job motions. In Frank's early career as an apprentice bricklayer, he was interested in standardization and method study.He watched bricklayers and saw that some workers were slow and inefficient, while others were very productive. He discovered that each bricklayer used a different set of motions to lay bricks. From his observations, Frank isolated the basic movements necessary to do the job and eliminated unnecessary motions. Workers using these movements raised their output from 1,000 to 2,700 bricks per day. This was the first motion study designed t o isolate the best possible method of performing a given job. Later, Frank and his wife Lillian studied job motions using a motion-picture camera and a split-second clock.When her husband died at the age of 56, Lillian continued their work. Thanks to these contributors and others, the basic ideas regarding scientific management developed. They include the following: †¢ Developing new standard methods for doing each job †¢ Selecting, training, and developing workers instead of allowing them to choose their own tasks and train themselves †¢ Developing a spirit of cooperation between workers and management to ensure that work is carried out in accordance with devised procedures †¢ Dividing work between orkers and management in almost equal shares, with each group taking over the work for which it is best fitted Administrative Management Whereas scientific management focused on the productivity of individuals, the classical administrative approach concentrates on the total organization. The emphasis is on the development of managerial principles rather than work methods. Contributors to this school of thought include Max Weber, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, and Chester I. Barnard. These theorists studied the flow of information within an organization and emphasized the importance of understanding how an organization operated.In the late 1800s, Max Weber disliked that many European organizations were managed on a â€Å"personal† family-like basis and that employees were loyal to individual supervisors rather than to the organization. He believed that organizations should be managed impersonally and that a formal organizational structure, where specific rules were followed, was important. In other words, he didn't think that authority should be based on a person's personality. He thought authority should be something that was part of a person's job and passed from individual to individual as one person left and another took over.This n on-personal, objective form of organization was called a bureaucracy. Weber believed that all bureaucracies have the following characteristics: †¢ A well-defined hierarchy †¢ Division of labor and specialization †¢ Rules and regulations. †¢ Impersonal relationships between managers and employees. †¢ Competence. †¢ Records. Henri Fayol, a French mining engineer, developed 14 principles of management based on his management experiences. These principles provide modern-day managers with general guidelines on how a supervisor should organize her department and manage her staff.Although later research has created controversy over many of the following principles, they are still widely used in management theories. They are: †¢ Division of work †¢ Authority and responsibility †¢ Discipline †¢ Unity of command †¢ Unity of direction †¢ Subordination of individual interest to general interest †¢ Remuneration of personnel †¢ Centralization †¢ Scalar chain †¢ Order †¢ Equity †¢ Stability of tenure of personnel †¢ Initiative †¢ Esprit de corps Mary Parker Follett stressed the importance of an organization establishing common goals for its employees.However, she also began to think somewhat differently than the other theorists of her day, discarding command-style hierarchical organizations where employees were treated like robots. She began to talk about such things as ethics, power, and leadership. She encouraged managers to allow employees to participate in decision making. She stressed the importance of people rather than techniques — a concept very much before her time. As a result, she was a pioneer and often not taken seriously by management scholars of her time. But times change and innovative ideas from the past suddenly take on new meanings.Much of what managers do today is based on the fundamentals that Follett established more than 80 years ago. Chester Barn ard, who was president of New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, introduced the idea of the informal organization — cliques (exclusive groups of people) that naturally form within a company. He felt that these informal organizations provided necessary and vital communication functions for the overall organization and that they could help the organization accomplish its goals. Barnard felt that it was particularly important for managers to develop a sense of common purpose where a willingness to cooperate is strongly encouraged.He is credited with developing the acceptance theory of management, which emphasizes the willingness of employees to accept that managers have legitimate authority to act. Barnard felt that four factors affected the willingness of employees to accept authority: †¢ The employees must understand the communication. †¢ The employees accept the communication as being consistent with the organization's purposes. †¢ The employees feel that their act ions will be consistent with the needs and desires of the other employees. †¢ The employees feel that they are mentally and physically able to carry out the order.Barnard's sympathy for and understanding of employee needs positioned him as a bridge to the behavioral school of management, the next school of thought to emerge. Behavioral Management Theory As management research continued in the 20th century, questions began to come up regarding the interactions and motivations of the individual within organizations. Management principles developed during the classical period were simply not useful in dealing with many management situations and could not explain the behavior of individual employees. In short, classical theory ignored employee motivation and behavior.As a result, the behavioral school was a natural outgrowth of this revolutionary management experiment. The  behavioral management theory  is often called the human relations movement because it addresses the human dimension of work. Behavioral theorists believed that a better understanding of human behavior at work, such as motivation, conflict, expectations, and group dynamics, improved productivity. The theorists who contributed to this school viewed employees as individuals, resources, and assets to be developed and worked with — not as machines, as in the past.Several individuals and experiments contributed to this theory. Elton Mayo's  contributions came as part of the  Hawthorne studies,  a series of experiments that rigorously applied classical management theory only to reveal its shortcomings. The Hawthorne experiments consisted of two studies conducted at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company in Chicago from 1924 to 1932. The first study was conducted by a group of engineers seeking to determine the relationship of lighting levels to worker productivity.Surprisingly enough, they discovered that worker productivity increased as the lighting levels decreased — that is, until the employees were unable to see what they were doing, after which performance naturally declined. A few years later, a second group of experiments began. Harvard researchers Mayo and F. J. Roethlisberger supervised a group of five women in a bank wiring room. They gave the women special privileges, such as the right to leave their workstations without permission, take rest periods, enjoy free lunches, and have variations in pay levels and workdays.This experiment also resulted in significantly increased rates of productivity. In this case, Mayo and Roethlisberger concluded that the increase in productivity resulted from the supervisory arrangement rather than the changes in lighting or other associated worker benefits. Because the experimenters became the primary supervisors of the employees, the intense interest they displayed for the workers was the basis for the increased motivation and resulting productivity. Essentially, the experimenters became a part of the study and influenced its outcome.This is the origin of the term  Hawthorne effect,  which describes the special attention researchers give to a study's subjects and the impact that attention has on the study's findings. The general conclusion from the Hawthorne studies was that human relations and the social needs of workers are crucial aspects of business management. This principle of human motivation helped revolutionize theories and practices of management. Abraham Maslow,  a practicing psychologist, developed one of the most widely recognized  need theories,  a theory of motivation based upon a consideration of human needs.His theory of human needs had three assumptions: †¢ Human needs are never completely satisfied. †¢ Human behavior is purposeful and is motivated by the need for satisfaction. †¢ Needs can be classified according to a hierarchical structure of importance, from the lowest to highest. Maslow broke down the needs hierarchy into fiv e specific areas: †¢ Physiological needs. Maslow grouped all physical needs necessary for maintaining basic human well-being, such as food and drink, into this category. After the need is satisfied, however, it is no longer is a motivator. †¢ Safety needs.These needs include the need for basic security, stability, protection, and freedom from fear. A normal state exists for an individual to have all these needs generally satisfied. Otherwise, they become primary motivators. †¢ Belonging and love needs. After the physical and safety needs are satisfied and are no longer motivators, the need for belonging and love emerges as a primary motivator. The individual strives to establish meaningful relationships with significant others. †¢ Esteem needs. An individual must develop self-confidence and wants to achieve status, reputation, fame, and glory. Self-actualization needs. Assuming that all the previous needs in the hierarchy are satisfied, an individual feels a need to find himself. Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory helped managers visualize employee motivation. Douglas McGregor  was heavily influenced by both the Hawthorne studies and Maslow. He believed that two basic kinds of managers exist. One type, the Theory X manager, has a negative view of employees and assumes that they are lazy, untrustworthy, and incapable of assuming responsibility.On the other hand, the Theory Y manager assumes that employees are not only trustworthy and capable of assuming responsibility, but also have high levels of motivation. An important aspect of McGregor's idea was his belief that managers who hold either set of assumptions can create  self-fulfilling prophecies  Ã¢â‚¬â€ that through their behavior, these managers create situations where subordinates act in ways that confirm the manager's original expectations. As a group, these theorists discovered that people worked for inner satisfaction and not materialistic rewards, shifting the focus to the r ole of individuals in an organization's performance.Management Science Theory Management science theory is a contemporary approach to management that focuses on the use of rigorous quantitative techniques to help managers make maximum use of organizational resources to produce goods and services. In essence, management science theory is a contemporary extension of scientific management, which, as developed by Taylor, also took a quantitative approach to measuring the worker–task mix in order to raise efficiency.There are many branches of management science; each of them deals with a specific set of concerns: †¢ Quantitative management utilizes mathematical techniques—such as linear and nonlinear programming, modelling, simulation, queuing theory, and chaos theory—to help managers decide, for example, how much inventory to hold at different times of the year, where to locate a new factory, and how best to invest an organization’s financial capital. â € ¢ Operations management (or operations research) provides managers with a set of techniques that they can use to analyze any aspect of an organization’s production system to increase efficiency. Total quality management (TQM) focuses on analyzing an organization’s input, conversion, and output activities to increase product quality. †¢ Management information systems (MIS) help managers design information systems that provide information about events occurring inside the organization as well as in its external environment—information that is vital for effective decision making. All these subfields of management science provide tools and techniques that managers can use to help improve the quality of their decision making and increase efficiency and effectiveness.Organizational Environment Theory An important milestone in the history of management thought occurred when researchers went beyond the study of how managers can influence behavior within organiz ations to consider how managers control the organization’s relationship with its external environment, or organizational environment—the set of forces and conditions that operate beyond an organization’s boundaries but affect a manager’s ability to acquire and utilize resources.Resources in the organizational environment include the raw materials and skilled people that an organization requires to produce goods and services, as well as the support of groups including customers who buy these goods and services and provide the organization with financial resources. One way of determining the relative success of an organization is to consider how effective its managers are at obtaining scarce and valuable resources. The importance of studying the environment became clear after the development of open-systems theory and contingency theory during the 1960s Contingency TheoryAnother milestone in management theory was the development of contingency theory in the 1960s by Tom Burns and G. M. Stalker in the United Kingdom and Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch in the United States. 39 The crucial message of contingency theory is that there is no one best way to organize: The organizational structures and the control systems that managers choose depend on—are contingent on—characteristics of the external environment in which the organization operates. According to contingency theory, the characteristics of the environment affect an organization’s ability to obtain resources.To maximize the likelihood of gaining access to resources, managers must allow an organization’s departments to organize and control their activities in ways most likely to allow them to obtain resources, given the constraints of the particular environment they face. In other words, how managers design the organizational hierarchy, choose a control system, and lead and motivate their employees is contingent on the characteristics of the organizational environment. CONCLUSION The search for efficiency started with the study of how managers could improve person–task relationships to increase efficiency.The concept of job specialization and division of labour remains the basis for the design of work settings in modern organizations. New developments like lean production and total quality management are often viewed as advances on the early scientific management principles developed by Taylor and the Gilbreths. Max Weber and Henri Fayol outlined principles of bureaucracy and administration that are as relevant to managers today as when they were written at the turn of the twentieth century. Much of modern management research refines these principles to suit contemporary conditions.For example, the increasing interest in the use of cross-departmental teams and the empowerment of workers are issues that managers also faced a century ago. Researchers have described many different approaches to managerial behaviour, including The ories X and Y. Often, the managerial behaviour that researchers suggest reflects the context of their own historical era and culture. Mary Parker Follett advocated managerial behaviours that did not reflect accepted modes of managerial behaviour at the time, but her work was largely ignored until conditions changed.The various branches of management science theory provide rigorous quantitative techniques that give managers more control over their organization’s use of resources to produce goods and services. The importance of studying the organization’s external environment became clear after the development of open-systems theory and contingency theory during the 1960s. A main focus of contemporary management research is to find methods to help managers improve the way they utilize organizational resources and compete successfully in the global environment.Strategic management and total quality management are two important approaches intended to help managers make bet ter use of organizational resources. REFERENCES CliffsNotes. com, (2013). Classical Schools of Management. http://www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8851. html. David Sibbet, (1997). 75 Years of Management Ideas and Practice. Supplement, Harvard Business Review, Reprint number 97500. David Stauffer,  (2011). An Overview of Management Theories. http://www. ernsanalysis. com/sjsu/ise250/history. htm James Swartz, (1994). Evolution of Management Thought. Productivity Press, Portland OR Lyndsay Swinton, (2010). Frederick W. Taylor: Master of Scientific Management. http://www. skymark. com/resources/leaders/taylor. asp M. Bosman, (2010). Historical Evolution of Management Theory. http://www. scribd. com/doc/37785213/Evolution-of-Management-Theory Prof. M. Thenmozhi, (2007). EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT THEORY. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.