Day Hall Construction Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Day Hall Construction - Article Example After consulting with FixIt Zone manager, JD Tessier, we have arrived at three viable options for the renovation of Day Hall. Our first option is to implement a renovated bathroom area with individual bathrooms doors, with fully renovated bathroom equipment (toilets, showers, sinks, etc.). Our second option is to create renovated, semi-private bathrooms, which will emphasize on increased privacy through increased dividers between showers and sinks. Our last option, which is also the cheapest, is to replace the existing bathroom parts of Day Hall, for many of the showers and sinks are functional. In evaluating our three options, we performed thorough research by distributing the student survey, consulting with JD Tessier, and communicating with the Residence Director of Day Hall, David Grimes, and Office of Residence Life Director Terra Peckskamp, our client, via email. To supplement our findings, we based our recommendation off of 1) Availability of manpower, 2) Cost of renovation, 3) Adaptability to the new bathroom style, 4) Consistency to the goals of the organization, and 5) Implementation period. In evaluating the criteria, our consulting group came to the conclusion that Option 1 aligns most with our criteria and our client’s values. We recommend that Day Hall proceeds with implementing individual bathroom areas, to enhance student satisfaction and the ease of transition. Constructed in 1958, Day Hall at Syracuse University houses approximately 607 students and 14 resident advisors. Together, there are 16 communal bathrooms shared by the 8 floors of residents in Day Hall, which has affected the cleanliness and the lack of working parts in bathrooms.  

Building Competencies in Comminity Youth Worker Essay

Building Competencies in Comminity Youth Worker - Essay Example Growing realization among the public at large about the need to delve deep into the lives of our young adults, finding the cause of the growing frustration, led them to believe the lack of sufficient support system in the form of positive relationships and lack of proper opportunities for self enhancement were at the root cause of the present scenario. Moreover, as in the language of Pittman K & Ferber T in Unfinished business: Future Reflections on a Decade of Promoting Youth Development "problem-free is not fully prepared", an effective Program for Youth Development requires opportunities and environment to be given to young adolescents to build and develop their personal and social assets that will prepare them for a healthy and productive adulthood. In spite of the presence of a number of talented youth workers, the agencies working in this field face the obstacle of the unmet need of a stable and well-trained work force that has knowledge and competence of addressing the myriad challenges facing both urban and rural youth. Moreover, their working climate is not tempting enough to attract more and more youth workers in this field. Being comparatively younger, it has yet to attain the status of a recognized and professional field. Lack of funds provided for these programs deter the organizations to make long term recruitments required for the success of these programs. In this background, it is important to know as to which skills are required by a youth worker working in such organizations that help them develop and maintain effective relationships with youth and their families and thus reducing problems in their lives and ensuring an environment congenial to their healthy development. Building caring relationships with children and youth requires active listening and a variety of communication strategies. As public educators and practitioners of youth development, the community youth worker must possess several internal and external competencies and skill in order to deliver an effective program capable of reducing problems in the life of our young adolescents and give them an environment congenial to their thriving. As a strong family support system is the most important requirement for a child to thrive, an ideal community youth worker is expected to bring it into the life of young adolescent by working as a bridge to bring the families together. He can interact with the parents and can make them realize the type of problems an adolescent has to undergo trying to find his identity in the outside world, which are further augmented if he belongs to a migrated community and at the same time can make the adolescent realize what their parents have to undergo with their beliefs in traditions of the community. Thus, on the one hand, he has to be human and sensitive to the needs of diverse people and on the other hand should be conversant with the various stages of the development of a child. Changing demographics of the American society requires its community youth w

The interrelation between thought and language has been a central and Essay

The interrelation between thought and language has been a central and enduring issue in philosophy and psychology. Of particular interest has been the possibil - Essay Example However, there are studies such as the classical and operant conditioning which somehow proved that even animals has the ability to learn. These studies opened the possibilities that thought exists even without language. Darwin (1920), the person behind the theory of evolution, suggests that human mind and that of animals are different on certain degree and not of kind. This statement implies that animals may also have the capability to think but not in the way and degree that human does. Theories and studies on different animals in search for the cognitive ability of animals provide evidence or somehow support this statement of Darwin. In earlier theories, the famous classical conditioning is one of the evidences of animal cognition. It was proposed by Ivan Pavlov; with the theory about the relationship between stimuli and responses using a dog, Pavlov discovered that animals could learn to display certain responses to stimuli already eliciting those responses (Tiffany, 1999 p.216). The operant conditioning started with different experiments, especially that of B.F. Skinner. Skinner developed the operant conditioning using rats and pigeons. In his rat experiment, he put a rat in the cage called Skinner Box that had a button on a wall which when pressed released a food pellet. When the rat accidentally pressed the button, food pellet came out which caused the rat to pressed the button more. When the button can not anymore give the rat some pellets, the rat stopped pressing the button. Through this theory, it was discovered that animals have the ability to learn through reinforcement or reward. However, even if Skinner used nonhuman animals with his experiment, he was still one of those who favor the total dependence of thought on language along with other behaviorists such as Watson, Ryle, Rosenberg, Wittgenstein and others (Chrucky, 1990). The operant theory is used today in human psychology

Majority Activity 3-2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Majority Activity 3-2 - Essay Example Commercials differentiate trucks and action figures for boys between dolls and fairy princesses for girls. The media must work toward gender equality. Male characters still dominate children’s television with few strong female influences. Television cartoons like Sesame Street have added strong female characters like Maria (Human), Rosita (Muppet), and Zoà « (Muppet) to the program. These women display feminist qualities – Maria works, Rosita teaches Spanish to the children with pride in her Mexican heritage, and Zoà « portrays that girls and boys can be best friends without romantic ideas by being best friends with Elmo; however, boys are still the main stars of the show with girls making appearances only on occasion. Dora the Explore is a little girl, without a super thin waist, that helps her friends when they need help. Hurray! Finally, a strong female character; however, this cartoon is outnumbered by the many cartoons with female characters secondary to stronger male counterparts. Jimmy Neutron has Cindy Vortex, a blond girl just as smart a Jimmy but always second best. SpongeBob has Sandy, a strong female sq uirrel from Texas that only appears on the show occasionally as SpongeBob’s rowdy friend. Winnie the Pooh has Kanga, the mother of Roo who is always doing laundry and other chores while the others are having adventures. Television executives must create more programs with strong females as the main character and male characters the co-stars – like Dora the Explorer. Commercials differentiate trucks and action figures for boys between dolls and fairy princesses for girls. In commercials, boys play with trucks and action figures, while girls are picture playing with dolls, castles, kitchens, toy vacuums, and more. Girls notice the medias subtle messages defeating the caregiver that bought trucks as well as dolls for little girls to break down the walls of gender inequality. Eventually, girls start asking for â€Å"girls

A Clean Well Lighted Place Analysis Essay Example for Free

A Clean Well Lighted Place Analysis Essay A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway is a cryptic short story about a deaf man in a bar late at night with the waiter getting frustrated with him because he wishes to go home. The dialogue slowly turns to two waiters who inject a symbolic exchange. This entire piece of full of symbology and is in my opinion a story up the the interpretation of each individual reader. â€Å"In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. In this sequence we see the first comparison made between light and darkness, and we see the daytime being described as dusty and the in the night the dew eliminated the dust. This state of moistness or lubrication perhaps represents a state of mental lubrication, free from the dullness of the day. It’s also interesting that a deaf man would be able to tell the difference between the sounds of the day and sounds of the night. In my opinion this means that at night when it’s expected to be desolate the man feels more at home than he does in the daytime when there is expected to be commotion. Last week he tried to commit suicide, one waiter said. Why? He was in despair. What about? Nothing. How do you know it was nothing? He has plenty of money. † This is a humorous dialogue about the condition of money vs happiness. The man is described as being in despair, but yet they know now what he has to be despaired about if he has means to provide him happiness. However they do not see the true ironic sadness of the situation. A old man is sitting alone in a cafe at night downing shots of brandy. It is obvious to the reader that the old man does not have a very pleasant life. They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace where the tables were all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind. A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him. † This is the second time the â€Å"shadow of the leaves of the tree† is mentioned, this is demonstrative by the author that this is important and essential symbology to understand. Obviously the eaves can produce no real shadow since it’s night, however since it is under an electric light the leaves produce a false shadow from a false light. The legal definition of false light is a â€Å"portrayal that is highly offense to a reasonable person† but not so much so that it’s defamation. This allows the old man sitting there to perhaps portray himself as offensive to the waiter, as we will see in a later exchange, but not so much so that he defames himself. The man is also able to view from the terrace the soldier and the women passing by. This might be the man looking down and reminiscing on memories of old. Another exchange that struck me was between the two waits discussing the events of the attempted suicide of the man. â€Å"Hes drunk now, he said. Hes drunk every night. What did he want to kill himself for? How should I know. How did he do it? He hung himself with a rope. Who cut him down? His niece. Why did they do it? Fear for his soul. How much money has he got? Hes got plenty. This exchange shows the audience the severity of this mans drinking, and drinking almost goes without symbology itself as an expression of relieving anything from stress, to recreation, to wallowing in pity. They again fail to recognize the plight and sorrow this man has, they suffer from a delusion that this mans great wealth brings him joy and happiness, however again we can tell that it doesn’t. The waiters also state that the man’s niece who came and saved him did so out of fear for his soul, not fear for his life, but fear for his soul. To me this is indicative that this man’s life is in such a sorrowful that it’s not worth saving, but his soul is all that remains of him, and the only thing that is worth saving of him. Again we see in the continued dialogue between the two waiters, and we see the more they speak the more they reveal about this man. They also continue to speak about him in a false light, that is being offensive without defamation. â€Å"He stays up because he likes it. Hes lonely. Im not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me. He had a wife once too. A wife would be no good to him now. You cant tell. He might be better with a wife. His niece looks after him. You said she cut him down. I know. I wouldnt want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing. Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him. I dont want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work. The man stays up late because he is lonely, and had a wife, but the other waiter speaks of him in a false light because he says â€Å"A wife would be no good to him now† which would be in my opinion considered offensive. They also speak ill of his age, however the other waiter defends him by saying he is clean and doesn’t spill, even while drunk. Being clean represents the man exercising a lack of vulgarity, and he is civilized and dignified by not spilling, even in a compromised state of being intoxicated. They also continue to be offensive to him by one of the waiters stating â€Å"I don’t want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work† The exchange between the two waiters further reveal the reason and life behind the lonely man in the cafe. â€Å"Why didnt you let him stay and drink? the unhurried waiter asked. They were putting up the shutters. It is not half-past two. I want to go home to bed. What is an hour? More to me than to him. An hour is the same. You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drink at home. Its not the same. No, it is not, agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to be unjust. He was only in a hurry. And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual hour? Are you trying to insult me? No, hombre, only to make a joke. No, the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down the metal shutters. I have confidence. I am all confidence. You have youth, confidence, and a job, the older waiter said. You have everything. And what do you lack? Everything but work. You have everything I have. No. I have never had confidence and I am not young. Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up. I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe, the older waiter said. With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night. I want to go home and into bed. The hurried waiter speaks that he wishes to leave so he can get some sleep, and they reveal that the extra hour saved by the waiter meant more to the man than it did to the waiter. The two waiter’s eventually get into the topic of having youth and confidence, where one states that he has great confidence and youth and the other says he has never had confidence and is not young. This statement reveals more about the nature of the old man, showing that the old man lacked youth and confidence that he used to have, and drinks to regain what’s left of his dignity and pride, as demonstrated earlier. The older waiter also states that he doesn’t desire to leave earlier, as to provide a sebastion of hope and light for those who need it, like the deaf man. The waiter thinking to himself while sitting at the bar shows us the real reason why the deaf man tries to commit suicide, and the real reason why a clean and well-lighted place is needed in the middle of the night. Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself. It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. We see here now that the man wanted to end his life because it was nothing and he was nothing, and that a empty hollowness that he had. He did not despair and was not in grief, but simply felt an emptiness and only a clean well-lit place such as this cafe provided. In closing we find the older waiter conversing with himself â€Å"He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, its probably only insomnia. Many must have it. † We find here that this older waiter does to some extent feel the same emptiness as the old man does. He find the daylight as a time to sleep, opposite of normal. He finds the daytime as a lack of activity, and the night as a time for activity. The waiter is in some ways institutionalized and imprisoned to the service of those who feel empty. After all of this we find the significance of all of this imagery and symbolism we see the story of a man whose life has essentially finished it’s course, only that his heart remains beating. We see a man who is often looked down upon because of the extent of his drinking and is seen in a â€Å"false light†. We find a man who does not drink to forget or drink to remember or drink because he is in sorrow or grief, but he drinks because of nothing. He drinks because he feels nothing and experiences nothing. We find that his wife and days of youth and confidence have left him and not he has absolutely nothing. This man and many others like this find cafe’s such as this one that are clean and well-lit to be bastions and beacons of hope to those who have this feeling of nothingness.

Agile methodology

Agile methodology Agile methodology is an approach to project management, typically used in software development. It refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development. Requirements and solutions evolve through cooperation between self-organizing cross-functional teams, without concern for any hierarchy or team member roles. It promotes teamwork, collaboration, and process adaptability throughout the project life-cycle with increased face-to-face communication and reduced amount of written documentation. Agile methods break tasks into small increments with no direct long term planning. Every aspect of development is continually revisited throughout the lifecycle of project by way of iterations (also called sprints). Iterations are short time frames (timeboxes) that normally last 1-4 weeks. This inspect-and-adapt approach significantly reduces both development costs and time to market. Each iteration involves working through a complete software development cycle characterized by planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing. This helps minimize overall risk, and quicker project adaptability. While iteration may not have enough functionality necessary for a market release, aim is to be ready with a release (with minimal bugs) at the end of each iteration. Typically, the team size is small (5-9 people) to enable easier communication and collaboration. Multiple teams may be required for larger developmental efforts which may also require a coordination of priorities across teams. Agile methods emphasize more face-to-face communication than written documents when the team is in the same location. However, when a team works at different locations, daily contact is maintained through videoconferencing, e-mail, etc. The progress made in terms of the work done today, work scheduled for tomorrow and the possible roadblocks are discussed among the team members in brief sessions at the end of the each working day. Besides, agile developmental efforts are supervised by a customer representative to ensure alignment between customer needs and company goals. Software Development was initially based on coding and fixing. That worked well for smaller software, but as the size and complexities of software grew a need for a proper process was felt because the debugging and testing of such software became extremely difficult. This gave birth to the Engineering Methodologies. The methodologies became highly successful since it structured the software development process. One of the most popular models that emerged was the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) that developed information systems in a very methodical manner. Waterfall method is one of the most popular examples of Engineering or the SDLC methodology. A paper published by Winston Royce in 1970 introduced it as an idea. It was derived from the hardware manufacture and construction strategies that were in practice during the 1970s. The relationship of each stage to the others can be roughly described as a waterfall, where the outputs from a specific stage serve as the initial inputs for the following stage. During each stage, additional information is gathered or developed, combined with the inputs, and used to produce the stage deliverables. It is important to note that the additional information is restricted in scope; new ideas that would take the project in directions not anticipated by the initial set of high-level requirements are not incorporated into the project. Rather, ideas for new capabilities or features that are out-of-scope are preserved for later consideration. Agile Methodology: Engineering methodologies required a lot of documentation thereby causing the pace of development to slow down considerably. Agile Methodologies evolved in the 1990s to significantly eliminate this bureaucratic nature of engineering methodology. It was part of developers reaction against heavyweight methods, who desired to drift away from traditional structured, bureaucratic approaches to software development and move towards more flexible development styles. They were called the Agile or Light Weight methods and were defined in 1974 by Edmonds in a research paper. Some of the most popular agile methods that subsequently evolved were Scrum in 1995, Extreme Programming in 1996, Adaptive Software Development, Dynamic Systems Development Method and Feature Driven Development. In 2001, a team of 17 pioneers in agile software development coined the terms Agile Software development and agile methods. An Agile Manifesto was declared that was regarded as a set of canonical rules for agile software development methods and accompanying principles. Similarly, some of these people formed The Agile Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes agile development. Extreme Programming: One of the several popular agile processes which stresses on customer satisfaction is Extreme programming. It improves a software project by focusing on communication, feedback, simplicity, courage and respect. Empowerment of the developers ensures speedier responses to changing customer requirements. Teamwork and collaboration is an integral part of extreme programming that improves the productivity and efficiency of the problem solving approach. Comparing Agile With Waterfall Model; Agile methodology can be compared and contrasted with traditional Waterfall model under the following heads. Conceptual Difference: Sequential Vs Iterative: Waterfall method is a sequential process of software development. Similar to a waterfall, the development team in such a model proceeds to the next stage of development once the first step is entirely accomplished. The waterfall model phases of software development are: requirement specification, conception, analysis, design, coding, testing debugging, installation and finally maintenance. A good amount of time is spent in each stage of development, till all requirements are met. Compared to this set-in-stone approach of waterfall models, the agile models focus on adaptability and agility during development. As an alternative to one rigid development schedule, agile models involve multiple iterative development schedules. Each iteration goes through the entire steps of design, coding and testing. A closely-knit, cross functional and self-organizing team structure exists. Documentation: Substantial Vs Minimal: While emphasis is placed on documentation at every stage of software development in a waterfall model, agile methodology emphasizes increased face-to-face communication and reduced documentation. Suitability: Predictive Vs Adaptive: While waterfall model is suitable for development of stable programs, agile methodology is best suited for web based applications because of its iterative nature that helps in incorporating correcting the different bugs that arise over time. Nature: Process oriented Vs People oriented: Waterfall Methodology is Process-oriented as it focuses on pre-planning of processes in great detail and subsequently coming up with a defined overall process to be used by whosoever uses it. Agile Methodologies on the other hand are People-oriented as they believe process definition is not an independent thing and the development of software relies heavily on the skills of the development team rather than on defined processes. Agile Methodologies use processes only to support the development team in doing their work more effectively and efficiently. Process never takes a lead in agile methodologies. Efficiency: Low Vs High: Efficiency is determined by the quality of software product, the lead development time and the number of bugs. Due to the adaptability of agile methods and the rigid development cycle of waterfall model, agile methods can incorporate changes and release products in lesser time. http://www.extremeprogramming.org/. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/waterfall-model-vs-agile.html.

Barclays PEST Analysis and Strategy

Barclays PEST Analysis and Strategy Jump to: Barclays PEST Analysis Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services, with an extensive international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 150,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for over 42 million customers and clients worldwide (www.barclays.com). Barclays Group strategy overview Barclays ambition is to become one of the handfuls of universal banks leading the global financial services industry. This means offering a full range of retail and wholesale services to customers and clients throughout the world. These services include: retail, business and private banking, credit cards, investment banking, investment management and wealth management. The banks strategy follows a simple premise: anticipate the needs of their customers and clients, then serve them by helping them achieve their goals (www.barclays.com). Introduction of the External Marketing Environment No business operates with out rules and regulations any business is surrounded by laws and liabilities, pressure groups and public bodies, customers and competitors. These are part of the marketing environment that the organisation works within, and since marketing is the interface between the organisation and the outside world, dealing with this environment is a major part of marketers work (Jim Blythe 2008) The external marketing environment analysis is the first stage of auditing process. It creates the information and analysis necessary for an organisation to begin to identify the key issues it will need to address in order to develop successful strategy. As environment of business has never been the so complex as it is today you need a grasp of the big picture, the role of organisation and yourself within it. System theory makes clear that every organisation operates within an industry setting that in turn interacts with a societal environment that is itself influenced by a global marketplace. The global market environment appears very distant to marketers operating on a regional or even national scale, but with the information technologies shrinking distances, these multinational operation are extending into every corner of the market place (Mike Oldroyd 2006, Graeme Drummond, John Ensor, Ruth Ashford 2008). Therefore the marketing environment is The external forces that directly or indirectly influence an organizations acquisition of inputs and generation of outputs, comprising six categories of forces: political, legal, regulatory, societal/green, technological, and economic/competitive (Dibb et al, 2006: 68). Within any society, all businesses face a common political, economic, social and technological environment, although any one element will often impact differently according to the size and situation of the firm (Mike Oldroyd 2006). Whether a market fluctuates rapidly or slowly, environmental forces are always dynamic. Changing in the marketing environment can create uncertainty, threats and opportunities for the marketers. Although the future is not very predictable, marketers can estimate what will happen, although some fail to do so, thus negatively affecting the performance of their businesses. It can be stated with certainty that marketers will continue to modify their market ing strategies in response to the dynamic environment. Furthermore, marketing managers who fail to recognise changes in environmental forces leave their firms unprepared to capitalize on marketing opportunities or to cope with the changes created in the marketing environment (Dibb et al, 2006: 68) Research Methodology Using PEST analysis to understand your environment PEST analysis is designed to provide a focused framework to assist you in establishing your objectives. It will take the result of your marketing audit and place them in a logical format to ensure that you have considered all of the factors that could affect your market (Phil Stone 2001) Barclays PEST Analysis Political Environment In every country there are rules and regulations that all businesses need to follow in order to operate legally. Government at both national and local levels can affect companies not only on a day-day basis through law, policies and authority but also a strategic level by creating opportunities and threats. Specifically, these arise because at competitive level the government can determine industry structure via monopoly and restrictive trade practices legislations further. Legislations will encourage competition so that customers can have more options (Dale Littler and Dominic Wilson 1995). So there is a range of political organisations that have to be considered when looking at the influences in this area of the audit. The structure of a political system defines the centres of political influence. A state with a federal political structure will differ from a unitary political system. In the UK there is a parliament for Scotland and an assembly for Wales. However some of the responsibilities are still the responsibility of Westminster parliament. There is also string of decisions taking place both politically and legally within the framework of European Union. Political groups such Greenpeace can also effect the political agenda. Therefore when considering these area of the environment a much wider view has to be taken than just the domestic national government or legal process (reference). Banks are fighting for survival because the current situation in the world economy the UK government is giving support to banks by intervening. The government has pledged to spend up to  £37bn to buy stakes in three banks Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS. The Bank of England has lent further billions of pounds to the wider banking sector (bbc.co.uk). The UK Treasury has announced a financial lifeline, which could ultimately be worth up to  £500bn, to try and stabilise the UK banking sector. Opposition parties broadly backed the plans, which could see the government inject up to  £50bn in capital essentially taxpayers money into leading banks and building societies. As fears of a prolonged global recession rise, the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank each announced an emergency 0.5% cut in interest rates. But this unprecedented move has had only a limited impact on the turbulent stock markets. Despite recovering slightly, the FTSE 100 was still down 2% in London by mid-afternoon while markets in Germany and France were down by more than 3%. But in the US, the Dow Jones rallied in early trading after the sharp falls of recent days. In another key development, the UK government moved to protect deposit holders in UK offshoots of Icelandic banks, threatening legal action against Iceland to rec over money from one collapsed bank (bbc.co.uk) However Barclays did not seek help from the UK government in the current economic crisis instead they raised cash from Middle Eastern investors (www.telegraph.co.uk). Economic Environment The economy is closely linked with political environment, it consists the current and future state of key economic variables used to describe the wealth, purchasing power, savings and consumption together with the government economic policies deployed to effect those variable. These include the effect of inflation, interest rates and exchange rates and will have impact on the cost, prices, competitiveness and profitability of the business. In terms of strategic marketing tasks, of prime importance as part of the strategic planning process is the identification, monitoring and forecasting of those economic variables to which the companys market effort is most sensitive. So understanding of the key economic indicators provides the necessary information for anticipating developments in the market place. Economic uncertainties impact negatively on business and consumer confidence so the key marketing task is to attempt to realize the relationships between movements in the economy and cha nges in the market place. Social Environment This is perhaps the most difficult for the marketer to identify evaluate and respond to it. It is a complex of demographics it includes changes in population characteristics educational standards, culture, lifestyle attitudes and beliefs. The way we think, we live and behave is the outcome of complex cultural conditioning by family, friends, schools, work and various media. It conditions who decides what we buy, where and when we buy it, and whether we credit or cash for example 45 percent of consumers agreed that they give into temptation and buy things because they like them and not because they need them. This was up from 30 percent 20 years ago. So businesses need to consider the changing demographic trends in their business and the changing social climate in different parts of the world (Dale Littler and Dominic Wilson 1995, Phil Stone 2001 and Mike Oldroyd 2006). Peoples lifestyle are changing because in todays world expectations are higher as people have become more wealthy, they have come to expect more. In twenty first century Britain, few people would consider living with out a telephone, television, refrigerator, car, bank account or credit cards. In 1960s all these products were examples of things owned by only a minority of the population so the marketer will be concerned with all the influences affecting the customers choice (Jim Blythe 2008 and Mike Oldroyd 2006) Barclays Financial Planning has launched two new pensions products to rival stakeholder pensions. According to the bank, customers can choose either a basic investment solution, comparable to a stakeholder product, or to diversify their pension assets, including the option of a select choice fund proposition. Barclays director of investment advice and products David Stuart says the new pensions offer everyday pensions investors something much more flexible than a stakeholder plan but without the more complicated structure or cost implications of a full Sipp. (www.moneymarketing.co.uk) Technological Environment Technology has become one of the most important factors affecting businesses over the last decade. The development of information technology has impacted in the way business is conducted. For example the use of faxes and e-mail and opportunities created by the internet (Phil Stone 2001). For many businesses the use of internet as marketing tool is little understood and certainly not appreciated internet can be very efficient marketing tool creating world-wide opportunities for even smaller one employee businesses style. Barclays must consider the use of latest available technology (Phil Stone 2001) in order to stay competitive with other banks E.G. HSBC because few serious marketers would consider not having a corporate website. Yet only ten years ago such websites were rare, and were often merely presence sites which directed visitors to a telephone number or address (Jim Blythe 2008). New technologies create new markets and opportunities (Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong2004) Conclusion A company will not have strategic marketing planning process with out taking into consideration in to the external marketing environment as this vital in the company ability to operate as business. Because any organisation is surrounded by laws and liabilities, pressures groups and public bodies, customers and competitors. These liabilities are part of the marketing environment that the organisation works within. And since marketing is at the interface between organisation and the outside world, dealing with this environment is a major part of marketers work (stone Phil 2001). Barclays external environment is undertaken in order to discover the opportunities and threats that are evolving and that need to be addressed by the company (Graeme Drummond, John Ensor, Ruth Ashford 2008). External environmental analysis will provide Barclays with a wider perspective on the future marketing objectives of the business. It concentrates on the future of the business. PEST analysis must be forward looking based on existing knowledge. It is in this way that you can establish objectives that will either counter the threats that you will face in the market or exploit the opportunities that you will find. Barclays need to act socially responsible because this can give them competitive advantage through good media feedback and this will reflect on the way customers see the Barclays so reputation is important. A successful marketing plan is all about gaining competitive advantage. It is therefore virtually important you do assess all of your options carefully (Stone Phil 2001) References Stone, Phil. (2001) Develop a winning marketing plan, Oldroyd, Mike 2006 Marketing environment Drummond, G. Ensor, J. Ashford, R. 2008. Strategic Marketing : planning and control. 3rd edition. Amsterdam ; London: Butterworth-Heinemann Blythe, J. 2008 Essentials of Marketing 4th edition. Kotler, P. Armstrong, G. 2004 Principles of Marketing 10th edition. 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