How to Begin a Sentence With And or But

According to a usage note in the fourth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, But may be used to begin a sentence at all levels of style. And in The Kings English (1997), Kingsley Amis says that the idea that and must not begin a sentence, or even a paragraph, is an empty superstition. The same goes for but. Indeed either word can give unimprovably early warning of the sort of thing that is to follow.   The same point was made over a century ago by Harvard rhetorician Adams Sherman Hill: Objection is sometimes taken to employment of but or and at the beginning of a sentence; but for this, there is much good usage (The Principles of Rhetoric, 1896). In fact, it has been common practice to begin sentences with a conjunction since at least as far back as the 10th century. The Usage Myth Persists Still, the myth persists that and and but should be used only to join elements within a sentence, not to link one sentence to another. Here, for instance, is an edict found recently on an English professors Composition Cheat Sheet: Never begin a sentence with a conjunction of any kind, especially one of the FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so ). This same fussbudget, by the way, outlaws the splitting of infinitives  Ã¢â‚¬â€ another durable grammar myth. But at least the professor is in good company. Early in his career, William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker magazine, had a penchant for converting sentence-initial buts into howevers. As Ben Yagoda reports in When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It (2007), Shawns habit inspired one of the magazines writers, St. Clair McKelway, to compose this impassioned defense of but: If you are trying for an effect which comes from having built up a small pile of pleasant possibilities which you then want to push over as quickly as possible, dashing the readers hopes that he is going to get out of a nasty situation as easily as you have intentionally led him to believe, you have got to use the word but and it is usually more effective if you begin the sentence with it. But love is tricky means one thing, and however, love is tricky means another--or at least gives the reader a different sensation. However indicates a philosophical sigh; but presents an insuperable obstacle. . . .But, when used as I used it in these two places, is, as a matter of fact, a wonderful word. In three letters it says a little of however, and also be that as it may, and also heres something you werent expecting and a number of other phrases along that line. There is no substitute for it. It is short and ugly and common. But I love it. Know Your Audience Still, not everybody loves initial but. The authors of Keys for Writers (2014) note that some readers may raise an eyebrow when they see and or but starting a sentence in an academic paper, especially if it happens often. So if you dont want to see eyebrows raised, ration your use of these words at the beginnings of sentences.   But in any event, dont start scratching out your ands and  buts on my account.

Presentation dealing with uncertainty in the container shipping market PowerPoint Presentation

Essays on Presentation dealing with uncertainty in the container shipping market PowerPoint Presentation Slide 2 Maersk is an international Danish shipping company that deals in container shipping amongst others. The company has come from far to become one of the leading ship container operator. Maersk began has maintained its specialty in container shipping line, managing to rise steadily in the period after 1996. Its operations currently cover more than 135 countries. Among the services it provides include container logistics, services and forwarding. It operates a number of Maersk lines and runs as s conglomerate. Slide 3 Maersk is one the major players in the shipping industry. By volume and revenue, Maersk is the leading shipping company in the industry. It is important to understand that the shipping industry depends so much in global trade, so does Maersk. The industry remains stable as long as global trade volumes are stable. Any fluctuation in the global trade volumes would affect the industry directly, either positively or negatively. In fact, the last global recession did affect operations of the industry. It is also important to note that the shipping industry continues to offer the cheapest means for transportation of various products. Slide 4 A PESTEL analysis reveals that the industry is affected as follows. Political environment is the most volatile in international trade on which Maersk relies. Sanctions on various countries mean we can no longer deliver same volumes as before. Economic environment is quite manageable since the rules of the game are clear. The only concern is competition. Social environment only affect a small segment of Maersk target group while technology has remained easily adaptable. Environmental issues are a rising concern while legal environment has not been much of a challenge. Slide 5 Impact uncertainly matrix is such that political environment poses a serious threat with a high uncertainty and high level of impact on the business. Technological and social environments also pose medium uncertainty for the company although the level of impact from technology would be high in any inadaptable eventuality. Slide 6 The scenario cross from the business environment factors’ interaction would most likely result to the following outcomes. The political environment is highly uncertain and its impacts are likely to affect the business adversely. This is because it dictates whether to engage in business with other countries or not. The company can counter economic environment, therefore it has a moderate impact on the company operations. It is lowly uncertain for the company. Social environment is affected with emerging preferences among the youth. That is in regard to modes of delivery where many youth prefer air deliveries. However, that segment constitutes a very insignificant proportion of the company’s segment and returns. Technological environment has been changing but the company has managed to adjust to changes. Although it is likely to have a high impact on the organization, its uncertainty is moderate for the business. Environmental factor is an emerging issue in maritime busin ess, but the company has out in extra precautions to avoid disasters. It is lowly uncertain its impact is low since the company does not invest heavily in shipping risky products such as crude oil. Anything else is insurable and environmentally manageable. Legal environment is largely undeterminable since many countries keep revising their import regulations policies. Slide 7 The worst case scenario for that Maersk may face is high political uncertainty. It is important to realize that the political environment is responsible for approval and regulations of what sort of goods are trading at the world market. Although the market is free, it is only free to the extent to which one is engaging in buying and selling. However, it is not free to sanctions that may be imposed on countries with which Maersk may have large volume of trade. In the event that such sanctions are imposed, Maersk has no powers to make adjustments in the short run to counter such a move. Such changes in political environment are disastrous for the company. That is especially so because they also cause other ripple effects. Slide 8 Some of the examples in the worst-case scenario could include economic restrictions probably on Russia, Syria or Iran. Such restriction would impact negatively on the operations of the company. In fact, continued global politics standoff and escalations may make some importers resolve to airfreight. That is because airfreight delivery takes a relatively shorter time, thereby reducing risks. Slide 9 The best-case scenario for Maersk would be low uncertainty in economic environment and moderate impact on operations. It should be understood that not all the factors in the external environment operate in isolation. It is in that regard that the best-case scenario will be seen to be one that stands out strongly as in the event of a worst-case scenario in the industry. Low economic uncertainty would work I favour of Maersk particularly if high political uncertainty prevails. This is because the company would be in a position take advantage of its sheer market size and maximize of shipping line as smaller shipping companies find it unprofitable and unsustainable to conduct business as usual. That is also particularly so since Maersk’s competitors are also regionally based. Any shift in trade volumes may make their less expansive networks unprofitable and consequently unsustainable. Extended economic sanctions may make small competitors suspend shipping activities, which Maersk can exploit. Slide 10 In the above scenarios, the most appropriate response has to do with competitive and pricing strategy. The worst-case scenario has a number of indirect financial consequences for Maersk. To begin with, the company would have to pay for employees rendered jobless by reduced trade volumes. Even measures that can possibly mitigate the situation would come with financial implications such as additional insurance cost. Investment in large, medium and smaller shipping vessels would also cost the company in the short run. During such low shipping seasons, the company may also have to lower shipping costs to remain attractive. In such an incident, it can only hope to benefit from economies of scales. Slide 11 In the best-case scenario, the company should also adopt competitive and pricing strategy that best maximizes the opportunity. For instance, the business should insure the most probable risks on which they have no control. The company would also incur heavily by trying to set aside emergency funds for operations during high political uncertainty period. It would also cost the company additional finances to increase advertisement of its shipping activities. Such increased advertisement would be in a bid to grab a bigger share of the reduced container shipping market. Slide 12 In short, it is observable that a lot of uncertainty exists in container shipping as a global trade. Whenever there is relative global peace, the relative stability results in improved container shipping. Increased container shipping is usually a pointer for improved trade amongst nations. Even so, it is important to note that various environmental factors affect container shipping in different ways. Any change in such factors would affect the business operations. Bibliography Burnson, P., 2012. Ocean Freight: Container shipping’s â€Å"rate uncertainty† has impact on futures market. Retrieved from www.logisticsmgmt.com/view/container_shippings_rate_uncertainty_has_impact_on_fut ures_market/oceanfreight Holbrook, T.R., 2012. Territoriality and Tangibility After Transocean, Emory Law Journal, 61, 5, pp. 1087-1121. Jephson, C., and Morgen, H., 2014. Creating Global Opportunities: Maersk Line in Containerisation 1973-2013. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McCalla, R.J., Brian S., and Claude C., 2004. "Dealing With Globalisation At The Regional And Local Level: The Case Of Contemporary Containerization." Canadian Geographer 48.4: 473-487. Wu, W., 2012. Capacity utilization and its determinants for a container shipping line: theory and evidence, Applied Economics, 44, 27, pp. 3491-3502.

Buyer Behavior Integrated Marketing Free Essays

The problems on which this assignment focuses on is how can an organization understand and influence the demands and needs of a consumer by using consumer decision making model and the a decision sequence model which helps an organization define a set sequence in order to plan for its marketing and promotional strategy. The company that has been researched upon in the research paper is Automobili Lamborghini S. p. We will write a custom essay sample on Buyer Behavior Integrated Marketing or any similar topic only for you Order Now A that has recently launched its new SUV in the market which also happens to be the first SUV car from the company. The car is known is Lamborghini SUV and there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of when introducing and marketing the car in automobile arena. A consumer decision model will help the company in order to see how a particular group of consumers decides for a particular commodity. What are their preferences, their expectations, how can they be attracted, what is their taste, how well do they memorize a certain product, their loyalties to a particular brand, their interpretation from a product or marketing strategy and the knowledge that they possess. A consumer consciously or unconsciously using all these factors when going to buy a product thus in the case of Lamborghini SUV the consumer will again question himself on the above mentioned grounds (MacKenzie 1986). As given in the research done on the company, the main problems that the company tends to identify from the consumer behavior are; 1. What is the product 2. What is the target market 3. What are the substitutes 4. How does the price and value for money are correlated 5. Is the product a luxury item 6. What sort of a decision sequence model can be used Here is a brief answer to all of the questions mentioned above. As we all know that the product is a luxury SUV that is being marketed for the first time by the company, the company has to target to a specific group with specific characteristics. These people are supposed to be well to do by having good executive level jobs or running businesses and having a family of 2 to 3 persons. This suggests that the targeted customer should be more then 35 years of age but not more than 45 because that goes beyond the sporty and speedy characteristics of the car. The sport and speedy characteristics of the car open two marketing and targeting corridors for the company, that are, 1. executives and managing directors, (as discussed above) and 2. The existing sports cars clients who will then be filtered for having or not having a taste for a sports SUV. The problem is that the product that is in question in the research is quite expensive and thus it is not at all like marketing coke. Customers need to be educated and informed about the value and worth of the product that should be other than the actual cost price of the car (Bettman 1975). With reference to Blackwell, Miniard and Engel analytical framework, analyze the likely buying behavior of your target market, in terms of degree of problem solving, and identify the probable influences on this decision process. You should also identify any issues related to the information processing aspect, as this will inform task 3 With reference to Blackwell, Miniard and Engel, the decision of any consumer is based upon and involves two or more products that are substitutes to each other. For example a consumer might choose between going out for a movie or staying at home, for this matter going to movie and staying at home will serve to be as substitutes to each other. Similarly, in this of Lamborghini, the consumers have a range of choices. These choices include other sporty SUV’s that already in the market by competitor brands like BMW, Mercedes, Chrysler and others. Thus Lamborghini should look into the matter that what do consumers want in an SUV, how and what characteristics they should highlight to attract their customers. Blackwell, Miniard and Engel advocate the fact that there are a number of cognitive processes going on in a consumer mind while he makes purchase decisions. These cognitive decisions can be identified as consumer knowledge about the market and the product, beliefs and memories about information that a consumer gathers from marketing and promotional activities going on around them, their cognitive process of comprehension and lastly their integration cognitive process in which a consumer evaluates two or more choices and short lists to one final choice. This choice is made on the basis of certain behavioral decisions, thus the decision making process of a consumer can also be regarded as their decision plan. A Cognitive Process Model of Consumer Decision Making Lamborghini should keep in mind that its consumers will gather most of the information from their surroundings. Apart from their own marketing campaign, the consumers consciously and unconsciously are gaining information about the sporty cars, their models, information about other brands, performance of other SUV’s that come I the same category of sporty cars and much more. Consumers are exposed to TV shows, magazines, discussions and even get to see these products live at show rooms that they already a lot about the car. However, a marketer should always keep in mind that in order to attract a customer and give him what he wants, the product should be marketed in such a way that the consumer directly notices what he wants in the product without him being analyzing and comparing with other brands(Roberts 2000). The marketing campaign should highlight the characteristics of the product itself in the marketing campaign rather than letting the customer gather the information on his own that can also lead to possibilities that the customer may not be able to find those characteristics on his own. Same goes for Lamborghini, the company must market the new SUV in such a way that it highlights both its sporty nature and its symbol of power of status in order to cater both the target markets that have already been identified in the previous section. How to cite Buyer Behavior Integrated Marketing, Essays

Organizations in Global Environment Business Management

Question: Discuss about the Organizations in Global Environment for Business Management. Answer: Section 1 The assignment is about organisational structure and design. Organisational structure is the combination of the co-ordination among different departments, task allocation and supervision to achieve the organisational goals. Flow of information towards different tiers of the hierarchical structure is determined by the organisational structure. In case of centralised organisational structure, the decision making power are mostly accrued by the higher authority (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The study focuses on different types of organisational structure. The lecture talks about the different key elements of organisational structure such as work specialisation, departmentalisation, chain of command and span of control. Work specialisation leads to the need of department segmentation within the organisation. The chain of command flows from the superiors to the subordinates. The superior heads are functional head of the organisation, project manager and department head. The span of control de pends on the size of the team member (Laguna and Marklund 2013). The span of control is stronger if the number of employees is small. Organisational structure can be distinguished as mechanistic structure and organic structure. The characteristics of mechanistic structure are existence of high specialisation in each department, rigid departmentalisation with clear chain of command (Morris et al. 2012). Formalisation of rules and regulations are high in this structure. High formalisation leads to the centralisation of power in this organisation. The main characteristics of the organic structure are presence of cross hierarchical team in each department. This structure facilitates the organisation by allowing free flow of information across the hierarchy. Decentralisation of power is another important characteristic. In this structure, span of control is wide unlike the mechanistic structure. Main difference between these two types of structure lies in the internal environment. The in ternal environment of the mechanistic environment is stable and that of organic structure is dynamic. Organisation design provides a platform to the organisation in which it can exercise its goals and objectives. The main contingency factors for organisational design are environmental uncertainty and organisational structure, application of technology, organisational strategy and size of the organisation. In the changing external business environment, organic structure is more suitable. Based on the organisation hierarchy, the structure can be distinguished as simple, divisional and functional structure. The study has highlighted the presentation of matrix structure, which includes co-ordination among workers, team effort, dual chain command and requirement of specialists. Hofstedes classification of culture influences the team building in an organisation. The classification is done based on power distance, time orientation, comparison between quality and quantity of life, avoidance of uncertainty and comparison between individualism and collectivism (Wilden et al. 2013). The study highlights holacracy structure, which is characterised as self management in the organisation. This structure increases accountability and transparency in the organisation system. This structure differs from team based and bureaucracy structure as unlike these two structures, holocracy system is independent of hierarchy management. Therefore, decision making process is more flexible compared to other two. Section2 IBM took decision to enter into the business of personal computer during 1980. At the initial stage, the company started with 12 people. However, with the expansion of business, the number employee has increased. IBM is a learning organisation. It has improved its organisation structure and design responding to changing business needs. It has dynamic organisation culture and hierarchy. IBM started its business with mechanistic structure and its limited resources. However, with the expansion of business, the organisational structure has changed to organic. Free flow of information has changed the internal business environment. Divisional structure is followed in IBM. The hierarchy is divided according to geography. Decision making Section 1 The lecture is about decision making process of different economic agents. Different group of individual has different perspective of decision making. A loan manager of a bank takes decision based on profitability. However, the profitability depends on the liquidity in the economy. The decision making leads to benefit of the society (Glimcher and Fehr 2013). A treasurer takes decision to make profit. In order to make profit, the treasurer has to expand the business. The business expansion requires investment in large equipment. Decision making process of every agent has three processes such as choosing among the alternative, implementation and evaluation (Scott and Davis 2015). The decision has to identify the best possible options before undertaking a project. For optimum decision making, the decision maker has to make a cost benefit analysis. The project, which has least cost, needs to be undertaken. For example, a car company can take decision to stop the car or alternatively chos e to launch new type of SUV. The reason behind this decision is either dropping demand in car market or the supply may have exceeded than demand (Snyder and Diesing 2015). Therefore, there would be a specific reason for every decision making. Three perspectives of decision making are ration, bounded and intuition. A payoff matrix helps in optimal decision making. In the view of Simon, economic man takes decision to maximise utility. However, the administrative man satisfies the decision maker rather than maximisation. Rational decision maker chooses mini-max strategy. The bounded decision maker uses simplified model and satisfactory decision. In contrast, intuition is based on experience. Intuition is cognitive and value based. The pessimist decision maker chooses maximin strategy, the optimists choose maximax strategy and the neutral chooses minimax strategy (Dane, Rockmann and Pratt 2012). Decision making conditions are certainty of event, risk of occurrence and uncertainty. In ca se of certainty, the outcome is known. In case of uncertain event, the outcome is not known. Therefore, uncertain event is associated with risks. The type of various decision-making is described as ill structured and well structured based on programming. Section 2 In the market of personal computer, there are numerous firms. Dell is popular computer manufacturing firm. Consumer chooses the product based on quality and price. In competitive market, there are other factors that can influence demand for PC and laptop. Reliability, warranty, weight, screen size and resolution and price are the determinant factors. Consumer considers the factors before purchasing laptop. In this case, consumes are the rational decision makers. On the other hand, the manager of Dell applies intuition in decision making. Intuitive decision maker applies past experience in the market of PC and laptop. References Dane, E., Rockmann, K.W. and Pratt, M.G., 2012. When should I trust my gut? Linking domain expertise to intuitive decision-making effectiveness.Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,119(2), pp.187-194. Glimcher, P.W. and Fehr, E. eds., 2013.Neuroeconomics: Decision making and the brain. Academic Press. Scott, W.R. and Davis, G.F., 2015.Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open systems perspectives. Routledge. Snyder, G.H. and Diesing, P., 2015.Conflict among nations: Bargaining, decision making, and system structure in international crises. Princeton University Press. Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014.Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson. Laguna, M. and Marklund, J., 2013.Business process modeling, simulation and design. CRC Press. Morris, W., Volosskiy, B., Demir, S., GaÃÅ' ndara, F., McGrier, P.L., Furukawa, H., Cascio, D., Stoddart, J.F. and Yaghi, O.M., 2012. Synthesis, structure, and metalation of two new highly porous zirconium metalorganic frameworks.Inorganic chemistry,51(12), pp.6443-6445. Wilden, R., Gudergan, S.P., Nielsen, B.B. and Lings, I., 2013. Dynamic capabilities and performance: strategy, structure and environment.Long Range Planning,46(1), pp.72-96.