Luxor Cosmetics

Luxor Cosmetics Case Luxor Cosmetics is in a difficult situation in which changes need to be made. There a few items that need immediate attention. Per an evaluation of the account balance trends, their inventory only increases every year, for example: Lipstick’s inventory increase is about 20% per year; Nail Polish increase is about 20% per year, leveling out at $11 million in 2009 -2010.Their Creams inventory remains constant, since the cream’s market is a totally different concept, it does not follow a trend in innovation and changes so often as the other products. The surplus in inventory is a big disadvantage since; last year’s products may not be in style this year in addition to the cost of storage. For all these reasons their cash flow is less in comparison with previous years causing that Luxor Cosmetics keeps increasing their bank loans, creating more debt, making it harder to pay out as 2011.Some of the strategies I believe that may help improve Luxor Cosmetics shrinking market are: For example, improving their marketing strategies, by being more aggressive in their cream’s campaign, targeting the different potential customers and not limiting to the older ones only, but to include women from 20 years old. They also should take advantage of the fact that according to market research, during the last decade nail polish sales is significantly larger that lipstick.Considering this information Luxor Cosmetics can increase their sales by promoting new colors that change with the season, there is a large variety of shades, textures, colors and other trendy characteristics that can be promoted. Other important changes or strategies that should be considered by Luxor Cosmetics is to try to get rid of the old merchandise by creating an online discount web page, in which last year’s products can be sold at a lower price targeting different costumers with different needs and incomes.This way their inventory would decrease and their cash flow would increase. Also they should base their production in forecast analysis of demand, this way, they wouldn’t have so much inventory left from previous seasons. As a conclusion I can say that Luxor Cosmetics is on time to make the necessary changes to bring their business back to life. Innovation is the word that should be included in every new product and every advertizing campaign, they should develop new lines and new products, maybe even different packaging to impress their customers.

Personal Philosophy of Leadership

Personal Philosophy of Leadership Being a leader is more than simply holding a leadership position or having the ability to lead. Everyone is capable of being a leader, but not everyone exercises his or her leadership abilities. Each person’s idea of leadership is different. My idea of leadership has developed over time, and being a member of the President’s Leadership Class has helped me develop my philosophy of leadership further than what it was two months ago. My personal philosophy of leadership is the ability to effect change through leading by example, taking initiative, and encouraging others.There have been many things that have affected my philosophy of leadership. Something that has affected me as a leader is my values. One of my core values is responsibility. As a leader, it is important I understand what to do and what is expected of me. When I am responsible as a leader, those I am trying to lead are more willing to do what I ask them to do. Another of my values is respect. In the past, I am always nice and listen to the ideas of others even if they are not the easiest people to be around. In my experience, it has been easier to earn the respect of my constituents when I respect them as well.My core beliefs will continue to influence my behavior as a leader in the future. The development of my leadership philosophy has also been a result of watching my leaders. One leader that has affected me a lot has been my father. When my mom was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, he did all he could to help out. He took constant care of my mom, continued to work from home, and helped me with school without ever complaining. I try to behave as he did in my leadership roles. I do everything willingly and help out as much as I can.I aim to keep negativity out of already stressful situations and try not to complain. My leaders at school, both good and bad, have also affected my style of leadership. They helped me learn when I need to sit ba ck and let those I am trying to lead take charge and when I need to take charge of the situation. Watching the bad leaders do things I did not agree with encouraged me to challenge to process and change things when I became a leader. There have also been people who have motivated me to be a leader, especially my high school orchestra director.At the end of my junior year, my director called me into his office and told me he would be moving me from the first violin section to the second violin section. He said he knew I was quiet in the back of the first violin section, but he could see I possessed the leadership skills necessary to sit in the front of the second violin section. This really motivated me to try and make him proud the next year at the front of the section. Many different aspects of my life have affected my leadership philosophy. I want others to be able to see my leadership philosophy at work.To do this, it is important that I be able to connect with those I seek to le ad, as â€Å"The Relational Leadership Model† states, â€Å"Relationships are the focal point of the leadership process† (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, p. 74). One way I hope to develop a relationship with my followers is by â€Å"Modeling the Way† (Kouzes, Posner, 2008). I will do this by clarifying my values and leading by example. Clarifying values is important because â€Å"To earn and sustain personal credibility, one must be able to clearly articulate deeply held beliefs† (Kouzes, Posner, 2008, p. 9). By clarifying my values, those I seek to lead will understand my mission and will believe I have a goal in mind. Leading by example will help me have a better relationship with my followers because it creates â€Å"a climate that makes it possible for everyone to align themselves with shared values† (Kouzes, Posner, 2008, p. 38). When leaders do not practice what they preach they loose their credibility, and I want my followers to be able to ta ke me seriously. I would like my followers to be able to connect with me and to align their values with mine.Through â€Å"Modeling the Way†, I want to be able to have a good relationship with my followers. My philosophy of leadership will also affect my future as a leader. I will place an emphasis on my values because â€Å"a conscious focus on values should be at the core of any leadership development effort† (Cilente, p. 45). One of my future principles I lead with will be to make sure everyone in the organization’s values align with mine. How would I be able to make any process when everyone in the group wants something else?This is something I had never considered before being a member of the President’s Leadership Class. The President’s Leadership Class has helped influence my philosophy of leadership. I have learned my strengths and weaknesses of leadership through the class. After doing my first reflection paper, I learned that my weakest a rea of leadership is â€Å"Inspiring a Shared Vision. † This helped shape my leadership philosophy by making me realize the importance of sharing my aspirations with the group. I have learned that I need to be louder with my thoughts. This is one area I intend to improve on n my future as a leader. I plan on doing this through practice. I may be uncomfortable at first, but, eventually, it will come naturally to me. The Social Change Model of Leadership says, â€Å"A leader is not necessarily a person who holds some formal position of leadership or who is perceived as a leader by others†¦Leadership cannot be described simply in terms of the behavior of the individual† (Komives, Wagner, p. 45). My definition of leadership is the ability to create a positive change in society and be able to get others excited to see that change.I want to be the embodiment of that definition to others. When others look at me, I want them to be able to say I set an example, have clear attainable views, and make everyone feel like they are contributing to the organization. My personal philosophy of leadership is very important to how I conduct myself as a leader. It has taken years to develop to what it is today and it is constantly changing. Many aspects of my life have affected my philosophy of leadership from my values, to leaders in my life, and people who have motivated me. I will continue to develop my leadership with philosophy as I go through new leadership experiences.References Komives, Susan R. , Lucas, Nance, & McMahon, Timothy R. (2006). Exploring Leadership: For College Students Who Want to Make a Difference. Jossey-Bass. Komives, Susan R. , & Wagner, Wendy. (2009). Leadership for a Better World: Understanding the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. John Wiley & Sons. Kouzes, James M. , & Posner, Barry Z. (2008). The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Exemplary Leaders. San Francisco, California. Jossey-Bass.

Article Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Article Summary - Essay Example The author herself says that she combines all these, incongruous at the first sight, painting styles and cultures trying to find the lost identity. Hayv Kahraman is twenty eight, she was born in Baghdad and she is very proud of being an Iraqi; at the age of ten she mowed to Sweden with all her family, then she started attending school at the Academy of Art and Design in Florence; Hayv studied graphic design, but displayed a great interest in classical arts. In the academy she met her future husband and together they moved to Arizona. For the first time Hayv Kahraman felt depressed and was so to say isolated from the world of Art so, she put all her energy into her pictures. Five of her works were bought by Charles Saatchi a lot of other pictures were displayed and sold during different exhibitions held in the Third Line gallery in Dubai and the New York gallery. The Kahraman’s recent works consolidated under the name â€Å"Domestic Marionettes† reflect the authors consi derations about the women’s life in the

Choose a Psychology-related JOURNAL ARTICLE Essay

Choose a Psychology-related JOURNAL ARTICLE - Essay Example Creativity constitutes the dependent variable for this research; however, the authors acknowledge that the directionality of the relationship between the two variables is not so obvious. Providing a conceptual and operational understanding for the concept of creativity, the authors clearly explain several essential personality traits such as tolerance of ambiguity, self-confidence and intrinsic motivation. They also use the theory of five personality traits (McCrae, & Costa, 1999) that they believe correlate with creativity. Maddux and Galinsky believe that precisely openness to experience is the most significant of these traits, which is fully congruent with their hypothesis. The literature review provided in the introductory section also describes some essential characteristics of multicultural and diverse experiences, especially the experience of living abroad. The findings of the present research are based on analysis of five empirical studies that seek to explain how foreign experience might be relates to creativity. Creativity is measured through the performance of participants on different creativity tasks in different studies The first two studies focus on the question of how does the duration of time spent abroad impacts on creativity. The first study involves a sample size of 205 university students. Among the independent measures there were the age, gender, nationality and if the respondents have ever lived or traveled abroad and the duration of they staying abroad. The dependent measure of the study consisted of classification of result of creativity task. The authors revealed statistically significant association between performance of the individual on creativity task and the duration of living abroad. Besides, they revealed a significant and negative association between the duration of traveling abroad and the creativity as measured through task performance. Such finding is in line with the

Reducing mental health recidivism in corectional facilities Article

Reducing mental health recidivism in corectional facilities - Article Example The research revealed that mental illness treatment and employment services are the most effective methods that can be used to reduce mental health recidivism in correctional facilities. Introduction Mental health recidivism refers to the relapse of a prisoner’s mental health due to provision of improper rehabilitation services. Criminals, who do not receive proper mental health treatment during imprisonment, show a higher degree of recidivism as compared to the prisoners who receive proper rehabilitation services. Rate of recidivism is the degree to which criminals come back to prison either for the same offense or for some other criminal offense. A higher rate of recidivism indicates lack of rehabilitation services for prisoners because of which they cannot stop themselves from relapsing into criminal activities upon release from the prisons. It also increases government expenses in terms of incarceration and trial expenses, as well as causes threat to the overall peace of s ociety. On the other hand, a lower degree of mental health recidivism indicates presence of a proper correctional management system which performs its role efficiently to improve the negative mindset of criminals. A number of mental health recidivism-reduction methods are available which can help correctional officers reduce the rate of recidivism among prison inmates. Some of those methods include educational programs, employment programs, treatment programs, parole based programs, and faith based programs. However, mental illness treatment and employment programs work best for reducing mental health recidivism rates. In this paper, we will examine the extent to which mental illness treatment and employment programs help prisoners recover from mental illness and serve the society as normal citizens. We will review existing literature to gather detailed information. Methodology We used questionnaires and personal interviews to determine the role of mental illness treatment and emplo yment programs in reducing the rate of mental health recidivism. We interviewed ten correctional officers and twenty-five prisoners from three different prisons to gather information about the current rate of recidivism and the types of rehabilitation services that are provided to prisoners. The questionnaire was able to obtain relevant information about the past imprisonment histories of the prisoners. The prisons visited for research included Albion Correctional Facility, Bare Hill Correctional Facility, and Buffalo Correctional Facility. All of these prisons are located in New York. Results The results of the research indicated that rehabilitation services being provided to prisoners in these prisons are not up to the standards. The recidivism reduction programs implemented in Albion Correctional Facility and Bare Hill Correctional Facility include treatment for substance abuse, treatment for mental illness, and employment programs. On the other hand, the recidivism reduction tec hniques being used in Buffalo Correctional Facility include employment and educational programs. One-third of the mentally ill prisoners revealed that they have been imprisoned for more than two times in their lives. They said that correctional officers do not give proper attention to the needs of mentally

Information technology project management Assignment

Information technology project management - Assignment Example iew, variance analysis, Schedule compression, Resource leveling   Decomposition shall help the Project activities timed better, expert judgment will be required to budget time for various activities, dependency determination shall help sequence activities such that project delays can be minimized or mitigated, floats shall be determined to ascertain the flexibility in the project to makeup for any unwanted delays, Three point estimation shall help in arriving at more realistic estimates of project activity duration Project Cost Management    Expert judgment, Cost of quality, Three point estimates, Variance analysis Expert judgment shall be required to determine the activity and project costs and make cost budget, Cost of quality must be determined to make cost benefit decisions when faced with conflicting cost heads, Three point estimates shall give better estimates of costs, Variance analysis will help in keeping the project costs on track Project Quality Management   Cost ben efit analysis, Quality Audits, Control Charts   A cost benefit analysis will help balance activity cost with activity quality and will help us choose between two activities and their extent and scope, Quality audits will keep the quality levels for the activities on track, Control charts shall give an overview of the project quality performance and help keep a check on the same Project Human Resource Management   Organizational charts, Virtual teams, Training, Team building activities, Recognition and awards, Project performance appraisal, Conflict management   Organizational charts will be required to have a clarity as to the project roles and responsibilities, Virtual teams need to be created since the project covers more than one distant geographic company locations, Team building activities will be required to keep the project team bond better and develop work based understanding to help prevent any confusions and bottlenecks owing to the same, Project performance appraisa l shall serve as a tool to encourage good performance and will be crucial in control project progress, Conflict management might be required in order to keep any interpersonal problems from threatening the project performance Project Communications Management   Expert judgment, Communications requirement analysis, Stakeholder feedbacks, Face to Face meetings, Performance reports   Expert judgment will be required to make the formal as well informal communication effective, communications structure shall be determined through a requirement analysis, stakeholder feedbacks shall be sought to help improve their knowledge about project progress and find a realistic thrust of their

Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 15

Research paper - Essay Example Therefore, this could not have come at the right time. Jack caught the shoplifter and asked her to accompany him to the security area for the necessary interrogations. Interestingly, as Jack escorted the female shoplifter to the security area, her male counterpart yelled and swore that the women did not deserve such treatment. On their way to the security office, Jack instructed the man who was in the company of the shoplifter to remain outside the security office as his presence in the interrogations was of secondary importance. Oblivious of the implications, the partner forced himself into the security room while at the same time yelling, swearing, and pointing accusing fingers at Jack’s face. He also referred to Jack as a â€Å"Nigga† meaning a black man. In a reactionary mood, Jack responded to the situation by hitting the customer in his stomach. This commotion forced Chris to alert the police, and both customers were apprehended. However, pursuant to the Grocery policies, employee code of conduct prohibits aggression and violence within the premises. Moreover, the policy forbids fights and any forms of physical confrontations at the workplace. Taking these policy provisions into consideration, Jack had gone through an elaborate training exposing him to get a proper grip of the company policy on workplace violence. This comprehensive training given to Jack offers the impression that he was liable to any action that violates the company policy provisions. In light of this stance, Jack was fired due to abuse of the nonviolence policy. Furthermore, he had a moral obligation to shape the errant customer in the spirit of the company policy stipulations. Apart from the dismissal, Jack was sued for the unfair portrayal of his nationality. This paper is an expository analysis of three case laws including; Ali vs. Roggers, Zeinali vs. Raytheon Co., and Rashidan vs. Geissberger . According to the

What's Up with the Weather by Jon Palfreman Essay

What's Up with the Weather by Jon Palfreman - Essay Example Wigly of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and conservative scientists and industrialists including James Tefril and Fred Singer of George Mason University and Fred Palmer of the Western Fuels Association. The subject : The burning of fossil fuels increases atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, exacerbating the "greenhouse effect." According to Fred Palmer from Western Fuels, "There is no basis to say that more carbon dioxide in the air is going to lead to a catastrophic global warming." But Marty Hobert of New York University states that "If man is going to have a future on this planet, it is absolutely inevitable we must find another source of energy." Tom Wigly of the National Center for Atmospheric Research believes that the time for mankind is near an end, that due to the doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the average world temperature will soon rise five degrees Celsius, eight degrees Fahrenheit. Fred Singer and Jamjes Tefril of George Mason University find the data ambiguous. "You're dealing with something that's very complicated," says Teferil. "You're dealing with something where there's legitimate uncertainty in the science." In 1997 Charles Keeling published forty years of observations which showed a rise in carbon dioxide levels from 330 to 370 parts per million, directly attributable to the use of fossil fuels by industry.

Journal Review Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Journal Review - Article Example The identification of these profiles are said to help career counselors in assisting their clients in developing career plans The population consisted of lawyers and computer field men. The samples consisted of 213 workers aged 20-50 years in the computer software and hardware field, specifically 126 men and 87 women. They were from five computer companies and four private law firms in the Tel Aviv area. The vast majority were said to report that they belonged to the upper- middle socioeconomic class. The researchers used cluster analysis and had identified three groups of individuals who differed systematically on attributions of relative importance to work and family roles. The report, however, did not mention about the exact sample size taken from what could have been the population; neither was the response rate reported. The findings reported were that there are three distinct groups of participants who differ systematically in their attributions of importance to work and to family roles and in their significant family- and work-related variables. The research also said that incompatible pressures from the work and family domains have predictably different influences on diverse groups of people characterized by the importance they attribute to life roles. Ad... Additional findings point out that support from the spouse and support from the manager was associated with positive influences between the domains. Differences in attribution to work or family were also related to variation in work and family variables such as hours invested in paid work and the receipt of spousal support. The researchers also said that the research demonstrated that the level of W3F (Work, Work, Work, Family) conflict is higher than the level of F3W (Family, Family, Family, Work) conflict even among dual profile members. The research said that apparently the family domain is more susceptible to interference from work than is the work domain from the family. Do the sampling procedures used justify the findings of the study The findings may boast of having used the most sophisticated forms of analysis, but the sampling procedures have to equal such meticulous care. As earlier mentioned, the report did not mention the exact population size; therefore there is no way to size up the sample and the response rate. On account of this, it is now moot to be debating with the findings and how they were presented. Even then, the study analyzed the responses of married persons only, but it was not explained why. In fact, it had eliminated 29 questionnaires due to respondents' non-married status. What is true, however, is that there are married persons who can be said to enjoy lesser stress because of support in their home functions, while there are singles who are heavily bound with home chores. Clearly, civil status is not an adequate measure for presence or absence of possible stress, hence, the study should have explained its preference for married people. It is possible to be non-married and yet be a parent. Utilized by the