Why Don't You Go Outside and Make Some Money!

Review:SM THOMPSON
The New Yorker caption today reads .... Why don't you go outside and make some money .. . with the characters indoors and one of the characters is slumped in an armchair ............ well, perhaps because so many people are encouraged to stay at home to work at home or get to it and dig the garden at the weekends. I spent my life commuting to London and I often envied those whose jobs were home based as I rose at Dawn ready to catch the early morning train to London to get to work before 8 o'clock in the morning and I returned on the 5 o'clock train in the late afternoon amidst a darkened skyline and a lot of those whom I knew well were fellow commuters like myself, and we developed into quite a band dare I say it, a Top Set band. More so, than the neighbours and communities I left behind each and every day

at my home where I was permanently based. I suppose as a woman I must have held to that pioneering spirit as most of my fellow commuters were men but when I got to work the balance in London was not 50 .. 50 . it inclined towards more men than women. So perhaps the answer to the question posed by the New Yorker is that its more profitable to stay At Home than to travel or commute to London as afterall the hard work certainly goes into the commuting. So, its up to the individual but I would suggest you go out there and see what's what and not hang about the home all the time as it may lower your horizons and cut short your expectations ....... Hard Work Pays Up!
Why Don't You Go Outside and Make Some Money! Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/travel/outdoors/2088101-don-outside-money/

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale

Review:MichelleB
If you love the story the Beauty and the Beast, then try this magical adaptation that blends ancient Chinese mythology with fairy tale romance (and a hearty dose of sibling rivalry):

Long ago in China there lived a poor farmer and his seven daughters. One day, a fierce dragon pounced on the farmer and demanded that he give up one of his daughters to be his wife – or meet certain death! The farmer begged his oldest daughter, One, for help, but she ran away. The second oldest, Two, also refused. So did Three. Finally Seven, the youngest, prettiest, and kindest daughter, humbly agreed to marry the creature to save her father. The dragon flew Seven to his palace under the sea. He magically transformed from a hideous beast to a handsome prince and showered his new bride with riches beyond her wildest dreams. While she loved her husband dearly (and the riches were a nice perk), Seven longed to see her family. Her husband allowed her to return home to visit.

Big mistake!

In a delicious new twist that diverges from the sugarplum Disney version (sorry Belle), Seven returned for a homecoming she will never forget. It turns out that her older sister, Three, had been jealous of Seven their whole lives. Now that Seven had a handsome husband, fine jewels, beautiful clothes, and servants to cater to her every whim, Three was absolutely livid (of course, Three had initially turned down the chance to marry the dragon, but that’s beside the point). Three creates a wicked plan to get rid of her sister and take her place in the dragon’s palace. Author Laurence Yep weaves a fascinating tale right down to the happily ever after ending that will enchant fairy tale fans of all ages.

Readers who love fairy tales with a twist may also enjoy Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India or The Rumplestiltskin Problem. Or try Beastly, a beauty and the beast tale with an urban flavor (click on links below).

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/books/children-and-youth/2029698-dragon-prince-chinese-beauty-beast/

Workers’ Compensation Insurance

Review:IonutCatalinPetrila
Workers’ Compensation Insurance

About this type of Insurance

Workers' Compensation Insurance represents an insurance system that helps workers who get injured while on the job to cover a disability, medical care or just lost wages. Another beneficial right represents the immunity granted for workers in order to protect them from civil lawsuits caused by injuries.

What happens to the workers?
As the industrial sector grew, the demand for safety protocols grew as well. Injuries among workers became a common issue for employers. Safety standards are now imposed to protect the workers although workers became more reluctant about giving up parts of their wages for safety. The employer needs to grant his worker compensation insurance as well as the wager. This covers the full time employees, seasonal employees as well as the part time employees. Injured workers should receive medical treatment and if necessary, total disability payment which consists of two thirds of the salary. If the worker becomes unable to conduct his service to the employer for a period of two weeks, the latter pays his employee for only three days. If the injury causes death then the worker’s successors receive the necessary insurance funding. The employer can have a marginal cost of an accident which can rise or fall. This depends on the extent to which information is conveyed and if subrogation is permitted. That’s why companies can become more or less willing to insure safety. Workers need to report their injury immediately so they can excuse for work on a real pretext so the claim can be real and subjected to verification.

Risk levels
There is a delay between the achievement of an environment which renders safer work and the insurance premiums reduction of about two years. The time delay until the adjustment made to the full premium is about five years. Because it takes to ascertain the correct risk levels and the true risk levels of some firms, data needs to be processed by insurance carriers. These delays have a diminishing incentives effect for firms, as their managerial abilities may lack long planning spread. Workers’ Compensation premiums and some adjustments are pretty small.

Even though there may come with a thirty per cent discount off a premium which has a two per cent payroll, it only saves the company 0.5 per cent of the payroll. This sum is pretty small for companies. Insurance companies may choose no to promote the experience rating for a better safety. The rates remain the same which may or may not lack experience. An assumption travels among workers that the costs of the Compensation Insurance if just another form of compensating a wage difference. Compensation programs are just there to provide fund benefits which differ from a work class to another, although at a general glance, the benefits have grown for the last decades for each particular type of work. Although the substantial benefits still don’t reflect entirely the worker’s preferences, in some cases it might reflect workers' preferences if the compensation is correlated with wages or injury rates then the benefit levels are right. The probability of injury and the loading charge combined with risk preferences, and on may also depend on the degree of experience rating and hazard. The level of compensation cannot fit each worker though.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/business-management/investing/2118380-workers-compensation-insurance/

Tips to Build a Successful Investment Portfolio

Review:Max9686
With each passing day, there are numerous stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc that demand the attention of prospective investors. It is quite a challenge when trying to decide where you would wish to invest your hard earned funds for better returns.

In order to build a profitable portfolio, an investor must never put all his 'eggs (funds) in one basket'. It is important to stay invested for a combination of short term and long term duration.

A few useful tips as mentioned below would save a lot of trouble in understanding the basics behind investing funds:

- know your financial goals (both short term and long term). As a priority first focus on childhren's education or retirement. Whatever be your futuristic vision, set your goals and have a plan to meet them.

- clearly outline the time required for your investments. If you are not planning your retirement anytime soon or if it is faraway then you must have long term investments, while on the contrary if your retirement is just a few years down the line, then you must have short term investments that will bring spurts of liquidity post retirement.

- determine your tolerance for risk (because of market volatility). In other words how much can you afford to lose ...5% 7% 11% etc. Therefore the longer your investment duration - the bigger risk you can take.

- the future is uncertain, hence when faced with a dilemma...follow the golden rule - ASK / CONSULT a financial expert, to avoid financial pitfalls and get guidance on working with your investment portfolio.

Whatever be your academic background, it is your duty to stay financially prudent for all times to come. There are a whole lot of educational tools, market insight on investment products etc for a first time investor or those who persevere the path to stay invested.

Tips to Build a Successful Investment Portfolio Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/business-management/investing/2119160-tips-build-successful-investment-portfolio/

Marketing Management

Review:sreeram
Marketing a “Process”

It has been interesting to observe that marketing is viewed by many as being advertising .sales promotion or merely selling and in some cases .consumer research .Undoubtedly ,advertising and sales people need an appreciation for such close identification to a concept which is far more than any of them alone .And no wonder why critics of marketing often lash out at marketing functions in India. For according to them ,advertising sales [promotion and other such expenditures are unwarranted in an economy , which is characterized by shortages of crucial resources .The critics point of view is based on a limited appreciation of a marketer’s task ,viz., demand generation. In order to appreciate the role of marketing ,it is important to examine this term more closely and its impact on organization functioning .marketing can be understood as a concept ,a process and as a managerial function.

The concept of marketing is essentially a concept of customer orientation .For long time it has been preached by all ,including Mahatma Gandhi, that the customer is king .What this implies is that products/services are bought not merely because of their quality ,packaging or brand name ,etc., but because they satisfy a specific need of a customer .It also implies that organization have to provide service to their customer and that too without any obligation .In other words, marketing means understanding and responding to customers needs ,a prerequisite for any organization’s success.And this cannot be ignored by any organization in today’s competitive environment .

However, to be successful. Any organization has also to be competition-oriented ,It has to continuously determine its competition advantage and should take steps to further augment it. Thus, the marketing concept involves:
Customer orientation
Competition orientation
The ability to respond to environment changes (changes in consumer needs, competition ,government policy ,technology ,etc) before the competition.

Companies like Asian paints and non-profits organizations like CRY, having understood this marketing concept, have emerged as market leaders with their products/services

Till now we have understood marketing as a concept Let us examine it as a process.
The process of marketing involves an exchange transaction between the buyer and the seller .In this form , the origin of marketing can perhaps be traced to the first known human civilization. The barter system is well-known to us. Today, in this system , money has replaced the commodity ,What is then the difference between marketing and barter other than the means of exchange? The difference lies in the fact that marketing emphasizes on the mutual satisfaction of both—the buyer and the seller .In this exchange transaction the underlying assumption is the development of a long-term relationship between them. The buyer’s gain is the satisfaction on the purchase and the subsequent consumption of the product, whereas the seller’s gain is the profit that he/she makes on such a transaction. If the buyer is not satisfied , then the transaction has been, at best, a selling transaction ,and if the seller does not make a profit , then it has been a dumping transaction Thus to be termed as a marketing transaction, the exchange must result in mutual satisfaction to both the buyer and the seller. The essence of this is:
Marketing is an exchange process—both buyer and seller must have something to give to each other,
Both the buyer and the seller must gain.
It should result in a long term satisfying relationship between both of them—relationship management is crucial to successful business.
Therefore ,it can be concluded that marketing as a process involves
Understanding the customers interests
Serving them in such a way that it helps the selling organization to fulfil its objective –profit maximization .Surely this definition would lead many readers to re look at various purchase situations where the sales personn or the owner of a firm paid little interest to know what he/she wanted ,We might have been “talked Into” to “ virtues” of the product or manufacturing or seller .But once the customer realizes that these “virtues” do not exist, he/ she never goes back to repeat the choice ,Not only this, the customer even dissuades others
In today’s competitive world, it is therefore ,important for organization to exami8ne ways and means to develop mutually satisfying long term relationship with their buyers .According to Jonathan R Copulsky and Michael J Wolf, the relationship marketing process incorporation the following three main elements.
Identifying and building a database of current and prospective buyers/consumers –including complete details on demographics and psychographics of the target group of consumers as also their purchasing .
Based on the above , to evolve a differentiated marketing communication strategy in terms of message content and channel selection.
Monitoring each relationship to ensure continued growth in customer’s purchases.
Thus the crux of marketing process is the identification of consumer needs and serving them by providing an effective service,
MARKETING MANAGEMENT Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/f/business-management/marketing/59110-marketing-management/

Best Marketing Strategy of the Year

Review:arvindkatoch
Recently the marketing strategy of a publishing house in India is very successful. Even recently they have celebrated their success. Definitely this is the master pieces of marketing strategies. This strategy has giving full emphasis to the psychology of Indians. This publishing house is none other than Reader’s Digest.
Reader digest is already a successful name in India. Therefore it is easy to accept any offer from it. In the end of last year, people received mails or letters from Reader digest, telling they are chosen lucky winner for entering Reader digest Sweepstakes draw. In addition they are also entitled to 40% discount in subscription of Reader Digest and one to three free gift depending upon draw.
If reader digest is saying this. Therefore it looked genuine offer. More over 40% discount on reader digest is good offer. This entry allows a person three benefits first entry into a sweepstakes draw, second discounted reader digest and third is one to three free gifts. This mail and letter further offer if you subscribe know, then you will definitely get three gifts.
This strategy helped the Reader digest to increase its base in India comprehensively. Success rate you this market strategy is very high. Strategy does not stop here. When one opt for reader digest subscription, he was sent a entry form for draw to be sent back to Reader digest. Here again are more offers. If one choose to buy from the set of Reader digest books, then we can increase his sweepstakes entry.
If the person does not have money to buy these expensive books, the he can do the part payment in installments. In this way, these book come in the paying capacity of many. Things does not stop here, You got one more offer with book to enhance you chance for draw. This circle goes on continuously. Reader digest result in getting much more sales.
People does not default payments, because with the reminder of payments, a new letter for increasing their entry is sanded. This result’s in pretty handsome sales and return payment. In India people are very favorable for lotteries. If someone allows them to get more then 1 crore, so without paying for tickets. They are most happy.
But there are flaws in strategy. First the gifts are not the up to mark. Secondly it is more of sale and less of draw. Reader had claimed that draw will be done in the month of August 2005. But still up to September there is no news of it. Secondly strategies are defined properly. We got the repeated entries for same draw. Coordination among different departments is also poor.
Best Marketing Strategy of the Year Originally published in Shvoong: http://www.shvoong.com/f/internet-and-technologies/16382-best-marketing-strategy-year/