Financial Analysis of M&S Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Financial Analysis of M&S - Essay Example An important point to make here is that M&S is a UK based brand with 50% of its stores being in the UK. Its revenue generation is mostly derived from UK operations which accounts for 90% of the total revenue of the company. The company has shown a steady increase in the revenues in the last three years. In 2011 the revenue increased by 2%, followed by the same in the year 2012. However, the operating profits in the last two years haven’t increased in the same line. In the year 2011, the operating profit was  £836.9m which fell to  £746.5m, resulting in operating profit margin of 9.53% in 2011 and 8.84% in 2012. This clearly shows that company’s cost control is weak and the cost of goods sold hasn’t increased in the same line as revenues. The reason for such instability in profits for 2012 is the expansion and improvement plan the company is implementing till 2013 which will result in increased sales and satisfied consumers in the future. Because of the very r easons the company has experienced the increased cost of sale, interest expense, administrative and selling expenses. Similarly, the company’s net profit margin has also decreased from 8.13% in 2011 to 7.54% in 2012. The company’s return on capital employed (ROCE) has been increasing at a slow pace from being 17.24% in 2010, 19.0% in 2011 which declined to 18.8% in 2012. The reason for declining ROCE can be linked to declining PAT of the company accompanied by an increase in the total assets. (MARKSANDSPENCER. 2012) The company’s gearing ratio has decreased in last three years. In 2010, the company had a gearing ratio of 108.6% which was a lot, in the year 2011, the company reduced its long-term liabilities and the ratio fell to 76.91% which further was decreased to 74.54% in 2012. The reason for falling gearing ratio is the fall in the total liabilities of the company, which is beneficial as it will reduce in lower interest payments.

The Dynamic and Ever-changing Hansel and Gretel Essay -- Exploratory E

The Dynamic and Ever-changing Hansel and Gretel Most fairy-tale aficionados have a static view of their favorite stories. That is, indeed, part of the glory which these tales hold†¦the fact that they are timeless, forever remaining fond memories of unforgettable stories that had been repeated to them from a young age. In both the oral and written traditions, these stories perpetuated themselves and became fixtures upon the cultures of which they have taken hold. For most people, the idea of these classics ever having been different not only seems odd, but also shakes the foundations of their childhood memories. However, stories are dynamic and ever-changing. What a follower of the aforementioned school-of-though fails to think about is why these stories would have been changed. Sometimes fairy tales change because the person recalling the story has a bad memory, while other times they are deliberately altered by a rewriter. Often times with rewrites, the story is changed so that it is relevant to both the modern times and the life history of the new author. Hansel and Gretel, the classic German fairy tale, is certainly no exception to this trend of changing fairy tales. One of the most famous written versions of Hansel and Gretel (although not the original) is from the early 19th century. This edition was written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the German fairy-tale-writing duo more commonly known as â€Å"Brothers Grimm† (Ashliman). The story is about a young boy and girl, brother and sister, named Hansel and Gretel respectively. They lived at the edge of a great forest under the supervision of their father (a poor woodcutter) and their stepmother. The family was very poor and running low on food†¦soo... ... by a common plot, slight changes changed the entire idea the story was trying to portray. The two different versions created two different images in the minds of readers/opera fans. Hansel and Gretel, like many other tales, has evolved and changed over time. Whether for reasons rooted in principle or simply out of practicality, fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel will be changed by new writers or orators. This, however, in no way detracts from their timelessness. Works Cited Ashliman, D.L. Grimm Brothers’ Home Page. 02 Sep. 2002. University of Pittsburgh Website. 21 Jan. 2004. . Brothers Grimm. â€Å"Hansel and Gretel.† The Classic Fairy Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. 179-90. Engelbert Humperdinck. n.d. First Coast Opera. 21 Jan. 2004 .

Servequal Model

SERVEQUAL MODEL (Measuring Service Quality of Hospitals in Larkana) Author 1: Sumeet Seedani (SZABIST) Contact #: 03333633233 Email: [email  protected] com Author 2: Naveed Anwar Contact number: 03562141247 Email address: [email  protected] szabist. edu. pk Table of contents: Abstract03 Introduction and04 Literature Review05 Importance07 Research Methodology08 Five Dimensions (Variables)09 Data Analysis10 Findings11 Conclusion12 Bibliography13 ABSTRACTService quality is a concept that has stimulated considerable interest and debate in the research literature because of the difficulties in both defining and measuring it. Customer satisfaction and service quality always treated together as customer’s perception and expectation, and the gap will show the result of the total satisfaction. The aim of the study is to rank the 5 dimensions of the service quality to measure the service quality of hospitals in larkana with the help of SERVEQUAL Model.This study also examines the Se rvice quality gap by measuring the gap between Hospital’s patient’s expectations and perceptions. This research shows that all the dimensions of the service are very much important for the service quality. Tangibility was rated as the most important dimension followed by assurance, reliability, responsiveness and empathy. The questionnaire used for this study was â€Å"SERVICE Quality: SERVEQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1986, 1988)†. The measurements used were on the basis of SERVEQUAL Model which is the best way to measure the service quality.This study state that the expectations were so much high but the perceptions are not that much strong and there is a huge gap between Patient’s Expectations and perception. Key words: Service quality, Customer satisfaction, perception and expectation, gap, Tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness empathy. Introduction SERVEQUAL model is a method to measure a service quality. It was created in 198 0’s especially for the projects related to marketing to find the perception of customer regarding the service quality.In SERVEQUAL, quality is defined through the gap or space which customer got and perceive regarding the service quality. It’s very difficult to understand and measure the service quality, especially in the field of service providers in health care field and if we talk about the larkana than its more complex that’s why I choose the SERVEQUAL model to measure the service quality of Larkana hospitals and medical centers to know the effect of service quality on the customer perception.This research examines the measurement of service quality in hospitals of larkana, through the help of SERVEQUAL model to know, what are the gaps between, the service perceived and got by the customers or patients in the larkana. Service quality is all about ensuring customers, both internal and external, get what they want. Customer satisfaction is a attitude or feelin g of customer toward the service after using the service. Satisfaction and service quality is always treated together to know the perception.Satisfaction is defining customer perception and expectation, customer satisfactions is determined by defining customer perception of quality, expectation and preferences. It’s always arises a important question that why we measure the service quality? Because the measurement of service quality, is a comparison of before and after changes for the service quality. It also gives the solution of the problem for the betterment of service delivery standard.The main purpose of this research is to find the most important service quality dimensions that affect the customer satisfactions in hospitals in larkana, by using the SERVEQUAL model which is the best way to measure the service quality. Measuring the service quality is very crucial for the hospitals today, to improve the quality and image of the hospital, to study the importance and impact of service quality of hospitals on patients, to find the important dimensions of service quality which effect on customer satisfactions in hospitals and to determine customer need in their treatment in hospitals in larkana.In last few decades the importance of service quality has increased and every industries and departments are trying to find the reasons which effect the customer perception and satisfaction, and trying to give better quality that’s why this research is also very important to measure the service quality of hospitals via SERVEQUAL model. SERVEQUAL breaks service quality in five basic dimensions, Reliability, assurance, tangibles, understanding and responsiveness.So in this research these five dimensions are also considered and examine to measure the service quality and factors which effect the perception of customer towards the service quality. Literature review: This part gives you an overview of literature about the models related to the problem statement which discussed in introduction. In this we study about the concept of customer satisfaction, service quality, relation between customer satisfaction and service quality and its effect on consumer mind, traditional service quality dimensions and hospital’s service quality in order to give a clear idea about the research area.As it is discussed by Kotler (2003); there is a general agreement that: Satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance (outcome) in relation to his or her expectations. Based on this review, customer satisfaction is defined as the result of a cognitive and addictive evaluation, where some comparison standard is compared to the actually perceived performance.Furthermore, Omachonu (1990); stated that Health care quality has been posited to consist of two parts: quality in fact and quality as perceived by the consumer. Means how actually customer perceived the service quality and how its experience during the availing of the service, and every customer having its own perception. Another side it is argued that satisfaction is associated with performance that fulfils the expectation, while dissatisfaction occurs when performance falls below the expectation (Swan and combs 1976).This review based that when the service quality meet the customer expectation they satisfy and when service quality doesn’t meet with the customer expectation they got dissatisfied and they never avail that service, means there is a huge relation between the service quality on customer perception, because when customer once satisfy from the service quality he/she again avail that service because he make his mind set about that particular industry.Health care practitioners would contend that service quality is a provision of appropriate and technically sound care that produces the desire affect; however it has been misperceive their patient’s perception sometim es (McAlexander et al 1994).Means the service providers in hospital industry always trying to introduce new technologies to give the good service quality to their patients to change their mind and perception and to satisfy them by meet their expectation but sometimes some patients misperceive it and take it in a another side which is a loss for the hospitals, that’s why it is always difficult to measure the service quality specially in the field of hospital industry but it’s important for every department and industry now. As Dr. K.Ravichandran et al (2010) defining that every retail industries are consequently directing their strategies towards increasing service quality level which fosters customer satisfaction and loyalty improved service quality. He further discussed that; increase in service quality in retail industry can develop customer satisfaction which ultimately retains valued customer. It review stated that in today’s era its very much important for any organization or any industry to increase service quality and do work according the customer expectation than any organization can got success in business world and through this a organization can retail the oyal and valuable customer. James H. mcAlexendar (1994) discussed in his research that marketer generally view the service quality from the perspective of health care customers because marketers understand that patients perception of service quality may be more broadly constructed than those of the health care provider and based upon a more holistic assessment of the health care experience. Because patient’s perspective regarding service quality may include perception of technical care but also seemingly peripheral concerns as physical facilities, interactions with receptionists and even brochures.It argued by the Kekale (2001) that it is some how the measurement of customer dissatisfaction and offers a possibility for the elimination of falls, not a possibility for pr oduct development and product innovation. Companies should gather and analyze the suitable data, which will provide relevant information to real customer satisfaction. It is important to measure the right things, i. e. what is really important for the Customers. There is the possibility of wrong specifications or misinterpretations of what a customer actually wants.Means the gap between what companies think and what actually customer wants can also affect the service quality. It is not always be true that performance will equal to expectation as described in International journal of nursing studies (2007) that performance was relatively lower than expectations, resulting in poor nursing care quality. Differences between expectations and performance for both patients and nurses need to be further reduced. As its also discussed by the Tolgo taner et al (1997) that there is different service quality provided in private and public sector.He further discussed that inpatients in the priva te hospital were more satisfied with service quality than those in public hospitals. The result also suggest that patients in private hospitals were more satisfied with doctors, nuerses and supportive than their counterparts in public hospitals. One research suggest that customers are reluctant to complain when dissatisfied with professional and when they dissatisfied they tell to more customers means it become the word of mouth. Andreasen et al 1985). This result could be the health care professional would bear the burden of having dissatisfied patients, including negative word of mouth and patient turn over. IMPORTANCE of the Research: A good research is effective tool for reader and for a society for many positive changes in the environment. Especially, if we talk about the service oriented organization than we come to know that the base for their success is that they study well about their customers.So this research is helpful to know that how much there is a gap between the cus tomer perception and expectation and how much they get satisfied after availing the service of hospitals located in the larkana. This study is especially design to measure the service quality of hospitals in the Larkana. This research is also important study for to know that which are the drawbacks in private hospital sector and are customers (patients) are satisfied or not? This study is important for doctors to know that what patients want from them and how some changes can improve their quality for their customers.METHODOLOGY DESIGN RESEARCH TYPE * This Research is based on exploratory format and it is developed from qualitative point of view. METHODS AND TECHNIQUES: * I distribute the Questionnaire to the respondents to know their views. * I used the SERVEQUAL model format for my Research, because it’s the best way to measure the service quality and I have use the licart scale in the options of the questions. * Questioner consists of 22 statements about perception and 22 statements about the expectations. * The questions are based on 5 dimensions: * Tangibility, assurance, reliability, responsiveness empathy.SAMPLE AND SAMPLE SIZE * I have chosen random sampling for data collection method, and sample size is 100. POPULATION AND RESPONDENTS * As research is based on the service quality of hospitals so I choose private hospital and center’s patients of Larkana as my population. I will mainly focus on the patients of different hospitals and centers located in larkana. STATISTICAL PROCESSING OF INFORMATION * The data which is collected have been analyzed in SPSS software for further results and findings, to measure the gap between expectation and perception of the patients.Five dimensions of the SERVEQUAL Model Data Analysis: Reliability test: Expectation Perception Reliability Statistics| Cronbach's Alpha| N of Items| .555| 22| Reliability Statistics| Cronbach's Alpha| N of Items| .917| 22| This is the reliability test of SERVEQUAL Model for ho spitals in larkana. If we look around the expectation side the reliability value is 0. 555, and the value of perception is 0. 917. Means there is high reliability at perception side. So the overall questioners are effective.Descriptive Analysis: Statistics Expectation| | tangible| reliable| responsiveness| Assurance| empathy| N| Valid| 100| 100| 100| 100| 99| | Missing| 1| 1| 1| 1| 2| Mean| 6. 31| 6. 16| 6. 37| 6. 75| 6. 34| Median| 6. 25| 6. 20| 6. 50| 6. 50| 6. 40| Mode| 7| 7| 7| 7| 7| Std. Deviation| . 550| . 618| . 661| 2. 570| . 687| Statistics Perception| | tangibileavg| reliabilityavg| responsivnessavg| assuranceavg| emphathyavg| N| Valid| 100| 100| 100| 100| 100| | Missing| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| Mean| 4. 16| 4. 58| 4. 07| 4. 2500| 4. 1600| Median| 4. 00| 4. 60| 4. 00| 4. 000| 4. 2000| Mode| 4| 5| 4| 4. 50| 4. 00| Std. Deviation| 1. 229| 1. 107| 1. 147| 1. 15142| 1. 14486| Above two tables are showing the mean, median, mode and standard deviation of expectation and perception. The r esults clearly shows that the overall expectations are high than the perception, if we look to the values of mean at the expectation side is about 6 in all the variables but at the perception side it is about 4. So there is a still huge gap which shows that still there are people who are dis-satisfied from the services of Hospitals in Larkana.Same wise the median has averagely value is about 6. 5 in all the variables but at expectation side it is only 4. 5. Expectation side mode has value 7 in all the values but when it comes to perception it is only 4. Standard deviation also shows the huge difference between expectation of the customers and the service the perceived. These results clearly shows that there is still a gap which shows that the overall service quality of hospitals are not match or fulfill the expectations of the customers, that the main reason of increase rate of dissatisfied customers.The results also show that in assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and th eir ability to convey trust and confidence) people have more expectation but they perceived less in the Hospital’s of larkana. So we can finaly conclude that results are clearly showing the gap between the expectation and perception, which is huge gap. Conclusion & achievement Service quality is always a big topic to debate, because it’s difficult to understand and measure the service quality.We can simply define a service quality with the help of people expectation and perception about a certain field. As much as the gap is high the service quality is negative, but if there is a low gap or expectation and perception are equal it means there is a good service quality. This study is also done for the purpose to find and measure the service quality of hospitals in the larkana, with the help of SERVEQUAL Model, which is the worldwide best way to measure the SERVICE quality.The main purpose of conducted this study is to know the overall performance of the private hospitals . Because it’s very necessary that customer should be satisfied from the services than they can become the loyal with that particular industry or company. After conducting this research we come to know that there is still a huge gap between the expectations of the patients and the perception that they have perceived from the hospital, so it clearly shows the performance of hospitals in larkana.The other main drawback is that hospital’s are not understanding the basically needs of the customer, they shouldn’t provide them those services effectively which customer want from them. So we can conclude that maintain the service quality is very necessary for every organization especially in the field of medical, but in Larkana after doing the research we come to know that still there is a huge gap between expectation and perception and the overall services of hospitals are not up to that level and still they need to improve a lot to satisfy their customers (Patients).B IBLIOGRAPHY http://www. serviceperformance. com/articles/33_Five_Service_Dimensions. php http://www. proserv. nu/Docs/Servqual. pdf http://eprints. utm. my/9514/1/SeyedHosseinSiadatMFSKSM2008. pdf http://www. fm-kp. si/zalozba/ISSN/1854-4231/5_195-209. pdf http://www. journal-archieves14. webs. com/1397-1408. pdf http://www. eurojournals. com/IBBA_11_10. pdf

My Experience With My Family Members - 2206 Words

Some believe that you become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. I never really believed it until I started looking at who I really was, and who those who surround me are. I realized just how alike I was to my family members, and not because of how much we look alike, but because of how similar our beliefs and attitudes are. Each and every one of them has been like a teacher to me, and I can attribute my best, and worst qualities to them. My family members have been the mold that has shaped me into who I am today. I have spent nearly every day of my life so far with my mother, whether it be actually with her, or talking to her on the phone while I’m away. I feel like I become more and more like her every day, and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. My mother is a great person, she is always the first to lend a helping hand, she isn’t afraid of hard work, and loves dogs more than anyone else I know. She has taught me that a woman can do anything tha t a man can do. 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