The research process: Beginning to end

The research process: Beginning to end THE RESEARCH PROCESS Introduction The research process is the steps included or needed to conduct a research from the beginning to the end. Research that have been identify should be carried out in a deliberate and systematic manner in order to produce a substantive besides useful outcomes (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). The specific way in each of these stages and their attendant sub-stages is operationalized will wary from project to project (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Furthermore, research also is an extremely cyclic process, where the review of earlier work might be necessitate for the later stages (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001). Therefore, it can be difficult to determine on where to begin or where to end the research due to its cyclic (Leedy and Ormrod, 2001). According Weaver and Lawton 2006, there are basically seven steps in the research as shown below. Step 1: Problem Recognitions According to Leedy and Ormrod, 2001, a research begins with a problem. Therefore, the first step in any research process or before conducting a research is to recognize the problem or issues that interest the investigator (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). In tourism-based corporation, the core issues that require research are reduced patronage and declining market share (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). From a destination perspective, additional concerns may be harbored about negative community reactions to tourism or declining environmental conditions that will affect the industry (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). However, methodological bias of the researcher might dictate the problems As we know, before starting to conduct a research, at first we should come out with a question because all of the research that begins with a question. Besides that, curiosity of a researcher is often used as a foundation for scholarly inquiry. Before start to conduct a research, the researcher should know the problems a nd broad issues that interest them to conduct a research. Researcher should clearly understand and clarify what they want to know to conduct the research. After problem has been recognized and the researcher understand what they want to know to conduct the research, it will makes them easier. Researcher can ask themselves question on what they want to know actually based on the research that will be conduct. By this, it can help them to conduct a better research because they have the purpose for conducting the research. After problem has been recognizing, the researcher can plan or create a useful framework for clarifying or contextualizing the broad problem. For example: if you are interested in finding out about how many students will take the opportunity to involve themselves in the sports events in school? You might need to pose out a question that what is the advantages of taking part in sports event in school? Researcher should understand what they really want to find out by t his topic. They should indentify what problem, concepts or keywords in this question on what they want to know by doing this research and then plan their framework well before start to do their research. Step 2: Question formulation After all the problem and topic that researcher identify or broad problems that have been selected, research questions must be focused to prevent that time and resources are not wasted on tangential avenues of investigation(Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Furthermore, hypothesis may be expressed when question formulation. As a basis for question formulation, it is helpful to clarify that the level of investigation that is warranted by the problem and the resources of the company or destination that are available. There are four levels of investigations which are description, explanation, prediction and prescription. All of this level will be using based on the research that will be conducted by the researcher. The first level if the investigation is description (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Description it is the most basic level of inquiry. For example, the managers of a particular destination are concerned that the local people appear to be increasingly hostile toward visiting tourists. The logical first step in addressing this issue is to describe the actual situation, by asking questions such as what are the attitudes of local residents towards visiting tourists. Next level for the investigation is explanation (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Explanation is the decision whether to or not to proceed to this level of investigation, which is to explain the resultant patterns is often constrained by the availability of resources. However, the decision should be based on whether one or more serious problems have been revealed after the research process has been completed at the descriptive level. For example, the perceived hostility of residents involves only a few isolated incidents instigated by known troublemakers, and then there is probably no compelling reason to precede any further investigation. But, if the suspicious of emerging hostility have been confirmed, and the parameters of the hostility are identified as being broad-based, then the explanation is necessary towards its resolution. Level three for the investigation level according to Weaver and Lawton, 2006 is prediction. Prediction means once a plausible explanation for a problem is found out, the further investigation is to predict the problems consequences if no remedial measures are taken. As with any prediction involving humans, this stage of inquiry will be speculative, but it is possible to engage in intelligent and well-considered speculation that will inform the final stage of prescription. Example would be like asking what will happen to the local tourism industry if no steps are being carried to address the hostility of young adults towards tourism. Lastly, the final stage of the level of investigation according to Weaver and Lawton (2006) is prescription. Prescription is the culmination of research process, involving the consideration of various solutions to the problems. If the predictive phase reveals that the above situation is highly volatile, and that the community will endure great suffering if no correction action was taken, then it is essential to proceed with prescriptive phase. To summarize, the intervention or the actions that should be taken to ensure optimum outcomes for the company or destination, is a core component of the process in management and in applied research. Appropriate solutions or prescriptions will only emerge as a result of the knowledge that is obtained through preliminary research at the levels of description, explanation and prediction (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Step 3: Identification of research methodology and/ or methods Next step of the research process is to identify the methodologies that will be use to conduct the research that the researcher already selected (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). In the other words means identify the specific research methods that will be best allow the project or research to be proceed, and normally all this probably will based on the problem that have been identified and the question set for the research. For example, in the descriptive phase, the investigators may undertake quantitative surveying in which resources, time; cultural and social context will be taken into account. Whereas in the explanatory phase, the researcher will engage in qualitative, in-depth interviews to identify the reasons for revealed attitudes and behavior. While for prediction level, the interviewer has a number of options that can be pursued in conjunction with each other to see whether the different methods yield the same results. As shown in the above example, the usage of all the techniques in the same research process also can be known as methodological triangulation. Furthermore, If all of this four methods for the research reveal the similar outcomes, it will gives the researcher high degree of confidence that the real situation of their research that they want to be conduct has been identified. Moreover, it is likely that each of the method will yield its own unique insights into this situation, thereby strengthening the knowledge base that is obtained from the research. Step 4: Data collection After the most appropriate have been identified, the next step of the research process can be proceeded (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). In a former case, a sample of data collection mostly is randomly drawn from the population and each of the members of the population has the equal probability to be selected as the sample for the data (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Researchers will simple drawn out all the names of those will be involves in the research by using the random number tables to prevent biases when collecting the data. However, researcher also will select a large enough sample so that inferences can be made about the entire population. According to Neuman 1997, it is advisable that the sample should be at least of 30 per cent of the entire population to make sure that it will achieve the same effect. In the data collection, researcher commonly will practiced the non-probability or convenience sampling in the qualitative research and deliberate selection of certain cases to build th e sample for the research that will be conducting. (Weaver and Lawton, 2006) Besides that, for the data collection, once the sample size and procedure of selection for the research have been decided, the actual or the process of the data collection can be started and there is few factors that need to be considered at this stage such as consistency for the result in as short a time period as possible, timing of the interviewing or observation for the research (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). The reason is that it can save the cost and resources for the research without wasted and the collection of the data will be more accurately as well. Theory will be developed from the data gathered and analyzed by the researcher (Neuman, 2000). Furthermore, each research that will be conducted must use an appropriate data collection technique based on the research methodology that has been chosen. The researcher might also involve in pilot study or test, in which the researcher will conduct a trial test of the data collection tools and analysis by using the same sample of the po pulation used in the final study (Jennings, 2001). Besides that, once the sample size and selection procedure have been decided, the actual data collection can be started (Weaver and Lawton, 2006).   The main goals of both quantitative and qualitative studies are to maximize the responses and the accuracy of the research (Walonick, 1993). The researchers will also validate the data collection process When others data collection service are being used, by contacting a percentage of the respondents to verify that they were actually being interviewed ( David S. Walonick 1993). Not only that, the checking process for inadvertent errors in the data also involves data editing and this process normally required a computer to check for the out of boundaries data. Step 5: Data analysis The data analysis is the next stage after data collection, which is a stage that attempts to answer the related research questions by examining and assessing the collected information to identify patterns and meanings (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). At this stage, filtering and organizing the database to eliminate the invalid responses usually will be involves to get a better result for the research. Next (at least in quantitative research), it is follow by the coding and entering of the data that already been collected into a computer software system such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) facilities which have the further classification and analysis (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Actual analysis of the research can be undertaken after all the data already been cleaned to eliminate error in the coding procedure. According to Weaver and Lawton, 2006, the most basic analysis in a qualitative research is to record a simple descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies and standard deviation besides test also can be use when in a more sophisticated level. Researcher need to be open to the data to ensure that the data that they collected do not force the data (Glaser 1992). According to Neuman 1997, qualitative data analysis includes organization of the same categories as well as the relationship development and process models based on a constant comparison of the text-based data. There are 3 aspects of data analysis which is data reduction, data displaying and drawing conclusion (Miles and Huberman 1994). The relationship between different variables and groups can be examined or determined simultaneously by using multivariate technique, such as analyzing the factor and the multidimensional scaling. Level of sophistication depends on the nature of the research question and the datas characteristic collected by the researcher (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). In a qualitative research, the sorting, comparing, classifying and synthesis of the collected informat ion can be involves in analysis for qualitative research (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Step 6: Data presentation In data presentation, the results of the analysis should be presented in the way that can be easily understood by the target audience. When preparing data for presentation, make sure that you are choosing the key points of the research (Gayle Jennings 2001). The most common devices that use to presenting data is by using tables and graphs but great care also should be always be taken to avoid complexity and clutter particularly if the intended audience is non-academic (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). The reason is that to prevent that audience did not understand what are being present. Furthermore, researcher also can use maps for their presentation because maps are extremely efficient means of presenting spatial information if being constructed properly (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). According to Jennings 2001 Power point presentation also can be use to present the data but there is some consideration when using it to presenting data such as slides should not overwhelmed with text, text is ea sy to read, try not to use colors that are hard to focus on or gaudy, not to over use different font and different style such as italics, bold, use an infra-red or timber pointer if need to indicate something, do not turn your back to audience and check out the slide is in the correct order.   Step 7: Data interpretation The final stage of the research process is data interpretation, in which the meaning from the research results will be extracted (Weaver and Lawton, 2006). This is the stage where important implication of the research result are considered from theoretical and/or practical perspective besides in this stage, researcher also will consider higher levels of investigation which means the researcher will revisit the previous stages(Weaver and Lawton, 2006). Data that been interpret maybe will be influence by the methodological and other biases of the researcher.   The important of the effective interpretation at the specific or broad level cannot be overstated since leads to translation of research results into policy decision and other outcomes that are important to the target audience (Weaver and Lawton, 2006).   

Aldeia Corrego das Telhas

Consideracoes Iniciais ( NUMERAR )O presente artigo surgiu de minha experiencia de trabalho-pesquisa com os indios Tremembes no municipio de Acarau, distante 235 kilometer district attorney capital Fortaleza. Ate o momento mutton quad que escrevo estas linhas, foram seis Maines acompanhando as duas aldeias indigenas existentes na zona rural district attorney cidade. Fui contratado como antropologo, na condicao de tecnico do Centro de Referencia da Assistencia Social – CRAS, parity atuar exclusivamente nestas comunidades. Assim, a experiencia empirica que substanciou a escrita deste artigo foi produzida a partir do contato semanal com a populacao indigena supracitada. Este contato Se deu tanto na esfera coletiva, Durante as reunioes semanais realizadas mutton quad cada comunidade, quando individualmente, visitava as familias, sendo possivel manter longas conversas com alguns indios das aldeias de Telhas vitamin E Queimadas. O objetivo deste artigo vitamin E discorrer sobre a importancia district attorney institucionalizacao organizacional parity a afirmacao district attorney identidade etnica indigena Department of State Tremembes nos dias atuais, sobretudo, com fives de acesso as politicas sociais direcionadas parity comunidades tradicionais. Utilizo como base a fundacao Department of State Conselhos Indigenas hyrax aldeias de Telhas e Queimadas e a importancia que estes exercem como facilitadores no que diz respeito aos projetos, programas vitamin E servicos do poder publico nas diversas esferas, direcionados as populacoes indigenas. Antes, porem, se faz necessario um breve relato sobre a historia destas duas comunidades indigenas.Os Tremembes de Acarau e suas trajetorias ( NUMERAR )Os indios Tremembes tiveram um longo percurso historico Ate Se estabelecerem no litoral cearense. Segundo alguns antropologos vitamin E historiadores, o grupo etnico saiu district attorney Amaz & A ; ocirc ; nia percorrend o os estados do Maranhao, Piaui ate chegarem ao litoral cearense, estabelecendo-se, principalmente na praia de Almofala, municipio de Itarema [ 2 ] . Os registros historicos dao conta district attorney presenca deste povo nos municipios de Chaval, Camocim, Granja, Marco, Acarau e tambem na Serra district attorney Ibiapaba [ 3 ] . No seculo XVII, os Tremembes foram aldeados pelos jesuitas na localidade de Almofala e la se estabeleceram Ate hoje. A literatura antropologica coloca os Tremembes como eximios pescadores, tendo em view, que foram aldeados no litoral. Entretanto, diante Department of States periodos de seca que periodicamente castigam O territorio cearense, alguns grupos foram obrigados a sair em busca de agua e alimento, iniciando uma caminhada vitamin E desbravando terras no rumo do sertao. Os Tremembes de Acarau estao inseridos neste contexto. De acordo com as memorias e narrativas de algumas liderancas e idosos, ja existiam registros district attorney presenca indigena na regiao no seculo Nineteen.Aldeia Corrego hyrax TelhasOs Tremembes do Corrego das Telhas estao localizados hour angle aproximadamente 40 kilometer district attorney sede do municipio de Acarau, estando numa regiao limitrofe com o municipio de Itarema. A historia Department of State Tremembes hyrax Telhas tem um capitulo comum a Toda as comunidades indigenas no nordeste e no Brasil: a Luda pela terra. A referida aldeia esta inserida na Terra Indigena ( TI ) [ 4 ] do Corrego Joao Pereira, composta por quatro aldeias ( Sao Jose, Cajazeiras, Capim-Acu vitamin E Telhas ) situadas entre os Department of the Interior municipios citados acima, sendo que somente a aldeia de Telhas pertence a Acarau. TI Corrego Joao Pereira e a primeira, e Ate agora a unica, terra indigena demarcada vitamin E homolgada pelo Governo Federal no Ceara. Entretanto, a Luda pela terra vitamin E os freq & A ; uuml ; entes conflitos com posseiros e latifundiarios durou quase um seculo, tendo Se acirrado nos Fatah R evolutionary Councils de 1980. De acordo com O relatorio antropologico [ 5 ] district attorney Fundacao Nacional do indio – FUNAI, os Tremembes do Corrego Joao Pereira sofreram com a violencia vitamin E o poder de grandes latifundiarios ( entre eles militares, military chaplains e politicos de Acarau ) , criadores de gado e comerciantes da castanha de caju que se apossaram e submeteram os indios a um government de semi escravidao. Alem de terem tomado as terras que tradicionalmente eram de uso dos indios, os â€Å" novos † donos cobravam pela utilizacao district attorney terra, de modo que uma grande parte district attorney producao Agricola Department of State indigenas epoch direcionada parity O pagamento da terra. Alem disso, os Tremembes foram proibidos de praticarem seus rituais, sobretudo, o torem. O movimento de resistencia Department of State Tremembes do Corrego Joao Pereira se fortaleceu a partir do apoio da Pastoral Department of State Direitos Humanos, Missao Tremembe [ 6 ] vitamin E com O reconhecimento district attorney FUNAI, no concluding district attorney decada de 80. Em 2005 a TI do Corrego Joao Pereira foi demarcada vitamin E homologada pelo Presidente Lula. A aldeia Telhas possui atualmente uma populacao de 134 pessoas agrupadas em 30 familias que vivem numa country de 540 hectares. A TI de Telhas e marcada por uma mata ainda bem preservada, pela presenca de muitos cajueiros e diversas outras especies de arvores. Durante a safra do caju, toda a aldeia Se envolve com a coleta district attorney castanha para a venda vitamin E com O pedunculo que vitamin E utilizado parity fazer doces, cajuina e O mocororo, bebida criada pelos indios, uma especie de vinho do caju. O mocororo e um Department of State principais elementos motivadores district attorney pratica do torem, uma danca de roda em que os indios exaltam a natureza, o trabalho e a relacao que O indio tem com a terra. Alem disso, outro aspecto marcante da danca vitamin E o culto aos seres encantados. Praticamente todos sao agricultores e, alem district attorney renda advinda com a venda district attorney castanha, a producao de farinha e goma e o chief fator de geracao de renda district attorney aldeia. O processo de preparacao district attorney farinha, chamado de farinhada, vitamin E feito coletivamente numa casa de farinha comunitaria. No periodo em que estao sendo realizadas, as farinhadas duram varias semanas.Aldeia QueimadasA aldeia Department of State Tremembes de Queimadas esta localizada hour angle 30 kilometer district attorney sede do municipio e encontra-se bem Proxima ao Perimetro Irrigado do Baixo Acarau que compreende uma country que perpassa as cidades de Acarau vitamin E Marco. O caminho Department of State primeiros moradores das Queimadas foi semelhante aos do Corrego Joao Pereira, havendo inclusive, lacos de parentesco entre os membros das duas comunidades. Segundo seu Cecidio [ 7 ] , o mais velho morador hyrax Queimadas, teria sido seu pai vitamin E outros se is homens com suas respectivas familias, que teriam desbravado a regiao onde hoje ocupam. Segundo ele, nos Ido de 1927, â€Å" os sete † teriam saido district attorney Lagoa Department of State Negros [ 8 ] , abrindo caminho mata a dentro, Ate que se depararam mutton quad um certo momento com uma grande queimada provocada nao se sabe por quem. Foi neste lugar que O grupo resolveu se estabelecer com suas respectivas familias. Diferentemente Department of State Tremembes hyrax Telhas, os indios de Queimadas travam sua Luda contra O proprio Estado, atraves do Departamento Nacional de Obras Contra as Secas – DNOCS, que tenta desapropriar a comunidade indigena parity ampliar a country do Perimetro Irrigado do Baixo Acarau. Os conflitos comecaram no concluding Department of State Fatah Revolutionary Council 80, quando O DNOCS alega que ja teria indenizado as familias district attorney aldeia. A comunidade reconhece que uma hyrax liderancas teria recebido dinheiro do orgao fe deral, mas argumentam que foram lesados. Mesmo a questao estando sodium justica, o DNOCS destruiu parte significativa do territorio ocupado pelos Tremembes de Queimadas, principalmente a country chamada de Serrote, tida como sagrada pelos indios. O processo continua mutton quad andamento, mas com a intervencao district attorney FUNAI vitamin E do Ministerio Publico Federal as obras na country indigena foram paralisadas. Os Tremembes de Queimadas aguardam o GT district attorney FUNAI que fara o relatorio de demarcacao e delimitacao de sua TI. Do ponto de vista econ & A ; ocirc ; mico, as duas aldeias sao semelhantes e desenvolvem as mesmas atividades, tendo o caju e a bitter cassava como principais fontes de renda. Como resultado inexoravel do contato com a sociedade envolvente, os Tremembes absorveram habitos vitamin E incorporaram praticas vitamin E costumes amplamente observados mutton quad outros contextos, sobretudo, urbanos. e possivel ver muitas casas de taipa equipadas com som, aparelho de DVD e televisao com antena parabolica. Inevitavelmente, o uso dessas tecnologias e visto como essencial parity eles, tendo em view que para a maioria hyrax familias a televisao vitamin E um Department of State raros meios de entretenimento. Em relacao aos metodos de producao Agricola, a pratica de fazer queimadas vitamin E freq & A ; uuml ; ente entre os agricultores das duas aldeias. Como conseq & A ; uuml ; encia, existem muitas countries de capoeira e a mata nativa, principalmente mutton quad Queimadas, foi bastante desmatada. Muitas arvores nativas estao mutton quad processo de desaparecimento. Por esses e outros aspectos, constatamos os reflexos do contato interetnico e como ele ressoa nas diversas countries da vida societal. Apesar district attorney renda advinda com estas atividades, a maioria hyrax familias das duas aldeias ainda vive mutton quad situacao de vulnerabilidade societal. e nesse contexto que Se insere o trabalho do CRAS nas comunidades indigenas. O CRAS, tambem chamado de Casa da Familia, vitamin E um equipamento make Ministerio make Desenvolvimento Social vitamin E Combate a Fome – MDS, gerido em forma de co-participacao com os municipios, destinado a atender vitamin E oferecer assistencia a uma parcela district attorney populacao que Se encontra em situacao de pobreza e risco societal. Em municipios onde existem populacoes indigenas o MDS recomenda que tenha um CRAS parity atender estas comunidades. Alem disso, o MDS tambem orienta que as acoes desenvolvidas em comunidades indigenas seja coordenada por um antropologo ou Cientista Social. e justamente por essa orientacao que fui contratado parity trabalhar com os Tremembes mutton quad Acarau.Um antropologo no CRASO municipio de Acarau conta com duas populacoes indigenas que Ate entao nao contavam com nenhum trabalho socioassistencial especifico por parte do poder publico. Pelo fato de estarem em processo de afirmacao etnica, lutando pelo direito a terra e a insercao m utton quad outras politicas sociais, as comunidades de Telhas e Queimadas necessitavam de apoio, no sentido de ajuda-los a Se organizarem politicamente atraves de uma instituicao que representasse os interesses da coletividade no que se refere as demandas vitamin E carencias existentes nas comunidades. Neste sentido, no ambito da assistencia societal, se fazia necessario a contratacao de um tecnico-pesquisador parity que, a partir do conhecimento district attorney historia, district attorney cultura vitamin E district attorney dinamica societal cotidiana destas populacoes, pudesse auxilia-los neste processo de afirmacao societal vitamin E politica. Segundo a Norma Operacional Basica da Assistencia Social – NOB SUAS, o trabalho desenvolvido pelo CRAS com populacoes tradicionais deve ser orientado por um Antropologo. Sobre esta questao, eis O que afirma o Mendelevium: As equipes destinadas a desenvolver trabalho com populacoes tradicionais ( indigenas, quilombolas ) ou especificas devem ser capacitadas vitamin E orientadas por um Antropologo sobre as especificidades etnicas e culturais district attorney populacao atendida, contribuindo no planejamento, monitoramento e avaliacao dos servicos vitamin E acoes. Neste sentido, e importante que a equipe estabeleca interlocucao com as liderancas district attorney comunidade atendida, parity legitimar vitamin E auxiliar O trabalho realizado junto a comunidade. [ 9 ] Pela natureza de seu oficio, o Antropologo seria aqui o profissional recomendado, tendo mutton quad view que mutton quad sua formacao ele vitamin E preparado parity, a partir de tecnicas e metodos proprios a Antropologia, desenvolver este trabalho especifico. Nesta perspectiva O Antropologo pode ser definido como um tecnico-pesquisador, posto que as atividades que desenvolve, depende antes de observacoes e estudos preliminares para que a partir district attorney configuracao societal na qual Se depara, ele possa definir estrategias de trabalho e efetivamente propor acoes que estejam de acordo com os interesses da comunidade assistida, respeitando sua dinamica sociocultural, bem como as caracteristicas que definem a identidade etnica do grupo. No caso dos Tremembes de Acarau, a questao identitaria vitamin E um componente centralizador vitamin E importantissimo para a institucionalizacao organizacional hyrax aldeias, sobretudo quando Se tem em vista a busca de melhores condicoes sociai s de sobrevivencia. A identidade etnica tambem assume relevancia nos procedimentos vitamin E acoes desenvolvidas pelas instituicoes que atuam assessorando ou defendendo os direitos Department of State indios Tremembes.Identidades mediadas: O papel hyrax instituicoes indigenistas na organizacao societal vitamin E politica Department of State Tremembes de AcarauA historia Department of State Tremembes foi marcada tanto pelo sofrimento quanto pela resistencia que os indios tiveram, posto que, mesmo sendo expulsos ou escravizados em sua terra e proibidos de se afirmarem enquanto indios, mantiveram parte de suas tradicoes e sua memoria historica. Segundo Silva ( 1999 ) , uma grande parte do sofrimento Department of State Tremembes, tanto na Praia, quanto no sertao, em exceptional os de Acarau, se deveu principalmente pelo desconhecimento Department of State seus direitos vitamin E hyrax instituicoes que poderiam apoia-los sodium Luda pela terra. Foi somente a partir do contato com instit uicoes indigenistas como a Missao Tremembe e posteriormente a FUNAI que os indios perceberam a importancia de afirmar e divulgar socialmente sua identidade indigena. De acordo com Castells ( 2002 ) , o contexto de reelaboracao district attorney identidade etnica das comunidades indigenas em Acarau assume as caracteristicas de uma identidade de resistencia, tendo mutton quad view que ela vitamin E formulada pelos atores sociais contrarios a algum tipo de dominacao, criando principios de resistencia. Ainda sobre este assunto, de acordo com Vale ( 2005 ) , a atuacao de missionarios catolicos, entre eles, Maria Amelia Leite, fundadora district attorney Associacao Missao Tremembe – AMIT, foi cardinal parity a redefinicao do perfil organizacional, das demandas politicas vitamin E Department of State investimentos etnicos Department of State Tremembes district attorney Varjota, em Itarema. Pode-se afirmar que O mesmo processo ocorreu com os Tremembes de Telhas vitamin E Queimadas. Como a FUNAI ainda nao possuia nenhuma unidade administrativa no Ceara [ 10 ] , o suporte juridico e societal foi feito atraves da Missao Tremembe que, por sua vez, mobilizava outras instituicoes para guardian a questao Department of State Tremembes. Vale ressaltar, que no seu convivio com os indigenas de Itarema, Acarau e Itapipoca, os missionarios da AMIT estimulavam as comunidades a afirmarem sua identidade de indios, bem como no retorno de praticas como O torem. Desta forma, nos ultimos 25 Fatah R evolutionary Councils, a indianidade Department of State Tremembes foi fortemente estimulada pelos agentes indigenistas que acompanham as comunidades nos municipios citados. Me refiro a indianidade como percepcao vitamin E reflexo daquele sujeito que Se ve vitamin E se sente indio. Segundo Braz ( 2009 ) , essa indianidade esta relacionada aqueles que, apesar do imaginario societal desabonador construido sobre estas populacoes, alimentam um outro sentimento vitamin E uma outra atitude diante de sua ancestralidade vitamin E faz dela, no mundo hodierno, objeto de auto-estima, dignidade vitamin E afirmacao etnica. Com relacao as acoes do CRAS de Acarau, o trabalho Se concentra principalmente na importancia district attorney organizacao politica dos indios a fim de que estes possam ser inseridos sodiums politicas e programas sociais, sobretudo do governo federal. Neste sentido, o trabalho desenvolvido pele equipe do CRAS, na qual faco parte, consiste no assessoramento das duas aldeias no que se refere a institucionalizacao atraves dos Conselhos Indigenas, bem como na insercao das comunidades, atraves dos Conselhos, nos projetos sociais de geracao de trabalho e renda, assim como naqueles que preconizam a valorizacao district attorney cultura indigena. O primeiro desafio foi articular O perfil organizacional hyrax duas comunidades que apresentavam situacoes bem parecidas. Ambas nao possuiam qualquer tipo de instituicao juridicamente reconhecida que pudessem representa-los. Existiam apenas as chamadas â€Å" liderancas † , que sao pessoas que Se destacam pela disposicao em representar a aldeia mutton quad algum evento vitamin E pela autoridade que exercem internamente entre os pares. Entretanto, quando os tecnicos do CRAS iniciaram o trabalho de campo perceberam que as duas aldeias se encontravam fragmentadas, atomizadas vitamin E, alem disso, descrentes em relacao a qualquer tentativa de organizacao, tendo em view que tanto o poder publico, quanto suas proprias â€Å" liderancas † nao correspondiam as expectativas district attorney coletividade. Os conflitos Delaware opinioes, as diferencas entre membros da comunidade vitamin E a desconfianca mutton quad relacao aos lideres foram decisivos parity a resistencia hyrax c omunidades em aceitar a ajuda Department of State tecnicos do CRAS. Somente quando o antropologo e a estagiaria [ 11 ] conseguiram a confianca hyrax familias vitamin E que o processo de organizacao foi iniciado. A partir Delaware reunioes coletivas semanais os problemas internos da aldeia eram colocados, discutidos vitamin E debatidos pela comunidade. Os profissionais do CRAS mediavam as situacoes, tentando extrair deles mesmos, as solucoes para os entraves e problemas district attorney aldeia. Um aspecto freq & A ; uuml ; entemente utilizado pelo antropologo na epoca epoch a necessidade hyrax duas aldeias de afirmar sua identidade por meio de uma instituicao que de fato representasse nao so os interesses daquela coletividade, mas que tambem pudesse dar visibilidade aos Tremembes de Acarau. Isso so seria possivel atraves da criacao de um Conselho Indigena. Tais conselhos teriam nao somente de representar os interesses dos indios, como tambem de dar visibilidade aos Tremembes de Telhas e Queimadas diante do poder publico e district attorney sociedade civil. A partir district attorney criacao Department of State Conselhos os Tremembes estao se inserindo gradativamente nos projetos e politicas sociais [ 12 ] . Alem disso, estao inseridos nos Territorios Rurais de Identidade, estrategia do governo make estado de dividir o estado em territorios, visando o desenvolvimento territorial de countries ligadas por criterios econ & amp ; ocirc ; micos, sociais vitamin E culturais [ 13 ] . Dentro district attorney politica Department of State territorios, o governo estadual estabelece que um percentual Department of State recursos investidos no territorio sejam direcionados as comunidades indigenas e quilombolas. Tal estrategia Poe mutton quad evidencia a necessidade de elaboracao e reelaboracao das identidades etnicas, que no caso dos indios Tremembes tem como reflexo principal a territorialidade. e inegavel os tracos historicos vitamin E culturais district attorney indianidade Department of State Tremembes de Acarau, entretanto, a afirmacao district attorney identidade indigena assume um carater utilitario evidente. Estas comunidades buscam direitos que lhes foram assegurados pela constituicao de 1988 vitamin E que Ate hoje nao sao cumpridos pelo Estado em suas diversas instancias. Deste modo, o dizer-se vitamin E sentir-se indio, manifesta um desejo de acesso, sobretudo, a Taoist sonhada terra. Vale ressaltar que um traco marcante que identifica O indio, segundo os proprios Tremembes, e a relacao que este possui com a â€Å" mata † , a â€Å" mae terra † , a â€Å" mae natureza † . Estas expressoes sao facilmente encontradas no discurso dos indios, assumed names, nao somente na fala, como tambem nas letras das musicas cantadas no ritual do torem. Alem district attorney terra, a maioria hyrax populacoes indigenas, nao so aqui no Ceara, mom mutton quad todo O Brasil, carece de acesso aos servicos essenciais de saude, educacao e oportunidades que lhes garantam meios de ascender da situacao de miseria e abandono em que muitas aldeias se encontram atualmente parity uma condicao societal mais salubre. Neste sentido, as populacoes indigenas, atraves da mediacao de agentes sociais parceiros na luta pela defesa Department of State direitos indigenas, tem percebido a necessidade de se organizar societal vitamin E politicamente. E nesta estrategia, a afirmacao district attorney identidade etnica e de suma importancia, pois ela se configura como avalizadora Department of State anseios, projetos e demandas hyrax comunidades. Desta forma, concordo com Silva ( 2000 ) , quando diz que a definicao district attorney identidade vitamin E district attorney diferenca tambem esta relacionada a uma disputa de poder que traduz o desejo de acesso aos bens sociais de ordem simbolica, stuff vitamin E politica. Sendo assim, as identidades sao construcoes make mundo cultural vitamin E societal, portanto, sao fabricadas. Elas refletem os agenciamentos vitamin E as imagens produzidas pelos sujeitos atraves das relacoes cotidianas. vitamin E claro que o sentido de â€Å" fabricacao † vitamin E â€Å" construcao † nao assume um carater pejorativo, pelo contrario, evidencia a capacidade Department of State grupos, inclusive os indios, de estarem elaborando e reelaborando suas identidades no pacing e no espaco. No caso dos Tremembes vitamin E Department of State demais indios no Ceara, o termo mais utilizado vitamin E O district attorney reelaboracao hyrax identidades indigenas, tendo mutton quad view que estes grupos foram perseguidos, oprimidos vitamin E forcados a negar/ocultar sua identidade de indio. Na Antropologia, o movimento de reconstrucao das identidades outrora suprimidas vitamin E definido como etnogenese, que segundo Oliveira Filho ( 2004 ) , e um processo de recriacao cultural, â€Å" abrangendo tanto a emergencia de novas identidades, como a reinvencao de etnias ja reconhecidas † ( OLIVEIRA, 2004 apud Gomes, 2009 ) . Esta reelaboracao, por sua vez, acontece num momento historico, politician e societal especifico que exige a necessidade que estas identidades sejam afirmadas diante da condicao societal peculiar mutton quad que vivem os Tremembes atualmente.Consideracoes finaisA minha pretensao neste artigo foi de discorrer sobre O caminho que tem trilhado os Tremembes de Acarau atualmente, destacando o processo de organizacao politica das duas aldeias indigenas. Tenho consciencia do carater experimental deste trabalho vitamin E acredito que o leitor pode ter sentido falta de outras informacoes que poderiam estar presentes no texto, mom diante do tempo e district attorney proposta do artigo nao foi possivel aprofundar nesta ocasiao. Tambem nao quis fazer uma discussao teorica mais substancial, tanto sobre a historia Department of State Tremembes quanto sobre a questao district attorney identidade etnica. Sobre esses temas, muitos trabalhos podem ser encontrados facilmente. Minha intencao foi tentar mostrar como a questao district attorney identidade etnica aparece vitamin E como Revolutionary People's Struggle e utilizada no cotidiano das comunidades pesquisadas.REFEReNCIAS BIBLIOGRaFICASCASTELLS, Manuel. O Poder district attorney Identidade: A Era district attorney Informacao: Economia, Sociedade vitamin E Cultura. Vol. 2. 2? Ed. , Sao Paulo: Paz e Terra, 2002.GOMES, Alexandre Oliveira. A saga Delaware Amanay, O algodao, e dos indios da porangaba. In: PALITOT, Estevao. ( Org. ) . Na Mata do Sabia: Contribuicoes sobre a presenca indigena no Ceara. Fortaleza: Secult / Museu do Ceara / IMOPEC, 2009.SILVA, Cristhian Teofilo district attorney Silva. Relatorio circunstaciado de identificacao e delimitacao da Terra In digena Corrego Joao Pereira/CE. Brasilia: Funai, 1999. 173p.SILVA, Izabelle Braz Peixoto district attorney. Prefacio. In: PALITOT, Estevao. ( Org. ) . Na Mata do Sabia: Contribuicoes sobre a presenca indigena no Ceara. Fortaleza: Secult / Museu do Ceara / IMOPEC, 2009.SILVA, Tomaz Tadeu. Identidade e diferenca: a perspectiva Department of State Estudos Culturais. Petropolis: Vozes, 2000.VALLE, Carlos Guilherme do. Tremembes. Povos Indigenas do Brasil – Petabyte: 2005. Acessado no endereco hypertext transfer protocol: //pib.socioambiental.org/pt/povo/tremembe/1659 mutton quad 21/02/2010.Ob: AS DEVIDAS CONSIDERAcoES FEITAS OBEDECERAM aS NORMAS DA ABNT E FORAM TAMBEM COSULTADOS MANUAIS DE METODOLOGIA DE LAVILLE & A ; DIONE, BEM COMO ANTONIO JOAQUIM SEVERINO E ANTONIO CARLOS GIL.PARABENIZO PELO EXCELENTE TRABALHO, AS INFORMAcoES POSSUEM GRANDE VALOR PARA OS LEITORES.Artigo apresentado na disciplina Teorias do Desenvolvimento Social do curso de Especializacao em Gestao de Organiza coes Sociais district attorney Universidade Estadual Vale do Acarau – UVA.Itarema foi distrito de Acarau, obtendo sua emancipacao mutton quad 1984. Desse modo, a literatura faz referencia a presenca Department of State Tremembes mutton quad Acarau. vitamin E interessante notar que, atualmente, a maioria district attorney populacao de Acarau desconhece a presenca de indios no municipio, pois a referencia Department of State Tremembes e a Praia de Almofala, que vitamin E distrito de Itarema.Cf. Silva, 1999.Juridicamente, a constituicao de 1988 mutton quad seu artigo 231 define Terra Indigena como aquelas â€Å" por eles ( indios ) habitadas em carater permanente, as utilizadas parity suas atividades produtivas, as imprescindiveis a preservacao Department of State recursos ambientais necessarios a seu bem-estar vitamin E as necessarias a sua reproducao fisica e cultural, segundo seu usos, costumes vitamin E tradicoes † .Cf. Silva ( 1999 ) .Instituicao indigenista fundada por Maria Amelia Leite que presta assessoria vitamin E acompanha a questao district attorney demarcacao hyrax terras dos Tremembes mutton quad Itarema, Itapipoca e Acarau.Depoimento obtido informalmente, mas que se encontra presente no relatorio antropologico realizado pelo Antropologo Sergio Telles Brissac, analista pericial mutton quad Antropologia do Ministerio Publico Federal – MPF/CE, mutton quad 2007.A Lagoa Department of State Negros esta situada no municipio de Itarema. Segundo depoimentos, o lugar teria sido descoberto pelos indios que vinham de Almofala. A referida lagoa epoch muito bonita vitamin E havia fartura de agua, peixe e outros animais que viviam mutton quad redor. Os indios contam que ela foi desencantada pelo Paje Joao Cosmo. Como epoch um lugar bonito vitamin E tambem propicio a criacao de gado, pela abundancia de agua, alguns â€Å" coroneis † expulsaram os indios e se apossaram do lugar. e nesse exodo que um grupo de indios chega a localidade de Queimadas.Extraido do site: Hypertext transfer protocol: //www.mds.gov.br/servicos/fale-conosco/asistencia-social/gestor-tecnico†¦ Acessado em 27/08/2009.Isso so veio a acontecer mutton quad 1994, quando a FUNAI abriu um Nucleo de Apoio Local – NAL no Ceara. Antes disso, o estado estava subordinado a Administracao Executiva Regional – AER district attorney Paraiba.Me refiro aos colegas Nino Amorim vitamin E Raquel Monteiro que me antecederam nesta funcao. Efetivamente, este trabalho com as aldeias de Telhas e Queimadas se iniciou em janeiro de 2009. Em agosto fui contratado parity substituir O referido colega que foi convocado parity assumir vaga de professor pleiteada em concurso na Universidade Federal de Rond & A ; ocirc ; nia – UNIR.Atualmente, as duas aldeias foram inseridas no Programa de Aquisicao de Alimentos – PAA district attorney Conab, onde irao produzir vitamin E seller alimentos para a merenda Lepidocybium flavobrunneum. Alem deste, ho ur angle um outro projeto de avicultura da Secretaria district attorney Agricultura de Acarau em parceria com O Banco do Nordeste – BNB.De acordo com a Secretaria do Desenvolvimentos Agrario do Ceara – DAS, os territorios rurais sao espacos fisicos geograficamente definidos, onde se pode distinguir um ou mais elementos que indicam identidade vitamin E coesao societal e cultural. Cada territorio vitamin E gerido por um colegiado, que vitamin E formado por representantes do poder publico ( municipal, estadual e federal ) e da sociedade civil, como movimentos sociais vitamin E organizacoes nao governamentais ( ONGs ) . Fonte: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ceara.gov.br/noticias/ceara-quer-criar-mais-seis-territorios-rurais mutton quad 20/02/2010.

Conagra Foods Essay

ConAgra Foods Inc. is one of the largest food companies in the United States operating in such segments as Consumer Foods (66%) and Commercial Foods (34%) which are divided into three significant business operations segments – agricultural products, packaged foods and refrigerated foods (Table 1). Table 1. Net sales (in millions USD) 20102009%increase/decrease Consumer Foods 8,002 7,979-%. Commercial Foods 4,077 4,447(8)% Total12,07912,426(3)% Source: Annual Report 2010 Consumer Foods The Consumer Foods segment includes branded, private label and customized food products, which are sold in various retail and foodservice channels. The products include a variety of categories, such as meals, entrees, condiments, sides, snacks, and desserts across frozen, refrigerated and shelf-stable temperature classes. The Company’s major brands include Alexia, ACT II, Banquet, Blue Bonnet, Chef Boyardee, DAVID, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt’s, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Snack Pack, Swiss Miss, Van Camp’s and Wesson. As of July 22, 2010, it had 39 domestic manufacturing facilities in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. As of July 22, 2010, it also had four international manufacturing facilities in Canada and Mexico (one 50% owned) and one in Arroyo Dulce, Argentina. Commercial Foods The Commercial Foods segment supplies frozen potato, sweet potato and other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. The products are sold under brands, such as ConAgra Mills, Lamb Weston, and Spicetec Flavors & Seasoning. As of July 22, 2010, it had 41 domestic production facilities in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Washington; one international production facility in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and Qingdao, China; one manufacturing facility in Taber, Canada; one 50% owned manufacturing facility in each of Colorado, Minnesota, Washington and the United Kingdom; one 67% owned manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico, and three 50% owned manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands. Company is mainly engaged in operations in the United States which count for more than 90% of total income (Table 2). ConAgra Foods Inc. owns approximately 50 brands (Table 3). Table 2. Pre-tax income from continuing operations (in millions USD) 201020092008 United States1,040. 3872. 1631. 9 Foreign 66. 6 64. 3 69. 6 Total1,106. 9936. 4701. 5 Source: Annual Report 2010 Vision and mission The vision of the company set by current CEO Gary Rodkin is: â€Å"One company. One goal. Making the food you love. † It reflects the overall company’s strategy to make â€Å"food people want in their lives every day†. The mission is reflected in company’s profile: â€Å"Preparing great food, being a strong partner to our customers and thinking about all of the people who enjoy our food and the difference it makes in their lives fuels our passion: making the food you love. † Goals Like every public-held company listed on NYSE (ConAgra Foods Inc. has ticker CAG) ConAgra Foods Inc. aims to increase earnings per share. The goal of the company is to achieve long-term growth through supply chain productivity, operational efficiency, innovation, selling, marketing and sustainability of great brands . Increase in supply chain productivity and operational efficiency lets the company to reduce its manufacturing, finance, administrative, transportation costs. Innovation and marketing orientation enhances the business processes and expands profit margins. Figure 1. Formula for growth Source: Annual Report 2010 ConAgra Foods Inc.operates under three principles while achieving its strategic goal: simplicity, collaboration and accountability. Using their resources rationally, nourishing employees and creating positive image within the community are the objectives which lead the company to be â€Å"good for you, good for the community, good for the people† . Strategic priorities The company focuses on the following business product groups. In each strategic group ConAgra Foods Inc. possesses significant manufacturing and innovation capabilities. Figure 2. Strategic priorities. Source: Annual Report 2010 Strategy â€Å"ConAgra Foods is focused on growing sales, expanding profit margins, and improving returns on capital over time. To that end, the company has significantly changed its portfolio of businesses over a number of years, focusing on branded, value-added opportunities, while divesting commodity-based and lower-margin businesses. † Acquisitions Company was founded in 1919 as Nebraska Consolidated Mills and in 2000 changed its name to ConAgra Foods Inc. Acquisitions are the major part of ConAgra’s strategy. The company implemented horizontal and vertical integration strategy after sustaining solid background in flour-milling operations and feed and poultry segment. The time and the trends in the food industry were crucial to the strategic acquisitions of the company. In 1970-1980s when home and industrial refrigerators became available for the consumers and packing techniques developed , which meant that now meat and vegetables will not spoil, ConAgra entered the frozen foods market with the acquisition of Banquet Foods in 1980 and other companies in the meat and poultry segment (Armour Foods, Beatrice Foods, Hebrew National Foods, etc.). In 1980-1990s when the welfare of American citizens began to improve and people began to value time the food that was easy to cook (which means basically just heat and serve) was highly demanded and ConAgra’s strategic move was highly appreciated by the investors in the stock market. The stock price of CAG tripled from 10$ in 1990 to 30$ in 1998. The total amount of acquired brands approximated 30 by the year 2000 (Hunt’s, La Choy, Wesson, ACT II, Chef Boyardee, etc. ) and company changed its name to ConAgra Foods Inc.to reflect its growing role as a food products manufacturer rather than just the food ingredients supplier. In the beginning of the twenty first century and nowadays when the society became more concerned about their health ConAgra Foods Inc. implemented several strategic acquisitions of such companies as Alexia Foods Inc. (natural and organic foods company) in 2007, Elan Nutrition in 2010 and others. The purchases that company makes â€Å"†¦reflect [our] acquisition strategy—find businesses that are great fits and enable [us] to grow by filling a need within [our] portfolio or giving [us] an adjacent category expansion†¦. † Figure 3. The acquisitions strategy helped ConAgra Foods Inc. to: ConAgra Foods Inc. divests the businesses which are either too complex to integrate with the core businesses or did not achieve a profit margin greater than the benchmark margin rate. In 2009 the company sold Pemmican (beef jerky business), in 2008 it sold â€Å"Knott’s Berry Farm† operations and others. Mostly, the divestitures are low-margin (commodity-based) businesses. Marketing and distribution Almost every American household has a number of ConAgra Foods brand-named products in their refrigerators. The ability to acquire well-known and customer-loved brands had secured for ConAgra beneficial position. Some of the acquired brands such as Peter Pan and Chef Boyardee had longer history than ConAgra and were so much identifiable in the consumer market that it makes no sense to advance the brand of ConAgra. Even though the company has so many brands in their â€Å"arsenal† many people don’t know what ConAgra does. And many consumers don’t identify ConAgra as the owner of the brand-named products that they buy. ConAgra is aimed to the better understanding needs of their customers. The health-conscious consumers (whose number is growing) chose nutritious and low-fat food. For increasing nutrition in its products company launched the program on sodium reduction and positions itself as a â€Å"safe food manufacturer† . In 2008 the company launched the program online startmakingchoices. com for people who are concerned with the healthy way of life. The website has several tests and tips on how to keep your life healthier. Also company designs packaging with the full information to help consumers improve their diet. â€Å"Taste, health, nutrition, convenience, sustainability and, of course, value are just some of the issues American shoppers are now faced with every time they go to a supermarket – and they’re demanding to know more. † For the purpose of better serving its customers and help consumers with their choice ConAgra Foods Inc. launched â€Å"Food News Today† with Phil Lempert, a â€Å"leading consumer trend analyst and Supermarket Guru†. ConAgra Foods Inc. aimed to develop and improve their private labeling strategy. One of the most successful brands that company has, Healthy Choice, has retail sales of about 1 billion dollars. This label is licensed to other companies for use on their products. Company announced the Gold Store initiative in 2006, which focuses on driving growth by optimizing in-store conditions in three fundamental areas: distribution, shelving, and placement next to the companion products. As part of a plan ConAgra’s sales efforts are shifting from a strategy that relied heavily on short-term price discounts and couponing in order to push out sales volume to consumers to a strategy that relies more on ways to draw in consumers. The new strategy hopes to provide a more balanced mix of trade spending, consumer advertising, and product innovation than the company had in the past. Even though ConAgra Foods Inc. owns distribution and transportation businesses like J. M. Swank, most of company’s transportation equipment, distribution centers and storage facilities are being run by third parties. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and its affiliates, accounted for approximately 18% of consolidated net sales for fiscal 2010 . ConAgra combines hard data from retailers with its own qualitative research. â€Å"Gary Rodkin is on a quest to find what he calls â€Å"the big, singular insight that will drive behavior change. â€Å"†¦. He is using theories about buying habits–backed by $399 million a year in advertising, marketing and in-store promotions–to convince grocery stores to provide ample shelves for its 45 consumer brands†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Leadership. Charles M. Harper The â€Å"wizard† Charles M. Harper who led the company from 1974 to 1993 is well-known for launching acquisitions strategy and founding Healthy Choice brand. During his tenure at ConAgra, the company expanded its business operations from flour-milling business to frozen foods, poultry, prepared seafood, fertilizers and the sales rose from $636 million in 1974 to $9 billion in 1987. The main reason for making decisions on acquisitions strategy were cyclical profits that company faced in agricultural segment. Mike Harper decided to diversify the company from basic products to packaged goods. His main priority was to acquire companies while they were in their down cycle and he restructured the companies and refocused their marketing strategies. He reintroduced the brands which were highly recognizable by consumers and refocused the product lines. In 1988 Harper boasted that ConAgra was probably the only food products company to â€Å"participate across the entire food chain. † In the early 1990s ConAgra expanded at a rate of about 3-5 acquisitions and joint ventures a year, becoming the leader in the frozen goods industry . During his tenure the P/E ratio of the company was at all times high which means: the price of stock was rising faster than the earnings per share or in other words, the investors were overoptimistic about the future of the company. (Figure 4) Figure 4. P/E ratio of ConAgra Foods Inc. Bruce Rhode In 1998 Bruce Rhode was named a CEO of ConAgra and his first steps were to reduce costs by large amount. He instituted â€Å"Operation Overdrive† restructuring program, closing several production plants and storage facilities and cutting the workforce by seven thousand employees. The estimated savings from â€Å"Operation Overdrive† were approximately $600 million a year . The other problem that Bruce Rhode faced was strong decentralization of the company. Some of the food-processing and meat-packing companies, which operated under one brand name of ConAgra, purchased the products from the competitors rather than other ConAgra’s branches. The same uncoordinated actions were in marketing when â€Å"representatives from several ConAgra divisions, all selling similar products, visited the same restaurants and groceries†. Bruce Rhode emphasized team-approach to solve these problems. At the beginning of 2000s many retail grocery stores would like to promote their own brands in foods processing and packaging segment and that was another problem for Bruce Rhode to solve. He concentrated on product development and marketing, working closely with grocery stores to create displays of ConAgra products. Bruce Rhode continued acquisitions strategy of his predecessors acquiring more brand names in packaged food segment (International Home Foods in 2000) to increase gross sales of the company and he divided company into ten principal operating units: ConAgra Foodservice Company; ConAgra Grocery Products Companies; ConAgra Frozen Prepared Foods; ConAgra Dairy Case Companies; ConAgra Refrigerated Prepared Foods; ConAgra Meat Companies; ConAgra Poultry Company; ConAgra Food Ingredients; United Agri Products Companies; ConAgra Trade Group. The early years of his tenure coincided with the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998 when the investors were cautious about the US domestic markets and the stock price fell significantly (Figure 4). Figure 4. Daily stock prices for ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) since 1978 to 2010. Source: google. com/finance Gary Rodkin Gary Rodkin, the former CEO of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods of North America division, replaced Bruce Rhode as CEO of ConAgra Foods Inc. in 2005 and began reorganization trying to create one centralized consolidated company that consists of more than 500 subdivisions. As a result of refocusing its portfolio of businesses ConAgra Foods Inc. divested Butterball, Armour, Eckrich and others. Gary Rodkin, while continuing acquisitions strategy, transformed the company into a â€Å"more unified operating company† . With the changes of the new CEO many analysts were concerned that he would try to create ConAgra brand instead of coordinating many different brands. However, during his interview to SmartMoney (Wall Street Journal) in 2010 he said: â€Å"†¦. There is no product named ConAgra. So instead, we say, consumers make the brands relevant. We do need investors to better understand this company. But on the consumer side, we really don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. † Performance Internal organization ConAgra Foods Inc. operates in a low-margin industry thus effectively managing its costs is the priority in achieving strategic competitiveness (Figure 6). Focusing on cost reduction the company could save 1. 1 billion USD through supply chain rationalization initiatives, the relocation of a divisional headquarters from Irvine, California to Naperville, Illinois, the centralization of shared services, salaried headcount reductions and other cost-reduction initiatives . Figure 6. Here’s how the $4. 19 you pay for a frozen dinner like one from Healthy Choice breaks down. ConAgra makes 55 cents. Source: Forbes. com . Shopping Cart Psychology by Helen Coster. 08. 19. 09 For the fiscal 2010 year ConAgra Foods Inc. announced net sales of 12,079 million USD with the operating profit of 1,652 USD (Table 4). Table 4. Financial Highlights for the fiscal 2010 year Source: Annual Report 2010 â€Å"†¦.. Heightened competition, weak demand and inflation hampered food processor ConAgra’s fiscal first quarter, leading it to cut its outlook, though the maker of Healthy Choice and Orville Redenbacher’s brand foods increased its dividend†¦.. † . The company also decreased its earnings per share outlook from 8-10% growth to 5-7%. External environment ConAgra Foods Inc. is focused on value-added brand companies and private labeling in the food industry where it competes with such giants as Kraft Foods, Heinz, Nestle, etc. â€Å"†¦.. We experience intense competition for sales of our principal products in our major markets. Our products compete with widely advertised, well-known, branded products, as well as private label and customized products. Some of our competitors are larger and have greater resources than we have. We compete primarily on the basis of quality, value, customer service, brand recognition, and brand loyalty†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. † From the next figure it can be inferred that even though ConAgra Foods, Inc. operates better than overall US industries, it still underperforms the leading companies in food sector. Figure 5. 10-year comparison of ConAgra Foods Inc. , S&P 500, S&P 500 Packaged Foods Index. Source: Annual Report 2010 In the Processed and Packaged Goods industry companies operate under very narrow margins (Figure 6) and for that reason severe price competition after the financial crisis influences heavily the profits of ConAgra Foods Inc. Also, the retailers implement backward integration strategy and take away profits from famous brand companies since the consumers are losing interest in the brand-named products. Even though the there are some good news about the industry that the consumers are very conscious about the money and they eat-out less than before the crisis the competition in the industry makes it difficult for analysts to predict bright future for the food companies. In the Figure we can see that the general projections for the industry are either â€Å"buy† or â€Å"hold† rather than â€Å"strong buy†. Figure 7. Analysts recommendation about the industry and ConAgra Foods Inc. Source: wikinvest. com Zacks Investment Research, November 24, 2010. Bibliographies 1. Amanda Quick, â€Å"Company profiles for students†, (Thomson Gale, 1999) 2. bigcharts. com 3. ConAgra Foods Inc. Annual Report 2010 4. ConAgra Foods Inc. Corporate Responsibility Report 2010 5. conagrafoods. com 6. forbes. com 7. google. com/finance 8. http://www. hbs. edu 9. referenceforbusiness. com 10. wikinvest. com 11. wsj. com.

Open House at Private Schools

If youre applying to a private school, you might notice that many of them offer something called an open house. What is it and why should you attend? In the most simple terms, a private school open house is a chance for you to visit the school. Some schools have a block of time where prospective families can come and go, meet the admissions team, and take a quick tour, while others offer full programs that require families to register in advance and arrive by a specific time. Open houses may have limited space, so if its not clear whether registration is required, its always a good idea to check with the admissions office to be sure.   Exactly what happens at an open house can vary from school to school, but typically you can expect to hear from the Head of School and/or the Director of Admission, as well as one or more of the following things during an open house.   A Campus Tour Nearly every private school open house will have an opportunity for prospective families to tour the campus. You might not be able to see the entire  campus, especially if the school is set on hundreds of acres, but youll likely get to see the main academic buildings, the dining hall, library, the student center (if the school has one), arts facilities, gymnasium, and select athletics facilities, as well as a School Store. Often these are led by students, giving you a chance to ask questions about life from a students perspective.  If youre attending an open house at a boarding school, you might also get to see a dorm room or at least the inside of the dormitory and the common areas. If you have a special request for a tour, you will want to call the admission office in advance to see if they can accommodate you or if youll need to schedule a separate appointment.   Panel Discussions and Question Answer Session Many private schools will host panel discussions where students, faculty, alumni and/or current parents will talk about their time at the school and answer questions from the audience. These discussions are a great way to get a general overview of life at the school and help you learn more. Usually, there will be limited time for questions and answers, so if your question doesnt get asked and answered, just ask to follow up with an admission representative later on.   Class Visits Attending a private school means going to class, so many schools will offer students and their parents to attend class so you can get an idea of what the classroom experience is like. You may not be able to attend the class of your choice, but attending any class, even if its conducted in another language, will give you an idea of the student-teacher dynamic, style of learning, and if youll feel comfortable in class. Some schools will offer students the opportunity to shadow current students for an entire day, giving you the full experience, while others only provide the opportunity for visitors to attend one or two classes.   Lunch Food is an important part of a school, as youre going to each lunch here every day and if youre a boarding student, breakfast, and dinner, too. Many private school open houses include lunch so you can try the food and see what the dining hall is like.   Club Fair Schools will sometimes offer a club fair, where prospective students and families can learn about after-school sports, activities, clubs, and other things that happen on campus as part of student life. Each club or activity may have a table where you can ask questions and meet students who share the same interests as you.   Interview Some schools will offer a chance for prospective students to interview during the open house event, while others will require a second personal visit to conduct these. If youre not sure if interviews are possible or if youre traveling from a distance and want an interview while youre there, ask if its possible to schedule one before or after the event.   Overnight Visit This option is less common  and is only found at select boarding schools, but occasionally prospective students are invited to spend the night in the dorm. These overnight visits are arranged in advance  and are not available if you just show up at an open house unexpectedly. Parents will typically find lodging in town or nearby, while students stay with a host student. Visitors are expected to participate in whatever activities happen at night, including study halls, so be sure to bring a book to read or homework. Lights out rules are also expected to be followed, as are restrictions for when you are allowed to leave the dorm at night and in the morning. If youre doing an overnight, you may wish to bring your own shower shoes, towel, and toiletries, in addition to a change of clothes for the next day. Ask if you need to bring a sleeping bag and pillow, too.   A common misconception about open house events is that attending means youre absolutely going to apply. Usually, its quite the opposite. These massive gatherings of prospective families are designed to introduce you to the school and help you decide if you truly want to learn more and complete the application process.