Marketing planing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Marketing planing - Assignment Example Analyzing marketing plan of Boots UK Limited will be the essence of this paper while understanding the research problem in context to theoretical argument of various research scholars. Before going to this discussion, the researcher will try to understand the business matrix of Boots UK Limited. Boots UK Limited- Business Overview Boots was established by John Boot in the year 1849 and the company is headquartered in Nottingham, United Kingdom (Boots-UK, 2013a). Boots UK is the subsidiary of Alliance Boots which is a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group (Boots-UK, 2013b). Boots UK works in close partnership with pharmacists and medicine manufacturers in order to maintain steady flow of supply. The company focuses on three major business verticals such as pharmaceutical wholesaling & retail distribution, pharmacy-led health supplement distribution and beauty retailing (Boots-UK, 2013b). Although the parent company Alliance Boots has established its presence over 25 count ries but subsidiary Boots UK has not expanded its operation beyond UK and Ireland. Boots UK Limited (Boots) has expanded its retail operation with the help of establishing 2500 stores in UK and Ireland. The pharmacy chain serves more than 7 million customers every week and the company earns revenue over ?5 billion (Tata Consultancy Services, 2007). Task 1 Ans.1b- Careful analysis of the research work of Sheth and Sisodia (2006) reveals the fact that both product and service driven companies have started to look into marketing planning as a strategic move instead of perceiving it as a mere operational trick to generate brand awareness. Modern companies separately allocate resources for formulating and executing the marketing plan. Sheth and Sisodia (2006) argued that modern marketers have started viewing marketing plan as a means for generating customer satisfaction and loyalty. Modern marketing plan is created after conducting deep market research on consumer behavior, economic powe r index of customer, demography of customers, social dynamics of customers while in previous occasions, marketing plan was developed on the basis of product selling objectives. However, Wood (2008) pointed out that pattern of marketing plan changed in terms on inclusion of social elements in the planning phase. For example, modern marketers emphasize heavily on creating human touch points or human appeal through the marketing plan while in previous occasions, marketing plans were mechanical in nature. Capabilities of Boots UK Limited (Boots) can be assessed in terms of its resources which can be classified as tangible, intangible and human resources. Tangible Resource Intangible Resource Human Resource Capabilities Boots work as the subsidy of Alliance Boots which earns annual revenue of more than $40 billion with operating profit of $2billion. Hence, the group is in financially stable position to finance its marketing plan. Boots is market leader in UK’s pharmacy-led health and beauty with 2,500 distribution centres. Boots has got intellectual capital by establishing patent contract with leading pharmaceutical companies. Contract with pharmaceutical companies help Boots to sell generic drugs in exclusive manner to customers. The company maintains the heritage of 164 years which is greatest drive for building the brand equity for Boots. In many occasions, Boots

Skills and Competencies in Human Resource Management Essay

Skills and Competencies in Human Resource Management - Essay Example HR departments are not designed to provide corporate therapy or social or health and happiness retreats. HR professionals must create the practices that make employees more competitive, not more comfortable. (1999). Competencies help organisations to focus on the characteristics their employees must possess in order for them to be successful. Competencies also provide a way to measure employee’s performance and to align performance with business strategies. Competency may be grouped as â€Å"the underlying characteristics of skills, knowledge, self-concept, traits and motives.† (Tucker and Cofsky, 1994) But one cannot ignore at the myriad of problems that the HR Managers confront. Among them health related incompetence bear the most serious implications, for part of it lies in the individual affiliation for lifestyle and food habits. Therefore, it gives rise to a question â€Å"Do companies have the right to get involved in peoples’ eating and exercising habits? The obesity epidemic is robbing our youth of their future and our generation of their leisure years in retirement. What can be done about it? Is it a pubic or private matter?† (Smith, 2006) http://www.cfib.ca. From the sphere of being totally a private matter the issue has reached an insurmountable proportion that needs proper mechanism in place to tackle it. It concerns the companies mostly as it is a human resource issue rather than being a result of private individuals’ eating habit. Needless to say all companies are earmarking huge amounts for the health issues of the employees and much of this outl ay are eaten away by obesity related problems. An efficient workforce is the backbone of all companies and efficiency is relied on the health of the employees. If the wrong life style and food habits get the better off the employees, their negative implications are manifold. All concerted efforts at modernization, and

The International Grocery Industry Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The International Grocery Industry - Term Paper Example In every economy, there has to be a government that makes up laws that definitely affect the way an entity sets its way of business. The legal entity is concerned in setting marketing standards like prices, distribution strategies of particular goods, how to treat employees and sometimes where to set up a market or an enterprise. The legal sector can either reduce or increase the competitive nature of a company. The British government has set strict rules on how different entities can deal with food and drinks products which highly affects the Tesco supermarket. The laws that have been set affect the packaging and labeling of the products. This is so because the products are perishable and they are consumed by very many people thus a small mistake in packaging and labeling can lead to numerous deaths which are against the objectives of the government; to protect the general public. It is right for the goods to be packaged well to avoid contamination and moreover, the labeling will al low the consumer to know the expiring date of a product, the ingredients of a product and if it is a counterfeit good or an original good. The laws have made the production costs to increase thus the price of the products have to increase. It has posed a great challenge to Tesco as it had to increase the retail prices thus threatened consumers to look for other options. Moreover, the banking sector of Tesco has been able to deal with the strict government laws made to protect the general public from being exploited by the banks. Royal Bank of Scotland had a joint venture with the Tesco Personal Finance system thus it has enabled the Tesco company to deal with the strict banking laws as they have a half-half share. The share in costs makes Tesco to half the burden thus enable it to make more profit and to be stable. This has seen the company making a profit of â‚ ¤130 million in February 2007. By making such profits, the Tesco Company is expected to have bought the Royal Bank of S cotland (Nash, 2006, pp. 23-56).

Skills and Competencies in Human Resource Management Essay

Skills and Competencies in Human Resource Management - Essay Example HR departments are not designed to provide corporate therapy or social or health and happiness retreats. HR professionals must create the practices that make employees more competitive, not more comfortable. (1999). Competencies help organisations to focus on the characteristics their employees must possess in order for them to be successful. Competencies also provide a way to measure employee’s performance and to align performance with business strategies. Competency may be grouped as â€Å"the underlying characteristics of skills, knowledge, self-concept, traits and motives.† (Tucker and Cofsky, 1994) But one cannot ignore at the myriad of problems that the HR Managers confront. Among them health related incompetence bear the most serious implications, for part of it lies in the individual affiliation for lifestyle and food habits. Therefore, it gives rise to a question â€Å"Do companies have the right to get involved in peoples’ eating and exercising habits? The obesity epidemic is robbing our youth of their future and our generation of their leisure years in retirement. What can be done about it? Is it a pubic or private matter?† (Smith, 2006) http://www.cfib.ca. From the sphere of being totally a private matter the issue has reached an insurmountable proportion that needs proper mechanism in place to tackle it. It concerns the companies mostly as it is a human resource issue rather than being a result of private individuals’ eating habit. Needless to say all companies are earmarking huge amounts for the health issues of the employees and much of this outl ay are eaten away by obesity related problems. An efficient workforce is the backbone of all companies and efficiency is relied on the health of the employees. If the wrong life style and food habits get the better off the employees, their negative implications are manifold. All concerted efforts at modernization, and

Biomedical Engineering Essay Example for Free

Biomedical Engineering Essay Medicine, biology, research, and engineering are build blocks for the profession of a biomedical engineer. Biomedical engineering deals with the application of ones knowledge of engineering to medicine and biology to help with healthcare. To join this profession you need at the minimum of a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering. There are many types of biomedical engineering such as tissue, genetic, neural, clinical and pharmaceutical, and with each they require special expertise. This profession is fast paced and filled with excitement, biomed will forever be evolving as the research and knowledge of all things medical grow. Now biomedical engineering is a larger profession than many think and is broken into many sub-specialties that require even a higher level of education and experience. Biomedical engineering requires a higher level of education after high school. Now before college for those interested they should enroll in advanced math and science classes to help with better preparation. Now while you’re in college obtaining an internship would be very beneficial to getting a job after graduating since most are looking for those with experience. Biomedical engineering includes coursework from both engineering and biology. Depending on your school the subjects vary but will normally include biomaterials, physiology, solid and fluid mechanics, and computer programming. Now if you enroll in a biomedical engineering program it must be accredited by ABET, if not your degree may not help you get a job after graduation. Well after graduation a brighter world opens up to you and you have a wide variety of other directions to travel because biomedical engineering doesn’t just stop there. Tissue engineering is the study for the growth of new connective tissues, organs, etc. This allows the creation of fully functional organs for implantation into host bodies. Sounds quite innovative and it is with the direct implantation over transplantation which could cause the host body to reject the organ causing further problems. Now to break down this process first a sample of cells would be taken from the host body, which soon after will be cultured from explants. Culturing explants is basically the process of mig rating and the expansion of cells. Then the cells get further culturing to form tissue that’s been engineered for implantation. Now these experiments are carried out within special Tissue Culture Facilities to keep a safe and sterile environment. Now when  these donor implants are created they are given growth measures so the cells can multiply and grow so once implanted they will recreate their intended functions. Now that’s quite fascinating, but this is just the tip of the ice berg there’s much more to be unfolded. Genetic engineering deals with the manipulation and changing of cells and their makeup. Often people think of this being a way to create super organisms, which is actually quite true in a sense. This part of biomedical engineering helps scientist break through the boundaries that restricts them from creating novel organisms. Novel organisms are organisms that can produce offspring with new gene combinations through sexual reproduction. Now this process takes place when engineers extract specific gene traits and transfers them into another specimen. Therefore new combinations of genes and traits lay a path for new species that doesn’t occur in nature and by which can’t be developed b y natural means. Although these may be great feats this is one of the riskier specialties. Alongside the benefits adding unnatural genes and traits can bring forth unknown consequences, but this is someone’s future and our future. Neural engineering runs on the principals of wanting to understand the brain and how it works; all the while developing new technology to interact and treat the brain. These engineers are taught about fundamental diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, tinnitus, and epilepsy. Other skills that are needed for this profession include signal processing, image processing, instrumentation and computational modeling as well as electrode design, amplifier and filter design, brain machine interfaces, cochlear implants, and deep brain stimulation. Now all of that sounds over whelming but neural engineering requires some of the top precision because the brain is something like the bodies controller. So being an amateur in this field is not something that’s accepted. Clinical engineering deals with the stride towards better te chnology to analyze and provide solutions for the clinical needs of patients. This field is quite diverse and covers a lot of areas within health care. These engineers work with complex human and technological systems. Now these men/women are the technical managers of the medical equipment, some of their responsibilities include financial or budgetary management, service contract management, data processing and in house operators. In addition they also fill other important functions like assuring that the medical equipment is safe and effective. Clinical  engineers are one of the more precise and helpful of the engineers because they work with medical, nursing and paramedical staff to ensure that the care their trying to deliver with the assistance of technology is being worked to the best of its ability. Pharmaceutical engineering is the field that deals with the creating and manufacturing plants and pharmaceutical products that are generated by these plants. These engineers help create the guidelines that regard the production of medical drugs in addition to their other work. Now alike the tissue engineers their sites of work but maintain sanitary all the time on a count of the drugs and other items they handle. Labeling and packaging these pharmaceuticals after validating the integrity is another task they must handle. It may sound odd but a major aspect of the job is being able to designing the pharmaceutical facility. They must build pharmaceutical and research facilities while considering the equipment needed and the â€Å"cleanrooms† and other utility stations they use. Clean rooms are an enclosed area that have low numbers of environmental pollutants, like dust or other things that can contaminate, this is somewhat of a Pharmaceutical engineer’s sanctuary in a way. In conclusion biomedical engineering is a very demanding yet interesting profession and can branch off into other specialties to enhance the fascinating experience. As you read through some of them you may have realize that each have their own intricate points, but all of them have one common goal and that’s to provide healthcare and its people with the best of the best no matter what their in need of. No matter which direction you decide to go with you’ll need a concise clear mind and an education to back it up. This is a very advanced profession and will only grow upon itself for years to come, so if this profession is chosen be sure that you’re ready and filled with enthusiasm and ambition because it will be needed. Works Cited King, YaShekia, and E. E. Hubbard. WiseGeek. Conjecture, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pharmaceutical-engineering.htm. Neural Engineering. : Emphasis Areas : Undergraduate Program : Department of Biomedical Engineering : University of Minnesota. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://bme.umn.edu/undergrad/handbook/emphasis/neural.html. Trinity College Dublin. What Is Clinical Engineering. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://www.medicine.tcd.ie/medical-physics-bioengineering/postgraduate/msc-physical-sciences/clinical-engineering.php. What Is Genetic Engineering? Union of Concerned Scientist: Citizens and Scientist for Environmental Soultions. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/what-is-genetic-engineering.html. What Is Tissue Engineering. What Is Tissue Engineering. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotech-Environ/Projects00/tissue/What is Tissue Engineering.htm.

The Resources And Capabilities Of Kodak Commerce Essay

The Resources And Capabilities Of Kodak Commerce Essay The Eastman Kodak company, otherwise known as Kodak, provides imaging products and services to the photographic markets. It was founded in 1881 by a man named George Eastman, who created the first dry plate formula which he then patented. Eastman believed that new products should be highly user friendly and should be targeted at reaching regular everyday people, making photography something everybody could do and enjoy. By 1884 Kodak had become a popular household name. George Eastmans early success was due to one of his first creations, the roll film, Eastman believed that this creation would be as convenient as the pencil. In 1888 George Eastman put the first simple camera into the hands of the world consumer with the slogan you press the button, we do the rest (Eastman, 1988). Eastman developed principles and values in order to make Kodak a success, these guiding principles and values are; low cost mass production, the importance of quality, international distribution and the belief that growth can only be achieved through continuous improvements in research and development. George Eastman also expressed Kodaks competitive philosophy as, Nothing is more important than the value of our name and the quality it stands for. We must make quality our fighting argument. (Eastman, 1988). By 1902, Eastman Kodak was producing 80 to 90 percent of the worlds Celluloid film. By the 1930s, the company operated dozens of huge, specially designed film-making machines at its Kodak Park plant. The Eastman Kodak company has continued to grow and change with technology, creating new products and processes to make photography simpler and more attractive. Today Kodak is known not only for photography but their images are used in commercial marketing across the world and the entertainment sector, enabling the use of technology, imagery and information to change how people and businesses communicate with each other. Capabilities. Organisations are not identical as they have different capabilities. If an organisation is to gain a competitive advantage, it will do so on the basis of capabilities that its rivals do not have, or have difficulty in obtaining. Strategic capability is the resources and competences of an organisation needed for it to survive and prosper. Kodak is a market leader but to become a market leader Kodak had to adapt and change with the world as new technology became increasingly superior. The biggest problem with an increase in technology was the digital age. Kodak was the market leader in pre-digital age imagery and photography which included film, photo paper and chemical development. The digital age brought the development and increase of technology to which Kodak could not compete. The Kodak Value Chain Pre-digital Age The diagram below demonstrates Kodaks strength in almost all areas of the traditional photography process. film camera video camera Image capture Processing Storage Printing Projection Retailer processing at retail stores reprints (Gavetti, 2005) To overcome this important stage in the companys life cycle Kodak had to refer back to the initial guiding principles and values George Eastman developed for the company which were low cost mass production, the importance of quality, international distribution and the belief that growth can only be achieved through continuous improvements in research and development. By using these principles and values as a guide to improve the company and push themselves into the digital age, the diagram below shows the changes that needed to be made in order for Kodak to successfully enter the new age digital market. The Kodak Value Chain Post-digital Age. At home: printers inkjet consumables, paper Online (paper) At retail stores Online (email, Internet) -digital camera Video camera Film camera Retrieval Image capture Digitalisation Storage Transmission Printing Digital Cameras software Scanner at home Kiosks at retailers Digital mini-labs Online services Hard disk Floppy disk / CD Removable storage (e.g. Memory stick) Manipulation CPU manipulation Projection *coloured box shows Kodak was only partly involved at this stage. (Gavetti, 2005) To gain a competitive advantage, organisations must reposition themselves in order to take advantage of a changing market, or in some cases hold on to their normal resource base. There are two different views, the Resource Based View (RBV), otherwise known as the inside out perspective and the Market Based View (MBV), otherwise known as the outside-in perspective. The resource based view of strategy is the competitive advantage and superior performance of an organisation which is explained by the distinctiveness of its capabilities. In 1959 Dr Edith Penrose developed the idea that firms compete on resources and not their market positioning which supports the resource based view. Another supporter of the resource based view were Prahalad and Hamel who in 1990 suggested that, resources that are valuable, rare or are in some form difficult to imitate form the core-competencies that enable an organisation to compete successfully. In 1985 Michael Porters Competitive Strategy journal suggested that firms should persistently take their environment as the starting point in order to determine an appropriate strategy, thus supporting the market based view. In 2003 Kodak decided they needed to apply the market based view as a strategy to finally revolutionize into the digital age. Kodak made many alterations and changes in order to successfully gain a share in the new market. Dynamic capabilities are an organisations abilities to renew and recreate its strategic capabilities to meet the needs of a changing environment. Dynamic capabilities may take the form major strategic moves such as acquisitions or alliances by which new skills are learned. In 2004 Kodak completed the acquisition of Scitex Digital Printing, and sold its remote sensing systems to ITT Industries. A strategic partnership was formed with Verizon Wireless. The Eastman Kodaks company also acquired voting rights in Chinon Industries, through its Japanese subsidiary. Kodak acquired the image sensor business from National Semiconductor, and also closed its plant in Australia. At the end of 2004 Kodak, Fuji Photo Film and Konica Minolta Photo Imaging formed a picture archiving Kodak and sharing standard group (to enable the preservation of digital photos and motion images on CDs, DVDs and other types of media). To address the development of the information age in cellular technology Kodak achieved an agreement with Cingular Wireless and Nokia to develop services for mobile phones with cameras. Resources. A resource is a person, asset, material or capital which can be used to accomplish a goal. Tangible resources are the physical assets of an organisation such as plant, labour and finance. Intangible resources are non-physical assets such as information, innovation and knowledge. To sustain a competitive advantage a firm must have unique resources. Kodak has many resources. When the company was founded George Eastman patented the creation of the dry plate formula, this asset was the beginning of the success of Eastman Kodak as a market leader. George Eastman was himself one of the main resources of the company; it was his ideas, innovations and creations that created the company and made it the success it is. He not only created the start of photography but he created a guide for the company, a set of principles and values for the company to follow to be successful. Kodaks company logo is a resource as Kodak was the first to integrate its name and look into a symbol with their red and yellow trade dress colour. Employees such as managers with valuable knowledge are an important resource especially managers that have been hired since the managerial re-structure who have up to date knowledge in the digital age. Of course all the other workers and employees (labour) are just as important to keep the company going, workers with the necessary skills and experience that run the company and plants in a successful and efficient manner. Kodak has a lot of equipment, some of which Kodak has had to change and has had to be updated since the change and increase in technology in the digital age. Finance is also a main resource as without it there are a lot of other resources you cannot have; finance affects the entire running of the business. Innovation is a key resource, not only was it important for the creation of the company but it is vital for the future of it. To a greater or lesser degree, innovations either enhance or destroy competencies that a firms already possesses (Utterback, pg183). An example of innovation by Kodak is the razor blade strategy that George Eastman applied at the beginning of the company. Kodak sold cameras at low prices in order to generate profit from the sales of films for the cameras. The digital age shook the Eastman Kodak company. Kodak was stuck in the past not unable but unwilling to change with the rest of the world as technology increased and advanced. Kodak had the ability to take control when the digital market emerged but chose not to because they believed nothing could be as pioneering or as popular and as the film. The beginning of the change into the digital age was in 1981, Sony launched the introduction of the first filmless digital camera called the Mavica. Films were becoming outdated and this was what Kodak needed to realise. Had Kodak taken control and made the change at the right time, Kodak would be in a completely different situation, however Kodak was too late to recognise the need for change and when they finally realised they needed to change in order to survive they were slow to react which in the end cost them the market leadership. Competencies. Competencies are the skills and abilities by which resources are deployed effectively through an organisations activities and processes. Core competencies are competencies used to achieve competitive advantage in ways that others cannot imitate or obtain. Competences are created as organisations combine humans and technology. If correlated together perfectly these competences will change over time as both knowledge and technology develops. Chandler worked and developed this theory further in both The Visible Hand (1977) and Scale and Scope (1990). The link between humans and technology can be seen within the Kodak company, for example, recently Kodak have made changes to their managerial structure which has enabled them to gain new managers with knowledge and experience in digital photography and Kodaks continuous networking strategy facilitates business opportunities with like-minded business people. An example of networking for Kodak is when George Eastman marketed the first commercial transparent roll film in 1889, the impact ranged beyond consumer and professional photography. For one thing, it enabled inventor Thomas Edison to develop the first motion picture camera in 1891, and by 1896 Kodak was marketing film specially coated f or motion picture use. Prahalad and Hamel (1990) said, Resources that are valuable, rare or are in some form difficult to imitate form the core-competencies that enable an organisation to compete successfully. The knowledge-based view creates a new competence to the organization which is the ability to create and share knowledge which gives the organization a competitive advantage. Grant believes that competencies are created from the incorporation of knowledge. However an important point has to be made, it does not matter how much valuable knowledge you have or how expensive your equipment is worth if you do not know how to use your resources efficiently. As a common rule, competency-enhancing innovations are just as likely to develop from established firms as from outsiders. Competency-destroying innovations, however, almost always come from outsiders. The necessity to develop new competencies in anticipation of future developments is an important factor of long-term business success and George Eastman seems to have recognised this requirement which is one of the reasons why Eastman is also recognised as a successful innovator. Conclusion. The Eastman Kodak company was described as, an example of repeat strategic failure it was unable to grasp the future of digital quickly enough, and even when it did so, it was implemented too slowly under a continuous change strategy and ultimately it did not fit coherently as a core competency'(Mendez,2005). It is amazing to think how Eastman became a global market leader instead of the Germans, as the Germans were the leaders in the science of optics, chemicals and design of cameras. However German products were usually expensive and produced in small numbers whereas George Eastman struck a desirable balance between cost and quality. For example, Eastman quickly replaced his original Kodak camera with his No. 1 model because the former shutter system was inherently costly to make. Eastman focused on his financial and HR on an international mass market and large-scale production. There are some similarities with Eastman Kodak and Henry Ford who incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903. A firm is said to have a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors. (Barney, 1992:102) When Thomas Edison asked Eastman to produce a special film for the newly invented motion picture camera, Eastman already had the competencies needed to develop it, he simply had to lengthen and strengthen his strips of film and add holes to connect the movie cameras sprocket. The importance in the development of new competencies in anticipation of future developments is a vital factor of long-term business success. All of George Eastmans early attempts at colour photography failed, and these failures encouraged him to establish RD in the Eastman Kodak Research Laboratory. The idea of competency is essential to the survival of all firms as they encounter change. During the time it took for the transformation of the Eastman Kodak company to transform into the market leader it is, many other successful companies disappeared in a time of technological change. The capabilities, competencies and resources of a company are the key factors that give a company the competitive advantages to enable them to be successful and gain market share. This has been apparent throughout the research taken on the Eastman Kodak company. However even with these capabilities, competencies and resources, no matter if you are a market leader or a small company barely breaking-even, if you do not use these competitive advantages efficiently and do not recognise the need for change your company is going to suffer just as the Eastman Kodak company did. Word count: 2,281

Assault on the Courts :: essays research papers

Assault on the Courts Fighting has become a habitual event seen in professional basketball. There has been a consistent decline in professionalism and morals predominately in young athletes. Before the Ron Artest event, most players were idolized as gods and portrayed as today’s heroes. However, a shocking phenomenon has risen as newer and younger athletes have entered the â€Å"new† NBA. Professionalism, morals, and integrity have taken a back seat to greed and selfishness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On November 1st, 2004, during the Pacers vs. Pistons game, the game of basketball changed forever. A drunken fan in the stands launched a beer at Indiana Pacer, Ron Artest. 6’7† Ron Artest rushed the stands, brutally beating an innocent bystander.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Around the same time as the Ron Artest ordeal, there began a slew of unacceptable occurrences of fighting and foul play amongst basketball players. The reasons for these changes in behavior seem to have intricate and distinct underlying reasons. These behaviors compromise the attitude our country is built on. The behavior of today’s athlete is a direct reflection on the attitude of today’s youth. The total disregard for authority is becoming the norm. Respect for teachers in all levels of education is at an all-time low. One of the most significant reasons for this occurrence is due to the fact that players are â€Å"celebrities† and feel invincible; they assume that they will be able to escape punishment proposed by courts and coaches. How have players attitudes changed so drastically? The basketball players, who make it into the NBA, have been pampered for the majority of their career going all the way back to high school. Coaches have given them special treatment, because they have more talent and enable the coaches to win games. College coaches often provide these favored players with just about anything that they wish. Egos are constantly stroked at the college level to try and convince these players to stay in school. Why? Because money is the bottom line and these players bring in the mighty dollar. There is extreme pressure from the alumni who donate millions of dollars a year to big time universities to win. Presidents of these universities then apply pressure to athletic directors to hire coaches that win. The compensation for these college coaches has risen substantially in the past few years. This increases the pressure on coaches to win and win now, thus more coaches are sacrificing morals and education to accommodate the player that helps them succeed, at any cost necessary.