The Value of Education in Todays Society Research Paper

The Value of Education in Todays Society - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that today’s economy has become more global and Americans are being asked to gain more global knowledge. As the economy and political policies continue to change, the needs for competition and understanding have changed. Many businesses are requiring employees to have knowledge of more than one language so that they negotiate contracts easier. Globalization also brings with it the need for computer knowledge that includes an understanding of virtual working teams, and they must be able to take in knowledge quickly. This project makes a conclusion that education is important to society on many levels. Education drives a society and can help it transition to a stronger community. Education is important to enhance a society and to make it stronger. When someone is gaining education, he or she learns how to help others achieve as they take the role of leadership. Education is important to the economy because educated people spend more and they pay more taxes. They also pay taxes. Both situations bring people together and help the society grow. Most organizations are working with a diverse work group which means that training should be involved with them to understand more about cultures and about what culture looks like. In a global world, it is important is to be culturally sensitive to the needs of all workers and this come with education and training. There is no doubt that education is important to society. There are a variety of ways that educated people help the economy.

How did the French Revolution influence the development of nationalism Essay

How did the French Revolution influence the development of nationalism in 19th century Europe - Essay Example The paper tells that the idea of nationalism is said to have emerged from the French Revolution in 1789. It is reported that, during this time, France was already a fully-fledge territorial nation under the rule of a powerful monarch. The French Revolution that took place during this time brought a lot of changes both political and constitutional that led to a shift of sovereignty from the monarch to the citizens of France. The French Revolution clamoured for the introduction of a system in which power is to be vested on the people who would henceforth be mandated to constitute the nation and determine its destiny. It is also noted that, right from the start, the French revolutionaries brought in place practices and measures aimed at creating a sense of collectivity among the people of France. For instance, the la patrie (the fatherland) idea and Ie citoyen (the citizen) advocated for a united community where people are free and enjoy equal rights as enshrined in the constitution. As a result, the French people chose a national flag, the tricolour, in replacement of its royal standard. This was followed by the election of Estates General by citizens and later on renamed as the National Assembly. After the formation of the National Assembly, the French people then composed hymns, took oaths and commemorated martyrs all in the name of their country. The French also formed a centralized system of government accompanied by the formulation of laws that were to govern the country.

The Ravenmaster’s Secret Essay Example for Free

The Ravenmaster’s Secret Essay The Ravenmaster’s Secret is one of Woodruff’s interesting books about friendship.   As what we commonly say, true friends are known during times of troubles.   This book is but just one of the many books that showcases the story of friendship in a time of war.   The Ravenmaster’s Secret is a story about love and hate relationship and a friendship bridged over war.   In this story, the author narrated the life of a young boy named Forrest Harper who lived and grew up in the middle of the Tower of London sometime in the year 1735. In this time of trouble and as a young boy, he passed the test of friendship and courage.   Forrest has a pet raven named Tuck and at a young age, he already shows genuine care for ravens especially those who are caged.   Although Forrest lived with his family, he was lonely; and that loneliness was taken away by a friend named Rat, a local boy with whom Forrest would imagine things and scenes, and telling their fantasies.   They would sketch their stories and their fantasies and drew pictures of horses and dragons.   After which, another friend though initially presented as an enemy came.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this tower, he met whom, the author referred to as his enemy, a young girl, Scottish and a prisoner named Maddy.   Forrest guards the tower along with his father to watch the prisoners.   Maddy is a daughter of a rebel and so he is an enemy. She was the prisoner and the young boy was his jailer.   At age eleven, both of them experienced an adventure together as they discover the tower known as a place of horrifying terror.   However, as the story progressed, they turn out to be very god friends and together they overcame terror, a horrifying challenge that could have cost their lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One day, a bad news arrived stating that Maddy is to be executed.   Intending to help their friend, Forrest and Rat, now named Ned devised a plan on how to free her.   Risking their lives and their loved ones as well, they pursued the plan and freed Maddy. As a young boy, this is already a huge test for Forrest who is caught between his feelings for Maddy and his desire to free him; and his allegiance to his country with whom he and his family serve. However, believing that helping Maddy is the right thing to do; he faced the challenges and the possible consequences of his actions. The story continued as the three friends fulfill their dreams together in friendship wherein Forrest became the Ravenmaster at the tower like his father.   This is the secret world of the Ravenmaster.   Ã‚  The story ended showing how the children achieved their goals realizing their fantasies (Shafer, n.d.).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The book is a very nice fictional story that cultivates creativity and has strong appeal to the imagination.   Like the characters in the book, readers are also confined to their secret, fictitious world.   I special liked the book because it is a story about friendship and how friendship can survive the test of troubles especially in the eyes of the young characters.   It is amazing how the author used the characters of Maddy, Forrest and Ned (Rat) to emphasize the fictitious part of the story. Normally children are very imaginative and fascinating fantasies that somehow have been emphasized in the story but vividly narrating a realistic lesson to the readers-friendship.   This is what the author, Elvira Woodruff achieved because although his work is basically fictitious, she never tried to romanticize the setting of the story which gave it a realistic appeal especially with the fact that the Tower of London is an important historical venue. Reference Shafer, S.   (n.d.).   That’s Cheeky!   Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2955

The Concept Of Identity Politics

The Concept Of Identity Politics Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others. At its most basic it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality. But it is also about your social relationships, your complex involvement with others, and in the modern world these have become ever more complex and confusing. Each of us live with a variety of potentially contradictory identities, which battle within us for allegiance: as men or women, black or white, straight or gay, able-bodied or disabled, British or European The list is potentially infinite, and so therefore are our possible belongings. Which of them we focus on, bring to the fore, identify with, depends on a host of factors. At the centre, however, are the values we share or wish to share with others. Identity politics was initially defined by and for the new social movements that came to public consciousness from the late 1960s: the black movement, feminism, lesbian and gay liberation and so on. The question of integrating these creative but diffuse and potentially divisive forces into the political mainstream has been part of the agony of the Left during the last decade. Issues of identity are now, however, at the centre of modern politics. When Mrs Thatcher utters anathemas against Brussels and all its works, or interfers in the details of the history curriculum, she is engaged in an exercise in delineating a cultural and political identity, in this case of Britishness, which she wants us to share. When President Gorbachev discourses on our common European home he is striving to re-form our perception of the Soviet identity, and to re-fashion our idea of Europe. When the Bradford mullahs organize simultaneously affirming and fashioning an identity as Muslims, but also as a bla ck British community entitled to the protection of the blasphemy laws like Anglicans and Catholics and evangelicals. When we mourn with students in Beijing, or express solidarity with black South Africans, or run (or sing, or joke) for the world, we are striving to realise our identities as members of the global village, as citizens of the world. Identities are not neutral. Behind the quest for identity are different, and often conflicting values. By saying who we are, we are also striving to express what we are, what we believe and what we desire. The problem is that these beliefs, needs and desires are often patently in conflict, not only between different communities but within individuals themselves. All this makes debates over values particularly fraught and delicate: they are not simply speculations about the world and our place in it; they touch on fundamental, and deeply felt, issues about who we are and what we want to be and become. They also pose major political questions: how to achieve a reconciliation between our collective needs as human beings and our specific needs as individuals and members of diverse communities, how to balance the universal and the particular. These are not new questions, but they are likely, nevertheless, to loom ever-larger as we engage with the certainty of uncertainty that characterise s new times. The Return of Values This is the background to a new concern with values in mainstream politics. Most notoriously, Mrs Thatcher has invoked Victorian values and has pronounced about everything from soccer hooliganism, to religion, to litter. Even the Labour Party, in an uncharacteristic burst of philosophising, has produced a statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values. And these are but the tips of an iceberg. Such flurries have not been entirely absent in the past from British political and cultural history. But on the whole, from the Second World War until recently, the political class eschewed too searching a discussion of values, preferring, in Harold Macmillans world-weary remark, to leave that to the bishops. During the years of the social-democratic consensus, welfarism, with its commitment to altruism and caring, provided a framework for social policy, but offered little guidance on the purposes of the good society. Similarly, in the sphere of private life, the most coherent framework of moral regulation, that enshrined in the permissive reforms in the 1960s of the laws relating to homosexuality, abortion, censorship etc, is based on a deliberate suspension of any querying of what is right or wrong. It relies instead on subtle distinctions between what the law may accept for public behaviour in upholding public decency, and what can be tolerated in private when the curtains are closed. Most of us are probably quietly grateful for such small mercies. As the postwar consensus has crumbled, however, the search for more or less coherent value-systems has become rather more fevered. On a personal level some people have moved promiscuously through drugs and alternative lifestyles to health fads and religion; a number seek to be born again. Perhaps most of us just share a vague feeling that things are not quite right. On the level of politics, various fundamentalisms, on Left and Right, have burst fort h, each articulating their own truth, whether it be about the perils of pornography, the wrongs done to animals, the rights and wrongs of this or that religion, or the marvels of the market economy.   There is a new climate where values matter, and politicians, willy-nilly, are being drawn into the debate. Speaking of values, as the philosopher Paul Feyerabend has said, is a roundabout way of describing the kind of life one wants to lead or thinks one wants to lead. 1 Mrs Thatcher has been clearer about the sort of life she wants us to lead than any other recent political leader. She does not trust her bishops, so the values of the corner-shop and the cautious housewife have expanded inexorably into the culture of enterprise and the spiritual significance of capitalism. From her paean to Victorian values in the run-up to the 1983 General Election to her address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988, Mrs Thatchers moral outlook has had, in Jonathan Rabans phrase, a peculiar integrity. 2 Questions of value have traditionally been more central to socialist debates than to conservatism but during the 1970s and early 1980s the nervous collapse of the Left allowed little room for such niceties. Recently, there have been welcome signs of a revival of concern with basic values. The Labour Partys 1988 statement, Democratic Socialist Aims and Values, intended to frame the partys policy review, may have been too bland for many peoples taste (The true purpose of democratic socialism is the creation of a genuinely free society) but it was the first time since 1917 that the Party had attempted to define its purposes, and in a recognizable philosophical tradition (essentially the rights based liberalism of the American philosopher, John Rawls). At the same time the Party seems to be attempting to resurrect the half-buried collectivist traditions of the British population. The lyrical Kinnock election broadcast in 1987 subliminally told us of the importance of rootedness and be longing as the basis for political advance. The Labour Partys poster campaign early in 1989 The Labour Party. Our party similarly articulated a sense of shared values, of communal spirit, lying latent in the collective unconscious. In part, of course, these Labour Party innovations illustrate the wizardry of ad-agency skills, but it is not too fanciful to see them as a reflection of broader tendencies towards reasserting universal humanistic values, which transcend conventional political divisions. In their different ways, President Gorbachev and green politics have made an impact because of their expression of a human solidarity underlying the divisions of the world. Gorbachevs address to the United Nations in 1988 turned on a call to respect universal human values, and looked forward to an ending of the arbitrary divisions between peoples. Green philosophy calls on the same sense of our common destiny and interdependence, as human beings and as fellow inhabitants of spaceship ea rth, and in doing so claims to displace traditional divisions between Left and Right. It is impossible to underestimate the power of these various (and perhaps sometimes contradictory) appeals to human solidarity after a decade dominated by an ethic of human selfishness. We are reminded that what we have in common as human beings is more important than what divides us as individuals or members of other collectivities. Difference Nevertheless there are difficulties for the Left in an all-embracing humanism. As a philosophical position it may be a good starting point, but it does not readily tell us how to deal with difference. As President Gorbachev could bitterly affirm, it is difference economic, national, linguistic, ethnic, religious and the conflicting identities and demands that diversity gives rise to, that poses a major threat to perestroika, and to human solidarity. If ever-growing social complexity, cultural diversity and a proliferation of identities are indeed a mark of the postmodern world, then all the appeals to our common interest as humans will be as naught unless we can at the same time learn to live with difference. This should be the crux of modern debates over values. In confronting the challenge of social and moral diversity, the responses of Left and Right are significantly different. The Right has a coherent, if in the long run untenable, view of the moral economy. At its most extrem e, expressed in Mrs Thatchers dictum that there is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families, difference becomes merely a matter of individual quirks or pathologies. Social goods are products of individual wills or desires, mediated by family responsibilities. In the economic sphere, this leads to a privileging of individual choice, the essence as Mrs Thatcher put it during the 1987 election campaign of morality. Rut moral choice, in turn, particularly with regard to issues such as sexuality, is limited by the commitment to a traditional concept of domestic obligation, in and through the family. The Left, on the other hand, is heir to a strong sense of collective identities, of powerful inherited solidarities derived from class and work communities, and of different social constituencies, however inadequately in the past it has been able to deal with them. Multi-culturalism, as it was articulated from the 1960s in the legislation on racial equality, embodied a notion of different communities evolving gradually into a harmonious society where difference was both acknowledged and irrelevant. In rather less hopeful times, the commitment to the co-existence of different value-systems is implied in the statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values: Socialists rejoice in human diversity. But the Left has been less confident and sure-footed when faced by the reality of difference. When the Livingstone-led Greater London Council attempted to let a hundred flowers bloom at County Hall in pursuit of a new majority of minorities, the response of the Labour Party establishment varied from the sceptical to the horrified. Nor should we be entirely surprised at that: despite its political daring, and commendable commitment to those hitherto excluded from the political mainstream, it was difficult to detect behind the GLC policy anything more coherent than the belief that grass-roots activity and difference in itself were prime goods. Empowerment, yes; but whom should the Left empower? The Salman Rushdie crisis has dramatised the absence of any clear-cut philosophy on the Left. The Rushdie affair is important for socialists not simply because it concerns the fate of an individual (and an individual of the Left at that) but because it underscores in the most painful way the dil emmas of diversity. At its simplest we have an apparent conflict of absolutes: the right of an author to freedom of speech, to challenge whomsoever he wishes in a democratic society, set against the claims of a distinctive moral community not to have its fundamental religious beliefs attacked and undermined. Rut of course the real divisions are more complex and profound. The Left has not on the whole been willing to endorse an absolute right of free speech. On the contrary it has supported campaigns against racist and sexist literature, whilst a strong minority has supported the banning of pornography.   On the other side, the Muslim communities at the centre of the crisis are themselves not monolithic, bisected as they inevitably are by antagonisms of class and gender, and by political conflicts. At the same time the issues raised do not exist only in a meta-realm of principle: they work their way through the murky world of politics, in this case the complexities of international politics as well as the ward by ward, constituency by constituency problems of Labour politicians. Nevertheless, there is a central question at the heart of the Rushdie affair, and it concerns the possibilities and limits of pluralism in a complex society. Lets take as an example the question of religious education in schools: the government by insisting under the 1988 Education Reform Act that there should be a daily act of Christian worship in maintained schools is in effect asserting the centrality of the Christian tradition to, in Mrs Thatchers words, our national heritage For centuries it has been our very life-blood. People with other faiths and cultures are always, of course, welcome in our land, but their beliefs can only, by implication, ever hope to have a secondary position in relation to ours. Labour, however, accepts a less monolithic view of our religious past and present. As a result it seems prepared to support the principle of state-funding of separate fundamentalist Muslim schools. There is a certain multi-cultural rationale in this: if Anglican, Jewish and Roman Catholic schools are supported by the state, there seems no logic in not supporting the schools of other faiths as well. But schools transmit cultural values, some of which in the case of fundamentalists run counter to oft-declared values of the Left. In this case, the schools will be based on a principle of sex-segregation which elsewhere Labour opposes. As a letter to the Guardian from Southall Black Sisters put it, the Labour Party is prepared to abandon the principle of equality where black women are concerned. Instead, they deliver us into the hands of male, conservative and religious forces within our communities, who deny us our right to live as we please.5 This underlines the danger of seeing communi ties as unified wholes, rather than as the locus of debate and divisions. Not surprisingly, the multi-culturalist values of the Labour Party seem as likely to cause confusion, conflict and distrust as the explicitly mono-culturalist views of the Right. It is ironically appropriate that these dilemmas should have been brought to the surface by the publication of, and reaction to, Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Not only was the book written by an immigrant and about immigrants, but the book itself, as Malise Ruthven argued on its publication, is about changing identities, about the transformations of identities that affect migrants who leave the familiar reference points of their homeland and find themselves in a place where the rules are different, and all the markers have been changed. This is not simply the experience of the migrant: the sense of dislocation and disorientation, of the rules of the game subtly changing, of the co-existence within us of conflicting needs, desires and i dentities, is becoming a major cultural experience for us all. Choice The basic issue can be stated quite simply: by what criteria can we choose between the conflicting claims of different loyalties? To ask the question immediately underlines the poverty of our thinking about this. Can the rights of a group obliterate the rights of an individual? Should the morality of one sector of the population be allowed to limit the freedom of other citizens. To what extent should one particular definition of the good and the just prevail over others? These are ancient questions, but the alarming fact is that the Left lacks a common language for addressing them, let alone resolving them. There have been two characteristic approaches on the Left in confronting these dilemmas. Firstly, there is the discourse of rights, probably still the most potent mobilising force in the worlds of politics and morality. In the United States the protection of individual rights is enshrined in the constitution, and the claim to group rights has become the basis of many of the transf orming currents of recent American politics, from the civil rights and black power movements to the womens movement and lesbian and gay liberation. Elsewhere in the West, a rights-based politics is similarly enshrined in written constitutions, bills of rights, constitutional courts, and so on. In Britain, the tradition is enfeebled. Individual rights, though much bandied around in the political rough and tumble, are not entrenched in a constitutional settlement, and the concept of group rights barely exists. Rights are, however, clearly back on the agenda of the Left: the response to the launch of Charter 88, with its appeal for a new constitutional settlement, with government subordinate to the law and basic rights guaranteed, suggests there is a strongly felt need for a codification and protection of fundamental rights. Unfortunately, the claim to right, however well established at a constitutional level, does not help when rights are seen to be in conflict. To take the issue of a bortion (yet again the focus of moral debate in America and Britain), here the conflict is between two violently conflicting claims to right: the rights of the unborn child against the rights of a woman to control her own body. In these stark terms the conflict is unresolvable, because two value-systems tug in quite different directions. The problem is that rights do not spring fully armed from nature. They cannot find a justification simply because they are claimed. Rights are products of human association, social organisation, traditions of struggle, and historical definitions of needs and obligations: whatever their claims to universality, they are limited by the philosophical system to which they belong, and the social and political context in which they are asserted. This is not to deny the importance of rights-based arguments. But if we are to take rights seriously we must begin to articulate the sort of rights and the type of political culture we want. This is the starting point for the second major approach to the dilemma of choice, the politics of emancipation. In his essay On the Jewish Question in the 1840s Marx counterposed to the morality of Rights a morality of emancipation, and even more powerfully than the claim to rights this has proved a potent mobilising force.8 It offers a vision of a totally free society, where everyones potentiality is fully realised, and a powerful analysis of the constraints on the realisation of human emancipation. At its heart is a denial that want, division, selfishness and conflict are essential parts of human nature. True human nature, it claims, can flourish in a truly emancipated society. Most of us who are socialist must have been inspired by this vision. As a politics of liberation it shaped the rhetoric of the social movements that emerged in the 1960s. It is still latent in the hungerfor utopia and for the transcendence of difference that shades our politics. The difficulty is that the p ractice has rarely kept up with the vision, particularly in the history of Marxism. The Marxist tradition has been reluctant to define the nature of the emancipated society, and has been noticeably blind to questions of nationalism, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Nor do the experiences of the soi disant socialist countries offer much confidence in the attainability of emancipation in the terms offered by the tradition so far. We must not confuse a noble goal with the sordid practices of particular regimes, but we need to ponder whether the very project of human emancipation as conventionally set forth is not itself the fundamental problem. The glorious goal has all too often justified dubious means, whilst the absence of any detailed exposition of the meaning of emancipation has left us floundering when faced by the reality of conflicting claims to right and justice.

Free College Essays - Sea Wolf :: Sea Wolf Essays

Sea Wolf      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wolf Larsen was a character in the book who never made it all the way through the book, but he tried very hard.   He was a very strong, brutal man with almost no respect for human life.   With all the people in the world, one dead person meant nothing to him.   He was a patient man and usually kept himself under control.   He was surprisingly smart and thoughtful for a pirate who lives on the sea.   He loved the sea and knew many things about it, such as how to outwit his brother when he came near Wolf's boat.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Humphrey Van Weydon, or Hump as he was called on the boat, was a landlubber.   He had a very comfortable job, and very soft skin showing how soft his life had been.   He had barely any muscles and lived a very pampered living.   He was a gentleman and very proper.   Being proper, he was very intelligent and had a very extensive vocabulary. He seemed very surprised when he realized Wolf and he both shared some vocabulary words and meanings.   Hump wasn't used to living on a boat, but he soon learned to live on one.   He became accepted on the boat with the crew.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wolf and Hump were very different people with few similarities. Wolf was very strong and bullied everyone around.   He believed everyone was insignificant, while Hump was nice, proper and believed everyone was unique and we all should live and that one person can make a big difference and change in the world.   Wolf also tried to turn Hump into a strong man, since Hump was a wimp in everyone's eye on the boat.   Wolf had one disadvantage though, during his voyages, he read many books, but was never able to say what he read or really talk about anything he read.   When Hump came along, they shared and exchanged knowledge and each learned new things about the books they read.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One scene that stands out the most from the book was when Wolf Larsen was engaged in a battle with his brother.   Wolf played Hide-N- Seek with his brother behind fog on the seas for a long time.

Johannes Gutenberg and the Invention of the Printing Press Essay

Johannes Gutenberg and the Invention of the Printing Press Between the 13th and 16th centuries we can see the rise of a print-dominated society; a society which moved away from the Church's monopoly of information that existed until that time. There were many social, economic and political changes. It was not because of the printing press that those changes were brought about, but perhaps they could have not happened so fast without the print. Johann Gutenberg managed to bring together technologies known for centuries before him, adding the idea for movable metal type. This led to the mass production of books, being them more available to the general public. The invention of the printing press helped ideas spread quickly making things easier for the reform of the Church and the development of modern sciences. INDEX Introduction ...................................................................... 5 The life of Johannes Gutenberg .............................................. 7 The development of print technology .................................... 8 The invention .................................................................... 9 The printing press and the Church .................................................... 11 Gutenberg's Bible ............................................................. 12 The print and the developing of culture.................................. 13 Final comment ................................................................. 16 Bibliography .................................................................... 17 Introduction "Renaissance" means "rebirth" in French and stands for the cultural, intellectual and economic changes that occu... ...14. (Frank Granger, Gutenberg--The Most Important Man of the Millennium <a href="http://teched.edtl.vt.edu/gcc/HTML/PrintingsPast/GutenbergBible.html">http://teched.edtl.vt.edu/gcc/HTML/PrintingsPast/GutenbergBible.html</a>), downloaded in September 2014. <a href="http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/,">http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/,</a> downloaded in September 2014. http:/www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story039, downloaded in September 2014. http:/www.inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blJohannesGutenberg, downloaded in September 2014. http:/www.historyguide.org/intellect/press, downloaded in September 2014. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568362730/ref%3Ded%5Foe%5Fh/102-5739894-2995348,">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568362730/ref%3Ded%5Foe%5Fh/102-5739894-2995348,</a> downloaded in October 2014.

Case Study On Nando’s Restaurant Essay

Introduction This report is to outline business analysis on Nando’s restaurant in Singapore. In this report, we will perform environment analysis on the market in Singapore. We will make use of SWOT analysis and also PESTEL analysis to perform this. Last but not least we will end it with aconclusion/evaluation to sum the whole evaluation up. Environment Analysis Environment analysis is a evaluation on the possible effects (both internally and externally) and conditions that will affect an organisation survival and growth. In order to develop strategy to move into a new market like Singapore, it is necessary to look into factors that may post a threat to the company or even discover new opportunities for the company. In order to identify this, we will be using the SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity & threats) analysis and PESTLE (political, economic, social cultural, technological, legal & environment) analysis to analyse the factors. 2.1 : Internal and External Factors for Nando’s INTERNAL Inside the Organisation Can be controlled by the organisation. (Example as of below.) HR Strategy Process Culture Money factor Departments EXTERNAL Outside the Organisation Cannot be control by the organisation. (Example as of below.) Government policies Natural disaster Economic policies Competition Diversity of workforce Technology Exchange rate Weather ENVIRONMENT  NANDO’s Opportunity, Threats Strength, Weaknesses SWOT ANALYSIS SWOT analysis is use to evaluate the strength, weaknesses, opportunity and threats involved in a business venture. A SWOT analysis is important as it help companies to inform later steps in planning to achieve their objective. Using SWOT can generate meaningful information on each category and to plan ahead base on the point listed out. Below table 1 is the SWOT analysis on Nando’s. STRENGTHS Branding. Outlets available globally. Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, UK, USA and many more. This shows how well the business has  developed with so many branches over different country. Healthier Choice. Chickens are delivered fresh and not frozen. Marinated for 24 hours with absolutely no preservatives, MSG’s, colorant or artificial flavouring. Chickens fats are trim-ed and flame grill, making it more healthier. Differentiated. Portuguese Flame grilled chicken. Said to be the best. Sauces are unique with secret recipe that are not let known to public. Competitors unable to copy it’s style. Finances. Business opened globally. Stable business with high revenues. Comparable with it’s competitors like KFC etc.etc. Good internal marketing. Staffs are happy working in the chained restaurants. Good values adopted in the company. Good staffs are driven by good environment and of course better food and services are produced. Affordable price. Price are quite satisfactory even though they are of restaurant based environment. Unique taste. The chicken prepare is combine with a variety of the sauces. Sauces are of different taste, very unique. Other brands are unable to come out with so many different sauces that good. Nutrition Values showed on the menu. Singaporeans are being more and more health conscience. Giving them the option to choose how many calories they want to intake is a plus points to the company. Weakness Not Halad. Singapore is a multi religion country. Muslims consist approx twenty percent of the population. Hence it has not capture the market of the muslim community. Lack of extended services. Major related business like KFC, they offer deliveries and also allows consumers to order online. Nando’s do not have this kind of services that could be offered to the consumers in Singapore. Lack of marketing advertisements. Comparing with KFC, Nando’s are not fully known by people of all ages in Singapore. However KFC do. There were not much advertisement posted either on online platform or even in the media. Not many outlet. As research on the number of outlets in Singapore, there are only a total of nine outlet’s in Singapore so far. Weak R&D. Slows down or even no growth to the company. Competitors will out innovate Nando’s. Lack of promotions to attract customers. Opportunity Government incestives on business from overseas. Singapore government encourage overseas investor to set foot and do business in Singapore. By  giving incentives, Nando’s could do with more outlets or even save a little cost to spend on other areas. Rising demands for healthier food/ choice. Singaporeans are getting more and more conscience in what they eat. A actual figure of the calories for each dish could actually gives Nando’s a boost in their sales as consumers would rather know what they are eating rather than eating what they do not know. Increasing population. Singapore are becoming more and more populated with foreign talents coming in to work and set place in Singapore. Opening more branches, making it almost available everywhere could help Nando’s in increasing it’s revenues. Rising of malls. Government are building more and more malls, giving Nando’s more opportunities to expand it business. Airport. Singapore governments are coming out with T4 and T5. Internet/ use of social media. Singapore are getting more and more IT saavy. People do transactions online. Or look for alternatives in food through online media. CSR. Organising events to shows consumers what the company is doing. Threats Rising cost of livings. Singapore is the most expensive cities in the world. May make consumers to rethink to go for cheaper alternatives when it comes to eating out. Diseases. Nando’s menus consist of mainly chickens. If bird flu were to break out, it will greatly affect the business of Nando’s Competitors. Compeitors giving a better edge/ better promotions/ better advertising techniques could make consumers go to the competitors Most expensive cities. Case of opening 10 outlets in Singapore VS opening 10 outlets in Malaysia. Economic crisis. After conducting the SWOT analysis of Nando’s, the business can be expanded greatly if Nando’s were to go the ‘ E-commerce ‘ way of doing business as what KFC and Macdonald’s are adopting. Nando’s can do with hiring a group of IT professionals to come up with a better webpage that could do all these functions. Nando’s can emphasize more money on it’s advertisement to make it a well known brand in Singapore, being a long term investment in Singapore market. Economics in Singapore is doing not so bad and in long term wise, Nando’s will stand to get benefits out of it. PEST Analysis SWOT analysis is use to study company’s business Strength, weakness,  opportunity and threats in a company. Studying SWOT on a company is not enough. If Nando’s were to move in it’s business available globally, they have to study the country political,economic, social cultural and technology behaviour to enter it’s market in to the country. In this case, PEST analysis is used on Singapore to analysis it’s potential in setting up business in Singapore. The PEST analysis of Singapore is in Table 2. POLITICAL Government seeking foreign investors. GLOBAL INVESTOR PROGRAMME (GIP) http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/ready-to-invest/setting-up/entering-singapore.htmlIncestives for business. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/ready-to-invest/incentives-for-businesses.htmlLow level of corruptions. Ranked no.7 in the world and no.1 in asia for least corruption in the economy. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/rankings.htmlStable government. No protest was made to overrule the Singapore government. Singaporeans quite satisfied with the system Singapore government had in place. Uses the Parliamentary system of government based on the Westminster model . http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/facts.htmlStrict regulations. Trade agreement. Employment law. Singapore has talented workforce. Government are providing fundings to train professionals up. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/ready-to-invest/setting-up/recruitment.htmlGovernment spendings on Infrastructure. EG. RWS, Casinos, MBS ECONOMIC Low Taxes. Singapore has one of the lowest taxes compared to different country. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/ready-to-invest/setting-up/taxation.htmlBest investments potential. US based research institute Business Environment Risk Intelligience (BERI) ranked Singapore as first out of fifty Major investment destination.  http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/rankings.htmlHigh standards of living. Singapore ranked 25 for best place to live work and play. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/rankings.htmlSpending power Unemployment rates. Singapore is one of the countries with the lowest employment rate. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/facts.htmlStrong currency. Income level. Most Singaporean holds job of the medium class level. Basically Singaporean has more people to the medium income and high income class. Impor t and Export access. Strategically located. Labour cost. SOCIAL CULTURAL Busy worklife. Most of the working class people have a busy work life. Some of these people have to work over time sometimes. The cultural in Singapore. Therefore many people will dine out instead of cooking at home. In one family at least 80 percent of the members will be working. Therefore high chance people will dine out instead of having a homecook meal at home. Multi-religion. Statistic shows the largest population is of Chinese in Singapore. Therefore when coming up with strategic planning we will have to focus on this target group. Not forgetting the muslims in Singapore which comes in second place. http://www.edb.gov.sg/content/edb/en/why-singapore/about-singapore/facts-and-rankings/facts.htmlYounger generations taking more to Western culture. Education. Singapore government are focusing to give proper educations to Singapore. Not forgetting foreigner students. They plays a part of Singapore economy when they come over Singapore to study. Aging population. Tech saavy. People in Singapore nowadays carries smartphones around. Ordering of food/ tickets or E-shopping is very common nowadays. Family dynamics. Low birth rates. Fast paced society. People would prefer fast food than casual dining as they can pick and go to fill their stomach before moving on to do other things. Technological Most IT saavy country. A lot of the business in Singapore are starting to adopt the IT way of resolving things. Eg, Using of softwares to get things done. Automated machines etcetc. High usage of IT. Every aspects in life of a Singapore, we can see IT gadget/devices anywhere. For example in buses, people are using ez-link cards to tap on the machines. Topping up cards with self-service kiosk. Advertisements on television located in shopping malls. Ordering of food using ipads. Etcetc) IT are common in SG. High percentage of people owns a laptops, smartphones, desktops to ease their life. These items are easily available anywhere and it is not as expensive as comparable as last time. Their price are very affordable to Singaporeans here. Use of smartphones. Singaporeans use smartphone to communicate, or even making purchase online. Why queue for movie tickets? Where you can make purchase online and collect the ticket afterwards. This make e-commerce rather popular in Singapore. Strong IT infrastructure Ecommerce  IBanking. Singaporeans uses iBanking for solution instead of queueing in the bank for hours to settle and bank related issues. Communication advancement. Credit card Usages High Security Systems One of the key advantage to Nando’s is the high finances. Being a business available globally, it is already making quite a profit out of it. With the help of the Singapore government with the rules and regulations for foreign investor, it will help Nando’s greatly in setting up business here. Attractive labour market , policies, infrastructure and financing efficiency also have make Singapore an attractive place for Nando’s to set foot on. However to expand the business more, Nando’s have to try to get in to IT more has more and more businesses are doing their business through internet platform. By not doing so they have already made one less target consumers to focus on. Conclusion All business benefits from the SWOT analysis. They benefit from completing a SWOT analysis on their compeitiors. PEST analysis can then provide some  feedbacks into the economic aspects by the PEST analysis. These feedbacks is then ranked and and make relatively important strategic decisions. Singapore is a favourable location to set up business here. Of all the four points in the PEST analysis it has fulfil all 4 of criterias to be a effective place to set up business. However Nando’s will have to segments their target consumers to at least target 75% of the consumers in Singapore. To further improve on it’s business it could probably focus it’s business to more of the IT aspects and have their business done online also.