Police Details in Massachusetts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Police Details in Massachusetts - Essay Example Rather, you live in Massachusetts and see a police officer directing traffic. No big deal, right In theory, police officers would be the most qualified for directing and influencing drivers. However, by analyzing accident statistics as well the cost of having police officers direct traffic, one may find that the cost is simply too high. In short, the possible benefit of police details simply does not outweigh the actual cost to businesses and consumers. For the people of Massachusetts, it seems like detail work has always been done by police officers. Whether a road is being paved, a pothole being filled, or any type of construction that may affect the roadways, police officers have been the most likely candidate to direct traffic. Many people believe that using police officers is safer than using flagmen. However, there are many different things to consider when making this argument. In 2004, extensive studies were performed in order to measure how much safer roadways are with police officers rather than flagmen. By comparing the accident rate between Massachusetts and other states that do not use police for details, one finds that it is no safer to drive in Massachusetts than any other state (BHI Policy Study.) Despite the use of police details, the accident rates in Massachusetts are some of the highest in the nation. Property damage and bodily harm due to accidents is the highest in Massachusetts than any other state. Interestingly, from the years 1994 to 2003, Massachusetts ranked third of all states in terms of lowest fatality rate in highway work zones (BHI Policy Study.) These statistics show that although police detail work is beneficial in the safety of high-speed road construction, the safety in lower speed road construction does not prove to be any better. With this data, it is not surprising that state officials and politicians are now looking into r egulating when and where police details should be used, and when and where flagmen would be suitable. As many people know, the state of Massachusetts is suffering from financial strain. Since 2001, the state has been going through a deep recession, losing about 11 percent of employment and over 200,000 jobs (Gavin.) It is projected that Massachusetts will continue to lose jobs until around 2010, and this year alone, there is a projected job loss of 4 percent (Gavin.) Due to the state's financial strain, state officials are eager to find ways to cut back expenses and improve job growth. One of the most obvious ways to cut back on expenses is limiting the use of police details. State leaders are already targeting the use of police details in order to restore economic growth. For decades, police have been used for construction projects without question. The practice that was once seen as necessary and just a fact of life is now being questioned by some of the highest-ranking state officials. On March 27th of this year, Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi met together at the Beacon Hill press conference, announcing the agreement to create new regulations that would encourage officials to use civilian flaggers during low-risk construction projects (Viser.) This plan would focus on low traffic areas such as dead-end

IKEA Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

IKEA - Assignment Example It came into existence in the year 1943 and within a very small time frame it attained a renowned brand image due to its modern architectural designs and eco-friendly nature. Due to which its revenue and operating income enhanced by â‚ ¬27.628 billion and â‚ ¬3.482 billion by the end of 2012 as compared to other rivals in the market. This marked the success of the organization of IKEA and so it expanded in many other parts of the world like Germany, Norway and Denmark (Inter IKEA Systems B.V, 2012). IKEA’S History IKEA is established in the year 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, a young entrepreneur residing in Smaland of Southern Sweden. The name of the organization IKEA is derived from the initial letters of Ingvar Kamprad, i.e. I and K along with the first letters of his hometown, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd. Ingvar Kamprad started his career in business by selling matches, pen, pencils, fishes, seeds and many others. However, slowly and gradually, he started offering high-level of concentration over IKEA and so presented varied types of advertisements in local newspapers to attract wide range of customers. Moreover, in order to make it a branded furniture retailing house, he presented varied types of attractive and stylish furniture’s such as beds, chairs, tables, home appliances and many others at a quite lowest price. This proved quite effective for the organization and helped Ingvar Kamprad to open his first store in Norway in the year 1963 and in Denmark in 1969 (Inter IKEA Systems B.V, 2013). After that, within a small time frame, IKEA expanded to other parts of Europe, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany, UK and many others. Therefore, by the end of 2009, IKEA group became successful to operate in more than 332 stores in 40 countries. Hence, IKEA took more than six decades to mark its position in the segment of trendy furniture’s among other retailers. IKEA Today Inspite of extreme economic downturn, IKEA maintained its popu larity and brand image in the market in a quite stable condition due to its objective to present qualitative products at a competitive price. Due to which, the leading leader of home furniture enhanced its total sales by ?2.15 billion and net income by ? 3.51 billion by the end of 31st August 2013. Along with this, the market share also increased from 7.3% in 2012 to 8.5% in 2013 in the market of UK. This became possible only due to its wide expansion into 332 stores in more than 40 countries in the entire globe (Inter IKEA Systems B.V, 2012). Other than this, the annual sales figure and sales per region is presented in the below graphs. Therefore, from the graph, it might be clearly depicted that the rate of sales of the furniture’s of IKEA is very high as compared to others. This enhanced the equity and profit margin to a significant extent among other retailers (Inter IKEA Systems B.V, 2013). 2. Macro-environment of IKEA In order to analyse the external environment of the market of UK, one of the most renowned technique is used. It is named as PESTEL analysis. Political Factors- the political scenario of UK is quite cacophonous due to the presence of inefficient bureaucracy and corruption. Other than this, the instable government policies and regulations also acted as a curse that hampered the growth of the organization of IKEA. Not only this, shaky coalition of the government of UK hampered the business scenario to a