Ancient Islamic Cities Villages, Towns, and Capitals of Islam

The Stanford Prison Experiment Sought To Recreate A Prison

The Stanford Prison Experiment sought to recreate a prison experience to study behaviors of prisoners and guards. The authors were seeking answers to the question of dispositional hypothesis which states â€Å"that the state of the social institution of prison is due to the â€Å"nature† of the people who administer it, or the â€Å"nature† of the people who populate it, or both† (A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Stimulated Prison, 1971, pg. 2). In other words, they were studying whether the prisoners and guards behaviors changed due to their personalities or was it the prison environment that caused these changes. The authors considered the recidivism rate that was 75 percent at the time, conditions in prisons, and the belief that prisons†¦show more content†¦The researchers observed the behaviors and mentalities of both guards and prisoners by naturalistic observation. What the researchers found during this study was that both the behaviors an d mentalities of guards and prisoners changed. Guards became more aggressive and prisoners became passive. A group of five prisoners had to actually be released from the study because of physical and emotional changes they were experiencing. Those prisoners remaining actually began acting as if they were truly incarcerated. By the behaviors they exhibited they had all but forgotten that they were free to leave at any time and not forfeit the money they had already earned. Guards, on the other hand, actually stayed at the prison longer than they were scheduled and were actually disappointed when the study came to a close while prisoners were very happy and expressed their luck at getting released early. These results clearly demonstrate that it is the environment that contributes to the behaviors observed. Those who were given the role of guard expressed the power and control they had over the prisoners. The prisoners began to become hopeless and bend to the power of the gua rds. The researchers came to the conclusion that training of guards should be changed along with the way the prisons are operated (A Study of Prisoners and Guards in aShow MoreRelatedStrategy Safari by Mintzberg71628 Words   |  287 Pagesorganizational failure. . . . Deliberate building in of strategy absence may promote flexibility in an organization. . . . Organizations with tight controls, high reliance on formalized procedures, and a passion for consistency may lose the ability to experiment and innovate. †¢ Management may use the absence of strategy to send unequivocal signals to both internal and external stakeholders of its preference not to engage in resource-consuming ceremony.... For example, various articles have described NucorRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesmistakes than from our successes. So, we need to realize that while we don’t want to f ail, it does have a hidden gift if we’re willing to receive—a chance to learn something important. Eli Lilly holds â€Å"failure parties† to honor drug trials and experiments that fail to achieve the desired results. The rationale for these parties is to recognize that when little is ventured, little is lost, but little is gained too. Procter Gamble CEO A. G. Lafley argues that very high success rates show incrementalRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pageswho investigate the behaviour of physical, nonsentient phenomena, their relationship with those phenomena is not problematic in these respects. For example, physicists and chemists who conduct experiments investigating the behaviour of water do not have to worry whether or not the results of their experiments will affect the subsequent behaviour of that water; they seem to deal with a world that does not answer back. As far as we know, water does not have a self-conscious understanding of its own behaviour

Case Analysis of Jones Soda in the Canadian Market †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Case Analysis of Jones Soda in the Canadian Market. Answer: Introduction The study focuses on themarketing campaign of Jones Soda in the Canadian market. The case study of Jones Soda illustrates that the company has lost two important deals with Seahawks and American Airlines, that has lead the company to huge failure in themarketing aspects. It also lead to fall of sales of the company. However, the company is seeking potential market in Canada its early roots. The marketing campaign will be formulated for the Canadian market. Organizational overview Name of the organization The marketing plan will be formulated for Jones Soda Co., a beverage company based on Washington. The company is focused on bottling and distributing non carbonated beverages, soft drinks, candy and energy drinks of unusual flavours. Mission statement The mission statement of the company is Jones Soda. Your Photo. Your Soda. Your Brand. Run with the little guy! The mission statement focuses the brand as a little guy in the giant soda market pop world. However, the brand is passionate about their brand value and rage of products in the market. Opportunity The marketing plan for Jones Soda is formulated for the expansion of the products in the Canada market. The aim of the marketing plan is to reinvent the image of the brand in the Canada along with the target customers of the region. It can be said that Canada has a potential market in terms of soft drinks market and energy drink market. Situation Analysis (SWOT Analysis) Strengths Unique flavours of the soft drinks and other beverages Responsive brand that has a cult following Social campaigns and green initiatives Improved customer interaction through various communication channels Brand recognition with high range of product portfolios Weaknesses Limited numbers of products in the product portfolio Small brand in terms of comparison with the multinational beverage company (Huang Sarigll, 2014) Opportunities Huge opportunity in Canada market The marketing techniques will improve the brand popularity Expansion in other countries as well Unique flavours and high product portfolio will attract target customers Threats Dominance of giant multinational brands like Coca Cola and Pepsi The element of health conscious among the consumers of the Canada is a threat in reducing the amount of sales in the market (Leonidou, Katsikeas Morgan, 2013) Marketing Research: Competitive analysis The soft drinks market in Canada is highly competitive in nature. The market is captured with the giant companies like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Monster Beverage Corporation, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Pulse Beverage, National Beverage, Celsius Holdings, Konared, Long Island Iced Tea, Uplift Nutrition, Sport Endurance, etc. Jones Soda should formulate strategies that must focus on the strategies of the competitors (Hanssens et al., 2014). Industry analysis The consumers in Canada nowadays are becoming health conscious day by day. The growing demand of the low calorie drinks in the market is the cause of the lower consumption of the soft drinks in the market. The behaviour of the consumer in the Canada is depended on the choice of them in terms of healthier beverage products. The trend of healthy products in terms of food and beverage in the Canadian market is the cause of sales of the unusual flavours of the products of Jones Soda. The interest of the consumer towards bottled drinks is still in demand in the market that the company can target while increasing the brand image in the market (Mintz Currim, 2013). Consumer analysis The company is targeting not only to the youth consumers but also to the kids of the country. The key demographic groups of Jones Soda consisted of Millenials, Teens and Hispanics. The trends of the consumers are changing day by day. They have a craze in the non-alcoholic ready to drink market. It can be seen that all these demographics will like the flavoured drinks of Jones Soda as they have unique packaging and tastes (Fan, Lau Zhao, 2015). Opportunity analysis The opportunities of the soft drink market in Canada are higher compared to the opportunity of United States. The soft drink manufacturer i.e. Jones Soda is focused in the different types of unusual flavours of the company that has been already popular in Western Canada. Now the company is again relaunching the brand and its products in the Canada market. It can be said that the company is focused in marketing the brand to the consumers mind so that they can reinforce it in the minds of them for the increase of sales and word of mouth promotion (Helm Gritsch, 2014). Differentiating and positioning It is earlier mentioned that big multinational giants like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, and other companies capture the soft drink market in Canada. It is important for Jones Soda in order to launch their product in a way so that they can differentiate them in the huge market. The USP of the brand is that it contains many product lines with unique blend of taste and flavours like root bear, cola, orange, cream, cream soda, green apple, blue bubblegum, fufu berry, bacon soda, gravy soda, Pure Can soda, Turkey Soda, etc. Apart from that, the quotes that are mentioned in the caps of the bottles are a tactics to attract customers (Davari Strutton, 2014). Packaging of the product along with the unique taste is the main point of positioning in the Canada market. Target customers and marketing mix Target customers that the marketing plan includes the three generations of people Hispanics, millenials and the teens. The age group targeted by Jones Soda ranges between 13 years to 40 years of age. The company has wide range of soft drinks for all categories of consumers. The geographic areas targeted are various metropolitan areas of Canada. The marketing plan will be formulated according to the segmenting, targeting and positioning of the products in the Canada market (De Mooij, 2013). The marketing mix of Jones Soda is described in the following: Product: The types of products that the company will be serving to the customers are energy drinks, soft drinks, flavoured drinks, etc. The products have innovative taste and refreshing flavours that will be preferred by the people of Canada. Place: The metropolitan areas of Canada are the target areas of Jones Soda in order to launch the product in the market. The places of Canada that will be chosen for the distribution of the products are supermarkets, departmental stores, convenience stores, etc (Shao, Jones Grace, 2015). Price: The pricing strategies that is applied by the company in the Canada market are penetration pricing. The company must conduct an extensive research regarding the pricing strategy adapted by them in the Canada market. The pricing of the products is initially sales oriented as the main target of the company is to penetrate the Canada soft drink market in order to capture a market share in the Canada. It can be said that the company must focus on the price quality relationship on the product. Promotion: The promotional techniques that will be used by the company in different types of the regions of Canada are internet, newspaper, sales promotion, website and social media, advertising including traditional media and digital media, etc (Shao, Jones Grace, 2015). Key success factors The key success factors that will contribute the marketing plan of the company in the success of the marketing plan of the company are the quality of the products along with the pricing of the products. Apart from that, the unique blends of the flavours of the soft drinks and the energy drinks are definitely will be a hit in the market. The promotional techniques of the brand along with its brand equity, brand personality, brand image, etc. are the unique selling proposition of the company in the market (Jones Slater, 2014). Goals and objectives The objectives and goals of the marketing plan can be divided into two categories such as long term and short term. The short-term goals of the marketing plan is to reinforce the brand name and brand image in the minds of the Canadian consumers. By the implementation of penetration pricing, the company will gain a substantial market share in the Canada (McAuley, 2014). On the other hand, the long-term goals of the company are to become the number one soft drinks company in the Canada market. The company wants to increase its profit percentage by 20% from the previous years. Apart from that, Jones Soda will also increase the sales volume by 30% in order to recover the loss that has been recurred in United States. In this way, the overall performance of the company will have to be increased in the market (Kponee, Siegel Jernigan, 2014). Conclusion It can be concluded that the marketing campaign of Jones Soda is formulated by keeping in consideration of the consumer behaviour and market characteristics of Canada. By doing the competitor analysis, it can be said that many multinational giants capture the soft drink market of Canada. Hence, the strategies are formulated in order to keeping in consideration of the techniques of promotion and other marketing activities by the rival beverage selling companies. References Davari, A., Strutton, D. (2014). Marketing mix strategies for closing the gap between green consumers' pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors.Journal of Strategic Marketing,22(7), 563-586. De Mooij, M. (2013).Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. Sage Publications. Fan, S., Lau, R. Y., Zhao, J. L. (2015). Demystifying big data analytics for business intelligence through the lens of marketing mix.Big Data Research,2(1), 28-32. Hanssens, D. M., Pauwels, K. H., Srinivasan, S., Vanhuele, M., Yildirim, G. (2014). Consumer attitude metrics for guiding marketing mix decisions.Marketing Science,33(4), 534-550. Helm, R., Gritsch, S. (2014). Examining the influence of uncertainty on marketing mix strategy elements in emerging business to business export-markets.International Business Review,23(2), 418-428. Huang, R., Sarigll, E. (2014). How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. InFashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors(pp. 113-132). Springer New York. Jones, D. M., Slater, J. S. (2014).What's in a Name?: Advertising and the Concept of Brands. Routledge. Kponee, K. Z., Siegel, M., Jernigan, D. H. (2014). The use of caffeinated alcoholic beverages among underage drinkers: Results of a national survey.Addictive behaviors,39(1), 253-258. Leonidou, C. N., Katsikeas, C. S., Morgan, N. A. (2013). Greening the marketing mix: do firms do it and does it pay off?.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,41(2), 151-170. McAuley, A. (2014). Reflections on a decade in social marketing.Journal of Social Marketing,4(1), 77-86. Mintz, O., Currim, I. S. (2013). What drives managerial use of marketing and financial metrics and does metric use affect performance of marketing-mix activities?.Journal of Marketing,77(2), 17-40. Shao, W., Jones, R. G., Grace, D. (2015). Brandscapes: contrasting corporate-generated versus consumer-generated media in the creation of brand meaning.Marketing Intelligence Planning,33(3), 414-443.

To What Extent Is It Possible to Be Fully Ethical Essay Example

To What Extent Is It Possible to Be Fully Ethical Essay To what extent is it possible to be fully ethical in business and in management practice? What are the main issues that you have to address and confront? What are the main ethical pressures facing the supermarket industry and how might these be addressed and overcome? Ethics questions morality, whether something is ethical or unethical, right or wrong, good or evil, aim for justice, etc. Each person may have their own different opinion, causing ethics to be a moral value to what feels right or wrong depending on the situation. It is human nature to be selfish in order to survive, management nature to be selfish in order to guarantee an increasing profit, but luckily moral values have allowed an increase to standards of life in the last few centuries. In the animal kingdom we see that mother species consume even their own children in order to survive. Here we also see that to benefit one, another must sacrifice. For organisations to continue increase in profits, they may need to push their way through different suppliers, different employees, and different obligations in order to maintain their long term aims, possibly being caused unethically. We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Is It Possible to Be Fully Ethical specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Is It Possible to Be Fully Ethical specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Is It Possible to Be Fully Ethical specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer To run a business, moral values are always considered but to a certain extent. Most debates argue that it is not possible to succeed well in managing a business without achieving unethically. The moral means behind is as to believe in what one does is not against ones morals, and to act upon those unveil actions possibly being considerate of others, as if they were part of your family. ‘The more successfully the manager does their work, the greater will be the integrity required. An IT related firm would monitor their staffs actions on the computer, call centres would monitor each phone calls made, retailers require security checks when staff leave the site – all these conduct good management, but could be argued to an extent that staff are not trusted, so are therefore strictly kept an eye on. To what level of security should managers undertake to prevent ethical dilemmas? If a group of employees cannot be trusted then should they be trusted to conduct the work ethical ly? Morality has been kept behind a fence in this situation, if each person in this world was able to be free from sin then there would be no need for security. Market research securely protects data given by clients, the honesty they insist their company abides to makes clients feel safe about the data they give out, but could result as use for financial gain. So despite market research abiding to strict codes of conduct, it could be argued that to use personal data for ones use of creating business/improving their trade could arise an ethical dilemma. However, due to ethics in this world, business and trade legislations have been bought to attention to improve society. Decades before, children in our country worked over 16 hours a day with limbs torn off, disabled workers were only starved to death and women could not work. In the modern world today, women can now have high responsibilities in a business, there is far less discrimination about an employee’s race, religious views or sex, the world is constantly changing and developing to adapt to society. Morality has led unions to be organised, laws to be instituted, and regulations to be established to protect unethical matters of society today. It can also be noted that ethics create relationships between people, create a moral value for teamwork in a group of employees, better relationships between employees and employers; these are benefits for the business as well as the employees-happy workers result in better productivity. Ethics has also created many acts and legislations in the UK to protect consumers, employees and employers so that all working environment are argumentatively safe, unlike previous decades and working standards in third world countries. Without the moral values of each other, society would become a mess of greed and selfishness. Keeping up with market demand is continuous; many businesses have to follow success of others in order to survive. A successful invention causes others to copy; pressure is then put on to the original in order to stay ahead on the market. The first mobile phone invention has now been updated and evolved into an I-phone 4G, enable a connection across the whole globe. A wrong act is committed to copy the clever idea of the mobile invention, but has caused millions upon trillions of trade and business in the mobile phone category and has also turned into one of the vital piece of technology each person has today. Counterfeiting has been introduced in the last century to prevent exact copies of another idea/product, yet China still produces an extortionate amount of ‘fake’ copies in a year leading from brands such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton, to selling human-made eggs. Many documentaries have been produced regarding these counterfeit fakes being sold illegally in China and imported into the UK, yet thousands of tourists visit these illegal malls to buy the fakes. However in the UK it is much less of an issue, legislations fine heavily these illegal sellers if caught so have lowered the chance in the matter occurring. Ford was one company who developed a change for their employees through trial and error. The managers saw that the turnover rate of their workforce was extremely high, and realised it was due to the stress and hatred the employees were feeling towards their job. In 1914 Henry Ford made the change to cut down the working hours from 9 hours per day to 8 hours, and double the wage pay. This made Ford famous internationally, causing the famous name Fordism. 3 From this was can see that Ford’s employer had taken into account the ethical issues of his business, creating a change to help his own business by thinking of his employees. Despite this, Ford also employed many inspectors to check up on his employees, strict rules were made to control his employees – such as no talking to others whilst working. Outside work, Ford also made the inspectors check up on the employee’s lifestyle, their homes and what they did with their time outside of work. 3 Things that didn’t satisfy Ford he would fire, such as employees drinking or always being debt. This of course was believed to be highly unethical and would not take place in our society today. The large competitive supermarket industries in the UK such as Tesco, Asda and Morrisons all sell similar products with the aim of being the cheapest. Each one strives to compete with the others causing their prices to be kept low, buying from cheap suppliers, paying cheap labour in third world countries to keep production of goods low, cutting down staff for self checkout machines etc. In order to maintain their prices low (or make them lower), Tesco have been known to have labour in sweater shops in third world countries to produce their Cherokee Clothing, labour in Africa growing crops but being paid only just enough to survive. The workforce here is mostly children working long periods a day for very little money, a salary which would be illegal for UK workers. Richer nations see this often as unacceptable, how people can be paid such low money for working in such poor conditions, but they are possibly earning money for the whole family to live on. Natural disasters cannot be prevented; so many people in this world are less fortunate and have different standards of living to the better off. Tesco also are under pressure to keep their prices low, so if Asda and Morrisons can sell their products so cheaply then Tesco will find their way to do so too. It is the ethical question to how to prevent these things which are hard to prevent, and to try and help each other live equally. A survey of workers at an Aldi supplier in Indonesia for example revealed: †¢90% stating their wages were insufficient to meet their daily needs †¢55% stating they had no written contract, and †¢40% reporting trade union repression. ’ Similarly, stores like Aldi and Lydl are reaching their profits selling their misleading products, which are all m ade to look like a well known brand. Their brandings are cheaper, and their labours are also paid poorly, causing their business to keep up during the recession for being cheap. Their work force in Indonesia is also seen as unacceptable and has drawn attention to the media in 2008. The Fairtrade organisation is an established group which has been built up in the recent years to ensure workers are being paid what is believed as ‘a fair salary’. It started up aiming to help the employees which are not receiving a fair amount of reward as they should be for doing their end of work. For products to earn a Fairtrade label they must pay producers a fair price, and help improve working conditions investing in sustainability. Many consumers now only buy Fairtrade items as it overcomes the ethical dilemmas known about supermarkets suppliers’ working conditions. Its ethical aims and objectives have successfully been profitable and there are now increasing amounts of Fairtrade items on the market. Pressure groups are external society factors which could influence business activity. Some pressure groups may be less demanding than others, for example selling real animal fur to Tesco’s would not be an issue, but selling addictive products such as Tobacco could be a responsibility to tackle. Pressure groups are mostly a group designed to stop/prevent something being done or product being sold, such as testing drugs on animals. Ideally, they believe their morals are correct which is why they are forcing it to a stop. It is hard for supermarkets to prevent every unethical matter; most Tesco’s medicines must have been tested on animals before it can be given to humans, but they could cut down necessity of hurting animals if possible. Gillette, a maker of razors and shaving products has been known to test their products on animals. Several other companies have tried to prevent the problem of health on animals, but Gillette has continued with the idea and agued if hey need to satisfy consumers and stakeholders they need to continue with their animal testing. This is a difficult issue as some people would argue that it is more important to ensure human beings safety first, there it is acceptable that it should be test to benefit people, whilst others would mention to minimize the harm to animals to test on them only when it is necessary. The Body Shop started by Anita Roddick in 1976 is a large skin and h ealth care international company. The products sold by the Body Shop ensure that none of its products have been tried or tested on animals as they contain natural, botanical ingredients. Many consumers buy this idea and their recycling (refilling) aims which has made it one of the largest skin product retail chains in the market. The smell of their natural ingredients and the ethical value behind their creation of the products create a vast favour to customers, yet also being a successful business. A supermarket business will nevertheless affect many stakeholders. A good profitable year would create more jobs, happier shareholders, and happier customers. Profits may be high, customers may be more willing to spend more on luxury goods, suppliers receive more trade, but it doesn’t last forever. Recession will occur every few years, causing all of this to have to cut down. Managers will have to cut down staff, finding the smallest reasons to dismiss employees, unethically. Suppliers will need to be providing their service as cheap as possible; otherwise declined. They will insist to trade with large businesses and therefore be under pressure to offer illegal or terrible working conditions for the labour such as in third world countries to win the supermarket’s choice, unethically. The old man down the road from Tesco may lose his job trying to compete in selling home grown groceries as his only source of income, unfortunately. As a result, large supermarkets trying to compete to survive will have to help itself, without questions morality in most cases; it is therefore argued that successful businesses are managed unethically. On the other hand, the ethical decisions that could be undertaken yet still are possible. The managers should choose the course of action best for the stakeholders in order to satisfy them for a successful business. It is the stakeholders that allow a business to be successful; without employees, suppliers and consumers, there is no trade able to occur. Managers need to look after their staff, for example give them a reasonable salary, abide within the legal working hours, keep their working conditions at a satisfactory level, give them some privacy as well as some security (Lockers, data protection etc), health and safety etc. Keeping employees happy will result in a more productivity by the workforce. Managers also need to consider the eyes of a consumer, i. e. Good satisfactory quality products, no misleading titles, descriptions or information, clean premises, health and safety regulations etc. If they do not abide to these, customers may not return or even sue them. Similarly, managers need to also treat their suppliers well, they cannot expect to owe suppliers month after month as it could threaten their survival, and instead create a good relationship with them if they wish to have better credit rating and discounts. Sometimes ethics and moral values are what guide managers to their decision makings. If they consider ethical values to change something then they are most likely to expect a positive result. When managers recruit their staff, they will be looking for a particular type of person or personality to take on the job role. However, sometimes this could lead to discrimination. Some small town Kebab shops often put up posters mentioning they wish to recruit a staff member with the same race as themselves, allowing easy communication. This is against the Employer Discrimination Act by law it should not be allowed. In large businesses we see this much less, the language used isn’t considered acceptable-to only allow to take on a job if you are the correct race, and neither would asking for a particular sex or religious belief-unless a good reason is given. Nevertheless when asking for a particular target, it shouldn’t be made obvious to offend people, nor should it be made so blatant to make people angry. Managers also need to consider moral views to selling their products. Beech-Nut was a maker of baby-food who was close to being bankrupt in the 1980’s. The company took out a contract with a low-cost supplier of apple juice concentrate, but was later found to contain quantities of corn soup. The managers insisted in carrying on selling the misleading product to keep their business alive, but later was caught and fined heavily for fraud. It is easier to be ethical without anything to hide, than to mislead or commit fraud to sellers. Sometimes honesty may take a longer route to get around, i. e. o receive instant sales, but in the long-run dishonesty could lead to serious matters, just like Beech-Nut. In summary, successful management in business is tough, but to be fully ethical in everything is even tougher. In this world in order to succeed, sacrifice is committed; success does not require ethical conduct. People in poor countries strive in life to try and survive, stealing f rom others, committing all sorts of crime. It is very hard to have good management in a firm if to be completely ethical, it’s the survival of the fittest in the animal kingdom, survival of using tactics in business. If one needs to gain, someone else might be hurt. Nevertheless we do see society changing in many ways due to ethics, which is why the majority of life is different compared to when humans first existed. Irrespectively, organisations should still acknowledge the ethics in the world to create the right initiatives. Mutual respect and trust can provide goodwill between relationships with people and trade. Adhering with ethical values can be seen by consumers which in the long term will benefit rather than working with evil. Being truthful and trustworthy also gains goodwill by consumers and employees towards a business. We can see that although Innocent Smoothies may not be gaining as instant profit in the short run when first set up; after it has been promoted well people begin to see the moral values inside these ‘innocent’ pricey products. They have reached a high profit margin in a few years time, and encouraged other companies to begin producing ethically as they do- degradable packaging, natural ingredients, and giving 10% profit to people who ‘need it’. The majority of supermarkets in the UK now sell Innocent Smoothies as it is a fast selling product yet a choice which everyone is fond of. Overall the benefits of ethics in business are being able to manage and strengthen the balance of society and the culture of organisations. Apart from bringing trust into relationships between groups and teams, the morals and values which human beings have in our country can be seen as safe to live upon. Ethics can create a profitable and effective business, and has been discovered more this century as the world is constantly improving.