Annual Report- Starbucks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Annual Report- Starbucks - Essay Example The financial performance of the company during the first quarter of the current year speaks for itself. The consolidated net revenues increased to $2.7 billion, representing an increase of 4% over the previous period. Store sales increased by 4% both due to increased traffic and higher average ticket. Consolidated operating margin improved by 850 basis points to 13%. Earnings per share have registered an impressive rise of nearly 250% and stood at $0.32 in 2010 as compared to $0.09 for the comparative period in 2009. The improved performance is the result of the enthusiastic response to our products and services by our customers. Our continuing efforts at innovation, and success in providing our customers with enhanced experiences, along with cost reduction measures, have contributed to the better performance. As we continue to direct our efforts in these areas, we are confident of being able to maintain the momentum of growth that we have achieved. To consolidate the gains made by us in the previous year, and to sustain and improve on our growth, we are adopting a strategy of structural changes that is expected to improve performance through a new and powerful regional support model. In addition to making changes to our approach in established markets, we are also expanding in emerging markets, particularly China, which we foresee as our largest market outside the United States. In keeping with our mission of being more than passionate purveyors of coffee, we continue to concentrate on providing a rewarding overall experience to our customers. In this effort, we continue to be guided by our values such as respect for the individual, promoting diversity, and adherence to the highest ethical standards in all our operations. As we march ahead with the confidence generated by the success of our innovative approaches in the year just gone by, and the enthusiastic response of our

How Can Training And Development Enhance Employee Performance In An Essay

How Can Training And Development Enhance Employee Performance In An Organization - Essay Example It subscribes to the notion that phenomena and knowledge are â€Å"truths† only if they can be confirmed by the human senses, through deduction and induction methods. Express differently, the major distinctions between these types of knowledge claims are: whilst the goal of postpositivism is determinative for the purpose of verifying an a priori theory, constructivism seeks to understand for the purpose of generating theory; whilst postpositivism tends to reduce all data gathered into a single â€Å"truth,† constructivism ascribes varied meaning as warranted, and; whilst postpositivism employs empirical observation and measurement, constructivism uses social and historical construction (Creswell 2003 6). A scrutiny of the present research question reveals that it essentially requires a constructivist approach of learning because it calls for the researcher to seek an understanding of the effect of certain conditions, i.e. training and development, to the quality of work of employees. At this point, no theory is yet established or needs to be proven. The researcher goes into the research with an open, inquiring mind unfettered by any working theory, and seeks only to form a theory during the course or at the end of the research. The research question also calls for the researcher to discuss and probe into the minds of the respondents who will be engaged in the research to understand how such training and development have improved their performance in their respective work. The constructivist inquiry could be conducted best through the employment of the qualitative research approach rather than the quantitative method.