Newell Rubbermaid Case Study

I believe that Newell Rubbermaid’s departmentalization structure puts the company in a strong position for profitable growth. It was clearly stated that the profit of the company stand good after the implementation of the strategy that was on a down trend for the past two years. Â  The efforts of Galli to increase the efficiency of the company to act as ‘one’ organization made to cut the cost of production. Although the effect will not take right after but at least there is an improvement on the profit growth of the company. It is just usual for the effect of any business strategy to take time for the effect to experience so there’s nothing to worry about not meeting the target growth. It is just a matter of time. Answer to Question #2 I think Galli applied Mary Parker Follett’s guideline on coordination to Newell Rubbermaid by establishing the single corporate headquarters in Atlanta. With this, the top Management, especially Galli, can now get the opinions of the executives coming from the different business units. The implementation of this also made the meetings of the executives easier and more efficient. The dissemination of information will also be made faster since the executive of one business unit can attend the meeting right on schedule and there will be no more excuses about being late or any kind of delay. With the executives working in one office will give them enough space for interaction that will give them more coordination for the planning and execution of every business direction. Answer to Question #3 I will suggest to Galli the establishment of a single competent, energetic guiding authority or the formal management structure; since at the very start of the financial crisis of the company, the unification of the business units is the source of the problem of the company; to give emphasis in using the organization to address Newell Rubbermaid’s challenges. Bureaucracy This is defined as the administrative structure that uses the hierarchical distribution of authority to every unit of the organization (dictionary.com, 2007). This is used by many businesses in structuring their organization despite of the criticisms that is attributed to this business structure. One of the criticisms of bureaucracy is that individuals are not being aware of the negative effects of their actions in a larger sense since there is an overspecialization of business units. Red tape is also one of the negative effects of bureaucracy that hinders on the implementation of every business action and makes the decision making process to slow down. It is also said that under bureaucracy, common sense is no longer applicable since they are all guided by the laws provided by the top management. The lower management and the employees have less participation on the planning process under this organizational structure. The above situation will later result on internal problem for the managers because employees might feel that they are not being valued by the management. Of course there are still benefits derived from using bureaucracy as an organizational structure. One of this is the increase in the efficiency of production because of the specialization of the laborers. The said tactic enables to company to have growth on their profits since there will be more goods will be produce. The imposition of laws will help the employees by guiding the latter on their doings and on the execution of the plans within and outside the business environment. Top managers are surely highly competitive since they are screened by the other top managers. Since the business transactions are documented, this can be used by the future management as a basis on planning their marketing strategy and other business related tactics. There are still a lot of benefits that can be derive from using bureaucracy as the organizational of every company, only that it depends on the situation on what the company is dealing with. REFERENCES dictionary.com. (2007). Bureaucracy [Electronic Version] from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bureaucracy. Â   Â  

Business Plan Template: The Laundry Room Essay

The Laundry Room is a full-service, including wash, dry, fold, dry cleaning, repairs and alterations, pick-up and delivery, coin operated laundry service dedicated to consistent customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing reliable machines and furnishing a regularly maintained clean, attractive atmosphere at a competitive price and value. The Laundry Room offers its customers the opportunity to utilize or enjoy the output of the most superior, state of the art laundry machines the industry has to offer. Additionally, The Laundry Room will provide on-site retail cleaning and laundry products for one-time and household use. The Laundry Room will focus on two target consumers: Type A: Middle to Lower Class Individual(s) without the resources of an adequate laundry facility. Generally this customer will occupy apartment complexes, government housing or condominium type housing. It will include home owners, families and individuals with inadequate laundry facilities without the financial resources to upgrade or replace faulty equipment immediately. These consumers will also include low-disposable income, physically capable senior citizens in community housing and students residing in dorms or rental properties. The Laundry Room will penetrate this market by offering self-service, coin and card operated, state of the art laundry machines in a clean, safe, customer service oriented environment. Coupons, loyalty discounts/cards and daily promotions will appeal to this financially moderate and conscious market. Type B: Middle to Upper Class Individual(s) who possesses more money than time, an advanced taste and high demand for exceptional customer service but no time to complete routine laundry tasks. This will include home owners, families and individuals who have high disposable income and require laundering assistance but fail to allocate the time commitment in busy work, family or life schedules. This unique and routine consumer will continue visiting The Laundry Room because of it’s high quality output and impeccable customer service and become a devoted return customer. The Laundry Room  will penetrate this market by offering professional laundry services, pick up and drop off work order delivery options and corporate discounts. The Laundry Room’s financial layout is quite reassuring. Since it is practicing a cash business with no receivables, however the introductory is generally more than majority of start-ups. The procedure is labor demanding with many services available in one location and The Laundry Room identifies that skilled talent and modern, state of the art buildings and equipment are a necessity. The financial and time investment in its labourers, locations and equipment will be the differentiating factor between The Laundry Room and it’s competitors. For the purpose of this business plan template, the investments of equipment and locations are financed. There will be minimal product inventory kept on hand to take advantage of limited space and price drops in supplies and to discover consumer trends. The Laundry Room projects the original sequence of investments and long term financing of $325,000.00 to abolish the need for additional debt or equity investing beyond the acquisition of equipment or locations. This will translate into slower expansion than what would otherwise the possible but based on consumer demands and product requests will allow more consistent and solid financial growth. OBJECTIVES The Laundry Room has generated three solidified objective it desires to accomplish in the next three years of business. 1. Three full-service laundry facilities in the Western Manitoba region. 2. Establish sustainable business by the end of the fourth quarter of the first year. 3. Product net profits. 4. To establish a beneficial brand to customers and gain brand loyalty within the first three months of operation by functioning socially and ethically responsibly. MISSION Our Mission Statement: The Laundry Room makes decisions that value our  customers and employees. We are dedicated to providing unmatched customer satisfaction at every level of our operation with through our focused commitment to Leadership, Respect, Innovation and Technology, resulting in a profitable business and a satisfied consumer. Corporate activities are conducted with the highest standard of professionalism and ethics. Core Values: People: We treat all people (customers, employees and vendors) with respect. Integrity: We manage our operations, finances and services with professionalism, honesty, efficiency and reliability. Service: Our customers are the heart of everything we do. Innovation: We stay current and innovative with the systems, services and technologies that improve the way we operate our business and live our lives. Responsibility: We promote a safe, eco-friendly and clean environment for our customers, employees and vendors. Loyalty: We earn and maintain the respect and confidence in our customers, employees and vendors routinely, in everything we do. Our Motto: Professional, efficient, reliable service at a competitive price. KEYS TO SUCCESS There are four basic keys to success in this company, three are congruent with any service driven industry but our quality customer service (including interaction with customers, pick-up and delivery service and customer loyalty programs) and clean, modern environment (free Wi-Fi, state of the art machines, cash free machine options, gaming arcade) will give us an additional advantage in the consumer eye. Convenient Location- visible, high-traffic pattern, efficiently accessible to consumer. The Best Products- state of the art machines, consistently clean, safe environment, eco-friendly laundry and cleaning products. The Friendliest, well-trained Staff- cheerful, professional, hygienic, articulate, highly skilled company representatives. Finest Reputation- Word of mouth advertising through impeccable customer service, community involvement and valuable customer referral program. COMPANY SUMMARY The Laundry Room is a full-service, including wash, dry, fold, dry cleaning, repairs and alterations, pick-up and delivery, coin operated laundry service dedicated to consistent customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing reliable machines and furnishing a regularly maintained clean, attractive atmosphere at a competitive price and value COMPANY OWNERSHIP The Laundry Room is a Limited Liability Company. All membership shares in the present day are owned by Brooke Ward and Joel McPhail with the future intent of using an excerpt of these shares to increase capital. The projected plan requires the sale of 100 membership interests in the company to family, friends and informal investors. Each company membership interest is set to $4250.00 with a minimum of five entities per stock certificate or minimum of $21,250.00 per shareholder. If and when all funds are collected, Brooke Ward and Joel McPhail will preserve ownership of 51% of the company. START UP SUMMARY COMPANY LOCATIONS AND FACILITIES The Laundry Room will open its first location in Brandon, Manitoba on the corner of Victoria Avenue and 34th Street, a location formerly occupied by Brandon Turbo. An additional two locations will be designed and distributed in Southern Manitoba over the preceding three years including locations in Virden, Manitoba and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The location in Brandon, Manitoba will remain company headquarters and occupy the offices of our executives. The demographic and physical requirement for The Laundry Room locations: High traffic and easily accessible on either side. Visible from roadway. Established retail shops or business locations in the general vicinity. A combination of apartment complexes and residential areas in the general vicinity. PRODUCTS The Laundry Room offers its customers the opportunity to utilize or enjoy the output of the most superior, state of the art laundry machines the industry has to offer. Additionally, The Laundry Room will provide on-site retail cleaning and laundry products for one-time and household use. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION CUSTOMER USE: Coin Laundry: The Laundry Room utilizes 20 IPSO Washers and 16 IPSO Dryers with capacities ranging from 14lbs-75lbs. The attractive stainless steel exterior is complimentary to the heavy duty motors, eco-friendly water-preserving emissions and a seal system to enhance cylinder stability considered to be the best-crafted in the world. In keeping with todays growth of modern technology, The Laundry Room will offer a series of machines equipped with a card system as an alternative to coin fuelled machines. The card system will accept all forms of payment including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Debit and an internal, reusable and refillable customer card. PROFESSIONAL USE: Commercial Laundry: For it’s professional cleaning services, The Laundry Room will utilize a series of industrial sized IPSO Washers and Dryers with capacities ranging from 12lbs to 165lbs. These laundry machines will be used exclusively by fully trained company representatives and utilize the same technology as the Coin Laundry appliances in a much larger size and without the option of payment. Folders and Feeders: The Laundry Room will also possess one IPSO Folder (folds clothing) and one IPSO Flatwork Ironer (irons clothing) to minimize costs allocated to labor and energy. Operating using technologically advanced, professional, attractive, eco-friendly, easy to use IPSO equipment will ensure the highest quality output and efficient production levels. PRODUCTS: The Laundry Room will provide on-site retail cleaning and laundry products for one-time and household use. The Laundry Room plans to capitalize on the ongoing consumer trend of purchasing eco-friendly products free of harsh chemicals and dyes. A strategic alliance with Progressive Sanitation, developed through a long-standing personal relationship with both companies’ Owner/Operator(s), will allow each to capitalize on product sales. An agreement that Progressive Sanitation will be the exclusive supplier of one-time and household products for re-sale at all The Laundry Room locations and all product labels must display BOTH company names. Products available on site in one-time use format include: Eco-Max Lavender Laundry Wash (Liquid), Eco-Max Dryer Sheets, Eco-Max Laundry Detergent (Powder) and Eco-Max Fabric Softener. Products available in household use format include: {LAUNDRY} Eco-Max Lavender Laundry Wash (Liquid), Eco-Max Dryer Sheets, Eco-Max Laundry Detergent (Powder) and Eco-Max Fabric Softener {KITCHEN} Eco-Max Liquid Dish Detergent and Eco-Max Dishwasher Soap {BATHROOM} Eco-Max Ultra Bathroom Cleaner, Eco-Max Ultra Odour Neutralizer {GENERAL} Eco-Max All Purpose Cleaner, Eco-Max Glass Cleaner Bottle. COMPETITIVE COMPARISON The Laundry Room acknowledges itself as a competitive contributor in the laundry and cleaning industry. Contrarily, it also recognizes that rivalry for its products range from dry cleaning service to general wash/dry service to repairs and alterations to cleaning products. The Laundry Rooms main competitors will come in four forms: Locally Owned Dry Cleaning Facilities. National brand Dry Cleaning Facilities. Locally Owned Laundromats. On-site Apartment/Condominium Complex Coin-Operated Laundry Facilities. The Laundry Rooms secondary competitors will come in three forms: Locally Owned/Operated Tailors. Department Stores offering cleaning products. Locally Owned General Stores offering cleaning products. Characteristics that set apart The Laundry Room from is competitors are: Impeccable customer service Free on-site Wi-FI. State of the art equipment. Clean, inviting atmosphere. One-time-use and household products available for purchase. Customer loyalty cards, senior, student and corporate discounts. 48 hour guarantee. Pick-up and Delivery service. (provided free for any work orders equivalent to or exceeding 20lbs) Full-service facility including wash, dry, fold, press, dry cleaning and repairs/alterations. SOURCING The Laundry Room purchases it’s IPSO equipment and all machine fulfillment equipment exclusively from Coinamatic Commercial Laundry, a subsidiary of WASH Multifamily Laundry Systems. Retail products and fulfillment products are purchased from Progressive Sanitation. The Laundry Rooms technological equipment (POS system) and â€Å"free to the customer† internet connectivity is provided by Westman Communications Group. The Laundry Room’s state of the art, user and eco-friendly is reliant on technology and proper maintenance. Ron’s Appliance Service has been  contracted to upkeep all machines for the entirety of the first year of business to ensure customer satisfaction. The Laundry Room will be equipped with 24 hour surveillance video monitored by Allen Leigh Security and Communications. TECHNOLOGY The Laundry Room projects to obtain a competitive advantage, improve operations and capitalize on the growing consumer trend of technology. The Laundry Room will offer a series of machines equipped with a card system as an alternative to coin fuelled machines. The card system will accept all forms of payment including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Debit and an internal, reusable and refillable customer card. This will create a safer environment for customers and employees, allows the balance of the customer card to travel with the cardholder to various The Laundry Room locations, creates customer loyalty and permits the business to add bonus dollars or a â€Å"kick back† when a customer adds more cash. This innovative customer card technology is beneficial internally by tracking total sales, times and dates of each individual machine; minimizing the coins to collect and process decreasing labor costs; providing electronic accountability and eliminates the chance of theft or vandalism. The Laundry Room will also offer self-use laundromat customers the access to free Wi-Fi while utilizing the facility, anticipating the conclusion of their laundry session. FUTURE PRODUCTS Seasonally, The Laundry Room will offer products, services and discounts that will increase sales and also meet consumer demands. Offering discounts in the summer months on utilizing dryers (as more customers will opt to hang dry) and to students in the Fall to build brand loyalty and gain market share. Subsidizing holiday themed scented products with florals and beach inspired scents during the summer months and offering seasonal dependent products when in demand including automobile detailing packages when weather  permits. The Laundry Room’s central focus will be to utilize customer feedback and trends to cater to the product and service demands of the consumer and provide it accordingly. In addition, once basic operational kinks have been subsidized and revenue is steady, The Laundry Room will maximize their profits by providing customers with access to multiple services to utilize our buildings space to its fullest potential. The future possibility of offering food and beverage vending machines, renting mailboxes and game arcades demand little increase to overhead as all property and rent expenses are already paid for. Our customers and their experience will benefit and enjoy capitalizing on several services located in one convenient building. To provide community camaraderie, build customer base and fulfil it’s social responsibility The Laundry Room projects to host quarterly, season tailored charitable events including music concerts, hot chocolate giveaways and BBQ following the first year of business. A portion of proceeds from events will be donated to a local charity, making strides to improve the community. MARKET ANALYSIS SUMMARY Type A: Middle to Lower Class Individual(s) without the resources of an adequate laundry facility. Generally this customer will occupy apartment complexes, government housing or condominium type housing. It will include home owners, families and individuals with inadequate laundry facilities without the financial resources to upgrade or replace faulty equipment immediately. These consumers will also include low-disposable income, physically capable senior citizens in community housing and students residing in dorms or rental properties. Type B: Middle to Upper Class Individual(s) who possesses more money than time, an advanced taste and high demand for exceptional customer service but no time to complete routine laundry tasks. This will include home owners, families and individuals who have high disposable income and require laundering assistance but fail to allocate the time commitment in busy work, family or life schedules. MARKET SEGMENTATION The Laundry Room will target two separate segments: Lower to Middle Class Individual(s) without the resources of an adequate laundry facility and Middle to Upper Class Individual(s) possessing more money than time. The Laundry Room has designed two distinct delivery plans to penetrate these markets. For the Lower to Middle Class, we offer a clean, affordable, conveniently located and well maintained state of the art self-service laundry facility and for the Middle to Upper Class, a professional laundry service with convenient pick up and delivery option. The Laundry Room will penetrate the Lower to Middle Class market by offering self-service, coin and card operated, state of the art laundry machines in a clean, safe, customer service oriented environment. Coupons, loyalty discounts/cards and daily promotions will appeal to this financially moderate and conscious market. This unique and routine Middle to Upper Class market will continue visiting The Laundry Room because of it’s high quality output and impeccable customer service and become a devoted return customer. The Laundry Room will penetrate this market by offering professional laundry services, pick up and drop off work order delivery options and corporate discounts. MARKET TRENDS Laundromats have been established for over 50 years and generally occupy retail space on long-term leases of approximately 10-25 years and product consistent cash flow over the duration of the lease. Laundromats thrive in periods of inflation and recession. During recession, when home ownership decreases, the coin operated laundry market expands as more individuals are unable to repair, replace or purchase new washers and dryers or as they relocate to apartment housing with less than adequate or non existent laundry facilities or services. During inflation when the market size grows in proportion to the increase of population. Like food and shelter, clean clothing is a necessity of life and laundromats provide a basic health service for millions of Canadians every year. MARKET GROWTH According to available consumer statistics, the demand for professional and self-service laundromats is on the rise. Industry and market growth is based on the demographics os population density, population mix and population income. The more concentrated the population in the environment, the greater the demand for profession and self-service laundry facilities. Self-service laundry facilities are primarily used by household renters, the fastest growing segment in the country. As of the 2011 Canadian Census, 24.4% of Brandon, Manitoba’s 21,950 households were renter occupied with an 11% population increase from the 2006 Canadian Census. Professional laundry services for residential individuals generally tailor toward wealthy one-income families or affluent two-income families. Compared to provincial averages, Brandon, MB has a $2,500 (2.54%) higher after-tax family income as of 2005 proving that Brandon has the market for a company offering professional services at affordable prices. MARKET NEEDS The market for our selection of self-use coin operated machines is derived of individuals without the resources of an adequate laundry facility and possess a limited disposable income. The demand for laundry services without the financial resources of outsourcing work, purchasing, repairing or replacing machines gives The Laundry Room’s self-service facilities, a budget savvy solution, the opportunity to fulfill this market need. The market for our selection of professional services is derived of individuals who have limited time, demand exceptional customer service and who possess high disposable income. The opportunity to devote valuable time to mundane tasks such as laundry is far and few between, but the demand for quality service and the necessity of practicing good personal hygiene remains active in their overloaded schedules. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS As the population of Canada grows with it’s economy, the number of renters, a significant contributor to our revenue, is likely to grow as well. Other social phenomena, like the commonness of double income families, suggest that convenient services offered by The Laundry Room will continue to increase in popularity as working households have less time to attend to essential tasks like laundry. It is even becoming more common for individuals with washers and dryers located at home to utilize self-service or professional full-service laundromats for the sake of convenience. With the regular capacity, generally smaller washing equipment used in homes, it can extend time allocated to laundry. Basically, although the majority of laundromat self-service customers are low to middle income class renters, an increasing number of facilities are tapping into high-income markets by offering convenience; full-service laundering and large, multiple machines. DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS The North American delivery process of laundry and coin-operated services reflects laundromats in the past. The consumer enters a mediocrely designed, well maintained and organized environment, engulfed in fresh, clean aromas concealing an elementary â€Å"turn-key† business plan model offering products and services at a competitive price. The Laundry Room will mirror some of these aspects however based on our previously outlined Core Values, the customers positive experience is most essential. Not only greeted by clean, well organized, public Wi-Fi capable, state of the art equipment and modern atmosphere but also a well-trained company representative offering any form of assistance as requested and required. The Laundry Room will offer a pick up and delivery service (provided free for any work orders equivalent to or exceeding 20lbs) and a professional guarantee of all work orders, no matter the size, will be completed and ready within 48 hours of drop off. COMPETITION AND BUYING PATTERNS There are four basic opponents for The Laundry Room’s customer segment. Locally owned dry cleaning facilities, like Brandon Cleaners Ltd. and Brandon Extreme Clean, national brand dry cleaning facilities, like Perth’s Service, locally owned laundromats, Glacier Wash and Wheat City Laundry and on-site apartment/condominium coin-operated laundry facilities. Strengths Multitude of services offered in one conveniently located, well monitored and maintained modern facility. Well thought out and designed business plan. Superior well-trained and filtered staff with impeccable customer service. Professional grade equipment with quality output. Weaknesses Less experience than already established competitors. Debt is required to commence business plan. Opportunities Contribution and capitalization on a steadily growing industry. Maple Leaf providing job opportunities to individuals immigrating to Canada residing in rental housing without proper laundry facilities. Multitude of services attracts every target market (Upper, middle and lower class) Proper hygiene is a necessity to life providing a constant demand for products and services. Threats Possibility of a large franchised business opening and mirroring business model. MAIN COMPETITORS When contrasting direct business opponents, we have discovered that there are no other businesses offering the same services and products collectively in the Brandon community. The Laundry Room will be the premiere full-service, including wash, dry, fold, dry cleaning, repairs and alterations, pick-up and delivery, coin operated laundry service in the Westman area. On the contrary, there is still competition from similar laundry service and retail product distributors. Locally Owned Dry Cleaning Facilities: Brandon Cleaners Ltd., Brandon Extreme Clean, Richmond Dry Cleaners & Laundromat The Laundry Room has a competitive advantage over these companies due to the following benefits: We are open Monday to Saturday 7am-10pm. Sundays 9am-6pm. 48 hour work order guarantee. Clean, safe, well designed and maintained facilities. Various services and products available conveniently in one location. Surveillance cameras to insure customer and employee safety. Loyalty card and referral program. Eco-friendly products for purchase on-site. Pick-up and delivery options. National brand Dry Cleaning Facilities. Perth’s Services The Laundry Room has a competitive advantage over these companies due to the following benefits: We are open Monday to Saturday 7am-10pm. Sundays 9am-6pm. 48 hour work order guarantee. Ability to have control and creativity without the consent of â€Å"head office.† Revenues from transactions remain within the community. Surveillance cameras to insure customer and employee safety. Loyalty card and referral program. Eco-friendly products for purchase on-site. Pick-up and delivery options. Locally Owned Laundromats. Glacier Wash, Wheat City Laundry, Rosser Laundromat, Princess Laundromat The Laundry Room has a competitive advantage over these companies due to the following benefits: We are open Monday to Saturday 7am-10pm. Sundays 9am-6pm. 48 hour work order guarantee. Clean, safe, well designed, and maintained facilities. Various services and products available conveniently in one location. Surveillance cameras to insure customer and employee safety. Coin-less machine option. Loyalty card and referral program. Eco-friendly products for purchase on-site. Pick up and delivery options. On-site Apartment/Condominium Complex Coin-Operated Laundry Facilities. The Laundry Room has a competitive advantage over these facilities due to the following benefits: Clean, safe, well designed, and maintained facilities. Surveillance cameras to insure customer and employee safety. Coin-less machine option. Loyalty card and referral program. Eco-friendly products for purchase on-site. Utilizing multiple machines for multiple loads is encouraged and lowers laundry time. The Laundry Room will consistently appraise its equipment, procedures, building layouts, company representatives and consumer products to remain a dominant commander in the laundry service industry. STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION SUMMARY STRATEGY PYRAMID The Laundry Room’s basic strategy is to convey to the community that they are dedicated to consistent customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing reliable machines and furnishing a regularly maintained clean, attractive atmosphere at a competitive price and value. To implement this strategy, The Laundry Room location will be easily accessible, visible and recognizable. All products and services will be priced accordingly to stay comparable with competitors and enforcing a professional training program for all production and customer service representatives to ensure The Laundry Room employees are the most accommodating in the industry. Through coupons, print advertisements, word of mouth and cleverly and ethically maintained social media, The Laundry Room will promote the series of products and services offered and communicate openly with current and potential customers about new promotions, discount programs, events,  products and services available. By implementing this strategy, The Laundry Room has: Offered the consumer a superior product at a competitive, comparable price. Offered the consumer a convenient, time-efficient method for acquiring their requested service or product. Displayed how The Laundry Room acknowledges and value consumer loyalty by offering discounts to return customers and referral programs. VALUE PROPOSITION The Laundry Room will over products and services in the most efficient and convenient methods available, either through their convenient, spacious, highly-visible locations, multiple coin-less or coin-operated, state of the art machines or convenient pick up and delivery services. This value proposition sets The Laundry Room apart from business opponents allowing patrons to avoid: Parking lot overload. Long wait times. Limited machine availability. Cluttered, unkept, poorly designed machine layout. This value proposition sets The Laundry Room apart from business opponents allowing patrons to capitalize on: A safe, well monitored atmosphere. Extra time provided by pick up and delivery service. Money saved by utilizing customer loyalty programs and discounts. The Laundry Room is also spotlighting on offering a compelling asset to the community by distributing locally produced eco-friendly one-time-use and household cleaning products for purchase on-site. COMPETITIVE EDGE The Laundry Room’s competitive edge is basic, we offer a superior output through state of the art self-service machines, expert laundry services and professional grade eco-friendly products at a competitive price in a modern, conveniently located atmosphere that efficiently saves valuable consumer time and money. MARKETING STRATEGY In its introductory months, The Laundry Room will conveniently locate its premiere location in an area of high traffic and visibility that is easily accessible. Victoria Avenue and 34th Street (former location of Brandon Turbo) is the area of choice, located in highly visible, commuter courses and in close proximity to established businesses, upper and middle class residential housing, university dorms, senior citizen housing centres, two of Brandon’s most profitable hotels and a series of apartment complexes. The Laundry Room locations will be unique and easily identifiable, establishing a creative branding and marketing feature. The Laundry Room will be executing a low cost marketing strategy and take advantage of low cost methods of advertisements including good will, word of mouth, social media including Facebook and Twitter and community message boards such as eBrandon. It’s been shown that the best method of advertising is through word-of-mouth. No major newspaper ad campaign is forecasted. However, we will run weekly specials. In addition, we shall have an incentive program for referrals. The customer who encouraged the new customer to utilize our services rewarded with a FREE service of their choice or 50% off a retail product, and the referee will receive an introductory gift of a FREE wash. In addition, we will ensure a clean environment, reliable machines, and friendly, prompt services. We will include loyalty programs and discounts including a BUY 5 GET ONE FREE card to reward routine customers with a lower price. This will benefit our company by building long term customers and maximizing lifetime revenue of our consumers. Several drawbacks of the loyalty card include, the constant return to ground zero with no built up financial incentive to return, only price sensitive consumers will carry it loyally and present during each purchase, it segments locals and newcomers and it’s a volume discount for items purchased over time and not all at once. Which is why we will not only  offer the physical cards but also the option of utilizing the FREE online application that replaces physical cards called â€Å"Punch crowd† to entice technologically, eco-friendly consumers. The Laundry Room will also offer 10% Student and Senior discounts as well as FREE pick up and delivery for any laundry services meeting or exceeding 20lbs. PROMOTION STRATEGY The long term goal is to achieve enough market leverage and consumer brand loyalty to the company to expand into other regions and attract attention from possible angel investors. To ensure this, The Laundry Room requires: A commitment to Public Relation services of $1250.00 per fiscal quarter for the first year of business to establish community awareness and create and design product and service information print advertisement mail-outs. It is projected that the grand opening, high traffic, highly visible location, utilization of free advertising methods such as social media and community message boards and word-of-mouth promotion will generate a significant amount of positive exposure and possibly diminish or abolish the requirements for a Public Relation Professional internal employment opportunity. To provide community camaraderie, build customer base and fulfil it’s social responsibility The Laundry Room projects to host quarterly, season tailored charitable events including music concerts, hot chocolate giveaways and BBQ following the first year of business. A portion of proceeds from events will be donated to a local charity, making strides to improve the community. This is projected to commence following the first fiscal year of business, re-evaluation of profits/losses and customer traffic may expedite these community events. MARKETING PROGRAMS HIGHLY VISIBLE, RECOGNIZABLE BUILDING: The Laundry Room is using retro inspired, modern buildings for it’s on-site locations equipt with state of the art, stainless steel equipment. We have worked closely with our contractor, Geoff Gregoire of Contractor’s Corner, to develop a recognizable structure that is fully functional and conveniently located for consumers. RECOGNIZABLE DELIVERY VEHICLE: The pick up and delivery vehicle is a crucial marketing tool. Similar to the on-site locations, the delivery vehicle will be easy to recognize and with an unmistakably similar design. The Laundry Room will schedule routine pick up (AM hours) and delivery (PM hours) with basic consumers and predetermined alliances including hospitals, retirement homes, businesses, schools and community event planners. We will utilize an eco-friendly hybrid Ford Escape creatively and tastefully sporting The Laundry Room company logo, location and contact information. ADVERTISING AND PROMOTION: In the introductory year, The Laundry Room has allocated a moderate advertising and promotion allowance beginning in the first month of operations following the Grand Opening. As a company, we understand that a portion of graphic design, publicity and promotion is best left to professionals, so majority of advertising budgets will be spent on an external company, Direct Marketing to creatively and effectively design websites, brochures, logos and other print advertising. In the first fiscal year of business the word-of mouth-advertising in conjunction with our customer loyalty/referral program and utilization of free technological advertising like social media and community message boards will be strong consumer motivators. POSITIONING STATEMENT PRICING STRATEGY The Laundry Room product and service pricing will be competitive and comparable with similar industry national brand companies and locally owned businesses. SALES STRATEGY A series of sales strategies will be implemented including advertising daily and weekly specials on high-profit and high-return products and services on site. The highly qualified customer representatives will also distribute coupons, loyalty cards, product samples and discounts to customers who purchase products and services as a â€Å"kick-back.† The Laundry Room personnel will also use the practice of suggestive sales techniques suggesting services to improve quality of life and save time or products tailored towards customer needs. SALES FORECAST SALES PROGRAMS LOYALTY PROGRAM: REFILLABLE COMPANY PAYMENT CARDS: COUPONS: CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: For the purpose of selling the products and services and for active community contribution purposes, The Laundry Room will become an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce. The partnership and publicity the organization offers is exceptional along with the business contacts and probability of generating strategic alliances through constant communication with members at Chamber of Commerce hosted events. STRATEGIC ALLIANCES MILESTONES Acting as a financial budget would, the milestone projection outlines pivotal dates in the company timeline. This timeline includes the introduction of the first and subsequent drive-thrus and the mobile cafes. TDG’s milestone table also identifies the break-even month and other key events that will determine our ongoing company success. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY In the introductory months of business, there is zero intention to operate The Laundry Room utilizing a top-heavy organizational structure that diminishes profits and complicates internal communication. TDG will operate under a significantly flat organizational chart. Overhead for management personnel will be modest and all senior managers will act as production employees. PERSONNEL PLAN There will be one Production Worker on duty at all times during all operating hours acting as a Professional Laundry Service Provider who’s employee responsibilities will include but are not limited to washing, drying, dry cleaning, folding, and pressing incoming work orders and all repairs and alterations. The current salary for the two existing full-time (40 hr/wk) personnel is $910 and part-time (25 hr/wk) personnel is $568.75. With added duties, longevity of job position and increased traffic re-evaluation to increase salaries is reasonable. There will be one Customer Service Representative on duty during all operating hours acting as an Attendant/Cashier/Retailer whose employee responsibilities will include but are not limited to store and basic machine maintenance, all customer interaction internally and externally and daily business transactions. They will assist the laundromat production worker with completing work orders including washing, drying, folding and pressing as time and work load permits. The current salary for the two existing full-time (40 hr/wk) personnel is $820 (40 hours X 2 weeks = 80 hours X $10.25/hr) bi-weekly and part time (25 hr/wk) personnel is $512.50 (25 hours X 2 weeks X $10.25/hr). With added duties, longevity of job position and increased traffic re-evaluation to increase salaries is reasonable. As for mechanical machine maintenance, this will be outsourced to Ron’s Appliance Service as an on-call, locally owned repair service. Ron’s Appliance Service is known in the Westman area for their quick and reliable output. Generally, they service within the day. It is estimated to cost approximately _____ per month per maintenance. FINANCIAL PLAN AND PROJECTIONS The Laundry Room’s financial layout is quite reassuring. Since it is practicing a cash business with no receivables, however the introductory is generally more than majority of start-ups. The procedure is labor demanding with many services available in one location and The Laundry Room identifies that skilled talent and modern, state of the art buildings and equipment are a necessity. The financial and time investment in its labourers, locations and equipment will be the differentiating factor between The Laundry Room and it’s competitors. For the purpose of this business plan template, the investments of equipment and locations are financed. There will be minimal product inventory kept on hand to take advantage of limited space and price drops in supplies and to discover consumer trends.

A Format for Case Conceptualisation

Many professional and personal challenges confront practicum students as they work with clients. For example, students must establish a counseling relationship, listen attentively, express themselves clearly, probe for information, and implement technical skills in an ethical manner. Those counseling performance skills (Borders Leddick, 1987) center on what counselors do during sessions. At a cognitive level, students must master factual knowledge, think integratively, generate and test clinical hypotheses, plan and apply interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Those conceptualizing skills, within the cognitive operations used to construct models that represent experience (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988), show how counselors think about clients and how they choose interventions. It is highly desirable for instructors of practica to have pedagogical methods to promote the development both of counseling performance skills and conceptualizing skills. Such methods should be diverse and flexible to accommodate students at different levels of professional development and with distinct styles of learning (Biggs, 1988; Borders Leddick, 1987; Ellis, 1988; Fuqua, Johnson, Anderson, Newman, 1984; Holloway, 1988; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993; Stoltenberg Delworth, 1987). RATIONALE FOR THE FORMAT In this article, we present a format for case conceptualization that we developed to fill gaps in the literature on the preparation of counselors (Borders Leddick, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991). Although many existing methods promote counseling performance skills, there are few established methods for teaching students the conceptualizing skills needed to understand and treat clients (Biggs, 1988; Hulse Jennings, 1984; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983; Turk Salovey, 1988). We do not discount the importance of counseling performance skills, but we believe that they can be applied effectively only within a meaningful conceptual framework. That is, what counselors do depends on their evolving conceptualization of clients; training in that conceptualization matters. Given the large quantity of information that clients disclose, students have the task of selecting and processing relevant clinical data to arrive at a working model of their clients. Graduate programs need to assist students in understanding how to collect, organize, and integrate information; how to form and test clinical inferences; and how to plan, implement, and evaluate interventions (Dumont, 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Fuqua et al. , 1984; Hoshmand, 1991; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Turk Salovey, 1988). Although systematic approaches to collecting and processing clinical information are not new, the case conceptualization format presented here, as follows, has several distinguishing features: 1. The format is comprehensive, serving both to organize clinical data (see Hulse Jennings, 1984; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983) and to make conceptual tasks operational (see Biggs, 1988). The components of the format integrate and expand on two useful approaches to presenting cases that are cited often and that are linked to related literature on supervision: (a) Loganbill and Stoltenbergs (1983) six content areas of clients functioning (i. . , identifying data, presenting problem, relevant history, interpersonal style, environmental factors, and personality dynamics), and (b) Biggss (1988) three tasks of case conceptualization (i. e. , identifying observable and inferential clinical evidence; articulating dimensions of the counseling relationship; and describing assumptions about presenting c oncerns, personality, and treatment). In addition, the format makes explicit the crucial distinction between observation and inference, by separating facts from hypotheses. It advances the notion that observations provide the basis for constructing and testing inferences. Thus, the format fosters development of critical thinking that is more deliberate and less automatic than the ordinary formation of impressions. The approach is compatible with recommendations that counselors receive training in rational hypothesis testing to reduce inferential errors (Dumont 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Turk Salovey, 1988). 2. The format can be adapted to the developmental stage of students by its focus on stage-appropriate components and implementing those components in stage-appropriate ways (Ellis, 1988; Glickauf-Hughes Campbell, 1991; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993; Stoltenberg Delworth, 1987). As an example, beginning students use the format to organize information and to learn the distinction between observation and inference, whereas more experienced students focus on using the format to generate and test hypotheses. 3. The format is atheoretical, thereby permitting students to ncorporate constructs from any paradigm into their case conceptualizations. In this sense, the format resembles the cognitive scaffolding described in the constructivist perspective (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). Rather than being an explicit template through which observations are filtered to conform to an imposed representational model, the format provides an abstract set of cognitive schemas. With the schemas, the student actively fashions a conceptual framework from which to order and assign meaning to observations. Simply put, the format is a generic structure that the student uses to construct his or her reality of the case. COMPONENTS OF THE FORMAT The format has 14 components, sequenced from observational to inferential as follows: background data, presenting concerns, verbal content, verbal style, nonverbal behavior, clients emotional experience, counselors experience of the client, client-counselor interaction, test data and supporting materials, diagnosis, inferences and assumptions, goals of treatment, interventions, and evaluation of outcomes. Background data includes sex, age, race, ethnicity, physical appearance (e. . , attractiveness, dress, grooming, height, and weight), socioeconomic status, marital status, family constellation and background, educational and occupational status, medical and mental health history, use of prescribed or illicit substances, prior treatment, legal status, living arrangements, religious affiliation, sexual preference, social network, current functioning , and self-perceptions. Initially, students are overwhelmed by the data that they assume need to be collected. Guidance must be provided on how students are to differentiate meaningful from inconsequential information. In our program, for example, we ask students to evaluate the relevance of background data, for understanding clients presenting concerns and for developing treatment plans. We advise students to strive for relevance rather than comprehensiveness. Presenting concerns consist of a thorough account of each of the clients problems as viewed by that client. This task might begin with information contained on an intake form. We assist students in developing concrete and detailed definitions of clients concerns by showing them how to help clients identify specific affective, behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal features of their problems. For example, the poor academic performance of a client who is a college student might involve maladaptive behavior (e. g. , procrastination), cognitive deficits (e. g. , difficulty in concentrating), negative moods (e. g. , anxiety), and interpersonal problems (e. g. , conflict with instructors). Counseling students should also explore the parameters of presenting concerns, including prior occurrence, onset, duration, frequency, severity, and relative importance. We further suggest that students explore how clients have attempted to cope with their concerns and that they examine what clients expect from treatment, in terms of assistance as well as their commitment to change. In addition, students should assess immediate or impending dangers and crises that their clients may face. Finally, we instruct students in identifying environmental stressors and supports that are linked to presenting concerns. Verbal content can be organized in two ways. A concise summary of each session is appropriate for cases of limited duration. Alternatively, verbal content can include summaries of identified themes that have emerged across sessions. Occasionally, those themes are interdependent or hierarchically arranged. For example, a client may enter treatment to deal with anger toward a supervisor who is perceived as unfair and, in later sessions, disclose having been chronically demeaned by an older sibling. We teach students to discriminate central data from peripheral data through feedback, modeling, and probing questions. Students need to focus their sessions on areas that are keyed to treatment. For instance, we point out that clients focal concerns, along with the goals of treatment, can serve as anchors, preventing the content of sessions from drifting. Verbal style refers to qualitative elements of clients verbal presentation (i. e. , how something is said rather than what is said) that students deem significant because they reflect clients personality characteristics, emotional states, or both. Those elements can include tone of voice and volume, changes in modulation at critical junctures, fluency, quantity and rate of verbalization, vividness, syntactic complexity, and vocal characterizations (e. g. , sighing). Nonverbal behavior includes clients eye contact, facial expression, body movements, idiosyncratic mannerisms (e. g. , hand gestures), posture, seating arrangements, and change in any of these behaviors over time and circumstances. Instructors can assist students in distinguishing relevant from unimportant information by modeling and providing feedback on how these data bear on the case. As an example, neglected hygiene and a listless expression are important nonverbal behaviors when they coincide with other data, such as self-reports of despair and hopelessness. Clients emotional experience includes data that are more inferential. On the basis of their observations, students attempt to infer what their clients feel during sessions and to relate those feelings to verbal content (e. g. , sadness linked to memories of loss). The observations provide insights into clients emotional lives outside of treatment. We caution students that clients self-reports are an important but not entirely reliable source of information about their emotional experience. At times clients deny, ignore, mislabel, or misrepresent their emotional experience. Students should note the duration, intensity, and range of emotion expressed over the course of treatment. Blunted or excessive affect as well as affect that is discrepant with verbal content also merit attention. To illustrate, a client may report, without any apparent anger, a history of physical abuse. Initially, students can be assisted in labeling their clients affect by using a checklist of emotional states. We have found it helpful to suggest possible affect and support our perceptions with observation and logic. Empathic role taking can also help students to gain access to clients experience. Instructors may need to sensitize students to emotional states outside of their own experience or that they avoid. Counselors experience of the client involves his or her personal reactions to the client (e. g. , attraction, boredom, confusion, frustration, and sympathy). We strive to establish a supportive learning environment in which students can disclose their genuine experiences, negative as well as positive. Students often struggle to accept that they might not like every client. But students should be helped to recognize that their experience of clients is a rich source of hypotheses about feelings that those clients may engender in others and, thus, about the interpersonal world that the clients partially create for themselves. The feel of clients often provides valuable diagnostic clues (e. g. , wanting to take care of a client may suggest features of dependent personality disorder). Sometimes students need assistance in determining whether their reactions to clients reflect countertransferential issues or involve normative responses. We draw on parallel process and use-of-self as an instrument to help clarify students feelings and to form accurate attributions about the origins of those feelings (Glickauf-Hughes Campbell, 1991; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993). Client-counselor interaction summarizes patterns in the exchanges between client and counselor as well as significant interpersonal events that occur within sessions. Such events are, for example, how trust is tested, how resistance is overcome, how sensitive matters are explored, how the counseling relationship is processed, and how termination is handled. Thus, this component of the format involves a characterization of the counseling process. Students should attempt to characterize the structure of the typical sessionspecifically, what counselors and clients do in relation to one another during the therapy hour. They may do any of the following: answer questions, ask questions; cathart, support; learn, teach; seek advice, give advice; tell stories, listen; collude to avoid sensitive topics. Taxonomies of counselor (Elliott et al. , 1987) and client (Hill, 1992) modes of response are resources with which to characterize the structure of sessions. At a more abstract level, students should try to describe the evolving roles they and their clients play vis-a-vis one another. It is essential to assess the quality of the counseling relationship and the contributions of the student and the client to the relationship. We ask students to speculate on what they mean to a given client and to generate a metaphor for their relationship with that client (e. g. , doctor, friend, mentor, or parent). Client-counselor interactions yield clues about clients interpersonal style, revealing both assets and liabilities. Furthermore, the counseling relationship provides revealing data about clients self-perceptions. We encourage students to present segments of audiotaped or videotaped interviews that illustrate patterns of client-counselor interaction. Test data and supporting materials include educational, legal, medical, and psychological records; mental status exam results; behavioral assessment data, including self-monitoring; questionnaire data, the results of psychological testing, artwork, excerpts from diaries or journals, personal correspondence, poetry, and recordings. When students assess clients, a rationale for testing is warranted that links the method of testing to the purpose of assessment. We assist students in identifying significant test data and supporting materials by examining how such information converges with or departs from other clinical data e. g. , reports of family turmoil and an elevated score on Scale 4, Psychopathic Deviate, of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 [MMPI-2; Hathaway McKinley, 1989]). Assessment, as well as diagnosis and treatment, must be conducted with sensitivity toward issues that affect women, minorities, disadvantaged clients, and disabled clients, because those pe rsons are not necessarily understood by students, perhaps due to limited experience of students or the homogenized focus of their professional preparation. Diagnosis includes students impression of clients diagnoses on all five axes of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994). We guide students efforts to support their diagnostic thinking with clinical evidence and to consider competing diagnoses. Students can apply taxonomies other than those in the DSM-IV when appropriate (e. g. , DeNelsky and Boats [1986] coping skills model). Instructors demonstrate the function of diagnosis in organizing scattered and diverse clinical data and in generating tentative hypotheses about clients functioning. Inferences and assumptions involve configuring clinical hypotheses, derived from observations, into meaningful and useful working models of clients (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). A working model consists of a clear definition of the clients problems and formulations of how hypothesized psychological mechanisms produce those problems. For instance, a clients primary complaints might be frequent bouts of depression, pervasive feelings of isolation, and unfulfilled longing for intimacy. An account of those problems might establish the cause as an alienation schema, early childhood loss, interpersonal rejection, negative self-schemas, or social skills deficits. We help students to elaborate on and refine incompletely formed inferences by identifying related clinical data and relevant theoretical constructs (Dumont, 1993; Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). We also assist students in integrating inferences and assumptions with formal patterns of understanding drawn from theories of personality, psychopathology, and counseling (Hoshmand, 1991). As with their instructors, students are not immune from making faulty inferences that can be traced to logical errors, such as single-cause etiologies, the representative heuristic, the availability heuristic, confirmatory bias, the fundamental attribution error, and illusory correlations; (Dumont, 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987). As an example, counselors tend to seek data that support their preexisting notions about clients, thus restricting the development of a more complete understanding of their clients. We alert students to the likelihood of bias in data gathering, particularly when they seek to confirm existing hypotheses. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to generate and evaluate competing hypotheses to counteract biased information ]processing (Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Kanfer Schefft, 1988). Instructors, therefore, must teach students to think logically, sensitizing them to indicators of faulty inferences and providing them with strategies for validating clinical hypotheses as well as disconfirming them (Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991). The proposed format can accomplish this task because it separates inferences from the clinical data used to test inferences and thus deautomatizes cognitive operations by which inferences are formed (Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). We have found it beneficial to have students compare their impressions of clients with impressions that are independently revealed by test data (e. g. , MMPI-2); this exercise permits the correction of perceptual distortions and logical errors that lead to faulty inferences. Although students intuition is an invaluable source of hypotheses, instructors need to caution them that intuition must be evaluated by empirical testing and against grounded patterns of understanding (Hoshmand, 1991). We also model caution and support for competing formulations and continued observation. This approach fosters appreciation of the inexactitude and richness of case conceptualization and helps students to manage such uncertainty without fear of negative evaluation. With the development of their conceptualizing skills, students can appreciate the viability of alternative and hybrid inferences. Moreover, they become more aware of the occasional coexistence and interdependence of clinical and inferential contradictions (e. g. , the simultaneous experience of sorrow and joy and holistic concepts such as life and death). The increasingly elaborate conceptual fabric created from the sustained application of conceptualizing skills also enables students to predict the effect of interventions more accurately. Goals of treatment must be linked to clients problems as they come to be understood after presenting concerns have been explored. Goals include short-term objectives along with long-term outcomes of treatment that have been negotiated by the client and trainee. Typically, goals involve changing how clients feel, think, and act. Putting goals in order is important because their priorities will influence treatment decisions. Goals need to be integrated with students inferences or established theories and techniques of counseling. In their zeal, students often overestimate the probable long-term aims of treatment. To help students avoid disappointment, we remind them that certain factors influence the formulation of goals, including constraints of time and resources, students own competencies, and clients capacity for motivation for change. Interventions comprise techniques that students implement to achieve agreed-on goals of treatment. Techniques are ideally compatible with inferences and assumptions derived earlier; targets of treatment consist of hypothesized psychological structures, processes, and conditions that produce clients problems (e. g. , self-esteem, information processing, family environment). Difficulties in technical implementation should be discussed candidly. We provide opportunities for students to observe and rehearse pragmatic applications of all strategies. Techniques derived from any theory of counseling can be reframed in concepts and processes that are more congruent with students cognitive style. To illustrate, some students are able to understand how a learned fear response can be counterconditioned by the counseling relationship when this phenomenon is defined as a consequence of providing unconditional positive regard. In addition, we teach students to apply techniques with sensitivity as well as to fashion a personal style of counseling. Finally, legal and ethical issues pertaining to the conduct of specific interventions must be made explicit. Evaluation of outcomes requires that students establish criteria and methods toward evaluating the outcomes of treatment. Methods can include objective criteria (e. g. , grades), reports of others, self-reports (e. g. , behavioral logs), test data, and students own judgments. Instructors must assist students in developing efficient ways to evaluate progress over the course of treatment given the presenting concerns, clients motivation, and available resources. USES OF THE FORMAT We developed the :format for use in a year-long practicum in a masters degree program in counseling psychology. Instructors describe the format early in the first semester and demonstrate its use by presenting a erminated case; a discussion of the format and conceptualization follows. The first half of the format is particularly helpful when students struggle to organize clinical data into meaningful categories and to distinguish their observations from their inferences. The focus at that point should be on components of the format that incorporate descriptive data about the client. Later in their development, when students are prepared to confront issues that influence the counseling relationship, components involving personal and interpersonal aspects of treatment can be explored. As students mature further, components that incorporate descriptive data are abbreviated so that students can concentrate on the conceptualizing skills of diagnosis, inferences and assumptions, treatment planning and intervention, and evaluation. When conceptualizing skills have been established, the format need not be applied comprehensively to each case. Rather, it can be condensed without losing its capacity to organize clinical data and to derive interventions. The format can be used to present cases in practicum seminar as well as in individual supervision sessions. It can also be used by students to manage their caseloads. Also, the format can be used in oral and written forms to organize and integrate clinical data and to suggest options for treatment (cf. Biggs, 1988; Hulse Jennings, 1984; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983). For example, practicum seminar can feature presentations of cases organized according to the format. As a student presents the data of the case, participants can construct alternative working models. Moreover, the format compels participants to test their models by referencing clinical data. Written details that accompany a presentation are also fashioned by a student presenter according to the format. The student presenter can distribute such material before the presentation so that members of the class have time to prepare. During the presentation, participants assume responsibility for sustaining the process of case conceptualization in a manner that suits the class (e. g. , discussion, interpersonal process recall, media aids, or role play). Supervision and case notes can also be structured more flexibly with the use of the case conceptualization format to give students opportunities to relate observation to inference, inference to treatment, and treatment to outcome (Presser Pfost, 1985). In fact, supervision is an ideal setting to tailor the format to the cognitive and personal attributes of the students. In supervision, there are also more opportunities to observe students sessions directly, which permits instruction of what clinical information to seek, how to seek it, how to extract inferences from it, and to evaluate the veracity of students inferences by direct observation (Holloway, 1988). FUTURE APPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH The format is a potentially valuable resource for counselors to make the collection and integration of data systematic when they intervene with populations other than individual clients. Application of the format to counseling with couples and families might seem to make an already conceptually demanding task more complex. Yet counselors can shift the focus from individuals to a couple or a family unit, and apply components of the format to that entity. By targeting relationships and systems in this way, the format can also be used to enhance understanding of and improve interventions in supervision and with distressed units or organizations.

Lean management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Lean management - Assignment Example The method, which was employed during this work, was designed for the lean management introduction process for improvement initiative across the organization along with the effective organizational strategies. The report also utilized varied methods of collecting data including the sample surveys, use of questionnaires, interviews and the focused group discussions. The report offered an analysis on the way these methods were utilized for gathering adequate information about the topic under study. The report results were given and this included the outcomes of the research that was done through using varied data collection methods. The researcher packed up the report results with varied sources in order to enable the reader to understand the need for lean management in an organization. The conclusion also was given and this included a brief summary of what was discussed in the report. Lastly, the recommendations were given, which revealed some significant measures that should be taken in order to achieve successful organizational performance when employing lean management approach. A Business Report Introduction Lean management and organizational learning have become the fundamental driving forces for successful business in the contemporary society; thus contributing to a competitive advantage in an organization. The main objective of employing lean management is to maximize customer value while minimizing resources.... It also appears that lean management has only remained the popular strategy in many organizations; hence, it is applied at all strategies of production and management levels across the organizations. Thus, the report evaluates and offer recommendations on the feasibility and implications of applying lean management as a vital approach for improvement initiative across the organizational level. Report Purpose/Objectives The report aims to explore and examine the significant of the implementation of lean management from the perspective of organizational learning. The report attempts to find out the significant role of lean management approach for specific process improvement initiative across the organization. The report employs effective methods of analyzing the literature materials in order to determine the way lean approach percolates into a wider operation circles to enable businesses to achieve a competitive advantage. The report evaluates and offers effective recommendations on t he feasibility and implications of applying lean management as a vital approach for improvement initiative across the organizational level. Methods The method, which was employed during this work, was designed for the lean management introduction process improvement initiative across the organization, along with the effective organizational strategies. The information used in this report was collected by consulting an independent review from scholarly, journals and academic management reports. The information was also collected through contacting the individual companies for additional information about lean approach for specific process improvement initiative across the organization. Further research methods including use of questionnaires, interviews, focused group discussions and

Diagnoses, Medication and Treatment of a Patient with Complex Ailments Essay

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Language and heteronormativity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Language and heteronormativity - Essay Example What naturally can be derived from this is that the stereotyped images of women are simply the â€Å"approved typifications† of our society, which are even considered as appropriate and positive. While other information and communication channels like television news or films have within them a strong parallel stream of thought trying to break free from these stereotypical images, in advertising, they are rare. This could be a phenomenon that can be attributed to the fact that at any cost, an advertiser cannot afford to fail because he/she has a product to sell. Hence conforming to society's stereotypes becomes a necessity rather than chance. The advertisement that is being discussed in this essay is the television commercial of Era laundry detergent.( http://youtu.be/Leey5GZe-Ws ). This advertisement has many layers of gender stereotyping within it and the most evident one is the broad association of laundry washing with female gender (Era laundry detergent). This is an age o ld stereotype in itself. Human culture in different civilisations has been adamently sticking to the notion that it is the job of women to wash laundry and hence all detergent advertisements show women doing the laundry in a domestic ambience. The first frame of the advertisement, in which a woman is seen standing near a washing machine in the wash area of the house, has already made the suggestion that the place of a woman is in such an ambiance (Era laundry detergent). Goffman has called visuals (photographs and television videos, especially), the â€Å"a community's ritual idiom something like what a written text is for students of its spoken language† (27). When the woman starts talking, the viewer comes to know that she is not washing her clothes alone but her husband's shirt also (Era laundry detergent). What she says is that she is able to clean even the tough stains on her husband's shirt using this detergent (Era laundry detergent). The visuals that follow are expect ed by the makers of this film to be funny and meaningful, as the viewer sees the woman shown in the beginning of the advertisement, doing household chores like toasting bread and disposing kitchen waste, as if she is the heroine of an action movie (Era laundry detergent). Along with these visuals, the viewers listen to her telling that she is busy, and she is tough and the implied meaning here is also that she enjoys her domestic work, she is proud of the way she manages it and also she has no complaints about life (Era laundry detergent). The punchline of this advertisement in the end is â€Å"tough detergent for tough moms† (Era laundry detergent). This statement asserts that the woman the viewer sees in this commercial has only one single identity- the identity of a mom (Era laundry detergent). It is as if she is born to become a mom and nothing else. Yet, the mention about the husband's shirt in the beginning of the commercial also implies that she is also a wife and when she hands over a packet of lunch to her daughter who seems to be leaving for school, the mother image is reinforced (Era laundry detergent). In this manner, this commercial limits a woman's identity to just being a wife and a mother (Era laundry detergent). The clothes of the husband shown in the commercial are white. Everyone knows that keeping white clothes clean and spotless is the most difficult laundry task. Everybody also know that because of this, a

International Finance Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Finance Coursework - Essay Example A firm therefore needs to keep the exchange rate risk at bay. Most firms do so by determining the specific type of exposure to risk, the hedging approach and they also find available instruments to deal with these currency risks. The international transactions the British Venture Capitalist is involved in, exposes them to exchange rate risk. They therefore have to plan in advance and take measures that will protect them against these risks to avoid incurring great losses. There are different types of risks or currency exposures the British Capitalist faces: Transaction risk or simply known as the cash ?ow risk deals with the effect of exchange rate changes position on transactional account exposure linked to receivable, or repatriation of dividends and payables. Any change in the currency exchange rate results in a transaction risk. Translation risk also known as balance sheet exchange rate risk shows the relationship of exchange rate change position to the valuation of a foreign sub ordinate firm and, in turn, to the consolidation of a foreign subordinate firm to the mother corporation’s balance sheet. ... There is a difference however in translation when it comes to the income statements. In the income statement translations are done at the usual exchange rate during the time period. In the case of balance sheets, translations are done at the predominant present exchange rate at the time of consolidation. Economic risk is the risk which reflects the risk to the firm’s value of future operating cash ?ows from exchange rate movements. It is concerned with the effect of exchange rate changes on revenues and operating expenses. The revenues in this case include domestic sales and exports whereas operating expenses include the domestic inputs and imports. This type of risk is normally applied to the current worth of future cash flow operations of a firm. Question (b) How to Measure Economic/Operating Exposure After de?ning the types of economic/operating exposure that a ?rm is exposed to, a crucial aspect of a ?rm’s exchange rate risk management decisions is the measurement o f economic/operating exposure. Measuring economic/operating exposure may seem to be challenging. Currently, the most commonly applied methodology is the value-at-risk (VaR) model. Generally, value at risk is de?ned as the highest loss for a given exposure over a given period of time with a certain percentage of con?dence. The VaR method can be useful in computing a range of types of risk, helping corporations in their risk management. Nevertheless, the VaR does not suggest what happens to the exposure for the (100 – z) % point of con?dence, i.e., the worst case scenario. The Value-at-Risk (VaR) calculation method of economic/operating exposure is applied by corporations to estimate the riskiness of a foreign exchange situation that culminates from a

Heart failure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Heart failure - Essay Example In order to attain this end, the following objectives will be examined: â€Å"Heart failure (HF) is common and is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Forty per cent of patients with symptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) die within a year of diagnosis and 10% per annum thereafter, giving a five-year mortality rate of up to 70%.† (Patel, et al., 2008, p. 35). Heart failure is therefore a major cause of death in nations like Britain. And this is often diagnosed through the identification of symptoms like left ventricular systolic dysfunction. This provides the identification of the main issues and the main signs that a patient might have a heart disease and heart complication. However, this is very chronic and fatal because many of the people diagnosed of this sickness will die within a year. Precisely, two out of five will die within a year and each year, one out of ten will die after the first year of diagnosis. This shows that heart failure (HF) is a major problem and a major issue within a given society. Heart failure is an issue that affects 0.4% to 2% of the population in Europe and half of this suffer from left ventricular systolic dysfunction (Patel, et al., 2008). This is representative of 2% of national health expenditure due to its danger and high risk (Patel, et al., 2008). Generally, early diagnosis for heart failure is poor because most patients get to know about their condition after they have suffered an attack (Mehta, et al., 2008). Clinical studies show that chronic heart failure patients die abruptly without any diagnosis because when they get their attacks, they do not survive it (Mehta, et al., 2008). However, the population of persons with mild heart failures who die during attacks is somewhat lower than those with chronic instances of the case and issue. Studies show that older patients form the large percentage of

Psychological Research Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Psychological Research Report - Essay Example The number of items remembered was recorded down. The results from the data collected show that, external stimulus affect one’s memory performance with (P=.045). The human memory is severely affected by external distractions. Many will say that they make mistakes in a location with high noise. The amount of noise has much influence on the way the memory performs according to Douglas, et al. (2000). Distractions and in particular loud noise have varying affects on memory performance. Various studies have indicated that loud noise distractions have both positive and negative affect on memory performance depending on its frequency (Agnes, H 2004). Others have come with the conclusions that distractions have no effect on a memory’s performance. A larger number of studies involving tasks that primarily use short term memory has shown that exposure to loud noise significantly affect memory performance more (Baker et al. 1993). This is attributed to the fact that, distractions will act to avert the degree of concentration. To begin with, a study by Dwivedi’s (1988) proves that, loud noise distractions influence memory performance. In this experiment, students were required to memorize some English words as their teacher spelt them. The teacher repeated them for several times with a different music volumes playing and the number of those that a student could remember against the sound strength was recorded. Results indicated that high intensity noise was significantly detrimental in memory performance than low noise. In addition, Winkler, L et al. (1996) agreed with Dwivedi. They examined the effects of radio noise during class work where students were required to read and answer some simple questions with a radio on during class. The question was again administered to the same students with the radio on. On marking the question and comparing the two performances, it was evident to them that,

ART WORLD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

ART WORLD - Essay Example Financial and cultural capital is important for a city in order to have an art market and the above mentioned cities have it in abundance. The United States of America has over 50% of sales when it comes to contemporary art market and this is an impressive figure considering the fact that there are other major players in the art market. There has been a recent influx of young buyers in the art market and this has brought about significant changes. It is good for the economy because a lot of money has been pumped by these young buyers into the art market. â€Å"The art world is structured as an interdependent network of social-economic actors who cooperate--often contentiously or unknowingly--to enact and perpetuate the art world, while at the same time negotiating kinds and levels of cooperation in a mutually understood careerist and competitive context.† (Art Economics) Dealers and galleries play a pivotal role in displaying the art works to prospective buyers, without these display art galleries it would be hard for buyers to see and get what they want. Auction houses also play a key role in displaying art work to prospective buyers. In addition to this there are art consultants and advisors who bridge the gap between sellers and potential buyers of art work. Art fairs are also being organized on a regular basis to attract more buyers interested in buying contemporary art work. The economy of the art world is being affected because more and more thieves are trying to get their hands on valuable works of arts so that they can sell it and make good money on these contemporary art works. It is a win win situation for the thieves because most valuable pieces of art weigh only a few pounds and they are sold for millions of dollars in the market. It is very easy to transport such expensive works of art because thieves usually steal art works that are easy to carry and transport hence, it is a very trivial job for them to get it transported. In the year 2011 artworks worth $1 billion were recovered from a home in Munich, Germany. These art works were believed to have stolen by the Nazis through the end of World War II. It has become a very lucrative business for thieves, there is no investment required and the returns are unbelievable this is precisely why more and more cases of burglary of these art works has been reported in the last few years. Stolen artwork fetches a lot of money and it is well over a billion dollar industry. This practice is illegal and also highly unethical, but people still involve themselves in this lucrative trade because there is easy money to be made. It promotes corruption in society, in addition to this famous paintings fetch a lot of money and this is precisely why many people eye these famous paintings and when an opportunity presents itself they steal it and sell it on to make a nice quick buck. There are two categories of people who steal these famous painting in an endeavor to make a quick buck. The fi rst is called the naif. A naif typically steals a painting but after sometime upon being unable to sell it, a naif realizes that the work of art has become extremely burdensome because of their inability to sell it and the same results in the work of art becoming worthless at least to the person who has stolen it. The second category represents sophisticated criminals who do not think like typical naifs. They understand and value the worth of stolen art work and come up with appropriate strategies to sell it and in the process make good money. The FBI each year reports that several high-profile paintings go missing and they also understand and realize that these high-profile paintings are being sold and the stolen artwork industry is thriving because of the same. â€Å"

Literature Review on Roles Played Essay Example for Free

Literature Review on Roles Played Essay Dalton (2002) had focused on what managers do, which are behavioural roles, rather than the reason or method used by these managers. He recognized that variations in cultural beliefs, values and norms as well as variations in managerial style challenged the performance of global managers. On the other hand, Rifkin (2006) said that soft skills may be more important for global managers to be effective. He suggested three steps companies and managers can take to better prepare for the challenges of managing globally, which are: †¢ To develop a clearer understanding of the challenges of managing people across borders; †¢ To instill in new global managers an awareness of and an appreciation for the vast differences among cultures in which they do business; and †¢ To give global managers the tools and support they need to succeed. Writing on international management and cross-cultural perspectives, Adekola (2007) stated that like the domestic managers, international managers must also adhere to the four major roles of planning, organizing, directing and controlling. He said that planning assures that the business organization has some idea of its purpose, where it is heading and how it will achieve its objectives. International managers must consider not only local conditions but also overall international operations in their short or long-range preparations to achieve their goals. They must be aware of the extent to which employees, local customers, government officials and suppliers are likely to accept or resist changes. Adekola (2007) also stated that control for an international manager includes ensuring that what is happening is what was intended to happen. Control is used in different ways by the organization depending on the level and scope of its application. He quoted Miller (1987) who said that for an international manager, â€Å"control should provide managers with the information necessary to monitor the operations of the firm to help achieve its global strategy†. According to Adekola (2007), â€Å"international direction and leadership style is the way in which a manager chooses to fulfill leadership, delegation, communication and supervision responsibilities. These choices reflect both personal and cultural differences. † He believed that international managers’ roles can be very effective when a manager can learn and develop leadership functions such as completing organizational work through employee motivation, getting commitment, energizing employees’ behaviour and by creating personal interests and excitement in the organization’s goals.

Poker de Espanto en el Caribe

Poker de Espanto en el Caribe Pà ³ker de Espanto en el Caribe Introduccià ³n Algunas regiones en Amà ©rica Latina han sido escenario de una variedad y amplia de sangrientas dictaduras, y por periodos tan prolongados, como el Caribe. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo en Repà ºblica Dominicana; Anastasio Somoza, Tacho, en Nicaragua; Marcos Pà ©rez Jimà ©nez en Venezuela, y Fulgencio Batista en Cuba, constituyen las cuatro tiranà ­as que en la dà ©cada de los cincuenta del siglo XX armaron un Pà ³ker de espanto en el Caribe. Su autor, Juan Bosch, uno de los mà ¡s destacados là ­deres polà ­ticos, intelectuales y humanistas dominicanos, que pasà ³ veintitrà ©s aà ±os de su vida en el exilio, analiza las causas econà ³micas, sociales, polà ­ticas e incluso psicolà ³gicas que dieron origen y sostuvieron dichas dictaduras. La obra, escrita de salto en salto, de paà ­s en paà ­s, de exilio en exilio, en una Amà ©rica Latina convulsionada, con golpes de Estado, tiranicidios, guerras civiles y revoluciones armadas, refleja, como ninguna, los procesos del exilio a los que tantos se han visto obligados, en Amà ©rica Latina y el Caribe, và ­ctimas del despotismo. A mà ¡s de cincuenta aà ±os de haber sido escrito, Pà ³ker de espanto en el Caribe es un clà ¡sico en su gà ©nero. La Universidad Nacional Autà ³noma de Mà ©xico se honra en editar en Mà ©xico esta obra fundamental para la comprensià ³n de los procesos sociales y polà ­ticos en Amà ©rica Latina y el Caribe, a cien aà ±os del natalicio de su autor. Biografà ­a del autor Juan Bosch nacià ³ en La Vega, Repà ºblica Dominicana, el 30 de junio de 1909 y murià ³ en Santo Domingo el 1 de noviembre de 2001. El profesor Juan Bosch, narrador, ensayista, educador, historiador, bià ³grafo, polà ­tico, ex-presidente de la Repà ºblica Dominicana, inicià ³ su carrera literaria con un pequeà ±o libro de cuentos, Camino Real (1933), donde narraba en gran parte lo que habà ­a visto, escuchado y vivido en su pueblo, La Vega. De esa misma à ©poca, es su primera novela breve La Maà ±osa (1936), donde el personaje central es una mula y el narrador es un nià ±o enfermizo. Despuà ©s, antes de salir al exilio, donde vivirà ­a durante mà ¡s de veinte aà ±os, el precursor del cuento dominicano publicarà ­a sus cuentos en perià ³dicos y revistas dominicanas. De aquella à ©poca son  «La mujer » (cuento que ha sido seleccionado por casi la totalidad de las antologà ­as de cuentos de Hispanoamà ©rica),  «Dos pesos de agua » y  «El abuelo ». Pero cuando el profesor Bosch regresà ³ a la Repà ºblica Dominicana, apenas los mà ¡s viejos conocà ­an que era cuentista. A su llegada, se reunieron sus cuentos en dos volà ºmenes: Cuentos escritos en el exilio (1964), que incluà ­a  «Cuento de Navidad » y  «Manuel Sicurà ­Ã‚ », publicados en ediciones independientes en el extranjero, y Mà ¡s cuentos escritos en el exilio, (1964), donde se incluyeron, tambià ©n, cuentos publicados en ediciones independientes, como  «La muchacha de la Gà ¼aira », publicado en Chile, en 1955. Pero Bosch ya habà ­a publicado libros, en el extranjero, no precisamentede cuentos, que lo habà ­an dado a conocerer en otros paà ­ses como bià ³grafo y ensayista, antes que en su propio paà ­s, como Hostos, el sembrador (Cuba, 1939), Judas Iscariote, el calumniado (Chile, 1955). Aunque dejà ³ de escribir cuentos desde los aà ±os sesenta (el à ºltimo o escribià ³ para una antologia de cuentos para nià ±os, preparada por el pianista, poeta y dramaturgo Manuel Rueda), el profesor Bosch es reconocido como el precursor del cuento y, sobre todo, de la narrativa social dominicana.). Con una prosa imitada por pocos narradores dominicanos de hoy (por lo dà ­ficil, aunque se trate de decir lo contrario), en los cuentos de Bosch la problemà ¡tica social (la preocupacià ³n por el hombre y por la fuerza de los procesos sociales que ejercen sobre el individuo) es tratada desde diferentes à ¡ngulos, sin hacer, casi siempre, alusià ³n a sistemas o gobiernos determinados. Pero no sà ³lo los cuentos del profesor Bosch son guà ­as para el cuentista, si no que sus Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos es un texto para los estudiantes de otros paà ­ses como Cuba, llegando a llamar la atencià ³n del narrador colombiano Gabriel Garcà ­a Mà ¡rquez, quien ha declarado mà ¡s de una vez que Bosch es su profesor). La à ºltima creacià ³n narrativa del profesor Bosch, la novela El oro y la paz (Premio Novela Nacional de Literatura, 1975), aunque escrita en dos versiones, a primera en 1957, mientras el escritor se hallaba viviendo en Cuba, en su primer exilio, y la segunda versià ³n en Puerto Rico, 1964, donde estuvo pasando su otro exilio, es una obra maestra en a Literatura dominicana). Las obras de Bosch comprenden, tambià ©n, ensayos y biografà ­as de grandes figuras de la historia sagrada. Es dà ­ficil, por no decir imposible, resumir los temas en los cuentos de Juan Bosch. Hay, sin embargo, dos preocupaciones que aparecen en sus mejores cuent os: los problemas sociales, y la preocupacià ³n filosà ³fica (por no decir, existencial). Ahà ­ està ¡n  «La nochebuena de Encarnacià ³n Mendoza » (para nosotros, su cuento mà ¡s perfecto),  «Los amos »,  «Luis Pià ©Ã‚ »,  «La muchacha de la Gà ¼aira »,  «Dos pesos de agua » y  «La mujer » para probarlo. Produccià ³n literaria Obras: Narrativa: Camino Real (1933) Indios (1935) La maà ±osa (1936) Dos pesos de agua (1941) La muchacha de la Gà ¼aira (1955) Cuentos de Navidad (1956) Cuentos escritos en el exilio (1962) Mà ¡s cuentos escritos en el exilio (1962). El oro y la paz (1975 Ensayos: Mujeres en la vida de Hostos (1938) Hostos, el Sembrador (1939) Apuntes sobre el arte de escribir cuentos (1947) Judas Iscariote, el Calumniado (1955) Trujillo, causas de una tiranà ­a sin ejemplo (1961) David, biografà ­a de un rey (1963) Breve historia de la oligarquà ­a (1970) Composicià ³n social dominicana (1970) Tres conferencia sobre feudalismo (1971) Breve historia de la oligarquà ­a (1971) El Napoleà ³n de las guerrillas (1976) El Caribe, fronterra imperial: de Cristà ³bal Colon a Fidel Castro (1978) Viaje a las antà ­podas (1978) Conferencias y artà ­culos (1980) La revolucià ³n de abril (1980) La guerra de la Restauracià ³n (1980) Clases sociales en la Repà ºblica Dominicana (1983) Capitalismo, democracia y liberacià ³n nacional (1983) La fortuna de Trujillo (1985) La pequeà ±a burguesà ­a en la historia de la Repà ºblica Dominicana (1985) Capitalismo tardà ­o en la Repà ºblica Dominicana (1986) Mà ¡ximo Gà ³mez: de Monte Cristi a la gloria (1986) El Estado, sus orà ­genes y desarrollo (1987) Textos culturales y literarios (1988) Dictaduras dominicanas (1988) Pà ³ker de Espanto en El Caribe. Temas econà ³micos (1990) Breve historia de los pueblos à ¡rabes (1991). Aportes dado a la literatura Juan Bosch fue un hombre de pensamiento y accià ³n en todo lo que se propuso, marcando autà ©nticamente con sus aportes polà ­ticos y literarios a la sociedad dominicana. De sus contribuciones a la polà ­tica nacional queda poco de quà © hablar, mientras que de su pasado literario todavà ­a van surgiendo detalles que terminarà ¡n conformando definitivamente el perfil del que fue el mà ¡s destacado literato dominicano del siglo XX. En principio, en el campo de la poesà ­a Bosch se declarà ³ admirador del Movimiento Postumista, pero en el cuento y la novela quiso crear su propia escuela, a la que bautizà ³ â€Å"El Conchoprimismo Literario†, no sin que aparecieran, en el mundo literario dominicano, los que se burlaron y trataron de ridiculizarlo. La escuela â€Å"conchoprimista† que Bosch intentà ³ establecer en 1934, partà ­a del criterio de que en la Repà ºblica Dominicana y el arte â€Å"tenà ­an que hacerse sobre tradiciones criollas†, tomando como materia prima lo que habà ­a significado en nuestra historia el personaje de Concho Primo, caracterizado por el coraje, el instinto, la generosidad y el fuego que incendiaba su sangre y la carne: â€Å"Concho Primo fue cada hombre que dejà ³ el quicio de su casa, al brazo el machete, a la cintura el revà ³lver, bajo las piernas el espinazo del caballo, a quienes no empujaba el deseo de hacerse libres, ni ricos, ni de volver aureolados de glorias para ofrendarlas a una mujer†. Su novela La Maà ±osa fue la conclusià ³n de aquel esfuerzo. Aunque Juan Bosch ya habà ­a publicado numerosos cuentos, cuando comenzà ³ a promover su â€Å"escuela† era todavà ­a un desconocido en el mundo literario dominicano y hasta lo creà ­an inexistente pues habà ­a gente que creà ­a que nombre era el seudà ³nimo de algà ºn intelectual interesado en que no se conociera su verdadera identidad. El Conchoprimismo estaba influenciado por el Criollismo, de moda entonces en Latinoamà ©rica. Bosch define su escuela con las siguientes palalabras: â€Å"Aquà ­ en Santo Domingo, quizà ¡s si a consecuencia de pobreza en la flora y fauna y tambià ©n ausencia de una raza nuestra, nos hemos dedicado a los acontecimientos y con ellos a los hombres. Pero à ©stos, manejados como cosa: instintivos, impulsivos, bastos. Nada de pensamiento destilado. Y como no tenemos otra historia que la de la sangre, hemos tomado la bandera que yacà ­a en el suelo, pudrià ©ndose, desde la llegada de los yanquis. La hemos tremolado, asà ­ desgarrada, enfangada y hedionda. Ahà ­ ha nacido el â€Å"Conchoprimismo literario†, que lo serà ¡ artà ­stico antes de poco tiempo en todo el frente de las artes†. Juan Bosch fue desde el principio cuentista y se dio a conocer a partir de 1931 en la revista Bahoruco, dirigida por el venezolano Horacio Blanco Bombona: â€Å"Un buen cuentista dominicano†, titulaba Blanco Bombona, y decà ­a â€Å"Hemos publicado en los à ºltimos nà ºmeros de Bahoruco cuentos del escritor dominicano Juan E. Bosch. No nos gusta prodigar elogios a diestra y siniestra, porque creemos que ese sistema ha malogrado a mà ¡s de un joven escritor que con esfuerzo y estudio pudo hacer algo que valiera la pena. Pero no queremos dejar pasar inadvertida la capacidad de nuestro colaborador Bosch para el cuento. En breves pà ¡ginas capta un suceso, un ambiente y con una sobriedad, digna de encomio, escribe su relato. Nos parece que a la Repà ºblica Dominicana le ha aparecido un buen cuentista. Bosch es vegano de nacimiento y acaba de retornar al paà ­s de un viaje de dos aà ±os por la penà ­nsula y por algunos paà ­ses de Hispanoamà ©rica de los que rodean el m ar Caribe†. En los cuentos aparecidos en Bahoruco ya se iba definiendo el costumbrismo campesino dominicano en que desembocarà ­a el â€Å"Conchoprimismo†. En Carteles, revista cubana que se leà ­a en Santo Domingo, aparecià ³ en marzo de 1932 el siguiente comentario sobre uno de sus escritos: â€Å"La Mujer, un cuento de Juan Bosch, el primer cuentista dominicano del momento. Domina el gà ©nero y tiene la rara virtud de narrar con una sencillez que da relieve al tema. La Mujer es una tragedia rural dominicana†. Refirià ©ndose a ese comentario de la revista Carteles, se dijo en Bahoruco: â€Å"Hace un aà ±o comenzà ³ Bosch a publicar sus cuentos en este semanario. Desde el primer cuento advertimos que se trataba de un vigoroso talento de narrador, que pinta las costumbres campesinas en una sobria y precisa prosa. En una palabra, que habà ­a alcanzado maestrà ­a en el difà ­cil arte del cuento a una edad muy temprana, pues Bosch en la actualidad sà ³lo cuenta veinte y tres aà ±os. Nosotros repetimos varias veces que no conocemos sino dos grandes cuentistas dominicanos, entendiendo por tales a los que tratan temas criollos. Uno era Josà © Ramà ³n Là ³pez en sus buenos tiempos. El otro es Bosch†. A principio de 1933 Bosch leyà ³ cuentos junto a Fabio Fiallo y Tomà ¡s Hernà ¡ndez Franco en los salones del Club Nosotras. En la crà ³nica noticiosa aparecida sobre esta actividad, se lee lo siguiente: â€Å"Fue anunciada la lectura de cuentos de tres de nuestros cuentistas, Juan Bosch, Hernà ¡ndez Franco y Fabio Fiallo. Bosch, el menor y el primero, es cuentista de procedimientos modernà ­simos. Nada de autobiografà ­a, ni de propia psicologà ­a. Es la vena de agua pura y cristalina que lleva, sin saberlo, el alma de nuestra montaà ±a. En el aà ±o citado, publicà ³ Juan Bosch su primer libro de cuetos, Camino Real, terminando de situarse como el mejor narrador dominicano y rompiendo con la creencia generalizada de que à ©l â€Å"era un seudà ³nimo y era, sin embargo, nuestro mejor cuentista. Aun despuà ©s de haber publicado muchos cuentos en las columnas de este semanario, se nos decà ­a como dudando de su existencia:  ¿Y ese Bosch, a quien nunca hemos visto, donde vive? Y respondà ­amos invariablemente: Escribe, luego existe y mora en la Avenida Capotillo† Desde antes de 1934 Bosch se batà ­a en una descarnada polà ©mica pà ºblica con Hà ©ctor Inchà ¡ustegui Cabral y otros de sus compaà ±eros, quienes criticaban sus poemas y narraciones costumbristas. Refirià ©ndose a Bosch y a su â€Å"escuela†, Inchà ¡ustegui cuenta en el â€Å"Pozo muerto† (1960), detalles de ese debate: â€Å"Como creà ­a en los nacional le hicimos la guerra a cuantos pretendieron injertar en la literatura dominicana el Romanticismo Gitano de Garcà ­a Lorca. Pero no era contra el poeta, fue contra el programa, vamos a llamarlo asà ­, de los que consideraban que era necesario, para la tradicià ³n y para la historia, que se cantara en romance la vida, las hazaà ±as, de los grandes de las guerras civiles. Una persona, que no era poeta, lanzà ³ la idea, trazà ³ el ideario dirà ­amos mejor, desde las pà ¡ginas de Bahoruco (†¦). Entonces escribà ­a unos Marginales. Una seccià ³n un poco en broma (†¦). No recuerdo todo lo que di je, pero le debià ³ parecer muy fuerte. Hablaba, eso sà ­ lo recuerdo, de un â€Å"polizà ³n sentimental†que nos acababa de llegar de Espaà ±a, de un contrabando literario que estaban tratando de introducir en el paà ­s. Se molestà ³ muchà ­simo y me salià ³ al encuentro la semana siguiente. (†¦). Aquello era la indignacià ³n patrià ³tica en letras de molde. (†¦). Blanco Bombona me llamà ³. Debà ­a tener cuidado porque à ©se era un muchacho violento. Lo mejor era dejar las cosas en donde estaban y no replicar para evitar desagrados mà ¡s profundos. Yo sonreà ­. Él era amigo mà ­o y la disputa se limitaba al puro campo literario.† Bosch llegà ³ en aquellos meses a anunciar, cuando publicà ³ â€Å"El cobarde†, que se retirarà ­a del cuento costumbrista dominicano, lo que llevà ³ a Blanco Bombona a decir: â€Å"Ni debe, ni puede. No puede porque el alma de su pueblo le bulle en el sensorio de manera tal, que à ©l no tendrà ­a fuerza para evadir el imperioso reclamo a la hora de la creacià ³n literaria. No debe: porque seria restarle a su patria un aporte que la significa y la cataloga dentro de un gà ©nero literario. Esperamos, pues, que esta resolucià ³n de Bosch, sea transitoria†. Bosch, ademà ¡s de escribir cuentos escribà ­a y publicaba en Alma Dominicana poemas costumbristas, un poco influenciado por el Romancero espaà ±ol. En Alma Dominicana Juan Josà © Llovet y Juan Bosch eran los redactores, mientras que Emilio A. Morel era el director. La admiracià ³n de Bosch por los escritores que se ubicaban en el â€Å"Conchoprimismo†lo llevà ³ en agosto de 1935, a promoverlos, como hizo con Josà © Rijo, por tener à ©ste el â€Å"corazà ³n machacado en el pilà ³n del campo y rezumante de todas nuestras virtudes, me parece haber encontrado un verdadero cuentista. (†¦). Dos cosas admiro en Josà © Rijo, su personalidad, ya que no se parece a ningà ºn escritor dominicano, y el amor con que carga ‘su provincia al pecho. Eso lo salvarà ¡. Por à ³rgano suyo ruego a los jà ³venes maestros del cuento nacional (maestros, no por lo que hayan hecho, sino por lo que critican y por la arrogancia y aparente erudicià ³n que manejan), no ver en este primer cuento los defectos†. El aporte de Bosch fue universalizar lo dominicano en la literatura. Lo que dijo sobre Rijo, fue lo que al final lo inmortalizà ³ a à ©l en la polà ­tica y la literatura universal: el amor con que siempre cargà ³ la patria en su pecho; mientras que muchos de sus crà ­ticos son hoy pasto que devora la historia. Movimiento Literario al que Pertenece el Autor Formà ³ parte en la capital dominicana del grupo literario que se denomino â€Å"la cueria†. Los à ºltimos aà ±os de la dà ©cada del 20 comenzà ³ a acariciar la idea de escribir una novela y entregà ¡ndose a esta labor, logro poner fin a la misma, coronando sus esfuerzos mediante la publicacià ³n de â€Å"la maà ±osa†, aà ±os despuà ©s. En principio, en el campo de la poesà ­a Bosch se declarà ³ admirador del Movimiento Postumista. La escuela â€Å"conchoprimista† que Bosch intentà ³ establecer en 1934, partà ­a del criterio de que en la Repà ºblica Dominicana y el arte â€Å"tenà ­an que hacerse sobre tradiciones criollas†, Breve Resumen de la Obra Anastacio Somoza, la carta nicaragà ¼ense Ningà ºn pueblo de Amà ©rica nos ofrece una leccià ³n tan cabal como el de Nicaragua, en lo que se refiere a los frutos le la polà ­tica caudillista ejercida en las cercanà ­as de un poder en crecimiento listo a aprovechar la menor grieta para penetrar por ella y aumentar su expansià ³n Los sucesos ocurrieron a mediados del siglo XIX, y al darse por terminados volvià ³ el pueblo nicaragà ¼ense a dividirse en conservadores y liberales, los dos partidos que han seà ±oreado el campo polà ­tico nacional, separados al parecer por diferencias ideolà ³gicas pero unidos en un mismo procedimiento caudillista. En 1893 tomaron el poder los liberales, despuà ©s de treinta aà ±os de gobierno conservador. El presidente liberal, Josà © Santos Zelaya, establecià ³ una dictadura que iba a durar diecisiete aà ±os, hasta fines de 1909. Esa dictadura no pudo ser mà ¡s inoportuna, pues desde que en 1898 los Estados Unidos adoptaron la polà ­tica de franca intervencià ³n, con fuerzas militares, en la zona del Caribe, toda conducta polà ­tica tenà ­a que ser planeada tomando en cuenta el peligro de una posible intervencià ³n. Un rà ©gimen tan duro como el de Zelaya dividà ­a al pueblo nicaragà ¼ense mucho mà ¡s de lo que ya lo estaba; ponà ­a a su frente, de manera irreconciliable, no sà ³lo a los perseguidos conservadores, sino ademà ¡s a la juventud, que en todas partes es generosa y enamorada de la dignidad; y gran parte de esos jà ³venes pasaban a engrosar las filas conservadoras o, sin hacerlo, se mantenà ­an en lucha contra la dictadura. El paà ­s està ¡ situado en el mismo corazà ³n de Centroamà ©rica, con Costa Rica al sur, Honduras y El Salvador al norte, al este el mar Caribe y al oeste el Pacà ­fico. La mayor parte de la poblacià ³n ocupa mà ¡s o menos un tercio del territorio, el que està ¡ situado ente el sistema montaà ±oso que da al Pacà ­fico y ese mar; y aun esa tercera parte se concentra mà ¡s bien en un trià ¡ngulo formado entre Granada, al sur, Leà ³n al norte y la capital, Managua. Al sur, pegado a la frontera de Costa Rica en su orilla meridional, està ¡ el lago de Granada o lago de Nicaragua; en la orilla occidental, la ciudad que le da nombre. Ese lago se comunica con el Caribe por el rà ­o San Juan. Por allà ­ subà ­an los piratas y atacaban la ciudad de Granada. Por allà ­ se pensà ³ cavar el canal que despuà ©s se hizo en Panamà ¡. Durante largos aà ±os los nicaragà ¼enses soà ±aron con que su territorio seria usado en la gran và ­a transmarina; y de hecho fue puente del Caribe al Pacifico cuando el descubrimiento de oro en California lanzà ³ a miliares y millares de aventureros de la costa este norteamericana a las lejanas costas del Oeste. Hacia 1909 Washington descubrià ³ que el dictador Zelaya estaba negociando acuerdos con Alemania y con el Japà ³n para la construccià ³n de un canal por esa ruta. El canal de Panamà ¡ no estaba inaugurado todavà ­a; pero no tardarà ­a en estarlo. Y Panamà ¡ era una leccià ³n demasiado dramà ¡tica para no tomarla en cuenta. Ese recià ©n nacido paà ­s no existà ­a en 1902; era una provincia colombiana, y surgià ³ como nacià ³n independiente a voluntad de Teodoro Roosevelt (aunque desde luego Roosevelt estaba actuando como delegado de muy vastos y complicados intereses) cuando Colombia se negà ³ a aceptar las condiciones que imponà ­a Washington para abrir el canal por el istmo panameà ±o. El mismo Roosevelt lo dirà ­a en pà ºblico ocho aà ±os despuà ©s del establecimiento de la Repà ºblica de Panamà ¡. Los conservadores habà ­an producido numerosos levantamientos durante la administracià ³n de Zelaya; y a los conservadores volvieron sus ojos en Washington cuando se enteraron de las inoportunas negociaciones de Zelaya con alemanes y japoneses. El acuerdo entre conservadores y norteamericanos iba a durar aà ±os, y serà ­a funesto para la vida de Nicaragua. Pero como se verà ¡ a su tiempo, los liberales no pueden acusarlos porque ellos acabaron desplazando a sus adversarios en el favor de los gobernantes estadounidenses y llegarà ­an a extremos a que no llegaron aquà ©llos. Y es que bajo las etiquetas de partidos opuestos se guarecà ­an en realidad dos huestes caudillistas, a cuyos là ­deres les interesaba el poder para ellos mà ¡s que el destino de su pueblo. En octubre de 1909 el jefe de la guarnicià ³n de Bluefields, en la costa del Caribe, se levantà ³ contra el gobierno de Managua. Era un liberal, pero se alià ³ con los conservadores. Estos garantizaban la ayuda norteamericana al movimiento. La ayuda llegà ³ a tiempo, con un cable del Secretario de Estado de Washington conminando a Zelaya a abandonar el poder o exponerse a ser atacado por la Infanterà ­a de Marina norteamericana. El ministro de la Guerra se alzà ³ en armas; el presidente solicità ³ el desembarco de tropas norteamericanas, que lo hicieron por el puerto de Corinto. La Infanterà ­a de Marina yanqui sometià ³ a los rebeldes a caà ±onazos, y el jefe del alzamiento fue hecho preso y enviado, no a una cà ¡rcel nicaragà ¼ense, sino aun presidio de la zona norteamericana del Canal de Panamà ¡!. Despuà ©s de haber debelado ese alzamiento el grueso de los infantes de marina salià ³ de Nicaragua, pero quedà ³ en Managua, la capital del paà ­s, una guarnicià ³n de algunos centenares de hombres cuya funcià ³n aparente era proteger la Legacià ³n de los Estados Unidos; en realidad, su papel era advertir a los liberales que no se rebelaran. Para Washington, liberales en el poder significaba canal en Nicaragua manejado por potencias extranjeras. Desde 1912, despuà ©s de la intervencià ³n armada extranjera en su favor, gobernaron los conservadores en paz y se celebraron y se ratificaron los pactos necesarios para garantizar que sà ³lo los Estados Unidos podrà ­an hacer un canal por Nicaragua, si algà ºn dà ­a se construà ­a. No hubo dictaduras conservadoras parecidas a la de Zelaya, pero hubo dieciocho aà ±os de gobierno con ninguna participacià ³n de los liberales. Bajo el amparo si se prefiere, por mà ¡s justo, bajo el tutelaje de Washington proseguà ­a la divisià ³n de la gran familia nicaragà ¼ense; esa divisià ³n agravaba, en vez de resolver, los problemas nacionales. Pero los norteamericanos veà ­an los problemas desde el punto de vista de su interà ©s; no paraban mientes en el interà ©s de Nicaragua. Esa divisià ³n fue causa de que en 1926, con el apoyo del gobierno mexicano, encabezado entonces por Plutarco Elà ­as Calles, los liberales iniciaran una revolucià ³n, que comenzà ³ por Puerto Cabezas, tambià ©n en la costa del Caribe. De inmediato surgià ³ a la superficie la alianza de conservadores y norteamericanos. La revolucià ³n tomà ³ Puerto Cabezas y formà © gobierno bajo la presidencia de Juan Bautista Sacasa; sus tropas, al mando militar del general Josà © Marà ­a Moncada, avanzaron hacia el interior. El 23 de diciembre intervino Washington en los sucesos dando a Sacasa veinticuatro horas de plazo para que abandonara Puerto Cabezas porque el territorio de esa zona habà ­a sido declarado neutral por la Infanterà ­a de Marina norteamericana. Esta tomà ³ el lugar y echà ³ al fondo del mar las armas de la revolucià ³n. Las fuerzas de Moncada avanzaban, sin embargo, y se combatà ­a ya tierra adentro. En el aà ±o de 1927 comenzà ³ a sentirse en Nicaragua el peso de un nombre hasta poco antes desconocido, el de aquel jefe- cilio derrotado por fuerzas gobiernistas a principios de noviembre de 1926. Habiendo ido a Puerto Cabezas a solicitar del presidente revolucionario armas con que volver a combatir contra los conservadores, el joven Sandino fue despachado con las manos vacà ­as. Entre las mujeres pà ºblicas de Puerto Cabezas consiguià ³ unos treinta rifles que ellas habà ­an salvado de las aguas del mar, y unos seis mil tiros; remontà © con esa carga el rà ­o Coco, en el norte de la parte oriental del paà ­s, y organizà ³ un pequeà ±o ejà ©rcito en las montaà ±as de Las Segovias. se joven guerrillero se habà ­a dado cuenta de que no habà ­a diferencias fundamentales entre conservadores y liberales: En 1927, tambià ©n, comenzà ³ a sonar otro nombre en Ni- ragua, el de Anastasio Somoza, que en virtud del acuerdo los liberales y conservadores bajo la tutela norteamericana, sà © a ser jefe polà ­tico del departamento de Leà ³n. Se trataba un cargo importante, que tocaba a los liberales. Somoza habà ­a sido conservador, pero su matrimonio con una dama de distinguida familia liberal le habà ­a llevado a esas filas. Era hijo de un conocido conservador de igual nombre, que varias veces fe senador. Al parecer, Somoza heredà ³ de su padre un temperamento ansioso de poder. El hijo fue enviado a estudiar a Granada, primero, y despuà ©s a Filadelfia, donde cursà © ciencias comerciales. Allà ­ aprendià ³ el inglà ©s, que le sirvià ³ para ser intà ©rprete de las fuerzas de ocupacià ³n. Al volver a Nicaragua tratà ³ de establecerse y de hacer algunos negocios, con la ayuda del padre, sin tener buen à ©xito, y entrà ³ en la administracià ³n pà ºblica como funcionario de Rentas, tambià ©n sin alcanzar buen à ©xito. Sus nuevos amigos extranjeros, su parentesco polà ­tico con una familia distinguida y su presencia misma, que era agradable, le abrieron el camino para llegar a jefe polà ­tico del departamento de Leà ³n. Poco despuà ©s, cuando el general Moncada pasà ³ a ser presidente de la Repà ºblica, le designà © su secretario en actividades militares . El presidente tà ­tere Josà © Marà ­a Moncada designà ³ a Anastasio Somoza subsecretario de Relaciones Exteriores, y desde su nuevo cargo Somoza entablà ³ amistad con el anciano ministro de Norteamà ©rica, cuya esposa, una baronesa alemana, quedà ³ fascinada por la simpatà ­a del joven funcionario. Somoza tenà ­a un carà ¡cter festivo y agradable presencia fà ­sica. Su naturaleza psicolà ³qica no se parece a la de Trujillo, que es và ­ctima de numerosos complejos de los cuales surge esa presencia a menudo torva o de untuosa melosidad, siempre falsa y excesiva. Somoza era mà ¡s bien natural, sin tener miedo a la verdad ni a ninguna situacià ³n inesperada; dà ¼ ,, rà ¡pido para el chiste, oportuno, aunque desde luego dado a la vulgaridad tan pronto entraba en confianza. Esa manen e ser, y su tipo latino, le ganaron el favor de la seà ±ora baron Las Segovias, resolvià ³ dejar ese problema en manos nicaragà ¼enses; en vez de soldados suyos, que luchara la Guardia Nacional; si Sandino acababa triunfando que lo hiciera sobre sus compatriotas, no sobre la Infanterà ­a de Marina norteamericana. Asà ­ pues, los invasores se aprestaron a dejar el paà ­s tan pronto como se celebraran elecciones y resultara elegido un nuevo gobernante nicaragà ¼ense. Se convocà ³ a comicios y triunfà © la candidatura liberal de Juan Bautista Sacasa. El nuevo presidente, que debà ­a tomar posesià ³n de su cargo el lo. de enero de 1933, era tà ­o de la seà ±ora De Bayle de Somoza; esto es, tà ­o polà ­tico del favorito de la seà ±ora ministra de Norteamà ©rica. El dà ­a de Aà ±o Nuevo de 1933 tomà ³ posesià ³n de la presidencia Juan Bautista Sacasa. Un mes y un dà ­a despuà ©s, el 2 de febrero, el general Sandino firmaba los convenios de paz. Ya no habà ­a un soldado interventor en tierras de Nicaragua. Lo que quedaba allà ­ era una Guardia Nacional, con su segundo jefe ascendido a jefe director; un jefe nicaragà ¼ense, con menos responsabilidad y menos escrà ºpulos que un nativo de Norteamà ©rica. El hà ©roe de Las Segovias debà ­a sospecharlo, pero el curso de los acontecimientos le exigà ­a ignorarlo. Pues en la historia de Nicaragua à ©l era un parto prematuro, y estaba llamado a ser, por tanto, un mà ¡rtir y no un realizador Habà ­a transcurrido un aà ±o. Empeà ±ado en organizar empresas agrà ­colas y mineras en la zona nordeste de Nicaragua el general Sandino permanecà ­a alejado de las actividades pà ºblicas, rodeado por los veteranos de sus fuerzas y sus familia. res, a quienes querà ­a asociar a los negocios que planeaba. A mediados de febrero a 1934 hizo una visita a Managua. La Guardia Nacional hostilizaba a los sandinistas, exigiendo la entrega de armas que no existà ­an; la intranquilidad agitaba toda la regià ³n, y el hà ©roe querà ­a hallar una fà ³rmula para resolver esa situacià ³n; a la vez, iba en busca de ayuda para sus empresas. Mientras esto ocurrà ­a otro grupo de quince soldados de la Guardia Nacional, al mando del mayor Policarpo Gutià ©rrez y el teniente Federico D. Blanco, rodeaban la casa del ministro Salvatierra. Tanto el grupo que mandaba al mayor Delgadillo como este otro que habà ­a allanado la residencia del ministro Salvatierra, se mantuvieron en constante contacto por medio de enlaces que iban y venà ­an en automà ³vil de un lugar a otro. A esa misma hora Tacho Somoza escuchaba un recital que ofrecà ­a la poetisa peruana Zoila Rosa Cà ¡rdenas en el Campo de Marte, siendo à ©sta la primera vez que un acto de esa naturaleza se llevaba a cabo en aquel lugar. Sandino hizo un à ºltimo esfuerzo, convenciendo al mayor Delgadillo que fuese a ver a Tacho Somoza y -le ‘recordase su reciente amistad, confirmada con el intercambio de fotos en las que se consignaban dedicatorias expresivas y cordiales. El mayor Delgadillo llegà ³ al Campo de Marte y regresà ³ diciendo que no habà ­a podido ver al general Somoza y por ende que era del todo imposible hacerle llegar su mensaje Hasta aquà ­ la prolija exposicià ³n del ex teniente Abelardo Cuadra. Su declaracià ³n coincide con la del padre de Sandino y la del ministro Salvatierra en los detalles anteriores a la ejecjÓfl, pues ambos fueron presos conjuntamente con el general Sandino y sus compaà ±eros. Coincide tambià ©n, en là ­neas generales, con la del presidente de la Cà ¡mara de Diputados de Nicaragua, hecha una semana despuà ©s de los sucesos, và ­a telefà ³nica, al diario La Hora de San Josà © de Costa Rica. Por su posicià ³n, el presidente de la Cà ¡mara debà ­a estar enterado de los hechos; y à ©l comienza su breve pero dramà ¡tico relato dando cuenta de la reunià ³n de Somoza con los oficiales subalternos para levantar un acta en que à ©stos1 segà ºn las palabras de Sandoval, â€Å"se comprometà ­an a ser solidarios en el asesinato que se iba a cometer†. Don Gregorio Sandino, padre del mà ¡rtir, y el ministro Salvatierra, declararon que mientras ellos se hallaban detenidos oyeron los disparos y que el desdichado padre del hà ©roe comentà ³: â€Å"Ya està ¡n matando a Sà ³crates y a los otros†; y un poco mà ¡s tarde, al oir otros disparos mà ¡s lejanos: â€Å"Ya està ¡n matando a Augusto†. El ministro norteamericano debià ³ acudir inmediatamente a evitar el crimen, puesto que la vida de Sandino debà ­a ser preciosa para el prestigio de los Estados Unidos; y ocurre que no lo hizo, sino que se presentà ³ mà ¡s allà ¡ de media noche en el cuartel donde se hallaban presos don Gregorio Sandino y el ministro Salvatierra. Por otra parte,  ¿quià ©n le dijo que se encontraban allà ­, siendo que ni el propio presidente Sacasa lo sabia?. Sà ³lo una persona: Anastasio Somoza Un anà ¡lisis elemental nos conduce, por de pronto, a esta conclusià ³n: el ministro Bliss Lane supo, inmediatamente despuà ©s de consumados los hechos, por boca de Somoza, que Sandino y sus compaà ±eros habà ­an sido asesinados. Ahora bien,  ¿supo que iba a producirse ese escandaloso crimen antes de que ocurriera?;  ¿lo supo despuà ©s, porque à ©l indagà ³ o porque Somoza fue a informarle?. Cuando Somoza dijo a los oficiales reunidos en su residencia, a las siete y media de la noche, que llegaba de la Legacià ³n americana y que en una conf rencia con el ministro à ©ste le habà ­a asegurado que â€Å"el gobierno de Washington respalda y recomà ­enda la eliminacià ³n de Augusto Cà ©sar Sandino†,  ¿estaba diciendo la verdad o estaba sà ³lo presionando a sus subalternos con la noticia de que el asesinato era una orden de Washington?. Y si dijo la verdad, La Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua fue adiestrada para matar a Sandino y a sus hombres; se le adiestrà © material y là ³gicamente. Somoza, como Trujillo, a