Sharing lottery winnings - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 10 Words: 3131 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Uncategorized Essay Type Essay any type Level High school Did you like this example? Notice for Staff Room Wall (Offer) NATIONAL LOTTERY SYNDICATE : [WORKPLACE NAME] Since the National Lottery was launched in November 1994, it has been popular for groups to pool money together for the purchase of tickets for online draws. Not only is it more exciting playing in a group, but the more lines the group buys, the more entries they have in each game, and the more chances they have of winning (NL Website, 2006). We have decided to organise a syndicate at [Workplace], and hope that, as an employee of [Workplace], you will decide to join us in increasing your chances of winning a prize. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Sharing lottery winnings" essay for you Create order Remember, even if our syndicate does not win, we contribute to good causes every time we play! Syndicates are often conducted informally but, since there is a potential for a large returns, it is essential that the rights and obligations of members of the syndicate, and of the organiser, are set out clearly in writing (EFP, 2003). Also of note, if there is no appropriate syndicate agreement in place, any of the prize monies distributed to other syndicate winners may be subject to inheritance tax. We have therefore drafted a suitable Agreement for [Workplace]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s syndicate. If, as an employee of [Workplace], you would like to participate in our syndicate, please review the provisions of our Syndicate Agreement in line with the Guidance Notes provided, and add your name and address to Schedule 1. Please then sign the Agreement in the presence of an independent witness (who should also give their name, address and signature), and return it to our Syndicate Manager, [Name]. These notes explain the Syndicate Agreement, setting out the meaning of each clause and the reasons why it has been included. If, after reading these notes, you are still unsure as to your rights and obligations under the Syndicate Agreement, we recommend that you seek independent legal advice. Why have a formal agreement? Lottery Syndicates are often conducted informally but this is unwise as there is the potential for a large payout. All sorts of difficult situations may arise à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" for example, where someone doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t pay their stake during a winning week, or someone demands that they were entitled to a bigger share of the winnings than other people (perhaps because they have been in the syndicate for longer). A formal agreement in writing deals with all of these eventualities, setting out exactly what each Member has agreed to. We are also aware that, where National Lottery winnings are shared out among the members of a syndicate i n accordance with à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a pre-existing enforceable arrangementà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  made before the win, there is no liability to inheritance tax since the syndicate manager does not make a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“giftà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“chargeable transferà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" however, where no suitable agreement exists, inheritance may be payable (HMRC Statement E14 as amended in 1996, Division H3.4). Although this does not need to be recorded in writing, the HMRC advise this (HMRC Statement E14, supra). It is important to show that the parties to the syndicate intend it to be legally binding and more than a mere social arrangement so that, in the event of a prize being won, all parties are paid what they are due in accordance with what they have agreed. In Simpkins v Pays (1955), three persons regularly contributed to a competition and one week the entry was successful but the defendant refused to pay the plaintiff his share of the prize and claimed the re was no intention to create a legally binding relationship. Although the plaintiff was successful in claiming his share, other claimants have been less successful in proving that all parties intended there to be a contractually binding agreement, particularly where there has been proximity of relationship (see, for example, Balfour v Balfour (1919) in which it was held that there was no intention to create a legally binding agreement between husband and wife to pay  £30 per month maintenance to the wife; also see Hoddinott v Hoddinott (1949) 2 KB 406, CA). Clearly such disputes could have been avoided had a suitable agreement been in place à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" a written agreement can be used as legal evidence if any Member of the syndicate disagrees with how any winnings are to be distributed. The essentials of our agreement For an agreement to be binding, there must be, amongst other things, a valid offer and acceptance. An offer is an expression by one person or gr oup of persons, made to another, of his willingness to be bound to a contract with that other on terms either certain or capable of being rendered certain. The offer may be made to an individual (e.g., British Bank Foreign Trade Ltd v Novinex Ltd (1949)) or to a group of persons (e.g., The Satanita (1897)), or to the world at large (Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893)). Our offer was made through a notice on the staff room wall and it is clear that we have made the offer only to employees of [Workplace]. This is simply to keep the syndicate administrable. Although advertisements and notices are not always construed as offers (such as in Partridge v Crittenden (1968) where further negotiation of terms was necessary to reach a binding agreement), we have ensured that our notice amounts to a formal offer by stating that, to join the syndicate, no further negotiations are necessary; an employee need only to avail themselves of the terms of the Agreement and insert their details i nto Schedule 1 (Part 1 or 2) to accept. In order to accept our offer to join the Syndicate, you need to comply with the terms of acceptance in the Notice, by adding your name and address to Schedule 1 (Part 1 or 2). You then need to sign the Agreement in the presence of an independent witness (who should also give their name, address and signature), and return it to our Syndicate Manager, [Name]. By doing this, you are demonstrating that you agree to the terms of the offer unequivocally and unconditionally (Taylor v Laird (1856)). Please note that this is the only mode of acceptance that we can allow à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" any other purported acceptance by some other means will amount only to a counter-offer in which case there will be no binding contract (Burton v Great Northern Rly Co (1854)). The remaining guidance notes below set out the reasons for the inclusion of the main provisions of the Agreement, and cite authority for each provision. General Clauses 1.7 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 1.9 are general interpretation clauses, so that for example, where the Agreement refers to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"heà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ it also includes à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, and where the agreement refers to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the Membersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ it also means a single member. Clause 2 sets out the purpose of the Agreement, for the avoidance of doubt. Members The Agreement has been designed to accommodate not only the original members of [Workplace]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s syndicate (which are to be set out in Schedule 1 Part 1), but also any persons joining the Company in the future who may wish to play (which are to be set out in Schedule 1 Part 2). The Schedule is easily amended to accommodate new players. Because Schedule 1 Parts 1 and 2 is so easily amended, for the avoidance of doubt, we have included Clause 1.2 to the effect that to be a Member of the syndicate, you must include your name, address and signature in Schedule 1 (Part 1 or 2), which must be witnessed by an independent person (i.e. someone who is not a Member and who is not associated with the Syndicate in any way). You also need to include your date of joining à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" this is relevant to Clause 2 of the Agreement because you will be participating in the Syndicate from the next Saturday draw following your date of joining. We have also included provisio ns to allow any Member to resign from the Syndicate. Again, for the avoidance of doubt, this must be done by entering your name and address and signature, to be witnessed by an independent person, into Schedule 1 Part 3, together with the date on which the entry is made. This will prevent any dispute over what instructions were given to the Syndicate Manager. Draws We have agreed that our syndicate will only play in the Saturday Lotto draw, and this is set out at Clause 1.1. Wherever the Agreement refers to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the Lotteryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, this means the Saturday Lotto draw. At this time, our agreed stake is  £1.00 per Member and this is set out at Clause 1.4 and in Schedule 2. We have included this in a schedule so that we can easily amend the Agreement in future if we decide that each Member wants to put more into the syndicate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" we have made any such amendment subject to a unanimous decision so that all Members must agree to such changes. We have agreed that the tickets we purchase will be Lucky Dip tickets à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" these are tickets purchased which allow the National Lottery to allocate completely random Lottery numbers (Clause 4.3). Subscriptions Clause 4 lays down quite strict requirements for à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"participatingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in the syndicate. Members are required to pay their stake to the Syndicate Manager by 13:00 on the Friday preceding each Lottery draw and if they do not comply with these provisions, they will not be construed as participating in the draw. Winnings Clause 3.1 places the responsibility of collecting any prize on the Syndicate Manager, [Name]. The Syndicate Manager must collect the prize and hold it à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"on trustà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢: this means that, although they have the money in their possession, it does not belong to them and they are holding it for the other Members until it can be paid over (Abrahams v Trustee of the Property of Abrahams (1999)). Clause 3.3 provides that any prize won will be shared between the Members of the Syndicate who have participated in the draw for that week. Clause 3.4 requires that the Syndicate Manager pay the prize to the Members entitled to it within seven days. This is important because large prizes could potentially accumulate a substantial amount of interest if paid into a bank account, which the Manager could benefit from and/or the Members could lose out on. If the prize is not paid within seven days, therefore, interest becomes due at a standard contract rate (Clause 3.5). The Syndicate Manager The Agreement provides for a Syndicate Manager who will run the syndicate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" this will be [Name] as identified in Schedule 1 Part 3. The Syndicate Manager can also be a Member. Clause 7 sets out the responsibilities of the Syndicate Manager which include to collect subscriptions, purchase Lucky Dip tickets, check whether the tickets have won a prize, obtain any prizes and distribute them to the Members entitled. The Syndicate Manager also has to keep records of all contributions and prizes which can be inspected by any Member, and to keep the Agreement (particularly the Schedules) up to date. We have included a provision that the Syndicate Manager may not purchase any Lucky Dip tickets for their own personal use on the same day as purchasing tickets for the syndicate à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" this is to avoid any confusion as to whose tickets have won since all syndicate tickets will be purchased on the Friday before the relevant draw. We have also included a clau se that resolves the Syndicate Manager from any liability in respect of any failure to win a prize in the Lottery or any other financial loss or claim arising out of the Agreement, in the absence of any deliberate wrongdoing. Publicity We have included a clause which states that the Members do not agree to participate in publicity as a result of winning a prize under the Agreement. We appreciate that some Members may not object to publicity but we feel that since publicity is intrusive, we need to protect the present and future Members that wish to avoid such intrusion. Liability of [Workplace] The Agreement makes it clear that [Workplace] does not acquire any rights or obligations as a result of participation in the syndicate by its employees. Agreement for National Lottery syndicate This Agreement is made the day of between the persons listed in Schedule 1 to this agreement. Definitions In this agreement: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the Lotteryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ means the National Lottery prize draw which takes place on Saturday and is organised by Camelot Watford, Head Office and Regional Centre Camelot Group plc, of Tolpits Lane, Watford, Herts, WD18 9RN the Members means the persons who have included their name, address and witnessed signature and date of joining in Schedule 1 Part 1 or Part 2 to this agreement the Syndicate Manager means the person whose name and address is set out in Schedule 1 Part 4 or such person as is appointed his successor by the majority of the Members the Stake means the sum set out in Schedule 2 paid weekly, agreed to be subscribed by the Members which may be reviewed and amended from time to time by the Members by unanimous decision the Total Stake means the total number of stakes for each draw; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Lucky Dip Ticketsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ means tickets purchased using the National Lottery Lucky Dip facility words importing any gender include every gender; words importing the singular number include the plural number and vice versa; the clause headings do not form part of this agreement and shall not be taken into account in its construction or interpretation. Agreement By entering into this agreement, the Members are agreeing to join together to participate in the Lottery, commencing with the next prize draw after the date of their joining. Obligation to share winnings In the event that a prize is won in the Lottery as a result of purchasing tickets using the Total Stake, the Syndicate Manager shall arrange collection of that prize and shall hold it on trust for each of the other Members who are participating in the Lottery for that week For the avoidance of doubt, Members participating in the Lottery for that week are those Members that have complied with the provisions of Clause 4.1 exactly. The proceeds of the prize will be shared equally between the Members participating in the Lottery for that week and those Members only will be entitled to an equal share of the prize Each share of the prize shall be paid to the Member entitled within 7 days of receipt by the Syndicate Manager If a share is not paid to the Member entitled to it within 7 days of receipt by the Syndicate Manager, that Member shall also be entitled to receive interest at the rate of 4% above the base lending rate of Barclays Bank plc from time to time in force. For the avoidance of doubt, a prize won in the Lottery by a Member otherwise than by means of the purchase of Lucky Dip tickets with the Total Stake by the Syndicate Manager on behalf of the Members under this Agreement, shall not be subject to the obligation to share contained in this clause. Subscription Each Member will pay the Stake, as set out in Schedule 2, to the Syndicate Manager by 13:00 on the Friday preceding each Lottery draw If a Member does not comply exactly with the provisions of Clause 4.1, they will not be construed as participating in the preceding Lottery draw On receipt of the Total Stake, the Syndicate Manager shall purchase Lucky Dip tickets to the value of the Total Stake Any prize won as a result of the purchase of tickets in accordance with Clause 4.3 shall be shared in accordance with Clause 3 above Publicity The Members do not agree to participate in publicity as a result of winning a prize under this Agreement Resignation Any Member may resign by entering their name and address and signature, witnessed by an independent person, into Schedule 1 Part 3, together with the date of resignation which must be the date on which the resignation is made Any resignation in accordance with Clause 6.1 will have immediate effect Once a Member has resigned in accordance with Clause 6.1 any entitlement to a share in any prize won thereafter shall cease. Responsibilities of the Syndicate Manager The Syndicate Manager shall: collect subscriptions from the Members participating in the draw for that week in accordance with Clause 4 purchase Lucky Dip tickets at an authorised sales point of the Lottery in time for inclusion in each weekly draw using the full amount of the Total Stake for that week, and retain and keep safe those tickets issued to him check whether the purchased tickets have won a prize obtain any prize won in the Lottery as a result of the purchase of Lucky Dip tickets using the Total Stake for that week distribute any prize won to the Members entitled in accordance with Clause 3 keep records of all contributions made and prizes won, and make this record available to any Member for inspection on request keep this Agreement safe and the Schedules updated at all times and provide each Member with a photocopy of the Agreement and updated Schedules as soon as practicable on request The Syndicate Manager may not purchase any lucky dip tickets for his own personal use on the same day as purchasing tickets for the syndicate No Liability of Syndicate Manager In the absence of wilful neglect or default the Syndicate Manager shall not be liable to any Member in respect of any failure to win a prize in the Lottery or any other financial loss or claim arising out of this agreement. No obligation of [Workplace] [Workplace] shall incur no liability nor attain any rights as a result of participation in the Lottery by employees of [Workplace] SCHEDULE 1 Original Members (names, addresses and witnessed signatures of original Members) Subsequent Members (names, addresses and witnessed signatures of persons joining later, with dates of joining) Former Members (names of Members who have resigned, with dates of termination of membership) The Syndicate Manager (name, address and signature of the Organiser and of any successor Organiser) SCHEDULE 2 Amount of the Stake (e.g. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“ £1.00à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ) SCHEDULE 3 Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents: Gambling (Gaming, Betting, Lotteries and National Lottery) (Volume 17(1)) (2003 Reissue) (A) Commentary E. National Lottery Syndicates 190. Lottery syndicates Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents: Gambling (Gaming, Betting, Lotteries and National Lottery) (Volume 17(1)) (2003 Reissue) (B) Forms and Precedents A: Lottery Syndicates 160 Agreement for National Lottery syndicate for employees Halsburys Laws of England: Inherance Taxation 2. Main Charging Provisions (1) Main Charges and Definitions 408. Meaning of chargeable transfer National Lottery Website: https://www.nationallottery.gov.uk Simons Direct Tax Service Binder 8 HMRC practice Part H3 HMRC Statements of Practice Division H3.4 IR Statements issued before 18 July 1978à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ full texts E. Statements relating to inheritance tax E14 Pools etc syndicates Stone, R (2005) The Modern Law of Contract (6th Edition) Cavendish Publishing Limited Abrahams v Trustee of the Property of Abrahams (1999) BPIR 637 Balfour v Balfour (1919) 2 KB 571 British Bank Foreign Trade Ltd v Novinex Ltd [1949] 1 KB 623, [1949] 1 All ER 155, CA Burton v Great Northern Rly Co (1854) 9 Exch 507 Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256 CA Hoddinott v Hoddinott (1949) 2 KB 406, CA Partridge v Crittenden (1968) 2 All ER 421 Simpkins v Pays (1955) 3 All ER 10 Taylor v Laird (1856) 1 H N 266; 25 LJ Ex 329 The Satanita [1897] AC 59, HL

Secularization Definition and Examples

Over the last few centuries, and especially in the last few decades, Western society has become increasingly secularized, meaning that religion plays a less prominent role. The shift represents a dramatic cultural change whose effects are still widely debated. Definition Secularization is a cultural transition in which religious values are gradually replaced with nonreligious values. In the process, religious figureheads such as church leaders lose their authority and influence over society. In the field of sociology, the term is used to describe societies that have become or are becoming modernized—meaning that features of society such as the government, the economy, and schools are more distinct, or less influenced by religion. Individuals within a society may still practice a religion, but it is on an individual basis. Decisions about spiritual matters are personal, family, or culturally based, but religion itself does not have a large impact on society as a whole. In the Western World Secularization in the United States is a hotly debated topic. America has been considered a Christian nation for a long time, with many Christian values guiding existing policies and laws. However, in the last few decades, with the growth of other religions as well as atheism, the nation has become more secularized. In the United States, there have been movements to remove religion from government-funded daily life, such as school prayer and religious events in public schools. Further evidence of secularization can be seen in laws overturning prohibitions on same-sex marriage. While the rest of Europe embraced secularization relatively early, Great Britain was one of the last to adapt. During the 1960s, Britain experienced a cultural revolution that reshaped peoples views on womens issues, civil rights, and religion. Over time, funding for religious activities and churches began to wane, reducing the impact of religion on daily life. As a result, the country became increasingly secularized. Religious Contrast: Saudi Arabia In contrast to the United States, Great Britain and most of Europe, Saudi Arabia is an example of a country that has not experienced secularization. Almost all Saudis identify as Muslims. While there are some Christians, they are mainly foreigners, and they are not allowed to openly practice their faith.  Atheism and agnosticism are forbidden, and such apostasy is punishable by death. Because of strict attitudes toward religion, Saudi Arabias laws, customs, and norms are closely tied to Islamic law and teachings. The country has religious police, known as Mutaween, who roam the streets enforcing religious laws regarding dress codes, prayer, and the separation of men and women. Daily life in Saudi Arabia is structured around religious rituals. Businesses close several times a day for 30 minutes or more at a time to allow for prayer. In schools, approximately half of the school day is dedicated to teaching ​religious material. Almost all books published within the nation are religious books. Future of Secularization Secularization has become a growing topic as more countries modernize and shift away from religious values toward secular ones. While many countries remain that are focused on religion and religious law, there is increasing pressure from around the globe, especially from the United States and its allies, for countries to secularize. Nevertheless, some regions have actually become more religious, including parts of Africa and Asia. Some scholars argue that religious affiliation itself is not the best measure of secularization. They believe that a weakening of religious authority can occur in certain areas of life without a corresponding change in the religious identities of individuals.

Inbound Marketing Free Essays

HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 None of [the old rules of marketing] are true anymore. The Web has transformed the rules, and you must transform your marketing to make the most of the Web-enabled marketplace of ideas. We will write a custom essay sample on Inbound Marketing or any similar topic only for you Order Now — David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR Business was good at HubSpot. Founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah were thrilled with the progress their young company had made in the two years since they began their journey to convince corporate America that the rules of marketing had changed.To be successful in the marketplace, HubSpot needed to be much more than just a software company. Its founders had to become evangelists, preaching a new way of doing business that would fundamentally change the way marketers reached their customers. To their great pleasure, Halligan and Shah were finding a willing audience for their ideas. HubSpot was now considered a thought leader in the Web 2. 0 space, coining the term â€Å"inbound marketing† to describe marketing strategies and practices that pulled prospective customers towards a business and its products, through the use of Web 2. tools and applications like blogging, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media. Halligan and Shah realized that their business was at a crucial juncture. They had just reached the noteworthy milestone of 1,000 customers, attaining this level of critical mass by practicing what they preached. HubSpot had built its business by turning its back on traditional marketing methods and was solely using innovative inbound techniques to acquire customers. Looking ahead, the founders wanted to accelerate their growth rate and increase profitability.Ironically, they were grappling with many of the same issues that their customers faced when implementing inbound marketing practices. Halligan and Shah realized that they would need to work through these issues in order to achieve their goals for the company. First, they would need to decide which customers to serve, pulling the best opportunities from the diverse pool of customers who were contacting them. Second, they would need to make some decisions about their current pricing model to entice new customers to the company and to maximize the profitability of existing customers.Third, they would need to assess whether they could achieve enough scale through inbound marketing efforts, or whether they needed to supplement their inbound programs with traditional, interruptive outbound programs. This was more than a test of HubSpot as a company; it was a test of the inbound marketing business philosophy. If HubSpot couldn’t scale its own business using inbound marketing, then how could it convince its customers that inbound marketing would work for them? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________Professor Thomas Steenburgh and Professor Jill Avery (Simmons School of Management) and Naseem Dahod (MBA 2009) prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2009 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www. hbsp. arvard. edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. 509-049 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 Founding HubSpot The two HubSpot founders met at MIT. As early and eager students of Web 2. 0, Halligan and Shah recognized the transformative power the Internet possessed for changing the way small businesses operated. After graduation, Halligan joined Longworth Ventures, a venture capital firm with an expertise in technology.As he worked with start-up companies, he recognized an issue with which they all struggled—how to harness the Internet to build a business. Halligan, like many of his clients, came from a traditional sales and marketing background, working for high tech companies Groove Networks and Parametric Technology Corporation. However, at Longworth, he began to realize that the traditional marketing and sales methods he had previously employed were losing their effectiveness in the new Web 2. 0 world. Shah also grew up in the technology sector, holding a number of management and development positions in technology companies.Prior to HubSpot, Shah was founder and chief executive officer of Pyramid Digital Solutions, an enterprise software company and the winner of three Inc. 500 awards, which was acquired by SunGard Data Systems. Shah also authored OnStartups. com, a top ranking blog and online community for entrepreneurs. Halligan and Shah founded HubSpot in 2006. Combining Halligan’s marketing, sales, and venture capital expertise with Shah’s technological knowledge and experience as a successful entrepreneur, the two were a winning combination. Halligan became the chief executive officer and served as HubSpot’s evangelizing front man.Shah became the chief software architect and focused on product development. On the strength of their business plan, Halligan and Shah attracted premier financial partners. After initially self-funding the business, Halligan and Shah raised $5 million from General Catalyst, a Cambridge-based venture capital firm in 2007. Less than a year later, the team raised an additional $12 million from Matrix Partners, a venture capital firm with offices in Boston and Silicon Valley. For a young start-up, HubSpot had a solid financial foundation. Halligan and Shah strove to create a distinct culture at HubSpot.They headquartered the company near MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a hotbed of activity for high tech start-ups, and they staffed up with young, eager MIT graduates who were immersed in Web 2. 0 culture. The HubSpot office buzzed with energy. The sleek, minimalist architecture contrasted with the animated and passionate young team, who craved a fast-pace. The team battled over business with the same gusto that they battled over the last slice of pizza. Inbound Marketing HubSpot built software products that helped companies execute inbound marketing programs to supplement or replace their traditional outbound programs.In the current environment, outbound marketing’s effectiveness was diminishing as consumers, feeling bombarded by the daily deluge of commercial messages, began tuning out. Increasingly, direct mail, trade shows, and telemarketing were yielding less new business. In contrast, companies were finding that search engines, blogs, and social media were generating new business at higher rates. These communication programs were more consistent with the inbound marketing approach. As HubSpot explains on their corporate blog: Outbound marketing is about pulling people away from their dinner, or family, or TV and interrupting their lives.Do you really think you are important or interesting enough for them to want to talk to you instead of doing whatever they were doing when you interrupted them? They have not invited you into their home, and they certainly do not happen to enjoy being interrupted. Instead of spending your whole day interrupting people and hoping they pay attention, try setting up a blog and writing interesting content, so that people want to hear what you have to say and come find you when they’re interested in your products. 2 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 509-049 Inbound marketing is a collection of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling relevant prospects and customers towards a business and its products. Inbound marketers of fered useful information, tools and/or resources designed to attract prospective customers to the company during the time when prospects are actively engaged in a search for a particular product or service. The informative content that the inbound marketer produced was used to entice prospects to interact with the company and begin a relationship with it.As HubSpot vice president of marketing Mike Volpe explains, â€Å"Instead of interrupting people that don’t care, why not help those who want what you’re offering to find you? We have found that building interesting tools is a more effective marketing tool than doing advertising. Things like this get people curious and draw them in. † This new approach to marketing complemented the way consumers were actually making purchasing decisions today, by using Internet search, online blogs, and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to learn about products and services before they bought them.HubSpot preached this new way of marketing: Instead of interrupting people with television ads, inbound marketers create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information. Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.To be maximized, inbound marketing required three distinct skills. The first was the ability to write compelling content that would attract customers to the business. Importantly, this content had to be useful to customers and not just a promotional message, according to HubSpot: Whole Foods publishes recipes, profiles of their vendors, forums and a lot more. Across all of these mediums they use the right tone. Their content is useful first, and promotional second, not the other way around.This means that their customers find them when they want to know how to make oatmeal cookies, when they want to learn more about where their apples come from or when they want to watch a cooking show. The second was the ability to distribute that content so that it was easily found by prospective customers using search engines, which required a sophisticated understanding of search engine optimization. The third was the ability to attract and engage a community of followers who interacted with the content, added their thoughts to it in an ongoing dialogue, and disseminated it to others.Firms who nurtured an active audience gained credibility in the marketplace, as it was the support of an audience that conferred expertise in a particular area. One of the benefits of inbound marketing was, in contrast to traditional outbound marketing where a business’ message was pushed to a mass audience which contained many who were not in the market for the product, that it was designed to create content that pulled in only those customers who were interested in the product. This created marketing efficiencies.According to Mark Roberge, vice president of sales for HubSpot, inbound marke ting blended marketing and sales together: â€Å"One of our salespeople calls it â€Å"smarketing†Ã¢â‚¬â€we really blend it together so much more. † Volpe explained this concept further in an interview with RainToday. com: â€Å"Our sales people hear things like ‘Oh, HubSpot. I’ve been meaning to talk to you guys,’ or ‘Oh, I just watched your webinar yesterday. I had a couple of questions. ’ So it’s the opposite of a cold call. It’s like getting a call from one of your friends because we’ve already built a relationship. We really don’t do any cold calling. Volpe estimated that the cost of a lead generated using inbound marketing was 5–7 times less than a lead generated by outbound marketing. Businesses had increased the portion of their marketing budgets dedicated to inbound marketing, particularly in business-to-business (B2B) industries, 3 509-049 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 where, 37% was spent on inbound marketing and 30% was spent on outbound marketing. Given its lower costs and increased efficiencies, inbound marketing allowed small businesses to compete with larger firms in a way that had never been possible in the pre-Internet world dominated by mass media.Small business had realized that inbound marketing helped level the playing field and were more aggressively allocating their budgets to inbound marketing techniques. The HubSpot Product Embodying the philosophy of Web 2. 0, the HubSpot web-based software product was a complete inbound marketing system, designed to help businesses attract prospects, qualify their potential, and convert them into paying customers. The goal was to enable a firm to generate more qualified leads, to generate these lead s more efficiently, and to convert them into sales. HubSpot’s user-friendly product allowed even those who were not familiar with Web 2. 0 to build and manage a thriving inbound marketing program. The software included templates to design content for websites, blogs, and social networking sites, tools to help customers optimize their exposure on the Internet, tools to help customers solicit and engage the right customers, and tools to analyze their results. Content Design HubSpot offered its customers a content management system (CMS), software that made creating and editing online content easy.Further, HubSpot’s CMS allowed small businesses to add interactivity, the hallmark of Web 2. 0, to their old, â€Å"brochureware† websites. Pre-designed templates helped customers create their corporate websites, providing guidelines for creating web pages, blogs, online forms, and landing pages. The templates were designed to be turn-key so that customers without HTML programming knowledge could easily publish content online and have that content be search engine friendly. HubSpot’s â€Å"Keyword Grader† scanned the Internet and returned an analysis of the key words relevant to the company’s business that were driving online search results.Including these key words in their content, companies could improve their organic search results, making it more likely that their content would be found by potential customers. Steve Douglas, president and creative director for The Logo Factory, explained how it worked for customers: I had been doing SEO all wrong when I came to HubSpot, trying to optimize my site for the wrong keywords. With HubSpot, I’m now able to see the words people are actually using to find my products and services. I’m able to see which words have the greatest search volume in search engines, helping me choose the right words to optimize my site.HubSpot has helped me be a lot smarter about how I optimize my site and track my progress. (HubSpot, Customer Quotes, 2009) Exposure Optimization The HubSpot product contained a series of tools designed to help customers make their published content more visible on the Internet. These included search optimization tools that graded the firm’s content based on its likelihood to be included early in the search results that are returned when a potential customer searches through Google, Yahoo, or other search engines.The optimization tools graded the company’s website, its key landing pages, and its blogs, and made suggestions for improving them to increase exposure. HubSpot’s â€Å"Link Grader† analyzed the links a firm had on its website to see which ones were generating the most inbound traffic. The Link Grader also analyzed links to competitors’ websites to see which ones were driving customers to them instead of to the firm. Customer, Noel Huelsenbeck, president of Vocio expense management software, gushed: 4 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 509-049 I love the HubSpot software. With just a little page optimization I’ve already gotten great results and my traffic and keyword rankings continue to improve steadily. I’m about to sign a deal from a company that typed in one of our top keywords for which we are now the #1 organic result, thanks to HubSpot! That one deal will pay for all the money spent with HubSpot three times over. On top of that, the support is incredible. The HubSpot team had dedicated their time, even at off hours, to get my site up and optimized. The application is great, but it’s the people that make this company stellar. (HubSpot, Customer Quotes, 2009)Lead Tracking and Intelligence The HubSpot software had marketing intelligence analytics for tracking the interactions customers have with the firm’s content. This enabled firms to analyze which of their inbound marketing programs were working to generate qualified leads, by telling them where potential customers were coming from and how they were engaging with th e company. Firms could generate an interaction profile for each customer by tracking the pages they viewed and the types of forms they completed. Firms could use this information to qualify prospective customers according to their potential.For example, HubSpot itself used the lead tracking software to construct its sales funnel (see Exhibit 1). Information about each customer allowed HubSpot to qualify some of its â€Å"visitors† as â€Å"prospects,† and then â€Å"leads†, and then â€Å"opportunities† based on the behaviors they exhibited while on the site. Team Jodi, a real estate firm, had seen a significant increase in business, claimed owner Jodi Bakst: The traffic to my site increased by 97% in November, by an additional 62% in December, by an additional 31% in January and we’re on track for another big increase in February. In real estate, the bsolute number of leads is way down. But what I’m looking at is the percentage of good leads. The percentage of good leads is actually going up right now and I attribute it to all of the hard work I am doing, 90% of which I learned from HubSpot. (HubSpot, Marketing Case Study, 2009) HubSpot used a software-as-a-service (SaaS) pricing strategy for its product. Rather than paying a large upfront fee, customers paid a smaller monthly fee (between $250-500 per month), much like a gym membership. HubSpot’s low cost and ease of use for Web 2. 0 novices were its competitive advantages.Volpe explained the difference between HubSpot and one of its competitors, Eloqua: Eloqua is really expensive and complicated. It is awesome for larger enterprises. Everyone we talk to that uses Eloqua says, â€Å"if you can get it to work, it’s super powerful, but you have to give up your first born child to pay for it and you need to hire a full-time employee to run it because they have all these scripting languages and all this really, really difficult stuff. † HubSpot’s customers were required to purchase a $500 onboarding package, which bought them four hours of HubSpot consulting.During this time, a consultant helped them through a process designed to kickstart their inbound marketing program: 1. ) setting up the software, 2. ) using the SEO features to get found, 3. ) converting prospects to leads to customers, 4. ) analyzing their results, and, 5. ) institutionalizing the process so that it could be repeated. Once the original consulting hours were depleted, customers were on their own, unless they purchased additional consulting time at a cost of $500 for four hours. Customers were also given access to â€Å"Success. HubSpot† which provided Internet marketing training and resources.Halligan described the HubSpot product as much more than a piece of software; it was a system of tools and training (see Exhibit 2 for product release timeline): HubSpot is a complete inbound marketing system that will help you get found by more prospects and convert more of them into paying customers. We use the word â€Å"system† intentionally. HubSpot is more than software. We have a complete inbound marketing 5 509-049 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 methodology comprised of best practice guides, training materials, software tools, a community and support.Plus, HubSpot is hosted on demand software, meaning that you don’t need any IT staff to get started. We don’t just give you a new marketing tool. We teach you to be an expert in how to use it. HubSpot’s products had garnered acclaim which drove buzz for the company. In 2008, HubSpot received the W3 Silver Winner Award in branding and marketing and the MITX Impact Award for innovative business strategy. HubSpot’s â€Å"Website Grader† was an official honoree for the best websites in the IT hardware/software category in the 12th Annual Webby Awards.In February 2009, HubSpot was named in the top ten of PromotionWorld’s â€Å"Best SEO Companies† ranking. HubSpot’s Marketplace Halligan and Shah envisioned that HubSpot would become the market leader of the industry space carved out by software companies and consulting firms focused on helping businesses fill and manage their customer funnel. The customer funnel metaphorically described the critical processes firms undertook to attract prospective customers to their business, qualify these prospects to determine which ones have the highest probability of converting to paying customers, and, finally, close the sale.The customer funnel is divided into three main activity areas. Most of HubSpot’s competitors chose to play in only one of these areas, although some offered integrated services that spa nned across. Exhibits 3 and 4 summarize the increasingly crowded competitive field. Creating Traffic The goal in the top part of the funnel was to attract large numbers of prospective customers. Firms used marketing programs to capture attention and interest to feed prospects into the funnel. Firms offered information, contests/sweepstakes, or free consulting on their websites to entice prospective customers.To receive the information or to participate, prospects filled out an online form which asked them their contact information and other information that was valuable to the firm, such as budget available for the purchase and estimated purchase timing. HubSpot’s competitors in this area included consultants who built online advertising, websites, blogs, and social media presence, for companies, as well as software companies with SEO products which helped companies maximize their likelihood of getting found by consumers using search engines. Analyzing and Qualifying LeadsThe goal in the middle of the funnel was to assess the potential of different prospecti ve customers brought in by the lead generation programs. Selling a customer required an investment of human and financial resources and firms wanted to ensure that they were targeting these resources to prospects who were most likely to convert to customers. Many prospects brought in through lead generation had a low probability of becoming a customer, and firms could save substantial money if they could identify those customers early and weed them out.The lead qualification process focused on finding customers with potential to pass along to the sales force. HubSpot’s competitors in this area included consultants and software companies with proprietary methods for rating and ranking prospects based on historical analysis of the company’s current customers and conversion rates. Closing the Sale The goal in the bottom of the customer funnel was to convert prospects into customers. One player, Salesforce. com, dominated this segment, providing easy to use, customizable software which 6 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 509-049 helped firms create a database of their prospects and track their conversion progress in real time. Salesforce. com’s software had become the industry standard for managing and tracking sales efforts. Halligan and Shah hoped that HubSpot could dominate the lead generation and analysis/ qualification stages of the customer funnel, just as Salesforce. com dominated the stage devoted to closing the sale, claiming â€Å"HubSpot could be to marketing what Salesforce. com is to sales. † Filling HubSpot’s Customer Funnel By 2009, HubSpot had 1,000 very diverse customers.HubSpot attracted these customers through inbound marketing, practicing what they preached by using their own software. HubSpot used several different tactics to drive prospects into the funnel. First, the company had a robust website which attracted over 300,000 unique visitors in 2008. The website featured whitepapers, webinars, podcasts, and a blog which provided information about Web 2. 0 and inbound marketing strategies. HubSpot created and managed an 8,000 member LinkedIn group called Pro-Marketers, dedicated to marketing professionals who were interested in learning about Web 2. and inbound marketing. Employees came together every Friday to host their own television show, â€Å"HubSpot TV,† a live streaming podcast also available on iTunes which featured interactive commentary on topical events. HubSpot also produced YouTube video spoofs which changed the lyrics of popular songs like â€Å"You Oughta Know† by Alanis Morissette to sell the inbound marketing concept, the most popular of which was viewed over 50,000 times. Another video, entitled â€Å"Cold Calling is for Losers† was viewed over 35,000 times and humorously showed the futility of outbound marketing techniques.The HubSpot team was encouraged to build their own Web 2. 0 presence to supplement corporate activities. Many employees blogged, tweeted, and participated on social media sites to promote HubSpot. Inbound marketing was a passion for the HubSpot team and they used every avenue they could to evangelize it to whoever would listen. As the website claimed, â€Å"At HubSpot, we live and breathe inbound marketing. We know a lot about it. We love to teach. We’ll make you an expert. † HubSpot’s most successful inbound marketing program was its freeware, small software programs that were available for free and accessible on the Internet.Three commonly used programs were the Website Grader, Twitter Grader, and Facebook Grader. All were designed to provide useful information to prospective customers and introduce them to HubSpot. The graders allowed users to evaluate how well their websites, Twitter accounts, and Facebook presence were performing. For example, Website Grader analyzed a company’s website, rated it versus other sites on the Internet, and offered suggestions for improvements. Users who accessed the free web tools often completed a lead form expressing interest in other offerings, which fed them into HubSpot’s customer funnel.By 2009, over 650,000 websites, 22,000 Facebook profiles, and 2 million Twitter accounts had been graded by the free tools. The freeware had also generated a lot of positive press and online buzz. Volpe explained how all these activities fed HubSpot’s funnel: â€Å"We think about the size of the community we’ve built. It includes people on our email list, people that subscribe to our feed in iTunes, people that subscribe to our blog, people that follow one of our accounts on Twitter, people that are fans of our page on Facebook. It’s sort of how many fans we have cultivated in the world. When HubSpot was just getting started, the sales force called on all leads coming into the funnel. HubSpot sold to any customer who was interested in buying its products. This helped achieve the critical mass the fledgling venture needed to survive. However, as the number of prospective customers grew, HubSpot began carefully qualifying leads before turning them over to the sales force. HubSpot constantly updated its lead rating algorithm based on their success with converting different types of prospects, and the varying customer retention rates experienced post-sale. 7 509-049 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. By 2009, the company was weeding out almost 50% of the leads in its funnel. Low quality leads were given no further attention. The remaining 50% were rated on a scale of 1 (low probability of conversion) to 10 (high probability of conversion). 63% of the rated leads were graded with scores ranging from 7 to 10, making them a high priority for the sales force’s attention. The selling process was fairly involved and focused on a sales person guiding a prospect through an online product demonstration; closing a sale took between 30-45 days from the point of initial contact to final sale.Since HubSpot’s inbound marketing did not target a specific type of customer, HubSpot found itself attracting a diverse set. HubSpot’s customers came from many different industries, including professional services, health care, software, real estate, and construction materials. They included businesses selling to other businesses (B2B), as well as businesses selling directly to consumers (B2C). Exhibits 5 and 6 show the composition of HubSpot’s customer portfolio. Two different types of customers were visible: small business owners and marketing professionals working in larger firms.HubSpot affectionately dubbed these two personas â€Å"Owner Ollie† and â€Å"Marketer Mary. † â€Å"Owner Ollie† The Small Business Owner Customer Owner Ollies made up 68% of HubSpot’s customer portfolio. Owner Ollies owned small businesses with 1–25 employees. Owner Ollies were busy, as they were simultaneously managing the human resources, marketing, sales, operations, and finance areas of their companies. Given their small size, they did not have a dedicated marketing professional on their staff and, thus, they did most of the marketing themselves. Owner Ollies were curious about Web 2. and inbound marketing, but had not made investments in consulting, software, or programs in this area. Their primary objective was to generate more leads for their businesses; Owner Ollies were focused on feeding the tops of their customer funnels. Time and resources were scarce and Owner Ollies wanted quick, simple solutions to help them generate leads, because leads were the lifeblood of their small businesses. Owner Ollies were fairly easy to sell; the cost to acquire this type of customer was around $1,000. As Volpe explained, â€Å"Ollie doesn’t even think about marketing most of the time.He’s thinking about finance and HR and there is a leak in the pipes in the office. He’s got all kinds of stuff to worry about. He typically doesn’t shop around and try to find any other software competitive to HubSpot. He gets on the phone, he decides if he likes it, he gives you his credit card number and he’s like, ‘Great, let’s do it. ’† â€Å"Marketer Mary† The Marketing Professional Customer Marketer Marys made up 31% of HubSpot’s customer portfolio. Marketer Marys were marketing professionals working in companies which ranged from 26 to 100 people.Unlike Owner Ollies who tended to work on marketing alone, Marketer Marys were supported by a marketing team. As marketing professionals, Marketer Marys were more educated than Owner Ollies about Web 2. 0 and were looking for assistance with running their programs, evaluating their results, and justifying their return on investment to senior management. Marketer Marys often had web consultants who designed online websites and programs. Hence, Marketer Marys were more interested in the analytics and reports that HubSpot provided.Marketer Marys ran many more inbound marketing programs than Owner Ollies, and needed more robust and sophisticated tools to design them and measure their results. Marketer Marys had more money to spend on products like HubSpot, but were harder to reach and had a longer selling cycle as they often had to get approval from managers higher up in their organizations. The cost to acquire this type of customer was $5,000. As these two customer segments emerged in the customer base, HubSpot tweaked its product, developing two different versions, each with features designed to better serve the needs of either Owner Ollies or Marketer Marys. The differences between the two are summarized in Exhibit 7. ) 8 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 509-049 HubSpot took good care of its customers. Jonah Lopin headed up the HubSpot services group, known as the â€Å"customer happiness department. † Lopin and his team quickly realized that the customers HubSpot was serving were very diverse, making it difficult to standardize processes across customers. Different customers had different familiarity and comfort with Web 2. 0 tools. B2C companies were much more sophisticated Web 2. users than B2B companies and many found that HubSpot’s content templates were too rudimentary for their needs. Most B2C companies already had highly performing websites and social media presence and had engaged Web 2. 0 consultants and agencies to work with them prior to coming to HubSpot. In contrast, most B2B customers had little to no experience with Web 2. 0 and no other agencies or consultants supporting their efforts. They required more attention from Lopin and his team during start-up and during their lives as customers. The second difference was that B2B customers seem to derive reater value from inbound marketing than B2C customers. Many of the B2B customers sold products or services that were complex, which required buyers to undergo in-depth learning prior to purchase. Blogs, podcasts, webinars, and other Web 2. 0 programs that explained the product served as valuable inputs into a customer’s decision making process and were effective feeders of B2B customer funnels. The buying processes associated with the B2B businesses were much more complex than those associated with B2C businesses, due to a longer decision making cycle involving multiple stakeholders at the buying firm.Because of this, B2B customers were more selective about whom they focused their sales forces’ attentions on and derived great value from the lead qualification analysis that HubSpot provided. The third difference was that Owner Ollies were less knowledgeable and sophisticated than Marketer Marys. Owner Ollies also derived greater initial value than Marketer Marys, as Volpe explained, â€Å"The great part about Ollie is that we can actually have a much larger impact on his overall business than we can with Mary. It saves him a ton of money and he is getting a much better customer flow.It has fundamentally changed his business. † Lopin also saw differences in the customer retention data, as the churn rates (the rate at which customers cancelled their HubSpot subscriptions) varied across segments. The results of his analysis are listed in Table A and in Exhibit 8. Although Marketer Marys were a harder sell up front, they stayed longer than Owner Ollies. Lopin speculated that usage of the monthly analytics and reporting was driving her longer customer life. Owner Ollies were focused on using SEO to increase visitors to their websites. They derived much of their value in the first few months as a customer.Once Owner Ollies thought they were â€Å"done† optimizing, they would cancel their HubSpot subscription. Table A Churn Rates by Segment Average Churn Rate (cancellations per month) Owner Ollies Marketer Marys Total B2B Total B2C CMS Non-CMS Total 4. 3% 3. 2% 3. 3% 6. 0% 2. 1% 5. 5% 4. 1% Source: Company reports. 9 509-049 HubSpot: Inbound Marketing and Web 2. 0 Investigating further, Lopin realized that customers who hosted their websites on HubSpot’s content management system had lower churn rates than customers who hosted with other companies. Lopin urged the sales force to push the content management system hosting service to new customers. As a result, an increasing number of Owner Ollies were migrating their websites to HubSpot. In 2009, 13% of Owner Ollies selected HubSpot to host their site, paying an initial fee of $500 which covered twelve hours of HubSpot consulting designed to make the migration process painless. In contrast, only 2% of Marketer Marys hosted their websites with HubSpot. Lastly, Lopin saw differences in the amount of time different types of customers were willing to put into using the HubSpot software. To derive meaningful results from the software, customers needed to consistently invest ten hours per week to it.This was a significant time investment, particularly for Owner Ollies. Customer Geoff Alexander, president of Geoff Alexander Company, a telesales training company, explained: â€Å"It took a couple of hours to mash through all the training, but the key to HubSpot is putting the time into it. Without HubSpot, I just would have winged it. The investment required for HubSpot is actually a lot like paying for web intelligence school. I was ignorant of the nuts bolts of SEO and online lead generation for years. Now I’m making up for it. (HubSpot, Marketing Case Study, 2009) Some of HubSpot’s current customers were not putting in the time, as shown in Table B. Fifteen percent of current customers had not logged in to the HubSpot software over the past 12 weeks. Table B Customer Usage Percent of Customers Logged into HubSpot system gt; 50% of weeks Logged into HubSpot system 25 B2B25 B2C25 B2B25 B2C25 Total 25 CMS Total 10 unique visitors M/M Growth in Average Weekly Leads Customers included in analysis: (78 for Oct, 92 for Nov, 95 for Dec) †¢ Accounts must be over 3 weeks old entering the lift period †¢ All weeks in lift period must have gt;1 lead Source: Company reports. 0 509-049 -21- Exhibit 10 HubSpot’s Growth Rate HubSpot 2008 Customer Forecasted Pipeline Details 3,500 3,000 3,000 2,714 2,429 2,143 2,000 1,571 1,500 1,286 1,000 1,000 1,370 1,857 1,857 2,143 2,714 2,500 500 74 35 Jan 1,370 74 35 45 55 65 100 129 157 1,000 1,286 1,571 Feb Mar Apr May 1,857 186 65 100 45 129 55 157 65 186 65 186 75 Jun 1,857 186 75 214 75 Jul 2,143 214 75 214 85 Aug 2,143 214 85 271 243 95 Sep 2,429 243 95 95 Oct 2,714 271 95 271 105 Nov 2,714 271 105 300 115 Dec 3,000 300 115 Leads Opportunities New Customers Source: Company reports. 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The Mommy Track Essay Sample free essay sample

The instance that will be examined is instance 7. 4. â€Å"The Mommy Track. † found on page 273-275 of our text book by William H. Shaw. The moral theories that are chosen to be applied are Rawls’ theory and Libertarianism. Rawls would decide this instance by seting Schwartz ; company CEO’s. hubbies and every adult female within the â€Å"mommy track† in the original place to develop the rules of justness. In the position of the libertarian. they would work out this instance by adult females and work forces with households would work freely as they needed and they would gain the same sum as their opposite numbers within the same place. I personally would hold with Rawls theory and statement because to be able to hold a opportunity to develop the rules of justness that will positively impact bulk of the least advantageous people in our society makes the most sense and it would be the moral thing to make. In instance 7. 4 titled â€Å"The Mommy Track. † the instance goes on to depict the cost of using adult females in direction verses the cost of using work forces. There was an article written by Felice N. Schwartz who contended that the rate of turnover in direction places is two-and-a-half times higher among top-performing adult females that it is among work forces. Schwartz drew between two types of adult females: the career-primary adult females and the career-and-family adult females. She explained that the adult females in the first class put their callings foremost. They remain individual of childless. or if they do hold kids. they are satisfied to hold others raise them. Most adult females fall into the 2nd class. They want to prosecute echt callings while take parting actively in the raising of their kids. Schwartz contends that most of them are willing to merchandise some calling growing and compensation for freedom from the changeless force per unit area to work long hours and weekends. Many see Schwartz as separating between the slaves and the breeders. between adult females who should be treated as honorary males and those who shou ld be shunted onto a particular lower-paid. low-pressure calling track-the now-notorious â€Å"mommy path. † Schwartz is besides accused of presuming that female parents don’t need top-hole callings and of taking for granted the bing values. constructions. and prejudices of a corporate universe that is still male-dominated. A fast-track adult female who wants kids. nevertheless. gets caught in a clip and energy squeezing. even if her hubby is an equal spouse at place. Two recent surveies have shown that male directors whose married womans stay place to care for their kids earn more than their opposite numbers with working married womans. Work force who are the exclusive breadwinners for their households enjoy incomes at least 20 per centum higher than those of married work forces with kids whose married womans have callings ( Shaw. p. 273-275 ) . John Rawls’s theory of justness prevarications within the social-contract tradition. Two of import characteristics of Rawls’s theory are: his conjectural contract attack and the rules of justness that he derives with it. Rawls’s scheme is to inquire what principles people would take to regulate their society if they were in the â€Å"original place. † Rawls thinks if people in the original place can hold on some regulating rules on t he footing of common opportunism. so these rules will be the rules of justness. Basically. if we make up a game and all agree in front of clip. freely and every bit. on how the game is to be played. cipher can later kick that the regulations are unjust. Although in this original place people choose on the footing of self involvement. we are to conceive of that they are behind a head covering of ignorance. Under the head covering of ignorance. the people in Rawls’s original place have no cognition about themselves or their state of affairs that would take them to reason from a partial or colored point of position. Once the head covering of ignorance is lifted. people will hold more specific thoughts about what is good for them. Rawls contends that any rules agreed to under these fortunes have a strong claim to be considered the rules of justness. Rawls argues that people in the original place would follow the upper limit regulation for doing determinations. They would take rules vouching that the worst that could go on to them is better than the worst that could go on to them under any rival rules. Rawls argues that they would hold on two rules. The first provinces that each individual has a right to the most extended strategy of autonomies compatible with others holding the same sum of autonomy. The 2nd rule provinces that to be justified. any inequalities must be to the greatest expected benefit of the least advantaged and unfastened to all under conditions of just equality of chance. Rawls continues to reason that the primary focal point of justness should be the basic societal construction. non minutess between persons. He contends that society is a concerted undertaking for common benefit and that justness requires us to cut down the societal and economic effects arbitrary natural differences among people ( Shaw. p. 102-111 ) . The libertarian theory identifies justness with autonomy. and liberty takes precedence over other moral concerns. Liberty is the premier value. and justness consists in allowing each individual to populate as he or she pleases. free from the intervention of others. Personal autonomy is the autono my of each individual to populate harmonizing to his ain picks. provided he does non try to hale others and therefore forestall them from populating harmonizing to their picks. The libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick begins from the premiss that people have certain basic moral rights. which he calls Lockean rights. These single rights impose house. virtually absolute limitations on how we may move. We can non morally conflict on someone’s rights for any intent. Not merely are we out to interfere with a person’s autonomy in order to advance the general good. we are prohibited from making so even if go againsting that individual’s rights would somehow forestall other individuals’ rights from being violated. A belief in these forms Nozick’s theory of economic justness. which he calls the entitlement theory. Stating. if you have obtained your ownerships without go againsting other people’s Lockean rights. so you are entitled to them and may dispose of them as you choose ( Shaw. p. 95-96 ) . Rawls would work out this instance by seting Schwartz ; company CEO’s. hubbies and every adult female within the â€Å"mo mmy track† in the original place to develop the rules of justness. I would presume that these rules will bring forth a sensible solution that will cover every issue that can go developed through clip and may impact every subscriber of the rules. There will be no demand to categorise adult females into two different types. nor will at that place be adult females holding to take between household and calling. Of class. once the head covering of ignorance is lifted people should be able to cognize more specific thoughts about what is good for them and the map of their household. Another solution that might be considered is paying adult females with households 20 per centum more than those adult females without a household. and work forces with a working married woman 10 per centum more than those work forces with a stay at place married woman. Rawls would see this solution because this will fall under non holding equality at all costs. and this will allow inequality to better the batch of the least advantaged ( the adult females on the â€Å"mommy track† ) . In the position of the libertarian. they would work out this instance by adult females and work forces with households would work freely as they needed and they woul d gain the same sum as their opposite numbers within the same place. Assuming they could gain a particular sum harmonizing to the hr that they work without interfering into anyone other person’s life manner or agreements. The adult females on the â€Å"mommy path. † would non worry about the consequences of working part-time or taking pregnancy leave. They would merely be able to take whatever is best for them and non acquire penalized for it. A 2nd solution could be to let them to work from place. or possibly convey their kids to work with them. because this would fall into libertarian’s position of a person’s entitlement. I believe that Nozick would give every household the rudimentss that they would necessitate. For case when two people become a household they are entitled to a place. if a twosome has a kid or kids they are entitled to hold money and free clip in order to take attention of them. I personally would hold with Rawls theory and statement because at there will be a reaction to every action that one commits and holding the possibility of negative consequences and non caring nor holding a program to rectify them would do society even more unstable. It makes sense to me to be able to hold a opportunity to develop the rules of justness that will positively impact bulk of the least advantageous people in our society. To cognize that the head covering of ignorance will help in just and equal rights for everyone and that all of the unlawful regulations. ordinances and barriers that prevent people from making their true felicity will be diminished is an amazing thing. I do non hold with the libertarian position because it seems that there is no clear and precise declaration. We all would love to be able to populate and work freely without break from others. but life comes with good and bad and if we do non hold an option to assist one another even when it is needed. so a batch of people would fall into the clefts of society. At the terminal of the twenty-four hours we would desire to see 90 per centum of society prospering and the other 10 per centum on their manner to prospering in life.