Alcohol and the average teen Essay Example for Free

Alcohol and the average teen Essay Many teens today face the situation of alcohol and alcohol abuse. Although we cannot make their choices for them, we can persuade them into not taking alcohol by knowing the risks first; a lot like warnings on smoke packages. Alcohol can have a big affect on the adolescent mind. The brain of a an average human being keeps developing to the age of adolescence; people believe that the brain stops developing at the age of adolescence, but in fact, the brain develops into the early 20s. At the age of adolescence, the brain goes under remodelling and rewiring. The underdeveloped brain of an adolescent can suffer irreversible brain damage and may have long lasting effects on the brain. That is why there is an age limit of 19 in Canada and the age limit of 21 in the United States. Many side effects of drinking alcohol are: slurring of words, memory loss, difficulty walking, blurred vision, slow reaction times, dehydration, blackouts(being unconscious) and even death. Alcohol is a dangerous thing a teens should not take the risks. Long term effects of alcohol unintentional injuries: car crash, falls, burns. e. t. cintentional injuries: firearm injuries, sex assault and domestic violence increase on the job injuries and loss of productivity increase of family and relationship problems alcohol poisoning high blood pressure, stroke and other heart diseases liver disease nerve damage sexual problems permanent brain damage mouth and throat cancers. Short term effects of alcohol slurred speech drowsiness vomiting diarrhea coma blackouts unconsciousness blurred vision and hearing problems breathing difficulties After drinking alcohol, many people experience difficulty to walk, unable to gain balance, motor control, timing and awareness. This is because your body will not completely absorb all of the alcohol; some of it will travel into the brain and into your cerebellum. Your cerebellum controls motor control, awareness, coordination and thoughts. The alcohol will tend to make your hands shake a lot, unable to pick up stuff and to lose balance and maybe even fall. After you drink alcohol(ethanol), reaction time or reflexes slow, because the cerebellum controls awareness which is affected by alcohol. For example, after drinking large amounts of alcohol, a person would often stumble, lose control and fall over. A person might not be aware that they are drunk until they wake up from a hangover. A second example for motor control is when a person has no control of their hands and cannot grasp at any object. One more example of balance is that a person has difficulty walking, often grabbing objects to support their body. Drinking alcohol can have effects such as mood swings, and unable to control one’s self and can sometimes become very violent. The frontal lobes control planning, forming ideas, making decisions/judgement and using self control. Alcohol disrupts the frontal lobes and can create these effects. It is illegal to drive while having more than 0. 08 % blood alcohol concentration because the alcohol will affect decision making while driving and become very dangerous if poor decisions are made. Violent tendencies also come from the induce of alcohol. Two thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate have reported alcohol has been a factor. Drinking alcohol can also have suicidal thoughts and attempts. In 2002, 3 million youth were at risk of suicidal attempts. The suicidal thoughts and attempts are because the frontal lobe controls thoughts and judgement while under the influence of alcohol. An example of poor decision making is when a person decides to jump down two stories from a balcony. An example of mood swings is that a person will be happy when drinking, but depressed later can be common effects. An example of self control, is when a person has violent rages that he/she cannot control that causes reckless damage. When a person thinks of an action, their body will act it out. The brain sends messages through the spine and to a certain part of the body carrying out the instructions through a set of nerves in the nervous system. Alcohol slows down the central nervous system which makes actions/movements, speech and thoughts slower by inhibiting signals between the head, spinal cord and nerve endings . Alcohol is a central nervous depressant and have life threatening effects on the bodys nervous system. The nervous system takes more damage than any other part of the body. Alcohol decreases the central nervous systems activity, and reduces anxiety, tension, and inhibitions. Drinking on a empty stomach can make the alcohol rush through your bloodstream faster, although drinking while eating doesnt necessarily mean that you wont get drunk. Stroke, heart attack and dementia can be the results of alcohols effect on the nervous system. Another example of when alcohol acts on the nervous system is when your words slur and vision will start to blur. Memory loss and unconsciousness/blackout can happen when a person drinks too much alcohol. The alcohol affects the hippocampus part of the brain, and is located in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. The hippocampus is vital to learning and memories and also vulnerable to chronic alcohol consumptions. When induced alcohol, it can affect the brain and can make you forget the recent memories of events. And having drunk alcohol has been shown to decrease the volume of the hippocampus; having induced too much alcohol in very little time can make you black out and forget whole events. If alcohol damages the hippocampus, people may find hard to grasp at memories and may find it hard to learn. This affects teens because of learning disabilities which could make them fall behind in school. An example of memory loss is, when Joe stays at his friend Bobs house, but he got drunk, passed out and woke up the other day not remembering what he was doings at his friends house. Alcohol can affect the hippocampus and affect your learning and memory. Blood pressure, hunger, thirst and the urge to urinate, even death are the effects of alcohol on the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus controls/ regulates the bodys functions. Some of the functions that the hypothalamus performs are: autonomic nervous system controls that help regulate eating and drinking, controls body temperature, body fluid, electrolyte balance and weight. When teens drink, they get a warm feeling inside their body. What actually happens is their blood pressure and body heat are rapidly decreasing. Death occurs because the body temperature and blood pressure are dropping, also because there is too much alcohol in ones system(alcohol blood concentration 0. 40%) Each year, approximately 5, 000 youth die from alcohol. Hunger and thirst occur because the hypothalamus regulates eating and drinking and is disrupted by the alcohol. That is also the reason for the urge to urinate because of the regulation of bodily fluids. Alcohol can affect your hypothalamus and disrupt your bodys natural functions. unconsciousness, low body temperature and slow breathing are the effects of alcohol on the medulla. The medulla controls automatic functions such as breathing, consciousness and body temperature. By acting on the medulla, alcohol induces sleep, which causes blackouts and unconsciousness. This also means that a person’s breathing would be affected and would be life threatening because their breathing would slow. A persons body temperature also decreases below normal creating hypothermia, especially if the person drinks in cold temperatures. Alcohol is a life costing drug that should be precautioned. Alcohol and the body Alcohol also has huge impacts on health and the human body. The alcohol first passess through the mouth and into the body. From there, it goes into the stomach. Some of the alcohol goes into bloodstream in the stomach, but most of it goes on to the small intestine. In the small intestines, the alcohol enters the bloodstream through the walls of the intestines. Then, the heart pumps the alcohol throughout the body. Next, the alcohol reaches the brain. After that, the liver works to oxidize the alcohol at a rate of 0. 5 oz per hour. Finally, the alcohol converts into water carbon and energy. Health problems that alcohol can cause are: high blood pressure, osteoporosis(bone disease), stroke and cancer, including breast cancer. Alcohol can have big impacts on the body. Alcohol can has huge impacts on the heart and health. The heart is a pump for your blood to flow throughout your body and is the biggest muscle in your body. The effects of alcohol on the heart can cause good and bad effects. The benefits of drinking alcohol are: youre less likely to get cardiovascular disease. One way is that the alcohol can increase good cholesterol which prevents clots and heart attacks. There are also many dangerous effects of alcohol on the heart when heavy alcohol consumptions occurs: excessive intake of alcohol will more likely give you high blood pressure and puts extra strain on the heart, increases the amount of fat circulating in the bloodstream, people who drink too much will increase their risk of experiencing stroke and would cause atrial fibrillation-irregular heartbeats which could increase stroke. Alcohol has both benefits and risks depending on the consumption. Through the pathway of alcohol, it passes through the digestive system. The alcohol can irritate the stomach, causing it to produce more acid than usual, causing inflammation of the lining of the stomach. The side effects are stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea and in heavy drinkers, bleeding. The long term consequences of alcohol are the increase of getting cancer of your mouth, tongue, throat, stomach and pancreas. Alcohol can also make it difficult to digest food and absorb any nutrients from the food you just ate. This is because the alcohol reduces enzyme production in the pancreas making it hard to break down and absorb the fat and nutrients. A possible way to protect your stomach is to eat rich carbohydrates and drink a lot of water that would slow down the the rate of which your body absorbs alcohol. Death is possible too. If your unconscious, it is possible that you will throw up in your mouth and die of choking on the vomit; it would be stuck in your respiratory system and your lungs would not get air. Alcohol, if not, is a very unhealthy substance to your stomach and digestive system. Your liver is one of your most vital organs in your body. Your livers main job is detoxification-to filter your blood for toxins coming from the digestive tract. Liver disease is used to describe the damage done upon your liver from the alcohol. There are two main types of liver disease: acute meaning liver problems develops over a few months and chronic liver disease is damage done to the liver over a number of years. Some reasons why alcohol causes liver disease are: 1. Oxidative stress. The liver takes up a lot of stress filtering the alcohol and the chemical reaction can cause damage to the cells. This could cause inflammation and scarring as the liver tries to regenerate itself. 2. Alcohol causes damages to the small intestines releasing bacteria that is carried out onto the liver. Long term effects on the liver can cause many liver disease, fat deposited due to absorbing of alcohol leads to fatty liver disease and cirrhosis-a complete shutdown of the liver because it is so damaged. Heavy alcohol consumptions can have a great deal to the liver and your health. Alcohol also damages the kidney. Whether it’s acute or chronic alcohol consumption, the alcohol will damage the kidneys. The functions of the kidneys is to filter blood-the kidneys remove metabolic waste, controls the body’s fluid balance, regulates the balance of electrolytes, regulation of blood volume and pressure and maintaining electrolyte levels in blood. As the kidneys filters blood, urine is created and stored in the kidneys’ pelvis. Alcohol can cause all kinds of damage to your kidneys. Alcohol alters the filtering system of the kidneys and damages the balance of water and ions in the body. Drinking alcohol can cause high blood pressure and is the second leading cause to chronic kidney disease. The alcohol also alter filtering levels that will increase urination when drinking which is why you have to go to the washroom every five minutes, but is important to keep hydrated because by urinating, you get rid of your body’s water. Alcohol impacts the kidneys and kidneys are vital to the human body. How alcohol impacts teens and families Alcohol impacts teens and families a lot. Alcohol abuse among teens is a common problem. Statistics say that 80% of high school students report drinking alcohol and 40% of high school students report trying alcohol by the eighth grade. Some effects of alcohol abuse are emotional problems. Alcohol abuse can cause emotional problems like depression and anxiety. Alcohol abuse can cause severity in these problems. Statistics say that eighth grade girls that have alcohol abuse are more likely to attempt suicide. Some of the reasons that teens drink are: peer pressure. E. x. Your friends are all drinking and youre the one who doesn’t. Your friends will make fun of you and say you’re a loser. Fun and adventure. E. x. You want to try beer of alcohol for fun or for adventures and you try a sip. Then gulps and are not able to control yourself. Curiosity. E. x. You’ve seen them in the television. You’ve seen it in movies: people(mostly adults) drinking alcohol and getting crashed. Your parents warned you about the effects of alcohol and becoming an alcoholic. But you still wonder what it feels like to drink a sip of alcohol. So you take a bottle of beer take a drink. You get a warm feeling inside. Then you can’t control yourself and drink way too much and have a hangover. Self esteem. Some teens have a low self esteem and they want to boost it. Drinking alcohol will not boost self esteem, but causes depression instead. To cope with stress. E. x. You are under a lot of stress from school, relationships, e. t. c. When drinking alcohol, a feeling of happy and carefree. Scientists have discovered that drinking alcohol releases serotonin which is a happy chemical. Alcohol also affects teens when driving. It is not a good idea to drive with someone who is impaired that drives. Having more than 0. 08% of blood alcohol concentration can affect judgement, judgement to know if you’re intoxicated , especially when driving and is considered illegal to drive with above 0. 08% blood alcohol concentration . Statistics show that in 2010, 10,228 were killed in alcohol impaired driving crashes, almost one third of all the traffic related deaths in the United States. Impaired drinking continues to be the number one road safety issue in Canada. Alcohol also affects the family around you. When teens are killed in car accidents, their families are greatly impacted. The family would be burdened with sadness as they hear the police tell that your son or daughter was killed by drunk driving and would never forget. Not only does it impact parents, but children as well. There’s a same possibility that the parents/ guardians could’ve died in a car accident as well. The children have to take care of themselves and for each other now that their parents, unless taken to foster parents and can sometimes never recover from the tragedy. Not only does drunk driving affect families, but alcoholics too. Alcoholism is a family disease that affects everyone in the family. Usually, the alcoholic doesn’t know that they’re an alcoholic until it’s too late. The child works extra hard trying to be a perfect that they don’t upset the alcoholic, but always takes the blame is called the scapegoat. The other family member tries to make the alcoholic drink more and tries to hide the fact that alcohol is the problem and is called the enabler. Alcohol impacts teens and also families as well.

Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays

Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is said to be the single greatest epic poem of all time. The opening story of the character of Dante the Pilgrim is told in the first of the three divisions: The Inferno. The Inferno is a description of Dante’s journey down through Hell and of the several degrees of suffering and many mythical creatures that he encounters on the way. Throughout his travel Dante displays many different feelings and actions but the emotion that summarizes the entire poem is fear. While some of his character traits change as his mind matures and acknowledges the justice being carried out, from the very beginning until the final Canto, his fear does not subside. This does well to reinforce the symbolism of Dante as Everyman and serves to direct the reader to the moral purpose of Divine Comedy, because of the humility and dependence upon God that fear produces. In the first Canto, which serves as an introduction to the entire comedy, Dante encounters the three beasts which impede his progress out of the dark woods. Coming upon the She-Wolf he writes: "This last beast brought my spirit down so low / with fear that seized me at the sight of her, / lost all hope of going up the hill" (I.52-54). Dante is so shaken by the appearances of the three beasts that he rushes headlong into the dark woods he has just come out of. This is only the first obstacle Dante encounters, but it proves an insurmountable one. When Dante and Virgil reach the gate of Hell, Dante is overcome with fear upon reading the inscription above the gate and hearing the screams and lamentations of those inside. He reacts to the inscription by crying out, " ‘Master,’ I said, ‘these words I see are cruel.’ " (III.12). By this he shows his fear of the unknown because he does not yet know exactly what he will witness during his descent. One of Dante’s truest display of fear occurs upon reaching the vile City of Dis. When the "fallen angels" deny the travelers access through the city, Virgil, usually unflappable, even appears shaken up. Understandably, this does not help Dante’s nerves at all. He actually makes a side comment to the reader declaring the terror he felt after the angels had defied Virgil’s request saying: "And now, my reader, consider how I felt / when those foreboding words came to my ears! / I thought I’d never see our world again!" (VIII. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy :: Divine Comedy Inferno Essays Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy is said to be the single greatest epic poem of all time. The opening story of the character of Dante the Pilgrim is told in the first of the three divisions: The Inferno. The Inferno is a description of Dante’s journey down through Hell and of the several degrees of suffering and many mythical creatures that he encounters on the way. Throughout his travel Dante displays many different feelings and actions but the emotion that summarizes the entire poem is fear. While some of his character traits change as his mind matures and acknowledges the justice being carried out, from the very beginning until the final Canto, his fear does not subside. This does well to reinforce the symbolism of Dante as Everyman and serves to direct the reader to the moral purpose of Divine Comedy, because of the humility and dependence upon God that fear produces. In the first Canto, which serves as an introduction to the entire comedy, Dante encounters the three beasts which impede his progress out of the dark woods. Coming upon the She-Wolf he writes: "This last beast brought my spirit down so low / with fear that seized me at the sight of her, / lost all hope of going up the hill" (I.52-54). Dante is so shaken by the appearances of the three beasts that he rushes headlong into the dark woods he has just come out of. This is only the first obstacle Dante encounters, but it proves an insurmountable one. When Dante and Virgil reach the gate of Hell, Dante is overcome with fear upon reading the inscription above the gate and hearing the screams and lamentations of those inside. He reacts to the inscription by crying out, " ‘Master,’ I said, ‘these words I see are cruel.’ " (III.12). By this he shows his fear of the unknown because he does not yet know exactly what he will witness during his descent. One of Dante’s truest display of fear occurs upon reaching the vile City of Dis. When the "fallen angels" deny the travelers access through the city, Virgil, usually unflappable, even appears shaken up. Understandably, this does not help Dante’s nerves at all. He actually makes a side comment to the reader declaring the terror he felt after the angels had defied Virgil’s request saying: "And now, my reader, consider how I felt / when those foreboding words came to my ears! / I thought I’d never see our world again!" (VIII.

Building a Company Without Borders

HBR. ORG Bart Becht is the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, headquartered in Slough, England. Building a Company Without Borders An Italian Is Running The Uk Business A Dutchman Is Running The U. S. Business An American Is Running The German Business By Bart Becht A Frenchman Is Running The Russian Business An Indian Is Running The Chinese Business A Belgian Is Running The Brazilian Business T The Idea You may never have heard of Reckitt Benckiser, but in the past few years the company has outperformed its rivals P&G, Unilever, and Colgate in growth—even during the downturn. Here’s how. ey say you can’t go home again. If you work for Reckitt Benckiser, you can go home—but you may not want to, and you certainly won’t have to. Many companies, when they describe themselves as global, mean they have operations around the world, they work virtually and in all time zones, and their key people are developed through stints in other markets. Our version is more comprehensive. Most of our top managers haven’t held jobs in their countries of origin for years and view themselves as global citizens rather than as citizens of any given nation. We have operations in more than 60 countries. Our top 400 managers represent 53 di erent nationalities. We’ve spent the past 10 years building this culture of global April 2010 Harvard Business Review 103 This article is provided compliments of Reckitt Benckiser Group. HOW I DID IT mobility because we think it’s one of the best ways to generate new ideas and create global entrepreneurs. And it has paid o . Products launched in the past three years—all the result of global cross-fertilization—account for 35% to 40% of our net revenue. For example, Finish, an all-in-one dishwasher tablet you drop into your machine, is now the leader in its market category. Recently we successfully introduced QuantuMatic—an automatic dispenser of dishwasher detergent that doesn’t need to be re lled for up to a month. With constant innovation like this we’ve enjoyed steady, pro table growth, even during the downturn. Since 2005 we’ve outpaced all our big competitors. During the recession we’ve invested more than ever in marketing, and we grew at a rate of 8% (at constant exchange rates) in 2009. A Company Without a Country The RB â€Å"Powerbrands† Though the company’s corporate brand recognition is very low, its products are well-known. RB focuses on 17 powerbrands: Air Wick Calgon (water softener) Cillit Bang Clearasil Dettol Finish French’s PREVIOUSLY ELECTRASOL Gaviscon AMERICA IN NORTH Harpic Lysol Mortein Mucinex Nurofen Strepsils Vanish Veet Woolite 104 Harvard Business Review April 2010 Reckitt Benckiser resulted from a merger in 1999 of Reckitt & Colman—a British purveyor of household cleaning products with a great stable of brands—and the Dutchlisted Benckiser, a much smaller but betterperforming consumer goods company. But we don’t want to be known as an AngloDutch enterprise, or by any other label based on our operations or history. We’re not any country’s company—we’re a truly multicountry company. That is by design. Postmerger we mixed the national cultures quickly in every corner of our operations. Premerger many of the local businesses had been running themselves more or less independent of the rest of the world and without regard to overall corporate priorities. We transferred people who embodied RB’s values into key positions in new markets. Managers from one side of the merger were purposely moved to another territory, and then moved again. Now in every country we have people of many nationalities as well as local citizens. Today an Italian is running the UK business, and an American is running the German business. A Dutchman is running the U. S. business, an Indian the Chinese business, a Belgian the Brazilian business, and a Frenchman the Russian business. It’s not that you can’t advance at RB in your local company. You can. But we also offer unique global mobility and experience to people who want to grow their careers on a world stage. To facilitate this mobility, we established compensation rules that apply equally to our top 400 managers in all markets, making international transfers easy. We have just one employment contract, and our salary ranges were developed with global benchmarking. Our annual cash bonus structure and long-term incentive plans are the same for everyone, as are our pensions, medical plans, and other benefits. We have no expatriates in the traditional sense, no tax equalization or guarantee of a job back in one’s home country. When employees take jobs in other countries, they’re transferred as â€Å"local hires. † We’ve built in standard protocols to make it easier for people with families to move. For example, we fund whatever school the employee chooses for his or her children because we understand how important that is to a family’s adjustment. That way, we can instantly accomplish a transfer—we don’t have to negotiate a lot of convoluted contractual nonsense. We have moved people to new countries in as little as two days. We also do something pretty rare with graduates. In some markets we help foreign students to get work permits in the countries where they’ve been studying. The very fact that they have traveled to study means they are internationally minded and thus likely to be keen to work in other countries as well. At a lot of companies it’s assumed that employees, having â€Å"seen the world,† will sooner or later return to their home countries to continue their careers. Our idea is that you focus primarily on the best job possible for you, regardless of country. That kind of life isn’t for everyone, and not everyone has to follow that path. But those who love it really love it. It’s exciting, and it gives pace, challenge, learning, and a buzz to people’s careers—along with the satisfaction of being able to be entrepreneurial and innovative. We try to put our high potentials in stretching situations around the globe. For example, we had one excellent employee who wanted to be moved to an international marketing job. We had an opening in India, but that would have been a poor choice for him—he’s Indian. Our previous three marketing people in India were German, French, and British. If this employee wanted to grow, he needed to acquire different experiences and learning, so a better development opportunity would be for him to work in Brazil or Mexico. Our high potentials have to find their footing very quickly, and most of them grow tremendously when we take them out of their familiar zone. This article is provided compliments of Reckitt Benckiser Group. HBR. ORG Reckitt Benckiser at a Glance A DECADE OF GROWTH , MILLIONS , ?, ? Total , Net Revenue (? M) , , , , , , , OPERATING PROFIT , Operating Pro? t (? M) NET REVENUE , Employees ?, ? , Total , Net Revenue (? M) Operating Pro? t (? M) Employees SOURCE RECKITT BENCKISER Even their failures in new markets are important learning experiences for our high potentials. One of our top managers, who is Dutch, still talks about the hard lesson he learned when we transferred him to Turkey. In The Netherlands, where he had worked before, billing and receivables were predictable and orderly. In Turkey the currency suddenly collapsed by 70%—while he was focusing on market share rather than on delinquent receivables. As he puts it, there’s nothing like a currency failure to change your views on tight financial management. If you don’t express your opinion, you don’t have an opinion, and that’s a fatal weakness for people who want to do well at Reckitt Benckiser. That means our meetings are a bit chaotic. Everybody wants to be heard, so it’s more like an Italian family dinner than a nicely organized board meeting. What takes over in our meetings is an intensity and a feeling that we have to ght for better ideas. Con ict is good. We don’t care about consensus. Not having it doesn’t slow us down and doesn’t mean that people aren’t aligned. We make decisions fast and then all stand behind them. What isn’t tolerated is conflict that simply slows down decision making or is for political or personal gain. Almost every key decision is made in the meeting at which it’s rst discussed. We expect people to come armed with facts, be prepared to argue their point of view, and be willing to live with the decision we ultimately make. Get 80% alignment and 100% agreement to implement. And move quickly. But I also don’t believe in crushing minority views. If we have 10 people in a room, eight of them agreeing on one thing and two passionately believing something else, we don’t try to resolve it to everyone’s satisfaction. We allow those two to experiment with their ideas—even if everyone else thinks they’re wrong. At the end of the day, what counts is not what the 10 people in that room think, it’s what the consumer thinks. So we let them run maverick smallscale experiments to get consumer feedback. Sometimes our biggest ideas come that way. About six years ago we had a huge internal debate about a product called Air Wick Freshmatic, which automatically releases freshener into the air on a schedule. It originated when one of our brand managers in Korea observed a new kind of automatic scent dispenser in stores there. In his opinion it was not a well-designed product, but he thought the idea was intriguing, so he brought it to a group meeting at our headquarters. Vigorous debate ensued. April 2010 Harvard Business Review 105 With so many different native languages in our company, it was necessary to make English the official language for all meetings. I’m Dutch, but I don’t speak Dutch with any of my Dutch colleagues, because if others are around, it excludes them. We are one team with one language. English isn’t most people’s native language, and often our English isn’t pretty. But the way we see it, it doesn’t matter as long as you give a view. If you don’t express your opinion, you don’t have an opinion, and that’s a fatal weakness for people who want to do well at Reckitt Benckiser. You have to stand for something, no matter how bluntly you communicate it. Con? ict Is Good This article is provided compliments of Reckitt Benckiser Group. HOW I DID IT HBR. ORG RB’s Performance-Based Remuneration Reckitt Benckiser believes it has designed a compensation plan to foster its innovative and entrepreneurial culture. The company has touted performance-oriented pay in its annual report as key to RB’s strong growth. According to a 2006 Harvard Business School case study, the plan, which applies to the company’s top managers (including the CEO), consists of three parts: base salary, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives. Base salaries are set near the median for competitors’ pay. The real bene? comes in the form of bonuses. A manager who meets all targets will typically receive 40% of his or her base salary as a bonus that year. A manager who blows the targets out of the water A manager who blows the targets out of the water can earn a bonus of up to 144%. (usually that means doubling the target numbers) can earn a bonus of up to 144%. Long-term compensation, in the form of options and perf ormance-related restricted stock, depends on meeting three-year corporate growth targets for earnings per share. New long-term goals are put into place each year. Karen Dillon A couple of our managers believed it should be a consumer product in Europe, but a lot more thought that made no sense— it might work in Korea on a very small scale, but it would never work in Western markets. For one thing, it would have to be priced well above the standard air freshener, and it wasn’t clear that the market would support that. Also, this would be our rst foray into something electronic, with wires, batteries, interval switches—a complex technology combination. The product would require new manufacturing facilities if it went to any scale. But two people meant we had to source materials we had no prior experience with. Today Air Wick Freshmatic is sold in 85 countries, with a wide range of options for consumers. It generates well in excess of ? 200 million annually. That product had the most successful launch in our history. Of course, things don’t always work out that well. We’ve launched some beautifully thought-out products that we were passionate about—but consumers weren’t. A few years ago we introduced a wonderful product to clean your microwave: You put a little sachet into the oven and start it. While If someone wants to stand up under stress and say, â€Å"No, I passionately believe in this,† then I’m willing to take a chance. saw the potential and were willing to ght for the chance to prove it. If somebody wants to stand up under stress and say, â€Å"No, I passionately believe in this. You guys are all wrong! We’ve got to do this,† then I’m willing to take a chance. So in this case I said ne, here’s the money— go gure it out, but do it on a small scale. And that’s what they did. In January 2004, initial testing of the idea with consumers in the UK produced extraordinary results. By the end of the year the product was in more than 30 other countries, and we’d overseen the building of a new factory in China to make it—which 106 Harvard Business Review April 2010 the oven is heating, the sachet pops and spreads cleaner around. When it’s nished, the sachet has become a cloth to wipe your cleaner away. It was a beautifully designed product. But it turns out that people don’t actually want to clean their microwaves all that often, so we pulled it from the market. If we are going to fail, we want to fail small and quickly. Failure is actually a huge incentive for the kind of people who fit well with our company, because they’re so personally competitive that they’ll work even faster for the next success. Everyone wants to do something to get on the map. I just moved one manager from Chile to Turkey. He earned that move because he had done something very challenging in his market—he’d launched one of our â€Å"powerbrands,† the sanitizer Dettol, in Latin America. It wasn’t the biggest success we’ve ever had, but the point is that he did it. He was the guy who brought Dettol to Chile and created a platform for its growth. That’s his mark on the business. That kind of thing earns you a promotion in this company, and the promotion will probably take you to another part of the world. Some people look at us and think they’d have to be nuts to work here. We’re looking for people with a certain level of maturity, intensity, and competitiveness. If you bring all of that to Reckitt Benckiser, it will be rewarded. (See the sidebar â€Å"RB’s Performance-Based Remuneration. †) As the CEO who has guided the company for more than a decade, I’d like to take credit for having a brilliant strategy or unique insights into the global marketplace. But in reality the â€Å"vision† slide we use today is the exact same one we’ve used since the merger. We have a very simple approach to the business: Focus on 17 powerbrands in fast-growing categories, innovate and invest behind them—and do so in every market. At the end of the day, what is most distinct about Reckitt Benckiser is its people and culture. I can tell in three minutes if someone would be a good t for our company. We’d rather have a position open for a long time, if necessary, than put the wrong person in place. It’s that important. HBR Reprint R K This article is provided compliments of Reckitt Benckiser Group.

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