Financial Information for CRODA International Plc Essay

Financial Information for CRODA International Plc - Essay Example Industrial specialties- which includes base chemicals, home care, polymers and coatings, additives for polymers, lubricant additives, lubricants and processed vegetable oils. (www. investing.businessweek.com). Consumer care division which includes international business in health care, personal care, and crop care – engaged in all markets throughout the world with a thumbing need for sustainable ingredients and innovations. Further, Croda has an enterprise technology division (R&D) which recognizes and assimilates new technology into Croda’s international business set up. (www.croda.com). Croda was able to post pre-tax profits of 10.5% during the year 2008 in spite of the serious international economic recession. However, due to stable focus on new markets, product innovation and recession mingled with the instant reduction in cost have facilitated Croda to accomplish one more year of pre-tax revenue growth in spite of the worst scenario in the international economy. (Chairman speech, AR 2009). The salient feature of the business model of Croda is the capacity to offer a variety of products to a variety of customers all over the globe. Croda’s persistent focus on originality in specialties has offered them the capacity to derive the true value for their products. (CEO Speech AR 2009). Croda is in a true sense a really global company as it is having only just 7% sales in the homeland of U.K. All of its subsidiary company around the world has targeted sales, operating margin, profit growth targets that form fundamental to their strategic plans and budgets. Croda’s report their progress annually against five major financial performance parameters. According to Croda’s annual report 2009, Croda International Plc has prepared its financial reports as demanded by the Companies Act, 2006 of U.K and as provided by the U.K accounting.

Hi Tech Programs Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hi Tech Programs - Research Paper Example The role of government is a hope for the success of the EHR in the forms of mandates, subsidies and policy directives (Wulsin and Dougherty, 2008). The use of electronic health record is more common in USA as compared to other countries. National Coordinator office in USA published the regulation related with HER’s objectives. These standards stated purpose of the HER system in terms of objectives like the list of patients for medication, and incentive payments. Governments’ standards are same for the hospital management and physicians. There are 20 standards for hospitals and 21 standards for the physicians (Gray et al., 2011). Physicians, clinicians and hospital management can earn more money if they treat the patients on Medicaid or Medicare. The Electronic Health Record provides the forum to all players in health management sharing the medications, problems, allergies and their test results. Responsibilities include as the security of individual patients’ data in terms of the test results’ codification (Halamka,

Stages In The Selling Process Marketing Essay

Stages In The Selling Process Marketing Essay A popular approach to understanding the stages of the selling process consists of the six steps diagrammed in Exhibit 2.8: (1) prospecting for customers, (2) opening the relation ­ship, (3) qualifying the prospect, (4) presenting the sales message, (5) closing the sale, and (6) servicing the account. Although the selling process involves only a few distinct steps, the specific activities in-volved at each step-and the way those activities are carried out-can vary greatly de-pending on the type of sales position, such as missionary versus trade salesperson, and on the firms overall selling and customer relationship strategy. Consequently, a firms sales program should incorporate account management policies to guide each salesperson and ensure that all selling efforts are consistent with the firms marketing and relationship strategy. We will examine the raÃ…Â £ionale and content of account management policies in more detail in Chapter 4. The following discussion of the stages in the selling process also mentions some of the more common account management policies used to direct sales representatives. Prospecting for Customers In many types of selling, prospecting for new customers is criticai. It can also be one of the most disheartening aspects of selling, especially for beginning salespeople. Prospecting ef ­forts are often met with rejection, and immediate payoffs are usually minimal. Neverthe-less, the ability to uncover potenÃ…Â £ial new customers often separates the successful from the unsuccessful salesperson. In some consumer goods businesses, prospecting for new customers simply involves cold canvassing-going from house to house knocking on doors. In most cases, though, the target market is more narrowly defined, and the salesperson must identify prospects within that target segment. Salespeople use a variety of information sources to identify relevant prospects, including trade association and industry directories, telephone directories, other salespeople, other customers, suppliers, nonsales employees of the firm, and social and professional contacts. Telemarketing is used by many firms to find prospects. Outbound telemarketing in ­volves calling potenÃ…Â £ial customers at their home or office, either to make a sale or to make an appointment for a field representative. Inbound telemarketing, where prospective cus-tomers call a toll-free number for more information, is also used to identify and qualify prospects. When prospects call for more information about a product or service, a repre ­sentative attempts to determine the extent of interest and whether the prospect meets the companys qualifications for new customers. If so, information about the caller is passed on to the appropriate salesperson or regional office. The Internet is also proving a useful technology for generating leads to potenÃ…Â £ial new customers. While an increasing number of firms are soliciting orders directly via a home page on the Internet, many-particularly those selling relatively complex goods or services-use their Internet sites primarily to provide technical product information to cus ­tomers or potenÃ…Â £ial customers. These firms can have their salespeople follow up on techni ­cal inquiries from potenÃ…Â £ial new accounts with a more tradiÃ…Â £ional sales call.15 A firms account management policies should address how much emphasis salespeople should give to prospecting for new customers versus prospecting and servicing existing ac ­counts. The appropriate policy depends on the selling and customer relationship strategy selected, the nature of its product, and the firms customers. If the firms strategy is trans-actional, if the product is in the introductory stage of its life cycle, if it is an infrequently purchased durable good, or if the typical customer does not require much service after the sale, sales reps should devote substanÃ…Â £ial time to prospecting for new customers. This is the case in industries such as insurance and residential construction. Such firms may design their compensation systems to reward their salespeople more heavily for making sales to new customers than for servicing old ones, as we shall see in Chapter 11. A company that desires strategic partnerships will assign a specific salesperson to each ac ­count. Firms with large market shares or those that sell frequently purchased nondurable products or products that require substanÃ…Â £ial service after the sale to guarantee customer sat-isfaction should adopt a policy that encourages sales reps to devote most of their efforts to ser ­vicing existing customers. Food manufacturers that sell products to retail supermarkets and firms that produce component parts and supplies for other manufacturers fall into this cate-gory. Some very large customers may require so much servicing that a sales rep is assigned to do nothing but cater to that customers needs. In such circumstances, firms have special-ized their sales positions so that some representatives service only existing accounts, while others spend all their time prospecting for and opening relationships with new customers. Opening the Relationship In the iniÃ…Â £ial approach to a prospective customer, the sales representative should try to open the relationship by accomplishing two things: (1) determine who within the organization is likely to have the greatest influence or authority to iniÃ…Â £iate the purchase process and who will ultimately purchase the product, and (2) generate enough interest within the firm to ob-tain the information needed to qualify the prospect as a worthwhile potenÃ…Â £ial customer. An organizational buying center often consists of individuals who play different roles in mak ­ing the purchase decision. Thus, it is important for the salesperson to identify the key deci-sion makers, their desires, and their relative influence. Selling organizations can formulate policies to guide sales reps in approaching prospec ­tive customers. When the firms product is inexpensive and routinely purchased, salespeo ­ple might be instructed to deal entirely with the purchasing department. For more technically complex and expensive products, the sales representative might be urged to identify and seek appointments with influencers and decision makers in various funcÃ…Â £ional departments and at several managerial levels. When the purchase decision is likely to be very complex, involving many people within the customers organization, the seller might adopt a policy of multilevel or team selling. Qualifying the Prospect Before salespeople attempt to set up an appointment for a major sales presentation or spend much time trying to establish a relationship with a prospective account, they should first qualify the prospect to determine if he or she qualifies as a worthwhile potenÃ…Â £ial customer. If the account does not qualify, the sales rep can spend the time better elsewhere. Qualification is difficult for some salespeople. It requires them to put aside their etemal optimism and make an objective, realistic judgment about the probability of making a prof-itable sale. As one authority points out, the qualification process involves finding the an-swers to three important questions: Does the prospect have a need for my product or service? Can I make the people responsible for buying so aware of that need that I can make a sale? Will the sale be profitable to my company?16 To answer such questions, the sales rep must learn about the prospects operations, the types of products it makes, its customers, its competitors, and the likely future demand for its products. Information also must be obtained concerning who the customers present sup-pliers are and whether any special relationships exist with those firms that would make it difficult for the prospect to change suppliers. Finally, the financial health and the credit rat-ing of the prospect should be checked. Because so many different types of information are needed, nonselling departments within the company-such as the credit and collections department-often are involved in the qualification process when large purchases are made. Frequently, however, credit de ­partments do not get involved until after the prospect has agreed to buy and filled out a credit application. In these situations, company policies should be formulated to guide the salespersons judgment concerning whether a specific prospect qualifies as a customer. These policies might speli out minimum acceptable standards for such things as the prospects annual dollar value of purchases in the product category or credit rating. Simi-larly, some firms specify a minimum order size to avoid dealing with very small customers and to improve the efficiency of their order-processing and shipping operations. Issues re-lated to prioritizing customers are discussed in Chapter 3. Presenting the Sales Message The sales presentation is the core of the selling process. The salesperson transmits informa ­tion about a product or service and attempts to persuade the prospect to become a customer. Making good presentations is a criticai aspect of the sales job. Unfortunately, many sales ­people do not perform this activity very well. Past studies have discovered that 40 percent of purchasing agents perceive the presentations they witness as less than good. In a recent sur-vey of purchasing executives, the following five presentation-related complaints were among the top 10 complaints the managers had about the salespeople with whom they deal: Running down competitors. Being too aggressive or abrasive. Having inadequate knowledge of competitors products or services. Having inadequate knowledge of the clients business or organization. Delivering poor presentations.17 One decision that must be made in preparing for an effective sales presentation concerns how many members of the buying firm should attend. Since more than one person is typically involved in making a purchase decision, should a sales presentation be given to all of them as a group? The answer depends on whether the members of the buying center have divergent attitudes and concerns, and whether those concerns can all be addressed effec-tively in a single presentation. If not, scheduling a series of one-to-one presentations with different members of the buying group might be more effective. In many cases, the best way to convince prospects of a products advantage is to demon ­strate it, particularly if the product is technically complex. Two rules should be followed in preparing an effective product demonstration. First, the demonstration should be carefully re-hearsed to reduce the possibility of even a minor malfunction. Second, the demonstration should be designed to give members of the buying center hands-on experience with the prod ­uct. For example, Xeroxs salespeople learn about their clients office operations so they can demonstrate their products actually doing the tasks they would do after they are purchased. Different firms have widely varying policies concerning how sales presentations should be organized, what selling points should be stressed, and how forcefully the presentation should be made. Door-to-door salespeople and telephone salespeople are often trained to deliver the same memorized, forceful presentation to every prospect. A person selling com ­puter systems may be trained in low-key selling, in which the salesperson primarily acts as a source of technical information and advice and does little pushing of the companys par ­ticular computers. The section later in this chapter on alternative selling approaches pro-vides additional insight on presentational approaches. Today, the proliferation of relationship selling has resulted in salespeople being called on to give more formal presentations to multiple members of a client organization. For ex ­ample, often selling firms may give quarterly or annual account review presentations to clients. These presentations typically involve the buying team and selling team as well as members of management from both sides. A firms policy on sales presentations should be consistent with its other policies for managing accounts. To formulate intelligent sales pre ­sentation policies, a sales manager must know about alternative presentation methods and their relative advantages and limitations. Space limitations of this chapter make it difficult to present a lengthy discussion of such issues. The interested student is urged to examine a personal selling textbook where a variety of sales presentation methods are discussed and evaluated in more detail. Closing the Sale Closing the sale refers to obtaining a final agreement to purchase. All the salespersons efforts are wasted unless the client signs on the dotted line; yet this is where many salespeople fail. It is natural for buyers to try to delay making purchase decisions. But as the time it takes the salesperson to close the sale increases, the profit to be made from the sale may go down, and the risk of losing the sale increases. Consequently, the salespersons task is to facilitate the client making a timely final decision. Often, this may best be accomplished by simply asking for an order. May I write that order up for you? and When do you want it delivered? are common closings. Another closing tactic is to ask the client to choose between two alterna ­tive decisions, such as, Will that be cash or charge? or Did you want the blue one or the red one? In B2B buying and selling, organizational buyers and other decision makers have had extensive training in buying and selling techniques and can identify manipulative closing techniques, so care should be used in selecting a natural way to ask for the sale. Servicing the Account The salespersons job is not finished when the sale is made. Many types of service and as-sistance must be provided to customers after a sale to ensure their satisfaction and repeat business. Excellent service after the sale bolsters customer loyalty and fosters long-term relationships with customers. But this is another area in which some salespeople do not perform well. One consultant estimates that when a customer stops buying from a com-pany, about 60 percent of the time its because the customer thinks the selling firms sales ­people developed an indifferent attitude after the product was delivered.18 The salesperson should follow up each sale to make sure no problems exist with delivery schedules, quality of goods, or customer billing. In addition, often the salesperson or members of a sales team supervise the installation of equipment, train the customers employees in its use, and ensure proper maintenance in order to reduce problems that may lead to customer dissatisfaction. This kind of postsale service can pay great dividends for both the salesperson and the selling firm, leading to the sale of other, related products and services.19 For instance, in many capital equipment lines, service contracts, along with supplies and replacement parts, account for greater dollar sales revenue and higher profit margins than the original equip ­ment. A firms selling and customer relationship strategy should dictate what type of postsale or ongoing service should occur. To truly understand the selling process, why successful salespeople do what they do, and how to most effectively manage their efforts, it is important to also understand how B2B customers make purchase decisions. After all, in relationship selling, the focus by the sales ­person and his or her entire organization is aimed at fulfilling customer needs and solving customer problems. Therefore, the next sections shift the focus of our discussion from the selling side to the buying side to examine the participants in the B2B buying process, the stages of this buying process exhibited by many organizations, and finally the nature of organizational buying situations.

Shaping Identity Essay -- essays research papers

Shaping Identity Identity. What is identity? One will say that it is the distinct personality of an individual. Others will say that identity is the behavior of a person in response to their surrounding environment. At certain points of time, some people search for their identity in order to understand their existence in life. In regards, identity is shaped into an individual through the social trials of life that involve family and peers, the religious beliefs by the practice of certain faiths, and cultural awareness through family history and traditions. These are what shape the identity of an individual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today's world, society creates an impact on human life. More of an impact can be seen among family and peers. They can be found at home, work, and school. At home with family, identity can be created on the difference of having one parent, divorced or separated parents, no parents, abusive parents, or even negligent parents. For example, children who grow up without a father or mother figure tend to become more independent at an early stage. Another example is where certain experiences within the family such as constantly witnessing parents argue can cause one's identity to be confined and distant. But, some people shape their identity similar to their parents. Such as a son became a soldier in the army because his father was in the army. Siblings, if any, are also an influence on the social identity of a person. They either become your friend, mentor, or you...

Fiction and Monkey House Essay

The Irony of the Kurt Vonnegut’s Works that Can be Seen in the Welcome in the Monkey House and Who I am this Time. Kurt Vonnegut is one the best writers in the world. He is one of the post modernism’s writers. He is best known as the author of Slaughter-Five. Kurt Vonnegut wrote of satirical novels whose central theme is life’s cosmic joke on humanity. Vonnegut also a science fiction author and he is known as a dystopian writer’s. Some of his famous works is the collection of ‘Welcome to the Monkey House’ and ‘Who am I this Time’. Both of the stories tell about life’s cosmic joke on humanity. Now, I will describe about the irony of the Kurt Vonnegut’s works that can be seen in the Welcome in the Monkey House and Who I am this Time. Welcome to the monkey house is the collection of the short works by Kurt Vonnegut. And Who am I this Time is one of the collections among the short story in the welcome of the monkey house. Who am I this time is told about some one who can play many characters in the drama. The narrator is good actor; and he is a director too he can play many characters that expected to him and he is a director too, and Harry Nash is the biggest actor that the club has. Firstly, he got a character as a salesman of storm windows and doors, and he said that the highest rank that he ever held on stage was either butler or policeman. After that, the narrator meets with a pretty girl that is Helene Shaw and asks her to play the Stella’s character. Harry Nash is good actor too, even somebody said that harry ought to go a psychiatrist so he could be some thing important and colorful in real life. He like lost anything, and one time he said that â€Å"who am I this time? †. When the play of this story, Helena Shaw cannot plays Stella’s the character as well as expected to her. And the director searched a new one to play Stella’s character. But in the end, she can find the character and can play it well. The narrator said that â€Å"the part of Stella is yours†. And Harry and Helena play the character together. Finally, they married and said one thing to the narrator â€Å"Who are we this time? †. In the Who am I this time, the author made us think to differentiate the real life and the acting. The author can separate the two worlds but it is like allied. It is the irony that, the character of this story, that is Harry Nash and Helena Shaw can play the character in the play, but they can play their character in the real life. It can be seen when Harry Nash plays the character of Abraham Lincoln, he can make his spouse fall in love with him, as a Harry Nash and as Abraham Lincoln. And in the end of the story, there is another irony that is when Harry Nash and Helena Shaw get married. They said that â€Å"who are we this time†, it means that they will play many character in their life until they die. There is another story of Kurt Vonnegut that contain of Irony element in the work that is Welcome to the monkey House. Welcome to the monkey house is containing of irony element too. In this story, sex which is the natural behavior of human is forbidden by the government. Welcome to the monkey house told about the condition in the future which is the world has over population. This is the time when the population of the earth is 17 billion human beings. That is too many mammals that big for a planet that small. The people were virtually packed together like drupelets . And Billy the Poet who is a person who refused the ethical birth-control pill, so, he will got the penalty for that that is $10. 000 and ten years in jail. The world government makes a two-pronged to attack on overpopulation. One pronging is the encouragement of ethical suicide, which consist of going to the nearest suicide parlor and asking a hostess to kill us painlessly while we lay on Barcalounger. The other pronging was compulsory ethical birth control. Billy the Poet does not like to do it, because he think that, sex is the natural desire of human, and it cannot forbidden by government. One day Pete Crocker, the sheriff of Barnstable County, comes to the Ethical Suicide Parlor in Hyannis and announces to the two hostesses working there that Billy the Poet, a nothing head, was about to come to Cape Cod. Billy the Poet is known to be eager to deflowering hostesses, who are all virgins, and to send them smutty poems before he violates them, and one of the hostesses is Nancy McLuhan who is works in Barcalounger. After that, Billy the Port comes to Nancy to do a dirty thing. Nancy is repulsed by the whole action and insults Billy the poet. In the end, Billy the poet leaves her alone handing her a bottle of ancient birth control pills which prevent pregnancy but allow sexual intercourse. The label on the bottle says: Welcome to the Monkey House. So, the irony in this story is when government forbids their people to having sex, and gives them pills that made them like dying. Whereas, sex is the natural desire of human that cannot forbids by the government. It is according with Billy the Port statement to Nancy McLuhan that is one day he will make her understand that sexuality is a part of human nature and must not be suppressed by the Government. In the conclusion, I see that Kurt Vonnegut is the postmodernist writers that give the irony in his works that can be seen in the both of this story.

Deception Point Page 47

Arriving now at the doorway of the Communications Office, Tench felt alive with the thrill of the fight. Politics was war. She took a deep breath and checked her watch. 6:15 P.M. The first shot was about to be fired. She entered. The Communications Office was small not for lack of room, but for lack of necessity. It was one of the most efficient mass communications stations in the world and employed a staff of only five people. At the moment, all five employees stood over their banks of electronic gear looking like swimmers poised for the starting gun. They are ready, Tench saw in their eager gazes. It always amazed her that this tiny office, given only two hours head start, could contact more than one third of the world's civilized population. With electronic connections to literally tens of thousands of global news sources-from the largest television conglomerates to the smallest hometown newspapers-the White House Communications Office could, at the touch of a few buttons, reach out and touch the world. Fax-broadcast computers churned press releases into the in-boxes of radio, television, print, and Internet media outlets from Maine to Moscow. Bulk e-mail programs blanketed on-line news wires. Telephone autodialers phoned thousands of media content managers and played recorded voice announcements. A breaking news Web page provided constant updates and preformatted content. The â€Å"live-feed-capable† news sources-CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, foreign syndicates-would be assaulted from all angles and promised free, live television feeds. Whatever else these networks were airing would come to a screeching halt for an emergency presidential address. Full penetration. Like a general inspecting her troops, Tench strode in silence over to the copy desk and picked up the printout of the â€Å"flash release† that now sat loaded in all the transmission machines like cartridges in a shotgun. When Tench read it, she had to laugh quietly to herself. By usual standards, the release loaded for broadcast was heavy-handed-more of an advertisement than an announcement-but the President had ordered the Communications Office to pull out all the stops. And that they had. This text was perfect-keyword-rich and content light. A deadly combination. Even the news wires that used automated â€Å"keyword-sniffer† programs to sort their incoming mail would see multiple flags on this one: From: White House Communications Office Subject: Urgent Presidential Address The President of the United States will be holding an urgent press conference tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time from the White House briefing room. The topic of his announcement is currently classified. Live A/V feeds will be available via customary outlets. Laying the paper back down on the desk, Marjorie Tench looked around the Communications Office and gave the staff an impressed nod. They looked eager. Lighting a cigarette, she puffed a moment, letting the anticipation build. Finally, she grinned. â€Å"Ladies and gentlemen. Start your engines.† 53 All logical reasoning had evaporated from Rachel Sexton's mind. She held no thoughts for the meteorite, the mysterious GPR printout in her pocket, Ming, the horrific attack on the ice sheet. There was one matter at hand. Survival. The ice skimmed by in a blur beneath her like an endless, sleek highway. Whether her body was numb with fear or simply cocooned by her protective suit, Rachel did not know, but she felt no pain. She felt nothing. Yet. Lying on her side, attached to Tolland at the waist, Rachel lay face-to-face with him in an awkward embrace. Somewhere ahead of them, the balloon billowed, fat with wind, like a parachute on the back of a dragster. Corky trailed behind, swerving wildly like a tractor trailer out of control. The flare marking the spot where they had been attacked had all but disappeared in the distance. The hissing of their nylon Mark IX suits on the ice grew higher and higher in pitch as they continued to accelerate. She had no idea how fast they were going now, but the wind was at least sixty miles an hour, and the frictionless runway beneath them seemed to be racing by faster and faster with every passing second. The impervious Mylar balloon apparently had no intentions of tearing or relinquishing its hold. We need to release, she thought. They were racing away from one deadly force-directly toward another. The ocean is probably less than a mile ahead now! The thought of icy water brought back terrifying memories. The wind gusted harder, and their speed increased. Somewhere behind them Corky let out a scream of terror. At this speed, Rachel knew they had only a few minutes before they were dragged out over the cliff into the frigid ocean. Tolland was apparently having similar thoughts because he was now fighting with the payload clasp attached to their bodies. â€Å"I can't unhook us!† he yelled. â€Å"There's too much tension!† Rachel hoped a momentary lull in the wind might give Tolland some slack, but the katabatic pulled on with relentless uniformity. Trying to help, Rachel twisted her body and rammed the toe cleat of one of her crampons into the ice, sending a rooster tail of ice shards into the air. Their velocity slowed ever so slightly. â€Å"Now!† she yelled, lifting her foot. For an instant the payload line on the balloon slackened slightly. Tolland yanked down, trying to take advantage of the loose line to maneuver the payload clip out of their carabiners. Not even close. â€Å"Again!† he yelled. This time they both twisted against one another and rammed their toe prongs into the ice, sending a double plume of ice into the air. This slowed the contraption more perceptibly. â€Å"Now!† On Tolland's cue, they both let up. As the balloon surged forward again, Tolland rammed his thumb into the carabiner latch and twisted the hook, trying to release the clasp. Although closer this time, he still needed more slack. The carabiners, Norah had bragged, were first-rate, Joker safety clips, specifically crafted with an extra loop in the metal so they would never release if there were any tension on them at all. Killed by safety clips, Rachel thought, not finding the irony the least bit amusing. â€Å"One more time!† Tolland yelled. Mustering all her energy and hope, Rachel twisted as far as she could and rammed both of her toes into the ice. Arching her back, she tried to lift all her weight onto her toes. Tolland followed her lead until they were both angled roughly on their stomachs, the connection at their belt straining their harnesses. Tolland rammed his toes down and Rachel arched farther. The vibrations sent shock waves up her legs. She felt like her ankles were going to break. â€Å"Hold it†¦ hold it†¦ † Tolland contorted himself to release the Joker clip as their speed decreased. â€Å"Almost†¦ â€Å" Rachel's crampons snapped. The metal cleats tore off of her boots and went tumbling backward into the night, bouncing over Corky. The balloon immediately lurched forward, sending Rachel and Tolland fishtailing to one side. Tolland lost his grasp on the clip. â€Å"Shit!† The Mylar balloon, as if angered at having been momentarily restrained, lurched forward now, pulling even harder, dragging them down the glacier toward the sea. Rachel knew they were closing fast on the cliff, although they faced danger even before the hundred-foot drop into the Arctic Ocean. Three huge snow berms stood in their path. Even protected by the padding in the Mark IX suits, the experience of launching at high speed up and over the snow mounds filled her with terror. Fighting in desperation with their harnesses, Rachel tried to find a way to release the balloon. It was then that she heard the rhythmic ticking on the ice-the rapid-fire staccato of lightweight metal on the sheet of bare ice.