Major factors in the social environment Essay

1.Identify and explain the Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility. Provide several examples of each ‘layer’ of the pyramid. Identify and discuss some of the tensions among the layers or components. PELE 2. In your review, what is the single strongest argument against the idea of corporate social responsibility? What is the single strongest argument for corporate social responsibility? Briefly explain 3. Differentiate between corporate social responsibility and corporate social responsiveness. Give an example of each. How does corporate social performance relate to these terms? Where does corporate citizenship fit in? 4. Analyse how the triple bottom-line and the Pyramid of CSR are similar and different. Draw a schematic that shows how the two concepts relate to one another. Chapter 3 & 4 1. Explain the concepts of stake and stakeholder from your perspective as an individual. What kinds of stakes and stakeholders do you have? Discuss. 2. Explain in your own words the differences between the production, managerial and stakeholder views of the firm. 3. Differentiate between primary and secondary social and nonsocial stakeholders in a business situation. Give examples of each. 4. How is effective stakeholder management related to sustainability and sustainable development on the part of the companies? 5. How can a firm transition from Level 1 to Level 3 of stakeholder management capability (SMC)? Is the stakeholder corporation a realistic model for business firms? Will stakeholder corporations become more prevalent in the 21st century? Why or why not? 6. Explain the evolution of corporate governance. What problems developed? What are the current trends? 7. What are the major criticisms of boards of directors? Which single criticism do you find to be the most important? Why? 8. Explain how governance failures such as Enron could happen. How might they be avoided? 9. Outline the major suggestions that have been set forth for improving corporate governance. In your opinion, which suggestions are the most important? Why? 10. In what ways have companies taken the initiative in becoming more responsive to owners/stakeholders? Where would you like to see more improvement? Discuss. Chapter 5 1. Explain the relationship between corporate public policy and strategic management. 2. Which of the four strategy levels is most concerned with social, ethical, or public issues? Discuss the characteristics of this level. 3. Identify the steps involved in the strategic management process. 4. What is the difference between a social audit and a social performance report? Why are social performance reports increasing in popularity? 5. What is the difference between public relations and public affairs? Why has there been confusion regarding these two concepts? 6. Why do you think global public affairs is a major growth area? Give specific reasons for your answer. 7. Differentiate between a collaborative or problem-solving strategy and an individualistic or adversarial strategy. Which seems to be more effective in corporate public affairs? 8. What are the major ways in which public affairs might be incorporated into every manager’s job? Rank them in terms of what you think their impact might be. Chapter 6 1. Which of the major stages in the issues management process do you think is the most important? Why? 2. Following the approach indicated in Figure 6-1, identify a new issue category not listed in Figure 6-1. Identify several examples of â€Å"crises† that have occurred in recent years under each issue category. 3. Identify one example, other than those listed in Figure 6-4, of each of the leading force categories: events, authorities/advocates, literature, organizations, and political jurisdictions. 4. Identify a crisis that has occurred in your life or in the life of someone you know, and briefly explain it in terms of the four crisis stages: prodromal, acute, chronic, and resolution. 5. Do research on the impacts on business organizations of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the scandals of the early to mid-2000s. What have been successful and unsuccessful examples of crisis management that have come out of this research? Is terrorism a likely crisis for which business may prepare? How does preparation for terrorism (which comes from without) compare with preparation for ethical scandals (which come from within)? Chapter 7 1. Give a definition of ethical business behavior, explain the components involved in making ethical decisions, and give an example from your personal experience of the difficulties involved in making these determinations. 2. To demonstrate that you understand the three models of management ethics-moral, immoral, and amoral-give an example, from your personal experience, of each type. Do you agree that amorality is a serious problem? Explain. 3. Give examples, from your personal experience, of Kohlberg’s Levels 1, 2, and 3.If you do not think Chapter 7 Business Ethics Fundamentals 221 you have ever gotten to Level 3, give an example of what it might be like. 4. Compare your motivations to behave ethically with those listed in Figure 7-14. Do the reasons given in that figure agree with your personal assessment? Discuss the similarities and differences between Figure 7-14 and your personal assessment. 5. From your personal experience, give an example of a situation you have faced that would require one of the six elements of moral judgment. Chapter 15 1. What is sustainability? 2. What are several of the most important environmental issues now receiving worldwide attention? 3. What are some of the causes of environmental pollution and depletion? 4. What is the future outlook for the natural environment? 5. Who has responsibility for addressing environmental issues? 6. How can ethics be applied in response to environmental issues? 7. What are some examples of sustainable business and decision models for addressing environ_ mental concerns? 8. Should businesses and societies continue to focus on unlimited economic growth? Chapter 16 1. Outline the essential steps involved in developing a community action program.

The Buddhist Concepts of Rebirth and Release

Buddhism begins and ends with Buddha’s enlightenment experience, for this the ultimate source of Buddhist teachings and there are a mean towards moral and spititual development culminating in a Buddha like experience. At his enlightenment, the Buddha gained direct knowledge of rebirth, karma, and the four holy truths (Harvey, 1990, p. 32).In the first public teaching (known as the â€Å"turning of the wheel of dharma†) Siddhartha Gautam, the historical Buddha is said to have set out the fundamentals of Buddhist doctrine and practice and then proceeded to outline the four noble truths- the kernels of Buddhist doctrine which are duhkha, trsna, nirvana and the way to achieve nirvana. Birth, old age, sickness and death which give duhkha (sadness) are unsatisfactory, and the cause of this unsatisfatoriness gives rise to craving (trsna). End to this unsatisfactory state of mind can be achieved through nirvana.The eight steps to the path of nirvana involve the development of a ppropriate view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and finally appropriate meditative concentration. This Buddhist doctrine constitutes the essence of the Buddhist world view and provides the basis and context of all subsequent Buddhist philosophical reflection (King, 1999, p. 76). After six years of meditation, Buddha attained spiritual enlightenment or nirvana. Budha preached for forty five years and died at the age of ninety years.Buddhist enlightenment is related to the attainment of the five supernatural powers, but their attainment is not, the Buddha concluded, in itself the realisation of enlightenment (Iizuka, 1995, p. 151). The action and interest of those who attain nirvana are completely detached from all images and sound. However, internally the mind is in a condition of most intense activity. Since the person has reached the fullest stretch of his mental and spiritual capacity, and at a level of highest transcendental consciousness, he is infini tely at peace with himself (Iizuka, 153).According to Buddha, duhkha happens everywhere all the time because nothing is perfect in this world. Every life has the kamma (force) from the person’s previous lives, and being reborn means that everyone always suffers from the force of their previous lives. This means no life is perfect and only when people have reached nirvana will they be able to overcome duhkha. Duhkha according to Buddha is caused by selfishness and all our sufferings are caused by this selfishness. The ultimate goal of the people should be to break from this never ending cycle of rebirth.By stopping greed and selfishness, one can break out of the rebirth cycle, which brings perfect freedom in the form of nirvana (Penney, p. 14). The Buddhist believe that the ultimate goal of meditation is nirvana, liberation from samsara, liberation from the ever repeated cycle of death and rebirth conditioned by Karma, in which all deluded beings are caught up. The doctrine of rebirth formed an essential part of the world view which the Buddha inherited. Thus, the Buddha accepted that the goal of all spiritual striving was nirvana, release from rebirth.Consequently, he interpreted his own experience of enlightenment as the attainment of that goal (Bucknell, and Fox, 1983). Rebirth in Buddhism is seen both as a process which takes place after death, and also as a process taking place during life. This means, we are constantly changing during life, ‘reborn’ as a ‘different’ person according to our mood, the task we are involved in, or the people we are relating to. We may experience ‘heavenly’ or hellish state of mind depending on how we act.According to Buddhist philosophy, it is reasonable to suppose that this process of change, determined by the nature of our actions, does not abruptly stop at death, but carries on (Harvey, p. 45). Our present form and circumstances of life are part of an uninterrupted series of se parate existences that streak back into the distance past and will continue on into the interminable future. A constant and uninterrupted flow of beings living in the different stratified levels and passing on from one to another was the very essence of the world view called samsara.The schemes of things, rewards and punishments, human conditions in high or low states, all had their reasons for existence in this cosmic flux of inter-connected events and states. The conclusive evidence of Sakyamuni Buddha’s supreme enlightenment confirmed and endorsed the essential elements of the processes of samsara and rebirth (Cheetham, 1994, p. 9). Rebirth is a casual link between one life and the next, and not a soul reincarnating. Only a casual connection links one life to another, so our karmic accumulation conditions our next life.Contemplating rebirth helps us accept our own death without falling into the two extremes of eternalism or nihilism. The positive side of this rebirth conce pt is focussing an individual’s attention and energy to the present and make the most of one’s life. This constructive aspect of Buddhism while makes one realise about the transient nature of life, give them scope for improving the same to be able to rise to a higher realm (Halls, 2003, p. 54 ). The realm a being is born is determined by karma which is a ‘beings’ intentional actions of body, speech and mind, whatever is done, said or even just thought with intention or purpose.Though, rebirth in the lower realms is considered to be the result of relatively unwholesome or bad karma, rebirth in the higher realms is the result of relatively wholesome or good karma. Correspondingly, the lower the realm, the more unpleasant and unhappy is one’s condition; the higher the realm the more pleasant, happy, tranquil and refined one’s condition is. This rebirth hierarchy does not however constitute a simple ladder to climb and passing out at the top into nirvana or release.Nirvana or release may be obtained from any of the realms, from the human to the highest of the pure abodes and the four formless realms but not from the four lowest realms. Yet, rather than attaining nirvana or release, human beings generally rise and fall through the various realms which are precisely the nature of the samsara, i. e. wandering from life to life with no particular direction or purpose (Gethin, 1998, p. 119). The cycle of rebirth is thus seen as involving innumerable lives over vast stretches of time.If the cycle only involved human rebirths, it would have been difficult for a Buddhist to explain the population explosion. However, the cycle is seen to involve many other forms of life, such as animals so that readjustments between populations are made possible. This introduces the idea of different realms of rebirth. The first two of these realms are those of humans and animals kingdom. The latter includes sentient creatures as simple as insects. Plants are not included, although they are seen as having a very rudimentary consciousness, in the form of sensitivity to the touch.There are also realms of beings that are not normally visible, such as the realms of ‘petas’ or departed. As these are seen as having made of ‘subtle matters’, such a rebirth does not involve re-incarnation, that is getting a gross physical body again. In Buddhist painting of life cycle and rebirth, petas are seen as frustrated ghostly beings that frequent human world due to their strong earthly attachments (Harvey, 1990, p. 33). The Buddhist although believe in rebirth, do not accept that there is any substantial entity of self (atman) being reborn in this process.There is simply the process itself. Buddhist philosophical texts tend to represent rebirth using analogies of dynamic and ever changing processes, such as the flowing of a river or the flickering flame of a candle. Thus to talk about identity or the difference betwee n life in this Buddhist cycle of rebirth is inappropriate (King, 1999, p. 81). Nirvana is a difficult concept but traditional Buddhist understanding of Nirvana is quite clear. Literally nirvana means ‘blowing out’ or ‘extinguishing’, although Buddhist like to explain it as ‘the absence of craving’.When a being reaches a state of nirvana, the defilements of greed, hatred, and delusion no longer arise in his or her mind, since they have been thoroughly rooted out. Yet, like the Buddha, any person who attains nirvana does not remain thereafter forever absorbed in some transcendental state of mind. On the contrary, he or she continues to live in this world, with the difference that his thoughts and deeds are completely free of the motivations of greed, aversion and delusion and motivated instead entirely by generosity, friendliness and wisdom.This condition of extinguishing the defilement can be termed nirvana with the remainder of life. Eventually , the reminder of life, like all beings, such a person must die. But unlike other beings, who have not experienced nirvana, he or she will not be reborn into some new life. Instead of being reborn, the person attains parinirvanas, which means that the five aggregates of physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being cease to occur (Gethin, 1998, p. 75). Persons with various deluded mind will not attain nirvana or release and these views are called prapanca.When one gains insight into and realises the dharmakaya, which in effect is the noble truth of cessation with respect to any or all form of prapanca, or self view, one attains the Buddha nature. It is the theories of self and attachment to self that bind us. Buddha nature thought, like the rest of Buddhism, aims to release us from this bondage. The Dharmakaya or Buddha nature, as the truth of cessation represents the active releasing from bondage that constitutes the Buddha way. Hence Buddha nature is not a substantive enti ty, not a self mind, but the cessation of all self views (King, 1991, p.95). The Buddha’s noble eighth fold path to liberation from suffering emphasized practical discipline and direct experience to countermand the human tendency to theorize about spiritual life and reify rather than to encounter it directly. The eight member of the noble eighth-fold path termed â€Å"samyak Samadhi† consists of eight stages of meditative practices known as jhana in Pali, for the purpose of transcending individuated consciousness and leading to enlightenment or nirvana (Whicher, 1998, P. 313).One of the central images of Buddhism is that of crossing the ocean of samsara and arriving at the other shore of nirvana or enlightenment, which is journey from the troubling world to the world as Buddha land. In Buddhism, this path or crossing to nirvana is the most difficult one, and there is no guarantee of completion of this path. The ocean of life is full of turbulence and this turbulent nat ure of life’s ocean is an intimate function of our own intentions or karma which we create through actions motivated by our likings and disliking.Since these troubles are our own creation, we must undo the trouble as well. Buddhist salvation is not breaking away from the world but about freeing all things by undoing the dualistic knot of our karma and the stranglehold of our habitually held likes and dislikes (Hershock, 1999, p. 111). In Buddhism, denial of the reality of the self in man is called absolute anatta. The anatta doctrine of the Buddhist philosophy has been from early times a pillar of Buddha dogma, together with all pervading impermanence and suffering.This doctrine is consistently propounded by orthodox Buddhists as one of the most outstanding characteristics of their system. The anatta doctrine raises many questions such as the reality of the moral agent and the existence and nature of moral responsibility, the continuity of individuality in the rebirth cycle, the nature of kamma, and the way it works and the relation of nirbana to the individual who attain it. However, Buddha refuses to answer the question whether the liberated man exists or does not exist after death.However, most of the Buddhist text implies that the liberated man is the personification of all reality (Ramon, 1980, p. 1-2). To conclude, the essence of life according to Buddhism is karma. Karma is called the law of cause and effect, which means every action we undertake creates a cause that will have in some point of time- even in rebirth have an effect. Our bad action in life will bring negative results and good actions will be rewarded with positive results. This is the ethical way how karma operates. This will keep in check our negative traits, and help us behave mindfully.The wheels of life in Buddhism signify through different symbolism the causes for this cycle of rebirth. Three animals at the center of the wheel symbolises endless cycles of sufferings with one ne gative action causing the next. The pig depicts the erroneous perception about the world and cock signifies ignorance about our own existence, giving rise to craving, lust, and desire. The ultimate negativism arising out of wrong perception of life is hatred and anger, symbolised in the wheel in the form of snake.The picture of Buddha at the top let of the picture symbolises liberation from ignorance, desire and hatred which are causes of all our sufferings. Thus liberation of the soul can be realised by following Buddha path and the ultimate attainment of nirvana (Halls, 2003, p. 50). References Bucknell, R. S and Fox, M. X (1983) The ‘three knowledges’ of Buddhism: Implications of Buddhadasa's interpretation of rebirth, Religion, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp. 99-112 Cheetham, E (1994) Fundamentals of Mainstream Buddhism, Charles E Turtle company Inc, USAGethin, R (1998) The Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, NY Halls, G. F (2003) the Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Buddhist Wisdom, Octopus Publishing Groups Harvey, B. P (1990) An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices, Cambridge University Press Hershock, P. D (1999) Reinventing the wheel: A Buddhist response to the information age, Sunny Series of Philosophy and Biology, Albany, State University of New York Press IIzuka, T (1995) The Quest for life: Zen in business and life, New York University Press.King, R (1999) Indian Philosophy: An introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought, Edinburg University Press King, S. B (1991) Buddha Nature, Albany State University of New York Press Penney, S (1995) Buddhism, Core edition, Heinmann Educational Publishers, P. 48 Ramon, J. P (1980) Self and non-self in early Buddhism, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, N. Y. Whicher, Y (1998) The Integrity of Yoga Darsana: A reconsideration of the classical yoga, Sun series in religious studies, Albany, State University of New York Press

Homework Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Homework - Coursework Example The movement called for the formation of a sub treasury, land reform, currency reform, and the empowerment of the common people. The movement advocated for anti-elitist opposition in confronting mainstream parties and established interest. Eugene V. Debs was instrumental in leading the workers revolt in Pullman town. Debs was influential in forming the American Railway Union-ARU, which included unskilled and skilled workers into one organization (Roark et al 413). Through his leadership of the ARU, he intended at assisting the striking workers of Pullman in their struggle. His action to spearhead the Pullman strike ensured that he boycotted the court’s injunction and this eventually saw him incarcerated while the striking workers quest got defeated by the government in collusion with the industrialists. America’s war with Spain was prompted by a moral outcry over the Spanish colonial regime’s treatment of Cuban revolutionaries who had launched a fight for independence. The war against Spain appears to have been fraud fuelled by yellow journalism that arose from newspaper competition between Joseph Pulitzer’s ‘world’ and William Randolph Hearst’s ‘journal’ (Roark et al 486). Further pressure from expansionists who had business interests in Cuba as well as Asia contributed to the

TMA T173 01 Many engineering projects are associated with construction Essay

TMA T173 01 Many engineering projects are associated with construction - Essay Example The project aimed at providing an arena for the summer Olympic Games of 2012. The project also aimed at offering an improved sporting experience to that of Beijing, 2008. The British government sought to prove its capabilities of hosting high-profile global sporting events. Following delayed completion of the Wembley renovation, the British engineering sector needed to undertake construction of a new, modern stadium effectively (Woodman, 2007). Funding of the construction was provided by the public sector through the British government. Various companies also contributed significantly towards the funding for the construction. Following economic recession, budgetary allocations for the project had to be distributed among numerous organisations (Dyckhoff, 2007). Though the main contractor was Sir Robert McAlpine, other companies were also awarded sub-contracts. Each element of the construction was undertaken by a different company. This could be attributed to the limited time available for the completion of construction. The main contractor played a supervisory role of the sub-contractors. The benefits for this project include the probability of British construction companies winning tenders for Olympic stadiums’ construction. Successful and timely completion redeemed the image of British companies following delays in completing the Wembley stadium. The finishing of the stadium utilised high-tech decorative wrap to cover the concrete as steel was used for construction. This followed criticisms of the stadium having a dull appearance. The wrap gives the entire stadium a glossy appearance illuminating the London skyline. The spectacular feature of the stadium remains the 25-metre high vertical panels fitted on the exterior side in the stadium. These panels turned the exterior into an enormous video screen (Booth, 2008). The stadium appears like a circular screen from outside. Numerous challenges faced the construction of the Olympic stadium.

International Human Resources Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

International Human Resources - Term Paper Example Other international human resource trends include global recruitment, benefits and compensation when an employee falls sick gives birth or is faced with tragedy such may include maternity leave and extended vacations. International human resource trends are activities taken by a company or an organization to make it utilize human resource more effectively (Parry, 2013). These activities are geared towards improving human resource performance through education and training. For any sustainable and competitive business in the international arena, there is need for a competitive educated and skilled workforce. With the internationalization of business, many companies are conducting their business in other countries and this is due to the rising demand of goods in other parts of the world (Parry, 2013). A successful business needs the ability to market products overseas and this has requires the company’s workforce to get the right skills needed for the prosperity of the organizat ion. Such training may require the company to send their workforce to further their business and technical skills in a foreign country, which has better training facilities (Maclean and Wilson, 2009). Further education and training of employees in a foreign country as a global human resource trend has both positive and negative effects to the present and future workforce alike (Vaidya, 2006). Human resource training in a foreign country will mean one has to study not only the technical skills but also the culture of the foreign country. The study of other peoples’ culture will promote interpersonal skills, which is important in the world of business (Unesco and the international social science council, 2010). Accepting other peoples’ culture will promote good relations between the world’s diverse cultures and races hence fostering trade and exploitation of the world’s market. However, further training of employees in foreign countries with better technica l skills has increasingly exposed the employees to racial discrimination and cultural shock (Parry, 2013). This has made the workforce return to their home countries with low-self esteem and ethnocentrism in other countries has made them undermine or denounce their culture as uncivilized. This has greatly reduced their performance in the organization. Training an organization’s employees in a foreign country encourages the mastery foreign languages (Maclean and Wilson, 2009). This will be of benefit to the individual and the organization since language is an important factor in sales and marketing. With globalization, the knowledge of the language of a foreign country in which the organization intends to open its branch promotes understanding between the foreign country and the foreign investor, which is the company in this case (Vaidya, 2006). The experience also makes one familiar with the environment in which the organization may have opened its branches. In some instances , further training of an organization’s workforce in a foreign country has exposed the employees to unfavorable change in climatic conditions (Unesco and the international social council, 2010). The harsh climate has made some of workforce who had travelled to a foreign country for further studies develop health complications such as pneumonia and malaria which has cost the lives of some employees hence making the company lose both the employees and

Improvements in the supply chain offered by e-commerce developments Essay

Improvements in the supply chain offered by e-commerce developments - Essay Example Significant advantages offered through the implementation of e-commerce are the streamlining of the supply operations through the elimination of redundant paperwork, order batching and stockpiling. There is a higher degree of interaction and timeliness that may be brought into the supply chain management through e-commerce. A large database of valid, current information can be maintained which can also be used for data analysis. The cons of the e-commerce system however are also induced by technology – the dangers of confidential information being accessed by unauthorized parties and consequent losses that could result. In carrying out this analysis, I have chosen to reply upon a library based approach, seeking out the views of experts on the benefits of the e-commerce system and its implications for supply chain management. The findings in this report are that e-commerce is likely to be of enormous benefit in supply chain management. While there are also potential disadvantages, the pros outweigh the cons and therefore, introducing e-commerce offers excellent possibilities for improvements in current supply chain management. The traditional supply chain model is based upon the push model, wherein the process of placing orders and marketing the product involves customers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers, and at every stage there is paperwork involved. Much of such paperwork may also be duplicated, which results in the Supply Chain essentially becoming a system serving the suppliers almost as much as it serves the customers, who should be its primary focus. However, with the onset of e-commerce, online business auctions, web procurement systems and electronic business negotiations are becoming increasingly common, with availability of additional software such as shopping bots, etc enabling consumers to carry our price comparisons online (Vulkan, 2003). As a result, the supply

Statistical Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Statistical Analysis - Research Paper Example i.e. EF = RxC / ss Non B.A/Eng Eng. B.A Total Europeans 14.4 10.8 19.8 Asians 11.2 8.4 15.4 African 6.4 4.8 8.8 Total The above table contains the expected frequency of each cell Step3: test the two assumptions. All the frequencies are greater than 1 and none of them is less than 5. Step4: select the significance level a. we usually take a at 5% Step5: calculate the critical value 2a with df. Critical value is the area of right skewed curve that is to be rejected. df=(R-1) x (C-1). Here df =(3-1) x (3-1)= 4. As a is 0.05 and df =4, we calculated the critical value from the right skewed table. The value from the table is 14.86 Step6: calculate the value of the test statistic i.e. 2 = (OF-EF) 2 / EF In this case 2 turns out be 1.07 Step 7: compare the value of 2 that of 2a. Since 2 does falls in the critical value (rejected area), will not reject null hypothesis. Step 8: write the conclusion At the significance level of 5%, it is proved from the data given the table that there is no association between Non-American students and the disciplines. B. Define "causation" in statistical analysis. Describe at least two factors that influence relationships between two variables and can lead to misinterpretation of data analysis. Causation tells the relationship between two variables. The occurrence of one variable (event) results the occurrence of the other variable (event), this phenomena is causation. This means that the second variable is dependent on first variable. This means that if second event has occurred, then the first event would have already occurred. But it is not necessary that occurrence of first event must always leads to the occurrence of second event. For example, to...For example, the number of people having hot coffee and the number of people taking sauna bath in gym may not be caused by each other. However, coldness may be reasons for both events. However, it is not necessary that one or the other may cause two variables, which are changing simultaneously, can be cause of any one. For example, the speed of wind and the number of cars on the road are not associated to each other. It is important to note that the symptoms must not be considered as cause. For example, B is caused by A and C is caused by B. Actually that not the case. C is also caused by A. B is just the symptom of A, which cannot be considered as cause. The statistician should be aware of averages when computing for extreme values i.e. have outliers. Averages cannot be applied in this case, however if you remove the extreme values, which are in outliers, only then you can you averages.

The Congo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Congo - Essay Example The independence did not solve all the problems of Congo, and problems started arising in the province of Katanga, which was enriched with mines. The province was under the control of Moise Tshombe, who in July 1960 supported the Belgium mercenaries and the Belgium Mining company named Union Minere. After having this support, he declared Kantanga independence. Due to this treachery to the Congo government, Lumumba requested United Nations to look into the matter and resolve all the upcoming issues and probable Civil War. The Lumumba's government requested UN military assistance "to protect the national territory of the Congo against the present external aggression which is a threat to international peace." There was no request to restore internal stability. However, Secretary-General Hammarskjold recommended to the Security Council the establishment of a peace-keeping force to assist the government of the Congo in maintaining law and order until, with technical assistance from the UN, the Congolese national security forces were able to meet these tasks. The Security Council authorized the Secretary-General to take the necessary steps for this purpose and called on Belgium to withdraw its troops from the territory. Thus began what, until the operation in Cambodia, was the largest UN peacekeeping operation (reaching a peak of 20,000 troops plus a large civilian corps) and one with a profound influence on internal developments in a member state. The Secretary-General was fully aware of the sensitivity of the action that the UN was undertaking in the Congo, both in terms of the attitudes of the foreign countries having a strong interest in the course of events in the Congo, and of the resistance of the Congolese government to any seeming. UN Peace Keeping Mission in Congo -Congo Crisis (MONUC) The secretary-general thus faced a government clearly desperately searching for assistance, and the possibility that outside powers might fill the resulting vacuum if the UN did not. Acting under Article 99 of the charter for the first time in the organization's history, the secretary-general called for a Security Council meeting to discuss the issue. In doing so, Hammarskjold set in motion the UN involvement in the Congo. That involvement took the form of an operation that, until the 1990s, was the largest UN peacekeeping operation on record. It was also an involvement that prompted a crisis so deep and an experience so devastating for the United Nations that once the UN operation in the Congo was officially over the UN did its best not only to put the experience behind it but also to forget it altogether. The willingness to use force in the Congo was a first for the United Nations and it came in the early days of UN experience with peacekeeping. Some of the logistical and communication problems associated with the operation, therefore, can be attributed to a general lack of experience and procedures. Command and control problems, for example, such as those associated with the final unexpected push into Jadotville that surprised UN headquarters, fall into this category. It remains possible, though, that the Jadotville example, like the murky background to Operation Morthor, is an example of a disconnect between decision making in the field and decision making at UN headquarters, either

HU300 unit 8 topic 1 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HU300 unit 8 topic 1 - Research Paper Example The director explains how long it takes for a plastic bag to disintegrate and the impact it has before it actually disintegrates. The main mythic elements focused on in the film are water and earth. The effects of these elements in the film are to portray the journey of the plastic bag to the point of its disposal. Additionally, the elements are used also used to emphasize on the durability of the plastic bag. Wind is used in the film to show the motion and the journey of the plastic bag despite its will. Music in the film is used to describe the grimness that the bags undergo. However, this does not stop them from continuing with their journey. This bag in particular is lonely and seeks happiness despite the fact that it understands that such happiness is difficult to find. Eventually, the plastic bag accepts its fate and seeks to outlive everything in order to seek its

A Discussion on Realism and Impressionism Essay Example for Free

A Discussion on Realism and Impressionism Essay The world was changing dramatically in the late 18th century. In North America, the British colonies had successfully revolted against the English empire and formed the United States of America. Fueled by this success, Europeans began to feel a strong desire for change, most notably in France, where the search for liberty led to the bloody French Revolution, which lasted from 1788 until 1799. At the same time, populations were starting to rapidly expand, and science and technology were producing the engines and tools to make the Industrial Revolution possible. It was in this atmosphere of change that a new artistic movement was born; a movement that wanted to view the world around it in a different way. Prior to this era, works of art commonly exemplified idealized scenes from historic events, or placed the subject in larger-than-life, heroic circumstances. Artists of the new movement wanted to show life as it really existed; its triumphs as well as failures; its beauty as well as its baser attributes. These artists were a part of the new movement: Realism. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay As the name of the movement implies, Realism was an artistic movement toward attempting to capture the subject of the artwork in a true-to-life manner. Stated simply, realist artists sought to produce accurate and objective portrayals of the ordinary, observable world, with a focus on the lower classes and with a critique of the established social and political order (MindEdge, 2012). Considered by many to be the father of Realism is the French painter Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877). In his life-sized depiction of two workmen he met along the roadside called The Stonebreakers (1849-50), we see the hallmarks of the Realist movement. (Courbet, 1850) Not only does Courbet pay careful attention to the detail in order to â€Å"paint as he sees it†, but he treats the subject matter with almost reverent respect. The laborers are not being extolled as heroic figures in an epic struggle, as would be expected in a more Romantic-style work of art. Instead, the two workmen are seen busy at a most ordinary task, that of breaking and moving heavy stones by the roadside. The simple act of everyday, hard labor is glorified and given a dignity that transcends heroism. This new-found, at least for the time period, respect for the common person and his or her struggles and successes in everyday life, as well as the desire to depict those struggles and successes with accuracy, are the true hallmarks of Realism. The paint had hardly dried on the early works of the Realist movement when another group of artists began to focus on a different aspect of artistic expression. This new technique was begun by the French artist Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883). Manet was a Realist painter who also wanted to bring truth to the color and light involved in his paintings. Manet and others of this new style had found that, rather than mixing colors on the palette and applying this mixture to the canvas, by juxtaposing different colors close together on the canvas, a more intense hue could be produced. This caused the painting have an almost unfinished look to them, especially when viewed from close range. This effect, along with the treatment of light on the subjects to capture time, motion and emotion in daily life and nature, is a key element of Impressionism. One of the most well-known of the Impressionist painters was Claude Monet (1840 – 1926). His work, Impression, Sunrise (1872), is quite characteristic of the Impressionist movement. (Monet, 1872) This depiction of a harbor scene in France is done in very loose brushstrokes, suggesting the subject matter rather than clearly defining it. The painting creates a â€Å"feeling† of water and boats in the early morning. This treatment of the subject and the light illuminating it gave art critic Louis Leroy the idea, in 1872, to ridicule the painting using its own name against it; implying that the impression he perceived was that the work was incomplete. While his critique has not proven to stand the test of time, his description of the work did help to label the artistic movement Impressionism. How do Realism and Impressionism compare? The choice of subject matter is often similar. Artists of both schools often chose scenes from everyday life and attempted to portray them on the canvas. While Courbet’s, The Stonebreakers, does show us clearly delineated characters in a realistically depicted scene, and Monet’s, Impression, Sunrise, imparts the â€Å"feeling† of the scene and allows the viewer to build context around that feeling, both paintings pay homage to a common, uncomplicated activity with a certain dignity and respect. In this sense, Impressionism can be seen as a natural extension of the Realist movement. Impressionism took Realism in another direction, however, with its unique treatment of light on the subject matter and in its coloring technique. This allowed Impressionist painters to capture feelings of motion, time and emotion in their art while continuing the Realist’s quest to examine the beauty in everyday life. As can be seen with an examination of the various movements in art history, Realism artists reacted to the fanciful, larger-than-life depictions of subjects in the Romantic period by turning toward detailed, â€Å"as you see it† renderings of the life and times of the common man and his surroundings. Impressionism, resonating with the tenets of Realism, took the movement even further, seeking to portray, not only life as we know it, but also life as we experience it. This opening up of the artistic mind to the possibilities of greater experimentation and more liberal viewpoints can be seen as the first salvo in an assault on the sterile, regimented ideology of the more traditional schools of artistic thought. The cracks created in the armor of traditional art styles allowed for future generations of artists to explore even further into their imaginations in order to redefine art in the modern era.

Strategic Analysis Of Wholesale Company Costco Marketing Essay

Strategic Analysis Of Wholesale Company Costco Marketing Essay This report has performed a brief strategic analysis of the internal resources and external factors that affect Costco. The report includes an over view of the firms strategies using Porters five force model as well as a SWOT analysis of the firm. The report illustrates why Costco remains the Anti-Wal-Mart using aggressive scare tactics to achieve the lowest possible prices for its customers even if it means dropping high brand names. The report includes recommendations for the wholesalers, the main one being to carry on with their current successful strategies in order to maintain the fight for industry leadership and further their globalisation in to Eastern countries 1.0 Introduction to Costco Costco is a wholesale cash and carry, which operates through warehouses using a membership only service. The company sells high quality, private label merchandise at low prices to businesses buying for commercial use as well as individuals that are members of specific employment groups , for example NHS or government employees. The basis of the company is to achieve high sale volumes and rapid inventory turnover, offering a limited array of merchandise, with a wide product category at low prices (www.costco.co.uk). Additionally Costco operates customer services ranging from health insurance to financial planning. The main competitor of the company is Wal-Marts -Sams club within the US, although they have 200 more stores operating in ten more states than Costco , Sams club does not experience the same revenues. Yet there is still a constant battle for increased market share with newer entrants such as BJs Wholesale Club (Hughes, 2007). Operating internationally the company has divisio ns in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, Australia and an internet site operational in the US and Canada. Some of the stores include pharmacies, food courts, opticians, photo centres, travel desks and hearing aid centres within the warehouses. The company also operates 307 petrol stations with some of the US and Canada stores. Named as the only company Wal-Mart fears James Signal (2004) of Costco has captured a breed of urban sophisticates, who trade up for exiting products and trade down to private labels of more prosaic products (Duff,2009). 2.0 Costco existing missions/strategies Costcos Mission Statement; To continually provide our members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices (www.findarticles.com) In order to sell at the lowest possible prices Costco implement various pricing strategies through bargaining with suppliers and only adding a maximum mark up of 14% to each product, even in cases where demand is high as CEO Signal stated you always give the customer the best deal'(Shapiro, 2004). Costco falls into the Overall Price Leadership category one of Porters four generic competitive strategies (Mitchell, 2001). Price leadership is achieved by implementing a successful strategy using continual exceptional efforts to reduce costs, without excluding services or products which customers perceive to be essential. There strategies include; ? Low advertising costs to keep merchandise price down, using word of mouth ? High employee wages to retain employees and reduce new staff that would require training ? Merchandise stock on pallets to reduce labour and allow for maximum sales ? Inventory system detects items that are reaching thresh hold for re order ? Just in time approach to reduce over stock, buying direct from manufacturers and sent directly to warehouses within 24 hours ? Provide low prices through volume buying ? Willing to change manufacturers to gain the best possible price on a product 3.0 Strategic Management Costco Strategic management shows an ability to develop and sustain competitive advantage, resulting in of added value to their brand (Ramachandran et al, 2006). Illustrated by Costcos rise in net income by 1.1% to $266 million and revenue soared to $71.4 Billion compared to Sams club at $46.8 billion and BJs at $10 billion for the first fiscal quarter ended Nov 22nd 2009 (Business News, 2009) compared to Wal-Mart net sales which increased by 1.2%. The just in time approach implemented by the company means products are sold for cash before the payment to the suppliers is due ,creating a high operating cash flow. This operating advantage improves Costcos working capital and efficiency, resulting in a long lasting value difference in the product, compared to the competitors and as perceived by the customers (Duncan et al, 1988). 4.0 Porters Five Forces The nature of competition in an industry rely on five forces including; the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of new entrants, the bargaining power of customers, the bargaining power of suppliers and the threat of substitute products or services (Porter, 1979). These are all competitors that may be more or less prominent or active depending on the industry. A companys awareness of Porters five forces can allow the organisation to stake out a position within its industry that is less vulnerable to attack (Bruton, 2008). 4.1 The threat of new entrants- medium threat There are many potential new entrants into the industry, which could pose as a threat including, wholesale clubs, discounters and hypermarkets such as Aldi and Netto, which are both limited range discounters. Other large existing wholesale competitors such as Wal-Mart could gain market share through acquisition giving them new resources. However, barriers to entry in to the wholesale food industry are relatively high, as huge costs would be involved in imitating established distribution networks, brand name and financial capital that Costco have established. Furthermore it is unlikely customers will switch to a competitor when they have already paid a yearlong membership fee (Costco reported 85% of cardholders renewed their membership in 2009, www.phx.corporate-ir.net). 4.2 Bargaining power of suppliers-low/medium threat The bargaining power of Costco sells to many business owners, the power over their suppliers is very high, as suppliers are forced to cut prices to lessen the risk of them losing their contract. Costco have a small range of brands for each product, yet sell high quantities. They could be losing a large amount of sales compared to Wholesalers like Wal-Mart, whom give customers a larger amount of choice and therefore spread their sales between suppliers. Furthermore Costco have proven they are willing to lose even major brands to improve their leverage, margins and lower prices, forcing suppliers to compete amongst themselves and with the wholesalers cheaper own brand products. Highlighted through Costcos most recent decision to stop selling Coca-Cola in a pricing dispute due to growing power of private labels, by using details received from loyalty cards retailers are more aware of which brands to keep and lose (Neff, 2009). 4.3 Bargaining power of customers- low threat According to Bruton (2007) the threat is low because there is only a small concentration of wholesale buyers, predominantly middle class consumers, small business owners and families. The latter two however have a greater power over the higher and middle class customers as they would buy to satisfy needs rather than luxury items. They are likely to resort to finding alternative stores such as competitors to get what they want at the price they can afford to pay for their regular purchases, due to the growth and alternative availability in discount stores. 4.4 The threat of substitute products- low threat The threat of substitutes limits the profit potential of the wholesale industry by identifying the effectiveness of volume of sales at a particular price level. Substitutes include specialised stores, for instance The Home Depot in America and BQ in the UK competing against the non-food sales through discounting as well as hypermarkets. For these reasons, the threat of substitutes is low for the wholesale notion. However, there is an increased threat to particular sections such as furniture and electronics especially because supermarkets are now selling a wider array of products for example Tescos. A further threat is e-commerce businesses and sites such as EBay focusing on the customer directly (Bruton, 2007). 4.5 Rivalry among competitors-medium threat Rivalry between competitors in the growing wholesale industry is particularly low because the three main competitors concentrate on different consumer groups. Furthermore price wars are minimal due to the lack of advertising with the rivals especially Costco. However as Costco is gaining strength through globalisation, there are different levels of threats in particular countries. 5.0 SWOT analysis The basis of strategic management is the notion that strategy creates an alignment between an enterprises internal strength and weaknesses as well as its opportunities and threats (SWOT) in its external environment (Andrews, 1987). The following table illustrates alignments factors within and outside of Costco; 6.0 External factors Focusing on the external, broader environment in which the company operates it is clear the next stage in the Costco globalisation process would be expansion. Due to the fierce market in the US and saturation a large opportunity for the company would be to enter the Chinese and Eastern European market and according to Baker (2001) Globalisation of the markets is at hand. Competitor Wal-Mart have already entered the fast growing market in China through purchasing 35% of the recognised hypermarket- Trust-Mart. The alliance benefits Wal-Mart , gaining expertise in operations and logistics and allow Chinese consumers to build trust with their brand name- an important part of their culture. Globalisation forms markets where economies of scale lead to reduction of costs and prices according to Baker (2001). Therefore, Costco may have to adapt their strategy when entering new countries due to the barriers of entry; it would be difficult to compete with local companies that are already established as well as suppliers to cut prices as low as they do in the West. The main threat to Costco currently is online speciality stores, which can compete through lower operating costs and manufacturing abroad thus increasing the power of existing buyers. The economic slowdown in 2007 with the credit crunch attracted more customers to the company due to its low prices and bulk products which allowed customers to stretch their money in the economic crisis enabling sales to grow by 13% by 2008. However the net income still decreased by 15.3% by 2009 as of the weakened economy. Even fiercer pricing strategies reduced the impact of the recession by reducing costs on a range of popular products two weeks before the reduction came through anticipated from manufacturers. Thus allowing them to get ahead of competition by taking advantage of the opportunity to attract customers through surrendering their profit (Duff, 2009). 7.0 Conclusions From carrying out the report on one of the leading wholesale suppliers it is clear they refuse to buy from suppliers that are not willing to pass on the reduction in manufacturing costs on to Costco. They are willing to remove high named brands from their shelves if they think they are being charged too much for the product. Through these publicly made choices it seems clear that Costco are on the customers side when it comes to prices, and are willing to lose profit to satisfy their customers. Both the Porters Five Forces Model and the SWOT analysis identify the main internal and external threats to the company, the highest threat of all being the power of suppliers. Costcos strategy of merging high wages with innovative ideas, and low cost products highlights that consumers, workers and shareholders can all benefit from a cost-leadership strategy. 8.0 Recommendations ? Continuation with their current successful pricing strategies of low prices and high volumes in order to maintain barriers against buyer power, supplier power and new entrants. Porters low cost leadership will also allow growth in revenues from further international expansion. ? The main threat to Costco currently is the threat of substitutes especially in discount stores and hypermarkets and the alternative to this is online speciality stores which can compete through lower operating costs and manufacturing abroad thus increasing the power of existing buyers. ? In order to compete with the threat of e-commerce businesses a further development in the online sales capability is likely to increase the companys strengths. Cannibalisation is unlikely to occur until the industry becomes completely saturated in the US in which case the company can then be ahead of competitors through the internet or through global expansion. ? Subsidiaries or Joint venture are a possibility as in Mexico where the 31 warehouses are 50% joint ventures, this strategy may benefit within the foreign Indian and Chinese market, to allow for a better integration and brand loyalty ( www.slideshare.net). The firm is likely to have the logistical capabilities to enter the Chinese market as they have entered nearby Japan successfully, and some networks would be partially formed through transportation. ? More strategic alliances with manufacturers as with Kirkland in expanding countries to gain trust from customers, enabling them to recognise brand names and build loyalty 9.0 References Andrews, K.R (1987), The concept of Corporate Strategy, Homewood: Irwin Baker.M.J Critical perspectives on business and management, Routledge, London Bruton. A, (2007) Five Forces Analysis, www.books.google.co.uk/books?id=9lmR75vPpEACprintsec=frontcover#v=onepageq=f=false accessed 21/02/10 Costco Financial Report 2009, www.phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830p=irol-reportsannual, accessed 16/02/10 Ducan, W.J, Ginter, P.M Swayne, L.E (1998), Competitive advantage and internal organisational assessment, Academy of Management Executive Duff. M (2009) Costco Surrenders Profits To Make a Point www.industry.bnet.com/retail/1000461/costco-surrenders-profits-to-make-a-point/ accessed 19/02/10 Hughes, M.T (2007) Costco wholesale strategic analysis, Washington College Business Management Ireland, R.D, Hitt, M.A Simon, D.G (2003), A Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship: The construct and its dimensions, Journal of Management, 29, 963-989 Mitchell. R.C, (2001), Strategy Formulation, TAOFS Formulation, www.csun.edu/~hfmgt001/formulation.doc, accessed 20/02/10 Neff, J (2009) From CVS to Costco, retailers put the screws to brands, Advertising Age,Business Source Premier, 11/30/2009, Vol. 80, Issue 40 Porter. M.E, (1979) How competitive forces shape strategy, Harvard College, Harvard Business Review Porter, M.E, (1985), Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance, New York: The Free Press Prahalad, C.K Hamel, G. (1990), The Core Competence Of The Corporation, Harvard Business Review, 68, 79-91 Ramachandran, J.M Sud. M, (2006) Strategic Entrepreneurship in a Globalising Economy: Evidence from Emerging Economies, IIMB Management Review, 28, 291-302. Trout. J, (2004), Trout on Strategy: capturing mindshare, conquering markets, McGraw-Hill (Jan 14th 2008) Food industry , BNET UK, www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3235/is_1_25/ai_n29402690 accessed 16/02/10 Shapiro, N. 2004. Company for the people. Seattle Weekly, December 15. Retrieved from www.seattleweekly.com/ generic/show_print.php on 15/02/2010. www.slideshare.net/guestce0202a/costco-strategic- plan accessed 20/02/10 www.findarticles.com/121753md5=91af14cebe7ede4/c72/169594b2badc8b accessed 20/02/10 www.costco.com accessed 21/02/10 Contents Page Executive Summary 1.0 Introduction to Costco 2 2.0 Costco existing missions/strategies 2 3.0 Strategic Management 3 4.0 Porters five forces 3 4.1 The threat of new entrants 3 4.2 Bargaining power of suppliers 3 4.3 Bargaining power of customers 4 4.4 The threat of substitute products 4 4.5 Rivalry among competitors 4 5.0 SWOT analysis 5 6.0 External Factors 6 7.0 Conclusion 6 8.0 Recommendations 7

Gossip Girl Review :: essays research papers

Book Review ‘Gossip Girl’ by Cecily von Ziegesar Gossip Girl is a book for people who crave glamour, style and riches. The novel is written by Cecily von Ziegesar, a 25 year old self proclaimed gossip girl herself. She loosely bases the story on her own experiences growing up in the Upper East side of Manhattan. Gossip Girl, the novel, is set in contemporary Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York. It tells the story of a group of high school seniors whose parents happen to be some of the most glamorous people in New York and tells what their day to day lives are like. The book’s main character is Blair Waldorf. Blair is the bitchiest and coolest girl in the Upper East Side crowd. She lives her life thinking that she is in some kind of old time movie where she is the leading actress and her boyfriend, Nate, is her leading man. Blair and her close knit group of friends are the main focus of the book. Gossip Girl also talks of Serena van de Woodsen who is described as the girl all boys want and the girl all girls want to be. Serena used to be Blair’s best friend until she spent a year at boarding school. Serena discovers that Blair no longer wants to spend time with her and that Blair believes Serena is some kind of threat to her social status. Blair ignores Serena and goes out of her way to make Serena feel unwelcome on her return. An example of this is how Blair treats Serena in the cafeteria at lunchtime one day. When Serena walks in she waves at Blair (who is already seated). Blair sees her but chooses not to acknowledge her. When Serena has her food and sits down, Blair and her new friends make up excuses as to why they have to go and leave Serena sitting at the table all by herself.

Emily Pragers Our Barbies, Ourselves Essay -- Analysis Prager Barbie

Emily Prager's "Our Barbies, Ourselves?" In the essay 'Our Barbies, Ourselves,' Emily Prager explores the history of the Barbie doll and talks about the Barbie doll itself. Prager seems convinced that the Barbie doll was an object created by a man and that Barbie reeks of sexuality, sexual innuendo and serves as the anti-feminist embodiment of every man's fantasy. In her own expressive and persuasive modes to fashion an essay designed to persuade the reader that the Barbie doll is a twisted and corrupt tool designed by men to combat the feminist revolution. Though her attempts at persuasion are commendable, I was not swayed in my opinions on Barbie. If anything, I just found fault with this writer's point of view, and I found her accusations to be outrageous and her 'facts' to be completely wrong.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prager uses both expressive and persuasive modes in her essay. Her own flavors to this essay express her own frustrations with the ?men? that created Barbie dolls. In truth, Barbie was not created by Jack Ryan. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler. Handler sensed that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become as adult women. In paragraph 2, Prager suggests in her essay that Barbie was fashioned after a man?s dream date with her tiny waist, large bust and feet made for stiletto heels.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In paragraph 6, Prager changes tones and suggests that perhaps Barbie was also an icon that could be embraced by feminists. Barbie i... Emily Prager's Our Barbies, Ourselves Essay -- Analysis Prager Barbie Emily Prager's "Our Barbies, Ourselves?" In the essay 'Our Barbies, Ourselves,' Emily Prager explores the history of the Barbie doll and talks about the Barbie doll itself. Prager seems convinced that the Barbie doll was an object created by a man and that Barbie reeks of sexuality, sexual innuendo and serves as the anti-feminist embodiment of every man's fantasy. In her own expressive and persuasive modes to fashion an essay designed to persuade the reader that the Barbie doll is a twisted and corrupt tool designed by men to combat the feminist revolution. Though her attempts at persuasion are commendable, I was not swayed in my opinions on Barbie. If anything, I just found fault with this writer's point of view, and I found her accusations to be outrageous and her 'facts' to be completely wrong.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prager uses both expressive and persuasive modes in her essay. Her own flavors to this essay express her own frustrations with the ?men? that created Barbie dolls. In truth, Barbie was not created by Jack Ryan. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler. Handler sensed that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become as adult women. In paragraph 2, Prager suggests in her essay that Barbie was fashioned after a man?s dream date with her tiny waist, large bust and feet made for stiletto heels.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In paragraph 6, Prager changes tones and suggests that perhaps Barbie was also an icon that could be embraced by feminists. Barbie i...

Internet working Essay

Today, the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) are familiar terms to millions of people all over the world. Many people depend on applications enabled by the Internet, such as electronic mail and Web access. In addition, the increase in popularity of business applications places additional emphasis on the internet. The Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite is the engine for the Internet and networks worldwide. Its simplicity and power has lead to be the single network protocol of choice in the world today so the world has become a global village where the people live their life on the Internet. It has no boundaries or barriers, It is open to all who have access to Internet using computer. The e-commerce and online business has really facilitated the people nowadays. The main design goal of TCP/IP was to build an interconnection of networks, referred to as an internetwork, or internet, that provided universal communication services over heterogeneous physical networks. The clear benefit of such an internetwork is the enabling of communication between hosts on different networks, perhaps separated by a large geographical area. 1. Introduction. The internet has been a useful source of information for the public and made things possible which were impossible in the past . Such as emailing has accelerated the process of Mailing and it hardly takes seconds to reach in any part of the world as the Client are connected to Server and the Server connects the clients to world wide web . it is like cob web which keeps connected to all users at the same time . The Internet’s growth has become explosive and it seems impossible to escape the bombardment of www.com’s seen constantly on television, heard on radio, and seen in magazines. Because the Internet has become such a large part of our lives, a good understanding is needed to use this new tool most effectively. This whitepaper explains the underlying infrastructure and technologies that make the Internet work. It does not go into great depth, but covers enough of each area to give a basic understanding of the concepts involved. For any unanswered questions, a list of resources is provided at the end of the paper. Any comments, suggestions, questions, etc.are encouraged and may be directed to the author at the email address given above. The Internet Frame Work As the Internet is a global network of computers each computer connected to the Internet must have a unique address. Internet addresses are in the form nnn. nnn. nnn. nnn where nun must be a number from 0 – 255. This address is known as an IP address. (IP stands for Internet Protocol; more on this later. ) The picture below illustrates two computers connected to the Internet; your computer with IP address 1. 2. 3. 4 and another computer with IP address 5. 6. 7. 8. The Internet is represented as an abstract object in-between. (As this paper progresses, the Internet portion of Diagram 1 will be explained and redrawn several times as the details of the Internet are exposed. ) Diagram 1. a These IP addresses are actually divided into different classes, where each class has it’s own range and criteria to define the number of hosts and networks. These types of information depends on your network size, criteria and purpose. In the Diagram 1. b, you can find the detail information related with the IP address classes. Diagram 1. b. The decimal representation of Internet addresses If you connect to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), you are usually assigned a temporary IP address for the duration of your dial-in session. If you connect to the Internet from a local area network (LAN) your computer might have a permanent IP address or it might obtain a temporary one from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. In any case, if you are connected to the Internet, your computer has a unique IP address. Hierarchical Versus Flat Address Space Internetwork address space typically takes one of two forms: hierarchical address space or flat address space. A hierarchical address space is organized into numerous subgroups, each successively narrowing an address until it points to a single device (in a manner similar to street addresses). A flat address space is organized into a single group (in a manner similar to U. S. Social Security numbers). Hierarchical addressing offers certain advantages over flat-addressing schemes. Address sorting and recall is simplified through the use of comparison operations. Ireland, for example, in a street address eliminates any other country as a possible location. Fig. 1. 1. Hierarchical and flat address spaces differ in comparison operations. Fig: 1. 2 Source: TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1, The Protocols. W. Richard Stevens. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts. 1994. The Ping Program If any body who is using Microsoft Windows or a flavor of UNIX and have a connection to the Internet, there is a handy program to see if a computer on the Internet is alive. It is called ping, probably after the sound made by older submarine sonar systems. 1 if you are using Windows, start a command prompt window. If you are using a flavor of UNIX, get to a command prompt. Type ping www. yahoo. com. The ping program will send a ‘ping’ (actually an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo request message) to the named computer. The pinged computer will respond with a reply. The ping program will count the time expired until the reply comes back (if it does). Also, if you enter a domain name (i. e. www. yahoo. com) instead of an IP address, ping will resolve the domain name and display the computer’s IP address. More on domain names and address resolution later. Protocol Stacks and Packets So your computer is connected to the Internet and has a unique address. How does it ‘talk’ to other computers connected to the Internet? An example should serve here: Let us say your IP address is 1. 2. 3. 4 and you want to send a message to the computer 5. 6. 7. 8. The message you want to send is â€Å"Hello computer 5. 6. 7. 8! † Obviously, the message must be transmitted over whatever kind of wire connects your computer to the Internet. Let us say you have dialed into your ISP from home and the message must be transmitted over the phone line. Therefore the message must be translated from alphabetic text into electronic signals, transmitted over the Internet, and then translated back into alphabetic text. Now there is the question that how is this accomplished? Through the use of a protocol stack. Every computer needs one to communicate on the Internet and it is usually built into the computer’s operating system (i. e. Windows, UNIX, etc. ). The protocol stack used on the Internet is referred to as the TCP/IP protocol stack because of the two major communication protocols used. The TCP/IP stack looks like this: Protocol Layer: Application Protocols Layer Protocols specific to applications such as WWW, e-mail, FTP, etc. Transmission Control Protocol Layer TCP directs packets to a specific application on a computer using a port number. Internet Protocol Layer. IP directs packets to a specific computer using an IP address. Hardware Layer Converts binary packet data to network signals and back. (E. g. Ethernet network card, modem for phone lines, etc. ) If we were to follow the path that the message â€Å"Hello computer 5. 6. 7. 8! † took from our computer to the computer with IP address 5. 6. 7. 8, it would happen something like this: Diagram 2 The message would start at the top of the protocol stack on your computer and work its way downward. If the message to be sent is long, each stack layer that the message passes through may break the message up into smaller chunks of data. This is because data sent over the Internet (and most computer networks) are sent in manageable chunks. On the Internet, these chunks of data are known as packets. The packets would go through the Application Layer and continue to the TCP layer. Each packet is assigned a port number. Ports will be explained later, but suffice to say that many programs may be using the TCP/IP stack and sending messages. We need to know which program on the destination computer needs to receive the message because it will be listening on a specific port. After going through the TCP layer, the packets proceed to the IP layer. This is where each packet receives its destination address, 5. 6. 7. 8. Now that our message packets have a port number and an IP address, they are ready to be sent over the Internet. The hardware layer takes care of turning our packets containing the alphabetic text of our message into electronic signals and transmitting them over the phone line. On the other end of the phone line your ISP has a direct connection to the Internet. The ISPs router examines the destination address in each packet and determines where to send it. Often, the packet’s next stop is another router. More on routers and Internet infrastructure later. Eventually, the packets reach computer 5. 6. 7. 8. Here, the packets start at the bottom of the destination computer’s TCP/IP stack and work upwards. As the packets go upwards through the stack, all routing data that the sending computer’s stack added (such as IP address and port number) is stripped from the packets. When the data reaches the top of the stack, the packets have been re-assembled into their original form, â€Å"Hello computer 5. 6. 7. 8! † Networking Infrastructure: So now you know how packets travel from one computer to another over the Internet. But what is in-between? What actually makes up the Internet? Let us look at another diagram: Diagram 3. 1 Here we see Diagram 1 redrawn with more detail. The physical connection through the phone network to the Internet Service Provider might have been easy to guess, but beyond that might bear some explanation. The ISP maintains a pool of modems for their dial-in customers. This is managed by some form of computer (usually a dedicated one) which controls data flow from the modem pool to a backbone or dedicated line router. This setup may be referred to as a port server, as it ‘serves’ access to the network. Billing and usage information is usually collected here as well. After your packets traverse the phone network and your ISP’s local equipment, they are routed onto the ISP’s backbone or a backbone the ISP buys bandwidth from. From here the packets will usually journey through several routers and over several backbones, dedicated lines, and other networks until they find their destination, the computer with address 5. 6. 7. 8. But wouldn’t it would be nice if we knew the exact route our packets were taking over the Internet? As it turns out, there is a way†¦ The Trace route Program: If you’re using Microsoft Windows or a flavor of UNIX and have a connection to the Internet, here is another handy Internet program. This one is called trace route and it shows the path your packets are taking to a given Internet destination. Like ping, you must use trace route from a command prompt. In Windows, use tracer www. yahoo. com. From a UNIX prompt, type trace route www. yahoo. com. Like ping, you may also enter IP addresses instead of domain names. Trace route will print out a list of all the routers, computers, and any other Internet entities that your packets must travel through to get to their destination. If you use trace route, you’ll notice that your packets must travel through many things to get to their destination. Most have long names such as sjc2-core1-h2-0-0. atlas. digex. net and fddi0-0. br4. SJC. globalcenter. net. These are Internet routers that decide where to send your packets. Several routers are shown in Diagram 3. 1, but only a few. Diagram 3. 1 is meant to show a simple network structure. The Internet is much more complex.

Beijing bicycle

Juxtaposition is used to frame the main ideas in Xiaoshuai's Beijing Bicycle meaning the bicycle of a seven teen year old, was its original name in Chinese when it was titled â€Å"Beijing Bicycle† later. Juxtaposition is being used by Xiahoshuai to make the audience recognize the main idea's of this film. The main ideas of this film was conflict between Urban and Rural culture, clash of traditional with the contemporary, and how China is beginning to develop into a modern society. Guei and Jian are characters in this film and are used to represent conflicts between rban and rural culture.Background scenes are also used to contrast modern and old China and how it is being changed. Chinese ancient alley ways are seen in many parts of the movie. Because these alley ways have been there for a long time, it is considered as an ancient pathway. The houses which can also be seen are built in the old time and the architecture is old fashioned. Construction sites can also be seen at t he start of the movie, down below we can see the ancient alley ways and cars passing by. This shows how China is beginning to change into a new country where everything is developed.Ancient alley ways can also symbolize how China is turning into a developed country, since these designs are starting to disappear. When Guei and Jian are running away they run through these ancient alley ways and meet up each time, this proves how ancient alley ways might be overwhelmed by the modernization of China and disappearing slowly. Guei comes from the country side and Jian is from the city. 2 characters with totally different cultural background are being used to contrast urban and rural life. However they both have one thing in common, which is the importance of the bike to them.To Guei the bicycle represents his lively hood and his Job; he protects the bike with all his strength. The bicycle symbolizes pride, status to Jian; he hides the bike because he may feel guilt and does not want to sho w it. Guei as a country boy is amazed at the view of Beijing; however he gets bullied by Jian's friends and cannot protect himself or the bicycle. His characteristics changed at the last scene where he used the rock to hit the person who was wrecking his bike, like Jian hit his ex-girlfriends new boyfriend. This may symbolize how Guei is slowly adapting to the city.Jian is a dynamic character in this film; at the beginning he seems ignorant and when his bicycle was stolen his friends always backed him up. However as the story progresses we can see some change happening when he introduces himself go Guei. At the end scene when they were being chased, Jian tells Guei to get away from him and when they both reach at a dead end â€Å"Get out of here† Jian says that to Guei because he doesn't want to get him in trouble. This symbolizes friendship and Jian's character development because he is trying to protect Guei and doesn't want him to get beaten.This may portray how China is c hanging into a different country where it cares about its surroundings, Just like Jian's character develops into a person who can fght for himself and cares about Guei. Xiaoshuai's main idea of the film was to show how China is beginning to develop into a modern city and becoming more independent. His use of Juxtaposition China and how traditional China is moving towards modern China. As China is becoming developed so as the people in China no matter where that person is from he/she is participating in this huge change.

Civil War And Reconstruction Essay

The Civil War is the most widely written about event in American history and Reconstruction is the most mis-understood and least appreciated subject within this wider issue. Most people would prefer to escape into the heroic exploits of the battles that were fought than deal with the difficult social problems that the former enslaved population had to deal with. I am offering this essay since I believe that the African-Americans have been done a great disservice by the Nation. As a people they were forcibly brought to this land, they were enslaved in an illegal and immoral system, and then they were abandoned by that same Nation ostensibly after having their freedom returned. What happened to them was not fair and there is a debt due to them. I hope to show in this paper some of the offenses that I find glaring. What was Reconstruction supposed to accomplish? Was it supposed to provide a new economic start for the freed peoples? Was it supposed to rebuild and reorder the state governments that had seceded? Was it supposed to prosecute and imprison former Confederate officials? These questions were never fully answered, and for the most part they were never even adequately addressed. Liberals and African-Americans are more sensitive to the burden of the unfulfilled promise of Emancipation and Reconstruction, while so-called â€Å"realists† and conservatives proclaim that too much help has already been given (think: â€Å"Affirmative Action†). The truth though, does not lie neatly in the middle between these extremes. Horrific treatment was an unpleasant fact for the enslaved peoples, and they were denied an equal opportunity to enter fully the American body politic. To make matters worse this bitter cup of â€Å"denied citizenship† is still too often a fact today. Recently, the folk singer Bob Dylan (Rolling Stone, Sept. 2012) has said â€Å"†¦the country will never be able to rid itself of the shame of being founded on the backs of slaves. † I would like to rehearse some of the story of Slavery, some critical events in the war and afterwards, and to offer a reasonable suggestion for Restitution. The introduction of African Slavery to these shores was an unplanned event although the Spanish and the Portuguese had been involved with this trade for almost 100 years in this hemisphere before it appeared here. These are some of the highlights of that practice here: The first African slaves were 19 people, who in 1619 were captured by Dutch sailors from Spanish slave traders. Subsequently they were sold to the colonists at Jamestown for food. Initially, these people worked as indentured servants but they ultimately gained their freedom after completing a â€Å"work contract† for the colonists. The phrase â€Å"indentured servant† is misleading in this case since its modern usage means someone who works for a fixed period and is then manumitted. This was not the arrangement that was applied to the African captives who arrived later than these initial individuals did, since the practice gradually evolved to treat the adults as well as the children of the female slaves as also enslaved people (partus sequitur ventrum) 2.  Another misleading statement is that the term â€Å"servant† was widely used in the South, even past 1865, to refer to African people who were actually enslaved. Therefore, not much credence should be put into the seemingly benign phrase of â€Å"servant†3 when applied to these unfortunate human beings. The cost of this labor was attractive to the colonists since by 1638 an enslaved African laborer could be purchased for $27 while a European indentured servant cost a planter $255 for one year’s work. 4 The economic appeal of enslaved African laborers became the norm and quickly spread throughout the colonies.  After twenty years, ordinances legitimizing enslavement were commonplace in almost every colony and the practice had morphed into bondage for life, or more properly, chattel slavery. 5 These practices were immoral; they had no place in a respectable society. The pernicious tendency to view the Africans through the white supremacist lens quickly became dominant and was a concomitant of this chattel slavery. This was punctuated by the knowledge that Europeans were never enslaved while most enslaved people were Africans. The skin color of the enslaved became a facile marker that fit in well with the culturally supremacist view of the European colonists. In this section I try to show how the African Slave System, after gaining a foothold went on to become the most important part of the economy of the new Nation: As the profitability of the colonists’ agricultural enterprises quickly rose, it was essential to procure a sufficient number of workers since labor shortages were a constant headache. 7 Enslavement of the Indigenous Peoples had become steadily more problematic and by the 1750’s this practice had ceased altogether. European workers were both expensive and tended to leave their employers to start plantations of their own, or to return home. Therefore, a more reliable source of economically viable labor became a necessity, and that baleful need coincided with the rise of the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade from Africa. This phenomenon was heaviest during the 16th through the 19th centuries,9 when an estimated 11 million captives from Africa were ultimately landed at Western Hemispheric destinations out of 15 million who had been loaded onto these horror-filled ships. 0 The differences in these numbers were human beings who had died en route through miserable treatment meted out by the slave traders. The attrition rate during these voyages was a startling 0. 36 persons for every person who disembarked in the New World. We should not forget these stark truths. About 650,000 ~ 720,000 apprehended persons of the numbers shown above,11 it is thought, were brought into what was to become the United States. Employing the attrition rate noted before we can estimate that about 245,000 people were lost from the aggregate number of cap tives bound for these shores. Given the losses in the war that was to come it’s almost as though the Divine Being had decided to punish this country for these sins at a rate of three-to-one. By 1860, the survivors had increased through natural growth to more than 4. 000,000 enslaved and freed peoples12 and were primarily located in the states that were to become part of the Confederacy (76% there and another 18% in the Border States13). What fueled this enormous increase in the numbers of the enslaved was that starting in the 1790’s the revolution of the cotton gin and the corresponding leap in cotton exports demanded an exponential rise in subservient labor. So what had started as a straightforward small-scale agricultural experiment, primarily growing foodstuffs, had metastasized into an industrial system practically keeping the Nation afloat with its lucrative revenues. Before the war began the cotton trade – or more realistically â€Å"King Cotton† – constituted 2/3 rds of the wealth of the Nation. 14 What motivated these slaveholders to import and retain so many African Laborers besides the economics? Evidently the lure of being a member of an aristocratic leisured-class was appealing. Most of the apologists for these slaveholders had classical education, and they employed arguments from Greek and Roman Antiquity, which portrayed slavery as a prominent component of the civilizing mission they were engaged in. Their lower income regional compatriots, although not slave owners themselves, were eager to emulate this conduct, which they viewed as valuable and status-filled. The Southern way of life was born: it was profitable for the elite; it was an identity vehicle for the lower classes; but it was hellish for the enslaved. Further, it was built upon the most cruel and involuntary system imaginable which had as a mainstay the dissolution of the Africans’ families both here and in their original homelands. The American governmental establishment – at all levels -bears the greatest guilt for this outrageous affront. It is important to recall that these slave traders and slaveholders were in many cases prominent members of the various governments that acceded to or promoted this horrific conduct. The enslaved people, it should be remembered, did not voluntarily agree to be forcibly dragged to these shores. Despite the claims made by the â€Å"Slavocracy† that they were performing a civilizing mission by maintaining this obscene practice, the only positive good was that the lives of the slaveholders was being enhanced! EXASPERATION After Slavery had become such an integral component of the Nation, regional differences in the attitudes towards that infernal system began to be felt all around. Exasperation was the order of the day but the African enslaved people were suffering the most: There were three sets of players in this tragedy: the Northern Whites; the Southern Whites (slaveholders and on-slave holders); and the enslaved Africans. It is unequivocally true that the enslaved peoples did not create nor did they benefit from this monstrous catastrophe. The other groups however, either benefited in a direct way or thought their social status was improved through the bacillus of racism. Exasperation however, was shared by all to some degree. The Northerners became progressively m ore dissatisfied with their impotence following the Revolution while the Southerners were increasingly anxious that the North was lining up new Free Soil states that would nullify their voting majorities in Congress. The enslaved though, were in anguish since everything that people could cherish was systematically being denied to them after they had been wrenched away from their homes. The enslaved increasingly attempted to build an alternate life, sub-rosa as it were, by fleeing their masters or by engaging in sabotage or willful incoherence. 15 They also constructed a parallel universe of their own by founding separate places of worship (the Whites did not allow the enslaved to be an equal part of their devotional services) and their own systems of less-than-formal education. t was during this period that it could be said that a new genus was born – the â€Å"African –American†. What they did not have was any significant power over their futures except as ad hoc combinations that could be assembled, when conditions permitted. They expressed this through manifestations such as the Underground Railroad16 (which saw 6,000~ 30,000 African-American flee; figures are imprecise), various slave rebellions (some bloody), and a general unwillingness to be smothered by enslavement (conduct just short of insurrection). Another group, though small in numbers, was the Free Blacks. These people became the vanguard of the African-American middle and professional classes that successfully operated between the seams of the larger society. The actions of this sub-group were able to relieve some of the pressures that had built up in the larger body of enslaved African-Americans and help to point the way for a more prosperous life for all.

Field Work, Non-Verbal Communication Essay

A few days ago I took a trip to my local mall and took a seat at the food court. My objective was to observe individuals engaging in non-verbal communication and document what I witnessed. After only a few minutes I became aware of a couple sitting within public distance, about 15-20ft away from me. They were having an argument about how the male was being cold and unaffectionate. While observing them I realized they were using various gestures while arguing. I will inform you of what type they were and what they were conveying. During the argument, both individuals demonstrated affect displays. These are facial expressions motivated by emotion such as a smile or frown. The female had a frown on her face to demonstrate that she was sad and discontent while informing the male that she was feeling lack of affection him. The male had what I can best describe as a half smile; imagine half of the mouth engaging in a smile while the opposite half stays normal. He also kept looking around and rolling his eyes. These indicate that he believes that the female’s thoughts are unimportant or that they may be incorrect and he believes that he indeed is affectionate. Illustrators were used by the female. Illustrators are gestures that complement our words such as pointing when giving directions. While talking about the male’s lack of affection, she constantly pointed at him with her index finger to further enhance the fact that she was talking about him. When describing how she felt, she would put her hand over her chest for the purpose of indicating that she is talking about how she feels. When the male finally decided he was going to speak, he used regulators. Regulators are gestures that may prolong or terminate the conversation such as looking at your watch, walking away or nodding and leaning forward. He raised his hand with the purpose of making the female stop talking so he could say something. The female felt that the gesture was disrespectful and noted it verbally, then continued talking about the issue as if what he had to say could wait. The male used another regulator; he leaned forward and opened his mouth. The purpose of this was to communicate to the female that he would like her to stop talking so he could say something. After the male verbally communicated that he doesn’t believe that he is being cold and unaffectionate, the female used an emblem. Emblems are gestures that have a direct verbal translation and can stand alone such as the â€Å"ok† sign. She twisted her head to the right and then to the left repeatedly indicated â€Å"No, I disagree with you†. The male put his hand out in front of him, palms facing up and tilted his head up, this combination of gestures is usually translated into â€Å"what? † or â€Å"why? †, in this situation, it means â€Å"why? †. Near the end of this argument, a couple of adaptors were utilized. Adaptors are gestures that make you feel more comfortable in a communication situation such as twirling your hair or tapping your fingers. While the female mentioned various situations where the male is unaffectionate she puts her elbows on the table and massages the sides of her head with her hands, I believe she did this to relief tension she was feeling from the argument in order to feel more comfortable. The male decided that her reasons for feeling that he is unaffectionate are legitimate. While verbally communicating that he agrees with her and he will make changes, the female reaches her hand out and holds his, further seeking comfort now that the argument has been settled. In conclusion, it is evident that non-verbal communication is constantly happening around us, all we have to do is look for it. As you read, by simply sitting down at the local mall’s food court I was able to observe a couple using the five different types of gestures which are: emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators and adaptors. Most of them occurred multiple times during the argument I was observing. After understanding that different types of gestures, it is very easy to identify them in everyday life.

Strategic Management and Competitive Forces

COMPETITION IN THE GOLF INDUSTRY (WEEK 7) 1. What is competition like in the golf equipment industry? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness? 2. How is the golf equipment industry changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those driving forces change the industry? 3. What does your strategic group map of the golf equipment industry look like? Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? Which are in the worst positions? 4.What recommendations would you make to Callaway Golf to improve the company’s competitive position in the industry and its financial and market performance? NINTENDO (WEEK 7) 1. What is competition like in the video game console industry? Do a five-forces analysis to support your answer. Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? Would you characterize the overall strength of competition in video game consoles as fierce, strong, moderate to normal o r weak? Why? 2. What is Nintendo’s strategy? Which of the five generic strategies discussed in Chapter 5 is Nintendo using? 3.Is it fair to characterize Nintendo’s introduction of the Wii as a blue ocean strategy? Why or why not? 4. What recommendations would you make to Nintendo to improve its competitiveness in the video game console industry and to maintain its favorable positioning vis-a-vis Microsoft and Sony? GOOGLE (WEEK 8) 1. Discuss competition in the search industry. Which of the fi ve competitive forces seem strongest? weakest? What is your assessment of overall industry attractiveness? 2. What are the key factors that define success in the industry? What are the key competencies, capabilities, and resources of successful search engine companies? . Have Google’s business model and strategy proven to be successful? What are the company’s key resource strengths and competitive capabilities? What competitive liabilities and resource weaknesses doe s it have? 4. What recommendations would you make to Google’s top-management team to sustain its competitive advantage in the search industry? How should it best capitalize on its strategic initiatives in mobile search, cloud computing, and its auctioning system for traditional media ads? RESEARCH IN MOTION (WEEK 8) 1. What is competition like in the wireless phone industry? Which of the five Competitive forces is strongest?Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness? 2. What strategic approach has Research in Motion chosen to employ in international markets? Would you characterize its strategy as a global strategy or a localized multicountry strategy? How has it utilized location to build competitive advantage? 3. How important is it for Research in Motion to increase the size of its pool of software developers? What are the different options for substantially increasing its R&D staff? 4. Which option for increasing t he number of software developers should Research in Motion pursue?Explain how your recommended course of action is consistent with Research in Motion’s resources, organizational capabilities, and management preferences. APPLE (WEEK 9) 1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fi t together? 2. What does a competitive strength assessment reveal about Apple’s computer business, as compared to the leaders in the personal computer industry? Does it appear that the company’s competitive positions in personal media players and smartphones or stronger or weaker than its position in computers? 3.Does it make good strategic sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, smartphone, and tablet computer industries? Are the value chain activities that Apple performs in computers, personal media players, tablet computers and smartphones very similar and â€Å"compatible† or are the re very important differences from product to product? 4. What recommendations would you make to allow Apple to strengthen its position in its most important markets? KOMATSU (WEEK 9) 1. 1. Briefly identify the various strategies that Komatsu used in the different stages of their internationalization process. . What were the implications for Komatsu’s management policies as they responded to changing domestic and global market conditions? 3. To what extent the leadership and management of Komatsu responsible for its success or failures? Why? 4. What strategic action should Komatsu take to bring back an sustain the leadership position of Komatsu? ADIDAS (WEEK 10) 1. What is Adidas’ corporate strategy? Was there a common strategic approach utilized in managing the company’s lineup of sporting goods businesses prior to its 2005-2006 restructuring? Has the corporate strategy changed with restructuring? . What does a 9-cell industry attractiveness/ business strength matrix displaying Adidas’ business units look like? 3. Does Adidas’ business line-up exhibit good strategic fit? What value-chain match-ups exists? What opportunities for skills transfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing are evident? 4. Based on your analysis of adidas businesses, did the restructuring undertaken in 2005 and 2006 make sense? Does it appear the acquisition of Reebok International will produce higher returns for shareholders? PEPSICO (WEEK 10) 1. What is PepsiCo’s corporate strategy?Briefly identify the business strategies that PepsiCo is using in each of its consumer business segments in 2008. 2. What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in PepsiCo’s business portfolio? What is your assessment of the competitive strength of PepsiCo’s different business units? 3. Does PepsiCo’s portfolio exhibit good strategic fit? What value-chain match-ups do you see? What opportunities for skills tr ansfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing do you see? 4. What strategic actions should Indra Nooyi take to sustain the corporation’s impressive financial and market performance?