Leading Supply Chain Turn Around

Five years ago, salespeople at Whirlpool said the company's supply chain staff were â€Å"sales disablers† Now, Whirlpool excels at getting the right product to the right place at the right time-while keeping inventory low. What made the difference? by Reuben C Slone a Supply Chain Turnaround ^ ^ eading T hings would be very different today-for me, my colleagues, and my company – if the votes of Whirlpool's North American leadership team had swung in a different direction on May 3,2001.It was a move I hadn't expected; Mike Todman, our executive vice president at the time, decided to go around the table and ask each member of his staff for a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the investment that Paul Dittmann and I had just formally proposed. Did I look worried? I can't imagine I didn't, even though we'd spent hours in individual meetings with each of them, getting their ideas and buy-in. We thought we had everyone's support. But the facts remained: Our proposal had a bigger pr ice tag than any supply chain investment in the company's history. We were asking for tens of millions during a period of general belt-tightening.Some of it was slated for new hires, even as cutbacks were taking place elsewhere in the company. And Paul and I, the people doing the asking, were coming from the supply chain organization. Let me be clear: The supply chain organization was the part of the business that Whirlpool's salespeople were in the habit of calling the â€Å"sales disablers† in 2000. We were perpetually behind the eight ball, tying up too much capital in finished goods inventory – yet failing to provide the product availability our customers needed. Our availability hovered around 87%. Our colleagues grimly joked that in surveys on the delivery performance f the four biggest appliance manufacturers in the U. S. , we came in fifth. 114 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW OCTOBER 200 U HBR The 2Xst-Century Supply Chain. spotlight And here, with all the credibility that track record conferred on us, we were proposing an ambitious new suite of IT solutions – something, too, for which the company had little appetite. It had been just 20 months since Whirlpool North America had flipped the switch on a massive new ERP system, with less than desired effect. Normally, Whirlpool ships close to 70,000 appliances a day to North American customers.The day after we went live with SAP, we were able to ship about 2,000. A barrage of bad press followed. Even though the situation was soon righted (SAP remains a valued partner), the experience of being treated as a sort of poster child for ERP folly had left scars. So imagine our relief when we heard the first voice say â€Å"yes. † It was the executive who headed up sales to Sears. Paul and I looked anxiously to the next face, and the next. The heads of our KitchenAid, Whirlpool, and value brands followed suit-a watershed, given that the funding would have to come from their budgets.I could see that J. C. Anderson, my boss and senior vice president of operations, was happy, too. He had tried to voice his support at the beginning of the meeting, but Mike Todman had asked him to wait. Now that it was his turn to vote, he did it with a fiourish:†I am fully committed,†he said,†to moving our supply chain from a liability to a recognized competitive advantage. † Only after Todman had heard from everyone in the room – brands, sales, finance, human resources, and operations-did he cast his vote. costs. Sales had risen to record levels in 2000 as our launch of some nnovative products coincided with an uptick in housing starts. With the rest of the company chugging on all cylinders, there was only one thing holding us back: our supply chain. Jeff called me into his office and gave me a two-word order: â€Å"Fix it. † If that constitutes a mandate, we had one. But it was up to us to figure out what fixing the supply chain would entail. At the to p level, of course, it's a simple formulation: getting the right product to the right place at the right time – all the time. That gets complicated very quickly, however, when you consider the scale of the challenge.Whirlpool makes a diverse line of washers, dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens, with manufacturing facilities in 13 countries. We sell those appliances in lOO countries, through retailers big and small and to the construction companies and developers that build new homes. In the United States alone, our logistics network consists of eight factory distribution centers, ten regional distribution centers, 60 local distribution centers, and nearly 20,000 retail and contract customers. M We needed to formulate a battle plan that would include new information technology, processes, roles, and talents.But before we could begin to imagine those, we needed to define our strategy. Looking to the future, what would it mean to be world-class in supply chain performa nce? The decision we made at this very early point in the process was, 1 think, a pivotal one. We decided that we could answer that question only by focusing on customer With that last yes, the tension broke, and everyone was requirements first. Our approach to developing our supsmiling and nodding. Paul and I had a sense of triumphply chain strategy would be to start with the last link-the but also trepidation.Because now, we knew, there could consumer-and proceed backward. be no excuses. We were on the hook to deliver some serious value. It's an obvious thought, isn't it? Fxcept that it wasn't. The overwhelming tendency in a manufacturing organization is to think about the supply chain as something Devising the Strategy that originates with the supply base and moves forward. It's understandable; This is the part of the chain over y responsibility at Whirlpool today is for the which the company has control. But the unfortunate performance of the global supply chain.But effect is th at supply chain initiatives typically run out of in 2001,1 was focused only on North America, steam before they get to their end point-and real point. and I was utterly new to the supply chain organization. Whether or not they make customers' lives easier be(I had come into the company a few years earlier to lead comes an afterthought. its e-business efforts. ) By contrast, Paul Dittmann, the vice president of supply chain strategy, was a Whirlpool vetUnderstanding Customers' Needs. If you start with the eran with a tenure spanning a quarter century. ustomer, the customer can't be an afterthought. The way I expressed this to my colleagues was to say,†Strategic relOur lots were cast together in October 2000 by Jeff Fetevance is all from the consumer back. † And conveniently, tig. Jeff is now Whirlpool's chairman and CEO, but at the we had new research to consult on the subject of contime he was president and COO – and he was good and sumer needs. Whirlpool and Sear s had recently engaged tired of hearing about spotty service and high logistics Boston Consulting Group to study consumers' desires Reuben E.Slone [email  protected] com) is the with regard to appliance delivery. The top-line finding vice president of Global Supply Chain at Whirlpool Corpo- was that people value what I call â€Å"delivery with integrity. † That is, your ability to get it there fast is important, but ration in Benton Harbor, Michigan. 116 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Leading a Supply Chain Tux*naround not as important as your ability to get it there when you said you would. â€Å"Give a date, hit a date† is what they're asking for. This sounded familiar to me, coming from the automotive industry.In my previous position at General Motors, I'd been involved in several studies that emphasized the psychology of delivery date commitments. Identifying Trade Partners' Priorities. Moving upstream, we needed to understand the desires of our direct customers better. We conducted our own interviews to define requirements by segment. As well as looking at smaller retailers versus larger ones, we focused individually on Sears, Lowes, and Best Buy, our three biggest customers. And within the contract-builder market, we studied many subdivisions, from contract distributors and apartment developers to ingle-family-home builders. We asked about their overall availability requirements, their preferences in communicating with us, and what they would like to see along the lines of e-business. We asked about inventory management and how they might want Whirlpool to assist in it. In all, we discovered 27 different dimensions along which our performance was being judged, each varying in importance according to the customer. Benchmarking the Competition. Naturally, our customers' expectations and perceptions were shaped in large part by what others in our industry were doing.So we benchmarked our competitors-primarily GE, which was our biggest rival. We obt ained cross-industry information and competitive intelligence from AMR, Gartner, and Forrester Research to make sure we had a broad and objective assessment of supply chain capabilities. Then we mapped out what would be considered world-class (versus sufficient or transitional) performance for each of the 27 capabilities and how much it would cost us to reach that top level. It turned out that to prevail on every front would require a total investment of more than $85 million, which we knew wasn't feasible.It was time to get serious about priorities. Now that we had established the cost of world-beating performance, we asked ourselves: For each capability, what improvement could we accomplish at a low investOCTOBER 2004 ment level, and at a medium level? We quickly staked out the areas where a relatively small investment would yield supremacy, usually due to an existing strength. A few areas we simply decided to cede. Our plan was to meet or beat the competition in most areas, at mi nimum cost. Building for the Future. Strategy, of course, does not simply address the needs of the moment.It anticipates the challenges of the future. A final component of our supply chain strategy was identifying the probable range of future operating scenarios based on industry, economic, and technological trends. The point was to assure ourselves that our proposal was robust enough to withstand these various scenarios. To date, the planning has worked. Having set a course, we've been able to deal with situations we hadn't conceived of and to continue evolving in the same basic direction. Selling the Revolution I t's always a difficult decision-when to involve your internal customers in the planning of a major capital investment.Their time is scarce, and they typically 117 HBR T h e Spotlight Chain. don't want to be embroiled in the details of what you, after all, are getting paid to do. You must have your act together and have a solid plan to which they can respond. On the other hand, you can't be so far along in the process that you've become inflexible. You need to maintain a careful balance between seeking their guidance and selling your vision. Paul and 1 liked to think we had that mandate from Jeff Fettig to get the supply chain fixed. But it wasn't the kind of mandate that comes with a blank check.Like most well-managed companies, Whirlpool will not undertake a capital investment without a compelling business case. As a cost center in the company, we had to justify our project wholly on expense reductions and working capital improvements. Even if we believed that better product availability would boost sales, we couldn't count those chickens in the business case. We spent an enormous amount of time talking with the brand general managers and others who would be needed. They said they had nothing more to add. But we persisted. I remember telling Paul, â€Å"If they won't let us in the door, we'll go through the window.And if they lock the window, ther e's always the air vent†¦. † Along the way, we'd been particularly concerned about cherry-picking. We knew that, in a company of smart businesspeople, the first reaction to a multimillion-dollar price tag would be, â€Å"OK, what can I get for 80% of that total? † And indeed, from a project management standpoint, we knew it was important to break out each component of the plan into a stand-alone initiative, justified by its own business case. Yet we knew the whole thing came together as a sort of basket weave, with each part supporting and relying on multiple other parts.What helped here was our competitive analysis, in which we had plotted our capability levels against others'. We charted our current position against our number one competitor on each dimension valued by customers, then extrapolated to show how, depending on the level We staked out the areas where a relatively small investment would yield supremacy, usually due to an existing strength. affected by the changes we were proposing. The Japanese call this kind of consensus-building nemawashi (literally, it means â€Å"root binding†), and it is impossible to overstate its importance.Yet it is often neglected in the midst of a complex project. Note that, at the same time we needed to be meeting with key decision makers, we were also in the thick of the analysis and design of the solution. In those early months, the project needed leadership in two directions – the kind of work people typically refer to as needing a â€Å"Mr. Inside† and â€Å"Mr. Outside. † I made sure we had sufficient consulting resources for the inside work while Paul and I devoted 50% of our time to the outside work – interfacing with the trade, outside experts, and internal stakeholders.In our initial meetings with these key people, we'd essentially say, â€Å"Here's what we're doing. What do you think? â€Å"Typically,the executive would half pay attention, half blow us off . But we'd get some input. In a second meeting, we'd show how our work had evolved to incorporate their ideas and others'. Usually, we'd see more engagement at this point. By the time we were asking for a third meeting, reactions were mixed. People were more or less on board, but some felt another meeting wasn't 118 of investment, we could overtake that company or allow the gap to widen.Sure enough, the competitive instincts of our colleagues kicked in. No one wanted to fall behind. Getting Focused O ne of the earliest successes in the turnaround of Whirlpool's supply chain was the rollout of a new sales and operations planning (S&OP) process. Our previous planning environment had been inadequate. What passed for planning tools didn't go far beyond Excel spreadsheets. Now, we had the ability to pull together the long-term and short-term perspectives of marketing, sales, finance, and manufacturing and produce forecasts that all the participants could base their game plans on.We soon pushed our forecasting capability further by launching a CPFR pilot. The acronym stands for collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment, with the collaboration happening across different companies within a supply chain. The idea is straightforward. Traditionally, we forecast how many appliances we will sell through a trade partner (Sears, for example) to a given HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Leading a Supply Chain TumarouiuL market And at the same time, that trade partner develops its own forecast.Each of us has some information that the other lacks. With CPFR, we use a Web-based tool to share our forecasts (without sharing the sensitive data behind them), and we collaborate on the exceptions. As simple as it sounds, it isn't easy to pull off. But we have, and it's been a real home run. Within 30 days of launch, our forecast accuracy error was cut in half. Where we had close to 100% error (which isn't hard, given the small quantities involved in forecasting individual SKUs for specific warehouse locations), today we're at about 44% or 45%.To put this in perspective, a one-point improvement in forecast accuracy across the board reduces our total finished goods position by several million dollars. These were just two of many initiatives we launched in rapid succession after May 2001. A couple things were absolutely critical to keeping them all on track: a highly disciplined project management office and stringent performance metrics. The key was to think big but focus relentlessly on near-term deadlines. We organized the change effort into 30-day chunks, with three new capabilities, or business releases, rolling out monthly-some on the supply side, some on the demand side.The job of the project management office was to ensure the completion of projects on time, on budget, and on benefit. Paul oversaw this for me. Also keeping us honest were new metrics – and the man 1 brought in to enforce them. My colleague John Kerr, now general manager of quality for the North America division, was then in charge of Whirlpool's Six Sigma program. He's a real black belt when it comes to performance management. It took some persuading, aimed at both John and the North American leadership team, before he was freed up and allowed to dedicate himself to the supply chain turnaround.But we absolutely needed his data-driven perspective. When one of my team would say, â€Å"We need to take this action tofixthis issue,† John would always counter with,†Please show me the data that allowed you to draw that conclusion. † Were these demands sometimes a source of irritation? I'd be lying if 1 said they weren't. But they forced all of us to rebuild the metric â€Å"fact base† and hone our problem-solving skills. By the third quarter of 2001, we had already done a lot to stabilize product availability and reduce overall supply chain costs.And, after a challenging fourth quarter, we took a huge step forward by implementing a suite of software products from i2, which specializes in supply chain integration tools. That was in January 2002. Six months later. Whirlpool had historic low inventories and a sustained high service level. Before the year was out, we were delivering very near our target of 93% availability across ail brands and products. (Momentum has since carried us OCTOBER 2004 well into the mid-nineties. ) We delivered slightly more than promised by reducing finished goods working capital by 10% and improving total cost productivity by 5. 1%.Our customers were voicing their approval. By May 2002, a blind Internet survey given to our trade partners showed us to be â€Å"most improved,†Ã¢â‚¬ easiest to do business with,† and â€Å"most progressive. † I remember that after these results came out, our VP of sales said, â€Å"You're good nowbut more important, you're consistently good. † It was a turning point in the trade's perception of Whirlpool. Engaging Talent I ‘ve t ouched on the state-of-the-art technologies we've employed in our turnaround-the Web-based collaboration tools, the planning software, i2's rocket-science optimization-but let me correct any impression that this is a tory about technology. More than anything. Whirlpool's supply chain turnaround is a talent renaissance. It's sometimes hard for us to remember how demoralized this 3,000-person organization had become. In 2000, many people in supply chain roles had been with the company for years and had watched in frustration as competitors outspent and outperformed us. Part of the problem was the massive effort required by the ERP implementation. As an early adopter of enterprise systems in our industry (SAP and other vendors got their start with process-manufacturing concerns like industrial chemicals).Whirlpool had bitten off a lot. With limited attention and resources to spare, it put other projects on hold. We took our eye off the ball in supply chain innovation and fell behind. A s a newcomer, I tried to inject some fresh energy into the organization and give people a reason to be confident Paul Dittmann told me this project gave him a â€Å"second career wind. † He's a brilliant guy, with a PhD in operations research and industrial engineering, and suddenly, he had the opportunity to innovate in ways he had only dreamed of in his first 20 years at the company.Other people benefited from changes to how we develop, assess, and reward talent. With help from Michigan State University and the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS), we developed a supply chain â€Å"competency model. † This is essentially an outline of the skills required in a top-tier organization, the roles in which they should reside, and how they need to be developed over time. And we created a new banding system, which expanded the compensation levels in the organization. Now people can be rewarded for increasing their expertise even if they are not being pro moted into supervisory roles. 19 The 21st-century Supply Chain^ We also put a heavy emphasis on developing people's project management skills. Here, we relied on a model developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI), a sort of standard for assessing and enhancing an organization's project management capabilities. I wanted as many supply chain professionals as possible to become PMI-certified, and not just because of the glut of projects we were facing at the moment. My view is that project management's disciplined planning and execution is just as vital to ongoing operations management.After all, the only real difference between running an operation and running a project is the due date of the deliverable. Over time, my operating staff stopped dismissing project management as a lot of â€Å"overhead† from a former management consultant and car guy. Now they're the ones insisting on things like project charters and weekly project reviews. Meanwhile, we hired at least 13 new people on the business side and at least as many more on the information systems side, and I made sure that every one of them was top-notch.To fill out our project management ranks, we recruited young people from companies with strong supply chains and from premier operations-oriented MBA programs like Michigan State and the University of Tennessee. Perhaps we were lucky that our talent drive coincided with a downturn in the consulting industry. On the other hand, it might have been the excitement of a turnaround situation that drew the best and brightest to Whirlpool. Finally, I wasn't so arrogant as to believe that my senior team and 1 didn't need development ourselves. We assembled a supply chain advisory board and chartered its members to keep challenging us.The group includes academics Don Bowersox of Michigan State and Tom Mentzer of the University of Tennessee, and practitioners Ralph Drayer (the Procter & Gamble executive who pioneered Efficient Consumer Response) and La rry Sur (who mastered transportation and warehouse management in a long career at Schneider National and GENCO). Get a group like this together, and you can count on creative sparks flying. These experts keep us on our toes in a way no consulting firm could. Sustaining Momentum refrigerators, washing machines, and other products that appeal to a broad range of consumers.They are the equivalent of a supermarket's milk and eggs; running out of them has a disproportionately negative impact on customers' perceptions. We're now formulating a supply chain strategy that allows us to identify these SKUs across all of our trade partners in all of our channels and to ensure that the replenishment system for our regional warehouses keeps them in stock. That constitutes the â€Å"plan to sell† part of the program. At the same time, for our smallest-volume SKUs, we are taking out all the inventory and operating on a pure pull basis, with a new, more flexible build-toorder process. The inv entory avings on the small-volume SKUs helps offset the costs of stocking up on the highvolume SKUs. We're also working on the capability to set service levels by SKU. That is, instead of having one availability target for all our products, we are recognizing that some products are of greater strategic importance than others. Some of them, for instance, are more profitable. Some hold a unique place in our brand strategy. Again, it's easy to grasp the value of being able to vary service levels accordingly. But in a sprawling business like ours, shipping thousands of different SKUs daily, it's a very difficult thing to accomplish.We continue to develop new Web-based tools. Recently, we've been focused on system-to-system transactions, in which our system talks directly to a customer's system for purposes of transmitting orders, exchanging sales data, and even submitting and paying invoices. We've rolled out this capability with a number of trade partners over the past i8 months. At th e same time, we keep enhancing our Partner Store, which allows customers to check availability and place orders via the Internet. The site allows them to find near equivalents of models, for those times when a SKU is out of stock or retired. They can even find deals on obsolete inventory.By the time this article appears in print, we'll also have implemented event-management technology, which will allow us to be more on top of the movement of goods through the supply chain. An event manager provides an alert whenever an action in the process has taken place-for example, when a washer is loaded into a container in Schomdorf, when that container full of washers is loaded onto a ship in Rotterdam, when the ship departs, when the ship arrives, when the container is unloaded from the ship in Norfolk, when the container leaves the port via truck, and, finally, when the washer is unloaded at the Findlay, Ohio, warehouse.The result is that people's attention is directed to what needs to be d one. We'll also be further along in our application of HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW T 120 hree years into the project now, we continue to assign ourselves and deliver three new capabilities per month. This doesn't get simpler over time, either. As I write this, for example, we're focused on something we call â€Å"Plan to Sell/Build to Order. † Here, the notion is that certain high-volume SKUs should never be out of stock. These are the heart-ofthe-line dishwashers. .l^ading a Supply Chain Turnaround ean techniques (usually associated with manufacturing operations) to our total supply chain. This involves using pull concepts and kanbanlike triggers to speed up processes, reduce inventory, and enhance customer service. On the Hoz4zon W hirlpool has much to show for its supply chain efforts. By the end of 2003, our product availability had reached over 93%, up from 88. 3% in 2001. (Today it's more than 95%. ) That allowed us to attain an order fill rate for key trade partners of ove r 96%. The number of days' worth of finished goods we were holding in inventory had dropped from 32. 8 to just 26.We drove freight and warehousing total cost productivity from 4% to 7. 2%. From 2002 to 2003, we lowered working capital by almost $100 million and supply chain costs by almost $20 million. Does all this add up to value in excess of the expense our leadership team approved? Absolutely. In fact, total payback on that original investment occurred within the first two years. Still, our work is far from finished. In October 2001, just months after we kicked off our turnaround, we were fortunate in that the new executive vice president brought in to run Whirlpool's North America region had deep supply chain knowledge.Dave Swift, who came to us from Kodak, believes strongly in the strategic importance of the supply chain both for building brands and for creating sustainable competitive advantage. Immediately after joining us, he elevated our sales and operations planning proce ss by personally chairing monthly executive S&OP meetings. These meetings have become the model for the company and the basis for much of our just-started global supply chain efforts. In the future, we'll face greater demands for end-toend accountability. We're already responsible for the resale of any returns. Soon we'll be accountable for the disassembly of products in Europe.It's only a matter of time before similar laws are enacted in the United States. And we'll be taking an even closer look at the design of the products themselves. If we can redesign a productOCTOBER 2004 make it in a smaller plant, make it with smaller parts, ship it in smaller pieces – we can dramatically affect supply chain economics. It's great to improve forecasts, optimize transportation, and speed up our processes with existing SKUs. But what if we could push the end stages of production closer to the consumer and get higher leverage from those SKUs? That's the kind of thing that can change the r ules of the game.It's a wonderful thing about our business: We have fierce competition all over the world, and on top of that we have very smart trade partners who deal with numerous other suppliers. We may be a white goods, big box supplier, but because our customers also buy electronics and apparel and so on, we're constantly being challenged by the benchmarks of other, more nimble industries. Technologies continue to evolve, channel power continues to shift, and the bar is constantly being raised. But I'm confident that the talent in Whirlpool's supply chain organization will be equal to it all. ^ Reprint RO4IOG To order, see page 159. 121

Discuss the different factors that might affect individuals Self-Presentation Essay

Self-Presentation is a concept used to describe the behavior of ones self to create an impression which can influence others around us. One factor that may affect our Self-Presentation is the situation one is in, also known as the context. This may influence our Persona, the ‘masks’ we wear or our Performance, how ‘sincere’ or ‘cynical’ we are. For example, if one was on a first date, we may be very cynical to give a good first impression or give an impression of our ideal-self, however, if the individual had a high self esteem, they may seem to be more sincere. Another factor that could affect ones Self-Presentation is the props or costume we wear. This is called Staging. The ‘costume’ we may wear can influence other people’s image of ourselves. For example if one wears a flamboyant outfit it could suggest they feel very insecure and have a low self-esteem and they are trying to ‘cover up’, however to others they could come across confident and outgoing. This illustrates the sheer power our Self-Presentation has over others opinions of ourselves. Over time, this could also alter our perception of our self-image, that we are â€Å"playing an unconscious role and believe we are being ourselves† stated by Burton and Dimbleby. It’s not just about what we wear, the props we use or our surroundings that can affect our Self-Presentation, but also who we are with. We act differently around our close friends to our colleagues and in fact, our family. Our Persona or our ‘masks’ change depending on the people we surround ourselves with. The company we keep is also known as our ‘Teams’. In a similar way, the roles we may have will affect our Self-Presentation. Ones role as a friend will be different to ones role as a shop assistant or a teacher. We have to change our self-image to suit our role and our role changes throughout the day. Depending on how high our self-esteem is, ones persona may not be needed or used as much, which may reflect on our self-disclosure. If one has a high self-esteem, they may not feel the need to wear ‘masks’ to hide their identity. If one is open and willing to disclose information about their  private self their Self-Presentation will not be as dramatic and will seem more like their true self. This will also contribute to their personal Johari Window Model, as their ‘open’ area will be much larger. Self-presentation could also be seen as a self-maintenance strategy, trying to change our self-image. This could be due to Cognitive Dissonance, were our perception of ourselves will differ from what society expects which causes tension. Finally our Personal Style can affect our Self-Presentation. This is because, without personal style, ones performance will not flow and will seem fake.

Case study Of Fairview Distribution Centre

Supply Chain and Logistics Management forms one of the most integral parts of any business organization whereby the company manages its resources and sees to it that all the resources are utilized effectively and the organization incurs the minimum amount of cost. In the given report, such a case relating to the Fairview School Board has been presented (Christopher, 2016).   The company presently holds a distribution center whereby it distributes all the stationery to the different organizations from one center. This has led to extremely high costs for the company and hence, it has been advised to give away the distribution centre and manage on its own. The given case explores all available ideas and then roots for one of them. At the distribution center, an area of 30000 square foot was used which has to purposes. Various school`s inventories were kept at the warehouse for the supply given to the schools. This stock included office supplies, papers and other stationery items. Such a large stock was kept in order to see to it that the bulk purchases could be made which would lead to decreased costs and also balance the lead time in case of deliveries (Islam et al., 2013). The inventory levels fluctuated to a great extent throughout the year. At the warehouse, various equipment of the board house was also kept which consisted of special teaching supplies and could be loaned by the various schools on different time period basis (Wang et al., 2016). The delivery system of the board was also taken care of by the authorities in the distribution centre which comprised of an interdepartmental mail, supplies and other educational services. The deliveries were made to various schools and offices as and when required . According to Jim Knox, that the board had forecasted certain deficits and thus, certain adjustments had to be made to various units in order to overcome the deficit problem. He suggested that along with giving away early retirement to various staffs and cuts, the distribution centre could be done away with (Mangan, Lalwani & Lalwani, 2016). The schools should be allowed to handle their own supplies and the center could be sold away along with selling the vehicles owned. The reason why closing the distribution centre was taken in as a more attractive than cutting down other program budgets was because the schools could manage their supplies on their own. According to him salaries of around $500000 would be saved if the distribution centre was given away. Along with the same rent could also be saved. The alternative option to the given scenarios cold is as follows: The distribution centre is a huge warehouse where all the equipment fit in adequately. Hence, due to this the area of the distribution centre could be reduced considerably and the entire excess inventory could somehow be reduced by keeping lower levels of stock (Stadtler, 2015).When the case comes up of the discounts which would be received then, the purchase of stocks can be made at once but the delivery can be made later. Adding to this, the staff could work on rotational basis and the teachers could also contribute some of their help in order to manage the supplies. Various other adjustments could be made which would help in altering the problem of the budget and even not hamper the distribution system aspect. The most suitable scenario in the given situation would be taking up the alternative path. This given path would follow the `avoidance of wastage idea` an idea similar to that of the Kaizen Distribution, where all unnecessary costs and wastes would be avoided in order to see to it that the distribution centre does not incur the huge amount of costs that it is incurring at the moment (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2014). The alternative plan has been elaborated in detail: In terms of ethicality, the stakeholder’s need also needs to be considered while any particular decision is being made. When the distribution centre would have been given away, it would have caused inconvenience to various stakeholders. These stakeholders include various stakeholders like teachers, staff, the personnel working at the centre, and the maintenance staff. The staff has been working in the distribution centre since a very long time and therefore, it is extremely important that the people who are working there are also considered before any rash decision is made. Hence, it can be clearly stated that the benefits of following this idea is much more than the costs which are incurred. This also serves to be a middle path and helps in removal of any consequences for the board as well as the stakeholders involved in the board Therefore, it can be stated that there were two clear alternatives available to the company which was giving away the distribution board or keeping it. The third was an additional alternative which would have helped the board to reduce certain costs. All the ideas were well explained and then the case for an alternative idea was built which was reducing excess wastage and keeping the distribution center but decreasing it in size and operations. The reduced operations will not only help in saving the costs but also help in saving the interests of the various stakeholders involved. Christopher, M. (2016).  Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK. Coyle, J. J., Langley, C. J., Novack, R. A., & Gibson, B. (2016).  Supply chain management: a logistics perspective. Nelson Education. Islam, D. M. Z., Meier, J. F., Aditjandra, P. T., Zunder, T. H., & Pace, G. (2013). Logistics and supply chain management.  Research in Transportation Economics,  41(1), 3-16. Jacobs, F. R., Chase, R. B., & Lummus, R. R. (2014).  Operations and supply chain management  (pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Mentzer, J. T., DeWitt, W., Keebler, J. S., Min, S., Nix, N. W., Smith, C. D., & Zacharia, Z. G. (2013). Defining supply chain management.  Journal of Business logistics,  22(2), 1-25. Mangan, J., Lalwani, C., & Lalwani, C. L. (2016).  Global logistics and supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons. Rushton, A., Croucher, P., & Baker, P. (2014).  The handbook of logistics and distribution management: Understanding the supply chain. Kogan Page Publishers. Stadtler, H. (2015). Supply chain management: An overview. In  Supply chain management and advanced planning  (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Simchi-Levi, D., Simchi-Levi, E., & Kaminsky, P. (2016).  Designing and managing the supply chain: Concepts, strategies, and cases. New York: McGraw-Hill. Wang, G., Gunasekaran, A., Ngai, E. W., & Papadopoulos, T. (2016). Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications.  International Journal of Production Economics,  176, 98-110.

A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

A recent crisis in tourism in Thailand - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is Thailand as the second –largest player in the tourism sector in the region and one of the top 30 destinations in the globe both in indirect and direct contributor to GDP and in absolute terms. In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. In the last two decades, Thailand had witnessed one after another worst crisis. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. In the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Thailand has been regarded as one of the South-East Asia’s largest economies and has been reckoned as one of the regions’ preferred destination for investments. In the background of global economic downturn and political turb ulence it witnessed in 2010, the country is slowly recovering on strong phases. While the tourism industry prolongs to contribute a major part of its export revenues and is set for further growth in 2012 as well and there has been a visible increase in its export revenues but in the fag end of the year 2011, Thailand met with another crisis – unprecedented flood, which devastated its economy and tourism sector. Tourism has been regarded as one of the largest sectors of the Thailand’s economy and a major foreign-currency earner.... (Oxford Publishing Group, 2009, p.131). This research essay will analyse the various crises witnessed by the Thai’s tourism industry and recent havoc flood in 2011 and how it has impacted the tourist industry of Thailand and suggest means to devise suitable strategies to mitigate the future crises from impacting the Thailand’s tourists industry. Analysis In 2010, 15.8m foreign tourists visited Thailand. However, the arrival of the foreign tourist sharply declined by 12.9% in May 2010 as contrasted the corresponding period in 2009. The decline in numbers in 2010 was due to long-run street protests in Bangkok that dispirited the foreign tourists. As WTTC report 2011, tourism industry directly contributed BT 617.7bn or 5.8% of its economy. (Oxford Publishing Group, 2011). If one look at the above graph, Thailand’s economy had performed since Q4/2008 moderately when compared neighbouring nations like Hong Kong and Singapore but its performance was poor as compared to Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.2). The number of foreign tourist visited Thailand was at its peak in January 2008 but dipped to very low level in 2009. Despite the fact that the Thailand’s very positive future outlook for long-run growth , both 2008 , 2009 and 2011 were the toughest years for the Thai’s tourism industry due to political turmoil that occurred both in Pattaya and in Bangkok in April 2009 and devastating floods in 2011. (Jitsuchon & Patanarangsun, 2009, p.6). WTTCs benchmark estimations of Thailand’s tourism effect on its economy which has taken account of the wider input of tourism both indirect and direct across all sections. Hence, it is estimated that the tourist industry’s net contribution to Thailand’s

Analytical Report --blackberry company Research Proposal

Analytical Report --blackberry company - Research Proposal Example It is imperative for BlackBerry to develop a sustainability business model because even the survival of the company is imperiled. Introduction and Global Overview of Issue Research in Motions (RIM) is a leading mobile communication company and the company behind the success of award-winning brand BlackBerry. The product lines of award-winning and innovative BlackBerry includes smartphones and software for both small businesses and enterprises. Research In Motion (RIM) develops the supporting platform and devices of BlackBerry. Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian hardware and software company located in Waterloo, Ontario. BlackBerry allows virtual real time communication so that one can stay connected all the time with people and things that matter the most. The chief selling point of BlackBerry is that it provides push email access globally via wireless networks and provides a wireless messaging system. Other factors that contributed for the popularity of BlackBerry are its system atic and comprehensive approach to security. The devices of BlackBerry are versatile and offer range of functions such as email, SMS, telephony, web browsing and so on (O’Connor, n.d.). ... While the BlackBerry has a comprehensive built-in framework for security at both server and device level, it is still prone to various probable attacks (O’Connor, n.d.). The degree of severity of these attacks may vary as per the involvement of user; the backdoor of device allows exporting confidential data from the device itself to be utilized as proxy for attackers. However, the attacks are certainly autonomous and require user to perform number of actions in order to make the attack successful. In addition, the practicality of these attacks largely depends upon the configuration of the current control provided in BlackBerry devices such as IT Policy Setup, Application Control, and Firewall. Usage of these mechanisms of available security, the risks associated with the prior mentioned attacks can be reduced greatly. The prime purpose of this report is to analyze the current strategic position of BlackBerry in the industry of smart-phones. Global smartphone market has become extremely competitive and crowded in recent few years. In the last year, the statistics revealed that the smartphone market is led by Android (Google) having 70.1% share, followed by iOS of Apple at 21%, BlackBerry stands at 3.2% while Windows Phone at 2.6% (Teh, 2013, p. 1). The worldwide growth of smartphones market is 41.7% whereas the BlackBerry has experiences negative growth by declining by 43.1% (Teh, 2013, p. 1). In few words, it can be said that BlackBerry is in predicament. Despite losing market share, BlackBerry still has 79 million users all over the world. Immediate attention based in benefits, usability and features already overcome during the promotion of the latest smartphones offered by BlackBerry that is, BlackBerry 10

MGT WK5 GROUP ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MGT WK5 GROUP ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Visionary and proactive. Empathy. Integrity. Risk taking. Creativity Goal oriented. Similarly, the above characteristics will facilitate heir ability to maintain personal relationship with employees and delegation of responsibilities therefore building ateam.Agood leader should be goal oriented and should be at apposition to exhibit emotional maturity meaning emotional intelligence. The most common control mechanism is employee incentive and remuneration. It is found to be common since it s applied by most business organizations. Employee incentive entails; respect, recognition, responsibility, empowerment, social needs and salaries and remuneration (Bateman & Snell, 2009). Leading is a function of management which requires a leader to encourage employees to be highly productive and innovative. In its relation to control management, it affects the leading function of management in that it allows management to encourage employees to share their values and beliefs of the business. Lead ing works hand in hand with employee incentives in many ways and even by recognizing motivation theory and management which includes; basic needs, social needs, safety and security, esteem needs and finally self actualization. Control recognizes the fact that employees should be rewarded for their hard work and efforts (Bateman & Snell, 2009). ... els of absenteeism (d) Increased job satisfaction (e) Create confidence among employees (f) Reduces human resources costs and production costs (g) Reduces complains and grievances In relation to basic needs, effective control provides employees with reasonable pay so that they can afford some basic needs. The manager can also provide lunch if possible to employees. It ensures of employees job security and offers management to increase productivity, encourage innovation, values and beliefs of company. When utilized properly by companies as in our case, B Company, the employee incentives are found to be positive control mechanism. According to Bateman &Snell (2009), incentive programs are used to control productivity of employees through encouragement and rewards. In the case study of B&BCompany, it offers several rewards to its employees including health insurance, vacations, wellness programs and retirement benefits. It also provides stress management and opportunities for further tr aining and education. These incentives provide satisfaction while allowing management to apply control over human capital. B&B Company as any other organization recognizes its employees as one it’s major assets. Therefore they are safeguarded as well. On the other hand policies re installed by the management of this company to ensure that employees are protected rumors or informal communication which might be misleading. Room for informal groupings is also allowed in this company. Effective control recognizes efforts of employees, providing employees with titles and promoting the accordingly. It also provides for achievement of plans and should ensure that employees’ ego aren’t damaged. Control mechanism should provide for opportunities for self development. That is allowing employees

International Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Politics - Essay Example To this the constructivists argue that customs, culture and ideas principally determine the awareness of the world that we live in. The distinctiveness and welfare of a state can be molded by ideas and this serves to have more or less lasting effects on international relations. Conflicts emerge from fundamental and controlling outcomes of standards and shared hopes, distinctiveness, culture and social processes (Baylis & Smith, 2005). The notion of liberalism maintains that in order to determine the behavior of the state, it is important to consider the state’s preferences, and does not accept the capabilities of the state for these purposes, which differ from one state to another. They are mainly dependent on the culture, economic system and the type of the government in each state. (International relations). Proponents of the dependency theory assert that all the third – world countries are not poverty stricken. In the past, these countries had been rich, but they the colonial regime exploited and impoverished them. The powerful first-world nations compelled the third world countries to integrate into the mainstream of the world economy, which rendered their economy subservient to the insatiable needs of the colonial regimes of the first-world nations. These countries were unable to satisfy the needs of their society, due to the compulsions of their colonial masters. The wealthy and industrially developed countries dominated the global economy, and were never exploited by colonialism. (The IR Theory Knowledge Base). Functionalism deals with the functionality of organizations in terms of their purposes and tasks. Most international organizations were developed to address several problems, purposes, tasks and demands. Therefore, theorists argue that the growth of these organizations was mainly based on their responsibility to sort out these issues that could arise from time to time. The neo  ­Ã¢â‚¬â€œ functionalism

Evaluating TQM of Emirates Airlines Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Evaluating TQM of Emirates Airlines - Essay Example By providing a skeletal support for the strategies, it will be easy to allocate resources to the important goals respectively without wastage of precious resources. They also make the task easier for ever employee as it makes clear what they have to do or aim to do and they will be motivated towards a strategy. (Basil Henry Liddell Hart, 1967) Mission and vision of Emirates: The mission statement of Emirates is: â€Å"To become a leading airline with good customer relations by encouraging transparency and fair competition and adopting open skies policy.† The vision of Emirates is: â€Å"To become a leading airline by setting new industry standards that has focus on innovation, diversity and customer service.† Strategies and Goals †¢ To become a global airline and carrier of choice all over the world. †¢ To promote UAE especially Dubai as one of the safest, modern, technologically advanced. Progressive and modern commercial centers of the world. †¢ To encourage sustainability and economic efficiency through various programs †¢ To encourage diversity by having multi-cultural staff †¢ To develop and train employees and provide them opportunities to enhance their skills. To apply and develop new technologies internally as well as in the services and products that are offered t the customers. To expand and grow in the new markets. Core Competencies The core competencies of Emirates include its: Strong leverage to brands: Focus on marketing and promoting the brands by investing on them Competitive cost structure: Focus on low costs so as to offer low fares. Spoke and hub operation: The mega hub of Emirates Airlines is at Dubai International Airport that is the centre connecting the whole world. (Emirates, n.d.) Strategic Control Strategic control is very important to monitor the internal and external environment. It helps in evaluating the company’s programs from a long term perspective. For Emirates it is very important to systematically and continuously check the implementation of plans, monitor all the events that take place inside and outside the company in all situations. (Porter, 1996) Stakeholder analysis Government: Government of UAE is the major stakeholder of Emirates Airline as it is also one of the owners of the company. They have high power and are very much interested in the operations of the company. The government has the authority to build pressure and question the decisions. The government is so much involved with the company that it created a liberal market for the Airline to operate in Fast east Share holders: they are the people who have bought the shares of Emirates. They have high level of interest in the affairs of the business as they have invested their money, but they have low level of power. It is very important to develop engagement strategy for them and keep them informed about the activities. Employees: employees are one of the main stakeholders of a company as they have the power that can either make the company or break it. They are directly linked to the company. It is thus very important to keep them satisfied by providing training and development opportunities, good compensations and a good environment. Their needs should be catered and taken care of. Customers: without the customers a company cannot survive. Customers thus are very important and play a very important role. They have the power to influence the company and its success. Strategies should be made to keep the customers engaged and updated about the products and services. Public: on a larger scale the

Paper Converters ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Paper Converters ltd - Essay Example ..8 4. Impact of culture on organization†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..9 5. Multi-Cultural deference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...10 5.1 Individualism (IDV)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦10 5.2 Power distance (PDI)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.10 5.3 Masculinity / Femininity (MAS)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.11 5.4 Uncertainty avoidance (UAI)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦.12 6. Management deference†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.......12 6.1 Achievement vs. Ascription†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.13 6.2 Individualism vs. Communitarianism†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.13 6.3 Internal vs. External†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 6.4 Neutral vs. Emotional†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..14 6.5 Specific vs. Diffuse†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 6.6 Time Orientation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦15 6.7 Universalism vs. Particularism†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦15 7. ... Although, the two founder executives of the corporations are childhood acquaintances ethnicity, they have dissimilar vision and views.The culture of both corporations are strongly swayed by their founding executives. Employees of both companies greatly believe in their originators’ vision that slowly developed into their own enterprise culture that resulted into an organizational ethnicity clash amid Dyson Paper and Jones Sales Agent Limited, when they relocated to Paper Converter Limited. The aim of this report is to evaluate the case of Paper Converter in respect to organization and international (UK). The report will give a breakdown of the Paper Converter cultural drawback via ‘Cultural Web’ investigative tool for organizational cultures, also;Hofstede four dimensions, Pestel and Fons Trompenaar cultural structure forglobal cultures (UK) to reveal where Paper Converter is falling short in addition toways of overcoming this organisational problem. 1. Background of the Company Paper Converter Ltd was established in 1988 after an merger amid the Dyson Paper and Jones Sales Agent Ltd. Dyson Paper was established in 1983, in Corby, United Kingdom with the inducement from the government of Britain during the depression phase early on in 1980s. Mainly, Dyson Paper takes care of the management and production, whereas Jones Sales Agent Limited assumed the responsibility of marketing and sales, from two unconnected premises positioned 60miles apart. 1.1 Market Situation Paper Converter’s central market was United Kingdom, Middle East and West Africa. To enhance production capacity as well as reduce production cost, the firm went worldwide through setting up a factory in Zambia

Case Study on Early Childhood Essay Example for Free

Case Study on Early Childhood Essay This study will provide an understanding of a child’s physical, cognitive, and social development. Early childhood is a time of remarkable physical, cognitive, social, as well as emotional development. Infants enter the world with a limited range of skills and abilities. Watching a child develop new motor, cognitive, language and social skills is a source of wonders for parents and caregivers. The study of human development is a rich and varied subject. We all have personal experience with development, but it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly how and why people grow, learn, and change. What happens or doesn’t happen to children in the earliest years of their lives is of critical importance, both to their immediate well-being and to their future. If you received the best start in your earliest years of life, you are more likely to have grown healthy, developed language and learning capacities, or gone to school and led a productive, rewarding life. Let’s take a closer look at early childhood development including the well-being of potential influences around the child. Five year old Madison, a cheerful and clever girl, is one of the most active children I have ever met. She is a member of gymnastics, dancing, and little league softball team. Weighing about thirty five pounds and very lean, she has the energy times three of one child. To determine Madison’s maturity of her motor skill development, I created a test for both her gross motor skills and fine motor skills. To test her development of her gross motor skills, I told her to run up and down the driveway of her yard, which was about 9 feet in length, until she was tired. Madison only ran this length four times before giving up. I determined that her gross motor skills were above average because of her speed, pace, and length of running. To test her fine motor skills, I gave her one sheet of wide ruled paper and told her to copy each sentence: â€Å"My name is Madison. I am five years old. I like to play ball. † Madison showed that she could write these sentences neatly and accurately. I tested her again on her fine motor skills by testing her strength. I rolled a soccer ball to her five times and she kicked it back to me three of those five times. She showed that her strength was average as well. I also asked her parent a series of questions about her physical development: What was Madison’s appetite on a daily basis? What is her energy level before and after school? What is the pattern of her physical growth? Her parent stated that her appetite was normal and that she ate three full meals a day including snacks in between these meals. She then stated that before school her energy level is low being that most children do not like to be woken early in the morning. After school her energy level is fair because she has been active for more than seven hours and attends practice after school. Her parent also explained that Madison’s weight gain is steady but she has gotten taller by two inches. I determined that Madison’s physical development is excellent and well above average of children her age. Not only a period of amazing physical development, early childhood is also a time of extraordinary mental development. Cognitive development combined with memory and thinking continues to emerge throughout childhood. It would be impossible to avoid mentioning the work of Piaget when it comes to childhood cognitive development. According to Piaget’s theory, Madison is automatically in the preoperational stage. During this stage, children do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view of other people. I asked Madison does she like to read and she answered â€Å"yes. † I also asked her does she like to learn and she said â€Å"yes. † To test her cognitive skills, I tested her by giving her a paper with a picture of three balls on it. I told her to circle the biggest one, put a square around the smallest one, and underline the medium size one. She correctly circled the biggest one which was in the middle, followed by the smallest one on the right and the medium one on the left. I gave the same test but with different pictures and in a different order. She missed this question because she assumed that the biggest bear was in the middle because of the first test she took. She failed to understand the perception of size because she focused on what she saw before not noticing the change of appearance. This showed that she used static reasoning believing that the world is unchanging. I asked Madison how many fingers she had and she counted ten. I then raised only four of my fingers on one hand and three on the other. I asked her how many did I have on my and and she stated seven but then told me I was hiding more. As you can see I could not pull a trick on Madison with this test. In children, there is perhaps nothing more amazing than the emergence of language. Early childhood is a sensitive period for language learning. I asked her parent does Madison easily learn words. She stated that Madison learns words everyday and often repeat words that she might have said to other people and to her as well. To test Madison on her social development, I sat a phone, a bottle of water, and a book on a table. I asked her what was the first object and why do we use it. She correctly answered the question saying that the phone was used to call people. Second, she could not tell me what the container was (bottle) but she did say it was water. Last, she correctly stated that the book was used to read about things. I asked her does she play with other kids and she said yes. I then asked her did she have friends and she named two friends. Her parent also stated that Madison talks about her friend all the time and has gotten into trouble for talking too much at school. It shows that Madison is a very sociable child and she will more than likely be successful in anything that she does.

Infosys Technologies Ltd: SWOT and PESTLE

Infosys Technologies Ltd: SWOT and PESTLE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY We are using the term information technology or IT to refer to an entire industry. In actuality, information technology is the use of computers and software to manage information. In some companies, this is referred to as Management Information Services (MIS) or simply as Information Services (IS). The information technology department of a large company would be responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary. History of Information Technology: In relative terms, it wasnt long ago that the Information Technology department might have consisted of a single Computer Operator, who might be storing data on magnetic tape, and then putting it in a box down in the basement somewhere. The history of information technology is fascinating! These Information Technology resources for information on everything from the history of IT to electronics inventions and even the top 10 IT bugs. Modern Information Technology Departments: In order to perform the complex functions required of information technology departments today, the modern Information Technology Department would use computers, servers, database management systems, and cryptography. The department would be made up of several System Administrators, Database Administrators and at least one Information Technology Manager. In India, the software boom started somewhere in the late 1990s. Most of the Indian software companies at that moment offered only limited software services such as the banking and the engineering software. The business software boom started with the emergence of year2000 problem, when a large number of skilled personnel were required to fulfill the mammoth database-correction demand in order to cope up with the advent of the new millennium. The profile of the Indian IT Services has been undergoing a change in the last few years, partly as it moves up the value chain and partly as a response to the market dynamics. Ten years ago, most US companies would not even consider outsourcing some of their IT projects to outside vendors. Now, ten years later, a vast majority of US companies use the professional services of Indian Software engineers in some manner, through large, medium or small companies or through individuals recruited directly. The market competition is forcing organizations to cut down on costs of products. The professional IT services on the other hand are becoming increasingly expensive. The offshore software development model is today where onsite professional services were ten years ago. There is a high chance (almost a mathematical certainty), that in less than ten years, the vast majority of IT services (software development being just one of them) from developed countries, will be, one, outsourced and two, outsourced to an offshore vendor. Despite the global economic slowdown, the Indian IT software and services industry is maintaining a steady pace of growth. Software development activity is not confined to a few cities in India. Software development centers, such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Calcutta, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar, Ahmadabad, Goa, Chandigarh, and Trivandrum are all developing quickly. All of these places have state of the art software facilities and the presence of a large number of overseas vendors. Indias most prized resource is its readily available technical work force. India has the second largest English-speaking scientific professionals in the world, second only to the U.S. It is estimated that India has over 4 million technical workers, over 1,832 educational institutions and polytechnics, which train more than 67,785 computer software professionals every year. The enormous base of skilled manpower is a major draw for global customers. India provides IT servi ces at one-tenth the price. No wonder more and more companies are basing their operations in India. The industry is in an expansion mode right now, with dozens of new offshore IT services vendors emerging every day, the industry has a high probability of being subjected to the 80:20 rule in not too distant a future. In perhaps another ten years, 80 percent of all outsourced offshore development work will be done by 20 percent of all vendors, a small number of high qualities, trusted vendors. Only a few select countries and only the most professional companies in those countries will emerge as winners. India will definitely be the country of choice for offshore software development. It has the potential to become and remain the country of choice for all software developments and IT enabled services, second only to the USA. The third choice could be far distant. India is among the three countries that have built supercomputers on their own. The other two are USA and Japan. India is among six countries that launch satellites and do so even for Germany and Belgium. Indias INSAT is among the worlds largest domestic satellite communication systems. India has the third largest telecommunications network among the emerging economies and it is among the top ten networks of the world. To become a global leader in the IT industry and retain that position, India needs to constantly keep moving up the value chain, focusing on finished products and solutions, rather than purely on skill sets and resumes. It also needs to be able to package its services as products, rather than offering them as raw material. It needs to be able to recognize and build up on its strengths and work on weaknesses. Another extension of the IT industry is the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) which is a sector dependent on IT sector. Information technology consulting (IT consulting or business and technology services) is a field that focuses on advising businesses on how best to use information technology to meet their business objectives. In addition to providing advice, IT consultancies often implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on businesses behalf. The PC industry is one of the strangest in the world. There is probably no other type of product that is so technologically sophisticated, sells for so much money, and yet is sold by so many companies for so little profit. The severe competition in the industry is the one reason why so many problems are encountered by those who deal with PC vendors. While I consider there to be absolutely no excuse for a company not treating its customers fairly, at the same time I think customers should have some idea of what vendors are up against in this demanding marketplace. PESTLE ANALYSIS There are many factors in the macro-environment that will effect the decisions of the managers of any organization. Tax changes, new laws, trade barriers, demographic change and government policy changes are all examples of macro change. To help analyze these factors, managers can categorize them using the PESTLE model. PESTLE stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technical, Legislative and Environmental. It is a strategic planning technique that provides a useful framework for analyzing the environmental pressures on a team or an organization. It describes a framework of macro environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research and gives a certain overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. PESTLE factors play an important role in the value creation opportunities of a strategy. However they are usually outside the control of the corporation and must normally be considered as either threats or opportunities. Kotler (1998) claimed that PESTLE analysis is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. The headings of PESTLE are a framework for reviewing a situation, and can in addition to SWOT and Porters Five Forces models, be applied by companies to review strategic directions, including marketing proposition. (P)olitical factors These refer to government policies such as the degree of intervention in the economy. What goods and services does a government want to provide? To what extent does it believe in subsidizing firms? What are its priorities in terms of business support? Political decisions can impact on many vital areas for business such as the education of the workforce, the health of the nation and the quality of the infrastructure of the economy such as the road and rail system, Government rules and regulations can also affect a business heavily. Rules and regulations such as environmental regulations, industry specific regulations, competitive regulations, consumer protection and various kinds of employment laws. (E)conomical factors These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates, governments spending levels, unemployment, job growth, tariffs, consumer confidence index and import or export rations. Economic changes can have a major impact on a firms behavior. Higher interest rates may deter investment because it costs more to borrow. A strong currency may make exporting more difficult because it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency Inflation may provoke higher wage demands from employees and raise costs Higher national income growth may boost demand for a firms products (S)ocial factors These often look at the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, demographics (age, gender ,race, distribution), career attitudes and emphasis on safety , lifestyle changes, population shifts, education trends, fads, diversity, immigration/emigration, housing trends, fashion, attitudes to work, leisure activities, occupations and earning capacity. Changes in social trends can impact on the demand for a firms products and the availability and willingness of individuals to work. Today the aging of population has become a huge problem. This has increased the costs for firms who are committed to pension payments for their employees because their staff is living longer. It also means some firms have started to recruit older employees to tap into this growing labour pool. The ageing population also has impact on demand: for example, demand for sheltered accommodation and medicines have increased whereas demand for toys is falling. (T)echnological factors Technological factors include ecological and environmental aspects and can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Technological factors look at elements such as RD activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. New technologies create new products and new processes. MP3 players, computer games, online gambling and high definition TVs are all new markets created by technological advances. Online shopping, bar coding and computer aided designing are all improvements to the way we do business as a result of better technology. Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments can benefit consumers as well as the organizations providing the products. (L)egal factors These are related to the legal environment in which firms operate. In recent years in UK there have been many significant legal changes that have affected organizations behavior. The introduction of age discrimination and disability discrimination legislation, an increase in the minimum wage and greater requirements for firms to recycle are examples of relatively recent laws that affect an organizations actions. Legal changes can affect a firms costs (e.g. if new systems and procedures have to be developed) and demand (e.g. if the law affects the likelihood of customers buying the good or using the service). (E)nvironmental factors Environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and insurance. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with greater environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. The growing desire to protect the environment is having an impact on many industries such as the travel and transportation industries (for example, more taxes being placed on air travel and the success of hybrid cars) and the general move towards more environmentally friendly products and processes is affecting demand patterns and creating business opportunities. Introduction: Infosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) was started in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250. Today, we are a global leader in the next generation of IT and consulting with revenues of over US$ 4 billion. Infosys defines designs and delivers technology-enabled business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World. Infosys also provides a complete range of services by leveraging our domain and business expertise and strategic alliances with leading technology providers. Infosys offerings span business and technology consulting, application services, systems integration, product engineering, custom software development, maintenance, re-engineering, independent testing and validation services, IT infrastructure services and business process outsourcing Infosys pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM), which emerged as a disruptive force in the industry leading to the rise of offshore outsourcing. The GDM is based on the principle of taking work to the location where the best talent is available, where it makes the best economic sense, with the least amount of acceptable risk. Infosys has a global footprint with over 50 offices and development centers in India, China, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan. Infosys has over 103,000 employees. Infosys takes pride in building strategic long-term client relationships. Over 97% of our revenues come from existing customers. In an increasingly globalised world, significant complexity and uncertainty is getting attached to the unprecedented economic crisis. The Indian economy has also been impacted by the recessionary trends, with a slowdown in GDP growth to seven per cent. The focus and exponential growth in the domestic market has partially offset this fall and insulated the country, resulting in net overall momentum. The IT-BPO industry in India has today become a growth engine for the economy, contributing substantially to increases in the GDP, urban employment and exports, to achieve the vision of a young and resilient India. During the year, the sector maintained its double digit growth rate and was a net hirer. This growth has been fueled by increasing diversification in the geographic base and industry verticals, and adaptation in the service offerings portfolio. While the effects of the economic crisis are expected to linger in the near term future, the Indian IT-BPO industry has displayed resili ence and tenacity in countering the unpredictable conditions and reiterating the viability of Indias fundamental value proposition. Consequently, India has retained its leadership position in the global sourcing market. The Indian IT-BPO industry is estimated to achieve revenues of USD 71.7 billion in FY2009, with the IT software and services industry accounting for USD 60 billion of revenues. During this period, direct employment is expected to reach nearly 2.23 million, an addition of 226,000 employees, while indirect job creation is estimated to touch 8 million. As a proportion of national GDP, the sector revenues have grown from 1.2 per cent in FY1998 to an estimated 5.8 per cent in FY2009. Software and services exports (including BPO) are expected to account for over 99 per cent of total exports, employing over 1.76 million employees. While the current mood is that of cautious optimism, the industry is expected to witness sustainable growth over a two-year horizon, going past i ts USD 60 billion export target in FY2011. While the industry has significant headroom for growth, competition is increasing, with a number of countries creating enabling business environments aimed at replicating Indias success in the IT-BPO industry. Hence, concentrated efforts are required by all stakeholders to address the current challenges, to ensure that India realizes its potential, and maintains its leadership position. Vision To be a globally respected corporation that provides best-of-breed business solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by best in class people. Mission To achieve our objectives in an environment of fairness, honesty, and courtesy towards our clients, employees, vendors and society at large. STP Analysis Segmentation Geographical regions: US, India, Australia, China, UK Psychographics: MNC, BFSI, Hospitality Sector Demographic: Population or Employee strength of consumer company: +5000 Targeting Infosys Technologies Ltd, which offers its core banking solution under the brand Finacle, is targeting regional rural banks to achieve higher growth. There are over 90 rural banks in India they have come up with a solution called The Finacle Bank in a Box for this segment. The expenditure that each rural bank would have to make would depend on its existing level of automation. IT service providers would benefit a great deal if more people from rural areas were included in the banking services, and Infosys has. The solution will be deployed by a third party who will do the banking transaction on behalf of different banks as the model is expected to be cost-effective Infosys BPO is targeting the hospitality industry for its outsources processes offering. The company has formed a strategic alliance with New York-based hospitality consultancy major HVS International The alliance will help Infosys BPO (formerly called Progeon) to target hotels and other customers in the hospitality industry. HVS is a well-known consulting firm in the hospitality segment. Positioning Infosys is seeking to move away from its image as a cheap Indian offshore service factory to that of a global business technology (BT) leader. The company is investing in measures to enhance its visibility and footprint across a wider group of client stakeholders and markets. The aim is to position Infosys as a prototype for successful companies in a globalized market environment. While Infosys can justifiably point to its ongoing business growth as a major success story, its corporate positioning suffers from inconsistencies in its underlying messaging. Furthermore, its product positioning continues to mainly focus on technology and cost-related benefits, which represents a disconnect with Infosys corporate ambitions. Leadership Style: Infosys believes that leadership is one of the most essential ingredients of organizational success which is provided by its Chairman, N R Narayanmurthy. Leadership is based on high business vision and predominantly supportive styles. There is emphasis on developing leadership qualities among employees. For this purpose, it has established Infosys Leadership Institute. Top management emphasizes on open door policy, continuous sharing of information, takes inputs from employees in decision making, and builds personal rapport with employees. As we have seen over last few years, we have seen smooth transition from N R Narayanmurthy to Nandan Nilakeni and from Nandan Nilakeni to Kris Gopalkrishnan without any adverse effects on the company outlook and each one has proved to be an able leader taking company forward. Staff (Human Resources): Since Infosys is in knowledge-based industry, it focuses on the quality of the human resources. Out of total personnel, about 90 per cent are engineer s. At the entry level, it emphasizes on selecting candidates who find the companys meritocratic culture satisfying, superior academic records, technical skills, and high level of learn ability. The company emphasizes on training and development of its employees on continuous basis and spends about 2.65 per cent of its revenues on up gradation of employees? skills, and around 50% as employee costs. In spite of thousands of people joining every month, Infosys has been able to maintain its training standard mostly due to its highly matured processes capabilities and investment in infrastructure. SWOT Analysis (S)TRENGTHS: Leadership in sophisticated solutions that enable clients to optimize the efficiency of their business. Proven Global delivery model Commitment to superior quality and process execution Strong Brand and Long-Standing Client Relationships Ability to scale Innovation and leadership. (W)EAKNESSES: Excessive dependence on US for revenues, 67 % of revenues from USA. Weak player in domestic market. Only 1 % of revenues from India low as compared to peers. Low R D spending as compared to global IT companies only 1.3 % of total revenues. Low expertise in high end services like Consultancy and KPO. (O)PPORTUNITIES: Domestic market set to grow by 20%. Expanding into new geographies Europe, Middle East etc. Infosys is cash rich (Around US $ 1 Billion). Acquiring companies to increase expertise in Consultancy, KPO and package implementation capabilities Opening offices and development centers in cost advantage countries such as those in Latin America and Eastern Europe. (T)HREATS: Global economic slowdown may continue for several years hence low IT spending globally. US Govt. against outsourcing. Shrinking margins due to rising wage inflation, Rupee-dollar movementaffects revenue and hence margins. Increased competition from foreign firms like Accenture, IBM etc. Increased competition from low-wage countries like China, Indonesia etc. Strategy: Infosys has adopted a client-focused strategy to achieve growth. Rather than focusing on numerous small organizations, it focuses on limited number of large organizations throughout world. In order to cater its clients, the company emphasizes on custom-built softwares. Another differentiating factor for Infosys is that it commands premium margins. Company does not negotiate over margins beyond a certain limit and some time prefers to walk-out rather than compromise on quality for low-cost contracts. This has helped in building an image for quality driven model rather than cost-differentiating model. Increase business from existing and new clients: Infosys has focused on expanding the nature and scope of engagements for the existing clients by increasing the size and number of projects and extending the breadth of its service offerings. For new clients, it provides value added solutions by leveraging its in-depth industry expertise. It increases its recurring business with clients by providing software re-engineering, maintenance, infrastructure management and business process management services which are long-term in nature and require frequent client contact. Expand geographically: Infosys plans to establish new sales and marketing offices, representative offices and global development centers to expand its geographical reach. It plans to increase presence in China through Infosys China, in the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe directly and through Infosys BPO, in Australia through Infosys Australia and in Latin America, through Infosys Mexico. Enhance solution set: Infosys focuses on emerging trends, new technologies, specific industries and pervasive business issues that confront our clients Pestle of Infosys: (P)olitical: Political stability: Indian political structure is considered stable enough expect the fact that there is a fear of hung parliament (no clear majority). U.S. government has declared that U.S companies that outsource IT work to other locations other than U.S. will not get tax benefit. Government owned companies and PSUs have decided to give more IT projects to Indian IT companies. Terrorist attack or war. (E)conomic: Global IT spending (demand) Domestic IT Spending (Demand): Domestic market to grow by 20% and reach approx USD 20 billion in 2008-09 NASSCOM Currency Fluctuation Real Estate Prices: Decline in real estate prices has resulted reducing the rental expenditures. Attrition: Due to recession, the layoffs and job-cuts have resulted in low attrition rate. Economic Attractiveness: Due to cost advantage and other factors (So)cial: Language spoken: English is widely spoken language in India, English medium being the most accepted medium of education. Thus, India boasts of large English speaking population. Education: A number of technical institutes and universities over the country offer IT education. Working age population (T)echnological: Telephony: India has the worlds lowest call rates (1-2 US cents). Expected to have total subscriber base of about 500 million by 2010. ARPU for GSM is USD 6.6 per month. India has the second largest telephone network after china. Teledensity 19.86 % Enterprise telephone services, 3G, Wi-max and VPN are poised to grow. Internet Backbone: Due to IT revolution in 90s India is well connected with undersea optical cables. New IT Technologies: Technologies like SOA, web 2.0, High definition content, grid computing, and innovation in low cost technologies is presenting new challenges opportunities for Indian IT industry. Internet Backbone: Due to IT revolution of 90s, Indian cities and India is well connected with undersea optical cables. New IT technologies: Technologies like SOA, Web 2.0, High-definition content, grid computing, etc and innovation in low cost technologies is presenting new challenges and opportunities for Indian IT industry. (L)egal: IT SEZ requirement: IT companies can set up SEZ with minimum area of 10 hectares and enjoy a host of tax benefits and fiscal benefits. Contract / Bond requirements: Huge debates surrounding the bonds under which the employees are required to work, which is not legally required. IT Act: Indian government is strengthening the IT act, 2000 to provide a sound legal environment for companies to operate esp. related to security of data in transmission and storage, etc. Companies operating in Software Technology Park (STPI) scheme will continue to get tax-benefit till 2010. (E)nvironmental: Energy Efficient processes and equipments: Companies are focusing on reducing the carbon footprints, energy utilization, water consumption, etc BIBILIOGRAPHY http://www.businessballs.com/pestanalysisfreetemplate.htm http://www.alacrastore.com/storecontent/datamonitor-premium-profiles/ http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careersintechnology/p/ITDefinition.htm http://www.wikipedia.com

Essay --

Patricia Wang Mrs. Pagtakhan Junior English 10 March 2014 A Reflection of One’s Character The American Dream is an ideal vision many people strive for, promising happiness, prosperity, and success. â€Å"Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness† is the foundation of American society, presenting a false perception that everyone can achieve the American Dream. Although people assume that the Dream comes with an equal opportunity for all, one’s success is undoubtedly tied to a material component. The rich and powerful are born into affluence while the farmers and industrial workers can only long for it. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays Tom Buchanan’s arrogance and fear of change and Jay Gatsby’s obsession with getting Daisy through their homes, revealing Gatsby’s inability to reach his vision of the American Dream. Tom Buchanan’s home reveals his arrogance and fear of change, as he has already reached the American Dream. Tom’s â€Å"Georgian Colonial mansion overlooking the bay† parallels his â€Å"rather hard mouth and †¦ supercilious manner† (11). Located on East Egg, Tom’s house displays the old-fashioned, traditional East where the richest families retain their wealth through family lineage instead of personal gain in the West. The United States originated and expanded from the east coast westward, symbolizing East Egg as the foundation of real money and wealth, while West Egg as money earned through ambition and hard work. Built on the top of the hill, Tom’s home overlooks the entire bay, reminding himself and others that he is above everyone. This ultimately leads to his haughty personality, as he is a â€Å"careless [person†¦ mashing] up things and creatures and then [retreating] back into [his] money or [his] vast carelessness† (... ...e American Dream. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald parallels Jay Gatsby’s home with his longing for the American Dream and Tom Buchanan’s home with his supercilious personality as a result of his excessive wealth. Tom’s directly inherited wealth and Gatsby’s self-earned money reveal that one’s background or environment ultimately determines whether or not the Dream is attainable. Gatsby’s endless struggle portrays the misconception that the American Dream is achievable through hard work and determination, regardless of social class or material wealth. The harsh reality is that wealth and power are the true factors that lead to success and happiness; those who are not born into this environment can never achieve their ideal vision. The desire for perfection undermines the true American society as people continuously strive for the illusion of the American Dream.

Chocky - Tv Vs The Book :: essays research papers

Chocky The Novel Chocky was written by John Wyndham and was later adapted into a TV drama by the BBC. The producers, Pamela Londale and Vic Hughes, kept the same title for the TV series as the Novel, and named it Chocky, but the Film text had some changes in events, different character interpretation and alternative way of showing foreshadowing. The Film version differs quite a lot from the Novel. There were a number of changes to the plot, but most of these were only little issues. One of the major differences in plot was Matthew’s relationship with Colin. Colin was Matthew’s next door neighbour in the Novel, but there was no close friendship or relationship between them. However in the Film, Colin is Matthew’s best friend, classmate and neighbour, whom Matthew was always visiting and playing with. One of biggest changes occurs in the character Piff. Piff was Polly’s long gone imaginary friend in the Novel who was only talked about, whilst in the Film Piff was still around and living. Another change from the Novel was the way in which Chocky helped Matthew. Chocky gave Matthew the ability to draw properly, helped him to swim and then save Polly, and taught Matthew to do the binary code in both texts. However in the Film Chocky also gave Matthew super strength to play cricket, develop fast reflexes to play computer games and do the rubix cubes at amazing speeds. The Film Editor, Oscar Webb left out some scenes and added some different ones. One of these new scenes included the visit to the planetarium. Later we saw Chocky entering Matthew’s body during a Maths class, along with other scenes in the class rooms, such as biology, not previously mentioned in the Novel. Also Matthew visited Colin’s house on numerous occasions and we saw Matthew’s Mother and Father shopping for a new car and then Matthew winning a cricket game. The editor also added more detailed facts about the holiday at the Cottage. All of these extra events added more to the Film than the original Novel. n 2 - The two texts had quite a few different character interpretations. One of the major differences being in the interpretation of Chocky. In the Novel Chocky was only a voice in Matthew’s head which Matthew would translate to other people, whilst in the film she had an actual voice which was presented by the Actor, Glynis Brookes’ voice.

The Charity Organization Society Essay -- Sociology, Social Control

1. The Charity Organization Society was based in the scientific movement of organizations. Workers believed that charity work needed more definition and organization and that charity should be focused more on individual need rather than as a whole population. Focusing on individual need was intended to improve relief operations while making resources more efficient. They also intended to eliminate public outdoor relief. With the promotion of more organization and efficiency the new Charity Organization Societies were born. Trattner states that these new requirements for organization and efficiency spread so â€Å"rapidly that within 6 years 25 cities had such organizations and by the turn of the century there were some 138 of them in existence† (Trattner, 1999). The reformation of the Charity Organizations didn’t grant relief themselves however they served as a resource to simplify the transaction of relief to relief applicants by: maintaining relief applicant requests, records of the aid given to them, and referring those worthy or unworthy to the proper agencies (Trattner, 1999). Their goal was to eradicate fraud and duplicity of services while also maintaining efficiency and treating poverty. The charity organization movement intended to treat poverty by enacting â€Å"friendly visitors† to look into each case and define the cause of destitution while also watching for overlapping relief. These â€Å"friendly visitors† and their investigations were the cornerstone of the Charity Organization Society’s (C.O.S) treatment; granting aid without investigation was like giving medicine without diagnosis (Trattner, 1999). â€Å"Friendly visitors† were relied on heavily within the C.O.S in order to effectively assign services and determine which serv... ...mp in California a crowd of children crowded around Tommy’s mother while she was making soup and told all of them they could have some and to go get dishes. This was something that no one had really done for the Joads but it seemed they felt it was important to help those like themselves. Another scene that depicted cultural awareness was when they met the police officer at the gas station who explained to them he was from Indiana, where they had come from, and informed them to leave that town and go to the transient camp a few miles away so as they didn’t get a ticket. This was something that the officer may not have shared if they weren’t from the same region. After being dislocated from their home the Joads lost their home, their grandfather, their grandmother, and their son. Besides these things they also lost a part of their dignity but never their spirit.

Religious Freedom

Religious freedom occupies a special place in contemporary political discussions. It should not. This is not because religious freedom is not important but because it is no more and no less important than other forms of freedom of conscience, belief and practice. 2 Many believers point out that faith plays a unique role in their lives. That is often true. Those atheists who dismiss belief in God as no more credible than belief in Santa Claus or in fairies miss the point.Religion is more than an intellectual exercise or a matter of logic; it often has, for believers, a vital social and spiritual function. But acknowledging the vital and unique role of faith in the lives of believers does not commit us to providing it with a privileged position in society. 3 The reason that religious freedom has a special place in contemporary political debate is historical. Ideas of tolerance and of freedom of expression developed in Europe from the seventeenth century onwards primarily within a relig ious framework.Questions of toleration and expression were at heart questions of how, and how far, the state, and the established church, should accommodate religious dissent. We can see this in the arguments of John Locke, whose Letter Concerning Toleration is a key text in the development of modern liberal ideas about freedom of expression and worship. Locke’s starting point was the insistence that the duty of every individual was to seek his own salvation. The means to do so were his religious beliefs and the ability openly to worship.The power of the political authorities could not rightfully extend over either sphere. Written at a time when Europe was rent by tempestuous religious strife, and when intolerance and persecution were the norm, Locke’s was a powerful argument for religious freedom. It was also an exceedingly narrow conception of liberty. Locke’s toleration was rooted primarily in the desire to extend freedom of worship and theological discussion to nonconformist congregations and placed little emphasis on wider issues of freedom of thought or conscience.Indeed Locke was emphatic in refusing to extend toleration to many other groups. Neither Catholics not atheists were, in Locke’s view, deserving of tolerance, the former because they gave their allegiance to a ‘foreign prince’, the latter because their opinions were ‘contrary to human society’ and ‘to the preservation of civil society’. 4 Locke’s near contemporary, the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose views influenced the Radical Enlightenment, proposed a different concept of tolerance.Spinoza’s starting point, was not, as it was for Locke, the salvation of one’s soul, or the coexistence of churches, but the enhancement of freedom, and the quest for individual liberty and freedom of expression. All attempts to curb free expression, he insisted, not only curtailed legitimate freedom but was futile. â⠂¬ËœNo man†¦ can give up his freedom to judge and think as he pleases, and everyone is by absolute natural right master of his own thoughts’, Spinoza wrote, so ‘it follows that utter failure will attend any attempt in a state to force men to speak only as prescribed by the sovereign despite their different and opposing opinion.’ ’The right of the sovereign, both in the religious and secular spheres’, he concluded, ‘should be restricted to men’s actions, with everyone being allowed to think what he wishes and say what he thinks’. It is a more inclusive vision of freedom than Locke’s, and a more useful starting point – and conclusion – when thinking about contemporary freedom. 5 Modern ideas of freedom and tolerance are usually seen, particularly in the West, as having derived from Locke. In fact they draw upon both Locke and Spinoza. The US First Amendment owes much to Spinoza’s conception of freed om.Even in Europe, where freedom of expression is construed in narrower terms, Spinoza’s influence remains important, if unacknowledged. However, despite the broadening of the conception of liberty and tolerance, the idea that freedom of religion is a special freedom, an idea that derives primarily from Locke, remains entrenched. 6 Today, we live in very different world from that in which concepts of religious freedom first developed. Religion is no longer the crucible within which political and intellectual debates take place.Questions of freedom and tolerance are not about how the dominant religious establishment should respond to dissenting religious views, but about the degree to which society should tolerate, and the law permit, speech and activity that might be offensive, hateful, harmful to individuals or undermine national security. We can now see more clearly that religious freedom is not a special kind of liberty but one of a broader set of freedoms. If we were thin k about religious freedom from first principles today, it would not have a special place compared to other forms of freedom of conscience, belief, assembly or action.7 Whatever one’s beliefs, secular or religious, there should be complete freedom to express them, short of inciting violence or other forms of physical harm to others. Whatever one’s beliefs, secular or religious, there should be freedom to assemble to promote them. And whatever one’s beliefs, secular or religious, there should be freedom to act upon those beliefs, so long as in so doing one neither physically harms another individual without their consent, nor transgresses that individual’s rights in the public sphere.These should be the fundamental principles by which we judge the permissibility of any belief or act, whether religious or secular. 8 Many on both sides of the debate about religious freedom continue to treat religion as special. Many atheists want to deny religion the rights a ccorded to others forms of belief. Many religious believers want to retain privileges for religion. Both are wrong. 9 Some atheists argue that secularism requires that religion be kept out of the public sphere.It is an argument that cannot be right any more than the claim that the views of racists, conservatives, communists or gay activists must be kept out of the public sphere. A secular space cannot be one in which religion is not permitted to be present. It is, rather, a space in which one religion is granted no advantage over another, nor over any secular philosophy or ideology. It must also be one, however, in which no religion is disadvantaged with respect to another religion, or with respect to secular philosophies and ideologies. 10Many atheists demand also that religious symbols be banned in the public sphere. Many states and corporations have imposed such bans, from the refusal to allow the wearing of the cross in the workplace to the outlawing of the burqa in public place s. Such bans are infringements of the basic freedoms set out in #7. An employer has every right to ban kinds of clothing that might be, say, dangerous in a particular workplace. He or she also has the right, in certain circumstances, and within limits, to insist that employees wear a particular uniform, or to desist from wearing something inappropriate.But there should be no general ban on particular forms of clothing or adornment, and certainly no general ban on specifically religious clothing or symbols. 11 The real dilemmas with religious freedom arise out of questions not of beliefs or symbols but of practices. Many beliefs, religious and secular, imply particular practices. The belief that homosexuality is a sin requires that one refrain from gay relationships or gay sex. The belief that life begins at conception requires that one does not have an abortion or help anyone else to do so.And so on. As a society we should tolerate as far as is possible the desire of people to live according to their conscience. But that toleration ends when someone acting upon his or her conscience causes harm to another without consent, or infringes another’s genuine rights. 12 It is not just in the case of religion that there is a strong relationship between belief and practice. Racists, communists, Greens, New Age mystics – all could claim that their beliefs enforce upon them certain actions or practices.We do not, however, allow racists, communists, Greens, or New Age mystics to act upon their beliefs if in so doing they harm others or deny them their legitimate rights. A racist pub owner cannot bar black people from his pub, however deep-set his beliefs. It would be a criminal offence for Greens to destroy a farmer’s field of legally grown GM crops, however strongly they might feel about such agriculture. There is a line, in other words, that cannot be crossed even if conscience requires one to. That line should be in the same place for religious bel ievers as for non-believers.Society should accommodate as far as is possible any action genuinely required by conscience, but not where such acts harms another or infringes their rights. Of course, a religious believer might claim that he or she faces a different kind of compulsion to that felt by a racist, a communist or anyone else attached to secular beliefs. He or she may feel commanded by God to act in a particular way. It may well be true that a believer feels a different kind of compulsion. But the reason for which someone feels compelled to act in a particular way is not necessarily relevant to whether or not such acts should be legally permitted. 13The fact that acts of conscience may sometimes have to be curbed does not mean that in these cases there is a ‘conflict of rights’. Just as there is a right to free speech but no right not to be offended, so there is a right not to be harmed and to equal treatment, but no right to harm or to discriminate. This is ess ential to protect religious freedom. An atheist bar-owner should have no right, whatever his conscience may say, to bar people of faith, any more than a Christian bar-owner has the right to bar gays. Such curbs on acts of conscience simply mean that we live not alone on a desert island but together in a crowded society.14 How would the argument so far throw light on recent conflicts over matters of religious freedom? Should religions have the right to prevent the publication of cartoons or books or plays that are deemed offensive? No. Religious freedom requires that people of faith be allowed to speak or act in ways that might offend others. It does not that require others do not cause offence or promote blasphemy. Is it legitimate for a state to ban the burqa? It is not. Wearing a burqa neither harms, nor discriminates against, others.Of course, one might well believe that the burqa harms the woman who wears it and is an expression of discrimination against women. A liberal society accepts, however, that individuals should free to make choices that may not be in their interest and that, to liberal eyes, demean them. This applies even to particularly distasteful expressions of degradation, such as the wearing of the burqa. If women are forced to wear the burqa against their will, the law should protect them against that coercion. It should not, however, impose a ban on those who have chosen to wear the burqa.Some suggest that burqas cause harm because they may pose security problems, or be incompatible with the needs of particular jobs. Such practical problems can usually be solved on a case-by-case basis without the need for draconian legislation. Should an employee be allowed to wear a cross at work? In almost every case the answer should be ‘Yes’. There may be a pragmatic case for, say, banning loose chains that in certain workplaces may be dangerous; but it is difficult to see what right an employer has simply to ban the wearing of a cross as a religious symbol.Should gay marriage be legalized? Yes. This is a matter both of secular equality and of religious freedom. On the one hand, the state should not exclude gays from the civil institution of marriage simply because of religious hostility. On the other, some faith groups wish to bless to gay marriage. For the state to deny them that right because other faith groups disagree would be to undermine religious freedom. What the state should not do is to force religious bodies to accept or consecrate gay marriage. Should a Catholic adoption agency be allowed to turn away gay prospective parents?If the agency receives public funding, or performs a service on behalf of the state, then the answer is ‘No’. It would then be legitimate for the state to insist that the agency does not discriminate, despite Catholic views on homosexuality. If, however, it is a private agency – if it is simply performing a service for Catholic parents who subscribe to its views o n homosexuality – then the answer should be ‘Yes’. Should Christian bed and breakfast owners be allowed to turn away gays? Such owners, even if they are turning their own home into a b’n’b, are providing a service from which a gay couple could reasonably expect equal treatment.The answer, therefore, is ‘No’. Should Catholic-run hospitals or schools be forced to give employees health insurance that includes free contraception? This is, of course, a source of major controversy in the USA. The answer is ‘Yes’. This is not a matter of religious freedom, but of employee rights. Churches are not being forced to provide contraception. In their role as secular employers, they are being asked to provide employee benefits that all employers must provide. To exempt Church-run organizations would be to deny those benefits to a particular group of employees. 15Having said all this, many of these conflicts would be better resolved throug h the pragmatic use of common sense than through the strict application of principle, particularly when those principles remain socially contested. A religious believer should not normally have the legal right to discriminate. But if it is possible to arrange matters so that a believer can act according to conscience without causing harm or discrimination to others, then it might be worthwhile doing so. In principle, a Christian marriage registrar should expect to have to perform gay civil partnerships, whatever their religious beliefs.However, it might make pragmatic sense to roster others to perform ceremonies for gay couples, not because we should accept prejudice – prejudice, whether religious or secular in form, should always be challenged – but in acknowledgement of the fact that genuine social conflict exists on this issue. We should not give an inch to bigotry. Someone whose ‘conscience’ would not allow them to work with gays, or to marry Jews, sho uld clearly not be indulged. Nevertheless, many oppose gay partnerships or marriages as a matter of conscience and not simply through homophobia (albeit that ‘conscience’ can, of course, often be a cover for homophobia).We can both challenge such attitudes and accept that on matters of genuine conscience, a little leeway or accommodation that allows someone to live by their principles may be desirable. The law should not make any such accommodation. But as individuals, or as organizations, it may be wise to, though not at the cost of causing harm, allowing discrimination or endorsing bigotry. 16 There are exceptional cases in which we should set aside these basic principles. A marriage registrar should be expected in principle, if not necessarily in practice, to perform gay civil partnerships.But we should not expect a doctor or a nurse, even in principle, to perform an abortion, if they feel to do so is against their beliefs. Whatever we may think of the belief that li fe begins at conception, it would be unreasonable in the extreme to expect those who do hold that belief to commit what they consider to be murder. 17 A pragmatic approach to matters of religious conscience is neither a sign of ‘weakness’ nor a matter of ‘accommodating’ the devil. Standing by political principle is vitally important, including the principle that people should have the right to act upon their conscience if possible.Why is that principle important? Because we recognize with Spinoza that ‘No man can give up his freedom to judge and think as he pleases, and everyone is by absolute natural right master of his own thoughts’. To recognize that is to recognize also that it is better if people are persuaded to act in a particular way, by exercising their freedom to judge and think, than being forced to do so by the power of the state. There are times when the state has to wield the big stick, particularly if ‘acts of conscienceâ⠂¬â„¢ lead to physical harm or discrimination.But such occasions, as a matter of principle, should be minimized as far as possible. To be pragmatic in this matter is to keep to one’s principles. 18 The aim of rethinking religious freedom is to strengthen, not weaken, it. It is to establish it not as a special privilege arising out of the turmoil of seventeenth century Europe but as one of a set of indispensible freedoms rooted in the needs and possibilities of the twenty-first century world. To defend religious freedom in this manner is not to defend religion. It is to defend freedom.