Personal Narrative Essay on my first car Essay

There was always one major thought, the goal, a simple dream that made twinges of excitement flow through my body. The waiting was incredible, and it always seemed forever and a day before it would come true. This is a typical pre-teen, adolescent dream, yet it was as important to me as the sun rising. Nothing would ever top this, once I had it, no one could take it away. Getting my driver’s license was only half the battle; the dream was to have my very own car. I wanted it and I dreamed about it everyday. In my early years of high school, my older friends would drive me to and from school, just the normal everyday activities. Usually we would go grab a bite to eat, drop off some of the other passengers–mine was the third stop. Since I was too young to participate in all the activities on their agendas, I was unable to tag along. I had rules and an over-protective mom who was strict on what time I was to return home (and made sure I completed my homework before allowing me to go out with my friends). As the time passed, and I was a bit older, all my close friends started to get their driver’s licenses and living the freedoms that I still yearned. They were able to come and go as they pleased without the hassles of ‘bumming a ride’. With their own transportation many were able to have more ‘choice’ jobs. My time for this accomplishment was nearing. That coming summer I was able to take my driver’s training courses. I was thrilled to no end knowing how close I was to achieving the same sovereignty as my peers. I had two courses to complete that I was raring to get done. With the pressures of high school and all the responsibilities that come along, it was not easy to find a job without my own car. After a couple months or searching for work, I put on my brave front and sought employment (at the ever-so dreaded) mall. I soon found a quaint job and began my quest to save money. It seemed no matter how much I worked, nor how much I was  able to sock away, small bills and responsibilities continued to get in the way. I often thought, † All this money I am giving my friends for gas, I could be putting away, or spending on gas of my own!† Spending a mere five dollars per day alone, expenses were adding up quickly. Although I had small expenditures, I was still able to save here and there, and just prayed I would b e rewarded with lots of monetary units when I graduated. After all my courses and many hours of driving with my mother and friends of age, I was ready for my road test. I was overly prepared, and knew I would ace this test. Without a second thought, I hit the ground running; my parallel parking was flawless, speed limit was on target, and my hands on nine and twelve as they should be (many may remember the old version on ten and two). Soon enough I was at the local Secretary of State, dressed up, more nervous about the picture then I was about the test itself. Within a few weeks, my small hard plastic license was in the mail. Only one problem remained, I had no vessel for traveling! I had my license for nearly a year when my senior year was coming close to an end. I had a small amount of money saved and was depending heavily on graduation money to satisfy my thoughts and needs for buying a car. I had my sights set one car. It was within my price range, and met every one of my demands. The car was a 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis, crà ¨me colored (the year is now 2001). Matching Beige interior, working quartz clock, dual exhaust cherry bomb mufflers (loud enough to set off a car alarm) complete with a CD player. I am not the type of girl who wants a brand new car. Mine had to be already loved; and then hated enough to sell. A car that has it’s own distinguished smells of adventure. One that no longer has the owner’s manual, so you find out new appurtenances about the inner-workings and excites you to the point where you show the ‘new’ features to all your comrades. The first time you clean it out, you may find treasures under the seats and in the nooks and crannies. It needs a little more love than the rest so it will run nice and warm in the winter, and will not over heat in the summer. A place where you can listen to any of your CD collection and it  sounds amazing (just because it is all yours). A car that can fit five or more people in , for those surprise trips that you cannot refuse. That was the perfect car for me. One that you can give a divine name to, like Maurice. Within a few months of graduating, the Grand Marquis was put up for sale. A gleaming reddish orange â€Å"FOR SALE† sign hung proudly in the rear window, and it read in large, black letters $900! I could not believe they were going to let such a treasure car go for so little money! It was all I could do to contain myself knowing I had just enough money to buy it, and still have some left over to get it washed and buy a few things to personalize the interior. Seeing as how it was a friend’s vehicle, I was first in line for bids. After a few days of negotiations (and me being a long time friend of the entire family) they let that beauty go for a measly $500! There were tasks to be completed before I was able to show my very first car off. I purchased a new furry steering wheel cover with a matching pillows in the back that stated â€Å"BLING $$ BLING† in gold glitter, a super heavy duty car wash, a misting of Febreeze, a good wipe down of the interior, and I was ready to gloat. I raced up onto my front lawn, careful to not mutilate the grass or murder the daisies, and laid on the harmonic horn until the whole household was outside to witness the cars majesty. I had put on the perfect track of everyone’s listening pleasure, The Joker by The Steve Miller Band. â€Å"Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah, some call me the gangster of love, some people call me Maurice†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It was awesome! A pubescent dream, whether big or small is important to one’s self image or self-confidence. I could not imagine living in a world without dreams or aspirations, whether they are material objects or transcendental hopes. To some, a dream of a car seems inconsequential; to others it’s their whole world. This was all I ever wanted in an automobile, just enough to transport me to my destinations and acquiesce in me the carte blanche that I had always dreamt about.

Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business

Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business Preamble During the late 80s and early 90s, much of the predominant management philosophy  involved directly applying classical military strategy to business. Sun Tsu  was regularly quoted at  Board meetings and  on Wall Street  and books like  On War  and  Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun  were among the most popular business books available. At the time, I wasn’t a big subscriber to the idea that lessons from military conquests and failures could be readily applied to making a business successful.Perhaps it was that I couldn’t get my head around morphing one of Sun Tsu’s many principles of warfare into something that I could adopt as a leader or manager . . . â€Å"Camp in high places, facing the sun. Do not climb heights  in order to fight. So much for mountain warfare. † – Sun Tsu,  The Art of War Huh? Maybe it was that the black and white nature of warfare, with real l ife death and destruction that made it difficult for me to draw comparisons with the gray-ness of business strategy and  its inherently longer feedback loop.Or,  it could have been because  mapping strategy directly to success or failure discounts the value of the quality of implementation. As a strong believer in the power of strong management, I believe that top-notch execution often trumps good strategy. As I see it, a good strategy poorly implemented will lose to a lesser strategy that is well implemented (that ought to elicit some strong opinions . . . ). For whatever reasons I struggled with using centuries of military wisdom in conducting business in the past, my recent re-reading of excerpts from books by  a few  of the great military historians –  B.H. Liddel Hart,  Carl von Clausewitz  and, of course, Sun Tsu, among others, has got me re-thinking about the application of what armies and empires have learned about beating the crap out of the other guy . Of course, from the cheap seats, anyone  can read an excerpt from the writings by or about a great military strategist or tactician and come up with  their very own  way of applying it to their business. Napoleon’s  35th military  maxim  is: â€Å"Encampments of the same army should always be formed so as to protect each other. One might apply this maxim to business by translating it as: all of our products and services should be closely aligned and interconnected in some way, making it harder for our competition to pick off any one product or service. Sounds reasonable. Microsoft clearly does that with Office, an obviously successful implementation of this strategy. But what if I interpret this to mean that I should build walls around my current products or services, focusing my energy on defending my current position instead of expanding aggressively?It’s easy to see how this interpretation of Napoleon’s maxim could open  me up to failure as i t did when  DEC  refused to leave the  VAX  behind. Both interpretations are reasonable, but one leads to a high likelihood of success and the other to a reasonable possibility of failure. The problem, as I see it, is that even students of military history have difficulty determining what strategy or tactic to apply a priori in a military engagement, let alone while adapting it  to its business application. There are many examples in military history of a certain strategy being successful in one battle and failing miserably in another.Sure, it’s easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, but when the data is coming at you in real time, making the right call on what military strategy to use in your business is difficult and potentially dangerous. So with the caveat of interpretation stated above, I’d like to present  my summary of winning military strategies and tactics that businesses in today’s world of diminishing sustainable differentiation can use to help make them successful . . . †¢ Speed †¢ Focus †¢ Indirect Approaches †¢ Intelligence (knowledge of what’s going on) †¢ DeceptionArguably, not nearly a complete list but, like I said earlier, it’s easy to map virtually any military strategy to any business strategy. My goal here is to present the most obvious ones (to me) and to use examples of the use of the particularly military strategy in  action and show how it applies to business. My plan is to do a separate post for each one of these strategic areas to avoid this post from becoming exceedingly long and, probably, way too boring. First up, Speed . . . Speed There are very few examples of successful military campaigns waged slowly.American Civil War General  Nathan Bedford Forrest,  one of the  first students of mobile warfare,  consistently defeated opposing Union generals even though he was almost always outnumbered and out-gunned. His strategy – speed. He is known for getting to battles days before the Union armies expected his arrival – driving men and horses virtually 24 hours a day in order to create a surprise attack. Forrest rarely lost in battle as a result of his use of speed. He called his strategy: â€Å"get there fustest [sic]  with the mostest. Roughly 75 years later, in 1939, the German Army started its sweep across Europe with its invasion of Poland. It moved so swiftly across the continent that it caught other countries ill-prepared and unable to mobilize forces or infrastructure to defend themselves. The Germans use of  blitzkrieg, orlightning war, allowed them to stay mobile and to avoid becoming entrenched in one place as all the armies in WWI had. This strategy and, of course, the preparations to implement a  strategy of speed,  made the German army vastly superior to the other armies of Europe and, ultimately, more successful in it’s initial engagements.Like armies, companies that stay flexible and m ove quickly hugely increase their likelihood of success. This is, of course, true in terms of markets – getting products and services that people really want or need to market first is almost always  a  winning strategy – but it may be even more important in terms of the culture it creates inside a company. When your employees are flexible and innovative, moving quickly to take on the next challenge, they will all be driving for success and well-prepared to quickly respond to  any surprises that arise from the competition.One of the reasons that speed works is that many companies are afraid of it and thus, don’t employ it as a strategy. It is, therefore,  likely that your competition is afraid of speed. Or, at least, more afraid of it than you are. It feels much safer to move slowly, after all. But it isn’t. Slow companies are exposed to attack from all directions and once attacked, often don’t have the ability to defend themselves, let alo ne go on the offensive. Road kill. In my experience, speed has also shown its value in another critical way – by minimizing the impact of execution errors.Any business is going to have some execution errors. If the business is plodding along, though, small mistakes in tactics can cause huge, unrecoverable problems. If the business is moving quickly, though, most execution errors become mere bumps in the road. The flexibility of the organization can absorb them and continue to move forward with small changes in strategy or tactics. This, in fact, may be the greatest advantage of employing speed as a strategy. For business, as with the military, speed is your friend – keep the pedal to the metal.Next up . . . focus. Focus During  Napoleon’s  early campaigns, virtually all of which were successful, he used a set of 78  Maxims  to guide him in battle (before he thought his armies were too big to be defeated). Maxim XXIX stated: â€Å"When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day. † Napoleon believed that it was nearly impossible to  know what force, tactic or sub-strategy would determine the outcome of a specific battle.Therefore, he always focused all of his forces on the attainment of a single goal – on winning the battle at hand. The only time he split his forces was to use flanking maneuvers where part of his force would attack the enemy from another direction. Even when this tactic was used, though, all of his forces were engaged in  the  single battle at hand with the common goal of winning that particular contest. He didn’t hold men in reserve and he didn’t split his forces to fight in multiple, simultaneous engagements.The same cannot be said  for the British during the  African Campaign  in WWII   The British, who had recognized the strategic importance of Africa well ahead of the Germans, committ ed large forces and many tanks, guns  and planes to the region to make sure that it remained in their control. The Germans, although out-manned and out-gunned almost eradicated the British forces from Africa by taking advantage of a fundamental weakness in British military strategy – to hold some forces in reserve during a battle just in case they needed them later.This conservative British strategy of not committing all their energies to the task at hand  meant that  the Germans never had to engage the entire British force at any time and their inferiority of men and equipment didn’t come into play and thus, they almost wrested control of the continent from the British with many fewer resources. During the civil war,  George McClellan, first General in Chief of the Union Army, failed to convincingly defeat a much smaller and less-equipped Confederate force in many engagements.This included missing a huge opportunity to take the Confederate capital, Richmond, d uring the first year of the war and, therefore, passing up an opportunity to bring the war to a close early in its execution. McClellan almost never committed a large enough force to any engagement, choosing to leave behind many men to defend Washington (as commanded by Lincoln) and keeping  even more in reserve and disengaged from any particular battle. There are dozens of examples throughout history of armies being defeated because forces were split for one reason or another.Whether to fight a battle or war on too many fronts or  to hold forces in reserve, too little of the available resources were applied to ensure victory. Most often, it appears that the cause of these errors was ego and/or ignorance. But sometimes the error lay in simply underestimating the effort required to be successful in any one arena. With low barriers to entry in  so many market segments these days, many companies assume that they can create any new product or service without too much trouble or ex pense (let’s build our own web browser! ). Funny enough, this might be true.You may be able to address any new problem that you see potential customers having. The problem is that while you can do anything, you simply can’t do everything. Doing everything or, in fact, just doing multiple things, is the same as fighting a battle on multiple fronts – it’s not likely that you’ll succeed unless you have loads-o-resources. Most  small companies (or groups within larger ones)  don’t, of course, and end up struggling when they lose their focus  on their goal. Saying focused is particularly difficult for startups which, by their very nature, have little momentum behind what they’re doing and, thus, a lot of flexibility.Add to this the fact that the smart, hard-working people who found startups or join them near their inception are the kind of people that see opportunities all around them. A new, exciting market niche here; weak competit ion there; unfulfilled customer need somewhere else. It’s natural for this type of person in a startup environment to  have difficulty staying the course, wanting to jump at every opportunity they see. Focus not only involves trying not to bite off more than you can chew, but also not changing direction too frequently or haphazardly. In a startup, it’s especially easy to get pulled in new irections daily as sales people feed back what they’re hearing, customers demand new functionality and advisors express their beliefs about what is right and wrong. And, since many startupscan  actually turn on a dime, they often do just that. Turning on that dime may be the right thing to do. But companies or groups that do so frequently, are doomed to getting overrun by the competition. It’s hard to do things well if what your target is a moving one. This is not to say that  adjusting goals and direction should be avoided completely. It’s often necessary a nd smart to do so. Such changes have to be made thoughtfully and carefully, though.It  should  be difficult to change your focus at any time. If it were easy, you weren’t focused enough. If you choose to make a change, just make sure that everyone makes that change and is aligned with the same, unified goal. Don’t split your forces, it’ll end in your defeat. Why fight with one arm tied behind your back? Commit everyone and everything to your goal and try to minimize changes to that goal. Success is elusive enough, why compete with yourself by losing focus? Concentrate all you energy and time on your goal and, like any  consolidated, focused military effort,  you’ll optimize your chances for success.Disclaimer: I am not now nor have I ever been a military strategist. Additionally, although I’ve spent many years of my career creating, refining and attempting to lead others in the execution of business strategy, I’m sure that some (like ly, those closest to me) would also question  my abilities as a business strategist. Indirect Approaches Classic, gentlemanly military strategy called for opposing forces to line up in a field opposite one another, all participants in plain site, and then to wreak havoc on each other.This type of  direct, frontal assault is rarely used any more unless one force has an overwhelming superiority over the other. Even then, it doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it’s not without many surprises and casualties. Military leaders that historically adopted  less directly confrontational strategies or even complete indirect strategies soon found great success even when they were confronted by an enemy with superior forces. So, what does it mean to have an  indirect  strategy? In military terms, indirect strategy involves attacking an enemy on his flanks (sides) or rear – basically, where he oesn’t expect it. Hannibal, the Carthaginian military comm ander  who marched his army over the Pyrenees and Alps to attack the Roman Empire, kept the Roman army at bay (and often in retreat) on their own soil for more than a decade using indirect strategies. Among Hannibal’s many successful military strategies, he became known  for engaging the enemy with weak troops in the center of his formation and two hidden sets of strong troops that wrapped around the sides of the opposing force (flanking them), squeezing them from the sides and, sometimes the rear.While the Romans   thought they were successfully attacking the weaker force in the center, they lost the battle as they were crushed from the sides. This indirect approach took the enemy by surprise and attacked it where it was weakest. Even the mighty Roman armies could not remove Hannibal from the Empire. That is, until they started using indirect approaches themselves. Like Hannibal did in so many major battles,  Douglas MacArthur  employed a master-stroke of indirect strategy to keep the UN Forces in South Korea from being pushed off the Korean peninsula at the beginning of the Korean War.A few months after the war started, the South Korean and UN forces had been pushed to the south-eastern end of the Korean peninsula at Pusan Province. MacArthur proposed and executed an indirect attack behind the lines of the North Koreans, far north of Pusan, on Korea’s western shore. The amphibious attack surprised the North Koreans and cut the North Korean Army south of Inchon off from supplies and personnel, ultimately causing the collapse of the North Korean forces in southern Korea. As with military strategy, direct, frontal attacks against other companies in business rarely succeed.Unless your company is by far the largest in its business or has a strongly dominant sales channel, any direct attack against your competition is likely to fail. The old adage is that you need a 10:1 superiority over your competition to beat them head-to-head. My view i s that unless you’re a Microsoft (fill in your favorite large company in your favorite market here – it used to be IBM for all examples), and, in Microsoft’s case, really only in operating systems and Office-like applications, it’s probably best to focus on indirect approaches when taking on competition.So, rather than competing on features or performance, change the ground rules. Compete on price, distribution model, ease-of-use, accessibility, partnerships, integration, switching cost or similar. An example of this near and dear to my heart is the emergence of my first successful company, Viewlogic Systems (acquired by Synopsys, in 1997). One of  the co-founders  of Viewlogic was Sal Carcia, who initially led marketing and sales for the company. Sal was (and I’m sure still is) a brilliant marketing guy who had an innate sense for market dynamics and saw holes (read: opportunities)  in the market very clearly and accurately.In 1984, when we founded Viewlogic,  EDA tools (software tools for Electronic Design Automation – electronics CAD tools) were turnkey systems bundled with  big hardware. These systems were very expensive and most companies could only afford to buy one seat (one bundled unit) for every 10 to 20 engineers they employed. A ratio guaranteed to limit the productivity of the entire engineering group. Sal’s idea, which sounds so basic now, but keep in mind that PCs were new in 1981 and still pretty limited in 1984, was to bundle a complete  EDA system with a PC for $10,000 per seat. About one tenth of what a competitor’s system sold for. 10K wasn’t just a random, lower figure, it was what Sal saw as the maximum we could charge without requiring the engineering manager (the customer) to get sign-off from upper management for the purchase. So, as a result of Sal’s strategy, Viewlogic sold to the engineering manager who made more local and faster decisions while our co mpetition was selling to big corporate organizations with long sales cycle. Also, at $10K/seat. Engineering managers could equip  each their of engineers with the  EDA  tools they needed, resulting in more productive groups that then promoted the tools to the rest of the organization.In the end, most of Viewlogic’s tools were not revolutionary (some features were, of course, and we figured out how to mash a whole lotta functionality into 640KB of memory), but the packaging was a breakthrough, helping us reach a market previously unserved. As an added bonus, because of the anchor of hardware that the competition hauled with it, it couldn’t come down to fight with us in our space until it rewrote most of its software to likewise run on a PC. So, in the end, Viewlogic never tried to win by bettering the competition at what they were good at.It took an indirect strategy of fighting the competition where it was weak and unprepared and unable to defend itself. This ind irect approach was the key to Viewlogic’s initial success. Employing indirect strategies doesn’t mean that you need to change your end goal. It simply means that you need to change the way you approach the battle to achieve it. It’s much better to avoid being perceived as a threat to the big guys in the market or to  escape their attention all together than it is to pound your chest and take them on head-to-head. They’re bigger, stronger, have more resources and more customers.For the most part, they don’t need to be better than you to kick your ass. Let your ego go; be smart; attack at the intersection of where your competition is weak and customers perceive value. It’s not only about  having a better  product  or service, it’s about the whole package – support, customer satisfaction, distribution, PR . . . everything. Direct strategies usually fail in business as they do in their military application. Don’t bec ome another bump in the road for your competition, use an indirect approach to catch them off-guard and unprepared to respond to your threat. Next up . . .Intelligence. Intelligence Among Webster’s definitions for intelligence, two primary ones directly apply to both military and business matters: 1) you need to be smart or, at least, be able to think and, 2)  you need to have  knowledge of what the enemy/competition knows and thinks. Main Entry:  inA ·telA ·liA ·gence Pronunciation: in-’te-l&-j&n(t)s Function:  noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latinintelligentia,  from  intelligent-, intelligens  intelligent †¢ The ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations;  also  :  the skilled use of reason.The ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria. †¢ Information concerning an enemy or possible enemy or an are a;  also  :  an agency engaged in obtaining such information. In military engagements, intelligence is often more important than the size of the force, how well it’s armed and who it is led by. A perfect example of this is in the military strategies employed by  Mao Zedong  as he led the Red Army in its 20+ year rebellion against theKuomintang  government in China.After the start of the rebellion, the Red Army, for the most part, got it’s butt kicked whenever and where-ever it engaged the vastly superior government army forces. For the most part, the Red Army was out-manned, had many fewer weapons and was isolated into parts of the country that made it difficult to get tactical advantage in widespread warfare. Recognizing  his deficiencies, Mao turned to strategies that involved actively collecting intelligence about his opponent. He had spies throughout the government who gathered information about their plans and actions.Perhaps even more importantly, h e designated soldiers dressed in civilian clothing to be stationed throughout the country to monitor the movement of the government’s troops and supplies. By gathering this information and extracting trends from it, he learned what his opponent was doing and, over time, understood what type of moves that they made in response to his own. Ultimately, having this knowledge, Mao was able to gain the upper hand and to ultimately defeat the government troops, exiling Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan in 1949.Prior to World War II, while most of the rest of the world was relatively ignorant to the value of keeping secrets, well . . . secret, the Germans invested heavily in cryptography. The efforts of the German government and military agencies to make sure that communications were secure resulted in the adoption of  the  Enigma Cipher machine  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ an electro-mechanical device that encoded and decoded messages. The German Navy, in particular, relied heavily on the secrecy of the ir communications and had the most complex Enigma machines and processes surrounding them.It took years for Germany’s enemies to break the Enigma. The huge value  in breaking the code was well understood, though, and a concerted effort was mounted to break  to do so  as part of the strategy to defeat the Germans. At first the Polish made headway, then the British took over the main effort. Through the work of a huge number of scientists and mathematicians, mostly stationed at the famous  Bletchley Park  in England, and a stolen Enigma machine here and there, the Allies were able to read many of the top-secret messages being sent by the Germans.Using this information, the Allies were able to change their tactics and even much of their strategy in the battle of the Atlantic. Each action took on more significance with less effort. The knowledge of  what the enemy was going to do  let the Allies stay one step ahead and to focus their efforts on the singular end goal of winning battles, without having to spread their forces out too far. Now, I’m not suggesting that you engage in any kind of industrial espionage. Merely that knowing what your competition is up to is critical to your business or, at he very least, critical to how you run your business. Spies aren’t required. You just need to be aware. Your sales channel will be able to tell what’s going on (if it’s not a completely automated channel) and anyone that engages with your customers will discover what the competition is doing if they listen well. If you’re among the group of people that claims to have no competition – WAKE UP! Every business has at least one competitor, even if it’s the choice your customer has to keep doing what they’re doing.The infinitely low barriers to entry in virtually all product or service areas these days also guarantees that you’ll have more competitors in the near future if your target market ha s any real value. There’s simply no excuse for not knowing what your current and emerging competition is up to. This knowledge not only helps you differentiate your product or service right out of the gate, but also helps you keep your costs lower because you waste less time with a more focused approach. Of course, no business that just focuses on what their competitors are doing is  going to be successful.True success can only come from using the other kind of intelligence – that which only comes  from using your head. In my experience (and I’m at least as guilty as anyone I’ve ever known) there are too-many knee-jerk reactions in business. Managers often make quick decisions  in a situation without extensive knowledge of what is really going on. In an environment where everything is moving fast, it’s a natural mistake to make. Additionally, the fear of the consequences of not answering a challenge or looking like one is in control often enc ourages half-baked reactions.Every manager needs to keep in mind the value of looking before they leap. Or, as I like to think about it – responding instead of reacting. The difference between responding and reacting is thinking – one involves it, the other doesn’t. I know, I know, this is where you’re saying to yourself: â€Å"I don’t have time for long, drawn-out planning sessions. My business is go, go, go and if I slow down, I’m dead. †Ã‚   In most cases, taking a step back, drawing some pictures on a white board, talking to a few people or getting together with your team to ponder the paths ahead only involves hours or perhaps a few days.Not  weeks and months. Of course, at times, it does take longer. In my experience, though, whatever it takes to make an informed (note that I say informed – not perfect or correct or even low-risk) decision on how to respond to the challenge that you face is worthwhile and will save you loads of time and energy later. Think about the situation, at least a little, then move. Don’t move slowly, but move deliberately. As with successful military campaigns, the more intelligence you have – both kinds – the more likely it is that you’ll set your  business on the best possible path to success.Increased knowledge of what  your competition is up to and, more importantly,  considered thought  put in to your overall strategy and to any  response  to  changes improves your likelihood of success while helping to reduce effort that might be wasted in areas unnecessary or even unrelated to the optimal path of the business Next up, the final installment in this series: Deception. Deception If you’re like me, you immediately question how  deception  can and should be applied to business.In a business context, the concept of deception seems almost immoral or, at least, against the rules – if not the legal ones, at least th e ones understood as part of business decorum, civility or fair play. Who wants to win by cheating, after all? There is little concern for  such concepts in modern warfare (historically, much of warfare was conducted under a code of ethics – aside from the Geneva Convention rules, no such code exists today), however,  where the goal is most often the physical destruction of the enemy. In battle, a commander’s trickery and deception can easily represent the difference between victory and death.There are few better examples of this than the campaigns of Confederate General  Thomas Jonathan â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson  and his army during the Civil War in the US. Stonewall Jackson is widely considered as one most gifted tactical commanders in US history. His motto: â€Å"Mystify, mislead and Surprise. † Early in the Civil War, during the infamous  Valley Campaign, Jackson found his Army outmanned, outgunned and often, surrounded. After an initial tact ical defeat in a relatively small battle, Jackson’s 17,000 troops soundly defeated the Union’s 60,000 man  Army of the Potomac.He accomplished this feat by constantly surprising the enemy, attacking its flanks, sneaking behind its lines and appearing like his forces were larger than they actually were. During the campaign, Jackson marched his troops almost 650 miles in 48 days to defeat and cause the retreat of a Union Army that outmanned him almost 4:1. Trickery and illusion were his key tactics in the Valley Campaign and he used them frequently in successive victories during the war and until his death in battle (from friendly fire) in 1863. Like Jackson before him,  Erwin Rommel  was a master of deception.Even though Rommel was primarily a tank commander – relatively easy to detect and slow-moving – he often got the upper hand on his enemies by sneaking his tanks through dense forests or via indirect routes. Rommel is  best known  for his suc cess during WWII’s  North African Campaign  where he consistently defeated the better armed and staffed British Army. His understanding of how the British tank command worked led him to implement the most important tactic to his success during the campaign – making the British believe that his forces were much greater than they were.This, in turn, caused the  British  to split their forces, leaving many tanks in reserve (they conservatively never wanted to risk  all  their tanks in battle) and gave Rommel’s smaller force a far better chance at success. The  deception turned out to be the key that initiated his victories. Rommel implemented this by making his tanks appear to be in locations where they were not. He would frequently have trucks drive in circles throughout the day in one area. The clouds of dust they kicked up would be so extreme that the British assumed that there were huge tank convoys preparing to entrench themselves for battle at t hat location.In the mean time, Rommel, would move his active tank columns at night into flanking positions around the British. Rommel’s ability to deceive the British let his smaller and weaker force win battles for years in the desert. In a business world that thrives on communication and rewards the speed and quantity of information available, it’s difficult to see how deception might be used  in a strategy leading to success. After all, anything you do to mislead your competition might mislead your customer as well.There are  a few  uses of deception, however, that are commonly used and are valuable tools in the business strategy quiver: †¢ Press releases as a defensive tool:   Most often successfully employed by medium to large companies, a me-too press release announcing that your company has or will have some product, feature or service that your competitor just launched can effectively slow your competition’s sales process down until you actu ally have it. This is especially effective if you are already the perceived market leader in that particular segment.Switching costs are, generally, high and current customers want to believe that you’ll continue to deliver the best stuff. Of course, this won’t hold your competition off forever, but it will allow you a bit of time to catch up. †¢ Appearing bigger than you are as an offensive tool:   Larger companies often prefer to purchase from established vendors. Of course, this depends on what you are selling and how much it costs, but it is generally true for anything even remotely mission critical or costing a lot.Giving the world the impression that your company is larger or better established than you are can only help you in this environment. This can be done through advertising – small companies generally do little-to-none, big companies do a lot; large, highly visible  displays at trade shows; success stories from large customers; focusing on implementation instead of just functions or features; and so forth. †¢ Taking advantage of the reactionary nature of your competition:   Companies tend to react without thinking instead of responding in a thoughtful, considered way.You can take advantage of this by misleading your competition, when appropriate, in an effort to waste their time or defocus them. In the most basic case, you can entice them to spend energy in areas that are outside your main focus, giving you more lead time when you introduce your own new product or service. Keep in mind that when you implement strategies like this, you don’t get a bye on precise execution. You still have to execute well – if you can’t execute your company’s strategy better than your competition can execute on the same strategy, no amount of deception will help you.Certainly, deception in the form of outright lying and cheating is a dead-end strategy. It might work out in the short term, but itâ€℠¢s going to get you in trouble in the long term. Defined a bit softer, though, as a method for manipulating or spinning reality (I know, I’m cutting this a bit thin, but you get the idea), it is almost as powerful a tool in business as it is in warfare and is one that can be employed to increase your opportunities for success.

Hustle As Strategy by Amar Bhide in Harvard Business Review Essay

Hustle As Strategy by Amar Bhide in Harvard Business Review September-October(critical review of the article) - Essay Example (Porter, 2004). Author therefore seems to have taken a narrow view of how organizations can actually just rely on their own resources to gain competitive advantage and give less consideration to what competition is doing. Porter however, claims that operational efficiency is not the strategy though Porter believes that it is necessary but not the sufficient condition.(Porter, 1996). Author however, seem to have taken a view that operational effectiveness can actually materialize into successful strategy. Debating strategy from this perspective therefore can be considered as important because this is where strategy is actually directly linked with the maximization of the profits. (Davies, 2000). Author however, seem to differ by offering an indirect suggestion towards the use of differentiation as one of the (Porter, 1989) Such approach toward strategy therefore outlines that strategy is not just limited to understanding and exploring how to leverage the organizational resources in or der to compete effectively. (Speed, 1989). Within this perspective the debate presented in this article points out that strategy should be of evolutionary nature where only such strategies will survive which can produce best results. The author has given different examples of financial institutions where the international firms continued to re-evaluate their strategies in order to fit them according to what is working best. (Elfring, and Volberda, 2011) The evolutionary approach towards the strategy outlines that firms cannot withstand the competition but rather focus on developing their competencies in order to successful evaluate and challenge the competition. This also outlines that the firms must continue to focus upon the use innovative tools and techniques to successfully challenge the competition. (Henderson, 2007). This approach also outlines that the author has taken a broader view of how the firms can actually use their core competencies in order to compete. This thought o n strategy suggests that once the firms take care of developing their core competencies and resources, competition matters less to them. (Morden, 2007). These core competencies often translate into the competitive advantages for the firms and the firms resultantly develop into stronger and innovative organizations. It is also critical to understand that the firms pursuing such strategy must not be complacent and continue to evolve themselves according to the external situation. As such the link between the organizational strategies as well as the external environment is critical and the author has suggested the same. Overall, the author seems to have presented an evolutionary school of strategy for firms in this article. 2) One of the most important strengths of this article is based upon the fact that the author has produced a relatively different and fresh approach towards the strategy. By outlining different practical examples from financial services industry, author has critical ly offered a glimpse into how the managers think and evaluate their options before taking on any action. As such it is important for the managers to consider different aspects of the strategy making before it can actually be materialized. (Pretorius, & Maritz, 2011). What is unconvincing however is the fact that the author has just focused upon the financial service

International Debt Crisis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

International Debt Crisis - Essay Example These OPEC nations deposited much of their profits in commercial banks.; Sseeking for new investment opportunities, these banks issued loans to developing countries without strictly monitoring how loans were used. Some of these loans loans didn't even not meeting the minimum standard of social, ecological and economic viability; they and only enriched a small group of people such as government officials and small elites. Meanwhile, extremely tight monetary policies were used to control inflation, which contributed to the rising interest rate, high cost of fuel and world recession, therefore making it . It was difficult for these "Global South" countries to repay their debts., Ssome economists even used the term "'moral hazar"d' for the inadequate effort by these debtor countries to payoff their debts, , which eventually saw the emergence of debt crisis. Debt conversion programs such as "debt-for-development", "debt-for-exports", "'debt-for-exports", "debt buy-back" and "debt-for-debt" were introduced, but it was the "debt-equity swap" which captured most of the attention on the business and financial fields between the 1980s and 1990s. "Debt-for-equity swaps" was first put forward by Philippines and its importance was growing until the mid-1990s. From 1985 to 1996, "debt-for-equity" net aaccounted for a total of US$38.6 billion and; its priority aim is was restructuring the financial situation to a better position of the debtor countries for long term success. Three parties are involving in such swaps, and they are: the debtor government, the private sector investor1 and the creditor2. Commercial debt and bilateral publicly guaranteed debt are eligible to arrange "'debt-equity swaps"'. , andT the debt conversion proceeds can be converted to cash or, bonds, to acquire the holding of public sector assets or to invest in the private sector, depending on the preferences of stakeholders involved. The private sector investors often act as the "negotiator"; they buy external debts of developing countries at a discount from face value on the secondary market or from a bilateral export credit agency, and then sell them to the debtor governments at the negotiated redeemable price in respective local currencies or local currency instruments3. The private investors will then be able to use the capital to invest in equity shares of domestic enterprises or public assets for the case of privatisation programmes4. Economically speaking, the amount of welfare gain must be larger than the welfare loss to successfully initiate the "debt-for-equity swap". Investors from the private sector often use the "Net Present Value" of the swap to determine the benefit if striking the deal. It is difficult to measure quantitatively that the exact value of "net" welfare gain, though an analysis on qualitative issues can be conducted through investigating the pros and cons of materializing "debt-equity swap" for each of the parties involved. For debtor countries, one of the potential advantages of performing the swap is its positive impact on the country's balance of payment by reducing the total debt and future debt service obligations in hard currency. Depending on the overall debt situation and the amount of debt swap, swap may reduce the debt "'overhang"' of a country and improve its pecking order in global financial markets. In addition, the swap encourages foreign capital inflows which may spur the

Theories 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Theories 1 - Essay Example This theory would assist me as a leader to use their thoughts on discernments, perceptions and the feeling portrayed by nurses through their behaviors (McEwen & Wills, 2014). This theory would assist a leader to implement the shared leadership council by identifying the distressful factors that nurses face in providing healthcare. Self-care is an immensely challenging process and is greatly affected by the experience, skill, motivation and capability of the patient. A patient with prior experience with self-care can identify the patterns that offer pertinent prompts and propose anticipated results linked to certain reactions. On the other hand, skill and capability of the patient is necessary for self –care (McEwen & Wills, 2014). This is because patients under self-care need to be able to plan, set objectives and make decisions (McEwen & Wills, 2014). Conversely, it is imperative to determine the factors that may drive the patient to attain their goals. In this case, it would be necessary for the nurse to determine whether the patient would change their behavior in order to attain their prearranged objective (McEwen & Wills, 2014). Therefore, it is essential for nurses to evaluate the patient’s willingness and ability to self-care before giving them

How the Fico or credit score impacts on consumers Research Paper

How the Fico or credit score impacts on consumers - Research Paper Example A lot of consumers don't appreciate the importance of personal credit scores and how it impacts on their daily lives. Some don’t know that credit scores are available and accessible online. A credit score can have a say on what a consumer is or is not able to do. For instance, it can determine what one pays for leasing or auto financing, credit card rates, car insurance and mortgages. It can affect things we may take for granted like whether one gets a job or rent an apartment. When applying for credit, the lenders want to know your credit risk level Buyers or consumers with poor credit (high credit risk level) are turned away by the lending institutions. The current tightening up of the loan and mortgage market makes the situation worse. Customers with less than a 700 credit score are being turned away by car dealers. It is now more important than ever to have a good credit score. Keywords: Credit score, FICOÂ ®, consumers, lenders. What is a Credit Score? A credit score is a number that summarizes your credit risk, based on your credit report at a particular point in time (FICO Booklet). Credit reports and credit risk levels can be evaluated using your credit scores by the lenders. Since it’s just a single number, the lenders don’t have to read through the whole credit history report. It is an indicator of how likely you are to pay your bills. Consumers should be aware that lenders use other information to determine one’s creditworthiness along with the credit scores.... A high score is preferred by the lenders. For instance a score of 720 will get you favorable interests on a mortgage, according to Fair Isaac Corporation. The following table shows how credit scores break out for the American public. Credit Score Percentage 499 and below 2 percent 500 – 549 5 percent 550 – 599 8 percent 600 – 649 12 percent 650 – 699 15 percent 700 – 749 18 percent 750 – 799 27 percent 800 and above 13 percent Components of the FICO Score A credit report contains different types of credit data. It is this data that is used to compute the FICO Scores. Data is grouped into five categories as illustrated below. The percentage represents the importance of each category in computation of your FICO Score. Source: Fair Isaac Corporation Website Items considered in the payment history are account payment information (credit cards, mortgage and retail accounts), Public records (legal suits, bankruptcy, liens and judgments) and delinqu ency, Severity of delinquency, recency of delinquency and adverse public records, past due items on file and accounts paid on time. Amounts owed is checked for the amounts owing on the specific types of accounts, number of accounts with balances, proportion of credit lines used and proportion of installment loan amounts still owing The line of credit history is concerned with the time duration since the accounts were opened and other account activities that have taken place. New credit category is used to check recently opened accounts, recent credit inquiries, last duration of credit inquiry and positive credit history re-establishment following repayment problems Lastly, types of credit used category looks at the recent information on the various types of accounts, be they

The birth & growth of anti-westernism sentiments in the Middle East Essay

The birth & growth of anti-westernism sentiments in the Middle East - Essay Example In terms of personal interaction at the university, both my supervisors have been outstanding in that they have reached out to help me in regards; by providing me bibliographical support as also their advice on the topic that I should take up as part of my research. I am indeed grateful to them for having stood by me after having understood the unexpected personal circumstances that I have had to go through. But as is well known; one needs to do a lot of groundwork in order to produce a clear road plan for taking up research activity, by attending seminars and conferences, and this is where I have been outraced. Due to my personal problems, I was unable to attend any of these that were held at the university, even though I very much wanted to go. Another major obstacle has been that I have not been able to move to Paris either, which was the prime reason to shift to a part-time status after having discussed the issue with my supervisors. This report aims to describe what I have been doing ever since then and also aims to outline my proposed plan for doing research. Due to the above-mentioned problems, I subsequently started to attend many seminars at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS). The following list describes the various seminars that I have attended so far at SOAS: During this period, I did not attend any research training courses as I had prior experience of having attended them during my MA studies. However, I am planning to attend some after March. As the above-mentioned list suggests, all the seminars primarily focus on the growing anti-western sentiments in the middle-eastern region. These seminars along with the recent incidents revolving around the middle -east (the 9/11 terror attacks-Osama Bin Laden along with America's intervention in Iraq & Afghanistan to be specific), have driven me to think that i must indeed search for the consequences as also the reasons for the occurrence of these events. I am now more than ever interested in finding the reason for the anti-western sentiments that have been the root cause of all terror attacks in the western hemisphere. I therefore, decided that I would conduct a study on the birth & growth of anti-westernism sentiments in the Middle East.According to Shireen T. Hunter (1998), the anti-western feeling was born from the Zionist wars between Israel & Egypt and the subsequent overthrow of the shah of Iran, which led to the birth of bitter relations between Ayatollah Khomenei's Iran & America in particular. Clashes between the west and the lesser prominent countries Islamic countries of the west like Syria & Lebanon have just added more fuel to the already raging fire of anti-western feelings. More recently, I feel that the interference of the west (The

Using social media to manage personal knowledge and learning within a Case Study

Using social media to manage personal knowledge and learning within a Postgraduate Learning context - Case Study Example I am taking part in a Postgraduate Learning program in a business school in the North London area. Personal knowledge and learning scopes of this program will be developed through different means of social media. I will be able to gain the insight of Personal Knowledge Management or PKM, Knowledge Management or KM and different learning theories. Personal Knowledge Management is mainly a process that enhances the possibility of gaining more knowledge and managing the development of learning and knowledge (Cope and Kalantzis 332). I think that PKM will create contemporary knowledge among the students. According to my experience, social media policy of the higher education institutions is quite feasible in personal knowledge management. Knowledge management policies are highly adopted by the companies and educational institutions. I observed that knowledge of the teachers and experienced people are disseminated among the new recruits or the learners with a sound communication system (Costello 634). Knowledge management process is adopting innovative approach for the learners. I observed that KM process in the post graduation learning institutes helps in recognising the scope of education. Being one of the members of the post graduation learning institutions, I am able to evaluate various courses provided in the institutions.

Conceptualize a hypothetical information system project Essay

Conceptualize a hypothetical information system project - Essay Example This system also allows performing manual entries of products there is a problem with bar code reader. At the end of the day system offers the sales records along with possible stock availability details. The system works with a Bar Code Reader that extracts the overall details of products from the bar-code (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005). After that system adds the product details to database. The database accumulates the overall details of products and shopping and creates final bill. System also adds each sale to daily sales list. This list offers a comprehensive overview of daily sales which business has made throughout a day. On the other hand the system product details are also entered at the back-end. For instance, each product’s status like availability, items details, product prices, etc. are entered into the back end database. Hence, at the end of the day the system compares the sold and available sock and offers a comprehensive overview of product supply chain. Currently, the business utilizes customers, products and sales information in a number of ways. In this scenario, sales and products information can be used for business supply chain management operations. The business makes use of the information and data to maintain the stock at the shelves and also maintains the customer needs regarding rapid availability of stock. The business also makes use of information for overall sales management. The sales management operation utilizes cost benefit analysis form customer operational management. The business can also make use of customer data for marketing purposes. The business can offer attractive offers to their regular customers, which will improve its operational capability. These all information can be used as system requirements. We can use a data collection methodology (such as interview or questionnaires) to collect data and information

Vaccinations Vs Autism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vaccinations Vs Autism - Essay Example Actually, these kinds of cases cannot fail to promote cognitive dissonance because they only take place at crucial age after children have received vaccination. Conspiracy theories Information concerning vaccination has been highly flawed thus bringing lots of issues. Information presented to the public was just part of the issue of vaccination that involved presence of mercury in the MMR. These arguments about autism were provoked by the fact that mercury content in the MMR vaccine was a major cause of autism and other related disorders. It seems that many people are especially the public are against scientific proposal of use of vaccination as a preventive measure in controlling diseases such as measles and polio. This universal disagreement with the scientific proposal may suggest that the medical experts are involved in major conspiracy to lie to the world. According to Haydn and Cook (2010), â€Å"If one disagrees with a view held by the great majority of the world's scientists , the most common response is to assume all those scientists are involved in a vast conspiracy to deceive† (43-45). This has made many scientists to be engaged in various investigations and tests to prove or disapprove the disturbing conspiracy in their field of study. Fake Experts Many people assert that scientists are not in agreement when it comes to the relationship between vaccination and autism. Some of the statements however, have been made by scientists such as Burton yet they are fake and misleading. Many people who claim to be scientists yet they are not such as Carrey and other celebrities have come out to condemn vaccination by claiming that it causes autism. According to Haydn and Cook (2010), â€Å"The challenge, rather, appears to be how to effectively communicate this fact to policymakers and to a public that continues to mistakenly perceive† (45-47). I believe that issues concerning health should be addressed by the real experts and professionals in tho se particular areas of concern. Not all experts and scientists understand what vaccination and autism is all about and therefore should not address the issue. It is indeed hard to convince politicians and the public that vaccination does not cause autism since the opposite have been communicated to the same people by people claiming to be experts. Cherry Picking Peoples’ opinions and ideas about autism have brought major concern thus pushing scientists to carry out investigations that is aimed at testing the claims. The proof that autism is not caused by vaccination has been disapproved via many scientists consensus that even the mercury content in the vaccine do not cause autism. Scientists also proved that children develop autism at different ages after vaccination thus showing clearly that vaccination causes autism. Deniers such as Burtons have instead come up with claims that only support part of the all issue by claiming that a child developed autism immediately he was v accinated. According to Haydn and Cook (2010), â€Å"Deniers often focus on narrow pieces of data while ignoring other evidence that does not support their viewpoint†(51-53). Other people have also used cherry picking by claiming that mercury content is responsible for autism among the children. There are also other claims that the number of vaccinations has increased thus causing the rise of autism. According

Critical thinking Essay Example for Free

Critical thinking Essay In academic writing, an argument is usually a main idea, often called a â€Å"claim† or â€Å"thesis statement,† backed up with evidence that supports the idea. In most college papers, one needs to make some sort of claim and use evidence to support it. One’s ability to do this will separate a good paper from other papers. We use argument in everyday life to convince somebody of my ideas or opinion, convince our teachers we deserve a better grade. A better argument is accomplished if no emotion is involved. One component of argument is logic. Claims are statements about what is true or good or about what should be done or believed. Claims are potentially arguable. For example, recent tax cuts should be abandoned another is the civil war is caused by slavery. In making an argument one must use reason to support the claim. Reason is a statement that supports a given claim or in other words â€Å"why do you say that claim?† support is the evidence that we use; one example of evidence is statistics. When making an argument we must remember to use warrants which is influences or assumptions that connect the support to the claim. A very important part when making an argument is to come across to the audience as a credible speaker or arguer that has sufficient evidence, that the evidence is based on research or scholarly articles. It is important to also remember that every argument has a counterargument. Which the argument more interesting and also strong its not one that everyone agrees with.

The Famous Poetry Of Amy Lowell

The Famous Poetry Of Amy Lowell Who was Amy Lowell? For the very few that do remember her, regard her as an obese, homosexual, and lonely, unmarried woman that enjoyed smoking cigars and wearing mens shirts. However, we overlook the fact that she is well-known for bringing the Imagist movement to the United States and that she is solely responsible for the creation of the polyphonic prose. Also, no one discusses how she a broke free from societys standards of what a young woman should be Brought up in a prestigious, affluent household, she was taught how to be a young lady. Being a Lowell daughter, she would then be married off at the age of seventeen, but no marriage proposal arrived for her that year. Since she had no right to an education, it was then that this seventeen-year-old girl began to educate herself by immersing herself in her fathers 17,000-volume library, where she discovered poet John Keats. From within the constraints of society, Lowell was able to break away and discover her true self. She once s aid: For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. Amy Lowell lived by this very idea. Her books and her poetry are what gave her life and meaning. Through such, Lowell delved herself into the depths of nature and emotion as her key subjects when writing poetry. One specific quality of Lowells poetry was that she used sharp, clear language along with vivid imagery to make a statement. She saw no need in inserting vague and ambiguous references. To her the best poetry was that which flowed by itself as in everyday language. There was no need to abide by the limitations that certain types of poetry brought about, such as Italian sonnets with their a-b-b-a format. Lowell is able to portray this very thought process beautifully in Lilacs, which is one of the best representations of imagist poetry. The overall poem has no hidden or deeper meaning to it and in fact, can be taken completely literally, which is one of the reasons it holds so strong among other imagist poetry. The poem begins with Lilacs,/ False Blue,/ White,/ Purple,/ Color of Lilac, which Lowell continues to repeat at the beginning of stanzas 2 and 4 as well. This repetition of the subject, allows the reader to refocus on the true topic of the poem. At the same time, Lowell in the first stanza uses apostrophe to speak directly to the lilacs, referring to them as you. The speaker continues to state that the lilacs are everywhere in this New England, watching a deserted house, as well as settling sideways into the grass of an old road (21, 17, 18). Slowly, Lowell begins to focus less and less on the physical characteristics of the lilacs, but more so on what they are physically doing and what they are capable of doing, personifying the lilacs in the process. The lilacs are now standing by the pasture-bars to give the cows good milking, persuad[ing] the housewife that her dishpan was of silver, and flaunt[ing] the fragrance of [its] blossoms (28, 29, 31). Through these acts, the reader quickly sees the lilacs as benefiting the things and people around them. Finally towards the Put in conclusion: For the rest though, she continues to be just another poet lost in the depths of history. Lilacs,   False blue,   White,   Purple,   Color of lilac,   Your great puffs of flowers   Are everywhere in this my New England.   Among your heart-shaped leaves   Orange orioles hop like music-box birds and sing   Their little weak soft songs;   In the crooks of your branches   The bright eyes of song sparrows sitting on spotted eggs   Peer restlessly through the light and shadow   Of all Springs.   Lilacs in dooryards   Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;   Lilacs watching a deserted house   Settling sideways into the grass of an old road;   Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom   Above a cellar dug into a hill.   You are everywhere.   You were everywhere.   You tapped the window when the preacher preached his sermon,   And ran along the road beside the boy going to school.   You stood by the pasture-bars to give the cows good milking,   You persuaded the housewife that her dishpan was of silver.   And her husband an image of pure gold.   You flaunted the fragrance of your blossoms   Through the wide doors of Custom Houses-   You, and sandal-wood, and tea,   Charging the noses of quill-driving clerks   When a ship was in from China.   You called to them: Goose-quill men, goose-quill men,   May is a month for flitting.   Until they writhed on their high stools   And wrote poetry on their letter-sheets behind the propped-up ledgers.   Paradoxical New England clerks,   Writing inventories in ledgers, reading the Song of Solomon at night,   So many verses before bed-time,   Because it was the Bible.   The dead fed you   Amid the slant stones of graveyards.   Pale ghosts who planted you   Came in the nighttime   And let their thin hair blow through your clustered stems.   You are of the green sea,   And of the stone hills which reach a long distance.   You are of elm-shaded streets with little shops where they sell kites and marbles,   You are of great parks where every one walks and nobody is at home.   You cover the blind sides of greenhouses   And lean over the top to say a hurry-word through the glass   To your friends, the grapes, inside.   Lilacs, False blue,   White,   Purple,   Color of lilac,   You have forgotten your Eastern origin,   The veiled women with eyes like panthers,   The swollen, aggressive turbans of jeweled pashas.   Now you are a very decent flower,   A reticent flower,   A curiously clear-cut, candid flower,   Standing beside clean doorways,   Friendly to a house-cat and a pair of spectacles,   Making poetry out of a bit of moonlight   And a hundred or two sharp blossoms.   Maine knows you,   Has for years and years;   New Hampshire knows you,   And Massachusetts   And Vermont.   Cape Cod starts you along the beaches to Rhode Island;   Connecticut takes you from a river to the sea.   You are brighter than apples,   Sweeter than tulips,   You are the great flood of our souls   Bursting above the leaf-shapes of our hearts,   You are the smell of all Summers,   The love of wives and children,   The recollection of gardens of little children,   You are State Houses and Charters   And the familiar treading of the foot to and fro on a road it knows.   May is lilac here in New England,   May is a thrush singing Sun up! on a tip-top ash tree,   May is white clouds behind pine-trees   Puffed out and marching upon a blue sky.   May is a green as no other,   May is much sun through small leaves,   May is soft earth,   And apple-blossoms,   And windows open to a South Wind.   May is full light wind of lilac   From Canada to Narragansett Bay.   Lilacs,   False blue,   White,   Purple,   Color of lilac.   Heart-leaves of lilac all over New England,   Roots of lilac under all the soil of New England,   Lilac in me because I am New England,   Because my roots are in it,   Because my leaves are of it,   Because my flowers are for it,   Because it is my country   And I speak to it of itself   And sing of it with my own voice   Since certainly it is mine.

Impact of Mobile Phone Technology

Impact of Mobile Phone Technology Modern Technology In the past two decades, technology has advanced and changed the manner in which people relate within family ties and social groups. Research suggests that in the 1990s, mails and letters were the most used channels for long distance communication and the postal services were very essential in fulfilling this duty. At the moment, communication has evolved from the use of land lines fixed in peoples homes to mobile phones carried everywhere to facilitate easy and quick communication. In this paper, the new possibilities unlocked by modern technology are examined and analyzed in an argumentative manner with close reference paid to mobile phones and communication. The mobile phone is a very interesting device that among all emerging trends in technology has captured the greatest number of audience with a great percentage of people owning one in reference to Elliott et al (25). The services offered by the mobile phone are so diverse from making of voice and video calls, sending text messages, to accessing social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and also taking pictures among many other functions. The rate at which this device has been embraced by consumers of all age has brought a controversial debate on its impacts and whether people are over relying on it. The debate majorly lies on the question of whether mobile phones have taken over real human interaction and changed the manner in which people relate. A person with a mobile handset can reach anyone they want to, despite of the geographical distance between them in an instant based on Elliot et al (85). Today, text messages and the WhatsApp application have revolutionized communication by enabling people to chat and send each other pictures and videos with a lot of ease. The current generation enjoys all these services availed by the modern technology and have a different experience from their parents and guardians who grew up in a different era. Take for instance, the manner in which people in the 1900s depended on newspapers for daily updates and every morning crowds of people could be seen grasping to get a copy. A hundred years later in the 2000s, the difference is notable as one can easily witness a mobile phone in every persons hand at any time of the day, performing different tasks with their device. In this controversial topic, there are two kinds of groups, those who would condemn the embracing of mobile phones and label them as an obsession while others label it as a necessity and defend its presence. In my opinion, the mobile phone is being misused and overused. The percentage of people owning a mobile phone in the United States is approximated to be at 70% of the entire population with the rates continuously increasing in each year. The major users of these devices range in between the age of 16 years and 30 years while those above this age bracket having a lowered dependency on their phones despite owning one. The major functions performed using the mobile phones by this dominant group include; WhatsApp chatting, taking of pictures, listening to music, playing games and accessing social media sites in the internet. According to research, individuals in the mentioned age group spend more than 50% of their time on the phone, and their subconscious mind is fixed on the functions they could be doing on their phones 75% of the time. It is practically impossible to separate some individuals from their mobile phones even at family gatherings and during outdoor activities as they remain engrossed in their handsets. This is the kind of attachment associated with the mobile phone as one of the most popular modern technology. The mobile phone is associated with the most amount of distraction based on psychological research which reveals how peoples brain responds to notifications from the phone. In most cases, people have set a notification sound on their phones which alerts them in case of an incoming message or call. The notification sound takes a minds attention from whichever activity it was performing to first respond to the incoming message or call. The amount of time taken to achieve a similar level of focus by the mind after such distractions from the phone could be significant in conclusion of the ongoing activity and thus such distractions are obstructions to progress. In the case of human interactions, mobile phones have been constantly viewed as obstructions to how people relate. In the present times, it is common to find people during a face to face conversation frequently checking their mobile phones for communication with people in other parts of the world according to research from Siemens (42). The intrusion of mobile phones in human interaction is to the extent of family set ups where teenagers and kids with mobile phones carry their handset to the table during meals and repeatedly get carried away from the rest of the family. It is such behaviors that cause parents and their kids to clash during family time as real family conversations cannot be addressed while the phones are at the table. The family bond is ruined and at times, the entire family is engrossed on their phones interacting with distant friends and ignoring family members. The vice in this act is that distant connections are nurtured at the expense of real life relations where family values and bonds should be first in the priority from Turkle (135). The mobile phone was invented to ease communication and improve peoples relations but it can be said to be doing the exact opposite. The handset created a platform for people to interact, exchange information and more importantly socialize. These functions are in relation to the positive side of using a handset as it was intended to perform. The real life facts on the immediate effect of handsets on peoples relationship suggest that mobile phones are harmful to couples relations. Technology is prevalent to introverted people who find comfort in inanimate interactions rather than personal relations. The introduction of the social media technology in the mobile handset, therefore, has caused people in the modern world to become antisocial in real life. Interactions are based online and people are more comfortable relating on the Facebook and WhatsApp platforms in comparison to personal face to face relations. The negative impact on dating couples brought by the mobile phone is the stress placed on relationships due to a diversification of attention to the distant population rather than the ones nearby. The platforms introduced by social media through the mobile phone also ruin relationships by enabling couples to cheat on each other through these avenues. The internet is a hub of all possibilities, dating sites and hook up sites have been established to connect people who may intend to find new lovers online. In this way, couples who intend to cheat are aided in this task by their mobile phones through the internet access. They are also able to hide these connections by erasing any evidence which may exist on their devices or by simply locking their phones with passwords and patterns availed in the handset during the infidelity process. Modern technology aims to make peoples lives convenient by introducing an easier way of doing things that is less stressful. A shift of attention from the mobile phone and its impacts on human relations suggests that the general incorporation of technology in individuals lives contributes to a significant percentage of laziness among people. Take a remote control for instance, it is meant to facilitate easy control of technological gadgets from distance and in the process it contributes to laziness. Research indicates that most people with remote controlled gadgets within their houses have less mobility and perform such tasks at the comfort of their seats denying themselves any physical exercise. At the moment, kids have gadgets within their houses such as play stations which they use to play games after school. These indoor games have denied the kids in the current generation from engaging in outdoor activities and games which are beneficial to their health. The importance of outdoor games has been lost due to technological games which slowly replace the physical aspect of child growth. Playing outside is very healthy to the development of kids according to medical practitioners since it offers children the chance to exercise and also interact with each other. Take for instance, kids engaging in a game of baseball with a neighboring child of the same age, this fosters new friendships and improves their physical health as well as their social skills. The games played on technological devices are also very addictive and in some instances harmful to the mind. Once a child begins playing the computer games, their minds get engaged with a sense of excitement which makes them to want to play it more. In this attachment, their brains can be harmed by an increased level of anxiety and loss of sleep when they reach this level of attachment. Technological advancements in the modern day have increased dependency on easy quick fix solutions for every human problem. The easy fix solutions to problems are beneficial to individuals who gain an easy way of performing stubborn functions such as cleaning among many other operations but the general result is negative. Take for instance, an introduction of a machine or robot which performs the task which used to be performed by a human being in the early days. The indirect result is that many people will be laid off in the process of easing a specific task through technological advancements of this kind. Modification is a superb inclusion in the modern technological world but too much embracing of technology in every service is detrimental to the jobs of some human beings. When technology is embraced in every sector, it solves some problems as it creates others. The ultimate aim of human beings is to fix their problems and not to transfer them to another field. Technology in this case offers new ventures for human beings to explore while directing them to new challenges as suggested earlier. Take the practical example of the introduction of plantation harvesting machines within a society that depends on agricultural labor as their main source of employment. The owner of the plantation enjoys a reduced labor cost solving one problem while the people of the society risk losing their jobs due to the introduction of a technological solution to their work place. The level of unemployment in such an area will definitely rise as the machine eliminates the need for physical labor. Technological solutions in such a case will solve one problem and create another one. Modern technology is creating more harm than good in other areas where their complexity is too high for all humans expected to utilize its services. There is a close difference between the ways in which modern technology should be applied and how human beings without the necessary knowledge apply it. Utilization of chemical fertilizers is an additional modern technology aimed at improving the manner in which people farm and the products grown from the farms. In the process of applying fertilizers, heavy chemicals used in its preparation require an informed procedure of application that will not be harmful to the soil or the crops themselves based on Elimelech and William (712). The wrong use of these fertilizers is the reason some crops have become extinct while the soils lose their productivity after a period of application. The inability of some farmers to follow the application instructions is responsible for the environmental degradation being experienced. The soil loses its natural fertility and is unable to sustain the growth of crops as it is required. In the long run, continued application of chemical fertilizers could lead to soil poisoning which eventually harms the health of other living organisms such as animals and even human beings. The climate on the other hand has been on the negative end of technology as pollution from companies with mechanical advancements is a common aspect in the modern world. These machines require a source of fuel to run them and in the process of operation, some produce smokes known to be harmful to the earths atmosphere. Mechanization in this essence brings a negative impact to the climate and as humans embraces its operations in their daily routines the world climate suffers the most. It would be wrong to label modern technology as a demon in the current society due to human beings obsession and wrong use of the inventions brought to them. The reliance placed by human beings is the part where vices are created and modern technology produces negative results that were not expected in the start. For instance, the mobile phones inclusion in the modern world can be a very beneficial tool in the society with its capability to connect people even in different localities. The vices of the use of mobile phones appear when people get addicted to their phones and in the long run misuse them losing sight of real life connections in reference to Elliott et al (113). According to research from Bertot et al (30), addictions are harmful to ones mental and emotional health as signs of anxiety and restlessness appear when people are detached from their items of comfort such as mobile phones. People who are used to carrying their phones everywhere display a sense of stress when they forget them at home and at times compare the feeling to being naked. In terms of couples, this may be due to insecurities of what ones lover might discover in their phones during their absence. The stress associated with the mobile phone in this case becomes negative and this solidifies the argument that modern technology should be limited according to Ayyagari et al (831). The solution to this kind of dependency on modern technology lies in replacement of the gadgets with other physical activities which can shift ones focus to social events and interactions. The elimination of modern technology in this century is an attempt close to impossible but limitation of time spent on ones devices, and restriction of how people apply mechanization in all their daily routines. References Bertot, John Carlo, Paul T. Jaeger, and Derek Hansen. The impact of polices on government social media usage: Issues, challenges, and recommendations. Government information quarterly 29.1 (2012): 30-40. Elliott, Anthony, and John Urry. Mobile lives. Routledge, 2010. Siemens, George. Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. (2014). Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2011. Print. Elimelech, Menachem, and William A. Phillip. The future of seawater desalination: energy, technology, and the environment. science 333.6043 (2011): 712-717. Ayyagari, Ramakrishna, Varun Grover, and Russell Purvis. Technostress: technological antecedents and implications. MIS quarterly 35.4 (2011): 831-858.

Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes from a Psychological Perspect

Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes from a Psychological Perspective Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes Gender differences and gender stereotypes are fascinating in that one must sift through the theories, assumptions and inevitable confusion to distinguish the reality from the assumption. Men and women are obviously different, especially inherently, but how? And why? And which differences are more individualized than generalized? Even more interesting is to observe how the differences between men and women have evolved, especially over the past 30 years- since the sexual revolution. A generous amount of research has been done since then, and this research is continually updated as men and women evolve themselves. Our understanding of the innate gender differences as opposed to the acquired one is still growing, yet it still seems tainted by such misunderstanding. There is a lot of research regarding stereotypical views of men and women, and psychological testing has helped integrate and differentiate the documented "real" behavior. Even through the sexual revolution, there still exists gender-role stereotypes, although the stereotyping has decreased in recent years. Surprisingly, stereotypes are adhered to by people of every status, educated or not. Americans generally believe that men are aggressive, independent, unemotional, dominant, active, and overly self-confident. On the other hand, women are thought of to be gentle, religious, neat and dependent. Americans in general seem to believe that males and females have distinguishing opposing characteristics. Aggressiveness is one behavior which is consistently noted in psychological gender differences. The majority of people seem to believe th... ..."100% masculine" or "100% feminine." There is no argument about men and women being physically different, yet there has been much debate involving the intangible differences between the two differences. Over the centuries, stereotyping of men’s and women’s intangible aspects has evolved. This stereotyping has influenced our society so much. The studies which are done refuting the fact that stereotyping of a gender is not always valid turns out to be invalid, since the studies themselves have been influenced by stereotyping. It is hard to argue whether the stereotypes traits of each gender are true or not. However, it is important for us to overlook the stereotyping of the two genders and focus on each individual and respect their individuality, whether they demonstrate more masculinity, femininity, or either, which may or may not fit their gender stereotyping. Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes from a Psychological Perspect Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes from a Psychological Perspective Gender Differences and Gender Stereotypes Gender differences and gender stereotypes are fascinating in that one must sift through the theories, assumptions and inevitable confusion to distinguish the reality from the assumption. Men and women are obviously different, especially inherently, but how? And why? And which differences are more individualized than generalized? Even more interesting is to observe how the differences between men and women have evolved, especially over the past 30 years- since the sexual revolution. A generous amount of research has been done since then, and this research is continually updated as men and women evolve themselves. Our understanding of the innate gender differences as opposed to the acquired one is still growing, yet it still seems tainted by such misunderstanding. There is a lot of research regarding stereotypical views of men and women, and psychological testing has helped integrate and differentiate the documented "real" behavior. Even through the sexual revolution, there still exists gender-role stereotypes, although the stereotyping has decreased in recent years. Surprisingly, stereotypes are adhered to by people of every status, educated or not. Americans generally believe that men are aggressive, independent, unemotional, dominant, active, and overly self-confident. On the other hand, women are thought of to be gentle, religious, neat and dependent. Americans in general seem to believe that males and females have distinguishing opposing characteristics. Aggressiveness is one behavior which is consistently noted in psychological gender differences. The majority of people seem to believe th... ..."100% masculine" or "100% feminine." There is no argument about men and women being physically different, yet there has been much debate involving the intangible differences between the two differences. Over the centuries, stereotyping of men’s and women’s intangible aspects has evolved. This stereotyping has influenced our society so much. The studies which are done refuting the fact that stereotyping of a gender is not always valid turns out to be invalid, since the studies themselves have been influenced by stereotyping. It is hard to argue whether the stereotypes traits of each gender are true or not. However, it is important for us to overlook the stereotyping of the two genders and focus on each individual and respect their individuality, whether they demonstrate more masculinity, femininity, or either, which may or may not fit their gender stereotyping.

Race and Destiny Essay -- Comparative, Hansberry, Ellison

Race and Destiny In this paper, I will present the two stories then I’ll show how they compare and contrast. The first one is the drama by Hansberry and the second is the text of Ellison. Since its first paragraphs, the â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† focuses on a fundamental issue – poverty and how it’s related to race. Hansberry is drawing the portrait of a stereotypical situation, in the mid-20th century, when racial discrimination was linked to lack of money and vice versa. The plays spins around a check of $10000 from the insurance company, granted for the death of Mama’s husband. The story goes with discussing the investment choices about that sum of money. The main male character, Walter Younger, Mama’s son, is presented as man who is eager to get rich fast, over-appreciates money, and has little ethical bias. The phrase â€Å"Check coming today?† (p.1294) written in the beginning of the act one, scene one, shows Walter’s impatience and the idea that he places a greater value on material stuff, rather than interpersonal relations. Living in the Chicago Southside, Walter’s family faces some harsh living conditions. Even as much as fifty cents becomes a luxury option for the couple. This is depicted when Travis, Walter’s son, says â€Å"This is the morning we supposed to bring the fifty cents to school†, while Ruth, Walter’s wife and Travis’ mother, responds abruptly with â€Å"Well, I ain’t got no fifty cents this morning† (p.1295). In this excerpt, the author is emphasizing on two details about the Youngers: first, the value of frugality and the situation that even little money cannot be spent for wants, such as education; second, the family’s financial condition is highly unstable, because Hansberry accents that in a certain morning the famil... ... I wanted to leave but I wanted also to speak and I was afraid they’d snatch me down(P. 306 ). He noticed something wrong when he gave a speech in front of the white people. I spoke automatically and with such favor that I did not realize that the men were still talking and laughing until my dry mouth, filling up with blood from the cut, almost strangled me(P. 305 ). Conversely, when he was given a prize from a white man, he forgot what he realized something wrong. I was so moved that I could hardly express my thanks. A rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent drooled upon the leather and I wiped it quickly away (P. 306). While Walter Younger tried to fight his destiny and was striving to get rich and be â€Å"his own boss†, Ellison’s protagonist adopted the society well and was satisfied of his situation without noticing any injustice.

Gender Inequality Within The U.S. Essay -- Gender Issues

The USA has a long history of bestowing freedom, choice and equal rights upon its citizens, but even though the US government no longer discriminates against race or nationality, gender is still an issue. Women’s rights have come a long way since August 26th 1920 - The date in which The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was signed into law, granting women the right to vote, but the fight is not over yet. Republican politicians like Rick Santorum and Rick Perry along with right-wing fanatics like Rush Limbaugh and fundamentalist religious groups want to profoundly change the rights of women in America. The radical ideologies embraced by these people attest that the use of contraception and the in statement of sexual education are abolishing core American values. The more extreme believe that women are too stupid to make their own medical decisions. These right-wing radicals wage zealous wars on female sexuality and a woman’s right to her own body. Unsurprisingly abortion and contraception are hot topics among the anti-feminists movement. Radical Christians see abortion as an unforgivable sin, even in the case of rape, and contraception as something that should simply be outlawed. The majority of these factions are predominantly white, Christian males. Interestingly enough there are no groups that protest men’s rights or claim that men have too much freedom over their bod ies. The battle over women’s rights to reproductive health care has recently taken a substantial legal step backwards. In 2011 alone, 19 states have enacted a total of 162 new laws relating to reproductive health. Unsurprisingly, 49 percent of these work to restrict access to abortion services, smashing the previous record of 34 legalized restrictions passed... ...male-dominated-student-government-and-why-it-matters/>. "Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2010." In the Election of November 2010. U.S Census Bureau, Oct. 2011. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. . "The 2012 Statistical Abstract." U.S Census Bureau. U.S Census Bureau, 2012. Web. 3 Mar. 2012. . "USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." U.S Census Bureau. U.S Census Bureau, 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. . "Facts on Contraceptive Use in the United States." Guttmacher Institute: Home Page. Guttmacher Institute and the National Center for Health Statistics, June 2012. Web. 04 Mar. 2012. .

Case Study Cameron Auto Parts Essay

1. Cameron was right to have licensed to McTaggart. Expansion strategies, as discussed in class, have different barriers and costs. For example, for Cameron to have entered a joint venture with the company would have cost both sides a lot of money and time. For Cameron to have expanded into the UK – what Andy had argued – would have been the most expensive and time consuming of the four options. The company definitely has money, however the extra cash needed to finance such large operations isn’t available. Finally, for Cameron to have simply exported into the UK economy could have been easy however, it is exactly what they are doing now. This leaves them limited to the amount that the importers are able to pay in terms of duty and freight, currency exchange, as Sandy explains, as well as the issue of never knowing â€Å"how long the goods will take†(International Management, pg 254) to arrive. Also, with the developing need, having more orders would force Cameron to build a new manufacturing facility to accommodate for the higher production. This would exuberate their need for that second plant. All of this leaves licensing to be the most viable option as it requires the least amount of capital, both financial and human. Cameron Auto Parts are paid royalty fees as well as the costs of setting up the manufacturing and training without having to spend much money to get the UK plant running. 2. I would say that McTaggart is a good choice for the company to become the licensee of the UK for Cameron. According to Exhibit 3, even though they had sales of –  £9 million from 1991, it states that this is because their sales took a plummet against â€Å"a U.S product of superior quality† (International Management, pg 255) It also states that they have the capacity to increase production substantially. This means that given the right product, they are already capable of producing according to demand. Further, because Sandy himself knows there is a huge (and growing) demand for the part, coupled with the current customers of Cameron, there is almost already a very large customer base and all it needs is a facility that is very seriously interested in becoming â€Å"exclusive agents for the UK market† (International Management, pg 256) in order to supply that demand accordingly. McTaggart also has an excellent credit record, and having been in operation for almost 150 years, it is clear that they are in the business for the long run and would not risk damaging situations and dishonored contracts. 3. The two had come to a compromise of 2% in royalty fees. They came up with the rate of using integrative negotiation techniques. They both knew that they wanted the situation to work, and neither of them came in with an unrealistic starting point or forceful attitude – distributive techniques. Alex began the negotiation at 3% while Sandy pushed a few times for 1.5%. Even though Sandy gave an offer of 2% on the first million â‚ ¬, he still kept close to his initial offer by saying that any profits after the first million would be at a 1.5% royalty rate. Pleasingly, they both agreed to meet in the middle, at 2%. Without knowing the legal royalty limit in the UK, the textbook (International Management, pg 99) does state that 3% is a stringent limit. This implies that governments consider this rate reasonable and not high enough to hurt the domestic company. That being said, 2% is the right rate. An important piece of information to take note of is the fact that even though their production skills were not as up-to-date as Cameron’s – an issue that would be rectified once the set-up of the facility is completed – McTaggart already has original cost saving ideas implemented in their current plant. This indicates an ingenuity that perhaps Cameron’s techniques could use. Because Alex specifically states that he would require a flow-back clause in their agreement, this is an added benefit to compromising that 1% since it is only a matter of time before McTaggart’s facility comes up with cost-saving techniques for the flexible couplings. This would more than make up for the compromise.