Gun Control in the USA

Alices Adventures in Wonderland Study Questions

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' Study Questions Alice in Wonderland (Alices Adventures in Wonderland) is a famous and beloved childrens classic by Lewis Carroll. You may find these questions useful for book club discussions, Â  to help you with your studies, or to help with any discussion of the book. Questions for Study and Discussion What is significant about the title?What are the conflicts in Alice in Wonderland? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional)?How does Lewis Carroll reveal character in Alice in Wonderland?What are some themes in the story? How do they relate to the plot and characters?What are some symbols in Alice in Wonderland? How do they relate to the plot and characters?Is Alice consistent in her actions? Is she a fully developed character? How? Why?Does Alice change and/or develop as a human being?How does Alice relate to other characters in the book?Do you find the characters likable? Are the characters persons you would want to meet?Does the story end the way you expected? How? Why?What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?How does the past figure into the novel?How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?How does Carroll use poetry in this novel? Why?Would you recommend thi s novel to a friend?

Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ten Critical Steps for Risk Managers - Essay Example There are mainly 10 major types of political risks, such as Nationalization, expropriation, confiscation, deprivation, contract frustration, currency inconvertibility, trade disruptions, unfair financial guarantee calling, devaluation and several disasters like strikes, war, civil commotion, terrorism and communal riot. Between 2008 and 2011, the issuance of PRI has increased due to volatile political condition of several countries. US achieved government backed terrorism insurance scheme (Miga, 2012). These steps will effectively guide the risk managers to buy political risk insurance. Selection of underwriter or broker is important. Brokers or underwriters are the first contact line. Therefore, it is important for the managers to undertake effective selection process. It is true that there are several underwriters who can share the views about political risk but only few of them can perform adequately in the limited and critical insurance market. Next step is service requirement. I t is an effective part of the selection process. The managers should know what services are required for exports. Moreover, they should try to protect their valuable assets like filing of applications, financing, exposure review, contract review, political risk intelligence, claims handling and loss of control. Fees and commissions should also be effectively examined. The risk managers should try to combine several political risk exposures under a single policy. Broker prefers several important package policies as these are typically more predictable and stable. Effective communication among employees, managers, top management is an important work culture of the organizations. The risk managers should organize an in-house seminar to inform the employees about possible risks and educate them to prevent those risks. Managers should establish a formal and simple communication structure including weekly status and updated reports. They should appoint effective local and familiar coordin ators to publicize operating plan and subject area. Contract review is important for the risk managers. They should conduct a thorough review process including review and analysis of terms of payment and sale, contract and other important documents associated with the exposure. It will help the managers to assure appropriate coverage is obtained. Political risk intelligence is another important step. It is an important part of brokerage service. The qualified facilities will help the managers to assist in the support, information and updated intelligence area. In addition to the 10 Political risk coverage areas, the managers should understand about terms, conditions and rates. These will help the risk managers to address co-insurance, waiting period, deductibility, exclusions, warranties, rescheduling, protection of profits and business interruption. Majority of the political risk coverage does not include export credit. Export credit insurance is an effective sales tool as banks ar e more appropriate to grant export financing. Loss of control is another critical step. Loss of control measure helps the risk managers to minimize the loss. It can include the contract analysis to protect the organization interests in the future (Fita, 2007). The organization’s interest can be protected through favorable treatment security. Last step is claims procedures. Before the occurrence of loss, a written documentation procedure should be developed. It will help to address who is handling the

Plato's design systems that reduce the apparent irregularities in the Essay - 2

Plato's design systems that reduce the apparent irregularities in the motions of the planets to regular motions in perfectly regular cicles - Essay Example But it is very difficult to let go of traditional beliefs and very often people cannot recognize anything that is not correct scientifically or morally. â€Å"In The Sleepwalkers, Koestler traced what he thought to be the mainstream of the development of science through exquisitely researched and written biographies of some of sciences leading figures.† (Adler) Plato writes in his book ‘Republic’ that stars form a section of the ‘visible world’ which it not real or actual world. While being very beautiful they are a ‘copy of the real world’. For Plato real world is the ‘world of ideas’. He would rather study the stars in abstract than find about their rotation and revolution. Only by paying full attention to the intellectual can we in actual understand and capture the essence of astronomy. Plato was a very prominent scientist till the last years of twelfth century. But he lost to Aristotle for two hundred years. Plato did make a comeback but both these scientists complemented each other. For Plato change goes hand in hand with deterioration and he describes the creation as â€Å" story of the successiveemergence ofeven lower and less worth forms of life†¦Ã¢â‚¬ the ladder which he climbs down starts from god to ‘the world of reality’ which is made up of ‘perfect form and ideas’. Then comes ‘the world of appearance’ that is a pale reproduction of the real world. Plato believes in the philosophy of decline and devolution rather than that of growth by ascent. To judge whether Platois sarcastic or is to be believed word for word or symbolically is very difficult. Plato hated change and looked down upon the idea of evolution and changeability. The middle ages echoed this along with its simultaneous desire for everlasting and unchanging flawlessness. The author is very critical of Plato and his view seems like a tunnel vision phenomena, but he feels that this is ‘what he came to mean to a long row of future generations- the one sided

PepsiCo Team-Board of Governance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

PepsiCo Team-Board of Governance - Essay Example The board of directors is tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the activities of a company. The activities of the board of directors are only delegated powers that are outside the organization itself, which have authority given to it by the bylaws of the organization (Malline 82). The board often faces challenges, and at this team company’s board, the most crucial governance issue is the compliance of public policy issues. There are countless issues that are put across that try and restrict the movement and actions of the board, which tries as much as possible to comply with these policies. In this firm’s case, by bringing in public persons, there is a chance for the organization to find a clear-cut channel to address the compliance of certain policies. It also creates transparency that the firm really needs. Conscious capitalism is what may be used to refer to the philanthropic activities that a firm is willing to undertake (Malline 87). This is in order to help the surrounding external environment benefit and also assist the firm benefit. The firm often participates in different sports activities for some of the different organizations that exist in the area. This is often done as a means to have donations for the groups involved, and also build awareness for the group in question. The skills and capabilities that the firm boasts of make it possible to have different activities in different areas, which also help in fostering exceptional relations between the firm and the people in the external environment.

Arguments for Short and Longer Term Capitalism

Arguments for Short and Longer Term Capitalism Introduction Reason Dominic Barton’s article on the â€Å"Capitalism for the Long Term† and in particular his â€Å"Fight the Tyranny of Short-Termism† essentially asserts ‘there is a myopia plagues all Western institutions in every sector’ and in his article, he suggests solutions to potentially treat thus problem He believes that this short-sighted perspective leads to the crippling of corporations, and the economy and creates social problems. Research that supports Barton’s claim of this pervasive myopia was presented during a conference hosted by Morgan Stanley in June 2011, where it was shown that the majority of chief investment officers from top asset management firms focused on short-term horizons that are disconnected from the organic process that typically value in businesses (Generation Investment Management LLP, 2012). In addition, former United States of America (USA) Vice-President, Al Gore said that ‘capitalism is coming under increased scrutiny and needs to change as short-term thinking has driven a wedge between investing and the creation of value for corporations’ and capitalism needs to change (Johan Carlstrom, 2013). This problem of short-term capitalism has attracted many institutional bodies such as International Monetary Fund and Harvard Business Review to conduct studies looking at its negative impact. The short-fall of short-term capitalism can be seen and felt most recently by th e financial crisis in 2008 that saw the collapse of major firms such as Lehman Brothers and the lives of many employees and their families destroyed along with the economy (Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, 2011). In summary, his argument calls for the review of a shift from short-term capitalism towards long-term capitalism in order for capitalism to continue to thrive in this modern age. Assumptions Potential Problems Barton’s main argument of transferring from short-term capitalism to long-term capitalism is problematic for a few reasons. Firstly, he assumes that short-term capitalism always leads to short-term management. Next, he assumes that short-term management is the root problem of short-term capitalism. Conversely, he assumes that long-term capitalism is better than short-term capitalism. However it is not possible to determine the true lasting advantages and disadvantages of long-term capitalism as it may not has not run its full course yet. Disadvantages may not be readily apparent initially and may end up being more potent as they have had more time to fester and snowball. Barton makes a further assumption that all investors are short-term and thus value-orientated which is false because that is a sweeping judgement on a diverse group of investors, of which a notable example to the contrary is Warren Buffet. He also believes that because investors are value-oriented, they are the ones at the root of problem as they pressure the board and management to practise short-term capitalism too. There may be some truth in that value-orientated investors will lead to short-term management this creates a vicious cycle. In theory, the management should be autonomous but in reality their investors usually influence them. A case in point would be that Chief Executives Officers (CEOS) are pressured by their investors to meet quarterly targets for the company’s share price may depreciate if they fail to meet them. CEOs then go to great lengths to achieving them, even if it could damage longer-term health of the business (Tim Koller, Rishi Raj Abhishek Saxena, 2013). As such, in order to avoid a conflict of interest, any board of directors should be fully independent (Lawrence Weber, 2011). This is important as the board would then be able to choose what is best for the corporation and should they choose to practise long-term capitalism, they would need to filter out the growth-orientated investors from the value-orientated investors (Bill George, 2013). Hence, the board decides the type of capitalism they want to undertake and the type of investors they wish to attract. Thus, it is not the investors who determine the corporation’s take on capitalism and should not be where we start from to solve this problem of short-term capitalism as mentioned by Barton. Another assumption that he makes is that ‘short-term capitalism is a tyrant that needs to be rid of for before the social contract between capitalist system and citizenry ruptures.’ The reality is that capitalism is by its very nature is governed by an inanimate non-living economic model and therefore cannot be corrupt. The misuse and abuse of the model by its users is to blame. Clayton Christensen provides an alternative explanation Businesses are created to meet demands and in exchange seek revenue. There are mainly two ways businesses can do that, they can either create empowering innovation which creates value or reinvest capital with capital but does not create any value. Reinvestment is obviously much faster than the creation of empowering innovations and as a result this is the choice of many firms (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), 2013). It is because of this choice, that the flow of value creation is broken (Refer to Appendix A) as reinvestment only serves to stagnate the economy (Clayton Christensen Derek Van Bever, 2014). This flow broke when the professionals in finance started to advise companies on the fastest way possible to maximise profit margins. Hence, it is clear then that short-term capitalism, which was more beneficial than detrimental in the past, was ruined not because of what it is but r ather the people who abused it. Barton’s suggestion for the transformation to long-term capitalism by focusing on long-term results and removing short-term targets makes a grave assumption that is meritocracy can still function in this era of career-minded people. Using his example that financial firms ought to adopt an approach that encourages fund managers using favourable methods in achieving their benchmark targets, meritocracy may be an obstacle because by adopting favourable methods and merely achieving their targets, it will be hard for these career-minded managers to distinguish themselves from the pack (Emilio J. Castilla Stephen Benard, 2010) and thus his suggestion will crumble over time. He also assumed that the reason why CEOs may take up actions that would damage the company’s long-term health in exchange for meeting quarterly targets is because of value-orientated investors. When in fact, the reason may simply be these CEOs are using the company as a stepping-stone to further their car eer advancement. This may then be the better explanation as to why the avenge tenure of CEOs has decreased from 1992 till now (Steven N. Kaplan Bernadette A. Minton, 2008). So then we realise that even by changing from short-term to long-term targets, it may not solve the issue at hand because meritocracy needs to be improved upon. On top of the need to evaluate the relevancy of our current version of meritocracy, another underlying assumption that he made when he said that we should look towards long-term capitalism and to move away from short-term capitalism is actually the relevancy of capitalism in today’s world. Taking into account of all available psychological research Daniel Kahneman, 2011) and living in our technology dependent world, many economic models that are proving to be outdated (Steven D. Levitt Stephen J. Dubner, 2005). By this reasoning, capitalism, which is actually governed by the many economic models, may no longer be relevant today and should not be the default model used even though it is widely accepted because it generates capital. However, there are no other appropriate models available, then perhaps modification and adaption of capitalism to keep it relevant in today’s context is the way forward. Further Potential Problems Barton proposed on first focusing on the people who provide capital first as they account for 35% of the world’s financial assets. Aside from the above-mentioned points, he is actually suggesting that these investors should take up a growth-orientated mentality. Realistically speaking, only major investors have the ability to influence the management team’s view on capitalism. It is difficult to convince them as these investors are unlikely to forsake guaranteed instant returns in exchange for less guaranteed future returns even if it may be higher. Investors being rationale beings would seek what is best for them and they may weigh that uncertainty too risky for that slight increase in return. He also suggests that firms should not encourage employees (fund managers) to meet the high benchmark indexes if the employees use favourable methods in achieving those targets. This is a noble proposal but unfortunately would collapse in the working world. The reason would be because firms use benchmarks to evaluate one employee against the other. In addition, favourable methods can easily be facades of unscrupulous methods as employees pit against each other to meet or beat the benchmark indexes. These methods, whether favourable or not, can only be evaluated at a later date. By then, the damage may already be irreversible. The definition of favourable is open to multiple subjective interpretations. This may result in employees may result in employees being unsure of what is allowed and as a result standards may be sub-par or may even result in a uniform standard of work produced, which would result in the failure of the incentivized promotion system. All of this is under the assum ption that everyone has high moral standards. In this era of career-minded people, it is also high unlikely that they will settle to be an average Joe for the sake of long-term capitalism as they will strive to be different by achieving higher benchmark indexes. Conclusion His assumption that there is something wrong with the current system (short-term capitalism) in place now is founded but the methods in which he employs to tackle the problem, in my opinion, are only scratching the tip of the iceberg. Actions need to be taken, but to create a noticeable difference, the actions cannot target certain groups or firms with wrongdoing policies but must target the fundamentals such as the validity of meritocracy and capitalism. We should focus on fixing the fundamentals of meritocracy and adjusting capitalism to make it relevant to today’s context by reviewing the economic models, which they are based upon. Thereafter, then we should heed the Barton’s suggestions on transferring from short-term to long-term capitalism, if capitalism is still deemed to be a relevant economic model for our modern world. Reference: Anne T. Lawrence and James Weber. (2011). Stockholder Rights and Corporate Governnance: Chapter 14 from Business and society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy, 13th Edition Bill George. (2013, December) Bill George on rethinking Capitalism/ Interviewer: Willian George and Rik Kirkland [6:50]. McKinsey Company. Retrieved from  http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/bill_george_on_rethinking_capitalism Castilla, Emilio J., and Stephen Benard. â€Å"The Paradox of Meritocracy in Organizations.† Administrative Science Quarterly 55 (2010): 543-576.  © 2010 by Johnson Graduate School, Cornell University. Clayton Christensen. (2013, September) The Capitalist’s Dilemma/ Interviewer: Rohan Silva [24:47]. Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Retrieved from http://www.thersa.org/events/video/vision-videos/the-capitalists-dilemma Derek Van Bever and Clayton Christensen. (2014, June). The Capitalist’s Dilemma. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/2014/06/the-capitalists-dilemma/ar/1 Generation Investment Management LLP. (2012). Sustainable Capitalism. Johan Carlstrom. (2013, June). Gore Says Capitalism’s Short-Term focus is Hurting Companies. Bloomberg. Retrieved from  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-17/gore-says-capitalism-s-short-term-focus-is-hurting-companies.html Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. (2005). Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. United States of America: HarperCollins. Steven N. Kaplan Bernadette A. Minton. (2008, August). How has CEO Turnover changed. Tim Koller, Rishi Raj and Abhishek Saxena. (2013, January). Avoiding the consensus-earning trap. McKinsey Company. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/corporate_finance/avoiding_the_consensus-earnings_trap United States of America. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. (2011). Final report of the National Comission on the causes and economic crisis in the United States. Daniel Kahneman. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. United States of America: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Appendix A The Economic Engine (Clayton Christensen, 2013)

An American Jew :: essays papers

An American Jew In this large city of ours situated on big spinning ball, inside a vast galaxy, and even larger universe. We sometimes tend to leap out into the unkown embracing and fearing life on other planets, when we can not embrace life or learn not to fear life on our own planet. We as a society have formed our own barriers when those placed upon us have been removed. We rarely see mixed neighborhoods outside of large cities. Even in our own borough we can see this; for example Borough Park is mostly Religious Jews, the area surrounding Brooklyn College is mostly black, and Gerritsen Beach is mostly Italian. When someone who doesn't belong in a community invades that community, that community then will fear and reject the invaders. The community is like the indiginous people of an island, when the island recieves its first visiter from the outside, the indiginous people fear the visiter and fear the change they may bring. My family was the first Russian family to move to an all Italian neighborhood, I was told to go back to where i cam from "damn rooskies", the children used to yell and taunt my sisters and myself. They would scream go back to Russia eventhough we had never been there. But soon I made freinds with a local girl who accepted me for me, not for being Russian, but for being Diana. My parent's didn't want me to get involved with the wrong kids and they also feared my friendship with people of different backgrounds. But our families began to talk and then we went over to each others houses for dinner and pretty soon, we were having block parties and backyard BBQ's. We weren;t Russian anymore, and they weren't Italian we had met somewhere in the middle. My mom now makes an amazing lasagna and the Laura's mom (the girl I befriended) makes a great Chicken Kiev. We didn't belong to any one class, our neighborhood was no longer Italian and it didn't become Russian it just was. It was just a neighborhood, no classification, just a middle class neighborhood, it was gray. Gray is that color inbetween black and white, its not black, and its not white, its just in the middle. If you think about there are a lot of colors like that; take pink for example its a mix between red and white, its not red and its not ehite, its just in the middle its just pink.

Allowing Evil to Triumph Essay

‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke). In order to stop evil and malicious acts from occurring, the people whose responsibility it is to enforce the laws must step up and stop these terrible acts. By ignoring the evil and not attempting to stop the evil, the good can harm themselves or other innocent people. If there is no resistance to evil, it is just like a football team allowing a player to score a touchdown without trying to tackle the player with the ball. In each case, it is extremely easy for one side to overcome the other. Therefore, by not exerting any effort to oppose the evil, the good are just inviting the evil to do as they wish. Being one of the themes of the poem The Hangman, this quotation can be related to the actions of the Hangman and the people he killed. Once the Hangman began killing, nobody tried to step up and stop the Hangman (except for one person who was killed). In this case, the good men did not attempt to stop the evil. As a consequence for this lack of action, each person was killed because he serves the Hangman best. The way in which the good served the Hangman was by letting the evil triumph over the town. If a group had attempted to stop the Hangman, he could have possibly been stopped. Because only one person attempted to stop the evil, those who kept quiet were killed for helping the Hangman without realizing it. If the good men do nothing and make no attempt to halt the evil, then the evil will triumph as a result of this lack of action. In today’s society, many people complain about all the political corruption that occurs in government, but none are willing to step up and take on this opposing evil. If one would look at the United States’ voter turnout in comparison with other nations, one would notice that the turnout is extremely low. This is a great example of how good men doing nothing allows the evil to triumph. If all of those people who talked about getting the evil politicians out of office actually voted, then they could possibly be removed from office by the voters. Therefore, if all of those good people acted upon their spoken words, the evil people of the government might be  able to be removed from office. In the life experiences of an average person, there are many things that occur that could be stopped if the good would try to stop the evil. Often times, two parents of a household work and do not spend enough time with their children. Because the parents do not act as a good influence in the child’s life, the child may begin to do drugs, get bad grades, and become involved in crime. Each of these things is evil but could have been prevented if the parent had done something and acted as a good influence in the child’s life. This is an example of how the good doing nothing allows the evil to triumph in the life of an average person. Also, many times there are bullies within a school who threaten other students with physical actions or language. Many times, these bullies go unreported because the good who are violated by the evil are scared of being known as a ‘tattle-tale.’ In each of these above cases, the good has the chance to prevent the evil from doing any damages, but chooses not to based upon their actions. By attempting to do nothing, the good shows little concern for what the evil is capable of doing. In the above paragraphs, there are examples of good allowing the evil to triumph that result in death. Also, there are examples of things in which the evil does not offer as horrendous a consequence. Within either extremity, there always has and always will be problems of evil triumphing to an easy victory. Perhaps one should think twice about whether to let something evil go without notice. One must remember that, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ (Edmund Burke)

Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Essays - Email, Communication, Free Essays

Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Essays - Email, Communication, Free Essays Bcom 275 assignment 1.1 Assignments Exercise 1.1: Communication Process Model Directions: Think of a misunderstanding you experienced when communicating with someone else at work, home, or school. Then fill in the blanks of the chart below. Misunderstanding Number 1 Who was the sender? My Manager Dan Who was the receiver? Myself What was the message? My manager was communicating to be the way the produce department was to be reset and stocked. What channel was used to send the message? Verbal communication. What was the misunderstanding that occurred? His instructions on the way that the produce was to be stacked was clear but the information on where each item was to be reset at was unclear. How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? This miscommunication could have been avoided in my manager would have given me an outline of where each item was to be place. 1.What did you learn about the communication process from this activity? With this communication process what I learn is that when unsure of something ask more questions and make sure that all instructions are all completely understood that are given. 2.What seemed to be the main causes of the misunderstandings? The main cause of this was the lack of communication between the two of us and making sure that the receiver had complete understanding of what the message was saying. Misunderstanding Number 2 Who was the sender? Supervisor Gale Who was the receiver? Myself What was the message? Time requested off What channel was used to send the message? Email What was the misunderstanding that occurred? A few months prior to needing time off I submitted a request for a few days off. A few day before the time that was needed off I emailed my supervisor to remind her that I would be off the next few days off. She called me and informed me that she had sent me an email back that she had denied me the time off. Found out later that day that she had sent the message to another person in the building with the same name and that the other employee had forgot to tell me or forward the email to me. How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? This type of misunderstanding could have been avoided if I would of followed up with another email or making a call her after not hearing back within a week of sending the email. 1.What did you learn about the communication process from this activity? That one should always follow up when important message are sent to other to prevent a lack of communication between the sender and receiver. 2.What seemed to be the main causes of the misunderstandings? The main cause for this misunderstanding was that my manager Gale or I did a follow up to make sure that the messages was received.

Swatch Group Essays

Swatch Group Essays Swatch Group Paper Swatch Group Paper The global watch Industry Is an Industry that Is In midst of change, where technology considered high-tech Is now considered behind or companies who were leaders are now just fads. The Swatch group falls in this category as it is a company facing the issues of the necessity of reposition itself, facing increased competition and higher than normal production costs. The swatch group seems to be in a stage in their company that has kept growth low, and the future shaky thus a strategy has been set forward for the company. The recommended strategy of partnering with Titan Industries is a strategy, If Implemented properly will be able to deal with someone of these core Issues at hand. The strategy Is aimed to reposition the company, while taking advantage of external opportunities such as international expansion and lower production costs. In the following document, a closer insight into the watch industry and the swatch group itself gives a better more in-depth look of its current strategies, external/internal threats and opportunities and other possible strategies with the partnership as the ultimate outcome. External The global watch industry has been consistent and continually provoking more interest. The watch industry has usually in the past used a horizontal structure in which suppliers, craftsmen and sub-contractors supply movements and external parts to assemblers , who in turn put the final product all together. Although in rare instances the use of vertical structure has been used in the Industry, where the company builds the product completely within the company. The Industry takes more of a fragmented stance with more of a spread of players in the Industry. The products primarily offered in the global watch industry revolve around electronic, prestigious, luxurious and appealing watches. Various opportunities and threats in he industry are discussed below as well as in Exhibit A Major opportunities in the industry include the continued technology advances occurring In society, with technology continually advancing opportunities for more Innovative product lines exists and at potentially lower cost production. Another opportunity that exists in the industry is international expansion, as the watch market continues to become more relevant in the world, international expansion is up for grabs. The keys to success for companies in the industry will revolve around companies investing more heavily in R and D to maintain with the technology advances and take advantage of the international opportunities. Another opportunity in the Industry revolves around the ability to continue to produce watches at cheaper costs. Keys to success Include companies being able to locate sufficient outsourcing opportunities with production being cheaper in these locations. The major threats that occur in this industry involve around the market becoming too saturated. Since the ability to produce will become cheaper, in a sense the opportunities for companies already in the industry will also be considered a threat as continued new entrants in the market segments will appear. The same goes for International expansion, as companies expand Internationally, messmates companies are being threatened and requiring defense of their companies. Both these threats will lead to profits being diluted and a market shares being cut in to. Keys to success for companies will be able to fall heavily on their reputation along with maintaining strong existing connections customers to maintain the competitive advantages that exist, taking a more focused differentiation strategy and possibly looking for mergers to defend the international expansion and take advantage of the international expansion at the same time. Internal Assessment The swatch group is a diversified multinational holding company that was formed in 1983 through two Swiss watch manufactures. The swatch group manufactures and sells finished watches, Jewelry and watch components. The group is the leader in the world when it comes to watch making and the group supplies nearly all the components required for the watches. The groups production companies supply watch components and movements to third part watch makers in Switzerland and around the world. The swatch group has a reputation and customer loyalty that is rare and quite positively unmatched in the watch making world. Switzerland had commonly been known well for their ability to produce high quality clocks and relies heavily on its reputation based in its watch market. The Swiss watch represents wealth, power and status and with the swatch group as representative of the Swiss watch market, its stance in strong and trustworthy. The swatch group also relies heavily when it comes to their research and development segment in there company. And this is done rightly so as the companies R and D segment has continued to show innovation that has kept them as a world class company and watch maker. The many continues to enhance and develop the design of watch. This is a vital strength because the swatch group utilizes the end-user as a starting point of the departments research. The issue that arises is that with the continued development of R and D in competitors, this is considered an imitable strength and temporary distinctive competency A rising weakness that the swatch group continues to face is the high production costs the company faces. While most watch companies locate manufacturing activities in countries with lower production costs, swatch continues to remain committed to its Swiss home production. While they may consider this important to their D. AN. F the company, it will and has already started to deteriorate profits which have started to plateau profits. Swatch group can convert this into strength if other options of manufacturing their product is realized and considered. Financial Analysis The Swatch group continues to be a leading force in the global watch industry, as it is considered in value terms as the worlds leading watch manufacturer with 14 percent of the world market. The company continues to see consistent growth around 15 25 per cent per year, and saw an increase in gross sales and gross profits y 7. And 7. 5 percent respectively in 1998. This can be primarily attributed to a repositioning strategy initiated in the early asss, by replacing expensive metals with cheaper brands used to refresh the company and by also reducing its streamlined models from 2500 to 130. Another successful initiative that saw the company become stronger financially was a marketing campaign that saw increase its awareness Tort ten omega watch Increase, Ana Decode stronger especially Witt an average of a 50 percent price point below its main competitor Role. Financially where the swatch group lacked was the fact that there sales have began o plateau at levels around 18 to 20 million units a year. The issue the company faces would be that if sales continue to plateau the company will have to rely more heavily on debt and borrowing as the company moves the future. Attempting to utilize its assets more efficiently is one step, another is reducing costs. Current Strategies The Swatch Group and Hayes currently deploy a differentiation strategy in their company which relies on their ability to create a watch that is able to stand out when grouped in with their competitors. The Swatch group has implemented this strategy and sustained its competitive advantage through innovation and their dedication to quality. Innovation at the Swatch group has been an important cornerstone in the groups development and progress towards the future. Innovation from adapting to technology advances in the watch market to their vertical integration strategy by keeping cost production costs lower through reducing the numbers of parts and automating the manufacturing process. Swatch cut the number of parts from 91 to 51 resulting in production costs of under 10 Swiss francs. The Swatch group also relied heavily on their marketing campaign to create brand wariness for their brands and reinvent the watch concept for consumers. The Swatch group positioned their products as accessory items opposed to time keeping. They did this through creating fashionable designs, creating large scale advertisements, limited editions and event sponsoring. The ass they switched their distribution channel to swatch concept stores where the brand products were displayed. A final important part to the Swatch group was the vision set out by Hayes (CEO). The Swatch group wanted to convey a message like no other watch brands in the watch market. Hayes and the swatch group made it clear that the group wanted to target ND be present in all market/ price segments from top to bottom and willingness that the group would be able compete in the markets. Key Issues After clearly seeing the nature of business the swatch group takes, it is clear the Swatch group has a couple of different issues that need to be addressed in order for the company to move in the right direction. The issues the swatch group faces is first that currently their position in the industry is ambiguous and needs to be re organized/ re positioned to give a clearer out look o the future. They are being seen by consumers as Just a fad of the earlier days and Ewing over looked by upcoming and exciting watch industries like Timex. Another is their high manufacturing costs of producing watches in Switzerland which is becoming a strain on the company financially. With more and more of the competition looking for outsourcing possibilities in countries with low cost production solutions, the swatch group has started to fall behind. The problem has really started to affect the company and stands at the forefront of their issues. Continuing to manufacture in one of the most expensive countries in the world and began to take a toll on the company. Another issue that is posed on the swatch group is the increasing competition and different market niches. With companies beginning to take Autocue Transliteration strategies In tenet companies, certain market segments and price segments are becoming increasingly more competitive. This stands as a serious issue for the swatch group as they are present in all market segments and price categories and can result in decreased net margin. Strategic Alternatives The first alternative that Swatch group can pursue is moving manufacturing out of Switzerland into Asia, countries with lower cost production solutions. This will lead to watch taking a cost focused strategy approach. By moving production out of Switzerland the swatch group will be able to maintain with its competitors in regards to production and its productions costs will move from a weakness to strength. By moving production out of Switzerland and still be compliant with the Switzerland government, the swatch group will be able to continue forward with growth and have more to invest in their R and D department. The second alternative that the Swatch group can pursue is a strategic partnership with titan industries (a watch making company based out of India) which will help with the many reposition itself internationally, significantly helping its efforts of gaining more international recognition. Titan industries is also another extraordinary success story in the industry, there expansion has been quick, profitable and recognized by the industry. In this broad differentiation strategy an alliance with a company like titan suits swatch well, as both are looking to continue to grow internationally and avoid the wide spread of competitors continuing to enter the market while both focusing primarily on the watch industry. With immense domestic demand and low cost labor, titan seems to be an exciting and profitable opportunity. The third alternative that swatch can explore is reorganizing its product portfolio. With continued increase in competition especially with competition in niche markets tightening up, swatches current strategy of attempting to be present in all market and price segments seems to have expired. In this focused differentiation alternative swatch will focus their attention on their product lines that are more profitable for the company and abandon their other markets. This means swatch will put more focus on their middle to luxury market segments. This will create a more of a focused differentiation approach strategy. Criteria and evaluation of alternatives by criteria In determining which option will best suit the Swatch group and lead them to more prosperous future, the alternatives that have been discussed need to be asses against three criteria. The first criterion that needs to be met in order to ensure future success for the alternatives would be to produce a positive NP (Net Present Value). The second criterion that needs to be assessed is how each alternative will affect the companys long term sustainability. The final criterion that will be assessed or each alternative is risk level of each possible direction, in the sense evaluating if any of the alternative imposes any greater risks on the Swatch group or the risk of the strategy failing In the first alternative of moving production out of Switzerland with regards to the first criteria of NP, this criterion would produce a NP of $5,333,543,488 which satisfies the criteria. In terms of long term sustainability, moving production out of Switzerland could play a positive role with this criterion. As production is being moved out, costs will De raceme, growth can De Increased as cap tall can De ovate to toner important initiatives of the company and the selling price can be readjusted. The risk level of alternative is tarnishing the Swiss made label that has been the foundation of the company. If consumers drop the product because the prestigious label has become cheaper the company could lose market share in the higher to middle end market segments, which would hurt growth in the company and the futures outlook. The second alternative of partnering with titans industries, creates an NP of $9,027,460,032 which is not only positive, satisfying the first criterion it is the largest NP produced, a important factor to consider. With regards to long term sustainability, this alternative seems to be the strongest in this criterion. With the company needing to reposition itself and create a firmer outlook in a fickle industry, partnering would create the companys outlook stronger and create a synergy between two rising companies looking for international expansion. The partnership would assist in lowering costs, opening up new markets, benefiting from economies of scales, combining assets, advanced growth and competition advantages. The risk level of this alternative is the possibility of losing some of its Swiss made label, which could hinder the future. Also since titan had failed in an alliance earlier, the possibility of failure is possible. The last alternative of reorganizing their portfolio by reducing their product line to the most profitable product, satisfies the first criterion producing an NP of $5,447,279,600. With long term sustainability, the company would be able to see growth through focusing on their most profitable product lines, except costs would increase because the producing these higher end market segments would be more expensive. The risk level of this alternative is that consumer would be lost resulting n lower revenues and if they cant attain higher market share in the product lines they focused on the company would not see growth. The pay out of this alternative might not be worth the risk of consolidation of the products. Recommendation and Implementation Based on the evaluation of the alternatives, the recommended strategy to implement is to create a strategic partnership with Titan industries. The criterion shows that this alternative would be the most attractive in dealing with the key issues the Swatch group faces in the future. Profits would be increased, costs would be reduced b, intention reduced and the company would be repositioning itself for the future. Implementing this strategy would have be done delicately and ensured that not too much time is spent to distract them from moving forward. First part of production would be moved to India resulting in redistributing the cost savings in R and D and some production kept in Switzerland to attempt to keep the Swiss made label. A marketing campaign would be implemented to create a view of the future for the organization and ensure consumers know where the organization stands. The marketing campaign would involve social networks, heavy advertising and the SE of celebrities from all over the world wearing the watches. Then continue to produce product lines, with a more international aspect being implemented so new markets are created. Competition will then be targeted, innovating together by destroying images of others and increasing market share of their own. Avoidance of WOO De nope In tens partnership to rely more on current assets AT ten alliance. Limitations and critique of recommendation While this strategy of partnering with Titan industries seems to look strong and quite promising for the organization certain limitations exists. The first one being that Titan had already tried to work with a partner to develop internationally and move forward, this company being Timex. While a failure seems possible, the difference in this scenario is that both companies are more suitable for a partnership opposed to the partnership with Timex, who really never needed one and was becoming strong on their own. In this scenario swatch and titan need each other more then Timex needed titan. Another limitation that occurs is the fact that even though some production stays in Switzerland, the Swiss made label needs might be tarnished. While this risk seems possible, a proper advertising campaign can mitigate this risk and help the organization move forward without fear of this really hurting the company. The limitations are a concern only if the Swatch group does not commit fully to this strategy. Exhibit 1 External Analysis Opportunities and Threats: Opportunity: New Markets * Opportunity to expand internationally with new markets being produce * Deciding whether to enter the markets or not * With new markets being entered, hype/ attention will be back on swatch * Technology advances creating new markets Opportunity: Low Cost Production solutions Over seasons markets open to inexpensive cheap labor * Could be considered a threat if not taken advantage of * Lower costs of production leads to lower overall costs and higher profits Threat: Market saturation * Companies investing more in research and development in niche markets(RD) * Heightened competition in focused markets, creating tougher markets to compete in Threat: New Markets * International expansion helping companies move internationally, and steal market share from other companies * New competition taking advantage of innovation in the industry, creating new product lines Conclusion: To take advantage f these opportu nities means to take advantage of them now before they disappear. In the watch industry, it seems of late its becoming an ever changing industry where position needs to be firm. With regards to the threats, if they arent dealt with they can be a serious detrimental issue to a business in the industry.

Homicide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Homicide - Research Paper Example Many have identified that the actual number of the criminals and serial killers are increasing by challenging he laws and the authorities. As such, the study of homicide deserves greater importance for the researchers and the general public. An overview of the various books and other writings published on this issue unveils that there has been many attempts to identify murder and homicide. However, even after various studies over this issue, one can still view it as an argumentative issue among the researchers and the intelligentsia. Only a thorough wider analysis and research, one can make clear certain issues regarding homicide and or murder. Homicide is the killing of one human being by another. If the killing is not excusable or justifiable, then it is called criminal homicide. Murder and Manslaughter are the two general categories of criminal homicide. In most countries, First Degree Murder is the most serious crime that people can commit, where manslaughter is a less serious cr iminally homicide. Considered the most heinous crime that could be committed in society, the intentional or unintentional act of murder brings lasting affects to the families of the victims and the murderers and their families. The consequences of these heinous actions have the potential to also affect the current laws that are in place, possibly having them amended. The proposed research seeks to explore certain realities concerning homicide and will conclude by analyzing the various types of homicides and the negative effects which may hamper the lives of modern people. 1. HOMICIDE - KILLING OF ANOTHER Homicide has often been identified as the killing of one human being by another human being due to various factors. Homicide is broader in scope than murder, though it has often referred as synonymous it. An overview of homicide reveals that murder is a variety of criminal homicide which is punishable where other forms of homicide might not constitute criminal acts. Other forms of h omicides are often accounted as justified and excusable. Law has clearly defined or categorized various types of homicides which includes killing intentionally, murder for self-defense, planned murder, and so on. Individuals may engage in murder for self-defense, ‘kill a person who threatens them with death or serious injury, or they may be commanded or authorized by law to kill a person who is a member of an enemy force or who has committed a serious crime’ (The free dictionary, 2011). As per the laws existing in majority of the world nations, it is the circumstance surrounding a killing that decides whether a man is a criminal or not. The more specific legal terms takes into account the intent of the killer to regard his/her action as criminal homicide which is generally considered as murder or man slaughter. Regarding homicide, it can be brought under two main categories called Lawful killing and Unlawful killing. a. LAWFUL KILLING As per the legal statutes, English courts developed the body of Common Law on which U.S. jurisdictions already depending to develop their verdicts concerning homicides. The legal dictionary identifies the two types of homicides when it writes thus, â€Å"Early English common law divided homicide into two broad categories: felonious and non-felonious. Historically, the deliberate and premeditated killing of a person by another person was a felonious homicide and was

Analyze how innovation, design, and creativity at Mcdonalds support Research Paper

Analyze how innovation, design, and creativity at Mcdonalds support the organizations goals and objectives - Research Paper Example When it comes to its design of leadership, McDonalds top management has ensured that they are customer oriented and hence has engaged in corporate social responsibility to work hand on hand with its customers who are part of the larger community in order to fulfill its values and objectives. This step has increased the fame of the food stores and even increased its customer base. McDonalds have also invested in having different designs of their worker’s uniforms depending on the occasion or where they are serving their customers, this range from entertaining children in their numerous playgrounds and even serving customers in their dinners. Their creativity is evident from their logo which is unique and identifies it wherever it is. They are also creative in their advertisements and in the advertisements they sponsor. McDonald’s different designs of their restaurants including drive-in ones that serve the customer needs wherever they are is also an indication of their creativity and which goes a long way to fulfill the goal of McDonalds of serving fast food to all people and at their own