Nature and Human

NATURE AND HUMAN Nature and human have always interacted throughout history, and the interaction of the two forces has evolved into a series of demands that people have put on nature to survive and develop. By contrast a minority of people have questioned the state of things and tried to figure out how humanity and nature can interact and develop together, and through their questioning they have come to define their idea as ecological cosmology. To begin with it is important to always start from the word itself, as each and every word has a meaning firstly by itself, and then it can acquire more depth through its use in a given context.Ecological cosmology comes from the Greek ‘oikos' and ‘logos' , these two words define respectively a ‘dwelling place' and a ‘discourse' or ‘intelligible manifestation'. Ecological is something that deals with the environment in which one is, and on what can be said of that environment. Cosmology is instead related to â₠¬Ëœkosmos' or order and its intelligible manifestation, thus it can be said that there is an intelligible order or a logic to how things happen.Ecological cosmology can be seen as the order in which things happen in a given environment, and many versions of it exist, as many people with different backgrounds thought of defining the order of things depending on how themselves and their environment are shaped or are going to be shaped. â€Å"The mythological process deals not only with natural objects, but with the creative potencies whose original product is consciousness itself. So it is here that our expl anation breaks through into objectivity and becomes wholly objective (Shelling, 207). Ecological cosmology has been seen as a mythological force, of creative and positive nature, which comes to define elements of nature, and the perceptiveness of them that people come to have. Talking about nature and ecological cosmology becomes as a result part of a discourse that does not limi t itself on discussing how a myth can come to be seen in nature, but also on the fact that a myth becomes an object that people can see in nature and attribute a representation to it – that can be viewed on how people see and define elements and objects within nature and how these objects happen to effect the relationship of mankind and nature. It is worth noting that no moral cause ever got very far that could not speak to religious conviction, drawing on the deeper sensibilities that guide public opinion even in our more secular era (Scully, pp. 12-13). † Throughout the evolution of mankind, people have gone through different phases of ecological cosmology and at one point or another – ecological cosmology happened to be tied in with Christian principles to be viewed as something more approachable as a way of being within nature, rather than the sole use of nature.For instance at one moment or the other nature has been perceived as an element of God's creations , in which people were to live abiding the rule of God, and using nature to further man's position on earth. It is interesting to see in fact how the evolution of Christianity has put people first as representation of God's will on Earth and then after only at a second time, people have seen nature as something to needy of care.Interestingly enough nature has been for most part of humanity's history the giver in a relationship – care towards it instead has always come at a second time and out of the feeling of guilt rather than respect in a balanced environment, as solely humanity and people have seen balance in the goods generated by nature.It is also worth noting that in times when nature got attention it has been mostly the attention of an intellectual elite, and even in cultural movement such as romanticism – attention to nature and its care have solely been regarded as a pastime, like for example when in the late 1800s the British high society started to find inte rest in gardening and even that has been solely related to an elite status.Intellectuals and elites have been able to move society forward within limits, but sadly those limits haven't been altered too much or challenged even within those circles. Results have been many compared to a level of development that mankind has obtained out of the use of the many fruits of mother nature, it is interesting to point out that those phases of interest in nature have been mostly occurring after intense industrial development's periods – and because of that they have become the hadow after the light of successes of science and scientific research. Yet those phases have brought onto people the harsh reality and needs that follow advancements as those have a price, and results that not only affect increasing social conditions, but also that affect people with challenging bad health conditions and a state of realization to people that at any of hose junctions realize the damages in nature's ecosystems.Furthermore it is interesting to realize how Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism have challenged the status quo on a cultural level. All those cultural, artistic and ‘elitist' movements have allowed men to have a reality check with its contemporary community, and given they all developed a specific code in any given location in which they took place.They have started a constant discourse that has led people to one's realization nature and humanity need to re-balance one another – and the balance to be found is not as easy to come by as it is expected even after constant technical development in both industrial and artisanal methods, the situation people are put in front of holds many challenges, and the biggest one of them involves a change in understanding and dealing with nature all together. erably failed. But he was a humble seeker of Truth. He was a man with exceptional sincerity, honesty and truthfulness. For him, un derstanding meant action. Once any principle appealed to him, he immediately began to translate that in practice. He did not flinch from taking risks and did not mind confessing mistakes. No opposition, scorn or

Letter of Recommendation Essay

A.Current Performance Last year, Google had strong financial metrics. According to Google’s operational highlights, the company reported worldwide revenue growth and cash flow for the four quarters of 2013, making Google one of the most successful companies within its industry. Overall, Google’s last year’s return on investment, market share, and profitability were positive (2013 Financial Tables n.d.). B.Strategic Position Google’s main focus is on the customer. Furthermore, the company’s mission statement is â€Å"to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.† 1.Google has been able to reflect its mission statement by making its customers a priority, always delivering excellence with its products to worldwide customers. 2.Google has been in the technology industry since 1998. Although the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998, Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had already built a search engine (initially called BackRub) by 1996. 3.Google’s main objective was to â€Å"create the perfect search engine,† an engine that would â€Å"understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want.† Nowadays, Google has not only been successful at creating this perfect search engine, but has been able to make it smarter and faster. 4.One thing Google focuses on the most is that its business operations are aligned with its strategy. The Business Operations and Strategy team at Google is in charge of identifying and clarifying Google’s â€Å"strategic priorities, addressing operational challenges, and facilitating innovation.† 5.In order to maintain a positive experience for its users, Google considers its policies to play an important role in the structure of the company. Google’s policies are against â€Å"illegal activities, malicious products, hate speech, the distribution of personal and confidential information, the access of another user’s account without their permission, child exploitation or child abuse, spam, ranking manipulation or relevancy, sexually explicit material, harassment and  bullying, violence, impersonation or deceptive behavior; and the run of contests, sweepstakes, and promotions on Google+.† 6.Google has proven to be an effective company while under the scrutiny of local and international regulations. Although Google has no control over foreign rules , the company attempts to provide accurate and genuine information within the enforced parameters. Furthermore, Google’s main priority is to abide by national and international rules and regulations as much as possible (Company Overview, n.d.). II.Corporate Governance A.Board of Directors Eleven members constitute the Board of Directors for Google Inc. The company’s board of directors is comprised of a multicultural team that supports the company with their knowledge, skills, and connections. Every member, as a reward for their contribution of knowledge, skills, or connections to the company, is entitled to receive Class B shares of stock. Google is a publicly traded company. On August 18, 2004, 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock went out for public offering on Wall Street. Google’s internal members are: 1.Larry Page, CEO. Larry was the founder of the company and has been the chief executive officer since 1998. He is responsible for the day-to-day-operations, as well as leading the company’s product development and technology strategy. His engineering skills are such a great contribution to the company. 2.Sergey Brin, Co-Founder. Along with Larry, Sergey Brin co-founded Google Inc. in 1998. Sergey is responsible for directing the special tasks of the company. He also served as President of Technology from 2001 to 2011. His knowledge in computer science is of a great value to the success of the company. 3.Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman. Eric joined the company in 2001 and helped Google to become the great company it is now. Eric is responsible for building partnerships and expanding business relationships, and for advising the CEO on industry and policy issues. Representing the external members of the company are: 4.L. John Doerr has been a member of Google’s board of directors since May 1999. John’s areas of expertise are social networks, greentech innovation, and education and economy development. 5.Diane B. Greene has acted as a member of Google’s board of directors since January 2012. Diane’s background is in computer science and mechanical engineering. 6.John L. Hennessy has been a member of the company’s board of directors since April 2004. John has also been Google’s Lead Independent Director since April 2007. John’s areas of expertise are computer science and electrical engineering. 7.Ann Mather has served as a member of the company’s board of directors since November 2005. Furthermore, from 2004 to 2009, Ann was the director of a company in charge of developing and operating national commercial television channels and stations in Central and Eastern Europe. Ann holds a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in England. 8.Alan R. Mulally holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, and a Master’s degree in Management. Alan has been a member of Google’s boards of directors since July 2014. He has also been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of England’s Royal Academy of Engineering. 9.Paul S. Otellini has served as a member of the company’s board of directors since April 2004. Paul holds a Master’s degree of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. 10.K. Ram Shriram has acted as a member of Google’s board of directors since September 1998. Ram’s areas of expertise range from advice on how to raise venture capital, how to manage the hiring process in a corporation, how to make the right product choices and how to define and adapt the business model to changing market conditions. Ram has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Madras, India. 11.The last member of Google’s board of directors is Shirley M. Tilghman; she has served to the company’s board of directors since October 2005. Shirley holds a Doctoral degree in biochemistry from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in chemistry from Queen’s University (Corporate Governance, n.d.). B.Top Management Google’s top management is not only composed of some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry, but of a team knowledgeable in  conducting business worldwide. In fact, Google’s top management team is responsible not only for the day-to-day operations, but for the company’s performance during the past few years. The following six members are part of Google’s Top Management team: 1.Larry Page, CEO and Co-Founder. 2.Sergey Brin, Co-Founder. 3.Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman. 4.Nikesh Arora, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. 5.David C. Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer. 6.Patrick Pichette, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Most of Google’s top management team is hired internally, although they have held management positions with other companies prior to joining Google’s management team. As stated in Google’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, the duty of the board of directors is to supervise management’s functioning to ensure that the company is operating in an effective, efficient, and ethical manner in order to attract and encourage future investors, and to generate value for current Google’s stockholders. Moreover, the Board is in charge of evaluating Google’s overall strategy and monitoring Google’s performance to compare it to its operating plan and the performance of its peers (Management team, n.d.). III. External Environment: Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) A. Natural Physical Environment: Sustainability Issues No natural physical environmental forces threat Google or the industry in which it competes. Google is an internet search engine where users have the ability to gain access to mass amount of information quickly and easily. The ability for users to utilize the search engine is not physically impacted in other regions of the world. B. Societal Environment Although physical environments do not affect Google, social environmental factors do. 1.Economic: Google can face economic downtime due to market recession. Making Harder for Google to gain advertisers and therefore decreasing current revenue of 97%, this comes from advertising.   2.Technological: Internet Security Issues is a concern to the massive pool of information and one of Google’s major problems is identity theft, which affects its users. Users that use Google and are threat by the possibility of identity theft may cease from usage of the search engine. 3.Political-Legal: As Google grows, putting the competition to shame, it could gain monopoly power. If so regulatory issues pertaining to monopoly power can rise and/or other legal issues. Google can face liability issues with the Digital Millennium Copyright that limits the linking to a third-party site. 4.Social-cultural: Due to different government and other country views, Google is force to censor web content in different locations. Countries like Germany, France, Poland and China have forced these censors. The above social environmental forces vary in other countries due to geographical regulations, languages, and cultural beliefs. C. Task Environment Google innovation is transparent. The company continues to strive by gaining users, providers and bringing to light new tools. These achievements do not seem to stop the competition and competitors will remain the same from country to country. A.Threat of new entrants: medium B.Bargaining power of buyers: high C.Threat of substitute products or services: high D.Bargaining power of suppliers: low E.Rivalry among competing firms: medium F.Relative power of unions, governments, special interest groups, etc.: high Google faces competition from all internet base companies that intent to communicate information to users. One of Google’s possible strongest competitors is Bing. Current threats involve vertical search engines and e-commerce sites, providers of online products. Social Network, such as Facebook and twitter, are driving users in for advertising and other referrals, which causes current and future threats. Other than possible increased on competition, which may drive users and advertising ads elsewhere, Google also faces possible liability issues, Information Technology issues and security issues. With each threat, the company may seek an opportunity. For example, developing operating systems for mobile  devices and others, this drives users to continue the use of Google. D. Summary of External Factors The integration of European Community, Eastern Europe, with economic development of Asia are all external opportunities factors that may contribute to Google’s growth. Increasing governmental regulations and new product advances are factors that represent the most threat. The company’s opportunity lie on the electronics industry and the driverless cars patent represented. IV.Internal Environment: Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT) A. Corporate Structure Google is known to be one of the top employers. Google’s management executives are not the main decision makers, although executives do have the last say on decision to assure it meet Google’s innovative strategic. Employees involvement is highly encourage at Google. At Google, the atmosphere is pleasant, family oriented. Google’s approach is for top managements develop strategies and effective implementation while serving as an inspiration to the employees collaborates and brings ideas to life. B. Corporate Culture In a successful company, the employers are the main drivers. At Google, employees are the â€Å"Googlers.† One of Google firm belief is that happy employees make a company. Google hire talented, strong-minded individuals who strive for better, greater results. Many companies use this approach where they encourage employees to take lead and executives/managers simply assure projects are met and within the organizational goals. Google is a transparent company where they make sure employees keep inform by using technology and standard process for communication. Their developments and announcements are discussed in forums. Google has adapted well over 12 languages, reflecting the global audience that they serve. C. Corporate Resources Marketing: Google’s marketing objective is clearly stated, the company doesn’t shy away. Company’s mission is to provide accessibility to information to users. Google’s User Interface is everywhere and can be access from any device. The corporation performs well and has sustained growth. Google continuous growth come from innovation. Google has created new products in the past years, such as, Google Maps, Google Video, PageRank, Google Docs, Gmail, among others, providing users free accessibility to several products within the brand. Finance: Advertisement drove the revenue gain of 97% for Google and in 2008 it amounted to 51% gain. The company was not affected by the economy downtime. Although like many companies, seasonality affects Google’s growth, but not significantly. After 2008, Google financial position remains stable. Revenues are constant, around $13-14 million per quarter, and operating/net income do not fluctuate a lot. Google’s growth comes from the development of new products. Research and Development (R&D) / Operation and logistics: Google hires innovative and talented employees so their creativity is used for developments of new product and processes. Google objective and strategies have been consistent with the company’s mission. One of the strategies Google is to obtain knowledge about the market’s need to create programs funding, company acquisition, and product development. Google products do not require storage, delivery; it is not a tangible service. Google’s products are at no cost to users. Google’s operation mirrors their mission, provide relevant and useful search results for users, advertising, and always strive to improve users’ experience in their search engine. Human Resource Management (HRM): At Google, the Human Resource Management seeks talented individual to come aboard. Employees at Google are awarded for high performance. In 2009, Google had around 19,835 employees. In 2010, all employees received a one thousand dollar cash bonus and a 10% pay raise. Google provided such incentive to retain skilled employees. Google’s rapid growth and innovations are due to its talented employees that bring their experience and technology wisdom. Google works hard to retain those employees by providing a family  oriented workplace and striving for employee satisfaction. Information Technology (IT): Information Technology is a concern for Google. Because hackers and spammers can harm Google’s credibility, Google IT system must avoid injuries from hackers, spammers and even natural disasters. IT must work towards providing an utmost internet security. Google is well aware of these issues and it uses appropriate technology to help maintain its integrity and services. D. Summary of internal factors Internal Factors are brand, user experience, marketing, advertising, employee retention, and information technology issues. Google stands out and dominates the market. Bing, Yahoo and even AOL are Google’s current competitions, yet Google excels with their continuous products creations and services. Google mission statement is clear and through the services it provides it is recognized how it holds true to its mission. Working at Google it is known to be pleasant, everyone would like to work happily at such employee driven company. In summary, Google has strong brand recognition, utmost service quality, and a creative cultural atmosphere. Google’s success comes from its retention of skilled employees, resources in technology and innovation, and advertising. V. Analysis of Strategic Factors A.Strengths Google is a global technology company, whose main focus is to improve the ways in which people connect and transfer information via the web. With that in mind, Google’s capability as a company has positioned it as one of the most important entities in the market. The main source of revenue for Google comes from the placement of online advertisements. However, because Google itself already has an established name within the public eye, the company does not need to need to place much emphasis on their own company advertisement – being rated the number one search engine. Google’s operation cost is very low. The way that Google extracts its information for searches is through the use of low cost Unix web servers, which index web  pages across the Internet. Moreover, with the use of Pagerank, Google is able to rank web pages and give users amplification to the most important sites first. Google is not only a search engine, but also a sort of portal to information of various categories across the web. Its product line includes: Images, Groups, Directory, and News among others. It is apparent that Google envisioned this as on its home page it keeps tabs so that the simplicity of the site can give users easy and accessible navigation. Through the use of AdWords, an advertising platform that incorporates relevant ads to the right of Google’s search results, buyers and sellers are instantly connected. Users have the decisive choice to pick how much will be paid per click and the number of times the ad is to be displayed. As for advertisers, they do not have to pay by the number of clicks on the advertisement, the can choose to pay for the number of sales. Google is a company that is continuously evolving and under development. Because the market of this company has unlimited possibilities, the source of revenue is endless. Google’s growth has lead to the purchasing of other large emerging companies such as Postini, YouTube and DoubleClick, which have ultimately continued to enlarge the growth of the overall company. With expansion and strengthening of the company, Google has also been able to develop solutions for personalized toolbars as well as wireless handled devices and tablets. As of the current moment, Google’s momentum and development (through low operation cost) have lead it to be considered within the top 10 brands in the U.S., surpassing Microsoft’s market cap with 221.19B. B. Weaknesses Like every company out there, though very potent, Google also has its drawbacks. On a scale, only 50-65 percent of web search queries are answered within precision. Regulatory scrutiny was made to be increased by Google, which in turn negatively impacted the business. This particular situation gave way for increased risk with continued growth and corporate expansion. Spammers, who have created dummy sites with links of pages they want Google to rank highly, have manipulated Google’s search ranking technology. Google has also been faced with problems with censorship, as Government pressure has lead the company to block certain information in  several locations. For example, in Germany, France and Poland, it was illegal to post material that denied the Holocaust. As a result, Google was forced to filter out this information. With the increasing amount of data and applications available on the web, and the rising privacy issues, Google’s concern for identity theft has increased as well. Cost per click advertising is confusing for customers and makes it hard for marketers to predict the cost and positioning of their ads. The presence of Google on social networks is not very big, and therefore their advertisement presence is not as big as other companies though it heavily relies on it. Nonetheless, the cost of data centers rise per year, which also means that Google’s expenditures increase substantially yearly as well. C. Opportunities Through the use of portalization, Google can increase its income. Another opportunity on the plate is also for Google to merge with other already existing portals in order to enter the social media loop market and become a strong competitor with companies such as Facebook and Twitter. Being a developer of wireless handheld devices, Google could increase into telecommunication products such as tablets in order to enter a market that goes beyond the systematic World Wide Web. Capitalizing on the use of e-books and buying consumer sales based sites as Groupon and Gilt City could also signify a great opportunity for Google. D. Threats Google’s biggest threat is losing its name value. Google runs the risk of its name being used by the public as a simple search engine. Although Yahoo! Was the first search engine to gain widespread acceptance and top the charts, it quickly lost its top notch title to Google when it introduced its state of the line search engine technology. Google fears that the same can happen to its company, the biggest threat being Bing, who owned by Microsoft, could become a serious competitor due to the great marketing power of Microsoft. Other threats include social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp) as users are beginning to rely heavily on product/service referrals rather than having to take the time to search for information themselves through the search engines. Mobile applications are another  threat that Google encounters. Other forms of advertisement such as billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio, television and yellow pages are also parties that Google competes against for ad dollars. Being a portal of creation and connectivity, Google provides services such as Gmail and Google Docs which compete directly with other companies who offer the same services embedded into their medium. E. Review of Current Mission and Objectives Google’s overall mission was to be able to organize information and make it readily available to people around the world. Management of the company believed that in order to achieve the purpose in the most effective and fruitful way would be to put the needs of the users first. Committed to maintaining this, the mission of the company has been carried out in accordance and has provided heightened results. VI. Strategic Alternatives and Recommended Strategy Strategic alternatives and recommended strategies for Google include taking advantage of new emerging technologies and embedding them into the new creation of products and services. An example of such use can be portrayed through the artificial intelligence being incorporated into the software of cars, in order to have them drive themselves and have memory of recurring routes. Having a op of the line management team that will lead the company to the top is always a factor that should be kept in line – a highly driven and talented workforce. The culture of Google should always be kept as a strategy: emphasizing teamwork, innovation, flexibility and transparency. Moreover, Google needs to place a large focus on the development of ideas in the mobile computing market due to the fact that mobile devices are quickly growing in use and soon the use of desktops and laptops will be replaced and outdated by the use of smart phones. VII. Implementation A. Programs to be developed to implement the recommended strategy Reconstructing Google is not a feasible nor needed option. Having the market  strength that they possess allows them to go the route of instituting TQM. Total quality management will allow them to continuously improve. In order in order for the implementation of TQM, a program should be developed, to keep improving both the product and the process quality. Top management should take the role of developing these programs. In the TQM program there has to be a process where employees that work directly with the product and services are highly involved to make sure that everything is running smoothly and evaluate the situation to see where improvements can be made. B. Financial feasibility of the programs and appropriateness of timetables and priorities Fortunately for Google, they are very financially stable and able to take on new projects and programs. A program like the suggested TQM program will not have a significant impact on their financials but it will have a great reward when it comes to their long-term success. This long-term success will come from the heightened attention to quality that will be seen by consumers in the product that are made. This will make consumers trust the brand even more and give Google a completive advantage. C. Need for new SOP Development As of now it seems clear that Google has very effective standards of operating procedures, as with anything, nothing is static and change is inevitable. In the future as demand changes and new technology is introduced, Google will have a need for a new SOP in order to stay efficient and above in the market. VIII. Evaluation and Control A. Current information system This case does not mention the current information system used by Google, but in researching the top business intelligence systems that are available, Google no doubt has custom software that does everything and even more than the ones available in the market. Some examples of BI solutions are SAS and IBM’s Cronos. Both of these solutions offer reporting, analytical processing, data mining, event processing, business performance management and many more useful tools. With the programs containing historical and  present data, it can help business plan for their needs and see where they are able to get a competitive advantage by forecasting and creating what if scenarios. B. Control Measures to ensure conformance with the recommended strategic plan In reading over the case it was not clear what control measures were used by Google, form researching, Google sends out â€Å"Tech Talks† blogs and weekly â€Å"TGIF† meetings to pass information and communicate with employees. Rewarding good performance is something that is at the top of the list for Google. In today’s competitive job market, competitors are always looking for new talent. Talent management comes into play, where Google’s HRM has to constantly monitor top talent and retain them. Google has a history of maintaining a corporate culture of innovation and performance aligning the needs of the corporation with that of their employees. Google paid $1,000 cash bonus and a 10% raise to all of their employees in 2010, this here shows how valuable it is to Google to maintain their employees. Work Cited Company ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â‚¬Å" Google. (n.d.). Company ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â‚¬Å" Google. Retrieved July 18, 2014, from https://www.google.com/about/company/ Wheelen, Thomas L., and J. David Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability. 13th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

Human resource management Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Human resource management - Dissertation Example However, the ability of an individual to perceive change goes beyond mastering new principles while maintaining productivity in the face of new policies and technologies. The personal disposition of an employee plays a crucial role in successfully adopting changes implemented. Psychologists are clear on the differences in personality and how they affect working skills and managerial skills (Brunstein 2001, p.83). Individual characters are indeed beyond the scope of the company; however, the company can maintain these diverse characters for the smooth running and subsequent integration of employees in the course of a change. An employee’s motivation and morale are crucial to the productivity of a company. Motivation and morale can be high or low as a result of a change. External or internal locus of control will determine the modes of motivation necessary for the individual to be productive. In light of this, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation will determine the success of chan ges in a company. The leadership of a company is responsible in ensuring that proposed changes appear in a positive light. Therefore, the personality of the individual at the position of leadership will determine the interpretation of the changes (Brewster 2012, p.108). Interpretation of changes in a company also relies on the perceptual capabilities of not only the persons in leadership but also of the subordinates. Perception is dependent on the level of education of an individual, their personality types, and their level of motivation. In retrospect, the success of change implementation can be at the disposal of individual employees in which case their failure to be integrated can result in the failure of the company to integrate change (Clark 2000, p.41). Research question: Is the slow integration or failure thereof of a new policy, strategy or technology in an institution dependent on failure of the system or on the individual’s ability to integrate and, therefore, confo rm to change? Is the individual motivated or demotivated by change and how do they perceive change? What is the managerial level perception and interpretation of change? Change is necessary for the effective running of an organisation (Handy 1996, p.70). The mangers perception of change: a â€Å"good† leader does not impose changes. Managers do is to trust that the workforce is capable of navigating its way around huddles caused by the change. After interpreting the requirements of change and providing the necessary equipment and policies that come with it, they retire to their managerial cocoons. This is not an expert thing, but the autonomy the manager entrusts the workers at this point is crucial to the running of the organisation. The organisation’s ability to cope with change has no universal formula (Handy 1996, p.72) because pressure arising from change affects organisations differently. In the same way, individuals do not react the same way to change, but their collective reactions will determine the course of change in an organisation. The desire for individuals to take personal responsibility for their careers is apparent in the current working trends. Individuals advance their education when they get jobs for the sake of promotions. People now pay interest in the running of organisations they work for

Language Assessment for Korean High school students learning English Essay

Language Assessment for Korean High school students learning English - Essay Example Once the correct techniques and tools are adopted, the learning of English language, like any other language, becomes extremely easy and an effortless exercise. Not only learning a language but testing the skills acquired by learners, is also paramount in achieving the goal of teaching English to students from the non-speaking English background. It is seen that there has been a tendency among social class to attach social values and prejudices to different types of language use, depending on the circumstances they are exposed to. Language socialization is a newly emerging area of study that concerns the process in which a language learner, either a child or an adult, acquires the communicative competence of a target language, and function of the language in that process (Hymes, 1972). In the language socialization perspective, the relationship between the caregivers or teachers and children or students is critical, where the language is the key means of socialization. The major international routine of foreign language classrooms focuses on the initiation, response, and follow-up (IRF), where initiations turn could be a greeting, a question or a drill prompts; a response turn may elucidate an answer or response: and a follow-up turns an evaluation or comment. (Mehan, 1985; Ohata, 1994: van Lier, 1988).  As we have seen, th e need for the English language as the global language for any transaction is often emphasized and the proficiency in the English language communication is a must in the development of individuals, thereby of the global economy. According to Wentworth (1980), the socio-cultural meaning is constantly created and reformed through social interaction between the members and novices of society, and language plays a great role in this process.  

ETHICS SAFETY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ETHICS SAFETY AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT - Essay Example The powder is collected in a receiving vessel (hopper) from where it can be used in a further stage of the process. The receiving vessel is fitted with a filter to allow the air used in the pneumatic conveying process to be separated from the powder which collects in the receiving vessel. This pneumatic conveying system differs from a normal pneumatic conveying system in that the receiving vessel is placed above the blow tank system. A pipeline is used to transfer the pharmaceutical powder, Pharmex from the blow tank to receiver vessel to some distant area. A filter is used at the receiver tank and finally the powder settles down. The air compressor feeds the system with air under a desired pressure. In figure 1, the relief valves and the regulator valves are shown as PRF and NB respectively. Introduction Risk assessments are conducted in order to identify any fire & explosion hazards before the commencement of a process. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) (Health and Safety Executive, 2003) regulations is a useful tool for this work. It is imperative that employees be prevented from exposure to hazards. Implementation of COSHH regulations leads to: i. Higher productivity and efficiency by the use of more effective controls. ii. Improved employee morale. In this exercise, we will try to find out where there is enough powder present in this process for explosion to occur. Powder more than 80 gm/m3 is quite enough to have an explosion. The plant has powder transported from one area to another area by blowing it, which means the pipeline has the mixture of powder and air and thus possesses the potential of explosion. Explosive Atmospheres In pneumatic conveying system, workplace air and Pharmex can form the explosive atmospheres and this condition can be classified as hazardous area according to DSEAR (DSEAR 2002, SI 2002/2776). Therefore special precautions over ignition and fuel sources are required to prevent fire and explosions. Non hazardous ar ea outside the workplace needs risk assessment as well. Hazardous areas are further classified as Zones which are included in DSEAR. When we talk about dangerous substance and explosive atmosphere regulations then we look at Zone. Zones Pharmex and air form a mixture in the process. Pharmex is susceptible to explosion. The mix of air and Pharmex is present continuously in the pneumatic conveyer system. Therefore, the apparatus is considered as Zone 20, according to DSEAR. To start the process we have to put the powder into the plant, as the powder is not present continuously, hence the filling of powder is in Zone 21 according to DSEAR. The proposed equipment for zone 20 is category 1 equipment, following DSEAR regulations. Risk Assessment First, the hazards that have potential to cause harm are identified. Secondly, the risks present to people’s health are assessed. Regarding the conveying system shown in figure 1, the main hazards are fire and explosion. Fire & Explosion Fi gure.2 The above triangle illustrates that igniting and burning a fire or causing an explosion requires three elements mentioned at the edge of the triangle. 1) Ignition source: The ignition source can be directly associated to heat. 2) Fuel: Is necessary for the fire or explosion to burn. 3) Oxidiser: Substances also necessary for the reaction of fire or explosion. Oxygen is the most common oxidiser. The fuel (Pharmex) and oxidation (air) are present at most places in the

Tom Bradley Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tom Bradley - Research Paper Example At some point the family went on public assistance. His parents divorced and Tom’s mother was working hard to raise five children by herself. Bradley entered Polytechnic High School, because he was a very good athlete. This school was mostly white. However, he became the first black president of the Poly Boy’s League. He also became a record-breaking track team captain and a star in the quarter-mile and long jump. Winning the athletic championship gave Tom admission to UCLA. While there, he had many jobs, one of which was as a photographer for comedian Jimmy Durante. During his junior year in college, Bradley took an exam to join the Los Angeles Police Department. His grade was excellent and entered the department academy in 1940. He served as Police Officer in Los Angeles for 21 years. When he first started working in the police department, there were only 100 black people among 4,000 officers. Blacks could never work with a white officer. They could only serve a black community or work traffic downtown. By the time Bradley retired in 1961, he reached the rank of Lieutenant. That was the highest position black officer could achieve at that time. Because of the racism, Bradley could not advance in this carrier any more. So instead, he attended Southwestern Law School and became an attorney. He took interest in politics when he still was a police officer. In 1963, he got elected to the Los Angeles City Council. He became one of three African American men elected that year. That was the first time black people were in the City Council. On the council, he was closely overseeing the Police Department and working to overcome racial strives. In the mid 1950s - 1960s, there was a strong race discrimination. There were restaurants and shops that would not serve black people; they would be refused to enter hotels etc. In 1961, this conservatism led to the election of Sam Yorty as Mayor of Los Angeles. Then the society climate started to change. There was a wave of riots and large-scale unrests throughout the country. The nation needed a change. To mention some events of 1968: a number of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations increased; within months of each other Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the candidate for President Robert Kennedy were assassinated; over 20,000 students in five East LA schools walked out as a sign of protest against racial inequality. At this time Tom Bradley decided to run for mayoral elections. African Americans were a minority of the population, so for Bradley to win he would have to create a multi-racial coalition. There were many candidates for mayor position to start with; however, the final race entered only Bradley and Yorty. After long and less then honorable electoral campaign the voters elected Yorty for his next term. Bradley took his time to prepare for the next elections, four years later, which he won and became first African American mayor of Los Angeles. He made a history by that. It attracted n ational and international attention. His success came as a result of continuous building of his extraordinary trans-racial coalition, and proved that it is possible for black voters and white voters to unite. His election also set a stage to other similar campaigns nationwide. There are many changes Mayor Tom Bradley brought to the city. His first term started during an energy crisis. To help his city he came up with curtailment program, and it was so successful that it was implemented in

Analysis of We Googled You Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Analysis of We Googled You - Assignment Example In the current case, the company has a prospective employee who has been brought up in China and therefore is aware of the business environment in the country. The individual has been proposed by one of the company’s trusted managers who have the responsibility of bringing on board employees who are qualified for the specific kind of job. The manager, Fred, finds Mimi, a young lady who is a daughter to one of his long-time friends, who is qualified for the job. She has enough education for the responsibilities that he is expected to handle, good recommendations from her employers and at present, and she is enthusiastic about helping the company achieve its objectives. When; however, the human resource manager in the company performs a search of the individual on google, an incident reported eight years before is revealed. She was once a leader of the protest group that was strongly against World Trade. It is an incident that the company would rather not be associated with. The issue arises because a person of her qualifications and experience is not easy to find, yet the report of eight years ago may be following her and the company. It is for the company to make a decision on whether to hire Mimi with her slightly tainted past and a probably bright present and future, which the company can also benefit from or to let her go. Hiring her would mean that the company hopes that her past does not affect her functions and that she will deliver quality services. Letting her go will mean that the company does not care about their current needs and her qualifications but looks out to hire spotless individuals. There are various alternatives that the company can take. First, the company may decide to proceed with the hiring and assume that they know nothing of the incident on google.  Ã‚  

Read the requirement carefully Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Read the requirement carefully - Essay Example However, a true spirit of team work working and co-existing together with the sole objective of a common goal is quite rare. As explained by Wageman (1997, p.59) â€Å"It takes more work than just grouping people together and calling them a team.† Critical components of an effective team Successful and effective teamwork is founded on three basic components; complementary skills, common and compelling goals, and mutual responsibility and accountability. First, the complementary and technical skills of the work force within the team are attainable during the hiring and recruiting the staff (Ryan, 2012, p.267). Such complementary, technical, and professional skills must be matched with the job requirement. Besides, to increase their competence, more training is essential over time. Secondly, winning teams within an organization must have a common and clearly defined purpose to act as a guide for all the teammates to rally behind. The long chain goals are further broken down into specialized sub-goals for individuals with different technical and professional skills to undertake (Brainerd, 2006, p.56-9). Lastly, it is critical for an organization to foster the culture of responsiveness and accountability among the team members in a vertical format. To enhance responsibility and accountability, an organization rewards productivity and higher degree of accountability within the team staff. Coupled with collective responsibility, individual strugglers are supported by their colleagues in order to achieve together as a team. Team building process The process of building a successful teamwork takes place in four stages: formation, storming, norming, and performing (Belbin, 2010, p.70). Formation: This is the first step towards building a team. In this stage, individuals are busy trying to identify the most ideal position in the team. It is in this stage that initial offer on starting a team is made. Storming: This being the second stage in team building, it entai ls a number of challenges. Though people start to perceive each other as a team, conflict and confrontations are constantly observed, which further results into loss in performance. Norming: this is the stage where real team work commences. Members come together, develop common interests and goals, formulate policies and regulations, and perform job stratification. It is at this phase where some sense of â€Å"togetherness† is evidenced. Performing: It is the final phase in teamwork development which is characterized with increased team relationships, collective responsibility, and combined synergy. Group performance is very effective and delivering profitable outputs in the organization (Wageman, 1997, p.49-61). These four teamwork building phases can be represented graphically as below: Tuckman’s model Phase/output Performance Formation Norming Storming Period This model helps us in developing a deeper insight into the evolvement of teamwork. The major drawback of th is model is that identifies team building as being a linear and sequential process without recognizing loops in the team development stages. Common team challenges and how to overcome them All teams (including the most talented) in an organization faces a numbers of challenges. The major challenge facing teamwork performance is building the needed trust, a leading foundation for team performance in an organization. Higher

How did the womens rights movement of the 19th century emerge out of Essay - 1

How did the womens rights movement of the 19th century emerge out of abolition activism - Essay Example These included the rights to vote, the right to vie for different offices and the right to be treated equal with the men irrespective of their gender. This led to the development of the women’s right movement, a movement that changed the political alignment and environment in the United States. The development of the women’s right movement began immediately after the abolition of the slave trade and most of the founding members were active freedom fighters in the abolitionist movement. In this paper, the impacts of the abolitionist movement and the manner in which it shaped the formation of the women’s right movement will be determined. The pioneer leaders of the Women’s right movement who previously served in the abolitionist movement will be discussed to show the connection between the two movements and how one inspired the other. The abolitionist movement played an essential role in inspiring the development of the women’s right and women suffrage movement of the 19th century. Women’s right movement was based on the principles and experience of the founding mothers who had witnessed the efforts of the abolitionist freedom fighters in their effort to achieve social justice (Maternal association 54). The need to improve human condition and remove the element of slavery within the society of the United States oiled the abolitionist freedom movement and this motivated the formation of other groups that agitated for the attainment of equal social justice for all irrespective of the color and race. The history of feminism in the United States can be better understood by investigating the connection between the women suffrage movement and the abolitionist movement. During the active years of the abolitionist movement before the end of the civil war, many women leaders participated as facilitators and spies for the men who were active in the movement

Revenue and profit Essay Example for Free

Revenue and profit Essay Q1 – What is the difference between revenue and profit? A1 – Revenue is the total amount of money that a business takes in during a given period by selling goods and services. Profit is the amount of money a business earns above and beyond what it spends for salaries and other expenses, which is to use revenue to minus salaries and expenses. Q2 – What is the difference between standard of living and quality of life? A2 – The term of standard of living refers to the amount of goods and services people can buy with the money they have. Standard of living is the physical measurement of peoples living. Q3 – What is risk, and how is it related to profit? A3 – Risk is the chance an entrepreneur takes of losing time and money on a business that may not prove profitable. The more risk that business people take, the more profit that business people may have. Q4 – What do the terms stakeholders, outsourcing, and insourcing mean? A4 – Stakeholders refer to all the people who stand to gain or lose by the policies and activities of a business and whose concerns the business needs to address. Outsourcing means that contracting with other companies to do some or all of the function of a firm, like its production or accounting tasks. Insourcing means that the company internally do some or all of the functions of a firm, like its production or accounting tasks. Q5 – What are some of the advantages of working for others? A5 –Somebody else assumes the companys entrepreneurial risk and provides you with benefits., like paid vacation time and health insurance. The company you work for will provide the tools and technology to make your job more productive. Q6 – What benefits do you lose by being an entrepreneur, and what do you gain? A6 – As an entrepreneur, you do not receive any benefits such as paid vacation time, and you have to provide them to yourself. By being an entrepreneur, you will have freedom to make your own decisions, opportunity, and possible wealth. Q7 – What are the five factors of production? Which ones seem to be the most important for creating wealth? A7 – The five factors of production are land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship , and knowledge. The most important one is knowledge. Q8 – What are four ways the government can foster entrepreneurship? A8 – First, the government allow private ownership of businesses. Secondly, the government can further lessen the risks of entrepreneurship by passing laws that enable businesspeople to write enforceable contracts. Thirdly, the government can also establish a currency thats tradable in world markets. Finally, the government can help minimize corruption in business and in its own ranks. Q9 – Whats the difference between effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity? A9 – Effectiveness describes producing the desired result, and efficiency refers to produce goods and services using the least amount of resources. Productivity is the amount of output you generate given the amount of output. Q10 – What is empowerment? A10 – Empowerment defines that giving frontline workers the responsibility, authority, freedom, training, and equipment they need to respond quickly to customer requests. Q11 – What are some of the major issues affecting the economy today? A11 – First, the war and terrorism issue makes the government to spend more money on the military, and firms have to purchase more secure devices to ensure their customers security. Second, global changes create a need for continuous learning. Finally, the climate change of the world affects the way people use energy. People tend to save energy and to produce products that cause less harm to the environment. Q12 – What major factor caused people to move from farming to manufacturing and from manufacturing to the service sector? A12 – The using of technology and machines increases the productivity and eliminates many jobs in agricultural fields. Then, with the development of technology and machines, farms and industries need few and few farmers and workers. Therefore, more and more people tend to find jobs in service sectors. Q13 – What does the future look like for tomorrows college graduates? A13 – The service ear now seems to be coming to a close as a new era is beginning . We are in the midst of an information-based global revolution that will alter all sectors of the economy. Save your file as Chapter 1.doc and submit it through the appropriate Assignment Link in Blackboard.

Consumer Behaviour in Fashion Industry

Consumer Behaviour in Fashion Industry David Holloway had always been rather rebellious and he continued to be so during his time studying fashion. However, he produced annual collections which stunned his teachers with their inventiveness and attention to detail. During his time at college David developed his skill as a tailor, so in his leaving collection (2005), the output was not only inventive, it was also technically very well made. David was employed by a major fashion house and spent two years producing ground-breaking designs, elevating the house from the simply sophisticated to the cutting edge of fashion. David was in demand on the UK fashion scene. He was runner up in the Fashion Designer of the Year competition in 2007, having been the winner of Best New Fashion Designer of the Year in 2006, but as he was often said awards dont necessarily put money in the till. Freeway fashion ltd designed and manufactured David Holloways designs for sale at a range of specialist high and retail outlets and also created designs for more mid market outlets on a commission basis. The 2008/2009 revenue year had been difficult for freeway fashion ltd. No new ideas were seen in the offerings at the spring 2010 collection and sales were static. In spite of having scarce time, information, and resources, I have tried my best to fulfill all the requirements of the report and sought to apply my knowledge of Consumer behavior as a process. Jump to:   TASK 1 7 Introduction Fashion Consumer motivation Importance of fashion in peoples lives TASK 2 14 Role of celebrities in the adoption Stimuli TASK 3 19 Way to deal with changing profile customer Innovators of fashion design Reference group theory TASK 4 28 Research method for Freeway Fashion Ltd Sample frame Non- consumer research method TASK 5 39 Monitory system for Freeway fashion ltd Problem statement: Based on information it is possible to acquire, draw up a picture of fashion clothing market (both male and female) in a country of your choice. Some of the general areas you might consider include: What is fashion and how is it manifested in the clothing market? What are the consumer motivations for being and staying in fashion? Why is fashion important in peoples lives? Introduction: Fashion is always changed by social and cultural attitude, place, time etc. Fashion designers design fashion by considering customers needs, current situation and a wide range of colors, patterns, and styles.  [1]  Here is a complete picture of clothing market in Bangladesh. Fashion: Fashion a general term for a currently popular style or practice especially in clothing. Fashion clothes express a person who is he or she what he or she value. Fashion is always changing slightly elusive, extreme, and seductive. It has the power to change an image and create a social statement.  [2]  The fashion industry is the product of modern age. From the designers perspective the key was keeping in tune with all dynamic changes happening in the market and then translating those into required products when the customer acknowledge. Ancient Bengali fashion garments generally used unstitch although Bengali knew regarding sewing. Bangladeshi female wears traditional clothing such as sari. There are various styles of fashion clothing available in Bangladeshi market. The fashion market of Bangladesh is witnessing strong growth owing to a young population, an increase in disposable incomes, which is leading to increase in consumption and thus the rapid growth in organisation retail. Characteristics to manifest fashion in clothing market: Clothing is one of the codes for reading society. Selecting the right clothes is the first and foremost step in creating an overall style statement. The fashion magazines and the fashion shows are of great help determining what is chosen or not.  [3]   Fashion is manifested by constant change in form where the function remains constant. In clothing market, fashion is always change by consumers buying motivation factors and decision making process. In Bangladesh, the fashion clothing is manifested by the different ways of thinking, social groups, and motivation factors etc. the culture of fashion is inextricably linked to a place or social senses to a community and in clothing market. Fashion is concerned, time and space matter. The fashion market is apposite for exploring the problem posed by market behaviour as it relates to creativity. The fashion industry is manifested in several ways. The external sociological factors have influences on customer such as family, friends, neighbor, other informal and noncommercial sources, social class and cultural and subcultural memberships. Demographic characteristics will affect both the type of clothing that individuals will consume fashion:  [4]   Age: this remains one of the main determinants of peoples buying behaviour despite social changes which have taken place, such as the slump in teenage fashion. Gender: also an important factor affecting a persons choice of clothing, gender remains important since there are very few genuinely unisex fashion item even jeans are advertised as either feminine or masculine. Occupation: clothing can be chosen to reflect ones professional status and choice of buying. Economics circumstances Social class Consumer motivation: Consumer motivation is an internal state that derives person to choose and buy products or services which fulfill conscious and unconscious desire or needs. The fulfillment of those demands can then motivate them to make a repeat purchase or to find different goods and services to better fulfillment those desires.  [5]   In Bangladesh, the fashion clothing market depends on how necessary a purchase is to an individual his motivational levels may vary from low to high. Motivational factors include familiarity with purchase, status factors and overall expense and value. The hierarchy of needs of Maslow (1970) provides a framework within which to explore the role that fashion plays in driving and motivating. Maslows hierarchy of needs Physiological needs: Physiological needs are those required to sustain life. These is prompt the purchase of a winter coat in winter season by a person. This model may appear slightly out dated in todays fashion society continually consumers are finding it easier to satisfy this lower level need leading to greater emphasis being placed upon how they are viewed in fashion society. Safety needs: These relate to both physical and emotional safety, although this may in general be a minor issue for fashion marketers. Some purchases will involve a high level of safety consciousness, such as taking into account the flammability of children nightwear. Here consumers feels to purchase good clothes. Social groups: Consumer social needs includes love, affection, belonging and acceptance from: Groups Family Roles and status Social needs can exert a powerful influence on fashion purchase, as is exemplified by the complex issues involved in the teenage purchase of T-shirts.  [6]   Esteem needs: This implies the need for recognition from others. Prestige or the wish to enhance consumers reputation is a motivating force across the whole fashion spectrum, from street fashion to haute couture.  [7]   Need for self-actualisation: This is often interpreted as the expression of creativity or some type of spiritual fulfillment. The fashion consumers can be observed by this motivational force at work in both the creative dresser. Consumer maintains the high Image enhancement Social uniqueness Importance of fashion in peoples lives: Fashion seems to be ubiquities and a permanent dimension of human behaviour. Fashion is new delight for consumer. Fashion is something which is special we deal with everyday. Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand.  [8]   Express personality: Fashion is a way by which consumers can express their personality. So it is easier to judge and realize others personality by the help of fashion. Social uniqueness: people always seek to be unique. It is easier to express or act uniquely if one strongly maintain own fashion avoided criticism. Image enhancement: fashion is important because it allows consumers to project the image that they want others to see. Consumer can enhance their beauty by wearing fashion clothes. Spread culture: Fashion play an important part in our culture. In Bangladesh, women think of saris sari is not only worn in Bangladesh these days but others countries such as Mexico and African people love to wear saris to get the feel of Indian subcontinent culture. Increasing confident: Fashion is required to make the consumer feel the best. When somebody wears fashionable clothes that fit his or her properly and it can add a boost of confidence. Position in society: fashion is required to make position the consumer in his or her society. Fashion clothes increases the social status of a consumer who wears fashionable clothes. Fashion has become a part of our life. Nobody can remain untouched without fashion. People must have some idea and kind of fashion to show their existence in present society. It is very important at all the time and no one cant think or stay without fashion whoever is conscious. Task 2 Problem statement: What is the role of celebrity and peer pressure in the adoption of fashion clothing? What are the stimuli for purchase? What is the role played by the mass media? Adoption of fashion: fashion adoption is an important concept in the fashion industry. Fashion is defines as a style of clothes or behaviour in the latest style. Fashion adoption is not related to age, education or marital status, i.e. demographic variables, but is corrected with fashion purchasing, magazine, readership, and frequency of shopping for clothes. Role of celebrities in the adoption of fashion clothing: Celebrities have greatly influenced consumers in this decade. International stars like Medona, Beyonce and Sara Jessica Parker have become more influential role models for customers. Celebrities provide role models by which people can judge themselves and can be used as images to which they can aspire.  [9]   Brand awareness: celebrities create brand awareness among consumers and peoples life style. Fashion image: fashion image relates consumers perception about fashions favorable, unique, and strong related associated that fashion products might benefit from. Celebrities help consumers for enhancing their images. In fashion, consumers follow a certain norm in order to get the majority style of trends. Celebrities take place the eye of the world updating on what fashion they have adopted. New trend: latest fashion trends are always started on what fashion clothes are worn by the celebrities and models. Enhance uniqueness: celebrities always have their own identity in creating their own style of fashion. So consumers try to make self uniqueness learning the celebrities life. Role of peer pressure in the adoption of fashion clothing: Peer is generally acknowledger siblings or friend.  [10]  They are some people that an individual keep in mind when making a purchase. Peer groups are important because they inform and make individuals aware of specific products and brand for adopting fashion. Peer influence on the attitudes, thoughts, and actions of an individual. Peer influence on products purchase decision. Encouraging the person to change their attitude and help to get the new fashion. Peer pressure is probably the strongest influence on adolescent brand choices which is symbolic good for clothes and adoption fashion.  [11]   Stimuli Stimuli: Stimuli are events in environment that influence behaviour.  [12]  Consumer buying behaviour is influenced by numerous factors. Decision making questions such as what, why, how, where and when consumers buy are influenced by three major conditions. Stimuli for purchase are a mechanism to bring into entropy the four different images of self defined by Freud. Freuds theory of personality is based on the idea that much of consumer behaviour in fashion is determined by forces outside awareness. Personality stereotypes may change overtime.  [13]  There are three levels of awareness: conscious mind, preconscious mind, subconscious mind.  [14]   The id: The id is the Freudian structure of personality that consists of unconscious nature.  [15]  This id is conceptualized as a warehouse of primitive and impulsive drives. Here consumer has no real perception reality and seeks to satisfy his or her needs. The super ego: The super ego is conceptualized as the individuals internal expression of societys moral and ethical codes of conduct. In this stage the individuals satisfies needs in a socially acceptable fashion. The ego: The ego is a consumers conscious control. The ego is based on the reality principle.  [16]  The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind. Freuds personality theory of consumer personality believe that customer drives are largely unconscious and that consumers are primarily unaware of their true reasons for buying fashion products what they buy. The role of mass media: The mass media, including all types of TV channels, radio, paper, newspaper always play a vital role in our modern fashion life. They have changed our life very much. Mass media affects consumers fashion by showing celebrities fashion life, fashion shows etc Mass media have a great contribution to shape consumers ways of thinking. Mass media increases our awareness about fashion by when we watch on TV, radio. Task 3 Problem statement: Fashionable products often have difficulty remaining fashionable. This question addresses: How do fashion based companies deal with changing customer profiles for their products? Who are the innovators and early users of fashion products? Explain the role of COO (country of origin) effect in relation to fashion design and outsourced manufacturing? What influence does reference group theory have on the possession and brand fashion goods? Ways to deal with changing profile customer: Fashion based companies need to deal with their changing profile customer for their existing and new products. These companies should consider ways to grow the fashion market via existing and new products, in existing and new markets. Market penetration: (existing market and existing product) This strategy is seeking a larger market share in a market in which organisation has already offerings.  [17]   Attracting buyers of competing offerings(fashionable product) Stimulating fashion product trial among potential customers Product Existing new Fashion Market penetration Fashion Product development Fashion Market development Fashion Diversification Existing Market New Fig: 4Ps of marketing mix Product development: ( existing market ands and new product) Fashion companies create new offering for existing fashion markets. Product augmentation- enhances the value to customer of existing fashion clothes. Product line extension- broad the existing line of offering by adding different trend, sizes, forms, colors etc. Fashion market development : (new market, existing product) Fashion companies are introducing its existing offerings to customers than other those that the fashion company is currently serving. Carefully consider competitor strengths and weakness and competitor relation potential Modification of the basic offering Change in sales effort and advertising Diversification: (new market, new offering) Fashion companies can develop of offerings new and introduce those offerings to new customers not previously served by these organisations. Growing trend in recent years. Fashion companies also include following factors to deal with customers: Branding: Positioning is how a product appears in relation to other products in market.  [18]  Brand can be positioned against competitors brand. Observational research: It is a social research technique that involves the direct observation in natural setting. It is very flexible to researchers because they can change their approach whenever they want. Fashion based company can deal with this strategy by researching the actual wants and needs of customer.  [19]   CRM (Customer relationship management): CRM strategy helps the fashion based companies improve the profitability of their interaction with customers. To succeed with CRM companies need to match products and campaigns to prospects and customers life cycle. Fashion companies can gather customer data by CRM Market analysis: Fashion companies should analyse the market by following dimension: Market size Market growth rate Market profitability Distribution channel Trend Key factor success Decision: Fashion based company always need to deal with present customer and also they want to cope the new customer or competitor customer. to increase the customer growth rate, company should make perfect strategy for staying core customer and changing fashion image of organisation. Innovators of fashion products: Innovators are early users of fashion products. The adoption process begins with a tiny numbers of visionary, imaginative innovations. They are the first individual to adopt an innovation. Innovators are:  [20]   Willing to take risk Youngest in age Have the highest social status Have great financial lucidity Social Closest contact to scientific sources More cosmopolitan More self confident Better educated More active outside of their community, etc. Early users of fashion products: Early users are the second fastest category of individuals who adopt fashion products. Early users are: Younger in age Higher social class or status Well educated Socially forward than late adopters Reliant on group norms and values than innovators. More likely to be opinion leaders because of their close affiliation groups. Country of Origin: Country of origin is the country of manufacture, production or growth where products comes from.  [21]   Role of COO effect in fashion design: Differentiating products from the competitors  [22]   Impact on consumers quality perceptions of products: brand image, brand personality, brand associations, communication messages influence the perception of customers about the quality of a brand.  [23]   Preference for and willingness to buy products Effect of affinity and animosity toward the country of origin: country associations do lead to customer bias. Such bias is based on the image of the country in customers minds. Economy, technology, wealth index, regulatory mechanisms, government, business history of any country makes up the image of a country on the customers mind. Consumers product evaluations and choice: The very reason a company indulges in branding is to assist customers in making purchase decisions by providing cues on quality, credibility and value about a product. Effect of country-of-association Consumers state of familiarity about the product: As the COO information is available, consumers will view it as relevant information and deliberately use it in their evaluation of products. Whether fashion clothing is considered as luxury good to the consumers Exert its influence on product judgment.  [24]   Role of Country of Origin (COO) in outsourced manufacturing: Decrease in production costs  [25]   Flexibility Technological advantages Use of advanced skills Global competition Reference group theory: A reference group is group of people (or even one person) which provides a point of comparison or reference for the consumer in the formation of values and attitudes, which in turn affect buying behaviour.  [26]   Reference-group theory asserts that peoples self-evaluations are determined not only by their objective position but also by their standing relative to specific persons with whom they compare. Because an individuals self-evaluations can rise or fall depending on which group he looks to when making comparative judgments, specifying the conditions under which people select one or another comparative reference-group would appear to be vital to a more complete elaboration of reference-group theory.  [27]   Influences of reference group theory on the possession and brand of fashion goods: Reference group influence has been treated as a multinational construct based on the assumption that influence can occur for different motivational reasons. The two types of social influence systems are: Normative social influence: it is the desire to confirm to the expectations of another person or group.  [28]   Informational social influence: it is an influence to accept information obtained from another as evidence about reality.  [29]   Influences of reference group theory are: Influence on marketing studies Influence on the attitudes of those individuals who apply it as a reference point for evaluating their own fashion.  [30]   Influence on consumers evaluation, aspirations, or behavior  [31]   Influence on product selection, brand evaluation and choice, brand loyalty, and perceptions of product quality. Reference groups can be critical source of brand meaning. Consumers use reference group as a source of information for adopting fashion. Consumers may form self brand connections to the brands used by reference groups to which they belong. Consumer may avoid associations derived from groups to which reference groups do not belong. Task 4 Problem statement: Based on where Freeway Fashions are positioned in the market, what forms of market research would you recommend they use in order to stay up to date with cutting edge fashion trends? How you would derive your customer sample frame(s) and what might they be asked? How would you deal with trade and retail opinion? What forms of additional non customer research would you recommend to the company? Should Delphi method type research techniques be consider? Research method for freeway fashion Ltd: Freeway fashion ltd was born in September 2007.freeway fashion designed and manufactured David Holloways designs for sale at a range of specialist high and retail outlets and also created designs for mid market outlets on a commission basis. The economic regression began to affect the fashion industry and Davids second year was no lucrative as first years. The two reasons for declined the profit are people were more careful in their purchase and Davids design was attracting only a different types of people. From the above evaluation of positioned market of Freeway Fashion ltd, I have to recommend following research method for this fashion company to stay up to date with cutting edge fashion trends. Consumer researchers today use two different types of research methodology: Quantitative research: It is descriptive in nature and is used to by researchers to understand the effects of various promotional inputs on the consumer, thus enabling researchers to predict the consumer behaviour.  [32]  Freeway fashion ltd enable to predict the consumer demand by using quantitative research method. This method consists of: experiments, survey techniques, and observation Qualitative method: Qualitative research method includes depth interview, focus group, metaphor analysis, collage research and projective techniques. Freeway fashion ltd administer this techniques by highly trained interviewer. This method helps to find out new ideas, develop promotional strategy.  [34]   The major steps in the consumer market research include  [35]   Define the objectives of research: it is first and difficult step for Freeway Fashion ltd to carefully design the objective. Objectives help to define the type and level of information needed.  [36]   To segment the market for Freeway Fashion ltd offerings To assess consumers attitude towards this organisation services and quality Collecting secondary data: secondary data includes both external and internal data. It can be obtained cheaply. Freeway fashion ltd should collect the data from buyer and also from external fashion consumer market. The sources of secondary data: Internal sources Governmental sources Periodicals, magazines, books Commercial data Designing primary research: if Freeway fashion ltd needs descriptive information then it undertakes quantitative method. If this organisation needs new ideas such as positioning or repositioning of fashion clothing then it undertakes qualitative research.  [

An Introduction to the CYC Knowledge Base Essay -- CYC Project Technol

An Introduction to the CYC Knowledge Base I. Abstract This paper is intended to be an introductory tutorial on the Very Large Knowledge Base (VLKB) called CYC. Described herein is the reasoning for the origination of the CYC project, the intended usefulness of the project (application areas), how CYC is being constructed, and a brief introduction to the supporting tools that have been developed to interact with the CYC knowledge base. II. Introduction Many Knowledge Bases (KB) have been developed to help people solve problems in very specific applications. These are relatively simple to build since the knowledge required by the specific system needs to be only those facts required to solve the problem in that particular application. An example of this type of KB would be one that contains only the information needed to diagnose particular fungal and bacterial infections. The KB would need to know about the different attributes of the microscopic organisms and their affects on the host but would not need to know that the grass is green or that the earth revolves around the sun. The CYC common sense Knowledge Base takes the opposite approach. CYC is being created to hold information that most people would consider to be common sense knowledge. The idea is to create a KB that would supply the basic knowledge needed to be applicable to many different applications. By building a KB with this general knowledge, it is hoped that the KB will be able to learn (create new inferences) by itself and be able to tell when it does not have enough information in a particular domain to resolve a problem. The CYC project was started by Doug Lenat at MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, now Cycorp, Inc.) in Aust... ...nology", Cycorp, Inc, http://www.cyc.com Ginsberg, Matthew L., Essentials of Artificial Intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann, 1993. ISBN 1-55860-221-6 Lenat, D.B., Guha, R.V., "Ideas for Applying CYC", Cycorp, Inc, http://www.cyc.com/tech-reports/act-cyc-407-91/act-cyc-407-91.html Mayfield, James; Finin, Tim; Narayanaswamy, Rajkumar; Shah, Chetan; MacCartney, William; Goolsbey, Keith, "The Cycic Friends Network: getting Cyc agents to reason together", University Of Maryland - Baltimore County, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~cikm/iia/submitted/viewing/mayfield Pratt, Vaughan, "CYC Report", Stanford University, April 16, 1994, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~narayan/proj/cyc-critic.html Rajkumar & Shah, "A Study to assess the usefulness of CYC in a mediated architecture", University Of Maryland - Baltimore County, CYC KQML Project, http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~narayan/proj/doc.html

Teaching Literature Essays -- Literature Education Educating Essays

Teaching Literature My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we *can* suppose. - J.B.S. Haldane, "On Being the Right Size" in the book _Possible Worlds_ (courtesy of The Quotations Page) The inclusion of gay and lesbian authors in high school and college curricula can only help to expose students to things which they will more than likely face in their adult lives. The traditional readings should be read in conjunction with gay and lesbian authors in many schools’ English curricula, simply because most modern students cannot relate to the speech or themes of the traditionally taught works by usually straight British and American writers or by authors who were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT), but their sexual orientation was never mentioned. These students come from varied backgrounds, and thusly should be exposed to works to which they can more appropriately relate. Exploration into the GLBT literature canon brings us to the argument that many GLBT theorists are bringing to that table: â€Å"Should writing be marketed as gay because the author is, or does it have to deal with gay-related themes?† as presented in the article â€Å"Of Genders and Genres.† by Avril McDonald. She poses a good question, one that many high school and college administrators should ask instead of simply ignoring the entire genre of literature. Some authors, such as Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson, are usually taught without any mention of their sexual orientation, while others, such as Audre Lorde and Alice Walker, who were openly lesbian, have been wholly excluded from the high school curricula and are barely read in many college settings either. Before one can suggest an alternat... ...2004): 151-. Project Muse. Westfield State College, MA. 19 April 2005. Martinez-Aleman, Ana M. â€Å"Multiculturalism and the Mission of Liberal Education.† The Journal of General Education 50.2 (2001): 102-. Project Muse. Westfield State College, MA. 19 April 2005. McDonald, Avril. â€Å"Of Genders and Genres.† Publishers Weekly 241.26 (1994): 25-. Expanded Academic ASAP. Westfield State College, MA. 27 April 2005. Powell, Timothy B. â€Å"All Colors Flow into Rainbows and Nooses: The Struggle to Define Academic Multiculturalism.† Cultural Critique 55 (2003): 152-. Project Muse. Westfield State College, MA. 27 April 2005. Rankin, Susan R. â€Å"Differing Perceptions: How Students of Color and White Students Perceive Campus Climate for Underrepresented Groups.† Journal of College Student Development 46.1 (2005): 43-. Project Muse. Westfield State College, MA. 19 April 2005.

Odysseus Cannot Return Home in Homers Odyssey Essay -- Odyssey essays

Odysseus Cannot Return Home in Homer's Odyssey   Ã‚  Ã‚   Webster's College Dictionary defines home as: An environment offering security and happiness" and "a valued place regarded as refuge or place of origin." Anyone can build a house but the emotional security a home provides is created by the people who live there. In Homer's Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus leaves his home in Ithica to fight in the Trojan war. The Odyssey tells the story of his treacherous journey back to Ithica, and the turmoil he experiences. Due to his strong desire to return to the place he remembered as home, Odysseus endurs the hardships of his journey. He hopes his homecoming will return him to the same home, and same life he built twenty years ago. Odysseus will never truly return home because he is not the same king, husband, or man he once was; He is not capable of recreating the home he once had. Ulysses' quote," I am part of all that I have met," is the epitome of why Odysseus can never again truly return home. Throughout his journeys he has experienced multiple life changing events. As the quotation states, he has become a part of everything he has experienced. Victimized by kleos, arrogance, and emotional weakness, Odysseus is forever changed from the Trojan war, and his journey home. Fighting on the battle grounds of the Trojan war, left Odysseus narcissistic, and controlled by his desire for kleos. Odysseus desire for recognition is demonstrated often before he reaches Ithica. It eventually leads to the death of all of his men. An earlier example is the manner in which he dealt with the Cyclops. When Odysseys and his men were sailing back to sea, after escaping the beast, he called out to the already furious Cyclops,... ...the suitors and the women who were in some way connected to them. Odysseus will never be the same husband, because he broke the trust between himself and Penelope, and the security of marriage. Emotionally damaged and belligerent, Odysseus is not the same man and will never be able to play the role of the person he was. The home he once had, the security, attachment, and people that are associated with it, will all be effected by him. The home Odysseus, the all mighty Trojan hero once built, will never again be more than a memory. Works Consulted: Bloom, Harold.   Homer's Odyssey: Edited and with an Introduction, NY, Chelsea House 1988 Crane, Gregory.   Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey,   Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988 Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: 1996 Tracy, Stephen V. The Story of the Odyssey Princeton UP 1990

Sports Event in School

Sport events in our school Sports are very important in everyone’s life as they give pleasure, health, discipline, happiness, self-control and sporting spirit. Sports can learn students’ physical co-ordination and social lessons about winning and losing. There is a well-known proverb â€Å"All works and no play make Jack a dull boy†. It is full of wisdom. After the day’s work in class, students need some healthy recreation to refresh their minds. Education without sports is really incomplete. So, sports are important in every school for clever and healthy students.They are several kinds of sports some are outdoor and some are indoor. In our school, the schoolboys play football, volleyball, basketball, table -tennis, chess, and so on. The school playground is no less important than the school lessons. It is on the playground that we learn to face defeat with a smiling face. So, the school playground helps the students to fight the battle of life like brave soldiers and heroes. Our school has two playgrounds to play football and two for playing basketball. There will be tournaments to play football in every Grade from Grade-4 to Grade-11.There is an each team in every section and so if there are six sections in Grade-9, there will be six teams and a tournament is held until there are two teams to pay the final match. All schoolboys look active and alert with their team track-suit. There are also tournaments to play each sport. Teachers in charge will take care of their pupils in playground during tournament. They give them fresh limes and purified drinking water. The red-cross schoolboys and teachers are ready to help the injured players. The Headmaster will give the prize to the winners and the champion team who gets the first prize will take a group photograph.In January, there are interschool sports competitions that include track and field sports such as running, jumping and throwing events. The running events are sprints, middle d istance races, long distance races, hurdle and relay races. The jumping events are high jump and pole vault. The throwing events are short put, discus and javelin. Team sports can be played by two teams. A team has been organized with some players. They must have team-spirit and they fight the rival team collectively. Thus team sports make one less selfish. They know the value of team work and playing together makes them friendlier.A player must have stamina and be patient. He must not easily down-hearted. If the players of one team become excited, they may lose their chance. The carelessness of one may make the team defeated. So, players are inspired team-spirit by playing team sports. A true sportsman never thinks of winning the sports by hook or by crook. He never wins victory by foul play and we know that â€Å"Honesty is the best policy†. So team sports are essential to health, happiness, progress and unity. We gain a lot of benefits from playing sport events and student s should take part in these sport events.

How Andrew Jackson was portrayed Essay

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. A rough-hewn military hero, he was regarded by many as the spokesman of the common man. He entered the White House in 1829 after winning the second of two vigorously fought election campaigns. Through his forceful personality, he restructured the office of the president and helped shape the democratic party. Less educated and less schooled in government than many of his political opponents, Jackson had leaped to national fame in the War of 1812 as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and had captured the dedicated loyalty of a vast segment of the American population. He was widely acclaimed as the symbol of what the new American thought himself to be a self-made man endowed with virtue and strength. The results of the election of 1824 proved that Jackson was indeed the champion of a popular majority. Jackson’s administrations were highlighted by the frustration of sectional attempts to weaken the central governmen t by state nullification of federal law, and by his confrontation with the Bank of the U.S. Jackson also positively affected the development of the U.S. presidency. He concentrated power in the office through wide use of the veto and through his insistence that the chief executive alone represented the will of the whole nation. He committed the presidential powers to the protection of the people. Throughout his presidency, Jackson was portrayed as both a states’ rightist and as a nationalist. As a states’ rightist, he proteced the states rights so that the federal government would not fund individual states’ rights and favor them over other states. He was a strong believer in the political ideas of the Jeffersonians. Another example of Jackson being a states’ rightist includes the Maysville Road veto. Jackson had pledged to reduce the national debt and was opposed to the rising number of bills before Congress that proposed to finance internal improvements with public money. The Maysville Road Bill gave authorized the use of federal funds to construct a road between the towns of Maysville and Lexington, both in Kentucky. Jackson vetoed the bill, calling it unconstitutional because it concerned only the state of Kentucky. As a nationalist, Jackson believed in a strong central government in order to unify the nation. He also believed in a democracy for the entire nation. Jackson also supported the Spoils System, which rewarded his political supporters with public offices and allowed common people to take office.

Great by Choice Essay

Many times entrepreneurs ask themselves, â€Å"Why my competitors are able to succeed and go through catastrophe after catastrophe yet my business is crashing? What makes that person better than me? Am I, not the chosen one? † Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen answer these common questions and many more in their educating novel entitled, Great by Choice. One of the main characteristic of a great leader is being prepared for every trail and tribulation that may come while running a business. It is a true fact that every business go through some type of chaos whether it’s enormous or petite; therefore, business owners must be ready to handle chaos in order to maintain the business. It is a common saying that states, â€Å"It is easy to start a relationship, yet, it is hard to maintain it. † Although this statement relate to relationships, it also relates to owning a business. â€Å"It is easy to start a business, yet it is difficult to maintain a business. † Jim Collins identifies three core behaviors in his novel that enabled companies to become truly great over an extended period of time which will be discussed later in the paper. At the beginning of the novel, Collins asked his self, â€Å"Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty and chaos and others do not? † After interviewing successful business owners and studying ancient history of successful leaders, Collins was able to answer that question and his answer was,† It’s not that they thrive on chaos, but they can thrive in chaos and uncertainty. † He created this illustration through a true story about two leaders name Amundsen and Scott: In October 1911, exactly 100 years ago, these two teams of explorers left the coast of Antarctica to try to be the first people in history to reach the South Pole. The Norwegian team, [led by] Amundsen, got to the South Pole first. [British naval officer Robert Falcon] Scott and the British team reached the pole second, 34 days later. Amundsen and his team made it back to their base at Polheim on the exact date that Amundsen had put in his planning journals when he was making his plans in Norway. Meanwhile, Scott and every member of his team died on the way back, about 10 or 11 miles from a supply depot. (Collins and Hansen, 2011) A great philosopher once stated, â€Å"In order to understand your future, you must first understand your past. History repeats itself. The tools that successful leaders used during ancient periods are the same tools that current leaders may retain. Therefore, it is vital for business owners to study and educate themselves on effective leaders in the past, so they may duplicate some of their leadership styles and be successful in the future. Amundsen and Scott story is the evidence of Collins answer at the beginning of the novel, Collins states: â€Å"It turns out that the way that Amundsen led his team maps very directly to the way our leaders led their companies. This is especially true in how he was different in his behaviors from the way Scott led his team, which is more like our comparison leaders. It was an almost perfect metaphoric mapping. † Hansen further emphasized, â€Å"When we looked at Amundsen, the fascinating part is that he had, literally, a 15-mile march target. He was going to go 15 miles every day toward the South Pole†¦ .He built a system around that. On the good days, he held back; he didn’t go the distance he could have gone. He just stopped in the early afternoon and rested. On the very difficult days, he made maybe five, six, seven miles, but nevertheless, he traveled on those days where Scott and the other team would sit in their tents. Both of them had a very interesting approach. Underlying that is what can only be described as fanatic discipline. Amundsen was extraordinary in his discipline, preparing his whole life for this particular moment. † After reviewing these two leaders style of leadership, in result, they basically â€Å"reap what they sowed†. Amundsen created a plan that not only met his goal but helped him survive while meeting his goal. Whereas Scott only did enough to get by and at the end he and his team died. Companies that have phenomenal leaders, usually plan carefully, every â€Å"I† is dotted and every â€Å"t† is crossed, therefore, they can take any hit and still be successful. Scott could not do that because he rush on the planning stage of his journey and ironically he rushed his time on earth. On the other hand Amundsen demonstrated the â€Å"three distinctive behaviors† that Collins and Scott discussed in their novel: productive paranoia, empirical creativity and fanatic discipline. Like Amundsen, Bill Gate is a good example of productive paranoia. Bill Gates sat down and thought of all the things that could possibly go wrong with his company and then he prepared for those obstacles ahead of time. Gates allowed his fear to drive him to productivity. Many leaders get comfortable in their success and fail to realize that thousands of businesses are created every day, therefore, leaders should always be informed about the companies that surrounding them because if they become too comfortable then other developing companies can take their clients or buy out their business. Running a business is like a running competition. Some runners know that they are good at running and they feel like no one else could catch up or out run them. Yet they lose because they get so comfortable at the speed that they were running and their competitors eventually catch up. Winning does not matter if you are good at the beginning yet lose at the end. A leader does not only succeed through fear but they also create a plan that is unique and creative to survive through the impossible. A successful leader is a risk taker and a risk taker display empirical creativity. During Amundsen planning he stated, â€Å"I am not going to bet our expedition and bet our life on an unproven technology, so I’m not going with motor sledges. I am going with skis and dogs and sleds because we know they work. † Technology is very popular and the average person would have chosen the motor sledges because many people believe that technology is reliable and convenient. Yet, Amundsen did not want to go the easy route out he wanted to stick with the fundamentals of traveling on snow and his plan worked. Why? Because he thought outside the box and he took a risk. In addition Amundsen, put his base on Bay of Whales, which was known as a dangerous area. However, Amundsen decided not to listen to everybody and do his own research on Bay of Whales. In result, Bay of Whales was not as dangerous as others believed, therefore he choose that area to house his self and his team. Good leaders believe none of what they hear and half of what they see. After fear comes creativity and after creativity comes consists. Every great leader own the character trait of fanatic discipline which is the essential consists of action. Hansen better explained fanatic discipline, he states, Number one, you set a progress standard for yourself. Secondly, you have a lower boundary, what you must hit, and an absolute commitment to hitting it in bad times and good times. Then there is an upper boundary, and you have the discipline to hold back and not just maximize growth because you can, because that is going to expose you to possible storms coming your way down the road. Then the fourth characteristic is that you must hit it. It’s not about good intentions: They don’t really count here. It is about hitting it. † Hansen calls this theory the principles of a 20-mile march. In the novel, Hansen and Collins used John Brown, who was the CEO of Stryker as a good example. When Brown became the CEO of Stryker he set a goal for the company net income to grow 20% every year. As the market fluctuated, Brown still focused on his target goal and him and the company managed to survive through the industry downturn. When you look at Bill Gates, Amundsen and John Brown, you are looking at the epitome of dynamic  leaders. All three leaders were visionaries and they all worked hard towards a goal regardless of their surroundings. They were discipline. Jim Collins once stated, â€Å"A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness. † While other companies were crashing, they were progressing and sticking to their plan of action. The purpose of the novel â€Å"Great by Choice† is to educate leaders on how to set a strong solid foundation that can survive during the storms. Every human being in this world is given choices, however it is up to an individual to choose to be great or choose to be a failure. At the end of the day, a person will always be remembered by the choices that they make in life, therefore my choice is to be great!