Should Marijuana Be Legal Every State - 1894 Words

â€Å"Should Marijuana Be Legal in Every State?† Marijuana is also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, and a lot of other terms in today’s world. It is a greenish- grey mixture of the dried shredded leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa, which is the hemp plant. Some users smoke marijuana in hand- rolled cigarettes called joints, many use pipes, bongs, or marijuana cigars called blunts. (H. (2016, August). What is marijuana? Retrieved November 07, 2016). Marijuana is not only used for personal use but is sold legally and is consumed for medical purposes by people who have permission to do so. Marijuana is a controversial topic in today’s world because to legalize it in every state has brought up issues. Some states have done so and some still have yet to. Marijuana has been seen more as a recreational drug and not a hard-core drug which is why most people do not see it as a high- risk drug or to have longing effects on a person or the body itself. Since the 20th century, marijuana has been prescribed by doctors for use to deal with glaucoma and cancer. Being that it is legal for medical use but illegal to use on a federal government level will and has always set off two different sides of legalizing or not legalizing marijuana. Marijuana cannot and should not be in categories with drugs that can kill because there are no studies of marijuana killing a person. In addition to, some people think that because it is legal in some states then it is safe. TheShow MoreRelatedWhy Marijuana Should Be Legalized1014 Words   |  5 Pagesreason that marijuana should be legal is that there is no good reason for it not to be legal. Some people ask why should marijuana be legalized? but we should ask Why should marijuana be illegal? From a philosop hical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individuals actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana, since the individual who chooses to use marijuana does so accordingRead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?972 Words   |  4 PagesMarijuana Legalization For thousands of years, marijuana has been used for a myriad of purposes ranging from medical use to recreational use. Although small steps are being for marijuana legalization across the country, there is still a long way to go. Some folks argue that marijuana is a gateway drug and impairs judgement, causing people to act recklessly. However, extensive studies have been conducted on the effects, risks, and benefits of marijuana, and have proven marijuana to be safer thanRead MoreLegalizing Marijuana1592 Words   |  7 PagesIn any civilized society, it is every citizen s responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen s responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr. Many people ask â€Å"why should marijuana be legalized†? when the real question that we should be asking is â€Å"why shouldn’t marijuana be legalized†?. Marijuana also known as hemp is a naturally grown plant that has been around for decades dating ba ck to around 2697 B.C., when the Egyptians would use it to cure manyRead MoreOpposing The Legalization of Marijuana Essay733 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"If marijuana was legal, back-yard marijuana gardens would be in every neighborhood, thus kids would be able to get it as easy as taking fruit off a neighbor’s tree† (Johnathan Greens). According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 62.2 percent of the 14.2 billion people who used marijuana for the first time in one day were under the age of 18 years back in 2003. This increases by nearly 1.3 percent every year. This has become a problem due to Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) being the activeRead MoreMarijuana: Good or Bad?1032 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Marijuana: Good or Bad? There has been a major debate on if marijuana should be made legal. Statistics show that about 443, 000 people die every year due to a tobacco related illness and there has been no evidence to support that there have been fatalities that are marijuana related. Tobacco is harmful to the lungs and can cause lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema. Jacques and van Luling (2013) explained that in 2010, 38, 329 people died from drug overdoses. Sixty percent of those wereRead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?1322 Words   |  6 PagesMarijuana is most often see as a detrimental drug, but to a great deal of people it helps cure diseases and/or relieve the pain from them. It helps relieve stress and anxiety to people who often have anxiety attacks or problems being in a social environment. Making marijuana legal could also help our overall economy if regulated. Most people think smoking cannabis is bad for your health when that is not entirely the case. Any type of smoking is bad fo r your lungs, but conveniently marijuana comeRead MoreThe Legalization Of Marijuan A Positive And Negative Effects On American Society849 Words   |  4 PagesThe legalization of marijuana can have many positive and negative effects on American society. State budgets are constantly looking for new avenues of revenue and ways to create new industry. The legal system in place is exhausted and unable to sustain the current rate of incarceration and enforcement. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded and law enforcement budgets are challenged every year trying to keep up with the enforcement of marijuana use, smuggling and production in addition to its otherRead MoreIt Is Time to Legalize Marijana1700 Words   |  7 Pagesis marijuana, and surprisingly it is all around us. Marijuana is even referred to in today’s media Mainstream media sources that people enjoy, like music, movies, and TV shows, do not even bother to leave the drug out of their system. Now being a young adult and having my own personal experience with the drug and knowing its effects on others, I wonder why it’s not legal. Why is it that this drug has become illegal all over the world? The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States of AmericaRead MoreEssay on The Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana1006 Words   |  5 PagesThe Topic of Legalizing Marijuana has been a very conversational argumentative issue in the American society; moreover in the American politics today. There are many good arguments on why Marijuana should be Legalize and my argument is based on facts and supporting details to prove why Marijuana should be legalize. The Legalization of Marijuana would be profitable to our government and economy, according to Evan Wood who is the founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy; The URead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?985 Words   |  4 PagesLegalize Marijuana Despite what people believe about marijuana, it hasn’t once proved to be the cause of any real issue. It makes you wonder what the reason as to why there is a war on drugs. Why is marijuana the main concern? Since the time that alcohol and tobacco became legal, people wonder why marijuana isn’t legal yet. The fact that marijuana is illegal is mainly caused by the amount of money, jobs, and pride invested in the drug war. Once the government starts anything, they stick to it. At

Does Religion Cause Wars Free Essays

There is a conventional belief among many individuals that religion is the main cause of the present and past wars inflicting torment within the world. However, many humans fail to see past that belief; they are unable to understand that religion is just a small factor amongst the many contributing to the cause of wars. In fact, religion is merely a tool and an excuse used to hide the need for power and sins of the human nature. We will write a custom essay sample on Does Religion Cause Wars? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Among these factors, it may be the misinterpretation of religious teachings and the differing ideals of many individuals. Unfortunately, these factors are often overlooked as most people view this issue with a simplistic mindset. The idea of religion is often able to bring peace and harmony within the world. In saying this though, religion may be twisted and exploited by individuals for either economic or political reasons, mostly with the blind ambition for power and control. Such people have used religion as a tool and an excuse in order to achieve their own personal desires. This is apparent with the previous Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi president had aimed to persuade the Jihadists to start a holy war against the United States and British forces, who were seeking to dismiss him for his position. Saddam Hussein had publicly voiced his call toward the Jihadists in an Iraqi state television, where he encouraged them through his statement, â€Å"jihad is a duty in confronting them†¦ Those who are martyred will be rewarded in heaven. Seize the opportunity, my brothers† (Saddam Hussein). It is evident; however, that Saddam Hussein did not really view the war he intended to begin as a religious war. Instead he planned to use religion as an excuse for his own political gains, which was to maintain his position as president of Iraq. In conclusion, religion is not the sole reason of the previous and present wars within the world, it is also the people themselves who exploit and twist religion itself. Many individuals often find it difficult to give religion a precise definition. It is within their ability to understand the concept of religion yet are unable to provide an accurate definition of the word. Therefore, many may have their own interpretations of what religion truly is. This notion is similar to how individuals may have varying views in regards to the religious teachings of their religion. Sadly, in some cases, people may actually misinterpret the teachings of their religion, which can often lead to disastrous outcomes. Such consequences are evident with the infamous belief of ‘Jihad’. The concept of Jihad means â€Å"holy war† or â€Å"the holy struggle†. It also teaches that there shall be no use of violence â€Å"except in the case of defensive wars, wars which are waged to punish a tyrant, or those which are meant to uphold freedom† (Concept of Jihad, pg 2). Unfortunately, there are others who misunderstand the concept of Jihad and instead believe it to be complete submission to Allah, which further means they are â€Å"prepared to die (martyrdom) in the course of this submission†. Such cases usually result in terrorism and suicide bombings, where individuals believe that by forcing others into their religion, by death, will please Allah. The most known example of these occurrences is the September 11 suicide bombings where approximately two planes crashed into the twin towers in New York, USA. This event was not necessarily a war but was instead an attack part of the already ongoing war between the United States and the Islamic, terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. From this event it is evident that the members of Al-Qaeda had misinterpreted the concept of Jihad and instead violated the religion by using violence for unnecessary reasons. It can be concluded that even though religion may play a role in the cause of wars, it is not necessarily the only factor to blame but also the misinterpretation of the religious teachings of religions. It is not solely religion itself that spur the gruesome wars that have occurred throughout history, but also the varying ideals of the religious worshipers. Unfortunately, in some cases there is a chance that the ideals of certain individuals may have a larger influence on them than their own religious beliefs. Such terms are often confused with each other; however, there is a prominent difference between the two. Beliefs are set in stone already, statements or truths that humans have decided to place their confidence in. On the other hand, ideals are personal concepts of perfection; they have no boundaries unlike beliefs. When the ideals of humans have a larger power over them, the results often have a high chance of becoming cataclysmic. Such results are evident within Nazi Germany during the Second World War, after the 1930s. Germany had been under the dictatorship of a tyrant known as Adolf Hitler. Hitler was infamously known for his cruelty and mass murder towards the Jews in Germany at that time. His reason for his actions was that by protecting himself against the Jews, he was â€Å"defending the handiwork of God† (Mein Kampf, pg 60). Despite his religious reason, he had a deeper hatred towards the Jews and desired an ideal world, where there was only a majority of pure descendants of the â€Å"Aryan† race. The Aryan race involved humans with certain features such as blonde hair and blue eyes. Hitler believed that the Jews were contaminating his ideal race as they offered the â€Å"most striking contrast to the Aryan† (Mein Kampf, pg 259), thus leading to his revulsion towards the Jews. It is unmistakable that the beliefs of Hitler were not the only cause of his actions but also his extreme ideals, which had lead to the carnage he had incited. Therefore, it is not only religion itself that cause wars but also the differing ideals of humans. Religion is often unfairly blamed as the direct cause of wars throughout the world. It is often used as a scapegoat as many people cannot look past that simplistic view. Many individuals have never considered the possibilities of other factors contributing to such wars. A few of these factors are the exploitation of religion for the personal gains of individuals, the misinterpretation of religious teachings and the differing ideals of many humans. From these factors, it is evident that it is not just religion itself that causes the wars, but the people themselves also who actually wage these atrocities. Adolf Hitler (1998). Mein Kampf. United States: Houghton Mifflin Company PDF file viewed at – http://www. greatwar. nl/books/meinkampf/meinkampf. pdf Last accessed 26/2/12 A. Ezzati. 1986). The Concept Of Martyrdom In Islam . Available: http://www. al-islam. org/al-serat/concept-ezzati. htm. Last accessed 26/2/12. Coel Hellier. (2011). Nazi racial ideology was religious, creationist and opposed to Darwinism. Available: http://coelsblog. wordpress. com/2011/11/08/nazi-racial-ideology-was-religious-creationist-and-opposed-to-darwinism/#sec5. Last accessed 26/2/12. Dr. John Kelsay. (1999). THE RETURN OF THE RELIGIOUS WAR . Available: http://rinr. fsu. edu/fallwinter99/features/religiouswar. tml. Last accessed 26/2/12. Hadrat Mirza Gulam Ahmad. (1995). Jihad. The true Islamic concept. Available: http://www. alislam. org/library/articles/Jihad-Brochure. pdf. Last accessed 26/2/12 Jim Lehrer. (2003). Saddam Hussein Calls for Jihad. Available: http://www. pbs. org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june03/saddam_4-1. html. Last accessed 26/2/12 M. Amir Ali. (Unknown). Islam, Jihad, and Terrorism. Available: http://www. aboutjihad. com/terrorism/islam_jihad_terrorism. php. Last accessed 26/2/12. How to cite Does Religion Cause Wars?, Essay examples

Burkini Ban in France for Current Cultural Research- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theBurkini Ban in France for Current Cultural Research. Answer: The article, The French ban on burkinis at some public beaches" shows that as the popularity of burkini swimwear started spreading and became popular among the Muslim population in France, as it became a basis for the harsh controversy which started coming up. The use of burkinis had previously been eliminated and restricted as the French argued the burkini violated the countrys secular dress code and weakened the French customs and culture against being radicalized (Abdelaal, 2016). Furthermore, as the ban took effect by the intervention of the police and financial sanctions, the controversial issue had spread throughout the world as various world leaders elicited criticism towards the law enacted. Furthermore, many perceive that the restriction bears a negative impact on France, and any other country that adopts the ban, as it segregates the Muslim community from the daily activities of the society that could result to its members being radicalized and increased involvement in radical events and groups like Al-Qaida. Other states persons submit their proposals to have religion isolated entirely from the citizen's social life and restricting the use of burkinis is an excellent way to counter the regressive activities. The heat from limiting burkini use has escalated hate and attention toward Muslim people, especially the women. The article, The French ban on burkinis at some public beaches" by the Editorial Board from USA Today, speaks about a situation towards Muslim women wearing burkinis on the beach in France and the plan to ban them. The burkini is a swimsuit that covers up their legs, arms, and hair. It helps them enjoy swimming by enabling the women to cover up and show modesty. The French police are patrolling the beaches and telling the women to do away with their burkinis, and if they dont, they are asked to leave. These were banned in fifteen towns in France, including Nice and Cannes. One of the top French courts recently overturned on prohibiting the burkinis. Besides, it is not the first time that France has tried to ban any Islamic attire. They have also forbidden headscarves from public schools. Ever since Muslim immigrants have arrived in France, they have a negative attitude towards them. France believes that religion should be separated from the national identity altogether. No court shou ld be this cruel towards one and their faith or what morals they have. One of the assumptions from the article is that here in America we make use of the First Amendment to as a basis for actions against religion. It guarantees freedom about religion and prevents the government from curtailing the rights of one speaking openly. Even if it prevents it from intervening from peoples religion choice, it can still come back to be conflicting. The Supreme Court in America is not fighting to have burkinis, hijabs, or burkas to be banned from here. In addition, just as the article mentioned that America does emphasize the need for the people who believe in various faiths to pretend to conform to rules they are not able to and still be observant while being respectful to other religions. Nevertheless, that is not happening towards the Muslim community. Even if it may have many contradictions, the United States way versus the Frenchs way of forcing secularism is apparently much more suitable. Individuals have the right to practice what he or she believes in their own homes and any religious organization. Every day you hear something on the news about Islamophobia or something related to that. It is becoming more violent here in the U.S., for example, this week a Muslim woman was burned to death in New York City because she was wearing a burka, which is a veil that covers everything including the face. There have also been incidents where people are fighting the women and trying to remove their masks so their face can be shown. Apparently, our country has seen and gone through terrorist attacks, but you dont see our government trying to ban Muslims or Islamic faith like the French. Ever since their attacks, thats one of the biggest and main reasons why they are trying to go forward with these bans. Being a Christian with the Catholic faith, the clothing issue appears concerning the clothing that Nuns wear. Its the same thing as they show what they believe in and still showing modesty because of their faith. It is always covering their hair, arms, and legs. The only difference is that they are not hiding their face. I hardly ever hear of nuns being discriminated or disrespected because of how they dress. The same thing goes for the surfer suits and scuba diver suits. These are almost identical to the burkini, and they dont get a word said to them about it. If thats the situation, then we should ban all of the clothing that is similar to Muslim wear. It is questionable as to when America started telling people what to wear or what to believe in concerning religion. The citizens have the right to choose what we want to wear. If the United States started finding women and telling them to take off their swimsuits, that would be contradicting and them abusing the First Amendment and not only being prejudice towards the Muslim women. The French should be happy and okay that there are people showing modesty by covering up and not showing too much out in public since they care so much about how revealing it can be. If France doesnt accept people showing modesty and covering up, then they should get rid of their nude beaches because they are hypocritical. A Muslim should be able to wear what they want as well as a Christian or Catholic have the same right to wear what they desire. Justice needs to be made from the French court, and hopefully, this never happens in America (Berg Lundahl, 2017). The article makes one read about the various perspectives in the world concerning the ban imposed on the use of burkins. The section has the ability to change an individuals focus on the issue entirely once they learn how the punitive restrictions by the state can shift and alter the societal equilibrium. Template for Drawing Conclusions: I Read/I Think/Therefore I Read I Think The article, The French ban on burkinis at some public beaches" by the Editorial Board from USA Today, speaks about a situation towards Muslim women wearing burkinis on the beach in France and the plan to ban them. The burkini is a swimsuit that covers up their legs, arms, and hair. It helps them enjoy swimming by enabling the women to cover up and show modesty The French police are patrolling the beaches and telling the women to do away with their burkinis, and if they dont, they are asked to leave. The burkinis were banned in fifteen towns in France, including Nice and Cannes. One of the top French courts recently overturned on prohibiting the burkinis. Besides, it is not the first time that France has tried to ban any Islamic attire. They have also forbidden headscarves from public schools. Ever since Muslim immigrants have arrived in France, they have a negative attitude towards them. France believes that religion should be separated from the national identity altogether. (vox.com) No court should be this cruel towards one and their faith or what morals they have. One of the assumptions from the article is that here in America we make use of the First Amendment to as a basis for actions against religion. It guarantees freedom about religion and prevents the government from curtailing the rights of one speaking openly. Even if it prevents it from intervening from peoples religion choice, it can still come back to be conflicting. The Supreme Court in America is not fighting to have burkinis, hijabs, or burkas to be banned from here. In addition, just as the article mentioned that America does emphasize the need for the people who believe in various faiths to pretend to conform to rules they are not able to and still be observant while being respectful to other religions. Nevertheless, that is not happening towards the Muslim community. Even if it may have many contradictions, the United States way versus the Frenchs way of forcing secularism is apparently much more suitable. Individuals have the right to practice what he or she believes in thei r own homes and any religious organization. Therefore The article makes one read about the various perspectives in the world concerning the ban imposed on the use of burkins. The section has the ability to change an individuals focus on the issue entirely once they learn how the punitive restrictions by the state can shift and alter the societal equilibrium. Reference Abdelaal, M. (2016). Extreme Secularism vs. Religious Radicalism: The Case of the French Burkini. ILSA J. Int'l Comp. L., 23, 443. Berg, L., Lundahl, M. (2017). (Un-) veiling the west: Burkini-gate, Princess Hijab and dressing as struggle for postsecular integration. Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 8(3), 263-283.

Short Case Handles and Hinges Ltd Essay Example

Short Case: Handles and Hinges Ltd Essay CHAPTER 17 Quality planning and control Short case: Handles and Hinges Ltd HH was established in Birmingham, England, by two young entrepreneurs, Dave Philips and Chris Agnew, both experienced in the hardware trade. The business specialized in the ‘designer’ market for polished metal (brass or stainless steel) door handles, cupboard knobs, furniture fittings (mostly used in shop/office furniture) and hinges. Their company was successful, was based on HH’s reputation for high-quality, unique designs of both traditional and modern products, many of which were selected and specified by architects for large and prestigious projects such as new office developments in London’s Docklands. Dave, the Chief Executive Officer, with responsibility for sales, believed that most orders from construction companies were placed with HH because they assumed they had no other choice once the HH products had been specified. Larger companies would sometimes suggest to the architect that similar products were available at less than half the price. This advice was invariably ignored as the architect would be attracted by HH’s designs and quality, and would be reluctant to risk ‘spoiling’ multi-million pound projects for the sake of saving a few thousand pounds. Dave outlines the characteristics of the changing marketplace: ‘During a recession in the construction industry, particularly in office building, we expanded our direct sales to large UK hardware retail companies, which now account for about 40 per cent of our sales value, but only about 15 per cent of our gross profit. This segment is much more price-sensitive, so we must be able to manufacture good-quality, simple, standard products at low costs comparable to those of our competitors. Some of the reduced costs have been achieved by using thinner and cheaper materials similar to those used in our competitors’ products. We have just received our first consignment of brass sheet from Poland with a saving of over 10 per cent in this case. We also had to reorganize to reduce our processing costs. We will write a custom essay sample on Short Case: Handles and Hinges Ltd specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Short Case: Handles and Hinges Ltd specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Short Case: Handles and Hinges Ltd specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Chris has done a great job of changing all production to modern batch methods. However, I am concerned that we are often late delivering to our UK retail customers, and this makes it difficult to keep good relationships and to get repeat orders. Fast delivery of relatively small quantities is required in the â€Å"retail segment†, whereas the construction/contractors market allows very long production lead times. Dependable delivery is crucial to avoid completion delays, for which we have been held financially accountable on some occasions! When customers complain about delivery or about faulty products, we try to compensate them in some way to keep their business – for example, by credit notes or discounts on the next order. Our representatives each spend about one day a week dealing with the consequences of late deliveries, but on the positive side, a meeting with a client is an opportunity to get the next order. The hardware retail companies often require very quick delivery, which is often only achieved by switching production to the item which is required first. Really, I am more concerned about reports of quality problems; an increasing number of construction companies have complained to us about dented or scratched handles, but our production department assures us that they left the factory in good condition and must have been damaged on site; which is to be expected on a large construction site. The Quality Control Manager says, however, he cannot give an absolute guarantee that they Chapter 17: Short case study 1 Copyright  © 2006 Pearson Education Limited Slack: Operations Management, 5th edition ere all OK, because we only do sampling of final production; if more than a few in a sample are found at final inspection to be sub-standard, the whole batch is rejected, reinspected, sorted and reworked. Using express courier transport and overtime in the factory, rework can usually be done in about a week, but invariably the contractors comp lain to the architect, perhaps because they dislike being told who to buy from. This can lead to lots of correspondence and meetings between HH, the contractor and the architect, when we could be doing other things. This problem seems to have got worse in the last two years; often it’s also difficult to agree if the product is sub-standard. It is frequently just a question of how shiny (or matt) the polish and lacquer finish is; at other times there are scratches in areas that really can’t been seen in use. Often the customers are too fussy, anyway. ’ Chris (the Manufacturing Director) put a different perspective on the problem. ‘The sales catalogue shows pictures of our products prepared for photography; special effects are used to give a bright polished finish but we actually use a matt finish. The samples used by Sales are specially made by experienced craftsmen to eliminate any scratching or minor faults; of course, we cannot always repeat that standard with the modern batch production methods. We were aware that the reorganization of production methods could lead to quality problems, so I introduced statistical control, a subject I studied extensively in a quantitative methods course at the local college. Our inspectors now take random samples of batches of components and measure important dimensions such as the diameter or length of brass handles, the thickness of the incoming materials, etc. Batches which fail are either rejected or reworked, and all material where we have identified any fault at all is returned to the supplier, and our buyers routinely threaten to place orders elsewhere. I instructed the supervisors to inspect press tooling just before the start of each production batch to ensure that there are no surface faults, so I think it is unlikely that the dents and blemishes are caused in production. I must make a point of checking that this is happening. Anyway, our final inspection sampling has been changed to give an acceptable quality level (AQL) of 2 per cent whereas until recently it was only 5 per cent. We have had to increase the number of final inspectors by four at a cost of ? 15 000 each per annum, but all the management team agrees that with quality products we must be confident of the final quality before packing. We trained some of our best assemblers in SPC and made them full-time inspectors; the combination of their technical and statistical skills ensures that we have the right people for this job. We could not rely on our operators to do any dimensional checks; hardly any of them know how to measure using a metric rule, let alone a micrometer or gauge. It is best to keep them concentrating on achieving correct output targets. I believe that most quality problems here must be caused by occasional operator carelessness. ‘The batch method of production has given us much more control over operations. No longer do we have to rely on hard-to-recruit craftsmen who did everything slowly and unpredictably. Now we make the most of economic batches at each stage, benefiting from the economies of scale of longer runs and cheaper unskilled labour. With incentive bonuses based on effective performance against agreed standard times, all our people are working faster to achieve the company’s goal of higher productivity. There is no doubt that our operations are now more productive than they’ve ever been. With high quality and low costs, we are now set for a major assault on the competition. We expect our profits to rise dramatically from the currently inadequate 1 per cent return on sales. ’ Chapter 17: Short case study 2 Copyright  © 2006 Pearson Education Limited Slack: Operations Management, 5th edition Questions 1. How does the company compete in its market place, and what is the role of ‘quality’ in its competitive strategy? 2. Do you think that the company’s use of statistical quality control is sensible? 3. Apply the gap model of quality diagnostics to the company. Chapter 17: Short case study 3 Copyright  © 2006 Pearson Education Limited

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Essays

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Essays The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Paper The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Paper Essay Topic: Literature Things Fall apart The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats describes a world about to reach yet another transition in its history, one much worse than the prior. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo views the scenario presented in Yeats poem as his reality. The first four lines of The Second Coming which Achebe decided to preface his book with can be seen as a topical representation of Okonkwos experiences in the novel. Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer is how Yeats starts his poem, and consequently it is how Achebe begins Things Fall Apart. For both the poem and the story, this line prepares the reader for what is to follow. The turning in the widening gyre suggests a continual cycle where things are becoming worse and worse. For Okonkwo, this is how the novel plays out for him. Things Fall Apart is very episodic, that is to say that what happened in a prior event has absolutely no consequence on the next one. This structure allows us to see the individual and isolated hardships which Okonkwo suffered through. Were first shown that because of his strong work ethic that one year he decided to plant his yams early, but because of terrible conditions his harvest failed completely. Those who had not started early had a plentiful harvest however. This small trial was easily overcome, and then the next one appears. He is caught beating his wife during the Week of Peace, and is forced to sacrifice that which the priest tells him. Similarly, a minor road bump in the road of life and is easily overcome by giving up a few material possessions. Okonkwos first real trial appears when Obierika informs him that Ikemefuna will be killed. Unfortunately for Okonkwo, the best case scenario is still a horrible one; his beloved adopted son will be killed. Obierika actually advises Okonkwo to remain in the village and not participate in killing. Okonkwo goes anyway, and strikes down Ikemefuna to avoid being seen as weak. This action has numerous consequences for the main character. First of all, he destroys the relationship with Nwoye which he finally began to build. Secondly, he has done the unspeakable; he murdered one of his own kinsmen (Ikemefuna can be considered as kin because he ended up calling Okonkwo father). This was all done in the name of what he viewed as masculinity. Ironically, no one else thought it would be considered weak to stay behind, that is indeed what he was told to do by the oracle! Ikemefuna was an example of how one could be masculine and gentle at the same time; Okonkwos murder of his son can be seen as him also killing the idea that masculinity isnt the opposite of feminism and weakness. Okonkwo murdered more than just his son; he murdered his only possible way of overcoming his major flaw. Just as the first line of Yeats poem suggest, things will get worse before they truly fall apart. And they do, Okonkwos later exile is an example of that. Things fall apart; the center cannot hold/ Mere anarchy is loosed up on the world continues the poem. Once again, it is important to realize that this statement holds true for Okonkwo only, as Things Fall Apart is his story, not Achebes story of an entire culture. The things which Okonkwo hold most dear and important to his life all begin to fall apart: his family, especially his son Nwoye, his religion, and his overall way of life. When still exiled at the village, we receive word of Nwoyes conversion to Christianity. This is an interesting point in the story, because unlike many novels the reader is not sure with whom to side. Okonkwo is the main character whom weve been following and more likely than not we tend to sympathize with him. Nwoye, however, seems to find a lot of answers hes looking for in the initial description of Christianity by the missionaries. For Okonkwo, this has many consequences. First of all, as much as he may dislike it, Nwoye is how his legacy will live on. Secondly, Nwoyes willingness to accept the new religion is actually caused in most part by how he was raised. He was always looking for answers to questions about various incidences which happened in his life such as the death of his older brother Ikemefuna. Another component which illustrates things beginning to fall apart is the aspect of religion in Okonkwos life. As demonstrated by his actions, he very much respects his religion. But even this sacred seemingly untouchable aspect of his life becomes tainted by the white man, another aspect of his essence being ripped away. This is shown when the missionaries are offered a piece of land by the elders in the Evil Forest to build a church. They built their church without any problems, negating the power that religion said the Evil Forest should have possessed. In turn this not only shattered Okonkwos own confidence of his religion, it won over even more converts. This action then not only affected Okonkwos intrapersonal side, but affected his interpersonal relationships as well. Lifelong friends began to convert, and while the reader may not see the huge issue, Okonkwo felt as if they had betrayed him and could therefore no longer associate himself with them. How are we supposed to view the white mans affect on Umofia? Clearly things are changing, is this change for the better or worse? In Okonkwos view any change is bad change. For many of the villagers, however, this change has brought them peace as well as a much greater financial success. But since this is Okonkwos story, we can view the progression of this novel as anarchy being loosed upon the world. Achebe did not haphazardly use Yeats poem The Second Coming in his novel Things Fall Apart. The poem sets the mood from the beginning for the main character Okonkwo, and provides a parallel storyboard to what is occurring in his life as well.

About Norman Foster and Britains Modern Architecture

About Norman Foster and Britains Modern Architecture Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster (born June 1, 1935 in Manchester, England) is famous for futuristic designs - like Apple Headquarters in Cupertino, California - that explore technological shapes and social ideas. His big tent civic center constructed with the modern plastic ETFE even made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the worlds tallest tensile structure, yet it was built for the comfort and enjoyment of the Kazakhstan public. In addition to winning the most prestigious award for architecture, the Pritzker Prize, Foster has been knighted and granted the rank of baron by Queen Elizabeth II. For all of his celebrity, however, Foster came from humble beginnings. Born in a working class family, Norman Foster did not seem likely to become a famous architect. Although he was a good student in high school and showed an early interest in architecture, he did not enroll in college until he was 21 years old.   By the time he had decided to become an architect, Foster had been a radar technician in the Royal Air Forces and worked in the treasury department of Manchester Town Hall. In college he studied bookkeeping and commercial law, so he was prepared to handle the business aspects of an architectural firm when the time came. Foster won numerous scholarships during his years at Manchester University, including one to attend Yale University in the United States. He graduated from Manchester University School of Architecture in 1961 and went on to earn a Masters Degree at Yale on a Henry Fellowship. Returning to his native United Kingdom, Foster co-founded the successful Team 4 architectural firm in 1963. His partners were his wife, Wendy Foster, and the husband and wife team of Richard Rogers and Sue Rogers. His own firm, Foster Associates (Foster Partners), was founded in London in 1967. Foster Associates became known for high tech design that explored technological shapes and ideas. In his work, Foster often uses off-site manufactured parts and the repetition of modular elements. The firm frequently designs special components for other high-tech modernist buildings. He is a designer of parts that he elegantly assembles. Selected Early Projects After establishing his own architectural firm in 1967, the affable architect did not take long to be noticed with a portfolio of well-received projects. One of his first successes was the Willis Faber and Dumas Building built between 1971 and 1975 in Ipswich, England. No ordinary office building, the Willis Building is an asymmetrical, three-story blob of a structure, with a roof of grass to be enjoyed as a park space by the office workers. In 1975 Fosters design was a very early example of architecture that could be both energy efficient and socially responsible, to be used as a template for what is possible in an urban environment. The office building was quickly followed by the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a gallery and educational facility built between 1974 and 1978 at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In this building we begin to see the Foster enthusiasm for observable metal triangles and walls of glass. Internationally, attention was paid to Fosters high-tech skyscraper for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) in Hong Kong, built between 1979 and 1986, and then the Century Tower built between 1987 and 1991 in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Asian successes were followed by the 53-story tallest building in Europe, the ecology-minded Commerzbank Tower, built from 1991 to 1997 in Frankfurt, Germany. The high profile Bilbao Metro in 1995 was part of the urban revitalization that swept the city of Bilbao, Spain. Back in the United Kingdom, Foster and Partners completed the Cranfield University Library in Bedfordshire (1992), the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge (1995), the American Air Museum at Duxford airfield in Cambridge (1997), and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow (1997). In 1999 Norman Foster received architectures most prestigious award, the Pritzker Architecture Prize, and also  was honored by Queen Elizabeth II naming him Lord Foster of Thames Bank.The Pritzker jury cited his steadfast devotion to the principles of architecture as an art form, for his contributions in defining an architecture with high technological standards, and for his appreciation of the human values involved in producing consistently well-designed projects as their reasons for his becoming a Pritzker Laureate. Post-Pritzker Work Norman Foster never rested upon his laurels after winning the Pritzker Prize. He finished the Reichstag Dome for the new German Parliament in 1999, which remains one of Berlins most popular tourist attractions. The 2004 Millau Viaduct, a  cable-stayed bridge in Southern France, is one of the bridges youll want to cross at least once in your life. With this structure, the architects of the firm claim to be expressing a fascination with the relationship between function, technology and aesthetics in a graceful structural form. Throughout the years, Foster and Partners has continued to create office towers that explore the environmentally sensitive, uplifting workplace begun by Commerzbank in Germany and  the Willis Building in Britain. Additional office towers include the Torre Bankia (Torres Repsol), Cuatro Torres Business Area in Madrid, Spain (2009), the Hearst Tower in New York City (2006),   the Swiss Re in London (2004), and The Bow in Calgary, Canada (2013). Other interests of the Foster group have been the transportation sector  - including the 2008 Terminal T3 in Beijing, China and Spaceport America in New Mexico, the U.S. in 2014 - and building with Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, creating plastic buildings like the 2010 Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center in Astana, Kazakhstan and the 2013 SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Lord Norman Foster in London One need only visit London to receive a lesson in Norman Foster architecture. The most recognizable Foster design is the 2004 office tower for Swiss Re at 30 St Mary Axe in London. Locally called The Gherkin, the missile-shaped building is a case study for computer-aided design and energy and environmental design. Within site of the gherkin is the most-used Foster tourist attraction, the Millennium Bridge over the Thames River. Built in 2000, the pedestrian bridge also has a nickname  -    it became known as the Wobbly Bridge when 100,000 people rhythmically crossed during the opening week, which created an unnerving sway. The Foster firm has called it greater than expected lateral movement created by synchronised pedestrian footfall. Engineers installed dampers under the deck, and the bridge has been good-to-go ever since. Also in 2000, Foster and Partners put a cover over the Great Court at the British Museum, which has become another tourist destination. Throughout his career, Norman Foster has chosen projects to be used by different population groups - the residential housing project Albion Riverside in 2003; the futuristic modified sphere of London City Hall, a public building in 2002; and the 2015 rail station enclosure called Crossrail Place Roof Garden at Canary Wharf, which incorporates a rooftop park beneath ETFE plastic cushions. Whatever project completed for whatever user community, the designs of Norman Foster will always be first class. In Fosters Own Words I think one of the many themes in my work is the benefits of triangulation that can make structures rigid with less material. - 2008 Buckminster Fuller was the kind of green guru...He was a design scientist, if you like, a poet, but he foresaw all the things that are happening now....You can go back to his writings: its quite extraordinary. It was at that time, with an awareness fired by Buckys prophecies, his concerns as a citizen, as a kind of citizen of the planet, that influenced my thinking and what we were doing at that time. - 2006 SUMMARY: Triangulation in Norman Foster Buildings The Bow, 2013, Calgary, CanadaGeorge Rose/Getty ImagesThe people of Calgary call this building not only the most beautiful in Calgary and the best skyscraper in Canada, but it is also the tallest building outside of Toronto, at least for now. The crescent-shaped design of The Bow makes this Alberta skyscraper 30 percent lighter than most modern buildings its size. Named after the River Bow, Norman Fosters building was built between 2005 and 2013 as a mixed-use structure anchored by the headquarters of Cenovus Energy, Inc. Its curved design faces south  - gathering valuable heat and natural daylight  - with a convex facade toward the prevailing wind. Designed as a diagrid, six stories for each triangulated section, most offices of the 58 story skyscraper (775 feet; 239 meters) have a window view because of the curved design. Constructed of trussed-tubes, steel-framed with a glass curtain wall, The Bow has three interior sky gardens - on levels 24, 42 and 54.30 St Mary Axe, 2004 , London, EnglandDavid Crespo/Getty ImagesThe visual geometry of what locals call The Gherkin changes as point of view changes - seen from above, the patterns create a kaleidoscope. Hearst Tower, 2006, New York CityhAndrew C Mace/Getty ImagesThe modern 42-story tower completed in 2006 on top of the 1928 Hearst building is both award-winning and controversial. Norman Foster built the high-tech tower atop the six-story Hearst International Magazine Building designed by Joseph Urban and George P. Post. Foster claims that his design preserved the faà §ade of the existing structure and establishes a creative dialogue between the old and new. Some have said, A dialog? Oh, really? To the unsuspecting, the Hearst Corporation global headquarters is a shocking site as one crosses 57th Street at 8th Avenue in New York City. Like The Bow, the Hearst Tower is a diagrid, using 20% less steel than similar structures. True to Foster architecture, the Tower is constructed of 85% recycled steel and   high performance low emission glass with integrated roller blinds. Harvested roof water is recycled throughout the building, including to the Atriums three-story waterfall wall ca lled Icefall. The building received a LEED Platinum; certification. Sources Foster Partners, Projects, https://www.fosterandpartners.comJury Citation, The Hyatt Foundation, https://www.pritzkerprize.com/1999/juryLord Norman Foster. Interview by Vladimir Belogolovskiy, archi.ru, June 30, 2008, https://archi.ru/en/6679/lord-norman-foster-fosterpartners-intervyu-i-tekst-vladimira-belogolovskogo [accessed May 28, 2015]My green agenda for architecture, December 2006, TED Talk at the 2007 DLD (Digital-Life-Design) Conference, Munich, Germany,  https://www.ted.com/talks/norman_foster_s_green_agenda [accessed May 28, 2015]Project Description, foster partners, fosterandpartners.com/projects/the-bow/The Bow, Emporis, https://www.emporis.com/buildings/282150/the-bow-calgary-canada [accessed July 26, 2013]Specifications, The Bow Building, www.the-bow.com/specifications/ [accessed August 14, 2016]Project Description, foster partners, fosterandpartners.com/projects/hearst-tower/ [accessed July 30, 2013]Hearst Tower, hearst.com/real-estate/hearst-tower [accessed July 30, 2013]

State-Federal Controversies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

State-Federal Controversies - Essay Example The American people do not want to be governed by a single authority just like the past Britain rule. To be regulated at the state level is appropriate. In a federalist set-up, the local governments are given more autonomy. Autonomy is very important to them especially in implementing their own rules. Being autonomous means that the local governments (which refer to the different states in America) do not depend on the national government in terms of budget. The states could implement their own taxing laws as a source of their budget and they could use their income without asking permission from the national government. Nevertheless, despite this freedom, the local governments are obliged to observe the American constitution. This means that they are free to make their own policies as long as it is in conformity with the letter and spirit of the constitution. The issue is important to consider since it talks about the type of government in America. It can enlighten the readers of the rationale behind the adoption of such governmental structure. I am grateful to the founders of the U.S. constitution for adopting federalism. Work Cited Bodenhamer, David. Federalism Checks the Power of the Central Government. America.gov Archive, 2 Jan. 2007. Web. 4 Apr. 2011. .

Does globalisation explain the crisis in European Welfare states Essay

Does globalisation explain the crisis in European Welfare states - Essay Example There is nothing much in common between the welfare regimes of major nations in the Western Europe as they function under varieties of capitalism. Of course, globalisation has certain effects on the welfare states in Europe, especially Britain and France. The increasingly intense economic competition from the new economic giants such as India and China has undermined the capabilities of the European states in retaining their economically less viable welfare measures. However, the extent of spending cuts and reduction in welfare provisions in the United Kingdom and France shows that it is the erosion of political consensus than economic necessities driving the current ‘rolling back of the welfare state’. The paper intends to argue that although globalisation has catalysed the process of shrinking of welfare state, it is not an adequate explanation for the grand scale reduction in spending on social security. For the purpose, it would examine the major turning points in th e history welfare state in Europe such as the oil crisis, the abandoning of gold standard, erosion of post war consensus on welfare and so on. Spending Cuts Going Ideological Globalisation is not simply about economic changes. The very beginning of globalisation was marked by the collapse of Soviet Union and the consequent rise of neoliberal orthodoxy and market fundamentalism. More than the economic crisis, it is the collapse of an ideologically coherent leftist politics that helps the neoliberal governments to go on with their anti-people politics of cuts. It is especially true in the case of Britain and France as the economic polices of these countries increasingly subsidise the super rich at the expense of ordinary tax payers. One could bear in mind that how eagerly the government in Britain bailed out big banks at the time of recession. It is ironical the same governments do not find funds for conserving vital community services such as schools and hospitals. In France and Brit ain, it is not difficult to see that economic polices are predominantly favouring the finance capital and speculators. The increasing homogenisation of political parties in terms of economic polices too is a reason for the rolling back of welfare regimes. For instance, in Britain, both the Labour party and the Conservative party prefer the same course correction measure to ‘recover’ the economy. Needless to say, such economic policies are derived from neoliberalism and Washington Consensus which ideologically opposes any kind of subsides to the poor and the weaker sections of the society. Globalisation has helped the transnational consolidation of elites who want to divert the economic resources for the welfare of the rich. Once could call it socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. This consolidation is especially facilitated by the rise of far right groups in the United States, Britain and France. The Floating Currencies The invention of floating currencies was the beginning of the making economic globalisation. On August 15, 1971, the United States withdraw from the Bretton Woods system and it marked the end of Gold Exchange Standard. Here, the US dollar achieved the status of the exchange standard and became a floating currency. Britain also had to switch to floating system. Then, most of the countries of the West had followed the same. The difference is that in the new system each currency has to constantly fix

To live a purposeful life, you need a clear VISION Essay Example for Free

To live a purposeful life, you need a clear VISION Essay If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll certainly be right†¦ (Steve Jobs) †¢If today was my last day in my life, would I do what I am about to do today? †¢If the answer is â€Å"NO† for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. †¢All external expectation, fear, pride, embarrassment and almost everything falls away in the face of the ending of a life, leaving what is truly important †¢No one wants to die,†¦but even if I lived, I live as if this life is a gift lent to me, which I shall someday exchange for another purer life †¢Do not shrink your inner voice at the altar of others’ noise and false reports†¦somewhere in your heart, God has placed a treasure which only you can dig out and benefit from. †¢To dig this treasure will take you a while. You will have to plan to know exactly what it is, and exactly where it is. You’ll have to have the right crew by your side. †¢This treasure, planning, journey and digging is what I am calling VISION†¦ Vision is not only the power to see, but also of foresight and imagination. Even the visually impaired have this power†¦the ability to see and comprehend beyond what their brains could interpret as optical data. Human beings have the ability to translate words and instructions imaginatively. We are able to draw mental pictures more clearly than we can even draw on paper or explain verbally. The greatest gift is not the ability to see, but this ability of vision. God put dreams where we cannot miss them. Because of vision, I am the best raw material to myself. A vision is a supernatural appearance, which only a supernatural ability can make comprehendible and tangible. †¢Where there is no vision, people perish†¦Prov 29:18 †¢My people perish because of lack of knowledge†¦Hosea 4:6 †¢Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us†¦Ephesians 3:20 †¢Prov 1:7 and 9:10†¦The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge/ wisdom. †¢Habakkuk 2:2†¦write the vision down†¦though it tarry’s, it shall come to pass †¢Do not despise the days of your humble beginnings†¦Job 8:7 VISION PART II By Dominic Khaemba From: The Ageless Note-book Teach me oh Lord to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom and lead a fulfilling life to you, myself, family and friends†¦Psalms 90:12 This section will make a stronger connection if you read it as a follow-up to part I. You can never remember what you never knew, and you can never apply what you cannot remember. As the world changes and perfects the struggles and the suffering that we face; as the world changes and justifies the insignificance of individual strength by being too complicated and fast; many people find themselves feeling impatient, hopeless and unworthy: When this happens, you need a reminder that you are still on a journey, and that your best days are ahead. But you cannot tell if you’re your best days are ahead if you have nothing to look forward to. This is where a vision for your life comes in as the ability to anticipate future events, touch them and believe in them as if they were real. Also, you will need a reminder of what your future plans are†¦but since you cannot remember what you never knew, you therefore come back to Knowledge as; a clear awareness and information gained through devoted study and Experience. This knowledge is what you shall apply in preparing for your future and this preparedness is what keeps us from despairing too quickly when overwhelmed by circumstances around us. Our creative imagination also plays a big part in determining how far God chooses to bless us. If we do not use this faculty to envision better lives for ourselves in the future, we limit God in terms of how much He also decides to bestow on us. Eph 3:20. Knowledge does two important things. It distinguishes us from fools and it is a sure preservative of our lives. But the knowledge acquired in the boundaries of God’s instruction is the one that is able to do this. Otherwise, this knowledge is useless†¦and can quickly turn our hearts into pride. Pride goes before a fall. From the verses above, without knowledge and vision, we perish. Without creative imagination, we receive little from God. It is only in the fear of the Lord that our knowledge can begin to yield better lives for us and the people around us. Living as you move towards your dreams is a life full of joy and peace in dimensions and depths one can never experience otherwise. With a sense of calling, †¢MY VISION IS ENLARGED THROUGH IMAGINATION and this way, †¢I won’t MIND THE SMALL SACRIFICES that I have to make as part of the journey. Personal inventory A personal inventory is a way to store up our vision. Habakkuk 2:2 says write the vision down. Though it tarry’s, it shall surely come to pass. Write it so that whoever reads it may run with it/ facilitate your attaining of that vision. Keep a personal inventory in a journal. This is among the questions you may ask yourself as you do so. 1.What is my calling? †¢The thing is to find ideas which allow me to power all my experiences, gifts and talents, all my wisdom and knowledge A calling is a duty to which one attaches special importance and devotes special care. It must be strong enough to allow me to combine a)Talent harnessed by discipline b)Passion paired with hard work c)Love united with commitment d)Consistency which wipes away complacency If you are leaving your calling, you exude an enjoyment and connection to the gifts that transcends the recognition, fame and fortune you may receive for expressing those talents. †¢If you find the thing which you can do for free, simply for the fulfillment of doing it, you have found your calling.

Isocrates The Educated Man versus Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

The Greek philosopher Isocrates describes the characteristics of an ideal citizen in his essay, â€Å"The Educated Man†. From his point of view an educated man is not one who has pursued higher education but one who has good character and contributes to his society. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is portrayed as an educated man because he has excellent morals and knows how to conduct himself. Atticus and the â€Å"educated man† are both the ideal and perfect members of a community and family. They are strong-minded, charismatic, and honorable – traits that most people strive for. The diction that Harper Lee uses when describing Atticus Finch helps create the image of the perfect and educated man. Isocrates addresses the fact that an educated man has self-restraint and is always in control of his actions. An educated man never lets temperament, selfishness, or weakness overcome himself. One’s ability to carry himself in a honorable fashion is imperative for being a true educated man. Isocrates established a school of rhetoric is 392 B.C. that taught the art of persuasion to orators. From Isocrates’ perspective, an educated man is â€Å"not duly overcome by [his] misfortunes, bearing up under them bravely†. (line 9-10) By persuading others, an educated man can win arguments, or judicial trials in Atticus’ case, without having to be ill-mannered. When Atticus loses Tom Robinson’s case he doesn’t blame the jury for being prejudice or even Bob and Mayella Ewell for lying. Atticus stays calm under pressure and during stressful times. Later, when Atticus discuses Tom's death with Aunt Alexandria, he tells her that: â€Å"I told him what I thought, but I couldn’t in truth say that we had more than a good chance. I guess Tom was tired of taking white man’s chances and preferred to take his own.† (p. 235-236) Atticus knows that killing Tom Robinson was unnecessary and that they would have had a good chance with a better jury. However, he does not lose his temper and continues to think clearly. Even with all the things that he and his family have had to endure, he understands that violence or revenge will not solve any of his problems. It is in this way that he is an educated man. Another characteristic of an educated man is that he is able to endure things he feels is distasteful.

Native American Boarding Schools

An Indian boarding school refers to one of many schools that were established in the United States during the late 19th century to educate Native American youths according to Euro-American standards. These schools were primarily run by missionaries. These often proved traumatic to Native American children, who were forbidden to speak their native languages, taught Christianity and denied the right to practice their native religions, and in numerous other ways forced to abandon their Native American identities and adopt European-American culture and the English language. There were many documented cases of sexual, physical and mental abuse occurring at these schools. In the late eighteenth century, reformers starting with Washington and Knox, in efforts to â€Å"civilize† or otherwise assimilate Native Americans (as opposed to relegating them to reservations), adopted the practice of educating native children in modern American culture. The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 promoted this civilization policy by providing funding to societies (mostly religious) who worked on Native American improvement. Attendance in Indian boarding schools generally grew throughout the first half of the 20th century and doubled in the 1960s. Enrollment reached its highest point in the 1970s. In 1973, 60,000 American Indian children are estimated to have been enrolled in an Indian boarding school. Several events in the late 1960s and mid-1970s (Kennedy Report, National Study of American Indian Education, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975) led to more emphasis on community schools. Many large Indian boarding schools closed in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, 9,500 American Indian children lived in an Indian boarding school dormitory. This includes 45 on-reservation boarding schools, 7 off-reservation boarding schools and 14 peripheral dormitories. From 1879 to the present day, hundreds of thousands of American Indians are estimated to have attended an Indian boarding school. Native American children were often separated from their families and people when they were sent or sometimes taken to boarding schools off the reservations. These schools ranged from those like the federal Carlisle boarding School, to schools sponsored by religious organizations to some created by non-profits such as the founding of an Indian school in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1769. In addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic, the Carlisle curriculum constituted of vocational training for boys and domestic science for girls, including chores around the school and producing goods for market. In the summer students were often outsourced to local farms and townspeople to continue their immersion and provide labor at low cost. Carlisle and its curriculum would become the model for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and by 1902 there were twenty-five federally funded non-reservation schools across fifteen states and territories with a of over 6,000. Although federal legislation made education compulsory for Native Americans, removing students from reservations required parent authorization, although coercion and even violence were often used to secure the preset quota of students from any given reservation. Once the new students arrived at the boarding schools, life altered drastically. They were given new haircuts, uniforms, and even new English names, sometimes based on their own, other times assigned at random. They could no longer speak their own languages, even between each other, and they were expected to convert to Christianity. Life was run by the strict orders of their teachers, and it often included grueling chores and stiff punishments.

Genetically Engineered Foods Essay

Genetically engineered or genetically modified foods are foods that are simply the result of alteration in the original genes of an organism such as a plant or an animal in order to blot out a characteristic or trait of the original organism. Because this involves the transfer of genes, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) are also known as â€Å"transgenic† organisms (Robert Sacerich-GMO, Genetically Modified Foods and Conspiracy Theories). GE foods can be contrasted with organic foods which are basically foods which undergo a ‘non-synthetic’ method of processing before distribution to the public. This issue holds immense global importance because it is considered to be an alternative to solving the World Hunger crisis by supplying GE foods to countries with an inadequate supply of food (Anup Shah GE Technologies will solve world hunger; Jeffrey Heit, MD-Genetically Engineered Foods ). In this paper, the relative advantages and disadvantages of distributing GE foods to the public will be discovered and weighed. The notion of GE technology being the sole alternative to solving World Hunger will also be investigated along with the prospect of using organic food instead of GE food. In the article, Is GE food safe?, Anup Shah argues that although there is a possibility the use of GE foods can be beneficial to the general public, it cannot be said that this will last forever. The importance of this dilemma is being measured by the fact that there is absolutely no scientific proof at the moment to predict the effects of these crops in the foreseeable future, though we might know a great deal about their initial benefits to health and industry. David C. Pack agrees with this point of view and states that man has tampered with the very core of our food supply as part of the continuing quest to â€Å"out-do† God. He goes on to talk about the ‘unpredictability’ of altering genes. Stating in an example that certain genes from a flounder—a fish—have been inserted into tomatoes in order to give them a longer shelf life and that splicing genetic segments of one species into the genes of another could never occur naturally, he goes on to measure the importance of this issue by comparing data from original research work that had been carried out to determine the relative advantages of ‘golden rice’ and ‘soybeans’ compared to the regular varieties available in the market (David C. Pack -Genetically Engineered Foods Why the Controversy?). Jeffrey Heit, MD, in Genetically Engineered Foods confirms that that the use of GE foods might entail a cheap and efficient industrial  system but the public might not benefit from it the way we think it will. For instance, the use of peanut genes in tomatoes might adversely affect people allergic to peanuts and tomatoes being irreplaceable ingredients in almost all kinds of curry based foods aggravate the situation. On the other hand, some authors like Amy Norton argue that Vitamin A deficiency can cause blindness and, because it dampens immune system function, leaves children more vulnerable to becoming severely ill from infections. If all children in deprived areas were given enough vitamin A, up to 2.7 million deaths could be prevented each year according to statistics. Genetically engineered capsules rich in vitamin A could be provided to the children in the aforementioned deprived areas. UNICEF has a program to give young children vitamin A capsules twice a year (one capsule is good for a six-month supply of the vitamin). A range of foods naturally contain vitamin A or vitamin A precursors – from liver, fish oil and eggs to spinach, carrots, mango and red peppers. But again, those foods may either be locally unavailable, depend on season, or be priced beyond what most families in developing nations can afford (Amy Norton- Genetically modified rice a good vitamin A source 14; Janice Jones- Advantages & Disadvantages of Organic Foods). In another article the author, Bryan Walsh talks about the relationship between ‘humane eggs’ and the way the laying hens are brought up or bred. He hints at the possibility of there being something worse than genetic engineering at hand, which is the way animals are brought up in farms, more specifically chickens. Hence, if such a relationship exists then there seem to be more pressing matters at hand than just the apparent side-effects of GE foods (Bryan Walsh-Vital Farms: Raising the Ultra-Organic Egg). Christie Wilcox adopts a different approach by targeting some of the myths held by people in favor of organic farming as opposed to genetically engineered farming. She talks about how pesticides are used abundantly in organic farming, how organic food is not healthier than GE food and how it is not ideal for the environment; ideas that are common amongst the general public about organic food (Christie Wilcox Myth busting 101: Organic Farming > Conventional Agriculture). Backing up the aspect that genetically engineered foods are unsafe and should not be distributed to the general public since their after effects have not yet been discovered, Anup Shah states in an article how worldwide polls indicate a high public demand of labeling GE food so as to  enable the public to choose their preference of food. She points out that any failure to do so implies that the public is ignorant. Is it ‘justified’ to keep the public in the dark just because we think the public is too ignorant to grasp the significance of GE food? On the other hand, is it okay to not label food as genetically engineered or not genetically engineered because of the growing apprehension that there will be competition between GE based and non GE based food companies? ( Anup Shah- Public Concerns and Protests on GE Food). While some believe that genetically engineered foods are generally regarded as safe. There has been no adequate testing, however, to ensure complete safety. There are no reports of illness or injury due to genetically engineered foods (Jeffrey Heit, MD- Genetically engineered foods). On the very other end, some people believe that genetically engineered technology is our only hope in abating the ongoing World Hunger problem. However, some people disagree. The idea that genetically engineered technologies can solve world hunger is ‘unreliable’. It might have the ‘potential’ to abet the ‘developing’ nations in fighting the food crisis but it is amongst the many other alternatives present. A significant number of people in the third world countries are unable to get food because it is expensive, not because it is unavailable. As we can see, the issue of a country’s economy is closely tied with the world hunger problem in this case (Anup Shah- GE Technologies will solve world hunger). There are various questions we need to ask ourselves if we want to determine the ‘safety’ GE food to human beings. In the event that this technology achieves its current aim, who will benefit more, people in need or the people who need more? If we are not able to predict the potential side effects of genetically engineered food, is it safe to miss this one chance to revert poverty or even world hunge r for that matter? If not, then will not taking the leap be worth it in the long run? â€Å"One reason why GE technology is being given the go-ahead is that there is a lot of money and profit involved in this. Hence from a business perspective it is more favorable, for example to produce crops that can be resistant to your pesticides (so that you can apply more of them).† Keeping this perspective in mind, is it ‘moral’ to jeopardize the prospect of â€Å"hunger free† countries? Does the expression man ‘tampering’ with nature also apply to scenarios in which Genetic engineering has helped the human race develop the food market? (David C. Pack-Genetically  Engineered Foods Why the Controversy? David C. Pack) The author mentions how the cross breeding of seeds needs to be prevented so as to prevent any food anomalies in the industry. Considering how different animals like cows and buffaloes are cross-bred, how justified is it to combine and merge the habits of different animals who are otherwise different in various aspects? Whereas the problem of â€Å"World Hunger† is concerned, if it cannot be solved by GE crops and is linked to poverty instead, will the eradication of poverty solve the predicament of world hunger? If hunger is an effect of poverty where poverty is a political and economic issue then politics influences how it is produced; who it is produced by and for what purposes it is produced. David C. Pack would also agree: â€Å"Even the problem of world hunger cannot be solved using this technology since the yield of GM crops is even lesser than that of natural (regular) crops† (David C. Pack -Genetically Engineered Foods Why the Controversy?). In conclusion, nothing can be said with absolute certainty about the pros and cons of using this kind of technology but what can be done in this field is research in order to determine the magnitude of change it is capable of delivering in the long run. References †¢Alexandra Sifferlin -California fails to pass genetically modified foods labeling initiative http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/07/california-fails-to-pass-gm-foods-labeling-initiative/ †¢Amy Norton Genetically modified rice a good vitamin A source http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_128308.html †¢Anup Shah -Is GE Food Safe? http://www.globalissues.org/article/189/is-ge-food-safe †¢Anup Shah -GE Technologies will solve world hunger http://www.globalissues.org/article/190/ge-technologies-will-solve-world-hunger †¢Anup Shah -Public Concerns and Protests on GE Food http://www.globalissues.org/article/196/a-huge-wave-of-public-concern †¢Bryan Walsh -Vital Farms: Raising the Ultra-Organic Egg http://science.time.com/2012/10/22/vital-farms-raising-the-ultra-organic-egg/

Strategic Planning Theories Essays

Strategic Planning Theories Essays Strategic Planning Theories Paper Strategic Planning Theories Paper Essay Topic: Citizen Kane DBA 822 Seminars in Strategy and International Business Strategic Planning Theories A Literature Review By; Benjamin J. Shuford III 8/24/10 Introduction: Strategic planning is a broad concept that has been introduced into the main stream practices of today’s corporations. Strategic planning can be defined as an organization’s process of defining goals, direction, and decision making processes that effect the allocation of resources that include capital and people. The term â€Å"strategy† is derived from the Greek word of â€Å"strategos,† which means literally, â€Å"general of the army. (Hart, 1965). The Greek tribes of ancient civilizations would elect a strategos to head their regiments during battles. These political rulers would follow the strategic advice from the council members about managing troops to win battles. From its early military roots on winning battles to becoming a pattern of purposes and policies that define a company and its busines s, strategic planning has become the primary focus of today’s diverse organizations. There are many theories that are used to describe how organizations view the strategic planning process. These processes are framed as models that are consistently being revised to fit the needs of an organization. This literature review will focus on some of these models and the theorists who developed them. This literature review will review theories from Igor Ansoff, Henry Mintzberg, Michael Porter, and Kenichi Ohmae. The purpose will be to gain a better understanding of how these theories shape organizational performance. An analysis will be conducted to evaluate the practice of and the future direction of these theories. The choice to review these four theorists over all of the others is because of their legacy and robust contributions to the field of strategic management. Ansoff was one of the earliest writers on strategy as a management discipline, and laid strong foundations for several later writers to build upon, including Michael Porter, Gary Hamel and C K Prahalad. He invented the modern approach to strategy and his work pulled together various ideas and disparate strands of thought, giving a new coherence and discipline to the concept he described as strategic planning. A debate between Ansoff and Henry Mintzberg over their differing views of strategy was reflected in print over many years, particularly in the Harvard Business Review. Ansoff has often been criticized by Mintzberg, who disliked the idea of strategy being built from planning which is supported by analytical techniques. This criticism was based on the belief that Ansoffs reliance on planning suffered from three fallacies: that events can be predicted, that strategic thinking can be separated from operational management, and that hard data, analysis and techniques can produce novel strategies. The strategic planning/management theories of Porter and Ohmae were derived from both Ansoff and Mentzberg. Ansoff was the originator of the strategic management concept, and was responsible for establishing strategic planning as a management activity. The Strategic Planning Process: Because of high competitive business environments, organizations must engage in strategic planning processes that clearly define and state the objectives of the organization. They must assess both external and internal factors to develop and implement a strategy to stay competitive. They need to evaluate the process and make needed adjustments to stay on track. In their search for sources of sustainable competitive advantage, researchers have come to realize that business performance depends not only on the formulation and successful implementation of a given strategy but also on the process by which competitive positions are created or maintained. Mintzberg was one of the first to point out that the realized strategy of an organization can strongly differ from the intended strategy and that the extent to which an intended strategy can be realized is closely related to the strategic process that exist within the organization (Mintzberg, 1987). In his early work, he identified three main types of strategy processes: planning, entrepreneurial and learning-by-experience. He described planning as a philosophical approach when he classifies strategic business thinking in ten schools of thought, which he describes in their historical and ideological context. Early theorist, such as Igor Ansoff, focused on the analytical aspects of strategy formation. The first three schools in Mintzberg’s taxonomy are therefore prescriptive and focus on how strategy ought to be formulated. One of the major premises of the prescriptive schools if the performance claim, which states that the more an organization engages in systematic strategic planning, the more likely it will result in above average returns. The prescriptive schools have been influential in the discourse of strategy formulation, but have failed to explain the process of strategy execution (Mintzberg, 1990). Mintzbergs School of Strategic Thought (Mintzberg and Lampel, 1990). | | | | | | | | School| Category| Foundation| | | | Design| Prescriptive| Engineering| | | | Planning| Prescriptive| Systems Theory| | | | Positioning| Prescriptive| Economics| | | | Entrepreneurial| Descriptive| Economics| | | | Cognitive| Descriptive| Psychology| | | | Learning| Descriptive| Psychology| | | | Power| Descriptive| Political Science| | | | Cultural| Descriptive| Anthropology| | | | Environmental| Descriptive| Biology| | | | Configuration| Both| History| | | | | | | | | | The Design school defines strategy formation as a process of conception. It began during the late 1950s and mid-1960s. This school puts emphasis on an appraisal of external environment and the internal situation using the classic SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). Also shaping strategy formulation are the values of the organization’s management and an assessment of the organization’s social responsibilities (Selznick, 1957). The Planning school identified strategy formation as a formal process. It emerged in the mid 1960. It has resulted in a plethora of strategic planning models. The underlying foundation of all of these models is straightforward: divide the SWOT model into neatly delineated steps. Step1 – Set objectives – Establish and qualify goals or objective of the organization. Step 2- External Audits – Assess the external environment, using the SWOT analysis, and create a set of forecasts about the future. Step 3 – Internal audits – Typically this process is assisted by checklists and tables of topic to consider. Step 4 – Strategy evaluation – Organizations can use a variety of techniques ranging from return on nvestment (ROI), to risk analysis, to calculating shareholder value. Step 5 – Strategy implementation – This step creates a very detailed and formalized action plan. Objectives, strategies, budgets, and programs are all brought together into a master plan. The Positioning School defines strategy formation as an analytical process. This school began in the 1980s and was popular due to the notion of competitive strategy frameworks that were identified as five forces on an organization’s environment by Michael Porter. The significance of this school is that it emphasized the importance of strategies to any given industry. The Entrepreneurial school looks at strategy formation as a visionary process. This school of thought developed in the 1990s and using vision as a central starting point. Vision establishes the broad sense of direction while preserving flexibility to adapt to changing conditions. One of the advocates of the entrepreneurial school is Peter Drucker, who identifies entrepreneurship with management itself: â€Å"Central to business enterprise is†¦ the entrepreneurial act, an act of economic risk taking. And business enterprise is an entrepreneurial institution† (Drucker, 1970). The Cognitive school defined strategy formation as a mental process and started in the early 1990s. This school focuses on the mind of the strategist, drawing from the field of cognitive psychology. There is a large body of research that suggests that individuals encounter a variety of problems in making decisions that influence many situations in the management process because they are difficult to change and form once implemented. Individuals who practice this school find that they each have different cognitive styles that can distort decision making processes. The Learning school defines strategy formation as an emergent process. It started in the mid 1990s and follows the perspective that people within an organization learn how to use the organization’s abilities to change and adapt in a positive manner in order to respond to a changing environment (Quinn, 1980). This school is less concerned with the actual strategy that was formulated than with what it took to get a strategy implemented. The Power school, which began in the late 1980s, defines strategy formation as a process of negotiation and is based on the notion that the influence of power from the external environment will affect any organization, and in many cases politics will infuse an organization. This school views strategy as a political process that focuses on alliance building, empire building, budgeting, expertise, insurgency, counterinsurgency, lording, rival camps, whistle-blowing, and line versus staff. The importance of this school is that it has identified the political process as a reality that must be acknowledged and managed but that is not the sole means for making strategies within an organization. The Cultural school defines strategy formation as a collective process. The cultural school began in the early 1990s and can be thought of as a system of shared values, beliefs, and meanings held by staff members that distinguish the organization from other organizations. The dimensions making up this school include teamwork, honesty, control, decision making processes, rewards, and conflict. The Environmental school started in the mid-1990s and defines strategy formation as a reactive process. It views the forces operating outside the organization as active, while the organization itself merely reacts to these outside forces. The primary contribution of this school is that it attempts to bring the overall view of strategy formation into balance. This school emphasizes that the outside environment, the leadership, and the organization itself are actually responsible for strategy making. The Configuration school defines strategy formation as a process of transformation. This school began in the mid-1990s and attempts to integrate strategy by showing how different dimensions of an organization band together under particular conditions to define states, models, or ideas types. The premise of this school is that periods of stability and transformation can best be understood as life cycles of an organization. The key to strategic management is to recognize the need for transformation and manage the process of change without having a negative impact on the organization. Later developments in strategic management literature moved away from the prescriptive approach modeled on quantitative exact sciences and their inherent presumptions of a controlled world. The descriptive schools of thought are inspired on the qualitative social and cultural sciences and study what businesses actually did to be successful for other organizations to learn from their approaches. The descriptive schools move from a focus on a-priori strategic planning to a-posteriori dynamic strategy formulation and execution. For practitioners, the prescriptive schools of thought are very attractive. However, the descriptive schools are somewhat problematic to practitioners of strategic management because they do not provide straightforward recipes for success. The question raised by Mintzberg’s taxonomy of strategic thought and other similar taxonomies is how average practitioners can determine what strategy they should employ (Sokol, 1992). Fuller (1996) suggests that traditional strategic planning is under fire. Strategic planning in the classical model was developed in an era when the external environment was relatively simple, stable, and predictable, and when the behavior of a firm was viewed as being cybernetic. Strategic plans were primarily used as a control mechanism to reduce uncertainty and risk and to allocate power. They were internally focused because many of the company’s transactions were internal. As a result of slow or negligible environmental change, managers were able to consider their strategic options once a year through a process that is detached from the ordinary workings of the company. Consequently, the plans that are produced are used in litigation between a corporation and its business units, or among business units, for control of the decision-making processes. Hamel and Prahalad (1995) ask why it is that in so many companies strategic planning departments are being disbanded or dramatically downsized. This change in emphasis was driven by thinkers such as Hammer and Champy (1993) with their concept â€Å"business process re-engineering†. Hamel and Prahalad (1995) continue to make the claim that the problem is not with strategy but with the particular notion of strategy that predominates in most companies. What is being rejected is not strategy itself, but strategy setting as a pedantic planning ritual on one hand or as a speculative and open-ended investment commitment on the other. The academic scholars of the Planning School had determined a formal process for strategic planning and, in 1985; a study by Ginter (1985) was undertaken in the UK to determine whether this academic model had practical applicability. The 4,000 members of the Planning Executive Institute were asked a range of questions to provide a forum for assessing the perceptions of planning and strategic managers in practice. In excess of 1,000 members responded, and the researchers concluded that the model was a good framework for the way strategic planning takes place in the corporate environment. The Ginter (1985) paper described the strategic process as containing eight elements: (1) Vision and mission; (2) Objective setting; (3) External environmental scanning; (4) Internal environmental scanning; (5) Strategic alternatives (crafting strategy); (6) Strategy selection; (7) Implementation; and (8) Control. These elements are found consistently in the literature and taught in university business schools and undergraduate programs Thompson and Strickland (1998), Hill and Jones (1998), Stahl and Grigsby (1992). Viljoen (1994), and Hubbard (1996), all propound similar models in their educational texts. The central message of the Planning School is â€Å"formal procedure, formal training, formal analysis, lots of numbers† (Mintzberg, 1998). Many corporations adopted formal strategic planning as the fundamental driving concept for their business. Differentiation strategy When using a differentiation strategy, a company focuses effort on providing a unique Product or service, setting their offerings apart from competitors. Product differentiation fulfills a customer need and involves uniquely tailoring the product or service to the customer. This strategy allows organizations to charge a premium price to capture market share. The differentiation strategy is effectively implemented when the business provides unique or superior value to the customer through product quality, features, or after-sale support and service. Firms following a differentiation strategy can charge a higher price for their products based on the product characteristics, the delivery system, the quality of service, or the distribution channels. The quality may be real or perceived, based on fashion, brand name, or image. The differentiation strategy appeals to a sophisticated or knowledgeable consumer interested in a unique quality product or service and willing to pay a higher price for these non-standardized products. Customers value the differentiated products more than they value low costs. Our research identified three tactics which were significantly related to organizational performance in the companies we surveyed following the differentiation strategy. These critical practices included: 1. Innovation in marketing technology and methods. 2. Fostering innovation and creativity. 3. Focus on building high market share. Cost leadership strategy Porter’s generic strategy of cost leadership focuses on gaining competitive advantage by having the lowest costs and cost structure in the industry. In order to achieve a low-cost advantage, an organization must have a low-cost leadership mindset, low-cost manufacturing with rapid distribution and replenishment, and a workforce committed to the low-cost strategy. The organization must be willing to discontinue any activities in which they do not have a cost advantage and may outsource activities to other organizations that have a cost advantage. There are many ways to achieve cost leadership such as mass production, mass distribution, economies of scale, technology, product design, input cost, capacity utilization of resources, and access to raw materials. Cost leaders work to have the lowest product or service unit costs and can withstand competition with their lower cost structure. Cost leaders may take a number of cost saving actions, including building efficient scale facilities, tightly controlling overhead and production costs, and monitoring costs to build their relatively standardized products that offer features acceptable to many customers at the lowest competitive price. But the tactic that proved to be most critical to this strategy is the minimization of distribution costs. Focus strategy In a focus generic strategy, a firm targets a specific, often narrow, segment of the market. The firm can choose to concentrate on a select customer group (youths or senior citizens, for example), product range, segment of a market (professional craft persons versus do-it-yourselfers), geographical areas (East coast versus West coast), or service line. For example, many European firms focus solely on the European market. Focus also is based on adopting a narrow competitive scope within an industry that large firms may have overlooked. The focus strategy aims at growing market share through operating in a narrow market or niche segment more effectively than larger competitors. A successful focus strategy depends upon an industry segment large enough to have good growth potential but small enough not to be important to other major competitors. Focusing allows the firm to direct its resources to certain value chain activities to build its advantage. An organization may also choose a combination strategy by mixing one of the generic strategies of low-cost or differentiation with the focus strategy. For example, a firm may choose to have a focus differentiation strategy or a focus/cost leadership strategy. Based on our research, four tactics appear to be critical for organizations attempting a focus/low cost strategy: 1. Providing outstanding customer service. 2. Improving operational efficiency. 3. Controlling the quality of products or services. 4. Extensive training of front-line personnel. Focus/differentiation Another combination focus strategy is a focus/differentiation strategy where the organization has a unique quality product offered to a targeted market segment or niche. The significantly important tactics include: * Producing specialty products and services. * Producing products or services for high price market segments. In addition to generic strategies, Porter (1985) developed several other modular concepts. The five forces model is shown in Figure 2. Porter (1980) suggested that the task facing managers is to analyze competitive forces in an industry’s environment. He claimed that only five forces needed consideration. Porter (1980) argued that the stronger the manifestation of each of the forces, the more limited the ability of established companies to raise prices and to earn greater profits. This is pure Modernist, Neo-economic thinking. The simplifying and â€Å"blinding† role of externalities in economics, blinds Porter (1980) who is unable to postulate the role of government, or de-regulation, in his five factor, positioning model at the very time he was proselytizing the case of the US Airline industry under severe conditions of Reaganite, ideological deregulation of that industry (Kouzmin, 2007). Porter (1997) preaches that many of these intangible forces are measurable and that, in addition, there is a â€Å"chain of causality that runs from competitive environment to position to activities to employee skills and organization†. This causal argument is further pursued with Porter’s (1985) concepts of the value chain (see Figure 3). The value chain analysis is based on the simple linear idea that every activity performed in an organization will add some value to the final products or services produced. The final product is simply the aggregate of values contributed. The 3Cs model of Kenichi Ohmae Ohmae (1982) has much to discuss about competitive position, particularly the competitive positioning of successful Japanese companies. It is his view that the theories abounding in economic and economic policy circles concerning the importance of position have not been the drivers of Japanese success. He believes that strategy is not about beating the competition but about satisfying customer needs. Still further, Deming (1986) expounds a fundamental concept when exhorting his audience to consider the concept of competition. It is his argument that people must learn to cooperate with others and to compete with themselves. In the context of strategy, the ideas of Ohmae and Deming, regarding the importance of customers is most important. Concepts of competition and market share are of little use to the business principal and as a consequence there is very little that the philosophies of the Positioning School can add to their strategy knowledge base. As with Ohmae’s Japanese corporations, competitive advantage is driven by the ability to serve the needs of customers better. The 3Cs Model is a strategic look at the factors needed for success. The 3C’s model points out that a strategist should focus on three key factors for success. In the construction of a business strategy, three main players must be taken into account: 1. The Corporation 2. The Customer 3. The Competitors Only by integrating these three C’s (Corporation, Customer, Competitors) in a strategic triangle, a sustained competitive advantage can exist. Ohmae refers to these key factors as the three C’s or strategic triangle. Hito-Kane-Mono A favorite phrase of Japanese business planners is hito-kane-mono, standing for people, money and things. They believe that streamlined corporate management is achieved when these three critical resources are in balance without surplus or waste. For example: Cash over and beyond what competent people can intelligently expend is wasted. Of the three critical resources, funds should be allocated last. The corporation should firstly allocate management talent, based on the available mono (things): plant, machinery, technology, process know-how and functional strength. Once these hito (people) have developed creative and imaginative ideas to capture the business’s upward potential, the kane (money) should be given to the specific ideas and programs generated by the individual managers. The Ansoff Growth Matrix Strategy Tool Igor Ansoff (1965) was the originator of the strategic management concept, and was responsible for establishing strategic planning as a management activity in its own right. His landmark book, Corporate Strategy (1965), was the first text to concentrate entirely on strategy, and although the ideas outlined are complex, it remains one of the classics of management literature. Ansoff was one of the earliest writers on strategy as a management discipline, and laid strong foundations for several later writers to build upon, including Michael Porter, Gary Hamel and C K Prahalad. He invented the modern approach to strategy and his work pulled together various ideas and disparate strands of thought, giving a new coherence and discipline to the concept he described as strategic planning. During the 1970s and 1980s, this concept shaped more ideas about management as other writers took up Ansoffs ideas, such as core competence or sticking to the knitting. A debate between Ansoff and Henry Mintzberg over their differing views of strategy was reflected in print over many years, particularly in the Harvard Business Review. Ansoff has often been criticized by Mintzberg, who disliked the idea of strategy being built from planning which is supported by analytical techniques. This criticism was based on the belief that Ansoffs reliance on planning suffered from three fallacies: that events can be predicted, that strategic thinking can be separated from operational management, and that hard data, analysis and techniques can produce novel strategies. Ansoff argued that within a companys activities there should be an element of core capability, an idea later adopted and expanded by Hamel and Prahalad. To establish a link between past and future corporate activities (the first time such an approach was undertaken) The Ansoff Growth matrix is a tool that helps businesses decide their product and market growth strategy. This Ansoff Matrix considers the existing and new markets as well as the existing and new products and services as a potential for business growth and development. Ansoff identified four key strategy components that interact with each other causing various effects on both new and existing products and markets. Figure four below is followed with a brief description of each component of the matrix. The Ansoff Growth Matrix Grid Source: (Proctor, 1997, p. 146). Market penetration Market penetration is the name given to a growth strategy where the business focuses on selling existing products into existing markets. Market penetration seeks to achieve four main objectives: Maintain or increase the market share of current products – this can be achieved by a combination of competitive pricing strategies, advertising, sales promotion and perhaps more resources dedicated to personal selling Secure dominance of growth markets Restructure a mature market by driving out competitors; this would require a much more aggressive promotional campaign, supported by a pricing strategy designed to make the market unattractive for competitors Increase usage by existing customers – for example by introducing loyalty schemes a market penetration marketing strategy is very much about â€Å"business as usual†. The business is focusing on markets and products it knows well. It is likely to have good information on competitors and on customer needs. It is unlikely, therefore, that this strategy will require much investment in new market research. Market development Market development is the name given to a growth strategy where the business seeks to sell its existing products into new markets. There are many possible ways of approaching this strategy, including: New geographical markets; for example exporting the product to a new country New product dimensions or packaging: for example New distribution channels Different pricing policies to attract different customers or create new market segments Product development Product development is the name given to a growth strategy where a business aims to introduce new products into existing markets. This strategy may require the development of new competencies and requires the business to develop modified products which can appeal to existing markets. Diversification Diversification is the name given to the growth strategy where a business markets new products in new markets. This is an inherently more risk strategy because the business is moving into markets in which it has little or no experience. For a business to adopt a diversification strategy, therefore, it must have a clear idea about what it expects to gain from the strategy and an honest assessment of the risks. Future Direction of Strategic Planning Strategic planning has come a long since its humble earlier works that were defined in the early 1960s. Many of these earlier concepts are still valid today or are reflected in the basic assumptions being used by leaders in our ever diverse organizations. Today, the goal of the organization is to achieve a competitive advantage by positioning itself in such a way that it has the ability to succeed all competition by enhancing performance. Competitive advantage is a concept that business organizations will continue to strive for. Michael Porter has been credited with introducing the five forces concept into business strategies. His theory has served as a back board for IO Theory (industrial Organization) theory. The traditional Bain/Mason paradigm of industrial organization offered strategic management a systematic model for assessing competition within an industry and was never really inducted into business policy by top decision makers. Many economists today have learned that introducing business policies into strategic planning and managing the economic impact of this union offers a positive influence on how organizations match up against each other on a microeconomic scale (Porter, 1981). From an IO economic perspective, mobility barriers or market positions are critical sources of competitive advantages that lead to superior performance. Organizational economics is more concerned with devising appropriate governance mechanisms or contracts to help reduce transaction or agency costs. The RBV (Resource Based View) of the firm has refocused the field of strategic management on all internal characteristics and views firms these characteristics as the source of competitive advantage. These characteristics have been identified as operational efficiencies, mergers, acquisitions, level of diversification, types of diversification, organizational structures, team management style, human resources management, and the manipulation of the political and social influences intruding upon the market that impacts organizations (Teece, 1982). The resource based view of the firm will be continue to be of significant importance to any organization because it provides leaders with specific tools needed to sustain a competitive position in a market place by providing management needed insights into examining the resource attributes and the their relationships towards other related variables in the market place as a means to gain the edge in the dynamic market (Barney, 2001). Conclusion Strategic planning has developed into a vital practice that must be approached with careful consideration to allow for through investigation into how an organization is structured. From both an internal and external perspective, managers need to recognize the need to evaluate value, mission, core competencies, history, and past, current, and future situations in order to gain and sustain competitive advantage in a market place. The need to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, has been addressed as a main basic goal that must be used by leaders to empower the organization. Various models and theorists have been identified and explained as a means to gain a better understanding on how to define strategic planning. Since the 1960s, there have been many different points of view concerning the strategic planning concept. Various schools of thought have been developed by infamous theorists who have engraved a foot print into the development of modern corporate practices. Many of these concepts have paved the way for common approaches utilized by corporations as building blocks for surviving in such dynamic and competitive environments. Many of the strategies that are in use today are variations from the past and will continue to be adopted and manipulated to fit the needs of leaders seeking to find solutions to new and emerging issues that are relevant and applicable to the real business needs of organizations. Leaders today will need to continue finding new ways to plan for the future and adjust to the pace of environmental change with confidence, knowledge, skill, and ability. References Ansoff, H. I. (1965). An Analytic Approach to Business Policy for Growth and Expansion. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Barney, J. B. (1991). â€Å"Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage†, Journal of Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 99-120. Deming, W. E. (1986). Quality, Productivity and Competitive Position. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Drucker, P. (1970), Technology Management and Society, Harper Collins Books, NY. Fuller, M. 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