Market Plan for T17 technology House Company

Big Brother Media Essay essays

Big Brother Media Essay essays I am going to conduct a survey to find out why people watched Big Brother, what they liked and disliked, how they found out about Big Brother and how they watched the program. I gave they following survey to 35 people of different ages and interests and have summarized the information using words and graphs. Age Group: 9 40-45, 46-51, 52-57, 58-63, 64-69 70 Do you watch Big Brother? Yes No Please circle your answer If yes how often.........hours per week on average? How did you find out about Big Brother example: friends, television, radio etc? Why do you watch Big Brother? What do you like most about the program? What do you dislike most about the program? Where do you watch the program? Who do you watch the program with? What do you do in the break adverts? What have you enjoyed most about the program so far? Whos do you want to win the 3rd big brother? Would you take part in future episode of Big Brother? Yes No Why? Please circle your answer Results: From this pie graph above we can see that over  ¾ of the people I asked do watch Big Brother. This shows that Big brother is very popular and a very large audience. From the above line graph you can see that people ages 16 21 are the group who watch Big Brother the most and second to that is people aged 10 15 which shows me that the majority of people who watch Big Brother are teenagers and young adults, so the concepts and qualities of Big Brother must be appealing to those young age groups. How People Heard and were introduced to Big Brother From this pie chart above you can see that just under half of the people who took part in my survey were introd...

2101W Assignment 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

2101W Assignment 2 - Essay Example The medieval age of the Germany was significantly influenced by two different principles, individualism and universalism (Leyser 30-256). The then economic reforms and political regimes had also played vital roles in the development of the modern German society. Notably, it was during the years 1046 to 1057 that Germany witnessed the rise of one after another revolutionary popes including Pope Clement II, Pope Dumasus II, Pope Leo IX, Pope Victor II and Pope Stephen IX (Jeep 500). During the medieval age of Germany, struggles became apparently identifiable between the then established German Empire and the reforming Catholic Churches who wished to strengthen their control on the political and economic structures of the nation. It was during in 1024 that Duke Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty was crowned as the king of the Germans. Historical testaments affirm that during the sovereignty of Conrad II’s son Henry III (1039 to 1056), the empire fully supported the Cluniac reforms, which continued from 910. Another vital change was observed in the political structure of Germany during this period, which had drastic effects on the economic growth of the nation in the later period of the 14th and the 15th centuries. Before 1056, i.e. before the reign of Henry IV, German churches, representing the papal authority was dominated by the emperors in the nation. However, with the advent of Cluniac reforms, monasteries were being reformed, where monastic h ouses were being transferred under the direct leadership of papacy from being placed under the feudal control. The conflict taking place between the Popes and German states further gave rise to the Investiture Controversy which lasted till 1122. This ultimately increased the complexities in the legal environment of Germany, which further augmented the discrepancies within trade relations of German empires and also with international market, as traders now had

Management of Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Management of Decision Making - Essay Example SSM being a user centered design approach concentrates mainly on the people involved with the problem and focus on the specific problems secondarily. It also aims at analyzing the problem from different perspectives. SSM provides an effective and efficient way to carry out an analysis of the processes in which technological processes and human activities are interdependent. This paper envisages making a case study of the problems faced by stake holders and various other entities dealing with a particular branch of a Local bank and how SSM approach provides a solution to the problem identified: SSM involves various key stages in its implementation like, identifying and defining the problem situation and expressing them in the context of relevance to human factors involved, creating relevant root definitions and thereby evolving conceptual models measuring performance. Such models created would then be compared with the real world to assess the requirement of any desirable or necessary changes and finally recommending the corrective action to be taken. To understand and deal with the structured problem one should have answers to such questions as who are the key players, what their perception of the situation is, what processes are going on now and what the organized structures are: In our example the basic details about the organization Bank Muscat must be studied to apply SSM. Bank Muscat is the largest Bank in Oman with a strong presence in consumer banking, corporate banking, Investment Banking, Asset Management, private banking and project finance. The bank has a network of over 90 branches in Oman and a representative office in Dubai. Bank Muscat has interests in India and Bahrain. The Brach is headed by an efficient manager of the Bank Mr.Salim Ali Al Busaidi and assisted by Assistant Manager Nawal Salman Al Rawabi with additional staff to

Strategic Role of Information Systems in Contemporary Business Essay

Strategic Role of Information Systems in Contemporary Business Organisations - Essay Example Behind the Google search engine IT infrastructure are huge server farms and storage databases that enable the production of significantly high computational processing power. There is speculation about Google’s server farms, terabytes of storage disks packaged into shipping containers in order to allow for more set-ups of server farms around the world (Spencer 2011:35). These infrastructures are then distributed across numerous independent, which further provide resources for parallel computing. The arrangement has enabled Google to expand its market worldwide, surpassing the 100 billion dollars market capital as well as gaining admiration and respect all over the globe. Additionally, the paper uses Porter’s 5-forces approach to elaborate the competitive environment of the company as well as highlights its competitive advantages. Introduction The Google search engine is among the most widely used search engines in the globe. The firm has captured the hearts of informati on-craving individuals searching the web for everything and anything in their imagination. The growth of the company has been tremendous, dominating the search engine market by more than 60% worldwide (Scott 2008:162). Additionally, the firm currently has a market capital approaching the 200 billion dollars mark, which economically suggests that the company is doing great. The company capitalizes on information technology strategies to expand its market share, including improvement of its unique search engine algorithm as well as knowledge management techniques (Dalkir 2005:122). This paper seeks to analyze the conceptual framework of Google’s strategies and the application of knowledge management concept in developing and sustaining the strategic capabilities and the competitive edge of the company. The research strategy focuses on the recent adoption of knowledge management techniques in the search engine, as well as other application like the new social network Google Plus . The paper utilizes materials from educative and scholarly articles, journals, and books. Conceptual Framework The success of Google in the web-based search engine industry is attributed to the adoption of knowledge management principles in its search technology. Knowledge management is a powerful tool that Google has incorporated at the centre of its search paradigm (Fernandez and Leidner 2008:81). The search technology design is in such a manner that it polls the collective judgment of many web creators to optimize its search results. Consequently, the company has created a multi-billion dollar business empire from super-targeted advertisements that give magazines and newspaper classified a run for their money. Google was a first-mover in the many/ordinary business model, leaving most of the other competitors on the few/expert model (Bottletree Books 2011:23). The company capitalizes on the fact that search results be ranked based on collective judgment. The search results improv e as more people conduct web search using their application, enabling Google to associate relevant contents with keywords. Findings and Analysis The development of search engines began in early 1990s with aims of facilitating

Organized Crime: The Social Perspective

Organized Crime: The Social Perspective Regardless of which form of organized crime takes place, abundantly clear organized crime is showing no signs of slowing down or even being remotely under control. The continued growth and diversification of organized crimes continues to be a major problem for law enforcement and for law abiding citizens as a whole. Organized crime existed even before there was any real understanding of it as something distinctive. After all, organized societies breed organized crime. To an extent, this reflects the greater opportunities in such environments; to an extent, it is acknowledged as more effective state law enforcement develops. Thus, classical Rome suffered from organized and crossborder smuggling, protection racketeering, and piracy, while the pirates of the Spanish Main were part of a relatively complex transnational criminal economy. In western Europe, organized crime began to emerge at the time of the Renaissance, especially in Italy and Netherlands, themselves the cradle of the new, organized society. In China, secret societies had been operating as criminal enterprises throughout the history of the empire. However, the twentieth century saw a phenomenal growth in the scope, power, and effectiveness of organized crime as the state became increasingly powerful and intrusive. In particular, the more states try to control particular commodities and services they consider dangerous and immoral or apply taxes or regulations that drive up costs, the more they create markets for organized crime. Thus, Prohibition in the United States in the 1920s and early 1930s, the more limited Soviet anti-alcohol campaign under Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, and the illegalization of narcotics throughout the world all contributed dramatically to the markets and thus profits for organized crime. Social institution is a group or organization that has a particular purpose, goal, or task, and accomplishes the successful completion of this goal, purpose, or task by influencing and persuading individuals in a community to participate, and assist with achieving this objective. Social institution applies to organized crime in numerous ways. According to Warren (1973), criminal organizations develop in geographical locations that display a portion of individuals residing within the jurisdiction desire a product criminal organization is offering. This is crucial as it allows the organization to successfully produce, distribute, and consume the product (University of Phoenix, 2010). In addition, criminal organizations focus on a communitys social structure, control the community has socially on its members, and the level of participation each community member has among the rest. Moreover, criminal organizations form tight-knit relations with legitimate businesses and owners willing to participate in the organizations success (University of Phoenix, 2010). The alien theory states individuals involved with organized crime in Sicily and Italy had produced criminal organizations known as the Sicilian Mafia or Costra Nostra. These individuals migrated to the United States in an attempt to escape detection and apprehension by law enforcement in their own country, and to take advantage of the numerous opportunities that existed within the United States both legally and illegally. once in the United States these groups of individuals developed, organized, and operated numerous criminal organizations, carried out minor and serious criminal offenses; and were believed by many professionals and Americans to have been the primary cause for the establishing a criminal culture (osmosis, 2003). The social control theory asserts that an individual who is involved with a community and has strong family relations will be less likely to engage in illegal activity than those who do not. If an individual is capable of establishing a positive rapport with community members, becomes involved and participates in community programs, such as youth, elderly, religious-spiritual, and anti-crime, the individual will most likely refrain from engaging in criminal activity or at the very least consider the consequences of a criminal act prior to committing the act (Psychological Glossary, 2010). The differential association theory considers ones social group and environment as the fundamental explanation for ones criminal behavior and the formation and joining of criminal organizations. An individual who socializes with a group or other individuals who have a history with the legal system or who engage in illegal activity are at an extremely high-risk to conform to the norms of that particular social sub-group. A prime example is a teenager who becomes involved in delinquent criminal behavior and activity as a result of peer pressure. These juveniles are susceptible to withdrawing from school, joining criminal organizations, such as street gangs, and experimenting with illegal substances and alcohol, all of which continues the juvenile down a path of addiction, career criminality, and a long criminal history into adulthood (Sutherland, 1978). The strain and anomie theory believes that individuals who engage in criminal activity do so as a result of wanting a piece of the American dream or to obtain materialistic items of value. A majority of individuals within the United States never experience the luxury of owning a fancy vehicle, house, business, or property. Most individuals residing in the United States are forced to work labor intensive jobs, receive a low paying wage, are parents who must provide and support families, such as children, and do so through legal means. Unfortunately, the desire to achieve items of value, provide a better life for ones children, such as the purchasing of school cloths, vacations, and after-school activities can force one to conduct illegal business for the purpose of gaining an additional income (Agnew, 2007). The empirical and speculative theories discussed throughout this paper, such as the alien, social control, differential association, and strain and anomie theories can assist researchers, society, professionals, and law enforcement with understanding the elements that exist in different criminal organizations and criminal behavior. Each theory is supported by research, statistics, strong arguments, and facts that can be used by law enforcement in numerous ways. Theories as such display characteristics and mannerisms common in criminal behavior, along with what geographical locations are susceptible to the development of criminal organizations and activity. Furthermore, jurisdictions, in which its citizens are antisocial prove to be breeding grounds for many types of criminal wrongdoing that exists.

Legislative Influence on the Economy :: essays research papers

Legislative Influence on the Economy Throughout history, there have been instances of the government affecting the economy, be it with the B.U.S. or with the Fair Labor Standards Act, the government has played an important role in our economy. The government rescued the United States from the Great Depression by increasing demand and lowering taxes. During the 80’s, the United States was forced into a recession that threatened to destroy the economy. Both instances were due to intervention of the government to the economy. Most of the government intervention is done by subsidy, which is a form of economic aid to assist a private enterprise, but a good deal is also done by legislation. There are many areas in which the government influences the economy through legislation. One area influenced by legislation is business. Calvin Coolidge said, â€Å"The business of America is business.† The government has seen to it that it is fair with this. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, several bills focusing on breaking up the trusts were passed with unanimity. It began with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This Act outlawed and restraint on trade or competition, and caused the breakup of the Standard Oil trust into twenty different companies. Another area where legislation has been used to help control the economy was in trade. With the breaking up of large trusts and monopolies with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, A group had to be able to enforce the new laws, and so in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission Act was passed, months before the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was passed to fill in the gaps left by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. With all of these new companies sprouting up, an increase in the number of jobs occurred, but it is no surprise that workers were not being paid fair wages, and so in the area of labor, the government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This act created the way by which everybody works today. A minimum wage, 40- hour work week, and control of child labor. This legislation itself was invoked by large labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), both of which sought to improve working conditions and wages through negotiations with employers. One overdue act was the Meat Inspection Act, largely influenced by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. The act was passed in 1960, long overdue considering the circumstances.

Leading Supply Chain Turn Around

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

Passage from Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Research Paper Example

Passage from Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Research Paper Example Passage from Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Paper Passage from Mark Twains The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Paper it makes it easier for us to believe that it is Huck an uneducated young man that is telling the story, instead of Mark Twain himself. This does not mean that Mark Twains own personality and opinions do not shine through. Huckleberry Finns naivety and lack of education make him the perfect tool for Twain, who uses him to poke fun at various aspects of 19th-century American society. In the extract, Huck is marvelling at the quality of Emmeline Grangerfords poetry, saying [i]f Emmeline Grangerford could make poetry like that before she was fourteen, there aint no telling what she could a done by-and-by. Earlier in chapter XVII, the reader is served a sample of Emmelines poetry, the Ode to Stephen Dowling Bots, Decd. , which is mediocre at best, and incredibly melodramatic. It becomes obvious that while Hucks admiration is genuine, Twain is being satirical and holds that kind of literature in contempt. The character of Emmeline Grangerford is based on a poet called Julia A. Moore (Hess: 2003a; Blair: 1996). Moore was known as the sweet singer of Michigan and wrote dreadful poetry. When Huck says she could write about anything you choose to give her about, just so it was sadful, it is an obvious reference to Julia Moore. Some of Moores subjects of choice were deaths of neighbours, deaths of neighbours children, heroic soldiers being killed in the Civil War (Blair: 1996) Mark Twain counted Moore amongst his favourite poets because she was always able to make him laugh. She tried very hard to make her poems as sad and tragic as possible, but in the end, they turned out funny, just as Emmelines tributes did. Twain is not only making fun of Julia Moore: he is attacking the whole movement of romanticism. Romantic gothic works such as Edgar Allan Poes poetry and Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow were popular in Victorian America. Death and mourning were subjects that were often written about in Romantic literature, and were treated in an overdramatic, histrionic manner. Emmeline Grangerfords horrible poetry serves as a caricature of Romantic literature and shows how Mark Twain really felt about it. Twain was more of a realistic writer, and preferred to describe events and people as they truly were. His use of the vernacular, which I have mentioned earlier, amplifies the feeling of reality the reader gets while reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Romantic literary works were written in a very formal style, with many superfluous adjectives and adverbs. Twain cuts out anything unneeded, and focuses instead on the storyline, on dialogues, and on the relationships between characters. At one point in the extract, Huck says that after once, Emmeline hung fire (hesitated) on a rhyme in one of her tributes. Because of this, the undertaker got to the dead body before her, and Emmeline arnt ever the same, after that; she never complained, but she kind of pined away and did not live long. Emmeline used too much time on her poem and she could not recite it in front of the dead person. Twain is insinuating that this made her so upset that it killed her. This can mean two things: either that Emmeline was extremely narcissistic, or that she was too sensitive for her own good. It seems like Twain is using Emmeline to represent the mass of Romantic authors. One can probably assume that he is accusing Romantic writers of taking themselves, and life, too seriously. Later in the passage, Huck feels sorry that Emmeline does not have her own tribute, and tries to write a couple of verses about Emmeline. For some reason, he [can]t seem to make it go somehow. It is evident that Huck feels very sorry for Emmeline, and truly cares about her and her family: I liked all that family, dead ones and all, and warnt going to let anything come between us. I believe that Mark Twain is saying that Romantic writers are phony, or, at least, writing about fake emotions. Hucks feelings about the Grangerfords are genuine. The naivety and childlikeness of Huck do not allow him to pretend he is feeling anything he is not, and therefore, he cannot write anything like Emmelines poetry. Huck also mentions that Emmelines pictures had been aggravating him, something which further proves that Huck is definitely not a Romantic. He is horrified at the macabre elements in Emmelines art. The Romantic movement was very present in Victorian America, and not only in literature. When Huck says: The neighbors said it was the doctor first, then Emmeline, then the undertaker Twain is really telling the reader about the attitude a lot of people had about death around that time. In Puritan America (17th-18th century), people welcomed death, because it was a way out of the hardships of life. On the other hand, they feared its consequences: death was a passageway into a world which could be immeasurably better, or, if one were not among the chosen ones, unbearably worse. (Hess: 2003b) In the 19th century, the Romantic movement came to America from Europe, and people started seeing death in a very different way. By reading Romantic literature, people became increasingly fascinated with death and the mystery that surrounds it. Death was a big part of these peoples lives, and they confronted it head-on. Taking pictures of dead people in their coffins was extremely common in America in the 19th century (Hess: 2003c). Emmeline is a product of her time: she wishes to see death, to write about it, and to draw pictures about it (as described earlier in Chapter XVII). Therefore, when somebody dies, she is very quick to arrive on the scene. It is not specified how long ago Emmeline died, but the family is obviously still in mourning: They kept Emmelines room trim and nice and all the things fixed in it just the way she liked to have them when she was alive, and nobody ever slept there. Mourning was a very important part of life in Victorian America, and would last for years (Hess: 2003d). Twain seems to be writing about this to further define the Grangerfords as Romantics. Huck touches on the subject of slavery near the end of the passage. He mentions that the Grangerfords own many slaves, and also that the old lady Grangerford spends a lot of time reading her Bible in Emmelines room. Mark Twain is drawing attention to a paradox: how can slave owners consider themselves Christians, when they are buying and selling human beings as if they were animals? Huck seems oblivious to this contradiction, at least for the time being. He is casually stating facts, and does not seem disturbed by them. He is even wondering why the niggers do not clean Emmelines room. This may seem strange to the reader, since Hucks best friend is a runaway slave. I think that Twain is denouncing the indifference of the American people to slavery. It is so common to own slaves in the South before the Civil War that most White people fail to see the great injustice that is being done. HReligion was central in Victorian America, and people prided themselves on attending Church regularly and being able to recite passages of the Bible. Yet many of these people owned slaves, and throughout the whole novel, Twain shows the reader many Christians doing ungodly acts. By doing so, he is attacking hypocritical Christians. He is saying that Christianity is not about keeping up appearances, but about doing onto others as you would have them do onto you. In the last paragraph of the extract, Huck resumes describing the parlour, something he had started to do earlier in Chapter XVII. Huck has never really lived in a house, apart from the Widow Douglas house, which was simple and sparsely furnished. Therefore, Huck is really impressed at the Grangerfords house, which is lavishly decorated, with beautiful curtains and pictures of castles with vines all down the walls . Mark Twain is deliberately making the Grangerfords house look as tacky as possible, to mock the Victorians taste. It was typical for people at that time to pretend they were wealthier than they really were, by decorating their homes in an exaggerated manner, with objects that seemed expensive. They did so because they aspired to a higher status in society. Twain is poking fun at this, and implying that they are not fooling anybody, except very naive people such as Huckleberry Finn. In conclusion, this passage deals with a lot of important subjects, such as slavery and religion. These are also approached in other chapters. The main theme in this particular extract is Romanticism and Twains dislike of it. Twain is using the naive, wide-eyed Huckleberry Finn to mock the 19th-century American society and its exaggerated emotionalism. He is suggesting that this society is phony and that Huck is probably better off uncivilised. To make Huck more credible as an uneducated and young narrator, Twain writes in a Southern vernacular dialect. This also makes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn stand out from other literary works published in the 19th century, which were written in a much more formal kind of American English.

Overview and Explanation of an Alford Plea

Overview and Explanation of an Alford Plea In the law of the United States, an Alford plea (also called a Kennedy plea in West Virginia)Â  is a plea in criminal court. In this plea, the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence, but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty. Origin of the Alford Plea The Alford Plea originated from a 1963 trial in North Carolina. Henry C. Alford was on trial for first-degree murder and insisted that he was innocent, despite three witnesses who said they heard him say he was going to kill the victim, that he got a gun, left the house and returned saying he had killed him. Although there were no witnesses to the shooting, the evidence strongly indicated that Alford was guilty. His lawyer recommended that he plead guilty to second-degree murder in order to avoid being sentenced to death, which was the likely sentence he would receive in North Carolina at that time. At that time in North Carolina, an accused who pled guilty to a capital offense could only be sentenced to life in prison, whereas, if the accused took his case to a jury and lost, the jury could vote for the death penalty. Alford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, stating to the court that he was innocent, but only pleading guilty so that he would not receive the death penalty. His plea was accepted and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Alford later appealed his case to federal court, saying that he was coerced into pleading guilty out of fear of the death penalty. I just pleaded guilty because they said if I didnt, they would gas me for it, wrote Alford in one of his appeals. The 4th Circuit Court ruled that the court should have rejected the plea which was involuntary because it was made under fear of the death penalty. The trial court verdict was then vacated. The case was next appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that for the plea to be accepted, the defendant must have been advised that his best decision in the case would be to enter a guilty plea. The Court ruled that the defendant can enter such a plea when he concludes that his interests require a guilty plea and the record strongly indicates guilt. The Court allowed the guilty plea along with a plea of innocence only because there was enough evidence to show that the prosecution had a strong case for a conviction, and the defendant was entering such a plea to avoid this possible sentencing. The Court also noted that even if the defendant could have shown that he would not have entered a guilty plea but for the rationale of receiving a lesser sentence, the plea itself would not have been ruled invalid. Because evidence existed that could have supported Alfords conviction, the Supreme Court ruled that his guilty plea was permitted while the defendant himself still maintained that he was not guilty. Alford died in prison in 1975. Implications Upon receiving an Alford plea from a defendant, the court may immediately pronounce the defendant guilty and impose sentence as if the defendant had otherwise been convicted of the crime. However, in many states, such as Massachusetts, a plea which admits sufficient facts more typically results in the case being continued without a finding and later dismissed. It is the prospect of an ultimate dismissal of charges which engenders most pleas of this type. Relevance In the law of the United States, an Alford plea is a plea in criminal court. In this plea, the defendant does not admit the act and asserts innocence, but admits that sufficient evidence exists with which the prosecution could likely convince a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty. Today Alford pleas are accepted in every U.S. state except Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey and the United States military.

Catholic magisterial teaching Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Catholic magisterial teaching - Essay Example Conscience guides man on what to do and what not to do and since it is the voice of God it will always lead us in doing what I righteous. God created all human beings in his own image, and He requires us to love him and also love our neighbours. With love, we will think well of others, with love we cannot kill, steal, take bribes or favour individuals based on either their race, ethnic group or any other classification. Conscience brings together people from different parts of the world in the search of the truth hence strengthening their social relationships, and more so creates peace and coherence. It is through these interactions and conscience that people develops norms of morality that guide them no matter their geographical location and hence in the long run the whole world is united and guided by laws that uphold respect for others. In conclusion, it is evident that these teachings from the Gaudium et Spes are critical if put into place. They will increase peace and love for o thers and remove selfishness and hence will lead to equitable distribution of wealth and access to employment as human beings see each other as being equal and important in the eyes of God (Paul VI Ch. 1). The church and other Christian organization should continue to act as patrons to the poor. According to the Gaudium et Spes Chapter 4 Section 42, it is the role of the church to create works like charity to benefit the poor people in the society. The aim of the church is to unite the human race, and this can only be achieved by addressing the particular needs of the people. The church also aims at doing what is useful to other people, and this creates an obligation of meeting the needs of the poor people in the society. The church emulates Christ and in bringing unity and strengthening of the human family and this can only be achieved by meeting the needs of the members. The church believes that the social

The Role Of Morality In Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Role Of Morality In Society - Essay Example Among the theories used include normative or rather ethical theories while deciding on how an action is likely to implicate a society such as utilitarianism. This refers to the application of reasoning while taking use of the senses. One thus makes his own judgment based on how he’s likely to benefit from his action. Some may however be driven by greed thus implying their action may never replicate positivity to the society. The society however has its own view owing to believe that actions done ought to as well be meaningful to the wider society (Gray, 2010). Discrimination is thus rarely championed during its application. Philosophers however tried to justify their own ideologies regarding this issue rarely agreeing at some point. One would agree with this point moral decision made rarely equated or rather meant the action implemented was right. Thus the outcome realized mattered as it too had the ability to signify its intensity whether it was of merit. A lot can be derived from this theory; owing to its ability to bar men from resulting to, bad tendencies such as killing, stealing and other evil. In order to curb the vice leaders ought to be courageous while educating people on their rightful place in society on their rite thus acting as a form of empowerment. While doing so any activity likely to harm their well being is discouraged and could be useful when cautioning societies from practicing immoral behavior rarely adding value to the society (Gert, 1988). Aristotelian Ethical Virtues A cording to Aristotelian ethical virtues was likely to be made up of two distinct parts. In one of his perception he argued that the ultimate thing was to attain happiness at an individual level. This thus compelled people to embrace good behavior likely to lead to its materialization. One however needed to keep observing certain habits. People’s attitudes were also likely to dictate their behavior. During certain situations some are likely to be compelled to act differently than it could be the norm; while experiencing peace it’s unlikely to see a nation result to attacking another but could be compelled in a situation of war. Such an action is simply due to the need for security. His perception was however limited now that it rarely had the big picture of the other population in mind; rather it was based on self gratification thus leading to selfishness now that their interest were never captured (Nussbaum, 1987). Pleasure was central in his light but rarely does it add value to life owing to the plight of pleasure lovers at times dying poor while pursuing their ambition. Rules were thus rarely used while arriving at morally accepted norms when such a theory is applied. He however also spearheaded a notion on the importance of balance which in this case avoided extremes thus making it a general rule. Unrelenting effort demonstrated by players while striving at development have aided in bringing about a transformation. As a resu lt amenities are set and given a high priority while the solo aim is to ensure value addition to the surrounding communities some of which may have been disadvantaged. Factors leading to such development could be due to there being little resources yet they too ought to be well managed to facilitate a transformation. This calls for both government and the private sector cooperation while coming up with formidable policies to aid in attaining such an objective. While may be