Renaissance Dbq

Renaissance was a time of rebirth of the studies of the Greeks and Romans, as well as the start of new ideas. Some ideas that were created in the Renaissance include: individualism, secularism and humanism. Individualism was the concept of the individual and the belief to be able to reach the best of its abilities. Secularism is enjoying worldly affairs, which took after the Roman’s epicureanism. Lastly, the concept of humanism which is the study of human nature. All three of these ideas were ideal to the purposes and values of education throughout the Renaissance.These ideas were useful to the people as well as caused them damage. Thus, education and its purposes and values were argued hotly throughout the Renaissance. Some of the main arguments were education for upper class, education for all, and criticizing education over all. Some Renaissance men argued that education should be for the upper class or people who wish to attempt to be part of the upper class. They believed the upper class was the only people that needed an education since they were at the top.Some men who believed this were Castiglione, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, and John Amos Comenius. Castiglione wrote a book to the courtiers describing how a courtier should behave. This book, The Courtier, was used by upper class for three hundred years to teach their kids about manners and behaviors. Castiglione suggests that a courtier should be well-rounded in his studies and be â€Å"passably learned in the humanities, in the Latin poets, orators and historians† (Doc. 3). Compared to a lower class male, Castiglione believes the upper class needs more education.Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was an Italian humanist who later became pope. He describes that education is needed on high class, especially a prince or any ruler (Doc. 1). John Amos Comenius stressed the importance of education and university; which, back then, university was more for the upper class since they can afford it. He be lieved the only useful education was university (Doc. 13). As more time passed by, the percentages of justices of the peace who attended university increased. More men started getting an education and becoming part of the upper class.Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian statesman and historian. When he was young he never took education seriously, but as he grew older he regret it and wished he paid more attention. He talks about that if he had a great education he could have â€Å"opened the way to the favor of princes and sometimes to great profit and honor†. He believed that if he had a great education he could have been in the upper class (Doc. 6). This shows that many people argued strongly about the purpose and value of education was for the upper class or to attempt to be part of the upper class.Other Renaissance men believed that education should be for all. This idea was practiced more in the Northern Renaissance than the Italian Renaissance but it was still used in both. An example of Northern Renaissance men that hold this idea would be Desiderius Erasmus and a man from the School Ordinances. He wrote the Praise of Folly which was a satire against the church. Erasmus was also known for his strong belief in education and institution (Doc. 4). A man from the School Ordinances believed everyone should go to school so they can learn discipline and to be afraid of god.I think this view point is strange since this man is telling this to a pastor and a pastor wouldn’t like the idea of teaching kids to be afraid of god (Doc. 7). Examples of Italian Renaissance men who hold this idea would be Battista Guarino. Battista Guarino believed learning and training in virtue is the true meaning of humanist and that this property pursuits all of mankind (Doc. 2). The values and purposes of education was to reach a wider variety and attempt to give education to all. Lastly, another group of Renaissance men argued intensively that the values and purposes of Renaissance education was useless and pointless.John Brinsley was an English schoolmaster and he believed that when adolescents went to school, they â€Å"have little sense of the meaning and true use of learning†. He claims that all they know is how to write in Latin which â€Å"no one will want to read† (Doc. 10). In a letter from an unknown man to the Parlement of Dijon, he says, â€Å"the study of literature is appropriate only to a small minority of men† (Doc. 11). He goes on to say that more hard-working bodies are needed than dreamy and contemplative spirits. Michel de Montaigne was a French essayist and politician.He called the educational system absurd and accused the cause of the selection of books was due to which one sounds the best not which one has the best facts (Doc. 8). John Amos Comenius believed education was pointless until university. He stressed the importance of education in university, which was usually the upper class who went to univ ersity. He criticized and emphasized the unimportance of education before university greatly (Doc. 13). The values and purposes of education were discussed and argued greatly throughout the Renaissance.The main arguments were education for upper class, education for all, and criticizing education over all. Castiglione, Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, and John Amos Comenius believed strongly in education for upper class. Desiderius Erasmus, a man from the School Ordinances, Battista Guarino believed in education for all. Lastly, John Brinsley, Michel de Montaigne, and, once again, John Amos Comenius criticized the education system strongly. All three topics are only a few of the many values and purposes of the education during the Renaissance.

Core Business Skills

1. 0 INTRODUCTION This particular assignment's aim is to discuss the application of the strategic management process in a retail industry. I have chosen Starbucks Coffee as my food and beverage industry to research on, and to thoroughly explain the strategic management process implied by them. Starbucks Coffee Company was founded by English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker back in year 1971 Seattle, Washington. Starbucks Coffee Company is known as the world's leading coffee retailer, roaster and last but not least brand of specialty coffee.Apart from providing only coffee, Starbucks Coffee also cater light snacks like sandwiches, delicious pastries, healthy salads and etc. Since Starbucks Coffee is the world's leading brand in coffee, they serve up to 35 million customers from all over the world weekly. Because of their great reputation, they have successfully opened up to 17,000 stores worldwide. The company's mission statement is to ‘ inspire and nurture human spirit'. Firstly, Starbucks Coffee focus to provide a ‘great work environment' to their members so that they are treated with ‘respect and dignity'.Secondly, Starbucks Coffee also believes that conducting business ethically is the main key to be successful in a business. As a worldwide and leading-brand company, Starbucks Coffee insists strongly on upholding a culture where diversities are well valued and respected. These diversities include ‘inclusion: human connection and engagement', ‘equity: fairness and justice', ‘accessibility: ease of use and barrier free' so that employees with diverse background are fairly treated and respected to ensure a comfortable and enjoyable workplace (www. starbucks. com 2011). . 0 Strategic Analysis 2. 1 Internal Analysis 2. 1. 1 Strength: One of the main strength possesses by Starbucks Coffee is the strong brand image they have. In terms of the coffee industry, they are considered to be most reputable compared to Coffee Beans, Gloria Jeans, and other competitors among the industry. Starbucks Coffee manage to prove themselves as a highly resorted brand by getting rated as the top 100 most seeked after brand. Apart from having a high brand value, Starbucks Coffee has managed to globalise their target market in to all parts of the world.This opens up the opportunity for Starbucks themselves to monopolise the foreign market as well. 2. 1. 2 Weaknesses: No matter what industry a firm is in, they will face certain weaknesses that they have to always try to improve on. As for Starbucks Coffee, one of their main weaknesses is the product price. In many countries, Starbucks Coffee is considered as a premium product where the prices of their products are higher compared to other coffee shops (Lee S, 2007). Another weakness that Starbucks Coffee has is that they are too focused in their domestic market which is the United Stated of America.This will lead Starbucks Coffee into a vu lnerable position where it is hard for them to predict unforeseen changes in the industry's market at other countries. 2. 2 Stakeholders in Starbucks Coffee: Stakeholders in Starbucks Coffee includes all the workers which are known as partners. This is because Starbucks Coffee wants to create an environment where all their employees would feel comfortable and relaxed (Kembell B, 2002). The second stakeholders for Starbucks Coffee Company would be their highly valued customers. These customers play an important role in Starbucks Coffee because they are the ones who visit the coffeehouse almost everyday.In order to feel connected to Starbucks Coffee, customers can easily hear and engaged with the employees and products of Starbucks anytime, anywhere (Hanft A, 2005). The other crucial stakeholder in Starbucks Coffee will be their coffee farmers. These coffee farmers are actually the backbone to Starbucks Coffee because Starbucks rely mainly on coffee products. In order to uphold the so cial and economic well-being of their coffee farmers, they have decided to pay a premium price for high quality coffee beans from them (Robertson H, 2006). 2. 3 Core Competencies:As we all know, core competencies in any industry is actually their comparative advantage. As for Starbucks Coffee, one of their core competency is human resource. Firstly, Starbucks Coffee is a company that values their employees greatly. Starbucks shows their appreciation to their employees by giving them the opportunity to receive full healthcare benefits, stock options/discounted stock purchase plans (Weber G, 2005). Starbucks Coffee's tangible resources will be their high-quality coffee beans called the Narino Supremo Beans. The Narino Supremo Beans have the highest quality and is the largest bean in Columbia (www. melita. om, 2011). In a recent report, it is said that the president of the Columbia;s National Federation of Coffee Growers have confirmed the purchase of 6 to 7 percent of Starbucks shares (Castaneda S, 2009). This shows that Starbucks Coffee has sole ownership over the high quality beans which is an advantage for them. Starbucks Coffee has a good reputation and is well accepted throughout the world. This reflects on their intangible resources to attract customers. Having a good brand name, friendly employees and high quality coffee beans are the main traits possessed by Starbucks Coffee. 2. 4. 0 External Analysis 2. 4. 1 OpportunitiesStarbucks has always use their opportunities to expand their business in to a whole new level. Firstly, Starbucks has created an opportunity for themselves to expand their brand name to foreign countries. It is reported that Starbucks are planning to open up to 15,000 new stores across the world in the years to come (Datamonitor, 2005). Apart from that, Starbuck's technological advancements has given them a good opportunity to conveniently distribute products to customers through the internet. Starbucks has also equipped all their loung es with WiFi services to accommodate their valued-customers to boot (Elgan M, 2008). . 4. 2 Threats One of the threats that will be faced by Starbucks coffee is the price fluctuation of diary and coffee products. The price of theese products can also be affected by the income levels of customers in upcoming or developing country as goods over there are highly inflated (Pinkasovitch A, 2011). In every industry that we are in, there will always be competitors trying to penetrate the market . Competitors for Starbucks Coffee would be other coffehouses that sells coffee. Coffeebean, San Francisco Coffee, and Gloria Jeans are direct competitors for Starbucks. 2. 5 PEST Analysis 2. 5. 1 Political Factor:One of the political factors that posses as a major issue for Starbucks is the unstability of political issues that would directly affect the growth rate of Starbucks Coffee. From a recent report, it says that up to five Arab states have decided to boycott American goods with their primary target being Starbucks Coffee shops (Antievil, 2008) 2. 5. 2 Economic Factor: Apart from that, Economic factor is also a very important matter to look into when executing a strategic analysis. One of the economical problems that affected Starbucks was the recession in Switzerland, Japan and Germany in the early 2000s.In a more recent report, the Company had revealed a 70% drop in their quarterly profits to only $64. 3m. Apart from that, they are also planning to close down up to 300 stores (Clark A, 2009). 2. 5. 3 Social Factor: Starbucks has always prioritise on their social issues and responsibilities. Starbucks always participated in upholding the importance of the environment. A move by Starbucks to create a partnership with the Conservation International, mainly to put their attention on environmental protection such as waste reduction and energy and water saving programs (David, 2009).A move like this proves that Starbucks are cautious about the social responsibilities. 2. 5. 4 Technology: In terms of technology, Starbucks has always been up to date. All of Starbuck's outlets are fitted with Wi-Fi services. Another move to be technologically involved will be the creation of music CDs that will suit the specific moods of customers. They are available for purchase at any Starbucks outlet (Lodi K, 2006). 2. 5 Porter's Five Forces Framework: The Porter's Five Forces framework is applied to go in to a more in depth analysis of an industry.The five forces usually includes industry competitors, new entrants, suppliers, customers, and substitutes. In all industries, companies will have to face strong competitors in order to dominate the markets. For Starbucks, their main rivalries would be Coffee Bean, San Francisco Coffee, and other coffee lounges that falls into Starbuck's category. They do not only compete domestically, but also internationally. Sometimes, rivalry from other industries can also be a threat. For example, McDonalds could pose as a threat to St arbucks because they are a fast-food chain yet they still provide coffee in their menu.They could be one of the strongest competitors for Starbucks to face (Gregory S, 2009). Another forces that Starbucks faces is the emergence of substitute products. Because Starbucks is a premium product, therefore their prouct prices are usually very high. During a recession, there is a high possibility that customers from Starbucks look for a substition to lower down their expenditure. Products like Coca-cola or Pepsi-cola could be one of the substitues for high quality coffee beans. However there is a big difference in the taste and smell when it is being consumed. Therefore the main substitute for Starbucks will be basic coffee.This will be a threat to Starbucks because they are an organisation that caters to high-income earners. One other factor that might affect an industry will be the customer's buying power. However, this depends on the organisation itself. If they are an attractive organi sation then the bargaining power of buyers will be low and poses no threat to the company. For Starbucks, the bargaining power of its buyers are low. Althought prices of Starbucks are high, customers still buy it because of its differentiated and outstanding products. The other forces that will directly affect an industry is the supplier's bargaining power.The supplier's bargaining power will rise when there is a rise in demand of the product that they supply. Starbucks could be facing this threat because they rely on central american to produce the coffee traded. Since there are more demand in high-quality beans, main suppliers will naturally have a stronger bargaining power. â€Å"An over-crowded market will give the coffee suppliers bargaining power. There are no substitute products for the coffee beans Starbucks must buy. This is a potential threat to the company,† (Hanft A, 2005). 3. 0 Strategy Formulation 3. 1 BusinessLevel StrategyFor all the industries, they have to c hose a business strategy that can successfully dominate the market. The formulation of this strategy is very crucial in a busines because it helps to find customers. One of the tools that can be used to formulate an industry's business level strategies is the porter's generic strategies. Starbucks uses the focused differentiated strategy derived by Michael Porter to run their business. As we all know, Starbucks is known as a food and beverage company. But to be specific, Starbucks is a food and beverage company that focuses on coffee brewing.They are well known for their high-quality beans and comfortable lounges. Starbucks chooses a segment to market their products to. This includes coffee fanatics and people who are looking for a place to relax. However, Starbucks caters their products to mostly high-income earners because their products are expensive. This shows that the focused differentiation strategy is used to seek their competitive advantage in the market through uniqueness of their products (Campling J, 2007). The advantage of Starbucks' focus on a single market can give them the chance to handle all managerial, financial, technological, and capabilities in one business.Starbucks has always been trying to come out with more creative and innovative products to be differentiated among their competitors. This has certainly made them the biggest winner in the coffee based industry (Guarriello T, 2008). Although the prices are high in Starbucks, they are very differentiated in terms of the coffee beans they use and they way the serve. This shows that the focus differentiation startegy that Starbucks uses is an effective way to attract customers since they are the world leading brand in its industry. Another way to formulate a business-level strategy in an industry is to apply the product life cycle method.The first stage of a product life cycle is introduction, followed by growth, maturity, and decline (Campling J, 2007). 3. 2 Corporate-level Strategy The corporate strategies are used by industries to direct their organisations towards a sustainable competitive advantage (Campling J, 2007). The main purpose for the use of this strategy is to set a target and control resources allocation for an enterprise. The first approach to formulate a corporate strategy is the portfolio planning approach. The portfolio planning approach are designed to help managers to decide on investing scare organisational resources among competing business opportunity.This straregy is very useful for multibusiness enterprises like Starbucks. Growth strategy can be used as one of the corporate level strategy to effectively expand and increase the size of a company's operations, through store expansion and global market penetration. In order for Starbucks to successfully expand their stores, it is required for them to have full concentration on their products (Campling J, 2007). Starbucks has been very aggressive in store expansion, this includes them opening u p to a dozen of stores in China in year 2007 (Yan Z, 2008).In addition to that, Starbucks has also put their main focus on diversifying their growth to other products. 4. 0 Strategy Implementation 4. 1 Organisation Structure: An enterprise's organisation structure is the mixture of task and reporting relationships that allows the company to control its lines of authority and communication at the same time allocating rights and duties. There are three types of organisational structures, the divisional structure, matrix organisation and hybrid structure. Starbucks has adopted the matrix organisation structure to focus on.All the employees in this firm would report to both a functional and divisional manager and lastly to a project manager. Failures of strategic planning happens most of the time. The most common strategic planning failures are failures of substance and failures of process. Failure of substance happens because there is inadequate attention being paid to major strategic planning elements. Failures of process will be caused by poor handling of strategy implentation like lack of participation error and goal displacement error. Therefore, the organisational structure in a company is very important to avoid unwanted uprising problems. . 2 Corporate Governance: The corporate governace is the system of control and performance monitoring of top management (Campling J, 2007). This task is usually done by the boards of directors, and other major stakeholder in the company. For Starbucks Coffee, they currently have 9 directors including the CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz. These directors of Starbucks are responsible for ensuring goals and objectives in the company are met. The directors are well aware of their responsibility to provide a stable managing process so that the company's goalds are met (www. starbucks. com). 4. Strategic Leadership Strategic management is a leadership responsibility. Whereas strategic leadership is the capability to prepare othe rs with the ever-changing strategies in the market. Michael Porter says that the strategic leader of an enterprise has to be the CEO of an organisation (Campling J, 2007). One of the most crucial task for a strategic leader is to be a guardian of trade-offs. Countless commitment and disipline has to be put in by a strategic leader in order for the business the be successful. Another trait that a strategic leader must posses is the ability to create a sense of urgency.By having a sense of urgency, the strategic leader is able to give out a strong message to its organisation and their members that the need for consistent improvementwill always persist. A strategic-chief will also have to ensure that everyone related to the organistion understands the strategy that they are using. Leaders in an organisations will have to keep their members updated with their latest business strategy. Furthermore, the task of a strategic leader also includes being a teacher and a good communicator. 5. 0 Conclusion 5. 1 Importance of Strategic Management In conclusion, strategic management involves many processes.This includes identifying the mision, objectives and strategies of an industry. Strategic management is very important for a business as it is used to derive the main strategy for your business. With good strategic manangement skills, leaders are able to adopt to the sudden change in the market and they can also prepare themselves to the different needs and wants of their customers. An industry with a good strategy will always be succesful. Strategic management can also be applied to analyse the internal and external environment of an industry which can give leaders of an industry a better understanding of the market.

Putting Christ Last Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Putting Christ Last - Article Example The man seems convinced, but he excuses himself to go and bury his father. In response, Jesus told him that the dead should bury their dead. Another man was too anxious to follow Christ, to the extent of openly portraying his willingness. However, his heart and volunteerism is blocked by the desire of minding about his relatives.1 The church members often put him as the last option; hence, the excerpt is very relevant to the modern Christianity. They first fulfil their life issues then Christ comes last. For example, one focuses on his or her needs prior to paying the tithes. Prayers are an issue, as people never have enough time to pray. Church attendance is also poor due to ‘unavoidable issues.’ All these aspects illustrate how the Christians have put Christ last. Even sinners put Christ last. They are fully immersed into sin and it remains difficult for them to come out of it. The pleasures of the world have made them not to have a resting place for Christ. They want to enjoy the pleasure of the world for a bit longer. They are at the epitome of peer pressure, fearing what their friends would comment if they turn to Christ. With reference to Luke 9:62, the segments of the population that fail to prioritize Christ in their lives should not be in the kingdom of God. If one fails to recognize Christ while, on earth, Christ will also fail to recognize that person in heaven. We ought to put God first; he is a jealous God and pleasures in those who put Him

Hammurabi's Code - An Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Hammurabi's Code - An Overview - Essay Example Various parts of the law were written in systematic way so that reading of the Code by the people was easily understandable and people could derive what was expected of them from the written laws. The code was inscribed upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly meant to be erected for reading by his people. This famous stone-carving was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, as some later victor must have taken it in victory. The code starts and finishes with calls to the gods. It shows how regard for gods was mandatory before reading a law code although the prayers were mainly curses for non-abiders of the law (Horne, 1915). The code commands in lucid and sure strokes the making of society. The judge who commits mistakes in a law case is to be ousted from his position and rank forever, and heavily penalized. The falsified witness is to be beheaded. In fact, all the serious crimes are awarded death. For instance, if a man const ructs a house poorly, and the structure comes down and kills the owner, the builder is to be beheaded. If the owner's son is killed, then the builder's son would be beheaded. The Hebrews imbibed from here the law of "an eye for an eye.† These serious retributive punishments do not count excuses or clarifications, but only of the truth--with one noticeable exception. An offender was permitted to drown himself into "the river," the Euphrates. Clearly, people were not familiar with swimming; if the waves brought the culprit to the river banks alive he was pronounced not-guilty, if he could not swim back he was declared guilty. It shows Hammurabi’s belief in the justice of the reigning gods, although a bit childishly, it was implanted in the minds of people (Horne, 1915). There are thousands of rulings of the ancient times based on Babylonian laws, the so-called "contracts," including a vast range of deeds, conveyances, bonds, receipts, accounts and, most critical of all, t he actual legal verdicts awarded by the judges in the law courts. It helped in conserving the so-called "Sumerian Family Laws† (Johns, 1911). One can not find any symptoms of tribal tradition from the law of the Code. It is a ruler’s law; similar to self-help, bloody fights, marriage by seizure is missing; though family unity, district duty, and difficult times – these ancient traits are visible. The king is a kind-hearted ruler who can be available to all his people, he is equally capable and ready to safeguard the oppressed against the noblest oppressor. The royalty can excuse such a high profile culprit only if there is no resentment among the people for the oppressor. The judges are regularly observed and appeal is permitted. There are feudal holdings, masters of the levy, and police. There exists a postal system. There is free movement by people from Babylon to the coast of the Mediterranean. Women hold a rank of respect and reverence in the Hammurabi code ( Johns, 1911). The Code did not just personify the customs of that time or safeguard ancient law. The law-abiding citizens and litigation had a record of centuries in the temple stores in each city, huge enough, of past decisions and copies of judicial awards, getting mixed with the city traditions. The ever-prevailing habit of writing and practice of written deeds even more

Financial Markets & Risk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Financial Markets & Risk - Essay Example According to this act, FSA is responsible for the authorisation and prudential supervision of banks and building societies. It is also responsible for the supervision of following agencies: It is also entrusted with the supervision of financial markets, securities listings and of clearing and settlement systems. At the same time, it may be responsible for conducting operations in response to problem cases influencing firms, markets and clearing and settlements systems under situation when the nature of the operations was agreed according to the provisions of the tripartite Memorandum. It is also responsible for regulatory policy in these areas, including that aimed with an objective to promote the resilience to operational disruption of authorised firms and Recognised bodies. It has also advisory responsibility and hence it should guide on the regulatory implications for authorised firms and recognised bodies of developments in domestic and international markets and of initiatives, both domestic and international level. Global financial problems may come at an unexpected intervals and hence they are equipped with necessary flexibility in their duties. For example, under exceptional circumstances FSA has responsibility to undertake official financial operations to limit the risk of problems in or influencing particular institutions spreading to other parts of the financial system. It should also ensure proper communication with standing Committees of the Bank of England and HM treasury to co-ordinate the response to a crisis. Like FSA, the Bank of England was also entrusted with huge responsibilities to bring financial stability in United Kingdom. The Bank of England is responsible for the predicting unforeseen challenges of the financial system as a whole. It also ensures the stability of the monetary system as part of its monetary policy functions. It should act in the markets to deal with fluctuations in

Thomas Paine on Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Thomas Paine on Religion - Essay Example His ideas about religion and its impact on social institutions and citizens, Thomas Paine expressed in the book The Age of Reason. The core of his teaching is deism and personal religion: â€Å"My own mind is my own church† (Paine 13). Thomas was born in Thetford on January 29, 1737. His parents lived in the small house on White Hart Street. A photograph of this cottage exists, but the building was torn down in the 1880's. In its place there stands a pretty garden and a fountain. The house had four or five rooms, one of which on the street level was used by Joseph as a shop. His father, Joseph Paine was a commonplace person (Kaye 72). He is described as placid and pious, industrious and poor (Kaye 74). In religious belief and practice he was a Quaker. He lived ten years in France, from 1792 to 1802, took part in the French Revolution and met thousands of Frenchmen, yet he never learned enough French to make a speech in that language, or to say anything at all except the few sentences that were needed in ordering food and commenting on the weather (Great Theosophists: Thomas Paine n.d.). In 1750, he was taken from school to be taught the trade of staymaking. It was a handicraft that required a fairly long apprenticeship. One had to learn the qualities of various fabrics, such as silk, linen and calico. Cutting the cloth was an operation that called for skill, for each pair of stays was an individual product. Tape measurements of the customer were made in the first place, and a pattern was laid out (Kaye 23). After nearly five years in his father's shop Tom Paine ran away. In 1756, he went away again and joined the privateer King of Prussia, commanded by a Captain Mendez. Paine would never say anything about it, but his attitude in respect to this particular exploit is not at all remarkable. He was as reticent about it as about everything that concerned his personal life. On March 26, 1771, he married Elizabeth Ollive. He was then thirty-four and she was ten years younger (Kaye 24). During 1770s, Paine played an active role in the political life of England: he joined officers in Parliament and published his first political article The Case of the Officers of Excise. In 1774, Paine came to America and devoted himself to the revolutionary cause. The most important fact is that Paine was the first author who wrote for the whole American public. During the first six months after its publication about one hundred thousand copies of Common Sense were sold (Larkin 29). His religious ideas and vision of an ideal society Paine expressed in the Agee of Reason. This work consists of three parts appeared in 1794, 1795 and 1807. The first part of the book was written when he was in good health, and without the aid of a Bible; it was meant to shock men into thinking, but compared to the second part it is a model of restraint. It was dedicated to "my Fellow Citizens of the United States," though he was evidently dubious of their enthusiasm for it" (Paine 45). Paine never overlooks an opportunity to humble aristocratic arrogance. He called men to practice the moral virtues, and the belief of one God Larkin 29). Excepting the violent Fundamentalists, no religious person would today be inflamed by reading it. It is ludicrous to suppose that a man of Paine's intense temperament would indulge in flippancy on the brink of eternity (Great Theosophists: Thomas Paine n.d.). The ink had barely dried on his work when the long-expected happened;

Advertising strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Advertising strategy - Assignment Example For example, the advertisements of Cadbury Dairy Milk often apply the strategy of recall and testing the memory of its viewer by making the purple color recognition with the brand. Similarly, Coca-Cola often uses this strategy with the use of red color. Coca-Cola used this strategy in painting walls with red color. This is an advertising concept which helps in understanding how a consumer reacts to the information provided by companies through advertisements. It helps companies to learn features of a brand (Yeshin). For example, ‘Nutrisystem’ a weight loss program developed advertisements which only focused upon providing ample amount of information in its advertisements so that their customers can make informed decisions. The advertisement reflected upon answering various questions regarding weight loss which makes a user informed and they learn about a certain product. Association refers to a concept that links a brand with characteristics and style of a particular personality (Yeshin). For example, Rolex advertisements reflect a certain type of class and prestige associated with its brand and not every person has the capability to afford the brand. Similarly, Apple product advertisements are targeting the similar audience and conveying a similar message. The concept focuses on developing intent of motivation and influences viewers to act something in return (Yeshin). For example, DiGiorno is maintaining a perfect job in enticing people to purchase and try their product. DiGiorno provides frozen pizzas and other similar products to their customers and in their advertisements they are influencing customers by showing three different plates of meals and also define calories that each meal contains. Despite the information provided to the customer he prefers pizza from DiGiorno that have high calories. The idea reflects the intent of influential approach. The concept reflects a mirror image about

My Cultural Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My Cultural Identity - Essay Example Culture on the other hand refers to the beliefs, language, norms, values, customs, diet, roles, dress, knowledge, and skills and other things that individuals learn that forms the way of life of any given community or society (Browne 31).The objective of this paper is to explore my personal cultural identity. Below is a diagram representing the elements of my cultural identity. I am a Caucasian Jews, who hails from the Jews community on the shores of Deal, New Jersey. All my family members are all Jews, and as such practice Judaism as a religion. What makes me a Jews is the fact that I was born to a Jewish family that is very religious and believe in the existence of one God. My family at all times has kept teaching me to emulate and practice Judaism as a religion. As a Jewish, I believe in Torah, a text which was given to the Israelites though Prophet Moses. At our place of worship, which is the known as the synagogue, one thing that one can never miss to find is the Hebrew Bible an d the Talmud. These are the two types of bibles that leaders (rabbis) read to the people. In fact, I have both the Talmud and a Hebrew Bible that was given to me by my parents to assist me follow the way of God. In terms of language, I am bilingual and as such speak both Hebrew and English. Hebrew in this case is the language usually spoken by my parents and grandparents who speak it very fluently. This is because this is the distinct dialects that a majority of us, as Jews speak, which we borrowed from our ancestors in Israel. Nevertheless, I have learnt how to speak English from my friends and at school where English is the dominant language used in teaching and social interaction based on the fact that US is a diverse country. In fact, at one time, I was at the verge of forgetting the Hebrew language but any time I come home or go for Sabbath, it is the Hebrew language that is mainly used something that has made me continue to learn of the language. For example, at Sabbath, all t he bibles used are written in Hebrew as our religion dictates. This implies that failure to understand the language is seen as a disobedience to our ancestors and cultural heritage. Nevertheless, some of my colleagues, who are also Jews, speak Russian fluently, probably because they originated from Russia. The fact that I speak Hebrew indeed distinguishes me from other Americans who speak a different language from Hebrew. My family is also very rich, something th at I see has made me whom I am today. Using the vast resources and wealth they posses, they were able to take me to a Jewish private school. At school, only the Hebrews that formed a majority of the students. Also, it was clear to me that almost every one of us came from a wealthy family something which is common among the Jewish people. In fact, after that, my parents decided to register me for a degree course, which I am currently pursuing. It is not only me who has attained this level of education but many people from th e Jewish community implying how much Jewish people value education. I believe that the first appearance that one sees of me are the cloths I wear on daily basis. As a Jews, my tradition spells out the kind of clothing that we are supposed to be wearing depending on different occasions such as Shabbat,

Finance and Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Finance and Accounting - Essay Example Joan expects each cashier to balance the drawer to the penny every time – no exceptions.I disagree. Joan should employ another employee to daily reconcile the amount in the cash register and cash in the drawer. Since, in our case, Joan expects cash to balance with no exceptions, the employee verifying the amount might overcharge some customers in case of any shortage. b. Joan caught an employee putting a case of 400 single-serving tea bags in her car. Not wanting to create a scene, Joan smiled and said, â€Å"I don’t think you’re putting those tea bags on the right shelf. Don’t they belong inside the coffee shop?† The employee returned the tea bags to the stockroom. I disagree. The employee is stealing from the stockroom which is an offense and Joan should have fired the employee or otherwise penalize the employee. Joan should install an inventory control that ensures stock is taken daily, and any shortage is would be easily detected. c. Jittery Coffee Shop has one cash register. Prior to Joan’s joining the coffee shop, each employee working on a shift would take a customer order, accept payment, and then prepare the order. Joan made one employee on each shift responsible for taking orders and accepting the customer’s payment. Other employees prepare the orders. I agree. Joan segregated duties among the employees. Segregation of duties is a strong internal control used by many companies. In our case, the employee taking orders is different from the one preparing the same orders. This ensures none or minimal cases of theft. Lasting Impressions Co. records all cash receipts based on its cash register tapes. Lasting Impressions Co. discovered during April 2012 that one of its sales clerks had stolen an undetermined amount of cash receipts when she took the daily deposits to the bank. The following data have been gathered for April: Theft should have been prevented by ensuring separation of duties. The Employee recording the cash receipt should be different from the person taking deposits to the bank. The company can also contract an independent party to be carrying out the reconciliation, as this will ensure easier detection of cash stolen. After a period of one month, the employee’s duties can be rotated. The company should be ensuring bank reconciliation is done frequently.

Women in Ancient Times Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Women in Ancient Times - Essay Example It was only when the Macedonians subjugated the Hellenistic world that the position of women became comparatively prominent and some were provided formal education just like what was given to the males of that era (Marrou 35). For Athenians, "citizenship" was significant, particularly after political restructuring was implemented and democratic transformations were in place. Being a citizen meant that an individual can own land, and when that person reaches the age of thirty, he can hold political office. Citizens could also have a voice in the ecclesia and they can cast their votes on all state affairs. Unfortunately, men were the citizens of Athens and all women were barred (Just 13). This segregation of women signified that women had no political rights, it likewise implied that they could not own land (something which represented power in the ancient world) and that they could never hold political office. In primeval Israel, as in most of the ancient world, marriage was the ultimate aspiration. Arranging marriages were the "in thing" of those times as parents exert effort in searching appropriate husbands for their daughters from the same tribe or from a neighboring village.In those ancient civilizations, the husband was compelled to sustain the needs of the wife, however, unlike their Athenian counterpart; Israeli women can keep their own property. In addition, during those olden days, it was understood that a married couple was in reality an economic partnership; if and when the man becomes insolvent or incapable of meeting his financial obligations, the woman will be sold into slavery along with him. Similarly, in that era, a woman's primary obligation (and considered to be her ultimate bliss) was to give birth, if possible to a son to carry on the man's name and ancestry. It was so important for a manto have a son that a recurrent ground for divorce---something that is not diffic ult to attain for a man---was a woman's incapacity to bear a child. In fact, in wealthy families, if the wife couldnot conceive, she could give her slave to her husband. The child produced from that union would provide the legal wife as much status as just like giving birth herself. In some circumstances where a married man died without leaving a son, the man's brother or the closest male relative, was anticipated to marry the widow; in this manner, she would have a husband to support her and still produce a son closely related to the dead husband and continue his lineage (Lualdi n.p.; Clancy-Smith 1-56). In Babylon, the most popular and the most comprehensive of the primordial Roman law codes was the Hammurabi.As one remembers, it was the Hammurabi Code which decreed that the one who demolishes the eye of another should have his own eye snuffed out as retribution and the one who murders another should himself be put to death, hence giving rise to the idiom "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In old Babylonia, women's position was comparatively elevated as they could be in possession of and become heirs to properties. In addition, a widow has lawful privileges to acquire and utilize her late husband's assets as long a she continues to live in his house; also, she has the right to leave and remarry, however, she could

Discussing Honour in Henry IV Essay Example for Free

Discussing Honour in Henry IV Essay There are differing concepts of honour throughout the play of Henry IV shown by different characters. There are two characters that depict extremes on each end of the scale, Hotspur (Henry Percy) and Falstaff. This essay will demonstrate the different types of opinions towards what honour is from each character and also give a comparison with examples for each. Hostpur, or Henry Percy, is the son of Northumberland and is a very fiery character with a short temperament and who is quick to jump to conclusions. His idea of honour lies purely on the battlefield and he believes that the only possible way honour can be measured is with the amount of battles won and opponents conquered. He certainly believes himself to be more honourable than any man and this may explain two things. Firstly it will explain his confidence about his fighting and military knowledge as well as his concept that his idea is always the right one. Secondly it may also explain his rudeness, brashness and sometimes complete disrespect when addressing others, especially those in royalty. He gives a good speech when talking to Worcester and Northumberland about his honour and how he has claimed it. By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale faced moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathomline could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks, So that he doth redeem her thence might wear, Without corrival, all her dignities. (209-15, I, iii) This is a great speech that clearly shows two things. Firstly it shows his disrespect when addressing others and his arrogance that comes with it. More importantly it shows that he believes honour can only be earned by doing an act of some kind of bravery. He gives an example of such a deed in the lines To pluck bright honour from a pale faced moon and also dive into the bottom of the deep. He is stating that in situations where there is a problem or where conditions are hard it takes an exceptional kind of man to go into these situations, conquer them and come out with respect and honour. The action of coming from such a situation with honour is depicted in the line pluck up drowned honour by the locks, so that he doth redeem her thence might wear. He is giving an analogy for two things; first the kind of situation at which bravery and courage is required and secondly the kind of person that will go into that situation and come out earning respect and honour. As he refers to these conditions as being battles he is clearly showing that only a man that can use the sword with skill is worthy of being honourable. Another quote from Hotspur underlines the fact that he feels honour can only be taken from situations where there is danger and risk. Send danger from the east unto the west, So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple! O, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare! (203-6, I, iii) This shows once again the conflict between two sides, this time denoted by positions on the compass, meeting and he feels there is more honour to be won with a great battle than a smaller one. Hence why he states the blood more stirs to rouse a lion than to start a hare! This again shows exactly how Hotspur feels about honour and the way in which it can be won. Another person who can be compared to being like Hotspur in this way is Douglas. He, just before the battle in the rebel camp, goes to the allies camp and gives them a call for battle as such by defying them in a ploy to start the confrontation. Finally, when Hotspur has fought Prince Hal and is dying, he states that he is more mortified and distraught about losing the titles and honour to his slayer than he is about dying in the physical sense. I better brook the loss of brittle life Than those proud titles thou hast won of me. They wound my thoughts worse than they sword my flesh. (78-80, V, vi) This shows that Hotspur has little respect for Hal as he is more hurt by losing the titles and honour he has won to someone of his nature than dying in itself. Hotspur is so self-contained in the idea of honour that he truly feels great pain in losing a battle to Hal, who he considers not to be as worthy as himself. This shows that although Hotspur has a very hard and manly idea of honour, it is not for attraction and he actually believes in what he says and fights for. He can almost be pitied for being so brave as his courage could sometimes be foolhardy. However, it would be interesting to ask Hotspur himself that why, as he considered himself so honourable, he chose to oppose the king, because that in itself is a crime against the country in treason and those that commit treason are punishable by the worst penalties and could be deemed as the people with the lowest amount of honour and most amount of shame. In a complete contrast, Falstaff, a drunken lout and thief, is on the other end of the range. He shows complete distaste and is dishonourable in his ways. He condemns the word of honour in his soliloquy at the end of Act V scene i. To summarise his speech he states that honour cannot heal a wound, nor pay back for a dismembered limb and is simply a word that carries no weight for the living nor the dead. He therefore disassociates himself from the concept and seems to do so with some pride and belief. This small but quite hard-hitting speech can account for his ways throughout his life. He lies continually, exaggerates stories to boast to his friends and is even caught out in his ways when Hal tricks him after he has robbed some people. All these acts and his way of life does not compare to perhaps his lowest and dirtiest manipulation of the situation when he acclaims responsibility for slaying Hotspur. Before this incident, when Hal and Hotspur are fighting, Douglas comes in and fights Falstaff. He falls down and pretends to play dead, which is a despicable piece of behaviour in itself that shows nothing but cowardice and lack of self-esteem and morale as well as a lack of honour. This leaves Douglas to go elsewhere and the Prince (Hal) and Hotspur to fight. Once Hostpur has died Hal goes off to find the King and show him what he has finally done, Falstaff arises and when the King returns he claims to have battled Hotspur after the Prince had gone and it was he himself who had killed the man. This is the height of ignorance and dishonour. It shows what a coward and scheming kind of person Falstaff really is and does a huge injustice to Prince Hal. It shows he is also a liar. His statement to the king reads:

Works Of Andy Goldsworthy

Works Of Andy Goldsworthy It is immediately evident that Goldsworthys works, in general, strongly accentuate texture and shape. Goldsworthy describes the working process as a tactile expression, implying the involvement of a multi-sensory extension of the body, a recurring artistic intention, especially through cues signifying touch and vision. For me, looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. This obsession with recurring forms in nature using different materials has a ritualistic edge, where the earthworks have lost the purpose and functionalism of the commercial product. This tactile gaze, used as the central way of identifying the object, is further evoked through the use of text. For example, in a photograph of a spherical ice ball positioned aside a bleak Autumn bridge, his texts connotes the image not only in terms of its visual impact but also the texture implied by its aural qualities: Stacked ice sound of cracking. The shape and texture of the river in the 1988-9 Leadgate and Lambton Earthworks symbolizes its sensual form in a way which still identifies it as relating to a river, but without the non-abstracted seamless visual art representation of a river. Goldsworthy describes this process: The snake has evolved through a need to move close to the ground, sometimes below and sometimes above, an expression of the space it occupies. Similarly, rather than use the language of signposts to designate a river (in its non-place), the use of more tactile cues reclaims the spectators newness of vision: in Auges words, the traveller (AG) is recapturing the landscape like it is the first journey of birththe primal experience of differentiation.While Auge asserts that non-places exist only through the words that evoke them, AGs words work to clarify the gaze rather than condense it to a unified vision. But what constitutes this gaze? When we refer to his earthworks, are we referring only to the symbolic object, or the whole space inside the photo frame? Like a travel writer, a heightened perception or rediscovery of the landscape is the central tenet of Goldsworthys working process: Some places I return to over and over again, going deeper- a relationship made in layers over a long time. There is a suggestion by AG that site or context affects and, to an extent, has a significant role in generating the features of his objects: When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around itThe energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within While the train, for Auge, is one of the greatest culprits behind the spectators fleeting vision of space, Goldsworthys immobilization and transposition of the train track and its practical function to a snaking in the Lambton earthwo rks?, is a way for AG to recapture the essence of the landscape, to shift its perceptual status from non-place to place: Staying in one place makes me more aware of change. However, part of this awareness is awareness that the land itself is fleeting and transforming according to environmental whim, and that the photograph merely represents a certain moment in a process. His emphasis on spontaneity and change according to environmental and climactic conditions, as well as his own sense of navigation, is significant because he is able to evoke the history of the object through capturing a synchronic moment in its processes. If we look at several of his works in which piles of material are neatly centred with a hollow hole, we sense their impermanence and a foreboding decay from seeing their present formal cohesion. A Cambridge earthwork with leaves is accompanied by this awareness in text, where a materialistic description of the object is transformed into a narrative of it: Torn Hole/horse chestnut leaves stitched with stalks around the rim/moving in the wind. Perhaps more than these smaller-scale earthworks, the earthworks in County Durham most forcefully use the concept of environmental process to allude to the movement of travel, not only through their obvious association with trains, but through the movement implied by the object, as ripples from a thrown stone. Freezing these processes is a way of reawakening the senses, by both seeing the object statically without moving too fast and by being aware of its continuing narrative, rather than being driven by the perpetual series of presents of those unrecognised non-places, exaggerated in Thomas Gurskys digital photos. According to Auge, the language of signposts etc. does not heighten the spectators perception of a place, but merely substitutes their relationship to it as a mere passing acknowledgement. Goldsworthys works seem to reclaim that historicity of the natural object that is lost in the immediacy of the commercial product, including the signs that describe and name features and punctuations in the land, trying to give it a sense of place. Challenging the prescriptions of discourse on our subjectivity, however, has always been a preoccupation in landscape art. Constables landscape paintings, for example, could represent a different challenge to the supermodern construction of landscape into a fleeting non-place, through his holistic, static, formalist and panoramic vision of the land. While Goldsworthy reconfigures the landscapes gaze beyond the static to an awareness of its morphology, materiality, unpredictability and precariousness, Constable and the landscape painters of the 18th century synchronized these natural irregularities, painting the clouds and sun simultaneously and consciously at different periods and freezing the movement of the Hay wain into a stance. In Goldsworthys work, therefore, landscape is no longer a site, implying static, but a process, implying diachronic, in which the object and its place are interdependent. Throughout the earthworks photographs and their accompanying text, two main interconnected subjectivities emerge, both of which seem threatened by the dislocation through the non-place: organic nature and Goldsworthy, who is simultaneously a conscious manipulator of natures autonomous processes as well as driven by the manipulations of nature itself. The larger scope of his County Durham Leadgate and Lambton Earthworks, encourages a more structural and slightly cartographic gaze. A disused railway track becomes the site for a snaking sand track photographed aerially alongside rows of monotonous houses. Their juxtaposition, their mutual encroachment on one another and the snaking imprints echo of movement, in one sense seem to re-establish the inter-dependency of urban structures and nature, and the similarities in the way we perceive them despite serving different functions. In this sense, it allows greater insight to its organic qualities by its association. In a technical sense, it could be argued that there is a tension between Goldsworthys organic creations and their technological control by the intrinsic features of the photograph. However, any hint of the artists exploitation, evoked in works such as Snowball in trees or in references to the name of the excavator driver in the Leadgate and Lambton Earthworks, is balanced out, in exchange, by their precarious existence in nature, where a rock could be precariously balanced on a boulder. This relationship between nature and its manipulations is significant because it represents a reappropriation of our relationship with those places, designated by the artists symbols rather than the symbols of industry with which individuals are supposed to interact only with texts, whose proponents are not individuals but moral entities or institutions. Goldsworthy navigates and finds his non-prescribed place, by being led by climactic and environmental factors rather than such moral entities. Auge defines non-place in detail against the anthropological concept of place, where the traveller occupies a non-communicative, solitary space with the language of ticket machines and train timetables. Accordingly, these public facilities and structures give the spectator an image of their individuality, or a distanced simulated familiarity, by discursively framing and displacing the gaze and the individual essence towards a simultaneous collective individuality, through the individualization of references. In contrast, by allowing the serendipitous influence of nature to produce a unique result on each object, each of the processes in the Earthworks produces individual objects, which, not over-prescribed by images and signs, evolve in partial autonomy.

Four basic characteristics of a successful strategy

Four basic characteristics of a successful strategy 2.1.1 What is Strategy? So, what is strategy? Or, better, what it is not? According to Grant (2005) strategy is not a detailed plan or program of instructions; it is a unifying theme that gives coherence and direction to the actions and decisions of an individual or an organization. Furthermore, there are four basic characteristics of a successful strategy: goals that are simple, consistent and long term; profound understanding of the competitive environment; objective appraisal of the resources; and, effective implementation. Other definitions of strategy include:  · the determination of the long-term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals (Chandler, 1962),  · the pattern of objectives, purposes, or goals and the major policies and plans for achieving these goals, stated in such a way as to define what business the company is in or is to be in and the kind of company it is to be (Andrews, 1971),  · the match an organization makes between its internal resources and skills à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ and the opportunities and risks created by its external environment (Hofer and Schendel, 1978),  · the pattern or plan that integrates an organizations major goals, policies and action sequence into a cohesive whole (Quinn, 1980). To simplify things we could say that strategy is when a firm assesses its internal organization and external environment, sets its goals and objectives, and designs the action plan to accomplish them. 2.1.2 A Brief Presentation of some Strategic Concepts The concepts and theories of business strategy have their antecedents in military strategy. The term strategy derives from the Greek word strategia, meaning generalship, itself formed from stratos, meaning army and -ag, to lead. Another early contributor to the forming of the concept of strategy is the Chinese Sun Tzu (about 500 B.C.) with his classic piece of work The Art of War, which is regarded as the first thesis on strategy. In modern times, the field of business strategy has largely been shaped around a framework first conceived by Andrews (1971) in his classic book The Concept of Corporate Strategy. As weve seen above, Andrews saw strategy as the match between what a company can do on one hand (organizational strengths and weaknesses) within the universe of what it might do on the other hand (environmental opportunities and threats). This is how the famous concept of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) has emerged. This concept is examined further in the following chapter. Although the power of the SWOT framework was recognized from the outset, managers were given very few insights about how to assess either side of the equation systematically. The first important breakthrough came from Porter (1980) in his book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors where he introduced the concept of the five forces model. This model focuses on the external side of the SWOT strategic balancing act, helping firms to understand those forces in an industry that give rise to opportunities and threats. In this framework, strategy becomes a matter of choosing an appropriate industry and positioning the firm in that industry according to a generic strategy of either low cost or product differentiation. Again, this concept is examined further in the following chapter. Fig. 2.1(1) The Five Competitive Forces Porter These theories have been criticized mainly because they do not help particular firms to identify and leverage unique and therefore sustainable advantages. Furthermore, studies have shown that internal characteristics of particular firms within an industry can make a difference in terms of profit performance. Based on these experiences, a new perspective, known as the capabilities approaches, which is focused on the internal, organisational part of the SWOT equation, has emerged. Based on this theory, firms are exhorted to compete based on their unique or distinctive capabilities, competences and resources. These approaches assume that the roots of competitive advantage lie within the organization and that the adoption of new strategies is constrained by the current level of companys resources. In this framework, external environment received little (if any) attention. Finally, another approach which tries to bridge the two parts (internal organizational element and external environment) and fulfill the promise of Andrews framework is the resource based view. Like the capabilities approaches, the resource based view acknowledges the importance of company specific resources and competences, yet it does so in the context of the competitive environment. It sees capabilities and resources as the heart of a companys competitive position, subject to the interplay of three fundamental market forces: demand (does it meet customers needs and is it competitively superior?), scarcity (is it imitable or substitutable, and is it durable?) and appropriability (who owns the profits?). 2.1.3 Towards a Knowledge Strategy Model Strategic management models have traditionally defined the firms strategy in terms of its product / market positioning (the products it makes and the markets it serves). The resource based approach, however, prescribes that firms position themselves strategically, based on their resources and capabilities rather than on the products and services derived from those capabilities. Resources and capabilities, especially organizational skills and practices learned over time, can become highly unique to a particular firm and hard to imitate by others. Therefore, competitive advantage based on these resources and capabilities is potentially much more sustainable than that based on product and market positioning. Products and markets may come and go, but the firms capabilities are more enduring. Creating a strategy based on unique resources and capabilities provides a more long-term view of strategy than the traditional approach, and one, which is more robust in todays uncertain and dynamic competitive environment. In modern business, knowledge is being considered the most important strategic resource, and the ability to create and apply it the most important capability for building and sustaining competitive advantage. The firm that knows more about its customers, products, technologies, markets and their linkages, performs better. This view is leading to a further development in the resource based theory called the knowledge based view of the firm. The firm is seen primarily as a vehicle for creating, integrating, storing and applying knowledge. Firms embracing the knowledge based view of the world have many difficult questions to answer in formulating their knowledge strategy. If we update the original model of strategy to reflect todays knowledge intensive environment, knowledge strategy becomes the way in which the firm balances its knowledge resources and knowledge processing capabilities with the knowledge required to create its products for its markets in a manner superior to its com petitors. In essence, firms need to perform a knowledge based SWOT analysis. Identifying which knowledge is a unique and valuable resource, which knowledge processes represent unique and valuable capabilities, and how those resources and capabilities support the firms product and market positions, are the essential elements of a knowledge strategy. The firm must identify what it has to know for a given product / market position. Every firm requires some level of knowledge about its technology, markets, products, customers and industry merely to participate and hold its own in its industry. The strategic choices that companies make regarding these factors directly influence what the firm and its members must know to effectively compete. Furthermore, these choices all set the stage for the development of future knowledge through the processes of learning and innovation. Conversely, the firm, given what it knows, must identify the best product and market opportunities for exploiting that knowledge. The creation of unique, strategic knowledge takes time, forcing the firm to balance short and long-term strategic resources decisions. The firm must therefore determine whether its efforts are best focused on knowledge creation, exploitation, or both, and then balance its knowledge processing resources and efforts accordingly. Other critical issues in knowledge strategy include organizational learning (the ability of an organization to learn, accumulate knowledge from its experiences, and reapply that knowledge is itself a skill or competence that can provide strategic advantage), the competition (the firm must assess the knowledge resources and capabilities required by its industry merely to play the game, those required to be competitive and those required to be uniquely innovative) and how easily the firms knowledge can be imitated (on the one hand, knowledge must be made explicit and transferable to share it among the firm, while, on the other hand, once made explicit it is subject to being appropriated by other firms, reducing or eliminating its competitive value). 2.1.4 Knowledge Strategies It has become clear, especially during the last few years, that the term Knowledge Management (KM) has been applied to a very broad spectrum of activities designed to manage, exchange and create or enhance intellectual assets within an organization. In other words, there is no widespread agreement on what KM actually is. For example, information technology applications that are using the term knowledge management in their title range from the development of highly codified help desk systems to the provision of video conferencing to facilitate the exchange of ideas between people. The one fact that there does seem to be agreement on is that different situations require different KM strategies. In this section we will examine a number of proposed different KM strategies and consider how they can be classified. Then we will look into a range of different driving forces behind the strategies and propose how we can select a suitable knowledge strategy. The main difference between the various approaches in knowledge strategy is that they emphasize different aspects of KM: some focus on the knowledge (content), others on the business processes / areas and some on the end results. (A) Knowledge Matrix One of the most widely accepted and widely quoted approaches is that of the knowledge matrix of Nonaka Takeuchi (see Figure 1.3-2 in chapter 1.3.1). This matrix classifies knowledge as explicit or tacit, and as either individual or collective. Nonaka Takeuchi also propose corresponding knowledge processes that transform knowledge from one form to another: socialisation (from tacit to tacit, whereby an individual acquires tacit knowledge directly from others through shared experience, observation, imitation and so on); externalisation (from tacit to explicit, through articulation of tacit knowledge into explicit concepts); combination (from explicit to explicit, through a systematisation of concepts drawing on different bodies of explicit knowledge); and internalisation (from explicit to tacit, through a process of learning by doing and through a verbalisation and documentation of experiences). Nonaka Takeuchi model the process of organisational knowledge creation as a spiral in wh ich knowledge is amplified through these four modes of knowledge conversion. It is also considered that knowledge becomes crystallized within the organisation at higher levels moving from the individual through the group to organisational and even inter-organisational levels. (B) I-Space In another well-known application, Boisot proposes a model of knowledge asset development along similar lines to that of Nonaka and Takeuchi. In Boisots scheme, knowledge assets can be located within a three dimensional space (Information Space or I-Space) defined by three axes from uncodified to codified, from concrete to abstract and from undiffused to diffused. He then proposes a Social Learning Cycle (SLC) that uses the I-Space to model the dynamic flow of knowledge through a series of six phases: 1. Scanning: insights are gained from generally available (diffused) data 2. Codification Problem-Solving: problems are solved giving structure and coherence to these insights (knowledge becomes codified) 3. Abstraction: the newly codified insights are generalised to a wide range of situations (knowledge becomes more abstract) 4. Diffusion: the new insights are shared with a target population in a codified and abstract form (knowledge becomes diffused) 5. Absorption: the newly codified insights are applied to a variety of situations producing new learning experiences (knowledge is absorbed and produces learnt behaviour and so becomes uncodified, or tacit) 6. Impacting: abstract knowledge becomes embedded in concrete practices, for example in artefacts, rules or behaviour patterns (knowledge becomes concrete) Fig. 2.1(2). Boisots I-Space I In his model, Boisot develops an interesting application of the laws of thermodynamics. This thermodynamic analogy points to the elusive and dynamic nature of knowledge. It seems that what is happening is a cycle in which data is filtered to produce meaningful information and this information is then abstracted and codified to produce useful knowledge. As the knowledge is applied in diverse situations it produces new experiences in an uncodified form that produces the data for a new cycle of knowledge creation. (C) Wiig Model Moving on to the business process side, one of the most widely accepted KM models is that of Wiig and the APQC (American Productivity and Quality Center). Wiig identified six emerging KM strategies in a study of organisations considered to be leading the way in this area. The strategies reflect the different natures and strengths of the organisations involved:  · Knowledge Strategy as Business Strategy A comprehensive, enterprise-wide approach to KM, where knowledge is seen frequently as the product  · Intellectual Asset Management Strategy Focuses on assets already within the company that can be more fully exploited or enhanced  · Personal Knowledge Asset Responsibility Strategy Encourage and support individual employees to develop their skills and knowledge as well as share their knowledge with each other  · Knowledge Creation Strategy Emphasises the innovation and creation of new knowledge through RD. Adopted by market leaders who shape the future direction of their sector  · Knowledge Transfer Strategy Transfer of knowledge and best practices in order to improve operational quality and efficiency  · Customer-Focused Knowledge Strategy Aims to understand customers and their needs and so provide them with exactly what they want. (D) Day and Wendler of McKinsey Company Along the same lines, Day and Wendler of McKinsey Company, identified five knowledge strategies employed by large corporations:  · Developing and Transferring Best Practices Like the Knowledge Transfer Strategy identified by Wiig and the APQC above, this strategy focuses on identifying best practices within an organisation and spreading them across a dispersed network of locations  · Creating a new industry from embedded knowledge This approach is to recognise that an organisation may have knowledge, which it can exploit in new ways. In particular, it may have built up knowledge about its customers, which reveals a gap in the market for a new product  · Shaping Corporate Strategy around knowledge This strategy was identified from the experiences of Monsanto, which encompassed two very different business groups: a chemicals group and a life sciences group. The chemicals group was focused on best practice while the life sciences group was an innovation-based business. The knowledge strategies for these two groups were perceived to be so different that Monsanto decided to sell off the chemicals group and concentrate on the life sciences business. This is an interesting example of the tensions between two very different KM strategies  · Fostering and Commercialising Innovation Similar to the Knowledge Creation Strategy identified by Wiig and the APQC above, this strategy focuses on establishing a competitive position by increased technological innovation and reduced time to market  · Creating a standard by releasing proprietary knowledge The cited example is Netscape who responded to the rapid decline of its market share in the internet browser market by making its source code publicly available at no cost. The strategy is an example of the Intellectual Asset Management Strategy identified by Wiig and the APQC study. In this case, Netscape felt that it could capitalise on a key asset (its source code) by giving it away. In return, it hoped to establish its browser as a widely used standard (increased by the adaptation to new specialty areas) and gain indirectly, by securing its share of a complementary product, namely: server software. (E) Three Value Disciplines (Treacy and Wiersema) Moving to the area of strategies based on the end results, we could refer to Treacy and Wiersema who proposed three value disciplines, as a way to focus an organisations activities. In this model, successful organizations concentrate their efforts on a particular area and excel at it, rather than trying to be all things to all people and failing to excel at anything. The three areas are:  · Customer Intimacy  · Product Leadership  · Operational Excellence These value disciplines reflect the fact that value is determined as a trade-off between convenience, quality and price. It is the inherent tension between these three qualities of a product that makes it necessary for an organisation to focus on excelling at just one of them. There are a few organisations that have managed to become leaders in two disciplines, but they have done this by focusing on one area first before turning to a second one. At a simplistic level, there are three primary elements to any competitive business: the business itself, its product(s) and its customers. Each of these components represents the focus of attention for one of the value disciplines. The focus is on the customers and their needs and desires when pursuing Customer Intimacy; the focus is on the product(s) when pursuing Product Leadership; and the focus is on the organisation itself and its delivery processes, when pursuing Operational Excellence. Some organizations will concentrate on their relationship with their customers (to increase customer satisfaction and retention by better understanding the customers needs and preferences). Other organisations will focus on their products (constantly developing new ideas and getting them to market quickly). The third group of organisations focus primarily on themselves and their internal processes (sharing best practices between different units, reducing costs and improving efficiency). (F) Zacks Strategy Another approach to identifying what KM strategy to take is proposed by Zack. He proposes a framework which helps an organisation make an explicit connection between its competitive situation and a knowledge management strategy to help the organisation maintain or (re-) establish its competitive advantage. He makes it clear that while each organisation will find its own unique link between knowledge and strategy, any such competitive knowledge can be classified on a scale of innovation relative to the rest of the particular industry as: core, advanced or innovative:  · Core knowledge is a basic level of knowledge required by all members of a particular industry. It does not represent a competitive advantage, but is simply the knowledge needed to be able to function in that sector at all.  · Advanced knowledge gives an organisation a competitive edge. It is specific knowledge that differentiates an organisation from its competitors, either by knowing more than a competitor or by applying knowledge in different ways.  · Innovative knowledge is that which enables a company to be a market leader. It allows an organisation to change the way a sector works and represents a significant differentiating factor from other organisations. Having identified the organisations competitive knowledge position, Zacks approach is to use a SWOT analysis to identify the strategic gaps in an organisations knowledge. This allows the organisation to identify where it has knowledge which it can exploit and where it needs to develop knowledge to maintain or grow its competitive position. This is achieved by analysing the organisations knowledge position along two dimensions:  · Exploration vs. Exploitation This is the degree to which the organisation needs to increase its knowledge in a particular area vs. the opportunity it may have to leverage existing but under-exploited knowledge resources.  · Internal vs. External Knowledge This refers to whether the knowledge is primarily within the organisation or outside. Some organisations are more externally oriented, drawing on publications, universities, consultants, customers, etc. Others are more internally oriented, building up unique knowledge and experience, which is difficult for competitors to imitate. Putting these two dimensions together, Zack describes organisations which are more exploitative of internal knowledge as having a Conservative KM Strategy while those that are more innovative (exploring external knowledge) have a more Aggressive KM Strategy. However, he points out that a KM Strategy cannot be made without reference to competitors. Thus, some industries (where knowledge is changing more rapidly) tend to be characterized by more aggressive firms, while other industries are generally more conservative. Summary Given that the classifications by knowledge listed above (Nonaka Takeuchis knowledge matrix and Boisots I-Space model) focus on the process of knowledge transformation and that most real world processes operate on a continuum rather than a step transformation, it is perhaps not surprising to find that some researchers have suggested that explicit and tacit knowledge should be considered to be at the ends of a spectrum of knowledge types rather than being the only two categories on that spectrum. Beckman has suggested that implicit knowledge is an intermediate category of knowledge that is tacit in form, but is accessible through querying and discussion. Nickols proposes that Nonaka Takeuchis categories should be further broken down according to whether they focus on declarative or procedural knowledge. What is needed is a classification that proposes a spectrum of knowledge management approaches. If this spectrum can accommodate the various approaches suggested previously, then it can be considered to be sufficiently comprehensive to be useful. Derek Binney provides a framework, the KM Spectrum, to help organisations make sense of the large diversity of material appearing under the heading of KM, and to help them assess where they are in KM terms. His focus is on the KM activities that are being carried out, grouped into six categories:  · Transactional KM: Knowledge is embedded in technology  · Analytical KM: Knowledge is derived from external data sources, typically focussing on customer-related information  · Asset Management KM: Explicit management of knowledge assets (often created as a by-product of the business) which can be reused in different ways  · Process-based KM: The codification and improvement of business practice and the sharing of these improved processes within the organisation  · Developmental KM: Building up the capabilities of the organisations knowledge workers through training and staff development  · Innovation/creation KM: Fostering an environment, which promotes the creation of new knowledge, for example through R D and through forming teams of people from different disciplines. Binneys analysis is interesting because it reflects aspects of both the knowledge-centred classification of KM and the business perspectives classification of KM. In terms of business perspectives, Binneys categories reflect activities that support particular perspectives; for example, Asset Management KM matches Wiigs intellectual asset management strategy, while Innovation and Creation KM reflects Treacy Wiersemas product leadership strategy. Yet, Binneys categories also form a progression from the management of explicit knowledge at one end to tacit knowledge at the other. So, for example, Transactional KM involves codifying knowledge and embedding it in applications such as Help Desk Systems or Case Based Reasoning systems, while Innovation and Creation KM focuses on facilitating knowledge workers sharing and creating new knowledge which rests in a tacit form in their heads. For each element of the spectrum, Binney also lists a set of enabling technologies used to implement those kinds of KM Applications. This provides an alternative way to identify KM activity already being undertaken within an organisation, even if not previously perceived in KM terms (Table 1). Table 1 Enabling technologies mapped to the KM Spectrum (Binney, 2001) Transactional Analytical Asset Management Process Developmental Innovation Creation Expert Systems Cognitive Technologies Semantic Networks Rule-based Expert Systems Probability Networks Rule Induction Decision Trees Geospatial Information Systems Intelligent Agents Web Crawlers Relational and Object DBMS Neural Computing Push Technologies Data Analysis and Reporting Tools Document Management Tools Search Engines Knowledge Maps Library Systems Workflow Management Process Modeling Tools Finally, we should note that the latest developments in the field suggest that the KM strategy in a modern, rapidly changing business environment should be dynamic, meaning it should change to follow the developments in the way the business functions or the competition is progressing in the industry. Scholars even go on to propose different KM strategies for different departments of the same organization.

Journal of a Titanic Passenger Essay -- Journal Diary entry titanic Es

Journal of a Titanic Passenger I am writing my first entry aboard this incredible vessel today, primarily because I have been spending the last three days exploring the sections open to my fellow third-class passengers and I. What I have seen is extraordinary, especially when first boarding the ship. The halls and staircases of the first class section were like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. They were blanketed in luxury from end to end. The first class passengers I had managed to see wore their best garments boarding the ship and were conversing with each other about their rich lives back home. I believe I even saw Mr. John Jacob Astor, a man I had heard much about for his contributions to the American fur trade. I had heard that he would be aboard for the maiden voyage of ...

The Man Behind Hubble: Bob Williams :: Shuttle Astronomy Space Essays

The Man Behind Hubble: Bob Williams Four weeks after space-walking shuttle Endeavour astronauts repaired the Hubble Space Telescope in December 1993, an ecstatic Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski waved a Hubble picture of the core of the spiral galaxy M100 at her naysaying colleagues. Today, Mikulski could host a Capitol Hill star party: The orbiting telescope has generated more than 100,000 photos of celestial objects, including a cemetery of dying stars, elephant trunks of dust and hydrogen gas twisting in the Eagle Nebula, jovian storms and aurorae, the rocky rings of Saturn and the colossal supernova smoke rings blown from an exploded star, to list a few. Hubble's pictures do double duty not only as congressional lobbying props, but also as screen savers, T-shirt prints, calendar photos, a background for the "Babylon 5" science fiction TV series and even planet trading cards to be provided soon to schoolchildren. One of the most electrifying pictures of all, the Hubble Deep Field image began literally as a shot in the dark: the sum of 342 exposures taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in December 1995 of a black speck of northern sky. Although the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact on Jupiter may have generated a bigger media splash, astronomers still are agog over the Deep Field. Aides to Vice President Al Gore ordered a Deep Field poster from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which manages the Hubble's science program under contract with NASA. Borrowing a page from Mikulski, Gore plans to use the Deep Field poster to promote scientific research in the next millennium. In an age of cost-cutting and smaller-is-preferred, the $3 billion Hubble has demonstrated that bigger can be better: The telescope attracted 1,298 proposals for observing time during its next annual cycle that began in July, an increase of 30 percent from the previous cycle and more than had been rece ived by any other U.S. telescope or NASA project. Ever. A driving force behind Hubble's scientific mission, particularly the Deep Field, is astronomer Bob Williams, 56, who took over as director of the STScI a few months before the 1993 repair mission. Like Hubble itself, Williams began his astronomy career with high promise, then was written off as lacking focus. Both have rebounded spectacularly. Williams is admired as an articulate champion of astronomy with a penchant for accomplishment. "There is not a devious molecule in his body," says Ray Weymann, an astronomer at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, who spent many nights collaborating with Williams in the quiet and darkness of telescope towers.

How Community Service Changed My Future Essay -- Community Service Ess

"We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are there always for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you." - Jeff Warner I am the fourth child out of my seven siblings, the middle child. Growing up, I pestered my older sibling as my younger ones do to me now, but I never truly understood how blessed I was to grow up in such a big family. My older sisters were my role models and still are, I see what they go through as adults in this world and decide whether that’s the path I want to take or not. I am also a big sister to three younger siblings, and although I did not see that they look up to me until recently, I know that they do and I strive not to make many mistakes that they may follow. Looking up to someone and admiring them does not always mean that you want to be like them, but that you watch their actions and mentally note them, as if they are a manual on what to do and what not to do. Never in a million years did I think I would touch someone’s life outside of my family, but the last semester of my senior ...

First Impressions

First impressions In this essay we will examine how our eye contact, and body language can have a dramatic effect on the way that people see us. More often than not it's what we say, or the fact that we don't fully engage that leaves people with a lasting Impression about the kind of person we are. These pre-concelved notions that people make about us are sometimes difficult, or even Impossible to overcome. we will discuss how an unconscious behavior on our part can manifest itself into what can quickly become a very effective repellant to anyone, and everyone we come into contact with.In our society we all must behave in a certain way, a list of unwritten rules is always in play about the way we â€Å"should† act, falling outside of the acceptable norm and we are labeled as weird or even rude. Also we will review a short story from two different angles that is about the same man but stand In stark contrast to one another. The protagonist in this story Is a man named John. As the day went on at work and it became necessary John went to the store to buy stationary.Just the simple act ot getting up and going out demonstrates that John had an interest in his job and anted to get it done, Along the way John took every opportunity to enjoy the day. and interact with people he knew. John made sure that he was walking on the sunny side of the street and any passerby could see that John was a very content and self- assured Individual. Even as John made his way into store he kept a positive and friendly attitude, so much so that when he saw a familiar face he made time to stop and say hello.Immediately leaving the store he met another acquaintance and didn't miss the chance to exchange pleasantries, and after this he returned to work. John as exuding such a positive vibration that people who knew him couldnt help but want to be around a person like him, John was displaying an Incredible attitude, and everything was pointing towards John being completely â€Å"no rmal†. Even in the Bible it's Paul phrasing of â€Å"putting on the armor of God† that tells us it's a choice.It's a decision that we make at any given time about how we must act on our own situation, because If we don't act then all we have left to do Is react and when that Is the only option we are truly powerless. As said before, the first impression that people torm f us Is most of the time the one that sticks to us, and none of us get a second chance to make that lasting impression again. On the other side of the spectrum, in the other short story we see John in a very different light.First of all he decided to wait until after work to go and get what he needed, a very good example of a person who isnt very involved with his work. If he Is Involved In his work Its only the bare minimum. While walking to the store John made every attempt to stay where he couldn't be seen, and when he nouced someone he knew he made the decision to cross the street and stay away from any ind of contact whatsoever. After a little bit more antisocial bravado John decided to go home and hide until tomorrow.These are stories about the same man, trying to accomplish the same task and the two stories don't sound like the same man at all. In the second telling of the same story John seemed like a scared child or some other ‘ Of2 equally vulneraDle llttle vlctlm. Now people tnat saw nlm were looking at a completely different individual, one that could only re-act to his life instead of acting on the world. This is a perfect example of how important first impressions are, and hy it's so important to leave people with a lasting impression of the kind of person we really are.IVe been told that you never know what kind of person someone is until after you see them when they think no one is looking. After the first story I felt like John had the world by the horns, and knew what he needed to do so he could excel and lead any pack he was in. After reading the second sto ry John's image to me was that of a complete coward, and the kind of person who went through his life dealing with what was given to him. The kind of person that is so used to being told what to do and with absolutely no back bone. The second John was a man that had some kind of vested interest in being the weaker of the species.If I were to reverse the stories and read the second one first, I don't think that things would look any better for John. My mind would have been made up, I would have Just thought â€Å"he's still a wuss†. Like I said, first impressions. No do overs. His stock was already low and that's why I feel it's very important to instill in people when theyre young that they have self-worth. Because once you have it you don't look for reassurance in anyone else, and no one can take it from you because you earned it for yourself from yourself. First Impressions In this essay we will examine how our eye contact, and body language can have a dramatic effect on the way that people see us. More often than not it’s what we say, or the fact that we don’t fully engage that leaves people with a lasting impression about the kind of person we are. These pre-conceived notions that people make about us are sometimes difficult, or even impossible to overcome. We will discuss how an unconscious behavior on our part can manifest itself into what can quickly become a very effective repellant to anyone, and everyone we come into contact with.In our society we all must behave in a certain way, a list of unwritten rules is always in play about the way we â€Å"should† act, falling outside of the acceptable norm and we are labeled as weird or even rude. Also we will review a short story from two different angles that is about the same man but stand in stark contrast to one another. The protagonist in this story is a man named John. As the day went on at work and it became necessary John went to the store to buy stationary. Just the simple act of getting up and going out demonstrates that John had an interest in his job and wanted to get it done.Along the way John took every opportunity to enjoy the day, and interact with people he knew. John made sure that he was walking on the sunny side of the street and any passerby could see that John was a very content and self-assured individual. Even as John made his way into store he kept a positive and friendly attitude, so much so that when he saw a familiar face he made time to stop and say hello. Immediately leaving the store he met another acquaintance and didn’t miss the chance to exchange pleasantries, and after this he returned to work.John was exuding such a positive vibration that people who knew him couldn’t help but want to be around a person like him. John was displaying an incredible attitude, and everything was pointing towards John being complete ly â€Å"normal†. Even in the Bible it’s Paul phrasing of â€Å"putting on the armor of God† that tells us it’s a choice. It’s a decision that we make at any given time about how we must act on our own situation, because if we don’t act then all we have left to do is re-act and when that is the only option we are truly powerless.As I said before, the first impression that people form of us is most of the time the one that sticks to us, and none of us get a second chance to make that lasting impression again. On the other side of the spectrum, in the other short story we see John in a very different light. First of all he decided to wait until after work to go and get what he needed, a very good example of a person who isn’t very involved with his work. If he is involved in his work it’s only the bare minimum.While walking to the store John made every attempt to stay where he couldn’t be seen, and when he noticed someone he knew he made the decision to cross the street and stay away from any kind of contact whatsoever. After a little bit more antisocial bravado John decided to go home and hide until tomorrow. These are stories about the same man, trying to accomplish the same task and the two stories don’t sound like the same man at all. In the second telling of the same story John seemed like a scared child or some other equally vulnerable little victim.Now people that saw him were looking at a completely different individual, one that could only re-act to his life instead of acting on the world. This is a perfect example of how important first impressions are, and why it’s so important to leave people with a lasting impression of the kind of person we really are. I’ve been told that you never know what kind of person someone is until after you see them when they think no one is looking.After the first story I felt like John had the world by the horns, and knew what he needed t o do so he could excel and lead any pack he was in. After reading the second story John’s image to me was that of a complete coward, and the kind of person who went through his life dealing with what was given to him. The kind of person that is so used to being told what to do and with absolutely no back bone. The second John was a man that had some kind of vested interest in being the weaker of the species.If I were to reverse the stories and read the second one first, I don’t think that things would look any better for John. My mind would have been made up, I would have just thought â€Å"he’s still a wuss†. Like I said, first impressions. No do overs. His stock was already low and that’s why I feel it’s very important to instill in people when they’re young that they have self-worth. Because once you have it you don’t look for reassurance in anyone else, and no one can take it from you because you earned it for yourself from yourself.