Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies Essay

In 1887 Lord Acton wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, â€Å"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.† It has often been noted that this is the primary theme in both Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. In addition, these books share two sub-themes related to this primary theme. One sub-theme is that people will often abuse power when it’s not earned. The other is that when given the opportunity people will often degrade others to ensure their own security. Both books rely heavily on symbolism, as well as the actions of their characters, to express these ideas. Consequently, both these novels show us what a frightening place the world can become if people ignore the principles of civilization as we know it. In both books, for different reasons, the characters create their own governments, and some of them soon begin to usurp and abuse power. For example, in Animal Farm seven commandments were written on the wall, a few of them were: â€Å"No animal shall sleep in a bed, No animal shall kill another animal, No animal shall drink alcohol.† When one of the pigs, named Napoleon, took over he gradually changed the commandments. For instance, he changed the commandment â€Å"No animal shall kill another animal.† to, â€Å"No animal shall kill another animal without cause.† In Lord of the Flies there are several examples of characters abusing power. One of the characters, named Ralph, had originally started a democratic form of government. Two of the boys, Roger and Jack, eventually started there own form of government and took over. Jack fell in love with his new found power and became dictator to the boys. He even started a hunt to kill Ralph simply because he felt Ralph was a threat to this power. Because several of the characters in both books were insecure, they would often degrade others to improve their own security. This occurred in Animal Farm several times. For instance, there were two characters who always seemed to disagree (Snowball and Napoleon). Whatever one said the other would put it down or find something wrong with it, even if he actually agreed. Napoleon even urinated on Snowball’s plans for a windmill and ruined  them. In Lord of the Flies there are several examples of insecure characters downing others to improve their own security. For example, Roger, Jack, and even Ralph make fun of one of the other boys they call â€Å"Piggy† because he is overweight. Roger is so insecure he even kills Piggy because Piggy makes him feel threatened by contradicting his ideas and putting forth his own ideas that were sometimes better than Rogers. These books are both amazingly written and similar in several ways, but there is one major difference. The two books end with completely different views of civilization. Animal Farm ends with the animals not being able to tell the humans and the pigs apart, showing that evil had won. However, in Lord of the Flies, Ralph realizes when he sees the pig’s head (which is used to represent evil) in its pristine state, that even in all this savagery and evil some good may occur. Right after he realized this, a ship pulled up and rescued the boys. The themes of both books are true to the dark side of human nature. Golding holds out a tiny thread of hope; Orwell lets us see the bad things that could happen and leaves us to figure out how to prevent them.

A place that is special to me

A place that Is special to me, as cliche © as It sounds, would have to be my room. All throughout my life my family and I have moved from house to house pretty consistently. Growing up I never thought of any place we would visit or where we lived as a special place to me because I knew within a year or two we would be living somewhere new.Packing up your whole life into brown cardboard moving boxes, getting into a moving truck that would always smell of cigarettes and sweat and going into a strange new house was fun for the first few moves; it felt like an adventure at iris but year after year of the same routine It Just started feeling normal to me. I used to think It was strange that my friends had never moved from their first house while I was going on to another house but as I grew up, I realized that it was strange to move as often as my family did.In total my family and I have moved from strange house to stranger house 12 times in my 19 years. Although I have always lived in Arizona but that is 12 new houses, 12 years of being the new kid at a deferent school, 12 years of unpacking Just to repack 11 months later, and starting the cycle all over gain. I could never keep track of the all cycles we lived In, or the number of schools I bounced around and back to but I could always remember how my room was set up in every single house.I did not have a choice as to which new city we lived in or moved back to, or what new school I was blindly tossed into but I did have choice as to how my room could look. That was always my favorite part of moving, I knew no matter what I would be able to organize and decorate my room the way I wanted It to be. I used to think moving was kind of stressful to me because my family usually ratiocinated until the day or two days before so my family would rush packing. We would go without sleeping for that day or those two days just packing everything and doing late night moving runs.But to me being able to have my own room and unp acking was always so calming to me. I also would buy candles quite often for my room because I hated the smell of the cardboard boxes and I always liked my rooms to smell the same. To this day I still burn the same rotation of candles which are a eucalyptus and spearmint, pumpkin or a fruit scent. I always burn a eucalyptus Andre when I am studying for tests or when I am sick because eucalyptus and spearmint is a distressing agent and it always helps me focus more on my work.I always have pumpkin scents burning during the fall and winter months because fall has always been my favorite season and it is usually around the time my family finally gets completely settled into a new house. Lastly I burn fruit scents during the summer months because we always move during summer and fruit scents always make my room smell fresh and clean so when I move out the next person to live In that room would not have to smell just cardboard boxes.My rooms used to have tons of decorations and I would k eep a lot of items I had gotten from family and friends to try and make my room feel more like this is where we would stay for a while and not feel like we were Just temporary visitors. After a while I got tired of carrying extra boxes around because sometimes they would get lost or damaged during the move or my room would be smaller than the last room and I would not have any place for constantly reminded by the brown cardboard boxes that sooner than later they would consume my room and I would be leaving to once again a new house. But onceI got into high school I started decorating my rooms less and less. I decided to Just keep a few things in my room. A bed, dresser, television, a gaming console, a desk, a chair and a few candles would be all I really needed. I started to like the view of having my room kind of empty. After a while I did not feel like I was trapped in a corner of my own room. I no longer had boxes overflowing from out of my closet filling my floors anymore. My ro om has always been a place I could go and know no matter what happens I would always have it, even though it was a new house I felt like it was always the same.

Measuring and Managing Foreign Exchange Risk Dissertation

Measuring and Managing Foreign Exchange Risk - Dissertation Example Although a firm may hedge its foreign exchange contracts, limiting its transaction exposure, economic exposure is difficult to estimate and further, hedge. Economic exposure arises because future profits from operating as importer or exporter depend on exchange rates, and due to its nature, this type of exposure is difficult to mute. (Faff & Iorio 2001, Mullem & Verschoor). (Mullem & Verschoor, 2005). However, there is greater complexity between the relationship between exchange rate fluctuations and competitiveness and this leads to difficulty in correctly estimating economic exposure and hence hedging it efficiently (Mullem & Verschoor, 2005). Firms that do business abroad must be ready to account for changes in exchange rates that lead to variability in their cash flows. (Solt & Lee, 2001). Transaction exposure reflects the risk that exchange rates change between the time a transaction is recorded and the time actual receipt of cash or payment of cash is made. (Solt & Lee, 2001). Due to its short-term nature futures and forwards can be used to hedge transaction exposure and thereby eliminate its influence on the value of a firm. (Solt & Lee, 2001). Economic exposure, on the other hand, is the long-term effect of exchange rate changes on the future cash flows and thereby on stock returns. (Solt & Lee, 2001).

Company Aytch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Company Aytch - Essay Example aining of the soldiers in the face of the new technology in the field of war, this left horrific and devastating experiences to many people and influenced many young men to volunteer to fight through different companies, among them was Sam R.Watkins who was in the rank of common soldier and depicted as immortality through his 1882 memoir Company Aytch. The initial deployment of the troops took place on the proceeding day leaving the local residents in a dilemma whether to leave or to stay in their village, on the eve of the battle upon drawing picket duty, Watkins was surprised to discover a Union guard ‘Yankee’ that was on duty across the road, as Watkins explains that on that night they were not enemies â€Å"†¦We got very friendly †¦ and made a raid upon a citizen’s pantry where we captured a bucket of honey, a pitcher of sweet milk, and three or four biscuits† (Watkins 12) Watkins believes that the locals in this village were taken by surprise. Watkins recalls in his memoirs that in the following morning that a line was drawn between Perryville and the Yankee army, on the other side of the Yankees, they raised blue flag, ready for the war with their dogs threatening to attack, but the war did not start until 12 o’clock (Watkins 15). They were marching in a corn field when the Yankees opened their war dogs on them, they were attacked from the three lines from which they were able to counter attack killing every of their opponent mostly by the use of Napoleon guns, this resulted to many killings totalling to 55,396 federal soldiers and 16800 Braggs confederate soldiers (Watkins 27). One of the greatest characteristic of this war, was that for the first time, Henry Rifle was employed, the rifle was sold in Louisville and it is thought that it was bought by a soldier in Terrills, repeating rifle such as Spencer and Henry were considered to have been the most advanced infantry weapon , in fact the Henry which was an advancement of Winchester, was

On the Accuracy of the Almagest Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

On the Accuracy of the Almagest - Research Paper Example According to the model of the solar system that he came up with, the sun moved in a spherical trajectory that was centered near the earth. Ptolemy also went ahead to claim that, in his model of the solar system, the Almagest, the sun maintained, what he termed to be, a set inclination of the earth’s center this being the equator. Through his research, Ptolemy concluded that the five visible plants from the earth moved in obits known as epicycles held together by small rings. These epicycles, he explained moved around the earth on larger unconventional sphere known as deferents. Like the sun, both the epicycles and the defrents also mentioned set inclinations close to the earth’s center. However, as much as his model, the Almagest, was considered remarkable, it has raised too many questions within the scientific realm. The Almagest has not seemed to fare well among many scientific scholars. Many scholars believe that due to his devotion to philosophical theories and doctrine Ptolemy came up with an overcomplicated, ridiculers and awkward model of the solar system that was in accurate in nature. Some of his doctrines that are heavily questioned and disagreed upon include the theory that the earth is stationary ad does not move in uniformity which other planets move around the earth center. In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus came up with his own theory that stated that the earth and other planets moved around the suns orbit. This suppressed his theory and was largely backed by other scholars during this period. Although the study was deemed inaccurate in the sixteenth century, by Johannes Kepler’s model, it was enough to show how inaccurate and wrong Ptolemy’s model was. The main aim behind this study is to examine how inaccurate and wrong Ptolemy model of the solar system was. In addition, the study will be re-evaluating Ptolemy’s merits as an astronomer by examining some of the facts that he provided in his model of the solar system. The main objective behind the Almagest was to create a model that showed the solar system from earth. In his model, Ptolemy tries to explain the motion of the planets visible from earth the sun and the moon. However, in his model of the solar system Ptolemy lives out critical details of how these motions in his model occur or what courses this motion. This is why scholars and astronomers view the model as incorrect and fluid since it lucks basic evidence to support his facts. However, in his model, Ptolemy was able to provide some calculations such as how far the other planets are from earth by using the radius to measure. This helped, in that Copernicus was able to use this calculation in his own ad vanced and correct model of the solar system. Through Kepler’s model, which is considered, correct and more accurate than the two that came before it, one of the main things that one will learn is that plants obit the sun and is actually confocal to it. Such trajectories that the planets use called ellipses have two main factors that make them unique. These two facts can be used to see how inaccurate Ptolemy model from the sun is. Primarily, the obits are considered eccentric. This means that the sun, which is in the center, is rather in this model displaced due to geometric displacement of the sun. Second, each planet in the solar system has a particular axis from which it is elongated. This means that they are elliptical. Unluckier Kepler who came up with a theory that proved that the earth and other planets revolved the sun in their own obits, Ptolemy tries to study the

Describe the performance track record and rationale behind the Essay

Describe the performance track record and rationale behind the investment decisions of your Dummy Portfolio this term, in the style of a Hedge Fund Investor Letter - Essay Example The return from S&P 500 return is 45%, weekly standard deviation of S&P 500 is 2.95% and total standard deviation of S&P 500 is 21.24%. Here we have bought several stocks such as FTSE100 which has beginning level of 6627 and end level of 6722.67 and it has earned total gain of 1.44%. CAC40 had beginning level of 4244 and end level of 4390.18 and it has earned total gain of 3.44%. DAX had beginning level of 9369 and end level of 9980.85 and it has earned total gain of 6.53%. Dow Jones Industrials had beginning level of 17614 and end level of 17828.24 and it has earned total gain of 1.22%. S&P500 had beginning level of 2039 and ending level of 2067 and it has earned total gain of 1.40%. NASDAQ had beginning level of 4660 and end level of 4791.63 and it has earned total gain of2.82%. Nikkei225 had beginning level of 17197 and end level of 17459.85 and it has earned total gain of 1.53%. Topix had beginning level of 1377 and end level of 1410.34 and it has earned total gain of 2.42%. Shanghai Composite had beginning level of 2494 and end level of 2682.92 and it has earned total gain of 7.57%. CSI300 had beginning level o f 2594 and end level of 2808.82 and it has earned total gain of 8.28%. Spot Gold had beginning level of 1165 and end level of 1167.41 and it has earned total gain of 0.21%. USD against Japanese yens had beginning value of 1$= 115.33 yen and the value has increased to 1$=118.68 yen and it has earned total gain of 2.90%. Brent Spot beginning level of 81.01 and end level of 77.75 and it has earned total loss of -4.02%. NY Crude Oil had beginning level of 77.32 and end level of 73.69 and it has earned total loss of -4.69%. The dummy portfolio has also earned negative returns or loss for spot silver, spot platinum, pound against dollar and pound against euro. Thus it can be said that the dummy portfolio has average to good return in the period. The

Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Natural Gas And Literature review

Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Natural Gas And Biomass Power Plants - Literature review Example This means that all stages in the life of the product is assessed. The assessment evaluates the impact of extraction, processing, transportation of the raw material used for processing and fuels along the operation of the plants to the final decommissioning (Mann and Spath, 2011). Green house gases - GHG is the gas that leads to greenhouse effects by absorbing and emitting infrared radiation, leading to the gradual increase in temperature. Main gases that are GHG are water vapour, CO2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone and CFC or Chlorofluorocarbons. These are available naturally in the environment but when the percentage is increased beyond the specified limit, it can lead to global warming. The unit used for measurement is in gCO2e/kWhe or grams carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt hour equivalent (Weisser, 2010). Carbon capture and storage - CCS is a process used to separate CO2 from industrial and energy related resources. It includes transportation to the storage location and isol ating the gas from mixing with the atmosphere. Reduction of emissions of power plants depends on the CO2 capture system used. Cost of CSS is high and as seen in the below figure, it costs 10 USD/ ton of CO2 to transport the captured carbon to 800 kilometres. Smaller volumes cost higher. Hence, sites near to the power plant are preferred (PACE, 2009). Figure 2.1. Cost of CSS (Azar, et al, 2006) Carbon storage needs a lot of effort in identifying the proper site and ensuring that there is no leakage. Please refer to the following figure that gives the potential for underground carbon storage. Figure 2.2. Potential for underground carbon storage (Azar, et al, 2006) Advantages of carbon capture is that it provides a means to control emissions and to... The paper has examined the LCA of natural gas and biomass plants with and without CCS. It is seen that natural gas has much higher emissions and even with CCS, GHG are still high. Biomass has much lower emissions and with CCS, the fuel source is very attractive. However, biomass fuel is difficult to procure and costly to transport in bulk. This paper gives the results from the literature review and a brief comparison of the two fuels is done to understand the manner in which they perform. CNG is highly commercialised and about 37% of power in the world is generated through CNG. Sufficient stocks are also available and the level of energy security is high. However, with biomass, the energy security is less and extensive use of wood, barley and maize for production of ethanol can lead to shortage of grain and can impact the food security. Development of transport and logistics technology such as refrigerated trucks and ships, pipelines and dedicated outlets have allowed this fuel to become portable. This means, natural gas mined in Nigeria is transported economically to Europe or even China. The author of the report this flexibility and ease of use is not possible with biomass. Compressed gas has a much higher GHG emission and more power is consumed in processing and transporting the fuel. Biomass has a much lesser amoun t of GHG emissions but the fuel cannot be transported economically over longer distance. Hence, it use is only in power plants in the area where plant vegetation and wood is available.

Roots of British Intelligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Roots of British Intelligence - Essay Example Also important to note was the fact that the formation of this Intelligence Branch did not create a service-wide acceptance of the contributions of intelligence to war or peace. During the Boer War, Britain was forced to realize the importance of intelligence, as it failed to incorporate intelligence operations in its strategy and implementation. This forced Britain to focus in on how intelligence could be used during both war and peacetime. 1 A main obstacle to the place of intelligence in the 20th century British army focused on the delineation of the objectives of intelligence operations as well as being able to recognize what kind of person would be required to place those concepts into effect. It is important to remember that the concept of peacetime preparation for field intelligence had not been distinguished clearly at this time, and gathering military intelligence during times of peace was very overt as well as ad hoc in approach. Furthermore, other issues stood out as well. Wartime interactions between intelligence officers and soldiers were often filled with feelings of mistrust, and there was also no solid approach or agreement about training different intelligence corps at this time. The time of the Boer War through the beginning of the First World War demonstrated the makings of a commitment to intelligence as a need, and a desire to train professional intelligence officer corps developed. This commitment an d appreciation, however, were not adequately translated into policy implementation, and the outbreak of war in 1914 found Britain's military intelligence preparations to be woefully inadequate for the issues that would lay ahead. 2 The military was able to recognize from the start that the type of officer to be involved in intelligence would be that of a different caliber. As far as the proper training of these men was concerned, however, it was open to some argument. It was obvious to see that the purpose of instructions and the lessons learned were not used at the turn-of-the-century War office. A good example of this is the fact that the start of the Boer War actually revealed that British military intelligence was extremely disorganized. It was obvious that the military could not predict of prepare for the start of the war, and the Intelligence Division's efforts here were hurt because they did not have enough training or resources, probably resulting from the fact that the army's leadership was also not interested in making the best use of them. However, as the Boer War came to a close, it became clear that British intelligence was evolving into something that was much more organized and useable, although this certainly did not promise for this concept of intelligence to play a large role in military affairs. Another factor that hurt this development of intelligence was the fact that all of the intelligence work made during the war was de-emphasized after the post-war demobilization. The Royal Commission on the War in South Africa, which reviewed all aspects of the origins and conduct of the war, seemed very happy with the prewar focus of the intelligence department as well as its ability to become more organized. As a result, they suggested that there was no necessity for general departmental reform or a more permanent or consequential peacetime intelligence establishment. The ad hoc

Sexual Child Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sexual Child Abuse - Essay Example Recent researches have shown that many times the abuser himself had been a subject to child abuse in his or her past or has been a subject to physical violence. Abusers are usually self-centered lack ability to coping skills and have no understanding of child behavior pattern and treat them devastatingly without feeling for them.Another cause contributing to sexual child abuse is the mental state of abuser. History of abuser often reveals coping up with financial stress and depression in past, psychological illness. Abuser often belongs to a broken family or he has been neglected during his growth period which had affected his behavior and thinking adversely.Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder often co related with neurological disorder in which abuser develops sexual interest for prepubescent child so it is also one of the causes of child sexual abuse. Pedophilia if not treated or repressed leads to severe consequences.it does not have any cure but it do have therapies that help th e abuser to cope up with his state. Pedophilic patients often stop sexual abuse when a child starts to develop secondary characteristics of adulthood. Sexual child abuse might be a single event or it may continue for several years.History of abusers have reveled consumption of excessive alcohol and drug intake, family troubles and poverty which is one of the main causes contributing to prevalence of sexual child abuse. Abuser might continue his harassment for over years which devastatingly damage. the personality and behavior of child. Children born to heavy alcoholic parents are at a greater risk of to suffer from sexual abuse in near future due to lack of interest of parents in the house which provides an opportunity to abuser to take advantage of the situation as such parents cannot provide much protection to their children due to their habit of alcohol. (Hornor, G., 2010) Sometimes abuser involves in sexual harassment of child just for the sake of fun and pleasure without caring for the child. These are some of the factors and causes that lead to sexual child abuse and harassment. Many researches indicated that abusers were a subject to amnesia. Another reason for sexual child abuse is that sometimes abuser does not feel sexual feelings for people belonging to their own age

Vinataba †Philip Morris Graduate Trainee Program Essay Example for Free

Vinataba – Philip Morris Graduate Trainee Program Essay About the program Vinataba – Philip Morris Graduate Trainee Program aims to develop creative, talented and ambitious graduates, helping us to making our business growth ambition become a reality. What we offer Our Graduate Trainee Program offers a real exciting and fruitful development journey to help you as a fresh graduate build your general skills, professional skills and leadership. While you own your development journey, diversified learning approaches will be also offered to foster your career development. With real job assignments, you will be exposed to lots of world-class training workshops, cross-functional rotations, coaching sessions, mentoring chats and exposure opportunities to work in other countries. What we are looking for * Vietnamese nationality * University fresh graduates or graduates with maximum of 2 years working experience * Background in Economics / Commerce / Logistics / Business Management / Finance / Accounting / Marketing / IT is preferred * GPA (Grade Point Average) of minimum 7 out of 10 or equivalent * English fluency and computer literacy * Passionate in Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods industry with Entrepreneurial Spirit, Courage, Clear and Constructive Communication, High Efficiency and strong Emotional Intelligence. How to apply * Obtain complete Application Form made available at your University Career Center and/or University Portal * Submit application via email to [emailprotected] or send the hard-copy application to: Vinataba Philip Morris Limited, Ho Chi Minh City Branch Level 6 The Kumho Asiana Plaza 39 Le Duan District 1 Ho Chi Minh City * By no later than 28th February 2013. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered. Note: An Auto Reply Message will be sent to your email upon receipt of your application. If you do not receive this Auto Reply Message, please resend your application.

Evaluating 74th Constitutional Amendment Act

Evaluating 74th Constitutional Amendment Act Two sides of the same coin: Evaluating 74th Constitutional Amendment Act Abstract: To strengthen the position of urban governance in a more organized manner, the government of India took a pivotal initiative through the enactment of the 74th Constitution Amendment Act. In this paper I attempt to analyse the role of 74th constitutional amendment in increasing the functionality, authority and efficiency of the urban local bodies, in terms of the powers rendered to the urban local bodies under the 74th constitutional amendment. I attempt to analyse the effective and efficient implementation of the 74th constitutional amendment by including a small case study of urban governance in the city of Chandigarh, Punjab. Introduction: The system of local service delivery through the means of local government bodies began with a Budget Speech by a member of viceroy’s council Samuel Laing, he proposed that local services should be based on local resources. Local governance bodies have been a part of Indian governance system since the British Era, the first Municipal Corporation was set up in Madras in 1688 followed by Bombay and Calcutta. In the beginning local governance bodies were mere implementation instrument of state government’s activities but since the introduction of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, there has been a change in this status quo. Since the early 1990s there has been a lot of initiative undertaken by the Government of India which were aimed at decentralisation of urban governance, this was the part of adoption of neo-liberal policies adopted by the government after facing failure of the state-led development model, as for under this model the government kept its role secondary giving more importance to market oriented approaches. Under this step taken by the Government of India enactment of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, was one such initiative, this gave constitutional recognition to urban local bodies and a constitutional right to exist. AnewTwelfthScheduletotheConstitutionprovidesrecommendedlistoflocalfunctions. Under the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, it requires the state governments of all the states to amend their respective municipal laws so as to increase the powers and authority of the urban local bodies, as quoting the line for the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act â€Å"withsuchpowersandauthorityasmaybenecessarytoenablethemtofunctionasinstitutionsofselfgovernance†. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act provides a base to the state the ability to transfer certain responsibility and authority to the urban local bodies i.e. municipalities in order to provide a strong base for municipal local governance in cities, in this regard several state government has amended their state legislature in the same regard. Under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, it is mandatory to undertake the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act and implement in the respective state legislatures. It is under the article 243ZE of the constitution which requires all the state governments to review the existing municipal laws and either repeal or modify those which are inconsistent with the provision of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act within one year from the commencement of the Act.[1] 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in a nutshell: Features and Issues Features of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act 74th Constitutional Amendment has been constituted in congruence with the idea of new public management. Under this concept the major role the state play is of withdrawing itself from directly influencing the market activities and let demand and supply correct the course of market. One of the features of this concept is that the government breaks down the huge monolithic government beaurcracies, which refers to heavy decentralisation of responsibilities and authorities. According to my understanding the enactment of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is very much influenced by this characteristic of new public management. Before the enactment of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act the role of urban local bodies was merely of implementation of activities undertaken by state and national government. Constitutional status has been granted to the urban local bodies under the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, under which a three tier structure of the urban local bodies has been envisaged. Formation of Municipal Corporation for larger area with higher populations the example of this can be Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, and creation of municipal councils for smaller areas which includes towns like Upleta in Gujarat, and creation of village panchayats for villages that are in transitions to become towns. Under this amendment the governing members of the municipal corporation are being elected by the people through an election in a similar way in which the members of the lok sabha are elected, the election is conducted, managed and regulated by the state election commission. This indicates that the democracy has established deep roots in the political system of the country. Under article 243Y, it makes it mandatory for every state to establish a state finance commission as it is defined by article 243I. The function of the state finance commission is advising the Governor of the state regarding the distribution of funds between state and municipalities which also includes the revenue generated from tolls, taxes and duties. The state finance commission also acts as a auditing organisation which scrutinises the employment of the finances to the urban local bodies. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in its article 243ZD and 243ZE makes it mandatory to form committee for district planning in each district and committee for metropolitan planning in every metropolitan area. These committees endeavour to provide newer dimension for the role of citizens and its elected representatives in preparation of plans for their respective regions, infrastructure plan being it most important component. It is sometimes that cities in the same districts share certain natural resources or problems like allocation of water, waste management which might create overlapping situations; it is the function of committee for district planning to cater to such scenarios. Whereas committee for metropolitan planning caters to the increasing infrastructure and amenities demand in metropolitan cities due to expansion of its boundaries or population. Under this act the urban local bodies are endowed with responsibilities for formulation and implementation of schemes for economic and social development, the subjects for the same have been specified under the 12th schedule i.e. article 243W. Issues in the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act The enactment of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act marks a transformation in the role of urban local governing bodies in terms of the urban governing bodies being constitutionalised and substantial authorities being granted to them under the act regarding decision making to acquiring finance, but still certain questions remained unanswered. The first issue in implementation of the act is the identification and demarcation rural and urban areas. In states like Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala, approximately two third of towns are non-municipal towns.[2] Even though these towns in these states have higher prevalence of non-agricultural activities these town are not recognised as cities and are still under the status of villages, this is because under the status of villages the state government can sanction grant for implementation of projects for rural development like MNREGA, NREGA etc. while on the other hand if these area are classified as cites the states would not be able to sanction money for such developmental activities from the government and the state itself will be responsible to provide grants for further infrastructure development in these newly formed cities. The implication of this is that the local bodies lose out on better sources of finance. Therefore due to the vested interest of the members of the politica l structure of the state barriers are created in the implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act makes the urban local bodies responsible not only for mere implementation of the state directives, but also makes them responsible for carrying out activities for social and economic development under 18 subject mentioned under schedule 12 i.e. article 243W, but the act does not make it clear how the three tier bodies i.e. municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats will work in synchrony in order to accomplish this tasks. The act leaves it to the discretion of the state to work out the arrangement in this regard. One of the objectives of enacting 74th Constitutional Amendment Act was increasing people and private participation in urban planning, but due to public and private organisations being suspicious about the functioning of the urban local bodies, there has been no significant change in this regard. Case Study: Implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in Chandigarh I have adopted the following case study from an article by Deepak Sharma titled as: An Evaluation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act: A Case Study of Chandigarh, India Background Chandigarh is a union territory and a joint capital of the state of Punjab and Haryana. With around 9, 00,000 population it is one of the fastest growing city. The municipal corporation of Chandigarh was formed in 1994 and its jurisdictional area is around 79.34 kms. The municipal corporation of Chandigarh came into being after passing of Punjab Municipal Corporation Law ordinance, 1994 under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976. The functioning of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is done by formation of various committees that are allocated with different task for the governance of the city. The example committees under the Chandigarh municipal corporation are as follows: Water Supply and Sewerage Committee Roads Committee Slum Development Committee Fire Services Committee Environment City Beautification Committee House Tax Committee Finance Committee Contract Committee Report of findings Under the74th Constitutional Amendment Act, the urban local bodies is also been charged with activities of social and economic development for the empowerment of the citizen of the particular cities, but in Chandigarh there has been incongruence with the mandates of the act, where the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been partially endowed with such responsibility education and health and the Chandigarh administration maintains a monopoly, this lead to overlapping functions, and it is conceptually against what has been mandated in the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act. As per the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, the members of the urban local bodies have to be elected by the people of the city, this what has been implemented in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation as well, but as the members of the municipal board belong to different political parties, there has been difference of opinion regarding decision making and implementation of project, which in turn delays or either sabotages the developmental or infrastructural initiative by the Chandigarh municipal corporation at times, here there has not been a failure of the act, but this is because of different political parties acting as per their own vested interest. The municipal corporation in Chandigarh faces issue of funds accumulation because of two reasons. The first being that the funding grants are in the hands of Chandigarh administration which at times end up either blocking or delaying transfer of funds to the Chandigarh municipal corporation and the second being the inefficient state finance commission. Even if the funds are being allocated only a small fraction is employed in implementation of project as due to the layer of political agents that end up utilising funds from their own purposes. As mentioned above that the Chandigarh municipal corporation has been facing dearth of funds, one of the reason is that the municipal corporation has failed to recover tax arrears, majorly these tax arrears has been because there has been defaulters amongst liquor vendors and water tariffs. Thus this implies 1) there is an improper record system in the Chandigarh municipal corporation leading to arrears as large as $112,375,000[3], 2) extensive corruption. Conclusion: From the information about the enactment, features, flaws of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, and by presenting the case study of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, I finally conclude that the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is apt in its spirit of empowerment and decentralisation of function and responsibilities to the urban local bodies, but there lies an issue with the effective implementation of the act. In this regard the blame can be given to the still existing beauracratic structure of governance in India leading to rent seeking and red-tapping, but along with this there has been lack of awareness and motivation amongst the public which are an equal part of the governance system. Appendix: References [1] Article: Implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment and Integration of city planning and delivery functions. [2] Adopted from article: Features of 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment [3] Figure adopted from Article: Evaluation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act: A Case Study of Chandigarh, India by Deepak Sharma

Intellectual Property (IP) Law and the Media and DBC Television’s Issue

Intellectual property law refers to the rules that protect copyrights, property patents, and trademarks, and through which the property owners exercise the rights they have over the intangible assets they develop. These intangible assets include symbols, artistic, literary works, and musical works, phrases, words, inventions and discoveries (Dutfield & Suthersanen 2007, p. 267). The most commonly recognized intellectual property rights include trademarks, industrial design rights, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights. For this paper, the most applicable property law is the copyrights (Seville 2009, p. 4). The controversial issue to be addressed in the paper revolves around Media Ltd, one of the most recognized TV production companies in the United Kingdom, and DBC television, which broadcasts the Zoo, one of the children animated TV series. The Media Ltd licenses the copyright to a third party to make Lawrence Lion books, dolls, and children clothing. Lawrence Lion is a popular character in the Zoo. The Zoo items are complicated and are extremely expensive to make. A single worker, working for averagely ten hours a day, can only make 30 dolls. The items are meant for collectors and none is supposed to be purchased for children. Carl’s family, one of the Zoo fans, lends Sheila some of their collections. The collection is supposed to form part of the entertainment for Sheila’s little daughter. Unfortunately, David, Sheila’s husband, secretly reproduces several copies at a friend’s video production place and begins to sell them. Juan, who also happens to have seen the Lawrence video, starts producing similar dolls in Spain. Some of her dolls are again imported back to the UK by Import Ltd. This paper will outline the legal issu... ...M, & Bentley, L 2010, Privilege and property: essays on the history of copyright, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge. Dutfield, G, & Suthersanen, U 2007, Global intellectual property law: commentary and materials, Elgar, Cheltenham. Ghidini, G 2010, Innovation, competition and consumer welfare in intellectual property law, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Macmillan, F 2005, New directions in copyright law, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. MacQueen, HL, Wealde, C, & Laurie, GT 2007, Contemporary intellectual property: law and policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Seville, C 2009, EU intellectual property law and policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Singleton, MA 2005, The art of gigging: the essential guide to starting up as a performing artist, Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC. Torremans, P 2007, Copyright law: a handbook of contemporary research, Elgar, Cheltenham. Intellectual Property (IP) Law and the Media and DBC Television’s Issue Intellectual property law refers to the rules that protect copyrights, property patents, and trademarks, and through which the property owners exercise the rights they have over the intangible assets they develop. These intangible assets include symbols, artistic, literary works, and musical works, phrases, words, inventions and discoveries (Dutfield & Suthersanen 2007, p. 267). The most commonly recognized intellectual property rights include trademarks, industrial design rights, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights. For this paper, the most applicable property law is the copyrights (Seville 2009, p. 4). The controversial issue to be addressed in the paper revolves around Media Ltd, one of the most recognized TV production companies in the United Kingdom, and DBC television, which broadcasts the Zoo, one of the children animated TV series. The Media Ltd licenses the copyright to a third party to make Lawrence Lion books, dolls, and children clothing. Lawrence Lion is a popular character in the Zoo. The Zoo items are complicated and are extremely expensive to make. A single worker, working for averagely ten hours a day, can only make 30 dolls. The items are meant for collectors and none is supposed to be purchased for children. Carl’s family, one of the Zoo fans, lends Sheila some of their collections. The collection is supposed to form part of the entertainment for Sheila’s little daughter. Unfortunately, David, Sheila’s husband, secretly reproduces several copies at a friend’s video production place and begins to sell them. Juan, who also happens to have seen the Lawrence video, starts producing similar dolls in Spain. Some of her dolls are again imported back to the UK by Import Ltd. This paper will outline the legal issu... ...M, & Bentley, L 2010, Privilege and property: essays on the history of copyright, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge. Dutfield, G, & Suthersanen, U 2007, Global intellectual property law: commentary and materials, Elgar, Cheltenham. Ghidini, G 2010, Innovation, competition and consumer welfare in intellectual property law, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Macmillan, F 2005, New directions in copyright law, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. MacQueen, HL, Wealde, C, & Laurie, GT 2007, Contemporary intellectual property: law and policy, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Seville, C 2009, EU intellectual property law and policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Singleton, MA 2005, The art of gigging: the essential guide to starting up as a performing artist, Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC. Torremans, P 2007, Copyright law: a handbook of contemporary research, Elgar, Cheltenham.

The Gifted One :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was a humid summer day in a small town in Florida called Panama City. Much like everyday there were kids running around shooting each other with water guns up and down the street, and kids frolicking in the various pools throughout the neighborhood but this day would change the life of a boy who lived there forever. This particular boy named Simon was very special, all his life he had been marked as someone very different and gifted. At a young age of 10 he had an IQ of over 170, which is extremely rare. So he was constantly being taken to various schools that were designed to facilitate this boy with studies that would challenge someone of such superior intellect. The story all begins when him and his father were at their poolside talking about a school that had offered him a full paid scholarship. Simon’s father wanted to have his son go to the best of everything even if it meant leaving his home where he had grown up at only 12 years of age. As most can imagine Simon was very reluctant about this idea he wanted to live at home near his friends and family. He did not want to go live in some far off place with people he didn’t even know. His father tried to reason with him he said, â€Å" 3 presidents have gone to this school and not even they had a full scholarship tossed into their lap.’ Simon replied, ‘ I will never leave home.’ His father filled with anger and frustration yelled back with harsh conviction, ‘ You will go to this school even if you don’t want to go because it is in your best interest.’ Simon became very upset and burst into tears he cried out once more that, ‘ I wi ll not leave my mother.’ His father once again rebutted saying. ‘ You will do as you are told.’ At that Simon with out even lifting his hand picked up his father smashed him against the concrete siding of the pool splitting his head and tossed him into the deep end of the pool. The blood oozing form his head turned the pool water into a deep crimson hue. Not aware that his mother was watching she ran outside and jumped into the blood-tainted water to try to save her husband, but it was to late.

Comparison Of Tones Used By Ph :: essays research papers

Two of the most well known black writers that were for the abolishnist movement in America were Frederik Douglass and Phillis Wheatley. At a time when a literate Negro would have only existed in a nightmare and when even the majority of the white women in the country were illiterate, these two authors of distinguished valor managed to write literature and recite speeches that inspired some of the most impenetrable minds to change their ways of thinking. Wheatley would move her readers with her subtle, yet powerful literature while Douglass would do the same with his powerful use of words. Phillis Wheatley was one of the more passive abolishionist writers. Because she was a slave and she was aware of her position in society as opposed to the whites, she knew that enfuriating her audience was the wisest thing to do. When criticizing slavery she chose her words very wisely. In her poem â€Å"On Being Brought from Africa to America,† for example, she does not blatantly protest about slavery and call her readers savages like Douglass would do. Instead she and realized has realized her position in serialized her position in society as a slave and In her literature she criticizes slavery through rli Although, Phillis Wheatley was an abolishnist writer, she passive than a lot of her literature didn’t always reflect. At first glance it would For a man going against a legion of non-followers, Frederik Douglass held nothing back. Wheatley, Unlike unFor an abolishnist writer, one must and Although they both took very diifrent approaches very, but also managed to get their works published. Wheatley would move the crowed inspire authors wrote poetry ab it was a forbidden for a Negros to learn how to read black to learn how to read andbeing literate being illeterate was law for blacks, and women ere being illetarate for Wheatley and Douglass wroteAt a time where it was forbidden for a Negro to learn how to read and even majority of the white women couldn’t read, Phillis and Wheatley were writing verses that were so powerful wthese two authors, managed to recite speeches and write sonnets to get to

Movie: On Golden Pond

On Golden Pond Cassandra Mclean Central Carolina Community College I would have to admit that this was my first time ever hearing of this movie until this assignment but once I saw it I absolutely fell in love with all the characters and the different dynamics of family. It begins with Norman and Ethel Thayer moving back to their lake house in Maine for the summer. Norman and Ethel have been married a long time and will be celebrating Norman’s eightieth birthday and welcoming back their daughter Chelsea and she brings along her boyfriend Billy Ray and his teenage son Billy Ray Jr.Chelsea asked her parents can Billy jr stay with them while her and Billy go to Europe. When Billy and Chelsea return form Europe she discovers that her dad and Billy have the relationship that she always wanted and decided to confront him and deal with her emotions. Norman Thayer will be eighty years old his next birthday he is suffering from some health problems and have dementia where he is beginni ng to forget things like a photograph that he took years earlier and the road that he been on for years and now can’t remember how to get there.Norman is in between late adulthood and very old age Erikson’s nine stages of psychosocial development says that in late adulthood stage you take stock of your past and in old age you face new sense of self over failing bodies and need of care. Norman is always talking about getting older and dying he has declining cognitive functioning and that makes him irritable and confused.

Exam Paper Model Answers S

Q1 what do you learn from Geoffrey Lean's article about the issues of rainfall and flooding in Britain ? From reading the article by Geoofrey Lean it is clear that there are some issues reagarding flooding in Britain. Firstly it is made clear in the heading that the article is about water and the concerns that are related to it . This article is also compering the South and the North of England . It says that the South gets less water and is not affected that much by flooding issues as Northern part does.  «Things are only going to get worse » .This quote makes me scared and worried about what is going on and then the article gives me statistics about the global warming which makes me worried even more! Various government initiatives have also been mentioned by this article . For example that new houses  «should be built with their living areas on the first floor » or  «hospitals and other vital buildings should be built on high ground †¦Ã‚ » . Conversely,there is clea rly a need to look at the ways we can make the flooding less damaging to our houses and how to make South not increasing the prices on the water .As Lean points out at the end local councils finally began to take it seriously and start planning the ways to protect pupils houses . Q2 Explain how the headline ,sub'heading and picture are effective and how they link to the text The headline ,sub-heading and picture are very effective to the rest of the article . The headline begins with  «Four amputations ». This is very strong phrase as this is a real challenge to live happily after that. So the headline immidediately suggests a hard-hearted tone and perhaps one which is slightly inspiring.The notion that this might relate to the swimmer who is illustrated in the picture as we can see a it might be a colourfull picture to show the blue waves and the man who is fighting them. The subheading continues the insiring and hard to believe approach with the phrase  « 16 years after loos ing all his limbs ,Philippe Croizon crosses Channel ». It is expanding the purpose of the text and tells the reader more about this swimmer,things like his name and the certain years make it really effective as well as  «13 hours – one extraodinary swim » .This phrase in the headline makes people interested in this article . The inspirational tone is further developed throughout the article,with phrases such as  «TWO YEARS ago,Phiippe Croizon could barely swim at all » and  «he learnt to swim using a snorkel and prosthetic legs with built-in flippers ». The picture also relates to the text as it clearly shows the big waves and an inspired man that wants to  «prove that I am still alive » .The use of colours helps illustrate his view of the journey as a 13 hour way in the  « handicap and the treacherous Channel tides and currents †¦Ã‚ ». Q3 Explain some of the thoughts and feelings Christopher Ondaatjue has about his experience of Lake Victoria. Christ opher Ondaatjue has a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings during his cross of the Lake Victoria on his way to Nile. He reiterates how enjoyable the landscape was by saying  «beutiful expanse of water ». He focused on the calmness and the nature of this place and expressing his feelings as wonderful.He writes the things that were going on at that time like  «glimmers of golden light » or  «red ball rose over the hills behind Mwanza » to show how enjoyable the situation is and gives us a sense of his pleasure to be there . He is describing the atmospehere of nature as it should be without any technological interventions. As he comes to the ferry which should transport him to the over coast of the Lake ,he started to describe his thoughts about it and using very descriptive and simple language. He coudn't feel that silence anymore as  «the eople pressed up against the frond of the ferry ,along the sides and against the rails ». It was maybe a bit of a panic for some of t hem and Christopher also uses the exposion how hot it was and it was getting even hotter. That helps me to realise that he was hot and the people who were standing aroung him made the atmosphere even more noisy and hotter. The extract finishes by the much the same way as it starts: he took the ferry to travel to this Lake and then something makes me think that he will do it again to move further to Nile. This cyclical pattern of writing mirrors the cyclical nature of storm .

Pros and Cons of Television Essay

Television is one invention that serves as a type of role model for Americans everywhere. This mechanism is in almost every room in our home and people canÂ’t help but turn on the switch to see what is showing. Some only rely on a television as their only source of entertainment and some view it as a way to get the family together. But one thing for certain is that television has some characteristic that draws humans to the screen and most people reflect what they watch. The television is an unavoidable technology that shapes peopleÂ’s lives, on that can both benefit and harm its viewers. Although television is unavoidable, it does have its benefits. Almost every American has one TV in one room of their home. The news channel is one of the most widely watched program in the world. People watch news as a source of what is happening during the day. Before work, a woman would turn on the news, to check how the weather is so she can pick out the right outfit. Or some may check the news just to take a glance at traffic to see which roads to avoid in order to make it to work on time. The news also benefits children. It helps them understand what is going on in the world. “News, current events and historical programming can help make young people more aware of other cultures and people.” ( Media Education Resources, 18 Oct 2006. http://www.media-awareness.ca) Some news casts help by showing the latest threats in places or even in food reports, which are good things to be aware of. Some people also find the joy in knowing about the latest product on the market or a br and new diet test. However, the news might not show decent programming for all audiences all the time. The potential harm in television is the violence that is shown on almost every channel, but particularly in the news. The news is the place where most of the violence is shown and worse, the violence is real. The news reaches all audiences which means children are exposed to this violence. But the violence show is harmful to all its viewers. “Some local news shows go out of their way in search of violence.” (Online News Hour, 18 Oct 2006. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media_violence.html) When kids witness violence on the news, it gives them ideas and it shapes their view on the world. The same goes for young adults. Most of the violence on the news are by young  adults who are in gangs or a student at school. Worse is that the violence is shown in detail and shows every act from explosions to gun shots, to fist fights. These kinds of scenes are not ones that should be exposed to young children and adults. “As more violence is reported in the news and as young children spend more time involved with media, they are more likely to hear disturbing news.” (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 18 Oct 2006. http://www.naeyc.org/ece/2003/01.asp) The news is a helpful program to have, but not when disturbing images are shown. Most Americans who own a TV watch it for an excessive amount of hours, mainly children, so they are bound to see some amount of violence while watching. Some may stumble upon it on accident so they have those frightening images in their mind. Parents are concerned that their kids watch the violence because they are entertained by it. Some kids might have to watch news casts for homework assignments and find helpful information about the country they live in, but they also might see some of the dangers that are here as well. The fact is that the news has the habit of showing clips of “disturbance” during their supposed innocent broadcasts. Overall the news does have its advantages and its disadvantages just like television. The television is an unavoidable technology that shapes peopleÂ’s lives, one that can both benefit and harm its viewers.

Why They Merged and Why the Merger Was Unsuccessful

In 1997 University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) merged its two public hospitals with Stanford’s two private hospitals. The two separate entities merged together to create a not-for-profit organization titled UCSF Stanford Health Care. The merger between the health systems at UCSF and Stanford seemed like a good idea due to the similar missions, proximity of institutions, increased financial pressure with cutbacks in Medicare reimbursements followed by a dramatic increase in managed care organizations.The first year UCSF Stanford Health Care produced a profit of $22 million, however three years later the health system had lost a total of $176 million (â€Å"UCSF-Stanford Merger,† n. d. ). The first part of this paper will address reasons why the two institutions decided to pursue the merger by looking through the theoretical lens of bounded rationality, prospect theory and resource dependence theory (RDT). The second half of the paper will purpose reasons why the merger was unsuccessful by considering key concepts in organizational behavior such as power and culture.The threatening and uncertain fiscal times led the leaders to select the option that they believed maximized their chances for survival. The theory of bounded rationality, proposed by Herbert A. Simon, suggests that people are largely limited by time, information and cognitive limitations(Simon, 1997). The merger between the two medical schools seemed to make sense, both institutions shared a common mission of treating the uninsured, training the next generation of innovative doctors, and remain at the forefront of breaking research and technology.Since both were going to be competing for increasingly scarce resources, joining forces made sense. Together they would be able to reduce spending on administrative costs, and better prepared to negotiate contacts with large insurance companies(â€Å"UCSF-Stanford Merger,† n. d. ). Simon suggests that people, bounded by time, cog nitive ability and information, are more likely to make satisfactory decisions rather than optimal ones(Simon, 1997).Instead of focusing time and energy outlining potential ways to remain separate amongst the shifting payment structure UCSF and Stanford, both limited by time and fearful of the potential losses, agreed to merge. The merger was UCSF and Stanford’s way to mitigate risk and manage uncertainty. Prospect theory is a behavioral economic theory developed by Daniel Kahneman that holds that people are more likely to take higher risks when decisions are framed in negative terms(Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). Although mergers are complex and risky the looming fear of decreased reimbursements made the leaders focus on the benefits of merging.Kahneman argues that people do not base their decisions on final outcomes, instead they base their decisions on the potential value of losses and gains(Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). Instead of analyzing the risk of the merger, leadership foc used on the more pressing burden, the bottom line. To stay alive in the era of managed care, university hospitals across the country were seeking mergers with private hospitals. Calculations showed that hospitals lost $4 million annually for each 1 percent drop in indemnity patient population(Etten, 1999).Since the 1990’s, indemnity insurance was on a drastic decline in San Francisco opening the market for managed care organizations(Etten, 1999). RDT looks at how the behavior of organizations is affected by their external resources. The theory, brought about in the 1970s, addresses organizations demand for resources, resources and power are directly linked(Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003). RDT holds that organizations depend on resources thus the idea of merging, due to increasing resource scarcity, appealed to both institutions(Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).On paper, the merger between these two institutions made sense – both institutions were close to one another and competing for diminishing resources. Together they could reduce administrative costs and join forces to negotiate with large insurance companies. The need to create a new culture and dissolve historically existent power struggles were two large tasks that needed to be addressed in order to ensure a successful merger. However, the way in which the merger was organized did not lead to a successful merger.UCSF Health Care did not spend adequate time creating a shared culture in which the two organizations would see one joint organization with shared power (resources). On paper both organizations agreed to share power, however both parties behavior showed otherwise. Dr. Rizk Norman, co-chair of the combined physician group of UCSF and Stanford faculty, attests that neither institution was ever comfortable enough to share financial information(â€Å"UCSF, Stanford hospitals just too different,† n. d. ). UCSF did not fully disclose their fiscal concerns regarding one of their sinking hospita ls, while Stanford was also guilty of ithholding information (â€Å"UCSF, Stanford hospitals just too different,† n. d. ). Merging into one should eliminate the sense of two separate entities, however not enough was done to shape the merger in such a way that facility and staff felt like equal partners. Loyalties existed within the organization, beginning at the top with the Board of Directors. Structurally the board was split between seven Stanford board members and seven USCF board members and three non partisan members, however loyalties to ones particular institution never dissolved(â€Å"UCSF-Stanford Merger,† n. d. ).As outlined, RDT, holds that organizations depend on resources, which originate from their environment. Resources are an organizations power used to compete in their environment. The two health systems shared an environment, thus competed with one another for power (resources) (â€Å"UCSF-Stanford Merger,† n. d. ). Because Stanford was a for-p rofit organization, they held more fiscal power over UCSF. Pfeffer and Salancik argue that the way to solve problems of uncertainty and interdependence is to increase coordination, more specifically, to increase shared control of each other’s activities(Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).Had the two institutions worked from the beginning to increase coordination and communication between both institutions the merger may have more changes in succeeding. Increased coordination between the two institutions could have lead to the creation of a strong culture. Culture is the shared belief, expectations and values shared by members of an organization. (â€Å"Leading by Leveraging Culture – Harvard Business Review,† n. d. ). Employing a new culture starts from the top, management must model in accordance with the new culture.This was not done at UCSF Stanford Health Care due to existing loyalties. Adding to the culture struggle, the institutions were far enough away from one an other to merit concern. For an organization to flow smoothly, clear communication channels need to be established. Without open communication and collaboration a shared culture cannot emerge. Weak cultures harm the workplace by increasing inefficiencies that lead to increased costs. UCSF Health Care model from the top down to create a shared culture.Had leadership spent adequate time addressing ways to dissolve existing power struggles, and creating a shared culture that would set the foundation to achieve a new-shared vision, the merger could have been successful. Engaging leaders in creating a strategic plan to merge two separate existing cultures would have encouraged them to show support and dissolve power struggles. Shared resources, open communication and a culture of oneness may have set the foundation for a successful merger between the two organizations. References Etten, P. V. (1999). Camelot or common sense? The logic behind the UCSF/Stanford merger.Health Affairs, 18(2), 143–148. doi:10. 1377/hlthaff. 18. 2. 143 Kahneman, D. , & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263. doi:10. 2307/1914185 Leading by Leveraging Culture – Harvard Business Review. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2012, from http://hbr. org/product/leading-by-leveraging-culture/an/CMR260-PDF-ENG Pfeffer, J. , & Salancik, G. (2003). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. Stanford University Press. Simon, H. A. (1997). Models of Bounded Rationality, Vol. 3: Emperically Grounded Economic Reason.The MIT Press. UCSF-Stanford Merger: A Promising Venture. (n. d. ). SFGate. Retrieved October 16, 2012, from http://www. sfgate. com/opinion/article/UCSF-Stanford-Merger-A-Promising-Venture-2975174. php#src=fb UCSF, Stanford hospitals just too different. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 16, 2012, from http://www. paloaltoonline. com/weekly/morgue/news/1999_Nov_3. HOSP03. html ——â€⠀Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Fall 16 PM 827 A1 Strategic Management Of Healthcare Organizations UCSF Stanford Healthcare – Why They Merged and Why The Merger Was Unsuccessful Sofia Gabriela Walton Mini Exam #1 08

Impact of Oil Prices on the US Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Impact of Oil Prices on the US Economy - Essay Example Although the rise in prices of oil has been large it has not been sudden and the economies of the major economic powers have adjusted to the change. The rise in oil prices will definitely result in an across the board change in prices and thus inflation rates will continue to be high. However the likelihood of this leading to a recession in the US and other large economies of the world is remote. Over the last five years, US natural gas markets have known three major price shocks and have continued to present extremely high volatility (BNP-Paribas). In the past sudden increases in the prices of oil have been followed by sharp increase in inflation, followed by a recession. Again there has been a sharp rise in the prices of oil and it is necessary to understand what effects this can have on the economy and take corrective action where possible and required. With the experience over the last 40 years it is now possible to arrive at a clearer picture of what effects an oil price shock can have. Economists have developed conceptual frameworks to assist in understanding the effects of a sudden increase in any of the inputs to production, that is, labour and capital. These models can be extended to include the effect of oil price shock to allow analysis of the effects of such an event. The political events in the Middle-East, that led to rise in the price of oil, and their relation with the recessions in the US economy, since the first big rise in 1973, are listed in Table 1, enclosed. An examination of this information shows the political events in the Middle East that led to price rise of oil and the recessions during the same period. There does not seem to be an immediate relationship between the two, but if we factor in other information such as the timing of the interference of the central banks/ Government by adjusting interest rates and other fiscal measures to bolster the economy, the stocks of oil at the time of the rise in prices and also the size and performance of that segment of the economy which is not connected directly to the price of oil. As the development rates of the world economy reach all time highs the recession another oil price hike may cause will be difficult to control, since simultaneously interest rates are already very low and further tightening of money supply would yield very marginal results. Because of the phenomenal growth of the world economy things have become quite different from what was historically normal. Real oil prices have reached twice their average over the past two decades, Bond yields have reached the lowest ever levels, American savings are at record lows while the current-account deficit is at a record high (Woodall P, 2006). Discussion Rise in prices of gasoline hit us all

Popper's Falsificationism versus Hempel's Confirmation Theory Essay

Popper's Falsificationism versus Hempel's Confirmation Theory - Essay Example According to Carl Hempel, deductive logic is a device for preserving truth. Therefore, positive evidence is used to confirm a hypothesis. On the other hand, Karl Popper objected that it was logically impossible to confirm or justify theories by using claims of science and observation. Hempel asserts that if the premises of a deductive argument are true, then the conclusion must also be true. Therefore, logical arguments should start from some foundation while, according to Popper, theoretical claims are known to have extended beyond the particular observations that were used to support them. According to Popper’s falsification theory, experience, more specifically, sensory experience is a foundation for arriving at a subsequent observation could always prove the best confirmed theory false. Hempel and others, who supported the confirmation theory, had a strategy of showing how claims of science might be justified by being derived from sentences that could be confirmed or inval idated by observation. On the other hand, Popper, argued in favor of an alternative in which scientists should strive to falsify hypotheses, in reference to the bold hypotheses that make strong claims about the world.... Logic of science must be universal. The scientific method must be formal, and should rest not on specific assumptions about the way the world is, but it must be sufficient. Therefore, given a set of premises rules of logic are sufficient to decide whether a conclusion follows and there is no need of other information (Kincaid 23). Always logic of science should allow us to do something similar, and that is to decide whether a hypothesis is confirmed given the data. Similarly, according to Hempel, a new law is looked by following a process, whereby a guess is made; consequences are computed about the guess to see what would be implied if this law that was guessed is right. Then, the result of computation is compared with nature to see if it works. Agreement will constitute good evidence only when it is known that there is not a more reasonable rival that predicts what ha already been observed. As much as confirmation is only one part of acceptance, and acceptance of a theory requires more than knowing whether a specific batch of data supports a particular hypothesis, multiple tests, the scope of the data, the logical and evidential ties with other hypotheses can be factored in order to make it practical (Kincaid 24). In shifting the emphasis entirely to falsification, Popper rejects the generally accepted aspect of science that experience, more specifically; sensory experience is a foundation for arriving at a subsequent observation because it could always prove the best confirmed theory false. He rejects the qualitative notion of evidence in confirmation. He argues that claims of the logic of science are generalizations from scientific practice. However, scientific practice is diverse in terms of time and fields.

The advantages and disadvantages of antibiotics Assignment

The advantages and disadvantages of antibiotics - Assignment Example There are several forms of various antibiotics each type works in a different way. In most countries, there are only available with a medical prescription; in fact, there is a concern that antibiotics are overused. There are various types of antibiotics; all these types have benefited the human health greatly, but antibiotics can be dangerous for human’s body. Therefore, this essay will discuss several recompense and shortcomings of using antibiotics to human beings by focusing on benefits and side effects of using them. Discussion Some benefits of antibiotics relate to the way they work; in fact, there are two types of antibiotics and they work in two different ways. Firstly, they kill bacteria by interfering with the formation of the bacterium’s cell wall or its cell content and kill the bacteria. This is called a bactericidal antibiotic, and an example of these antibiotics is penicillin; in fact, they also stop the replication of the bacteria, which is a bacteriostat ic antibiotic. On the other hand, antibiotics can be classified as broad and narrow spectrum. ... There are many benefits for using antibiotics; for instance, since the 1950s the antibiotics have been used to treat a wide variety of bacteria, fungi, and parasite infectious illnesses such as respiratory diseases, skin disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases. Garbutt (2012) says that millions of lives have been saved since they were first introduced; in a number of cases antibiotics can be used as a prophylactic medication, meaning that antibiotic prevent the disease as might be the case before surgery (Medical News Today, 2009). Furthermore, Munckhof (2005) stated, â€Å"Approximately 30-50% of antibiotics used in hospital practices are meant for surgical prophylaxis.† Munckhof (2005) argues that application prophylaxis antibiotic is an effectual management strategy for tumbling postoperative disease; in fact, patients who have heart disease or had heart surgery should take an antibiotic prior to dental extractions or any dental procedure that could cause bleeding to a void disease. The majority of the antibiotics types are usually taken orally, which makes it comfortable for most patients to take by themselves. In addition to the oral antibiotics, some of them can be applied directly on the affected areas in the form of an ointment (Malfertheiner, Megraud, O'Morain, 2007). Although, there is a quality of antibiotics which require administration by medical staff via intravenous, respiratory tract is used to administrate the prophylactic antibiotic during surgery. Nonetheless, the benefits of narrow spectrum antibiotics are associated with their inability to kill a lot of normal microorganisms in the body as compared to the broad spectrum; in fact, this reduces chances

Understanding Human Behaviour Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Understanding Human Behaviour - Assignment Example y ponders over the areas on which the service users need to work on in order to avoid misdiagnoses and also focuses on the ways that should be adopted by psychiatrists in order to understand the disability and mental health of the individuals. Also it discusses the problems that are faced by the health departments in the introduction of certain programmes because of the criticism of the service users. In this research essay I would focus on the notion that the massive power of the psychiatrists in the process of the diagnosis is something that has implications on the patients and this is something that should be given more importance. For the purpose of my research I have used many literature reviews. Psychiatric diagnosis refers to the process whereby the psychiatrist (or psychologist) is responsible for the identification and the labelling of a particular disease. One of the main purposes of this diagnosis is to help people and guide them through the entire treatment procedure. Lately, it has been felt that the diagnosis has had many different implications on the individuals concerned. According to Reich (1981) psychiatric diagnosis is a very important process because it can have varied effects on the patients. While some may be happy with the results of the diagnosis, others might not feel the same way. One implication of the procedure of the diagnosis is that the people who are diagnosed may have to suffer from unintended implications. For instance, the perceptions of the others might change towards the patient if he/she is labelled with a mental disorder. People may not want to interact with such patients. Reich (1981) argues that the main reason for this behaviour is the re sult of the institutionalized attitudes of the people and the society as a whole towards people who suffer from mental disorders and learning disabilities. The above mentioned effects may occur due to the attitudes of the people and the society to the mental people. There are, however,

Socially Responsible Procurement Programme Essay

Socially Responsible Procurement Programme - Essay Example The companies in order to be successful need to cope up with the situation maintaining profitable performance and showing ethical conduct towards investors, business partners, vendors, employees, governments and communities, and the most important customers. The companies are routinely being rewarded and punished on the basis of their performance of balanced act. Thus procurement plays a major role in the outcome. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be split into four distinct classifications based on a theorist's approach and view of society. The role of business in society and its related theories fall into the following foundational areas: instrumental, political, integrative or ethical (Garriga & Mele, 2004). From the instumental perspective, participation in CSR activities is endorsed only if it is in concert with wealth generation, and therefore CSR is seen as an instrument in which greater profits can be achieved, a means to an end. In political setting, business is considered as a "citizen" or part of society as a whole with responsibilities assigned thereto (Davis, 1973). The resultant power of a corporation from its operation must be used for the benefit of society and, just as importantly, harnessed as not to have negative influence on the marketplace. Further, as a member of society, a business has a responsibility to use its power effectively. Integrative approach to CSR in dicates that business and society are interdependent, where one party cannot exist without the other; and, as such, each relies on the other for validity, status and survival. According to ethical perspective, businesses through their activities must treat the individuals that compose that society fairly, must contribute to the sustainable development of the environment in which they function and forever keep in mind the "common good" in business planning. If a business can be seen as a group of individuals seeking fulfillment in society to meet its personal goals, then there is a strong relationship between the corporate sector and the "common good." For business, the "common good" would be defined as the strategic actions taken by the corporation that would help the members of that entity realize their individual goals. When action such as this is taken, the collective personal interests of the employees, when combined with the shareholders of the corporation, meld; and company su ccess is virtually guaranteed. As Carter & Jennings (2000) postulate that procurement social responsibility (PSR) consists of a wide array of

Since the 1960s, a growing number of people have been moving away from Essay - 2

Since the 1960s, a growing number of people have been moving away from villages and small towns to big cities in both developed - Essay Example In â€Å"The Root Causes of Migration† published by Maryland Catholic Conference, it illustrates the different and various reasons or purposes for moving permanently to the bigger cities. The most common reason is usually based on economics and financial matters. In the area of social science, there is a certain law which describes the different causes or factors for the occurrence of migration. Called Lee’s laws, it separates and breaks up the different factors into two sections called the push and the pull factors. The push factors are the different causes that influence and make people want to move away and be pushed out of an area. The people from the rural areas suffer from the lack of job opportunities, bad and awful environmental conditions such as pollution and being prone to natural disasters like fire, drought, flood, landslides, social unfairness such as bullying, teasing, racism, discrimination and even religious persecution. Other pull factors include loss of wealth, poor housing and conflicts or wars around the area. The pull factors are the opposite. They are the various reasons that attract people and pull them into an area. The most common reason for people to move into an area from rural areas is for better job opportunities. In the third chapter of â€Å"People on the Move,† there are also other reasons and purposes why people are attracted to settle permanently in amore urbanized location rather than staying in the rural parts of the country. Some of these are better living conditions. This mostly talks about the environmental conditions such as being less prone to environmental problems and natural disasters. Education is also one of the common reasons. During these modern times, people now highly value the quality of education that one gets because this is the gateway not only for their financial success in life, but also for their family’s freedom from poverty and financial struggles. In both developing and dev eloped nations, migration is being done and the numbers are getting higher and higher every year. The Philippines, which is a developing country in Southeast Asia, is experiencing such an increase in the number of migrants who came from the rural areas that are flocking to the most urbanized region in the country, the capital, Metro Manila. People in this country are getting poorer and poorer everyday and it is clearly evident. That is the reason why most of the people grab the chance and go to Metro Manila, which gives them a hope of a better opportunity and chance in finding good jobs that will somehow and in some way improve the financial status of their families. The intelligent, the skilled and the talented leave the provinces where they live in order to get better chances at life. This great migration that is currently happening in the Philippines has impacted and greatly influenced the development of the country. There are numerous effects that this migration has caused. When all of the brilliant and bright move and gather at one urban area such as in Manila, the provinces and the small towns and rural areas are left undeveloped and from slow, they become slower and slower. It is seen that in certain towns and municipalities, whatever it looked like a decade ago, it still looks the same until now because development is very slow in these areas. Additionally, in developing countries, once people

Has the marketing mix for Volkswagen been successful Coursework

Has the marketing mix for Volkswagen been successful - Coursework Example This report will focus primarily on promotion at Volkswagen and psychographic segmentation and targeting strategies, since the recent successes at VW in the last four to five years has been highly dependent on these activities and marketing strategies. The report describes pricing structure at Volkswagen and the rationale for this strategy, followed by acknowledgement of product and place in the marketing mix, with a continuing in-depth discussion of promotional activities domestic and international that has led to higher sales since 2008. 2.1 Pricing and Product at Volkswagen One marketing manager at Volkswagen describes the rationale for pricing at the company: â€Å"We are targeting young, self-confident city dwellers†¦that want a car which ticks all the technical boxes, epitomizes lifestyle and is a little unconventional in terms of looks† (Volkswagen 2010, p.91). The market share in Europe contributes most to the sales revenues and profit of VW, a market that is domi nated by small-sized passenger cars produced by companies such as Kia, Hyundai, and Fiat (among many others). These cars typically carry much lower prices due to their efficiency in petrol mileage and limited features. Customers have dedicated brand following to many of these competitive models, thus in order to gain market attention from the young professional between 21 and 34, the business must devote much of its production capacity and capabilities to producing small- to mid-size cars as competitive low-end pricing. In the UK and the United States, as one example, the list price is approximately $19,000 for the Passat (the company’s largest international seller). This price structure is compared to other small-sized... The report describes pricing structure at Volkswagen and the rationale for this strategy, followed by the acknowledgement of product and place in the marketing mix, with a continuing in-depth discussion of promotional activities domestic and international that has led to higher sales since 2008. One marketing manager at Volkswagen describes the rationale for pricing at the company: â€Å"We are targeting young, self-confident city dwellers†¦that want a car which ticks all the technical boxes, epitomizes lifestyle and is a little unconventional in terms of looks†. Volkswagen continues to use actors and endorsers and messages in the promotion that are highly relevant to lifestyle and attitudes, thus improving brand equity and long-term market loyalty. Trust in the brand is built around the market communications offered by Volkswagen that revolves strongly around satisfying consumer demands and promoting â€Å"affordable innovations†. This company would seem to be a b enchmark of the theoretical concept of effective customer relationship management, through its dedication to establishing operational components, the marketing mix, sales dealerships, and communications precisely linked to customer social and psychological value systems and emotional competencies in this age group. Examination of research on Volkswagen did not indicate any negative sentiment from the brand in existing key target markets.

Critical Analyis of John Locke, Hegel, and and John Stuart Mill Essay Example for Free

Critical Analyis of John Locke, Hegel, and and John Stuart Mill Essay Question 1:How does Locke prove that human beings have a natural right to private property? Answer (Book II chap V section 27): Humans have the right to private property because they are using their own labor in conjunction to take property from the state of nature and thus making it his own. By mixing his labor or his hands, which is an extent of himself, he is relating that property to him and no one else. When every we pour water into a glass, by using labor and our hands, we have the sole entitlement to the water. Question 2:How does human nature limit this right to property? Answer (Book II chap V section 31-32) Man has the right to use as much property as possible just as long as he finds away that is supports his life. Once he no longer finds ways to use his property for life, he has to give it up. To add to the limitations of property, Man can use as much property unless it is wasted and not good for the use of others. By wasting property, that persons is violating other peoples rights because human nature states that everyone has the an equal Question 3:How does Hegels abstract right define the relation between freedom, reason, and property? Answer: Question 4:How does Hegel prove that the abstract right to property necessarily involves relation to other persons? Answer: Question 5:Using your answer to the proceeding questions, identify exactly what distinguishes Lockes position on freedom and property from the way Hegels account of abstract right understands the same issue? Answer: Question 6:How does Hegels account of abstract right prove that right embodied in property necessarily violates the same right in other persons? Answer: Question 7:Using your answer to #6, explain why Locke is in no position to draw the same conclusion. Answer: Question 8:State in your own words Mills utility principle. Identify precisely how this principle introduces a tension between independent individuality and communal solidarity. Explain how this same tension appears in Locke and in Hegels abstract right. Answer:

Education and Louisiana Content Standards Essay Example for Free

Education and Louisiana Content Standards Essay The word comes from the Latin word currere which means the course to be run. It contains the courses of study that a student has to complete successfully to obtain a degree certifying competence. (It is the What and Instruction is the How) In K-12 schools, it also contains the standards and benchmarks for each of the courses of study. Students must successfully complete the benchmarks in order to complete the course. In this new age, those benchmarks are measured by the Louisiana Educational Assessment Plan (LEAP). During the 1920s, the definition of curriculum as school experiences was developed by progressive educators to emphasize the quality of experiences. What children learn in school is wider than what goes on in the classrooms. It includes experiences in hallways, the cafeteria, playground, etc. These experiences cannot be separated from the responsibility of educators. There are five types of curriculum: FORMAL- The formal curriculum is the intended curriculum, explicit, overt, and written. It includes the planned and advertised menu of courses, the content of those courses, the catalog descriptions, and the regular public activities included in those courses. You will find this in the Louisiana Content Standards and Benchmarks and the Grade Level Expectations (GLEs). INFORMAL-The informal curriculum is also intended, but not explicit or written. This includes such things as citizenship, manners, and social skills and is influenced by the teacher and his or her educational philosophy. It is reflected in the classroom and is often found in the rules and procedures that a teacher implements. It is also evident in the methodologies chosen by a teacher. For example, I have a strong belief in learning styles; therefore, in face-to-face classrooms, I include a lot of hands-on activities for students to participate and engage in. Also, I include activities that involve lots of student interaction. The hidden curriculum is the covert, or implicit, implied by the very structure of the school buildings. It is learned by exposure of living in  the environment. It is characterized by the reward systems, physical plan of the school, furniture arrangement, etc. When you look at a school, is there a trophy case for sporting events, but not academics? Are classes dismissed every Friday, 6th or 7th period, for a pep rally? If so, that school would value athletics over academics. As you look at the structure of the school, is there a computer room, or is technology evident in every classroom? Are teachers allowed to attend professional development activities during the school day? All these things will provide information about the hidden curriculum of the school. Hidden curriculum is researched by critical theorists. NULL-The null curriculum is what is left out, not attended to, or taught. What is missing from your school, or even the Louisiana Content Standards and Benchmarks? Does the school embrace diversity, or just say it does? EXTRA-The extra-curriculum includes those activities that are structured by the teachers and administration. If a school has a football team, a basketball team, track team (etc.) but no history club, Spanish club, math club (etc. ), one might infer that athletics are valued more than academics. If the school has a basketball team and track team and also has National Honor Society, Future Farmers of America, (etc. ), one would infer that all learnings are valued. What is the relationship between Formal Curriculum and Hidden Curriculum? What is the relationship between Formal Curriculum and Informal Curriculum? How do all forms of c urriculum relate to each other curriculum?

Product Strategy And Management Jet Airways

Product Strategy And Management Jet Airways On a bright sunny morning of May 2011, Naresh Goyal, the founder chairman of Jet Airways was going through the financial reports for the year ended March 2011 while having his regular cup of coffee. Jet Airways had posted losses for the quarter ended March 11 while it had posted a meager profit of 9.69 crores for the FY11 after three years of consecutive losses. The company was thinking of ways to bring the airlines back into consistent profit-making ways. The company currently offered three brands of airline services: the premium service- Jet and the low cost models- JetLite and JetKonnect. The companys main competitor in the premium space was Air India and Kingfisher while it had a lot of competitors in the low cost carrier segment. JetLite had contributed 75% to the groups domestic revenue in the June quarter but a lot of questions were raised about the logic behind operating two low cost models at the same time when such intense competition was there in the segment. Naresh Goyal had to take a decision soon about the future that his company should take in relation to these low cost models. Indian Airlines Industry Pre-liberalization Era At the time of independence in India, there were eight companies were in service within and outside the country namely Tata Airlines (renamed as Air India), Indian National Airways, Air service of India, Deccan Airways, Ambica Airways, Bharat Airways and Mistry Airways. In 1953, the government nationalized the airlines via the Air Corporations Act, 1953, which gave birth to Indian Airlines and Air India. Indian Airlines came into being with the merger of eight domestic airlines to operate domestic services, while Air India International was to operate the overseas services. Furthermore, the Act gave monopoly power to Indian Airlines to operate on domestic scheduled services ruling out any other operator. Air India became the single Indian carrier to operate on international itinerary excluding some routes to the neighboring countries which were given to Indian Airlines. Liberalization and Private Players Entry The services offered by the two state-owned airlines were not up to the mark. So, in the early 1990s, Indian government initiated liberalisation of Indian airlines industry and relaxation in rules and regulations for private players to operate in this industry. As a consequence to this the Air Corporations Act was repealed in 1994 and private players were allowed to operate scheduled services. In 1995, Air Sahara, Jet Airways, Damania Airways, East West Airlines, Modiluft and NEPC Airways were granted scheduled carrier status. But only four operators- Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Jagsons and Spicejet (previously operated as Modiluft) started operations by 1997 and continued to operate. Eventually, by 1998, at least six private airlines, East- West, Modi-Luft, NEPC, Damania, Gujarat Airways and Span Air were closed. The arrival of private players in the aviation industry improved the services offered by the players as competition created an incentive to improve services offered. By 2003, only two private carriers survived to see the sunrise of the new century, i.e. Jet and Sahara. The survival of Jet Airways could be attributed to its sound financial planning and extraordinary management team since its inception. Arrival of Low Cost Carriers In 2003, a major breakthrough happened in the airlines industry when Air Deccan started its operations as Indias first Low Cost Career (LCC). The arrival of Air Deccan gave competition to the extant duopoly of Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines. It also changed the fare structure in the industry from two-way economy and business class fares into multiple options of including check fares, web fares, APEX fares, internet auctions, Special discounts, corporate plans, last day fares, promotional fares etc. Since the entry of Air Deccan, the passenger traffic in the airlines industry has grown tremendously. In the next two years, Kingfisher, Spice Jet, Indigo, Go Air and Paramount also started as LCCs in India. The consolidation phase in the Indian Airlines Industry In 2007, Jet acquired Sahara, Kingfisher acquired Air Deccan and Indian Airlines and Air India were merged to form a single entity named Air India. A comparative account of aircraft movements, passenger count and freight in the first quarter of 2011-12 over that of the previous year is given in Exhibit 1. Company History Jet Airways Company founder Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business at the age of 18 as a general sales agent (GSA) for the Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines. In May 1974, he formed his own company, Jetair (Private) Limited, to market other foreign airlines in India. When the Indian government reopened the domestic aviation market to private carriers, it provided an opportunity to Goyal who established Jet Airways (India) Private Limited in 1991. On April 1, 1992, Jet Airways was incorporated as an air-taxi operator in India. It started out its domestic operations on 5th May 1993. With an initial fleet comprising of 4 leased Boeing 737 aeroplanes, Jetairways soon expanded to include international operations with its maiden international flight from Chennai to Colombo. Jet presently connects 52 domestic destinations. Jet strengthened its position as the airline for the business community considerably during 90s. 80%of its passengers were business class passengers who chose its services because of its punctuality and excellent service. 95% of its passengers rated the airline as good or excellent. In March 2004, Jet Airways acquired license to fly over international routes and it presently connects 24 international destinations. Formation of JetLite and JetKonnect On 12 April 2007, Jet acquired Air Sahara for USD 340 million. Air Sahara was renamed as JetLite and was positioned to serve the segment that was emerging to be new customers of airline services offered at low prices. During the recession of 2008, Jet was facing falling revenues. Hence it decided to allocate some of its aircraft from Jet Airways to cater to the LCC segment as purchasing power of people was low at that time. There were regulatory delays in transferring aircrafts from Jet Airways to JetLite as these two had different operator codes. On 8 May 2009, Jet Airways launched a new low-cost brand called Jet Konnect to operate on sectors that had less than 50% or less load factor. Competitive Landscape In the phase from 2003-2006, the entry of Air Deccan marked a new point in Indian aviation: India had its first low cost/no frills airline. By matching aircraft fares with upper class railway fares, this was an era where passenger traffic went up and intense competition among the players started. Spurred by the success of Air Deccan, other LCCs such as Spicejet, Indigo, GoAir began operations. Air Deccan was acquired by Kingfisher airlines and became the LCC called Kingfisher Red. Some of the major players providing competition to Jet today are Indigo and SpiceJet. Kingfisher, which once used to be a tough competitor in the non-LCC segment is now a very weak competitor. Indigo Currently, this LCC is the market leader and the only profitable airline service in India. Their main focus is on on-time performance and service which are main consumer needs. Through this and a whole host of cost cutting measures, they have ensures that they remain profitable. The airline is on an expansion mode to other major cities of the country as well as international destinations. Indigo scores better than the low cost JetLite and JetKonnect on the service dimension. In terms of communication, Indigo ads focus mainly on their own time performance and the hassle-free experience. To break the ad clutter, Indigo differentiated its ads: it came up with an innovative ad picturised on the form of a Broadway musical. The ad also showed uniformed stewards and air hostesses in Indigos blue uniform which was a great way to portray their brand identity.  [1]   Kingfisher Owned by Vijay Mallya, its the most flamboyant airline in India and fares much better than Jet in terms of in flight and on ground services. It is a major luxury airline operating an extensive network and had expansion plans for regional and long-haul services. Currently, it is in bad financial health due to which its flights have been plagued by delays and as a consequence, its image has taken a severe beating. In terms of communication, Flying High was the tagline used in the Kingfisher video ad2 that exhibited liberation and flying through its picturization2. Kingfisher was positioned as a luxury brand and this was conveyed clearly through the video. However, similar to Jet, Kingfisher didnt release any video ad for the low cost carrier (Kingfisher Red) it started operating after acquiring Air Deccan. The luxury positioning of Kingfisher, which resulted in confusion when Red started operations, was one of the factors that was leading to its growing unpopularity. Its future, at least in Goyals point of view, looked bleak. Hence he focussed more on other competitors while strategizing for the future of Jet. SpiceJet It is Indias second largest low cost airline and third largest in terms of market share. It was originally started as Modiluft airways back in 1993 in partnership with Lufthansa. Over the years, it changed hands and got rebranded as SpiceJet and operates as a low cost carrier. SpiceJets communication focuses on the main attributes of the airline: service to unaccompanied minors, option of choosing your own seat etc. But, these features fall either in the categories of basic/performance attributes that any airline should have. SpiceJet hasnt taken any measures in their service to upgrade these features to the excitement category so as to be differentiated from other players. Tipping points in the history Sahara acquisition Spreading wings In year 2005-06, when Air Sahara was exploring the opportunities for private placements of its equity, several airlines like SpiceJet and Kingfisher showed their interest for stake in the company. However the deal couldnt be made because Kingfisher thought the price set was too high given the not so strong financials of Sahara. Later, Jet Airways came into the picture and showed strong interest in buying out the airline. This merger had several strategical objectives behind it: Jet will have a strong position in the Indian Airline industry with almost 50% of the market share. Jet would become the only private carrier to fly international with no competition for 3 years because other carriers were relatively new. And as per regulations, it would have needed minimum of 3 years of domestic operation before going international. Jet would have a complete dominance of parking bays and airport infrastructure. Jet could now easily increase its capacity without expanding supply. The merger happened in 2007 and Jet Airways branded Air Sahara as JetLite and positioned it as low cost carrier to compete against low cost carrier at that time. If we look at this merger strategy from Ansoffs matrix framework, we can say that the move was more of Diversification strategy. This can be justified by the fact that JetLite was positioned as low cost carrier as a new product for Jet (Jet was known as full cost carrier) and they targeted new market segment which was low cost. However, this turning point for Jet proved to be too costly as it moved from a profit-making airline to a loss-maker and hasnt recovered yet. (Refer Exhibit 2 for sales and profit trends). Jet Konnect Another Jet brand In year 2009, when Indian economy was not doing well, the international operations of Indian airlines were affected too. At the same time, Jet Airways was facing stiff competition from low cost carriers and JetLite was not doing well in the domestic market with just around 7% of market share. Thus in the same year, Jet launched low cost brand named Jet Konnect to fight with the low cost carriers on routes with higher passenger load factor. Instead of expanding the existing brand JetLite, the decision to establish a new subsidiary was to avoid the regulatory delays associated with moving excess aircraft from Jet Airways to JetLite which had separate operating codes. Jet Konnect offered no-frill services. Almost 3 years after its introduction, positioning of Jet Konnect seems to be working for the fact that 70% of all the seats that Jet sells in the domestic market come from Jet Konnect itself. But even after the introduction of JetKonnect, the company has been making losses. Thus, though Jet Konnect strategy may have helped Jet to retain its market share near 28%, clearly it failed to make a long term business plan. Issues- Increasing Sales; Decreasing Profits The financials indicate that sales have been increasing throughout the past 12 years, but the profits have not followed the trend. The company which had started to make increasing and positive profits since the internationalization of its operations in 2004, started showing declining profits that soon dwindled into losses after the acquisition of Air Sahara. Recovery from the losses has been very slow. Goyal wondered if this was because of the inability of transferring the synergies from Jets primary business of full service to no-frills service. Brand Confusion Goyal also wondered if having two low-cost brands was a good idea, as it could have possibly led to people not being able to differentiate between JetLite and JetKonnect. At the time of inception of JetKonnect it had seemed like the best option possible to earn revenues in a slowing market and it had to be implemented quickly without waiting for the settlement of legal issues of including Jets fleet under JetLites name. But now, thinking back, Goyal wondered if he had moved too fast. Brand Dilution Jet used to be considered a premium brand offering full services. With the extension of the name Jet to the new no-frills brands JetLite and JetKonnect, Goyal wondered if there has been a dilution in the brands equity. Ideally, JetLite and JetKonnect were meant to be downgraded versions of Jet. Did the market perceive it this way? Or was Jet being seen as an upgraded version of the low-cost carriers (and thus occupying only a second place in the mindspace of the consumer)? Has the extension resulted in cannibalization of Jet? The way forward- Alternatives Entry into LCC segment had started off the loss-making phase for Jet and the introduction of a new LCC brand hadnt helped the company make positive profits. If the LCC segment were to be still operated by Jet, streamlining the product portfolio of the group to offer the guests a single superior in-flight product in the full-service and low-fare categories respectively was the only viable option as seen in the alternatives he jotted down to be discussed with his strategy team. Merge JetLite and Jet Konnect; brand it as JetLite. Merge JetLite and Jet Konnect; brand it as Jet Konnect. Merge JetLite and Jet Konnect; brand it as a different new brand. Exit the Low Cost Carrier segment to overcome brand dilution. The next day, he put forth these to the team and asked for a solution to the issue at hand and a suggestion for the way forward. Analysis- Arriving at a solution After the meeting with Goyal, the strategy team split themselves into sub-groups: one analyzing the communications of Jets brands and one conducting market research to understand peoples brand associations with respect to Jet. They aimed to view the current position of the brands with respect to the value as well as price perceived by the market. Communications of Jets brands Jet Airways A set of formal ads was released in 2007, without any celebrity attraction [  [2]  ]. These ads focussed on the various attributes featured in the three classes of air travel, without any voice-over. The tagline used was Change the way you fly. This was followed by a set of TV Commercials (storyboards in Exhibit 3) released in 2008, starring Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, for the First Class, Premiere Class and Economy Class of Jet Airways. The airline was positioned as a service-oriented one that took care of the little things that add to the good experience of the customer. In addition, there were hoardings speaking about connectivity as well as reinforcing the taglines of the video advertisements. An interesting case in point was when Kingfisher took an ambush initiative and put up a hoarding over Jets hoarding (that spoke about Jet having changed and asking people to visit their site to know more); Kingfisher took credit saying that it was responsible for the change. This was followed by GoAirs ambush of Kingfisher and Jet, by putting up a hoarding on top of the two existing hoardings, saying that they havent changed and still remain the smartest way to fly. This campaign resulted in publicity for all three brands. JetLite JetKonnect Not much of advertising was done for these two brands- a possible reason for the confusion between the two, prevailing among people. A few print ads for JetKonnect were released when the airline was introduced (Ref. Exhibit 4-a). One of them had personnel wearing the same attire as Jet Airways personnel. This was aimed at reinforcing the good service quality in JetKonnect (by linking it to the service of Jet Airways) but it resulted in brand dilution and cannibalization of Jet Airways, when a low cost carrier (JetKonnects ads spoke about Low Fares) was perceived to offer an equally good service. The print ad of JetLite (Ref. Exhibit 4-b) reinforced the low-cost feature by displaying the price (Rs. 1001) prominently, for a few domestic routes. Brand Associations Depth Interviews- Depth interviews conducted across six people in the age group of 22-27 who had travelled by Jet Airways, JetLite and JetKonnect. This segment was chosen because they would be part of the major class of air travellers in the coming decades. Questions were posed (Ref. Exhibit 5) to understand their requirements from airlines services and their views on the three brands that Jet had. The respondents could be classified into two major categories: Those who expect comfortable travel and service quality and are willing to pay for these Those who are very price-conscious and do not care much for service The people in the former category associated Jet with comfortable travel and thus preferred it for long journeys; those in the latter category did not associate anything exceptionally good with Jet. Some even felt that they were too high priced for the quality of service they offered. None of the people interviewed had seen the advertisements of Jet Airways with Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan starring in them. Some recalled seeing hoardings that spoke about good connectivity and some recalled the attire of the personnel and the logo. All the interviewed people used the online mode of checking prices via sites like makemytrip.com, yatra.com or cleartrip.com. Booking was made by some people at the respective airlines website while it was done by some others at the price checking portal. All were aware of the Jet Privilege Card program but only one was a user of it. Punctuality was a key expected attribute by all interviewees and all gave a positive feedback about IndiGo on that aspect. Jets brands were seen to be neither significantly good nor significantly bad with respect to punctuality. The comfort and quality-sensitive people gave Jet Airways a higher rating than JetLite or JetKonnect, while the price-sensitive people rated JetLite and JetKonnect over Jet Airways. No difference was perceived or observed between JetLite and JetKonnect. Is Jet an upgraded version of JetLite/Konnect (or) is JetLite/Konnect a downgraded version of Jet? From the customers ticket purchase behaviour (all of them used makemytrip.com or cleartrip.com or the likes), it was seen that they would first be shown the cheapest flights first (which is how those sites are programmed to function). Hence, a typical customer would first see JetLite / JetKonnects prices and then see the incremental price to be paid for Jet and then compare the price versus quality / extra features received from the full-service airline. Thus, it was observed that the LCC brands were becoming the anchor brands and Jet was seen as an upgrade. This was substantiated further in the analysis of a survey that was conducted (as explained below). A low-cost carrier being seen as an anchor brand is degenerative to the parent brand as brand dilution occurs and people associate even the parent with the LCCs attributes. Survey A survey (Ref. Exhibit 8 for the survey) of air travellers was conducted to identify the importance of various attributes to people and the rating of airlines on those attributes (Ref. Exhibit 6). This helped arrive at the Market Perceived Quality (MPQ) and Market Perceived Price (MPP) of the airlines relative to one another, which aided our comparative analysis and inferences regarding brand perceptions. Weight attached to attributes The attributes, in the order of importance, was seen to fall into 3 buckets. The first bucket has punctuality with a highest weightage of 21%. The second bucket has flight connectivity, baggage allowance and flight crews attitude, all with weights around 17-18%. The third bucket contains food-on board and in-flight entertainment with weights around 13-14%. (Ref. Exhibit 6-a). Punctuality has always been of paramount importance in any mode of transport. However, the interesting thing is the reduced weights given to the third bucket this was a direct result of the communication strategies followed by the low-cost carriers. Existence of Brand Confusion An MPQ as well as MPP analysis of JetLite versus JetKonnect throws up a score of 1.00, implying that there is no perceivable difference in the minds of the customer in terms of the two brands, leading to brand confusion and dilution. JetLite-Jet: Quality versus Price MPQ analysis (Ref Exhibit 6-e) of JetLite versus Jet shows that JetLite is only 89% of Jet with respect to quality, whereas an MPP (Ref Exhibit 6-f) analysis shows that Jetlites perceived price is 97% of that of Jet. Heence, people can easily perceive Jet to be priced only marginally higher than JetLite for a relatively better offer of quality. Hence they think that Jet is an upgraded version of JetLite. Indigo- Better Quality than Jet MPQ analysis of Jet versus IndiGo shows that Jet is marginally perceived to be of a lower quality than IndiGo, despite Jet being a full-service airline and IndiGo being a no-frills airline. This is indicative of the fact that people perceive punctuality (in which IndiGo excels) to be a very important quality. Thus a relatively new airline has managed to change the weight attached by people to punctuality, by showing them the value it can create for them by offering it. Perceptual Maps Also, based on the interview and survey responses, perception maps were constructed for airlines in India (Ref. Exhibit 7). It is seen that IndiGo offers very good price-value performance with respect to the top three attributes that people expect in airline service. No carrier operated in the Premium price-high connectivity quadrant, as it was not economical to offer full-service over short routes (that offer high / direct connectivity). Current brand name connotations (Lite signifies that it is a stripped down version of Jet; gives a negative connotation to the customer that he/she is losing some services of the original Jet airways) + (Gives the reliability of the parent brand, and the extension Konnect tries to point out to an additional attribute of connectivity, which according to the survey is highly valued) n/a (A name which would not include Jet in it) n/a Parent brand enhancement (A premium product and a stripped down product with the same brand name will lead to dilution) (A premium product and a stripped down product with the same brand name will lead to dilution) + (A name which would not include Jet in it; being a completely independent thing it would not tarnish Jets image with a low cost tag) + (Exiting from the LCC segment and just concentrating on the traditional segment completely eliminates the chances of brand dilution) Anchoring in the mind of the customer -Jet Airways versus LCC brand name (Jet is seen as the upgraded version of Jetlite (the perceived anchor, as shown in the analysis- Ref Exhibit 6-e,f)) (Jet is seen as the upgraded version of Jetkonnect, which is perceived to be the same as JetLite, (LCC is the perceived anchor, as shown in the analysis- Ref Exhibit 6-e,f)) + (With the LCC not having Jet in its brand name the first customer contact with Jet happens with Jet Airways and hence Jet remains the anchor brand) + (Completely exiting LCC, eliminates the whole threat of being anchored as a low-priced brand in customers mind) Recommendations by the strategy team The evaluation of the options indicates that the 3rd option (Merge Jetlite Jetkonnect; spin off with a new brand name) is the most viable, as it scores positively on all criteria. Currently the brands of jet are positioned as in Fig- 2. This can be modified to create a positioning map such that there are two different brands that are clearly separated, with distinct brand names that do not result in brand dilution or confusion. The positioning should be as in Fig-3: cid:[emailprotected] Fig 3: Current Jet Situation Fig 3: Jet after brand fusion Operational Recommendations for both brands of the company Punctuality- This is the most important attribute to the customers. Hence this has to be provided by both the full-service as well as the low-cost service airlines. Otherwise they would soon lose out to IndiGo. Connectivity- The new LCC brand should aggressively increase the number of directly connected locations to compete with IndiGo and SpiceJet. Communications- Clear and distinct communication strategy should be developed for both brands. For example, crew attire, colours in the print ads and such visible brand elements should be distinct, to avoid brand dilution. First Class Ad1 The description of the features such as a comfortable lie-flat bed, personal wardrobe, table for two and a door (that provides privacy) is done by a voice-over, accompanied by the visuals that show the protagonist experiencing them in an imaginary place of luxury, correlating each scene with the experience inside the flight. The comfort and luxury are communicated effectively and the ad ends with a tagline- Filled with the little touches that count and a written line displaying More than 400 international flights per week. Economy Class Ad2 The features- such as more space between rows of seats, more legroom (with a special leg-rest) and a cushion for back-rest- are shown as being enjoyed on board a flight by the protagonist, while a voice-over describes each one. The ad ends with a tagline Its the little touches that go a long way and a display of the words More than 400 international flights per week. Premiere Class Ad3 The features such as wider seats and more space for passengers are shown figuratively with a widening of a sofa on which the protagonist is seated and pushing the sofa down the room to create more space between the protagonist and another person. The features of a lie-flat bed and direct aisle access from all seats are shown in an in-flight environment. The possible absence of a figurative comparison for a lie-flat be  [3]  d could be to avoid confusion with the first class ad. The ad ends with the tagline Its the little touches that make a big difference and a display of the words More than 400 international flights per week. How frequently do you travel and for what purpose? While working- once in 3 weeks; purpose was official 12-13 times per year; personal(going home vacation) Once in 4-5 months; personal Do you have any preference for specific purposes; if so, why? Official- jet (to take advantage of frequent flier); Personal- Whichever is the cheapest(except Air India) Indigo over spicejet because of timely departure and arrival; likes jetlite as well because of the same reason; doesnt prefer jet because of food (as that adds to cost) Indigo any day- both personal business; punctuality is the best What comes to your mind when we say Jet ? Logo, nothing else High price. Jet was good once upon a time; Now, Jet doesnt give value for the amount charged Nothing premium; in-flight entertainment doesnt always work; food is the only differentiating factor, but it doesnt matter to me What 3 attributes make you choose JetLite over Jet Airways? Only Price Price, Punctuality (think Jetlite is better), Newer seats Only Price What 3 attributes make you choose Jet over JetLite ? Wont prefer; cost sensitive Will chose jet over jetlite in case there is no jetlite flight in that route+ if Jet travels quicker (can accept price that is higher by a max of Rs 1000) Only if I am not paying for it Have you seen ads of Jet? Remembers Hoarding; connects to (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) ; (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) flights to NY/SA; airhostess dress color; Yes; havent seen them in recent times; doesnt remember much Not recently; Kingfishers ambush-known due to prior academic input How do you book your tickets? Online-search for yatra coupons; Book the cheapest mode Check prices through makemytrip; book through the travel agent. Doesnt trust giving the card no. in the website Cleartrip.com site only Do you know about Jets loyalty programme? Yes; registered but didnt get the card /make use of it Heard about the reward points system from other people Yes; not a member as I dont fly regularly Do you perceive any difference between JetLite JetKonnect? If so, what? No Not much; jetlite has been more punctual and more sophisticated air crew; no change in food options No