Timeline of the Rulers of France From 840 Until 2017

France developed out of the Frankish kingdoms that succeeded the Roman Empire, and more directly, out of the declining Carolingian Empire. The latter had been established by the great Charlemagne but began splitting into pieces soon after his death. One of these pieces became the heart of France, and French monarchs would struggle to build a new state out of it. Over time, they succeeded. Opinions vary as to who the first French king was, and the following list includes all of the transitional monarchs, including the Carolingian and not French Louis I. Although Louis wasnt king of the modern entity we call France, all the later French Louis (culminating with Louis XVIII in 1824) were numbered sequentially, using him as the starting point, and its important to remember that Hugh Capet didnt just invent France, there was a long, confused history before him. This is a chronological list of the leaders who have ruled France; the dates given are the periods of said rule. Later Carolingian Transition Although the royal numbering starts with Louis, he was not a king of France but the heir to an empire which covered much of central Europe. His descendants would later fracture the empire. 814 - 840 Louis I (not a king of France)840 - 877 Charles II (the Bald)877 - 879 Louis II (the Stammerer)879 - 882 Louis III (joint with Carloman below)879 - 884 Carloman (joint with Louis III above, until 882)884 - 888 Charles the Fat888 - 898 Eudes (also Odo) of Paris (non-Carolingian)898 - 922 Charles III (the Simple)922 - 923 Robert I (non-Carolingian)923 - 936 Raoul (also Rudolf, non-Carolingian)936 - 954 Louis IV (dOutremer or The Foreigner)954 - 986 Lothar (also Lothaire)986 - 987 Louis V (the Do-Nothing) Capetian Dynasty Hugh Capet is generally considered the first king of France but it took him and his descendants to fight and expand, and fight and survive, to begin to turn a small kingdom into great France. 987 - 996 Hugh Capet996 - 1031 Robert II (the Pious)1031 - 1060 Henry I1060 - 1108 Philip I1108 - 1137 Louis VI (the Fat)1137 - 1180 Louis VII (the Young)1180 - 1223 Philip II Augustus1223 - 1226 Louis VIII (the Lion)1226 - 1270 Louis IX (St. Louis)1270 - 1285 Philip III (the Bold)1285 - 1314 Philip IV (the Fair)1314 - 1316 Louis X (the Stubborn)1316 John I1316 - 1322 Philip V (the Tall)1322 - 1328 Charles IV (the Fair) Valois Dynasty The Valois dynasty would fight the Hundred Years War with England and, at times, looked like they were losing their thrones, and then found themselves facing religious division. 1328 - 1350 Philip VI1350 - 1364 John II (the Good)1364 - 1380 Charles V (the Wise)1380 - 1422 Charles VI (the Mad, Well-Beloved, or Foolish)1422 - 1461 Charles VII (the Well-Served or Victorious)1461 - 1483 Louis XI (the Spider)1483 - 1498 Charles VIII (Father of his People)1498 - 1515 Louis XII1515 - 1547 Francis I1547 - 1559 Henry II1559 - 1560 Francis II1560 - 1574 Charles IX1574 - 1589 Henry III Bourbon Dynasty The Bourbon kings of France included the absolute apogee of a European monarch, the Sun King Louis XIV, and just two people later, the king who would be beheaded by a revolution. 1589 - 1610 Henry IV1610 - 1643 Louis XIII1643 - 1715 Louis XIV (the Sun King)1715 - 1774 Louis XV1774 - 1792 Louis XVI First Republic The French Revolution swept away the monarch and killed their king and queen; the Terror which followed the twisting of the revolutionary ideals was in no sense an improvement. 1792 - 1795 National Convention1795 - 1799 Directory (Directors)1795 - 99 Paul Franà §ois Jean Nicolas de Barras1795 - 99 Jean-Franà §ois Reubell1795 - 99 Louis Marie La Revellà ­ere-Là ©peaux1795 - 97 Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot1795 - 97 Etienne Le Tourneur1797 Franà §ois Marquis de Barthà ©lemy1797 - 99 Philippe Antoine Merlin de Douai1797 - 98 Franà §ois de Neufchà ¢teau1798 - 99 Jean Baptiste Comte de Treilhard1799 Emmanuel Joseph Comte de Sieyà ©s1799 Roger Comte de Ducos1799 Jean Franà §ois Auguste Moulins1799 Louis Gohier1799 - 1804 Consulate1st Consul: 1799 - 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte2nd Consul: 1799 Emmanuel Joseph Comte de Sieyà ©s,1799 - 1804 Jean-Jacques Rà ©gis Cambacà ©rà ¨s3rd Consul: 1799 - 1799 Pierre-Roger Ducos1799 - 1804 Charles Franà §ois Lebrun First Empire (Emperors) The revolution was brought to an end by the conquering soldier-politician Napoleon, but he failed to create a lasting dynasty. 1804 - 1814 Napoleon I1814 - 1815 Louis XVIII (king)1815 Napoleon I (2nd time) Bourbons (Restored) The restoration of the royal family was a compromise, but France remained in social and political flux, leading to yet another change of house. 1814 - 1824 Louis XVIII1824 - 1830 Charles X Orleans Louis Philippe became king, chiefly thanks to the work of his sister; he would fall from grace shortly after she was no longer around to help. 1830 - 1848 Louis Philippe Second Republic (Presidents) The Second Republic didnt last long chiefly because of the imperial pretensions of a certain Louis Napoleon... 1848 Louis Eugà ©ne Cavaignac1848 - 1852 Louis Napoleon (later Napoleon III) Second Empire (Emperors) Napoleon III was related to Napoleon I and traded on family fame, but he was undone by Bismarck and the Franco-Prussian war. 1852 - 1870 (Louis) Napoleon III Third Republic (Presidents) The Third Republic bought stability in terms of the structure of government and managed to adapt to the First World War. 1870 - 1871 Louis Jules Trochu (provisional)1871 - 1873 Adolphe Thiers1873 - 1879 Patrice de MacMahon1879 - 1887 Jules Grà ©vy1887 - 1894 Sadi Carnot1894 - 1895 Jean Casimir-Pà ©rier1895 - 1899 Fà ©lix Faure1899 - 1906 Emile Loubet1906 - 1913 Armand Fallià ¨res1913 - 1920 Raymond Poincarà ©1920 - Paul Deschanel1920 - 1924 Alexandre Millerand1924 - 1931 Gaston Doumergue1931 - 1932 Paul Doumer1932 - 1940 Albert Lebrun Vichy Government (Chief of State) It was the Second World War which destroyed the Third Republic, and a conquered France tried to find some sort of independence under WW1 hero Petain. No one came out well. 1940 - 1944 Henri Philippe Petain Provisional Government (Presidents) France had to be rebuilt after the war, and that started with deciding on the new government. 1944 - 1946 Charles de Gaulle1946 Fà ©lix Gouin1946 Georges Bidault1946 Leon Blum Fourth Republic (Presidents) 1947 - 1954 Vincent Auriol1954 - 1959 Renà © Coty Fifth Republic (Presidents) Charles de Gaulle returned to try and calm social unrest and began the Fifth Republic, which still forms the government structure of contemporary France. 1959 - 1969 Charles de Gaulle1969 - 1974 Georges Pompidou1974 - 1981 Valà ©ry Giscard dEstaing1981 - 1995 Franà §ois Mitterand1995 - 2007 Jacques Chirac2007 - 2012 Nicolas Sarkozy2012 - Francois Hollande2017 - Emmanuel Macron

Mathematical Model Efa And Cfa - 1474 Words

1) Mathematical model: EFA and CFA are similar in terms of their respective mathematical equation/model. While PCA omits error (b/c it assumes there is perfect reliability), the main distinction between CF and CFA is the fact that CF (EFA) does not constrain factor loadings and CFA does (a priori). 2) Measure selection: selection of measures can be haphazard or based on intuition in EFA, however it must be deliberate in CFA as the measures must be representative of the latent factors that were determined a priori by theory. The content validity of measures is much more important in CFA than EFA. 3) Number of Factors: the number of factors in EFA is determined by the communalities that arise in the factor loadings. Factors are not usually determined a priori (but they can be) and thus the number of factors in EFA is not a big concern. The number of factors in CFA is established a priori based on theory and is an important aspect of CFA. In CFA, constraints are implemented so that only a certain number of factors are possible. 4) Factor Pattern Matrix: the factor pattern matrix in EFA allows all items to load onto all factors. In CFA, the pattern contains both free (estimated) and fixed factor loadings so that only certain items load onto certain factors. 5) Interpretation of Factors: the communalities seen in the factor loadings in EFA determine the emergence of factors. Factors are determined by the high loading items clustered onto that respective factor and a lowShow MoreRelatedFactors Influencing The Factor Analysis2512 Words   |  11 Pages Osborne, 2005). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) Costello Osborne, (2005) said that, factor analysis is used to uncover the structure of relatively large set of variables in the data(Costello Osborne, 2005). EFA identifies the underlying relationship between the variables or items in the data set. The method is particularly used in developing the scale and identifying the set of latent constructs as stated by (Bi, Lee, O Mahony, 2015). EFA is used when the researcher has no prior hypothesis

Strategic And Cultural Challenges Enablers â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Strategic And Cultural Challenges Enablers? Answer: Introducation The following report is aimed at describing the organizational structure of Woolworths, the leading food retailer in Australia and the issues that are associated with its operations due to the structure adopted by the organization. Thereafter, the report would be directed towards obtaining an illustration of the potential system acquisition methods, sales flowchart, control issues and possibilities of fraud that can be observed in system chosen for the organization. Information systems are perceived as a major corporate asset owing to the higher price of the systems and the benefits facilitated by them. The necessity for critical analysis of the available options in the domain of information systems acquisition could be perceived as a contributor to the long term support for business initiatives. The prominently observed sources of systems acquisition that can serve the strategic information needs of the organization are observed in external or in-house solutions. The flowchart for the sales procedure would provide a legible impression of one of significant aspects of strategic information. The understanding of the sales procedure allows the apprehension of distinct sources of revenue that can be apprehended in the distinct stages of the sales procedure. Thereafter, the organization must also consider the specific limitations which could be observed in the case of controls and issues of fraud that could be associated with the information system. Organizational structure: The organizational structure of Woolworths is observed to be a flat organizational structure with minimal layers of hierarchy. The characteristic element of centralization could be observed in the form of reporting of the lower levels of management to the CEO of the organization (Amrollahi, Ghapanchi Najaftorkaman, 2014). The improvement of the efficiency of organizational workforce could be assumed as a feasible outcome from the flat organizational structure which could be noted from the reduction of middle layers of management. The notable advantage that can be drawn from the exclusion of middle management refers to the access to human capital that can be redirected towards other crucial functional areas involved in the top management and ground management (Arvidsson, Holmstrm Lyytinen, 2014). The organization derives a profound advantage from the flat organizational structure in the form of increasing flexibility of communication among the senior management and store staff. The different implications that can be drawn in context of the flat organizational structure also refers to the interactions between customers and employees at the storefront as well as the personnel involved in the sales and marketing department of Woolworths. Woolworths has sustained its reputation in the domain of food retail sector in Australia alongside addressing the variations in customer preferences and the dynamic changes observed in the external environment with the help of its flat organizational structure (Haron, Sabri Zolkarnain, 2013). The requirement of a strategic information system is required for Woolworths in order to address the gradually expanding operations of Woolworths which could support the existing system platforms of the organization in order to facilitate efficiency in fun ctional areas such as supply chain operations and inventory management. Operational issues: The operational issues that could be anticipated in the case of Woolworths due to its organizational structure involve prominent references to the limitation of control privileges for the organizations management. Since the operations of Woolworths are executed on a large scale in Australia, the organizations management requires flexible allocation of responsibilities to managers and employees as well as effective distribution of organizational objectives (Henriques de Gusmo Pereira Medeiros, 2016). The allocation of responsibilities could become ambiguous since the flat organizational structure does not imply any possibilities for formal communication channels that could lead to profound operational issues. Another profound operational issue that can be perceived in the case of Woolworths refers to the management of human resources since the human capital is responsible for reviewing the decisions that are suggested by the senior management. This factor leads to profound issues in the effective realization of control implications in the management of store level staff alongside the concerns for professional relationships and the personal interaction between employees and the management. The significance of personal relationships could be assumed as profound implications for developing accountability of employees for their professional objectives and responsibilities alongside the proliferation of trust in the organization among employees (Jin, et al., 2014). Woolworths is also liable to experience detrimental consequences in its operations due to the organizational structure such as issues arising out of power conflicts and depreciation of employee motivation. The critical review of these operational issues is essential to apprehend the requirements for a strategic information system for the Woolworths (Lee, et al., 2015). Systems acquisition method: The selection of a viable system acquisition method is necessary for Woolworths in order to assist the organization in addressing operational issues identified in case of the organization. The two prominently known methods of system acquisition involve external and internal system development mechanisms. The external sources of deploying a strategic information system could be observed in outsourcing, cloud computing, open source applications and off-shoring practices (Osman, El Beltagi Hardaker, 2015). Accounting to Parry, De Bock White, internal information systems development could be ensured through employing an in-house solution for developing the information system. The internal information systems development approach could be classified into the distinct methods of life cycle development and rapid application development (Parry, De Bock White, 2015). The preferred system acquisition method that can be applied in the case of Woolworths is through external method of outsourcing that would enable it to acquire a custom developed information system which could help the organization in realizing cost effectiveness alongside catering the information management needs such as flexible retrieval of stock information from distribution centres that would enable employees to work in real-time. Sales procedure: As per Rahman, the sales procedure flowchart is considered as a crucial resource for an organization to outline a system for ensuring sale of products facilitated by Woolworths. The emphasis on the sales procedure could be apprehended from the factor that sales of a product of service signify the development of relationship between customer and the service providers (Rahman, 2016). The sales procedure in the case of Woolworths is initiated with advertisement and marketing initiatives to increase awareness regarding the products. The advertisement process is followed by customer recognition and determination of pricing to address different customer segments. It is imperative to understand the pricing is followed by customers analysis of the product according to various quality dimensions. The final stage in the sales procedure is the purchasing of product by customer. Control issues: The control issues that could be identified for Woolworths refers to the implications of data vulnerabilities observed in security frameworks accessible for the organization. The possibilities that could be drawn from the organizational structure of Woolworths in context of threats of fraud involve the role of interdependence among different departments of the organization. As per Salleh, et , the interrelationship between the different departments of Woolworths is also reflective of the design reforms in the strategic information system implying lack of access controls. Therefore, confidential information could be easily misplaced leading to detrimental consequences for Woolworths which creates the necessity to prepare contingency plans for these threats for obtaining credible outcomes from the information systems (Salleh, et al., 2015). The objectives of financial asset management in contemporary business scenario are largely addressed by development in computers as well as information and communication technology. The proliferation of accounting information systems have not only provided credible opportunities for flexible documentation and management of accounts in organizations but also provided facilities for monitoring of cash flow (Sugiharto, 2016). The accounting information systems are considered as credible resources to monitor the utilization and performance of financial assets of an organization thereby providing opportunities for long term sustenance in the marketplace. Various research studies and secondary information pertaining to accounting information systems have indicated their effectiveness in providing stability and control over financial management of an organization. Development and adoption of accounting software packages: The accounting software packages could be broadly described as application software intended for documentation and management of the different accounting transactions related to the organization such as accounts payable, billing, accounts receivable and general ledgers. According to Tarigan Kraus, the software package also serves the role of a strategic information system through assisting in simplification of the financial management process of an enterprise. The development and adoption of accounting software packages are largely reliant on the industry in which the organization is operating (Tarigan Kraus, 2017). For example, organizations in the retail sector which have a wide expanse of operations require an accounting software package for effective control of the outflows in the outlets and the financial inflows. The development of an accounting software package should be characterized with the flexibility of use and access through the internet. The accounting software package should be able to provide managers with the opportunity to access data from mobile devices which is responsible for drastic reduction in complexity and costs involved with departmental operations (Wali, Sadq Rasheed, 2016). Core models of accounting software packages applied for inventory management and billing could also be assumed as sources for flexibility in the adoption of the packages. Market size: The market for accounting software packages has expanded rapidly due to the profound concerns presented by intensive competition with companies increasing adopting accounting information systems to acquire feasible documentation of their books. The distinct stages of evolution in the designs of accounting software packages have indicated noticeable improvement in the diversity of their application. The efficiency of marketing software packages such as MyOB, Sage, Nominal, Reckon One and Xero have provided adequate opportunities to business management all across the world to monitor their accounts without the requirement of any professional or academic proficiency in accounting management (Waters, et al., 2013). The market leaders such as MyOB and Xero have described their prominence in the current accounting software market with the integration of comprehensive features such as audit services and tax management applications in the packages. The packages ensure that the outcomes of processes involved with calculation of tax and the audit services are independent of the potential changes in the economic environment. Furthermore, the development of features such as provision of consultancy and advisory services facilitated through technological means could also be accounted as a major impact on the improvement of market size for accounting software packages. Market leaders: The accounting software packages provided by market leaders are capable of addressing the different functions through the integration of core and non-core modules. The market leaders in Australias accounting software sector include references to Xero and MyOB. The ability of these market leaders to provide distinct facilities such as industry specific products, location specific products and convenient functionality that are integrated in single software provides customers with the flexibility to use the software. The other characteristics that can be apprehended in the case of these market leaders in accounting software packages refer to profound market share, service resources and extensive scale of functions. These accounting software market leaders are capable of acquiring competitive advantage in the form of facilities for comprehensive integration of the different departments and relevant accounting information for a single platform alongside emphasizing profoundly on the accomplishment of needs and requirements of potential clients (Wiyatno, Alam Napitupulu Abdurachman, 2017). The integration is helpful for identifying specific details involved in the software as well as its functioning leading to exclusion of loopholes and simplification of the accounting experience for clients. The utilization of these attributes is significant for organizations to obtain feasible outcomes such as reduction of manual intervention in accounting management and the simplification of processes pertaining to billing and inventory management. Challenges and recommendations: The application of accounting software packages in case of organizations which have extensive scale of operations and the relevant activities such as development, installation, adoption and configuration of the package could be a complicated task. Another profound setback in context of accounting software packages is observed in the form of cost of the packages since clients are ambiguous regarding the relevance of the package for their business needs (Wali, Sadq Rasheed, 2016). Furthermore, the concerns of costs are complicated by the requirement of periodic investments for the maintenance and support services related to the installed software. Therefore, the implementation of accounting packages should focus on the scope of adoption which could enable the client to review the design of the package and demand necessary reforms suitable for business requirements. The exclusion of certain modules from the packages could also enable price differentiation which can enable customers to acquire accounting software according to the specific modules required for their business needs. The involvement of the clients in development process could also be presented as a viable suggestion to improve the effectiveness of the accounting software packages since organization specific details could be integrated for design of the package thereby facilitating privilege of customization. References Amrollahi, A., Ghapanchi, A.H. and Najaftorkaman, M., 2014. A Generic Framework for Developing Strategic Information System Plans: Insights from Past Three Decades. InPACIS(p. 332). Arvidsson, V., Holmstrm, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use.The Journal of Strategic Information Systems,23(1), pp.45-61. Haron, H., Sabri, S.M. and Zolkarnain, Z.N., 2013, November. A situational analysis of Strategic Information System Planning in the context of a Malaysian SME. InResearch and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS), 2013 International Conference on(pp. 539-543). IEEE. Henriques de Gusmo, A.P. and Pereira Medeiros, C., 2016. A model for selecting a strategic information system using the FITradeoff.Mathematical Problems in Engineering,2016. Jin, P.J., Walker, A., Cebelak, M., Walton, C.M. and Nassar, E., 2014. Strategic environmental sensor station (ESS) location determination method based on weather-related crash data for road weather information system (RWIS). In93rd TRB Annual Meeting. Lee, T., Ghapanchi, A.H., Talaei-Khoei, A. and Ray, P., 2015. Strategic information system planning in healthcare organizations.Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC),27(2), pp.1-31. Osman, E., El Beltagi, I.M. and Hardaker, G., 2015. The impact of leadership orientation on strategic information system planning processes, with an application to Libyan organizations.Information Technology for Development,21(4), pp.601-627. Parry, G., De Bock, R. and White, G.R., 2015. Global Information System Implementation: A Study of Strategic and Cultural Challenges and Enablers in a DMNC.Strategic Change,24(5), pp.447-462. Rahman, K.Z., 2016. Accounting Information System as a Strategic management Decision Making Tool in Banking Sector: Evidence from Bangladesh.Asian Business Review,6(2), pp.79-84. Salleh, S.M., Kassim, E.S., Sari, N.A.M. and Yunus, N.A.M., 2015. Conceptualizing User Bonding on Strategic Information System Development Success.Advanced Science Letters,21(6), pp.2024-2027. Sugiharto, T., 2016. Business And Information System Strategic Alignment: Determinants And Impact On Rural Bank Organizational Performance. Tarigan, J. and Kraus, W.A., 2017. The Impact of Strategic Leadership Program as ODI on the Usage Accounting Information System and Financial Performance.Journal of Progressive Research in Social Sciences,6(1), pp.410-421. Wali, A.I., Sadq, Z.M. and Rasheed, J.S., 2016. The Role of Strategic Information System Characteristics on Customer Service Quality (An Empirical Study at Soran and Sardam Private Hospitals in Iraqi Kurdistan Region Erbil City).International Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (IJHCS)? ISSN 2356-5926,3(2), pp.1778-1790. Waters, K.P., Zuber, A., Willy, R.M., Kiriinya, R.N., Waudo, A.N., Oluoch, T., Kimani, F.M. and Riley, P.L., 2013. Kenya's health workforce information system: a model of impact on strategic human resources policy, planning and management.International journal of medical informatics,82(9), pp.895-902. Wiyatno, W., Alam Napitupulu, T.O.G.A.R. And Abdurachman, E., 2017. The Strategic Roles Of Information System: A Case Of Small Medium Enterprises.Journal of Theoretical Applied Information Technology,95(16).

Poverty Challenges Essays - , Term Papers

Poverty Challenges Poverty Challenges Junior Arnold Spirit is a 14-year old Spokane Indian, who is the main character in the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. He does not have much self-esteem because of physical health problems and being poor. This explains why he is always picked on or even beaten up. The whole Spokane Indian reservation where he lives suffers from extreme poverty, which is a reason why most have given up on hopes and dreams. He fears that he might be trapped on the reservation too if he does not do something to change that. The challenges of poverty makes Junior decide to leave the reservation in search of a better life. Junior blames the Indian reservation for his family being poor. His parents were poor because they were born into poverty. According to the article, Make a Full-Time Effort to Read Part Time Indian, by Laura Dinovis, she says, Its a depressing place where pride and poor education have kept Juniors family members and neighbors in an endless cycle of depression and poverty (A.7). His mother and father both had dreams and talents that went unnoticed and unattained because of limited money and opportunities to those on the reservation. Junior was stunned at the fact that his Geometry book had his mothers name in it. The reservation was so poor that even the school could not afford new textbooks, which did not give children a good education. He says, My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world (Alexie 31). He does not resent his parents for being poor, because he loves them and he knows that they try to do everything in their power to give him the things he needs. Despite not having the finances, they respect his wishes to attend Reardon High School, but let him know that other people on the reservation might be angry with him because of his decision. Along with the educational setbacks from belonging to a low to no income community, the type of health care available is very limited. Junior talks about his health issues throughout the story and notes the insufficient access to dental needs to the poor and tell-tale government issue style eyeglasses. Poor nutrition also contributes to the poor health of the people of the reservation and can cause illnesses to go unattended for longer periods of time. He uses these examples to not only make point of the difference in how he views the healthcare provided to the reservation, but how it impacts his life and self-esteem and how he just wants to be normal. Junior expresses that going hungry is not the worst part of being poor. He is willing to sacrifice his well-being to care for a pet. At the beginning of the book, his dog, Oscar is sick and his parents cannot afford a vet. He thinks this is worse than going hungry. He doesnt see this as a major problem because he says sooner or later, my parents will come bursting through the door with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (Alexie 8). He wanted to help his best friend and even told his mother he would get a job. The thought of his dog dying and not getting help was devastating to him. He finally realized there was nothing he could do and that his father would end the suffering of his dog by shooting it. He points out that bullets cost less than veterinary care. He also notes the sadness in his fathers eyes knowing what he must do and the hurt it is causing his son. Junior sees the devastation of poverty and how it can end the life of a loved one. Junior tried to hide the fact that he was poor by lying to his friends. He knew that poverty was something to be embarrassed about. I can relate to this when friends ask me to go out, so I tell them I already have plans but in reality I have no money. He wanted to fit in with his

14 Popular Fantasy Tropes (and How to Revitalize Them)

14 Popular Fantasy Tropes (and How to Revitalize Them) 14 Popular Fantasy Tropes - And How to Make Them Feel New Again Fantasy tropes, like any other type of literary trope, are recurring images, themes, or devices that are used to the point of being common conventions amongst its genre.When writing a genre  such as fantasy  (with such well-known concepts), authors often feel the need to straddle a fine line: include too many tropes and readers will get  dà ©j vu; don’t include a single clichà © and you risk losing readers who have come to expect certain themes and touchstones from a fantasy novel.The thing is, conventions commonly crop up in stories because most of them contain some element of universal relatability - and people enjoy the familiar. Even the best fantasy novels make use of tropes.So embrace the balancing act by acquainting yourself with some of the most popular fantasy tropes out there, and by learning how to prevent your characters, plots, and worlds from becoming a complete clichà ©. 14 popular fantasy tropes - and how to make them feel new again. Character tropesAt their heart, all stories are about characters who represent some aspect of human nature - and fantasy is no exception. Many novels in this  genre feature  archetypes, which is not necessarily a bad thing - so long as your characters' development aligns with the narrative arc and doesn't rely on clichà © pitstops.Tropes: we love to hate them and hate to love them. What are some of your favorites, or most eye-roll-inducing fantasy novel conventions? Let us know in the comments below!

typology of violent men essays

typology of violent men essays Reading A Typology of Men Who Are Violent Toward Their Female Partners: Making Sense of the Heterogeneity in Husband Violence was quite an enlightening experience. This essay was the first exposure that I have encountered that had to do with research of the way psychological matters, such as batterers, should be analyzed and examined. There are so many ways to view things that sometimes researchers do not really become aware of the best way to view them until more research is done. This article is a perfect instance of this type of research. Much of the existing information pertaining to husband violence has been gathered in research comparing violent with nonviolent models of men; in such studies, batterers are customarily treated as a homogeneous group. However, reviewing this article proved that this conception of researching is no longer valid. Instead, batterers should be explored by systematically examining variability among violent men alone, by way of significant hypothetical dimensions of interest. This manner of research will help distinguish the diverse pathways to violence. I believe that thoroughly understanding this concept will, in the long run, help one to solve the problem of violent men. Furthermore, in this examine, I recognized that the subgroups that were identified among violent men varied along descriptive proportions. Antisociality and borderline features were results that came to be particularly essential for understanding the heterogeneity in violent husbands. It is clear that extensive researches in this area are very important. Societal and interpersonal causes of violence and the interactions at these differing levels of analysis are just as important as the intraperosonal causes of violence that are analyzed in this particular study. Overall, what I believe to be the most important learning experience from this article is that researching psy...

An individual report auditing the management of innovation in a Essay

An individual report auditing the management of innovation in a nominated organisation - Essay Example How the innovation management process is different for the two types of innovation selected 11 5. Conclusion - The key learning experiences of the respective innovation examples 12 References 12 Appendix 13 1. Introduction The identification of effective strategies is a key challenge for managers in all firms worldwide. Most commonly, specific criteria are set for ensuring the alignment of organizational practices with the market trend and the consumer preferences. Still, in practice it has been proved that even when these criteria are met, the competitiveness of organizations involved may remain at low levels. The management of innovation in modern organizations is examined in the specific study. Reference is made to two particular firms: Microsoft and Alcoa. The first of them, Microsoft, has become popular mostly because of the development of Windows, an operating system that has been characterized as highly innovative. According to Chu (2010, p.2) ‘product innovation is tech nological upgrading of existing product or developing a new product technology’. On the other hand, Alcoa has introduced a unique process for refining aluminium; the above process meets the requirements of innovation process, which has been defined as ‘the usage of new or improved production technology’ (Chu 2010, p.3). ... On contrary in Alcoa emphasis is given more on long-term growth rather on the achievement of significant benefits in the short term. As a result, the perspectives of innovation in Microsoft are different than those of Alcoa, an issue analytically explained below. 2. Management of Innovation – theoretical perspectives The successful management of innovation in industries of different characteristics is based on specific terms. At a first level, organizations that are interested in promoting innovation have to be quite competent in managing knowledge (Mothe and Foray 2001, p.28). According to Mothe and Foray (2001) the promotion of innovation within organizations does not necessary requires the establishment of new vision and mission; rather, it can be achieved even in the context of the existing mission and vision under the terms that the relevant mission and vision are flexible enough so that they can be alternated for supporting plans focusing on innovation. At the same time, King (2009) notes that the tools available to managers of modern organizations for promoting innovation can highly vary; reference is made to for example to ‘the strategic positioning of personnel or the implementation of user innovation communities’ (King 2009, p.198). Moreover, Tidd et al (2005) emphasize on the following fact: the management of innovation in modern organizations can be a demanding task. The use of models and frameworks that have been extensively tested in the empirical research could help managers to minimize risks in regard to the particular activity (Tidd et al. 2005). The above researchers refer, as an example, to the Innovation Process model (Figure 1, Appendix).

Leadership as Defined by Subcomandante Marcos and Martin Luther King Essay

Leadership as Defined by Subcomandante Marcos and Martin Luther King Jr - Essay Example For others, it may have a much more negative meaning: treating others as though they are you underlings while you bully, boss and take advantage of them; gaining at the expense and through the work and efforts of those who are your "inferiors." The latest definition of "leadership" is fast becoming a clich: the ability to motivate and direct people around you, within a business relationship. Subcomandante Marcos has a very real aura of mystery around him. Although many suspect (with good reason) that his real identity is that of Rafael Sebastin Guilln Vicente, this has not been established as completely true. Marcos purposely obscures his face, at least partially, from public view. During his entire existence as a civil rights leader, he has championed the cause of indigenous people of Mexico. Unbeknownst to many North Americans, the native people of Mexico are treated questionably by their government, with regard to their human rights. Marcos works closely with the Zapatistas, a group that disagrees with and rebels against the official Mexican government. Together, they openly find fault with the way the people of Chiapas, Mexico (an area that borders Guatemala) are treated by the Mexican government. Marcos and the Zapatistas believe that the natives of Chiapas are very repressed in terms of expressing and identifying with the culture and customs of their ancestors. In general, the basic philosophy of Marcos, as well as the Zapatista army, is that equal rights should be extended to all, irrespective of race, nationality, gender, sexual preference, political affiliation or religious beliefs, and that these equal rights entail no special treatment towards anyone concerning economic or educational opportunity, or the freedom to express oneself, provided it does not interfere with the personal liberty of another. This philosophy is what has spurred Marcos to dedicate his time and energy towards both drawing attention to the struggle of the inhabitants of Chiapas, as well as to insist that these people be respected and recognized by the Mexican government. Marcos, who is rumored to possess a university degree centered on philosophy, employs traditional democratic processes (petitioning, garnering public support and attention, political discussion and humor) as well as less orthodox methods (inclusion within the Zapatista military.) Marcos has clearly succeeded as a leader, in one respect; he has obviously persuaded people to trust and follow him, but is his cause worthy of that trust His expressed motives convince us that he is, in fact sincere. He simply wishes to give equality to those who are suffering without it. Martin Luther King, Jr. had many similarities to Marcos; he also believed in equality towards all, while combating racial injustice towards the black people within his country. Likewise, his target group for whom he was fighting were oppressed economically by society and treated like second-class

Why was America taken by surprise on 11 September 2001 Essay

Why was America taken by surprise on 11 September 2001 - Essay Example On the morning of September 11, 2001 four commercial planes were hijacked by terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group. The number of terrorists was expected to be around 19 that carried suicide attacks in three different places. The first two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the third destructed a part of the Pentagon while the fourth crashed in a field of Pennsylvania. This was a massive and atrocious attack on the land of America causing immense collateral damage.2 Who would have expected the day when America crippled into the depths of shock and horror with strong defensive shields mentioned above. A major chunk of the American economy flourishing in the WTC was deflated. The Pentagon that is the central decision making body of the country was so vulnerable and the trans-border security on the airports was so weak that no one could keep a check on any unusual activities. All of these loopholes resulted in the death of more than 3000 civilians3 on 9/11. When the episode of 9/11 is dug deep, one comes across a lot of questions. For instance, why did a non-state actor attack America? How did it get the capability to penetrate inside the country? Was there an insider involved? Does it prove the failure of President George W. Bush’s administration or was it another excuse to wage war like the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941? All of these questions have affected the lives of Americans itself. Right after the country was attacked, President George W. Bush declared war on terror and put forward a proposal of â€Å"either you are with us or them (terrorists)† before the world making states choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. President Bush invested heavily to wage the war against Osama Bin Laden, the culprit responsible for planning and executing the attacks. He started off with bombarding Afghanistan in 2001 which hasn’t stopped yet even after a decade. The attacks had

Reconfiguration of 11KV Feeder

Reconfiguration of 11KV Feeder Introduction CE 2.1 I did this project as a graduate Electrical Engineering while pursuing my Bachelor of Engineering in the field of Electrical Engineering from Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology, Balochistan. I wanted to conduct a project that would be challenging and would involve how to improve the existing power grid by helping the current or load at a given time. I wanted to create a system by improving the power factor or changing the conductor size or substituting the cables with conductors. I was able to improve my written and oral presentation skills as well as my interpersonal skills by the successful completion of this project. Background CE 2.2 For this project as an undergraduate student in electrical engineering, I wanted to start working on a project that would be challenging. I wanted to learn about the different and commonly used electrical/electronic components, the working mechanism and the implementation in a common every-day system. Feeder configuration is a very important step to enhance the quality and reliability of a distribution system. During my studies, I had learned that traditionally, in Pakistan, the feeder configuration is done by opening/closing or tie sectionalizing the switches in order to alter network map and thus the flow of power from substation to customers. I had studied during my bachelors that the reason Feeder configuration is done is to reduce system power loss and also for load balancing. As the loading conditions change, it is important to reconfigure it to reduce power losses in the network. And it is due to this reason that I selected the Reconfiguration of 11KV Feeder for my project. CE 2.3 The objective of my project is to design a system to reconfigure the network for loss reduction for 11KV feeder. Or the reconfiguration of the distribution network under normal operation to reduce active losses and to balance loads in the system. CE 2.4 CE 2.5 I first had to conduct a detailed literature review to find the best applicable approach to this system for reconfiguration. I decided to use Branch exchange and Loop cutting methods along with a theoretical Heurestic approach to achieve my objectives. I used the computer software for ELR to analyse the feeder and to calculate the results. I initially, used an existing configuration based on actual data to calculate the current Energy Loss Reduction (ELR) I then tabulated all the results and obtained a schematic diagram to show my results. I completed the project within the time frame specified by the university. I presented my findings to my supervisor. Personal Engineering Activity CE 2.6 I approached a senior professor with an idea of conducting a project about the power grid. Along with my group members, I had a lot of brainstorming sessions and review meetings with my project supervisor to select a suitable topic. I suggested that I work on a project that was concerned with restructuring the power grid to minimize distribution losses and we suggested that we select a suitable location for this project to be carried out and thus the topic Reconfiguration of 11KV feeder came in to being and the supervisor agreed to this and asked us to begin working on this by first conducting a literature review on all the components we would require and the working of this project and to start working on this project. CE 2.7 I decided to select a Surab Town feeder of 11KV which starts from the 132KV Pakistan Railway Grid Station. I found that this grid has two transformers connected in parallel having a capacity of 10/13MVA each and 132/11KV. This particular feeder provided power of mixed loads to residential, commercial, agricultural and gas power plants. I carried out the Physical Survey of the existing 11KV Surab Town Feeder and plotted a Single line diagram of existing Surab town feeder. I calculated the energy losses and voltage drop of existing distribution system keeping in view the QESCO requirements. The length of feeder is 42.62km with annual energy loss 457898.1kWH and maximum percentage voltage drop is 6.5%, which is beyond the specified limit of QESCO i.e. 5.0% and is not acceptable as shown in the table below. Month Max Hour KWH Reading in Year-3 (KWH) Units Sent in Year-3 (KWH) Units Sold in Year-3 (KWH) Losses KWH % January 0920108 0922574 1954326 1020746 933580 47.8 February 1809123 1811499 1504110 785804 719490 47.8 March 2577218 2580502 1233398 1324005 -90607 -7.3 April 2944920 2946703 1695002 1472175 223911 13.2 May 4197868 4199507 1758256 1693000 65256 3.7 June 4483081 4485732 1472868 1392621 84892 5.8 July 5663010 5665217 1452128 1146852 303276 21.0 August 6179532 6174379 1272432 1263513 8919 0.7 September 72162 76150 1636414 5107276 129138 7.9 October 1747258 172496 2070467 1654039 418057 20.2 November 4868322 4873227 2704009 1584898 1119111 41.4 December 6046270 602780 3086286 1626763 1459523 47.3 I used the following simple algorithm for the algorithm: Start with an existing configuration. Read Input data..Run ELR program..Display results..Compare KWH losses, If KWH loss CE 2.8 My test system is a high loss, problematic distribution feeder of QESCO. In first, the existing Grid and feeder data are collected from Surab grid station. The data made run in ELR Software, which results high losses due to overloads. As the ampere load accedes then 300 amp on main Dog conductor , To overcome these overloads we recon figurate the feeder by using three different methods i.e. Branch Exchange Method, Loop Cutting Method and then we applied bifurcation method to isolate the existing feeder into two parts. I collected data from the Head office QESCO in Quetta, Pakistan and found that the monthly Peak Load is between 600-700 Amps and the off peak load between 5-90 Amps with the lowest being in November. I conducted a Load flow analysis was done using ELR Program with the following input Parameters at 5% annual Load growth rate Load in Amp.=395 Amp @ 5% for 5 years Bus Voltage=11KV Feeder load factor=6.29% Existing power factor=0.78% Proposed power factor=0.79% Capacitor installed=2Nos. I proposed the following one line diagram of QESCO feeder as prepared on the basis of field visits is shown below in figure. This figure clearly shows the difference between actual and proposed configuration of the feeder. In this figure 154 node are shifted. Also the route of power flow has been changed there by feeding all the consumers. This configuration has reduced the line losses too as evident from the load flow analysis. The details are feeder given below. Power T/F # ÃŽâ„ ¢ÃƒÅ½Ã¢â€ž ¢ Feeder code 020201 Power T/F capacity 10/13 MVA Number of node 92 Number of transformers 66 Number dog conductor 18 Number rabbit conductor 73 Total length of line 18.42 KM Total KVAS 5350 KVA I also proposed and conducted a Load flow analysis using ELR Program with the following input Parameters at 5% annual Load growth rate. Load in Amp= [emailprotected]%for 5 years Bus Voltage = 11KV Feeder load factor= 6.29% Existing power factor = 0.78% Proposed power factor = 0.95% (Improved Due to capacitor Placement) CE 2.9 I conducted this project successfully and found that the ELR program could be used sappropriately and properly to find the optimal configuration of 11KV feeder, demonstrating the feasibility of such an approach for the solution of this problem. However, refinements to the algorithm may be necessary in order to achieve satisfactory performance on large, real-world systems consisting of thousands of buses. The following were my results: Losses (KWH) minimized from 457898 to 332944 Voltage drop improved from 6.5% to 4.4% Power Factor improvement from 0.78% to 0.95% (Result of proposed configuration) B/C Ratio is 24.25 CE 2.10 My contribution during this project was: Gathering Exact Grid data on realistic approaches. Gathering feeder data, one line diagram preparation physically through field visits. Exact measures and distances of node-to-node and exact electrical parameters informations. Keeping in view different constraints, like Cost, Obstacles, Load. Losses, Environmental / social constraints, Betterment of WAPDA as well as general public. Re-notification of existing configuration and finding the optimal configuration by repetition the results obtained after execution of ELR Program. Removing haphazard road crossings and reducing the length of feeder. Load Balancing. Placement of Capacitor at best locations for obtaining best results. Summary CE 2.9 I successfully completed the project titled Reconfiguration of a 11KV Feeder along with my team members. I learned how to reconfigure a 11KV feeder and about the different approaches by execution of the ELR program I learned how to gather Grid data for realistic approaches to improve loading. By the successful completion of this project, I was able to improve my written, oral and interpersonal skills. I was also able to improve my team work. The main objective of this research is to develop methodology and guide lines for distribution engineers to show that by reducing the energy losses of distribution system, available capacity of the system may be conserved without putting up additional capacity. A generalized computer program is used to evaluate any given HT/LT system and propose capacitor banks at different points, different conductor sizes in different portions of system. This results in improving the stability as well as energy handling capacity of the system at minimum cost.

Cisco Products and Specific Customer Groups

In August of 2001, just months after Cisco System reported its first loss a a public company ($ 2. 7 billion), John Chambers, president and CEO, announced a major restructuring that would transform Cisco from a decentralized operation organized around customer groups to a centralized one focused on technologies. This restructuring not only risked destabilizing the large, complex organization during an economic downturn, but more importantly, threatened Cisco’s ability to remain customer-focused, a hallmark of the company’s culture and success since its first product was created in 1986.In order to maintain communication and stimulate ongoing collaboration among the newly independent functional areas, Cisco introduced coordination mechanisms that enable the companies to remain customer-focused. Introduction John Chambers became president and CEO of Cisco Systems in 1995. Over the course of the next several years, the decisions he made and the changes he implemented chall enged traditional business practices, and resulted in incredible growth for the company. When Chambers first started, Cisco was generating annual revenues of $2. 2 billion; just six years later, the company was generating annual revenues of $22.3 billion.All of those results, however, were threatened in the 2001 market downturn. Earlier in the year, the explosive growth in the sales of hardware supporting the Internet began to show serious signs of slowing down, and Cisco Systems, like the rest of the technology industry, was facing the repercussions of the demise of the Internet boom and the first economic downturn in more than a decade. Start-ups, which had enjoyed the benefits of a buoyant stock market, and telecommunications companies began cutting back their overextended IT and network budgets.As a result of the falling demand, Cisco announced its first loss as a public company ($2. 69 billion) in the fiscal quarter ended April 28, 2001 and cut 18% of its workforce. In August, Chambers announced a major organizational restructuring that would transform Cisco from a decentralized operation focused on specific customer groups to a centralized one focused on technologies. While recognizing that a centralized, functional structure was necessary to avoid product and resource redundancies, Chambers also realized that it risked making the company less customer-focused.At the time of the announcement, Chambers asserted that Cisco’s customer-centric culture would offset this drawback, but he knew that more needed to be done to ensure that an organization as large as Cisco would remain customer-focused—technology companies simply could not afford to lose 1 sight of the customer. Chambers knew then that he needed to implement a formal, crossfunctional structure that would keep the company in touch with its customers. Chambers found himself considering an ambitious idea that, if executed, could transform both his company and conventional organizational strategy.He asserted that if Cisco implemented a crossfunctional system of executive-level committees, or councils, that fostered a culture of teamwork and collaboration that the company could scale beyond what anyone else thought possible. The benefits were clear—the cross-functional councils would bring the leaders of different functions together to collaborate and focus on the needs and issues of specific customer groups. Cisco could enjoy the benefits of being a functional organization while retaining its customer-centricity. Still, implementing such a system would be difficult.Many other companies had previously failed at facilitating collaboration across functions, especially large organizations such as Cisco. Chambers began asking himself questions. Would Cisco’s employees, many of whom were accustomed to a command-and-control system, accept a more collaborative model? Could they function in such a system, even with training? Would a cross-functional system work in such a large functional organization? Furthermore, if Cisco moved forward with this idea, how many councils should be formed? How large should they be? Who would sit on and chair them?Where would the decision making power reside? And finally, how could a system be implemented without creating a matrix organization that would impede decision making and generate conflict? These were all important questions, many of which for Chambers did not yet have answers. They were also questions that would discourage most executives from taking the chance. Still, Chambers understood Cisco’s employees and knew what they were capable of. He also knew that if they could succeed, the company would become even stronger financially and organizationally.With 2002 approaching, and the organizational restructuring already being implemented now was the time to act. Market Transformation Despite the challenges presented by the 2001 market downturn, Cisco overcame the sudden drop in product demand . In fact, the company became even stronger after the downturn. By the end of July 2007, Cisco was generating more than $30 billion in revenue and employing 61,535 employees worldwide. Cisco’s total revenue for FY 2007 ($34. 9 billion) was an increase of approximately 23% over FY 2006 revenue’s of $28. 5 billion.Net Income was $7. 3 billion GAAP and $8.4 billion non- GAAP, while Earnings per Share was $1. 17 GAAP (increase of 31% year over year) and $1. 34 non-GAAP (increase of 22% year over year). Part of Cisco’s post-downturn resiliency and success was the result of a transformation in its market focus and product offerings. Signs of this transformation were evident shortly before the downturn, when Cisco invested in its first comprehensive advertising campaign, including television and print, that asked the question, â€Å"Are You Ready? † with the goal of raising consumer awareness of its networking-equipment business and its plans to connect Internet users with its routers and switches.Because Cisco realized that it could not solely rely upon existing demand, the company began diversifying the products it offered and who it was selling those products to. By 2007, Cisco had successfully expanded into advanced technologies such as unified communications, wireless local area networking, home networking, application networking services, network security, storage 2 area networking, and video systems. These advanced technologies resulted in the growth of Cisco’s enterprise (large business) and service provider segments.For instance, by 2007, more than 8 million unified IP phones had been installed worldwide (Cisco was the market share leader in the enterprise voice marketplace); Cisco’s Catalyst 6500, a highperformance modular switch that converges data center, campus, and wide-area network in a single system, surpassed $20 billion in sales; and Cisco’s enterprise customer installed base recently surpassed the 3 million wireless access points milestone. 3 Cisco was also able to successfully integrate the aforementioned advanced technologies with its core routing and switching technologies in products such as its Integrated Services Routers.Additionally, Cisco announced in June 2007 that it had shipped 900 of its Carrier Routing System (CRS-1), which provided continuous system operation to telecommunications service providers and research organizations, since its introduction in 2004. Cisco claimed that customers understood the leadership, total cost of ownership, flexibility, and investment protection advantages they would receive when they installed a Cisco product, which was designed to allow customers to easily and cost-effectively add marketleading voice, data, security, wireless, and other capabilities to their existing Cisco networks.This strategy differentiated Cisco from many of its competitors, which are usually present in only one or two product categories or customer segments, an d often do not integrate their products from an architectural perspective. In a conference call discussing Q4 and FY 2007 financial results, Chambers commented on the importance of this balance and integration: â€Å"We believe that there are a number of factors that are unique to Cisco’s ability to grow.First is our unique balance across over two dozen product areas, four customer segments, and across major developed and emerging countries†¦From a product perspective, we approach the market with an end-to-end architecture where the products are first loosely then tightly integrated together, rather than focusing on individual routers, switches, security, wireless, storage, unified communications, or other standalone products. In addition to diversifying its product and service offerings, Cisco transformed its market focus by finding new growth opportunities in developing economies.Because Chambers knew these opportunities would not get the attention they needed from st andard geographic sales coverage, he created a new sales â€Å"theater† called Emerging Markets, which included 138 countries around the world, regardless of location. Instead of every theater having several emerging markets in their portfolio viewed as low priorities, all the emerging markets were unified into one theater with the same resources and expectations of the other theaters. While several sales leaders functioned throughout the emerging markets, one sales senior vice president (SVP) was ultimately responsible for each theater.Members of the Emerging Markets sales team met with government and business leaders in various countries to discuss â€Å"how Cisco could help their countries develop a stronger economy through Internet access to education, healthcare, and business opportunities†. These and other efforts throughout the theater paid off—growth for FY 2007 in Cisco’s Emerging Markets theater was 40%, the highest growth rate of all five theat ers (e. g. North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Japan; and Emerging Markets).This performance made Chambers even more confident about the value of emerging markets. â€Å"Our architectural strategy in emerging markets is working extremely well,† he said in the conference call. â€Å"Barring some major economic or political surprises across many of these emerging countries, I would expect this theater to have the potential to grow more than twice the average growth rate of the other four theaters, if we execute effectively. † 3 2001 Organizational Restructuring Cisco also transformed and expanded its market focus through acquisitions.Before the downturn (1993–2000), Cisco was known for its acquisitions; it acquired 71 start-up companies that specialized in both its core and advanced areas, with 41 of those acquisitions occurring between 1999 and 2000. While emerging markets and acquisitions were key in helping Cisco survive the downturn, the company’s 2001 organizational restructuring played an even more important role. In its early days as a start-up, Cisco Systems was organized as a centralized engineering organization. As the company grew rapidly after going public in 1990, it adopted a business unit structure that was organized around primary product groups.This structure lasted until 1997, when the company reorganized itself around three semi-autonomous lines of business, each focusing on a distinct customer type: service providers, large enterprises, and small and medium-sized businesses, which Cisco characterizes as the â€Å"commercial† segment. Within this structure, each of the three lines of business developed and marketed its own products to its specific customer groups. This decentralized organization was created to meet the differing requirements of service providers and SMBs, two groups of customers that were growing rapidly at that time.By creating separate business units, Cisco attempted to meet the needs of e ach without compromise. However, as the market downturn brought about slowing demand and falling revenues, the negative aspects of the segment-centric grouping became clear. Organized behind lines of business focused on the different segments, redundancies in technological development were certainly not surprising—coordination across all technologies relevant to a customer group came at the expense of replicating technology development across customer groups.Still, redundancies became more noticeable at Cisco in the harsh economic environment faced by the company. Each business unit designed and sold its own products to customers in a particular industry, even though each business line produced some similar, if not interchangeable, products. Moreover, differences between customer segments had begun to blur: some enterprise business products suited service provider needs, but the service provider business lacked knowledge of, and access to, them. In some cases, each line of bu siness had a different technology or solution for the same problem.By summer 2001, for example, Cisco had eight different teams developing technology to transmit telephone calls over Internet protocol (IP) networks. As one manager stated, â€Å"Before, we had a service provider customer, enterprise customer, and SMB customer, and we built a complete product line for that customer set. What that did cause was a great deal [of] redundancy of engineering and innovation†¦we had to build the same thing three times over and make things that are 80% the same three times over to satisfy the three requirements. † Facing the realities of the market downturn, Cisco made a change.On August 23, 2001, the company announced a major restructuring that, CEO John Chambers enthused, would bring Cisco closer to its customers, encourage teamwork, and eliminate product and resource overlaps. Cisco shifted from a decentralized operation focused on specific customer groups to a centralized one focused on technologies. Engineering was reorganized around eleven technology groups: Access, Aggregation, Cisco IOS Technologies, Internet Switching and Services, Ethernet Access, Network Management Services, Core Routing, Optical, Storage, Voice, and Wireless.Although the product groups were divided based on 11 technologies, Cisco retained three sales groups based on customer type. Between the technology and sales groups, a central marketing organization was installed to integrate products and technologies into solutions for the customer. A cross-functional â€Å"solutions engineering team† was charged with bringing the 4 different technologies together in a lab, testing them to ensure integration, and then creating blueprints that the customer would use to implement the solution.Marketing and engineering—previously segmented by customer type—were centralized under the chief marketing officer and the chief development officer, respectively. Cisco also expected the new structure to promote more rapid technical innovation by eliminating overlap in R&D. The old structure inhibited the exchange of ideas because engineers worked in separate silos—a solution in one area might have suggested a solution in another, but, claimed one executive, â€Å"You might not hear about it for six months if you are in another business unit.†Implementing the Reorganization While a centralized, functional structure would help Cisco avoid product and resource redundancies, it also carried the risk of making the company less customer-focused because the company was organized around product, and not customer, groups. Whereas before each of the three lines of business developed and marketed its own products to its specific customer groups, each functional unit was now committed to a specific technology, which entailed the risk of dismissing the customer.Despite this risk, however, Cisco moved forward, trusting that its customer-centric approach would offset the effects of a functional structure. Customer advocacy had been imprinted on the company during its founding, when Cisco engineers were building customized products for end users with fairly idiosyncratic needs: â€Å"When we started, we made routers, which were basically software devices, and the sales people would literally go out, talk to the customer, the customer would say ‘I need this protocol,’ and they’d say, ‘We’ve got that.We’ll get the code to you in a week. ’ They would go back, tell the engineering guys that they had to develop it, and the engineers would do it,† said a senior manager. â€Å"That kind of stuff really sets the culture of the company; your job is to figure out what problem you are solving for the customer. And what you do everyday, setting up your activities, your tasks, your programs, your projects, your priorities, is in alignment with that notion of solving the customer’s problem.â € The goal was to try and preserve this customer-focused culture that had been engrained in Cisco ever since its founding. However, managers realized even at the time of the 2001 reorganization that maintaining the same level of customer focus would become increasingly difficult as Cisco grew larger in size. Because the reorganization threatened to push the company away from the customer and towards a more functional structure, Chambers knew that Cisco could not lose its customer-centricity.When asked in 2007 how Cisco was able to maintain its customer focus through the reorganization, he said, â€Å"[Customer focus] has been deeply embedded in our DNA since I came here almost seventeen years ago, and while I’m a very collaborative leader, there are certain aspects of our culture, our vision, our strategy, which are non-negotiable, and customer focus is one of them. † To ensure that this culture would not change, Cisco responded in various ways during the reorganiza tion.

A Separate Peace Themes

A Separate Peace by John Knowles concerns itself about a young adult named Gene who decides to visit his old school Devon years after the war and recollects his memories of his friend, Phonies. Most of the story is a flashback about the hardships Gene and Phonies had to face growing up in high school during a war. During this flashback, Gene grows through the phase where he must let go of his childhood and mature to adulthood. Throughout the book, Phonies symbolizes childhood and innocence, revealing the main theme of the book: innocence versus maturity.Gene's Journey through his years at Devon shows how he matures and gains a bigger understanding of the world around him. At the beginning of the book, both Gene and Phonies were childish at the beginning of the book. For example, Phonies would wear pink clothing and a school tie as a belt to a headmaster's gathering. â€Å"In his haste that morning Finny had not unexpected used a tie for a belt. But this morning the tie at hand had b een the Devon School tie† (20). This shows a level of disrespect of self-image and school-image that usually rash, young children have.Phonies even believes that the war is Just a scam made up by adults to get a profit. There's the bad, there's the good; Just pure black and white. He was even able to rationalize this illogical belief to Gene, and Gene easily gives in. Just like how a child sticks to her favorite blanket or comforting teddy bear to protect her from the nasty in life, Phonies is Gene's way of clinging on to a more immature view to explain life simply. As Gene begins to mature through his years at Devon, he loses Phonies for a while as Phonies recovers from his leg injury.This opens the door to Gene as he sees a new view point on life. He has a sense of guilt that he was the one who trounced Phonies out of the tree, but cannot explain his actions. This new sense of guilt make question if he is truly evil or still innocent. It raises the question that there may be something more than Just cruelly evil or purely good that Phonies seemed to believe earlier. However, Phonies, symbolizing Gene's childhood, tries to pull Gene back to a world of innocence with winter carnivals and games – games where there are no losers and everyone wins.Affected by Phonies' tempting simple ideals, Gene finds himself hard to let go of the innocent outlook on life. Still, this prodding question further develops when Gene meets Leper after the effects of the war. â€Å"The army has the perfect word for everything, did you ever think of that? †¦ And the perfect word for me†¦ Psycho. I guess I am. I must be. Am I though, or is the army? Because they turned everything inside out† (141 , 149). This quote summarizes the scene when Gene learns about harsh cruelties of war, and begins to realize that the world is bitterer than he had originally thought.Human beings can be evil. This completely transforms his original innocent view on the world. At t he end of the novel, when Gene is of age to be recruited into the war, Gene has learned much about the harsh truth of reality. He begins to move into an acceptance state. When Phonies realizes that it was Gene who had originally trounced the branch, Gene is able to explain that there are certain evils, certain impulses that earlier in the novel. â€Å"No, I don't know how to show you, how can I show you, Finny? Tell me how to show you.It was Just some ignorance inside me, some crazy thing inside me, something blind, that's all it was† (191). Gene accepts that humans are neither fully good nor evil, but normal beings with natural impulses. Knowles shows throughout the book that as one ages and matures, one must lose that innocent childish mentality. Gene slowly pulls apart from Phonies' ideals and moves onto a more complex understanding of human behavior. However, as Gene reaches young adulthood, Knowles cleverly has Phonies pass away, as only to show that in order for Gene to fully mature and reach adulthood, the innocent childhood must completely disappear. Did not cry then or ever about Finny†¦. ‘ could not escape a felling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case† (186) The quote even shows that Gene feels that Phonies was part of himself. This is referring to the naive childhood part of Gene. Knowles consistently expresses the theme of innocence versus maturity. He tells us that in order to achieve maturity and achieve the fuller, complex view on life, one has to lose the innocent outlook that usually the young has. Gene moved from a young naive child to a developed young adult.

Love and violence in romeo and juliet essays

Love and violence in romeo and juliet essays Romeo and Juliet, a play by William Shakespeare, is often referred to as the greatest love story of all time. It presents love and hate as equally potent forces of nature. The powerful nature of love can be seen in the way it is described, or more accurately, in the way descriptions consistently fail to capture it in its entirety. Juliet says of love, But my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up half of my wealth (3, I, 33-44) In other words, love is too powerful to be so easily contained or understood. This play portrays the chaos of being in love. However, the play also combines extreme images of violence and death. For instance, the Capulet and Montague families have held a long-time grudge against each other that is assumed to have existed for hundreds of years, and is the impetus of what strives to keep Romeo and Juliet away from each other. This paper seeks to examine what is achieved by the connections between love and violence. For clarity, I will be including death as a measure of violence, because death by violence is violence in its most potent form. Throughout the play, love seems to push the two lovers closer to violence, not further away from it. Love and violence are intertwined from the first moment Romeo and Juliet are together at the Capulets party. Romeo has crashed the party hoping to see his beloved Rosaline, but catches a glimpse of Juliet instead, and falls instantly in love with her. Oh she that doth teach the torches to burn bright... The measure done, Ill watch her place of stand, And touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. (1, v, 42-51) However, only a few lines later sees Tybalt and intends to kill Romeo, the very moment he sees him at the party: This by his voice should be a Montague. ...

How to Separate Salt and Water

How to Separate Salt and Water Have you ever wondered how you could purify seawater to drink it or how you could separate salt from water in saltwater? Its really very simple. The two most common methods are distillation and evaporation, but there are other ways to separate the two compounds. Separate Salt and Water Using Distillation You can boil or evaporate the water and the salt will be left behind as a solid. If you want to collect the water, you can use distillation. This works because salt has a much higher boiling point than water. One way to separate salt and water at home is to boil the salt water in a pot with a lid. Offset the lid slightly so that the water that condenses on the inside of the lid will run down the side to be collected in a separate container. Congratulations! Youve just made distilled water. When all of the water has boiled off, the salt will remain in the pot. Separate Salt and Water Using Evaporation Evaporation works the same way as distillation, just at a slower rate. Pour the salt water into a shallow pan. As the water evaporates, the salt will remain behind. You can speed up the process by raising the temperature or by blowing dry air over the surface of the liquid. A variation of this method is to pour the salt water onto a piece of dark construction paper or a coffee filter. This makes recovering the salt crystals easier than scraping them out of the pan. Other Methods To Separate Salt and Water Another way to separate salt from water is to use reverse osmosis. In this process, water is forced through a permeable filter, causing the concentration of salt to increase as the water is pushed out. While this method is effective, reverse osmosis pumps are relatively expensive. However, they can be used to purify water at home or when camping. Electrodialysis can be used to purify water. Here, a negatively-charged anode and a positively-charged cathode are placed in water and separated by a porous membrane. When an electric current is applied, the anode and cathode attract the positive sodium ions and negative chlorine ions, leaving behind the purified water. Note: this process does not necessarily make the water safe to drink, since uncharged contaminants may remain. A chemical method of separating salt and water involves adding decanoic acid to salt water. The solution is heated. Upon cooling, salt precipitates out of the solution, falling to the bottom of the container. The water and decanoic acid settle into separate layers, so the water can be removed.

MHealth applications. Mobile Health PowerPoint Presentation

MHealth applications. Mobile Health - PowerPoint Presentation Example Patients should have absolute assurance that, during the medical process they are safe and cannot contact any communicable malady that would worsen their state. This is regardless of any incidences, which might lead to the loss of former medical records. In most cases, this might prompt the medical staff to guess for alternatives (PR, 2011). Primarily, this act as a relief to those ailing while waiting for meticulous check ups, which ought not to be medically especially among the chronic patients. Since, this may worsen their state and result to irredeemable stages that might require extra, expensive involvement. Additionally, the medical experts ought to ensure that, there is adequate agreement with a one’s responsible people prior administering any medication. This ensures there are no conflicting issues that would yield to lawsuits if an adverse result erupts or a patient unknowingly abuses the drugs (Bluestein, 2012). Medical staff prior anything ought to establish adequate and reliable consultations with family constellations to those individuals who seem to have no reliable very close relations especially the destitute. 2. The future of mHealth(Mobile Health) Presently, mHealth has made remarkable advances that has prompted numerous studies contend its continued immense progress in the future (PR, 2011). This is via the progressing trend of technology that has boosted its existence by easing communication and accessibility of the necessary diverse ailments’ information by the patients.... This is via the progressing trend of technology that has boosted its existence by easing communication and accessibility of the necessary diverse ailments’ information by the patients. Current studies argue that, by 2015, 500 million people globally would have access to mHealth applications. However, this comparison to the global population and its pace exemplifies slow motion, but all these noticeable changes are not only affecting healthcare, but also interrelated sectors (Bluestein, 2012). This encompasses making the healthcare both reachable and affordable to people especially in the upcoming states. Since comparing to instituting new facilities, it is pricey than implementing the new technology, for illustration, smart phone or tablet. This is because mHealth entail a reliable controlling center where the personnel would be convening to harmonize their ideas and act as informational central unit. Judging from the current healthcare situation, numerous people prefer the mH ealth; owing to its unique, interactive interface (Bluestein, 2012). Patients are able to access their private and tailored services according to their needs coupled with high convenience. Hence, an indication that, mHealth will have a heightened trend in the future due to its acceptance, which numerous practitioners are predicting currently (PR, 2011). The continued application of mHealth it will be more reliable especially to the chronic aged people who contrary to the current state they will not be in need of going to the care centers. Since, those who are not much advanced in years and able to use the mHealth applications would be adequately reporting their wellbeing (PR, 2011). Additionally, they will be able to access adequate information regarding their condition and

University of Miami Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

University of Miami - Essay Example As a function of this, UAVs operating in various places throughout the world, namely Iraq and Afghanistan, began to suffer a high attrition rate due to the icing of the wings that invariably occurs at high attitudes. As such, this represented a primary design flaw in that the UAV manufacturers had not foreseen the fact that due to the pilotless nature of the aircraft, it would be nearly impossible for a UAV pilot to notice and infer that icing was taking place; let alone seeks to counteract such an eventuality by employing countermeasures. Moreover, the analysis will look at the use of FEA as a means of solving the complex problems that the engineers were faced. In order to rapidly and cost effectively integrate such a level of changes, the engineers went back to the proverbial drawing board and utilized CAD (Computer Assisted Design) to seek to draw a further level of inference upon the issue at hand. Mainly, these tools were used by the analysts to seek to determine the CFD properties that the wings exhibited. The CFD, or Computational Fluid Dynamics, was a way that the engineers could seek to provide the wings and surface areas of the associated aircraft with the highest level of protection against the accumulation of ice without having the cover the entire aircraft in costly, heavy, and ultimately ineffective de-icing mechanisms. The overall importance of seeking to maximize the level of â€Å"bang for the buck† with relation to where the de-icing systems were ultimately installed centered upon the fact that the sheer nature of the jobs which the UAV’s perform and support require that they remain aloft for extraordinarily long periods of time. As a function of this, it is necessary for these aircraft to be as light, and as fuel efficient as possible. Likewise, seeking to utilize CAD and CFD to determine what aspects of the aircraft lay at the greatest degree of risk with

Case analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Case analysis - Essay Example It is amongst the top fifteen companies in the United Kingdom. It’s past financial performance has been quiet commendable and its spread of operations world over. The biggest strength of the organization laid in its successful acquisitions through which it derived internal development. Sound financial control of the organization ever since its inception has been one of its hallmarks. More and more hotels were acquired as time passed. Despite having innumerable complex intricate operations, the structure of the organization was unbureaucratic. Their chief financial manager Joseph believed in trading purchase assets; a strategy that proved to be very effective for them.The main premise behind this was to use cash flow generated from the acquisition to cover debts. This meant good management would increase cash flow for the company while covering debts. John acquired those assets he believed would rise in cost owing to inflation and would help generate significant cash flow in future. Most of the acquisitions barring that with Express had been on good friendly terms. Even after acquisitions, the business was allowed to run in their own styles without a lot of interference from the top management. Joseph never intervened deeply into the running affairs of the business. There were lots of opportunities all the way from the beginning. Acquisitions kept taking place as went the chance to do so turn in. The opportunities were executed none bureaucratically. Joseph’s only focus was on the fact that the existing cash flow would be able to cover any debts while operations were feasible. If everything fit the bill for him, he would then go ahead. It was with this idea in his mind that he acquired brewer Truman, Han bury, Buxton (THB). Joseph realized that the breweries were attractive in-city spots. He further cashed in on the curativeness of this offer when he saw an opportunity in â€Å"Winey Mann† as a follow up on THB. This was a huge step for

Social Media in China Essay Example for Free

Social Media in China Essay Introduction: According to Webster’s dictionary Social Media are â€Å"forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.† The main purpose of social media as a marketing tool is to engage with consumers. Social media allows businesses to engage with consumers in ways that were never possible before. For most companies, creating a social media campaign is not the challenge. The challenge for most companies is their ability to measure effectiveness of their social media efforts. Measuring how a social media campaign translates into profits for a company is no easy feat. But there are some things companies can do to not only make their campaigns successful, but to measure the benefits of this success. The objective of this research paper is to explore how businesses can use social media as a successful marketing tool. Specifically, this paper will address how Chinese businesses can use social media as an effective marking tool. It will also explore the differences between social media in the United States and China. Social Media Platforms in the USA There are several types of social media which are used in the United States. The most commonly known are those which are considered to be â€Å"social networks.† These sites allow for individuals to make their own personal profile and connect with other individuals. Communications on these platforms come as video, messages and pictures. Facebook and MySpace are commonly used to keep in touch with friends and family. LinkedIn is a different type of social network whose primary focus is to connect business professionals with one another. Many businesses use these types of social media to share important information about the company activities with consumers. They can also use these types of tools to entice consumers to purchase products or visit their stores. These types of networks can also be used to target customers or to create a buzz about some new product or promotion going on with a specific company. Pepsi is a great example of how a company used Facebook to increase sales. â€Å"Pepsi used social networks, specifically Facebook, to gather custo mer insights about their DEWmocracy promotions. Their efforts lead to the creation of various varieties of their Mountain Dew brand.† By allowing the customer to decide what flavors they would like to see created, Pepsi gained great insight about the people who buy their product. Another type of social platform is what is known as a microblog. A microblog is a shorter condensed version of an actual blog. These platforms limited their users to 140 characters as opposed to regular blogs that allow users unlimited amount of characters. They are used for immediate and constant updating when things happen or even when they are happening. The purpose of the microblog is to get small bits of information to your â€Å"followers† as quickly as possible. Twitter is the most commonly known and most popular microblog in use today. With Twitter, a user can create their own account and then can elect to â€Å"follow† other users on the platform. They can choose to â€Å"follow† friends, family and even celebrities. Bu t from a business standpoint, there is more value in Twitter than just tweeting and retweeting. According to Schmidt, â€Å"Twitter can be used as a monitoring tool to get data that marketers need to make decisions. Companies now have ability to monitor what consumers think and feel about their specific product. One tweet from a company has the potential of reaching all 140 million Twitter users† (Schmidt.6). Though the microblog is a newer type of social media platform, Twitter has seen huge success since its birth in 2006. Marketers can capitalize on this platforms’ success by utilizing it in their business’s everyday marketing strategy. Blogs are also considered to be a type of social media, though less popular than the ones previously mentioned. A blog is similar to an online journal or diary but is used by several different people for different reasons. They are not limited in length and can be very informative or just for fun, depending on the author. The entries can also be short or long as well. Schmidt explains that, â€Å"the blog has a solid pla ce in social media because of it flexibility and capacity for interactivity. A blog reaches people in different ways than other mediums do so it is a good idea for companies to use this together with other social media outlets, not instead of them† (Schmidt.4). It is important to note, however, that if a company uses a blog, they must make sure they invest the time and energy to keep the information current and the posting frequent. Social Media in China Social media in China takes on a unique form compared to the rest of the world. Unlike other countries, the use of such social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are banned and blocked in China. â€Å"Rather than eliminate social media all together, these restrictions have resulted in a flourishing home-grown, state approved ecosystem in which Chinese-owned properties thrive† (Crampton.1). Social media has become integrated in the lives of Chinese people. Most internet users in Chinese experience the internet solely through social media. The Chinese platforms created are similar to those platforms used across the world. Like their US counterpart, the Chinese have developed numerous types of social media platforms. While other counties use Facebook, China has developed a platform called Renren. This â€Å"social network† has similar features to that of Facebook in which users create their own personal profile and connect with friends and family. This platform is commonly used to keep in touch with such people. This platform attracts college students and users can also upload video and personal information. However, unlike many other countries, China also has several other platforms which attract unique segments of the population. For example, Douban is a social media site that specifically attracts art students. You are likely to find individuals who are passionate about reading , culture and music. Another type of â€Å"social network†, KaixinOO1, is similar to Renren in that it allows users to create profiles. Unlike Renren, this site is utilized mostly by white collared professionals and is used to share more broad information as opposed to personal content. The Chinese have also utilized the microblog through there platform known as Sina Weibo. Again, this platform has similarities to that of Twitter. The interface works just like Twitter. Users elect to follow certain people and in turn other people can follow them. This platform has about 100 million registered users which consist of a board range of China’s internet population. Some of the people who utilize this type of social media include youth, celebrities, business professionals, and media personalities (Nooruddin.2). But what sets this country’s social media apart is not those platforms that are similar to those of other countries, but those interfaces uniquely utilized in China. An example is the utilization of Chinese bulletin board systems (BBS). These are â€Å"online forums where individuals can post questions and engage in discussions on any range of topics. More the 96% of Chinese online users have spent an hour or more a day on BBS sites. These users tend to be between the ages of 20 to 40 years old from various professional backgrounds. More than 80% of BBS users search for product information and of these users about 61.7% ask other BBS users for their opinion before making a purchase themselves†(Geng.6). These systems allow for users to post anonymously which encourages users to be honest in their reviews of certain products and services. As you can see, different social media platforms in china attract a distinct audience, making it easier for Chinese businesses to target specific consumers. However, while there are many different social media outlets in China, after having a chance to speak with Chinese natives, it seems that Webio is the most highly used by Chinese citizens. We will explore further how businesses in China use these different platforms to successfully use social media as part of their marketing mix. Social Media Differences between the Two Countries Upon reviewing the different platforms in both countries, one might conclude that there is no difference among those types of social media used in both countries. Though at first glance, this may be the case, there is much more to social media in China than simply the platforms which Chinese internet users utilize. Social media has been so deeply intenerated into the lives of the Chinese. In china, the social media is the internet; there is no real distinction. â€Å"Social media platforms and online behaviors vary in important ways from those that may be considered their international equivalents and this difference is not due to censorship,† (Crampton.2). The variations in usage are driven by language, culture and economical development. The platforms which individuals of different countries focus on can vary widely. This variation can occur not only between countries, but within a single country as well. One way to understand the differences between the uses in China verses The United States is by analyzing the differences among the platforms in both countries. Twitter and Sina Weibo are both microblogs used to have short quick communications with users. The differences between these two platforms are rooted mainly in language. Sina Weibo is the fastest growing microblog in China. Though it is similar to Twitter in that it allows users to post 140 characters, Weibo actually allows its users to post videos and photos. It also allows users to comment on other peoples updates and to add comments when reposting a friends message; all things which twitter currently lacks. One of the biggest advantages however, which Weibo has over Twitter is the â€Å"length of communications expressed via microblogs in Chinese verses English† (Crampton.4). Even though both platforms allow users to express 140 characters worth of information in a single post, those users communicated using Chinese have an upper hand. This is due to the fact that each Chinese character is a word. This allows users, but more importantly, companies which are utilizing this platform to engage with consumers, to share more information. The article, â€Å"Social Media in China: The Same, but Different,† shows how Dell utilized this language difference. For a promotion the company was running they posted this update on twitter: â€Å"Today’s deal: Get FREE Eco-Lite Sleeve with the purchase of any Dell Outlet Insprion Mini 10,† (Crampton.4). A similar message on a Chinese microblog for the same add read like this: â€Å"Dell’s National Day Sale runs from Se ptember 11 to October 8th. To celebrate the 60th anniversary with the motherland, Dell home computers is offering 6 cool gifts and deals on 20 computer models. These exciting offers will run nonstop for 4 weeks. Also, get a free upgrade to color casing and a 512MB independent graphics card, as well as other service upgrades. All offers are on a first com first serve bases† (Crampton.4). As one might notice, a 114 characters limit in Chinese translates into 434 characters in English. This turns microblogging in China into more of a blog-like platform. Though these two platforms are different in structure, as business promotion tools, they are one in the same. Businesses use both Webio and Twitter to create a dialog and to get information about what is going on with their company quickly to their users. According to Nielsen, brand information via social media in both China and the US spread through, â€Å"interactions with friends on social media platforms. They believe that their platforms can be used by business to achieve greater success than form traditional advertizing.† It is clear to businesses that these micro blogs are important not only to help create a dialog between the consumer and the business, but more importantly, these specific platforms are used to obtain higher immediate brand exposure, brand identity and brand awareness among consumers. While the social network site Facebook has become the default social network throughout most of the world, China has been able to establish similar platforms which are tailored to attract specific segments of people. Most of the social networks created in China have developed around the interests of people who belong to certain segments of the Chinese population. As mentioned before, Douban is focused on attracting those individuals who are art students. The website also allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, and recent events in Chinese cities. Unlike Facebook and Renren, it is opened to both registered and unregistered users. Not only can users connect according to their interests but the website also provides recommendations about books, music and more to its users. Based on this information, one can conclude that social media in China has been somewhat customized to meet the needs of several different segments of the population as well as to meet the interests of those people. Companies can benefit from these â€Å"targeted social networks.† Yet oddly, â€Å"many companies have failed to acknowledge the shifts in their marketing strategy. Social media has grown to become the shared commons where Chinese consumers offer opinions, ask for advice and discuss their interests which include brands. Thus, while in the past the internet could have been considered a lost opportunity in China, today, ignoring social media is a business risk† (Crampton.6). The article entitled, â€Å"Social Media: The new Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix,† examines how the traditional marketing mix has been changed due to the rise of social media. Traditional Promotional Mix Verses New Promotional Mix Traditionally, marketing consists of the four â€Å"Ps,† product, price, placement and promotion. The promotional mix focuses on the promotion elements of marketing. Before social media, companies relied heavily on what is known as integrated marketing communications to interact with their consumers. These communications, â€Å"attempt to coordinate and control various elements of the promotional mix- advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion- to produce a unified consumer-focused message and therefore, achieve various organizational objectives as well† (Mangold and Faulds.1). Promotions are all about communication because promotions are the way a business makes its products known to both current consumers and potential ones as well. The goal of a promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the existing products and it is also used to persuade customers that the product is better that the competing products on the market. It is a marketer’s job to remind customers’ why they want to buy their companies products. Traditionally, businesses spoke to their consumers through such mediums as TV ads, billboards and radio. It is also typical for a company to use sales promotions to influence consumers to buy. The rise of social media has flipped these traditional ideas of promotional marketing on its head. Due to the rise of social media, the â€Å"strategies for communicating with customers have changed significantly† (Mangold and Faulds.358). Mangold and Faulds suggest in their article, â€Å"Social Media: The new Hybrid Element of th e Promotion Mix,† that social media plays a hybrid role in the promotional mix. This is due in part to the fact that social media has changed the way which businesses can communicate with their consumers. Social media not only enables companies to speak directly to their consumers, but it also allows for consumers to communicate with one another on a large front. Companies can use such platforms as Facebook and Renren to communicate with their consumers. The company’s consumers can use these same platforms to give feedback about their experiences with that company’s product or service.â€Å"The second role of social media- enabling customers to talk to one another, is in away an extension of the traditional word-of-mouth communication† (Mangold and Faulds.359). What makes this word of mouth exchange unique is that it magnifies the communication. Before social media and with the traditional approach, individual consumers were only able to communicate their experience to a few friends. Consumers now have the ability to express their experience s to hundreds and thousands of people in the matter of a few keystrokes on a social media platform. This takes the control of what messages are sent to consumers away from the actual business and puts it into the hand of the consumer; it in turn limits the amount of control companies have over the content and dissemination of information (Mangold and Fauld.359). The question for businesses to explore: how can this power of social media be harnessed for the benefit of the organization? The best way to do this is by consistently engaging with the consumers by these platforms. Companies are in control when they are able to create a buzz about a specific product, when they are able to learn from customers and when they are able to successfully target customers. Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin explain how companies can use this control which social media gives them to create successful social marketing campaigns. Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin, authors of the McKinsey Quartly article entitled Demystifying social media believe that in order for businesses to be in control of social media conver sations, they must monitor consumer responses, respond to those responses, amplify their responses and make efforts to lead consumers to long term behavioral changes which will continue to keep them coming back to their company. They describe brand monitoring as â€Å"simply knowing and understanding what consumers are saying about the company’s product.† (Divol.4) They believe that even if a company does not engage in direct conversation with consumers on social media platforms, this information obtained by monitoring will allow them to gain insight on what their consumers want. It also provides advanced warning for negative publicity. But monitoring is just the start. Businesses also need to respond to consumers by pinpointing conversations for personal interaction with the consumer. This responding can be positive if it is done to provide customer service or to uncover certain leads or to deal with crisis management. Next, the authors believe that it is important to amplify their conversations with their consumers. They explain that â€Å"amplification involves designing your marketing activities to have an inherently social motivator that spurts broader engagement and sharing. This means that businesses should invite consumers to join into a conversation. They should also have ongoing programs and share new content. It is also important for businesses to provide opportunities for sharing back. Finally, businesses should focus on offering experiences that customers want to share to others† (Divol.6). An example of this amplification comes from Starbucks. â€Å"Starbucks wanted to increase awareness of its brand. To do this, the company launched a campaign which challenged their users to be the first to tweet a picture for one of the new advertising posters which the company had placed in six major cities providing the winners with $20 gift cards. This got millions of fans speaking about Starbucks and their current promotion. By giving consumers a reason to speak about a company’s brand, they are able to quickly and effortlessly create customer brand awareness and therefore, save millions of dollars in advertising† (Divol.7). Finally, the authors believe it is important to lead consumers along long term behavioral exchanges which will keep them coming back for more. Companies can influence behavioral changes by creating a buzz, asking for feedback from customers and creating promotions which actively involves consumers. In order to have successful marketing campaigns in the 21st century, mangers need to change their thin king and attitudes toward these new additions to the marketing mix. They need to realize, accept and understand that a large amount of information about their products and services are being talked about via social media outlets. They also need to understand that the communications occurring on these platforms are directly impacting all aspects of consumer behavior. Managers should be aware that â€Å"consumers are reducing their reliance on advertising and traditional elements of the promotional mix as a source of information to help make their purchasing decision,† (Mangold and Faulds.361). In order for marketing managers to drive a successful social media campaign, these managers need to learn to communicate with their consumers on the medium and not to speak at them as illustrated by the examples above. How can Social Media be used to Benefit Businesses? Though the social media platforms used in China and the US differ, the basic benefits of social media to businesses are the same. The main goal of social media in marketing campaigns is customer engagement. Just like with traditional marketing, social media can be utilized for customer engagement. As mentioned previously, social media allows the consumer to communicate on a massive scale to one another on their experiences with particular products. In order for a business to benefit from this, marketing managers need to focus their efforts on shaping the conversation. The following paragraphs explain ways in which businesses can take control of social media conversations. Consumers prefer to communicate with likeminded people. One way that organizations can control this is by providing platforms, which allow likeminded people to network. Organizations can create online communities which consumers with the same interests and values can come together to communicate about similar intere sts. These â€Å"networking opportunities do not have to take form in social media platforms to be effective. For example, movie premiers bring together die-hard fans who like to attend midnight showings so they can be the â€Å"first to know† about the movie. Similarly, Apple has effectively been able to drive iPhone fanatics together who wait in long lines to be the first to purchase the new product. Creating excitement through events and through online forums will benefit the organizations. As the authors state, â€Å" the experience of participating with likeminded individuals in highly anticipated events becomes memorable and is likely to e talked about for years to come† (Mangold and Faulds.361). This is the type of positive conversations organizations can benefit from. Consumers also feel most engaged when they are able to give feedback. This way they feel like they are being heard. Organizations can also use contests and free give a ways in order to engage with their consumers. However, it is important to remember that organizations want to have meaningful conversations with their consumers. If all their consumers are talking about is getting free stuff from them and not about the products and services that these organizations may offer, then that means that companies are not using social media effectively. A way in which organizations can effectively use contests for engagement is by having contests in which consumers are actively involved in promoting a certain product. â€Å"Enabling consumers to see others using the product can entertain and engage consumers while communicating product benefits† (Mangold and Faulds.362). Other ways in which organizations can utilize communication to consumers via social media is by providing information to consumers. Using social media platforms to introduce new products or to provide answers to questions are a few ways in which companies can insure that their consumers are being informed. Some companies have established special websites that allows consumers to connect to one another and gather more information about specific products or services which they are interested. For example, Procter and Gamble created portion of their website called â€Å"Ask Julia.† This section of the website provides detailed information on many subjects related to the products which PG provide to their consumers. The more informed you are, the more you will communicate it to others. At times, it is important for businesses to think outside of the box with their campaign. A way they can do this and attract attention to them is by doing something outrageous to get their consumers talking. For example, Burger King played a joke on it customers by telling them that the Whopper would no longer be sold. They then recorded their customer’s reactions to the news which they posted online for consumers enjoyment. These reactions got Burger King’s consumers talking. Sometimes it is important for businesses to have a little fun with their marketing techniques as Burger King did in this example. Consumers also enjoy exclusivity. People generally like to feel special. Businesses have the ability to control this type of special feelings. Feeling special can occur if businesses offer products, information and special deals which are only available to a specific subset of customers. These positive feelings will most likely translate into positive talk among consumers. Some other ways in which companies can get their consumers talking is by make people want to talk about them. When Apple launched their first iPhone, it changed the way people looked at phones forever. Companies should design products with talking points in mind. If companies provide exclusive offers to their consumers, it will also get them talking as well. It makes the consumer feel important to the company and thus should lea d to positive talks from consumers. Finally, companies can support causes that are important to consumers and utilize the power of stories to create meaningful conversations. By doing so, they can connect with those consumers which may be emotionally linked to a specific causes. Due to this linkage, these consumers may be more likely to purchase a company’s product. How can companies measure the effectiveness of social media? After doing a lot of research, I have found that both American and Chinese companies use the same or similar metrics to track their social media success. Since social media is fairly new in the marketing realm, most companies have struggled translating the effectiveness of their social media into actual numbers in term of return on investment for their companies. But companies can do themselves a favor by tracking specific metrics which can tell them how successful their campaigns are in terms of reach. In terms of social media, reach is defined as the number of people who see the conversations which occur between a specific business and other consumers or social media users in general. As stated before, the purpose of social media is to hold conversations with potential new customers on these platforms; it is all about engagement. In terms of conversation, it is important for a company to measure the number of conversations they have with their â€Å"fans† or â€Å"followers,† the speed of the responses they are getting from their fans or followers and the company’s ability to hold a single conversation. It is important to see what your fans are talking about. The conversations must be of quality and less so about what someone is getting from the company i.e. â€Å"free stuff.† But while social media thrives on conversation, the metrics that can be used to see the effectiveness of a social media campaign stretches much wider. The following lists some of the metrics that a company should look for in order to determine whether their social media campaign is really having an impact on their company: * Social Connections and Page Views: How much exposure is your site getting on social media platforms? It is important for any company to keep track of the number of followers they are obtaining through their social media platforms * Quality of Followers/Fans: According to â€Å"Thoughtful China,† it is important that companies realize that it is not just about the number of followers or fans that the company’s page has but also the number of followers or fans which each individual person who is following the company’s site has. This will drive the reach and the impact which the company is having over the whole social media platform. (Thoughtful China Video). * Engagement Rate: â€Å"A good social media marketer needs to know when he or she posts something that creates a reaction or follower engagement,† (Gold.1). It is important to keep track of positive and negative feedback gained from certain posts. It is also important for a company to keep track of what is known as the â€Å"retweet rate.† This is in essence is keeping track of the number of times you are retweeted every time you post a single tweet. This flows into the next metrics, reach. * The Reach of your Social Media Campaign: This includes a number of things. One of the main things to look for is your company’s â€Å"share of voice.† This simply refers to the number of people on social media which is talking about your company in comparison to your competitors. It is important for a company to think about reach in this manner; â€Å"Am I doing better than last week or last month and what did I do to improve or hurt my performance or reach?† (Gold.1). The more effort companies put into their social media campaigns, the higher the return. Studies show that if a company can convert â€Å"7% of fans or followers into customers this will translate into 40% of sales† (Thoughtful China Video). Since there are extremely high volumes of people using social media platforms, it is hard to say exactly how many people you engage with turn into buyers of your product. But since social media can be used all along the value chain, it is important for businesses to look at the ROI of social media in terms of its overall business impact, not just its impact on sales. Without impact measurements, it is extremely difficult for companies to justify investments in social media and to compare social media marketing with other marketing mediums. Key performance indicators are vital in making the case for social media. According to McKinsey Company, a comprehensive measurement rationale should consist of three levels of KPIs. Level one should consist of a basic KPI system that measures engagement and consumers feelings of the companies’ social media efforts on all different platforms. Metrics such as the ones mentioned above can be used to stratify this level measurement. The company also suggests that level two should consist of business case logic. McKinsey Company recommends that â€Å"companies should create business cases to assess the value of specific activates, like campaigns, or decisions, like platform choices† (McKinsey Company Buzz into Gold). An example could be tracking the value of a Facebook fan. A company should create a calculation that recognizes the average number of contacts created through one Facebook fan. The third and final level consists of gross rating points which will allow companies to make social media comparable across all platforms. McKinsey Company notes that â€Å"for traditional marketing, gross rating points (GRPs) measures advertising intensity of a campaign as a whole. This traditional rating can also be used as a metrics which is used specifically for social media. This measure would be based on the number and reach of the companies posting through multiple social media platforms and would be calculated as the number of people reached multiplied by the number of times these people are reached per day or week (which ever the company prefers). Based on the information above, it is clear that there are many ways in which companies can measure effectiveness of their social media campaigns. The question that needs to be answered now is are American and Chinese companies successfully measuring these metrics? The answer: some companies recognize the importance of these metrics more than others and are doing a better job of tracking this information than others. Here are just a few examples of Chinese and American companies who have used social media as a marketing tool successfully. AJ Bombers: An American Company who experienced social media success AJ Bombers is a burger joint located in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Joe Sorge, the owner of the restaurant changed the way he promoted his company and turned it strictly into social media marketing. He believes that successful social media marketing starts with a great product, something he believed his restaurant had; the best burger in town. Sorge decided to get rid of all forms of traditional marketing that he had previously used to promote his restaurant. Before making the switch to strictly social media, he relied on only using email marketing as a method of marketing his restaurants. Sorge started experimenting with Twitter. He first searched to see what people were saying about his restaurant and he eventually decided to create an account himself so that he could respond to what his customers where saying about his restaurant. By doing this, he was able to create meaningful relationships with his customers and began to see positive reactions from his customers whom he had communicated with via Twitter. The power of social media became evident when Sorge realized that his account had the ability to reach hundreds and thousands of people through his Twitter account. Even if he did not directly engage with some of his customers, they were able to see the conversations going on, and if they liked something they heard or saw, they were able to retweet it to friends and family. The restaurant was previously known for its events. When Sorge realized the benefits of social media, he quickly used this to help promote the events which occurred at his restaurants. He used social media platforms to drive sales for AJ Bombers. One example of an event that Sorge put on was the, â€Å"I’m on a boat badge party.† He partnered with foursquare to create a check in point for his restaurant. Then he used Twitter and Facebook to promote the event. This event allowed customers to earn an â€Å"I’m on a boat badge.† He also partnered with a local outdoors store to obtain boats which customers so that customers could earn their badge by taking part in challenges after checking in. During the event, more than 231 people checked in to the foursquare events page. The event resulted in the single best day of sales that the restaurant has ever seen and the employees had to turn away customers because they did not have enough room to accommodate everyone who showed up. Sorge believed that the word of mouth buzz created by this event through various social platforms and the speed at which the information traveled is what lead for this event to be one of the most successful events he has ever created. This example shows the how constant engagement with customers on social media platforms can be effective in attracting consumers to certain businesses. It also shows how fast communication happens via social media and how many people these conversations can potentially reach. This type of success is possible for all kinds of businesses if they know how to effectively engage with customers. IKEA China: Building a Loyal Following through Online Customer Engagement (Source: The China Observer) IKEA Group is the world’s largest furniture retail with over 280 stores in 26 countries. In 1998, IKEA chose Shanghai to penetrate the Chinese market. IKEA presently runs ten stores in nine cities in China and has achieved total sales of $755 million dollars with over 31 million customers visiting its stores in 2011. Since IKEA used a relatively conservative approach to opening new stores in China, IKEA location were limited, making it harder to reach the young generation of white collar consumers across China. The company found it challenging to build a distinctive brand and to influence Chinese consumers to purchase products since most people treated the IEKA stores as a place for entertainment and not to make purchases for new furniture. In October of 2010, IKEA decided to expand their emphasis on social media. The company started to organize events both real-world and virtual events to engage potential customers both online and offline. IKEA created its own profile on Douban, a Chinese social media platform which allows users to recommend, comment on and compare their favorite books, films and music. The company created a page which listed tips on decorating homes with IKEA products. In September 2011, the company launched on its page called â€Å"the dream home in films.† They encouraged users to upload screenshots of their favorite home furnishing styles from famous films and write a description of the scenes with each â€Å"episode† containing a different theme, focusing on different types of rooms in a virtual home. Participants could win gifts sponsored by IKEA. IKEA attracted a widespread and achieve engagement among Douban users; they are considered to be well-educated and creative urban Chinese. The online and offline event provided customers and potential customers with a way of expressing themselves which translated into a positive impression of the IKEA brand. IKEA’s profile page on Douban, increased to just over 30 thousand followers and 210 thousand visitors. IKEA was able to increase its sales by 20% in the 2012 fiscal year by investing in its brand in China through social media. Conclusion Businesses all over the world have switched gears and included social media as a part of their marketing efforts. With the ever evolving ways of the internet, it is important for businesses to realize how to use web platforms such as social media to help increase their bottom line. In order for companies to make sure they run a successful social media campaign, marketers need to educate themselves on the different ways to engage with their consumer on social media, and how to track these conversations in terms of ROI. Proper utilization of social media can lead to increased brand awareness, brand image but most importantly, the proper use of social media as a marketing tool can lead to increased sales. Works Cited Bodnar, Kipp. Generating Small Business Customers with Social Media.Hubspot.com. Web. Crampton, Thomas. Social Media in China: The Same but Different. China Business Review. ProQuest, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Divol, Roxane, David Eldmen, and Hugo Sarrzin. Demystifying Social Media. Demystifying Social Media. McKinseyCompany, Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Dove: Encouraging Female Consumers to Share Their Beauty Stories. The China Observer. N.p., 31 May 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. IKEA China: Build a Loyal Following Through Customer Engagement Online. The China Observer. N.p., 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Kuo, Kaiser. Blogs, Bulletin Boards and Business. China Business Review. ProQuest, Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Lipsman, Andrew, Graham Mudd, and Mike Rich. Power of Like: How Brands Rewach (and Influence) Fans Through Social-Media Marketing. Journal of Advertising and Research 52.1 (2012): 1-24. Web. Mangold, Glynn, and David Faulds. Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix. Harvard Business Review (n.d.): 1-9. Web. Nooruddin, Zaheer. 7 Steps to Weibo Success. China Buisness Review. ProQuest, July 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Schmidt, Stacey, and David Ralph. Social Media: More Available Marketing Tools. The Business Review. ProQuest, Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Turning Buzz into Gold. McKinseyCompany. McKinseyCompany, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Gold, Harry. 14 Social Media ROI Metrics You Can Use Right Now! ClickZ. Click Z Marketing and News, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2178428/14-social-media-roi-metrics. Social Media Metrics. Thoughtful Media Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. http://www.thoughtfulchina.com/en/social-media-metrics-en.html.