Tuesday, August 25, 2020

To what extend the bretton woods institutions have functioned to make Essay

Whatever broaden the bretton woods establishments have worked to make the world economy less prosperous and less steady - Essay Example Worldwide money related organizations were set up, for example, the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The thoughts behind Bretton Woods were open and free markets to forestall exchange alliances. Prior to World War II, nations went up against one another in an undesirable way in monetary patriotism. Exchange separation brought about scarcely any nations getting rich while nations that didn't have a place with coalitions were kept separate from the temporary fad. This paper will talk about how establishments of the Bretton Woods Conference, in particular the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the replacement to the GATT which is the World Trade Organization bombed their commands of improving the global financial request. The present monetary request depends on a one-sided framework in which solid countries forced their inclinations on different nati ons. The quantity of exchange debates pending at different intervention bodies are unfavorably expanding. These mediation courts are seen as preferring more grounded countries in deciphering WTO rules albeit all individuals will undoubtedly keep the guidelines. The honorable thought that unhindered commerce and open markets will increase the living expectations of everyone, in the idea of â€Å"a rising tide raises all boats,† didn't occur. More extravagant countries manage more fragile neighboring nations by respective exchange understandings (BTA) and unhindered commerce understandings (FTA) like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA). These understandings practice separation by the award of most-supported country status (MFN) to nations in return for political or conciliatory contemplations. These understandings abuse the non-segregation rule in the WTO contract. Conversation The i ncomparable Industrial Revolution occurred in supreme England 200 years prior. Chief among these innovations was the steam motor. This impelled numerous enterprises, for example, coal mining and the iron metal and steel ventures. Various variables made England the correct condition for which the Industrial Revolution occurred. It has a crude type of free enterprise (in lieu of the current medieval framework in quite a bit of Europe in those days), a blend of the best personalities around then which talked about clever thoughts, the ascent of the assembling and material businesses and proficient methods of raising moderately modest capital around then (at 5% just versus 20%-30% in Europe). Britain was the privilege prolific ground for private enterprise. Karl Marx himself trusted England supported the development of private enterprise since it had all the fixings. Its curiosity as a monetary framework was appealing to numerous areas since England had an overabundance populace which s hould have been re-sent from ranches. Private enterprise gave the redeeming quality to the administration since individuals can be utilized in processing plants in huge urban zones by entrepreneurs. The old medieval framework offered approach to new routes in the making of riches through assembling and fares. Free enterprise got settled in with the correct mix of political and social changes (Hindess and Hirst, 1975:288). The Industrial Revolution and free enterprise are being talked about here to give the peruser a diagram of today’s worldwide request which depends on the monetary arrangement of private enterprise. Previously

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Operations Strategies at Marks & Spencers Clothing Industry Assignment

Tasks Strategies at Marks and Spencers Clothing Industry - Assignment Example Tables of Contents Introduction Operations methodologies incorporate all activities that a firm directs to help the primary business system. Through turn of events and usage of such activities systems firms make solid establishments in their business sectors in this manner outcompeting other contender firms. Through a specific activities procedure that firm will have the option to create items that success the market by outcompeting items from different organizations. To cause items to prevail in the market, firms set their activities procedures corresponding to cost, quality, administration, adaptability, and different components. The circumstance is comparative even in the apparel business. For example, Mark’s and Spencer’s utilize a few tasks techniques so as to stay effective in the market (Johnson, 2003). This structures the center of this paper. Impacts Product configuration process The item configuration process is significant in creating items that will in the e nd prevail in the market. The plan procedure must be inventive (Hsiao, 2004). This procedure makes items according to the prerequisites of the clients. As a rule organizations use input from clients to producer items that address the issues and prerequisites of the objective clients. Great item plans intensely rely upon singular creators (Hemoen, 2013). Imprints and Spencer is one of the best retailers in the UK because of the various upper hands the organization offers. This appends to the structure procedure that guarantees the organization offers great quality items at sensible costs. The company’s upper hand is likewise on the grounds that it just sells its own items. The organization creates measures to lessen the expense of creation through decreasing the measure of materials and vitality... This exposition focuses on that the qualifier for the Classic range item its work of art and up-to-date personality, which characterize a large portion of the great range items. Another attribute of the great range is its acceptable quality. Such request winning attributes and qualifiers bait the clients into purchasing these items. The qualifier for Per Una is its high-style configuration drifts that make it appropriate for adolescents and the youthful ages loaded with new desires. The signature run show interesting structures that are appropriate for the plan darlings. All the three dress extents at Mark and Spencer identify with some particular tasks goals. These are quality, speed and cost. The exemplary range fabricates quality items from texture of high caliber. As far as speed, the Per Una is an exemption since it needs to find the changing patterns in the apparel business. This paper makes an end that activities systems incorporate are significant for a firm as it underpins the primary business methodology of the firm being referred to. Firms set their tasks systems corresponding to cost, quality, administration, adaptability, and different components. The item planning procedure will influence the tasks execution methodologies for Mark and Spencer Company. Division is significant in the business procedure of M&S in light of the fact that it helps in driving the attire advertise. Tasks execution targets for the three garments ranges at M&S incorporate quality, speed, and cost.

Friday, July 31, 2020

Comparison of American and British English

Comparison of American and British English Many English speakers and do not realize the vast differences between American English and British English. Some might falsely assume that the two are filled with more similarities than differences, and that the rules separating American English and British English are simply finicky points that are arguable and not especially noteworthy. The fact remains that what might be considered inconsequential to some readers can be taken as serious grammatical errors when crossing the Atlantic divide.PunctuationTake, for example, the use of punctuation within quotes. Many American middle and high school students consistently confuse the rules associated with punctuating quotations. The uncertainty is so rampant, that the mystery tends to remain a significant issue during, and even after, the college years. So just where does that period go when there are quotes involved? The answer to this question changes, depending if you are looking at American English or British English grammar rules.In A merican English, it is standard for periods and commas to be placed within quotations:Their teacher dismissed them with a curt class dismissed.There is one dominant exception to this rule, and that is if the quotation is followed by a parenthetical source reference:The political game, according to Smith, seemed far less evasive than the candidates themselves (24).According to British English grammar rules, however, the punctuation is only placed within the quotation marks if it is punctuation that is a part of, or is related to, the quoted text. For example, notice the differences in which the following sentences would commonly be written, depending if the author is following American English or British English grammar rules.American English:A sign on the front door announced that the owners were out to lunch.The names given to the characters were Anabelle, Zach, and Cody.British English:A sign on the front door announced that the owners were out to lunch.The names given to the char acters were Anabelle, Zach, and Cody.With both American English and British English, semi-colons and colons are placed outside of the quotation. Writers and editors who are often confused between the two distinct sources of grammar rules will be happy to find that at least there is agreement with this one aspect of punctuation.SpellingBeyond punctuation, there are several rules relating to spelling that are significant to note. First, words that end in â€"er in American English typically end in â€"re in British English (theater vs. theatre). Additionally, words that end in â€"or in American English typically end in â€"our in British English (honor vs. honour). Finally, one of the most common differences in spelling is with American English words that contain the suffixes â€"ize or â€"yze (also â€"ization). Such words are generally spelled with â€"ise or â€"yse (or â€"isation) in British English. As with any grammar rule, there are exceptions, and any writer or editor who often switc hes between American English and British English would benefit from studying these instances in depth.Also, one of the little-known rules regarding discrepancies between American and British grammar is with verbs that end in a vowel plus l. In British English, the l in such verbs is doubled before the addition of a suffix that begins with a vowel (travel = traveller). In American English, this is not the case, and the l remains a single letter (travel = traveler). This is an issue that many spell-checker programs will not catch, especially if the program is created within the US.Some words, however, are spelled differently within British English and American English, depending on their usage. For example, while American English uses practice to denote both the noun and verb form of the word (She practiced piano often and The doctors practice was busy), British English uses practice as the noun form and practise as the verb form (She practised piano often and The doctors practice was busy). Similarly, while American English uses license as both a noun and verb, British English spells the noun form as licence and the verb form as license.In many cases with these particular words, the American English version of spelling is acceptable in the UK, as likewise the British English version is acceptable in the US. Most seasoned readers have seen the words spelled in both the British English and American English form, and understand them regardless of which continent they consider as home.Words commonly confusedIn addition to punctuation and spelling, there are words that are commonly confused between British English and American English. The list below is from the Oxford Dictionary:American/BritishJumper/Pinafore DressSweater/JumperEraser/RubberPants/TrousersPanties/PantsChips/CrispsFrench Fries/ChipsA garden in the UK is the same thing as a yard in the US, and a lounge in Britain is the same as a living room in America. Such discrepancies as these abound between the two, and complete lists can be found online.Words not usedThere are many words commonly used in American English that are not used in British English, and vice versa. Words such as burglarize and co-ed are not standard in British English writing, and could confuse audiences when used without contextual clarification. Conversely, some commonly used words in British English can lose their meaning for American audiences (for example, lorry and loo). Anyone who writes or edits for both British and American audiences should study the extensive lists of words that hold different meanings between the two forms of English language usage.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Ancient Myth And Its Impact On Modern Society - 902 Words

In my opinion, I do not think that it is important to study ancient myth. I feel that it is more so for the sake of entertainment because myth essentially offers explanations for things we already have in society. The stories behind how we have the institutions that we have today are interesting however not vital to further developing our knowledge. Furthermore, I do not think that our modern society can still gain from its study because of the way that we already have these institutions and studying ancient myth would not enable us to make further advances in society. The first example of an interesting institution that we have today that has a mythological explanation is the Olympic Games. They were said to have begun in 776 BCE and†¦show more content†¦As Apollo was chasing her through the forest to try to get her to love him she prayed to the gods to be turned into a tree to get away from him. As a result, they turn her into a laurel tree. Then there is the relationship between the gadfly and cows. According to the Greeks this derived from Io’s metamorphosis. Io was Zeus’s secret lover. Hera found out, so Zeus turned her into a cow to keep Hera from finding out. However, Hera knew that the cow was Io and asked Zeus to give her the cow as a present. Not being able to refuse, he gave Io to Hera as a cow. Hera did not want Zeus to play any tricks so she made Argus the 100-eyed monster guard Io. To free Io, Zeus got Hermes to trick Argus. He disguised himself as a shepherd and told him a story to make him fall asleep. He then killed Argus and freed Io. To honor Argus, Hera placed his 100 eyes on her sacred peacock, and this is where we get the look of the end of the peacocks’ feathers. She also sent a gadfly to chase Io around the world. This is where we get the relationship of gadflies always following cows around. Our modern myrrh tree also derives from ancient myth. The Greeks describe Myrrha’s metamorphosis into the myrrh tree as its origin. The myth is that Myrrha was in love with her father and refuses to marry. She wanted to commit suicide but her nurse set up a plan so that she would be able to seduce her father inShow MoreRelatedThe Myth Of The American Gods1256 Words   |  6 Pageswhat is a myth? To the common person, a myth is a work of â€Å"fiction†: an untrue story made obsolete by modern society. A myth is a story that cannot be taken literally. For the sake of making the definition clear, a myth is a story; it is a narrative; it is what helps people make sense of a complicated world through different perspectives and experiences. Sometimes, these stories have lessons that people can interpret from the events of them. Gaiman certainly has written a myth: the myth of the â€Å"AmericanRead MoreThe Myth Of The American Gods1153 Words   |  5 Pageswhat is a myt h. To the common person, a myth is a work of â€Å"fiction†: an untrue story made obsolete by modern society. A myth is a story that cannot be taken literally. For the sake of making the definition clear, a myth is a story; it is a narrative; it is what helps people make sense of a complicated world through different perspectives and experiences. Sometimes, these stories have lessons that people can interpret from the events of them. Gaiman certainly has written a myth: the myth of the â€Å"AmericanRead MoreGreek And Roman Civilizations : Greece And Ancient Civilizations1503 Words   |  7 PagesCivilizations In examining the impact that the ancient world has had on modern Western civilization, the two ancient civilizations which are frequently understood as having had the greatest influence are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. These two civilizations would eventually come to shape much of what would become the modern European culture, politics and society, and by extension, a vast proportion of global culture and society. In scrutinizing the trajectory of modern history in an era of globalizationRead MoreGreek And Roman Civilizations : Greece And Ancient Civilizations1498 Words   |  6 PagesCivilizations In examining the impact that the ancient world has had on modern Western civilization, the two ancient civilizations which are frequently understood as having had the greatest influence are Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. These two civilizations would eventually come to shape much of what would become the modern European culture, politics and society, and by extension, a vast proportion of global culture and society. In examining the trajectory of modern history in an era of globalizationRead MoreHercules in Popular Culture1719 Words   |  7 Pagesof the great Greek/Roman hero, Heracles (Hercules), appearing in popular culture and the effect his myths had on early civilizations. Considered by most to be the greatest of the Greek folk heroes, Hercules was the embodiment of masculinity and physical power. The word â€Å"herculean† literally translates into â€Å"having enormous strength, courage, or size† (dictionary.com.) Since their inception, the myths and legen ds of Hercules have been immensely popular and have had vast influences on people and culturesRead MorePower Of Myth : Joseph Campbell Calls The Movie Theater1255 Words   |  6 PagesIn Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell calls the movie theater â€Å"a special temple where the hero has moved into the sphere of being mythologized† (Campbell). Watching the movie Baraka, the audience can connect to Campbell’s description of the didactic nature of movies. According to its co-director Fricke, Baraka was intended to be a journey of rediscovery that plunges into nature, into history, into the human spirit and finally into the realm of the infinite (Fricke). It is a visualization of theRead MoreThe Renaissance Essay758 Words   |  4 Pages16th and 17th centuries. In this period, the fragmented feudal society of the Middle Ages, with its agricultural economy and church-dominated intellectual and cultural life, was transformed into a society increasingly dominated by central political institutions, with an urban, commercial economy and lay patronage of education, the arts, and music. The term renaissance, meaning literally â€Å"rebirth.† Modern scholars have exploded the myth that the Middle Ages were dark and dormant. The thousand yearsRead MoreResearch Essay - Trojan War1431 Words   |  6 Pagesthat rule Olympus. However, the Olympic Gods and Goddesses are not the only mythological aspects to this story. We also see many Greek heroes such as Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax, and Nestor. Each of these heroes have their individual stories that impact the war, but not every story affects mortals. Greek heroes are not like Gods, they are not immortal, but they could be descendants from the Gods. For example, possibly the most famous Greek hero known as Achilles, was a demigod of a nymph and aRead MoreGreek Goddess And Greek Women874 Words   |  4 PagesThis review attempts to analyze the Greek goddess Athena as well as Greek women whose functio n in society contrasts with the roles of a goddess. This topic is of relevance to feminist’s who are smashing down barriers on stereotypes of women, this study attempts to shed some light to recognize the roles of Athena and Greek women. Past research has analyzed the differences between Greek women and Athena on how they contrast with responsibilities. What is often ignored is the complexity of both individualsRead MoreImperialistic Power of the Ancient Roman Civilization Essay1085 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction When one thinks of the Ancient Romans, their mind immediately envisions a vast empire led by fierce rulers and intelligent peoples, but that leaves the question of how was Rome able to proceed from a small city to an imperialistic power. On the road to becoming an empire Rome must first improve their own infrastructure through the building of vast roads such as the Via Appia and through the building of aqueducts such as the Aqua Appia in order to provide fresh water for the roman citizens

Sunday, May 10, 2020

The Stranger Absurdity through a Lens - 965 Words

The Stranger: Absurdity Through a Lens The theme of absurdity can be seen through three different lenses in The Stranger, by Albert Camus: life, decisions, and reflection. The first lens in which the reader can see absurdity in the novel is when the protagonist lives for the sensual pleasures of the present moment. The second lens in which the reader can see absurdity in the novel is when the protagonist absurdity of the protagonists decisions on how he does or doesn’t decide to kill the Arab. The third lens in which the reader can see absurdity in the novel is when the protagonist how he reflects back on his decisions and life and concludes that life means nothing between birth and death. The changes in the lenses of Meursault ‘s absurdum are projected through the author’s choice of different language. The first lens in which the reader can see absurdity in the novel is when the protagonist lives for the sensual pleasures of the present moment. Meursault is the protagonist who lives for the sensual pl easures of the present moment. He is free of any system of values in his life. And he would rather not behave in accordance with social norms. Meursault tries to live as honestly as he can. He does only what he wants to do and befriending those whom he likes. Although he is blunt with his relationships with people. He says things to his partner that a regular man or woman would choose not to say. It is shown to the reader that Meursault may not be capable of a lovingShow MoreRelatedThe Stranger By Albert Camus1411 Words   |  6 PagesThe novel The Stranger, written by Albert Camus, encompasses contemporary philosophies of existentialism and absurdism. Existentialist and absurdist philosophies entail principles regarding that one’s identity is not based on nature or culture, but rather by sole existence. The role of minor characters in The Stranger helps to present Camus’s purpose to convey absurdist and existentialist principles. The characters of Salamano and Marie are utilized in order to contrast the author’s ideas about contemporaryRead MoreThe Stranger Critical Analysis1788 Words   |  8 PagesTranslation Assignment: The Stranger by Albert Camus In society, many people will reach a stage in their life where they encounter an â€Å"existential crisis† and begin to seek answers by questioning the meaning of their existence, or whether a meaning truly exists. Absurdism is the school of thought which argues that meaning is inherently absent in the universe, but that one must embrace this to live freely. Albert Camus uses this philosophy to masterfully craft The Stranger, a novella in which theRead MoreGender Inequality By Virginia Woolf s Orlando Essay1179 Words   |  5 Pages Virginia Woolf’s Orlando offers a pointed critique of gender inequality through its usage and portrayal of androgyny and fashion. The common perception of gender is threefold; people define gender through physical difference, behavior, and a visual perception of sex. Gender is inherently unstable because it is dependent more upon an onlookers’ reality than scientific difference. Woolf uses androgyny and fashion in order to illustrate the insignificance of physical body: If a woman acts like a manRead MoreOverview of Three Interpretations of Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot3226 Words   |  13 PagesChristianity. Beckett had lived through two World Wars. Post WWII Europe was an increasingly bleak world, and there didn’t seem to be any type of guide to show a way out of the darkness. Intellectuals and playwrights, Beckett among them, used their writings to comment on the apparent hopelessness of the situation. According to Shobeiri, this is where the anti-Christianity interpretation comes from. He writes: â€Å"In Waiting for Godot†¦, Beckett‘s atheism purports absurdism through the indeterminacy ofRead MoreViewing the Play The Roaring Girl through Michel De Certeaus Walking in the City2567 Words   |  10 Pagesï » ¿Paths and Rules Michel de Certeaus Walking in the City provides a clear and appropriate lens with which to view and re-view the 17th century play, The Roaring Girl. Thesis: Certeaus notion of subversive navigation within cities illuminates a heretofore unexamined dimension of The Roaring Girl, the protagonists appropriation of major London landmarks for uses completely unintended by the citys planners. The protagonists in The Roaring Girl were able to overturn key social conventions

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Black House Chapter Twenty-two Free Essays

22 THIS TIME THERE’S something that isn’t quite silence: a lovely white rushing he has heard once before. In the summer of 1997, Jack went up way north to Vacaville with an LAPD skydiving club called the P.F. We will write a custom essay sample on Black House Chapter Twenty-two or any similar topic only for you Order Now Flyers. It was a dare, one of those stupid things you got yourself into as a result of too many beers too late at night and then couldn’t get yourself out of again. Not with any grace. Which was to say, not without looking like a chickenshit. He expected to be frightened; instead, he was exalted. Yet he had never done it again, and now he knows why: he had come too close to remembering, and some frightened part of him must have known it. It was the sound before you pulled the ripcord that lonely white rushing of the wind past your ears. Nothing else to hear but the soft, rapid beat of your heart and maybe the click in your ears as you swallowed saliva that was in free fall, just like the rest of you. Pull the ripcord, Jack, he thinks. Time to pull the ripcord, or the landing’s going to be awfully damn hard. Now there’s a new sound, low at first but quickly swelling to a tooth-rattling bray. Fire alarm, he thinks, and then: No, it’s a symphony of fire alarms. At the same moment, Wendell Green’s hand is snatched out of his grip. He hears a faint, squawking cry as his fellow sky diver is swept away, and then there’s a smell Honeysuckle No, it’s her hair and Jack gasps against a weight on his chest and his diaphragm, a feeling that the wind has been knocked out of him. There are hands on him, one on his shoulder, the other at the small of his back. Hair tickling his cheek. The sound of alarms. The sound of people yelling in confusion. Running footfalls that clack and echo. â€Å"jack jack jack are you all right† â€Å"Ask a queen for a date, get knocked into the middle of next week,† he mutters. Why is it so dark? Has he been blinded? Is he ready for that intellectually rewarding and financially remunerative job as an ump at Miller Park? â€Å"Jack!† A palm smacks his cheek. Hard. No, not blind. His eyes are just shut. He pops them open and Judy is bending over him, her face inches from his. Without thinking, he closes his left hand in the hair at the nape of her neck, brings her face down to his, and kisses her. She exhales into his mouth a surprised reverse gasp that inflates his lungs with her electricity and then kisses him back. He has never been kissed with such intensity in his entire life. His hand goes to the breast beneath her nightdress, and he feels the frenzied gallop of her heart If she were to run faster, she’d catch her feet and fall, Jack thinks beneath its firm rise. At the same moment her hand slips inside his shirt, which has somehow come unbuttoned, and tweaks his nipple. It’s as hard and hot as the slap. As she does it, her tongue darts into his mouth in one quick plunge, there and gone, like a bee into a flower. He tightens his grip on the nape of her neck and God knows what would have happened next, but at that moment something falls over in the corridor with a huge crash of glass and someone screams. The voice is high and almost sexless with panic, but Jack believes it’s Ethan Evans, the sullen young person from the hall. â€Å"Get back here! Stop running, goldarnit!† Of course it’s Ethan; only a graduate of Mount Hebron Lutheran Sunday school would use goldarnit, even in extremis. Jack pulls away from Judy. She pulls away from him. They are on the floor. Judy’s nightdress is all the way up to her waist, exposing plain white nylon underwear. Jack’s shirt is open, and so are his pants. His shoes are still on, but on the wrong feet, from the feel of them. Nearby, the glass-topped coffee table is overturned and the journals that were on it are scattered. Some seem to have been literally blown out of their bindings. More screams from the corridor, plus a few cackles and mad ululations. Ethan Evans continues to yell at stampeding mental patients, and now a woman is yelling as well Head Nurse Rack, perhaps. The alarms bray on and on. All at once a door bursts open and Wendell Green gallops into the room. Behind him is a closet with clothes scattered everywhere, the spare items of Dr. Spiegleman’s wardrobe all ahoo. In one hand Wendell’s holding his Panasonic minicorder. In the other he has several gleaming tubular objects. Jack is willing to bet they’re double-A Duracells. Jack’s clothes have been unbuttoned (or perhaps blown open), but Wendell has fared much worse. His shirt is in tatters. His belly hangs over a pair of white boxer shorts, severely pee-stained in front. He is dragging his brown gabardine slacks by one foot. They slide across the carpet like a shed snakeskin. And although his socks are on, the left one appears to have been turned inside out. â€Å"What did you do?† Wendell blares. â€Å"Oh you Hollywood son of a bitch, WHAT DID YOU DO TO M â€Å" He stops. His mouth drops open. His eyes widen. Jack notes that the reporter’s hair appears to be standing out like the quills on a porcupine. Wendell, meanwhile, is noting Jack Sawyer and Judy Marshall, embracing on the glass- and paper-littered floor, with their clothes disarranged. They aren’t quite in flagrante delicious, but if Wendell ever saw two people on the verge, dese are dem. His mind is whirling and filled with impossible memories, his balance is shot, his stomach is chugging like a washing machine that has been overloaded with clothes and suds; he desperately needs something to hold on to. He needs news. Even better, he needs scandal. And here, lying in front of him on the floor, are both. â€Å"RAPE!† Wendell bellows at the top of his lungs. A mad, relieved grin twists up the corners of his mouth. â€Å"SAWYER BEAT ME UP AND NOW HE’S RAPING A MENTAL PATIENT!† It doesn’t look much like rape to Wendell, in all truth, but who ever yelled CONSENSUAL SEX! at the top of his lungs and attracted any attention? â€Å"Shut that idiot up,† Judy says. She yanks down the hem of her nightgown and prepares to stand. â€Å"Watch out,† Jack says. â€Å"Broken glass everywhere.† â€Å"I’m okay,† she snaps. Then, turning to Wendell with that perfect fearlessness Fred knew so well: â€Å"Shut up! I don’t know who you are, but quit that bellowing! Nobody’s being â€Å" Wendell backs away from Hollywood Sawyer, dragging his pants along with him. Why doesn’t someone come? he thinks. Why doesn’t someone come before he shoots me, or something? In his frenzy and near hysteria, Wendell has either not registered the alarms and general outcry or believes them to be going on inside his head, just a little more false information to go with his absurd â€Å"memories† of a black gunslinger, a beautiful woman in a robe, and Wendell Green himself crouching in the dust and eating a half-cooked bird like a caveman. â€Å"Keep away from me, Sawyer,† he says, backing up with his hands held out in front of him. â€Å"I have an extremely hungry lawyer. Caveet-emporer, you asshole, lay one finger on me and he and I will strip you of everything you OW! OW!† Wendell has stepped on a piece of broken glass, Jack sees probably from one of the prints that formerly decorated the walls and are now decorating the floor. He takes one more off-balance lurch backward, this time steps on his own trailing slacks, and goes sprawling into the leather recliner where Dr. Spiegleman presumably sits while quizzing his patients on their troubled childhoods. La Riviere’s premier muckraker stares at the approaching Nean-derthal with wide, horrified eyes, then throws the minicorder at him. Jack sees that it’s covered with scratches. He bats it away. â€Å"RAPE!† Wendell squeals. â€Å"HE’S RAPING ONE OF THE LOONIES! HE’S â€Å" Jack pops him on the point of the chin, pulling the punch just a little at the last moment, delivering it with almost scientific force. Wendell flops back in Dr. Spiegleman’s recliner, eyes rolling up, feet twitching as if to some tasty beat that only the semiconscious can truly appreciate. â€Å"The Mad Hungarian couldn’t have done better,† Jack murmurs. It occurs to him that Wendell ought to treat himself to a complete neurological workup in the not too distant future. His head has put in a hard couple of days. The door to the hall bursts open. Jack steps in front of the recliner to hide Wendell, stuffing his shirt into his pants (at some point he’s zipped his fly, thank God). A candy striper pokes her fluffy head into Dr. Spiegleman’s office. Although she’s probably eighteen, her panic makes her look about twelve. â€Å"Who’s yelling in here?† she asks. â€Å"Who’s hurt?† Jack has no idea what to say, but Judy manages like a pro. â€Å"It was a patient,† she says. â€Å"Mr. Lackley, I think. He came in, yelled that we were all going to be raped, and then ran out again.† â€Å"You have to leave at once,† the candy striper tells them. â€Å"Don’t listen to that idiot Ethan. And don’t use the elevator. We think it was an earthquake.† â€Å"Right away,† Jack says crisply, and although he doesn’t move, it’s good enough for the candy striper; she heads out. Judy crosses quickly to the door. It closes but won’t latch. The frame has been subtly twisted out of true. There was a clock on the wall. Jack looks toward it, but it’s fallen face-down to the floor. He goes to Judy and takes her by the arms. â€Å"How long was I over there?† â€Å"Not long,† she says, â€Å"but what an exit you made! Ka-pow! Did you get anything?† Her eyes plead with him. â€Å"Enough to know I have to go back to French Landing right away,† he tells her. Enough to know that I love you that I’ll always love you, in this world or any other. â€Å"Tyler . . . is he alive?† She reverses his grip so she is holding him. Sophie did exactly the same thing in Faraway, Jack remembers. â€Å"Is my son alive?† â€Å"Yes. And I’m going to get him for you.† His eye happens on Spiegleman’s desk, which has danced its way into the room and stands with all its drawers open. He sees something interesting in one of those drawers and hurries across the carpet, crunching on broken glass and kicking aside one of the prints. In the top drawer to the left of the desk’s kneehole is a tape recorder, considerably bigger than Wendell Green’s trusty Panasonic, and a torn piece of brown wrapping paper. Jack snatches up the paper first. Scrawled across the front in draggling letters he’s seen at both Ed’s Eats and on his own front porch is this: Deliver to JUDY MARSHALL also known as SOPHIE There are what appear to be stamps in the upper corner of the torn sheet. Jack doesn’t need to examine them closely to know that they are really cut from sugar packets, and that they were affixed by a dangerous old dodderer named Charles Burnside. But the Fisherman’s identity no longer matters much, and Speedy knew it. Neither does his location, because Jack has an idea Chummy Burnside can flip to a new one pretty much at will. But he can’t take the real doorway with him. The doorway to the furnace-lands, to Mr. Munshun, to Ty. If Beezer and his pals found that Jack drops the wrapping paper back into the drawer, hits the EJECT button on the tape recorder, and pops out the cassette tape inside. He sticks it in his pocket and heads for the door. â€Å"Jack.† He looks back at her. Beyond them, fire alarms honk and blat, lunatics scream and laugh, staff runs to and fro. Their eyes meet. In the clear blue light of Judy’s regard, Jack can almost touch that other world with its sweet smells and strange constellations. â€Å"Is it wonderful over there? As wonderful as in my dreams?† â€Å"It’s wonderful,† he tells her. â€Å"And you are, too. Hang in there, okay?† Halfway down the hallway, Jack comes upon a nasty sight: Ethan Evans, the young man who once had Wanda Kinderling as his Sunday school teacher, has laid hold of a disoriented old woman by her fat upper arms and is shaking her back and forth. The old woman’s frizzy hair flies around her head. â€Å"Shut up!† young Mr. Evans is shouting at her. â€Å"Shut up, you crazy old cow! You’re not going anywhere except back to your dadblame room!† Something about his sneer makes it obvious that even now, with the world turned upside down, young Mr. Evans is enjoying both his power to command and his Christian duty to brutalize. This is only enough to make Jack angry. What infuriates him is the look of terrified incomprehension on the old woman’s face. It makes him think of boys he once lived with long ago, in a place called the Sunlight Home. It makes him think of Wolf. Without pausing or so much as breaking stride (they have entered the endgame phase of the festivities now, and somehow he knows it), Jack drives his fist into young Mr. Evans’s temple. That worthy lets go of his plump and squawking victim, strikes the wall, then slides down it, his eyes wide and dazed. â€Å"Either you didn’t listen in Sunday school or Kinderling’s wife taught you the wrong lessons,† Jack says. â€Å"You . . . hit . . . me . . .† young Mr. Evans whispers. He finishes his slow dive splay-legged on the hallway floor halfway between the Records Annex and Ambulatory Ophthalmology. â€Å"Abuse another patient this one, the one I was just talking to, any of them and I’ll do a lot more than that,† Jack promises young Mr. Evans. Then he’s down the stairs, taking them two at a time, not noticing a handful of johnny-clad patients who stare at him with expressions of puzzled, half-fearful wonder. They look at him as if at a vision who passes them in an envelope of light, some wonder as brilliant as it is mysterious. Ten minutes later (long after Judy Marshall has walked composedly back to her room without professional help of any kind), the alarms cut off. An amplified voice perhaps even Dr. Spiegleman’s own mother wouldn’t have recognized it as her boy’s begins to blare from the overhead speakers. At this unexpected roar, patients who had pretty much calmed down begin to shriek and cry all over again. The old woman whose mistreatment so angered Jack Sawyer is crouched below the admissions counter with her hands over her head, muttering something about the Russians and Civil Defense. â€Å"THE EMERGENCY IS OVER!† Spiegleman assures his cast and crew. â€Å"THERE IS NO FIRE! PLEASE REPORT TO THE COMMON ROOMS ON EACH FLOOR! THIS IS DR. SPIEGLEMAN, AND I REPEAT THAT THE EMERGENCY IS OVER!† Here comes Wendell Green, weaving his way slowly toward the stairwell, rubbing his chin gently with one hand. He sees young Mr. Evans and offers him a helping hand. For a moment it looks as though Wendell may be pulled over himself, but then young Mr. Evans gets his buttocks against the wall and manages to gain his feet. â€Å"THE EMERGENCY IS OVER! I REPEAT, THE EMERGENCY IS OVER! NURSES, ORDERLIES, AND DOCTORS, PLEASE ESCORT ALL PATIENTS TO THE COMMON ROOMS ON EACH FLOOR!† Young Mr. Evans eyes the purple bruise rising on Wendell’s chin. Wendell eyes the purple bruise rising on the temple of young Mr. Evans. â€Å"Sawyer?† young Mr. Evans asks. â€Å"Sawyer,† Wendell confirms. â€Å"Bastard sucker punched me,† young Mr. Evans confides. â€Å"Son of a bitch came up behind me,† Wendell says. â€Å"The Marshall woman. He had her down.† He lowers his voice. â€Å"He was getting ready to rape her.† Young Mr. Evans’s whole manner says he is sorrowful but not surprised. â€Å"Something ought to be done,† Wendell says. â€Å"You got that right.† â€Å"People ought to be told.† Gradually, the old fire returns to Wendell’s eyes. People will be told. By him! Because that is what he does, by God! He tells people! â€Å"Yeah,† young Mr. Evans says. He doesn’t care as much as Wendell does he lacks Wendell’s burning commitment but there’s one person he will tell. One person who deserves to be comforted in her lonely hours, who has been left on her own Mount of Olives. One person who will drink up the knowledge of Jack Sawyer’s evil like the very waters of life. â€Å"This kind of behavior cannot just be swept under the rug,† Wendell says. â€Å"No way,† young Mr. Evans agrees. â€Å"No way, Jos? ¦.† Jack has barely cleared the gates of French County Lutheran when his cell phone tweets. He thinks of pulling over to take the call, hears the sound of approaching fire engines, and decides for once to risk driving and talking at the same time. He wants to be out of the area before the local fire brigade shows up and slows him down. He flips the little Nokia open. â€Å"Sawyer.† â€Å"Where the fuck are you?† Beezer St. Pierre bellows. â€Å"Man, I been hittin’ redial so hard I damn near punched it off the phone!† â€Å"I’ve been . . .† But there’s no way he can finish that, not and stay within shouting distance of the truth, that is. Or maybe there is. â€Å"I guess I got into one of those dead zones where the cell phone just doesn’t pick up â€Å" â€Å"Never mind the science lesson, chum. Get your ass over here right now. The actual address is 1 Nailhouse Row it’s County Road Double-O just south of Chase. It’s the babyshit brown two-story on the corner.† â€Å"I can find it,† Jack says, and steps down a little harder on the Ram’s gas pedal. â€Å"I’m on my way now.† â€Å"What’s your twenty, man?† â€Å"Still Arden, but I’m rolling. I can be there in maybe half an hour.† â€Å"Fuck!† There is an alarming crash-rattle in Jack’s ear as somewhere on Nailhouse Row Beezer slams his fist against something. Probably the nearest wall. â€Å"The fuck’s wrong with you, man? Mouse is goin’ down, I mean fast. We’re doin’ our best those of us who’re still here but he is goin’ down.† Beezer is panting, and Jack thinks he’s trying not to cry. The thought of Armand St. Pierre in that particular state is alarming. Jack looks at the Ram’s speedometer, sees it’s touching seventy, and eases off a tad. He won’t help anybody by getting himself greased in a road wreck between Arden and Centralia. â€Å"What do you mean ? ®those of us who are still here’?† â€Å"Never mind, just get your butt down here, if you want to talk to Mouse. And he sure wants to talk to you, because he keeps sayin’ your name.† Beezer lowers his voice. â€Å"When he ain’t just ravin’ his ass off, that is. Doc’s doing his best me and Bear Girl, too but we’re shovelin’ shit against the tide here.† â€Å"Tell him to hold on,† Jack says. â€Å"Fuck that, man tell him yourself.† There’s a rattling sound in Jack’s ear, the faint murmuring of voices. Then another voice, one which hardly sounds human, speaks in his ear. â€Å"Got to hurry . . . got to get over here, man. Thing . . . bit me. I can feel it in there. Like acid.† â€Å"Hold on, Mouse,† Jack says. His fingers are dead white on the telephone. He wonders that the case doesn’t simply crack in his grip. â€Å"I’ll be there fast as I can.† â€Å"Better be. Others . . . already forgot. Not me.† Mouse chuckles. The sound is ghastly beyond belief, a whiff straight out of an open grave. â€Å"I got . . . the memory serum, you know? It’s eatin’ me up . . . eatin’ me alive . . . but I got it.† There’s the rustling sound of the phone changing hands again, then a new voice. A woman’s. Jack assumes it’s Bear Girl. â€Å"You got them moving,† she says. â€Å"You brought it to this. Don’t let it be for nothing.† There is a click in his ear. Jack tosses the cell phone onto the seat and decides that maybe seventy isn’t too fast, after all. A few minutes later (they seem like very long minutes to Jack), he’s squinting against the glare of the sun on Tamarack Creek. From here he can almost see his house, and Henry’s. Henry. Jack thumps the side of his thumb lightly against his breast pocket and hears the rattle of the cassette tape he took from the machine in Spiegle-man’s office. There’s not much reason to turn it over to Henry now; given what Potter told him last night and what Mouse is holding on to tell him today, this tape and the 911 tape have been rendered more or less redundant. Besides, he’s got to hurry to Nailhouse Row. There’s a train getting ready to leave the station, and Mouse Baumann is very likely going to be on it. And yet . . . â€Å"I’m worried about him,† Jack says softly. â€Å"Even a blind man could see I’m worried about Henry.† The brilliant summer sun, now sliding down the afternoon side of the sky, reflects off the creek and sends shimmers of light dancing across his face. Each time this light crosses his eyes, they seem to burn. Henry isn’t the only one Jack’s worried about, either. He’s got a bad feeling about all of his new French Landing friends and acquaintances, from Dale Gilbertson and Fred Marshall right down to such bit players as old Steamy McKay, an elderly gent who makes his living shining shoes outside the public library, and Ardis Walker, who runs the ramshackle bait shop down by the river. In his imagination, all these people now seem made of glass. If the Fisherman decides to sing high C, they’ll vibrate and then shatter to powder. Only it’s not really the Fisherman he’s worried about anymore. This is a case, he reminds himself. Even with all the Territories weirdness thrown in, it’s still a case, and it’s not the first one you’ve ever been on where everything suddenly started to seem too big. Where all the shadows seemed to be too long. True enough, but usually that funhouse sense of false perspective fades away once he starts to get a handle on things. This time it’s worse, and worse by far. He knows why, too. The Fisherman’s long shadow is a thing called Mr. Munshun, an immortal talent scout from some other plane of existence. Nor is even that the end, because Mr. Munshun also casts a shadow. A red one. â€Å"Abbalah,† Jack mutters. â€Å"Abbalah-doon and Mr. Munshun and the Crow Gorg, just three old pals walking together on night’s Plutonian shore.† For some reason this makes him think of the Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice. What was it they took for a walk in the moonlight? Clams? Mussels? Jack’s damned if he can remember, although one line surfaces and resonates in his mind, spoken in his mother’s voice: â€Å"The time has come,† the Walrus said, â€Å"to talk of many things.† The abbalah is presumably hanging out in his court (the part of him that isn’t imprisoned in Speedy’s Dark Tower, that is), but the Fisherman and Mr. Munshun could be anywhere. Do they know Jack Sawyer has been meddling? Of course they do. By today, that is common knowledge. Might they try to slow him down by doing something nasty to one of his friends? A certain blind sportscaster-headbanger-bebopper, for instance? Yes indeed. And now, perhaps because he’s been sensitized to it, he can once more feel that nasty pulse coming out of the southwestern landscape, the one he sensed when he flipped over for the first time in his adult life. When the road curves southeast, he almost loses it. Then, when the Ram points its nose southwest again, the poisonous throb regains strength, beating into his head like the onset of a migraine headache. That’s Black House you feel, only it’s not a house, not really. It’s a worm-hole in the apple of existence, leading all the way down into the furnace-lands. It’s a door. Maybe it was only standing ajar before today, before Beezer and his pals turned up there, but now it’s wide open and letting in one hell of a draft. Ty needs to be brought back, yes . . . but that door needs to be shut, as well. Before God knows what awful things come snarling through. Jack abruptly swings the Ram onto Tamarack Road. The tires scream. His seat belt locks, and for a moment he thinks the truck may overturn. It stays up, though, and he goes flying toward Norway Valley Road. Mouse will just have to hang on a little bit longer; he’s not going to leave Henry way out here on his own. His pal doesn’t know it, but he’s going on a little field trip to Nailhouse Row. Until this situation stabilizes, it seems to Jack that the buddy system is very much in order. Which would have been all well and good if Henry had been at home, but he’s not. Elvena Morton, dust mop in hand, comes in response to Jack’s repeated jabbing at the doorbell. â€Å"He’s been over at KDCU, doing commercials,† Elvena says. â€Å"Dropped him off myself. I don’t know why he doesn’t just do them in his studio here, something about the sound effects, I think he might have said. I’m surprised he didn’t tell you that.† The bitch of it is, Henry did. Cousin Buddy’s Rib Crib. The old ball and chain. Beautiful downtown La Riviere. All that. He even told Jack that Elvena Morton was going to drive him. A few things have happened to Jack since that conversation he’s reencountered his old childhood friend, he’s fallen in love with Judy Marshall’s Twinner, and just by the way he’s been filled in on your basic Secret of All Existence but none of that keeps him from turning his left hand into a fist and then slamming himself directly between the eyes with it. Given how fast things are now moving, making this needless detour strikes him as an almost unforgivable lapse. Mrs. Morton is regarding him with wide-eyed alarm. â€Å"Are you going to be picking him up, Mrs. Morton?† â€Å"No, he’s going for a drink with someone from ESPN. Henry said the fellow would bring him back afterward.† She lowers her voice to the timbre of confidentiality at which secrets are somehow best communicated. â€Å"Henry didn’t come right out and say so, but I think there may be big things ahead for George Rathbun. Ver-ry big things.† Badger Barrage going national? Jack wouldn’t be entirely surprised, but he has no time to be delighted for Henry now. He hands Mrs. Morton the cassette tape, mostly so he won’t feel this was an entirely wasted trip. â€Å"Leave this for him where . . .† He stops. Mrs. Morton is looking at him with knowing amusement. Where he’ll be sure to see it is what Jack almost said. Another mental miscue. Big-city detective, indeed. â€Å"I’ll leave it by the soundboard in his studio,† she says. â€Å"He’ll find it there. Jack, maybe it’s none of my business, but you don’t look all right. You’re very pale, and I’d swear you’ve lost ten pounds since last week. Also . . .† She looks a bit embarrassed. â€Å"Your shoes are on the wrong feet.† So they are. He makes the necessary change, standing first on one foot and then the other. â€Å"It’s been a tough forty-eight hours, but I’m hanging in there, Mrs. M.† â€Å"It’s the Fisherman business, isn’t it?† He nods. â€Å"And I have to go. The fat, as they say, is in the fire.† He turns, reconsiders, turns back. â€Å"Leave him a message on the kitchen tape recorder, would you? Tell him to call me on my cell. Just as soon as he gets in.† Then, one thought leading to another, he points to the unmarked cassette tape in her hand. â€Å"Don’t play that, all right?† Mrs. Morton looks shocked. â€Å"I’d never do such a thing! It would be like opening someone else’s mail!† Jack nods and gives her a scrap of a smile. â€Å"Good.† â€Å"Is it . . . him on the tape? Is it the Fisherman?† â€Å"Yes,† Jack says. â€Å"It’s him.† And there are worse things waiting, he thinks but doesn’t say. Worse things by far. He hurries back to his truck, not quite running. Twenty minutes later Jack parks in front of the babyshit brown two-story at 1 Nailhouse Row. Nailhouse Row and the dirty snarl of streets around it strike him as unnaturally silent under the sun of this hot summer afternoon. A mongrel dog (it is, in fact, the old fellow we saw in the doorway of the Nelson Hotel just last night) goes limping across the intersection of Ames and County Road Oo, but that’s about the extent of the traffic. Jack has an unpleasant vision of the Walrus and the Carpenter toddling along the east bank of the Mississippi with the hypnotized residents of Nailhouse Row following along behind them. Toddling along toward the fire. And the cooking pot. He takes two or three deep breaths, trying to steady himself. Not far out of town close to the road leading to Ed’s Eats, in fact that nasty buzzing in his head peaked, turning into something like a dark scream. For a few moments there it was so strong Jack wondered if he was perhaps going to drive right off the road, and he slowed the Ram to forty. Then, blessedly, it began to move around toward the back of his head and fade. He didn’t see the NO TRESPASSING sign that marks the overgrown road leading to Black House, didn’t even look for it, but he knew it was there. The question is whether or not he’ll be able to approach it when the time comes without simply exploding. â€Å"Come on,† he tells himself. â€Å"No time for this shit.† He gets out of the truck and starts up the cracked cement walk. There’s a fading hopscotch diagram there, and Jack swerves to avoid it without even thinking, knowing it’s one of the few remaining artifacts which testify that a little person named Amy St. Pierre once briefly trod the boards of existence. The porch steps are dry and splintery. He’s vilely thirsty and thinks, Man, I’d kill for a glass of water, or a nice cold The door flies open, cracking against the side of the house like a pistol shot in the sunny silence, and Beezer comes running out. â€Å"Christ almighty, I didn’t think you were ever gonna get here!† Looking into Beezer’s alarmed, agonized eyes, Jack realizes that he will never tell this guy that he might be able to find Black House without Mouse’s help, that thanks to his time in the Territories he has a kind of range finder in his head. No, not even if they live the rest of their lives as close friends, the kind who usually tell each other everything. The Beez has suffered like Job, and he doesn’t need to find out that his friend’s agony may have been in vain. â€Å"Is he still alive, Beezer?† â€Å"By an inch. Maybe an inch and a quarter. It’s just me and Doc and Bear Girl now. Sonny and Kaiser Bill got scared, ran off like a couple of whipped dogs. March your boots in here, sunshine.† Not that Beezer gives Jack any choice; he grabs him by the shoulder and hauls him into the little two-story on Nailhouse Row like luggage. How to cite Black House Chapter Twenty-two, Essay examples

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Student Athlete Drug Testing Essay Example For Students

Student Athlete Drug Testing Essay By: jen laver E-mail: emailprotected Introduction Industry Precision Machine Tool is a machine tool company that primarily manufactures for the automobile industry. The machine tool industry is self-sufficient in that they use their resources to manufacture products; that is, they use their own tools. Precision Machine tool uses big machines to build parts for lathes, which are sold in the automobile industry for use in factories. Precision has always had a reputation of quality, though it has declined because of aging technology and machines. The aging of the technology is because of a decline in their capital caused by a recession in the automotive industry. During the late 1970s, the American automotive industry was at its apex. Americans fell behind during this boom because of inadequate production capacity. The Japanese had identified the machine industry as a growing industry and invested in modernization of technology. Consequently, Japanese technology was better and costs wer e lower. When a recession hit in 1980-1981, American firms had little capital to invest, and thus could not modernize their equipment. The industries that are going to survive in the future are those that have the most efficient computerized operations and that produce the cheapest, most reliable products. The Japanese have this edge and the American machine tool manufacturers are reluctant to change their ideologies of buying only American made products. John Garner and Tom Avery created precision Machine Tool. John Garner is the president of Precision Machine Tool, and is a financial conservative. He prefers to invest in the company using only its profits. Tom Avery is an expert tool design engineer. He is in charge of the manufacturing and management end of the business. Both men are very critical of selling out to the Japanese and want to keep Precision American. Equipment One of the main problems plaguing Precision is the aging of its technology and equipment. Precision had lit tle or no capital after the recession to invest in new equipment. Sixty percent of its equipment is outdated, some over twenty years. These old machines lack quality and because of this lack, Precision is losing orders. To try to stop this slide in quality, Precision purchased a new machine from the Suzuki corporation. But even with the new machine, Precisions costs are higher and quality is lower. This causes profits to be lost which causes employment to be affected. Precisions employment is down twenty-two percent, and with little or no chance of quality improving, these numbers are in danger of dropping even more. Foreign Competition Precision also has to deal with an increase in foreign competition. During the recession, Japan had noticed a potential for growth in the automotive industry and had invested in modernization. Now they have the technology and equipment necessary to keep up with quality and price demands. With the voluntary quota system now expired, Japan is looking t o increase its amount of exports to the United States. Japanese goods are cheaper and of better quality and domestic firms cannot compete with them. Many domestic firms had been forced to become subsidiaries of Japanese firms, basically becoming distributors for Japanese products. Japan had also occasionally acquired domestic firms. This Japanese plan to acquire US firms is the current dilemma of Precision Machine Tool. Current Dilemma Mr. Ako Wang with Suzuki Machines has just contacted the owners of Precision Machine Tool, and an offer has been made by the Japanese to buy. Garner and Avery are now forced to take a hard look at the situation that Precision is in. Precisions machines are aging; sixty percent of the machines are old, some twenty years or more. Their sales are down thirty percent; orders are rejected because of a lack of quality and high production costs. Employment at Precision has also been hit hard, down twenty-two percent. Precision is not able to compete with for eign imports in price, nor in quality. This, of course, is because they have remained victims of the automotive industry recession. Garner and Avery have to make an educated decision as to what is best for Precision in the present and future. Problems Foreign competition and foreign technologies pose a serious threat both to the machine tool industry in the US and to the future of domestic manufacturing. Within Precision Machine Tool, there are several issues that need to be addressed in order for the company to continue. Precision has to modify its current attitudes and behaviors in order to remain in the automotive tool industry. Personal Issues Precisions owners have an attitude of ethnocentrismthey want the company to remain American. They refuse to work with the Japanese or sell out to the Japanese. Garner and Avery stated that they would rather go bankrupt than give in. They have already been forced to buy one Japanese machine; a major decision against their personal beliefs. Both men feel that American technology is superior to Japanese technology. They are not willing to compromise and work with the Japanese to better Precision. They are resistant to changing their personal attitudes against foreign manufacturing. They realize that they cannot remain in the situation that they are in now, yet they do not want to make any drastic changes. They no longer are thinking about what is best for the company in a financial sense. They are allowing their emotions to control their decisions. Economic Issues Garner and Avery also have to deal with the issue of economics. Precision Tools is having a great deal of trouble keeping up with the Japanese industry. Precision no longer fits in with the current needs of the automotive industry. They no longer fit in with the current automotive environment. 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Friday, March 20, 2020

A Review of On Death and Dying essays

A Review of On Death and Dying essays For my book review, I read On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Dr. Kubler-Ross was the first person in her field to discuss the topic of death. Before 1969, death was considered a taboo. On Death and Dying is one of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century. The work grew out of her famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this paper, I give a comprehensive book review as well as integrate topics learned in class with Dr. Kubler-Ross' work. Like Piaget's look at developmental stages in children, there are also stages a person experiences on the journey toward death. These five stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. On Death and Dying can be used as an aid to doctors, nurses, clergy, and the patient's family. Issues such as unfinished business, therapy, and hope for a cure for the terminally ill are discussed within this book. Each chapter uses interviews with patients to express the key factors surrounding their illness. Every patient knows that they are destined to die, and Kubler-Ross uses one-on-one therapy to help in the healing process. To understand the process of death, it helps to have had someone close to you decease. When I was nine, my grandmother had been suffering from a series of strokes and heart disease. She had also been a smoker for most of her life and was an alcoholic. The poor woman was not in such good health. I watched her go through these stages with pain in my eyes. Before the strokes and the heart disease struck, she was very much in denial of facing the inevitable. I remember her being angry and depressed about her situation, but did not like to express much emotion. In one section of the denial analysis, Kubler-Ross states that it "is usually a temporary defense and will soon be replaced by partial acceptance" (53). In relation to ...

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

When Having an Agent is Not a Good Thing

When Having an Agent is Not a Good Thing In 2007, I was a new author basking in the glow of the success of my first self-published book – a collection of short stories, that had won several awards and some serious press. My head was full of ideas for my next book. After completing the manuscript of my literary novel, I started shopping it around. Imagine my delight when several agents showed interest in it. I soon landed an agent at a very reputable New York agency with a proven track record. The young agent I signed up with was enthusiastic at the prospect of selling both my collection and the new novel I was working on. His head was full of ideas, but then came a series of â€Å"but firsts.† The first few rounds of editing were easy until a bombshell dropped. A senior agent at the agency quit and the bulk of that agent’s high profile clients came to the junior agent who suddenly lost all interest in me. He was no longer as responsive as he used to be, and it would take him days to respond to simple requests. After a few months of dodging my requests to seek updates, he hired an intern to work with me on doing the rest of the revisions. In a few days, I received a marked up copy from the intern that involved cutting 30 percent of my manuscript – to the point that pivotal moments in the story no longer made any sense. I put my foot down and refused to do those edits. The intern quickly backed off and the junior agent took charge again. After a few rounds of reasonable revision requests, I was promised that my book would be shopped around, except it never was. I was told it would be presented at book shows and that too never happened. After 18 months of waiting for my agent to fulfill his side of the obligations, I decided it was time to leave. I thanked him graciously and bowed out of the relationship.   Two months after that, I sold my novel to a reputable small traditional publisher In 2014, researchers from Washington and Lee University used an excerpt of Saffron Dreams to show that reading literary fiction like my novel can actually make someone less racist. The study was published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology. Interestingly enough, the passage that was selected for the study was one that my agent’s intern had marked for deletion. I leave the moral of the story to your imagination.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Applying Training Concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Applying Training Concepts - Essay Example As the business environment has changed, so have the skill requirements. This necessitates identification of training needs analysis. The training strategy is essentially aligned with the business objectives but the situation that Wal-Mart now faces, is more of youth employment. The youth come with their own expectations of the job role and their career progression. Besides, as employee turnover in the retail sector is high, cross-training becomes essential. Now more than 20% of Wal-Mart employees have university degrees. To retain talent and to assure career progression, Wal-Mart needs to identify talent with good skills and potential. The training needs of such employees would differ from mainstream employees. Such employees are sent to the US for specialized training but in Asian countries and particularly in China, Wal-Mart identified that some of the best people could not communicate in English fluently enough to benefit from the training in the US (Trunick, 2006). As the situat ion has changed, organizations would have to reinvent themselves to retain talent. This requires identification of training needs. ... Besides, the employees or the associates, as they are known at Wal-Mart, must have different qualifications for different function areas such as on the sales floor, in logistics and in the back room. Training needs of each individual associate would differ based on the job role. The trainer is responsible to conduct the training needs analysis without which training may be rendered ineffective. TNA is conducted based upon the objectives of the organization and can be conducted at the organization, person or the task level. When all of these are integrated it provides an effective strategy (Leat & Lovell, 1997). The training needs should be best directed to match the organizational needs. In the retail sector organizational effectiveness results from customer satisfaction which in turn depends upon process improvement. Therefore, Wal-Mart would need to explore the organizational climate in addition to the skills resources available. At the task level, the training needs analysis would be based on the demands of the job role. The associate in that particular position would be able to reveal inherent difficulties that may not be readily apparent. At the individual or the person level also TNA would help improve performance and employee development and career progression. TNA is not merely meant to assist employees in their work but to achieve greater proficiency and satisfaction. A typical TNA, according to Chiu, Thompson, Mak and Lo (1999) would aim to answer four related questions: Source: Chiu, Thompson, Mak and Lo (1999) Therefore, to conduct TNA at the organization, person and task level requires gathering information. The first step therefore, at Wal-Mart should be to conduct an initial

Monday, February 3, 2020

Creating dynamic characters Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Creating dynamic characters - Essay Example Shawn is a hip hop star. He began his love for hip hop music while still a young boy. He started a career with his high school friend Christopher Latore (Kress 98-108). He is married to Knowles, likes reading and listening to music, and a favorite movie is Godfather 2. Shawns favorite food is Pasta, and he has a soft spot for blue colors. He passes most of his free time playing basketball. George Porter, 34 years old short and bold man, born in Los Angeles California in the United States and married to Nelly Carey. He is a slow speaker, loves cookies and a good football player (Kress 102-112). His only sister Mitchel a paramedic left home when porter was only 12 years. He fell out of college and joined the local artisans to make money for raves and fancies. His life later got behind bars due to rising in cases of insecurity. The sister comes back home when Porter is 25 years gets a job for him in the disaster management. Porter then starts up a family and realizes he needs to stay focused (Kress 123-134). To support his family, he begins shortcake business for his wife and then joins her to expand the business that is currently one of the leading suppliers of shortcake. Porter employ’s youths and leads in community sensitization on drugs

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Ageism at work

Ageism at work INTRODUCTION Ageism can be defined as any attitude, action, or institutional structure which subordinates a person or group because of age or any assignment of roles in society purely on the basis of age (Traxler, 1980, p. 4). As an ism, ageism reflects a prejudice in society against older adults. Ageism, however, is different from other isms (sexism, racism etc.), for primarily two reasons. First, age classification is not static. An individuals age classification changes as one progresses through the life cycle. Thus, age classification is characterized by continual change, while the other classification systems traditionally used by society such as race and gender remain constant. Second, no one is exempt from at some point achieving the status of old, and therefore, unless they die at an early age, experiencing ageism. The later is an important distinction as ageism can thus affect the individual on two levels. First, the individual may be ageist with respect to others. That is s/he may stereotype other people on the basis of age. Second, the individual may be ageist with respect to self. Thus, ageist attitudes may affect the self concept. Much research has been conducted concerning ageism. However, the empirical evidence is inconclusive. Some research demonstrates the existence of ageist attitudes (Golde Kogan, 1959; Kastenbaum Durkee, 1964a, 1964b; Tuckman Lorge, 1953) and other research does not (Brubaker Powers, 1976; Schonfield, 1985). This discrepancy is most likely the result of methodological differences and, in particular, methodological errors. A brief discussion of the major methodological errors or problems found in ageism research may be helpful in clarifying this point. The first major problem is that the majority of ageism research suffers from a mono-method bias. In other words, each study used only one method to operationally define the ageism construct. Methods commonly used have included sentence completion (Golde Kogan, 1959), semantic differential (Kogan Wallach, 1961; Rosencranz McNevin, 1969), Likert scales (Kilty Feld, 1976), and adjective checklists (Aaronson, 1966). The problem inherent in the use of a mono-method is that any effect found may be an artifact of the method employed rather than the construct under study. Thus, a researcher should employ more than one method to look for consistency in the results. Another problem, according to Kogan (1979) is the use of within-subjects designs in ageism research. In other words, a subject will be asked to complete a questionnaire regarding both younger and older adults. Kogan asserts that by using this methodology, age is pushed to the foreground of a subjects mind. The subject thus becomes aware that the researcher is looking for age differences. Therefore, age differences are found. The use of primarily younger populations to study ageism represents another problem with ageism research. The majority of ageism research uses children, adolescents, or young adults as subjects and examines their perception of older adults. Only a few studies have examined the perceptions of the population whom the construct affects most older adults. Those studies which have used an older subject population have unfortunately used primarily institutionalized individuals as subjects (Kastenbaum Durkee, 1964a; Tuckman Lavell, 1957). Therefore, they do not represent the vast majority of older adults. Another problem with much of ageism research is that it only examines the negative stereotypes of old age. More recent studies have suggested that while attitudes toward the aged are increasingly positive, they are still stereotypic (Austin, 1985). Therefore, ageism has been expanded to include positive stereotypic images. However, these are rarely studied (Brubaker Powers, 1976). Two additional problems are primarily theoretical in nature. First, ageism research rarely examines or attempts to understand the causes of ageism. Thus, while much theoretical work has been conducted concerning the factors contributing to ageism, little empirical research has been conducted in this area. Second, ageism research rarely examines the interaction between ageism and other isms. As many individuals are in a position to experience more than one prejudice, the interaction between these prejudices needs to be examined. The Theoretical Basis of Ageism Ageism consists of a negative bias or stereotypic attitude toward aging and the aged. It is maintained in the form of primarily negative stereotypes and myths concerning the older adult. Traxler (1980) outlines four factors that have contributed to this negative image of aging. Each will be discussed below. The first factor that is postulated to contribute to ageism is the fear of death in Western society. Western civilization conceptualizes death as outside of the human life cycle (Butler Lewis, 1977). As such, death is experienced and viewed as an affront to the self. Death is not seen as natural and inevitable part of the life course. This can be contrasted with Eastern philosophy where life and death are all part of a continuous cycle. Death and life are inextricably woven together and the self continues throughout. To be a person, in Western society, however, means that one must be alive and in control of the events of one1s life. Therefore, death is feared. As death is feared, old age is feared; death and old age are viewed as synonymous in American society (Kastenbaum, 1979). Kastenbaum (1973) hypothesizes that ageism attitudes and stereotypes serve to insulate the young and middle-aged from the ambivalence they feel towards the elderly. This ambivalence results from the fact that the older adult is viewed as representing aging and death. Butler (1969) states: Ageism reflects a deep seated uneasiness on the part of the young and middle-aged a personal revulsion to and distaste for growing old, disease, disability; and a fear of powerlessness, uselessness, and death ((p. 243). This represents the most commonly argued basis for ageism. The second factor postulated by Traxler (1980) to contribute to ageism is the emphasis on the youth culture in American society. For example, the media, ranging from television to novels, place an emphasis on youth, physical beauty, and sexuality. Older adults are primarily ignored or portrayed negatively (Martel, 1968; Northcott, 1975). The emphasis on youth not only affects how older individuals are perceived but also how older individuals perceive themselves. Persons who are dependent on physical appearance and youth for their identity are likely to experience loss of self-esteem with age (Block, Davidson, Grumbs, 1981). The emphasis in American culture on productivity represents the third factor contributing to ageism in American culture (Traxler, 1980). It should be noted that productivity is narrowly defined in terms of economic potential. Both ends of the life cycle are viewed as unproductive, children and the aged. The middle-aged are perceived as carrying the burdens imposed by both groups (Butler, 1969). Children, however, are viewed as having future economic potential. In a way, they are seen as an economic investment. Economically, older adults are perceived as a financial liability. This is not to say that older adults are unproductive. However, upon retirement, the older adult is no longer viewed as economically productive in American society and thus devalued. The fourth factor contributing to ageism in American society and the so-called helping professions is the manner in which aging was originally researched. Poorly controlled gerontological studies have reinforced the negative image of the older adult. When aging was originally studied, researchers went to long-term care institutions where the aged were easy to find. However, only 5 percent of the older population is institutionalized. Thus, the early research on the aged and aging was based upon non-well, institutionalized older individuals. There is still a need for more research to be undertaken using a healthy, community-dwelling older population. The factors cited above represent four contributing factors to ageism. It has been proposed that individual ageist attitudes can be decreased through continual exposure to and work with older adults (Rosencranz McNevin, 1969). However, there appears to be a large societal influence on ageist attitudes. Therefore, until these societal influences are addressed, ageism can not be obliterated. For example, if the fear of death and therefore aging is not somehow addressed societally, then younger individuals will continue to attempt to make the older population somehow different from themselves. This differentiation of themselves from older adults, thus serves to protect them from the reality of death. DISCRIMINATION AT WORK PLACE The number of people claiming to have faceddiscrimination at workbecause of their age has more than tripled in a year, according to official statistics. Figures released by the Tribunal Service show that claims rose from 962 in 2006 to 2,940 in 2007. The figures come just days after Selina Scott reached a settlement with Channel Five, thought to be worth  £250,000, after claiming she had been the victim of ageism. The 57-year-old presenter sued the broadcaster after claiming she had been lined up to provide maternity cover for Natasha Kaplinsky on Five News but was subsequently overlooked. The figures will reinforce the belief among solicitors that the number of age-related cases will soar over the next few years. Legislation outlawing age discrimination was introduced three years ago, and Melanie Thomas, a solicitor at discrimination law specialists Palmer Wade, said: It takes a while for people to understand that they have new rights. Other figures show that there were 1,032 age discrimination claims in tribunals between April and June, compared with 700 claims in the same period last year. In 2007, the average payout for successful age discrimination cases was  £8,695, compared with  £10,044 for sex discrimination and  £17,308 for race claims. Meanwhile, some people have tried to exploit the laws to their own advantage. Margaret Keane, 50, applied for a series of jobs for recently qualified chartered accountants and, after failing to get any, tabled compensation claims on the grounds of age discrimination. Gillian Shaw, a solicitor at employment law specialists Ledingham Chalmers LLP, said: There is a financial incentive for claimants to look for an alternative to a straightforward claim of, say, unfair dismissal because age discrimination, like sex and race discrimination, does not have an upper limit on the amount of compensation that can be claimed. Scott argued that Channel Five had backed out of a  £200,000 presenting deal because they felt she was too old, choosing Isla Traquair, 28, instead. A string of former BBC faces including Kate Adie and Anna Ford joined forces to accuse television of discriminating against mature women. Dame Joan Bakewell claimed the medium was dominated by the hideously young. In an interview in todays Observer, Ford claims women suffer the most. Ageism against women, she adds, is a peculiar British tradition. In America, there are women with white hair who are heads of banks, heads of corporations, she said. Where are those women here? The latest government figures, released earlier this year, showed that the pay gap between men and women had widened for the first time in years. The new Equality Bill is due to be presented to Parliament this spring, and not a moment too soon, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commissions fifth annual Sex Power report, which recorded a drop for the first time in women attaining top jobs. In 12 out of 25 job categories, it found fewer women in top posts than in 2007. Ageism at work in later life There is a commonly assumed view that ageism affects only a small minority of older people in the UK. The popular television character Victor Meldrew from One Foot in the Grave perfectly captures the stereotype of a grumbling man in later life, stuck in his ways, resistant to change, baffled by technology and distanced from the views and activities of young people. Yet, when examining the issue of ageism, it becomes clear that as with all stereotypes this image is flawed. Ageism affects a wide age group, of both genders and all backgrounds. According to a MORI Social Research Institute poll, ageism tops the list of UK discrimination in the workplace. Over one in five people (22%) interviewed by MORI felt they had been unfairly discriminated against in the work environment. 38 per cent of those who were discriminated against cited age as the most prevalent form of discrimination. Of those who believed they had personally encountered ageism in the workplace, just over half said they were discriminated against because they were too old, however the remaining half claimed to have received unfair treatment for being too young. Estimated cost to the economy of this form of discrimination ranges from  £16 billion to  £31 billion.These figures are shocking but statistics alone cannot account for the social or personal impact that ageism has on individuals and society at large. The government Age Positive Campaign is insistent that attitudes must change. By 2010 nearly 40 per cent of the working population will be over 45. Supporting this cultural shift, legislation preventing ageism in the workplace will be in place in the UK by 2006. But what the government really wants is change here and now. More and more employers in the public and private sector are convinced by the business case of employing a mixed age workforce. They know that Age Positive can result in operational, market and revenue gains. Mixed age workforces are proven to provide employers with a wider available skills base, improved productivity, better morale, increased customer loyalty, greater market share and increased shareholder wealth. METHODOLOGY Todays report by the Employers Forum on Age (EFA), which surveyed 1,000 workers over the age of 16, claims discrimination against older and younger employees remains rife in the workplace. It found that 61 per cent of respondents had witnessed ageist behaviour at work, and half did not know about legislation which would make this illegal. The survey also shows that young and old people could lose out on pay rises and promotions as a result of their age 31 per cent said they had seen older people paid more for doing exactly the same job as a younger employee. Almost a quarter 23 per cent recalled an older worker being promoted even if the younger candidate had more experience. EFA director Sam Mercer commented: As our research has confirmed, ageism is endemic in our society and rife in our workplaces. These attitudes need to be challenged and outlawed so that they become as unacceptable as sexism or racism. Although Mr Mercer said the new laws, which will come into force on Sunday, will help provide protection for people who feel that they have been discriminated against on grounds of their age, he added the change in legislation was just the beginning of a long jour ney towards tackling social prejudices. A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions told politics.co.uk the government was committed to ensuring equality at work. He noted that in the past year 208,000 more people aged over 50 are working, claiming the evidence suggests there are many businesses which are keen to harness the skills and experience older workers can bring. He added: We know the practice of ageism is bad for business and the new legislation will ensure that older workers are protected and ageism is stamped out. The governments Age Positive campaign, which sees businesses supplied with an age toolkit, involves working with a wide range of UK businesses to help them recognise the benefits of older workers such as reduced recruitment costs, higher retention rates, greater flexibility, higher productivity, and a broader range of skills and experience, he said. The government will consider whether to keep the compulsory retirement age, currently at 65 for men, or to abolish it at a formal review in 2011. The EFA report comes in the wake of a separate survey for the charity Help the Aged, which finds only 42 per cent of the 1,000 people questioned were aware of the new laws on age discrimination. It also showed that older people still feared ageism at work, and called on the government to ensure older employees knew their rights Age discrimination is still rife, and urgent legislation is needed to stamp it out, a survey has said. EXAMPLES Ageism also happen in sports like there is an example of Pakistani team coach Intikhab Ageism doesnt bother Pakistan coach KARACHI: Pakistan cricket team coach Intikhab Alam on Tuesday brushed aside negative criticism from those demanding his removal because of hisage, saying the campaign was motivated by jealousy. The 67-year-old guided Pakistan to the World Twenty20 title in England in June but Tests and One-day defeats on the Sri Lankatourlast month prompted former players to brand his old age a hindrance in proper coaching. But Alam brushed aside the flak. If there is healthy criticism I take it in a positive way, but targeting my age is negative thinking and I smell jealousy from this, said Alam on the sidelines of Pakistan teams training camp. The five-day camp is the final phase of Pakistans preparations for the elite eight-nationChampions Trophyto be played in South Africa from September 22-October 5. Alam said the same people who were pointing finger at his age were praising him a few months ago. I feel sorry for such people who have a personal vendetta against me, said Alam, who was also credited for Pakistans success in the 50-over World Cup in Australia in 1992. They cannot digest our T20 success. Former captain Aamir Sohail last week criticised Alam for being too old to handle coaching at international level. Former PakistanCricketBoard chief Tauqir Zia also joined Sohail in targeting Alams age, saying Pakistan needs a young coach to guide them to more successes. Alam, however, insists he is fit. I even take part in coaching drills and my age has never been a hindrance in my work. Coaching is all about experience and football coaches worldwide are over 70 years of age but no one speaks against them, said Alam. CONCLUSION According to an ICM poll for Age Concern, nearly one third of people know someone who has been a victim of age discrimination at work. Age discrimination is so widespread that 70% of people believe that ageism still occurs, the same as when a similar survey was conducted in 1998. Another one-in-10 people said that they have experienced discrimination by the NHS, health insurance companies, and been turned down for financial products because of their age. Too old Age Concern criticised employers and companies for failing to tackle ageism and the governments voluntary Code of Practice on age diversity in employment, which was published in 1999. Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern England, said: The governments voluntary code clearly isnt working. Comprehensive legislation is needed now, not just to cover the workplace but many other sectors of life. In November 2000, the government adopted a European Union directive, which outlaws age discrimination at work. It must now introduce legislation which supports the directives principles by 2006. Political voice Age Concern has also announced plans to offer older people membership of the charity, to strengthen its campaigning work. Mr Lishman, said: It will give older people the opportunity to directly influence policy makers and force the age issue higher up the political agenda. There are between 700,000 and 1m people in the UK who are aged between 50 and 64 and are unemployed or economically inactive. BIBLOGRAPHY BBC INDIATIMES http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/488/488%20srivastava.htm

Friday, January 17, 2020

Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business

Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business BUS/475 Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business A successful strategic plan must be based on the company's mission, vision, and values. The purpose of this paper is to define a selected business, products, services, and customers by creating a mission statement. In addition, this paper contains a vision for the organization that demonstrate the expected future for the business, and it will define the company values considering important topics such as culture, social responsibility, and ethics.It will also analyze how the vision, mission, and values guide the company's strategic direction. Finally, it will evaluate how the company address customers needs and how competitive advantage will be achieved. The name of the company is Bella Boutique. Bella Boutique is a trendy fashion and accessory boutique. Bella, which means â€Å"beautiful† in Spanish, defines the concept of the boutique. Bella Boutique will carry a wid e variety of contemporary clothing, accessories, shoes, and make up.Bella Boutique also offers free personal style advice, which includes and detail style assessment based on body type, skin color, style, and personality of the customer. The target customers of Bella Boutique are young adult women, including college, professional, modern girls. These girls enjoy shopping in a fun environment that offers trendy and affordable fashions with a superior personalized service. Bella Boutique will stand out from the competition by having a good location in a high-shopping area, offering quality products, and excellent customer service.Products and services will be offered in-stores and online. Mission Statement – To provide modern young women with a boutique that offers a fun and comfortable shopping environment – To offer a wide variety of trendy fashion and accessories to make sure customer always find something they love – To help women learn what styles and colors go best with their unique body types and personalities Vision Statement – To be the boutique of choice for young, modern women To open many stores throughout the country and drive up sales by promoting our products effectively Guiding Principles or Values – Customers are our priority. Always make an extra effort to make sure customers are satisfied with our products and services – Educate customers about new trends and how to style their purchases properly. Make sure customers needs are met – We encourage and promote cultural and ethnical diversity in our stores. Employees from different cultural and ethnical backgrounds bring to our company a true reflection of our society – Our employees are our greatest asset.We encourage employees to share their creative and innovative ideas to improve our company – Our company provides a fun working atmosphere and promotes personal growth and development. We strive to offer our employees a healthy work- life balance – Respect and honesty must always be present when dealing with our customers, vendors, and employees. We do not engage in acts that can be detrimental to the reputation of our company – We conduct our business with social responsibility.Our products are purchased from socially and environmentally responsible vendors. We also contribute to improve society by volunteering and helping in social causes – Employees will adhere to the highest ethical standards at all times The mission, vision, and values statement for my company provide the structure, framework, and goals in which all the actions will be based on. The mission and values provide the framework to guide every action in the strategic plan. The vision is our objective, what we want to accomplish for our company in the future.The mission, vision, and values set the right direction for the company actions. Employees must know that their actions affect the overall mission, vision, and values of t he organization. These statements are the guiding principles for the company strategic plan, for that reason employees actions should always reflect the mission, vision, and values statements of the company to ensure its success. The trends in fashion are always changing, Bella Boutique will have to be alert of the new trends to keep customers satisfied.Another resource to make sure the company is addressing customers needs is to have customer satisfaction surveys, allowing the customers to express what they like about our store and what they would change. Bella Boutique will have plenty of local competition from many other boutiques. The most direct competitors will be those with the same concept, located in the same area, carrying some of the same brands we sell, and advertising to our target market.Besides the trendy and affordable clothing and accessories, Bella Boutique will create a significant competitive advantage by providing a place to shop with a fun, comfortable, and wel coming atmosphere. In addition, Bella Boutique offers a superior customer service, and we strive for 100% customer satisfaction. Another unique feature of Bella Boutique that creates competitive advantage is the free personalized styling service, in which a professional stylist helps the customers find the right pieces of clothing for their body type and personality.Bella Boutique locations will be designed with comfort and convenience in mind, the store will be decorated with contemporary furniture and painted with inviting colors. The store will have big private dressing rooms with plenty of hooks to hang the clothing pieces and an assigned employee to assist customers. Also for more convenience the store will have small and elegant shopping carts to make the shopping experience more enjoyable. In addition, the store will have a dedicated kids room where the customer's children can play while their parents shop.The kids room will also have a nursery portion to allow customer to fe ed and change small babies. In conclusion, this paper defined the concept of Bella Boutique along with its products, services, and customers. The mission statement was developed to explain the concept of the business. The vision statements are clearly defined to show where the company is heading and the values reflect how the company will conduct business. The mission, vision, and value statements help align the different elements of the strategic plan with the company goals.By creating and implementing the mission, vision, and value statements Bella Boutique, defines the current situation of the company and have a clear understanding of where the company is heading. References Thompson Jr. , A. A. , Gamble, J. E. , ; Strickland III, A. (2006). Strategy Winning in the Marketplace. McGraw-Hill. www. bplans. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved 11 19, 2012, from http://www. bplans. com/womens_clothing_boutique_business_plan/company_summary_fc. php. www. brainmass. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved 11 19, 2012, from http://brainmass. com/business/marketing/286812. Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business BUS/475 Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business A successful strategic plan must be based on the company's mission, vision, and values. The purpose of this paper is to define a selected business, products, services, and customers by creating a mission statement. In addition, this paper contains a vision for the organization that demonstrate the expected future for the business, and it will define the company values considering important topics such as culture, social responsibility, and ethics.It will also analyze how the vision, mission, and values guide the company's strategic direction. Finally, it will evaluate how the company address customers needs and how competitive advantage will be achieved. The name of the company is Bella Boutique. Bella Boutique is a trendy fashion and accessory boutique. Bella, which means â€Å"beautiful† in Spanish, defines the concept of the boutique. Bella Boutique will carry a wid e variety of contemporary clothing, accessories, shoes, and make up.Bella Boutique also offers free personal style advice, which includes and detail style assessment based on body type, skin color, style, and personality of the customer. The target customers of Bella Boutique are young adult women, including college, professional, modern girls. These girls enjoy shopping in a fun environment that offers trendy and affordable fashions with a superior personalized service. Bella Boutique will stand out from the competition by having a good location in a high-shopping area, offering quality products, and excellent customer service.Products and services will be offered in-stores and online. Mission Statement – To provide modern young women with a boutique that offers a fun and comfortable shopping environment – To offer a wide variety of trendy fashion and accessories to make sure customer always find something they love – To help women learn what styles and colors go best with their unique body types and personalities Vision Statement – To be the boutique of choice for young, modern women To open many stores throughout the country and drive up sales by promoting our products effectively Guiding Principles or Values – Customers are our priority. Always make an extra effort to make sure customers are satisfied with our products and services – Educate customers about new trends and how to style their purchases properly. Make sure customers needs are met – We encourage and promote cultural and ethnical diversity in our stores. Employees from different cultural and ethnical backgrounds bring to our company a true reflection of our society – Our employees are our greatest asset.We encourage employees to share their creative and innovative ideas to improve our company – Our company provides a fun working atmosphere and promotes personal growth and development. We strive to offer our employees a healthy work- life balance – Respect and honesty must always be present when dealing with our customers, vendors, and employees. We do not engage in acts that can be detrimental to the reputation of our company – We conduct our business with social responsibility.Our products are purchased from socially and environmentally responsible vendors. We also contribute to improve society by volunteering and helping in social causes – Employees will adhere to the highest ethical standards at all times The mission, vision, and values statement for my company provide the structure, framework, and goals in which all the actions will be based on. The mission and values provide the framework to guide every action in the strategic plan. The vision is our objective, what we want to accomplish for our company in the future.The mission, vision, and values set the right direction for the company actions. Employees must know that their actions affect the overall mission, vision, and values of t he organization. These statements are the guiding principles for the company strategic plan, for that reason employees actions should always reflect the mission, vision, and values statements of the company to ensure its success. The trends in fashion are always changing, Bella Boutique will have to be alert of the new trends to keep customers satisfied.Another resource to make sure the company is addressing customers needs is to have customer satisfaction surveys, allowing the customers to express what they like about our store and what they would change. Bella Boutique will have plenty of local competition from many other boutiques. The most direct competitors will be those with the same concept, located in the same area, carrying some of the same brands we sell, and advertising to our target market.Besides the trendy and affordable clothing and accessories, Bella Boutique will create a significant competitive advantage by providing a place to shop with a fun, comfortable, and wel coming atmosphere. In addition, Bella Boutique offers a superior customer service, and we strive for 100% customer satisfaction. Another unique feature of Bella Boutique that creates competitive advantage is the free personalized styling service, in which a professional stylist helps the customers find the right pieces of clothing for their body type and personality.Bella Boutique locations will be designed with comfort and convenience in mind, the store will be decorated with contemporary furniture and painted with inviting colors. The store will have big private dressing rooms with plenty of hooks to hang the clothing pieces and an assigned employee to assist customers. Also for more convenience the store will have small and elegant shopping carts to make the shopping experience more enjoyable. In addition, the store will have a dedicated kids room where the customer's children can play while their parents shop.The kids room will also have a nursery portion to allow customer to fe ed and change small babies. In conclusion, this paper defined the concept of Bella Boutique along with its products, services, and customers. The mission statement was developed to explain the concept of the business. The vision statements are clearly defined to show where the company is heading and the values reflect how the company will conduct business. The mission, vision, and value statements help align the different elements of the strategic plan with the company goals.By creating and implementing the mission, vision, and value statements Bella Boutique, defines the current situation of the company and have a clear understanding of where the company is heading. References Thompson Jr. , A. A. , Gamble, J. E. , ; Strickland III, A. (2006). Strategy Winning in the Marketplace. McGraw-Hill. www. bplans. com. (n. d. ). Retrieved 11 19, 2012, from http://www. bplans. com/womens_clothing_boutique_business_plan/company_summary_fc. php. www. brainmass. com. (n. d. ). 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