Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest, Book Analysis Essay

Book Report â€Å"Band of Brothers: E. Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle Nest† by Stephen E. Ambrose Band Of Brothers is the history of Easy Company, 506th Parachute†¨Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, from basic training to†¨D-Day. It follows the jump into Holland, the Battle of†¨the Bulge, and finally the occupation of Berchtesgaden and Austria. This is a rarity among military histories, told from the viewpoint†¨of the front line soldier, the privates, non-commissioned officers and officers who†¨carry out the grand strategy of generals. Many books†¨discuss the inner working of commands at Division and Army levels, but few detail the day to day life of the†¨soldier. Stephen Ambrose’s book does that and†¨more. It explores the how draftee citizen soldiers of†¨elite outfits like the 101st Airborne did, in World War II, defeat†¨an enemy like the well trained German Wehrmacht and S.S. In 1942 the Second Battalion of the 506th was formed and started†¨basic training. The recruits volunteered for the thrill, the honor, the extra money, but above all the desire to be better†¨than the ordinary draftee. A description of the physical effort†¨required in basic training explains why a majority of the†¨volunteers never made it as far as the door of the airplane. When†¨the Company finally made it to Fort Benning for jump school, they†¨were in such great physical shape that they outdid the school’s†¨physical fitness cadre. After five jumps in December of†¨1942, the company qualified as Parachutists, and nine-months later†¨they were on a ship to England to train for the invasion of†¨Hitler’s Fortress Europa. Ambrose also details the nine months of training that the company†¨endured in England in preparation for the invasion. He†¨tells it from the viewpoint of both officers and men and explains†¨the final shift in Easy Company hierarchy just prior to D-Day. His†¨description of the night jump of the 101st in the early morning†¨hours of June 6, 1944, with men and officers scattered about the†¨countryside, and the confusion, heroism and chaos that surrounded†¨the successful landings at Utah Beach, is masterful. He†¨explains how the few outer roads from the beach are zeroed in by†¨German artillery, and that the job of the airborne was to nullify†¨the artillery and its defending troops. The efforts of Lt. Richard  Winters to fulfill that mission are one†¨of the high points of the book. As the book reports â€Å"By†¨this time, about 0700, E Company consisted of two light†¨machine-guns, one bazooka (no ammunition), one 60mm mortar, nine†¨rifleman, and two officers.† Lt. Winters was in charge. With less†¨than 100 men assembled in the battalion, the commander could only†¨afford to send Easy Company to attack and overrun a four gun German†¨battery defended by a fifty-man platoon. As the book puts it, quoting one of the men, â€Å"Here the training paid off. `We fought as†¨a team without standout stars,’ Lipton said. `We were like a†¨machine. We didn’t have anyone who leaped up and charged a†¨machine-gun. We knocked it out or made it withdraw by†¨maneuver and teamwork or mortar fire. We were smart;†¨there weren’t many flashy heroics. We had learned that heroics was†¨the way to get killed without getting the job done, and getting the†¨job done was more important.† Three hours after the attack†¨commenced, it was completed successfully. Easy Company went on to fight through Normandy until June 29th when†¨it was pulled out of line and sent to a field camp near Utah†¨Beach. They had jumped into Normandy with an effective†¨strength of 139 men and officers and ended up with†¨79. Ambrose’s description of those few days from the†¨night jump to their last fight at Carentan is magnificent. The book next describes the company’s jump into Holland, near the†¨Rhine River, where they fought through November of 1944, and then†¨on to Bastogne, to again become front line troops in the historic†¨Battle of the Bulge. Easy Company was the first Allied†¨troops to occupy Hitler’s mountain retreat at†¨Berchtesgaden. After occupation duty in Austria, the†¨company and battalion were sent back to a small town near Paris,†¨and on November 30, 1945, the 101st was deactivated. As Ambrose†¨puts it, â€Å"The Company had been born in July 1942 at†¨Toccoa. Its existence essentially came to an end almost†¨exactly three years later. In those three years the men had†¨seen more, endured more and contributed more than most men can see, endure or contribute in a lifetime.† Band Of Brothers†¨describe s those eventful three years in such a way as to make the†¨reader experience them too. I think Ambrose did very well telling the story of Easy Company because, as stated above, I felt that I was able to experience the three years very well. I am not much of a reader, but enjoyed reading the book very much. I love American history and I have an interest in the military. Having participated in JROTC in high school for 4 years and  doing ROTC my first year in college, I was able to understand the roles and concepts presented in the book. One theme I saw a lot in the book was the feeling and thought of brotherhood. The title of the book is Band of Brothers and Ambrose did a very good job of conveying the soldiers’ brotherhood through out the book. Starting at the beginning, when they are training, the soldiers’ trained together, worked together, and suffered together. As a team, working together is key, and the soldiers of the 101st Airborne identified that concept early on and kept it strong. One phrase I saw quite a few times was â€Å"follow me†. I think Ambrose included that phrase so much because it shows the leadership and brotherhood. They helped each other and led each other to success and improvement. From the American history perspective, I loved this book! I have been learning about World War 2 for several years now, i ncluding this year in this American History class with the great Keith Maljean, but this is the first time I learned from the soldiers’ perspectives. Ambrose did a phenomenal job of interviewing the members of the 101st Airborne and recounting their stories. Reading the book, I felt like I was right there with them on their first jump, landing in France, and at the first mention of the Airborne division. Volunteering for something new, not knowing what was going to happen. Literally jumping into an unknown, new division of the Army. I embarked with them on the fight to defeat Germany and bring an end to the Nazis. I feel that I gained a better understanding of the American soldier in the World War 2 era, and it is nothing like the American soldier nowadays. Today, our armed forces are facing things that we have seen before, for the most part. Back in the World War 2 era, the soldiers were facing new ships, vehicles, aircrafts, artillery, rocketry, small arms, and biological, chemical, and atomic weapons. It was a very scary time for the soldiers not knowing what was coming or how bad it is. Through the stories in Band of Brothers, I was able to understand what the life of the soldier was like and how they adapted to the new weaponry. When I first heard that I was going to have to do a book report for this class, I was completely dreading it due to my lack of joy for reading and writi ng, but I am glad that I stumbled across this book because I don’t know if I would have been able to find a book as good as this. Stephen Ambrose is a brilliant writer and recounted the stories of the men from the 101st Airborne with great detail. It was entertaining,  informative, and all around life changing. This book reinforced the concept of brotherhood and gave me a great perspective of World War 2 from a soldier’s point of view. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in American History or just looking for a good read.

Poems from E.J. Pratt’s The Titanic Essay

  The Canadian poet E.J. Pratt’s lyrical documentation and divulgings on life aboard a ship and by the sea can easily be categorized and confined under the label of â€Å"maritime poetry,†Ã‚   but the sentiments evoked in his poems appear to consitute more than the said label, the following is an overview and interpretation of Pratt’s poems taken from The Titanic. Harland and Wolff Works, Belfast, May 31, 1911   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The poem begins, â€Å"The hammers silent and the derricks still, / And high tide in the harbour! Mind and will†¦Ã¢â‚¬  setting the tone of calmness at bay, which begins to shift as it progresses towards the middle and end. The first two lines is continued further by seemingly rudimentary coupling rhymes until the end of the poem. The content however, relates the instance of a ship – the Titanic – in its completion, and the celebration of its first launch. Pratt relates the beauty and grandeur of the ship without over embellishing, and sounding-off the luxuries it possesses which others allude to. And without the title implying that the poem is about the iconic unsinkable ship, one can easily mistake the ship being described in the poem as one of any commonplace ships in existence. The seeming inane and banal instance of a ship doing what it is supposed to do in the first place is transformed and elevated in E.J. Pratt’s poetry, when relating to the ship he writes, â€Å"Before another year was over, she, / Poised for the launching signal, had surpassed / The dreams of builder or navigator†¦ Glass crashed against the plates; a wine cascade, / Netting the sunlight in a shower of pearls, / Baptized the bow and gave the ship her name; A slight push of the rams as a switch set free.† Of course, Pratt isn’t just talking about any other ship, but the poem nevertheless romanticizes the idea of it, from construction, to its completion, to its launch, which were aptly articulated in the previously quoted lines, and further concluded by, â€Å"†¦for whatever fears stalked with her down the tallow of slips / Were smothered under by the harbour cheers, / By flags strung halyards of the ships.† March 3. 1912   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second poem in the compilation retreats to the instance of the Titanic upon its creation, the first line cries out, â€Å"Completed! Waiting for her trial spin†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It then relates the myth which the ship is ascribed of being, massive and grand, and therefore, impenetrable and unsinkable. The said mythology is affirmed faithfully in the following lines, â€Å"An ocean lifeboat in herself†¦ No wave could sweep those upper decks – unthinkable! No storm could hurt that hull – the papers said so. The perfect ship at last – the first unsinkable.† The poem continues to elucidate on the marvelous piece of work the ship that Titanic is by enumerating on the qualities of its every part, from its upper decks, to its watertight compartments, bulhead doors and bouyancy. Despite the naivety and evident falseness of the said claims, Pratt is able to effectively deliver the sentiment and ideas of the people at the time, and the poem encapsulates the extent of this naà ¯ve ideology. The Iceberg   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The force of nature which challenges the pronounced invincibility of the Titanic is laid evident in the title and extent of this particular poem. It describes the ship’s initial encounter with the glacier, the details of which is reserved to the succeeding poem, and revolves instead on the massive structure which led the ship to its demise. The iceberg being described as, â€Å"†¦the brute and palaeolithic outline of a face fronted the transatlantic shipping route. A sloping spur that tapered to a claw / And lying twenty feet below†¦Ã¢â‚¬    Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was especially entertaining how the crash of the ship with the glacier was attributed as the iceberg’s fault, or to fate perhaps, but at any rate, because nature took a different course, instead of the iceberg keeping to where it was, floated closer to the ship, as referred to in the following lines, â€Å"But with an impulse governed by the raw mechanics of its birth, it drifted where ambushed, fog-grey, it stumbled on its lair,† and the rest of the world knows what happens then. Southhampton, Wednesday, April 10, 1912   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The part of the poem which picks up after the instance of the iceberg, when the seemingly unsinkable and invincible ship engages the massive glacier, and all that is left to be articulated is â€Å"An omen struck the thousands to shore – A double accident!† The Titanic proved to be less than what it was mythically ascribed of being, and the extent of the poem goes into lyrical details over the tragedy that is the sinking of the Titanic. How it threw sailors and countless individuals to the mercy of the sea. But the chaos and destruction that is to be attributed to the instance of a ship clashing with an iceberg is subdued, or muted by describing not the havoc being wreaked on the ship, or the people aboard it, but the state of the rest of the world at that particular point in time, as the ship was sinking, as articulated in the latter part of the poem, in which the poet contemplates, â€Å"When water flowed from the inverted tips / Of a waning moon, of sun-hounds, of the shrieks / Of whirling shags around the mizzen peaks. / And was there not this morning’s augury / For the big one now heading for the sea?† It’s a valid inquiry, and a refreshing take on the apparent tragedy. Wednesday Evening   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shifting towards a different context and setting, and describing a seeming sumptious feast consituted by â€Å"cauldrons of stock, purees and consommes, simmered with peppercorns and marjoram.† as well as crabs, clams, fricassees, lambs, veals, halibut, bechamel, truffles, and a myriad of food bound to whet anybody’s appetite, and which would bring people to believe that everything was fine, in the comfort and luxury afforded by the said array of food.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The said sentiment was aptly articulated as such, â€Å"The dinner gave the sense that all was well: That touch of ballast in the tanks; the feel of peace from ramparts unassailable, Which, added to her seven decks of steel, had constituted the Titanic less.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It culminates ironically, in the event of people partaking of the food, engaging in elitist nonsense, and forgetting the senseless tragedy that was Titanic, and resorting to issues of greater importance, as articulated in the last part of the poem, â€Å"The crowd poured through the sumptuous rooms and hall†¦ tapped at the tables of the Regency; Smirked at the caryatids on the walls; Talked Jacobean-wise†¦ Swallowed liqueurs and coffee as they sat under the Georgian carved mahogany, dictating wireless hieroglyphics that would on the opening of the board rooms rock the pillared dollars of a railroad stock.†

Retaining Top Performers During Change

According to Judith Ross, â€Å"coping with change is a permanent part of the manager’s job†. Since this is an established fact, one would expect that manager would strive at retaining the top performers – those that have been instrumental to the growth of the company before the period of change. However, it would be shocking to note that often times than not, these top performers are not retained. The question here is why do managers fail to retain these strategic employees?Generally, one thing that happens when there is a change in the organization, the leaders or managers are often â€Å"too busy† handling matters that concern the paper work. Thus, they rarely communicate the essential information these top performers who in turn make different interpretations to what they are seeing. In periods of change, the managers are under pressure and they seem to worry more on the structure rather than those employees that made the structure.Therefore, Top perfo rmers are left to navigate their way through the happenings in the company and because these set of employees are passionate about their careers; they are forced to look elsewhere because they see no future, assurance in the restructuring. Furthermore, when managers do not communicate effectively to their employees, especially those top performers, there are unintended consequences. From my experience from the paper, I discovered that in times of change, when managers do not communicate the specifics to their employees, they are forced to imagine the worst that can happen and decide on this.These consequences should be a source of concern to organizations because these top performers are the backbone of the organization. Personally, if I were the manager in my organization, whenever there is change, the first people I would do is to sell the change to my top performers. I would explain the why, the how, and the specifics. I would immediately involve them in the change. Reference: Ro ss, J. (2006). Retaining top performers during change. Harvard Business Review.

Group week

Cell phones are not only for personal use but they can come in handy for business purposes as well. There are many uses for cell phones in a business setting: internet, video calling testing and ability to use applications. With a cellular phone there really is no reason that you cannot be not accessible to your company. Many companies are now allowing cell phones in their businesses. But are there times that cell phones can be a hindrance for a many as well.There is a lot of new technology on cell phones, but some believe that it can be more of a negative impact than a positive one. In a retail setting cell phones can lead to bad customer service or can impede on customers privacy if employees are using their camera features. Cellular phones can also lead to employees to be unproductive. Microbiological: Microbiological can be used as real time communication and to help the company keep up with any complaints or to see what is needed to improve in their company.Microbiological is a way for people to tell about their day in random posts, this could help a company with networking. Microbiological is what people do when they are on Faceable or other Social networking sights. Microbiological is a shorter version of regular blobbing and can be used to promote business and have a more personal relationship with their customers. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data instead of storing the information on a coal server or personal computer.Cloud computing is good for business and can help reduce the security costs because when you store things within the company, the company can control who sees the information. Cloud computing is also a very easy way for employees to find and share information. Webzines: Webzines are popular when communicating in the business world. In the past companies were dependent on them for group training. This can be used throughout the country to help en courage people to get their points across.

Writer's choice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 31

Writer's choice - Essay Example l, they do that faster for some customers since they have the resources at hand, on the other hand if they do not have the materials that match the customers preference and urgency, they postpone the order until the time when they get the relevant materials that match the customers need, that is when they will accomplish the order. This matches to an up close of what the customer needs, they work on the difference between their service and whatever the customer exactly needs to make sure that the variation is minimal as per the customer and further forecasting the demand and make a level for it in the period it produces it. MRP system plays a major role in predicting what might lead to a significant difference from diverse seasons at give times. As a result, this forecasting capability may lead to a change in the inventory activities at that specific time. By the company realizing the fundamental components that its activities may require, it will subsidize the purchasing bill hence become more focused and specific to the materials needed in its operations. Given that they have prior information on the required materials, the company will not have to buy the unuseful materials which are thereof useless to the operation despite them being in the warehouse, thus, leading to a big waste of time and money. Work standardization and quality practices promote easy work implementation by the workers. Notably, if the work system process is indicated adequately and controlled well, the workers will have knowledge of what to do. This leads to them working it out in a smooth way giving out the best results

Essentials of Public Speaking Fifth Edition Cheryl Hamilton Tarrant Essay

Essentials of Public Speaking Fifth Edition Cheryl Hamilton Tarrant country collage-NE Campus - Essay Example This is because sometimes the government relies on certain citizens for contribution; chances to present a speech are almost unlimited. Not only does learning to present speeches is an advantage to the society, but also it helps to improve our careers, many companies have their speaker bureau of which they use them to release their message to the public (Hamilton 6). An example of public speaking includes announcements. When analyzing an audience, first, I conduct a poll that will determine if the audience is familiar with the topic of discussion. I have learnt that I should get to know the audience beliefs, morals, values, sex and age. Moreover, I have learnt to make sure to know what type of audience I have, and plan on how to make them listen to me and still remember. In addition, while researching, I make sure that I do it thoroughly and take notes. In addition, I have learnt to include names of author and page numbers where necessary (Hamilton 71). The best way to improve active listening as described in chapter two and three is by involving my audience (giving them an emotional stake) in what one is saying there are likely to listen attentively to your speech (Hamilton 57). Practice reduces speech anxiety because when one practices they feel more prepared. Speaker anxiety is a feeling of nervousness and uncomfortable while speaking before an audience. Most speakers that undergo speaker anxiety feel that it is almost awkward to get rid of, but the experienced speakers know how to overcome speaker anxiety. One can use negative emotions for example fear, guilt, shame or anger, but one can still use positive emotions such as joy, relief, hope or compassion. One must also make the audience feel there is something in our speech that will benefit them. If a speaker needs his or her audience to trust and understand the hummer and the information in their speech, they need to do the following; they

Genghis Khan's Conquest and its impact on the Society Essay

Genghis Khan's Conquest and its impact on the Society - Essay Example Genghis Khan was first called Temjin in honor of a Tartar enemy his father had recently defeated. When the boy was nine, he was betrothed to Brte, who belonged to the Konkirat tribe - according to the rules, he was supposed to live there until he reached the marriageable age of 14. But rival tribal members killed his father, therefore, Temjin returned to his family. This gave Temjin a claim to be the clan's chief, though his clan refused to be led by a boy and soon abandoned him and his family. They were forced into exile: for the next few years, Temjin and his family lived the life of impoverished nomads, surviving primarily on marmots and other small game. They barely survived the harsh winter, but then, another tribe raided their camp and took Temjin prisoner, placing a heavy wooden collar around his neck to prevent escape. However, Temjin managed to free himself, return to his tribe, and by his early teens, gain the reputation as a furious warrior. Around the age of 16, Temjin at last married Brte, thus he began to forge cooperation among the many clans and tribes through diplomacy. While the number of the young leader's alliances were still small, a rival tribe, the Merkits, raided Temjin's camp and kidnapped his wife. Temjin called on his friend and later rival, Jamuka, for aid. ... He then allowed survivors to choose between joining his forces or being put to the sword. Another key to his success was an alliance with his father's blood brother (anda), Toghril Ong-Khan, Khan of the Keraits, which were another tribe. Eventually, relations between Temjin and Toghril soured (as with Jamuka), which led to a war that left Temjin victorious. Thus, during this period he endured many hardships, the years between 1185 and 1206 were the most difficult years in his life. Nevertheless, it only made him stronger - using his personal charisma, and strong will Temjin managed to unite the tribes into a single federation by 1206. It was a turning point for the Mongols, who had a long history of internecine, dispute and economic hardship. At a Kurultai, a council of Mongol chiefs he was acknowledged as "Khan" of the consolidated tribes and took the name Genghis Khan (variously defined as "Universal Lord," "Rightful Lord," or "Precious Lord", Oceanic Ruler or Resolute Ruler) (Man 49, 204; Ratchnevsky 5-37; Weatherford 10-37, 92). 2. Years of conquest. Although Genghis Khan now ruled the whole Mongolia, he was not content to remain there. At the time of the Kurultai, when Genghis obtained his title, the Mongols were involved in a dispute with the Tangut Empire of Xi-Xia (it comprised much of northwestern China and parts of Tibet), which demanded tribute from them. This campaign lasted form 1207 until 1210 with the Xi-Xia ruler submitting to Genghis Khan. In 1211, Genghis Khan led his armies against the Jin (or Chin) Dynasty that ruled northern China in order to prevent them from challenging the Mongols for territory and resources. The Mongol army crossed the Great Wall of China in 1213, and in 1215 Genghis besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of

Comparing Organization of Politics Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Comparing Organization of Politics - Term Paper Example Pluralism can be defined as a kind of political theory which states that power statutorily resides with the central government, but non-governmental and independent organizations like lobbyists also exert significant influence on the final decision-making outcomes. Political pluralism is largely practiced in the United States where special-interest organizations hold some influence mainly on the members of Senate and House of Representatives whom they had financially helped during their campaign periods. In the same vein, hyper pluralism is a more dangerous situation whereby the special-interest 2 groups and lobbyists have become quite too powerful for the central government to handle or control. This can occur in a country where corruption is endemic and the executive arm of the government has been bought by the rich and mighty in the country. Hence, it has been discovered that both pluralism and hyper pluralism in political organization within a country also have a far-reaching eff ect on the citizen participation in the entire political processes of the country (Johnson 251). There are distinct differences in the regimes where pluralism and hyper pluralism political systems are in operation. However, the main similarity of these two forms of political organization is that citizens would be robbed of their rights to actually influence the governance of their country because the kind of politicians sent to the Congress (for example in America) are not the group of people that believe in their simple interests of the commoners, but they are there to satisfy the desires of their influential sponsors. Talking about a pluralistic regime, the central government’s control on the governance is still substantial. Take for instance, the current President of the United States, Barack Obama made the special-interest organizations and lobbyists the target of his presidential campaign, having realized that their interests in commerce and governmental affairs supersed e that of the public; and even though they are small in number, their interests appear to weigh in as burdens over that of ordinary Americans. These independent or non-government groups often use their money to campaign for Congress members of 3 their choice. They would do everything in their power to make sure that their candidates win the elections. And once these Congress members resume their legislative duties, the special-interest, non-governmental organizations rise up to demand for laws that would safeguard their business, ideology or political interests. Some of these lobbyists are multinational companies, non-government organizations, trade and commerce groups or associations. Since the special-interest organizations are responsible for dictating the kind of laws to be passed in the Congress, they inadvertently reduce the participation of the ordinary people in the governance process. This means that other citizens in the affected country are under their machinations, since the members of Congress or the legislative arm are only answerable to their demands, and not that of the ordinary people in the country (Johnson 163). As indicated above, the executive arm of the regime can still function properly, if the president is a person who thinks about the masses in the country—this means that the president is not aloof from people’s needs and relate with them on a personal level through his or her organized method of communication. Nowadays, presidents can chat with their citizens online or even receive comments on their online profiles.

CELL BIOLOGY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

CELL BIOLOGY - Essay Example 4 Shown is a genetic pedigree of a family with several members affected by a heritable disease. Affected individuals are shown in black and healthy individuals are shown in white. Males are shown as boxes and females as circles. 5 Conditional alleles are mutant gene versions that encode proteins that can function normally at the permissive condition but are defective at the restrictive condition; one commonly used condition is temperature. Conditional alleles are especially useful to geneticists because they permit the study of essential genes. At the permissive temperature, the organism lives normally. When the organism is shifted to the non-permissive temperature, the effect of inactivating the gene can be studied. Which of the three types of mutations shown is most likely to lead to a conditional allele? 6 You are studying a diploid yeast strain that normally utilizes glucose as an energy source but can use maltose when no glucose is present. You are interested in understanding how this yeast strain utilizes maltose as an alternative energy source. To begin to understand maltose metabolism, you undertake a genetic screen to isolate genes involved in maltose metabolism by screening for yeast that cannot grow when maltose is the sole energy source. You isolate 6 different mutants, all of which are recessive, and name these alleles mal1, mal2, mal3, mal4, mal5, and mal6. Next, you isolate gametes from the homozygous diploid mutant yeast strains and perform crosses between the different strains to do complementation analysis, because you wish to determine whether the mutations are likely to affect the same or different genes. Your results are shown in the table below: 7 You are trying to map a human gene thought to be involved in cat allergies. Because you know this gene is on chromosome 20, you decide to examine the linkage of several SNPs located on chromosome 20 with respect to the gene involved

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 211

Assignment Example The National Treatment Obligation (NTO) largely fights against this and according to the GATT agreement, article III paragraph 4; equal treatment should be given to all goods. This has been violated by Pell therefore Electro Co. can sue Pell in a court of law. Imposition of quota by Lamar on imported phones of 5,000 also goes against article IX, paragraph 1, of the GATT agreement that there should be no imposition of quotas on imports and exports of trading partners. Principle of Most Favored Nation (MFN), article I, paragraph 1, of the GATT agreement, the preference to goods from New Aldoina should be granted to all parties to a contract. The 20% tariff on goods from countries suspected to accommodate terrorists violates UN Charter, Chapter IX and also goes against non-discrimination principle under WTO/GATT. This can also be used by Electro Co. against Lamar. Several imposed legislations by these states go against the contractual agreements with the U.S government. This will make it easier for your company to persuade the government to enforce dropping of these legislations for the better trading activities of your

Manager Perspective on Aircraft Maintenance Essay

Manager Perspective on Aircraft Maintenance - Essay Example An FBO is principally known for the provision of support services to the general operators of aviation at a public airport that is located either on the airport leasehold property or even in a few cases, adjacent to the airport leasehold property like an operation of through the fence. In smaller airports that operate and serve general aviation in modest or far-flung societies or communities, the town itself might offer fuel services together with the operation of basic facility of FBO. Many operators of FBO that do business at moderate to high traffic volume airports are non-governmental organizations; that is either publicly or privately owned companies (Herman, 1968). The general objective of the activity of maintenance effort is ensuring availability of the aircraft that is required to meet the operational commitments. In addition, the Aircraft Maintenance Manager is fully responsible for the management of maintenance effort to accomplish this objective. The department of mainten ance organization also helps the manager of aviation maintenance in attaining this goal. Moreover, the maintenance administration offers the personnel accounting, the clerical roles that are associated with the administrative support and record keeping (Mirghani, 1996). The maintenance management consists of the management of aircraft, material, SE and personnel. The MDS (Maintenance Data System) can also help in all there functions. Business aviation allover the world, particularly in the United States has a desirable safety record, and a thorough regulatory structure that helps in keeping it in that manner. One of the fundamental requirements is that the operators of AOC have appointed post holders in key positions, and among them is the maintenance manager. Nevertheless, this critical role may be undertaken or performed by a licensed engineer, even though not necessarily. The engineering quality control, with the responsibility of maintaining airworthiness, contracts with complia nce and suppliers, the present-day maintenance manager should, above all these, be a very competent supervisor (Mirghani, 1996). For this feature, when those who are responsible for their company’s carriers maintenance are asked to tell about their duties, it is surprisingly found that nearly all of them have good relationships with their local managers, and very few troubles or problems with the requirements of EASA different from the sheer paperwork quantity. It is very possible for the maintenance manager of the aircraft manager to be the only member of staff dealing with the technical matters. Nonetheless, the hands-on maintenance will nearly always be performed by contracted corporations with proper approvals. Those who employ their own engineering staffs say that there are numerous qualified candidates available; implying that the issues of shortages of engineers are long gone (Herman, 1968). The department of aircraft maintenance at the airports helps in supporting nav al operations by conserving the aircrafts and the associated SE to the allotted maintenance level. Since all the activities involved in maintenance have similarities in management, operation and mission, these sections have standardized supervision and organization (Herman, 1968). The department of maintenance helps in the facilitation or enhancement of: Training and performance of the maintenance personnel; maintenance effectiveness and veracity for all material;

The Role of Leaders in Developing a Culture of Quality Essay

The Role of Leaders in Developing a Culture of Quality - Essay Example ity, outlines the stakeholders involved in the process of inculcating the culture, the difference between the role of a manager and a leader in applying the culture of change and how the leaders can assess if they have been successful. Leaders play diverse roles in establishing the culture of quality in health care institutions. First, they take an active role as the main communicators to all levels within an institution. This means that leaders reach out to customers and members of staff and other stakeholders (Swayne et al., 2012). Furthermore, they facilitate communication of information pertaining to the culture of quality. Leaders develop the communication methods fit for the various audiences (Kelly, 2011). Additionally, they are required to listen attentively to the employees and address their concerns in relation to the process of implementing the culture of quality. Secondly, leaders act as strategic thinkers in managing the culture of change within health care institutions. This is owing to the fact that they are the ones with the best understanding of how the organization functions. They are central in ensuring the organization responds to the internal and external changes aimed at improving on quality (Kelly, 2011). Leaders should be well aware of the strengths and weaknesses within health care institutions, and therefore, implement the culture of change in the areas of need. Leaders formulate the objectives of a health care institution that need to be aligned them toward achieving the culture of quality. Thirdly, leaders play the imperative role of decision making in health care institutions while implementing the desired culture. It is necessary to note that leaders are faced with various alternatives and are required to come up with the best option that improves quality within a health care organization (Kongstvedt, 2012). Leaders take into account the influence their decisions have on employees, patients and other stakeholders. Finally, they

Rising Expectations of Nation Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rising Expectations of Nation Building - Essay Example This has led to the sustainable development handed down from the various presidents that have led in the United States. This system of governance characterized by presidency has had a major revolution in the countries and continuous development. Therefore, the various presidents have contributed immensely towards the growth of the states which have been actualized through their different styles of leadership. Leadership styles refer to the different ways in which the various leaders formulate laws, provide the way forward to their people and motivate them for better outcomes. The effectiveness of a leader in his work will vary depending on the styles of governance. A good leader tends to apply various modes of governance while a bad leader will only resort to a particular mode. The types of leadership styles range from autocratic, democratic to free reign. An autocratic leader fails to consult the followers but will instead dictate what is to be done and how it is to be achieved (Tan nenbaum & Schmidt, 2003). A leader who improvises the free reign allows the followers to participate in the decision making. In this case, the people perform the task at hand but the leader becomes the one in charge. It is based on the notion that nobody can do everything and therefore, the leader selects some tasks as priorities and delegates the rest. A democratic leader will employ a few representatives in the decision making process while he sustains the final decision authority especially where the decision involves separate parts which are held by various people. In this case, the employees work as a team and have to be very skillful and with full information of their surroundings. In their leadership the leaders take into consideration the various human needs by trying to come up with teams, providing psychological support and providing accessible help to their surbordinates. They also motivate the people to work so as to increase production through the provision of work stru cture and goals. The United States Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy are said to be great democrats (Schriesheim, 2002). Their contributions to nation building are immense and they have used most of the styles of leadership to enhance their effectiveness. A major style that led to President’s Kennedy success as a leader is his being a delegate. He elected some economic advisors to carry out decisions relating to the economic affairs and a committee for the legislature. In this manner, he was usually involved in the running of the state economic affairs. He also delegated work to his brother in- law to head the Peace Corps whose main aim was to deliver assistance to most of the underdeveloped countries of the world through the provision of construction materials, farming equipment, education facilities and health. In his quest to fight the communist as had been briefed by Eisenhower, President Kennedy dispatched Johnson to meet Diem of Vietnam so as to assure him o f his support. He provided military helicopters and more advisors to help n the fight. In being a delegate the president had various sectors being acted upon ensuring full running of the state including sectors such as defense, intelligence, trade, international relations, political arena and economic policy. This was equally applicable to Eisenhower who had advisors on

Quality in Health Care Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Quality in Health Care Administration - Essay Example Performance can denote, for example, the aptitude to fulfill the customer's needs rapidly with no errors. This research focused on this truth that the add to in demand for MRI services opens a casement of chance for putting up a provider-based release of such repair which will serve as an extra source of income for our recognized orthopedic surgical procedure do (Glasper, E. A., & Pogson, D, 2000). The fulfillment of such tactics equates to addressing the population's wants with the assurance of having a extremely spirited and ground-breaking technology that is the moveable Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine. If we analyzed then we come to know that a dream of a healthy inhabitants who is repeatedly provisioned with the uppermost quality medical services that are sensibly priced. As the manager, it lies in your hands to approach up with a possible plan for the commerce. Several challenges contain been recognized which are to be afterward on discussed (Freytag, P. V., & Hollensen, S, 2001). Due to such, it becomes a main task at hand to give good reason for and go additional than these challenges to see how this commerce will create it and flourish finally. Pushing through by means of this project and following greatly lies in the dream that you have by means of regards to this chance. And such vision would be to give the highest quality checkup services that other providers cannot struggle through. According to the expert analysis the most effectual leaders are the ones who are clever to cascade their dream down to their subordinates. Moreover, lacking such influence, the dream could turn skewed in the prospect. It is of utmost significance that the manager be able to make all the people concerned realize the meaning of the chance at hand. From there, he be supposed to be able to assemble them towards achieving the dream through suitable actions. People, policies, communication and harmonization are the structures that determination creates up this association. Management It is management's accountability to handle all managerial concerns of this association. As such, the formulation of all policies and rule with regards to the operations of this novel commerce is their anxiety. Management puts the dream into put and takes charge of carry out it. Management, therefore, makes the most impact on how this chance will development. Staff This research focused on this truth that as a supplier of healthcare services, the commerce as a whole very much relies on the skills of its employees. The staff has to therefore appreciate their position in the understanding of the dream. The failure to present the uppermost quality services as envisioned would guide to the termination of this industry. Policies and Guidelines Appropriate policies and guidelines are supposed to be put into put to make sure that events for only the uppermost quality are in put. These are to be severely followed. This anchors on the power of the commerce as contribution only the most excellent of the greatest Communication and Coordination Effective communication can be achieved through open surroundings. An environment that promotes optimistic and encouraging message and coordination will stay the association physically powerful (Faulkner, M, 2001). Such will

Themes of Crhistian Faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Themes of Crhistian Faith - Essay Example For how can one fully know or predict the end when he employs mind closed at recognizing paths that wind to a triumphant outcome. As I see it with his tone of reactions on course placement, clearly, he hasn’t been properly acquainted to an in-depth assessment of theology or his limited former knowledge might have been brought across at the wrong approach so there is not a way he can be expected to entertain the course in the competitive framework of the academe. Because the formation of his argument lacks structure, rational profundity and barely sounds discerning, I am gradually convinced to disagree with his vie. I find it sufficient as well to disagree on the ground that due to reluctance, he has not at all considered looking over a few lessons which may yield to recognition of advantages other than academic. Mr. Dawkins’ position is weak, having sought no development from an educated process of arriving at a decision and I suppose that every person with similar influence is not likely to figure any relevance in a religious subject and would amount to the same set of reasons that draw support based on the common philosophic undertakings and working principle in which science, in the absence of God, lies at the core. Theology, in its basic essence or with lengthy technical definition taken off, is by terms of origin, a word (logos) of god (theos) from which to explore limitless possibilities how it may be done so to obtain answers required upon discovery of innumerable questions with rising complexities, since no physical evidence is available to testify how or what spiritual entity and faith are in form. So then accordingly, one can at least claim that theology, as a study of god, proceeds to be identified as making an abstract concept raise to the level of tangibility, or reality, which we know must take a definitive form if individual truth allows its perceived

Contract law exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Contract law exam - Essay Example Mistake is another vitiating factor and it has be operative in order to render a contract void or voidable At common law it will render the contract void ab initio and nullify any property passed or obligations created.Mistake at equity may make the contract voidable for mistake which means that the contract has an option of being avoided and will be The law relating to mistake is not statutory and can be inferred from a number of case law.It has often been stated that the categorization of the types of mistake etc is confusing and should be reformed.The effect of mistake is that if the contract is void at law then the there is no remedy of specific performance available either.(Nutt v Read (1999) The Times, December 3.) Consideration is an integral part of a contract essentially what really makes an agreement a fully enforceable contract.It has been defined in many case law authorities such as the statement of Lush J. in Currie v Misa (1875) LR 10 Exch 153: " some right, interest, profit or benefit accruing to one party, or some forebearance, detriment, loss or responsibility given, suffered or undertaken by the other."Another has been given by Frederick Pollock, approved by Lord Dunedin in Dunlop v Selfridge Ltd [1915] AC 847, is as follows:"An act or forebearance of one party, or the promise thereof, is the price for which the promise of the other is bought, and the promise thus given for value is enforceable." Consideration is called "executory" where there is an exchange of promises to perform acts in the future and if one party makes a promise in exchange for an act by the other party, when that act is completed, it is executed consideration.The court will however not inquire into the quantity or value of consideration here (Chappell & Co Ltd v Nestle Co Ltd [1959] 2 All ER 701.).Secondly the law as it stands requires that the consideration must move from the promisee or that it was provided for him.Finally it does not have to move to the promisor.(Price v Easton (1833) 4 B & Ad 433). . Books consulted Gibson, A & Fraser, D 2007, Business Law, 3rd edition, Pearson Education, Australia D.G.Cracknell(2001)Obligations; Contract Law ,Old Bailey

Stylistic Devices in the Novel The Big Fish Essay

Stylistic Devices in the Novel The Big Fish - Essay Example To begin with, Wallace uses the first person narration technique to deliver his message to the audience. This is evidenced the first chapter of the novel in which the narrator’s father was born. As Edward narrates, his father was born during one of the worst summers, drought and famines that were experienced in the land. In his own words, he explains how his father was born at a time when there was a scarcity of food. He also illustrates his feelings about the birth of his father which he attributes to be a blessing since it occurred on a rainy and cloudy day. At the same time, William Bloom also uses first-person narration in the first chapter of the book to demonstrate the cordial relationship his father had with animals. He explains that cows and horses liked his father, and they followed him around; and chicken once laid a mysterious small brown egg on his lap. At one time, he says, â€Å"This is what is meant by last words: they are keys to unlock the afterlife. They're not last words but passwords, and as soon as they're spoken you can go.† This implies that all these could only be ascertained during the death of Edward. William Bloom also uses a lot of symbolism as indicated in chapter one of the Big Fish. The element of symbolism is seen when William equates his father to a big fish. This is used to symbolize that Edward Bloom is an intelligent and knowledgeable man. As a widely read person, he has a wealth of knowledge on philosophy, history, arts and other literary fields. Thus, his knowledge can not be compared to a librarian or any other person, but can only be compared to a big fish. Moreover, it symbolizes that he was a unique person who had an extraordinary ability to communicate to the animals. Therefore, symbolism helped Wallace to portray Edward as a mysterious person who could not be easily understood. In conclusion, the Big Fish is a well-written novel. By making a careful choice of literary devices and effectively using them, Wallace managed to bring  out an outstanding story.  

Arthur Miller's The Death Of A Salesman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Arthur Miller's The Death Of A Salesman - Essay Example Although these created effects that are disturbing, the whole production does not border on being maudlin. The combinations of these impressions were effectively utilized in the play in order to reveal the ideas of self-deception and illusion. The play tells of Willy who dwells in the past to escape the financial dilemma he faces. Willy has an erroneous and rather odd notion of success, which for him requires only wealth and popularity. Linda, Willy Loman's wife, tries to persuade herself that her spouse is psychologically fit. Willy's predicament affects his two sons as a result - Happy who desires to linger in the fantasy world constructed by Willy - and Biff who eventually craves to detach himself from this delusion and accept the reality of Willy's problems which include his affair, his deteriorating career, and the family's dreadful pecuniary condition. Willy's predicament is delineated in this powerful presentation produce by Miss O Productions. Eddie Jones as Willy leads the many compelling performances. Jones has certainly gone beyond the taxing requirements of this immense character. As Willy, Jones is especially engaging which made his portrayal uniquely convincing. Although Jones exuded a very highbrow version of the role, this cerebral representation of Willy did not impede him from identifying effectively with Loman's persona. Jones was indeed Willy personified. Ivan Baccarat and Aaron McPherson take the roles of Biff and Happy, Willy's imprudent and miserable sons. Both are brilliant actors whose brotherly interaction easily convinces the audience. The strong and determined character of Linda is played by Anne Gee Byrd who sometimes exhibited vulnerability. This frailty becomes Ms Byrds strength, in fact, as the audience failed to fit her in any kind of stereotypical behavior. Linda was responsible for keeping Willy from pursuing his dream in Alaska, and Ms Byrd conveyed an intermittent intimation of dissatisfaction, which resulted to Willy's disparaging outbursts toward her more comprehensible. Jeremy Shouldis and Bob Machray are flawless in the roles as Bernard and Uncle Ben, and Alan Charof is a standout performance for the role of Willy's friend Charley. As Arthur Miller transformed the manner which contemporary plays were constructed - involving exquisite scenes and shifts in time - as when Willy's past intermingle with the present in almost harmonious beauty, this innovation cannot be emulated easily in its most fluid form. However, the set for this production fit the play superbly; the set designers constructed space as translucent as the play's fluidity of time. The set design was soundly and imaginatively planned but sometimes generates an effect of opacity. The walls and curtains bestow an unyielding firmness which contrasts with the trancelike configuration of the play. The production is replete with magical scenes emphasized by the flicker of the lights. In the opening scene, Biff talks about his dreams of owning a ranch while Linda tells her boys about her husband's great value. Ben then enters, amidst the playful glimmer of the light - its shades emphasizing this notable entrance. But there are also instances where prompts plunge, lines don't come easy, staging is dreary, fluidity is irregular and actors lose balance on the stage amidst the

The Function of Jesus' Relationship with His Mother in John 2 and 19 Dissertation

The Function of Jesus' Relationship with His Mother in John 2 and 19 - Dissertation Example The common theological idea is that in Jesus, the Word turned into flesh so that the Father will be revealed. Since he is the revealer of the Father and that he brings to life all those who believe in him, Jesus is considered the Redeemer. Redemption occurs through faith in Jesus as the Revealer.3 All other factors involved in the gospel of John are inferior to the Christology. One of these factors is marian theology. Although the mother of Jesus is nameless and secondary, she plays an important role. She is present in the two main scenes of the gospel of John – the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-12), where the Johanine Jesus performed the first miracle in the gospel, and the scene at the foot of the cross (John 19:25-37), the last episode of Jesus’ life on Earth. ... Lee bluntly reveals that in order for the Johanine text to become any powerful than it already is, the symbols contained in the gospel of John should be given importance, be emphasized and brought in the center of the theological discussion. Roadmap This paper is created to show a textual and historical approach in showing the functions and meanings of the relationship of Mary, the mother of Jesus, using the gospel of John, particularly in chapters 2 and 19. This study is divided into six parts. Part I contains the introduction and the roadmap. The introduction will give a brief background of John’s gospel where the mother of Jesus was mentioned and how it will be interpreted by some theologians. It will likewise show a glimpse of what the readers can expect upon digesting the entire content of the paper. The introduction also contains a roadmap of the study where it will be clearly shown what readers can expect to find in each part of the paper. Part II contains accounts of t he relationship between father and son in John. It is necessary to show this to get a better understanding of the relationship between Jesus and his mother. Part two will be further subdivided into three sections giving a more organized and comprehensible presentation. Part III is the main gist of this study. This section contains interpretations, insights and understanding of various theologians, scholars and experts on what the relationship of Jesus and his mother is as presented in the gospel of John. It contains a comprehensive, informative and detailed historical account of what is written in chapter’s 2 and 19 of the gospel of John and what it means in accordance to historical evidences and context and as compared to other

Visual Literacy in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Visual Literacy in Business - Essay Example The primary purpose of this literature is to win the interest of people to buy this idea or influence them to watch the whole movie (Lopate, 2006). For instance, the trailer for the movie â€Å"That Sugar† is to motivate to try to know the contents in the documentary in detail. That will enable viewer make a reliable decision as far as sugar concerned. The motion pictures are more influential as compared to images and still photos in that; the motion pictures show the exact flow of the movie thus bringing out the theme in the movie apparently. Therefore, motion pictures are more convincing because they bring a real life scenario. However, the motion picture is the ones that can effectively communicate the flow of the movie as well as the themes in the film. Moreover, motion pictures will aid in quick introduction of the main characters to the viewer, thus generating a desire to watch the entire film. Finally, the trainer also enables an individual to know what kind of movie to watch. That is the trailer will communicate to the viewer the whole about of the movie thus avoiding at an early stage or redevelops the desire to watch it. Therefore, the trailer is an advertising tool that producers use to catch the attention and desire of the viewers to the

A view from the Bridge Essay Example for Free

A view from the Bridge Essay Eddie could not, but Marco lifted the chair by one leg and held it above Eddies head. From that point on Eddies relationships with all of the family, including the immigrants, became very tense. The first climax of this argument comes shortly after the start of Act Two, when Eddie comes back to the flat, unsteady, drunk, Catherine and Rodolpho come out of the bedroom, her rearranging her dress. Eddie realising what has happened orders Rodolpho to, Pack it up. Go ahead. Get your stuff and get outa here. When Catherine attempts to follow Rodolpho, Eddie becomes angrier, grabbing her and kissing her on the mouth as if to stamp ownership on her in front of Rodolpho. Then he is so angry that he kisses Rodolpho as well, as if to emasculate him. The second and final climax comes at the end of the play. Eddie has become so obsessed with Catherine that he phones the Immigration Authorities in order to stop her marrying Rodolpho. As a result of this Marco, Rodolpho and the Liparis two immigrants are captured. On the way out of the house Marco spits in Eddies face, shouting, That one! He killed my children! Eddie for the last part of the play becomes preoccupied with getting his name back having been shamed in front of members of his local community. In the end he dies for his name and reputation at Marcos hands. Eddies relationship with Beatrice is strained and rocky, it is obviously breaking down and continues to do so through the duration of the play. Beatrice asks Eddie, When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie its almost three months you dont feel good. She is referring to the fact that they have not slept together for three months another sign of a disintegrating marriage. They also disagree on the subject of Catherine and Rodolpho. Beatrice believes that they should have their freedom, Eddie believes that they should not go out and that Catherine should live with them, seemingly for ever. This disagreement renders their relationship fraught with problems and arguments. Their relationship has disintegrated totally by the end of the play, but at Eddies death he seems to apologise, saying simply, My B.! The most pathetic element of Eddies death is that he himself caused it. He created all the problems that started all the arguments with the immigrants; he phoned the Immigration Authorities resulting in his final confrontation with Marco; he even drew the knife that killed him in order to kill Marco with it. The fact that Alfieri refers to: seeing every step coming, step after step, like a dark figure walking down a hall towards a certain door. I knew where he was headed for, I knew where he was going to end. shows that he had a fate or destiny and the way he was going there was no way of avoiding it, he was going to die as a result of this quarrel. At the end of the book Alfieri makes a striking comment that helps you to feel sympathy for Eddie, however useless the petty argument that ended his life was. He says, For he allowed himself to be wholly known and for that I think I will love him more than all my sensible clients. This shows you that however critical you may be of his character you have to be sympathetic towards him as it seems that revealing your whole character to everyone, leaving nothing unknown is one of the bravest things anyone can do, and in a way it must have been that which killed him. Eddie Carbone is a very tragic character who, through his own doing caused his death and his isolation from those around him, which evokes both criticism and pity amongst the audience. However, one must feel sympathy for him, in that he bared his soul to the world and paid the ultimate price for it. Charlotte Lambie Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Philosophy Divergent Currents of Humanism Essay Example for Free

Philosophy Divergent Currents of Humanism Essay The nationalities rooted in different traditions and perhaps owed something to old trunks differences Latinos and barbarians, took shape especially the divergence of economic interests and natural conditions of Italy and Germany. Italian Humanism meant more than a break with the past, Italy was consumed in glorious extravagance and soon returned to agriculture and to the spirit of medieval life. Life essentially offered the Italian humanist enjoyment and creation, the Christian scheme gave way to a Greek morality, in which life was an art, freed from any sense of obligation. The religious interest was not very present at least we want to talk about a religion of beauty. His ideal was universal man fully rounded personality of a Leonardo. I tried to absorb everything and became syncretistic culture, retaining the opposing elements of Roman and Greek Christians in reconciling universal symbolism. Zeus, Jupiter, and God really meant it. This ideal was bound to remain aristocratic, without much anchor in popular sentiment and produced a high class and cosmopolitan artist who took easily to the envestida of the counter. The north, however, seemed to have the old spirit was however felt the north where an impulse of the forces would dominate the new era, the north broke with the church and turned to industry trade, science . Life offered the German humanist work and self-discipline, the German turned rather to the moral Roman life was a stoic discipline, a job and a vocation remained deeply religious obligations became even more ethical than supernatural. It is dedicated to education and scholarship. More democratic, seeking her ideal as a member of an ordered society and not as an independent personality. Before him stood flight ahead fraternal society work, could not combine the various elements and see the universal in the multiplication of symbols: multiplicity of symbols is a big difference between the imagination of the great Italian painters and Durer, the Dutch and Flemish. Humanists Nordic passed gradual stages of faith illustrated medieval cosmopolitanism and urban. Touched by the Italian scholarship, dropped out and worked for a scholastic education reform without criticizing the church system. Modernity and tragedy of Erasmus The modern spirit sympathize more with the second group, and especially with Erasmus, representative ideals, having been shriveled by 200 years due to the reform, finally flourished in naturalism and humanism of the eighteenth century. Erasmo was definitely the humanistic ideal both their faults as virtues. Its narrower interests reflect limitations of humanistic attitude to the deeper forces of the time. Unconcerned by the wonderful art of his generation, without interest in the new world that would in the eyes of men, and very hostile to the scientific interest because it shifted the spirits of the human problems of morality. His biggest concern heading into the past, not the future, rather represented tolerance, conciliation and meditation. It was witty and urban, with a charming conservatism. Finished destroying old prejudices, demolishing the medieval order, had nothing to offer except a rather negative spiritual liberalism.

Analysing The Novel Elegy For My Father English Literature Essay

Analysing The Novel Elegy For My Father English Literature Essay Elegy for my Father is a melancholy piece of poetry which uses descriptive imagery in order to describe a fathers last hours. The original definition of an elegy was a dedication to a persons life, either in mourning or sorrow. This example is written in six separate eight line stanzas, each flowing from the next. The poem could also be described as a form of lyric poetry because of the deep thoughts and feelings expressed in it, and the story it is telling. The sombre metre of the poem uses dactylic tetrameter, which creates a kind of rapid effect, and also with the unrhymed lines creating a less flowing rhythm, with a more jagged like tone throughout the poem. The variations of the chosen dactylic meter illustrated in the first stanza, range from the trochee in lines 1 and 7, the cretic in the first foot of line 2, the bacchic in the third foot of line 2 and the running start or extra syllable beginning in the first foot of line 4. The different mix of the poetic forms shows how the author, Annie Finch, illustrates freedom and expression in her writing. In his review of Annie Finchs poetry, Michael Parker states, Finch is simply a master of meter, displaying a distinct, complex yet highly readable metrical system, most unique for contemporary poets. The main subject, the father, has little of his life left to live and Finch wants the reader, to journey through this particular time in great detail. The images of vigil evoked in this poe m allow the reader to develop a feel of the pagan ritual of mourning the death of a loved one. The spiritual views which Finch follows so boldly and weaves into her works beautifully are very vivid in the imagery used in Elegy for my Father. Ted Richards wrote in Jacket Magazine that Finch, who has described her work process as including the whispering or muttering, shouting or chanting or singing her words aloud as she writes, has brought that song into the words in a way that we associate with poets of an earlier era, like Tennyson or Kipling. Throughout the poem, the repetitive use of you and he for the father is significant because it creates that close personal feeling of a father and his daughter, and how death can change it all. It also creates empathy in the reader towards the subject. In the later part with lines like Night, take his hand and He has given his body we can feel the distance which is created by death. This creates that feeling of transition and distance which one goes through in the ritual of mourning the death of a loved one. In the transition from you to he Finch has created that feeling of departure just like creating the most moving moments in an elegyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. when a poet juxtaposes the mourners address to the dead person with a sympathetic but sceptical testing of that convention: If the dead are forever deaf and inert, how can they hear what we say? (Shaw, 1994) The two epigraphs presented in quote form at the beginning of the poem act as a preface to the subject of the poem: death as part of the natural circle of life. No earthly shore until is answered in the vortex of our grave. The word grave mentioned early on in the poem reveals ideas about death and earthly shore about the earth bound physical part of our life before we move on to the spiritual life beyond. In the next line, the seals wide spindrift gaze towards paradise, the seal and paradise emphasise that once dead in the physical sense, you are passed on to paradise. Similarly with the lion in the second epigraph, it is as if we the readers are to believe that humans can be compared to an animal as large and triumphant as a lion or a seal perhaps. The reason for the epigraphs at the beginning of the poem is to create a strong indication of the poems theme that is to follow. Finch uses two quotes from a poet (Crane) and a philosopher (Wittgenstein, in whose work her father was a pa rticular expert) to inform her poems content. In comparison, T.S. Eliots poem Gerontion uses an epigraph taken from Shakespeares Measure for Measure: Thou has nor youth nor age/ But as it were an after dinner sleep/ dreaming of both. A popular choice among literary writers, the epigraph sets the scene for what is to follow and enables the reader to form their own ideas about the theme chosen. In the deep room where candles burn soundlessly and peace pours at last through the cells of our bodies. Lines 1 and 2 of the second stanza echo line 1 of the first. The repetition of both adverbs soundlessly and wordlessly is an example of where Finch has attempted to use rhyme but in a completely different way. The family of the dying father is watchful by his side, Three of us are watching, one of us is staring. It is almost as if they know what is going to happen, but they want to stay in the moment forever and not see him die. With the wide gaze of a wild, wave-fed seal. Incense and sage speak in smoke loud as waves. The descriptive imagery Finch uses, particularly the alliterative w sound in line 12 and the sibilant s sound in line 13 in the second stanza shows that she is using sound to illustrate how she is feeling. The repetition of these consonants and the use of the nature theme help to create an image of happiness, and not sadness. Crickets sing sand towards the edge of t he hourglass. The hourglass signifies an end point in time, but if crickets are singing then there could be an element of joy too. It is the difference between our imaginations and reality that the focus of this poem is illustrating. It is showing the balance of light and dark and death alongside life. Overall, the description of the room and the imagery used suggest aspects of Pagan ritual the references to incense, candles and circles and to animals. There are roughly three sections of this poem; the first being the descriptive tribute to a father most loved, the second being the father losing grip on his life, with his family close by, we will stay with you, keeping the silence we all came here for, and the last involving the moment in which he dies, Silence is here. In the fifth stanza, lines 34, 35 and 36 all begin with the word spin. This is the first noticeable pattern of words chosen by Finch. The effect of repeating each line with the same word affects the outlook on the situation. It is as if the death which is happening is such a blur that it spins impatiently, waiting for an outcome. Lines 38 and 29 of the same stanza also begin with the repeated word flying. The similarity between spin and flying, both of which suggest adventurous actions demonstrate that at this point, that the father is nearing a dignified death, His breath slows, lending its edges out to the night. Ending with the last stanza, where the father dies, it is important to point out that with the authors pagan religious beliefs, the theme throughout has been that death is much more than just death alone. It is likened to nature, and the soul; He has given his body; his hand lies above the sheets in a symbol of wholeness. This powerful imagery and religious (albeit Pagan) input infuses a feeling of warmth and strength for the ending of the poem. We the readers are left to our own imaginations, words such as gold, flame, temple, and prayer paint the scene of the mourning and passage of a person into the realm of death with ritualistic and religious sanctity. Edain McCoy has said that, when one defines oneself as Pagan, it means she or he follows an earth or nature religion, one that sees the divine manifest in all creation. The cycles of nature are our holy days, the earth is our temple. Annie Finch in Elegy for my Father creates a personal outlook on her fathers death framed by her own Pagan beliefs. 1,492 words Endnote 1. The writer of the poem was identified by typing the first two lines of the first stanza into Googles search bar, and following the first link to: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/annie_finch/poems/22499

Design History Of The Chair Cultural Studies Essay

Design History Of The Chair Cultural Studies Essay For an insight into the history of design, it is no better place to start than by looking at the everyday object, the Chair. A chair is a piece of furniture that often goes unnoticed, yet really is essential to everyday living. It is generally taken for granted and not recognised for its valuable contribution to our lives. Many aspects, social, cultural, aesthetics, technologies etc can be seen through the evolution of Chair design. In this essay, I shall be looking at three different designers and their designs, particularly the function, form, use of materials, intended market and production methods. The first designer was Michael Thonet (1796-1871) Thonet was born in Germany (then called Prussia) His life began at the start of the industrial revolution. He did an apprenticeship in cabinet making in his hometown and shortly afterwards began experimenting with veneers and bentwood. Maybe it was significant that he was born around the time of the revolution, as he is certainly a good example of that period, as he formed a massive company that is recognised as a leading force in mass production. His Factory designed by himself, was very close to a beech wood forest, many other designers used wood that was flat, with lots of joints but Thonet had managed to perfect his designs by using the beech wood in a new and revolutionary bending method. He went on to use wood veneers, glueing lots together so they were flexible. He was known for his experiments to help him and this meant that he was able to go on to be one of the first designers in mass production. His chair was the first in flat pack furniture to be assembled at home by the buyer. The chair was designed to be cheap , strong and light and a good sturdy chair to sit . In the home it would have been used in the kitchen and living room. The intended market would have been to the middle and lower classes as it was a widely available cheaper chair. It was a mass produced chair and by 1900 an estimated 40 million chairs had been produced. My second Designer was Charles Rennet Mackintosh (1868-1928) Born in Glasgow he was an architect, designer and artist, is today celebrated internationally as one of the most significant talents of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   At the age of 16 he became an apprentice to John Hutchinson. He also began attending evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art and met fellow artist Margaret MacDonald, who eventually became his wife. They were both members of the collaborative group known as The Four, prominent members of the Glasgow School Movement. Mackintosh became a partner of the firm Honeyman Keppie in 1903. However, at the turn of an economic hardship in 1913, Mackintosh left the firm Honeyman Keppie to open his own practice. After unsuccessfully trying to establish his own practice, he dedicated his time to landscape painting in France. Mackintosh returned to England in 1927 for treatment of tongue and throat cancer. He died in London in 1928. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1903 Black Ladder Back Chair Mackintosh was one of the leading exponents in the Arts Crafts Movement and one of the leading representatives of Art Nouveau in Scotland. The chair itself was a component of a house designed The Hill House and was actually not meant to sit on. The fact that the back of the chair is a long way over your head does add to the fact that it reassembles in my opinion a throne. Everything seems right about this chair: proportions, materials style. The chair was a one of design for the hill house to match the high ceilings in the house . the chair was not designed to be sat on but as a piece of art its self and as a decorative piece. The designer used would for the frame of the chair and upholstery for the seat . It was designed and built for ww Blackie the owner of the hill house . The chair still sits in the hill house bedroom. My third designer to look at was Charles and Ray Eames, they are the most important American designers of this century. Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended school there and developed an interest in engineering and architecture. He later extended his design ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the design department. Ray Kaiser Eames was born in Sacramento. She studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles. Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California. In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eamess moulded plywood furniture. Their moulded plywood chair was called the chair of the century by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 Designed in 1956 this icon of 20th century design created by the Eames to provide a modern alternative to traditional club chairs. Since its debut in 1956, the chair and ottoman have been continuously produced by Herman Miller (A leading global provider of office furniture) According to  Charles Eames, design is simply a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose. The chair was designed to be a relaxing comfortable chair . and in Charles Eames own words a special refuge from the strains of modern living.. The first chair was a originally a gift for Billy wilder. The chair is also specially designed so that it can take all the weight of your lower spine helping you relax even more . And putting your feet up on the ottoman helps restore blood circulation after a hard days work. The materials used are natural wood such as natural cherry, walnut and santos palisander a rich grainy veneer. The chair is still very popular and is seen in many styl ish interiors. Conclusion An insight into the past can be seen all around us, but the chair, an item so important to us, from the plastic mass produced ones you see in fast food chain shops to our old comfortable armchairs, they all hold so much more information about the history of design. From the early designs and experimenting by Michael Thonet and his way of making bent wood chairs and furniture it would be hard to think that Charles Eames would have been able to go on to design his Lounge Chair. Then with Charles Eames designs and advances in production techniques and mass marketing of chairs it has become possible for everyone to have a classic piece of design history in their home or office. Or even own a reproduction of Charles Mackintoshs Ladder Back Chair for very little costs. The type of chair that someone chooses for their home can in say a lot about them. Victorian styles show that a person prefers the older styles. Art Deco has bright colours and geometric shapes. With most people, the most important factor to consider when choosing a chair other than the colour or style is comfort. If someone was suffering from back problems, for example they might require a designer to design a chair to suit their needs. When someone chooses a modern chair design for the office or in his or her home it says there forward thinkers, with modern tastes. So for an everyday object to so often go unnoticed is a shame, the chosen design and style of chair someone chooses can say allot more and can be I think a very good illustration of their personality.

The Strategic Rationale For Outsourcing Decisions

The Strategic Rationale For Outsourcing Decisions By reviewing the relative and risks of making or buying, firms can persuade their expertise and resources for improved profitability. Combining two strategic approaches accurately permit managers to coordinate their companies skills and resources efficiently beyond levels obtainable with other strategies. 1- Concentrate companys possessed resources on its core competencies through which the company can achieve definable incomparability and offer unique value for customers. (Quinn, and Doorley, 1990) 2- Outsourcing strategically other activities of the companies consisting of many conventionally believed primary to a company which are neither special capabilities the firm nor affect critical strategic requirements. (Quinn, 1992) Substantial gains can be achieved from effective combining of the two approaches. Directors leverage their firms resources in four manners. First, they expand returns on in-house resources by focusing investments and energies on the enterprises best jobs. Secondly, if core competencies are well-developed a company can supply astounding barriers for present and forthcoming competitors that look for entering into the companys areas of interest, thus assisting and shielding the strategic advantages of market share. Third, conceivably the utmost leverage of all is the full deployment of external contractors, investments, innovations, and specialized professional capabilities that would be unaffordable or even not possible to replicate internally Fourth, in rapidly shifting marketplaces and technological circumstances, this cooperative strategy reduces risks, shortens discovery and manufacturing cycle times, decrease investments, and generates better responsiveness to customer needs. (Quinn and Hillmer 1995) Earning sustainable competitive advantage through Outsourcing Managers can combine core competency concepts and strategic outsourcing for maximum effectiveness. Managers can analytically select and develop the core competencies that will provide the firms uniqueness, competitive advantage, and basis of value creation for the future. Core competency strategies The basic ideas behind core competencies and strategic outsourcing have been well supported by research extending over a twenty-year period.[4] In 1974, Rumelt noted that neither of the then-favored strategies unrelated diversification or vertical integration yielded consistently high returns.[5] Since then, other carefully structured research has indicated the effectiveness of disaggregation strategies in many industries.[6] Noting the failures of many conglomerates in the 1960s and 1970s, both financial theorists and investors began to support more focused company concepts. Generally this meant sticking to your knitting by cutting back to fewer product lines. Unfortunately, this also meant a concomitant increase in the systematic risk these narrower markets represented. However, some analysts noticed that many highly successful Japanese and American companies had very wide product lines, yet were neither conglomerates nor truly vertically integrated.[7] Japanese companies, like Sony, Mitsubishi, Matsushita, or Yamaha, had extremely diverse product offerings, as did 3M or Hewlett-Packard in the United States. Yet they were not conglomerates in the normal sense. They were termed related conglomerates, redeploying certain key skills from market to market.[8] At the same time, these companies also contracted out significant support activities. Although frequently considered vertically integrated, the Japanese auto Industry, for example, was structured around mother companies that primarily performed design and assembly, with a number of Independent suppliers and alliance partners without ownership bonds to the mother companies feeding into them.[9] Many other Japanese hi-tech companies, particularly the more Innovative ones like Sony and Honda, used comparable strategies leveraging a few core skills against multiple markets through extensive outsourcing. The term core competency strategies was later used to describe these and other less diversified strategies developed around a central set of corporate skills.[10] However, there has been little theory or consistency in the literature about what core really means. Consequently, many executives have been understandably confused about the topic. They need not be if they think in terms of the specific skills the company has or must have to create unique value for customers. However, their analyses must go well beyond looking at traditional product or functional strategies to the fundamentals of what the company can do better than anyone else.[11] For example, after some difficult times, it was easy enough for a beer company like Fosters to decide that it should not be in the finance, forest products, and pastoral businesses into which it had diversified. It has now divested these peripheral businesses and is concentrating on beer. However, even within this concept, Fosters true competencies are in brewing and marketing beer. Many of its distribution, transportation, and can production activities, for example, might actually be more effectively contracted out. Within individual functions like production, Fosters could further extend its competitive advantage by outsourcing selected activities such as maintenance or computing where it has no unique capabilities. The essence of core competencies What then is really core? And [emailprotected] The concept requires that managers think much more carefully about which of the firms activities really do or could create unique value and which activities managers could more effectively buy externally. Careful study of both successful and unsuccessful corporate examples suggests that effective core competencies are: 1. Skill or knowledge sets, not products or functions. Executives need to look beyond the companys products to the intellectual skills or management systems that actually create a maintainable competitive edge. Products, even those with valuable legal protection, can be too easily back-engineered, duplicated, or replaced by substitutes. Nor is a competency typically one of the traditional functions such as production, engineering sales, or finance, around which organizations were formed in the past. Instead, competencies tend to be sets of skills that cut across traditional functions. This interaction allows the organization consistently to perform an activity better than functional competitors and continually to Improve on the activity as markets, technology, and competition evolve. Competencies thus involve activities such as product or service design, technology creation, customer service, or logistics that tend to be based on knowledge rather than on ownership of assets or intellectual property per se. Knowledge-based activities generate most of the value in services and manufacturing. In services, which account for 79 percent of all jobs and 76 percent of all value-added in the United States, intellectual inputs create virtually all of the value-added. Banking, financial services, advertising, consulting, accounting, retailing, wholesaling, education, entertainment, communications, and health care are clear examples. In manufacturing, knowledge-based activities like RD, product design, process design, logistics, marketing research, marketing, advertising, distribution, and customer service @ also dominate the value-added chain of most companies (see Exhibit 1). 2. Flexible, long-term platforms capable of adaptation or evolution. Too many companies try to focus on the narrow areas where they currently excel, usually on some product-oriented skills. The real challenge is to consciously build dominating skills in areas that the customer will continue to value over time, as Motorola is doing with Its focus on superior quality, portable communications. The uniqueness of Toys R Us lies in its powerful information and distribution systems for toys, and that of State Street Boston in its advanced information and management systems for large custodial accounts. Problems occur when managers choose to concentrate too narrowly on products (as computer companies did on hardware) or too inflexibly on formats and skills that no longer match customer needs (as FotoMat and numerous department stores did). Flexible skill sets and constant, conscious reassessment of trends are hallmarks of successful core competency strategies. 3. Limited in number. Most companies target two or three (not one and rarely more than five) activities in the value chain most critical to future success. For example, 3M concentrates on four critical technologies in great depth and supports these with a peerless innovation system. As work becomes more complex, and the opportunities to excel in many detailed activities proliferate, managers find they cannot be best at every activity in the value chain. As they go beyond three to five activities or skill sets, they are unable to match the performance of their more focused competitors or suppliers. Each skill set requires intensity and management dedication that cannot tolerate dilution. It is hard to imagine Microsofts top managers taking their enthusiasm and skills in software into, say, chip design or even large-scale training in software usage. And if they did, what would be the cost of their loss of attention on software development? 4. Unique sources of leverage in the value chain. Effective strategies seek out places where there are market imperfections or knowledge gaps that the company is uniquely qualified to fill and where investments in intellectual resources can be highly leveraged. Raychem and Intel concentrate on depth in design and on highly specialized test-feedback systems supporting carefully selected knowledge-based products not on volume production of standardized products to jump over the experience curve advantages of their larger competitors. Morgan Stanley, through its TAPS system, and Bear Stearns, through its integrated bond-trading programs, have developed in-depth knowledge bases creating unique intellectual advantages and profitability in their highly competitive markets. 5. Areas where the company can dominate. Companies consistently make more money than their competitors only if they can perform some activities which are important to customers more effectively than anyone else. True focus in strategy means the capacity to bring more power to bear on a selected sector than any competitor can. Once, this meant owning and managing all the elements in the value chain supporting a specific product or service in a selected market position. Today, however, some outside supplier, by specializing in the specific skills and technologies underlying a single element in the value chain, can become more proficient at that activity than virtually any company spreading its efforts over the whole value chain. In essence, each company is in competition with all potential suppliers of each activity in its value chain. Hence, it must benchmark its selected core competencies against all other potential suppliers of that activity and continue to build these core capabilities until it is demonstrably best. Thus the basic nature of strategic analysis changes from an industry analysis perspective to a horizontal analysis of capabilities across all potential providers of an activity, regardless of which industry the provider might be in (see Exhibit 1). 6. Elements important to customers in the long run. At least one of the firms core competencies should normally relate directly to understanding and serving its customers that is, the right half of the value chain in Exhibit 1. Hi-tech companies with the worlds best state-of-the-art technology often fail when they ignore this caveat. On the other hand, Merck matches its superb basic research with a prescription drug marketing knowhow that is equally outstanding. By aggressively analyzing its customers, value chains, a company can often identify where it can specialize and provide an activity at lower cost or more effectively to the customer. Such analyses have created whole new Industries, like the specialized mortgage broker, syndication, secondary market, transaction-processing, escrow, title search, and insurance businesses that have now taken over these risks and functions for banks and have disaggregated the entire mortgage industry. 7. Embedded in the organizations systems. Maintainable competencies cannot depend on one or two talented stars such as Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak at Apple or Herbert Boyer and Arthur D. Riggs at Genentech whose departure could destroy a companys success. Instead, the firm must convert these competencies into a corporate reputation or culture that outlives the stars. Especially when a strategy is heavily dependent on creativity, personal dedication, and initiative or on attracting top-flight professionals, core competencies must be captured within the companys systems broadly defined to include its values, organization structures, and management systems. Such competencies might include recruiting (McKinsey, Goldman Sachs), training (McDonalds, Disney), marketing Procter Gamble, Hallmark), innovation (Sony, 3M), motivation systems (ServiceMaster), or control of remote and diverse operating sites within a common framework and philosophy (Exxon, CRA, Inc.). These systems are often at the heart of consistent superior performance; in many cases, a firms systems become its core competencies.(12) Preeminence: The key strategic barrier For Its selected core competencies, the company must ensure that it maintains absolute preeminence. It may also need to surround these core competencies with defensive positions, both upstream and downstream. In some cases, it may have to perform some activities where it is not best-in-world, just to keep existing or potential competitors from learning, taking over, eroding, or bypassing elements of its special competencies. In fact, managers should consciously develop these core competencies to block competitors strategically and avoid outsourcing them or giving suppliers access to the critical knowledge bases or skills that underpin them. Honda, for example, does all its engine RD in-house and makes all the critical parts for its small motor design core competency in closely controlled facilities in Japan. It will consider outsourcing any other noncritical elements in its products, but builds a careful strategic block around this most essential element for all its businesses.(13) Most important, as a companys preeminence in selected fields grows, its knowledge-based core competencies become ever harder to overtake. Knowledge bases tend to grow exponentially in value with Investment and experience. Intellectual leadership tends to attract the most talented people, who then work on and solve the most interesting problems. The combination in turn creates higher returns and attracts the next round of outstanding talent. In addition to the examples we have already cited, organizations as diverse as Bechtel, ATT Bell Labs, Microsoft, Boeing, Intel, Merck, Genentech, McKinsey, Arthur Andersen, Sony, Nike, Nintendo, Bankers T rust, and Mayo Clinic have found this to be true. Some executives regard core activities as those the company is continuously engaged in, while peripheral activities are those that are intermittent and therefore can be outsourced. From a strategic outsourcing viewpoint, however, core competencies are the activities that offer long-term competitive advantage and thus must be rigidly controlled and protected. Peripheral activities are those not critical to the companys competitive edge. Strategic outsourcing If supplier markets were totally reliable and efficient, rational companies would outsource everything except those special activities in which they could achieve a unique competitive edge, that is, their core competencies. Unfortunately, most supplier markets are, imperfect and do entails some risks for both buyer and seller with respect to price, quality, time, or other key dimensions. Moreover, outsourcing entails unique transaction costs searching, contracting, controlling, and recontracting that at times may exceed the transaction costs of having the activity directly under managements in-house control. To address these difficulties, managers must answer three key questions about any activity considered for outsourcing. First, what is the potential for obtaining competitive advantage in this activity, taking account of transaction costs? Second, what is the potential vulnerability that could arise from market failure if the activity is outsourced? Conceptually, these two factors ca n be arrayed In a simple matrix (see Exhibit 2). Third, what can we do to alleviate our vulnerability by structuring arrangements with suppliers to afford appropriate controls yet provide for necessary flexibilities in demand? The two extremes in exhibit 2 are relatively straightforward. When the potential for both competitive edge and strategic vulnerability is high, the company needs a high degree of control, usually entailing production internally or through joint ownership arrangements or tight long-term contracts (explicit or implicity). Marksk Spencer, for example, is famous for its network of tied suppliers, which create the unique brands and styles that underpin the retailers value reputation. Spot suppliers would be too unreliable and unlikely to meet the demanding standards that are Marks Spencers unique consumer franchise. Hence, close control of product quality, design, technology, and equipment through contracts and even financial support is essential. The opposite case is perhaps office cleaning, where little competitive edge is usually possible and there is an active and deep market of supplier firms. In between, there is a continuous range of activities requiring different degrees of control and strategic flexibility. At each Intervening point, the question is not just whether to make or buy, but how to implement a desired balance between independence and incentives for the supplier versus control and security for the buyer. Most companies will benefit by extending outsourcing first in less critical areas, or in parts of activities, like payroll, rather than all of accounting. As they gain experience, they may increase profit opportunities greatly by outsourcing more critical activities to noncompeting firms that can perform them more effectively independence and incentl,v In a few cases, more complex alliances with competitors may be essential to garner specialized skills that cannot be obtained in other ways. At each level, the company must isolate and rigorously control strategically critical relationships between its suppliers and its customers. Competitive edge The key strategic issue in insourcing versus outsourcing is whether a company can achieve a maintainable competitive edge by performing an activity internally usually cheaper, better, in a more timely fashion, or with some unique capability on a continuing basis. If one or more of these dimensions is critical to the customer and if the company can perform that function uniquely well, the activity should be kept in-house. Many companies unfortunately assume that because they have historically performed an activity internally, or because it seems integral to their business, the activity should be insourced. However, on closer investigation and with careful benchmarking, a companys internal capabilities may turn out to be significantly below those of best-in-world suppliers. Ford Motor Company, for example, found that many of its Internal suppliers quality practices and costs were nowhere near those of external suppliers when it began its famous best in class worldwide benchmarking studies on 400 subassemblies for the new Taurus-Sable line. A New York bank with extensive worldwide operations Investigated why its Federal Express costs were soaring and found that its Internal mall department took two days more than Federal Express to get a letter or package from the third floor to the fortieth floor of Its building. In interviews about benchmarking with top operating managers in both service and manufacturing companies, we frequently encountered some paraphrase of We thought we were the best in the world at many activities. But when we benchmarked against the best external suppliers, we found we were not even up to the worst of the benchmarking cases. Transaction costs In all calculations, analysts must include internal transaction costs as well as those associated with external sourcing. If the company is to produce the item or service internally on a long-term basis, it must back up its decision with continuing RD, personnel development, and infrastructure investments that at least match those of the best external supplier; otherwise, it will lose its competitive edge over time. Managers often tend to overlook such backup costs, as well as the losses from laggard innovation and unresponsiveness of internal groups that know they have a guaranteed market. Finally, there are the headquarters and support costs of constantly managing the insourced activity. One of the great gains of outsourcing is the decrease in executive time spent managing peripheral activities freeing top management to focus more on the core of Its business. Various studies have shown that when these internal transaction costs are thoroughly analyzed, they can be extremely high.(14) Since it is easier to identify the explicit transaction costs of dealing with external suppliers, these generally tend to be included in analyses. Harder-to-identify internal transaction costs, however, are often not included, thus biasing results. Vulnerability When there are many suppliers with adequate but not dominating scale) and mature market standards and terms, a potential buyer is unlikely to be more efficient than the best available supplier. If, on the other hand, there is not sufficient depth in the market, overly powerful suppliers can hold the company ransom. Conversely, if the number of suppliers is limited or individual suppliers are too weak, they may be unable to supply innovative products or services as well as a much larger buyer could by performing the activity in-house. While the activity or product might not be one of its core competencies, the company might nevertheless benefit by producing internally rather than undertaking the training, investment, and codesign expenses necessary to bring weak suppliers up to needed performance levels. Another form of vulnerability is the lack of information available in the marketplace or from individual suppliers., for example, a supplier may secretly expect labor disruptions or raw material problems, but hide these concerns until it is too late for the customer to go elsewhere. A related problem occurs when a supplier has unique information capabilities: for example, large wholesalers or retailers, market research firms, software companies, or legal specialists may have information or fact-gathering systems that would be impossible for the buyer or any other single supplier to reproduce efficiently. Such suppliers may be able to charge what are essentially monopoly prices, but purchasing from them could still be less costly than reproducing the service Internally. In other cases, there may be many capable suppliers (for example, in RD or software), but the costs of adequately monitoring progress on the suppliers, premises might make outsourcing prohibitive. Sometimes the whole structure of information in an industry will militate for or against outsourcing. Computing, for example, was largely kept in-house in Its early years because the information available to a buyer of computing services and Its ability to make judgments about such services were very different for the buying company (which knew very little) than for the supplier (which had excellent information). Many buyers lacked the competency either to assess or to monitor sellers, and feared loss of vital information. A company can outsource computing more easily today, in part because buyers, computer, technical management, and software knowhow are sufficient to make informed judgments about external suppliers. In addition to information anomalies, Stuckey and White note three types of asset specificity that commonly create market imperfections, calling for controlled sourcing solutions rather than relying on efficient markets.(15) These are: (1) site specificity, where sellers have located costly fixed assets in close proximity to the buyer, thus minimizing transport and inventory costs for a single supplier; (2) technical specificity, where one or both parties must invest in equipment that can be used only by the parties in conjunction with each other and has low value, in alternative uses; and (3) human capital specificity, where employees must develop in-depth skills that are specific to a particular buyer or customer relationship. Stuckey and White explain the outsourcing implications of information and specificity problems in the case of a bauxite mine and an alumina refiner. Refineries are usually located close to mines because of the high cost of transporting bauxite, relative to Its value. Refineries in turn are tuned to process the narrow set of physical properties associated with the particular mines bauxite. Different and highly specialized skills and assets are needed for refining versus mining. Access to Information further compounds problems., if an independent mine expects a strike, it is unlikely to share that information with its customers, unless there are strong incentives. As a result, the aluminum industry has moved toward vertical integration or strong bilateral joint ventures, as opposed to open outsourcing of bauxite supplies despite the apparent presence of a commodity product and many suppliers and sellers. In this case, issues of both competitive advantage and potential market failure dictate a higher degree of sourcing control. Degree of source control In deciding on a sourcing strategy for a particular segment of their business, managers have a wide range of control options the Exhibits 3 and 4 for the most basic). Where there is high potential both for vulnerability and for competitive edge, tight control is indicated (as in the bauxite case). At the opposite end is, say, office cleaning. Between these extremes are opportunities for developing special incentives or more complex oversight contracts to balance intermediate levels of vulnerability against more moderate prospects for competitive edge. Nikes multi-tier strategy offers an interesting example (see boxed insert on page 62). The practice and law of strategic alliances are rapidly developing new ways to deal with common control issues by establishing specified procedures that permit direct involvement in limited stages of a partners activities, without incurring either ownership arrangements or the loss of control inherent ln arms-length transactions. Flexibility versus control Within this framework, there is a constant tradeoff between flexibility and control. One of the main purposes of outsourcing is to have the supplier assume certain classes of investment and risk, such as demand variability. To optimize costs, the buying company may want to maintain its internal capacity at re atively constant levels despite highly fluctuating sales demands. Under these circumstances, it needs a surge strategy. McDonalds, for example, with $8billion in sales and 10.1 percent growth per year, needs to call in part-time and casual workers to handle extensive daily variations yet also be able to select its future permanent or managerial personnel from these people. IBM has had the opposite problem, since its core demand has been declining, the company has had to lay off employees. Yet it needs surge capacity for: (1) quick access to some former employees, basic skills; (2) available production capacity without the costs of supporting facilities full time; and (3) the ability to exploit strong outside parties specialized capabilities through temporary consortia for example, in applications software, microprocessors, network development, or factory automation. Strategically, McDonalds has created a pool of people available on call options, while IBM through spinouts of factories with baseload commitments to IBM, guaranteed consulting employment for key people, flexible joint venturts, and strategic alliances has created put options to handle surge needs as it downsizes and tries to turn around its business. There is a full spectrum of outsourcing arrangements, depending on the companys control and flexibility needs (see Exhibit 4). The issue is less whether to make or buy an activity than it is how to structure internal versus external sourcing on an optimal basis. Companies are outsourcing much more of what used to be considered either integral elements of their value chains or necessary staff activities. Because of greater complexity, higher specialization, and new technological capabilities, outside suppliers can now perform many such activities at lower cost and with higher value-added than a fully integrated company can. In some cases, new production technologies have moved manufacturing economies of scale toward the supplier. In others, service technologies have lowered transaction costs substantially, making it possible to specify, transport, store, and coordinate inputs from external sources so inexpensively that the balance of benefits has shifted from insourcing to outsourcing. In certain specialized niches, outside companies have grown to such size and sophistication that they have developed economies of scale, scope, and knowledge intensity so formidable that neither smaller nor more integrated producers can effectively compete with them (for example, ADP Services in payroll, and ServiceMaster in maintenance). To the extent that knowledge of a specific activity is more important than knowledge of the end product itself, specialized suppliers can often produce higher value-added at lower cost for that activity than almost any integrated company. Strategic benefits versus risks Too often companies look at outsourcing as a means to lower only short-term direct costs. However, through strategic outsourcing, companies can lower their long-term capital investments and leverage their key competencies significantly, as Apple and Nike have done. They can also force many types of risk and unwanted management problems onto suppliers. Gallo, the largest producer and distributor of wines in the United States, outsources most of its grapes, pushing the risks of weather, land prices, and labor problems onto its suppliers. Argyle Diamonds, one of the worlds largest diamond producers, outsources virtually all aspects of its operation except the crucial steps of separation and sorting of diamonds. It contracts all its huge earth-moving operations (to avoid capital and labor risks), its housing and food services for workers (to avoid confrontations on nonoperating issues), and much of its distribution (to De Beers to protect prices, to finance inventories, and to avoid the complications of worldwide distribution). By outsourcing to best-in-class suppliers in each case, it further ensures the quality and image of its operations. Important strategic benefits Strategically, outsourcing can provide the buyer with greater flexibility, especially in the purchase of rapidly developing new technologies, fashion goods, or the myriad components of complex systems. It reduces the companys design-cycle t