Saturday, November 30, 2019
KFC Case Analysis Essay Example
KFC Case Analysis Paper It is of critical importance that we develop a strong understanding of KFCââ¬â¢s current position and of the market in which it competes. The more comprehensive and well-founded our situational analysis is, the stronger our strategic marketing plan will be. I. The character and attractiveness of the U. S. food service and fast-food industries in 1994 The fast-food industry is considered a subsection of the food service industry, or rather a submarket within a broader market. This broader industry, the US food service industry, is in what is known as the maturity stage. Typically, the maturity stage exemplifies the following characteristics: Sales continue but at slower pace. Competition leads to decreased market share or prices. Competing products become very similar and differentiating product becomes both crucial and more difficult As a result, firms need to place their efforts into encouraging competitorsââ¬â¢ customers to switch to their product offering, increase usage per customer and even convert non-users into customers. At this stage, the primary goal of a given firm is to maintain market share. The food service industry, as is the fast-food industry, is typified by franchising which became well-established in the early 1950s. The concept held and in 1994 there were over 550, 000 restaurants and food outlets in America. Although the industry in 1994 was slowing, that is not to say that it was not growing. Food service industry sales were forecast to surpass $275 billion and this had grown at an estimated compound annual rate of 3. 9% from 1988 till 1994. This billion dollar industry is dominated by the fast-food and full service segments who commanded annual sales of $86 billion and $85. billion dollars respectively. We will write a custom essay sample on KFC Case Analysis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on KFC Case Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on KFC Case Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The fast-food segment is prima facie, a very attractive one. Not only did the segment grow 5. 6%, outpacing almost all other food categories but its future is also promising with a forecast of 6. 3% growth in 1994. In addition, the share of industry sales by the fast-food industry has risen by 1. 8 years over the last 5 years showing market dominance and growth. When we consider the fast-food industry specifically, pizza, family restaurants and dinner houses are the winners if e assess growth. The chicken segment, in which KFC competes, grew only 4. 1% as demographics changed and the trend towards healthier eating gained momentum. Figure 1 illustrates the market share held by each of the fast-food categories. However, though there has been seemingly strong growth up until now, assessing market attractiveness inherently involves some element of forecasting as we need not only assess current attractiveness, but future scenarios as well. Consumer preferences in 1994 were changing. There was a move away from fried unhealthy food to healthier options As per the survey in 1994, consumers showed a desire for a greater variety of menu items In this time, consumers also began expecting greater value for their money. This will inevitably have implications on the price strategy pursued by a firm as it puts pressure on lowering price and developing a viable cost structure. Other things being equal, this detracts from market attractiveness as it presents new and problematic challenges for current and potential competing firms. II. The major competitors for KFC KFCââ¬â¢s competitors can be considered in the context of consumersââ¬â¢ purchasing and consumption behaviours. The consumer segments can be classified depending on the benefits sought by the consumer. These benefits include the convenience of a fast food chain such as KFC, the satisfaction resulting from consumption and the attractive prices of the products. The success of the fast-food industry can be partly attributed to its universal appeal of convenience for the consumer in satisfying the basic physiological need for food. KFCââ¬â¢s competitors can be ranked accordingly. Figure ranks the competitors of KFC from the most to least direct competition. Other Fast Food Chains such as McDonalds and Popeyes can be seen as KFCââ¬â¢s biggest competitors in the market as it too, has the competitive advantage of convenience for the consumer. Take away can be seen as less convenient as the time required in attaining the food is greater than fast-food and there is often a need to pre-order to ensure reduced waiting time. Take away is followed by restaurants, and Frozen Dinners, as they are more inconvenient and time consuming. The most indirect competition is meals that have to be cooked at home. When we assess competition in light of taste, competition can be divided into several groups: Chicken Chains: Chains offering a large variety including fried chicken Upscale Chicken Chains Chains that offer other fried products If the consumer segment purchases KFC for reasons of predominantly taste, Chicken Chains such as Popeyes and Chick-A-Fillet would be appropriately considered KFCââ¬â¢s main competitors. However the variety offered by such competitors as McDonalds and Hardees can not only satisfy the needs of the consumers that prefer fried chicken but also those with different preferences. Indirectly KFC is also competing with Fast Food Chains that do not offer fried chicken but does offer other fried products. The strong competition faced by KFC in the market of Fast Food, show that organisations such as McDonalds as the greatest threat. The distribution network of McDonalds and their large variety of meal offering quickly appeals to families. McDonalds offering of Value Meals and lower pricing strategy makes McDonalds an even larger threat to KFC in the market. III. The critical issues faced in 1994 In 1994, KFC Brand Development President Kyle Craig and KFC-USA were faced with several critical issues regarding the growth and development of KFC. Craig expressed that his main concern for KFC was the companyââ¬â¢s ability to handle change in the future. However, there were many issues present that affected various aspects of KFCââ¬â¢s corporation, competition and customer. There were numerous critical issues that involved the KFC corporation. One of these issues was the growth of international operations and declining domestic restaurant construction. The expansion of free-standing restaurants was seen as particularly difficult due to the availability of sites and the cost of construction. Another issue affecting the corporation was that of store refurbishment. Due to the age of many KFC restaurants, the expenditure of significant financial resources was required to refurbish and update these older restaurants. Refurbishments were also required to accommodate consumer demand for faster service that included drive through and dine-in options. At the beginning of 1994, Craig noted that limited menu options and significant service problems presented considerable concerns for the business. The limited menu options would owe largely to changing consumer demands and the inability for KFC to stay current and focused. However, the service problems, which partly stem from the outdated systems and facilities in place at KFC, could be largely attributable to the takeover of KFC by PepsiCo in 1986. After acquiring KFC, PepsiCo set about restructuring the KFC organisation, reducing staff numbers and replacing KFC personnel with managers from PepsiCo. The culture at PepsiCo, which was characterised by performance, accountability and the drive for promotion, starkly contrasted the traditional KFC philosophy, which emphasised life-time employment, independence and a relaxed atmosphere. Conflict arose due to the differing organisational cultures and corporate restructuring resulted in morale issues for KFC employees. Employee morale would therefore present itself as a primary critical issue for Craig and KFC as feelings of uncertainty and the pressure to perform essentially hinder the quality of service provided. One other critical issue Craig and KFC were faced with regarding the corporation was that of product distribution and growing the KFC brand domestically. Domestic restaurant growth had slowed in the five years prior to 1994, largely due to the financial expenditure required to build traditional free-standing restaurants. Craig and KFC also faced difficulties with their franchise operations. Difficulties with franchises arose due to two issues. Expansion of franchise location due to contract stipulations was one issue (no new KFC units could be built within a 1. 5 mile radius of an existing KFC store). Where franchise owners had once felt independent of the reign of the corporation (this ultimately led to a stronger sense of devotion to the KFC organisation), new PepsiCo management emphasised tighter control over day-to-day operations, which angered many franchise owners. Some other critical issues that Craig and KFC faced involved meeting the demands of consumers and understanding new, niche consumer markets. By 1994, consumer expectations of the fast-food industry demanded -the provision of quick and efficient service -a greater variety of menu items -value for money -that fast food be available at more non-traditional outlets, for example, airports. Another issue faced by KFC was appealing to the needs of a more health conscious consumer, which would involve adding healthier products options to their menus. Critical issues that involved KFCââ¬â¢s competitors largely revolved around the menu items of various fast-food chains. Throughout the late 1980s, most of KFCââ¬â¢s competition was limited to other fast food chains that offered fried chicken. However, by 1994, KFC faced competition from non-fried chicken chains, primarily the sandwich chains, who had introduced fried chicken products to their menus. This issue was of great importance for Craig and KFC, as it meant they lost business to other fast food chains offering a greater variety of food items across a range of food segments. Another issue faced by Craig and KFC was the addition of new, upscale chicken chains to the market (for example, Boston Chicken and Kenny Rogerââ¬â¢s Roasters). These new chains targeted a market niche not previously pursued by KFC, being higher income customers and health conscious customers. Essentially, in 1994, Kyle Craig and KFC-USA were faced with the problem of making the transition from an ââ¬Ëoldââ¬â¢ KFC to a ââ¬Ënewââ¬â¢ KFC. Any business strategy to be formulated from there on needed to focus largely on the consumer. This would mean encompassing current consumer demands for healthier food options at lower prices, greater variety in food selection and a higher level of service and cleanliness in a greater variety of locations. IV. The industryââ¬â¢s key success factors The key factor within the fast food industry is convenience, and it is this that becomes the common denominator for all other factors in the overall managerial and marketing strategy behind fast food franchises. Pricing: Cheap pricing ââ¬â appeals to younger demographic and general price perceptions (price aversion) of consumers. The cheap pricing is also implicitly reflective of fast efficient and convenient service as consumers expect less quality and care in their service for the money they have paid. Location: Popularity and breadth of franchising shows importance of location to securing market share. While fast food outlets were originally stores with drive-thru and dine-in facilities, they are becoming ever more prevalent in food courts and in the central business districts. Essentially this means that placing outlets within close locality of people ensures greater convenience. Speed and style of service/delivery: In survey 48% of the subjects said being in a hurry or wanting fast service as major factor in their choice. This means that there is a lower emphasis on the quality of the service offered as long as it is fast and efficient. Fast-food outlets offer drive-thru and home delivery so that customers can purchase their meal with minimal effort. Quality and Variety: Although customers do not expect great quality as the trade-off for fast, convenient service and a low price, they are becoming increasing demanding for a greater variety of foods to choose from. Franchises like McDonalds offer a wide range of foods from healthy options, vegetarian, chicken, beef and fish meals. It is McDonaldââ¬â¢s ability to combine variety with convenience is one of the key factors behind its great success in the industry. Demography: Dominant growth of family restaurant chains and dinner houses is attributable changing demographic ââ¬â move towards over 65s who eat out less often and tend to spend more time eating their meal, prefer sit-down restaurants and are more likely to choose more upscale restaurants such as dinner houses. Studies have shown that the 18-24 age group consume around 5 meals away from home compared to the rest of consumers-proving that they are a valuable component of the food-service industry. Essentially, the food service industry has developed itself to be highly compatible with that of the American lifestyle. Consumers are expecting more for less cost and the fast food industry has provided exactly this, cheap food for fast efficient service, a wide variety of choice that is of ever-increasing quality. V. Recommendations for KFC KFC has been around for a long time spanning over some five decades over which it has gained a strong foothold in the fast-food industry. As the market leader in fried chicken, it can be safe to conclude that KFC is in the maturity stage in the product life cycle. While it currently maintains a dominating presence in the industry, changes in consumer preferences, the entry of new fast food chains and their increasingly out-of-date marketing system threatens to send KFC into the decline stage of the Product Life Cycle unless the organisation takes on certain changes that keep KFC up to date with the current market. The recommendations for change can be directly correlated with the critical issues that KFC faces and are best analysed through the ââ¬Å"4 Psâ⬠, or product, price, placement and promotion, and the ââ¬Å"3 Csâ⬠, or rather competitor, consumer and corporation. Note however that there is significant overlap with the two analyses and in our endeavour to avoid repetition, aspects appropriately discussed in both of the models will only be discussed in one at the exclusion of the other. (i) Product KFCââ¬â¢s primary product is fried chicken and the meals on offer rarely deviate far from this base. By offering fried chicken, KFC has made a niche in the fast-food market devoted completely to chicken and is currently the market leader. This is reflective of KFCââ¬â¢s position on the product life cycle graph at the maturity stage as they have gained a strong foothold in the industry and have to continuously remain competitive. Firstly looking into offering a greater variety of choices that spans across food groups outside of chicken may potentially be a viable option. Expanding the menu across a range of food groups enables KFC to gain a later share of the take-away market. Consumers often walk into stores seeking take away, not necessarily seeking fried chicken in particular so offering a larger range of take-away foods makes KFC a more likely contestant in the choice for dinner. Should KFC choose to remain with the core product of chicken, they can still look into various options of differentiation for their product. Firstly, healthy options would appeal to the ever growing health conscious sector. This could entail menu options such as grilled chicken or barbeque chicken. After seeing the success of the golden rotisserie chicken, one can fairly assume that these options can be potentially profitable. KFC also lacked in meal deals at the time of the article, whereas some take-away outlets offered value meals, KFC merely had products on offer individually, which goes against the core demand from customers- convenience. Offering meal deals enables customers to make quick choices on various meal combinations. This leads to the final product option, within the meal deals, KFC should look at ââ¬Å"kids mealsâ⬠because young children can potentially make up a large portion of the consumer base. Offering value meals with toys attracts the 2-12 year old age bracket and these types of offerings would KFC on par with other competitors. (ii) Placement As KFC continues along the maturity stage in the product life cycle, the need for well thought out placement of new stores and the refurbishment of existing restaurants comes to the forefront of the organisationââ¬â¢s issues because the organisation is in danger of slipping into decline if it is seen as outdated and inconvenient by consumers. KFC should start off with their conventional free-standing restaurant layout and improve on it. With the old outdated buildings, KFC would improve the outlook as well as the convenience factor in their existing stores. This can be achieved through the installation of more drive-thru and dine-in areas which will minimise overcrowding at the counter. This effectively reduces the service time and increases convenience both of which are key factors critical to the success of KFC in the Take-away market. KFC acknowledged the high cost and difficulty in locating land on which to build new free-standing restaurants. But, with convenience as the key factor, KFC can take this drawback as an opportunity and look at new ââ¬Ëunconventionalââ¬â¢ placements of their products. This can include airports, food courts within shopping malls and in the central business district amongst city buildings. (iii) Price KFC should take advantage of their position at the maturity stage in the product life cycle and offer competitive prices that form a barrier to entry of new competition while emphasising their dominance as the chicken market leader. While convenience is the primary factor for consideration with take-away, consumers are becoming increasingly demanding and expectations for lower prices must be met to maintain or gain market share. Once again, offering ââ¬Ëmeal dealsââ¬â¢ creates a sense of ââ¬Å"valueâ⬠for customers while increasing convenience. (iv) Promotion The primary focus within the promotion should be on the kids meals and meal deals because both implicitly offer good monetary value and convenience. The promotion of the new meal deals could be through the use of coupons, television advertising, radio promotions and importantly, the internet, which would provide a convenient access point of promotion through which the organisation can run various competitions and surveys. Through the internet, KFC can gather information on their consumer base and gain increasing recognition for virtually no cost. Furthermore, becoming active in CSR projects is a good promotion tactic as it helps stop the alienation of big corporate giants like KFC from the public and thus increases its good reputation amongst the community. CSR also helps to boost the morale and strengthen the internal culture of an organisation. The 3 Cââ¬â¢s (minus material covered above) KFC is faced with changing consumer expectations. Areas including the improvement of provision of quick and efficient service, a greater variety of menu items, and value for money and availability at more non-traditional outlets require KFCââ¬â¢s immediate and committed efforts to address the dynamic expectations of consumers. One major change must be effected within the corporation. PepsiCo needs to create a more supportive structure and environment for franchise owners, and a softer approach to human resource management to encourage franchise parent relationships and possible synergies. A better internal culture whereby management of different levels communicate and address problems, as opposed to viewing other management as competitors could promote efficiency within the organisation and boost morale within the organisation, and in turn productivity. The above is a detailed ââ¬Ësnapshotââ¬â¢ of the environment in which KFC and the industry at large participated in 1994. It is clear that Kyle Craig and KFC-USA are faced with significant issues but these are not without the potential for innovation and growth. From this analysis, objectives, strategy and positions can be developed to ensure KFC remains the powerful player that it is.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Paris Noir Essays - Bee Train, Funimation Entertainment, Neo-noir
Paris Noir Essays - Bee Train, Funimation Entertainment, Neo-noir Paris Noir Paris Noir One of Americas great dark periods of the 20th Century was the treatment of African Americans that lasted well after they had been freed. In a country that celebrated its freedom, its government of the people and by the people, a good number of its people remained enslaved by injustice. Blacks remained poor, uneducated, and segregated because whites needed someone to blame their troubles on and they needed someone to work for less. Its sad to think how and institute of hate can be so strong and how little people could to think for themselves. The book Paris Noir is refreshing and enlightening. Theres a lot of history out there that remains unsung, the greatest tragedy of history books is the lack of a unbiased view of whats important. Luckily we live in a time where history is being examined closer and more impartially, but theres still a long way to go. I think history books continue to really overlook this prevailing issue in the American Armed Forces in World War I. Its stunning to learn how black troops were treated and how little they were rewarded. They provided a great service for America a service that has gone largely unsung. Thankfully, there are places in such a sad world where blacks are not treated so harshly. In France and more specifically Paris, blacks found a place that resembled the near equal society they had hoped America to become. The French greatly appreciated their efforts and applauded their efforts even when America would deny them any recognition.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Social Analytics Suite See Whats New Improved In CoSchedule
Social Analytics Suite See Whats New Improved In Proving the ROI of social mediaâ⬠¦ is no small task. You spend countless hours gathering stats from multiple social networksâ⬠¦ haphazardly analyzing metricsà in hopes of making ââ¬Å"smartishâ⬠decisionsâ⬠¦ and compiling those findings into reportsà your stakeholders *might*à understand.🠤ž Itââ¬â¢s clunky. Itââ¬â¢s disconnected. And itââ¬â¢s a major time-suck. Letââ¬â¢s change that, shall we? With ââ¬â¢s NEW and improved Social Analytics Suite, getting the metrics that matter FAST and in beautiful, easy-to-understand reports is easier than ever! Refine Your Social Strategy With ââ¬â¢s NEW Improved Social Analytics SuiteHereââ¬â¢s the lowdown NEW Social Engagement Report: The holistic report for all your social activity. Get a birdââ¬â¢s eye view on your entire social performance with better filtering, better design, and more context than ever before. Social Profile Reports: Your secret weapon for PER network performance. No more downloading reports from individual platforms (or multiple third-party tools). Quickly view important social KPIs for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. NEW Social Campaign Reports: The report for pinpointing correlations between two campaigns with side-by-side comparisons. Review similar campaigns or posts to test whatââ¬â¢s working (and what isnââ¬â¢t). à Top Content Report: Instantly know what content performs best with your audience on social media. Track and measure social shares and repromote your most popular posts. And finallywith all of these reports,à you can easilyà create presentation-ready reports to share with your team and VPs. Provide data-driven feedback to your employees and defend your marketing decisions to your CEO with metrics and analysis people can actually understand (Available on our Pro Enterprise plans). Ready to get access to reports you can actually use? Time to dive into each report! Starting with ââ¬â¢s NEW Social Engagement Report Your boss asks you in passing, ââ¬Å"how are we doing on social media?â⬠Do you have the answer? Or is this more familiar? ðŸââ¡ Get the answers you need FAST with ââ¬â¢s NEW Social Engagement Report. Our latest updates and improvements to this report give you a birdââ¬â¢s eye view of your entire social performance with better filtering, better design, and more context than ever before. Letââ¬â¢s dig into the upgrades. Check out the Engagement Rollupà for a high-level overview of your social performance in one place. The best part you have access to baseline metrics! Youââ¬â¢ll get current performance metrics PLUS lifetime averages and last period averages, so you can determine if things are improving or falling off track based on past performance. Want a quick health check of your social promotion? Review your Engagement Growth. This chart breaks down the # of messages you send and how they correlate with the # of engagements throughout your set date range. Are things flatlining? Or are you seeing a steady increase in engagement? Review the graph for answers. Next up learn how your audience engages with your posts AND identify your top social network with Engagements by Interaction. Prioritize which social channels you should invest time and energy into, and which ones you can pull back on. But as you knowâ⬠¦ Not every post is created equal. Your engagement metrics will vary based on a lot of different factors audience interest, content topic, voice, etc. Which is where New Report Filtersà come to the rescue. With improved filtering options, you can run custom reports that segment data by Color Labels, Content Type, Social Profile, and/or Tags. Interested in seeing how your product marketing posts are performing? Select the color label that groups your product marketing projects and posts together on your calendar and ta-da! You have an engagement report that is designed to help your product marketing team improve their social promotion. Best of all you can save any reports youll want to run (and share) again. So create custom reports for each department head or build a report for a specific product line. Giving you all the tools to access valuable, custom social reports in seconds. Heres how to build custom social media reports with @.Social Profile Reports Tired of downloading reports from individual social platforms and spending countless hours formatting them into something you can actually make sense of? With Social Profile Reports, you can access performance data for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest in just one click. These reports are designed to give you an active pulse on how each individual social profile is performing. Are you posting too often? Too little? Review your posting frequency. Look for imbalances in posting frequency to reveal any opportunities to post more often (or move content to fill in gaps on your calendar). Next, uncover the Best Day to Post, à Best Time to Post, and Best Message Type to Post on each individual profile. Your audiencesââ¬â¢ preferences and behaviors vary by profile. Make sure to use this data to optimize your social messages for your most engaged followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. BONUS: This info will come in handy when youââ¬â¢re building out new social media campaigns. Which leads us to Social Campaign Reports The newest report in ââ¬â¢s Analytics Suite à Social Campaign Reports. Now you can create social media reports for specific projects or pieces of content on your calendar. So when your boss asks for a report on how the latest employee recruitment blog post performed on social media, you can deliver. But the feature that sets this report apart from the rest of ââ¬â¢s Analytics Reports is the comparison report. Now you can compare two projects or pieces of content side-by-side. Making it simple to pinpoint correlations between two campaigns to test whatââ¬â¢s working (and what isnââ¬â¢t). Review last yearââ¬â¢s fundraising campaign against this yearââ¬â¢s event. à Look for similarities and differences to improve your social promotion. Did video posts outperform link posts for the second year in a row? Plan to create more videos for next yearââ¬â¢s event. Run campaign reports to unite data and measure the success of your latest event promotion, product launch, or other campaigns on social media. Top Content Report Which leads us to our final report the Top Content Report. Inside this report, you can see your most popular content shared across social media. Instantly identify which blog posts and other content links resonate most with your audience based on how many shares they receive on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+. So itââ¬â¢s super simple to re-share your best projects again to maximize their impact.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Home Depot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Home Depot - Essay Example Home Depot operates with contracts, establishes credits with the bank, which provides it opportunities to work effectively in the long run (Magretta). In home improvement industry, it is prior for companies to anticipate with the changing market trends and knowledge (Harrison and John). Home Depot is effective to anticipate with the changing trends in the market and retains their customer. For the new entrant lack of knowledge and experience in the field makes it difficult to maintain its supply chains and customer retention. In addition; Home Depot has maintained an absolute cost advantage in the industry (Harrison and John). The pricing offered by the company is low cost pricing which makes the competition tough in the in the industry. Home Depot has maintained an exclusive control on the costing by developing strong relations with its exclusive sellers and suppliers. One of the major advantages Home Depot experience is the brand image, as customers are more inclined to approach co mpanies having strong brand names (Harrison and John). Home Depot has served over years, it is known as for the best quality and service provider in the industry. This eventually declines the dilemma for the existing companies like Home Depot and Lowies from the new entrants. Constantly, it can be concluded that Home Depot has an edge in the market and has restrained others from entering as new threats. 3.3.2 ââ¬â Bargaining Power of Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers in the home improvement industry is a low force. Home Depotââ¬â¢s expense controls and cost initiatives are its core competencies. Prominent companies in the industry like Home Depot and Loweââ¬â¢s are dependent on well recognized brand name suppliers (Harrison and John). These firms maintain strategic alliances and exclusive relationship with certain suppliers; they maintain their market image in the industry, which eventually secures the bargaining power of suppliers. Home Depot maintains exclusive relationship with its suppliers, as it is depend upon products that are well recognized and brand suppliers. This is because of the reason that if these firms are unable to maintain strong relationship with its suppliers the may lose their product variety and quality (Harrison and John). Furthermore Home Depot eliminates the reliance upon third parties and middle man; this is because of the reason that if these third parties run into financial or regulatory difficulties it may caste negative impacts on the company in the industry (Harrison and John). Therefore, home depot has centralized its purchases operations through making direct purchases (Harrison and John). The online centers of the company aid company to minimize the control of suppliers. Home Depot also maintains websites to maintain and to strengthening the relationship with its suppliers, these measures limits supplierââ¬â¢s bargaining power to a low force. 3.3.3 ââ¬â Threat Of Substitute Products or Services The threat of substitution in the home retailing industry is relatively low, because the substitution for the home product like hammers, nails, and paint etc. can be the similar products bought within the industry which are also sold by the same vendors (Harrison and John). It is true that the demand of products, their supplies and prices are interrelated in a market, which
Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Comunication in organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Comunication in organization - Essay Example On the other hand, the model that the organizations adapt for communication is defines its effectiveness. Communication in an organization can contribute to its failure or its success (Downs & Adrian, 2004). This paper is a recommendation report that addresses the problem of communication in a business organization. It identifies the problems and recommends how an organization should deal with such problems related to communication. Communication Problems in an Organization Poor communication is a major problem in most organizations. It leads to failure of many projects, dissatisfaction of employees and eventually high turnover of employees hence causing huge losses to the organization. Poor communication also leads to lack of team work within the organization. This might result to low or dismal performance by employees. One major problem associated with poor communication is the lack of employees being informed about whatever is happening in the organization (Carroll, 2010). This ca n be facilitated by lack personal contact between workers and management. In most organization, there is a wide gap that exists between top managers and employees at the lowest level in the organization. As a result, it becomes difficult for information to flow effectively and efficiently from the top to bottom. Employees at the lower level stay in the dark, and they do not know what is happening. It is assumed that the modes of communication used can deliver important information to all employees. However, there are employees who do not use the modes of communication. For instance, where the top management is not in personal contact with the other employees, they might decide to use email as a mode of communication. Not all employees working in the organization have access to computers. Therefore, they do not use emails. It becomes difficult for such employees to be up to date about what is happening. It is imperative to note that the large gap in the organization has continued to increase especially with the advancement of technology. There is no personal contact since people are mostly using computers and cell phones for communication. Not all employees have access to these facilities. Managers who have excellent communication skills would prefer personal contact when communicating to their employees. The other problem associated with poor communication is the lack of clarity in the information received by employees from management (Carroll, 2010). It is very important for managers to communicate to their employees clearly. This is essential for successful communication to be effected. People are different and different employees interpret things in a different way. As a result, the managers need to clarify the issues they wish to communicate. Lack of clarity in information delivered by top managers might lead to different supervisors communicating messages that are conflicting to lower level employees. This leads to inconsistency of communication. There re sult is that there will be confusion among employees. This might affect the overall organizational performance. Poor communication also leads to luck of timely deliverance of information to employees. Employees do not get information when they need it (Carroll, 2010). This causes delays in decision making. It also delays projects especially if vital information is not received on good time. This is one reason that is likely to cause project failures. On the other
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Reaction Paper of World Economic Forum Essay Example for Free
Reaction Paper of World Economic Forum Essay Child labor refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labor. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries. Child labor was employed to varying extents through most of history, but entered public dispute with the advent of universal schooling, with changes in working conditions during the industrial revolution, and with the emergence of the concepts of workers and childrens rights. This definition is from the Wikipedia. Why does this exist? To whom will be the blame be given? Is it the parents, who raised their children to work, or the children themselves who decided to work to overcome hunger and thirst for survival? Is it the government that has to be responsible to this or this is all because of the inevitable poverty we are now experiencing today? For me, I have to blame all because in each problem of the society we encounter, it is not always that it is only a problem of one but rather it is a problem of all. We tend to forget that the ones affected to this kind of problem are also of our kind, Filipinos. We should always remember this statement, ââ¬Å"One for all, and all for one.â⬠I have mentioned above that are the parents to blame for this kind of problem. I say yes, a big yes for me. Why? It is simply because the parents are the first people that the child may know and they are the one who nurtures the child. Moreover, the parents are the one responsible if ever their children have nothing to eat and wear for everyday living. The parents in the society are expected to provide all their children needs for the bore them not to be slaves in the family. The parents are expected to give the right to education for their children to earn knowledge and not send them to factories that would bring them sickness just to earn money. But now, all the expected things turned out wrong. Some parents even do not mind if their children are already at the streets asking alms, some are into drugs, and some engage to crimes such as robbery and prostitution. If I were the parent, I had rather just send them to DSWD and see them eating and playing than watching them earn a living at the young age. I do not say that putting the child to DSWD is another irresponsible act the parent had made but it will be the best alternative answer to the problem. Are the children also to blame? I can say that the children have also something to deal with this. Even if the child is only four years old and has no sense of maturity yet, the child has something to play with this. Sometimes, it is the childrenââ¬â¢s decision to work for their families. They are working not because they want to eat, but rather gave the money to their parents, hoping that this money results to something that is good for their stomachs. In some cases, the children also are the ones that decide to leave the family because they see that the family cannot give the happiness they are asking for. So, the children have no choice but to leave independently and find their own living. The worst is that the children may engage into crimes such as killing, stealing, and prostitution. This is really happening in the society today. I can share an experience of one of our maids of our family. I admit that we hired her at her minority age. She was only 15 when she entered our home. After months of working in our house, we had already given her our trust. One day, we invited her to come into our lolaââ¬â¢s house for the fiesta. She agreed to come rather than staying at home alone, and we wanted her to come because maybe she will be stealing anything from the house without our knowledge. We cannot give all our trust to a certain person right? Anyways, we had the time to go to the beach. The tide was so low that the sea was very far from the shore. Our maid never knew that the water was shallow. The dived and end up with bleeding wounds in her face. We immediately went home to cure her wounds. When we went home to back in Tacloban, she was not feeling easy. I think that the scars in her face made her actions limited and a little bit more conservative. After 3 days after the said incident, she left our house without any permission. We immediately reported this to her parents. Time passed but still no news was heard. We have now a new maid but of legal age. Years passed, and suddenly our roads had crossed each other. I have seen her near the seawall in the city but the thing that stunned me most is that she was already carry with her a child. This story is just one example of what can happen to children in our society. Is the government part of the problem? Iââ¬â¢ll answer this question with a yes again. The government is expected to implement laws for this and make sure that these laws are nationwide followed. The government should play as the provider of the needs that the households cannot provide. It is sometimes reasonable that the government cannot provide them all but at least they will show that they are concerned to this problem. I can see that some policemen maltreat these children. Better if we just leave them alone and just catch them if they are now doing beyond the limitations. Iââ¬â¢m disappointed to those government officials who did not do an effective action to eradicate this problem in our society. I am not an anti-government individual but I guess this is reality. Man is a power-seeker according to Thomas Hobbes so man really has the tendency to retain his power when he is in power and the outcome is that the poor will always be poor. Lastly, the poverty we are facing is the best reason why the children are into this action. Poverty is the reason why the parents cannot send their children to school, where the children are expected to learn and to socialize with our children. Poverty is also the main reason why the parents cannot provide the quality of happiness each child is longing for. The conception of poverty because of overpopulation is quite wrong. It some points it is true that this overpopulation can affect the way of living in a family but what now for China that contribute a big fraction to the worldââ¬â¢s population. China is a big country in both economy and population. If China can make a difference why cannot we? As a conclusion, I am really against to this kind of problem in the society and besides who are happy watching children working not for themselves but to others. I am really thankful to my parents that I was raised efficiently, providing me anything that could bring to a better outcome. Time will come that I will be a parent. I am hoping that somehow there will be changes in our society that is concerned to this problem. It is still not the end for this. The solution is just there. All are aiming that this can be totally eradicated in the future.
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Essay --
Introduction India is the worldââ¬â¢s second most populous country after china having a population that exceeds 1 billion people (Indiastat, 2014). Jason Burke from The Guardianââ¬â¢s newspaper claims that India wants to join the Russians, the US and the Europeans by sending a rocket to mars: to steal chinaââ¬â¢s existing situation and despite itââ¬â¢s failure the government insists on sending the rocket again. The Economist newspaper mentions that itââ¬â¢s not just India that has space ambitions but other countries too. Such as China and Nigeria. However, a number of people believe that the Indian population cannot afford the mission to mars because of the poverty they suffer of. This essay will highlight the reasons of why the Indian population cannot afford the mission, which will include the malnourished population, the homeless and lack of education. Malnourished population The World Health Organization reports that Indiaââ¬â¢s malnutrition rates are between the worst in the world (Stuart, 2013). Jason Burke from The Guardian newspaper claims that it is estimated that More than 40% of the children living in India are malnourished. Food is considered one of the main essentials of life and without it the person cannot survive. The Economist newspaper mentions that two-fifths of the Indiaââ¬â¢s children remain underdeveloped from malnourishment. The Economist adds that India's space ambitions could appear like a spare of money. Most of the governmentââ¬â¢s money is directed toward the attempt for the success of this mission. Indiaââ¬â¢s space programme cost approximately 1Billion$, with the failure of the mission it requires another billion dollar for the second attempt. This can jeopardize the million lives of the poor residents of India. Considering the est... ...mars mission will have to wait for another 2 to 5 years for another chance (Burke, 2013); which means that the population of India will have to struggle and survive till the Indian government would provide them with all their needs. Conclusion The discussion above has examined evidence, which supported my hypothesis that the Indian government cannot afford the mars mission because of the malnourished population, the homeless people and the lack of education. Indeed, as previously discussed Indiaââ¬â¢s high population is enduring the pain and the poverty. The mars mission could have devastating effects on the Indians since all of the money is directed toward this expenditure. The National governments should examine the status of each individual in India; to prioritize the people needs over the governments and to create a stronger nation that do not suffer poverty.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Quality Compliance Manager
IHRM Case Study 1 1. Consider the three candidates in Exhibit A below. It forced to make a decision tomorrow, which candidate should Alistair choose for the job? What major factors should determinate his choice? Trianon is an Anglo-French avionics company, headquarter is in Marseille. Alistair was hire as Director of Personnel Development European Division, and he has to recruit a Quality Compliance Manager for the site in Hungary. In fact, decision was making for a ten-year joint venture with a Hungarian government-backed firm.The new manager needs to be available soon and has to be familiar with the joint ventureââ¬â¢s objectives and targets. The way I see best to be able to choose between the given candidates for Alistair, is to start by list the strengths and weakness for the fitting job. A more refined way to approach this task is taking in consideration the three proposed candidates and reviews the job description accordingly to the strengths and weakness. Reaching out to po ssible close regions such as Hungary would help in giving a clearer view the abilities of the best fitting candidate.Having said that there is no perfect candidate among the three. From the short list given by Alistair each of the three have their strengths and weakness balanced out. Maria: Mrs, Erten-Loiseau is the best-fit choice for the job. As she was educated in France and Germany, itââ¬â¢s to the advantage of starting up joint venture to hire a candidate that fluently speaks in French and German. In addition to have worked for Trianon for 13 years insures that she can handle a high level of responsibility and already has insight of processes and procedures.Already proven her abilities in the success of the two projects in Lodz, Poland and Czech Republic. Having said all that the two possible weaknesses to keep in mind is her marriage to a semi-retired husband with a child in university therefore might not be able for the shift to Hungary. As well as Mrs. , Maria would be ne w to the production of the cathode ray tube, no previous experience. Janos Gabor: Mr Janos was born, raised and educated in Hungary so for that reason he is fluent in Hungarian. Jones is single with no responsibilities and independent on taking decisions unlike Mrs.Maria and for these two reasons he wouldnââ¬â¢t have issues in working in hungary and possible trips to Germany and France . In addition an advantage of his, that he has experience in the production of the cathode ray tube as he is the Senior Engineer of the production and is familiar with maintain a facility. As well his family has strong connections with national government officials. Having this relation would be a bonus asset to expanding contacts for the long term of Trianon. Having said all this he is a great risk knowing he his short time frame with Trainon would create a conflict between local contracts and Trainon.Sinead Marrinan McGuire: Mrs. Sinead resume has impressive technical potentials in particular in the field of joint ventures. Mrs. McGuire on the other has many weaknesses that wouldnââ¬â¢t be fit as a candidate for the position. Beginning with she has been more drawn to the Western Europe regions, therefore has constraints in languages and communication abilities. She is married and her wife is well culture submerged and has a stable career in Ireland along with three children. Taking her into consideration as a potential candidate one should take into consideration what chapter 4 talks about à « family friendly policies à » . We are told nothing of the process that Trianon uses to recruit candidates for this level of final selection. Given what you know about the firm from the case, outline a general recruitment and selection process for Trianon. Describe how your proposed process fits with best selection practices as well as the strategic needs of this company? The first and forth most step in recruitment and selection process for Trianon HR team would be to create a jo b description for the role required for Quality Compliance Manager of the joint venture in Hungary.The role of job analysis is to provide information about what duties the job entails and what human characteristics are required to perform these activities as said by Dressler (2011) . Having that in mind would help the Trainon HR team to conclude a job description, role and responsibility, and job specification to make the decision for the three years contract based in Hungry. The advantage to start off this way would help in eliminating candidates leaving the best fit for the job and parallel stating it making it clear from the start.To the typical job identification details it should include the following: client relationships, responsibilities and duties, solve any optical that comes along and the goals to be achieved. Before staffing the criteria must be defined. The criteria arenââ¬â¢t the same for each expatriation. The most frequent criteria are: ââ¬â Technical Ability: Maintains and demonstrates appropriate and necessary technical knowledge related to a discipline or Agency function and continues to refine relevant analytical/technical skills as well as professional judgment. Cross-cultural suitability: will the candidate be able to function in the new environment, how adaptable is a person. ââ¬â Family Requirements: When the department of IHRM is recruiting for a position abroad they also must take into account the family factor. -MNE Requirements: The MNE must make the right choice of their strategies of expatriates; HCN, PCN, TCN -Language: The expatriate should have some good language skills. It is important to have a basis of the mother tong of the country. Country / Cultural Requirements: The employee must be well informed about the culture and traditions of the country in which it will work. It must also be informed about the management habits. -The use of selection tests. There are 4 strategies of international Staffing (Heenan &Perlm utter): Ethnocentric, Geocentric, Polycentric, and Geocentric. In our case with Trianon, it would be wiser to choose the ethnocentric staffing strategy. This strategy is fine for businesses that are at the beginning of their internationalization.We know that itââ¬â¢s Trianonââ¬â¢s first joint ââ¬â venture with an Easter European company. Ethnocentric is a staffing policy that is used in companies that has primarily international strategic orientation. Headquarters generally adopts this policy by sending employees from the home or parent countries to the host country. This approach is used best in some situations such as, a team is sent from the home country to help setting up a new plant as well as train subsidiary personnel to use new system.The benefit of having staffs from home country abroad is that employees may gain experiences worldwide in order to become higher level in management of their headquarters because international managers require broad perspective and in ternational exposure. In this recruitment strategy the key positions are occupied by PCNââ¬â¢s. PCNââ¬â¢s are going from the headquarters to the subsidiaries, in our case to the new firm. The reasons why we use PCNââ¬â¢s are quit clear. Several advantages result from employing PCNs who have experience in the organization rather than headquarters as being familiar ith the organizations goals, products, services, technology, policies, and procedures usually considers HCNs or TCNs. PCNs. This familiarity may help facilitate coordination, control, and development of organizational strategy. I think it is important because this joint venture is a new project that has been decided very quickly. Having a PCN on place will permit Trianon to keep an eye on all activities. After have finished with step one, advertising will play the next role meaning to spread the word around job opening opportunity, example through internal market as Trianon website and external markets.The applican tââ¬â¢s resumes would have to be sifted by a assigned person that has the speed /intelligence if possible engineer or project management skills to narrow down the applicants for an interview(s). The interview can be conducted the following methods: work samples, virtual presentations, contacting previous references of applicant (supervisors or managers), cognitive ability and lastly a personal interview. Issues to be discussed during the interviews by the interviewer should consist of family status (if flexible in travelling multiple times and surely to live in Hungry) and cross-cultural aptitude.Reference: (2011) Dressler, G. 2011, Human Resource Management, 12th edn, Pearson Education /Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NY, p. 117. 3. Should RH staff be involved in strategic decisions relating to international business operations such as finalizing a joint venture agreement? A joint venture is a contractual business undertaking between two or more parties. It is similar to a bu siness partnership, with one key difference: a partnership generally involves an ongoing, long-term business relationship, whereas a joint venture is based on a single business transaction.Individuals or companies choose to enter joint ventures in order to share strengths, minimize risks, and increase competitive advantages in the marketplace. Frayne and Geringer (1990) show that out of control mechanisms and coordination of formal and traditional, such as the majority position in providing capital or having representatives in the Board of Directors, practices of human resource management are also potentially valuable mechanisms to exercise control and coordination in international joint ventures.Compared to the final structure of the system of coordination in a joint venture international coordination mechanisms based on the human resources are often the key factors in determining the effectiveness of the system. Without the growth of human resources now considered a strategic reso urce within a company, it would be difficult to ensure the future strategic long-term business, even if financial resources are crucial.In international joint ventures, the role of human resources is essential to achieve the desired outcomes (Frayne & Geringer, 1990, Cyr & Schneider, 1996). A set of policies and practices of human resource management developed carefully can contribute significantly to the success of international joint venture. It can help the adjustment of cultures and practices among business partners in the joint venture, as a mechanism for coordination, organizational learning, strengthen the selection and leadership development to be able to work in international cooperation.On the other hand, human resource management can help increase the productivity of the joint venture, as well as the capacity of partner companies to reap the benefits (Child & Faulkner, 1998) There are four main dimensions among the practices of human resource management that are likely to be used as coordination mechanisms: recruitment and how to fill key positions, training and development, performance appraisal, strategies remuneration and reward.Practices of human resource management can help to achieve the strategic objectives of firmââ¬â¢s relatives. One example is in the number of executives from parent firms, the latter may well coordinate and directs the activities of the joint venture. In addition, the use of training and the use of flexibility can also help overcome differences in strategic and national cultures between parent firms (Chapter 3).
Saturday, November 9, 2019
African Americans and the Civil War Essay
In the world we live in many people take a lot for granted. Just the small simple things people donââ¬â¢t really appreciate, being ungrateful for the things that have been given to them. Many people and different situations have paved the way for our generation to become much easier to live in. African Americans during the civil rights movement had to face a lot of trills in order to make the world a better place. Many people donââ¬â¢t appreciate that because they are unaware of just how much grief African Americans had to go though to create a path for the upcoming generation. African Americans faced many hardships during the civil rights movement, some of those hardships were segregation, voting rights, and assassination of prominent African American leaders. Segregation was such a big obstacle for African Americans because not only were they not allowed to go certain places it became bigger than that. Everything in African Americans lives were split in half. There were white only signs places all over there towns. White only signs for bathrooms, restaurants, and water fountains. Everything was separated between the two races blacks and whites. One event that really stuck out like a sore thumb was The Montgomery Bus Boycott. During, the time of segregation blacks were allowed to ride the buses, but many rules had to apply. Blacks had a blackââ¬â¢s only section on the bus that could be moved in any location of the bus. That means that the blacksââ¬â¢ only sign could be moved in front of two rows on the bus if thatââ¬â¢s what the bus driver wanted. Black riders had to pay their bus far on the front of the bus and get off to walk to the back of the bus to ride. Some bus drivers would allow the blacks to pay and when the step off the bus the bus driver would drive away and leave them. When blacks did receive a chance to ride on the bus, if a white person did not have a seat to sit in a black person had to give up their seat. The blacks of Montgomery, Alabama, decided that they would boycott the city buses until they could sit anywhere they wanted, instead of being relegated to the back when a white boarded. On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not standing and letting a white bus rider take her seat. The plan to stop the whites from making the blacks move was the boycott. Blacks would no longer ride the buses anymore. That means that the bus companies were losing a lot of money. Blacks would walk to work or school and even carpool, but would not step foot on the buses. The boycott continued for over a year. Eventually, the United States Supreme Court put an end to the boycott. On November 13, 1956 the Court declared that Alabamaââ¬â¢s state and local laws requiring segregation on buses were illegal. On December 20th federal injunctions were served on city and bus company officials forcing them to follow the Supreme Courtââ¬â¢s ruling. African Americans had to face a lot just so that they could be treated as an equal on the bus. Segregation played a huge role in the school system. In public schools more so than any. Thatââ¬â¢s what stated the big flare Brown vs. Board of Education. The 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Oliver L. Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (KS) is among the most significant judicial turning points in the development of our country. Originally led by Charles H. Houston, and later Thurgood Marshall and a formidable legal team, it dismantled the legal basis for racial segregation in schools and other public facilities. Brown vs. Board of Education was not simply about children and education. The laws and policies struck down by this court decision were products of the human tendencies to prejudge, discriminate against, and stereotype other people by their ethnic, religious, physical, or cultural characteristics. Ending this behavior as a legal practice caused far reaching social and ideological implications, which continue to be felt throughout our country. The Brown decision inspired and galvanized human rights struggles across the country and around the world. The U. S. Supreme Court decision in Brown began a critical chapter in the maturation of our democracy. It reaffirmed the sovereign power of the people of the United States in the protection of their natural rights from arbitrary limits and restrictions imposed by state and local governments. These rights are recognized in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. Brown was giving African Americans the opportunity to be accepted as an individual and not just as a race. Now, you would think that after the Brown vs. Board of Education whites would accept African Americans and treat them better. That was not the case and segregation did not stop there. Although, many people had hoped that it would it took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to really make a change. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, and ended racial segregation in the United States. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. Once the Act was implemented, its effects were far-reaching on the country as a whole and had an immediate impact on the South. It prohibited discrimination in public facilities, in government, and in employment, invalidating the Jim Crow laws in the southern U. S. It became illegal to compel segregation of the races in schools, housing, or hiring. After passage of the law, the NAACP was the only major civil rights organization to maintain a large membership in the South, where it concentrated on organizing the ongoing struggle for black civil rights. During 1965-75, the NAACP remained committed to using litigation to challenge racial injustice. African Americans had to fight hard to get what they deserved and it took a lot of patients and time to receive change but it finally happened. That is we segregation ended and Africans were free to sit, eat, talk, shop, and work anywhere they wanted. Being able to vote is a very important ordeal. Many people in this day and time take advantage of being able to voice their opinions. Not taking advantage of who we desire to have in office is a sign of being ungrateful. African Americans were not given that right years ago. African Americans had to fight just so that they could vote. Thatââ¬â¢s when the Voting Act of 1965 came in play. Before, this Act was enforced African Americans had to take a literacy tests and pay poll taxes. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 abolished literacy tests and poll taxes designed to disenfranchise African American voters, and gave the federal government the authority to take over voter registration in counties with a pattern of persistent discrimination. Echoing the language of the 15th Amendment, the Act prohibits states from imposing any ââ¬Å"voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat, who had earlier signed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. Being able to vote was an honor and so many people donââ¬â¢t even both to go vote during the elections today. African Americans fought for the right to vote without having to take tests or pay poll taxes and people still donââ¬â¢t go out to vote. That is taking voting rights for granted. Being an African American during the civil rights movement was a challenge, but being an African American woman was even difficult. Thatââ¬â¢s when the period of womenââ¬â¢s suffrage played its role. Womenââ¬â¢s Suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or marital status. Being a woman in this time period restricted of many rights. Womenââ¬â¢s suffrage has been granted at various times in various countries throughout the world, and in many countries it was granted before universal suffrage. Without womenââ¬â¢s suffrage women would still be restricted to make decisions and just be limited to being mothers and wives. The womenââ¬â¢s suffrage broke that cycle. The best way to leave a positive mark on the world is being a leader. It takes a lot of heart, courage, and sacrifice, in becoming a great leader. Leaders are persons that people look up to. They depend on a leader to give them hope to carry on and a positive role model to look up to. There were not too many people that wanted to take the position of being a leader, but a few chose to step up to the plate. African Americans needed kind and encouraging words to help uplift them during the civil rights movement. Two great leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Melcolm X took on a job to lead the world into a better place called freedom. The two leaders gave African Americans hope to continue on when they wanted to just give up. African Americans depended on these two prominent leaders to strengthen them. African Americans during the civil rights movement needed to relay on someone and those leaders were the perfect ones. No one would have ever been ready for what was expected to come. For years African American have been told what they could and couldnââ¬â¢t do. They have been talked about, abused, lied on, and have had everything taken from them. But, still they have stayed strong through it all. When all they had were two great prominent leaders and they were taken from them as well they still stayed strong. Two great prominent leaders were assonated. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Martin Luther King Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. He was best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. King was often presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. Kingââ¬â¢s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his ââ¬Å"I Have a Dreamâ⬠speech. There, he expanded American values to include the vision of a color blind society, and established his reputation as one of the greatest orators in American history. But, as people have said ââ¬Å"all things must come to an end. â⬠At 6:01 p. m. on April 4, 1968, a shot rang out. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , who had been standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN, lay sprawled on the balconyââ¬â¢s floor. A gaping wound covered a large portion of his jaw and neck. A great man who had spent thirteen years of his life dedicating himself to nonviolent protest had been felled by a sniperââ¬â¢s bullet.
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Christopher Columbus Essay Essays
Christopher Columbus Essay Essays Christopher Columbus Essay Essay Christopher Columbus Essay Essay Essay Topic: Clueless The Outsiders Essay on Christopher Columbus: The discovery of America In the modern day US, Christopher Columbus is celebrated as the man who discovered America. As controversial as the context of the word discovered may be used in, the first Monday of every October is the day Americans take their time to celebrate the heroics of Columbus sailing through the Atlantic Ocean to discover the new land in the October of 1492. As an experienced explorer, Columbus had been commissioned by the Spanish Monarch government to explore the rough waters and find the location of China or Japan for trade purposes. However, Columbus ended up on a series of islands that he collectively named as the East Indies, each island with a specific name dedicated to the upper ruling class of Spain. It was later discovered that they were not East Indies but rather a new land that the Spanish Empire claimed territory to. The sailing of Columbus towards the present day America explains how colonization and settlement of more European people at the territory was conceived. Therefore, in studying the explorative trip that was undertaken by Columbus to find Japan only to find the new land, one gains a better insight on the concept of colonization and how the historical injustices towards the natives began. In achieving its objective, this analysis uses both primary and secondary sources to understand the objective of Columbus and its aftermath. Columbus First Voyage to America Collectively, historical analysts point out that Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean to the present day South and North America. Although each voyage was significant to the territory expansion of the Spanish, much emphasis is put on the success of the first one. Before Columbus came to be recognized as a great hero, Spain had just unified into one with the monarch government being headed by Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon. The two were responsible for the age of exploration for the Spanish Empire and through their leadership; Columbus was accorded the much-needed support to make the exploration. As he wrote in the letter, it only took Columbus and his team of conquistadors to arrive at the islands that form the present-day Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This was in the October of 1492. On the islands, there were natives who living a totally different lifestyle and lacked all significant elements that European people deemed to be significant. For instance, they neither had towns or cities nor did they have functional governments. As described by Columbus in the letter he wrote back to the King and Queen; the natives were more affectionate to the outsiders regardless of the fact that they also feared the Europeans. Their innocence portrayed them as nave, an aspect that Columbus and other warrior explorers decided to take advantage of. After close to eight months, Columbus arrived back in Spain in March 1493. As Gallagher notes, great celebrations were made in the name of the new hero, Columbus. Several historical accounts analyzed by historians do not deviate from the primary information that was handcrafted by Columbus. In the account presented by the Saylor Foundation, it is evident that the exploration trips were taken seriously by the monarch government. The conquistadors who accompanied Columbus during all the four voyages were not just mere men but trained warriors. Their versatility and ability to endure harsh environments is what made the exploration a success. In the study by Stannard, demographers estimated the total population of inhabitants in the New World, which is the present day north of Mexico to be 12 million people. All that was about to change with the arrival of Columbus and his discovery of their territory as a New World, initially East Indies. Historical significance of Christopher Columbus America, as it is today, is a place that many people aspire to visit. It is the perfect place where true happiness and good life experiences occur as per the depictions of Hollywood. Clueless to all such people is that all that glitters is not gold. Amidst the happy place that is the current America, the country possesses a gloomy past dominated by historical injustices perpetrated to the minority. All these can be traced back to one celebrated event; the discovery of America by Columbus. Although historical accounts signal that Columbus was not the first European or foreigner to step foot on what he determined as the new world, it was his arrival that acted as the onset of injustices against the natives. Upon the success of the first voyage, to which Columbus claimed Spanish territory of five islands that were already inhabited, three subsequent voyages were organized by the monarch government. The agenda of the voyages that followed upon the first success was to carry more warriors who could secure and establish the authority of the Spanish Empire on the newly claimed territories. From a historical perspective, it was the beginning of colonization. More European settlers, from other countries, also saw an opportunity to grab a New World that was deemed free for grabs. While all these was going on, it is important to note that the natives, who had inhabited the land for more than 30,000 years were still living there. Controversies associated with the whole issue emanate from the term discover. How can a land that people are already living on be discovered? In the three historical accounts that have been used to cover this paper, it is evident that the arrival of European settlers led to the demise of the native communities. Historical sources point out that almost 90% of the original native communities were wiped out during the era that European settlers were grabbing America. One of the reasons that may have led to the killing of the natives by the teams led by Columbus was their refusal to uphold Christianity. As covered by Stannard and Gallagher, the monarch government had declared to enforce Christianity while eradicating other forms of religion. As such, rebellious people were killed or exiled. The natives that Columbus arrived back with after the first voyage were all converted to Christianity. In general, the suffering of natives began from the time that Columbus claimed to have discovered a new world. In summary, it is significant to acknowledge and appreciate the success of Columbus first voyage to the New World as the conception of the present-day America. Natives still live in reservations camps on a land that was theirs in the first place. Such incidences can be traced to the voyages of Columbus quest, which was originally set to locate China or Japan for economic reasons. As a discovery that happened by mistake, Columbus success marked the beginning of European settlers in the Americas. The Letter of Columbus in the Discovery of America. Print https://ia801404.us.archive.org/21/items/letterofcolumbus00colum/letterofcolumbus00colum.pdf Gallagher, Carole. Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of a New World. (2000): 1-30. Print http://arcofhistory.org/Honors_Western_Civ/Columbus_Trial_files/Columbus and the Discovery of the New World.pdf National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. Letter of Christopher Columbus on his first Voyage to America, 1492. 1-5. Print https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text1/columbusletter.pdf Stannard, David. The American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World. 1-16. Print http://432thedrop.com/uploads/3/3/8/9/3389030/american_holocaust_-_columbus.pdf The Saylor Foundation. European Voyages of Exploration: Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Empire. 1-7. Printhttps://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HIST201-3.1.4-ChristopherColumbusandSpanishEmpire-FINAL.pdf
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
How to Display Menu Item Hints in Delphi Applications
How to Display Menu Item Hints in Delphi Applications Use specific coding language to program Delphi applications to display a hint, or tooltip, when the mouse hovers over a menu component. If the ShowHint property is set to true and you add text to the hint property, this message will be displayed when the mouse is placed over the component (a TButton, for example). Enable Hints for Menu Items Because of the way Windows is designed, even if you set the value for the hint property to a menu item, the popup hint will not get displayed. However, the Windows start menu items do display hints. The favorites menu in Internet Explorer also displays menu item hints. It is possible to use the OnHint event of the global application variable in Delphi applications to display menu item hints in a status bar. Windows does not expose the messages needed to support a traditional OnMouseEnter event. However, the WM_MENUSELECT message is sent when the user selects a menu item. The WM_MENUSELECT implementation of the TCustomForm (ancestor of the TForm) sets the menu item hint to Application.Hint so it can be used in the Application.OnHint event. If you want to add menu item popup hints (tooltips) to your Delphi application menus, focus on the WM_MenuSelect message. Popup Hints Since you cannot rely on the Application.ActivateHint method to display the hint window for menu items (as menu handling is completely done by Windows), to get the hint window displayed you must create your own version of the hint window by deriving a new class from the THintWindow. Heres how to create a TMenuItemHint class. This is a hint widow that actually gets displayed for menu items! First, you need to handle the WM_MENUSELECT Windows message: type TForm1 class(TForm) ... private procedure WMMenuSelect(var Msg: TWMMenuSelect) ; message WM_MENUSELECT; end...implementation...procedure TForm1.WMMenuSelect(var Msg: TWMMenuSelect) ;varà à menuItem : TMenuItem;à à hSubMenu : HMENU;begin inherited; // from TCustomForm (so that Application.Hint is assigned) menuItem : nil; if (Msg.MenuFlag $FFFF) or (Msg.IDItem 0) then begin if Msg.MenuFlag and MF_POPUP MF_POPUP then begin hSubMenu : GetSubMenu(Msg.Menu, Msg.IDItem) ; menuItem : Self.Menu.FindItem(hSubMenu, fkHandle) ; end else begin menuItem : Self.Menu.FindItem(Msg.IDItem, fkCommand) ; end; end;à à miHint.DoActivateHint(menuItem) ;end; (*WMMenuSelect*) Quick info: the WM_MENUSELECT message is sent to a menus owner window when the user selects (but does not click) a menu item. Using the FindItem method of the TMenu class, you can get the menu item currently selected. Parameters of the FindItem function relate to the properties of the message received. Once we know what menu item the mouse is over, we call the DoActivateHint method of the TMenuItemHint class. The miHint variable is defined as var miHint : TMenuItemHint and is created in the Forms OnCreate event handler. Now, whats left is the implementation of the TMenuItemHint class. Heres the interface part: TMenuItemHint class(THintWindow)private activeMenuItem : TMenuItem; showTimer : TTimer; hideTimer : TTimer; procedure HideTime(Sender : TObject) ; procedure ShowTime(Sender : TObject) ;public constructor Create(AOwner : TComponent) ; override; procedure DoActivateHint(menuItem : TMenuItem) ; destructor Destroy; override;end; Basically, the DoActivateHint function calls the ActivateHint method of the THintWindow using the TMenuItems Hint property (if it is assigned). The showTimer is used to ensure that the HintPause of the Application elapses before the hint is displayed. The hideTimer uses Application.HintHidePause to hide the hint window after a specified interval. Using Menu Item Hints While some might say that it is not a good design to display hints for menu items, there are situations where actually displaying menu item hints is much better than using a status bar. A most recently used (MRU) menu item list is one such case. A custom taskbar menu is another.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Human Beings and Human Doings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Human Beings and Human Doings - Essay Example It is reported that 25 percent of the world resources was consumed alone by the Americans. From the very garments that people need to wear to the time-filler hobbies of one is being encouraged by entrepreneurs at the same time welcomed with open arms by many American consumers. There's a vast difference of defining human with his doings rather than to his beings. Others have often mistakenly introducing themselves with their own acquisition with their doings for their beings. With a materialistic lifestyle of many people today, from the basic necessities up to the very vices, people are succumbed in meeting these commercialized needs. Thus, these put them in pressuring state. Thus these factors all goes into sociological attachment. Influence and social trend dictates the activities that people able to do customarily. Through these, society somehow set limits and norms in the human activities within its premise. Some of social stigma somehow made way in the midst of the people through the social norms and limits. Even technical components of men in some cases were under the common verdict of the social norms, like economic condition or even color of the skin. This inevitably set pressure to the one being
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