Thursday, November 28, 2019

Saturation strategy Essay Example

Saturation strategy Paper Michael Bergdahl (2004) had mentioned that focusing on providing the right products and outstanding customer service to your targeted customer is really the key to the retail ballgame. All associates work for the customers who buy our merchandise. In fact, the customers can fire everybody in our company. And they can do it by simply spending their money somewhere else. The greatest measure of our success is how well we please the customer, Our Boss. Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart  Sam had a famous saying: Please show your customers the eight teeth.In Sam seems only a smile to reveal the extent of eight teeth, can be called a qualified service with a smile. Sam also taught staff: When customers come from within 10 feet of you, you have to look at the customers eyes and gently encourage him to give you advice and help.This one is summarized as ten feet attitude, Wal-Mart employees as guidelines. (Wal-Mart: No secret to success, 2002) Wal-Marts customer first principle is famous, it is well known two provisions: the first article: customer is always right; the second provides that: If the customer is just wrong, please refer to the first! More distinctive, Wal-Marts customer relationship philosophy is the customer is the employees Boss. (Rahman, 2008)  A happy environment for customers in Wal-Mart can be regarded as a marketing perspective strategy which works on the customers philosophy.  Matt Haig said that the ultimate key to Wal-Marts success is scale. Wal-Mart is usually double and sometimes triples the size of its competitors stores. This enables Wal-Mart to buy products in very great bulk, and therefore make the prices per item cheaper. The big stores equal big discounts from suppliers equal low prices for customers. We will write a custom essay sample on Saturation strategy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Saturation strategy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Saturation strategy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Wal-Marts market saturation strategy is beat one of the business strategy. The so-called market saturation strategy, that is, within a certain time and certain to quickly layout to maximize the number of stores, quickly saturated the market; do not leave any chance to the opponent. Wal-Marts approach is to each place to intervals of 20 miles or so, Wal-Mart stores full of dense, so that to the retail market becomes saturated. This will prevent foreign companies to enter, but also give full play to the efficiency of distribution centers, reducing picking costs (Pharmacy business strategy: to Wal-Mart school of business management pharmacy, medicine, medicine pharmaceutical industry, nd). Moreover, Wal-Mart goes to global to expend its scale. Wal-Mart began operations in the worlds most populous nation in 1996, opening a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sams Club (John Yunker, 2002, p 551). Since 1991, Wal-Mart from the United States to expand overseas, has been vigorously promote globalization. In 1993, Wal-Mart the number of overseas stores only 1% of all stores by the year 2000 has grown to 25%, two years after and increased to 27%. From 1996 to 2000, the companys sales grew 27% in overseas business. Even if the global economic downturn in 2001 and 2002, the company operating overseas sales to 17% contribution. (Wal-Marts Globalization and Localization, 2003) Now, Wal-Mart which 25% of its stores are located outside the United States, yet were in only nine countries, and Wal-Mart, like most major companies, is just getting started (John Yunker, 2002, p 551). As globalization is now a not reversible trend, Wal-Mart goes to global scale is a wise investment for its long term success.  Conclusion  Wal-Mart now is the biggest retailer in the world, the success factor as a marketing perspective strategy includes the price, products, promotion, service, scale.  Although Wal-Mart has met problems such as at the beginning of globalization, (In the late 1990s, Wal-Mart decided to open stores in Germany as part of their strategic growth initiative, however it failed because of the different culture (Kyle Lundby, Allen I. Kraut, 2008, p 564).), it came over, which I think is the most important factor for Wal-Marts success. Discuss the management actions you would suggest to Wal-Mart in order for the company to operate more effectively and efficiently.  As we know planning is a process that managers use to identify and select appropriate goals and courses of action. There are three steps in planning process: deciding which goals the organization will pursue; deciding what courses of action to adopt to attain those goals; deciding how to allocate organizational resources to attain to those goals (Golding, N, 2009). As one of the worlds largest retailer, Wal-Mart has grown to be an immense success among American consumers. In order to operate the company more effectively and efficiently, Wal-Mart should do more works on their planning. Firstly, based on the mission of Wal-Mart which is to offer low prices than other retailers with high quality and maximize returns for the benefits of its shareholders and employees, managers should make more strategies to improve on the sides of the quality of their selling products and the returns for the benefits of its shareholders and employees. On the side of high quality of selling products, Wal-Mart should purchase the high quality products from the suppliers. Nowadays, more and more customers like to purchase things in the international chain stores. They think the international chain stores have higher quality guarantee. So Wal-Mart should not only focus on the low prices, they also should guarantee the quality. Wal-Mart should introduce some goods and services that other retailers do not have. Like the retailer Tesco in the world, they provide many goods and services that other retailers do not have; they now have many supermarkets in the world. Secondly, Wal-Mart should do more planning on the management of change. There are some problems such as people, structure, or technology in the organization. Then, managers should plan any alterations in them. Depending on the strategies, it requires the use of different structures because a differentiation strategy needs an organic structure for better control. However, after the managers develop the plans, they should do more works on coordinating the activities. Wal-Mart manager can hold some meetings to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these plans. The workers should be done carefully because they are the last step to act the plans. With these jobs dome, the managers of War-Mart managers can bring into effect.  These management actions with good planning could be strategically utilized or adopted by Wal-Mart so as to improve the operations of the company.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Haym Salomon, American Revolution Spy and Financier

Haym Salomon, American Revolution Spy and Financier Born to a Sephardic Jewish family in Poland, Haym Salomon emigrated to New York during the American Revolution. His work in support of the American Revolution- first as a spy, and later brokering loans- helped the patriots win the war. Fast Facts: Haym Salomon Also Known As: Chaim SalomonKnown For: Former spy and financial broker who worked in support of the American Revolution. Born: April 7, 1740 in Leszno, PolandDied: January 6, 1785 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Early Years Haym Salomon (born Chaim Salomon) was born on April 7, 1740 in Leszno, Poland. His family was part of a group of Sephardic Jews descended from Spanish and Portuguese immigrants. As a young man, Haym traveled all over Europe; like many Europeans, he spoke several languages. In 1772, Salomon left Poland, following the country’s partitioning that essentially removed its status as a sovereign nation. He decided to try his luck in the British colonies, and he emigrated to New York City. War and Espionage By the time the American Revolution broke out, Salomon had already established himself as a businessman and financial broker in New York City. At some point in the 1770s, he became involved in the patriot movement and joined the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization that fought against British taxation policies. Salomon had a supply contract with the patriot army, and at some point in 1776, he was arrested in New York by the British for espionage. Although it is not known for certain that Salomon was a spy, the British authorities seem to have thought so. However, they decided to spare him from the traditional death sentence for spies. Instead, they offered him a pardon in exchange for his linguistic services. The British officers needed translators to communicate with their Hessian soldiers, most of whom spoke no English at all. Salomon was fluent in German, so he served as an interpreter. This didn’t exactly work the way the British wanted it to, as Salomon used his translating as an opportunity to encourage as many as five hundred German soldiers to desert the British ranks. He also spent a lot of time helping patriot captives escape from British prisons. He was arrested for espionage again in 1778, and sentenced to death once more. This time, there was no offer of pardon. Salomon managed to escape, fleeing to Philadelphia with his wife and children. Although he was virtually penniless when he arrived at the rebel capital, within a short amount of time he re-established himself as a merchant and financial broker. Financing the Revolution Once he had settled comfortably in Philadelphia and his brokerage business was up and running, Salomon was appointed to the role of paymaster general for French troops fighting on behalf of the colonists. He was also engaged in selling securities that supported Dutch and French loans to the Continental Congress. In addition, he advanced funds personally to members of the Continental Congress, offering financial services below market rates. Over a three year period, Salomon’s financial contributions to George Washington and the war effort totaled well over $650,000, which translates to upwards of $18M in today’s currency. Much of this money was funneled into Washington’s accounts in the latter part of 1781. In August of 1781, British general Charles Cornwallis and his troops were penned in near Yorktown. Washington’s army had Cornwallis surrounded, but because Congress was essentially out of money, the continental troops hadn’t been paid in some time. They were also low on rations and crucial uniform components. In fact, Washington’s soldiers were close to staging a coup, and many were considering desertion as a better option than staying in Yorktown. According to legend, Washington wrote to Morris, and asked him to send Haym Salomon. Bruce Leighty / Getty Images Salomon managed to secure the $20,000 in finances that Washington needed to keep his men fighting, and ultimately, the British were defeated at Yorktown, in what would be the final major battle of the American Revolution. After the war ended, Salomon brokered numerous loans between other nations and the newly formed United States government. Final Years Sadly, Haym Salomons financial efforts during the war led to his downfall. He had loaned out hundreds of thousands of dollars during the Revolution, and because of the unstable economy in the colonies, most private borrowers (and even government entities) were unable to repay their loans. In 1784, his family was nearly penniless. Salomon died on January 8, 1785 at the age of 44 from complications from tuberculosis, which he had contracted while in prison. He was buried at his synagogue, Mikveh Israel, in Philadelphia. In the 1800s, his descendants unsuccessfully petitioned Congress for compensation. However, in 1893, Congress decreed that a gold medal be struck in Salomons honor. In 1941, the City of Chicago erected a statue featuring George Washington flanked by Morris and Salomon. Sources Blythe, Bob. â€Å"The American Revolution: Haym Salomon.†Ã‚  National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/haym_salomom.html.Feldberg, Michael. â€Å"Haym Salomon: Revolutionary Broker.†Ã‚  My Jewish Learning, My Jewish Learning, www.myjewishlearning.com/article/haym-salomon-revolutionary-broker/.Percoco, James. â€Å"Haym Salomon.†Ã‚  American Battlefield Trust, 7 Aug. 2018, www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/haym-salomon.Terry, Erica. â€Å"Haym Solomon: The Man Behind the Myth of the Dollars Star of David.†Ã‚  Jspace News, 12 Dec. 2016, jspacenews.com/haym-solomon-man-behind-myth-dollars-star-david/.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

5 Field Trip Ideas for Elementary School

5 Field Trip Ideas for Elementary School Field trips are a wonderful way for children to connect what they are learning in class to the outside world. For instance, if you are teaching your students about dinosaurs, the best way to wrap up the unit is to bring the class on a field trip to your local dinosaur exhibit at the museum. This way they can get a hands-on view of everything they learned and help them connect what they learned to what they are seeing at the exhibit. Here are 5 fun and exciting educational field trip ideas for your elementary school class. Post Office A field trip to your local Post Office is a great way for students to compare the history of the postal service with the technology they use today. Students will leave the Post Office with a better understanding of how the mail connects everyone in the world. Pick Your Own Farms A unique field trip idea is to take students on a trip to pick their own fruits and vegetables. Children will be exposed to agricultural topics and experience nature and how food grows. A hands-on trip to your local farm is the perfect way to end your nutrition unit. Bank What child isnt fascinated with money? If you want to see your students participate in class and really be engaged, then take them on a field trip to your local bank. Children are always asking, Why do I have to learn math? and When I am really going to use these math skills? Well, a trip to the bank will show your students how the math skills they are learning in school can be applied to everyday life when they grow up. Bank tellers can show students how to write a personal check and withdrawal slips, and how to open a bank account and use a debit card. The information they learn on this trip will help them realize how important paying attention in math really is. A fun idea beforehand is to teach students about PayPal and how with technology today you can send money online. Grocery Store With the child obesity rate as high as it is today, the local grocery store is a great place for a field trip. There are a variety of topics that can be focused on at the grocery store, like nutrition, math, health and wellness, and home economics. Children can learn about healthy food choices and go on a food scavenger hunt. They can study measurements and, on the day of the trip,  buy appropriate ingredients for a specific recipe you give them. They can learn how to budget their money, group foods into food groups, and learn important life skills. Amusement Park How is a field trip to an amusement park educational? Students can determine the speed of roller-coasters or see behind the scenes of how a stage show works. Students can learn about the animals in the on-site zoo, or see how the actors transform into characters. A field trip to an amusement park can take some of the concepts students are learning in school into a real-world experience. Additional Field Trip Ideas Worth Considering Here are a few more field trip ideas that are worth thinking about it. Any of the following ideas would make for a perfect field trip with your students: Water parkBakerySkating RinkLocal HospitalMoviesCollegeTV StationNewspaperAquariumZooBotanical GardensTrain RideSoup KitchenLocal FestivalNursing HomeLocal MonumentFarmers MarketMuseumA Virtual Field Trip

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Pippin II of Herstal - Mayor of the Palace - Pippin the Younger

Pippin II of Herstal - Mayor of the Palace - Pippin the Younger Pippin II was also known as: Pippin of Herstal  (in French, Pà ©pin d’Hà ©ristal); also known as Pippin the Younger; also spelled Pepin. Pippin II was known for: Being the first Mayor of the Palace to take effective control of the kingdom of the Franks, while the Merovingian kings ruled in name only. Occupations: KingMilitary Leader Places of Residence and Influence: EuropeFrance Important Dates: Born: c. 635Becomes Mayor of the Palace:  689Died:  Dec. 16, 714 About Pippin II : Pippins father was Ansegisel, the son of Bishop Arnulf of Metz; his mother was Begga, the daughter of Pippin I, who had also been a mayor of the palace. After King Dagobert II died in 679, Pippin established himself as mayor in Austrasia, defending the autonomy of the region against Neustria, its king Theuderic III, and Theuderics mayor Ebroà ¯n. In 680, Ebroà ¯n defeated Pippin at Lucofao; seven years later Pippin won the day at Tertry. Although this victory gave him power over all the Franks, Pippin kept Theuderic on the throne; and when the king died, Pippin replaced him with another king who was, essentially, under his control. When that king died, two more puppet kings followed in succession. In 689, after several years of military conflict on the northeastern border of the kingdom, Pippin conquered the Frisians and their leader Radbod. To solidify the peace, he married his son, Grimoald, to Radbods daughter, Theodelind. He secured Frankish authority among the Alemanni, and he encouraged Christian missionaries to evangelize  Alemannia and Bavaria. Pippin was succeeded as mayor of the palace  by his illegitimate son, Charles Martel. More Pippin II Resources: Pippin II in Print The link  below will take you to a site where you can compare prices at booksellers across the web. More in-depth info about the book may be found by clicking on to the books page at one of the online merchants. by Pierre Richà ©; translated by Michael Idomir Allen Early Carolingian RulersThe Carolingian EmpireEarly Europe Whos Who Directories: Chronological Index Geographical Index Index by Profession, Achievement, or Role in Society The text of this document is copyright  ©2000-2016 Melissa Snell. You may download or print this document for personal or school use, as long as the URL below is included. Permission is   not  granted to reproduce this document on another website. For publication permission,  please   contact  Melissa Snell. The URL for this document is:http://historymedren.about.com/od/pwho/fl/Pippin-II.htm

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Financing Plan to Raise Capital Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Financing Plan to Raise Capital - Research Paper Example The Marina Restaurant was blessed with an interest from very influential people and customers even from the beginning. It usually hosts live bands apart from food and this has helped it solidify its image as the premier casual rock and roll diner. With all the success, the company has grown globally. The vast amounts of locations reflect the effective and efficient management which has led a small investment in a single cafe into an internationally recognized business expanding in just over 18 years. Marina Restaurant revenues are mainly from cafes, selling memorabilia and hotels. To ensure customers keep coming back they ensure they provide excellent value in the form of good food and entertainment. With such growth, the management has decided to open more outlets for the restaurant. However, it needs capital to start up the investment. Start-up Funding The Marina Restaurant seeks funding of $900,000 for the new venture and it will get it from three investment groups or under equity offering which entails raising capital through the issue of stock. This approach is preferred at this stage since there are no repayment schedule or debt service repayments. The shareholders will only get their returns when the company makes profits. The shareholders also have a right to vote during annual general meetings and can elect the board of directors (Owen 2003). The ordinary shareholders are the owners of the business and can receive dividends from profits. However, it is a costly process as there are floatation costs incurred and it can lead to dilution of shares held by existing shareholders. It is also risky if there are no dividends payable at year end thus shareholders end up bearing the operational risk. The investment documents will be prepared by legal firms representing each party and will not be limited to Form D Security Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Subscriptions agreement and the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM). The subscriptions agreement reflects the terms and conditions of the investment. In other words, it is the sales contract for buying securities. Form D SEC filing notifies the commission that the company is using Regulation D program and also gives the basic information of the company. It is vital to note that this form is not an approval document but a mere notification that the company has an offering in the place. It is a violation of the security laws under the federal government to raise capital without this document. The PPM discloses all the company’s information to investors. The information maybe whether the company is raising debt or equity, the risk the investors may face and the terms of the investment( share price, maturity dates or note amounts). Financial projections Financial projections will be on the income statement, statement of financial position, statement of cash flows as well as on the financial ratios. Projections will be on years ranging from 1 to 5, and they are based on historical inform ation already available from the company (Owen 2003). Apart from the forecast, the break-even analysis will be carried out. Break even analysis Break even analysis shows the relationship between selling prices, sales volume, variable costs, fixed costs and profits at various levels of activity. It is also referred to as cost-volume profit analysis. It used in determining the break-even point where the total revenue equals the total costs. This means that at BEP, the profits are zero. Fixed costs include rent,

Movie Review of Julie and Julia(2009, Ephron, USA) Coursework

Movie Review of Julie and Julia(2009, Ephron, USA) - Coursework Example She thus develops a simple story line that touches on themes that typically everyone is familiar of. She makes the humorous natures of her story line appear more natural and free flowing. The planning and the design of the comedy drama are simple but funny in its own right. The lead character, Adam, is obsessed by food and cooking. She sets out to cook over five hundred recipes in the three hundred and sixty days in a year which is logically impossible. Adams is employed in a very busy firm where she serves at the call center; possibly she is free on the weekends. This is coupled to the fact that some of the recipes she intends to prepare are very complex and will require a lot of time to complete (Penz and Andong 210). This way, Ephron easily develops a conflict from things that people have and still consider hobbies. Adam gets literally torn apart by the amounting pressure. The recipes are expensive and eat into her finances. The pressure from work coupled with her funny social lif e does not let her settle down to follow the recipes properly. She thus ends up spoiling most of them which is really a waste given the fact that she invested in them. She wines and complains most of the time, a feature that Ephron further uses to create humor. She is a fully-grown adult but the voice she posses can easily pass for a twelve year old. Ephron further uses the structure of the society to add to the humor; marriage is a very sacred institution in which religious adherents believe is ordained by God. Everyone is therefore aware of the institution’ existence and understands how basic it is in the creation of a peaceful and cohesive unity in the society. However, despite the peace that the bible and other holy books preach, families have structural problems some of which are humorous. The play addresses some of the rib cracking decisions that people make in life and how they are later humorously solved. Adam’s obsession with her cookery irritates her husband who tries so much to appear supportive. In a show of love and unity within their marriage, Adam and her husband visit a book fair in Paris where she meets food enthusiasts. The two shares a number of things which makes them develop quite a strong bond. The friendship between the women goes to the men who could have otherwise never noticed each other and they too became close. When Adam’s love for cooking turns into what her husbands calls an obsession, he leaves her. This has been the trend in very many families; when one partner irritates the other, the easiest way is normally to avoid them by possibly walking out of the marriage. Very few people sit down and address the issues in their marriages because boredom sets in among the married very fast. Powell’s husbands considers himself very enduring for the time he spends with Her despite her wining attitude and her little obsessions that deny them time together. Left alone, the lady concentrates on her cooking and her new friend, they write books and try out new recipes and before long, they receive recognition and are about to become famous. In a very interesting twist, the husband who had deliberately left shows up again and Adam accepts him. The society is structured funnily and nobody takes notice of these every quite often. This is the rationale of

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Questions in a case study in theCorporate Governance & Social Essay

Questions in a case study in theCorporate Governance & Social Responsibility field - Essay Example None among the management should have the ultimate power during the decision-making process (FRC, 2003) This is because when this happens, the company will have a chairman who will be the leader to the board making sure it is effective in its roles and sets the board’s agenda. He will make sure the directors have accurate, clear and timely information. Since no governance structure exists, this principle will help to promote efficient and transparent markets, ensuring the consistency with the law and articulating clearly separation of responsibility among the management. This must be achieved by: Consistent, enforceable and transparent regulatory and legal requirements affecting governance should be provided. The framework should be developed to generally impact integrity of market, economic performance and promote participation (OECD, 2004). According to OECD (2004), the corporate governance is expected to safeguard and facilitate the expression of shareholders’ rights and so by applying this principle, the extractive industry will be aiming to put in place structures in order to achieve the following: Firstly, it gives the shareholders their basic rights which include but not limited to; obtaining a means of ownership by registration, be able to transfer shares, be able to obtain information regarding the corporate regularly and on time, obtain participation and voting regularly on AGMs, having a say in electing and voting office bearers serving on the board and finally be able to share the profits of the corporate. Secondly, it ensures that shareholders have the rights for participation and information on key decisions affecting the corporate which could include; proposals to amend the statutes, incorporation articles or any other relevant administration documents of the company, proposals to authorize additional shares and in any decisions to undertake significantly extra ordinary transactions (OECD, 2004). Thirdly, it gives shareholders

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Arrival of Irishmen to Work under Philip Duffy Essay

Arrival of Irishmen to Work under Philip Duffy - Essay Example This discrimination along with a lot of other reasons, economic and social should have prevented the journey of fifty-seven Irish laborers to the United States of America to assist in the construction of a railroad by an American contractor named Philip Duffy. All of them succumbed to death by cholera; recent evidence indicates that many of them may have been murdered (O’ Carroll). Most of them were not granted proper funerals, an event which highlighted the low esteem in which people of Ireland and Catholic nations, in general, were held, in the early nineteenth century. These forms of discrimination along with the spread of Asiatic cholera, a disease which had turned into a pandemic affecting large areas of Europe and America in the 1830s and the subsequent decades, was reason enough for the laborers to not have gone to the United States of America. A lasting cure for this was found out later on (Thomas), but the condition of cheap labor in America would have been the reason for anybody to be cautious. Proper medical facilities were not provided to this man and their lives were often at the risk of being taken by cholera. The condition of the Irish laborers in America was often worse than that of the slaves in America since their wages hardly sufficed for them to afford decent lodgings and good food (Watson, 32). This, along with the threat of disease, meant that the journey to the United States of America was fraught with danger for the Irishmen who worked for Duffy and they undertook it with great peril to their health and eventually, their lives. This alone should have deterred them from their journey to America. The journey that was undertaken by these people should not have materialized, if they had considered the immense risks that it involved, to their lives. The socio-political concerns of the American state were not humanitarian enough to provide safety to these laborers. During this phase, the United States of America, along with other states in Europe, were engaged in improving the state of infrastructure in their countries. Therefore, the safety and well-being of their workers, poor Catholic immigrants at that, was not of primary importance to the American state. It is probably because of this reason that enough payments were not made to Duffy for the building of the railroad that was assigned to him, a part of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. In a situation where he did not have sufficient resources, it is believed that he chose to let the laborers bear the brunt of the lack of money, that is, to place them in circumstances that were more likely to push them into being victims of cholera, which they eventually did (ibid, 65). The 1830s was also the decade which saw a raging debate in England regarding the reform bills that were to give more rights to the Catholics of Ireland. This created a polarizing effect in other parts of the world, especially in America, which still was close, politically to England (Robe rts, 689-90). This led to the prejudices against the Catholics to deepen and take a more aggressive turn.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Business Management Affairs Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Business Management Affairs - Coursework Example Sole Trading When a person individually initiates and operates his/her own business, it is called sole trading. The most obvious feature of sole proprietorship is that there is no legal distinction between the business and the owner. Usually, a sole trader uses a trade name or business name instead of his legal name. Under UK company law, the proprietors’ name must be shown on business emails, business stationery, and other business premises. It generally involves lower amount toward capital investment as compared to other modes of business ventures. It is best fitted to people with innovative business ideas and sufficient capital for running their business. The main benefit of this system is that the businessman owns everything what he acquires from the business. Moreover, with the feasibility of self guidance, the individual can grow without restrictions. In addition to this, as Tonkin (2006) states, sole trader can start the business with minimum set up cost and can continue operations without a tax file number. He is also exempted from many other legal charges and superannuation. Since the sole trading business specifically focuses on certain market segments, the sole trader can effectively satisfy the customer needs. In addition, the individual can take advantages of personal relationships for the business promotion. On the other hand, sole trader is not free from risks as he is the only person responsible for any loss incurred in the business. Therefore, if the sole trader faces business loss; his every asset including personal asset may be seized to discharge the liabilities he has incurred. This personal liability becomes the most threatening disadvantage of sole proprietorship. A series of legal obligations may also drag him out of the line; sometimes he needs to pay provisional taxes. Similarly, sole trader may face difficulties in the event of an unforeseen contingency since he has only restricted access to financial sources. The lack of access to financial sources also becomes a barrier for the sole trader to recruit high-caliber employees. Another major disadvantage of sole proprietorship is that it cannot allow credit sales since this type of business has limited access to working capital; this situation is an impediment to business expansion. A positive spell of possible success is foun d in the given discussion. As Matt is the winner of the TV show â€Å"You’re Hired†, he may have creative concepts as well as sufficient capital to start his business as a sole trader. Partnership When two or more persons join together with their capital and make contract to run a lawful business, it is called partnership business. This system ensures collective responsibility for all liabilities arising on the ground of the partnership business. As it is in the case of sole trader, registration of partnership is not necessary. This feature helps the partners in minimizing the struggles of legal formalities. All the strategies of partnership firms are formulated on shared opinion of partners which would make the policies rather balanced in their nature. At the same time, any partner may represent the business without giving prior information to other partners; therefore, one partner’

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Afro Asians Essay Example for Free

Afro Asians Essay During the 1970s, an increased demand for copper and cobalt attracted Japanese investments in the mineral rich southeastern region of Katanga Province. Over a 10-year period, more than 1,000 Japanese miners relocated to the region, confined to a strictly male-only camp. Arriving without family or spouses, the men often sought social interaction outside the confounds of their camps. In search of intimacy with the opposite sex, sometimes resulting in cohabitation, the men openly engaged in interracial dating and relationships, a practice mostly embraced by the local society. As a result, a number of Japanese miners fathered children with native Congolese women. However, most of the mixed race infants resulting from these unions died, soon after birth. Multiple testimonies of local people suggest that the infants were poisoned by a Japanese lead physician and nurse working at the local mining hospitale. Subsequently, the circumstances would have brought the miners shame as most of them already had families back in their native Japan. The practice forced many native Katangan mothers to hide their children by not reporting to the hospital to give birth. Other women raised their child more rural or remote areas as blasian children were sought after and murdered in the city by Japanese officials. Today, fifty Afro-Japanese have formed an association of Katanga Infanticide survivors. The organization has hired legal council seeking a formal investigation into the killings. The group submitted official inquiry to both the Congolese and Japanese governments, to no avail. Issues specific to this group include having no documentation of their births, since not having been born in the local hospital spared their lives. The total number of survivors is unknown.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Politics Essays Free Speech Movement

Politics Essays Free Speech Movement Free Speech Movement Berkeley, 1964: An analysis of the Free Speech Movement and its role in creating a new genre of conflict on American Campuses. Bibliography Introduction P71-2: â€Å"The Regents of the university, meeting the day before the Christmas recess began, declared that they â€Å"do not contemplate that advocacy or content of speech [on the Berkeley campus] shall be restricted beyond the purview of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution,† and set up a committee to review university policies in consultations with faculty and students â€Å"with the intent of providing maximum freedom consistent with individual and group responsibility† (After an earlier meeting, on November 20, during which thousands of students were sitting outside being led by Jon Baez in singing, the Regents had said that their policy was to make campus facilities available for â€Å"planning, implementing or raising funds or recruiting participants for lawful off-campus action, not for unlawful†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) The emergency executive committee of the Berkeley division of the academic senate (the faculty) issued an optimistic statement after the Regent’s meeting, asserting the substantial progress had been made. 72: To begin with, we must dispose of the ingeniously slogan of â€Å"free speech† which has made it possible for so many who are far from the events at Berkeley to send in forthright statements in support of the Free Speech Movement or the position adopted by the faculty on December 8 (that political advocacy or organisation should be limited only by minimum regulations designed to permit the university to function normally) In 1964 The conflict at the Berkeley campus of the University of California warrants analysis not only as a striking, historic event, but because of what followed on other university campuses. Berkeley was the first instance of a new genre of conflict between students and authority. Many of the ensuing confrontations at other North American universities were direct products of the Berkeley conflict and in those that cannot be said to be direct products of the 1964 conflict; one can still see the influences Berkeley has had in the way the conflict has unfolded and evolved. This dissertation proposes Chapter 2: Foundations for Conflict The Free Speech Movement made Berkeley a pacesetter for student confrontations with authority. However, in the years preceding the 1964 student rebellion, the Berkeley campus of the University of California had also set the pace in developing a new form of university system, developing especially successful example patterns of organisation that had begun to change the higher education system in mid-twentieth century America. President of the Berkeley campus of the University of California, Clark Kerr, regarded the university as a means of producing ‘knowledge’, obviously not a radical idea. However, Kerr’s definition of â€Å"knowledge† is not a definition of an abstract concept as one would expect. Instead he saw knowledge as a â€Å"product†. He stated that, The production, distribution, and consumption of `knowledge in all its forms is said to account for 29 percent of gross national product . . . and `knowledge production is growing at about twice the rate of the rest of the economy. . . . What the railroads did for the second half of the last century and the automobile for the first half of this century may be done for the second half of this century by the knowledge industry: that is, to serve as the focal point for national growth. These patterns of organisation may have created a more economical and efficient university, but there effect on the students were not so positive. Because of the nature of the changes, the students, led by leaders of student political organisations, began to feel like this new university system had begun to encroach upon their basic rights of free speech. Obviously then, the changes in Berkeley’s organisational structure and the political conflict which was to follow are not unrelated. Indeed, it can be said that the changes in the university, both in terms of its policy and its physical layout, contributed significantly in engendering a conflict at Berkeley. Therefore, if we are to fully understand the reasons for the sudden intensification of student activism at Berkeley, we must first investigate these organisational and policy changes which occurred at the university before the pinnacle of activism in 1964. These changes facilitated the organisation of students by political groups and for political action, making political activism relevant to students (as the nature of the changes meant that they were protesting against something which directly affected them) and encouraging innovation within student political organisations. As the remonstrations with the university began to take hold in the general university community, both with students and faculty, the instigated changes also served as a catalyst for student political groups to escalate confrontations with power interests in the larger community. Prior to the changes, political groups on campus were fighting simply for their own causes. However, by providing a shared grievance which affected nearly all students to some extent (and at a fundamental level), the changes effectively unified the student body under a common interest. Doing so created a faction comprised of student political groups, sympathetic faculty, and individual students who all opposed the changes made by the university. As an opponent, this group posed significantly more threat to the Berkeley administration than a dissonant collection of multifarious political organisations and, therefore, we must regard these organisational changes as a mistake. Ultimately, these mistakes would generate a movement which both undermined the university administration at Berkeley, and pioneered a new form of student protest whose effects can be seen in most subsequent student rebellions. We must first look at the administration-initiated changes which made the campus at Berkeley structurally conductive to the recruitment of students for collective political action. The formation of a support base of students who are sympathetic with a political cause is the fundamental process in the developing of a significant student political movement. Whilst the Berkeley campus of the University of California had been a relatively large school for many years, the influx of veterans after World War II saw the campus population swell to 25,325 students in the autumn of 1947. After a drop in the student population (the low birth rate of the depression saw the enrolment statistics drop to 17,563 students in 1953) the university enrolment reached 26,757 in 1963 and this figure was expected to remain fairly constant for the foreseeable future. In addition to the increase in numbers at the University, there was also a change in the proportions of students at varying stages of their education. As the enrolment reached its peak in 1963, the ration of undergraduates to graduate students was almost 1:1. This change in university population called for a change in the organisational systems of the university as it now had to deal not only with a greater volume of students, but also with students who had differing relationships with the university. The policies created by the university to deal with the change in the composition of the university population worked in conjunction with each other to make mass political activity more likely. At the heart of the reforms at Berkeley was the California Master Plan for Higher Education which created a new admissions policy for the university. In order to be admitted to Berkeley, a student had to be in the top 12.5% of High School graduates, allowing the university to attract a high number of intellectual young students. These new students were also enrolling in the departments of humanities and social sciences, with the percentage of new undergraduates enrolled in these subjects reaching a peak of 50% in 1962. The result of this shift was that the departments of subject areas which had traditionally provided the liberal, radical student leaders of political groups gained a disproportionate increase in students. The increase in enrolment numbers, combined with the materials taught in classes offered by the humanities and social sciences departments, meant that students were exposed to subject matter dealing with moral and social issues which could therefore evoke more liberal political attitudes. Also, as such degree schemes offer no specific vocation after completion of their studies, the students take a less career-orientated approach to university life and could be more experimental in the organisations they choose to join and the topics they choose to study. As Berkeley continued to expand in terms of the student populace, there were also expansions in the university campus itself. The increased volume of literature and students necessitated the need for expansions of the school’s library facilities. The main library was not able to deal with the requirements of the entire student population and therefore, subject-specific libraries were created, relieving the pressure on the main library building. This meant that natural sciences students tended to stay within the confines of their own subject libraries and as a result, the main library building increasingly became a meeting point and discussion area for the humanities and social sciences students and faculty. In addition to relocating some of the library facilities, in 1960, the university cafeteria, book store, Student Union and general common leisure area were moved to a block of land adjoining the university south of Sather Gate. This shifted the focal point for much of the university’s social scene to land which was considered the natural territory of humanities and social studies students. More importantly, the land was also adjacent to an area traditionally used for political recruiting. Obviously, this brought many more students into contact with radical political groups, canvassing for a variety of causes, exposing them to moral and social issues outside their field of study. Therefore, not only did politics gain a new audience of impressionable youth at Sather Gate, but also had the ability (with this new audience) to attract students who were already sensitive to such political nuances. Berkeley is a tax-supported institution and, as such, there is a duality in the way that it operates. On one side, there is free inquiry and the ability to of expression based on one’s own perceptions. However, it is also expected to show no political bias which may offer political advantage to any one political group at the expense of the general public. These regulations go back to a time where no political activity of any kind was allowed on campus. Under this earlier situation, not even candidates for the presidency were allowed to speak at Berkeley. In theory, this situation should have been resolved by the California State constitution, which prohibited religious or political canvassing and which gave the responsibility of university policy-making to a Board of Regents, stating: The University of California shall constitute a public trust, to be administered by the existing corporation known as The Regents of the University of California, with full powers of organization and government, subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure the security of its funds and compliance with the terms of the endowments of the university†¦ Regents shall be able persons broadly reflective of the economic, cultural, and social diversity of the State, including ethnic minorities and women. However, it is not intended that formulas or specific ratios be applied in the selection of regents†¦ The university shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free therefrom in the appointment of its regents and in the administration of its affairs, and no person shall be debarred admission to any department of the university on account of race, religion, ethnic heritage, or sex. However, although the Board of Regents act as a buffer between the university and the political pressures of interest groups within the state, 1964-1965 school year, the twenty four members of the University of California’s Board of Regents were not politically impartial. The board chairman was president of the largest chain of department stores in the West. Other members included the chairman of Bank of America, the chairman of the largest gold-mining corporation, a vice-president of Lockheed Aviation, the board chairman of two oil companies, a past chairman of the Republican States Central Committee, a Democratic Party Career woman, a national labour leader, and a past president of the state bar association. Therefore, the existence of the Board of Regents did not protect the university from the political currents of the time. In order to maintain a politically neutral environment on campus, a series of regulations were drafted. These regulations, known as Rule 17, stated that political positions were to be analysed in class, but faculty were not to take a position of favour for or against them. These regulations would therefore allow free discussion of political positions, without jeopardising Berkeley’s position of impartiality. However, it is here that the university made a clear distinction between free speech and free advocacy of action based on political ideas. Advocacy of political positions was not permitted on campus, unless administrative approval was given and representation of the converse position was present at the same time in order to give a counter argument. In the same vein, funds for off campus causes could not be gathered on campus without permission from the university administrators. However, the off-campus actions of the student body were not controlled by these regulations. An off campus political organisation could run a meeting on campus, but it would have to explain to the students present that certain kinds of discussion (for example, implementing a demonstration) must be held off campus. In this way the rights of the student to participate in off campus political advocacy was protected and the political neutrality of the Berkeley campus was maintained. However, the line between off-campus action and on campus-action was difficult to accentuate and any off-campus action which was deemed to be contentious and was participated in by Berkeley students or faculty was publicly perceived to also be occurring on campus as well. Rule 17, however, was not practically applicable, as was emphasised in 1956, when presidential candidate Adlai Stephenson spoke to a group of students via a loudspeaker mounted on a truck which was parked outside university walls (and therefore in compliance with the regulations) yet his speech could still be well observed by the students. This bizarre occurrence prompted students to seek amendments to Rule 17, and, after a protracted period of negotiation, political speakers were permitted to speak on campus without the necessity of an opponent (however, the administration added the caveat that the opposing position be represented on campus within a reasonable time limit). This amendment directly influenced the students who attended such organised events. Students were presented with a politically marginalised account and in order to hear the opposing viewpoint, attendance of a separate event was necessary, giving the speaker with the temporal upper-hand a clear advantage. The efforts of the university to distance itself from controversial political actions undertaken by students came under marked criticism, both from the students and the faculty. Conflicts with student political groups such as Slate prompted the university to pass legislation detrimental to the efforts of politically active students. For example, in 1959, the university administration ruled that graduate students were ineligible for voting, costing Slate the possibility of gaining control of the student government. In the summer of 1961, Slate was stripped of its on-campus status for violating the university regulation prohibiting a group which took an off campus stand from affiliating itself with the university. This loss of recognition was the beginning of the end for Slate and the leaders turned their attentions to the larger struggles of the community. The university policies which worked against politically active students at Berkeley began to create more widespread tension between the administration and the student body. The situation was close to boiling point. With the increase in off-campus student political activity and the seeds of discontent already sown amongst the general populace of the university, a escalation of student activism was expected. Furthermore, when viewed , and therefore necessitate discussion in order to extrapolate cogent. Chapter 3: Escalation The beginning of the escalation in student activism was prompted by the university choosing to enforce the distinction between free speech and advocacy. As the Student Union moved, so did the areas of political activity. The area around the new Student Union at the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph had become the new rallying point for student political activists. However, upon receiving complaints of noise and littering, the vice-chancellor for student affairs, Alex C. Sherriffs, launched an inquiry into the legitimacy of the complaints. He found that the root of the noise was bongo drummers and the source of the litter was a mass of discarded leaflets handed out by the various student political groups in an effort to spread the word about their organisation. Sherriffs also found that people were setting up tables on university property, and, according to the regulations, such an activity in such a location was illegal. A conflict now arose between two unfairly matched opponents: the student political groups and the administration of the Berkeley campus of the University of California. Conflict is not uncommon on the Berkeley campus. There is a long established tradition of protest and picketing. However, in this instance, the protestors adopted a radically different style. The main reason for this departure from traditional methods of dissidence, in particular the development of new techniques of civil disobedience, is the Civil Rights Movement. The protests for racial equality have given rise to new tactics of protest. In 1963, hundreds of Berkeley students, â€Å"sat-in† at a chain of lunch counters, â€Å"shopped-in† at a chain of supermarkets (with students filling their shopping carts with food, letting the check-out operator tally the total, and then declaring that they did not have the money to pay for the goods) and lay down in the automobile showrooms of Van Ness Avenue. These types of protest led in each case to the establishment concerned hiring a certain amount of Negro workers. These radical new tactics clearly worked. They also led to mass arrests and mass trials, which although led to disciplinary action, further handicapped the bureaucratic procedures by placing the courtrooms of San Francisco under considerable stress. The situation produced and the emotions evoked by the civil rights movement amongst student political groups at Berkeley was markedly different from the mood that prevailed when such groups were fighting for the loosening of the strict regulations that which once governed their political activity. As well as introducing new tactics, the civil rights movement developed a large body of students committed to these tactics and a summoned up a substantial body of public opinion in the faculty and among the liberal population of the Berkeley area who were sympathetic to them. : The Chancellor’s office delegated on to the lesser members of the administrative hierarchy the decision that the area of political activity on Bancroft and Telegraph was now to become subject de facto (as it had been de jure) to the university ban on advocacy and organisation. This was obviously unsatisfactory to the students, and thus they resorted to a direct test of the administration’s resolve to enforce the new regulations: they set up their tables and collected money, in flagrant violation of university regulations. A number were directed to appear before a dean on September 29 to discuss these violations. The official account to the chancellor of the faculty describes the situation that ensued, At 3 o clock that afternoon, some 300-400 students moved into the second floor of Sproul Hall and Mario Savio announced that all of them acknowledged violating university regulations in the same manner as those who had been instructed to make appointments with the dean of students, and they all wanted similar appointments. The Dean of Men then declared he was then concerned only with observed violations, and if students wanted appointments then they could leave their names and he would determine if and when such could be made. He also asked [the students who had been involved in observed in violations] to go in and see a dean because each had been involved in a matter of personal discipline, and requested that the crowd disperse, since he had scheduled a meeting of the leaders of the student organisations and their advisors to discuss the problem at 4 oc. Savio responded that the group would not leave unless they were guaranteed that the same disciplinary action would be meted out to all there. Unable to make such guarantees, the Dean of Men again asked the group to leave, and later announced that since, in the opinion of the administration and some of the advisors of the student political groups who had come to attend the 4:00 meeting, the environment was not conductive to reasonable discussion, the meeting was cancelled†¦The group remained in Sproul Hall until 2:40am. This transformed the nature of the conflict and also marginalised the protestors. What began as a protest involving nearly all political groups, from revolutionary socialist to extreme conservative, was changed into a movement run almost entirely by the civil rights leaders. For as soon as the tactics of the process â€Å"escalated† into questionably legal activities (like sitting in Sproul Hall, which was done for the first time on September 29th) the right-wingers could not go along. It was clear that the leadership of the movement was coming exclusively from the civil rights and left-wing political groups, but there were too few students directly committed to the left-wing groups to provide the necessary numbers for significant protest. Only the civil rights groups could evoke the emotions of the masses and raise hundreds ready to sit-in. On October 2 the movement gained their first victory: the withdrawal of the large concentration of police surrounding the campus, and a meeting with President Clark Kerr in which a pact was signed calling for an administration-faculty-student committee to deal with the issue of political activity. The movement’s next step was to organise itself internally. Confirming the fact that the right had withdrawn almost completely no right-orientated groups emerged with any positions of leadership within the movement. The civil rights leaders, who had become synonymous with direct action gained all the authority and as a result, the movement moved further to the left. Chapter 4: Negotiation and Resolution 83: As the leadership of the student movement became concentrated into a coherent force, sharing the same aims, philosophy and outlook, the university administration was becoming proportionally less organised. 88: In a situation first created by reasonable demands of the students and secondly by the new, radical tactics, the administration showed itself to be incapable of consistent, decisive or effective action. Again and again it was forced to withdraw from positions either because they were poorly argued or because the higher levels (President Kerr) moved in and changed the positions taken lower down. I feel it necessary to mention the role the faculty played in the resolution of the conflict at Berkeley, as their position was not insignificant. At the start of the rebellion, the faculty looked upon the conflict between the administration and the students as detached and neutral outsiders. However, some groups of faculty members placed themselves into the situation as mediators. They were distinguished from the great majority of their colleagues by the fact that they had been involved in student politics in the past and remained interested in their outcomes in the present. The first group of student mediators helped to draw up the pact of October the 2nd. However, the faculty, like the right-wing student political groups before them, eventually joined the list as casualties of the developing crisis. They became casualties owing to the critical change in the issues of the conflict that occurred around the beginning of November. This change became apparent in the discussions of the faculty-student-administration committee that had been set up by the October 2 pact. For the first month there had been two fairly straightforward issues: the attempt of the administration to change the status quo, which all the student political groups, left and right, and all interested faculty opposed; and secondly, the student tactics, which some of the student groups and most of the interested faculty opposed, but which everyone agreed should not lead to disciplinary action (on the ground that the original issue which had occasioned the tactics had been a just one). The problems were settled when the administration’s representatives on the committee provisionally accepted a much wider range of political advocacy and organisation on campus than had been permitted before, when a second committee (faculty) set up under the October 2nd pact called for the lifting of the suspensions that had been pronounced against the students who had violated the old regulations. Up until this point, the interested faculty members and the student FSM leaders had stood together. But now the student leaders and the administration raised a new issue, created by the possible liberalisation of the rules. If Berkeley was opened up to advocacy and organisation, what of advocacy and organisation that led to illegal action or was designed to produce illegal action? The administration’s insistence on a line between legal and illegal was immediately seen by students as a threat to actions they were already planning. The student leaders fully expected further mass arrests as a result of these actions, and they hoped to protect themselves from university discipline. It was this issue of illegal action which caused the faculty-student-administration committee to split in November. The student representatives insisted on a specific guarantee that nothing they advocated or organised on campus would lead to any disciplinary measures by the university against them or their organisations. The administration members insisted on the right to discipline individuals or organisations who advocated or organised illegal action. The faculty group proposed a formula which neither gave the students a specific guarantee of immunity nor the administration a specific ban against illegal action on campus. Under this formula the students would have conducted their demonstrations and sit-ins in all likelihood safe from university interference, as the university’s policy of the year before had been not to discipline those arrested for civil rights activities, and it seemed improbable that this policy would be changed. If, however, the university decided on a change, the students could have tested in the courts its right to punish them for illegal action advocated or organised on campus, a contingency which, they asserted, would be â€Å"against the 1st and 14th amendments† and would constitute â€Å"double jeopardy.† On this issue the students decided to revoke the pact of October 2 (in which they had agreed to only execute to legal actions), pronounced new rules to govern political activity on campus, and began to operate under them. The students now hoped that the Regents would give them what the committee set up under the pact of October 2 had not, but on November 20, the Regents insisted on maintaining the distinction between lawful and unlawful actions. At this point the student leaders split, some arguing for further drastic measures, other urging de facto acceptance of the new rules under which they had full freedom of action. A new sit-in was staged at Sproul Hall, which involved only 300 hundred students; the administration did not act against it, and it was called off after a few hours. However, on November 30, it was learned that the administration had summoned 4 student leaders to appear before the Faculty Committee on Student Conduct to hear charges against them stemming from their tussles with the police on October 1st and 2nd. As a result of this blunder, an issue that was capable of arousing the students i.e., the disciplining of their leaders, was fortuitously tied to one that could not i.e., immunity for advocacy or organisation of illegal action. Once again, on Dec 2, students occupied Sproul Hall. In the early morning of December 3, a small army of police began carrying out around 800 students. That afternoon, yet another impromptu group of mediating faculty, the department chairmen, met to formulate a compromise which offered full amnesty to the students for the actions of the past 2 months; they hoped to sell this to the President and the Regents. On Dec 4, a long threatened strike of teaching assistants was launched, and on Sunday, Dec 6, the President and the Regents accepted the department chairmen’s compromise. However, by this time the student leaders had glimpsed the possibility of gaining complete success. A number of liberal faculty members had been preparing a resolution which asserted that political activity on campus should be regulated only in terms of â€Å"time, place, and manner† in order not to interfere with the functioning of the university, and they were rounding up support for its adoption. The larger part of the faculty had now become involved, because they had been forced to confront and take a stand on the strike of their teaching assistants. The students hoped that the faculty resolution supporting their position would pass and they joined its faculty drafters in campaigning for it. On December 7 the compromise negotiated by the department chairmen was presented by Professor Robert Scalopino and President Kerr to the student body and faculty. The radicalisation of the students, thousands of whom had participated in sit-ins, strikes, and picketing, had proceeded at frightening pace over the weekend; full victory was now seen as possible, and the compromising was denounced by the student leaders as a â€Å"sell-out.† Because of their desperate desire to settle things, because of their experience of one administration failure after another, many of the faculty were by now ready to accept any agreement that might lead to peace. The administration was absent and silent when 1000 members of the Academic Senate met on Dec 8 and by a huge vote endorsed the resolution of the liberal faculty members mentioned above. This resolution, in addition to backing the view that political ac

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Democratic Outlaws :: essays research papers fc

 DEMOCRATIC OUTLAWS ?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pirates, the outlaws of the sea. If like me, the first idea that comes to mind regarding pirates is a group of raiding and plundering individuals. This is due to today’s society glamorizing the pirates as fascinating characters. Historically, not much written information has been left behind. The pirates did not leave ship logs or accounts of plunders, because it could be used to incriminate them. Society today has invented the pirates to fit a romantic mold. Therefore, we grew up thinking of treasure hunts, sea battles, sword fights and plank walkers, when in actuality the pirates of old were loathed by society. During the Golden Age of Piracy, during the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates were regarded as common criminals of the seas without thought to democracy/justice or civility. In short, the pirates had no decency. However, is there some truth to the glamorized legends? Could the legendary characters have upheld the same ideals? In the course of the semester, we have learned some of the truths behind the glamorized pirate facade. Throughout life I have seen that good is more often than not overshadowed by bad. I decided to give these characters the benefit of the doubt and do some investigating. In this essay, I will attempt to prove that human decency among the pirates could have existed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Civility is one trait rarely associated with pirates. Why should civility be associated as a trait of pirates? After all, pirates raid, plunder, steal, rape, drink and swear. Civilized people do not participate in lowly, unlawful behavior. Pirates were know to be excessive drunks, ruthless killers, indulgers of women and unruly individuals. In defense of pirate civility, I must point out a few examples. Lord Byron’s â€Å"The Corsair† is an excellent example of pirate decency. Conrad, Byron’s hero and captain of a pirate crew, shows remarkable civility for a pirate. While â€Å"The Corsair† is a fictional work, many of the pirate tales, as in other fictional works, derive from actual occurrences. While Conrad’s crew is toasting spirts and carousing about, he remains composed. â€Å"Ne’er for his lip the purplng cup they fill, That goblet passes him untasted still . . . But while he shuns the grosser joys of sense, His mind seems nourished by that abstinence† (Byron 152). Conrad does not overindulge and does not become unruly. Conrad does not kill unnecessarily and when forced to kill, it is in defense. Conrad does not ravage women. He is married but loves only one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Jean Lafitte is a factual example of civility.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Brave New World (Style) :: essays research papers

Reading Between the Lines Huxley has a style where you can make complex ideas simple but it really makes the reader think. A dark satire would be a good way to describe the literary style. You can tell because one of England’s most notable places, Westminster Abbey is now merely the site of a nightclub the Westminster Abbey Cabaret. The narrator of the story stays right where the action is all the time and even gets inside the head of one of the characters at the beginning of the story. The voice of the characters living in the society seems to be pretty plain and pretty boring they really don’t have any differences throughout the entire story. The author manages to keep the readers attention even though almost all of the characters aren’t even under their own control. At one point in the story John and Mond two very important characters in the story are arguing and this conversation comes up, "But I like the inconveniences." "We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably." "But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin". "In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy." "All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm clai- ming the right to be unhappy." "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impo- tent; the right to have syphilis Baldwin 2 and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be torturded by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence." "I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Creative Writing; Point of View from a Stuffed Animal Kitten

Sitting up high, I felt like the king of the world. All of my peers sat below me and some sat at my side like Louis the XIV’s assistants would sit by him. Because they were all below me, they all looked up to me. I would see that they leave my land happily with welcoming denizens who carefully picked them out. A plethora of young aliens would frequently skip back and forth along my lane, picking up and hugging my soft and furry subjects with glee. Occasionally some of my peers found themselves laying lonely on the ground, but help always came.A much taller, weathered-looking alien came by and swept the helpless up and put them back on their shelves. I never fell though, of course. Nothing could touch me at the time, until I met the day that would bring my demise as a king of my land. It was a normal day like every other. I was watching over my peers with full intention of protection when I noticed a peculiar little alien. This alien was different and very unlike all other litt le aliens that came through my land. He wore a frown on his round face and stomped his feet out of displeasure to the middle of the lane.After a quick perusal, his zealous eyes threw angry glances towards me as I remained patient while enduring utmost disrespect. Before I could register in my mind what was happening to me, I was being squeezed by the fractious alien’s hands. He squeezed and pinched every part of my body: ears, nose, whiskers, tail, and paws. I was violated over and over as I was scanned and thrown into a plastic bag. Leaving my kingdom, I felt uncomfortable warmth all over my body. I couldn’t see through the translucent bag, but the bright light which passed through blinded me.I was roughly tossed into what I now know is a transportation vehicle, hitting my head. Quickly, the vehicle turned on, made a loud noise, and began moving. It hit many bumps and I hit my head continuously leaving my entire body sore. I was being smothered by the plastic bag I wa s contained in and soon lost consciousness. Within moments, my life had gone from greatness to nothing. I was once the beloved king of my people, but quickly became an obsequious slave. I was thrown at walls, wailed into furniture, stomped on the floor, and dropped in dirt.My face would be drilled into the mud many times over the years. Sticky juice and soda pop would be spilled on my once soft, clean fur. My long whiskers were cut, and my white fur was dirty. I felt more ugly than I looked. The giant family dog and the alien boy often played tug-of-war with my sore body, pulling me back and forth ripping the stitches at my limbs. Thick dog slobber would drip down my snout, further dirtying my fur. All I wanted was to be loved. All I wanted was to be cared for. It wasn’t too long until the alien boy stopped playing with me.The dog forgot about my existence as well. The feeling was bitter-sweet. I wasn’t being mistreated anymore, and I wasn’t constantly exposed t o pain and discomfort, but I felt alone more than ever. Minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days, and days felt like weeks. I laid in a dusty corner for months facing the banal wall, only able to hear my surroundings. This feeling was common, common to anyone forgotten and mistreated. This is how I thought I would spend eternity. Soon life would change once more for me.One morning I found myself in a large bag with many others like me. There were teddy bears, toy horses, dolls, and cars. I was surprised to find out that they had been treated the same way I had been by the alien boy. Just like me, they all once had good lives which were ripped away from them by the alien. They were beaten and dirtied, but eventually forgotten. We were taken to the transportation vehicle and tossed into it. It started up, and within minutes we were at our destination. After being emptied out of the bag, my eyes met the faces of many little girl aliens.They rhapsodized over us, for their faces wer e filled with smiles as â€Å"oohs† and â€Å"ahhs† poured out of their mouths. They bounced up and down with excitement and anticipation. One alien gently grabbed my body and hugged me tightly to her chest. For the next several hours she swung me on the outside swings and took me everywhere she went. In the evening she would put me back on the top of my shelf – my new kingdom – for a respite and get me down again the next day. All of the new little aliens brought something to me I never had before. They brought me love that I had yearned for.

Sunday, November 10, 2019

The Case for Christ

BOOK SUMMARY The Case for Christ Lee Strobel. Pub. Zondervan Publishing House About the Author Lee Strobel, Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School. Award-winning journalist & investigative reporter for 13 yrs. at the Chicago Tribune. Pg. 303. His life changes when his wife becomes a Christian. He fears he will lose the fun-loving companion and friend he has known for years, but instead he is surprised by subtle changes in her character. This not only intrigues him but prompts him to learn more about Jesus by using the same logical and factual approach he follows while working as an investigative crime reporter. He starts his learning quest as an unconvinced skeptic. His underlying question is, â€Å"Can a case for Christ be made beyond a reasonable doubt†? To answer this, he sets out on a fact-finding mission. For nearly two years, he interviews numerous subject matter experts and biblical scholars to answer his questions with facts and evidence. His skills in investigative reporting help uncover the truth regarding the reliability of the gospels. Introduction: Who is Jesus? This comes down to two answers: This man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. Part 1: Examining the Record Timeframe Skeptics: â€Å"Some scholars say the gospels were written so far after the events that legend developed and distorted what was finally written down, turning Jesus from merely a wise teacher into the mythological Son of God. † Pg. 32 Answers: â€Å"The standard scholarly dating is that Acts was written by Luke in A. D. 61-63, because Paul was still living and under house arrest in Rome. Since Acts is the 2nd of a two-part work, we know the 1st part – the gospel of Luke – must have been written earlier than that. And since Luke incorporates parts of the gospel of Mark, that means Mark is even earlier. So if you allow one year for each writing, you end up with Mark written no later than about A. D. 60, a maximum gap of 30 yrs. after Jesus’ death. Pg. 34 That’s still within the lifetimes of various eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus, including hostile eyewitnesses who would have served as a corrective if false teachings about Jesus were going around. † Pg. 33. Eyewitness testimony is the key here. The two earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written by Arrian and Plutarch more than 400 years after Alexander’s death in 323 B. C. , yet historians consider them to be trustworthy. So whether the gospels were written 60 yrs. or 30 yrs. after the life of Jesus, the mount of time is negligible by comparison. Pg. 33. Character Test â€Å"The gospel writers had nothing to gain except criticism, ostracism, and martyrdom. The certainly had nothing to win financially. If anything this would have provided pressure to keep quiet, to deny Jesus, to downplay him, even to forget they ever met him—yet, because of their integrity, they proclaimed what they saw. Pg. 48. Eleven apostles were put to grisly deaths, which show deep conviction for what they believed and were preaching regarding Jesus. Pg. 45 Consistency â€Å"The gospels are extremely consistent with each other by ancient standards, which are the only standards by which it’s fair to judge them†. Pg. 45 â€Å"If the gospels were identical or too consistent, this would have raised awareness that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance, and that would h ave cast doubt on them†. Pg. 45 The Adverse Witness Test â€Å"Many people had reasons for wanting to discredit this movement and would have done so if they could have simply told history better. Pg. 51. Yet, look what his opponents did say. In later Jewish writings Jesus is called a sorcerer who led Israel astray—which acknowledges that he really did work marvelous wonders, although the writers dispute the source of his power. They never say he did not work the written miracles. If critics could have attacked the movement on the basis that it was full of falsehoods or distortions, they would have. But, that’s exactly what we don’t see†. Pg. 51 Corroborating evidence outside the Bible Josephus, Jewish historian, A. D. 37-100 †¢ Wrote about Jewish wars that have corroborated by other historians and archaeological excavations. Pg. 81 †¢ Writes about James, brother of Jesus, who was called the Christ. Stoned to death in A. D. 62. Pg. 78 †¢ Wrote about Jesus the tribe of his Christian followers that had still to this day not disappeared. Pg. 79 Tacitus, a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire, A. D. 56 –117 †¢ Writes about Christ suffering extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of Pontius Pilatus. Refers to an immense multitude of Christ followers willing to die for their beliefs. Pg. 82 Pliny the Younger, Roman citizen, and provincial governor, A. D. 23-79 †¢ Refers to rapid spread of Christianity among all classes of people, as well as Roman citizens that are sent to Rome for trial. â€Å"They have high ethical standards and if they repeatedly admit they honor Christ as God they are executed†. Thallus, a Greek historian, wrote in A. D. 52 a history of the Mediterranean world since the Trojan War. †¢ Referenced the total darkness at the time of the crucifixion. Pg. 84 Phlegon, a Greek author in A. D. 137 †¢ Reported about the greatest eclipse of the sun when it became night at noon in A. D. 33. Pg. 85 The Mishnah, the 1st part of the Talmud, an important Jewish work compiled in A. D. 200 regarding Judaism's Oral Law †¢ Refers to Jesus as a false messiah who practiced magic and was justly condemned to death. Pg. 86 Key Findings So if we didn’t have any New Testament or other Christian writings, we could conclude from non-Christian historical writings that: 1. Jesus was a Jewish teacher 2. Many believed he performed healings and exorcisms 3. Some believed he was the Messiah 4. He was rejected by Jewish leaders 5. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius 6. His followers spread beyond Palestine to there were multitudes of them in Rome by A. D. 64 7. All types of people worshiped him as God. Pg. 87. The Scientific Evidence Archaeology found an inscription from the time of Tiberius, from A. D. 14-37 which names Lysanias as tetrarch in Abila near Damascus—just as Luke had written. Pg. 97 John mentions the Pool of Bethesda and details the pool had five porticoes. When archaeologists excavated in this location 40 feet below the ground, they found the pool site and 5 porticoes (walk ways) exactly as John had described. A fragment copy of John 18 was found in Egypt that papyrologists have dated to about A. D. 125. Pg. 99 Part 2: Analyzing Jesus The Identity Evidence of Gospel Writings The cross: Pontius Pilate inscribed INRI, an acronym for â€Å"Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews. Pg. 135 The Psychological Evidence Gary Collins, Dr. in clinical psychology. â€Å"People suffering form psychosis display inappropriate emotions such as anxiety, depression or even anger. Jesus did not display any such emotions nor did he exhibit the misperceptions that plague people suffering from psychosis. Jesus did not show any symptoms of mental illness. Jesus supported what he said by his actions—healing, raising people from the dead and the casting out of demons. Pg. 153 Prophesy Fulfillment Louis Lapides, Jewish convert to Christianity. Grew up thinking Jesus was more derogatory than anything else. After returning from Vietnam War, he experimented with various religions and drugs. Was challenged about his disbelief in Jesus which led him to read the Old Testament prophesies. Was amazed of all the prophesies that Jesus fulfilled: â€Å"Isaiah revealed the manner of the Messiah's birth (of a virgin); Micah pinpointed the place of his birth (Bethlehem); Genesis and Jeremiah specified his ancestry (a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the tribe of Judah, the house of David); The Psalms foretold his betrayal, his accusation by false witnesses, his manner of death (pierced in the hands and feet, although crucifixion hadn't been invented yet), and his resurrection (he would not decay but would ascent on high); and on and on† (p. 179). Lapides goes on to earn a bachelor's degree in theology and a master of divinity of theology. Pg. 173 Part 3: Researching the Resurrection To establish that Jesus rose from the dead, one must first establish that he died on the cross. The Medical Evidence The gospels tell us that Jesus sweat blood. â€Å"And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. † Luke 22:44 Dr. Metherell, M. D. & PH. D. in Engineering. Pg. 193 â€Å"In severe cases of anxiety, the body releases chemicals that break down the capillaries in the sweat glands. As a result, there’s a small amount of bleeding into these glands, and the sweat comes out tinged with a very small amount of blood†. Pg. 195 According to the Dr. , when Jesus was nailed to the cross, his arms would have immediately been stretched about 6 inches in length, and both shoulders would have become dislocated. This fulfilled the Old Testament prophesy in Psalm 22, which foretold the Crucifixion hundreds of years before it took place and says, â€Å"My bones are out of joint. † When Jesus suffocated on the cross, a Roman soldier confirmed it by thrusting a spear into his side, which likely went through his lung and into the heart. When the spear was pulled out, clear fluid and a large volume of blood would have come out. Clear fluid from the lung and large amounts of blood from the heart. This was confirmed in John 19:34 when John reported he saw blood and water come out Jesus’ side when the spear was removed. Pg. 199. The Dr. testified there would be no question that Jesus was dead at this point. Pg. 200. To speed up death, Romans would use a steel shaft to shatter the victim’s lower leg bones. This would prevent the victim from pushing up with his legs to breathe. Jesus’ legs were not broken, because the soldiers already determined that he was dead, and they just used the spear to confirm it. John 19:32-36 This fulfilled another Old Testament prophesy about the Messiah, which is that his bones would remain unbroken. Ps 34:20. Pg. 200 Roman soldiers had every incentive to ensure crucified prisoners were dead when removed from the cross, because they would be put to death if a prisoner escaped. Pg. 201. â€Å"Last of all, if Jesus did not die, and he somehow walked away from the tomb, he would have been in such poor condition and looked so pitiful that his followers would have felt sorry for him and try to nurse him back to health. They would never have been prompted to start a worldwide movement based on the hope that someday they too would have a resurrected body like his†. Pg. 202 The Evidence of the Missing Body Joseph of Arimathea takes to body of Jesus, puts it in a tomb, the tomb is visited by a small group of women followers of Jesus early on the Sunday morning following his crucifixion, and they find that the tomb is empty. They see a vision of angels saying that â€Å"Jesus has risen† (p. 215). Recorded in Acts 13:29-31 and prophesied in Ps. 16:10. Pg. 219. In the earliest Jewish writings, there was nobody claiming the tomb still contained Jesus’ body. The question always was, â€Å"What happened to the body? † The Jews proposed the guards of the tomb fell asleep, while the Christians proclaimed the guards were paid off to keep quiet. Pg. 221 â€Å"The site of Jesus’ tomb was known to Christian and Jew alike. If it were not empty, it would have been impossible for a movement founded on belief in the Resurrection to have come into existence in the same city where this man had been publicly executed and buried†. Pg. 20. The Evidence of Appearances Paul 5 B. C. – 67 A. D. †¢ Wrote in both 1 Cor. 9:1 and in1 Cor. 15:8 where he personally encountered the resurrected Christ. Pg. 228. †¢ Persecuted Christians until his conversion sometime in A. D. 33. †¢ Refers to the fact that Jesus was a descendant of David, that he was the Messiah, that he was betrayed, that he was tried, crucified for our s ins, and buried, and that he rose again on the third day and was seen by many people—including James, the brother of Jesus who hadn’t believed in him prior to his crucifixion. Pg. 8 †¢ â€Å"1 Corinthians 15:8 is part of an early church creed. In this portion of Scripture, the post-resurrection Jesus is said to have appeared to Peter, the twelve, plus more than five hundred people some of whom were still alive at the writing of this epistle†. †¢ People reading this at the time could still check with eye witnesses and question them if they wanted to confirm what it said†. Pg. 229. †¢ â€Å"This creed can be traced back to about A. D. 32 to 38 which means it lends it credence as primitive, unembellished testimony about Jesus appearing to skeptics like Paul and James† Pg. 30. Then they go on to cover the numerous sightings by other eye-witnesses mentioned in the gospels and the book of Acts†. Pg. 234. Were the appearances hallucina tions? Dr. Gary Habermas, PH. D. , considered expert on the resurrection. He refutes the theory that the appearances were hallucinations because a hallucination is an individual experience that happens to one person at a time. Pg. 238 The Circumstantial Evidence J. P. Moreland, PH. D. Professor and author. â€Å"When Jesus was crucified, his followers were discouraged and depressed. They no longer had confidence that Jesus had been sent by God, because they believed anyone crucified was accursed by God. They also had been taught that God would not let his Messiah suffer death. So they dispersed. The Jesus movement was all but stopped in its tracks. † Pg. 246 â€Å"Then, after a short period of time, we see them abandoning their occupations, regathering, and committing themselves to spreading a very specific message—that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God who died on a cross, returned to life, and was seen alive by them. Pg. 247 â€Å"And when you've got eleven credible people with no ulterior motives, with nothing to gain and a lot to lose, who all agree they observed something with their own eyes–now you've got some difficulty explaining that away† Pg. 247. The Conversion of Skeptics â€Å"The gospels tell us Jesus’ family, including James, was embarrassed by what he was claiming to be. † â€Å"Later the historian Jos ephus tells us that James was stoned to death because of his belief in his brother. Why did James’s life change? Paul tells us: the resurrected Jesus appeared to him. There’s no other explanation. † Pg. 248 Saul executed Christians when he had the chance. â€Å"Suddenly, he doesn’t just ease off Christians but joins their movement. He writes that he saw the risen Christ and heard Christ appoint him to be one of his followers. † Pg. 249 Revolutionizing Jewish Life for followers of Jesus Immediately after Jesus’ death, 10,000 Jews were willing to give up five key practices that had served them sociologically and theologically for many centuries: 1. Jewish people no longer offered sacrifices they had been doing since the time of Abraham and Moses 2. You don’t become an upcoming Jewish member simply by keeping Moses’ laws. 3. Worshipped on Sunday (when Jesus rose) instead of Saturday, a 1500 year tradition. 4. Began to worship Jesus as God (trinity) 5. The Messiah was someone who suffered and died for the sins of the world, whereas Jews had been trained to believe that the Messiah was going to be a political leader who would destroy the Roman armies. † Pg. 251 Conclusion: So let’s revisit the underlying question of this book, â€Å"Who is Jesus†? Lee Strobel concluded the evidence of history and his own experiences was too strong to ignore. He made a personal decision to receive Christ. Later, his five-year-old daughter went up to his wife and said, â€Å"Mommy, I want God to do for me what he’s done for Daddy. † This book has helped strengthen my faith in Christ, by highlighting many intriguing historical facts and evidence that corroborates what is written in the Old and New Testament concerning Jesus. I will end with the book’s last paragraph which cites a quote from C. S. Lewis, an atheist and skeptical Cambridge University professor who was eventually won over by evidence for Jesus. C. S. Lewis is most notably known for his best-selling book series The Chronicles of Narnia. â€Å"I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: â€Å"I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. † That is the one thing we must not say. A man ho was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic†¦or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patr onizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Pg. 271.

Managing Operations, Information

Managing Operations, Information, and Knowledge of Gate Gourmet Words 3,000 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract 4 1. 0 Introduction 5 2. 0 About Gate Gourmet 5 3. 0 Systems that enable efficient use of input resources and their impact on output of goods and services supplied by Gate Gourmet 6 3. 1 Transformation Process 6 3. 2 Production Techniques 6 1. Cuisine Sous-Vides 6 2. Hot Filling 6 3. Modified Atmosphere Packing 6 4. Food Safety Checks and Assurance Systems 7 5.Gate Serve Provisioning services 7 6. Post Flight Aircraft Stripping 7 2. Existence of Trade-offs within Gate Gourmet and challenges faced by following this approach 8 4. 0 Supply Chain Management issues and supplier selection 9 4. 1 Supply Chain 9 2. Supply Chain Management 9 3. Impact of integrated system in the management of suppliers and supplier selection 9 1. Alpha Flight Group 9 2. Pourshins 10 3. Supplair 10 4. DeSter 10 5.Potmstudios 11 6. Harmony 11 4. Recommendations for less advanced suppliers to establish con sistent standard of operations with the supply chain activities 11 5. 0 ERP System 12 5. 1 Scala 12 1. E-Gatematrix 12 1. Challenges faced by the company in implementing ERP System 12 2. ERP implementation problems and solutions 13 1. Galley Planning 13 2. Complications of Data 13 3. Business Intelligence and Reporting 14 4.Selection of menus according to the passenger mix 14 6. Huge information used by Gate Gourmet to deliver their service 14 1. Human tacit and implicit knowledge is essential to make sense of hard statistical information and the same is used for enhancing performance 14 7. Conclusion 16 References 17 Abstract A biggest challenge for the companies in today’s world is the managing operations, information and knowledge throughout the organisation. Each and every company is struggling for the management of operations, information and knowledge in the competitive market.The whole production and delivery process, challenges with the existence of trade-off, supply chain activities, ERP, and human tacit and implicit knowledge to deal with the processes are discussed in this part with reference to the Gate gourmet Company. Managing Operations, Information, and Knowledge of Gate Gourmet 1. Introduction Each company wants to sustain in the highly competitive market. For this, the companies are involved in the management of operations, information and knowledge throughout the organisation, which has now days become of utmost importance.The company go for integration with other firms to improve their processes and for the application of software, which are used uniformly by the different departments of the organisation and their suppliers as well as customers. In the business of catering, providing right quantities at right time at the right place is of greatest importance. For the achievement of the goal, the company that enable efficient use of input resources to generate the effective output uses those systems. The company in integration with th e other companies to provide the quality meals uses new production techniques.Also the supplier selection plays a critical role in supply chain management process. The company to improve their processes uses the ERP system and human tacit and implicit knowledge. In this part of study, all these activities are discussed with the case of Gate Gourmet. 2. About Gate Gourmet The Gate Group brand was introduced in early 2008 after several acquisitions after being founded in the year 1992. The company offers catering and last mile provisioning for airlines and railroads, lounges and business aviation. The company’s main force of secondary revenue is onboard retail operations (Gate gourmet). . Systems that enable efficient use of input resources and their impact on output of goods and services supplied by Gate Gourmet 1. Transformation Process It includes the processes, which converts the input to the output by adding value to the product. There are two categories of input resources i. e. transformed resources which are converted from input to the output and include materials and information, and transforming resources which helps to convert input to the output and include facilities like buildings, equipments, process technology and the staff (NSW Government). 2.The new production techniques are used by Gate Gourmet to provide the meals of restaurant quality and also manageable in terms of cost, quality, service and safety. These production techniques help in efficient use of input resources. 1. Cuisine Sous-Vides The company to achieve amazing flavour and texture uses this technique. This technique relies on temperature-controlled circulator in which the food is vacuum-sealed and cooked in a precisely controlled water bath. As the method is very easy to learn, it helps in better control and reasonable results every time (PolyScience). 2. Hot FillingThis technology is very easy to handle even by unskilled workers. This high temperature helps in the sterilisat ion of bottles and other equipments to maintain the high quality standards. 3. Modified Atmosphere Packing The technology helps in expanding the shelf life of fresh food products. The modified atmosphere packing technology substitutes the atmospheric air inside the package with the protective gas mix which ensures that the product will stay fresh for long time. The company used this technology for packing of red meats, fruits and vegetables. This helped to achieve the minimal spoilage of the input resources and lowers the costs.The company has established sophisticated machineries for this purpose (Modified Atmosphere Packaging). 4. Food Safety Checks and Assurance Systems The company voluntarily follows HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) to ensure food safety. The company inspects every vehicle that delivers the raw materials, check by digital probe food temperatures during the production and delivery process, temperature checks on every batch food; every dish and surf ace is cleaned while food preparation, this helps in production and delivery of food that is clean and safe (Gate Gourmet). . Gate Serve Provisioning services Gate Serve, a subsidiary of Gate Gourmet, helps in assembling soda drawers, packing silverware, provisioning packaged food items, and aircraft watering. This helps in efficiently responding to changes of new procedures in the marketplace (Gate Serve). The provisioning of items helped in making the trip safe and comfortable for the passengers. For these services, the company has installed cooling systems, onboard cameras and state-of-the-art engines. 6. Post Flight Aircraft StrippingIn the catering process, the carts are removed and taken to the flight kitchen and unloading and sanitisation. Using the recycling system, the trash is separated from the general waste stream and sterilised before disposal. Crockery and other reusable items are sent for dishwashing and sterilisation line (Gate Gourmet Aircraft Provisioning). 3. Exis tence of Trade-offs within Gate Gourmet and challenges faced by following this approach The tradeoffs between economising and flexibility were noticed within the organisation.The reduction in expenditures helped the company to gain the competitive advantage whereas; the flexibility needs to be applied to meet the last minute demand of the clients, sometimes, which may cause wastage of food products. With the conflicting demands of the organisation, trade-offs were considered within the organisation. The trade-offs are considered for balancing the transformation process. Main challenge in front of managers is to maximise the cost reduction with flexibility and the dilemma cannot be completely eliminated.The stabilisation mechanism needs to be established within the organisation to meet the uncertain demands and to maintain stability in the production and delivery process. Also, the company had dilemma of trade-offs between making and buying of certain products. Buying of food product s included outsourcing to the other company. But the challenge was that the making led to increase in costs and buying which will lead to outsourcing has hidden costs that will diminish its advantages with time. And, at the time when Texas Pacific bought the company, it was under enormous stress to cut down its costs (The Guardian, 2005). . Supply Chain Management issues and supplier selection 1. Supply Chain Supply chain includes procurement of raw materials from the suppliers, conversion of raw materials to intermediate goods, and then finally to finished products. It also includes the distribution of it to the customers. Three kinds of flows exist in supply chain i. e. material, information and finance (Ganeshan R & Harrison T, 1995). Upstream refers to the activities that take place before the supply phase. And, downstream refers to the activities that take place after the supply phase.IFx system was used to integrate the whole supply chain (AirlineHubBuzz, 2012). 2. Supply Chai n Management Effective supply chain management is the coordination between the various players in the chain and each channel member operates independently (Ganeshan R & Harrison T, 1995). 3. Impact of integrated system in the management of suppliers and supplier selection The company goes on maintaining the relationship with those suppliers who can meet quick and flexible supply in respect to the demand changes, deliver consistently and on time with high degree of mutual understanding and trust (Acorn live: 22). . Alpha Flight Group Alpha provided full catering and provisioning services in Amsterdam. Gate Gourmet intended maximum growth and operational flexibility with Alpha through its integrated system. The company aimed to serve 80 peak season flights a day with Alpha (aircraftinteriorsinternational. com). 2. Pourshins Pourshins, a fully integrated partner provides the tools required for supply chain model including sourcing and procurement, asset management and food and beverage logistics (Pourshins. com). The challenge in front of the company was to reduce the LEAN’s supply chain management cost, which was rising.The integration challenge was to merge the two teams of employees in the United States and understanding the Gate Gourmet’s existing warehousing, distribution and software functions (Andersen, 2008: 29). But at the same time, the integrated system helped to aggregate purchase volumes, which resulted in lowering of costs, optimisation of products and services for the total value (Pourshins. com). 3. Supplair The company designed food including fresh food preparation and packaged food to keep them safe, appealing, and requires minimum handling.The challenge in front of company with the integrated system was to review the food offered for the crew consumption and introduce the same within four weeks for Easy Jet. The elements for the key success with the integrated system were the proven web-based ordering system, which was easy to use and the excellent distribution supply chain (Supplair. com). 4. deSter Gate Gourmet selected deSter as its supplier, deSter being leading supplier in service solutions across all aircraft cabins. To win the competitive advantage over the other bidders, the tender was in the favour of Gate Gourmet with Etihad Airways.This was because of technical know-how and production capacities of deSter (deSter. com). 5. Potmstudios The company offers design for packaging, cutlery, food and beverage service ware and passenger facilities for the in-flight services. The positive implication was the best computer aided design software, which was used by the company for the fast and accurate designs (Potmstudios. com). 6. Harmony The company is totally integrated airline service provider and involved in the designing of amenity kits.Harmony provides tailor-made solutions for enhancing the passengers’ comfort on board. The operational excellence of the company helped in managing the quality of the service (Harmonyonboard. com). 4. Recommendations for less advanced suppliers to establish consistent standard of operations with the supply chain activities First of all, for implementing integrated system, the less advanced organisations analyse their business processes. It helps in the modernisation of processes during the time of changes.It is quite easier for the centralised organisations to implement the integrated system. Secondly, balancing of work designed according to the requirements of the customers is of prime importance. The software should be configured before use. Lastly, the company needs to establish a system to convert the existing data into the integrated one. For this, the company may have to move for data migration planning like identification of data, data templates generation, and deciding migration interrelated set-ups and reporting policies.This will help the less advanced suppliers to gain the competitive advantage and will also help in modernisation. The genuine trick for the integration is the free flow of information, cooperation and respecting each business’s independence (Andersen, 2008: 30). 5. ERP System ERP system is the organisation wide network for harmonising the resources, information and functions of a business. It is the modern extension of MRP1 (Materials Requirement Planning), MRP11 (Manufacturing Resource Planning), and CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing).It helps in communicating with the customers and the suppliers to improve the quality of supply chain management (Acorn live: 19). 1. Scala system Scala is the ERP software and support ERP processes. This system was exercised by the company to cover the maximum business processes of catering operations. 1. E-Gatematrix The real-time data was fed into the Scala system through ‘e-gatematrix’ system, which is the web-interface system for capturing data. 2. Challenges faced by the company in implementing ERP System 1.The company has to face the challenges due to demand fluctuations- As food has to be prepared just before 12 to 24 hours before departure, the demand keep on fluctuating till the last moment. The ‘just-in-time’ delivery after the preparation and supply of food with the last minute fluctuations become difficult and challenging (Fidanza). All the last minute changes using ERP systems become difficult sometimes. 2. The company has to re fix the schedules with flight delays- The whole process of delivery becomes cumbersome with flight delays.All the data communication through ERP in rush becomes complex. 3. ERP implementation problems and solutions 1. Galley Planning Problem-With the technological support, galley planning becomes time consuming process. Solution-Galley Planning System (GP4) of the e-gate solutions can be easily incorporated into other material planning systems to increase the precision of the data. It leads to the fuel-cost impact analysis, automatic publishing of packing instruct ions and the online communication of changes to the supply chain (e-Gate Solutions). 2.Complications of Data Problem- There was complications of data and their application using the e-marketplace application. Solution- The company replaced it with ePix application to improve the order search capabilities and for the simplification of the data (e-Gate Solutions). 3. Business Intelligence and Reporting Problem-The reporting of real-time sales and analysis was difficult with ERP implementation. Solution-Onboard Retail Technology (TS4) was selected for reporting functions, as TS4 was able to reconcile the real-time sales to inventory.It was also used to identify the passengers’ buying trends (e-Gate Solutions). 4. Selection of menus according to the passenger mix Problem- The main challenge in front of the company was to reduce the inventory using ERP, when the menus were fixed but the types of passengers’ keeps on changing even six hours before take-off. Solution-The Pour shins’ trademark forecaster system for food helped to build new menus and reduce the inventory and costs (e-Gate Solutions). 6. Huge information used by Gate Gourmet to deliver their service 1.Human tacit and implicit knowledge is essential to make sense of hard statistical information and the same is used for enhancing performance Inventory management includes the processes involved in maintenance of optimal number of goods and services to avoid over and under inventory. The company focuses on inventory management through state-of-the-art software. Gate Gourmet collects the necessary data from state-of-the-art software with the help of Pourshins for inventory management (Gate Gourmet). The experienced personnel are hired by the company for the use of different software’s through their tacit and implicit knowledge.The main difference between tacit knowledge and implicit knowledge is that the implicit knowledge can be codified but it is impossible to codify tacit knowle dge (Toolbox. com, 2008). Suppose a flight from Taiwan to New York, may stop at Los Angeles for 2-3 hours, the company will be required to unload the trash items in this time and have to load the 5 tons of new food with cutlery and other equipments. But the challenge now appears when the last minute passengers come up and like to have the menu according to the menu of the airlines. Also, the special meals like low fat meals are required by certain group of passengers.Through the use of software, it is easy to get the statistics but the right quantities are decided by experts so as to keep the wastage and costing minimum. Here comes the use of human tacit knowledge used by experts for the inventory management, Through the use of tacit knowledge the over-catering and under-catering is avoided. As the production and delivery of more meals than actual required is both the loss for airlines as well as for the Gate Gourmet. The software covers almost all the business processes involved in inventory management.The delays in flight arrivals upset the work schedules. It becomes crucial for the company to provide right quantities at the right place to the right person. The dedicated team members take action with flexibility and quickly to achieve the goal. The costs have reduced to the great extent with the management of inventories through the tacit knowledge of the staff (Donna, 2009). Hands do the majority of food preparation, which is also a time consuming process. The inventory of finished stock of goods needs to be kept ready with the demand fluctuations.They to reduce the wastage at the bottom level use the culinary expertise and implicit knowledge. The culinary trends and expertise is used to design the menus as per the trends. This has helped the company in gaining the competitive advantage and food and journey becomes enjoyable by the customers. Inventory forecast is a mix of statistical data with the use of human tacit and implicit knowledge. The company has been using the vast information and statistics, which finally gets evaluated by the experts to decide the optimal level of inventory.As a result, it helps in improving the function of the processes; reduce inventory wastage, optimal quantity ordering to the suppliers. 7. Conclusion Concluding the whole discussion, it is very imperative for the company to go for managing operations, information and knowledge to survive in the market cutthroat competition. The company has to face various challenges for the achievement of aspirations. Besides tough times faced by Gate Gourmet, the company has been successful in the administration of operations, information and knowledge. For this, the company has deployed experienced staff all over the organisation.