Marijuana Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Marijuana - Coursework Example and the government must take marijuana treatment interventions seriously. What exactly is this drug and how has it become so prevalent, especially among the youth? What are the negative effects of this drug, and the positive effects if there are any? What method of treatment best addresses the condition of those who are addicted to this drug? This paper will attempt to answer these questions and shed light on the identified issues. According to a report quoted by Michael Lyman, 57 percent of adults aged 19-28 have reported using Marijuana in their lifetimes. (2011: 116). It comes from the leaves of the cannabis tops and is dried and smoked from a pipe, as one does a cigarette. If the experts are to be believed, marijuana has several negative effects. An important one is the loss of cell energy leading to cell death, especially when it saturates the cell membrane and blocks the passage of vital nutrients. Another research finding shows that marijuana usage affects the part of the brai n that deals with motivation in general, it has also been found that marijuana is bad for both the mind and the body. Although there is no such thing as a lethal overdose of marijuana, i.e., no one has ever died of ingesting too much (of course, if a marijuana user drives or operates heavy equipment, then the disorientation can cause him to injure himself), its long term effects can seriously impair a user’s health.. Lyman also points out that the toxins and cancer-causing ingredients in the substance leads users to feel the same health issues as those who smoke cigarettes, such as bronchitis, emphysema and bronchial asthma. But aside from that, there are also halluncinations, behavioural changes, apathy, loss of motivation because of the effects to the nervous systems, thus making it worse than cigarettes. He further says that: Some of the effects of marijuana use also include increased heart rate, dryness of the mouth, reddening of the eyes, impaired motor skills and concen tration, and hunger with an increased desire for sweets. Extended use increases risk to the lungs and reproductive system as well as suppression of the immune system. But are there health benefits to marijuana? There are those who argue that marijuana has beneficial effects and can even serve as medical treatment, particularly for glaucoma. According to Kuhn, et. al. (2008: 165), there are reports that those suffering from multiple sclerosis and other disorders having to do with impaired muscle control have responded positively to marijuana treatments. At present, however, the debates are still raging on whether or not marijuana can be made a mainstream drug. The negative effects of addiction still far outweigh the potential medical benefits. In any case, for those illnesses that are said to be curable with marijuana, there are other less-controversial treatment options available. But what are the treatment options available for those who are suffering from marijuana dependence? The most viable treatment option is abstinence and withdrawal, because marijuana is not as addictive as other drugs and those who have grown dependent on it can kick the habit more easily than if they were addicted to drugs such as cocaine or

The Lottery Essay Example for Free

The Lottery Essay The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a short story about a small town and their unique summer tradition. This stories thematic element is conformity and rebellion, showing a clash between two well-articulated positions in which a rebel, on principle, confronts and struggles with established authority (Abacarian and Klotz, 289). Jacksons short story caught my attention through her suspenseful structural technique, and incorporation of a serious, seemingly absurd, event in a nonchalant manner. Mr. Summers, who devotes his time to running civic activities, runs this event very year on June 27th. The children are always the first to assemble, innocent to the severity of the event that is about to occur. The head of the household each picks a piece of paper out of a black box, and keeps it sealed until everyone has picked. At the same time all of the men open their papers, and whoevers family has the paper with the black dot has been selected. This year, it was the Hutchinson family. Now, the paper with the dot is placed back in the box along with more blank slips to equal the amount of people in the family. They each pick, and the person who picks the lack dot is the winner, who then gets stoned by the town. Until the very end of the short story the reader is very much unaware of the situation and why this lottery is taking place, which is one reason I picked this story. Suspense in a story is one of my favorite elements and always keeps me wanting to read in order to find out what happens. Through most of the story Jackson shows the town quite cheerful and happy, but she begins to hint towards a dramatic event with statements such as a sudden hush fell on the crowd Oackson,342), l wish theyd hurry. I wish theyd hurry Oackson, 343), and a long pause, a breathless pause Oackson, 343). Once I realized what the point of the lottery is, I quickly thought back through the story and realized how apathetic she was towards this event. Throughout the course of the story, Jackson showed many of the characters acting very casual and carefree, even though one of their towns members was about to be stoned. I liked the way Jackson incorporated the idea of stones with the children in the beginning of the story. This makes the reader originally question its relevance and shows the innocence of youth. She then follows later with the elderly man stating that he had been at these lotteries for seventy-seven years, which showed the town being used to the tradition and show normal it was to the society, and how it only negatively affects the person who won and their family. The characters discuss how many towns have gotten rid of this tradition, and Old Man Warner states Nothing but trouble in that,, Old Man Warner said stoutly. Pack of young fools0ackson, 342). This displays the theme of conformity and rebellion, since the younger generations want to get rid of the tradition, and the older enerations with more power over the society believe it is for the best. Even the death of an individual in their town they say is necessary and tradition, which I found astonishing. oliday atmosphere, which concludes with a horrific event. The holiday atmosphere is used to diminish the immortality of the event, but the author successfully uses the happiness to add suspense to the tradition and add a dark twist to the severity of it all. Overall, the suspense positively adds to the structure of the story and the casual aspect of the stoning and death of a citizen follows the theme of conformity and rebellion.

College Not Apart from ‘Real World’ :: Education Learning Essays

College Not Apart from ‘Real World’ â€Å"Welcome to the real world.† It is the phrase that most people quote when greeting college graduates, aside from â€Å"you have been preapproved for a credit card,† and it is quickly becoming redundant and, quite frankly, annoying. No doubt, it often is said with love and affection, easing off of the lips disgruntled office workers, perhaps wishing they could escape back to those â€Å"safe† college years when Ma and Pa were sending checks in the mail and their only worries were how they were going to get the keg into their buddies’ dormitory. To those poor souls, college represents the days when the world was reduced to barbecue, bad beer and homecoming football games. Well, college isn’t how they remember it. Things aren’t the way they used to be. My recent alma mater is an institution nestled in the foothills of Montana, with an enrollment of fewer than 1,000. We had our share of barbecue, bad beer, and football games. But, unless my memory already has been glossed over by nostalgia, we had plenty of â€Å"the real world† as well. One of my classmates was killed in a drunken driving accident and was listed in my commencement program as a posthumous graduate. The dormitory halls were filled with tales, both speculated and official, of sexual and physical assault. A young man visiting our campus during an athletic-related weekend was assaulted, urinated upon and threatened. He later refused to file charges because he was embarrassed to go public. There were many students, both male and female, who were seriously contemplating suicide, and there was at least one â€Å"accidental† overdose that later was classified as an attempted suicide. Also rampant were cases of drug and alcohol abuse, students with eating disorders, and students facing chronic depression. And there were students struggling with the everyday pressures that plague us all: bills that were overdue, friendly phone calls from collectors and part-time jobs that paid the minimum wage. My first year on campus, I lived across the hall from a 47 year old man who had lost his job after 25 years of hard work. â€Å"Sent back to school† because his services weren’t needed anymore, he found himself far from his family and his dreams of early retirement. There were students suffering from learning disorders, students who were married, students with children, students who were single mothers – the list is endless.

A Heritage Of Smallness

The Philippine population increases much faster than our economy. Our country indeed has been as slow as snail when it comes to the aspect of development. It takes a lot of years, even decades for us to be able to take a leap towards one step of modernization. Other countries like for example our neighbor, Singapore, which has been colonized by other more powerful country had been able to get up and make them selves more productive. But throughout the years, the Philippines had remained stagnant with their status in the world. Instead o becoming more globally competitive, we tend to just always sit down and relax and just accept the fact that our development is deteriorating. In Nick Joaquin's essay, â€Å"A Heritage of Smallness†, he emphasized how the Filipino people can be so much contented with all that is small, all that is little and all that is just enough. A child who was born from a poor family would most likely be poor for the rest of his life. It would be a common scenario that they, too, will adopt the way of living of their parents. Instead of finding a way for them to have money, they will be contented and just continue blaming whoever they want to blame. â€Å"What most astonishes foreigners on the Philippines is that this is a country, perhaps the only one in the world, where people buy and sell one stick of cigarette, half a head of garlic, a dab of pomade, part of the contents of a can or bottle, one single egg, one single banana.† — This statement without a doubt confirms the Filipino mentality when it comes to finding a source of living. Yes, on the brighter side, it may show or represent how the Filipinos are willing to do anything and everything to have money. But what Nick Joaquin probably wants us, Filipinos to do is that we should think of a realistic and achievable way for us to have money. A way wherein we would be able to suffice our everyday needs and at the same time save money. If for example, a cigarette vendor sells P1.25 per one stick of cigarette. If let's say that he was able to sell 100 sticks for the day. His income for the day would only be P125.00. This is just enough for a man without a family to support. But what if this cigarette vendor has a wife and has 3 children? How will he be able to meet the needs of his family and at the same time save money? Impossible! This man would most likely still be a cigarette vendor after ten years. We see, this kind of mentality of being too laidback is the reason why we are still suffering from slow economic growth for a long time. Even those in our government have been so lax thus, nothing is happening to our economy. It was also mentioned in the essay that the Filipino's day starts at six or seven in the morning and ends up sometimes late. Unlike other countries whose day would start at around nine or ten in the morning and ends at exactly 5 pm. But despite this difference, they still â€Å"pile up more mileage than we who work all day and all week†. This is one of the mind-bugling realities of the Filipino Life. What do we really do when we are at work? Are we really that productive? Or are we just pretending to work just because of the salary at stake? Next is the Filipino's NINGAS-KUGON mentality. We are â€Å"used only to the small effort, we are not, as a result, capable of sustained effort and lose momentum fast†. The Filipino people are very much eager to work just for the first couple of months, first couple of weeks or even for just the first couple of days. We lack the willingness to prolong our level of zealousness to work. The reason behind that is we are so impatient. We always want an easy way to everything. Which, I guess is such a lame reason for us to work. We should always develop a vision of the future and continuously strive to attain it. Isn't it that most employees transfer from one firm to the other? There most common reason would be that they are not happy with their work. But the question is, when are they going to be happy with their work? IF they are already old and the firms are the ones who throws them out for the business needs younger ones? Our love for our culture and tradition hold us back hence, hindering us from further development. â€Å"One could go on and on with his litany† — This means that it is the people's choice whether they want us to grow our not. We often make the past colonization of our country as an excuse that we were greatly influenced by foreign ideas that is why we have difficulty in moving on and reaching for modernization. But since we know this dilemma, why won't we figure out a way to unlock the chains of colonization that has been hampering our maturity as a nation? Filipinos talk too much that they forget that they have a lot of catching up to do. They are too busy boasting about things that would not contribute to any aspect of the society. If we talk less and work more, then I guess that will make a great difference. What is happening in our country is that instead of making extra effort to be able to be globally competitive, we think less and less because we are stopped by the thought of not actually making it. We have plenty of natural resources. All we have to do is to think creatively for us to be able to develop something that would catch the attention of the world. We all know that there are lots of Filipino people who are skillful in so many fields. What we need to do is to not stop at one invention. We should be always challenged. Never stop creating new things. We should make the world know that we can be something and not just a mere source of their raw materials. Lastly, the thing I'd like to point out is the fact that the Philippines, despite the relatively large and growing population, always â€Å"splits like amoeba†. Instead of working hand in hand for our country, we have this crab mentality wherein we always want to pull successful people down. This, I may say is such an obvious factor why we are getting smaller and smaller. For example, in politics, we usually split into groups and continuously find a way to let others down. We don't get anything advantageous from that. We just scare away foreign investors who, in reality are the ones who can help us in our present economic endeavor. To sum this all up, I'd like to reiterate two things. First is that we, the Filipinos should strive for the betterment of ourselves as well as of our country and be not just contented with what we have – We all should learn to aim high. And secondly, instead of always splitting into groups, we should learn to be cooperative and work hand in hand for the development of our country. Let us avoid making excuses that a big crowd is too much to handle. Let us be optimistic. Let us put in mind that a big crowd means there would be a lot of manpower that would build up and invigorate a once sleeping nation.

Automobile Industry of Pakistan †an Overview Essay

The automotive industry rightly prides itself on being recognized as the â€Å"mother of all industries. † In its folds it carries many different kinds of vehicles to provide mobility to people and goods. While they may appear to be simple machines, their design and manufacturing have much deeper roots in all the known technologies. In-depth knowledge and skillful application of mechanical, electrical, electronics, chemical and a host of other technologies culminate in achievement and improvement of the manufacturing base of a country, by focusing on a single product â€Å"the automobile. † This then provides an opportunity to produce a large number of goods and services for consumption of the entire international community. Use of the word â€Å"mother† for automotive industry is therefore the most appropriate description to define the nature and importance of the industry. In recent years, we have witnessed that the industrialization of South East Asian countries greatly depend on the development of their automotive industry. Similarly, automotive industry acted as a catalyst in the overall growth of the industry in Japan and Koreas and the consequent wellbeing of their citizens. It is indeed heartening that the mother has once again smiled at Pakistan. Fortunately the last 3 years have witnessed phenomenal growth in the industry in terms of technological advancements and production/sale volumes with the local contents rising as high as 90%. The industry is already employing 120,000 people, contributing more than 12 billion rupees to GDP, contributing more than Rs. 30 billion to the national exchequer in terms of duties and taxes, attracted investment worth Rs. 52 billion including a substantial foreign investment. Today the customers have choice to pick from a wide range of products including motorcycles, trucks, buses and cars of premier Japanese and Korean brands at internationally competitive prices which has only become possible due to local contents and availability of highly productive and inexpensive human resources. An automobile has over 2000 components and parts out of which the assemblers usually concentrate on the manufacturing of small but critical parts while the remaining parts are supplied by the vendors and the subcontractors. In Pakistan the automobile component manufacturing industry consists of mainly units producing original components for assembly under delegation program and units producing reconditioned and original components for local use. These units are in three types which include the original equipment manufacturers, independent equipment manufacturers and the ancillary (auxiliary) industry producing small parts and non-automotive items. There are more than 800 vendors in the country with a total investment of over Rs.8 billion; they are engaged in the manufacturing of original components for the assembly operation under the delegation program as well as producing reconditioned and original components for sale in the local market. They manufacture and supply the local car assemblers with auto parts such as pistons, engine valves, gaskets, camshafts, shock-absorbers, struts, steering mechanism, cylinder heads, wheel hubs, brake drums, wheels, bumpers, instruments and instrument panels, gears of all types, radiators, cylinder liners, blinkers, lights, doors and door locks as well as auto air conditioners. Critics say that the local vendor industry though still in the process of development, have not achieved the delegation targets by producing low quality components which are not acceptable by the local assemblers, it is said that the Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts & Accessories – which represents the auto parts manufacturers – have not in a way been fully able to contribute its share to the development of this sector. The vendors on their part however put the blame on the policy makers and partly on the assemblers who have not been encouraging the local vendors as such. On the other hand it is said that the foreign car principals have no justification for their complaints because of the level of their participation in the local vendor industry. Hino trucks, as it was pointed out, have started manufacturing wheel drums locally while Suzuki is still complaining about the quality of silencer it received from the local vendors. In the world trade, Automobile Sector is one of the largest segments. It is the major driver of economic growth and business activities in a country. It puts multiplier impacts on the economy. Day-in, day-out around 200,000 vehicles roll off the world’s assembly lines with car as the dominant segment of the industry. Evolution of Automobile Industry in Pakistan Automotive industry in Pakistan started in the 1950 and has gone through different phases from being a private sector industry in 1950 – 60s, and becoming a government controlled industry in the 1970s – thanks to Mr. Bhutto’s Nationalization policy, and then reverting back to the private sector from 1980 onward. Currently in Pakistan we have a total of 67 Automobile Manufacturing Units (A. M. U) which include: o7 Car A. M. Us o7 Light Commercial Vehicle A. M. Us o2 Jeep A. M. Us o5 Truck and Bus A. M. Us o4 Tractor A. M. Us o42 Motorcycle A. M. Us There are approximately 400 vendors doing businesses in the automobile sector. All the Automobile Manufacturing Units in Pakistan are operating under agreement and licensing from countries like Japan, Korea, China and some from the European Union. Pakistan’s automobile sector has been registering high growth rates for the last four to five years due to the country’s business friendly policies along with lower tariff rates, persistent growth in GDP, and per capita income. Globally considered as the mother of all industries, the automobile industry in Pakistan is fast evolving as a robust industry. Some sub-sectors of this fast growing industry, like motorcycle production, have already achieved economies of scale. The level of motorization in the country has also been rising over the years. In 1998-99, it was three cars per 1000 persons, which has significantly increased to 11 cars per 1000 persons in year 2005-06. The indigenous growth in production of motorcycles increased by 25 per cent during year 2005-06, reaching to an all-time high of 520,124 as compared to 106,797 units in the year 1996-97, which accounts for around 380 per cent increase in motorcycle production during the last nine years. Similarly the production of trucks as well as that of buses also saw sufficient increase during the last 10 years. Some 2,994 units of trucks were being produced in the country in 1995-96 which, over the years, have increased to 4,518 units, recording 51 per cent increase in production. In the case of buses, the rise in production is more pronounced as compared to that of trucks as their production augmented by around 74 per cent during the last decade or so. The industry has achieved a phenomenal growth of 50. 2 percent in Fiscal Year 2004-05 and increased competition has led to the introduction of innovative products as well as a decline in financing costs. Compared with Pakistan, India has a strong engineering base and has successfully created a sizable capacity for production of vehicles. It enjoys a clear edge over Pakistan in the automobile sector. Indian auto companies are highly cost competitive due to appropriate levels of automation and low cost automation and have achieved a high level of productivity by embracing Japanese concepts and best practices. India is already the second largest two wheeler manufacturer, second largest tractor manufacturer, and fifth largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world and has the fourth largest car market in Asia. The automobile industry in India is now gradually evolving to replicate those of developed countries. Pakistan can import automotive components and spare parts from India at a lower price as presently these items are being imported from the Far East at higher prices. On the other hand, India is expected to benefit from free trade due to its low raw material, electric and labor costs. The two segments of the industry namely; Car and Motorcycles have shown remarkable growth over the last five years. The growth in domestic market of cars has risen from 40,601 in year 2001-02 to 126,817 in year 2004-05, which is expected to cross 150,000 units during year 2005-06. This growth is attributed mainly by car financing schemes, improved liquidity position of certain class as a result of economic growth indicators and other monetary measures. The motorcycles have also shown marvelous growth due to new entrants. The new entrants with fair competition have brought about the availability of cheaper vehicles in the domestic market. Vendor Industry This industry has the potential for development of entire engineering sector. Development of vendor industries in return assures transfer of technologies in nearly all spheres of engineering, specifically, metallurgy, plastics and glass. Technology exists for major engine, suspension and transmission components but due to limited market, prospective entrepreneurs shy away from investment. Over 400 vendors are engaged in the production of auto parts locally including tires, sheet metal parts, mirrors, gaskets, engine valves, camshafts, oil pump gears, pistons, radiators, seats, dashboard, and axles. The Beginning of Pakistan’s Automobile Industry When Pakistan came appeared on the map of the world, there were neither any automobile assembly plants nor were any industrial capabilities available for this sector. However, the development of this industrial sector started soon after the independence. Peace in the country and development planning by government resulted in increased economic growth that sequentially laid the foundation of industry. First Period 1950 – 1964 (Start from the Scratch) First serious effort by government to develop the industry and engineering sector in particularly was observed in 1950s when a six-year plan (First Development Plan) was drafted to guide government investment in developing the infrastructure. For auto industry, to overcome the initial difficulties, the government, besides developing infrastructural facilities established the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) in 1950. The main objective of PIDC was to play the pioneering role of establishing such industries which the private enterprise was unable to undertake either because they were technologically complex, needed large capital, or were less profitable. These steps resulted in growth of the industrial sector recording 56. 62 % growth of the manufacturing sector from year 1949 to 1955. Investment in the automobile industry in Pakistan started in the mid 1950’s when Kandawalla Industries established its units for assembling buses and trucks, the company’s name was later changed to NayaDaur Motors. National Motors took the indigenization when it came out in the 1960’s and was said to have reached above 80% delegation of the Bedford lorries and trucks before it closed down. Kandawalla Motors on its part came up with ‘Nishan’ , a jeep copied on the pattern of Willeys Jeep of USA by the Pakistan Army, it was said that the project was successful but was killed before the commercial production could begin. It may be worth mentioning here that the same blueprint is said to still be in use in Iran till today but under their own brand name. Second Period 1964 – 1972 (Progressive Manufacturing) Potential of the industry and high demand of the products attracted new entrants whereas the existing players started producing in mass quantities. This mass production that started in 1964 resulted in the first ever period of progressive manufacturing in the history of Pakistan. The idea of progressive manufacturing was first mooted by the Ghandhara Industries and Mack Trucks. The idea was to start local manufacturing with simple and non-functional parts and to add more and more complicated parts in small steps. According to the planning then done 100% local manufacturing was to be achieved in seven to ten years. Unfortunately, this period did not last long as the projects undertaken proved to be over ambitious that eventually failed. Clearly the concept of progressive manufacturing has not added much to technology, self-reliance or economy. For example, as against the targets set of manufacturing 100% of local contents in maximum 10 years, actually achieved delegation in eighteen years is 45. 78% for trucks & buses, 43. 17% for trucks & buses engines, 16. 50% for 4Ãâ€"4 jeeps and zero percent for cars. Furthermore, no new units for manufacturing passenger cars, 4Ãâ€"4 vehicles, LCVs, buses and trucks were established under this concept, but still few new units for producing tractors, jeeps and specialized vehicle were established. New units established were Atlas Honda, Khawaja Autos, Rana Tractors, Jaffar Industries, and Bela Engineers. A more market oriented approach was adapted by Honda motorcycles and Vespa scooters during this period, as they introduced light motorcycles for the first time in a market dominated by heavy motor bikes like BSA, Triumph and Lamberetta scooters. Third Period 1973 – 1987 (Nationalization of Industries) Following the progressive manufacturing period, nationalization of industries under Economic Reforms order had a profound impact on automobile industry in Pakistan. In early 1972 under Martial Law Regulation, the Government took over the control of 32 industrial units, including eight automobile plants, under the officially appointed Board of Industrial Management with the Minister for Production as its Chairman. The units taken over by the Government were iron and steel, heavy engineering, heavy chemicals, assembly and manufacturers of motor vehicles. The companies gone under nationalization included: oWazir Ali Engineering oSind Engineering oHyesons Mack Trucks oAli Autos oAwami Autos oRana Tractors oMillat Tractors oHaroonInd/Karachi Autos oRepublic Motors oJaffer Trailer Developers oGhandhara National Motors oKandawala Industries oNayaDaur Initially, the management of these industries was taken over by the government, but in August 1973, the President promulgated the Economic Reforms (Amendment) Ordinance after which the Federal Government acquired majority ownership of shares of these industrial units. After nationalization, these units were renamed, their functions were redefined, and Pakistan Automobile Corporation (PACO) was created in 1973 as a holding corporation under the administrative control of the Federal Ministry of Production. Formation of PACO In order to manage the automobile units and to advise the Government (in developing policy guidelines for growth and development of auto industry), Pakistan Automobile Corporation (PACO) was formed in 1973 under the administrative control of the Federal Ministry of Production. It was a major public industrial conglomerate of 15 companies including four joint ventures. For the first time in Pakistan emphasis was given to develop the nationalized units under local manufacturing facilities and the development of parts in an organized manner and the system of standardization, regulations and monitoring was established. This required the industry to assemble from Complete Knock Down (CKD) and then go on to manufacture components and to achieve a local content of 75% over a five year period. A number of small and large industrial units that were mostly functioning in the unorganized sector were channelized into a more formal pattern of production management under the PACO control. The direction for achieving quality standards as laid down by the â€Å"Principals† was also established. The MOI was entrusted the responsibility of allowing any waiver for non-performance, and was applicable if CBR also concurred. Performance under Government Control According to the government resources, the nationalized industries made progress on a wide front. During the year 1973-74, large scale manufacturing sector achieved a growth rate of 7% as compared to 11. 8% achieved during year 1972-73. The performance of automobile and farm equipment group was the best with production recording an increase of 78. 6%, followed by chemicals (30%) and steel and engineering (15. 1%). It can be observed that number of units in almost all areas of automobiles developed in this phase. The distinctive feature of after nationalization period is the assembly of Suzuki range of vehicles (Cars, Pick-up, Vans and Jeeps) and Isuzu Trucks & Buses in the public sector. Awami Autos signed a Joint Venture Agreement with Suzuki Motor Co. of Japan and a new company by the Name of Pak Suzuki Motor Co. Ltd was established in 1982 to produce Suzuki range of vehicles at the existing facilities of Awami Autos. PACO also established two units in the public sector namely Baluchistan Wheels and Bolan castings. The performance of PIDC was also excellent under the nationalization reform and it also contributed towards the progressive manufacturing. The performance of PIDC can be evaluated from the fact that by the end of December 1973, PIDC was successful in completing 62 projects at a capital cost of Rs 1,242. 6 million. In March 1974, 16 industrial projects were transferred to the respective 12 corporations set up by the Federal Government. Including in these projects were Pakistan Machine Tool Factory, Heavy Mechanical Complex and Heavy Foundry and Forge Projects. Subsequently, the remaining 10 projects under the PIDC’s control were also transferred to the Mineral Development Corporation. During the year 1972-73, the PIDC-managed projects and companies produced goods worth Rs. 470. 5 million as compared to Rs. 446. 6 million in 1971-72. Fourth Period 1987-95 (Privatization on Industries) The policy of de-nationalizing public sector units was adopted once the change in government took place. Privatization brought in foreign companies. This resulted in a number of joint ventures. Due to these ventures, Pakistan auto industry entered into assembly/progressive manufacturing of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and motorcycles. Once the new management of cars and motorcycle assemblers took over the control they entered into joint ventures with foreign companies mostly Japanese, for further development. Most important joint venture that took place was of Atlas with Honda and Indus Motor with Toyota. Similarly, NayaDaur which after discontinuation of AMC-Jeep franchise had become a mere vendor to Pak Suzuki (assembling Suzuki Jeeps) was sold to Tawakal group. Under the Government de-nationalization policy NayaDaur entered into Joint Venture with Kia Motors of Korea and started assembling Kia Ceres Pickups and Kia Pride Cars. The process of privatization is still on and fortunately every government has adopted the policy of privatization and opening of the markets to foreign investment. Although, process is on but still many object that this process is not crystal clear and has many short comings. Major Players in Pakistan’s Automobile Industry oPak Suzuki Company Ltd. oSuzuki Motorcycles Pakistan Ltd. oAtlas Honda Ltd. oIndus Motors Compay Ltd. oDewan Farooque Motors Ltd. oDawood Yamaha Ltd. oSigma Motors (Pvt. ) Ltd. oHinoPak Motors Ltd. oGhandhara Industries Ltd. oSind Engineering Ltd. oVPL Limited. oMaster Motor Corporation Ltd. oAl-Ghazi Tractors Ltd. oMillat Tractors Ltd.

Power and Politics essays

Power and Politics essays Fran Gibson was placed in an awkward position when Jennifer Chung, a financial analyst in Ken Hamiltons Department came into her office at 6:45 a.m. to complain about Kens off-color comments made her when they were alone within a month after Jennifer joined Thompson. According to Jennifer, the situation worsen. Jennifer told Fran that Ken would leer her, put his arm over her shoulder when they were reviewing reports, patted her rear. Jennifer stated that every time one of these occurrences happened, she would ask him to stop it and not to do it again. However, according to Jennifer, it fell on deaf ears. Fran had to decide how to respond to Jennifers complaint since sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC's guidelines define two types of sexual harassment: "quid pro quo" and "hostile environment." Being the highest ranking woman at Thompson, Fran understood that unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute "quid pro quo" sexual harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, or (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual. Fran also understood that unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute "hostile environment" sexual harassment when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. According to the EEOC, the central inquiry is whether the conduct "unreasonably interfered with an individual's work performance" or created "an intimidating, hos...

Inclined Planes

Inclined Planes One of the traditional types of simple machines is an inclined plane. Like the pulley and lever, the inclined plane provides a means of raising a heavy load easily. It is mainly useful for loading barrels since they can be rolled up the incline plane. The inclined plane was one of the machines available in ancient times. For example- the early Egyptians used inclined planes in the construction of the pyramids. Today many inclined planes are used in sports and recreation like water skiing and slides. They are especially used when loading and unloading trucks since many things are too heavy for people to move. Many roofs are built with an incline so rain water would slide down easily.There are also natural inclined planes. For example skiing- the downhill plane is natural. Also to get to the top of mountains, construction crews use inclined planes to build roads around mountains instead of straight up.English: Restored inclined plane, Llanberis. The s...Then we could gradually get up t he mountain with less effort.Some inclined planes are in unusual places like when you walk up and down the stairs, it is an inclined plane. It is also the most often used. Bathtubs are another example because the sides of the tub have built in planes so water can slide down easily in a certain direction. Skateboarders perform tricks on inclined planes so they could gain more speed when jumping.When you push something up the ramp, it would go up gradually. You would also use less effort than just lifting the load up. If the plane is steep, you are also using more effort than if it was lowered. If the plane is at a steep angle a greater force is needed to move the load than if the plane is only tilted a little. However, work...

The Use of Word Stems in English

The Use of Word Stems in English In English grammar and morphology, a stem is the form of a word before any inflectional affixes are added. In English, most stems also qualify as words. The term base is commonly used by linguists to refer to any stem (or root) to which an affix is attached. Identifying a Stem A stem may consist of a single root, of two roots forming a compound stem, or of a root (or stem) and one or more derivational affixes forming a derived stem.(R. M. W. Dixon, The Languages of Australia. Cambridge University Press, 2010) Combining Stems The three main morphological processes are compounding, affixation, and conversion. Compounding involves adding two stems together, as in . . . windows are to be found, however, where an affix is added to a bound stemcompare perishable, where perish is free, with durable, where dur is bound, or unkind, where kind is free, with unbeknown, where beknown is bound. . . . Stem Conversion Conversion is where a stem is derived without any change in form from one belonging to a different class. For example, the verb bottle (I must bottle some plums) is derived by conversion from the noun bottle, while the noun catch (That was a fine catch) is converted from the verb.(Rodney D. Huddleston,  English Grammar: An Outline. Cambridge University Press, 1988) The Difference Between a Base and a Stem Base is the core of a word, that part of the word which is essential for looking up its meaning in the dictionary; stem is either the base by itself or the base plus another morpheme to which other morphemes can be added. [For example,] vary is both a base and a stem; when an affix is attached the base/stem is called a stem only. Other affixes can now be attached.(Bernard ODwyer,  Modern English Structures: Form, Function, and Position. Broadview, 2000) The Difference Between a Root and a Stem The terms root and stem are sometimes used interchangeably. However, there is a subtle difference between them: a root is a morpheme that expresses the basic meaning of a word and cannot be further divided into smaller morphemes. Yet a root does not necessarily constitute a fully understandable word in and of itself. Another morpheme may be required. For example, the form struct in English is a root because it cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts, yet neither can it be used in discourse without a prefix or a suffix being added to it (construct, structural, destruction, etc.)  A stem may consist of just a root. However, it may also be analyzed into a root plus  derivational morphemes  . . .. Like a root, a stem may or may not be a fully understandable word. For example, in English, the forms  reduce  and  deduce  are stems because they act like any other regular verbthey can take the  past-tense  suffix. However, they are not roots, because they can be ana lyzed into two parts,  -duce, plus a  derivational  prefix  re-  or  de-.So some roots are stems, and some stems are roots. ., but roots and stems are not the same thing. There are roots that are not stems (-duce), and there are stems that are not roots (reduce). In fact, this rather subtle distinction is not extremely important conceptually, and some theories do away with it entirely.(Thomas Payne,  Exploring Language Structure: A Students Guide. Cambridge University Press, 2006) ​Irregular Plurals Once there was a song about a purple-people-eater, but it would be ungrammatical to sing about a purple-babies-eater. Since the licit irregular plurals and the illicit regular plurals have similar meanings, it must be the grammar of irregularity that makes the difference.The theory of word structure explains the effect easily. Irregular plurals, because they are quirky, have to be stored in the mental dictionary as roots or stems; they cannot be generated by a rule. Because of this storage, they can be fed into the compounding rule that joins an existing stem to another existing stem to yield a new stem. But regular plurals are not stems stored in the mental dictionary; they are complex words that are assembled on the fly by inflectional rules whenever they are needed. They are put together too late in the root-to-stem-to-word assembly process to be available to the compounding rule, whose inputs can only come out of the dictionary.(Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. William Morrow, 1994)

Organizing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizing - Essay Example Furthermore, the paper entails valued suggestions, which will assist the company in mitigating the key challenges. Discussion Reorganization is considered to be a major part of any business who files for bankruptcy, as it is considered that reorganization can either dissolve a firm or help the business to attain a leading position in the global platform (United States Court, n.d.). The plan that has been designed with respect to the reorganization proposed by GM is stated here under: Development of a Competitive Product Mix along with a Balanced Cost Structure It is measured that GM is listed among those automobile organization that owes many well reputed automobile brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Isuzu among others. The first reorganizational plan of the company inculcate to rationalize its vehicle brands by discontinuing well-known automobile brands like Hummer and many others and focusing on its core brands. The company then planned to reduce its name plates by 25% which is estimated to increase around 80% by 2014. GM is considered to be one of the oldest automobile companies in the world, which also implies the same for their dealers. However, it has been found that the dealers of the company are comparatively outdated in comparison to the other competitors resulting in decreased marginal sales of their products. In this regard the company planned to reshape its dealer and expand it dealership in all major part of its operating area. Additionally, the company merged its four product development organization, which was located in diversified part of the globe to foster effectiveness of reorganizational plan and to maximize the cost. Furthermore, these strategies will assist the company to develop better vehicles for its customers. It has also been identified that though the company has reduced its total labor cost by 28% from 2004 till 2008. However, there was no significant outcome of the implemented policies. It is also estimated that the company spends about $100 billion on retiree benefits irrespective of its losses (General Motors Corporation, 2009). The main issue that can act as a barrier for the company is the increasing cost of raw materials. The plan that has been made by the company has been estimated with the current prevailing cost of raw materials which are likely to increase in the future. Additionally the plan of refurnishing the existing dealers may be a challenging task which would require adequate amount of time (Kunze, 2012). Compliance with the Federal Environmental Regulation The second plan that has been proposed by the company i.e. GM is to develop vehicles to meet up the environmental regulation passed by the government of the United States of America. The company also developed plans to manufacture alternative fuel vehicles, adapting the company’s technological aspects in countries like Brazil. The increasing pollution has forced the government of different countries to pass laws that set guid elines for automobile industry to manufacture vehicle accordingly. In this aspect the company has planned to replace some of its higher authorities to maintain an effective structural management in Brazil, as it accounts about 60% of the vehicle sale in the South American region (Higgins, 2013;

Drug Trafficking in the United States Research Paper

Drug Trafficking in the United States - Research Paper Example This essay will briefly discuss the current problem of drug trafficking in the United States and how the government tries to solve the enduring issue. Criminal drug operations in the United States have been a crisis for decades now and display no indication of disappearing. The National Drug Threat Assessment in 2004 shows that (Swanson, 2006): In adults age eighteen to twenty-five, 15.4 percent report having used cocaine in their lifetime, 53.8 percent report having used marijuana, and 15.1 percent report having used MDMA (commonly known as ‘Ecstasy’). In 2002, there were 1,209, 938 mentions of drug use by emergency room patients (compared with 899,977 in 1995), and in 2000 alone, over 1.5 million people were admitted to substance abuse treatment programs in the United States. Americans consumed over 259 metric tons of cocaine in 2000 and over 13.3 metric tons of heroin in the same year (ibid, p. 779). The U.S. government, as a solution to the growing problem of drug tr afficking, invests more resources into law enforcement, rehabilitation, and prevention initiatives (Destefano, 2007). The United States confront major threats of drug trafficking from neighboring Western countries because they can simply satisfy or surpass the demands of the United States for prohibited drugs (Destefano, 2007). The drug control goals of the U.S. ... The agency believes that the prosecution of drug traffickers is a major element of its plan, and functions to reinforce overseas criminal justice systems to reduce their fraud by drug traffickers (Swanson, 2006). The Office of National Drug Control Policy of the Clinton administration proclaims its major priorities for national policing as â€Å"the disruption and dismantling of drug trafficking organizations, including seizure of their assets, and the investigation, arrest, and prosecution and imprisonment of drug traffickers† (Swanson, 2006, 780). The presence of an International Criminal Court with authority over illegal drug activities would promote all of these (Bartilow & Eorn, 2009). The United States, primarily, should back up this scheme because it will provide a greater assurance of punishment and conviction for drug traffickers. The judicial body would furnish another medium for prosecution, aside from the United States’ and other countries’ criminal j ustice system. More suspected drug traffickers would be convicted, sentenced, and thus pulled out from current systems of drug production and distribution (Bartilow & Eorn, 2009). The disturbance of drug traffickers and their loss of profits from drugs could aid in mitigating political corruption and fraud, and safeguard the authority of social institutions, law, and democracy from disrupting forces (Destefano, 2007). The United States would hence gain from the consequent boost in international defense. Subsequently, the Court would probably make global policing more productive and responsive. It will offer procedures for mitigating jurisdictional conflicts between countries and for transferring

Frank Gehry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Frank Gehry - Essay Example In 1956, Gehry moved to Massachusetts with his wife in a bid to enroll into Harvard’s School of Design. Sadly, the education life at Harvard was never completed, which saw him drop out and afterwards, divorce his first wife. The reason for his non-completion in Harvard’s Design School was because his ideas for a socially responsible type of architecture were not realized (Isenberg and Gehry 43). He remarried in 1975, and had two more children with Berta Isabel Aguilera. He later went back to California after his attempt at design school failed, and that is where the legend of Frank Gehry was born. Works around the world Shortly after moving back to California, Gehry began making his name a household name through the Easy Edges furniture line. Most of the cardboard furniture products were sold in California between 1969 and 1973 before his marriage to Isabel, and before taking on the task of remodeling his family’s house in Santa Monica. It was this erratic remodeling that saw Gehry capture the architectural world’s attention as his design was deemed unique and out of this world. The famous Walt Disney Concert Hall is among Gehry’s famous works, and this was after he achieved celebrity status after modeling homes in Southern California for a while. The Guggenheim Museum building in Spain and a skyscraper in New York city are also Gehry’s works, and have become tourist attraction sites visited by countless individuals. The Opus Hong Kong tower in China can also be placed among his top achievements (Isenberg and Gehry 48). In some instances, Gehry is said to have been invol ved in the designing of jewelry, liquor bottles, and even trophies. He is said to have designed an ice hockey trophy, which was for the World Cup Hockey tournament. These ‘quick fixes’, according to Gehry, were as a result of the little or lack of realization of exceptional architecture (Lange 53). He, therefore, may have wanted to remain relevant in the field of design even if it meant that he would not be designing buildings and memorials. Style and design and the material used Gehry’s style was a deconstructivist form of architecture, which pushed and challenged the accepted designs of architecture. It is a post-structuralist aesthetic that is most familiar with architects who go against the normally accepted paradigms of architecture, and is most visible and popular in California. This might be because he did most of his works in the area during the 1980’s. It is believed that Gehry calculatedly violates the modernism approach to architecture with his focus on the right angles and cubes (Lange 59). The instability that is the deconstructivist approach is what makes the designs by Frank memorable. Even though the projects may be comprehensive and complete, they tend to bring about the feeling of explosion. In some sense, the nature of the deconstructivist style is to bring about the acceptance of flaws as an inevitable phenomenon in architecture. Cardboard and scotch tape are the materials used to bring the designs in Gehry’s head to life, which later turn into buildings. In many of his works, Gehry has incorporated the use of titanium and stainless steel. Theme in Frank Gehry’s works One thing that makes Gehry a truly gifted architect of his day is his perceptive and immaculate manner of bringing out his designs. He is said to be fond of fish as most of his structural designs are said to have used fish motifs engrained in some

HU300 unit 8 Journal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HU300 unit 8 Journal - Research Paper Example Let’s take an example of Chinese and Japanese films. These countries portray in their films a lot about their festivals and ceremonies. This tells us how festive these countries are. Chinese films also show the heroic struggle of the Chinese soldiers who reached their destination in the 1930s after the long march. An example of this is the Chinese movie named â€Å"The Long March†. The way Chinese films are made tells us that China has a strong film industry with talented actors. Russian films, like â€Å"Faust† by Alexander Sokurov, talk more about battles and wars, and portray the Russian history. Arabian films have their own special portrayal of beauty and culture. Moreover, if we talk about German films, most of them portray the humorous nature of the Germans which they are famous for. German comedy movies, like â€Å"Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous† and â€Å"The Edukators†, show the sense of humor Germans possess. Hence, keeping in mi nd that films portray cultures, they should not only be a source of entertainment but should also contain moral

Reaction paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 24

Reaction paper - Essay Example There were other neighboring plantations in the area like New Design and also Wye Town. The home plantation was the administrative base of all the twenty farms in the area. The slaves who proved unmanageable were also punished at the home plantation. The punishment forms include; whipping, sloop boarding, and being sold. These punishments were aimed at minimizing or eliminating resistance from other slaves. At the home plantation, all the slaves received their monthly food allowance for sustenance (Douglas 16). Mr. Litch was another player who, despite being uneducated was very wealthy. His plantation had approximately 600 slaves. He employed competent overseers to manage his plantation, and he adequately remunerated them. There was a jail and also a whipping post within his plantation. These punishment approaches, were aimed at the slaves who did not adhere to set down rules. Mr. Litch even engaged in murder, without being questioned due to his vast amounts of wealth. The reaction illustrates very inhumane punishment that the slaves received in the plantation of Mr. Litch. He required strict compliance to eight commandments, within his plantation. However, if a neighbor accused a slave against theft, the master engaged in browbeating and also assurances that he provides adequately for his slaves and hence they do not have reasons of stealing. The accuser was, however, whipped as a form of punishment, after the neighbor has left. The slaves who engaged in stealing pieces of meat or corn we re punished through being chained, imprisoned and finally subjected to hunger (Jacobs 57). The north and the south regions of America are different due to the direct issue of slavery. Thus the reaction paper illustrates the 1857 south crisis. The south policy is relatively ineffective, in the moral, social and political areas. The north, through its effective approaches and policy, are effective in almost all issues and opinions. It is

HU300 unit 8 Journal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

HU300 unit 8 Journal - Research Paper Example Let’s take an example of Chinese and Japanese films. These countries portray in their films a lot about their festivals and ceremonies. This tells us how festive these countries are. Chinese films also show the heroic struggle of the Chinese soldiers who reached their destination in the 1930s after the long march. An example of this is the Chinese movie named â€Å"The Long March†. The way Chinese films are made tells us that China has a strong film industry with talented actors. Russian films, like â€Å"Faust† by Alexander Sokurov, talk more about battles and wars, and portray the Russian history. Arabian films have their own special portrayal of beauty and culture. Moreover, if we talk about German films, most of them portray the humorous nature of the Germans which they are famous for. German comedy movies, like â€Å"Miss Congeniality 2 - Armed and Fabulous† and â€Å"The Edukators†, show the sense of humor Germans possess. Hence, keeping in mi nd that films portray cultures, they should not only be a source of entertainment but should also contain moral

Marketing Strategy at Tesco plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing Strategy at Tesco plc - Essay Example Superior service quality leads to favourable behavioural intentions, customer retention, a constant revenue stream, increased spending, willingness to pay price premiums, and word-of-mouth advertising and customer capture. Verbalising good intentions is merely the first step in creating a positive attitude of satisfaction, but the second more important one is delivering on the good intentions. Kotler (1977) emphasised that a market-orientated business must focus not only on selling but on customer satisfaction but failed to emphasise the disconnection between the two. Zemke and Schaaf (1990, 53) argue that the really useful, specific, directly applicable information comes from talking to customers, constantly and often at length, to determine what the company is doing that makes them happy or not. Cronin and Taylor (1994) focus on performance measures of service quality rather than customer expectations. Piercy's (2002) customer relationship sliding scale (Fig. ... , specific, directly applicable information comes from talking to customers, constantly and often at length, to determine what the company is doing that makes them happy or not. Cronin and Taylor (1994) focus on performance measures of service quality rather than customer expectations. Customer Focus Piercy's (2002) customer relationship sliding scale (Fig. 7.1, p.344) is more complicated than the matrix used by Reinartz and Kumar (2000) to determine which types of customers are worth keeping and for whom the company must spend marketing resources to achieve retention. Its justification came from research that "it can cost five times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one" (Weinstein et al., 1999, p. 119), following Reicheld (1994) who asserted that a 5 percent increase in loyalty can lead to a 25 to 85% increase in profitability. Pine (1993) talked of mass customisation and one-to-one marketing, echoing Hamel and Prahalad (1989) who warned of convergence of producers and customers with the Internet, which empower customers to become active co-creators of products, services, and value. Businesses have to show greater sensitivity to customer wants. Market Choices The simplified market choice diagram (Piercy, 2002, Fig. 8.1, p. 410) builds on the complex market analysis models proposed by academics such as the product-customer matrix (Piercy, 2002, Fig. 8.2, p. 412). These models build on studies made by management science academics as Freeman (1984) who proposed that the company must satisfy all of its stakeholders, quite an impossible task even for the best managers. Bartlett and Ghoshal (1994) argued for strategic choice, related to the purpose for the existence of the business. Hamel and Prahalad (1989, 75) suggested that businesses define

Informaiton System Essay Example for Free

Informaiton System Essay Assess the advantages and disadvantages of using a Web-based compensation tool versus a client-server based or stand-alone PC-based system and then give your opinion on which system would provide the most value to an organization’s stakeholders. Include three (3) facts to support your opinion. e-Compensation represents a web-enabled approach to an array of compensation tools that enable an organization to gather, store, manipulate, analyze, utilize, and distribute compensation data and information. The advantages of using a Web-based compensation tool versus a client-server based or stand-alone PC-based system include the automated approach that replaces tedious manual processes to make any compensation program easy to manage and virtually error free. Web-based compensation tools do not require installation and updating which saves a lot of administration work and can be access from anywhere with the Internet. The data in Web-based compensation tools is stored remotely and requires little disk space. It also becomes more important that Web-based compensation tools are cross-platform and work on different Operating System. Whereas using a client-server based or stand-alone PC based system would need an administrator to administer, maintain, develop and implement policies and procedures for ensuring the security and integrity of the client/server database, and also resolving any database issues. However, Web-based compensation tools have some serious disadvantages. The most important problem is their poor user experience, because of the performance problems and browser limitations. Another disadvantage of the Web-based compensation tool is that the remote server could be compromised disclosing private information. The fact that the Web-based compensation tool requires Internet connection can also be a limitation. Although Web-based compensation tool seems to have more advantages than a client-server based or stand-alone PC based system, in my opinion, client-server based would provide value to an organization’s stakeholders. Three things initially attract people to web-based over client-server: they are easier to deploy and upgrade, demand less IT support, and require less hardware. While it is true that web-based deployment and upgrades are easier, client-server technology actually delivers far superior benefits and long-term cost savings. Client-server software affords a richer, crisper user interface that outperforms browser- or web-based software in terms of the number of clicks and the ease of use. The client-server based provides set-ups and can be altered without disturbing the clients, while the other two systems require accessing every peer in the network (www.client-serverbased). For example, the client server arrangements aid security requires efforts, because there are fewer servers, limiting the number of persons with access to them and increasing security features of the servers. The two-tiered model enables file sharing between the client and the users. Justify the use of e-Compensation tools in the job-evaluation process from the perspective of HR, management, and the employee. Through e-Compensation tools organizations can adapt to shifting demands for information. e-Compensation tools enhance the practice of designing and administering compensation programs in a dynamic and competitive environment in three key ways. First e-Compensation tools can increase access to critical compensation information without the need for sophisticated or dedicated IT staffs and sophisticated technology infrastructures. They can simply access key information electronically on an as needed basis. Second, e-compensation tools enable round-the-clock availability of meaningful compensation information to senior managers, HR managers, and employees. Third, e-compensation tools can streamline cumbersome bureaucratic tasks through the introduction of workflow functionality and real-time information processing. Job evaluation is the process of methodically establishing a structure or hierarchy of jobs within an organization. This is based on a systematic consideration of job content and requirements. The purpose of the job structure, or hierarchy, is to provide a basis for the development of a wage structure. The job structure, however, is only one of the determinants of the wage structure, with other factors becoming increasingly more important. Job evaluation develops a plan for comparing jobs in terms of those things the organization considers important determinants of job worth. e-Compensation tools enhance the practice of designing and administering compensation programs in a dynamic and competitive environment. HR views the use of e-Compensation tools in the job-evaluation process as a means to streamline their processes and reduce administrative burdens. HR can electronically distribute them to target employees or managers via a corporate intranet. From management perspective e-Compensation can assist in reducing HR administration and compliance costs, help compete more effectively for global talent and provide real-time metric to allow decision-makers to spot trends and manage the workforce more effectively – managers can review a list of proposed merit increases for his or her direct reports. Managers and employees have access to key information to make completing a job analysis or job evaluation project relatively easy. Employees are able to gain access to data which is improved by utilizing e-Compensation to make critical decisions. The use of the e-Compensation tools empower employees with a collaborative employee compensation application that shows their complete compensation package in an intuitive format and provides the tools they need to plan their financial futures. Evaluate three (3) benefits and three (3) drawbacks of a centralized approach to managing merit pay programs compared to a more decentralized approach. Merit pay refers to the process of determining employee compensation (base salary or bonuses), in part, on the basis of how well each employee performs at work. A centralized approach bases an employee’s pay rate on the value of the job/role held, the degree to which the employee has mastered that job/role and how well the employee has performed over time. The most apparent advantages of centralization are an organizations ability to closely control operations, provide a uniform set of policies, practices and procedures throughout the organization, and better use the knowledge of centralized experts. Companies also adopt different approaches to compensation administration responsibilities. Some rely on a centralized approach where the design and administration of compensation programs are performed by a single company department. Some rely on a decentralized organizational structure that allows faster decision-making and better adaptability to local conditions and context. In the decentralized approach managers across the organization forecast the pay increases they expect to recommend in the coming year to retain their key employees and to remain competitive. The decentralized approach can make it difficult to transfer employees from one department to another and may bring about a lack of internal consistency. The drawbacks to the centralized approach are that a compensation program may suit general corporate needs, but not individual department needs, communication between different computers is not easy, resulting in configuration problems, and it does not provide built-in knowledge management capability that would guide or empower managers to make their own decisions. Suggest three (3) types of integrated analytic features that are needed for compensation planning and decision support in e-Compensation systems. Integrated analytics brings together information from a companys ERP, customer relationship management, human resources, financial management, supply chain and e-business systems, and enhances it with advanced analytics, empowering the company to react more quickly to a rapidly changing business environment. Integrated analytics better integrates an organization’s information assets across the value chain, delivers role-based business intelligence to the information consumer in a personalized manner, and includes advanced analytical models focused on decision making. Many human resource information systems, however, do not yet provide integrated analytic features needed for compensation planning and decision support, such as the ability to also see related real-time competitive market salaries. Some integrated analytic features needed for compensation planning and decision making are analytic engines for data enrichment and analysis, analytic applications such as Budgeting, Planning and Balanced Scorecard, and integrated analytic applications that provide process-specific analytics and allow the developers to add more features based on user needs. In order to survive and win in todays market, ERP vendors have recognized that they must have improved information delivery and analytics as core components of their products. The rapid flow of information has increased the need for executives and managers to keep their fingers on the pulse of their companies and to be able to easily access timely, accurate information. It is clear that the market is moving away from the realm of custom and nonintegrated applications and into pre-delivered products that are closely linked to ERP systems. Assess the barriers that prevent organizations from realizing the potential of Web-based internal equity tools and propose three (3) approaches to overcome those barriers. Internal equity refers to establishing the relative worth of jobs inside the organization. It is hard to determine the value of the information before you pay. Organizations can find free web-based services such as HR-Guide’s job evaluation tool. There are several factors that hamper organizations from fully realizing the potential of web-based internal equity tools. First, most of the tools are not generally integrated across software programs in the market that support the design and maintenance of internal equity policies and practices, relatively few are currently both integrated and web-enabled. Second, the challenge facing organizations in implementing these e-compensation tools is that these tools are only as good as the data they access. Third, proper training is required to ensure user acceptance and competent use of the technology. Fourth, some users find data entry tends to be slower and less flexible using web applications than client-server-based software, particularly with nonlinear processes. Finally, while web-based software tools increase access to and distribution of information, the quality and efficiency with which decisions are made still remain ultimately with the manager. There must be organizational commitment to gather, manage, and maintain accurate and relevant data. Organizations need to obtain an integrated web-based compensation software solution that automates and integrates internal equity and external equity software applications and can be used stand-alone, over an intranet, or over the web on an outsourced basis. Lastly, organizations need to implement software and invest in training programs. Recommend three (3) strategies that HR managers can use to evaluate the quality of market data (surveys, benchmark salary studies, etc.) that they receive from outside sources. Paying people fairly is good for business. Underpay, and employees will eventually look for a better offer. Overpay, and the payroll budget and profitability will suffer. That is why companies use market data to research the value of their jobs. HR managers use the latest market data to get accurate data relevant to positions within their organizations expertise. Gathering background information is critical in building a pay structure from scratch to articulate the compensation philosophy, clarify concepts that define the fundamental beliefs about the structure, and design and develop the strategy. To determine the prevailing rate for a job, organizations can benchmark jobs against compensation surveys that are detailed and specific to the organization’s industries and regions. A good compensation survey uses standard, proven methods of data gathering and statistical analysis to determine how much companies pay for a specific job in a specific industry. Commercial and association surveys, Pg 458 Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. http://www.humanresources.pro/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=50Itemid=73

External Influences on Lenovo

External Influences on Lenovo The main purpose of this report is to show the way of Lenovo from just project to international corporation and to analyze their way using such methods as PEST and SWOT analysis as well as Porters Five Competitive Forces. Using PEST makes possible to determine the impact of external environment (politics, economics, society and technology) and indirect factors on company. SWOT reveals the strengths and weaknesses of given organization. Combining these two methods makes analysis even more precise. In its turn, Porters Five Competitive Forces helps to understand the competition within the industry. Lenovo is a great example of a company which used innovation and creativity, obstinacy and communication with customer as a tool to make their way to the top. Today Lenovo is one of leading PC vendors. They manufacture tablets, laptops, ultrabooks, All-in-One PCs, desktops, nettops and own accessories. Lenovo creates unique and durable products at really aggressive price point. And they are here to stay. Introduction Lenovo. The company was established in Beijing, China in 1984 by eleven members of the Computer Technology Research Institute, they called it the Legend Holdings. But in 2003, decision to expand outside Chinese market led to another one change the name of the company. Legend changed their name to Lenovo. Name of Lenovo is combination of Le- (as part of Legend) and novo Latin ablative for new. In Chinese it can also be understood as connected thinking or creativity. Despite the fact that current name of the company was introduced just in 2003, Lenovo already gained trust and loyalty of millions of customers. The company has started from budget of 200ÂÂ  000 yuan commissioned Liu Chuanzhi (founder of Lenovo) by Chinese government in order to distribute computers which are made in other countries. Lenovos first office was about 17 square meters. Mr. Chuanzhi once said: It wasnt easy. The lowest thing you could do in the early 80s, as a scientist, was to go into business. China had a strict planned economy and there was barely room for a freewheeling company like ours (Liu Chuanzhi for Asiaweek, June 13, 1997). First major win was a circuit board which enabled IBM computers to process Chinese characters Han-card. Later on Lenovo started to create and distribute computers using its own brand. In May 1988, Lenovo looked for employees for the first time. They have placed ads on the cover of the China Youth News. Out of all respondents, 280 were selected to sit for a written exam. About 120 of the candidates were interviewed in person. Despite interviewers had authority to hire only 16 people, 58 were given offers. 18 people of these had graduate degrees, 37 had undergraduate degrees, and three students did not have university-level education at all. Their average age was 26. Future CEO of Lenovo Yang Yuanqing was among this group who introduced new name and expanded company on Europe and USA. In 1994 Lenovo became a publicly traded company after listing in Hong Kong. Later in 2002 Lenovo Group made partnership with Xiahua Electronics Stock Company, giving the start of Lenovo mobile phone business. In 2008 Lenovo has sold its mobile department but then would pay $200 million to buy it back in November of 2009. Now Lenovo Mobile ranks third in terms of market share of mobile phones market in China. On May of 2005 Lenovo Group announced the completion of the $1.75 billion deal of acquisition of IBMs PC unit. That made companys annual revenue almost quadruple. Company which used to have $3 billion in annual revenue now had nearly $13 billion. They became the worlds third-largest PC vendor, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. But revenues are not the only benefit Lenovo got from this deal. They have acquired the ThinkPad brand. ThinkPad is ultra-resistant due to special casing, special keyboard structure that let water drain through the laptop. Moreover it was one of first laptops with hard disk block system, which could turn on emergency brakes thereby save data from being just lost because of physical damage of the disk when laptop is dropped. Later Lenovo would face the closest rival on their way to the top Dell. It was a hard competition, it was a complex competition. The main problem of Lenovo back in the days was a bit more conservative way of making business. Dell used new and innovative methods to produce, distribute and promote products. They spent on ads twice as more than Lenovo, their prices were lower and market share grew more and more. Dell even captured segments which used to be favorite ones of Lenovo. To overcome the enemy Lenovo started to increase value of brand. That means they started to raise name awareness among the customers, they delivered maximum possible customer satisfaction. They are still using those principles as core philosophy of the company. Nowadays, Lenovo has three main categories of laptops. ThinkPads are powered for productive work experience, uncompromised secured and ultra-reliable, solid and durable. IdeaPads are optimized for entertainment and multimedia. They have some enchantments in audio, video performance and possess both functional internal and beautiful external designs. The third lineup is Essential. These products have nothing unnecessary; they are always up-to-date, portable enough and reliable. The tablets are also divided on Idea and Think lineups as well as All-in-Ones and desktops. The principal stays the same. Idea for creativity and entertainment, Think for business and work. In 2012 Lenovo became the fastest growing company in the USA for 8 quarters in a row. Actually, they are the only one who has a growth. In the third financial quarter of 2012, shipments of the company expected to reach 15.7 per cent of world-wide PC shipments. Lenovo would surpass Dell and HP. The Mission and Vision of Lenovo Mission is the main goal, beliefs which push company to develop into new something more than just business. Mission is the reason why company does actually exist. Lenovos origins are in China; their name has meaning so their mission is strong and inspiring as well. Lenovo has a desire to become the leading company of new world that is respected for break-through innovation and award-winning designs, quality, to be loved for an ecosystem of devices, services. Become recognized as one of the best, most trusted and most well-respected companies to work for and do business with. And they are on the right way to reach the goal. Company strives to be one that creates extraordinary, innovative and exceptionally great PCs for its customers. They do not have formal restrictions and bonds which could distract or interfere from manufacturing best possible machines. Lenovo claims that they design exciting and innovative products, services to meet customers needs. And sometimes they even manage to exceed level of the expectations. Lenovo wants to do business from their own global point of view, own perspective and own commitment to building great technology for people who view technology as a tool to accomplish fascinating things. By having few categories of products, Lenovo does not put any effort on useless departments therefore does not waste resources and time. David Schmoock, President of North American Lenovo department said: What I want to do is get to number one and be sustainable as number one. At the very basic level of the company there is one core principle that is extremely important: We do what we say and own what we do. So far the main goals company wants to reach are serving customers, trust and integrity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Lenovo. New World, New Thinking PEST Analysis PEST analysis in general measures a market, its potential, indicates growth or decline, thereby market attractiveness. Actually, PEST analysis helps to determine SWOT factors. PEST analysis is a model that can be used for describing the framework of macro environmental factors that a company should have in mind forming its long-term strategic plans. Of course, the external factors may vary in significance to a given company based on the products and services that it produces and also on the industry it is in. For any company which wants to win in the competitive marketing, such methods of analysis of the external factors and environment are the way to succeed. In this report PEST will be used in order to focus on analyzing external environment of the Lenovo Corporation and try to foresee major influence of those external factors in their business environment. The letter P stands for political factors influencing companys market. Those are level of bureaucracy, laws and regulations, legalization and policies, rule of law, freedom of press, tariff controls and trade. Nowadays, computers are tightly linked with peoples life. From the last century computers were used in business and other areas and help factories, hospitals and other structures to increase production and interest. At the same time, new technology caused some new problems such as pollution of the environment, health and energy consumption. Considering these problems European Union, China and other countries encourage the Green IT. That means computer must not produce noise pollution more than specified, energy consumption must be no more than required. In Lenovo groups, the isopsophic index is lower than 30dB. Therefore, Lenovo has achieved in noise pollution section. Since China has a population of one and a half billion, there is more than enough labor and payment would not be too high. That is the reason why many of assembly lines are Chinese, so Lenovo placed factory in China as well. When China joined WTO in 2005, the export tariff for IT products has decreased to 9.1%. So thes e policies are encouraging business organization developing to global. Next one is E. It stands for economic factors such as interest rates and inflation, disposable income, labor cost and supply, impact of globalization. Letter S is for social culture. It is social studies and education, lifestyle attitudes and choice, population growth rate and age profiles, etc. And the last letter is T. That is for technological factors such as impact of energy technologies, increase in remote working, and current level of technological development, impact of technology on the work process and productivity. For economic, influence by the 2008 economic crisis, the world economic tends to going down. But in the worst time, Chinese government published the new economic policy which was positive financial policy and loose and comfortable monetary policy. The government also offered four-hundred million RMB stimulates economic development (The Marketing Surveillance Center of China, 2008). For Chinas IT industry, this is a great opportunity to develop them. Then change the focus to the economic development. In 1950, the total trades of China include import and export was 11.3 hundred million dollars, but in 2008, it enhanced 25616 hundred million dollars. Also at home, the GDP increased with a high speed: So according to this chart, it very clear that Chinas GDP has achieved satisfactory level and the disposable personal income has increased also (stats, 2009). So the demand of products will increase with the economic enhancing. In the other words, the IT market becomes bigger and Lenovo also has strength to competitive the market share because Lenovo not only produce computers, mobile phone also produced by them. For society culture, the population growth, lifestyle choice and attitudes, population health, education, social mobility and attitudes are influence the demand of high technology products. 60 years ago, 80% people in China were illiteracy, but under the new government value, in 2008, the Einschulungsrate f. of different education level has achieved a satisfactory level: It is clearly that the education level has increased and the demand of high technology products also enhancing (Communist Party Learning, 2009). This situation also offered a huge market for Lenovo. On the other hand, because the globalization and influenced by the developed countries lifestyle, the Chinese people also become more international which live with a high level life and influenced by the education level, the lifestyle of Chinese people become more out-going and open enough (Human Geography Research Center, 2003). So the consumption custom of modern Chinese people also offers a good developing environment to Lenovo. Also in the next five to ten years, this situation will be increase. At the same time, the social culture of China has changed from traditional feudalism to modern lifestyle which is more science and high technology in life. For technological, Lenovo was set by 11 scientists who worked in Chinese Academy of Science which is a governmental organization. So this situation offered a good technology support. In 2005, Lenovo has finished the purchase IBM, so the technology transfer from IBM also helps Lenovo make the Research Development activities and produce high quality products with high technology (Lenovo, 2005). At the same time, with the technology development, the communications costs and increased remote work can help the different corporations share their techniques and also good for Research Development activities. So all of these technological factors can help Lenovo increase their competitive ability in the next five to ten years and the marketing share of IBM also belongs to Lenovo. For the legal section, here just mention two articles which can support Lenovo. Firstly, in light of article 6, Peoples Republic of China Consumer Protection, the government encourages and supports every person and organization supervises the illegal action which damages the consumers legal power (National Peoples Congress, 1993). So this law can reduce other organizations use illegal method to competitive in the marketing and its also a protection for Lenovo. On the other hand, in light of article 6, Peoples Republic of China Law on Product Quality, the government encourages apply scientific management method, advanced science and technology, support the products achieved or beyond the industry standard or international standard. And give the award to the organizations whose products achieved or beyond the international standard (National Peoples Congress, 1993). So as an international corporation, Lenovo links the technology of IBM, they will produce the high quality products and r eceived the government supports from the legal. Finally, for the ethical, because the increased of education level, the peoples diathesis also enhanced. So protect the legal power has become normal in the modern society. Then if the organization make illegal actions, it will be ejected from the market by customers, such as never buy their products. Also for an organization, the ethical problems are faith, fair and good service. As Lenovo, their value are serve consumers, innovation, faith and fair (Lenovo, 2005). So this entire ethical development tendency is good for Lenovos business environment in the next five to ten years. In summary, the policies which about green IT from European Union and the export tariff which from Chinese government are good for Lenovos improvement; at the same time, the economic development of China and the increased disposable personal income also offering a big market to Lenovos development in the future; as the modern society, the population of the world was achieved 67-hundred million in 2007 (Unctad Report, 2008). It offers a huge number of customers; also because the education increase, the lifestyle of modern customers is tend to high technology and high quality. On the other hand, the purchase of IBM also offers the technology transfer and the development mechanics of communication saved the communications costs and its good for international Research Development activities and international cooperation. At the same time, the law of Chinese government also supports and the ethical factors in the modern society are good for Lenovos improvement. So based on the analysis, in the next five to ten years, the likely major influences in Lenovos business environment are environment protection, international cooperation, the economic development, technology communication and Research Development, legal protection and ethical problems. But all of these tend to good for Lenovo in the future. So if the strategy department managers based on the external environment to make the strategic planning, Lenovo will take a great leap for their business in the next five to ten years. The PEST analysis is a model for reviewing and surveying a companys strategy or its position in the market. It measures the market, along with its competitors from the viewpoint of a particular business. It is also used to describe the framework of macro environmental factors that a company should regard and take into consideration. Of course, the external factors may vary in significance to a given company based on the products and services that it produces and also on the industry it is in. Political factors Economic factors Economic factor relates to the economy of the country itself, as well as market and trade cycles. Over the past years Walmart has had a stable economic condition and had 11% growth totalling in $6.5 billion. Why Walmarts figure has been doing so well so far is because it takes into account not only the economy of the company, but also of the countrys economy in which they are setting up their business. Another reason for its success is that Walmart prefers to first check the economical factors of the county before actually doing any business there. The main economical factors that are worth considering are economic stability and peoples purchasing power. Its crucial to acknowledge these factors for doing business in the third world countries because any change in economy can increase the actual price of the goods and services, which the company offers to its customers and of course the demand for these products will go down. Social Factors Social factors are made up of lifestyle trends, major events and various influences, religious and ethnic factors. Walmart has a tendency of evaluating and measuring social factors, just like economic factors, of a country they have chosen to do business in. Social values and frugality are also quite important factors. Walmart appeals to consumers with a rather low income, nevertheless, it ensures that the goods, products and services that they provide are apprised and accepted by their customers. It is a known fact that Walmart doesnt supply its stores with goods that are likely to cause various complaints from the clients and customers. The company makes good relationships with its customers in engaging and taking part in various public activities. Technological Factors Technological factors generally include various factors like maturity of technology, global communications and innovations, as well as technology legislation. Nowadays technology plays an immense part in the whole society. As a matter of fact, technology hugely improves quality of the products, however it tends to decrease the amount of time to promote and advertise the goods and services. Walmart was quick to accept new technology and to make effective and best use of it. It operates most of its logistics with the usage of a modern system called hub-and-spoke of its distribution centres. Customers that shop at Walmart stores get the most benefits out of it. Walmart believes that by introducing natural products on the market, it can have a big and positive impact on the atmosphere around us and the worlds natural resources. Walmart exploits the newest technology such as brad new cash register and security system. In short, Walmart keeps up with technology innovations and adjusts very well to the changes in the world. Porters Five Competitive Forces Porters Five Forces model is generally used in order to understand better the context of the industry in which the company is operating in and to see the attractiveness of an industry structure. By using this model we can see that Walmart is a strong independent company that has a stable growth, professional management and reasonably competitive prices. This model helps to look into the company more closely by assessing the potential threat of new entrants, the competitive rivalry within already existing companies, the threat of substitute products and goods, the bargaining power of suppliers and finally, the bargaining power of customers. Threat of new entrants Theres always a possibility of new companies coming into existence, however in order to compete with such strong company as Walmart they will need a relatively large capital. Walmart is expanding rather fast and it practically leaves neither chance nor room for other new companies to enter the competitive market. Above anything else, Walmart has excellent distribution systems, for example hub-and-spoke system that I mentioned before, as well as good locations and an enormous capital to be actually able to compete with new entrants. Competitive rivalry Walmart is a much larger and more profitable company than its competitors, so the competition inside the retail industry poses no threat whatsoever to it. However, there are a few other strong competitors such as Target, which can bring out some fair competition to Walmart. To sum up, Walmart is generally ahead of its competitors; it is a global leader in the retail industry and has a firm position in the competitive market. Threat of substitute products There arent a lot of direct substitutes to Walmart, because stores in the retail industry sell products for everyday use mostly. However, there are some substitute products that can be a threat to the sales of branded products. Another threat can be put from specialized retail stores like electronics and various garments. There are stores such as Carrefour and Target, which can offer same goods at a similar price or even lower. Still, when it comes to Walmart, there arent many other stores that can actually replace its convenience and attractively low prices. Bargaining power of suppliers Walmart is a huge customer to its suppliers and, thus, it has a lot of power, because in case it decides to switch to a different supplier, this would create a very scary tactic for its suppliers. It also has an option to purchase goods from many various suppliers so if they decide to drop out some, this wont make a significant difference. Walmart definitely takes advantage of being one of the largest customers to such international companies as Kraft Foods and Gillette. Because of its strong position in the market, suppliers are more than willing to satisfy Walmarts requirements, as well as provide them with favourable terms of payment and various discounts. We can see this good relationship between Walmart and its suppliers through its enhancing success. Bargaining power of buyers The customers will surely always be a threat to Walmart mainly because there are so many competitors. The buyers decision tends to be based on the price and quality of the product, and also on the convenience. Usually consumers are price sensitive and their decisions are based mainly on the price itself. And if products are similar this will increase the rivalry in the industry, which will lead to lower prices and thus, lower profit. Also, Walmart is not in a monopolistic market, but a competitive one, so the goods it offers can be replaced or substituted by its rivals. However, the company strives to please its clients by making the prices of their products and services similar to those of their competitors. Its profitability has proved that consumers are pleased with the chains reasonably low prices and its very convenient locations. Conclusion The purpose of this report was to analyze the external factors that have a certain impact and influence on Walmart. There are some significant factors that became clear after the PEST analysis and Porters Five Competitive Forces analysis have been made. I found out that Walmart is one of the global leaders in the retail industry, which has a great influence on various sectors. Walmart is still expanding to new locations and it is a growing strong company that has a firm position in the domestic market in the US and abroad as well. Unfortunately, Walmart, just like any other organization, isnt protected against the negative influence from various environmental factors, which may decrease the companys total revenues or even weaken the popularity of the whole company. However, despite all of the negative factors mentioned above, the positive impact of the external factors is much greater. Walmarts intention to help people save money so they can live better moves the company on the top position in the retail industry and makes it more attractive and appealing to existing and future consumers. Recommendations In my personal opinion the future success and survival of Walmart will depend on changing its attitude and becoming even more customer focused, as well as building even closer relationships that would broaden the product range and competitive prices. The company should take into consideration that the market is still rather new to foreign companies and that other retail stores are also expected to appear in the nearest future, which will probably result in reduction of clients Walmart is considered as one of the international leaders in the retail industry and I think it will keep its position for a certain period of time. However, I have to make a point that the company should also consider its promotion and shouldnt rely in the fact that they are one of the best in the market. Whats more Walmart should take into consideration that the market is still rather new to foreign companies and that other retail stores are also expected to appear in the near future, which will probably result in reduction of clients.