The Contributions Of Immigrants From The American Economy

The Contributions of Immigrants to the American Economy The United states is made up of immigrant from different religious, social, cultural and economic background around the world.In the big cities like New york and Los Angeles, there is a higher percentage of immigrant who are all making a massive impact on the American economy. Today, the issue of Immigration has become a major topic of discussion in America. The immigrants populace contribute a greater share of the total American population. As the year goes by, the percentage of Immigrants keeps on increasing by a higher margin of growth. . â€Å"The United state immigrant population was 38,517,234, or 12.5 percent of the total U.S. population. The number of foreign born living in the United States increased by 1.5 percent (about 556,000 people) between 2008 and 2009† ( The Census Bureau s 2009 American Community Survey,). This shows how the growth margin of immigrants in America keeps on increasing each and everyday. However, can we then ask ourselves about what contribution immigrants make on the American economy? The existence of immigrants in the United states has led to a massive development of our culture, economy, technology and our education. The first to talk about is Culture: In the issue of culture, immigrants play a significant role of bringing diversities to the American culture. Though immigrants may not have all the creative skills and the artistic skill for developing the American culture, their impact onShow MoreRelatedA Nation Of Immigrants By John F. Kennedy1262 Words   |  6 Pagesdebate, The American journey in terms of jobs and economic progress has been positively affected by the contribution of legal immigrants. Immigrants have strengthened the United states by boosting the revenue of American businesses and raising the job opportunities for American workers. The contribution of immigrants strengthening the U.S economy has led the nation to favor immigration, that is if the process of citizenship is done correctly and legally. In the book â€Å"A Nation of Immigrants† by JohnRead MoreThe Influx of the Illegal Immigrants to the Unite States909 Words   |  4 PagesThe influx of the illegal immigra nts over the past decade has become more noticeable issue in the United States. Some consider the illegal immigrants are the real social and financial burden for the U.S. and demand strict resolute policies to be implemented for them. Others state that in case of deportation of the undocumented immigrants, such as farm workers or specialists in construction and hospitality spheres, there will appear a huge labor shortage with the following economic fall-out. The followingRead MoreHow Skilled Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Beneficial?1510 Words   |  7 Pagesseems that skilled immigrants is one group that has been overlooked. In large part, this particular group is becoming more prominent due to the fact that many are becoming entrepreneurs, especially in the Silicon Valley. Thus, I am interested in finding out how skilled immigrant entrepreneurs are beneficial in numerous aspects such as economic growth, innovation, public policy and societal changes. Moreover, I want to explore wha t challenges and opportunities these immigrants face and how theirRead MoreIllegal Immigrants And The United States1418 Words   |  6 PagesAn illegal immigrant, who works for their keep in an unknown country, contributes to taxes, stays out of trouble, and just wants a better life in a foreign country, on unknown land should be recognized for their contribution to that particular society. An illegal immigrant is a person who migrates to a different country in a way that is in violation of the immigrant laws of that country. Immigration has been a divided topic for many years in America- illegal immigrants are sometimes seen as a burdenRead MoreImmigration And The United States1177 Words   |  5 PagesThen, immigrants must fill out the official naturalization application called the N400 form. Within this form, there are several questions asking about the immigrant’s life, family, employment, and criminal background. After completion, immigrants must send in the N400 form with a passport and application fee. Next, the immigrant has to have his or her fingerprints taken and participate in an interview. If the application is approved, the immigrant will then take the Oath of Allegiance to the UnitedRead MoreEssay Granting Illegal Immigrants Citizenship 1247 Words   |  5 PagesAn illegal immigrant, who works for their keep in an unknown country, contributes to taxes, stays out of trouble, and just wants a better life in a foreign country, on unknown land should be recognized for their contribution to that particular society. An illegal immigrant is a person who migrates to a different country in a way that is in violation of the immigrant laws of that country. Immigration has been a divided topic for many years in America- illegal immigrants are sometimes seen as a burdenRead MoreImmigration Reform And The Immigration Boom Essay1307 Words   |  6 Pages Since you went to sleep, we had what you could call an immigration boom. Now in your old town we have people from many parts of the world. What you see here is the result of immigration reforms, which helps boost the economy, cre ate diversity, and cause cultural enrichment.† RIP if I may call you RIP let me tell you about what immigration is, better yet, let me tell you about immigrants. At the time you were living in your farm, and your prolonged nap several things had happened. For instance, thereRead MoreThe Economic Impact Of Illegal Immigration1603 Words   |  7 Pageslegally admitted immigrants, however today illegal immigration is a controversial topic. Despite the illegal status, millions of men and women work and contribute to local, state and national economies. An accepted idea is that most of the illegal immigrants cross the Mexico-US border, therefore most of the illegal immigrants should be Mexicans or from South America. Is this true? Are there official numbers confirming this impression? Another relevant question is if the illegal immigrants leave theirRead More Immigration into the US Essay977 Words   |  4 Pagesthe United States are either immigrants or their descendants, concerns with immigrants and immigration policies have confronted the nation throughout history. This is due mostly because the nation promotes freedom and democracy. There are also unlimited economic opportunities to improve the material circumstances of peoples’ lives. While foreigners are coming into this country, the political view and public surroundings are changing drastically looking harmful for American culture and society. DavidRead MoreMy Company Is One Of The Largest Agricultural Producers1250 Words   |  5 Pagessatisfy the economical and expeditious harvest of the seasonal crops. This labor force combined equals almost 25 thousand men and women. The large majority of the work force hired are documented immigrants and are eligible for work in the United States. There is a smaller portion that are undocumented immigrants. They have falsified their eligibility to hide their illegal status and to obtain work. In all the force my company employs 3900 to 4150 workers for a period of 9 weeks of the harvest season

Projectionism In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

Projectionist theories often appear to disprove religion; despite this many devout believers cling to faith while knowing about them. Marx, Feuerbach, and Freud contribute three significant ideas to projectionism. Marx claims that people cling to religion because it is a painkiller and helps them forget the suffering they endure from those who control them. Feuerbach suggests that what a person knows affects and contributes to their view of religion; their upbringing determines how their god appears. Finally, Freud believes that a personal need motivates a view of god and a mass need creates a religion (i.e. the need for a higher purpose). In The Color Purple, Alice Walker analyzes both of these theories using her protagonist Celie and her†¦show more content†¦She has never known anyone else who could appear as God, therefore, her mind tells her that her father is God. This clears up some confusion for the reader; Celie respects her father not only due to physical fear but b ecause she believes he is god. Later in the book, Celie encounters more men in her life this changes how she refers to her father. She no longer calls him god, but Pa. The more she experiences, the more her perspective shifts. Later, Celie begins to lose faith in God, but she continues to stand up for Christianity. Shug and she discuss her life and how religion affects it. This loss of faith could be caused by her no longer needed a ‘pain-killer’ in her life, without that need there would desire for a god. Marx argues, â€Å"It [religion] is the opium of the people† (1). Celie says that she no longer trusts God because he acts like every other man she knows; she believes God is a man because that was the universal religion. When discussing who God is, they bring up important arguments for why they would believe God looks the way they believe God does: God wrote the bible, white folks had nothing to do with it. How come he look just like them, then? She say. Only bigger? And a heap more hair. How come the bible just like everything else they make, all about them doing one thing and another, and all the colored folks doing is gitting cursed (Walker 96)? Celie tries to call Shug

The Good Earth Essay free essay sample

Wang Lung allows himself to become corrupted by the views of society of the rich, and he begins to treat O-lan more like a slave rather than his wife. Wang Lung has several good harvests and saves enough food and money to overcome the hard times and get his family through the years to come. One day, Wang Lung decides that O-lan is not suitable to be the wife of an opulent land owner such as himself. He comments on how ugly her unbound feet are, and O-lan was extremely hurt by that. †¦and he saw for the first time that she was a woman whom no man could call other than she was, a dull and common creature†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Buck 179). Later on, he does regret saying what he said to her because he feels guilty, but Chinese men do not show their emotions. It would have been unlike a traditional Chinese man to feel any sort of repentance towards his wife after insulting her. We will write a custom essay sample on The Good Earth Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Not only does Wang Lung belittle O-lan, but he also ends up having a mistress. He starts attending the ostentatious tea house because he felt as if he were too good to go to the old tea house. At the new tea house, he got to choose one of the beautiful and alluring women on the paintings that were hanging on the walls. He picks out a woman named Lotus. As Cuckoo took Wang Lung upstairs, she said, â€Å"And Lotus may have this fellow – he smells of the fields and garlic! † (192). Wang Lung was highly embarrassed because he cares too much of what society thinks. â€Å"This Wang Lung heard, although he disdained to answer, although her words smote him like a dagger thrust because he feared that he looked indeed what he was, a farmer† (192). Although he was chagrin about the situation, it does not stop him from changing completely. Wang Lung wore a ponytail, but since Lotus thought it was old fashioned, he cut it for her. He also starts spending money abundantly, loses his enthusiasm for farming, purchases many new clothes, and cares heavily about his appearance. Wang Lung wanted to purchase Lotus, but in the meantime, he was distressed and worried. He screams at O-lan for not brushing her hair during this time. She cried, but it caught Wang Lung by surprise because he is not used to ever seeing her cry. Even during the hardest times of their life together, she did not weep. Not only did Wang Lung purchases Lotus, but he built her her very own house and pond. He also hires Cuckoo as her servant because she servant because Lotus’ feet are bound so she cannot walk a long distance, and later he builds Lotus and Cuckoo their own kitchen. Later in the novel, it is apparent that Wang Lung does not want his son to marry a village woman. â€Å"I am not willing that he marry any of the daughters of the village farmers, nor is it meet, seeing that we bear the common name of Wang† (237). If he was still poor, he most likely would not have cared if his son was married to a village woman. Wang Lung cares too much of what society thinks about him when he becomes rich. Wang Lung was once just a poor farmer in China, until he came into some money. He believed he was better than others, and he displayed that by the way he acted towards certain people, including his wife. Wang Lung treated his wife poorly once he met Lotus. He completely changed. Wang Lung let money and society’s view of the rich corrupt how he once used to be.

Managers Guide to Performance Management- Human Resource Management

Question: Describe about the Managers Guide to Performance Management? Answer: Concept of Human Resource Management Human resource management is the key function for any organization. An efficient human resource helps the organization achieve its desired objectives. Human resource management is the system of recruiting and selecting the workforce of an organization and giving them proper training and helps in developing their skills (Dessler, 2013). The efficiency of the employees is then estimated based on the measurement of their performance. Performance measurement is an important tool to understand the performance of the human resource and based on the performance they are provided with certain benefits like incentives and remuneration which motivates the employee in performing better. Performance Management Performance management is the method by which the management and the employees of an organization work together to achieve the desired goal of an organization. The organization makes a plan to achieve the desired goal use its human resource in achieving it, the performance of their employees is then monitored and based on it a performance review is prepared. The performance review helps in understanding the overall contribution of the employees in the organizational objectives (Aguinis, 2013). Performance Management Cycle We can understand the concept of performance management better with the study of the performance management cycle. Performance management is explained in the figure below: Performance Management Cycle Planning functions: Identifying the expectations of the organization. Identifying the method of measurement of results. Agreeing upon the monitoring system. Finalizing the plan (Bacal, 2012). Monitoring functions: Monitoring and evaluating the process. Taking corrective actions based on the evaluation (Cardy and Leonard, 2011). Reviewing functions: Evaluating and reviewing the annual performance. Displaying a clear picture of the organizations performance. Stages of Prerformance Management: The three stages of performance management are further described below: Planning Stage: Planning stage requires the collective effort of the managers and the employees. The following points of the planning stage are- It reviews the job description of the employee to understand the job carried out by them at present and make necessary updates if the job structure of the employee has changed. It reviews and identifies the connection between the job description of the employee and the organizations objectives. It develops the plan of work to outline the job to be completed, desired results to be achieved and setting the standards based on which the performance will be measured (Hope and Player, 2012). It identifies the important areas that are the vital objectives for performance management. These areas are determined with the effective plan of the organization which is depended on the desire of the employee to develop certain outcomes or aspects of a job. It identifies the training objectives necessary for developing the work skills and knowledge of the employees. It makes long term planning which includes several important development objectives (Nielsen and Hunter, 2013). Monitoring Stage: Monitoring stage is not just measuring the daily performance of the employees but also on the end result achieved and the affect of the employees individual behavior on the work environment. The following points of monitoring stage are- It assesses the progress made to meet the objectives of the performance. It identifies the problems which prevent the employees from achieving the desired goals and finding solutions to those problems. It gives feedback on the development related to the objectives. It identifies the changes which are related to change in priorities of the organization and accordingly the employees are assigned new duties. It determines the areas in which the employees require support from the management (Samsonowa, 2012). Reviewing Stage: In this stage, the performance of all the employees is reviewed and evaluated and based on it the performance management notes is prepared. The performance management note is useful in measuring the performance of the employees. This helps the management deal with the problems and issues of employees performance and takes corrective measures to improve it. The following points reviewing stage is discussed below: It summarizes all the tasks completed in the year and compares it with the goals set initially. The success and failure of all the tasks is taken into account. It documents all the challenges faced in a year and all the areas are subjected to development. It identifies the barriers which are discussed to achieve the goals (Torrington, 2011). Conclusion: Human resource management is the key function of a company. It is required in managing the human resource of the company through recruitment, selection, training and development of the employees. Some of the important functions of human resource management are hiring efficient employees, management of their performance, developing the organization, providing safety in health of the employees, motivating the employees with benefits and incentives and providing proper training and development to the employees (Mondy and Mondy, 2012). Here we have discussed one of the important functions of human resource management which is performance management. Performance management is the process of evaluating and comparing the performance of the employees with the standards set to achieve. Thus, to understand the performance management system we have made use of the performance management cycle. Performance management cycle has three stages which explain the way a plan is made based on the identi fication and study of the expected goals. According to the plan the performance of the workforce is evaluated and monitored and based on it measures are taken to correct any flak in performance. In the last stage of the performance management cycle the overall performance of the workers for the year is reviewed and compared and finally the cycle comes to an end. In this topic the concept of human resource management and one of its vital functions is discussed (Price and Price, 2011). References Aguinis, H. (2013).Performance management. Boston: Pearson. Bacal, R. (2012).Manager's guide to Performance management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cardy, R. and Leonard, B. (2011).Performance management. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Dessler, G. (2013).Human resource management. Boston: Prentice Hall. Hope, J. and Player, S. (2012).Beyond performance management. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press. Mondy, R. and Mondy, J. (2012).Human resource management. Boston: Prentice Hall. Nielsen, S. and Hunter, D. (2013).Performance management and evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Price, A. and Price, A. (2011).Human resource management. Andover: Cengage Learning. Samsonowa, T. (2012).Industrial research performance management. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag. Torrington, D. (2011).Human resource management. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Assimilation and Accommodation Essay Essay Example

Assimilation and Accommodation Essay Essay Example Assimilation and Accommodation Essay Essay Assimilation and Accommodation Essay Essay Assimilation and Adjustment Jean Piaget viewed rational growing as a procedure of version ( accommodation ) to the universe. This happens through: * Assimilation. which is utilizing an bing scheme to cover with a new object or state of affairs. * Accommodation – this happens when the bing scheme ( cognition ) does non work. and needs to be changed to cover with a new object or state of affairs. * Equilibration – occurs when a child’s scheme can cover with most new information through assimilation. However. a province of disequilibrium occurs when new information can non be fitted into bing scheme ( assimilation ) . Equilibration is the force which drives the larning procedure as we do non wish to be frustrated and will seek to reconstruct balance by get the hanging the new challenge. ( adjustment ) . Once the new information is acquired the procedure of assimilation with the new scheme will go on until the following clip we need to do an accommodation to it. Example A 2 twelvemonth old kid sees a adult male who is bald on top of his caput and has long crisp hair on the sides. The kid will absorb the adult male as a buffoon. This is assimilation. And when the male parent explain to his boy that the adult male was non a buffoon and that even though his hair was like a clown’s. he wasn’t have oning amusing costume and wasn’t making thing to do people laugh. This is adjustment. And with this new cognition. the male child is able to alter his scheme of â€Å"clown† and do this thought fit better to a standard construct of â€Å"clown. † Harmonizing to Piaget. instruction can back up these development procedures by phases of Development. A child’s cognitive development is about a child development or building a mental theoretical account of the universe. Jean Piaget was interested both in how kids learnt and in how they thought. Piaget studied kids from babyhood to adolescence. and carried out many of his ain probes utilizing his three kids. He used the undermentioned research methods: Naturalistic observation: Piaget made elaborate observations of kids. and from these he wrote diary descriptions charting their development. He besides made Clinical interviews and observations of older kids who were able to understand inquiries and hold conversations. Piaget believed that kids think otherwise than grownups and stated they go through 4 cosmopolitan phases of cognitive development. * Sensorio-motora: desde EL nacimiento hasta los 2 anos aproximadamente. En esta etapa Se caracteriza Al nino como extremadamente egocentrico. donde no comprende el mundo de otra forma que no sea su propio punto de vista. El desarrollo chief nut esta etapa Es el entendimiento de que los objetos existen independientemente de su relacion con EL objeto ( permanencia del objeto ) . es decir que EL nino es capaz de mantener una imagen mental de una character u objeto a pesar de no estar presente O seeable. En esta etapa los bebes aprenden principalmente a traves del ensayo Y mistake. El objetivo de Piaget epoch investigar a que edad los ninos adquirian esta â€Å"permanencia del objeto† . El metodo que uso fue esconder un juguete debajo de una sabana Y ver Si EL nino buscaba EL objeto escondido. Esta busqueda del objeto epoch una prueba de la permanencia del objeto. Piaget supuso que EL nino solo podia buscar EL objeto escondido si tiene una representacion mental de el. * Etapa Pre-operacional: desde los 2 a 7 anos aproximadamente. En esta etapa los ninos desarrollan gradualmente el uso del lenguaje Y La capacidad parity pensar en forma simbolica. Sus pensamientos nut esta etapa suelen ser egocentricos. Egocentrismo hace referencia La incapacidad del nino de ver una situacion desde otro punto de vista que no sea el de el mismo. Segun Piaget. un nino egocentrico supone que Las personas ven. escuchan o sienten lo mismo que el. Piaget quiso descubrir a que edad los ninos dejan de tener esta actitud. * Operaciones Concretas: desde los 7 a 11 anos aproximadamente. En esta etapa EL nino Es lo suficientemente maduro parity pensar logicamente en operaciones unidireccionales. Pero pueden aplicar La logica solo con objetos fisicos. Los ninos Se vuelven menos egocentricos Y entienden las leyes de conservacion. esto significa que comprenden que aunque la apariencia de un objeto cambie. no significa que cambie el objeto en si . * Operaciones Formales: desde los 11 anos hasta La adultez. Cuando los adolescentes entran en esta etapa adquieren la capacidad de pensar de manera abstracta. de combinar clasificar los elementos de una manera mas sofisticada. y la capacidad de razonamiento de orden higher-up. Ademas desarrollan una identidad Y Se muestran mas interesados en temas sociales.

Free Essays on Elementary Schools

In the book The Battle for History, John Keegan, talks of the many different views on World War II. He takes into account other historical works such as Robert M. Kennedy’s The German Campaign in Poland, Christopher Duffy’s Red Storm on the Reich, The Struggle for Europe by Chester Wilmot and many others. He has already analyzed these other works. He has summarized the authors’ major points and used them to support his own theory, although Keegan’s theory about the written history of the war is quite unclear. The only theory that I could derive, is that â€Å"[it] has not yet been written.† (30) What does he mean by this? The works cited in the back of the book number over one hundred fifty. Numerous references are made to the works of other authors. Keegan does not seem to tell anything from his perspective, but state what he has read. All good and well considering this is history, but are the past events so clearly set in stone? Keegan seems to br ing up questions throughout the book such as: did Roosevelt know of the attack on Pearl Harbor before it happened? â€Å"There have also been explorations of the allegation that Roosevelt had foreknowledge but chose not to act on it, as a means of bringing the United States into the Second World War on the anti-Axis side.† (17) Keegan does not do much to answer these questions, simply brings them into the picture. The book gives no feel of ending or resolution to most of the questions he brings about. Maybe this was his purpose. Topics in the book up from one place to another. In one paragraph Keegan may be discussing the use of the Enigma, a commercial cipher machine; in the next Keegan might begin discussing the use of U-boats. Although there is some logical flow through the book, for the most part the subjects are jumpy, causing the work to be choppy and cluttered babbling. It seems like the author is trying to squeeze as much as he can into as few pages as possible. Keega n does, how... Free Essays on Elementary Schools Free Essays on Elementary Schools In the book The Battle for History, John Keegan, talks of the many different views on World War II. He takes into account other historical works such as Robert M. Kennedy’s The German Campaign in Poland, Christopher Duffy’s Red Storm on the Reich, The Struggle for Europe by Chester Wilmot and many others. He has already analyzed these other works. He has summarized the authors’ major points and used them to support his own theory, although Keegan’s theory about the written history of the war is quite unclear. The only theory that I could derive, is that â€Å"[it] has not yet been written.† (30) What does he mean by this? The works cited in the back of the book number over one hundred fifty. Numerous references are made to the works of other authors. Keegan does not seem to tell anything from his perspective, but state what he has read. All good and well considering this is history, but are the past events so clearly set in stone? Keegan seems to br ing up questions throughout the book such as: did Roosevelt know of the attack on Pearl Harbor before it happened? â€Å"There have also been explorations of the allegation that Roosevelt had foreknowledge but chose not to act on it, as a means of bringing the United States into the Second World War on the anti-Axis side.† (17) Keegan does not do much to answer these questions, simply brings them into the picture. The book gives no feel of ending or resolution to most of the questions he brings about. Maybe this was his purpose. Topics in the book up from one place to another. In one paragraph Keegan may be discussing the use of the Enigma, a commercial cipher machine; in the next Keegan might begin discussing the use of U-boats. Although there is some logical flow through the book, for the most part the subjects are jumpy, causing the work to be choppy and cluttered babbling. It seems like the author is trying to squeeze as much as he can into as few pages as possible. Keega n does, how...

The Church And State In British Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Church And State In British Society - Essay Example He expressed his concern, however, that secularists and atheists would capitalize on attempts to separate church and state by saying religion was in an increasingly precarious position in British life (Church and state could separate in the UK, says Archbishop of Canterbury 2008). Religion and belief in God are facing a tough time at present in many countries. Atheists are growing in numbers and they argue for the separation of religion and politics. Secularists and atheists can attack the religion in the absence of political protection according to the archbishop. Soper & Fetzer (n. d) have mentioned that religion, which was at the center of political conflict in Europe a century ago, became less important politically in the middle decades of the twentieth century (Soper & Fetzer n. d, p.3). it is a fact that the influence of religion on politics becoming feeble at present. The massacres committed by some communal groups on behalf of religion have opened the eyes of British communit y to think in terms of the dangers associated with the blending of religion and politics. 9/11 and the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks clearly indicate how dangerous if religion interferes with the politics. In short, the British politics is historically associated with religion and the influence of religion on politics is coming down for the time being. Even the religious leaders found no harm in separating religion and politics even though they have certain concerns about the how the secularists and atheists utilize it.

Car Wash Full Service in Kapolei Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Car Wash Full Service in Kapolei - Essay Example Advantages C corporations have low risks since the government is responsible for its audits and tax returns The owners (shareholders) have limited liabilities to the business debts C Corporation benefits from writing-off of debts and business expenses C corporations are able to raise high capitals through sale of shares to different investors The majority shareholders or business owners benefit from a variety of stocks sold by the corporation Disadvantages Slow decision making since all shareholders must be consulted when making a major business decision through the annual general meeting Business owners are not directly involved in running the business Not easy to start since, the corporation needs to comply with strict legal requirements from the government S Corporation S corporation is considered a regular corporation with less than 100 business owners (shareholders). The corporation passes its net income and losses to the shareholders as stipulated under the Internal Revenue Cod e, Chapter 1 (Ogus, 1994). Advantages Shareholders have limited liabilities to the company’s debts. Thus, shareholder’s assets cannot be sold to pay the corporation’s debts in case of bankruptcy. S corporations are exempted from paying federal taxes since losses and profits are passed through shareholders tax reports Shareholders can become employees of the corporation and earn tax-free salaries The credibility associated with the business makes it possible for the business to attract high calibre employees and customers Disadvantages Formation is expensive and time consuming due to the legal and taxation formalities that the business is expected to comply with before been... It is stated in the essay that when starting a new business, it is necessary to make objective decisions concerning the structure of the proposed business. Most business owners consider the significance of financial decision over other factors that affect the business. Although credible financial decision determines the sustainability of the business, a business owner need to consider other factors that would affect the business in the long-term. The form of business ownership, that was a main focus of the essay and is a significant decision that investors ought to make before settling into their business. Sole proprietorship, partnership, C Corporation and S corporation are the basic forms of business ownership. After considering the different forms of business ownership, the researcher settled for a partnership as the most appropriate form of bushiness. The choice for partnership was determined by the pros and cons of other forms of business ownership and available finances. The re searcher also made his choice based on cost benefit analysis of running the business as a corporation or a sole proprietorship. Forming a partnership eliminated the aspect of competition that would arise if each partner decided to set his own business. This factor would give the team an opportunity to concentrate on their services and customers. The team eventually ruled out both the S and C corporations due to the rigorous legal requirements and large starting capital required for the business analyzed.

Identity-Feminist Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Identity-Feminist - Term Paper Example Usually, the fear of unknown if women replaced men in the works they did, somehow brings about a difference between genders. Women empowerment is a great weapon from women to become independent from the oppression they have been from men (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler 2). With the mushrooming up of many gender activists and governments support, women became to get empowered and achieved their dreams. In a society that is gender based, fighting for the rights of women to be equal to that of men is really a hard task, but something still has be done. Therefore, any person who supports the rights of women in the society is usually a feminist. In this present generation, with much confusion originating from the aspect gender, still there is need for the minority and the oppressed gender to be given their rightful place in the society. It is high time women came up and proved themselves, but in order to reach there, much fighting for their rights have to be done. Recent researches have shown that t here exist little difference between man and woman and hence there is no need for gender inequality to exist. Today, gender being a very sensitive issue due to occurrence of gender based violence in most countries; careful attention has to be accorded to the empowerment of women (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler, 2). Gender on the other hand is defined as the relations between women and men, and can be both material and perpetual. In the past, people used to confuse gender as a tern that used to refer to women and men based on their sexual characteristics, but Holler and Miller try to give it another perspective from which to view gender. Emphasis is usually made on gender not to be determined biologically due to sexual characteristics of women and men like in the old times, but nowadays constructed from the social perspective. Society being the place where gender lays means it plays a key role in influencing gender. These two authors tried very much to show the relationship between gender and t he society and how the two are linked too. Gender is regarded as a vital organizing principle of societies and sometimes governs the process of reproduction and production, distribution and also consumption. Despite this definition, most people associate gender with women. This is not the case since gender addresses issues dealing with women, relationships between women and men, their roles, control and access of resources, labour division, needs and interests. Living in such times where the true meaning is not understood by many, much efforts will be needed in case of fighting for women rights. In a country constantly being struck by news concerning gender based violence, denotes the need to be more careful and sensitive while dealing with issues regarding women empowerment (Holler & Kimmel 24). From an analytical angle, Holler and Kimmel tried to not to be biased while speaking about gender like many people do. By introducing the feminist theory in their writing, proved to be femi nists. These authors are more concerned about changing the past notion in which gender was viewed and try to replace it with their current concept. It seems that these two authors were after changing people’s minds on how they handle the aspect of gender in the society plus add more concerning gender inequality (Kimmel, Amy & Kaler 20). There has always been an issue of gender inequality in many societies over the past decades. Gender inequality denotes the disparity between people because of gender. Gender systems are

Impact of the Industrial Revolution

Impact of the Industrial Revolution Can you imagine life without these machines? Introduction At the dawn of the 18th century, technological and scientific advancements led to England being one of the most powerful and successful maritime power in the world. Foreign trade had scaled new heights and the demand for manufactured goods had increased. As a result of the use of machinery for agriculture, there was not much work in the rural areas. People migrated to towns looking for opportunities for work. Manufacturers attempted to find ways to increase production to meet the new demands. All these factors, among others, led to what was later termed as ‘The Industrial Revolution’ by historian Arnold Tonybee. Onset of the Industrial Revolution Life before the Industrial Revolution was tough. For centuries, man had relied on animals and himself, to do all the work and make objects of daily use. With new technological advancements, man started to rely on technology to perform similar tasks – quickly and efficiently. This change from an agrarian economy where hand tools were used, to one, where machines such as the seed drill, steam engine, etc. were invented, factories were established, resulting in complete change in the life of the people is termed as the Industrial Revolution. Features of the Industrial Revolution One of the most important features of the Industrial Revolution was the various inventions made during the time that went on to change the course of history forever. Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin helped separate the cotton from its seed approximately fifty times faster than before. Jethro Hull, a farmer, invented a seed drill which planted grains very efficiently. Increase in the production of raw material meant that there was loads of raw material to be processed, especially in the case of textiles such as cotton. A weaver named James Hargreaves gave the much needed breakthrough by inventing the spinning jenny, a machine that spun many threads at once, though they were thick. Richard Awkright, invented the spinning frame, also known as the water frame. It spun thicker thread into thinner and stronger ones. It was Samuel Crompton’s spinning mule that made the large scale production of yarn possible. Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom that further incr eased the production of cloth and reduced labour costs as well. Inventions of machines led to the formation of factories for production of cloth. Mass production of cotton and cotton fabrics led to a great reduction in the prices. These inventions changed the socio-economic structure of England as weavers and workers were able to earn good wages and lead a better life.  Ã‚   Although the cotton mills marked the beginning of the Industrial revolution, it is the invention of James Watt’s steam engine that powered and continued it. The steam engine used the force of steam to power engines. Invention of this machine brought about many changes in England. Factory owners realised that they could now build factories where people lived and need not construct them it near a water source, as they did earlier. It was Abraham Darby’s ability to cast iron in a coke-fueled furnace that enabled inventors like Thomas Newcomen to have his steam engines cast by Darby[3]. Henry Bessemer’s invention of the Bessemer Converter enabled inexpensive manufacture of steel abundantly. The transportation system was completely overhauled when steam powered trains and other locomotives were built. The transformation of roads and railways made travel and shipping of goods fairly comfortable and cheap. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] The invention of the steam engine, usage on iron and steel in ships was useful in manufacturing ships that were much faster. Ships started voyaging through oceans which in turn increased trade even further. This period of intense industrialisation witnessed a major change in architecture and infrastructure. New towns came up that boasted of town halls, libraries, gardens, concert halls, etc. [9] Another important feature of the Industrial Revolution was the change in the socio-economic life of the people. As factories were set up and towns formed, people moved to towns in search of employment which made urbanization, a common feature of the Industrial Revolution. Historians are of the opinion that although some women stayed at home to look after the children, many worked in factories with their husbands. Sometimes, children were made to work in factories as well. In general, the Industrial Revolution improved the standard of living of the people as they were able to afford the basic necessities of life and could indulge in leisure activities during their free time. People read books, went on vacation, enjoyed concerts or spent days on the beach, educated themselves, etc. to pass their time. People started to take an active part in politics as well. [10] Why did the Industrial Revolution originate in England? Having read about the different features of the Industrial Revolution, it now becomes imperative to read about certain conditions that came together to set the scene for its inception. Colonies like India were a good source of raw material such as cotton for their factories in England. The colonies were good markets too as they sold their manufactured goods there. Being a supreme maritime power with one of the largest ships in the world, it was easy for England to transport the raw material and the finished products. A stable government at the centre, with few restrictions on the economy, helped the industry and commerce to thrive. Laws made by the government favoured the companies that set up factories and businesses. Natural resources such as coal and iron were available in abundance to be used in factories. Streams and rivers in England were used to generate power and served as a medium of transportation of goods and raw materials. England, to begin with, was a prosperous country and people had extra money to spend on other things besides the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.[11] Impact of the Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution became the most noteworthy ensemble of social, cultural and economic change that affected human history. Let us discuss some of them. There was a tremendous increase in population during the Industrial Revolution as the standard of living improved and fewer people died due to diseases. The Industrial Revolution led to capitalism, that is, the business was owned privately and operated primarily for profit. The industrial revolution divided the society into different classes the factory owners who owned the factory and the workers who worked for him. The owners of the factories exploited the workers to maximise their profit. New cities and towns came up as the factory owners established factories closer to where they lived. People who worked in factories had to leave their houses and shift to these places, often with their families. The Industrial Revolution completely changed the lives of the workers. From being a craftsperson who worked using hand tools, he was merely reduced to a machine operator. Weavers and other craftsmen who tried to make a living by making goods at home found it difficult to sell their products as their hand-made goods were more expensive than the machine-made ones. The Industrial Revolution gave rise to imperialism. England was faced with two problems during the Industrial revolution – Procuring of cheap raw materials and a market for their manufactured goods. They solved these problems by gaining political and economic control over weaker countries. [12] Though the Industrial Revolution began in England, it gradually spread to the other countries of the world as well. Imperialism Industrialisation stirred the aspirations of England. They wanted to maximise the profit of their industries. England wanted resources to fuel their production as well as a market to sell their goods. Weaker countries such as India were the perfect target. This policy of England to acquire political, economic and social control over a weaker country is known as imperialism. Imperialism was one of the worst impacts of industrialisation. England sourced the raw materials of their products from these countries and sold the manufactured products in these countries itself at exorbitant prices. Imperialism involves the use of power, military or otherwise to exercise control over the weaker country. [13] Imperialism destroyed the culture and the local industries of the colonies. Inexpensive foreign goods destroyed the markets of local indigenous products. No effort was made to modernize the colonies. Agriculture was also affected as the imperialists allowed the colonies to grow those crops that were beneficial to them, whether or not it was conducive to the locals. We shall study about the British policies and plans in India later in the book. Peep into the Past Iron Bridge The World’s first Iron Bridge built on River Severnin England is one of the most famous industrial monuments in Britain. Shropshire, the area in which it was built was famous for its coal deposits. The steep Severn gorge posed a problem for transportation of people and goods. Architect Thomas Pritchard suggested ironmaster John Wilenson make the iron bridge. Though Wilkenson started the project in 1777, the iron bridge was completed by Abraham Darby in 1779. It was opened to the public on January 1, 1781. The bridge was used for over 150 years before it was shut down for vehicles in 1934. The Iron Bridge was designated as an ancient monument. It is now a World Heritage Site. [1] http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/paper_money/paper_money_of_england__wales/the_industrial_revolution.aspx [2] World Socities – Mckay Hill – pg – 747, 748, 749 [3] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151458/Abraham-Darby#ref219821 [4] HOLT, Human Legacy, Page 634, 635, 636, 637 [5] World Socities – Mckay Hill – pg – 750-751-752 [6] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143809/Samuel-Crompton [7] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151458/Abraham-Darby [8] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/642887/Eli-Whitney [9] http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/paper_money/paper_money_of_england__wales/the_industrial_revolution/the_industrial_revolution_2.aspx [10] HOLT, Human Legacy, page – 649, 650, 651, and http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/paper_money/paper_money_of_england__wales/the_industrial_revolution/the_industrial_revolution_3.aspx [11] HOLT, Human Legacy, pages – 633, 634, 635 [12] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287086/Industrial-Revolution [13] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/283988/imperialism

Frank Sinatra Essay -- essays research papers

My speech today is on not just a man, but a man who owns tens of millions of recordings, nine Grammy’s and two Academy Awards, some 60 films, worldwide tours, television specials, and hundreds of millions of dollars raised for charities. In sheer productivity, few popular artists could touch the hem of his tuxedo jacket. In pure, smoldering style, he was unexcelled. His rueful, macho star power ensured that the music and lyrics of the swing era would resonate throughout the later years of the 20th Century - despite a near-endless string of horror stories about his vulgarity, hot temper and alleged ties to organized crime. Frank Sinatra was alluring and powerful not despite his contradictions, but because of them. He was bigger than life, but human as the next guy, and keenly aware of his public persona's many sides. And yet he knew, deep down, that the music - The Voice - was clear enough, powerful enough and passionate enough to eclipse the public's darkest doubts about Sinat ra the man. Francis Albert Sinatra was born Dec. 12, 1915, the only child of working-class Italian-American immigrants, in a tenement at 415 Monroe St. in Hoboken, New Jersey. His father, Anthony, was a boxer-turned-fireman; his mother, Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra, was a former barmaid who often sang at family gatherings. Their home and their neighborhood rang with the sounds of the Italian bel canto style of singing, which Sinatra said inspired him to sing. In high school, he saw his hero, crooner Bing Crosby, perform live, an event that inspired him to become a solo vocalist. Between working various jobs at The Jersey Observer, Sinatra sang with a neighborhood vocal group, the Hoboken Four, and appeared in neighborhood theater amateur shows, where first prize was usually $10 or a set of dishes. His first professional gig was at the Rustic Cabin roadhouse in Englewood Cliffs (my Grandmother saw him perform there way back when), where Sinatra sang, told jokes and played the ro le of emcee when he wasn't waiting tables. He also continued his 4-year love affair with hometown sweetheart Nancy Barbato, who would later become his first wife and the mother of his three children – Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina. Sinatra later hit it big with the Tommy Dorsey Band, performing with Dorsey until he decided to go solo. Wooing crowds of "booby-soxers," Sinatra garnered his nick... ...ollowed by Duets II. He granted his likeliness to ties, credit cards, Lipton Iced Tea, and spaghetti sauce. His marketing antics caused a rift between his wife, Barbara, and his children over who owned the rights to what Sinatra songs. At this time, as his health was fading, a renewed interest be people (like myself) who weren’t even born when he "retired" in the 1970’s, began to crave Sinatra. A flood of biographies, musical appreciation books and Sinatra-themed films and TV shows flooded popular culture, along with reissued Sinatra discs and vintage films of Sinatra and friends in concert. "Frank Sinatra was the 20th Century," said Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2, and a retro-swinger himself. "He was modern, he was complex, he had swing and attitude. He was the big bang of pop...the man invented pop music." "May you live to be a hundred, and the last voice you hear be mine," was the way Sinatra ended m ost of his concerts. Frank Sinatra died April 1998, at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Even though the master is gone, his spirit will be with us always. Truly, he was a man who did it "his way."

Scooter Sales in Vietnam

Hom kia ong th? y em g? i cho em 1 cai article kha hay v? th? tru? ng xe 2B VN kha hay, m? i cac bac xem. EM xin l? i vi no la ti? ng Anh nhung vi? t cung kha d? hi? u . Qua bai bao nay em gi? t minh khi bi? t con s? ban ra c? a xe AB hon 120K , kh? ng thi? t . Va cac bac th? ng? m Hon Da VN da moc tui bao nhieu ti? n c? a dan minh  [pic] Em xin phep VietNamNet Bridge – Two years ago the Vietnamese media was driven into a frenzy when Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie came to visit Vietnam for the first time.The image of the couple in casual clothes riding a black Yamaha Nouvo scooter in downtown HCMC was widely seen in newspapers and magazines. Scooter riders seen in downtown HCMC. Vietnamese consumers have an increasing preference for scooters. This actually gave free publicity to Yamaha. Sales of the Yamha Nouvo scooter have rocketed in Vietnam as this scooter has become a fashion for not only women but also men. Yamaha's good business has led to other motorcycl e makers to enter the market or boost scooter production to capitalize on the growing demand. The race startsItaly's Piaggio, the world's fourth largest scooter and motorcycle manufacturer, started construction of its first factory in Vietnam. Honda and Yamaha from Japan will open their second Vietnam factories soon. Honda Vietnam, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in Vietnam, has shifted focus to scooters for men. It started a campaign to enter the market six months after the trip of Vietnam by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It launched the Air Blade scooter designed with a sporty fashion. As a favorite motorcycle brand, Honda caused an instant fever on the market after launching this scooter.When placing an order for an Air Blade at a Honda authorized exclusive dealer in HCMC, customers will get a shake of the head. The dealers are flooded with a lot of orders. A Honda dealer on Nguyen Trai Street in District 1 says it still has more than 600 orders to fulfill. But those really wishing to own an Air Blade scooter can go to plenty of private retailers in the city, but the price is usually VND8-10 million higher than Honda's list price. Despite the strong demand, the company says it is unable to scale up production as its factory in the northern province of Vinh Phuc is running at full capacity.As an adaptive measure, Honda has increased shifts to fulfill the mounting orders. Koji Onishi, general director of Honda Vietnam, says that by end-April this year,  more than 120,000 Air Blade units had been sold, becoming the best-seller of the scooter category on the local market. Not to miss the race, Yamaha introduced the new Yamaha Nouvo Elegance scooter that comes with an engine of 135cc in late April, which is higher than those of the previous scooter versions. With a list price of VND29. 2 million, including VAT, the new Nouvo scooter is going like hot cakes.Just around 10 days after the new Nouvo version came out, Honda announced the launch of two new Air Blade versi ons with a sportier and more fashionable design. They retail for VND28. 5 million (VAT included) and come with three colors – dark blue, white and red. In addition to the new Air Blade, a sporty Air Blade Repsol version with the color of Repsol Honda racing team in MotoGP World Championship has been introduced this time at VND29. 5 million. The market is so lucrative that another Japanese motorcycle maker, Suzuki Vietnam Corp. , has also forayed into the scooter market, with the launch of he Hayate priced between VND21. 8 million and VND22. 8 million. The 125cc Hayate has a sporty design and targets male motorcyclists and is expected to strongly compete with Honda's Air Blade and Yamaha's Nouvo. The Suzuki prices are lower VND7-8 million than the other two brands, so the Hayate has a competitive advantage in pricing. The competition in design Vietnam Manufacturing and Export Processing Co. (VMEP), Sanyang's motorbike maker in Vietnam, was the first to make scooters in Vietnam with the SYM brand. Taiwan's SYM is one of the successful stories.The company launched the Attila scooter in 1997, which has since gained increasing popularity among young people. SYM leaders say that the introduction of the Attila has paved the way for the company to gain a competitive edge over cheap Chinese motorcycles, which overwhelmed the local market in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as others. The Attila was then the best-selling locally assembled scooter model. Imported scooters like Dylan,@ and Spacy of Honda, Majesty of Yamaha, and Epicuro and Aventis of Suzuki are prohibitively expensive but the compact and fashionable design and moderate price have made the Attila more competitive.The Attila retails for about VND30 million, around one- and two-thirds of imports. Buoyed by SYM's success, other foreign companies including Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda from Japan later jumped into the market. Experts formerly showed concern that SYM would find it hard to maintain its dom inance on the scooter market since more Japanese producers were aggressively increasing investment in scooter innovation and design to gain a slice of the pie. But brands like Honda Click, Yamaha Mio Classical and Suzuki Amity seem to be not the archrivals of the Attila which is particularly popular among urban females.SYM's Attila Elizabeth version has become a favorite among young women thanks to its fashionable, elegant and compact design. The demand for the Attila Elizabeth has outpaced SYM's supply, leading to its price outside the company' dealers increasing by VND2-3 million per unit. The good outlook The growth prospects of the market are good as young consumers in cities have an increasing preference for scooters. Many motorcycle assemblers have switched to scooter production to capitalize on this market trend and have been expanding production to meet local demand. Taiwan's biggest bike maker Kwang Yang Motor Co. Ltd. (KYMCO) is an example.It has become the majority owner of Hoa Lam Kymco Motors Corp. after acquiring a 60% stake from its local partner. Hoa Lam Automobile-Motorcycle Joint-Stock Co. transferred its 60% stake in this joint venture to the Taiwanese company, thus reducing its holding to 30% from the previous 40%. KYMCO's stake in the venture, meanwhile, is up to 90%. Nguyen Tien Sy, deputy general director of Hoa Lam Kymco Motors Corp. , says that the authorities have endorsed the stake transfer between the two partners. The acquisition, whose value is not disclosed, is part of the Taiwanese company's plan to deepen its investment in Vietnam.KYMCO will develop a new factory in HCMC's District 2 besides the joint venture factory that is mainly assembling motorcycles in Binh Chanh District. The new factory in Cat Lai Industrial Park will produce motorcycle parts for local sale and export to ASEAN markets, Sy says. KYMCO will move its production lines from a factory in Taiwan next month to the new factory, which will mainly manufacture scoot ers. KYMCO attributes its increased investment in Vietnam to the strong demand for motorcycles. This firm forecast the domestic scooter market will continue expanding in the next five to 10 years.KYMCO entered Vietnam in late 2004 by buying a 30% stake in the bike manufacturing plant, which was wholly owned by Vietnam's Hoa Lam Automobile-Motorcycle Joint-Stock Co. The value of the factory then was set at US$15 million. The brand name KYMCO, however, is not popular in Vietnam, but the Taiwanese company has reaped success elsewhere, exporting products to 81 countries worldwide, including Europe. KYMCO has set up nine motorcycle factories in Asia. The two market leaders, Honda and Yamaha, also started work on their second factories in northern Vietnam last year. Honda's new factory worth US$65million will mainly produce scooters.The plant, which is located next to the first one in Vinh Phuc Province, is part of Honda's expansion plan after its success over the past 13 years. The new 2 8-hectare plant is scheduled for mass production in the third quarter of this year, with initial annual production capacity of 500,000 units, says Koji Onishi, general director of Honda Vietnam. Together with the existing plant's annual capacity of one million units, this plant will help meet the increasing demand of Vietnamese customers, he says, adding state-of-the-art technology would be applied to ensure high quality. The most modern and latest technology of Honda will be applied to this new plant that may produce the perfect quality products for Vietnamese customers,† he says. â€Å"The income level is increasing and the infrastructure is developed. Thus, the demand for scooters becomes higher and higher. In addition, its easy operation and modern design can sharpen customers' personality. Thanks to the growth of the Vietnamese economy, we realize that young people especially in big cities prefer the scooters,† says Yasuhiro Imazato, director of Honda Vietnam brand in HCMC.Meanwhile, Piaggio, the world's fourth largest scooter and motorcycle manufacturer, is building its first factory in northern Vietnam. The company will spend US$45 million on the factory which covers eight hectares in Binh Xuyen Industrial Park in Vinh Phuc Province, and will be commissioned in mid-2009, with an initial annual output capacity of 50,000 units for local sale and export. The project is part of Piaggio's broader three-year plan to expand its operations in Asia by setting up shop in Vietnam and India, Piaggio chief executive Roberto Colaninno.He says the company's products are already available in Vietnam, but it still wants a factory plus a sales network in the country. Piaggio brand is generally targeted at high-end customers. The Italian firm has five local companies as distributors – Sapa Trade Co. , Xuan Cau Co. , Viet Nhat Motor Co. , Y Viet Motor Co and International Friendship Co. However, Piaggio's investment in Vietnam is still smaller than Japa nese and Taiwan motorbike producers. Taiwan's Sanyang Industry, which is known for SYM brand, looks to Vietnam as one of its major motorbike production hubs in Asia and its biggest investment markets.Under a motorcycle industry development plan recently approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam will become a major Asian center for motorcycle design and production. The plan envisages local motorcycle demand reaching 2-2. 2million units a year. By 2015, there will have been some 31 million motorcycles in use nationwide and some 33 million by 2020, compared to the current 20 million, according to the plan. An additional 1. 8 million motorbikes will hit the road a year. (Source: SGT)

Andro- The Prefix Thats All Man

Andro- The Prefix Thats All Man Andro- The Prefix Thats All Man Andro- The Prefix Thats All Man By Sharon Andro- derives from the Greek andros (man) and denotes anything thats male or masculine (and you thought that was testosterone 🙂 ) Its given us several words, many of them scientific or biological: andranatomy the dissection or structure of the male body androcentric regarding men as being primary or central androcephalic having a mans head upon an animals body androcracy political rule by men androcyte a male sex cell androgen a steroid/hormone that promotes the development male sexual organs and characteristics androgynous having both male and female characteristics; also applies in botany. Dont confuse this with androgenous, a biological term which means producing male offspring only android a robot that looks like a human andrology the study of diseases that affect men (sometimes called andriatry or andriatics) andromorphous having a mans shape androsterone a steroid hormone produced by men Find many more examples here. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund Phrases16 Misquoted QuotationsHyphenation in Compound Nouns

Free Essays on Controversy Of 2008 Being, China Olympic Games

On July 13th 2001, China was chosen among several nations like Turkey, Japan, France and Canada to organize the Olympics. Whether or not China should have been granted this opportunity remains a sensitive issue for many. As for me, I totally agree with the selection of Beijing, China as the host city of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Many believe that China should not have been awarded the games based on alleged civil rights abuses on the part of the Chinese communist government towards its own dissidents. In this paper, I will talk about all the allegations put towards China as to why they should not have been awarded the games and explain why I believe that the decision to give Beijing the games was the right one. The allegations are well deserved. Due to communism, the preoccupation of the Chinese authorities is to maintain social stability in order to keep the power. Nowadays in China there is no freedom of association, no free speech and no press freedom. Journalists are not able to do their job freely because they could be prosecuted and jailed if their work is judged "against the Party". The most important repression of free speech concerns the Internet users. More than fifteen persons are in jail for having expressed themselves on the web and people continue to be arrested and charged with serious offences for using the Internet to spread information about human rights or other politically sensitive issues. From what I have found in my research, the human rights situation in China is particularly present in Tibet and in Xinjiang, areas that are located in west China. In 1950 this region was invaded by the Chinese forces. In 1959 Tibetan people tried to force the Chinese out but the army repressed this movement violently and the Dalaà ¯-Lama left Tibet. Since 1959, Tibetan people and particularly religious, Buddhist monks and nuns, have been victims of Chinese repression. At the end of 2000, hundreds of Buddhist monks and nun... Free Essays on Controversy Of 2008 Being, China Olympic Games Free Essays on Controversy Of 2008 Being, China Olympic Games On July 13th 2001, China was chosen among several nations like Turkey, Japan, France and Canada to organize the Olympics. Whether or not China should have been granted this opportunity remains a sensitive issue for many. As for me, I totally agree with the selection of Beijing, China as the host city of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Many believe that China should not have been awarded the games based on alleged civil rights abuses on the part of the Chinese communist government towards its own dissidents. In this paper, I will talk about all the allegations put towards China as to why they should not have been awarded the games and explain why I believe that the decision to give Beijing the games was the right one. The allegations are well deserved. Due to communism, the preoccupation of the Chinese authorities is to maintain social stability in order to keep the power. Nowadays in China there is no freedom of association, no free speech and no press freedom. Journalists are not able to do their job freely because they could be prosecuted and jailed if their work is judged "against the Party". The most important repression of free speech concerns the Internet users. More than fifteen persons are in jail for having expressed themselves on the web and people continue to be arrested and charged with serious offences for using the Internet to spread information about human rights or other politically sensitive issues. From what I have found in my research, the human rights situation in China is particularly present in Tibet and in Xinjiang, areas that are located in west China. In 1950 this region was invaded by the Chinese forces. In 1959 Tibetan people tried to force the Chinese out but the army repressed this movement violently and the Dalaà ¯-Lama left Tibet. Since 1959, Tibetan people and particularly religious, Buddhist monks and nuns, have been victims of Chinese repression. At the end of 2000, hundreds of Buddhist monks and nun...

American foreign policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

American foreign policy - Essay Example Moreover, according to Lang (2003), it should be identified who would be allowed to perform the intervention, how humanitarian intervention should be established, and whether there are provisions under which consent to intervene becomes a responsibility. Humanitarian intervention is normally talked about as an exemption to the nonintervention rule. This rule points out that states are prohibited to use their power, and definitely to exercise force, within other states’ jurisdiction. The rule has received strong patronage from the United Nations Charter, which allows states to protect themselves from attacks but prohibits employing the military against the political autonomy or territorial sovereignty of other states (Lang 2003). Exactly speaking, these conditions ban armed intervention, as well as intervention to safeguard human rights. Generally, contemporary international law weakly supports humanitarian intervention. Nevertheless, there is a more traditional rule in which t he exercise of force is acceptable not just in self-preservation but also to defend the innocent and punish violations. This rule is somewhat in conflict with contemporary international law and particularly with the UN Charter (Lang 2003). ... The decision over humanitarian intervention is still complex and difficult. Today, the international community has inadequate alternatives for dealing with humanitarian issues. Prospects for Democracy Noam Chomsky leads the way by making public his assessment of the Prospects for Democracy. Starting with a general evaluation of political history and democratic theory, he claims that traditional democrats like Thomas Jefferson would be disappointed at the poor shape of American democracy today. The vast expansion of corporate capitalism has by now ruined democratic traditions and the state by giving power to a few (Chomsky & Otero 2003). And the prospect for democracy seems bleaker. Despite of this gloomy evaluation, Chomsky upholds that the revival of true democracy depends ultimately on the people or on whether they can get rid of their political dissatisfaction and put together a democratic prospect. The destiny of democracy is still changeable, Chomsky claims, but â€Å"unless pe ople here and in other rich societies can recapture and revitalize† (Chomsky & Otero 2003, 259) the misplaced institutions of democracy and liberty, â€Å"the prospects for democracy are indeed dim† (Chomsky & Otero 2003, 259). The rapid development of democracy in numerous countries has built expectations for a healthier future; the hopes are that democracy will not just advance human rights and political rights but will also result in better welfare and swift economic growth aside from international relations distinguished by shared understanding and diplomatic cooperation. As argue recently by Samuel Huntington and Robert Dahl, we should not anticipate other

Analyze 4 real cases of directors liability and lessons learned Essay - 1

Analyze 4 real cases of directors liability and lessons learned - Essay Example The initial case is a lawsuit concerning the president for a computer game company. In this case, the director breached his duty of being honesty because the Korean Website company reported the computer game company, 9Korea, together with the company’s director. This complains represented many people who had problems with the company, because it was using their personal residential registration number illegally. The residential claimed that the company’s president was not honest because he was illegally using their identities to open up new accounts for the online game developer. Regarding this case, the court alleged that the company together with its president should be the first party involved in campaigning against illegal use of other people’s names in online game registration. The courts also accused the company for being negligent by using other people real name together with their personal information, which affected more than 800 individuals without thei r permission. Therefore, the court posited that the corporation should reimburse every plaintiff a damage price of KRW 1, 000,000 (Loos 503). Second case is about Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). A minor shareholder in the company called McMullin. Mr. Beran alleged this case, claiming that the chemical company director favors major shareholders when it comes to discussing the prices for chemical products. Mr. Beran claimed that the director failed to follow the required rules in implementing the prices, thus discriminating the needs of minor shareholders in the company. Regarding this matter, the court dismissed the case citing the fact that the plaintiff had planned to rebut the rule governing judgments, which is in place to cover all directors against liabilities. Mr. Beran filed this case because he believed that the company’s director breached fiduciary duties that required him/her to perform his/her

A critical evaluation of affordable housing policy for the first time Essay

A critical evaluation of affordable housing policy for the first time buyer in leeds city centre - Essay Example staining a dualism in the housing market where renting, in its different guises, is relegated to a marginal position and tenants, unlike owners, are arguably cast as second-class citizens. However, past and recent research (e.g. Bramley & Watkins,P.23, 2004; Maclennan et al., P.104, 2002; Radley, P.45, 2004) has suggested that there are severe limits to the proportion of housing needs which can be realistically satisfied through owner occupation (even including low cost sales and Right to Buy). Action is therefore needed to provide greater term choice through the provision of more private and, especially, social rented housing to meet the needs of those unable to become homeowners. The British land-use planning process has changed very little since its constitutional beginning in the 1940s. Planning is primarily restricted to considering land-use issues through the management and coordination of policy at various levels of administration by a variety of agencies and actors. Implied to the operation of the land-use planning system is a national coordinating level, where the social, economic and environmental needs of spatial areas can be addressed in an integrated way. Although this suggests that planning can only be operated effectively when land-use issues are considered strategically (Bruton and Nicholson, P. 21-40, 2004; Rowan-Robinson et al., P, 369-381, 2004; Breheny, P. 233-249, 2002), the provision of a national element of strategic coordination by the central state is an essential ingredient in physical development. As Diamond (P18-25, 2004) has remarked, strategic planning sets out a frame of reference for the organisation of planning at the lower tie rs of administration. The planning process is managed and implemented by national and local tiers of government and is hierarchical in policy framework (Tewdwr-Jones, P. 584-593, 2005). Although there has never been a national physical plan in England, central government has always provided a clear approach

J.C. Penney’s “Fair and Square” Pricing Strategy Essay Example for Free

J.C. Penney’s â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing Strategy Essay Retailing is hard, and that’s what Steve [Jobs] said to me when we started stores at Apple. — Ron Johnson, CEO, J.C. Penney1 It was August 2012 and the release of second quarter earnings was looming for Ron Johnson, the chief executive officer of J.C. Penney, one of America’s first department stores. Johnson, HBS ’84, had intimated to Wall Street that the retailer’s second quarter results were likely to miss expectations again, following dismal first quarter results that had sent the company’s stock price careening to less than half of its February 2012 value of a share. The Q1 news released in May was grim: a $163 million loss, same store revenue down 19%, and the number of customers shopping in J.C. Penney stores down 10%. These results were particularly disheartening given the company’s radical repositioning of its business model and its brand in February 2012. The centerpiece of the repositioning initiative was a switch from J.C. Penney’s existing high-low pricing strategy, in which the retailer ran frequent sales to offer customers deep discounts off of its higher list prices, to a new strategy the company dubbed â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing. â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing was meant to simplify J.C. Penney’s pricing structure and make it more straightforward for customers to shop. It offered great prices every day, with less frequent price promotions. The company touted its new pricing strategy as offering â€Å"no games, no gimmicks† and invited consumers to â€Å"do the math† to see how it offered them cheaper prices on a regular basis with less hassle. Moving away from high-low pricing was a massive shift for J.C. Penney. In 2011, the retailer spent $1.2 billion to execute 590 different sales events and promotions2 and generated 72% of its $17.3 billion in annual revenue from products sold at steep discounts of more than 50% off of the initial list price.3 Wall Street was initially  supportive of the company’s plans for change. Investors, who sent J.C. Penney’s stock soaring up 24% following the announcement of the new pricing plan, viewed it as a way for J.C. Penney to escape the ruthless downward spiral of escalating price promotions that gripped America’s retailers struggling to survive the economic recession. But by mid-summer 2012, customers and shareholders appeared to be voting with their feet, leaving the retailer in droves. Was Johnson’s new pricing strategy misguided or was it just a matter of time before customers fully embraced it? Johnson was under enormous pressure to turn things around quickly as the all-important back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons were imminent. Many voices were calling on him to consider changing the pricing strategy again. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ HBS Professor Elie Ofek and Professor Jill Avery (Simmons School of Management) prepared this case. This case was developed from published sources. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2012, 2013 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for use only by Jack Cherewatti in MKTG MGMT taught by S. Adam Brasel Boston College from November 2014 to May 2015. For the exclusive use of J. Cherewatti 513-036 J.C. Penney’s â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing Strategy Company Background Johnson was at the helm of what at one time was considered America’s most  venerated department store. Once the largest department store chain in the country with over 2,000 stores, as of 2012, the 110 year old retailer operated 1,100 stores, claiming to serve more than half of America’s households with 41 million square feet of retail space. Founded by James Cash Penney in 1902, the company’s first outlet was opened in a Wyoming mining town under the name â€Å"The Golden Rule,† that signified its philosophy of treating customers the way Penney himself wished to be treated. Johnson believed that his â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing plan corresponded to the founder’s beliefs, â€Å"Now if you go back to the founding of this company, James Cash Penney believed in everyday fair prices. He said, ‘We don’t mark goods up just to mark them down. We don’t believe in sales.’†4 The company enjoyed years of rapid growt h and expansion. By its 50th anniversary, annual sales exceeded $1 billion. It initially offered consumers one stop shopping as a mass merchandiser, selling soft goods, such as clothing, as well as hard goods, such as appliances, hardware, electronics, and sporting goods. Its retail business was joined by a mail order catalog in 1963 and an ecommerce website in 1998. However, following tough times in the 1980’s, the company reorganized, phasing out its hard goods lines and refocusing on its soft goods to become a fashion oriented department store. But by its 100th anniversary, the company appeared to be running out of steam. Price-oriented mass merchandisers, such as Walmart and Target, had garnered the lower end of the market, while higher end department stores, such as Macy’s and Nordstrom’s, were catering to the upwardly mobile middle class. Although the economic recession of 2008 was difficult for all retailers due to consumers’ increasing frugality, middle market retailers, like J.C. Penney and Sears, were hit the hardest. By 2011, J.C. Penney’s stores were old, often disorganized, and faded, and the brand and its merchandise were starting to feel dated. About 400 of its stores were located in small towns, such as Alpena, Michigan with a population of a little over 10,000. In such towns, there were often only few, if any, other department stores. The remaining 700 or so stores were located in major metropolitan areas, often in suburban malls, such as the Northshore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts (15 miles north of Boston). Following years of store closings, sales malaise, declining market share,  slumping earnings, and weak stock market performance, activist investor and hedge fund manager, William Ackman (HBS ’92) obtained an 18% majority shareholder position in the company in 2010–2011. He was determined to turn J.C Penney around and extract its value, much of which was locked up in its vast real estate holdings that were estimated to be worth $11 billion.5 J.C. Penney owned 400 of its retail stores and paid low rents (an average of less than $5 per square foot) for the remainder. Specialty stores like Gap paid much higher rents (around $40 per square foot) for their retail space.6 Looking to shake up the company, Ackman was instrumental in luring Johnson to take the CEO position. Johnson was a big catch. In the 1990s, he was vice president of merchandising at Target where he helped transform the mass merchandiser into a hot retail brand selling stylish yet affordable products. During his time there, Johnson negotiated a contract with designer Michael Graves, beginning Target’s profitable partnerships with high end designers, which enhanced its brand image as a chic, fashion-forward retailer. Starting in 2000, he worked with Steve Jobs to develop the wildly successful Apple retail stores. Johnson was the brainchild behind the â€Å"Genius Bars† concept, a free technical help and support area staffed by knowledgeable customer service representatives, widely touted as one of the most innovative retail concepts of the last decade. Johnson was regarded by many as creative and determined; according to a friend, â€Å"What people loved more about him than his talent was his persistence. He was just relentless.†7 Johnson’s deep retail experience combined with his wholesome charisma and boyish enthusiasm made him the perfect change agent. The media dubbed him the â€Å"Steve Jobs of the retail industry† and on the day his appointment was announced J.C. Penney’s stock jumped 18%. An Industry under Pressure J.C. Penney’s 2011 sales were lower than they were in the 1990s and the retail landscape was getting more competitive. Department stores, in particular, were under increased pressure. New retail formats, such as big box retailers like Walmart that operated free standing supercenters selling mass merchandise and small specialty stores like Gap and J. Crew that were located in shopping malls and offered specialized merchandise, were squeezing department stores out of the market (see Exhibit 2). An emerging challenge came from large international clothing retailers, such as HM and ZARA, that were aggressively entering the U.S. market. These retailers relied on shorter product life cycles and partnerships with top designers to offer fast-fashion merchandise at relatively low prices. Johnson explained the challenge as he stepped into his new role: Over the past 30 years the department store has become a less relevant part of the retail infrastructure, largely because of decisions the stores have made. As America exploded with big box and specialty stores and new shopping formats, department stores abdicated their unique role instead of engaging the competition. They retreated from categories and assortments that made them distinctive. Department stores were once the most popular places for Americans to shop, offering distinctive merchandise in elegant settings that provided special services, such as tearooms, salons, and on-site tailoring, and served as social hubs. Johnson reminisced, â€Å"In the golden age of department stores, America’s families came for more than just to shop. They were able to have fun experiences and were offered a range of useful services. . . . If we want to transform the department store, we have to understand what happened. These stores were a pillar of the community.†9 Johnson, unlike others, believed that department stores could be revived. â€Å"There’s no reason department stores can’t flourish. They can be people’s favorite place to shop. They’ve got all these strategic advantages—the lowest cost of real estate, exceptional access to merchandise, scale to create enormous marketing power, colocation with specialty stores. And people like stores  with huge assortments and one-stop shopping.†10 J.C. Penney’s performance had been lackluster for quite some time, and the retailer was losing market share even within the shrinking department store channel (see Exhibits 3 and 4). Competitors Macy’s and Kohl’s were nipping at J.C. Penney’s business from both the high and low end. The average J.C. Penney customer only visited a store four times per year and sales per square foot ($156) were low compared to those of its competitors and the specialty stores Johnson hoped to emulate (Gap $30011, Apple $5,626 in sales per square foot). 12 Department stores and big box stores had increased their promotional budgets since the outbreak of the Great Recession in 2007 and most used blockbuster sales, coupons, and frequent price promotion to drive purchases. According to consulting firm A.T. Kearney, more than 40% of the items Americans bought in 2011 were bought on sale, up from 10% in 1990.13 Many retailers were eager to wean shoppers off of the big discounts that had become commonplace. Competition was also increasing from online retailing. Yet Johnson believed brick and mortar stores were still relevant, â€Å"Physical stores are still the primary way people acquire merchandise and I think that will be true 50 years from now. . . . A store has got to be much more than a place to acquire merchandise. It’s got to help people enrich their lives. If the store just fulfills a specific product need, it’s not creating new types of value for the consumer. It’s transacting. Any website can do that.†14 Many of J.C. Penney’s largest competitors, such as Macy’s, seemed to have a different  view and were investing heavily in their e-commerce operations and in catering to what they called the â€Å"omnichannel† consumer, who accessed the retailer through the web, on mobile devices or in physical stores (often as part of the same purchase decision). Although it had been a pioneer in multi-channel commerce, with 2001 combined cata log and web sales of nearly $3.4 billion, J.C. Penney’s ecommerce sales had stagnated over the last three years while those of Macy’s and Kohl’s had grown substantially during the same time frame.15 (See Exhibit 5 for E-commerce sales growth). J.C. Penney’s Radical Makeover Following his appointment in November 2011, Johnson determined that nothing short of a complete overhaul would solve J.C. Penney’s problems. Just two months after taking the helm, Johnson and his newly recruited leadership team, culled largely from Apple and Target, announced a radical repositioning of the J.C. Penney business model and brand. Following the announcement, Forbes magazine dubbed J.C. Penney the most interesting retail story of the year, proclaiming, â€Å"This week, Johnson took a sledgehammer to the J.C. Penney way of doing business. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve seen in retail since Apple opened stores, again with Johnson at the helm.†16 The turnaround plan evoked J.C. Penney’s founding spirit, and Johnson declared it a reclamation of the company’s heritage. J.C. Penney’s website announced, â€Å"Over 100 years ago, James Cash Penney founded his company on the principle of treating customers the way he wanted to b e treated himself: fair and square. Today, rooted in its rich heritage, J.C. Penney Company, Inc. is re-imagining every aspect of its business in order to reclaim its birthright and become America’s favorite store. . . . At every visit, customers will discover straightforward Fair and Square Pricing.†17 The four-year plan involved several distinct, yet integrated elements that touched every part of the business and were designed to recreate a golden age department store that appealed to all Americans, across age, income, and geographic demographics. As Johnson explained, â€Å"We are going to rethink every aspect of our business, boldly pursue change, and create long-term shareholder value, as we become America’s favorite store. Every initiative we pursue will be guided by our core value to treat customers as we would like to be treated—fair and square.†18 New Logo J.C. Penney had been tinkering with its brand logo, changing it three times in three years. In 2011, the company asked the public for help in redesigning the logo in a crowd-sourcing experiment. The winning design was submitted by a University of Cincinnati student and was unveiled with much fanfare via social media. In 2012, Johnson scrapped this design and hired an agency to redesign the logo once again. The new logo evoked the American flag with red, white, and blue colors and the letters â€Å"jcp† in lower case font within a square that represented the new â€Å"Fair and Square† mantra. J.C. Penney, which many affectionately called â€Å"Penney’s† would now be known as â€Å"jcp.† (See Exhibit 6 for the new logo.) New Brand Spokesperson One of the most exciting and controversial developments of the plan was the announcement of comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as the new brand spokesperson. DeGeneres, who once worked at a J.C. Penney store as a teenager in Louisiana, appeared in television advertising, developed J.C. Penney themed skits for her popular talk show, and tweeted about the company on Twitter. Johnson proclaimed DeGeneres to be â€Å"one of the most fun and vibrant people in entertainment today, with great warmth and a down-to-earth attitude. . . . Importantly, we share the same fundamental values as Ellen.†19 Shortly after DeGeneres’ advertising debut, the conservative Christian group One Million Moms took offense, citing DeGeneres’ homosexuality as  problematic for the brand’s image and its traditional family shopper demographic. The group asked its members to boycott J.C. Penney and to call their local store manager to ask for DeGeneres’ removal as spokesperson. DeGeneres went on the offensive to defend her personal values and to reassert her relationship with her fans and with J.C. Penney, producing a witty, yet heartfelt response delivered on her talk show that quickly went viral on the social web. A firestorm erupted and played out on J.C. Penney’s Facebook page, where both pro- and anti-gay posters pledged their support for and/or rejection of the retailer. J.C. Penney survived the controversy by standing firmly behind its choice of spokesperson. The protest event generated significant positive press for the company and Facebook feedback was more positive than negative. Riding the wave of publicity, J.C. Penney went on to feature two gay dads in a widely touted Father’s Day advertising campaign. New Store Design While the new logo and spokesperson were short-term fixes that could be executed quickly, Johnson knew from his experience at Apple that, to really make a difference, he had to make significant changes to the product offering, a longer term proposition. He embarked on a multi-year plan to re-energize and redesign J.C. Penney’s product offering and its merchandising at retail. He began by forging new supplier relationships with top brands like Martha Stewart and hot designers like Nanette Lepore to create J.C. Penney-specific merchandise lines, a strategy reminiscent of Target. He then went to work to improve the quality of J.C. Penney’s sagging and dated private label brands, Worthington, St. John’s Bay, The Original Arizona Jeans Co, and Stafford, to reinvigorate them and restore their brand integrity. These efforts could also build on J.C. Penney’s recent purchase of the Liz Claiborne brands (which, among others, included Liz Claiborne branded apparel, L ucky Jeans, Kate Spade and Juicy Couture) and the ongoing opening of about 300 Sephora locations inside J.C. Penney stores, which offered a select set of Sephora beauty care products. 20 He envisioned the in-store retail environment as a series of interactive specialty â€Å"Shops,† along a visually engaging and vibrant â€Å"Street,† with a central â€Å"Square† that would serve as the social hub of the store. J.C. Penney’s vast array of  merchandise, currently hung on crowded racks and shelves, would be regrouped and merchandised in 80-100 â€Å"stores-within-a-store,† each meant to simulate the buying experience of a specialty shop. The first shop to appear was devoted to jeans and featured a denim bar, trained fit specialists, and Levi’s innovative Curve ID program that helped women find the right jeans for their body type (see Exhibit 7). Plans for future shops included Joe Fresh and Mango. The company planned to install two to three new shops each month, beginning in August 2012, over a four year period. Many of the shops were designed to pull in younger shoppers, a deficit in J.C. Penney’s current customer base. The â€Å"Street† would consist of wider aisles with a fresh, clean look, more streamlined with less signage and bold, colorful, upscale graphics featuring the square from the new logo (see Exhibit 8). Each month would have its own unique personality and color-coded signage that changed the look of the store to freshen its appeal. Ten thousand square feet at the center of the store would be designated for the â€Å"Town Square.† In this area, J.C. Penney planned to offer complimentary services, such as gift wrapping, and special promotional events to create fun and excitement. During the summer of 2012, the company offered free hot dogs and ice cream, free â€Å"Go USA† Olympic t-shirts during the Summer Olympics, and free back-to-school haircuts for school children. Johnson summarized his vision for the new environment, â€Å"We are going to make the store a place people love to come-just to come. We’ll transform the buying experience not unlike what we did at Apple.†21 New Sales Structure To support the new retail environment, Johnson needed to re-energize J.C. Penney’s sales force. His goal was to create a team of specialists who were product experts, much like Apple’s Geniuses. J.C. Penney sales clerks had always been paid commissions based on how much they sold. This system encouraged sales clerks to sell aggressively to customers. Johnson felt that this aggressive sales culture did not fit with the new â€Å"Fair and Square† positioning and set out to change it by eliminating all sales commissions. It was a controversial decision, especially among the sales employees, many of whom had just been through a wave of layoffs and were nervous about keeping their jobs. Johnson explained his rationale for the change, â€Å"A lot of great retailers don’t use commissions. We never used them at Apple. . . . And I think it’s a better thing to do to pay people in advance for what you want them to do and let them look in the customers’ hearts and try to help them. . . . We think we’ve got a great way to do business for the middle class, where we really put a big bear hug around the middle class and help them look better and live better every day.† 22 But some employees expressed dissatisfaction, â€Å"I must take offense at Ron Johnson’s reason for eliminating commission. Ron Johnson should remember that J.C. Penney is not Target, we are better. When people come into our store they expect to be greeted, they expect someone to be available to help, they expect good service,† said a sales associate. Another associate claimed, â€Å"I lost about $250 per pay period and Mr. Johnson thinks this is FAIR and SQUARE. From all of J.C. Penney’s little workers, this stinks.† Another lamented, â€Å"We long-term employees are heartbroken at what we see around us. Ron Johnson may have a grand plan, and it may work, but we feel like he is destroying ‘us’ in the process of implementation. It has become an awful place to work, short-staffed to the point that we struggle to properly service what customers we do have.†23 But without a doubt, the cornerstone of the change program was a new pricing scheme that many believed to be the riskiest part of the strategy. The New Pricing Strategy Looking at the numbers, Johnson believed that he needed to address the existing high-low pricing structure that had gotten out of control. J.C.  Penney’s customers had become hooked on the deals; over the past ten years, the average discount to get customers to buy went from 38% to 60%24. â€Å"At some point you, as a brand, just look desperate. J.C. Penney spent over $1 billion [on price promotion], and the customer didn’t even pay attention,† he agonized.25 In his first report to shareholders, he spoke about the detrimental long term effects of excessive price promotions, â€Å"Plagued by the ‘games’ of the industry over the last several decades, retailers-including J.C. Penneybarraged customers with a constant stream of promotions that proved to be ineffective. Each time we participated in this pricing war, we were discounting our brand and eroding the trust and loyalty of our customers.† The company announced its â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing plan in January 2012. The plan had three pricing tiers. First, the company reduced prices by an average of 40% to offer consumers an â€Å"Every Day Fair and Square† price. Second, every month the company ran a â€Å"Month Long Values Event† with special pricing on seasonal items, marked down an additional 20-29%, meant to coincide with events such as Back-to-School and Father’s Day. Third, every first and third Friday of each month (paydays for many working Americans) were designated â€Å"Best Price Fridays,† where J.C. Penney would offer special deals on items it was looking to liquidate, about 20% of the store’s stock, at deals of about 1/3 off of the every day price. Each price point was supported by unique signage at retail, (see Exhibit 9). J.C. Penney eliminated its famous â€Å"Doorbuster† sales, such as those that it traditionally held on Black Friday, the day after Tha nksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year, that featured outrageously low prices on  over 500 items from 4:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Exhibit 10 shows an example of the different price tiers. Importantly, J.C. Penney avoided using the words â€Å"sale† and â€Å"clearance† in its messaging of the new program to consumers. Said Johnson, â€Å"Sale is not in our vocabulary. . . . Every item in the store is priced to be its best price every day.†27 The â€Å"Fair and Square† price was the only price listed on the price tag, moving J.C. Penney away from the practice of listing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) and the sale price, which was intended to show customers how much they were saving relative to somewhat fictitious list price. In the highly competitive world of retailing, nearly no one priced goods at the MSRP. Breaking with another retailing best-practice, J.C. Penney ended all of its â€Å"Fair and Square† prices with .00 instead of .99, rounding up to the nearest dollar. Johnson also instituted a no restrictions â€Å"Happy Returns† return policy, designed to take the hassle out of returning items, eve n without a receipt. In effect, the new plan combined elements of two traditional pricing strategies. The â€Å"Every Day Fair and Square† prices represented an everyday-low-price (EDLP) strategy, while the â€Å"Month Long Values† and â€Å"Best Price Fridays† maintained some emphasis on high-low pricing. High-low pricing strategies are intended to allow retailers to use price discrimination to maximize the average price paid by customers who differ in their willingness to pay. Customers who are highly price sensitive wait for sale days to purchase, use coupons and rebates, scour the crowded clearance racks to find a bargain, and take advantage of retailer’s door buster specials on big shopping days like Black Friday. Customers who are less price sensitive buy when it is convenient for them, tend not to use coupons and rebates due to the time it takes to clip and organize them, and rarely join in on door buster specials or clearance sales. Thus, the retailer reaps higher non-sale prices from many of their purchases. However, given the predominance of high-low pricing strategies across retailers in today’s marketplace, even less price-sensitive consumers had become savvy about waiting for sales to buy or comparing across retailers to find the store offering the best prices that week. Instantaneous price comparisons were  getting easier, given the rise of mobile applications that allowed a consumer to scan a bar code on a product and find the lowest price for it at online retailers and nearby stores. Kohl’s was an aggressive high-low retailer, featuring small electronic signs on shelves throughout the store that displayed original prices and discounted prices. These signs allowed Kohl’s the flexibility to change prices instantly, to facilitate frequent, short-term sales. Marketing consultant Jonathan Salem Baskin offered his thoughts on the high-low practice retailers engage in, â€Å"When no price is ‘the’ price for an item, it means that instead retailers engage customers in a constant cat-andmouse game in pursuit of the truth. No individual store can own sale pricing; each simply participates in a round-robin of discounted offers that its competitors have and/or will again match.†28 Johnson felt that today’s retail customer was savvy, â€Å"The customer knows the right price. To think you can fool a customer is kind of crazy.†2 EDLP pricing strategies, such as that offered by Walmart, promise consumers that they will pay the same, low price every day. This frees customers from waiting for sale periods to purchase, and eliminates the need for retailers to offer coupons to drive purchase or to engage in constant advertising of price promotions via weekly newspaper circulars. EDLP is designed to make customers feel comfortable purchasing at the retailer without worrying that they could be getting a better deal somewhere else or at another time. In general, most department store retailers used high/low pricing strategies. Macy’s and Sears had flirted with EDLP pricing in the past; but both had largely abandoned it once they realized how addicted department store customers were to sales, coupons, and other discount programs. Although  Macy’s still offered a limited set of items at an â€Å"everyday value† price, it heavily supplemented this practice with aggressive coupons and frequent sales events for the majority of the goods it carried. Macy’s customer Marietta Landon summarized the promotion addicted retail climate, â€Å"Especially Macy’s—they make every weekend a sale with saving passes and advertising galore.†30 The new pricing strategy was a big shift for J.C. Penney, a company known and loved for its JCP Cash coupons distributed to customers via direct mail and email, its RedZone Clearance aisles, and its weekly circulars advertising that week’s price specials. The â€Å"Fair and Square† pricing program would eliminate all coupons and weekly circulars; instead the company would distribute a high quality, editorial content-heavy glossy magazine each month to highlight its Monthly Values. The 96page magazine was as much a branding vehicle as it was a promotional one. $80 million in promotional funding would support each Monthly Value event. J.C. Penney now promised its customers that they would not have to â€Å"jump through hoops to get a good price†. Johnson hailed the strategy for its simplicity and transparency and the way it respected customers, â€Å"People are disgusted with the lack of integrity on pricing,†31 adding that â€Å"We want shoppers to shop on their terms, not ours.† Johnson intimated that â€Å"By setting our store monthly and maintaining our best prices for an entire month, we feel confident that customers will love shopping when it is convenient for them, rather than when it is expedient for us.†32 Michael Francis, J.C. Penney’s new president, was excited about the new pricing moves, â€Å"We are redefining the J.C. Penney brand so we become a store for all Americans, by offering an experience they cannot get anywhere else. This will start by freeing consumers from the barrage of promotions and undifferentiated shopping experiences they have become used to and replacing it with something entirely fresh and new that is evident in every aspect of our store.†33 He added, â€Å"It will be a breath of much-needed fresh air and give [customers] reasons to visit J.C. Penney more often than ever before. Our objective is to make our customers love to shop again.†34 Francis was recruited by Johnson from Target and offered a signing bonus of $12 million  and a total compensation package worth $44.7 million. He was charged with managing the marketing and merchandising efforts. Reactions to â€Å"Fair and Square† Pricing  Industry observers could not contain their strong opinions on the new pricing strategy. Some called the move â€Å"refreshing, daring and probably exactly what the retailer needs,† noting that â€Å"it’s a shocking move for any retailer, let alone a department store where high-low pricing and promotions have long been the norm.†35 But others were far more skeptical. Pricing consultant Rafi Mohammed proclaimed, â€Å"J.C. Penney lacks the differentiation to make this pricing strategy successful. . . . When selling a relatively undifferentiated product, the only lever to generate higher sales is discounts. Even worse, if competitors drop prices on comparable products, J.C. Penney’s hands are tied-it is a sitting duck that can’t respond.†36 Mohammed also noted, â€Å"J.C. Penney’s Every Day prices will not be as low as the biggest discounts that it once offered. Instead, its pitch to customers is why play the â€Å"wait for the rock-bottom price† game when Penney offers â€Å"pretty good† prices every day?†37 Ignoring the skeptics, Johnson was committed to his new pricing plan, rolling it out across all stores on February 1st, after deciding not to conduct market research to test its appeal with customers, â€Å"We debated whether there was a way to test. . . . We would have needed everyone to run the old business model and would have had to add new people to run a test in 10 percent of our stores. . . . We knew the customer would love the new strategy. We decided to get on with our future.†38 Based on his experience at Apple, Johnson also believed that  customers didn’t always know what they wanted; it was up to companies to lead the way, â€Å"You can’t follow the customer. You’ve got to lead your customers—anticipate their needs and meet those needs, even before they know what they want.†39 A lot was riding on the decision. COO Mike Kramer explained, â€Å"We are fundamentally reimagining every aspect of our business and we fully expect the bold and strategic changes we are making to our operations will result in improved profitability. This should enable us to fund the transformation of J.C. Penney’s store experience, while at the same time returning value to shareholders with steady earnings growth.†40 Communicating â€Å"Fair and Square† DeGeneres was featured in a new advertising campaign to usher in the new â€Å"Fair and Square† positioning. Bearing the tagline â€Å"Enough. Is. Enough,† the campaign encouraged consumers to revolt against complex pricing structures, never-ending sales, an overabundance of direct mail circulars and coupons cluttering their mailboxes, and the hassles of returning unwanted products without a receipt. In the ads, DeGeneres travels back in time to ancient Rome, Edwardian England, and the Wild West to learn if today’s confusing price environment was always the norm. She encourages customers to reject the crazy price environment. The creative campaign was witty and contemporary; many found it reminiscent of Target’s award-winning advertising. It was quite a departure from J.C. Penney’s previous campaigns that were more typical of department store messaging. Launched during the Academy Awards broadcast, the ads appeared to be a hit with consumers. Ace Metrix reported that the ads scored well above average on persuasion and watchability metrics and achieved a personal best score for J.C. Penney.41 Initial Results In the first three months following the launch, 67% of products sold at J.C. Penney were purchased at the â€Å"Fair and Square† price, the highest price the retailer listed. Johnson could not hold back his satisfaction, â€Å"This is profound. People are now buying at the first price, [the] right price. That’s the dream of every retailer.†42 However, trouble was looming on the horizon. Through mid-March, mothers, a critically important target market for most department stores, steadily scored J.C. Penney lower on valueperception scores. These women, suddenly not receiving coupons and not seeing the weekly price promotions in the circulars, were downgrading their opinion of whether J.C. Penney offered good value for the money.43 This was despite the fact that J.C. Penney’s prices during the time period were actually quite competitive. A Deutsche Bank analyst report showed that for a random basket of 50 identical items, J.C. Penney was 9% cheaper than Macy’s, and 26% cheaper than Kohl’s. Consumer research firm BIGInsight reported negativity among adults 18+ for whether J.C. Penney’s advertising campaign was â€Å"Hot or Not?† and showed Macy’s gaining ground on J.C. Penney in women’s apparel shopping trips following the launch (See Exhibit 11). Morgan Stanley’s Michelle Clark reported consumer survey results revealing that â€Å"Shoppers think that the J.C. Penney of old actually offered better value than the â€Å"fair and square† model introduced a few months ago. Of the consumers who had been inside a J.C. Penney store since February, more cited higher prices (rather than lower) at the department store. In fact, only 16% of shoppers associated â€Å"Best Prices† with JCP. Furthermore, customers cited that bargains were harder to find and fewer aisles with deals were evident (see Exhibit 12).45 Loyal J.C. Penney customers were moving away from the retailer. One shopper, Wendy Ruud, complained that she was no longer receiving coupons from J.C. Penney and was shopping more frequently at Target and Walmart, â€Å"The closest J.C. Penney is about a half hour away from me. If I don’t get a special  discount, it’s not worth the trip,† she said.46 Another shopper e-mailed the Huffington Post saying, â€Å"They are catering to the younger shopper, and it isn’t the younger shopper that kept them afloat.†47 A third who considered herself â€Å"frumpy and proud,† commented, â€Å"He’s working hard to ‘de-frump’ the store without considering that many if not most of its customers might have shopped there precisely because they like the more conservative frumpy look.† 48 These early indicators played out in J.C. Penney’s first earnings report following the launch of the new plan. Johnson had to announce a significant earnings loss ($163 million) based on plummeting sales revenues (-19% overall, with e-commerce sales dropping 28%), gross margin compression (from 40.5% to 37.6%), and decreasing customer conversion. Johnson asked investors to be patient, calling the first quarter sales drop â€Å"the price we’re paying to get integrity back.†49 He held fast to his convictions, â€Å"We had to make the bold step. It’s one big year we have to go through. It’s really hard but we’ll get through it.†50 Investors showed no patience, sending the company’s stock down 20%, the biggest single day drop in over four decades.51 The critics did not waste time to pile on Johnson. Time columnist Brad Tuttle wrote, JC Penney’s message seems to be one that some shoppers don’t want to hear. They like playing games and hunting for deals, and the markdown from the original price is how they keep score. By eliminating coupons and most â€Å"sales,† JC Penney has been saying it doesn’t want to play games anymore. That sounds wonderful, but among certain shoppers, it’s the equivalent of grabbing the ball and taking it home. No more games, no more fun-and not much reason to visit JC Penney on a regular basis anymore. If, for the most part, a store’s prices are going to remain the same tomorrow, and next week, and the month after that, there’s not much incentive to browse the aisles for special deals today.52 A Forbes columnist concurred, â€Å"By taking away the weekly sales customers loved, Johnson abandoned his core JCP shopping enthusiasts. In effect, signaling to the core JCP enthusiastsshoppers who have sustained J.C. Penney through its years of retail muddling, that they no longer mattered. He confused them, and he pissed them off.†53 The Motley Fool sarcastically  quipped, â€Å"The silver lining in J.C. Penney’s awful report is that Sears [struggling with its own dismal results] has someone it can laugh at now.†54 Macy’s CFO Karen Hoguet was crowing that her company was benefiting from J.C. Penney’s missteps, reporting that sales in Macy’s stores that shared a mall with J.C. Penney were up significantly since the changes.55 And J.C. Penney’s apparel suppliers were becoming anxious, as their sales dropped precipitously, some as much as 70% over the prior year. One prominent supplier indicated that he was increasing his business with Kohl’s to make up for the shortfalls at J.C. Penney.56 These developments were sobering for Johnson yet he remained unfazed, â€Å"It’s been tougher than we anticipated†¦You know, we expected to be down. We are down a little more than we thought, but not enough to change the strategy†¦We’re treating this company as a startup†¦We’re inventing a whole new model to do business†¦It is a one year transition that’s part of a multi-year transformation. But once we get to one year of de-promoting or repurchasing our integrity, I fully expect us to grow. And so we’ve just got to get through that year. And we’ll get through it.†57 Speaking at Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech conference in July, Johnson reiterated his support for the new pricing strategy, claiming that his board was â€Å"totally supportive†. When asked if he had a contingency plan whereby the company would revert back to high/low pricing, Johnson swore it was not in the cards, â€Å"It won’t happen while I’m here because I know it’s not the right thing to do. And I know this is what connects completely with our own unique heritage. And every longstanding company has a DNA in its core that  typically goes back to its founder. And when you reconnect with that, that’s when good things happen. That’s what Wal-Mart has had to do. And it’s really led to great success. That’s what Apple had to do when Steve came back. That’s what we’re going to do.†58 Making Some Adjustments As J.C. Penney management tried to decipher the disappointing results, much of the blame was put on the marketing execution and on customers’ stubborn reliance on price promotions. Mike Kramer, J.C. Penney’s new chief operating officer expressed his frustration, â€Å"Coupons, that drug. We did not realize how deep some of our customers were into this. . . . We have got to wean them off this and educate our consumers.†59 Johnson blamed the marketing execution, claiming that it failed to clearly communicate the new pricing strategy, â€Å"Our execution wasn’t what we needed. Our pricing is kind of confusing. Our marketing kind of overreached [Now] the most important thing is to educate consumers on the price changes and make sure the core customer understands J.C. Penney still has products they love, at exceptional value, every day.†60 Francis took the fall for the poor earnings, abruptly leaving the company a mere eight months after he started as pr esident. Following Francis’ departure, Johnson took responsibility for marketing and merchandising, believing that customers just didn’t understand the story behind â€Å"Fair and Square.† He tweaked the marketing plan, adding five additional â€Å"Best Price Fridays† to the calendar, including the important Fridays anchoring Memorial Day Weekend and Black Friday. The advertising creative was changed to incorporate a harder-hitting â€Å"Do the Math† positioning (See Exhibit 13 for an example). In June, J.C. Penney reintroduced the â€Å"S† word â€Å"sale† into its advertising to help clarify that its Best Price Friday deals actually extended through the weekend until all inventory was sold. Under pressure, Johnson speculated what his old mentor, Steve Jobs, who passed away in October 2011, would have advised, â€Å"I think Steve’s advice would be don’t worry about what others say. Trust your instincts. Do the right thing†¦Stay the course. But he would also say the essence is in the simplicity. And so he would have liked where we are going on pricing, but he would have said ‘You’ve got to clean it up. You’ve got to be more direct’.†61 Johnson buckled down, â€Å"What you can’t do is chicken out.  If you had looked at the data on the Genius Bar after a year and a half, we should have taken it out of the store. But it was something I believed in with every bone in my body.†62 He continued, â€Å"The world moves by innovators and innovators have to have the courage to imagine something that hasn’t been done before and the conviction to see it through†¦It is really hard. It takes a lot of courage. You’ve got to be able to have a few arrows shot in your back.