A Hardball Leadership Essay Example for Free

A Hardball Leadership Essay Politics is a battlefield for power. Throughout history, politics play an important role in shaping leaders and forming powerful states. Wars are even conducted to be able to get the advantage of politics. However nowadays, to get ahead into politics warfare is not necessary; it all depends on how an individual handles it. It is more than just the leadership skills, the charisma and the motivation to serve. It is the usage of the smartest strategies to get acquainted with the ‘who’ and to get the ‘what’. â€Å"The end justifies the means. Machiavelli famously imprinted these words in the world of politics. For Machiavelli, politics is more than just a career, it is an art that should be mastered and should be maintained. For Chris Matthews, politics is a game that should be learned by playing according to a set of rules. Both authors have goals in mind: to be on top of the power. Their works serve as guidelines on handling politics. Machiavelli and Matthews provide strategies on how to be an influential and effective political figure. These rules were patterned in the context of their current society. Though Machiavelli’s attack on The Prince is more aggressive than Matthews, this is mainly because of the political turmoil that has occurred during his time. Matthews on the other hand, wrote practical approaches that can be applied not just in government but as well as in business, job promotion or other aspects of life. This is to convey that politics is everywhere. Nonetheless, despite the differences between Matthews and Machiavelli, their works are cohesively direct to the path of power. To be the best player in the field of politics, one must maximize everything – including flaws and opponents – to his or her advantage. While Machiavelli focused more on state affairs, Matthews applied strategies not just to politics but to general ways of life. Like Machiavelli, Matthews related in his book on how to rise to power and maintaining it the moment it is achieved. The spread of influence and the utilization of wits will be able to bring someone to the top. Matthews enumerated his practical strategies that people within the Washington circle used. The ability to appear powerful is one of the tactics which Machiavelli has also cited. The embodiment of power is important to acquire power itself. From the famous saying of ‘what the mind conceive the body will achieve,’ people and competitors will believe a person portraying as a powerful individual. It creates a strong impression. To convince others that one has a power; it should reflect the outer attributes and incorporate the attitudes of a powerful entity. The Politician will have to utilize everything to be able to reach the top and at the top, his resources should be exhausted even more to maintain his or her stature. The Prince has the same aim. Machiavelli described most of his tactics with the likes of being a fox and to be a lion at the same time. On the other hand, Matthews associated it with a term of aggressive sports. In the field of sports, an athlete needs to play hard and it is necessary to lay out the strategies to be able to win the game. The aspects of deception and manipulation clearly reflect a Machiavellian theme situated in the White House. The politician works closely with the enemies rather than shunning them away. It gives the politician an opportunity to watch the actions of the enemy directly. Their capabilities can be used in favor of the politician’s gain. Both authors have stated the importance of alliances to strengthen influence and gain trust. Machiavelli stressed the importance of taking sides rather than going neutral. Win or lose, the Prince still has allies to aid him when crisis comes. Matthews mentioned having alliances to gain loyal supporters. He was able to portray in Washington, that people who actually do favors for the politician become great allies. The work of Chris Matthews is often compared with Machiavelli. Both of them preached the same aim of acquiring power, though their subjects are different. It can be viewed that Machiavelli’s The Prince is solely based on an individualistic approach since he focused on monarchies as a source of power. On the contrary, Matthews’ approach is more inter-personal. By the title of his book Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told By One Who Knows The Game, it gives the impression of sports which is composed of individuals and teams. To be on top means to be the captain of the game. Hardball can be a useful reference for people who want to get ahead with life. As mentioned earlier, Matthews’ approach is not as aggressive as Machiavelli. This can be applied in other aspects of life because as what Matthews mentioned in his introduction, â€Å"there are enduring human truths in the rules that politicians play by† (Matthews 17). Matthews depicts politics as an exciting and thrilling environment where the most amusing personalities are passionately involved. Machiavelli, on the other hand, gave a cruel and ruthless picture. Since politics is compared with sports, the major player from Matthews’ book is a prominent figure in world politics. The United States is one of the most influential countries, economic-wise and political wise. As a state, the U. S. is good at keeping their alliances. The long years of friendship with other countries (i. e. Great Britain) contributed to numerous gains which helped the US to be a super power in the international community. Behind its status is the most powerful political figure in the United States. For the upcoming 2008 US Presidential election, it is notable to mention a candidate that created a name for him as the first colored American to be nominated for presidency. Barack Obama can be a perfect example of a major player in Matthews’ political field. Being raised in a multi-racial background, this became an asset for him to reach different minorities in the country. This particular asset of Obama became one of his forefronts of his campaign which focused on thriving for change. Modern United States is a diverse country made up of various racial origins and Obama thought that his colored skin can be an advantage. Obama revealed in his memoir Dreams from my Father about his previous lifestyle of smoking and drinking. Relating this particular detail of his life, it can be seen as a target for his opponent to dwell on. However, this can also be viewed as a method derived from Matthews’ book. Before the other party can even use it against him, he does the broadcasting himself. Admitting one’s flaw can lessen the negative impact of it, and the rivals will have to search for a new attack to use against the politician. Citing this example, it is seen how Chris Matthews’ strategies are put to use. This kind of political play inside the White House reflects how the United States moves in the arena of world politics. Taking that into account, Chris Matthews gives the readers a clear picture of the inner workings of America’s political center. Washington is portrayed as the battlefield, wherein politics is the game, and the athletes are the politicians who play hardball.

LEGO Company Analysis

LEGO Company Analysis This assignment study aims at providing a detailed and objective evaluation of LEGO Company in toys industry that generally target at children fewer than 14 not only in the Demark but also over the world. The research examines and analysis of the business environment and internal factors in which the company operates by PESTEL, SWOT, and 5 FORCES analysis. By these tools, we identify trends and future development of this industry combines with current strategic position and tactic of the firm to link to options. Then, it defines main problem, provide a summary of the key challenges facing the business bases on our analysis, which the company is coping with. They are both external and internal issues. And after that, we will put forward a great many ideas to improve the style of work in short term as well as long term plans. These strategies of reorganization are developed and evaluated, in which bring the company to be crowned with success in the future. This report is about identifying the issues facing the LEGO Company and suggesting some realistic strategic options for dealing with them. The report will help lecture and people know how we analyzing LEGO Company step by step thought both external and internal of the firm; and the solution that we deal with options of the firm. The report is our result of reading and researching in one month. We hope it gives you clearly view about our project. Method of our report: We used many methods in this research and all of them can be taken in the university and the lecturers lesson, which were quite popular. The most important thing that we used is analysis the market. It was very important to understand about business environment of the firm. Our tools include 5 FORCES, PESTEL, and SWOT. In addition, we used many books, journal articles and material from lectures Learning Resource of Bedfordshire University to gain more knowledge and theories of strategic management. Moreover, we also used some sources on the internet to find news about LEGO and information that relevant to case study. All of them will supply in reference part in this report. LEGO company: General information about LEGO group: The company LEGO is one of the most famous corporations in the world when it engages towards childrens toys and has developed since 1932. The LEGO Group is headquartered in Billund, Denmark and it was owned by Kirk Kristiansen family. And it focuses on a key element in growth, development of childrens creativity via playing and learning by assembling LEGO brick. Nowadays, the company provides their products in more than 130 countries with approximately 10,000 employees worldwide. In 1949, their brick has taken an adventure. Over the years, the LEGO brick became more perfect and then it was adjusted a little bit in shape, design and color. Todays brick has 2,400 different types and have multitude of ways to combine them together so it is not only attractive, creative and fun for children but also becoming a challenge for adults. Current trends: Over the last 70 years, LEGO have had an evolution process, keeping step with the markets demands and the consumers desires. The traditional toys are the constructions brick, creative building by unlocking LEGO brick which were developed in 1958. In 1977, gears, gearbox and many kinds of stuffs were added for children to develop vehicles or other complex machines. After this era, LEGO had a big jump on developing their toys by combining between classic toys with robot technology, so children can able make for themselves an intelligent LEGO model. And now, The LEGO groups core activities are innovation, development, and marketing and sell play materials. According to Annual report of LEGO group (2011), the sales of traditional toys in USA have a little bit decrease. In Southern Europe, market sales decrease sharply while Asia and the rest of Europe also have higher growth rates. Generally, many people prefer modern products to traditional products. So the sales of traditional toys decreased in 2011 in total. The latest product line of LEGO group is LEGO Ninjago. It is a combination of classic toys and so-called spinners were established at the beginning of 2011, beyond expectation s and become the biggest product in company history. Besides, other LEGO toys are also on the best-selling list such as: LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars and so son. In sum, It is a highly satisfactory result reflecting a solid growth in profit. Growth in the North American market continued undiminished, and also in most European and Asian markets we were able to report double digit increases in sales, (2011) says Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, LEGO Group CEO. External analysis: PEST analysis: (P)olitical: In order to enter the market easily and without any problems, Lego has to be awarded of the political situation and other issues related to the political sector. There will be many advantages if the political environment changes the rule that relate to the Lego Companys operations. (E)conomic: The Toy educational industry is developing and can be seen to be economically stable in the past few years. The economy is improving well so the LEGO also improve their products to gain the best for their customers. The business not only improves economic of the domestic market but also the external market in all over the world. For example, the US market has big opportunities to LEGO and other toy companies. (S)ocial: LEGO Company is trying to develop and launch the products to the market and make sure that the community and public will accept their products. The company also wants their services are in good relationship with many kind of customers in some factors of the society. (T)echnological: This is one important force in the Toy industry. In order to have new innovations and good product, LEGO Company also has and improving new technologies, also this is the way to compete with many other strong competitors in the market. LEGO Company makes sure they are updated to what happening in case to adjust the changes. (L)egal: In order not to lose the customers welfare and the company name, LEGO Company doesnt want to risk by breaking the laws in local or international markets. Then, all LEGO companies are making sure that they follow all the rules and laws of the market where their transactions are operating in. (E)nvironmental: Lego company is trying to make their products that they sell are proven to cause minimal problems to the environment. The company also introduced some strategies that aim to decline pollutants and create a good environment. The company also invested a huge amount of money in waste system to protect the environment near companys factories. SWOT analysis: ( Opportunity and Threat): (O)pportunities: Many new types of materials and factors such as: movies and films play an important role to improve Lego toys. For example: Toys can base on famous movies in the world such as Star War, the Avengers, Spiderman and so on. LEGO main markets are Europe and USA, however the company has chance to open in many new market all over the world, for example Asia, South America and also some countries in Africa. (T)hreats: Nowadays, modern technologies are improving and developing very fast, some children are likely prefer watching TVs or playing computer games with colorful and imaginative scene rather than play traditional toys like LEGO bricks. The substitutes of modern technologies in toy industries are very strong and will affect the company business. Some countries are very poor, and then almost people cannot handle and will not spend too much money to buy a toy. For example: some countries in Africa 5 FORCES analysis: Threat of new entrants: + Strong and large distribution network required. If the company does not have a strong distribution networks enough, they will have to pay a lot of money to transport and move their product around, and in some cases their product will not get to the end customers or the stores. + High Capital: In order to enter the market, there are the requirements for substantial high level of investment. LEGO The Company has to spend a lot of money in order to compete when they come to the market in the first time. + The Brand name of the LEGO Company is very important, this is one way to compete when the company is entering the market, then other competitors in the market will also have to improve the brand value in order to compete effectively. + Advanced technologies: This is one of the barriers that bring many difficulties to new entrants and competitors when they come into the market. All technologies have to be developed, and then the company will have opportunities to compete with others in the market. + Geographic factor: Existing competitors already have good place and location to allocate their factory and stores within the market. This is really a challenge for new comers and entrants, they will have a competitive disadvantage and they will have to compete with each other to have a really good place to have their store, department or factory in order to run the business and compete. Threat of substitutes: + The pressures will very high, Substitutes come from the entire toy industry. Substitutes are everything, such as computer games or traditional toys, even outdoors sports. Children will get bored very fast, so they switch to substitute. + A lower quality product will be the reason why customers dont like to switch from LEGO to another product. Level of rivalry: + LEGO Company occupies a strong position in the large Toy industries with a few rivals. The company has a strong brand loyalty and brand name among customers; the company also provides high quality of product and charges it in premium price. Lego also has advantages with parents because parents will allow their children play with traditional toy instead of spend their childrens playtime with video games or watching TVs. Power of buyers: + The pressure of the customers is very high, with switching cost between alternative traditional toys and other substitutes such as computer games or TVs. + The Toy products will be very important to customers, if it is in good quality and acceptable price such as LEGO toys, the customer will be loyal to the company and willing to spend money. Power of suppliers: + Most of the LEGO products are making from plastic, then there will be a diverse distribution, the company will not have to base on one supplier. http://www.oxbridgewriters.com/essays/estate-management/lego-strategic-analysis.php Internal analysis: Lego have a quite large in toy market share in this industry. For example, in UK, it made up 6.2 per cent (2001) and making its the third largest toy organization in Britain. The company has enough strength to continue increase sale revenue in next period. Organization of LEGO has a long history and many different kinds of toy. Moreover, LEGO toys are suitable with children and bring education meaning. In addition, the business have good website which are colorful, clearly, attractive, and helpful for customers when they have arrived. LEGO products are always new and popular material offers to improve their toys. Especially, the company is often focus on famous characters or superheroes in films and comic books such as Star War, Spider man, Pirate of the Caribbean, ninja, or Sorted activity programs by ages. This strategic becoming very successful to target children, it makes their products is more attractive with their customers. However, LEGO was focus on children, but they realized adults had created their big users who spent more money on their product than children. In fact, the price of LEGO is not cheap, therefore they need the satisfied of presents who pay money for their child toys. Then, they started connecting them; improve the relative with them and becoming successful by this plan. Following Jake McKee (formally  Legos Global Community Relations Specialist) said about strong social media strategy what made the high successful of LEGO Company nowadays. He suggests three incredibly simple points in this strategy: Look beyond your target customers Support existing fans Find what works and replicate LEGOs strategic is trying to open their market in all over the work. The company wants to more increase number of sale in the United States because they realize there are potential growth opportunities in this market. In addition, Eastern Europe and Asia are also two places where the market growing very rapidly; so LEGO want to make more revenue from here. Moreover, LEGO organization is want to open and expand more activities that direct to customer kids and their presents, to help more close and understand what their litter customers want. They realize the important of understanding customers because their target customers are children with variable ages, who easy to attractive and persuade; but also easy to change their mind when they see other toys that new, beautiful or maybe colorful than their own toys. On the other hand, LEGO are improving online strategy. They built new website with attractive design, colorful for children; developing online stores, and online activities, for example children online games. Company is  facing: LEGO Faces Increasing Competition Although of the LEGO Companys successes, analysts realized that the companys environment would change, and in the past 15 years it has some challenges due to: Increasing of the Digital World: growth in electronic games, digital toys and much software make competition harder Faster Child Development: Nowadays children grow up faster, it make the global market for construction toys is restricted because of their changing play patterns. Fashion Trends in the Toy Industry: fashions of toys go out and in more rapidly and sometime a few products can make or break annual turnover of the company. Dependence on Famous Global Mega-Brands: In response to fashion trends, toy manufacturers design offerings based on a concept or story (e.g., Star Wars) and several companies offer all toys related to the similar concept (Harry Potter, Spiderman). Downturns in countrys economies can lead to a reduction in sales of LEGO products. The reaction of Lego Company to these changes is combining innovation with market adaptation. They released new digital toys (e.g., LEGO MINDSTORMSà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢, LEGO SPYBOTICSà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢). It created virtual communities to support users and cross-sell to them. They divide their business into each unit, including LEGO Interactive (computer-based play materials) and LEGO Direct (catalogue sales). They concentrated expanded into life-style products, opened new theme parks (in the U.S., UK, and Germany), and cooperated with other famous global brands such as Lucas Films, Disney, Microsoft, and Warner Brothers to develop new product concepts. Compare and contrast with main competitor : Using Porters strategies framework, we can see that Mega Bloks is a cost leader because they have increased profits through reducing cost by using different quality of materials to make their products, while Lego uses a much higher quality resources to make toys, This act is a reason why Lego cost of products much higher than Mega Bloks, It lead to Mega Bloks gains more market share and take many profits. By researching, Mega Bloks had found new segmentation, which now is number one seller in the preschool market. In the past, products of Lego are focused on narrow scope because the target customer mainly from 7 to 12 years old. By changing, now Lego more focuses on differentiation on a broad scope by targeting more than one market. Lego needs to concentrate in long term innovative products, this way still take its competitive advantage in the market as being the creator of toys that help develop new skills and learning. Like the first edition, Lego bricks make children more creative thinking and imagination. It was critical for the management team to identify where to expand Legos product channels and business operations, in order to develop a competitive strategy to continue the organizations financial success and dominance in the building toy market in the future Solutions: After face with many problems in market, we think Lego should have clear strategy: Strategy with social communication online: Having a strong community is very important for Lego company so Lego company should research more initiatives, both offline and online, to increase react with children and their parent. Children like Lego toys however their parent are person who will pay for all of this. While children can pay $70 a years for Lego, adults may spend more than $900 per years. So how to persuade and make them reliable our product also a task for Lego. Use an online database for parents where they can react with other family and its make a community of parents who appreciate the value of creative, endless ideas, or how to learning fun and effective. In there (web, forum, site) Lego can provide information, knowledge how to develop childrens creative, imagine through their game by professors and analyst. Passionate parents may be provided much useful content or lesson from this and it make Lego become regular topic in family. Strategy with investment and capital: To make different with another competitors and reliable for customer also demonstrate Legos reputation, Lego can open restaurant with the main theme is Lego world. In some countries, there are few opportunities for kids and their parent approach Lego game, so restaurant can be the way to introduce products also make more profits from other services, not only from sale toys. Restaurant provides new trend, innovation point for customers. Brands value, creative are sent to potential customer by a chain of systems connect with restaurants unique such as new concept theme, dining area, kids play area , rooms with decoration are toys style, small museum à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦All of those are new experience for customers who are fans or not. To attractive more attention and reduce competitive, Lego can use cuckoo strategy. The strategy of the cuckoo allows developing its business by pressing it on that of an iconic leader. Many company used this strategy before. Lego should corporate with famous brands in game industry like Nintendo, EA to expand range of customer and market share and may be Lego can receive capital from this industry to also introduce their products in Legos markets. Invest more in line of products. Always change style, concept to suitable with customer in each country. Find cheaper material to produce and avoid bad effect to environment. Research how to combine new technology and toys. Conclusion: In conclusion, the purpose of this report is showing and identifying problems and issues that LEGO Company is facing and recommending some strategic options in order to solve the problems and issues. Throughout this report, lecturers will see how we analyzing LEGO company by using many methods to research both internal and external environment of the company. It is very important to understand deeply about the market and its environments that the company is operating in. Tools and methods we used to analyze are FIVE FORCES of Porter, PEST and SWOT. We also learnt more about how to research and find out problem or difficulties that company have to face. Then research more about strategic of this industry to help the solve the problems and improve the business. Besides, we also used many references from articles, journals and materials from Learning Resource of Bedfordshire University to achieve more knowledge of Strategic Management. In addition, we also took some resources and materi als on the Internet to have some more news around LEGO company and their operations all over the world, all of those information will be related and support our report. Executive Summary: Lego is one of the famous toys company with many years of history in the world. Over the last 70 years, LEGO have had an evolution process, keeping step with the markets demands and the consumers desires. The traditional toys are the constructions brick, creative building by unlocking LEGO brick which were developed in 1958. Based on research we can summary some analysis point below: Lego Company need strong and large distribution network required to reduce a lot of money need to pay, beside that high capital and brand name of Lego also important to competitive in the market, advanced technologies and geographic factor are 2 keys element to successful in global market The pressure will very high in threat of substitutes because of a lower quality product are increased very much. In addition development of many toys company, this act makes market more complex. However, Level of rivalry of Lego very high. Company occupies a strong position in the large Toy industries with strong brand loyalty and brand name among customers. Most of the LEGO products are making from plastic, then there will be a diverse distribution, the company will not have to base on one supplier. Beside that many new types of materials are produce; this make Lego has more choices to reduce cost of productivity. Nowadays, modern technologies are improving and developing very fast, some children are likely prefer watching TVs or playing computer games with colorful and imaginative scene rather than play traditional toys like LEGO bricks. Another threat is some countries are very poor, and then almost people cannot handle and will not spend too much money to buy a toy. We also have some challenges for Lego such as: Increasing of the Digital World Faster Child Development Fashion Trends in the Toy Industry Dependence on Famous Global Mega-Brands Downturns in countrys economies can lead to a reduction in sales of LEGO products. Strong competitor like Mega Bloks So how to deal with this problem, we have strategies for LEGO Company: Strategy with social communication online : Having a strong community is very important for Lego company so Lego company should research more initiatives, both offline and online, to increase react with children and their parent. Use an online database for parents where they can react with other family and its make a community of parents who appreciate the value of creative, endless ideas, or how to learning fun and effective. Strategy with investment and capital : To make different with another competitors and reliable for customer also demonstrate Legos reputation, Lego can open restaurant with the main theme is Lego world. Invest more in line of products. Always change style, concept to suitable with customer in each country. Find cheaper material to produce and avoid bad effect to environment. Research how to combine new technology and toys. To attractive more attention and reduce competitive, Lego can use cuckoo strategy. The strategy of the cuckoo allows developing its business by pressing it on that of an iconic leader

Grapes of Wrath Essay: Steinbecks Use of Interchapters -- free essay w

The Use of Interchapters in The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath, is a narrative about the travel of the Joad family from Oklahoma to California. However, between many of the narrative chapters, Steinbeck inserts interchapters, which interrupt the flow of the narrative to provide the author's commentary. This technique is very effective because the interchapters create an image of the economic and social history that impact the story. They provide a broad picture of what is happening to the mass of migrants traveling to California on Route 66. Without the interchapters, the reader would be given a limited view of how life was for the migrants, and Stienbeck would not have been able to provide very effective commentary. Steinbeck uses some of the interchapters to set the tone and mood of the novel and to depict the life of the migrants that had to travel down Route 66 in the 1930's. For example, Steinbeck writes chapter seven using a newsreel technique. By using small pieces of spoken conversation, and half-thoughts, Steinbeck is able to create a mood of confusion and chaos. He creates an image of how the migrants were taken advantage of and gives the reader an impression of the hard times many of the migrants had to face. In addition, chapter five creates a clear image of the devastation that the farmers faced and their hatred for the "monster" bank. This interchapter allows the reader to experience the passion that the farmers have toward the land and the choices they had to make concerning betrayal of their own people. It presents the reader with a broad prospective of what is happening to the tenant farmers before ... ...the same position and because they know that they can depend on one another they realize the need of family and unity to get through hard times. Without interchapters that give Steinbeck's own commentary on the subjects, the novel would lack the social background that gives the reader insight into the lives of those affected by the Dust Bowl and would not allow the reader to feel sorrow for the migrants. The interchapters are very effective because they provide the reader with a clear image of what is happening physically, mentally, and emotionally to the migrants as they travel to California. Without the interchapters, the reader would not be able to fully understand the hardships these people faced and Stienbeck would not have been able to give his insightful commentary. Grapes of Wrath Essay: Steinbeck's Use of Interchapters -- free essay w The Use of Interchapters in The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's, The Grapes of Wrath, is a narrative about the travel of the Joad family from Oklahoma to California. However, between many of the narrative chapters, Steinbeck inserts interchapters, which interrupt the flow of the narrative to provide the author's commentary. This technique is very effective because the interchapters create an image of the economic and social history that impact the story. They provide a broad picture of what is happening to the mass of migrants traveling to California on Route 66. Without the interchapters, the reader would be given a limited view of how life was for the migrants, and Stienbeck would not have been able to provide very effective commentary. Steinbeck uses some of the interchapters to set the tone and mood of the novel and to depict the life of the migrants that had to travel down Route 66 in the 1930's. For example, Steinbeck writes chapter seven using a newsreel technique. By using small pieces of spoken conversation, and half-thoughts, Steinbeck is able to create a mood of confusion and chaos. He creates an image of how the migrants were taken advantage of and gives the reader an impression of the hard times many of the migrants had to face. In addition, chapter five creates a clear image of the devastation that the farmers faced and their hatred for the "monster" bank. This interchapter allows the reader to experience the passion that the farmers have toward the land and the choices they had to make concerning betrayal of their own people. It presents the reader with a broad prospective of what is happening to the tenant farmers before ... ...the same position and because they know that they can depend on one another they realize the need of family and unity to get through hard times. Without interchapters that give Steinbeck's own commentary on the subjects, the novel would lack the social background that gives the reader insight into the lives of those affected by the Dust Bowl and would not allow the reader to feel sorrow for the migrants. The interchapters are very effective because they provide the reader with a clear image of what is happening physically, mentally, and emotionally to the migrants as they travel to California. Without the interchapters, the reader would not be able to fully understand the hardships these people faced and Stienbeck would not have been able to give his insightful commentary.

Orson Welles Citizen Kane :: Films Movies

Orson Welles' Citizen Kane Having success the first time around is very uncommon. Orson Welles's first feature film richly realizes the full potential of excellent craftsmanship. Citizen Kane is almost indisputably the greatest achievement in the history of filming. In 1941, this film was considered by many as the best film ever made. This film is about the enormous conflict between two twentieth-century icons, publisher William Randolph Hearst and the prodigy of his time, Orson Welles. The rather overwhelming beginning of an opening sequence is still as electrifying as any in the history of movies. That tarnished sign on a forbidding black wire fence is the first thing we see in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is a movie about perception and projection. Indeed, with the complex theme the whole movie seems to be placed in a kind of psychological trauma for the viewers. Citizen Kane is a portrait of a public and private figure that remains tantalizingly unfinished. Excellent acting was revealed for the first time as these new roles played out. Orson Welles was a director ahead of his time and his portrayal of Kane shows his acting ability. This film is one of the first films to rely heavily on style and visuals, Citizen Kane uses camera, lighting, and set techniques to show Kane's rise and fall from power. The movie as a whole -- though as artistically satisfying as a picture can get -- also leaves us with certain unexplicated pieces of Kane's life that only we, as viewers of Citizen Kane, can put together for ourselves. There's no doubt that Citizen Kane is a great movie. It is a pioneering film that forever changed film making. Its plot is one of the most creative and original in all of movie history. Citizen Kane is a brilliantly made film. I can't really take the full impact of it because it was made in 1941, and all the film techniques Welle's used, are used frequently today. Nowadays, a film has to be emotionally involving and have an original plot to get recognition. But back in the 40s, no one had ever seen some of them before, and so it was new and original. Conversely, the film features rapid montage sequences permitting sudden ellipses of time and space for the first time. This was a special technique that Orson Well used time progressing. Opening and concluding with the famous NO TRESPASSING sign outside of his palace, Xanadu, the film depicts newspaper giant Charles Foster Kane's economic and spiritual rise and his eventual

The Chocolate War - Transformation of Jerry :: Chocolate War Essays

Why would a person decide to betray the beliefs they had fought so hard for? In Robert Cormiers novel The Chocolate War, the character of Jerry Renault changes drastically from a rebel to a follower in the end. The school gang known as the vigils and his moral beliefs motivates Jerry’s actions. He feels he must take a stand against evil. Jerry can be considered a hero because of his beliefs. In the end however he gives in to the things he fought against and becomes a follower. There are many factors that cause Jerry to act the way he does. The main reason is he forced by the vigils to refuse the chocolates. "When he returned to the school after practice, he found a letter scotch-taped to the door of his locker. A summons from the vigils. Subject: Assignment."(Cormier 62) He is now forced to refuse the school chocolate sale. He now has to face Brother Leon and tell him no which soon gives him insight in to the teachers’ feelings. "His eyes gave him away. His face was always under control but his eyes showed his vulnerability."(Cormier 92) Jerry realizes that Brother Leon is struggling with the candy sale and that he is trying to hide his anger for Jerry’s’ refusal. Jerry knows Brother Leon’s hate for him and his fear of failure with the chocolate sale. "He had met Brother Leon in the corridor late one afternoon after football practice and had seen hate flashing in the teachers eyes. More than hate: something sick." (Cormier 92) J erry knows that Leon hates him for refusing the chocolates but he doesn’t want to give into Leon and take the chocolates. This is what motivates Jerry to become a rebel Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as any man admired for his courage, qualities or exploits, especially in war. Some people attribute the term hero mostly to war. My personal definition of a hero is someone who takes a stand against evil or an unjust cause. The term hero can be applied to anyone, it isn’t necessary to save the world from explosion to be a hero. The act of standing up for a friend can also be called a heroic act. The character of Jerry Renault can easily be classified as a hero in my opinion. Jerry stands up for what he believes is right and says no to Brother Leon. The Chocolate War - Transformation of Jerry :: Chocolate War Essays Why would a person decide to betray the beliefs they had fought so hard for? In Robert Cormiers novel The Chocolate War, the character of Jerry Renault changes drastically from a rebel to a follower in the end. The school gang known as the vigils and his moral beliefs motivates Jerry’s actions. He feels he must take a stand against evil. Jerry can be considered a hero because of his beliefs. In the end however he gives in to the things he fought against and becomes a follower. There are many factors that cause Jerry to act the way he does. The main reason is he forced by the vigils to refuse the chocolates. "When he returned to the school after practice, he found a letter scotch-taped to the door of his locker. A summons from the vigils. Subject: Assignment."(Cormier 62) He is now forced to refuse the school chocolate sale. He now has to face Brother Leon and tell him no which soon gives him insight in to the teachers’ feelings. "His eyes gave him away. His face was always under control but his eyes showed his vulnerability."(Cormier 92) Jerry realizes that Brother Leon is struggling with the candy sale and that he is trying to hide his anger for Jerry’s’ refusal. Jerry knows Brother Leon’s hate for him and his fear of failure with the chocolate sale. "He had met Brother Leon in the corridor late one afternoon after football practice and had seen hate flashing in the teachers eyes. More than hate: something sick." (Cormier 92) J erry knows that Leon hates him for refusing the chocolates but he doesn’t want to give into Leon and take the chocolates. This is what motivates Jerry to become a rebel Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as any man admired for his courage, qualities or exploits, especially in war. Some people attribute the term hero mostly to war. My personal definition of a hero is someone who takes a stand against evil or an unjust cause. The term hero can be applied to anyone, it isn’t necessary to save the world from explosion to be a hero. The act of standing up for a friend can also be called a heroic act. The character of Jerry Renault can easily be classified as a hero in my opinion. Jerry stands up for what he believes is right and says no to Brother Leon.

University of Manila

Organizational Framework This Chapter consists of History of the company, mission and vision of the company, Nature of the company, size of the company, organizational chart, strategic trust and program, critical business and system management as well as strategic concern and IT used. Name of the company / school: The University of Manila Proposed System : Payroll System and Employees Information System History of the SchoolNinety one years ago there were five visionaries whose dreams where for the Filipino youth. Their collective vision: to establish institution of learning which would mold the minds of the youth and ultimately shape the destiny of this country? Undaunted by the challenge s that lie ahead and an incurable optimist that they were, they pursued the realization of their dreams with unflagging devotion and unflinching courage. Armed with hard rock determination, steely idealism and unparalleled dynamism, they tenaciously blaze the trail.The men behind such grand dream, dream a rainbow coalition of sort four men and woman of diverse interest yet united in a single purpose of establishing an institution geared towards excellence: Apolinario de los Santos, Mariano de los Santos, Maria de los Santos, Buenaventura Bello and Manuel Montilla. From these giants, the INSTITUTO DE MANILA was born on October 5, 1913, with Dr. Apolinario de los Santos as its first president. The INSTITUTO’S doors first opened in school year 1914-1915.The forerunners of this institution, offered only elementary and high school courses in a leased building on the corner of Madrid and Penarubia Streets. Binondo District. Effective school year 1919-1920 however, the INSTITUTO conducted its burgeoning populace and to provide better education facilities. Before embarking on a more ambitious program of expansion to meet the growing needs of the country, the INSTITUTO perforce had to undergo internal changes.Its original incorporators unanimously agreed, on the occasion of the eight anniversary of the founding of the institution, effect massive reorganization geared towards the attainment of a universities status. The decision was subsequently followed by the reincorporation of the INSTITUTO as THE UNIVERSITY OF MANILA on November 3, 1921 under the provision of act 1459 of the former Philippine Legislature. Right after its re-incorporation, the university progressed by leaps and bounds. The development marked the turning point of these democratic and progressive institutions, which has withstood the ultimate test of time.It fortunately survived two world wars and bewildering variety of changes – ideological, social, economic, and political. From being an institution which offered only elementary and high school programs, the university crescendo dramatically, with its building reaching for the sky. The mustard seed that was THE UNIVERSITY OF MANILA continue to grow throughout the years. Its genesis of growth was meteoric. In March 1919, the Colleg es opened in 1922-1923 namely: College of Philosophy and Letter, College of Education, College of Business administration.The Department of Graduate Studies (LIM) opened in 1941-1942. The College of Engineering opened in December 1945. In 1946, the Academy on Music and the school of Foreign Service were born. In 1949, M. A. in Political Science was offered in the Department of Graduate Studies followed by M. A. in History in 1951. Bachelor of Science and Elementary Education was offered in 1951. Then from 1963-1966, the College of Criminology and penology, School of Secretarial and Master’s degree in Public Administration was opened.The fruition of these labors was products of the highly innovative, creative and brilliant mind of those who occupied the reign of the presidency. Dr. Apolinario de los Santos headed this seat of higher learning since its inception until 1927 when he was succeeded by his brother, Dr. Mariano de los Santos. Dr. MVDLS assumed the presidency at the a ge of 29 and it is a matter of record and source of pardonable pride that he held the distinction of being the youngest president until his untimely demise on October 13, 1959.The unfinished task of leading the University was continued by Madame Helen de los Santos, who was later described by Dr. Mariano as a life partner in his book, Education and Life, as one â€Å" who has shared with me all the tribulation of life but cared so little for its vainglories†, was a complete Filipino women. She held presidency with the distinction from 1959 up to 1981. Another chapter of U. M’s history unfolded when the incumbent president, Dr. Virgilio de los Santos (from the second generation of the de los Santos’s) took over the reign of presidency in 1981.With Dr. Virgilio de los Santos the helm, the University continually strives to strengthen its resolve and commitment for total academic excellence. It has remained true to its trilogy: Patria, Sciencia ET Virtues. Under Vir gilio’s stewardship, the University has placed to a higher level of credit and standard. In line with the thrust of the government and in order to cope up with the tempo of the times, the University offered courses in Tourism, Hotel and restaurant Management and Computer Technology in the later part of the 80’s.The University of Manila has come of age. In response to the clarion call of the 90’s. It has another string of new course to offer: Doctor of Education, Doctor of Public Administration, and Master of Business Administration to provide administrators, Businessmen, educators, Analyst Researcher with the board theoretical and conceptual background and the specialized technical skills needed for the planning, implementation, management, supervision, and evaluation of public policies, in a developing country like the Philippines.These three new programs are design with the board purpose of developing competent government managers, strengthening executive lead ership and raising standards of administrative performance in the public and private service. The Elementary and High School department is presently undergoing expansion. The elementary building in Turtuosa St. has been demolished to give way for the contraction of the University hospital. The presidentVirgilio, who is endowed with a thousand and one ideas declared: â€Å" I have plans in the future to open medical courses like Nursing, Medical Technology, Physical Therapy, Midwifery, Dentistry and even Medicine. â€Å" Under a workaholic president who refused to understand the word rest, the University is headed towards a glimmering future ahead. These are positive proofs that the University continue to grow throughout the years.The complete composite and all around education of the youth is the major reason why the University exists. It is concerned with the making of man, the search for academic knowledge, the development of technical and vocational skills and most importantly, instilling and inculcating on the learners mind lasting and far reaching spiritual and moral values such as deep reverence of God, patriotic fervor and love of country and benevolent good will and peaceful co-existence with his fellowmen.The University of Manila aims to give the young men and women, who posses requisite talents, aptitude and moral fitness, a convenient opportunity to acquire a well rounded education and the necessary training for any of the various professions needed to cope with the complex demands and requirements of the present age. Mission StatementThe University of Manila, an institution of higher learning aims to create an atmosphere of academic excellence and competence, that is firmly anchored with love of country, science virtue where citizens, deeply concerned and truly committed to respond to the socio-cultural, psycho-spiritual and politico economic challenges of the contemporary Filipino community are formed, fully empowered with modern scientific tech nological skills with which to brave the challenges of the global society. Vision StatementThe University of Manila envisions a dynamic community that is deeply steeped in the trilogy of UM ideals; love of country, love of science, and love of virtue; fully equipped with human conceptual and technological skills, firmly determined to make life for changes, better brighter, lighter, and more livable by making quality education accessible to all. Nature of the school The University of Manila is one of the oldest and prestigious private universities in the Philippines. It is located in the center of commerce, industry and education.It is right in the heart of Sampaloc District Manila. Bigger challenges and opportunities face the University of Manila as it approaches the 21st century in pursuit of world class research. With its newly-acquired computer and Engineering equipment, UM is preparing itself to become one of the â€Å"Leading institutions in the Philippines and in the Asia Pac ific region. With its growing culture of research in all its colleges particularly in the Graduate School and with the infusion on high-tech devices. UM gains an advantage in undertaking project of scientific merit and excellence.For eighty years, the University of Manila has served not only the Filipino youth of the land but also other Asian who have hosen this institution as their second home in their educational pursuit. UM is headed towards the year 200 and beyond with the goal of rendering better service through the quality of education. The University of Manila is totally committed to academic excellence, which is the benchmark to its revered founders would continue to live throughout the ages as history unfolds. Size of the School University President – 01Executive Vice – President & Registrar – 01 Senior Vice President & Chief Academic Office – 01 Treasurer – 01 Executive Officer & Dean of the College of Liberal Arts-01 University Comptroll er & Consultant -02 College of Law – 01 College of Business Administration & Accountancy -01College of Criminology -01 College of Engineering -01 College of Education – 01 College of HRM 7 School of Foreign Service -01 ROTC Commandant – 01 Head, Computer Department -01 University Physician -01 University Dentist – 01 Executive Assistant, Office of the Senior Vice President – 01Executive Secretary College of Criminology – 01 Executive Secretary College of Engineering – 01 Chief, Record Section II, Registrar Office – 01 Chief Librarian – 01 Assistant Chief Librarian – 01 Security Guard – 04Maintenance – 06 HR Department – 06 Total: – 39 Strategic Thrust and Program of the School Another building has been constructed to be able to meet the demands of the changing time and the growing population of the school. Other laboratories have been erected and modified for the convenience of the stud ents and to be able to make learning easier but knowledgeable.The university administration has been complying with all CHED and DECS requirements to be able to provide added knowledge for the students. The Revised Audio-Visual Learning Resource Center has been added to help the student to improve their learning process, thus, teaching become more innovative, creative and effective. The New Physical Education Building was also created the construction of these new physical education building in a manifest sign of their vibrancies and relevance as an educational institution attuned to the needs of the new millennium.The University of Manila is home to the winning’s basketball team of the decade not only in the Philippines but all throughout the Asia. Also the newly-erected UM Gymnasium was renovated as sign of UM’s growth and progress as it moves toward the next millennium. The University of Manila also held some programs like dancing, beauty contest, and etc. every fou ndation day in order to help the students to enhance their skills, powerful and amazing talents as well as their abilities. In this research, the researcher found that there is no existing format information about the salary of their employees.The system software proponents has conducted study and developed systematically designed payroll system. This proposed system makes the work easier, faster, effective and less human effort through computerized system that the user or authorized personnel are the first beneficiaries of this proposal. In the long term the company will benefit from having less expenditure because of the latest version and automated system that can make payroll transaction accelerated and accurate. As part of this system, it limits the number of Information that only certain user responsible to know and getting information to the epartment not allowed to know the information of anybody. Critical Business and System Management Basically, the school used a system wh ich is not secured, intruders might access and resulted into a tampered of inputs because there is no Database Management System. The computation of the wages of their employees is manually done. The authorized personnel of this institution encountered some different problem like the computation is time consuming. The information of their employee is not secured because there is no Database Management System in Storing data.The computation of the total hours of employee is also manually done as well as the computation of deduction such as SSS, tardiness and withholding taxes are also manually computed. Strategic Concerns for IT used Stated here are the possible problems that will need information technology as possible solutions. 1. School’s employee records can be edited without anybody noticing if it is not secured. 2. Deleting, editing and storing new employee records may become a hard task if records are nowhere to be found. 3.The computation of the wages of their employe es is manually done. Based on the problems encountered, the following solutions are: 1. School’s employee records should be secured by passwords to avoid accidental editing and maintenance of privacy. 2. Editing, deleting and storing new employee records will be easier to do if the records for their employees are intact. Creating databases will help make the task easier. 3. Computerized payroll system should be developed for faster transactions and efficient in payments.

Research Papers in Computer Science Essay

Since we recently announced our $10001 Binary Battle to promote applications built on the Mendeley API (now including PLoS as well), I decided to take a look at the data to see what people have to work with. My analysis focused on our second largest discipline, Computer Science. Biological Sciences (my discipline) is the largest, but I started with this one so that I could look at the data with fresh eyes, and also because it’s got some really cool papers to talk about. Here’s what I found: What I found was a fascinating list of topics, with many of the expected fundamental papers like Shannon’s Theory of Information and the Google paper, a strong showing from Mapreduce and machine learning, but also some interesting hints that augmented reality may be becoming more of an actual reality soon. The top graph summarizes the overall results of the analysis. This graph shows the Top 10 papers among those who have listed computer science as their discipline and chosen a subdiscipline. The bars are colored according to subdiscipline and the number of readers is shown on the x-axis. The bar graphs for each paper show the distribution of readership levels among subdisciplines. 17 of the 21 CS subdisciplines are represented and the axis scales and color schemes remain constant throughout. Click on any graph to explore it in more detail or to grab the raw data.(NB: A minority of Computer Scientists have listed a subdiscipline. I would encourage everyone to do so.) 1. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (available full-text) LDA is a means of classifying objects, such as documents, based on their underlying topics. I was surprised to see this paper as number one instead of Shannon’s information theory paper (#7) or the paper describing the concept that became Google (#3). It turns out that interest in this paper is very strong among those who list artificial intelligence as their subdiscipline. In fact, AI researchers contributed the majority of readership to 6 out of the top 10 papers. Presumably, those interested in popular topics such as machine learning list themselves under AI, which explains the strength of this subdiscipline, whereas papers like the Mapreduce one or the Google paper appeal to a broad range of subdisciplines, giving those papers a smaller numbers spread across more subdisciplines. Professor Blei is also a bit of a superstar, so that didn’t hurt. (the irony of a manually-categorized list with an LDA paper at the top has not escaped us) 2. MapReduce : Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters (available full-text) It’s no surprise to see this in the Top 10 either, given the huge appeal of this parallelization technique for breaking down huge computations into easily executable and recombinable chunks. The importance of the monolithic â€Å"Big Iron† supercomputer has been on the wane for decades. The interesting thing about this paper is that had some of the lowest readership scores of the top papers within a subdiscipline, but folks from across the entire spectrum of computer science are reading it. This is perhaps expected for such a general purpose technique, but given the above it’s strange that there are no AI readers of this paper at all. 3. The Anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual search engine (available full-text) In this paper, Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page discuss how Google was created and how it initially worked. This is another paper that has high readership across a broad swath of disciplines, including AI, but wasn’t dominated by any one discipline. I would expect that the largest share of readers have it in their library mostly out of curiosity rather than direct relevance to their research. It’s a fascinating piece of history related to something that has now become part of our every day lives. 4. Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints This paper was new to me, although I’m sure it’s not new to many of you. This paper describes how to identify objects in a video stream without regard to how near or far away they are or how they’re oriented with respect to the camera. AI again drove the popularity of this paper in large part and to understand why, think â€Å"Augmented Realityâ€Å". AR is the futuristic idea most familiar to the average sci-fi enthusiast as Terminator-vision. Given the strong interest in the topic, AR could be closer than we think, but we’ll probably use it to layer Groupon deals over shops we pass by instead of building unstoppable fighting machines. 5. Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (available full-text) This is another machine learning paper and its presence in the top 10 is primarily due to AI, with a small contribution from folks listing neural networks as their discipline, most likely due to the paper being published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks. Reinforcement learning is essentially a technique that borrows from biology, where the behavior of an intelligent agent is is controlled by the amount of positive stimuli, or reinforcement, it receives in an environment where there are many different interacting positive and negative stimuli. This is how we’ll teach the robots behaviors in a human fashion, before they rise up and destroy us. 6. Toward the next generation of recommender systems: a survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions (available full-text) Popular among AI and information retrieval researchers, this paper discusses recommendation algorithms and classifies them into collaborative, content-based, or hybrid. While I wouldn’t call this paper a groundbreaking event of the caliber of the Shannon paper above, I can certainly understand why it makes such a strong showing here. If you’re using Mendeley, you’re using both collaborative and content-based discovery methods! 7. A Mathematical Theory of Communication (available full-text) Now we’re back to more fundamental papers. I would really have expected this to be at least number 3 or 4, but the strong showing by the AI discipline for the machine learning papers in spots 1, 4, and 5 pushed it down. This paper discusses the theory of sending communications down a noisy channel and demonstrates a few key engineering parameters, such as entropy, which is the range of states of a given communication. It’s one of the more fundamental papers of computer science, founding the field of information theory and enabling the development of the very tubes through which you received this web page you’re reading now. It’s also the first place the word â€Å"bit†, short for binary digit, is found in the published literature. 8. The Semantic Web (available full-text) In The Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee, Sir Tim, the inventor of the World Wide Web, describes his vision for the web of the future. Now, 10 years later, it’s fascinating to look back though it and see on which points the web has delivered on its promise and how far away we still remain in so many others. This is different from the other papers above in that it’s a descriptive piece, not primary research as above, but still deserves it’s place in the list and readership will only grow as we get ever closer to his vision. 9. Convex Optimization (available full-text) This is a very popular book on a widely used optimization technique in signal processing. Convex optimization tries to find the provably optimal solution to an optimization problem, as opposed to a nearby maximum or minimum. While this seems like a highly specialized niche area, it’s of importance to machine learning and AI researchers, so it was able to pull in a nice readership on Mendeley. Professor Boyd has a very popular set of video classes at Stanford on the subject, which probably gave this a little boost, as well. The point here is that print publications aren’t the only way of communicating your ideas. Videos of techniques at SciVee or JoVE or recorded lectures (previously) can really help spread awareness of your research. 10. Object recognition from local scale-invariant features (available in full-text) This is another paper on the same topic as paper #4, and it’s by the same author. Looking across subdisciplines as we did here, it’s not surprising to see two related papers, of interest to the main driving discipline, appear twice. Adding the readers from this paper to the #4 paper would be enough to put it in the #2 spot, just below the LDA paper. Conclusions So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there are a few things to note. First of all, it shows that Mendeley readership data is good enough to reveal both papers of long-standing importance as well as interesting upcoming trends. Fun stuff can be done with this! How about a Mendeley leaderboard? You could grab the number of readers for each paper published by members of your group, and have some friendly competition to see who can get the most readers, month-over-month. Comparing yourself against others in terms of readers per paper could put a big smile on your face, or it could be a gentle nudge to get out to more conferences or maybe record a video of your technique for JoVE or Khan Academy or just Youtube. Another thing to note is that these results don’t necessarily mean that AI researchers are the most influential researchers or the most numerous, just the best at being accounted for. To make sure you’re counted properly, be sure you list your subdiscipline on your profile, or if you can’t find your exact one, pick the closest one, like the machine learning folks did with the AI subdiscipline. We recognize that almost everyone does interdisciplinary work these days. We’re working on a more flexible discipline assignment system, but for now, just pick your favorite one. These stats were derived from the entire readership history, so they do reflect a founder effect to some degree. Limiting the analysis to the past 3 months would probably reveal different trends and comparing month-to-month changes could reveal rising stars.