Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Describe at least 5 scenes of the movie Rossie the Riveter Review - 1

Describe at least 5 scenes of the Rossie the Riveter - Movie Review Example Howard Miller. The Rockwell image seems to have a great deal more depth than the image created by Miller. It was proposed that this is not the tidy image that most people have in their mind when they think of Rosie. This ‘Rosie’ is quite dirty, with big strong arms, a leather bracelet, she wears overalls which are not common on women at this time, she carries a big riveting gun, se is wearing both welding goggles and a welding mask, she is defiantly standing on a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’ and she is hauling a metal lunchbox (Popular with men). However what is interesting is that this image that is considered masculine can also be considered quite feminine, because she is wearing makeup (Rouge, finger nail polish, lipstick etc.) and she is carrying her makeup and a handkerchief in her pocket, this ‘Rosie’ has her hair neatly pulled back, she is wearing women’s shoes, and she is eating a sandwich in a delicate manner. But what is most important from this image is that she is a worker, evidenced by her many badges (Security badge, blood donor badge etc.) Indicating that she really is an important part of the war effort. The next scene that will be discussed is in relation to determining who the ‘real’ Rosie the Riveters are. Many people have noted that there are indeed many actual World War II women that were real female defense workers named ‘Rosie’. The big changes that brought them into war work occurred in 1942 when more American men began to get drafted and many industries switched to war production. It was at this time that many companies started to recruit women as it was not possible for them to be drafted. What comes next is a description of the three main groups of women that were recruited to work in factories. The first were women already working who switched to higher paying defense jobs (Leaving traditional jobs to the point that more than six hundred laundries were closed). The

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Strategic Planning Model Case Study: Apple

Strategic Planning Model Case Study: Apple The computer industry is mainly taken by many companies and among these there are some of the most competitive ones, namely, Microsoft, Apple, Dell amongst others. Apple Corporation was founded in 1976 in a garage in Santa Clara, California. The two founders of Apple, namely, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs who were drop outs of college wanted at that time to provide computer users with something new and user-friendly to the market. The two Steves work together to produce some of the famous computers at times, namely the Apple 1, then after its launch, they came up with the Apple II, then Apple III. During their computer era, Steve Jobs and Wozniak came up with the computer called Lisa in 1983, Apple continued to its revolution in the computer world during the 1980s .In 1983, Steve Wozniak left the company and John Scully was hired by Steve Jobs as the President of the company. Apple continued to innovate and brought into the market new products, such as the Macintosh with the Graphic user interface (GUI) in 1984. In 1985, Steve Jobs left the company and John Scully was appointed as the new CEO. By the late 1980s, Apple faced big competitions from Microsoft, Which made Apples share to decrease drastically and forced John Scully out. In 1997, Gilbert Amelio was appointed as the new CEO and under his management, Apple, bought NextStep, and with its operating system, Apple made huge improvement and got back on the track. Steve Jobs was taken back in Apple in 1996, when the deal was officialised to buy NextStep Company. Jobs was reappointed as the current CEO when shareholders lost confidence in Mr Amelio. Jobs brought back many changes in Apple which has change its future in the company. Some examples are, In 2000, Apple presented the ibook, iMac and came up with the Ipod 2003 and lately, the iPhone was launched followed by the Mac book in 2009 and in 2010, the iPad was created. Apple is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures consumer electronics, computers software, personal computers. The companys best known hardware products include the Macintosh computers, the ipod, the iphone and the ipad. Apple software includes the Mac OSX operating system, the itunes media browser amongst others. Apple operates in around 284 retail stores and has an online store where, hardware and software products are sold. In 2010, Apple was recognised as the most technological company in the world. MISSION AND VISION STATEMENT Apple[1] Apples motto, Think Differently, is a concept that the company is doing very well by constantly innovating that continues to define the world of computer design. Other computer manufacturers have attempted for decades to replicate the icon classic appeal of Apple design, but none have succeeded in the manner of Apple. Apple mission is to produce high quality, low cost, easy to use products that incorporate high technology for the individual. We are proving that high technology does not have to be intimidating for the non computer experts METHODOLOGY The authors primary research was done by attending a series of Strategic Planning and implementation, which were given by Mr Bruno Alba, lecturer, London School of Management and Science The secondary research has been undertaken in order to gain extensive knowledge, from range of publications and news papers and by facts available on the internet. CHAPTER 1 STRATEGIC PLANNING MODEL FOR APPLE-IPAD The relative importance of a strategic plan for APPLE Corporation. The general idea of the strategic planning is based on the strategy development processes which are described below: 1. Intended Strategy Development: The intended strategy development comprises of some tool or frameworks that are being used by the managers of an organisation for the formulation of strategic analysis and evaluation and these factors are being used as well by managers for strategic planning purposes. 2. Strategic Planning Systems A strategic plan is set out to develop or coordinate the organisations strategy. According to some studies conducted by Rob Grant, the strategic planning is done in accordance to some process which is as follows: 2.1 Initial guidelines The strategic plan will depend upon some guidelines about the external environment. 2.2 Business level Planning This is where the business units or divisions draw up strategic plans to present to the corporate centre who will in turn discuss with the business managers and then decisions will be agreed at a certain point in time. 2.3 Corporate planning level The corporate plan will be the aggregation of the business plans. This coordination may be undertaken by a corporate planning department and then the corporate board will approve the corporate plan. 2.4 Financial and strategic targets These are aspects about the basis for performance monitoring of businesses key strategic priorities based on the plan. (Gerry Johnson et al.., 2009) Apple has come up with many new products during its existence and is continuing to innovate within the computer and technology industry. The ipad is the latest product that Apple has launched and it has done this to sustain growth and keep pace with the innovation world. Therefore, we can deduce, that the Ipad is part of the technology push, i.e, Apple, launching the product and partly, market pull whereby, launching a product according to market demand. The strategy for Apple was firstly, to be able to bring a new product, which was the new version of the product iphone in order to attain customers needs specifically the businessmen and journalists. However, there is an open demand, for the students and retired workers. Apples main competitor such as Amazon.com has brought into the market, the Kindle, with which now users can buy and access online books for reading instead of buying them physically. On the other hand, the strategy of Apple was to adapt the same concept of Amazon and use it in a different way to create another version which was the ibooks and which led Apple to create as well its online bookstore. THE IPAD hero_20100430[1] The iPad is regarded as a high value product that Apple is offering to their users. Apple vision was to win over the market of Smartphones users and laptops. The ipad, is a tablet computer, designed and made by Apple for internet browsing, media consumption, gaming and light content creation amongst many others. The ipad was launched in April 2010 and has the option of using the WIFI system of 3G date connection to browse the internet, load and stream media amongst many others. Apple developed the ipad with an improved functionality of the iphone. It also come with several applications such as the safari, mail, photos, video, you tube, ipods and itunes amongst many others. (http://apple-listing.com, http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/ipad) Below are some pictures of the latest IPADS: 220px-Steve_Jobs_with_the_Apple_iPad_no_logo[1] 220px-Apple_iPad_Event02[1] CHAPTER 2 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF APPLE APPLE SUCCESSFUL FACTOR The critical success factors are those factors which determine the success or failure of a company. According to Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple Inc, the company needs nine success factors out of which six are already in place as felt by the company that is what they already mastered and the other three as what they are still working on. Mastered Factors Concept. Apples is selling billions of dollars of product and theyre extending into the digital hub. New Product Pipeline. Apple is an innovative company. They have over 2,000 employees in their engineering groups who work towards developing high quality new products such as the ipods, iphone and now the ipad. Financing. Apple has the necessary financing with over $4 billion in the bank to carry out their operations. Marketing/Brand Names. Apple spends hundred million a year on advertising and has one of the most recognizable name brands in the world. Supply Chain Management. Apple is one of the best companies in the world at supply chain management and logistics, and they know how to extend into retail. Their retail stores are viewed as extra warehouses in the current system, so there is one supply chain group for the whole company. Information Systems. Apple has already built an IS system for its stores on top of its global ISP system. (www.apple.com) Less Experience factors However, there were three success factors at which Apple had no or less previous experience: real estate, store design, and store operation. Regarding real estate, Apple knew that the old adage of location, location, location was on target and the company realized that destination locations such as Best Buy and Office Depot wont work for the 95% of non-Mac computer users. Theyve got to ambush that 95% by being where theyre already at, by locating in high-traffic gathering places, such as malls, hip streets, and the new lifestyle centres, such as coffee shops, Jobs said. Were going to put our Apple stores in top tier locations. As for Store Design, Apple wanted a concept that would fit the needs of its customers and would showcase its products, but which would also be flexible enough for change and growth. To come up with the best concept, Apple actually built a prototype in a Warehouse. The result, according to Jobs is a solutions-focused store. When it comes to Store Operations, Apple realized it had to deliver a fantastic experience, the CEO said. That meant the right stores at the right place with great merchandise, incredible employees, and operational excellence, according to Ron Johnson, Apples new senior vice president of retailing. (www.apple.com) CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS OF THE ORGANISATION AND ITS EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Strategic planning is an important factor in determining success and many methods can be used, such as the SWOT analysis, the PESTEL analysis, and the STEER analysis amongst many others. Some of the external factors will be discussed this chapter, Our analysis is based on the Porters Five forces and SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis will determine the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of APPLE. Firstly, some of the strengths of Apple are: Apple is one of the oldest hardware manufacturers and this give Apple a competitive edge over its competitors. It has control over the product it is making and their quality is optimum. It has products such as the iphones, ipods, laptops, which are easy to carry. It has a loyalty brand, i.e., users are still loyal to its products. Finally, Apple has a very strong RD department, which spend time and resources in the development of new and existing products. Secondly, some of the weaknesses of Apple are: Apple market share is far behind competitor Microsoft. The products are quite expensive Apple has also complaints from customers. Therefore, causing the companys reputation and image to be spoiled. Thirdly, we can look at the different opportunities of Apple which are: Apple is looking to get into new and less expensive products lines and produce quality products. It has a flexibility to its users Apples ipods products are now being used in new designed car models , therefore increasing the demand of the ipod Finally, the online sales are increasing and Apple are targeting new segments of the market. Lastly, we can look at the different threats of Apple which are: There is the pressure from competitors and the users are going for other products from other manufacturers. Technology is changing at a rapid rate thus Apple has to create products that will keep pace with the technology growth, such as the ipads. Competitors launching products such as Microsoft with vista and windows 7,all this making Apple to bring new products to sustain growth. Porter Five Forces Analysis on Apple i-pad Bargaining power of Buyers Apple is well known as an innovative company and there is a high demand for their products. Though buyers find many substitutes in the market for Apple products, they still attract to it because of the brand name and the uniqueness of its products which makes Apple a very profitable company. However regarding i-pad the buyers are somewhat more powerful. Somehow there will be alternatives for the i-pad in near future. Because of the relatively high price of the i-pad, it is a question whether the buyers will pay a premium for the brand reputation of Apple and its technology when their needs may be equally met by cheaper alternatives. Bargaining power of Suppliers Apple is mainly concentrated on design and marketing and they outsource the manufacturing of most of their products. Therefore it can be affected by the pricing of suppliers and costs because of the availability of raw materials. And also changes in minimum wage for labours can have effects on Apple. But due to the strong demand for apple products it has more power over its suppliers. Regarding i-pad even Apple outsource the parts which use to manufacture the i-pad, the software is the unique factor that brings all those parts together. Therefore the parts themselves are not that important as they as are readily available form many sources. Therefore in that case also Apple has more power over its suppliers. Threat of New Entrants Apple had many barriers to entry in the development of the i-pad but at the same time they must worry about the potential competitors like Google and Microsoft who are conquering as well. Economies of scale- As Apple already had experience in manufacturing mass market consumer electronic devices which also share components of the i-pad; Apple is not badly affected by this barrier. Product Differentiation- As the i-pad is significantly different than its competitors; overall this characteristic has positive effects on Apple. And also Apple has a certain amount of protection through the strength of its brand identity. But this product differentiation can be imitated to a certain amount by its competitors. Capital Requirement- regarding capital requirement, Apple enjoys a slight advantage. To compete with the i-pad effectively, competitors will have to invest immensely in certain areas. Cost disadvantages- Apple is able to reduce the impact of this threat as it has a number of manufacturing resources and channels available. But the new entrants may find these barriers as they have not got these resources. And also apple has invested a lot in knowledge and experience which will take time for its competitors to reach. Government policies- Apple was granted the ownership of patent for the i-phone and i-pad, which will give them, short term monopoly rights on some of its technology. It will stop their competitors imitating the product too closely. Threat of Substitutes Apple has been granted patent to the i-pad and its technology. However it is still likely that competitors in the market will soon deliver similar products. Most of the threats are going to come from the established players in the technology industry like HP and Sony and from potential competitors like Google and Microsoft. Competitive Rivalry Apple is mainly concentrated on design and marketing and is fairly vertically integrated towards customers. They do most of their business in their retail locations and on line stores. Because of this concentration on the customers and also as it is better equipped, Apple is able to compete with horizontal players like HP or Sony who are not as vertically integrated towards the consumers. It gives Apple an opportunity to create customer focused products which many of none vertically integrated players are not so good at. (http://www.csribd.com/doc/16788046/appleporters-five-force) CHAPTER 4 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND OPTIONS OF APPLE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: Apple has a particular status; it doesnt have a listed set of objectives. All through our research, our group acknowledges that Apple always struggle to launch a new product in the market. Based on the executive overview of Apples report 2010 we can come out with a strategic objectives for their product named I pad. -To be the king of high-tech of Wall-Street -Increase their market value (get on over Microsoft), have over  £151 billion of market value. I pad is designed as a new generation of technology which to take over e-book and personal computer. That is to dethrone Microsoft at the king of high-tech By innovating in hardware which come obviously with its software, Apple compete with Microsoft who have a urge dominance on personal computer software, the launch of the Ipad announce the decline of the lap top computer. ( www.apple.com) Strategic options For an organization to have good success there is a need of having good strategic options. Strategic options are creative action-oriented responses to the external situation that an organization faces. Strategic options take advantage of facts and actors, trends, opportunities and threat of the outside world. It helps to identify and make a preliminary screening of alternative strategic options or perspectives. Strategic options for Apple iPad is to provide their clients with thorough and reliable information that may help enhance even the knowledge and skills. By doing so customers are able to page through websites, write emails, and flick through photos or watch movie, all on a big beautifully multi-touch screen. Another strategy is to have a continuous leap in technological advancements and a new or upgraded offering on average every six months. In order to have good strategies the apple company thought of what might give a continued competitive advantage and what markets should they enter and how. Which strategic options optimally fit the needs of the target group, the institutional options and aspiration of the stake holders, what supportive interventions are required to succeed in that option and threats? Apple on its product iPad focused on customer experience, they made a product which has no need of mouse, a keyboard configuration screens, and other advanced options such as touch screen. Strategic options help to make the vision into reality. SWOT analysis helps to get a better understanding of the strategic choices that company need. Strategy is the art of determining how one will win in business and life. It helps to make the most of companys strength circumvent their weaknesses, Capitalize on your opportunities and manage their threats. CONCLUSION Though Apples strategic model cannot be said, to be distinct, they are poised on taking Amazon and Microsoft head on. Their new products for example, ipad, suggests to be a real one in all product for the consumers. Apple success factors suggest that they have the ability and capability to become the market leaders. The major success factor being innovation. Behind their ability to innovate its strong research and development department. The latest product of Apple, the Ipad, however targeted on, the retired people and journalists, has received acceptance from the youth, students and the rest of the population giving Apple, a grab of the market. REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAGHY Exploring corporate strategy, 8th edition, Gerry Johnson et al.. http://www.csribd.com/doc/16788046/appleporters-five-force http://www.samples-help-org.uk/mission-statements/apple.computer-mission-statement http://apple-listing.com http://dudye.com/sneaking-intro-ipad http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/ipad http://www.apple.com

Friday, October 25, 2019

Folklore in the Movies: An Analysis of Willow :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Folklore in the Movies: An Analysis of Willow My research for this report began when I read Joseph Campbell's article "Departure" in which he discusses folklore; he outlines the course of action that a hero takes in an adventure. He describes the five steps the hero takes as "the call to adventure, the refusal of the adventure, use of supernatural aid, crossing of the first threshold, and the belly of the whale." After reading Campbell's criteria of an adventure, I decided to choose a movie and see how it ties into Campbell's outline of an adventure. The movie I chose was Willow and in this report I will note how it complies with Campbell's outline. Upon finishing Willow I was able to confirm that it did indeed fall into the five criteria in Campbell's article. In Willow Queen Bavmorda seeks control of the world, and she knows that an infant will be born with a mark on its arm and this infant will be able to stop her from gaining power. Therefore, she inspects every child that is born; upon discovering the child with the mark, she will promptly have it killed. One day Willow's children Ranon and Mims find a baby while playing in the river. This child happens to bear the mark for which Queen Bavmorda is searching. The children take the baby to their father. Willow takes the baby to the High Aldwin, and he tells Willow that the safety of the city depends on him and that the baby must be taken across the great river to the Dakini crossroads. This is Willow's call to adventure; it is "a blunder" of "the merest chance", and Willow is thrust "into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood" (Campbell 1). As Campbell expresses in his article and as is apparent in most adventure movies, Willow is not completely convinced and willing to go on this trip to take the baby back to its homeland. Ranon reminds him of the dangers he may encounter on his way to returning the baby such as fairies, brownies, dragons, and trolls. Willow gets upset at Ranon for mentioning trolls because he knows how much he fears them. Willow is also reluctant to leave his wife and children. Kaiya reminds him that they have never been apart before, and it is apparent that Willow is experiencing feelings of guilt.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Characteristic of an Effective Teacher Essay

1. A ‘Calling’ for the profession This is supposed to be the most important. And this is what is causing me the most headache at the moment. To accept the fact that someone might be doing this job as a job for the perks and the advantages without a real commitment is a real hindrance in achieving my aim of helping teachers become better professionals. How do you train teachers to develop a calling for the profession? Is this something I can possibly aim at? 2. Professional knowledge I tend to feel that a lot of what is considered professional knowledge is in easy-to-assess tests, like TKT or CELTA. Does he know the different kinds of assessments, and the present perfect? Yes, great, then he’s good. Professional knowledge is a matter of pride among teachers. Local teachers make a lot of effort to speak better English and expect ‘native teachers’ to explain random weird ideas they learnt 30-40 years before. I personally attribute little importance to this aspect. Long gone are the days when a clever teacher taught a stupid child about the big-big world. 3. Personal qualities Yeah, yeah. Here we go again: the teacher as the frustrated (failed) actor, the clown, the village idiot†¦ Well actually no, I think there are much more important personal qualities we tend to ignore these days and we shouldn’t: honesty, emotions, intelligence, reliability, enthusiasm, curiosity. These are all characteristics we use to define effective learners, but the more these qualities are shared by their teachers, the more likely it is that they get what they want. It’s always going to be more entertaining to watch Friends, or whatever it is teenagers watch these days, than to attend an English class. So, why compete? Establishing an efficient and mutually beneficial working environment is much more helpful I believe†¦. 4. With-it-ness (McEwan, E K 2002. How to survive and strive in the first three weeks of school) This is an exciting addition to the list. The essential skill of being able to envisage possible classroom and curriculum events. Planning with an awareness of the objectives and the conditions. This is definitely an acquired skill that you can get better with every new year, school and group. This is why every employer should be wary of teachers who do a year or so and then move on regularly. They will not have this understanding of their actions within the bigger picture. It’s arguable of course how important this is, but if we see education – especially public schools – as a continuum with precise expectations, it is important to have teachers who understand them. This is especially true if we want to liberate teachers from prescribed teaching materials and expect them to develop customised tasks for their students. 5. Instructional Effectiveness To be an effective teacher you have to teach well. Hard to argue. The interesting thing about this is that this demands again a very high level of flexibility and a wide range of expertise from the teacher, since something that may be a piece of cake with one group of students can prove to be an absolute nightmare with another. Even if I planned the same lesson for two different groups, they could and they should never be the same. So, this is again a hunch, not more. This seems to work with this group so let’s go with it, but heaven forbid I would try it with the other group. 6. Good communicator Well, this is pretty obvious, and necessary not only with students, but with teachers, managers and parents. Communication is not always direct, which is difficult. Other teachers and management hear about you from students and parents. It’s all a vicious circle, and to communicate your message well in all directions is a bit of a juggling act. 7. Street smart Know about who you teach. This is sometimes perceived as the great advantage of having local teachers or teachers who come from the same-similar context. While I admit that this has its advantages, I think it has just as many disadvantages. There is a false sense of mutuality between the local teachers and students against the foreign teacher in the school. All those dismissive nods from the colleagues and students are the same, really. Sometimes blowing up a little bit of a bomb with a completely innocent face can be very helpful. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my students about respecting women and giving them rights and me doing the cooking and the washing up. I loved it. In many situations you are expected to be the foreigner. Embracing your foreignness is one way of being successful. You are not expected to be one of them. Why try? Clearly, you don’t want to be rude or hurt anyone but there are several stages between the extremes. Don’t do any thing that would offend you if it was the other way round but don’t expect them to eat the goulash as you serve it, what’s more, they can even be allowed not to like goulash. 8. Willing to go the extra mile This is closely linked to the first one. If you follow a calling, you will go the extra mile. Otherwise you won’t. There is no way of making someone do more than what they are paid to. 9. Lifelong learner The excitement of Amazon delivering yet another book about ELT, Russell Tarr recommending another mindboggingly good link. A conference near you, a conference on the web, all the tweets from last night. If you are still excited about any of these things, we’re talking about you. If you watch a movie and 2 minutes into the film you start thinking about how you could use this in class, this is about you. Most teachers start forgetting what they learn when they start their education, and will have forgotten why they are standing in front of a class by the time they have finished. They are the life-long forgetters. Heaven save students from them. This is not about the ‘best method’ the ‘best book’ ’the greatest author’, ‘the best publisher’, it’s about you and where you are in the wonderful process of your professional development 10 Life outside the classroom Your life outside the classroom is the bread and butter you bring to your students and re-contextalise to feed their learning appetite.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Disparity and Discrimination Essay

Discrimination and disparity both play a role in the American criminal justice system. Many people confuse the two words whereas they have different meanings. We will therefore study the definitions of discrimination and disparity in the justice system and explain the difference between the two terms. We will conclude by giving one example from some other area of life. According to the dictionary, disparity is defined as â€Å"the condition or fact of being unequal, as in age, rank, or degree  ». In the criminal justice system, disparity consists of legal and extralegal factors. On the one hand, the legal factor provides legitimate base explanations for the decisions on the individual’s criminal behavior and criminal record. It includes seriousness of the offense and prior criminal record. On the other hand, the extralegal factor includes lifestyle, gender, race, class, which are not legitimate reasons to base decisions on. The Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System, August 20 2010 reported that, in the United States, African Americans are incarcerated at more than six times the rate of Whites and Hispanics more than double the rate of Whites: this is an example of disparity. Disparity can be explained by economic inequality or residential segregation. In all cases, disparity refers to a difference but one does not always involve discrimination. Discrimination, on the contrary, is a â€Å"difference based on differential treatment of groups without reference to an individual’s behavior or qualifications† according to the Commission. Discrimination consists of four types such as institutionalized, systematic, contextual and individual act of discrimination. Institutionalized discrimination involves â€Å"racial disparities in outcomes that result from established policies†, systematic discrimination refers to the â€Å"type of discrimination that occurs at all levels of a social system including the criminal justice system†, contextual discrimination involves â€Å"discrimination in certain situations or contexts† and finally individual discrimination results from â€Å"discriminate treatment of disadvantaged or minority group members by an individual most frequently acting alone† according to Investigating Difference. In comparison, disparity and discrimination are similar because they both influence the decision-making of a sentence or the assumption that someone is guilty. However, they are different: disparity can lead to discrimination and discrimination can lead to disparity. We encounter discrimination and disparity outside of the criminal justice system, in the workplace for instance. Indeed, a white people is less likely to face unemployment than other minorities. The reason may be, partially, employment discrimination, that is to say that some people would prefer hire a less qualified White man than a more qualified Black or Hispanic man.