Wk5 Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans Essay

Wk5 Implementation, Strategic Controls, and Contingency Plans - Essay Example One of the noted weaknesses of Apple is its poor relationship with the market than Microsoft (Iftikhar, 2013). This means that for many years, Apple has the consensus of specifying its own standards, rather than the standards of customers. This could mean more of a production-centred management strategy of products, rather than market or customer-centred approach. For this reason, it is necessary to ensure that Apple will take seriously the necessity of ensuring the voices of the customers are constantly heard in its production setting. On the other hand, Iftikhar noted that the products of Apple have very short life cycle, implying that constant maintenance of the research and development department has to be initiated. This prevailing management system has to be changed for good. Thus, the research and development department has to be dynamic, but on the other side, should also be one of the most expensive departments at Apple. Thus, it is necessary to ensure huge capital for this reason. The management therefore, in order to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage should further double its effort in research and development, primarily for the associated expenses of its actual operation. This is to suggest that point that Apple should primarily put the context of adjusting its budget for research and development much more than what is has tried so far from the past until recently. In addition, Apple according to Iftikhar has very low presence in the advertisement. The marketing department should therefore try to improve its strategic approach in communicating its product offerings. This means that in order to ensure a sustainable growth for its offerings and retention in the market, Apple should ensure constant communication and a wide coverage of its message to its market. Finally, Iftikhar also pointed out that Apple has very small market occupation. This issue is one pertaining to organizational

The Innocent Man Essay Example for Free

The Innocent Man Essay â€Å"The Innocent Man† apparently is the story of Ron Williamson, who spent 12 years on Oklahomas death row after having been convicted of a murder he did not commit; the book is more than Williamsons touching story. Co-defendant Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of murder but sentenced to life in prison. Together with Williamson he was eventually vindicated by DNA evidence. Two other inmates, Karl Fontenot and Tommy Ward, whose cases were interconnected with Williamson and Fritz, remain imprisoned in Oklahoma serving life sentences regardless of substantial evidence of actual innocence. Ron Williamson, the lead character in the story was wrongfully convicted of Carters killing. Williamson is not the benevolent character. He appeared as a high school athlete in baseball and was chosen by the Oakland Athletics in the 1971 Major League draft. His professional baseball career never realized the promise displayed by his youthful potential, and he returned home to lead a life reduced by divorce, drugs, alcohol and small-time crime. Loaded by mental illness, his attitude added in many respects to his conviction. But the author’s portrayal makes perfectly apparent that Williamsons conduct in no way warranted the outrageous actions of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. It is possibly one of the ironies of the law that while lawyers and judges botched Williamson, it would be others in those same professions who saved him only five days before he was calendared to be executed from imposition of his sentence of death. Lawyers from the Oklahoma death penalty assistance program and a courageous federal judge eventually held a new trial for Williamson. During the flow of the investigation and preparation for that trial, Williamson underwent DNA examinations that would prove his innocence. It was one of the first considerable DNA exonerations in American courts. â€Å"The Innocent Man† commences by unfolding the disappearance of Mr. Williamson’s and Mr. Fritz’s supposed victim from the parking lot of the nightclub where she worked. But she was later found dead at her home. By the time he has written 13 pages, the author has presented 22 witnesses, relatives, law officers and forensic experts, with many more to occur. If it takes a time for Ron Williamson to materialize, because it is clear in Mr. Grisham’s mind: Mr. Williamson had no direct relationship to the crime. The book illustrates the tortured process by which Mr. Williamson, with a reputation for being drunk, moody and troublesome, in the long run caught the interest of the police. The book offers much evidence of Mr. Williamson’s mental weakening. His behavior becomes violently inconsistent. His substance abuse intensifies. His habits turn progressively stranger. Meanwhile the author takes his extensive legal expertise to the job of being staggered by what he portrays as the law’s systematic breaking of Mr. Williamson’s rights and by the brutal handling of his suspicion. In the face of such blatant mistreatment of a suspect, the author has a difficult time keeping sarcasm at bay. Of the intense circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Williamson’s mother, and that he was kept constrained even at her funeral, the author writes: â€Å"Such precautions were obviously needed for a felon who forged a $300 check. † Far worse than her son’s embarrassment is that Mr. Williamson’s mother died believing that she had ascertained to the police that her son was home watching videos with her on the night of Debbie Carter’s murder. Though her lawyer said he watched her make this testimonial to a police detective, a video camera evidently failed to register what she said. No evidence of it appeared in the legal proceedings that resulted. â€Å"The Innocent Man† is plural, despite its title because it is a story of four men, four average white guys from good families, all crushed up and abused by the system and locked away for a combined total of 33 years. This is a lot for a nonfiction narrative to deal with, and this book sometimes injures under the burden of so much harsh, frustrating data. Mr. Grisham’s information on the formation of an underground, completely daylight-deprived prison provides the most egregious hall of horrors in a book that is symbolically full of them. On occasion â€Å"The Innocent Man† provides a touchable souvenir of Mr. Grisham’s novels. Take Barney Ward, Mr. Williamson’s court-appointed lawyer, who appears as if he walked right out of the author’s fiction. This is Mr. Ward’s first death penalty case. He is a passionately colorful character. He is also blind; and just as the case revolves on forensic evidence that demands visual examination, his assistant leaves him in the motion. Mr. Ward’s relationship with Mr. Williamson is so touchy that Mr. Ward’s son is prepared to challenge the client physically should trouble take place. The author has an Olympian ability to launch thunderbolts. His book causes a plague of vipers upon the head of Bill Peterson, the Ada district attorney who managed both these investigations and is still in office. â€Å"The Innocent Man† forces readers to take an interested look at and ask some serious questions about a legal system that, in important criminal cases, seems to be malfunctioning in every corner of our nation. Reference: Grisham, J. (2006). The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday Books.

The Role Of Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream :: Midsummer Nights Dream

The Role Of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The role and character of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is not only entertaining but quite useful.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   William Shakespeare seems to have created the character of Puck from his own childhood.   In Shakespeare's   time it was believed that fairies and little people did exist.   Whenever something went wrong around the farmyard or house or village, incidents such as buckets of milk ‘accidentally' spilling over, or tools suddenly disappearing, or doors opening for no reason,   it was blamed on ‘ those damn little people!'.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The idea of Puck's character is a lovely one.   One can't help but be attracted to him and his innocent, little pranks.  Ã‚   He is also known by the name Robin Goodfellow.   The audience can only see this ‘Robin Goodfellow' side of Puck when he is trying to fix something he disrupted, hence the name Goodfellow.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When compared to Oberon, King of the Fairies and Titania, Queen of the Fairies and the remaining fairies of the play, Puck does not seem to fit in as well.   While Oberon and Titania belong to the forest and the world of dainty fairies, a small village setting seems more appropriate for Puck.   He is the type of fairy that likes to be around mortals and cause them trouble, as opposed to other fairies.   This is why Puck's   little job with a love potion and a young couple is perfect for him and he perfect for the job.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Puck is a likable character who tends to create mischief around himself. Everything is a game to crafty little Puck.  Ã‚   Yet once he realizes that he has caused a problem he will make sure to the best of his ability and power that it is rectified.   As in the scene with Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius.   When Puck mistook Lysander for Demetrius (Shakespeare conveniently had the characters look alike or ‘only slightly individualized') and dropped the love-juice into Lysander's eyes and then (with help from Oberon) realized what he had done he knew he had to fix it.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare conveniently created ‘Puck' to add some probability to the play.   Since the typical audience believed in fairies and little people, Puck could be convincing in his role.   It is possibly,   even today, more plausible to

The White Doe, by Francesco Petrarch Essay -- TPCASTT for The White Doe

Title: When looking at this poem's title, one can get many ideas of what the poem will be about. One of the ideas that I got when I read the title was that it was going to be about a white female deer that was being hunted by a hunter. Another one that I thought up was that a white deer is an angel from heaven that will save someone. The last idea that I came up with was that it was about a white deer that was camouflaged in some snow to escape a predator. Paraphrase: In the first stanza, the speaker mainly describes the doe and its surroundings. The speaker says that the doe is all white with golden antlers. The speaker says that the doe is standing in the shade between two streams in a green opening in a forest. In the second stanza, the speaker tells how he left his work to follow the doe because she was so beautiful. The doe must have run off into the woods because he compares his looking for the doe to a miser searching for his treasure. He also seems to be happy while he is looking for the doe. In the third stanza, he finds the doe once more. The way I interpreted this stanza was that the doe was wearing a collar with a diamond on it. I came to this conclusion because the stanza's first two lines say, "Around her lovely neck 'Do not touch me'/Was written with topaz and diamond stone[.]" It seems as though the doe was once owned by someone because the stanza continues the inscription on what I believe to be the collar: "'My Caesar 's will has been to make me free.'" I think it is some kind of ghost deer that was once owned by Julius Caesar. The last stanza basically says that he was chasing the deer until noon. He says that he was so tired he could barely see, and he fell into the stream. When he got out the doe was gone... ... Title: The title is the subject of the poem. It is not a very specific title so the reader can make many inferences about what the poem will be about. The title just simply says "The White Doe." It does not say "The White Doe that was Spotted by a man Working in the Woods and Decides to Follow but falls into a Stream." So until the reader actually reads the poem, he or she will not really know what the poem will be about. The title contributes to the overall effect of the poem because the white doe is the subject of poetry in the poem. Theme: What the poet is trying to tell the world is that just because someone throws something a way does not mean one can take it from the garbage and keep it as his or her own. If the person that threw the object away wanted someone else to have it, he or she would put it up for sale or give it away.

Applying the VRIO Framework Essay

1Barney and Hesterly (2006), describe the VRIO framework as a good tool to examine the internal environment of a firm. They state that VRIO â€Å"stands for four questions one must ask about a resource or capability to determine its competitive potential: 1. The Question of Value: Does a resource enable a firm to exploit an environmental opportunity, and/or neutralize an environmental threat? 2. The Question of Rarity: Is a resource currently controlled by only a small number of competing firms? [are the resources used to make the products/services or the products/services themselves rare?] 3. The Question of Imitability: do firms without a resource face a cost disadvantage in obtaining or developing it? [is what a firm is doing difficult to imitate?] 4. The Question of Organization: Are a firm’s other policies and procedures organized to support the exploitation of its valuable, rare, and costly-to-imitate resources?† What types of resources should we evaluate (e.g., what types of resources lead to a competitive advantage)? 1) tangible resources, 2) intangible resources, 3) organizational capabilities. Reputation with customers for quality and reliability Reputation with suppliers for fairness, non-zero-sum relationships Organizational Capabilities Firm competences or skills the firm employs to transfer inputs to outputs Capacity to combine tangible and intangible resources, using firm processes to attain desired end. Examples Outstanding customer service Excellent product development capabilities Innovativeness or products and services Ability to hire, motivate, and retain human capital Applying the VRIO framework. According to the VRIO framework, a supportive answer to each questions relative to the firm being analyzed would indicate that the firm can sustain a competitive advantage. Below is an example of how to apply the VRIO framework and the likely outcome for the firm under varying circumstances. Applying the VRIO Framework—the value and rarity of a firm’s resources If a firm’s resources are: The firm can expect: Not valuable Competitive Disadvantage Valuable, but not rare Competitive parity (equality) Valuable and rare Competitive advantage (At least temporarily) Then, if there are high costs of imitation, the firm may enjoy a period of sustained competitive advantage. Costs of imitation increase due to some combination of the following: 1) Unique Historical Conditions (path dependence; first mover advantages), 2) Causal Ambiguity (links between resources and advantage foggy), 3) Social Complexity (social relationships not replicable), 4) Patents (double-edged sword since period of protection eventually runs out). Applying the VRIO Framework, integrating the notion of Inimitability If a firm’s resources are: The firm can expect: Valuable, rare, but not costly to imitate Temporary competitive advantage Valuable, rare, and costly to imitate Sustained competitive advantage (if organized properly) Organized properly deals with the firm’s structure and control (governance mechanisms—compensation, reporting structures, management controls, relationships, etc). These must be aligned so as to give people ability and incentive to exploit the firm’s resources. Summary of VRIO, Competitive Implications, and Economic Implications Valuable?

The Difference Between Hispanic and Latino

The Difference Between Hispanic and Latino Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably though they actually mean two different things. Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish or are descended from Spanish-speaking populations, while Latino refers to people who are from or descended from people from Latin  America. In todays United States, these terms are often thought of as racial categories and are often used to describe race, in the way that we also use white, black, and Asian. However, the populations they describe are actually composed of various racial groups, so using them as racial categories is inaccurate. They work more accurately as descriptors of ethnicity, but even that is a stretch given the diversity of peoples they represent. That said, they are important as identities for many people and communities, and they are used by the government to study the population, by law enforcement to study crime and punishment, and by researchers of many disciplines to study social, economic, and political trends, as well as social problems.  For these reasons, its important to understand what they mean literally, how they are used by the state in formal ways, and how those ways sometimes differ from how people use them socially. What Hispanic Means and Where  It Came From In a literal sense, Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish or who are descended from Spanish speaking lineage. This English word evolved from the Latin word  Hispanicus, which is reported to have been used to refer to people living in Hispania - the Iberian Peninsula in todays Spain -   during the Roman Empire. Since Hispanic refers to what language people speak or that their ancestors spoke, it refers to an element of culture. This means that, as an identity category, it is closest to the definition of ethnicity,  which groups people based on a shared common culture. However, people of many different ethnicities can identify as Hispanic, so its actually more broad than ethnicity. Consider that people who originate from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico will have come from very different cultural backgrounds, excepting their language and possibly their religion. Because of this, many people considered Hispanic today equate their ethnicity with their or their ancestors country of origin, or with an ethnic group within this country. Reports indicate that it came into use by the United States government during Richard Nixons presidency, which spanned 1968‒1974. It first appeared on the U.S. Census in 1980, as a question prompting the Census taker to determine whether or not the person was of Spanish/Hispanic origin.  Hispanic is most commonly used in the eastern U.S., including Florida and Texas. People of all different races identify as Hispanic, including white people. In todays Census people self-report their answers and have the option to choose whether or not they are of Hispanic descent. Because the Census Bureau recognizes that Hispanic is a term that describes ethnicity and not race, people can self-report a variety of racial categories as well as Hispanic origin when they complete the form. However, self-reports of race in the Census indicate that some identify their race as Hispanic. This is a matter of identity, but also of the structure of the question about race included in the Census. Race options include white, black, Asian, American Indian or Pacific Islander, or some other race. Some people who identify as Hispanic may also identify with one of these racial categories, but many do not, and as a result, choose to write in Hispanic as their race. Elaborating on this, Pew Research Center wrote in 2015: [Our] survey of multiracial Americans finds that, for two-thirds of Hispanics, their Hispanic background is a part of their racial background – not something separate. This suggests that Hispanics have a unique view of race that doesn’t necessarily fit within the official U.S. definitions. So while Hispanic might refer to ethnicity in the dictionary and governmental definition of the term, in practice, it often refers to race. What Latino Means and Where It Came From Unlike Hispanic, which refers to language, Latino is a term that refers to geography. It is used to signify that a person is from or descended from people from Latin America. It is, in fact, a shortened form of the Spanish phrase latinoamericano -   Latin American, in English. Like Hispanic, Latino does not technically speaking refer to race. Anybody from Central or South America and the Caribbean can be described as Latino. Within that group, like within Hispanic, there are varieties of races. Latinos can be white, black, indigenous American, mestizo, mixed, and even of Asian descent. Latinos can also be Hispanic, but not necessarily. For example, people from Brazil are Latino, but they are not Hispanic, since Portuguese, and not Spanish, is their native language. Similarly, people may be Hispanic, but not Latino, like those from Spain who do not also live in or have lineage in Latin America. It was not until the year 2000 that Latino first appeared on the U.S. Census as an option for ethnicity, combined with the response Other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino. In the most recent Census, conducted in 2010, it was included as Another Hispanic/Latino/Spanish origin. However, as with Hispanic, common usage and self-reporting on the Census indicates that many people identify their race as Latino. This is especially true in the western United States, where the term is more commonly used, in part because it offers a distinction from the identities of Mexican American and Chicano  - terms that specifically refer to descendants of people from Mexico. Pew Research Center found in 2015 that 69% of young Latino adults ages 18 to 29 say their Latino background is part of their racial background, as does a similar share of those in other age groups, including those 65 and older. Because Latino has come to be identified as a race in practice and associated with brown skin and origin in Latin America, black Latinos often identify differently. While they are likely to be read simply as black within U.S. society, due to their skin color, many identify as Afro-Caribbean or Afro-Latino  - terms which serve to distinguish them both from brown-skinned Latinos and from descendants of the North American population of black slaves. So, like with Hispanic, the standard meaning of Latino  often differs in practice. Because practice differs from policy, the U.S. Census Bureau is poised to change how it asks about race and ethnicity in the coming 2020 Census. The possible new phrasing of these questions would allow for Hispanic and Latino to be recorded as the respondents self-identified race.

Ufos Essays - Ufology, Unidentified Flying Objects, UFO, UFO Files

Ufos Essays - Ufology, Unidentified Flying Objects, UFO, UFO Files Ufos Is there life beyond Earth?: Discovering aliens and UFOs For a while now there have been many UFO sightings around the world and many people have become amazed and astonished by this. Many scientists who study extraterrestrial life have come up with a lot of information that points toward the fact that aliens and UFOs are real. In China poor farmers in Beijing's barren hills saw an object covered in colored lights arcing heavenward that some say must have been a UFO. In addition to the farmers 12 other Chinese cities reported possible UFO sightings last month, at the beginning of the millenium . China is astir with sightings of otherworldly visitors. Some of these sightings are real, some are fake, and with others it's unclear, said Shen Shituan; a real rocketscientist, president of Beijing Aerospace University and honorary director of the China UFO Research Association. All these phenomena are worth researching. On July 13,1997 Special Air Service soldiers waiting to ambush IRA gunmen were stunned when aliens walked in front of the gun sights. The undercover troops, hiding near an arms cache on a hillside in South Armagh, say they saw up to four, small, gray figures. The aliens and soldiers stared at each other for a minute. Then the spacemen disappeared , and seconds later the SAS troops saw a flash in the sky. Belfast-based expert Hugh O' Brian said, we have learned that on that morning the soldiers were convinced they saw three, perhaps four, small, gray figures, in human form. The expert also said about the soldiers: The alien forms made no move towards them, but judging from what the troops told their regimental priest and commanding officer, the aliens knew the soldiers were there. It was like a stand off, within a few minutes probably a lot less time than that , the aliens disappeared. All the men can recall is that in a very quick space of time, they saw a brief flash in the sky. On June 24, 1947, buisnessman Kenneth Arnold was flying his private plane near Washington state's Cascade Mountains when he spotted nine, crecent-shaped flying objects. He reported they moved like saucers skipping across water. For a time, UFO reports seemed to spur a wave of sightings around the world from 1947 to 1969, the air force investigated thousands of reports. It concealed hundreds of incidents that couldn't be explained, while concluding there was no threat to national security. But belief in UFOs dies hard. Stories of crop circles, alien abductions, and a supposed flying saucer crash near Roswell, New Mexico, draw passionate believers and skeptics. The idea still remains that there is life beyond that of earth and my facts have acknowledged the fact that there have been many sightings around the world since 1947 when the first UFO was sighted. There has been a sighting that highly trained military soldiers claimed while on a stakeout. Chinese farmers in Beijing sighted a UFO. There must really be other forms of life beyond earth because, why would a group of scientists spend thousands of dollars on research material to study alien life if they didn't have any hard evidence that aliens do in fact exist? The evidence I collected helps to make my point clear, that aliens and UFOs are real.