Issues in global business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Issues in global business - Essay Example Small number of employees in SME can be cared and motivated optimally, leading to effective performance from all of them. However, the disadvantage is, in SMEs the leader or founder will have maximum influence from top to bottom, without any organizational structure horizontally or vertically. The problem with it is, when something goes wrong there will not be any management teams to point out the mistakes. Also, SMEs with their limited resources will not be able to provide quality products or services, when compared to large companies. As pointed out by, SMEs provide employment to basic sections of the societies, as they integrate well with it. SMEs will be mainly established not separate from the towns or cities, but within the by lanes and streets in a particular locality. So, it can provide employment to many of the unemployed living in that locality. This way, it can give employment to maximum people, elevating their lives and also contributing to the local economy, thereby national economy. Because of this, SMEs are regarded as the most important ‘engines’ for economic growth by the governments. So, to further encourage SMEs, governments will allocate land, power, water, etc at subsidized rates, will also impose lesser taxes, etc. This way, SMEs can come up in many places benefiting many

Violeta Ramirez Essay Example for Free

Violeta Ramirez Essay â€Å"To many Americans, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez seems a Latin wild man. But to the millions of Venezuelans who adore him, he is the first leader who genuinely cares for the nations poor majority, a welcome departure from politicians who traditionally catered to the elite. I think God sent him. I think hes the reincarnation of Simon Bolivar. Hes with the poor, says Omaira Perez, 60, referring to the 19th century general who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule. † (Lynch, 2007) Hugo Rafael Chavez was born in Venezuela’s western grassland region on July 28, 1954. Socialism, Latin American integration and anti imperialism are promoted by the president because he was also leading the Bolivarian Revolution. Neo-liberal globalization and U. S. foreign policy were the main critics of the president. His parents were schoolteacher which is not a lucrative profession by any mean in Venezuela. He was belong to a poor family besides this in Venezuela dark skinned dark skin people faces strong racial divisions and white skinned people are elite. When he was seventeen years old he enrolled at Venezuela â€Å"Academy of Military Sciences† and studied engineering. After completion of acidic career he joined military for several months. Chavez was immediately popular with his fellow students, he and his fellow students developed a left nationalist doctrine that they termed Bolivarianism inspired by his real hero Simon Bolivar, the father of Venezuelan independence and a figure of legendary dimensions. (Resources on Iran, n. d. ) He was also the part of the lectureship and was famous for his fiercy lecturing style and radical critique of Venezuelan government and society. With his natural charisma, he brings closer soldiers to his ideas, and built a network of supporters within the army. In 1983 he established MBR 200, the revolutionary Bolivarian movement (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200), 1983 being the 200th anniversary of Simon Bolivars birth. (ISIS Report, n. d. ) â€Å"With oil profits booming and his popularity high, Chavez seems to be in step with many Venezuelans even as spooked investors rushed to sell off Venezuelan stocks in companies subject to his nationalization plans. Chavez called that a knee-jerk overreaction, and shares in Venezuelas leading telephone company rebounded as the congressional finance chief assured reporters Wednesday that the government will negotiate compensation to the affected companies. He also visited the tomb of Simon Bolivar, the South American independence hero and inspiration for his Bolivarian Revolution, and blew kisses to supporters tossing rose petals at his open car. Before flying to Nicaragua, the former paratroop commander also watched a military parade with Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets thundering overhead. † (James, 2007) Simon Bolivar: Influent Al Person in Hugo Chavezs Life Major influence on Chavez came from Simon Bolivar, from where Bolivarian movement was developed. The memory of Simon Bolivar has yet kept alive in Venezuela, the revolution of 19th century which led the sub continent independence battle against Spain. Simon Bolivar was born in Spain and many of his followers were native of Venezuela. Nonetheless, Simon Bolivar remained to be a significant and founding myth for the Venezuela institute. Particularly, his arm forces helped him a lot to bind them together even though of political instability. Chavez when he was a school child during the periods of 1950’s and 1960’s in the school studied a lot Bolivar’s feats against the Spaniards. The defining event in his life came when in 1989 the economy was devastated by rising oil prices which led President Carlos Andres Perez to a serious of tough measures. As a result of rising oil prices, buses fares were increased which led to protests by poor people and the army was sent to suppress the protestors. Chavez belong that part of the group that was deployed and he was enraged when he listen the order shoot all the citizens who he believes had a legitimate grievances. This was the motivation which led to his army coup that he organized against the same president some three years later. (Amirpur, 2006) â€Å"Invoking Christ and Castro as his socialist models, President Hugo Chavez began his third term †¦ by declaring that socialism, not capitalism, is the only way forward for Venezuela and the world. † (James, 2007) MBR 200. Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 The MBR 200 was the social and political movement that Hugo Chavez founded in 1983. Chavez established MBR 200 setting as its political goals the realization of Bolivars ideals by means of a Bolivar resolution, which refers to a mass social and political movement in Venezuela aimed at eradication of corruption and emphasized on redistributive social justice and economic and political sovereignty. Some important points of Chavezs Bolivarianism are: †¢ Political participation of the masses by votes, referendum and councils †¢ Political and economic sovereignty †¢ Economic self – sufficiency †¢ Building in people nationality and patriotism †¢ Eradication of corruption †¢ Equal distribution of oil revenues of his land (Cordesman, 2005) 1992 Coup Chavez was working as a lieutenant colonel during his late 30s. In addition, he was also working as a committed left wing activist, mixing with left wing group outside the army and conspiring in the institution for the sake of coup d’etat. So, after an extended period of dissatisfaction and economic decline under the administration of President Perez, Chavez and his fellow conspirators launched a military coup in Feb 1992. Although the coup was not entirely successful Chavez came to national prominence due to a abruptly speech made shortly after his arrest, the Venezuelan government allowed him forty five second speech in order to tell his co-conspirators to lay down the arm. It was a mistake made on the government part and Chavez made the most of it. (Evans and Corsi, 2006) Chavez in Power When Chavez spent his 2 year life in Jail during the period of 1990s economy of Venezuela was went on to bear the huge burden of oil prices. Support for the two of main political parties decline in elections of 1994, Chavez found the population increasingly receptive to its critique of the two party models and its associated corruption. Chavez organized a new party called the â€Å"fifth republic movement† During 1996 97 his support gradually increased in polls and he scored a comfortable majority and took power in 1998, his first political office with 56 percent of votes. Resentment against the United States â€Å"One of the reasons that Chavez is so rhetorically antagonistic to the United States is that it plays very well in terms of his domestic support base at home. † (Lapper and Sweig, 2006) According to Richard lapper, the Latin American editor of Financial Times, Hugo Chavez â€Å"likes to present himself at the head of a kind of anti-Bush crusade. He likes to see himself as a crusader in that particular battle and likes to position himself at the head of that. † (Lapper and Sweig, 2006) â€Å"To be sure, President Chavez has legitimate reasons to lambaste the United States, which has tried to undermine him several times since he was first democratically elected in 1998. In October 2001, Washington requested that Mr. Chavez publicly retract criticism that he had made, in Venezuela, of the U. S. war in Afghanistan, well within his right as a sovereign leader. Carlos Romero, a political scientist at Central University in Venezuela and an expert in U. S. -Venezuelan relations, describes such U. S. hubris as a provocation, and a turning point in the deterioration of U. S. -Venezuelan relations. (Sreeharsha, 2006) Then the United States, despite its support of the Democratic Charter adopted at the 2001 Summit of Americas in Quebec, was quick to recognize the leaders of a coup in 2002 that quickly failed. The United States has provided opposition groups with millions of dollars of support in the name of democracy. Lately, the Bush administration has been keeping a low profile, Romero says, perhaps a disappointment to President Chavez. † (Sreeharsha, 2006) From Democracy towards a Totalitarian State â€Å"Violence has marked each step along Chavezs road to power. The former paratrooper first tried to seize control by a coup in 1992; he failed and instead spent two years in jail. He later tried democracy and was elected as an outsider by Venezuelans six years later. Chavezs opponents admit he is popular, especially among the poor. But being popular, they say, does not give the president the right to do whatever he wants. The police, military and armed thugs have been tools used freely by Chavez to hang on to power during a coup attempt and a national strike in 2002. (The Iron Fist of Hugo Chavez, 2005) There has been a continuous debate whether Chavez has released from corruption accusation or he himself damaged the country’s own foundation of democracy. Some believe that the Hugo Chavez have more power than any president should have. Chavezs new constitution has been seen as authoritarian. Although there are detailed sections involving human rights, but some believe that the power given to the highest branch of government can easily lead to human rights violations. The new constitution also allows the president to be in the office considerably, which some suggests leads to authoritarianism. Scholars also criticized the way Chavez gained power and his conduct afterwards. The motivation behind his recent constituent assembly has been seen as to settle the score with Venezuelans traditional opposition parties and remove them from all positions of influence. One scholar suggested that Chavez himself overthrown the government in 1992 as similar to the corruption of the traditional parties of Venezuela, which clutched power by the military inventions in 1945 and misbalanced Venezuela’s supreme court and congress. Now, buoyed by electoral victories and high oil prices, Chavez appears to be doing everything he can to snuff out democracy before the eyes of a nation and a world that does not seem to be paying much attention. Chavez has packed the Supreme Court and the army with his supporters, seized control of the countrys wealth and introduced a penal code that criminalizes dissent. Anyone who opposes him faces violence or prison. † (The Iron Fist of Hugo Chavez, 2005) â€Å"The Venezuelan leaders insistence on uniting numerous leftist parties into a single socialist bloc and eliminating the constitutions presidential term limits has opened the first fissures in his coalition. Annual inflation of more than 20% Latin Americas highest is undermining the economic gains of recent years and igniting doubts about Chavezs free spending. Recent nationalizations of two companies owned by U. S. firms further sours the business climate. † (Lynch, 2007) On the other way, some believe that the Chavez protected the democracy. In their point of views, since Chavez does not belong to any party, and he came from the grass roots and has seen all the hardships, therefore he is more capable to meet the interest of the Venezuelans. Some opponent of Chavez equates him with Fujiori but his comparison is not correct because unlike Fujimori Chavez has a self-governing foreign military, a revolutionary disclosure and he did not endorse huge privatization. Economic Policies â€Å"The changes are in keeping with pledges he made after his re-election last month to take a more radical turn toward socialism. His critics have voiced concern that he would use his sweeping victory to tighten his grip on power, following in the footsteps of Fidel Castro. Cuba, one of Chavezs closest allies in the region, nationalized major industries shortly after Castro came to power in 1959. Bolivias Evo Morales, another Chavez ally, moved to nationalize key sectors after taking office last year. † (Rueda, 2007) Venezuela is the 5th largest oil producer, which remains the key of Venezuelan economy. Chavez has gained a reputation as a price hawk in OPEC. At a meeting of OPEC in July 2006, Venezuela was the only country calling for lowered production to drive oil prices higher. Some critics say that under the President Chavez regime the output of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) which is a state owned company, has been reduced by 25% and Venezuela cannot meets it current quota. However Forbes argues that the political and other influence have an effect on numbers. Nonetheless, Chavez has attempted to broaden Venezuelas customer base by getting into joint ventures with other developing countries including China, Brazil, Argentina and India. Although the record oil prices have meant more funding for the social and development plans, but it has also left the economy dependent on oil sector, private sector role has diminished. â€Å"As Venezuela embarked on another six years under Hugo Chavez, the president announced plans to nationalize power and telecom companies and make other bold changes that will concentrate more power in his hands. † (Rueda, 2007)

Explore The Relative Advantages Of Both Market Driven Marketing Essay

Explore The Relative Advantages Of Both Market Driven Marketing Essay In marketing research and literature, debate has been surrounding two approaches of market orientation that firms could adopt: market-driven and market-driving. Some argue that market-driving behavior is superior to market-driven behavior in creating customer values that contribute to growth and profitability, such as IKEA, Dell and Southwest Airlines, to name a few. (eg. Kotler et al., 2000) On the other hand, majority of authors stresses that these two behaviors are complementary. (e.g. Jaworski et al., 2000; Sheth and Sisodia, 1999) Such controversy leaves open questions to practitioners: Which is the winning approach for the firms to adopt? Should these two the competing approaches or complement each other? This essay begins with an introduction of market orientation, along with the market-driven and market-driving behavior. The next section will explore the relative advantages of these two behaviors from the marketing perspective and then to draw a conclusion to suggest that these two behaviors are complementing each other of which both play important roles in generating sustainable competitive advantage in todays dynamics business environment. Overview of Market Orientation Since late 1980s, significant amount of research in marketing suggesting that market orientation is the most effective strategy of achieving and maintaining long term competitive advantage and continue to stress its importance to the firms superior profitability. (e.g., Day, 1994b; Jaworski et al., 2000; Kohli Jaworski, 1990; Kotler et al., 2000; Narver and Slater 1990) Jaworski and Kohli (1996) defined market orientation as the organization wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization-wide responsiveness to it. (see figure 1) On the other hand, Narver and Slater (1990) defined market orientation as an organization culture committed to the continuous creation of superior value for the customers and thus, continuous superior performance for the business. Narver and Slater (1990) classified the market orientation into responsive and proactive. The responsive approach, a typical response of a firm that exhibits a market driven behavior, is customer led, considering the market structure and customer preferences as given and focusing on the satisfaction of expressed customer needs. In contrast, the proactive market orientation, a typical response of market-driving firm, aims towards the satisfaction of latent needs, reshaping the customer preferences and market structure to enhance the competitive position of the company. (see figure 1) Figure Market Orientation Process (Neuenburg, 2010, p.49) Figure 2 below provides a framework adopted from Neuenburg (2010), which shows the whole spectrum of market-oriented behaviors that summarizes the discussion above. Figure 2 Marketing driven behavior vs market driving behavior (Neuenburg, 2010, p.46) In a nutshell, although there are differences in the precise definition, the market orientation is a fundamental approach for a firm to understand its markets, which represent an additional strategic dimension (Narver and Slater, 1998) and the implementation of the marketing concept (Jaworski and Kohli, 1990) that focuses the firms efforts on the needs of the market, learn about market developments, share this information within the organization and adapt the offering to the market. (Jaworski and Kohli, 1990) The Market Driven and Its Advantages Figure Conceptual Framework: Two Forms of Market Orientation (Jaworski et al., 2000, p.130) According to Jaworski et al. (2000), the term market-driven refers to learning, understanding, and responding to stakeholder perceptions and behaviors within a given market structure. (see figure 3) Specifically, the focus of a market-driven approach is to keep the status quo on existing customer preferences and behavior within an existing market structure. (Day, 1999a; Day, 1999b; Jaworski et al., 2000) The key element of market-driven behavior is to monitor customer satisfaction and analyzing customer needs, finding competitive advantage and strategic targeting. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) Monitoring customer satisfaction allows firms to get an early indication about changing customer needs and preferences and the identification of future customer needs. Analyzing these needs helps the firms to prevent bad decisions or overlooking important parts of the customer value proposition as well as identifying its current or potential competitive advantage. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) Firms gain advantage by matching the requirements of market segments with its capabilities to identify the best opportunities to serve its customers. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) As markets become more fragmented the decision about which segments to target becomes increasingly important because each segment represents its own specific needs. (Neuenburg, 2010) Understanding of Markets, Customers, and Competitors Successful companies like Nestle, Procter Gamble, and Unilever are market-driven which reflects the conventional wisdom of marketing philosophy wherein they establish a clear understanding of markets, customers, and competitors. (Day, 1994b) Market-driven firms gain advantage to have good understanding of the market and how it is likely to change in the future. Furthermore, they hear the voice of the customers and develop differentiated products or services for a well-defined segment and then create combinations of marketing mix to adapt its offerings to satisfy customer needs. (Hills and Sarin, 2003; Kotler et al., 2000) As Day (1994b) argues, market-driven organizations are superior in their market-sensing and customer-linking capabilities, which enable them to understand, attract, and keep valuable customers. (Day, 1999a) When these two capabilities are deeply embedded within the organization, all functional activities and organizational processes will be better directed toward a nticipating and responding to changing market requirements ahead of competitors. (Day, 1994b) Therefore, market-driven firms are well equipped to achieve high levels of performance (Day, 1994b) and are expected to be more adaptable and perform better than less market-driven competitors because they stay in touch with existing and potential customer needs and competitor moves better than more internally focused firms. (Day, 1990) They are also predicted to be better and more successful at introducing new products to the market than their competitors. (Narver and Slater ,1990) They may not be the most innovative firm in their industry but, they will excel at adapting technologies to meet current and future customer needs. Thus, they often exhibit the adaptive characteristics of the Analyzer organization. (Miles and Snow 1978) Home Depot and Cisco Systems represent two examples of firm successfully adopting market-driven strategy of which their business focuses on putting customers first and sees themselves engage in the relationship business, not the transaction business. They strive to provide superior customer value through unprecedented customer service to increase customer satisfaction. This is how Home Deport leads with home improvement mega-stores by offering low prices and low frills but excellent services. IBM, on the other hand, failed to recognize market changes and customer preferences for personal computers which had resulted with a record loss for the fourth quarter of 1992 of $5 billion. IBM set a record for the largest annual loss in an American corporation in 1992 with a loss of $4.97 billion. Brand Portfolios as Assets In term of brand, companies with strong brands have more loyal customers, get greater return on marketing investments and are rewarded with attractive price premiums. As such, market-driven firms view their brand portfolios as assets to be leveraged and market development activities as investments rather than expenses. (Day, 1998) According to Day (1998), to manage a brand as an asset requires the deep market insights, organizational commitment and reasoned investment decisions that come naturally to market-driven firms. Moreover, the focus on long-run return from marketing investments enables market-driven firms to understand which customers are profitable to pursue, and knowing how to encourage loyalty by reducing customer acquisition costs. (Day, 1998) Creation of Permanent Value of the Existing Products or Services As quoted from Stoclhorst and Van Raaij (2004), customers do not always strive towards new and technologically superior products or services, but towards permanent value of the existing products or services so that the competition would find it hard to imitate. Hence, it is possible for market-driven firms to become irreplaceable for customers if the firms put serious focus on customers attempts constantly to offer something that are better and faster than the competitors and make the accessibility to the products and services easier. Importantly, there is support from research findings (Stull et al., 2007) validating that market-driven companies are 31% more profitable, twice as fast to bring products to market, twice as likely to lead, and enjoy 20% higher customer satisfaction rates. Furthermore, empirical results of another study (Vorhies et al., 1999) demonstrated that, the 43 market-driven firms outperformed the 44 less market-driven firms across adaptability, customer satisfaction, growth, and profitability dimensions. This finding supports the marketing literature about the capabilities of market-driven firms (Day, 1994; Day and Wensley 1988) and extends the findings on empirical research of market orientation. (e.g Jaworski et al.,1993; Narver Slater 1994) The Market Driving and Its Advantages Figure Conceptual Framework: Two Forms of Market Orientation (Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay 2000, p.46) The term market-driving refers to changing the structure or composition of a market and/or the behavior(s) of players in the market. (Jaworski, et al., 2000) (see figure 4) It matches a proactive business logic that enhances the competitive position of the business (Tuominen et al., 2004) of which it involves the shaping of the market structure via deconstruction (eliminating competitors in the value chain), construction (adding players into the industry value chain) or a functional modification (shifting the functions performed by players in a market), and the shaping of market behavior by creating or reversing new customers or competitors preferences. (Carrillat et al., 2004; Jaworski, et al., 2000) Schindehutte et al. (2008) presented a different view of market-driving construct clarifying that it is an entrepreneurial phenomenon. They argue that the interface between the entrepreneurship and marketing offers a unique perspective on the market related decisions of firms and the observed impact of these decisions in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Schindehutte et al. (2008) further argued that the market-driving behavior reflects a strong entrepreneurial orientation (EO). It has both the dynamic advantage that creates capability and a disruptive advantage that destroys the performance outcome. (Schindehutte et al., 2008) Despite the many different views on the notion of market-driving behavior, it has appeared as an alternative to market-driven strategy which has been recognized as a successful strategy for a number of established firms such as Amazon.com, BodyShop, CNN, IKEA and Dell, all of which has a clear brand image, a strong market position, and exhibit sustainable international business growth whereby success is based on radical business innovation, ventured into new markets, revolutionized existing industries by changing rules of the game. (Kotler et al., 2000) Kotler et al. (2000) indicate that the success of market-driving firms is based on two dimensions of radical innovation a discontinuous leap in the value proposition and the implementation of a unique business system (see Figure 5 and 6). Kotler et al. (2000) define value proposition as the combination of benefits, acquisition efforts/costs, and price offered to customers. While, unique business system refers to the configuration of the various activities required to create, produce, and deliver the value proposition to the customer. Figure Types of Strategic Innovation (Kumar et al., 2000, p.130) Figure Leap in Customer Value (Kumar et al., 2000, p.130) Therefore, the market-driving advocates argued that the market-driving firms gain more viable competitive advantage with greater performance and reap vast rewards than those that are not in a number of ways. Delivering Superior Value Kotler et al., (2000) suggested that the leap in customer value involve either breakthrough technology or breakthrough marketing enables firms to create a product and service experience that overwhelms customer expectations and existing alternatives. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, FedEx constantly led its customers to ever higher expectations for quick delivery times, leaving competitors struggling to meet the spiraling demands. (Kotler et al., 2000) According to Carrillat et al. (2004), successful market-driving firms deliver superior value that best matches with their capabilities and by exploiting the competitors weaknesses. It also allows firms to exploit opportunities that competitors cannot (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) and that includes addressing the deep-seated, latent or emerging customer needs. (Kotler et al., 2000) The study results in the paper of Market-driving in retail banking (Martà ­n-Consuegra et al., 2008) revealed that the two characteristics of market-driving: driving the market structure and shaping the market behavior if combined together contribute positively to overall performance of retail banks, particularly in terms of enabling them to satisfy their customers latent and expressed needs better. (Martà ­n-Consuegra et al., 2008) This study further suggested that bank-marketing managers should emphasize customer understanding in pursuing proactive market orientation, which will lead to improved performance. Market-driving behavior also enables firms to benefit from free advertising via buzz network through strong brand attachment. Customers are delighted by the leap in customer value of the offerings and are excited to share their customer experience with friends and public. Traditional printed media and online social media are often publicizing the review on radical new innovation. While early adopters and opinion leaders who are enthusiastic and committed to new innovation products and services has the influential power to generate excitement and emotional attachment among their followers. Consequently, The advertising-to-sales ratio is often less than that of their established competitors. (Kotler et al., 2000). Nike is one of the examples provided by Kotler et al. (2000) Nike didnt run a single national television ad until they had 1 billion dollars in sales. Phil Knight observes they instead used word-of-foot advertising by getting the best athletes to wear their products. Further more, study of Tuominen et al. (2004) revealed that market-driving behavior contribute to higher customer intimacy and is associated with generative (explorative) learning. On top of that, market-driving firms gain the advantage to establish new industry price points for the quality or service levels they deliver, either towards higher performance at lower price points or to charge a price premium that is higher than typical in an industry. Firms like Swatch and Southwest Airlines set the prices much lower than their competitors for similar products and services. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, Southwest Airlines charged $15.00 for a trip from Dallas to San Antonio when Braniff, the next most inexpensive competitor, was charging $62.00. (Kotler et al., 2000) Such significant price gap and low price policy has successfully attracted many of the ground transportation users to choose Southwest Airlines. Their focus to compete on the ground transportation enable them to create new business opportunities in a market segment that has been ignored by their competitors. (Kotler et al., 2000). On the other hand, CNN, Starbucks, and FedEx are those market-driv ing firms that have a value proposition that is significantly more compelling than the existing alternatives, which enables them to set prices considerably higher than the standard in the industry. (Kotler et al., 2000) Implementation of Unique Business System According to Kotler et al. (2000), the success of IKEA and Dell is not only by just delivering discontinuous leap in customer value but also is attributed to the implementation of unique and radical business system which is hard to imitate by their competitors. Kotler et al. (2000) argued that such business system creates a more sustainable advantage, as it takes time for a would-be competitor to assemble the intra-organizational and inter-organizational players needed to replicate that unique system architecture. In term of distribution and channel management, market-driving firms focus a wide range of innovative practices within their industries. For example, Southwest Airlines handles its own ticketing instead of make seats available through the standard industry computerized reservation systems such as Sabre and Apollo. As a result, only 55 per cent of its tickets are sold through travel agents compared to 90 per cent for the industry, adding up to substantial savings on travel agents commissions. (Kotler et al., 2000) Reshaping the Customer Preferences and Market Structure Market-driving firm could lead customer value opportunities in new directions to achieve superior business performance by destroying the existing market segmentation and replacing it with a new set of segments reflecting the new altered landscape. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, Southwest Airlines destroyed the market segmentation between ground transportation and airlines, attracting many ground transportation user who would not otherwise traveled by air. Jaworski, et al. (2000) suggested that firms could shape the market behavior directly or indirectly. One of the indirect options is by changing the existing preferences of customers or other stakeholders from a positive (negative) to a negative (positive) evaluation (Jaworski, et al., 2000). Examples of products that were formerly negative but are now positive are Skoda in automotive industry and Adidas in fashion and accessory industry. (Jaworski, et al., 2000) The proactive behavior of market-driving firms would also contribute to more innovative products and services, and more new product success (Narver et al., 2004) that enable firms to pioneer new markets, which would eventually lead to market ownership. In the case study about De Beers in China, Harris and Cai (2002) explored the advantage of market-driving behavior in practice and incurred, as cited from Neuenburg, (2010), firms gain significant market control in environments where markets are immature and product preferences are not yet formed. Conclusion Clearly, each of the market-driven and market-driving behavior has its own advantages and the notion of these two is highly relevant for business marketers (Tuominen et al., 2004). It is suggested that firms should well aware of the business logic they are applying (e.g. proactive or reactive) then it should be a match with the type of market orientation they emphasized. That is, according to Tuominen et al. (2004), the implementation of the specific strategic logic presumes matching marketing capabilities and learning capability. However, to sustain success in the long run, Sheth and Sisodia (1999) provided a more convincing argument, that firms need to be market-driven and market-driving simultaneously. Jaworski et al. (2000) echo such argument and proposed that truly market-oriented firms combine both behaviors of which these two are complementary. In other words, firms should devote effort in market-driven activities, such as incremental innovation and traditional market research. Nevertheless, firms should also continue to search for their next radical business innovation to drive them into new competitive position or the market leader risks being leap-frogged and deposed by upstart market drivers. (Neuenburg, 2010)

The Elements of Success: Self Motivation and Self Determination Essays

Self motivation and self determination are the most important ways to succeed. In this essay I will use, â€Å"Learning to Read and Write† by Fredrick Douglass, â€Å"The Lonely, Good Company of Books† by Richard Rodriguez, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and an interview of Patti Read to argue that self motivation and self determination are the most important elements to becoming successful. First, I will frame my argument, and then I will incorporate my first source, followed by my second source, and then I will have a paragraph that will deal with the opposition, followed up with my final piece of evidence. In this essay I will be identifying the most important ways of thinking about oneself in relationship to the world that can help lead a person toward success. I will first be using Fredrick Douglass, an American abolitionist, orator, and journalist, to show how his self motivation led to his success. Then, I will use Richard Rodriguez, an American writer, to give an example of how the determination to succeed is an important mindset for somebody who wants to live a fulfilling life. Followed up by a paragraph about Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist, author, and pop sociologist, stating the opposite point of view, that success is influenced by culture. Finally, I will use an interview done on Patti Read, a teacher, to give examples of how self determination, self motivation, and hard work have put her in the very successful position she is currently living in. Being self motivated is an important part to becoming a successful person, as it is shown by Fredrick Douglass through his personal experiences. Douglass, being a young black slave, was not allowed to go to school, but his mistress educated him nonetheless. He states in this arti... ...ple, such as Malcolm Gladwell, accept the point of view claiming that success is influenced by culture. Gladwell uses evidence such as plane crashes that occurred in Korean Airlines and how the culture of the pilots of the planes influenced the crashes. Gladwell claims that â€Å"Each of us has his or her own distinct personality. But overlaid on top of that are tendancies and assumptions and reflexes handed down to us by the history of the community we grew up in, and those differences are extraordinarily specific† (Gladwell 202). The co-pilot on Avianca 052, for example, did not know how to communicate with the tower in the urgent matter that was needed to tell them that the plane was out of fuel and the need to land immediately. Because the co-pilot did not make clear the urgency of landing the tower did not let them land, resulting in the crashing of the Avianca.

Explain Augustine’s temporal paradox

Augustine’s temporal paradox can be explained by starting with our typical beliefs about time, to wit: the past does not exist, the future is yet to exist and only the present actually exists.   However the actual existence of the present has no duration because it immediately becomes the past or the future the moment we try to isolate it. In the words of St. Augustine, â€Å"The present hath no space†.   The temporal paradox refers to the existence only of the present which however does not have a â€Å"duration†.Following this temporal paradox and Augustine treated time in ontological terms, i.e. in relation to the nature of being and existence.   We derive the notion of time by perceiving something that has passed, something that exists and something that will exist in the future.   Time is embodied and manifested through the duration of things that come into being to the present that passed away in an incessant continuum of past and future.   Conseq uently, material things move from none existence to existence to non existence (past, present and future).The perpetuation of the time continuum entails that â€Å"the mind expects, and attends, and remembers, so that what it expects passes by way of what it attends to into what it remembers.† (Augustine, 2002, p236) What the mind expects is the future, what is remembers is the past and what it attends to at the moment is the present, which is what exists.   Attending to the present does not refer to our location or inhabitance in this time continuum but one’s capturing of the immediate past in the memory. This is precisely because the present has no duration or no space and it is only through memory that we can attend to it.For St. Augustine, even â€Å"time† is created by God and therefore he is beyond the continuum of the time series to which people and all other things are bound.   God is in a state of â€Å"Eternal Now†, where the present, past a nd future are at all once.   However, while St. Augustine’s idea of time is very revolutionary, it nevertheless has critical repercussions that run inconsistent which Christian principles which he originally wanted to justify and defend.With the past and future all happening in the present for God, people therefore are already predestined to what will happen to them. People were not really given the gift of choice or freewill but are doomed to end up to how God have designed their world. What seemed to be a series of choices for people in this space of time is actually a finished or done design for God.   (Von Martelsand Schmidt, V, 2003, p79-102)2-Imagine that Russell and Berkeley are sitting across from each other at table. Write a short dialogue (about 500 words) that captures each philosopher’s views with respect to the ontological status of the table. Be sure to bring out areas of agreement and disagreementIn order to appreciate Bishop Berkeley, one must first fully understand that ontology focuses on the nature of essence and meaning of being. Berkeley is a major proponent of subjective idealism in which ultimately argues that the world including all the material objects are not real but are mere collections of perceptions of human experience, which is what is real.   It highlights that significance of mind before matter and the preordained connection of mind and body.Thinking is function that people constantly do, consciously, unconsciously or subconsciously in relating to their environment.   The mind is essential to be considered in understanding the nature of the universe because everything entailed the consciousness of the mind.   Thus, the universe is the product of the mind. (Bourgeois, 2003, 162-163)Berkeley will not deny that the table being observed is definitely real but it needs to be subjected to one’s consciousness before we know it is real.   Moreover, the real essence of the table or that which makes a tab le what it is resides in the â€Å"idea† of the table which is in the mind of God.   It does not rest on the â€Å"physical table† which we perceived because our experiences of the table vary.   While we see the table is brown, solid and smooth, our experience of the brownness, solidness or smoothness of the table differs. There is a disparity between what at we perceive† and â€Å"what is real†.Russell agrees with Berkeley’s idea that the act of perception is dependent on the mind but the mind is only the mental functioning of the brain hence, the perceptions therefore do not actually exist in the mind.   We only get to have a mental idea of what a table is through our perception of the physical table.   Perception is the prime source of knowledge (Engel, S., 2001, p 250-260).Knowledge is mainly based on the acquisition, interpretation, selection and organization of information what we perceive.   In Bertrand Russell’s own words, à ¢â‚¬Å"our ideas are derived from two sources, sensation, and perception of the operation of our own mind, which may be called internal sense†. (Russell, 2004, p556) Hence, we form our idea of table from the perception.This approximation of what reality through our senses, despite differences in the intensity of what brownness, solidness and smoothness of the table is real knowledge we can establish by observation and generalization. Incidentally, this is the underlying philosophy of science. In the end, we gain our knowledge about the â€Å"table† not from an innate idea of a table but through an observation of the table.We know that a table is brown, solid and smooth, irregardless of the intensity of these descriptions from different people. â€Å"Perception is the first step and degree towards knowledge and the inlet of all the materials in it†. (Russel, 2004, p556) And that is what is real regardless of the ideal table that we can conceive.ReferencesAugustine and Outler, A. (2002). The Confessions of St. Augustine. Translated by Albert Cook Outler. Courier Dover PublicationsBourgeois, W. (2003). Persons: What Philosophers Say about You. 2nd edition. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press.Engel, S. (2001). The Study of Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield,Russell, B. (2004). History of Western Philosophy. 2nd edition. RoutledgeVon Martels, Z. R. W. M. and Schmidt, VM. Antiquity Renewed: Late Classical and Early Modern Themes. PREDESTINATION AND THE LOSS OF DRAMA FROM AUGUSTINE TO CALVIN by MB Pranger. Peeters Publishers   

Charles Manson Essay Example

Charles Manson Essay Example Charles Manson Essay Charles Manson Essay Charles Manson was birthed by a 16 year old alcoholic, prostitute. Mansons last name changed when his mother Kathleen married William Manson. Charles mother would always be drinking too much and spent a lot of time in Jail. In 1939, his mother went to prison for armed robbery. Due to her always going to Jail and prison, Manson moved in with his grandma and uncle. His grandma would subject him to the fanatic religious morals. His mother tried to send him to a foster home because she chose her boyfriend over her own son. She rejected him. Manson was placed in several boys schools. He claimed he was repeatedly rape and e soon escaped. In 1951, when he was eighteen, Manson sodomizes a boy while holding a razor to his throat. He was sent to Federal Reformatory at Petersburg, Virginia. In 1955, he married Rosalie Willis and had a son together named Charles Manson Jr. In April 1956, he was again sent to prison for a three years for auto theft and violating of his 1955 probation. Manson was released in 1958 and divorced Rosalie. In 1958, he was released once again, but he began pimping and stealing. Married again to Leona, and fathered second son. He was again arrested on June 1, 1960. He was charged for white slavery and of forging a U. S. Treasury check. He was sent to McNeil Island Penitentiary. While in Jail he met Alvin Creepy Karpis. His new friend taught him how to play the guitar. Manson was very skilled in playing the guitar and writing his own songs. Once he got out of prison he wanted to become famous with his talent. His second wife than again divorced him. He also learned and studied scientology while in prison. Professional Past: Charles Manson was still hoping for a music career. He hung out with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. The Beach Boys did record on of Mansons songs, which was called, Never Learn Not to Love. Manson believed Terry Melcher was going to improve his music career but it was not accomplished, Manson was disappointed. Family: Mary Brunner aid her husband in seducing people they met to Join the Manson Family. They moved to Spahn Ranch in southern California. Most of the Family consists of women. He was fond of taking pieces of different religions and creating his own ways of life. The Beatles song Helter Skelter which predicted an upcoming race war between blacks and whites and strong drugs influenced Charles Manson greatly. Manson prediction did not occur, he said he and his family must show how Murders: Facts: Although Manson was not present at the Tate/La Bianca killings, he was convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for directing them and ordering them on January 25, 1971. On March 29 1971 he was sentenced to death. On August 9, 1969, Mansons family was ordered to attack the home of Terry Melcher, the man who failed to help Manson with his music career. Fortunately for Melcher he was no longer a resident of that house. However, it was not so fortunate for Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and supposedly four other people. The police found the body of Steven Parent in a Rambler utomobile 102 stabs wounds are inflicted of four victims, a fifth victim was shot. The bodies of Frykowski and Folger were on the front lawn. In the living room, connected by a piece rope, police located the bodies Tate and Jay Sebring. Tate was stabbed 16 times, Folger was found to have been stabbed 28 times, and Sebrings showed seven powerful stab wounds and one deadly gunshot wound. Frykowski body exhibited 51 stab wounds and two gunshots. Lastly Parents body had five gunshot wounds. The murders are discovered by housekeeper the following morning. The word Pig was written in blood on the front door. Following shortly after this murder, Manson initiated another killing of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home as well on August 10, 1969. Frank Struthers, 16-year old son of Rosemary La Bianca, returned home to see his mother and stepfather dead. His stepfather discovered the body in the living room and his mother body was found in the bedroom. Mr. La Bianca head was covered with blood-soaked pillow case; his hands were tied behind his back with a leather thong. A carving fork was stuck in his stomach and was scratched the word War. An electric cord was around his neck, had 13 stab wounds and 14 puncture ounds by the torture of the fork. Mrs. La Bianca hands were tied with an electric cord and a pillow case over her head. An electric cord was around her neck Just as well. She had 41 separate stab wounds. Death of the Pigs was written in blood on a living room wall, over the door was written Rise, and on a refrigerator door was Healter Skelter which was misspelled. Holding: Manson was acquitted from the death penalty in 1972 when the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. Charles Manson is now serving a lifetime sentence. He was denied parole for the ninth time in March 1997. After several years, e was denied parole once again for the 12th time on April 11, 2012. Manson is currently being held in Californias Corcoran Prison. The prosecution felt that the causing of Helter Skelter was the main motive. The crime scenes bloody White Album references pig, rise, and helter skelter. It was connected with the testimony about Manson predications. It involved the writings of pigs on walls in victims blood. There are strong links between the Tate and La Bianca murders due to their motives. Diagnosis: criteria of antisocial personality disorder. It begins with an absence of parental love uring infancy, which leads to an absence of basic trust. In saying so, Manson mother was not there for him and did not care for him as much a parent should. Antisocial personality disordered individuals are very likely to have lived in families that experienced poverty, family violence, divorce, abuse and abandonment. It seems to fit Charles Manson due to the fact he was poor, no parents to guide him, and lacked love from family members. As a result of this, antisocial individuals do not trust others and they lack the moral development and social sympathy. Due to Manson past experience, he fits the results of antisocial personality disorder.

How to Conjugate the Verb Avere in Italian

How to Conjugate the Verb Avere in Italian In Italian, â€Å"avere† can be defined as:   To haveTo ownTo obtainTo holdTo wearTo receive What to Know About â€Å"Avere† It’s an irregular second-conjugation verb, so it doesn’t follow the typical -ere verb ending pattern.It’s a transitive verb, so it takes a direct object.The infinito is â€Å"avere.†The participio passato is â€Å"avuto.†The gerund form is â€Å"avendo.†The past gerund form is â€Å" avendo avuto.† Indicativo/Indicative Il presente io ho noi abbiamo tu hai voi avete lui, lei, Lei ha essi, Loro hanno Esempi: Abbiamo fame! Possiamo andare in pizzeria? - We’re hungry! Can we go to the pizzeria?Ho un brutto presentimento! - I have a bad feeling! Il passato prossimo io ho avuto noi abbiamo avuto tu hai avuto voi avete avuto lui, lei, Lei, ha avuto essi, Loro hanno avuto Esempi: Quel giorno ho avuto tanta paura. Non volevo vederlo. - I was really scared that day. I didn’t want to see him.Quei ragazzi hanno avuto un’infanzia infelice. - Those guys had a sad childhood. L’imperfetto io avevo noi avevamo tu avevi voi avevate lui, lei, Lei aveva essi, Loro avevano Ad esempio: Quando avevo nove anni, sono andato a Roma con i miei. - When I was nine years old, I went to Rome with my parents. Il trapassato prossimo io avevo avuto noi avevamo avuto tu avevi avuto voi avevate avuto lui, lei, Lei aveva avuto essi, Loro avevano avuto Ad esempio: Si fidi (di me), non aveva avuto nessun’ importanza. - Trust me, it wasn’t important at all. Il passato remoto io ebbi noi avemmo tu avesti voi aveste lui, lei, Lei ebbe essi, Loro ebbero Esempi: Ebbe un gatto che si chiamava Alberto. - He had a cat called Alberto.Quel giorno i miei genitori ebbero un colpo di fortuna. - My parents had a stroke of luck that day. Il trapassato remoto io ebbi avuto noi avemmo avuto tu avesti avuto voi aveste avuto lui, lei, Lei ebbe avuto essi, Loro ebbero avuto TIP: This tense is rarely used, so don’t worry too much about mastering it. You’ll find it in very sophisticated writing. Il futuro semplice io avr noi avremo tu avrai voi avrete lui, lei, Lei avr essi, Loro avranno Ad esempio: Avrà ² cura di te. - I’ll take care of you. Il futuro anteriore io avr avuto noi avremo avuto tu avrai avuto voi avrete avuto lui, lei, Lei avr avuto essi, Loro avranno avuto Ad esempio: Ha fatto le bizze? Strano, avr avuto fame. - She had a tantrum? Weird, she must have been hungry. Congiuntivo/Subjunctive Il presente che io abbia che noi abbiamo che tu abbia che voi abbiate che lui, lei, Lei abbia che essi, Loro abbiano Ad esempio: Penso che tu abbia un buon lavoro, non credi? - I think you have a good job, you don’t think so? Il passato io abbia avuto noi abbiamo avuto tu abbia avuto voi abbiate avuto lui, lei, egli abbia avuto essi, Loro abbiano avuto Ad esempio: Malgrado abbia avuto voglia di un gelato, non ne ho mangiato. - Even though I wanted an ice cream, I didn’t eat one. L’imperfetto io avessi noi avessimo tu avessi voi aveste lui, lei, egli avesse essi, Loro avessero Ad esempio: Credevo che tu avessi due sorelle, invece ne hai solo una. - I thought you had two sisters, but instead, you only have one. Il trapassato prossimo io avessi avuto noi avessimo avuto tu avessi avuto voi aveste avuto lui, lei, Lei avesse avuto essi, Loro avessero avuto Esempi: Se avessero avuto freddo, me lo avrebbero dovuto dire! - If they were cold, they should have told me!Pensavo che tu avessi avuto sufficiente tempo per pensare! - I thought you’ve had enough time to think! Condizionale/Conditional Il presente io avrei noi avremmo tu avresti voi avreste lui, lei, Lei avrebbe essi, Loro avrebbero Esempi: Professore, avrei una domanda.. - Professor, I have a question. (formal)Avrei proprio voglia di un gelato! - I would really have an ice-cream right now! Il passato io avrei avuto noi avremmo avuto tu avresti avuto voi avreste avuto lui, lei, egli avrebbe avuto essi, Loro avrebbero avuto Ad Esempio Non avrei mai avuto il coraggio di trasferirmi in Italia tutta sola! - I would have never had the courage to move to Italy all by myself!