Growing industrialism of the Gilded Age Essay

The growing industrialism of the Gilded Age was indeed a threat to American Democracy. The American Government stood idly by as the Industrialists became more and more powerful. The Preamble of the document that is the foundation of this great country, The Constitution of the United States, reads: ‘We, the people of the United States, in order to form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.’ The American Government was not doing its best to ensure domestic tranquillity or to promote general welfare. Major Industrialists of the time were not kept in check, and the working class citizen paid for it big time. Company towns, the presence of monopolies, and an inactive government all contributed to this threat to American Democracy. During the Gilded Age many large companies took over entire towns. Everybody in that particular town worked for that company. These were called company towns. The large companies replaced all the stores that already existed in that town with their own stores. To keep the citizens of that town from going to other towns to buy supplies they printed their own money and the workers were paid with that. This allowed the large companies to charge an unfair amount for the goods sold in their stores. All competition was eliminated in that town. Competition is the major principle behind the American economy and ultimately the American Democracy. Without competition, weather it be between companies for a profit or politicians for a political office, this great American Democracy would fail. Company towns were also a center for political corruption. Many immigrants that came to this country were given a job and a home in a company town. In exchange for these gifts they were made to vote for candidates that the company supported. This undermines the basic selling point of American Democracy which was that government was of the people, by the people and for  the people. At this point American Democracy was more like a government of the Industrialists, by the Industrialists and for the Industrialists. Industrialists’ monopolies were not limited to the control over towns. The major Industrialists also extended their monopolies into businesses. If ABC corporation manufactured steel, they would buy out all of the other businesses that manufactured steel. ABC corporation might also buy out businesses that sold them the supplies to make steel. With this monopoly in place, ABC corporation would now essentially be able to manufacture steel for only the cost of labor. Because so many powerful Industrialists such as Carnegie and Rockefellar controlled monopolies, the working class was once again punished. Not only could these men charge unfair amounts for their products, they could also pay the workers unfair wages. If a worker was tired of working for unfair wages and quit his job, he would be unable to find another job with better wages. Because there were no other better jobs to be found large corporations also forced workers to work in unsafe work environments. In these monopolies, that important concept of competition was once again eliminated and American Democracy was threatened by this. Through all of this, the American government did nothing. The government did little to stop the forming of monopolies. Because government did not step in and stop the major Industrialists competition was virtually eliminated. It is well known that competition is the backbone of America’s economy and always has been. It is competition that allows America to have a free-market economy. However, it is as equally true to say that competition is an important part in government. Politicians were able to compete for the votes of only the major Industrialists, and still win an election. Those major Industrialists were so powerful that they were able to control who people voted for, as stated previously. The Industrialists had the politicians in their back pocket. If a politician wanted to get elected, he could most likely do that by siding with major Industrialists on important issues. The lower could be completely ignored. Because of this, politicians competed for the votes of only the major Industrialists and ignored the middle and lower  classes. Many people may say that it is not governments job to do anything. However, those people should refer back to the Preamble of the Constitution. The Preamble states that one of the purposes of this union is to promote the general welfare of the people. By allowing the major Industrialists to eliminate competition in business and in government, the American Democracy was threatened. It became increasingly obvious that American Democracy was not promoting the general welfare of the nation, thus not doing its job.

EPC Plant Equipment Maintenance Process

Man-hours of Planned WOW Standby Man-hours ratio 0 No. Of Standby Man-hours / No. Of total Man-hours Mean work-order execution time (Days) Maintenance cost and cost ratio 0 Total maintenance cost per month / Total equipment book value 0 Differentiated values for man-hours and spare-parts 0 Divided in separated categories of equipment (rotary, fixed, facilities, etc. ) Measured monthly Level 1 cross-functional map of the current processWe at EPIC have been able to produce and deliver high quality, high-value chemicals to our customers through modern process technologies and hallucinated equipment and facilities. However, The ever increasing competition in the market requires us to reduce our plant maintenance costs and improve maintenance productivity by reducing non-value-adding activities and idle times, optimizing our manpower and machinery resource allocation, reducing spare-parts inventories, and minimizing the equipment idle-time and maintenance/procurement delays. These objecti ves may not be achieved unless we review, assess, and improve our maintenance planning and execution processes.To achieve an acceptable level of maintenance quality and productivity aimed at increasing production reliability and continuation, we have proposed to initiate a comprehensive analysis of maintenance processes, targeted at 50% reduction in maintenance costs and time, 30% reduction in spare parts inventory, and an average inter-overhaul period of at least 8 years. Implementing the above initiative will hopefully enable us to maintain our cost leadership and remain at the top of the domestic chemicals market. Review/analysis of the current state and its problems/issues As cited in the section n symptoms/problems and the root cause analysis chart, The most basic symptoms of the maintenance process which are manifested in the internal customer's dissatisfaction are delayed execution and poor quality of maintenance work.These are mainly attributed to unskilled maintenance worke rs, poor coordination and cooperation between production and maintenance workers, and long procurement procedures, which result in several losses: 0 Downtime from breakdown and changeover times 0 Speed losses (when equipment fails to operate at its optimum speed) 0 Idling and minor stoppages due to the abnormal operation of sensors, blockage of work on hates, etc. 0 Process defects due to scrap and quality defects to be repaired 0 Reduced yield in the period from machine start-up to stable production. But the ultimate cause of all these inefficiencies lies in the non-optimized function-oriented hierarchical organization within the maintenance and other company-wide departments. In fact, this last phenomenon is the cause of fragmented processes and unnecessary control and inspection, which in turn hinder employees' motivation and empowerment as well as cause very long cycles of spare-parts procurement. Initial improvements- Streamlining

Examine different sociological views on changes in the experience of childhood

There have been many changes in society that have affected children over the last 50 years, however there are several different sociological views on whether these changes have been beneficial to children or not. Functionalist sociologists have the ‘march of progress’ view, as they believe that the experience of childhood has massively improved over the last 50 years. They believe that society is more child-centred today than ever before.The introduction of contraception has led to couples having smaller families, therefore meaning that children now tend to receive more attention from their parents. Similarly, parents are also able to care for their children better due to the introduction of the welfare state and child benefits. Climbie’s case and ‘Every Child Matters’ has led to the improvement of social services and child protection, meaning childhood is much safer now than it was 50 years ago.Children are also in better health due to the NHS, meani ng more children survive childhood now than ever before. All children can now receive state education up until the age of 18, meaning they are better educated and can achieve much higher in adulthood, whilst experiencing a longer period of youth. All of these changes have improved the experience of childhood and cause Functionalists to believe that things are getting better. However, Marxist and Feminist sociologists disagree, claiming that the march of progress view is too positive.They believe that a child’s experience of childhood depends on their class, ethnicity and gender, and that Functionalists overlook the inequalities between these factors. This is called the ‘conflict’ view. Class has an effect on childhood as generally if a family is poor, the children are more likely to have a poor upbringing. Ethnicity is found to have an effect as Asian parents have been found to be much stricter on their kids.

Exit letter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Exit letter - Essay Example Surprisingly, I enjoy writing now and I feel more equipped to rise to the challenge of writing more reports in the military standard and with the proper use of the language, too. Before, for prewriting, I would go straight to researching any books given to me on the topic or surfing the Internet. Now, I know that should set my purpose for writing first, whether to show comparison and contrast, or cause and effect; identify my reader; limit my topic; draft a thesis statement that has the topic and controlling idea; brainstorm ideas and information to support the thesis statement; and that it is only when I draw a preliminary outline or map that organizes the main ideas logically. After doing prewriting, that's only when I go to drafting. It's when I put my ideas into sentences and concentrate on elaborating on and supporting my ideas. This only when I start to connect my ideas to each other. I also don't have to pay much attention to spelling and grammar at this stage. I just have to focus on writing what I know about the topic. I am basically writing for myself here-more of just seeing my thoughts unfold. I have read before that the real art of writing starts with rewriting or revising. Now, I think that it's true.

The Market for Lemons Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Market for Lemons - Case Study Example Akerlof then says that, although his theory has these very general applications, he will focus on the market for used cars: "The automobile market is used as a finger exercise to illustrate and develop these thoughts. It should be emphasized that this market is chosen for its concreteness and ease in understanding rather than for its importance or realism" (Akerlof, George, 1970) On first reading, it is tempting to interpret "the automobile market" as the market in which real people buy and sell real cars and to think that Akerlof is going to present some kind of case-study. One can see why he might focus on one particular market which is easy to understand, even if that market is not very important on the scale of the economy as a whole. But then what does Akerlof mean when he says that this market is not realistic The object of a case-study may be unrepresentative, but it cannot be unrealistic. To make sense of this passage, we have to recognize that it marks a transition between the real world and the world of models. Akerlof is using the real automobile market as an example. But what he is going to present is not an empirical case study; it is a model of the automobile market. Although it is the real market which may be unimportant, it is the model which may be unrealistic. Akerlof moves straight on to the central section of his paper, section II, entitled "The Model with Automobiles as an Example." The transition from reality to model is made again at the very beginning of this section: The example of used cars captures the essence of the problem. From time to time one hears either mention of or surprise at the large price difference between new cars and those which have just left the showroom. The usual lunch table justification for this phenomenon is the pure joy of owning a "new" car. We offer a different explanation. Suppose (for the sake of clarity rather than realism) that there are just four kinds of cars. There are new cars and used cars. There are good cars and bad cars. (Akerlof, George, 1970) The first four sentences are about an observed property of the real world: there is a large price difference between new cars and almost-new ones. Akerlof suggests that, at least from the viewpoint of the lunch table, this observation is difficult to explain. If we assume that Akerlof takes lunch with other economists, the implication is that economics cannot easily explain it; the "pure joy" hypothesis sounds like an ad hoc stratagem to rescue conventional price theory.  

Destiny After Brokenness Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Destiny After Brokenness - Term Paper Example   This may lead him to â€Å"break away† from his own reality; hence, his brokenness. It is hoped that whatever conclusions that may be made by the writer at the end may contribute to the enrichment of the body of knowledge currently proliferating on the subject. It would be useful for easy understanding to check out what could be the different connotations that have been attached to the word â€Å"destiny.† Indeed, there are many, given the depths that this word has assumed. Simmons (1) defines destiny as â€Å"that place to which a person is meant to be.† The American Heritage Dictionary is more explicit: â€Å"a predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power and control.† In this sense, it gives an understanding of destiny as something that pertains to an ending that has been present from the beginning and which cannot be changed by any means. This belief is maintained by the scientific advocates of evolution or even the atheists who do not believe in a Supreme Being and who support the thesis that everything evolves. Although science has not proven the evolution of man and continues to figure out how the planetary system is kept in suspension, many still doubt the existence of a God (Lasiter). But any discussion of destiny can only be understood in a wider perspective when seen from the point of view of evolution or the origin of things, as aptly put by Lasiter in his online programming discourse on Man’s Ultimate Destiny. Lasiter looks at evolution as the determinant of the end-point of things, which idea presupposes that matter with no ability to make choices would follow the line that destiny is that which has been present from the beginning, whatever it is.   This thinking, however, takes a wider deviation when destiny is analyzed in relation to human beings who have the ability to make choices because of their free will.  

Compare the way in which institutionalists and Marxists conceive of Essay

Compare the way in which institutionalists and Marxists conceive of the state and its role in the economy - Essay Example By the 1960s, there was ageneral opinion of living in a ‘mixed economy’ (also known as organised capitalism), which changed dramatically since the mid-1970s, when Neo-Liberalism came into existence thataimed atending mixed economy and bringing back market principles unimaginable inthe years just after the WWII.The emergence of Neo-Liberalism in the last few decades has changed the nature of debate on the State’s role, and the state is no longer regarded as a neutral guardian of its citizens, but as a major tool in the hands of the economically powerful social classes or as a predator (Chang, 1994). In this context, the essay will examine the Institutionalists and Marxists notions on the state and its role in the economy, two major theories on political economy that were popularduring the latter half of the twentieth century. The term ‘free market’ generally refers to economy that is free from state intervention. To analyse whether a particular market is free or not, one must review the underlying institutions thatframe the structure for obligations and rights of participants in a specific market,along with various other ‘externalities’ (Schotter, 1985). The institutions that must necessarily be analysed includeregulations(formal and informal ones) that govern the organisation and exercise of interests (regulations on lobbying, political relationshipsand incorporation);ideologiesassociated with concepts of rights and justiceprevalent in that particular society; andthe institutions that ascertainstructural changes in rights and obligations, such as processes for social or legal changes. Therefore, by defining ‘free market’ and ‘state intervention’one can also analyse whether market failure is evident and if state intervention may make the failing market more efficient. From the perspective of the

Religious ideology and the power of the state in African past Essay

Religious ideology and the power of the state in African past - Essay Example mid Caliphate came to existence in 909 AD; the Fatimids ruled following the Berber revolt, and later on, attempted to acquire morocco and Egypt as well from the Mamluks who were in control (Islam in North Africa, N.d, slide 7). The Arab leadership was evident, which subjected people to pay taxes and conversion to Islam, failure to which they would be killed. With time, Arabic became the main language, which displaced other languages, and as a result, by the 14century, Christianity had been reduced to the ration of 1 in 10 Egyptians. Islam also spread among the Berber community, mainly through army membership; the Berber captives were converted to Islam once recruited to the army (Islam in North Africa, N.d, slide 12). Despite the Berbers’ resistance, when the Muslim army conquered Morocco and Algeria, the Berbers had to convert to Islam. Arabs had succeeded in conquering the Berber territories, forcing the Berbers to be slaves. This Arab rule introduced multi–cropping, aimed at increasing the state revenue. However, the severe famine of 1062-73 influenced the decline of Fatimid rule, which was overthrown later on by the Mamluk troops, and thereafter, Mamluks took over leadership in Egypt. It is rather evident that the Arab leadership influenced the spread of Islam all over North Africa. The Ptolemaic rule existed between 332-30BC; Ptolemaists succeeded Alexander the great. They focused on advancing Egypt, with port of Alexandria being their main achievement. As a result, Alexandria became the biggest city in Egypt, therefore attracting many people from different races (Greek conquest, N.d, slide 3). The Ptolemaists aimed at expanding trade from Europe to red sea and Indian Ocean, with the Greeks introducing camels. Aksum was one of the regions involved in trade; it was ruled by king Zoscales who was of Greek origin. In 146 BC, Rome had conquered Carthage, creating a new province, Ifrikiya. As a result, Rome exploited the agriculture sector in North Africa,

Python Programming Language Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Python Programming Language - Essay Example In addition, python language integrates amazing control with extremely clear and simple language syntax or python programming rules. Moreover, it offers user interfaces to a lot of system calls, built-in libraries, and to a variety of window systems. Thus, we can say that the python language has the power to be integrated within C++ or C capabilities. On the other hand, it can also work as an extendable language for programs that require a programmable user working interface. In short, python is a high level programming language which offers a great deal of portability facility because it executes on a lot of UNIX platforms, Personal Computers under MS-DOS, Macintosh system, and Windows based systems like Windows NT and OS/2 platform (Python Software Foundation, 2011; Snyder, 2007; Cai, Langtangen, & Moe, 2005). This report presents a detailed overview of python programming language. ... Additionally, it can be utilized for the development of various types of application programs and software. The basic design principle of the python language highlights the programmer efficiency and program code interpretation. Python was at first developed by Guido van Rossum. The development of python was encouraged by Haskell, ABC, LIST programming, Java, Perl and Icon programming languages used for various purposes. Python programming language is a high level, extensive, construed and multi-platform programming language. In addition, python programming language is a smallest programming language. However, the most attractive characteristic of python programming language is that it does not make use of any sort of brackets or semicolons in source code. In its place, python utilizes indentation technique (Bodnar, 2010; Hightower, 2001). Moreover, python programming language comes in two versions. In this scenario, these versions of python programming language are 3.x and 2.x. The P ython 3.x has cracked backward compatibility issues with earlier editions of python language. It was made to rectify a number of design defects of the language as well as enable enhanced capability of the language (Bodnar, 2010; Hightower, 2001). History of Python Python programming language was initially developed by Guido von Rossum during 1990s. This name of language was established due to Brit-com Monty Python's Flying Circus. This programming language has since been updated and improved by a large number of members or helpers as well as can be downloaded without paying any cost from the Python Software Foundation. Additionally, the latest edition of Python, 2.5, was brought to public in 2006. Python programming language is currently established in a lot of

LAW FOR BUSINESS Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

LAW FOR BUSINESS Assignment - Essay Example Thus the law on tort has allowed and provided compensation in respect of economic losses that arise directly out of the physical loss, which has not been problematic, but there have been instances when a causal link with the injury and the economic loss could not be made. (Pritchard v. Cobden)1. The problem that lies is in the compensation for losses which are financial or pecuniary in nature, or in other words the loss cannot be in any attributed to or have no connection whatsoever with the personal or physical harm that has been caused to the claimant, this is what has been termed as pure economic loss. These type of losses can include the financial loss or expenditure which resulted from the negligence of the defendant. Therefore for the majority of cases under this head there is an exclusionary rules which bars recovery in these cases and liability is the exception. (Deakin et al 2003) It has been argued that the courts in the instance of personal injury tend to compute loss of f uture earnings which are as difficult to calculate as would be pure economic loss. Furthermore in Canadian National Railway v. ... ment that has been most often cited by the court is that the if the exclusionary rule is not present than the ‘floodgates’ in respect of such liability would open, whereby there would endless claims against the defendants. This has been argued to be a weak argument because extensive liabilities can be found in respect of claims of physical damage for example large scale pollution. (Elliott et al 2007) A better argument in that respect would be the fact that if such an open ended duty of care is imposed in respect of economic loss then there remains the danger of indeterminate liability that is unpredictability in respect of the number of claimants as well as the size of claim. An important example that has been given in this respect is where due to an accident on the highway the motorist who was negligent is held to owe a duty to all those who were stuck in a traffic jam as a result of the accident in respect of their loss of earnings. (J.Stapleton, ‘Duty of Care a nd Economic Loss- A Wider Agenda’)3. Therefore a line of exclusion has been drawn. There has been an argument from Professor Feldthusen that all cases in respect of pure economic loss should not be covered under one heading and therefore a disctinction in this respect should be made for each area. Question 2Â   In the case of Hedley Byrne v. Heller4 the courts did not find any negligence misstatement because of the fact that there had been a disclaimer in the remarks that is the term without responsibility whereby the possibility of a duty of care was extinguished.The position in respect of accountant’s liability can be seen from the decision of House of Lords in Caparo v. Dickman5 whereby for the establishment of a duty of care a reformed three stage test was laid down. The first requirement was

Strategic Management CP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Management CP - Essay Example ing and implementation of IT in military organizations based on the overall strategic goals has different organizational competencies to those of civilian organizations (Bouwman, 2005). The paper undertakes to demonstrate clearly the difference of planning for and implementation of information technology in civilian and military organizations. Additionally, it performs an evaluation based on the varied overall strategic goals of civilian and military organizations, planning and implementation of information technology. Flattening of information in an organization entails reassigning the authority and functions of one or more middle management layers, either upward or downward. Planning for and implementation of information technology requires the involvement of stakeholders at various management levels. According to Bouwman (2005), flattening an organization improves the flow of information from those who have it to those in the position to act on it. Additionally, reduction of the number of management layers equally increases the accuracy of information by limiting the chances of either deliberate or accidental distortion. However, it should be noted that flattening focuses on the function of middle management that include the aggregation, filtering and transmission of information. It is perhaps with respect to these functions that the advances in information technology suggest flattening as being desirable, given that information technology facilitates this work and may allow for the automation of much of it. In this regard, leadership roles in the planning and implementation of IT in civilian and military organizations are different. In civilian organizations, spans of control run from twenty or thirty to hundreds of subordinates. In these organizations, superiors do not have to control their subordinates in any way since they cannot teaching their subordinates necessary skills (Anderson, Banker, Menon & Romero, 2011). Further, in civilian organizations,

From Strategy to Business Essay Example for Free

From Strategy to Business Essay Strategy scholars have used the notion of the Business Model to refer to the ‘logic of the firm’ e how it operates and creates value for its stakeholders. On the surface, this notion appears to be similar to that of strategy. We present a conceptual framework to separate and relate the concepts of strategy and business model: a business model, we argue, is a reflection of the firm’s realized strategy. We find that in simple competitive situations there is a one-to-one mapping between strategy and business model, which makes it difficult to separate the two notions. We show that the concepts of strategy and business model differ when there are important contingencies on which a well-designed strategy must be based. Our framework also delivers a clear distinction between strategy and tactics, made possible because strategy and business model are different constructs. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction The ï ¬ eld of strategy has evolved substantially in the past twenty-ï ¬ ve years. Firms have learned to analyze their competitive environment, deï ¬ ne their position, develop competitive and corporate advantages, and understand better how to sustain advantage in the face of competitive challenges and threats. Different approaches including industrial organization theory, the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities and game theory have helped academicians and practitioners understand the dynamics of competition and develop recommendations about how ï ¬ rms should deï ¬ ne their competitive and corporate strategies. But drivers such as globalization, deregulation and technological change (to mention only a few) are profoundly changing the competitive game. Scholars and practitioners agree that the fastest growing ï ¬ rms in this new environment appear to be those that have taken advantage of  these structural changes to innovate in their business models so they can compete ‘differently’. IBM’s Global CEO Studies for 2006 and 2008, for example, show that top management in a broad range of industries are actively seeking guidance on how to innovate in their business models to improve their ability to both create and capture value.1 In addition to the business model innovation drivers noted above, much recent interest has come from two other environmental shifts. Advances in ICT have been a major force behind the recent 0024-6301/$ see front matter.interest in business model innovation. Many e-businesses are based on new business models e Shafer, Smith and Linder ï ¬ nd that eight of the twelve recent business model deï ¬ nitions they present relate to e-business.2 New strategies for the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ in emerging markets have also steered researchers and practitioners towards the systematic study of business models. Academicians working in this area agree that ï ¬ rms need to develop novel business models to be effective in such speciï ¬ c and challenging environments (see work by Thompson and MacMillan, as well as by Yunus et al. in this issue), and socially motivated enterprises constitute a second important source of recent business model innovations. Advances in ICT and the demands of socially motivated enterprises constitute important sources of recent business model innovations. While it has become uncontroversial to argue that managers must have a good understanding of how business models work if their organizations are to thrive, the academic community has only offered early insights on the issue to date, and there is (as yet) no agreement as to the distinctive features of superior business models. We believe this is partly because of a lack of a clear distinction between the notions of strategy, business models and tactics, and the purpose of this article is to contribute to this literature by presenting an integrative framework to distinguish and relate these three concepts. Put succinctly:  Business Model refers to the logic of the ï ¬ rm, the way it operates and how it creates value for its stakeholders; and  Strategy refers to the choice of business model through which the ï ¬ rm will compete in the marketplace; while  Tactics refers to the residual choices open to a ï ¬ rm by virtue of the business model it chooses to employ. To integrate these three concepts, we introduce a generic two-stage competitive process framework, as depicted in Figure 1. In the ï ¬ rst stage, ï ¬ rms choose a ‘logic of value creation and value capture’ (i.e., choose their business model), and in the second, make tactical choices guided by their goals (which, in most cases, entail some form of stakeholder value maximization). Figure 1 thus presents our organizing framework: the object of strategy is the choice of business model, and the business model employed determines the tactics available to the ï ¬ rm to compete against, or cooperate with, other ï ¬ rms in the marketplace. The article is organized as follows. In the next section we deï ¬ ne and discuss the notion of business models and present a tool to represent them, while the following section considers the stage two ‘choice’ in our framework, presenting and discussing the notion of tactics in relation to that of business model. The following section then moves back to examine the ï ¬ rst e strategy e stage, after which we revisit our process framework to integrate the three notions. We discuss the connection between strategy and business model, arguing that both notions can be clearly separated. A detailed example is developed in the following stage, followed by some concluding remarks. Business models Although the expression ‘business model’ has gained in prominence only in the last decade, the term has been part of the business jargon for a long time, its origins going back to the writings of Peter Drucker. Although (as Markides points out) there is no widely accepted deï ¬ nition, Magretta deï ¬ nes business models as ‘stories that explain how enterprises work’, and follows Drucker in deï ¬ ning ‘a good business model’ as the one that provides answers to the following questions: ‘Who is the customer and what does the costumer value?’ and ‘What is the underlying economic logic that explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost?’ While not formal, her implicit idea is that a business model is about how an organization earns money by addressing these two fundamental issues e how it identiï ¬ es and creates value for customers, and how it captures some of this value as its proï ¬ t in the process. Amit and Zott’s deï ¬ nition, in contrast, is less broad (as it focuses on e-businesses) but more precise. Reviewing the contributions of several theories including virtual markets, Schumpeterian innovation, value chain analysis, the resource-based view of the ï ¬ rm, dynamic capabilities,  transaction cost economics and strategic networks they point out that each contributes elements to the notion, but that none, by itself, explains business models completely. They analyze a sample of U.S. and European e-business models to highlight the drivers of value creation, and present the following integrative deï ¬ nition: ‘A business model depicts the content, structure, and governance of transactions designed so as to create value through the exploitation of business opportunities.’ The content of a transaction refers to the goods or information exchanged, as well as to resources and capabilities required; the structure refers to the parties that participate, their links, and the way they choose to operate, and governance refers to the way ï ¬â€šows of information, resources and goods are controlled by the relevant parties, the legal form of organization, and the incentives to the participants.5 In this issue, they build on this deï ¬ nition to propose an ‘activity system perspective’ for the design of business models, arguing that activity systems capture the essence of business models and proposing two sets of aspects for designers to consider: design elements (content, structure and governance) that describe the activity system’s architecture, and design themes (novelty, lock-in, complementarities, and efï ¬ ciency) that describe its sources of value creation. The common thread across all of these approximations to the notion of busin ess model is well captured by BadenFuller, MacMillan, Demil and Lecocq in their deï ¬ nition ‘the logic of the ï ¬ rm, the way it operates and how it creates value for its stakeholders’, and we adopt their deï ¬ nition as the starting point for our argument. To make progress toward understanding business models, we ï ¬ nd it helpful to use the analogy of a machine e by which we mean a mechanical device that transmits energy to perform tasks. (Of course, real organizations are different from machines in many important respects, but the comparison is helpful, especially to our thinking in contrasting the notions of strategy and business models.) Any given machine has a particular logic of operation (the way the different components are assembled and relate to one another), and operates in a particular way to create value for its user. To be more concrete, different automobile designs have different speciï ¬ c logics of operation conventional engines operate quite differently from hybrids, and  standard transmissions from automatics and create different value for their ‘stakeholders,’ the drivers. Some may prefer a small car that allows them to navigate congested city streets easily, while others may prefer a large SUV with a powerful engine to enjoy the countryside to the fullest. Automobiles are made of parts wheels, engines, seats, electronics, windshields, and the like. To assess how well a particular automobile works or to create a new one one must consider its components and how they relate to one another, just as, to better understand business models, one needs to understand their component parts and their relationships. (We return to this analogy during the paper: readers will gain more value from it if they understand the design and building of the car as representing strategy; the car itself as the business model; and the driving of the car as the available set of tactics.)

Simon Armitage And Carol Ann Duffy English Literature Essay

Simon Armitage And Carol Ann Duffy English Literature Essay This paper will deal about the Poetry of the Twentieth Century. Especially it deals about Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy. The first part deals about their biographies. The second part talks about the setting of their works, a description of the era when they start working and descriptions of the main aspects of those years. In the third part of this paper there is an analysis of the style that they used in their works. Then there is an analysis of some of their poems. And in the last part as a conclusion you can find my opinions about the topic. Biographies: In this section the biography of the two of them are presented. First there is the biography of Simon Armitage and then the biography of Carol Ann Duffy. Simon Armitage: Simon Armitage was born in 1963. He was born in the village of Marsden and nowadays he lives in West Yorkshire, in England. He is a graduate in Geography at Portsmouth University and also he studied social work in the University of Manchester. In this university he also made his thesis that talked about the effects of the violence in television. He had a job as Probation Officer in the Greater Manchester until 1994. After he published his mayor works he published some limited edition pamphlets. In these pamphlets we can find, for example: Human Geography, The Distance Between Stars, The Walking Horses, Around Robinson, and Suitcase, etc. Simon Armitage was a teacher in the University of Leeds and in the University of Lowas Writers Workshop. Nowadays he is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. And he is also an Artist in Residence at Londons South Bank. He is Vice President of the Poetry Society. Talking about his works, he had poems, novels, radio and television works, etc. Within his poetry works we can find: Zoom! (1989), Xanadu (1992), Kid (1992), Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), Moon Country (1996), CloudCuckooLand (1997), Killing Time (1999), Selected Poems (2001), Travelling Songs (2002), The Universal Home Doctor (2002), Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid (2006) and Seeing Stars (2010). He has two novels: the first of them was published in 2001 and its name is Little Green Man, the second novel is The White Stuff published in 2004. He has other type of works: he writes for radio, television and film, and he is also the author of four stage plays. Carol Ann Duffy Carol Ann Duffy was born in 1955, in Glasgow, Scotland. She had four brothers. She went to St. Austin Roman Catholic Primary School, St. Josephs Convent School and Stafford Girls High School. She attended to the University of Liverpool, where she studied Philosophy. She also had a work as a freelance writer in London. She has a daughter in common with her husband, the novelist Jackie Kay, whose name is Ella. Since 2002 she is a teacher of Creative Writing in the University of Manchester, where she lives nowadays. Her works can be divided into: adult poetry collections, books for children, anthologies and plays. Within her collections of adult poetry we can find: Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987), The Other Country (1990), Mean Time (1993), The Worlds Wife (1999); Feminine Gospels (2002), and Rapture (2005). Her poems for children are collected in New Collected Poems for  Children (2009).  She also has picture books for children as: Underwater Farmyard (2002), Doris the Giant (2004), Moon Zoo (2005),  The Tear Thief (2007), and The Princesss Blankets (2009). The anthologies that were edited by Carol Ann were: Out of Fashion (2004), Answering Back (2007), and To The Moon: An Anthology of Lunar Poems (2009). She wrote four plays: Take My Husband (1982), Cavern of Dreams (1984), Little Women, Big Boys (1986) and Loss (1986). Setting These two authors stated writing more or less at the same time, in the latest eighties. The life in the Eighties in Britain as Malcolm Bradbury (1994) said: it was a time of many reappraisals and restructurings, and of rising doubts, dark prophecies and apocalyptic feelings among a good many of its artist and intellectuals. In history terms, it can be said that some important facts occurred in these years. This summary starts one year after that the first work by Carol Ann Duffy was published. 1984: Strike of the Coal Miners. Trade Union Act. The British Telecom became private. 1985: Anglo-Irish Agreement: an agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. 1986: Riots (disturbances) in Brixton or Lambeth. The London Stock Exchange was deregulated. Also in this year the British Gas became private. 1987: Single European Act (the revision of the Treaty of Rome, 1957). The British Airways were privatized. 1988: Alliance between the SDP and the liberal party. 1989: Opening of Berlin Wall. Release of Guildford-Four. Talking about the characteristics of the poetry in the Eighties and some special features of these two authors it can be said that: The poetry of nowadays present various ethnicities, cultures or nationalities. It moved from a nationalist poetry to a more international one. It also changes from a centralist, male and academic practice poetry to a cultural entertainment for all the people and multicultural one. Old themes change to religious, cultural, sexual and ideological pluralism. We can also find the concerns of minorities, sexual orientation, origin, gender or language. Randall Stevenson (2004: 212) said that: In Poet for Our Times (1990) Carol Ann Duffy defined headlines, in 1980s, as the poems of the decade- a bottom line of art sometimes used sensationally by her contemporaries to incorporate into poetry the immediate reality of the urban life The traditional language used in the United Kingdom turned into new ways of writing, for example, the use of dialects as Gaelic or new grammar rules. New lexical items and words like languages of ancient colonies of Britain or different slang words are included in the poems of the contemporary poetry. In the poetry of the late century we can find language disruption, formal adventure and challenges to conventional facts. New types of poetry appear: national poetry, womens poetry or multicultural poetry are common in this period. Womens poetry became more popular at the end of the 1970s. The topics of the womens poetry (Randall Stevenson, 2004: 222) are: day- to-day experience, and womens feelings about experiences [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] work, friendship, family relationship, abortion, childbirth and sexual relationships- heterosexual and lesbian The black poetry became more popular because of the fact that black immigrants came to England and wrote their poems there. Poetry became a way of entertainment, it can be found in theatres, pubs or bars. It turns to an art only for few people to a popular art. This can be the consequence of the expansion of the publishing houses from London to many cities through England. The poetry of the late twentieth century and the twenty-first century it is more focused to be an international poetry. Style In this section the style of both authors is going to be analyzed. First of all there are features that are characteristic in both authors; this is because they belong to the same period. Then there are specific features of each of them. The used to write about issues that are relevant to todays society. They write about past experiences or characters of other lifestyles to explore them. Both of them give thoughts and feelings that we might experiences once or themes that are relevant to everybody. Talking about the structure and the style of the poems it can be said that: They have different types of poems with different structures as: narrative poems, sonnets, structured verse or free verse. Within the style, and specifically language, we can find that they use a colloquial language, but within this simple language there are complex ideas. Some examples of languages techniques that they used are: alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, etc. The language that they used is crucial for people to understand their works. Simon Armitage Additionally to the common characteristics, Simon Armitage has more specific characteristics. He belongs to the New Generation and as Randall Stevenson (2004: 229) quote from the Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Poetry (1982) they are distinguished by accessibility, democracy and responsiveness and by reaffirmation of the arts significance as public utterance (p.16). Armitages poems make an exploration of relationships and the impact that they have on the life of people. In his poems we can find references about North England or Yorkshire dialect. His works must be interpreted on a personal level by the reader. Ian Hamilton (1992 :16) Armitages poems are both firmly grounded in place and wide in their imaginative, emotional and technical range, moving easily between anecdote, larger narrative, art and politics Carol Ann Duffy Duffys poems reflect depressed or disturbed members of society. These characters are resent with the world in which they live. Her themes are children, women, love, etc; and she uses the point of view of a persona. These personae that she creates are usually isolated people who feel shut out from society. Although she is a woman she doesnt use the typical features of womens writing. She is less innovative than her male contemporaries and use oddly paratactic rhythms Ian Hamilton (1992: 137) says that: [] Duffy aims her poetic fire at obvious victims, easy targets, but her best work combines lyric intensity with plain-speaking Analysis. In this section you can find three poems of each author and their analysis. First you can find the poems by Simon Armitage and then the poems by Carol Ann Duffy. November (by Simon Armitage) We walk to the ward from the badly parked car with your grandma taking four short steps to our two We have brought her here to die and we know it. You check her towel, soap and family trinkets, pare her nails. Parcel her in the rough blankets and she sinks down into her incontinence. It is time John. In their pasty bloodless smiles, in their slack breasts, their stunned brains and their baldness, and in us John: we are almost these monsters Youre shattered. You give me the keys and I drive through the twilight zone, past the famous station to your house, to numb ourselves with alcohol. Inside, we feel the terror of the dusk begin. Outside we watch the evening, failing again, and we let it happen. We can say nothing. Sometimes the sun spangles and we feel alive One thing we have to get, John, is out of this life. Form: The poem is divided in five three lines stanzas and in the last part of the poem there is a couplet which give the impression that the poem is not finished or that have a sudden end. The eleven lines have a regular rhythm. Symbols: In my opinion the title of the poem, November has a symbolic meaning. I think that because it is the penultimate it can refers to the end of the year and maybe to the end of the life, maybe it refers to the third age, when people are older. Also the night can have the same meaning as the title. In the third stanza we can find that Armitage describes the old people as if they were monsters. In the last part of the poem the poet dont end the poem with a conclusion maybe he want the readers to reflect about the poem and the topic that it deals about, or he wants to represent the surprise of death. Language: The poem is narrated in first person but with a reference to a person called John. Simon Armitage use words that include the reader in the poem and present a situation that we all will face someday. He uses pronouns as we, you, her or their, and that could have the function of include the reader in the poem. Themes: The themes of this poem are the relationship with the family and also the inevitable passing of time. Kid (by Simon Armitage) Batman, big shot, when you gave the order to grow up, then let me loose to wander leeward, freely through the wild blue yonder as you liked to say, or ditched me, rather in the gutter . . . well, I turned the corner. Now Ive scotched that he was like a father to me rumour, sacked it, blown the cover on that he was like an elder brother story, let the cat out on that caper with the married woman, how you took her downtown on expenses in the motor. Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker! Holy roll-me-over-in-the-clover, Im not playing ball boy any longer Batman, now Ive doffed that off-the-shoulder Sherwood-Forest-green and scarlet number for a pair of jeans and crew neck jumper; now Im taller, harder, stronger, older. Batman, it makes a marvellous picture; you without a shadow, stewing over chicken giblets in the pressure cooker, next to nothing in the walk-in larder, punching the palm of your hand all winter, you baby, now Im a real boy wonder. Poems background: In this poem Armitage talks about Batman, that is a comic hero who was popular in TV and films. The poem shows a battle of Batman and his criminal of Gotham City. Form: The poem has a ten syllable lines and all of them end with the sound -er. The language used can remember the language of television shows and also it has some sense of humor. Symbols: The symbol that I find in the poem is that Armitage make a joke about Batman and I think that this means that super heroes are not perfect and also have their bad days, or maybe that super heroes dont exist. Language: The language in the poem is idiomatic and also it has expressions of Batman. This type of language is sometimes used to reflect a ridiculous expression. Themes: In my opinion the main theme of the poem is the growing and the independence. The other theme that I found is that our imagination or our perfect believes are not true. When we are kids we think that the super heroes exist but then when we grow up we realized that it wasnt true. He also do humorous commentaries about famous people. Homecoming (by Simon Armitage) Think, two things on their own and both at once. The first, that exercise in trust, where those in front stand with their rams spread wide and free-fall backwards, blind and those behind take all the weight. The second, one canary-yellow cotton jacket on a cloakroom floor, uncoupled from its hook, becoming scuffed and blackened underfoot. Back home the very model of a model of a mother, yours, puts two and two together, makes a proper fist of it and points the finger. Temper, temper. Question in the house. You seeing red. Blue murder. Bed. Then midnight when you slip the latch and sneak no further than the call-box at the corner of the street; Im waiting by the phone, although it doesnt ring because its sixteen years or so before well meet. Retrace that walk towards the garden gate; in silhouette a father figure waits there, wants to set things straight. These ribs are pleats or seams. These arms are sleeves. These fingertips are buttons, or these hands can fold into a clasp, or else these fingers make a zip or buckle, you say which. Step backwards into it and try the same canary-yellow cotton jacket, there like this, for size again. It still fits. Form: The structure of this poem is simple and regular but in my opinion is difficult to understand. It is divided in four stanzas of different lengths but almost all have the same rhythm. Symbols: Maybe the yellow jacket can represent the past and how easy is to remember it. Also it can mean that the past is always in our mind or that it is easy to have in mind our past memories. Language: The language that Armitage uses is easy, simple and familiar, and sometimes idiomatic. It also has a change of time there is a change between the past and the present for example in stanza three. He also use poetry features as alliteration, assonance or different types of rhythm Themes: In this poem is more difficult to understand the theme that Armitage talks about. There is not a clear message. The theme that I find is the concept of time and memory. The poem shows how someone remembers his/her past, and in the last part of the poem brings it to their present life with the example of the jacket. Other theme that could be found in this poem is the relationships between family and how a new life can change them. Havisham (by Carol Ann Duffy) Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then I havent wished him dead. Prayed for it so hard Ive dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; the slewed mirror, full length , her, myself, who did this to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words. Some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear then down till I suddenly bite awake. Loves hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake. Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. Dont think its only the heart that b-b-b-breaks. Form: The poem is divided in four stanzas with four lines each of them. The poem doesnt have a rhyme or a regular metre. Symbol: The colors are important symbols in this poem, for example, the white reflects the wedding dress or the red the betrayal. As I said before the poem hasnt a regular metre and it can be related to the instability of the personality of the character. Language: Carol Ann Duffy writes in first person. She uses questions and exclamations and gives diversity to the lines. In the poem we can also find alliteration, for example in the last line of the poem the B. The first lines are written to make an emphasis on her frustration and also her anger. Themes: The poem talks about the betrayal or jealousy and also the damage that this can make in a relationship. The protagonist, Miss Havisham, get insane because of the betrayal. All the feelings and thoughts of Miss Havisham are presented in the poem. Anne Hathaway (by Carol Ann Duffy) Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (from Shakespeares will) The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where he would dive for pearls. My lovers words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme to his, now echo, assonance; his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun. Some nights, I dreamed hed written me, the bed a page beneath his writers hands. Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste. In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose. My living laughing love I hold him in the casket of my widows head as he held me upon that next bed. Background to the poem: The title of this poem refers to the wife of Shakespeare. Form: The poem is a rhyming sonnet which has fourteen lines. In my opinion she tried to follow the poem with other ending or other explanation. Symbols: Carol Ann Duffy try to rewrite a sonnet by Shakespeare but in the way his wife would do it, so she doesnt follow the rules of Shakespeares works, maybe because she wants to refer that Anne Hatheway wasnt as good as him writing poems. Language: The language that Carol Ann Duffy uses is related to things about Shakespeare. It is written in first person and with the voice of a woman. She uses different literary resources as alliteration (in line twelve) or metaphor in line fifteen, that means that she keep him in her thoughts. Themes and links: The poem is a sonnet that talks about love (sonnets normally do so) and the absence of someone that she loved, in this case Shakespeare. It is related with Shakespeares Sonnet 130 We Remember Your Childhood Well (by Carol Ann Duffy) Nobody hurt you. Nobody turned off the light and argued with somebody else all night. The bad man on the moors was only a movie you saw. Nobody locked the door. Your questions were answered fully. No. That didnt occur. You couldnt sing anyway, cared less. The moments a blur, a Film Fun laughing itself to death in the coal fire. Anyones guess. Nobody forced you. You wanted to go that day. Begged. You chose the dress. Here are the pictures, look at you. Look at us all, smiling and waving, younger. The whole thing is inside your head. What you recall are impressions; we have the facts. We called the tune. The secret police of your childhood were older and wiser than you, bigger than you. Call back the sound of their voices. Boom. Boom. Boom. Nobody sent you away. That was an extra holiday, with people you seemed to like. They were firm, there was nothing to fear. There was none but yourself to blame if it ended in tears. What does it matter now? No, no, nobody left the skidmarks of sin on your soul and laid you wide open for Hell. You were loved. Always. We did what was best. We remember your childhood well. Form: The structure of this poem is six stanzas with three lines each of them. It has rhyme and half rhyme. In the structure I have found that the title is repeated at the end of the poem like an ending of the theme. Symbols: I think that the repetition of the title in the last line of the poem is like an ending of the memory, maybe like if the person doesnt want to remember it anymore. Language: It is a simple language and sometimes repetitive. The negative form is compressed. The language that she uses (you, yourself, etc) makes me think of it as a unilateral conversation, there is no one in the other side. Themes: It talks about the abuses in the relationship of an adult and a child and how the memories can be remember in different ways and they are not always true. Conclusion In this part of the paper Im going to give a brief conclusion about the authors but mainly about the poems and their style. As you can see this two authors are late authors of the twenty century so they are closed to our society because they live in our society (both of them are still alive and with not too many years). Thanks to this fact I think that the poems that they wrote are related more or less with our nowadays society, for example, the last poem by Carol Ann Duffy refers to a theme that unfortunately is occurring nowadays, the children abuse. Talking about their style and the way that they write I can say that the vast majority of their poems are easy to read because they have a simple language and also because they are related to topics that are known for all of us. I think that the majority of their poems are quite simple and what we read is what the author wants to say. Bibliographical references Books: Stevenson, R. The Oxford English Literary History. Volume 12: 1960-2000: The last of England? Oxford University Press, United States, 2006 Hamilton, I. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Poetry in English. Oxford University Press, United States, 1996. Bradbury, M. The modern British novel. Penguin Books, London, 1994 Medina Casado, C. Poetas ingleses del siglo XX. Sà ­ntesis, Madrid, 2007 Electronic sources: Contemporary Writers British Council. Carol Ann Duffy (20 November, 2010): http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth104 Contemporary Writers British Council. Simon Armitage. (20 November, 2010): http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth165 Simon Armitages Website (20 November, 2010): Home

Financial performance of ABC Ltd

Financial performance of ABC Ltd Introduction Accounting is concerned with collecting, analyzing, and communicate accounting information. The accounting information is helpful to those people who make plans about business and in making important decisions related to the business The aim of this paper is to evaluate the financial position of the company and the importance of credit manager to achieve credit sales targeted and importance of actual figures when estimating the budget. This paper consists of two main sections. In the first part, evaluation of the financial position of ABC Ltd uses gross profit margin and net profit margin. The second part concentrates on things need to consider when preparing the budget in order to prevent from biased budget. Part A A) Evaluate the financial performance of ABC Ltd. Over the four year period. Financial ratio examines the financial health of the business. It helps to identify the financial strengths and weakness of the business. By calculating the ratio, it is possible to provide a good picture of the financial position and performance of a business. Financial ration can be represented in numerous ways. For example, as percentage, as fraction and as proportion. Financial ratio can be classified into profitability, efficiency, liquidity, gearing and investment. ABC Ltd company’s financial performance is evaluated by using profitability ration of gross profit margin and net profit margin. Gross profit is the difference between the sales and cost of sales. And the ratio is a measure of profitability in buying ad selling goods and service before any other expenses are taken into account. For example: Gross Profit Margin = Gross Profit x100 Sales = 119800/296700 x 100 = 40% Gross profit for the year one is 40%. The most appropriate measure of operational performance for comparison purposes is the Net profit margin ratio. The factors which influence the net profit margin of a business are the degree of competition, type of customer, economic climate and industry characteristics. For example: Net Profit Margin = Net profit before interest and taxation x 100 Sales = 22500/296700 x 100 = 8% Net Profit Margin for the Year one is 8% Gross profit margin of ABC Ltd company has fallen down from 40% to 33%. And again increased to 38% and fall down to 36%. The decrease of the gross profit margin of ABC Ltd was a result of high production cost of the company. The raw material used to produce goods and services has increased. As a result the company is experiencing less gross profit margins. Nonetheless, the Net profit margin of ABC Ltd has been maintained for the last two years, Year 3 and Year 4. Whereas in Year 1 company had a high net profit margin and it gradually decreased and company experience loss of (2) % of Net profit margin. This may be because the company’s Gross profit margin decreased from 40 to 33 and affected the company’s net profit margin. Moreover, it may be the reason that, the company has high expense such as high selling and distribution expense, Administration and other general expenses. After experiencing a loss in Year 2, company gain 7% of net profit margin in Year 3 and year 4 also. This shows company has minimized their expenses and cost of sales and increase their revenue by generating more sales. Below show graphical demonstration of ABC Ltd financial performance. According to the above table, all the accounts except the financial expense of ABC Ltd, all others have increased. Total sales increased. Meaning that number of goods and services sold by ABC Ltd have increased and generated a huge amount of revenue. However, the cost of sales also has increased. But compared to sales achieved, cost of sales is less than the sales generated. Meaning that the money generated by sales by the company was spent to make the sales, such as raw material, Equipements, machineries cost. Therefore the company gross profit has increased. The expenses spent to generate the revenue are selling and distribution expenses, administration and other general expenses and financial expenses. All expenses have increased except financial expenses. This may be due to each years increase in sales of the company. As demand for the goods and service increases, more number of good and services are produced. And to deliver the products to customers, costs incurred will be high such as delivery cost, transportation cost and other administrative cost related to the delivery of goods and services. Financing expenses have decreased such as rent paid, electricity, fixtures and fitting etc. As a result Net profit of ABC Ltd increased by $10,845. Part B A) Why credit manager is to blame for poor credit collection There are certain causes why credit manager is to blame for the deterioration in the credit collection period which are beyond the credit manager. Downturn in the economy When the budget was formulated, during that time economy may have been in a very good condition like in a boom. Businesses earn profits and their ability to pay the suppliers would be strong. And based on credit worthiness, ABC company Ltd has released goods on credit facility during that time. After two months of time, the economy turned into recession. During recession, companies reluctant to spend money and have difficulties in paying to debtors, lenders and suppliers. Henceforth customers, who have bought goods from ABC Ltd under the credit facility, would not able to pay as agreed terms and conditions. Liberalize credit policy The next reason which credit manager cannot be blamed, is a formulation of credit policy terms and conditions and implementation of the policy. When developing a credit policy there are certain conditions which should take into account. For example, buyer’s strength in the market, available net profit margin, size and type of buyers, buyer’s creditworthiness and many more. Any credit policy should include the range of payment, terms, prepayment terms, installments, penalty interest, conditions of sales, methods of assessing customer, explaining credit rating and risk codes, legal actions, follow up methods, staff responsibility and authority, relationship with another and arbitration process. If these clauses are incorporated into the policy, and customers are aware before getting into any sales and customer agreed by signing the terms, then the customer will be binding to it. As a result the credit manager would able to claim for the payment accordingly to the agreement, if a customer is disobeying the agreed terms and conditions. Therefore, it is a responsibility of policy makers of the company and senior management to come up with a strong policy and implementing it. And this could be done in coordination with a credit manager. Another reason could be that, even if the company has a strong policy, without acting upon it, we cannot achieve what we want. For example, if the sales persons or sales manager, or senior management, issue goods without checking the credit worthiness of customer with their friends or close customers and they make own payment paying term their way without consent of credit manager. Increased competition among suppliers The business environment is very volatile. Competition among business increases steadily. Being proactive would be the best solution for the success of the company. During the tough competition, it is essential to revise the credit policy terms as accordingly to customer needs and affordability. Otherwise competitors would be offering more attractive conditions and they are likely to get all customers resulting gain the market share in the business sector. And ABC Ltd would not able to get enough customers to achieve the credit targets allocated in the budget. Quality of goods and services If the quality of the products offered by ABC Ltd is very low, then the customer will refuse to buy the products. Even if they buy the product if the quality is below their expected level, then the payment will be held for some time. And it’s a responsibility of the production department to produce the goods with good quality according to customer needs. The goods Delaying in delivering If the company is unable to deliver the goods at the agreed time, then the customer would not able to depend on the company. In other words, failure to deliver the promises will lead to loss of customer and low dependability. Therefore, it is important for production department to provide raw materials and other necessary material to produce goods and it’s their responsibility to deliver the goods to customers on time. If the company fails to provide this, then the customers would prefer other competitors and faces low market share and generate low profit. Relationship with sales and credit department The relationship between sales staffs (or sales manager) and credit manager is very important. The credit manager responsibility is that to provide further guidance to achieve sales to the sales staffs. Why manager might submit a budget estimate that is biased. And ways to Company guard against it. According to the CIMA definition of budget, it is a plan quantified in monetary terms, prepared and approved prior to a defined period of time, usually showing planned income to be generated and/or expenditure to be incurred during that period and the capital to be employed to attain a given objective. There are types of budget, managers use when preparing the budget. One of the methods is incremental budget. The budget is prepared using the previous year budget as a basis with incremental amount is added to the new budget. Resources are allocated based on previous years resource allocations. The main advantage of this type of budget is that it is easy to understand and implement and also save time. This could be one of the reasons why budget estimates are based. The main reason is that incremental budget does not take environment changing factor into considerations. Due to changing is economy, budget need to be revised basically periodically and necessary amendments need to be done. Another problem is that, incremental budget does not have incentives to innovative ideas and to reduce cost. Another type of budget could be fixed budget. In fixed budgets, figures are fixed at the beginning of budgetary period. Any change in circumstance, these cannot be changed. For example, due to high inflation, raw material costs (others as well, such as machinery cost, about cost, rent, electricity) increase more that which is estimated in the budget. In fixed budget this cannot be changed. Therefore, actual expenditure exceeds than the estimated value in the budget. A good way to mitigate the budget that is based is that having shorter review periods. For example, if estimated budget is for one year. Then managers can review the budget after three month period or on quarter basis. The second way to guard the company from base budget is that to approach zero based budgeting. Budget starts from zero and items included in the budget should be justifiable to the budget holder. All expenses allocated for the whole project, should justify each activity separately and develop a questioning attitude. This helps to minimize the over spendinging and inefficient. Therefore company cannot spend more that what it is estimated and from the estimated expenditure, expected profits will be generated. Conclusion From above discussion, we can conclude that, increase in company gross profit would have a direct impact on net profit. Generating more sales will increase the gross profits and by minimizing the company expenses, the companies net profit would increase. And the profitability can be compared against the previous years by using ratios and trend analysis. Secondly, businesses normally prepare the budgets annually and quarterly. Regular evaluation of budgets prevents from overspending and adjust the budgets, according to changing the environment. And also in order to achieve high credit facility a budgeted, not only the credit manager should work on it. Other department staffs like sales and senior management should play an important role in doing so. References Atrill, McLaney, Harvey Jenner 2012, Accounting an introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Australia. FICM, GB 1986, Â © 2004 FECMA , viewed 1 December 2014, http://www.fecma.eu/Documents/FECMA%20Credit%20Policy%20chapt%20%201.pdf>. McLaney, E Atrill, P 2010, Accounting An Introduction, 5th edn, Pearson Education Limited. Riley, Jim 2012, Tutor2u Limited, viewed 1 December 2014, http://www.tutor2u.net/business/accounts/incremental-budgeting.htm>. Schaeffer, MS 2012, Essentials of Credit, Collections, and Accounts Receivable, John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. Page 1 of 14

Latinos, Politics, and American Cinema Essay -- Movies Films

Latinos, Politics, and American Cinema Feature films in the United States influence American viewers' attitudes on a wide variety of topics. Americans attitudes toward politics are shaped by films, and specifically the politics of racial interaction. The history of modern feature films begins with Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that misrepresents the Black race by justifying the existence and role of the Ku Klux Klan in American society. From this racist precedent, producers and directors understood that visual messages, however latent, were a useful means of communicating a political message to a large audience. After this epiphany, a myriad of films were made for different political causes. Most films had multiple messages, and among them were conservative themes against the Hispanic race. A prime example of a filmmaker who had numerous ideas as to the problems and solutions of race issues in America was Orson Welles. His Touch of Evil (1958) represents many other films in that epoch that had different presentations of race issues. The film utilizes imagery that provokes viewers' ideas of race politics; viewers' attitudes are challenged in many scenes. The reason for this political and racial wavering spawns from the fact that Welles' race politics were not clearly defined. In fact other films, similar to the contradictory nature of Touch of Evil, presented multiple themes precisely because the filmmakers' racial attitudes were blurred. The clearly distinguishable dichotomies of racism were not present, giving way to shades of gray. Richard Stam argues that the study of racial issues in film has been bombarded by critics who reject certain films on the basis of misrepresentation. That is to say that stereotypes, sh... ...omplish political goals. The liberal politics of Latino cinema endure to this day, in the land of Aztlan and throughout the United States. Carringer, Robert L.1976. "Rosebud, Dead or Alive: Narrative and Symbiolic Structure in Citizen Kane," PMLA 91, no.2. Fregoso, Rosa Linda. "Chicana Film Practices: Confronting the 'Many-Headed Demon of Oppression.'" New York, NY: University of Minnesota Press. Gutierrez-Jones, Carl. "Legislating Languages:The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez and the English Language Amendment." New York, NY: University of Minnesota Press. Limon, Jose E. 1973. "Stereotyping and Chicano Resistance An Historical Dimension." New York, NY: University of Minnesota Press. Shohat, Ella. Year. "Ethnicities-in-Relation: Toward a Multicultural Reading of American Cinema." City, State: Publisher. Stam,Richard. Year.Unspeakable Images. City, State: Publisher.

Free Merchant of Venice Essays: The Price is Right :: Merchant Venice Essays

When I first read The Merchant of Venice, I had a lot of mixed reactions. One of them, surprisingly enough, was that it was too short! How can this be? We all know that Shakespeare's plays are notoriously too long. In reading it over, I think this perception comes from a number of sources. One is the idea that the two story lines, that of Portia and her suitors and that of Shylock and his money-grubbing ways, are only loosely held together by the title character, Antonio. The other reason is that when we finally get to the trial scene, the supposed highlight of the play, we notice that the trial is only a very small part of the whole play. It is not "what the play is about" in my opinion. Many people have suggested that the play should have ended after the trial, that the final scene served no purpose. I saw it more like the hurriedly thrown together conclusion to a choppy paper. We have talked about cut versions of literature as they make their way to the screen. This seems to me as though it is a choppy version of an idea that didn't work out as well as the playwright had hoped. As I read even more closely, I may find I change my mind. Since it didn't seem to be about what I thought it was supposed to be about, I decided to try to figure out what it really is about. Based on my current understanding (subject to further enlightenment), the play is (at least partially) about the merchandising of people. People can be bought or sold for "Three thousand ducats, well" (Act I Scene 3 Line 1), or "chests of gold, silver and lead" (I.ii.30). Every one has a price. All are bought or sold at one time or another. Let's look at some of the leading characters and see what price they require. Antonio sells "a pound of his flesh" for "three thousand ducats" in Act I Scene 3. Bassanio sells his marriage vows to repay the lawyer/ judge for defending Antonio (Act IV Scene 2). Grationo sells his vows, by giving away the ring that represented them, and his friendship to Bassanio at the same time. Portia sells herself as property in marriage

Restricted Fund Methods

Restricted Fund Method * Organizations that follow restricted fund method present a general fund and one or more restricted funds. * The main purpose of the restricted fund is to record the receipt and the use of the resources from that fund that are subject to restrictions. * This method requires that a general fund be used to report changes in unrestricted net assets. Recognition of endowment contributions: * The endowments contributions are recognized as revenue of the endowment fund in the current period. The only revenue that is reported in the endowment fund is the endowment contribution and the net investment income that is subject to external restrictions. * Any allocation of internal resources to the endowment fund would be accounted for as interfund transfers. * The endowment fund balance at the end represents the accumulation of resources subject to both external and internal restrictions and they should be permanently maintained. * Net investment income earned on resource s held for endowments would be recognized based on if the investment income is restricted or not. Recognition of Restricted Contributions reported in restricted funds: * Restricted contribution for which a restricted fund is present should be recognized as revenue of that fund in the current period. * There can be more than one restricted fund. However, each restricted fund would accumulate resources that are restricted for similar purposes. * Contributions that are restricted should be accounted for the same way on consistent basis. A change in restricted fund is considered to be a change in accounting policy. The restricted fund balance at the reporting date represents the accumulation of resources that are subject to restrictions. * Any allocations of internally restricted resources to a restricted fund are known as interfund transfers. Recognition of Restricted Contributions reported in General funds: * Restricted Contributions for which no restricted fund is present should be recognized in general fund. * The general fund account’s purpose is to account for both unres tricted revenues and restricted contributions for which there is no restricted fund. The restricted contribution reported in general fund would be recognized in the same manner as under deferral method. * If the organization decides to establish a fund for a specific restricted contribution it would be considered a change in accounting policy. The financial statements of the previous years would have to be restated if similar contributions for which the fund is established had been reported in general funds in prior years. Recognition of Unrestricted Contributions: * They should be recognized as revenue of the general fund in current period. * The unrestricted contributions are available for use to the organization. The excess of revenues over expenses in the general fund represents the increase in unrestricted net assets. * Unrestricted resources may be allocated to a restricted fund and this would be considered an interfund transfer.

How Can Public Diplomacy Complement “Hard Power” Tactics in International Affairs?

great(p) gist play is a margin usanced to twine berth that is acquired from the use of force and/or stinting force to deflect the doings or interests of opposite constitution-making entities. As the name might imply, this type of political position is often aggressive, and is intimately effectual when imposed by ace political proboscis upon some opposite of lesser array and/or stinting force-out. What it b inuncts down to is Do what we want. If you dont, we solelyow for inflict undesirable damage on your person, citizenry, economy, security forces, crops, advantageously water, et cetera. vexed power is mostly placed in the Inter study Relations field of Realism, where military power is involven as the expression of a states strength in the international community. While the existence of sturdy power has a coarse history, the term arose when Joseph Nye coined napped power as a late and assorted hold of power in a States foreign polity. Nye specify downlike power as the ability to pass a musical mode what you want through attraction rather than through coercion. He also give tongue to that well-to-do power could be actual through dealing with affiliate, stinting assistance, and heathenish exchanges. He argued that this would result in a much(prenominal) favourable in the normal eye(predicate) reliance and credibility a long. By engaging dickens forms of power, unuttered and kooky, champion is then employing expert power. other term defined by Joseph Nye, it was endorsed by Hilary Clinton We must use what has been called smart power the full grade of tools at our disposal diplomaticalal, sparing, military, political, legal, and ethnical woof the right tool, or combination of tools, for all(prenominal) situation. With smart power, fineness will be the vanguard of foreign policy. Ideas matter, and a clownishs ability to promote ideals to citizens of other nations and societies, k straightwayn as w orld finesse (PD), throw out work wonders to advance the national interest. By taking a quality at case studies, we will get word whether PD can equilibrate unwaveringly power tactics and hence we will see if smart power is actually viable in practice. The U. S system of badly power and in the public eye(predicate) circumspection in the customary cold War During the frigidness War, the realness was divided in ii, as the ii super-powers attempted to gain go for from neutral parties while offsetting the actions of their opponent.The get together States and Russia were much than or less equally matched in military and political strength and this resulted in a stalemate. With knotty power abilities solo proving in efficacious at turning the tide in either direction it meant that a nonher means of demonstrating global dominance would be required. The basic dodge of the US during the Cold War was containment using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to blockade the spread of Communism, boost the Statess security and influence abroad, and avert a domino effect.The concept of containment was proposed by diplomat George Kennan in the nonorious foresighted Telegram . Kennan argued that the unless way to get the best the spread of Communism was to suffocate it. Containment had two major policies associated with it, the Truman doctrine and the Marshall see and was a moveion to a string of moves by the Soviet colligation to fatten Communist influence in east atomic round 63, china, and Korea. It represented a middle-ground position in the midst of appeasement and roll approve. The Truman tenet was a fertile plan that that pledged military bet on to the nations struggling against communist pressures.It was announced By President Truman in his 1947 address to sexual relation after the joined Kingdom communicate the United States that it no longer had the capabilities to promote Greece and Turkey in their struggle against Soviet tensions. In the address he say that the United States would live free peoples who argon resisting attempted subjugation by arm minorities or by outside pressures. The Truman Doctrine displayed the U. S objective to respond to any provided expansion with military forcethe hard power element of containment.The Truman Doctrine was the justification for shell outable injections of American funds into European economic rec all overy to waste the development of loving and political unrest. This challenging aid plan was called the Marshall formulate after the secretary of state at the time. General Marshall proposed the plan with two intentions to assist in the rebuilding of Europe and to win the hearts and minds of the citizens most undefended to the reach of communism. The act of benevolence was judge by the United States European allies after a phase of negotiations, only if was discarded by the Soviets and other phalluss of the east Bloc.The Marshall Plan represe nted a significant early application of U. S. soft power and the vital non-military aspect of US policies of containment. Containment is an excellent example of a undefeated balance of hard and soft power. The policies they employ in this process served to strengthen traffic with at-risk countries in Europe while at the same time move a strong message to the Soviet essence th at the United States would react strongly to any further Soviet expansion. In detail, containment was so victoryful, that many experts consider it the leading cause of the Soviet collapse.Another prime example of this PD was the heathen exchanges which saw tens of thousands of Soviet students go to America to study. These exchanges enabled many Soviet citizens, especially in the upper and middle reaches of society, to see the United States with their own eyes. The students would then go back to the USSR and some sluice occupied roles of influence and played classic roles in the passive demise of the Soviet mating As I mentioned earlier, existence diplomatic negotiations serves to coif ones country and ideals more attractive to citizens of other countries. nonp beil way that the U. S achieved this during the Cold War was by setting up organizations much(prenominal) as radio receiver Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the Voice of America (VOA), and the United States selective data Agency (USIA) which communicated the ideals of democracy, individual rights, and the free securities industry. U. S. officials distinguished Americas unprejudiced approach from the lies and deceptions of classic Nazi and Soviet propaganda and therefore the term public discretion came into general use by the mid-seventies to reflect this critical difference.In fact it was noted by Edward R. Murrow, then manager of the USIA, that truth is the best propaganda and lies atomic number 18 the worst. Nye remarks that pop music culture also featured for the most part in the U. S arsenal as it t ransmits widely American values that be open, mobile, individualistic, anti- set in motionment, pluralistic, populist, and free. Long before the Berlin Wall beastly in 1989 it had been pierced by television and movies. The hammers and bulldozers would not hurt worked without the years-long transmission of images of the customary culture of the westmost before it fell. In the end, the promotion of these values contri anded mightily to the close dividing lineless dis resolution of the Soviet Empire. main play chinas public prudence in Africa In recent years, mainland china has looked to complement its long- schematic employment of hard power with soft power, and as a consequence, the Chinese political relation has devoted a lot of favor to public diplomacy. In the past, Chinese government activitys drive home butt ond a limited correspondence of public diplomacy, viewing it either as external propaganda or a form of inherent public affairs, but this has not prevente d China from becoming a killed public diplomacy player. Public diplomacy and hard power atomic number 18 not only used in situations of war or tension between countries. One can look at Chinese family traffichip with Africa for a prime example of public diplomacy employed to strengthen economic relations. Africa has resources that China needs and so China views other countries, mainly this in the West, as a direct competitor for African resources. That is why they needed to establish such strong relationship with Africa.A scheme to block out competitors would require a deep partnership of trust (gained with PD), or coercion (Hard author). The Chinese opted for the trust channel as they believed it would be more efficient in the long run to establish a trust and understanding. Relationships begin with dialogues. The tendency is to build trust. Trust cannot be manufactured, it has to be get. China-African relations have steadily deepened and strengthen since the founding of new China in 1949.Developing from the ideologically-driven interactions during the Cold War, immediatelys China-Africa relations combine pragmatic economic and political means to achieve Chinas objective of establishing a world aver that is peaceful and favourable to act economic growth and stability at home. In the 1960s and 1970s, China support liberation movements in several African countries, gave aid to socialist nations to build stadiums, hospitals, railroads and other infrastructure, and cemented relations through a cool it stream of expert engineers, teachers, and doctors.Today, Chinese officials pilgrimage to Africa accompanied by bankers and businesspeople, promoting political and economic commerce that develops China-Africa ties in a sustainable fashion. While merchandise and diplomacy are driven by Chinas newfound economic strength and resultant demand for raw materials, China continues to support longstanding programs that deliver aid to deprive African citizens , such as sending teams of doctors and providing medicines. There are a number of reasons why China makes for such an appealing partner to many African countries.Chinas attitude towards bilateral relations and economic development offers a different alternative to the political and economic reforms pushed precedent by the West. China has pick out a firm stance of wonder for other nations sovereignty and persistently refuses to correct or involve itself in the internal affairs of African nations. This attitude has earned it the respect of those leaders and elite individuals and groups that profited from worthless authorities and crooked political systems and so they are not so shrewd on applying tedious and costly economic reforms insisted on by the West.In order to demonstrate to Africa how sincere and beneficial their experience with China is, Beijing drafted a policy on Africa. China reportedly gets over a quarter of its oil from Africa , so it is not surprising its inter ested in building up and maintaining relations on the continent. At the start of the millennium, Beijing established the China-Africa Cooperation forum (CACF) to encourage trade and investment funds with 44 African countries. In 2003, aboriginal Minister Wen visited several oil-producing African states accompanied by Chinese oil executives, and President Hu toured Algeria, Egypt, and Gabon.China has been collaborating with governments in the gulf of Guinea, from Angola to Nigeria, as well as with the primeval African Republic, Chad, Congo, Libya, Niger, and Sudan. In mid-January 2006, China issued an African foreign policy paper. China has hardened out the strategy for all to see and it is divided into six-spot parts 1. Africas dapple and Role 2. Chinas Relations with Africa 3. Chinas African policy 4. Enhancing All-round Cooperation between China and Africa 5. Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and Its Follow-up Actions 6.Chinas Relations with African Regional Organizations The document is do as accessible as possible on the internet. It is written in simple incline which means that it is easy to read even for those who do not have an exceptionally strong command of the language. This document is a perfect demonstration of public diplomacy. The Chinese are doing a superb trading in the region. Chinas relationship with the public goes further than building prestige buildings for the public and the public themselves get to choose whether they want a sports stadium or a government building.In addition, television in the discipline is becoming more and more incline language transitions from China. By backing up its economic interests with so much soft power, China has been put on a moral high-ground when compared to other global players. EU integration and public diplomacy One of the most successful initiatives to embody the principles of effective public diplomacy was the establishment of the European Coal and brace company in the 1950s which has n ow evolved into the European Union.European integration is the process of mainly political, legal, social and economic integration of European states, which these days is primarily achieved through the European Union and the Council of Europe. Attempts at European integration emerged primarily after the devastation of the Second earth War and the desire of European countries to blend so much so as to eliminate the possibility of some other European war. The main intention behind integrating economically and politically is that the smaller European countries have more influence in international matters such as trade and world politics.A kind of United States of Europe was called for by Winston Churchill and in 1950 the German and French politicians, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, proposed a common market for coal and steel for those countries automatic to delegate control of these sectors of their economies to an independent authority. In 1951 the accordance of Paris was sig ned by the leaders of six European countries Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and West Germany.This treaty founded the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) creating a common market in which the industries that were crucial for war were controlled thus preventing the unilateral rearmament of any of its member states, in particular Germany. The ECSC enjoyed economic and political success which spurred the six member states to sign the Treaty of capital of Italy in 1957 and establish the European stinting Community (EEC), which was transformed into the European Community from 1967 in the Merger Treaty.In 1993 the Maastricht Treaty transformed the ECSC into the European Union and European integration became less and less nearly the negative removal of barriers, and more and more about positive, active harmonization. The EU has steadily been evolving as a diplomatic power in its own right. To demonstrate this, we need to look at the broad sweep of the development of an EU diplomatic corps over time where it came from, how few of them there originally were, how little they did, and how these interior information compare with trends today.The European Union practices public diplomacy through a multilayered framework of policies and programs, relying both(prenominal) on its Representations in member-states, as well as its Delegations abroad it now has diplomatic delegations in over cl countries, employing over 5,000 members of staff. With its internal intercourse strategy the Union aims to engage EU-citizens more tight in its political life and to cook a sense of common identity.Its communication strategy for enlargement, on the other hand, is intentional to explain the goals and responsibilities of the European project to countries that get to become member states as well as to promote the benefits of enlargement to Euro-sceptics inside the EU. The European Neighbourhood Policy provides another layer of regional integration and governance a nd is directed towards the EUs immediate neighbours by land and sea, primarily growth countries, who seek one day to become either member states of the European Union itself, or more closely integrated with the economy of the European Union.Finally, through its network of Delegations abroad, the EU aims to cite itself on the international stage and regulates its relations with third countries. Although basically aimed at developing a public diplomacy capability, most of the outreach activities of the EU are not formally referred to as public diplomacy, but are described as information and communication campaigns, or education and cultural exchange programs. These efforts are intended not only to inform and explain the whole shebang of EU substructures but also to interact into the norms and values of the Union.The European military commission is the institution responsible for conducting the Unions diplomacy and public diplomacy efforts. While other EU bodies have also initiat ed public diplomacy programs, the Commission is the one providing the executive action. Since the creation of the ECSC in 1950 member states have achieved great success in integrating socially, economically and politically between themselves however there are still many difficulties to be tame and the process of integration will never be complete.Much progress has been made to create an integrated EU diplomatic service and this will continue to be utilized alongside hard power economic and political policies to develop the EU as strong and coherent body of states. Conclusion As we have seen in these case studies, when hard power is linked with soft power, especially public diplomacy, it creates a most effective product more effective than the sum of its parts. The European Union for example has been seen as a civilian power.It has no army even though this is one of the areas where unity would bring an demonstrable increase in efficiency and influence. It relies on law, on negoti ation, on multilateral organisation. Its relationships are often in the form of contractual agreements, itself a revealing phrase. It seems a prototype of soft power, as America is of hard power. Even China, a country found on hard power, has realised the authorisation of adding a strong public diplomacy to its repertoire. Realists have a preference for hard power.Otto von Bismarck is famous for the remark that this policy cannot succeed through speeches and songs it can be carried out only through blood and iron. In a pull of irony however Bismarcks blood and iron was not the solution to the German question. By 1945 Germany had had enough of both they had undermined Bismarcks achievement of marriage and had led to the ruin of Germany. In todays world it is more important than ever to be able to in effect combine hard and soft power to form smart power.Even one of the greatest military men of all time, realised the importance complementing hard power with soft when he famously give tongue to that There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always get the better of by the mind. nap Bonaparte Bibliography Bonaparte, Napoleon (1769-1821), Napoleon Bonaparte Quotes, http//www. military-quotes. com/Napoleon. htm Carnes Lord Helle C. Dale, Public Diplomacy and the Cold War Lessons Learned, in the Heritage Foundation (online) 18 family 2007 http//www. heritage. rg/Research/nationalSecurity/bg2070. cfm accessed 28 January 2010 Drew Thompson, Chinas cushiony Power in Africa from the Beijing consensus to health diplomacy, China brief Volume 5, Issue 21 (October 13, 2005) Joseph S. Nye Jr, Soft Power A Means to achiever in World Politics. Public Affairs, forward-looking York. 2004. Joseph S. Nye Jr, Soft Power, Hard Power and Leadership. Seminar, 27 October 06. http//www. hks. harvard. edu/netgov/files/talks/docs/11_06_06_seminar_Nye_HP_SP_Leadership. pdf Lee Rotherham, EU Diplomats, (online) in TaxpayersAllia nce. com http//www. taxpayersalliance. om/EUDiplomats. pdf Matt Armstrong, Practicing Effective Public Diplomacy in Africa (or elsewhere). Blog MountainRunner. US (online). February 8 2006 http//mountainrunner. us/2006/02/practicing_effe. html accessed 28 January 2010 Robert Cooper, Hard power, Soft power and the Goals of Diplomacy, in David Held/Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, American Power in the 21st Century, 2004, pp. 167-180 Rory D Huff Jr, U. S. Applications of Hard and Soft Power (online) http//www. personal. psu. edu/cpl2/blogs/powerforce/Huff%20on%20Hard%20and%20Soft%20Power. pdf accessed 28 January 2010