FDT 2 week 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

FDT 2 week 8 - Essay Example Specifically, the article is quite not clear about its main thesis, especially when it says that the human trafficking and smuggling are heinous crimes against the humanity. It should be appealing if the author was able to include on what ground do these crimes violate or interfere the promulgation of the international law. It might be necessary to present at some point the international laws relevant to telling that human trafficking and smuggling aside from posing risks to people also violate the law. The thought linked to this should have made the point clearer as to the issue and on the ground that human trafficking or smuggling are crimes against the humanity. On the other hand, the author basically presented some reasoning about the danger or threats linked to human trafficking and smuggling activities. However, this point should have rich supporting details in order to make the entire argument smooth and vibrant in its general

Online Privacy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Online Privacy - Research Paper Example Most U.S citizens dont want to be watched while surfing on the Internet or sending text messages to their friends. This essay will argue that the Constitution should protect the privacy of all online users. People, especially the ones who work for the government prefer that privacy continue to be monitored than staying private. It is right that having access to Internet research is strongly useful for police because of criminals that are online users. However, Government should recognize that watching Internet research of US citizens affects their privacy. Firstly because staying anonymous is impossible today, people who want to stay anonymous can’t live in the society. Everything in everyday life requires our personal information. Secondly because some sources of information picked up by the government could be wrong and these mistakes have important impacts on innocent people. And thirdly because online misuse is a breach of the constitution, knowing everything on people thanks to these new technologies is unconstitutional. A lot of technology is being invented and reinvented every day. This is makes technology dynamic which is the major reason as to why the government should prevent invasion on any individual’s privacy (Colbridge, 2012; Price 2012). Individuals have the right to privacy, Kyllo v. United States: technology v. Individual’s privacy, Colbridge, poses the question â€Å"do individuals have an actual expectation that their activities will remain private?† (337). It is from this statement that Calbridge backs it by saying that the fourth amendment expresses that the government should have a search warrant when it does an invasion. When one is online it can be said that he is on a private situation and trying to grasp what he is doing can qualify to be a form of intrusion to privacy. As much as the privacy of online users is permitted the

Desirees Baby Analysis of Racism

Desirees Baby Analysis of Racism We live our life within the boundaries of our belief systems and moral guidelines we were raised with such as social classes and race .The story tells about love, slavery, and racism victimizes everybody without equivalent consequence. The story is heaped with ironies. The narrator uses symbolism and irony to convey the themes of half-blood, racial hatred, unequal gender roles, and social ladder. Irony and symbolism are also used to enhance the story, captivating the minds of the reader until the very end. Foreshadowing his belief that Desirees   ancestry is possibly African-American . As the child begin to get older her skin pigmentation darkens and Armand feels as the baby is not his child Monsieur Valmonde grew practical and wanted things well considered: that is, the girls obscure origin. Armand looked into her eyes and did not care. He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana? Armands makes you feel as since the child had African-American heritage he dont want any responsibility for the child be name after him . Desiree mother feels like there was a racial indifferences between the child and the parents after she took the child to the window to see if it was the lighting in the home . This is not the baby! she exclaimed, in startled tones. French was the language spoken at Valmonde in those days. This comparison between Desirees baby and Zandrine could be that she feels the they are both bi-racial. At this point Desirees notices the difference in her the baby herself, When the baby was about three months old, Desiree awoke one day to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace. It was at first too subtle to grasp. It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming. One of La Blanches little quadroon boyshalf naked toostood fanning the child slowly with a fan of peacock feathers. Desirees eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby, while she was striving to penetrate the threatening mist that she felt closing about her. She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. Ah! It was a cry that she could not help; which she was not conscious of having uttered. The blood turned like ice in her veins, and a clammy moisture gathered upon her face. She stayed motionless, with gaze riveted upon her child, and her face the picture of fright. She confronts her husband for understanding,   Ã‚  Ã‚   Armand, she panted once more, clutching his arm, look at our child. What does it mean? Tell me.   Ã‚  Ã‚   He coldly but gently loosened her fingers from about his arm and thrust the hand away from him. Tell me what it means! she cried despairingly.   Ã‚  Ã‚   It means, he answered lightly, that the child is not white; it means that you are not white. She questions what Armand says and provides evidence to the fact, It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair, seizing his wrist. Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand, she laughed hysterically. Armand burns everything that belonged to Desiree and the baby in a huge bonfire. Perhaps as a ritual cleansing of the African American blood, that had tainted, LAbri, his sheltered place.   Some weeks later there was a curious scene enacted at LAbri. In the centre of the smoothly swept back yard was a great bonfire. Armand Aubigny sat in the wide hallway that commanded a view of the spectacle; and it was he who dealt out to a half dozen negroes the material which kept this fire ablaze. While gathering things for the fire he discovers a letter from his mother to his father revealing that it is he that definitely has the Negro blood; although Desirees parentage is unknown. The last thing to go was a tiny bundle of letters; innocent little scribblings that Desiree had sent to him during the days of their espousal. There was the remnant of one back in the drawer from which he took them. But it was not Desirees; it was part of an old letter from his mother to his father. He read it. She was thanking God for the blessing of her husbands love:   Ã‚  Ã‚   But above all, she wrote.   I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.

Adolescents and Divorce Essay -- Teenagers Impact Divorce Essays

Adolescence is a period of turmoil and change for youngsters. During this time in their lives, adolescents experience many types of stresses. Some of these stresses include identity crisis, relationships with family members and friends, and the physical changes that take place. Adolescence is a very trying time and it can be heightened when divorce is an additional problem to be dealt with. Divorce only adds to the turmoil and hardships of adolescence. The effects of a divorce can leave an individual feeling lonely and at fault for the break up of their parents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Divorce is a family crisis, which could require a long period for recovery. Along with the turmoil associated with the adolescent stage of life, divorce adds other stresses. Adolescents are already confronted with numerous changes, including physical changes in the body and social adoptions, that the changes that occur as a result of a divorce could be overwhelming. They are also in the transition stage of separating themselves from their parents and developing into an adult. The adolescent is at the stage of development in which he must separate himself from his parents on order to establish as an adult?(Buchanan, p.70).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Being socially accepted is one of the more important aspects of this developmental stage. The development of relationships with friends allows for them to form an identity. The adolescent only accepts his or her identity if, and only if, the society feels that it is correct. Otherwise, they may feel inadequate and isolated from everyone else because the do not fit in with everyone else?s standards(Buchanan,14)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This developmental stage in one's life in conjunction with the effects of a divorce, make the changes much more difficult to overcome and accept. "How an adolescent copes with the problems of a divorce depends upon their emotional health and maturity level,"(Buchanan, p.71). Each individual may react in his or her own way. Some of these reactions can consist of hostility towards family, especially their parents, aggressiveness, and/or depression. They may make sudden choices that they might feel could be the answer to their problem. For instance, constant running away might occur which results in secluding oneself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The behavior of females at this crucial time seems to be more of a disturbance, while the males showed to be more severe. The m... ...ary Ellin Logue. "The Effects Of Parental Divorce On Students." Journal Of Divorce & Remarriage 46.3/4 (2007): 83-104. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. Dufour, Sarah, and Brian L. Mishara. "Children's Reactions to Divorce and Separation."Partnership For Children. Partnership For Children, n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. Internet Sources Consulted Antecol, Heather. Bedard, Kelly. â€Å"Does Single Parenthood Increase the Probability Of Teenage Promiscuity, Substance Use, and Crime?† Journal of Population Economics 20.1 (2007): 55-71. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. Crouse, Shaw Janice. SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES. â€Å"No-Fault Divorce Hits Children Hardest.† Washington Times, The (DC) (2013): 3. Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. Fagan, Patrick F.Rector, Robert. â€Å"The Effects Of Divorce On America.† World & I 15.10 (2000): 56. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. Kelsey, Linda. â€Å"Why divorce damages teenagers every bit as much as young children.† Daily Mail 29 Apr. 2010: 68. MainFile. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. Moses, Eskind Marlene. â€Å"Helping Children Endure Divorce.† Tennessee Bar Journal 49.1 (2013): 34. MainFile. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

PacSun Store Analysis Essay

Customer ProfileThe current customer of the Junior girls department of the PacSun are young women who are driven by surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and other associated actives and lifestyle. The typical customer wardrobe is consists of everyday casual apparel that is versatile enough for excessive movement and wear. Customer Demographics:†¢Female†¢14-18 yrs old†¢middle class†¢ high school education†¢have average 2 siblings†¢parents both work, have college degrees†¢outdoor active lifestyle†¢interest in surf, skateboarding, and/or snowboarding†¢personality is free spirited, spontaneous, social, and sport orientedIn regards to the statistics of the buyer profile compared to the actual product consumer profile is influenced by outside factors. An average of 45% of the customers where young girls with a female parental that purchased items, 35% of the customers were young women in groups of 2 or more, while 15% of those groups all purchased individual items. There was an average of 15% of customers who where young women by themselves, 2% of the remaining profile were parents (mainly women) who where purchasing for someone else, then another 2% where male parental’s purchasing for someone else, and the last 1% was young women with a mate. Within the department’s customer profile, there is an average of 65% of girls that were sizes 3-7 and/or S/M; and the remaining 35% where either above or below the average size range. Department AnalysisI. Department Environment-The environment of the department is very energetic and free spirited. All the employee’s were friendly and conservative toward each customer. It was about four o’clock p.m. when I visited the PacSun location. There were an estimated eight female customers in this department. The sales associates working the floor were eager to help each customer with there individual needs. When entering the store it takes an average of three seconds before being welcomed to the store. II. Merchandise Appearance-The merchandise in this department was all put in  it’s designated section. The merchandise on the floor racks was organized by related items and style preference. The items on the walls were grouped in sections of tops, pants, and jackets that looked best with each other. The clearance section was clean and organized by sizes, and all the merchandise was in the correct size section. The displays were organized with coinciding outfits, a few pairs of jeans and tee-shirts, folded next to each other with a couple bags/ backpacks; the display flows well with the product layout in the department. III. Merchandise Classification-The Classifying of the products was very versatile with the other products. All of the merchandise stock is focused on surf and skate brands of clothing. The majority of the stock is in tee-shirts, sweatshirts, and jeans. This department classification of products is focused more on large assortment of merchandise within a small variety of classifications. This merchandise scheme works well with this store because it allows each customer to personalize the individual items in to outfits of their own style preference. Data SummaryI. Compare and contrast: After reviewing the primary and secondary data, to get a better understanding of the PacSuntarget market and realistic profitability goals, it seem to be within a match able range of the comparison of experiencing the same demographics. In the field study conducted there seems to be a low amount of consumers shopping, but when added to an average amount of customers per day it is appropriate. At this particular location farther inland from the coast, the store has more foot traffic because of the decrease of competition in other surf/skate store near the coast. The income data compared to the guesstimate of income, based on purchasing amounts spent, does not match up. It seems that people were spending more money then bring in. When looking over the work force statistics, it seems that more parents are working and allow children to buy more products for the missed time together, allowing for huge indulges in money spent shopping. I feel that the customer is a teenager with working parents and most shop is done on own. The customer is give fixed amounts to spend and pre-though  periods through out the year. The consumer is likely to be working a small part-time job and spends paycheck on personal wants and entertainment. The loyal PacSun customers like to create their own activities related style through items at the store. There clothing chooses are selected more through durability and versatility, then innovative trends. The customer is entertainment seeking and dedicate. It is more like that the customers of PacSun are returning customers then new ones, once image is established by consumer, they tend to continue on the same path. II. Modification MixAs a buyer for PacSun it would be advisable to really study the store surroundings because even though the seasons are changing, it is likely that customers will purchase tank tops andshort-sleeve shirts year round. The need for jackets is usually slim, but a wide range of sweatshirt and sweaters is a necessity because the San Diego area does get windy during the end of the year. Being a buyer for specific classification of customers is defiantly easier when in a usually predicable climate, like San Diego. Knowing the trendy colors for each season is more necessary then knowing the trendy cut shirt cuts, because the PacSun consumer wants to be able to wear the item for season after season, not just for a few months. The most important thing to remember, as a buyer, is to buy the products for the customer not the corporation. Meaning to always fulfill the customers needs before selling products for corporate popularity and profitability. If logical, I would widen the size range of the clothing to open up the target market to teenagers in the plus size range. This will increase the foot traffic in the store. Other then the sizing, the store have the right products and styles in it that lives up to the PacSun reputation. If it were possible to reach a different customer segmentation, while maintaining the current the merchandise is stores, it would have to be to add another section for Pre-teenagers, ages 10 to 14 years old, there are many younger customers that are already set in there type of clothing classification of style related to there activities, like surfing and skate boarding. This would consist of extending the sizes and styles to Boy and Girl sizes and styles, but using the same consistency of brands. This would create a whole new foot traffic and profitability for PacSun stores. Bibliography –www.pacsun.com, copyright 2007-www.hoovers.com, copyright 2007-onsight analysis. date January 23, 2007

Globalization and Technology Essay

Friedman explains how 10 ingredients, he calls â€Å"flatteners† which has inadvertently brought about a new global business environment. The 1st flattener is the â€Å"Fall of the Berlin Wall†, where Friedman explains how on 11/09/89 the Berlin Wall came down and exposed the continents into one globalize trading world. Friedman explains about six months after the â€Å"Berlin Wall Falling† the â€Å"Windows Operating System† computer chip exploded and launched the beginning era of internet PC revolution. He calls this era â€Å"The Fall of The Walls and the Rise of The Windows†. Explaining how the â€Å"Wall† stood in the way of globalization. Six months after the Wall Fell the Windows Operating System 3.0 shifted and created a single graphical interface. The 2nd flattener was the date 08/09/95 having an immense impact which I believe is a milestone in the history of our technology growth and its repercussions was when Netscape, a internet b rowser (which is a drop box that is illustrated on computer screens giving a outburst of availability to the internet’s world wide web of information and created an open highway with no speed limits), went public. As Netscape became available to all people at their finger tips it played a key roll empowering individuals with massive amounts of information and helped commercialize and set open standards, equally facilitating all of the world’s people with virtually the same chance of opportunities for growth. This phenomenon is greatly indicative to the remaining of Thomas Friedman’s flatteners and their implications, good and bad, on human kind essentially defining what he meant with the statement: â€Å"The World Is Flat†. The Netscape browser brought the internet to life and gave us the .com boom creating a bubble of wild crazy investments which facilitated the fiber optic boom. Friedman explains how an overinvestment of 1 trillion dollars in five years into fiber optic cable inadvertently connected the world through the internet. Which lead us to the â€Å"Workflow Software†, the 3rd flattener where all the software programs and standards that connect PCs with ba nds of cable to allow work to flow, such as Microsoft Word. These events fountain a technology revolution, which virtually connected everyone’s application to everyone else’s application. Creating a new global platform where Friedman describes this era as a collaboration of platforms, flattening the world. This platform marks the end of a new beginning as Freidman describes â€Å"The Genesis Moment†. Freidman explains how this Genesis moment fueled a network connecting  Ã¢â‚¬Å"people to people†, â€Å"companies with companies†, â€Å"people with companies† and â€Å"more people with more different places† and so. Thus, starts the emergence of Freidman’s theory â€Å"The World Is Flat†. This new platform is based on a collaboration of the following six flatteners. Starting with the 4th flattener in which Friedman labels as â€Å"Outsourcing† was built around the â€Å"Y2K† fade. Outsourcing was the product of collaboration which allows departments of large companies to work out of State, and more so, to work out of our country. This collaboration aided companies to disaggregate a good proportion of their business processes and source it out to anywhere around the world at a lesser cost than it would have otherwise cost here in the US. Outsourcing gave way for companies to take advantage of high skilled laborers with low-cost wages, utilizing them as vehicles for companies to gain profits and develop an exponential boost of effective efficiency by tremendously improving their overall production and operations increasing profit margins. Although, many American companies probably did not stop to analyze the repercussions of their gains. The 5th flattener is â€Å"Off Shoring†, which is built around China joining the World Trade Organization. Off-shoring is taking an entire factory and physically moving it from the U.S. to a foreign country and integrating into global production operations. The 6th flattener is â€Å"Open-Sourcing† where the writing of â€Å"Linux† was created. Linux is a computer operating system program and is the biggest competitor’s to Microsoft’s operating system program. This new operating system â€Å"Linux† was created by a collaboration of computer sc ientists on the internet who demanded no money for their efforts allowing this free program to be downloaded by anyone who seeks it out. Linux is the biggest competitor to Microsoft whereby under cutting Microsoft, Friedman emphasis, how it would be hard to bet â€Å"zero†. â€Å"Supply Chain† is the 7th flattener which is built around Wal-Mart, as Freidman stated, represents the construction of a hyper-efficient, down to the last atom of efficiency global supply chain of operations. Wal-Mart successfully capitalized on MIT (management information technology). An example is where as you take an item off a Wal-Mart shelf in one city, that item will immediately be in production in China. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart doesn’t manufacture anything, but has successfully held itself as the biggest American retail company by innovation of a global supply chain to the last atom of efficiency. â€Å"In-Sourcing† is the 8th  flattener. UPS, an express package delivery service company capitalized on in-sourcing by taking over internal logistics of companies such as Toshiba. This way of business is not an e asy situation but can successfully be done by normal standardization company set-up where UPS will repair a broken item of Toshiba products. UPS virtually creates and operates a replication of Toshiba’s repair center. Toshiba agrees to pay UPS to operate this repair services for their customers in which UPS delivers the repaired product back to the original customer where Toshiba never touch their own products. The 9th flattener is where Friedman describes as â€Å"Informing† examples are Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft search engines. These informing tools allow you to collaborate yourself with unlimited amounts of data, information and resources. Informing is a way where we as individuals can collaborate ourselves with information. The 10th flattener is what Friedman calls â€Å"Steroids†. This is wireless technology, voice over the IP, and advances in computer microchips and storage capacity. He explains how Steroids basically turbo charge all nine of these new forms of collaboration and make it so you can now use anyone of these advances from anywhere through any device. These ten flatteners complement each other and converged into a single global web enabled platform. Without plan these events of convergence overlapped and complemented each other, working together with multiple forms, melting any world’s gaps and virtually bringing all people together closer than ever before. Friedman summarizes the flatteners by explaining how â€Å"three convergence of technology† makeup the 10 flatteners are as followed: †¢ 1st Convergence: Globalization 1.0: where the world changed from â€Å"Large? to Medium† and the agent of this global change were through countries. Globalization 2.0: where the world changed from â€Å"Medium? to Small† and the agent of this global change were through companies, markets and laborers. Globalization 3.0: where the world changed from â€Å"Small? to Tiny† and the agent of this global change were not countries or companies but individuals and small groups. Where individuals world wide, now have access and the ability to facilitate, embrace, and empower themselves individuality with any advancements they may desire. This global change has flattened the economic playing field geographically through time, distance and language providing the opportunities of capitalism and its byproduct is competition world wide for all people of the world. Essentially, this defines Thomas  Friedman’s meaning of â€Å"The World Is Flat†. †¢ 2nd Convergence: The need for adaptation of our new flat world habits where resources, rather it be natural or synthetic, are more evenly distributed among all living people of the world therefore resulting in a negative amount of resources allocated for each American’s average income level. Friedman tells a detailed personal story when he experienced the flatten world describing how he once lacked new information and therefore failed to take advantage of attaining his airplane flight boardin g pass the night before starting at 12:01am. Other passengers took advantage and utilized their resource tool of new technology where customer service provided by Southwest Airline’s internet we2 site. Even thought other passengers on the same airline flight as Thomas Friedman was able to receive their airline-boarding pass the night before the flight. Allowing the other passengers more free time before having to arrive at the airport and not having to stand in a waiting line. According the Friedman’s writing, we as Americans would have to learn to view the world from a different perspective, understanding and accepting competition will increase and we may get less for our dollar in the near future. Friedman called this process where people will have to horizontalize themselves. He explains when the world goes flat the value increasing is not created vertically, in single sections or companies, but is increasingly created horizontally by who is collaborated with what companies, inside and outside your company and/or companies you buy from as consumers. People having to horizontalize them selves and to think very different about how we collaborate within firms and with other firms in order to reach new value creation. An example is when computers became available to the average consumer and businesses, people had to adapt to a very different workplace and work habits in order to collaborate with the new technology. †¢ 3rd Convergence: Freidman states the last convergence is since all of this globalize collaboration been accruing there was a massive quite perfect storm was being created â€Å"3-billion† people who were out of the game walked onto the playing field of trade and consumerism from China, India and the former Soviet Union. Freidman recognizes that approximately only 5% of those three billion people can plug in and play after calculating the numbers it turns outs to 150 million people, which equal the size of the American workforce today. Freidman’s main argument of his book is the triple convergence of the ten  flatteners that are flattening the world, the convergence of a whole new way of doing business is much more horizontal rather vertical including three billio n new players. In general, Thomas Friedman finalized his argument by emphasizing â€Å"the world is flat and I’m here to tell you that everything we called IT revolution these last 20 years, was just the warm-up act that has been the sharpening and the distribution of the tools of collaboration. Now you are going to see several billion people increasing quickly learn how to use and apply those tools across a whole new range and forms of collaboration†. I agree with much of Friedman’s theories and the flatteners he chose to describe the extreme important impacts that affect our IT revolution world to at which the state it is in today. Freidman chose these events as milestone, where I would add emphasis on the importance of the sequential pattern of the flatteners’ events in which they transpired. Much through pure chance the sequence of events our technology growth and it processes just fell into action, rather for better or for worst, it was bound to happen. And if you ask most Americans if they think we should have not had the opportunity in attaining these advance technology leaps, I would prognosticate that most people would not forgo these gains for anything less regardless of the repercussions. I believe the most important flattener is 08/09/95 when Netscape went public because it opened an express highway of doors of opportunities with no speed limits, in my opinion, having one of the greatest technological improved impacts on human kind by immediately and direct changing our standard ways of living and increasingly potential capabilities. When Netscape became public it gave us a huge stepping-stone of advancement connecting the people of the entire world to each other. This change gave way for all of the other leaps of events to unfold without such a change Friedman’s other collaboration could not have taken place in the matter in which it did. This technology metamorphosis has allowed people to work from their homes, communicate to family members that are out of the country, and educate themselves with tons of information. I agree with Friedman in that â€Å"learning to love learning† are important elements missing from our culture’s view of education today. People must know that learning is never ending. There is always some skill or fact that is unknown that can be learned, but only if that person has a desire to learn. Even though children have the greatest opportunity to gain knowledge,  many children do not take advantage of it. They should realize that learning is constant and that educat ion is very powerful. Although I do not agree with Friedman in that â€Å"learning to love learning† is â€Å"most† important elements our society is missing from our culture’s view of education. I believe first and foremost public schools from 1st grade all the way to BA degree with in a university should be facilitated and paid for all American children with governmental taxes. National health care and wage insurance can help people survive while they are unemployed. Basically, we Americans should go back to the basics in that our society should enforce (good old fashion morals) basic conduct that reflects morals and respect utilizing integrity anything we do. The opposite is true in which we allow the media and forms of other public exposure to report stories with exaggerated facts and/or information that adversely affects our children’s view of themselves and everything around them. Should we go back to basic traditional teaching where in the beginning of child’s education building a strong foundation in our children’s life incorporating strong work ethics including a strong sense of pride in the all work and accomplishments attain. I believe if these foundations are bestowed within our children’s lives, the results will give them empowerment, enabling and encouraging our children in the right direction so that, when needed they can educate, empower, enable, and encourage themselves in becoming the most efficient individual collaboration. Understanding this way of life and incorporating these values within our daily lives utilization of fewer resources. Americans must acknowledge that we may have to learn to live with fewer luxuries and learn to be more conservative with natural resources but not necessary having to accept a weaker economy for the sake of it. There is a limited amount of natural resources available at any given time on earth and after these natural resources are evenly divided out per individual, the amount per individual is very small in size. Therefore, I do believe Americans should start adapting to new ways of living and consume fewer resources per individual. Many people may agree with my belief that Thomas Friedman failed to emphasis, what I call â€Å"individual re-shapers† where Americans should re-evaluate (re-shaping) their morals, integrity, honor and trust and try to incorporate these ideas within the intra-structure of American families, public schools, public facilities,  communities, cities, states, agencies, government, services, products and companies of the United States. If Americans would utilizes the same amount of time and investments, monetary and non-monetary, within our society moral values as whole and start new policies that will complement our global changes. These changes can initiate with my extremely important idea of â€Å"individual re-shapers† by developing and morally growing in a positive direction for the better good of all people around the world as a whole. Some â€Å"individual re-shapers† are technological advancements within public schools, which is essential for success and may have exponentially increasing our standard of living and helped improved most Americans everyday life by starting with our children. Another â€Å"individual re-shapers† is restricting the media to mislead or avoid the real truth of WORLD NEWS and not allow political groups or public positions and agencies to utilize law suites and avoid addressing real society moral problems of the American people. This can facilitate our country to be effective in a continuous society that morally develops at a rate parallel to the repercussions of technologies developments. The most important knowledge I have acquired from Thomas Friedman’s book â€Å"The World Is Flat† is the confirmation of my own personal beliefs as well as my personal career plans and professional development that incorporates and utilizes my code of honor and integrity in whatever I do in my life, rather it be a branch manager overseeing many employees, and/or a wife and mother (in which I believe is one of the hardest but important jobs a person can hold) raising children that reflecting the same, if not better, code of conduct in the ir life.

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buy custom Play essay Host: Hello, this is me, Name and Last Name with you, and you are listening to Get Smart. Today, I am going to talk about the online classes. They are becoming extremely popular with time, and they provide people with an opportunity not only to learn, but also to socialize. Many researchers have spoken about the effects of the online classes on students stating that such classes had a positive influence on interaction with others. I would like to introduce Lin Muilenburg to you who spoke about online classes being a powerful socialization tool. For example, in one of her works she stated that overcoming the lack of social interaction in online courses is major contributor to the decision to continue with online learning (Muilenburg Berge, 2005, p. 44). Is that right, Lin? Guest: Hello, yes, it is right! Hi, guys, my name is Lin Muilenburg. The quote you mentioned actually comes from the article I wrote in cooperation with another expert, Zane Berge. Together, we were working on analysis of online classes and their effects on students. As you know, students nowadays like to take new approaches to learning because they feel there is so much more they can get with technologies being implemented in education. Tht is why they enroll in online classes. Nevertheless, many students fear that with online education, they will be able to learn more, but socialize less. Overcoming the lack of social interaction, as I and my co-author described in the article, was a major issue for success of online courses. Still, I would like to add that institutions have already done a lot in this direction providing students with the possibility to communicate more. We have to understand that remote and online classes do not mean the absence of interaction or socialization; wh at is meant by them is that socialization is going to be performed in a different way. Host: I cannot agree with you more. We should not forget that online classes are just a different type of classes, but they are still classes in a general sense. We have another expert in the studio who may expand on this topic a little bit more. It is Kimberly Hardy who came up with interesting numbers stating that there was an 8.2 percent increase for distance education enrollmentssubstantially higher than the overall increase in national campus enrollments (Hardy Meyer-Griffith, 2012, p. 7). Hi, Kimberly! Guest: Hello, it is a pleasure to be here. I am very pleased to talk to you as well as meet you, Lin. Yes, there has been an increase in the number of students enrolled in online classes, and, as Lin has mentioned, there have been some worries about socialization in this situation; but online classes are very good for socialization in fact. I did a research with my colleague Katie Meyer-Griffith, and we came to the conclusion that online classes provide students with the possibility to socialize effectively because they have a chance to interact online. Even more, they are given an amazing opportunity to communicate with people from various territories and areas, which is not possible with typical classes. As a result, they can make more friends and get a greater perspective on the world around them. They are also able to learn more about accepting new people into their circle because online classes show them the importance of being able to communicate with people effectively without actually seeing them. Online classes are great for socialization because they provide students with the possibility to test their social skills and measure them with more challenging tasks. Host: Thank you, Kimberly. Thank you, Lin. Surely, it was an interesting conversation. Hopefully, our listeners liked it, and we will be right back with you after a short ad. Buy custom Play essay

Expository Essay

Expository Essay Expository Essay Expository Essay Expository essay writing should follow this simple structure: introduction, main text and conclusion. Writing expository essay you need to discuss topic and explain your point of view presenting illustrative material. In the introduction give background information on essay topic, to set the foundation for your main text. Expository essay should have a clear essay title and brief introduction.   Do not overload introduction with unnecessary information. You will have an opportunity to write all you want in the main body of your expository essay. Body of expository essay should be as detailed as possible.   However, you should not go beyond the narrowly defined topic as well as you should meet the specific word limit.   Writing an essay, start new paragraph with new idea; however, it should be linked to the previous one. Expository Essay Writing Writing an expository essay avoid using personal pronoun 'I' and passive voice. The final things you need to do before turning in an expository essay are proofreading and revision. Make sure that your expository essay does not fall out of the assigned topic.   If your expository essay is about nature, do not write about humanity.   You may mention the role of humans, but you should not focus is on humanity.   It can be used to support your main points, as an example; however, it should not be the focus of your expository essay. Custom Expository Essay We would like to offer you professional custom expository essay writing service.   Our writers are working hard to ensure high quality of every piece of writing.   Expository essay written by our writer will definitely meet academic requirements of your teacher.  We strive not to be late and assign a writer to help you within a very short period of time (less than 30 minutes).   Why to choose .com? We are honest and reliable, we are responsible and diligent.   Your questions are not left unanswered; your expository essays are not plagiarized.   We are young but educated and devoted writers. You may contact us 24/7 to get an answer on any question you may have.

Animal Abuse Essay

Animal Abuse Essay Animal Abuse Essay Animals are sometimes treated as friends but are also treated as enemies. We keep them as pets, but if it suits us, we slaughter them in their own habitats and in slaughterhouses. If we could kill them in a quick and pain-free way, like a special injection, which is not harmful to us, it would be a lot nicer to the animals being killed. However, the scenes in slaughterhouses are ones of bullying and torture. The people hurt the animals in the most horrific ways possible, for example, slitting their throats while they are still alive and dropping them from great heights to break their legs and necks and other bones. These are just two of the many ways of slaughter that are used today. Meat is needed for a good healthy diet. We should not hunt animals for sport or make them do silly circus tricks like, standing on their heads and climbing on top of other animals. Angling might be the only exception to this because without angling, the rivers would be over populated with fish (who have a very small memory span anyway). It could disrupt the food chain. Hunting wild animals and reptiles is not necessary. The food chain would be just fine if we stopped wild animal hunting, for example, fox hunting, wild cat hunting, elephant hunting, crocodile hunting and whale hunting. We should not kill animals for fur. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors wore animal skins and furs to keep warm and dry. Today we have man made fibres to make such garments. We can also buy man made clothes that look and feel just like real fur, if not more comfortable. There is no need for us to kill these poor innocent creatures for status symbols. It takes many more than five lynxs to make one small fur coat. It is disgusting. How would you like it if some bigger stronger creature than yourself killed you for your hair or your bones so they can make clothes out of your hair and food delicacies out of your bones? It should be made illegal. We should also stop testing cosmetics on animals like rabbits and rodents. We need to test important medicines and drugs on animals because otherwise, the effects on us could be very harmful. I say this because new drugs for epilepsy were tested on my uncle, without his consent, and now he is mentally ill. He cannot walk very well. He cannot read or write very well. He has to live in a home for mentally disabled people like himself. This was all because a few people were against animal testing. It is horrific. It is much better that an animal suffers than a human. .

5 African Amereican nurse leaders annoniated Biblography Annotated Bibliography

5 African Amereican nurse leaders annoniated Biblography - Annotated Bibliography Example Adah Belle Samuel Thoms was born in Virginia in 1870. She studied nursing in Lincoln Hospital and Home school of Nursing, where she graduated in 1905. She became the school’s acting director for almost two decades and was barred from officially becoming the director because of her skin color (Davis, 1999: p27). In her entire nursing career she advocated inclusion of African Americans into the American Red Cross. She also relentlessly agitated for equal opportunities, and was part of the group of nurses that set up the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. Harriet Tubman worked as a nurse during the American civil war. She had immense knowledge of herbal medicine, which she used to treat soldiers who were wounded in sections of South Carolina. She used the herbs to cure many of small pox and dysentery, and at no point did she contract those diseases herself (Davis, 1999: p35). This made many people think that she was blessed by God. Hazel W. Johnson –Brown was another African American nurse who was turned down by a local hospital that insisted they would never employ a black person. In 1950, she graduated from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing. She then joined the American army. She had special surgical capabilities which enabled her to scale the army ranks, becoming the first ever black female brigadier general, heading over 7000 American army nurse corps. She was voted the army nurse of the year twice (Davis, 1999: p46-48). Lillian Holland Harvey was the dean of the Tuskegee University School of nursing for over three decades. During her tenure as the dean, she helped establish Alabama’s first degree in nursing, a program which enabled students acquire hands on hospital experience (Davis, 1999: p51-53). She was herself a registered nurse and an educationist who inspired many to further their education, and also made them learn how to balance career and family

Text-Messaging and Orality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Text-Messaging and Orality - Essay Example The cell phone is perhaps the single most ubiquitous feature of communication technology and according to the CTIA over 82% of Americans own one. Its ubiquity is not only due to its overwhelming ownership but by its very nature considering that neither a computer nor a land-line phone can be carried and used so easily. This facile manipulation of technology hints at McLuhan's comment. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of those cell phones have text-messaging capability. Text messaging as a phenomenon has gained attention from academics and critics primarily because of the proclivity of its users to employ "creative" grammatical and linguistic constructions. Its harshest critics claim that it will, or already has, led to a corruption of language. Indeed its pliable and dynamic structure does allow a manipulation of formal grammatical and linguistic rules that would be difficult to parse in formal essays, such as this one; its function in a civilization that has long been inscribed b y writing fulfills a much different role than essays, or letters- though its effect on language might be inedible and perceived even in those forms. Text-messaging and related channels represent a syncretism between oral and written forms of communication, and while it lacks the formal purity of traditional written forms of communication, it maintains its own separate aesthetic and poetic qualities that emphasize a heavy reliance on context, mnemonic deployment, and efficiency. By analyzing the physical nature, functional and literary features of text-messaging the oral features of text-messaging will be revealed, understanding of course that in the final analysis its essence as a textual form of communication in a hypertextual society remains regnant. In attempting to outline the structural features of text-messaging and related conduits of communication such as instant messaging, it will be juxtaposed to the features of orality that are relevant. Consider Edouard Glissant's quote, "Oralityis inseparable from the body in movement" (MacNeil, 2007). We understand text and the printed word to be primarily outside the body, distinct from the body and its author. Spoken word or talk is understood to be generated from within the body and indistinct from the author. Text-messaging straddles this interior/exterior boundary. The device on which one types or texts undeniably lies outside the body, its reception as well is mediated by a device outside the person. This is an important distinction as one of the salient features of oral communication is that it is received immediately and without explicit and conscious mediation, insofar that the reverberation of sound, the movement of air is not interpreted into words or speech until it is we ll into the ear canal, and though we recognize the source of the sound, its compilation occurs internally (Ong, 1982, pp. 32-33). To some degree this is quite different from the structure of text-messaging, insofar like other textual forms of communication, it is understood that the interpretation occurs on the page, in the visual field. However, in considering the intimate and tight connection between text-message and text-messenger there remains some features of the bodily coextension of orality. The cell phone's mobility and sizes bridges the communication barrier imposed by other devices, such as computers, telephones, even paper. Someone can interact with and use their cell

Cloud Computing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Cloud Computing - Research Paper Example For this analysis, focus would be on the public cloud where software and hardware systems are hosted in the remote data center of the provider as opposed to private cloud where the software and hardware systems are hosted in the enterprise of the customer. Thus, instead of having local servers and computers in the consumer’s premises, the provider provides a remote data center from which end users access the cloud through web browsers or mobile applications (Rountree & Castrillo, 2013). These cloud application providers seek to provide similar or better service as if the software programs were locally installed in the end-users’ computers. The capital investment involved in setting up a cloud would be mainly on the data center. This cost would be borne by the cloud provider who acquires all physical computing resources including networks, storage, servers and hosting infrastructure. On the other hand, the operation costs would be passed on to the users. The equipment an d assets in the data center belong to the service provide while the user would enter into a contract with the provider on a monthly or annual basis. Additionally, this cloud provider manages the computing infrastructure meant to provide the cloud services and runs the cloud software which provides the required services. The provider takes up the responsibility of deploying, configuring, maintaining and updating the way software applications operate on cloud infrastructure so as to meet the expected service provision levels. Therefore, the cloud provider would be expected to design, develop, procure, install, test, deploy, provide and manage the IT resources in cloud computing. Raj (2013) observes that this shift of capital demanding model to an operating expense model transfers material risk from the service user to the provider. DEPLOYMENT MODELS Organizational requirements on the services to be accessed from the cloud and the control needed varies greatly. Therefore, different ser vice models have been used to implement the cloud environment. During the early stages in the development of cloud computing, there were only two categorizations, private and public cloud according to Hollwarth (2012). These two shared specific characteristics. However, these categories were extended to cover forms like the hybrid cloud and even a more specialized model known as community cloud. Private cloud Private cloud infrastructure is solely operated for an organization made up of multiple consumers. According to Mell and Grance (2011), the ownership, management and operation of this cloud could be vested in the organization, an appointed third party or a combination of these. It could be hosted on or off premises. Accessibility would be through local area network, LAN or wide area network, WAN (Raj, 2013). This implies that the organization substantially holds control of the data center thus improves on privacy and security issues. Nonetheless, Hollwarth (2012) observes that private clouds could fail to be fully utilized as compared to public clouds and as such could fail to operate efficiently. Additionally, undertaking the control of security of the cloud could come with higher cost implications as opposed to public clouds. Community cloud Shared by various organizations, community cloud is exclusively provisioned for use by a specific consumer community sharing similar concerns such as compliance considerations, policy,

A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle Essay - 1

A Scandal in Bohemia by Arthur Conan Doyle - Essay Example The narrative discourse is distinct from the story because the events are arranged in a chronological manner. Instead of arranging the information of the story in a manner that makes sense, the author switches the story between the characters or moves the reader through flashbacks and flash-forwards. Although narratives of all genres are ubiquitous in the day-to-day life, Doyle’s narrative does not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. In the narrative discourse, Doyle employs varied approaches that include the solution to the narrative. For example, the dialogue between Watson and Holmes provides a clear understanding of the story. For instance, â€Å"was there a secret marriage?† also reveals the way the Holmes condescends the views of women in the story. One of the approaches employed in the story is the conversational approach, which the author included in the fiction work as the key aspect of the narrative discourse. The second app roach on narrative discourse provides a new genre of literary texts that represent a certain meaning. Doyle also uses suspense in the mystery story that leaves the reader to keep thinking about what happens next in the story. The author creates suspense in the story through explaining the atmosphere of the narrative in order to enable the reader to understand what is around him or her or what the people around the reader are doing. Suspense is used in narratives in order to enable the reader to think or focus on the insight of the story.

TO PLAN A SMALL BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

TO PLAN A SMALL BUSINESS - Essay Example It’s a time tested fact that every business when it is founded starts on a small note and then grows with time, in order to gain sustainability and maintain competitive advantage in the marketplace. The small businesses are started by identifying and fulfilling the needs of the customer while starting with a very small seed capital. In a similar note, to fulfill the needs of the needs of the youngsters, and busy professionals, who lack the time and space to network and socialize with each other, the concept called 18 Cafe has been developed. 18 Cafe will satisfy the socializing needs of today’s youngsters and busy professionals, while providing a cool, soothing and relaxing ambience of the 18th century, but with the technological connectivity of the 21st century. Mission The mission of 18 Cafe is to provide superior line of products at affordable rates without compromising on the product as well as the service quality. The following figure illustrates the expected figur es of net sales, gross profit as well as net profit for 18 Cafe during the first two years of its operations. Figure 1: Expected position during the first two years of operation Objectives The short term objectives of 18 Cafe would be to accomplish sales of ?200,000 in its outlet in the first year and maintain a net profit margin greater than 30% of sales by the end of the year. In the long run, 18 Cafe expects to expand its outlets in UK and subsequently across Africa. Business The globalization of the planet Earth has brought with itself, various advantages to the human life. It has moved on from the era of industrialization in the early 70’s to an era of digitization which began in the late 80’s and finally transformed itself to the era of globalization in the era of late 90’s. People’s lives have increasingly becoming hectic as they try to maintain a descent lifestyle with a descent income. With the rise of middle class families all around the globe a long with the pressure of financial crisis on the Euro zone, people around the globe and mostly in the western countries are responding to the pressure on their financial needs by working extra hours or by doing or handling multiple jobs. As a result of this hectic work schedule, social lives of the people are getting hampered. Man is a social animal and the social networking media like Facebook and Twitter has to some extent helped people in connecting with each other. But, the need for physical space is very much essential in spite of the shortage of time for networking in the people’s life. Keeping the need of today’s busy individual in mind, a proper business plan is being built to develop cater to the needs of the human interaction in the real world. So the idea in this business plan is to develop a Wi-Fi cafe that will be serving the purpose of human interaction in the real as well as virtual world, while grabbing some quick bite to please their appetites. The pr oposed name of the cafe is 18 Cafe. The Cafe is intended to be set up with an initial capital of ?100,000, of which the owner would put in 25% and expected to arrange a bank loan for the remaining 75% capital

What I did during my internship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

What I did during my internship - Essay Example I was later introduced to everyone who I would be working closely within athletics and later told me about his career path and how he got started. Mr. Brave resume displayed that he had lots of experience in the production field. He’s started learning the production end of television at an early age of 13. I was given a tour of all of the athletics facilities on campus and I was also taught about all the different machines and their functions. Every facility had something unique about them and most of the facilities had to share a lot of the same equipment as well. Later during that week I found out that I was going to be working about baseball and softball games. I would be assisting in enabling people to follow USF softball and baseball games from home which I found exciting because I have always been a sports fan. As my passion for the game continued to develop, it lead me into a field that I never thought I had an interest for, which is sports reporting. Things started to get busy on my second week of internship. I began getting hands on doing editing with the aid of Final Cut Pro. I have had prior experience using final cut pro while taking broadcast news, but it was during the internship that I was really able to develop my editing skills. My broadcast news professor was not very skilled in this application and so although I was familiar with the basics, getting hands on was the best way to really understand how it works. It was during my second week that I was asked to put together a highlight film for the men’s and women’s basketball team. I found it really interesting because I am a basketball fan, and I totally understand the game and this kind of sport in general. I also know most personalities behind the industry. I went about finding important clips and editing them to craft a story that is both interesting and compelling to the

TO PLAN A SMALL BUSINESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

TO PLAN A SMALL BUSINESS - Essay Example It’s a time tested fact that every business when it is founded starts on a small note and then grows with time, in order to gain sustainability and maintain competitive advantage in the marketplace. The small businesses are started by identifying and fulfilling the needs of the customer while starting with a very small seed capital. In a similar note, to fulfill the needs of the needs of the youngsters, and busy professionals, who lack the time and space to network and socialize with each other, the concept called 18 Cafe has been developed. 18 Cafe will satisfy the socializing needs of today’s youngsters and busy professionals, while providing a cool, soothing and relaxing ambience of the 18th century, but with the technological connectivity of the 21st century. Mission The mission of 18 Cafe is to provide superior line of products at affordable rates without compromising on the product as well as the service quality. The following figure illustrates the expected figur es of net sales, gross profit as well as net profit for 18 Cafe during the first two years of its operations. Figure 1: Expected position during the first two years of operation Objectives The short term objectives of 18 Cafe would be to accomplish sales of ?200,000 in its outlet in the first year and maintain a net profit margin greater than 30% of sales by the end of the year. In the long run, 18 Cafe expects to expand its outlets in UK and subsequently across Africa. Business The globalization of the planet Earth has brought with itself, various advantages to the human life. It has moved on from the era of industrialization in the early 70’s to an era of digitization which began in the late 80’s and finally transformed itself to the era of globalization in the era of late 90’s. People’s lives have increasingly becoming hectic as they try to maintain a descent lifestyle with a descent income. With the rise of middle class families all around the globe a long with the pressure of financial crisis on the Euro zone, people around the globe and mostly in the western countries are responding to the pressure on their financial needs by working extra hours or by doing or handling multiple jobs. As a result of this hectic work schedule, social lives of the people are getting hampered. Man is a social animal and the social networking media like Facebook and Twitter has to some extent helped people in connecting with each other. But, the need for physical space is very much essential in spite of the shortage of time for networking in the people’s life. Keeping the need of today’s busy individual in mind, a proper business plan is being built to develop cater to the needs of the human interaction in the real world. So the idea in this business plan is to develop a Wi-Fi cafe that will be serving the purpose of human interaction in the real as well as virtual world, while grabbing some quick bite to please their appetites. The pr oposed name of the cafe is 18 Cafe. The Cafe is intended to be set up with an initial capital of ?100,000, of which the owner would put in 25% and expected to arrange a bank loan for the remaining 75% capital

Soft Drink Industry Case Study Essay Example for Free

Soft Drink Industry Case Study Essay Introduction Description The soft drink industry is concentrated with the three major players, Coca-Cola Co. , PepsiCo Inc. , and Cadbury Schweppes Plc. , making up 90 percent of the $52 billion dollar a year domestic soft drink market (Santa, 1996). The soft drink market is a relatively mature market with annual growth of 4-5% causing intense rivalry among brands for market share and growth (Crouch, Steve). This paper will explore Porters Five Forces to determine whether or not this is an attractive industry and what barriers to entry (if any) exist. In addition, we will discuss several critical success factors and the future of the industry. Segments The soft drink industry has two major segments, the flavor segment and the distribution segment. The flavor segment is divided into 6 categories and is listed in table 1 by market share. The distribution segment is divided in to 7 segments: Supermarkets 31. 9%, fountain operators 26. 8%, vending machines 11. 5%, convenience stores 11. 4%, delis and drug stores 7. 9%, club stores 7. 3%, and restaurants 3. 2%. Table 1: Market Share 19901991199219931994 Cola69. 9 69. 768. 36765. 9 Lemon-Lime11. 711. 812 12. 112. 3 Pepper5. 66. 26. 97. 37. 6 Root 2. 72. 82. 32. 72. 7 Orange2. 32. 3 2. 62. 32. 3 Other7. 87. 27. 98. 69. 2 Source: Industry Surveys, 1995 Caveats The only limitations on access to information were: 1. Financial information has not yet been made available for 1996. 2. The majority of the information targets the end consumer and not the sales volume from the major soft drink producers to local distributors. 3. There was no data available to determine over capacity. Socio-Economic Relevant Governmental or Environmental Factors, etc. The Federal Government regulates the soft drink industry, like any industry where the public ingests the products. The regulations vary from ensuring clean, safe products to regulating what those products can contain. For example, the government has only approved four sweeteners that can be used in the making of a soft drink (Crouch, Steve). The soft drink industry currently has had very little impact on the environment. One environmental issue of concern is that the use of plastics adversely affects the environment due to the unusually long time it takes for it to degrade. To combat this, the major competitors have lead in the recycling effort which starting with aluminum and now plastics. The only other adverse environmental impact is the plastic straps that hold the cans together in 6-packs. These straps have been blamed for the deaths of fish and mammals in both fresh and salt water. Economic Indicators Relevant for this Industry The general growth of the economy has had a slight positive influence on the growth of the industry. The general growth in volume for the industry, 4-5 percent, has been barely keeping up with inflation and growths on margins have been even less, only 2-3 percent (Crouch, Steve). Threat of New Entrants Economies of Scale Size is a crucial factor in reducing operating expenses and being able to make strategic capital outlays. By consolidating the fragmented bottling side of the industry, operating expenses may be spread over a larger sales base, which reduces the per case cost of production. In addition, larger corporate coffers allow for capital investment in automated high speed bottling lines that increase efficiency (Industry Surveys, 1995). This trend is supported by the decline in the number of production workers employed by the industry at higher wages and fewer hours. This in conjunction with the increased value of shipments over the period shows the increase in efficiency and the economies gained by consolidation (See table 2). Table 2 General Statistics: Year CompaniesWorkersHoursWagesValue of Shipments 1982162642. 485. 27. 84 16807. 5 198341. 585. 18. 2417320. 8 198439. 8 81. 78. 5118052 1985141437. 277. 89. 119358. 2 1986 133535. 573. 59. 7720686. 8 1987119035. 471. 510. 45 22006 1988113535. 271. 810. 7823310. 3 1989102733. 4 67. 710. 9823002. 1 19909413265. 711. 4823847. 5 1991 31. 966. 811. 8525191. 1 199229. 861. 612. 46 26260. 4 199328. 659. 312. 9327224. 4 199427. 4 56. 913. 3928188. 5 199526. 254. 513. 8629152. 5 1996 2552. 114. 3230116. 5 Source: Manufacturing USA, 4th Ed. Further evidence of economies is supported by the increased return on assets from 1992-1995, as shown in table 3. Coke and Pepsi clearly show increased return on assets as the asset base increases. However, Cadbury/Schweppes does not show conclusive evidence from 95 to 96. Table 3 CADBURY/SCHWEPPES93949596 ASSETS2963100 326690035015004595000 SALES33724003724800 40296004776000 NET INCOME195600236800261900300000 Sales/Income5. 80%6. 36% 6. 50%6. 28% Income/Assets6. 60%7. 25%7. 48%6. 53% COKE ASSETS11051934120210001387300015041000 SALES 13073860139630001618100018018000 NET INCOME1664382217600025540002986000 Sales/Income12. 73%15. 58%15. 78%16. 57% Income/Assets15. 06%18. 10% 18. 41%19. 85% PEPSI ASSETS20951200237058002479200025432000 SALES 21970000250210002847240030421000 NET INCOME374300158800017520001606000 Sales/Income 1. 70%6. 35%6. 15%5. 28% Income/Assets1. 79%6. 70%7. 07%6. 31% Source: Compact Disclosure Capital Requirements The requirements within this industry are very high. Production and distribution systems are extensive and necessary to compete with the industry leaders. Table 4 shows the average capital expenditures by the three industry leaders. Table 4 Dec-95Dec-94Jan-94Jan-93 Receivables1624333 138576712266331077912 Inventories867666. 7 803666. 7777366. 7716673. 7 Plant Equip5986333 579536752466004642058 Total Assets15022667 140555001299790011655411 Source: Compact Disclosure The magnitude of these expenditures causes this to be a high barrier to entry. Proprietary Product Differences Each firm has brands that are unique in packaging and image, however any of the product differences that may develop are easily duplicated. However, secret formulas do create a difference or good will that cannot be duplicated. The best example of this is the New Coke fiasco of 1985. Coke reformulated its product due to test marketing results that showed New Coke beat Pepsi 47% to 43% and New Coke was preferred over old Coke by a 10% margin. However, Coke executives did not take into account the good will created by the old Coke name and formula. The introduction of New Coke as a replacement of Coke was met by outrage and unrelenting protest by the public. Three months from the initial launch of New Coke, management apologized to the public and reissued the old Coke formula. Test marking shows that there is only a small difference in actual product taste (52% Pepsi, 48% Coke), but the good will created by a brand can have significant proprietary differences (Dess, 1993). This is a high barrier to entry. Absolute Cost Advantage Brands do have secret formulas, which makes them unique and new entry into the industry difficult. New products must remain outside of patented zones but these differences can be slight. This leads to the conclusion that the absolute cost advantage is a low barrier within this industry. Learning Curve The shift in the manufacturing of soft drinks is gravitating toward automation due to speed and cost. However, industry technology is low and the manufacturing process is not difficult, therefore the learning curve will be short and will have a low barrier to entry. Access to Inputs All the inputs within the soft drink industry are commodity items. These include cane, beet, corn syrup, honey, concentrated fruit juice, plastic, glass, and aluminum. Access to these inputs is not a barrier to enter the industry. Proprietary Low Cost Production The process of manufacturing soft drinks is not a proprietary process. The methods used in the process are relatively standard within the industry and the knowledge needed to begin production can easily be acquired. This is not a barrier to entry. Brand Identity This is a very strong force within the industry. It takes a long time to develop a brand that has recognition and customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is indeed the HOLY GRAIL to American consumer product companies. (Industry Surveys, 1995) A well recognized brand will foster customer loyalty and creates the opportunity for real market share growth, price flexibility, and above average profitability (Industry Surveys, 1995). Therefore this is a high barrier to entry. Access to Distribution Distribution is a critical success factor within the industry. Without the network, the product cannot get to the final consumer. The most successful soft drink producers are aggressively expanding their distribution channels and consolidating the independent bottling and distribution centers. From 1978 to the present, the number of Coca-Cola bottlers decreased from 370 to 120 (Industry Surveys, 1995). In addition, 31. 9% of the soft drink business is in supermarkets, where acquiring shelf space is very difficult (Santa, 1996). This is a high barrier to entry. Expected Retaliation Market share within the industry is critical; therefore any attempt to take market share from the leaders will result in significant retaliation. The soft drink industry is a moderately mature market with slow single digit growth (Industry Surveys, 1995). Projected growth rates are 4-5% in sales volume and 2- 3% in margin (Crouch, Steve). Therefore, growth in market share is obtained by stealing share from rivals causing retaliation to be high in defense of current market position. This is a high barrier to entry. Conclusion To be successful on a large scale, the high capital requirements for manufacturing, distribution, and marketing are high barriers to entry. Therefore the threat of new entrants is low making this an attractive industry. Suppliers Supplier concentration Supplier concentration is low due to the fact that the main ingredients are sugar (cane and beet), water, various chemicals, and aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles. There are many places to get sugar and ingredients for soft drinks because they are commodity items. The containers (aluminum cans, bottles etc.) make up 36 percent of all the inputs that the industry uses. Other supplies like sugars, syrups and extracts account for 23 percent of the inputs (Manufacturing USA). There are five major suppliers of glass bottles. Altrista Corp. , Anchor Glass Container, Glassware of Chile, Owens Illinois, and Vistro Sa are the major makers of glass bottles (Compact Disclosure). This is a fair amount of suppliers considering that only five percent of soft drink sales are in glass bottles. There are even more suppliers of plastic bottles. This is good because 43% of all sales are from plastic bottles (Prince, 1996). All this makes the concentration for glass and plastic suppliers moderate. The aluminum can industry is even older and more established than the plastic industry. Reynolds Metal Products, American National Can Company and Metal Container Corp. are the main suppliers of aluminum cans. 50. 6% of total soft drink sales are packaged in aluminum cans (Prince, 1996). Since the aluminum industry is older and more established, these are likely to be the only manufacturers for a while. Even though the concentration of aluminum producers are low there are only three major players in the industry, Coke, Pepsi, and Cadbury. These three account for nearly 90% of domestic soft drink sales (Dawson, 1996). This makes the balance of power slightly favor the suppliers of aluminum cans, even though the number of producers and buyers are equal (3). Syrups and extracts account for 16. 7% of input costs to the soft drink industry (Manufacturing USA, Fourth Ed. ). Even though these are a small percentage of inputs, all the major soft drink companies own companies that produce flavoring extracts and syrups (Industry Surveys, 1995). This is probably due to the fact that they all have secret formulas and this is how they protect the secret. Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper all have secret formulas. This makes the concentration of suppliers for extracts very low but they are owned by the soft drink industry. This backward integration by the major players makes the power question moot. Suppliers do have limited power over the soft drink industry. The concentration of suppliers remains relatively low, which would seem to give the supplier power. The shear mass and volume that the industry buys negates that effect and balances, if not tips it back toward the soft drink industry. Presence of Substitute Inputs There is not a lot of variety in inputs. The biggest substitute input was when the industry switched from aluminum cans to plastic bottles. This made the glass industry almost shake out completely. The next big substitute input was for sugar. Since people were demanding more and more ways to lose weight and consume fewer calories, the diet soft drink exploded in sales. This demand made the soft drink industry find an alternative to sugar to sweeten their product. This substitute turned out to be Nutrasweet non-sugar sweetener. This was found to reduce the calories and retain the taste of their respective products. Other sweeteners, like molasses, do not work because they change the flavor of the product. Most of these substitute inputs had already taken place so they become less relevant to the industry as time marched on. Substitute inputs usually do not become important until the customer or market changes dramatically. This happens when new studies come out from the government about how harmful something is. This was the case when scientists came out with the study that stated that saccharin was harmful to rats. The industry had to respond by reducing its use of saccharin and look for a substitute. At this time, the industry found Nutrasweet to be a reasonable substitute for saccharin, which was used more heavily in diet drinks. All in all, there are a lot of substitutes for packaging but not for sweeteners because these sweeteners must have government approval (Crouch, Steve). This makes suppliers have power over the industry as seen in the almost overnight empire of Nutrasweet. This will most likely change drastically when Aspirtain (Nutrasweet) loses its patent in a few years. Differentiation of InputsÃ'Ž Sugar is commonly available while Nutrasweet is patented. There is no differentiation for sugar and only one choice in Nutrasweet. As far as the other chemicals and inputs, they are commodity items, and it does not matter who supplies them. This makes suppliers have little power over the soft drink industry. Importance of Volume to Supplier The soft drink industry buys a large portion of the Nutrasweet market but their percentage of purchases are falling as other products begin to use it. Sugar is bought but not in the volume that the grocery store or other industries do. The aluminum can, plastic bottles and glass bottles (less now) are all pretty much dependent on the soft drink industry for their livelihood. This makes the supplier have pretty much no power over the industry. Impact of Input on Cost or Differentiation Since the inputs are basic elements there is no differentiation and therefore no impact on the final product for using different inputs. If the price of the input changed, it would dramatically change the price of the product as the aluminum cartel did in 1994. Since the major inputs are commodity items, the prices can change dramatically due to environmental forces. If the sugar industry suffers a loss due to weather or because of political unrest (like in Cuba), then the prices go up and the soft drink industry is usually left absorbing them. The soft drink industry can not, in all cases, simply pass along the price increase. Customers and distributors are more price sensitive than ever. This makes the supplier have a fair amount of bargaining power over the industry. Threat of Backward or Forward Integration With the current climate of sticking to the core of the company, there is little threat of backward integration into the suppliers industry. This is after the fact that they already have integrated into the extracts to protect their secrets. The integration into the extract-producing segment of the suppliers will be the extent of the backward integration. The suppliers do not have the capital required to forward integrate into the soft drink industry. This makes the industry attractive for investment. Access to Capital The soft drink industry is very profitable and therefore looked upon favorably by financial institutions. This includes the stock market, direct investors (bondholders), and banks. Currently the operating margins for the industry have grown from 17. 9% in 1992 to 19. 5% in 1996. The projected operating margins are projected to grow to 20. 5% from 1997 to 2001 (Value Line 1996). The profit margins and demand are increasing for the soft drink industry (Industry Surveys, 1995). What this means is that capital is available for expansion or upgrading, if additional capital is required. This is favorable to the industry. Access to Labor The industry is not highly technical except for chemical engineering. This means that the demands for skilled labor are not very high. Which means that the soft drink industry will not have trouble finding labor. There are no established labor unions. The average labor cost is no more than in any other industry. The average hourly wage is $11. 85 per hour, which just about the same as all manufacturing firms of $11. 49 (Manufacturing USA). Summary of Suppliers When you sum up the different aspects of the suppliers you come to the quick conclusion that the power is definitely in the hands of the soft drink industry. This makes the industry very attractive for investment and for the companies already in the industry from the supply aspect. This means that it is attractive to new entrants as well. Buyers Buyer Concentration versus Industry Concentration The buyers for the soft drink industry are members of a large network of bottlers and distributors that represent the major soft drink companies at the local level. Distributors purchase the finished, packaged product from the soft drink companies while bottlers purchase the major ingredients. With the consolidation that has occurred within the industry, there is little difference between the two. Distributors are assigned to represent a specific geographic area, for example a town or a county. In turn, these distributors are responsible for distributing the product to the retailers who sell the products to the end consumer. In recent years, the national companies have been purchasing independent bottlers in an effort to consolidate the business and gain some distribution economies of scale (Thompson and Strickland, 1993). Buyer Volume The contractual agreements, which are present in this industry, dictate that the major soft drink companies will sell their products to the distributors. Therefore, buyer volume is not a factor for this industry. Buyer Switching CostÃ'Ž Independent bottlers have contractual agreements to represent that company within a certain area. Switching costs would include establishing new relationships with other companies to represent and the legal costs associated with distributors being released from the contract. Buyer Information Distributors are very informed about the product that they are distributing. Information flows freely between the soft drink Companies and the local distributors and down to the retailers. There are many co-operative promotions where distributors and soft drink companies collaborate on price and advertising campaigns (Crouch, Steve). For example, major soft drink firms will send a regular report out to its distributors describing upcoming promotional events where the cost will be shared between the two companies. For promotions that fall outside of this report, the distributors will have to coordinate that sponsorship with the soft drink company. Threat of Backward Integration It is doubtful that local distributors will move into the actual production process of soft drinks. Distributors specialize in the transportation and promotion of the product that they rely on the carbonated beverage companies produce. However, major retailers; for example Wal-Mart and Harris Teeter have begun distributing their own private label brands of soft drinks. Wal-Mart now offers Sams Choice and Harris Teeter offers Presidents Choice at a significantly lower price. These private label competitors will not provide the variety of packaging alternatives, which make the national leaders so successful (PepsiCo 1995 Annual Report). For example, Pepsi offers 12-ounce cans, 20 ounce bottles, 1 liter bottles, six packs, twelve packs, cases and The Cube 24 can boxes. Pull Through Pull through is not a factor from the independent bottlers perspective. These bottlers have a franchise agreement to represent a major carbonated beverage company on the local level. These distributors are legally bound to represent these companies and therefore cannot choose not to promote certain types of beverages. Brand Identity of Buyers Brand identity of buyers is not relevant to the distributors because of the contractual relationship that exists where distributors represent the soft drink companies. The distributors have an exclusive contractual agreement to represent that soft drink brand. Price Sensitivity Distributors are not highly price sensitive buyers. Independent bottlers are on a national contract so all distributors pay the same price for the same products. Price to Total Purchases Soft drinks are the single product that the distributors are concerned with so price is very important to them. Soft drink companies rely on these distributors to represent them on the local level, so it is important to maintain a healthy relationship. Impact on Quality and Performance All three of the leading carbonated beverage producers, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Cadbury Schweppes believe that their buyers (distributors) are an important step in taking their products to the end consumer. The service, which their distributors provide to the retailers, makes a difference to the retailers who sell the product to the end consumer. The actions of that distributor reflect on the soft drink company so if the distributor does not provide the level of service that retailer or restaurant desires, it may harm the companys image. Substitute Products Relative price/performance relationship of Substitutes The carbonated beverage industry provides a non-alcoholic means of satisfying an individuals desire to quench their thirst. Traditionally, coffee and tea would be considered substitute products. In recent years, carbonated beverages have seen the emergence of many new substitute products that wish to reduce soft drinks market share. The soft drink market has been traditionally competitive, without the added friction from ready to drink tea, shelf stable juice, sports drinks and still-water competitors also. (Gleason, 1996) Leaders in these emerging segments include Quaker Oats, with their Snapple and Gatorade products, Perrier, and Arizona Iced Teas. In other words, Pepsi isnt Cokes biggest competition, Tap water is. (Gleason, 1996). Generally speaking, soft drinks are less expensive to the consumer than these substitute products. Buyer Propensity to Substitute Buyer propensity to substitute is low due to the contractual relationships between the soft drink companies and the distributors. Rivalry Degree of Concentration and Balance among Competitors Three main competitors: Pepsico, Coca-Cola, and Dr. Pepper/Cadbury control the Soft Drink industry. Their combined total sales revenues account for 90 percent of the entire domestic market. This market dominance makes the industry a fiercely competitive and dynamic business environment to operate in. The single market leader is Coca-Cola with a 42 percent market share and over $18 billion in sales worldwide. PepsiCo maintains a 31 percent market share with $10. 5 billion in sales worldwide. The smallest of the three leaders is Dr. Pepper/Cadbury, which holds roughly 16 percent of the market. Cokes consistent dominance of both Pepsi and Dr. Pepper/Cadbury has caused Coke to become a household name when referring to soft drinks. As far as balance among competitors is concerned, PepsiCo is a much larger company than Coke and Dr. Pepper/Cadbury combined. The reason being that PepsiCo also owns companies in the snack and food industries (Frito-Lay, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC). With a work force of 480,000 people, PepsiCo is the worlds third largest employer behind General Motors and Wal-Mart. This has not lead to a more profitable soft drink business, nor has it helped PepsiCo use its size to steal market share from Coke or Dr. Pepper/Cadbury. Diversity among Competitors Though Coca-Cola dominates the industry in sales volume and market share, it does not dominate when it comes to innovative marketing and business strategy efforts. For instance, PepsiCo generates 71 percent of its revenues from the U. S. , while Coca-Cola derives 71 percent of its from international markets. Similarly, PepsiCo only gets 41 percent of its total revenues from soft drinks. The remaining 59 percent come from its snack and food business. Coke on the other hand gets all of its revenues from its soft drinks. Clearly both of the industry leaders have different strategies as far as revenue generation is concerned. However, as far as their product lines are concerned they are very similar and operate parallel to one another. Pepsi and Coca-Cola both have lemon-lime, citrus, root beer, and cola flavors. Dr. Pepper/Cadbury does not have as similar a product line to that of Pepsico and Coca-Cola. It manufactures Dr. Pepper (a unique spicy cola drink), ginger ale, tonic water, and carbonated water under its Schweppes and Canada Dry brands. Coke does have an answer to Dr. Pepper in its Mr. Pibb, but only holds a . 4 percent market share compared to Dr. Peppers 6 percent market share. The relatively low level of diversity makes the soft drink industry unattractive for investment. Industry Growth Rate Although new product lines have come into the beverage industry over the past two to three years, the soft drink segment has held and grown its share steadily. The onslaught of the sport drink and bottled tea have proven to be a passing fad that has gained little if no long term market share from soft drinks. Growth figures for the soft drink industry have been very steady since 1993, and are projected to continue to be so into the last part of the twentieth century. As can be seen in Figure 1, volatility was somewhat prevalent in the 1980s but has since lessened and leveled off (Valueline, 1996). Figure 1 Year87-8888-8989-9090-9191- 9292-9393-9494-95 Growth5. 7%5. 2%2% 3%2. 9%4%4. 4%4% Over the past ten years soft drinks have gained 5 percent of total beverage sales, putting them over the 25 percent share level for all beverage sales. As for new and emerging markets, both Coke and Pepsi are attacking the international environment. Coca-Cola generates 80 percent of its revenues abroad, and Pepsi is attempting but failing to put more emphasis there as well. Pepsi is losing customers to Coke in every major foreign territory. The company has always struggled overseas, but in the past few months it has lost key strongholds in Russia and Venezuela to Coke (Sellers, 1996). Because of the consistent growth of both the domestic and foreign markets, the soft drink industry is attractive for investment. Fixed Costs The SP Industry Survey has shown the soft drink industry profit margin to be on a steady incline over the past fifteen years. Levels in 1980 were near 14%, while as of year-end 1995 were over 20% and expected to flatten a bit. This flattening effect may be an indication that fixed costs are on the rise due to expansionÃ'Ž

Cultural Distance How Is It Measured Commerce Essay

Cultural Distance How Is It Measured Commerce Essay Culture is a wide concept whose definition may vary depending on the discipline it comes from, and many litterateurs have attempted to give it a precise and unique definition, which could be taken as valid in every field, always in vain. This essay will dwell upon the significant role culture plays in the global market, given that it is a vital element not to be neglected for a successful career when doing business abroad. Academics of various subjects, especially anthropologists, have been wondering about the definition of culture for decades, with the result of conveying plenty of explanations about its core and how it is perceived among populations. As already said, while this notion has been quested and analysed throughout the anthropological field, it had been widely disregarded in other fields (Taras Steel, 2009). The first intellectual who moved his analysis of culture to the market sector was Geerte Hofstede (Taras Steel, 2009). Thus, this articles intention is to focus on a different approach to culture, i.e. how cultural difference is able to affect marketing operations around the globe. Firstly, this text will go through Hofstedes method (1980) and elucidate why, despite being a broadly criticised model, it still remains the most relevant reference work for cross-cultural successive analysis. Secondly, it will compare and contrast the famous concepts of Hofstede, Trompenaars and Hampden Turner and Schwartz Value Inventory. Subsequently, the article will try to give empirical evidence of how culture diversity affects the markets of the whole planet by providing the example of various cultural clashes of a famous American fast food company in three different Asian countries. Hofstedes model: Lots of criticism but still the most used in the world Hofstedes model of cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1980) was a pioneering method elaborated in order to measure cultural distance. It was developed during the late 70s after an attentive examination of work-related values in the IBM employees in 40 countries (Lee Carter, 2012). As the first model ever created, all subsequent studies relate to it, by evaluating, comparing, analysing and obviously criticising e.g. Hofstedes model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith a failure of analysis (MacSweeny, 2002). Among all those aforementioned relations to the study, criticising is the one which most drew the attention of the people who approached Hofstedes research. Nonetheless, there are also some scholars which take Hofstedes side and question MacSweenys fallacious presuppositions, by thoroughly analysing his work and by pointing out his main misunderstandings; MacSweenys critique lacks consistency in terms of clarification about the paradigm he uses to confute Hosftedes cultural research. (Williamson, 2002). Despite being a source subjected to pure criticism, the work of Geert Hofstede, a Dutch organizational anthropologist, is perhaps the most widely used and accepted approach to cross-cultural analysis (Lee Carter, 2012, p. 130). Hofstedes work is still considered to be the most exhaustive and easy-to-understand study of cultural diversity (Holden, 2003). Culture is a broad concept and its definition may vary depending on the context it is related. In fact, it was argued that conceptualising such a wide topic like culture and apply it to every random context could be considered quite presumptuous, surely awry and as a misguided attempt to measure the unmeasurable (MacIntyre, 1961; Smelser, 1992 cited in MacSweeny 2002, p. 90). As a consequence of what just asserted, Hofstedes research was accused of being carried out only in one field and, besides, in a non-market field in which the test persons of IBM were not examined as consumers, negotiators or market intermediaries (Holden, 2003). Afterwards, because its data collection dates back to the late 70s, it was claimed the impossibility of implementation in a plausible current market scenario. Hence, it was judged as out of date, considering that the society had changed (2003). Furthermore, it is bizarre that the most used investigation related to global marketing operations in the worl d has been written by an anthropologist who has nothing to do with being a real marketer (2003). Although these understandable criticisms, Hofstedeans work Cultures Consequences (1980), cited more than 5000 times, still remains the most accepted and utilised method in the cross-cultural analysis. Hofstedes model in comparison and contrast with Trompenaars and Hampden Turner and Schwartz Value Inventory The data, vital for the elaboration of the model, was collected during a certain laps of time and both Hofstede and Trompenaars and Hampden Turner extrapolated their data from questionnaires distributed among workers, with a tiny difference though: Hosftede opted for employees of a specific company, whereas Trompenaars and Hampden Turner for managers of various organisations (Dahl, 2004). Expanding the research into different companies could have been a notable advantage, because it allowed the study to get different perspectives from the respondents. In terms of question typology, Hofstede, as previous stated, decided to ask people about precise work-related value questions, while Trompenaars and Hampden Turner did not only concentrate on the work situation but on the leisure one as well (2004). In any case, they both questioned their actors about preferred state and behaviours. Unlike the other two researches, Shalom Schwartz with his Schwartz Value Survey (1992) took a differen t questioning approach and asked 60,000 people from 63 countries to appraise 57 values as guiding principles of ones life. (Lee Carter, 2012). Schwartzs method (1992), unlike Hofstede (1980) and Trompenaars and Hampden Turner (1998), gives a different vision by evidently separating the individual-level from the cultural-level analysis and by differentiating value types from value dimensions (Dahl, 2004). As a result, Schwartz method allowed to create a category as a value dimension by take into consideration one of the value type identified by the respondent and its opposite value type. The cultural-level and individual-level analysis are separated and their data cannot be evaluated as a whole, i.e. knowing the actors individual values is not necessary to deduce the culture of each individual (Javidan et al). Hofstede used to call this assumption ecological fallacy (Dahl, 2004). According to MacSweeny (2002), Hofstede did not used to make a differentiation between the meaning of culture at large and national culture. He treated it as a nationally discrete part, core, a nucleus (MacSweeny, 2002, p. 92); in other words, he c onceived it as a shared constituent of culture which is made of other different sub-cultures (MacSweeny, 2002). In order to remark Hofstedes idea that a population within a nation, in a certain way, shares the same culture, MacSweeny gives an explicit example by declaring that Hofstede treats the country Great Britain as a single nation with a unique national culture. Regrettably, it is debated that Scotland, even though being inside Great Britain, does not have the equivalent culture of an English citizen. Unlike the aberrant supposition called ecological assumption, both Hosftede and Trompenaars and Hampden Turner accept the so called onion assumption, which has layers to be peeled off (Dahl, 2004), that explains why knowing values in a culture tell us what actually happens in that culture (Javidan et al, p. 899). Yet, a substantial difference lies in the conception of this onion-like model, i.e. Hofstede conceives it as four layers onion, whereas Trompenaars and Hampden Turner fantasise it as a only two layers onion. Still, in spite of the different cognition of the onion, both Hofstedes and Trompenaars and Hampden Turners methods represent the same concept as Cowley and Hanna (2005) assert: The objective of this unit was to learn to exfoliate the perceptible manifestations of culture (artefacts and products), to peel away the layer of norms and values, to discover the core. The most emblematic diversity from these two models is that Hofstedes study investigates through the values of the respondents, while Trompenaars and Hampden Turner is more focused on their behavioural attitudes both in work and recreation moments (Lee Carter 2012). Another comparison can be made in terms of identification of some given value dimensions. Hofstede identified four (with a later fifth in addition) (Hosftede, 2001?), the Schwartz Value Inventory classified ten value types and four main value dimensions and finally Trompenaars and Hampden Turner categorised ten. All these results can be associated and most of them seen as parallel in concept terms, e.g. Hofstedes Power distance bears a resemblance to Trompenaars and Hampden Turners Achievement vs. ascription (Lee Carter, 2012). In addition, another dimension might be considered almost identical: Communitarism vs. individualism of Trompenaars and Hampden Turner with Individualism vs. collectivism of Hofstede (2012). In his work, Hofstede wanted to create a valid framework which was able to classify and distinguish different cultures, and to be aware of potential cultural collisions within a business environment. Thus, Hofstedes interpretation of culture envisages a tight correlation between an invisible level, values and a visible level in which these values manifest, in other words practices (Javidan et al). Empirical evidence of cultural distance impact on global marketing operations Obviously, cultural distance is an issue that affects large companies which are able to broaden the horizons and look for great fortune abroad. Start setting new investments into a foreign market requires a high volume of money and that is why only great organisations can afford such a treacherous move. Why treacherous? A foreign market can absolutely be as profitable as disadvantageous, depending on how much companies take the cultural factors into account. According to Pankaj Ghemawat, (2001) economist and global strategist at the IESE Business School of Barcelona, graduated at Harvard University, many companies are so attracted by foreign markets that sometimes they underestimate the financial threat they are running into. Following, the article is going to present a clear example of how the Asian culture shaped the business of a worldwide company like McDonalds. It will go through all the changes the company had to make in three different countries: Japan, Hong Kong and China. According to what Harris P. (Managing Cultural Difference, 2002) wrote, there is a big gap between the western culture and the eastern one. Through this table (Figure 1), it is quite self-explanatory in what the main principles differ one from another and what the American fast food company McDonalds had to be aware of when moving its brand to Asia: (Figure 1) When people think about McDonalds, the first word crossing their mind might be standardization. Hofstede (1980) would have thought of organizational culture instead. McDonalds is the emblematic example of a company which aims at keeping the same level of quality, cleanliness, customer service, food taste and value. Its main strengths rely on fast service and standard taste of the food, and these have demonstrated to be very profitable in the western market. Unluckily, Asian people were not used to having lunch or dinner in a dozen of minutes, for this reason McDonalds had to cogitate a strategy to get customers and make profit. Referring to Hofstedes classification of power Distance countries worldwide (geert-hofstede.com), Japan has been rated as one of the countries with the lowest score (55), which means it is less inclined to accept a high organizational culture as McDonalds. Nonetheless, the famous fast food company, thanks to some strategies, managed to succeed and survive the Nippon market. First issue of the organisation was that the Japanese society is famous for eating rice during the day as a filling meal. Because of that, McDonalds introduced new products made of rice in the market, like Chinese fried rice, curried rice with chicken and fried egg burger. Thanks to the lanching of these new products the company managed to be taken into consideration from the Japanese society. Secondly, in Japan, such as in other countries like Italy or Spain, there is an elevated sense of commensality, something which is not included in the McDonalds brand. Notwithstanding, the company had to do something to get around this cultural problem and, as a result, it started furnishing its restaurants with tables and chairs where Japanese could eat and spend some time together as being home. Finally, another problem arose when the Japanese society regarded the typical hamburger as snack and not as a whole meal. McDonalds implemented a good strategy by taking this misleadin g perception and converted it into an advantage to create then a place suited for young people who want to get a fast meal and chill out for a while. (McDonalds in Japan, 2009) The situation slightly changed in the state of Hong Kong. According to Hofstedes chart of Power Distance countries, Hong Kong has been rated a little bit more than Japan (68) which, as a consequence, described this country as more open to a centralized organization as the American McDonalds. In fact, People of Hong Kong were already familiar with a market fast food conception, but despite this, McDonalds was doubtful about spreading its companys values onto this Asian market. McDonalds first step was to leave the sign of the company in its original language without any translation, and in addition the founder of the restaurant in Honk Hong, Daniel Ng, opted for a smart solution which consisted of transliterating the name. Transliteration is a good strategy to avoid a cultural translation issue. It renders the English sound of the word into Chinese characters, without running into the problem of translating the meaning of the word. It would be a tough task to avoid. The strength McDon alds used, relied on not imposing the companys values to the locals, but on shaping its organizational culture in order to get approval from them (McDonalds in Hong Kong, 2009). China, in Hofstedes Power Distance chart (1980), has been rated with a very high score (80), therefore McDonalds problems had got nothing to do with the adaptation of a centralized organizational culture. What happened in Beijing was the emblem of cultural difference a big organisation such as McDonalds must take into account: Despite having accessed the Chinese market, McDonalds was not able to clearly convey the values of its work to the locals, and for this reason could not get rid of the competition. Chinese people, even though were familiar with the fast food chain, did not consider it part of their cuisine culture. After years, they kept seeing it as an American brand in Chinese territory. Hence, this was not an advantage at all. Ideological, political and economic differences were an obstacle for an American brand which was operating in the Chinese market. The resolution to this issue lied on the fact that the organisation had to start blending more with the local culture, avo iding to stress firmly its Americanism. Understood so, McDonalds began to introduce Chinese traditional food in its menu in order to show the Chinese population its inclination to respect and use the territorial food culture. In addition, all the restaurants were decorated with Chinese paper-cuts design. This way, customers commenced to trust the brand and see it from a different perspective. This is the same path KFC had to follow to be a very profitable company in the Chinese market nowadays (KFC and McDonalds a model of blended culture, 2004). Conclusion The aim of this article consisted in giving a brief analysis of the models used in cross-cultural distance in order to provide a general understanding. The essay has taken exactly three methods into consideration: Hofstedes, Trompenaars and Hampden Turner and Schwartz Value Inventory. Their investigation is all about identifying cultural differences among people who live in different part of the globe and the usage it has been done with these methods is the most relevant feature this article wants to point out. Big organisations which operate in different countries have to study and analyse the culture of the place they would like to settle in, because culture is the key to be successful, increasing popularity and cash flows. These companies, such as McDonaldss, make use of the cross-cultural distance methods in order to evaluate all the cultural factors they could be running into and be prepared to overcome them easily with an effective strategy implementation. To sum up, these models are vital for a company which sets its investments outside the borders of its country and