Monday, September 30, 2019

A New Fertilizer Product for Vegetables

First, a stimulant component of fertilizer is obtained. This should not be very pricey, because we need an invention that can be used by every category of people.The merchandise must be sufficient to supply good victuals to plants for their vigorous and long life. Another motive which has supported this research in demeanor is to reduce the quandary of blazing of tropical plants.Research Questions:The study for manufacturing most modern fertilizers for the augmentation of vegetables is founded on the subsequent research questions:-What is the course of action for manufacturing fertilizers?   Which nourishment is less costly? Which fertilizers can be used commercially and which ones can be used by common   Ã‚  public. Also, whether these fertilizers convene to the expected needs of clients or not. Hypothesis for the Experiment:Macrobiotic fertilizer is less expensive and will be used socially, while on the other hand, tropical plant fertilizer will be more expensive and commercial ly used.Subjects:To obtain low priced fertilizers, assigned to a financial group. Quality check assigned to the department of health. Macrobiotic Fertilizer:Object:To produce a stimulant that can be prepared in simple steps and can be extensively used for supporting the growth of plants.Elements used in the Manufacturing of Macrobiotic Fertilizer:For obtaining this fertilizer, we require a variety of limes, seed feast, gypsum, fillet and kelp feast.Procedure:Mix the all 4 components of seed meals with  ¼ regular limes; now add  ¼ of gypsum piece in the combination. Lastly, add  ½ of the dolomitic lime. To obtain the finest result, a small amount of bone feast should also be added.Result:By the application of macrobiotic fertilizer on crops, it is concluded that the crop growth is much healthier and faster than before.   The experiment shows that when the elements were bought in bulk, the cost was not very high, and this product is expected to be in more demand because of its lower prices (Aubrey Vaughn, April 4, 2007).

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Kinship of two cultures

INTRODUCTIONâ€Å"Culture is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior†(). Culture influences people and it shapes people in manifesting a particular identity. Every individual is greatly influence by his culture. When people see a man and the way he is living his life, he can easily be identified as part of a particular culture. People from a particular place are always intertwined with a particular culture as seen in their pattern of actions and beliefs and way of life in general.It is of an inevitable reality that cultures differ around the world. Every place and context has their own unique set of norms, beliefs and practices. These set of norms, beliefs and practices make up the identity of a culture. These make up the whole of their system. A particular culture produces a pattern of actions that a group of people will manifest as they live in this world. Because of the diversity of cultures of p eople from different places around the world, there exist conflicts due to differences if one culture is imposing its will to the other.In this paper, we will dwell on two rich cultures- the Dinkas and Amhara People. We will try to show their similarities and as well as differences. The two cultures that are the subject of this paper will be thoroughly examined. Therefore, without further delay, let us begin our discussion.THE DINKA CULTURE IN SOUTHERN SUDANThe Dinkas are found In Southern Sudan. It is the largest ethnic group region in the Nile Basin. The Dinkas have the population of 3-4 million people that comprises approximately 45% of the population of the whole country. The Dinkas are known to have beautiful women in their tribe and known to even grow up to seven feet tall. One of their famous tribe members is the former National basketball Association (NBA) player Manute Bol who stood for 7’7†. This tribe at the Nile River is also known to maintain a culture of m arrying people within their communities and even families.â€Å"Most of Dinkas beliefs that keeping cultures in our modern societies is beneficial enough to keep generations move successfully. The Dinkas believed that maintaining their culture amidst the changing world is the road to the next generation’s success†(http://www.madingbor.com/page/page/2064097.htm). This is the reason why even in the influences of many diverse cultures, the Dinkas still maintained and treasured the richness of their culture.Men in having their own families in the Dinka tribe, they must at least be eighteen years old and above. This age bracket is perceived by Dinkas as an age that can already be capable of providing for a family and considered as persons who can live with their own. The Dinkas live a pastoral life, relying mainly on livestock. In a Dinka family, the husband is the provider in the family. He brings something to eat for the family. The wife is the one who cooks for the famil y, the one in charge for preparing food for the whole house and in taking care of the children in the family. The wives in the Dinka communities are obedient and respectful women for their husbands. Despite the growing influences of other cultures in women empowerment, they remain in this family devotion of women.In cases of the death of the husband or absence for a long time, the wife is asked to remarry. Remarrying for the wife would mean marrying the brothers of his husband. If there is no brother available, the first cousins of her husband are the second option. This remarrying scheme is for the purpose of bearing a child that would be named after the deceased person. The culture believes that in doing such practice, they are maintaining the dignity of their generations from their fore-fathers to the grand children. The act is called â€Å"lahot† or entering the hut. The Dinkas give emphasis on the purity of their culture that is manifested in their practices of remarriag es.THE AMHARA CULTURE OF ETHIOPIAThe Amhara people of Ethiopia are one o the most dominant cultural and political group in Africa. Their population is at 15,000,000. These people live in the highlands of Ethiopia. The Amhara people are mostly farmers. The tribe can be traced back from Menelik I who is a child born of the King Solomon and Queen Sheba. â€Å"The Amhara appear to be descended from the same people group as the Tigray-Tigrinya people.   Their Sabaean ancestors came to the highlands of what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia from the Arabian Peninsula†(http://endor.hsutx.edu/~obiwan/profiles/amhara.html).The general situation in the Amhara farming society is very hard. They live in terrains and mountains because of wanting their place to be easily defended but at the same time making it hard for them to travel and move. They have the advantage in defense but also have the disadvantage in mobility. The location of their community is hard to reach by foreigners because of rugged mountain terrains.The people in Amhara believe that children must be breast feed in two years. No hard discipline is imposed to the children until the age of four. On the fortieth day after birth, the boys in the family will be baptized and the girls are on the eightieth day. As early as the age of five and six, the children are trained to watch their family animals such as sheep and goats. The boys are in charge in watching over the animals and the girls are in charge in accompanying their mother in gathering firewood to use in cooking. Girls of the tribe are allowed to get married in an average age of 14. The boys to be grooms are normally 3-5 years older of the bride.â€Å"Most marriages are negotiated by the two families, with a civil ceremony sealing the contract. A priest may be present. Divorce is allowed and must also be negotiated. There is also a â€Å"temporary marriage,† by oral contract before witnesses. The woman is paid housekeeper's wages, and is not eligible for inheritance, but children of the marriage are legally recognized and qualify for inheritance. Priests may marry but not eligible for divorce or remarriage† (http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/amhara.htm). Women also banner the attitude of respect and to their husbands. Priests are only allowed to get married once. There is variety of religions present in the Amhara culture but the most dominant religion is the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.The Amhara people are not fond of trusting people coming from other places. They are people who are cautious in their relation to foreign people and things.COMPARISON AND CONTRASTThe two cultures highlighted in this paper (Dinka and Amhara) are two great cultures who have rich traditions. In looking at the two cultures, there are noticeable similarities and as well as differences.The Dinkas lived in the Basin of the Nile while the Amhara people are from high terrains and mountains. It is harder for the Amhara people to be acc essed by foreign people and even for them to travel. The two cultures rely more on farming and animal raising as the source of their subsistence but it was harder for the Amhara people to farm because of the location of their inhabited places while it is also harder for the Dinkas to defend themselves from foreign enemies because also of the location of their homes.The Dinkas however, are more conservative in their view of marriage. Though in both cultures, remarrying is allowed, the Dinkas only allow remarrying if the husband has already died or absent for a long time. In Amhara tribe, divorce is allowed and is done by negotiation. In the Dinka tribe, they are more giving emphasis to family dignity that is why they only allow women to get married again if she marries the brother or the cousin of the former husband. The Amhara tribe on the other hand, allows their priests to get married.The two tribes have the same view on the women in their families. Women are there to prepare food for the whole family and to take care of their children. Women have respect for their husbands in both of the tribes. The marrying age for men however differs for the two tribes. The Amhara tribe allows a lower marrying age at approximately at least 16 years old while the Dinka tribe allows men to get married at 18 years old.CONCLUSIONThere are a lot of different cultures around the world. No culture is exactly the same with another. It is of great reality that culture is different coming from different contexts. In the case of the two cultures examined and discussed I this paper, there are differences found and as well as similarities. This presupposes the richness of one’s culture. We cannot really limit the innovativeness of people’s minds. The only certain in this world is the constant development of cultures in their beliefs and practices and there is a constant change in it. The conception of people regarding families also evolves through time and differs in dif ferent cultures.May this paper remind us how rich people’s cultures and how they evolve and grow over time. Cultures are true manifestations of man’s richness in his mind and in his being because cultures are created from people’s discovery and thinking. The cultures of today may not be present tomorrow but it is of great significance in building tomorrow’s cultures.BIBLIOGRAPHYJenkins, Orville Boyd & Lundquist Robert. The Amhara People of Ethiopia. 2006. 10 Mar. 2007 Kuol, William. Dinka Religion and Culture. 10 Mar. 2007Dinka Background. 10 Mar. 2007African People & Culture. 10 Mar. 2007http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/courses/122/module1/symbolic.html

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Parent Response Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Parent Response Reflection - Essay Example When the child is ranked as partially proficient this means that he finds his work difficult and he also renders a few significant and minor errors. At proficient level the child is able to do his work with minimal difficulty and no significant errors. And when the child is termed as advanced this means that he can do all his work accurately and easily without any errors and difficulties. While teaching language art we teach your child different reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. According to the 2nd grade language art standards, this course is divided into several levels and your child is promoted to a higher level when he gives satisfactory performance at the existing level. The 2nd grade language art standards consist of seven different standards and your child is performing at different levels in all these standards. Standard one is related to reading and in this standard we work on your child’s pronunciation and enhance his ability to understand different in formational text so that he can use it in different purposes. In this standard your child is performing at LA.2.1.4. At this level we work on the vocabulary of your child, we also work on his concept building. At this level your child starts learning different advanced and high level words and there is also a visible increase in the number of words which he can pronounce and understand accurately. The second and third standards are also related to reading. Second standard is about reading comprehension and the third standard is about literary response and analysis, your child will be promoted to these standards when he will complete all the levels of standard one. Standard four is related to writing and in this standard we teach your child the effective writing skills so that he can converse efficiently at various levels with a variety of spectators. In this standard your child is performing at LA.2.4.5. At this level we work on your child’s punctuation and capitalization abi lities. Here, particularly your child learns the use of apostrophes in making contractions. He learns to put apostrophes in the place of missing letters. Standard five is also about writing. This standard is about oratory writing. In this standard we work on child’s speech making skills so that he can address his audience in a more effective way. Your child will be promoted to this standard after the completion of standard four. Standard six is about oral communication and in this standard we work to enhance your child’s communicating skills. In this standard your child is at LA.2.6.3. At this level we teach your child learns to express his thoughts via dramas. Your child plays different roles in various drama activities in order to express himself and the skills which he has learned in this course. Standard seven again is related to oral communication and in this standard we teach your child different speech making skills. After giving appropriate performance in stand ard six your child will be promoted to standard seven. We have ranked your child at different degrees according to the standards. At LA.2.1.4 in standard one, your child is ranked as partially proficient because he had some difficulty in identifying different high level and advance words and even in the words which he was able to identify he made some minor errors. At LA.2.4.5 in standard four, your

Friday, September 27, 2019

Polaroid, R.I.P Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Polaroid, R.I.P - Essay Example Post SX-70 Polaroid faced a number of unsuccessful inventions and business ventures which crafted the fall of the once hugely successful and innovative company which failed to keep pace with the even newer technologies developed in the industry (Whitford, 2001). The article gave all the credits of the rise and fall of Polaroid to its founder Edwin Land. According to Whitford it was he who had the vision of realizing the idea which was only a dream of a child at that time. The article cited Elkan Blout, the then vice president of research of Polaroid saying that Land had a unique ability to differentiate between an excellent idea and an excellent product. Keeping in mind the concept of value capture he was aware of the fact that not all the excellent ideas can be turned into an excellent commercial product and until commercialized any good invention remains latent without any profitability (Chesbrough and Rosenbloom, n.d.). While inventing new technologies Polaroid showed the successful application of the techniques of capturing values. Its first unique product was Model 95 which was accepted exceptionally in the photography market. But Polaroid did not stop here, it recognized the requirement of constant innovation and improvement to remain and grow in the market as a company. Thus it practiced constant research and development procedures under the supervision of Edwin Land to ultimately invent a product SX-70 which was stated to be a bundle of inventions including new motor, new power source, new optical system and most importantly a thoroughly new film with the ability to be dispensed with the need for timers and peel-away negatives to produce color print instantly. The SX-70 cameras were recognized as the most revolutionary product in the history of photography and were compared with the revolution humankind experienced with the visit to the moon (Whitford, 2001). This invention

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Children Buying Behavior and Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Children Buying Behavior and Marketing - Essay Example The adolescent group is the most vulnerable to such type of advertisements as they are seeking a string association to gain a sense of security. Thus advertisers have clearly created a separate domain for segmenting the boys and girls as separate target groups. The girls are made to feel or establish a feeling of anxiety about their health and body by displaying models that symbolizes their product range. The consumer societies have strongly intervened in this issue and have initiated awareness for both the parents and the youth on the health impacts the advertisements could cause on long-term basis. The gender being utilized in the generating higher consumption of goods is a conventional strategy in business. Though the intervention by consumer societies have helped to tone down the gravity of these advertisements the power of market is so enormous that the awareness programmes cannot be expected to gain a comprehensive success in their mission. Thus the case study is undertaken to evaluate the relative effect of the advertisements on the purchase decisions made by youth in United States. The specific objectives addressed in the study are (i) To understand the influence of consumer societies on the influencing the consumer attitude in young children in the United States. (ii) To assess the impact of the advertisements that portrays women differently in the magazines and further influences the shopping decisions of young children especially across young boys and girls. 2. Literature Children represents a very strong market segment and advertisers recognize these aspects and the extend of brand loyalty that could be carried into the adulthood. Though it is established knowledge that as children don't understand the impact of the strong intentions of marketing it is considered unethical to advertise or display any promotional campaign before they attain a age of eight or nine. The consumer unions have expressed the views that as the children have very low ability to understand the reality and advertising content the advertising matter could in most of the situations distort the view about the world in children. Also, they have very low ability to assess the claims being made in the advertising matter. Also, expert academicians in the consumer behavior too have reinforced this claim that by saying the during the young ages the cognitive structures are in the formative stages and hence the children would be highly sensitive to the external influences (Mizerski, 1995 ). This especially true when such matter appears on the walls of the schools or on the book covers or on the anything related to their domains of closer interaction. These situations makes the children to believe that the contents are legitimate and start developing a positive inclination to the advertisement matter without analyzing the matter. The tender age fails to differentiate the commercial component in such displays and fails to understand the manipulative actions hidden in it. Often the advertisements create a sense of reality in the mind of children and they try to relate them with the regular news features in

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Imformation based decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Imformation based decision making - Essay Example The importance of decision-making cannot be underestimated. Indeed, the success or failure of any business primarily depends on the quality of decisions made by the management. Most of the successful global cooperation’s are a reflection of good decision-making strategy. A lot of investment both in time and resources is directed towards the decision making process. However, it is important to note that making sound decisions primarily depends on the amount and quality of information at hand. This makes it important to consider information as one of the core requirements in sound decision making both at an individual and corporate level. This paper therefore discusses the different aspects of information-based decision-making. It seeks to discuss this topic within the realms of what has been covered in the course of management. However, extra knowledge on decision-making has also been mined from other sources. Information It is very futile to make any decision without profound background information regarding all the possible outcomes. This makes information the core requirement in making decision. There are different aspects of information that are worth discussing since they affect either directly or indirectly on the decision making process. There is a major difference between data and information. Data refers to facts or figures in their basic or raw form. For instance, 11, 32, 98, 58, 91, and 74 refers to data. Values such as ? 58.00, ?1200, ?223.50, and?558 refer to financial data. In both instances, the data does not make any meaning under any context (Black, 2009). However, the data can be processed to give it meaning. It is also important to note that processed data or information can fail to make meaning outside a given context. Information refers to data that has been organized such that it makes meaning within the context of consideration. Information can be either formal or informal. For information to be useful in decision-making, it has to be communicable to the relevant stakeholders, it must be presented in a language that users can understand without misinterpreting, it must be in a form that can be utilized, and finally it must be relevant to the subject of consideration. Information to be used in decision-making can be classified in two major categories. It can be either formal or informal. Formal information is usually presented in a familiar format, has a degree of relevance and accuracy, and uniquely structured. However, the information may be inflexible and may sometimes disregard sociological perspectives. On the other hand, informal information is quite flexible and more detailed though it may be inaccurate. Information and Law It is very imperative for any person using information-based decision making to understand that certain types of information have legal implications. This is more profound in business organizations. The law regulates many processes of handling information and as such, caution should b e exercised to ensure the entire legal infrastructure is respected. For instance, the Data Protection Act of 1998 was enacted to ensure that information is handled with caution to protect its integrity, privacy, and users. The data protection laws ensure that data handlers do not manipulate the data for personal or malicious reasons but instead use the data for the best interest of the subjects. While making business decisions, all legal parameters should be followed and information handled within the realms of the law. It is unethical to use data or information to make business decisions that are not permitted by the law. For example, a business may use information unlawfully to gain unfair advantage over other competitors. Although the decisions made from such information may seem exemplary, legal

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Real Estate Law Week 1 Ind wrk Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Real Estate Law Week 1 Ind wrk - Research Paper Example This is because, unlike personal property which is essentially, movable items which are not part of the land, real property refers to land and the things that are permanently affixed to that land. In this regard, notice that even if you should intend to sell the land upon which the house rests, neither will unseat the house from the land, nor can you sell the house minus the land. In another wavelength, it is imperative that you determine the type of real property ownership your house will be under. There is life estate where the right to possess, access and use this house will be limited to the proprietor’s (the Daryl’s) lifetime. In this case, the Darryls may give or sell away the property, later. The family can also resort to free simple which is outright ownership. There is also future interest where the family can seek the right to won the house sometime in future. The Darryls may also consider contingent interest or lienholder where ownership is comes into existence only where specific conditions are fulfilled, or where the Darryls as the holder of a mortgage, judgment lien, deed of trust or mechanic’s lien on real estate take ownership interest in the real property, respectively (Elias,

Monday, September 23, 2019

Competation Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Competation Law - Coursework Example According to researcher’s viewpoint, very first thing is that it is a competition and not competitors so that it is to be protected. And also the ultimate aim of every business is to please the customers so that it is very much necessary to avoid the customers harm. â€Å"I like aggressive competition – including by dominant companies – and I don’t care if it may hurt competitors – as long as it ultimately benefits consumers. That is for the reason that the chief and ultimate aim of Article 82 is to protect customers and this does, of course, need the defense of the undistorted competitive practice on the market. There are two main laws in UK that defending competitions that are, the Competition Act in the year of 1998 and the Enterprise Act in the year of 2002. These are laws are, supported by Articles 101 and 102 of the â€Å"TFEU† (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 1990) that are, previously the Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty of the EC. â€Å"The Competition Act 1998 prohibits anti-competitive agreements between businesses. You must not, for example: †¢ agree to fix prices or terms of trade, eg agreeing price rises with your competitors †¢ agree with your competitors to limit production in order to reduce competition †¢ Share out markets or customers with your competitors - eg agreeing with a competitor that you'll bid for one contract and they'll take another. The law mostly applies to contracts among businesses with an important presence in the marketplace. But even the smallest company requires avoiding anti-competitive contracts like price fixing. In addition to formal contracts, the law also relates to other looser types of cooperation among businesses. The â€Å"Competition Act† (Competition Act 1998) forbids the mistreatment of a dominant position in a marketplace. This can apply to companies that have an extremely big market share. It is also an illegal and illicit offence for persons fraudulently engaged in certain kinds of cartel behavior in the â€Å"Enterprise Act 2002† (Enterprise Act n.d.). Fundamental aim of Article 82, when examining exclusionary conduct is the defense of competition on the marketplace as a way of enhancing wellbeing of the customer and of guaranteeing a well-organized distribution of resources. â€Å"Adopting an economics-based approach to Article 82 will also unify and provide a clearer and more consistent enforcement approach of the Treaty provisions on competition law† (The Reform of Article 82: Recommendations on Key Policy Objectives 2005, p. 4). The concern is to stop exclusionary behavior of the dominant organizations which is expected to limit the remaining competitive constrictions on the dominant organizations, consisting of entry of beginner, so as to avoid that customers are harmed. This denotes that it is competition and not merely competitors as such, that is to be confined and protected. In addition, â€Å"the purpose of the Article 82 is not to be protect competitors from dominant firms genuine competitions based on factors such as higher quality, novel products, opportune innovation or otherwise better performance but to ensure that these competitors are also able to expand in or enter the market and compete therein on the merits, without facing competition conditions which are distorted or impaired by dominant firm† (Jones & Sufrin 2008, p. 327). And also, Anti-competitive activities are injurious not only to customers but also to compan ies that contend moderately or which are themselves consumers of certain goods or services. So that in order to assess this statement, we require to be considered not only the short term harm but also both long and medium harm that may arise from the exclusion of competitors. Failure to obey with UK or EU competition law can have extremely grave consequences. â€Å"

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Virtue and Truest Chivalry Essay Example for Free

Virtue and Truest Chivalry Essay Originally Latin, actually spelled â€Å"caballarius and pronounced â€Å"SHiv? lre†, is chivalry. Chivalry is the combination of qualities expected of an ideal knight. Such qualities include honor, courtesy, courage, justice, and willing to assist those in need. If one is chivalrous in character, then one is a gentleman and noble in his good deeds. He would in no manner hesitate to serve others and serve his God. This is evident as Honore de Balzac puts it: â€Å"the motto of chivalry is also the motto of wisdom; to serve all, but love only one. † Chivalry, besides its original usage as â€Å"calvary,† can truly only be delineated in only one way, which is to refer to a virtuous code of conduct. There isn’t any negative connotations to the word either, unless somebody called a fellow thane chivalrous in Old Anglo-Saxon times! Other than that, the only emotional association with the word is generally positive. This noble idea of conduct is constituted of several virtues in spite of the narrow usage of the word. So, how did chivalry come into existence? Journey to the medieval times and you will discover that chivalry was once an existential characteristic of every man sworn into nobility or born into it. These men were knights. Medieval knights battled horseback and practiced outstanding gallantry. Knights were always calvary in battle, and exhibited righteous morals. A group of knights was actually called â€Å"the chivalry† of the militia. They were excelled in sword craft nearly comparable to their high level of graciousness, and could ride a horse well-nigh to the speed of which they are willing to assist a damsel in distress. Chivalry came to be known as the demeanor of an ideal knight, rather than simply a group of knights. As Chaucer puts it in Canterbury Tales, an ideal knight loved chivalry, truth and honor, freedom and courtesy; a very gentle, perfect knight. † Whatever happened to chivalry? Certain writers may say chivalry is dead, or it might just have a bad case of the flu. As long as wrongs are still righted, chivalry will survive. Chivalry cannot and will never die out. It may become exponentially less evident everyday, but underlying all the rudeness and discourtesy, chivalry is there. Chivalry does indeed need to be implemented more and more into society. Every single man’s major desire should be to act magnanimously and reveal a generous and noble state of mind. If every man were to be genuinely chivalrous then hardly would there ever be any cheating, debt, adultery, stealing, or even bad attitudes. Each and every man would be true in their religion, honest, courteous, and would have a burning passion to do what is right. Think of that chivalry based utopian society. A world where people were more worried about humbling themselves rather than raising themselves up would be phenomenal. Modern chivalry should predominate like it did with Sir Lancelot around Queen Guinevere. Contemporary America could learn from John Bowring’s â€Å"Chivalry† poem which reads: â€Å"Now tell me what is chivalry? To battle in the foremost fight For anything—for wrong—for right, For some fair ladys scornful smile, For what is virtuous, what is vile, Come, tell me, is this chivalry? No! in the men for truth who pant, In wretchedness and woe and want, Who bear the worlds contemptuous hate, With patient soul, with heart elate. No! in the woman in whose home No peace is found, no comforts come, Yet bends in silence,—feeling still Tis Gods most kind, most holy will. This—this is truest chivalry! † Chivalry essentially is the essence of all that is good, virtuous, and holy, conglomerated into one admirably cultivated code of conduct to live by.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Happiness and the Good Life Essay Example for Free

Happiness and the Good Life Essay What is the relation between living a good life and being happy? To many, the good life is a financially prosperous life, and happiness lies in the possession of wealth. Worldly success is what counts, and anyone who is not ‘successful’ in the usual sense is counted a ‘failure.’ Others strive for a life based on honor and public recognition. A good life is made up of hobnobbing with the right people in the right settings, and happiness is a matter of gaining respect. Along with these, there are lives that show by their living a desire for glory or power that inspires great efforts. Others, who are not drawn to wealth, power or glory because of the difficulties involved in attaining them, may choose the pursuit of pleasure. A good and happy life is one in which pleasures outweigh the pains overall. Many questions have been asked about the good life and happiness. People constantly answer those questions with their lives, and we see many different ideas of the good life and happiness playing out in the strivings of human beings to live well and be happy. The ancient Greeks wished their friends to ‘do well’ and ‘fare well’ in this life. These two, they thought, held the keys to human felicity. Doing well concerns ourselves, our own actions and feelings. We have some control over these aspects of our lives. So when we wish someone to ‘do well’ in life, we express the hope that the person will be moral and fair in his or her dealings with others. Beyond securing basic physical survival, someone who does well in life can sleep with a clear conscience, whether blessed with material success or not. From many a philosophical point of view, the good life has an intrinsically moral core that involves compassion for the suffering of others and acting justly in the world. ‘Faring well’ concerns events and occurrences over which we do not have so much control. â€Å"Faring well† means succeeding in life, coming into a prosperous condition, with all the benefits that come with money and social acceptance. Someone who is faring well in life has had a bit of good luck. It is possible to do everything right in order to succeed, but still fail to do so. For example, you can study hard for your degree, get your professional qualifications, work diligently, become competent, but still not succeed. The cards may not fall your way. As Sartre says, â€Å"You are free to try, but not to succeed.† This seems right to me, and so I will come down with Aristotle against Plato on this point, that doing well is not all that is involved in attaining happiness in life. Plato’s Socrates famously says that the good person cannot be harmed, that virtue is knowledge, and that happiness consists entirely of doing well and being just. Aristotle argues that a degree of luck plays into our happiness. He insists that most of our happiness is in our own hands, but that it can be affected by outside circumstances. So while being happy is mostly a matter of ‘doing well’ (and ‘thinking well’), great misfortunes can damage our happiness. It may be that such a person, by ‘doing well,’ will attain a degree of dignity in suffering, but he will not be happy; or, as Aristotle has it, ‘blessed.’ In light of this result, I hazard an intuitive philosophical account of the relation between the good life and happiness. Living a good life is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for happiness. In other words, it is possible to live a good life without being happy, but not happy without living a good life. This a ‘philosophical’ account of the relation because many philosophers have a particular idea of happiness and the good life that is not shared by everyone, with their emphasis on clarity of thought and sound reasoning. In addition, though philosophers recommend the philosophical life as both the happiest and the best, they are not in a position to legislate for everyone what happiness must be. Nevertheless, the traditional philosophical view is not without support. All we have to do is look at the results of many lives that strive for wealth, power, fame, glory or pleasure. So many disasters befall those who pursue a good life with no moral core, or reflective turn of mind, that it makes some sense, as philosophers argue, to pursue the wisdom to recognize the good life, and, within that life, such happiness human beings can attain.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Consumer Motives for Charity Donations

Consumer Motives for Charity Donations 1. Introduction Consumer motives and behaviour into donating to charity in general is a topic that is known to have a lack of research, creating an issue of ambiguity for charitable organisations. Most research existing is based on cause related marketing, the cooperative alliances between charities and corporations to gain charity funding, yet little in depth research exists on the area of personal financing from consumers in the form of donations. With figures from 2001 showing that the top 25 UK companies gave  £102 million to charity, with as much as  £31 million per donation, it is evident that it is most probably the case that the percentage of charity financing does come from corporations, at least for the larger corporations with many strategic alliances in the sector (Smith J. , n.d.). Although this should not mean that other areas of financing should be overlooked; particularly in a society in which social responsibility is growing in importance. Furthermore, neglecting this area of fi nancing could eventually change the entire focus and structure of charities, leaving the individual consumers out of the equation altogether. But of upmost importance is the fact that as stated by Patrick Cox, Chief Executive of the Small Charities Coalition, â€Å"cash donations are usually the primary source of fundraising income for small organisations†, suggesting that a failure to correctly understand consumer behaviour could lead to the diminishment of the small charity (Critchly, 2009). However, also considered within this research is the issue of consumer confidence in donating, whether consumer beliefs of misallocating financing, bureaucracy, and red tape is a significant factor in charity size preferences. Therefore this report serves the purpose of researching consumer motives in personal individual charitable contributions, examining whether these motives differ by the size of the organisation; in this research size is defined by the focus of the charity, being local based, national based or international based, therefore focusing on where the funds are placed as opposed to the actual numerical size of the organisation. The hypothesis to be tested is that consumer behaviour indicators change according to the size of the organisation. However, this research will only be based on the donative non-profit unit of the charities, meaning that it will only investigate the significance upon individual consumer contributions, and not any other areas of financing such as corporation or other organisational or governmental funding. Additionally, this research will not take into account the contributions made in the form of legacies. The study itself is based upon a model of charitable giving behaviour, which has been formed in consideration of other models of consumer behaviour, but also taking into account the information available in the field of charitable consumer behaviour. The model considers the areas of organisational inputs, psychological attachment, consumer confidence and experience alongside a selection of extrinsic determinants, namely consumer demographic factors. Quantitative research methods in the form of an online survey are adopted to test this model, in which 196 respondents are questioned. It becomes apparent that this research project has a large scale in terms of aims and objectives and what it is trying to prove. This study can be considered to be a smaller version of the big picture, in the sense that in reality the study would be much larger scale, with many researchers on board to investigate the topic. A UK wide study is generally a large project in terms of the amount of research needed to be conducted, however given the resource limitations of this study, the results found will merely provide an insight into differences and trends, for researchers to base further studies upon. Regardless, this study is considered to be of upmost importance in adding valuable consumer behavioural research to the field, a field in which studies are in general very sparse. 2. Literature Review A non-profit organisation is typically defined as one which has a â€Å"non-distribution constraint† (Hansmann, 1987, p. 28) , allowing firms to make surplus profits, however not to distribute financial resources to controllers of the organisation in the form of dividends and such, but to retain profits for other allocations. This idea is vital to the understanding of economic, financial and consumer dynamics of the sector. As Powell and Steinberg (2006) elucidate, the theories and models surrounding the economics of the non-profit sector create a great deal of confusion, since the basic ideas of profit maximisation do not apply, and it is assumed that any deviation from this ideal is considered market failure. It is difficult to believe that consumers, with their normally selfish economic motives, can have in reality such altruistic motives. However it is the case that these motives can be linked to fulfilling a consumer emotive need. Whilst the non-distribution constraint serves as a definition, it is not necessarily true to reality, since in the non-profit sector operational costs amount and the issue of rising administrative and fundraising costs becomes apparent in todays media. Administrative costs, whilst unavoidable, are certainly thought to be excessive in the industry, perhaps causing mistrust amongst consumers. It is thought that consumers expect the administration to charitable expenditure to be 20:80 (Kahler Sargeant, 2002); however research by Harvey and McCrohan (1998, cited in Kahler Sargeant, 2002) found that consumers are satisfied with a minimum of 60% of revenues reaching the final end cause, begging the question that if this is indeed the case, is consumer confidence in charity financing such an issue?  Ã‚   Either way, it is certainly the case that consumers are kept in the dark on the optimum level of relevant cost and efficiency margins. Escalating matters further, the body for regulatin g the UK charity sector, the Charity Commission, as â€Å"the sanctions for inefficient behaviour are not automatic† (Levaggi, 1995, p. 285).   Administrative costs compared to total expenditure appear to have a negative correlation to the size of the charity, meaning that the administrative costs are higher as a percentage when expenditures are less as can be seen in the figure below. This is perhaps not the common belief of consumers, with smaller charities being seen as less wasteful by consumers, proven by a survey initiated by Third Sector (Wiggins, 2010). Regardless of attempting to isolate consumers actual beliefs, attitudes and assumptions, research by NFP Synergy has confirmed that most individuals within the UK public do not have confidence in charitable organisations, with confidence dropping by 9% to only 41% (Hummerston, 2008). The involvement of ‘for profit companies with ‘non-profit organisations is normally in the form of cause related marketing, which according to Varadarajan and Menon is â€Å"the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterised by an offer from the firm to contribute a specific amount to a designated cause when customers engage in revenue providing exchanges that satisfy organisational and individual objectives† (Varadarajan Menon, 1988, p. 60). This form of voluntary contribution is more likely to occur with the larger charities as opposed to the smaller ones; furthermore it must be considered that the willingness to contribute and the motivations backing the decision is very much different to that of a general consumer, since although consumers are led to believe that companies engage in Corporate Social Responsibility for good causes, of course the bottom line concern is profit maximisation. According to Hansmann (1980), the non-profit sector can be separated into two different forms of organisations according to their dynamics; donative and commercial non-profits, and it is the non-distribution constraint which creates confidence that the money is being resourcefully and properly allocated. However since the service is not visually seen to be conducted by the consumer who donates, there could be issues with contract failure, or at least perceived contract failure; this is thought to be less of an issue with larger organisations as the sheer governance structure secures confidence (Wiliamson, 1979). Yet in any case there exists a corporation charter and legal framework to provide assurance. Although it must be questioned that due to the non-distribution constraint in larger companies whilst profits are not dispersed among management, there would be a much broader structure of employees, and hence remuneration and bureaucratic structure. Additionally, this ambiguity of th e constitute of financing appears to be a common cause for concern amongst consumers, with research showing that 51% of the UK public would give more if they knew where the money is spent (Wiggins, 2009). Existing research into the consumer behaviour of charity linked products tends to be research based on the field of cause related marketing, rather than the individual end consumers behavioural characteristics into products that are not linked with ‘for profit companies, such as donations and organisation branded purchases. Present research solely into non-profit organisations tends to be based on commercial non-profits such as nursing, hospital care and education institutions, where results and service can clearly be seen and evidently proved. Thus far, in the case of non-profits as a whole, research into the effects of product type and donation magnitude on willingness to contribute by Strahilevitz (1999) found that the effect of product type, hedonistic or utilitarian, is affected mainly by large donations rather than small donations; Illustrating the idea that consumers are more willing to by a hedonistic product if it is linked to a large donation rather than a smaller one . Furthermore research by Bearden and Etzel (1982) shows that charity linked purchases can be considered to meet the need to belong to an ‘aspiration group. Notable also is the peer pressure relating to the group to remain a member by exerting the appropriate philanthropic behaviours. There also appears to be a difference in contributions by age group as found by Kotler and Andreasen (1996), Foster and Meinhard (1997) add to this with results showing a difference in the preferred medium of contribution methods by age group. In addition, charitable donations could be seen as a result of guilt for a lack of ethical actions in ones life (Burnett and Lunsford, 1994, cited in Bonsu, Main, Wilner, 2008). Information of where the money is going is a important decisive factor in repurchasing according to recent research by Proenca and Pereira (2008), showing that perhaps the commercial advertising sector of non-profit organisations is of high importance for maintaining an effective c ommunications mix, as a channel of information for the consumer, increasing transparency of resource allocation and achievements. Understanding and guidance can be found from basic ideologies of consumer behaviour as a starting point. However one must remember that the purchase is for someone elses benefit rather than the consumer of the product. Buying decisions can be considered to relate to Maslows hierarchy of needs, since the consumer decision psychologically involves a need recognition, which would be related to one of the tiers of the hierarchy, namely physiological, safety, belongingness, self esteem, and self actualisation. In Maslows model we can relate charitable contributions as self actualisation, â€Å"the desire to become all that one is capable of†, although according to the theory the need is the highest of the hierarchy and can only be achieved once all others have been fulfilled. (Koontz Weihrich, 2008, p. 291). Scramms model of communication (1955, cited in Smith, 2002) shows how consumer behaviour can be related to the marketing communications, since attitudes and perceptions are ba sed on the message received by the consumer from the brand. Therefore we can question the extent of communication messages occurring in smaller non-profit firms, since it is evident that larger organisations participate in much more marketing activities. Moreover, general motives of consumer behaviour are thought to be linked to the personality of the consumer and how it directs actions. â€Å"Self-monitoring relates to self-presentation and reflects the degree to which one adjusts ones behaviour according to social cues† (Snyder, 1974, cited in Grace Griffin, 2006, p. 4). Consumers rating high in the self monitoring scale tend to be more aware and respondent to what others do within a social circle; as such they are more likely to donate if it is the social norm, creating circles of influence. Consumer behaviour is a field of study that has only been in existence since the 1960s, and as such there are many elements that have not yet been theorised. Most models are in reference to the process of decision making, rather than the behavioural characteristics that resolve the decision process to buy a certain product. However, we must consider the extent that one could ever understand the mind of the buyer; research trends would of course only show a generalisation of the sample, and of course the mindset will change by product, making studying behavioural characteristics increasingly difficult. Well acclaimed theorist Nicosia (1966, cited in Baker et al, 1988), was among the first to present a model in this field, flowcharting the process of decision making, with the steps from a consumer being exposed to a communication message, to purchasing and having a recognised post purchase experience. Andreasens Model (1965, cited in Argyris, 1988) added to this, introducing the realms of attitude factors to the process, revolving around attitude formation and change occurring to changing external stimulus. A common issue of theorists and psychology in general is the issue that one will never know what is inside the consumers ‘black box, their psychological mindset in decision making, one can only allude to it. The Engel, Kollat and Blackwell (1968, cited in Baker et al, 1988) model refers to the ‘black box as a central control unit, which consists of motives and response traits,   including many factors such as perceptions, values, and past experience behavioural characteristics. Present teachings of consumer behaviour tend to refer to a uniform model depicting and grouping the elements that influence behaviour; these are namely cultural, social, personal and psychological factors (Kotler, Wong, Saunders, Armstrong, 2005). Baker (Baker et al, 1988) has produced the most thorough model of buyer behaviour, a composition of all of the above theorists, in which the decision making characteristics can be clearly defined. The equation is as follows: P=f(SPPC, EC, IS, PF, CBBR) In which a purchase (P) can be defined as a function of selective perception (SP) and the behavioural response (BR) of enabling conditions (EB), information search (IS), precipitating circumstances (PC) and cost-benefit analysis (CB) factors combined. So whilst it is relatively unknown what is involved in the consumer decision making process, there are a number of key areas that can be alluded to for investigation, that appear in most models. In reference to charitable giving behaviours, treating the non-profit sector as anything other than one general research topic is uncommon, with researchers rarely distinguishing any sub categorisation of organisations, however some current findings are valid for the basis of understanding the differentials in motives and behaviours. It is known and studied that charities may take on a certain pseudo-human personality and hence certain personality traits can aid marketing efforts (Sargeant, Hudson, West, Conceptualizing brand values in the charity sector:the relationship between sector, cause and organization, 2008), based on the generalised theories of corporate personalities by McEnally de Chernatony (1999) and Palmer (1996); It was found that the traits held trends based upon the cause, sector and corporate cultural distinctions of the charity, which of course may differ by the various charity focuses and size. Sargeant (1999) , based on all existing knowledge in the field, crea ted a model of donating behaviour, shown below, in which an idea to factors influencing the decision process are elucidated. The issues that have particular relevance to examining the difference by charity size are namely the extrinsic determinants and perceptual reaction factors. However it must be noted that whilst the intrinsic determinants could apply to any charitable cause, the inputs in the form of marketing and communications can greatly affect the feelings of the consumer. Yet it must be noted that this model has yet to be tested, and is merely a portrayal of previous literature in the field. So whilst information and research is readily available and vast on the non-profit sector as a whole, research tends to be focused on either the cooperation of non-profit and for-profit firms using cause related marketing. That which differs from that area s mainly rooted in the service industry in the form of commercial non-profits and most other existing research on the consumer behaviour of non-profit companies is very shallow, not delving into the motivations and issues of consumer behaviour. There is as of yet, no existing published research that compares the size of the non-profit organisation with the behavioural constraints and patterns, in particular with regards to solely donative non-profits. 3. Industry Analysis 3.1. Revenue Analysis: The Importance of Individual Contributions in the Non-Profit Industry The structural makeup of the non-profit industry is much like any other, whilst we regularly hear about and are bombarded with advertising communications from the corporate giants in the trade, the reality is that in terms of numbers, these large firms are a tiny percentage of the industry, yet account for the majority of the total revenues, which can be seen in the charts below. According to the Charities Aid Foundation, the total amount donated by individuals in the year between 2009 and 2010 was  £10.6 billion excluding income in the form of legacies, which constitutes around one fifth of revenues in the sector, which was  £52 billion in the same year (Charities Aid Foundation, 2010; Philanthrophy UK, 2010). There forth, the importance of individual giving is high.   Looking towards giving patterns in the United Kingdom, we can see the importance of certain donor groups with the statistics that 54% of the population donated in a typical month in the years 2008 and 2009, with the median amount given being  £10; However the importance of the larger donations can be seen with 7% contributing more than  £100 per month, which equates to just less than 50% of charitable donations from the public (Booth, 2010). Interestingly, looking at the amount of money donated as a percentage of total income, â€Å"the top fifth of households give less than 1% of t heir income, while the poorest give 3%† (National Council for Voluntary Organisations, 2010). Regardless, the United Kingdom in relation to the rest of the world is one of the most generous countries, ranking 8th in the World Giving Index of 2010, which is measured upon the proportion of the public who had given to charity, helped a stranger and given time to those in need (Charities Aid Foundation, 2010). Interesting to discover in terms of the relevance of the research conducted within this report, is the importance of individual giving from the general public to the various size and focus groups of charities. Whilst the statistics show that overall it is of great importance, it may be that other areas of financing are of more importance for different sized charities; it would be thought that corporate donations and corporate social responsibility partnerships would be more important to the large international focused organisation than the small localised one. The above table shows research into the financial revenues of charitable organisations, attempting to decipher if there are differences in where the finance comes from between the three different types of charities, those with an international, national or local focus. This research study is not concerned with the numerical size of the organisation, but size in terms of the geographical spread of the benefits. In order to ensure validity of results, all of the charities included are of the same concern; all work in the child poverty sector and are focused on the enhancement of childrens lives. Since it may be the case that financing trends vary according to the type of charity, for example a medically focused charity would received a great deal more revenues from governmental organisations than most. Noticeable in researching this topic was that most charitable organisations do not release enough information to the public in the annual reports about where the revenue comes from, with only a handful of organisations providing enough information to be included in this study. This is even more apparent in the case of finding data for local charities. The results are fairly inconclusive in finding a strong trend in the revenue breakdown yet we can make some conclusions based on the findings. What can be seen is that the international organisations tend to receive a larger percentage in individual general public donations than the other forms of organisations. Regarding corporate and governmental contributions, what is evident is that international and even national organisations, which tend to be larger and better known, receive a great deal more in corporate donations. Whilst local charities receive a great deal of income from other sources, a particular observation is that they are mostly funded through other charitable organisations and non-governmental grants such as the national lottery funding. It could very well be that the local and even the smaller national charities do not have a strong enough presence in the world of media through advertising to gain sufficient individual contributions from the public. The averages can be seen depicted in the charts below. 3.2. An Outside Glance of Consumer Trust and Confidence The purchase decision to donate to charity, much like any ‘for profit industry, involves a great deal of trust and confidence elements on the consumers part to work through the stages of decision making to finally decide to make a purchase. We can even go as far to say that the element of trust in donating is even more prominent than in other industries, since when consumers make a purchase decision, they are not receiving a ‘physical product that they can feel post purchase satisfaction with, they are simply expected to believe the benefits of their purchase and that their money is being used well. It is often the case with most charities that a donation does not merit the information as to what activity or campaign it is being used for, limiting the knowledge even further, and thus possibly affecting trust. A consumer study survey conducted by Read Data Asset Management Group in 2010 showed that 42% of consumers would trust charities with their personal data â€Å"which is in stark contrast to government who were least trusted by 36%† (Read Data Asset Management Group Plc, 2010, pg 3). This is an interesting find in terms of confidence since the security of personal data is such a hot topic these days, with the public being incredibly cautious. The same study also examined reasons consumers would stop supporting a charity, finding that the highest rated responses were wasting money on marketing efforts, over contacting consumers and overly emotional marketing communications. These results are quite contradictory to reality since these tend to be the actions taken by the well known large charities, which are also the charities that are most popular amongst donors. We can also consider consumer trust and confidence levels not to be standardised across the industry; it may be that d istrust stems from certain charity types or causes. There are a great number of ‘pop up charities, created for crisis appeals, which are not well known or established as an entity and as such may not be as trusted. There is also the concern that such charities are started purely to merit the trustees a high wage. Consumer confidence can be greatly positively influenced by the presence of governmental regulatory bodies, rules and standards within industries. The past decade has seen a dramatic incline in the efforts to regulate and increase transparency, since the likes of the Enron scandal and other highly publicised fraudulent business operations, resulting in the development of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 to secure the business environment for consumers, and many UK equivalent legal regulations to the same context. Charities, akin to all organisations are required by law to abide to certain legal provisions. The United Kingdom adopted the EU Transparency Directive in 2007, which serves to promote appropriate disclosure of information, with the main areas of focus being â€Å"periodic financial reporting and disclosure of major shareholdings† (Ashurst, 2007). Supplementary to the above menti

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Cynthia Ozick’s story Envy or, Yiddish in America Essay -- Cynthia Ozi

"Envy": Cynthiz Ozick Meets Melanie Klein Cynthia Ozick’s story â€Å"Envy; or, Yiddish in America† shows the corrosive effects of envy on the life of the lonely, aging Yiddish poet Edelshtein. Edelshtein is consumed with envy of Ostrover, a famous Yiddish novelist known from English translations of his stories. He feels that Ostrover has both cuckolded him and bested him in literary success. Edelshtein believes he could become as famous as Ostover if he too had a translator into English. Without the translator, he fears his poems will die along with him and the dying Yiddish language. The story seems to illustrate the psychological insights of Melanie Klein about the unconscious mechanisms behind envy: â€Å"I consider that envy is an oral-sadistic and anal-sadistic expression of destructive impulses, operative from the beginning of life. . .† (Klein, ix). So long as Edelshtein operates out of envy, he will remain caught in a vicious cycle, in an infantile, self-destructive state, thwarted in his attempts to love or to be creative. He will continue to feel persecuted by Ostrover, which is really a form of internal persecution. As Klein says, â€Å"When this occurs, the good object is felt to be lost, and with it inner security† ( 84). â€Å"Envy,† which is included in Ozick’s 1969 collection, The Pagan Rabbi, is reminiscent of Bellow’s Herzog (1965). Both are profound psychological anatomies, detailed dissections of a single suffering character, a victim who is nevertheless in many ways his own worst enemy. Both stories are delicately poised between the comic and the tragic. Both protagonists are intellectuals who rail against the â€Å"Wasteland outlook† and defend Jewish humanism. Herzog rejects â€Å"the commonplaces of the Wastela... ...at least two people† (Klein 6). Tragedy occurs in the realm of oedipal conflict, but the envious person never reaches that stage and thus never really grows up. Works Cited Bellow, Saul. Herzog. 1965; New York: Viking, 1976. Cohen, Sarah Blacher. Cynthia Ozick’s Comic Art: From Levity to Liturgy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Kauvar, Elaine M. Cynthia Ozick’s Fiction: Tradition and Invention. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Klein, Melanie. Envy and Gratitude: A Study of Unconscious Sources. NY: Basic Books, 1957. Lowin, Joseph. Cynthia Ozick. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Ozick, Cynthia. â€Å"Envy; or, Yiddish in America.† Jewish American Stories. Ed. Irving Howe. New York: New American Library, 1977: 129-77. Strandberg, Victor. Greek Mind/Jewish Soul: The Conflicted Art of Cynthia Ozick. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Job Interviews :: essays research papers

Questions: Wat is th company vision? how would you describe the culture in the business? wat attracted you to the company and how long have u been there? how long do people stay in their roles? wat develeopment opportunities are in the role? 1 I have read the job description, can you expand on the job I will be doing? 2 What type of training is provided? 3 How do you see me in the role? 4 Do you have performance targets? 5 How will I know that I am doing well? 6 What are team members achieving? Ask questions that are focused on embodying your enthusiasm, as well as your willingness and ability: 1 What is the team working on at the moment? 2 Can I meet the team? 3 Can I look around? 4 What are your strategies for growth? 5 How soon do you want an employee in place? 6 If there was one major achievement that you would like to see happen within the role from the outset, what would it be? 7 Can you describe what made the last person successful in this role? 8 What are the immediate improvements or priorities that need to be applied to this role? 9 What changes would you like to see in the way the job is performed? 10 To ensure I would be able to hit the ground running would you be able to supply any procedures, literature or other supporting information in preparation for my first day in the role? "Why do you want to work for us?" Explain why you see the company as an attractive employer. Financial package should never be given as a reason, but think about things like the company culture, training program, company structure, the ability to cross-train into different technologies, or the company's ethic. Obviously these need to be relevant and well-researched. "Where do you see yourself in five years' time?" Think about where you really want to be within a company: in a lead role with a team under you; or a lead consultant; or a director of the company. Be ambitious but realistic and have direction in your answers. "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" Talk specifically about the positive things you've achieved to illustrate your strengths rather than generalising and make them relevant to the role you are going for. Try to show your weaknesses in a positive light and give examples of where you have addressed and overcome your weaknesses. "Why did you apply for this job?" The candidate should be careful not to mention a desire for promotion or money.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Spartan Women: Sarah B Pomery

A Critical Book Review: Spartan Women by: Sarah B. Pomeroy It goes without saying that during the time of Ancient Greeks, the lives of human beings and the things considered important vary greatly compared to those living today. More heavily centered on male-dominance and government, the land of Sparta was very different from its surrounding Greek counterparts. It was known for not only its great warriors, but also for its unusual treatment of women. By unusual, I don’t mean treatment of inequality or lack of superiority compared to men, because women were just as valued as men, if not more; for they bared the gift of life. Spartan Women† takes an inside look of the personal lives of Spartans, and in particular, Spartan women living during this era. From the very first moment a Spartan woman is born, her treatment was incomparable to that of other Greek women. She is valued, because she brings the gift of life. Throughout the book, Pomeroy examines the differences betwee n the lives of females paralleled to males. If we were to compare a female infant to a male infant born into Sparta, it was much more stressful to be a male. At birth, Spartans practiced infanticide on male infants, and deformed or weak babies would be thrown into a chasm on Mount Taygetos.This is a form of eugenics, according to Pomeroy, and it ensured a strong military for the state, by only allowing physically strong infants the gift of being reared. Although every male was entitled to owning land and receiving an education, they must first pass the physical test put on by the state that classified a physically fit male. Not all male babies were capable of being warriors, but as long as it didn’t have obvious deformities, it passed the test. Female babies were not scrutinized in the same fashion as males were, since their main objective wasn’t to be warriors.They were still valued, because even â€Å"weak† females could still grow into mothers of warriors. Pr ogressing further into childhood, males are taught from the very start how to become strong warriors, and females are taught how to become mothers of strong warriors. Because their state revolved around the physical superiority of their military, children are taught a variety of athletic skills. The training girls participated in was similar to boys, but less extreme. During puberty, girls participated in trials of strength that included racing, hurling the javelin, wrestling, and discus throwing.Girls were trained just as much as boys because it was believed that by having two parents that were physically healthy, the odds of producing even healthier offspring were greater. Along with training in sports, girls were also thoroughly educated. In other Greek states, women did not have nearly as much free time as Spartan women did. Since the men of Sparta began warrior training at age 7, girls started their education around the same time. They were cultured in the arts, in areas such a s dancing, singing, and playing instruments.Spartan women also were granted the privilege of becoming literate. They were said to write letters to their sons away at war. Although most Spartan women were married by the age of 18, some today would consider this rather young, other Greek women were married even younger. The sole duty in the society of Sparta for women was to grow up physically healthy, become educated, get married, and rear healthy children, in particular, healthy warriors. Newly married Spartan couples would not live together until they passed the age of 30, because it was believed that absence made the heart grow stronger.Stronger passions between each other resulted in a physically stronger child. Being a mother was the highest honor for women, and being a mother of a brave warrior was even better. Pomeroy states many activities and roles women played in Spartan society, but the main running theme is that they lived in the shadow of men. From birth, they were evalu ated and examined to determine if they’d be fit for motherhood. Growing up, they’re physically trained to rear strong children. They then are married at a young age, and produce children for the rest of their days.Granted, Spartan women had much more of a say on who they married and whether or not to bear children compared to other Greek women, but a women did not stand very high in society if she was not married to a man, or a mother. The author’s thesis is not clearly stated at first, but after reading a few chapters, it is easy to connect the running theme of motherhood. She consistently talks about girls striving to attract mates, and obtaining marital status in order to bear children. For example, when girls and boys practiced their sports together, the girls were said to have been promiscuous and flirty in hopes of grabbing the boys’ attention.Girls would participate in nude Olympics, so that potential partners could come and observe. After marriage , a girl is bedded with her husband the very first night; some would call a little eager to become pregnant. And throughout adulthood, a woman plays the sole role of a mother who rears strong children to play out the same pattern. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I have always taken an interest to Ancient Greek civilizations, and in particular, Sparta. The beginning of the book flowed pretty smoothly, until the author started to reference works that only ancient historians would be able to relate to.I am not fully familiar with the Spartan timeline or history, so when she referenced to certain wars, philosophers or works of poetry, I would just skim over those parts and keep reading. Before reading the book, I hoped to learn the social roles women played in Spartan society, as well as what went on in their personal lives. I feel that this was accomplished after reading, and I gained valuable insight on what it was like to be a woman during that time period. I found m yself talking to other people about the topics I was reading, because it blew me away how male-dominated their society was.Today, getting married and having children is only one of a million options a woman can choose to pursue. There are more things that I wish I could learn further, such as the thoughts and feelings of Spartan women. Although they portrayed a strong exterior similar to their male warrior counterparts, I wonder if deep down they were really unhappy with their status in society. This is not something that could possibly be easily figured out though, so I do not blame Pomeroy for excluding this kind of information. I have already recommended this book to others, and will continue to do so for those that are interested in Ancient Greek history.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner

When considering art there are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important elements in art are the most obvious one's to see. Mary Edmonia Lewis and Henry Ossawa Tanner are two artists who have created art that speak to people in depth of their creativity and inspiration from others. Although these two artists study two different genres of art, both of these artists have great talent that has been recognized throughout the world. Mary Edmonia Lewis who was born in 1843 and Henry Ossawa Tanner who was born in 1859 have come a very long way, and overcame countless obstacles to become successful. Edmonia Lewis was the first African American woman in the United States to gain widespread recognition as an artist, and the first African American in the United States to gain an international reputation as a sculptor† (Mary 40). Edmonia Lewis spent her early childhood with her mother's family, the Chippewa Indians. She was known as Wildfire, and her brother was known as Sunrise. Edmonia and her brother were orphaned when Edmonia was about ten years old, two aunts took them in as children. Both Edmonia and Sunrise lived in northern New York state (Buick 10).Sunrise, with wealth from the California Gold Rush, financed prep school education for Edmonia Lewis, and then an education at Oberlin College, beginning in 1859. It wasn’t until Edmonia entered Oberlin College that she started going by her birth name. Edmonia was considered a very popular student in college. On January 27, 1862 Edmonia’s college life took a turn for the worse. While at Oberlin College, Edmonia was accused of poisoning two white female students, who also boarded at John Keep's home, a well- known Oberlin trustee. While awaiting trial, she was nearly beaten to death.Edmonia was defended in court by John Mercer Langston, an Oberlin graduate. She was acquitted and carried from the courtroom on the shoulders of supportive friends, and continued her studies at Oberlin fo r a while. After a couple months went by Edmonia considered moving back with her mother but instead Edmonia decided to go to Boston and study with Edmond Brackett, a local sculptor. Edmonia had some success, especially among American tourists. Edmonia was known for her depictions of African, African American, or Native American people.Some of Edmonia’s best-known sculptures are, Forever Free created in 1867, which is a sculptor of a black woman and black man celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation. Another one of her best sculptures goes by the name of, â€Å"Hagar in the Wilderness†. Which was created a year after â€Å"Forever Free†. The Hagar in the Wilderness was a sculpture of an Egyptian handmaiden of Sarah and Abraham, mother of Ishmael. One of her most talked about works is â€Å"The Death of Cleopatra†, Created in (1875). This sculpture is known to be a representation of the Egyptian queen.Edmonia created the more realistic â€Å"The Death of Cleopatra† for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial it was also displayed at the 1878 Chicago Exposition. Unfortunately this piece of art was lost for a century. Soon the statue was moved and then rediscovered, and it was restored in 1987. As Edmonia started to gain proceeds from her work, she opened a studio of her own. Among all the pieces that Edmonia created â€Å"there were a medallion of John Brown and a bust of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, Civil-War leader of Massachusetts Fifity-Fourth, an all-black regiment† (Mary 42).With the funds she received from those two pieces Edmonia was able to study in Europe. As Edmonia sprouted into her sculpting career, she also influenced other artists to follow in her footsteps. While Edmonia was a very talented and creative artist her length of popularity proved to be somewhat brief. Although Edmonia life ended too soon, her work still lives on to this day. Today, Edmonia’s work is represented by Henry Wadsworth a well-known po et. Two of Edmonia’s best sculptures, â€Å"A bust of Abraham Lincoln† and â€Å"Forever Free† are on display in the Municipal Library of San Jose, California.Edmonia finished â€Å"Forever Free† in 1868 and sent it to a wealthy abolitionist named, Samuel Sewall. Lydia Maria scolded Edmonia for sculpting the piece into marble without a commission, and eventually Lydia withdrew her support. Edmonia was honored the following year when the sculpture was presented to Rev. Leonard Grimes, a leading black abolitionist. Edmonia also sculpted â€Å"Hagar in the Wilderness† in 1868, a little while after becoming Catholic. Edmonia quotes â€Å"Some praise me because I am a colored girl, and I don't want that kind of praise. I had rather you would point out my defects, for that will teach me something† (Buick 4).With this quote, Edmonia Lewis is remembered forever for her creativity and talent as a highly skilled sculptor. Henry Ossawa Tanner was the s on of a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Henry was also raised in an affluent, well-educated African-American family. Although Henry’s parents were unwilling at first, they eventually responded positively to Henry’s determined desire to follow an artistic career and they began to encourage his determinations. In 1879, Henry enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he joined Thomas Eakins's coterie.Henry moved to Atlanta in 1889 in an unsuccessful attempt to support himself as an artist and instructor. A woman by the name of Mrs. Joseph C. Hartzell arranged Tanner's first solo exhibition, being that he was already a struggling artist. She also arranged for the proceeds to go to Henry, so that he could move to Paris in 1891. A disturbing Illness brought Henry back to the United States in 1893, at this time in Henry’s career he turned his attention to genre subjects of his own race. Henry was different from a lot of artists in man y ways. In 1893 most American artists painted African-American subjects either as sentimental figures of rural poverty† (Burgard 12). Henry, who wanted to represent black subjects with self-respect, wrote: â€Å"Many of the artists who have represented Negro life have seen only the comic, the ludicrous side of it, and have lacked sympathy and appreciation for the warm big heart that dwells within such a rough exterior. † (Burgard 15). This gave Henry the motivation to create the piece â€Å"The Banjo Lesson† The banjo had become a symbol of ridicule, and cartoons of bland, smiling African-Americans strumming the instrument were a cliche.In â€Å"The Banjo Lesson†, Tanner challenges the stereotype head on. â€Å"The Banjo Lesson† is a work of art, portraying a man teaching his young son to play the instrument. Tanner recreated the father in The Banjo Lesson as a mentor, and wise man. The Banjo Lesson is about sharing knowledge and passing on wisdom t o others. In the fall of 1888, Henry returned to Atlanta and taught drawing for two years at Clark College. After discussing his ambitions to travel abroad with Bishop and Mrs. Hartzell, they arranged an exhibition of Tanner's works in Cincinnati in the fall of l890.When no paintings were sold, the Hartzells bought the entire collection. This is what made Henry the talented artist that he was. Not only was Henry’s art fascinating to look at but, his art work also had sentimental meaning and value. Henry’s art had purpose and meaning to share with others. Within Henry’s work, he hoped to reach out to others by sharing his wisdom. With all Henry’s proceeds from various art works, Henry was able to return to Paris in 1895, he established a reputation as a salon artist and religious painter but he never painted genre subjects of African-Americans again.Henry was a very talented and prestigious artist, â€Å"In 1908 his first one-man exhibition of religious p aintings in the United States was held at the American Art Galleries in New York† (Richardson 15). Two years later, Tanner was elected a member of the National Academy of Design. In Henry’s later years, he was a symbol of hope and inspiration for African-American leaders and young black artists, many of those African American leaders visited him in Paris. On May 25, 1937, Henry died at his home in Paris.After Henry’s death in Paris, interest in Henry's works lessened significantly. The most renowned of all black artists was rediscovered, largely as a result of a major exhibit in New York, in 1967. Two years later the Smithsonian Institution presented a large reflective that spread far throughout the United States. Although Henry’s art â€Å"Banjo Lesson† is considered a classic work of art, Allthough Henry Ossawa Tanner passed away too soon, he lived a long life of adventure and experience, and his art work will live on forever.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Using the Law to Protect the Environment

Introduction When defining the environment, Dimento (2003) states that it comprises of both natural and anthropogenic elements that are not only mutually interrelated, but has an impact on the ecological balance, life, human health, historical and cultural heritage and the landscape. From this definition, the environment comprises of three main things, the natural resources, the fauna and flora, and the properties which form part of the cultural heritage (Shelton & Kiss 2005). The misuse of environmental resources and pollution worldwide has prompted commitment from governments and major stakeholders to put in place measures to protect the environment, and, consequently, environmental laws are being enacted in an effort to protect the environment (Dimento 2003). The environmental resources cannot be rejuvenated once depleted; neither can it protect itself from misuse and pollution. Therefore, only the law can be used to protect the environment. Putting in place laws in charge of the environment w ill speak loudly about how the environment can be used sustainably as well as give prior warnings to those who may intend to misuse or pollute the environment. Laws usually give directions and consequences of going against such directions. Environment has its own rights and any violator of such rights will only be answerable to the law. According to UNEP, environmental law looks at the features of the protection programs which have been put in place to safeguard specific aspects of the environment and natural resources, such as water, air, waste and endangered species. It is also the reference point for judges presiding over environment related cases (Thirlway 2003). Before 1960, the environmental law did not exist as independently as other domestic or international legal issues (Shelton, Kiss & Kanami 2003). However, international laws in place currently to help tackle the scientific issues which affect the environment, such as uncertainty issues, sustainable development, issues of diversity and settings issues of individuals and the society, and economics aspects of the environment (Fitzmaurice 2003). These laws seek to control the use of resources in a sustainable manner and to eradicate contamination of the environment through pollution and similar human practices. These laws, therefore, protects against loss of biodiversity, loss of fertility, desertification and famine, depletion of fishing resources, increase of cancers due to depletion of the ozone layer and damage of future generations (Zaelke, Kaniaru & Kruzikova 2005). According to the United Nations (2003), sources of environmental laws can be classified into two categories: the National laws and the International laws. The basis of the legal mechanisms of the environmental law include prohibition and restriction of activities such as pollution, product and process standards, prior informed consent, environmental impact assessment, and land use regulation (Zaelke, Kaniaru & Kruzikova 2005). General ly, these laws are formulated in such a way that they are preventive, that is, they prevent damage of the environment such that the use of some resources from the environment must be approved through rigorous exercises of environmental impact assessment and other similar regulations. This, in a broader perspective, helps in protecting the environment. Sanctions and penalties have also been put in place for those who fail to comply and this also helps in protecting the environment (Stanley, Johnson & Gunther 1993). References. Dimento, J., (2003)., The Global Environment and International Law, .University Of Texas Press. Fitzmaurice, M., (2003)., The Practical Working of the Law of Treaties, In International law, Oxford University Press. Tarlock, D., History of Environmental law. Environmental law and their enforcement, Vol 1, Thirlway, H., (2003)., The Sources of International Law, In International Law, Oxford University Press. (272) Shelton and Kiss., (2005)., Judicial handbook on Environmental law, UNEP, Hertfordsire, Shelton, Kiss & and Kanami., (2003)., Economic Globalization and Compliance with International Environmental Agreements. New York:, Kluwer Law International, New York. Stanley, Johnson and & Gunther., (1993)., Managing Fragile Ecosystems: Combating Desertification and Drought, The Earth Summit: The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) n.d United Nations., (2003),. Handbook of Final Clauses of Multilateral Treaties, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Policy Development and Law (â€Å"Unep/Dpdl†) Zaelke, Kaniaru & and Kruzikova,. (2005),. Making Law Work, Environmental Compliance and Sustainable Development.,Cameroon.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Bukowski poem †a smile to remember Essay

Analysis A smile to remember Charles Bukowski The poem is really a short story about an ordinary family with tragic problems. The child of the mother and the father, who are mentioned in the poem, is the narrator. The likely scenario is that the child in the poem represents Charles Bukowski’s childhood. In the first lines of the story, it is mentioned that the family has goldfish. We hear about a boy, whose mother keeps telling him to be happy, even though she has a miserable life because of his insane and abusive father, who beats her frequently. One day the goldfish dies and his father, being the insensible man he is, throws the goldfish to the cat, but remarkably, Henry’s mother just smiles. The first impression you get when you see the title of the poem is that this must be a ‘feel-good’- or ‘love’-poem. In the first line, the word ‘goldfish’ is mentioned. An innocent image most readers can relate to. The same goes for the line â€Å"my mother, always smiling, wanting us all to be happy†. Again, to the reader this is a good thing. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Most people agree that going through life happy, is something we all try to achieve. The fifth line reads â€Å"and she was right: it’s better to be happy if you†. Then the poet does something remarkable. The line stops after â€Å"you†, while the next line, only includes one word; â€Å"can†. Bukowski made this word a line by itself to make the reader understand the undertone of desolation in the family, because they surely cannot live the happy, picture-perfect life. By writing it this way, Bukowski leave it to the reader to decide if the mother and the child are happy. But clearly the Mother acknowledges that the child is in fact never happy, since he â€Å"never smiles† as she remarks later. Line 10-11, â€Å"raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn’t understand what was attacking him from within†. We know from earlier, that Bukowski’s childhood was terribly violent and his father was abusive to his  mother and him, but in this poem Bukowski choose to look beyond this and tries to understand why his father was abusive. In this line, the reader senses immediately that something is wrong with the father and that he is fighting his own demons. Is it mental illness, substance abuse or is he just a man with temperament? Bukowski’s mother becomes the center of the stanza; â€Å"my mother, poor fish, wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a week, telling me to be happy: ‘Henry, smile! Why don’t you ever smile?† Instead of goldfish swimming in a bowl, the goldfish now symbolize the mother (â€Å"poor fish†) who tries to show happiness even though she suffers from violence and lives in pain. However, sor row cannot be hidden, even the child knows that her happiness is not real. As the author express it â€Å"it was the saddest smile I ever saw†. In the last stanza the goldfish dies. The reader can clearly envision the dead fish â€Å"they floated on the water on their side, their eyes still open†. To return to the symbol of the fish being the mother, the reader’s viewpoint now gets completely turned upside down. It is not as simple as it looked – the poem is not about abuse. It is about a frazzled woman who tried to keep an even more broken family together. She believed in the good things in life and smiled through her pain in an attempt to raise a shelter towards the ugly reality she is confined to. Until one day, when the little part of her, still trying to fight, died and was thrown to the cat: By then she just stands there, still smiling. Perhaps she realizes that relief will also come to her some day; when death put an end to her miserable life and she can finally stop pretending that life is a happy place.

Friday, September 13, 2019

A Paper on the Market Pull and Technology Push Factors

I will be reporting on just one of 3M’s many innovative products the post-it notes. I will also highlight the market pull and technology push factors that were considered in developing the innovation. The key terms to be identified in this report are innovation, technology push, and market pull. Innovation refers both to the output and the process of arriving at a technically feasible solution to a problem triggered by a technological opportunity or customer need. Technology push describes a situation where an emerging technology or a new combination of existing technologies provide the driving force for an innovative product and problem solution in the market place. Market pull is the advancement of technology oriented primarily toward a specific market need. Post-it notes are pieces of stationery with a re-usable adhesive strip on the back, designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. The release of post-it notes in 1980 in the United States was one that was not only innovative for its time but one which captured the needs of consumers in a whole new way. Post-it note became a big success for 3M and was adored by customers. The first and probably most important technology push that resulted in post-it notes is senior scientist Spencer Silver’s 1968 discovery of an adhesive that didn’t act like any others. Instead of forming a film, it is a clear, reusable and pressure-sensitive adhesive. For five years, Silver promoted his invention within 3M, both informally and through seminars, but without much success. In 1974 Art fry perceived the idea of coating the adhesive on paper. He soon realized that this technology would serve well as a note pad. 3M conducted a direct-mail program to the secretaries of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, and got back letters from CEO’s of companies such as Chrysler and Phillip Morris telling them how much they loved this product (Post-it notes) and asking how they could get more. This was a major market pull factor as 3M now realized that this advancement in technology would satisfy a specific market need. Fry encountered serious technical problems very early. First, there was the problem of getting the adhesive to stay in place on the note instead of transferring to other surfaces. The company didn’t have coating equipment that could be precise on an imprecise backing such as paper. This resulted in further technology push as advances in the technical performance of 3M allowed for the post-it notes adhesive to be perfected as well as a manufacturing process was developed. Fry made sure that secretaries of 3M senior executives got them. Before long, their bosses were borrowing the little yellow pads. This Market pull factor illustrated the need for this innovation in the business place. In 1978 samples of numerous post-it was given out in the city of Boise. 3M discovered that more than 90 percent of the people who tried them would buy them. This market pull factor showed the general market need for this product. After success in Boise, 3M was convinced that the market potential for the yellow note was enormous and, in 1980, post-it notes were introduced nationally. The Managerial Implications * Technical and Market considerations * How to sustain new innovations * Time consumption * How to protect innovation from competitors. Recommendations Managers must take into account during problem solving within a firm, the technical and market factors in order to achieve successful management of technology. * Managers must invest time and money in research and development and other efforts to not only make improvements to commercialized technologies but to continuously endeavor to come out with new technologies/innovations. * Managers must respond to time consumption and sho rten the time it takes them to design, develop and put new innovations on the market. They must decide when to innovate, update, or replace previous technology . They must also develop methods to cope with shorter product life cycles. This can be done through continuous improvement. * Managers must protect new innovations from competitors through the use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and designs. This will also result in higher profitability for the organization. Conclusion The development of post-it notes was driven both by technological push and market pull factors. These factors resulted in; the recognition of a potential problem, decision of which technologies to use, a feasible solution to the problem, and the final commercialization of the innovation. Managers must learn to cope with the implications that will face them. References http://www. innovation. lv/ino2/publications/leonardo_manual/en/www. innosupport. net/webhelp/wso/ind http://multimedia. 3m. com/mws/mediawebserver? 77777XxamfIVOWwo_Pw5_W7HYxTHfxajYv7HYv7H777777– ex. cfm@fuseactionlearnl_id4240pl_id3558. htm http://www. tu-harburg. de/tim/downloads/arbeitspapiere/Working_Paper_5. pdf http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Post-it_note http://www. 3m. com/us/about3M/innovation/archive. html A Paper on the Market Pull and Technology Push Factors I will be reporting on just one of 3M’s many innovative products the post-it notes. I will also highlight the market pull and technology push factors that were considered in developing the innovation. The key terms to be identified in this report are innovation, technology push, and market pull. Innovation refers both to the output and the process of arriving at a technically feasible solution to a problem triggered by a technological opportunity or customer need. Technology push describes a situation where an emerging technology or a new combination of existing technologies provide the driving force for an innovative product and problem solution in the market place. Market pull is the advancement of technology oriented primarily toward a specific market need. Post-it notes are pieces of stationery with a re-usable adhesive strip on the back, designed for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. The release of post-it notes in 1980 in the United States was one that was not only innovative for its time but one which captured the needs of consumers in a whole new way. Post-it note became a big success for 3M and was adored by customers. The first and probably most important technology push that resulted in post-it notes is senior scientist Spencer Silver’s 1968 discovery of an adhesive that didn’t act like any others. Instead of forming a film, it is a clear, reusable and pressure-sensitive adhesive. For five years, Silver promoted his invention within 3M, both informally and through seminars, but without much success. In 1974 Art fry perceived the idea of coating the adhesive on paper. He soon realized that this technology would serve well as a note pad. 3M conducted a direct-mail program to the secretaries of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, and got back letters from CEO’s of companies such as Chrysler and Phillip Morris telling them how much they loved this product (Post-it notes) and asking how they could get more. This was a major market pull factor as 3M now realized that this advancement in technology would satisfy a specific market need. Fry encountered serious technical problems very early. First, there was the problem of getting the adhesive to stay in place on the note instead of transferring to other surfaces. The company didn’t have coating equipment that could be precise on an imprecise backing such as paper. This resulted in further technology push as advances in the technical performance of 3M allowed for the post-it notes adhesive to be perfected as well as a manufacturing process was developed. Fry made sure that secretaries of 3M senior executives got them. Before long, their bosses were borrowing the little yellow pads. This Market pull factor illustrated the need for this innovation in the business place. In 1978 samples of numerous post-it was given out in the city of Boise. 3M discovered that more than 90 percent of the people who tried them would buy them. This market pull factor showed the general market need for this product. After success in Boise, 3M was convinced that the market potential for the yellow note was enormous and, in 1980, post-it notes were introduced nationally. The Managerial Implications * Technical and Market considerations * How to sustain new innovations * Time consumption * How to protect innovation from competitors. Recommendations Managers must take into account during problem solving within a firm, the technical and market factors in order to achieve successful management of technology. * Managers must invest time and money in research and development and other efforts to not only make improvements to commercialized technologies but to continuously endeavor to come out with new technologies/innovations. * Managers must respond to time consumption and sho rten the time it takes them to design, develop and put new innovations on the market. They must decide when to innovate, update, or replace previous technology . They must also develop methods to cope with shorter product life cycles. This can be done through continuous improvement. * Managers must protect new innovations from competitors through the use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and designs. This will also result in higher profitability for the organization. Conclusion The development of post-it notes was driven both by technological push and market pull factors. These factors resulted in; the recognition of a potential problem, decision of which technologies to use, a feasible solution to the problem, and the final commercialization of the innovation. Managers must learn to cope with the implications that will face them. References http://www. innovation. lv/ino2/publications/leonardo_manual/en/www. innosupport. net/webhelp/wso/ind http://multimedia. 3m. com/mws/mediawebserver? 77777XxamfIVOWwo_Pw5_W7HYxTHfxajYv7HYv7H777777– ex. cfm@fuseactionlearnl_id4240pl_id3558. htm http://www. tu-harburg. de/tim/downloads/arbeitspapiere/Working_Paper_5. pdf http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Post-it_note http://www. 3m. com/us/about3M/innovation/archive. html