Critical analysis on Roald Dahl's writing style and his influence on Essay

Critical analysis on Roald Dahl's writing style and his influence on my writing - Essay Example (Propson, David 2007) Oddly enough, Dahl’s children’s stories required heavy rewriting by the editors, but they were naturally brilliant, and so were quite worth the effort. Dahl’s adult fiction was quite dark, and though satisfying, it seldom had any balance from humor. However, his children’s stories, though dark as well, always had a generous dollop of humor and fantasy. Even the characters in his children’s stories seem to balance. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory we have Charlie, his grandfather, and willie Wonka to represent the good guys and they balance out the three four awful children and their parents. (Amidon, Stephen 2006) He seems to have caught the exactly right tone for kids. He knew how they thought, how things worked in their heads. So, his children’s stories rang true for them, wonderfully parallel to their perceptions of the world. Yet, there was a wonderful quality of humor and fantasy which the illustrators, and later filmmakers, could play against in their work. The latest version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is fantastically done with the digital special effects of Tim Burton’s versi on of 2005. (iMDB 2005) (Mcmorran, Will, 2006) All of the lovely fantasy comes through and does justice to the author. However, it probably only matches the images which appear in the heads of the children who read the books. In fact, when one looks at Dahl’s children’s stories there is a core of frank truth at the center. He makes some strong points on the human condition and human psychology. His characters are extreme examples of all the foibles and character traits of real people. Even the Dahl’s childrens stories, even though he takes things to fantastic heights, his characters always wind up with their just deserts, as suits a story for children. Ambiguity is so0mething reader have to learn to tolerate, generally when we are very close to adulthood. Children require justice to be done. It does not

What are fundamental points of conflict between Confucianism and Essay

What are fundamental points of conflict between Confucianism and Legalism How were these ways of thought blended into the Chinese theory of empire - Essay Example These people propagated the ideas of Confucius as a philosophy in the human race. This is not only done as guidance for living up to the ideas of Confucius but also as a direction in politics and a sense of morality. Confucius strongly affected the historical make-up of East Asia, the neighbors of China, especially Japan and Korea. Considering the Chosen dynasty in Korea, the influence of Confucius took over much of what we can see. The Yi dynasty accredited for introducing the Chinese examination system during the Tang dynasty. During this critical era, Chinese people adhered to the principles of Confucianism. Legalism, the so called â€Å"school of law", rose as one of the mainstreams of Chinese philosophy though it never lasted for long. Legalism is quite different from the ideas of Confucianism. The rationale behind legalism was law, which is a main principle in legalism. Because legalism has a mistrust of human nature, which was regarded as a lazy and cowardly creature, like the view of Xunzi, the law should create order and eliminate chaos. Both the thoughts and practices of Confucianism and legalism have expanded to become a tool for the betterment of individuals. The Chinese had put much interest on both philosophies which subsequently became deep rooted into their culture. There are similarities and comparisons between the great philosophies, Confucianism and Legalism to the principal values or norms of conduct. Confucius favorable view on human nature and its optimism were more persuasive to people of during that period, although in China today there still exists a legalist society but not as severely and strict as in Qin dynasty. In the third and second century B.C.E., when rivalry among the Warring states was getting more complex and competitive, legalism had risen as a new ideology that was in opposition to Confucianism. One of Confucianism thoughts was to

Making Effective Business Decisions Through Accounting

Making Effective Business Decisions Through Accounting â€Å"The process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgments and decisions by users of the information†. According to American Accounting Association Committee, 1966. This may be considered as a good definition because of its focus on accounting as an help to decision making. Writing an essay on this topic brings an attention on how accounting helps manager in taking effective business decision. It is very important for any organization to take good business decision as to grow business by minimal cost. So, In order to make good decision People and organization need useful information. There is where Accounting plays a key role. Accounting helps management to determine whether a business is at a loss or a profit, how much company owe, and other such financial information. There are certain Accounting measures can helps managers in the right direction with effective information. Accounting Information helps management make sound business decisions on a timely and effectively manner. Performance Management’s measuring tool, Balance Score is effective in taking business decision through its four perspectives (Financial perspective, Customer Perspective, Internal Perspective and Innovation Learning perspective) According to Armstrong’s (2009, pg 10) Performance Management (Briscoe and Claus, 2008): It is the system through which organization set work goals, determine performance standards, assign and evaluate work, provide performance feedback, determine training and development needs and distribute rewards. So, the purpose of performance management is with the aim to improve performance. Overall its purpose is to make clear that how employees’ performance is related to performance of the business. Hence, Balance scorecard is used in this essay to understand the performance management in terms of helping managers taking business decision The balance scorecard (BSC) is a tool to measure the operational activities of small- and large-scale companies and their association with each others in terms of strategies and vision. It focuses on organizational strategies and the creation of balance for perspectives (financial, customers, internal processes, and learning and growth), and manages and evaluates complex organizations. (Abdullah S. Al-Mudimigh, 2009, pg 347) The Balanced Scorecard concept has been successfully employed by many companies in recent years to better measure their financial results. According to one study, fully 40 per cent of Fortune 500 companies were using this system to evaluate performance at the end of 2000. Hence, it is being adopted by many companies across the world today cutting across the nature of the industry, types of business, geographical and other barriers (Punniyamoorthy, R. Murali, 2008) BSC essentially is a means of focusing employees attention on desired behavior and desired results. By combining financial and non-financial measures in a single report the BSC aims to provide the managers with effective and more relevant information about activities they are managing than is provided by financial measures alone. The BSC approach provides a clear prescription as to what companies should measure in order to â€Å"balance† the implications in all the functional areas, arising out of the strategic intent. (Punniyamoorthy, R. Murali, 2008) The strategic content of the company can be grouped under different perspectives, which will cover the entire activity of the firm. Kaplan and Norton (1992) introduced four different perspectives through which the firms entire activity can be integrated. First is Financial perspective is about to succeed financially how should we appear to our shareholders? Timely and accurate financial data will always be a priority, and the managers will work necessarily to provide it. Typically financial goals have to do with profitability, growth and shareholders’ value. In the 1980, a chemicals company became committed to total management quality program, in this case the different managers and operating personnel who now had found their monthly financial reports to be irrelevant, But one enterprising department manager saw things differently. He created a daily income statement. Each day, he estimated the value of the output from the production process using the estimated market prices a nd subtracted the expenses of raw materials, energy, and capital consumed in the production process. To approximate the cost of producing out of conformance product, he cut the revenues from off-spec output by 50% to 100%. So we can say that the daily financial report gave powerful feedback and managers to take decision. The customer perspective represents a significant area of concern for managers in the hotel sector and indicates a need for performance measures which can adequately reflect such important customer oriented factors as the quality of services provided and the increasing incidence of non-financial competition between hotel companies. For example, A semi-conductor company asked each major customer to rank the company against comparable suppliers on efforts to improve quality, delivery time, and price performance when the manufactures discovered that it ranked in the middle, managers made improvement that moved the company to the top of customer’s rankings. (Kaplan and Norton, HBR, 1992). Customer satisfaction is the most important aspect of an organization; it is related to the service and the value of the product. The customer must get its worth for buying and getting services, therefore through the financial report of total revenues indicates the product state in the market, th is is the way that managers get the current market information and helps their company by taking right steps at right time. Innovation and learning perspective ,If hotel organizations are to be successful – and, it is to be hoped, remain successful – they must continually make improvements both to their existing services and to their operations and processes, as well as developing and introducing new ones. It is only by this continual process of improvement and innovation that companies can grow. As the Rockwaterw was plagued by long closeout cycles at the end of many of its construction projects. Some customers delayed their final payment by the more that 100days, leading to high accounts receivable and low return – on – capital employes. Rockwater executives specified, as the result customer were delaying in payment. So Rockwater identified, as an entirely new internal process, that project managers should continually be communicating with the customer about the progress and expected completion of the project, and asking the customer for prompt payment. Balance score’s financial perspective also focus on Internal perspective its also helps in deciding which operations, processes, competences and skills their organizations must excel at if customer demands are to be met adequately. Moreover, it is essential that such internal measures relate to those areas which are most likely to have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction. For example, a major office products manufacture, wanting to respond rapidly to changes in the marketplace, set out to reduce cycle time by 50%. Lower levels of the organization aimed to radically cut the times required to process customer orders, order and receive material from suppliers, move materials and products between plants, produce and assemble products, and products to customers. Thus, In the conclusion the evidence presented in the essay state that Balance score card result into very important business decision making tool through its four perspectives. It gives accurate finding and on which managers are able to find effective ways to implement the new ideas by taking better business decision. References Abdullah S. Al-Mudimigh, 2009 pg 347, ‘CRM score card-Based management system: Performance evaluation of Saudi Arabian Bank, 2009, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743-6540 Journal of Digital Assets Management Vol. 5, 6, 347-351, EBSCO database Michel Armstrong’s, 2009 4th ed., Handbook of Performance Management evidence – Based guide to delivering high performance, Kogan Page Limited. M. Punniyamoorthy, R. Murali, (2008), Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 15 Iss: 4, pp.420 – 443, Emertald Database Meena Chavan, 2009, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 28 Iss: 5, pp.393 – 406, , Emerald Database Robert s. Kaplan and David Norton, The Balance score card –Measures that Drive performance, Harvard Business Review, January –February 1992 http://www.slideshare.net/gangappalogged/harvard-the-balanced-scorecard-measures-that-drive-performance-foundredsamaracom Gary Porter, Curtis Norton, 7th Edition, Financial Accounting: The Impact on Decision Makers, CengageBrain.com, According to American Accounting Association Committee,1966 Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, â€Å"The Balanced Scorecard† Harvard Business school press Boston, Massachusetts. Handbook Assessment Criteria – Essay/Report

How Technology Effects Education Essay -- science

How Technology Effects Education The best method for improving educational standards is to utilize every tool available, including state-of-the-art technology. Computers and the Internet have expanded the way in which information can be delivered to the students of today. Today's networking technologies provide a valuable opportunity to practice new learning techniques. Educators are discovering that computers are facilitating learning. Computer based communications, or Telecommunications, can offer many educational opportunities; therefore, educators will need to adapt current teaching methods to incorporate this new media into the classroom. Computers have made a fundamental impact in most industries, providing a competitive advantage that has come to be essential to many businesses. Therefore, schools must also use technology to improve the educational process. School systems often consider purchasing a computer network, and justify its purchase by applying it to routine administrative tasks, such as attendance records and grading. While these tasks are very important, they only show a small part of what technology can do for a school. Technology must go further than simply keeping attendance; it must focus on keeping students interested and productive. Since computers and the Internet have expanded in such a way in which education can be delivered to students, it is currently possible to engage in "distance education through the Internet. Distance education...

Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Just imagine part of your body being taken away from you†¦scary right? That is exactly what happened to Henrietta Lacks. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot explains who Henrietta was, where she came from, the events that put her in the hospital and eventually killed her, and the legacy she has left in the world of science. Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant in Roanoke, Virginia on August 1, 1920. No one knows how she became Henrietta. Her mother, Eliza Lacks Pleasant, died while giving birth. Henrietta’s father, Johnny Pleasant, did not have the patience to raise ten children, so he took them all to live in Clover, Virginia. Henrietta lived with her grandfather and her cousin, David Lacks. Henrietta and David had shared a bedroom since she was four, so it was not a surprise when they started having children together. Henrietta had five children in all: Lawrence, Elsie, Sonny, Deborah, Joe (who later changed his name to Zakariyya). A week before learning she was pregnant with Joe, Henrietta had told some of her cousins that she had a knot inside her. About five months after giving birth she finally went to her doctor. The doctor told her she had better go to the John Hopkins gynecology clinic. Howard Jones said he had seen easily a thousand cervical cancer lesions, but he had never seen anything like what was inside Henrietta. Dr. Jones cut a small sample and sent it to the pathology lab where Mary Kubicek handled the now famous cells. She labeled the culture â€Å"HeLa† for Henrietta and Lacks and then carried them to an incubator room. Four days later, George Gey, the leader of the lab, noticed the cells were growing with mythological intensity and doubled their numbers every twenty-four hours. George Gey told a few of his closest colleges about the magnificent find and gave them some cultures of the â€Å"immortal cells.† Henrietta never knew that her cells had been extracted and placed in labs. She just went on living her life. By September 1951, Henrietta’s body was overtaken with tumors. They had grown on her diaphragm, bladder, and liver. They had blocked her intestines and made her stomach swell. Henrietta knew she would die soon, and she did on October 4, 1951. Henrietta’s family did not find out about her cells being in almost every lab until 1973. Lawrence’s wife, Bobbette, found that her mother-in-law’s cells were taken from a friend’s brother who had recently conducted an experiment with them. Lawrence called Hopkins, but they said that there was no record of patient by the name of Henrietta Lacks. Lawrence, Sonny, Deborah, and Zakariyya tried to avoid all reporters after that. Deborah especially had trouble with what little knowledge she had about her mother’s cells. She constantly had panic attacks and got hives when talking about her mother. One reporter, Rebecca Skloot, continuously asked Deborah to talk, and eventually she gave in. Deborah and Skloot spent a lot of time together after that. They went to the â€Å"home-house† where Henrietta grew up. Rebecca took Deborah and Zakariyya to meet with a lab technician to learn more about their mother’s cells. That was the first time Zakariyya talked openly about his mother and did not get enraged. Rebecca Skloot had promised Deborah two things: to see her mother’s cells and figure out what happened to Henrietta’s sister, Elsie. Rebecca and Deborah went on a road trip to find out any information they could about Elsie. Elsie had been admitted to the Hospital for the Negro Insane because she had epilepsy and was classified as mentally retarded. Rebecca and Deborah had become good friends while they were investigating for information about Henrietta. Rebecca was devastated when she learned Deborah passed away. The author’s purpose in writing this book was to in inform and explain from whom the world famous HeLa cells originated from. Rebecca Skloot stated in the book that when she first heard of the HeLa cells, she was obsessed with them. She intended the book to be seen and read by everyone interested in science. Skloot wrote at times very formally and sometimes very informally. She wanted to capture how Henrietta and her family really communicated. This book really made me start to think. In the wonderful world of science, not always do people actually look behind the blinding facts to see where (or who) the information came from and what lengths it took to gain it. After reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I will now think what people had to do to gain the information I’m learning about. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I found it very intriguing and it kept my attention. There were a total of twenty seven photographs in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Every single photo told a story and helped to explain the written words even more vibrantly. Rebecca Skloot also told stories within the big one. She told about Henrietta’s hard life before she passed away. Skloot explained the facts behind why and how she died. The afterword of the book was very factual and had little to do with Henrietta Lacks. It answers the questions â€Å"Wasn’t it illegal for doctors to take Henrietta’s cells without her knowledge?†and â€Å"Don’t doctors have to tell you when they use your cells in research?†. The answer to both questions is no, and the afterword goes into detail about the medical related laws that have been passed for patient privacy and such. Rebecca Skloot’s final purpose to write The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was, I believe, to tell a story of a woman’s incredible part in science and history, which wasn’t even her choice. Henrietta’s story deserved to be told, and Rebecca Skloot did an amazing job telling us about the incredibly brave and immortal Henrietta Lacks.

Armani

ARMANI INTRODUCTION: Giorgio Armani, 74, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Armani Group and sole share holder of Giorgio Armani, one of the world’s leading fashion and lifestyle design houses, with 5,000 direct employees, 13 factories, and a direct network of 500 exclusive retail stores in 46 countries worldwide. Under Mr. Armani’s direction, Giorgio Armani, today stands as one of the few remaining independent, privately-owned companies in its sector, with a proven business strategy that has capitalised on the worldwide power and potential of the Armani brand name. Born on July 11, 1934, Giorgio Armani grew up with his sister and brother in the northern Italian town of Piacenza. In 1957, following two years of study in medicine at the University of Piacenza, Giorgio Armani decided to leave in order to pursue his interest in fashion, accepting a job as a merchandiser at Milan’s well-known department store, La Rinascente. Thereafter, Mr. Armani worked as a fashion designer for Nino Cerruti, and then as a freelance designer for various companies, an experience that resulted in an exceptionally rich and varied evolution of his style. After several years of working as a freelance designer, Mr. Armani was ready to devote his energy to his own label and followed his partner Sergio Galeotti’s suggestion that they open a company together. On July 24, 1975, the two business partners founded Giorgio Armani S. p. A. and launched a men’s and women’s ready-to-wear line. There are many products under the name of Armani such as Giorgio Armani, Giorgio Armani Prive, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, AJ | Armani Jeans, A/X Armani Exchange, Armani Teen, Armani Junior, Armani Baby, and Armani Casa home interiors, offering a choice of lifestyles to the marketplace. In beginning the products were sold under the name of Giorgio Armani i. e. (GA) and later on the company diversified it business in Armani Jeans, Emporio Armani. The company’s product range includes women’s and men’s Clothing, Shoes and Bags, Watches, Eyewear, Jewellery, Fragrances and Cosmetics, Home Furnishings, Cell Phones. The Armani Group now also come with the Armani Hotels and Resorts under an agreement with Emaar Properties in May 2005. Recently Armani is also sponsoring for England Football team with their sports and casual dresses which is also a part of their marketing. SWOT ANALYSIS OF ARMANI Strengths: ?Topmost brand in the fashion industry ?Range of products are sold under the brand name which has been created over the years ? Commitment to customer satisfaction and comfort. Weakness: ?Price is on the higher side which caters only to the elite class. ?They are losing customers who are price conscious and opt for the competitors products Opportunities: ?A large part of the Asian continent where Armani can penetrate into. ?Brand name created can be used to diversify into different sectors of business one of such initiative taken is to enter the hospitality industry. Threats: ?Entry barriers in certain countries have stopped Armani from entering into a potential market which can act as cash cows for the company. ?Competitors like FCUK, Christian Dior, Diesel, Gucci etc are entering the fashion market in a great way. MARKETING MIX PRODUCT: Product is anything that can be offered to market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that can satisfy wants or needs. Armani is one of the well known brands in the world with various products under its name. Different products are sold under different name. Because of the high earnings from Clothing sector (i. e. STAR) it has become possible for them to invest capital in different sectors. The group has such high standard brand name that all products in which ever they have invested have proved Stars for them. The Company now produces not only clothes but shoes, sunglasses, under garments, other accessories etc. And recently they have also signed agreement with Emaar properties for Armani Hotels & Resorts and their 1st hotel will be available for Public from year 2009 in Dubai and almost all the rooms are booked till May 2010. The current name and fame for brand was possible only because of Giorgio Armani marketing and promotional strategy. PRICE Price is the amount money charged o the product or service or the sum of values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. Armani has always catered to high class consumers who are fashion savvy. Their price range has always been on the higher side creating a niche in the fashion industry. They have not compromised on the price in their business tenure and always have been a status symbol for the consumers using them PLACE It is a network made up of the company, supplier, distributors and customers who â€Å"partner† with each other to improve the performance of the entire system. Armani has concentrated on its channel partners to sell their products. They have their stores in almost all the major shopping malls across in more than 46 countries. PROMOTION Promotional Mix is one of the activities to promote the goods in the market and attracting the customers to buy his brand products. The key functions of promotion of goods is through Advertising, Sales promotion, Visual merchandising, Public relations. Armani adopted various strategies to make his brand famous. In 1980’s there was sudden change in fashion industry. The demand for fashionable goods was high. And this was the time when this brand came into existence with various varieties of products. Armani used the reputed personalities or super stars and model to promote his goods. He made promotional schemes offers to get his products well known. Armani also arranged campaigns to promote his products and make it well known in peoples eyes. Advertising: Giorgio Armani uses the cognitive consistency approach to its advertising. The idea that things should be simple and consistent is the reasoning behind this theory. The need for Ego Gratification comes out in the advertisement – where it is directed at consumers whom have the need to go beyond a high self-worth and into the highest form of egocentrism. Additionally, the need for a Sense of Power comes through in the imagery used and the rough looking style of the product. The sense of mysteriousness can be associated with power. Armani deeply concentrated on the Advertising media for his brand promotion. He kept on giving ads in Newspapers, Television, Radio, Magazines etc. This is done to create awareness about their new range of products that are launched in the market. He used Superstars like David & Victoria Beckham, Tom Cruise have been roped in to promote his brands. Sales Promotion: Armani also used Sales promotion strategy; they gave huge discounts on their products the goods were sold at lower rates. Offers like buy 1 get 1 free. Lucky Draw system. E. g. If you buy for more than ? 200 you can meet your favourite celebrities or free trips, because of which customers were attracted more. Public Relations: Public relation is concerned with company’s various publics by obtaining favourable publicity building up a good corporate image and handling and heading off unfavourable rumours, stories and events. Giorgio Armani is going to dress the England football team. The prominent designer was picked for the job by team captain David Beckham and coach Sven-Goran Eriksson. Armani is going to create two separate outfits each – one formal, the other smart-casual – for the squad of 26. The outfits cost GBP 3,500 for each player but Armani will reportedly do it for free as he will benefit from the publicity. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is direct communications with carefully targeted individual customers to both obtain and immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationship. Armani promotes its products online and you can even buy various products through the internet. You can buy the products from anywhere in the world and the products are delivered at your doorstep. This helps in keeping contact with their loyal consumers. Personal Selling This is the personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationship. Personal selling comes in form of Fashion shows to Armani where a range of their products is displayed and sold. BCG Matrix for Armani Armani falls into the STAR category of the BCG Matrix. Over a period of time Armani enjoys high growth and high market share. Being in this category they can invest their profits generated into their subsidiary business units who are the cash cows. The best example would be Armani venturing into the hospitality industry and coming up with a hotel and simply the hotel being booked till 2010. COMPETITION: Though Armani has established itself into the fashion world and other range of products sold under their brand name, there is a lot of competition coming up. French Connection, Gucci, Christian Dior are storming the market with different range of products with variety of price range. With the current economic crisis, retail outlets like Marks & Spencers, Debenhams are offering their products at a discount as never seen before. Armani will have to review their strategy, to maintain their competitive advantage over the competitors. CONCLUSION Today as Armani business is spread all over the world it is diversifying its business in different sectors also. There are many promotions made by Armani today like Seasonal goods to attract new customers and old customers in every seasonal change. Gifts for small children on purchasing of Armani Junior are specially produced for them. Variety of clothes for men’s and women’s with new latest designs. Overall the image of luxury of the brand is maintained and becomes more persuasive by using language, which promotes feelings and emotions of masculinity and mysteriousness. The colors of the advertisements already do an excellent job of keeping mystery in the minds of the readers by using black/white photos and rich, and bold colors. Reasoning from comparison is used throughout these advertisements. The message is: if you use our products or wear our clothing, you will be popular, beautiful, successful, etc. http://ezinearticles. com/? Giorgio-Armani:-A-Persuasive-Campaign&id=24792 Giorgio Armani: A Persuasive Campaign By Scott Fish