Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War - Essay Example This has been an argument for the root cause of the Civil War by many. However, high taxes alone were not enough of a catalyst to start a war. Others maintain that the reason was states right, the right for states to own slaves. Free labor drove the Southern economy. Without slavery the white privileged would go broke or worse, have to work themselves. Besides; what to do with all the freed blacks? Southerners were not ready to have blacks as neighbors and were frightened of retribution. Poverty and fear are reasons to start a war. Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is remembered by history as an altruistic humanitarian effort but it was more a brilliant tactical move. History did get the importance aspect right, the slaves were freed, the union preserved and Lincoln the architect of it all during the most tumultuous time in American history. It was about slavery. Southern states thought of Lincoln as â€Å"an obscure and illiterate man† whose â€Å"opinions a nd purposes are hostile to slavery.† (Ball, 2010). As each state formerly left the Union it cited slavery as the main reason for secession. Hard-line secessionists were rightfully convinced that Lincoln’s election would result in the freeing of slaves. Known as ‘Fire-eaters,’ they used shame and fear to convince wavering Southerners of their stance, that slave-owning states had no choice but to form their own country. â€Å"Resistance or submission† was the fire-eaters rallying cry. Southerners were implored to defend their rights. Those who resisted were publicly humiliated, branded as cowards. Events such as John Brown’s Raid helped the fire-eaters to convince people to join their cause. Panicky white men joined vigilante groups which targeted Northern sympathizers and former slaves meaning, to them, any black person. (Barney, 2004). Prior to the start of the Civil War Kansas experienced the wrath of fire-eaters paramilitary terrorist groups when its citizens were deciding whether or not to become a slave state. They used intimidation as a tactic to get the desired results. In retribution for their reign of terror, John Brown led a group of men who killed five pro-slavery settlers then stole guns from the military at Harper’s Ferry so to continue the fight but were stopped prior to committing more killings. Coincidentally, Brown and his followers were captured by future commanding Confederate General Robert E. Lee who was leading a group of marines at the time. (KEDT, 1999). Unfortunately for Brown his actions ultimately led to his execution by hanging and generated greater support for the pro-slavery faction. Lincoln was an adamant believer in the idea of the U.S., in democracy and individual freedom. He wanted America to be the shining example for other nations to follow. He knew that if the country became divided it would be widely perceived that the grand experiment of democracy didn’t work, a travest y on a worldwide, historic scale. Lincoln insisted that â€Å"the unity of the nation must be maintained. If the nation breaks up, the democratic mission is dead.† (Coker, 2013). As late as 1860 Lincoln said that blacks were entitled to some rights but not to vote or hold office. He had strongly suggested blacks be sent to live elsewhere, ‘rounded up’ so to speak but with the War still very much anybody’s to win and enthusiasm waning, Lincoln needed a new strategy. He added a new element to the struggle by proclaiming all slaves free in 1862. It was now society against society in addition to army against army, a battle of conscience fought alongside a battle of weapons; the former Lincoln thought he was surer to win. He was never considered a military genius but demonstrated his

A Clean Well Lighted Place Analysis Essay Example for Free

A Clean Well Lighted Place Analysis Essay A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway is a cryptic short story about a deaf man in a bar late at night with the waiter getting frustrated with him because he wishes to go home. The dialogue slowly turns to two waiters who inject a symbolic exchange. This entire piece of full of symbology and is in my opinion a story up the the interpretation of each individual reader. â€Å"In the daytime the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. In this sequence we see the first comparison made between light and darkness, and we see the daytime being described as dusty and the in the night the dew eliminated the dust. This state of moistness or lubrication perhaps represents a state of mental lubrication, free from the dullness of the day. It’s also interesting that a deaf man would be able to tell the difference between the sounds of the day and sounds of the night. In my opinion this means that at night when it’s expected to be desolate the man feels more at home than he does in the daytime when there is expected to be commotion. Last week he tried to commit suicide, one waiter said. Why? He was in despair. What about? Nothing. How do you know it was nothing? He has plenty of money. † This is a humorous dialogue about the condition of money vs happiness. The man is described as being in despair, but yet they know now what he has to be despaired about if he has means to provide him happiness. However they do not see the true ironic sadness of the situation. A old man is sitting alone in a cafe at night downing shots of brandy. It is obvious to the reader that the old man does not have a very pleasant life. They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace where the tables were all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind. A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried beside him. † This is the second time the â€Å"shadow of the leaves of the tree† is mentioned, this is demonstrative by the author that this is important and essential symbology to understand. Obviously the eaves can produce no real shadow since it’s night, however since it is under an electric light the leaves produce a false shadow from a false light. The legal definition of false light is a â€Å"portrayal that is highly offense to a reasonable person† but not so much so that it’s defamation. This allows the old man sitting there to perhaps portray himself as offensive to the waiter, as we will see in a later exchange, but not so much so that he defames himself. The man is also able to view from the terrace the soldier and the women passing by. This might be the man looking down and reminiscing on memories of old. Another exchange that struck me was between the two waits discussing the events of the attempted suicide of the man. â€Å"Hes drunk now, he said. Hes drunk every night. What did he want to kill himself for? How should I know. How did he do it? He hung himself with a rope. Who cut him down? His niece. Why did they do it? Fear for his soul. How much money has he got? Hes got plenty. This exchange shows the audience the severity of this mans drinking, and drinking almost goes without symbology itself as an expression of relieving anything from stress, to recreation, to wallowing in pity. They again fail to recognize the plight and sorrow this man has, they suffer from a delusion that this mans great wealth brings him joy and happiness, however again we can tell that it doesn’t. The waiters also state that the man’s niece who came and saved him did so out of fear for his soul, not fear for his life, but fear for his soul. To me this is indicative that this man’s life is in such a sorrowful that it’s not worth saving, but his soul is all that remains of him, and the only thing that is worth saving of him. Again we see in the continued dialogue between the two waiters, and we see the more they speak the more they reveal about this man. They also continue to speak about him in a false light, that is being offensive without defamation. â€Å"He stays up because he likes it. Hes lonely. Im not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me. He had a wife once too. A wife would be no good to him now. You cant tell. He might be better with a wife. His niece looks after him. You said she cut him down. I know. I wouldnt want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing. Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him. I dont want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work. The man stays up late because he is lonely, and had a wife, but the other waiter speaks of him in a false light because he says â€Å"A wife would be no good to him now† which would be in my opinion considered offensive. They also speak ill of his age, however the other waiter defends him by saying he is clean and doesn’t spill, even while drunk. Being clean represents the man exercising a lack of vulgarity, and he is civilized and dignified by not spilling, even in a compromised state of being intoxicated. They also continue to be offensive to him by one of the waiters stating â€Å"I don’t want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work† The exchange between the two waiters further reveal the reason and life behind the lonely man in the cafe. â€Å"Why didnt you let him stay and drink? the unhurried waiter asked. They were putting up the shutters. It is not half-past two. I want to go home to bed. What is an hour? More to me than to him. An hour is the same. You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drink at home. Its not the same. No, it is not, agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to be unjust. He was only in a hurry. And you? You have no fear of going home before your usual hour? Are you trying to insult me? No, hombre, only to make a joke. No, the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down the metal shutters. I have confidence. I am all confidence. You have youth, confidence, and a job, the older waiter said. You have everything. And what do you lack? Everything but work. You have everything I have. No. I have never had confidence and I am not young. Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up. I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe, the older waiter said. With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night. I want to go home and into bed. The hurried waiter speaks that he wishes to leave so he can get some sleep, and they reveal that the extra hour saved by the waiter meant more to the man than it did to the waiter. The two waiter’s eventually get into the topic of having youth and confidence, where one states that he has great confidence and youth and the other says he has never had confidence and is not young. This statement reveals more about the nature of the old man, showing that the old man lacked youth and confidence that he used to have, and drinks to regain what’s left of his dignity and pride, as demonstrated earlier. The older waiter also states that he doesn’t desire to leave earlier, as to provide a sebastion of hope and light for those who need it, like the deaf man. The waiter thinking to himself while sitting at the bar shows us the real reason why the deaf man tries to commit suicide, and the real reason why a clean and well-lighted place is needed in the middle of the night. Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself. It was the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not a fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. We see here now that the man wanted to end his life because it was nothing and he was nothing, and that a empty hollowness that he had. He did not despair and was not in grief, but simply felt an emptiness and only a clean well-lit place such as this cafe provided. In closing we find the older waiter conversing with himself â€Å"He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, its probably only insomnia. Many must have it. † We find here that this older waiter does to some extent feel the same emptiness as the old man does. He find the daylight as a time to sleep, opposite of normal. He finds the daytime as a lack of activity, and the night as a time for activity. The waiter is in some ways institutionalized and imprisoned to the service of those who feel empty. After all of this we find the significance of all of this imagery and symbolism we see the story of a man whose life has essentially finished it’s course, only that his heart remains beating. We see a man who is often looked down upon because of the extent of his drinking and is seen in a â€Å"false light†. We find a man who does not drink to forget or drink to remember or drink because he is in sorrow or grief, but he drinks because of nothing. He drinks because he feels nothing and experiences nothing. We find that his wife and days of youth and confidence have left him and not he has absolutely nothing. This man and many others like this find cafe’s such as this one that are clean and well-lit to be bastions and beacons of hope to those who have this feeling of nothingness.

The Impact Of Social Media Marketing Essay

The Impact Of Social Media Marketing Essay This assignment discussing about the impact of social media on the way businesses are conducted today in terms of technological, economical, political and cultural exchanges brought about by these form of modern communication. As we know this modern communication platform giving impact to businesses today. We dont have any control to social media because this platform giving users freedom to express their opinions, experiences or anything that they wants. Social media providing big opportunity to organization to build better relation with clients and providing real one to one communication. Customers are now become more particular about with whom and from where they are buying products or services. One of the main reason why businesses must use social media is because their competition using this platform daily as marketing strategy. Customers and future customers also using that. Case study on giant restaurant McDonalds showing that even big companies also unable to control the power of social media. Wildfire ROI Survey 2011 survey shows that, marketers admits social media helping them to increase brand awareness and increasing customer relation. Businesses that directly interacting with customers should use social media to increase their revenue and increase the brand awareness. Many organizations now start using internal social network which connects their employees all around the world. For example, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Restaurants have more then 460 outlets in America using internal social network to make sure daily operation getting much better and they become one of the famous restaurant in America. The number one world retailer who have more then 2.2 million employees in 2012, Wal-Mart using social media platform to streamline supply chains and manage the stocks and inventories more efficiently to reduce the product price. Any products related to social media also helping boost the world economy. Products like laptops, iPads, iPhones, headphone, headset and so on which used by customers to access social media received very high demand. Thousands of companies worldwide involved in offering social media services offers thousands of jobs opportunity. Some Fail Stories of Businesses when Using Social Media is Netflix where they are one of the top internet subscription service for watching movies and TV programs from any countries lost 800,000 customers because avoid listening to customers feedback form social media. Example of Success Companies because of Social Media is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines where successfully enjoy with meet and seat campaign which let the passengers choose the seatmate before board the plane. As a conclusion, Social media promising a lot of opportunities and challenges, so organization must prepare themselves to facing this. What is Social Media? Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein describe social media as a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social Media contains two words. The first one is Social which means interaction, sharing and so on. Another word is Media where to say that social media is a medium for publication. Social media contains a lot of tools and applications which let the users express their opinion, publish articles, sharing videos and so on easily. Social Media Landscape The chart below shows the social media network landscape. There have a lot of different tools and services which allow users to do almost anything that they want. For publishing articles, opinions, news and so on there have blogs, wikis and citizen journalism portals. Twitter is for Micro publication. There have thousands of website that allow users to share videos, pictures, links, music, slideshows and product reviews. Websites like YouTube.com, FlickR and so on are some of the popular sites. To make discussion and sharing ideas or even making complaint about any companies, there have forums, video forums, instant messaging and VoIP. Social Media also allow us to watch world live tv programs or even live football from anywhere in the world. There also have platforms for virtual words, social gaming and MMO. The most popular network on internet is Social Networks like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and so on that connecting anybody from anywhere. According to Edison Research Survey in 2012 (the only providers of exit polling information for ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox, NBC, The AP and most of newspapers worldwide) says that, more then half American has created profile in any Social Networking websites. Edison Research Survey in 2012 also shows that nearly two thirds of social networkers are using social sites daily. Social Media History Social Media history began in 1969 when CompuServe Company offers internet services for public using dial-up technology in United States. Then in 1979 Usenet become first bulletin board which connects Duke University and University of North Carolina. The development process continuously moving until Tripod introduced online community for college students and young adults in 1992. In 1997 there have more then one million sites on the internet including social media sites like AOL Instant Messenger. Frindster become biggest social networking site in 2002 with more then 3 million users. In 2003 Myspace, Frindster clone site launched and LinkedIn also launched their business-oriented social networking site for professionals. In 2004 Facebook started their operation which offers networking opportunity for Harvard College. YouTube come to the world in 2005 and give excitements to the world with video sharing features. In 2011 social media can be accessed from anywhere in the world and beco me one of the important thing in our life. Thousands of sites offers social media services in 2012 and all this sites very flexible and can be accessed through many different devices. Companies are now forced to use social media to make sure their brand always in customers mind. Social Media Influence According to Sir Andrew Likierman, London Business School Dean, social media has completely disrupted the way businesses assess their performance. This statement is completely true because social media not longer an option but is a must especially companies that dealing straightly with customers. Some business can completely avoid thinking about social media like wholesalers because they just dealing with another business. Since social media become more power, organization facing difficulties to measure their performance. They must have specific strategy for social media or even companies could have one special unit that handle feedbacks and responses from user. Any negative feedbacks should grab attention and they have to discuss on how to react with any negative comments. Any negative response from customers will be there on net forever. No way to remove that and because of that, companies that avoid think about social media will lose some customers. Customers are now become more particular about with whom and from where they are buying products or services. They willing to make online search before making any purchase decision especially for expensive items. Since internet is now more conveniently searchable through smart phones, customer can make search in just a minutes. Thats why companies must have social media presence and put some attention to manage customer response and try to convincing them that the business is reputable and trusted. Social media providing big opportunity to organization to build better relation with clients and providing real one to one communication. There have no better advertising then word of mouth. Satisfied customers surely will share to their friends in their social network about their experiences with a particular company. If one person shares their experience to his 400 Facebook friends, and that friends spread that news to their friends, the information moves extremely fast. If a video uploa ded in YouTube with attracting title like Think Twice before you eat XXX, this video surely will grab thousands or even millions of social medial users. With Share function available almost in any site, in just a second we can share anything to social media community. One of the main reason that we must use social media is because our competition using that daily as marketing strategy. If we not use mean we loosing customers. Emarketer says in 2011, the Facebook advertising revenue estimated at 3.8 billion dollar and can increase to 5.2 billion dollar in 2012. What does it mean?, this numbers shows that a lot of businesses using social media to make advertising. A lot of businesses have social media networks account. As a result, competitors are forced to make online presence. They have no option, make appearance in social media or you will lose customers. Another big reason why a business should using social media because their customers and future customers using it. A lot of people have at lease one social media account like Facebook, YouTube and so on. A business should present their brand where customers are. Traditionally we can see people open shops at crowd places like in shopping mall and so on. The same case here where a business should present in crowd place like social media. Million of people using that every day. You didnt show mean, the competitor getting stronger. According to McKinsey, organization that using social media able to increase 50 percent customers satisfaction. They also able to catch 48 percent in business lead and the most important is, their profit increase 24 percent. Case Study (McDonalds) I would like to discuss about, what are the impacts of Social Media to one of the worlds popular fast food giant company McDonalds. If we search the word McDonalds on YouTube.com (one of the top video sharing site), there have 124,000 results. Among this results we can found that, thousand of results that showing bad thing about McDonalds. Some of the video titles are: Video with title McDonalds horror got more then 4.2 million views with 8,859 likes. Hundred of the viewers commented on this video and one of the comment is I think I  »Ã‚ ¿dont want to eat french fries from McD again which got more then one thousand likes. This video showing about McDonalds foods and why some of their food takes long time to spoil. This is how now days people using social media to express their opinions and sharing bad thing about any brands. They are now having power which can influence other people behaviors. People who watching this video then surely with spread this to their friends, relations and so on. This is real challenge to McDonalds and most of companies. Some competitor also may misuse social media to spreading bad thing about their competitors company. Any people can upload videos showing bad thing about their competitors company and they also may set specific campaign to putting them down. Nobody can stop this kind of behaviors and activities. As response, I see McDonalds showing some effort to explain questions that asked by viewers. McDonalds uploaded some response video. One of the video titles is Behind the scenes at a McDonalds photo shoot (with 7 million views and more then 17,000 likes) which explains answers to questions asked by viewers. McDonalds realized the impact of videos uploaded by their customers to their business. If McDonalds didnt do anything as response to videos that showing bad things about them, surely this will impact their business performance and lost huge amount of customers. I found that McDonalds still didnt answer many more questions asked by customer through social media. They only answer some of them and huge amount of videos still havent have any answer. In January 2012, McDonalds launched Twitter campaign with hashtag #McDStories which let the customers to post nostalgic stories and their experiences with Happy Meals (one of the famous meal sold by McDonalds). As response, customers start to share bad stories about Happy Meals like customer service, food quality. One of their post is just got a terrible burger thats been there four hours. This is one of the fail campaign by McDonalds. As a lesson we must understand that social media offering big opportunity and big risk. Peoples perception and feedbacks is uncontrollable. Companies should have some contingency plan which can be used if any problem happens. Even worlds big giant restaurant also unable to control the social media. Measuring the Business Impact of Social Media (Wildfire ROI Survey 2011) Social media is a long term strategy which falls under advertising and public relation investment. When social media combined with other marketing strategies, a particular brand will always at peoples mind. In November 2011, Wildfire (a division of Google) who is worlds largest social media marketing software providers, involved in ROI survey. This survey conducted to over 700 marketers from number of countries. This survey shows that, marketers admit social media helping them to increase brand awareness and increasing customer relations. Over 97% of marketers believes that social media marketing campaign increasing their business performance. As a long time strategy they also want to increase social media spending. This survey also shows that (see figure 3), social media have power to growing brand awareness and able to increasing sales and partnerships. 41% marketers agreed that this media able to reducing cost that will result in revenue increase. 94% respondents ranked Facebook as one of their biggest social marketing platform which giving more value to their campaign. Facebook giving more new customers, have high conversion rate and increased customers loyalty. As a summary of this survey we can see that social media changing how we doing business today. Businesses that directly interacting with customers should use social media to increase their revenue and increase the brand awareness. Day to day, social media getting more complex and businesses should start a set long term social media strategy. Big companies can use this media to improve their customer service because they can keep on eye on customers behaviors and react fast. The Impact of Social Media on the Way Businesses are Conducted Today Technological Impact Many organizations now start using internal social network which connects their employees all around the world. For example, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Restaurants have more then 460 outlets in America. They are using internal social network which look similar like Facebook to teach their employees and managers about the recipes and how to make them fast. They are no more using traditional ways like send out bunch of books to each outlet. They are also no more waiting for feedback when store visit by headquarters and so on. Any problems that occur in any outlet get fast response from headquarters in just in few minutes. Everything becomes more easy and fast with internal social networks. Managers communicate with other managers in other outlet through chat or video conversation function. More exiting news is, they are creating burgers according to customers feedback in social media. As a result, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers becomes one of the famous restaurants in America. More and more companies are now using social media technology to speed up the business process and make sure every job done effectively. The number one world retailer who have more then 2.2 million employees in 2012, Wal-Mart using social media platform to streamline supply chains and manage the stocks and inventories more efficiently to reduce the product price. Many banks in America using social media to reduce cost for processing mortgages. SupeValu is one of the company who have number of supermarket chains in America using Yammer (enterprise social network software) to connect all 11,000 executives and store managers. They created 1000 groups in that network to discuss about challenges and discussing new ideas. All store managers are in one group where discussing problems and ideas. Another group of supervisors discussing problem related to their controls. This method is more cost effective rather then holding meeting where participated by all managers. According to McKinsey Co. Survey, they found that two-third of big companies in United States are now using web 2.0 application like internal social networks or blogs, 50% increase from year 2008. 90% of this companies admit that, this new communication way improved their operation and the process getting much faster. Eric Lesser, one of the Director at IBMs Institute for Business Value, said that social media make the communication between the worlds professionals with various skills to sharing ideas and solving problems easily. Social media technology moving extremely fast. This forcing company to have dynamic team which can learn new thing much faster. The software related to social media updated more regularly. The team must always ready anytime to facing new challenges. They must understand the most effective way to use social media which can bring good result for the company. All this pushing companies to spend more and have specific budget. Social media increased the number of internet users worldwide. From 2008 to 2012 the world internet users increased by 30% according to BBC. This forced internet service providers to finding new ways to speedup the internet connection. This to make sure all business activities can be done much faster, cheaper and in more effective way. Now we can use 4G and Fiber Optic network to send out emails or any services just in second. Conversation thought Skype becomes more comfort without any interruption. More and more companies using latest technology for communicate with other people. This is another good impact of social media. Economical Impact Social media helped businesses to create product which have high demand and according to customers needs. Customer giving feedbacks which helped many companies to develop their products and services. Companies like Dell using ideas from customers to creating and improving their products. One of the example is created backlit keyboards which is more suitable when working on airplanes. Companies who creating products according to customers needs surely will help boost the economy because high demand to that products. Any products related to social media also helping boost the world economy. Products like laptops, iPads, iPhones, headphone, headset and so on which used by customers to access social media received very high demand. Meg Whitman who is CEO of HP, says that in the past 2 years the sales for their laptops increased to more then 60%. The dramatic increase mainly because of impact of social media. More and more people using social media now and devices such as laptops receive high demand. Apple, Inc also admits that the sales for their hot product iPad received high demand as a result of social media. Social media also created job opportunities which can help the economy. Social media created thousands of jobs opportunities. Facebook has more then 2,000 employees, Twitter has 300 employees and Groupon employed more then 4,500 workers. This only some figures, there have thousands of companies worldwide involved in offering social media services which offer thousands of jobs opportunity. World economy increased and unemployment rate decreased. Business associated with facebook created 232,000 new job opportunity in Europe in 2012 according to the news published by CNN. Social media also created new industry where many people able to make income online. Many people are now enjoying income from home and helped house wifes to generate income to helping their husband while take care of their children at home. Social media contributed many benefits to the economy but there also have some negative impact. Entertainment industry especially film industry affected by social media. Film makers invest million of dollars to make movies. Thought social media sites like You Tube or any file sharing sites, any people can enjoy new movies at no cost. Even though industry players took some actions to reduce the impact, but they unable to stop this activity totally. Political Impact Many country leaders are now encouraging people to use social media. One of the greatest example is Malaysian Prime Ministers, Najib Tun Razak. He has more then one million Facebook fans as well as Tweeter. He sharing a lot of information though his network about his daily activity and so on. As a result, many companies start using social media especially Facebook on their daily operation. Most of businesses in Malaysia have Facebook ID. If we go deeper about the impact of social media in Malaysia, we can see Lynas Corporation project. Lynas project is from Australian company Lynas Corporation. This company supplies rare earths for many businesses. Many opposition political parties in Malaysia shows protects against this project because they believe this project provide danger for local environments. Malaysian citizen shows protect against this project thought social media. Facebook and many other social networks filled with feedback about this project. As a result government took some action to explain to citizen about this project and promise to evaluate back the existence of this project in Malaysia. This in one of the example showing clearly how social media impact governments decision and businesses. Cultural Exchanges Impact Social media highly impact most of business aspect. Now many businesses especially who have big number of employees start using internal social networking utilities which makes communication among them made simple. According to research made by Garner, in 2014 it assumed that more then 20 percent of businesses will use internal social networking utilities which will replace email communication now. With internal communication social network, any latest activities by company and so on will known by their employees much faster. Social media impact on human resource process from recruitment, development, career management, mentoring and so on. For example, LinkedIn is a social networking site for peoples in professional occupations. This site has more then 140 million members. Many organizations using this site to search for real talent peoples. Many HR departments using LinkedIn nowadays for recruitment where this site offer many tools that can be used to view full profile and so on. Companies also posting jobs at this site. This site opens new way to search for talented professionals. Professionals enjoy sharing their experiences on this site. Social media sites also used by companies to evaluate their employees and future employees. For example, after Human Resource department conducted interview for job openings, they will search candidate details through social network sites such as Facebook to examine whether that candidate suitable or not or has any bad things about them. This is one of the way how human resource department are now evaluate their candidate. Social networks like Facebook extremely giving big impact to world culture. We could have friends from many countries and communication with them able us to understand about their culture. Businesses now try to explore new markets. Companies like KFC and McDonalds try to localize some of their foods. Using customers feedback from social network, these companies try to add some local foods from that particular country together with their main menus. Nasi Ayam which is one of the Malaysia local foods available at KFC. They also try to add foods from other countries to local market. Social media useful to trading companies. If they found Iranian drink getting popular in Malaysia, they start importing these drinks to be sold at Malaysia. The ideas are come from customers feedback from social media. Now we can enjoy foods and dresses which belongs to other culture available at local market. Some disadvantages of social media to companies is, social media will give negative impact to workers productivity. Employees may wasting time to engage with their friends rather then doing the work that they should do. Now days we can see many employees using social network in office hours especially when their bosses are not around. Some Fail Stories of Businesses When Using Social Media Netflix is one of the top internet subscription service for watching movies and TV programs from any country. They have more then 27 million subscribers in America, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. When they increased their monthly subscription price, customers showed their protection through social media with more then 82,000 negative comments. Next month they lost 800,000 customers. As we can see companies can use social media as one of the platform to evaluate whether any decision that they made which is relating to customers. Any negative response must get fast attention from organization. In 2012, giant car maker Toyota launched Camry Effect Campaign on Twitter to promote Camry. They has created number of Twitter account. This campaign is designed for directly communicate with users but what happen is, big number of users start to accuse Toyota because bombarding and spamming then with many unsolicited messages. As response Toyota suspended their accounts. Until now this campaign well known as fails campaign. The main problem with this campaign is, not because Toyota Spamming then but the content of the messages that they send out is not attracting. They also are sending same messages content over and over. They are only sending promotional messages which not help to build relationship with users. Example of Success Companies because of Social Media KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in well known as one of the largest airlines in the world. They able to attract future customers in unique ways and convert them as paying customers. They really clear about what customer wants and they believe customers paying for journey. They started social media in 2009, after some failure they come out with very controversial successful idea. They made join venture with social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and so on and created tool which can help passengers to choose seatmate before board the plane. This campaign named meet and seat. After passengers choose the seat mate, they can communicate with them using social networks like Facebook before they meet at flight. This one of the great idea KLM where utilizing social media and give ultimate experience to their passenger. Disadvantage of Social Media for Business A successful online presence especially in social media, a company needs an experienced team which can improve companies reputation. Social media becomes unique and able to drive a lot of sales when they engage with their customers. This mean they have to reply messages, comments and so on. Pushing sales without engaging with customers or not respond to negative feedback will damage the companies reputation. We also must produce new contents and always find out ways to overcome to any negative feedback. There have thousands of sites in social media which can be used to our business benefit. Is not easy for evaluate which site we should pay attention more and which site gives real value for investments. Return on Investment evaluation process is not an easy with social media. Wrong online presence strategy will damage the companies reputation and put them at a viral social disadvantages. Any mistake they make in front of thousand of fans or social media members will result in big reputation impact. So we must careful when perform social media campaign. Using social media marketing and advertising campaign could be more time consuming because we have to watch out every activity that we should do and engaging with people. Advantage of Social Media for Business The advertising cost is much more cheaper then traditional advertising and promotional activities. Social media also gives full value for every penny we spend. Traditional advertising only show the brand to the customer but with social media we can build long term relationship through Like function and can get their email address for send future emails. Future customer able to find our brand through many channels like sharing activities, news, search engine search result and so on which give us free advertising. Social media can bring huge amount of traffic to our content especially when that content grabbing their attention. This what we can call free traffic or free customers. Social media allows customers to express their experiences to others. A satisfies customers surely can bring another new customer though sharing experience activity. This also able to motivates companies to do the best as they can because consumers are now have freedom to express their views and feedback without any blocks. Companies will improve their products and services to customers. Conclusion Social media gives deep impact to the business world today from small companies to big giant companies. Social media landscape is big and the system and technology continuously growing and changing everyday. Companies who using and presented in social media enjoying big benefits. Some companies received negative impact. Social media not longer an option but is a must especially companies that dealing straightly with customers. Social media promising a lot of opportunities and challenges, so organization must prepare themselves to facing this.

Sex vs. Solitude Essay -- The Woman in the Dunes, Onehundred Year

Solitude can exist in many ways and can be present in any form in human beings. Each person is eventually alone deep inside themselves, which is why communication and connections are essential in life. In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes, solitude is one of the main dilemmas that the main characters in the novels encounter. In the novels, the main characters are perpetually looking for a way to defeat their loneliness in the world and in many cases try to find it through sexual intercourse. The patriarch Jose Arcadio Buendia, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, is the founder of Macondo. The location of Mocondo is significant as it sits on an isolated place which gives the sense of the Buendia family being surrounded by solitude. It also seems as if solitude is an inherited trait of the Buendia family leading to a pattern of incest, which was started by Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife, who is also his first cousin, Ursula Iguaran. Sex is probably used in the novel as a way to somehow bond the family together. Sex can be used as a tool to make connections to one another and can create body language which can also be a way of communicating. We see this especially in the second generation of the family, when Colonel Aureliano Buendia has sex during the wars with seventeen different women (which he shows no sign of predilection towards). You can also deduce that he went on a journey to free himself from solitude and overall was unsuccessful as it was shown when he m ade an attempt to get with the adolescent mulatto girl enslaved by her grandmother. This shows an effort by one of the Buendia men to try to have a loving relationship with another chara... ...There was no particular need to hurry about escaping." (239). Realizing his situation, he becomes one with the dunes and is able to live a purposeful life with the woman he once opposed living with. Without any type of sexual relationship, none of the characters in the novels One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes would have been explored thoroughly. Sex usually exposes a hidden hope or apprehension, desire and lust for something. In this case the characters of the novels lust, desire for identity and companionship, and is something they strive to acquire. In order to attain this, they attempt to use sex as a tool to triumph over solitude and gain communication and connection to reach one another. This is why sex is essential in providing two crucial things that are necessary in life to avoid solitude.

Capital Market Efficiency and Its Implication for Financial Reporting

Capital market efficiency has been a widely debated topic since the term was introduced. The efficient market hypothesis was introduced by Eugene Fama in 1970 and is one of the most important topics that is covered in financial accounting theory. There have been many papers and studies that have backed the efficiency market hypothesis. There have also been many others that have tried to show that the markets are inefficient. Are securities markets efficient or not? I believe that they are, and because they are efficient, there are multiple implications of efficient securities markets for financial reporting. In 1970, Eugene Fama introduced the efficient market hypothesis. Since there are many definitions and forms of an efficient securities market, I will focus my attention on the semi-strong form. In the semi-strong form, a market is considered efficient when security prices traded on that market at all times fully reflect all information that is publicly known about those securities. This hypothesis or theory has had many proponents for and many against it in recent years. These people have done their own studies and research on the market trying to either prove or disprove that the markets are efficient. An important statement in the definition of an efficient securities market is publically known. It focuses on the theory that the market prices are efficient and include all publicly known information. It does not rule out that some people will have inside information, and they will know more about the company than the market. Since these people know more than the market, they may be able to earn excess profits on their investments if they choose to take advantage of their inside information. While most insider trading is legal, it is illegal for insiders to trade when they trade with information that is not publicly known to further their own profits. By enacting trading laws, like insider trading, it just further solidifies that the markets are efficient. Market efficiency is a relative concept. This means that the market is efficient relative to the quality and quantity of the publicly known information. Nothing in the definition suggests that the current market prices reflect the real firm value. Due to the possible presence of inside information, for example, the market prices may be incorrect. What the definition does imply is that once new or corrected information comes along the market will adjust the prices quickly. This adjustment happens because rational investors will revise their beliefs. They will start buying and selling securities due to their new beliefs which in turn will change prices. Another important point of the theory is that investing is fair game if the market is efficient. In an efficient market there is an expected return on that security, and one way to establish the expected or normal return is by using the capital asset pricing model. In an efficient market, the investors cannot expect to earn excess returns on a security over and above the expected return of the capital asset pricing model. Under the efficient market hypothesis, a security’s market price should fluctuate randomly over time. The reason that prices will fluctuate is that anything about the firm that can be expected will be properly reflected in the price by the efficient market as soon as the expectation is formed. The only reason that prices in an efficient market will change is if some unexpected and relevant information comes along. By examining a time series form by the sequence of price changes, the time series should fluctuate randomly. A random walk is a time series of price movements that will not follow any patterns or trends and that these past movements cannot be used to predict future price movements. There seems to be an increasing number of people against the theory of market efficiency including Professor Charles Lee (2010). He states that the market efficiency has its limitations. He uses the United States housing market as an example of a market that seems to have been dominated by greed. He believes that emotions now dominate the markets and assist in setting the prices in the securities market. The other emotion that he points out is that of fear. The unwillingness to grant credit and to take risks are direct results of fear. Since these emotions dominate people’s actions, the markets are not as efficient as originally thought. Shiller (1984) created a model which featured two types of agents. The two types of agents are â€Å"smart-money† investors and noise traders (ordinary investors). The smart-money investors focus on fundamental information and react quickly to news about fundamental information in an unbiased manner. Noise traders are vulnerable to fads and may also overreact to news. Noise traders may also trade for consumption-based or liquidity reasons. Since there are noise traders in the market that assist in driving prices, the markets are not completely efficient. Critics of market efficiency also point out that there are several recent instances where the market prices must have been set by psychological considerations instead of by rational investors. The first example is the stock market crash of October 1987. During this crash, the general economic environment stayed the same, but the stock market lost about one-third of its value. A second example is the Internet â€Å"bubble† of the late 1990s. The values assigned to high-tech and Internet related companies were inconsistent with rational valuation. In looking at market efficiency, any large swings upwards or crashes downward that do not have related unexpected information can be signs that the market is not efficient. Despite these cases and examples of reasons that the market is inefficient, I believe that for the most part the market is efficient. It is not completely efficient, nor will it ever be, but for the most part the securities are properly priced. I believe that if the market was not efficient, there would be more professional investors that would be able to beat the market as a whole. I believe that with the information and the speed with which it is available today it is more efficient than in 1970 when Fama first introduced market efficiency. I do agree with the notion that there are some people who invest with emotions. When you talk to people about a company such as Apple, you will find just as many people who â€Å"love† the company as you will who dislike it. My feeling is that most of the emotion trading will for the most part cancel out and will not represent enough trading to dramatically adjust market securities prices. There are many fund managers who believe that they can outperform the market. Efficient markets depend on these participants who think that the market is inefficient and trade in the market in an attempt to outperform the market. Jensen (1968) performed the first study of mutual fund performance. He found that active fund managers underperformed the market and were unable to add value. In my personal research, I have found that when looking at â€Å"professional† analysts opinions, they are all over the board. My belief is that fund managers should focus more on correctly diversifying people’s portfolios than suggesting and trying to get them to invest in securities that they feel are undervalued. In order for the market to be efficient, the arket must be able to quickly analyze and adjust prices for new information. Nowadays with the Internet, investment journals that come out daily, and television shows and channels related to securities markets, the markets are more efficient than in the past. An example of the market being able to react quickly was in the article â€Å"The Stock Price Reaction to the Challenger Crash: Information Disclosure in an Efficient Market. â€Å" Maloney and Mulherin found that â€Å"the market pinpointed the guilty party within minutes. Regardless of whether you agree with the efficient securities markets theory or not, there are many implications of efficient securities markets for financial reporting. In W. H. Beaver’s article â€Å"What Should Be the FASB’s Objectives†, he outlines four implications. The first implication is accounting policies adopted by firms do not affect their security prices, as long as policies are disclosed. The accounting policies have no differential cash flow effects, and the information is given so readers can ea sily convert across different policies. The policy that is chosen will affect the reported net income, but it will not directly affect future cash flows and dividends. The efficient market is not fooled by different accounting policies when securities of firms are compared. The second implication is that efficient securities markets go hand in hand with full disclosure. Management should report firm information if the benefits are greater than the costs. Investors use information that is available to them to improve decisions in market efficiency. Confidence in the securities market will increase because of the information available. An important standard of full disclosure is Management Discussion and Analysis. The objective of MD&A is to enhance investor understanding of the issuer’s business by providing supplemental analysis and background material to allow a fuller understanding of the nature of an issuer, its operation, and known prospects for the future. The third implication is that market efficiency implies that financial statement information does not need to be presented in such a form that everyone is able to understand. The majority of investors are educated and will understand the information as presented. They are the ones who buy and sell and will move market prices to an efficient level. Naive investors are then price-protected since they can trust the efficient market to price securities. The final implication is that accountants are in competition with other information providers. With new pertinent information investors will change their beliefs. This revision of beliefs is a continuous process. If accountants did not provide useful, cost-effective information, the usefulness of this function would decline to other information sources. Accounting information is generally useful to investors. The theory of efficient securities markets has been around for more than forty years. The concept should be around for many years to come. As in all theories, there are people that will continue to try to further prove the theory and people that will work to disprove the theory. From all available information and from my experience, I believe that securities markets are efficient. Due to the efficient securities markets, there are many implications for financial reporting.

Ford Paradigm Shift Essay Example

Ford Paradigm Shift Essay Example Ford Paradigm Shift Essay Ford Paradigm Shift Essay This report alms at critically reviewing, analyzing and evaluating fords present strategy. We will be Identifying the external factors that are impacting on the organization and evaluate why they have led to a paradigm shift. This report will also include our recommendations on how to improve the organizations competitiveness and efficiency. Brief History Ford is a motor company based in Dearborn, Michigan. It is one of the largest industrial corporations in the world with revenues exceeding IEEE billion and over 370,000 employees. They operated In over 200 countries. Although Ford obtained significant revenues and profits from Its financial services subsidiaries, Fords companys basic business still remains the design and manufacture of automobiles and founded by Henry ford. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Gaston Martin in the UK. Ford Introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an Industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines hence I-J subsidiaries which was were sold off to India Data in March 2008. Over the last two decades the competition in the auto industry has grown increasingly and since sass the biggest automakers have seen their home markets encroached upon the expansion of foreign-based auto manufacturers, such as Toyota and Honda. The automobile industry also faced over capacity as developing and industrialized nations began to recognize the wealth and lob-producing effects of automobile manufacturing, encouraged development and expansion of their own export-oriented auto Industries. : Although manufacturers varied in their degree of market presence in different geographical regions, the battle or advantage in the industry was fast becoming global. Ford, faced with the challenges of gaining global presence had to look for a way of improving the quality, and reducing cycle while dramatically lowering the cost of developing and bulling cars. In other to achieve this, Ford acquired Swedes Volvo in 1999 this was a movement towards industry consolidation. In 1995 Ford embarked on another strategic plan of restructuring is management and operations called Ford 2000. The plan saw Fords North American, European and International automotive operations Into a single global organization. The restructure plan called for a massive cost cut through reengineering and globalization of corporate organizations and processes. 1 OF 7 Fords new global approach called for technology to be employed in other to overcome the difficulties brought about by geographical information flow. Teams on different continents needed to be able to work together as if they were in the same building. These in turn have brought about a revolution in Fords information technology; in Ford 2000 restructuring information technology was placed within the process reengineering organization. External Factors Affecting Ford The Ford Motor Company has been facing a steady decline in market share for approximately the past twelve years. This decline is largely attributable to certain factor like consumers Behavior, Economic Factors (Rising Gas and Fuel Prices) and Government Policies / Economic Situation and Environment Need. Consumer Behavior: Ford Motor Company Consumers behavior affects ford production and revenue, this could be seen from the Ford decline of market share where consumers where demanding for more cheap quality cars with less fuel consumption or fuel efficient. This gave their Japanese Toyota who is a competitor an edge because there auto products were known to be fuel efficient than fuel. Ford had suffered serious decline in revenue for the past decades and still effect Ford Production and Management Strategic policies. Economic Factors and Government Policy The Economy is another factor that affects Ford Just like it affects other Automobile Industries. These could also be seen through the unstable price of Gas and Fuel which affects the choice of the Consumers. The Recession, Tax and also have much contribution to the growth, management and operation or production of Ford. Environmental Need: This is another factor that has cost Ford Motor Company some huge amount of assets and money. Ford being known to be environmental friendly does what ever it takes to respond to the need of environment or protect it. They have invested heavily to reduce gas or CO emission hence their solar power plane and the hybrid cars Soot Analysis of Form Motor Company Strength I Diversity:Jaguar, Volvo, Mercury, Lincoln, Mazda, Land Rover Second Largest Auto Maker in the world, Ford Motor Credit I Supportive:Gives generously after Seep 11 attacks,Give generously to fight Breast Cancer, Support racing teams MASCARA, Formula 1 etc). 4th on the global 500 list. I Quality:Strong and Quality Productions of the worlds best known brands. Modern Technology e. G. Hybrid Cars. Web strategy has cut car build costs as much as IEEE per car I Weakness I Firestone tire recall which caused stock price to suffer ,3. 5 billion to cover tire recalls. I Disharmony in Management leading to Bill Ford taking over as CEO. I High fuel consumption cars. Shortage of Cash reserve. I Opportunity I More environmentally friendlessness Power, clean the environment and cleaner engine emissions. I Generosity:Given more to charities I Investment in Solar Power very throng chance to become a market leader. They can use their web strategy to cut cost further. I Threat I Competition in Automobile industry is very high I Recession is great Low to For a The paradigm shift. I stoutest products Like natural gas, electricity, water etc. Ford like most other high profile automotive industry has witness paradigm shift in their various stages of their existence and production which we consider to have been as a result of changes in technology, market competition, consumer behavior and regulation from Government. These in turn has been responded by Ford Motor which obviously affected it positively or negatively there by leading to either a new era of technology or product or management changes. Technology Technology has the potentials of changing in lesser time than many other things. In Ford, the development of feature for comfort like Air condition, Heater, etc shifted Ford Automobile technology from the simple vintage cars to more luxury with currently unlimited features www. Overlord. Com/PDF/Deathwatches_BP_report. PDF Consumers Behavior The choices of Consumers have also lead to certain level of shift in Ford Production. These could be seen from general demand for Fuel Economy Care. The demand for fuel economy cars has affected Ford that it has to respond by cutting down the rate of their fuel consumption Just like the need for more Automatic gearing system vehicles has lead Ford to shifting from Manual handling to Automatic. Environmental Need Environmental need has lead Ford to complying with Cafe © and CO Emission Regulation which obvious is leading to a new shift of Technology and production hence the new Ford Fusion and Hybrid cars Economic Position and Government Policy The need also to reduce the Gas (CO) Emission has lead to certain Regulation by Government which is leading to a shift in technology like the environmental need. Ford has adopted a strategy that focus on CO Emission reduction and regulation which ultimately has lead to the production of Ford Fusion 2010 (Hybrid Cars). Market (Demand and Supply) Ford like other automotive industry remains concern over the unstable prices of oil and fuel which has influenced the choice for cars with fuel economy or efficient. These gave Japanese Auto Industries like Toyota an edge over Ford that Ford has lost some its market share to its competitor whose production technology and high fuel efficient cars products has been in high demand. The lost of market shares has lead to lost of revenue and in effect has created or added more problem to Ford. In an effort to address this, new strategic policies has been strategists by the new CEO Alan Manually that focused on cost cutting and consumers / market demand responsive approach. This has seen a new shift in Ford where for example new Hybrid Car Technology is available which still keeps the competitive edge of Ford and increases its market share product. For Hybrid Fusion Ford Monde Fuel Car Forays Present strategy an a ten Review Ford being a multinational company has been faced with challenges and factors ranging from internal and external, environment, technology advancement, competition, government policies etc and these entire factors has not been without either negative or positive effect. These factors have lead to either improvement or change of plans or strategy to achieve its vision. This plans or strategy is very vital to the well being of organization. No organization has existed without making the management of these policies or plan know as Strategic Management. Many authors have written on strategic management. Alfred D. Chandler (1962) defined it as the determination of the basic long time goals and the objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the relocation of resources necessary for carrying out these goals. According to G. A Cole (2004, IPPP) Chandler sees strategy as combined goal setting and the planning / action elements required to achieve goals. Kenneth Andrews in his work combined goal- setting with the policies and plans needed to achieve the goal. G. A Cole (2004, IPPP). He distinguished between corporate strategies which defined the businesses the organization is to compete tit. H. L Anions point of view separated goal or what he called objectives from strategy however, he envisaged a relationship between the two in which an objectives (end) is followed by strategy (means) which is evaluated and may lead to a revision of the original objective (ibid). He argued that here typed of decision need to be made and they are, Strategic, Administrative and operating decision. Andrews view that literature of organization theory is by itself of very little use in managing a live organization according to J. Moor (1992 up). And that case studies resent, not illustrations of principle, but data from which generalization may to a limited degree be derived and to which the idea of strategy may be applied is very paramount when considering Ford strategic Management policies and Plane. Ford Motors considered Strategic Management policies / plane as the life wire to existence hence its clear Vision, Mission and Value definition which they called: Our Vision, Our Mission, and Our Value. This serves as a standard by which they could judge or be Judged Our vision: to become the worlds leading company for automotive products and services. Our mission: we are a globally diverse family, with a proud heritage, thats passionately committed to providing outstanding products and services. Our values: we do the right thing for our people, our environment and our society, but above all for our customers or personal mobility for everyone around the globe. Www. Ford. Co. UK/Abductors/Confrontational The (above) has been a frame work by which Ford had recorded its long time success history. They anticipate consumer needs and deliver high quality products and services that will help improve the lives of the people around them (Ford Motor Co. , 2005, April 27). The current President and the CEO Mr.. Manually have made a new innovative and result achieving oriented move in strategist the strategic policies aimed at repositioning, turning Ford around and creating a global multi-national corporation that is self-sustaining and viable according to Ford official online report following the negative effect of the recession on Ford Motor Company. To accomplish these, significant changes were made as and in the strategic Management Polices wanly was Disloyally on Ana Includes developing Ana sustaining a competitive advantage for the goods and services that are produced. At the equines level, Fords strategy formulation phase should deal with positioning the company against rivals, anticipating changes in demand and technologies and then adjusting the strategy to accommodate them, and influencing the nature of competition by strategic actions such as vertical integration and through political actions such as lobbying. Ford developed strategies for cost leadership, differentiation, and focus to create a competitive advantage. Ford recommitted itself to sustainable and profitable growth, to a renewed focus on customers, and to boundless innovation in everything they do: from design, to safety, to fuel-efficiency, o efficiency on the factory floors. They are using their size to accelerate change, and build a culture that encourages fresh new thinking and breakthrough ideas. They concentrated on improving their core automotive business and divested several non- core companies, lowered costs, refocused financial operations on supporting the automotive business and launched the biggest wave of new products in history. To strengthen the balance sheet and cut costs, Ford sold The Hertz Corporation and restructured its agreement with Visited, their parts supplier spin-off. Http:// www. Papers. Mom/sub]sects/strategic-management-and-business-policy-ford-motor- company-page. HTML. However, the strategy has found no whole or basic place with the previous Six Sigma Management Rule based Strategy . The Six Sigma Management Rule seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. Ford and Alan Manually have done an outstanding Job however, the biggest challenge lies ahead in continuing to keep his management team and employees focused, whilst managing others expectations at the same time. Part of the strategy is a policy on Environment which contributed to stabilizing the climate by considering reducing long-term emission. Ford reported that they will achieve this goal by continuously reducing the GOGH emissions and energy usage of their operations, developing more products that lower GOGH-emissions, and establishing an effective and predictable market policy and technological framework for reducing road transport GOGH emissions. Another one of their goals is to promote the development of an infrastructure that will expand the use of bio-fuels and help reduce our dependence on oil. One more goal of theirs is to cut the usage of global energy by 27% and the usage of water by 25% which they have been working on since 2000. Some of their major timeshare targets they are currently working on to contribute to the climate are to reduce North American facility emissions by 6% by 2010, voluntarily offset 2007 and 2008 CO emissions from manufacturing facilities, and reduce U. S. Facility emissions by 10% per vehicle produced by 2012. Http:// company-page. HTML The new strategy has no doubt paid off going by the Ford 2009 financial report that Ford Motor Corporation made $2. Billion, the first after about four years and without taken any federal loan. Www. Unpredictabilitys. Mom/ industry-focus/world-class-operations/ford-CEO-Alan-manually-turnaround-specialist Recommendation After reviewing the current strategic policies Ford adopted, it is easy to see that they are Touching on tenet products, as tenet Dragon name Is tenet Deluges strength a very strong brand name as well. But their policy might not go far enough in preparing for the future in terms of alternate, greener fuels. The importance of this sector w ill become paramount in the near future especially with more competition ND as well as the situation in the Middle East if this deteriorates and oil crisis develops then Ford will lose out. In other to achieve the above mentioned objectives, it is pretty obvious that Ford cannot only rely on their strength they have to think about the future which is more and more technological evolutions taking place hereby increasing the competitors in the automobile industries. Japanese competitors such as Honda are well advanced in developing hybrid engines and new fuel sources and in retrenching to cut costs and focusing inwards, Ford are in danger of missing out on the bigger world market picture. So we would recommend a strategic thinking with more emphasis being put on emerging technologies. With campaigns and slogans that stresses Fords position as a leading world company and at the fore front of development of a greener, cleaner future. This would also help to negate a little bit of the boring image people have of the company. Another strategic thinking I would recommend is the Total Quality Management (TXT) based on Redefined Six Sigma Rule. It was developed in the sass and has been employed by companies to help manage qualities through various processes. TXT is another approach to improving effectiveness, competitiveness, efficiency and flexibility in order to best suit customer needs. Globalization in the world right now means consumers are first in every aspect. There is so much competition at the moment which can only mean one thing consumers have more options and so without smart thinking and planning Ford could easily lose out on the bigger world market picture. Total quality Management is broken down like this: T: quality involves everyone and every activities taking place in the organization Q: Conformance to Requirements (Meeting Customer Requirements). M: Quality can and must be managed. The process of TXT involves various responsibilities such as; meeting customer satisfaction and requirements, reducing time, demand flow manufacturing, improvement teams, reducing costs of service and cost, and improving training. TXT has been successful at reducing costs and improving quality at several companies. Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Company and Motorola are Just a few of the major companies who have used the TXT process. By using TXT it will also help Ford to divert attention from the recent history of in-fighting within the organization cause TXT involves that everyone is in the same boat heading in the same direction. Conclusion Ford Like we pointed at above is one of the largest Automobile Industry who has made name and based globally, It has had a decline in revenue and Market share for some years now, these are attributable to certain factor ranging from Consumers behavior, Technology Environmental need, Economic situation etc. These factors that have affected Ford have in some extent lead to another era of management or Production (Paradigm Shift). Ford management has called for a drastic measure that saw ten emergence AT ten new CEO Mr..