Coca Cola vs Pepsi

The Coca-Cola Company versus PepsiCo, Inc. Andy Berg Ufuoma Omosebi Intermediate Accounting III ACC305 19 November, 2011 Coca Cola and Pepsi are the two most popular and widely recognized beverage brands in the United States. Pepsi and Coca Cola contrast each other on their taste, its associated colors and themes, and ingredients. Even the pension plans and funding status are a competitive comparison. 1. Compare the pension plans of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, including type of plan and funded status at 2007 year-end. PepsiCo, Inc. as a voluntary defined benefit pension plan that includes all full time U. S. employees and some international employees. This plan is a noncontributory plan; the employer is the only contributor funding the plan therefore they bear the entire cost of the plan. This plan is a qualified pension plan allowing tax incentives for employer contributions which are calculated based on employees years of service or a combination of service and income. In addition, Peps iCo offers medical and life insurance benefits and a retiree medical plan that are only funded on a â€Å"pay as you go† basis. These plans are not generally funded by the employer since they do not fund plans where no tax benefits are received. A specific dollar amount is assigned as a â€Å"cap† for employer payments the remaining funds are received from the retiree. Coca Cola has a defined contribution plan that includes all U. S. employees and some international employees. This is a contributory plan; both the employer and the employee make contributions. This plan offers substantial tax benefits for the contributions made by the employer. In addition, Coca Cola also has a defined benefit pension plan. This plan is considered a nonqualified, unfunded plan primarily for the organizations officers, most U. S. employees, and some international employees. This plan offers no tax benefits for contributions made by the organization. In 2007, Coca Cola amended this plan to reduce exposure. Each organization offers and sponsors 401K pension plans as well as medical and life insurance benefit plans for their employees or associates. Not all employees are eligible for  participation in all plans. 2 . Calculate the relevant rates that were used by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in computing their pension amounts. Coca-Cola reported â€Å"net periodic benefit cost† of $108 million in 2007. PepsiCo reported â€Å"pension expense† of $329 million in 2007 for U. S. plans. All of the relevant rates used by Coca Cola and PepsiCo are shown in the notes of the financial statements listed in the comparative analysis. These rates are disclosed so that users of  the statements can assess the reasonableness of the assumptions made when calculating pension expenses and liabilities. The discount rate, expected rate of return on plan assets, and rate of  compensation are the relevant rates needed to make the necessary assumptions. The rates below have been taken from the Wiley Companion Website. The discount rate influences pension expense. Coca Cola’s discount rate used to compute  pension information for December 31, 2007 is 5. 5% for pension benefits and 6% for other  benefits. PepsiCo’s discount rate used to compute pension information for December 31, 2007 is5. 8% for U. S. pensions, 5. 2% for international pensions, and 5. 8% for other benefits. The expected rate of return on plan assets determines how much funding the plan assets will earn for the plan. This information is crucial for the company because it indicates how much additional funding will have to be provided to the plan above earnings to meet obligations. Coca Cola’s expected rate of return used to compute pension information for December 31, 2007 is7. 75%. PepsiCo’s expected rate of return used to compute pension information for December 31, 2007 is 7. 8%. Pension benefits are determined by considering the employees compensation level at retirement. Therefore, the rate of compensation or expected increase percentage is necessary to determine future compensation levels. Coca Cola’s rate of compensation or â€Å"rate of increase in compensation levels† percentage used to compute pension information for December 21, 2007 is 4. 25%. PepsiCo’s rate of compensation or â€Å"rate of increase in compensation levels† percentage used to compute pension information for December 21, 2007 is 4. 7%. 3. Determine which company you would rather invest in if you were a potential shareholder. Justify your answer. PepsiCo, Inc. is also a large company that has been around since 1898. They are also a leader in the beverage market but have diversified into another area; snacks. The diversity is pretty impressive. They also indicate stability and liquidity with favorable ratios. They have a 53. 15% gross profit margin for 2007 and less than 40% of their net operating revenue comes from operations outside the U. S. Coca Cola is a large company that has been around since 1886. They are primarily marketing and selling one product; beverages. They have a 63. 9% gross profit margin for 2007and show reasonably good ratios indicating stability. For the 46th consecutive year dividends have risen. About 74% of their net operating revenue comes from operations outside of the U. S. Coke and Pepsi trade in the No. 10 and No. 9 positions at 13. 31 and 16. 67. This may be explained by the relative growth and return on capital positions of the companies. Coke has a ROIC of 23. 91% annually for the last five years, and growth of revenue per share of 9. 29% per year. Pepsi’s ROIC was 19. 96% and revenue per share growth of 13. 43%. Assessing how the market assigns value to Pepsi and Coke may come down to a view that the foods division of Pepsi is more exposed to potential inflation and therefore requires a higher cost of capital to compensate for this risk. I would invest in Coca-Cola if I were a potential shareholder. The company generates significant return for shareholders. Fundamentally, Coke has generated 16-19% return on assets; 27-40% percent return on equity; and between $1. 6 billion and $3. 2 billion in free cash flow, with all three metrics peaking in 2010. Coke has returned to shareholders $27. 4 billion in cash the last four years in the form of dividends and share buybacks. The stock has provided a total return of 83. 81% from 2006 to 2010. 4. Determine which company you would rather work for if you were a potential employee. Justify your answer. If I had to choose a company to work for it would be PepsiCo. Benefits are important in any job selection and initially it seems that Coca Cola’s benefits are better however, after my review PepsiCo is a much better company. There is something more important than benefits; it is a feeling of belonging and being cared for in an organization. The entire time I was reading PepsiCo’s statements I got a feeling that they really cared about their employees, the community they serve and the environment. At one point, they even mentioned they cherished their  employees and encouraged personal as well as professional growth. They speak of product innovations; that they want to nourish consumers and reinvent brands to produce more healthy  products for consumers. They speak of partnerships with the FDA, The World Health Organization, and Alliance for a Healthier Generation for better focus on these innovations. They have given foundation grants internationally to battle chronic diseases and encourage physical fitness thru exercise and dance. They even have plants in Arizona that use solar power to  produce products. It just seems like a friendlier more positive company. References Kieso, D. E. , Weygandt, J. J. , & Warfield, T. D. (2010). Comparative Analysis Case; The Coca-Cola Company versus PepsiCo, Inc. Intermediate Accounting III, 13thEdition, 1072-1074& 1111. Kennon, Joshua (2011). Adjusting Pension Assumptions to Manipulating Earnings, How to Spot Signs of Aggressive Accounting, Retrieved August 13, 2011, from the website: http://beginnersinvest. about. com/od/gaap/a/aa090704. htm Coca Cola vs Pepsi TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION 3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4 SOURCE OF COLLECTION OF DATA 5 REPRESENTATION OF DATA THROUGH CHART 5 INTERPRETATION 8 RESEARCH FINDINGS 8 CONCLUSION 9 RECOMMENDATIONS 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 QUESTIONNAIRE 11 INTRODUCTION PEPSI Pepsi was founded in New York in 1965. It is Producing Non-alcoholic beverage and Food processing items. Pepsi is a carbonated beverage that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo. It is sold in retail stores, restaurants cinemas and from vending machines. The drink was first made in the 1890s by pharmacist Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North Carolina. The brand was trademarked on June 16, 1903. Pepsi arrived on the market in India in 1988. PepsiCo gained entry to India in 1988 by creating a joint venture with the Punjab government-owned Punjab Agro Industrial Corporation (PAIC) and Volta’s India Limited.Coke and PepsiThis joint venture marketed and sold Lehar Pepsi until 1991, when the use of foreign brands was allo wed; PepsiCo bought out its partners and ended the joint venture in 1994. Others claim that firstly Pepsi was banned from import in India, in 1970, for having refused to release the list of its ingredients and in 1993, the ban was lifted, with Pepsi arriving on the market shortly afterwards. These controversies are a reminder of â€Å"India’s sometimes acrimonious relationship with huge multinational companies. † Indeed, some argue that PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company have â€Å"been major targets in part because they are well-known foreign companies that draw plenty of attention. COCA-COLAJon Styth Pemberton first introduced the refreshing taste of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia it was May 1861 when the pharmacist concocted caramel colored syrup in three–  legged brass kettle in his backyard. He first distributed the new product by carrying Coca-Cola in a jug coin enjoys in a glass of Coca-Cola at the soda fountain. Whether by design or accident, carbonated water was teamed with the new syrup, producing a drink  that was proclaimed â€Å"Delicious and Refreshing†. Dr. Pemberton’s Partner and bookkeeper, Mr. Frank Robinson, suggested the name and penned as â€Å"Coca-Cola† in the unique flowing script that is still famous worldwide today. Dr.Pemberton’s sold 25 gallons of syrup, shipped in bright Red wooden kegs. Red has been a distinctive color associated with the No. 1 soft drink brand ever since. For  his efforts, Dr. Pemberton grossed $ 50 and spent $ 73. 96 on advertising, by 1891,Atlanta chemist as a G. Canler had acquired complete ownership of the Coca-Cola  business. He purchases it from the Dr. Pemberton family for $ 2300. With in 4 year his merchandising flair helped to expand the consumption of Coca-Cola to over $25 million . Robert W. woodruff become the president of the Coca-Cola company in 1923 and his more than six decades of leadership took the business of commercial success making16 Co ca-Cola an institution the world over.Coca-Cola begins as a never tonic, but candy merchant Joseph A. Biedenharn of Mississippi was looking for awry to serve refreshing  beverages. He responded to this demand began offering bottle Coca-Cola using syrup shipped from Atlanta, during a hot summer in 1894 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 1. Consumer preference to buy Coca-Cola and Pepsi. 2. What are the factors would you consider to buy Coca-Cola and Pepsi. 3. What is the medium through which you came to know about Coca-Cola and Pepsi. 4. To offer some finding and suggestions to the company for the improvement of It’s  performance. NEED FOR THE STUDY In the present scenario the competitions between the soft drinks increased very high.The companies are struggling a lot to keep up their market share in the industry and to improve the sales of their products i. e. the turnover of the company. For this the company has to know their position in the market and the opinion and the loyalty of  t he customers and the retailers when compared to their competitor. Because of this reason the comparative analysis is very important and useful to the Company. By the use of comparative analysis the companies can understand the position of the company and the strength of the company in the market. Through the comparative analysis we can understand that what strategies the competitors are using for the increase their sales volume.From the study we can gather the information regarding the opinion of the consumers on the companies comparatively and this will help to plans for the future to increase the performance of the company and to gain the loyalty of  the consumers when compared to the competitors. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY We have done Descriptive research to find out our objectives. In descriptive research we use the Primary and secondary data. Research methodology is the way to systematically solve the research problem. The method used for the research is Descriptive Research to fi nd out our objectives. In descriptive research we use the primary and secondary both data, Sample Design for primary data have been collected through probability sampling.Data is Collected through Market survey in Delhi through Well prepared structured questionnaires were used in this study, which includes both closed-ended and few open-ended questions to get information based on the objective of the research process. People of different age group from different economic background were asked to fill the questionnaire containing 13 questions. Sample Size is taken 40 out of which 4 questionnaires had been rejected due to Mistakes, which was made by the respondents. SOURCE OF COLLECTION OF DATA:- All the useful data which were require for this research has been collected through Primary and secondary date. Primary data collected through Questionnaire Secondary data collected through Internet, Magazines and Newspaper   ASSUMPTIONS:-It is assumed that the chosen sample is the represen tation of whole population. It is assumed that information provided by the samples is accurate and best of their  knowledge. REPRESENTATION OF DATA THROUGH CHART RATIO OF MALE & FEMALE RESPONDANT Total numbers of respondent were 40 out of which 4 questionnaires is rejected. So final date interpretation is done on the basis of only 36 questionnaires. Total no. of respondents 36| | Gender| Number| Male| 30| Female| 6| Reasons behind choosing the product:- Total respondents 36| | Preference| Number of respondents| Taste| 28| Advertisements| 4| Thirsty| 5| Easy availability| 4| Others| 2| Effect of advertisement:-Total number of respondents: 36| | Influence of advertisements| Number of respondents| Yes| 14| No| 22| Brand loyalty:- Would you visit another store X, if you do not find it at your store. 71% of the respondents said that they go to another shop for their brand and 29% of the people said that they don’t go to another shop. Presence of pesticides:- Total number of resp ondents 36| | Respond| No. of respondent| Yes| 9| No| 27| From the questionnaire we came to know that 27 people i. e 75% said they are no pesticides and rest of them 9 people i. e 25% said Yes. INTERPRETATION On the basis research the facts which have come out:- Coca-Cola has a market share of 28%.The population between 12- 30 year prefer the cola products, while population above to 50 and below 12 prefer soft drinks, and population prefer in Delhi. Only 39% population only influenced by advertisement, rest 61% population believes that Advertisements are not much effective. 71% population are loyal to words there product. 25% population beliefs there cold drink have pesticide up to some extent. 65% of population is being influenced by taste only, while 9% population by Advertisements only. RESEARCH FINDINGS As it was 1st research Project of our life, so it gave us lot of experience which will be very helpful in our life. On the basis of that research we find that in case of beverage s people are much influenced by taste rather than Advertisements and other things. e come to know that Young generation is the biggest consumer of cold drinks than any other. By this research we analyze that male prefer cola drinks, while female prefer soft drinks. Frequency of consume to cold drinks is higher of male than female. By combining all the beverage verities we come to know that Thumps up is the market leader with 14 % total market share while Pepsi is the second highest market leader with 13% market share. If the Buying decision of consumer is rated – 1st preference will go to Taste, 2nd will go to availability, 3rd preference will go to thirsty, 4Th preference will go to Price. CONCLUSION For the purpose of the study, questionnaires were prepared for the Consumers.Care was taken to interview all types of consumers, i. e. , : a. Different age groups b. Males and females In all about 40 consumers were interviewed. The conclusions that one can draw from these answer s provided by the consumers showed that marketing activities do form a major part of the decision. One thing that was common amongst all the consumers who were once a day or once a week. The number one factors the influences a customer while buying a soft-drink was taste. This was true for all the consumers who were interviewed. The rest of the conclusions as deducted from the questionnaires are as follows: The younger generation preferred soft drinks to the older generation. a.Children up to 15 years of age liked to have soft drinks up to once a day. b. Young adults liked to have soft drinks up to 1-2 times a day. c. Adults liked to have soft drinks about once a week. Children preferred Coca-Cola. Young adults liked Pepsi. The older  generation preferred Coca-Cola. The reason given for choice of favorite’s soft drink was taste and easy availability. 90% of the people said that they prefer taste. Most of the people said that television advertising had a more impact on choos ing the brand. As everyone know there is a rumor of pesticides, but in our report we came to know that 75% of the people said they don’t believe in this rumors and only 9% of the people believe in those rumors.About the brand loyalty most of the consumers 71% said they visit another store if they won’t find the preferred brand and 29% said that they not brand conscious rather they depend on availability. RECOMMENDATIONS Though the coke is enjoying larger market share and it is market leader in Indian beverage industry. While with the 46 % market share Pepsi is on the second step. If we are analyzing properly then we find Pepsi is small product portfolio than coke, which is responsible for its second position. Pepsi should increase its product portfolio to capture the Coke’s market share. Companies should focus on the taste of the product because 90% population is influenced by taste only. Young generation is the potential consumer so companies should more focus on them. As we find that 40 % population consumes 200ml cold drinks.Which comes in glass  bottles, these bottles are being retuned back for refilling to companies? Which is incurred again cost of re-transportation. If company start to supply 200 ml cold drinks in pet bottles (plastic bottles) it will be good for company because 40% of population is using only 200ml. BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www. scribd. com/doc/48391213/A-PROJECT-REPORT-PEPSI-VS-COCA-COLA http://www. scribd. com/doc/30242566/Coke-vs-Pepsi http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pepsi http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Coca_cola http://www. jyd. in/Summer%20Internship%20Projects/Marketing/COKE%20AND%20PEPSI%20LEARN%20TO%20COMPETE%20IN%20INDIA%20By%20Sahil%20Memon. df Business research methods (Zikmund) QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Name:- 2. Gender a) Male b) Female 3. What is your age? a) 15-25 b) 26-30 c) 31-40 d) 41-50 4. Do you know these brands (Coca-Cola & Pepsi) a) Yes b) No 5. Which brand would you prefer? a) Coca-Cola b) Pepsi c) Others 6. Which quantity of your cold drink you often purchase? a) 200ml b) 300mlc) 500ml 7. Do you think, pesticides present in Coco-Cola and Pepsi? a) Yes b) No 8. How often you consume Coca-Cola ? a) Once in a day b) Once in a week c) Twice in a week d) Once in a month e) When they required 9. How often you consume Pepsi ? a) Once in a day b) Once in a week c) Twice in a week d) Once in a month ) When they required 10. When do you consume above preferred brand? a) Travelling b) Party c) Thirsty d) Others 11. Important attribute for buying your above preferred brand ? a) Thirsty b) Flavor c) Availability d) Price e) Others 12. Give ranking to your preferred brand? ___packaging ___taste ___labeling ___price ___availability 13. Through which medium you notice about the above preferred brand? a) Tv ads b) News Paper c) Internet d) Other 14. Would you visit another store X, if you do not find it at your store? a) Yes b) No 15. Do you think that Coca-Cola and Pepsi both are lavishly spending on their ad campaigns to attract customers? a) Yes b) No

A Night at the Opera

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What does Martin Luther King Jr day have to do with me Essay

What does Martin Luther King Jr day have to do with me - Essay Example He asserts the people’s free will in becoming active elements of social changes: â€Å"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.† I want to be part of the light walkers, contributing to actions that make this world a better place. King, furthermore, leads people to alternative actions. He says: â€Å"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.† I admire his non-violent means of attaining social changes. I believe that we should also be creative in thinking about and resolving our social issues. King is a rousing transformational leader. He serves as an inspiration to me because he does not allow himself and his people to remain oppressed. He is also a creative thinker. He compels me to think of different ways that can solve problems. What does King mean to me? He is a role model and a hero, a hero who remains alive in the hearts of those who fight for the preservation of justice and

Legal Brief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Brief - Essay Example During July 1974, FBI officers arrested the offender and charged him for the crime of abduction. In trial court, evidence given by the boy’s friend indicated the complicity of the defendant in the crime and he was convicted. The aggrieved defendant appealed, claiming that the boy’s testimony was based on here say and thus not admissible in criminal proceedings as conclusive evidence, before the US court of appeal. The basic concern in this case is whether the doctrine of the Hillmon can be applied in circumstances where the defendant has affirmed his intention to do something with any of another person and whether or not he did so? Doctrine of Hillmon which is an Evidence Code of California states that the doctrine is codified in Section 1250(2) which permits the use of such hearsay proof when it is offered to explain or prove the conduct or act of the defendant. The comment to Section 1250(2) of the states that a statement of the defendants’ aim to do certain acts is admissible to confirm that he did alleged act. Justice Ely (†J. Ely†) concurred in the decision, but wrote giving emphasis to his disagreement to the Hillmon doctrine, suggesting that â€Å"evidence of one person’s intention to do something should not be admissible to prove what another person actually did do† (Bloomberg Law, pg.2). In this case, the statements made by the friend of Larry demonstrate that Larry planned to meet Angelo in the parking lot, â€Å"and the issue is whether he, in fact, met Angelo in the parking lot. The opposite inference is that Angelo met Larry in the parking lot, so it requires an inferential step for two people† (Bloomberg Law, pg.2). Larry’s state of mind was to demonstrate that somebody else actually did something. The appellant, Insico, was before the court of Appeals of US, looking for reversal of the judgment, which convicted the appellant based on the confirmation that

The Measure of a Man Essay Example for Free

The Measure of a Man Essay And in this way, smiling, nodding to the music, he went another mile or so and pretended that he was not already slowing down, that he was not going to turn back, that he would be able to drive on like this alone, and have the right answer when his wife stood before him in the doorway of his home and asked, Where is he? Where is your brother?(Wolff 269) What is the measure of a rich man? Is it his material possessions, the extent of his spirituality, or is it how he chooses to share his wealth with others, whether it is material or spiritual? Are we really our brothers keeper or are we keepers of only our own wants and desires? These are all questions posed by Tobias Wolff in his short story, The Rich Brother. However, he provides an underlying answer to these questions. Is Pete really the richer brother because he has more material possessions? Wolff leads the reader to believe that this statement is not accurate. Although Pete has more money and material possessions than his brother, Donald is truly the richer brother because of his spiritual insight and the care he exhibits toward Pete. Money alone is not the measure of a rich man. Wolff conveys this message through Petes values, his attitude toward Donald, and through religious symbolism. Wolff makes it very evident to the reader what Petes values are throughout the story. When Pete has the dream about being blind it allows the reader to draw the conclusion that he is blinded by his own wealth. He cannot see what is really important in life. Pete is more concerned about being seen as a prosperous individual than he is about being seen as a spiritual individual. Because of this it is hard for him to understand his brother Donald and this is evident when the narrator says, Pete couldnt make sense of it. Their parents were both dead, but while they were alive neither of them had found it necessary to believe in anything. They had managed to be decent people without making fools of themselves, and Pete had the same ambition(Wolff 257) Pete believes that money is a sign of your success in life and he feels that Donalds life is worthless because he doesnt have any money or material things to show for it. This is made apparent when Pete says, You dont know! How could you know? You get money by holding out your hand You work too. Dont kid yourself brother(Wolff 267). Another example of this is when the narrator says, He handed down his judgements in ways that he seemed to consider subtle: through significant silence, innuendo, looks of mild despair that said, Brother, what have you come to? What Pete had come to, as far as he could tell, was prosperity. That was the real issue between them. Pete prospered and Donald did not prosper(Wolff 257) Another instance in which his values are illustrated is when Donald asks him what he dreams about and Pete says, Sex and money. Mostly money. A nightmare is when I dream I dont have any(Wolff 261). This allows the reader to see that all Pete cares about is money and it makes it hard for the reader to sympathize with him. Petes attitude toward his brother also makes it hard for the reader to sympathize with him. He views his brother as a waste of his own time and money and is very jealous of Donald as well. Wolff makes this clear to the reader when Donald says, Youre basically a very frightened individualVery threatened. Youve always been like that. Do you remember when you used to try to kill me?(Wolff 262). It becomes apparent that Pete used to try and kill Donald because he received more attention from their mother. This is also evident when Pete says, Mom was in a state every time you burped(Wolff 262). Pete also continuously tries to free himself from the responsibility of taking care of his brother. This is illustrated when he finds out that Donald gave the money away. Pete tells Donald, You just keep quiet or I swear to God I wont be responsible(Wolff 267). Petes jealous tendencies also become visible when he thinks about Donalds promise from Webster coming true. And it came to him that it would be just like this unfair life for Donald to come out ahead in the end, by believing in some outrageous promise that would turn out to be true(Wolff 268). All  these factors help aid the reader in drawing the conclusion that Donald is the richer of the two brothers. Although Wolff uses the actions and dialogues of the characters to emphasize the fact that Pete is not as rich as he may seem, Wolff also uses religious symbolism to help the reader make this connection as well. This entire story parallels the biblical parables of The Prodigal Son and Cain and Abel. Pete thinks to himself, What a joke if there really was a blessing to be had, and the blessing didnt come to the one who deserved it, the one who did all the work, but to the other.(Wolff 268). He is very jealous that someone could get ahead of him in life just by doing nothing. At the end of the story narrator says, hepretendedthat he was not going to turn back, that he would be able to drive on like thisand have the right answer when his wife stood before him in the doorway of his home and asked, Where is he? Where is your brother?(Wolff). This provides evidence for the reader to see the parallel between Wolffs story and Cain and Abel. Wolff also uses many subtle symbolic gestures to add to the religious theme of the story. The names of all the towns mentioned in this story have a religious meaning. For example, Santa Cruz, Paso Robles, and Soledad. Santa Cruz means holy cross, Paso Robles means, withered tree, and Soledad means loneliness. He also uses the character of Webster to symbolize Greed and Hell. Wolff makes this evident when Webster states, The doctors have no name for it, but I doGreed. My greed, not hers.(Wolff 264). It is also symbolic when Webster gets dropped off in Soledad. It is insinuated that love of material things only results in loneliness and love of material things can only lead to Hell. When Webster speaks of the Lowlands, he is speaking about Hell. All these aspects of the story help add to its religious connotation. We all have heard the famous cliche, Money is the root of all evil. It is easy for a person to say that he would be charitable if he was rich, but money is a very powerful object in todays society and it definitely can change someone. Money cant buy happiness, it only brings loneliness. What is the use of having material possessions if we dont have anyone to share them with. There are many people in the world that are in need and it should  be our goal to provide assistance. We are our brothers keeper no matter how bad we would like to forget it.

Macroeconomics, Airline Industry Essay Example for Free

Macroeconomics, Airline Industry Essay Economical can be one of the major factors for the airline industry. Due to the rate of war and terrorist event, the growth rate of economy dramatic slowdown, capacity demand, which gains the low yield to the airline industry. Moreover, oil prices increase also affect their profits. The social sector, which are strongly from employment perspective and safety. The technology in airline industry is fast moving, however it’s very costly. Alliance gives the opportunity to the major airline to offer customer global route coverage. Ecological factor consists of recycling, the level of pollution and attitudes to the environment. For the airline industry, pollution tends to be very important. Legislation fior the airline consist of employment laws, company law, tax law and their regulation. Redundancy, landing right, health and safety, which are all the airlines, should be considered as a legal factor. Airline industry recovered and it become more attractive for investor. Economical and political factor has always been and continues to be the two major external environmental drivers influencing the airline industry. Read more:Â  Essay on Airline Industry A low cost carrier (also known as a no-frills or discount carrier) is an airline that offers generally low fares in exchange for eliminating many traditional passenger services. The model represented by the (LCC) or low cost carrier is not an innovation, some of the LCC are linked to major and traditional airlines companies, but its evolution has quickly become the dominant management model and through the development of the Internet has experienced the most growth. Though many airlines offer fares at a reduced rate on one or more of their routes at particular times, the simple act of offering cheap fares does not necessarily make them a LCC. Low cost carrier with the specific aim of operating with a lower cost structure than traditional operators in order to create lower fares. Greater efficiency and cost savings have been achieved in a variety of ways, most notably through increased aircraft and crew utilization aided by the use of aircraft operated in a single class with more seats than would be possible with business class. LCC tend to operate a single type of aircraft, a strategy that produces economies of scope in aircraft maintenance and flexibility in the use of crew. Savings is achieved by selling tickets directly to customers (often through Internet and call centre ticket sales) and therefore by-passing travel agents distribution channels, re-engineered business processes and negotiation to gain reductions in airport charges. Tourists such as business passengers with a need for frequent scheduling, inter-flight flexibility with differentiation being offered through personal space and comfort on-board, in flight entertainment and free food and alcoholic drinks, frequent flier programmes, free airport lounges and use of major city airports (typically with higher landing charges). All these features raise seat costs.

Leadership Perspectives and Theories

Leadership Perspectives and Theories Discussion about two fundamentally different perspectives toward leadership development ‘Leaders are born and ‘Leadership skills can be developed. Leadership is seen as an important component of any organisations structure because at all levels in an organisation there tend to be positions of authority. In every organisation there will be people under the control of people with higher job titles and status, for example, employees under the power of team leader, i.e., precisely stating â€Å"subordinates under the control of super ordinates (Finchman, R. et al, 2003).† Though there is a wide range of definitions of leadership, it can be generally be defined as the ability to motivate and influence other people to perform tasks and achieve objectives which otherwise they wouldnt be willing to do. Moreover, leadership depends upon the context in which it occurs along with an understanding of the needs and opinions of its followers. But, still there has been a lot of argument and debate concerning the difference between management and leadership. It is true that differences between the two terms can be put neatly on paper, but still it is suggested that the distinctions between the two are vague, with the two qualities usually overlapping each other in business context. This is because it is believed that every manager is bound to possess leadership qualities to be able to work effectively towards the success of an organisation. As literature states, there have been different perspectives relating to leadership development. They basically are the Trait Approaches, Behavioural Approaches, Contingency theories and the Transformational theories of leadership. The trait theory believes that leaders are born and possess certain personality traits beforehand which ultimately lead them to take on a powerful dominant position. Behavioural approaches look for certain ideal behavioural patterns in the leaders and contingency theories state that there is no one idealistic leadership quality and that leaders should modify their qualities and skills according to the situational demands as well as relating to the cultural and organisational context of the organisation. Finally, the transformational theories introduce the emergence of the new leader with qualities such as being visionary, inspirational and participative along with encouraging change. According to theories and researches conducted, it is pointed out that a good leader would be the one who understands himself, his fellow and group members with whom he interacts and the company along with the broader social environment in which he works to be able to choose wisely his skills. Also, he is able to behave appropriately in times of perceptions that are very importantly relevant to his behaviour, i.e., to be able to direct when called for direction and to be able to provide freedom when there is requirement of participative freedom. They are believed to establish direction and are expected to encourage people to come into their strategies and plans. Also, there are some leadership skills which are considered indispensable. These generally include an ability to have an intuition and judgement, the intelligence factor, motivation, assertiveness, risk- taking ability, smart enough to analyse situations and take actions, relevant knowledge and many more. Now, here we are concerned with the two fundamentally different perspectives of whether ‘Leaders are born or ‘Leadership skills can be developed towards the development of leadership qualities and their respective implications on the development of management in an organisation. However, choosing one perspective can sometimes be difficult. This is due to fact that leadership being such a subjective topic, it is impossible to believe in a single perspective. Both the perspectives are right to an extent of their own. It is indeed a true fact that there are born Leaders. Moreover, the old age saying that ‘Leaders are born and not made even gets stronger by looking at all the examples of great and historic leaders, like Hitler, Mother Teresa, etc. These leaders gained their status and respect because of their strong personalities or some in-born attributes which are difficult to come through training and development. It is an elusive charisma in some people which ultimately makes them World leaders and the followers look up to them. And these certain qualities looked in a leader are generally the ones that are the in-grown traits of ones personality, for instance the ability to have an intuition and vision, motivation factor and the natural intelligence. These are all characteristics which differ from person to person. Also, by birth certain kind of talent is already embedded in a few people because of which they stand apart and go on to the path of becoming a leader. For example: A person wh o is an average basketball player will never be able to achieve the skills which Michael Jordan excels at in spite of getting the best training, putting in all his efforts and practising to the fullest. Though, his skills would improve but never to that extent. And hence, we see that the concept of born leaders is existent. But then to what extent can this be seen to be true? Should we believe that the skills by birth are just the skills to be possessed to become leaders, i.e., there can be no self-development for a person lacking the so called necessary skills to become a leader. Here comes a noteworthy point that, by just being born with talent, it isnt necessary that one becomes a leader. Unless and until one works on the pursuit of perfection and improvement, he/she will not be able to able to become a Leader. In fact, all the great leaders who reached their status today did so due to their hard work and maybe went through some sort of learning process. It was necessary for them also to hone and develop their skills and learn from their predecessors. For example : It was seen that President John.F.Kennedy though made a great leader, maybe for some people, due to his charm persona but the fact was that he also had some learning from London School of Economics and he also undertook a Leadership training program in the military services during World War II. Moreover, there is a problem associated with identifying what kinds of leadership skills are apt. When it comes to choosing Leadership positions in organisations, the organisations generally look out for expertise, work experience and the respective seniority levels. They look for people with strong or charismatic personalities, who are commanding and can manage other people well by mesmerizing them with their stage presence. However, these are usually wrong indicators of choosing great leaders. This is seen from the fact that even the extraordinary organisations having the most intelligent, experiences and insightful board of directors have made the errors of choosing the wrong leaders. In California, when there was a rapid-change in the technology sector due to the growth of internet IPOs, HP realised that they needed a leadership change with a leader with a freshly new business perspective to help control its languishing stock prices and stalling growth. For this they hired a lead er who had won quite a lot of business titles and had had an impressing background. But, in the hands of the new leader, the company suffered its first loss, lost many jobs and saw a decrease in their stock prices. But, contrastingly, in the hands of the former down-to-earth CEO, HPs annual sales increased. This showed that leadership plays an important role in the success or failure of an organisation, yet still many companies do not have effective Leadership Development programmes in place and they indulge and invest in it only in terms of emergencies. A research conducted by the Institute of Leadership Management showed that a significant proportion of business leaders today must owe the credit to the gaining of their leadership skills from experiences learnt outside the school, as 12 percent left school before the age of 16 and only one-third of them (31 percent) had a University degree on leaving full time education. These statistics, therefore, state that in order to achieve success, academic qualifications might not be a pre-requisite and leadership skills can be developed through coaching and formal training also with an effective development programme in place. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, showed traits of becoming a future leader from childhood. But since he didnt have an academic degree he was not seen to be fit for the description of a classic leader. When he joined JC Penny as a management trainee, he always worked hard but then his paperwork wasnt up to the mark because of which his boss always told him that he wasn t fit for retail industry. At last, he resigned, not to sit back but to open his own firm which gave competition to JC Penny and surpassed it in retail dominance. This example suggests that in spite of not having academic qualification, Sam Walton would have been a great leader for JC Penny, if it had an effective system to tap the leadership potential in him. Hence, the above points suggest that leadership skills can definitely be developed not only through leadership training development programmes but also from real-life learning experiences arising on the job front. Hence, the perspective ‘Leadership skills can be developed holds more importance than the perspective ‘Leaders were born. However, no amount of teaching can ever fully help a person to know about leadership. Leadership is a phenomenon which can always be learnt through practical application. Leadership skills can be developed by watching other leaders, i.e., role models and emulating their behaviour. Leaders also enhance their skills by realising the fact that one can never get stuck in a situation. Even if one fails in a task, one needs to use that lesson to enhance his performance in future. This shows that the only failure they see is the failure to not learn from a mistake. They also improve by using the feedback from their supervisors, peers and junior colleagues to get better results. Moreover they learn by trying out new things and then review their performance critically. The best thing about the development of leadership skills and not assuming the notion of born leaders is that, leadership training helps to bring out certain behavioural aspects like character, passion and vision in people not having them and builds them to develop skills which can be used in future for becoming effective leaders. Furthermore, according to an article written by James Brava, teaching leadership skills to front-line managers through the support of the organisation as well as senior leaders can help lead to an improvement in an organisations flexibility to change and productivity. This is due to the fact that if front-line managers become leaders they can make decisions, can then use their own judgement and implement improvement. These techniques will assist in increasing employee engagement and employee motivation and thereby have a positive impact on management development in terms of an organisations performance level. A contrary point to note here is that, certain leadership skills even though believed to be associated with a persons character only, can still be developed among people to a great extent and affect the development of management of an organisation in a worth notable point. This means that if a person does not have skills to lead, he should not fall for the development of non-leadership aspects as there are a number of places to demonstrate ones leadership abilities. There are a lot many number of qualities looked in a person to become a leader which have already been mentioned relating to ability, motivation and sociability. But, the recent developments in the field of leadership show that it is not the just the old-age qualities of authority and intelligence that are enough to become a leader. No doubt, Intelligence is needed but rather than IQ and relevant knowledge, emotional intelligence is the pre-requisite to become a great leader. Emotional intelligence is the key factor which distinguishes star-leaders form the average leaders. Here we see a number of leadership skills that can be developed and how it might affect the development and learning of skills by managers for their own good as well as for their organisations. Emotional intelligence, a quality associated with leadership can definitely be learned, but it requires time and commitment. Hence, it is not believed that a person should have this trait by birth. Although, sometimes genetics do not play an important part in this as our parents qualities of empathy can be imbibed into us by birth. Self awareness is an aspect of emotional intelligence which tends to work for the organisation resulting in increasing its and its employees performance by being aware of the fact that how their feelings will affect themselves as well as of their colleagues. Also, motivation is an indispensable virtual quality of leadership which aims at achieving for the sake of achieving and not for external rewards. Even though, this can be seen as a personality trait to be associated with the concept of ‘born leaders, still it can be developed with course while learning in an organisation when one introspects about his passion for work, doesnt get disappointed with failures and has an urge for commitment towards his organisation. Therefore, it isnt difficult to see the outcomes of motivation for organisational management development. This can be seen from the fact that people with such qualities can always lead to the building of a team with managers sharing the same qualities. Also, as one sets a high performance bar for oneself, so will he for his employing organisation leading to the latters success. ‘Born or classic leaders are often seen as the ones having fiery temperaments because their outbursts are often associated with their respective style marks of charisma and power. And hence self-regulation is generally not seen as a good trait of leaders. But self-regulation is a quality which is necessary to be developed among leaders because it leads to the creation of a fair and trusted environment reducing politics and infighting and hence an increase in productivity. More so, it has a positive effect on managing development as employees want to be level-headed instead of hot-heads considering their leaders being calm and less moody. As a consequence, talent flocks to the organisation. In terms of environment changes, management development needs arise which can be taken care of effectively if managers are in control of their emotions. This is because in such a scenario they do not panic and tend to accept the challenges in a positive way. Empathy is another quality which is rarely seen to exist in the concept of ‘leaders are born. This is because according to this concept, they usually have attributes which are seen as being autocratic and exploitive. And hence, the perspective regarding born leaders might seem to fail here. Empathy or consideration skill is strongly recommended as a component of leadership due to it being effective while dealing with teams, diversification in organisations and for retaining talent in todays competitive market-world. It is usually developed while working in a team where there can be a mismatch and misunderstanding among the viewpoints of the members. This helps leaders develop their skills of understanding and recognising the emotional makeup of the team leading to collaboration among employees which can ultimately lead to higher job market for the organisation. Also, in order to keep good talent within their organisation coaching and mentoring is necessary for which empathy ski lls are needed. Therefore, a leader having these skills will effectively provide good coaching which leads to an increase in job performance along with job satisfaction and less attrition rate. Another fact which proves that Leadership skills can be developed can be seen during situations when a persons leadership skills might come under a test. This can seem to happen in terms of a crisis as was in the case of Intel Israel. During the First Gulf War when Iraq was resorting to its Scub missile attacks, the operation of the Intels firm unit in Israel was at stake because the civil defence directive had ordered organisational units to close down ensuring safety. But Dov Frohman continued the normal operations as he was concerned about the companys survival and success as he considered that a core aspect of leadership. Also, according to his belief during such situations there are three major points a leader should develop focus on the survival of the organisation in the long-term giving it the highest priority, going against what everyone says and expects to do and finally trusting ones instinct. As a result of following these qualities, commitments to Intel were met for the future of Israels high tech economy as well as for Intel Israel, because of which it today is â€Å"the headquarters for the companys global RD and product development in wireless technology as well as a major centre for chip fabrication (Harvard Business Review, December 2006)†. Also, following these three rules not only help deal with the situation aptly but also thinks about the organisations success which is the basic rule of leadership and management development. Moreover, this can be seen as a time for managers to be able to learn and develop skills not only for their own good but even for their organisation. In all organisations it is seen that management generally means conducting, controlling, directing and linking. But an article by Henry Mintzberg who has studied a lot of managers and management in a symphony orchestra, states that Covert Leadership, an aspect which can seem to develop might be better than overtly display of leadership. This is because in todays world knowledge and trained workers respond to inspiration and not supervision because they know what to do. According to him, management in a symphony orchestra can be seen as a good deal of what managing in todays world is all about. The article throws light on the fact that though the conductor manages all its musicians, but he does so in a covert way be it controlling, directing or developing culture. It showed that what is generally seen as conventional leading is seen as operations doing in the context of an orchestra because the conductor got involved directly and personally in all the tasks getting done. Also it was s een that extreme supervision isnt necessary today and that the coordination can occur independently, but however certain amount of power is necessary. Lastly it is noted that though the conductor managed all the inside operations, he was also concerned with the external networking for his orchestra. Hence, a positive outcome of covert leadership on management development is that it not only satisfies employees but in the end it also tends to give a feeling of satisfaction to the leader. And if managers accept this trait of leadership and follow all the six qualities of internal controlling, leading and doing along with external communication, linking and dealing, they can raise the organisation to a high level. Furthermore, it is evident that in todays modern world every manager or leader is faced with the dilemma of being torn between which leadership style to use and when democratic or authoritative. According to the earlier times, leaders were just seen as ones possessing the required intelligence, vision and the ability to empower others. But todays scenario sees the fact that leadership skills tend to be developed and be used according to the demand of the situation. A continuum developed by Tannenbaum and Schmidt concerning the authoritative versus democratic choice of leadership style, shows that any one of these extremes (either emphasis on manager or on the subordinate centred behaviour) isnt apt and that there are a range of behaviours which are best to use when necessary. The decision of what leadership style to use is highly influenced by factors which concern managers behaviour, non-managers or subordinates behaviours and the situational aspects. If a manager understands his p ersonality traits effectively, he is likely to know clearly which style to use. The situational factors such as organisation type (might approve certain behaviours and not others), group effectiveness (how well people coordinate together to resolve issues), nature of problem (depends on whether subordinates have relevant knowledge about the problem) and time constraints (depends upon the criticalness of the situation) also affect the way a manager thinks in decision-making situation). Similarly, a clear understanding about the employees behaviour and their expectations or demands from him, can help him decide to be permissive or coercive. This can ultimately lead to the development of good and flexible communicative relationships among organisation members leading to the creation of good work teams, i.e. the development of management which ultimately can affect an organisations success rate. Therefore, whatever is the case, the implications would always be in the favour of the organ isation with the manager being flexible and insightful so as not to face the issue of leadership dilemma. Finally, in the end wed like to discuss two main important points. Firstly, how companies can create leadership development programmes in order to tap the talent of people showing the capabilities of becoming future leaders. In regard to this, companies ought to create a development profile needed for identifying strong leader including qualities they think should be suitable for their particular company or the industry. On completion of the creation of profile, the company can use a number of effective assessment tools like psychometric tests, employee surveys, feedback reviews etc. to identify these characteristics in their employees. Secondly, we need to discuss critically as to what we need whether it is the image of a heroic leader with a vision, inspiration and charisma or the image of a manager who can organise, plan and control issues in an organisation. In the beginning, it was mentioned that there are differences between management and leadership but they usually overlap. However, arguably it is seen that now there has been a widening gap between managers and leaders. According to studies in the twenty-first century, it was seen that a new perspective of transformational leaders came into being. These transformational super leaders had all the characteristics which were suitable during a hostile and a rapidly changing environment. This new leader had the ability to create visions of what can happen in future and was able to communicate them. These traits indicated the difference between management and leadership according to some writers. But a more recent study of leadership trends stated that such views could be dangerous and that what is more importantly required is the capabilities of change management. According to a lot of writers the concept of visionary leaders is not good as they can destabilize the organisation. For instance, in the opinion of Jim Collins, leaders who are seen to be world class are generally not effective, and it is the senior ordinary managers or executive which actually handle work well by combining both humility and persistence. Moreover, it is believed that the efforts of these middle managers should be appreciated because in spite of them not being top managers they still are implemental in starting and aiming change. Finally these repercussions against the concept of new leaders, leads back to the argument between the distinction of management and leadership suggesting that now leadership destabilises while management drives change. To sum it all, it can be said that though leadership skills are developed but still in-born traits are sometimes necessary and that in reality organisational change occurs due to the help of competent managers and not because of the concept of leaders possessing charismatic visionaries and personalities. (3898 words excluding references) Works Cited Brava, J., (n.d.) Are Frontline Leadership Skills Instinctive or Learnt?. Available: http://ezinearticles.com/?Are-Frontline-Leadership-Skills-Instinctive-Or-Learnt?id=3231942. Last accessed January, 2010. Britains Bosses Learn to Lead at an Early Age. (n.d.). Available: http://www.i-l-m.com/research-and-comment/1449.aspx. Last accessed January, 2010. Buchanan, D., Huczynski, A. (2004). Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, 5th Edition, London: FT Prentice Hall. Donaldson, D., (n.d.) Can Leadership Training Make Great Leaders?. Available: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Can-Leadership-Training-Make-Great-Leaders-/509240. Last accessed January, 2010. Finchman, R., Rhodes, P. (2003). Principles of Organizational Behaviour, 3rd Edition, Oxford: University Press. Frohman, D. (2006). Leadership Under Fire, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 84, No. 12, pp. 124-131. Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader?, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 93-102. Hurst, R. (September 10th, 2007). Is a leader born or made?. Available: http://leadershiptrainingdevelopment.com/is-a-leader-born-or-made. Last accessed January, 2010. Leadership Development Are Leaders Born or Made?. (n.d.). Available: http://www.impactfactory.com/gate/registered/leadership_skills_training_development/registeredgate_1619-9103-73572.html. Last accessed January, 2010. MacDoanld, D. (December 8th, 2009), Why is it so hard for companies to find great leaders?. Available: http://learnthis.ca/2009/12/the-problem-with-leadership/. Last accessed January, 2010. Mintzberg, H. (1998). Covert Leadership: Notes on Managing Professionals, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp. 140-147. Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. (1973). How to Choose a Leadership Pattern, Harvard Business Review , 51(3), 162-180.

What is ATM? Essay -- ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode Research Essays

What is ATM? Before the discussion of wireless ATM can begin, the concept of ATM in general needs to be discussed. ATM, or by its more formal name Asynchronous Transfer Mode, is a basic packet-based networking system designed for the simultaneous transmissions of voice, video, and data. In the mid 1980s, the major telecommunication companies decided that they needed a new network to handle the surge of video and data, along with voice, traffic being sent over their existing networks. From this, the concept of ATM was born. From an increasing need to handle data traffic, which is inherently packet-based, as well as voice traffic, ATM was designed to work as a packet-switched network. In a packet-switched network, all traffic is broken into small pieces, which are easier to transmit than one large chunk of data. The problem with using this type of network design for ATM is that the old telephone network is circuit-switched, or in other words creates a physical direct connection between the so urce and destination during the transmission. ATM, therefore, is designed so that it can handle circuit-switched traffic on its packet-switched backbone. To accomplish this, ATM creates virtual circuit connections over the packet-based network between the source and the destination. These virtual circuit connections provision a set number of network resources dedicated to the connection between a specific source and destination, making it appear to the old telephone network that a circuit connection is established. This allows an ATM network to guarantee the same or greater quality of service for voice traffic as the old telephone network does, while at the same time providing a much greater level of service for data and video tra... ... shifted to wireless IP-based systems. This shift is mostly due to IP’s built-in ability to handle transmission errors in the realm of wireless communications. Works Cited 1) Ayanoglu, E., K.Y. Eng, M.J. Karol, â€Å"Wireless ATM: Limits, Challenges, and Proposals†, http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cache/papers2/cs/1647/http:zSzzSzwww.exit109.comzSz~enderzSzwatm.pdf/wireless-atm-limits-challenges.pdf, 1996. 2) Black, U. â€Å"ATM: Foundation for Broadband Networks†, Prentice Hall, 1995. 3) Peterson, L. and B. Davie. Computer Networks: A Systems Approach. 2nd edition, Morgan Kaufman, 2000. 4) Wasi, Atif S., â€Å"Wireless ATM†, ftp.netlab.ohio-stat,edu/pub/es/cis788-95/wireless_atm/index.htm, 1995. 5) â€Å"Wand Overview†, www.tik.ee.ethz.ch/~wand/SUMMARY/WAND_97.htm, 1996, 1997, 1998.

African American Social Standings Essay -- Slavery Afircan Americans E

This research paper will discuss the African American social standing in America throughout history. It will discuss the highs and lows and the pros and cons of the progression and also the different periods that African Americans lived through since they were brought to America.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The progression of African Americans in America began with a practice called slavery. Slavery is the state of a person who is the chattel of another. It began in 1441 when Portuguese men kidnapped 12 black Africans from Cabo Blanco and moved them to Portugal. This opened the door to slavery in the Americas. A British statesman stated that 'Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.' The first African Americans slaves in America were brought to Jamestown, Virginia as servants and or slaves in August 1619. In order for slavery to work Africans had to made to seem inferior, one of the main an most common ways to show this was through religious racism ( Aretha, David pg. 21 ) The practice of slavery was then sent to the south were they were put on plantations. Plantations consisted of a large mansion like home surrounded by a large farm where slaves planted and harvested crops and performed other jobs which they weren?t paid for. While on the plantation the slaves ca lled the owner Master or Mistress, they provided the slaves with food housing and clothing.( David Brion Davis, World Book online... Slavery) While on these plantations many of the slaves faced severe consequence for disobedience. They received consequences for not working hard or fast enough, they would also be used as an example in order to control the others. Their harsh punishment would include branding, whipping, mutilation, chaining and sometimes the harshest punishment of all cold blooded murder. Slavery was one of the worst periods in American history. During this period of slavery there were few revolts but many runaways. While slavery continued to spread and get more brutal in the South, the North disagreed with the idea of free labor. Their difference fueled the abolitionist movement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Abolitionist Movement was the first movement that lead to the African Americans? political and physical freedoms from slavery. ?Antislavery activity began in colonial days. During the 1680's, Quakers in Pennsylvania condemned slavery on moral grounds. In the late 1700's, several leaders of the American revolut... ...han the Non Violent Movement. Front runners like Malcolm X and other influential faces such as Huey P. Newton and Bud Siegel who together formed the Black Panthers all believed that the white man was the problem and that in order to win equal rights that African Americans needed to start fighting fire with fire and bullets with bullets instead of the more passive ways of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. ( Aretha, Chronicles pr. 261-300)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion I believe that the law has provided African Americans with equal rights as whites but I believe that they may still appear not to be equal. In the 21st century I belive and know that there are many laws that seem to make African Americans and white equals but there is still much discrimination in the world. I also believe that the racism is not as bad but still exist, it just isn?t as blatant and in your face as it was in the past. African Americans still have trouble getting jobs, being accepted into organizations and colleges or university, But I do believe that we have made a 900 degree turn from the time where ?Colored? and ?White? signs decorated the front of every doorway, restroom and waterfountian in the southern U.S

Too Much Science in Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Essay -- Psychology

Too Much Science? In the 1930s, Europe began to fall under the shadow of socialism with the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the Communist Revolution in Russia, and the Fascist uprising in Italy. Americans tried to ignore this growing crisis in Europe for as long as possible; even some in the United Kingdom were not unduly concerned with this sudden change. Some people, including authors Aldous Huxley, were startled and put their fears down on paper. Huxley’s Brave New World shows an unsettling optimistic front that covers the disturbing reality of a futuristic socialist world. After the war ended, more novels about the socialism appeared, George Orwell’s 1984 and B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two as a few examples, though they are complete opposites on the views of socialism presented. In Walden Two, the tone is very positive. The head of the community, a man named T.E. Frazier, explains every aspect of the thriving communal settlement to a group of curious enquirers. The party includes an old colleague of Frazier’s, a psychology professor named Burris, a philosophy professor named Augustine Castle, and two veteran soldiers from World War Two named Steve Jamnik and Rogers, along with their girlfriends Mary Grove and Barbara Macklin, respectively. Frazier walks them through all the workings of the Walden Two community, from the agricultural processes, sheep herding techniques, and work schedules to the moral code, education system, and personal relationships. He says that one of the problems with the United States government is that it does not use the scientific process to find out what the people of the nation need and want. He claims that everything runs so smoothly in Walden Two because the community is... ...t provider for people of all ages and races, with equality of the sexes and gentle behavioral engineering that encourages art and science. Huxley’s Brave New World, on the other hand, shows how drastically wrong genetic and behavioral sciences could go if allowed to do so. Both novels show how communal living solves numerous social problems, though Walden Two has a much more peaceful setting instead of the mock one created by Huxley. The question both books bring up is how far the human race should allow science to go before we become carbon copies of each other or even completely inhuman. But then, how far is too far? Works Cited Skinner, B.F. Walden Two. United States of America: Prentice Hall, 1976. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. [c1932]; Huxley.com, 1998. 16 September 2004. . Too Much Science in Walden Two by B.F. Skinner Essay -- Psychology Too Much Science? In the 1930s, Europe began to fall under the shadow of socialism with the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, the Communist Revolution in Russia, and the Fascist uprising in Italy. Americans tried to ignore this growing crisis in Europe for as long as possible; even some in the United Kingdom were not unduly concerned with this sudden change. Some people, including authors Aldous Huxley, were startled and put their fears down on paper. Huxley’s Brave New World shows an unsettling optimistic front that covers the disturbing reality of a futuristic socialist world. After the war ended, more novels about the socialism appeared, George Orwell’s 1984 and B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two as a few examples, though they are complete opposites on the views of socialism presented. In Walden Two, the tone is very positive. The head of the community, a man named T.E. Frazier, explains every aspect of the thriving communal settlement to a group of curious enquirers. The party includes an old colleague of Frazier’s, a psychology professor named Burris, a philosophy professor named Augustine Castle, and two veteran soldiers from World War Two named Steve Jamnik and Rogers, along with their girlfriends Mary Grove and Barbara Macklin, respectively. Frazier walks them through all the workings of the Walden Two community, from the agricultural processes, sheep herding techniques, and work schedules to the moral code, education system, and personal relationships. He says that one of the problems with the United States government is that it does not use the scientific process to find out what the people of the nation need and want. He claims that everything runs so smoothly in Walden Two because the community is... ...t provider for people of all ages and races, with equality of the sexes and gentle behavioral engineering that encourages art and science. Huxley’s Brave New World, on the other hand, shows how drastically wrong genetic and behavioral sciences could go if allowed to do so. Both novels show how communal living solves numerous social problems, though Walden Two has a much more peaceful setting instead of the mock one created by Huxley. The question both books bring up is how far the human race should allow science to go before we become carbon copies of each other or even completely inhuman. But then, how far is too far? Works Cited Skinner, B.F. Walden Two. United States of America: Prentice Hall, 1976. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. [c1932]; Huxley.com, 1998. 16 September 2004. .

European History Essay

The way the eastern civilization would live is how people dream of living today. The eastern peoples put others above themselves. The way the western civilization used to live is how we live today: caring about ourselves for the most part. Even though the eastern side of living is how most people wanted to live, there are some positive characteristics of the western side that are worth incorporating. A common problem today is that we don’t think. A trait of eastern culture is the being contemplative. There are countless problems that could be avoided if thought would have gone into the situation. Life is a strategy that is filled with decisions. It is inevitable that mistakes will be made, but there will be less if you think before you act. In life there are always consequences for your actions. What most people don’t realize is that there can be positive consequences. This is something that the western civilization honored; the rewards or the positive consequences of the life they lived. Having the good things in your life isn’t as rewarding as working for the grand prize. Towards the end of your life, what will you have that reflects what you work for? In the eastern civilization, working with less is held high in standards. As the years go by, people always want more and more but is it really necessary? For example, heated seats and electronic windows are nice in our vehicles but we don’t actually need them. The eastern peoples learned to work with what they were given, even if it was less than what they wanted. Technology is taking over the world. With this new interference with human life, the beautiful art of work will soon be forgotten. There are amazing things that humans can do as long as they work for it. The western civilization figured this out and put activity high on the list of standards. Life is short and there may be things that we miss if we don’t work to see what it has in store for us. Both the eastern and western civilization contain characteristics that would benefit the human race. A mixture of the two would be a perfect way to live. Placing others higher in value than yourself is a trait that isn’t common in the world today. Even though, putting others first is something great, you need to think about yourself too. You only have one life and one chance to make it the best. Do what makes you happy and you will see that others will come with you.

A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story Movie Essay

Is it characters, the storyline, or overall message that makes a movie great? There have been numerous movies made, but just a few have had a sincere impact on people. A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story did just that. It is about a transgender teenage and his amazing journey to self discovery to live life as a woman. It is a true based television movie the premiere in 2006 on Lifetime Movie Network. It is starring JD Pardo as the main character Eddie/Gwen Araujo and Mercedes Ruehl as his mother Sylvia Guerrero. This true based movie works, because it keeps the view’s attention up to the end. The movie begins with Eddie, his mother, and sibling movies into a new house after his mother left his abusive father. Eddie and his family attend his grandfather’s birthday party where Eddie is dress in his sister’s pink party dress by his sister and cousins then present to his family to see. As a child Eddie likes to play dress-up by wearing his mother’s clothes and lip. His strange habits worry her mother, so she has him checked out by a doctor that tells her Eddie is fine. In high school Eddie decides to become Gwen by dressing like a girl, growing his hair, and wearing make-up. Gwen tells his mother that he is spending the night at his best friends, but instead he go to a party. His best friend calls his phone, which his mother answers to discover that Gwen never showed up at her house. The police find Gwen’s body buried in the wilderness wrapped in a shower curtain, which they then inform his family. Gwen was strangled to death with a rope by four yo ung men after they discover that she was a male. The movie ends with Gwen’s murders facing trial for the horrible crime they committed and becoming sentence. On the whole, the film remains a story of a young man who wishes to live life as a woman in world. The movie is completely overflowing with scenes that are uplifting and tear-jerking. An excellent cast of actors helps A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story achieve its success. Gwen’s story allows the viewers to see that even though we live in a modern society there are still somethings people consider something be wrong. Some people feel that being gay or transgender is wrong based on the up bring and religious beliefs. This movie helps get the message across that being transgender is a condition that someone is born. A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story is an excellent movie. If you like movies with drama and realism than A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story is the film for you. During the movie, viewers gain an understanding of transgender people and issues they face in their daily lives. A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, a moving drama about a young man’s courage to make a daring decision to live as a girl and face the world. In today’s modern society there are individuals that still deal with being transgender on a daily basis. If a tragedy like Gwen’s was to occur again, there are now stricter laws on punishment for it. If a hate crime is committed, which none of Gwen’s murders were charged with would end in serious jail time. No one deserves to be killed, because of his or her race, sexuality, or religion. The movie tells viewers that tolerance is the crucial asset for the 21st century and it has got no room for anything else.

Multiple Regression Model

Project: Multiple Regression Model Introduction Today’s stock market offers as many opportunities for investors to raise money as jeopardies to lose it because market depends on different factors, such as overall observed country’s performance, foreign countries’ performance, and unexpected events. One of the most important stock market indexes is Standard & Poor's 500 (S 500) as it comprises the 500 largest American companies across various industries and sectors. Many people put their money into the market to get return on investment.Investors ask themselves questions like how to make money on the stock market and is there a way to predict in some degree how the stock market will behave? There are lots and lots of variables involved in how the stock market behaves at a specific time. The stock market is in a way an information agency. Based on new information, whether good or bad regarding almost everything from political issues to interest rates and inflation, the stock market can go up or down. The market is anticipating economic occurrences proactively, ignoring already occurred events that were predicted before.This way it is very hard to predict how it is going to move in the future. As S 500 is considered to be the most reliable benchmark  for the overall U. S. stock market, we decided to study what factor has the most impact on it. We created two regression models and included the economic indicators, such as Consumer Price Index, Producer Price Index, House Price index, Interest Rate, Unemployment Rate, and Gross Domestic Product of some countries. Model Specification and Data How accurately can we predict the stock market behavior?People working in the finance industry have been trying to estimate or predict the behavior of stock market for a long time, or maybe some of them already have a very long and complex model of predicting the behavior of a stock market based on many factors and variables. We decided to use the US econo mic indicators and the other countries’ GDP. With this research we are hoping to find a statistically significant model that would describe what affects the stock market. We used the average annual data from 1980 to 2011 to track the influence on the US market. Our data is a time-series data.It is very interesting since within these 31 years there were a lot of changes in the countries’ economies, financial regulations and policies. At the very beginning, we assumed that the following factors may have influence on stock market: S (Percentage Change) = ? 0 + ? 1*(Annual CPI) + ? 2*(Annual Average PPI) + ? 3*(Annual Average House Price Index) + ? 4*(Annual Average Interest Rate) + ? 5*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of US) + ? 6*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of Spain) + ? 7*(Percentage Change of Annual Average GDP of Germany) 1: Consumer Price Index reflects the state of inflation in the country’s economy. That indicator is very important in th e assessment of the stock market performance. If inflation grows, the interest rate rises and this prevents the companies to borrow money for further development of their businesses. This entire situation may hurt the stock prices of the companies and that’s why we wanted to see how big the impact is. We assume that this variable is going affect the dependent variable a lot. ?2: Producer Price Index indicates early state of inflation.Therefore, if investors know that the PPI heralds a strong economy with no increase in an interest rate, then they feel confident to invest in the businesses what means increased positive activity in the market. We assume that this variable is going to have some impact on the dependent variable however; it is not going to be crucial. ?3: House Price Index is an analytical tool for estimating changes in the rates of mortgages. If mortgage rates are high, then housing market is weak because demand for houses drops due to expensive loans, therefore HPI drops.In 2008 mortgage default affected stock market very severely because before that period house prices went down because people couldn’t pay their mortgage payments and banks collapsed. Decrease in house prices is one of the possible contributors to recession because the home owners lose their equity in their houses. Considering such recession scenario, the stock market always becomes bearish. Additionally, house market is considered more stable investment than stock market. When stock market drops, people are willing in the houses and HPI goes up.We assume that HPI and stock market shouldn’t move in the same direction thereby we don’t take into consideration the complex scenario of 2008. ?4: 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate impacts on the number of issued bond and is used as risk free rate to calculate the excess return on the investment. It also has an influence on the stock market. ?5: Gross Domestic Product of the US is important for business profit and this can drive the stock prices up. Investing in the stock market seems reasonable when the economy is doing well.If the economy is growing fast then the stock market should be affected positively, the investors are more optimistic about the future and they put more money into market more. This variable is crucial for the dependent one. ?6: Gross Domestic Product of Spain. Since Europe is currently in a recession, we wanted to include the GDP of Spain, as one of the weakest economies in Europe now, to check if there is any relationship between Spain’s economy and the US stock market performance. Very small percentage of US investments goes to Spain.Compared to Germany, which is the 5th country the USA invests into, Spain is the 31st country on the list. There should not be any correlation between these two variables, so we included Spain’s GDP into our regression to check our hypothesis. ?7: Gross Domestic Product of Germany is an indicator of Germany is the 5th largest economy in the world and is the largest European trade and investment partner of the US. Germany is the largest economy in Europe and almost 1/5 of GDP of the European Union is that of Germany alone. We assume that this variable has to have an impact on the US stock market.The second regression model is the following: S (Annual Average) = ? 0 + ? 1*(Annual CPI) + ? 2*(Annual Average House Price Index) + ? 3*(Annual Average Interest Rate) + ? 4*(Average Annual Unemployment Rate) + ? 5*(Annual Average GDP of US) + ? 6*(Annual Average GDP of Germany) + ? 7*(Annual Average GDP of China) After we run the regression of the second model, it resulted in improving of our model accuracy. We excluded PPI, GDP of Spain because it came out that these variables have no impact on the US stock market.Also, we added the unemployment rate and GDP of China because it is the largest US business partner. Here is the explanation of the new variables: Unemployment Rate is one of the most impo rtant factors of the economy’s performance. High unemployment rate decreases the buyer power of the consumers. 2/3 of the US economy is consumer based and it influences the stock market negatively. We assume that there is a relationship between these two variables. Gross Domestic Product of China affects the US economy because cheap export from China prevents inflation in the US.China is a huge buyer of the US Treasuries. It lowers the interest rate and companies borrow money to invest in development hence, it directly affects the stock market. We assume that GDP of China and US stock market move in the same direction, meaning if China does well, it has money to buy US Treasuries. Additionally, the US stock market increases because production of those US companies that is outsourced to China grows. Results The First Model [pic] Looking at this model, we see that only the interest rate and GDP of US are statistically significant because they have P-values lower than 0. 05.The rest variables do not correlate with S because their P-values are high. Our assumption about Spain’s economy affecting the US stock market was proved. The coefficient we got for GDP of Spain is statistically insignificant. Looking at the US and Spain investment relationships in the broad aspect we see that Spain’s performance has no significant impact on the US stock market even considering its economic situation. PPI is a fraction of inflation and CPI also reflects inflation, so we decided to exclude one variable because two variables together cancelled each other out and we got defected result.As P-value is smaller compared to P-value of PPI, we decided to keep it in the second model. Looking at the adjusted R square which is 26 %, we concluded that model is deficient and we have to change the variables. The Second Model [pic] Each estimated coefficients we can interpret as follows: -For every 1 unit increase in Annual CPI, the S will go down by -25. 68 S points. Whe n inflation goes up, it causes interest rate to go up, therefore companies are not willing to borrow money and invest. Hence the S index moves in the opposite direction to CPI.The P-value of 0. 000368 implies that the results are statistically significant and it coincides with our assumption. -For every 1 unit increase in House Price Index, the S goes down by -7. 97 units, which tell us that when the price of houses rises, the stock market moves in the opposite direction and it shrinks because people invest in the housing market. The P-value of 0. 000028 shows it is a statistically significant outcome. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate, the S index goes up by 27. 4 units. It would imply that when interest rates go up then the stock market goes up as well, but the p-value of 0. 154 tells us the results are not statistically significant and we should not rely on this outcome. There is no correlation. -For every 1 unit increase in Annu al Average Unemployment Rate in US, the S goes down by 40. 44 units. The p-value of 0. 043 shows what we consider a statistically significant correlation. We can conclude that unemployment rate has a reverse impact on the stock market.When more people have jobs, more people have money to spend and to invest, hence the economy speeds up and the stock market goes up. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of US, the S goes up by 0. 601 index units. The p-value of 0. 00000069 shows the outcome is statistically significant, and implies that when the GDP of US grows meaning that the economy is doing better, investors are more confident and invest more and stock market also goes up. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of Germany, the S goes up by 0. 224 units.We assumed that when Germany is producing more products and their economy is doing well, then the stock market in US does somewhat better too because Germany and US have an economic interaction. The P-value of 0. 155 tells us that the relationship is not statistical significant to conclude the Annual Average GDP of Germany has a positive relationship with S. -For every 1 unit increase in Annual Average GDP of China, the S goes down by . 154 units. US economy as we know is affected by Chinese economy. When US companies move production overseas, specifically to China, the stock market in US does poorly.The P-value of 0. 005 means that this results is statistically significant. We did not find any violations with SLR/MLR assumptions. There appears to be no problem with the data and all the results are relevant. Summary The adjusted R2 of . 96 means that our regression of 96% explains the changes in S. We found out that the biggest correlation is observed between US GDP, CPI, HPI, and China’s GDP. We found out that the GDP of Germany and Interest Rate has no significant correlation with S predicted performance.As we explained above in the result section, the investors should look at US economy performance as well as China’s economic performance, CPI and HPI to try to predict the stock market behavior. References: 1. http://www. infoplease. com/ipa/A0774473. html 2. Federal Housing Finance Agency Web Site 3. U. S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of Economic Analysis Web Site 4. U. S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics Web Site 5. mhttp://research. stlouisfed. org/fred2/series/SP500/downloaddata? cid=32255