Potential Dangers of Hypnosis Essay

This composition was entailed to probe the dangers inflicted in humans by using hypnosis as means of mind therapy.   Many investigative reports have been compiled to get to the bottom of hypnosis and edify humans about it. As you read along, many issues will be discussed and you might as well find yourself fascinated by the world of hypnosis. Hypnosis is an instinctive psychological method in which vital thinking capacity of the mind is circumvent and a form of selective thinking and perception is recognized. This piece of writing will embark upon on the possible dangers caused by hypnotism on humans, as humans seek remedy on their ailment or plainly would want to experience the shot of hypnosis. Possible Menace and Difficulties of Hypnosis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To begin with, a number of psychologists and other mental health professionals are being apprehensive that practitioners of hypnosis who are unlicensed health professionals might bring about extreme emotions in their clients. Adverse consequences might occur when unexpectedly or decisively recalling traumatic events or, some believe, impulsive mental breakdowns. Fallacious memory accomplished by means of hypnosis has formed outstandingly in many investigations done by the authorities and court cases, as well as cases of alleged sexual abuse. Until now, there is no scientific approach to provide evidence that any of these recollections are absolutely precise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whichever tool can be utilized either to benefit us or harm us. The person using hypnosis is the one drawing danger interrelated with hypnosis.   Threat does not come from the tool itself, but rather from the person using it.   The true menace lies in an incompetent therapy at the hands of unscrupulous hypnotist (Niehaus, p. 67). Another thing that can explain why hypnosis is treacherous, the mind loses its capability to differentiate between reality and flight of the imagination (truth and error). It also hold backs one’s ability to tell the difference between factual memories and suggested or engrafted memories. That can be harmful because if you can be easily hoodwinked, then anybody can take benefit from this lucky break. On the way to the end of 1994, the death of Sharon Tabarn shocked the Great Britain. Her story of death was all over tabloids.   She died several hours after involving herself in a hypnotic show performed by a young hypnotist by the name of Andrew Vincent. When the call was made asking for volunteers, Sharon, a 24-year-old mother of two daughters had experienced that inner inclination to put herself forward into the hands of Vincent. Sharon was evidently one of the foremost stars of the show as Vincent did his routine through a Madonna technique and other out of the ordinary post-hypnotic suggestions. As the show came to a close Vincent told her that he will count from one to three and clap his hands, and as he clap his hands she will feel 10,000 volts of electricity will be directed through her chair and it will bring too much pain. The next morning, Sharon was found dead in her bed. Sharon received a bad electric shock experience as a child and ever since that day, she had a great fear of electricity. Due to Sharon’s fear or phobia about electricity, the fact that she was a deep- reverie subject, and the senseless, dreadful and malevolent suggestion of experiencing a 10,000-volt electric shock which would really injure, this was the reason why her pituitary gland releases hormone called Prolactin. It prevented her from awakening when she vomited in her sleep. Probably the concoction of alcohol, endorphins and Prolactin could be categorized as a way of death through natural causes, even though hypnosis was the trigger which caused this tragic accident. Stage hypnosis is tremendously dangerous. Aside from the fact that there are the dangers of hypnosis, it is also morally mortifying for the participants involved. Many of whom will have no memory recall, but it can, and has, led to the death of a young mother. It also has been the trigger for possibly dozens or even hundreds of people go through into emotional and mental disproportion, leading these people eventually to the mental hospital. Hypnotism condenses self-determinism by interjecting the instructions of another underneath the analytical level of an individual’s mind. It is a control mechanism in which a domineering individual, cult, or ideology delight. People who pander to hypnotism may only be interested in experimentation involving human minds (Atack, 1995).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There were reports of complications occurring after a person undergone a hypnosis. Some causes of strange behaviour after such mind therapy can be an amateur hypnosis, removal of symptom by a direct command, treatment of condition that the hypnotist is not trained to treat without the use of hypnosis and when an inadvertent post hypnotic suggestion has been made (Kougell, 2000).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Presently, hypnosis was also being practiced by some medical practitioners to treat persons who are ill-infected.   Although hypnosis was exercised by some medical practitioners, there can still be an array of unexpected unwanted impressions, feelings or behaviours during or after hypnosis which are incompatible with settled goals and hold back with the hypnotic process by destructing optimal mental performance with no prior occurrences or history of similar mental or physical symptoms. Here are some list of complications associated with hypnosis, it may include one of these behaviour; antisocial acting out, anxiety, panic attacks, identity crisis, self-image distortion, comprehension loss, concentration loss, depression, headache, nausea, vomiting, memory impaired, dizziness, medical emergencies, stiffness of arms and neck, sexual acting out, traumatic recalls, sexual dysfunction, phobia aversion, physical discomfort, obsessive ruminations, symptom substitution, psychotic-like delusional thinking, impaired coping skills, body tremors, uncontrolled weeping   and may others.   These after-effects of hypnosis were experienced by those who have undergone hypnosis, medical researches has been conducted to explain why these things happen after such procedure but until today, no one can fully convey why these things takes place. Conclusion Hypnosis is denoted to as an altered transformation of state of consciousness, which generally comprises a social interaction between two people. It includes two individuals which is the hypnotist and his subject.   Involving hypnosis to treat various diseases or sickness is widely used by medical practitioners around the globe, from simple dental settings down to cancer ill patients. Hypnosis is also subject to significant assessment and analysis, as with any other eccentric forms of therapy. There are numbers of psychiatrists who come up with the assumption that hypnosis is dangerous, more than ever when practiced by non-psychiatrists. Countless well-known magazines and medical journals have published articles lay emphasis on the dangers of this form of therapy when acted upon by non-certified practitioners. Hypnosis, however, is open to use wrongly by non-certified practitioners and at times the danger lies there. According to experts, in order to avoid danger, any hypnotic performance should always come to an end; or a period of time should be set for this to end. An example of this is in case like hypnotic anesthesia. A period of time to end the activity should be set when inducing hypnotic anesthesia, for the reason that pain has a meaning and it is nature’s way of forewarning us that something is wrong in our body and in our system. No pain should be fastened off using hypnosis unless the starting place of pain is ascertained. As a final point, hypnosis, as with any other forms of therapy, does not come wholly without any technical hitches or complications. Proper erudition and understanding of this method is necessary to avoid serious complication. References: Atack, John C (1995). Never believe a hypnotist: An investigation of L. Ron Hubbard’s   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   statement about hypnosis and its relationship to his Dianetics. Retrieved April 2, 2008,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://home.snafu.de/tilman/j/hypnosis.html/ Kougell, Maurice (2000). Possible dangers and complications. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.brooksidecenter.com/possible_dangers_and_complication.htm Niehaus, Joe (1998). Investigative forensic hypnosis. United Sates: CRC Press   

Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business

Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business Preamble During the late 80s and early 90s, much of the predominant management philosophy  involved directly applying classical military strategy to business. Sun Tsu  was regularly quoted at  Board meetings and  on Wall Street  and books like  On War  and  Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun  were among the most popular business books available. At the time, I wasn’t a big subscriber to the idea that lessons from military conquests and failures could be readily applied to making a business successful.Perhaps it was that I couldn’t get my head around morphing one of Sun Tsu’s many principles of warfare into something that I could adopt as a leader or manager . . . â€Å"Camp in high places, facing the sun. Do not climb heights  in order to fight. So much for mountain warfare. † – Sun Tsu,  The Art of War Huh? Maybe it was that the black and white nature of warfare, with real l ife death and destruction that made it difficult for me to draw comparisons with the gray-ness of business strategy and  its inherently longer feedback loop.Or,  it could have been because  mapping strategy directly to success or failure discounts the value of the quality of implementation. As a strong believer in the power of strong management, I believe that top-notch execution often trumps good strategy. As I see it, a good strategy poorly implemented will lose to a lesser strategy that is well implemented (that ought to elicit some strong opinions . . . ). For whatever reasons I struggled with using centuries of military wisdom in conducting business in the past, my recent re-reading of excerpts from books by  a few  of the great military historians –  B.H. Liddel Hart,  Carl von Clausewitz  and, of course, Sun Tsu, among others, has got me re-thinking about the application of what armies and empires have learned about beating the crap out of the other guy . Of course, from the cheap seats, anyone  can read an excerpt from the writings by or about a great military strategist or tactician and come up with  their very own  way of applying it to their business. Napoleon’s  35th military  maxim  is: â€Å"Encampments of the same army should always be formed so as to protect each other. One might apply this maxim to business by translating it as: all of our products and services should be closely aligned and interconnected in some way, making it harder for our competition to pick off any one product or service. Sounds reasonable. Microsoft clearly does that with Office, an obviously successful implementation of this strategy. But what if I interpret this to mean that I should build walls around my current products or services, focusing my energy on defending my current position instead of expanding aggressively?It’s easy to see how this interpretation of Napoleon’s maxim could open  me up to failure as i t did when  DEC  refused to leave the  VAX  behind. Both interpretations are reasonable, but one leads to a high likelihood of success and the other to a reasonable possibility of failure. The problem, as I see it, is that even students of military history have difficulty determining what strategy or tactic to apply a priori in a military engagement, let alone while adapting it  to its business application. There are many examples in military history of a certain strategy being successful in one battle and failing miserably in another.Sure, it’s easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, but when the data is coming at you in real time, making the right call on what military strategy to use in your business is difficult and potentially dangerous. So with the caveat of interpretation stated above, I’d like to present  my summary of winning military strategies and tactics that businesses in today’s world of diminishing sustainable differentiation can use to help make them successful . . . †¢ Speed †¢ Focus †¢ Indirect Approaches †¢ Intelligence (knowledge of what’s going on) †¢ DeceptionArguably, not nearly a complete list but, like I said earlier, it’s easy to map virtually any military strategy to any business strategy. My goal here is to present the most obvious ones (to me) and to use examples of the use of the particularly military strategy in  action and show how it applies to business. My plan is to do a separate post for each one of these strategic areas to avoid this post from becoming exceedingly long and, probably, way too boring. First up, Speed . . . Speed There are very few examples of successful military campaigns waged slowly.American Civil War General  Nathan Bedford Forrest,  one of the  first students of mobile warfare,  consistently defeated opposing Union generals even though he was almost always outnumbered and out-gunned. His strategy – speed. He is known for getting to battles days before the Union armies expected his arrival – driving men and horses virtually 24 hours a day in order to create a surprise attack. Forrest rarely lost in battle as a result of his use of speed. He called his strategy: â€Å"get there fustest [sic]  with the mostest. Roughly 75 years later, in 1939, the German Army started its sweep across Europe with its invasion of Poland. It moved so swiftly across the continent that it caught other countries ill-prepared and unable to mobilize forces or infrastructure to defend themselves. The Germans use of  blitzkrieg, orlightning war, allowed them to stay mobile and to avoid becoming entrenched in one place as all the armies in WWI had. This strategy and, of course, the preparations to implement a  strategy of speed,  made the German army vastly superior to the other armies of Europe and, ultimately, more successful in it’s initial engagements.Like armies, companies that stay flexible and m ove quickly hugely increase their likelihood of success. This is, of course, true in terms of markets – getting products and services that people really want or need to market first is almost always  a  winning strategy – but it may be even more important in terms of the culture it creates inside a company. When your employees are flexible and innovative, moving quickly to take on the next challenge, they will all be driving for success and well-prepared to quickly respond to  any surprises that arise from the competition.One of the reasons that speed works is that many companies are afraid of it and thus, don’t employ it as a strategy. It is, therefore,  likely that your competition is afraid of speed. Or, at least, more afraid of it than you are. It feels much safer to move slowly, after all. But it isn’t. Slow companies are exposed to attack from all directions and once attacked, often don’t have the ability to defend themselves, let alo ne go on the offensive. Road kill. In my experience, speed has also shown its value in another critical way – by minimizing the impact of execution errors.Any business is going to have some execution errors. If the business is plodding along, though, small mistakes in tactics can cause huge, unrecoverable problems. If the business is moving quickly, though, most execution errors become mere bumps in the road. The flexibility of the organization can absorb them and continue to move forward with small changes in strategy or tactics. This, in fact, may be the greatest advantage of employing speed as a strategy. For business, as with the military, speed is your friend – keep the pedal to the metal.Next up . . . focus. Focus During  Napoleon’s  early campaigns, virtually all of which were successful, he used a set of 78  Maxims  to guide him in battle (before he thought his armies were too big to be defeated). Maxim XXIX stated: â€Å"When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day. † Napoleon believed that it was nearly impossible to  know what force, tactic or sub-strategy would determine the outcome of a specific battle.Therefore, he always focused all of his forces on the attainment of a single goal – on winning the battle at hand. The only time he split his forces was to use flanking maneuvers where part of his force would attack the enemy from another direction. Even when this tactic was used, though, all of his forces were engaged in  the  single battle at hand with the common goal of winning that particular contest. He didn’t hold men in reserve and he didn’t split his forces to fight in multiple, simultaneous engagements.The same cannot be said  for the British during the  African Campaign  in WWII   The British, who had recognized the strategic importance of Africa well ahead of the Germans, committ ed large forces and many tanks, guns  and planes to the region to make sure that it remained in their control. The Germans, although out-manned and out-gunned almost eradicated the British forces from Africa by taking advantage of a fundamental weakness in British military strategy – to hold some forces in reserve during a battle just in case they needed them later.This conservative British strategy of not committing all their energies to the task at hand  meant that  the Germans never had to engage the entire British force at any time and their inferiority of men and equipment didn’t come into play and thus, they almost wrested control of the continent from the British with many fewer resources. During the civil war,  George McClellan, first General in Chief of the Union Army, failed to convincingly defeat a much smaller and less-equipped Confederate force in many engagements.This included missing a huge opportunity to take the Confederate capital, Richmond, d uring the first year of the war and, therefore, passing up an opportunity to bring the war to a close early in its execution. McClellan almost never committed a large enough force to any engagement, choosing to leave behind many men to defend Washington (as commanded by Lincoln) and keeping  even more in reserve and disengaged from any particular battle. There are dozens of examples throughout history of armies being defeated because forces were split for one reason or another.Whether to fight a battle or war on too many fronts or  to hold forces in reserve, too little of the available resources were applied to ensure victory. Most often, it appears that the cause of these errors was ego and/or ignorance. But sometimes the error lay in simply underestimating the effort required to be successful in any one arena. With low barriers to entry in  so many market segments these days, many companies assume that they can create any new product or service without too much trouble or ex pense (let’s build our own web browser! ). Funny enough, this might be true.You may be able to address any new problem that you see potential customers having. The problem is that while you can do anything, you simply can’t do everything. Doing everything or, in fact, just doing multiple things, is the same as fighting a battle on multiple fronts – it’s not likely that you’ll succeed unless you have loads-o-resources. Most  small companies (or groups within larger ones)  don’t, of course, and end up struggling when they lose their focus  on their goal. Saying focused is particularly difficult for startups which, by their very nature, have little momentum behind what they’re doing and, thus, a lot of flexibility.Add to this the fact that the smart, hard-working people who found startups or join them near their inception are the kind of people that see opportunities all around them. A new, exciting market niche here; weak competit ion there; unfulfilled customer need somewhere else. It’s natural for this type of person in a startup environment to  have difficulty staying the course, wanting to jump at every opportunity they see. Focus not only involves trying not to bite off more than you can chew, but also not changing direction too frequently or haphazardly. In a startup, it’s especially easy to get pulled in new irections daily as sales people feed back what they’re hearing, customers demand new functionality and advisors express their beliefs about what is right and wrong. And, since many startupscan  actually turn on a dime, they often do just that. Turning on that dime may be the right thing to do. But companies or groups that do so frequently, are doomed to getting overrun by the competition. It’s hard to do things well if what your target is a moving one. This is not to say that  adjusting goals and direction should be avoided completely. It’s often necessary a nd smart to do so. Such changes have to be made thoughtfully and carefully, though.It  should  be difficult to change your focus at any time. If it were easy, you weren’t focused enough. If you choose to make a change, just make sure that everyone makes that change and is aligned with the same, unified goal. Don’t split your forces, it’ll end in your defeat. Why fight with one arm tied behind your back? Commit everyone and everything to your goal and try to minimize changes to that goal. Success is elusive enough, why compete with yourself by losing focus? Concentrate all you energy and time on your goal and, like any  consolidated, focused military effort,  you’ll optimize your chances for success.Disclaimer: I am not now nor have I ever been a military strategist. Additionally, although I’ve spent many years of my career creating, refining and attempting to lead others in the execution of business strategy, I’m sure that some (like ly, those closest to me) would also question  my abilities as a business strategist. Indirect Approaches Classic, gentlemanly military strategy called for opposing forces to line up in a field opposite one another, all participants in plain site, and then to wreak havoc on each other.This type of  direct, frontal assault is rarely used any more unless one force has an overwhelming superiority over the other. Even then, it doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it’s not without many surprises and casualties. Military leaders that historically adopted  less directly confrontational strategies or even complete indirect strategies soon found great success even when they were confronted by an enemy with superior forces. So, what does it mean to have an  indirect  strategy? In military terms, indirect strategy involves attacking an enemy on his flanks (sides) or rear – basically, where he oesn’t expect it. Hannibal, the Carthaginian military comm ander  who marched his army over the Pyrenees and Alps to attack the Roman Empire, kept the Roman army at bay (and often in retreat) on their own soil for more than a decade using indirect strategies. Among Hannibal’s many successful military strategies, he became known  for engaging the enemy with weak troops in the center of his formation and two hidden sets of strong troops that wrapped around the sides of the opposing force (flanking them), squeezing them from the sides and, sometimes the rear.While the Romans   thought they were successfully attacking the weaker force in the center, they lost the battle as they were crushed from the sides. This indirect approach took the enemy by surprise and attacked it where it was weakest. Even the mighty Roman armies could not remove Hannibal from the Empire. That is, until they started using indirect approaches themselves. Like Hannibal did in so many major battles,  Douglas MacArthur  employed a master-stroke of indirect strategy to keep the UN Forces in South Korea from being pushed off the Korean peninsula at the beginning of the Korean War.A few months after the war started, the South Korean and UN forces had been pushed to the south-eastern end of the Korean peninsula at Pusan Province. MacArthur proposed and executed an indirect attack behind the lines of the North Koreans, far north of Pusan, on Korea’s western shore. The amphibious attack surprised the North Koreans and cut the North Korean Army south of Inchon off from supplies and personnel, ultimately causing the collapse of the North Korean forces in southern Korea. As with military strategy, direct, frontal attacks against other companies in business rarely succeed.Unless your company is by far the largest in its business or has a strongly dominant sales channel, any direct attack against your competition is likely to fail. The old adage is that you need a 10:1 superiority over your competition to beat them head-to-head. My view i s that unless you’re a Microsoft (fill in your favorite large company in your favorite market here – it used to be IBM for all examples), and, in Microsoft’s case, really only in operating systems and Office-like applications, it’s probably best to focus on indirect approaches when taking on competition.So, rather than competing on features or performance, change the ground rules. Compete on price, distribution model, ease-of-use, accessibility, partnerships, integration, switching cost or similar. An example of this near and dear to my heart is the emergence of my first successful company, Viewlogic Systems (acquired by Synopsys, in 1997). One of  the co-founders  of Viewlogic was Sal Carcia, who initially led marketing and sales for the company. Sal was (and I’m sure still is) a brilliant marketing guy who had an innate sense for market dynamics and saw holes (read: opportunities)  in the market very clearly and accurately.In 1984, when we founded Viewlogic,  EDA tools (software tools for Electronic Design Automation – electronics CAD tools) were turnkey systems bundled with  big hardware. These systems were very expensive and most companies could only afford to buy one seat (one bundled unit) for every 10 to 20 engineers they employed. A ratio guaranteed to limit the productivity of the entire engineering group. Sal’s idea, which sounds so basic now, but keep in mind that PCs were new in 1981 and still pretty limited in 1984, was to bundle a complete  EDA system with a PC for $10,000 per seat. About one tenth of what a competitor’s system sold for. 10K wasn’t just a random, lower figure, it was what Sal saw as the maximum we could charge without requiring the engineering manager (the customer) to get sign-off from upper management for the purchase. So, as a result of Sal’s strategy, Viewlogic sold to the engineering manager who made more local and faster decisions while our co mpetition was selling to big corporate organizations with long sales cycle. Also, at $10K/seat. Engineering managers could equip  each their of engineers with the  EDA  tools they needed, resulting in more productive groups that then promoted the tools to the rest of the organization.In the end, most of Viewlogic’s tools were not revolutionary (some features were, of course, and we figured out how to mash a whole lotta functionality into 640KB of memory), but the packaging was a breakthrough, helping us reach a market previously unserved. As an added bonus, because of the anchor of hardware that the competition hauled with it, it couldn’t come down to fight with us in our space until it rewrote most of its software to likewise run on a PC. So, in the end, Viewlogic never tried to win by bettering the competition at what they were good at.It took an indirect strategy of fighting the competition where it was weak and unprepared and unable to defend itself. This ind irect approach was the key to Viewlogic’s initial success. Employing indirect strategies doesn’t mean that you need to change your end goal. It simply means that you need to change the way you approach the battle to achieve it. It’s much better to avoid being perceived as a threat to the big guys in the market or to  escape their attention all together than it is to pound your chest and take them on head-to-head. They’re bigger, stronger, have more resources and more customers.For the most part, they don’t need to be better than you to kick your ass. Let your ego go; be smart; attack at the intersection of where your competition is weak and customers perceive value. It’s not only about  having a better  product  or service, it’s about the whole package – support, customer satisfaction, distribution, PR . . . everything. Direct strategies usually fail in business as they do in their military application. Don’t bec ome another bump in the road for your competition, use an indirect approach to catch them off-guard and unprepared to respond to your threat. Next up . . .Intelligence. Intelligence Among Webster’s definitions for intelligence, two primary ones directly apply to both military and business matters: 1) you need to be smart or, at least, be able to think and, 2)  you need to have  knowledge of what the enemy/competition knows and thinks. Main Entry:  inA ·telA ·liA ·gence Pronunciation: in-’te-l&-j&n(t)s Function:  noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latinintelligentia,  from  intelligent-, intelligens  intelligent †¢ The ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations;  also  :  the skilled use of reason.The ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria. †¢ Information concerning an enemy or possible enemy or an are a;  also  :  an agency engaged in obtaining such information. In military engagements, intelligence is often more important than the size of the force, how well it’s armed and who it is led by. A perfect example of this is in the military strategies employed by  Mao Zedong  as he led the Red Army in its 20+ year rebellion against theKuomintang  government in China.After the start of the rebellion, the Red Army, for the most part, got it’s butt kicked whenever and where-ever it engaged the vastly superior government army forces. For the most part, the Red Army was out-manned, had many fewer weapons and was isolated into parts of the country that made it difficult to get tactical advantage in widespread warfare. Recognizing  his deficiencies, Mao turned to strategies that involved actively collecting intelligence about his opponent. He had spies throughout the government who gathered information about their plans and actions.Perhaps even more importantly, h e designated soldiers dressed in civilian clothing to be stationed throughout the country to monitor the movement of the government’s troops and supplies. By gathering this information and extracting trends from it, he learned what his opponent was doing and, over time, understood what type of moves that they made in response to his own. Ultimately, having this knowledge, Mao was able to gain the upper hand and to ultimately defeat the government troops, exiling Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan in 1949.Prior to World War II, while most of the rest of the world was relatively ignorant to the value of keeping secrets, well . . . secret, the Germans invested heavily in cryptography. The efforts of the German government and military agencies to make sure that communications were secure resulted in the adoption of  the  Enigma Cipher machine  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ an electro-mechanical device that encoded and decoded messages. The German Navy, in particular, relied heavily on the secrecy of the ir communications and had the most complex Enigma machines and processes surrounding them.It took years for Germany’s enemies to break the Enigma. The huge value  in breaking the code was well understood, though, and a concerted effort was mounted to break  to do so  as part of the strategy to defeat the Germans. At first the Polish made headway, then the British took over the main effort. Through the work of a huge number of scientists and mathematicians, mostly stationed at the famous  Bletchley Park  in England, and a stolen Enigma machine here and there, the Allies were able to read many of the top-secret messages being sent by the Germans.Using this information, the Allies were able to change their tactics and even much of their strategy in the battle of the Atlantic. Each action took on more significance with less effort. The knowledge of  what the enemy was going to do  let the Allies stay one step ahead and to focus their efforts on the singular end goal of winning battles, without having to spread their forces out too far. Now, I’m not suggesting that you engage in any kind of industrial espionage. Merely that knowing what your competition is up to is critical to your business or, at he very least, critical to how you run your business. Spies aren’t required. You just need to be aware. Your sales channel will be able to tell what’s going on (if it’s not a completely automated channel) and anyone that engages with your customers will discover what the competition is doing if they listen well. If you’re among the group of people that claims to have no competition – WAKE UP! Every business has at least one competitor, even if it’s the choice your customer has to keep doing what they’re doing.The infinitely low barriers to entry in virtually all product or service areas these days also guarantees that you’ll have more competitors in the near future if your target market ha s any real value. There’s simply no excuse for not knowing what your current and emerging competition is up to. This knowledge not only helps you differentiate your product or service right out of the gate, but also helps you keep your costs lower because you waste less time with a more focused approach. Of course, no business that just focuses on what their competitors are doing is  going to be successful.True success can only come from using the other kind of intelligence – that which only comes  from using your head. In my experience (and I’m at least as guilty as anyone I’ve ever known) there are too-many knee-jerk reactions in business. Managers often make quick decisions  in a situation without extensive knowledge of what is really going on. In an environment where everything is moving fast, it’s a natural mistake to make. Additionally, the fear of the consequences of not answering a challenge or looking like one is in control often enc ourages half-baked reactions.Every manager needs to keep in mind the value of looking before they leap. Or, as I like to think about it – responding instead of reacting. The difference between responding and reacting is thinking – one involves it, the other doesn’t. I know, I know, this is where you’re saying to yourself: â€Å"I don’t have time for long, drawn-out planning sessions. My business is go, go, go and if I slow down, I’m dead. †Ã‚   In most cases, taking a step back, drawing some pictures on a white board, talking to a few people or getting together with your team to ponder the paths ahead only involves hours or perhaps a few days.Not  weeks and months. Of course, at times, it does take longer. In my experience, though, whatever it takes to make an informed (note that I say informed – not perfect or correct or even low-risk) decision on how to respond to the challenge that you face is worthwhile and will save you loads of time and energy later. Think about the situation, at least a little, then move. Don’t move slowly, but move deliberately. As with successful military campaigns, the more intelligence you have – both kinds – the more likely it is that you’ll set your  business on the best possible path to success.Increased knowledge of what  your competition is up to and, more importantly,  considered thought  put in to your overall strategy and to any  response  to  changes improves your likelihood of success while helping to reduce effort that might be wasted in areas unnecessary or even unrelated to the optimal path of the business Next up, the final installment in this series: Deception. Deception If you’re like me, you immediately question how  deception  can and should be applied to business.In a business context, the concept of deception seems almost immoral or, at least, against the rules – if not the legal ones, at least th e ones understood as part of business decorum, civility or fair play. Who wants to win by cheating, after all? There is little concern for  such concepts in modern warfare (historically, much of warfare was conducted under a code of ethics – aside from the Geneva Convention rules, no such code exists today), however,  where the goal is most often the physical destruction of the enemy. In battle, a commander’s trickery and deception can easily represent the difference between victory and death.There are few better examples of this than the campaigns of Confederate General  Thomas Jonathan â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson  and his army during the Civil War in the US. Stonewall Jackson is widely considered as one most gifted tactical commanders in US history. His motto: â€Å"Mystify, mislead and Surprise. † Early in the Civil War, during the infamous  Valley Campaign, Jackson found his Army outmanned, outgunned and often, surrounded. After an initial tact ical defeat in a relatively small battle, Jackson’s 17,000 troops soundly defeated the Union’s 60,000 man  Army of the Potomac.He accomplished this feat by constantly surprising the enemy, attacking its flanks, sneaking behind its lines and appearing like his forces were larger than they actually were. During the campaign, Jackson marched his troops almost 650 miles in 48 days to defeat and cause the retreat of a Union Army that outmanned him almost 4:1. Trickery and illusion were his key tactics in the Valley Campaign and he used them frequently in successive victories during the war and until his death in battle (from friendly fire) in 1863. Like Jackson before him,  Erwin Rommel  was a master of deception.Even though Rommel was primarily a tank commander – relatively easy to detect and slow-moving – he often got the upper hand on his enemies by sneaking his tanks through dense forests or via indirect routes. Rommel is  best known  for his suc cess during WWII’s  North African Campaign  where he consistently defeated the better armed and staffed British Army. His understanding of how the British tank command worked led him to implement the most important tactic to his success during the campaign – making the British believe that his forces were much greater than they were.This, in turn, caused the  British  to split their forces, leaving many tanks in reserve (they conservatively never wanted to risk  all  their tanks in battle) and gave Rommel’s smaller force a far better chance at success. The  deception turned out to be the key that initiated his victories. Rommel implemented this by making his tanks appear to be in locations where they were not. He would frequently have trucks drive in circles throughout the day in one area. The clouds of dust they kicked up would be so extreme that the British assumed that there were huge tank convoys preparing to entrench themselves for battle at t hat location.In the mean time, Rommel, would move his active tank columns at night into flanking positions around the British. Rommel’s ability to deceive the British let his smaller and weaker force win battles for years in the desert. In a business world that thrives on communication and rewards the speed and quantity of information available, it’s difficult to see how deception might be used  in a strategy leading to success. After all, anything you do to mislead your competition might mislead your customer as well.There are  a few  uses of deception, however, that are commonly used and are valuable tools in the business strategy quiver: †¢ Press releases as a defensive tool:   Most often successfully employed by medium to large companies, a me-too press release announcing that your company has or will have some product, feature or service that your competitor just launched can effectively slow your competition’s sales process down until you actu ally have it. This is especially effective if you are already the perceived market leader in that particular segment.Switching costs are, generally, high and current customers want to believe that you’ll continue to deliver the best stuff. Of course, this won’t hold your competition off forever, but it will allow you a bit of time to catch up. †¢ Appearing bigger than you are as an offensive tool:   Larger companies often prefer to purchase from established vendors. Of course, this depends on what you are selling and how much it costs, but it is generally true for anything even remotely mission critical or costing a lot.Giving the world the impression that your company is larger or better established than you are can only help you in this environment. This can be done through advertising – small companies generally do little-to-none, big companies do a lot; large, highly visible  displays at trade shows; success stories from large customers; focusing on implementation instead of just functions or features; and so forth. †¢ Taking advantage of the reactionary nature of your competition:   Companies tend to react without thinking instead of responding in a thoughtful, considered way.You can take advantage of this by misleading your competition, when appropriate, in an effort to waste their time or defocus them. In the most basic case, you can entice them to spend energy in areas that are outside your main focus, giving you more lead time when you introduce your own new product or service. Keep in mind that when you implement strategies like this, you don’t get a bye on precise execution. You still have to execute well – if you can’t execute your company’s strategy better than your competition can execute on the same strategy, no amount of deception will help you.Certainly, deception in the form of outright lying and cheating is a dead-end strategy. It might work out in the short term, but itâ€℠¢s going to get you in trouble in the long term. Defined a bit softer, though, as a method for manipulating or spinning reality (I know, I’m cutting this a bit thin, but you get the idea), it is almost as powerful a tool in business as it is in warfare and is one that can be employed to increase your opportunities for success.

Mandatory external rotation of accountantsoffices Essay

Mandatory external rotation of accountantsoffices - Essay Example In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is responsible for spelling out audit requirements. The SEC is more focused on internal audit as compared to external mandatory rotation of audit firms. Financial accounting reporting and auditing have been the key areas affected by the European crisis. In an attempt to resolve the predicament, both Europe and the U.S. have tried to come up with rotation. Rotation has been viewed as a solution to mitigate the threats associated with financial independence generated by developed nations (Mihaela et al., 2010). At a time when the world is facing a crisis new audit policy has to be a crucial factor in avoiding losses. Auditors usually find themselves in a fix due to the fact of being familiar with the management and being intimidated by their clients, which adversely leads to long-term client-audit relationship. Over the recent years, the subject of long-term audit and client relationship has raised eyebrows within public and social re alms. Mandatory external rotation of accountants’ offices is believed to increase auditor independence and quality of audit and financial reporting (Velte & Stiglbauer, 2012). On the other hand, external auditing increases the cost of auditing in the first two years. This is because the risk of liability from auditors is significantly high in the first two years than within subsequent years. Due to the audit concentration of the four big companies, external mandatory rotation is almost not realized. The big four has a command on the number of companies they audit each year. In addition, the big four has vast experience in consultancy and have advisory services to attest to it. Therefore, this makes it hard for small and mid-sized accounting firms, which are looking forward to enter into a new market (Velte & Stiglbauer, 2012). In other cases, there have been arguments on the quality of auditing in

History of music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

History of music - Essay Example Assuredly, music has evolved with time and we can now enjoy live concerts, audio music, videos, and instrumentals. It is arguably true that most people think and identify with the idea that only the elite and educated audience enjoys classical music. This follows an observation that only the snobs, intellectuals, racists, and educated people attend classical music concerts. Indeed, this has been a consistent tread and the mindset to believe in this argument has been there for decades. However, this is not necessarily true. In fact, there has been a common belief that the young generation, the less educated, and the less wealthy do not want to attend classical concerts because either they cannot afford entrance fee or they suffer inferiority complex because of the apparent intellectual superiority that entails a classical music concert. However, I can establish that this is not necessarily true as the same class of people easily afford pop and football tickets which are reasonably expensive that classical concert tickets. Hence, I derive that the only reason why the less educated or the public fails to attend classical music concerts is that they lack exposure to this genre of music. Otherwise, with significant exposure, everybody enjoys classical music. Therefore, I suggest that we introduce and encourage children to enjoy and recognize the beauty in classical music while still at school. With this, we will be able to eliminate the apparent inability to attend classical music concerts.

Summarizing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summarizing - Essay Example This is an institution that yields to mould and develop their students and offer what may seem like an extra support to accomplish this. Like any other institution, it has a number of functional units and in our case we have various departments referred to as divisions. These divisions also provide information on their respective progress areas on the official university’s website thus the homepage. One of such impactful divisions in helping the students is the career placement division. This division aides both the current and former students financially since it offers the students part time jobs and even full time jobs. This department offers close to over two thousand part time job opportunities and helps their students in job seeking. This whole process is done online whereby interested parties place their ads, usually limited to four lines, which include their qualifications. In addition to that, they also help in job seeking for the qualified undergraduates for state jo bs and even local businesses. Surely Metropolitan State University is an academic

Compare Destiny in Oedipus Rex( by Sophocles) and The Golden Mean Research Paper

Compare Destiny in Oedipus Rex( by Sophocles) and The Golden Mean (2009 by Annabel Lyon) - Research Paper Example According to Michael Clark, â€Å"By the 1950's, Jung had outlined three types of synchronicity: The meaningful acausal coincidence of a psychological event and an external observable event, both taking place at or around the same time. The meaningful acausal coincidence of a psychological event and an external observable event, the latter taking place outside the individual's range of sensory perception. The meaningful acausal coincidence of an internal psychological event with an external observable event, the latter taking place in the future. ... (jung, 1973) Nevertheless, when analyzing the path of self-development taken by Oedipus, as well as that of Alexander and Aristotle in Lyon’s depiction, the importance of synchronicity can be seen in the way that events draw people together at auspicious times that will determine not only their own fate, but the destiny of millions throughout history. Jung’s discussion of â€Å"meaningful acausality† in its first aspect as described by Clark can be seen in the meeting of Oedipus with his father at the crossroads. This was prophesized before Oedipus’ own birth, and for that reason he was tossed away with pierced ankles and received his name. In this instance, the name of Oedipus both illustrates and hides his actual identity to himself and others. In meeting his father in such an apparently random manner against the conscious will of both parties, the element of synchronicity is clearly evident, even if the meaning will not fully become clear until later. T his meeting of Laius and Oedipus exists as the essential point where the meaning of both their lives will constellate and dissipate together, a time the gods and oracles could see but both were unconscious to personally at the time. As Jung writes, â€Å"Synchronicity suggests that mind and matter, as well as past, present and future exist in a meaningfully connected continuum. It also implies that everyday distinctions concerning self and environment, causality and the belief in linear time are historically specific assumptions rather than absolute truths.† (Clark, 2007) The sphinx in the Oedipus tale can be seen as symbolic of synchronicity and the play of fate in the way that it conjoins aspects of

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Company Law - Essay Example The specail committee has approved the payment of ?2 million as the consultation fees to Harry for effectively maneuvering acquisition of Durmstrang Ltd.At this juncture, we have to see the powers of such committees. If the main board has delegated the power to the committee to fix any amount as the consultation fees to any director without any ceiling, then the decision of such committee need not to be ratified by the main board. However , if the main board has not delegated the power to such a special committee to decide about any consultation fee to be paid to any director but only can make a recommendation to the main board and then, the main board has the final authority to accept or reject such a recommendation. In such scenario, as the main board has disapproved such payment, then the consultation fees paid to Harry has to be repaid to the company. However , it should be noted that taking Harry’s efforts in successfully handling such merger as it has added value to the company , it is suggested that Board should take into consideration before making any refusal to pay compensation as recommended by a special committee. ... y, is interested in a future business arrangement or transaction, he has the duty to divulge his extent and nature of his interest to other directors or to the Board2. S 177 also requires that the disclosure should be made to the company well before the start of such business arrangement or transaction3. Further, a director is expected that he is aware of the issues of which he ought to be known reasonably on such business transaction4. A director is bound to disclose his interest’s of another person also, if such other person’s interest tantamount to an indirect or a direct interest on the part of such director5. A director should divulge his interest when he ought practically conscious of the conflicting interest in any business transaction6. Further, the general rule as prescribed in s 175(1) restricts unauthorised clash of personal interest of directors with that of the company but not in duty to the company as decided in the case Bray v. Ford7 . In IDC v Cooley (19 72), it was held that Cooley was accountable only for not divulging a business opportunity when getting a sanction to pursue a new business, had the company itself might have seized the opportunity had it known previously8. In IDC v, Cooley case ,when a director who has received any information even in his private capacity but has only one capacity that it is in his capacity as director such information is being received . It was held in Bhullar v Bhullar9 that the infringement of duty emanates from the failure to exchange any relevant information to the company. The appellants were under an onus to divulge the necessary information to the company. (Mantysaari 2005:187). In Gardner v Parker10 , it was held that where the director had not divulged his interest in any business transaction, then such

WWF Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

WWF - Case Study Example The organization seeks to push for the recognition of the interdependent nature of the environment, wildlife, and people. With over 300 employees around the world, including the UK, WWF has grown in stature around the world, especially due to increased attention on sustainability. In the UK, this expansion has necessitated a move of HQ to Woking from its previous Godalming base. The new HQ, the Living Planet Centre LPC, will enable WWF to interact more with an increasingly interested public with an education suite, an auditorium, and a visitors’ centre (World Wildlife Fund UK, 2013: p1). As part of this relocation strategy, WWF will also seek to merge the communication and fundraising departments, while also dealing with the cultural changes that will accompany this strategic restructuring. This paper aims to report on specific challenges facing WWF with regards to recruitment and selection, as well as to use the findings to provide recommendations for their human resource ope rations. WWF strives to ensure that wildlife, environmental, and human needs are taken into account, especially in developing countries. To do this, they utilize scientific knowledge to inform conservation activities by sharing findings with specialists and partners (Powell, 2011: p34). The organization also uses the lessons that it learns from conservation activities as case studies to offer feedback for future conservation models, especially through horizontal transfer of best practices through encounter promotion among its partners and peers. In order to undertake the challenging task of conservation, WWF also recognizes the importance of alliances and stakeholder coordination, which allows them to intervene, at numerous levels, to support international, national, and local interventions from regional perspectives. In doing this, it is the organization’s plan to respond with flexibility and dynamism in the face of emerging

Corporate governance Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Corporate governance - Dissertation Example It is evident from the work of various research scholars that people felt the importance of â€Å"Corporate Governance† at least 100 years ago. For example, research scholars such as Tinbergen (1962) have raised their concern over effectiveness of corporate governance. In recent times, corporate accounting scandals in companies like Cirio, Enron, Vivendi, Ansett, Parmalat, and Pan Pharmaceuticals have forced business leaders to think about the issues like corporate accountability and corporate governance. Above mentioned corporate accounting scandals were the results of managerial misconduct and corporate failures. Business leaders became aware of the fact that they need to take some serious measures in order to address the pertaining issues of corporate governance. ... Various research scholars have stated situation-specific definition of corporate governance and so it is difficult to find one universal definition of corporate governance. Majority of the research scholars have given importance on the relational aspect of corporate governance. According to them corporate governance is guided by the relationship between shareholders and managers. Tricker (1984) has revealed that corporate governance is different from management due to the fact that management deals with running the organization while corporate governance deals with running the organization in a proper manner. Keasey and Wright (1993) have stated that business leaders can use different tools of management, such as controlling; accountability, in order to monitor activities of agents and motivation to make them act in accordance with the expectation of the internal and external stakeholders. Various research scholars such as Markusen and Venables (1999) have stated that there is a dire ct relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and corporate governance. According to them FDI policies of government plays a significant role on motivating foreign players to design sustainable corporate governance policy. Markusen and Maskus (2001) have stated that companies need to align their business strategy in a foreign country in accordance with the FDI policy of government of that country, in order to address the key issues of corporate governance. In many cases it has been observed that companies manipulate their corporate governance policy in order to achieve competitive advantage in foreign countries, such as superior technology, economies of scale, managerial expertise etc over

Soldiers and civilians alike Essay Example for Free

Soldiers and civilians alike Essay This essay will consider a poem and an extract from two different authors, each writing about events in the First and Second World Wars The first piece to be considered is a poem called Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. In this poem, Owen describes the atrocities of war by describing a group if men returning from the front line, experiencing a gas attack in which one of them dies and then goes on the address the people back at home and ask them whether war is actually as noble and as glorious as it is made to be. Owen portrays the soldiers by using similes and metaphors. In lines 1 and 2, Owen uses words like: Old beggars and Hags to give a visual description of the soldiers walking back from the front line. This shows how young soldiers have aged though the hardships of war. They have been reduced from proud and strong young men in the prime of their lives to old beggars literally the lowest of the low. They are bent double not only by the heavy equipment they are carrying (the average soldier in WW1 used to regularly carry weights in excess of) but also by the experience of war itself. Own goes on to describe how they were trudging, not walking or marching but that they cursed through sludge. Cursed is not actually a word to describe movement but shows how every yard of the way brought obscenities to the lips of these men who have had enough of the appalling conditions. The phrase An ecstasy of fumbling is an unusual one. Typically used in association with joy, it is possible Owen used the word ecstasy to portray the adrenalin rush caused by the panic of the gas attack. It is as almost as if the soldiers. Own the goes on to describe how one man dies. In recalling this scene, he uses the phrase: In all my dreams before my helpless sight. This and an earlier reference to Haunting flares, suggests that Own suffered from nightmares in consequence of war. Own uses very graphic and disturbing imagery in lines 17-24, describing how the man dies under the gas attack. For example, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. and He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. These quotes tell us that the narrator sees the man suffering at the peril of the gas; he refers to the gas as a green sea, and describes the man drowning. In the last few lines of the poem, Own sends a very clear message that death in war is not, as is often described, glorious or honourable but is in fact gruesome and ghastly, scarring to those who witness it.

SWOT analysis for Vodafone PLC

SWOT analysis for Vodafone PLC Vodafone has created a very good Brand Image in the Customers Perception, Vodafone has its services around the world and It is listed in the worlds top 500 Brands and ranked 183 in the year 2006 and is published in Barron and also ranked 86th place in the worlds 100 largest companies and the ranking of Vodafone came down to number 10 in the year 2010 for the top 100 brands listed and that is published by Millward Brown. According to Brand Finances A Global Brand Survey done in the year 2010 Vodafone is ranked the 7th Most Valuable Brand. Best in Class Technology:- Vodafone is equipped with the most advance Infrastructural Network round the globe which helps Vodafone deliver the most unsurpassed quality of communication. There are over 200.000 base stations for the wireless signal Transmission and the network traffic is around 700 billion minutes and over 90 pet bytes of data per year, and the peak download speed is around 28.8 Mbps. This is ultimately serving the Vodafones customers to best services in the market. Vodafone came up with a new Service in the year 2010 named as Vodafone 360 which is an excellent service for the customers who are wanting to be connected everywhere and this particular service is perfect for customers who want to access the latest information available on the internet by keeping their contacts in that. Vodafone 360 is connected to the latest updates from the popular social networking sites, such as Face book, Msn and skype, so Vodafone 360 users can stay update from their Friends and latest news. Vodafone was the First operator to Provide DRM- Free Bundles and has the largest Digital music Subscriptions In Europe where are over 500,000 Customers. Global presence and diversification revenue Vodafone has expanded its business in different parts of the world like Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States through the companys subsidiary undertakings and the investments as of FY2010, and Vodafone is the one best Worlds Leading International Mobile Telecommunications company. Vodafone has partners in more than 40 Countries and has the equity interests over 30 countries; Vodafone has a very good prominent market share in most countries around the world including Europe, The Middle East, Africa, Asia pacific and the United States and Vodafone also has a diversified revenue base for instance in FY2010. Vodafone has its largest geographical market and Germany Contributed 18% of the Total Geographic Revenue. And Italy is the second best revenue generator for Vodafone ie: 13.5% and Spain with 12.7% and United Kingdom with 11.2% of share and Vodacom with 10% followed by India 7% in FY2010, The groups other Africa and Central Europe, and other Asia pacific and middle east operations accounted for 12, 8 and 7.5 percentage respectively. This in turn led Vodafone to be the largest mobile telecommunications operators. Prominent market position At the end of 2009, Vodafone has a sizeable market share in the European region with Italy, Romania Germany Spain and UK at 33.5, 33.1, 32, 31.2 and 23.4 percentages. Whereas, the market share in the eastern European country of Turkey is at 24.5%. It is has a truly international customer base of 347 million registered customers as of 30th June 2009. A sizeable portion of it comes from India where it has the largest and growing clientele. It is estimated that by 2010 Vodafones Indian customer base has the capability to grow up to 111million by the end of 2010 from the present 32 million subscribers. Vodafone subscribers and 85,000 employees have given it a market capitalization of  £80.2 billion as of August 2010 and global mobile market share of 7%. Weakness Mobile phone radiation It is said that the exposure of RF fields from the cell phone towers has dangerous health hazards. Some research studies suggest that excessive cell phone usage could lead to cancer. This belief, however, remains a debatable issue. The local health authorities and the World Health Organization agree there is no evidence on the same. The damage though has already been done. It is a problem faced by all telecom operators. Government authorities in some countries have already taken precautionary measure by limiting cell phone usage in school and colleges, since pupils are more sensitive to RF fields. To a certain degree, the cell phone radiation concern reduces the quantity of demand since a segment of the market will have minimum usage. Legal Proceedings Concerned over allegations of cell phone radiation that will dent telecom industries revenues, operators like Vodafone and Verizon wireless have filed lawsuits against groups alleging various health consequences as a result of mobile usage. Health risks have not been substantiated however, there is no guarantee that the actual or perceived risks of RF exposure will not impair Vodafones ability to retain or attract new subscribers, or reduce mobile usage or result in future litigation. The litigation may further affect Vodafones operations adversely than that of other telecom operators since Vodafones strategic focus is on mobile telecommunications. Opportunities Increasing customers and emerging markets There has been a 20% growth in the telecom industry in the last three years with a 4.7 billion subscribers. Emerging markets like India, China, Turkey and South Africa have been improving performance with increasing revenue which contributes to the market share. In emerging markets mobile penetration is around 50% as compared to European market. Developing countries are expected to deliver faster GDP with little alternative fixed line infrastructure. Turkey in the fourth year had revenue growing 31.3%. Vodafone Indias revenue increased by 14.7%. Other Asia pacific regions and middle east service revenue increased by 9.8%. Mobile Transfer Service Mobile money transfer service is a value added service that provided through existing infrastructure with the help of other financial enterprises. It is a growing business with enormous opportunities especially when mobile customers are growing exponentially with an expected penetration of 5.4 billion by 2015. In the coming years mobile money transfer system will become Vodafones important source of income. 4G Introduction 4G is all about improved high speed data transmission. The superior ultra-broad band will improved internet connectivity and therefore better live streaming experience. Vodafone again will be using its own infrastructure to launch 4G. Growth of mobile advertising The increasing trend of mobile phone users, has led the industry to believe that the global mobile advertising market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of about 40% until 2014. This has been primarily because of the new handsets that are compatible and improved internet connectivity. In 2008 Vodafone ran several hundred campaigns for global brands. A year later, mobile advertising was devoted to 18 operating markets. This potential market will be a major growth area for telecom players. Threats Legal Risks Vodafones groups revenue comes from emerging or developing countries since they have majority of its customers in such markets. In emerging markets however, political, regulatory, economic and legal systems are less predictable. This environment makes Vodafones investments vulnerable and any legal developments are beyond the control of the group. There is also the likelihood of not having achieved any returns in these markets. Increasing Competition The exponential growth of new customers has been due to increased competition. The fierce competition has also led to declines in tariffs for mobile services and is expected to decrease further thereby causing drop in revenue. Competition has also led increase in subsidies for handsets. Licensing is also another concern that the telecom industry faces which may also lead to competition. Delayed Technology One of the hallmarks of Vodafones success has been the innovative technologies which are provided by vendors. The group makes significant expenditure towards setting up new infrastructure for improved communications. These technologies however, do not guarantee that the common standards of specification will be achieved. The technologies are developed according to anticipated schedules that will perform to the expectations of the vendor or their commercial importance. The poor performance from any vendor could result in additional expenditure or reduced profitability. Adverse Macroeconomic conditions Poor economic conditions may lead to reduced spending by customers. They may purchase lower priced products and services from a competitor. Externalities like recession or global economic deterioration will only delay the purchasing necessity of the customer. Adverse macroeconomic conditions will only affect Vodafones sales income. References http://www.vodafone.com/static/annual_report10/business/customers.html http://zprcnet.wwwwang.com/content/20103/1080835.shtml http://www.vodafone.com/start/investor_relations/vodafone_at_a_glance0.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodafone http://lawyers-law.com/indian-court-upholds-big-tax-bill-against-vodafone/ Jobber, D. (2007) 5th edn. Principles and Practice of Marketing. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education

Stellar Evolution Essay -- physics space stellar evolution

In astronomy, stellar evolution refers to the changes which stars undergo during their lifetime. Stars change in color, luminosity, size and temperature through their lifespan. Scientist can not study an individual stars lifetime though because they far exceed ours and therefore we must study stellar evolution by observing the life cycle of numerous stars, each at a different point in its life cycle, and then running computer models which simulate the structure of stars. Through history stars have been recorded, starting with the brightest, which have been named going back as far as 1000 b.c. by the chinese. Today we name stars in three categories, the first being the brightest are named for what constellation they are in. Variable stars are the ones that change in luminosity periodically and the fainter stars are logged in the Henry Draper Catalogue under numubers like HD 12938. Stars exist either alone or in groups of two or more in a system or cluster. Large clusters are grouped into galaxies and in our Galaxy, the Milky Way there are more than 100 billion stars. There are also 10's of millions of galaxies that are part of the known universe. Think about that and tell me there's no life out there. As technology permitted it was found that stars positions are not fixed and that stars move at various speeds measured in changes of direction in fractions of a second of arc per year. This second of arc is the angular size of a pinhead that is 183 m away (wow, now thats precise, you would think). Many of the fainter stars almost seem to not move at all though because they are so far away and thats why we use them as reference stars to measure others and scientists call this proper motion. A Parallex is another apparent m... ...rs of a fraction of a second. Its neutrinos send a shockwave out blasting most of the stars materials into space, but many of the elements get caught up in neutrinos and combine to create heavier elements. Without supernovae there would be no heavier elements than Iron-56. It is not understood well, but in some supernovae the gravity is so intense within the red supergiant that the electrons are forced into the atomic nuclei where they combine with protons to form neutrons. The electromagnetic forces keeping apart the seperate nuclei are gone and the entire core becomes a dense ball of neutrons or an atomic nucleus about the size of Manhatten called a Neutron Star. If the mass is great enough though, when the star turns into a red supergiant it will collapse under its on gravity into a radius smaller than the Schwarzchild Radius and turn into a Black Hole.

Essay --

Abortion is a major debate in society today and has been an impassioned topic for decades. At issue is whether or not abortion should be permissible. Generally I support the idea of abortion given specific circumstances. If a woman becomes pregnant due to rape, she has no moral obligation to carry the baby to full term. It is a gross expectation for society to think a woman should give birth to a baby conceived from rape and to take care of the child as her own. In this discussion I will argue that abortion is permissible if the mother was a victim of rape. Judith Thomson is a philosopher that supports abortion. Judith starts off with her debate stating that â€Å"a fetus is no more a human than an acorn is a tree†. When does an acorn become an oak (Thomson 37-56)? The answer is that no one truly knows, there is no direct moment when one thing becomes another, it is the same way as a fetus. When does a fetus become a baby? Thomson uses the â€Å"famous violinist† analogy. In this analogy you are kidnapped, when you wake up in the morning you learn that you are connected to a famous violist who needs your kidneys for nine months. It is stated the violinist is an innocent person with a right to life whereas separating yourself from the violinist would kill him/her (Thomson 37-56). I believe in this case it would be moral to unplug yourself from the violinist, even if it means his/hers death. You did not consent to supporting the violinist for nine months and therefore you do not have an obligation to do so. This scenario can be used to support the victim who has been raped. If you have been raped you did not consent to sex or make a conscience decision to accept the ramifications from forced actions of copulation. Furthermore y... ... unjust aggressor who has violated the woman's dignity. Rape is an act of force and violence, unlike the conjugal love in marriage whereby both spouses give freely of themselves in an act of love. The woman who was raped is not responsible for the action, and thereby has the right to prevent the pregnancy or even stop the pregnancy through abortion. However, I agree with any arguments that state killing is wrong. I do agree that killing is wrong from the time the fetus becomes a human being, up to any age of an adult. People should not be allowed to take the life of another person as this is a crime. I believe that abortion should stay legal for several reasons; because women should have the right to make decisions regarding their own body and especially if they are a rape victim, and because they have the autonomy to exercise that right regardless of state laws.

Curbing college drinking starts with a change in attitude Essay

The article by Sarah Fritz deals with a very acute issue of today’s reality: college drinking. She draws on horrifying statistics showing that 1,400 college students die each year because of alcohol and 600,000 are assaulted by another drunk student. We are used to assaults and rapes related to alcohol, but few would connect it with the deaths of such a large number of young people. Fritz makes one think that drinking can be more harmful and dangerous than we are used to think. At the same time, the author is sceptical about the prospects of fighting alcohol dependence with the methods, currently used on campus. I agree with her where she says that college officials may not be really interested in fighting the problem, because any mention of drinking incidents on some particular campus will hurt the reputation of this university. So if they are interested in hushing things up, then there is hardly a chance that drinking will go away any time soon. Besides, the bad example set by the previous generation mentioned by Fritz still works. Students know that their parents drank in their college youth and many of them turned out all right. As a result, students are convinced that adults are exaggerating the problem and trying to deny them what made the fun and joy of their own youth – happy partying with friends. Students may be afraid to try some new unknown drugs, but they know that humanity used alcohol since the time of Ancient Greeks and this did not bring the civilization to ruin. Perhaps a massive campaign against drinking can have effect, but only to a certain point, since the young always want to try out things even if they look dangerous. For this reason the effect will be limited. In addition, young people for the most part value having a good time above everything else, and for many people good time is closely connected with alcohol. They simply do not know any other way to spend their time in a more exciting way than binging with friends, and teaching them other ways is extremely difficult. Wanderman, Richard. One Person’s Path to Literacy. Wanderman’s story has many meanings. On the one hand, it gives an idea of how a person with disabilities adjusts to the world designed for normal people. On the other, it give insights into the process of learning, so deep and simple that virtually every person can use them to achieve success in some field. Wanderman does not ask for pity, nor does he write his story to express his bitterness about the world that was harsh on the disabled man. He opens his story with stating that he has a successful career, a nice house and a family. The author seems to have no hard feeling against nature or God that has made him this way. His journey from inability to improvement was his own making, and in this sense he is a self-made man indeed. Reading his story is highly useful for all of the healthy people who enjoy the benefits of good health they received at birth and forget that this blessing was not given to anybody. Basic things like reading a book or getting good grades in public school can be a challenge to these people, something worth remembering for all. The things Wanderman learned through his learning experience can be useful to all of us, since we all come across challenges in our lives. He very perceptively describes how he learned that a man can be stupid and incapable in one area and at the same time smart in another. His lesson that practice makes perfect is also very important to learners who despair at the first failure. He also learned that his father was right when he told him that â€Å"bumps would build character† (Wanderman 2000). Stating that he is happy to have a lot of character because of his trials, although he would not like to repeat his path, Wanderman gives comfort to those who are going through a black streak in their lives. Although they are going through difficulties, this is going to mould their characters in such a way that they are better able to meet the next set of difficulties to come. Logan, Paul. Rowing the Bus. Paul Logan’s story touches a cord with everyone who was once insulted or humiliated by a school mob or any other group of people enjoying scapegoating. It also touches a cord with anyone who has seen abuse of the vulnerable, but was too scared to defy the mob. The story tells about things many of us have encountered but were too ashamed to bring up in public discussion. Paul goes through an evolution in his attitude to bullies. In the first school, he believes them to be inevitable because of his poor clothes, fatherless family, lisp, crossed eyes and poor skill at sports. When one reads these stories, one often wonders why teachers never did anything to accommodate the child who was so different from the rest and clearly suffered from other children’s attitudes. Why didn’t they change something about the team selection process if they saw that it was humiliating to the one in the group who most needed protection? Anyway, Paul was obviously left on his own to combat the class, and this instilled in him very strong fear of being the one at the bottom. The fear was so strong that he rejects George who is even more vulnerable than he was in the new school. However, George’s hurt look triggers a revolution in Paul’s mind. He suffers from pangs of conscience so strong that finally he overcomes his fear in the incident with Donald, a high school bully. He is so successful that from now on all school bullies behave quieter when he is on the bus. They recognise that Paul has the strength to defend his views that developed under the influence of his own negative experience. Thus Paul succeeds in becoming sort of moral authority for the school. His influence on the others is positive, and for himself this action symbolizes threshold to maturity, a transition from boyhood to manhood. He is no longer the vulnerable one – on the contrary, he is able to protect the others. Still, he is left with the vision of George that he will hardly let go in the nearest future. Frost, Robert. Mending Wall. Mending a wall describe a slow, methodical process through which two neighbors are trying to isolate themselves from each other. They continue mending the barrier between their properties even when they feel that â€Å"something there is that doesn’t love a wall† (Frost 1915). The two neighbors have different views on neighbourhood and the necessity of the wall, yet they are working together to maintain the old and rundown thing. The neighbor who has a pine forest wants to maintain the wall since he learned from his father that â€Å"good fences make good neighbours† (Frost 1915). He does not question this saying, probably like he does not question any truths he learned from his Dad. The wall in his thinking is something that probably stood there for centuries and now is expected to stand at least for his lifetime. This neighbour is eager to devote time and effort to repairing the old wall, even though it is difficult to keep it in the same condition and stones and balls will not balance. The author seems to be more open to neighbors. He does not really want to keep a wall because he does not believe that it will improve his relationship with the neighbour. On the contrary, he does not think there is any threat from the neighbor’s house or pine forest that will not jump over to his land and eat his apples. Frost probably does not have a strong sense of property and is not so much afraid to share something that is his with others. He insists that fences make sense as a barrier to cows’ movement, but since there are no cows really, it makes no sense to keep them. The little poem makes one think about one’s attitudes to neighbours. It looks like there are two kinds of attitudes: either one maintains a fence around one’s property and does one’s best to keep the others out, or one does not care for fences. I do not think that there is a right or wrong choice here. It all depends on the way of communication one is comfortable with, although I would definitely prefer to do without fences.

Michelin Co. Ltd.

The Michelin Tyre Company Ltd, incorporated in 1905, was set up in 1889 by two brothers, Andre and Edouard Michelin. Now active in more than 170 countries, Michelin operates across all continents of the world, manufacturing and selling tyres for all kinds of vehicles, publishing maps and guides, and operating Specialist digital services. Most people recognize our world famous mascot, Bibendum, ‘The Michelin man', looking good considering his age! My own division is concerned with tyres made for heavy goods vehicles over 3. 5tonnes, including trucks, coaches, and buses. In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, we have an extensive sales force supporting thousands of tyre distributors, from tyres used in cars and trucks, to those used in specialist industrial and earthmoving equipment. To conduct environmental scanning, we adopt several approaches. We use joint panels with key national and regional trade journals, conducting telephone questionnaires with customers on challenges, issues, and developments in the haulage industry. Our sales Force in the UK and Ireland is responsible for collecting market intelligence, especially on competitors' actions and products. We work with the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association, which offers us a chance to mix with customers in a non-selling environment, and we belong to the Euro Pool organization, an independent body which acts on behalf of all European tyre manufacturers. Here, we declare our sales on a monthly basis and they send back to us details of our market share. In addition, we conduct our own annual surveys with distribution partners (including ATS Euro master-a Michelin group company-and independent tyre dealers). We use the results of these surveys to track industry market shares with sales revenues. Finally, we analyse and test competitor’s tyre products at our research and development centre. Our scanning activity has picked up lots of challenges, for example rising fuel costs, changes in haulage' patterns due to an increase in internet shopping, new legislation around driving and emission standards, and changing patterns of labour with the increase in Eastern European drivers (often bringing with them their cheaper fuel). However, the biggest challenge that we have experienced in the last 4 or 5 years is the strong competition from cheap imported tyre manufacturers from emerging economies in the east, including India, China, and Korea. These new tyre brands sell very cheaply because of the low manufacturing and labour costs in these countries. Although we knew these brands were coming, we were very surprised by how rapidly customers adopted them. 1. What environmental challenges are faced by Michelin? 2. What are the options with Michelin to handle the situation? Chocolate Bars Food and beverage companies, like their fast food counterparts, are facing increasing pressure from governments as child obesity rates increase in major Western nations. In England, obesity in children under 11 has risen from 9. 9% in 1995 to 13. % in 2003 according to figures outlined in the Health Survey for England (1995-2003). Governments are beginning to scrutinize their public health policies. The British government's 2004 White Paper on Public Health sets out how government will work across departments, with industry and other stakeholders, to support healthier life choices for citizens with specific requirements that food and beverage industry companies will: †¢ Provide people with clearer information on labels about food ingredients so as to allow consumers to make their own choices about what they consume. Promote healthy eating and drinking lifestyles. †¢ Improve the nutritional quality of food products generally. †¢ Restrict certain food, alcohol, and tobacco marketing and promotion to protect Children and young people's health through self-regulation or face some form of government legislation. The chocolate confectionery business is a target for the government as it attempts to wean kids off chocolate snacks at schools and tries to introduce them to apples and oranges instead. The chocolate market in Great Britain, dominated by the trinity of chocolate makers Cadbury Schweppes, Mars Inc. (which trades as Master Foods Europe in Europe), and Nestle. The total market has grown only slightly, by around 1% between 2004 and 2005, with some of the major brands' sales falling by as much as 24% (e. g. Kit Kat). Nevertheless, Britain does seem to have a love affair with chocolate. The question is whether or not it expands our waistlines. 1. What environmental factors are impacting chocolate business in UK? 2. How would you respond in such a situation?

Nature of Knowledge Essay

In the study of knowledge we distinguish between knowledge by acquaintance, in essence to know someone or know of something. Ability knowledge is for example to know how to swim or how to ride a bike. And, our main concern, propositional knowledge that is sentences or statements that can be either true or false. To have knowledge one needs to have a belief and for this belief to be true. The following text will show how true belief, even if it is justified in a rational way, does not suffice for knowledge. Take Nina, she is walking by some slot machines in the casino. She feels drawn to one of the machines, and believes it is her lucky day and that she will win because of the nice appealing colors on the slot machine. She places her bet, the wheels spin and line up three lucky 7’s, she wins and her belief turns out to be a true one. But while her belief being true, intuitively this do not suffice for knowledge, as it is easy to ascribe this winning to pure chance. Even if different suppositions may justify Nina’s belief in winning, it is natural to think that what Nina lacks in this situation to have knowledge, is justification. And also for this justification to be strong enough for Nina to be a rational being in believing she will win, without need to turn to superstition or vagueness to explain her belief. But even if Nina where to have a justified true belief, which she formed in a rational way, it is easy to show that this neither suffice for knowledge. Say Nina is a con girl, she has tricked the manager of the slot machine manufacturer to give her a manual, showing all the results the machine can produce, together with a serial number for each spin which is also displayed on the slot machine. So it is easy to look down in the manual what the next result will be. It is noon and Nina is now standing in front of the slot machine in the casino. She reads the serial number in the display and matches it in her manual. The next spin will line up three lucky 7’s and win. She places her bet and spins the wheel. Unbeknown to Nina there was an error when printing the manual so all the numbers are mixed up, making the manual useless. And this day the casino owner celebrates his 60th birthday by letting all the machines go off program at noon and give every placed bet at that time the three lucky 7’s line up. Nina’s justified belief turned out to be true, but due to lucky and unlucky circumstances we do not ascribe knowledge to Nina in this situation. Nina was responsible and rational when forming her belief, considering she went the length to trick the boss to give her the manual to see which spins win. If her goal is to win at slots, she was responsible when gathering evidence and responsible and rational in believing her evidence. And even if this example showed that an agent with a justified true belief formed in a rational and responsible way, do not necessarily have knowledge. It is easy to see that even if the agent lacks knowledge, she will often be successful in reaching her goals, because of the rational way she gains justification for her beliefs. Though it is not sufficient or may not even be necessary to have justified true beliefs when trying to grasp the nature of knowledge. Bibliography: Pritchard D. (2006) What is this thing called knowledge?, Routledge, Oxon

Is Hamlet a man of inaction? Essay

Humans are creatures of habit, we get into a daily routine, and over time, learning from experience our mind equips itself to dealing with certain situations that we encounter on a regular basis, when this routine is broken by an unexpected event our minds can be inadequately equipped to deal with this because you can only learn from teaching or experience. When a lightening bolt strikes out of the blue; a death of a loved one or such we immediately see things from another perspective, something like this can make us see things in a whole different light, things that you once thought you were sure of can take on a whole new face and cause us to wonder how we were ever so stupid to see what may now appear blatantly obvious. This may be for the better or for the worse but in any case it will almost certainly cause a turnaround in how we may see things in the future, this is what makes us human, are ability to learn from experience and put it into practice to hopefully avoid a similar situation ever befalling us again. A personal tragedy will obviously affect every person differently, it all depends on how many comparable situations we have encountered before, how much we expected it and how much we are willing to accept that bad things happen and move on. For any student away studying at university in a foreign country to be recalled out of the blue for such a matter as the death of their seemingly healthy father, who has apparently lost his life in such an unceremonious way as being bitten by a snake while asleep would be a devastating experience. Even in a modern day world something of this nature has enough potential to cause someone so much distress and confusion that it can be emotionally destroying. Now put yourself in hamlets situation you are a seventeenth century prince, a scholar based in a sheltered world, a world where you are oblivious to the fact that people lie, that people can be two faced and it is unbeknown to you that people are selfish and will put there needs before yours and others and will push as many people out of the way as they have to, to get what they want. None of these are things that would ever be part of his thought pattern, this other world; he has never seen it ; never heard of it, for him his world is the world of a prince, a place where no-one would ever make a remark about you to your face or to anyone that may have the ability to let you know about it, a world with servants and sycophants where your wish is everyone else’s command, a world where the most emotionally distressing thing you are likely to encounter is that maybe your best tunic has not been properly pressed for you by your legion of servants. You can already see even before his discovery of his mothers marriage to his uncle and the appearance of  his fathers ghost, that, for a person so uninformed of real emotional issues as Hamlet, that this would lay waste to all his current feelings and desires, leaving him with nothing on which to cling to support him through this time of hardship and solitude. This is why Hamlet is the perfect lead for Shakespeare’s tragedy, here he is saying â€Å"what if? † what if someone so unprepared as hamlet was to have to face something like this? Would the fibres of his whole human existence hold up to what he is about to face? He is forcing a collision between two different ends a scale, not even the same scale, he is submitting a characters (albeit fictional) mind and emotions to the whim of his most unimaginably ill fated predicament. You can understand that when he makes his first appearance speaking to Claudius and his mother, he has a tangible sense of bitterness towards them, especially when they speak to him in such a way that you would think it not uncommon for a woman to marry her deceased husbands brother within only two months of him passing. They enquire why he still is in his mourning dress, and think it inappropriate for him to still be actively grieving as death is â€Å"common. † They do not seem able to accept that they have had time to mourn, and that to him his fathers memory is fresh in his mind and that he is still besotted with grief not only about the death of his father, but even more so about their marriage. Claudius denounces him as showing lack of respect to their marriage and that â€Å"’tis unmanly grief† (act I scene II line 94 pg 13 OUP) he also lets Hamlet know that it is â€Å"most retrograde of their desire† for him to return to university at Wittenburg. For young Hamlet of course the memory is still green, and he has the added emotional trauma of seeing his mother wedded to his dead uncles brother and we get a strong tone of insensitivity from both of them, especially Claudius, you can imagine that hamlet, after just finding out about their marriage would be in a very fragile emotional state and their lack of consideration of his feelings can only be making him question him trust for anyone and pushing him further away from them, and driving his grief deeper inside him causing him to suppress his anger after not being able to relate this to them.

Rationale – I have decided to study the gender-oriented issue of conjugal roles in the family

I have decided to study the gender-oriented issue of conjugal roles in the family. This area of sociological interest came about when we looked at family life and the symmetrical family. Another reason for my interest in this is it is still an issue despite all the changes such as sex discrimination, and even though feminists have raised the issue it seems that there is still not equality in the allocation of domestic tasks between husband and wife. The Lancaster Regionalism Group found an increase in men's participation but not in the unpopular chores, while Alan Warde suggests that the nature of household tasks varied between couples. From this evidence I derived my hypothesis â€Å"Men do help around the home but do not make an equal contribution†. Primary research will be used and will take the form of a diary. For my variables my sample size will be ten married / cohabiting couples. Both male and female will be in full time employment aged between 30 to 40, as I have access to these respondents. They will be chosen using a snowballing method. A quantitative method will be used to measure the time spent on tasks around the home, and the nature of tasks performed. CONTEXT. The issue of the domestic division of labour was raised by feminists like Ann Oakley in her study â€Å"The sociology of Housework† in which she argued that housework should be taken seriously as a type of â€Å"work†. Other feminists have developed this theme and looked at ways in which women experience inequality in the home. My first source is drawn from the Lancaster Regionalism Group's investigation into the household division of labour in Northwest England in 1988. This concept â€Å"domestic division of labour† is crucial because it relates to my aim. The â€Å"domestic division of labour† describes the way in which household tasks are allocated in the home. These researchers found that husbands tend to do a very much larger proportion of tasks concerned with the home such as car maintenance etc. However the women do the vast amount of domestic chores. The Lancaster researchers examined the popularity of different household chores. They wanted to test whether the male or female partner was likely to get the unpopular job. From their list of 20 tasks ironing, washing clothes and dishes were chosen as the most disliked chores. Although men had last washed the dishes in 23% of households, only 5% had done the ironing and 3% had last cleaned the dishes. The least pleasant of all tasks cleaning the toilet was last done in 81% of households by women. The Lancaster Regionalism Group concluded that there was some evidence that attitudes had changed but the actual pattern of behaviour remains much the same as it was in the earlier generation. The Lancaster Regionalism Groups work links in with my own hypothesis because the study found an increase in men's participation but not in the unpopular chores. Secondly there is the feminist approach to the domestic division of labour. The feminist Ann Oakley argued that the social scientists who claimed it was natural for women to take a caring role in the family e.g. perform household tasks had been tricked by their own prejudices into assuming what it meant to be a woman. Some contemporary sociologists have taken Stoller's argument and suggest that women take on more domestic responsibilities in any given household because it is seen as culturally appropriate feminine behaviour. Therefore it is difficult to discover whether the sharing (or not) of domestic tasks can be seen as a true measure of â€Å"equality†. My third source is drawn from Gershunys study on domestic division of labour. He measured changes in the domestic division of labour by looking at the use of time in the household. He investigated the dual burden hypothesis, which states that even when women take up professional work, they continue to carry on the domestic work. Gershuny found that over the period of 1974-5 to 1987 the husbands of working women continued to do less than half the total paid and unpaid work done by their spouses. However in some types of household's men did contribute equally and husbands share of work had risen. This source is relevant to my hypothesis because the source concludes there is evidence to show that men were taking on more mundane tasks as done by women, but such tasks continued to be the female's responsibility. My next source is the article † Domestic divisions of labour† by Alan Warde.The source concerns the aspect of women's two roles, their conventional responsibility for housework and paid work. According to the study where wives are involved in paid employment they spend fewer hours, on housework where men seem to be doing more. Nevertheless, women still do a greater share of domestic work. There is a strong gender division of tasks, with women doing routine household jobs. The article concludes that the traditional patterns remain very much in evidence and the rate at which men are learning to do female tasks may be slower than that at which women are learning to do male tasks like plastering etc. This source is relevant to my study because selected tasks between husband and wife remain much the same, women doing more housework and men doing painting etc. My final source is once again on the domestic division of labour by Madeleine Leonard. The article suggests that housework remains women's work. Research shows that there is a clear gender division of labour in housework tasks just like the Lancashire Regionalism group found in their study. This source is relevant to my study because it suggests that even though men are making a contribution when it comes to chores they are still not doing an equal share. These studies suggest that, despite much greater equality for women there is still an imbalance of responsibility when it comes to household chores. However my own research may suggest otherwise. Methodology Three main areas need to be covered for this research. Firstly, there needs to be a way of measuring the amount of domestic labour performed by females and males in the present day family groups. I have decided to measure who does what around the home. Secondly I will be measuring the tasks done with others and the time spent on chores. The principal research method I will use will be a diary, as I believe this is a more original method for this research. Not only will this method give me a greater validity but also an insight into the issue. I also hope it will identify trends within my sample group about the amount of housework performed. Using the diary method will also enable me to replicate Wilmott and Youngs approach, as they too used a diary method in their study of the â€Å"symmetrical family† where they asked respondents to keep a diary detailing the hours spent on paid and unpaid work. My sample will consist of 10 couple's aged between 30 to 40 who are all employed. They will be chosen using the snowballing method. Using this method offers a wide range of advantages for example it will enable me to obtain a relevant sample without having a sampling frame. The diary method will involve asking my respondents to keep a strict diary recording and detailing the amount of domestic labour they performed throughout the day, as well tasks done alone and the time spent on chores. When using these method respondents would need to keep this diary for up to a week. The diary will offer the opportunity to let the respondents record their account of the domestic labour performed without causing any bias, and so it will be a more reliable source. An example of sociological research that has used a diary method is Wilmott and Young's study of the symmetrical family where they asked respondents to keep a diary detailing the hours spent on paid and unpaid work. Another study example where a diary method has been used is Ann Oakley's study on the sociology of housework. Oakley asked respondents to keep a housework diary, revealing for the feminist debate the hard work and long hours housework demands. The advantage of using the diary method is qualitative data can discover peoples meaning and interpretations and can often also be examined systematically to identify patterns by using content analysis. This approach is favoured because it is free of values and scientific. Another advantage of using the diary method is it is a more reliable source when it comes to ethical issues, as respondents will not be influenced when recording the amount of work performed & will not reveal aspects of their lives they wish to remain hidden. One of the other reasons why I decided to use the diary method is it does not limit the resource-based area of time and money. The diary method will enable me to collect informative, relevant and original data whilst remaining within practical constraints. The diary method reflects two major methodological disadvantages selectivity and it is typical. The selectivity issue is a problem because the respondent will decide what is included not me the researcher. This could lead to irrelevance and inaccuracy & a difficulty in comparing data from different respondents. However to over come this disadvantage I will divide the diary into three categories to specify what sort of things to include. However this solution may too be a disadvantage as I am using a qualitative method this may lead to bias because I am imposing a framework on the respondent. The second disadvantage is typical because I do not know the amount of confidence I can have in the usualness of the day recorded. Most people's lives follow regular patterns but if my diary period of ten days is untypical then my picture as the researcher will be distorted. EVIDENCE. Despite the progress made by women in the twentieth century, which has brought about a substantial amount of change and has put an end to inequality and discrimination between sexes in many areas, women have still not won the battle of equality between men when it comes to domestic work in the home. When talking about work, it can be assumed that this refers to paid employment. However there is one job which is performed full time by women more than men, which is housework or domestic labour. My research concludes that domestic work done by women is hardly ever recognised. For instance respondent A had done more hours of domestic work in a week compared to her husband respondent k (refer to appendix). From my diary I can estimate women spend an average of fifty hours a week on housework which is far more than most people spend in paid employment. Men seemed to be doing less than this amount of domestic work compared to their wives, in some days doing less than half what they consider to be housework or related tasks. I have found from my diaries that housework is still seen as the main responsibility of women even though both partners are working in full time paid employment. It is still women who take on the main responsibility for housework from all the ten couples who took part in my experiment. My findings show that women still have an unequal role with men in the homestead. Much of this inequality arises because the central role of women is still seen by a male dominated society as that of housewife and mother. For instance a similarity I found in my study was that nearly all the female respondents who took part carried out similar tasks over one week such as cleaning the toilet, cooking and hovering etc. Whereas the male respondents tasks where also similar for instance gardening and painting etc. This may suggest that many jobs are still seen as men's job and women's job. This compares with the Lancaster Regionalism Group's study. This study showed that 80%of women were responsible for general domestic duties such as cleaning the toilet and only 31% of men took full responsibility for work to be done in the homestead. This tells me about my aims that many full time working women have two jobs in comparison to the men's one job. My own findings reveal that although a wide range of jobs and opportunities are available to women the main role of a woman's life is expected to be that of housewife. Although out of the 10 couples who took part in my experiment only 2% shared the responsibility of housework equally. This compares with Gershuney's study because he found that in some types of households men did contribute equally. The only difference, which was clear in my study, was that attitudes to domestic chores are changing. Respondents k and L(refer to appendix) were doing tasks such as cooking, making the tea etc all tasks done by women out of the other couples who took part in my experiment. This for instance compares to Gershuney's study because he found men were taking on more mundane tasks as done by women. The process of conducting my research went well although I would make a number of changes if I were to carry the experiment out again. For instance I decided that half an hour would be suitable and a long enough space of time for respondents to record the tasks done. I now think that this time period was not suitable, as this was too short. People may spend longer than half an hour on certain tasks such as hovering and so this may not have been recorded in the diary. I believe that forty-five minutes would have been a longer space of time. However if I had decided to choose to go with more than forty five minutes than respondents may not choose to record tasks that take them less than five minutes for example putting the rubbish out. After carrying out the experiment the ten couples who took part said they found it difficult recording what they thought was a task. Questions raised from the respondents included would walking the dog and taking the kids to school be considered a task?. To overcome this problem I could list about twenty tasks such as hovering, and other possible variations on a cover sheet and attach it to the diary and instruct respondents to record only the tasks on the cover sheet. I found that some respondents were recording gardening, and painting etc the problem with this is some people may choose to do gardening or painting as a hobby so these can not be recorded as chores. Again using a cover sheet could solve this problem. From my diaries I found that men were spending only half an hour on tasks when doing it on there own. However when they recorded tasks done with others they were spending more time on tasks of up to an hour. This shows that women obviously take more time on domestic chores whereas even though men are doing there bit the time taken is much shorter. By comparing all the diaries from males I could see that the tasks done by men were very similar such as changing a light bulb or fuse. This was also the case with women all the tasks done by them over the week was also very similar such as cooking, changing the linen etc. This shows me that there is a gender division when it comes to household tasks. The main role of a women's life is still to be that of a housewife, having dinner ready on the table, cleaning the house etc although men are doing there part in the domestic sphere but just not enough compared to men. This compares to the study of † Back to the future† by Madeline Leonard. She found that housework by large remains women's work, and this more than any other factor accounts for women's continued exploitation in the home. In her study she found that women are responsible for cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing, while men do jobs such as gardening and home maintenance. The key findings of all my primary research include that although it is true that women have made a huge progress, total equality in the home is still a myth. The battle of the sexes when it comes to domestic tasks has still not met its equilibrium although evidence from my research suggests that attitudes are changing slowly. EVALUATION & FINAL CONCLUSIONS. The sampling problems apparent in my research were that there were problems finding an equal number of working class and middle class couples. Consequently my sample was mainly working class. This problem simply reflected the facts of the type of domestic work that I the researcher was looking for. There may have been a need to adjust my hypothesis or the sample characteristics because it was too broad. My sample was reduced to ten couples because when I went round to respondent's homes they were not in. To overcome this problem I the researcher could have made the diary worth while for the respondents in order to motivate them to take part. I now believe that the sample I chose to use was not representative. This is because only ten couples took part. The couples in the survey were mainly working women and men and so may not be representative of professional men and women. There is no indication in the data that a range of different types of couples, e.g. working class, members of ethnic minorities, etc was sampled. The strengths of my research are that I focused on the comparative approach by using the snowballing method for example the way the couples were randomly sampled. The representatives of the sample, especially the equal sexes ratio. All diaries were handed out to respondents in their home because of the anonymity of the diaries. The weaknesses of my research were that the respondents might have thought the research was official and feel threatened by it, and so refuse to co-operate with it etc. Therefore the responses may not therefore reflect the truth, despite anonymity. The respondents were not supervised when they were filling in the diary and in reaction, some respondents may not have co-operated fully, experience of self reports tell us that people have a tendency to exaggerate, lie, not take surveys seriously. I did explore the issue in sufficient depth because my secondary data was appropriate to draw a suitable hypothesis. My secondary data was derived from a range of sources: social studies review, the Lancaster Regionalism Group etc. These all gave me an official picture of the domestic division of labour situation. The sources of data that I have collected are the most effective in relation to my aims. However other methods of data collection might have been possible for instance a large-scale survey of the population could be conducted of the workload shared between husband and wife in general. I could include questions on women's role as housewife which operationalise in various ways positive and negative attitudes towards them. Interviews could be conducted with husbands, which would measure their attitudes and their perception of social attitudes towards housewives. A content analysis could be carried out on newspaper coverage of the role of women in the home. My choice of method did affect my results for example by using the diary method I was able to control variables via using a snowballing sample. It is seen to have high reliability because it is easily repeated. Other sociologists can verify the data obtained by using the same standardised diary and similar samples. It is also seen as objective because the sample population is randomly rather than deliberately selected. During the diary schedule I did attempt to operationalise the concept domestic division of labour etc in such a way that it was not judgmental of the couples. I used my personal theoretical perspective and related this to my choice of method for instance the couples could have been interviewed together, although a more interesting variation that I chose was to use a diary method. This method was chosen so that they could record the amount of domestic tasks done separately. I was then able to compare data to get a gender version of the amount of tasks done. My experience of carrying out the research compares to the interpretivists. Firstly, the task of the researcher is to investigate how those taking part in the study interpret the world around them. In order to do this, the sociologist has to get inside their heads and see the world through their eyes. This is called â€Å"verstehen† and is an attempt to empathise with those being studied. Second, interpretivists emphasise validity seeing the world as it really is. Validity played a great importance in my chosen method because I was trying to find out how domestic tasks were shared so seeing the world as it really is. Third, cause and effect relationships are impossible to construct because people socially construct social situations and the interpretations people give to certain situations often vary. I found this to be the case in my research between couples. I do think my results are presented in the most effective way. As my chosen method was qualitative I was not able to produce any statistical data however my diaries were in columns with appropriate headings. To study this research further people could develop the idea of helping around the home by using Wilmot and young's assertion that the family is still symmetrical. Also people could research whether women actually want to be helped when it comes to household tasks even though feminists argue that the family is still an exploitative arrangement for women. CONCLUSION My hypothesis read†¦ † Men do help around the home but do not make an equal contribution† I can conclude that my hypothesis was correct because I found from my diaries that women are still doing more than there fair share of domestic work compared to men. This is the case because the extensions of traditional domestic roles of housewives and mothers are still in which women continue to be socialised these include serving and waiting on people, catering for them and cleaning and clearing up after others. These are all jobs women traditionally did and still do in the home. Such jobs include primary school teaching, low-grade catering work, working as shop assistants, supermarket shop fillers, secretaries' etc. For example secretaries often serve their (usually male bosses), organise the office in the workplace to make things easier for them, making tea and coffee and clearing up after their meetings. Primary school involves childminding, catering involves cooking etc. Women have limited career opportunities than males for a number of different reasons. There is the gender stereotyping at school and the wider gender role socialisation process in the home and in the work place. This is similar to the article † Back to the future† by Madeleine Leonard who found that this gender role socialisation process in the home made women continue to see housework as an important part of being a â€Å"good wife and mother† and are satisfied with the unequal domestic division of labour.