Project Analysis and Planning, Project Execution, Project Monitoring Essay

Project Analysis and Planning, Project Execution, Project Monitoring and Control, Project Risk and Change Management - Essay Example They have helped most of the biggest brands in the world acquire huge profits. Some of these brands are Ducati, Revion, Southwest Airlines and the New York stock exchange. High standards are set by the Board of Directors for personnel at VMware creating room for acquiring the best results. The Board follows a set of guidelines that are in the company’s best interests and within the laws set in place in the United States of America. (VMware.Inc, 2014) Virtualization software has four main objectives. Use of more hardware resources than before, reduction in cost of management and resources, improves flexibility of businesses, security and downtime. Earlier, hardware resources were not being put to full use. Computers could be hooked up to different servers but through using virtualization infrastructure, computers can be hooked to one main server and still perform operations efficiently. In fact, computer operations become more efficient. Resource and Management costs are reduced when businesses use a virtualized system. Creating more room for physical computer servers in organizations is eliminated due to the fact that a virtualized system accumulates very little room as the system acts as one physical server for all computers in the organization. Therefore, costs for creating more room are eliminated. (AJ Muller, 2005) Flexibility of businesses is achieved when using virtualization through elimination of cost used to set up space for additional computers when a business needs to expand its workstations. Virtualization is easier to set up and requires no additional expenses in hardware and extra space. Improvement in security and reduced downtime are another one of the objectives of virtualization. In the event that a computer crashes, retrieving software becomes very difficult if the computers do not have a virtualized infrastructure causing increased costs in rectifying the problem and downtime before the problem has

A Happy University Essay Example for Free

A Happy University Essay A happy university is enjoyable and interesting place to study. Students feel that they belong to a community and are offered supports from the Student Assistance Center of the university. The university is well-designed and there are many good facilities. A happy campus also has many interesting and exciting places for recreation. Students in happy campus have good behavior. Although they come from different background, they are able to respect each other and share ideas. They also help other students to overcome issues about study or life. Especially freshmen who have just started their term at the university, they are taught life skills and get assistances from the Student Assistance Center to be familiar with new life and environment. In addition there are many opportunities for students to take part in community or social events, and do part-time jobs to earn money to buy books or equipment for study. Good facilities is one of the factors that cannot be missing in a happy campus. There are areas for study and a library with internet connection and an enormous amount of books that are always revised. It also has large lecture rooms, laboratories, a medical center. These laboratories are designed specifically base on different specialties. In addition, there is a big smart parking basement that helps students to easily and quickly keep or take their bikes or cars. Moreover, the university has high standard of teaching with modern resources and equipment. Students is easy to move around the campus because the footpaths and connecting bridges are well-organized. After spending long period of time for study or research, students cannot avoid suffering from fatigue or mental illnesses such as tiredness, depression, insomnia. Therefore they need to refresh their soul or stay mentally healthy. So many places for recreation are built up because of that purpose. There are many green fields such as parks, gardens, small hills on the bank of rivers and sporting fields such as football grounds, swimming pools, basketball courts, golf courses, F1 circuits. Students can spend their free time in these areas or in fitness center, spas or yoga. Besides sports or exercises, they can also take part in extracurricular activities depend on their hobbies such as singing, dancing, drawing or writing for the university newspaper. On weekends, they can gather at a nightclub that has performances of famous DJs and singers such as Tiesto, David Guetta, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna. However, the nightclub is only celebrated on special event. Additionally,  students can join groups which organize debates, meetings and holiday trips. Finally, in memory of people who have studied at a happy university that are unforgettable days and experiences. They are also proud of being students of a happy university.

Fundamental Urban Design Principles Relevancy Cultural Studies Essay

Fundamental Urban Design Principles Relevancy Cultural Studies Essay The term Urban Design broadly tries to be understood as making places for people, or more simply put designing people-places within city-spaces. Being an inherently ambiguous term, different types of people tend to use it differently for various circumstances. But the two words when taken separately have clear meanings; urban suggesting the city or town characteristic and design referring to the planning or arrangement part. But on further study, we tend to understand that the term urban design really is a process. A process focused on planning to make better places for people. With this statement, we tend to realize the importance of the other underlining factors involved, like firstly how urban design is for and about the people, its sense of value and special significance, constrains of economical and political forces and the fact that all this is undergone as a process. Coined in North America in the late 1950s, the term urban design was used to in order to explain the design of major civic buildings and their relationship to the open spaces within the city. However, the steady increase of academics and professionals in this subject generally tend to understand urban design to be a little more than just an aesthetic arrangement of people spaces within a city. It has a more wide and inclusive meaning of solving effective problems of city growth and also organising the development within those quarters. In the pressing need for a clearer definition of urban design, Madanipour identifies and explains the seven areas of ambiguity in his book The Design of Urban space. He addresses the scale factor of the urban fabric, the visual emphasis, the social emphasis, the relationship between the process and product in the city design, the relationship between different professionals and their activities, affiliation of the public and private sectors and finally the design as an expressive or subjective process. This wide variety of ambiguities explains the lack of clarity in its definition. So as a conclusion, he defines urban design as the multidisciplinary activity of shaping and managing urban environments, interested in both the process of this shaping and the spaces it helps shape. Combining technical, social and expressive concerns, urban designers use both visual and verbal means of communication, and engage in all scales of the urban socio-spatial continuum.(Carmona,M.2003) Urban Design had theories which improved over time to form a basic structure of principles which became the core principles for any urban designer to go through before simply jumping in to the designing aspect. Different key urban designers wrote books and set standards according to the principles and theories formed. The British Urban scenario ironically began with His Highness the Prince of Wales who collaborated with others to bring about an awareness of sorts. The responsive environment book was a design manual for urban designers (published in 1985), with a compilation of several American and British theories which formed the first draft of urban design principles in a way. Although this book was mainly meant for the techniques in designs, its based on some theory as well. Most of the urban design approaches relating to the visual aspects are influences from the European style and mainly the British; on the other hand the American style was rather more in understanding the socia l aspects and regarded to the workability of that design. Gradually with the townscape tradition from Krier, L and the governments advice for broader view, the British practice became more space oriented. But still the practice retains a very strong visual tradition, especially in development control in planning. The principles were then revised again in 1990 by Bentley to strike a balance between the various previous factors and the present new ones. Then later by 2000, with collaborated effort released the Urban Design Compendium which also was an essential guideline tool for urban designers. The main urban design principles are: 1) Robustness is the quality which describes the degree to which people can use a given place for different purposes. Its in context to the quality of the public realm, which is the place for people to gather. Hence, to create an environment where everyone can access and benefit from the full range of opportunities available to the members of the society. 2) Permeability is the quality which affects the mobility of the people within the urban tissue .Its mainly about making connections in order to ease the movement. A good design would integrate the existing urban form, the natural and the built environments. 3) Legibility explains the quality that affects how easily people can understand and relate to the surrounding environment. The design focus would be to address the connections between people and places by considering the activities of people to access public spaces, recreational areas and to socialise. 4) Variety, termed for the range of uses, tenure, character, population available with the urban quarter. Also describes more of the mixed uses or the diversity of uses and forms. The design criteria would work at addressing the connections between people and places by considering the need of the people to access jobs and key services. 5) Visual appropriateness describes the quality of appearance/ aesthetics of a place making people aware of the choices available. 6) Cleanliness which is to make sure to minimise pollution or to be self cleansing. 7) Bio-diversity which is to preserve and protect the present wild-life corridor and use natural management. 8) Energy Efficient, which is to make sure to keep a tab on the energy consumption within a house, building or on a city scale. 9) Richness is the quality that affects the peoples choice of the sensory experiences. 10) Community control relating to the individuality of the neighbour community of the people. This was added instead of the Personalisation principle. By elaborating some of these principles we can easily understand how they deserve to be fundamental urban design principles. Robustness: This quality brings an element to a certain place that can be used for many different purposes, thereby offering their users more choice than places whose design limits them to a single fixed use. Robustness actually has an initial glitch to its theory, regarding the fact that most people would not opt for this quality of urban design considering the fact that at the end of the day, they are the ones paying the rent and maintaining them. Since designers have to respect the clients wishes, robustness does in fact work wonders at a large scale. When it comes down to the outdoor spaces, private garden spaces, public outdoor spaces etc, robustness can bring about its usefulness to the society. Designing the edge of the public square can make informal/seasonal market spaces. Examples, Cardiff city park, right opposite to the city hall, experiences seasonal changes in its usage. The simple park turns in to an ice skating rink for the winter for the society to make the best of the festive season. Another example is the woonerf concept, applied in Utrecht, Netherlands. Or in the British context, the home zone concept for a neighbourhood area. This robustness really encourages more social interactions and safety priorities for the children play area etc unlike other neighbourhoods. Permeability: The term permeability is basically defined as the number of alternative ways through an environment, hence giving more choices to people to freely move. To achieve good permeability, some of the guidelines followed in todays practice are: 1) The provision for accessibility is expected to include and connect both public and private spaces. By controlling the number of route choices we tend to attain the right of privacy in certain necessary areas. 2) The alternative route choices should clearly be revealed or visible to everyone, hence the term visible permeability. 3) Understanding the advantages of smaller blocks rather than large blocks, which mean more choice of routes in the latter, hence the term physical permeability. Keeping these guidelines, we design to attain a balance between the public and private spaces through access links, especially considering fronts and backs. Here is when the street network plays an important role. One of the most commonly opted patterns for a city is the grid pattern. The grid provides choice. By achieving efficient connections and allowing through access where needed, the grid pattern in the perfect example of permeability. For example, Portland city in America has a grid pattern network of streets and roads, with small block dimensions understanding the importance of permeability. Another Indian city example is Le Corbusiers Chandigarh, which has followed the grid iron pattern. Each block is divided by the road network, in to mixed use blocks which are called sectors. Legibility: This is the quality that makes a place graspable. There are different levels of legibility: physical form and activity patterns. Legibility came in to being with history. Traditional cities were always legible due to the fact that the important civic buildings in the community or city used to have a sense of relevance with the local architectural flavour, but the modern city is all steel and glass with the western influence. So there always tends to be some sort of confusion there. The key physical elements in making a place legible are: Paths, Edges, Nodes, Landmarks and Districts. Path is the channel along which the observer customarily, occasionally or potentially moves. So Create predominant elements in the urban tissue, and also by setting an image of the urban layout. For example by concentrating special uses or activities on the street may give it predominance in the mind of the observer. Edges normally are the linear element that defines a path. They also tend to behave as the boundaries between two character areas. They can be designed to give a sense of direction and improve the travel quality. The concentration of paths can be diverted with activities. Nodes can be designed with strategic foci for an observer to typically enter these sorts of junction area. These could also be paths crossing, with a big public square or a landmark. Landmarks tend to help the observer in terms of orientation, easily identifying also with the physical elements that bring it all together like the paths and edges. Also tends to bring about a feeling of class and uniqueness to the context. Districts are relatively larger areas which can have a distinct characteristic by which the observer can relate to. For example like china town in London. Some of the main physical characteristics that determine a districts area can be an endless variety of components, texture, shapes, forms, detail, building types, inhabitants and topography etc. Other than these main features the combining of new and existing elements can also try to grasp the observer. For instance combining paths and nodes, existing landmarks, edges and districts etc. For example, the city of Bath has a very legible nodal character where all the buildings are at the node, which have the paths and the edges crossing at the junction. Combining altogether to be a part of a landmark character space. At times when certain areas within a city arent legible, it certainly becomes difficult to navigate around. In Chandigarh, though the grid iron pattern design was meant to make it more permeable, certain nodes and areas look exactly the same. Visitors find this to be of a big problem, since they tend to get lost easily. So we understand the importance of how the permeability and legibility principles have to work together in order to achieve balance in the design. These principles have a strong resemblance to the principles used in developing nations like India and China. British influence in the Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta can be easily seen as though like a big foot print. Understanding the overall impact of the railways and the colonization strategies of the British in India, urban designers have come away as far as the sustainable age of today. Incorporating the Indian cultural society in our neighbourhoods, slowly over the years, and at the same time being open to the western influence in design and policies has helped the Indian master planners to come forth with new innovative ideas to bring about changes to the Indian urban tissue. Most of these principles really help the urban designer in building up a society with a character. Understanding these basic fundamentals, and working out design in context to the site only helps in increasing the quality of life. Nothing is meant to be left for chance which means to say that todays city is not an accident. Its generic growth and form probably is unintentional, but its not accidental. (Carmona, M.2003)

Robert E. Lee Essay -- Biography Biographies Bio essays research paper

Robert E. Lee Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Few episodes in history are more painful to Americans than the Civil War, fought between the North and the South. This biography, Great American Generals - Robert E. Lee, by Ian Hogg, takes the reader through the life of one of the greatest heroes of that war, Robert E. Lee. It is a thorough, in depth record of the life of Lee and begins with a detailed account of his family history and his birth, through his college years, military experience and his work in later life to his death on October 12, 1870. The first few pages set the scene by listing a substantial amount of facts about the names and backgrounds of his parents Harry and Ann and Lee's wife, Mary Custis, with some reference to his father's army career and political life. After Lee's early years, the reader will learn of his schooling at the Military Academy, West Point, followed by his life in the Army before and after the Civil War. The biography ends in the latter pages with an account of his work after his military career came to an end, and finally, with his death after a prolonged period of ill-health, thought to be stress induced.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Author Ian Hogg is a prolific writer in the field of defense and military technology. He is a weapons expert, having written many books on all types of rifles, shotguns and small arms, such as Modern Rifles, Shotguns and Pistols, and Modern Small Arms. He is an acknowledged expert on infantry weapons and is thought to be the world's leading expert on this and artillery strategies. He is a well known author of military history, and works as a weapons evaluator in addition to his writing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Robert E. Lee was born in Stratford, Virginia on January 19, 1807. His father, Henry Lee, had achieved fame with Washington's army as "Lighthorse Harry,"and it was a fame that rested not only on his cavalry exploits but upon sound strategic and tactical ability. A significant portion of his fame was credited to him for beating off a surprise British attack at Spread Eagle Tavern in January, 1778. Unfortunately Harry was egotistical and had a high opinion of his own abilities. Although he achieved the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he felt that he deserved more. When the war ended and he had not advanced in rank he resigned from the army to pursue a career in politics. Henry decided to run for the position... ...nd the circumstances into which he was born on January 19, 1807, and ends with his death on October 12, 1870.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hogg relates the intervening years in an extremely interesting fashion, providing many fascinating and detailed pieces of information. The story is presented in a way that keeps the interest of the reader, and is not boring, even when giving statistics of the various campaigns that Lee undertook. The book appeals not just to Lee fans, but to all history students.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The pages are filled with numerous detailed maps, and colorful pictures that enhance the view of Lee and his life. Military students will delight in the descriptions of the war, while students of Lee's character are rewarded by fascinating facts of his and his parent's lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hogg presents this painful episode in America's history in a balanced, non-judgemental way. He portrays Lee as a man of great integrity and honor, a true Southern gentleman, and casts no slurs concerning the fact that Lee was on the losing side of a war in which there were no winners.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is an exciting and informative book and is one of the more enjoyable books which are required reading for this course.

Competition in the Chinese Automobile Industry Essay

There are many scientific inventions in our world. Some of these inventions are even in the houses that we live in. There are inventions such as computer games, the microwave oven, and even the Moto vehicle. These inventions make our lives much easier but it destroys the world as well. Everything and everyone gets harmed some way by these inventions. Let’s start off with this. The computer is entertaining but yet dangerous to our eyes. Children of our world love being on the computer. But they shouldn’t love it too much, because if you stare and are too close to the computer for far too long, your eyes begin to hurt and you become shot sighted. This is so because your brain decides that you don’t need to be able to see things far away and only see thing that are close to you. The computer is one of the best inventions because it helps you with a lot of things. Number one is work. It allows us to save all our important document and keeps them in a private file. The microwave oven. This is a machine that heats thing. It’s great in homes for when you want to heat foods. About 1/3 of the world has one. I’ll say this; microwave oven heats your foods but also destroys your health. As the microwave heats up, it sends of radiation inside and out. Your foods become polluted with radiation and if you’re too close to it you as well. Who likes eating cold food? I mean we all like food nice and hot, so we should have a microwave oven in our houses. I personally can’t go without a microwave. It one of my favorite scientific inventions. One of the most used scientific inventions would be the motor vehicle. Now this is brilliant! The motor vehicle or should I say, cars are very common to our modern day lives. EVERYBODY has one. Well if you have a license of course. Now cars are a complex piece of machinery. It’s like you’re basically holding a fully loaded gun. Almost every day there is an accident that occurs. We may not see it, but it happens. People get greatly injured or even die from car accidents. On the positive side, cars do have its advantages. People use cars to transport themselves around. It takes you from one place to another. Instead of having to walk, you drive. Another thing about cars, it pollutes the air badly. This is so because cars give off a great deal of smoke sometimes. This affects the greenhouse gases and even worse, the ozone layer. If the air is completely contaminated people with die. People that believe these machines are not good for our lives are somewhat correct but wrong. I believe that it has made our lives really easy and less complex. I think it has done wonders to the world and we should all appreciate the advantage we get from this.

The Four Noble Truths

The four noble truths are considered to be fundamental teachings of Gautama Buddha. These truths lay groundwork on how man should view his existence in this world. Others have viewed these teachings as being too pessimistic. This is because of the focus on suffering/pain as an inextricable component of life. The four noble truths aim at recategorizing man’s experience as cause and effect, skllful and unskillful rather than me/not me and being/not being (Bikkhu, 1999). The first noble truth discusses about the nature of suffering (dukkha).It claims that the latter is experienced through our relations with others, in aging, in birth, in death, and in illness (â€Å"Four Noble Truths,† 2007). In short, it is the case that everyone would encounter some sort of pain whether mental or physical. Gautama Buddha tells us that we must learn to know/understand as well as accept these sufferings as facts of life. The Second noble truth is centered on the origin of suffering/dukkha- samudaya. Accordingly one suffers because he/she craves, this can either be sensual, for eternal existence or for self-destruction.Craving (or tanha) is a corruption of one’s mind and as such ought to be avoided (â€Å"the Second Noble Truth,† 2005). There is a need for us to confront and rid ourselves of attachments, hate, and our delusions. Craving or desire can lead one to lie, cheat and steal— in short to live a dishonest life. Inability to get one’s object of desire also leads to anger and frustration; which would be self-destructive to the individual (â€Å"The Cause of Suffering,† 2007). To be controlled by one’s desire is to remain in ignorance.The latter is considered to be the inability to see the truth about things. In order for one to overcome this he/she must seek wisdom through meditation and study. The third noble truth is the end of suffering. This will be made possible if one is able to rid of his/her ill will, craving, and ignorance. When we are able to end suffering, we will be able to attain full/ultimate happiness. It is the case that as one is able to transcend his/her desires and consequently pain; he/she would be able to become increasingly at peace and happy.Buddhist calls this transcending as supreme enlightenment whereas the person is able to achieve the same clarity as Buddha. The two main features of being enlightened is wisdom and great compassion (â€Å"enlightenment,† 2006). The fourth noble truth tells us how we could end suffering. Buddha teaches us that we must take the middle path in order for us to be enlightened. This goes to say that one should not live the extremes of life. One must not live in total luxury and indulgence but he/she must also not live is pure ascetism.Both these extremes are prone to error, even the one which seeks absolute purification of one’s existence. In line with this middle path, Buddha formulates the systematic cure to suffering which is the eight fold path. The latter could be seen as â€Å"self-help† guide on how to achieve enlightenment by following different steps. I think that the teachings of Gautama Buddha with regards to the four noble truths can be applied in everyday living and modern meditation. I believe that even if one is not an official Buddhist; he/she would find meaning in these teachings.After all if we come to take a keener look at what these truths are saying; we would realize that they can be used to make one lead a more clear and peaceful kind of life. The truths that Buddha speaks of can be used by anyone wanting to achieve clarity of the mind and wishes to lead a life free from internal and external conflicts. It is the case in order for a person to achieve this he must first recognize that he/she is prone to afflict him/her and others. She must take into consideration that the things she does in life would be for the removal of superficial cravings instead of indulging in vanity, greed, and pride.I personally believe that we would be able to apply the teachings of Buddha in our day to day existence. The cessation of over-craving, and suffering would lead to a life of personal illumination. Overcoming these tendencies would not only aid our selves but also influence for the better our relationship with other people. Buddhism gives us a path to spirituality that manifest itself in the way we do and deal with life. References: Bhikku, A. ,(1999). The Four Noble Truths: A Study Guide. Retrieved September 14 2007, from http:// www.accesstoinsight. org/lib/study/truths. html. (n. d. ). Four Noble Truths. Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://buddhism. 2be. net/Four_Noble_Truths. (2005). The Second Noble Truth. In Access Insight, Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://www. accesstoinsight. org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca2/index. html. Gyatso, G. K. , (2006). Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths. in Meditate in London. Retrieved September 14, 2007, from http://www. meditat einlondon. org. uk/buddhism-the-four-noble-truths. php

Management Is a Diverse Role, and Increasingly so in the 21st Century Essay Example

Management Is a Diverse Role, and Increasingly so in the 21st Century Essay Example Management Is a Diverse Role, and Increasingly so in the 21st Century Essay Management Is a Diverse Role, and Increasingly so in the 21st Century Essay Nowadays, the most important point of businesses process is how to make business successful with less loses and higher profit. The organization has to find and create the way to make company go forward with less of trouble and make balance between effectiveness and efficiency (Robbins Coulter 2007). Above all, important point of business process is the management, which is a human activity in an organization to accomplish the goals, and make a high performance and a high quality (Schermerhorn 2008). Therefore, the organization has to look for good managers in order to make company pass the big challenges. Organisation also uses management process and diverse roles to accomplish goals. For this reason, the best company to explain this entire role is Oporto. This essay will explain management is a diverse role, and increasingly so in the 21st century. According to the introduction, efficiency is how to accomplish the goals by using minimum resources and less waste as much as they can. On the other hand, effectiveness is same as efficiency but effectiveness just wants to get good results (Robbins Coulter 2007). The first step of management process is planning, which is plotting to complete the goals and begin of the strategy (Robbins Coulter 2007). For example, Oporto is the Australia fast food company. The campaign of the company is focusing on fresh grill chicken not frozen chicken. (Oporto 2010b). This step is using by top manager who is the owner of Oporto, Antonio Cerqueira and also owner of all franchisee. They are using Conceptual skills to make high quality to the company. They are using Human skills to learn ability of employees, and use some of Technical skills to make other level of managers to understand the concept. Therefore, planning of Oporto Company is how to increase customers and franchisee with best quality (Oporto 2010a). The second step is organizing. It is how to choose person, who can do these jobs, and make it done with less problems (Pettinger 2007). This step is using by middle manager that are supervisors. They are finding the tactic and using the concept from the top manager to improve the quality. The procedures of diverse roles is to use for identify conceptual of Katz theory. There are including selection people to work in the organisation. The organisation should focuses on the abilities of people that related with the job position (Robbins DeCenzo 2005). In this case, Oporto Company has concepts to increase customers and make best quality. This manager type seek employees, who clever on that station. In a conversation on 19 July 2010, Vin, Oporto’s manager has planned the daily shift plans, which tell what station that employees should stand. In the meantime, manager has to know about experiences of employees and also learn what they are suit to work in different station. Overton (2009) suggested this third step like conductor in an orchestra. In addition, conductor is a leader of the orchestra that it needs to control member in the band. From this reason, manager has to motivate employees, the employees, and make them active all the time. First-line manager is a kitchen coordinator that has to do these steps. They have good technical skills and human skills that mean they know how employees feel. They can do all stations. However, employers also use diverse roles from Mintzberg’s management roles. For instance, leaders are motivating, training, and recruiting employees which are the secondary from interpersonal roles (Robbins DeCenzo 2005). Here in, Oporto’s manager must show appreciation with employees after rush hours and also make employees feel please while they are working. Lastly, controlling is how to maintain quality that employees do (Rothbauer-Wanish 2009). Furthermore, this step has to monitor and compare activities that employees do. Also, make those works complete (Rothbauer-Wanish 2009). In this case, Oporto Company always sent the quality inspection. They call this team is a mystery shopper for check the quality of service and products such as properly uniform, following the safety procedures, and quality of services. (Oporto 2010a). There are many challenges that effects with other companies in the world. The first challenge is domestic competition. In this situation, Oporto Company does not have effects but Oporto franchisees are affected. In addition, some people buy franchisee from Oporto Company in Australia but they open store in other countries. For example, the first Oporto franchisee is going to open in United Kingdom. The competitor of Oporto in United Kingdom is Nando restaurant that they are selling chicken products (Nando 2010). The last challenge is unpredictable and rapid change in the environment (Overton 2009). This is a big challenge for Oporto Company. If suppliers have problem about chicken’s products such as chicken size is so small and diseased with chickens, they will have problems with franchisee. In conclusion, this four steps of the management process are created for develop the company to become high standard. All steps are related with each other from planning to organising, to leading, and finish by controlling (Overton 2009). The big challenges of Oporto company are only unpredictable and rapid change for the environment but second challenge is domestic competition has an indirect effect because they have more effect with franchisee in other countries than the head quarter and franchisee in Australia. Organizations have many diverse roles to use and it has to adapt by depend on type of companies. Meanwhile, good companies must have good plot of management process by good managers. They also make balance efficiency and effectiveness for increase performance of companies. Hence, challenges of companies shown ability of managers to plan management process without problem or trouble and increase the standard of companies to above best level, which means excellent with less resources.

Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) Emerald ash borer (EAB), a native beetle of Asia, invaded North America in the 1990s by way of wooden packing material. In a decades time, these pests killed tens of millions of trees throughout the Great Lakes region. Get to know this pest, so you can sound the alarm if it makes its way to your neck o the woods. Description: The adult emerald ash borer is a striking metallic green, with an iridescent purple abdomen hidden beneath the forewings. This elongate beetle reaches about 15 mm in length and just over 3 mm in width. Look for adults from June to August, when they fly in search of mates. Creamy white larvae reach lengths of 32 mm at maturity. The prothorax nearly obscures its tiny, brown head. EAB pupae also appear creamy white. The eggs are white at first, but turn deep red as they develop. To identify emerald ash borer, you should learn to recognize the signs of an infestation. Unfortunately, symptoms of emerald ash borer dont become obvious until two or more years after borers enter a tree. D-shaped exit holes, just 1/8 in diameter, mark the emergence of adults. Split bark and foliage dieback may also portend pest trouble. Just under the bark, S-shaped larval galleries will confirm the presence of EAB. Classification: Kingdom - AnimaliaPhylum - ArthropodaClass – InsectaOrder – ColeopteraFamily - BuprestidaeGenus - AgrilusSpecies - planipennis Diet: Emerald ash borer larvae feed only on ash trees. Specifically, EAB feeds on the vascular tissues between the bark and sapwood, a habit that interrupts the flow of nutrients and water required by the tree. Life Cycle: All beetles, including the emerald ash borer, undergo complete metamorphosis. Egg – Emerald ash borers lay eggs singly, in crevices in the bark of host trees. A single female can lay up to 90 eggs. Eggs hatch within 7-9 days.Larva – Larvae tunnel through the trees sapwood, feeding on the phloem. Emerald ash borers overwinter in the larval form, sometimes for two seasons.Pupa – Pupation occurs in mid-spring, just under the bark or phloem.Adult – After emerging, adults remain within the tunnel until their exoskeletons properly harden. Special Adaptations and Defenses: The emerald ash borers green color acts as camouflage within the forest foliage. The adults fly quickly, fleeing from danger when needed. Most buprestids can produce a bitter chemical, buprestin, to deter predators. Habitat: Emerald ash borer requires only their host plant, ash trees (Fraxinus spp.). Range: Emerald ash borers native range includes parts of China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, as well as small areas of Russia and Mongolia. As an invasive pest, EAB now lives in Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Virginia. Other Common Names: EAB

Qualitative Research Method Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Qualitative Research Method - Assignment Example For the qualitative research method, the anticipated data collection technique to use is the interview, with which a corresponding interview transcript shall be designed. For the interview, the kinds of data anticipated to be generated are open ended subjective questions that will yield a qualitative type of data. This is said against the background that once interviewees are asked questions by the researcher, the researcher does not limit their scope and range of response, thereby making the responses as subjective as possible (Gay and Airasian, 2000). As the major feature of qualitative method is to permit the researcher undertake subjective data collection and analysis, it is said that the kind of data to be generated will be the qualitative type of data. Directly related to the use of the interview, the researcher proposes to design an interview transcript that will be used as a data collection instrument. The most underling feature of this research instrument is that it would pe rmit the researcher to assign codes to all the responses that are collected so that the corresponding data analysis exercise shall be easier and precise (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Having touched on the data analysis plan to be used, it would be said that the selection of data analysis techniques is very important for this purpose of qualitative data collection research because the data analysis will make large volume of rich text data accessible and meaningful to all users of the research findings. The selection of the data analysis technique is backed with the need of ensuring that the researcher shall not take advantage of the subjective collection of data to present data that cannot be authenticated and substantiated to be factual and reliable. To this end, the hand coding technique shall be used. Hand coding is advantageous because it is interpretive and aims at organizing data so as to introduce the interpretation of the data into an empirical method (Creswell, 2007).

Bi-species Culturalisation Experiments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bi-species Culturalisation Experiments - Essay Example It not only helped the Bonobos to construct sentences but also helped them to develop a skill in grammar. Verbs Adverbs and Adjectives helped the Bonobos to use the forms of grammars just like the human beings can. As in the video, Pambanisha declared the caretakers as "bad", for playing a trick with Liz. It clearly illustrated that even chimpanzees can use grammar like the human beings. If given proper guidance the chimpanzees can work as they are asked to and can understand the language of the human beings. This experiment was a remarkable effort by Dr Sue Savage Rumbaugh in finding the effect of lexigram boards on the chimpanzees and clearly illustrated the intellectual power of the monkeys. The English grammar used by the monkeys showed that they can understand what they were being taught. At times the monkeys even reacted to whatever they were asked to do. This was an example of the intellect in the monkeys. The experiment clearly showed that Bonobos not only comprehend the huma n language but also act according to the instructions given. Pambenisha didn't go out for several days and thus was exhausted and sick of the environment. This forced her to do things which were quite unusual and unexpected but were of a great importance. To express her feelings, Pambenisha took a piece of chalk and started writing with the chalk on the floor. Firstly in the video it is shown that Pambenisha is writing quite far from Dr Sue but after a while when she realizes that Dr Sue is not paying attention to her writing she moves a bit closer to Dr Sue. And Pambenisha starts writing again near Dr Sue. This shows that Pambenisha is trying to express her feelings and inner emotions to Dr Sue. And when Dr Sue realized that Pambenisha was writing something on the floor she took a great notice. Upon findings it is known that Pambenisha drew an A-frame. This A-frame is meaningless if the lexigram board is not reviewed. The lexigram describes the A-frame drawing as 'a hut in the woods'. This shows that Pambenisha was interested in going out so mewhere to another place. Pambenisha does not stop writing over here and she again draws 'a flat rock' which according to the lexigram board is a place in the woods. And she writes further on the floor to express her feelings. This time she draws a 'collar' which she usually wears when she goes out. This clearly illustrated that Pambenisha was interested in going out to the hut in the woods. The drawings were not drawn as perfectly as in the lexigram board. But it can be clearly understood what Pambenisha means if the drawing is analyzed carefully and compared to the lexigram board. This writing of Pambenisha taught her a new way through which she could express her inner feelings and communicate with others. According to Dr. Sew the best possible way to make someone learn is not to teach them, instead of using the language around them. The curiosity to do the same what your beloved is doing, leads to the learning of new things. 3. What is the significance of the Bonobo's use of tools to our investigation of language origins Dr Sue's analysis has been of great significance and has brought revolution in the communication between a man and a chimpanzee. It has given a new birth to the language origins. It has derived many

Marketing planing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Marketing planing - Assignment Example Analyzing marketing plan of Boots UK Limited will be the essence of this paper while understanding the research problem in context to theoretical argument of various research scholars. Before going to this discussion, the researcher will try to understand the business matrix of Boots UK Limited. Boots UK Limited- Business Overview Boots was established by John Boot in the year 1849 and the company is headquartered in Nottingham, United Kingdom (Boots-UK, 2013a). Boots UK is the subsidiary of Alliance Boots which is a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group (Boots-UK, 2013b). Boots UK works in close partnership with pharmacists and medicine manufacturers in order to maintain steady flow of supply. The company focuses on three major business verticals such as pharmaceutical wholesaling & retail distribution, pharmacy-led health supplement distribution and beauty retailing (Boots-UK, 2013b). Although the parent company Alliance Boots has established its presence over 25 count ries but subsidiary Boots UK has not expanded its operation beyond UK and Ireland. Boots UK Limited (Boots) has expanded its retail operation with the help of establishing 2500 stores in UK and Ireland. The pharmacy chain serves more than 7 million customers every week and the company earns revenue over ?5 billion (Tata Consultancy Services, 2007). Task 1 Ans.1b- Careful analysis of the research work of Sheth and Sisodia (2006) reveals the fact that both product and service driven companies have started to look into marketing planning as a strategic move instead of perceiving it as a mere operational trick to generate brand awareness. Modern companies separately allocate resources for formulating and executing the marketing plan. Sheth and Sisodia (2006) argued that modern marketers have started viewing marketing plan as a means for generating customer satisfaction and loyalty. Modern marketing plan is created after conducting deep market research on consumer behavior, economic powe r index of customer, demography of customers, social dynamics of customers while in previous occasions, marketing plan was developed on the basis of product selling objectives. However, Wood (2008) pointed out that pattern of marketing plan changed in terms on inclusion of social elements in the planning phase. For example, modern marketers emphasize heavily on creating human touch points or human appeal through the marketing plan while in previous occasions, marketing plans were mechanical in nature. Capabilities of Boots UK Limited (Boots) can be assessed in terms of its resources which can be classified as tangible, intangible and human resources. Tangible Resource Intangible Resource Human Resource Capabilities Boots work as the subsidy of Alliance Boots which earns annual revenue of more than $40 billion with operating profit of $2billion. Hence, the group is in financially stable position to finance its marketing plan. Boots is market leader in UK’s pharmacy-led health and beauty with 2,500 distribution centres. Boots has got intellectual capital by establishing patent contract with leading pharmaceutical companies. Contract with pharmaceutical companies help Boots to sell generic drugs in exclusive manner to customers. The company maintains the heritage of 164 years which is greatest drive for building the brand equity for Boots. In many occasions, Boots

Theory of Clause Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Theory of Clause - Essay Example Usually, relative clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In contrast to dependent clause, independent or main clause is a clause that can stand alone. Main clause is synonymous to a simple sentence. In essence, clause is the basic unit of meaning in the English language (Stuart-Smith, 2003). Either dependent or independent, a clause conveys a message. This paper, on the other hand, examines the relative clause as a basic unit of a language in relation to functional grammar, especially in the ideational metafunction level. Here, the use of the word clause will refer to dependent clause. The usage of a clause in the different world languages differs greatly. There are three identified dimensions of these differences: (1) position of the clause with respect to the head noun or the noun being modified; (2) how a clause is marked; (3) the absence or presence of a pronominal reflex (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the English language, a clause follows the head noun. For instance, in the sentence, "San Antonio is a city that has experienced very rapid growth," the head-noun San Antonio precedes the italicized clause. To place the clause before the head noun in a sentence sounds, if not ungrammatical, awkward. Farsi and Arabic languages share similar syntactic pattern in the clause usage compared to most European languages. However, Japanese and Korean languages do not adhere to the first dimension of the above-mentioned clause usage (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the second dimension, the English language employs a relative pronoun (e.g., who) or demonstrative pronoun (e.g., that) to mark that what follows is a clause (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). For example, "I read the journal that you recommended." Or, "I love the girl who appreciates poetry." The lines before the demonstrative and relative pronouns are independent clauses that can stand as a sentence. The application of the pronouns that and who merely modify the head nouns. Besides English, Persian and Chinese languages use other forms of markers placed between the head noun and the clause. The presence or absence of the pronominal reflex is the third dimension along which languages differ in the clause usage (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the sentence, "Art called out to the girl that he knew," the "that" replaces "the girl" in the embedded sentence, "he knew the girl." Ideational Metafunction Ideational metafunction is one of the three fundamental functional components of a language. Ideational metafunction is primarily concerned with the function that "language has of being about something" (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). In the past, a theory of the fundamental functions of language have been developed, in which lexicogrammar can be subdivided into 3 broad metafunctions, namely: interpersonal, ideational and textual. Each of these 3 deals with a different aspect of the world, and they are concerned with various modes of clause meanings. "The ideational metafunction is about the natural world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is concerned with clauses as representations. The interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned

Company Background - Microsoft Corporation Essay

Company Background - Microsoft Corporation - Essay Example The essay "Company Background - Microsoft Corporation" discusses company background of Microsoft Corporation. In the 21st century the company has diversified into other business sectors such as the video game industry. The firm in 2001 released the X-Box and subsequently in 2005 created the X-Box 360 which has sold millions of units worldwide. Microsoft has grown a lot during the last 28 years. The firm has a global workforce of 94,000 employees and a market capitalization value of $266.2 billion. The firm’s common stocks are sold in the NASDAQ under the symbol MSFT. As of April 25, 2013 the price of Microsoft common stocks was $31.94. During fiscal year 2012 Microsoft generated total revenues of $73.72 billion. The net income of Microsoft during 2012 was $16.98 billion. I selected Microsoft because I have been a customer of the firm for over a decade. My preferred game console is the X-box 360 and I have Windows 8 installed in both my computers at home. This analysis will hel p me determine whether Microsoft would be a good investment option for my personal investment portfolio. The common stocks of Microsoft are considered blue chip stocks. A blue chip stock can be defined as a stock issued by a well-known company with an established record of making money and paying dividends. A ratio analysis of Microsoft is illustrated below Ratio Analysis. Accountants and business analysts can utilize ratio analysis to evaluate the financial performance of an enterprise. Ratio analysis uses the input from the common size. financial statements of a company in order to insert that data into financial formulas. The five major categories of ratio analysis are profitability, market value, liquidity, leverage, and efficiency. One of the benefits of using ratio analysis is that any person with basic math knowledge can use the formulas to calculate the ratios of a company. The financial statements that must be used to calculate ratios can be retrieved from the annual report of public firms. One of the limitations of ratio analysis is that its results are not forward looking since they focus on the historical performance of a company. This report will focus on three financial ratios: net margin, asset utilization, and return on assets (ROA). The results of Microsoft are going to be compared against one of its main competitors and against the industry. The competitor chosen for comparison purposes was Oracle. The liquidity position of the company will also be analyzed by calculating the free cash flow ratio and through analysis of the cash flow statement of the company. The net margin measures the profitability of a company. The formula to calculate net margin is net income divided by the total sales. Microsoft had a net income in 2012 of $16.98 billion and total sales of $73.72 billion. The net margin of Microsoft in 2012 was 23.03%. Microsoft’s net margin in 2011 was 33.10% which implies that the company’s profitability decreased by 10.0 7%. When compared to Oracle the net margin of Microsoft was 3.85% lower than Oracle’s 26.89% result. The industry standard net margin in the software industry is 4.50% (Dun & Bradstreet, 2012). The software industry is classified under SIC code 7372 (Prepackaged software). Microsoft’s profitability was superior to the industry by 18.53%. The asset utilization is a ratio that measures how effective the company has been at using its assets to generate sales. During 2012 Microsoft had an asset utilization of 1.65. The asset utilization of the company has declined by 0.09 since the previous fiscal year. Oracle had an

Quantitative Research Design Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Quantitative Research Design - Assignment Example The researcher states that quantitative research design is further divided into two categories. The first category is the descriptive type of quantitative research which establishes only associations between variables. The second category is experiment quantitative research which establishes causality. These two types of quantitative research designs can be further categorized into specific designs. In experimental design, a researcher does more than just observe the subjects. Under the time series, one or more measurements are taken on all subjects before and after a treatment. However, one major problem may arise in time series. As Hopkins explained, some changes that can be observed in the experiment might be due to other than treatment. He presented that subjects might do better in the second test because of their experience in the first test. To give the solution to this problem, a crossover design can be used. Two population samples are needed in this design. The first populati on actually receives the actual treatment while the other population of the sample remains a reference. Hopkins added, â€Å"If the treatment effect is unlikely to wash out between measurements, a control group has to be used. In these designs, all subjects are measured, but only some of them, the experiment group, then receive the treatment. All subjects are then measured again, and the change in the experimental group is compared with the change in the control group.† Under such circumstance, a laboratory experimental design is under controlled condition. The study conducted by Anderson is considered a laboratory experiment in which the experimental groups were actually told not by the actual objective of the study. The experiment design is a single-controlled trial because the subjects are considered blind. In this regard, the researcher might be able to control the conditions better which makes the experiment more reliable. More so, this experiment can be replicated and c an establish cause and effect relationship.

Theory of Clause Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Theory of Clause - Essay Example Usually, relative clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In contrast to dependent clause, independent or main clause is a clause that can stand alone. Main clause is synonymous to a simple sentence. In essence, clause is the basic unit of meaning in the English language (Stuart-Smith, 2003). Either dependent or independent, a clause conveys a message. This paper, on the other hand, examines the relative clause as a basic unit of a language in relation to functional grammar, especially in the ideational metafunction level. Here, the use of the word clause will refer to dependent clause. The usage of a clause in the different world languages differs greatly. There are three identified dimensions of these differences: (1) position of the clause with respect to the head noun or the noun being modified; (2) how a clause is marked; (3) the absence or presence of a pronominal reflex (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the English language, a clause follows the head noun. For instance, in the sentence, "San Antonio is a city that has experienced very rapid growth," the head-noun San Antonio precedes the italicized clause. To place the clause before the head noun in a sentence sounds, if not ungrammatical, awkward. Farsi and Arabic languages share similar syntactic pattern in the clause usage compared to most European languages. However, Japanese and Korean languages do not adhere to the first dimension of the above-mentioned clause usage (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the second dimension, the English language employs a relative pronoun (e.g., who) or demonstrative pronoun (e.g., that) to mark that what follows is a clause (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). For example, "I read the journal that you recommended." Or, "I love the girl who appreciates poetry." The lines before the demonstrative and relative pronouns are independent clauses that can stand as a sentence. The application of the pronouns that and who merely modify the head nouns. Besides English, Persian and Chinese languages use other forms of markers placed between the head noun and the clause. The presence or absence of the pronominal reflex is the third dimension along which languages differ in the clause usage (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p.573). In the sentence, "Art called out to the girl that he knew," the "that" replaces "the girl" in the embedded sentence, "he knew the girl." Ideational Metafunction Ideational metafunction is one of the three fundamental functional components of a language. Ideational metafunction is primarily concerned with the function that "language has of being about something" (Halliday & Hasan, 1976). In the past, a theory of the fundamental functions of language have been developed, in which lexicogrammar can be subdivided into 3 broad metafunctions, namely: interpersonal, ideational and textual. Each of these 3 deals with a different aspect of the world, and they are concerned with various modes of clause meanings. "The ideational metafunction is about the natural world in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is concerned with clauses as representations. The interpersonal metafunction is about the social world, especially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned

Quantitative Research Design Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Quantitative Research Design - Assignment Example The researcher states that quantitative research design is further divided into two categories. The first category is the descriptive type of quantitative research which establishes only associations between variables. The second category is experiment quantitative research which establishes causality. These two types of quantitative research designs can be further categorized into specific designs. In experimental design, a researcher does more than just observe the subjects. Under the time series, one or more measurements are taken on all subjects before and after a treatment. However, one major problem may arise in time series. As Hopkins explained, some changes that can be observed in the experiment might be due to other than treatment. He presented that subjects might do better in the second test because of their experience in the first test. To give the solution to this problem, a crossover design can be used. Two population samples are needed in this design. The first populati on actually receives the actual treatment while the other population of the sample remains a reference. Hopkins added, â€Å"If the treatment effect is unlikely to wash out between measurements, a control group has to be used. In these designs, all subjects are measured, but only some of them, the experiment group, then receive the treatment. All subjects are then measured again, and the change in the experimental group is compared with the change in the control group.† Under such circumstance, a laboratory experimental design is under controlled condition. The study conducted by Anderson is considered a laboratory experiment in which the experimental groups were actually told not by the actual objective of the study. The experiment design is a single-controlled trial because the subjects are considered blind. In this regard, the researcher might be able to control the conditions better which makes the experiment more reliable. More so, this experiment can be replicated and c an establish cause and effect relationship.

Ducati Solution Essay Example for Free

Ducati Solution Essay Issues/Challenges Today, Ducati is one of the most successful motorcycle companies in the world with a dramatic profit growth since 1996. Before its huge success, Ducati was one step away from facing bankruptcy. Ducati managed to overcome such an obstacle through strong innovation and culture. Today, Ducati is faced with another challenge that may bring fortune to the company if successfully managed. Ducati set a new goal, which is to sustain the explosive double-digit profit growth in the next decade and eventually reach Harley Davison’s profit level. Ducati is considering attacking Harley Davidson by entering the cruiser market, which is Harley Davidson’s niche product and also a very profitable market segment in the industry. To do this, Ducati must invest 17 million Euro and cost of 26 million Euro. Based on this huge capital requirement, should Ducati enter the new market segment or should Ducati just concentrate on its current segment? If Ducati chooses to enter the cruiser market, what are other requirements besides the capital? Does Ducati have what it takes to succeed in the new market segment? The purpose of this memo is to help the executives of Ducati to make the optimum decision for Ducati’s future success. This memo contains the industry analysis, as well as an internal strategic analysis, company performance, and solutions and recommendations. This industry is divided into 4 segments. Ducati’s dominating segment is the sport sector. Ducati managed to utilize its differentiation strategy by taking into account of the industry’s driving forces. The cruiser segment is one sector that Ducati is very interested in entering. Unfortunately, Bert’s consulting concluded that this is not the best option through the feasibility analysis. The analysis contains the advantages and disadvantages of both options and the result was that the disadvantages outweighed the advantages. Also, entering the cruiser market is not really necessary for Ducati based on its current performance level. Industry analysis Although the number of motorcycle manufacturers has declined by a large number over the last century, competition exists among companies from different continents. Currently, all major manufacturers are from Japan, The U. S. , and Europe. The motorcycle industry is segmented into four categories: off-road, cruisers, touring and sport bikes, each of them with different qualities and target customers. Industry forces Economic condition is one of the major factors that drive the industry. This is an important factor because depending on the condition of the economy buyers’ demand will change. For example, when the economy stays strong, more people will buy the product while less people will buy when there is an economic downturn. The reason for this is because motorcycles are products that are not really necessary to possess in life. In other words, they are luxury goods. During the economic downturns, people become price sensitive and they could simply choose not to buy the product or find a substitute such as public transportation or vehicles that can hold more passengers. Therefore, the threat of substitute is very high. Motorcycles, like any type of automobiles, are a source of transportation, except they are luxury products. Companies in this industry compete with differentiation strategy rather than low cost strategy, meaning that companies focus on the quality of the product rather than low price. As long as the economy stays healthy, high income consumers will always buy the product no matter how much it costs. Another key factor is to understand the target market. As mentioned earlier, the motorcycle industry can be segmented into 4 categories. â€Å"A wide variety of individuals, with equally different tastes, bought and rode motorcycles† (Gavetti, pg 2). Each segment has certain qualities that attract different customers with different preferences. The riders can also be categorized into different types just as the motorcycles and they are â€Å"knee down†, â€Å"easy-riders†, â€Å"weekend riders†, and â€Å"highway riders. Different qualities include performance, functionality, lifestyle, and comfort. Riders choose their motorcycle based on which qualities they are attracted to. Motorcycles are not standardized products. They are highly differentiated products and they are not items that can be bought in large volume. For this reason, the power of buyers is relative low. Also, since the majority of buyers are not price sensitive, switching to different vendors is fairly easy. Prices do not affect the buyers in this industry because the buyer heavily demands quality over price. For example, if a new company comes up with a model with the best quality, the buyers will still switch to the new company no matter how expensive the new product is. This is the point where strong rivalry comes into play. All competitors have the same objective, which is to attract as many customers as they can by providing quality products. Although their objective is the same, each competitor follows their objective with their own unique strategies. Since customers can easily be attracted with innovative products, the rivalry in this industry is very high. One of the most important drivers of the industry is strong innovation. Technology advancement is very critical in this industry. Companies heavily invest a large portion of their revenues into research and development to create innovative technologies that differentiate themselves from competitors. This is very important in strengthening their name brands. Major companies used their early technology inventions as their foundation, and built up to an even higher level. Due to strong innovative thoughts, â€Å"motorcycles’ performance, comfort, reliability, and ease of maintenance had improved vastly† (Gavetti, pg 3). Due to very high capital requirement, strong innovative thoughts, and numerous large size competitors, the entry barrier is very high. Also, to be able to compete with these companies, new entrants must design a complex but efficient supply chain system for the manufacturing process. Motorcycle manufacturers rely heavily on the suppliers for quality input and satisfying delivery. â€Å"Outsourcing minimized fixed asset investment, but the quest for quality, reduced costs, and responsiveness to market fluctuations forced final assemblers to create strong commitment at the level of suppliers† (Gavetti, pg 3). To create high quality output at a lower fixed investment, it is very important for the manufacturers to maintain a good relationship with the suppliers. Also, as mentioned earlier, motorcycles are not standardized products, but differentiated products. This means that the components of the motorcycles are also quality inputs provided by the suppliers. The influence of the supplier on the final output is immense; therefore, the power of suppliers is high. Internal strategic analysis Ducati uses differentiation strategy as many other companies within the motorcycle industry. Therefore, all companies compete with each other by producing the best quality motorcycle. Ducati’s unique business model and core activities helped to produce Ducati’s way of quality motorcycles mainly focusing sport sector. Ducati’s strength comes from four core activities, which are production process, distribution system, development of product and RD, and â€Å"The world of Ducati. † One of Ducati’s core strategies is that Ducati heavily outsources its production compared to its competitors. As of 2001, outsourcing had grown to approximately 87%, and the company planned to bring it to 90%, probably the highest in the industry (industry experts estimated that the average outsourcing level for the industry was lower than Ducati’s)† (Gavetti, pg 10). By doing this, Ducati is able to reduce fixed asset investment, and mainly focus on product design, development and quality control. To ensure its product quality, Ducati collaborated wit h a number of the well-known firms such as Ferrari, Lombardini, Motori, etc, and formed the â€Å"Engine Technology District† (Gavetti, pg 11). All the firms within this district had one thing in common. They were all heavily focusing on engine technology. They basically collaborate with each other on activities such as â€Å"RD, purchasing, suppliers’ quality control, employee training etc† (Gavetti, pg 11). Ducati is very strict on selecting suppliers. Since suppliers play key roles in providing quality motorcycle components to the company, Ducati selected different suppliers for each component. Also, Ducati did not make long-term contracts with suppliers except for the major components. Ducati simply switched to different suppliers when the short-term contracts were over if needed. This ensured the quality and reliability of Ducati. Another core strategy that Ducati has is the distribution system. This strategy mainly helps Ducati to create a standard and unified Ducati designed business model for all dealers and subsidiaries to keep the scent and the culture of Ducati alive and therefore increase the value of the brand name. Through this system Ducati found many advantages. First of all, Ducati had full control of the distribution and marketing process. Instead of distributing its products to franchising dealers, and independent distributors, and letting them independently manage their own network of dealers, Ducati established company owned subsidiaries throughout the world. All the subsidiaries were managed under Ducati, which help to retain traits of Ducati’s brand (Gavetti, pg 12). This also increases the profit because Ducati owns the total sales made by all subsidiaries. Second, Ducati re-organized its network of dealers. Unlike many other companies, Ducati concentrated to improve the dealers’ performance instead of geographic expansion. There are many aspects that Ducati took into consideration for dealers’ performance such as sales forces, good technical assistance, and an adequate physical space for product display (Gavetti, pg 11). Instead of expanding the number of dealers, Ducati reduced by a large number. This made it easier for Ducati to manage to improve each dealership since the number decreased. Lastly, under this system, Ducati created its own chain stores. These stores owned by mono-franchisers offered company branded merchandises such as accessories and provided technical support and customer service. These stores provided a unique retail environment emphasizing the distinctive traits of Ducati’s Brand: while a ‘History Wall’ displayed images of Ducati’s racing heritage, and ‘Engineering Wall showed a large scale engineering drawing of the 916, Ducati’s symbol† (Gavetti, pg 12). This is an important factor because it strengthens the brand name and also increases customers’ loyalty by creating a culture. The third Ducati’s core strategy is the unique production development and RD process. Ducati invested a large portion of their revenue in designing new technologies, development of products and human resource management. Ducati created two research centers, the Cagiva Research Center and the Ducati Design center. The Cagiva Research Center focused on external design and Ducati Design Center focused on internal design. â€Å"As a consequence of these efforts, the company greatly reduced the ‘time to market’ for new product launches† (Gavetti, pg 12). This means that Ducati is able to develop a new model in shorter time period. Also, Ducati integrated RD and marketing for technological improvements. Through market research and customer feedback, Ducati managed to improve their technology and design. The World of Ducati is a strategy that helps the development and improvement of the value of the brand through a set of activities. â€Å"In addition to ‘Ducati Stores,’ the ‘World of Ducati’ compromised a series of other activities that had been consistently developing in the past three years† (Gavetti, pg 12). One activity is that unlike its competitors, Ducati implemented an â€Å"Open Paddock† policy, which allow members of Ducati club to be in close contact with the racers by participating in dinners and events. This is very important because ccording to a company’s website survey, the most important purchasing factor is the Superbike competition, followed by magazine tests, sports orientation of the brand, and its link to competition (Gavetti, pg 12). All these factors definitely improved customers’ loyalty to Ducati’s brand which is very important to sustain customers. Racers greatly collaborated with the RD process of Ducati by constantly testing the machines through competitions. Another activity is that, unlike its competitors, Ducati only used special magazines as the source of advertisement. One of the most popular campaigns was â€Å"Ducati/People,† which â€Å"featured Ducati workers and their motorcycles in and around Bologna in black and white retro’ pictures, and emphasized some central values of the brand: the Italian style, the history of the company, the young age of the riders and their sporty attitude† (Gavetti, pg 13). There are many other well-known specialized magazines that are related to motorcycles. Others activities involved Ducati’s museum tour, owners clubs, and social events. All these activities attracted many customers to learn the history of Ducati, get indepth knowledge of Ducati and ultimately increase the number of fans and customer base. Performance analysis So far, Ducati enjoyed the dramatic profit growth. â€Å"Revenues quadrupled since 1996; EBITDA had grown from 33. 4 million Euros in 1997 to around 60 million. In 2000; market share had gone from 5. 1% in the sport bikes segment in 1997 to 6. 7% in 2000† (Gavetti, pg 1). This is clear proof that Ducati is a very competitive opponent to many companies within this industry.

Strategies for Workforce Shortage in Australian Healthcare

Strategies for Workforce Shortage in Australian Healthcare Introduction The Australian healthcare system has over the years been ranked as one of the best on the global perspective (Naccarella, 2014). This has been based on the extent to which quality care is given and the investment of the state of the art technology to facilitate these processes. However, there are various major concerns that continue to ail the health care sector in Australia (Scott, 2009). The shortage of healthcare providers within the country has remained a key issue that continue to impact on any attempts to make positive strides. While the respective states in Australia such as Queensland have adopted measures in the move to resolve this concern, it remains a thorny issue (Lim Seale, 2014). Therefore, there is a need for the adoption of a management model that is implemented on the national scale so as to resolve this issue. The importance of the shortage management model is emphasised by the vital role that the sector plays towards the economic development (Moran, Burson Conrad, 2014). A sector that has served as an icon for different countries across the globe faces the threat of undergoing through massive decline as the shortage of qualified workforce continue to linger. This is especially based on the fact that this shortage is in line with the future demand for healthcare service (Parrella, 2013). The gap between the demand for healthcare services by the Australian population and the supply of the care givers continue to widen (Lines, 2015). Previously, historical models of finding a long term solution towards the issue have not been effective. This creates the need for the development of an effective management initiative that would play a key role towards resolving the issue and casting a ray of hope towards this essential sector in the Australian context. This report aims at presenting a management initiative that could be implemented within the Australian healthcare sector so as to address the issue of workforce shortages. The initiative is known as the NEW DAWN management model. The rationality of the name of the model is the new insights that it seeks to bring into the Australian healthcare sector in the long term .The model is to be implemented on a national perspective so as to ensure that it is able to address the key concerns on a holistic approach. The main elements that are included in the report include; identification and substantiation of need and aim of the initiative, the relation to best practice and a business plan that would facilitate the implementation of the model. Essentially, the focus of the management initiative is to develop a framework of reducing the workforce shortage with the Australian context in the long term. In the context of this study, the workforce population in the Australian healthcare sectors is taken to incorporate all forms of staff who work towards delivering care. This includes nurses and other healthcare practitioner. Within the Australian context, nurses represent the largest share of the workforce within the sector. They constitute more than 50% of the healthcare sector workforce within the country. Therefore, the insights developed within the management initiative outline are meant to provide a solution in relation to the entire workforce within the country. Identification and substantiation of need and aim of change/innovation Evidence of the need for the change/innovation According to data collected in the Australian healthcare sector in 2002, there is a massive gap in terms of the labour force. Evidence suggests that the country had a shortfall of 10-12,000 nurses (Segal Bolton, 2009). This is a representation of close to 5% of the entire healthcare workforce in the country. Worse still, the report presented by the Productivity Commission illustrated that the trend continues to soar over the years. This is a worrying factor this it is an illustration of the extent to which the workforce shortage within the healthcare sector in Australia may have far reaching implication towards the quality of care given in the long term. Different attributes have been linked towards the problem of workforce shortage within the Australian context. While seeking to devise an appropriate management initiative to address this concern, focusing on the key contributing factors is vital. One of the key reasons that have been cited to be contributing towards the increase in the workforce gap in Australia is the ageing population. Over time, the Australian workforce and population has been ageing at high rates. At the same time, the mortality rates have remained low compared to other countries across the globe. According to data presented by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) the number of nurse working in the country who are aged 55 years and above has increased massively over the years. The report indicates that in a period of ten years, the numbers increased from 7% in 1995 to 19% in year 2005 (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2014). This is an illustration of the extent to which the elderly a ge continues to dominate the nursing and general healthcare workforce within the Australian context. Ultimately, the increase in the number of healthcare workforce aged 55 years and above within the country has contributed towards shortage of adequate staff to tend to the future demand. Another factor that has contributed towards the shortage of the healthcare workforce in Australia is the low uptake of related course within the colleges and other higher learning institutions. The healthcare course still remains largely unfavourable among the students at the college level in the country. This may be facilitated by the lack of mentorship or the perception that the field is not as well compensation as others. Studies suggest that the increase in the number of students who take up healthcare related course within the context of Australian sector has only been at 3%. Therefore, this is an indication of the need to adopt corrective measures to address this concern. Still on this note, the number of people who take up professional healthcare jobs in Australia compared to other countries is low. According to statistics, only 2.7 persons out of 1000 take up professional practice in the healthcare sector in the country (Segal Bolton, 2009). Furthermore evident suggests that Australia attempts to close this gap by relying on the overseas labour market by this has not worked effectively. Evidence that the change/innovation planned meets this need. The NEW DAWN management initiative is aimed at addressing the gaps that exist within the Australian healthcare sector by countering the specific challenges that have been faced. It will be aimed at increasing the number of students who take up the healthcare practices as a profession, and improve the ability of the country to manage the future needs of the sector. Since the model will be implemented in all the states across Australia, it will be effective towards addressing the key concerns that have been ailing the sector in terms of staff shortage. Change strategy in relation to best practice While implementing the new dawn management initiative, the focus is to ensure that the change elements are well implemented. For effective undertaking of this process Kotter’s 8 areas for successful change are used in illustrating the approach to be taken. By following the concepts that have been presented by Kotter it is expected that the new dawn change model will become a reality within the Australian healthcare sector. In this perspective, the model will be implemented in the following steps. Towards the New Dawn: Kotters 8 areas for successful change Area 1: A sense of Urgency This involves the process of creating a sense of interest and urgent needs to take action (Kotter Rathgeber, 2006). In this perspective, a message will be passed through social media including Facebook and twitter in the form of a campaign to get more youth involved in the healthcare sector in Australia. This will be effective since most of the young people who are the target audience for the new dawn change management initiative users to such forums. Area2: Building a Guiding Coalition This involves the process of getting likeminded parties to be part of support towards the change initiative that has been proposed. In this perspective, the play a vital role towards providing the required assistance in terms of information sharing and forging more support (Bateman, 2012). In the case of the new dawn initiative seeking to deliver more enrolment of young students in healthcare professions, the news media team will be used. More precisely, Sky News Australia will be targeted as the key support party. The link will be derived through the social media interaction. This group is selected as the first approach area since it reaches out to people across Australia using different information outlets. Also, students from different universities in Australia will be encouraged to be ambassadors of the social media campaign towards reducing the gap in the staff shortage in the Australian healthcare sector. Area3: Strategic vision and initiative The vision and initiative provides the drive towards achieving the targets set (Kotter Cohen, 2012). It also gives a sense of direction towards the approach set. In the context of the new dawn initiative, the vision is to reduce the workforce shortage to 0% in 5 years. This is to be achieved through achieving a 35% increase in the enrolment for healthcare related courses within the Australian colleges and learning institutions within the period. Area4: Enlisting a volunteer army This involves finding as many people as possible who are willing to support the change process (Rasmussen, Mylonas, Beck, 2012). In the case of the new dawn management program within the Australian healthcare sector, the volunteer army will be obtained from the social media. On twitter, the hash tag #iamAustraliasnewdawn will be formed to obtain support. By getting this conversation top go viral; more and more young people will gain an interest in enrolling for healthcare related courses. Similarly on Facebook, a group will be formed so as to advocate for the need to drive efforts towards achieving a new dawn in the Australian healthcare. Area5: Enable Action by removing barriers This involves eliminating any form of hurdles that may be experienced by potential supporters in giving their support (Pollack Pollack, 2015). To achieve this, the initiative will encourage people from different ages, gender and cultures, professions, to join in giving their voice through the social media and any other method that they may prefer. The overall intention is to ensure that the message of achieving a new generation of young people within the healthcare sector in Australia is achieved in the long term. Area6: Generating short term wins This involves the process of recognizing the small strides that have been made towards the change process (Naranjo-Gil, 2015). In the case of the new dawn initiative in the Australian healthcare sector, the change initiative will be evaluated weekly based on the number of followers it has achieved on the social media and the actual people who have enrolled as a result of the initiative. The weekly tracking will eventually escalate to monthly and annually. However, recognizing the small strides will play a key role in motivating the parties involved and making them feel part of the change program. Area7: Sustaining acceleration The process of getting more people involved in the process of creating awareness on the need to have more young employees within the Australian healthcare will be achieved by changing approaches. For instance, in the first phase of evolution, the target of the initiative will be on the individual major universities in Australia. This focus will help in generating a more personalised approach of the initiative by the students and the faculty within the university. They will be in a position to take the process more seriously and embrace initiative to implement the suggested approaches. Area8: Instituting change This involves the process of ensuring that the concepts that have been suggested are implemented within the framework that that it has been intended (Bateman, 2012). In the case of the new dawn, strategies will be put in place to ensure that different states of Australia make the changes of increasing the number of university students who enrol in the healthcare related courses. This will be achieved through making a follow up with the political representatives of the different states to ensure that they recognise the approaches that they need to adopt so as to ensure that the new dawn change management program become successful. Business plan Tasks July-Sept 2015 August-October 2015 November-December 2015 Jan-March 2016 April-June 2016 Initiation of the change campaign Passing information to universities Passing information to hospitals Political elites Change achievement Based on the Gantt chart provided, it is estimated that the change will have been achieved fully by the end of June 2016. By this period, the targeted increase in the number of young students who enrol in healthcare sector courses in different states in Australia is expected to have increased. Most of the responsibility of undertaking these tasks will be for the change management team that has been selected to undertake the project (Hornstein, 2015). Undertaking these tasks as a team will help in ensuring that the level of control towards the operations involved is maintained over time. Before the actual adoption of the change management plan, detailed research in relation to the extent of the issue in the Australian market will be conducted. This will be aimed at so as gain deep insights. This will help in responding to any issues that are raised by the parties participating in the process of achieving the change within the healthcare sector in Australia. Control mechanisms There are various issues that may have to be considered while implementing the new dawn initiative in the Australian healthcare. These are the control concepts that will give an indication of the difficulty in achieving the set change plane. One of the key elements is the cost. The cost of implementing the project may become too high to the extent that the entire process ceases to be feasible. Since it is intended to cover the national scope covering all states in Australia, this may happen. To some extent, the project may be abandoned if the costs become too high. At the same time, if the project takes too long to achieve the desired outcomes based on the set timeline, it may lead to eventual termination. Therefore, the timelines that have been set will be adhered to with the provision of only few weeks if the project is to be implemented. Transitional arrangements The transitional arrangement that may be facilitated within the specific hospitals in Australia may involve the effective hand over of position. The management of the hospitals within the country will be informed effectively on the need to ensure that the young graduates from different universities within the country are welcomed peacefully. This also involves facilitating the process of induction so as to ensure that they are able to deliver towards the success of the Australian health sector in the long term. Resources Costs The resources required for the implementation of the project will be minimal. The considerations include the travel costs, stationery and internet charges that will be used. Such costs will be significant as to warrant the justification of the progress that has been made towards the implementation of the project. Risks The risk management policy adopted will be in line with the specific development at each stage of the process. This will ensure that appropriate measures of hedging against risks are adopted and implemented at each stage of the process. In the long term, it will be effective in terms of allowing the process to run smoothly without any form of external disruptions. Evaluation of the change/initiative The evaluation of the success of the initiative will be measured quarterly. This is based on the specific objectives that have been set for the specific quarter of the year. At this point, the points of success or failure will easily be identified since the process will have been broken down into different stages. The focus of phases as opposed to the process as a whole will be effective in terms of controlling the factors impacting on the process. Dissemination of plan to others The information relating to the completion of the project will be done through the social media, news article among others. The intention will be to provide the details of the success story in relation to the project to as many people as possible especially the policy makers in the Australian health sector over the strides that have been made through the process.

The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich Essay -- Musicians

Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on September 25, 1906, Shostakovich was the second of three children born to Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina. His father was of Polish descent but both his parents were Siberian natives. Dmitri was a child prodigy as a pianist and composer. He began taking piano lessons from his mother at the age of nine. He displayed an incredible talent to remember what his mother had played at the previous lesson and would get caught pretending to read the music, playing the music from his last lesson instead of what was placed in front of him. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory in Saint Petersburg and studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev. Because the conservatory was poorly funded, it did not have heat; the students had to wear coats, hats and gloves constantly only taking off their gloves when composing. Because of these poor living conditions Dmitri developed tuberculosis of the lymph glands in spring 1923 and had to have an operation. Nevertheless, he completed his final piano examinations at the conservatory in June with his neck still bandaged. Shostakovich, though very intelligent and talented, was seen as immature in his final year at the conservatory Shostakovich initially failed his exam in his Marxist method class. When another student was asked to explain the difference between the music of Liszt and Chopin on sociological and economic grounds, the young composer burst out laughing. Luckily, he was able to petition the decision and re-take the test with a str aight face. In the future, he would learn not to be so casual about politics. His first major musical achievement was the First Symphony, premiered in... ...lder). Works Cited †¢ Burkholder, J. Peter, Donald Jay Grout, and Claude V. Palisca. A history of western music. 8th ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010. Print. †¢ Fanning, David. Shostakovich studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print. †¢ Hurwitz, David, and DmitriÄ ­ Dmitrievich Shostakovich. Shostakovich symphonies and concertos: an owner's manual. Pompton Plains, N.J.: Amadeus ;, 2006. Print. †¢ Norris, Christopher. Shostakovich, the man and his music. Boston: M. Boyars, 1982. Print. †¢ Volkov, Solomon, and Antonina W. Bouis. Shostakovich and Stalin: the extraordinary relationship between the great composer and the brutal dictator. New York: Knopf, 2004. Print. †¢ David Fanning and Laurel Fay. "Shostakovich, Dmitry." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 14 Apr. 2012 .

Shakespeares Macbeth - The Transformation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

The Transformation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth      Ã‚   In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the characters  Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide, in a great fit of ambition, to kill King Duncan.   Later in the play we see the same two characters undergo a transformation in their personalities after murdering the King.   Macbeth begins the play as a noble soldier and gradually changes into an ambitious and murdering tyrant.   Lady Macbeth begins as a strong, ambitious woman who dominates her husband and gradually changes into a weak and guilt-ridden woman.   This essay will explore the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth before and after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth begins the play as a noble and trustworthy soldier, with a placid and honest personality.   Unfortunately he is told three prophecies by three witches and it is these prophecies that gradually change Macbeth into a greedy, untrustworthy, ambitious tyrant.   Similarly, like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is also overruled by her ambitious nature and not only encourages her husband to kill the king, but plans it herself.   Lady Macbeth begins as an ambitious, overpowering and domineering woman, particularly towards her husband.   Though as time passes we see Macbeth become domineering and unbearably ambitious, while Lady Macbeth becomes the lesser of the two and her guilt becomes too much to bear, hence leading her to death.   Macbeth is obviously gullible as he believes the witches after a while and relies on their prophecies constantly.   This changes not only his life, but also Lady Macbeth's life and the lives of those living in Scotland at the time.  Ã‚   However Macb eth and Lady Macbeth believe that the witches are good luck, this proving to be quite the opposite. ... ...on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course  Ã‚  Ã‚   of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.  Ã‚   Shakespeare, William.   Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul  Ã‚   Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Steevens, George. Shakespeare, The Critical Heritage. Vol. 6. London:  Ã‚   Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981.  Ã‚   T.W. Shakespeare, the Critical Heritage. Vol. 5. London: Routledge & Kegan  Ã‚   Paul, 1979.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wills, Gary. Witches & Jesuits. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.      Epstein, Norrie, The Friendly Shakepeare, New York, Viking Publishing, 1993. Harbage, Alfred, Macbeth, Middlesex England, Penguin Publishing, 1956. Magill, Masterplots- Volume 6, New Jersey, Salem Press, 1949. Staunten, Howard, The Complet Illustrated Shakespeare, New York, Park Lane Publishing, 1979.   

The Black Walnut Tree

Dana Doherty â€Å"The Black Walnut written by Mary Oliver, concerns the narrator's and her mother's struggle to decide whether they will have a tree on their property cut down. If they decide to have the black walnut tree removed and sell it for lumber, they will be able to pay off their home's mortgage; however, if they remain faithful to the tree and their heritage, they risk the tree collapsing onto their home resulting in its destruction.The start of the poem introduces the debate outright. However, as the speaker of the piece, or the author herself, makes her case it seems rather one sided, all arguments are in favor of cutting down the tree. The tone is literal, all making reference to the physical damages that could be caused if the tree remains. The author uses diction to convey this tone using words such as â€Å"likely† and â€Å"navy's† which add not only a casual and conversational element to the piece, but also one Of doubt.The poem shifts as the speaker describes â€Å"but something brighter than money moves in our blood- an edge sharp and quick as a trowel. † Here is where Oliver begins to employ figurative language as this â€Å"something† is making reference to the symbolic meaning behind the tree. As the poem mutinous the narrator makes reference to dreams of her father and her and of her mother's willingness to crawl with shame in their â€Å"father's backyard. Harvesting from the tree, as suggested by the piece, is a way of connecting with the agricultural ways of their forefathers. The tree is their connection to the past and the debate is not so much over the mere life of a tree, but between living comfortably and sticking to their roots. The end of the poem speaks about the tree as it continues to remain in the yard. The author describes the way her mother and her would â€Å"crawl in shame at the emptiness we'd made. † if they were to sell the tree.As the poem comes to a close the author writes †Å"so the black walnut tree swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit. † This passing of time is representative of the joys and sorrows, the rise and falls of a life. They live with the presence of the tree, a life where they live in a way that remains close to their roots and their family. However, the closing words of the piece make references to the tree and the way it continues to endure the â€Å"cracking whip of the mortgage† suggesting that the struggle continues on.