Nation of Islam Essay

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. He was born to a minister father that was a supporter of Black Nationalist Movement leader Marcus Garvey, which resulted in Malcolm experiencing discrimination and racial hatred from an early age. His father was killed and his home burned when Malcolm was young, and Malcolm was jailed in his early twenties after several run-ins with the law following his father’s death. He joined the Nation of Islam in while in prison, and when he was paroled in 1952 he was named the national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X was an outspoken, articulate, charismatic man that used television, radio, and every other form of media available to convey the Nation’s message. He preached for militant stance in the black community and for equal rights for African Americans, â€Å"by any means necessary†. This unwavering stance and militant attitude made some see Malcolm as a threat and he was followed under FBI surveillance until he was assassinated in 1965. He used his charisma and his steadfast beliefs to make the message of the Nation of Islam well known in America and to bring the issue of African American rights to the forefront of American consciousness. His mission later transformed from fighting for African American rights to fighting for equal human rights for every race, and he enforced the same militant stance with his new message. Mahatma Gandhi was a human rights leader like Malcolm X but he delivered his message in a very different way. Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was given the name Mahatma because it means, â€Å"great soul†. He was born in British-ruled India and practiced law in South Africa which was also ruled by Britain. While in South Africa he began a twenty-year campaign for Indian freedom. Instead of X’s militant, unmoving approach, Gandhi practiced and taught the principles of non-violent resistance. He believed it was more honourable to be jailed for one’s cause than to create violence. He also practiced fasting as a way of conveying his message of peace and non-violence. He returned to India after twenty years and became the leader of the Indian Nationalist Movement. After India was declared independent in 1947, it was divided into India and Pakistan and the two countries rioted against one another. Gandhi began a fast to encourage the leaders to stop fighting. After he fasted for five days, the fighting stopped and the countries were at peace until Gandhi was assassinated shortly after. Until his death, Gandhi epitomized his message to, â€Å"Be the change you want to see in the world†. He saw no value in violence, and thought that the message of non-violence as a way of protest could bring tolerance, peace and unity more effectively than any violent act could. Despite the change in his place of residence and the political climate of his country he stayed true to his message of peace and unity.

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The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on September 30, 2005. Danish Muslim organizations staged protests in response. As the controversy has grown, some or all of the cartoons have been reprinted in newspapers in more than fifty other countries, leading to violent protests involving hundreds of deaths, particularly in Muslim countries. I feel this is a suitable story to explore and analyze media bias and prejudiced reporting, as this is a highly controversial issue between a Muslim population sensitive over what they perceive as a global assault by the Western world on their religion and faith, and both liberals and right wingers alike who feel that freedom of speech is sacred and unassailable. As such, I have included news coverage from 3 distinct sources – Al-Jazeera, commonly regarded as the media champion of the Arab world; BBC, one of the oldest and respected media institutions in the world; and finally, a random daily newspaper from the United States, to compare the news coverage regarding this controversial issue, and to identify any media bias, negative reporting or partisan reporting. Al- Jazeera The link to the story can be found in the â€Å"Works Cited† section of this paper. We would expect from a preliminary basis that Al-Jazeera would typically play up the offensive nature of the cartoons, highlight the perceived insensitivities and double standards of the Western media vis-à  -vis the cartoons and the Holocaust, as well as champion the rights of the Muslim world. Surprisingly, this is not the case. The news article quoted seemed to be factual rather than opinionated in nature, quoting a variety of sources and viewpoints from both sides of the fence, from the Danish media and politicians to Hamas and other Islamic militant groups. No underlying or latent propaganda was detected; indeed, negative quotes were enclosed in double quotes, and attributed to its source. The language used was non-inflammatory, focused on facts and events, and there was no strong hint of an opinion piece. The closest the Al-Jazeera piece came to being biased was when it was reporting on the nature of the cartoons (drawings) at the heart of the controversy. The descriptions used were accurate, non-misleading, and mildly strong. However, there was no mention of the Western world point of view, or of the fact that the combined cartoons at the heart of the controversy which were spread by Danish imams contained 3 additional (highly offensive) drawings not published by the Jyllands-Posten. I conclude that the Al-Jazeera piece, when factual in nature and non-inflammatory, seems more interested in presenting the reaction of the Muslim world as well as the threats made by them, when ignoring the Western point of view. There seemed to be an unusual emphasis on the negative incidents such as attacks and boycotts that has occurred as a result of the backlash against the cartoons. BBC The report by the BBC is by far the most accurate and objective. It presents inconsistencies on the actions and words on both parties (the Danish media and the Danish imams who incited the controversy), reporting in detail how an editor of the Jyllands-Posten rejected cartoons of Jesus Christ with the reason that they would offend. Impressively, the particular section also included (in brackets) a update in which a reader pointed out that the paper did publish a cartoon of the biblical Joseph in 2000, and thus queries why the paper should be criticized over the rejection of the Jesus Christ cartoons, finally ending with the editor’s (of the BBC report) explanation of why the inconsistency was still valid. A detailed account of how the initial cartoons failed to spark any major outrage, until a group of Danish imams made concentrated efforts to spark a controversy by adding 3 cartoons which were highly offensive and insulting (more so that the original cartoons) and were not published by the Jyllands-Posten to a portfolio and touring various Middle Eastern Arab leaders with them follows. The report finally ends with a reflection of the viewpoints and the reaction of both sides. I was very impressed with the objectivity of the reports, and the lengths to which the writer went to portray the inconsistencies of both parties. Washington Post The report by the Washington Post is reminiscent of that by Al-Jazeera; non-inflammatory, factual in nature, no underlying propaganda or strong language, and drawing from a wide variety of sources. However, whereas Al-Jazeera’s report focused solely on the reaction of the Muslim world, Washington Post report carried a fair balance of the reactions of both the Western world and the Muslim world. There was a balance in the strength of the opinions and announcements from both side, and hence I find the Washington Post more balanced and objective, although the BBC outshines the Washington Post in this aspect. Works Cited Reynolds, Paul. Cartoons: Divisions and inconsistencies.   BBC. Monday 13th February 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4708216.stm Fury Grows Over Denmark Cartoons. Al-Jazeera.net. Tuesday 31st January 2006. Sullivan, Kevin. Muslims' Fury Rages Unabated Over Cartoons. The Washington Post. Saturday 11th February, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001822.html ;

An Essay On Leonardo Da Vinci

What do we consider a genius, and who? When studying different definition, and with prior knowledge from speaking to psychiatrists and other mood evaluators, I now have a good sense of the term genius. A genius is someone who has incredible intellectual ability, as well as creative. One who is not only mentally progressed, but emotionally and creatively as well. Mastering a number of different and diverse skills and having all sorts of knowledge would qualify you. Leonardo Da Vinci, is thought to be one of the most intelligent people to ever have lived. Considered a Renaissance man, Da Vinci was not only an accomplished scholar but also a painter, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, cartographer, inventor, geologist, botanist, and writer. Da Vinci mastered a number of difficult skills, and had knowledge nobody else had found, especially for his time. His advancements, inventions and art were beyond what you would call good, they were genius. Born April 15th, 1452 out of wedlock, his father Piero and Caterina da Vinci were considered peasants. He was raised by his father, some believed he was not worthy of an education due to this. However, Da Vinci was advanced at the fine arts by age 15 and began his studies in a studio with Verrocchio a Florentine painter. Verrocchio painted for "The Baptist of Christ". He let Leonardo paint with him, though eventually ending his career because he was humiliated that he had been outshone by his student. Da Vinci was accepted into the Painters Guild of Florence. The most famous of Leonardo Da Vinci's art would be the portrait of "Mona Lisa" also known as La Gioconda (wife of Frances Giocondo). You can find it in the Louvre Today. You may have also heard of "The Last Supper", a religious piece of Jesus eating his last supper. Many people still study both these paintings today, still under covering secrets. In the episode "The Da Vinci Conspiracy" on Ancient Aliens, they study both of these paintings. They point out a UFO int the background of the "Mona Lisa". The historians on the show strongly believe that Leonardo Da Vinci had extra terrestrial knowledge, and help due to what he had achieved. He was significantly advanced way before his time, in all subject matters. Da Vinci's had countless inventions, stemming from his engineering knowledge. The most advanced and memorable ones, that we still use today include the helicopter, tank, concentrated solar power, and the calculator. It is hard not to wonder, how was this possible? How did a man of the Renaissance period have this advanced knowledge! It doesn't add up with the rest of his era, or what the rest of the world knew at that point. We still use his notes and mapped out ideas for the inventions he created that we are still using hundreds of years later. Ancient Aliens suggests that Da Vinci had some other wordily knowledge that he some how acquired. Personally, I am open minded but I am not suggesting this is necessarily true, but you have to wonder. I am not opposed to the idea and theories of extra terrestrials, I'm just not set on it either. However, this raises a greg point, how did he acquire this knowledge and intelligence in the era he lived in? Leonardo Da Vinci is by far one of the most, if not the most, interesting and intriguing person to study in history. Da Vinci was known for writing in "code". He had planned to publish a encyclopedia, sharing is knowledge of science and the human anatomy, unfortunately like many other of his plans this one did not get finished. However, 4000 pages of documents have been found from his notebooks and journals of exactly that. The "code" people refer to is his style of note taking. Not only did he spell words peculiarly, but he also wrote form right to left, a mirror image. Another thing that Ancient Aliens covers is this code, it almost seems like he was afraid someone would steal his ideas. There are many other theories about the code but we'll never know the real reason why. May 2, 1519 was the day Leonardo Da Vinci passed away. He lived to be 67 years old, which was a good age to have lived at that time but not for him. He left hundreds of projects unfinished, and the mystery of his knowledge for people to find. Think if he had lived to be eighty, or ninety what other great things he would have discovered. Da Vinci is my, as well as many others, favorite philosopher, scientist, and artists. To this day no one can compare to the way he mastered numerous fields of study and made history for being a genius. It makes you wonder what else is possible in this world if a man as smart as him could of lived. Leonardo Da Vinci is the most studied, interesting and cherished of all the scholars who have lived.

The Abyss of Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Abyss of Love - Essay Example But there was just one problem, the younger sister of Princess Kali, Princess Viviana also loved the prince and wished to marry him in order to become queen of the united kingdoms. Though Viviana was a thousand times more beautiful than her older sister, she was gifted with a black heart. Her jealousy caused her to do many evil things to Kali that could have killed her if Kali were not only highly intelligent and able to get herself out of the predicaments that Viviana conjured through the use of Black Magic. Viviana knew that the prince was arriving in two days and the wedding was to take place on his fifth day in the kingdom. So devised her most devious plan yet in order to win the heart of the prince. Using her black powers, she created an army of black soldiers to do her bidding. They ambushed the prince in the Rosewood Forest as he was making his way to their kingdom. His soldiers were outnumbered and easily overcome by the devil army of Viviana. They took him prisoner and placed him deep inside the The Abyss of Love where an imprisoned person would easily fall for the charms of the dark arts, turning the persons heart black and allowing the masters of black magic to steal the loving hearts for their own. Disguising herself as her sister, Viviana came to the prince and asked him to drink a magic potion. One that would make him see Kali each time he saw Viviana while he would see his despised Viviana each time he saw Kali. After making sure that the potion had worked. She allowed the prince to continue on his trek, his memory of the ambush erased forever. He arrived at the palace all aglow with love. But instead of calling out for Kali, Prince Gabriel called out for Viviana, causing much embarrassment for Kali who was waiting for him with open arms at the top of the palace steps. Viviana brushed her sister aside and allowed the prince

Paraphrasing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 39

Paraphrasing - Essay Example During the process of decision-making, there is evidence to the effect that there was a lack of delegation and communication among the health professionals. However, there was a demonstration of prioritization as a nurse bought a tracheostomy set. That was a show of decision-making on the part of the nurse. Unfortunately, the nurse was ignored. There was an insufficient number of health professionals present in the room. There were just three experienced anesthetists present. That hampered decision-making as they were not able to consult with other medical officers or nursing staff. Time had a big impact on the outcome of the situation. In the beginning, when there was a sudden decrease in the patient’s oxygen levels, time acted as a limiting factor. Although it was beyond the health professionals’ control, they failed to maximize on the little time they had. That played out in the gravity of the outcome for

Risk Management Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Risk Management Paper - Assignment Example The institution has a bed capacity of 112 and a home care program. Currently, MedWest has identified catheter associated urinary infections as their most significant hospital acquired infection even though other infections are also under review. Steps that have been put in place to address the issue The hospice has dealt with this problem by first tackling patient identification. Samples and specimens from and for patients must be labeled correctly. This ensures that if they are eligible for blood transfusions, they get the correct ones. Furthermore, identification is done in the patient’s presence in order to ensure accuracy. MedWest Haywood also has a communication policy for caregivers. This means that test results and other documentations must be delivered to the right medical personnel within the appropriate time. Furthermore documentation of that communication ought to be recorded. The institution has also established a standardized communication format that members of t he institution are supposed to follow. These formats include SBAR and Ticket Ride (MedWest Carolinas Health Care, 2011). Aside from communication and patient labeling, the company has also worked on medicine administration. MedWest has procedures for labeling all medications. Persons under anticoagulant therapy are more likely than others to be harmed. Therefore, specific procedures must be adhered to when dealing with these patients. The institution has standards and procedures for reducing the quantity of drug concentrations in its environs. It strictly adheres to the five principles of medical administration that focus on giving patients the right medication at the right time, to the right person, in the correct dosage, using the appropriate route. Particular emphasis is given on medicines that sound or look alike as these are likely to cause errors. Medication containers with syringes or other apparatus are labeled. Care is taken during preoperative settings as well as other pro cedural environments. A protocol for reconciling medication throughout the care continuum exists in the Hospice. Direct infections brought on by medical practitioners are controlled through adherence to national standards for hand hygiene. Medical professionals must wash hands prior to and after contact with patients. They are also expected to follow rules for isolation of patients who may be at risk of infecting others. MedWest expects its staff to adhere to national guidelines concerning difficult to treat infections. It also follows similar procedures for control of infections after surgery as well as prevention of catheter associated urinary tract infections. In surgery, MedWest Haywood prevents infections by having a time out procedure. Here, all the professionals involved in the surgery will identity the correct time out. Additionally, they must mark the surgical site but do this in accordance to preset rules. They are also supposed to surgically pause before starting the proc edure in order to ensure that the right patient, site and procedure have been identified. How the agency developed a path to remedy the problem First, the organization identified the impact of health problems and the amount of risk that patients are exposed. By showing these challenges, it would be possible to get buy in from the professionals responsible for risk exposure as well as risk mitigation. This would also ensure that management and other stakeholders of the

Spain and portugal Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Spain and portugal - Annotated Bibliography Example The oldest brother Juan at age 32 will be coming back home after studying abroad in France. He had gone there and accomplished his goal of getting his master’s in Business. Now his goal was to set out on another adventure, since he had traveled to France now he wanted to see more of this wonderful world. The middle brother Roberto at the age of 26 was following his older brother’s steps. This trip to him was to celebrate that he had gotten into the master’s program and would soon be traveling to Italy to finish it there. This was to prepare him for the outside world and get more of an insight on what he would soon experience. Carlos the youngest was simply going with them to celebrate his 21st birthday and as well he just wanted to experience an adventure of a lifetime. However, he had also at such a young age gotten his bachelor’s in computer since at the University of Denver. All three of the Luna brothers want to make this an experience of a lifetime. Not only that they want this experience to help them grow with each other, to help them be able to go on off on their own and know how to be responsible. They love adventure and what will make this trip even better is that since they all like different things it makes the trip have a lot of diversity. This trip they will embark on will last 21 days and in these days the trip we want to prepare will make them learn things from each other. For example while one of them like’s things outdoors, historical sites, and museums. The other one likes just the nightlife, parties, and fancy restaurants. On the other hand the other one likes to just interact with the locals and just to go around and do a little shopping. They know their income all together does not add up to get a life of a king, but it will be enough for them to have a great trip and to enjoy everything they want. During this trip we will take the clients to explore 3 major cities two of them belong to the country of Spain, which are the

Creating of a Product in Python Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Creating of a Product in Python - Assignment Example The paper tells that Python’s design philosophy mainly accentuates on code readability that is a concept the author clearly understood more than the other team members. Jason, the team leader, ensured that every team member understood the role they were supposed to play. Therefore, the author had a perfect understanding of the role he had to play in the project, and this understanding did not change at any point during the process of completing the project. The author’s team was knowledgeable about all the stages involved in completing this project. They all worked for a common good that was to produce a workable project that is the best in our class. Being a group that was formed by people that hardly knew each other the researcher does think that their performance was high even though they had a slow start. Their performance was high because the group members had complementary skills and talents that were aligned with and devoted to a common objective. Their high-perf ormance was also as a result of high levels of innovation and collaboration consistently showed by all the group members from the start of the project to the end. They all functioned as a team. All team members contributed their energy and time to the project. More outstandingly, all team members played a part in the decision-making process. All members trusted each other and this added value to the project. However, during the beginning of project management, the speed of working was slow. They had fallbacks due to lack of communication skills. They corrected this and ensured that they functioned as a team by having open communication where every team member contributed ideas, asked for clarification on anything in the project that was confusing, and we listened to each other carefully. Teams function if all its member roles are clearly defined. Moreover, teams function better if all the roles of a project have been evenly distributed to the members.  

Chinese Exclusion Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chinese Exclusion Act - Research Paper Example A closer outlook into the issues that this Chinese Exclusion Act resolved to address point out that it brought about many significant restrictions against free immigration into the United States (Gyory, 2008). This paper will seek to discuss the inbounds of the Chinese Exclusion Act provided therein by the Act. The Act The establishment of the Chinese Exclusion Act saw thousands of both skilled and unskilled laborers of Chinese decency barred from entering the United States for ten good years (Gold, 2012). According to historical analysts, the Act made it clear that if any of the mentioned persons went against this stipulation, he or she stood to face a punishment of either deportation or imprisonment of a term equal to or exceeding ten years (Hune & Nomura, 2003). In deed, this stipulation brought about a consistent weary among the Chinese people where they were unable to go against the Act as it became fully enforceable by the US laws. During this time when the Chinese Exclusion Ac t was in full force, large numbers of Chinese suffered aimlessly mainly because of their decency as they were beaten brutally (Soennichsen, 2011). Additionally, the few who were able to migrate had to undergo a series of requirements, which were very expensive as they involved individuals proving to the government that they were in a position to immigrate (Gold, 2012). Many scholars argued that the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act was simply a misnomer and did not deserve to be in place under any circumstances. This is so because, the existing laws that witness the Chinese face exclusionary problems came about because of the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act (Gyory, 2008). Getting the certification needed by the US government for it to allow a potential Chinese to live in America was hard, tedious, and expensive. The Chinese individuals living during this time suffered a misdemeanor effect simply due to the existence of segregation among people along boundaries that con sisted of race and gender among others. Suggestions show that the enactment of this Act also affected other people including the Asians. In fact, documented evidence maintains that if any Chinese individual left the United States for another country, he or she had to obtain a reentry permit when coming back (Hune & Nomura, 2003). This kind of certification went ahead to afflict the chances Chinese people had when it came to becoming full citizens of the United States. As such, the Chinese and Asians would remain complete aliens whenever residing in the US territorial boundaries (Soennichsen, 2011). Following this preamble, it is seeable that when this Act came into passage, all the Chinese men living in the United States lost any chances of ever reuniting with their families and wives back at home on one end. On the other end, they also unable to establish a family of their own since they were no more but just mere aliens who had few privileges and tones of restrictions (Gold, 2012) . Amendments Although several capitalists opposed the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act on matters related to economic factors, many Chinese people staying in the US faced a huge dilemma; they wondered whether to choose to go back to China and reunite with their families or stay in US forever (Gyory, 2008). In spite of the widespread enmity and dislike for the Chinese, some of the US ruling clergymen did not seem to draw satisfaction from the already set restrictions. They went ahead to

Carl Sauer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Carl Sauer - Essay Example French regional geography is an example of how the various political, cultural, military, historical and economic upheavals of the country are etched on the landscape. Sauer says (Northern Mists) the hundred years war lost ports and ravaged country sides and Napoleon’s wars left bitter memories. Culture and landscape altered after the French revolution. Through colonies, use of tobacco spread and immigration continued unabated. â€Å"Place is crucial to human geographers, therefore, because it is the individuals’ learning context, the arena in which they learn to be humans and then act as such,† Rawling (1996, p.65). Agriculture did not originate in Europe and did not improve much. â€Å"Fields were plowed and planted principally in order to raise grain, which supplied the starch and a good deal of the protein in the diet of the people† Sauer (1981, p. 31). Most grown foods came from colonies. â€Å"Dairying is the foundation of north European husbandry †¦ Fresh and sour milk, curds, butter and cheese provided, together with grain a cheap and sufficiently balanced basic diet,† (ibid, p. 36). There existed a good balance between climate, man, livestock and vegetation. Drwin’s determinism was an immense contribution to cultural geography. Environmental determinism, or Climatic Determinism, indicates physical environment determines culture.

Chinese philosophy Essay Example for Free

Chinese philosophy Essay Although the interpretation might be negative and positive, it is not how we actually depict these two aspects. They represent a balance and are interdependent (cannot exist without each other). These two are like a cause and effect. 3. How could the hexagrams of the I Ching (The Book of Changes) be viewed as means of divination? How could they be seen as having personality and wisdom of their own? Note the editorial work of the Confucianism. Chinese sought the future in the patterns of the shell of the tortoise or in stalks of grains. The shell of the tortoise was sought to be especially in tune with the rhythms of the universe because of the long life of its inhabitant. With the casting of coins or stalks of a plant, certain patterns emerge. By identifying these patterns, a prediction is made. When casting the coins, they each represented a trigram that when put together you would compare it to your hexagram number. Each hexagram number had a different reading (they were kind of their own version of a fortune cookie). The readings were a form of divination in the way that they each had separate readings about actions to take in the future. They had a personality and wisdom of their own in a sense that each hexagram had a different reading and action to follow. They each had a different fortune. 4. Why did the decline of the feudal system in ancient China set the stage for both Taoism and Confucianism? When the feudal system began to breakdown, each school chose a different belief to kind of explain what was happening at that time with the  government. Within these schools Taoism and Confucianism developed each with different beliefs on how the government should run and how the people should be run. 5. Contrast the view of the best government as it is revealed in the Tao Te Ching and in the teachings of Confucius. Confucianism: feudal system was wanted. They seem to have believed that although the gods existed and worship and rituals were of value in bringing people together, these things were of secondary importance to an equitable social order. They strongly believed in government and that society needed an elaborate structure, reinforced by etiquette in order to be effective. Tao Te Ching: This book was written as a polemic against the Confucians and Legalist who wished for either an idealized form of feudalism or some strong central government. They wanted little to do with government, none if possible. The theme of the book was that all human achievements were folly, especially elaborate government. This book was written by Lao-Tzu in 6th century B. C. E because the gate keeper tried to persuade him to turn back (Hankao Pass) and not leave China. When the gate keeper failed to persuade him he asked him to at least write a book about his teachings (the book took him about 3 days and was made up of 5000 characters). 8. What political difficulties do religions face in China today? The government only tolerates religious organizations that are willing to accept strict regulations. They have to be free of foreign influence and they must accept government censorship of religious writings and guidance in the selections of clergy, and limit religious activities and approved locations.

Private schools vs public schools Essay Example for Free

Private schools vs public schools Essay Introduction: The controversy related to private schools vs public schools has developed over the years. Several arguments have been forwarded from the proponents of both view points and have eulogized the one stream of schools over the other. Private schools are generally regarded a better option for educating the children if one has the resources.   Private schools are able to execute more effective and efficient educational policies and programs and can take on better teachers owing to strong financial backup that itself is generated through heavy students tuitions. In contrast to private schools, public schools are funded by government treasury and have little sources to finance the more modern and effective education policies and methodologies. This paper will analyze the pros and cons of both streams of schools systems. Private Schools: Less-population-More Concentration: The most important aspects of private school as compared with public schools is the strength of the students at class and school level. Private schools have smaller number of students as mainstream students attend the local public schools. National Center for Education Statistics says in this regards; â€Å"As reported by teachers in 1999-2000, average class size for self-contained classes tended to be somewhat larger in traditional public and public charter elementary schools than in private elementary schools.† (NCES) According to a web site called Public School Review, Private schools average 13 students per teacher, compared with an average of 16 students per teacher in public schools (publicschoolreview). So public schools are more crowded as compared with private schools. This strength ratio clearly manifests that in private schools more attentions and concentration can be given to individual students. This one to one attention remains a hallmark of the private schools. Higher education Focused Courses and Programs: The second most important strength of the private schools is that it offers supplementary enhanced and higher education focused lessons and courses and their objective remains to polish their students to join an institute of higher education. NCES’ study shows in this regard; At least 40 percent of elementary schools in all sectors reported offering students extended, before-school, or after-school daycare programs. Private and public charter elementary schools were the most likely to offer such programs. An estimated 65.1 percent of private schools and 62.9 percent of public charter schools offered such programs, compared with 46.5 percent of traditional public elementary schools. (NCES) In comparison with private schools, public schools seem working on the conventional philosophy that each student is unique and college education does not suit everyone and hence no one should be forced to go ahead with higher education and they should be allowed and encouraged to choose and carve their own future paths.   Courses: Public schools offer general programs whereas private schools offer specialized programs for students that can enable them to take specialized courses at college and university level. In public schools the education of the students is pre-decided by the state what they have to learn and parents and/or students have no say in this regard. Private schools provides flexible programs and students and their parents can opt from variety of options. Great school staff website highlight and analyze the impotence of these flexible courses and says; Private schools have the flexibility to create a specialized program for students. For example, private schools may use art or science in all classes, or take children on extended outdoor trips that blend lessons across the curriculum. Private schools can create their own curriculum and assessment systems, although many also choose to use standardized tests. (Great School Staff, 2008). Less Bureaucracy: Another indirect advantage that contributes toward the overall efficiency of the private schools is the minimum role of state bureaucracy. Less time is spent on formalities including following unnecessary state policies and paperwork and thus more time is available to concentrate the quality of education, syllabus and methodologies. Teachers are more independent in their classrooms and they work out certain creative strategies to teach their students in an innovative way. The efficiency and usefulness of public schools is marred because they have to go after all national, state and local policies pertaining to education as well as finances. Higher Academic Excellence: Quality of education is the most important tool to measure the excellence of either a private school or a public school. The study â€Å"The 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)† conducted by National Center for Education Statistics reveals that private schools produce more excellence academically than public schools. This comparison in academic excellence was conducted at various levels and in various subjects. The results of a grade 4 â€Å"Reading† discloses that; â€Å"In the first set of analyses, all private schools were compared to all public schools. The average private school mean reading score was 14.7 points higher than the average public school mean reading score†¦.† (NCES) Same was the case with Grade 4Mathamirtics where private school’s students scored 7.8 higher than the public schools’ students. Same results were shown for Grade 8. This study is a clear manifestation of higher academic superiority and quality of education they offer. Safety at Campus: General school environment related to safety and conflict among students is another factor that parents keep in mind while opting for a schools. This is an important factor as Schools are not only a home to impart quality education but they are also concerned with the personal grooming of the children. Safe and sound environment reflects itself in the development of a good and healthy personality whereas conflict-ridden environment does not produce high-quality characters. Studies show that Private schools’ campuses are less prone to conflict as compared with Public schools. NCES reports manifests; Private school teachers were also less likely than teachers in other sectors to report physical conflicts among students as a serious problem in their school. Just 1.0 percent of private school teachers reported that physical conflicts among students were a serious problem in their school, compared with 4.8 percent of both traditional public school and public charter school teachers. (NCES) Public Schools Proponents of the public schools forward certain arguments and supported evidence in favor of academic excellence at public schools. They further quote various studies in favor of their prepositions. The most important arguments forwarded by advocates of Public schools are as under; Enhanced Extra and co-curricular activities: This does not suggest that public schools have no advantages over private schools. Public schools can offer more on co-curricular activities and can fund more activities in this realm than private schools. Maureen Boland says in this regard; Most public schools are simply bigger than private schools, and have enough students to pull off a science fair or power a chorus or computer club. Whats more, federal and state laws require public schools to provide diagnostic and disability services. Public schools are more likely to offer gifted and talented and remedial programs, too. (Boland) Higher Teacher Qualification: NCES study reveals that Public schools teacher are more qualified as compared with their private school counterparts. Furthermore, teachers form public schools attend the professional development courses more often. The study says; â€Å"Among full-time traditional public school teachers, 59.3 percent participated in such professional development activities, compared with 55.2 percent of full-time public charter school teachers and 43.1 percent of full-time private school teachers.† (NCES) Adherents of public schools are of the view that â€Å"Private school innovations do not in every case stimulate improved practices at the public schools with which they compete.† (Rothstein et al) They further illustrate that â€Å"Private elementary school personnel are not necessarily more accountable to parents than are public elementary school personnel.† (Rothstein et al) Conclusion: The above-mentioned arguments of the proponents of the public schools can easily be refuted as the primary objective of the schools remains imparting academic excellence and quality education whereas co-curricular activities and higher teacher professional development are secondary or subservient to the stated primary objective. Public schools are cost effective as compared with private school because they are hugely funded from the state treasury. But the abovementioned arguments and supported evidence clearly manifest that this cost effective sacrifices the quality of education. Although private schools charge huge amounts as fees but there are two valid reasons for this. Firstly they are self-sponsored. Secondly they need huge amounts to spend on the quality of education they produce or wish to produce. On the whole, private schools are more focused and thoroughly committed to the development of education with excellence. They do not believe in the mere transfer of knowledge but take into account the aptitude and mental inclination of the children and believe in charging their creative batteries. The faculty member of the private schools earn more and thus are dedicated toward their work and hanker after more excellence. References Boland, Maureen. Public vs. private: Which is right for your child? Parent Center. Center on education Policy. Are private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High School? October 2007. Great Schools Staff. (2007). Private vs. Public: What’s the Difference?. National Center for Education Statistics. Schools and Staffing Survey, 1999-2000: Overview of the Data for Public, Private, Public Charter, and Bureau of Indian Affairs Elementary and Secondary Schools. Fast Facts. Public School Review. Public Versus Private Schools. Retrieved March 23, 2008 at Web Rothstein. Richard, Carnoy, Martin Benveniste, Luis. Can Public Schools Learn From Private Schools? Case Studies in the Public Private Nonprofit Sectors. Economic Policy Institute.    U.S. Department of Education. Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools. Retrieved March 23, 2008 at Web Site:nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2006461.pdf

Managing Financial Resources And Decisions Commerce Essay

Managing Financial Resources And Decisions Commerce Essay Typically, entrepreneurs are dynamic and enthusiastic about their ideas. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need good ideas to fulfil a demand. Every entrepreneur must think about money. For the business there are some sources of funding for budding entrepreneurs. Probably less financial risk in earning start-up funds from friends and family, than in borrowing from a institute so have look first to those sources of finance. Task 1 A Gardening Service can be a good idea for small business of an entrepreneur. For this small business funds can be personal savings, friends and family, grants etc. If any person uses their savings to invest in business, then the source of finance comes under the heading of personal savings. Most of entrepreneur funded with personal savings. Friends and Family is next fund to start-up business.  No one wants to get involved with a start-up company. But in case of friends and family, easy to collect and hassle free. Funds can be collected by friends and family less than  £5000. Then my third funds for gardening service will be Credit Card. this card with pre-loaded cash given by bank. For that we have to pay interest. By credit card fund can be like  £5000. Among these funds, friends and family will be best for the gardening service. Because its easy to collect, it can be big amount for small business, convenient, and easy to start-up for any deal. Producing musical feeding chair for babies Babies like attraction. A musical chair will be good attraction for most babies. Lots of funds need to start of this business. From that I decide three source of funds- Overdrafts, Personal savings, and Friends and family. Overdrafts can be use in small business. Bank will provide overdrafts on customers demand. Overdrafts are secured funds for business provide by bank. An interest has to pay yearly. Entrepreneur can use it any times. So overdrafts can be the good source of finance for this business. Selling customised t-shirt, mugs and other novelty items online People like to shop at online to save their time. If I start selling customised t-shirt, mugs and other novelty items online, like other business entrepreneurs I need to select source of funds. Funds are Angel Investor, Personal Savings, and Overdrafts. Persons who invest in different companies at pre-mature stage to make profit and the chance to guide the company call Angel investors. In compare, business enterprise capitalist spend as a profession and in general on behalf of other investors. Angels typically invest their own funds. The investment from these angels can be from $150,000 to about $1.5 million dollars. These angels are usually entrepreneurs who want to help out promising entrepreneurs with their own businesses. For those reason I like to rising funds by angel investor. Starting a financial consultancy A financial advisor known as  financial  consultant, they offer advice about  money management. Most people come to  financial  consultancy firm for guidance on how to reach their long term financial  goals. To open and run these business three funds can be chosen. . Factoring  is where the  financial  association advances the entrepreneur cash against income from the entrepreneurs outstanding amount. Factoring is a firm, usually are paid a proportion of the invoices value. Factoring is appropriate for this business. Because, this is an institute, they provide funds quickly. Running Bed Breakfast For this business as an entrepreneur I can invest by debt financing, friends and family and personal savings. The majority of new small businesses are funded with Debt Financing via institutes. Banks will provide with a loan or line of credit that comes with repayment schedule and an interest rate. Loan can be provided by type of business and demand of entrepreneur. For opening of the business debt financing could be best source for funds. For this business like to funded with debt financing. Because dont have to give up equity, easy to get loan, maximum banks are giving low interest rate. So debt financing is the best source of funds for the business of Bed Breakfast. Task 2 Personal savings Advantages: No equity-holders to pay. Best way to sue savings. Do not need to borrow. No monthly payment. Disadvantages: Funds will be limited. May face a lot of personal debt. May miss out on earning interest. Friends and Family Advantages: Funds are available quickly. May do not pay any interest. Disadvantages: Limited funding. One time funding. May have to pay interest. Risk of relation if business does not success. Credit Card Advantages: Low interest rate. Bank will provide that. This is won funding. Disadvantages: Limited amount. Have to pay interest. Overdrafts Advantages: Sometimes not need to pay interest. Can be used any time. Can by refund any time Disadvantages: Need to pay interest. Have to apply for that. Amounts are limited. Angel investors Advantages: Angels invest more than money. Provide mentoring and contacts. No monthly payments. Disadvantages: Angels are difficult to find. Take up valuable time. Giving up equity in your company. Factoring Advantages: Provides funds quickly. Helps companies with a rickety and unstable cash flow. Disadvantages: Increased accounting oversight and administration. Cost of money is involved in factoring. Debt Financing Advantages: You build a powerful relationship with banker. Dont have to give up equity. Disadvantages: May be required to provide personal collateral. Have to pay interest. Task 3 Cost comparison of the sources Cost means the amount to be paid for anything bought. Using those sources must have to calculated cost. A Gardening Service Personal savings is best for invest in business among other sources. The cost is very low here, only opportunity cost. Cost of Friends and Family also low. But sometimes entrepreneur have to pay interest. For the using Credit Card can be expensive. Because bank charge for it. Different bank have different policy to charge for amount. Producing musical feeding chair for babies In this business I used overdrafts, personal savings, and friends and family. Here overdrafts have interest cost. But in other two funds no interest cost. Selling customised t-shirt, mugs and other novelty items online Funds are Angel Investor, Personal Savings, and Overdrafts for this business. Angel investors very costly to fund, but they invest a lot. Those investor will take money after invest. For personal saving do not have to pay back and in overdrafts have to pay interest. Starting a financial consultancy Invested funds are factoring, personal savings and credit card. An extensive cost of money is involved in factoring and credit card. For investing personal savings only cost is opportunity cost. Running Bed Breakfast I invested debt financing, friends and family and personal savings in running bed breakfast business. In the Debt Financing lots of interest has to pay to the financial institute. Like interest, security deposit etc, for the personal savings and friends and family no need any deposit. But in friends and family sometime need to pay interest Task 4 As a budding entrepreneur I will go for selling customised t-shirt, mugs and other novelty items online. Because now people like to buy novelty items form online to save money and time. Now a days online selling is going more competitive and challenging. As an entrepreneur I like to take challenging jobs. On the other side selecting source of funds are easy and a good amount can be collected. Conclusion In this business world everything is going very fast so opening a new business is very challenging. Fund collection is one of the most important facts in business. Funds can be collected from different sources. But an entrepreneur must have to select right funds for the right business. Then there is less chance to fail.

My Sport Essay -- Personal Narrative

My Sport It all started when I was about eleven or twelve years old. By that time, I was already used to being the tallest girl in class. I caught the attention of all my gym teachers and was about to become a goal to basketball coaches. The sport seemed cool, but something I had never thought about. Time went by and the coaches insisted I should play. I was finally persuaded. â€Å"Why not give it a try?† I thought. I went to camps, practices, a whole process, and learned to sympathize with the sport. Basketball came easy to me and after a while, I became a decent player. I continued to play through junior high school, but it wasn’t until high school that I realized it wasn’t my sport. There, I found a whole diversity of sports, some of which I had never heard of. One day, the crew coach...

the fall of rome :: essays research papers

The Fall of Rome   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Did the Roman Empire deserve to Fall? No, The achievements of the Roman Empire were unmatched at its time. Many things it accomplished are ideas and ways of life that did not become widespread until after its fall. The Roman Empire would have made the advancement of people in Europe much faster.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Roman Empire was the most modern ancient empire. It made many advancements in the arts and sciences. It had many great poets, philosophers, artists, and engineers. The Romans encouraged learning and supported any who endeavored to make discoveries or technological improvement. If the Roman Empire had not fallen, the world, from a scientific stand point would be very different today. The Roman Empire would have made discoveries and scientific advancements before the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages no scientific studies or appreciation of the arts took place. For almost an entire millennium humans made no advancements. The barbarians, who destroyed Rome, destroyed it to take its wealth not its knowledge. The knowledge that was lost was not resurrected until the Renaissance. Technological improvement was at a standstill. If the Roman empire had lasted, Europe would not have fallen into that dark period. Rome would have kept modernizing. Today, we could be at a te chnological level we may not reach for many years. The Romans made advancements in the field of medicine. Today we could have had cures for many diseases had the empire not fallen.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Roman empire was a democracy. It was one of the first of its kind. It could have stood as a model for all the kingdoms and monarchies across the world. Human rights were existent at Rome hundreds of years before any other place around the world. The Roman people were represented in their government and had power. Many people around the world who were persecuted under dictators and monarchies could have looked at Rome as an example of what a better form of government is. It took the rest of the world more than another millennia to form another democracy. The Roman Government had three parts. These three parts used a system of checks and balances just as a modern democracy does today. The first government to adopt this system since Rome was England, when it adopted its two houses of parliament. After the fall of Rome, anarchy took place in the parts of Europe that it occupied.

Winston Churchill :: essays research papers

Those eleven burning words summed up the nature of Britain's war, turned Britain's back on the weaknesses of the past, set her face toward the unknown future. Because of them the rest of that speech has been forgotten. It should not be forgotten, for it is not only a great example of Winston Churchill's eloquence, but the epitome of the movement which he leads. After a brief report on the formation of his Government, Winston Churchill said: "You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea and air--war with all our might and with all the strength God has given us--and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival. "Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal." December 31, 1940, was not only the end of a year; it was the end of a decade--the most terrifying of the 20th Century. The decade which ended in 1920 had seen a war that was to prove inconclusive. It had seen a revolution that was to lie quiescent after establishing itself in the largest country of the world. The decade which ended in 1930 was one of confusion and wasted energy--the wasted energy of gambling and gin-drinking in the U.S., of civil war in the Far East, of misdirected revolutionary effort from the U.S.S.R., of the attempt in Europe to hold resurgent peoples in check. The decade which ended this week saw the failure of that attempt and the unleashing of ruthless war. It saw the Far East's battle of warlords turn into a war for the supremacy of one people. It saw the U.S. turn to a feverish effort to protect itself and its neighbors. It saw, in the Battle of Britain, the life-&-death struggle of the greatest empire the world has ever known. The Candidates of 1940. No artist, no athlete, no scientist, only a man whose place was on the stage of world politics, could be Man of 1940--last and stormiest year of a stormy decade.

The Importance

The Importance Paulo Coelho explained, â€Å"Why is patience so important? † â€Å"Because it makes us pay attention. † Being patient and attention to detail are few of many characteristics that are essential to being a proficient healthcare provider. Healthcare providers have a very important job and these characteristics correspond to one another in everyday actions. I always thought of myself as a very patient person and while working at a daycare realized that along with patience came the importance of attention to detail.Patience is very easy to describe when telling one how to do things, but putting it into practice and living in such manner takes one’s self-control. I have always enjoyed interacting with kids and when I had to get a job in high school, I decided that a daycare would be a great opportunity. The majority of my time was spent caring for toddlers. Patience is essential when working with toddlers.I had to juggle chasing around squeamish, playfu l, emotional kids who were going through their first year of life and preparing to move on to their terrible twos. There were many times when three or four kids were screaming and crying, and, at times I felt overwhelmed but had to keep my composure, so that I could calm them down. Attention to detail is important as it points out and makes one realize how to do things right. While working with toddlers, I had to learn that when chaos was going on somebody needed attention.Daily I practiced observing details, such as when a toddler got whiny and upset; I had to remain patient throughout their crying and see whether they were in need of a diaper change or had gotten hurt. Patience and attention to detail for a healthcare provider can determine the outcome of a patient’s health. As I cared for toddlers my interest and desire for working with children grew. I reconfirmed that I had the characteristics of knowing how to take important issues with time and preciseness to assure th at nothing of importance is left out.

Ebay Market Share

How to dominate the online auction market Jeffrey Phillips †¢ Brian Somok †¢ Xiaoke Zheng Executive Summary Background eBay Inc history: September 1995: funded as a sole proprietorship. May 1996: incorporated in California. April 1998: reincorporated in Delaware. September 1998: completion of initial public offering October 2002: acquired PayPal Product Online Auction: Every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, millions of people from all over the world go shopping at online auctions. This is not an exaggeration – eBay, with a 76% share of the auction site market, reports 42. million users and a growth factor of 100% per Year Porter’s Five Forces Analysis Rivalry Rivalry is very intense. Yahoo had to give up Japan and Australia online auction sites in 2003 because of low margin in this market even if Yahoo made great investment in these two sites beforehand. Number of firms Online auction firms: www. eBay. com, www. overstock. com, www. ubid. c om, www. yahoo. com, www. amazon. com, www. CQout. com, www. bidville. com, etc. The large number of firms in this market reflects the intense competition among those sites. Margin profit is decreased to a relatively low level. Bay could still survive because of its scale of economy and good reputation. However, eBay’s growth in 2004 was much smaller than in 2003. Shareholders put much pressure on eBay, and eBay had to readjust its pricing on varied services on the short run in order to satisfy people’s short term expectation. However, he is risking his long term revenue and reputation. Fixed costs Essentially, fixed costs on online auction market are rather low: purchasing programming technology patents, web, administration, credit, accounting, staff, and daily operations. Product differentiation Differentiation depends on how the transaction is performed. There is not too much difference among different online auction companies in web processing efficiency and shipping efficiency, but eBay is more convenient than others, due to their lengthy expertise in the market. eBay differentiated itself by integrating PayPal payment system, which is famous for its security, cheap rate and network utility. eBay offers a cheap transaction fee rate, as well. It has greatest number of users by far, which offers excellent network utility. Amazon used to be a substitute product provider. However, since 1999 Amazon added auction module in its business. eBay likewise encroached on Amazon’s niche by adopting fixed price functions like â€Å"buy it now† button and purchasing www. half. com. eBay and Amazon have been less different and therefore rivalry has increased a little. However, there is still an obvious gap between them in terms of business model and software development. Amazon built its reputation with high-end users. It has a friendly and succinct transaction interface, which offers superior product mix. Amazon is utilizing Porter’s value strategy and has not changed this for years. On the other hand, eBay is a large community of small buyers and sellers who deal with single-item transactions at negotiable prices. It has a created cost advantage by scale of economy. Most goods traded on eBay are secondhand, and eBay’s inventory changes more rapidly than Amazon’s. eBay is actually taking Porter’s cost strategy. Different business models result in different financial performance. eBay generated $441 million profits in 2003 on $2. 17 billion revenue compared with Amazon's much smaller $35 million profit on far more revenue — $5. 3 billion. eBay has a more liquid and efficient financial structure. Besides, these two companies are both valued by their own network/community. Most customers don’t switch between auction and fixed price retail very often partly because they are rooted in the community culture of either network. They don’t have incentives to change their current method of transaction if it is satisfactory. Different business models and different networks are enough to place these two companies in different niches without too much rivalry. Barriers of New Entrants New entrants seize every opportunity to expand their market share. eBay still has a dominant market share of online auction. His reputation is a sweeping force in maintaining his good performance. However, eBay has to be cautious in every marketing decision. His mistakes will be taken advantage by these new comers. For example, www. bidville. com , an online auction site, recently experienced a dramatic increase in new member registration after eBay announced they would raise their listing fees for sellers. eBay took a prompt response by resuming the listing fee back to the original level. eBay didn’t win anything in this price adjustment and readjustment, but eroded his reputation. Essentially in this online auction market, whoever has the most name recognition, wins the game. Right now, Bidville’s disadvantage in name recognition puts Bidville out as a possible alternative to eBay’s market space temporarily. eBay should think about more to maintain his name recognition on the long run. Patents eBay does not hold any key patented technology. A new entrant could easily emulate eBay’s interface. High cost of entry eBay’s most effective barriers are its large network and credible reputation. It is rather difficult for a new entrant to build a new network starting with no users. We can verify this by how new air ticketing companies grow. ) The only way to start a network from a reasonable size is to derive an online auction market from an existing online website company which already has a network, just as Yahoo and Amazon did. A new entrant must also demonstrate creditability and capability to customers and payment providers (credit car d, PayPal, eWallet, etc. ). New entrants must prove their guarantees of efficient and safe transactions, to both buyers and sellers. Why would buyers and sellers bother to switch from a sound existing online auction site to a new one? Incentives to switch include discounts, coupons, accumulative reimbursement like frequent miles, complements from other services an entrant or their cooperating company offers, and higher-quality service in terms of timely and elegant shipping. All of these are trivial but not necessarily effective sales methods. Effectiveness depends on a comprehensive sales strategy which is based on keen insight of business dynamics and human group dynamics. It is hard for a new entrant to find an experienced strategist, and even if it does, there is still no guarantee to gain market share. This market is basically first-mover dominant. Furthermore, it is unlikely for payment companies like credit card companies or other electronic payment providers to support a new entrant, because profitability is unclear. The revenue for successful new entrants will be low at the beginning and stable on the long run. However, expenses will be extremely high at the beginning. A new company rarely survives within a short term unless it has a very generous percentage of leverage or a large amount of venture capital, and leverage is only available for public companies. Therefore, a new entrant can likely only be an existing company that operates in other markets. It should either be sufficiently self-funded or have a very strong, persuasive income statement and business plan to prove liquidity and gain leverage. Since the internet bubble, venture capitalists are very cautious in investing in IT companies, especially Business-to-Customers or Business-to-Business ecommerce companies. (Check the performance of eBay during and after internet bubbles. ) Essentially, the scale of economy is very obvious in the online auction market. The value of an online network is proportional to the number of users squared. The scale of economy will naturally lead to a monopoly. A new entrant should either license a fraud prevention system or employ a third-party payment platform company that already integrates fraud prevention system in its service. Brand loyalty First of all, eBay has been operating in this market since the beginning of e-commerce. A lot of e-commerce companies have failed since the internet bubble. eBay has successfully survived because of the convenience and simplicity of its service. It has gained popularity and built loyalty among customers. It has a secure identity system, and every user has a record of past transactions. eBay has a sound rating system for every buyer and seller to establish credibility amongst the users. eBay’s user accounts work like passports of their personal credit and reliability. Most customers of eBay are long-term users; therefore, they will not attempt fraud in their transactions. If they do, their rating suffers. All customers tend to trust each other because transactions are transparent to the 3rd party supervisor, eBay. eBay has successfully turned their online auction site into a community which has a cohesive culture. Photos of items to be sold greatly enhance the community value and establish amiability and trust between sellers and buyers. (eBay’s success has influenced Amazon to adopt a similar policy in its online transactions recently. ) New entrants are competing against a community as well as a company. It is rather difficult to build a new culture and a new community. There might be some other specialized auction niches available, but eBay offers nearly any product available. For example, eBay has online auctions for cars. However, since cars are large purchases, people tend to be cautious in purchasing them. They must inspect the cars in person, and the buyers and sellers tend to haggle in person. Online auctions don’t seem conducive to the secondhand car market. As one would expect, eBay doesn’t have much revenue from car transactions, and any other online car auction websites are not likely to generate high revenues. Such specialized auction markets have uncertain viability. In the example of a car transaction, there are two types of creditability involved. One is buyers’ trust of eBay: Will eBay protect the buyers’ privacy? The other is buyers’ trust of sellers: Will sellers defraud the buyers or exaggerate the quality of their cars? Shipping is also a major cost in this transaction. Most buyers obviously favor in-person transactions. There is little market space for online auction providers. In fact, there are free online bulletin boards that provide used car sale information. They make it difficult for paid online car auctions to exist at all. Mostly, the viability of such specialized auction markets is doubtful. Therefore, there is limited chance for new entrants. Substitute Products The most important merit of fixed-price online retail is that a buyer does not have to wait for an auction to end. It is appealing to shoppers who prefer straightforward sales. They value their time more than the small price change. It is basically a tradeoff between time and price. Since online auction and fixed online retail target people with different personalities, these two products essentially don’t conflict with each other. eBay expanded its market by adding fixed-price features to its online transactions, such as â€Å"Buy It Now†. Half. com is a fixed price online retail web site which is owned by eBay. This shows that eBay is flexible in its business model. On the other hand, Amazon, a traditional online fixed-price retail web site, launched its auction feature in 1999. Here, fixed-price retail acts somewhat like a complement. However, it is a complement only when a company is involved in both types of sales. It is especially beneficial for the company’s network utility. eBay expanded its community (network) by adding fixed price retail feature, as Amazon did by adding auctions. Both of them successfully combined these two functions together, which merged these two markets into one, and gave customers greater convenience by allowing them to decide which way to purchase goods impromptu. However, there is less differentiation between eBay and Amazon. Traditional retail is more prevalent when the buyer must check the product in person or shipping is difficult or expensive. eBay has had to build a strong creditability by making sure all the descriptions of online items to be sold are precise, complete and correct. Without this reliability, customers would switch to traditional retail stores. For those goods which are hard to price without observation, eBay cannot supplant traditional retail. This is particularly true for specialized items such as cars, jewelries, and plastic surgeries, all of which have too many details to be taken care of online. Online transactions seem impossible for these goods. The switching cost from online auction to traditional retail or fixed-price online is essentially high. For fixed-price online, sellers have to pay the storage fee for Amazon’s storage plant. For traditional retail, sellers have to pay for the storage fee and shelf rental fee. These extra fees, which are switching costs, are enough to discourage single item sellers, who are main customer category of eBay, to switch. Buyer Power Customer’s price sensitivity Online auctions don’t charge sellers for storage of their goods. Fixed-price sites might charge sellers for storage. Traditional retailers incur overhead costs. Sellers have incentives to sell via online auction. On the other hand, online auctions mainly deal with unpackaged new products or secondhand products. Most buyers of such products are familiar with eBay, so sellers are more prone to sell via online auction. Buyer bargaining power is weakened. Customer’s negotiating power As I analyzed above, eBay is a large network of small buyers and sellers who mainly deal with single-item sales. A seller generally sells one item to one buyer on eBay, so eBay has high prices and high margins when providing services for many buyers and sellers. Online auction site, recently experienced a dramatic increase in new member registration after eBay announced they would raise their listing fees for sellers. eBay took a prompt response by resuming the listing fee back to the original level. eBay didn’t win anything in this price adjustment and readjustment, but eroded his reputation. Essentially in this online auction market, whoever has the most name recognition, wins the game. Right now, Bidville’s disadvantage in name recognition puts Bidville out as a possible alternative to eBay’s market space temporarily. Bay should think about more to maintain his name recognition on the long run. Patents eBay does not hold any key patented technology. A new entrant could easily emulate eBay’s interface. Buyer Power Customer’s price sensitivity Online auctions don’t charge sellers for storage of their goods. Fixed-price sites might charge sellers for storage. Traditional retailers incur overhead cost s. Sellers have incentives to sell via online auction. On the other hand, online auctions mainly deal with unpackaged new products or secondhand products. Most buyers of such products are familiar with eBay, so sellers re more prone to sell via online auction. Buyer bargaining power is weakened. Customer’s negotiating power As I analyzed above, eBay is a large network of small buyers and sellers who mainly deal with single-item sales. A seller generally sells one item to one buyer on eBay, so eBay has high prices and high margins when providing services for many buyers and sellers. Supplier Power Suppliers to eBay offer technology patent, legal support for intellectual property, and fraud prevention systems. eBay has great pressure to prevent fraud, since its reputation is at stake. Buyers and sellers care about very much about their security. Online auction fraud in 2004 made up 16% of all consumer complaints last year, and 48% in the subset of internet-related complaints, topping the list. eBay has 0. 01% fraud rate of all transactions, but these isolated incidents receive wide media coverage, which discourages many potential customers. eBay is still improving its fraud prevention system. The fraud prevention system is launched by Microsoft Inc. and Visa International Inc. As this system is necessary to eBay, it has little leverage to negotiate a better price. Many online retail systems need fraud prevention system, but there is only one supplier in the market. It has great bargaining power. Complements PayPal, as an online payment solution, is a good complement of eBay’s online auction business. PayPal is a neutral intermediary based on the financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards, supported by a proprietary fraud prevention system. Transactions on PayPal are of low risk to both sellers and buyers. PayPal accepts money from the buyer in one of the three ways. Charging the buyer’s credit card Debiting the buyer’s checking account Charging from the buyer’s PayPal account. The buyer can always send check to his/her PayPal account. Then PayPal will email the seller about the payment made by the buyer. The seller will receive money in one of the three ways. The seller might have his own PayPal account. The payment will directly transfer to his/her account. The seller might receive a check from PayPal. PayPal directly deposits the payment into the seller’s checking account. Buyers care about security. Buyers’ credit card numbers are only shown to PayPal. That is safer than online payment directly by credit card. Buyers also care about the cost. For transactions between PayPal customers, there's no transaction fee. PayPal makes money on the float – when customers’ money sits in their account, PayPal is collecting interest on it. Customers generally don’t care about the interest that PayPal collects on their deposits. Customers also care about ease of use. PayPal is one of the simplest services for online transactions. All a buyer has to do is to provide his/her name, e-mail address, credit card information, and billing address. For business accounts on PayPal, merchants are charged a 2. 2% discount rate + 30 cents on the transaction. It is better than the rate charged by merchant banks for accepting credit cards, in most cases. eBay Micro Strategies Increase brand recognition Expand the auction market by introducing PayPal to more online auction markets Credit card companies charge more for Internet-enabled merchant accounts (the accounts the merchants need to accept credit card payments on the Internet), because of the high cost to main security. Therefore, credit cards become too expensive for smaller purchases. PayPal might negotiate with credit card companies for smaller fees for their subscribers. They can cooperate to share the market in the following way: Merchant accounts on PayPal will be charged less by credit companies than those on other online payment platforms. Therefore it can increase the number of small purchases on eBay auction. Nowadays, credit cards are the primary means of purchasing air tickets and recording frequent flier miles. eBay should enter the air ticketing markets. It definitely can offer the same service with PayPal. PayPal should cooperate with more airlines and online ticketing websites. If they can integrate PayPal into ticket sales websites, eBay will have a huge potential market in air ticketing and also increase its network utility. eBay should acquire a greater online auction market share by educating online customers that PayPal is the online currency. Yahoo’s wallet failed in the online marketplace. It was not easy to establish their own online payment platform, partly because the online payment concept goes against Yahoo’s traditional business model. PayPal should make use of its competitive advantage and offer Yahoo and other websites its specialized solutions. Perfect its proprietary fraud prevention system, which is essential to its success. eBay should let its customers, cooperative online transaction sites, online airline ticketing sites, and credit card companies all feel that transactions through eBay will lower their costs and be more valuable. Bay should cooperate with shipping companies, and make its online transactions more lucrative eBay should work with Phish Report Network and other anti-phishing organizations more efficiently in order to prevent fake online auction sites taking its market share and damaging the whole market’s reputation eBay should work with software developers to improve the s ecurity, efficiency, and adaptability of its database. eBay should convince customers that there is no intentional bidding up behavior involved in its online auction practice Develop real name feature for customers. Put some restrictions on new sellers in expensive merchandise transaction or large volume sale until they have a good track record. Expand to international market, decrease national boundary barriers in terms of payment (credit card/PayPal) and shipping. Cooperate with local equivalent companies or localize by itself. Mediate between buyers and seller at Security Center. Respect both sides’ privacy. Solve conflicts in conservative way. Don’t take risk of eBay’s reputation. eBay Today eBay is the world’s foremost online marketplace. Through reliable customer service, efficient information exchange, and by utilizing the latest technology, eBay has created an auction-based market community of an efficiency unheard of prior to the internet revolution. Competitive Advantage eBay has used its first-mover advantage to establish itself as the most reliable and, more importantly, largest auction house on or off the internet. In 2003 alone, more than 30 million people exchanged over $20 billion. Due to the size and diversity of its user base, eBay is able to offer a wider selection of merchandise than any online retailer. This is made feasible by the virtual nature of eBay’s market: sellers can market obscure items to a global market as easily as and more cheaply than they could put an ad in their local paper. Famous for matching buyers and sellers across the world with the most extreme items, eBay has developed incalculable value in its brand name. eBay has become a household word synonymous with an eclectic online marketplace. eBay comes to the mind of any buyer looking for that rare or rarely-cheap item; any seller hoping to get rid of practically anything knows a buyer is lurking somewhere on eBay. The site has become an easily identifiable rallying point akin to a popular dance club on a global scale: everyone who’s anyone is there—and everyone else too. eBay’s Macro Strategy eBay seeks to maintain a high level of consumer patronage by capitalizing on its unique positioning as an internet marketplace. Globalization. Since eBay is a virtual marketplace, eBay can establish language localized sites in other countries that have access eBay’s full auction database. Since the seller handles the shipping details, each seller may determine the extent to which they enter the global market. Bay has already expanded into 150 countries around the world. International transactions require little additional bookkeeping cost while their benefit to the consumer is enormous: every buyer and seller has access to the largest market possible. Communication By allowing buyers and sellers to meet and communicate online, eBay is able to minimize the costs of remote market research and individual exchanges of information across states and borders. This interplay is essential to mutually amicable transactions on which eBay is based. To encourage fair transactions eBay provides an efficient feedback system to allow buyers and sellers to benefit from collective experience, giving customers a strong social incentive to honor each transaction. Integration Through its acquisition of PayPal eBay gained not only market share, but also vertical integration key to its long-term success. By embracing the payment method most commonly used on its site rather than forcing an unpopular one on its user base, eBay has not only retained the existing PayPal user base but expanded to those consumers previously unsure of which method to use. In 2003 there were 40 million PayPal accounts—almost twice as many as the previous year—and these customers transferred $12 billion across 38 countries. Diversification In addition to normal auction bidding, eBay now offers a Buy-it-Now option. Sellers set fixed maximum prices at which the auction will close before it begins. This attracts auction-wary consumers from other e-commerce sites outside of the strict auction market and effectively competes with amazon. com and froogle. com for fixed-price transactions. By allowing independent sellers to maintain storefronts online, eBay seeks to extend its position to include an even wider range of transactions, thus not only broadening its appeal but securing ties to more conservative consumer bases. The Future of eBay Industry Trends What originally began as a small industry of auctions for collectibles has mushroomed into a behemoth encompassing individual sellers, small businesses, and large retailers. The e-commerce industry is constantly growing, and many businesses rely on the reputation of eBay or one of their competitors to sell their products. As the market grows, a wider demographic range of consumers will be purchasing an increasing number of products online. For example, teenagers are the target consumers of very recent products such as cell phone ring tones and games, many of which are available exclusively online. As such varied consumer groups are emerging in the online market, there is more room for differentiation; perhaps some niches are being created. Therefore, the barriers to entry will decrease as the market expands. Competitive Trends eBay has a solid foothold as the canonical online auction site. They have a niche as an enormous community with an extremely high success rate of matching buyers and sellers. eBay is distinguished by its availability of single, used, and/or rare items, and for its floating prices. They are adequately differentiated from their competitors, and they possess roughly 70% of the online auction market share. However, due to the relatively low switching costs and entry barriers inherent in a web market, eBay must continue to be rather defensive of their position, against current competition and potential new entrants. Current Competitors Amazon and Yahoo Auctions are the main competitors of eBay. Ubid. com has 14% of the market share, but they have a different niche than eBay by appealing to business-to-consumer transaction. Amazon may pose a threat to eBay’s utter dominance; they are consistently bringing retailers into e-commerce. However, this comes with a great burden. Whereas eBay has virtually no overhead, Amazon needs to store and move vast quantities of inventory. Currently, Amazon’s revenues are considerably greater than eBay’s (about twice as much), but their costs are so high that eBay’s annual profits are roughly ten times Amazon’s. Alternatively, Amazon might choose to expand its auction operations, trying to nudge eBay from its niche. Amazon would have to establish a network, a community, on the scale of eBay’s in order to challenge them directly. Although this could be time consuming and costly to implement, focusing on transactions in which they are merely the broker and bear no cost could greatly increase their long-term profits. Yahoo poses little threat to eBay. While they theoretically have potential for growth similar to Amazon, they lack Amazon’s reputation. They also lack the cost-free transactions in which eBay luxuriates. New Entrants Online auctioning doesn’t have high costs of entry, especially the way eBay operates: All a new entrant needs is merchant software; there is no need for warehouses or expensive machinery. However, many companies have tried to enter this lucrative market and have failed. New entry is difficult because eBay has an enormous community, which gives tremendous network value to both buyers and sellers. Any entrant would have to build up a network from scratch. Conceivably, if a new company entered a niche market, e. g. uctions of teenage clothing and cell phone accessories, they could survive, but such a market would likely be too small to gain any measurable market share. Alternately, a website that already has a large community would be able to enter more easily. For example, Craig’s List has a network of millions of users, who rely on it for matching them up with people who can fulfill their sp ecific needs. It would be simple enough to add an auction section to the site, and take advantage of this existing network to compete with eBay. Froogle, a new service from Google, may forever change the way online shopping is done. While it currently is a beta version, it looks to be a promising engine for online shoppers to quickly search nearly all online stores for the products they desire. While Froogle isn’t an entrant to the online auction market (yet), it is certainly the beginning of a powerful new substitute service. Froogle may be very dangerous to eBay for many reasons. Google already has a huge network of search-users and advertisers. If vendors (especially specialized vendors, as many on eBay are) can set up their own online stores and be found for free on Froogle, they have less of a reason to pay eBay for its high access. Bay certainly still has a lot going for it, (security and reputation) but may soon find its network challenged by Froogle users. eBay’s Response eBay recently started Business. eBay, a new business-to-business online auction that spans all sectors, from mining to farming. eBay is aware that they may need to accommodate larger retailers in order to grow, and to chal lenge Amazon’s growth in this direction. If Amazon decides to challenge eBay’s community appeal, then eBay must block this attempt any way they can. A simple method would be to start a price war. Bay’s costs are so negligible compared to Amazon’s that Amazon could not possibly survive a price war. EBay could almost give away auctions to sellers, whereas this sort of competition would bankrupt Amazon. If a new entrant emerges, eBay’s best bet is to rely on the value of their community. Even a company trying to enter into a niche market would have a difficult time building a network large enough to attract eBay customers. In the rare case of an established community site entering into online auctioning, eBay should engage in a price war if they believe this site’s community is comparable to theirs. Bay is famous for their extreme efficiency, and any entrant would likely be somewhat inefficient due to their inexperience. eBay’s best resp onse to Froogle is to assert their security and reputation to their users: If you buy from eBay, you know you will have a safe and fraud-free transaction, especially if you pay with PayPal. On the other hand, if someone buys from an online shop found on Froogle, he has no idea how reliable the vendor is, or if his credit card information will be safe. If buyers are reluctant to engage in potentially insecure transactions outside of eBay, buyers and sellers alike will continue to complete their transactions through eBay. Summary eBay virtually monopolizes the online auction market, due to their large network value, extremely low costs, reputation for security, and efficient operations. When confronted with competition, eBay either relies on its community niche, or buys out the competition (i. e. Half. com and PayPal). They have created a market where entry is very difficult, and competitors are relatively powerless, particularly given the threat of a price war. These advantages should ensure eBay’s continued domination of online auctions in the future. However, they should court larger retailers, as Amazon has, to expedite their growth. eBay is likely to stay the leading online auctioneer for quite some time, as long as they remain adaptable to the ever-dynamic online market. eBay has proven to be a successful chameleon in the past, making lucrative acquisitions and modifying its business model, depending on the state of the online market. As long as eBay continues to aggressively maintain its community and reputation of security, it will dominate the online auction market. References 1. Crockett, Roger O. â€Å"No Plastic? No Problem. † BusinessWeek | online. . October 23, 2000. 2. â€Å"eBay 2003 Annual Report. † . 3. Hof, Rob. â€Å"Meet eBay’s Auctioneer-in-Chief. † BusinessWeek online. . May 29, 2003. 4. Hof, Robert D. â€Å"The eBay Economy. † BusinessWeek | online. . August 25, 2005. 5. Lewis, Marilyn. â€Å"eBay and Amazon. † webservicespipeline. . December 22, 2004. 6. Perez, Juan Carlos. â€Å"Online auction providers grapple with fraud. † Computerworld. . Februrary 17, 2005. 7. Roberts, Paul. â€Å"Microsoft, eBay, Visa form Phish Report Network. † Computerworld. . February 14, 2005

Change Management: The Komatsu Case

Organizations are in constant interactions with their environments.   A change in the environment will subsequently cause a change in the organization that interacts with it.   This change can be positive or negative, and in both cases, it alters the organization’s status on many different levels.   Dealing with this change on all the levels is a key factor in minimizing disruptions to the organization’s functioning and growth.   In other words, change management is â€Å"a managerial and organizational process that realigns an organizations strategy, structure and process in pro-action or reaction to chaos in the environment† (Worthy et. al., 1996, p. 16).   The process of change management, and how it influences an organization’s strategy and management, is analyzed herewith in context of the Komatsu company.Brief HistoryKomatsu Iron Works was a subsidiary of Takeuchi Mining Industry, manufacturing industrial tools for the parent company.   I n 1921, the founder of the company, Mr. Takeuchi, incorporated Komatsu Ltd. as an independent company.   Komatsu originally manufactured mining equipment, but started making agricultural equipment such as tractors by 1931.   During the second world war, it was an important manufacturer of tanks, bulldozers, and other heavy machinery.   Post-war, Komatsu began focusing on the earth moving equipment (EME market).   In the 1950s, the company’s machinery was in demand because of the ongoing postwar construction in Japan.   Although its customer base was strong at that time, Komatsu did not command a significant market share, and the quality of its machines was inadequate.   This was a major factor in customer dissatisfaction, however, the Japanese manufacturers operated in a protected environment at that time, with no significant foreign competitors.In 1963, the Japanese Ministry of Trade allowed the entry of foreign EME manufacturers in Japan.   This signaled a com plete change in Komatsu’s market environment.   Now the competition extended to foreign counterparts, most of whom had long been established as market leaders in the EME category.   The following sections discuss Komatsu’s strategies for managing these challenges, and how they dealt with change in the process.CompetitionMajor heavy machinery manufacturers like Caterpillar, J.I. Case, Fiat-Ellis and John Deere were all technologically more advanced than Komatsu, and had widespread dealer networks and manufacturing bases.   The most formidable competitor in the EME segment was Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy machinery.   Caterpillar’s equipment was much more sophisticated and of a higher quality, and its distributor and dealer network was very solid.   Komatsu realized then that it was imperative for the company to upgrade its products and operations, in order to survive the competition.The company was headed at the time by Yashinari Kawai, who recognized the urgent need to revamp the company’s product quality, both technically and functionally.   In order to bring Komatsu products up to date, the company signed licensing arrangements with two major EME manufacturers, International Harvester and Bucyrus Erie.   This gave Komatsu the opportunity to improve the equipment quality for the agricultural and the industrial sector.In addition, Kawai implemented the Japanese concept of TQC (Total quality Control), which led to a huge improvement in the performance, reliability, and durability of the equipment.   This was one of the major change management challenges that Kawai handled successfully.   Kawai realized that in order to change the customers’ perception of Komatsu products, it was first necessary to change the employees’ own view of the kind of products that the company made.Changing the mindset of every employee and incorporating the philosophy of uncompromised quality a t every level in the company required a strong, skillful leader.   Kawai manouvered this change implementation by open communication, reward, and most importantly, setting an example for all employees by involving everyone from the top management to the shopfloor workers, in this endeavor.  Ã‚   When Komatsu was awarded the Deming Prize for quality control just 3 years later, it served as a huge morale booster for the company.Another major change measure implemented at this time was Project A.   In the first phase of this project, the employees were instructed to ignore costs and concentrate solely on achieving the best possible quality for their equipment.   Once this goal was achieved, the second phase of Project A was implemented, focusing on cost reduction.   Each and every aspect of design and manufacturing was closely scrutinized, checking for bottlenecks and wastage of resources.This resulted in a lean, finely-tuned manufacturing process, that complemented the high quality of Komatsu’s equipment.   From 1965 to 1970, the company’s domestic market share grew from 50% to 65%, despite the presence of Mitsubishi-Caterpillar.   According to Kawai, this feat was achieved largely due to the employee morale and drive at Komatsu.   In his words, â€Å"the prevailing atmosphere was that of a crisis, resulting in a spirit of unity between the management and the staff†.   This company-wide presence of a common goal took precedence over management and labor issues, and resulted in highly successful change management.Komatsu had implemented a two-pronged strategy to achieve success – vertical integration and TQC.   Vertical integration meant that the entire line of business had to be perfectly aligned and free of defects, right from the bottom.   To ensure this, they started with quality raw materials.   The second aspect was TQC – incorporating the philosophy of quality control everywhere and within everyone in the company.   Komatsu also extended the TQC strategy to its dealerships, encouraging them to implement the system.   This strategy of tackling the problem at the root and improvising upon it was the key to strong growth, and enabled Komatsu to offer formidable competition to Caterpillar – accomplishing what other companies such as J.I. Case and John Deere could not.Business EnvironmentFrom the time Komatsu started implementing change, the business environment was constantly shifting, in terms of demand, cost advantage, and regulations.   By mid-1970s, the domestic market for EME was stagnating, with Komatsu having 60% of the market, and the Mitsubishi-Caterpillar partnership having 30%.   Growth was slowing down in the less developed countries too.   Komatsu’s management responded by developing the V 10 plan, aiming to reduce costs by 10% while improving quality.   In 1976, an unexpected event in the financial markets caused further concern.   The Ja panese Yen was appreciating rapidly against the dollar, rising from 293 in 1976 to 240 in 1977.   To cushion the company’s exports, Komatsu’s management followed an internal exchange rate of 180 yen to the dollar.   This ensured that Komatsu’s costs and pricing were well-adjusted to the market conditions, and their exports did not suffer.   Komatsu’s policy of anticipating change and fortifying the company against any adverse effects again worked to its advantage.Problems faced by KomatsuExporting their equipment to other countries had always been a part of Komatsu’s vision.   This goal constituted the company’s Project B.   With their improved and technically capable equipment, by 1970 Kawai was eager to launch major international operations for the company.   However, there were considerable barriers to this end – Komatsu’s limited international recognition and dealer base, fierce competition, and legal regulation s.The technology license that it had obtained from International Harvester and Bucyrus Erie had imposed export restrictions on them.   Komatsu recognized this as an impediment, and established its R&D laboratory in 1966.   But there were still significant requirements for establishing an international market presence.   Caterpillar, for example, had its dealership centers across the globe, some of which were exclusive dealerships.   This made it difficult for Komatsu, with its relatively limited product line and manufacturing base, to create the required dealer network.   In order to overcome this obstacle, Komatsu priced its products 30 to 40 percent below Caterpillar’s.   This allowed them to get the intial foothold in the international markets.   Komatsu also benefited from the increased demand for construction machinery in less developed countres in Asia and Mexico, and in Saudi Arabia.In the 1970s, Komatsu had also started expanding its product line.   Ry oichi Kawai, now the president of Komatsu, made special efforts to build and develop international client and dealer relationships.   He also instructed managers to regularly visit customers, and get first hand information on their requirements and issues.   Keeping abreast of technological changes and being one of the first to adopt and incorporate new technology in its equipment was a key factor to success.Komatsu incorporated electronic technology into all its machinery, creating differentiated, high quality products.   In 1979, the worldwide construction industry was at a low.   To combat the depressed economy, Komatsu’s management launched the â€Å"F and F† or Future and Frontiers program, formulated to develop new products and new businesses.   Once again, a companywide buzz was created, and suggestions were welcomed from every level within the company.   These suggestions resulted in the production of diverse new products such as arc-welding robots and an excavating system for deep-sea sand.In the early 1980s, Komatsu objected to the export restrictions which still continued to be imposed on it by Bucyrus Erie.   Komatsu won this appeal and gained export rights from Bucyrus Erie.   It also managed to free itself from the agreement with International Harvester, and gained full freedom to export its equipment worldwide.   This was a major milestone for Komatsu, and the company took full advantage of its established quality and dealerships.   It also capitalized on the embargo that prevented Caterpillar from exporting to Russia in the early 1980s.   In 1981, the Siberian Natural Resource Project was handed over entirely to Komatsu.   In a short while, Komatsu was expected to outperform Caterpillar in the Russian market.As their international customer base increased, so did the need for customized equipment for different countries, based on the type of work, environment, and legal regulations.   Designing customized equipment for each customer separately was not cost effective.   To counter this, the management adopted the policy of EPOCHS – Efficient Production-Oriented Choice Specifications.   The idea was to save costs by standardizing production modules for core projects along with the required number of parts, and adding different specifications as necessary.Around this time, the increasing freight and shipping costs, and Japan’s strained trade relations with the US and Europe were increasingly becoming a cause for concern.   It was during this time that the US automakers opposed the import of Japanese cars in the market, and Komatsu was fearful that a similar plea might be raised by Caterpillar and other heavy-machinery manufacturers. In order to curb these potential problems, Komatsu manufactured the core parts of its equipment in all its plants.   This reduced the shipping frequency as well as the freight costs.   It also developed assembly bases in Brazil and Me xico, and was working on a joint venture proposal with its dealer in Indonesia.Current Situation and OptionsThe case refers to the scenario in 1984, a period of recession around the world.   The building and construction industry was also affected, with most players assuming some losses.   The biggest source of concern for Komatsu, however, was Caterpillar.   Caterpillar had experienced its third consecutive year of losses, and was in the midst of a major labor strike.   Kawai knew that this was an opportunity to take over where Caterpillar faltered – but it was also an indication of the increasingly difficult   business environment.   Witnessing a large, successful company like Caterpillar struggling to retain its position in the market, Kawai became concerned about Komatsu, and what it could do to avoid being in a similar situation.Komatsu’s options were centered around keeping a close watch on the market and on Caterpillar.   Komatsu employees were in the habit of reading Caterpillar’s monthly news bulletins and press releases, in order to stay informed regarding their competitor’s activities and plans.   Komatsu also realized the need to keep its labor force functioning, and continue keeping the costs down.   Their international operations also had to be strengthened at this time, capitalizing on Caterpillar’s compromised position.  Ã‚   These options are evaluated in the following section.RecommendationsIn keeping with its established policy, Komatsu should place particular emphasis on anticipating change and devising measures to optimize the benefits while curbing the negative effects.   To an extent, it was complacency that had cost Caterpillar – the managers’ priority was on increasing the customer base without addressing customer value or employee needs.   Therefore, managing labor relations is one of the most important issues for Komatsu.   The workers at Komatsu earn signific antly lesser than their counterparts at Caterpillar.   However, this is offset by high employee morale and  Ã‚   strong labor-management relations.   Maintaining this status is extremely important for Komatsu, both in terms of employee productivity and controlling costs by minimizing overhead.The second recommendation for Komatsu would be to strengthen its international presence.   With the capital that it has accumulated, Komatsu is in a position to either buy out a number of smaller competitors, or acquire a successful ally.   This would further consolidate Komatsu’s manufacturing operations and distributor channels.   It should also continue its R&D efforts and product diversification plans, and stay ahead of the competition.   If necessary, Komatsu can form a joint venture with a company to ease the manufacturing and operations of diversified products.ReferencesWorley, C.G., Hitchen, D.E., & Ross, W.L. (1996). Integrated strategic change: How OD builds a com petitive advantage. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.