Martin Luther King and Henry DavidThoreau Essay

However with different motives; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Henry David Thoreau were both admirable men that strived for a better government. As respected spokesmen they served as rebels against what they thought to be bad one’s stopping at nothing. Not even jail. Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. were both brilliant men. Thoreau’s â€Å"Civil Obedience† and Dr. King’s â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail† are perfect examples of their intellect. Looking at these documents and observing the tactics they use while attempting to move their audience toward their ultimate goal, one can see the finesse that both men possessed. Thoreau and Dr. King lived during two different centuries. So being that they were vocalist and activist on the current issues it’s almost certain that they would have a different motive. Even though their motive was ‘poles apart’, differing in many ways, both Thoreau and Dr. King wrote with the aspiration of obtaining a new form of government presumably resembling the republican one we exercise today. Although awfully controversial, to do so both men felt nonverbal actions such as breaking the laws was the only effective way. In spite of the fact that it’s relatively ironic, they viewed going to jail in order to make a mockery of an immoral or impractical laws put in place by the government was â€Å"the very highest respect for law (King para. 5).†Henry David Thoreau motive for rebelling against the government was to make it more of a democratic one. He had no respect for the way it was being ran. His proclaimed problem basically summed up to be that he felt the government was being ran like a monarchy, or in other words by a selective few and not an entire society as it should. It simply wasn’t up to par according to his standards; for he stated this â€Å"I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government (para. 4).†Unlike Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an African American during the times of segregation. This alone is a critical manipulating variable in the equation of why the two’s motive wasn’t the same. Dr. King was all about helping America move towards a desegregated future. He had zeal towards annihilating all unjust laws which he stated to be â€Å"a code inflicted upon a minority which that minority had no part in enacting or creating†¦ (para. 4),† but for the most part he had an overall respect for the government. In conclusion, it’s safe to say that other than race and motive Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. were pretty similar. They both were men of their own opinion that could be classified as moralized radicals. As spokesmen of their time they were both good at what they did. Through the form of speeches, protest, letters, and etcetera they both exemplified â€Å"Civil Disobedience (Thoreau). â€Å"Thoreau, Henry D. Civil Disobedience. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1849. 263-287. King Jr., Dr. Martin L. â€Å"Letter from Birmingham City Jail.† 16 Apr.-May 1963. Birmingham: Charles Moore, 1963. 1.

Debut Albums and Young Man

A Talking Frog An older gentleman was playing a round of golf. Suddenly his ball sliced and landed in a shallow pond. As he was attempting to retrieve the ball he discovered a frog who, to his great surprise, started to speak! â€Å"Kiss me, and I will change into a beautiful princess, and I will be yours for a week. † He picked up the frog and placed it in his pocket. As he continued to play golf, the frog repeated its message. â€Å"Kiss me, and I will change into a beautiful princess, and I will be yours for a whole month! The man continued to play his golf game and once again the frog spoke out. Kiss me,and I will change into a beautiful princess, and I will be yours for a whole year! † Finally, the old man turned to the frog and exclaimed, â€Å"At my age, I'd rather have a talking frog! † The Last Ticket During a busy holiday weekend, a woman who was eight months pregnant went to the railway station to return home to her husband. At the reservation counter, when her turn came, there was only one ticket left.Taking pity on a very old lady behind her in line, she offered her berth to the old lady and sent a telegram to her husband which arrived with a small error: â€Å"Shall be coming tomorrow, heavy rush in the train, ave birth to an old lady. † A Business Loan A businessman walked into a bank in San Francisco and asked for the loan officer. He told the officer that he is going to Europe on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The bank officer explained that the bank needed some kind of security for such a loan. So the businessman handed over the keys to a Rolls Royce parked on the street in front of the bank.Everything checked out, and the bank agreed to accept the car as collateral for the loan. A bank employee drove the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parked it there. Two weeks later, the businessman returned, repaid the $5,000 with interest, which came to $15. 41. The loan officer said, â€Å"We are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is why would you bother to borrow $5,000? The businessman replied, â€Å"Where else in San Francisco can I park my car for two weeks for only 15 bucks? † A Big Decision A six-year-old boy walked up to his father one day and announced, ‘Daddy, I'd like to get married. His father replied hesitantly, ‘Sure, son, do you have anyone special in mind? ‘ ‘Yes,' answered the boy. ‘l want to marry Grandma. ‘ ‘Now, wait a minute,' said his father. ‘You dont think I'd let you get married with my mother, do you? ‘ Why not? ‘ the boy asked. ‘You married mine. ‘ 100 Penguins A truck driver was driving 100 penguins to the New York Zoo when his truck broke down on the freeway.The driver got out of the cab and was looking at the engine when a second truck driver stopped in front of him and asked if he needed any help. The penguins' driver explained that ne was taking the penguins to the zoo and asked f the other man would take the penguins there. He agreed. Some hours later, the second truck driver drove past the first one, who was still waiting on the freeway for help to come. The penguins, however, were still on the truck! â€Å"l thought I asked you to take those penguins to the zoo,† shouted the first driver. The second replied, â€Å"l did, but I had some money left, so we're going to the cinema now. Supermarket Encounter A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. Finally, he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him. â€Å"Pardon me,† she said, â€Å"I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's Just that you look Just like my son who Just died recently. † â€Å"I'm very sorry,† replied the young man, â€Å"Is there anything I can do for you? † â€Å"Yes,† she said. â€Å"As I'm leaving, can you say ‘Goodbye mother'? It would make me feel much better. â€Å"Sure,† answered the young man. As the old woman was leaving, he called out, â€Å"Goodbye mother! † As he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was $127. 50. â€Å"How can that be? † he asked, â€Å"l only purchased a few things! â€Å"Your mother said that you would pay for her,† said the clerk. Do you deserve to enter heaven? A man died and went to heaven. An angel met him at the Gates of Heaven and said, ‘Before you meet with God, I thought I should tell you – we've examined your whole life, and you really didn't do anything particularly good or bad. We're not sure whether we can admit you into heaven or not.Can you tell us anything exceptional you did that can help us make a decision? ‘ The newly arrived soul thought for a moment and replied, ‘Yeah, once I was driving along and came upon a woman who was being harassed by a group of goons. So I pulled over, got out my tire iron, and went up to the leader of the gang. He was a big, muscular, hairy guy with tattoos all over his body and a ring pierced through his nose. Well, I tore the nose ring out of his nose, and told him that he and his gang had better stop bothering the woman or they would have to deal with me! ‘ ‘I'm impressed,' The angel responded, When did this happen? The man replied, ‘About two minutes ago'. Return my horse! A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers. When he finished his drink, he ound his horse had been stolen. He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without ev en looking and fired a shot into the ceiling. â€Å"Which one of you sidewinders stole my horse?!?!? † he yelled with surprising forcefulness. No one answered. â€Å"Alright, I'm gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I finish, I'm gonna do what I did in Texas!

Characteristics of the Classic Monster Movie

Monster movies took hold in the early 1930’s as a new spin on the horror-psychological thrillers beginning to debut.   The monster movie genre as a whole has taken much criticism as to its merits, but it holds its weight in the box office with nearly 15% of all movie sales (Fischoff).   And, while many things can be said about the monster movie as a genre, the monster movie can be taken apart and illuminated to pick out the three core, salient characteristics found in all movies of the genre: the type of monster, the psychological aspect of the monster, and the plot of the movie, or, more succinctly, the monster’s motive. Fundamentally, certain genres lend to certain types of story arcs.   While the romantic comedy often follows a more character driven plot, where the characters find the meaning of true love, the monster movie follows a definable plot driven format.   And basically, in the plot driven movie, the overall story illustrates the efficiency of a town’s characters and how well they are able to stand up to the monster, before, either they are killed or the monster is finally neutralized or vanquished in a final, climax of a scene. To be honest, the end result of the town and its people doesn’t really matter, and any ending is entirely plausible.   But, the intrigue that makes a good monster movie is to be competently presented with the monster, the origin of the monster, and for the audience to discover what that monster wants out of the society they are terrorizing.   While the monster makes the lives of the characters in the story miserable, the audience is torn between wanting the characters to win, or actually feeling sympathy for the monster because of the conditions presented surrounding that monster’s origin. Moreover, monster movie plots have been known to fit into the plot categories and monster types to such a degree that a generator was actually created by David Neilsen.   Among the other completely hilarious and surprisingly useful generators to be had, the Monster Movie Pitch allows a user to create their own monster movie pitch by filling in the required fields.   Once filled in, the monster movie pitch is instantly created and a visitor can do what they want with the results. Because this generator actually serves to illuminate the points within this paper, a short detour will be taken.   With that said, the generator dictates that a male lead, female lead, and male sidekick are required, as well as a title.   Then the setting must be chosen: either a dark and forbidding forest, a sleepy little town, a mental institution, at sea, or ancient ruins.   Then the monster type must be selected: either the undead, extra-terrestrial, scientific abomination, creature of folklore/myth/legend, or nature gone bad.   And finally, the monster motive must be defined: revenge, to feed, to protect its young, its slumber has been disturbed, or it seeks to destroy humanity. Now, let’s see what fun can be had.   The selections have been made for the practice monster movie entitled, The Big Bad.   The rundown: heroic Zack and best buddy Trent, live in a sleepy little town and will come across an extra-terrestrial, leading lady Emily, and who seeks to destroy humanity.   Simple and sounds like a blockbuster.   Plugged into the generator, here’s the actual movie pitch: Critically acclaimed Egyptian filmmaker Aslad Assop brings his nightmare back to the screen with The Big Bad. This long awaited sequel to his international hit, Gong of Deviled Oxen, reunites aggressive shepherd Huche Ramman (Zack) with his holy guide Hammotep (Trent) in their biggest adventure yet. This time, Huche discovers messages in the entrails of his sheep and the trail leads to an extra-terrestrial temptress (Emily) who wishes to use sin to destroy all of humanity. Now the temptress is invading Huche’s Sleepy Little Town of Grozer, Egypt and only Huche’s faith can save the world! Sounds better than some of the monster movies out there.   Now, the purpose of the generator was not merely for amusement, though it was a bit of fun; however, it also serves to prove and illustrate the core, salient characteristics of the monster movie which are the type of monster, the psychological appeal of the monster, and the plot, or, motive of the monster. Because Neilsen states the monster types right out, it’s easy to realize, once they are presented in such a manner, that every monster movie (probably ever made) fits well into the categories, without even needing wriggle room.   To be precise, Neilsen states that there are five basic types of monster. The first type is the undead monster.   Now, the undead monster movie began in the 1930’s with Dracula and continued well into the freaky zombie thrillers of today like 28 Days Later and Resident Evil.   The undead category is not only chilling, but is perhaps the most used of all the monster types.   Even pop culture revolves around vampires, zombies, and the undead with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural.   This type of monster has the greatest impact on an audience because of the psychological aspect and appeal behind that monster. Moreover, the second monster type is the extra-terrestrial and is evident in movies like Alien, War of the Worlds and Predator.   ET actually fits this category as well, though that alien is more cute and cuddly than frightening.   Now, this monster type usually has the same motive, that to destroy all of mankind, and is the least escapable of all the monster types because they take more to vanquish than simple guns and grenades.   Characters in these movies die rapidly and often, and do little but to illustrate the irk of the monster. The third monster type is known as the scientific abomination.   This is an interesting monster category because it actually encompasses many different sorts of monsters, from Frankenstein, to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, to the Invisible Man.   In all cases, this type of monster is created, even purposefully manufactured, and the outcome is accidental and tragic.   The creator of the monster is often murdered, or lost to his darker evil side, and the characters again, serve only to be killed off as the mad scientist almost realizes his folly. The fourth type of monster is the creature from folklore/myth/legend.   This category encompasses monsters from The Mummy, to monsters in The Relic, Cerberus, and After Dark.   These monsters all have the same motive, and all, actually, seem to have become a plague to the characters because of that motive: being disturbed from their slumber, which serves to kill off most of the characters in the most violent and brutal method possible. Finally, the fifth monster type is nature gone bad.   This fits the Armageddon sort of flick, where birds, bats, plague, or impending asteroids kill off a good portion of the characters.   Movies like Stephen King’s The Birds, Armageddon, 10.5, and The Day After Tomorrow fit this category well.   The problem with this last monster type is that it differs the most dramatically from the genre because a great deal more time is spent on character growth than on the priorities of the monster, being nature, but in the end, nature usually wins out, despite how great the characterization is. Furthermore, Stuart Fischoff’s study commented on many things monster but one conclusion was striking, that â€Å"film monsters have proven to be such unforgettable characters that in many instances they have become part of our culture.†Ã‚   In fact, they are unforgettable to the degree that â€Å"most Americans would recognize a picture of Frankenstein, Dracula, King Kong, Godzilla or the Mummy before recognizing a Supreme Court Justice† (Fischoff). This conclusion is not only remarkable, it is entirely true.   John Rutledge is one of the most recently discussed Supreme Court Justices, but his name means nothing unless that person has been thoroughly engrossed in the newspaper for the past two years.   On the other hand, a person doesn’t even have to watch Godzilla to know that Godzilla is a dinosaur-like creature that wreaks havoc on Tokyo or that Dracula is a vampire with unconventional vampire powers. Additionally, the second core characteristic of monster movies is the psychological aspect and appeal of the monster.   This aspect can roughly be defined as not only the type of monster, but the character of that monster and what affect that monster has on an audience.   Fischoff’s study was also to survey a group of people and conclusively determine who the â€Å"King of Monsters† was. Turns out Dracula wins, though not because he is the most violent, nor is he the best killer among the monsters to choose from.   Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lector obviously had the mass-slaying thing down, but they could never have the staying power that Dracula has because their nature is for violence and they lack the extreme psychological aspect that makes Dracula not only frightening, but also seductive. Monster movies are great to watch when the monster is a monster.   But, when man becomes a monster, as in the case of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, for reasons pertaining to his youth and not some botched experiment, the movie experience becomes nearly transcendently frightful with the very real aspect that Hannibal could be a real person in a very real neighborhood.   Same with Freddy Krueger, though he at least has that whole dream-killing thing happening which makes him, in reality, a bit less plausible, though his deeds are no less terrifying. Fischoff offers some insight into this phenomena, stating that â€Å"it is believed to be the thrill of fright, the awe of the horrific, the experience of the dark and forbidden side of human behavior that lures people into the dark mouth of the theater to be spooked† (Fischoff).   Even though the man-monster takes off on a different path from the genre, hitting horror and the psychological aspect harder than ever before, people still flock to these movies in droves due to the need for fright, to experience the thrill without living the thrill (how scary would it be if Hannibal lived down the street?).   And, the best monster movies are able to produce at least that much. Moreover, according to Fischoff’s survey, the top ten monsters of all time, in order, are: Dracula, Freddy Krueger, Godzilla, Frankenstein, Chucky, Michael Myers (Halloween), King Kong, Hannibal Lector, Jason Voorhees (Friday 13th), and Alien.   It is interesting to notice when looking at this list that the monster to man-monster ratio is an exact split between the ten.   Five genuine monsters and five men-turned-monsters.   When it comes to monster movies, the best monster is obviously a cross between the most horrific and the most frightening. Furthermore, the third characteristic of monster movies is the use of plot as a device to form the movie around the monster.   Like Neilsen’s generator was helpful to suggest, there are five different plots that make up the monster movie genre, almost, in its entirety.   And, these plots all revolve around or are centered on, the motive of the monster. Basically, the monster can be out for revenge, need to feed, need to protect its young, their slumber has been disturbed, or they want to destroy humanity.   All movies created in the early black and white era actually follow this format, the most famous of them setting up the very archetype known as monster movies today. To begin with, Frankenstein (1931) demonstrates the classic revenge plot.   Dr. Henry Frankenstein wanted to make a man out of stolen body parts and actually managed to do so.   In fact, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster would have been a medical marvel if not for the criminal brain secured for his construction.   Because of that tiny little fatal flaw, the monster rises with a vendetta for Dr. Frankenstein.   And because Dr. Frankenstein screwed up, he becomes the obsession of his own creation. In Dracula (1931), Count Dracula, something of a real estate tycoon and upwardly rich aristocrat, preys on the people he comes across in Transylvania.   Dracula is different than the average monster because of his strikingly literal human nature.   He also has the enhanced ability to seduce his victims beyond their control, which makes him exceptionally difficult to properly vanquish.   The story also ends heroically as Van Helsing is proven right and is able to destroy Dracula.   Dracula’s main motive, besides amusement, is simply, to feed. King Kong (1933) differs from many monster movies because the character relationships are vitally important for the movie to progress.   There are two main relationships developed throughout, that of Ann and Jack and that of Ann and King Kong.   King Kong’s motive, once he falls for his new companion Ann, is to protect her from the evils in his jungle environment, and later, the evils he sees New York City.  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the final lines in the movies, â€Å"it wasn’t the airplanes, it was beauty that killed the beast† strikes a cord in any heart and makes King Kong perhaps the most lovable of all movie monsters because of his human desire to protect Ann. In The Mummy (1932) a priest is resurrected accidentally by an unwitting team of archeologists and sets about seeking his lost love.   Bad things happen along the way, one of the archeologists is taken as a replacement for the mummy’s lost bride, but the mummy is vanquished in the end when the archeologists destroy the scroll that brought him back to life.   The mummy, Im-ho-tep, basically sends his wrath out on the world and spends the movie causing mass destruction because his slumber was disturbed.   Simple as that. Finally, in Godzilla (1954), Godzilla is a monster god (more like un-extinct dinosaur) that preys on the countryside of Tokyo and fits the classic monster out to destroy humanity plot.   The natives sacrifice virgins in an attempt to appease the monster, but Godzilla seems to enjoy wreaking as much destruction as possible.   The monster attacks every few scenes, with the people in a panic as to how to destroy him before they are all killed.   And, even though they manage to kill Godzilla in the end, the result is not joyful as the people still fear another Godzilla is just moments from rising from the sea. Overall, all movies follow a specific formula which can be calculated and defined based upon the genre they fall in to.   The monster movie is a cross between the horror film and the psychological thriller and has certain core, salient characteristics that define the monster movie as a genre.   Neilsen helps to illuminate the various forms of monster and monster motives with his monster movie pitch generator, and it can be said that, categorically, monster type, psychological aspect of the monster, and motive of the monster as demonstrated in the plot combine to form the core characteristics of the monster movie. Works Consulted. Fischoff, Stuart, et al.   â€Å"The Psychological Appeal of Your Favorite Movie Monsters.† International Scientific Communications, 2003. —-.   â€Å"The Psychological Appeal of Movie Monsters.†Ã‚   Journal of Media Psychology, 2005. LaBarbera, Michael.   â€Å"The Biology of B-Movie Monsters.†Ã‚   University of Chicago, 2003. Neilsen, David.   â€Å"Monster Pitch Generator.†Ã‚   Brunching Shuttlecocks, 2001. Waters, Cullen.   â€Å"The Plot Archetypes of Giant Monster Movies.†Ã‚   WordPress.com, 2005.   Zoombaba.   â€Å"Creature Feature: Monster Movie Roleplaying.†Ã‚   Accessed March 22, 2007.

Realist Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Realist Theory - Essay Example The theory infers that the system is continually changing to create adjustments to nations such that new systems are created or older are being restored. Therefore, the balance of power theory involves a specific power distribution between states of a system such that no single nation has too much or less of the other . This paper analyses this context and provides a historic case outlay on the application of this theory, the implications of the test results for the case and identifies if the theory is applicable to the case (Marshall, 1970). Over the years, the term balance of power has been used in different areas of history, politics and science each bringing foreword a different meaning from the other. This is due to the difference in the meanings that are portrayed by various states on the term power. To some, power means the use of political force, the superiority of economy or diplomatic coercion to create a desirable outcome by a state. To others, power refers to the ability of a state to impose its will on another despite the resistance raised while others view this concept as the ability of a state to influence the behavior of one or more states through policy implementation (Stanley & Fidler, 1991). The paper seeks to compare and contrast two segments on balance of power relating to the classical and the modern era of political thought which forms the major variable. The balance of power theory is used to illustrate different cases with the major being the Persian Gulf War . Here, the U.S is unwilling to destroy and entirely dismember Iraq due to the balance of power concept which prevented the interruption of the powers of the Middle East. The two concepts raised in the theory is effective in understanding the conduct of international relations and preservation of the international nations system. My conclusion about the performance of the theory here is that it is effective in analyzing the case and that it gives a clear basis on relations amongst states. The theory has a great performance in the case as it infers the effectiveness of balancing power and how this theory is applied in solving international disputes. The theory independent variables relate to issues that constitute a state such as power, balance and sovereignty that enables a state to be independent while the dependent variables are the states and the relations based on the theories. Others may relate to the classical and modern views of politics which are harmonized by the realism concept. The link among the two variables are that they both belong with the realism school of thought. In the classical view, states are created to prevent war. It claims that the society despite the corruption shelters men from harm but only if it is established and enforced in law (Stanley & Fidler, 1991). A democratic government established though the power of the people are perceived to be legitimate . Based on this concept, the function of the government is to implement the law s formulated, promote patriotism through education and promote wealth distribution to enhance cohesion (Micheal, 2000). The classical concept maintains that the balance of power prevents nations from breaking apart . The balance ensures that no particular state or an alliance of nations is allowed by unwritten laws to obtain more power, such that it overwhelms the rest and that this balance is independent. The modern era of

Religious beliefs and It's effects on medical decisions Essay

Religious beliefs and It's effects on medical decisions - Essay Example The Catholic health care is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, because they take Jesus as their founder. For example, the abortions are highly prohibited according to the Catholic health care. It is like these people are so antichrists and they somehow enforce and convince the women to quit the decision of abortion. They place the Holly Bible in front of these women quoting few verses out of it, and conclude that abortion is the act of sin, and the women going for it are the sinners and will burn in hell. That is what this image is trying to say to the audience. The image is claiming towards the discrimination of religious beliefs and its effect on the medical decisions today. The image is arranged in such a way, a hospital, cross sign, and a warning – which automatically reflects the religious restrictions strongly followed by the Catholic believers, when it comes to the matter health care

Post a paragraph about your reaction to the lecture on plagiarism and Essay

Post a paragraph about your reaction to the lecture on plagiarism and the paraphrase practice. What aspects of this are new to y - Essay Example Moreover, to avoid plagiarism paraphrasing is a good tool. However, this may also be included as a means of plagiarizing if not properly cited. The information that was new to me included the requirement of citing after paraphrasing. The process of paraphrasing is easy and the citations help in preserving the right of the original writer to be accredited for the information produced by him. In this regard, plagiarism and paraphrasing concepts are important and helpful. The lecture also helped in enhancing my understanding about the paraphrasing concept and the importance of citing the sources. The actions that may be taken in case of plagiarism being detected are severe. This lecture stresses on the possible consequences and maintains a level of commanding attitude to guide the students on providing plagiarism-free work.

The armys professional culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The armys professional culture - Essay Example Artifacts are visible paraphernalia in their diverse camps, which seek to remind soldiers of the hierarchy that they ought to obey (Hearn 2006). Consequently, a value system has seven values that are specific to the defense force. This facilitates cohesion in the camps which soldiers converge to perform their duties. The mission of the army is as follows; first, it seeks to offers soldiers who are ready to fight and already armed with the necessary artillery (Bonn 2005). Further, the army aims to produce soldiers that are fit to fight everywhere in the globe. In addition, the army has to fulfill a threshold (global requirements) in a bid to accomplish its assignment. It is notable to reveal that indeed the army is well adapted to its current missions because of the following; the proficient uniqueness in the army enables the soldiers to put their duty of protecting a country first. This is an adaptability, which reminds each soldier to work hard, in turn; the army achieves some of its goals. Secondly, there is creation of bonds among the soldiers, which enables them to create functional bonds. In addition, the establishment of a professional family aims to encourage soldiers to fight even when there is detachment from their families (Bonn 2005). Thirdly, the next adaptability is the involvement of hierarchy in the operation of the army. In particular, the clarity in the division of authority enables a further discipline in the soldiers. Consequently, the impact of this discipline on the soldiers heightens their good conduct when at war. Moreover, the army, is able to sustain the fulfillment of its mission because of the tailor made code of ethic of the army. There is a demand of all soldiers to ensure his or her nation has credit because of the uniqueness of the army. In addition, the policy dictates that the soldiers be of strict moral upbringing in order to understand

American History - Utopian Movements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American History - Utopian Movements - Essay Example Several religious and secular Utopian communities arrived in America. Some of the communities include Shakers, Rappites, Oneida community and Brook Farm. According to utopian ideas, a perfect society would have communism. Some of the utopian communities include Mormons; it was established by Joseph Smith in 1830 (Halloway, 1961). Smith advanced the idea of polygamy as part of utopian society. The followers were later prosecuted and murdered. Another Utopian community was Oneida community that was located in New York. The community practiced communism and complex marriages. Every man and woman was free to have sex and accept criticism except Noyes. The society disintegrated when Noyes tried to pass leadership (Halloway, 1961). Another movement was the Shakers that settled in America in 1774. The emphasis was on vegetarianism thus they lived on by farming. The Shakers established eight colonies. They believed in communal ownership of property and religious confession of sins (Halloway, 1961). Members had to adopt children and homes were gender segregated consisting about ten individuals. The Shakers emphasized on celibacy thus the community ended since new members were not coming forth. The Shakers were later associated with most of reform movements like pacifism and abolitionist movements of 19th century. Another group was the New Harmony that was located in Indiana. The community believed in progressive education and community lifestyle. They advanced women equality but the society disintegrated later due to lack of strong central beliefs (Halloway, 1961). Another movement was the Fruitlands that lasted only for six months. It was founded in 1843 by Bronson Alcott. It followed a British reformist model since it forbade free ownership of property. It emphasized on free love and vegetarianism (Halloway, 1961). Children were not supposed to eat meat or use animal products like honey and wool. The movement also prohibited the use of animals for labor. In the farms, the community planted only the crops that grew out of soil so as not to disturb the living organisms under the soil like worms. Most of the members later felt manual labor as inhibiting. Malnourishment due to strict diet of grains made many members to leave. The movement later collapsed in 1844 (Halloway, 1961). Brook Farm was another utopian community based in Massachusetts in 1841, the community strongly advocated for women rights, abolition of slavery and labor rights. The community was based on a 200-acre farm with only four buildings. The community provided free education and residents had to complete 300 days of labor by farming, doing domestic chores and preparing recreational facilities. However, Ripley joined Fourierism movement thus youths had to do the dirty jobs like repairing roads and slaughtering animals. Most of the youths deserted. The community was also infected with smallpox and fire and later collapsed in 1847. Another utopian movement was Pullman’s capit alist utopia. It was founded in 1880s in the town of Pullman by George Pullman. According to Pullman, capitalist was essential in achieving both spiritual and material needs of the community. The employees would receive two paychecks, one for rent and the other for all material needs. There were rigid social classes since experienced employees and managers would live in tenements. Employee grievances and agitation for better pay increased forcing

CCNA Basic (Final Assignment) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CCNA Basic (Final Assignment) - Essay Example 4. Define redistribution filters, if desired. 5. Enable redistribution, if you defined redistribution filters. 6. Modify default global and port parameters as required. 7. Modify OSPF standard compliance, if desired To enable OSPF enter enable ospf and respond to the prompts: OSPF Config>enable ospf Estimated # external routes[0] 200 Estimated # OSPF routers [0] 60 OSPF Config>set area Area number [0.0.0.0] 0.0.0.0 Authentication Type (0:NONE, 1:SIMPLE, 2:CRYPTOGRAPHIC) [0] 1 Is this a stub area [No]: OSPF Config>set interface Interface IP address [0.0.0.0] 172.16.100.030 Attaches to area [0.0.0.0] 0.0.0.0 Retransmission Interval (in seconds) [5] Transmission Delay (in seconds) [1] Router Priority [1] Hello Interval (in seconds) [10] Dead Router Interval (in seconds) [40] Type Of Service 0 cost [1] 5 Authentication Key Retype Auth. Key Message Digest Key ID [0] MD5 Key Retype MD5 Key Override the default OSPF interface-type [No]: y OSPF interface-type override (1=broadcast, 3=NBMA, 5=point-to-multipoint) [0] 3 Poll Interval [120] Forward multicast datagrams [Yes]: Forward as data-link unicasts [No]: OSPF Config>set virtual-link Virtual endpoint (Router ID) [0.0.0.0] 10.10.10.1 Link's transit area [0.0.0.1] Retransmission Interval (in seconds) [10] Transmission Delay (in seconds) [5] Hello Interval (in seconds) [30] Dead Router Interval (in seconds) [180] Authentication Key Message Digest Key ID [0] Message Digest Key Retype Message Digest Key (c) Configure manual summarization for 10.201.1.0/24, on serial 2, using EIGRP - using an example of one default route hostname branch1 ! interface Serial2 ip address 10.201.1.0 255.255.255.0 ... router eigrp 10 redistribute static metric 56 100 255 1 255 network 10.201.0.0 ! ip classless ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0...This will allow you to have 32 subnets (25). After using the five bits for subnetting, you are left with 11 bits for host addresses. Therefore, this will allow each subnet to have 2048 host addresses (211), 2046 of which could be assigned to devices. (d) Configure DHCP using a pool called 'ISP' containing 10.10.0.0/16. Include the default gateway of 10.10.0.01 and a DNS server at 10.10.0.5. Exclude the range of IP address from 10.10.0.1 to 10.10.0.15 Edit the /etc/dhcpd.conf file to configure DHCP service. In our setup, the server has IP address 10.0.0.1 and provides IP addresses up to 253 clients. Configure /etc/dhcpd.conf according to your environment:

South Street Seaport Essay Example for Free

South Street Seaport Essay 1. Coffee Beans are crushed into small pieces, water is added to it and the mixture is heated over a flame. What do you think would happen to the coffee beans as it interacts with the water? Explain your prediction I think the heating of the water and coffee beans would cause the water to turn a light brown color because this process is most likely removing some kind of excess substance from the surface of the coffee beans. This happens because of the rising temperature o the mixture being heated over a flame. 2. What would happen to the water if instead of coffee beans, strips o seaweed were used? Explain your prediction. I think that instead of the liquid turning a light brown color, it would turn to a light green or light yellow color because the heating is removing a different substance off of the surface of the seaweed than it is from the surface of the coffee beans. 3. Define the following terms: Decant to draw off (a liquid) without disturbing the sediment or the lower liquid layers Filtrate fluid that has passed through a filter Extract the part of a complex organic material that is soluble in ether and consists chiefly of fats and fatty acids Precipitate a substance separated from a solution or suspension by chemical or physical change usually as an insoluble amorphous or crystalline solid Tincture a solution of a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent Observations : Equipment : Dried Seaweed in  ½ pieces (Laminara Kelp)Bunsen Burner 150 ml beakerMedium Ring for Ringstand Weight scaleMatches Distilled waterWire gauze 50 ml cylinderEvaporating dish FunnelFilter Paper RingstandWash Bottle Glass stirring rodTincture of Iodine Mineral OilSilver Nitrate Iodine CrystalsSmall Test tubes The first thing we had to do was fill a 150 ml beaker with 6 grams of dried seaweed, which we had to approximate on a weight scale. The amount of seaweed we used approximated 6.02 grams. Then, we included some distilled water and stirred the mixture with a stirring rod until the water turned a dirty yellow color. We then poured out only the water from the beaker and refilled it with distilled water. Then, we had to set up the Bunsen burner to a smaller flame to heat the mixture gently. While heating, the water in the mixture turned a dark green. We heated the mixture for approximately 5 minutes. Then, we had to filtrate the mixture. We placed a piece of filter paper onto the inside of the funnel, having it stick to the side by squirting some water from the wash bottle. We set this up over an evaporating dish, in which the filtrate is supposed to fall into. Our filtrate came out to be 3ml, and the color was a pale yellow-green. We put this into a 50 ml beaker and placed three pieces of iodine crystals in. We crushed these crystals in with the mixture with a stirring rod. Then, it was time to test the results. In three test tubes, we poured in one third of our home-made mixture in each test tube. In another three test tubes, we poured in the standard Tincture of Iodine, which contains iodine, iodide ion, and triiodide ion. To test for iodine, we placed 20 drops of mineral oil in one of the test tubes of standard tincture and we also placed 20 drops into our homemade tincture. If there is in fact iodine, the mixture should change into a pink or purple color. To test for iodide ion, we placed 20 drops of 0.1 silver nitrate into the standard tincture and 20 drops of 0.1 silver nitrate into our homemade tincture. If there is in fact iodide ion, the mixture should become a very foggy pale yellow color. The test for triiodide was a visual inspection. In minutes, if the mixture will turn into a brown color, then triiodide exists in the mixture. Tabulated Results : Test for .. Standard Tincture of Iodine Homemade Tincture Iodine Positive Positive Iodide ion Positive Positive Triiodide Positive Poisitive Focus Questions 1. How can I make a pharmaceutical product from seaweed? We can produce a pharmaceutical product from seaweed by creating a mixture with seaweed in water, heating the extract from the mixture of seaweed and water, then finally extracting the product from the water. 2. Can a single substance be isolated from a mixture (i.e. seaweed)? What is that substance? Yes, by the process o extraction, filtration, and evaporation. The substance is tincture of iodide, used to clean and infect wounds. Confidence Report I am confident that the data collected in this lab is â€Å"good data†. This was quite a simple lab with not many steps and no complex material samples and few containers required. Because this lab was not very complex, that means there is a very low possibility of mistakes. It also means there is a very low possibility of outside elements affecting the equipment. Samples: We believe that the samples provided by the laboratory such as the seaweed, iodine, silver nitrate, and mineral oil were clean and untouched. We observed the characteristics of the mixture we prepared and observed through testing and concurred that nothing indicated that bad samples were provided. Our testing samples also provided us proper chemical interactions. Measurements: All measurements were made certain by everyone in the group. This helped to ensure accuracy. Observations: Since we also tested control substances along with testing our mixture, we were able to observe what the proper results should look like. Therefore, there should be no mistakes from the observations from testing our homemade mixture. After reviewing  at the possible potential areas for error, I am confident that we had good data and produced good results.

Strategic Position Of The Google Corporation Commerce Essay

Strategic Position Of The Google Corporation Commerce Essay This individual case study analyzes the strategic position of the Google corporation in its market and references some of the competitive forces as described by Michael Porter (1980). The analyses will also include some of the axioms from Sun Tzu and the art of business by Mark McNeilly (1996). Bernard Girards book on The Google Way (2009) was used primarily for this case study. Investor relation websites along with internet articles supplemented the review of Google and to present financial numbers for market comparison. Google is arguably one of the most innovative and interesting companies today in their industry. Their beginning can be seen as the classic Silicon Valley company formation. Two friends from Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had a vision to make an impact on the information technology industry. To be more specific their mission was to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful  [1]  (Girard, 2009). But Google is anything but the typical company in reference to their strategies for going public and how the organization operates. The mid to late 1990s the computing technology world was racing towards advancements and the founders of Google took advantage of this. Prior to this date, computer technology was more expensive for less in relation to storage, components, processing, and performance. Computers and the internet were still limited to a narrow group of people which included universities, government and researchers, along with only a small population fortunate enough to afford this technology. The mid 1990s experienced more rapid advancement in information technology including the World Wide Web, faster processors, upgraded memory, accelerated graphics cards, more storage, and user friendly operating systems (Windows). That affect made personal computing a household name. A large factor in this was price per technology. As Bernard Girard (2009) points out, Asia was emerging as technology manufacturers at the same time advancements in computer components were maturing, yielding lower prices for computing technology. The phenomenon allowed the Google founders to capitalize on the market conditions which were favorable to them as it applied to building the computing power they needed to accomplish what they set out to achieve. Not only were they becoming the new entrant  [2]  into the information technology industry, but the competitive force principle that Michael Porter (1980) describes that gave Google favor in the market from their start was the bargaining power of suppliers  [3]  (Porter, 1980). To create their massive database and sophisticated algorithms based on artificial intelligence (AI), they would need talented programming people as well as the highest technological computer components which there were plenty of, limiting the bargaining power of the suppliers. There was also no shortage of venture capitalists at that time willing to invest in the next Silicon Valley start up. According to Entreprenuer.com in a 2007 study of the top one hundred venture capital firms in the United States, found that approximately half of them were located in California (Girard, 2009). This made it easier for Google to obtain the capital necessary for their ideas from the financial perspective. Public Offering When it came time to open Google up to Wall Street in 2004, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with new their new partner Eric Schmidt made a tactical move to improve their companys position  [4]  at its initial public offering (IPO). Analyzing the methods of an IPO, they decided to use the OpenIPO in lieu of the standard public offering. As Girard (2009) explains, the OpenIPO resembles the Dutch auction where the seller sets a bid price and the number of shares, and allows the investors to bid what they think is the fair price. In the end, all winning bids will pay the exact same price regardless if some of the bids were higher, which is in contrast of the typical Wall Street IPO which allows investment bankers to manipulate the system in their favor. The OpenIPO strategy gave Google the credibility, confidence, and favorable public opinion from the start. Market and Financial Position Google was not formed yet when the World Wide Web took off in the mid 1990s. The internet search market was shared by Magellan, InfoSeek, AltaVista, Yahoo, Inktomi and Northern Light (Web Search Engine, n.d.). Although Google formed in 1998, its search engine (and main component) started to gain market share in the year 2000  [5]  through its unique technology and basic home page design. In 2002 Google was ahead of both Yahoo and MSN by a half of a percent to a percent in the market (29.2%6). By May 2003, Google had fifty-five percent (55.2%  [6]  ) of the global search engine market share with Yahoo at a distance second (21.7%6). As recent as March 2011, Googles claim on the search engine market is nearly two-thirds even though Microsoft has been gaining as of lately mostly due to its Bing search engine and Yahoo which is included in the Microsoft statistics from their partnering (Parr, 2011). Googles financial position is very strong. In terms of revenue, the company grew from eighty-six million in 2001 to over twenty-nine billion dollars reported (unaudited) in 2010  [7]  (Google investor relations, n.d.). Google has managed to increase their revenues every year within that time and the majority of that comes through advertising. For example in 2010, twenty-eight of the twenty-nine billion dollars were logged in under total advertising revenues7. Many dot com (.com) companies did not last in the market and faded after the early 2000s, and if they did, struggled thereafter. Google however has proven to be a profitable company. In 2001 their net income was just under seven million dollars while earning four cents per share outstanding  [8]  (Google investor relations, n.d.). They have since grown to a net income of eight and a half billion dollars and impressive earnings per share of twenty-six dollars8 (Google investor relations, n.d.). Though competition in the technology world is fierce, Googles financial figures still far outweigh its two closest competitors in the information technology web services industry, Yahoo and Chinas Baidu. To date Googles total revenues are greater than Yahoo and Baidu by twenty-three and twenty-eight billion dollars respectively  [9]  . Research and Development A large factor in the success of Google comes from its commitment to research and development. Google spent over three billion dollars ($3.7 bil) towards research and development8 (Google investor relations, n.d.) . Compare that to Yahoo, according to their investor relations site, who report just over a billion dollars in 2010 for product development (up from only two hundred million in 2009), and Baidu who only allocated just over seven hundred million towards research and development9. One of Googles policies in human resource management is not only to acquire who they think is of great innovative talent, but to allow them some space to be creative. This is what is known as the twenty percent rule (Girard, 2009). Google is so committed to research that they allow their people to have twenty percent of their time to work on research and not be devoted full time on specific projects. This is not a typical policy in most organizations. The Sun Tzu and the art of business axiom that applies to Googles theory towards innovation is Deception and Foreknowledge, Maximizing the Power of Market Information.  [10]  (McNeilly, 1996). The principle refers to staying connected to what your competition is involved in to be able to better respond to what your market is dictating at the time. If ignorant of the conditions of mountains, forests, dangerous defiles, swamps and marshes he cannot conduct the march of an army.  [11]  (McNeilly, 1996) This is especially important in information technology because it is more dynamic than most other industries. As Bernard Girard (2009) points out what sets Google apart from the typical company when it comes to the attitude towards development, is that it stays connected to the world around them for ideas that can be placed into motion. One of the policies pertaining to this is the building of networks in their Silicon Valley area to listen to what other companies are doing and what may be the next start up new entrant on the horizon (Girard, 2009). They also encourage their employees to stay connected to their alma maters and other university students to stay in touch on new ideas in the market. Strengths and Weaknesses Strengths Google is a large corporation whose strength relies on its current technology and innovation. They have dynamic leadership in founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have the vision and the means to put it forward as they have demonstrated from its inception in 1998. An obvious strength is their current financial position. They are in good position monetarily to invest in new technologies and combat legalities and new services. As stated in the previous section, most of their revenues are generated through advertising. What set Google apart from the competition when it launched its search engine was the model they incorporated. It is known as the cost-per-click strategy which was a system that allowed advertisers to pay what they thought their ads were worth which mathematically was translated in search rankings (Girard, 2009). Google gave advertisers a visual way of tracking the effectiveness of their marketing dollars. This was a breakthrough because before Googles method, it was difficult for companies to track their marketing efforts whether it was on the web, or even in other media outlets such as print and television. In an indirect way, Google became a substitute product or service  [12]  , referring to Porters force driving industry competition, in relation to advertising venues besides the internet. Google offered companies a more fair way to judge what they thought they should price their advertisements as well as the ability to view their effectiveness. For marketers, this information can be priceless and a better opportunity than blind ads. Another one of Googles strength is its algorithm that runs its page ranking search engine. It is different from the typical methods of other engines because its objective is to rank pages not only by its word content but also uses artificial intelligence for relevance. Their search engine algorithm approach can be viewed as avoiding strength and attacking weakness  [13]  . Instead of following methods and theories of the status quo web engines, they developed a unique system that has revolutionized internet searching today. Weakness It is hard to fathom weakness in a company of this magnitude, but no organization is without them. The obvious is the possible loss of key members which can include anyone from the executive management team to its software engineers. The information technology market is very competitive because it relies heavily on scientific and mathematical talent that is not easy to come by if you measure it against all disciplines overall. Key production employees may opt to leave to other organizations for better offers or start up their own technology company. Googles enormous growth could possibly be a weakness. With that in mind other companies that are competing to regain a part of that large share that Google currently owns. An example is Microsofts Bing Maps feature birdseye view which is direct competition with Google Earth for usage as it refers to the threat of new products and services from competitors. They will also have to combat new companies that will enter the information technology arena looking to capitalize on the rewards Google has discovered. One such company that has developed a new computational knowledge search based on natural language and new algorithms is Wolfram|Alpha, the very company that produced the software Mathematica (About Wolfram|Alpha, 2011). Such a company could prove to be the direct competition for Googles search engine market because of its ability to match the sophistication of the algorithms that drive both organizations search engines. Technological Position Google puts stock in innovation. As mentioned, they encourage collaboration and creativity. This is evident from the technology they are able to house. According to author Bernard Girard (2009), Googles data house, which is built on a very powerful software platform, may consist of approximately four hundred and fifty thousand (450,000) microcomputers. There in house intranet known as Moma, is extremely powerful and acts as their enterprise wide application which reveals numerous statistics about their operations as well as an open view of all of their research and development. Googles technological arsenal is stocked well enough to compete against rival companies. Advancements and Emerging Markets Some of Googles advancements in the market include their web browser Chrome, which is one of the fastest, the popular Android mobile operating system, and their Gmail service. The Gmail service has emerged as of the more popular email systems today that offer an extraordinary amount of free space. They accomplished this through by leveraging their cloud technology which is also emerging today. They also plan to offer almost all personal and workstation computing applications through the cloud technology which would directly compete against Microsoft. One example is the current research and development of the Google Chrome OS (operating system) which is intended to run exclusively on computers specifically manufactured from Googles partners (Google Chrome OS, n.d.). Google has even partnered with the company GeoEye to launch a satellite for higher quality imagery for their Google Earth service in 2008 (Google. n.d.). They have also entered the renewable-energy market with their subsidiary, Google Energy, and invested in a wind project in the state of North Dakota (Google. n.d.). Another market that Google is experimenting with advantageously is the broadband service. They have an agreement to install the Google fiber optic system which will offer broadband at ultra high speeds upward towards one hundred times faster than normal broadband according to Google. They are also beta testing a free home wireless service under the name Google TiSP. International Policy One of the negatives that always need to be dealt with in reference to large corporations is its position in the international community. Antitrust laws can be used to limit the power one company may have. Googles already has had a negative experience abroad in relation to China. According to contributor Steven Levy (2011), Google had a rough relationship with China due to the countrys censorship policies which were contrary to Googles views and style. Googles service was also different over there because it had to adapt to the possibility of turning over data to the Chinese government, something they wanted to avoid. As Levy (2011) explains it got so bad that even Googles policy for their employees to take twenty percent of their time towards independent ventures was not well received in Chinas culture. This is an example of not only are there different and possible unique laws a corporation may have to abide by, but also a different lifestyle and culture may hinder how a company ma y run its operations. Evaluation Answering the question about how Google can improve market share is a difficult one. Google is basically competing against itself in its own industry. This is why they expand in all directions to gain share and enter other markets. Their market share can improve greatly with the success of their ultra high speed broadband service experiment. Ultra high speed connection for everyone, even in outlying rural areas is the future. Google has the technology, resources and ability to deliver this. Another possible market Google would have the capability to enter is the smart appliance industry. This emerging technology uses programmable features in appliances that would allow control for household energy usage. The industry is still new, but a company such as Google could make an impact because of its software programming talent, internet dominance, and its new broadband technology. Googles management is very progressive. According to Girard (2009) they took liberties to install a collaborative environment to be able to connect its employees to each other as well as to the outside world (universities, other companies) to better react to the changes in demand from customers and emerging technologies. For example users were becoming more frustrated with internet explorer in the late 1990 and early 2000s. Google responded with the Chrome web browser to take market share. When email services were cheap on storage, they answered with Gmail. Now the public has been demanding more speed for the rich applications across the internet and Google is responding with an ultra high speed service. A couple of laws that Google needs to stay on top of are privacy laws and antitrust laws. One law in particular, The Patriot Act, may impact Google in a negative way because there are laws that all companies have to abide by, which may mean handing over of information when requested. This could have effect on usage and market share due to how the public may perceive the giant corporation. Antitrust laws can affect Google because of its growth and size. Google has a history of buying companies to acquire different technologies which included KeyHole, DoubleClick, Aardvark, and YouTube to name a few (Google. n.d.). Laws that prohibit monopolies may impede Googles quest to grow further in certain markets. Conclusion One would have to ask the question, will Google be able to sustain its own growth? Information technology is a broad field that covers many aspects of the industry. Googles corporate strategy judging by the amount of services it offers and the ones it is trying to breakthrough makes it an aggressive company that likes to stay on top of innovation and market share. Growing too fast can be an achilles heel at some point, because a company can end up spreading itself too far while ignoring advancements and changes it might need for its main services.

Types of Modified Starch

Types of Modified Starch Native starches are structurally too weak and limited functions for application in pharmaceutical, food and non-food technologies due to its inherent weakness of hydration, swelling and structural organization. Unprocessed starches produce weak-bodied, cohesive rubbery pastes when cooked and undesirable gels when the pastes are cooled. To enhance viscosity, texture, stability among many desired functional properties desired, starch and their derivatives are modified by chemical, physical, and enzymatic methods. Modifications are necessary to create a range of functionality. Starch modification can be introduced by altering the structure and affecting the structure including the hydrogen bonding in a controlled manner to enhance and extend their application in industrial prospective. This modification includes esterification, etherification, cross linking, acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis heat treatment and grafting of starch. Modified starches can be found applicable practices in food industry and non-food industry. Various types of modified starches for wide applications in many industries Pregelatinized starch It is the simplest starch modification, prepared by cooking. It maintains starch integrity while providing cold water thickening which   is a process that breaks down the intermolecular bonds of  starch  molecules in the presence of  water  and heat, allowing the  hydrogen bonding  sites (the hydroxyl hydrogen and oxygen) to engage more water. Cross-linked starch Cross linking is the most important modified form that used in the food industry. It involves replacement of hydrogen bond present between starch chains by stronger, permanent covalent bonds. Distarch phosphate or, adipate are commonly used in cross-linked starch. Cross-linked starches offer acid, heat and shear stability over the native starch. Food with this type of starch processing tends to have longer shelf life. Oxidized starch The processing includes reaction with oxidizing agent such as sodium hypochlorite or peroxide. This type of starch is mainly used as surface sizing agent or coating binder and available in different viscosity grade. Oxidized starches have shorter chain lengths than native starches. It improves whiteness and reduces microbiological content. Oxidized starches are the best thickener for applications requiring gels of low rigidity. This improves adhesion in batters and breading. Cationic starch Cationic starches are produced by reacting native starches with tertiary  or, quaternary amines, using wet or dry production processes. They are mainly used in  paper forming process. Cationic starch represents high performance starch derivatives widely used by paper manufactures to increase strength and retention. Cationic starches carry a formal positive charge over the entire pH range creating their affinity towards negatively charged substrates, such as cellulose, pulp and some synthetic fibres, aqueous suspensions of minerals and slimes and biologically active macromolecules. Cationic starch is also added at the beater to improve drainage on the wire, better sheet formation, and enhancement of the sizing efficiency of an alum-rosin size. Anionic starch Anionic starches are prepared by reaction with phosphoric acid and  alkali metal phosphates or by making derivative with carboxymethyl group. Thinned starch These are produced through depolymerisation reaction by hydrochloric acid or other acids. Unmodified starches are treated with a mineral acid at temperature lower than gelatinization and results in partially hydrolyzed starch molecules. This cleaves the chain length and lower viscosity. It increases the tendency to retro gradation. The lower viscosity permits higher concentrations to be used forming rigid gels in gums pastilles and jellies. In these applications, increased set-back leading to the formation of strong gels gives these starches significant advantages over native starches. Extended applications in food industry are found by acid-thinned starch in conjunction with esterification and etherification reaction. Acetylated starch Acetylated starch (E1420)  esterification  with  acetic anhydride Starch after treatment with acetic anhydride produces starch esters which are useful in biodegradable applications. In particular, high starch acetates provide thermo plasticity, hydrophobicity and compatibility with other additives. The result of this treatment is a stability starch which will produce pastes that will withstand several freeze-thaw cycles and prevent syneresis (weeping) occurs. Wide applications are in foods as texturing agent and provide good freeze-thaw stability. Extended applications in food industry are found by acetylated starch in conjunction with cross-linked starch. Dextrin Dextrin  (E1400) is formed by  roasting the starch with  hydrochloric acid. Dextrination is the heating of powdered starch, mostly in the presence of small amounts of acids, at different temperatures and with different reaction times. Dextrin is used as adhesives in paper and textile based industry. Grafted starch Grafted starches are produced by free radical copolymerization with ethylenically unsaturated monomers. Starch grafted with synthetic polymers is most utilized   tarches from different botanical origins were grafted with 1, 3 butadiene, styrene, acrylamide, acrylonitrile and Meth acrylic acid using free redox reaction. Starch ethers Starch ethers are produced by a nucleophilic substitution reaction with an ethylenically unsaturated monomer, followed by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis for viscosity adjustment. Physically modified starch Native starch can be modified with mechanical treatment, using spray drying technique, annealing technique Enzyme modified starch Enzyme-treated starch which includes maltodextrin,  cyclodextrin Starch modified with amylase enzyme produces derivative with good adhesion property and mainly used in coating the food with colorant. APPLICATION IN FOOD INDUSTRY Frozen Food To stabilize the food products starches are used in frozen bottle foods to provide freeze-thaw stability and retrogradation. Flavor Encapsulation Modified starches are used to encapsulate or, preserve the flavour of the food products. Octenylsuccinylated derivatives and other starch hydrolyzates are used as flavour encapsulation. Dairy Products Modified starches are used in a wider way to the dairy products; it provides variety of effects, including enhanced viscosity, cut ability, mouth feel and stability. In puddings, starch is used to enhance viscosity and smoothness. Starches are used in yogurts and sour cream to control syneresis and enhance thickness. Canned Food Canning process preserves food for up to several years by achieving a temperature sufficient to destroy or inactivate food poisoning or spoilage microbes. Starch is most commonly used to thicken, stabilize and enhance the mouth feel of canned foods such as puddings, pie- fillings, soups, sauces and gravies. Highly cross-linked starches are used for this purpose.

Strategic Management Essay -- Information Technology

Strategic Management and Planning is a course of decisions and actions which ultimately lead to the development of a strategy to help a company achieve their objectives. Strategic planning focuses on the company’s long term range and how to accomplish what is laid out. Effective planning will help to prevent problems, provide a response if problems occur, and make available information and support needed to maintain public awareness, safety, and confidence. How do the two UCB's strategic IT plans stack up against the Baldrige criteria for assessing strategic planning? The Baldrige criteria are a series of questions that are not routinely asked on how an organization or company can function more efficiently. The purpose of these questions is to describe how the organization sets its strategic objectives into action plans, what are the organization’s action plans, and how is the organization able to project future performance on these key performance indicators or measures. In this paper, I will address these questions as they relate to UC Berkeley and the University of Colorado’s Campus-wide IT Strategic Plan. I will describe how each university used the strategic planning process to address their needs. What are the university’s current strategic objectives, the goals for each objective and the timetable for achieving these objectives? How will each university adapt to potential growth in technology? And what measures do the universities use to track the achievement and effectiveness of their action plans? In each report, each university clearly defined what there IT strategic plans and objectives are for their future success. By clearly defining what are their goals and needs, they mirror the Baldrige criteria. UC Berkeley d... ...essfulness of their strategic plan. In my research, this is not a problem that is isolated to just UC Berkeley or UC-Boulder. There seems to be a common practice among the IT community to not take into account the importance of measuring the effectiveness of their IT strategies. When discussing measuring for effectiveness of the IT plan at UC Berkeley, Mr. Jack McCredie explains, â€Å"It is much more of a description of an end state that we are working for. We are more goal oriented, not number oriented, in our process. One UC Berkeley goal was to wire the campus, not count the number of nodes that are actually installed. Our board doesn’t seem to require particular dashboard numbers that say we are 38 percent of the way to accomplishing our goal.† Both of the universities do not put enough thought into establishing proper measures of effectiveness into their plans.

Feminist Criticism Essay -- Feminism Female Essays

Feminist Criticism Contemporary feminist criticism focuses on various specified topics such as women’s biographical writings, lesbian and literature, and the role of film and the media in portraying feminine gender. It is no longer easily separated into categorical goals by nationalities or land boundaries. Instead, feminist criticism is now characterized according to whether the category of "woman" is the major focus, or whether gender identity is defined by sexual and other identities as well. These other differences include, but are not limited to, cultural identities as a woman, lesbian writings, sexual preference, and religious differences. Most feminist critics today stress the fact that while all women are female, they are much more than that. Each woman’s goals and problems make them who they are by creating a unique identity. The understanding of woman not as a single group has led modern feminist critics to advocate personal and autobiographical criticism. It has also fostered contemporary gender criticism. Gender critics explore different categories of gender and sexuality. Gender criticism does not only focus on women’s gender and sexuality, but also includes male gender issues. Gender criticism began solely as feminist criticism, and now the two are still overlapped. Elaine Tuttle Hansen has applied feminist criticism in her analysis of "The Miller’s Tale" in a segment of the chapter "Women as the Same" from the book Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. While earlier critics have focused on the humorous side of what they consider an innocent prank, Hansen focuses on Alisoun’s escape from punishment. At the same time she recognizes that it was only by accident that Nicholas intervened to receive the punish... ...astly, I found reference to Alisoun being objectified as something only to look at in two separate, yet closely related examples. First, in lines 3247-3248 of her portrait, the Miller states that "She was ful more blisful on to see / Than is the newe pere-jonntte tree." Secondly, Absolon refers to Alisoun’s objectification by stating "to loke on hir him thoughte a merye lyf" (3344). Valued objects are often set away from "normal" areas to look upon for enjoyment purposes. And happiness is sometimes thought to be achieved through viewing a thing of beauty; this is how these men viewed Alisoun. In conclusion, it is clear to see through these examples how Chaucer used animal characteristics to objectify Alisoun. Furthermore, I feel that Hansen’s views on "The Miller’s Tale" were correct and justified. Overall, I feel that the views expressed by Hansen are enlightening.

How effective are backbench MPs? Essay

‘How effective are backbench MPs?’ 40 marks Backbench MPs are critical for UK democracy. They allow for high standard scrutiny of the government which holds them accountable for their actions to the people. They help in representing the electorate. However there are some circumstances in which backbench MPs have little control, for example an elective dictatorship or because of the UK party system which is enforced by party whips. Firstly back bench MPs are a good way of promoting presentation in terms of their constituency boundary as they have been voted in by their electorate and so therefore should have a sound understanding of what the people need and want. However the majority of MPs are white males between their 40s and 50s. Out of 650 House of Common MPs, only 147 of them are female, which is disproportionate to the number of females in the UK. Also less than 25% of MPs are from a multicultural background so it cannot be 100% representative. Secondly backbench MP s allow the current government to be made accountable to the electorate. Backbenchers can take part in scrutinising opposition, or even their own parties, during events such as the Prime Minister’s Question Time, where, for an allocated time, the PM is asked questions concerning anything. Select committees can also be used to scrutinise. For example the head of the Public Bills committee is always headed by a member of the opposition, currently Margaret Hodge. This is to ensure that they are effective and non-corrupted. Although MPs have the power to dissolve the current government, through a vote of no confidence (last one in 1979), MPs that standalone against their party by having controversial or independent thoughts on an issue, then they are brought into line by party whips which could result in having an MP who does not represent you adequately. It shows that MPs achieve more together. Due to first past the post leading to majority governments, except for 2010 general election, it is very difficult to oppose bills, this led to something Lord Hailsham coined as ‘elective dictatorship’ meaning that when a government has a majority in the House of Commons, it can pass bills with minimal opposition for its entire term in office. This was the case for Labour in 1997 when they won a landslide majority of 418 seats in the House of Commons. Another reason why backbenchers are effective is through their use of debates, as it allows them to express their opinion and show their constituency, as well as their party where they stand on certain issues,  like the EU, for example. However there are limits to their effectiveness. Debates have to be requested, and the chances are that the current government will only pick topics that they feel comfortable discussing or ones that won’t embarrass them too much. This means that controversial issues everyone would want to know about may not be discussed, for example the Iraq war. Backbench MPs also have a lot less media coverage than high profile, frontbenchers. This allows the frontbenchers to make their views more known and make them a more of a familiar face during current issues. An example of this would be having frontbenchers on the BBC question time every Thursday. However backbenchers are still members of parliament, and because parliament is sovereign and the supreme law making authority, they are less pressured to ‘tow the party line’ and therefore can stand more for their constituencies than the party they represent. To conclude, although MPs have a lot of constraints on their power and what they can do, through scrutiny and select committees, there are still opportunities in which backbenchers can become a lot more effective. Whether this is through fully representing their electorate, to embracing new technologies an d using social media to communicate with their public.

Adjusting Accounting Entries Essay

I have been asked by my supervisor to mentor a new accounting clerk in my department, I am hoping that when I’m done mentoring this person that they will understand accounting better. I am also hoping that my supervisor will be proud of me, and continue asking me to mentor new people, and hopefully give me a raise or a promotion. To better understand accounting we need to know why adjusting entries are so important to a business. Adjusting journal entries are made at the end of each closing period to adjust the account balances. Most of the time, this is necessary in order to achieve a clean cut-off at the end of the accounting period, and to ensure the accounts are complete, and accurate. Current account balances may not represent correct balances, because some mistakes were identified in the posting of transactions, and/or the accounting records are not updated to reflect new transactions or amount changes in previous transactions. Examples would include amounts that were posted to the wrong accounts, and timing differences in recognizing revenues and expenses between the accrual and the cash basis of accounting. (Adjusting JE, 2010) Adjusting entries can be either temporary or permanent. If the entry is temporary at some point the adjusting entry will be reversed or another adjusting entry will be made to the account. See more: Is the Importance of being earnest a satirical play essay I will know explain the four types of adjusting entries ,as well as give an example of each entry from the manufacturing industry. Accrued revenues (also called accrued assets) are revenues already earned but not yet paid by the customer or posted to the general ledger. An example of accrued revenue would be for a custom ordered machine that has been shipped FOB shipping point on the day the accounts receivable module is closed and the approval to bill the customer has not been received by the billing clerk. An adjusting entry would be recorded to recognize the revenue in the correct period. This entry will reverse when the customer is appropriately invoiced. * Accrued Revenue 14,000 * Revenue 14,000 Unearned revenues (or deferred revenues) are revenues received in cash and recorded as liabilities prior to being earned. Unearned revenue is a liability to the entity until the revenue is earned. An example of unearned revenue would be if the customer paid a deposit for a custom ordered machine that has not been delivered, the deposit would be recorded as unearned revenue. This type of adjusting entry will be adjusted by another entry. * Revenue 14,000 * Deferred Revenue 14,000 Accrued expenses (also called accrued liabilities) are expenses already incurred but not yet paid or recorded. Examples of these types of adjusting entries could be for payroll that has been earned by employees on the last day of the period but not paid until the next payroll date. These types of entries generally reverse the next month. * Salaries Expense 89,000 * Salaries Payable 89,000 Prepaid expenses (or deferred expenses) are expenses paid in cash and recorded as assets prior to being used. The most common form of an adjusting entry for prepaid expense would be for the used portion of an insurance premium these types of adjusting entries are usually permanent. * Insurance Expense 1,000 * Prepaid Insurance 1,000 Other adjusting entries include depreciation of fixed assets, allowances for bad debts, and inventory adjustments. * Bad Debt Expense 50 * Allowance for Bad debt 50 (Adjusting EN, 2010) It is also wise to know how these entries are recorded in a computerized accounting system, since everything is now done by computers. At the end of each closing period, usually monthly, a thorough analysis of the trial balance is performed. This analysis include performance budget to actual and month to month to ensure all of the accounts are correctly stated. When an adjusting entry is identified, a journal entry input form is prepared. This form should be supported with source documents that justify the entry and reviewed and approved by the appropriate level of accounting management. Once the approval has been obtained, the journal entry is keyed into the general ledger system as either a standard or self-reversing journal entry. The journal entry is than posted to the general ledger. There is also ethical issues that can arise if these entries are not posted correctly, Adjusting journal entries are a good way for management to manipulate financial results by either accruing more revenue or expenses than appropriate, and for fraudsters to hide skimming, which is the misappropriation of cash. It is extremely important to understand that each adjusting journal entry must be fully supported and approved. If you have any questions about what I have explained to you please don’t hesitate to ask me anything, I am here to help you succeed in this business, and in this firm.

Honors Essay

For how I firmly am resolved you know; That is, not bestow my youngest daughter Before I have a husband for the elder: If either of you both love Katharina, Because I know you well and love you well, Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure. † In these lines, we are introduced to Baptista, a father who wants to find a husband for his oldest daughter, Katharina. The conflict of the play is also introduced as Baptista has decided that his youngest daughter cannot marry until Katharina does. These lines provide readers with some background information on Baptista and his daughters, as well as their familial relationship. They also reveal that while Baptista loves both of his daughter’s, he is at a loss for how to manage his oldest daughter, Katharina. Exposition Act 1, Scene 1 Lucentio: â€Å"Tranio, since for the great desire I had To see fair Padua, nursery of arts, I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy, The pleasant garden of great Italy;† In these lines, we get the first glimpse of where the setting is. The readers get a chance to see the descriptive environment of Italy with the â€Å"pleasant garden†. We are also introduced to Lucentio and Tranio in this part of the play where they are visiting this part of Italy because they had that desire to go there. Rising Action Act 2, Scene 1 KATHARINA: â€Å"Of all thy suitors, here I charge thee, tell Whom thou lovest best: see thou dissemble not. † BIANCA: â€Å"Believe me, sister, of all the men alive I never yet beheld that special face Which I could fancy more than any other. † KATHARINA: â€Å"Minion, thou liest. Is’t not Hortensio? † BIANCA: â€Å"If you affect him, sister, here I swear I’ll plead for you myself, but you shall have Him. † KATHARINA: â€Å"O then, belike, you fancy riches more:You will have Gremio to keep you fair. † BIANCA: â€Å"Is it for him you do envy me so? Nay then you jest, and now I well perceive You have but jested with me all this while: I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands. † KATHARINA: â€Å"If that be jest, then all the rest was so. † In these lines, Katharina begins attacking Bianca for no reason at all. Katharina begins questions Bianca out of the blue about which of the suitors does she want the most while Bianca has no clue where this question is coming from, but Bianca assumes that Katharina wants one of the suitors for her and has been acting around her to get what she wanted. Climax Act 3, Scene 2 KATHARINA: â€Å"No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forced To give my hand, opposed against my heart, Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen, Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure. I told you, I, he was a frantic fool, Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior, And, to be noted for a merry man, He’ll woo a thousand, ‘point the day of marriage, Make friends, invite, and proclaim the banns, Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed. Now must the world point at poor Katherine And say, â€Å"Lo, there is mad Petruchio’s wife, If it would please him come and marry her! † In these lines, Katharina is upset that the groom has not arrived to their wedding yet. And she begins blaming Lucentio for her being forced to marry this guy when she knew what the groom’s plans were. Katharina says that all the groom did it for was the friends and fame of proposing to women then not showing up to the date of the wedding and this made her even more mad, like she wanted to kill somebody. Falling Action Act 4, Scene 1 KATHARINA: â€Å"I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet:The meat was well, if you were so contented. † PETRUCHIO: â€Å"I tell thee, Kate, ’twas burnt and dried away; And I expressly am forbid to touch it, For it engenders choler, planteth anger;And better ’twere that both of us did fast,Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric, Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh. Be patient; to-morrow ‘t shall be mended,And, for this night, we’ll fast for company: Come, I will bring thee to thy bridal chamber. † In these lines, Katharina and Petruchio have already married and now they are at Petruchio’s house where he will boss around all of his servants. And Katharina is trying to calm Petruchio down because one of the servants brought out burnt meat and he wanted everything to be perfect for his wife. Resolution Act 4, Scene 5 PETRUCHIO: Why, how now, Kate! I hope thou art not mad: This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, wither’d, And not a maiden, as thou say’st he is. KATHARINA: Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, That have been so bedazzled with the sun That everything I look on seemeth green: Now I perceive thou art a reverend father; Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking. In these lines, Petruchio seeks an elderly man in the direction they are heading. But Katharina eyes are blinded by looking at the sun for too long and she mistakes the old man for a little girl. But altogether this is after all the arguing that were going on and now they are spending time together on their way to Katharina’s father’s house.

Ace Hardware Store Entering Bahrain Market Essay

We have endeavoured to emphasize on the suggested strategies which will allow Ace Hardware to consider venturing into the Bahraini market. Therefore with the information provided and composed, we have the opportunity to examine comments of Ace Hardware which allows us to highlight key issues faced. Organisations need to recognize and meet demands of the exterior factors which include threats and opportunities to uphold their competitiveness in the market. Henceforth, the intention of this report is to essentially investigate and assess the outlook of Ace Hardware Corporation in relation to expansion and growth in the Bahraini market. . 0 Introduction Bahrain is one of the unique countries in the Middle East. It alone has a stable economic climate and welcomes foreign investment with a highly business friendly culture thus making it an efficient country to start business. Introducing Ace Hardware to the Bahraini market because of a numerous aspects such as retaining 100% foreign owner ship and low taxation, provides a free, open and transparent environment that fosters growth, legal system protects companies’ rights, while their free market environment allows businesses to thrive. . 0 Industry Business Description The ACE Hardware Corporation is a well-known wholesaler of hardware and home-related products; the organisation offerings include safety equipment, plumbing products, outdoor living products, pet supplies, door handles, electrical tools, lawn and garden accessories, furniture, home appliances and many more. ACE has been affianced in the wholesale hardware business and has offered dealerships to retailers of hardware and associated items since the company in Illinois commenced incorporating in 1927. Today, ACE is the largest retailer-owned obliging and vibrant leader in the convenience division of the hardware business in terms of wholesale and retail sales and strength of the brand. 3. 0 Company description According to (Irwin, 2012), Ace Hardware ranks highest in satisfying home improvement retail store customers for a sixth consecutive year according to the J. D. Power of Associates Home improvement Retail satisfaction Study of 2012. This measured customer satisfaction with home improvement retail stores, based on the performance of five factors: merchandise, price, sales staff, sales & promotions and store facility. The organisation emphasizes on service and modern retailing techniques and has helped locally owned operated ACE retail stores confront intense competition from Home Depot and Lowe’s. In addition, it provides numerous value-added services such as marketing, advertising, merchandising and design services to its retail members. ACE’s 4,600 stores in all 50 states and more than 60 countries generate annual retail sales of approximately $12 billion (ACE Hardware Corporation, 2012). 3. 1 Type of business Retail Sales ACE’s 4,600 stores in all 50 states and more than 60 countries generate annual retail sales of approximately $12 billion (Ace Hardware Corporation, 2012). Dubai, Shanghai, Canada etc. Applying a Teradata warehouse permitted 2,500 Ace Hardware retail stores to transmit daily a point of sale (POS) transaction detail. According to (Murphy, 2007), â€Å"Teradata is the world leader in data warehousing solutions with a proven track record in retail, as we discovered when we sought vendor references. That experience, including customer relationship management, category management and business intelligence, made Teradata the right choice for Ace Hardware. † Basically, Ace relies on active warehouse data from Teradata, which has delivered a single repository for retail and wholesale sales, purchasing, customer information, financial data and inventory to essentially support large varied workloads. Wholesale In addition to its 14 retail support centres in the United States and freight forwarding operations on the West Coast and East Coast, ACE features three international distribution centres in Dubai, Shanghai and Panama. The international distribution centres provide: 1. Easier access to core stock of leading brand products and certified ACE products through their global supply warehouse 2. Online ordering systems 3. In-market fully operational support offices. â€Å"It is very useful to have Ace as a partner for this type of market. It is nice to be able to replenish your inventory on a weekly basis, which makes it easier to control. Our goal is to be a one stop shop for everything in your home, and we can do that with Ace. The people in the community can buy the Ace brand with confidence because it’s proven to be a good quality product. Jorge Ossa  Commercial Manager, Cemaco – Guatemala (ACE Hardware Corporation, 2012). ACE has established an accurate and demonstrated operating model for effective and efficient distribution allowing ACE Hardware retailers the wholesale benefit they require to be successful and profitable. Below are the some of the wholesale advantages available for ACE Hardware store owners:- * Lowest cost of goods * Named #1 Distributor according to Home Channel News in 2009, 2010 and 2011. (Home Channel News, August 2011) * #1 in wholesale sales at $3. 5 billion (Hardware Retailing, December 2010 ) * The combined buying power of over 4,100 locations To support the growing number of international ACE retailers and leverage international wholesale opportunities, ACE opened the Ace Global Distribution (ASG) warehouse in Shanghai, China 2006 (ACE Hardware, 2012). 3. 2 Legal Structure Each Ace Hardware store is individually owned and operated by local entrepreneurs – hard-working, passionate business owners who are involved with and, many times, exist in the communities where their stores are based (Ace Hardware Corporation, 2012). . 3 History ACE Hardware organisation was founded when Richard Hesse, Frank Burke, Oscar Fisher, E. Gunnard Linquist, William Stauber unified to form a purchasing and advertising enterprise among their Chicago- area hardware stores. Moreover, their combined buying power allowed the store owners to negotiate lower prices on merchandise acquired from wholesalers. Therefore, embracing the ACE name in 1927 and incorporated the succeeding year. Frank Burke served as president of the group and was succeeded by Richard Hesse in 1930. Over the next two years the firm progressed into a hardware organisation, obtaining directly from producers and storing merchandise in its own warehouse in Chicago. This strategy allowed ACE to further reduce costs by removing ‘middlemen’ wholesalers (Anonymous, 2012). Moreover, during its first half-century of operation, ACE was basically a conformist wholesale group, and its profits were distributed equally among shareholders. The company’s low-cost purchasing and distribution procedures quickly enticed new employees and franchisees. By the mid – 1930’s, the organisation had 41 members and sales of more than $650,000. Throughout history, ACE has accomplished to solidify their position as one of the strongest and leading competitors in the hardware industry. 3. 3. 1 Mission The mission of the ACE team is to ensure that their customers are satisfied. According to (Anonymous, 2012), â€Å"When something goes other than the way it was planned, we do everything in our power to make it right. You have the ACE promise on that†. In relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR), ACE Hardware has partnered with the CMN hospitals to give back to communities. The ACE Foundation has raised over $50 million since 1991 to help sick and needy children through partnerships with Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) hospitals. ACE also supports the American Red Cross Natural Disaster Relief Fund through donations of work gloves, shovels, mops, bottled water and more (ACE Hardware Corporation, 2012). Once again, ACE is proud to serve as a sponsor of the Champions program. The retail stores and ACE foundation organise a myriad of fundraising initiatives, many of which our generous customers are welcome to get involved. Furthermore, these fun and unique experiences raise much-needed funds that essentially result in the power to change lives and treat sick children at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals around the United States. Miracle Jeans Weeks is a program where employees throughout the company wear jeans during the company’s five designated Miracle Jeans Weeks each year. Furthermore, with a cost of $1 per day and almost 900 people on campus, it’s never in doubt that thousands of dollars are raised yearly from this enterprise. 3. 3. 2 Goals & Objectives One of ACE’s goals is customer satisfaction as they value their customers. â€Å"We know our customers want to be spoken to in a more personal manner, rather than in a blast† says Rich Neal who is ACE’s one-to-one manager. â€Å"So we have robust analytics team, and follow-up purchases with thank-you emails and direct mail, broken down into eight categories, including grilling and lawn and garden† (Mahoney, 2011). Therefore, for ACE Hardware customer satisfaction isn’t just an idea, it’s basically the entire purpose. According to (Marketing charts staff, 2011), J. D Power and Associates (2011) U. S Home Improvement Retailer Satisfaction Study, Ace Hardware ranks highest in satisfying home improvement retail store consumers, accomplishing a score of 786 on a 1,000-point scale, for the fifth consecutive year.. The study, now in its fifth year, measures customer satisfaction with home improvement retail stores which is built on the overall performance on five aspects: staff and service; store facility (including merchandise and cleanliness); merchandise (product information details); price; sales and promotions. 3. 4 Company Structure Ace’s Board of Directors establishes guidelines for Ace management. There are between nine to 12 director positions. Ray Griffith assumes the role of president and CEO and David Ziegler as the chairman of the board. 4. 0 Ace Product analysis: Ace hardware store offers an extensive range of more than 30,000 quality household products from kitchen mops to garden furniture and camping equipment. Ace’s product range consists of the everyday items such as sponges and shower curtains as well as occasional purchases such as wall paints and lawnmowers. Ace’s Products are categorized into: Outdoor Lifestyle: Ace has a wide range of outdoor lifestyle products to suit distinct tastes and needs -Outdoor furniture -Camping -Barbeque -Pools and spas -Outdoor constructions Gardening: a stimulating selection to meet outdoor gardening needs. -Gardening tools -Seeds -Indoor/outdoor plants -Pots and vases -Watering -Fertilizers and chemicals -Landscaping -Fencing and edging -Water features -Garden decor -Garden lighting -Shades and turf DIY: With the widest product range, competitive prices and informed staff, ACE is the choice for D. I. Y. enthusiasts. All ACE stores offer a wide selection of Tools, components and essentials for DIY as well as the biggest range of world renowned brands in power tools. ACE also provides free advice and solutions on any hardware or D. I. Y problem as well as free repairs on power tools under warranty. -Power tools -Hand tools -Hardware -Fastenings and fixings -Tool Storage -Timber -Electrical -Security Equipment -Safety Automotive: Ace has a wide range of quality automotive products. From accessories, cleaning and car care products, sunshades, 4X4 accessories and emergency kits to enhance the looks and performance of your vehicle. 4Ãâ€"4 adventure -Car Cleaning and Maintenance -Car Interior -Emergency and Safety Painting and Decorating: Ace offers more than 16,000 colors of paints; customers also can mix their own colors to come up with their ideal paint pallet. Ace provides all the necessities needed to complete the process of decorating homes. -Paints -Paint Equipment -Adhesive and fillers -Wall c overing -Arts, crafts and hobbies Home ware: ACE home ware has a complete range of lifestyle accessories all under one roof. -Cleaning, Laundry -Storage, Packaging -Living -Bed and Bath -Kitchen -Electrical -Wellness Pet Care: ACE offers a range of pet supplies and related pet products and accessories catering to dogs, cats, birds and fish. Ranges vary from pet food, toys and other essential pet care accessories. Services: Rental service: The Ace Rental Place offers a wide variety of equipment for rent on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis, great for items required for few usages or simply to try them out before deciding on the purchase. All rental items are well maintained with expert customer service. Customers can rent the following items:- †¢4 Burner Gas Barbeque †¢Upholstery/Carpet Cleaner †¢Generator †¢High Pressure Cleaner †¢Port-a-cool Ladder 16ft Multi-master In store services: -Assembly – Installation/key cutting -Automotive chip key cutting- Pipe Cutting and Threading -Blade sharpening – Screen Repair -Computerized paint – color matching- Small Engine Repair -Delivery- Special Order Services -Glass and acrylic sheet cutting -Glass repair -In store lock servicing 4. 1 Customer profile/demand analysis: Aces vast range of products and services encourages a diverse range of customers with different needs and wants. Hardware stores in general often prioritize their target market as home owners as the products they offer are mostly for household use. Ace is more than just a hardware store that just sells tools for men, it’s a superstore that attracts both men and women who are making decisions in the appearance and upholding of their homes. Loyal customers As part of a customer retention strategy the Ace marketers have focused their attention on customer insights, by creating a card-based loyalty club – the Helpful Hardware Club (HHC) customers at the store can sign up to the program making them eligible purchase discounts and special offers. Ace targeted the Lifestyle segment to boost their retention program causing evenues to rise 5. 4 percent as lapsed customers were enticed by discounts to return to their local Ace stores. (Nielsen 2009) Aces product portfolio also consists of outdoor leisure activities targeting consumers that are not necessarily home owners or prime decision maker with the household. Products for occasions such as camping or barbequing target a segment of active leisure consumers. This segment broadens ACEs target market outside home owners. The demand is not only in home improvement products but also in the items needed to care for them. This demand has forced manufacturers to introduce a large range of new cleaning products which targets upscale shoppers who desire convenience and a more natural, non-toxic product. Current market Bahrain is regionally known for its cosmopolitan lifestyle suggesting sophisticated consumers, with their relatively high purchasing power these consumers have a high willingness to spend especially on premium products and brands. 4. 2 Competitive situation: (Ellen 2010) Ace Hardware Corp the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the hardware industry by sales and the second largest dealer-owned cooperative in the United States. Ace’s innovation is what led them to establish the strong position they hold today. With over 4,000 stores in 60 different countries ACE hardware were ranked 8th in franchise directs top 100 global franchise’s (Francise Direct 2012). Ace hardware store faces intense competition within the United States. The US home center, hardware store and home improvement retail industry includes about 23,000 hardware stores and home centers with combined annual revenue of about $150 billion. The home center segment of the industry is highly concentrated: the top four companies account for more than 90 percent of segment revenue (Hoovers 2012) The success of individual companies depends highly on competing low-cost purchasing, effective merchandising, and competitive pricing. The top three competitors of ACE are:- †¢Lowe’s Companies Inc. †¢The Home Depot Inc. †¢Do it Best Corp Despite the intense competition in their domestic market, ACE has an opportunity in Bahrain as the Hardware store industry is not as well developed leaving space for entry in to the market. However, there will of course still be some Potential Competitors in Bahrain that Ace will have to face:- Ace’s direct competitor in Bahrain will be Manazel Hardware store; Manazel first opened its doors in October 1995 at Salmabad, Bahrain. It is a family owned business based in Bahrain. Carrying more than 50,000 products ranging in over 20 categories, some of which include: Furniture, Home ware, Hardware, Bathroom ;amp; Plumbing accessories, paint and Sundries, Outdoor Living, Garden Furniture and Accessories. Their Materials are sourced from all around the world to provide everything for your home and garden. Manazel 2012) Ace could initially face challenges competing with Manazel due to it being a locally based company, depending on the loyalty of their consumers it could be difficult in convincing them to switch to ACE. Ace has the advantage of being a well-established global brand and with the high rate of expatriates in Bahrain they may naturally prefer to switch to a m ore recognized brand. Ace will also face competition amongst the small local hardware and tool stores. These stores are popular amongst price sensitive customers. 5. 0 Environmental factors 5. 1 Host Country Business Climate: Bahrain offers very distinctive traits in the Middle East. It enjoys a stable economy climate and competitive costs. It has an amazingly business friendly climate which is an attraction for ACE and other companies to do business in this country, it has an excellent regulatory framework, and supportive government policy (Najjar 2011) The Host country for ACE Hardware is Bahrain, Bahrain is an Arab country with a total land Area of 712 square kilometres, a population of about 1,234,571 (end of 2012), out of which 666,172 are locals, according to the central bank of Bahrain. The main towns in Bahrain are Manama and Musharraq, the climate is mainly very hot and humid, language is mainly Arabic, but English is widely spoken. The metric systems used include 1dhara=48. 26 cm, 1 rafa=254 kg, the currency is the Bahraini Dinar (BD) = 2. 65 USD, the Time is 3 hours ahead GMT (Bahrain: Basic Data 2012). Bahrain is an Arab country and has the monarchy system, the ruler, king Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa is expected to be secure for some ime to come; the Al-Khalifa family has control over most of the executive branches of government and legislature remaining weak. There will however always be primary tension over economic and financial inequalities, with the halting pace of political liberalisation of sectarian discrimination. Real GDP growth for Bahrain was expected to slow down to 3. 1% in 2009, as mainly international demand for Bahrain exports is weakening, but was expected to recover to 3. % in 2010 (Bahrain economy, 2009), and is expected to rise up to 4-5% in 2 012 due to increases in crude oil production, manufacturing and government spending according to the Economic Development Board (EDB) (Andy 2012). Bahrain’s business climate in 2007 attracted almost $1 billion worth of investments in new projects in 2007 as reported by Dr Hassan Fakhro minister of Industry and Commerce, He also went ahead to mention that new investments in the new projects were worth 373. 3m Bahraini currency, which is about $987. 6 million and these new projects also created about 13, 536 jobs in the country (Middle East Financial News 2008). Oil production output from Bahrain’s single aground field is in decline however, and the monarchy government is aware of the country’s vulnerability to changes in oil prices globally, with oil being the major source of government revenue for the country accounting to more than 70% of the economy. The economy of the country also relies heavily on goodwill received from Saudi Arabia, which runs a large offshore oil field whose production it shares with Bahrain. All these limited resources has made Bahraini government to have the strategy of diversification in order to prosper, increase the role of the private sector and provide a welcoming environment for foreign investment. FIGURE 1. 0: BAHRAINI GDP 2001-2012 BAHRAINGDP GROWTH 2001-2012 200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012 4. 6%5. 2%7. 2%5. 6%7. 9%6. 7%8. 4%6. 3%3. 1%4. 5%1. 8%2% SOURCE: global finance: Bahrain Country Report 5. 2 SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths; ACE hardware is a strong brand both across the USA and the world stage, with more and more expansion into the global markets into several countries across all the continents of the world. ACE has the resources and ability to pursue growth in multiple directions, with the ACE leadership team making a smart decision of focusing on their paint production, which has made them gain a huge customer base and customer loyalty (Bueno 2012). In 2010 ACE hardware has generated in excess of $3. 45 billion in wholesale and retailers enjoyed the added bonus of collective buying power at this volume by getting a decreased cost in goods, which has built the basic foundation for a more profitable option (ACE 2011). ACE produces many DIY products and many changes have taken place in this market over the last 85 years, ACE ownership however still remains the on top in customer satisfaction according to Business week and was ranked â€Å"highest in customer satisfaction Among home improvement stores four years in a row† (JD power and Associates) ACE hardware also enjoys major success in the market share with the help of top of the range advertisement and reduced goods cost, it has slowly established itself to be a major player in the global market for hardware products. ACE also expanding its wings to get a piece of the business boom, and with the advantage of an established brand name, it will be relatively easy to penetrate under developed markets as more businesses would want a merger with them as opposed to its rival companies. ACE is a sophisticate and established brand worldwide, and has adopted the new technologies as they come which has giving the company a competitive advantage as they are more organised and technologically more advanced, which has led to reduction in production costs for the company. The expansion of ACE into the global market has seen it gain market share, more so than their competitors such as Home Depot, Lowe’s etc. Weaknesses; ACE hardware has relatively small stores, compared to their rival companies like Lowe’s, Home Depot and Menards on selection ACE Hardware in 2008 reported a net income of $10. 8 million for the first quarter of 2008, which was a decrease as compared to 2007 when they reported $14. 1 million which was a $3. 3 million decrease. The company also reported earning s before interests and taxes of $13. million in the first quarter of 2008 as compared to $29. 2 million in the first quarter of 2007 (9) ACE hardware has encountered losses resulting from physical damage to breakdown of its computers in the European market, which has led to replace damaged computer hardware, the reinstatement of lost programs or Data and also had to increase working costs as a result of the problems (10). Opportunities Bahrain’s financial freed om ranking is 77. 7, making its economic system the Tenth freest in this year’s Catalog (2012). Its overall ranking is 1. 4 points higher than last year, with upgrades in trade freedom; investment freedom, work freedom, and freedom from data file crime error. Bahrain is rated 1st out of 17 nations in the Centre East/North African-American area, and its financial freedom ranking is well above the world average (Bahraini economic development Board, 2012) from the perspective of Ace this reduces business constraints giving them the freedom to commercialize their brand and reduces limitations on investment. Situated near commercial establishments in the Gulf with a causeway relationship with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC, Bahrain is seen as a gateway to the Gulf, an industry of over 100 thousand individuals. Bahrain’s variety and openness keeps presenting opportunities for exporters. It has the most varied economic system in the Gulf Bahrain does not currently have a competitive hardware industry with only a few entrants and one major Hardware store giving ACE the flexibility to enter and the means to operate however they choose. The hardware market ACE is involved in is a highly competitive market, it takes a lot of marketing research by ACE and expensive research and new technological adaptations for the company to stay ahead of competition, couple with the reduced purchasing power of consumers due to economic downturns globally have been detrimental to business for ACE. Threats The law requires that you have a local partner who maintains most majority interest and can therefore manage the company and can close it anytime he wishes. The local partner, be it an organization or an individual, does not need to give rise to the start-up financial commitment or take part financially at all. (Bahrain, 2010). This could mean lack of security for ACE as there is the chance of being closed down with no warning or notice. The changes in labor Laws and regulations constantly by the US and other countries have been detrimental to their expansion, other domestic and international factors also have to be considered by ACE before entering into any market in any country, such as culture, corporate social responsibility obligations are all external factors that ACE has to consider. The process of opening a business in Bahrain is complicated and economically dangerous, significance that local information is essential. You must also seek advice from a good attorney from the beginning. A knowledgeable attorney will provide information to you through the signing up complications and his help will be important in defending your interests. This is applicable whether you are starting a moderate shop or a big enterprise (Bahrain 2010) The current Political unrest in Bahrain creates an unpredictable business environment. If the unrest becomes worse this could have major effects on Ace’s business activities in the region, currency fluctuations and could see reductions in the amount of expatriates present in Bahrain causing Ace to lose a large part of their target market. 5. 3 Government constraints in Bahrain Economic growth The economic growth is for Bahrain is likely to slow down in Bahrain; it went down to 3. 3% in 2010 as regional growth in the country as government finances are getting squeezed. Local consumption of private homes and offices is expected to slow sharply, with no a real positive growth in the employment sector. However government consumption growth in Bahrain is forecasted to also slow down. For ACE however the major demeaning factor of business entry into Bahrain would be the limited fiscal constraints in the country, as well as the subdued outlook for global direct investments flows. And the demand for exports and of goods and services is also forecasted to decline, ACE might have a hard time penetrating into the Bahraini market (Ace Hardware 2008). Economic policy An advantage for ACE going into the Bahraini market is the countries determination to move away from the oil sector. The government is determined to stimulate the private sector growth and foreign investments, and address high unemployment problems (Bahrain News Agency 2012) this would be an advantage to ACE as the government will give them an advantage of being accepted into the country without many business constraints. They can be assured of government support which is a large determinant of business success or failure for any business going into another country. Inflation and the exchange rate Consumer price inflation is expected to moderate in the coming years because of slower domestic demand growth. But with a relatively strong currency against the Euro and the Dollar inflation is expected to slow down an average of 1. 8% in 2009-2010. The Bahraini government is intending to enter into a currency agreement with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, and with the UAE, which has pulled out though, and the government and the central bank of Bahrain is expected to maintain the dinar’s value and peg it at the rate of BD0. 67=$1 that has been in place for 3 decades (Bahrain News Agency, 2012). Setting up a business in Bahrain For ACE hardware it would be good news for them to know that Bahrain is ranked first in the Economic freedom index in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and is seventh overall globally according to the Fraser institute Report 2012. The report by Fraser classifies these countries by using themes such as governm ent volumes, legal system, and intellectual property rights security, accessibility to sound funds, freedom of international trade and organization credit, manpower and companies. All these factors are important criteria to be considered by ACE before going into business in Bahrain. 5. 4 PEST ANALYSIS Political Legal Environmental Laws Bahrain has set up a strict law on polluters as fines of up to $133,000 are issues under Bahrain’s new environmental protection law, this is the first law of it ‘s kind related to anti-pollution in the Persian Gulf state. This law covers everything from car emissions, noise and workplace pollution, as well as handling and disposing of hazardous waste materials and chemicals. This is in accordance with what ACE has to achieve to be successful in Bahrain by practicing Corporate Social responsibility (CRS) to maintain the environment in Bahrain or risk serious government and legal issues (Pittsburgh Post, 1996) Stability of the Government Bahrain has entered into an era of instability due to a combination of the Arab spring recently, longstanding local grievances, the competition of regional powers and other external forces. The solution to this problems can be dialogue between the ruling Al-Khalifa Family and all opposition parties. The crisis has however slowed down in recent times with more and more dialogue and compromises being reached between both parties (Bahrain’s Quest for Stability 2012). Economic GEP growth in Bahrain In 2004 the Bahraini GDP has been reported by the ministry of commerce to have grown by 5. 2% from the previous year, this has been largely due to increase in foreign direct investment flow (Middle East 2004) and has been growing ever since with a reported GDP of 2. 1% increase in 2012. Currency The Bahraini currency is the Dinar and at 0. 67 Dinar to a US Dollar it is one of the strongest currencies when it comes to exchange in the World. Consumer price inflation is expected to moderate in the coming years because of slower domestic demand growth. This for ACE can only mean good news as it will be a positive currency to work with and no inflation worries that have to be considered by ACE. Social Population distribution in Bahrain The Bahraini age distribution has been as of the ye ar 2010 the kingdom was 1,234,571, part of which 568,399 were locals and the other 666, 172 were non Bahrainis. This from 2001 the population was 650, 604, this is an increase of 89. %. However, the population of the locals has decreased from 2001 to 2010 reaching 46% from the previous 62% in 2001. The proportion of the population of Bahrainis in the total population during the period from 2001 to 2010 decreased, reaching 46% in 2010; while the corresponding figure in 2001 was 62%. The percentage of non-Bahrainis increased 54% in 2010 while it was 38% in 2001 (Census, 2010). This shows an increased number of expats coming into the country which will mean for ACE that products should not only be made to suit the local citizens but the majority foreigners, which means overall business strategy has to change. Religion and Language: The official language in Bahrain is Arabic; however English is widely spoken mainly in business meetings and other social interactions. The non-Bahraini in the country mainly speak Farsi an Iranian language, or Urdu which is a Pakistani language. The main religion in Bahrain is Islam, which is the 2nd largest religion in the world, Muslims in fast for a month every year in the month of Ramadan. The Bahrainis though make use of both the Islamic and western calendar but mainly use the western calendar for business operations. Business meeting etiquette Appointments are necessary, morning meetings are preferred. However meetings are not advised during the months of August and July because most Bahrainis travel out the country when the heat is at its worst. , they are quite time conscious, so arrive at meetings on time. Personal topics should generally be avoided unless the relationship has developed or there is need to discuss matters confidentially. Bahrainis usually have an open door policy, so meetings do get interruptions. Business meetings also start after a long talk about health, family etc. Business Negotiation Etiquette The building of trust is important since trust is required in order to conduct business. Bahrainis are very time conscious and time driven, the actual meeting is more important than the timeliness or outcome. Bahraini organizations are hierarchal, the highest ranking employee or worker reaches decision. Decisions are top down and lower level employees usually have no say. Decisions take a lot of time; if you try to rush it will be perceived as rude and disrespectful. Technological The economic system in Bahrain relies upon intensely on innovative petrochemical technology, and many Bahrainis have had or are getting specialized training at several universities all over the country. Technology is just coming up in Bahrain with many projects being undertaken in recent times, but perhaps the most important is the Bahrain Green Tech EXPO which is dedicated to the green consumer products. Due to the high demand for environmental protection globally, Bahrain has taken this as the only business to business trade show focused specifically on ECO friendly consumer products. 6. 0 Business Strategies 6. 1 Product /service positioning Positioning is what the customer believes about your product’s value, feature, and benefits, it is a comparison to the other available alternatives offered by the competition (Jackson, 2012). Some basic strategies include:- By attribute or benefit This is the most frequently used strategy in positioning. In this case, Ace hardware’s products are mostly house used products, and the benefits they can give to the customers are the after service, and the quality. The after service they give is mostly repairing, assembling and delivery. Level of service and quality of a product offering are the main influences of developing a strong brand image. By user Customers often choose brands that identify with their own self-image. Ace should position itself to suit the image of the end user. Therefore ace should focus on the wants and needs of their target audience and how they perceive themselves and the brand. By competitor Competition wouldn’t be much of an issue for Ace since they would be entering a market that is not fully developed in Bahrain with few competitors. But they should remain aware of new entrants which are always a possibility and they need to be aware of the changes that may occur. By price or quality Price and quality are directly related in minds of consumers, People are willing to pay premium prices for premium brands that are have high quality. It is very important for Ace to identify where they want to be placed on the pricing matrix shown in figure 1. Ace product offerings vary in brands therefore prices will also vary depending on brand and quality. 6. 2 Pricing strategy Because of Ace’s diverse product range of brands they would need to use more than one pricing strategy. Using the pricing matrix above ace could use this as a guidance to set appropriate pricing strategies. Premium Pricing: One pricing strategy suitable for Aces different brands is premium pricing. Certain brands offered by Ace are luxurious brands with high quality and high price. It is clear on the matrix for these products Ace should use premium pricing which allocates high prices to those brands Economy Pricing: Ace also offers products at more affordable prices however they may have lower quality then premium brands. These types of products attracts customers that are not willing to spend excess amounts of money and would rather spend less for less quality Competitive Pricing: ACE could also use competitive pricing strategy to set benchmarks on their own prices. This strategy is most effective when there are limited competitors in the market which is the case for ACE and Manazel. Ace has a clear advantage over Manazel as it is a globally established company enabling them to set their prices slightly higher than Manazels. Estimated Selling Price: The estimated selling price for ACE hardware products in Bahrain would have to be set under consideration of several factors, such as the GDP of the country, the purchasing power of the country, the competitor prices and the strength of the Bahraini currency The GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation over a period of a given year. The Gross domestic products (GDP) of Bahrain is the lowest in the Middle East with a reported $32 billion in 2011, however when it comes to consumer purchasing power of Bahrain, it is ranked fifth in the Middle East with a reported $27,900 in 2011. ACE can base it’s pricing on this and compare to its most similar market which is the UAE which is ranked second on the purchasing power list in the Middle East with $48,800 in 2011 (Index mundi, 2012) The Bahraini currency is a major factor for setting prices, comparing to the UAE market which is the closest to Bahrain both geographically and economically 1 Bahraini Dinar = AED 9. 7 so prices can be higher for the Bahraini market considering the difference in currency strength. Bahrainis live a very cosmopolitan lifestyle and would be prepared to buy from expensive and established brands (Numbeo, 2012), which will mean ACE, shouldn’t face many issues setting medium to high prices in Bahrain. But for the large number of expat s in Bahrain ACE has to adapt itself due to the target market it has set for itself when setting prices. Expats are genuinely not price sensitive when it comes to purchasing from known global brands as they find it easier to trust brands they are familiar with. The most important factor however is comparison of process with its main competitor in Bahrain which is Manazel; this company has built its reputation in Bahrain as one of the best Hardware stores and offers discounts and promotional vouchers to loyal customers (Manazel, 2012) which will mean stiff competition for prices for ACE. However, due to lack of information on actual goods prices for Manazel, ACE can do further research and sets it prices on information found. 6. Distribution and logistics Ace products will be available to customers through two sources: Retail sales: as many of its branches worldwide also provide retail shops, similar shops should also be provided in Bahrain in different major cities, to make the products more accessible to customers in more varieties, and as shopping is part of the Bahrainis past time this will be a major attributor to its overall sales. It will also increase overall brand popularity of ACE in Bahrain. Online store catalogue: ACE provides this service for many of its branches in different countries worldwide, but as internet commerce is not popular in Bahraini ACE should not expect major traffic on these online websites. Ace currently has distribution centers located in various parts of the world to enable more efficiency for their global stores at different pin-points. This way transport costs can be cut as well as time on delivering inventory. The closest distribution center to Bahrain is currently in UAE being operated by the Al Futtaim group. Ace can extend their current agreement with Al Futtaim for them to deliver across to Bahrain and take care of their inventory as well as the UAE. 6. 4 Promotion and Advertising Promotion ACE’s competitor in Bahrain Manazel offers various promotional vouchers and discounts to its customers, should be a model ACE will focus on that will help it gain more popularity with customers. Coupons, discount vouchers, loyalty cards should all be included as promotional tools by ACE and all promotional activity should reflect the goal ACE wants to be perceived as which is ‘the helpful store†. Advertising The most important part of marketing for any product is advertising, there are several tools ACE could you to get its name out in Bahrain which include, word of mouth, billboards on (major signs, buses etc. ) radio adverts, Television and much more. Due to culture and market similarities with the UAE ACE could use existing ads in Bahrain to cut costs in advertising research. 6. 5 Estimated sales/sales mix A sales mix is the specific sales of each product offered by a company in comparison to total product sales. Businesses commonly track this information to figure out exactly how much profit they make or can make when marketing a range of items or services. The sales mix of products will often impact an organization’s bottom line. 6. 6 Production/service strategies Production or operations strategy refers to the pattern of decisions or course of action that the organization takes to produce goods and services. The production strategy shows the direction the production or operations function of an enterprise should take. It has important consequences for the way production resources are selected, deployed and managed (Sarkissian. 2012). 7. Financial Planning â€Å"Financial planning is the process of meeting your life dreams/goals through the proper management of your finance† (Beniwal, 2010). This allows the usage of several financial tools such as Profit and Loss Statements, Cash Flow Projection and Financial Analysis to basically achieve financial objectives. 7. 1 Profit and Loss Statement Below is the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited) for the three and nine months ended September 29, 2012 and October 1, 2011. ACE HARDWARE CORPORATION| | | | | | | | CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME| | | | | | | (Unaudited, in millions)| | | | | | | | | | Three Months Ended| | | Nine Months Ended| | | September 29,| | October 1,| | September 29,| | October 1,| | | | 2012| | | 2011| | | 2012| | | 2011| | | (13 Weeks)| | (13 Weeks)| | (39 Weeks)| | (39 Weeks)| | Revenues| $| 949. 9| $| 912. 0| $| 2,929. 0| $| 2,787. 5| | | | | | | | | | | | Cost of revenues| | 826. 1| | | 797. 6| | | 2,564. 3| | | 2,449. 3| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Gross profit| | 123. 8| | | 114. 4| | | 364. 7| | | 338. 2| | Distribution operations expenses| | 25. 1| | | 26. 2| | | 74. 4| | | 70. 7| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Selling, general and administrative expenses| | 35. | | | 36. 2| | | 104. 5| | | 104. 3| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Retail success and developme nt expenses| | 26. 2| | | 27. 6| | | 91. 5| | | 84. 1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Total operating expenses| | 86. 8| | | 90. 0| | | 270. 4| | | 259. 1| | Operating income| | 37. 0| | | 24. 4| | | 94. 3| | | 79. 1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Interest expense| | (4. 2)| | | (8. 9)| | | (20. 2)| | | (27. 8)| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Loss on early extinguishment of debt| | -| | | -| | | (19. 9)| | | -| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Interest income| | 1. 0| | | 1. 5| | | 2. | | | 3. 8| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Other income, net| | 1. 7| | | 1. 5| | | 5. 0| | | 6. 1| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Income tax expense| | (0. 9)| | | (1. 4)| | | (2. 4)| | | (2. 4)| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Net income| | 34. 6| | | 17. 1| | | 59. 7| | | 58. 8| | Less: net income attributable to non-controlling interests| | 0. 3| | | 0. 1| | | 0. 3| | | 0. 3| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Net income attributable to Ace Hardware Corporation| $| 34. 3| | $| 17. 0| | $| 59. 4| | $| 58. 5| | Accrued patronage distributions| $| 33. 3| | $| 15. 2| | $| 57. 0| $| 53. | | See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements. | | | | | Ray AGriffith, GuziK, William M & Gast, Erik D. , 2012). | | | | | | | | | | | | | ACE HARDWARE CORPORATION| | | | | | CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS| | | | (Unaudited, in millions)| | | | | | | | Nine Months Ended| | September 29,| | | October 1,| | | 2012| | | 2011| | | (39 Weeks)| | | (39 Weeks)| Operating Activities| | | | | | Net income| $| 59. 7| $| 58. 8| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:| | | | | | Depreciation and amortization| | 30. | | | 29. 0| Amortization of deferred gain on sale leaseback| | (0. 9)| | | (0. 9)| Amortization of deferred financing costs| | 1. 6| | | 2. 2| Gain on disposal of assets, net| | -| | | (2. 0)| Provision for doubtful accounts| | 2. 8| | | 3. 2| Loss on early extinguishment of debt| | 19. 9| | | -| Other, net| | 0. 2| | | -| Changes in operating assets and liabilities:| | | | | | Receivables| | (43. 2)| | | (39. 0)| Inventories| | (28. 9)| | | (68. 9)| Other current assets| | (2. 6)| | | 2. 7| Other long-term assets| | (7. 0)| | | (8. 0)| Accounts payable and accrued expenses| | 32. 6| | | 72. | Other long-term liabilities| | 6. 0| | | 2. 2| Deferred taxes| | 1. 1| | | 5. 0| Net cash provided by operating activities| | 71. 3| | | 56. 6| Investing Activities| | | | | | Purchases of marketable securities| | (9. 0)| | | (46. 1)| Proceeds from sale of marketable securities| | 8. 6| | | 46. 3| Purchases of property and equipment| | (31. 2)| | | (19. 5)| Decrease in notes receivable, net| | 1. 6| | | 1. 4| Other| | 0. 1| | | 0. 1| Net cash used in investing activities| | (29. 9)| | | (17. 8)| Financing Activities| | | | | | Net borrowings under revolving line of credit| | 113. 0| | | 9. | Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt| | 200. 0| | | -| Redemption of senior notes| | (301. 3)| | | -| Principal payments on long -term debt| | (7. 5)| | | (4. 0)| Payments of deferred financing costs| | (5. 2)| | | -| Payments of cash portion of patronage distribution| | (27. 7)| | | (26. 4)| Cash Flow Projection Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) for the nine months ended September 29, 2012 and October 1, 2011 Payments of patronage refund certificates| | (17. 3)| | | (17. 3)| Proceeds from sale of noncontrolling interests| | 0. 3| | | 8. 8| Other| | 0. 6| | | 0. | Net cash used in financing activities| | (45. 1)| | | (29. 2)| (Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents| | (3. 7)| | | 9. 6| Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period| | 15. 8| | | 9. 3| Cash and cash equivalents at end of period| $| 12. 1| $| 18. 9| Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:| | | | | | Interest paid| $| 21. 3| | $| 20. 1| Income taxes paid| $| 0. 9| $| 0. 5| See accompanying notes to the condensed consolidated financial statements. | | | | 6| | | | | | (Ray A Griffith, GuziK, William M & Gast, Erik D. , 2012 8. 0 Management considerations ACE will undertake a big change in bringing ACE hardware to Bahrain, Bahrain overall will be a good prospect as the company has penetrated a similar market in the Middle East (i. e. United Arab Emirates) and with a very stable economy and freedom of business with no government interruptions it will be a relatively easy venture for an established brand such as ACE. However the management at ACE has to consider several factors that will make the venture a more smooth transition, such as trying a joint venture with a local business, culture considerations so as not to put out unethical products. 8. Personnel/sales force factors A sharp forecast of more and employees getting into the professional field in Bahrain, and the stiff rise in population over recent years and also the preferences giving to the locals in hiring, ACE hardware has to take into considerations means and processes of hiring its employees, personnel training and qualification has to be of the highest standard and profe ssional communication skills has to be a criteria in hiring employees 8. 2 Business Advisors: With the help of a business advisor Ace could more effectively implement their strategy to break into the market in Bahrain. An effective business advisor would ensure a smoother transition by assisting ace in dealing with the laws and regulations entering the market and guiding them through government policies. Due to Aces existing established stores already present in the UAE the corporation already has knowledge on the different structures of setting up business in the Middle East. Business advisors in Bahrain would help them in ways more specific to the Bahrain market and can also help them with most effective Methods of Marketing in the country and the most effective locations to set up stores. 9. Recommendations/Conclusion Ace should undertake an aggressive marketing campaign upon entering the market in order to create brand awareness using ‘Coming soon† promotions to build up the hype of the store. Ace should engage with local business advisors in Bahrain to help guide them with cultural differences and deal with government legislations and regulations. Ace should undertake further Exten sive research to gain a better understanding on aspects of the Bahrain hardware market and to know their potential competitors and their offerings more in order to price, promote and operate more effectively.