Children and food Essay

Being a first time mom can be scary, and worrying about your baby getting the right nutrients and developing â€Å"on time† is something many mothers worry about. When to start your baby trying out solids, is something that can vary from child to child however there are some clues that you can take from you babies actions to know when they are ready. A child watching the food being opened in anticipation to eat it is a clue that shows that they are interested in trying new things since there attention is gaged at the new food. Also reaching for a spoon shows readiness for feeding. Playing with food or a spoon, and also irritation when feeding too slow are indicators that your baby is ready to move on and try solid foods. Children typically start to exhibit these types of behaviors at around four to six months. Starting your child out eating a tablespoon or two of semisoft food on a spoon once or twice a day is a good way to begin, only start with small portions in the beginning then work up. Food offered from a spoon stimulates muscle development and also new experience in sensation, taste, and texture. When you are ready to start you child eating solid foods you want to make sure of a few things before you begin. First you want to make sure your infant is not overly tired or hungry, this could cause your baby to not corporate or be interested in trying new things. You want to use a small spoon and allow the infant to open their mouth and extend his/her tongue. Next you want to place the spoon on the tongue and avoid scraping the spoon on the infant’s gums. Scraping the food on your babies tongue does not teach them how to properly eat. Make sure to pace yourself to allow your infant to swallow. Mothers want to make sure that they are not feeding their child too quickly, first meals may be 5-6 spoonful’s over 10 minutes. The first food you should be spoon-feeding your child is iron fortified baby cereal. You will then want to move on to pureed vegetables and fruits. Most people recommend starting out feeding your infant pureed vegetables because fruit is sweet so normally if you start with fruit your baby will not like those peas or green beans because they will want the sweet pears or bananas. This is not for all babies however. Only try one new food at a time and offer for 2-3 days with 1 week in between introducing something new. You want to wait a week incase your baby has an allergy to that food, that way you can identify it and talk to your doctor. There are many unsafe food choices for infants starting out eating solids. Popcorn, peanuts, raisins, whole grapes, stringy meats, gum/gummy candy, jellybeans, hot dogs, and hard/raw fruits or vegetables; should be avoided. This time of trying new foods is an experience for both you and your baby. There is no need to rush your baby into eating solids, when they are ready they will act like it. Something’s to watch out for when feeding your child is to not force them to eat it. Place the spoon on their tongue and let them take the spoon in without you doing it for them. If your infant continues to spit the food out over and over again or don’t open their mouth then do not force it, they just might not be ready, put the spoon and baby food away and try again in a day or two.

Preludes by T.S Elliot and Vitae Lampada by Sir Henry Newton Essay

Reading both poems for the first time, there seemed to be no distinct or even vague similarities between the two poems, Preludes, by T.S Elliot and Vitae Lampada by Sir Henry Newton. However, after reading each thoroughly a few more times and carefully evaluating them, several key similarities and as always, differences, began to reveal themselves. Both Preludes as well as Vitae Lampada begines with a time introductory statement. â€Å"There’s a breathless hush in the close tonight.† From Vitae Lampada, and â€Å"The winter evening settles down† from Preludes. Both these sentences inform us of the time, a sort of evening, just after dark. The very next sentences from each poem are also similar. â€Å"Ten to make and a match to win† and â€Å"With smells of steaks in passageways†. These sentences are written by the poets to set a scene, as one would set a scene in a drama play, but in poetry, with words. These two sentences give us a strong visual image of what the rest of the poem is about. â€Å"Ten to make and a match to win† is similar to that of a game of cricket, and as in cricket, it gives a certain tension of the stakes, to win the match. Prelude’s â€Å"With smells of steaks in passageways† gives us a vision of a lonely passageway, with smells of steaks suggests that the person the author is describing could possibly be an outcast of society, wondering around the streets in evening. Vitae Lampada goes further into describing itself. â€Å"And It’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat, or the selfish hope of a season’s fame.† -immediately tells us that what they are encountering in their match, what they need to win, is not a one man team, but rather the whole team working as one. Not for personal glory but for much higher stakes, for the entire team. Preludes now introduces a picture of a low, dirty place. â€Å"The grimy scraps, of withered leaves about your feet.† A grimy place, a dirty place, somewhere that is not well maintained, with stray withered leaves across the floor. The next few lines† The showers beat on broken blinds and chimney pots.† Once again an image of a badly maintained place, with rain beating on broken pots that are left behind. On the whole, a negative image. Vitae Lampada, is also setting in a negative image, an image of lost hope and despair. â€Å"The sand of the desert is sodden red -Red with the wreck of a square that broke;† A square, in this case is referring to a formation of troops. Sir Henry Newbolt is comparing the aspect of war, with a game of cricket and this extended metaphor has worked exceedingly well in managing to contrast and yet bring the two closer together. Sodden red suggests that a great many soldiers have died and their blood spilled across the battlefield. The next two lines, add deeper to the feeling of despair. â€Å"The gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke† The soldiers that Sir Henry Newbolt is referring to here is not in a bright situation, with their guns jammed, and their leader (colonel) dead, and the entire regiment of them blind in the dust and smoke, it is indeed apparent that a deep feeling of desolation is introduced. And, as in Preludes, a negative image is painted. Revolving around time appears to be the main theme in Preludes. The start of the second stanza â€Å"the morning comes to consciousness,† lets us know that the morning has come, after the evening in the first stanza. And time is also in the fourth stanza â€Å"the conscience of a blackened street.† could possibly mean after dark. And a few lines before, four and five and six o’clock suggests that time is moving quickly. The final stanza of Vitae Lampada uses a few † strong words† possibly to reinforce it’s meaning. â€Å"Every one of her sons must hear, and none that hears it dare forget.† Her sons, this of course, means the country’s people and the strong word â€Å"must† hear, hear the patriotism perhaps? And â€Å"dare† forget. â€Å"dare† is a strong word, a threat even. Threatening them to remember their loyalty, and to never forget it. Vitae Lampada’s last few lines, bring a sudden contrast, compared to the rest of the poem. The second stanza is an image of despair, but here, the final touch to the sense of patriotism is added. â€Å"Bear through life like a torch in flame, and falling fling to the host behind.† This sentence carries a great deal of meaning to the main theme of the poem. Bear through life like a torch in flame suggests that these troops, instead of hopelessness, now carry a symbol, a beacon of light. The torch, could be as a baton is passed on in a game of relay. â€Å"As falling fling to the host behind†. When a soldier falls in battle, his effort is not lost, not wasted, but instead, passed on to those behind, as they march forward, with the flaming torch. These two poems have indeed, very different ideas and themes, but they both have several things in common. For a start, both Preludes and Vitae Lampada use time description to allow the reader a window in which to see the rest of the poem. Both are describing, metaphorically, aspects of life. And they both, to an extent, use negative images to describe, to paint their visual images to the reader.

Formal Report or proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Formal Report or proposal - Essay Example Analysis leads to the conclusion that our company needs to adopt socially responsible practices. Every business venture aims at flourishing in the modern marketplace. There are several methods of achieving including the application of marketing strategies for sales increase, manufacturing and production concepts for cost-effectiveness and organizational management for over-all company harmony. However, the concept of an ethically-run business as necessary for the company to succeed is becoming more and more recognized. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a by word for many business professionals. Although it is generally observing ethics and morals in business dealings, CSR is thought to comprise of activities such as supporting charities is CSR, funding anti-crime and poverty programs, exceeding legal or regulatory obligations in areas of business operation such as health and safety and consumer rights, managing the supply chain to ensure that suppliers respect human rights is CSR and taking measures to ensure that products do not harm the environment. (Kotler and Nancy 2004, p. 3) Our concern is not so much in defining CSR but in determining whether the observance of business ethics is optional or not. This paper will argue that business ethics is necessary and beneficial for the business firm. ... Increased Job Performance Quality The reason why a field in business called Human Resources Management (HRM) exists is that it was long recognized that there is a need to ensure that employee issues are properly addressed. One of the secrets of successful business companies is that they were able to derive extra commitment from all employees resulting to unprecedented quality and responsiveness in products and services along with heroic frugality, incredible levels of integration and collaboration within and without the organizations, and especially to pull off continuous, brilliant, and cheap innovation. According to Kotler and Lee (2004) the only way one can "manage" high level human output is to set the conditions for everyone doing their best: including support of the core competencies of people, their ability to self-organize, their ability to change and grow. A company can achieve this if it fosters trust and build organizational cultures in which freedom and personal initiative can cohabit with cooperation, caring and a highly integrated harmony. Only thru a sincere observance of business ethics can the company assure that its employees do not stage rallies, release negative public statements regarding the company, resign and reveal company trade secrets. Being ethical also helps in attracting excellent and skilled professionals to work for the company. The Industrial Society for the US (in Price 2002) reports that "82% of US professionals claimed that they would not work for an organisation whose values they did not believe in" and that "among smaller businesses, the survey showed that 62% of owner managers were influenced by their employees to be more socially active." Consumer

Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Individual Report - Essay Example As such, in terms of the organization of the paper, a summary of each section will be provided followed by the views of the reviewer. Major section headings are typed in bold type while sub-section are typed normally. Though not explicitly stated, one can infer the purpose of the research. It is to develop an open-book accounting (OBA) framework that is organized according to the various uses of OBA and employed by practitioners of supply chain management as an implementation tool(Hoffjan , et al., 2011). This purpose is informed by the fact that very little is known of the relevance of OBA in competitive business environments that are normally punctuated by relationships of cooperation and trust between organizations and their suppliers and consumers. In terms of the research process, this section appears misplaced. It shows no connection to the literature review which should be the starting point and basis of the entire research process(Meerwald, 2013). Literature review is the backbone of the research process(Tight, 2013). It is from the review of literature that the researcher identifies the gap in knowledge that they then set out to fill through research. Literature review is accomplished at two levels. The first level gives a broad overview of the subject matter of the research while the second level examines past similar research. Usually, at the end of their research report, the researcher will list data gaps and recommend that further research be conducted to fill these gaps. To this end, Andreas Hoffjan and company have ably demonstrated the existence of a knowledge gap. Past studies on OBA have tended to focus on the functions and consequences of OBA. However, very little is known of the practical applications of OBA. Again, while the research problem is not directly stated, one can infer it from the research paper. While much research has been conducted on OBA, not much attention has been paid to its practical applications to supply chain

Federal Parliament Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Federal Parliament - Essay Example The law made by the courts, using precedent, as opposed to those made by parliament (Statute law), is called the Common Law. The Common Law is case-based and has a hierarchical doctrine of precedent. It is adversarial rather than inquisitorial. The adversarial system of law relies on the skill of the different advocates representing their party's positions and not on some neutral party, usually the judge, trying to ascertain the truth of the case. Judges in an adversarial system tend to be more interested in ensuring the fair play of fundamental justice. The doctrine of precedent governs the case law system. Once a case is decided, subsequent similar cases are to be decided on the principles/rules developed in the earlier decision. The Common Law system of precedent is hierarchical: lower courts are bound to follow the principles decided by higher courts. Once a higher court decides a case, it becomes a binding authority on the lower courts. Under Australia's common law system, the High Court of Australia and the Federal Court of Australia have the authority to interpret constitutional provisions. Judicial power is vested in a "Federal Supreme Court" which is also called the High Court of Australia. ... Judicial power is vested in a "Federal Supreme Court" which is also called the High Court of Australia. The High Court has jurisdiction over matters arising under the Constitution, federal laws, treaties, foreign affairs (Sections 75-78). The High Court is also the top appellate court in Australia, and hears appeals from any other federal court, state Supreme Courts, and the Inter-State Commission only on questions of law. Land, as we all know is a limited resource and plays a vital role in the development of any nation. If a country has to expand its economy, it has to think of changing its land use pattern. The vast countryside holds tremendous potential for growth and industrialisation. A problem peculiar to Australia is the occupation and subsequent ownership of land by the native groups. Previous cases related to land disputes should shed some light on the outcome of change initiatives taken up by the government. Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (commonly known as Mabo) was a landmark Australian court case which was decided by the High Court of Australia on June 3, 1992. The effective result of the judgement was to make irrelevant the declaration of terra nullius, or "land belonging to no-one" which had been taken to occur from the commencement British colonisation in 1788, and to recognise a form of native title. Although Mabo was litigated within the legal context of property law, the decisions clearly had much wider implications which have still to be determined1. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabo_v_Queensland_(No_2) The action which brought about the decision had been led by Eddie Mabo, David Passi and

Analogue Electronics Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analogue Electronics - Coursework Example ii. While the "E" favored worth records are the most-ideal approach to protecting one is loading the ideal number of qualities for a given tolerance, an expression of alert is in place concerning what is accessible in the commercial center and certain certifiable practices. E24 has a tolerance of 5% and numerous makers make each worth on the E24 rundown in 1% tolerance despite the fact that the practice bodes well c. i. The increase of an operational enhancer or op-amp circuit relies on a mixed bag of elements including the circuit design and the segments around the operational intensifier chip itself. This page gives an outline or diagram of the gain of the distinctive operational enhancer circuits accessible. ii. This working mode is a blend of both the modifying and the non-upsetting speaker. In this mode, the yield will be the distinction between the two inputs, duplicated by the shut circle pick up. Setting the estimation of shut circle increase typically and attained by picking the proportion of the criticism and information resistors. In both the transforming and non-reversing speakers one and only enter was utilized, the other data being associated with

Assignment 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

2 - Assignment Example The in-depth interviews involved a word association exercise with the informants. A diagram that shows the concepts that students relate to marketing was developed, based on the results of in-depth interviews, indicating the most frequently occurring connections. A detailed explanation of what was learnt about how college students view marketing was provided. As indicated earlier, the informants comprised of four college students who are not business majors. The main aim was to find out the perceptions of these students on marketing. The following questions were asked during the in-depth interviews and the informants were allowed to provide their responses in detail: The first informant defined marketing as the act of advertising and promotion of products or services. The second informant claimed that he understood marketing as an effort that is carried out to create brand awareness. The third informant linked marketing to consumer research, whereby she said that all marketing personnel should possess the ability to find out about the needs of consumers so that they can sell appropriate products and services to them. The fourth respondent defined marketing as manipulation of a consumer’s beliefs to enhance selling. According to the four informants, marketing involves various activities. For instance, one informant said that promotion, which is majorly carried out through advertising was the main activity of marketing. Another respondent perceived pricing and retail decision making as a major activity of marketing. Creation of brand awareness by marketing personnel was perceived as one of the main activities of marketing by one of the respondents. On the other hand, one of the informants claimed that the main activity of market research, which enables marketers to create a brand by carrying out quality research on how consumers perceive a product, service or organization. This research involves the identification of clients’ needs, and

Ratios Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Ratios - Case Study Example Furthermore, the times interest earned ratios computed above implies Wal-Mart has a better financial position of servicing interest obligations compared to Target Corporation. The times interest earned ratios indicate the WAL-Mart has the capacity of servicing the interest expense by 12 times using earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) while Target has capacity of 8.7 times (Brigham & Houston, 2010). Consequently, the solvency financial position of Wal-Mart Corporation is better compared to that of Target Corporation. However, the profit margin ratios reflect the financial performance of Target is better compared to that of Wal-Mart Corporation. The profit margin ratios indicate the Target Corporation in 2014 was able to generate gross profit worth 0.29 cents of dollars for every one dollar of sales revenue generated. In contrast, the Wal-Mart was able to generate 0.24 cents of gross profit for every one dollar generated (Maynard, 2013). Thus, the Target Corporation was more profitable compared to the Wal-Mart Corporation. However, the efficiency of WAL-Mart management in utilizing the assets to generate sales revenue is higher compared to Target Corporation according to asset turnover ratio. The asset turnover ratios indicate Wal-Mart’s assets were able to generate $2.38 of sales revenue for every one dollar of asset utilized. In contrast, the Target Corporation was able to generate $1.75 of sales revenue for every one dollar of assets utilized (Brigham & Houston, 2010). Consequently, Wal -Mart Corporation is more efficient in utilizing assets compared to Target

Essay on the Russian Revolution Essay Example for Free

Essay on the Russian Revolution Essay The Russo-Japanese War lasted from 1904 to 1905, and arose from both Japan and Russia’s desire for expansion and dominance in Korea and Manchuria. Russia suffered many great defeats in this war, against a nation that was considered inferior and was not one of the Great Powers. This humiliated the people of Russia, and caused them to lose confidence in Tsar Nicholas II, as well as causing great military, economic, and political problems for Russia. When the Russo-Japanese War erupted in 1904, Russia was not fully prepared to involve itself in a war. The Trans-Siberian Railway was not completed and would not be until 1905, so Russias army was not fully mobile. Russia’s inability efficiently mobilize caused them to lose battles to the Japanese and to eventually lose the war itself. The Russians were optimistic; as they were sure their vast superiority of numbers would easily defeat the tiny Japan, but this was not to be. Japan, with their advanced technology destroyed the Russian Army, armed with their primitive weapons as compared to the Asians. Huge military defeats were caused by the Russo-Japanese War, which highlighted the weakness of the military and caused national humiliation. Russia, all along had prided themselves on military excellence. An example of such a defeat was in January 1905 when the army had to surrender their Port Arthur naval base in Northern China, which they had possessed before the start of the war. Another example of a great failure of the military was at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905. The Russian Baltic fleet consisting of the 35 warships had sailed from northern Europe to the Far East, only to lose 25 warships in a defeat by the Japanese navy. The crushing of Russian’s military added impetus to the 1905 Revolution, as it made the people of Russia aware of the weakness of their military and ashamed to be Russian. They were losing to a nation very few had heard of and it was humiliating,  this caused the opposition to autocratic rule by the Tsar Nicholas II. The Russo-Japanese War brought about economic problems for Russia, and this therefore meant there was a significant lack of money to solve any other problems present Russia. The war, as all wars do, cost an extreme amount of money. As it resulted in failure no money could be gained from the invaded territories. Russia had already had economic problems, and its economy was still far behind that of other Great Powers. Russia needed more money to invest in the economy to enlarge it, to make it more comparable to other Great Powers. The backwardness of Russia compared to these other Great Powers was another source of national humiliation for the people of Russia. Furthermore, the lack of money meant that the government could do nothing about the living and working conditions in towns and cities, or the problems in the rural areas of Russia. Consequently, the economic problems brought about a dent in national pride and Russia’s being unable to solve any of its other problems due to financial constraints. Both the peasants and the landowners were suffering. People were starving Agriculture was very behind that of other countries, as under the Witte system nothing had been done to improve it. Therefore the land was not cultivated properly, and famines occurred quite regularly such as the one in 1902 as well as the one in 1905, even with all this the peasants were still required to provide food for the Russian Army at war. There were also political implications of the Russo-Japanese War. The war was fought in the very far eastern reaches of the country, far away from where the majority of the population lived, and hence they must have felt removed from it, especially as news was still slow to travel. There was therefore little public enthusiasm for the war. Many people felt there was little justification for it: public opinion was not on the side of the war. Moreover, the military was very ill-equipped for the war. This showed to the people of Russia the government’s failings, and caused people to turn away from the Tsar as a leader, and look elsewhere, such as to political groups who were prepared to take radical action to achieve their aims, the people had lost faith in the Tsar. Political groups such as the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks took advantage of the peasant discontent and tried to turn the peasants against the Czar and more towards radicalism and liberalism. On Sunday, 22nd January 1905, more than 200 000 workers, led by a priest of the church by the n ame of Father Gapon, took  part in a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg (later known as Petrograd, and then Leningrad). They proceeded to the Winter Palace to present a petition to the Tsar. The petition, written by Gapon, made clear the problems and opinions of the workers and called for improved working conditions, fairer wages, and a reduction in the working day to eight hours and medical benefits. Other demands included an end to the Russo-Japanese War and the introduction of universal suffrage. They also wanted a parliament, or a Duma, to represent their views. The unarmed demonstrators were shot at by the Tsars troops (The Imperial Guard). This is referred to as the â€Å"Bloody Sunday†. There were many outbursts after that. Troops mutinied, peasants rose up and there were strikes and riots emerged. In the October Manifesto which was drafted by Sergei Witte, who became Russias first prime minister, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to : (1) Grant to the population the inviolable right of free citizenship, based on the principles of freedom of person, conscience, speech, assembly, and union. (2 ) Without postponing the intended elections for the State Duma and insofar as possible †¦ to include in the participation of the work of the Duma those classes of the population that have been until now entirely deprived of the right to vote, and to extend in the future, by the newly created legislative way, the principles of the general right of election. (3) To establish as an unbreakable rule that without its confirmation by the State Duma, no law shall go into force and that the persons elected by the people shall have the opportunity for actual participation in supervising the legality of the acts of authorities appointed by it† A Duma was elected in 1906, dominated by the middle-class Kadet party, the Duma was supposed to be able to enact legislation that would bind even the Tsar but even this proved too radical in its demands for the Tsar. The Tsar was determined to preserve his autocracy even in the context of reform and he restricted the Dumas authority in many ways. The Tsar issued the Fundamental Laws. It stated in part that Tsars ministers could not be appointed by, and were not responsible to, the Duma, thus denying responsible government at the executive level. Furthermore, the Tsar had the power to dismiss the Duma and announce new elections whenever he wished. He also restricted the franchise to the property-owning classes. The Tsar never allowed the Duma to be anything more than an advisory committee. This idealized vision of the  Romanov monarchy blinded him to the actual state of his country. With a firm belief that his power to rule was granted by Divine Right, Nicholas assumed that the Russian people were devoted to him with unquestioning loyalty. This ironclad belief rendered Nicholas unwilling to allow the progressive reforms that might have alleviated the suffering of the Russian people. Tsar Nicholas II tried to deal with the pressures for change by increasing police powers; there was brutal suppression of dissent and the civil rights granted in 1905 gradually restricted. Witte resigned and was replaced in July by Stolypin, who combined ruthlessness in dealing with unrest with a thoughtful programme of agrarian reform which tried to remove the legacy of debt and land hunger and create a class of peasant farmers loyal to the regi me. Stolypin had fallen out with the Tsar even before he was assassinated in 1911, and after this Nicholass ministers were of limited ability. Even before the start of the First World War unrest was breaking out again, but the onset of war, and the rapidity and magnitude of Russian defeats, greatly weakened the political and economic structure of the country. Alexis, Tsar Nicholas IIs son suffered from haemophilia, where his blood was unable to clot after bleeding due to a lack of platelets in the blood. Rasputin claimed to be a holy monk from the remote wastelands of Siberia, and was able to use his supernatural healing powers to heal Alexis. Granted, Rasputin could ease some of Alexis pain, but most of what he did seemed a scam .The Tsarina (the Tsars wife) doted on her son and thus naturally treated the monk better, since Grigori Rasputin did what doctors couldn’t do, which was to help her son with his sickness and to help stop his pain. In 1911 Stolypin ordered Rasputin out of St. Petersburg, and the order was obeyed. Stolypins minister of religion, Lukyanov, on the reports of the police, ordered an investigation that produced abundant evidence of Rasputins scandalous deeds. From this time on, the Tsarina detested Prime Minister Stolypin. After Stolypin was assassinated, the Tsarina brought Rasputin back to St. Petersburg. Rasputin abused his authority and replaced many ministers with his own family and friends, regardless of whether the previous ministers were good. Some of his decision in the countrys administration were also foolish and led to many problems. This naturally led to people disliking Rasputin severely and thus blaming the Tsar for his trust in this incompetent person. In 1915 Tsar Nicholas II unwisely chose to take direct command of field operations, personally overseeing Russia’s main theatre of war, leaving his German wife, Tsarina Alexandra as regent in charge of affairs in the capital. Alexandra was very unpopular with the Russian people, who accused her of collaboration with the Germans. Alexandra had no experience of government and under the influence of Rasputin constantly appointed and re-appointed incompetent new ministers, which meant the government was never stable or efficient. This was particularly dangerous in a war of attrition, as neither the troops nor the civilian population were ever adequately supplied; the country was plunged into further state of crisis. By 1917 the regime was in a parlous state with revolutionary unrest spreading among the troops and workers, peasants seizing the large estates and (a decisive new factor compared with the events of 1905) signs of disunity and disaffection amongst the ruling à ©lite and police, first shown in the murder of Rasputin by conservative nobles on Dec. 31, 1916. When Nicholas II entered the First World War, his desire was to restore the prestige that Russia had lost during the Russo-Japanese war. Nicholas wanted to galvanize the diverse people in his empire under a single banner by directing military force at a common enemy, namely Germany and the Central Powers. A common assumption among his critics is that he believed that by doing so he could distract the people from the ongoing issues of poverty, inequality and poor working conditions that were sources of discontent. Instead of restoring Russia’s political and military standing, World War I lead to horrifying military casualties on the Russian side and undermined it further. By 1915 (during World War I), there were manifold signs that the economy was breaking down under the heightened strain of wartime demand and the Tsar’s mis-management of the country’s funds. Over fifteen million men joined the army( due to conscription), which left an insufficient number of workers in the factories and on the farms. Conscription also stripped skilled workers from the cities and they had to be replaced with unskilled peasants. The result was widespread shortages of food and materials. Factory workers had to endure terrible working conditions, including twelve to fourteen hour days and low wages. Many riots  and strikes for better conditions and higher wages broke out. Although some factories agreed to the requests for higher wages, wartime inflation nullified the increase. Industrial workers went on strike and effectively paralyzed the railway and transportation networks. What few supplies were available could not be effectively transported. As goods became more and more scarce, prices skyrocketed. People were suffering, they began to turn to prostitution or crime( there was an increase in crime), people were begging, they were tearing down wooden fences to keep stoves heated for warmth. Also famine threatened many of the larger cities. The vast demand for factory production of war supplies and workers caused many more labor riots and strikes. In addition, because more factory workers were needed, peasants moved out of the country and into the cities, which soon became overpopulated, and living conditions rapidly grew worse. Furthermore, as more food was needed for the soldiers, the food supply behind the front grew scarce. Soldiers themselves, who were suffering from lack of equipment and protection from the elements, began to turn against the Tsar. This was mainly because as the war progressed, many of the officers who were loyal to the Tsar were killed and they were replaced with discontented conscripts from the major cities who were much less loyal to the Tsar. Russia’s first major battle was a disaster. In the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, over 120, 000 Russian troops were killed, wounded or captured, while Germany suffered only 20,000 casualties. In 1915, things took a critical turn for the worse, when Germany shifted its focus of attack to the Eastern front. The superior German army destroyed the unequipped Russian forces. By the end of October 1916, Russia had lost between 1.6 and 1.8 million soldiers with an additional two million prisoners of war and one million missing. Soldiers went hungry and lacked shoes, ammunition and weapons. Rampant discontent lowered morale, only to be further undermined by a series of military defeats. The Tsar was blamed for all these crises and what little support he had left began to crumple. As this discontent grew, the State Duma issued a warning to Nicholas in November of 1916 stating that disaster would overtake the country unless a constitutional form of government was put in place. In typical fashion, Nicholas ignored them. The people were upset with the Tsar and his lack of care about his people. He was the reason they were suffering. The people were disgusted with his inept handing of the  country. Alexander Kerensky was a young and popular lawyer who gained a reputation for his work as a defense lawyer in a number of political trials of revolutionaries. Afterwards he gained a reputation for his work as a defence lawyer in a number of political trials of revolutionaries. He was elected to the Fourth Duma in 1912 as a member of the Trudoviks, a moderate labour party who were associated with the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. He was a brilliant orator and skilled parliamentary leader of the socialist opposition to the regime of the ruling Tsar, Nicholas II. When the February Revolution broke out in spring of 1917, Kerensky was one of its most prominent leaders: he was a member of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma and was elected vice-chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He simultaneously became the first Minister of Justice in the newly formed Provisional Government. Kerensky became the Minister of War and the dominant figure in the newly formed government and in July of that same year he became Prime Minister. However, as Prime Minister he made two major errors. He ensured that Russia stayed in a war that was detested in the country itself. The overwhelming bulk of the population wanted Russia to withdraw from the war. There must have been few families, especially among the poor, who had not experienced personal tragedy between 1914 and 1917. His second mistake was not to offer the peasants land. Lenin did just this and immediately got the support he and the Bolsheviks needed at the expense of Kerensky. Kerensky also invited the Mensheviks to take part in the administration. To undermine the support of the Bolsheviks, Kerensky ordered that elections should take place for a constituent assembly. The elections were to be held in January 1918. Lenin had called for such elections earlier in 1917, so he could not object to this. As Kerensky argued, it was simply an extension of the democratic process denied to the people by the Romanovs. However, all the evidence indicated that the Bolsheviks would have done less well than other groups including the Mensheviks. On September 1st 1917, Kerensky declared Russia a republic. Vladimir Lenin was exiled in neutral Switzerland, when he heard of the revolution he made arrangements with the German government for permission to travel back to Russia. German officials agreed, evidently assuming that Lenin’s activities might weaken Russia, or if the Bolsheviks  came to power, lead to Russia withdrawing from the war with Germany. He arrived in Petrograd in April 1917. Lenin demanded that the Provisional Government give â€Å"All Powers to the Soviets† in addition to the speedy conclusion of the war without annexation, the renunciation of all secret diplomatic agreements, the control of factories by workers and the immediate seizure of land by peasants. He convinced his Bolshevik supporters that the seizure of power by the Soviets would be the signal for a European-wide socialist revolution. To prepare for the seizure of power, his Bolshevik supporters set out to win support from the masses in the soviets. Vladimir Lenin was the architect and first head of the USSR, led the October Revolution, which was effectively a coup detat. Lenin justified his violent seizure of power from the Provisional Government as merely a transfer of authority to the soviets, the popular councils elected by workers and soldiers that sprang up everywhere after the fall of the tsar. Lenin declared the formation of a Soviet government, withdrew Russia from World War I, and invited the peasants to take charge of the land that had formerly belonged to the nobles, state, and church. At the same time, Lenins government quickly moved to shut down opposition political parties and to censor the press, introduced conscription for the Red Army, and requisitioned grain from the peasants in order to fight the bloody Russian Civil War of 1918–1920. In January 1918, Lenin closed down the Constituent Assembly after the Bolsheviks won only 24 percent of the popular vote. In 1918, Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party as the Communist Party. Although Lenin was ruthless, he was also pragmatic. When his efforts to transform the Russian economy to a socialist model stalled, he introduced the New Economic Policy, where a measure of private enterprise was again permitted, a policy that continued for several years after his death. In 1918, Lenin narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but was severely wounded. When Lenin was badly injured in a failed assassination attempt on August 30, 1918, his government quickly responded with the September 5, 1918, announcement of a policy of Red Terror that would take the form of arrests, imprisonments, and murders. Trotsky was a Marxist and for a long time worked as an independent  revolutionary in Russia. Before 1914 he had attempted to bring about great cooperation between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks but her failed. In 1917, after the March Revolution, he returned from exile in America. In July, he decided to join the Bolsheviks. Leon Trotsky was a Communist theorist, prolific writer, leader in the 1917 Russian Revolution, and the peoples commissar for foreign affairs under Lenin and then head of the Red Army as the peoples commissar of army and navy affairs. He was also elected as the President of Petrograd Soviet. Joseph Stalin was a Bolshevik leader who became prominent only after Lenin’s return to Petrograd in April 1917. Although Stalin was very much a secondary figure during the October Revolution, he did gain Lenin’s attention as a useful ally. Stalin had a very important, yet secretive job. He was to provide disguises and safe houses and to arrange safe passage out of Petrograd to Finland, with guides and bodyguards, for Lenin, had the revolution not worked out as planned. Following the October coup, Lenin gave him a position in the government as commissar of nationalities. As Stalin was a member of an ethnic minority as he was from the central Asian region of Georgia, not Russia. Lenin felt he would be an effective ambassador of sorts to the many ethnic minorities within the former Russian Empire. After the revolution, Stalin became increasingly powerful and eventually succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union upon Lenin’s death in 1924. Kerensky Provisional Government fell On October 25-26, 1917when Vladimir Lenin and his Bolshevik supporters overthrew it in the October Revolution (coup d etat). There are many reasons as to why the provisional government fell. The Provisional Government fell because they insisted to continue fighting in the First World War, although things were going so badly. Millions of soldiers were dead and injured, also the soldiers lacked proper equipment and weapons to fight effectively, and they also had little to no training in war tactics. Also the failure of the Brusilov offensive is an important factor. The Provisional Government also did not solve the economic problems that Russia was facing. There were stills strikes and riots. Shortages continued and the people saw now improvement. By this time there was subsequent unpopularity of Alexander Kerensky who the most prominent person off the Provisional Government (War Minister and Prime Minister). Also in October with the crisis building, the Bolsheviks saw the opportunity to seize important institutions in Petrograd  such as banks and railways. The Russian Civil War, which broke out in 1918 shortly after the revolution, brought death and suffering to millions of people regardless of their political orientation. The war was fought mainly between the Red Amy (Reds), consisting of radical communist and revolutionaries, and the Whites consisting of: the monarchist, conservatives, liberals and moderate socialist who opposed the drastic restructuring championed by the Bolsheviks. The Whites has backing from nations such as the UK, France, USA and Japan. Also during the Civil War, Nestor Makhno led a Ukrainian anarchist movement which generally cooperated with the Bolsheviks. However, a Bolshevik force under Mikkhail Frunze destroyed the Makhnovist movement, when the Makhnovists refused to merge into the Red Army. In addition the so-called â€Å"Green Army† (nationalist and anarchist played a secondary role in the war, mainly in Ukraine.

HR Issues in Google Inc Essay Example for Free

HR Issues in Google Inc Essay 26 March 2009, 200 Layoffs â€Å"So today we have informed Googlers that we plan to reduce the number of roles within our sales and marketing organizations by just under 200 globally. The recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned. We had to restructure our organizations in order to improve our effectiveness and efficiency as a business. We will give each person time to try and find another position at Google, as well as outplacement support, and provide severance packages for those who leave the company. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone affected for all they have contributed to Google. † * Omid Kordestani, Senior VP, Global Sales and Business Development (2009) From this article, google would cut 200 would cut about 200 employees from its sales and marketing organization. It would reduce the overlap between different groups and speed up decision making. Omid Kordestani, Senior VP, Global Sales and Business Development said, the cut meant to address the mistakes that the company had done before. In some areas we’ve created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process,† Mr. Kordestani wrote on Google’s corporate blog. â€Å"That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time. † 4 January 2009, 100 Layoffs â€Å"Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring e need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions. We know this change will be very difficult for the people concerned, and we hope that many of them will be able to find new roles at Google. They helped build this company, new hire by new hire, and we are enormously grateful for everything they have done. † * Laszlo Bock, Vice President, People Operations (2009 In January, google laid off 100 recruiters which is that deeper cuts were â€Å"unlikely†. In February, company cut another 40 positions when it closed its radio advertising efforts. About 100 of the eliminated positions will be in the United States and the rest overseas, said Matt Furman, a Google spokesman. Mr. Furman said the company continued to hire new workers, albeit at a slow rate. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the company grew by 99 workers, ending the year with 20,222 full-time employees. In previous years, Google had added more than 2,000 people in a single quarter. Laid-off workers will be given time to apply for other jobs within the company. How a Giant Company Aims to Remain Intimate. Google have a good track record in management. It routinely ranks first or near the top in â€Å"best places to work† reports. Google’s value proposition as an employer combines a laser focus on innovation and smart business practices with a small-company feel that includes direct access to top management. For instance, no one hesitates to pose questions directly to the founders at the weekly all-hands meetings. The HR management system plays a critical role in keeping this value proposition well tuned and relevant for each successive generation of employees by embedding Google’s mission into daily work life. As Laszlo Bock, vice president of people operations at Google, said in an interview with BCG: â€Å"If you talk to anybody at Google and ask them what the mission is, they’ll say, ‘To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. ’ It’s rare to find a place where everyone knows the mission—and then actually believes it. † Google’s benefits and compensation packages, renowned for their largess, have a threefold purpose, Bock pointed out. First, to create a community—hence the microkitchens sprinkled around the offices, where people can interact informally. Second, to drive innovation: the more people interact, the higher the likelihood of creating serendipitous sparks of innovation. And third, to promote efficiency: on-site oil changes and dry-cleaning services help hard-working employees save time in their personal lives. To keep a pulse on how â€Å"Googlers† are feeling, which informs talent-management and development programs, HR undertakes a variety of analyses, Bock said. The company monitors retention and attrition and looks for patterns. An annual employee survey plus focus groups throughout the year provide ample qualitative feedback. On the basis of this analysis, upward management feedback gets put into practice. â€Å"Every member of our executive team has goals for the year,† Bock said. â€Å"These are not amorphous goals, like ‘make the company feel more engaged,’ but very specific, like ‘there were three issues in the sales organization that we will address this year. ’† Recruitment group Randstad Chooses Google Apps for its 29,000 Employees. Randstad consist of four large Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht) and the surrounding areas. It is one of the biggest staffing companies in the world and has some 29,000 employees working from more than 4,500 branches in 40 countries around the world. They help companies and candidates connect in industries such as engineering, finance and accounting, healthcare, human resources, managed services, pharma and technology. To give an idea, they place on average well over 500,000 people per day. It have grown to become quite large since it began as a small company started in a student dorm room in 1960 and the business has changed quite a bit in that time. But at its core, it still the same. All about people. Their decision making process involved several companies, but ultimately they decided on Google for a few different reasons. They have a workforce of younger, and heard the feedback that are quite familiar with Google tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive and Google+ Hangouts in user personal lives, and theyd like to use them at work too. Also, because the Google tools are all integrated, they wouldnt run into the problem of having employees across offices and countries having to work with several different pieces of technology that don’t work well together. Lastly, we wanted to provide our employees with as much training as they needed and G-company were able to provide that. Their rollout will eventually include all 29,000 Randstad employees, 5,000 of whom are located in the Netherlands. Their employees in France, Japan and India, approximately 8,000, are already on Google.

Recent Trends In Co Branding

Recent Trends In Co Branding Co-branding as an alternative branding proposition is fast making grounds in todays marketing arena all over the world in almost all the industries as well as in international marketing. Apart from the factors like cooperation brands equity, information, category, consumers knowledge, experience, nationality and culture, etc, the success of a co-branding alliance also depends on the COO effect. The country of-origin effect is mainly produced by cooperative brands country of-origin image and plays an important role in the success of co-branding strategy. In this paper, we identify various strategies a company can follow in order to enter a co-branding alliance and critical factors of a successful co-branding strategy with special focus on country-of-origin effect to assist the multinational companies make decisions about co-branding. We also utilise some real-world cases in order to demonstrate our notions. Introduction Nowadays, one of the highly valued assets for a company are its brands (Aaker, 1990), with branding being every companys top priority. But it often costs the companies huge amount of money and takes them a long time to build their brand. Todays market is suffering from a syndrome of sameness where all the products offered to the customers look very similar both in terms of sameness in the physical brand element and in the symbolic value proposition offered to the market. Thus it has become difficult to establish a unique position for new products with markets cluttered with competing brands. Even innovative differentiated products can be imitated quickly, leaving no strategic edge. As globalization phenomenon continues to elevate competition in the marketplace, product introduction has become highly fraught with risk. One reason of such risk is the incredibly high cost of building brands for a product, which in some cases can exceed $100 million (Voss and Gammoh, 2004), and another i s that firms are facing the reality of high new-product failure rates between 20 and 40% per year (Spethman Benezra, 1994). In this situation marketers are searching for alternative method of branding for creating sustainable competitive advantage. Although there are a number of ways for a company to build its own brand, co-branding may be a good branding strategy since it can offer fresh opportunities for companies to gain new markets that may otherwise be difficult to reach effectively, and it is beneficial to the organizations involved to alleviate costs when entering new markets by using the established equity of the second brand (Aaker, 2004; Kapferer, 2004; Keller, 2003). Moreover, it can also help the company to increase consumers perceived quality and image toward their brand (Keller, 2003). Co-branding is a marketing arrangement to utilize multiple brand names on a single product or service (Chang, 2009). Basically, it involves combining two or more well-known brands into a single product. The constituent brands can assist each other in achieving their objectives. Used properly, co-branding has the potential to achieve best of all worlds synergy that capitalises on the unique strengths of each contributing brand. Successful examples include Coach and Lexus, Diet Coke and Nutra Sweet, Pillsbury Brownies and Nestle Chocolate, Crocs and Disney, IBM and Intel, Betty Crocker and Hershey, Breyers and Hershey, Lays and KC Masterpiece, Sony and Kodak, and so forth. These co-brandings have created large benefits for stakeholders. However sometimes co-branding can pose the threat of differential advantage on one partner and generate potential competitors. Many a times, co-branding effects one partner positively and the other negatively. Among many factors (discussed later, in detail) that affect a brands evaluation by its customers and thus affect a co-branding alliances success, country-of-origin is an important factor. Leading research publications have established country of origin information as an indicator used by consumers to infer the quality and reliability of products from a country (e.g., Hong and Wyer 1989, 1990; Klein, Ettenson, and Morris 1998; Gà ¼rhan-Canli and Maheswaran 2000). This notion is typically used to describe the overall quality of goods within a particular product category, such as electronics or automobiles. Country-of-origin fit is described as the consumers perception of the overall compatibility of the two countries of origin involved in the brand alliance. Compatibility is assessed by comparing the consumers overall perceptions of the countries ability to produce quality goods within their respective product category. For example, assume that a consumer is evaluating a brand alliance that involves a Taiwanese computer manufacturer and a Japanese microprocessor chip manufacturer. When analyzing country of origin information, the consumer will rely on his or her perception of the overall quality of computers made in Taiwan and microprocessor chips made in Japan. If there is an inconsistency within this country of origin fit, the consumer may either weigh each country in terms of relative importance to the brand alliance or simply view the alliance unfavourably due to its dissimilarities of perceived product quality of the brands. Therefore country of origin fit will directly influence consumer attitude towards a cross-border brand alliance for specific product categories. That is to say, if the brand had a very strong negative brand of origin stereotype, it would be very difficult for it to build its own brand. In this paper previous research on co-branding is reviewed and recent trends and examples analysed to offer the critical success factors for assessing co-branding opportunities with special focus on the country-of-origin effect. Benefits of Co-branding There are several reasons why some companies would want to pursue co-branding. The first one is that co-branding can attract a wide range of consumers. Because once company adopts the co-branding, for consumers, it means that it provides more selection and more function of products. For example: Nike and Ipod, announced a partnership, which resulted in forming a coopetitive alliance of co-branding named Nike+Ipod. They call the co-brand product Nike + Ipod Sport Kit. The consumers can download the music from the Ipod website for free. They realized that there is one kind of the potential consumers who like to listen to music while can achieve the aim of the exercise. This is the change from a single product to a diverse selection of products. What is more, there are not only bringing more choices to choose brand and product but also bring the convenience for the consumers. In this fast-paced society, more and more people want to purchase the require goods in one place. So co-branding integrates variety of business concepts in order to meet the consumer needs. They can take the less money and time to buy the satisfied products. So co-branded products and services can gain consumer choices, loyalty and ultimately make the brand unique and distinctive. In addition, co-branding can bring more opportunity for the company. It can improve the quality of the product and influence the consumer judgment of the brand. Like innovation, this approach offers opportunity of growth in existing market and exploration of new markets. In such alliance, companies come together to create new offerings for customers. Once the new products can meet the consumers taste, it means that can bring the more profits for the company. So, it must have more space for development. For IT industry, relying on co-branding to gain the trust of consumers is a common marketing strategy. Co-branding can also reduce the risk of company to enter new markets, because they share the risk and responsibility from each other. Most of all, it can help the company reduce the costs and expense of operation. So co-branding provides the opportunities and integrates their resources and makes-up their disadvantage in order for business to achieve the win-win situation. Like Miller Brewing Corporation and Coors Brewing Corporation, which are US second and third largest brewers, combine their operations to create a bigger challenger to Anheuser-Busch Corporation. SABMiller and Molson Coors will each have a 50% interest in the joint venture, and have five representatives each on its board of directors. Based on the value of the assets, SABMiller will have a 58% economic interest in MillerCoors, and Molson Coors will have a 42% economic interest. MillerCoors will have annual beer sales of 69 million barrels, roughly 29% of the U.S. market, and revenue of $6.6 billion. Anheuser-Busch h as a market share of around 48%. (Wei-Lun Chang, 2009, page 4) Collaboration not only increases the number of market share, but also reduces the cost of two companies. Risks posed by Co-branding However, co-branding can also provide bad effect to the company. Because collaborating with your competitors is like a double-edged sword. Firstly, it is difficult for one of the parties to abandon the partnership and re-establish itself in the market independently. Once a co-brand takes position in market, it becomes difficult to dismantle co-brand and even more difficult to re-establish the brand alone. It is not good for the firm future because it more easily bring dependence. Secondly, brands are also exposed to the risk of devaluation, sometimes virtually overnight. At times, both companies can be affected, as in the case of a partnership between a discount chain and an upscale house wares company. At first, the co-brand created significant earnings for both companies-in one year generating more than $1 billion in sales. But when the discounter filed for bankruptcy the announcement depressed the partner companys stock. It also caused the investment community to question the partner about its contingency plans-an unexpected challenge for a co-brand. Subsequent bad press about possible criminal activity by the house ware brands CEO had similar effects and raised similar questions for the discounters managers. Shortly after the allegations were made public, a consumer tracking firm reported that nearly 20 percent of the upscale manufacturers customers said that now, because of the negative media attention, they would be less likely to buy the companys produ cts. Thirdly, when establishing co-branding, choosing the right partner is very important. Sometimes, due to the different cultures and vision and even operational frictions, they are in-compatible. One fast-food chain that serves mostly sandwich fare had unsuccessfully tried co-branding with Italian and Mexican restaurant chains. While these partnerships created great brand synergies, operational friction was created because the co-branded restaurants attracted customers at the same time of day-during the lunch and dinner rushes. The chain went ahead with the deals anyway, overburdening its staff and diminishing the in-store customer dining experience. Finally, the company learned its lesson, and its most recent co-branding partner is a breakfast-food chain. Gary Hamel pointed that Western firms commonly exhibit a lack of strategic intent in collaborative efforts. The contribution of a Western firm in a collaboration effort is often in the form of technology and is relatively easy for the alliance firm to transfer. In many instances, Western firms are less skilled at limiting unintended competency transfer than their Japanese counterparts. So if the company with different culture backgrounds transfer, perhaps it will bring the bad effects (including low profit, internal conflict). Finally, in some extent, co-branding can lead to transfer of competitive advantage to the partner, creating a potential competitor. Collaboration allows two firms to share their resources, tacit knowledge, and know-how to align with a joint goal. (Wei-Lun Chang, 2009, page80) In a word, due to the collaboration they lose their own advantage in strategy. Sometimes co-branding more easily leads to loss of characteristics of their own products and their own strategy. Meanwhile, there is a crisis in co-branding, when they share the same brand, so there is a problem which company can get the ownership of the brand after co-brand. On the other hand, it can lead to transfer of consumers. For example, the per-brands product image and quality can effects the partner. After co-brand it may lose some consumers. So, sometimes, co-branding is a treat for the company. Critical Factors for a successful co-branding strategy In order to achieve a strategic fit, Chang, 2009 suggested five critical factors that must be analysed for a successful co-branding strategy. This can be referred to as a 5C model for evaluating a co-branding opportunity (Figure 1). These factors can assist a company in organising a successful and appropriate co-branding strategy from a macro perspective. Transition Cost Its important to consider the transition costs for two companies embarking on a successful co-branding strategy. For the joint venture type, the two companies have the same responsibility for both profits and liabilities (e.g., Sony and Ericsson). Thus, the transition cost for both parties is symmetric. But in the merger type, one party (e.g., BenQ) must take responsibility for the other (e.g., Siemens). BenQ merged with Siemens and had to provide constant financial support. Unfortunately, BenQs pockets just werent deep enough to absorb the cost of turning around the profit-losing Siemens unit. The cost for both parties was thus asymmetric. Thus the transition costs of co-branding seriously affect the future for the companies involved. Cultural Differences Cultural differences are also a crucial consideration for two companies planning a co-branding strategy. Trying to consolidate companies from different countries creates many unknowns of, especially at the employee level. For example, if one companys culture is conservative while the other is innovative, cooperation will prove difficult. And there are many other potentially problematic cross-cultural factors like power distance, uncertaininty avoidance, etc. BenQs employees worked hard to collaborate with Siemens workers for nine months, but ultimately failed, largely as a result of underestimating the intractability of German labor laws. Cultural differences are a major factor impacting on the direction and outcome (success or failure) of a co-branding strategy. Thus cultural differences between two companies should be considered thoroughly in advance and require very effective management. Consumer Acceptance The third lesson is know thy customers. Consumer-centric design will drive a successful co-branding strategy. Sony and Ericsson is a case in point, having launched several consumer-centric mobile phones in recent years (e.g., embedded with Cybershot technology), they advanced the level of functions (digital video recorder, Bluetooth, etc.) in order to increase competitive advantage. On the other hand, BenQ and Siemens originally targeted teenage customers (based on the slogan enjoy matters) and then attempted to provide diversified models (e.g., classical and business models) for other groups (besides teenagers). However, consumers in Germany and Taiwan are completely different. It was difficult to find a leverage point and common ground for both parties to satisfy the radically different types of consumers in the two countries, the companies should identify, focus on and act concertedly in terms of what specific consumers want and need. Core Positioning The core competence of a brand is fundamental in attracting large numbers of customers. Since each individual brand has its own core competence, the synergy between two brands is extremely important. In the brand alliance situation, a strong brand should clearly and uniquely identify and position its core competence, so that the second brand can integrate with it. The core competence could be either homogeneous or heterogeneous. Ideally, similar core competencies (i.e., homogeneous) will generate a stronger co-branding effect. However, heterogeneous core competencies can complement each other to create a substantial synergy. For example, BenQ has re-positioned its brand as keep exploring to replace the original slogan enjoy matters after that original venture failed. The lesson is that the core competencies of two companies should be clearly identified in order to successfully position the new brand. Capital Restructuring As previously mentioned, co-branding may take on one of two essential operational types: joint-venture or merger. For the former, both companies restructure the capital structures of the original corporations. That is, each member corporation is responsible for the new joint-venture company, especially the financial aspects. In the merger situation, the dominant company should be responsible for the gain and loss after merging. For example, the capital structure of BenQ was reorganized after it merged with Siemens, and this resulted in a loss of around 810 million US dollars between October 2005 and June 2006. The lesson: adequate capital for two companies is critical before they even start evaluating each other and organizing a co-branding plan. Various strategies for co-branding A co-brand is more limited in terms of its audience than a corporate brand. It conveys a specific image and a set of expectations to target customers in a given market. The key decision that the merged firm needs to make regarding its co-brand is to choose the type of tactic it wants to create or maintain with the various strategies previously served by the individual firms. Should it try to maintain all the existing strategies or eliminate them in favor of just one or a few? The issue underlying these choices is how to manage similarities and differences in respect of both customers and the brands that it has inherited through a clear co-branding strategy. The two dimensions that determine a merged firms co-branding strategy are its co-brand name and its intended market. The co-brand name signifies a new or existing brand name for a co-brand. The co-brand name involves a choice for the firm: should it have a same brand name to all its customer segments no matter how different they might be from each other? Or should it create a different brand name, varying the range of specifications and quality accordingly to different customers segments? The intended market dimension signifies the market positioning of the firms products or services that it wishes to convey to a given market. The merged firm may decide to stay in the existing market regard to all its product or service that is, suggest the same positioning across all served segments. Alternatively, the firm could create new opportunities to move to a new market with its product or service that is, adopt different positioning for them depending upon the particular customer and competitive dynamics in each of its served segments. Intended Market. Co-Brand Name Existing Existing Market Penetration Strategy New Global Brand Strategy Figure 2: Co-branding strategies Cross-classifying the two dimensions (Co-brand name: existing or new; Intended Market: existing or new) leads to four alternative co-branding strategies, each representing a particular way to integrate the brand name and customer positioning dimensions: Market Penetration, Global Brand, Brand Reinforcement, and Brand Extension (see Figure 3). Market Penetration Strategy A Market Penetration Strategy signifies a conservative tactic to keep the existing market and the original brand names of two firms. In essence, the co-brand name is either a single brand name (e.g., BMW MINI Cooper) or the combination of two firms (e.g., MillerCoors and DaimlerChrysler). The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Market Penetration strategy is the horizontal convergence of two companies. The merged firms commitment is to take advantage of such horizontal integration, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by sharing the resources. The merger between HP and Compaq, for instance, has led to the creation of a global brand. HP uses single brand name for the firms image but some products with a dual name such as HP Compaq Presario series of laptop/desktop. However, focusing on existing market and brand names might not cause the synergy to make the merged firm stronger and more efficient (e.g., HP was not superior to IBM much after merging Compaq). Finally, for a Market Penetration strategy to succeed, it is critical that the heterogeneous of customer segments and the reputation of two firms should be sufficiently high. Global Brand Strategy A Global Brand Strategy signifies a firms decision to serve all its customers with an existing co-brand name in a new market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Global Brand strategy is convergence of cross-segmental preferences. The merged firms commitment is to take advantage of such convergence, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by utilizing global recognition. Among recently merged firms in the telecommunication sector, BenQ has actively pursued to extend the market share and global visibility by merging telecommunication department of Siemens with existing brands of the combination BenQ-Siemens. For the merged brand, advantages of a global product brand could accrue at both the supply end when scale and scope advantages substantially outweigh the benefits of partial as well as the demand end, with uniquely and premium than local or regional brands. However, focusing on extending the current market might cause fail and lose the original advantages (e.g., BenQ reduced its assets dramatically after merging Siemens). Finally, for a Global Brand strategy to succeed, it is vital that the universality across diverse customer segments appeal continuously to evolving patterns of preference. Brand Reinforcement Strategy A Brand Reinforcement Strategy signifies two firms decide to use a new name as a co-brand name in the existing market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Brand Reinforcement strategy is brand image reinforcement. The merged firms commitment is to take advantage of such attempt of a totally different co-brand name, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by providing a diverse name and representation style. For the new co-brand name, two firms could reinforce the reputation of their original brands without hurting the original names. However, focusing on creating a new brand name might cause fail lose the advantages (e.g., people have negative image will affect the seed company of a diverse co-brand name). Finally, for a Brand Reinforcement strategy to succeed, it is essential to create an appropriate co-brand name that is totally different from original ones effectively and efficiently. Brand Extension Strategy A Brand Extension Strategy signifies two firms decide to serve a newly co-brand name in a new market. The key assumption that drives the adoption of a Brand Extension strategy is union of cross-segmental preferences (e.g., Sony and Ericsson). The merged firms commitment is to take advantage of such union, accentuate the desirable goals and benefits by extending different segments. The merger between Sony and Ericsson has led a horizontal integration for a strategic purpose. Before merging with Ericsson in 2001, Sony was not (with market share of only 1% to 2%) a leading player in the telecommunication industry. Sony had superior design capabilities, but lacked core telecommunication competences, whereas Ericsson had excellent RD capabilities. The merger began to earn profits in the second merged year (2003). Sony-Ericsson is currently among the top four mobile phone manufacturers. This success can be attributed in part to the fact that the partners had a good co-branding plan including a joint brand name for cellular phones. For the merged brand, positioning a co-brand in an extension purpose might cause by a successful co-branding plan (e.g., Sony-Ericsson). However, it is risky for both firms to position a new brand in an unfamiliar market or customer segments. Finally, for a Brand Extension strategy to succeed, it is vital that two firms have to take advantage of their core competences at the first place, generate the positive synergy as well as draw up an appropriate long-term co-branding plan. Types of Co-branding The uncomplicated type of co-branding can create significant value for companies and their customers, the potential of more durable and innovative co-branding approaches-those that focus on combining the real capabilities of partner companies to create new customer-perceived value-is far greater. While there are many forms of co-branding, before a company can decide which option makes the most sense for its situation, it must fully explore four main types of co-branding. Each is differentiated by its level of customer value creation, by its expected duration and, perhaps most important, by the risks it poses to the company. These risks include the loss of investment, the diminution of brand equity and the value lost by failing to focus on a more rewarding strategy Country-of-origin Effect and its significance Companies all over the world are looking to expand their businesses into foreign markets. With the dropping of trade barriers and improvements in communication, many firms aspire to go global. The safest approach is to build brands with relevant differentiation and value proposition that would encourage customer loyalty. However, the consumers brand evaluation process is a complex one with a number of variables. One key factor proposed by Robert Schooler, 1965, is the Country-of-Origin (COO) of the brand. Al-Sulaiti and Baker (1998) even considered it as the fifth element of the marketing mix. Country of origin refers to information pertaining to where a product is made (the made in concept). It is also defined as the positive or negative influence/associations that a products country of manufacture may have on consumers decision processes or subsequent behaviour (Elliott and Cameron, 1994). According to COO theory, when consumers are exposed to the product which is made from other countries, they will perceive some stereotype images about those countries and these images are subsequently used as information cues in judging products from different origins (Lotz and Hu, 2001). For example, France is associated with fashion, Japan with hi-tech/electronic goods and Germany with high level of technology. Factors affecting influence of COO effects on brand evaluations Research in international marketing has proven that country associations do lead to customer bias. Such bias is based on the image of the country in customers minds. This leads to the next obvious question what constitutes an image of a country? What makes French the best country for wines, what makes Germany the best in engineering and what makes Switzerland the best in watch manufacturing? Many factors contribute to the country image. Here are some of the most important ones: Economic Development One of the main factors that influence customers perceptions towards a country is the level of the countrys economic development. Level of economic growth acts as a main proxy for the countrys other activities. In developed countries, national products are likely to be preferred than imports. On the other hand, in developing countries domestic products are likely to be evaluated less favorably than foreign made products especially from developed countries. Business history This refers to the evolution of business in a country and what a country has specifically been known for historically. Even though countries evolve through time to specialize in successively high-value industries, it takes a long time to shrug off any negative associations of the past. As such, the business history of the country contributes to the overall image of the country. Demographics The consumer perception toward COO can vary by demographics i.e. the effect of gender, age group or education and income. Studies (Kotabe and Helson, 1998) have shown that COO influences would be strong among the elderly, less educated and politically conservative consumers. Another factor is wealth index that refers to the perceived/actual overall wealth of a country as measured through levels of consumption, number of millionaires, number of billionaires, the size of the luxury goods industry, the sophistication of leisure industry, the proportion of individual income spent of leisure and self enhancing activities and so on. Wealth index offers customers a cue to infer the level of product quality, variety, and perceived credibility of the products/brands. Technology Given the extent to which technology and technological innovations impact consumers lives in todays world, it is not surprising that the extent of technological advancement of a country bears heavily on consumers perception of the country. This factor is usually related to the level of economic development of the country. Higher the technological capability of a country, more positive is the COO effect. Ethnocentricity However, in the context of economic development given above, the issue of ethnocentricity of the host country becomes critical. Customers who are ethnocentric are likely to feel that it is inappropriate and wrong to purchase foreign made products (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2002). It is argued by LeVine and Campbell that in developed countries, consumer ethnocentrism is seen as the most important factor because they more knowledgeable therefore they prefer to buy domestic to keep domestic jobs and thus increase their countrys GDP, and as a result, COO effects have a minimal role to play. Hence, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Low ethnocentric consumers are more likely to use COO cue to infer product Quality whereas, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ high ethnocentric consumers looks at COO as a means to express loyalty as so reflected in their purchasing behaviour Regulatory mechanisms With heightened globalization, the existence and effectiveness of regulatory mechanisms have become a major factor in creating country images. Regulatory mechanisms such as Intellectual Property Rights law (IPR), online piracy laws, anti-fraud regulations and others create a sense of perceived security in the minds of businesses and customers about a specific country. Product Categories The usage of COO cue is primarily determined by the specific type of product. Therefore, COO effect varies by product category. Typically, those products that can be categorized as high involvement products (such as durables) are more relevant to the concept of COO than low involvement goods. Consumer Expertise (Related to the above point), COO influences will be stronger when the consumer is not familiar with a product category, which can be categorized in novice group (Novices are the consumers who have the time limitation and lack of sufficient product knowledge). They possibly use COO cue under any circumstances (Usuiner, 2000). On the other hand, expert consumers only rely on COO cue when the product attribute is vague. All of these factors contribute towards the formation of an overall image of a country. As such, a country which is economically well developed, is technologically advanced, has a high wealth index, has stringent regulatory mechanisms, follows a market economy, and has positive hi

The True Meaning of Terrorism Essay examples -- Terrorism Terrorist De

The True Meaning of Terrorism Think of the word terrorism. What is the first thing that comes to mind? One might think of kidnapping, assassination, bombing, or even genocide and guerrilla warfare. Because it is such a broad and complex issue, an all-encompassing definition is hard to formulate. The United States Department of Defence defines terrorism as†¦ The calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological. Terrorism, then, is a type of political crime that makes use of murder and destruction or the threat of such violence in order to promote change. It is a specific kind of calculated violence with a selected target. Targets can include individuals, groups, communities, or governments. In most cases, excessive violence is used against innocent people which creates a fear that the terrorist can use for coercive purposes. This "fear" is usually directed at someone other than the victim. "In other words, terrorism is a psychological act conducted for its impact on an audience."(1) Since terrorists need publicity to inspire fear, they often seek more unusual events that capture and hold public attention. Terrorism can be broken down into five main categories; Revolutionary, Political, Nationalistic, Nonpolitical, and State-Sponsored. "Revolutionary terrorists use violence as a tool to invoke fear in those in power and their supporters."(2) The goal for these terrorists is to implicate a government that would be more compliant to their needs. By using methods such as kidnapping, assassination, and bombing, revolutionary terrorists hope to provoke in... ...rrorism of genocide. Although the definition of terrorism is hard to pinpoint, I have outlined a general working definition for the purposes of the essay. As outlined, the forms of terrorism are extreme and varied. It is hoped that one day other forms of mediation and political resources will be more widely used and accepted in problem-solving so that acts of terrorism can be prevented and avoided. Bibliography Dabrowski, Mariusz, A Comprehensive Introduction To The Phenomenon Of Terrorism http://saber.towson.edu/polsci/ppp/sp97/terror/intro.html 1997. Distinctions and Varieties of Terrorism http://saber.towson.edu/polsci/ppp/sp97/terror/variety.html Siegel, Lany & McCormick, Chris. Criminology in Canada Toronto: Nelson 1999. The Basics of Terrorism, http://www.terrorism.com/terrorism/bpart6.html, Copyright Terrorism Research Center, Inc. 1997

Developing Communication Essay -- Interpersonal Communication

Communication skills are vital to the manager’s success. A manager must be an effective communicator to lead people. Assessing your communication skills is the key to your success; nevertheless, most people fail to recognize the role communication plays. When assessing your communication abilities, it is essential to review your interpersonal communication skills. Interpersonal skills are the most crucial skill that is needed to be an effective manager. Interpersonal communication skills are a ‘type of supportive communication that is the key to empowering people and motivating others to become more effective and efficient employees† (South University Online, 2011, p. 1). Supportive communication is beneficial in communicating both â€Å"honestly and accurately, it can preserve or enhance your personal, and professional relationships while providing information and resolving issues with your counterparts† (South University Online, p.1). In this essay, I will us the eight principles of supportive communication (problem oriented, congruence, descriptive, validates, specific, conjunctive, owned, and supportive listening) to reflect how a conversation with my daughter was impacted by my communication style. Synopsis of the Conversation My 13-year-old daughter was attending a friend birthday party. When she came into the den to let me know that she was leaving with her friend and parent, I must have given a strange look or appeared to look angry. She wanted to know why I was looking at her like that. I responded by pointing out that I felt her outfit was inappropriate to wear because it was too short and revealing for her age. She should choose another outfit to wear. My daughter pointed out that she had borrowed from one of her frie... ...(2005) states that good listeners are more likely perceived to be skillful communicator. Conclusion I choose the conversation with my daughter to explore the eight principles of supportive communication. Some may fell that with children that communication must be handled differently. On my job I supervise, college students. I often view other supervisors communicating different with students than adult. I have taken management classes over the year and I feel that the most effective manager will make self-analysis and seek ways to over come defensiveness and disconfirmation. The eight principle of supportive communication are an excellent place to start and beneficial to you whereas you can communicate effectively with anyone. My conversation with my daughter would not have not been as positive as it where if I was not already knowledge and seeking improvement.

Geometry Kite Making

1) Search for a kite you’d like to build. It can be any shape kite, but keep in mind that the easier the build, the more difficult I grade it. The harder it is to build, the more chance it won’t be completed in time. So evaluate yourself & the directions to determine which kite you decide on building. a. Google the web (not videos, nor images) – â€Å"How to build a kite with step by step directions† †¦ You can word your search in any way that is similar to what I just gave you. b. Be sure what you pull up has Step by Step Directions on how to build the kite (i. e. t will tell exactly how & where to cut the material, where to place the dowels, where to tie the string, etc, etc).c. Be sure what you pull up has Clear Materials Listed – meaning you will be able to list off what is needed to build a kite (i. e. exact centimeters or inches of dowels, the diameter of the dowel, if plastic tubing is needed, string length, etc, etc). d. Print all this out – preferably with photos (always helpful when building). 2) Write up a materials list with the totals (dowel length, string length, fabric, etc) on a lined piece of paper so that it’s legible.This is for me to go shopping with, so I need the exact total & I need to read it. I’m not interested in how many ___ sized pieces of dowel you need because we’ll just cut up the total length later; I just need you to calculate from your internet, printed materials list the exact totals of each item. 3) Build your kite – we’ll be doing this in class as a group. You won’t be taking any of these items home, so you need to make sure you are here for each class we designate as build days. e.Each â€Å"build day† you will need: yard stick (science lab has some), pencil, pen, lined paper for calculations, calculator, ruler, protractor, kite instructions & a servant’s heart (because we’ll need to bring other items to & from my c lassroom each of these days = teamwork). f. Measure the perimeter & area of your kite, once completed. g. Were there any angles in your kite? What types; how many; what degrees were they (calculate algebraically being sure to write down how you calculated †¦ same side interior, complementary angles, etc. )? h.Are there any parallel &/or perpendicular lines? Transversal lines? i. As you build along, rewrite the steps in your own words so that someone else could build your kite. Use as many geometric terms as articulately possible. Reason: 1) I asked; and, 2) the directions you find on the internet are often more complicated than need be, so you’ll be helping someone else out. Maybe we’ll start our own website someday! 4) Project items from the book: j. Page 453: You’ll need to draw diagonals on a plain, white sheet of copy paper using a yard stick for accuracy.Mark off your half-inch measurement (the  ½ inch past center point) with a pencil so that it†™s visible to others. The â€Å"front corners† are considered the ones where you folded the paper, not the ones where it’s unfolded. **There is a â€Å"typo†: you’ll be folding the corners & stapling them about 3-4 in. from the front of the kite. You will staple those folds together perpendicularly to the first fold. ** Tie one end of string through the back of the staple. Open up the unfolded paper to create a kite surface. ~ You are not creating a paper airplane, and so therefore will follow these directions with the book’s directions to create a paper kite. ~~ k. Page 468: When â€Å"describing† each effective area, the book is asking you to compare the effective area to the actual kite (i. e. : does the effective area have the same area as the part of the kite that’s facing the wind; or less, or more; etc, etc). When you compare, do so in words (using as many geometrical terms as possible) as well as with some calculations.l. Pa ge 476: SKIP †¦ this is what you did in Parts 1 & 2. ) REPORT: Research the history of kites, and be sure to write down your sources for use in a reference page later (when you hand in your final project). m. When were they first used? What were they used for? In what country did they first get used predominantly? n. Find examples of how kites were used for: rescuing sailors, vanquishing enemies, predicting the weather, etc. Give me any other uses for kites †¦ be thorough & creative. o. Tell me any interesting facts you discovered about kites while doing this research.

Motorcycle Helmet Law Essay

Hello, I am here today to talk to you about the Michigan Motorcycle Helmet Law. -This law permits anyone that is 21 years of age or older that has at least 20,000 dollars in heath insurance and has passed a safety course in the past 2 years to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. I am also here to persuade you that this law doesn’t have a person’s safety as the top priority. Just recently I have witnessed a motorcycle crash happen right before my eyes. My stepmother was taking a turn at only 30 mph when she locked up her breaks and crashed over the handle bars.She has been in the hospital for a little over two weeks and it is a miracle that she is in the condition that she is in, recovering from a skull fracture and bruising on the brain, She has been riding for twelve years, no other vehicles were involved, and she was wearing a helmet, if she was not wearing her helmet, I know that we wouldn’t have her with us anymore. We were hoping she would be home for the fo rth of July, but the medical staff still haven’t given us a go home date as of today.Studies from the National Highway administration in 2008 showed that motorcyclists who do not use helmets are three times more likely to suffer a disturbing brain injury in a crash than those who are wearing helmets. The regulations to this law are also very insufficient. 21 years of age is when adults are just allowed to start drinking. Many people that turn 21 haven’t quite learned yet how to handle alcohol or how much is too much when it comes to drinking and driving, or in this case drinking and riding.Also 20,000 dollars worth of health insurance is not nearly enough to cover medical bills caused by accidents with a helmet, let alone to be able to cover the costs of the injuries sustained without a helmet, I can’t help but think this is going to raise everyone’s insurance premiums eventually. Even if you still think not wearing a helmet is cool, take a minute to thin k of this, the only way for over worked understaffed police have to check if you have the proper health insurance coverage is to pull you over, this gives the police probable cause, which in turn takes up your time and the cops time.With this law in effect, death rates and injury rates have skyrocketed up to a new high. The Michigan helmet law is more about ‘freedom’ than about safety. If you want to feel the wind in your hair stand in front of a fan. If you want to get home safe wear a helmet. All in all the Michigan Motorcycle Helmet Law has caused far more bad than good. In the end, I hope that what I have told you today will persuade you to tell a friend, family member, stranger, or even to tell yourself that it is far safer to wear a helmet, than it is to go without one. Please think twice before you decide to ride without a helmet. Guarino, M. (2012, April 13).

My Learning Profile Essay

In today’s ever-changing fast-paced world the most important skill one requires is learning how to learn. Transformation is inevitable and one will be forced to learn change or fall significantly behind. Every individual has a distinct way of learning. One must identify his or her learning profile to ensure their success in today’s and future humanity. Additionally, by identifying your learning profile strengths and weaknesses you are provided an avenue for improving yourself in most aspects of every day life. I have incorporated this concept by identifying my learning profile and my learning strengths and weaknesses. Also, I have established a plan to capitalize on these strengths and to mitigate my limitations. This paper will discuss my learning profile broken down into four areas. The areas are: learning times, bottom up or top down learning, quadrants of learning and eclectic disciplines of personal intelligence. To begin, everyone has a favorite time of day–one that is conducive to learning. Some have enhanced concentration in the early hours while others achieve a higher level of knowledge absorption and retention during noon hours. Still, some people are at their peak learning zone during the evening hours. For me, I learn best during the early morning timeframe. I always believed I was a morning learner and Test 1 in the course text supports this theory. This test helped determine the times I am more receptive to learning. Next, I will ascertain the basic aspect of my personal learning style. Understanding if you learn more effectively in unstructured situations or in a logical presentation of facts in a rigid strategy is critical to one’s learning profile. I am the latter. I learn best in a systematic, methodical approach allowing me to master specific details before moving to more general concepts. In other words, I am a Stringer. The next step after comprehending this is to expand further into your learning preferences. Digging a little deeper into one’s profile, it is now imperative to  understand our preferences for dealing with facts or feelings, using logic or imagination, and thinking things through yourself or working with other people. After studying the Four Quadrants for Learning descriptions and evaluating how they relate to my learning abilities and preferences, I have concluded that my learning profile crosses the boundaries and encompasses two of the quadrants. Specifically, I assimilate well with quadrant styles A and B. Style A incorporates my dependency on learning through specific knowledge. This style focuses on verifiable facts on which everyone can agree. Style B thrives on order and sequence. Both quadrants represent my style of learning where you base learning on a solid foundation with direction. Lastly, all of the aforementioned portions of my learning profile are coupled with my learning talent or personal intelligence. Most people believe that their capacity to learn is determined by personal intelligence. Contemporary psychologists have changed the idea of a single learning capacity called intelligence into seven different intelligence learning categories used to enhance one’s learning abilities. After answering the personal intelligence questionnaire in the text, I strongly associated with interpersonal and spatial intelligence. I related somewhat in the interpersonal, linguistic and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence categories. To my surprise, I did not select any choices concerning logical-mathematical intelligence, a category I have always believed I was prominent in. In conclusion, I have discussed the importance of identifying one’s personal learning profile. This profile varies from individual to individual. However, everyone possesses and needs a learning profile. Researching this paper, I have discovered how my brain prefers to process new material, which modes and media of instruction suits me best, and which times of learning I am more receptive to. I have acquired an awareness of myself as a learner, which is the first prerequisite of Peak Learning.