Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 5-7

5 AUGUSTUS BRINE He was an old man who fished off the beaches of Pine Cove and he had gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. This, however, was of little consequence because he owned the general store and made a comfortable enough living to indulge his passions, which were fishing and drinking California wines. Augustus Brine was old, but he was still strong and vital and a dangerous man in a fight – although he had had little cause to prove it in over thirty years (except for the few occasions when he picked up a teenage boy by the scruff of the neck and dragged him, terrified, to the stockroom, where he lectured him alternately on the merits of hard work and the folly of shoplifting from Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines). And while a weariness had come upon him with age, his mind was still sharp and agile. On any evening one might find him stretched out before his fireplace in a leather chair, toasting his bare feet on the hearth, reading Aristotle, or Lao-tzu, or Joyce. He lived on a hillside overlooking the Pacific, in a small wooden house he had designed and built himself, so that he might live there alone without having his surroundings seem lonely. During the day, windows and skylights filled the house with light, and even on the most dismal, foggy day, every corner was illuminated. In the evening three stone fireplaces, which took up whole walls in the living room, bedroom, and study, warmed the house. They offered a soft, orange comfort to the old man, who burned cord after cord of red oak and eucalyptus, which he cut and split himself. When he considered his own mortality, which was seldom, Augustus Brine knew he would die in this house. He had built it on one floor with wide halls and doorways so that if he were ever confined to a wheelchair he might remain self-sufficient until the day when he would take the black pill sent to him by the Hemlock Society. He kept the house neat and orderly. Not so much because he desired order, for Brine believed chaos to be the way of the world, but because he did not wish to make life difficult for his cleaning lady, who came in once a week to dust and shovel ashes from the fireplaces. He also wished to avoid acquiring the reputation of being a slob, for he knew people's propensity for judging a man on one aspect of his character, and even Augustus Brine was not above some degree of vanity. Despite his belief that the pursuit of order in a chaotic universe was futile, Brine lived a very ordered life, and this paradox, upon reflection, amused him. He rose each day at five, indulged himself in a half-hour-long shower, dressed, and ate the same breakfast of six eggs and half a loaf of sourdough toast, heavily buttered. (Cholesterol seemed too silent and sneaky to be dangerous, and Brine had decided long ago that until cholesterol gathered its forces and charged him headlong across the plate with Light Brigade abandon, he would ignore it.) After breakfast, Brine lit his meerschaum pipe for the first time of the day, crawled onto his truck, and drove downtown to open his store. For the first two hours he puffed around the store like a great white-bearded locomotive, making coffee, selling pastries, trading idle banter with the old men who greeted him each morning, and preparing the store to run under full steam until midnight, under the supervision of a handful of clerks. At eight o'clock the first of Brine's employees arrived to man the register while Brine busied himself ordering what he called Epicurean necessities: pastries, imported cheeses and beers, pipe tobacco and cigarettes, homemade pasta and sauces, freshly baked bread, gourmet coffees, and California wines. Brine believed, like Epicurus, that a good life was one dedicated to the pursuit of simple pleasures, tempered with justice and prudence. Years ago, while working as a bouncer in a whorehouse, Brine had repeatedly seen depressed, angry men turned to gentleness and gaiety by a few moments of pleasure. He had vowed then to someday open a brothel, but when the ramshackle general store with its two gas pumps had been put up for sale, Brine had compromised his dream by buying it and bringing pleasure of a different sort to the public. From time to time, however, a needling suspicion arose in his mind that he had missed his true calling as a madam. Each day when the orders were finished, Brine selected a bottle of red wine from his shelves, packed it in a basket with some bread, cheese, and bait, and took off for the beach. He passed the rest of the day sitting on the beach in a canvas director's chair sipping wine and smoking his pipe, waiting for the long surf-casting rod to bend with a strike. On most days Brine let his mind go as clear as water. Without worry or thought he became one with everything around him, neither conscious nor unconscious: the state of Zen mushin, or no-mind. He had come to Zen after the fact, recognizing in the writings of Suzuki and Watts an attitude he had come to without discipline, by simply sitting on the beach staring into an empty sky and becoming just as empty. Zen was his religion, and it brought him peace and humor. On this particular morning Brine was having a difficult time clearing his mind. The visit of the little Arab man to the store vexed him. Brine did not speak Arabic, yet he had understood every word the little man had said. He had seen the air cut with swirling blue curses, and he had seen the Arab's eyes glow white with anger. He smoked his pipe, the meerschaum mermaid carved so that Brine's index finger fell across her breasts, and tried to apply some meaning to a situation that was outside the context of his reality. He knew that if he were to accept the fluid of this experience, the cup of his mind had to be empty. But right now he had a better chance of buying bread with moonlight than reaching a Zen calm. It vexed him. â€Å"It is a mystery, is it not?† someone said. Startled, Brine looked around. The little Arab man stood about three feet from Brine's side, drinking from a large styrofoam cup. His red stocking cap was glistening, damp with the morning spray. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Brine said. â€Å"I didn't see you come up.† â€Å"It is a mystery, is it not? How this dashing figure seems to appear out of nowhere? You must be awestruck. Paralyzed with fear perhaps?† Brine looked at the withered little man in the rumpled flannel suit and silly red hat. â€Å"Very close to paralyzed,† he said. â€Å"I am Augustus Brine.† He extended his hand to the little man. â€Å"Are you not afraid that by touching me you will burst into flames?† â€Å"Is that a danger?† â€Å"No, but you know how superstitious fishermen are. Perhaps you believe that you will be transformed into a toad. You hide your fear well, Augustus Brine.† Brine smiled. He was baffled and amused; it didn't occur to him to be afraid. The Arab drained his cup and dipped it into the surf to refill it. â€Å"Please call me Gus,† Brine said, his hand still extended. â€Å"And you are?† The Arab drained his cup again, then took Brine's hand. His skin had the feel of parchment. â€Å"I am Gian Hen Gian, King of the Djinn, Ruler of the Netherworld. Do not tremble, I wish you no harm.† â€Å"I am not trembling,† Brine said. â€Å"You might go easy on that seawater – it works hell on your blood pressure.† â€Å"Do not fall to your knees; there is no need to prostrate yourself before my greatness. I am here in your service.† â€Å"Thank you. I am honored,† Brine said. Despite the strange happenings in the store, he was having a hard time taking this pompous little man seriously. The Arab was obviously a nuthouse Napoleon. He'd seen hundreds of them, living in cardboard castles and feasting from dumpsters all over America. But this one had some credentials: he could curse in blue swirls. â€Å"It is good that you are not afraid, Augustus Brine. Terrible evil is at hand. You will have to call upon your courage. It is a good sign that you have kept your wits in the presence of the great Gian Hen Gian. The grandeur is sometimes too much for weaker men.† â€Å"May I offer you some wine?† Brine extended the bottle of cabernet he had brought from the store. â€Å"No, I have a great thirst for this.† He sloshed the cup of seawater. â€Å"From a time when it was all I could drink.† â€Å"As you wish.† Brine sipped from the bottle. â€Å"There is little time, Augustus Brine, and what I am to tell you may overwhelm your tiny mind. Please prepare yourself.† â€Å"My tiny mind is steeled for anything, O King. But first, tell me, did I see you curse blue swirls this morning?† â€Å"A minor loss of temper. Nothing really. Would you have had me turn the clumsy dolt into a snake who forever gnaws his own tail?† â€Å"No, the cursing was fine. Although in Vance's case the snake might be an improvement. Your curses were in Arabic, though, right?† â€Å"A language I prefer for its music.† â€Å"But I don't speak Arabic. Yet I understood you. You did say, ‘May the IRS find that you deduct your pet sheep as an entertainment expense,' didn't you?† â€Å"I can be most colorful and inventive when I am angry.† The Arab flashed a bright grin of pride. His teeth were pointed and saw-edged like a shark's. â€Å"You have been chosen, Augustus Brine.† â€Å"Why me?† Somehow Brine had suspended his disbelief and denied the absurdity of the situation. If there was no order in the universe, then why should it be out of order to be sitting on the beach talking to an Arab dwarf who claimed to be king of the Djinn, whatever the hell that was? Strangely enough, Brine took comfort in the fact that this experience was invalidating every assumption he had ever made about the nature of the world. He had tapped into the Zen of ignorance, the enlightenment of absurdity. Gian Hen Gian laughed. â€Å"I have chosen you because you are a fisherman who catches no fish. I have had an affinity for such men since I was fished from the sea a thousand years ago and released from Solomon's jar. One gets ever so cramped passing the centuries inside a jar.† â€Å"And ever so wrinkled, it would seem,† Brine said. Gian Hen Gian ignored Brine's comment. â€Å"I found you here, Augustus Brine, listening to the noise of the universe, holding in your heart a spark of hope, like all fishermen, but resolved to be disappointed. You have no love, no faith, and no purpose. You shall be my instrument, and in return, you shall gain the things you lack.† Brine wanted to protest the Arab's judgment, but he realized that it was true. He'd been enlightened for exactly thirty seconds and already he was back on the path of desire and karma. Postenlightenment depression, he thought. 6 THE DJINN'S STORY Brine said, â€Å"Excuse me, O King, but what exactly is a Djinn?† Gian Hen Gian spit into the surf and cursed, but this time Brine did not understand the language and no blue swirls cut the air. â€Å"I am Djinn. The Djinn were the first people. This was our world long before the first human. Have you not read the tales of Scheherazade?† â€Å"I thought those were just stories.† â€Å"By Aladdin's lamplit scrotum, man! Everything is a story. What is there but stories? Stories are the only truth. The Djinn knew this. We had power over our own stories. We shaped our world as we wished it to be. It was our glory. We were created by Jehovah as a race of creators, and he became jealous of us. â€Å"He sent Satan and an army of angels against us. We were banished to the netherworld, where we could not make our stories. Then he created a race who could not create and so would stand in awe of the Creator.† â€Å"Man?† Brine asked. The Djinn nodded. â€Å"When Satan drove us into the netherworld, he saw our power. He saw that he was no more than a servant, while Jehovah had given the Djinn the power of gods. He returned to Jehovah demanding the same power. He proclaimed that he and his army would not serve until they were given the power to create. â€Å"Jehovah was sorely angered. He banished Satan to hell, where the angel might have the power he wished, but only over his own army of rebels. To further humiliate Satan, Jehovah created a new race of beings and gave them control over their own destinies, made them masters of their own world. And he made Satan watch it all from hell. â€Å"These beings were parodies of the angels, resembling them physically, but with none of the angels' grace or intelligence. And because he had made two mistakes before, Jehovah made these creatures mortal to keep them humble.† â€Å"Are you saying,† Brine interrupted, â€Å"that the human race was created to irritate Satan?† â€Å"That is correct. Jehovah is infinite in his snottiness.† Brine reflected on this for a moment and regretted that he had not become a criminal at an early age. â€Å"And what happened to the Djinn?† â€Å"We were left without form, purpose, or power. The netherworld is timeless and unchanging, and boring – much like a doctor's waiting room.† â€Å"But you're here, you're not in the netherworld.† â€Å"Be patient, Augustus Brine. I will tell you how I came here. You see, many years passed on Earth and we remained undisturbed. Then was born Solomon the thief.† â€Å"You mean King Solomon? Son of David?† â€Å"The thief!† The Djinn spat. â€Å"He asked for wisdom from Jehovah that he might build a great temple. To assist him, Jehovah gave him a great silver seal, which he carried in a scepter, and the power to call the Djinn from the netherworld to act as slaves. Solomon was given power over the Djinn on Earth that by all rights belonged to me. And as if that was not enough, the seal also gave him the power to call up the deposed angels from hell. Satan was furious that such power be given to a mortal, which, of course, was Jehovah's plan. â€Å"Solomon called first upon me to help him build his temple. He spread the temple plans before me and I laughed in his face. It was little more than a shack of stone. His imagination was as limited as his intelligence. Nevertheless, I began work on his temple, building it stone by stone as he instructed. I could have built it in an instant had he commanded it, but the thief could only imagine a temple being built as it might be built by men. â€Å"I worked slowly, for even under the reign of the thief, my time on Earth was better than the emptiness of the netherworld. After some time I convinced Solomon that I needed help, and I was given slaves to assist me in the construction. Work slowed even more, for while some of them worked, most stood by and chatted about their dreams of freedom. I have seen that such methods are used today in building your highways.† â€Å"It's standard,† Brine said. â€Å"Solomon grew impatient with my progress and called from hell one of the deposed angels, a warrior Seraph named Catch. Thus did his troubles begin. â€Å"Catch had once been a tall and beautiful angel, but his time in hell, steeping in his own bitterness, had changed him. When he appeared before Solomon, he was a squat monster, no bigger than a dwarf. His skin was like that of a snake, his eyes like those of a cat. He was so hideous that Solomon would not allow him to be seen by the people of Jerusalem, so he made the demon invisible to all but himself. â€Å"Catch carried in his heart a loathing for humans as deep as Satan himself. I had no quarrel with the race of man. Catch, however, wanted revenge. Fortunately, he did not have the powers of a Djinn. â€Å"Solomon told the slaves who worked on the temple that they were being given divine assistance and that they should behave as if nothing was out of the ordinary, so the people of Jerusalem might not notice the demon's presence. The demon threw himself into the construction, honing huge blocks of stone and hauling them into place. â€Å"Solomon was pleased with the demon's work and told him so. Catch said that the work would go faster if he didn't have to work with a Djinn, so I stood by and watched as the temple rose. From time to time great stones dropped from the walls, crushing the slaves below. While the blood ran, I could hear Catch laughing and shouting ‘Whoops' from the top of the wall. â€Å"Solomon believed these killings to be accidents, but I knew them to be murder. It was then that I realized that Solomon's control over the demon was not absolute, and therefore, his control over me must have its limits as well. My first impulse was to try to escape, but if I were wrong, I knew that I would be sent back to the netherworld and all would be lost. Perhaps I could persuade Solomon to set me free by offering him something he could attain only through my power to create. â€Å"Solomon's appetite for women was infamous. I offered to bring him the most beautiful woman he had ever seen if he would allow me to remain on Earth. He agreed. â€Å"I retreated to my quarters and contemplated what sort of woman might most please the idiot king. I had seen his thousand wives and found no common thread among their charms that revealed Solomon's preferences. In the end I was left to my own creativity. â€Å"I gave her fair hair and blue eyes and skin as white and smooth as marble. She was all things that men wish of women in body and mind. She was a virgin with a courtesan's knowledge in the ways of pleasure. She was kind, intelligent, forgiving, and warm with humor. â€Å"Solomon fell in love with the woman as soon as I presented her to him. ‘She shines like a jewel', he said. ‘Jewel shall be her name.' He spent an hour or more just staring at her, captivated with her beauty. When finally his senses returned, he said, ‘We will talk later of your reward, Gian Hen Gian.' Then he took Jewel by the hand and led her to his bedchamber. â€Å"I felt a strength return to me the moment I presented Jewel to the king. I was not free to escape, but for the first time I was able to leave the city without being compelled by some invisible bond to return to Solomon. I went into the desert and spent the night enjoying the freedom I had gained. It was not until I returned the next morning that I realized that Solomon's control over me and the demon depended upon the concentration of his will, as well as the invocations and the seal given to him by Jehovah. The woman, Jewel, had broken his will. â€Å"I found Solomon in his palace weeping one moment, then screaming with rage the next. While I had been away Catch had come to Solomon's bedchamber, not in the form that Solomon recognized, but in the form of a huge monster, taller than two men and as wide as a team of horses, and the slaves could see him as well. While Solomon watched in horror, the demon snatched Jewel from the bed with a single, talonlike hand and bit her head off. Then the monster swallowed the girl's body and reached for Solomon. But some force protected the king, and Solomon commanded the demon to return to his smaller form. Catch laughed in his face and skulked off to the wives' quarters. â€Å"Through the night the palace was filled with the screams of terrified women. Solomon ordered his guards to attack the demon. Catch swatted them away as if they were flies. By dawn the palace was littered with the crushed bodies of the guards. Of Solomon's thousand wives only two hundred remained alive. Catch was gone. â€Å"During the attack Solomon had called upon the power of the seal and prayed to Jehovah to stop the demon. But the king's will was broken, and so it did no good. â€Å"I sensed then that I might escape Solomon's control altogether, and live free, but even the idiot king would eventually make the connection and my fate would lie in the netherworld. â€Å"I bade Solomon allow me to bring Catch to justice. I knew my power to be much greater than the demon's. But Solomon had only the building of the temple by which to judge my powers, and in that example the demon appeared superior. ‘Do what you can,' he said. ‘If you capture the demon, you may remain on Earth.' â€Å"I found Catch in the great desert, wantonly slaughtering tribes of nomads. When I bound him with my magic, he protested that he had planned to return, for he was enslaved to Solomon by the invocation and could never really escape. He was only having a little sport with the humans, he said. To quiet him, I filled his mouth with sand for the journey back to Jerusalem. â€Å"When I brought Catch to Solomon, the king commanded me to devise a punishment to torment the demon, so that the people of Jerusalem might watch him suffer. I chained Catch to a giant stone outside the palace, then I created a huge bird of prey that swooped on the demon and tore at his liver, which grew back at once, for like the Djinn, the demon was immortal. â€Å"Solomon was pleased with my work. During my absence he had regained his senses somewhat, and thereby his will. I stood before the king awaiting my reward, feeling my powers wane as Solomon's will returned. â€Å"‘I have promised that you shall never be returned to the netherworld, and you shall not,' he said. ‘But this demon has put me off of immortals more than somewhat, and I do not wish that you be allowed to roam free. You shall be imprisoned in a jar and cast into the sea. Should the time come when you are set free to walk the Earth again, you shall have no power over the realm of man except as is commanded by my will, which shall be from now to the end of time the goodwill of all men. By this you shall be bound.' â€Å"He had a jar fashioned from lead and marked it on all sides with a silver seal. Before he imprisoned me, Solomon promised that Catch would remain chained to the rock until his screams burned into the king's soul – so that Solomon might never lose his will or his wisdom again. He said he would then send the demon back to hell and destroy the tablets with the invocations, as well as the great seal. He swore these things to me, as if he believed the fate of the demon meant something to me. I didn't give a camel's fart about Catch. Then he gave me a last command and sealed the jar. His soldiers cast the jar into the Red Sea. â€Å"For two thousand years I languished inside the jar, my only comfort a trickle of seawater that seeped in, which I drank with relish, for it tasted of freedom. â€Å"When the jar was finally pulled from the sea by a fisherman, and I was released, I cared nothing about Solomon or Catch, only about my freedom. I have lived as a man would live these last thousand years, bound by Solomon's will. Of this Solomon spoke truly, but about the demon, he lied.† The little man paused and refilled his cup in the ocean. Augustus Brine was at a loss. It couldn't possibly be true. There was nothing to corroborate the story. â€Å"Begging your pardon, Gian Hen Gian, but why is none of this told in the Bible?† â€Å"Editing,† the Djinn said. â€Å"But aren't you confusing Greek myth with Christian myth? The birds eating the demon's liver sounds an awful lot like the story of Prometheus.† â€Å"It was my idea. The Greeks were thieves, no better than Solomon.† Brine considered this for a moment. He was seeing evidence of the supernatural, wasn't he? Wasn't this little Arab drinking seawater as he watched, with no apparent ill effects? And even if some of it could be explained by hallucination, he was pretty sure that he hadn't been the only one to see the strange blue swirls in the store this morning. What if for a moment – just a moment – he took the Arab's outrageous story for the truth?†¦ â€Å"If this is true, then how do you know, after all this time, that Solomon lied to you? And why tell me about it?† â€Å"Because, Augustus Brine, I knew you would believe. And I know Solomon lied because I can feel the presence of the demon, Catch. And I'm sure that he has come to Pine Cove.† â€Å"Swell,† Brine said. 7 ARRIVAL Virgil Long backed out from under the hood of the Impala, wiped his hands on his coveralls, and scratched at his four-day growth of beard. He reminded Travis of a fat weasel with the mange. â€Å"So you're thinking it's the radiator?† Virgil asked. â€Å"It's the radiator,† Travis said. â€Å"It might be the whole engine is gone. You were running pretty quiet when you drove in. Not a good sign. Do you have a charge card?† Virgil was unprecedented in his inability to diagnose specific engine problems. When he was dealing with tourists, his strategy was usually to start replacing things and keep replacing them until he solved the problem or reached the limit on the customer's credit card, whichever came first. â€Å"It wasn't running at all when I came in,† Travis protested. â€Å"And I don't have a credit card. It's the radiator, I promise.† â€Å"Now, son,† Virgil drawled, â€Å"I know you think you know what you're talking about, but I got a certificate from the Ford factory there on the wall that says I'm a master mechanic.† Virgil pointed a fat finger toward the service station's office. One wall was covered with framed certificates along with a poster of a nude woman sitting on the hood of a Corvette buffing her private parts with a scarf in order to sell motor oil. Virgil had purchased the Master Mechanic certificates from an outfit in New Hampshire: two for five dollars, six for ten dollars, fifteen for twenty. He had gone for the twenty-dollar package. Those who took the time to read the certificates were somewhat surprised to find out that Pine Cove's only service station and car wash had its own factory-certified snowmobile mechanic. It had never snowed in Pine Cove. â€Å"This is a Chevy,† Travis said. â€Å"Got a certificate for those, too. You probably need new rings. The radiator's just a symptom, like these broken headlights. You treat the symptom, the disease just gets worse.† Virgil had heard that on a doctor show once and liked the sound of it. â€Å"What will it cost to just fix the radiator?† Virgil stared deep into the grease spots on the garage floor, as if by reading their patterns and by some mystic mode of divination, petrolmancy perhaps, he would arrive at a price that would not alienate the dark young man but would still assure him an exorbitant hourly rate for his labor. â€Å"Hundred bucks.† It had a nice round ring to it. â€Å"Fine,† Travis said, â€Å"Fix it. When can I have it back?† Virgil consulted the grease spots again, then emerged with a good-ol'-boy smile. â€Å"How's noon sound?† â€Å"Fine,† Travis said. â€Å"Is there a pool hall around here – and someplace I can get some breakfast?† â€Å"No pool hall. The Head of the Slug is open down the street. They got a couple of tables.† â€Å"And breakfast?† â€Å"Only thing open this end of town is H.P.'s, a block off Cypress, down from the Slug. But it's a local's joint.† â€Å"Is there a problem getting served?† â€Å"No. The menu might throw you for a bit. It – well, you'll see.† Travis thanked the mechanic and started off in the direction of H.P.'s, the demon skulking along behind him. As they passed the self-serve car-wash stalls, Travis noticed a tall man of about thirty unloading plastic laundry baskets full of dirty dishes from the bed of an old Ford pickup. He seemed to be having trouble getting quarters to go into the coin box. Looking at him, Travis said: â€Å"You know, Catch, I'll bet there's a lot of incest in this town.† â€Å"Probably the only entertainment,† the demon agreed. The man in the car wash had activated the high-pressure nozzle and was sweeping it back and forth across the baskets of dishes. With each sweep he repeated, â€Å"Nobody lives like this. Nobody.† Some of the overspray caught on the wind and settled over Travis and Catch. For a moment the demon became visible in the spray. â€Å"I'm melt-ing,† Catch whined in perfect Wicked Witch of the West pitch. â€Å"Let's go,† Travis said, moving quickly to avoid more spray. â€Å"We need a hundred bucks before noon.† JENNY In the two hours since Jenny Masterson had arrived at the cafe she had managed to drop a tray full of glasses, mix up the orders on three tables, fill the saltshakers with sugar and the sugar dispensers with salt, and pour hot coffee on the hands of two customers who had covered their cups to indicate that they'd had enough – a patently stupid gesture on their part, she thought. The worst of it was not that she normally performed her duties flawlessly, which she did. The worst of it was that everyone was so damned understanding about it. â€Å"You're going through a rough time, honey, it's okay.† â€Å"Divorce is always hard.† Their consolations ranged from â€Å"too bad you couldn't work it out† to â€Å"he was a worthless drunk anyway, you're better off without him.† She'd been separated from Robert exactly four days and everybody in Pine Cove knew about it. And they couldn't just let it lie. Why didn't they let her go through the process without running this cloying gauntlet of sympathy? It was as if she had a big red D sewed to her clothing, a signal to the townsfolk to close around her like a hungry amoeba. When the second tray of glasses hit the floor, she stood amid the shards trying to catch her breath and could not. She had to do something – scream, cry, pass out – but she just stood there, paralyzed, while the busboy cleaned up the glass. Two bony hands closed on her shoulders. She heard a voice in her ear that seemed to come from very far away. â€Å"You are having an anxiety attack, dear. It shall pass. Relax and breathe deeply.† She felt the hands gently leading her through the kitchen door to the office in the back. â€Å"Sit down and put your head between your knees.† She let herself be guided into a chair. Her mind went white, and her breath caught in her throat. A bony hand rubbed her back. â€Å"Breathe, Jennifer. I'll not have you shuffling off this mortal coil in the middle of the breakfast shift.† In a moment her head cleared and she looked up to see Howard Phillips, the owner of H.P.'s, standing over her. He was a tall, skeletal man, who always wore a black suit and button shoes that had been fashionable a hundred years ago. Except for the dark depressions on his cheeks, Howard's skin was as white as a carrion worm. Robert had once said that H.P. looked like the master of ceremonies at a chemotherapy funfest. Howard had been born and raised in Maine, yet when he spoke, he affected the accent of an erudite Londoner. â€Å"The prospect of change is a many-fanged beast, my dear. It is not, however, appropriate to pay fearful obeisance to that beast by cowering in the ruins of my stemware while you have orders up.† â€Å"I'm sorry, Howard. Robert called this morning. He sounded so helpless, pathetic.† â€Å"A tragedy, to be sure. Yet as we sit, ensconced in our grief, two perfectly healthy daily specials languish under the heat lamps metamorphosing into gelatinous invitations to botulism.† Jenny was relieved that in his own, cryptically charming way, Howard was not giving her sympathy but telling her to get off her ass and live her life. â€Å"I think I'm okay now. Thanks, Howard.† Jenny stood and wiped her eyes with a paper napkin she took from her apron. Then she went off to deliver her orders. Howard, having exhausted his compassion for the day, closed the door of his office and began working on the books. When Jenny returned to the floor, she found that the restaurant had cleared except for a few regular customers and a dark young man she didn't recognize, who was standing by the PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED sign. At least he wouldn't ask about Robert, thank God. It was a welcome relief. Not many tourists found H.P.'s. It was tucked in a tree-lined cul-de-sac off Cypress Street in a remodeled Victorian bungalow. The sign outside, small and tasteful, simply read, CAFE. Howard did not believe in advertising, and though he was an Anglophile at heart – loving all things British and feeling that they were somehow superior to their American counterparts – his restaurant displayed none of the ersatz British decor that might draw in the tourists. The cafe served simple food at fair prices. If the menu exhibited Howard Phillips's eccentricity in style, it did not discourage the locals from eating at his place. Next to Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines, H.P.'s Cafe had the most loyal clientele in Pine Cove. â€Å"Smoking or nonsmoking?† Jenny asked the young man. He was very good-looking, but Jenny noticed this only in passing. She was conditioned by years of monogamy not to dwell on such things. â€Å"Nonsmoking,† he said. Jenny led him to a table in the back. Before he sat down, he pulled out the chair across from him, as if he were going to put his feet up. â€Å"Will someone be joining you?† Jenny asked, handing him a menu. He looked up at her as if he were seeing her for the first time. He stared into her eyes without saying a word. Embarrassed, Jenny looked down. â€Å"Today's special is Eggs-Sothoth – a fiendishly toothsome amalgamation of scrumptious ingredients so delicious that the mere description of the palatable gestalt could drive one mad,† she said. â€Å"You're joking?† â€Å"No. The owner insists that we memorize the daily specials verbatim.† The dark man kept staring at her. â€Å"What does all that mean?† he asked. â€Å"Scrambled eggs with ham and cheese and a side of toast.† â€Å"Why didn't you just say that?† â€Å"The owner is a little eccentric. He believes that his daily specials may be the only thing keeping the Old Ones at bay.† â€Å"The Old Ones?† Jenny sighed. The nice thing about regular customers is she didn't have to keep explaining Howard's weird menu to them. This guy was obviously from out of town. But why did he have to keep staring at her like that? â€Å"It's his religion or something. He believes that the world was once populated by another race. He calls them the Old Ones. For some reason they were banished from Earth, but he believes that they are trying to return and take over.† â€Å"You're joking?† â€Å"Stop saying that. I'm not joking.† â€Å"I'm sorry.† He looked at the menu. â€Å"Okay, give me an Eggs-Sothoth with a side order of The Spuds of Madness.† â€Å"Would you like coffee?† â€Å"That would be great.† Jenny wrote out the ticket and turned to put the order in at the kitchen window. â€Å"Excuse me,† the man said. Jenny turned in midstep. â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"You have incredible eyes.† â€Å"Thanks.† She felt herself blush as she headed off to get his coffee. She wasn't ready for this. She needed some sort of break between being married and being divorced. Divorce leave? They had pregnancy leave, didn't they? When she returned with his coffee, she looked at him for the first time as a single woman might. He was handsome, in a sharp, dark sort of way. He looked younger than she was, twenty-three, maybe twenty-four. She was studying his clothes and trying to get a feel for what he did for a living when she ran into the chair he had pushed out from the table and spilled most of the coffee into the saucer. â€Å"God, I'm sorry.† â€Å"It's okay,† he said. â€Å"Are you having a bad day?† â€Å"Getting worse by the minute. I'll get you another cup.† â€Å"No,† he raised a hand in protest. â€Å"Its fine.† He took the cup and saucer from her, separated them, and poured the coffee back into the cup. â€Å"See, good as new. I don't want to add to your bad day.† He was staring again. â€Å"No, you're fine. I mean, I'm fine. Thanks.† She felt like a geek. She cursed Robert for causing all this. If he hadn't†¦ No, it wasn't Robert's fault. She'd made the decision to end the marriage. â€Å"I'm Travis.† The man extended his hand. She took it, tentatively. â€Å"Jennifer-† She was about to tell him that she was married and that he was nice and all. â€Å"I'm not married,† she said. She immediately wanted to disappear into the kitchen and never come back. â€Å"Me either,† Travis said. â€Å"I'm new in town.† He didn't seem to notice how awkward she was. â€Å"Look, Jennifer, I'm looking for an address and I wonder if you could tell me how to find it? Do you know how to get to Cheshire Street?† Jenny was relieved to be talking about anything but herself. She rattled off a series of streets and turns, landmarks and signs, that would lead Travis to Cheshire Street. When she finished, he just looked at her quizzically. â€Å"I'll draw you a map,† she said. She took a pen from her apron, bent over the table, and began drawing on a napkin. Their faces were inches apart. â€Å"You're very beautiful,† he said. She looked at him. She didn't know whether to smile or scream. Not yet, she thought. I'm not ready. He didn't wait for her to respond. â€Å"You remind me of someone I used to know.† â€Å"Thank you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She tried to remember his name. â€Å"†¦Travis.† â€Å"Have dinner with me tonight?† She searched for an excuse. None came. She couldn't use the one she had used for a decade – it wasn't true anymore. And she hadn't been alone long enough to brush up on some new lies. In fact, she felt that she was somehow being unfaithful to Robert just by talking to this guy. But she was a single woman. Finally she wrote her phone number under the map on the napkin and handed it to him. â€Å"My number's on the bottom. Why don't you call me tonight, around five, and we'll take it from there, okay?† Travis folded the napkin and put it in his shirt pocket. â€Å"Until tonight,† he said. â€Å"Oh, spare me!† a gravely voice said. Jenny turned toward the voice, but there was only the empty chair. To Travis she said, â€Å"Did you hear that?† â€Å"Hear what?† Travis glared at the empty chair. â€Å"Nothing,† Jenny said, â€Å"I'm starting to go over the edge, I think.† â€Å"Relax,† Travis said. â€Å"I won't bite you.† He shot a glance at the chair. â€Å"Your order is up. I'll be right back.† She retrieved the food from the window and delivered it to Travis. While he ate, she stood behind the counter separating coffee filters for the lunch shift, occasionally looking up and smiling at the dark, young man, who paused between bites and smiled back. She was fine, just fine. She was a single woman and could do any damned thing she wanted to. She could go out with anyone she wanted to. She was young and attractive and she had just made her first date in ten years – sort of. Over all of her affirmations her fears flew up and perched like a murder of crows. It occurred to her that she didn't have the slightest idea what she was going to wear. The freedom of single life had suddenly become a burden, a mixed blessing, herpes on the pope's ring. Maybe she wouldn't answer the phone when he called. Travis finished eating and paid his bill, leaving her far too large a tip. â€Å"See you tonight,† he said. â€Å"You bet.† She smiled. She watched him walk across the parking lot. He seemed to be talking to someone as he walked. Probably just singing. Guys did that right after they made a date, didn't they? Maybe he was just a whacko? For the hundredth time that morning she resisted the urge to call Robert and tell him to come home.

Reflective Learning

Induction Module 1. In your answer, identify the main lines of argument and differences in points of view between the commentators and the author. Justify your own point of view regarding the importance of reflection to individual and organisational performance. DiChiara (2002) states that there are a multitude of companies that seek to create an environment where learning and creativity can flourish, but in practice fall short due to a lack of understanding of what is truly required to facilitate reflective learning. DiChiara concerns his comments around the means in which the organisation can engage groups to nurture and develop communities where reflective practice takes place. In contrast, Raelin (2002) concentrates on the reflective skills (Raelin's five principal skills) that can be used by individuals in a group setting to encourage reflective practice. The main focus of DiChiara is around the importance of a ‘safe space' to provide the environment conducive to reflection and the development of communities of practice. Indeed, this is identified as the essential building block necessary, which indicates that the responsibility of learning is mainly placed on the organisation and not on the skill of the individual as Raelin suggests. McArthur (2002) uses his commentary to highlight the point that reflective practice does not necessarily require additional time, as reflection can be done during the event, coined as reflection-in-action by Schon (1983). Based on this train of thought, McArthur introduces two related points at which he disagrees or questions the conclusions of Raelin. Firstly, Raelin sets out guidelines regarding observing judgements where he states reactive thoughts should be examined to allow a ‘more even-handed way of being', inferring that the reactive observation will ultimately be wrong. McArthur offers an alternative solution where the judgement may actually be correct and it is the method in which the judgement is communicated that is important. Secondly, McArthur questions if the core skills, particularly of testing and probing, are indeed only applicable in group or individual situations as Raelin suggests. McArthur points out that there are three parts to our thoughts; the reactive and reflective which are internal voices and the collective which is an external voice. Skilled reflective practitioners must be able being able to distinctly separate these thoughts to arrive at the most appropriate response. McArthur argues that it is only through applying all of the core skills that this response can be found, regardless of the type of interaction involved. The obvious difference between Schein (2002) and Raelin is the focus on group or individual reflection. Schein focuses on private reflection and discusses how this can be realistically achieved. The central tenet of his commentary is that we can find time to reflect on events within our day and perhaps more importantly, this time would not be identifiable as ‘slack' or wasted time within a disapproving or unsympathetic organisational culture. It could be interpreted that the purpose of this commentary is to trigger individual reflection and that this may in turn provide some of the skill and openness required for group reflection to occur. If so, this is linked to the conclusion McArthur makes regarding the lack of skill, not time, being the primary reason for not reflecting. I believe there are a few distinct benefits of reflective practice for both the individual and the organisation. Raelin states that reflection offers the opportunity to examine actions of the past, thoughts of the present and decisions of the future and allows all three to be linked. The individual and organisation can use this to allow decisions to be made with a deeper understanding and more confidence that the situation is fairly assessed with the best interest at heart. Reflection turns experiences in to knowledge and allows skills to be developed to apply this knowledge in other situations with an entirely different context. In my opinion, the importance of reflection to individual performance is based around knowing oneself. By reflecting, the individual is able to develop a more candid assessment of themselves; how they think, what drives them and how they present their thoughts to others. By doing this, insights are gained in to internal assumptions and motivations and this allows better understanding of the true issues hindering performance. This is a powerful tool for targeting real areas for performance improvement, and by continuing to reflect as the individual takes strides to change will also provides a means of measuring improvement. Based on personal experience, Argyris (1991) accurately describes the importance of reflection to the organisation. That is, without some level of reflective practice there is a real danger of externalising issues and a blame culture being adopted even within organisations with motivated and committed individuals. The inability to reflect, for whatever reason, results in the true root cause of issues to be missed, which means the same mistakes will be made again and again. All too often we will overlook issues and accept the superficial. In my opinion, ultimately the true value of reflection to organisational performance resides in the ability to ask and find answers to the difficult questions that we otherwise miss or ignore. References Argyris, C. , 1991, â€Å"Teaching Smart People How to Learn†, Harvard Business Review, May-June, Pages 99-109. Cameron, S. (2001), â€Å"The MBA Handbook: Study skills for Postgraduate Management Study†, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow. DiChiara, P. , Commentary on Raelin, J. , 2002, â€Å"†I don't have time to think! † Versus the art of reflective practice†, Reflections, Fall, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Pages 66-79. Kolb, D. A. , Rubin I. M. and McIntyre, J. M. , 1974, â€Å"Organizational Psychology: An Experiential Approach†, En glewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall. McArthur, P. W. , Commentary on Raelin, J. , 2002, â€Å"†I don't have time to think! † Versus the art of reflective practice†, Reflections, Fall, Vol. , Issue 1, Pages 66-79. Orton, S. , (2003), The Higher Education Academy, Social Policy and Social Work. Raelin, J. , 2002, â€Å"†I don't have time to think! † Versus the art of reflective practice†, Reflections, Fall, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Pages 66-79. Schein, E. H. , Commentary on Raelin, J. , 2002, â€Å"†I don't have time to think! † Versus the art of reflective practice†, Reflections, Fall, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Pages 66-79. Schon, D. A. , 1983, â€Å"The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action†, New York, Basic Books.

Psychology †Nature/Nurture Debate Essay

â€Å"Outline and comment on the two schools of thought involved in the study of the nature-nurture debate in psychology. Explain, using examples, why this debate gives rise to so much controversy.†Ã‚  The debate concerning the influence of nature and nurture (or heredity and environment) on human behaviour is one of the longest running, and most controversial, both inside and outside psychology. It deals with some of the most fundamental questions that human beings ask about themselves, such as ‘How do we come to be the way we are?’ and ‘What makes us develop in the way we do?’ (Gross 2005, P.900) There are three sides to the debate: on the nature side are the nativists or ethologists who believe that children develop almost entirely as a result of genetic influences, with their environment having little effect; on the nurture side are the behaviourists or empiricists who believe people are born as a blank slate which is ‘filled-in’ over a lifetime through learning and experience; and in the middle are the interactionists who, hence the name, believe children develop as a result of an interaction between biology and environment. I will now look at the arguments in more detail. Genetic transmission is the way we acquire characteristics through inheritance. Each cell in the body contains a nucleus, which contains a substance called DNA. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is organised into long strands called chromosomes, and each chromosome is made up of thousands of genes. Genes are the basic unit of hereditary transmission and direct the way that growth and development happen within a plant or animal. Just after an animal is conceived, it is made up of a tiny group of cells. As these grow and divide, each gene acts as a code or set of instructions for making a particular protein. These proteins control the cell’s internal chemistry and tell the cell what to do, giving the organism particular characteristics and determining the way its body functions. We inherit 23 pairs of chromosomes from our parents, 46 in all, half from our Mother and the other half from our Father. They combine to produce all the information an embryo needs to develop biologically. Since we inherit particular chromosomes through the egg and sperm, we also inherit the particular characteristics coded for by the genes on those chromosomes. Arnold Gesell, a pioneer of developmental psychology, was an extreme nativist. He believed all individuals pass through the same genetically programmed series of changes, with the instructions for these changes being passed on at the moment of conception. â€Å"Gesell was mainly concerned with infants’ psychomotor development (such a grasping and other manipulative skills), and locomotion (such as crawling and walking)† (Gross 2005, P.901). Gesell established a research institute devoted to identifying ‘normal’ ages for a wide variety of behaviors and characteristics; he used a motion picture camera to film thousands of children in various stages of development. This genetically programmed series of changes is called maturation. It is important to look at maturation as we try to understand genetic influences on behaviour. Some genetic influences are obvious at birth such as hereditary illnesses or abnormalities such as Down’s syndrome, but the things we inherit don’t necessarily show up all at once. â€Å"The physiological changes which take place during puberty, for example, arise because of genes that are present at conception, but they only happen when the body is mature enough for them to take place. In the same way, certain forms of behaviour may only emerge once the individual is mature enough† (Hayes and Orrell 1998, P.7). In 1938 Lorenz and Tinbergen put forward four characteristics to identify directly inherited behaviour in animals. These are: stereotyped behaviour, which always occurs in the same way because behaviour which is directly caused by genetic influence can’t be affected by the environment; species-specific behaviour, because each species has its own genetic make-up the behaviour should differ to that of other species; the behaviour should appear in animals raised in isolation, because if it is truly inherited there should be no need to learn it; and the behaviour should appear complete even if the animal has not had chance to learn it.

Answer the question from marketing point of view Essay

Answer the question from marketing point of view - Essay Example Faulty marketing strategy is what many consider as the core reason for its failure to draw the amount of customer it had targeted in the beginning. In such a situation the prowess of Apple's marketing strategy and the success of iPhone in getting a quantum hold over the market come into question. In marketing point of view, it can be conjectured that perhaps, Apple's strategy for iPhone in Europe and Asia has not been able to accomplish what it was supposed to. In my following statement I will discuss the merits and demerits of Apple's marketing strategy, where did they go wrong Their approach towards targeting Asian and European market is also a matter of concern now. The entire wireless industry awaited the advent of iPhone in the market. There was an unrestrained buzz concerning its grand arrival. Since Apple's iPhone is among the few other internet-connected multimedia phones it generated umpteen interests among the mobile users all over the world. One of the major reasons for such a craze about iPhone is its trendy, sleek and modish look. Adding to the outer appeal of the iPhone these smart phones are endowed with advanced features like 3rd generation wireless networking. Apple's iPhone has also been able get the attention of the gizmo geeks who are tempted by its ultra-modern features which include portable media player and visual voicemail. Those who love to flaunt advanced mobiles are easily attracted towards its multi-touch screen and a minimum hardware interface. Besides having an in-built memory of 8 GB the iPhones also have a large screen of 3.5 inches and a striking display. The mobile users and the lovers of modern gadgets were more inclined towards iPhones owing to their endless features that were not available in other mobile phones. There is no denial of the fact that Apple's iPhones were richly added with most advanced features and most of the mobile users were eagerly waiting for its advent. To many, iPhone is a wonderful innovation which offers internet services like, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. People started to think of it's a wonder machine which is a major achievement by Apple Inc in revolutionizing wireless industry. Delicate look of the iPhones and their intelligent features combine to make them irresistible among the mobile phone users. Their craze is perhaps much because of the prospect of owning something stylish rather than the interest of using a complicated gadget. Merits and demerits of the strategies adopted by Apple in launching iPhone: The craze for Apple's iPhones is attributable to the excellent marketing strategies adopted by the company. It can also be inferred that since Apple Inc emphasizes on the significance of innovation people all over the world expected to see something unseen and use something which was not known before. The USP of the product was undoubtedly its unique features and endless number of convenient services within that smart phone. It is also to be accepted that the marketing team of Apple strove hard to market their product in a most plausible way. Apple Inc was prudent enough to adopt Price Skimming method in the initial stages of its marketing. This is a marketing strategy in which Apple deliberately overpriced its products without bringing it down. Its tactics has helped

In an essay of at least six paragraphs and at least 750 words, discuss

In an of at least six paragraphs and at least 750 words, discuss the positive and negative aspects of living ones life according to the carpe diem philos - Essay Example 17). Either one of these writers would be accurate in their general concept; carpe diem is, in its literal Latin meaning, â€Å"seize the moment.† How that philosophy is translated into the life of men and women has been the source of much reflection over the centuries. However, for purposes of this paper, we will focus on the philosophy of the two authors already mentioned, and how those philosophies might manifest in the lives of the contemporary person. To live in the moment, Sneed suggests, is not to dwell on the past at length, but to take the lesson of the past, be aware of it, but to live in the moment armed with the knowledge of the past (p. 1). Lowrie takes the concept of living in the present, armed with the poetics of the past, to the issue of lyrics (1997, p. 1). That lyrics, song, poetry is tangential to living in the moment, even when the lyrics and the poetry are of the past they are translated according to the moment of the present (p. 1). To this extent, consider the Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The play has been done in its classical version, that is, true to the poetry of the original writing; and in contemporary style, that is taking the poetry of the past, and putting it into the language of the present; carpe diem. The contemporary productions of the play have brought the lessons of the past to the moment of the present, seizing the moment to use what has been proven as a teaching tool in the past, to i nfluence the minds and hearts of young people in the present. â€Å"Because the central didactic message of the Odes is carpe diem, a maxim that not only enjoins us to live in the present, but evokes the poetry of the present: its locus is the symposium (Davis, 1991). Sympotic poetry entails conversation and song, but song that keeps to the moment, inscribes its own occasion, and does not go on at length about the events of the mythic past (Lowrie,

Domestic Violence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Domestic Violence - Research Paper Example Commitments in personal and professional life have been increased a lot at present. All these factors may end up in some kind of conflicts between the family members and the ultimate result would be some kind of physical assault, mental torture or verbal torture. â€Å"Domestic violence, be it physical, emotional, sexual or verbal, changes everyone in the family unit† (Domestic Violence Information: The Process Of Healing). Domestic violence has lot of moral, social and family dimensions and implications. Sociologists and criminal justice system have different opinions about how to control or regulate domestic violence incidents. Some people argue that the abusers should be isolated from the family for a particular period of time in order to settle the issues and continue the life normally. Many others are of the views that such isolations may not help either the victim or the abuser in the long run. In most of the cases, the victim forced to continue his/her life with the abu ser; however the relationships between the abuser and the victim need not be the same as before. Moreover, â€Å"Abusers who engage in one instance of domestic violence are several times more likely to engage in similar behavior again† (Breaking the Cycle: Life After Domestic Violence). This paper analyses whether a victim should continue his/her life with the abuser even after serious clashes between them. You have been beaten. The bruises will fade and time will pass but that does not mean that this terrible thing that has happened to you will disappear. Domestic violence damages both internally and externally. You need to aim for a healing process that incorporates your whole person. This may be a lonely time no matter how many friends and family and supportive measures there are around you. Go inside of yourself and find out what you need to do to heal your heart. What hurts the most? How can you start to rebuild your wounded soul? Where can you get help and what type of help will be best for you? (Watson) Domestic violence is a crime which can affect not only the body, but also the mind or soul. The decision whether to continue with the abuser or not should be taken only after the correct assessment of the damage done, the reasons which forced the abuser to engage in such violent acts, possibilities of repetition of such acts in future, character and behavior of the abuser, family atmosphere and opinions of others. Most of the victims respond emotionally after the abusive incidents. They do not bother much about the future consequences since they may reach an excited mental state during and immediately after the abusive incident happens/happened. According to Natasha Kemp (2007), â€Å"The most dangerous time for a women in a violent abusive relationship is right after she has made the decision to leave the relationship, it is the most likely time that she will be murdered, by her intimate partner† (Kemp). Most of the domestic violence cases are happening because of a momentary lapse of mental control. It is quite possible that the abuser may regain his control immediately after the incident. He may feel repentance also. If the victim responds emotionally and takes a decision to leave the company of the abuser, the vengeance of the abuser could be increased and more serious problems may arise later. Jennifer-Crystal Johnson (2008) has pointed out that most of the â€Å"

U06d2 Legal Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

U06d2 Legal Reporting - Essay Example There are several issues that are covered by the law and these include abuses like sexual abuse, child abuse or any form of misconduct with the elderly (Pozgar G. D., 2006). Also, any form of misconduct or irresponsibility shown in regards to communicable diseases can also be reported and filed against. To ensure the best for all within the society and also at the healthcare centers, the doctors and the healthcare centers are required to participate in reporting any form of suspected child abuse or elderly abuse (Syrett, 2008). The government is very strict in these matters and is working towards the well being of all within the society. The health care workers are also liable to report any rapes, harassment, and all birth and deaths are also expected to be kept up – to – date to ensure an accurate census. The government has allowed for the health care personnel to participate and help the society by reporting any kind of suspicious behavior, however if this right and responsibility is dishonored and misused to falsely report, then the individual can also be faced with serious consequences like civil and even criminal obligations (Pozgar, Santucci, & Pinnella, 2009). There have also been a number of processes and reporting systems that have been implemented to ensure that all healthcare organizations report the incidents and any form of any communicable disease is curbed at the starting point itself. The states also have laws to curb the possibility of any new disease to spread and to create an epidemic (Pozgar G. D., 2006). To be able to curb this, the government requires the state to report any and all irregular or unexpected similar symptoms in numerous patients. To also ensure higher safety and security of the patients and the processes being accurate in the healthcare industry th ere is a requirement to also report any errors from the health care end (Nathanson, 1995). Along with the safety of

Comparative Corporate Governance Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Comparative Corporate Governance - Coursework Example deal with mergers and acquisitions and will further strengthen the differences that exist between US and UK takeover activities. The directors of target corporations in U.S. can make use of the available takeover defences to shift the hostile offers within the procedures of a conciliated acquisition that creates greater power for negotiation allowing the board to optimize the value of shareholders within M&A transactions. While the process of conciliation is on, the directors have the power to consolidate provisions within the M&A agreement under the deal protection measure, that goes on to elevate the prices and premium rates for the shareholders. Therefore, we find that in case of US target corporation as per the extensive rules established under the Delaware General Corporation Law and the Delaware common law the ultimate authority and power is wielded by the board of directors in case of selling the company. However, the board of directors in U.K. target corporations do not have similar powers to transfer the offers into the process of conciliation. Instead, in this case the takeover defences are face strict prohibition order in UK and the recent amendments made to the takeover code by the Panel impedes the use of any kind of deal protection measures. Therefore, by removing the deal protection measures and the takeover defences, the takeover code largely curbs the board’s power of negotiation. This article will examine the various differences that exist in the regulation of takeover defences in the UK and the US and how they reflect the different approaches taken in the UK and the US to the balance of  power between the board of directors and the shareholder body. Discussion Antitakeover disposition... From the research it can be comprehended that antitakeover disposition used by target firms are defence measures adopted to avoid unwarranted hostile tenders presented by any future bidders. Some of the defence measures are used as pre-emptive strategies (in anticipation of future negotiation), while there are also a wide spectrum of complaisant defences available to organisations that find themselves as potential targets after the negotiations. Besides these, the defence strategies and the manner by which they can be employed differ widely between US (especially under Delaware law), and UK. As per the Delaware law while defending against a hostile takeover the directors of the target company may apply their ‘business judgment rule’ where they are allowed to show that after showing â€Å"good faith and reasonable investigation,† they felt a threat to the present policies of the corporation. Furthermore as per the awarded sentence in the case Unocal Corp v Mesa Pet roleum Co, a judiciary review of any defensive takeover strategies looks towards whether the threat mentioned by the directors were viewed reasonably, and if the defensive strategies applied were feasible to the posed threat. In UK however, in direct contrast, the use of takeover defences to ward off hostile takeovers is restricted largely by the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and make sit necessary that there is shareholder approval before the defensive strategies are exercised.

Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Marketing - Assignment Example The advertising team understands that self-image is an important concept that individuals possess. In the modern society, the concept of body image is highly romanticized in society. People are extremely aware of their body image and will do anything to look appealing for the interest sex. In order to promote their product, the commercials use all sorts of fancy computer imaging techniques and animations to create an illusion that fat loss is actually occurring. The advertisement completely crosses the limits as it shows obese models strapping the belts and then actually feeling it â€Å"working.† The commercial never states the fact that the product is proven to eliminate or even reduce fat. The question remains—is it legal? Yes, but it is absolutely unethical as it hurts consumers in various ways. First and foremost, the commercial is detrimental towards consumers because it promotes wrong advertisement as it never states that it supports fat loss, but rather an illus ion of a temporary water loss. Secondly, the advertisement claims that â€Å"results are not typical.† However, it is certain that the companies prey on their consumers that these so-called transformations will leave their audience in awe and will attract them to buy the product. Clearly, that is unethical. Lastly, consumers are given wrong information and data about these products.

Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research Paper - Essay Example The gendered roles of men and women institutionalized the supremacy of men which was further reinforced by the fact that being the bread-earners, they were naturally the heads of their families. This kind of male dominance prevailed since centuries, until the mid-twentieth century, when women’s rights activists initiated historical movements. Up till then, women did not have many chances of getting high education as compared with men. However, with the passage of time, they became aware of their political and social rights and sought to fight for them. In many countries of the world, women were deprived of their inheritance, and so much was to be done to earn their birth rights. For instance, the right to express themselves; the right to have a voice or opinion; the right to earn or work; the right to marry the person of their choice; the right to have or not to have children; the right to vote; the right to divorce; the right to adopt a religion; or simply the right to live t heir own lives, rather than being dictated by the norms of society or the patriarchal system. Prior to this awareness, they had no rights over their own bodies or sexuality. Having right over your own body means having the power to decide for yourself. Self determination was denied to women since ancient times; but the dynamics of the twentieth century changed the mindset of all and sundry, once various movements in different parts of the world gained momentum. Perhaps the first step was to step out of the domestic domains and enter the work force with men. As their roles changed, there developed a natural urge to change their social and political status. After a long journey, women today can claim to enjoy equal benefits at workplace, access to therapeutic abortion, maternity leave, etc. The health exception drew additional legitimacy from Britain’s passage of a therapeutic law in 1967. In the late 1960s, reformers succeeded in securing laws for therapeutic abortion in a num ber of states, which set up complicated processes heavily supervised by medical committees that allowed women to end pregnancies in â€Å"hardship cases† involving rape, incest, the probability of a deformed child, or the threat of death. (Stansell, 315) The Abortion Law is yet a controversial topic in many parts of the world. However, women’s rights’ activists that were in favour of this law hailed the decision of the government in this regard. The official law prevented women from aborting themselves at home that posed severe health risks for them. However, abortion by choice is yet not a simple task in many states and is only performed where necessary. If the reasons of abortion are primarily for the health or honour of women, or in case of a deformed child, then women are granted this right. Conservative societies, like Japan were reluctant to change their attitude towards women, as demanded by the women’s rights’ activists. Regarding the abort ion rights in Japan, during the 70’s and 80’s, a massive change was witnessed among women who fought for women’s rights. This movement spread awareness among women about their rights whether to have a baby or not. â€Å"...women in the reproductive health movement diligently prevented the revision of the national law that would have limited access to abortion. The revision would have legally nullified women’

Friedrich Nietzsche Essay Example for Free

Friedrich Nietzsche Essay Existentialism provides a moving account of the agony of being in the world. The spirit of existen- tialism has a long history in philosophy. But it be- came a major movement in the second half of the 20th century. Existentialism is not a systematic body of thought like Marxism or psychoanalysis. Instead, it is more like an umbrella under which a very wide range of thinkers struggled with ques- tions about the meaning of life. Much of the appeal and popularity of Existential- ism is due to the sense of confusion, the crisis, and the feeling of rejection and rootlessness that Euro- peans felt during World War II and its aftermath. Existentialism’s focus on each person’s role in cre- ating meaning in their life was a major influence on the Phenomenological and Humanistic traditions in psychology and on the â€Å"human potential† move- ment that emerged from them. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) said, â€Å"Conquer your- self rather than the world. †. To modern existential- ists this means that the World itself has no real meaning or purpose. It is not the unfolding expres- sion of Human Destiny or a Divine plan, or even a set of natural laws. The only meaning is that which we create by acts of will. To have a meaningful life we have to act. But we should act without hope. Acting is meaningful but it doesn’t create meaning that lasts beyond the acts themselves or beyond our own lifetime. You are what you do – while you are doing it – and then nothing. (Very depressing. ) In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus (pronounced â€Å"Kam-moo†) (1913-1960) describes life as a kind of hopeless, endless, uphill labor. Hence, the only true problem is that of suicide. Yet, he rejects nihilism; for the human being must fight and never accept defeat. The problem is to be a saint without a God. The last judgment takes place everyday. The human being must do his best, try for what he can within the confinements of his situation. Camus describes Sisyphus condemned by the gods to push a stone up a hill over and over, only to have it roll back down each time he reaches the top. A task that can never be completed. But he finds meaning in the fact that Sisyphus at least gets to decide each time whether to carry on or end it all. Camus says, The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Although there can never be any meaning in Sisy- phus’ task, there is meaning is choosing each time to continue. Despite encompassing a staggering range of phi- losophical, religious, and political ideologies, the underlying concepts of existentialism are simple: Mankind has free will. Life is a series of choices, creating stress. Few decisions are without any negative conse- quences. Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation. If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through. Notes on Existentialism by Tanweer Akram. The fundamental problem of existentialism is con- cerned with the study of being. The human beings existence is the first and basic fact; the human be- ing has no essence that comes before his existence. The human being, as a being, is nothing. This nothingness and the non-existence of an essence is the central source of the freedom the human being faces in each and every moment. The human being Notes on Existentialism Compiled for PSY 345 (Fall 2004) Existentialism Notes 2 has liberty in view of his situation, in decisions which makes himself and sets himself to solves his problems and live in the world. Thrown into the world, the human being is con- demned to be free. The human being must take this freedom of being and the responsibility and guilt of his actions. Each action negates the other possible courses of action and their consequences; so the human being must be accountable without excuse. The human being must not slip away from his re- sponsibilities. The human being must take deci- sions and assume responsibilities. There is no sig- nificance in this world, this universe. The human being cannot find any purpose in life; his existence is only a contingent fact. His being does not emerge from necessity. If a human being rejects the false pretensions, the illusions of his existence hav- ing a meaning, he encounters the absurdity, the fu- tility of life. The human beings role in the world is not predetermined or fixed; every person is com- pelled to make a choice. Choice is one thing the human being must make. The trouble is that most often the human being refuses to choose. Hence, he cannot realize his freedom and the futility of his existence. Basically existence is of two types: authentic and inauthentic forms of existence. Authentic existence is contrasted with dynamic and is the being-for- itself, rising from the human beings bad faith, by which the human being moves away from the bur- den of responsibility, through this beliefs in dogma and by regarding himself as subject to outside in- fluences and his actions to be predetermined. There is a striking contrast between the authentic and the inauthentic forms of being; the authentic being is the being of the human being and the inau- thentic being is the being for things. Yet, authentic being is only rarely attained by the human being; still it is what the human being must strive to gain. The inauthentic being-in-itself is characteristically distinctive of things; it is what the human being is diseased with for his failure to see himself as and act according as a free agent and his impotency to reject bad faith. Things are only what they are. But the human being is what can be. Things are deter- mined, fixed, and rigid; the human being is free; he can add essence to his life in the course of his life and he is in a constant state of flux and is able to comprehend his situation. The human being does not live in a pre-determined world; the human be- ing is free to realize his aims, to materialize his dreams; hence, he has only the destiny he forges for himself because in this world nothing happens out of necessity. The human being hides himself from freedom by self-deception, acting like a thing, as if he is a pas- sive subject, instead of realizing the authentic be- ing for the human being; this is bad faith. In bad faith, the human being shelter himself from re- sponsibility by not noticing the dimensions of al- ternative courses of action facing him; in bad faith, the human being behaves as others demand of him by conforming to the standards of accepted values and by adopting roles designed for him; in bad faith, the human being loses the autonomy of his moral will, his freedom to decide; in bad faith, the human being imprisons himself within inauthentic- ity for he has refused to take the challenge of re- sponsibility and the anxiety that comes along with his freedom. Anxiety ascends from the human beings realiza- tion that the human beings destiny is not fixed but is open to an undetermined future of infinite possi- bilities and limitless scope: The emptiness of fu- ture destiny must be filled by making choices for which he alone will assume responsibility and blame. This anxiety is present at every moment of the human beings existence; anxiety is part and parcel of authentic existence. Anxiety leads the human being to take decisions and be committed. The human being tries to avoid this anguish through bad faith. But the free human being, in his authenticity, must be involved; for his own actions are only his, his responsibility is to himself, his being is his own. The human being must be com- mitted. To be committed means not to support this in place of that, but to attach a human beings total- ity to a cause; it is the human beings existential freedom that leads to total commitment. Existentialist thinkers begin from the human situa- tion in the world; the condition of despair, the modes of existence, the human beings tendency to avoid authentic existence, his relation to things, his own body, and to other beings, with whom he can- not come into genuine communication, and the sufferings of life. Starting from the study of being, each existentialist thinkers originate their own doc- trines, with their own emphasis on particular as- pects. Very often their viewpoints is conflicting and sometimes contradictory; yet this philosophi-cal attitude of being, as a whole, can be described as the existentialist movement, which stresses upon the being of the human being. Existentialism Notes 3 Additional Notes on Existentialism Existentialism, philosophical movement or ten- dency, emphasizing individual existence, freedom, and choice, that influenced many diverse writers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Major Themes Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, the term is impossible to define precisely. Certain themes common to virtually all existentialist writers can, however, be identified. The term itself suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice. Moral Individualism Most philosophers since Plato have held that the highest ethical good is the same for everyone; inso- far as one approaches moral perfection, one resem- bles other morally perfect individuals. The 19th- century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who was the first writer to call himself existential, reacted against this tradition by insisting that the highest good for the individual is to find his or her own unique vocation. As he wrote in his journal, â€Å"I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die. † Other existentialist writers have echoed Kierkegaards belief that one must choose ones own way without the aid of universal, objective standards. Against the traditional view that moral choice involves an objective judgment of right and wrong, existentialists have argued that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions. The 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche further contended that the indi- vidual must decide which situations are to count as moral situations. SubjectivityAll existentialists have followed Kierkegaard in s tressing the importance of passionate individual action in deciding questions of both morality and truth. They have insisted, accordingly, that per- sonal experience and acting on ones own convic- tions are essential in arriving at the truth. Thus, the understanding of a situation by someone involved in that situation is superior to that of a detached, objective observer. This emphasis on the perspec- tive of the individual agent has also made existen- tialists suspicious of systematic reasoning. Kierke- gaard, Nietzsche, and other existentialist writers have been deliberately unsystematic in the exposi- tion of their philosophies, preferring to express themselves in aphorisms, dialogues, parables, and other literary forms. Despite their antirationalist position, however, most existentialists cannot be said to be irrationalists in the sense of denying all validity to rational thought. They have held that rational clarity is desirable wherever possible, but that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or science. Furthermore, they have argued that even science is not as rational as is commonly supposed. Nietzsche, for instance, asserted that the scientific assumption of an orderly universe is for the most part a useful fiction. Choice and Commitment Perhaps the most prominent theme in existentialist writing is that of choice. Humanitys primary dis- tinction, in the view of most existentialists, is the freedom to choose. Existentialists have held that human beings do not have a fixed nature, or es- sence, as other animals and plants do; each human being makes choices that create his or her own na- ture. In the formulation of the 20th-century French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, existence precedes essence. Choice is therefore central to human exis- tence, and it is inescapable; even the refusal to choose is a choice. Freedom of choice entails com- mitment and responsibility. Because individuals are free to choose their own path, existentialists have argued, they must accept the risk and respon- sibility of following their commitment wherever it leads. Dread and Anxiety Kierkegaard held that it is spiritually crucial to rec- ognize that one experiences not only a fear of spe- cific objects but also a feeling of general apprehen- sion, which he called dread. He interpreted it as Gods way of calling each individual to make a commitment to a personally valid way of life. The word anxiety (German Angst) has a similarly cru- cial role in the work of the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger; anxiety leads to the individuals confrontation with nothingness and with the impossibility of finding ultimate justifica- tion for the choices he or she must make. In the philosophy of Sartre, the word nausea is used for the individuals recognition of the pure contin- gency of the universe, and the word anguish is used for the recognition of the total freedom of choice that confronts the individual at every mo- ment. Existentialism Notes 4 History Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and liter- ary movement belongs to the 19th and 20th centu- ries, but elements of existentialism can be found in the thought (and life) of Socrates, in the Bible, and in the work of many premodern philosophers and writers. Pascal The first to anticipate the major concerns of mod- ern existentialism was the 17th-century French phi- losopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal rejected the rigorous rationalism of his contemporary Rene Descartes, asserting, in his Pensees (1670), that a systematic philosophy that presumes to explain God and hu- manity is a form of pride. Like later existentialist writers, he saw human life in terms of paradoxes: The human self, which combines mind and body, is itself a paradox and contradiction. Kierkegaard Kierkegaard, generally regarded as the founder of modern existentialism, reacted against the system- atic absolute idealism of the 19th-century German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who claimed to have worked out a total rational understanding of hu- manity and history. Kierkegaard, on the contrary, stressed the ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation. The individuals response to this situation must be to live a totally committed life, and this commitment can only be understood by the indi- vidual who has made it. The individual therefore must always be prepared to defy the norms of soci- ety for the sake of the higher authority of a person- ally valid way of life. Kierkegaard ultimately advo- cated a â€Å"leap of faith† into a Christian way of life, which, although incomprehensible and full of risk, was the only commitment he believed could save the individual from despair. Nietzsche Nietzsche, who was not acquainted with the work of Kierkegaard, influenced subsequent existential- ist thought through his criticism of traditional metaphysical and moral assumptions and through his espousal of tragic pessimism and the life- affirming individual will that opposes itself to the moral conformity of the majority. In contrast to Kierkegaard, whose attack on conventional moral- ity led him to advocate a radically individualistic Christianity, Nietzsche proclaimed the â€Å"death of God† and went on to reject the entire Judeo- Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan ideal. Heidegger Heidegger, like Pascal and Kierkegaard, reacted against an attempt to put philosophy on a conclu- sive rationalistic basis—in this case the phenome- nology of the 20th-century German philosopher Edmund Husserl. Heidegger argued that humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent world. Human beings can never hope to under- stand why they are here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of ones life. Heidegger contributed to existentialist thought an original em- phasis on being and ontology as well as on lan- guage. Sartre Sartre first gave the term existentialism general currency by using it for his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure of a distinct move- ment in France that became internationally influen- tial after World War II. Sartres philosophy is ex- plicitly atheistic and pessimistic; he declared that human beings require a rational basis for their lives but are unable to achieve one, and thus human life is a â€Å"futile passion. † Sartre nevertheless insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and he strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility. He eventually tried to reconcile these existentialist concepts with a Marxist analy- sis of society and history. Existentialism and Theology Although existentialist thought encompasses the uncompromising atheism of Nietzsche and Sartre and the agnosticism of Heidegger, its origin in the intensely religious philosophies of Pascal and Kierkegaard foreshadowed its profound influence on 20th-century theology. The 20th-century Ger- man philosopher Karl Jaspers, although he rejected explicit religious doctrines, influenced contempo- rary theology through his preoccupation with tran- scendence and the limits of human experience. The German Protestant theologians Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann, the French Roman Catholic theologian Gabriel Marcel, the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nikolay Berdyayev, and the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber inherited many Existentialism Notes 5 of Kierkegaards concerns, especially that a per- sonal sense of authenticity and commitment is es- sential to religious faith. Existentialism and Literature A number of existentialist philosophers used liter- ary forms to convey their thought, and existential- ism has been as vital and as extensive a movement in literature as in philosophy. The 19th-century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky is probably the greatest existentialist literary figure. In Notes from the Underground (1864), the alienated anti- hero rages against the optimistic assumptions of rationalist humanism. The view of human nature that emerges in this and other novels of Dostoyevsky is that it is unpredictable and per- versely self-destructive; only Christian love can save humanity from itself, but such love cannot be understood philosophically. As the character Alyo- sha says in The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), â€Å"We must love life more than the meaning of it. † In the 20th century, the novels of the Austrian Jew- ish writer Franz Kafka, such as The Trial (1925; trans. 1937) and The Castle (1926; trans. 1930), present isolated men confronting vast, elusive, menacing bureaucracies; Kafkas themes of anxi- ety, guilt, and solitude reflect the influence of Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche. The in- fluence of Nietzsche is also discernible in the nov- els of the French writers Andre Malraux and in the plays of Sartre. The work of the French writer Al- bert Camus is usually associated with existential- ism because of the prominence in it of such themes as the apparent absurdity and futility of life, the indifference of the universe, and the necessity of engagement in a just cause. Existentialist themes are also reflected in the theater of the absurd, nota- bly in the plays of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. In the United States, the influence of exis- tentialism on literature has been more indirect and diffuse, but traces of Kierkegaards thought can be found in the novels of Walker Percy and John Up- dike, and various existentialist themes are apparent in the work of such diverse writers as Norman Mailer, John Barth, and Arthur Miller. Conclusion Existentialists make endless claims. They never bother to show how they reached their claims or if these are, indeed, true. The existentialists when he pretends to present a representation of reality pro- vides no cognition; unverifiable assertions may well express powerful and even necessary emo- tions and passions, but thats best left to the arts and literature. Existentialism is a highly passionate philosophy and, from the outset, seems to aim at a dynamic and fashionable life-style. Also it is mostly unsys- tematic and pays little attention to logic or science. Whatever one makes of its metaphysical claims, one cannot deny that existentialism was able to provide a moving account of the spirit of the con- temporary world and the nausea and frustration of survival. Indeed, it is basically for its richness in psychological insight and its impact on culture that existentialist philosophy will continued to be stud- ied.

The Manager as a Planner and Strategist Essay Example for Free

The Manager as a Planner and Strategist Essay The Nature of the Planning Process: Planning is a process that managers use to identify and select appropriate goals and courses of action for an organization. The cluster of decisions and actions that managers take to help an organization attain its goals is its strategy. Thus, planning is both a goal-making and a strategy-making process. Planning is a three-step activity: 1)Determining the organization’s mission and goals: A mission statement is a broad declaration of an organization’s purpose that identifies the organization’s products and customers and distinguishes the organization from its competitors. 2)Formulating Strategy: Managers analyze the organization’s current situation and then convince and develop the strategies necessary to attain the organization’s mission and goals. 3)Implementing Strategy: Managers decide how to allocate the resources and responsibilities required to implement the strategies between people and groups within the organization. Levels of Planning: In large organizations planning takes place at three levels of management: Corporate Level, Business or Division Level, and Department or Functional Level. The Corporate-level plan contains top management’s decisions pertaining to the organization’s mission and goals, overall strategy, and structure. Corporate-level strategy indicates in which industries and national markets an organization intends to compete. The corporate-level plan provides the framework within which divisional managers create their business-level plans. A division is a business unit that has its own set of managers and functions or departments and competes in a distinct industry. Divisional managers are those who control the various divisions of an organization. At the business level, the managers of each division create a Business-level plan that details long-term goals that will allow the division to meet corporate goals and the division’s business-level strategy and structure. Business-level strategy states the methods a division or business intends to use to compete against its rivals in an industry. The business-level plan provides the framework within which functional managers devise their plans. A Function is a unit or department in which people have the same skills or use the same resources to perform their jobs. Functional managers are those who supervise the various functions such as manufacturing, accounting, and sales within a division. A Functional-level plan states the goals that functional managers propose to pursue to help the division attain its business-level goals, which, in turn, allow the organization to achieve its corporate goals. Functional-level strategy sets forth the actions that managers intend to take at the level of departments to allow the organization to attain its goals. An important issue in planning is ensuring consistency in planning across the three different levels. Functional goals and strategies should be consistent with divisional goals and strategies, which in turn should be consistent with corporate goals and strategies, and vice versa. Once complete, each function’s plan is normally linked to its division’s business-level plan, which, in turn, is linked to the corporate plan. Who Plans? In general, corporate-level planning is the primary responsibility of top managers. Corporate-level managers are responsible for approving business and functional-level plans to ensure that they are consistent with the corporate plan. Corporate planning decisions are not made in a vacuum. Other managers do have input to corporate-level planning. Even though corporate-level planning is the responsibility of top managers, lower-level managers can and usually are given the opportunity to become involved in the process. At the business level, planning is the responsibility of divisional managers, who also review functional plans. Functional managers also participate in business-level planning. Similarly, although the functional managers bear primary responsibility for functional-level planning, they can and do involve their subordinates in this process. Time Horizons of Plans: Plans differ in their time horizons, or intended durations. Managers usually distinguish among long-term plans, with a horizon of five years or more; intermediate-term plans, with a horizon between one and five years; and short-term plans, with a horizon of one year or less. Typically, corporate- and business-level goals and strategies require long and intermediate-term plans, and functional-level goals and strategies require intermediate and short term plans. Most organizations have an annual planning cycle, which usually linked to the annual financial budget. Although a corporate- or business-level plan may extend over five years or more, it is typically treated as a rolling plan, a plan that is updated and amended every year to take account of changing conditions in the external environment. Rolling plans allow managers to make midcourse corrections if environmental changes warrant or to change the thrust of the plan altogether if it no longer seems appropriate. Standing Plans and Single-Use Plans: Managers create standing and single-use plans to help achieve an organization’s specific goals. Standing plans are used in situations in which programmed decision making is appropriate. When the same situations occur repeatedly, managers develop policies (a general guide to action), rules (a formal, written guide to action), and standard operating procedures (SOP a written instruction describing the exact series of actions that should be followed in a specific situation) to control the way employees perform tasks. Single-use plans are developed to handle nonprogrammed decision making in unusual or one-of-a-kind situations. It includes Programs, which are integrated sets of plans for achieving certain goals, and Projects, which are specific action plans created to complete various aspects of a program. Why Planning is Important? Planning determines where an organization is at the present time and decides where it should be in the future and how to move it forward. When mangers plan, they must consider the future and forecast what may happen in order to take actions in the present and mobilize organizational resources to deal with future opportunities and threats. However, the external environment is uncertain and complex, and managers typically must deal with incomplete information and bounded rationality. Almost all managers engage in planning. The absence of a plan often results in hesitations, false steps, and mistaken changes of direction that can hurt an organization. Planning is important for four main reasons: 1)Planning is a useful way of getting managers to participate in decision making about the appropriate goals and strategies for an organization. 2)Planning is necessary to give the organization a sense of direction and purpose. A plan states what goals an organization is trying to achieve and what strategies it intends to use to achieve them. 3)A plan helps coordinate managers of the different functions and divisions of an organization to ensure that they all pull in the same direction. 4)A plan can be used as a device for controlling managers within an organization. A good plan specifies not only which goals and strategies the organization is committed to but also who is responsible for putting the strategies into action to attain the goals. Henri Fayol said that effective plans should have four qualities: Unity: Means that at any one time only one central, guiding plan is put into operation to achieve an organizational goal. Continuity: Means that planning is an ongoing process in which managers build and refine previous plans and continually modify plans at all levels so that they fit together into one broad framework. Accuracy: Means that managers need to make every attempt to collect and utilize all available information at their disposal in the planning process. Flexibility: Means that plans can be altered and changed if the situation changes. Scenario Planning: One way in which managers can try to create plans that have the four qualities described by Fayol is by utilizing scenario planning (Contingency planning), which is the generation of multiple forecasts of future conditions followed by an analysis of how to respond effectively to each of those conditions. Planning is about trying to forecast and predict the future in order to be able to anticipate future opportunities and threats. Because the future is unpredictable, the only reasonable approach to planning is first to generate scenarios of the future based of different assumptions about conditions that might prevail in the future and then to develop different plans that detail what a company should do in the event that one of these scenarios actually occurs. The great strength of scenario planning is its ability not only to anticipate the challenges of an uncertain future but also to educate managers to think about the future – to think strategically. Determining the Organization’s Mission and Goals: Determining the organization’s mission and goals is the first step of the planning process. Once the mission and goals are agreed upon and formally stated in the corporate plan, they guide the next steps by defining which strategies are appropriate and which are inappropriate. Defining the Business: To determine an organization’s mission, managers must first define its business so that they can identify what kind of value they will provide to customers. To define the business, managers must ask three questions: (1) Who are our customers? (2) What customer needs are being satisfied? (3) How are we satisfying customer needs? Answering these questions helps managers to identify not only the customer needs they are satisfying now but the needs they should try to satisfy in the future and who their true competitors are. All of this information helps managers plan and establish appropriate goals. Establishing Major Goals: Once the business is defined, managers must establish a set of primary goals to which the organization is committed. Developing these goals gives the organization a sense of direction or purpose. In most organizations, articulating major goals is the job of the CEO, although other managers have input into the process. The best statements of organizational goals are ambitious – that is, they stretch the organization and require the managers improve its performance capabilities. Although goals should be challenging, they should also be realistic. Challenging goals give managers an incentive to look for ways to improve an organization’s operation, but a goal that is unrealistic and impossible to attain may prompt managers to give up. The time period in which a goal is expected to be achieved should be stated. Time constraints are important because they emphasize that a goal must be attained within a reasonable period. Formulating Strategy: In strategy formulation managers analyze an organization’s current situation and then develop strategies to accomplish its mission and achieve its goals. Strategy formulation begins with managers’ analyzing the factors within an organization and outside, that affect the organization’s ability to meet its goals now and in the future. SWOT analysis and the five forces model are two techniques managers use to analyze these factors. SWOT Analysis: SWOT analysis is a planning exercise in which managers identify organizational Strengths, Weaknesses, environmental Opportunities, and Threats. Based on a SWOT analysis, managers at the different levels of the organization select the corporate-, business-, and functional-level strategies to best position the organization to achieve its mission and goals. The first step in SWOT analysis is to identify an organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The task facing managers is to identify the strengths and weaknesses that characterize the present state of their organization. The second step begins when managers embark on a full-scale SWOT planning exercise to identify potential opportunities and threats in the environment that affect the organization at the present or may affect it in the future. With the SWOT analysis completed, and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified, managers can begin the planning process and determine strategies for achieving the organization’s mission and goals. The resulting strategies should enable the organization to attain its goals by taking advantage of opportunities, countering threats, building strengths, and correcting organizational weaknesses. The Five Forces Model: Michel Porter’s five forces model: A well-known model that helps managers isolate particular forces in the external environment that are potential threats. Porter identified these five factors that are major threats because they affect how much profit organizations competing within the same industry can expect to make. 1)The level of rivalry among organizations in an industry: The more that companies compete against one another for customers, the lower is the level of industry profits. 2)The potential for entry into an industry: The easier it is for companies to enter an industry, the more likely it is for industry prices and therefore industry profits to be low. 3)The power of suppliers: If there are only a few suppliers of an important input, then suppliers can drive up the price of that input, and expensive inputs result in lower profits for the producer. 4)The power of customers: If only a few large customers are available to buy an industry’s output, they can bargain to drive down the price of that output. As a result, producers make lower profits. 5)The threat of substitute products: Often, the output of one industry is a substitute for the output of another industry. Companies that produce a product with a known substitute cannot demand high prices for their products, and this constraint keeps their profits low. Porter argued that when managers analyze opportunities and threats they should pay particular attention to these five forces because they are the major threats that an organization will encounter. It is the job of managers at corporate, business, and functional levels to formulate strategies to counter these threats so that an organization can respond to its task and general environments, perform at high level, and generate high profits. Formulating Corporate-Level Strategies: Corporate-level strategy is a plan of action concerning which industries and countries an organization should invest its resources in to achieve its mission and goals. Managers of most organizations have the goal of growing their companies and actively seek out new opportunities to use the organization’s resources to create more goods and services for customers. In addition, some managers must help their organizations respond to threats due to changing forces in the task or general environment. (Ex. Customers may no longer buy some kinds of goods or services, or other companies enter the market and attract away customers). Top managers aim to find the best strategies to help the organization respond to these changes and improve performance. The principal corporate-level strategies that managers use to help a company grow, to keep it on top of its industry, and to help it retrench and reorganize to stop its decline are: Concentration on a Single Business, Diversification, International Expansion and Vertical Integration. An organization benefits from pursuing any one of them only when the strategy helps further increase the value of the organization’s goods and services for customers. To increase the value of goods and services, a corporate-level strategy must help an organization differentiate and add value to its products either by making them unique or special or by lowering the costs of value creation. 1)Concentration on a Single Business: Most organizations begin their growth and development with a corporate-level strategy aimed at concentrating resources in one business or industry in order to develop a strong competitive position within the industry. Sometimes, concentration on a single business becomes an appropriate corporate-level strategy when managers see the need to reduce the size of their organizations to increase performance. Managers may decide to get out of certain industries. Managers may sell off those divisions, lay off workers, and concentrate remaining organizational resources in another market or business to try to improve performance. In contrast, when organizations are performing effectively, they often decide to enter new industries in which they can use their resources to create more value. 2)Diversification: Diversification is the strategy of expanding operations into a new business or industry and producing new goods or services. There are two main kinds of diversification: Related and Unrelated. Related Diversification: Is the strategy of entering a new business or industry to create a competitive advantage in one or more of an organization’s existing divisions or businesses. It can add value to an organization’s products if managers can find ways for its various divisions or business units to share their valuable skills or resources so that synergy is created. Synergy is obtained when the value created by two divisions cooperating is greater than the value that would be created if the two divisions operated separately. In this way, related diversification can be a major source of cost savings. In pursuing related diversification, managers often seek to find new businesses where they can use the existing skills and resources in their departments to create synergies, add value to the new business, and hence improve the competitive position of the company. Unrelated Diversification: Managers pursue unrelated diversification when they enter new industries or buy companies in new industries that are not related in any way to their current business or industries. Main reasons for pursuing unrelated diversification: †¢Buy a poorly performing company, transfers to it their management skills, turn around its business, and increase its performance, all of which creates value. †¢Purchasing businesses in different industries lets managers engage in portfolio strategy, which is apportioning financial resources among divisions to increase financial returns or spread risks among different businesses. Sometimes, too much diversification can cause mangers to lose control on their organization’s core business. Although unrelated diversification might initially create value for a company, mangers sometimes use portfolio strategy to expand the scope of their organization’s business too much. And so, it becomes difficult for top managers to be knowledgeable about all of the organization’s diverse business. Unable to handle so much information, top managers are overwhelmed and eventually make important resource allocation decisions on the basis of only a superficial analysis of the competitive position of each division. This usually results in value being lost rather than created. 3)International Expansion: Corporate-level managers must decide on the appropriate way to compete internationally. If managers decide that their organization should sell the same standardized product in each national market in which it competes, and use the same basic marketing approach, they adopt a Global Strategy. Such companies undertake very little, if any, customization to suit the specific needs of customers in different countries. But if managers decide to customize products and marketing strategies to specific national conditions, they adopt a Multidomestic Strategy. The major advantage of a global strategy is the significant cost savings associated with not having to customize products and marketing approaches to different national conditions. The major disadvantage is that, by ignoring national differences, managers may leave themselves vulnerable to local competitors that do differentiate their products to suit local tastes. The major advantage of a Multidomestic strategy is that by customizing product offerings and marketing approaches to local conditions, managers may be able to gain market share or charge higher prices for their products. The major disadvantage is that customization raises production costs and puts the Multidomestic company at a price disadvantage because it often has to charge prices higher than the prices charged by competitors pursuing a global strategy. Choosing a Way to Expand Internationally: A more competitive global environment has proved to be both an opportunity and a threat for organizations and managers. The opportunity is that organizations that expand globally are able to open new markets, reach more customers, and gain access to new sources of raw materials and to low-cost suppliers of inputs. The threat is that organizations are likely to encounter new competitors in the foreign countries they enter and must respond to new political, economic, and cultural conditions. Before setting up foreign operations, managers need to analyze the forces in the environment of a particular country in order to choose the right method to expand and respond to those forces in the most appropriate way. There are four basic ways to operate in the global environment: a)Importing and Exporting: The least complex global operations are exporting and importing. A company engaged in exporting makes products at home and sells them abroad. An organization might sell its own products abroad or allow a local organization in the foreign country to distribute its products. Few risks are associated with exporting because a company does not have to invest in developing manufacturing facilities abroad. A company engaged in importing sells at home products that are made abroad. The internet has made it much easier for companies to inform potential foreign buyers about their products. b)Licensing And Franchising: In licensing, a company allows a foreign organization to take charge of both manufacturing and distributing one or more of its products in the licensee’s country or world region in return for a negotiable fee (Pursued by manufacturing company). The advantage is that the licenser does not have to bear the development costs associated with opening up in a foreign country. The risks associated with this strategy are that the company granting the license has to give its foreign partner access to its technological know-how. In franchising, a company sells to a foreign organization the rights to use its brand name and operating know-how in return for a lump-sum payment and share of the profits. The advantage is that the franchiser does not have to bear the development costs of overseas expansion. The downside is that the organization that grants the franchise may lose control over the way in which the franchise operates and product quality may fall. c)Strategic Alliances: One way to overcome the loss-of-control problems associated with exporting, licensing, and franchising is to expand globally by means of a strategic alliance. In a strategic alliance, managers pool or share their organization’s resources and know-how with those of a foreign company, and the two organizations share the rewards and risks of starting a new venture in a foreign country. A strategic alliance can take the form of a written contract between two or more companies to exchange resources, or it can result in the creation of a new organization. A joint venture is a strategic alliance among two or more companies that agree to jointly establish and share the ownership of a new business. d)Wholly Owned Foreign Subsidiaries: Managers invest in establishing production operations in a foreign country independent of any local direct involvement. Operating alone, without any direct involvement from foreign companies, an organization receives all of the rewards and bears all of the risks associated with operating abroad. This method is much more expensive than the others because it requires a higher level of foreign investment. Advantages: Higher potential returns, reduces the level of risk since managers have full control over all aspects, protect their technology and know-how†¦ 4)Vertical Integration: When an organization is doing well in its business, managers often see new opportunities to create value by either producing their own inputs or distributing their own outputs. Vertical Integration is the corporate-level strategy through which an organization produces its own inputs (backward vertical integration) or distributes and sells its own outputs (forward vertical integration). A major reason why managers pursue vertical integration is that it allows them either to add value to their products by making them special or to lower the costs of value creation. Vertical integration can be a problem when forces in the environment counter the strategies of the organization and make it necessary for managers to reorganize or retrench. Vertical integration can reduce an organization’s flexibility to respond to changing environmental conditions. Formulating Business-Level Strategies: According to Porter, managers must choose between the two basic ways of increasing the value of an organization’s products: Differentiating the product to add value or lowering the costs of value creation. He also argues that managers must choose between serving the whole market or serving just one segment of the market. Based on those choices, managers choose to pursue one of four business-level strategies: 1)Low-Cost Strategy: With a low-cost strategy, managers try to gain a competitive advantage by focusing the energy of all the organization’s departments or functions on driving the organization’s costs down below the costs of its rivals. According to Porter, organizations pursuing a low-cost strategy can sell a product for less than their rivals sell it and yet still make a profit because of their lower costs. Thus, these organizations hope to enjoy competitive advantage based on their low prices. 2)Differentiation Strategy: With a differentiation strategy, managers try to gain a competitive advantage by focusing all the energies of the organization’s departments or functions on distinguishing the organization’s products from those of competitors on one or more important dimensions, such as product design, quality, or after-sales service and support. Often, the process of making products unique and different is expensive. Organizations that successfully pursue a differentiation strategy may be able to charge a premium price for their products, a price usually much higher than the price charged by a low-cost organization. The premium price allows them to recoup their higher cost. 3)Focused Low-Cost Strategy: Managers pursuing a focused low-cost strategy serve one or a few segments of the overall market and aim to make their organization the lowest-cost company serving that segment. 4)Focused-Differentiation Strategy: Managers pursuing a focused differentiated strategy serve just one or a few segments of the market and aim to make their organization the most differentiated company serving that segment. Formulating Functional-Level Strategies: Functional-level strategy is a plan of action to improve the ability of an organization’s functions to create value. It is concerned with the actions that managers of individual functions can take to add value to an organization’s goods and services and thereby increase the value customers receive. The price that customers are prepared to pay for a product indicates how much they value an organization’s products. The more customers value a product, the more they are willing to pay for it. There are two ways in which functions can add value to an organization’s products: 1)Functional managers can lower the costs of creating value so that an organization can attract customers by keeping its prices lower than its competitors’ prices. 2)Functional managers can add value to a product by finding ways to differentiate it from the products of other companies. There must be a fit between functional- and business-level strategies if an organization is to achieve its mission and goal of maximizing the amount of value it gives customers. The better the fit between functional- and business-level strategies, the greater will be the organization’s competitive advantage and its ability to attract customers and the revenue they provide. Each organizational function has an important role to play in the process of lowering costs or adding value to a product. Creating value at the functional level requires the adoption of many state-of-the-art management techniques and practices. All of these techniques can help an organization achieve a competitive advantage by lowering the costs of creating value or by adding value above and beyond that offered by rivals. Planning and Implementing Strategy: After identifying appropriate strategies to attain an organization’s mission and goals, managers confront the challenge of putting those strategies into action. Strategy implementation is a five-step process: 1)Allocating responsibility for implementation to the appropriate individuals or groups. 2)Drafting detailed action plans that specify how a strategy is to be implemented. 3)Establishing a timetable for implementation that includes precise, measurable goals linked to the attainment of the action plan. 4)Allocating appropriate resources to the responsible individuals or groups. 5)Holding specific individuals or groups responsible for the attainment of corporate, divisional, and functional goals. The planning process goes beyond the mere identification of strategies; it also includes actions taken to ensure that the organization actually puts its strategies into action. It should be noted that the plan for implementing a strategy might require radical redesign of the structure of the organization, the development of new control systems, and the adoption of a program for changing the culture of the organization.