Summary of the Books of the Old Testament Books

Leviticus The book of Leviticus is largely a book of laws. Some key themes include God speaking to the people of Israel to define what it means to be the holy people of a holy God. This is accomplished by God speaking through Moses. The instruction given to Moses provides guidelines for the conduct of the individual as well as the nation as a whole. These instructions address the individual’s every day needs such as cleanliness, diet, sexual relations, and neighborly interactions. There are also laws given to address the relationship and worship between Israel’s people and God. There are descriptions of how to properly present God with a sacrifice. There are defined punishments for blasphemy and for child sacrifice. There are also descriptions of blessings for obedience. Though the Israelite people were the chosen people of God, God knew there would be times, as humans, they would be unfaithful. The book of Leviticus is setting the expectations and describing how to approach God for forgiveness if a person fails to observe the Law of God. (Word count 176) Ruth The book of Ruth is largely a narrative. Some of the key themes in this book are kindness and love. The book of Ruth shows how people of God can experience his wisdom, love, and kindness. These may be experienced and more greatly appreciated while the person is enduring a hardship. This is where we find Ruth and Naomi after the deaths of their husbands. Naomi is returning to her homeland and Ruth is accompanying her mother in law. We can see God’s love and kindness shown through the actions of Boaz and his field workers in allowing Ruth to glean wheat from his fields and assuring her safety. We also see the love and kindness of God when Ruth approaches Boaz in asking for their marriage. The heart of Boaz is right with God and his actions assure the proper following of the customs so there would be no disrespect or dishonor brought to Ruth or their marriage. God is pleased with both of his followers and blessed them with a son, Obed, who would be the grandfather of King David. (Word count 179) Job The book of Job is a book of wisdom. The key elements are trust and faith. We see Job, a servant of God that has been richly blessed by God for his loyalty and faith. Satan questions if Job’s faith is related to the blessed life God has provided for him. God allows for all to be lost for Job to assure his faith is honest and true. The loss and suffering experienced by Job offers an opportunity for doubt or distrust in God. Though within this book Job does get angry and questions God . God does not become vengeful, rather agrees with Jobs words and understands his hurt and anger. Due to Job’s unyielding faith God restores his health and bestows double the blessings upon him after this test . The book of Job is simply about God and his relationship with man . It was written to show that in a world where injustices and suffering occur daily God is present. We are not alone. Our continued trust and faith in God will be rewarded by blessings. Word count 178) Daniel The book of Daniel is largely a narrative . The key themes in this book are faithfulness, trust, and not compromising your beliefs. We find that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are captured and placed in exile in a foreign land. The three serve the king loyally yet without compromising their own loyalty to God. When found not to be partici pating in pagan worship Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were sentenced to death. Even in this time of great turmoil they stood fast in their trust in God and they were delivered from death. God used these three to show his awesome power . God showed several times in this book that he is a living God of action. His servant needs only to believe with all of his heart and pray and they will be delivered. The heart of the oppressor was humbled at the sight of God’s miracles. The oppressor may not have been converted away from his pagan worship but he had to acknowledge the power of the living God. (Word count 172) Jonah The book of Jonah is a book of prophecy. The key themes in this book are compassion, repentance, and forgiveness. God spoke to Jonah and gave him the direction to go to Nineveh to deliver his message to the people. Jonah disobeyed and attempted to run from God. God found Jonah and had him swallowed by a fish. In the belly of the fish Jonah asked for forgiveness and God placed him back on land to go to Nineveh to deliver his message. Jonah stayed on task . The message of pending destruction was received and the people of Nineveh repented and asked the Lord to forgive them and not destroy their city. God heard their prayers and let the city stand. This book shows us of a God who can and will readily punish for not abiding by his law but will also show love and compassion on those same people if only they repent and ask for forgiveness. (Word count 160)

Persuading on Genetically Modified Food Essay

The article called Genetically Modified Foods, has a style that is use to grab an audience emotion while still putting some facts. Right away in the first paragraph you will find ethos. Per Pinstrup-Anderson plays a key role in the article, he is the H. E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy at Cornell University. Giving Per Pinstrup-Anderson a creditability, and having the audience attention. This is the only time in the article when ethos is being used to help their argument. In the next two paragraphs, Pathos and logos are used. It shows some facts as well as getting into the audience emotion. The way this was done was by talking about helping farmers in developing countries produce more food, making it more affordable to buy food, as well as not harming the environment. It goes on to say, â€Å"Many millions of people do not have access to sufficient calories and many more suffer from micronutrient deficiencies†. Another quote is, â€Å"which avoided mass starvation and helped millions out of poverty and hunger†. Notice they never gave an exact statistic on how many people are suffering from poverty and hunger, letting the audience see that it is so many people affected, and not just a specific number. It gives it more of a feel then would be given an exact number. In the next paragraph it goes back to logos, in the paragraph it is said science is the answer to fixing the hunger. It describes action that must be taken an order to be able to start helping starving people, as well as how will science help farming, like drought tolerance, mitigation of negative climate change, and pest resistance in crops. Those are just a few of what the paragraph claims to be able to do with a little investment for the technology. The way this paragraph is phrase is by letting the audiences see the processes that have to be done in order for an action to start. That way the audiences may start to have an opinion. At the end of this article it starts to talk about how long test must be done, and how the longer we wait the more expensive food will be as well as leaving millions to die. This passage is using pathos for its persuasiveness. It’s getting the audience that deep emotion of people waiting and starving. It goes on to say that anti-science ideology and the failure of the government brought the food crisis in the first place. This paragraph points a finger to show they are right, as well as preceding to say we have to change if something is not working. In the second article of, â€Å"The Failure of Gene-Altered Crops†, Vandana Shiva is presented as the ethos in this paragraph; she is the founder of Navdanya in India which is the movement of seed keepers and organic farmers. She written many books on how genetically modified foods are failing and how they will affect us. This grabs the audience attention because she’s a strong believer on organic substance. In the next paragraph it says we need biodiversity intensification that can work with nature instead of going against it, it doesn’t give a specific details as to why. The only argument made was when Doug Gurian-Sherman of the union of concerned scientist published a studied, â€Å"Failure to Yield†. In the study it is closely evaluated on the genetically modified for 20 years to see if they would increase yield or to just see better progress. In the end it showed that the experiment failed to increase yields as well as it failed to engineer crops to be insect-resistant nor herbicide tolerance. In this paragraph it was use ethos and logos. Ethos was Doug Gurian-Sherman and his research study, â€Å"Failure to Yield†. Logos was the bits of facts that came from Doug Gurian-Sherman research study. In the next to paragraph, it is shown by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development [IAASTD] has concluded that genetic engineering did not seem very promising in the future. IAASTD found that the small farms that based on agri-ecology would produce much more food. This paragraph had also ethos, being IAASTD. As for the logos was what IAASTD found in the 4 years on figuring out what genetic engineering could hold in the future. The article makes a lot of tactics with logos and ethos to reach the audience, giving a great amount of facts from other credited people. The next three paragraphs have ethos as well as logos. In the passages, the book, â€Å"Soil, Not Oil† is brought as an example to give that industrial monocultures are more vulnerable to climate changes since the soil kept in organic plants help keep moisture making them less likely to die in draughts. In the next passage it is brought up the false statement by genetic engineering industry that it’s only possible to respond to climate change with modified food. Vandana Shiva made a statement on crops evolved to be better resilient to climate, as well Vandana has helped create seeds for drought resistance, and flood resistance as well as salt tolerance. This give the audience the idea that genetically modified food isn’t always needed when nature can just evolve. The last two passages gets more in depth on how genetically modified food and organically produced food will take us in the future. The passage give the audience a since of the future that genetic engineer for modified food is a waste a time, it does not give a sense of food security in the future and it will cause small farmers to go dept. As for Vandana Shiva Navdanya, it is a conserving biodiversity that tries to not be wasteful in water at the same time make much more food per acre. The best article that is persuasive is the second article, â€Å"The Failure of Gene-Altered Crops. The first article was very persuasive, but it never made it secure enough to make it believable that it close to happening. It produce more emotion then logic tactics, making it very hard to determine whether it is a dream that the nation wishes to reach or something that could be accomplish for the future. Great syntax on making it very emotional with pathos, but argument stance it would be weak. The first article could have been stronger if it talked about other countries that are already doing genetically modified foods. Korea has been doing genetically modified food for years, about 20 countries including the European Union, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have already a labeling system for genetically modified foods, (Hae-Yeong Kim 132). Another good point would be to bring up Matin Qaim, â€Å"Vitamin A deficiency is a serious nutritional problem, causing multiple adverse health outcomes. Simulations for India show that Golden Rice could reduce related health problems significantly, preventing up to 40,000 child deaths every year. (552) In India Bt cotton has reduce some poverty and actually help small famers, now some in China and South Africa, Bt cotton are a first-generation of genetically modified technology. As for the second argument, many ethos and logos were presented. One being Doug Gurian-Sherman published study on how genetic industries isn’t really going anywhere, it has great facts, it was a 4 year study so it showed what was being done in long term. A lot of facts on how genetic industry is failing on making modified food was claimed, but not many on how it could do more harm as well as it would bankrupt some small farmers for even trying to use modified seeds. The plant evolving had a great way point in Gebre Egziabher, Tewolde B( The Use of Genetically Modified Crops in Agriculture and Food Production, and Their Impacts on the Environment – A Developing World Perspective) â€Å"Scientists believe that species evolved from a common ancestor through competition and natural selection. They also believe that changes in genes occur in all species owing to mutation, with the probability of mutation of each gene remaining constant under the same environment†. (11) Giving this quote would remind the audience that life has a way of fixing itself and just because the technology is here does not give scientist right to use a different approach but instead try harder to help organic farming when it has been secure food source. Cite American Medical Assoc. Gebre Egziabher T. The Use of Genetically Modified Crops in Agriculture and Food Production, and Their Impacts on the Environment – A Developing World Perspective. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica: Section B, Soil & Plant Science [serial online]. December 2, 2003;53:8-12. Available from: Science & Technology Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 27, 2012. American Medical Assoc. Hae-Yeong K, Jae-Hwan K, Mi-Hwa O. Regulation and detection methods for genetically modified foods in Korea. Pure & Applied Chemistry [serial online]. January 2010;82(1):129-137. Available from: Science & Technology Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 27, 2012. American Medical Assoc. Qaim M. Benefits of genetically modified crops for the poor: household income, nutrition, and health. New Biotechnology [serial online]. November 30, 2010;27(5):552-557. Available from: Science & Technology Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 27, 2012.

The Long Walk of the Navajo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Long Walk of the Navajo - Essay Example This was done by the government in reaction to the retaliation of the Navajos to the western people. They did not want to leave their ancestral places and thus did not allow any foreigner to have a share in the territory. This made the government to remove the Indians from their ancestral land to ensure that other people could live in that territory. However before reaching such a decision different treaties were also made by the government with Navajos to ensure peace in the area but such treaties did not last long when both the military and Navajos started having conflicts. The government ordered the Navajos to leave their homeland and agricultural properties and move over to the fort Sumner. In August 1863 the first group of Navajos left for Fort Sumner which was 400 miles away from their homeland. While they had to walk barefoot to the fort they had to face many difficulties in their way such as the harsh weather. It took them a total of 21 days to reach the Fort Sumner and while reaching the fort many of the Navajos died because of starvation. However after reaching the Fort also the Indians were not provided with any proper water or food treatment. The farmers were also not given favorable conditions in which they could grow crops for their livelihood.

Auditing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

Auditing - Essay Example Correspondingly, this essay intends to evaluate and explain the newly elected treasurer, Mr. Kristos about what was right and what was wrong in the above action. External auditor is appointed to conduct audit on behalf of the shareholders of the audited organisation. External auditor serves as proxy for the shareholders and thus, primarily requires the external auditor to be independent of the management of the audited organisation. Notably, auditing standard requires independence in terms of mind as well as appearances (Mihret et al., 2011: Cheung & Hay, 2004). Although, external auditor is nominated for the advantage of shareholders but the shareholders are rarely accountable for the appointment as well as removal process of external auditor. Correspondingly, management is accountable for hiring external auditor while shareholders are rarely offered with the choice to hire external auditor. Similar practice can be related with the action of Mr. Kristos where he has dismissed audit firm on his sole discretion. It is extremely crucial that nominated external auditor must be able to identify deficiencies during the audit and must be able to q uestion the audited organisation based on the findings derived from the audit process. Such deficiencies are firmly related to internal control, unfair or misleading financial reporting and accounting policies or standards adopted by the audited organisation. In general practice, the external auditors are engaged in various interactions with the management of the audited organisation. Notably, such interaction for a long time tends to the emergence of special relationships between the management of the audited organisation and the auditor (Iskandar et al., 2010; Aksu et al., 2007).). In circumstance where the existence of relationships between the audit firm and the audit client is apparent, the appointed auditor is often not perceived to be independent of

A Study of the Factors that Influcence Customer Decision-making in Essay

A Study of the Factors that Influcence Customer Decision-making in Choosing Local Thai Hotel - Essay Example The work, of which this is a record, has been carried out by myself unless otherwise stated and where the work is mine, it reflects personal views and values. All quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and all sources of information have been acknowledged by means of references including those of the internet. Lodging has long been a necessity practice and maintained by people around the world whenever they visit new places. The basic idea of lodging is to provide comfort through the means of providing space for people would recuperate after long hours of journey. Basic provision includes single space bed, a bathroom and small furniture such as chairs and tables. However, as time passes and competition growing between owners who operate lodging houses or hotels in these days, there have been rapid changes that could now be seen in present day hotels. According to American Hotel & Lodging Association (2002), in order to provide better services and to increase the profits of these hotels, modern facilities have been included. These include climate control materials such as air conditioning and heater. Fancy materials have also been included such as television, internet connectivity, and expensive necessities such as soaps, shampoos and perfumes. In bigger hotels that aim for international r ecognition and greater number of customers, they have provided additional facilities such as seminar rooms, restaurant, swimming pools and gyms. All of these are to win the favor of the customer in choosing their hotel over the others. According to Anthony, Anthony and Ghosh (2004), in the modern hotel industry, such functions or additional facilities have played an important role for customers or tourists in choosing their hotels. Knowing the attributes that determine accommodation choice, features which consumers perceive as important or vital, and characteristics that influences higher rates of retention allows hotel

Animal Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Animal Life - Essay Example My weekly snippets in my journal are not only interesting but also endearing. She is the pet of the house and everyone dote on her, including myself. She is a Lhasa apso and is cream in color with a small light brown patch on her back. She is an otherwise well behaved dog except for the fact that she cannot resist chasing the cats around the house. Even today as I opened the door to one of my friends, Trixy escaped and the next thing I knew was that she ran chasing after the cats. After her game was over, she went to her place under the chair and had a real good nap. I was sitting near the window of the living room at my home and was glancing out at all the activity taking place when all of a sudden I noticed Trixy nosing her way to my gate. I quickly ran outside and opened the gate for her and came back to my place at the window. The little dog was fascinating to watch and before I knew it, she had gone to the corner of my garden and began circling around still keeping her nose to the ground. I wondered what she was up to and was soon surprised to find that she began scraping the earth with her paw and again smelt around the area. Very soon she got down to work by digging the soil vigorously. I wanted to go and stop her but was curious as to why she was digging. Finally the digging stopped and the scruffy little creature looked at something sticking through the mud. She sniffed hard again and after making sure that that was what she wanted, held it between her teeth and tugged hard. Trixy fell backwards and went for a small tumble as the object came loose. She happily picked it up and went to another corner of the garden and after circling the place a couple of times, she sat down and started nibbling at the object which was a very old and dry bone, that she must have hidden there quite some time ago! Week 4'''. Running after the cats. Trixy's favorite pastime was playing with a ball. Every time I happened to see her loitering around my garden, I would run inside and get the colored ball I had bought for her to play. As I sat on my doorstep and admired the flowers in the garden on a bright Saturday morning, I spotted Trixy, trying to push open the garden gate and come in. I quickly opened the gate for her and ranDog'.4 to get the ball. She was delighted at the sight of the ball and jumped high and caught it in her mouth as I threw it in the air. She was wagging her tail vigorously and barked loudly as she ran to and fro with the ball. When I threw the ball towards one of the corners in the garden, Trixy rushed to fetch it and the next moment, I heard the screech of a cat. I looked in the direction of the noise to find that Trixy had jumped on the cat who was snugly curled up in the corner. The hair on the cat's back stood

Molecular Fluorescence Analysis of Proteins Lab Report

Molecular Fluorescence Analysis of Proteins - Lab Report Example As the electron returns from the lowest triplet state to the singlet ground state, a photon is released. The high sensitivity and specificity of fluorescence techniques facilitates the study of individual protein molecules. Therefore, this experiment sought to determine the source of fluorescence in serum albumin by first establishing the fluorescence of two key amino acids that make up serum albumin. Such a study would enable a detailed study of serum albumin as a protein. The experiment also aimed at establishing the concentration of riboflavin using the absorption of known concentrations of riboflavin. Solutions of 10 Â µM tyrosine and tryptophan were made to volumes of 100Â µL each by first preparing 100 mL of 1mM solutions and diluting them to 10 Â µM. The applications software of the fluorescent instrument was loaded after which the condition parameters were set. An emission scan range of between 290 and 380 nm was set alongside slits of 5nm. The emission wavelength was set to 280 nm, and the emission tab was clicked to obtain the emission spectrum of the buffer solution. The spectrum was saved after which the same procedure was repeated for tryptophan. Thereafter, an excitation spectrum for tryptophan was prepared by choosing the optimal emission wavelength according to the results of the emission spectrum. A tyrosine spectrum was obtained using similar conditions as those of the buffer. The tyrosine band was then obtained by subtracting the buffer spectrum from the tyrosine spectrum. All these steps were repeated for serum albumin making sure to save all the spectra. 1.0 mL of 10 ppm riboflavin solution was measured into a 100 mL volumetric flask and diluted using the buffer to make a 100 ppb stock solution. Standard solutions were then prepared using clean volumetric pipettes rinsed with HPLC water. The final concentrations of the standard solutions were

Alienation from society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Alienation from society - Essay Example iestleys An Inspector Calls and Mark Haddons The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nigh-Time, both texts reveal alienation within some of the characters; however Priestleys play only reveals the onset of alienation of the characters because of Mr. and Mrs. Birling conforming to the social norm of the era, while Haddons Christopher Boone faces alienation because he sees the world differently than most people. Priestley portrays both Mr. and Mrs. Birling with typical characteristics of the upper class people in the early twentieth-century of English society which leads to the onset of alienation. Mr. and Mrs. Birling actions contradict with the term alienation from the Britannica Online Encyclopedia because they conform to the social norms of that time. Mr. Birling believes that ones destiny is under ones own control. Mr. Birling also believes that â€Å"a man has to make his own way---has to look after himself...and so long as he does that he wont come to much harm† (299). This suggests that Mr. Birling is a man who believes that everyone only needs to look after themselves and ignore what is going in society, which was a common belief of the upper class during that time. Mr. Birling fail to realize that he is living in a society where everyone’s actions towards each other can have a negative influence towards other people, so he is unconsciously closing himself from the re st of society. He believes that everyone should look after himself, thus the same can be said for the way Mr. Birling views the lower class people because he does not seem to care at all about the hardships of the laborers due to his belief that everything is in place and nothing needs to be done. Such mentality was common for the upper class people at the time who believed in the status quo. To Mr. Birling the labor strike is nothing more than â€Å"silly talk† from the workers: â€Å"Last month, just because the miners came out on strike, theres a lot of wild talk about possible labor trouble in

Business Relationships Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Relationships - Essay Example Most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. In addition, business relationships include competition. Further, business relationships include Internal Demand Management, Also, business relationships include Relationship and Supplier Selection. Plus, business relationships include Customer Relationship Strategy. And, buyer-Supplier Negotiation. Further, most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. Often, the cooperation being companies in the same market segment starts before any formal agreement has been perfected. one company even developed the political power to try to solve some of its own business problems by searching and forging an alliance with other business organizations. It had to address some of the issues in terms of reversing its sales slowdown. Many companies will present their best assets and income generating plans to its prospective partner organisation in order to win its nod to the merger. Many companies enter into mergers and consolidations by contributing money industry and business secrets with the end in mind of distributing any profits among themselves after each accounting period ends (Child, and Faulkner 1998, 84). And, this means that many companies join mergers and consolidations by taking into consideration the structure and system that are to form the basic framework for bringing their strong business alliances to life. Many companies consider their prospective partners' complementary part in their business union by taking into consideration the assets, skills and the possible synergies that could crop up as result of the business union. Many companies take into consideration the culture of the other company interested to join a merger or consolidation. Many organisations enter into informal merger or combination with other companies in the same line of business. For, many partners want to have a fair and reliable business agreement with other companies. Many of these partnerships agree to have fair and reliable agreement. These business agreements generally include the division of profits, segregation customer base, and other related concerns that would result to a fruitful relationship. In short, one of the most important topics that businesses combining with other businesses discuss is the appropriate value given to assets, liabilities, capital, revenues and expenses (Child, and Faulkner 1998, 84). In addition, business relationships include competition. Many companies have launched their products in the market with the hope that they will be able to swallow a large portion of the competitors' market share in terms of products. The political economy approach often brings a health competition among the different companies engaged in the same kind of business. international business have joined together in order to increase their market share over their competitors in the business wold. Today, the business environment has been renovated and innovated in terms of urban setting. Many competitors have bonded together to improve the lives of the employees as a member of its fold as well as their families (Clark 1999, 133).Cooperation crosses many boundaries. The beneficiaries of the public goods come from many countries, age, sex, beliefs and other diversities. The cooperation between two companies include companies located in both the

Financial Valuation for Microsoft Essay Example for Free

Financial Valuation for Microsoft Essay Using a percent of sales method of forecasting to forecast income statement and balance sheet items that will be used in the valuation. We have devised three different valuation Scenarios, Normal Case, Best Case and Worst Case Scenario. 2. The Sales growth varied under each scenario according to certain assumptions and outlooks about the company 3. Terminal Value is calculated by using the constant Gordon growth model from the horizon year to infinity and then discounting this horizon value to the present at the WACC. 4. After discounting FCFF and adding them to the terminal value. The resulting value is divided by number of shares to reach fair price.

Geographic Profiling of Serial Offenders

Geographic Profiling of Serial Offenders As psychological profiling seems to garner all the attention with television shows that feature FBI profilers, one should be reminded that there is another method of criminal profiling that, while less glamorous, seems to provide a very high degree of reliability. The ‘other’ method is geographic profiling that had it beginnings in a London crime spree involving a serial rapist. In these cases occurring in the mid-1990’s, stumped police called in David Canter, Professor of Psychology at the University of Surrey to assist. After analyzing crime data superimposed over a map, Professor Canter made the suggestion that the perpetrator was to be found in a very specific geographic area based upon these furloughs of crime (Wilson 2002, pp. 14-16). Subsequent retroactive studies have confirmed a number of precepts regarding the proposition that one can predict the â€Å"base† of criminals from computerized algorithms that use generally one of two validated heuristic methods. In fact, of the area defined by a â€Å"search† algorithm that states that is inclusive of a circle defined by the two furthermost crime scenes, fully 51% of the serial rapist offenders lived within the first 5% of the defined area and an overwhelming lived within 87% of the first 25% of the defined search area (Canter, Coffey, Huntley, Missen 2000, p. 457). This algorithm holds regardless of the crime as indicated by the table below (Canter, et al 2000, p. 458): In addition to the â€Å"circle† algorithm described above, another method utilized is the â€Å"Decay† method with analyzes data from the assumption that perpetrators commit crimes near where they live. This method is based upon the idea that crimes ‘decay’ as the distance to the criminal’s residence decrease, in effect, creating something of a ‘buffer zone’ immediately surrounding their house (Snook, Taylor, Bennell 2004, p. 107; Canter, Coffey, Huntley, Missen 2000, pp. 459-460). Somewhat against these two algorithms are the approximately 10% of perpetrators that are labeled as â€Å"commuters† and do not live near the crime scene (Snook, Taylor, Bennell 2004, p. 117). Nevertheless, in these cases as in the easier to classify â€Å"marauder†-type crimes, there is the idea that criminals operate from a base of familiarity such as a home or workplace or other personally significant locale or the route that connects them. While focusing on geography, this brings into the consideration the important psychological construct of â€Å"mental maps† in that the location must have significance from the perspective of the perpetrator†¦ it need not be an actual geographic landmark to have psychological significance that plays out geo-centrically (Holmes Holmes 1996, p. 152). As such it is no surprise that both methods are reliable and that there is a significant degree of overlap in the two model predictions. Of greater interests to both researchers and law enforcement are â€Å"serious† crimes such as murder, rape, arson and burglary. While there is likely a logical high correlation between other ‘petty’ crimes such as speeding tickets or parking violations due to the correlates of where one most spends time is of course most likely a location where there is a high likelihood of violation. With regards to the applicability of the model with regards to even serious crimes, the model is based upon serial crimes, that is, a perpetrator who does so multiple times. Research suggests that as criminals gain â€Å"experience† there is a statistically significant correlation with the distance from home the criminal is (Snook 2004, p. 53). Further, in regards to burglary, there is the additional significant correlation of the value of the crime with the distance traveled to commit the crime (Snook 2004, p. 55). While difficult to put a value on personal crimes, this find ing may extend to crimes such as murder, arson or rape in which it is conceivable that victims could have some relative value to the criminal, similar to the monetary value gained from burglary. Such a concept may partially explain that, as these types of criminal gain experience, they tend to venture out further from their base as they commit additional predatory crimes. In terms of geographical profiling and the case in which an investigator believes that a number of crimes have been committed by a single person, this has special significance as it can serve to focus the hunt for the offender in the vicinity of the first few crimes (Holmes Holmes 1996, p. 155). Of particular interest is that these methods can be utilized without the computer or complex mathematical algorithms. Studies indicated that, in lieu of years or experience or ‘gut feelings’, incorporating these methods simply as heuristic models whose basic precepts can be taught in a class, students can nearly equal the computerized version (Snook, Canter, Bennel 2002, pp. 116-117). Though all law enforcement operates with the goal of catching the perpetrator, authorities do not have unlimited resources of time or finances to investigate all leads thoroughly. Geographical profiling also serves to focus the attention and other resources of an investigative department into the area in which validated statistics indicate there is is a pay-off. By using these methods, search costs can be minimized and offender can be apprehended faster, ideally prior to the accumulation of an additional victim that shows up as a simply data point on a geographic profile (Canter, Coffey, Huntley, Missen 2000, pp. 459-460). Works Consulted Canter, D., T. Coffey, M. Huntley, C. Missen. (2000). â€Å"Predicting Serial Killers’ Home Base Using a Decision Support System†. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, (16), 4, pp. 457-478. Holmes, R. S. Holmes. (1996). Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool, 2nd Edition. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, California. Snook, B., P. Taylor, C. Bennell. (2004). â€Å"Geographic Profiling: The Fast, Frugal and Accurate Way†. Applied Cognitive Psychology, (18), pp. 105-121. Snook, B., D. Canter, C. Bennel. (2002). Predicting the Home Location of Serial Offenders: A Preliminary Comparison of the Accuracy of Human Judges with a Geographic Profiling System†. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, (20), pp. 109-118. Snook, B. (2004). â€Å"Individual Differences in Distance Traveled by Serial Burglars†. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, (1), pp. 53-66. Wilson, J. (2002, November). â€Å"Mapping Murder†. Geographical, (74), pp. 14-17.

The Financial Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana Essay -- Argumentative

For over a century, marijuana has been illegal in the United States and in a lot of cases it remains prohibited because it has been prohibited for so long. Laws in California and Colorado are currently popular in the media because they are legalizing and taxing marijuana production and distribution. After adding sales and excise taxes to the sales price in these states, consumers are purchasing marijuana legally for a lower price than its black market price. Revenue gained from taxes in these states is being put towards such things as education and regulation of the substance. The responsible disbursing of marijuana tax is being exemplified in California and Colorado. Be that as it may, people continue to argue against legalizing and taxing marijuana for such reasons as its negative health effects, the ability of individuals to evade taxes on cannabis, and its legalization spreading to other states. Those opposed to changing marijuana laws stand firm in their beliefs that spending ta x dollars on incarcerating and policing marijuana users and distributors is beneficial to society. In turn, the current state of affairs remains unchanged, funneling billions of untaxed dollars in to the black market each year. If marijuana were legalized, the black market would see no other outcome than losing that capital to its competitor, state governments and hopefully the federal government as well. The theory that collecting taxes on marijuana, otherwise purchased untaxed through the black market, boosts state economies more than spending tax revenues on policing it as an illegal substance is a difficult theory to disprove. Although policing and incarcerating marijuana-related criminals certainly costs the government more than generating tax ... ...ues-u-s-government-to-stop-harborside-medical-marijuana-seizures/ Oldham, J. (2013, November 4). Marijuana Vote in Colorado Weighs 25% Tax. In Bloomberg | Personal Finance. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-05/marijuana-vote-in-colorado-weighs-25-tax-for-recreation.html Passie, T., Emrich, H. M., Karst, M., Brandt, S. D., and Halpern, J. H. (2012, June 26). Mitigation of post-traumatic stress symptoms by Cannabis resin: a review of the clinical and neurobiological evidence. In US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22736575 Woo, S. (2009, April 30). Oakland Council Backs a Tax on Marijuana. In The Wall Street Journal | Politics and Policy. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124105239168771233

Osteomyelitis Essay -- Health, Diseases

Osteomyelitis: Osteomyelitis is a common bone infection caused by bacteria or in some cases, fungus [1]. Osteomyelitis generally occurs by infection of bacteria in several different ways, including via the bloodstream, from neighboring areas of infection, or due to non-sterile joint replacements and internal fixations such as fractures [2]. In 90% of cases, an S. aereus bacterium is the microbial culprit responsible for osteomyelitis [3]. In the cases of open would fractures, osteomyelitis can interfere with normal bone healing and regeneration [4]. Symptoms of osteomyelitis include bone pain, fever, malaise, swelling, redness, chills, excessive sweating, and joint pains [5]. It is reported that in 20% of the cases, the infection is hematogenous, or spread by the blood [6]. The incidence of spinal osteomyelitis was reported to be 1 in 450,000 in 2001 [7]. The incidence of vertebral osteomyelitis is reported to be 24 cases per 1,000,000 and the incidence in children is approximately 1 in 5,00 0 [8]. Approximately 10-15% of people with vertebral osteomyelitis develop spinal-cord compression and approximately 30% of patients with long bone osteomyelitis develop deep vein thrombosis (DVT) [9]. Mortality rates are generally low unless sepsis occurs [10]. The overall incidence of osteomyelitis was found to be higher in developing countries compared to developed nations [11]. Current Clinical Standard of Care: The current gold standard treatment for osteomyelitis is gentamycin or vancomycin impregnated poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) beads [12]. These beads are surgically implanted at the site of bacterial infection, and the antibiotic will diffuse from these beads [12]. Both vancomycin and gentamycin inhibit bacterial g... ..., the in vivo studies show that the effectiveness of the delivery system in terms of bacterial growth inhibition is comparable to the clinical standard of care, the PMMA beads. Further studies would include determining the compressive strengths of the PUR scaffolds to decide where they could be placed in a load-bearing setting, systemic toxicity studies to ensure that neither the vancomycin nor PUR is present in toxically high concentrations in the serum after implantation, and a prolonged study to show that the PUR scaffold is in fact biodegradable, thereby by-passing the second surgical step which is required for the PMMA beads. Li et al [21] also did not do any studies comparing the PUR-LTI and PUR-HDIt scaffolds under the same experimental conditions. These studies would also be critical to determine which scaffold formulation should be pursued long-term.

Leadership Reflections: Building Relationships in the Workplace Essay

Based on assigned readings in Module 5 (â€Å"Colorado State University,† 2012), this journal entry reviews the author’s strategies as a change management consultant for building and improving relationships in client organizations. The discussion then considers the effectiveness of these strategies relative to the author’s workplace environment including the author’s approach for mitigating relationship issues in the event the strategies prove ineffective. Strategies for Building and Improving Relationships The effectiveness of a political navigator depends on strong interpersonal relationships built through competent communication and respectful action (Cialdini, 2001; Gilley, 2006; Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2006). As Cummings and Worley (2009) observe, â€Å"Establishing a healthy relationship at the onset makes it more likely that the client’s desired outcomes will be achieved . . .† (p. 81). Therefore, as a consultant, the author predominantly relies on two sets of sequentially reinforcing strategies for initiating and creating synergistic client relationships. Strategies for Initiating Client Engagement The first set comprises four â€Å"initiating† strategies for influencing positive client engagement: displaying an engaging personality, identifying with clients, developing mutual interests, and practicing reciprocity. Displaying an engaging friendly personality – a prerequisite for building relationships (Cialdini, 2001; Gilley, 2006) – creates initial positive perceptions and helps establish personal rapport. Identifying with clients on their level (Gilley, 2006) by altering personal communication style, language, dress, and behaviors to match with their cultural norms, reinforces perceptions of the author’s willingness to ackn... ...anizations (pp. 2-4). Greenwood Village, CO: Author Cummings, T., & Worley, C. (2009). Organizational development & change (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Gilley, J. (2006). The manager as politician. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Kouzes J., & Posner, B. (2007). The leadership challenge (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Lewicki, J. R., Barry, B., & Saunders, M. D. (2006). Negotiation: Readings, Exercises and Cases (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Schein, E. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Senge, P. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization (revised ed.). New York: Random House. Vecchio, R. (Ed.). (2007). Leadership: Understanding the dynamics of power and influence in organizations (2nd ed.). Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.

Can We Have Beliefs or Knowledge Which Are Independent of Our Culture Essay

The main aim of the essay is to find out if we have beliefs or rather knowledge which are independent of our culture. To do my investigation, I am going to follow different areas of beliefs and culture that I need. Culture is roughly perhaps a range of activities which are cultivated as a pattern of behaviour in a group of humans over time, and the manifest fruits of that behaviour. This would presumably include manifestations like the arts as well as structural behaviours such as organisational ethics. The next thing to do is to look at the word, independent. These days, it implies separation or lack of relation between two entities. It can also mean that there is no clear relationship and hence we can imagine the two entities in this case to be culture and beliefs/knowledge to have little to do with each other. Belief is faith, trust or theory that doesn’t need corroboration or evidence. Also, a belief is a system of thought that is compromised of the information we have accumulated and stored in our brains. Collectively this provides a worldview and mechanism by which we interpret new information and assess how our experience in the world should be managed. What is important to understand is that such a belief does not have any intrinsic validity beyond the fact that it is the way in which data has been organized within our brains and it appears to provide us, individually, with a model against which we interpret the world around us. Beliefs can be religious or societal. Furthermore, Knowledge according to my definition is the means by which â€Å"facts† can be gathered to reinforce, or refute, different aspects of the information contained within our belief system. Often, it is asserted that something is â€Å"true† or â€Å"factual†, but neither of these are actually relevant since the only consequence of knowledge that we are interested in is accuracy. However, even in the interest of accuracy we are often forced to generalize because a â€Å"fact† simply isn’t accurate as a general statement or description. Asserting that a particular â€Å"fact† is true is simply a mechanism we use to argue that we are presenting it as being free of deception. Factual information is, by definition, true. What should be questioned is its accuracy or applicability to any particular circumstance. As it turns out the fundamental problem is in interpreting the knowledge we possess against the belief system we hold. If we believe that the world is subject to being understood by query, then we will tend to hold a more scientific view of things. If we believe that the world is full of mysteries that can never be understood, then we will tend to be more inclined to accept that external agencies are at work. I want to be clear that I’m not arguing that religion and science are incompatible with one another, because there are clearly many people that can comfortably bridge that gap within their respective belief systems. The difficulty comes from the extrapolation of knowledge into unknown areas. To me the obvious argument is this: culture is a pattern or the results of such a pattern formed from human intellectual activity. Human intellectual activity tends to be based on beliefs or knowledge, which in turn are developed from information constructed out of data. Or you might say human intellectual activity constructs beliefs/knowledge from information constructed from data. This data is obtained from sensory perception and the interactions of various organs such as the brain and various chemical factories like the adrenal glands. My argument on this topic is that we can indeed have beliefs or knowledge which are independent of our culture. Firstly, I am going to justify my argument with some theory of my own knowledge. Some people such as Christians believe in God and that he created everything in the world let alone the world itself. For this reason, those people who believe in God have a belief that, to overcome every obstacle in life one has to pray to God to seek for help so as to overcome the obstacles. For example that person of that kind is Father Desmond Tutu who is a true believer and a Christian from South Africa. So all this is Religion not culture. This is probably not dependent on our culture. Belief deals with different aspects of life. We mostly need belief in areas such as religion, science, law, mathematics, ethics and arts. Over many years technology has improved a lot and this has all been due to discoveries. To acquire the knowledge of improving technology over that many years, culture was not needed or required. This is where I’m heading (indeed we have beliefs or knowledge which are independent of our culture). The fact that ethical belief showed a similar pattern of activation to mathematical belief suggests the physiological difference between belief and culture. In claim, â€Å"1+1=2†; we know this is true because we are accustomed to answer to symbolic language and we are forced to believe in it until we find proof that it’s wrong, or if there is another way to arrive to the same answer. Therefore, we have beliefs that are independent to our culture because of new ways that we can prove things without following the rituals and practices from our culture. Few people are the ones that take the decision of having independent beliefs, since others are either scared or confused if by disobeying the culture? s ideas are not correct. This is an essential reason for why we belief in what we are taught since we were born. Natural Scientists have built up our belief that there is such thing as force of gravity which its work is to attract things towards the Earth and cause them to fall to the ground. From the knowledge that we attained from the natural sciences, we know that when one throws an object (any object) upwards into the air, there is a time when it is going to decelerate and stop at an instant of time then makes its way down back to the ground being pulled down by the force of gravity. All this is from the perspective of the scientists on what makes objects to fall back when thrown into the air but not their knowledge from their culture and this justifies my argument. Moreover, there are some followers of a movement called legio maria in Palestine. These people have a belief that there is a black messiah called Melko Simeo Ondentto who will come back after nearly two decades to collect his followers and go with them to heaven. All this is not from their culture but it is from their knowledge and belief. In conclusion, even though we have beliefs or knowledge which are independent of our culture, there are some beliefs and knowledge which are dependent of our culture. in our culture, children were not allowed to eat certain foods because it was believed that it would make them grow quickly and lead them to adulterous activities. Nowadays, effects of taking in everything are alarming in terms of adultery. Seeing a teenager pregnant nowadays is a norm and it is evident that what our forefathers believed is happening.

IT Applications and Groupware Essay

The three most important things that a company has to do so as to implement the use of groupware systems effectively starts with ensuring the collaboration of workers regarding the introduction of the technology. This initiative helps to create an image of the required culture in their mind. Further, it helps the workers to learn more about each other and creates a sense of respect among them. This strategy helps to break any antagonistic cultures in which they grew up whereby they may have been taught to work as individuals. This viewpoint creates the notion of selfishness amongst the workers. Conversely, ensuring worker cooperation helps to create a feeling of security with regard to employees providing support to the company (Thierauf, 2001). This makes them to be joint owners of the company, thus taking part in implementing the project. The workers are thus not dictated on what to do. Rather, the executive helps them to remove the obstacles amongst themselves and eliminate their resistance. Afterwards, the retraining of the workers about sharing takes place. This helps to recreate the attitude of sharing which have been eliminated from the workers’ minds by the prevailing environment. Such an undertaking begins with the introduction of education to individual persons whereby they are instructed to work as individuals. Further, they learn that to share equates to cheating within the school perspective. The employees thus tend to have a culture in them that disowns sharing. Such a culture calls for retraining. The concept of sharing helps them to work together. In turn, this development benefits the company in the sense that each employee will be allowed to make their decisions. The business thus retains the knowledgeable employees within the company. This group work also makes the output of the company to increase more than individual output. Such an outcome stems from the fact that a group can accomplish more tasks than an individual when each person is offered the opportunity to decide on how to accomplish a task (Galliers, Markus & Newell, 2007). The people are thus empowered to perform by themselves. During training, the influential leaders usually start early in helping the people to change and teaching the people about the importance of groupware. This undertaking promotes every idea regarding all opportunities in the planning of any specialized training in the anticipation that all the needed users are covered. In addition, it helps to create an awareness of what will be expected of them when the group ware system will be implemented. This is because the workers regain their trust in all people with whom they were formerly taught to be distrustful by their environment. It also gives each worker an opportunity to contribute their techniques in the business whereby the best are charged with the running of the company (Khosrowpour, 2001). It also helps to make sure that all the intended people are reached and that the barriers among them broken. This creates an atmosphere within which each individual is worthy in the business and wherein their views are incorporated into the running of the premise. After training, one should plan for the growth of the firm and be prepared to rise up quickly after the implementation. This improves the attitude of the workers because they derive satisfaction from the work output. Such a development promotes and improves their working life. Consequently, the lessons which they had learned in the training are articulated in the production process. This action helps to gauge the results of the project so that one can know if to sell the project to others if the results are tangible (Khosrowpour, 2000). Further, he owners are facilitated to gauge if the groupware system is productive and if its productivity can be replicated in other related firms.

A Class Divided Documentary Review

A class divided is a documentary about a teacher named Jane Elliot who teaches her students about racism first hand. She divides the students into two groups, the blue eyes, and the brown eyes. For the first day, the â€Å"brown eyed† children are not able to go to recess, or lunch at the same time as the rest of the children. They wear a blue collar around their necks so that they are obviously different at a distance from the other students. They are not allowed to drink from the same water fountains, use the playground equipment, or even play with the blue eyed children.The next day, the roles are reversed. During these two days Jane Elliot would make comments about the children wearing the collars to degrade them. She would point out if one of them wasn’t ready on time, or if they forgot something. She would say things like â€Å"That’s how blue eyed people are† â€Å"Brown eyed people are better than blue eyed people† (J. Elliot, A Class Divide d, 1985). After the children who weren’t wearing a collar noticed Mrs. Elliot saying these kinds of things, they would also chime in and begin saying things about the kids wearing the collars.Mrs. Elliot said â€Å"I watched wonderful, thoughtful, children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third graders. †(J. Elliot, A Class Divided, 1985) . The movie showed the students come back for their fifteenth class reunion to talk about this life long lesson that their third grade teacher taught them. All of the students said it was a lesson they have never forgotten and something that changed their lives forever. They talked about how it affected their lives growing up, and how it affects the way they raised or were currently raising their children.Since she got done teaching, Jane has been doing trainings are conferences to teach others. Her movie A Class Divided has been shown in prisons to inmates who are trying to earn a degree. She also did training at a pri son in Iowa for the guards and other staff members. When people signed into the meeting they had to log whether they had brown eyes or blue eyes. Those with blue eyes had to wear a green ribbon. The people with brown eyes were able to go in and sit when the training was scheduled to start, where the blue eyed people had to stand out in the hall. The bathrooms were labeled â€Å"browns only†.The blue eyes weren’t told what was going on, they were just told to wait outside, and administration would come out and tell them to be quiet. Meanwhile, Jane Elliot talked to those with brown eyes and told them that they were not to allow blue eyed people to sit beside them. She told them that brown eyed people were better than blue eyed people. She said that blue eyed people were no good and the brown eyes were to treat them as such. A while after the meeting started the blue eyes were able to come into the room. They had to sit in the back, and some people didn’t even hav e a seat.During the meeting Jane talked to the people with blue eyes a lot like she did to her students 30 years ago. The reaction she got from the adults were a lot like they were in her experiment with the children, however there was one woman who was a lot more out spoken and rebellious toward Jane. Jane Elliot does a great job at not only telling people about racism and discrimination, but also showing how it affects us, and how easy it is to go with the crowd. Some of the movie takes place in a school, and this is a place where children are taught to socialize.Teachers play a huge role in how students are molded, especially at such a young age. In this day and age, I don’t think teachers really think about how much of an influence they are on their students. Most of the children spend more time with their teachers than they do with their own parents. Jane took on this role and helped her students understand that there is an issue with discrimination and taught them a val uable lesson. When this documentary was filmed not everyone was taught that the color of your skin doesn’t make up the type of person that you are.They were taught that if you are not white, you aren’t â€Å"normal†. They associated people that had a different skin color as â€Å"bad† or even â€Å"stupid†. In those times it was totally acceptable and some people sincerely believed this. Things that are social acceptable change over time and this is something that has changed in a big way. I’m not saying that everyone doesn’t care about the color of your skin. There is a lot of racism going on in our world today, but it is no where near as bad as it was forty years ago.It reflects what we are taught by our parents also. If we are taught that â€Å"black people† are bad then we are going to believe that they are, and look at all of the bad things they do. We like to be the same as everyone else; we do not like to stand out. In t he film a lot of people didn’t dare to stand up for those wearing a collar because that would require them to stand up and go against what the authoritative figure was saying. This video relates to several chapters in our sociology book, the main chapter being chapter ten, race and ethnicity.This movie focused on the struggle in our country with discrimination of those with a different skin color, concentrating on â€Å"blacks† being the minority. At the time, people thought of black people are dirty, stupid, and bad people. They didn’t think they were able to do anything as good as white people. Jane Elliot turned her classroom into a small discriminating society in a sense. She had the brown eyed students wear blue collars the first day and they were not able to do any of the same things that the blue eyed students did.She divided this class that was once a united class who played together, into a class that was split into two groups and mocked and made fun of each other, solely because of the color of their eyes. I also think we could relate this movie to chapter fourteen, where the book talks about education. Like I have stated before, teachers play a major role in their interaction with their students and how they can be molded. Jane talked about going over the phonics card packs with the brown eyed students on the day that they wore the collars around their necks and it took them five and a half minutes to get through the card pack.On the day that they didn’t wear the collar around their necks, and were treated with respect and felt as though they were sufficient, they only took two and a half minutes to get through the card pack. Jane talked about the time she performed this exercise for the second time with her third grade class. She said that the students score went up on the days where they were â€Å"on top† and went down on the days they were on â€Å"bottom†. After going through the exercise their overall scores would have a significant incline. Mrs.Elliot sent the results to Stanford University’s Psychology Department to have them study and examine why this would be so. We could also relate this video to chapter seventeen, which talks about social change: collective behavior, social movements and technology. Like I said, things that were once socially acceptable in those times are no longer acceptable now. In those days it was ok for people to say the word â€Å"nigger’ it was a term that people used for black people because that’s the term everyone else was using. Now, it is considered a derogatory word and it is not acceptable to say it.I thought that this documentary was very interesting. I loved what Jane Elliot did with her students. I wish it was something more teachers could do, but now-a-days it probably couldn’t be done because of the stink people would put up about it. I feel that some teachers spend too much time talking about topics and not n early enough actually teaching. Jane taught her students a lesson that they have remembered and will never forget. It is something that they have taught or will teach to their children. The town I grew up in was quite a bit like Riceville, Iowa. It was a small town, primarily Christians who were white.In fact, there were only two black people in our town and they happened to be two of my cousins who were adopted. From as far as I can remember I was taught that skin color doesn’t make up who the person is, â€Å"It’s what is on the inside that counts. † My cousins and I had a great relationship with my cousins and it wasn’t because of the color of their skin, or the color of mine that made the difference. I have met black people who I didn’t like, and I have met white people who I didn’t like. To me color makes no difference. I am very grateful that I was taught this lesson, and I feel and for those who haven’t been taught.I think it w ould be incredibly useful for this to be used in school. There are many other forms of discrimination other than people with different skin colors. Just because it is the form that is most widely talked about doesn’t mean it is the only one. I hope in some way, maybe not by putting collars around their necks, but I do hope that this is taught in schools through out the years. References Peters, William. (1985). A Class Divided. PBS, Frontline Benokraitis, Nijole. V. (2012). SOC, (Student Edition) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Steve Jobs Informative

Outline for Informative Speech Topic: Steve JobsGeneral Purpose: To Inform SpecificPurpose: To inform my audience about the life of Steve Jobs Thesis: Technology would never be the same ever since the arrival of the great Steve Jobs. * Introduction Attention Getter: In 1984 the first cd play or â€Å"Walk-man† was released. The first laptop came out in 1982 and cost a mere $8,150 which comes out to $19,630 today. In 2001 the first smartphone was released. All of these devices since have been outdated and updated. And the company that runs them all is Apple Co.And Apple would not be where it is if not for the mastermind behind it all, Steve Jobs Significance: Almost everyone, everywhere either own or have owned an IPod, IPhone, or Macbook.Credibility: According to CNN. net â€Å"Apple IPhone controls half of the web traffic produced by all smartphones. † And according to Amazon. com 4/10 laptops sold are Macbooks. Thesis: Steve Jobs has changed the technology world and t he way that the world uses technology. Preview: Specifically I will talk about Jobs upbringing, how apple got started, and what they did to become a powerhouse in technology. Transition: The reason Steve Jobs named it apple was because he used to work for Atari and Apple got in the phone book before it.BodyTo first understand the genius that is Steve Jobs we have to look at his upbringing and his past. According to biography. com Steve Jobs was born Steve Paul in San Francisco, California on February 24th, 1955 Steve Jobs was adopted almost right after birth by Clara and Paul Jobs. While at a young age Jobs showed an interest in technology mainly because his family moved to Los Altos, California.And in Los Altos was Hewitt-Packard one of the biggest technology companies of the time. While young Steve and Paul would work on electronics in the garage. Paul taught Steve how to take apart and reconstruct them, a hobby that would inspire jobs to his dream. While Jobs was always a thinker , he had a difficult time in school. His Fourth grade teacher even had to bribe him to focus However he tested so well the school board wanted to bump him to high school but his parents declined * Transition: Jobs didn’t start his own company alone nor was it a success right away.Body 2In 1971 Jobs enrolled at Homestead High School Not long after that did he was introduced to his future partner in business Steve Wozniak through a friend. Wozniak was attending University of Michigan when they met. Wozniak once said in an interview with ABC News â€Å"We both loved electronics and the way we used to hook up digital chips,† Wozniak said. â€Å"Very few people, especially back then had any idea what chips were, how they worked and what they could do. I had designed many computers so I was way ahead of him in electronics and computer design, but we still had common interests.We both had pretty much sort of an independent attitude about things in the world. † After Hi gh School Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Oregon Lacking focus and direction Jobs dropped out after only 6 months but still continued to go to some Art classes Jobs then took a game testing job for Atari in 1974 He left after 7 months to go to India to find spiritual enlightenment in India While he did this he experimented with psychogenic drugs and traveled the world. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21 he and Wozniak started Apple Computers They started the company out of Jobs parents garageThey funded Apple by Jobs selling his car and Wozniak selling his scientific calculator * Transition: From this point Apple would excel and grow in fameBody 3Jobs and Wozniak were credited with revolutionizing the computer industry They did this by making the computer smaller, cheaper, and available to an everyday consumer. They first came out with the Apple I The computer first listed at $700. 00 a piece It made the company $774,000 3 years after the release of Apple II their sales increase 700% T his made Apple worth $139 million. In 1980, Apple became a publically traded company with a value of $1. billion on the first day of trade. After this, Apple would come out with a couple of failures and lose popularity to IBM CO. The Apple board began to think Jobs was hurting apple and phased him out * Transition: Jobs was not always an Apple man, but opened multiple Big named companies we all know about.Body 4In 1985, Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO to begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT Inc. The next following years NeXT grew and Jobs bought out an animation studio called Pixar. Jobs had high faith in Pixar so he invested $50 million of his own money in it.Pixar released very popular movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles Pixar’s films netted $4 billion In 2006 the studio merged with Walt Disney, making Steve Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder. Apple then bought out NeXT in 1997 for $429 million That same year Jobs retur ned to his post as Apple’s CEO Jobs then put apple back on top With a new management team and altered stock options and only taking an annual salary of $1 Also coming out with new devices, marketing techniques, and cool looking designs he recaptured the world’s attention.Conclusion After all this commotion, going from top, to bottom, back on top Steve Jobs has marked his name in history for many companies and big time in the technology industry. Sadly on October 5, 2011 Apple Inc. announced that co-founder Steve Jobs had died at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer. Even though Jobs is gone his legacy will live on. I have now attempted to tell you on who Steve Jobs was growing up, on how Apple was created, how it became successful, and how Steve Jobs was the mastermind behind it all.

International Business - Cultural Differences Essay

International Business - Cultural Differences - Essay Example With specific reference to HRM and marketing, this essay will examine the potential problems which a UK owned hotel, operating in China and Russia, among numerous other countries, may confront. In order to understand the challenges which the UK-owned hotel may confront in the management of its operations in China and Russia, it is important to begin with a clarification of the implications of the culture construct. The reason is that since culture has been identified as the source of challenges, it is necessary to know why and how it can function as a challenge to cross-cultural management for the purposes of constructively confronting and resolving these challenges. As an ever-present force of concern to all social sciences, culture represents an abstract and extremely complex construct. Attempts by scholars to define culture have resulted in countless definitions. For example, in their seminal study on culture, Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) identified more than 160 definitions of culture. Although there is probably no single best definition of culture, the main thread running through the numerous definitions of culture, as noted by Hall (2004) is that the construct of culture appears to have the following characteristics: Culture is multidimensional and interrelated. ... Culture is multidimensional and interrelated. It consists of a number of common and interdependent elements such as beliefs and attitudes, values and norms. All aspects of culture are deeply connected with one another; to change one part is to change the whole. It is the interaction of various elements of culture that results in cultural distinctiveness. Culture is shared by the members of a social group and defines the boundaries between different groups. Culture is adaptive. Culture and its values, though enduring in the short term, do change over time. Cultural meanings are not static, but constantly in motion. Culture continues to evolve through constant embellishment and adaptation to both physical and social environments. Culture includes both conscious and unconscious values, and other meaningful symbols that shape human behaviour. Cultural differences are not necessarily visible, especially to people who remain embedded in one cultural environment. It takes a prolonged stay abroad and mingling with the locals to recognize the numerous and often subtle and hidden differences in various cultures. In sum, culture provides people with a sense of identity and an understanding of appropriate behaviour within a soda1 group. It has pervasive and profound impacts on virtually all aspects of human life. For instance, Harris and Moran (2005, pp. 206-211) have identified ten important areas pertaining to human values, attitudes. and behaviours that are directly influenced by culture: Sense of self and space; Communication and language; Dress and appearance; Food and feeding habits; Time and time consciousness; Relationships; Values and norms; Beliefs and attitudes; Mental process and learning; Work

Musculoskeletal and neurological diseases and healing in Veterinary Essay

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Automated Process of Accounting Information Systems - Essay Example The parts of development for payroll are with the time clocks and reporting of the statements to accounting and human resources. A worker must clock in to an electric time clock that will send the information to server that creates a time card report on every worker. Finally of the pay time, management signs off on every workers time and prints statements into pay checks signed by the treasurer. The accounts payable method runs quite easily with the exemption of cash on delivery dealings. Like accounts payable, accounts receivable is uncomplicated. Most dealings happen by point of sale, meaning when a consumer takes goods from the store, it is paid for by credit card or cash straight away. Occasionally, with approval from management, a consumer can charge the goods to an in store account. When this occurs, the industry sends invoice to the client. Later, the industry deposits the cash in the bank. The inventory method poses the largest cost to the industry. Additionally, when inventory is too small and unavailable, it reasons the industry sales. To combat this difficulty, the industry should execute a small and too high stock alert method. This will assist the industry to meet successor 95% stock level goal. The recommended changes, for instance using electronic system that tracks inventory and implementing industry specific software, account receivables and payables would give a reliable, secure and useful way to track natural resources from the point of replenishment, to the post of the finished goods, and at last through invoicing management. The alteration would put the industry incomes, expenses, and returns in one electronic platform accessed by the administration of Kudler industry. â€Å"Kudler needs to define the marketing problem and the opportunity for increased customer satisfaction. At this time the problem seems to be related to gathering research and information to expand their current service offerings into areas such

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McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay Example for Free

McDonald’s and Its Crisis Essay What should a company do when its core product is considered â€Å"unhealthy† or even â€Å"harmful† by the public? Is it even possible for such a company survive and thrive; or will it have to shut down its business? McDonald’s fast food has for a long time been considered unhealthy by the public. In recent years, the health conscious trends have become increasingly popular. Moreover, many scientific studies and findings have surfaced and successfully confirmed that children’s increasing intake of fast food, which often contains high sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories, for a long period of time would lead to childhood obesity. Moreover, obese children have a much higher risk of many health problems such as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain cancersall of which are fatal if left untreated. In 2010, a mother from California sued McDonald’s over the company’s marketing practice of Happy Meal. The mother claimed that McDonald’s used alluring toys to lure kids into Happy Meal. This lawsuit, which might be viewed by many as senseless and absurd, was one of McDonald’s biggest cases. In order to come out of the lawsuit ahead, this largest fast food chain had to undergo some major organizational changes. In this paper, we would like to use the knowledge learned in the class to analyze the event (the lawsuit) and its effects on McDonald’s. The paper will have four main parts. In the first part, we provide a brief introduction of the company, McDonald’s, and the lawsuit. In the second part, we will use the concepts learned in class to analyze Happy Meal’s influencing strategies and the organizational changes during and after the suit. We believe that Happy Meal’s influencing strategies deserve our attention as they were the main causes of the crisis. Since its Happy Meal’s influencing tactics were so effectively and successfully executed, McDonald’s became the obvious target of the mentioned legal dispute. In the third part, we will offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. Finally, in the fourth part, depending on our evaluation of how McDonald’s control of the situation, we want to offer our recommendation to parts of the company’s strategies which in our opinions could have been improved. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. I Introduction McDonald’s Corporation is the worlds leading food service organization. The corporation started out as a small drive-through in 1948 by two brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald. In 1961, Raymond Albert Kroc, a salesman, saw a great opportunity in the market at the time and bought the business from the McDonald brothers. By 1967, McDonald’s began its first business expansion to countries outside of the United States. This unyielding expansion resulted in the opening of 23,000 McDonalds restaurants in 110 countries in 1994. Today, McDonalds, the leading fast food chain, had twice the market share of its closest U.S. competitor, Burger King. In fact, McDonald’s market share represented 7 percent of total U.S. eating-out sales (Cohen, 2009, p8-2, p8-3). There are several major influences and factorssuch as government, customers, social trends, and so forthwhich play an important role in shaping organizational behavior.In the recent years, McDonald’s corporate image has been negatively affected by adverse publicity. For example, McDonald’s has been criticized of paying its employees low wages and enforcing an aggressive anti-union policy throughout its fast-food empire. Furthermore, the corporation was heavily condemned by the public for exploiting children market and causing childhood obesity. Indeed, McDonald’s has been using advertising which mainly targeted children. As a result, according to the survey to American school student in 1996, 96 percent of all children could identify Ronald McDonald (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). How was McDonald’s able to achieve the above result? McDonald’s children marketing strategies were very simple but extremely effectiveto give small toys as a treatment to children in order to appeal to their interests. With the repeated uses of this psychological influencing tactic, children would subconsciously make a connection between McDonald’s and toys. Therefore, children, who were under the influences of McDonald’s marketing strategies, could not help to think of McDonald’s whenever thinking of toys. The plaintiff, Monet Parham, a California mother of two, sued McDonald’s overly exploiting children market on Oct 2010 (Dan, 2011).She claimed that McDonald’s gave out alluring toys that come with the meals in order to lure kids into unhealthy diet. The mother also stated that â€Å"McDonald’s make it so much harder to say no to her kids when they are really want those toys† (York, 2010). The CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) confirmed that â€Å"kids do not have the cognitive maturity to understand the persuasive intent of advertising† (York, 2010). Later on, the ban of serving Happy Meals with toys was easily passed by the Board of Supervisors in an 8-3 vote, which would take effect on Dec 1st, 2011 if McDonald’s didn’t meets the nutritional standards of meal in San Francisco till that time (San Francisco Happy Meal Toy Ban Takes Effect,2012). McDonald’s quickly made response to this event. The fast food chain’s spokeswoman, Bridget Coffing, told the LA Times newspaper: We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet, (York, 2010). McDonalds said that it would defend itself against the lawsuit. Meanwhile, it started offering apple slices and milks in the new Happy Meals. Eventually, the San Francisco judge dismissed the suit since McDonalds was able to meet the required nutritional standards.†¨ In the next part, we will assess this problem relate to the concept of influence and organizational change. II Course Concepts Related To The Event Influence â€Å"Influence is any communication which produces a change in an action and/or an attitude in one or more people.† Influence is one of the most important management strategies in any organization. A strong influence tactic includes role of planning and dialogue, establish credibility, frame goals and common ground, vividly reinforce your position and connect emotionally (Wong, Influence and persuasion, 2012). In this case, although McDonald’s was sued by alluring children, they indeed occupied the children market successfully. In order to establish an influence, one must first establish communicationexchanges of dialogue. McDonald’s did good at emotional influence and ingratiation. The company created a clown character named Ronald and featured it on local TV in early 1960s. Then, people were employed to perform live Ronald McDonald clowns at children’s birthday parties held in restaurants. Ronald McDonald had a magic touch with children giving McDonald’s an important advantage over its competitors in the children market (Cohen, 2011, p8-5). With Ronald McDonald mascot so successful as a communication tool, McDonald’s went one step further to establish its credibility in children’s minds. This was not hard for the leading fast food chain as it is a common notionand quite truethat children are in most cases easy to influence. Then, how did McDonald’s make children trust it? The answer is easymake the children happy. For example, children were happy when gifts such as Ronald dolls and wristwatches were given free with every purchases of Happy Meals. McDonald’s also used toys of characters from popular movies appeal to children. In this aspect, they used influence of ingratiation effectively. Ingratiation means do something what the person likes. For example, a recent and very successful Happy Meal promotion was a tie-in with the popular DreamWorks Animation film Shrek Forever After. The meals included toy watches fashioned after the movies characters Shrek, Donkey, Gingy and Puss in Boots (Dan, 2011). Furthermore, McDonald’s needed to create a common goalas to what it stands forwith children. With free toys and the always smiling Ronald McDonald, McDonald’s convinced children that the company and its restaurants stands for happiness and enjoyment. However, just establishing common goal and credibility is not enough to make an effective influence, the communicating message and/or idea must be vividly reinforced and emotionally connected with the target audience. According to the Fast Food FACTS Report, young people viewed enormous amounts of fast food advertising. Every day, the average preschooler saw 2.8 fast food ads on television, the average child saw 3.5, and the average teen saw 4.7. Teens listened to approximately one radio ad per day. Children were exposed to more than 1,200 traditional fast food ads per year while teens saw and heard more than 2,000. (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132) Thus, with its spending of $900 million in media in 2009, McDonald’s made sure that the company’s image was vividly reinforced and emotionally connected in the minds of many children (Harris, Schwartz Brownell, 2010, p132). In sum, McDonald’s influencing strategies were so successful that 90 percent of the children go to McDonald’s once a month (Fast Food Marketing to Children, 2010). Nevertheless, McDonald’s effective influencing strategies made it a target for one of the biggest lawsuit in the fast food industry. In the next part, we will discuss how McDonald’s applied its strategic changes to overcome the crisis. †¨Organizational Change For years, critics have been criticizing McDonald’s and its role in America’s obesity problemspecifically the franchise’s aggressive marketing strategies toward children. As the lawsuit pointed out, McDonald’s used toys to lure children and in turn set kids up for a lifetime of health problems. The leadership and management of an organization must be prepared for a turbulent environment which demands more complex planning for the future. The phrase â€Å"organizational change† is about a significant change in the organization, such as reorganization or adding a major new product or service. In fact, there are six forces creating the need of change—the changing nature of the work force, technology, economics shocks, changing social trends, the â€Å"new† world politics, and the changing nature of competitions. (Stephen,1992, p.270) From this lawsuit, we could find evidences of a major force, changing social trend. As the health conscious became a more and more popular, people will be looking for healthy food that is low in calories, fat and sodium. In the American, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. Furthermore, according to the Centers for Disease Control, seventy percent of obese children have higher risk for cardiovascular disease, and are at â€Å"greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem† (Centers for disease, 2012). The publics pointed a finger at McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast food company, who use of Happy Meal toys to lure children. This situation made McDonald’s under heavy criticism from public health officials, parents, lawmakers and so on because they are frustrated with rising childhood obesity rates and weak anti-obesity efforts from fast food restaurant operators. Oftentimes, organizations are confronted with problems in the environment or with internal contingencies suggesting that â€Å"current ways of doing things are not effective† (Miller, 2012, p180). When facing the changing forces, organizations often make changes gradually. Of course, the implementation of planned change is neither a simple nor a straight-forward process (Miller, 2012, p181). In fact, it took McDonalds six years (from 1984 to 1990) to react to pressure group tactics and litigation before starting to adapt its service offer to the dietary concerns of its customers. At the very beginning, the company just made some modestly changes, such as using light oil, adding 2% milk into the menu before actually launching new products such as the McVeggie, the McLean, and pizza in the 1990s (Joanne Caroline, 2006). If we consider McDonald’s step-by-step changes, in the above examples, organizational planned change in response to social trend, the fast food franchise’ reactions to the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) lawsuit then can be defined as â€Å"unplanned change†. According to Coombs (1999, p.2), organizational crisis is â€Å"an event that is an unpredictable, major threat that can have a negative effect on the organization, industry, or stakeholders if handled improperly.† In other words, crisis is unplanned change that can rock an organization and all the people associated with it. In response to this lawsuit, on December 15 2010, McDonald’s posted on its website a Response to CSPI Lawsuit: We are proud of our Happy Meals and intend to vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food. We stand on our 30 years track record of providing a fun experience for kids and families at McDonald’s. We listen to our customers, and parents consistently tell us they approve of our Happy Meals. We are confident that parents understand and appreciate that Happy Meals are a fun treat, with quality, right-sized food choices for their children that can fit into a balanced diet. (Bridget, 2010) Later on, McDonald’s made it clear that the fast food chain had begun to make changes to the composition of Happy Meals in response to parental and consumer pressure. It also pledged to reduce the sodium content in all of its foods by 15 percent, with the exceptions of soda and desserts. Moreover, it set a deadline of 2015 for limiting salt, and said that it would spend the rest of this decade cutting back on sugars, saturated fats and calories and making adjustments to portion sizes. The new Happy Meals were introduced in September and launched across the company’s 14,000 restaurants on April 2012. They would all include apple slices, but in a smaller amount of three to five slices than the current eight to 10 offered as an alternative (Stephanie, 2011). McDonald’s will also offer a fat-free chocolate milk option, along with the option of low-fat milk or the traditional soda. The price is not expected to change (Andrew,2011). Furthermore, as part of an effort to provide better access to nutritional information about its foods, McDonald’s developed its first mobile application for the public. Additionally, in 2011, McDonald’s executives toured the country to hear directly from consumers about their concerns (Alex, 2011). In the next part, we would like to offer our evaluations, pros and cons, of McDonald’s strategies and tactics in handling the crisis. III Evaluation As we could image, the sales of Happy Meals have been a large contributions to McDonald’s daily revenue. Thus, if McDonald’s had lost the lawsuit, the company would have faced a really huge lost on its total profits and taken serious damage on its reputation. On the side of the organization change, we believe that McDonald’s did quite well in the face of the crisis. Organization crisis could be divided into three stages: pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis (Miler, 2012, p187). In the pre-crisis stage, an organization should protect or prevent possible problems. It should make employees have a kind of consciousness of crisis all the time. Indeed, McDonald’s has always been accused of selling unhealthy, greasy food to grownups, and exploiting children through advertising since 1960s (Cohen,2009,p8-6). As a leading company in fast food industry, adverse publicity always be the major problem for McDonald’s. Still, McDonald’s couldn’t find a way to solve this problem at all. It is necessary that a company grow with self-awareness against any problem. After all, McDonald’s had got unfavorable publicity in this event what had happened before. During the crisis stage, it is very important that the company should make correct and wise decisions in order to salvage the damaged reputation. As we said before, on one side, McDonald’s projected itself as a company which was proud of its products and would vigorously defend its reputation in order to calm down concerned customers . On the other side, McDonald’s announced that it would reduce the portion of French fries in every Happy Meal by half and replace them with apple slices. It even promised to start serving healthier food in the new Happy Meal to meet the nutrition standards. Indeed, McDonalds made very quick response to this event, and they also pointed out that parents could always choose not to buy happy meals for their kids instead of criticizing the corporation’s marketing strategies. After making the changes, McDonald’s operation was not impacted too much. Lastly, in the post-crisis stage, company should take lessons from this and establish backup plans for similar crisis which may happen in the future. Apparently, even after the crisis, Happy Meal was not banned. Furthermore, it has become a huge hit for McDonalds and even made the company one of the worlds largest toy distributors. As a result, more and more companies wanted to corporate with McDonalds. For example, many animation film companies wanted to team up with McDonald’s in order to take advantage of this fast food franchise’ huge market influence in promoting their movies. In sum, with its achievements overweight shortcoming, McDonald’s had a good handle on the whole crisis. Nevertheless, even the crisis had passed, this leading fast food chain suffered from public criticism regarding its products. In the future, we believe that McDonald’s should develop an effective strategy to help improve its brand image and a better risk management methodology to help mitigating coming crisis. In the next part of the paper, we want to offer our recommendation to help McDonald’s better handling similar situation. Also, since we overall felt that McDonald’s managed the crisis extremely well, we would like to recommend its strategies to be implemented to Jack in the Box, which faced a similar situation to McDonald’s. However, unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight for the continuation of its using toys to push Happy Meal sales, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the pressure from the public. We believe McDonald’s implementation of strategic changes could have helped Jack in the Box to put toys back to its Happy Meal. IV Recommendation and Implementation Recommendation for McDonald’s Obviously, McDonald’s managed the crisis really well. In fact, the nutrition of Happy Meal was improved as the calories were reduced substantially. Because the lawsuit was dismissed, McDonald’s continued sell Happy Meal with toys. In the end, McDonald’s didn’t have to change its children’s influence strategy. Even though McDonald’s made its Happy Meal healthier, we believe that their changes to the meal could be bigger, such as change the cheeseburger to a healthier burger with vegetable inside and make chicken nuggets with real chicken instead of minced meat. Also, McDonald’s could reduce the attraction to children or change a different way. For example, the fast food chain could design an advertisement to advocate children to eat healthy, such as drink milk and eat fruit. Furthermore, McDonald’s could optimize the influence aspect. For instance, McDonald’s could use influence strategy to encourage more people to do char ity and educate children to eat healthy and exercise frequently. Recommendation for Jack in the Box In 2011, under heavy public’s criticism, Jack in the Box decided to stop giving out free toys with the purchases of Happy Meal. Obviously, the scale of the crisis faced by Jack in the Box was much smaller than that faced by McDonald’s. However, we felt that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly by learning from McDonalds way of handling its crisis. We also have some recommendations for Jack in the Box based on the successful influence strategy of McDonald’s. According to the survey, McDonalds Happy Meal accounted for about 10 percent of the chain’s U.S. sales in 2010. The sales of McDonalds Happy Meals alone were more than Jack in the Box’s total sales (Maureen, 2011). This fact showed us that the influence strategy used by McDonalds was extremely effective. A spokesman of Jack in the Box said that the franchise’s target customers were â€Å"the frequent fast food consumer† or adults from 18 to 34. Therefore, we recommend Jack in the Box to use the same influence strategy to their target customer. The fast food chain could also use emotion and/or ingratiation influence to attract customers. For example, Jack in the Box could design online games for adults who gained access to the games with free codes offered with purchases of Happy Meals. Moreover, the company could design a discount card for the customers who accumulate a certain sum of consumption. Unlike McDonald’s which vigorously fight so that it could continue using toys to promote Happy Meal, Jack in the Box decided to drop toys in its Happy Meal when it was faced with the similar pressure from the public. We believed that many of the McDonald’s organizational changes could be copied and apply in Jack in the Box. This would allow Jack in the Box to continue selling its Happy Meal with toys. For example, Jack in the Box could change the composition of Happy Meal toward a more healthier trends—such as reducing the sodium content, sugars, saturated fats, and calories to its foods; including vegetables and fruits in the menu; and offering tea, juice, and milk as alternatives to the traditional soda beverages. Jack in the Box also needed to let its customers know of its commitment in making its products healthier. The reason provided by Jack in the Box regarding its letting go of Happy Meal’s toys was that it waned the Happy Meal to appeal to parents. Brian Luscomb, Jack in the Box’s spokesman, commented: â€Å"Rather than promote a toy weve focused on the quality of products in our Kids Meals, like a grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough, grilled or crispy chicken strips, or a hamburger. We believe that providing these kinds of options is more appealing to a parent than packaging a toy with lower-quality fare†(Bernstein, 2011). However, we believed that Jack in the Box could benefit greatly from expanding its Happy Meal’s target market to include children. To achieve this, Jack in the Box would need to facilitate strategic change†the process of formulating, implementing, and evaluating decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives† (Wong, Organizational change, 2012). In this case, the strategic plan would include extensive products innovation. For example, Jack in the Box could use popular toys and online games to attract children to its Happy Meal. The burger franchise chain could also build playgrounds inside its stores. This offered children with fun and healthy exercises. Implementation for Jack in the Box As we discussed above, Jack in the Box could drew on McDonald’s successful tactics to appeal more customers to consume their products. We found McDonald’s influence tactic could be successfully implemented on Jack in the Box due to two main reasons. The first reason is the industry similarity. Jack in the Box is one of the nations largest hamburger chains with more than 2,200 restaurants in 19 states. Also, just like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box is also a member of the fast food hamburger restaurant (FFHR) industry. This is an industry characterized by high competitiveness and risk. Although Jack in the Box is concentrated on the West Coastprimarily in California, the competition is still intensive. In this industry, McDonald’s is the only fast food chain to occupy nearly 13 percent of the US market (McDonald’s Report, 2010). There is no reason that Jack in the Box could not benefit from learning from the market leader, McDonald’s. The second reason is the easy-to-influence target customers. As we mentioned before, Jack in the Box’s target consumer are youth, aged 18 to 34. This group of customer is the most active part. They are independent buyers. This means that they could choose the thing they want without asking their parents’ permission or admission. Another character of this customer group is economic dependent. This group of customer typically has incomes and also can take charge of their money. The situation is much better than McDonald’s children market. Also, this group customer of Jack in the Box likes keeping pace with the trend. We think if Jack in the Box could use the influence tactic cater to its target consumers, they could further expand their market share in the future. However, in implementing aggressive marketing strategies, Jack in the Box would certainly be criticized by the public. Still, we believed that if Jack in the Box continues making its Happy Meal healthier and supporting the surrounding community through various charity activitiessuch as donating part of its Happy Meal’s profit to children hospitals, giving free Happy Meals to the homeless, and so forth, it can enjoy increase profit and at the same time maintain good public image. Reference: Alex, M. (July 26, 2011). McDonalds Happy Meal to include sliced apples, less fries. Retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/news/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-include-sliced-apples-52867/#gKDYWvXCIJGSO8g1.99 Andrew, L. (July 28, 2011). McDonalds adds apple slices, reaction to Happy Meal lawsuit?†¨Retrieved from http://chicagopersonalinjurylegalblog.com/2011/07/mcdonalds-adds-apple-slices-reaction-to-happy-meal-lawsuit.html Bernstein, S. (2011, June 20). Jack in the Box stops including toys in kids meals [updated]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2011/06/jack-in-the-box-toys.html Bridget, C. (December 15, 2010). Response to CSPI Lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/newsroom/mcdonalds_statements_and_alerts/response_to_cpi_lawsuit.html Centers for disease control and prevention: Childhood obesity facts. (2012, June 07). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm Cohen, I. (2009). McDonald’s and its critics, 1973-2009. Dan, L. (2011, April 19). McDonalds grimaces at Happy Meal lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/19/us-mcdonalds-lawsuit-idUSTRE73I4P820110419 Harris, J., Schwartz, M., Brownell, K. (2010). Fast food FACTS: evaluating fast food nutrition and marketing to youth. Research report, Yale Rudd Center For Food Policy and Obesity, Retrieved from http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/media/FastFoodFACTS_Report.pdf Joanne, R., Caroline, B. (2006). Corporate Identity and Strategic Change: The Case of McDonald’s Miller, K. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth. Molland, J. (2010, December 15). California mom sues McDonalds over Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.care2.com/causes/california-mom-sues-mcdonalds-over-happy-meals-video.html Stephanie, S. (July 26, 2011). McDonald’s trims its Happy Meal. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/business/mcdonalds-happy-meal-to-get-healthier.html?_r=0