Violence Analysis of Rollerball :: essays research papers

Violence Analysis of Rollerball 1.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the film Rollerball, the ideas of violence will be related to Coakley’s views and theories. Historically violence was an accepted idea and large part of sport. From the blood-sports of ancient Greece to the cock and dog fighting in Folk games, these sports were built around brutal violence and lack of rules until the modernization of sports where violence decreased dramatically and organized rules took over the game. In Rollerball both historical violence as well modern can be evaluated Rollerball although a futuristic sport and society, was based on a combination of rules and some violence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the start of the movie there is obvious violence with bodies flying around and medics carrying off the injured, but this was a controlled violence as Coakley describes it as brutal body contact or borderline violence (Coakley 2001). On several occasions the main character Johnathen made references of this control by saying â€Å"don’t fight when you’re supposed to be somewhere else† and even teaching other teammates how to take out a biker in a clean way, comparable to a clean take out in baseball. As the movie progressed I believe this is where the futuristic sport turned into a blood-sport of ancient times. With rule changes or even lack of rules the officials made in the Rollerball playoffs, this mimicked the lack of rules and emphasis of violence in the historical blood-sports (Coakley 2001). These were the characteristics of historical violence described by Coakley: increased violence, bloodshed, lack of rules, and lack of self-control .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Defined as verbal or physical actions grounded in an intent to dominate, control, or do harm to another person, aggression will now be discussed (Coakley 2001). I felt the entire game of Rollerball was played in an aggressive manor. At no time did I witness finesse in the sport, only hitting and taking out players. There were also several verbal references such as: â€Å"drive their jaw into their head†, â€Å"hit the little fellas†, â€Å"bash in their faces†, and â€Å"feelin’ mean†, to name a few. Furthermore, there were aggressive acts outside of the game. For example, Johnathen choking Dapheny and even Johanthen and Swoop wrestling for fun.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rollerball also demonstrated deviant behavior as defined by Coakley, specifically deviant overconformity. In the Rollerball semi-finals and finals I felt this was the best example of Coakley’s deviant overconformity. In these two games many players were killed playing Rollerball. Violence Analysis of Rollerball :: essays research papers Violence Analysis of Rollerball 1.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the film Rollerball, the ideas of violence will be related to Coakley’s views and theories. Historically violence was an accepted idea and large part of sport. From the blood-sports of ancient Greece to the cock and dog fighting in Folk games, these sports were built around brutal violence and lack of rules until the modernization of sports where violence decreased dramatically and organized rules took over the game. In Rollerball both historical violence as well modern can be evaluated Rollerball although a futuristic sport and society, was based on a combination of rules and some violence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the start of the movie there is obvious violence with bodies flying around and medics carrying off the injured, but this was a controlled violence as Coakley describes it as brutal body contact or borderline violence (Coakley 2001). On several occasions the main character Johnathen made references of this control by saying â€Å"don’t fight when you’re supposed to be somewhere else† and even teaching other teammates how to take out a biker in a clean way, comparable to a clean take out in baseball. As the movie progressed I believe this is where the futuristic sport turned into a blood-sport of ancient times. With rule changes or even lack of rules the officials made in the Rollerball playoffs, this mimicked the lack of rules and emphasis of violence in the historical blood-sports (Coakley 2001). These were the characteristics of historical violence described by Coakley: increased violence, bloodshed, lack of rules, and lack of self-control .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Defined as verbal or physical actions grounded in an intent to dominate, control, or do harm to another person, aggression will now be discussed (Coakley 2001). I felt the entire game of Rollerball was played in an aggressive manor. At no time did I witness finesse in the sport, only hitting and taking out players. There were also several verbal references such as: â€Å"drive their jaw into their head†, â€Å"hit the little fellas†, â€Å"bash in their faces†, and â€Å"feelin’ mean†, to name a few. Furthermore, there were aggressive acts outside of the game. For example, Johnathen choking Dapheny and even Johanthen and Swoop wrestling for fun.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rollerball also demonstrated deviant behavior as defined by Coakley, specifically deviant overconformity. In the Rollerball semi-finals and finals I felt this was the best example of Coakley’s deviant overconformity. In these two games many players were killed playing Rollerball.

Environmental Analysis of Target Inc.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF TARGET INC. Environmental Analysis of Target Inc. Team B Contemporary Issues in Leadership and Management MM590 October 9, 2006 Abstract Team B conducted an Environmental Analysis and an Industry Analysis of Target Inc. In the Environmental Analysis, competition for customers is always a threat in any business but the success of Target is always looking for new opportunities. The Target Inc. analysis found that competition with the â€Å"big box† stores including the availability of substitute products and threats of new entrants are keys to their success. The analysis of the remote environment found new regulations and shifting demographics influence Target’s success. Falling petroleum prices, confidence in the stock market and families migrating from the city to rural areas were the result of the Industry Analysis. .Our recommendations for overcoming the threats and capitalizing on the opportunities were to increase internet shopping, become move competitive in smaller towns, globalization, and allow the Salvation Army to silicate donations during the holidays. Environmental Analysis of Target Inc. Team B conducted an Environmental Analysis and an Industry Analysis of Target Inc. o identify opportunities and threats that may arise in the near future. In this research paper, the team will evaluate the findings and provide recommendations for responding to the issues and opportunities that Target stores face. Environmental Analysis of Competition An analysis of the competition indicates there is availability of substitute produc es and threats of new competition entering every year. The retail industry provides steady competition among business and within departments of the organization. Target offers a wide variety of products and services, which leads to an immense competition pool. The organization rovides services with photo development, pharmaceutical, prepared food with some locations having chain services, optical, and portrait studio centers. These diverse services provided for the expansion of the competition pool to include non-general retailers. Since retail merchandise is Target’s primary source of profitability, the organization must make proper investments to ensure the quality of these services surpass those of the competition. Quality service in the food preparation department will increase the chances that a customer will pass other fast food companies in order to get the same service at Target. Target competes for the customer’s business in retail merchandise with other discount retailers, department stores, wholesalers, and supermarkets. The competition with other discount retailers is Kmart and Wal-Mart. Each company involved in general retail offers similar products to the customers. Customers can bring a shopping list to include socks, shampoo, DVD player, and holiday decorations to each of the general retailers with confidence that each company will satisfy the customer’s needs. The differences in each business, which determines a customer’s preference is the organization’s reputation. This reputation is developed by personal experiences, and/or by external influences like media and other consumers. A consumer’s life situation is another influence on a customer’s decision on business of choice. Some families find finical benefits in purchasing items found at Target in bulk at wholesaler. A consumer’s location in proximity to businesses is another influential factor. Some of these considerations cannot be altered by a business. Although, Target can offer outstanding service to force the customer’s preference to surpass all other factors in choosing a retailer. According to Kijoo and Kim, â€Å"†¦ store managers need to give their best effort to enhance their customers' perceived satisfaction because satisfied customers have a greater chance of purchasing merchandise† (2006). The retail business relies solely on the customer’s choice in where their money is spent. The best method for retaining customers is to provide them with the products or services they desire. Those businesses, which are successful at customer service, will out perform their competition. The final source of competition involves internal aspects of the company. The competition produces threats to an organization’s retention. In each of the organization in which Target competes in sales, Target also competes in filling similar jobs. All retailers have similar job necessities including cashiers, clerks, receivers, managers, and store managers. According to the article in Human Resources Department Management Report, companies should â€Å"aim to identify the most suitable candidates as well as track trends in applicants and employees, including reasons for departure, rehire possibilities, top performers, and job specifics† (2005). The authors maintain that reduction in turnover can positively affect the profitability of the company. Businesses can operate differently but this does not change the skill requirements for being a leader. Target defines superior leadership performance as the individual who can excel in communicating effectively, managing execution, and demonstrating accountability. Since leadership is not defined by retail experience, Target searches for managers with various experiences including education, military, or public service. As Target is expanding their applicant pool, so is their competition. Once Target recruits strong leaders, retention is significant to the company’s success. Therefore, competition affects Target’s sales growth but also internal growth. Remote and Industry Analysis The analysis of the remote environment found new regulations and a shifting of demographics that influence Target’s success and ability to operate. A corporation that conducts an analysis of the environment must review all available information. This should include, a comparison of one corporation’s information against others in the same industry, and a look at all influences whether they are market related, legally based or social trends that affect the environment. For this analysis, we will focus on Target Corporation, and their main competition (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 56). Overall, the retail industry has seen continued strength the last year. This is partially the result of falling petroleum prices, which has led to increased trips to the store, and increase in spending. Adding to the optimism is an increase in confidence in the stock market. Forecasts are for retail sales to continue to increase as they ramp up for the November-December holiday season. In response, the retail industry and Target alike has continued expansion in the e-commerce arena- highly ptimistic that forecasts achieve their estimate of 5% over last year (O’Donnell, 2006, p. 1). Other demographic factors include the continuing trend of families migrating from the city to rural areas, the movement of retirees to western states such as Arizona and Nevada, in addition to the continuation of retirees flooding into Florida. To capitalize on these opportunities, seve ral initiatives have been seen in the industry (PRB, 2006, p. 1). Target has continued a steady yet comprehensive expansion project estimating the addition of 60-65 new stores this next year, with an overall growth rate of 8%. This expansion includes the Super Target stores, which are designed to compete with the Super Wal-Mart, providing grocery as well as retail consumer service (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 3). Targets advertising costs have increased by $24 Million, double the increase from the previous year. These expenditures are primarily in the newspaper and media circular areas, but Target also increased expenditures on focused advertising campaigns targeting college students as they return to class in the fall (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 29). This type of advertising has proven fruitful. This is an example of how Target is carving their niche in the market by focusing  on a part of the marketplace that has specific needs (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 524). Another contributing factor to the overall increase in budget was the result of a, â€Å"†¦decline in viewer ship of the national networks and the increase in media fragmentation† (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 11), which has caused a fundamental shift in advertising, utilize more web based services (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 11). To capitalize on the continued growth of on-line marketing and distribution, Target renewed its agreements with Amazon reiterating their commitment to, â€Å"†¦remain focused on our core strengths of merchandising and design, and while continuing to benefit from Amazon's innovation and expertise† (Target E-Commerce, 2006, p. 1). The article goes on to explain how Targets goal is to provide the ultimate on-line shopping experience to the customer. This methodology helps ensure Target remains a viable competitor in the on-line retail industry. Distinguishing itself from the competition, Target continues to maintain a vibrant image through its promise to ensure its, â€Å"†¦distinctive merchandise provides style, timeliness and quality at â€Å"best in class† prices† (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 5). As part of this brand recognition initiative, Target continues to build relationships to enhance the shopping experience with industries such as Starbucks and Pizza Hut (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. 5). This is an important part of its effort to distinguish itself from the rest of the retail environment. A study done by Moorehouse in 1984, shows that states that strictly regulate store-opening hours have fewer large stores. In these cases, the consumer pays more for the products in the larger stores, because operating costs are so much higher. This could affect many of the Target stores because it will cost the company more money to operate to give their customers more shopping flexibility, or they have to increase the prices. Target has tremendous growth and profits are high. From the studies, it appears that Target has kept their prices at the same cost, no matter what. Some of these states include many smaller towns that would not survive without the â€Å"big box† stores and welcome companies like Target. Many times even if the cost is higher, the profits are high because of the demand (Tanguay, 519). Globalization is a concept of the international marketplace that influences increased trade, economic interdependence and decreased market barriers primarily due to increased connectivity (Bateman & Snell, 2004, p. 538). Target has been no exception with recent expansion of services in India described â€Å"to perform business functions more productively† (Target Annual Report, 2005, p. ). This global expansion is a direct result of the environment, which fosters global interconnectivity, and more cost- effective operations sourced by major industry, lower labor costs, technology, and an ever-expanding international market. Recommendations Target Corporation has increased advertising dollars to ensure the corporation is targeting custom er’s needs. The increase has done well for the company due to increase in profits over time. The internet-shopping arena is a huge business in the United States. Target’s plan to renew a contract with Amazon was a good decision. This enables customer’s greater flexibility. Many consumers do not like to drive to find the product they need and this helps Target increase profits. One recommendation for the company would to promote more internet shopping in their advertisements. This will especially help with the stores located in certain states where there are stricter regulations on store hours. This helps the consumer in those areas and gives them more flexibility. This will also help the retail chain gain more profits than the competition in those areas. In the smaller towns where companies like Target are considered the â€Å"big box† stores, the company can become more competitive with the local businesses. Many â€Å"mom and pop† stores in smaller communities consider Target a threat because they can offer lower prices on many products. Target should evaluate the markets in these smaller towns to see what the consumers are looking for and at what cost. Globalization has a huge impact on the retail industry. A survey of American organizations shows that in 1996 $100 billion were spent by large organizations on outsourcing contracts. This helps companies like Target build more alliances over seas and reduce costs in technology and labor. This helps the retail chain spend more money on advertising and marketing ventures in the Unites States. Target should continue. On the other hand, the company should look into how many jobs that they are providing here in the US. Consumers like to see major companies consider the welfare of the job economy in the states (Greco, 50). One recommendation is for Target to consider working better with charities. The Target Corporation decided to eliminate any charities soliciting for money inside or outside of their stores. This was a huge headliner when the company stated nationwide that they were not going to allow the Salvation Army (bell ringers) outside of their stores during the holidays. Target’s defense was if they let the Salvation Army in, they would have to let all charities at their store. This created uproar with many consumers. Many customers will no longer shop at Target stores because of this. One of Target’s biggest competitors, Wal-Mart has an advantage because of this. Many of the Target locations are relatively close to the Wal-Mart stores and ecause of the cost proximity Target is losing business. The best decision for Target is to let the Salvation Army back for the holidays. This will increase their profits during that season and may potentially bring back old customers. This does not mean that they have to let all charities at their stores. Allowing this major nonprofit organization will help with the competition tremendously. In summary, Team B found in the analysi s that Target Inc. provides steady competition with the â€Å"big box† stores including the availability of substitute products and threats of new entrants. The analysis of the remote environment found new regulations and shifting demographics that influence Target’s success. Our recommendations for overcoming the threats and capitalizing on the opportunities were to increase internet shopping, become move competitive in smaller towns, globalization, and allow the Salvation Army to silicate donations during the holidays. References Bateman, T. and Snell, S. (2004). Management: The new competitive landscape. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Greco, JoAnn. (1997). Journal of Business Strategy. Outsourcing: The New Partnership†. 18(4), 48-55. Retrieved from the Thomas Gale database on October 4, 2006. Human Resources Department Management Report. (2005). How ‘Closed-Loop Analytics' at Albertsons Reduces Turnover & Saves Millions of Dollars. 5(3), 2-4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database October 6, 2006. Kijoo, K. , and Kim, E. (2006). Suggestions to enhance the cyber store customer’s satisfaction. Journal of American Ac ademy of Business. 9(1), 233 – 240. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database October 6, 2006. O'Donnell, J. (2006). USA TODAY: Holiday Season Sales Forecast. Retrieved October 5, 2006 from USA Today web site: http://www. usatoday. com/money/industries/retail/2006-09-18-retail-usat_x. htm Tanguay, George. (1995). Economic Inquiry. Shopping Hours and Price Levels in the Retail Industry: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis. 33(3), 516-525. Retrieved from Thomas Gale database on October 5, 2006. Target Annual Report. (2005). Retrieved October 4, 2006 from Target web site: http://investors. target. com/phoenix. zhtml? c=65828=irol-reportsAnnual

Disneyland Resort Paris Case Study

I believe that managers should adapt the resort to more local cultures for the 15th Anniversary in 2007. Even if Disney adapts to the local culture there is still going to be a sense of the American Disney World in the theme. Disney has expanded to countries all over the world yet they cannot change the fact that the characters are the same wherever they go. There is always going to be a Winnie the Pooh and Lion King and cultures all over the world view the American made movies. However; like mentioned in the case, I believe that even though very little of Disney’s core product needs adaptation, they must focus and change how they position and sell their product in each of the markets. To one market Mickey may mean something totally different to another. In order to be successful I believe that they do have to alter the way they do things from country to country and culture to culture. If they do not adapt to the local culture they could see more financial instability like they did in the past and they may see less people coming to their parks in Paris. One of the mistakes mentioned in the case was about how Disney did not serve alcohol in the park when it first opened and how they had to change that to meet the needs of their consumers and even this minor mess-up was not forgotten by the locals and it took them a long time to get over it. I think Disney could implement my suggestion by looking deeper into the cultures of the surrounding countries and the people who travel to the Paris park and research what they want and what would make their experience better. Also, look into their cultures and figure out how they like to do things. There are numerous countries and cultures that travel to Disneyland Paris and it is hard to get a grip on who the average consumer is and what they look like. This is where Disney really needs to meet the needs of numerous culture and people.

Walmart Pepe Jeans Operations Essays

Walmart Pepe Jeans Operations Essays Walmart Pepe Jeans Operations Essay Walmart Pepe Jeans Operations Essay Case: Pepe Jeans Pepe Jeans began to produce and sell denim jeans in the early 1970s in the United Kingdom and has achieved enormous growth. The company maintains contact with its independent retailers via group of 10 agents and each agent is responsible for retailers in a particular area of the country. Pepe is convinced that a good relationship with the independent retailers is vital to its success. The survey of the independent retailers indicated some problems. It was felt that Pepe’s variety of styles and quality was the company’s key advantage over the competition. However the independents were unhappy with Pepe’s requirement to place firm orders six months in advance with no possibility amendments, cancellation, or repeat ordering. Some claimed that the inflexible order system forced them to order less, resulting in stock outs. Pepe felt that a change was going to be needed soon. The easiest solution would be work with the Hong Kong sourcing agent to reduce the lead time associated with orders but this was going to increase the cost significantly. Even with the significant increase in cost, consistent delivery schedules would be difficult to keep. Another suggestion was to build a finishing operation in United Kingdom. Pepe was interested to see how system worked at U. S. operations. They found that they would have to keep about six weeks’ supply of basic jeans on hand in the United Kingdom and they have to invest ? 1,000,000 worth of equipment. They also estimated that it would cost about ? 500,000 to operate the facility each year. They could locate the facility in the basement of current office building, and the renovations would cost ? 300,000. Today’s operations management many companies outsource. Companies have variety of reasons for outsourcing but primarily the reasons are to reduce costs and create a competitive advantage. Companies tend to outsource in logistics area. This includes complete cycle of material flow; from the purchase and internal control of production materials to the planning and control of work-in-process; to the purchasing, shipping, and distribution of the finished product. Pepe Jeans outsourced in logistics area. Even though the company was successful and profitable doing so, this resulted in inefficient delivery time and unhappy retailers due to the restrictions of the outsourced company asking for six month lead time in ordering products. Now company faced with changing the way the production flow works in order to respond the retailers and independent agents’ complaints. As it indicates at themanager. org companies that rush overseas in search of low production costs may be walking into a strategic trap. Its easy to underestimate the hidden costs in long supply chains and their impact on profitability. Customers in outsourcing transactions face both direct and indirect risks. If your outsourcing vendor fails to perform, you may suffer direct damages in the form of out-of-pocket expenses incurred to perform the function yourself or hire another vendor, and lowered profits caused by lost business and harm to your reputation. Strategically, a main goal of outsourcing has always been to shift risk from the customer to the vendor. But while the risks arising from implementing new technologies and labor markets can be shifted in this way, CIOs know that not all risk can be handed off. A broad spectrum of risks involving finances and goodwill can arise from failures in outsourced functions. Simply put, operational risk always remains with the customer. Youre always responsible to the marketplace for your own performance. As the articles above indicate risks of outsourcing, we see this very example with Pepe Jeans. The restrictions of outsourced company in Hong Kong made it very hard for Pepe jeans to respond customer needs and made them very inflexible to its customers (retailers). It seems like Pepe Jeans may lose its profitability with outsourcing where the initial purpose was to save money. Sourcing company in Hong Kong agreed to shorten the lead time to 6 weeks instead of 6 month, but the company indicated that this would increase the cost significantly. If I was the CEO of Pepe Jeans, I’d look at what is beneficial for my company. I’d try to sit down with the sourcing company to renegotiate the contract to be able to make both sides happy. What I understand from the case study is that there are only couples of options laid out for Pepe Jeans. One is the renegotiating with Hong Kong based sourcing company and it seems like they offered a lead time of 6 weeks but a significant increase in cost but the case does not indicate how much. Other option is to move the finishing operations to United Kingdom. The case indicates that this will be very costly for Pepe Jeans. They will have to invest enormous amount of money for both purchasing the equipment and operating the facility. This will benefit the company in a way that it would reduce the cost by some percentage because the volumes would be higher. The last option is to locate the facility in the basement of current office building which would save Pepe Jeans about ? 200,000 a year. I would definitely suggest keeping the facility in the basement. Thinking out of the box, I would suggest them to use web based ordering system among retailers, agents, and the sourcing company. Having accurate and up to date visibility of stock means that customer orders can be checked on site and processed immediately, significantly improving the overall fulfillment rate. This would enable the real-time visibility of what is available from the customers’ stand point. I think this would be a least costly solution. Of course the cost would involve designing and implementing this IT solutions and also the training the end-users. Another benefit may be cost savings as a result of fewer order entry errors, increased revenues as a result of fewer lost sales due to poor stock visibility. Reference: 1)www. themanager. org 2)www. outsourcing-legal. com 3)www. optimizemag. com Case 2: Wal-Mart There are other secrets to Wal-Marts leverage in the marketplace. One is that, far better than its competitors, Wal-Mart understood the power of information. It revolutionized the retail industry by blazing a new trail with information technology. Wal-Mart exploited the magic of the information hidden in the barcode. This move put Wal-Mart ahead of the curve, and ahead of its suppliers, in terms of understanding exactly what consumers want and are buying. Wal-Mart is known with its supply chain from factory floor to store shelf, insisting on just-in-time deliveries from its suppliers to cut waste and down-time in warehouses. Wal-Mart has great power on manufacturers and suppliers; process of production, movement of the goods, warehousing of the goods, making sure that it arrives at the right place at the right time. This way Wal-Mart has power to play with the price. So they insist that it be done cheaply, it be done accurately, it be done quickly. Wal-Mart knows what it wants, when it wants, and where it wants it. The bar-coding revolution makes this possible. As an example, the company knows what size shirt, what color, long-sleeves, short-sleeves – a precise description of the product. When a store scans an item when it is bought, the information is immediately collected. So Wal-Mart knows where you bought it, the brand name and so forth. When the sales are recorded, an order is generated. An order is automatically generated that evening at midnight, when the home office pulls that information through their data ports. Then that order goes to the distribution facilities throughout the company, and that distribution facility, the warehouse, fills that order, and the order is sitting back on the shelf the next night or the following night. They also know what prices are popular, so they are able to say: We want to sell this at a certain price. You make it at a certain price, or were not going to work with you. This gives Wal-Mart an incredible leverage and buying power in the marketplace and over its competitors. Wal-Mart’s Vice President for Federal and International Corporate explains the company’s success with these words. Sam Walton started the process of saying you dont become successful by creating a process to have larger margins. What you do is you work on supply-chain efficiencies in many ways. You pass those savings on to the customer; you dont put them in your pocket. You pass them on to customers. That volume makes up for the item-by-item lower margin, if you will, and that volume allows you to grow and succeed and prosper. It creates also customer loyalty, knowing they can come to us every time and find the lowest price. And so our global sourcing is not to create higher margins. Thats not what its there to achieve. Its there to achieve having low-priced goods so we can pass those low-priced goods on to our consumers† The cornerstone of Wal-Marts increased efficiency was its trend-forecasting software, which tracked consumer behavior. In 1985, Sam Walton and his chief lieutenant, David Glass, began developing a program called Retail Link. The software, and the hardware that went along with it, took years to perfect, eventually costing $4 billion. This revolutionary system delivered sophisticated information on consumer behavior, drawn from the data imbedded in the barcodes that passed through checkout counters. Wal-Mart shared this revolutionary software with suppliers at no cost, in order to help them meet the retailers needs more efficiently. If vendors wanted their products on Wal-Marts shelves, they had to implement Wal-Marts customized business plans. Each year, the big retailer handed its suppliers detailed strategic business planning packets. Wal-Mart would grade them on weekly, quarterly and annual report cards. And when it came to discussions of price, there was no real negotiation, even for household brands. Thus, Wal-Mart used its buying power and its information about consumer buying habits to force vendors into squeezing their costs and keeping their profit margins low. Over time, some suppliers especially middle-sized and smaller firms were bankrupted; and major firms moved production overseas and increasingly to China. Here are some interesting statistics and facts about Wal-Mart: 100 million: The number of people who shop at Wal-Marts 3400 American stores every week. 50 million: The amount of square footage Wal-Mart plans to add this year, including 50-55 new Wal-Mart stores, 220-230 new Supercenters, 35-40 new Sams Club and 130-140 new international stores. 1. 2 million: The number of Wal-Mart associates in the U. S. Any full- or part-time Wal-Mart employee, up to and including the CEO, is considered an associate, in Wal-Mart parlance. Internationally, Wal-Mart employs an additional 330,000 associates. 600,000: The number of new employees Wal-Mart hires each year. The companys turnover rate is 44 percent close to the retail industry average. 1979: The year Wal-Marts sales first top $1 billion. $256 billion : Wal-Marts sales in 2003. In the words of Wal-Mart CFO Tom Schoewe, Wal-Marts sales are equal to one IBM, one Hewlett Packard, one Dell computer, one Microsoft and one Cisco System and oh, by the way, after that we got $2 billion left over. 35: The number of Wal-Mart Supercenters in China. $15 billion: The amount of Chinese products Wal-Mart estimates it imports each year; others suggest the number may be higher. $120 billion: The U. S. trade deficit with China in 2003. 8 percent: The amount of total U. S. retail sales, excluding automobiles, accounted for by Wal-Mart. $9. 98: The average full-time hourly wage for a Wal-Mart employee. The average full-time hourly wage in metro areas (defined as areas with a population of 50,000 or more) is $10. 38. In some urban areas it is higher: $11. 03 in Chicago, $11. 08 in San Francisco, and $11. 2 0 in Austin Reference: 1)Always Low Prices by Sam Hornblower 2)Secrets of Wal-Mart’s Success www. pbs. org 3) michaelbergdahl. net

Definition and Examples of Corpus Linguistics

Definition and Examples of Corpus Linguistics Corpus linguistics is the study of language based on large collections of real life language use stored in corpora (or corpuses)computerized databases created for linguistic research. Also known as corpus-based studies. Corpus linguistics is viewed by some linguists as a research tool or methodology, and by others as a discipline or theory in its own right.  Kuebler and Zinsmeister conclude that the answer to the question whether corpus linguistics is a theory or a tool is simply that it can be both. It depends on how corpus linguistics is applied (Corpus Linguistics and Linguistically Annotated Corpora, 2015). Although the methods used in corpus linguistics were first adopted in the early 1960s, the term corpus linguistics didnt appear until the 1980s. Examples and Observations [C]orpus linguistics is . . . a methodology,  comprising a large number of related methods which can be used by scholars of many different theoretical leanings. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that corpus linguistics is also frequently associated with a certain outlook on language. At the centre of this outlook is that the rules of language are usage-based and that changes occur when speakers use language to communicate with each other. The argument is that if you are interested in the workings of a particular language, like English, it is a good idea to study language in use. One efficient way of doing this is to use corpus methodology . . .. (Hans Lindquist, Corpus Linguistics and the Description of English. Edinburgh University Press, 2009)Corpus studies boomed from 1980 onwards, as corpora, techniques and new arguments in favour of the use of corpora became more apparent. Currently this boom continuesand both of the schools of corpus linguistics are growing . . .. Corpus linguistics is maturing methodologically and the range of languages addressed by corpus linguists is growing annually. (Tony McEnery and Andrew Wilson, Corpus Linguistics, Edinburgh University Press, 2001) Corpus Linguistics in the Classroom In the context of the classroom the methodology of corpus linguistics is congenial for students of all levels because it is a bottoms-up study of the language requiring very little learned expertise to start with. Even the students that come to linguistic enquiry without a theoretical apparatus learn very quickly to advance their hypotheses on the basis of their observations rather than received knowledge, and test them against the evidence provided by the corpus. (Elena Tognini-Bonelli,  Corpus Linguistics at Work. John Benjamins, 2001)To make good use of corpus resources a teacher needs a modest orientation to the routines involved in retrieving information from the corpus, andmost importantlytraining and experience in how to evaluate that information. (John McHardy Sinclair, How to Use Corpora in Language Teaching, John Benjamins, 2004) Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses Quantitative techniques are essential for corpus-based studies. For example, if you wanted to compare the language use of patterns for the words big and large, you would need to know how many times each word occurs in the corpus, how many different words co-occur with each of these adjectives (the collocations), and how common each of those collocations is. These are all quantitative measurements. . . .A crucial part of the corpus-based approach is going beyond the quantitative patterns to propose functional interpretations explaining why the patterns exist. As a result, a large amount of effort in corpus-based studies is devoted to explaining and exemplifying quantitative patterns. (Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Randi Reppen, Corpus Linguistics: Investigating Language Structure and Use, Cambridge University Press, 2004)[I]n corpus linguistics quantitative and qualitative methods are extensively used in combination. It is also characteristic of corpus linguistics to begin with qua ntitative findings, and work toward qualitative ones. But . . . the procedure may have cyclic elements. Generally it is desirable to subject quantitative results to qualitative scrutinyattempting to explain why a particular frequency pattern occurs, for example. But on the other hand, qualitative analysis (making use of the investigators ability to interpret samples of language in context) may be the means for classifying examples in a particular corpus by their meanings; and this qualitative analysis may then be the input to a further quantitative analysis, one based on meaning . . .. (Geoffrey Leech, Marianne Hundt, Christian Mair, and Nicholas Smith, Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge University Press, 2012)

Programming games in C# using SDL.NET

Programming games in C# using SDL.NET One of the problems with open source is that projects sometimes seem to fall by the wayside or take confusing turns. Take SDL.NET. Ignoring the website for sale, a search on the web reveals cs-sdl.sourceforge.net a project that seems to have stopped in November 2010. We dont think it has stopped but just looks like it has. If you dont know C#, you will first need to learn how to program in C#. Looking elsewhere, we came across the Tao framework linked on the Mono website which seems to cover the same area and adding support for sound etc. But looking on sourceforge (again!), it has been superseded by OpenTK but the focus there is OpenGL. However, it also includes OpenAL so installing the two (cs-sdl and OpenTK) seemed to be the way forward. Part of the OpenTk install failed; the NS (shader) because we dont have VS 2008 installed! However, the rest of it was ok. We created a C# Console project and started playing with SDL.NET. The online documentation can be found here. Looking back, we can see that the OpenTK framework wasnt needed as such, that SDL.NET installed everything but that wasnt clear at the time. It still uses the Tao Framework even though development of that has been superseded by OpenTK. Its a little confusing and we hope the SDL.NET team will bring out an OpenTk compatible version in the future. What Exactly is SDL.NET? Its not, as we thought, just a thin wrapper round SDL, but adds considerable extra functionality. There are a number of classes provided to provide the following: TimersProvides Sprites, including animation and TextProvides surfaces for 2D and OpenGlProvides support for Movie loading and playingProvides support for AudioProvides Bezier, polygon (and textures), square, circle, line, pie drawingProvides particle support with emitters and sprites and manipulators.Provides interfacing with Windows forms through a shared PictureBox with surface. Preparations There are several things you have to do to get it set up. Here they are: Locate the two SDL.NET dlls (SdlDotNet.dll and Tao.Sdl.dll) as well as the OpenTK dlls, and add them to the project references. After installation, the dlls are located in Program Files\SdlDotNet\bin (on a 32 bit Windows and Program Files (x86)\SdlDotNet\bin on 64 bit Windows. Right click on the References section in Solution Explorer then click Add Reference and select the Browse tab. That opens an Explorer dialog and after locating the dlls select then and click ok. SDL.NET uses the SDL set of dlls and installs them under the lib folder. Dont delete them! One last thing, click on the View\Properties so it opens up the Property pages and on the first tab (Application) Change Output type from Console Application to Windows Application. If you dont do this when the program first runs and opens up the SDL main Window it will open up a console Window as well. Were now ready to start and Ive created a short application below. This blits randomly sized and located rectangles and circles on the Window surface at 1,700 drawn per second at a frame rate of 50 frames per second. That 1,700 comes from setting the number drawn per frame to 17 and displaying the frames per second in the Window caption using Video.WindowCaption. Each frame it draws 17 filled circles and rectangles, 17 x 2 x 50 1,700. This figure depends on the video card, CPU etc. Its an impressive speed. // By David Bolton, http://cplus.about.comusing System;using System.Drawing;using SdlDotNet.Graphics;using SdlDotNet.Core;using SdlDotNet.Graphics.Primitives;public class ex1{private const int wwidth 1024;private const int wheight 768;private static Surface Screen;private static Random r new Random() ;public static void Main(string[] args){Screen Video.SetVideoMode( wwidth, wheight, 32, false, false, false, true) ;Events.TargetFps 50;Events.Quit (QuitEventHandler) ;Events.Tick (TickEventHandler) ;Events.Run() ;}private static void QuitEventHandler(object sender, QuitEventArgs args){Events.QuitApplication() ;}private static void TickEventHandler(object sender, TickEventArgs args){for (var i 0; i 17; i){var rect new Rectangle(new Point(r.Next(wwidth- 100),r.Next(wheight-100)),new Size(10 r.Next(wwidth - 90), 10 r.Next(wheight - 90))) ;var Col Color.FromArgb(r.Next(255),r.Next (255),r.Next(255)) ;var CircCol Color.FromArgb(r.Next(255), r.Next (255), r.Next(255)) ;short rad ius (short)(10 r.Next(wheight - 90)) ;var Circ new Circle(new Point(r.Next(wwidth- 100),r.Next(wheight-100)),radius) ;Screen.Fill(rect,Col) ;Circ.Draw(Screen, CircCol, false, true) ;Screen.Update() ;Video.WindowCaption Events.Fps.ToString() ;}}} Object Oriented Development SDL.NET is very Object Oriented and there are two predefined objects that are used in every SDL.NET application. Video provides methods to set the video mode, create video surfaces, hide and show the mouse cursor, and interact with OpenGL. Not that well be doing OpenGL for a while. The Events class contains events which can be attached to to read user input and other miscellaneous occurrences. Here the Video object is used to set the size and resolution of the game Window (full screen is an option). The parameters for SetVideoMode let you change these and 13 overloads provide plenty of variety. Theres a .chm file (Windows html help format) in the doc folder documenting all the classes and members. The Events object has a Quit events handler that lets you add close down logic and you should call Events.QuitApplication() to make it respond to the user closing the application. The Events.Tick is possibly the most important event handler. It calls the specified event handler each frame. This is the model for all SDL.NET development. You can set your desired frame rate and my reducing the loop to 5 and changing the Targetfps to 150 we got it running at 164 frames per second. TargetFps is a ballpark figure; it puts in delays to get you near that figure but the Events.Fps is what is delivered. Surfaces Like the original non Windowed version of SDL, the SDL.NET uses surfaces for rendering to the screen. A surface can be constructed from a graphics file. There are a large number of properties and methods that make it possible to read or write pixels as well as draw the graphics primitives, blit other surfaces, even dump a surface to a disk file for taking screenshots. SDLNET provides just about everything to let you create games. Well be looking at the various features over the next few tutorials then move onto creating games with it.

Assistance at National Investment and Insurance Essay

Assistance at National Investment and Insurance - Essay Example As the discussion declares an evolution of the concept of motivation is briefly outlined along with the major theories to enhance the perspective regarding the present context as well as justify the identification of the lack of motivation as the fundamental problematic for the ITS of NII. Based on the theories of motivation, two features of the part-time employment policy – no dependence of pay on performance and the lack of information regarding intrinsic benefits of working part-time in terms of future full time employment possibility, are identified as the fundamental problems that create an environment that does not provide any incentives to perform better. The report suggests redesigning the employment scheme and making a part of the pay dependent upon performance, i.e., introducing financial rewards as incentives to perform better as the first step. Secondly, it is suggested to introduce the intrinsic reward of higher possibility of being offered full-time employment gi ven higher performance. The subject of the given case study entitled â€Å"Assistance at National Investment and insurance† is the sub-optimality of the service provided by the employees of the IT support (ITS) section identified to be Assistance Officers (AOs) and the resulting performance of the department in totality. The study reports that from a survey conducted on National Investment and insurance (NII) employees who utilized services of the IT support section regarding the performance of the AOs emerged to be less than satisfactory. Apart from delayed responses and resolutions, unfriendly or mechanical attitudes were reported though surprisingly, the considerable majority of the problems addressed were