Pros and Cons of Social Media free essay sample

?When it comes to social networking in the workplace, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The benefits of social networking platforms vary based on platform type, features and the company itself. Social networking platforms may allow organizations to improve communication and productivity by disseminating information among different groups of employees in a more efficient manner. While it is not meant to be all-inclusive, the list below outlines some of the possible advantages and disadvantages of social media use by workplaces. Possible advantages: Facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery. Allows employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links. Provides an opportunity to widen business contacts. Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool. Improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of advertising. Expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers communications and directs interested people to specific web sites. Possible disadvantages: Opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks. We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Cons of Social Media or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft. Potentially results in negative comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit or offensive material. Potentially results in lost productivity, especially if employees are busy updating profiles, etc. Employers do have the right to simply ban all computer activity that is not work-related, but this approach may not yield optimal results. If employees are to be allowed access to social networking platforms, then a comprehensive and well-defined policy should be established to prevent abuse. A social networking use policy generally: Defines what social networking is particular to your organization, so employees know exactly what is meant by the term. Establishes a clear and defined purpose for the policy. Communicates benefits of social networking and of having a policy. Provides a clear platform for educating employees. Takes into consideration any legal ramifications of not following laws. Refers to confidentiality of employer trade secrets and private or confidential information. Talks about productivity in terms of social networking. Provides guidance regarding social networking outside of company time/property that could be associated with the company, employees or customers. Some employers may prohibit posting of company information on social networking sites without explicit consent. Provides examples of policy violations. Outlines disciplinary measures to be taken for policy violations. What may be the most concerning aspect of social networking platforms is that they encourage people to share personal information. Even the most cautious and well-meaning individuals can give away information they should not; the same applies to what is posted on company-approved social networking platforms. Employees may not be aware of how their actions online may compromise company security. Educate employees as to how a simple click on a received link or a downloaded application can result in a virus infecting their computer and the network. Advise them not to click on suspicious links and to pay careful attention when providing personal information online. Remember that just because employees may have an online profile, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a high level of security awareness. Employers should also note that social media policies must not interfere with the rights of employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to discuss wages and working conditions with co-workers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) provides some guidance for employers on social media policies in a May 2012 Operations Management Memo. See also: Social Networking Policy, Social Media Acceptable-Use Policy and Social Computing Guidelines. In â€Å"Only Disconnect,† Andrew Reiner, writing for The Chronicle of Higher Education, lamented the state of American youth, particularly their preoccupation with social media. By the end of his article, Reiner advocated for social media Sabbaths, in which students would disconnect from their networks in order to more deeply engage with each other and their academic pursuits. While there are certainly negatives that can be associated with social media overuse, it is also a valuable part of the way our society functions. Here are some of Reiner’s negatives about student social media use, counterbalanced by some potential benefits to help educators take advantage of this valuable resource for student learning. The Negatives of Social Media Use for Students Distraction – In his article, Reiner is talking not about the momentary distraction of an isolated text message, but rather the way in which social media involvement provides an acceptable diversion from intellectual pursuits. Essentially, he is arguing that it is socially safer to stay connected to peers through always-on social media, than it is to put oneself out there by having a legitimate opinion about a serious topic and disconnecting from the social networks long enough to put it out there. Pressure to Conform – Reiner cites examples of students confiding in him that one of the main reasons behind their 24/7 connection is a fear of not keeping up with peers or appearing â€Å"like a loser in public,† as one of his students confided in a class journal. Risk Aversion – Reiner is unclear about whether students’ aversion to taking risks is a symptom of social media use or is directly caused by it, but the point is no less important either way. Social media engagement supports a culture of avoidance which operates in direct opposition to the idea that students need to take risks and fail in their academic endeavors in order to become successful innovators. Shallowness – This is an addition to Reiner’s points, but social media does promote a kind of intellectual and social shallowness that could have long-term negative consequences for learners. Twitter, text messages, and other social media tools focus on brief, quick, â€Å"shallow† interactions that do not encourage either deep social engagement or intellectual exploration. There is, after all, only so much information that can be obtained in 140 characters. While the option to dig deeper may be present through embedded links in Tweets, for example, there may be little reward in pursuing those connections for students. The Positives of Social Media Use for Students While Reiner makes many valid points for negative effects of social media on students, particularly their level of academic risk taking, he fails to acknowledge some very positive effects that might make participation in social media a real benefit for students. While all of these may not be the mainstream ways that students use social media, they are important benefits that can be realized if educators are willing to embrace disruptive technology in their classrooms. Social Constructivism – In the age of Wikipedia, knowledge is increasingly becoming a social construction rather than the domain of an individual expert. Social media provides an easily accessible tool for helping students to work together to create their own meaning in academic subjects, social contexts, or work environments. Social media platforms are regularly used in business to enhance the connections between workers and to allow for seamless collaboration across distances. Supporting the development of this skill for students prepares them for real working experiences. Breadth of Knowledge – While â€Å"shallowness† of knowledge and connections was listed as one of negatives of social media, the flipside of that shallowness is the broadness of the knowledge and connectedness that students can experience through social media use. It is now easier than ever to know (or find out) something about almost anything in the world through connected media. Additionally, students can be connected to a broader base of opinions and world views through instantaneous global connections. Technological Literacy – All social media relies on advanced information and communication technologies that seamlessly work to build and support technological literacy. Simply put, one cannot be engaged in deep and meaningful uses of technology without developing the sorts of rich 21st Century skills such as information evaluation, troubleshooting, mediated communication, and others that will enable connected learners to become valuable contributors to a connected global economy. All three of these aspects of social media use are excellent matches to employer expectations and help to develop the 21st Century skills that students will need to be successful in a globally connected economy. What Can the Skeptical Educator Do? In the post â€Å"Taking Advantage of Disruptive Technology in the Classroom,† I proposed several ways for educators to use the power of social media to their advantage to promote student engagement rather than mandating social media blackouts in higher education. Here are some suggestions: Guided Connectivity – Encourage students to use social media to connect to experts outside of the classroom to conduct first-hand research which they can share with the class. Knowledge on Demand – A wealth of static human knowledge and information is available online. Encourage students to provide support for their arguments or to refute your assertions. Covert E-reading – Student can, by some estimates save up to $600 per year through using e-books on their portable devices. While that’s not specifically social media, it’s on the same device. Encouraging Silent Reflection – Through social media platforms, every student can have the opportunity to express their opinion, share insights, or make counter arguments. This can also spark greater conversation in the classroom or in online forums. Lesson Rewind – Instructors can post recordings of lectures online and circulate them via social media, share links to relevant resources, or answer questions via Twitter or other social mediums. All of these can invite deeper learning and support those who learn at different paces or who require remediation. There is no right or wrong answer about social media in our educational systems. It is an evolving method of communication and one that is only more likely to gain acceptance and prevalence. Rather than rail against it, it makes more sense to embrace it, minimize the negatives and teach students new ways of engaging with social media, their instructors, and each other that will support them in becoming connected learners with the skills to become successful connected workers. †

The eNotes Blog Scholarship Spotlightâ€March 2016

Scholarship Spotlight- March 2016 Every month, we select some of the best scholarships around and post them here on our blog. When you are ready to apply, check out our tips on  How to Write a Scholarship Essay. Visit   Essay Lab  if you’re looking for a writing expert  to review and provide feedback on your scholarship or college application essays! Dolman Law Group Video Essay Scholarship Amount: $1,100 Bi-Annual Scholarship Eligibility:  Must be currently attending or planning to attend a college or university during the 2016-2017 academic year.  Must be in good academic standing with your current educational institution.  For applicants under 18, you must have permission from a parent or legal guardian Requirements:  Must apply to the contest via email and provide your name, address, and the name of the institution you are attending or plan to attend.  Must provide your video essay (YouTube format preferred) by the deadline of 03/15/16. Essay Topic: In order to participate in the essay contest, applicants must present 2-3 minute video essay discussing the following issue: Much has been made about the potential of driverless and automated car technology in recent years, and many industry observers expect this technology to be widely available within the next decade. Technology is never perfect however, and  accidents involving driverless vehicles  have already occurred. Various legal issues arise when autonomous cars are involved in accidents, including determining who should be held liable for an accident. In your opinion, who should be held accountable when a driverless vehicle is involved in an accident? The owner? The manufacturer? The software developer? Explain. Due Date: March 15, 2016 Learn more and apply Couponing in College Scholarship Amount: $2,500 Eligibility:  Any U.S. resident enrolled in a university within the 50 states or the District of Columbia can apply for this scholarship.  Contestants must demonstrate both knowledge in couponing and saving money, while also demonstrating the technical aptitude to understand how to publish online (a skill we think is critical in todays economy). Requirements:  To enter, you must publish a 500+ word essay providing tips and strategies for utilizing coupons of any type (physical, digital, mobile) to save money while in college. The essay should be published on a blog or any website which allows the publication of articles. You must mention this contest in your published essay, and provide a link back to this contest page. Due Date: March 25, 2016 Learn more and apply QuitDay.org Scholarship Amount: $2,000, $700, and $300 to 3 winners Eligibility: The QuitDay Scholarship essay contest is open to undergraduate and graduate students who are 18 years old or older. Applicants must be accepted to, or currently enrolled in a college or university located within the United States  or in the District of Columbia.   Only one (1) submission per student is allowed. Requirements:  Applicants must submit a typed essay (1,000–1,500 words) answering the following questions: Why do you see smoking as a problem for individuals  and society? What is the best way  for  society to overcome the issue of smoking, and why? What would a smoke-free world look like, and  how would it differ from the world today? What message do you have for current smokers? The essay must include the word count and be signed with a full name (both first and last name), along with  the applicant’s email address, phone number and permanent address. The winning applicants will be determined based on the essay content, style and originality. Judges are looking for logically organized and well-supported essays. Due Date: March 31, 2016 at 5:00 PM EST. Learn more and apply Sleeklens Academic Scholarship Program Amount: $2,000 to 3 winners Eligibility:  To qualify for the scholarship, you must be an Undergraduate, a Graduate, or a High School senior with a legitimate acceptance letter from an accredited University or College.  The Sleeklens Academic Scholarship Program is open to people of all nationalities. Requirements:  Write an essay according to the instructions provided below and send it to Scholarships@Sleeklens.com. Fill in and submit the application form.  Write an essay that is between 1000 and 1600 words as per the following instructions. Students use social media and the internet in all kinds of ways, from keeping in touch with their friends to researching for and submitting assignments. One of the least thought about uses of social media is leveraging it to get a job after college. Discuss some of the ways that you could use social media to get a job after college. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using social media to get a job after college? Due Date: March 31, 2o16 at 11:59 PM EST Learn more and apply SuretyBonds.com 2016 Small Business Scholarships SuretyBonds.com is a small business that works alongside entrepreneurs and business owners everyday to help grow existing businesses or launch new ones. Theyve been a leader in the surety bond industry since 2009 and their success and growth would not happen without the successes of small business owners. The scholarship program is their way of giving back to the small business community and encouraging students to share their stories. Amount: $1,500 to 3 winners Eligibility:  You must be enrolled as a full-time student in a higher education program for Fall 2016 and you must have small business experience. Requirements: Write a 500 to 1,000-word essay on how a small business has influenced your life and how you plan to use that experience in the future. Email your essay to scholarships@suretybonds.com by March 31, 2016 and make sure to check our official rules and guidelines before submitting. The SuretyBonds.com Scholarship Committee will look at the submissions and select 10 finalists. From those finalists, three winners will be awarded the scholarships based on the amount of votes they get. Voting is open from May 1 to May 31 and the winners will be notified and announced on June 3. Due Date: March 31, 2o16 Learn more and apply

List of Common Strong and Weak Acids

List of Common Strong and Weak Acids Strong and weak acids are important to know, both for chemistry class and for use in the lab. There are very few strong acids, so one of the easiest ways to tell strong and weak acids apart is to memorize the short list of strong ones. Any other acid is considered a weak acid. Key Takeaways Strong acids completely dissociate into their ions in water, while weak acids only partially dissociate.There are only a few (6) strong acids, so many people choose to memorize them. All the other acids are weak.The strong acids are hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydroiodic acid, perchloric acid, and chloric acid.The only weak acid formed by the reaction between hydrogen and a halogen is hydrofluoric acid (HF). While technically a weak acid, hydrofluoric acid is extremely powerful and highly corrosive. Strong Acids Strong acids dissociate completely into their ions in water, yielding one or more protons (hydrogen cations)  per molecule. There are only 7 common strong acids. HCl - hydrochloric acidHNO3  - nitric acidH2SO4  - sulfuric acid (HSO4-  is a weak acid)HBr - hydrobromic acidHI - hydroiodic acidHClO4  - perchloric acidHClO3 - chloric acid Examples of ionization reactions include: HCl → H Cl- HNO3 → H NO3- H2SO4 → 2H SO42- Note the production of positively charged hydrogen ions and also the reaction arrow, which only points to the right. All of the reactant (acid) is ionized into product. Weak Acids Weak acids do not completely dissociate into their ions in water. For example, HF dissociates into the H and F- ions in water, but some HF remains in solution, so it is not a strong acid.  There are many more weak acids than strong acids. Most organic acids are weak acids. Here is a partial list, ordered from strongest to weakest. HO2C2O2H -  oxalic acid  H2SO3  -  sulfurous acidHSO4  -  - hydrogen sulfate ionH3PO4  - phosphoric acidHNO2  - nitrous acidHF - hydrofluoric acidHCO2H -  methanoic acidC6H5COOH -  benzoic acidCH3COOH - acetic acidHCOOH - formic acid Weak acids incompletely ionize. An example reaction is the dissociation of ethanoic acid in water to produce hydroxonium cations and ethanoate anions: CH3COOH H2O ⇆ H3O CH3COO- Note the reaction arrow in the chemical equation points both directions. Only about 1% of ethanoic acid converts to ions, while the remainder is ethanoic acid. The reaction proceeds in both directions. The back reaction is more favorable than the forward reaction, so ions readily change back to weak acid and water. Distinguishing Between Strong and Weak Acids You can use the acid equilibrium constant Ka or else pKa to determine whether an acid is strong or weak. Strong acids have high Ka or small pKa values, while weak acids have very small Ka values or large pKa values. Strong and Weak vs. Concentrated and Dilute Be careful not to confuse the terms strong and weak with concentrated and dilute. A concentrated acid is one which contains a low amount of water. In other words, the acid is concentrated. A dilute acid is an acidic solution that contains a lot of solvent. If you have 12 M acetic acid, its concentrated, yet still a weak acid. No matter how much water you remove, that will be true. On the flip side, a 0.0005 M HCl solution is dilute, yet still strong. Strong vs. Corrosive You can drink diluted acetic acid (the acid found in vinegar), yet drinking the same concentration of sulfuric acid would give you a chemical burn. The reason is that sulfuric acid is highly corrosive, while acetic acid is not as active. While acids tend to be corrosive, the strongest superacids (carboranes) are actually not corrosive and could be held in your hand. Hydrofluoric acid, while a weak acid, would pass through your hand and attack your bones.

Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 22

Communication - Essay Example Paralanguage is a major factor in non-verbal communication. This is how the speaker’s voice comes out as he delivers the speech. The way the speaker delivers is believed to be as important as the actual message. This takes into consideration a number of factors involving tone, volume, emphasis, voice qualities, speech, and inflexion among others. Even though the message conveyed to the crowed is the same, the receiver understands and concentration is greatly improved when such items are well stressed. Kinesics is the body language of the narrator. Body movements are important concept in non-verbal communication. The viewer’s perception on eye contact, gesture and posture brings added concentration to the listeners. Experts in non-verbal communication field explained that people can pause up to 250,000 different facial expressions. Through this, we can understand intended message from the sender that number of times. A narrative was presented to the audience regarding a certain young man who went to the hospital with a problem in his leg and he needed an operation to enable him walk properly again. On getting to the hospital bed, the doctor starts surgery, unfortunately for him, the surgeon chopped off the wrong leg. The patient on waking up found the doctor surprised and did not know what was going on. He asked, â€Å"Doctor, what is going on?† the doctor replied to him, I have both good news and bad news for you. What is the bad news? The patient asked. I chopped off the wrong leg, but the good news is that the other leg is doing well, replied the doctor. This narrative uses a variety of non-verbal communication and the message was delivered appropriately. Observation is one of the major techniques of collecting data. A person attends any given function with only intention of collecting information on non-verbal communication which is used in those events. Questionnaires may also be formulated and distributed to practices

Film review 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film review 2 - Essay Example All of the characters have been showed struggling with their difficulties; a reality which can be seen in our daily day-to-day lives. It is evident to see white characters being more privileged and black characters being more suppressed. Jean and Rick Cabot being the privileged white people have appeared as confident, financially sound and powerful people who belonged to elite class of the society. On the other hand, Peter and Anthony appear as the suppressed, filled with hatred and struggling characters who have their hearts filled with hatred infused in them by the treatment they have received from the white people. The sight of Peter and Anthony scares Jean. To overcome her fear, she grabs tightly the arm of her husband that ultimately offends the black young men and as a result, they steal their car. Haggis has well portrayed the sense of insecurity felt by Jean in this scene. He has tried his best to demonstrate the racism and the common thought that how white people perceive bl acks. This scene not only approves the racism but the also the truth that why white people fear the blacks. People in America closely associate violence and cruelty with African-American community which is a true fact. On the other hand, Jean’s behaviour can be associated with prejudice she had for African-Americans and seeing that her car has been taken away on the gun point by the blacks; she confirms that her reaction against those people was right (Ray, 2007). The fight between the privileged characters and oppressed ones are clearly highlighted in the movie. Some characters have been shown struggling to meet their day-to-day necessities while some are shown enjoying the greater benefits; hence, giving rise to social rift and racism in the American society. Waking Up Phase in the End of Movie: Anthony being the victim of racism and discrimination extends his help to the Chinese people who were locked in the van. His action was to free them from the tyranny and suppression he had faced earlier. Anthony was the main character who was waking up to the liberation by extending his help to other people belonging to different race and ethnicity. He has tried to overcome the suppression he had to face in terms of Jean’s behaviour and his reaction he showed to her and her husband. But my helping the locked Chinese people, he has been shown as a person who stands more on his moral ground and confirms himself as a person with an enlightened soul. It can be concluded from the last scene that racism can be alleviated from the society. Anthony was going through the process of defence mechanism especially reaction formation, dissociation and displacement which holds a greater message for the audience and a lesson for the society to address the issue of racism by overcoming their internal grudges and shallows in personality. Analyzing the Movie on Personal Experiences: Crash revolves around the bitter realities of life. It shows how the life is and how we ex perience difference problems in our day to day life. The movie typically revolves around racism and social discrimination against minorities. Crash highlights the bitter truths. From the different scenes of the movie, I observed that none of the white characters of the movie were shown struggling with their finances; they were showed on good positions, enjoying all the benefits without worrying about managing their finances. However, on the other hand, black

Strategy in Practice â€Amazon

Strategy in Practice –Amazon STRATEGY IN PRACTICE – Amazon.com Introduction to Strategy In the Words of Johnson Scholes (2002), Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term which achieves advantage for the establishment through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations. In some respects strategy can be seen as a reflection of the attitudes and beliefs of those who have the most influence on the organisation. According to Lynch (2000), the essence of corporate strategy is the identification of the purpose of the organisation and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose. Corporate strategy is often perceived as one of the most critical managerial activities that bring together the organisation’s internal resources and its external relationships with its customers, suppliers, competitors and the socio-economic environment in which it exists. In his conceptualisation of the Strategy concept Lynch (2002) clearly identifies three distinct aspects that have been discussed below: Resources Strategy – Companies, Businesses and firms hold or acquire a wide range of resources. A firm’s resources and capabilities include all the financial, physical, human and organisational assets used by a firm to develop, manufacture and deliver products or services to its customers Barney (1991). The purpose of strategy is to make the best use of the available resources so as to outperform competition. Environmental Strategy – The term environment includes every aspect external to the organisation. No organisation can gain competitiveness with a lack of vision for its environment. Focus that is restricted merely to what lies inside the boundaries of the firm is best criticised as incomplete and insufficient. Organisations need to and must be in synchronisation with their surroundings. It is here that strategy comes to play a major role. Adding Value – Lynch has stressed on the notion of value addition. Apart from the above corporate strategy must meet the need to add value to the supplies brought into the organisation. To ensure its long term survival, the organisation must take the supplies, add value to them through its operations and then deliver its output to the customers. The purpose of corporate strategy is to bring the conditions under which the organisation is able to create this vital additional value. It must also ensure that the organisation adapts to the changes in the environment so that it can continue to add value in future. In essence Strategy provides Decision Support (Grant, 2004) â€Å"to the extent that decision makers are limited by bounded rationality, strategy in the form of guidelines and decision criteria can enhance the quality and consistency of strategic decision making. It also helps in better decision making by pooling together the knowledge of many individuals and by facilitating the application of various analytical tools.† Strategy also acts as a Co-ordinating device. The many tools and components of strategy i.e. Vision, Mission, Objectives etc. bring together the entire organisation as a single locomotive headed in one direction. With all departments and personnel aiming towards the common goals, co-ordination can be achieved with greater ease. Strategy provides the organisation a target to work for. Strategy is forward looking; it establishes a direction to guide actions. It also sets aspirations for the company that can act as motivators for the whole organisation. The strategy function, as is evident from above, permeates through all organisational membranes to pervade into all levels and is not restricted to any particular zone. Practically all authors in field of Strategic Management acknowledge the prevalence of varied levels of strategy. Johnson Scholes (2002) believe that Corporate level strategy relates to â€Å"the overall purpose and scope of an organisation and how value will be added to the different parts (business units) of the organisation. It is also likely to be concerned with the expectations of the owners. It is the basis of other strategic decisions and may well take the form of a mission statement.† Corporate strategy deals with the ways in which a corporation manages a set of businesses together. (Grant, 1995) Business unit strategy is about how to compete successfully in particular markets. Business Strategy deals with the way in which a single business firm or an individual unit of a larger firm competes within a particular industry or market. Operational strategies are concerned with how the component parts of an organisation deliver effectively the corporate and business level strategies in terms of resources, processes and people. They deal with the day-to-day working of the various sections in a firm. Operational strategies are more about implementation than planning. Thus, â€Å"Strategic management involves understanding the strategic position of an organisation, making strategic choices for future and turning strategy into action. The strategic position is concerned with the impact on strategy of the external environment, internal resources and competences and the expectations and influences of stakeholders. Strategic choices include understanding the underlying bases for future strategy at both the corporate and business unit levels and the options for developing strategy in terms of both the directions and methods of development. Strategy into action is concerned with ensuring that strategies are working in practice.† (Johnson Scholes, 2002) This report aims to analyse the strategy in practice at Amazon.com. Amazon.com is one of the most successful e-businesses and undoubtedly the champion of all online retailers or e-tailers as they are often referred to. It has revolutionised the retail sector of business and is a subject of innumerable studies and research in the current e-commerce era. The material used for study has been drawn from the Amazon.com case study[1] and the web based portal for the company Amazon.com[2]. The report shall use existing theory as a basis to realise how strategy has worked for Amazon.com in practice. Although it is challenging to capture every aspect of the organisation’s life so far, effort has been made to cite relevant examples so to get a glimpse of its strategic approach. The Amazon.com Case A summary[3] of the Amazon.com case shall prepare the grounds to lay the analysis in the light of theories discussed. A number of strategic concepts shall be cited to gain deeper insights to particular issues. With the explosive growth in internet companies’ market capitalisation positions, one would ask if some hype is at play. But the trend data clearly reveal that the internet is for real. According to Forrester research the total value of goods and services purchased online exceeded US$43 billion in 1998. Amazon.com believes that it is well positioned to capitalise[4] on this growth. According to Media Metrix 16% of web users visited Amazon.com’s stores in December 1998. ‘In a very short period of time Amazon.com has become one of the world’s most recognised brands’, said Jaleh Bisharat, Vice-president, Marketing, Amazon.com. With Amazon.com’s current strategy combined with the ongoing recruitment of entrepreneurial top management team for each business segment, the challenge for Amazon.com is on the strategic implementation front. Bezos had always been fascinated with technology. He came up with the statistic that the electronic world would grow at the rate of 2300% monthly. Bezos said, when something is growing that fast, every second counts. Bezos considered selling a variety of products online, but he settled for books because the worldwide market is large, the price point is low and the range of titles is large. Being unsure of the ideal location, Seattle was chosen because it was the location of book distributor Ingram, which has continued to provide 60% of Amazon.com’s books. Seattle also provided a favourable sales tax climate and a high-tech workforce. â€Å"I know nothing about the book industry†¦I can get them to the customer and forget about bricks and mortar†, said Bezos in an attempt to raise funds for his venture. After its entry into the market, Amazon.com had no significant rivals and there were no dominant traditional players. Even at this time Amazon.com was providing a powerful search facility as well as a host of services not provided by other online competitors. Analysts warned of a volatile internet sector with strategic plans constantly being revised. Despite aggressive competitive entry, Amazon.com passed many milestones in 1997. The most notable of these was its ability to raise net proceeds of almost US$50 million in May. This enabled aggressive investment in building the business. Amazon.com focussed on establishing its executive team, which included the recruitment of Richard Dalzell of Wal-Mart. In the same year, 1997, Amazon.com offered the lowest book prices anywhere in the world. Extensive promotional relationships with other dominant internet players were concluded which reinforced Amazon.com’s momentum, e.g. Yahoo!, Excite, AOL etc. In 1998 the company launched music, video and gift stores in the US and expanded operations to UK and Germany. Jimmy Wright of Wal-Mart joined the company in the same year. Amazon.com’s expansion programme is evidence of a growth strategy via acquisitions, strategic relations and internal development. It received the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for having demonstrated vision and leadership in the innovative use of information technology. With its highly qualified top management team and the success trends, Amazon.com continued to enhance the total customer experience of shopping, giving them wider product range to choose from and more sophisticated services to complement them. The case study then goes on to list the various achievements of the company. It also provides detail information on the financial and personnel aspects of the organisation. These details have been passed over as they are beyond the scope of this paper. The Analysis of Strategic Practices The Basic Approach The Internet is one of the most fascinating products of the developments in information technology. It received mixed reactions from the public and the entrepreneurs. While most of them were overwhelmed with the possibilities and others called it â€Å"an over hyped mania†, only a few saw it as a business opportunity. Jeff Bezos had the vision that created â€Å"Ex ante limits† to competition (Peteraf, 1993) and gave Amazon.com the â€Å"First-mover advantage†. Among the various lenses or attitudes towards Strategy that have been theorised, Amazon.com’s approach can be regarded as that of an Ideas lens. The ideas lens (Johnson Scholes, 2002) sees strategy as a result of new ideas that can come from anywhere in the organisation. It promotes innovative thinking and does not inhibit experimentation. This is well evident in the very start-up of Amazon.com as an enterprise. Further, this approach is better characterised as â€Å"Emergent† than â€Å"Prescriptive† (Lynch, 2000). The dynamic nature of the internet environment makes a planned and prescribed approach unsuitable. Amazon.com’s strategy evolved largely during the course of its life depending on its position at that instant in time. In the words of Miles Snow (1987) Amazon.com as an entity is a â€Å"Prospector† who looks for new opportunities and is willing to take risks to be able to exploit the same. Stated in general, Amazon.com’s strategy is an ambitious one. Pattern of Strategy development In his business development Bezos attempted a â€Å"Transformational change† in strategy through the creation of an entirely new service. The change resulted in success because it created new expectations that did not exist earlier; Amazon.com was ahead of its time. Further, the ability to convert the transformational change into a business winner comes from the fact that as the strategy for the firm was emerging, there was little mismatch between the intended and the realised strategy (Mintzberg Walters, 1985). It is important to strike harmony among the understanding of the environment, identified opportunity, the strategy intended to capture such opportunity and finally the actual resultant strategy that was implemented. Without this happening, the transformational change would most often end in a failure. Stakeholder Mapping â€Å"Stakeholders are those individuals or groups who depend on the organisation to fulfil their own goals, and on whom in turn the organisation depends† (Johnson Scholes, 2002). For Amazon.com the major stakeholders were its customers, investors and Jeff Bezos himself. With respect to the Stakeholder Mapping drawn up by Savage et al (1991) Bezos and the investors can be referred to as â€Å"Dominant Stakeholders† while the customers would identify as â€Å"Dependent Stakeholders†. Environment The internet industry is characterised by a high degree of â€Å"Changeability† (Lynch, 2000) i.e. there is a greater number of new problems and each problem is more complex than in other sectors. Moreover it is not very â€Å"Predictable† due to a high rate of change and uncertainty of future circumstances. This made Amazon.com’s business environment highly turbulent. As a new entrant Amazon.com had to cope with all these difficulties; but once settled these factors acted as â€Å"Barriers to entry† (Porter, 1985) for its competitors. Culture Culture within an organisation consists of the shared basic assumptions that have worked well enough to be considered valid and passed to fellow employees over time (adapted from Schein, 1985). It refers to â€Å"the way we do things around here†. While there can be several factors affecting the culture at a work place, in case of Amazon.com it is the ownership and technological factors. Jeff Bezos is the leader of the organisation and also the cultural head bringing in ambition and motivation to the organisation. The work practices, routines, plans, the entire business is largely governed by the technological abilities inside and the advancements outside the organisation. The Cultural web is another important aspect that has a definitive impact on the strategy an organisation pursues. The Cultural Web (Johnson Scholes, 2002) consists of the Routines Rituals, Stories, Symbols, Power Structures, Control Systems and the Organisational Structure. For Amazon.com its brand name acts as a major symbol that binds together the various components of the system. It symbolises the scale of operations that Bezos aimed at, thus cultivating an aggressive work culture. If one was to draw out the power structure at Amazon.com, it would be a flat pyramid with Jeff Bezos at the peak. Although the investment came from outside, Amazon.com was his dream and â€Å"his† venture. He did not promise any profits in the first 5 years, but his faith in the idea won the investors’ confidence. All this clearly indicates the prevalence of a â€Å"Power Culture† at Amazon.com (Handy, 1993). Key Strategic Highlights Based on its first mover advantage Amazon.com was able to capitalise on the heterogeneity of its resources. It reaped benefits from the Ex post and Ex ante limits to competition (Peteraf, 1993). Its technological knowledge behind the search engine was imperfectly imitable for the competitors. Even if the rivals came up with substitute systems, the â€Å"first mover† position always allowed an edge in favour of Amazon.com. Employees and technicians at Amazon.com learnt to adapt and innovate better than the competitors, simply because the latter were merely copying what Amazon had done. The Knowledge at Amazon.com was rare, valuable, not easily imitable and well organised to allow the company to enjoy a resource based competitive advantage over its rivals (Barney, 1995). The technological skills were Amazon.com’s core competence that was used to create the Search facility – their core product which was at the heart of Amazon’s web based store/services – the end product (Hamel Prahalad, 1990). However, it also needs to be mentioned here that the Amazon.com was rich in dynamic capabilities (Teece, 1997) to be able to successfully carry out the above. The top management team which consisted ex-Wal-mart employees, were aware of their strengths as well as the business environment to be able to identify their core competence. They ensured carrying out the best use of their resources and maintained the momentum gathered from the initial push. Even with the best resources and opportunities a business may not succeed, if those managing it are not aware of their responsibilities. It is the management that lays out the strategy and takes all decisions that are critical to the overall success. Expansion Given the knowledge of Ansoff’s Matrix Amazon.com for a start pursued Market development i.e. offered the existing products to new markets. It also used Cost leadership (Porter, 1985) to expand its customer base. As the website served more and more customers over time, Amazon.com introduced new products to the existing market – a product development effort. Finally, with a secure market position Amazon.com was capable of Diversification i.e. offering new products to new markets. Not all of Amazon.com’s offerings were indigenous. It had partnered with several other wed based companies. While most of the early partnerships were aimed at gaining a greater exposure to the target audience, later excusive relationships were created to add to the existing list of products and services that were offered on the website. The motive behind these alliances was largely â€Å"Exploitative† (Koza, 1998). Such business alliances were primarily aimed at tapping into each others’ customer bases and render mutual benefits to the parties involved. Amazon.com’s approach to collaboration is well explained by the M-B-A (Make, Buy, or Ally) matrix. It allied with services such as Yahoo and Excite because the service was not important to Amazon’s business – it sought more traffic. However, in case of similar companies such as Bookpages and Telebook, Amazon.com preferred a â€Å"Buy† because of the importance to the business activity. It also had the requisite skills to run these companies. Amazon.com did not want to allow these smaller companies to grow and later pose a threat to them. Conclusion Amazon.com can be easily regarded as a strategy champion. It had all the components of a great Entrepreneurial tale, and shall be cited in many more academic works in future. However, it must not be overlooked that for the first five years Amazon.com did not make any profits. Moreover, with the growth in market share, loss per share also grew. If all other competitors would have grouped together to attack Amazon from all fronts, it could have been a different story. Essentially, Amazon’s first mover advantage was crucial. The fact that Amazon possessed the above resources and capabilities at the emergence of e-commerce is of vital importance. Therefore, it is questionable whether or not Amazon would have managed to achieve similar results if it were to launch today in 2004 in such a hypercompetitive market. Primarily, Amazon’s success was due to effective leveraging of its resources, especially knowledge and managing the capabilities derived from these resources. REFERENCES Barney, Jay B.. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage From: Journal of management vol 17 (1) 1991 p.99-120. Grant, R. M. (Robert Morris), 1948- Contemporary strategy analysis : concepts, techniques, applications / Robe.. 5th ed . Oxford : Blackwell, 2004 Johnson, Gerry. Exploring corporate strategy / Gerry Johnson, Kevan Scholes. 6th ed.. Harlow : Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002. Lynch, Richard L.. Corporate strategy / Richard Lynch. 3rd ed. Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003. Mintzberg, Henry. Strategy safari : the complete guide through the wilds of strategic manage Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2001. Mintzberg, H. and Waters, J.A. Of strategies, deliberate and emergent Strategic management journal. John Wiley and Sons Inc. Vol 6 (1985) p.257-272 Peteraf, M. The cornerstones of competitive advantage: a resource-based view Strategic management journal. John Wiley and Sons Inc. Vol 14 (3) 1993 p.179-191 Porter, M.E. From competitive advantage to corporate strategy. Harvard business review Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 1987 Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. The core competence of the corporation Harvard business review. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Vol 68 (3) 1990 p.79-91 Schein, Edgar H. (Edgar Henry), 1928-. Organizational culture and leadership. 2nd ed. San Francisco, Calif. : Jossey-Bass, 1992. (Jossey-Bass management series). Teece, D. et al Dynamic capabilities and strategic management Strategic management journal vol 17 (7) 1997 p.509-533 Whittington, Richard, 1958- What is strategy and does it matter? / Richard Whittington 2nd ed . London : Thomson Learning, 2001 1861523777 Footnotes [1] Amazon.com – from start up to the new millennium, Stockport Street in Johnson Scholes (2002) [2] www.amazon.com [3] This is a self prepared summary using the information provided in the Amazon.com Case study by Stockport Street. The purpose of the summary is informative and allows connection with the report – it has therefore been included in the main text. [4] Such text in bold are exhibits of strategic highlights

Language and translation Essay

Language is the basic tool people use to communicate with each other, including verbal language and non-verbal language. Language is used to announce, to persuade, to queries, to express emotions, to transmit complicated ideas or even to hurt people. Generally speaking, using the language correctly allows people to communicate better, compared with animals. However, we live in a big world, which has more than 6 billion people now. With the existence of many different languages, the issues of translation are generated. After reading Alberto Rios essay – Translating Translation: Finding the Beginning, I know Rios understands languages and translation in complex and stratified ways, from cultures and manners. He writes â€Å"Language is more than what we say – it’s also how we say it, and whether or not we even understand what we are saying. † in his short essay (508). It can be understood easily why Rios pays so much attention to languages and translation. He grew up on the southwestern borderlands, having a Mexican father and an English mother. (504) The place he grew up is a place where cultures of the United States and Mexico meet and collide. Based on his own experience of dealing with different cultures and different languages, he points out how to say is more significant than what we say. The elements making his essay to be persuasive and compelling is worth to be analyzed, such as his personal background, the examples of his experience he gives, the way he arrange the examples and the his unique writing style. Rios’ personal background not only determine the topics he prefers to write about languages, but also make his writing on these topics become more convincing because he experiences many problems of languages and cultural conflicts by himself and it cannot been denied. As I mentioned before, he grew up in a place where cultures of the United States and Mexico meet and collide. â€Å"My father was born in Mexico, on the border of Guatemala, and my mother was born in England. I had languages. †(506) We can see that, because of his parents, he is doomed to face a lot of bi-languages problems. In order to understand both people speaking Spanish and people speaking English, he has to know how they say in different way rather than just know what the words mean in Spanish and English. He needs to understand the ways of how people say for getting the real meanings beyond the simple words. Because of his experience of languages differences, he has special interests in figuring out how people use languages in different ways. That’s also why he is fond of topics on languages and translations between different languages. Due to the special background Rios has, he has some interesting experiences of translation problems. All three examples Rios gives help to make his writing persuasive since the examples are typical and are related to his idea of importance of how we say perfectly. Through those three examples, Rios tries to demonstrate that translation incorporates understanding what it says and how it say, instead of explaining what is translation and how to move from one language to another. In order to claim his viewpoint, he picks up three typical examples. In the first example: â€Å"My mother when asked what color she wanted the kitchen, said to the workers who were all Mexican, and who spoke very little English, limon. But when we came back the next day, the kitchen was painted bright green, like a small jungle. Mexican limones, my mother found out, are small and green that color exactly, no mistake. † (506) Rios’s mother asks the workers to paint their kitchen in the color of limon, but the workers understand it as limones, which is different from limon. It’s a small understanding in the communication. The misunderstanding happens because author mother’s wrong pronunciation but the workers do not really understand what she wants. It’s quite normal for a new leaner to have incorrect pronunciations. But in native speakers’ ears, they will think that may be another word. This is a small example that different understandings of words cause misunderstand between people who speak different languages. The second example tells a story that a man, who was arrested for illegally crossing the border from Mexico into the United States was arrested, and then was left in the jail without anyone coming to see him from a Thursday to a Saturday because of lack of understanding between the man and his jailers. (507) In that situation, everyone is supposed to say something even yell out when finding their own are forgotten by the jailers. But the man didn’t because he had manners. This example let me think of an observation of mine. Americans say â€Å"can I have a†¦Ã¢â‚¬  when they order in the restaurant, but most Chinese are accustomed to say â€Å"I want a †¦Ã¢â‚¬  when ordering. This difference cannot jump to the conclusion that Chinese are impolite. The expression difference happens due to the difference manners of language. This kind of case is more complicated than the first example. People have the same understanding of words but different manners still cause misunderstandings. Rios select this example to tell people if you want to understand other completely, the manner behind word cannot be ignored. The third example is interesting. The conversation took place between Rios and one of his students. â€Å"Hey,ese,† he said to me, with a small pointing of the right hand. â€Å"Hey† I said. He nodded his head. â€Å"You really like this poetry shit. † He asked. â€Å"Yes. † I said. And then he followed with the very best thing I could ever hoped for. †So how many fights you had? † (508) A student of Rios asks Rios â€Å"how many fights you had? † Rios understands the student is using his way to communicate. The boy was just looking for an equation for something to understand instead of embarrassing the teacher. If at that time, Rios didn’t understand what the boy really tried to do, Rios would be mad at the boy. This example perfectly shows that language is more than what we say, it’s also how we say it. If Rios just cares about the language that the boy says from his mouth, he will misapprehend the boy and have very bad impression of the boy. When we try to understand what others say, how can we only understand the words others say? We also should try to dig out the original meanings of the speaker in order to avoid the misunderstandings of verbal communication. The author, Rios, tries to illustrate the idea that language is more than what we say and we need to understand the way of how we say it by these three examples step by step. There is a point deserved to highlight. Rios does not arrange these examples randomly. Rios organizes the examples in a progressive relation rather than choose three examples in the same layer. He puts his mother’s example in the first place because it was very small example but it’s also enough to let people have the first understanding of what translation problem can happen between different languages. Compared with first example, the second example doesn’t only lead people to consider the issues of words, but also manners behind the words that different cultures hold. The progressive relation can be noticed here easily. The focus is moving from simple misunderstanding of words to misunderstand of manners because of different cultures. The feature of third example is more obvious. Rios add many action descriptions. For example, â€Å"Hey,ese,† he said to me, with a small pointing of the right hand. (508) Languages include body languages. By adding action description, Rios leads the focus move again, to a higher layer – action expression. Perhaps â€Å"pointing of the right hand† shows nervous in this case, so Rios notices that his student was looking for an equation but he just didn’t know how to do that and felt nervous. Rios arranging the examples in this order makes his essay persuasive because readers can reach the main idea of the essay step by step which helps his main idea to be more acceptable. Apart from adopting three appropriate examples to express his idea, Rios also has his own unique writing style to make his essay compelling. In an interview, he said â€Å"I would say that I write in Spanish – it just looks like English. †(504) I found the entire interview from Internet, he says† I do occasionally write in Spanish, but when I do it’s from another time, from childhood, often, I listen hard for how ideas come to me, in what container they are being delivered, and I try to be true to it. Sometimes that container is Spanish. † (Twenty-Four Questions: A conversation with Alberto Alvaro Rios) It means Rios sometimes form his ideas in Spanish although he writes in English. As a non-English speaker who but lives in an English speaking country, I got a deep feeling for this. Although I live in America where I listen English and speak English everyday, I still think in Chinese. I form my ideas in Chinese way and then say it from my mouth in English. Rios grew up in a Spanish speaking environment, and he used to think in Spanish. As he says, Spanish sometime is the container which holds his ideas in his mind. So his poems and stories are written in English but flavored by the sensibilities of his first language, Spanish. As Rios writes in his essay, â€Å"I often talk about the duality of language using the metaphor of binoculars, how by using two lenses one might see something better, closer, with more detail. †(506) We can see Rios regards the duality of language as a significant part of translation. Rios claims that the body itself speaks a language differently, so that moving from one language to another is more than translate words. (506) He changes the expression method rather than just translate the words from Spanish to English in order to keep the original meanings expressed in Spanish. Compared with other writers, this specialty of his writing makes his writing compelling. Language is the bridge of communication. According to Alberto Alvaro Rios, just understanding what we say is not enough. It’s necessary to know how we say it if we need to really understand what other say. Misunderstandings take place easily because of the unsuccessful translation of language or act. When a person says something or do something, but the listener misunderstand the person, it’s a unsuccessful translation. Especially in different languages, unsuccessful translations happen more frequently due to the different cultures. Therefore, when we listen to others, we should consider the different cultural background, different manners and different way of using language. That’s also what Rios means by â€Å"Language is more than what we say – it’s also how we say it. † Work Cited Bartholomae, David, and Tony Petrosky. â€Å"Short Talks. † Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 264. 67. Print. â€Å"Twenty-Four Questions: A Conversation with Alberto Alvaro Rios. † Alberto Alvaro Rios. N. p. , n. d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.