Self-reliance: Transcendentalism and Emerson

â€Å"Self-Reliance† Juny Bernadin AML2000 12-Week 2 Professor Andrew Smith October 29, 2011 Thesis Statement ‘Self-Reliance' has its value in its boldness, its construction, and mature attitudes toward evenness and letdown. In addition, Emerson's confident logic seems impregnable. To Emerson, not only is self-doubt absolutely out of the question, but it is a virtue to believe that everyone believes as you do. He writes that there is no value in life but personal principles and goals, and that society is irrelevant. â€Å"Self-Reliance† â€Å"Self-Reliance,† by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is a persuasive essay promoting the ways of inspirational views. He uses this essay to advance a major point using a structure that helps his argument. In Emerson's essay, he begins his concluding thoughts with a statement that greater â€Å"self-reliance† and brings a revolution. He then applies this idea to society and all of its aspects, including religion, education, and art. This brings Emerson to a new, more precise focus on how societies never advance; rather it recedes on one side. This shocking, yet intriguing, idea supports and increases the uses of tone, image, example, and the consequence of ignoring his opinion. The result is an accumulation of ideas into the major points that, â€Å"Nothing can bring you peace but you. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. † With the major points and devices used by Emerson defined, it is now possible to examine in greater detail how he persuades the reader, starting with the use of tone. The use of word choice, sentence length, and structure, as well as many other factors set the tone of this paper. The result is a paper that has a provocative tone. A paper written in this authoritative style is helpful in his affiliation. It pulls the reader into the author’s ideas, making them your own. The tone of the paper allows descriptions to be extremely powerful in promoting Emerson’s ideas. The descriptions are numerous throughout the paper and there is a deep-seated one towards the end of the essay that really helps to shape it. â€Å"Society is a wave. The wave move onward, but the water of which it is composed does not. † The clear metaphor of society to the wave and the particles of water to the people distinctively demonstrate Emerson’s idea the society never advances. If a man is not self-confident and is unable to share himself with others, as people die so too does their experience. Nevertheless, the ability to be self-reliant eliminates this loss of experience. Although this metaphor is strong enough on its own to provide all of the support necessary for the idea that society never advances, Emerson adds to it and his other ideas with examples. The first examples used to support the lack of progression of society. The â€Å"civilized† man of the Americas and Europe compared to the â€Å"savages† of New Zealand. It is here that Emerson brings into question the digression in physical strength of men as he makes â€Å"advances. † These advances do just as much harm as good, making man lazy and indolent. Other areas that Emerson scrutinizes are the loss of skills that only years ago were essential, such as the ability to tell time by the sun, and the loss of attention to detail. With Emerson’s ideas clearly imbedded in our mind, and added by his style of inductive writing, he uses the consequences of ignoring him as the final blow in this battle to persuade. Although no consequence is clearly define, Emerson has made it more than clear what will happen if people do not become more individualistic. Society will stay as it is, no matter how many technological advances made. This fear of being no better nor advanced than previous eras is the most powerful motivator for change of all. Emerson’s challenge not to rely on fortune, rather to make things happen for you is exactly what he want it to be, motivational and persuasive. Conclusion In conclusion, the promotion of transcendentalism in Emerson’s essay â€Å"Self-Reliance† is the promotion of a way of better living according to Emerson. The structural support of self-reliance in â€Å"Self-Reliance† through tone, image, example, and the consequence of ignoring Emerson’s opinion achieves the goal of persuasion. This produces the final result of a vote for independence, telling, â€Å"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles. † The promise of the transcendentalist of personal peace with the achievement of self-reliance would be nothing more than an outlandish idea without Emerson’s ability to structure and support his idea. Reference 1. AML2000 12 â€Å"Self-Reliance† by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Page 29 222, Oct 2011 2. AML2000 12 â€Å"Self-Reliance† by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Page 223, 29 Oct 2011

Examining Christian Symbolism in “A White Heron” Essay

Symbolism is a very prominent attribute contained within Sarah Orne Jewett’s short story, â€Å"A White Heron†. The short story takes its reader through the short exploration that the main character, Sylvia, goes through when she is faced with making a decision that may lead to the end of a beautiful bird’s life. Many critics have analyzed and debated the many symbols contained within the story. Victoria Freivogel, an English teacher from Louisiana, wrote an essay which examines what she considers the symbolism to be in â€Å"A White Heron†. In her essay she goes against other critics who claim â€Å"the ornithologist, pine tree, and white heron are symbolic of Sylvia’s burgeoning sexuality† (Freivogel 136). In fact she states, â€Å"they are, in fact, symbols of Christianity† (Freivogel 136). Innocence in â€Å"The White Heron† is a theme that I, as a reader, have recognized each time I have read the story. Reading Freivogelâ⠂¬â„¢s essay and learning about other critic’s views can be a little unsettling when the reader has only viewed the story as an innocent journey of a young girl who decides to protect nature, as well as her own conscious. Freivogel reveals that, â€Å"Many critics liken the ornithologist to a sexual predator† (Freivogel 136). These critics consider him a predator because he is offering her money for compensation if she can lead him to the white heron which is symbolic of a â€Å"sexual predator convincing Sylvia to hunt for the white heron with him† (Freivogel 136). She goes on to say that these critics consider the â€Å"hunt for birds equal to a hunt for Sylvia’s sexual being† (Freivogel 137). In reality, the hunt is simply for the bird and innocence remains prominent, which is shown when Jewett writes that Sylvia, â€Å"could not understand why he killed the very birds he seemed to like so much† (Jewett 67). A clear symbol in â€Å"A White Heron† is the hunter who symbolizes an enemy; the enemy against nature and and the enemy against Sylvia possibly going against her better judgment. Freivogel considers the symbol of an enemy to be symbolic of Satan. Other critics also view the enemy as Satan. Freivogel points out that the hunter from first appearances, â€Å"is charming, sly, and observant of Sylvia’s weakness† (Freivogel 138). These qualities are said to be the same of Satan in the Garden of Eden, and the hunter is preying on Sylvia, as Satan preyed on Eve. However, he is preying on her weakness in order for him to have the satisfaction of hunting down the white heron, not preying on her in a sexual  manner. Another inept image that some critics maintain is that the pine tree that Sylvia climbs is â€Å"sexually symbolic† (Freivogel 138).   The passage, â€Å"The tree seemed to lengthen itself out as she went up, and to reach farther and farther upward† (Jewett 69), Richard Benzo wrote that â€Å"there is a sexual relationship indicated by this passage† and that â€Å"Sylvia I somehow trying to overcome a fear of sexual relations† (qtd. in Freivogel 138). This sexual claim about the pine tree is said to be â€Å"too obvious, and facile† by Freivogel. These critics who maintain that this story has a sexual theme do not see innocence involved in this story at all. The tree is actually a Christian symbol that reminds believers to â€Å"seek out heavenly treasures, rather than earthly treasures† (qtd. in Freivogel 139), and this is what Sylvia does by choosing to not let the hunter know where to find the white heron. Lastly, the white heron is also seen as a symbol of sexuality by other critics. Freivogel writes that another critic, Elizabeth Ammons, argues that the heron is symbolic â€Å"of Sylvia’s body that she must offer up as ‘prey’ to the ornithologist in exchange for ‘money, social approval, and affection† (qtd. In Freivogel 140). In reality Jewett wrote nothing to indicate that the hunter was trying to â€Å"prey† on Sylvia in a sexual way. However, he was preying on her innocence by tempting her with a money reward for informing him of the white heron’s location. Freivogel rebukes these critic’s viewpoints on the heron being sexually symbolic. She even goes so far to say, â€Å"the idea of the heron as a sexual symbol seems the most far-fetched† (Freivogel 140). Birds are symbolic in the Christian church. They are said to be â€Å"symbolic of Christ† and â€Å"images of the eternal struggle of good and evil and of Christ’s battle against the devil† (qtd. in Freivogel 140). Sylvia encompasses all of these throughout her journey to find the heron, and into her decision to keep its location a secret. Many critics base their analyses on â€Å"A White Heron† on sexual nuances as the symbolism of the story. Freivogel affirms that it is a story â€Å"filled with symbols that are common to Christian beliefs† (Freivogel 141). Sylvia has overcome the temptations offered to her by the hunter or â€Å"satan†, and reached the top of the pine tree where she realizes the true treasures come from the heavens, and she could not betray that for â€Å"earthly treasures† brought by the money. Ultimately, Sylvia won the battle of good versus evil. Victoria Freivogel’s views on symbolism capture the true essence of  the story, which I believe to be pure innocence. Christian symbolism throughout the story cements the purity of nature and even of the young Sylvia. Sylvia is only a nine year old girl. Many of her views will be highly influenced by others, but she has the purest mind and heart, and she listened to the voices of nature, as well as her inner conscience when deciding that she could not tell the whereabouts of the white heron. I find the sexual symbolism believed by other critics to be senseless. Those impure views take away the purity of the theme, and it completely changes the meaning of the story. I will always read â€Å"The White Heron† as a story of a young girl who shows remarkable fearlessness in her journey to find the heron and in her journey she discovers how precious all life truly is. . Works Cited Freivogel, Victoria. â€Å"Christian Symbolism In Sarah Orne Jewett’s ‘A White Heron’.† Eureka Studies In Teaching Short Fiction 7.2 (2007): 136-142. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. Jewett, Sarah Orne. â€Å"A White Heron.† Literature: A Pocket Anthology. Ed. R.S. Gwynn. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. 62-71. Print.

The Slade Plating Department Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Slade Plating Department - Term Paper Example In a typical business, a more horizontal structure is usually required in order to gain total work group commitment and satisfy motivational goals for productivity. However, at Slade Plating, this structure brings forward a great deal of management presence that can oftentimes create negativity between high producing employee groups. Furthermore, the relatively low pay that is experienced in the production and operational departments is another problem at Slade Plating, despite the ongoing presence of overtime. There are some work groups at the facility that value overtime and consider it a blessing for lifestyle and needs fulfillment, while other work groups expressed dissatisfaction over the high workload with minimal pay. This division of unity that is occurring at the company continues to erode total work group effectiveness when considering how inter-dependent the production teams are with one another in order to get the job done effectively. At the same time, a far-too-flexible production schedule that continues to become more and more unpredictable due to customer demand angers some less-productive work groups that leads to some level of job dissatisfaction. In terms of the environmental conditions, they are less than favorable for some of the plating room work members. They are forced to work in hazardous environments that are uncomfortable due to design and temperature. As Herman in Sarto’s group identified, it is considerably hard work and there is division between employees in this work group that only serves to complicate social attitudes and also productivity in the long-term. Attitudes regarding Herman by other members of his team clearly impacted his sense of belonging and self-esteem, despite his efforts to at least try to fit in with this in-group having strong social attachments. IMPARTIAL EVALUATION Under Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there is a strong generalized human need for affiliation and belonging. It is only when the need for affiliation has been satisfied that a person can begin to develop a stronger sense of self-esteem and personal recognition that produces higher levels of confidence and control (Gambrel & Cianci, 144). In Tony’s group, several members who have been excluded from engaging in more rewarding socialization continue to drive a rift between productivity and the social environment. It is affecting self-esteem, especially in Herman, who seems to have a strong need for socialization which was apparent by his ongoing presence in many different social activities such as singing, fishing, and athletics. What this has done is created a standoffish attitude where he is psychologically convincing himself that he would rather stay isolated from the group when clearly a need exists for belonging and affiliation. Management theory indicates a phenomenon related to personality and human behavior that involves what is referred to as the locus of control. Essentially, under this theo ry, there are some who believe they are the masters of their own fate and do not blame the external social environment for why they cannot or do not succeed at their goals. They believe they control their own destiny (Treven & Potocan, 642). Those with an external locus of control feel as though they are controlled through outside forces and tend to be more defensive as a result (Treven & Potocan

CRIMINAL EVIDENCE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

CRIMINAL EVIDENCE - Essay Example It is considered as the most imperative magnitude to judge and assess the validity and authenticity of an incident, an offence or a felony. The statutes of law are devised and implemented to control crimes by announcing penalty and punishment to the culprit as well as protecting the life, honour, possessions and rights of the innocent citizens. Since no law declares an accused as offender without having sound proof of his offence; and evidence is the only technique to prove or disapprove any fact the truth of which is submitted to judicial investigation. Hence, evidence is the tool, which attests the validity of the offence. Evidence includes: Q 1: In an offence like theft, stealing and burglary, no one is the eyewitness of the felony. Same is the situation in the case under study, where Edna is eyewitness of the presence of a person in her bedroom, where the burglary had been committed at Edna’s house on the night of 21 December. Edna blames Alan as the culprit on the following grounds: The man committing burglary in Edna’s bedroom has the same scar mark as Alan’s. In addition, the person has also left an ear print on window, which looks like the ear print of Alan; it is therefore he has been accused as the same offender, who committed burglary in Edna’s house. The law of evidence allows eyewitness [es] present both oral and documentary evidence. The oral statement made by Edna does not carry weight because she is unable to provide a detailed description of the burglar. Moreover, since she has presented documentary evidence, where only one scar mark describes the identity of the accused. The provisions of the law of Evidence allow an accused to make necessary changes in his appearance. In its words: Hence, provisions of Evidence Law allocate Edna the position of both complainant and the witness of the presence of the offender in her bedroom during the procedure. In the light of the points above-mentioned, Law of Evidence declares her

Creative of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Creative of Art - Essay Example When space is small, the number of objects that one can view or learn about is limited including the number of people visiting. A small space denies individuals the opportunity to have adequate experience as opposed to a large space. Some consideration that should be taken into account when arranging objects for a show in a museum include; educational purpose, state, and preservation facilities. Educational purpose should be a key factor when arranging objects in a showroom in a museum. Artifacts are arranged according to the educational purpose they delivered to the viewers (Danilov 108). The artifacts that are more educative are arranged in the first row followed by the ones that are less educative. Artifacts states should be considered since objects in poor states are not attractive. There is a tin difference between art and craft as the two are based on diverse forms of creativity. However, the differences can be established on their definitions and how they are executed. Art is categorically defined as the form of work that expresses emotions while craft is defined as the form of work that results into an output that is tangible. Examples of craft work include moulding and carving among other forms. Artworks are open ended and unstructured in design and form while craft works are structured clearly and are visible. They can also be qualified as opposed to art works. Today most functional art objects are as avidly obtained by collectors as their fine-art brethren, and are treasured for their beauty as well as their use value. For instance, ancient Chinese vases that performed their originally anticipated function such as displaying flowers which are valued for their historic and artistic value more than anything else. As noted, dedaic is an instruction based methodology that is applied in enabling effective understanding of phenomenon’s. The methodology is commonly

E-marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

E-marketing - Essay Example Individual companies and organizations have developed websites that are aimed at reaching a considerable number of the target market. These websites have had their flaws and thus, the need to improve or adopt a different website that is of attraction to the user. A number of strategies have been proposed to improve the look and feel of the website such as using different advertising strategies and search engine optimization. Majority of online stores use e-marketing as a tool to advertise and sell their products and services, in this study, the website of Amazon.com will be analyzed, and suggestions offered in regard to the website. Although the company has done much on the website, there are a few things to be added and others improved. For example, the company can consider including mobile phone technology in its payment system. The organization can also take measures to allow users access its services through their smartphones. In addition, the company can engage Search Engine Opt imization in order to ensure that it gets the most traffiick which may end up being transformed to customers. E-marketing: Amazon Introduction Jeff Bozos founded Amazon.com in 1994, and the company has grown quickly to become a successful e-commerce company (business) in the universe. Today, the company is among the Fortune 500 companies and of the biggest online retailers in United States. Unlike, the other companies, such as e-bay which do online auction, the focus of Amazon.com has been on retail sale. Amazon.com has grown in the world in a rapid rate and has become one of the famous retailing website in the universe. The success of Amazon.com is attributed to its consumer friendly website interface and inventive tools that assist the consumers such as offering lists of popular books, the recommendation system, and lists of the best sellers (Wong 2009). Amazon is one of the first businesses to sell products embedded in their long chain through housing them in their many warehouses. It also distributes products from the numerous partner companies. Amazon acts as a medium or directly sells a wide range of products. These p roducts include consumer electronics, videos, music, clothing, household products, and books. Most of products sold are done through Amazon, however, majority of them are from third-party sellers (CrunchBase 2012). In this essay, Amazon.com website will be analyzed in terms of how it markets its products, and how it can improve online sales for its products. Suggestions to improve its online sales of product such as Search Engine Optimization and advertising strategies will be discussed in detail. Website Analysis The success of Amazon is as a direct consequence of the strong user shopping experience. There are several features that make the Amazon shopping experience a model worth to be imitated by e-commerce developers. The shopping experience of Amazon starts on the home page where user or shopper is visually informed of the two-fold purposes of the website; to inform customers of available products and their characteristics and to direct customers toward purchasing the products. Apart from the disorderly layout and several clean distinct components that attract the eye of the user, the shopping/search controls at the top, and the navigation section on the upper left stand out in the Amazon home page. With such components highlighted, the two-fold aim of the Amazon website is achieved when the user is capable of quickly finding and purchasing products, and the seller is capable of quickly processing online purchases and making a profit (Webdesigner depot 2009). The online shopping and product search are very conspicuous even for an individual who has visited the website for the first

Red Convertible by OConnor and Guests of the Nation by Erdrich Essay

Red Convertible by OConnor and Guests of the Nation by Erdrich - Essay Example These stories are analyzed in this essay along with the current status of the Indian American culture. The story the Red Convertible talks about the experiences of two Indian brothers one summer prior to one of the going to war. The story focuses on the experience these two adventurers had a red convertible which was the first convertible car to arrive at their reservation. The red convertible to them was a symbol of freedom and let them escape from the struggle their people were facing. It provides insight into the tribal lifestyle and how these two learned to enjoy the simpler things in life such as nature, family, culture, and loyalty. Following that summer one of the brothers went to war. He struggled with psychological problems and could not cope with everyday life after he came back as damaged goods from the war. The brother tried to sheer his sibling up by restoring the red convertible but to no avail. War left scars on him which could not be repaired. The second story dealt w ith Irish army platoons and how the war can create friendships and destroy life and how these memories can last a lifetime. The story centers around a small group of Irish soldiers and a couple of English soldier prisoners under their care. For months they lived together in a shack sharing stories and becoming weird friends even though they were enemies. The stories go into detail about the struggles these people went through during the war and how by sharing each other lives the men took compassion and understood what each other was enduring. In the end, despite the relationship, these people had built the Irish soldiers were forced to kill the English prisoners who had become their friends under order from their superiors. These stories showed the type of struggle different cultures has gone through under tough situations.

The reformation of the masculinity through Metrosexuals in the fashion Essay

The reformation of the masculinity through Metrosexuals in the fashion advertising - Essay Example This "The reformation of the masculinity through Metrosexuals in the fashion advertising" essay outlines the impact of metrosexual images on the fashion advertisement and how it changes with the times. The metrosexuals have become the new age demographic group of people in the urban societies. The basic term generated from the metropolitan and the heterosexuals. This group can be stated as a group of male who have some fashion statement which relates with the female character and these med are associated with the homosexuals. However they are not homosexuals in generals. The ‘new man’ emerged on to the advertising scene in the 80’s, and was marketed as the modern man. Images of the new man emerged everywhere from Calvin Klein’s ‘Eterntity’, an image of the perfect father figure, to a domestic hero advertising Mr. Muscle. Men were becoming increasingly objectified, their bodies being used to sell grooming products and vanity to themselves, from shaving cream to Levi’s jeans. This phenomenon reached greater lengths when Men’s lifestyle magazines such as GQ and Arena Homme hit the stands in the mid eighties, adhering to men’s apparent newfound lust for fashion since the masculine renunciation at the end of the 18th century. This trend still carries on today, with the term metro-sexual coined in 2003 by journalist Mark Simpson, while reporting on the â€Å"it’s a Man’s World† style exhibition, organized by GQ. He described the metro-sexual as a man who has â€Å"taken himself as his own love object.† ... This phenomenon reached greater lengths when Men’s lifestyle magazines such as GQ and Arena Homme hit the stands in the mid eighties, adhering to men’s apparent newfound lust for fashion since the masculine renunciation at the end of the 18th century. This trend still carries on today, with the term metro-sexual coined in 2003 by journalist Mark Simpson, while reporting on the â€Å"it’s a Man’s World† style exhibition, organized by GQ. He described the metro-sexual as a man who has â€Å"taken himself as his own love object.† ( Simpson, M. cited in Salzman,M., Matathia,I. & O’reilly,A. 2005: 53) If one opens a current issue of Arena Homme, it will be of no surprise to see in its pages images of men in skirts and jewelry, or an advert of Marc Jacobs wearing nothing but an oversized bottle of his new fragrance BANG deliberately placed over his sexual identity. These are the group of men who are over fashionable and love to groom themsel ves as the females. Some people say that metrosexuals are not any gender specific person they can be lesbians, homosexuals, straight or transsexuals, as the term do not refer any gender it is basically a community which is heterosexuals and urban in nature. It can be treated as a behavioral trait of a person to be adorable to all the genders (Baker 4). It has been also mentioned by many observers that metrosexuals could adopt different sexual personas to match their outlook. The idea behind the metrosexual look is the ultra modern look which attracts all kind of people or rather consumers for the fashion industry. It is a new concept in the fashion industry which blends the concept of individual identity, consumerism and sexual identity and the reformation of the masculinity. For an example it can be stated that the

Discuss how three or more important symbols add to your understanding of Of Mice and Men Essay Example for Free

Discuss how three or more important symbols add to your understanding of Of Mice and Men Essay In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays messages to the reader through various techniques, including the vivid animal imagery presented throughout the novella, most notably in Chapters 1 and 6. However, his most potent form of message conveying is through his use of symbolism. Interweaving light imagery and exercising characters as symbols into the text furthers the development of integral themes and plotlines throughout the turbulent story. From the deep and green Salinas River to the right hand that had held the gun, Steinbecks utilization of symbols contributes to the readers overall appreciation of the chaotic book, highlighting recurring themes such as loneliness. As was stated in the introduction, Steinbeck employs characters as symbols. The most familiar example of this is old Candy. Candy is a significant figure in Of Mice and Men, due to the likenesses between him and George. I aint much good with ony one handthats why they give me a job swampin, Candy explains to George. As a swamper, this is all Candy has left. In 1930s America, a worker who could not work to his full potential, especially during the time of the Depression, would be replaced- Candys ultimate fear. Thats why he wants to cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some on Lennie and Georges land. Candy can lead a safe life, not having to worry about being canned. Candys stumped wrist is a result of an accident on the ranch. Candy is a prime example of being caught in the Migrant Workers Cycle- moving to one job, before leaving and moving somewhere else. A link can therefore be established with George, and Lennie, who appear to have been traveling around working before the time of Of Mice and Men. This is another case of the cyclic nature of the novella, and a reflection of the American way of life in the 1930s. Another example of Candys symbolic nature is with his ancient dog. This [Candy and his dog] is the first relationship in the novella to be broken, with the final bond, George and Lennie, being destroyed at the climax. No, he said softly. No, I couldn do that. I had im too long,' explains Candy in Chapter 3, referring to the idea of killing his dog. This is very similar to George who, despite knowing Lennie will only cause grief to him and those around him, does not want to hurt him, because he too has been with his companion for a long time. Candy explains that, I been around him so much I never notice how he stinks, while George earlier says, but you get used to goin around with a guy an you cant get rid of him.'- Another likeness between the two. George has his own dog, Lennie, who follows George around, maintaining silence in conversations and growing increasingly dependent on a master. During the novella, the recurrence of loneliness, and speculating at a lonesome finale, is ever present, especially in the form of playing cards. The bunkhouse is often the scene of the games, with George the dealer. This is significant, as George frequently exclaims his desire to be alone, If I was alone I could live so easy. However, solitude is Georges enemy, and he is fearful at the prospect of living alone. This is projected through his card playing, Slim sat downacross from GeorgeHe studied the solitaire hand that was upside-down to him. Inadvertently, George has dealt a game of solitaire- a single player game, an insinuation at the conclusion of the story, when George ultimately kills his companion. A similar event arises when Candys dog is led by Carlson to be shot. Anybody like to play a little euchre?' asks George. The key theme of loneliness is being forced away by George, who refuses to be alone, opting to ask the group to play cards. The constant reminding of impending solitude, and its effects, enable the reader to understand and fully interpret the inevitability of what is to come. Hands play a vital role in the symbolism of Of Mice and Men. There are various references to the hands of men, building up to the climatic noting, right hand that had held the gun. Despite the assortment of quotes in relation to hands, each has its own meaning. Georges right hand is the killing hand that seals his isolation in the world. Candys lack of a hand, accompanied by persistent referencing to his handicap, Candy stood in the doorway scratching his bald wrist, provides a stark reminder of the perils of working in 1930s America, stressing the importance of staying healthy. If an illness or injury affected the work rate of a person, they were often removed from their job- a brusque feature of Capitalism. The contextual relevance expands the fluency of the text for the reader, as the framework for the 1930s American society is commonly paralleled with the novella. With regards to Curley, his gloves fulla Vaseline, which hes keepin soft for his wife. This is one of many sexual references regarding Curleys wife, who regularly symbolizes the contextual attraction of whorehouses and prostitutes to the migrant workers. As stated above, Curleys wifes character is sharply familiarized with prostitutes and the brothels of the 1930s American society. Her flirtatious nature is met with an everlasting disapproval from the workers on the ranch Candy thinks, Curleys marrieda tart, who, got the eye, referring to her engaging character. However, in a letter to Miss Luce, the actress who plays Curleys wife in the play version of the text, Steinbeck explains, She is a nice, kind girl and not a floozy. According to Steinbeck, she is a little starved. She knows utterly nothing about sex except the mass of misinformation girls tell one another. From this, we can deduce that Curleys wife isnt a Looloo, and she isnt likely to be found in Old Susys Place, but due to the fact Curley and her have not consummated their marriage, she feels an object to men no man has considered her as anything except a girl to try to make. Curleys wife, Steinbeck explains, is a nice person, and knows the only way men will notice her is if she is desirable. In Of Mice and Men, Curleys wife experiences loneliness, due to neglect from Curley, and she confesses this to Lennie, Aint I got a right to talk to nobody?' Since no one has tried talking to her, Curleys wife has not proved to be anything more than a floozy, which explains the unpleasant behaviour towards her. It is interesting that, when Candy calls her a tart, there is a pause, as if to suggest caution. Further along in the conversation, Candy asks, You wont tell Curley nothing I said? This implies that Candy is afraid Curley will learn of what he has been saying, as the ranch is the only work hell ever acquire, due to his old age and handicap. The threat of Curleys wife to the workers intimidates them to the point of obeying her. Steinbecks pointed description of how Curleys wife flagrantly flirts with the other workers is a repetition of the theme, which he has earlier shown, using the brothels and his showing of the women who work in them as being mere objects. It is almost as if Curleys wife believes that the only way to get by in life is to be like those women in the brothel, and to offer herself as an object. This is the case in Chapter 4, when Crooks coldly exclaims, You got no right comin in a coloured mans room. Curleys wife uses her position as the boss sons wife, and her contextual superiority over the Negro to threaten him, I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny. This is threatening to Crooks, as one simple cry of Rape will result in a lynching. Curleys wife also knows that, despite the harmful comments made by the men on the ranch, she holds a distinct advantage over them Curleys pretty handy. Curley could beat the worker, and get them fired, due to his position as the bo ss son. All but two of the workers fear Curley Slim, Slimwas scowlingYou lay offa me,' and Carlson Ill kick your god-damn head off.' Curleys wife, therefore, can target the remainder of the men, and flirt with them, to further her position. This goes horribly wrong when she begins to pursue Lennie. Firstly, she re-establishes her coyness through Lennies dream, Well if thats all you want, I might get a couple rabbits myself.' Then, in the barn house, she looks, closely at Lennie to see whether she was impressing him, another instance where she is trying to leave her mark on a worker. Curleys wife seals her own fate by exclaiming, Mine [Hair] is soft and finefeel right here.' This is the last stage of Curleys wifes seduction physical contact. She has seen for herself that Lennie likes to pet things, and she foolishly bids Lennie to stroke her hair, knowing full well he will. Lennie strokes too hard, and she flops like a fish. Steinbeck purposefully repeats this simile, as this has been used when Lennie crushes Curleys hand. This shared simile between the married couple suggests similar characteristics between the two most notably the volatile tempers of the two, Whats the matter with me? she cried. As the novella was written in 1930s America, the contextual content would be ever-present. However, coming off of the Depression, the American Dream had been damaged. This is highlighted by Curleys wife, I never got that letter, referring to her failed career as an actress. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. This is a prime example of the American Dream a nobody becoming a somebody. However, as with the Depression and many lives in America, this Dream was shattered So I married Curley, almost as if she married him to anger her mother, I always thought my ol lady stole it.' Curleys wife can be classed as the Depression itself the ender of dreams. The Depression ended the American Dream (Curleys wifes dream), as well as other peoples in Of Mice and Men, Curleys wife also ends Lennie and Georges dream, by enticing Lennie, which led to her death, and the end of the Dream. Putting this into reality, these small symbolizations, such as Curleys wife ending Lennie and Georges dream, enhances the understanding of the novel, as the main contextual features are evidently clear, assisted by Steinbecks geographical knowledge of the area Steinbeck was raised in the California area, and he worked on a farm the descriptions of the landscape would therefore be accurate, blurring the line between fact and fiction. One of the most effective symbols that Steinbeck employs to the novel is that of animal imagery. Throughout the novel, Lennie is likened to a bear, due to numerous references, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. The bear-like stance of Lennie suggests his ferocity and power aid him, but he is clumsy, and prone to attack, a true reflection of Lennies character. In the opening and final chapters in the novella, the moods are very different, yet similar. The evocative beginnings to each chapter contain repetition of the deep green pool of the Salinas River, whilst both being disrupted by man. The most significant part about these openings is the disposition of the disturbance in Chapter 1, the rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover, whilst in Chapter 6, Lennies intrusion is as silent as a creeping bear moves, yet another reference to his bear-like stature. However, the most potent form of animal imagery is when it is used in a prefigurative sense. In Chapter 1, A stilted heron laboured up into the air and pounded down-river. In Chapter 6, the heron reappears, A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, andswallowed the little snake. This is a foreshadowing of the events to follow, where George shoots Lennie in the back of the head. Steinbecks manipulation of his short story permits him to substitute ordinary characters and plots with complex, contextual symbolism. This is used to great effect, and enhances the readers understanding of the text, which allows a broader knowledge of both the book and the milieu in which it was written.

Brainwashing Our Future Essay Example for Free

Brainwashing Our Future Essay Around the globe today, the belief that a perfect body existing is at an all-time high. With airbrushing being used on practically every photo of actors/actresses/models, young adults get the false sense that they have to be a specific way to be prefect or normal even. It’s unjust that airbrushing photos leads these young adults to hate on themselves or on others for not being something that, in all reality, isn’t even real. Airbrushed photos of modern idols case teenagers to participate in unhealthy eating disorders, to bully fellow peers, and to obtain emotional problems that will stay with them for a lifetime. With airbrushing of photos also comes the unhealthy practice of eating disorders in young adult, especially young women, to fulfill the belief that doing so will result in having â€Å"matched up to their beauty and perfection† (Petten Van). Disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating have become most commonly found in the adolescent population because of these photos. In general, teen girls grow up seeing airbrushed photos which cause the desire to be â€Å"perfect†, later resulting in eating disorders. 42% of 1st to 3rd grade girls want to be thinner and 86% females report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages 16 and 20 (â€Å"Eating Disorder Statistics†). As a result, death rate of young adults has increased immensely and continues to surrender the hope of ever ending the cycle of teen disorders. Generally, as the number of adolescents who attain an eating disorder increases, so does the number of deaths to the teen populatio n. Airbrushing also contributes to bullying. Young adults are given the idea that one has to be a specific way in order to be accepted, so as a rule, teenagers bully one another out of jealousy or belief that all should fit what is seen as the norm due to airbrushing. But in return, there is the â€Å"5% of Americans that naturally possess the body type portrayed in magazine images† (â€Å"Eating Disorder Statistics†). That 5% is also bullied by those brainwashed by society to see it as the standard form. It makes sense that â€Å"a healthy girl does not have a solid sense of who she is and can be very susceptible to thinking one should look like the models, even though the model is airbrushed and really only a fantasy† (Cooper). Demi Lovato, a young teen pop star, has â€Å"openly aired her troubles† many times, describing the effects eating disorders and bullying that resulted from social media, like airbrushed photos, had on her life (LaPort). Bullying is the result of teens not having many idols that are raw and â€Å"going through what many of them are† (LaPort). Summing up the overall affect airbrushing has on adolescents comes down to these: emotional predicaments that can stay on one’s heart and mind until the very last breath. As a victim of bullying, my cousin Morgan shared her thoughts and feelings on her experiences. â€Å"The things they said were so harsh†¦unforgettable,† she whispered. â€Å"Every day I look at myself and repeat those words, even though I physically know they aren’t true.† She is one of â€Å"160,000 children who miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students† (â€Å"Make Beats Not Beat Downs: Facts and Statistics†). Bullying and eating disorders do not have short term effects, and can affect even the most confident person on the planet. These long term emotional situations are hurting the young minds of society and it all comes back to the pointless use of airbrushing. Some believe airbrushing is â€Å"just and image†¦a fantasy if you will†, regardless of the effect it has on adolescents (Cooper). Which is true, but teenagers are at the point of learning who they are and look to these photos of their idols to help decide, or figure out, who exactly is it that they see themselves being as adults. Others believe that airbrushing protects the eyes of younger minds from inappropriate matters like tattoos, thongs, or smoking. In response, the sooner one learns what the real world has to offer, bad and good, the sooner one realizes that everything isn’t perfect and can make decisions based on actual matters. Parents cannot protect children from the ideas of society surrounding them no matter how much they try. Would one rather children learn by looking at something everywhere around them or by hearing it from a mind not brainwashed by the wrong doings? The governments that allow the use of airbrushing on models and actors could easily pass a law to ban the deceptive practice of airbrushing. But the government won’t act unless the citizens act upon it first. By celebrities themselves opposing the act of an artist reconstructing their photos, and sewing them if done regardless, soon enough there won’t be any airbrushed photos to be released to the public. Previous victims of eating disorders or bullying should take a stand and tell the government, and its people, just how badly these photos affect the generations of society today. If not stopped now, then when will airbrushing ever come to an end? It’s time to end it and stop brainwashing our future. Works Cited A) Catapano, Rosanna. ANAD (The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders) n.p. n.d. Web. 22 March 2013. B) Diller, Vivian. â€Å"Is Photoshop Destroying America’s Body Image.† Huffpost Post. N.p. n.d. Web. 22 March 2013. C) Petten Van, Vanessa. â€Å"Photoshop: The Effect On Teen Girls and Why It Needs to be Banned.† Radical Parenting. n.p. n.d. Web. 22 March 2013.

Competition vs Collaboration

Competition vs Collaboration Competition versus Collaboration Studying so much about collaboration within and outside the organization made me curious about the competition element. So I tried to find out where does the competition lies when we are talking about Collaboration.Christiansen (2000) says that for creativity and innovation, it is important to consider whether collaboration or competition is valuable. Although there are some downsides with collaboration like: collaborative group working independently, resistance dispute, ownership problems, Time pressure in members and their activities, etc.. Despite having such downsides competition is beaten by collaboration. Furthermore, competition among individuals within an organization, in idea generation, forces people to shutdown. Who wins and who looses is based on the rules of the game which includes individuals competencies and other factors. Whereas in the innovation-process, creativity nourishes with new ideas from a variety of sources. In competition individuals hold back information. Furthermore, the individual might not have a clear picture about the problem in-hand or reduce creative thinking or might not give enough time to think about the solution. Thus, increasing the possibility that the outcome is not a best solution or a best idea. Whereas in collaboration, individuals will be synergistically working together towards their objective. Collaboration is an important part of the innovation stages of selecting the ideas, development and commercializing an idea. In case where competition is outside the organization Nagel (2001) says that Wealth is created by competition and innovation plays a centre role in competition. And innovation is a key which comprises collaboration among competitors. Innovative companies collaborate externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. Some innovative companies value internal and external competition, not being cut-throat competition with high secrecy or fierce, only to stimulate higher performance in competing projects where the losing teams are happy to support the winning team on their way forward. In such a company, with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate (Mayle 2006).This concept can be seen apprentin the Ripple Effect (IDEO 2009) project model from IDEO where different organizations collaborate to provide inspiration, deign and business support to entrepreneurs in development of new offering. I have attached a video below showing how companies are collaborating to provide clean drinking water for the poor The Ripple Effect in India, by IDEO and Acumen Fund from IDEO on Vimeo. Reference: Christiansen J. A., 2000 Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques to Improve Innovation Performance, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan IDEO 2009, Ripple Effect: Access to safe drinking water for Acumen fund and The Bill Melinda Gates foundation [Online], Available:http://www.ideo.com/work/item/ripple-effect-access-to-safe-drinking-water/ Mayle D. 2006, Managing innovation and change, Publisher: SAGE Nagel S. 2001, Handbook of Policy Creativity: Creativity at the cutting edge Publisher: Nova Publishers, Social Media and Networks In the last few years, the number of users accessing the internet is expanding and an exponential rate. Users looking for any kind of information are searching the internet. Organizations are shifting or starting businesses online spending a lot of many to get traffic to their site. But with the hype of internet and web 2.0, these companies are using the internet to market and advertise their products and services through social media channels like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. It is the most low cost promotion method available today. Now a day marketers are using social media as their primary advertising platform as it is able to capture mass audiences. Its somewhat similar to TV advertising . In our business plan this social media and networks is playing an important part in advertisement. Companies are more concerned about their social graph ranks about products and services then how Google ranks them. The social media channels are creating content for the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to work for the companies social media strategy. The content creation strategy should be aligned with the social media strategy to drive users towards taking action ( PR News 2009) There are three kinds of people who doubt the efficiency of social media. * Who are unaware about social media. * Who are interested in it but do not have knowledge to use it * Who doubts the social media strategy could benefit the business or their website(Jue et al. 2009) Social media should be included in the brand strategy because it will help consumers in the adoption process, laid out by Rogers (1962), which are (1) awareness, (2) interest, (3) evaluation, (4) trial, and (5) adoption, by spreading the awareness of the brand and answering the questions about the benefits the brand will provide. Social media will communicate the brand at all emotional levels. Furthermore, feedback will help in improving and evolving the brand. Bauknecht (2005) says people are believing and trusting more on peer recommendations than an advertisement. According to Warner (2008) social media networking might be just waste of time because the amounts of time individuals are spending on it. According to a survey, there is an estimated cost of  £6.5 billion per annum for loss in productivity and high bandwidth usage Britains social media fanatics spent like 12 hours per week on social media websites wasting value time. Young generations are also spending so much time on it. It was already hard to get the video game generation to focus on their studies. Lets see how much time it takes to spend on social media I am not a blogger or a social media fan. I did not have a Facebook account. I belonged to the category who doubted that social media could not benefit the business as advertising does. Now for me realizing the potential of social media was a huge eye-opener. I cant imagine how I could be ignoring it even after noticing all the online websites and other friends are on some kind of social media. However, after attending the Presentation of Chris Ramsbottom, former student of LUMS, and listening to his experiences regarding convincing the top managed about the importance of social media made me realize that I am not the only one. Now I have almost all the major social media channels and to expand my knowledge further regarding social media, I just got a book The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success 2009 by Lon Safko, David Brake and a digital copy of Social Media Marketing for Dummies 2009 by Shiv Singh. Also an iPhone to keep in touch with the social media networks However, it is important to understand how to utilize social media effectively by clarifying what actually is required from the social media either increasing sales or brand awareness of products or services. It will avoid wasting valuable time. Reference: Bauknecht K., Prà ¶ll B. and Werthner H. 2005, E-commerce and web technologies: 6th international conference, EC-Web Publisher: Springer Science Business Perez S. 2008, Real People Dont Have Time for Social Media [online], Available: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_people_dont_have_time_for_social_media.php PR News 2009, SEO SEM 3.0: Demystifying Social Media Optimization to Bring Consumers to You, PR News, April 27, http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/ (accessed December 13, 2009). Jue A.L. , Marr J.A. and Kassotakis M.E. 2009, Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance , Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. Glencoe: Free Press. Warner B. 2008, Times Online : Is social networking a waste of time[Online], Available: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3536749.ec Mass Production I have been absent from the working log for quite sometime. Was really busy in group meetings, presentations and assignments etc. just finished my toughest assignment for SAP which is due day after tomorrow. Im relaxed now and having a cup of tea and startedwriting my learning log again Mass Production Honestly when I saw the week 6 questions I thought mass production will be boring and just time consuming, there would be nothing interesting about it except the word mass production but after seeing a clip of Charlie Chaplin at the time of lecture actually started my interest. I was fascinated to find out how industrial revolution began and how change actually happened. Most of the people live their lives and dont bother to look at the history like how we, as people, got to current situation. How we, as people progressed. It made me feel proud how we as human beings progressed through passage of time. The Industrial Revolution consisted a period from 18th to the 19th century where changes on manufacturing, transport and agriculture had an enormous effect on social, cultural and economic conditions first starting in UK. UK is the place, in the 18 century, where first manufacturing operations were specifically designed to reduce production costs by specialized labour and the use of machines appeared (britannica.com). Then afterwards spread to Europe, North America, and eventually the world. It was interesting to read about Model T a model of car produced by the Ford Motor Company between 1909-27, first car to be successfully mass-produced on an assembly line. I was a little bit curious what is the significance of the letter T. Just noticed it is 20th letter of the alphabet. So Model T is THE MODEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. (Babylon dictionary) The main characteristics of MODEL T is the Standardization which lead to economies of scale during production, Division of Task which led to higher productivity. Specialism which lead to easy training of new workers in different departments Payment procedure, more parts produced the more money earned, led to overcoming the problem of high labour turnover Concentration where specialist making the decision instead of Workers Interest to read more about Model T and suggestion from Mary on The limits of Fordism led me to a paper onThe Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations 2004 by Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova, who states that in the manufacturing industry there are 3 functions Design Manufacture process of turning inputs into outputs co-ordination management The larger the firms became, under Fordism production, the more co-ordination was required; the faster technology and products changed and the pace of change was steadily accelerating, the more design was required. It is to be noted that Fordist production methods was actually derived from the transformation of previous organization of production notably Taylorism. It was actually Taylor in his Bethlehem Steel plant where craftsmen were subordinated directly to engineers who allocated tasks to workers. Fordism production, in Kaplinskys words, had distinct spheres. Photobucket Mass production system of Fordism was marvellously efficient and the model can be valued by the concept of transformation mechanisation which has 3 stages referred by Coombs (1983). Stage 1: The dedicated machine tool, lower labour cost and higher production Stage 2: The assembly line of continuous flow mechanical moving of materials between different stages of transformation. What Fordism lacked was the 3rd stage i.e. Control mechanisation which is the substitution of machines for the human brain in the direction and supervision of the productive process.What was needed, for control mechanisation, was machine intelligence and that was the next techno-economic paradigm development of ICT. Later on flexible form of mechanisation was made possible by Computer-aided manufacturing. Computer aided manufacturing which later on joined with computer aided design. The use of ICT in the process of coordination was increasingly recognized which led the development and diffusion of internet. Coming from a family business of clothes manufacturing, for me I understood perfectly about the boredom the workers experience for constant doing the repetitive work in mass production.Even after the policy of wages were based according to the amount of output a worker does i.e. wages paid for each item of work they do, the motivation increases but eventually comes down and the element of boredom re-appears. By looking at the theory of the law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity of labour (sometimes called the law of diminishing returns). It states that the increase in output due to units increase in labour working hours will eventually decline.(Jacques, Ian 2006) Which means if a worker is working 10 hours in a day ,His efficiency in the 1st hour will be higher than the 2nd hour. 2nd hour skill of production is more than the 3rd hour. In his last hour that is in the 10th hour his efficiency will be very very low .It may be zero or negative. Which was apparent in the case of Charlie Chaplin in the MODERN TIMES movie clip, that was seen in the class, when he lost his mind after repetitive working of loooooog hours and his productivity became negative In the book Mathematics for Economics and Business by Jacques, Ian gives an exmple: In the simplest case output, Q, is assumed to be a function of labour, L, and capital, K. Moreover, in the short run the input K can be assumed to be fixed, so Q is then only a function of one input L. (This is not a valid assumption in the long run and in general Q must be regarded as a function of at least two inputs. Methods for handling this situation are considered in the next chapter.) The variable L is usually measured in terms of the number of workers or possibly in terms of the number of worker hours. We define the marginal product of labour,MPL, by dQ = MPL dL Between 0 and L0 the curve bends upwards, becoming progressively steeper, and so the slope function, MPL, increases. Mathematically, this means that the slope of MPL is positive: that is, d(MPL ) > 0 dQ Now MPL is itself the derivative of Q with respect to L, so we can use the notation for the second derivative and write this as d2Q - > 0 dL2 Similarly, if L exceeds the threshold value of L0, then Figure 4.17 shows that the product curve bends downwards and the slope decreases. In this region, the slope of the slope function is negative, so that d2Q dL2 The law of diminishing returns states that this must happen eventually: that is, d2Q dL2 for sufficiently large L. Conclusion: To increase the productivity of a labourer and to reduce the cost of production. Reducing working hours of a shift is necessary. References: Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova 2004, The Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations www.giovannavertova.it/WP06.pdf britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/368270/mass-production Babylon dictionary http://dictionary.babylon.com Jacques, Ian 2006, Mathematics for Economics and Business, Pearson Education UK, p. 268-271 http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/Browse/open.aspID=60204loc=Cover Kaplinsky (1984) Fordial Organisation Of Factory Production, p. 24 Perez Coombs. (1983). Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies in the Economic and Social Systems, Futures, 15(5): 357-375. disruptive technology It is a term which Christensen described as a new technology in this book the innovators dilemma by categorizing new technology into 2 categories: Sustaining technology incrementing improvements in an existing established technology Disruptive technology new technology, may not be perfect but appealing to a limited audience. Has initially little value and does not create attention among the dominate players in the industry. Disruptive technology usually targets new areas within the current industry with a new approach and could dominate an existing market. I will give 2 examples of disruptive technologies. Firstly, in my technology module, I found cloud computing a very disruptive technology. Its potential value cannot be ignored or denied. There were number of phases involved in the evolution of cloud computing, which include application service provision (ASP) and Software as a Service (SaaS) (Velte et al. 2009). In 2006, Amazon launched a commercial web service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) allowing small companies and individuals to renting I.T. infrastructure and computing power to run their own computer applications (LaMonica 2006). Cloud computing service is risk free and Easy to use. One does not have to buy anything or invest hugely into it. The technology is flexible; adjusting to the companys requirements and also easily scalable; fulfilling the needs of the companys growing demands. Just imagine in an industry where customers, had to pay upfront for a technology for which they may get 20-30% use, could use this cloud computing technology model and pay only for what is used and when it is used. It can be seen that the barriers to the entry of customers, around cost and complexity, are going to come down so dramatically that the cloud is going to open up much more usages of IT for small medium businesses. Emerging markets can be seen in countries, where just the cost and complexity have been barriers. Developing countries like Brazil rushing, China, India and beyond are going to end up using the technology in ways they have never been able to use it before and in ways we have never seen before. The second disruptive technology I found was the Google announcement of Google Navigation Map product for FREE, which was one of the innovation searches in our workshops. This product is used by connecting to the internet to Google cloud computing technology providing all the services of a traditional Sat. Nav and much more. By looking at the stock market of Garmin, one of the leading companies of navigation system providers in the GPS industry, we could actually see the market reaction to such a disruptive technology in just a couple of days from announcement, last year, in October 2009. TomTom and other companies are also affected. This product is targeted to price sensitive customers with offering excellent features and capabilities for FREE. With good understanding of the term disruptive innovation and disruptive technology, broadered my view of anticipating whether any new technology, i came accross, will prove disruptive or not. References: * Christensen C.M. 1997, The innovators dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail, Publisher: Harvard Business Press * Gurley B., Google Redefines Disruption: The Less Than Free Business Model [Online],Available: http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/ [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * LaMonica M. 2006, Amazon servers, starting at 10 cents an hour [Online], Available: http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-servers,-starting-at-10-cents-an-hour/2100-1038_3-6109202.html [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * Velte T., Velte A. and Elsenpeter R. 2009, Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach, Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional disruptive innovation The term Disruptive innovation is thought up by Clayton Christensen, who describes the term as a process by which a product or service application starts from the bottom of the market and manoeuvres up in the market displacing established competitors. (christensen, 2009) I read an interesting book The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work by Scott. It describes the disruptive innovation theory: the market consists of customers some of which are at a high end, very demanding, and willing to buy high-performance, expensive products. While others are low end and satisfied with simple and inexpensive products. Customers lives are not changing as fast as most organization or companies are innovating. These fast innovating companies end up producing goods, sustaining innovations, that are too good, too expensive and sometimes too inconvenient for many customers. The disconnect between the capabilities of a product and the customers ability to use them opens up an opportunity for innovators who brings to a market a disruptive innovation that is simple, convenient, accessible and affordable. Thus, changing the game of the market. The disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into two types: new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. The new-market disruptive innovation, which succeeds because they bring previous non-consumers into the market, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Disruptive innovations can be generally be divided into new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption (i.e., consumers who would not have used the products already on the market), whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Low-end disruption has occurred repeatedly in retailing. Disruptive innovation will result in major changes, but they dont often rely on technological breakthroughs. In fact, many times the technologies are quite trivial. Its the Business Model the way a company organises and acts that drives disruptions. Taking the example of Wal-Mart, who opened their first discount retailer in 1962, they didnt start to sell goods that are different from their competitors, they created a new way to organize and act that allowed them to make money at low price points. So its not often the technology but is the businesses model. I read about many other models that shows the difference between disruption and sustaining innovation like the personal computer, eBay online model etc. the most interesting one is from the video games industries. Contrast the Sony PlayStation 3 product with the Nintendos Wii product. The PS3 is a technological marvel. The best game play you can find, great graphics, the blue ray disks in the player. It is aimed at the heart core gamers, the most demanding consumers in the games industry. Now Nintendo has innovated in a very different way. Instead of introducing games with better graphics Nintendo made it simpler, made it more accessible. The big innovation is the controller. Nintendo is consciously targeting the non-gamer and by doing so it has greatly expanded the market for the video games by reaching people that Sony wouldnt even think about targeting. Not winning it by doing it better but by winning it by doing it differently. (Ali Farhoomand, 2009) In the EBIN 504 innovation module understanding of the concept of disruptive innovation helped me understand more how to look at the market or industry to Spot Disruptive Innovation Opportunities which had helped me in my EBIN 503: Business Planning Module where we had a workshop for idea generation for starting a business. I also in thebook The innovators guide to growth I learned that, firstly we had to look for a market or industry where there is some kind of constraint that inhibits consumption where there is something that makes it difficult for people to solve problems in their life. Sometimes they dont have skills, sometimes they dont have money, and sometimes they cant access the solution and sometimes its just takes too long. Finding one of those barriers to consumption and see how you can obliterate it. Secondly we had to identify where people have important and unsatisfied jobs to be done. Where are problems that a customer faces that they cant adequately solve today. If we can find that frustrated customer and ease their pain we often times have the ticket to disruptive innovation. Then after we have looked for the constraint innovation and targeted that job to be done, then we think thought about how we can play the innovation game differently. With better understanding of the concept of di sruptive innovation theory, I understood its not about doing it better, its about making it simpler, cheaper, more accessible, more affordable. That is what disruption is all about. (Scott D. Anthony, 2008) References Ali Farhoomand, H. J. (2009) Nintendos Disruptive Strategy: Implications for the Video Game Industry. Feb 10, 2009, Harvard business publishing. http://harvardbusiness.org/product/nintendo-s-disruptive-strategy-implications-for-th/an/HKU814-PDF-ENG Christensen, C. (2009) Disruptive Innovation. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html John Bessant, J. T. (2007) Innovation and entrepreneurship John Wiley and Sons, p. 229-34, 247 Scott D. Anthony, M. W. J., Joseph V. Sinfield, Elizabeth J. Altman (2008) The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work, Harvard Business Press PLATFORM INNOVATION Platform in simple words means pictures of major subsystems and interfaces between these subsystems. The platform innovation is defined as one that leads to the practical application of fundamental innovations. Such innovations normally are launching pads for a new industry I read a journal Platform-Innovation drive enterprise growth. It was very fascinating to see how Platform thinking for physical products played an important role in the companys transformation of its traditional mainframe business to a Web server business. Also product platforms require accurate operational definition without which its difficult to achieve progress, but many organizations are lacking in applying this definition. New product strategy must be remodeled to capture the degree to which common architectures and subsystems will be leveraged across existing and new market applications, as well as the timing of product introductions. (Marc H Meyer ad el. 2001) In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module I have learned that the Internet has evolved from web 1.0 to and Web 2.0 to become an increasingly important platform not just for economic development, communication, educational purposes, and as an area for entertainment, but also as a place for those who wish to express their opinions and ideas freely and is now considered web as a platform which doesnt have a hard boundary Figure 1 shows a meme map of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at OReilly Media. Its very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core. (Tim OReilly 2005) from the above figureabovewe can have an idea of Web as a platform.Web 2.0 can be conceived as blocks of principles and practices that are interconnected system of sites, where software and web applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop. The uniqueness of web 2.0 is customers are building your business for you. (Tim OReilly 2005) Everything is platform in web 2.0 era. I found this comic very interesting. In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module and EBIN-503 Business Planning Finance Planning we are going to plan to have an open API (application programming interface) as part of our e-business. Open API is a platform innovation concept, where other developers uses Open API to come up with a new combination for an innovation, which leads to more innovation. Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that a software program implements in order to allow other software to interact with it; much in the same way that software might implement a user interface in order to allow humans to interact with it. (Wikipedia cited: on Nov 2009).For example In September 2009 programmableweb.com announced that ithad 16 new Mashups in their Mashup Directory and 28 different APIs were used to build them in different combination (programmableweb.com 2009). At the website link provided below in the reference shows a list of API used in different meshups An an exampleof a web ping.fm (http://ping.fm/)It is a web application for Managing Social Networks. It is linked with 46 social websites like Twitter, Facebook, myspace,blogger, beboetc. You can create an account with ping.fm and link it to any social websitefrom the list of 46. And if you want to post something like any news or update you can just post once on ping.fm and it will posted to you all the LINKED services you added to your ping.fm account. Now pink.fm provides OPEN API. Byusing their opi functionality any web-developer or business organization can build their business In our business plan, we will be having an OPEN DATA API and TRANSACTION API in our eBusiness as a open platform for other developers build or develop their web-application or software , hence building their business using our platform or in other words building our business for us Reference: Make platform innovation drive enterprise growth By Marc H Meyer, Paul C Mugge, Publication title: Research Technology Management. Arlington: Jan/Feb 2001. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 25, 15 pgs Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface#cite_note-0 John Musser 2009 28 APIs Used This Week: Open Government, Wikipedia, New York Times, and Football Nerds http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/04/28-apis-used-this-week-open-government-wikipedia-new-york-times-and-football-nerds/ Realinnovation- 2008 http://www.realinnovation.com/dictionary/Platform_Innovation-312.htm dilbert.com 2007 http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2007-09-09/ Tim OReilly Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software 2005 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html understanding Dominant Design Dominant Design a product configuration which endures; a particular combination of product features which appears to satisfy the market and survives, without major change, for some time. (Don Bradmore 2004) Often in dominant design route there are many competitors involved each one introducing many products with special features but the firm that are able to imitate the dominant design survive while those that cannot fail. The design typically remains a standard product model for many years during which firms compete on lowering costs through process innovations. In the technology industry number of alternative design are often introduced by firms e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple Inc. Mac OS and IBM OS2). Updated designs are introduced later incorporating incremental improvements. After sometime the architecture that becomes most accepted as the industry standard may emerge e.g. Microsoft Windows. Dominant designs might not be better than other designs in the market place; however they fulfil the key requirements. Many technologies, currently in use, struggled with similar competing products before gaining the dominant design. According to Markides and Geroski (2005) until the standard is emerging consumers are affected by issues Competition vs Collaboration Competition vs Collaboration Competition versus Collaboration Studying so much about collaboration within and outside the organization made me curious about the competition element. So I tried to find out where does the competition lies when we are talking about Collaboration.Christiansen (2000) says that for creativity and innovation, it is important to consider whether collaboration or competition is valuable. Although there are some downsides with collaboration like: collaborative group working independently, resistance dispute, ownership problems, Time pressure in members and their activities, etc.. Despite having such downsides competition is beaten by collaboration. Furthermore, competition among individuals within an organization, in idea generation, forces people to shutdown. Who wins and who looses is based on the rules of the game which includes individuals competencies and other factors. Whereas in the innovation-process, creativity nourishes with new ideas from a variety of sources. In competition individuals hold back information. Furthermore, the individual might not have a clear picture about the problem in-hand or reduce creative thinking or might not give enough time to think about the solution. Thus, increasing the possibility that the outcome is not a best solution or a best idea. Whereas in collaboration, individuals will be synergistically working together towards their objective. Collaboration is an important part of the innovation stages of selecting the ideas, development and commercializing an idea. In case where competition is outside the organization Nagel (2001) says that Wealth is created by competition and innovation plays a centre role in competition. And innovation is a key which comprises collaboration among competitors. Innovative companies collaborate externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. Some innovative companies value internal and external competition, not being cut-throat competition with high secrecy or fierce, only to stimulate higher performance in competing projects where the losing teams are happy to support the winning team on their way forward. In such a company, with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate (Mayle 2006).This concept can be seen apprentin the Ripple Effect (IDEO 2009) project model from IDEO where different organizations collaborate to provide inspiration, deign and business support to entrepreneurs in development of new offering. I have attached a video below showing how companies are collaborating to provide clean drinking water for the poor The Ripple Effect in India, by IDEO and Acumen Fund from IDEO on Vimeo. Reference: Christiansen J. A., 2000 Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques to Improve Innovation Performance, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan IDEO 2009, Ripple Effect: Access to safe drinking water for Acumen fund and The Bill Melinda Gates foundation [Online], Available:http://www.ideo.com/work/item/ripple-effect-access-to-safe-drinking-water/ Mayle D. 2006, Managing innovation and change, Publisher: SAGE Nagel S. 2001, Handbook of Policy Creativity: Creativity at the cutting edge Publisher: Nova Publishers, Social Media and Networks In the last few years, the number of users accessing the internet is expanding and an exponential rate. Users looking for any kind of information are searching the internet. Organizations are shifting or starting businesses online spending a lot of many to get traffic to their site. But with the hype of internet and web 2.0, these companies are using the internet to market and advertise their products and services through social media channels like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. It is the most low cost promotion method available today. Now a day marketers are using social media as their primary advertising platform as it is able to capture mass audiences. Its somewhat similar to TV advertising . In our business plan this social media and networks is playing an important part in advertisement. Companies are more concerned about their social graph ranks about products and services then how Google ranks them. The social media channels are creating content for the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to work for the companies social media strategy. The content creation strategy should be aligned with the social media strategy to drive users towards taking action ( PR News 2009) There are three kinds of people who doubt the efficiency of social media. * Who are unaware about social media. * Who are interested in it but do not have knowledge to use it * Who doubts the social media strategy could benefit the business or their website(Jue et al. 2009) Social media should be included in the brand strategy because it will help consumers in the adoption process, laid out by Rogers (1962), which are (1) awareness, (2) interest, (3) evaluation, (4) trial, and (5) adoption, by spreading the awareness of the brand and answering the questions about the benefits the brand will provide. Social media will communicate the brand at all emotional levels. Furthermore, feedback will help in improving and evolving the brand. Bauknecht (2005) says people are believing and trusting more on peer recommendations than an advertisement. According to Warner (2008) social media networking might be just waste of time because the amounts of time individuals are spending on it. According to a survey, there is an estimated cost of  £6.5 billion per annum for loss in productivity and high bandwidth usage Britains social media fanatics spent like 12 hours per week on social media websites wasting value time. Young generations are also spending so much time on it. It was already hard to get the video game generation to focus on their studies. Lets see how much time it takes to spend on social media I am not a blogger or a social media fan. I did not have a Facebook account. I belonged to the category who doubted that social media could not benefit the business as advertising does. Now for me realizing the potential of social media was a huge eye-opener. I cant imagine how I could be ignoring it even after noticing all the online websites and other friends are on some kind of social media. However, after attending the Presentation of Chris Ramsbottom, former student of LUMS, and listening to his experiences regarding convincing the top managed about the importance of social media made me realize that I am not the only one. Now I have almost all the major social media channels and to expand my knowledge further regarding social media, I just got a book The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success 2009 by Lon Safko, David Brake and a digital copy of Social Media Marketing for Dummies 2009 by Shiv Singh. Also an iPhone to keep in touch with the social media networks However, it is important to understand how to utilize social media effectively by clarifying what actually is required from the social media either increasing sales or brand awareness of products or services. It will avoid wasting valuable time. Reference: Bauknecht K., Prà ¶ll B. and Werthner H. 2005, E-commerce and web technologies: 6th international conference, EC-Web Publisher: Springer Science Business Perez S. 2008, Real People Dont Have Time for Social Media [online], Available: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_people_dont_have_time_for_social_media.php PR News 2009, SEO SEM 3.0: Demystifying Social Media Optimization to Bring Consumers to You, PR News, April 27, http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/ (accessed December 13, 2009). Jue A.L. , Marr J.A. and Kassotakis M.E. 2009, Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance , Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. Glencoe: Free Press. Warner B. 2008, Times Online : Is social networking a waste of time[Online], Available: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3536749.ec Mass Production I have been absent from the working log for quite sometime. Was really busy in group meetings, presentations and assignments etc. just finished my toughest assignment for SAP which is due day after tomorrow. Im relaxed now and having a cup of tea and startedwriting my learning log again Mass Production Honestly when I saw the week 6 questions I thought mass production will be boring and just time consuming, there would be nothing interesting about it except the word mass production but after seeing a clip of Charlie Chaplin at the time of lecture actually started my interest. I was fascinated to find out how industrial revolution began and how change actually happened. Most of the people live their lives and dont bother to look at the history like how we, as people, got to current situation. How we, as people progressed. It made me feel proud how we as human beings progressed through passage of time. The Industrial Revolution consisted a period from 18th to the 19th century where changes on manufacturing, transport and agriculture had an enormous effect on social, cultural and economic conditions first starting in UK. UK is the place, in the 18 century, where first manufacturing operations were specifically designed to reduce production costs by specialized labour and the use of machines appeared (britannica.com). Then afterwards spread to Europe, North America, and eventually the world. It was interesting to read about Model T a model of car produced by the Ford Motor Company between 1909-27, first car to be successfully mass-produced on an assembly line. I was a little bit curious what is the significance of the letter T. Just noticed it is 20th letter of the alphabet. So Model T is THE MODEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. (Babylon dictionary) The main characteristics of MODEL T is the Standardization which lead to economies of scale during production, Division of Task which led to higher productivity. Specialism which lead to easy training of new workers in different departments Payment procedure, more parts produced the more money earned, led to overcoming the problem of high labour turnover Concentration where specialist making the decision instead of Workers Interest to read more about Model T and suggestion from Mary on The limits of Fordism led me to a paper onThe Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations 2004 by Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova, who states that in the manufacturing industry there are 3 functions Design Manufacture process of turning inputs into outputs co-ordination management The larger the firms became, under Fordism production, the more co-ordination was required; the faster technology and products changed and the pace of change was steadily accelerating, the more design was required. It is to be noted that Fordist production methods was actually derived from the transformation of previous organization of production notably Taylorism. It was actually Taylor in his Bethlehem Steel plant where craftsmen were subordinated directly to engineers who allocated tasks to workers. Fordism production, in Kaplinskys words, had distinct spheres. Photobucket Mass production system of Fordism was marvellously efficient and the model can be valued by the concept of transformation mechanisation which has 3 stages referred by Coombs (1983). Stage 1: The dedicated machine tool, lower labour cost and higher production Stage 2: The assembly line of continuous flow mechanical moving of materials between different stages of transformation. What Fordism lacked was the 3rd stage i.e. Control mechanisation which is the substitution of machines for the human brain in the direction and supervision of the productive process.What was needed, for control mechanisation, was machine intelligence and that was the next techno-economic paradigm development of ICT. Later on flexible form of mechanisation was made possible by Computer-aided manufacturing. Computer aided manufacturing which later on joined with computer aided design. The use of ICT in the process of coordination was increasingly recognized which led the development and diffusion of internet. Coming from a family business of clothes manufacturing, for me I understood perfectly about the boredom the workers experience for constant doing the repetitive work in mass production.Even after the policy of wages were based according to the amount of output a worker does i.e. wages paid for each item of work they do, the motivation increases but eventually comes down and the element of boredom re-appears. By looking at the theory of the law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity of labour (sometimes called the law of diminishing returns). It states that the increase in output due to units increase in labour working hours will eventually decline.(Jacques, Ian 2006) Which means if a worker is working 10 hours in a day ,His efficiency in the 1st hour will be higher than the 2nd hour. 2nd hour skill of production is more than the 3rd hour. In his last hour that is in the 10th hour his efficiency will be very very low .It may be zero or negative. Which was apparent in the case of Charlie Chaplin in the MODERN TIMES movie clip, that was seen in the class, when he lost his mind after repetitive working of loooooog hours and his productivity became negative In the book Mathematics for Economics and Business by Jacques, Ian gives an exmple: In the simplest case output, Q, is assumed to be a function of labour, L, and capital, K. Moreover, in the short run the input K can be assumed to be fixed, so Q is then only a function of one input L. (This is not a valid assumption in the long run and in general Q must be regarded as a function of at least two inputs. Methods for handling this situation are considered in the next chapter.) The variable L is usually measured in terms of the number of workers or possibly in terms of the number of worker hours. We define the marginal product of labour,MPL, by dQ = MPL dL Between 0 and L0 the curve bends upwards, becoming progressively steeper, and so the slope function, MPL, increases. Mathematically, this means that the slope of MPL is positive: that is, d(MPL ) > 0 dQ Now MPL is itself the derivative of Q with respect to L, so we can use the notation for the second derivative and write this as d2Q - > 0 dL2 Similarly, if L exceeds the threshold value of L0, then Figure 4.17 shows that the product curve bends downwards and the slope decreases. In this region, the slope of the slope function is negative, so that d2Q dL2 The law of diminishing returns states that this must happen eventually: that is, d2Q dL2 for sufficiently large L. Conclusion: To increase the productivity of a labourer and to reduce the cost of production. Reducing working hours of a shift is necessary. References: Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova 2004, The Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations www.giovannavertova.it/WP06.pdf britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/368270/mass-production Babylon dictionary http://dictionary.babylon.com Jacques, Ian 2006, Mathematics for Economics and Business, Pearson Education UK, p. 268-271 http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/Browse/open.aspID=60204loc=Cover Kaplinsky (1984) Fordial Organisation Of Factory Production, p. 24 Perez Coombs. (1983). Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies in the Economic and Social Systems, Futures, 15(5): 357-375. disruptive technology It is a term which Christensen described as a new technology in this book the innovators dilemma by categorizing new technology into 2 categories: Sustaining technology incrementing improvements in an existing established technology Disruptive technology new technology, may not be perfect but appealing to a limited audience. Has initially little value and does not create attention among the dominate players in the industry. Disruptive technology usually targets new areas within the current industry with a new approach and could dominate an existing market. I will give 2 examples of disruptive technologies. Firstly, in my technology module, I found cloud computing a very disruptive technology. Its potential value cannot be ignored or denied. There were number of phases involved in the evolution of cloud computing, which include application service provision (ASP) and Software as a Service (SaaS) (Velte et al. 2009). In 2006, Amazon launched a commercial web service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) allowing small companies and individuals to renting I.T. infrastructure and computing power to run their own computer applications (LaMonica 2006). Cloud computing service is risk free and Easy to use. One does not have to buy anything or invest hugely into it. The technology is flexible; adjusting to the companys requirements and also easily scalable; fulfilling the needs of the companys growing demands. Just imagine in an industry where customers, had to pay upfront for a technology for which they may get 20-30% use, could use this cloud computing technology model and pay only for what is used and when it is used. It can be seen that the barriers to the entry of customers, around cost and complexity, are going to come down so dramatically that the cloud is going to open up much more usages of IT for small medium businesses. Emerging markets can be seen in countries, where just the cost and complexity have been barriers. Developing countries like Brazil rushing, China, India and beyond are going to end up using the technology in ways they have never been able to use it before and in ways we have never seen before. The second disruptive technology I found was the Google announcement of Google Navigation Map product for FREE, which was one of the innovation searches in our workshops. This product is used by connecting to the internet to Google cloud computing technology providing all the services of a traditional Sat. Nav and much more. By looking at the stock market of Garmin, one of the leading companies of navigation system providers in the GPS industry, we could actually see the market reaction to such a disruptive technology in just a couple of days from announcement, last year, in October 2009. TomTom and other companies are also affected. This product is targeted to price sensitive customers with offering excellent features and capabilities for FREE. With good understanding of the term disruptive innovation and disruptive technology, broadered my view of anticipating whether any new technology, i came accross, will prove disruptive or not. References: * Christensen C.M. 1997, The innovators dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail, Publisher: Harvard Business Press * Gurley B., Google Redefines Disruption: The Less Than Free Business Model [Online],Available: http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/ [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * LaMonica M. 2006, Amazon servers, starting at 10 cents an hour [Online], Available: http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-servers,-starting-at-10-cents-an-hour/2100-1038_3-6109202.html [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * Velte T., Velte A. and Elsenpeter R. 2009, Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach, Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional disruptive innovation The term Disruptive innovation is thought up by Clayton Christensen, who describes the term as a process by which a product or service application starts from the bottom of the market and manoeuvres up in the market displacing established competitors. (christensen, 2009) I read an interesting book The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work by Scott. It describes the disruptive innovation theory: the market consists of customers some of which are at a high end, very demanding, and willing to buy high-performance, expensive products. While others are low end and satisfied with simple and inexpensive products. Customers lives are not changing as fast as most organization or companies are innovating. These fast innovating companies end up producing goods, sustaining innovations, that are too good, too expensive and sometimes too inconvenient for many customers. The disconnect between the capabilities of a product and the customers ability to use them opens up an opportunity for innovators who brings to a market a disruptive innovation that is simple, convenient, accessible and affordable. Thus, changing the game of the market. The disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into two types: new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. The new-market disruptive innovation, which succeeds because they bring previous non-consumers into the market, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Disruptive innovations can be generally be divided into new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption (i.e., consumers who would not have used the products already on the market), whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Low-end disruption has occurred repeatedly in retailing. Disruptive innovation will result in major changes, but they dont often rely on technological breakthroughs. In fact, many times the technologies are quite trivial. Its the Business Model the way a company organises and acts that drives disruptions. Taking the example of Wal-Mart, who opened their first discount retailer in 1962, they didnt start to sell goods that are different from their competitors, they created a new way to organize and act that allowed them to make money at low price points. So its not often the technology but is the businesses model. I read about many other models that shows the difference between disruption and sustaining innovation like the personal computer, eBay online model etc. the most interesting one is from the video games industries. Contrast the Sony PlayStation 3 product with the Nintendos Wii product. The PS3 is a technological marvel. The best game play you can find, great graphics, the blue ray disks in the player. It is aimed at the heart core gamers, the most demanding consumers in the games industry. Now Nintendo has innovated in a very different way. Instead of introducing games with better graphics Nintendo made it simpler, made it more accessible. The big innovation is the controller. Nintendo is consciously targeting the non-gamer and by doing so it has greatly expanded the market for the video games by reaching people that Sony wouldnt even think about targeting. Not winning it by doing it better but by winning it by doing it differently. (Ali Farhoomand, 2009) In the EBIN 504 innovation module understanding of the concept of disruptive innovation helped me understand more how to look at the market or industry to Spot Disruptive Innovation Opportunities which had helped me in my EBIN 503: Business Planning Module where we had a workshop for idea generation for starting a business. I also in thebook The innovators guide to growth I learned that, firstly we had to look for a market or industry where there is some kind of constraint that inhibits consumption where there is something that makes it difficult for people to solve problems in their life. Sometimes they dont have skills, sometimes they dont have money, and sometimes they cant access the solution and sometimes its just takes too long. Finding one of those barriers to consumption and see how you can obliterate it. Secondly we had to identify where people have important and unsatisfied jobs to be done. Where are problems that a customer faces that they cant adequately solve today. If we can find that frustrated customer and ease their pain we often times have the ticket to disruptive innovation. Then after we have looked for the constraint innovation and targeted that job to be done, then we think thought about how we can play the innovation game differently. With better understanding of the concept of di sruptive innovation theory, I understood its not about doing it better, its about making it simpler, cheaper, more accessible, more affordable. That is what disruption is all about. (Scott D. Anthony, 2008) References Ali Farhoomand, H. J. (2009) Nintendos Disruptive Strategy: Implications for the Video Game Industry. Feb 10, 2009, Harvard business publishing. http://harvardbusiness.org/product/nintendo-s-disruptive-strategy-implications-for-th/an/HKU814-PDF-ENG Christensen, C. (2009) Disruptive Innovation. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html John Bessant, J. T. (2007) Innovation and entrepreneurship John Wiley and Sons, p. 229-34, 247 Scott D. Anthony, M. W. J., Joseph V. Sinfield, Elizabeth J. Altman (2008) The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work, Harvard Business Press PLATFORM INNOVATION Platform in simple words means pictures of major subsystems and interfaces between these subsystems. The platform innovation is defined as one that leads to the practical application of fundamental innovations. Such innovations normally are launching pads for a new industry I read a journal Platform-Innovation drive enterprise growth. It was very fascinating to see how Platform thinking for physical products played an important role in the companys transformation of its traditional mainframe business to a Web server business. Also product platforms require accurate operational definition without which its difficult to achieve progress, but many organizations are lacking in applying this definition. New product strategy must be remodeled to capture the degree to which common architectures and subsystems will be leveraged across existing and new market applications, as well as the timing of product introductions. (Marc H Meyer ad el. 2001) In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module I have learned that the Internet has evolved from web 1.0 to and Web 2.0 to become an increasingly important platform not just for economic development, communication, educational purposes, and as an area for entertainment, but also as a place for those who wish to express their opinions and ideas freely and is now considered web as a platform which doesnt have a hard boundary Figure 1 shows a meme map of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at OReilly Media. Its very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core. (Tim OReilly 2005) from the above figureabovewe can have an idea of Web as a platform.Web 2.0 can be conceived as blocks of principles and practices that are interconnected system of sites, where software and web applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop. The uniqueness of web 2.0 is customers are building your business for you. (Tim OReilly 2005) Everything is platform in web 2.0 era. I found this comic very interesting. In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module and EBIN-503 Business Planning Finance Planning we are going to plan to have an open API (application programming interface) as part of our e-business. Open API is a platform innovation concept, where other developers uses Open API to come up with a new combination for an innovation, which leads to more innovation. Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that a software program implements in order to allow other software to interact with it; much in the same way that software might implement a user interface in order to allow humans to interact with it. (Wikipedia cited: on Nov 2009).For example In September 2009 programmableweb.com announced that ithad 16 new Mashups in their Mashup Directory and 28 different APIs were used to build them in different combination (programmableweb.com 2009). At the website link provided below in the reference shows a list of API used in different meshups An an exampleof a web ping.fm (http://ping.fm/)It is a web application for Managing Social Networks. It is linked with 46 social websites like Twitter, Facebook, myspace,blogger, beboetc. You can create an account with ping.fm and link it to any social websitefrom the list of 46. And if you want to post something like any news or update you can just post once on ping.fm and it will posted to you all the LINKED services you added to your ping.fm account. Now pink.fm provides OPEN API. Byusing their opi functionality any web-developer or business organization can build their business In our business plan, we will be having an OPEN DATA API and TRANSACTION API in our eBusiness as a open platform for other developers build or develop their web-application or software , hence building their business using our platform or in other words building our business for us Reference: Make platform innovation drive enterprise growth By Marc H Meyer, Paul C Mugge, Publication title: Research Technology Management. Arlington: Jan/Feb 2001. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 25, 15 pgs Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface#cite_note-0 John Musser 2009 28 APIs Used This Week: Open Government, Wikipedia, New York Times, and Football Nerds http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/04/28-apis-used-this-week-open-government-wikipedia-new-york-times-and-football-nerds/ Realinnovation- 2008 http://www.realinnovation.com/dictionary/Platform_Innovation-312.htm dilbert.com 2007 http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2007-09-09/ Tim OReilly Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software 2005 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html understanding Dominant Design Dominant Design a product configuration which endures; a particular combination of product features which appears to satisfy the market and survives, without major change, for some time. (Don Bradmore 2004) Often in dominant design route there are many competitors involved each one introducing many products with special features but the firm that are able to imitate the dominant design survive while those that cannot fail. The design typically remains a standard product model for many years during which firms compete on lowering costs through process innovations. In the technology industry number of alternative design are often introduced by firms e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple Inc. Mac OS and IBM OS2). Updated designs are introduced later incorporating incremental improvements. After sometime the architecture that becomes most accepted as the industry standard may emerge e.g. Microsoft Windows. Dominant designs might not be better than other designs in the market place; however they fulfil the key requirements. Many technologies, currently in use, struggled with similar competing products before gaining the dominant design. According to Markides and Geroski (2005) until the standard is emerging consumers are affected by issues