Euro Disney: First 100 Days

The biggest factor that attributed to Euro Disney’s failure is perhaps its ambition of trying to cater to many different nationalities and handling a large European population without identifying the target market and further understand its entertainment preferences. In general, Disney should think through the resources needed to fulfill its targeted market, more importantly it should determines what are the key components that contributed to Disney’s success, and whether or not these components are transferable across cultural boundaries. The lack of understanding cultural differences has prevented Disney to exercise its core competency of delivering high quality services to its guests. While certain Disney’s characteristics are easily transferable to Euro Disney, such as building fascinating rides and attractions, creating different themes and fantasies land, selecting a central location that are easily accessible for tourist, and providing a complete vacation packages by building beautiful resorts around theme park. The heart of Disney’s key success, however, lies within its entertainment experience and cast member’s interactions with the guests. First of all, Euro Disney does not has the resources to deliver the same quality of customers service as seen in the US and Japan, Europeans workers has different work ethics, and they do not naturally adores the American culture and therefore are not enthusiastic about having the Disney spirit to grow inside them. Secondly, Europeans are accustom to intellectual entertainment, and fine dining experiences; which are not what Disney is about. Thirdly, because Euro Disney’s attempt to cater to too many nationality, it has not properly defined its targeted market, therefore unable to customize a system that works for majority of the guests. In order for Euro Disney to be successful, Disney need to figure out who the target customers are, and how can they attract repeated guests or draws new visitors. From there, they can adapt to the culture, and make compromises to satisfy its customers that meets Disney’s standard.

Globalisation and environmental sustainability Essay

A global society is marked by new technologically integrated local and international relations which encourage the study of the effects of globalisation and as well as internationalisation of various disciplines in a society which are involved in social interactions. This interactions may be locally based or may involve international relations some of which have a close relationship to political philosophy, international economies, conflict analysis, international laws and policies as well as sociology. Globalisation makes the world more productive and stable. In the past few decades, the global economy has become increasingly interconnected and integrated. This integration is quite evident in the international markets and it has been on a steady increase since the seventeenth century although in the last few years, globalisation has undergone revolution which has given rise to many controversial issues regarding its effects and impacts on the larger global society (Lindert, Williamson 2001). Some researches have indicated that in the last two decades or so, the increased integration in the global markets has resulted in greater inequality in the way income is distributed among nations around the world. In connection to this, Bourguignon and Morrisson (2000) have also observed that combining inequality within and across countries has brought a significant rise in the global inequality since 1960 thus making the already poor countries poorer while the rich countries get richer through globalisation. Globalisation refers to the way in which nations increasingly become interconnected with one another in terms of economic, political, technological, social and cultural aspects. More often than not, the word globalisation is used to refer to the economic aspect of a nation. Economic globalisation describes the integration of national economies into the international economies via trade, migrations, international market capital flows, foreign investments and increased use of technology. The increasing rate of globalisation as has been experienced in the past two decades or so has led to rapid growth of global trade, financial capital flows, direct foreign investments and cross border trade transactions (Johnston, Taylor, Watts 2002). The major facilitators of this growth include improved transport and communication infrastructure, improved technological know-how, quicker methods of telecommunication and internet services. In addition to this, globalisation has been favoured by removal of trade barriers and policies across nations which previously inhibited international trade among nations. This has now liberalised trade and encouraged more export and import transactions which promote globalisation. The establishment of international trade organisations such as world bank, IMF and WTO have also played a significant role in facilitating globalisation as they are devoted to promoting trade and investment across nations worldwide. The result of this kind of globalised trade is presence of multinational companies (MNCs) whose budgets exceed those of the economies of many nations in which they are situated (Atkison 1999). Globalisation and sustainability. In the recent years, many controversies have emanated from the issue of globalisation. It is now seen an unnecessary evil which is threatening the social and environmental sustainability of the global societies. Globalisation is viewed by some people as an opportunity for national and international economic growth while others feel that it is a threat to economic prosperity, political sovereignty and cultural integrity (Jussilla, Cullen 2002). People in developed countries are particularly concerned with the fact that globalisation poses a threat to unskilled workers who are bound to be left jobless with the increased technological methods of production in the contracting industries. On the other hand, the developing nations are mostly concerned about the loss of political powers and sovereignty as well as loss of economic prosperity which is bound to be brought about by globalisation. According to Bhalla (2002) the whole concept of globalisation is surrounded by ideological issues both positive and negative which in the long run affect the people or societies in the globalised world. , the controversial aspect of globalisation can not be easily resolved. Globalisation and environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability refers to the aspect of addressing the needs of the current global societies fully while being cautious not to compromise the needs of the societies which are to come,that is, future generations. According Heinberg (2005), globalisation has directly or indirectly led to several environmental issues such as global warming, increased deforestation, depletion of the ozone layer, destruction of water catchment areas, biodiversity, most natural resources have reached or are nearing depletion levels, pollution of water, air and the entire environment among others. For instance, globalisation has enabled MNCs to invest in countries which have few or no environmental conservation by-laws and this results in high environmental degradation as well as depletion of natural resources. However, the WTO in response to this effect has argued that the large amounts of income or capital flows earned from globalisation are capable of catering for the environmental degradation and this is bound to improve the quality of the environment to even higher standards that it were in before. In addition, globalisation has led to increased industrialisation all over the globe and this has resulted in the much dreaded effects of depletion of the ozone layer and global warming. Global warming comes as a result of release of industrial pollutants from the manufacturing industries into the environment. Such pollutants include carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxides of sulphur and so forth. The effects of global warming are quite evident all over the globe as they have led to diverse changes in weather and climate resulting in drought and famines in some parts of the world among other effects. The depletion of the ozone layer occurs as a result of release of chemicals such as freons and fluorocarbons in to the air which react with ozone layer hence thinning it (Bellow 2001). However,there are several positive effects of globalisation in relation to environmental sustainability. Precisely, globalisation has led to improved methods of energy utilisation, substitution of resources especially those occurring naturally, innovation of metal recovery and material recycling methods, dematerialisation of resources among other positive practices (Eiezen, Maxine 2006). Globalisation has particularly been putting great emphases on dematerialisation and this has helped industries to improve their efficiency in production, minimise and manage their waste production and reduced the production costs through use of cheap systematic procedures. In addition, the use of improved technological methods has made companies to adopt newer and more efficient methods of energy utilisation and as a result, the energy requirements in industrialized countries have substantially reduced in the recent years. Moreover, many non-renewable energy resources have been substituted with renewable sources of energy and this has greatly reduced the risk of depletion of such resources in the near future. Although the improved technology has great positive effects on the environmental sustainability, globalisation is negatively associated with the exportation and use of technologies and activities that can have detrimental effects on the environment. All these environmental effects of globalisation have either a direct or an indirect impact on the global societies. Lack of clean water for instance is a negative effect which is likely to cause diseases and suffering to the larger population. On the other hand, improved energy efficiency, advanced technology and industrialisation translates a greater advantage to the people living in the globalised world in terms of better quality consumer products, free exchange of goods, capital and services between nations among others. Globalisation and social sustainability. On the aspect of social sustainability, globalisation plays a very important role in terms of improving or lowering the social status of the people living in globalised world. Experts have argued that globalisation tends to impose a greater disadvantage to the poor countries while at the same time it favours the already developed nations (Bellow 2001). They add that although globalisation is believed to favour free trade among nations, it lead to much inequality between the developed and the under developed countries since the developing countries are unable to compete favourably with the developed countries in the international markets (Agyeman, Bullar, Evans 2003). In addition, the increased use of technology is bound to render many people jobless especially the unskilled workers, since most of the work which was previously done manually by the people is now easily done by machines. This reflects negatively on the society especially in the poorer countries since when people do not get jobs to do, they are likely to suffer from starvation, poor health, illiteracy among other social problems (Walker 2005). On the positive side, globalisation allows free movement of people across nations as they trade and this has promoted cultural diversity, intermarriages, tourism and so forth. This has further promoted peace,understanding and unity between individuals as well as nations. It is thus clear that globalisation has some critical impacts on the social lives of individuals an groups living in the industrialised countries. Identities and powers based on globalisation and sustainability. The last one decade or so has presented a turbulent phase for the global societies marked by globalisation and resurgence in the identity politics or religion based politics. Globalisation being a process of ongoing capitalism-industrialisation has had some adverse effects on the poor strata of the society. According to Heiberg (2005), the nature of globalisation is contradictory in that it divides the world as much as it unites it. Movements fundamental to globalisation are based on empathy, ideology and identities. The lives of people living in global societies are largely shaped by conflicting trends of globalisation and identity and current events in the world indicate that community identities are threatened by the forces of globalisation. One effect of globalisation on the societal political structure is the emergence of socialist states which came into being in the mid-20th century ushering in the beginning of an industrial society. The intensified rate of globalisation has led to a rise of America as a lone super-power in the world, decline of the power and authority exercised by the United Nations, decline in the amount of Non-Aligned movement, a rise in Fascist-fundamentalist politics among countries and worsening of the problems experienced by the poor in the society. While globalisation is believed to result in a democratic world economy, the political democracy system in the world is stifled in form of emasculation of the potential world government. As the national economies become more and more globalised, the world political powers become more and more centralised into one or a few nations of the world. This power monopoly is a negative effect of globalisation as it leads to a decline in democratic norms and projection of identity politics. Identity politics involve competition over scarce resources which could in principle be taken to mean struggle for political power or economic wealth resources. This kind of competition seems to favour only the rich and mighty residing in the wealthy and powerful countries leading to a form of discrimination. As a result, globalisation makes the people in rich countries continue becoming richer as those in poor countries become more poor by the day. In this case it is clear that although globalisation is capable of empowering a nation both economically and politically, the power distribution is unequal and this puts some nations at a higher political power advantage than others. Conclusion. Beyond doubt, globalisation has led to significant increase in per capita income of different nations which have fully accepted this process and applied effectively the technological advancements which come with it. It can however be seen that, globalisation has pushed most developing or Third world countries along the path of diminishing sustainability and this has not in any way been improved by the recent regulations made in the globalisation processes. For instance, the deregulation of global trade in the recent past has led to a decrease in the environmental and social-cultural constraints associated with globalisation but this kind of deregulation has failed to address the issues of sustainability. In conclusion, it is clear that the current globalisation process is quite unsustainable but with a few policies to govern it properly, the process is capable of bringing much success in the long run to all nations world wide as well as to people as individuals in the globalised world. Reference. Atkinson, G., Dubourg, R. , Hamilton, K. , Munasinghe, M. , Pearce D. , 1999. Measuring sustainable development. UK: Edward Elgar Publishers. Agyeman, J. , Bullard, R. D. , Evans, B. , (eds. ). 2003. Sustainability: Development in an Unequal World, London: Earthscan. Bello, W. F. 2001. The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance. Oakland, Calif: Food First Books. Bhalla, A. S. 2002. Globalisation and Sustainable Development: A Southern African Perspective†, International Journal of Technology Management & Sustainable Development, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 40-57.

A Class Struggle in Desperate Times Essay

John Steinbeck’s novel entitled The Grapes of Wrath is a story which depicts the spirit and dignity of a person during the most desperate of situations. The novel is a fictional account of the life of the Joad family on their way to the Promised Land of California from the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma during the 1930s (Steinbeck 2). The family, similar to several other sharecroppers and farmers living in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and other states at the time of the dust bowl and the Great Depression were forced to leave their lands (Steinbeck 3). When it was first published in April 14, 1939, it quickly became a bestselling novel (Steiner 2). Although there were those who criticized the novel for apparently being basically sentimental and still others dismissed it as another example of social journalism or documentation more than it is a novel, most critics recognize the literary value of Steinbeck’s work. In fact, the author even received a Pulitzer Prize for his work the following year (Steiner 2). The novel is an attack on capitalism as it is about the plight of the migrant workers. It condemned cruel industrialism and monopoly capitalism (Choi 90). The theme of finding a home entwined with the political issues of the time is of the essence. This is because even though the story primarily has a political undertone, the author nevertheless explores the reason behind the migration of people, how they struggle to find their new homes while seeking to find out how it can really be done. The novel was written at a time the United States was struggling to survive a severe economic depression (Steinbeck 3). People all over the country have practically lost everything they own. The farming areas located at the Midwest experienced the worst consequence of such crisis. Soil depletion was brought about by poor farming practices. As a result, farmers who depend on it for survival were forced to seek for other ways to support their families. Moreover, the prices as well as markets for the crops have dropped. These events produced a significant change in agriculture of the region. Small farm lands merged with bigger and more commercial ones. Manual labor has been replaced by mechanical means. The country experienced dry soil erosion brought about by mighty wind blows and endured serious food crisis during middle part of the 1930s. The condition produced what came to be known as the â€Å"dust bowl† in Colorado, Kansa, Texas, and Oklahoma. The farmers together with their families were driven out of the land they depend on for years of survival. They traveled all the way to California, whose fertile land presents the promise of a better life. Unfortunately, life in the so-called Promised Land has not been good to them either. They suffered oppression, resentment, low wages, and unemployment. They were accused as communist in a land they counted on to rescue them from the ill-fated life they left back home (Steinbeck 3). Steinbeck traveled with the migrants to gain a first-hand experience of the unfortunate life they had to live. In writing the novel, the author sought more than just to illustrate the class struggle at the time of the Great Depression. He even presented a critical analysis of the policies that had been the root cause of their misfortune. In this regard, the characters portrayed in the story usually come out as classic heroes or romanticized models. He did this on purpose instead of utilizing his characters to investigate the individual human psyche. Rather, he presents his characters as personification of the universal struggles and principles of the human race. Hence, The Grapes of Wrath serves as an account of the Great Depression as it was an assessment of the social and fiscal system that contributed to the emergence of this particular period in American history. Works Cited Choi, Jungsun. â€Å"John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath: Home-Seeking and the Ambiguity of the Ending. † Journal of British American Studies 14 (2006): 89-110. Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Steiner, Bernd. A Survey of John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath. † Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2007.

Strategic Management Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Management Analysis - Assignment Example Virgin Holiday is a UK based company. It is also considered as one of the market leaders that arrange travel trips to the USA along with Caribbean. From the year 1985, the company is arranging the entire holiday travels and has customized the experiences of holiday all throughout the world. Besides the two places it also offers holiday packages to other places such as Canada, Australia, South Africa, Far East, Middle-East, Indian Ocean, New Zealand, and Mauritius. The prime objective of the company is to provide customers with best holiday destination so that they can take pleasure of the place (Virgin Holidays, 2011). 1.2 Brief Introduction of Package Holiday Sector The package holiday industry in the UK is one of the largest as well as fastest emerging industries. The industry provides various holiday destinations to the customers. Besides other kinds of holiday packages, the package holiday is also arranged which provides customers with numerous destinations both internationally a s well as nationally. In the package holiday industry, tour operators perform as ‘wholesalers’ as they are entitled to bargain with the travel agencies regarding the commission for selling to the customers (Rowe & Et. Al., 2002). 1.3 Reason of Choosing the Company Virgin Holidays has been chosen because it is the successful ‘transatlantic tour operator’. The company is much efficient to arrange holiday programs for the travellers as it is operating in the market since the year 1985. It also possesses excellent customer service with unique travel intelligence (Virgin Holidays, 2011). 2.0 Task A 2.1 PESTEL Analysis The PESTEL analysis will analyse the political, social, economical, technological, environmental and legal factors that have impact on the package holiday industry in the UK. Political The political insecurity has an impact upon the selection of tourist destination of a traveller. The political conflicts in various countries have restricted the pac kage holiday destination for visitors. From the UK, trip towards Croatia and Serbia has seen improvement as the political situation has re-established, particularly in Croatia. The different political scenario in various countries may decrease the package holiday trips to the attractive destinations, which may result in low demand of the tourism packages in the UK (Philip Allan, n.d.). Economic The tourism industry has faced challenges due to the fluctuation of economy in the UK. The economy of the country is rising; as a result it will result in growth of the service industry such as tourism sector. The changes in the GDP rate and wage will have an impact on the tourism industry in the UK. In the UK the NMW (National Minimum Wage) rate is as follows: Rate (per Hour) Age ?5.93 Greater than 21 ?4.92 18 - 20 ?3.64 16 - 17 ?2.50 Apprentice under 19

Utilitarians Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Utilitarians - Essay Example This can be described in the expression that the ends justify the means. For that matter, the measure of utility is with respect to the level of satisfaction related to the end result. It is phrased as the greatest good for the majority but it focuses only on the end result unlike other philosophies wherein there are other basis e.g. virtues. For that matter, it is often considered as a reductionist view of ethics, focusing on a single attribute or a narrow point of view (Goodin, 1995; Mill, 2004). The application of utilitarianism in different cases can be considered to result differently from other philosophies. In Heinz Dilemma, due to the fact that the satisfaction achieved through the end result can be the focus of the principle, the action done by Heinz is justifiable. Due to the fact that he has done the act of robbery, he was able to get money to help his wife. The act of achieving is not important in utilitarianism. Ethics that are related to virtuous acts are not covered. In terms of the application of the philosophy in the Prisoners’ Dilemma, the most common action that will be undertaken is to point the fault to another. This is due to the fact that the chance to lessen the punishment can be a lure. In testifying against the other, a prisoner can have 5 years, 6 months or even have freedom. While if virtue or morality is in action a prisoner can risk a 10 year punishment (Goodin, 1995; Mill, 2004). The utilitarian’s view is in contrary to the Kant’s principle of duty since the main focus of Kant’s principle is to achieve a goal through actions and means that are in accordance to the duty to moral principles and guidelines. One of the views of the said duty by Kant is the duty to respect one’s neighbors as he would to himself/herself (Timmons, 2002). Based on the study of the concept and application of the principles of utilitarianism, it can be considered

International Financial management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

International Financial management - Essay Example The report is divided into four broad sections, which include a brief overview of Leighton Holdings and its comparison with global competitors, commentary on the operating and financial issues of the company in light of selected ratios, an evaluation of currency management and overall performance of the company and recommendations for potential investors on the basis of analysis and evaluations carried out in this report. Leighton Holdings Limited, being amongst the largest international contractors around the world, was established in the year 1949 and is headquartered in Sydney. The company was listed on Australian Stock Exchange (ASE) in 1962 (Leighton Holdings, 2013; Yahoo Finance, 2013). The current business profile of Leighton Holdings Limited shows numerous operations, which include construction, development and maintenance of infrastructural facilities, mining, resource provision and real estate services (Leighton Holdings, 2013). In addition, the company also undertakes projects related to construction of road, railway networks, cleaning up of contaminated areas, disposal of waste, and other related services. Apart from the domestic Australian market, the operations of the company are also spread internationally, which include regions 20 countries in the Asian region, Middle Eastern region, southern parts of Africa and the neighbouring country New Zealand. In this table, it can be seen that Leighton Holdings Limited can be regarded as amongst leading international contractors. The ranking of Leighton Holdings Limited in relation to earnings per share ratio and long term growth rate of the company, is the best amongst the ratios listed in the table. However, the gap between performance indicators of Leighton Holdings Limited and industry leader is considerable in almost all of the indicators shown above. For the

The constitutional jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice is a Essay

The constitutional jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice is a paradigm of judicial Activism. Discuss in relation to Art. 234 EC - Essay Example , the judicial activism of the European Court of Justice has been one of the most intriguing aspects of the evolving legal and judicial framework in Europe, because it â€Å"appoints the European Court as meeting place between the legal order of the Community and those of its member states.†3 It has in fact, represented the driving force of European integration through the fashioning of a constitutional framework for a federal type of structure within the European Union.4 The legislative process within the European Union has often been characterized by inertia, as a result of which the ECJ has had to exercise judicial creativity, to address the gap between voter wishes and political decisions which is not well defined in the European Community as it is in a democracy.5 In the context of Article 234 of the EC Treaty that places the European Court of Justice in the role of interpreter of the aims and objectives of the Treaty, creative European jurisprudence has often required that the ECJ not send away an individual litigant or a national Judge without an answer, in order to avoid denial of justice. As a result, this has often required creative judicial interpretation that has caused it to be accused of judicial activism.6 The Court has adopted the teleological method in its approach to judicial interpretation, wherein a rule is interpreted by taking into account the purpose of the rule and the aim and objective it seeks to accomplish, as stated in the case of CIFLIT, â€Å"every provision of Community law must be placed in its context and interpreted in the light of the provisions of E.C. law as a whole, regard being had to the objectives thereof and to its state of evolution at the date on which the provision in question is to be applied.†7 The factor that will determine when judicial activity strays into the field of judicial activism is determined by the extent to which the judicial function strays into the political realm. The European Court of Justice has

Scientific Method Applied to Forensic Science Paper Essay

Scientific Method Applied to Forensic Science Paper - Essay Example The scientific method is applied to forensic science to help forensic scientists gather needed evidence to come to a conclusion about a criminal event. Though it follows the same basic ideas and techniques as the original tried and true scientific method, forensic science has their own tweaked version of the method, which is as follows: observation and description of a phenomenon, or a group of phenomenon; formulation of a hypothesis, or hypotheses, to explain the phenomenon; use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomenon, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations; â€Å"performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experiments (James, 2009)†. These methods aid forensic scientists in the solving and understanding of the events of criminal investigations. The first step in the forensic scientific method is to observe and describe phenomenon or a group of such. The forensic scientist needs to be able to understand what they are seeing when they are viewing the crime scene and the evidence that they inspect. â€Å"If they describe it wrong or relay the information incorrectly, they will botch the experiment, thus botching the investigation and lessening the chances of solving the crime accurately (Braswell, 2007)†. They have to focus on the entire crime scene, taking in every bit of information that they can and making note and taking pictures of the totality of the scene. The recording of what they find allows them to look back at everything later, giving them the chance to find new evidence that they overlooked during the initial inspection. They have to look at the scene as a whole, breaking the scene up into smaller sections to further their collection of evidence and comprehension of the crime scene. With closer inspection, they can begin to understand what did take place, so all

What roles did faith and reason play in the intellectual life of the Research Paper

What roles did faith and reason play in the intellectual life of the Middle Ages - Research Paper Example With this, the paper will explore the concept between faith and reason and how they contributed to the development of knowledge has been studied. With outcomes gathered from the said exploration, this paper came with the conclusion that not only did faith and reason function as a harmonious duo during the medieval era, both also needed each other in the first place to prosper and contribute to the intellectual life modern society is enjoying today. The Middle Ages is a timeline collection of many developments. Specifically, it was both a dark and colorful combination of social reconstruction, formed conflicts in the foreign landscape and the revolution and optimization of many different aspects in the society (â€Å"British History: Middle Ages†). Nevertheless, despite the bombardment of many occurrences, one important point of study regarding this period in history is the status of the time’s intellectual life. The construct that makes this a worthy object of attention lies in two molding factors—faith and reason. These two is said to have governed the intellectual presence of the middle ages. The main purpose of this paper then seeks to uncover what roles did faith and reason play in the medieval times that produced the level of intellectual outcome that defined the Middle Ages. Faith and the Medieval Times The discussion of the middle ages, as a point in history, is oftentimes associated with the prosperity of the Christian faith and its consequent contribution in the development of today’s theological thinking. Given that this particular faith is not shared by all of members of today’s population, the interpretation of the Middle Ages in relation to faith differs across academics, critics, historians, and the like. This difference can be considered as a problematic factor in the study of that point in history. The phenomenons where interpretive analysis of the medieval times has differed in extremes have been properly ackn owledged with a term. As per the work of Van Engen, the Christian Middle Ages could be considered as a â€Å"historiographical problem† (519). For others like Gilson, and similarly with that of Brown, focus of the work on the specific point in time has been devoted to attributing the full development of Christianity and the total characteristic of the faith during the middle ages. The bottom-line with this particular focus is that Christianity has played a major role during that time--affecting many aspects of societal life. Listening to Reason in the Middle Ages On a similar stance, reason during the Middle Ages has also been given an equal amount of attention by scholars and academics alike. The work of Alexander Murray has vastly tackled how reason affected the society during the given period. More importantly, the particular work has contrasted itself to be another definition of the medieval ages. Whereas the period was prominently known to be an era of faith due to its c entralization of Christianity, Murray has also given emphasis that reason also governed the said stage (page number). The work of Edward Grant has supported the previous author’s contention as he set his focus on the reason-oriented developments of the Middle Ages (1). In so doing, Grant have detailed that it was during the Middle Ages that the pillars of today’s politics and government have taken the form. Particularly, the emergence of â€Å"the nation state, parliaments, [and] democracy† (1) during the time could be viewed as the source of development for the governance of present day nations. Moreover, it was also during the same stage that foundations of commerce and banking have been established. However, if these achievements be tallied, the

An Organizational Culture. How Does It Affect The Decision And Essay

An Organizational Culture. How Does It Affect The Decision And Outcomes Of The Organization Can Organizational Culture Be Changed - Essay Example There is also no single definition of culture and it only involves assumptions, adaptations, perceptions, and learning that use symbols, language, ideologies, rituals, and myths in creating its beliefs, values and expectations. In a business setting, organizational culture is the shared philosophies, ideologies, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations, attitude, and norms that knit the organization together. All of these interrelated psychological qualities reveal a group agreement, implicit or explicit, on how to approach decisions and problems or how things are done in a specific organization. It manifests in behavioral norms, hidden assumptions, and human nature, each occurring at a different level of depth within the organization. Studies have showed that organizational cultures are influenced by national cultures. Organizational culture differs not only from one business or industry to another but also from one country to another. In fact, industry and business culture are im mensely influenced by national cultures. The dimensions of cultures between countries were categorized by Hofstede. Hoftstede formulated a cultural assessment tool whereby dimensions of one’s cultural strength can be assessed by assigning a scale ranging from 0 to 100 in the five cultural dimensions. This tool of Hofstede is a popular tool among managers who would like to understand another culture apart from their own. The five cultural dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term Orientation; Hofstede’s five dimensions of culture in details are; Small vs. large power distance – This refers to how a society handles inequalities and the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. Individualism vs. collectivism  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Behavior towards community. The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups or are expected to look after themselves and self-actualize. Masculinity vs. femininity)  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Behavior and roles distributed according to gender. (This dimension is often renamed by users of Hofstede’s work to Quantity of Life vs. Quality of Life because one of the notable findings in the IBM studies revealed that in ‘masculine’ cultures, people (whether male or female) value competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions whereas in ‘feminine’ cultures, people (again whether male or female) value relationships and quality of life. Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance – This refers to the level of need for structure. Cultures with low uncertainty avoidance tend to accept risk and change and prefer implicit or flexible rules and guidelines. Long vs. short term orientation – How much society values long-standing, as opposed to short term, traditions and values. Cultures with high long-te rm orientation place strong importance on family, discipline and social obligations These varying organizational cultures affect the decision and outcomes of the organization in manner that it dictates or sets the phase on how things should be done in an organization and how should manager approach the workforce considering the prevailing culture. A positive culture is often cultivated by management to be able to increase the productivity of the organization while keeping the people happy which reinforces further the positive and cohesive organizational culture. A positive organizational culture benefits the business enterprise because of its higher productivity outcome. When organizational culture is positive, people are motivated and get things done faster not to mention that

Personal Development Plan Essay Example for Free

Personal Development Plan Essay Personal Development Planning Made Easy! A guide to recording experience and learning from it What is Personal Development Planning? Studying at university is not just about learning a lot of things that are fascinating in themselves but — at least in the case of most Arts subjects — rather disconnected from ‘the real world’. At the same time as you develop your knowledge of your subject and the skills required to perform well in it, you’re actually developing a whole range of skills and intellectual abilities that can be transferred to other areas of life, including your future employment. Arts subjects don’t generally equip you for a specific job; they actually equip you to undertake almost any job that doesn’t required specialised scientific training. Moreover, university life is intended to present you with all kinds of chances to develop yourself as an individual with a range of interests and experiences, and not just as someone reading books, writing essays and taking exams. An Arts graduate should be versatile, imaginative, critical, flexible, incisive, confident and articulate, and so ready for any challenge or task — if only you can recognise these abilities in yourself. This is where Personal Development Planning (PDP) comes in. With an ever-increasing number of well-qualified graduates entering the labour market each year, it is crucial to your success after completing your studies that you know exactly what skills you have to offer — academic, work-related and personal — when you start applying for jobs, and that you can provide solid evidence of those skills. Your studies will have helped you develop crucial transferable skills and personal atributes, and so will many of your extra-curricular activities; you just have to be able to articulate these to prospective employers. PDP helps you to keep track of what you’ve learned, how you learned it, and what you might do with that learning later on; it can also help you to plan for the future and to identify what skills or attributes you may need to develop in order to achieve your goals. Getting involved with PDP should help you to: †¢Consider what you really want to do †¢Make the right academic, personal and professional decisions †¢Set personal goals and targets †¢Identify programmes and extra-curricular opportunities and training to help you develop your skills †¢Plan ahead to achieve your goals Evaluate your own progress †¢Record different kinds of achievement Personal Development Planning is one part of your university ‘progress file’. This is not an actual document but a combination of any personal development planning activities that you engage in and record, as well as the formal academic transcript of your marks that your university provides you wit h at the end of your studies. It offers a detailed, rounded account of everything that you have achieved at university. In recent years, universities have become more aware that their students need to be highly employable, and that means not just graduating with a good degree but being able to demonstrate a whole range of skills and abilities that will help you to gain and maintain the employment you want. Getting used to setting targets for yourself and evaluating your progress now will stand you in good stead for success in your future working life, and one of the key aims of an Arts education at Bristol is to help you realise that learning is a truly life-long activity, not something that stops when you leave university. We want, therefore, to encourage you to reflect regularly on your performance; we aim to provide useful guidance on how to go about this, for example through this guide, and to provide regular opportunities for reflection and discussion, above all through the personal tutor system. Ultimately, you have to take responsibility for your own personal development, but we’ll do our best to help and support this process. Do I need Personal Development Planning? Try this self-evaluation exercise. For each of the following statements, rate your responses: strongly agree = 0; agree = 1; sort of agree = 2; disagree = 3; strongly disagree = 4. 1. I am certain that I can keep myself motivated towards achieving my degree for the next few years 2. I am very clear what my goals are for the next five years 3. I am confident that I have planned sufficiently to enable me to achieve my goals 4. I am very clear how my degree fits into my life plans 5. I am clear which skills employers are looking for 6.

Facebook Case Essay Example for Free

Facebook Case Essay It has been almost one year since Mark Zuckerberg decided to take his social media site public. Created on the dream of making the world more open and connected, Mark has devoted the past ten years to making that dream come true. Starting while still in college with a product called Facemash, Mark saw the potential for connecting people through the internet. He has devoted his entire adult life to Facebook which took six years to become profitable. Facebook quickly overtook competitors such as MySpace and became the social square of a global village. The user numbers grew exponentially and soon outnumbered the populations of many countries. The resulting global village was seen as ripe for advertising, profiteering, and soap-boxing. Through the growth, Mark was able to maintain and spread a sense of information democracy. All voices and opinions had equal pull and could reach audiences previously inaccessible. Formerly repressed people had an accessible outlet to outsiders. The simultaneous development of the smartphone industry provided portable and affordable platforms for Facebook everywhere. But what is all of this social capital worth? In 2011 an investor purchased a 1% stake in Facebook for $500 Million, which set Facebook’s net worth at $50 Billion. A year later when deciding to take the company public, Facebook negotiated an IPO price of $38 per share for a total company value of $104 Billion dollars. Many were skeptical that a social media company with few physical assets and no physical products was actually worth over $100 Billion. In fact, Facebook’s IPO was the highest initial value of any newly offered company. Mark himself was uneasy and not openly supportive of the jump to IPO. It was not a strategic business decision but rather a necessity based on the SEC’s rules (Facebook, Inc, 2013). Investors and users alike wondered how Facebook would maintain its dominance in the future, and ensure increasing shareholder wealth. Speculation ran wild that Facebook would begin to charge for its traditionally free service. Mark Zuckerberg had to do massive media campaigns on his own platform to regain control of Facebook’s image. The investors were right to be concerned. Facebook (FB) stock lost 35% ercent of its value in the first 10 days of public trade, and to date has not recovered to the initial stock price of $38 per share. Zuckerberg has a history of leaving investors hanging, and even stood up many investors for an entire day in Boston (Gandel, 2012). Mark has more pressure than ever to develop new revenue streams through his Facebook platform to appease shareholders without push ing users away to the ever growing number of competitor social media sites. Mark has stated multiple times that profits are not his primary goal. Now he has to make shareholders happy. Company amp; Management: Facebook headquarters is located in Menlo Park, California. Located in the heart of the US tech world, they are well positioned to attract top talent and stay abreast of all industry occurrences and trends. They have about 10 offices within the United States and more than 20 offices worldwide. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and post IPO is Chairman, CEO, and owns 57% of shareholder voting power. Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer of the company. Sheryl serves on more than four boards including ONE and the Walt Disney Company. She was formerly the Chief of Staff for the United States Department of the Treasury under the Clinton Administration. She also worked previously as economist for the World Bank. Her responsibilities for Facebook vary from marketing and business development to legalities and human resources for the company (Facebook3, 2013). Facebook’s Chief Financial Officer is David Ebersman. He came from working at Genentech as their Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. Rounding off the management team, the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering is Mike Schroepfer (Facebook2, 2013). He comes from Mozilla, where he served as Vice President of Engineering and was instrumental in the development of the Firefox software. The board of directors for Facebook is responsible for the interests of the shareholders and oversees the management of the company. The purpose of management and the board of directors is to fulfill Facebook’s mission of making the world more open and connected. These responsibilities can be at odds with one another. Mark has stated publicly and paraphrased in the 2013 SEC filing that profits are not the main goal, and that he will steer the company owards long term innovation over short term gains. Facebook’s board is comprised of nine members. Two of these nine members are from within Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg. The remaining seven board members are employed at various organizations across the country. Marc Andreessen, Co-founder, and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz (board member since June 2008) Jim Breye r, Partner at Accel Partners and one of Facebook’s first major investors (board member since April 2005) Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) (board member since March 2013) Donald E. Graham, Chairman, and CEO of The Washington Post Company (board member since March 2009) Reed Hastings, Chairman, and CEO of Netflix (board member since June 2011) Erskine Bowles, President Emeritus at The University of North Carolina (board member since September 2011) Peter Thiel, Partner at the Founders Fund (board member since April 2005). Original Facebook investor and founder of PayPal (Facebook3, 2013). Facebook grew from 3200 employees in December 2011 to 4619 employees in December 2012. These employees are distributed across the approximately 30 worksites. The Facebook tagline for employees is â€Å"we don’t have rules, we have values† (Facebook6, 2013). The company has a variety of job areas; such as technical staff, sales and marketing, general, and administrative personnel, software engineers, and product designers (Facebook, Inc, 2013). Between 2011 and 2012 there was a 73% growth in engineering, design, and product management hiring; while at the same time there was a 19% increase employees supporting global sales, business development, and customer service jobs. History of Facebook: Facebook began as Facemash in 2003. Facemash was a social rating system for Mark’s Harvard classmates. Members were able to look at two peoples photos and rate them either ‘hot’ or ‘not’. However, the photos were not obtained consensually and the site was shut down. Though short lived, Facemash provided insight that people really enjoyed using the internet to look at photos of friends. In early 2004, Thefacebook. com was launched with a mission to connect people across the university. Three hundred university students were invited to use the site, and within twenty-four hours, more than 1,200 had signed up. This exponential growth drew the attention of other IT inventors and entrepreneurs. By June 2004, Sean Parker co-founder of Napster, and Peter Thiel founder of PayPal had joined forces with Facebook. At year end, Facebook had reached 1 million users. Facebook user growth focused exclusively on college campuses (Zeevi, 2013). In 2005, Accel partners invested $12. 7 million while user-ship continued to expand globally amongst students. Prior to September 2006, Facebook only allowed students and certain company employees (including Apple and Microsoft) to sign up. On September 26, 2006, Facebook became open to anyone over the age of 13 that had an email address. This not only allowed for an explosion of growth but the development of business pages and a new form of advertisement. The growth continued steadily and in September of 2009 Facebook finally became cash flow positive (Zeevi, 2013). By 2011 Facebook was completely mainstream and an important focus for business owners and marketers. The same year they partnered with Skype to allow video chat, and continued updating the look and functionality of the site. Facebook acquired mobile photo-editing company Instagram prior to their IPO in May 2012. Facebook’s move from private to public was not a strategic business decision but mandatory by the Security and Exchange Commission law. Since going public Facebook has tested and launched several new revenue generating service streams, cognizant of shareholder expectations. Currently the site hosts 50 million pages, 10 million applications, and 300+ million photos (Facebook8, 2013). Facebook Products and Services: Facebook has three main customer groups: users, software developers, and marketers. It has developed certain products and services to create value for each group and maximize their interconnectivity. Facebook has also been careful that the products for certain customers, namely developers, do not cannibalize on business from other customer groups. One of Facebook’s fears is that its developer friendly platforms will allow users to view the same content on third party sites. The delivery method for Facebook’s products and services is via the internet over any computer, laptop, or tablet. Recently Facebook has been focusing on expanding their mobile availability. Most smartphone platforms in the US have access to the Facebook application. Products for users include personal or business pages, events, groups, photo and video sharing, messaging, graph search, and news feeds. Pages allow companies, organizations, groups, or individuals to be visible within the Facebook community with a unique profile. Users have control over the information they share and who they share it with. Many businesses have pages in hopes of gaining an outside interest and understanding their customers. Updates to pages are posted in the newsfeed of a person who has â€Å"liked† that page. An algorithm determines whom the user interacts the most with and makes those updates more easily accessible. A new feature is the ability to mark a user as an acquaintance rather than a friend. This has given users more control over their privacy. The events product allows a user to organize a group meeting or gathering, send virtual invitations, and track respondents. It also creates a forum for discussion so any question asked, for example â€Å"What is dress code? † is visible to all other members, streamlining event planning work. Groups combine a set of people into one space within Facebook to streamline communication within the members and only for those members. Groups can be fan pages, memorial areas, or family members. Facebook also has video and photo sharing options. Similar to Snapfish or Flickr, a person can upload albums of photos and/or video within Facebook for sharing amongst friends and family. This allows people to be â€Å"tagged† within photos, which in turn link the photo to the specified person’s profile page. In August 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram, a photo editing site, which has enhanced their photo service offerings. As of January 2013, Instagram had 90 million frequent users, and it is easily integrated with mobile devices. The Facebook mobile application enables users to link messaging via text, email, and chat so that the messages stay as one continuous conversation. Timeline, a recent improvement, allows users to show their profile based on dates that are most important to them. It allows control over specific sections of the timeline, limiting viewers to enhance privacy. Newsfeed is a consistently updated and ongoing list of connections, likes, pages, etc. that others are able to comment on or like and that is available as the center focus of the service page. This list is personalized to the interests of the owner of the newsfeed algorithmically. Finally, Facebook offers graph search, which allows one to search using small phrases in order to in order to find people, friends, photos, etc. throughout the Facebook realm. In 2012, Facebook updated their iPad, mobile, iPhone, and Android applications to update speed and ensure a consistent experience for users. For software developers, Facebook offers development tools and application programming interfaces (APIs). These allow third party site developers to integrate their content with Facebook. The integration helps boost the rating of the third party site and allows them to take advantage of Facebook’s network of 1 billion users. As of year-end 2012, over 10 million aps and webpages had been designed and integrated with Facebook’s platforms. Social Plugin’s are a very short section of code offered by Facebook to enable the â€Å"Like Button† on other sites for easy social connection. These also increase the website’s rating when searched on Google. com. Facebook also provides a secure payments platform allowing users to buy services directly. This is most widely used for the purchase of games and virtual goods. An example is Farmville where players can purchase virtual farm goods to support the game via the platform. Marketers have access to all the products of a user, plus Ad analytics and insights. These services allow the tracking of ad campaigns and their effectiveness. Campaign data including number of viewers, region viewers are from, unique clicks and opens are all available in a quick view format and as raw data. This allows marketing clients to tailor ad campaigns and increase effectiveness quickly. Newer products introduced in 2012 are Facebook Custom Audiences that allows marketers to find their customers on Facebook, and Facebook Exchange that allows marketers to bid for ads in real time (Facebook2, 2013). Customer Profile: One out of 7 people on the earth use Facebook regularly. Facebook has 1. 06 Billion monthly users, 680 million of which are mobile users. Over 80% of Facebook users live outside the United States. User-ship increased nearly 25 percent from 2011 to 2012. Much of this growth came from Brazil, India, and Indonesia whose growth rates are 81%, 54%, and 25% respectively. By comparison growth in the United States during the same timeframe was only 8%. The company made an average of $5. 32 of revenue per user in 2012, a 6% increase from 2011. In 2011 the average user age was 38 and the average number of friends was 229. The average user also had never met face-to-face with 7% of those friends (Bosker, 2011). The figure above shows the dominant social networking sites globally. Pale grey areas are regions where social media has not yet penetrated in a meaningful way. Currently there are no Facebook users in China, as it is prohibited by the government. Facebook expects with the increase in mobile platforms that user-ship in underserved areas will increase since the availability of Wi-Fi continues to outpace infrastructure construction. Financial: Mark delayed taking Facebook public as long as possible. He was eventually forced to by the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (Gandel, 2012). The Facebook IPO was a global financial buzz. The IPO was the largest to date, $104 Billion at $38 per share. In comparison, the Facebook IPO was 6 times larger than Google’s and 8 times larger than Apple’s (Gandel, 2012). It is a benchmark for future tech IPO’s. The bulk of the company’s worth comes from ad revenue and intangibles. Last minute analyses pointed that the company was not in as comfortable a position as initially thought, causing many large investors to withdraw their interest (Sloan, 2012). This revenue mix still continues. The IPO made millionaire and billionaires overnight, both for Facebook executive staff and Morgan Stanley who underwrote the IPO. Morgan Stanley profited more than expected due to the immediate drop in share prices. They had pre-sold stock to clients at the IPO price beyond the stock they actually had. They were able to purchase the additional shares directly from the market, making a larger profit (Gandel, 2012). The mix of Facebook stock sold was unbalanced. Facebook early investors, including Mark Zuckerberg, sold more than 241 million shares, while only 180 million were sold directly from the company. Shares sold by early investors accounted for 57% of the total shares sold in the IPO. Facebook has two classes of stock. The common stock sold to the public allows one vote per share. The preferred stocks owned by Zuckerberg and a select few allow 10 votes per share. As of May 2012, Mark Zuckerberg owned only 18% of Facebook’s stock, but had a majority control (57%) of votes, allowing him to maintain control of the company (Gandel, 2012). Mark is now responsible for continued growth and profit to his company and to employees, but to the external public shareholders who are already soured and skeptical by the lack luster IPO. One source of revenues is advertisements on Facebook. More than 80% of Facebook’s revenues come from advertising on its social network. The growth of the revenues directly depends on the growth of users. At the same time, Facebook has a lower click-through-rate (CTR) than an average website, which is only 0. 05% and about 4% respectively. In order to earn more income from the advertisements Facebook has to change the way it displays the ads (advertisements on wall posts have more than 6% CTR) but without interfering users’ experience. This leaves company very vulnerable and dependent on continuous growth of users, which will eventually be only marginal as the social network matures and saturates all possible markets. Though the company enjoyed a $32 million income in 2012, their revenue balance is insecure and uncertain. Additionally growth rates have been slowing. From 2009 to 2010 the company revenue grew 154%, from 2010 to 2011 it was 88%, and most recently from 2011 to 2012 it was only 37% (See financial reports at end). The company will eventually hit a saturation rate of customers, which has driven the revenue growth. The average amount spent per user has not increased dramatically. Mark expects that growth may become flat or decline once past the user saturation point (Facebook, Inc, 2013). History of Social Media: According to The Washington Post, researchers at Microsoft studied records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people in various countries and announced that any two strangers are, on average, distanced by precisely 6. 6 degrees of separation (Smith, 2008). This was the first time a planetary-scale social network has been available. Facebook, the online social network, may reduce a degree or two: Barack Obama already has well over a million Facebook friends. While the internet was born in the 1970’s it did not start playing a role that could be described as social media until the mid-1990’s. It started with the Bulletin Board System (BBS), where a piece of social information was posted for many to see, but each individual reacted to it separately without a way of communicating their reaction readily to others. Among other avenues for social interaction was CompuServe, a service that allowed members to not only share files and access news and events but also join any of CompuServe’s thousands of discussion forums to ‘yap’ with thousands of other members on virtually any important subject of the day. Those forums proved tremendously popular and paved the way for the modern iterations we know today. The dotcom boom and rise of AOL began the first mainstream wave of social media. Communication became instantaneous with more avenues of expression. The Internet Boom epic started in 1995. Nostalgic users rediscover long lost friends on Classmates. com, a social service founded to reconnect former elementary, high school and college classmates. In the world of business and commerce, the dot. com bubble burst in 2000 and the future online seemed bleak as the millennium turned. At this time only seventy million computers were connected to the internet. Currently, there are more than 1. 5 billion internet users on personal computers and more than 3 billion mobile users globally (Facebook, Inc, 2013) In 2002, social networking began in earnest with the launch of Friendster, which opened to the public solely in the U. S. and grew to three million users within three months. Friendster refined a degree of separation concept into a routine dubbed the â€Å"Circle of Friends† (wherein the pathways connecting two people are displayed). This concept is the key to social media as it is currently experienced. Introduced just a year later in 2003, LinkedIn differentiated itself as a serious, business-oriented social networking site for professionals. Social networking evolved in 2003 when MySpace launched, just a few months prior to Facebook. MySpace was a favorite site for the younger U. S. emographic and quickly became the number one social media site. MySpace held that title until May of 2009 when Facebook finally surpassed it in users and traffic (Zeevi, 2013). The most recent launched social network website is Google+, Google’s full-featured social networking tool. It differentiated itself early on with the ability to create multiple circles allowing users to better manage their professi onal and personal image, and the ability to edit previous posts, both for grammar and content. Another key feature is Google Hangouts, which allows instant video chats for up to 10 people at a time. Lastly, Pinterest a social scrapbooking launched in 2010 has captured attention for attaining 10 million users faster than any other standalone site in history, in only 22 months. Currently Pinterest attracts 11 million new users a week. The image and definition of social media has grown and shifted in the past 15 years. The most important changes have been in the scope and interactivity of the media. Social media has moved beyond connecting people to connecting ideas, companies, interests, and locations. Social media sites include Foursquare, Pinterest, and Twitter. Their delivery and business methods are very different from the original Friendster model. Secondly, the media has become ‘smart’ and interacts back to users. Algorithms drive the way posts appear, the ads displayed, and the friend suggestions that are made, changing the nature of the relationship to the software. Global Impact: Facebook has changed the way people communicate, and shifted the boundaries of communication. Facebook as a communication method has allowed users to relate experiences in real time, in a full range of media. Facebook’s platform and newsfeed has developed a feeling of immediacy for many people that is reflected in non-social media outlets. There is a constant desire to have new information. Facebook is both a service company and a data repository. The individual experiences of its 1+ billion users are stored in multi-media. This allows for information democracy on a new scale. As a social site with fluid boundaries, information can move more quickly and unconventionally. This attribute was a major player in the Arab Spring of 2011. Facebook on mobile hones allowed instant updates across large groups of people. It allowed the viewing of images and video by millions of people where they previously would have been censored. What color video was to the Vietnam War, Facebook was to the Arab Spring. The world was able to watch an uprising unfold in real time, uncensored, from multiple viewpoints. Facebook has also affected the criminal justice system. The public availability of photo and video media posted on the site provides law enforcement more evidence. Individual posts and friends’ lists have made finding people easier. Facebook posts are admissible in a court of law and have been used to prove violations of parole, abuses of child custody, and other crimes. Facebook as a platform has also shifted the concept of goods. Within the Facebook platform, users can buy virtual items for real money. Facebook used to prompt users on a friend’s birthday to buy them virtual flowers. The company has recently updated this feature to allow the purchase of a tangible gift. However, purchase of virtual goods for games like FarmVille is still extremely popular. The virtual goods industry revenue for 2011 was $2 billion. Industry: Two social networking sites are currently considered direct competitors of Facebook in the US- Twitter and Google+. Twitter has roughly half the users of Facebook, and a revenue model that focuses on sponsored tweets. Twitter is not exactly a direct competitor. Tweets integrate with Facebook status updates and many users actively participate in both services. Google+ currently has only 343 million users, roughly one third the user base of Facebook. Google+ is in direct competition with Facebook and has a very similar look and feel. While smaller by user base, Google+ 2012 revenue from highly targeted ads was $40 billion, eight times Facebook’s revenue for the same year. According to market survey, 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business; however more marketers (76%) are planning on increasing use of YouTube and video marketing than any other form. The current top five social media tools for marketers are as follows: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and YouTube. Facebook will need to increase its ability to show video ads if it intends to keep the number one spot. In a five forces analysis of the industry climate, the bargaining power of consumers is high. There are many substitutes available and little cost to switching. The threat of substitute products is therefor also very high since there is a saturated market and the differentiation between brands and has been decreasing. New entrants have low barriers to entry because of low initial investment, and only moderate brand loyalty, however they need to be sufficiently interesting and innovative to capture the number of users necessary to be a major player. The bargaining power of suppliers is low. Server space providers and hosts exist almost in a commodity market with little differentiation in product or price. As in most tech industries the threat of rivalry in social media is extremely high (Tran, 2013). There are cut throat battles for patents on features and modes of use, and companies need to constantly innovate and update to stay relevant. Another threat to Facebook’s revenue stream is ad-block extensions. Users can install ad-blocks to view the site ad-free. As these increase in popularity, revenue may decrease. Privacy: Privacy is a current concern of most media users. Depending how the company manages its user’s privacy, it can be a strategic advantage or a threat. Facebook has already endured public scrutiny and backlash for its privacy control. It has a history of changing privacy settings and defaulting them to the most open and universal option, putting the onus on customers to activate a more private mode. In December 2012, Instagram (now owned by Facebook) changed their terms of use policy to state that it could sell and profit off its user’s photos. The customer backlash was intense and Instagram reverted its use policy. The possibility of being hacked and losing customer data is also a real risk. While Facebook does not store social security numbers it warehouses thousands of passwords, and captures information about individuals’ daily lives that could be misused. Virtual or real identity thefts could seriously harm the company. Facebook offers the bulk of its products for free, and its ad revenue is generated from the ability to make details about users’ demographics and interests available to marketers. This information is freely given by users after consenting to the terms of use agreement, and housed by Facebook, so they have the right to use it. The problem is that privacy laws are lagging behind internet use and technology. What is a major revenue source for the company today could be deemed illegal in the near future. Aside from legislation, bad press regarding a privacy incident could just as swiftly hurt the company and cause users to shift to substitute services. Facebook has made it easy for users to spread information instantaneously- even bad news about itself! As big data and data mining become more important for companies, Facebook may want to capitalize on its data resources buy selling information in the aggregate. The company will have to be very careful to remove identifying names and tags, but even more careful how the endeavor is presented to the public. Facebook’s Future: Facebook has been an incredible social force and an industry trail blazer. The concurrent move to a publicly traded company and into a mature lifecycle segment poses large challenges. Both revenue growth and user growth are slowing. There are multiple substitutes in the industry and the competition is rapidly innovating. Future legislation on privacy and rights ownership may require a complete rework of business strategy. Pressure from public shareholders is on Mark to create more value and increase stock prices. The company is looking to expand into large population markets such as Brazil, India, Mexico, and Japan (Facebook, Inc, 2013). The recent change of leadership in China may eventually provide an opening for Facebook services there. Increasing the focus on mobile applications will also slow the inevitable market saturation by making services available in regions with little infrastructure. Continued acquisition of promising start ups will also help the company stay cutting edge while removing future competition. However, Facebook needs to develop new revenue streams beyond advertisements, while still staying true to its mission. The company needs to define these projects before the falling growth rate triggers a major decline in the Class A stock rate. Mark himself is unsure if they can monetize their current business more than currently without alienating users (Facebook, Inc, 2013). One option is to create spin-off services that are paid, such as aggregate data sales. Another is to focus a Facebook platform on job search and recruitment. A third natural move would be to offer a unique, differentiated online dating experience (Tran, 2013). Mark Zuckerberg and his company have an incredible advantage. In the new data economy he has billions of data points that each tell a story and can be used in thousands of ways. Google Fiber installation that increases internet speed by 100 fold will allow his innovative staff to develop services that are not feasible yet. He will just need to keep one step ahead or diversify to avoid being the next,

Development of Television in Developing Countries

Development of Television in Developing Countries Research context The growth of television in the developing world over the last two decades has been extraordinary. Television was invented in the early 1900’s and was made commercially available in the 1920’s. Early television was in black and white and was broadcast via analogsignal, butadvance developments are such that now television is very much a personalized form of entertainment. Television now can broadcast a range of programming which is diverse in nature and taken from all around the globe. McLuhan coined the idiom â€Å"a global village† referring to the diversity of the world into becoming one village with the same thoughts and values. And this is what television has caused. Programming can make what is not a normal item in single country into something that is normal. It can change attitudes and values of a people. It can make one specific program from one country into the most wanted program in another country. Television itself has become all powerful as a medium of communication to the world. It turned the world into a global village. Television makes the unusual become something normal. Certain things cease to be unique or amazing. It can make change one society’s attitude, whether it be good or bad. It can make that same society become similar in its materialistic values to another. It makes the world similar and eradicates the differences, which in itself can be good as well as bad. Good in that we can understand each other better but bad, in that we lose those differences that make a culture unique. And different cultures are what make all of us unique. While television was first introduced to India in 1959, for the first three decades almost all broadcasting was in the hands of the state, and the content was primarily focused towards news or information about economic development. According to (Victoria L farmer: 256) national television system in more homogeneous societies the cultural link between programming and its audience was not clear because Indian government monopoly was predicated on its use to promote socio-economic development. Instead of television naturally reflecting a relatively homogenous national culture, Indian programming was specifically designed to create such an identity. In addition India’s sheer size meant that most of its citizens only received transmissions from within India. The most significant innovation in terms of both content and viewership was the introduction of satellite television in the early 1990s. And since television is often watched with family and friends by those without a television or cable, the growth in actual access or exposure to cable is likely to have been even more dramatic. A number of unintended consequences arose from justifying the construction of India’s television network on the basis of television’s potential for promoting ‘development’. The satellite instructional television experiment (SITE) of 1975-6 did show that some gains could be made through provision of information on topics such as new agricultural practices and basic health care. However, these gains proved to be of very limited scope (Victoria L farmer: 258-259). Broadcast of the Asiad in 1982 was the first Indian broadcast in colour-proved to be a phenomenally popular within India, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the former minis ter of information and broadcasting, Indira Gandhi (Victoria L farmer depicting the nation:265). In 1983 Doordarshan begin with commercially sponsored serials; it was a strategic decision to broadcast appealing, popular programming in order to build broad audience for effective political communication. The first hum log a drama with a family planning message begun arising in 1984. The expansion of Doordarshan reach and programming in early 1980s coupled with the advent of commercial sponsorship created a nexus linking state control of television for electoral ends with the commercial pursuit of profit through advertising (Victoria L farmer: 266). A second major consequence of Doordarshan programming in the 1980s was the erosion of the credibility of its news programming, through blatant use of the medium for publicizing congress party leaders and initiatives. This became particularly severe in the period preceding the 1989 elections, when the conspicuous use of news broadcasts for electioneering earned for Doordarshan the derisive sobriquet ‘Rajiv Darshan’ (Victoria L farmer depicting the nation: 268). Besides that the program offerings on cable television are quite different than government programming. The most popular shows tend to be game shows and soap operas. These shows are based around the issues of family and gender. The introduction of television appears in general to have had large effects on Indian societies. This is particularly the case for gender, since this is an area where the lives of rural and slum peoples differ greatly from those depicted in television programmings. By virtue of the fact that the most popular Indian serials take place in urban settings, character depicted on these shows are typically much more emancipated than rural and slum peoples. Further, in many cases there is access to Western television, where these behaviors differ even more markedly from India. There is also a broader literature on the effects of television exposure on social and demographic outcomes in other countries. For example, Pace (1993) describes the effect of television introduction in Brazil on a small, isolated, Amazon community, arguing that the introduction of television changed the framework of social interactions, increased general world knowledge and changed peoples perceptions about the status of their village in the wider world. Kottak (1990) reports on similar data from isolated areas in Brazil, and argues that the introduction of television affects (among other things) views on gender, moving individuals in these areas towards having more liberal views on the role of women in both the workplace and in relationships. And closely related to one of our outcomes, Chong, Duryea and La Ferrara (2007) report declines in fertility in Brazil in response to access to telenovelas; they also find changes in naming patterns of children, with the names of main characters featured on these programs increasing in popularity. The change has been even more dramatic in India. In the span of just 10-15 years since it first became available, cable or satellite penetration has reached an astonishing percentage in the Bhopal. These years represent a time of rapid growth in urban slum television access. Beyond providing entertainment, television vastly increases both the availability of information about the outside world and exposure to other ways of life. This is especially true for remote, rural villages, where several ethnographic and anthropological studies have suggested that television is the primary channel through which households get information about life outside their village (Mankekar, 1993, 1998; Fernandes, 2000; Johnson, 2001; Scrase, 2002). Most popular cable programming features urban settings where lifestyles differ in prominent and salient ways from those in rural areas. For example, many characters on popular soap operas are more educated, marry later and have smaller families. Many female characters work outside the home, sometimes as professionals, running businesses or in other positions of authority. All things rarely found in rural areas. Anthropological accounts suggest that the growth of TV in rural areas has had large effects on a wide range of day-to-day lifestyle behaviors. (Johnson, 2001). Yet there have been few qualitative studies on the influences of television access may have had on social and demographic outcomes of rural and slum areas. Therefore, in this paper we explore the introduction of television in urban slums areas of Bhopal on a particular set of values, behaviors and attitudes towards various television programmings. Although issues of slum development are important throughout the India, they are particularly salient in Bhopal and even their conditions are significantly worse. By exposing slum households to urban attitudes and values, television may lead to improvements in their status. It is this possibility that we explore in this paper.

Hoop Dreams And Rasin In The Sun - Comparison Contrast Paper

The movie Hoop Dreams shows you the difficulties and obstacles that come in the way of dreams. Although it’s said that if you believe in a dream long enough it will come true, but in Hoop Dreams and A Raisin in the Sun you are shown the harsh realities of the falseness of that statement. And that the reality of a dream not coming true hits you like a brick wall. Many obstacles get in the way of the road to dreams in both stories. In both stories, all families suffer from having little knowledge, and it doesn’t help that they’re all black. Also being poor and living in the ghetto makes things that much harder. Pregnancies also put big bumps in the road to success, in both instances it makes the families come together and try their hardest to make it through. However, there are also many different obstacles that come in the way for each family. In Hoop Dreams, both William and Arthur are given much support to fulfill their dreams of getting to the NBA, but Walter in A Raisin in the Sun is only given grief on getting his liquor store. This can point the young immature teens to giving them more hope that a very rare dream will come true. Also, the two ballplayers do have talent to help them start down the road to success, but that can be very misleading, all Walter has is the nagging of his buddies Bobo and Willy. The toughest of t he obstacles to overcome was when William injured his knee and it affected his basketball career for a long time. He never really did get over it, he...

Nirvana - Nevermind :: essays research papers fc

History of Rock and Roll There possibly isn't an album in history that is as genre defining as Nirvana's Nevermind. Released in 1991, it single handedly was responsible for the birth of what became to be known as grunge and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone (Stuessy, Joe). It reached number 1 in 1991 and was the first album to bring Seattle grunge to the mainstream audience (Stuessy, Joe). Nevermind is a mix of slow, dark songs and fast paced grunge rock songs. With its grinding guitars, pounding drums, and lead singer, Kurt Cobain's distinctive voice, Nevermind found a distinctive way to fuse alternative punk with 70's rock (Nirvana, Nevermind). The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit.† It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit,† white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their â€Å"teenage anthems† (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, â€Å"...here we are now, entertain us†(Stuessy, Joe). â€Å"Smells like Teen Spirit† was Curt Cobain’s â€Å"attempt to write the ultimate pop song†(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). Th e style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very â€Å"innovative† or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. â€Å"A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics† (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history. â€Å"Come As You Are† and â€Å"Polly† showcase that Nirvana were not only a band interested in seeing people jump up and down and scream at shows. Many people, fans and celebrities alike consider â€Å"Polly† to be Kurt Cobain’s most well written song. â€Å"Polly†, number six, is a story of a girl who got molested and tortured and sexually abused. Nirvana - Nevermind :: essays research papers fc History of Rock and Roll There possibly isn't an album in history that is as genre defining as Nirvana's Nevermind. Released in 1991, it single handedly was responsible for the birth of what became to be known as grunge and has gone on to sell over 10 million copies in the United States alone (Stuessy, Joe). It reached number 1 in 1991 and was the first album to bring Seattle grunge to the mainstream audience (Stuessy, Joe). Nevermind is a mix of slow, dark songs and fast paced grunge rock songs. With its grinding guitars, pounding drums, and lead singer, Kurt Cobain's distinctive voice, Nevermind found a distinctive way to fuse alternative punk with 70's rock (Nirvana, Nevermind). The biggest influential song on Nirvana’s Nevermind album was the first song, â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit.† It reached number 6 on the Top 40 Charts. This song was groundbreaking for Nirvana and the alternative music scene as a whole. After the release of â€Å"Smells Like Teen Spirit,† white, middle-class youth of the United States finally had a style of music to call their own and express their â€Å"teenage anthems† (Stuessy, Joe). This was the first song to emerge from alternative rock and to be known in the mainstream of rock and roll, expressing their generation’s expectations, â€Å"...here we are now, entertain us†(Stuessy, Joe). â€Å"Smells like Teen Spirit† was Curt Cobain’s â€Å"attempt to write the ultimate pop song†(Nevermind, Nirvana). He used the soft-loud dynamics of his favorite band, the Pixies. The insidious hooks also showed his admiration for the Beatle’s John Lennon(Nevermind, Nirvana). Th e style used in this song is simple, plain, loud, and straight-forward. Musically, there is nothing very â€Å"innovative† or difficult. However, the reason it is important to rock history is because it brought America’s attention to the once before underground style of grunge. â€Å"A driving drum beat, powered by Novelsek’s rhythmic bass, and a memorable guitar riff and solo, mix perfectly with Kurt Cobain’s depressing yet humorous lyrics† (Kastner, Patrick). While it has certainly been overplayed in the past years, it is still an essential part of Rock history. â€Å"Come As You Are† and â€Å"Polly† showcase that Nirvana were not only a band interested in seeing people jump up and down and scream at shows. Many people, fans and celebrities alike consider â€Å"Polly† to be Kurt Cobain’s most well written song. â€Å"Polly†, number six, is a story of a girl who got molested and tortured and sexually abused.

Artificial Intelligence in Gibsons Idoru and Oshiis Ghost in the Shel

Artificial Intelligence in Gibson's Idoru and Oshii's Ghost in the Shell      Ã‚   Introduction If people knew what scientists are up to, they would not be sleeping as calmly as they do today. If only they knew, they would read more carefully what the cyberpunk authors have to say.    The purpose of this work is not only to compare the pictures of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter referred to simply as AI) included in two major works of cyberpunk genre, but also to show the connection between those images and the reality we all live in or its nearest future.    So what is the future of AI depicted in cyberpunk works like? And if, as Sterling suggests, science-fiction writers pass on a cautionary message to the contemporary society in a satirical disguise, are these pictures really parallel to our reality? And if they are, should we be afraid?    The subject matter is Artificial Intelligence. The environments that house the AIs described hereafter are the environments of cyberpunk literature. To understand the findings and conclusions of this work, it is necessary to know the meaning of both these notions.    Defining Basic Notions: Introduction to cyberpunk    Cyberpunk has been present on the literary scene for almost twenty years now, being the most trendy and mainstream sub-genre of science-fiction and, although announced dead by some critics, has not been replaced by any other science-fiction movement so far. But how should we define what cyberpunk is and distinguish it from what is merely cyberpunkish? Appignanesi points out that the major feature of the cyberpunk world is a "total intrusion of technology into human lives" (129) and this may be used as a sufficient... ...iography Works cited Primary: 1. Gibson, William. Idoru. London: Penguin Books. 1997. 2. Ghost in the Shell. Dir. Mamoru Oshii. Masamune Shirow/Kodansha/Bandai Visual/Manga Entertainment. 1995. Secondary: 1. Appignanesi, Richard. Postmodernism for Beginners. Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd. 1995. 2. Buller, Andrzej. Sztuczny mà ³zg. To ju nie fantazje (Artificial Brain. Not a Fantasy Any More). Translation mine. Warszawa: Prà ³szy ski i S-ka. 1998. 3. Marciszewski Witold. Sztuczna inteligencja (Artificial Intelligence). Translation mine. Krakà ³w: SIW Znak. 1998. 4. Cyran Janusz, ed. "Requiem dla ludzko ci?" ("Requiem for Humanity?"). Translation mine. Nowa Fantastyka Oct. 1999: 74 76. 5. Anonymous collective work. The Cyberpunk Project. Authors' Definition. http://www.cyberpunkproject.org/idb/authors_definition.html. 1999.

Why do the students cheat on the exams?

Keywords: study, student, deadline, Exam In the university context Just like any other society, we have crime and dishonesty and amongst all , students' cheating is just one of the appearances of these . Firstly I'd like to specify a clear definition And remind of what exactly is exam and why is it an inseparable part of the education Cause I believe that we should have a clear image of what we are doing and why are we doing it in order to be a professional .In education an examination is a test provided to see if the person who wants to take a degree or special certificate is capable of being taken that certificate or not. † adopting this definition we conclude that taking an exam is a requirement of receiving a degree. So this can be first motto for this essay â€Å"no exam,no degree ; no degree,no exam. † Students have different motives for study , they study In their specific majors as engineers-to be , translators-to be , accountants-to be , etc . They have to learn essential materials to be a standard engineer , translator , accountant , etc . W we successful expert and the other case in which the student is Just trying to get the degree and is not into learning the major and getting a good expert , however shocking , but this case is very frequent in Iran universities . And I think it is caused by disagreement of education and Jobs taken by graduates . By dropping the second group out of analyze circle ,we have the students who really want to learn things they have to learn during education period , and the intention of the writer is to inspect these students' cheating and express why they tend to cheat in this step . Titer believes that in standard context they will study well with no dishonesty and therefore will get the degree with no cheating. But life is never perfect and problems like emotional problems and financial affect students' life and these problems in the life tend to ruin the plan of study. And makes the student to miss the d eadlines , most of the students in order to not miss the deadlines decide to use their last weapon And cheat . Because in this situation if they don't cheat they'll ruin the whole schedule of their education.They cheat and they pass the exam with n acceptable mark, and seemingly everything is okay. But in the next semesters the hidden wound in the body of education, shows up. With no time to cure it. And this is where a dishonest solution, makes the problem deeper. But encountering deadlines is not always the same in every student. There are some foresighted students who by missing the deadline seemingly ruin the plan but in fact they strengthen it by keeping it pure . Shampoo says – ‘l AS May your nightmares become more agitated – . You contemplate the interpretation – GAS b so that when you get up

The Great Gatsby Review

The Great Gatsby â€Å"Emerson said it well: ‘Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself† (Peterson). The world is filled with cheapskates, phonies, and two-faced people. Many use others for their own benefits. Objects cannot define a relationship; it should be the feelings developed that defines the relationship of two people. The characteristic of materialism is a barrier for true love between two people. This relates to Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby.Nick Carraway has just moved to a West Egg, and his mysterious neighbor is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby’s long living dream is to rekindle his love and relationship with Daisy Buchanan, who is currently married to Tom Buchanan. He attempts to pursue his relationship with Daisy through his unexplained wealth. However, their love couldn’t be true because of their focus on â€Å"things† rather than each other. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgeral d shows that materialism can ruin the chance at true love. Gatsby tries to make Daisy love him through his money and excessive spending on nonessential things.When him and Daisy first reconnect their relationship, he brings her over to his house to show off the clothes in his closet: â€Å"He took out a pile of shirts and began throwing them, one by one, before us, shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-colored disarray. While we admired he brought more and the soft rich heap mounted higher — shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, and monograms of Indian blue.Suddenly, with a strained sound, Daisy bent her head into the shirts and began to cry stormily† (Fitzgerald 92). Gatsby is throwing his shirts everywhere to show that he is full of money and that they don’t mean much to him, acting like it doesn’t matter if the y get ruined. He does this to show that his money is plentiful and he tries to make Daisy want to be with him and his rich lifestyle. Daisy starts to cry because she is overwhelmed with his prosperity and shows how she starts to love him through his riches.Another way Gatsby tries to show off his wealth is by throwing a party and inviting Daisy and Tom, but at the end of the party she seemed apathetic. Gatsby noticed her weariness and was concerned, so he confided in Nick: â€Å"‘She didn’t like it,’ he insisted. ‘She didn’t have a good time. ’ He was silent, and I guessed at his unutterable depression. ‘I feel far away from her,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to make her understand’† (Fitzgerald 109). Gatsby implies that he threw the party so that she would enjoy herself and want to come back to him.He tries to make his life seem very extravagant because he knows that it is what she looks for in a lover. Gatsby b ecomes unhappy because she was unhappy with his party; he feels that he must show off his money just to get Daisy to fall for him. Gatsby’s secret is revealed finally during a trip to the city: he and Tom get into an argument and Tom discloses the truth. Gatsby’s secret business of drug deals was the basis of his affluence.Daisy is shocked and doesn’t know what to do as Gatsby tries to deny the facts: â€Å"It passed, and he began to talk excitedly to Daisy, denying everything, defending his name against accusations that had not been made. But with every word she was drawing further and further into herself, so he gave that up, and only the dead dream fought on as the afternoon slipped away, trying to touch what was no longer tangible, struggling unhappily, undespairingly, toward that lost voice across the room† (Fitzgerald 134). Daisy becomes reluctant to the fact that it was a fake fortune while Gatsby tries to cover up his lies.Although Daisy acted lik e she was in love with Gatsby before the incident, her feelings quickly faded as she realizes the truth. The money was the basis of their relationship and it was what held them together. This proves how their relationship was based off of money and how Daisy immediately forgot about how â€Å"in love† they were. This motif of materialism is explored because it shows how love can’t be genuine if it is based off of inanimate objects and money-oriented things. Myrtle is materialistic when she goes for the men with money and pretends to be in love with them.In New York City with Tom and Nick, Myrtle explains to her friends how she felt about her new marriage with George and her realizations: â€Å"I married him because I thought he was a gentleman†¦I thought he knew something about breeding, but he wasn’t fit to lick my shoe† (Fitzgerald 34). Myrtle married him because she thought he came from a wealthy family, breeded, or born, into money. When she foun d out he wasn’t rich, she knew she had made a mistake in marrying him. Myrtle is materialistic because she didn’t marry George for love, but for wealth.Myrtle tells about the day she found out he wasn’t rich and admits to her regrets in marrying him. Myrtle was not expecting it: â€Å"The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it, and the man came after it one day when he was out† (Fitzgerald 35). Myrtle finds out that George had borrowed someone’s suit to use during their wedding because he couldn’t afford one on his own. This shows the love that George has for Myrtle and how he goes far to make sure she gets the best wedding ever.It also shows how Myrtle doesn’t love him, and how was judging him for borrowing a suit. Myrtle is materialistic because she got upset over a suit being borrowed and not purchased fo r their wedding. Myrtle and Tom’s relationship is materialistic. While in NYC, Myrtle gets Tom to buy her a dog off the streets: â€Å"I want to get one of those dogs†¦I want to get one for the apartment. They’re nice to have—a dog† (Fitzgerald 27). Myrtle asks for a dog and gets one because of Tom’s wealth and uses it to her advantage. Myrtle takes Tom’s money for granted and pursues a relationship with him because she knows he is rich.Her materialism is shown through her fake relationships with Tom and George; it reveals that she only has relationships with wealthy men and she was not really â€Å"in love† with either of the two men. Her materialistic needs clashed with her path to finding love. This motif of love is explored because it shows how people in this world use others for their money. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald shows that a materialistic mindset will corrupt the chance at true love. Gatsby tried to get Daisy to l ove him again by showing off his money and failed because he didn’t put his heart and self into their relationship.Myrtle mistakenly married a man whom she thought was wealthy and turned out he was poor. She quickly regretted their marriage and had an affair with Tom Buchanan, a well known rich man. Fitzgerald demonstrates how none of these relationships worked out because of the materialistic ways of these characters. This motif is explored because it proves how true love isn’t real with fake values. True love should be two people who love each other unconditionally and is not based on money-oriented things.