Murdering of Innocents

Chapter Two begins with the introduction of Thomas Gradgrind, â€Å"a man of realitiesSfacts and calculations. † He always introduces himself as Mr. Gradgrind and spends his time in constant cogitation. He is the Speaker, previously unnamed and he now takes it as his duty to educate the children (â€Å"little pitchers before him†). He identifies a student, called Girl number twenty, who replies that her name is Sissy Jupe. Gradgrind corrects her that her name is Cecilia regardless of what her father calls her. Jupe's father is involved in a horse-riding circus and this is not respectable†¹in Gradgrind's opinion. He advises Cecilia to refer to her father as a â€Å"farrier† (the person who shoes a horse) or perhaps, a â€Å"veterinary surgeon. † The lesson continues with Gradgrind's command: â€Å"Give me your definition of a horse. † While Girl number twenty knows what a horse is, she is unable to define one. Another child in the class, a boy called Bitzer, easily defines the animal by means of biological classifications (quadruped, graminivorous, etc. ). After this, the third gentleman steps forward. He is a government officer as well as a famous boxer and he is known for his alert belligerence. His job is to remove â€Å"fancy† and â€Å"imagination† from the minds of the children. They learn that it is nonsense to decorate a room with representations of horses because horses do not walk up and down the sides of rooms in reality. Sissy Jupe is a slow learner, among the group of stragglers who admit that they would dare to carpet a room with representations of flowers because she is â€Å"fond† of them. Sissy is taught that she must not â€Å"fancy† and that she is â€Å"to be in all things regulated and governed by fact. † After the gentleman finishes his speech, the schoolteacher, Mr. M'Choakumchild, begins his instruction. He has been trained in a schoolteacher-factory and has been conditioned to be dry, inflexible and uninspiring†¹but full of hard facts. His primary job in these preparatory lessons is to find â€Å"Fancy† in the minds of the children and eradicate it. Analysis: â€Å"Murdering the Innocents† replaces the suspense of the previous chapter by establishing names and identities for the previously anonymous social roles that were presented earlier. As is to be expected from Dickens, the names of the characters are emblematic of their personality; usually, Dickens' haracters can be described as innocent, villainous or unaware of the moral dilemmas of the story that surrounds them. The characters' names are almost always an immediate indication of where the character fits on Dickens' moral spectrum. Thomas Gradgrind, â€Å"a man of realities† is a hard educator who grinds his students through a factory-like process, hoping to produce graduates (grads). Additionally, Gradgrind is a â€Å"doubting Thomas†Ã¢â‚¬ ¹much like the Biblical apostle who resisted belief in the resurrection, this Thomas urges that students depend exclusively upon the evidence in sight. He dismisses faith, fancy, belief, emotion and trust at once. Mr. M'Choakumchild is plainly villainous and he resembles the sort of fantastic ogres he'd prefer students took no stock in. Cecilia (Sissy) Jupe is unlike the other characters in almost every possible way. While there are other female students, she is the only female identified thus far in the novel. Unlike the boy â€Å"Bitzer† (who has the name of a horse), Sissy has a nickname and at least in this chapter, she is the lone embodiment of â€Å"fancy† at the same time that she is the single female presented as a contrast to the row of hardened mathematical men. Her character is, of course, a romanticized figure. Despite the political critique of Dickens' simplification and over-idealization of females and children (and girls, especially), Cecilia's character does have some depth that allows her development later in the novel. Her last name, â€Å"Jupe,† comes from the French word for â€Å"skirts† and her first name, Cecilia, represents the sainted patroness of music. Especially as she is a member of a traveling circus, we can expect Cecilia to represent â€Å"Art† and â€Å"Fancy† in contrast to M'Choakumchild, one of 141 schoolmasters who â€Å"had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. Besides the allusion to St. Cecilia, Dickens alludes to Morgiana, a character in the classic story † Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves†Ã¢â‚¬ ¹one of the Arabian Nights tales. The reader should always note the irony in Dickens' allusions: while Dickens' characters argue against fanciful literature, Dickens' is relying upon it to compose his story. In this case, Dickens' simile presents M'Choakumchild's search for â€Å"the robber Fancy† in terms of Morgiana's searching for (and hiding of) the thieves in â€Å"Ali Baba. The metaphor of the children as eager â€Å"vessels† is made explicit when the â€Å"vessels† before M'Choakumchild become the â€Å"jars† before Morgiana. And the motif of robbers and villains is finalized when we remember that Ali Baba and the forty thieves were more hero than criminal. M'Choakumchild is labeled â€Å"gentleman† but his intention to seek and destroy â€Å"the robber Fancy lurking within† makes â€Å"the robber Fancy† (childish imagination) a more noble personification. Instead, the teachers are the ones who seem criminal. The most important allusion of the chapter is the title: â€Å"Murdering the Innocents. † The reader should expect Dickens work to be full of Biblical and Christian allusions as he is writing to a largely sentimental popular audience. While the reference may be more inaccessible, erudite or unrecognizable for modern young readers, Dickens' 1854 British audience immediately saw the reference to King Herod. Soon after the birth of Christ, Herod fears for his throne and has all of the male babies in Bethlehem executed (in the hopes of murdering the Christ child). In literary circles, the phrase â€Å"murder of the innocents† is exclusively used to describe this Biblical story. While the students are not literally danger (M'Choakumchild), their childish imagination has been targeted for annihilation. This completes the archetype of youth vs. age, and foreshadows that whoever is being targeted and singled out (Cecilia Jupe and her imagination) will ultimately escape this tyrant, but other innocents will be less fortunate (Bitzer). But we might expect as much from the same author who had written A Christmas Carol a decade before. The major theme of the chapter can be easily inferred from Dickens' description of Cecilia in the classroom. The â€Å"horses† and carpeted â€Å"flowers† are all double symbols of her femininity and youth, but most important, Cecilia represents Art in opposition to mechanization. Dickens is not arguing against education, science or progress. He is arguing against a mode of factory-style, mind-numbing, grad-grinding production that takes the fun out of life. But even worse than the loss of â€Å"fun† or â€Å"leisure,† Dickens is arguing that art requires an inquisitive and desiring mind. Especially as Dickens is known to have read and enjoyed Arabian Nights in his youth, we can see a bit of autobiography in his tender treatment of Cecilia†¹perhaps if he had come under a Mr. M'Choakumchild, he would have proved incapable of becoming an artist. The life of modern mankind is presented very negatively and ignorantly by Matthew Arnold in the poem Dover Beach by the fact that religious faith evanesce with the Industrial Revolution. Arnold creates the image of the dark future for the people without unwavering faith or religion. Modern men are bastardised with the thought that new the Industrial Revolution will give them advantage over nature. This thought of gaining superiority made humans arrogant by which this appearance is broken by the reality of nature’s dominance. People also seem ignorant with the wishful thought. These pebbles which ‘the waves draw back, and fling’ are completely powerless and are thrown around by the waves that move these â€Å"pebbles† at ease. Arnold uses pebbles as a metaphor for humans to show the inferiority in comparison to nature. The ignorance of humans is emphasised by the historical allusion to Peloponnesian War. In the dark, soldiers could not differentiate between their own army and the opponents; and so they killed their own soldiers. This is used by the poet to show the stupidity of modern man throwing away the religion which was everything to people before the Industrial Revolution; something to believe and rely on when people prayed. However, this old belief is thrown away and Arnold sees it as a very naive decision. The Industrial Revolution gave the source of arrogance and confidence which took place among the Western countries. This revolution was revolutionary itself; humans could mass produce, with improved quality, and at ease. These machineries became the limbs of human society. What came with the industrial revolution was the idea of realism. People could nearly produce goods to near-original standards, all thanks to improved technologies and science, and hence began to doubt the existence of God and supernatural beings. Realism contrasts the theology which is all about belief without questioning that God exists; and people believed it before the times of the machineries. It gave people hope and modesty under the mighty existence of God. However both hope and modesty disappeared with the Industrial Revolution which Arnold laments for. Bitterness is suggested when Arnold exclaims ‘Ah, love’ to show that in this changing world, one can only rely on the partner, and be trustful and true. Sarcasm is used to describe the modern world as a ‘land of dreams’ as there is no more hope for the world, as there is no more faith. As the poem proceeds, the transition of mood is noticeable as the grief of the loss of faith extends to a sense of resignation towards the end and having a sarcastic, sour approach to the ssue. The ‘tremulous cadence slow’ helps to convey the gradual process of the wane of doctrine which adds to the idea that the change of people’s lives is almost unnoticeable. This gradual process hurts Arnold because people are caught unaware of the changes taking place and so do not think it is particularly wrong and sinful. Arnold presents his sorrow with the historical al lusion to Sophocles who, was a Greek playwright, had heard the sound of waves crashing as the ‘eternal note of sadness’. The ‘sadness’ of the mankind turning away from religious beliefs is a parallel to the ‘melancholy†¦ withdrawing roar†¦retreating’ of the waves. Before the development of science and technology, people had truly believed in the religion and thought that they were in total control of god. The metaphor ‘Sea of Faith’ which presents the religious faith people have, used to be ‘full and round Earth’s shore’ but now is ‘retreating†¦ down the vast edges’ which shows the decreasing religious beliefs. Arnold points out that, without faith, humans are ‘naked’ and have no protection and defence which reflects the vulnerability of man and their lives. With carefully chosen words, Arnold presents the uncertainty of the future of humans. The new industrialised world seems â€Å"so various, so beautiful, so new† but it is again a mere appearance. The reality is that this mechanic, stiff world will have â€Å"neither joy, nor love, nor light† because this mechanics cannot feel love, hence no joy, and no vision as humans need love and the warm characteristics of humanity. It is thus deducible that the future will have no â€Å"certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain† which are the essentialities of humans. Humans can only survive the harsh world when everybody believes and trusts each other, and this will be broken with the introduction of industrialisation. This change of the world will bring â€Å"confused alarms on struggle and flight† which creates an imagery of a â€Å"darkling plain†; a dark vision for humans. Furthermore, the â€Å"turbid† ebb and flow shows the cloudy, uncertain future of ‘ebb and flow’ which is the repetitive cycles of nature. Can humans only survive when they make harmony with the nature, and to go against the natural cycles can only mean extinction of humans. The ‘cliffs’ of England ‘gleams’ and ‘glimmers’; gleams and glimmers have a sense of shakiness, precariousness and unknown which echoes the uncertain modern man. Also the alliteration of ‘g’ and ‘m’ creates a stuttering tone which adds to the idea of uncertainty. This imagery portrays the withering away of cliffs as a decline of religious beliefs and whatsmore, deterioration of the Earth itself as humans exploit resources out of the Earth which the modern development enabled men to do. The flaws of modernism and realism are expressed in this poem. The flow of the poem is cut off by uses of caesura which is a parallel to the imperfect modern world. Arnold gives a hint that modernization of the world will have some flaws which will inevitably bring loss of faith and result in loss of equilibrium. In science, there is no hope; everything is measured out and exact. Hence in the modern world reality there can be no hope as it looks vain. Again, Arnold sympathises with the loss of hope in reality. In a different sense, the calm, naturalistic description of a beach at night in the first stanza is the appearance which contrasts to the reality that is sad, unhopeful, ‘retreating’ and ‘tremulous’. Human beings are inferior over nature and the spiritual beliefs as to an extent that people cannot control anything. The abandonment of the doctrine of religion with the help of the Industrial Revolution is only a vain act against the power overwhelming nature. Religion and faith should remain in humanity and ignoring it should result in the uncertainty and vulnerability of modern man.

Bean Trees and Brave New World

Brave New World vs. The Bean Trees The novels Brave New World and The Bean Trees both show suffering and people trying to pursue their own happiness. In Brave New World, John suffers through his unhappiness. In The Bean Trees, Taylor Greer goes through the same situation. They both go through the process of suffering to reach the same goal, which is to find happiness. In Brave New World, John becomes out casted by both the New Mexico Savage Reservation and the World State. With living in the World State and their version of â€Å"happiness†, John begs for the right to feel emotion. He sees the World State as giving off artificial happiness, but he wants true happiness and true emotion. He pleads, â€Å"I don’t want comfort, I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. † He takes his values from the works of Shakespeare which helps him to voice his own emotions and reactions, it gives him a framework from which to comment on World State values, and it gives him the language that helps him hold his own in confrontation. Shakespeare shows all the values that the World State does not have. From reading the works, John wants to reject the shallow â€Å"happiness† of the World State, he becomes unable to control his temptations for Lenina, and ultimately he commits suicide. John taking part in the final orgy and later committing suicide can become viewed as the product of an insanity made by the conflict between his values and the reality of the World State. John never reached his goal due to him committing suicide. In The Bean Trees, Taylor Greer leaves her home in Kentucky to make a new life for herself. Along the way, a woman gives Taylor a child which she names Turtle. At first, caring for Turtle does not come easily to her, but over time she grows to love Turtle as her own. Taylor becomes forced to mature quickly which brings on another struggle for her. High School has only been behind her for a few years and she already has to take on the responsibility of providing for a child. She also needs to raise money on her own, not only for herself but also for Turtle. Finding a place to live became her responsibility, too. Estevan and Esperanza’s struggles with aving to give up their child and the trauma of Turtle getting attacked one day, forces Taylor to struggle through depression. The police investigation on the attack shows that Taylor is not the legal guardian of Turtle which brings up another struggle for her until Taylor comes up with a plan to adopt her. In the end, Taylor’s plan works, Taylor and Turtle now have a home in Tucson, and Esperanza and Estevan safely live at their new home in Oklahoma. Taylor struggled through life’s challenges but by the end of the novel she finds a new meaning for â€Å"family† and becomes appreciative of the miracles given to her each day. The struggles of the human condition become resolved for the current time in the lives that Taylor has touched. Ultimately, Taylor did reach her goal of happiness because she found family in the people around her and a new life in Tucson. Both of the characters went through much suffering on their pursuit of happiness. They handled their suffering in different ways though. John rebelled against the World State to gain his happiness whereas Taylor took what came to her and found her happiness with what she was given.

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Outline the Main Types of Business Structure that Existed in Britain Research Paper

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Report about Communication Law Case Comparison Essay

Report about Communication Law Case Comparison - Essay Example v. Sullivan, 1964). The text in the end, appealed for funds for purposes such as the â€Å"support of the student movement, the struggle for the right-to-vote, and the legal defense of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. against a perjury indictment (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Respondent contended that although the statements do not mention the respondent by name, the word ‘police’ referred to him as he supervised the Police Department, and hence being accused of those alleged in the advertisement (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). He further claimed that the rest of the paragraph referred to the police (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). It was found that some of the statements were not accurate descriptions of events, which happened in Montgomery (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). The jury were under instructions by the trial judge upon presentation of the case, that the statements made were â€Å"libelous per se and were not privileged,† and hence the petitioners may be held liable if found to have published the advertisement and if the â€Å"statements were made of and concerning respondent,† (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Being libelous per se, the judge cited that â€Å"falsity and malice are presumed from the bare fact of their publication,† (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). He added that general damages are presumed, hence, â€Å"need not be alleged or proved,† and that the jury may award punitive damages even though there is no showing of the amount of actual damages (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). The decision also failed to charge to the jury that there must be malice or â€Å"actual intent to harm or gross negligence and recklessness† and did not distinguish between compensatory and punitive damages (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). These rulings and instructions were sustained by the Supreme Court of Alabama in all

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Marshalls - Assignment Example Indeed, shopping at Marshalls is a hectic and tedious process that consumes a lot of time. As such, finding the right item and in the right size is always a big challenge to the customers (TBF, 2011). This paper therefore proposes that Marshalls adapt a new in-store technology to serve customers faster and more efficiently, handheld devices for employees, use of item-level RFID to better track, and manage its inventory. Consequently, I will consider Macy’s shoes department as an example. To achieve this, I will detail all the benefits of this technology and the approximate cost of installing this technology in Marshalls. Indeed, the Macy's has adopted the recent technology to enhance store shopping. Indeed, the Macy’s technology seeks to expand online inventory and store-to-door fulfillment capabilities. The system is Wi-Fi enabled in brick-and-mortar stores. Additionally, the system uses item-level RFID to better track and manage the inventory. It also collaborates wit h Google to facilitate store maps and mobile-enabled payment. As such, the Macy's can be a very significant technology in perfecting the shopping experience in Marshalls. The device is significantly portable due to its remote control-size. The clerk takes a quick scan of a bar code on the shoe, types in the customer's size and the machine subsequently establishes whether the store has the shoe in stock. This promotes a masterpiece in the shopping experience. This facilitates instant service to the customer without the clerk not physically going to the back room to check the availability of the reference item (Clough, 2012). Indeed, the device can instantly search for the item in the context of type, name, and size without running to the back room. The device therefore speedup service, improves convenience and portability. The device equally sends a message to a subordinate staff in the back room informing him of the customer’s choice and even proposing the closet door for the worker to deliver the item to the customer. More so, the device allows for time saving in serving one customer thus allowing the clerk to serve more customers especially during weekends and holidays. Indeed, the clerk can use the saved time to introduce the first customer to other options thus increasing customer base. The system equally allows the customers to view various products online on the screen as well as allowing them to touch the real items. As such, the device allows the company to display more merchandise that floor space or inventory limits. Moreover, the Google maps partnership allows the customers to navigate the stores and enable tap-and-go mobile payments through the Google Wallet (Giannopoulos, 2012). As such, this device has enormous benefits that can add value to Marshalls Company. This would highly facilitate effective service to the customers in a faster and more convenient manner. It will similarly help Marshalls to better track, and manage its inventory. Mo re so, it will accord service to more customers, enable the workers to work effectively, and generally improve sales turnover in Marshalls. Nevertheless, the installation of such a device at the Marshalls Company is a costly affair. Indeed, in accompany with branches worldwide and resounding numbers of customers, kit would re4quire to have a device for every

Policy Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

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The House in Zapote Street Essay Example for Free

The House in Zapote Street Essay Quijano de Manila is the pen name of Nick Joaquin. He started writing before the war and his first story, â€Å"Three Generations† has been hailed as a masterpiece. He has been recipient of almost all the prestigious awards in literature and the arts, including the National Artist Award for Literature in 1976. He was also conferred, among other recognitions, the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Literature in 1961, the Journalist of the Year Award in the early 1960s, the Book of the Year Award in 1979 for his Almanac for Manileà ±os, the national Book award for several of his works, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, Creative Communication Arts (the Asian counterpart of Nobel Prize) in 1996, and the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award in 1997. Dr. Leonardo Quitangon, a soft-spoken, mild-mannered, cool-tempered Caviteno, was still fancy-free at 35 when he returned to Manila, after six years abroad. Then, at the University of Santo Tomas, where he went to reach, he met Lydia Cabading, a medical intern. He liked her quiet ways and began to date her steadily. They went to the movies and to basketball games and he took her a number of times to his house in Sta. Mesa, to meet his family. Lydia was then only 23 and looked like a sweet unspoiled girl, but there was a slight air of mystery about her. Leonardo and his brothers noticed that she almost never spoke of her home life or her childhood; she seemed to have no gay early memories to share with her lover, as sweethearts usually crave to do. And whenever it looked as if she might have to stay out late, she would say: Ill have to tell my father first. And off she would go, wherever she was, to tell her father, though it meant going all the way to Makati, Rizal, where she lived w ith her parents in a new house on Zapote Street. The Quitangons understood that she was an only child and that her parents were, therefore, over-zealous in looking after her. Her father usually took her to school and fetched her after classes, and had been known to threaten to arrest young men who stared at her on the streets or pressed too close against her on jeepneys. This high-handedness seemed natural enough, for Pablo Cabading, Lydias father was a member of the Manila Police Depatment. After Lydia finished her internship, Leopardo Quitangon became a regular visitor at the house on Zapote Street: he was helping her prepare for the board exams. Her family seemed to like him. The mother Anunciacion, struck him as a mousy woman unable to speak save at her husbands bidding. There was a foster son, a little boy the Cabadings had adopted. As for Pablo Cabading, he was a fine strapping man, an Ilocano, who gave the impression of being taller than he was and looked every inch an agent of the law: full of brawn and guts and force, and smoldering with vitality. He was a natty dresser, liked youthful colors and styles, decorated his house with pictures of himself and, at 50, looked younger than his inarticulate wife, who was actually two years younger than he. When Leonardo started frequenting the house on Zapote Street, Cabading told him: ill be frank with you. None of Lydias boy friends ever lasted ten minutes in this house. I didnt like them and I told them so and made them get out. Then he added laying a hand on the young doctors shoulder: But I like you. You are a good man. The rest of the household were two very young maids who spoke almost no Tagalog, and two very fierce dogs, chained to the front door in the day time, unchained in the front yard at night. The house of Zapote Street is in the current architectural clichà ©: the hoity-toity Philippine split-level suburban style—a half-story perched above the living area, to which it is bound by the slope of the roof and which it overlooks from a balcony, so that a person standing in the sala can see the doors of the bedrooms and bathroom just above his head. The house is painted, as is also the current fashion, in various pastel shades, a different color to every three or fou r planks. The inevitable piazza curves around two sides of the house, which has a strip of lawn and a low wall all around it. The Cabadings did not keep a car, but the house provides for an eventual garage and driveway. This, and the furniture, the shell lamps and the fancy bric-a-brac that clutters the narrow house indicate that the Cabadings had not only risen high enough to justify their split-level pretensions but were expecting to go higher. Lydia took the board exams and passed them. The lovers asked her fathers permission to wed. Cabading laid down two conditions: that the wedding would ba a lavish one and that was to pay a downy of P5.000.00. The young doctor said that he could afford the big wedding but the big dowry. Cabading shrugged his shoulders; no dowry, no marriage. Leonarado spent some frantic weeks scraping up cash and managed to gather P3.000.00. Cabading agreed to reduce his price to that amount, then laid down a final condition: after the wedding, Lydia and Leonardo must make their home at the house on Zapote Street. I built this house for Lydia, said Cabading, and I want her to live here even when shes married. Besides, her mother couldnt bear to be separated from Lydia, her only child. There was nothing. Leonardo could do but consent. Lydia and Leonardo were on September 10 last year, at the Cathedral of Manila, with Mrs. Delfin Montano, wife of the Cavite governor, and Senator Ferdinand Marcos as sponsors. The reception was at the Selecta. The status gods of Suburdia were properly propitiated. Then the newlyweds went to live on Zapote Street and Leonardo almost immediately realized why Lydia had been so reticent and mysterious about her home life. The cozy family group that charmed him in courtship days turned out to be rather too cozy. The entire household revolved in submission around Pablo Cabading. The daughter, mother, the foster-son, the maids and even the dogs trembled when the lifted his voice. Cabading liked to brag that was a killer: in 1946 he had shot dead two American soldiers he caught robbing a neighbors house in Quezon City. Leonardo found himself within a family turned in on itself, self-enclosed and self-sufficient — in a house that had no neighbors and no need for any. His brothers say that he made more friends in the neighborhood within the couple of months he stayed there than the Cabadings had made in a year. Pablo Cabading did not like what his to stray out of, and what was not his to stray into, his house. And within that house he wanted to be the center of everything, even of his daughters honeymoon. Whenever Leonardo and Lydia went to the movies or for a ride, Cabading insisted on being taken along. If they seated him on the back scat while they sat together in front, be raged and glowered. He wanted to sit in front with them. When Leonardo came home from work, he must not tarry with Lydia in the bedroom chatting: both of them must come down at once to the sala and talk with their father. Leonardo explained that he was not much of a talking: Thats why I fell in love with Lydia, because shes the quiet type too. No matter, said Cabading. They didnt have to talk at all; he would do all the talking himself, so long as they sat there in the sala before his eyes. So, his compact family group sat around him at night, silent, while Cabading talked and talked. But, finally, the talk had stop, the listeners had to rise and retire and it was this moment that Cabading seemed unable to bear. He couldnt bear to see Lydia and Leonardo rise and go up together to their room. One night, unable to bear it any longer he shouted, as they rose to retire: Lydia, you sleep with your mother tonight. She has a toothache. After a dead look at her husband, Lydia obeyed. Leonardo went to bed alone. The incident would be repeated: there would always be other reasons, besides Mrs. Cabadings toothaches. What horrified Leonardo was not merely what being done to him but his increasing acquiesces. Had his spirit been so quickly broken? Was he, too, like the rest of the household, being drawn to revolve, silently and obediently, around the master of the house? Once, late at night, he suddenly showed up at his parents’ house in Sta. Mesa and his brothers were shocked at the great in him within so short a time. He looked terrified. What had happened? His car had broken down and he had had it repaired and now he could not go home. But why not? You dont know my father-in-law, he groaned. Everybody in that house must be in by a certain hour. Otherwise, the gates are locked, the doors are locked, the windows are locked. Nobody can get in anymore!† A younger brother, Gene offered to accompany him home and explain to Cabading what had happened. The two rode to Zapote and found the house dark and locked up. Says Gene: That memory makes my blood boil my eldest brother fearfully clanging and clanging the gate, and nobody to let him in. 1 wouldnt have waited a second, but he waited five, ten, fifteen minutes, knocking at thai gate, begging to be let in. I couldnt have it! In the end the two brothers rode back to Sta. Mesa, where Leonardo spent the night. When he returned to the house on Zapote the next day, his father-in-law greeted him with a sarcastic question: Where were you? At a basketball game? Leonardo became anxious to take his wife away from that house. He talked it over with her, then they went to tell her father. Said Cabading bluntly: If she goes with you, Ill shoot her head before your eyes. His brothers urged him to buy a gun, but Leonardo felt in his pocket and said, Ive got my rosary. Cried his brother Gene: You cant fight a gun with a rosary!. When Lydia took her oath as a physician, Cabading announced that only he and his wife would accompany Lydia to the ceremony. I would not be fair, he said, to let Leonardo, who had not borne the expenses of Lydias education, to share that moment of glory too. Leonardo said that, if he would like them at least to use his car. The offer was rejected. Cabading preferred to hire a taxi. After about two months at the house on Zapote Street, Leonardo moved out, alone. Her parents would not let Lydia go and she herself was too afraid to leave. During the succeeding weeks, efforts to contact her proved futile. The house on Zapote became even more closed to the outside world. If Lydia emerged from it at all, she was always accompanied by her father, mother or foster-brother, or by all three. When her husband heard that she had started working at a hospital he went there to see her but instead met her father coming to fetch her. The very next day, Lydia was no longer working at the hospital. Leonardo knew that she was with child and he was determined to bear all her prenatal expenses. He went to Zapote one day when her father was out and persuaded her to come out to the yard but could not make her make the money he offered across the locked gate. Just mail it, she cried and fled into the house. He sent her a check by registered mail; it was promptly mailed back to him. On Christmas Eve, Leonardo returned to the house on Zapote with a gift for his wife, and stood knocking at the gate for so long the neighbors gathered at windows to watch him. Finally, he was allowed to enter, present his gift to Lydia and talk with her for a moment. She said that her father seemed agreeable to a meeting with Leonardos father, to discuss the young couples problem. So the elder Quitangon and two of his younger sons went to Zapote one evening. The lights were on in Cabading house, but nobody responded to their knocking. Then all the lights were turned off. As they stood wondering what to do, a servant girl came and told them that the master was out. (Lydia would later tell them that they had not been admitted because her father had not yet decided what she was to say to them.) The last act of this curious drama began Sunday last week when Leonardo was astounded to receive an early-morning phone call from his wife. She said she could no longer bear to be parted from him and bade him pick her up at a certain church, where she was with her foster brother. Leonardo rushed to the church, picked up two, dropped the boy off at a street near Zapote, then sped with Lydia to Maragondon, Cavite where the Quitangons have a house. He stopped at a gasoline station to call up his brothers in Sta. Mesa, to tell them what he had done and to warn them that Cabading would surely show up there. Get Mother out of the house, he told his brothers. At about ten in the morning, a taxi stopped before the Quitangon house in Sta. Mesa and Mrs. Cabading got out and began screaming at the gate: Wheres my daughter? Wheres my daughter? Gene and Nonilo Quitangin went out to the gate and invited her to come in. No! No! All I want is my daughter! she screamed. Cabading, who was inside the waiting taxi, then got out and demanded that the Quitangons produce Lydia. Vexed, Nonilo Quitangon cried: Abah, what have we do with where your daughter is? Anyway, shes with her husband. At that, Cabading ran to the taxi, snatched a submachinegun from a box, and trained it on Gene Quitangon. (Nonilo had run into the house to get a gun.) Produce my daughter at once or Ill shoot you all down! shouted Cabading. Gene, the guns muzzle practically in his face, sought to pacify the older man: Why cant we talk this over quietly, like decent people, inside the house? Look, were creating a scandal in the neighborhood.. Cabading lowered his gun. I give you till midnight tonight to produce my daughter, he growled. If you dont, you better ask the PC to guard this house! Then he and his wife drove off in the taxi, just a moment before the mobile police patrol the neighbors had called arrived. The police advised Gene to file a complaint with the fiscals office. Instead, Gene decided to go to the house on Zapote Street, hoping that diplomacy would work. To his surprise, he was admitted at once by a smiling and very genial Cabading. You are a brave man, he told Gene, and a lucky one, And he ordered a coke brought for the visitor. Gene said that he was going to Cavite but could not promise to produce. Lydia by midnight: it was up to the couple to decide whether they would come back. It was about eight in the evening when Gene arrived in Maragondon. As his car drove into the yard of this familys old house, Lydia and Leonardo appeared at a window and frantically asked what had happened. Nothing, said Gene, and their faces lit up. Were having our honeymoon at last, Lydia told Gene as he entered the house. And the old air of dread, of mystery, did seem to have lifted from her face. But it was there again when, after supper, he told them what had happened in Sta. Mesa. I cant go back, she moaned. Hell kill me! Hell kill me! He has cooled down now, said Gene. He seems to be a reasonable man after all. Oh, you dont know him! cried Lydia. Ive known him longer, and Ive never, never been happy! And the brothers at last had glimpses of the girlhood she had been so reticent about. She told them of Cabadings baffling changes of temper, especially toward her; how smiles and found words and caresses could abruptly turn into beatings when his mood darkened. Leonardo said that his father-in-law was an artista, Remember how he used to fan me when I supped there while I was courting Lydia? (At about that time, in Sta. Mesa, Nonilo Quitanongon, on guard at the gate of his familys house, saw Cabading drive past three times in a taxi.) I cant force you to go back, said Gene. Youll have to decide that yourselves. But what, actually, are you planning to do? You cant stay forever here in Maragondon. What would you live on? The two said they would talk it over for a while in their room. Gene waited at the supper table and when a long time had passed and they had not come back he went to the room. Finding the door ajar, he looked in. Lydia and Leonardo were on their knees on the floor, saying the rosary, Gene returned to the supper table. After another long wait, the couple came out of the room. Said Lydia: We have prayed together and we have decided to die together.† Well go back with you, in the morning. They we’re back in Manila early the next morning. Lydia and Leonardo went straight to the house in Sta. Mesa, where all their relatives and friends warned them not to go back to the house on Zapote Street, as they had decided to do. Confused anew, they went to the Manila police headquarters to ask for advice, but the advice given seemed drastic to them: summon Cabading and have it out with him in front of his superior officer. Leonardos father then offered to go to Zapote with Gene and Nonilo, to try to reason with Cabading. They found him in good humor, full of smiles and hearty greetings. He reproached his balae for not visiting him before. I did come once, drily remarked the elder Quitangon, but no one would open the gate. Cabading had his wife called. She came into the room and sat down. Was I in the house that night our balae came? her husband asked her. No, you were out, she replied. Having spoken her piece, she got up and left the room. (On their various visits to the house on Zapote Street, the Quitangons noticed that Mrs. Cabading appeared only when summoned and vanished as soon as she had done whatever was expected of her). Cabading then announced that he no longer objected to Lydias moving out of the house to live with her husband in an apartment of their own. Overjoyed, the Quitangons urged Cabading to go with them in Sta. Mesa, so that the newlyweds could be reconciled with Lydias parents. Cabading readily agreed. When they arrived in Sta. Mesa, Lydia and Leonardo were sitting on a sofa in the sala. Why have you done this? her father chided her gently. If you wanted to move out, did you have to run away? To Leonardo, he said: And you are angry with me? house by themselves. Gene Quitangon felt so felt elated he proposed a celebration: Ill throw a blow-out! Everybody is invited! This is on me! So they all went to Maxs in Quezon City and had a very merry fried-chicken party. Why, this is a family reunion! laughed Cabading. This should be on me! But Gene would not let him pay the bill. Early the next morning, Cabading called up the Sta. Mesa house to pay that his wife had fallen ill. Would Lydia please visit her? Leonardo and Lydia went to Zapote, found nothing the matter with her mother, and returned to Sta. Mesa. After lunch, Leonardo left for his classes. Then Cabading called up again. Lydias mother refused to eat and kept asking for her daughter. Would Lydia please drop in again at the house on Zapote? Gene and Nonilo Quitangon said they might as well accompany Lydia there and start moving out her things. When they arrived at the Zapote house, the Quitangon brothers were amused by what they saw. Mrs. Cabading, her eyes closed, lay on the parlor sofa, a large towel spread out beneath her. She has been lying there all day, said Cabading, tossing restlessly, asking for you, Lydia. Gene noted that the towel was neatly spread out and didnt look crumpled at all, and that Mrs. Cabading was obviously just pretending to be asleep. He smiled at the childishness of the stratagem, but Lydia was past being amused. She wont straight to her room, were they heard her pulling out drawers. While the Quitangons and Cabading were conversing, the supposedly sick mother slipped out of the sofa and went upstairs to Lydias room. Cabading told the Quitangons that he wanted Lydia and Leonardo to stay there; at the house in Zapote. I thought all that was settled last night, Gene groaned. I built this house for Lydia, persisted Cabading, and this house is hers. If she and her husband want to be alone, I and my wife will move out of here, turn this house over to them. Gene wearily explained that Lydia and Leonardo preferred the apartment they had already leased. Suddenly the men heard the clatter of a drawer falling upstairs. Gene surmised that it had fallen in a struggle between mother and daughter. Excuse me, said Cabading, rising. As he went upstairs, he said to the Quitangons, over his shoulder, â€Å"Dont misunderstand me. Im not going to coach Lydia. He went into Lydias room and closed the door behind him. After a long while, Lydia and her father came out of the room together and came down to the sala together. Lydia was clasping a large crucifix. There was no expression on her face when she told the Quitangon boys to go home. But I thought we were going to start moving your things out this afternoon,, said Gene. She glanced at the crucifix and said it was one of the first things she wanted taken to her new home. Just tell Narding to fetch me, she said. Back in Sta. Mesa, Gene and Nonilo had the painful task of telling Leonardo, when he phoned, that Lydia was back in the house on Zapote. Why did you leave her there? cried Leonardo. Hell beat her up! Im going to get her. Gene told him not you go alone, to pass by the Sta. Mesa house first and pick up Nonilo. Gene could not go along; he had to catch a bus for Subic, where he works. When Leonardo arrived, Gene told him: Dont force Lydia to go with you. If she doesnt want to, leave at once. Do not, for any reason, be persuaded to stay there too. When his brother had left for Zapote, Gene realized that he was not sure he was going to Subic. He left too worried. He knew he couldnt rest easy until he had seen Lydia and Leonardo settled in their new home. The minutes quickly ticked past as he debated with himself whether he should stay or catch that bus. Then, at about a quarter to seven, the phone rang. It was Nonilo, in anguish. Something terrible has happened in Lydias room! I heard four shots, he cried. Who are up there? Lydia and Narding and the Cabadings. Ill be right over. Gene sent a younger brother to inform the family lawyer and to alert the Makati police. Then he drove like mad to Zapote. It was almost dark when he got there. The house stood perfectly still, not a light on inside. He watched it from a distance but could see no movement, Then a taxi drove up and out jumped Nonilo. He had telephoned from a gasoline station. He related what had happened. He said that when he and Leonardo arrived at the Zapote house, Cabading motioned Leonardo upstairs: Lydia is in her room. Leonardo went up; Cabading gave Nonilo a cup of coffee and chatted amiably with him. Nonilo saw Mrs. Cabading go up to Lydias room with a glass of milk. A while later, they heard a woman scream, followed by sobbing. There seems to be trouble up there, said Cabading, and he went upstairs. Nonilo saw him enter Lydias room, leaving the door open. A few moments later, the door was closed. Then Nonilo heard three shots. He stood petrified, but when he heard a fourth shot he dashed out of the house, ran to a gasoline station and called up Gene. Nonilo pointed to the closed front gate; he was sure he had left it open when he ran out. The brothers suspected that Cabading was lurking somewhere in the darkness, with his gun. Before them loomed the dark house, now so sinister and evil in their eyes. The upper story that jutted forward, forming the houses chief facade, bore a curious sign: Dra. Lydia C. Cabading, Lady Physician. (Apparently, Lydia continued- or was made- to use her maiden name.) Above the sign was the garland of colored lights that have been put up for Christmas and had not yet been removed. It was an ice-cold night, the dark of the moon, but the two brothers shivered not from the wind blowing down the lonely murky street but from pure horror of the house that had so fatally thrust itself into their lives. But the wind remembered when the sighs it heard here were only the sighing of the ripe grain, when the cries it heard were only the crying of birds nesting in the reeds, for all these new suburbs in Makati used to be grassland, riceland, marshland, or pastoral solitudes where few cared to go, until the big city spilled hither, replacing the uprooted reeds with split-levels, pushing noisy little streets into the heart of the solitude, and collecting here from all over the country the uprooted souls that now moan or giggle where once the carabao wallowed and the frogs croaked day and night. In very new suburbs, one feels human sorrow to be a grass intrusion on the labors of nature. Even barely two years ago, the talahib still rose man-high on the plot of ground on Zapote Street where now stands the relic of an ambiguous love. As the Quitangon brothers shivered in the darkness, a police van arrived and unloaded quite a large contingent of policemen. The Quitangons warned them that Cabading had a submachinegun. The policemen crawled toward the front gate and almost jumped when a young girl came running across the yard, shaking with terror and shrieking gibberish. She was one of the maids. She and her companion and the foster son had fled from the house when they heard the shooting and had been hiding in the yard. It was they who had closed the front gate. A policeman volunteered to enter the house through the back door; Gene said he would try the front one. He peered in at a window and could detect no one in the sala. He slipped a hand inside, opened the front door and entered, just as the policeman came in from the kitchen. As they crept up the stairs they heard a moaning in Lydias room. They tried the door but it was blocked from inside. Push it, push it, wailed a womans voice. The policeman pushed the door hard and what was blocking it gave. He groped for the switch and turned light. As they entered, he and Gene shuddered at what they saw. The entire room was spattered with blood. On the floor, blocking the door, lay Mrs. Cabading. She had been shot in the chest and stomach but was still alive. The policeman tried to get a statement from her but all she could say was: My hand, my hand- it hurts! She was lying across the legs of her daughter, who lay on top of her husbands body. Lydia was still clutching an armful of clothes; Leonardo was holding a clothes hanger. He had been shot in the breast; she, in the heart. They had died instantly, together. Sprawled face up on his daughters bed, his mouth agape and his eyes bulging open as though still staring in horror and the bright blood splashed on his face lay Pablo Cabading. Oh, I cursed him! cries Eugenio Quitangon with passion. Oh, I cursed him as he lay there dead, God forgive me! Yes, I cursed that dead man there on that bed, for I had wanted to find him alive! From the position of the bodies and from Mrs. Cabadings statements later at the hospital, it appears that Cabading shot Lydia while she was shielding her husband, and Mrs. Cabading when she tried to shield Lydia. Then he turned the gun on himself, and its an indication of the mans uncommon strength and power that, after the first shot, through the right side of the head, which must have been mortal enough, he seems to have been able, as his hands dropped to his breast, to fire at himself a second time. The violent spasm of agony must have sent the gun a .45 caliber pistol- flying from his hand. It was found at the foot of the bed, near Mrs. Cabadings feet. The drama of the jealous father had ended at about half-past six in the evening, Tuesday last week. The next day, hurrying commuters slowed down and a whispering crowd gathered before 1074 Zapote Street, to watch the police and the reporters going through the pretty little house that Pablo Cabading built for his Lydia.

The Supply Chain Management Of Nike Marketing Essay

The Supply Chain Management Of Nike Marketing Essay Nike is an innovation company, designing and planning for the sustainable economy of tomorrow, not just today. Climate change, and reducing Nikes environmental footprint, is something the company has been focused on for well over a decade, in conjunction with broader sustainability work.   By setting strong targets greenhouse gas emissions from owned operations and business travel were reduced by 18 percent from 1998 to 2005, despite an increase in the square footage of Nikes operations.   The majority of Nikes climate change impact derives from the operations of the more than 700 contract factories producing Nike-branded product.   Given that the transport operations which move Nike product from the point of manufacturing to the distribution centers account for about 25 percent of Nikes CO2 emissions, the company has set a target to reduce the inbound logistics footprint by 30 percent. Supply Chain Management which Nike have in its Considered Design becomes a di ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ erentiator for brands and a source of competitive advantage, company think it is crucial that the consumer has accurate, complete information on not just the delivery of green products, but the extent to which the company is committed to greening its entire supply chain. As early as 2003, Nike developed a baseline of its supply chain general environmental footprint, including inbound logistics and subcontracted manufacturing.As part of the companys Climate Savers agreement, Nike partnered with the University of Delaware to develop a model for measuring inbound emissions of product transportation from factory to  ¬Ã‚ rst distribution facility. Nike is working to expand that model to measure outbound shipments from distribution facility to retail. Footwear contract manufacturing, a majority of which is in Vietnam and China, is another major challenge for Nike. The company has began with audits of key factories to identify energy-intensive processes and potential areas of savings. Nikes US supply chain team has set goals to reduce its overall carbon footprint and is working closely with third-party logistics providers to  ¬Ã‚ nd opportunities to optimize fuel consumption and accelerate the use of alternative fuels. Nike also assessed its packaging footprint as part of a company-wide waste mapping exercise in making excellence in all aspects. The Challenge Finding a business solution that allows this leading apparel and footwear maker to align its demand and supply in a way that minimizes inventory and improve customer service levels. Business users were not satisfied with existing implementation of the demand planning system. The Solution Bristlecone developed and deployed planner DA and SC Policy Manager, composite pre-configured applications that allowed Nike to enforce higher level supply chain policies without having to deal with voluminous SKU Level demand and supply information. The composite apps bridged the gaps between Nikes existing ERP and SCM systems.   Business Impact   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  > Better ROI from existing ERP and SCM solutions     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  > Improved visibility into supply and demand     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  > Planners empowered to better align supply with demand   NIKE, Inc. recognizes the need for a well-coordinated and efficient supply chain for its business and the industry. Because the supply chain spans multiple jurisdictions from raw materials to production to shipping to retail and, ultimately, to consumers, a consistent and mature public policy position is needed. Nike support policies that deliver efficient, cost-effective delivery of NIKE Inc. products in a responsible manner. Our efforts concentrate on ensuring efficient transport, security and safety of NIKE, Inc. products throughout the supply chain. In addition, we advocate for policies that help to ensure that NIKE, Inc.s supply chain from factory to consumer operates in a manner that considers both people and the environment at each step of the way. We work with a number of bodies to advocate for these policies. These include national governments, industry associations and NGOs. Nike see two major changes in their supply chain management system. The first involves the apparel side of our business. With the elimination of quotas,they have changed their sourcing strategy to enter into many more strategic partnerships than they did in the past. Not all of apparel will necessarily be made in China. But going forward,they see many more apparel companies focusing on partnerships, and that should help in injecting more speed and agility into the supply chain management of Nike. 1) The second major change hinges on the need to be more demand-driven. Point-of-sale [POS] technology has progressed significantly in recent years, and POS information is more readily available and also a lot cleaner than it was in the past. At this point, it is up to company to figure out how to use that information to become much more responsive to the needs of our customers and deliver the products at a best suitable procedure and creates the value for time. 2) RFID will no doubt help Nike in a number of ways for continous improvement of supply chain management .RFID is being used to identify inbound and outbound product. RFID is being used in the warehouse to locate product. It is being used in manufacturing and processing industries to track and locate WIP (Work in Progress) and finished goods. RFID is being used to monitor and track product in transit, and RFID is being used to ensure store shelves are replenished.GAO RFID understands that the Supply Chain requires more than one type of RFID technology to satisfy all these different requirements and has developed different solutions for tracking as well locating.But they believe that it has the potential to help us build more demand responsiveness into our supply chain.   Nike has played a leadership role, along with other businesses and multilateral development organizations, in supporting infrastructure development in Vietnam and encouraging supply chain management of nike inc. The first component of the program involved having key Vietnamese government officials visit a Nike footwear factory in Vietnam and subsequently physically follow the movement of finished products from the factory to the port. The group traveled to southern China, an area well known for its development of physical infrastructure. They also visited Singapore to see world-class port facilities and operations and learn about infrastructure planning and financing. Not only the operation of nike in many countries today than they did 10-to-15 years ago, but the regulations in these countries are always changing. For example, back in 1990, the average tariff in India was about 58% for products coming in, and now its about 20% or so. Similarly, the average tariff in China used to be 30%, and today its about 6%. As a result, Nike operates differently today in the global marketplace even in countries where they had a presence for years. Formerly, because of the high tariffs, Nike tended to do mostly local sourcing. But now that tariff rates have fallen and subsequently increasingly starting to do much more deployment of global sourcing space, and thats changing the whole Nikes supply chain network Nike also overhauled its supply-chain system, which often left retailers either desperatel. The old jerry-built compilation strung together 27 different computer systems worldwide, most of which couldnt talk with the others. Under Densons direction, Nike has spent $500 million to build a new system. Almost complete, it is already contributing to quicker design and manufacturing times, and fatter gross margins 42.9% last year. That still-modest portfolio of different brands helps to lessen the companys dependence on hit shoes and could help Nike turn in a more consistent performance. Thats why Nike is eager to snap up complementary brands as they become available. In mid-August it paid $43 million for Official Starter Properties, licensors of sneakers and athletic apparel whose brands include the budget-level Shaq label. What were trying to do is move toward more of a consumer, noncyclical model, says Blair. The key is trying to find the right balance of discipline, innovation, creativity, and structure. Nikes Supply Value Chain In 1984, Nike owned just 16% of the athletic-shoe market, and for much of the 1980s it was running neck-and-neck with Reebok (Wilson 1).    Now, with somewhere between 43-47% of that market, Nike is the undisputed leader. However, things are not perfect with the company.    In the late 1990s, Nike began to see the results of many unresolved issues concerning competitive forces exterior to the company and a value chain, unrepresentative of its marketplace and enormous growth, interior to the company.    Both issues affected its bottom line negatively.    One significant issue was simply a function of poor inventory management and demand forecasting, coupled with the ongoing and dramatic slump in Asian sales. Nike had anticipated a doubling of Asian revenues, but saw instead a decline .   Nike also had recurring problems managing the flow of goods from manufacturers to retailers.    Finally, Nikes competitors, most notably Rebox, New Balance, Adidas and Fila, were copying m uch of the look of Nikes advertising campaigns, making its image projection much less effective.  Ã‚   Nike faced many challenges that they face in building, managing, and expanding global supply chains. Following are some of the nuggets gleaned from their remarks: Ocean freight between Asia and North America routinely takes 45 days or even as long as 60 days, in the event of missed sailing schedules or other problems. When an order is delayed, it has to be expedited through the manufacturing process, and the burden falls on transportation to offset the delays. But trying to make up for lost time by air freighting containers has a ruinous effect on freight budgets. Cross-country cost comparisons for sourcing product should be calculated on an all-in basis, including the costs of ownership along with all other costs incurred across the supply chain. Global supply chains daily involve such vexing problems as complex import-export processes, inadequate logistics infrastructures, and a gauntlet of regulations and trade agreements that are forever changing. When network optimization studies are prepared, they must identify and include the infrastructure-related challenges that are commonplace in emerging markets. Owing to escalating product proliferation, a key challenge is to build more speed, responsiveness, and adaptability into supply chains while still meeting the diverse needs of consumers in different markets. Customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding, insisting on shorter lead times and faster inventory-turns. To be competitive, suppliers must accommodate these requirements without inflating their cost structures. Looking ahead, freight transport looms as a major source of concern including rising costs, capacity bottlenecks, and homeland security. The relative costs of manufacturing onshore versus offshore are shifting, and the balance could tip in favor of manufacturing beginning to migrate back to the U.S. from offshore locations. Worldwide, Nike faces a huge amount of product proliferation, and their challenge is to build more speed, responsiveness, and adaptability into our supply chains while still meeting the diverse needs of consumers in different markets.They started to create more partnerships with suppliers and carriers and implementing lean manufacturing programs everything and anything that can help us get more flexibility into their supply chain SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF NIKE IN INDIA At Nike which has $16 billion in revenues today with the goal of getting to $23 billion by 2011 process excellence is a key component of the companys supply chain strategy. Nikes three businesses footwear, apparel and equipment have some similarities since most of the products are made in Asia and sold to similar customers worldwide. Their production processes, though, are completely different. Much of this has to do with the fact that from the time Nike began in 1964, it has never owned a factory but has chosen to work through contract manufacturing. They are trying to build our strength in process excellence through standardization and also doing this through the concept of lean manufacturing, which Toyota has made popular. Nike is also working towards what it calls delivery precision. Nike conceives its products in the form of collections. A collection could consist of a top apparel, a bottom apparel, shoes, bag, cap, etc. This is how customers typically like to buy products. While Nike designs these products as part of one collection, each category of items is made in different locations. As a result, if supply chain execution goes awry, these products are not available as complete collections, and that leads to loss of sales. Getting this streamlined is extremely challenging because it involves changing the way contract manufacturers work. Nike supply chains need to support our different businesses and different business models, One of our key challenges is to design supply chains that can leverage what is common and use common platforms and, at the same time, customize parts of the supply chain wherever necessary to meet the end needs of the markets specially in countries like india.

Types Of Crisis With Special Reference Management Essay

Types Of Crisis With Special Reference Management Essay Natural crises, typically natural disasters considered as acts of God, are such environmental phenomena as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods, landslides, tsunamis, storms, and droughts that threaten life, property, and the environment itself. Example: 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (Tsunami) Technological crises Technological crises are caused by human application of science and technology. Technological accidents inevitably occur when technology becomes complex and coupled and something goes wrong in the system as a whole (Technological breakdowns). Some technological crises occur when human error causes disruptions (Human breakdowns). People tend to assign blame for a technological disaster because technology is subject to human manipulation whereas they do not hold anyone responsible for natural disaster. When an accident creates significant environmental damage, the crisis is categorized as mega damage. Samples include software failures, industrial accidents, and oil spills. Examples: Chernobyl disaster, Exxon Valdez oil spill Confrontation crises Confrontation crises occur when discontented individuals and/or groups fight businesses, government, and various interest groups to win acceptance of their demands and expectations. The common type of confrontation crises is boycotts, and other types are picketing, sit-ins, ultimatums to those in authority, blockade or occupation of buildings, and resisting or disobeying police. Example: Rainbow/PUSHs (People United to Serve Humanity) boycott of Nike Crises of malevolence An organization faces a crisis of malevolence when opponents or miscreant individuals use criminal means or other extreme tactics for the purpose of expressing hostility or anger toward, or seeking gain from, a company, country, or economic system, perhaps with the aim of destabilizing or destroying it. Sample crises include product tampering, kidnapping, malicious rumors, terrorism, and espionage. Example: 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders Crises of organizational misdeeds Crises occur when management takes actions it knows will harm or place stakeholders at risk for harm without adequate precautions. Lerbinger specified three different types of crises of organizational misdeeds: crises of skewed management values, crises of deception, and crises of management misconduct. Crises of skewed management values Crises of skewed management values are caused when managers favor short-term economic gain and neglect broader social values and stakeholders other than investors. This state of lopsided values is rooted in the classical business creed that focuses on the interests of stockholders and tends to disregard the interests of its other stakeholders such as customers, employees, and the community. Example: Sears sacrifices customer trust Crises of deception Crises of deception occur when management conceals or misrepresents information about itself and its products in its dealing with consumers and others. Example: Dow Cornings silicone-gel breast implant Crises of management misconduct Some crises are caused not only by skewed values and deception but deliberate amorality and illegality. Workplace violence Crises occur when an employee or former employee commits violence against other employees on organizational grounds. Example: DuPonts Lycra Rumors False information about an organization or its products creates crises hurting the organizations reputation. Sample is linking the organization to radical groups or stories that their products are contaminated. Example: Procter Gambles Logo controversy Government and crisis management Historically, government at all levels local, state, and national has played a large role in crisis management. Indeed, many political philosophers have considered this to be one of the primary roles of government. Emergency services, such as fire and police departments at the local level, and the United States National Guard at the federal level, often play integral roles in crisis situations. To help coordinate communication during the response phase of a crisis, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the Department of Homeland Security administers the National Response Plan (NRP). This plan is intended to integrate public and private response by providing a common language and outlining a chain-of-command when multiple parties are mobilized. It is based on the premise that incidences should be handled at the lowest organizational level possible. The NRP recognizes the private sector as a key partner in domestic incident management, particularly in the area of critical infrastructure protection and restoration. The NRP is a companion to the National Incidence Management System that acts as a more general template for incident management regardless of cause, size, or complexity. FEMA offers free web-based training on the National Response Plan through the Emergency Management Institute. Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is a relatively recent mechanism that facilitates crisis communication across different mediums and systems. CAP helps create a consistent emergency alert format to reach geographically and linguistically diverse audiences through both audio and visual mediums. Elected officials and crisis management Historically, politics and crisis go hand-in-hand. In describing crisis, President Abraham Lincoln said, We live in the midst of alarms, anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read. Crisis management has become a defining feature of contemporary governance. In times of crisis, communities and members of organizations expect their public leaders to minimize the impact of the crisis at hand, while critics and bureaucratic competitors try to seize the moment to blame incumbent rulers and their policies. In this extreme environment, policy makers must somehow establish a sense of normality, and foster collective learning from the crisis experience. In the face of crisis, leaders must deal with the strategic challenges they face, the political risks and opportunities they encounter, the errors they make, the pitfalls they need to avoid, and the paths away from crisis they may pursue. The necessity for management is even more significant with the advent of a 24-hour news cycle and an increasingly internet-savvy audience with ever-changing technology at its fingertips. Public leaders have a special responsibility to help safeguard society from the adverse consequences of crisis. Experts in crisis management note that leaders who take this responsibility seriously would have to concern themselves with all crisis phases: the incubation stage, the onset, and the aftermath. Crisis leadership then involves five critical tasks: sense making, decision making, meaning making, terminating, and learning. A brief description of the five facets of crisis leadership includes: Sense making may be considered as the classical situation assessment step in decision making. 2. Decision making is both the act of coming to a decision as the implementation of that decision. 3. Meaning making refers to crisis management as political communication. 4. Terminating a crisis is only possible if the public leader correctly handles the accountability question. 5. Learning, refers to the actual learning from a crisis is limited. The authors note, a crisis often opens a window of opportunity for reform for better or for worse. Models and theories associated with crisis management Crisis Management Model Successfully defusing a crisis requires an understanding of how to handle a crisis before they occur. Gonzalez- Herrero and Pratt found the different phases of Crisis Management. There are 3 phases in any Crisis Management are as below 1. The diagnosis of the impending trouble or the danger signals. 2. Choosing appropriate Turnaround Strategy. 3. Implementation of the change process and its monitoring. Management Crisis Planning No corporation looks forward to facing a situation that causes a significant disruption to their business, especially one that stimulates extensive media coverage. Public scrutiny can result in a negative financial, political, legal and government impact. Crisis management planning deals with providing the best response to a crisis. Contingency planning Preparing contingency plans in advance, as part of a crisis management plan, is the first step to ensuring an organization is appropriately prepared for a crisis. Crisis management teams can rehearse a crisis plan by developing a simulated scenario to use as a drill. The plan should clearly stipulate that the only people to speak publicly about the crisis are the designated persons, such as the company spokesperson or crisis team members. The first hours after a crisis breaks are the most crucial, so working with speed and efficiency is important, and the plan should indicate how quickly each function should be performed. When preparing to offer a statement externally as well as internally, information should be accurate. Providing incorrect or manipulated information has a tendency to backfire and will greatly exacerbate the situation. The contingency plan should contain information and guidance that will help decision makers to consider not only the short-term consequences, but the long-term effects of every decision. Business continuity planning When a crisis will undoubtedly cause a significant disruption to an organization, a business continuity plan can help minimize the disruption. First, one must identify the critical functions and processes that are necessary to keep the organization running. Then each critical function and or/ process must have its own contingency plan in the event that one of the functions/processes ceases or fails. Testing these contingency plans by rehearsing the required actions in a simulation will allow for all involved to become more sensitive and aware of the possibility of a crisis. As a result, in the event of an actual crisis, the team members will act more quickly and effectively. Structural-functional systems theory Providing information to an organization in a time of crisis is critical to effective crisis management. Structural-functional systems theory addresses the intricacies of information networks and levels of command making up organizational communication. The structural-functional theory identifies information flow in organizations as networks made up of members and links. Information in organizations flow in patterns called networks. Diffusion of innovation theory Another theory that can be applied to the sharing of information is Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Developed by Everett Rogers, the theory describes how innovation is disseminated and communicated through certain channels over a period of time. Diffusion of innovation in communication occurs when an individual communicates a new idea to one or several others. At its most elementary form, the process involves: (1) an innovation, (2) an individual or other unit of adoption that has knowledge of or experience with using the innovation, (3) another individual or other unit that does not yet have knowledge of the innovation, and (4) a communication channel connecting the two units. A communication channel is the means by which messages get from one individual to another. Unequal human capital theory James postulates that organizational crisis can result from discrimination lawsuits. Jamess theory of unequal human capital and social position derives from economic theories of human and social capital concluding that minority employees receive fewer organizational rewards than those with access to executive management. In a recent study of managers in a Fortune 500 company, race was found to be a predictor of promotion opportunity or lack thereof. Thus, discrimination lawsuits can invite negative stakeholder reaction, damage the companys reputation, and threaten corporate survival. Social media and crisis management Social media has accelerated the speed that information about a crisis can spread. The viral affect of social networks such as Twitter means that stakeholders can break news faster than traditional media making managing a crisis harder. This can be mitigated by having the right training and policy in place as well as the right social media monitoring tools to detect signs of a crisis breaking. Social media also gives crisis management teams access to real-time information about how a crisis is impacting stakeholder sentiment and the issues that are of most concern to them. Public Distribution System (PDS) The Public Distribution System (PDS) in India is an important public intervention for enhancing food security. The PDS provides subsidised food grains (and other essential commodities) through a network of fair price shops. Until 1992 access to the PDS was, at least in theory if not in practice, universal. Corruption and high operational costs were among the reasons that were used to justify the move to the Revamped Public Distribution System (based on a principle of geographic targeting) in tribal, arid, hill and remote areas in 1992 and then to a Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in 1997. Under the TPDS, households were classi ¬Ã‚ ed as Above Poverty Line (APL) or Below Poverty Line (BPL), based on the economic status of households. BPL households continued to receive subsidised food grains through the TPDS whereas subsidies for APL households have been gradually phased out. The impact of these changes can be evaluated on several criteria including selection into or exclusion from the TPDS, utilisation of PDS quotas, e ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ect on the consumption patterns and so on. Correct identi ¬Ã‚ cation could mean that the programme may have improved in terms of better targeted subsidies. Access to cheap food grain could make a more diversi ¬Ã‚ ed and nutritious diet a ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ordable for poor households. Much depends, however, on the actual functioning of the PDS on the ground. Those with BPL cards made repeated trips to ration shop that were often quite far and queued in order to enjoy this small subsidy. In spite o this, they rarely got their full entitlement of 35kg. Having spent some time at ratio shops, I noticed that they were often cheated by their PDS dealer. Those who were aware of being cheated often complained to me, but did not protest in front of the PDS dealer. I find that though BPL cards have generally been given to the poorer households in the sample, utilisation is low. Among those who have access to the TPDS, one-third of the sample households do not utilise their quota at all and another half do not utilise their quota fully. Further, many of these households purchase the same items from the market at higher prices. This puzzle of under-purchase (purchasing less than ones entitlement and yet purchasing from the market at a higher price) from the PDS is examined using a dual pricing model. The dual-pricing model provides a framework within which government intervention in the wheat market and its associated problems can be analysed. However, in order to account for under-purchase from the PDS and related patterns, the standard dual-pricing model needs to be extended to take into account additional factors such as transaction costs, uncertainty, and quality variations. There could be various reasons for low utilisation levels. Demand-side bottlenecks include cash- ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ow problems (that is, households may not have cash when foodgrain is available in government ration shops), inappropriate foodgrains being supplied through the PDS, and so on. There are also supply-side constraints in the form of diversion to the open market or just irregular functioning of ration shops. The article also examines the impact of the PDS on consumption patterns. While the PDS does not have much impact on the level of cereal consumption, it seems to a ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ect the composition of cereal consumption. Speci ¬Ã‚ cally, the TPDS tilts cereal consumption of households towards wheat , away from coarse cereals. This is possibly a matter of concern, since coarse cereals are generally more nutritious than wheat. Problems which headed in PDS Free Amenities Free Supplies: Many family card or ration card holders dont go to the Fair Price Shops to get the goods or benefits which is eligible to them. As a result rice, wheat, sugar, kerosene or any other form of PDS which needs to be settled or handed over to the real beneficiary is not properly distributed. Still there are issues of hoarding and creation of black markets. The one who deserves is deprived of the benefits. The Govt.s prime motive is to eradicate death which occurs due to starvation and poverty. As a result it was decided to introduce subsidized PDS goods and free PDS goods. Later on this PDS was taken as a political strategy by politicians for their success in elections As a result of providing free amenities and free PDS people become lazy. They dont go for any form of employment especially, marginalized sections of the people. In the case of a SSI or Tiny sector which is labour intensive in nature face the heat or crisis in the form of short supply of labour. The amount which is being spent from the States Treasury for PDS Free Amenities results in price rise for other articles, goods and services in the form of taxation and setting off the amount which has been infused / spended in the PDS Free Amenities. Due to short supply of labour and due to power crisis which is now seen in many parts of India the GDP with regard to manufacturing sector has declined. At present due to failure of monsoon and uneven monsoon rains the kharif crops are destroyed. This has resulted in a heavy loss to the farmers and this lead to reduced supply of food grains and increased prices in the market. Now this particular free PDS cannot apply due to short supply of grains. Now the people who are unemployed or underemployed face the crisis as they have enjoyed free benefits throughout these years. They dont have the mindset to go in search for any other alternative employment opportunities. These free amenities made people more greedy Suggestions to solve the crisis which was created due to free PDS free amenities: The BPL(Below Poverty Line) should be provided with these benefits. Proper survey and field work should be conducted to know the population which is in the BPL. It is better to reduce the issue of PDS to APL (Above Poverty Line) and at a later stage it is advisable to eradicate this PDS to APL as they prove to be self sufficient with their earnings. Free PDS other amenities should be provided to the marginalized sections of the society based on a condition that atleast one person either male / female in a family should make themselves employed in any organized or unorganized sector. Awareness camps on health, stress management and necessity of being employed should be given. If the above said measures were put into effect then the scarce supply of labour can be reduced. Crisis of Malevolence: Organizations face crisis of malevolence when some notorious employees take the help of criminal activities and extreme steps to fulfill their demands. Acts like kidnapping companys officials, false rumours all lead to crisis of malevolence. Malevolence Employees who behave illegally or unethically act with malevolence. Intentional harm to an individual or company is malevolence. This type of crises includes security breaches, product tampering, sabotage, extortion, lawsuits and employee scandals. Malevolence outside of an organization may include kidnapping, assault or spreading rumors. Malevolence may refer to: Evil Hostility Malice (law) Sadism Security breach An act from outside an organization that bypasses or contravenes security policies, practices, or procedures. A similar internal act is called security violation. Broadly speaking, a security breach is a violation of any policy or law that is designed to secure something. When people or vehicles bypass screening checkpoints, or enter secure buildings without presenting the appropriate credentials, security breaches are generally obvious. Less obvious are security breaches that involve data or information. In a data context, a security breach is any activity that compromises the confidential nature of certain information. Most of the time, what is or is not a security breach is defined by law. Statutes in many countries set out security measures for any number of things, from border crossings to data sharing and electronic commerce transactions. A breach is usually defined as any action, intentional or otherwise, that weakens a certain defined security interest. The best-known security breaches typically cause some noticeable harm. An airport security breach that allows a passenger to board a plane with a weapon, or a data loss that leads to identity theft are clear examples. Under most security breach laws, however, harm is not always a requirement. The threat of harm, or likelihood of harm, is usually enough. Product Tampering, the unauthorized altering of a consumer product without the knowledge of the products owner or eventual user, is almost always treated as a threat to human health or safety, because it typically changes the contents of ingested products, such as foods or drugs, in a harmful manner. An exception to this pattern is fraudulently decreasing the odometer settings on used automobiles in an effort to increase the apparent value of a vehicle to a prospective buyer. Product tampering began in the 1890s. An especially bad case was the cyanide poisoning of Bromo Seltzer containers. The worst case of product tampering in America in the twentieth century happened in Chicago in 1982, when poison placed in packages of Tylenol killed seven people. Congress responded with the Federal Anti-Tampering Act of 1983, making it a crime to tamper with products or to make false claims of tampering. Tampering motives have included revenge, financial gain, and publicity for various causes. Ta mpering incidents have triggered false reports and copycat cases, both of which occurred in 1993 in response to a fabricated story that syringes were found in Pepsi-Cola cans. To combat tampering, manufacturers use science and technology to generate tamper-evident packaging and DNA testing to identify suspected tamperers. Sabotage is a form of subversion which involves deliberate damage, interference, or disruption. In a classic example, ecological activists have disabled the engines of logging equipment in the Pacific Northwest to prevent loggers from working at various points in history. There are a number of different forms of sabotage, all of which are designed to obstruct an activity in some way, creating chaos and often generating economic problems as people struggle to resolve the damage. Many people are not familiar with the true origins of this word, although they may be acquainted with the folk etymology, which claims that the term is derived from the practice of throwing wooden shoes known as sabots into the workings of machines. Though a charming idea, this is not, in fact correct. Sabotage actually comes from the French word saboter, which means to walk clumsily, a reference to the self-same sabots discussed above; the term is actually meant to describe the work stoppage and disruption created by sabotage. One of the most infamous forms is military sabotage, in which saboteurs penetrate the defenses of an enemy and attempt to disrupt weapons systems, military strategy, and so forth. Sometimes, damage comes from within, with rebels sabotaging the military of their own nations in an attempt to help the enemy gain the upper hand. It can also take a political form, in which case it is primarily carried out through well-timed media releases and comments which are designed to undermine opposing political campaigns. Extortion is a crime that involves the illegal acquisition of money, property, or favors through the use of force, or the threat of force. Historically, the term was defined as an abuse of privilege on the part of a public official who used his or her position to get money or favors, but today, people at all levels of society could potentially commit extortion. Penalties vary, depending on the specifics of the crime. In some countries, it is treated especially seriously because it is linked with organized crime, and sometimes special laws are designed to make it easier to prosecute and punish extortion. To the casual ear, extortion can sound very similar to blackmail, in which people use a threat to demand payments or favors, and robbery, in which a criminal takes something by force. However, extortion is slightly different from both of these crimes. In blackmail, someone threatens to do something which is entirely legal, such as publishing a set of photographs, with the blackmailee offering payment to avoid exposure and humiliation. Extortion is entirely illegal, as it involves threats of violence or other illegal acts. A lawsuit or (very rarely) suit in law is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendants actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiffs complaint. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment is in the plaintiffs favor, and a variety of court orders may be issued to enforce a right, award damages, or impose a temporary or permanent injunction to prevent an act or compel an act. A declaratory judgment may be issued to prevent future legal disputes. Although not as common, lawsuit may also refer to a criminal action, criminal proceeding, or criminal claim. A lawsuit may involve dispute resolution of private law issues between individuals, business entities or non-profit organizations. A lawsuit may also enable the state to be treated as if it were a private party in a civil case, as plaintiff, or defendant regarding an injury, or may provide the state with a civil cause of action to enforce certain laws. The conduct of a lawsuit is called litigation. One who has a tendency to litigate rather than seek non-judicial remedies is called litigious.The plaintiffs and defendants are called litigants and the attorneys representing them are called litigators. When Good Employees Do Bad: Seven Behaviors that May Precede a Scandal by David Gebler Good intentions can lead to bad outcomes in business. This is  especially true in organizations that have toxic cultures in which  leaders tout worthy valuesand then put up roadblocks that prevent  employees from living those values. The GSA scandal provides an apt example. With all the rampant spending  at the GSA, one has to ask if employees were afraid to speak up, lest  they upset their coworkers. Or perhaps they had become complacent in  an upbeat, backslapping culture that rewarded everyone early, often, and extravagantly. Time will tell. In the case of the GSA, the good  intention of employeesto be a solid team playerled to a very bad  result. But its poor leadership that created that toxic culture and  allowed it to drag good employees down. Gebler says desirable behaviors such as being team players (as in the  case of the GSA), or even meeting deadlines, being goal-oriented, and  staying on budget can get distorted and become destructive in a  company driven by weak leadership values and a weak culture. Thats  because leadership values drive success, not employee behaviors. When we look at companies that have faced scandals such as recalls,  ethical violations, or crimes, the problem often comes down to  employees whose surprisingly positive behavior was distorted by a  toxic culture and clueless leaders. Here are seven seemingly benign  behaviors that may come back to bite a company if they become  exaggerated and throw the organization out of alignment: Blind loyalty to the team. Loyalty is a good thing, right? Not when it  creates a culture of I know this is bad, but its not my decision.  The unethical spending at the GSA was a symptom of leadership without  values. Employees were rewarded with lavish perks provided by managers  who had their own interests at heart. This created a culture in which  employees received the greatest benefit by staying loyal to their  coworkers and generous bosses, rather than questioning their actions. Commitment to meeting deadlines. One would think that a company where  employees are encouraged to meet deadlines and rewarded for doing so  consistently would lead to super-productivity and efficiency. In fact,  it can lead to disaster. At Johnson Johnson, the understood  directive to get product to market on tough deadlines created a  culture of Dont ask too many questions and resulted in a series of  dangerous drug recalls that badly sullied the companys reputation. Excessive optimism. When a person is sick, optimism can buoy his  spirits and help healing. When a company is unhealthy, Everything is  going to be okay is not what you need to hear from those in authority  positions. Take David Myers, former controller of WorldCom. By his own account, he saw the problems of the now-defunct company through  rose-colored glasses. He simply kept believing-and telling his  frightened staff-that the problems would resolve themselves  eventually. By the time he came to his senses, he was under arrest for  accounting fraud. Staying focused on a goal.  Telling employees to keep their eye on the prize is not intrinsically a bad thing. But when the goal becomes more important to management  than the underlying values of the organization, it can lead to a  dysfunctional culture. For example, in the 1990s, Sears gave its auto  repair mechanics a mandatory sales goal of $147 per hour. It wasnt  long before customers began to be overcharged or sold unnecessary  repairs. Having a competitive mindset. Boeing is known for its highly  competitive employees and work culture. Thats a good thing, right?  Not so in 1996, when the company lost billions in government contracts  for ethics violations after an employee stole 25,000 pages of  proprietary documents from Lockheed. Flash forward to 2005, when  employees were still so competitive that their own work teams were  known to keep useful information secret from other teams in the  company to make sure they stayed on top. Too much competition can  erode cultural values, leading to disaster. Sticking to a budget. Most managers would be thrilled if their  employees were doggedly determined to stay on budget and not cost the  company any unnecessary money. But a good intention can go bad when  financial performance becomes the only metric that matters. That was  the case, many believe, behind the fatal mistake made on the BP oil  platform in the Gulf. Before the explosion in April 2012 caused by a  safety shortcut, BPs Macondo project was more than $40 million over  budget. You know the rest. Wanting to please higher