The Long Shadow of Little Rock essays

The Long Shadow of Little Rock essays Book Review: Bates, Long Shadow of Little Rock Daisy Bates, the author of The Long Shadow of Little Rock, is a civil rights activist, newspaper writer and an officer in the NAACP. In the book, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, she writes about the hate, anger and segregation of blacks in Arkansas. The book is presented more as an autobiography of the author herself, although the story of the integration of nine black students in the Little Rock Central High School in 1957 takes spotlight in the book. Bates mentions about the hardship of her and the nine other students in the effort to defy local segregation and bring integration in the school, as well as in the whole of the US. The author has been able to provide the facts of what racial prejudice was back then in the 1950s. She gives a hint that the whites back then had the right to do anything on blacks during then when she writes about the brutal killing of her mother in a rape attempt by three white men. She also mentions about the differences in education for whites and blacks. The whites would get better facilities in big and new schools, and the blacks had to depend on the poor conditions of their segregated schools. The incident took place during the 1950s, when segregation was common practice. Moreover, the author, who is a black female from the south, had already seen a lot of segregating activities. The most important of all, the murdering of her mother by white men, which changed her views of the world, and especially towards the whites. This grew into a personal commitment in her to help the black community. This can be clearly seen in her articles in her newspaper, as well as in action during the Little Rock Central High Crisis. The author is one of the most influential personalities during the integration crisis in 1957. She was the one who helped the nine black students attend the Little Rock Central High. And she was the one who took ...

Commodification vs. Commoditization

Commodification vs. Commoditization Commodification vs. Commoditization Commodification vs. Commoditization By Maeve Maddox When I first encountered the word commoditization, I thought it was just an ugly synonym for commodification. I’ve discovered that–in American business parlance– commoditization is not at all synonymous with commodification. The Oxford English Dictionary has separate entries for both nouns, but assigns commoditization the same definition as commodification: the action of turning something into, or treating something as, a (mere) commodity; commercialization of an activity, etc., that is not by nature commercial. American usage would agree with this as a definition of commodification, but commoditization receives a different definition in Merriam-Webster: commoditization: to render (a good or service) widely available and interchangeable with one provided by another company. In a business context, commoditization occurs when a manufacturer’s product or a provider’s service loses its initial uniqueness in the market. The Web abounds with articles about this phenomenon: Avoiding the Black Hole of Commoditization How Dow Corning Beat Commoditization By Embracing It How to Avoid The Commoditization Trap Software Commoditization vs. Customization 4 Ways Energy Utilities Companies can Beat Commoditization For the consumer, a commodity is merchandise, something to be purchased. For the businessman, a commodity is a product or service that a consumer feels is interchangeable with any other of the same type. Bottom line: Commodification is putting a price on things that shouldn’t have a price, things like friendship, knowledge, and beautiful women. Commoditization is what happens when a name brand is perceived as being no more desirable than the store brand. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Farther vs. FurtherThe Letter "Z" Will Be Removed from the English Alphabet20 Slang Terms for Law Enforcement Personnel

Pensions as an important financial instruments Essay

Pensions as an important financial instruments - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper are pensions as an important financial instruments that provide economic security to employees once they retire. A pension is a fixed payment that the beneficiary receives on a monthly basis once they reach retirement age. The use of pension plans by corporations became a mainstream practice in corporate America after World War II. In the United States pension plans have become more important than ever particularly for younger people due to the fact that the social security system is not going to be able to help younger adults. The most likely outcome is that generation X will not receive a social security check 30 years from now. Defined contribution plans must be disclosed in the financial statements of an organization. The things that must be reported in the financial statements in regards to pensions include the existence of the plan, the employee groups covered, the basis for determining contributions, and any significant matters affecting comp arability from period to period. The accounting treatment for defined benefit plans is a bit more complex. It is imperative that corporations make pension contributions that are sufficient to cover the benefits that are promised by the plan. Due to the fluctuating nature of the stock market, which is an investment mechanism used by pension managers to obtain a greater return for the beneficiaries, on many occasions pension funds are underfunded. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 stipulated that all corporate pension funds must be fully funded by the year 2013. Pension fund accounting requires the use of actuarial tools to estimate the future value of pension benefits. Two benefit approaches that can be used by accountants are accumulated benefits approach and years of service approach. The difference between the two methods is that one estimates annual pension cost and liability based on existing salary levels, while the other is based on the estimated final pay at retirement. The liability for pension benefits under the accumulated benefits approach is called accumulated benefits obligation, while the liability computed under the benefits/years of service approach is called projected benefit obligation (Clark & Cathey, 2011). The proliferation of the use of pension plans occurred after World War II. The accounting profession immediately took notice of the tendency. In 1956 the Committee on Accounting Procedures released Accounting Bulleting No. 47, Accounting for Costs of Pension Plans. ARB-47 required disclosure of unfunded vested benefits on the balance sheet (Duangplov & Pence, 2007). Pension funds were considered a legal liability after the inception of APB No. 8 in 1966. APB No. 8 also discusses the different components of pension costs. The three components of pension costs are normal costs, past service costs, and prior service costs. The underfunded pension cost became a liability in the balance

Israel and the Palestinians (CASE) Module 4 Essay

Israel and the Palestinians (CASE) Module 4 - Essay Example The situation between Israel and Palestine involves the USA and therefore, the USA risks her acquisition of oil and other resources from the Islam nations (Palestine Facts, 2009). In order to deal with the threat of terror that Israel seem to use as an excuse to intimidate Palestine, the USA should make use of her Foreign Policy to negotiate or intervene the conflict without political or economic bias. It has been reported that the USA’s taxpayers’ money has been funding Israel military operations within the Middle East. Without a clear indication of which nation is instigating or escalating the conflict, the USA has chosen to support Israel in both military and financial resources (Palestine Facts, 2009). The USA has several options on how to approach the conflict between Israel and Palestine conflict. From historical background, the USA has been in record for getting involved in various conflicts between other nations. With regards to these interventions, the USA’s Foreign policy, which is supported by other nations such as the UK, has been a doctrine for maintaining peace among nations. In this case, as a recommendation, the USA should consider the merits of the Foreign Policy before providing support to Israel. The US Foreign Policy is a doctrine supported by the US Constitution and merited by various other bodies such as the UN. Thus, while the USA may not be directly involved in providing military supports to Israel, there are various levels of conflicts that the USA overlooks. Israel has been openly endorsed by the USA in terms of military to carry out anti-terror operations in Gaza Strip and West Bank. As a ally to the USA, Israel has boasted superpower status within th e Middle East due to her military prowess. However, if the humanitarian clause of maintaining peace around the world in the US Foreign Policy holds, then the USA should withdraw support for Israel in order to apply diplomacy in approaching the

The Lonely Toiling :: Philosophy Money Papers

The Lonely Toiling My favorite book has always been A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This work has an element of self-reinvention that I find attractive. Few themes are as interesting for me as the theme of a man or a woman, by strength of will, changing his or her stars and defying the convoluted schemes of the Fates. In this regard, I feel a special appreciation for Charles Dickens’ work because Ebenezer Scrooge is not reinventing himself for the sake of material gain; the sole purpose of Scrooge’s transformation is redemption. Dickens constructs a dichotomy in Scrooge’s situation that is unrivalled among literary characters. Ebenezer Scrooge is a man whose driving motivation is to cultivate affluence and wealth, yet these seemingly beneficial things are what cause him to lose his humanity and suffer boundless misery and loneliness. As such, the story of Scrooge is a paradox in kind, where the striving for money and the attainment of happiness are not synchronous. Perhaps the reason that I feel so drawn to the character of Ebenezer Scrooge is that I also suffer greatly from this paradox. I stand at the forefront of those about to join the Investment Banking workforce; security and power are the guaranteed welcome mats. However, I cannot help but ponder all the personal sacrifice that this entry shall entail. The hundred-hour workweeks and the burgeoning pressure from superiors will make it all but impossible for me to foster a family or retain any semblance of a social life. Thus, as for Robert Frost, two paths have converged in the woods for me, and I need to choose the one that I shall travel by. To help guide me in this reconciliation between the personal and the professional, I am visited by my own respective literary ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. I. The ghost of Christmas past arrives to me in the guise of Karl Marx. A short, stocky German man with a thick beard and ruddy eyes, he takes me back to nineteenth century Belgium at the onset of the Industrial Revolution. I view workers toiling over produce that is ultimately taxed out of their hands. I witness the extent to which man is degraded as I look upon the rampant cannibalism caused by the extreme disparity between poverty and wealth. As I struggle to grasp the reasoning behind these sights, Marx explains: The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent.

Character of Three Mistakes of Mu Life

Govind: Govind Patel is an ordinary guy with whom anybody can relate. He has very few desires but he is obsessed with the desires he covets. His main ambition is to become a businessman as he thinks that being a Gujarati, business is in his blood. His best friends are Omi and Ish (Ishan). Govind is an agnostic. His father has abandoned him and his mother, who runs a business of selling home-made food items. To support her financially, he takes mathematics tuitions. He continues these tuitions even after starting the cricket shop business. He is the narrator of this story and the one who makes the â€Å"Three Mistakes†. During the course of the story he falls in love with Vidya, Ishan's younger sister for whom he is a private tutor. Govind is the one who looks after the financial part of the business as he has good business sense and mathematical skills. Ishaan: He is a big cricket freak and also a patriot at heart. Ishan has been the best cricketer in his locality and school. He suggests the name of their business as â€Å"Team India Cricket Shop†. He helps Govind's business by organising daily cricket coaching camps. He has a family which makes life situation by keeping quiet. He has a younger sister, Vidya, about whom he is quite protective. When he discovers that a boy called Ali is a very talented batsman, he decides to go any length to give Ali proper training. Ishan usually looks after day-to-day shop activities as he has genuine interest in any cricket-related thing. Omi: He is the son of the Hindu priest of the local temple. His family enjoys great respect among the people. Through Omi's parents and maternal uncle (who own few shops as a part of the temple trust property), they readily get a place to start their business. He is a rather dumb kind of boy and has not many dreams, but likes to concentrate on having a healthy body. However, he resents growing up and being a saint like his father. He is a religious person and actively takes part in his maternal uncle's (Bittoo Mama) religious politics. He is however confused about his religious views which are mainly influenced by Bittoo Mama. Vidya: She is Ishan's younger sister. She is a rebel at heart and dreams to break free from the constraints of a typical middle-class family and society, to go toMumbai, do a course in PR and become independent. She however despises maths which is required for her medical entrance exams. Hence, Ish asks Govind to take her mathematics tuition. However, in between their tuition they fall in love, have intimate sexual relations, which is unaccepted by anyone. Only Omi figures out the relationship Govind and Vidya share and also reminds Govind about the consequences of Ish getting to know about it. Ali: One of the students in Ish's coaching classes and a great batsman because of a rare nature's gift. However, he doesn't play too much cricket as he gets tired really fast and enjoys playing marbles. He is a Muslim boy and respects Ish like a Guru. He too, like Ish is patriotic at heart. He denies the offer of Australian scholarship and wants to play in the Indian side. Bittoo Mama: He is the maternal uncle of Omi. Mama runs the trust of the temple and agrees to rent the place to the three friends for the Cricket Shop business. He is an active member of a Hindu political Party. He follows the preachings of Parekh-ji, a political-cum-spiritual leader and has complete faith in him. He has locked his horns with Ali's father who belongs to the Secular Party. He has a son Dhiraj. Mama is not fond of Govind as he is an agnostic. He is the mainantagonist of the story. Govind's mom: Gujarati woman. She wants her son to pursue a degree in Engineering. She runs a home-made food business. She cares about Govind a lot and supports him well through his hardships and struggles. Ali's Father: He is a devout Muslim and works for a secular party. He is a very kind-hearted person who wants Ali to take his education seriously despite his mediocre financial condition. He treats the three friends very well when they go to visit Ali in his house. Overall he is a good person. Fred Li: He's an Australian Cricket Team member and a fast bowler. He invites the three friends and Ali to Sydney when they travel to Goa to see India-AustraliaOne Day International and meet him in the stands. He spots talent in Ali and wants to help him getting a chance to be trained in his academy in Australia. Loosely based on Brett Lee

Starbucks Delivering Customer Service - 1278 Words

ì‹  Ã¬  Å"í’ˆë §Ë†Ã¬ ¼â‚¬Ã­Å'… ì ¡ °Ã« ³â€ž ì‚ ¬Ã« ¡â‚¬ ë °Å"í‘Å" Starbucks : Delivering Customer Service Contents †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Case Summary Company Background The Starbucks Value Proposition Delivering on Service Caffeinating the World Starbucks’ Market Research: Trouble Brewing? Rediscovering the Starbucks Customer †¢ Suggestion Case Summary †¢ 5% ann. sales growth during 11years in a row (~2002) †¢ close to a recession-proof product (Howard Schultz) †¢ Lack of strategic marketing group and customer relationship management : Overlooking of market and customer-related trends. †¢ Conducted market research and found out significant gap between company’s assumption and customers’ perception in terms of brand image and customer satisfaction †¢ Invest extra $40m annually in 4,500†¦show more content†¦Delivering on Service – Customer oriented Customer Satisfaction : Hard skills (Quality) - Learning how to prepare drinks and use equipments Soft skills (Connection with customers) – welcoming, eye contact, smiling, recognizing, conversation â€Å"Just Say Yes† policy for customer satisfaction Tension between product quality and customer focus : Job complexity (handcrafted drinks, various product portfolio) Customized order and highly demanding heavy users Hire more baristas to share the workload to solve the problem ? Alternative solution being taken : Barista job efficiency increasing Adoption of new automated espresso machine, verismo Delivering on Service – Measuring Service Performance Customer Snapshot : Mystery shopper program (3 times / Quarter) Service : Verbal greeting, Eye contact, Saying thank you Cleanliness : Store, Counter, Restroom Product quality : Accurate order filling, Drink temperature, Proper beverage presenting Speed of service : Serve a customer within three min. from back-of-the-line to drink-in-hand. Legendary Service Score Behavior that created a memorable experience for a customer, that leads to customer loyalty and word-of-mouth Competition Small Specialty Coffee Chain Regionally concentrated Various differentiator (environment, roasting) Indep. Specialty Coffee shop Various offering (FB, sTV, interne-PC) Highly personalized service Donut and BagelShow MoreRelatedStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service1374 Words   |  6 PagesStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service Starbucks is dominant coffee brand in North America, which also is well-known worldwide. Established in 1971 as coffee shop oriented to a niche of coffee purists, in late 1980’s it turned to be a constantly growing chain of stores that sold whole-beans and premium-priced coffee to mostly affluent, well-educated customers. In years 1992-2002 company was showing at least 5% annual growth. And by 2002 Starbucks was serving already 20M customers in 5886 storesRead MoreStarbucks Delivering Customer Service2297 Words   |  10 PagesSatisfied And Highly Satisfied Customers The story of Starbucks transformation from a small independent coffee shop tucked away in a corner of Seattle’s Pike Place Market to a cultural phenomenon spanning the globe is legendary. A number of factors have been attributed to the success - one being a keen understanding of its patrons. There are multiple methods used to obtain customer information and the value derived therein. Customer lifetime value is one. Customers are assets, and their valuesRead MoreStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service2332 Words   |  10 PagesSTARBUCKS: DELIVERING CUSTOMER SERVICE Background Case P.1 ïÆ'   According to their data, Starbucks are not always meeting our customers’ expectations in the area of customer satisfaction. They came up with a plan to invest an additional $40 million annually in the company’s 4,500 stores, which would allow each store to add the equivalent of 20 hours of labor a week. The idea is to improve speed of service and thereby increase customer satisfaction. P.1 ïÆ'   Day, Starbucks’ senior vice president ofRead MoreStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service2050 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction: Starbucks faces a difficult and controversial management challenge. The company’s most recent market research has revealed unexpected findings implicating that Starbuck is not always meeting customer’s expectations in the area of customer satisfaction. The purpose of this memo is to analyze and provide recommendation on whether or not the company should go forth with a $40 million investment in additional labor in the stores. This $40 million investment is necessary in order to bringRead MoreStarbucks : Delivering Customer Service1155 Words   |  5 PagesPROBLEM STATEMENT Starbucks has discovered that they are not always meeting their customers’ expectations in the area of customer satisfaction. Starbucks has to come up with an action plan to address this issue, considering its significant correlation and impact to sales and profitability. SITUATION ANALYSIS Company Starbucks is acclaimed for its superior value proposition in the early 1990’s by creating an experience around the consumption of coffee, a ‘third place’. The brand is positionedRead MoreEssay on Starbucks : Delivering Customer Service1476 Words   |  6 PagesStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service The elusive goal of customer satisfaction has long provided companies with endless headaches and difficult decisions. In the end, associating specific customer satisfaction metrics to company profit and loss would provide the undeniable proof needed to make changes, and then invest the required capital to address any concerns. Starbucks, not unlike the rest of the business world, has found itself in the same situationRead MoreStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service3831 Words   |  16 PagesStatement of the Problem How can Starbucks increase customer satisfaction while growing at the same time? Recommended Course of Action After evaluating each alternative (Exhibit 2), we recommend that Starbucks invest $40 million per year to increase labor hours per store in order to solve the problem with the quality of service. Starbucks should also set up an internal strategic marketing team. This will allow Starbucks to have a proactive feedback of customer satisfaction and hence faster improvementRead MoreStarbucks : Delivering Customer Service1149 Words   |  5 PagesPROBLEM STATEMENT Starbucks has discovered that they are not always meeting their customers’ expectations in the area of customer satisfaction. Starbucks has to come up with an action plan to address this issue, considering its significant correlation and impact to sales and profitability. SITUATION ANALYSIS Company Starbucks is acclaimed for its superior value proposition in the early 1990’s by creating an experience around the consumption of coffee, a ‘third place’. The brand is positionedRead MoreStarbucks : Delivering Customer Service Overview Essay1243 Words   |  5 PagesStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service Overview Problem statement: In 2002, market exploration has exposed that Starbucks has an opening in gathering its consumer’s outlooks in relations of customer pleasure. On explanation of the marketing research statistics, Christine Day, Senior Vice President determined that the speediness of service was the foremost motive for this deterioration in customer contentment. So she proposed to increase the service period such that each order is served within 3 minutesRead MoreStarbucks: Delivering Customer Service Essay2319 Words   |  10 PagesOverview: * Starbucks is a global coffee shop chain and its headquarter is based in Seattle – U.S. It is considered the largest coffee shop company in the whole world. * It was established by 3 partners (Gerald Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Ziev Siegl) Seattle – U.S. in 1971. In 1982 Schultz joined the team. Years later, the founders agreed to sell Starbucks to Schultz who took the company public. * The idea behind Starbucks was to make the coffee shop a third place beside home and work