Intellectual property law (UK) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intellectual property law (UK) - Essay Example The present UK law regulating trademarks is the Trade Marks Act 1994. According to the Act, a "trade mark" means any sign capable of being represented graphically, which is capable of distinguishing goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. A trademark may, in particular, consist of words (including personal names), designs, letters, numerals or the shape of goods or their packaging.1 It is clear that any sign, including designs, is capable of being registrable when conditions are met. Shape of goods can be registered as trademarks. Though not explicitly worded, it is accepted that shapes include both two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. The general elements of a trademark include the capability of being represented graphically and distinguishing the goods or service from those of other undertakings. The distinguishing, or, distinctive capability of a trademark is essential, which can be seen from many UK and EU cases. For example, in the Procter & Gamble Company v Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, a registration was applied for a square tablet with slightly rounded edges and corners, but the registrar refused the application under Article 38 of Regulation No 40/94 on the ground that the mark applied for was devoid of any distinctive character.2 Descriptive Trade Marks This trademarks law is in contrast to what we will refer to as "descriptive" trade marks-that is, naming a product or company using words that describe what it is or what it sells. For instance, if one were to open a blue jean manufacturer in London, and refer to the company as "London Blue Jeans" this is considered a "descriptive trademark, and until recently was not allowed under UK law due to the highly descriptive nature and arrangement of the words. Rights of Trade Marks The UK Trade Mark Act 1994 Article 9 (1) provides that "the proprietor of a registered trade mark has exclusive rights in the trade mark which are infringed by use of the trade mark in the United Kingdom without his consent." This article and Article 43 (1), which provides that the registration of a trade mark may be renewed at the request of the proprietor so long as the renewal fee has been paid3, conferred actually perpetual monopoly on the proprietors. Purpose and rationale: General rationale of IP law The intellectual property rights, argued by economists, are accorded in that if everyone would be allowed to take the advantage of the results of innovative and creative activities freely, the problems of "free rider" would have been rise. Therefore, no one would try to create anything, such as a car or plane if no special advantages would be given, and the economic growth and prosperity would become impossible. The IP law, to solve the problem, confers rights on those who invested (the creator, inventor or who paid for it) on the creations the right of monopoly to ensure that they would make use of the creation to maximize profits4. However, at the same time, there is also a principle of IP law to afford free accesses to those rights to the public after a certain period of monopoly in that it will enhance the economic development of the society with trade mark as an exception. Purpose and rationale: Trade Marks Law The function of trade marks, non-exceptive

Good to Great - by Jim Collins Essay Example for Free

Good to Great by Jim Collins Essay I found my reading of Good To Great by Jim Collins very informative and even entertaining. It is interesting to me his concepts and perceptions and how although when you read them they seem rather elementary and obvious, Mr. Collins is indeed an outside the box thinker/writer and it is because of his ease of explaining his concepts that the message simply comes across as easy. The main idea that is presented in this book is that â€Å"Good is the Enemy of Great. † At first glance I had to re-read the statement to make sure I understood it correctly. My immediate response was to understand it as all too often people, and business decision makers, have a simple goal of being good at what they do. Mr. Collins and his research team were able to whittle that idea down to a handful of concepts that although many have the perception are good, but don’t clarify their exact goals of greatness. The first concept of Good To Great was Level 5 Leadership. Companies may have great product, great sales, great marketing, etc. but what makes them better than Good? What makes takes them to the Great level? Their Leadership. During the research of this book Mr.  Collins and his team identified multiple characteristics these leaders had that lead their company above and beyond just the Good status. Of these the common factor I understood was that of humility and giving credit to his surrounding personnel. Keeping the focus off of â€Å"look what I did† but rather keeping the focus off them, but at the same time taking responsibility for the mistakes of the company as a whole that they were in charge of looking after. These personalities also showed a great level of commitment and loyalty to their companies and tended to have been promoted from within. Thus having a firm understanding of the culture of the company and knowing a long term goal of the company. Secondly the book introduced the concept of â€Å"First Who, Then What†. I related this concept to the phrase â€Å"Trimming The Fat†. Great leaders realize that if you’re only as good as your support, than you better get the right support in the right places. The Level 5 Leader would have to find those that could lead as well. If you have the right thinkers and decision makers in the right positions, then the â€Å"what† could be figured out. By having the right decision makers from the get go then the goal was already on its way to Great. By doing so you are training your supports to eventually be capable to take your place and instilling a long term succession of the company’s goals for great. The next concept given was Confront the Brutal Facts With Unwavering Faith. Expanding on having placed the right â€Å"Who† where it was most beneficial, it is equally important to stay focused no matter the difficult time. The chapter focused on sticking to your guns, having faith in your company, and seeing the obstacle though. This again focused on loyalty to the company. As time goes on and the tough time regains it’s momentum back into the right direction, Problem solving starts with asking the right questions. It’s more proactive to take control of our future than being reactive and leaving the destiny up to chance. Companies that were able to make it through the ups and downs of success on their way to Great. Another aspect was for these decision makers to be honest with them and be willing a capable of confronting the hard questions that perhaps they didn’t want the answer to. But, faced the brutal facts head on. Fourth is the â€Å"Hedgehog Concept†. This was probably my favorite concept and I think will be the most important lesson I will take and use in my career path. The comparison was stated, â€Å"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing†. I think all too often it gets confused that if you’re in charge and making decisions you have to be the most knowledgeable person in that area. Remember though, especially in the totality of the emphasis of this book, you are not alone. In the chapter, Mr. Collins worded his idea this way, â€Å"The Hedgehog Concept is a turning point in the journey from good to great. It typically takes the right people willing to address the brutal facts over an extended period of time to get to the deep understanding of a Hedgehog Concept. What a great statement. It shows the level of determination, loyalty, and staying focused that you realize your true One thing. Then you expand on that One thing. It will set you apart from the field and past the Good threshold into the level of Great! â€Å"Culture of Discipline† was the next concept. One again focusing on hard work and staying focused on your goal of surpassing into the Great realm and not just staying there but forever raising the bar. Mr. Collins focused on the idea the in this sense discipline as a system. It involves the company in it’s entirety and making sure the companies â€Å"culture is filled with people committed to discipline in keeping to the standards. Each of these concepts builds on the one before it and this one is no different. Staying true to his â€Å"Hedgehog Concept† Mr. Collins also introduces his â€Å"Three Circles† concept. By focusing on keeping a Discipline in the company, it will help keep those involved with their eye on the prize of being able to find that one thing to be great at and to stay on top. Technology Accelerator was the idea to not let technology become a crutch of sorts. Technology is like any other tool and if used properly it will assist you in your success and getting here faster or with ease. Again, building on the concept before it also emphasizes to stay with your Hedgehog circles and keeping focused on them. Technology will not make you the best or most disciplined. It is a tool and should be used to accelerate your momentum into the right direction of your company’s goals, not be the creator of the momentum. Lastly â€Å"Flywheel and Doom Loop† was used to follow up. It’s a focus on being able to identify any and all aspects that take you away from the previous concepts. You should always be looking for ways to improve and stay ahead of the pack. The world of business is ever changing which keeps the bar separating Good from Great ever moving as well. Complacency is a â€Å"Good† trait. Having a system of check and balance working together with a cleaning house mentality will help to keep your company above that bar.

Americans Will Never Accept a License to Drink Law :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

Americans Will Never Accept a License to Drink Law Mike Brake’s â€Å"Needed: A License to Drink† has many claims, but the thesis is anything but qualified. In my opinion, this is a story that explains the desperation of a man who had family members close to him pass away due to alcoholism. The author believes everyone must take a course and a final test to see whether they should be allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages or not, with a certain alcohol license issued when they pass the course. Even if this so-called drinking license were to become a law, the truth still remains that people will always find ways to get alcohol. Do you honestly believe such a ludicrous idea would work in today’s society? When I read this article, I was astonished to find out somebody would even think of such an outrageous idea like making people take tests to get an alcohol license. â€Å"Addiction to alcohol is one of the primary public-health problems in the United States. It causes more than 19,000 auto fatalities each year and it is responsible for more than a third of deaths from drowning and fire† (135). Any one of those people could have simply been at a wedding or casual get together in which they had alcohol. I know that does not mean they have an alcohol addiction problem and should be required to have a drinking license. Even though nobody close to me has ever died due to alcoholism, like the author’s past experiences, I simply cannot see anything this strict going into effect, especially here in America. This is still America where people come to live for our freedom. This plan would definitely fail due to people’s constitutional rights. This country’s backbone was built on people’s freedoms, and this idea of having a license to drink would definitely try to restrict far too many people that should not be restricted. What says every single person of the 19,000 had an alcohol addiction problem? In addition, even back when prohibition was taking place, people got around that obstacle by making their own alcohol behind the walls of their houses. If people were to do that today, it could become very dangerous. People could mix the wrong amount of ingredients together and come up with a deadly concoction, or neighbors could fight for their alcohol when people become desperate and try to steal each other’s alcohol.

My Problem With Her Anger Essay

In the article titled â€Å"My Problem With Her Anger†, by Eric Bartels, he tells us about his life and more importantly, the marriage he holds with his wife that he loves very much. However, she has a bit of a problem with passive-aggressiveness that causes turmoil in their so far, rather successful marriage. He starts off at the beginning of the article by describing his day, after a long work day he finishes up the dishes; only to realize that there are two dishes left in the sink to soak that had been sitting there for several days, untouched. As the fact both his wife and his children are already asleep, the job of cleaning the several days untouched dishes falls to him. He noted that in that moment he realized, this was the â€Å"dark heart of the divide between men and women†. He goes on to mention that he knows his wife doesn’t have it easy, and in fact, sometimes her life is much harder than his. She’s raising two kids, working, and still participates in family chores at home. But Bartels does the same. Since they had children, he recalls having to give up several things, these including drinking beer and ‘guy’s night out. This came with the territory, but what else came with the territory, he was not expecting. His wife begins to take her anger out on him, letting her frustrations of the children out on her husband. With an accusing â€Å"your son† or â€Å"your daughter† implying she had nothing to do with their behavior, Bartels found himself at his wits’ end. In his eyes, Bartels is up to his eyes in things he can’t seem to do right. When he tries to give his wife a break from the busy hustle and bustle of her every day by cooking for dinner, bathing the kids, or grocery shopping, it seems he never fails to disappoint. His wife comes home, questioning why he made rice instead of pasta with their meal, why the water from the childrens’ baths haven’t been drained, or why he bought that particular thing at the store. Her temper flares and they begin to argue. This, Bartels knows, is not healthy for a growing child, especially having two at very impressionable ages (two and six), but he knows that without the big fight he and his wife are sure to have about the smallest little thing, her anger will continue to build until a beat down, drag out filled with curses ensues. This being worse for the children to grow up seeing, he knows that things have to change. In â€Å"My Problem With Her Anger†, Bartels isn’t placing the blame solely on his wife, in fact, it is very clear he loves her very much and wishes nothing more than to be able to give her the happiness she deserves. He is simple stating that for them to work out in the end there must be help from both sides of the spectrum. Both he and his wife must give it all they have, 150 percent, or give none at all and watch as their marriage crumbles. Clearly, this isn’t what he wants, so he is asking her, in a way, to help him save their marriage from the depths of the troubles that surround it.

Nietzsche and the Nazis Essay

The word â€Å"Nazi† has been recalled with feelings of regret, fear, horror and the threat of violent crimes throughout human history. However, nothing can conceal or change the reality of the period of Nazi Weltanschauung and its consequences for humanity and culture. It was a deep refreshment of German souls as the Aryan race and a collective movement of intellectuals, writers and social leaders in support of Christian and Protestant society against Jews. Nevertheless, the appealing eccentricity of the growing ideology among anti-Semite writers and thinkers very much attracted the attention of the Nazis. They examined the complex philosophical works of Nietzsche, Hegel, Fichte, Treitschke, and Huston Stewart Chamberlain, and ultimately concluded with the hard philosophy of Nazism, including racist, nationalistic, and anti-Semitic attitudes (Aschheim, 1992, p. 123). It was not very difficult for Nazis to find a way to utilize many intellectuals’ ideal systems, philosophies and literature as they proceeded in the way that led to the holocaust and racial genocide. For instance, Wagner hated Jews, thus, his operas contained myths, fighting, pagan gods, heroes and demons. As an artist, Wagner had bred the growing hunger of anti-Semitism with his art to a great extent. Besides Wagner, Huston Stewart Chamberlain, the British author who was the composer Richard Wagner’s son-in-law, deeply influenced Hitler with his fundamentally racist text â€Å"Foundations of the 19th Century,† and understanding this helps to explain why the Holocaust took place (Harms, 2001). Nonetheless, Hegel believed that the state was everything and war was a great purifier. Thus, the idea of restoring the ethical health of people was borrowed from Hegel’s philosophy by the Nazis. On the other hand, politicians like Georg von Schà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½nerer, a German nationalist and a strong anti-Semite, and Karl Lueger, the mayor of Vienna, supported Nazi Weltanschauung from the heart by their political policies and notions. However, unlike the other cultural icons Nazis utilized, the relationship between Nietzsche and the Nazis developed in an odd, but widely effective manner. Nietzsche’s influence as a philosopher and a writer was apparently limited to his closest friends and some intellectuals in Austria, France and Denmark (Canada, 1997). His books were not widely read or considered by publishers. However, after becoming insane by the end of the 1890s, his fame immediately spread around Europe and he became a figure of considerable importance in German history. Macintyre states in his book â€Å"The Forgotten Fatherland† (as cited in Canada, 1997) that Nietzsche’s name started to appear in popular German journals and newspapers as well as numerous books, which collectively promoted him as the â€Å"philosopher of the time, whose influence is stirring the entire cultural world.† This shift in the attitude toward Nietzsche and his work was a bit because of the ideological movement from rationalism and empiricism to romanticism during the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, according to Hinton’s â€Å"Nietzsche in German Politics and Society† (as cited in Canada, 1997). Consequently, suffering the subjugation of Napoleon as well as witnessing the growing strength of the West, the German population, experiencing a sense of inferiority, attempted to assure itself of its innate superiority by glorifying its history and culture with no doubts, according to the point of view Kohn (as cited in Canada, 1997). At this point, Nietzsche’s mental â€Å"death† made him a prime target for this German myth-making project. Nietzsche and his philosophy’s affiliation with the Nazi movement occurred as a product of the need for raw material to build a new valid consciousness for humanity under the unity of a superior nation. Hitler and other Nazi leaders made use of Nietzschean philosophy wherever possible. In other words, Nietzsche’s philosophy was a â€Å"blueprint† for the Nazis’ war, and they took Nietzsche’s logic to drive the atheistic world view to its legitimate conclusion (Krueger, 2001). Nietzschean phrases and themes, such as â€Å"lords of the earth, the will to power, herd instinct,† were most often used in public speeches, and written expressions of Nazi leaders, furthermore, appeared even in Hitler’s book, â€Å"Mein Kampf,† many times. Nietzsche’s open-ended philosophy gave big opportunities to Nazis as a means of support for their war. For instance, in â€Å"The Will to Power,† Nietzsche exclaims (as cited in DeLong, 1959): â€Å"A daring and ruler race is building itself up†¦. The aim should be to prepare a transvaluation of values for a particularly strong kind of man, most highly gifted in intellect and will. This man and the elite around him will become the ‘lords of the earth.'† Ultimately, the idea of superior German nation, the idea of superior individuals – overmans, in other words – as members of that nation and the idea of exerting extreme power over others that were inferior and weak, emerged as the fundamental codes of Nazi culture, and keywords for their aim. Nietzsche played a key role in the development and preservation of the cultural and ideological foundations of the Nazis (Canada, 1997). In short, in terms of political culture, with his peculiarity; Nietzsche had a significant role in German history by having an important effect on the Nazi movement. As Crane Brinton states (cited in Geib, 2001), Nietzsche called for the superman; Mussolini and Hitler answered the call. Nazis and other anti-Semites perceived Jews as scapegoats in every situation, even for their own personal failings. They never forgave the Jews for possessing â€Å"spirit† and money, and named them as underprivileged (Canada, 1997). This notion was very similar to the one that Nietzsche used to describe his overman in â€Å"Thus Spoke Zarathustra† (1967): â€Å"For that man be delivered from revenge that is for me the bridge to the highest hope and a rainbow after long storms† (127). At this point, it is clear that, according to the point of view of the Nazis, Nietzsche’s open-ended philosophy was working for them and their goal, while making Nazis’ ideologies concrete and reliable. The Nietzschean overman was the model of the Aryan race, which was destined to conquer other lesser races in the global struggle for racial supremacy (Canada, 1997). Nietzschean â€Å"heroic idealism† embodied the virtues of hardness, masculinity, leadership, courage, power, struggle, and the various other characteristics promoted by the Nazis. By introducing the overman to humanity, Nietzsche advised people to challenge themselves, not to live passively. It was a good reason for anti-Semites to take action and responsibility in the way that led toward creating a higher against reproducing a lower. Having a great willingness to be powerful in order to take possession of the life and destiny of a superior race, Nazis needed the cooperating hand and inspiration of Nietzsche’s philosophy, and Nietzschean themes and phrases, such as â€Å"the will to power.† Because Nietzsche cried out for the survival of the strongest, thus, a strong world while building his philosophy and creating the overman, at the same time, he supplied Nazis with a strong argument that they later used to reinforce their ideological system and movement. As Nietzsche exclaimed for the masters and slave morality, anti-Semites perceived themselves as the master of the world, commanding the rest as humiliated slaves. They treated people other than anti-Semites as dangerous creatures or obstacles threatening the cultural and racial superiority of the Aryan state. By exerting force on them, Nazis kept themselves safe from the misfortune and curse of declining Jews. They stepped forward in every situation that gave them the chance to realize the Nietzschean slogan: â€Å"Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.† Moreover, they preferred war and courage to charity, with the illumination of the Nietzschean phrase, â€Å"Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars† (as cited in DeLong, 1959). They fought for years, lived dangerously and tried to become â€Å"hard† in terms of the Nietzschean will to power. War against the lower to attain the higher was a kind of ritual for the purpose of the Nazi movement. Besides all the inner attractive forces of Nietzsche’s philosophy for the Nazis, Nietzsche’s Sister Elizabeth (who was a radical anti-Semite), had a vital influence in the affiliation of Nietzsche and the Nazis. She interpreted everything in Nietzsche’s philosophy as creating a perfect accord with Nazi ideologies and values. In other words, she served Nietzsche’s philosophy on the ideological plates of the Nazi leaders as the main food of their meal. After the death of Nietzsche, Elizabeth took over the control of Nietzschean ideas and themes, and immediately hurled them upon the Jews with ideal appropriations she could succeed in making legitimate. For instance, as Kaufmann states, Elizabeth published new editions that incorporated her own introductions, which were intended to explain those passages that seemed antagonistic to the pro-German image of Nietzsche she was attempting to create. In many instances, Elisabeth rearranged material and included new passages in her editions of her brother’s work (as cited in Canada, 2001). In short, Elizabeth reflected Nietzsche as a German patriot and a heroic warrior in the Nazi movement (Aschheim, 1992, p. 47-48). After all, Elizabeth Nietzsche became an important icon for the Nazis as both the sister and a wonderful follower of Nietzsche. Rosenberg’s elaborate funeral service for â€Å"Zarathustra’s sister† was the best example of Elizabeth Nietzsche’s importance. On the other hand, anti-Semitism was the mainstay of the Nazi movement, and the structure of the Nazi movement was shaped completely according to the spirit of anti-Semitism. The Nazis built their education and jurisprudence system upon the basis of the Nietzschean philosophy. â€Å"Heroic idealism† and â€Å"the will to power† were the basic themes of the Nazi education system, where they perceived Nietzsche as their teacher (Aschheim, 1992, p.234). In this way, the objective of education was fairly clear: Nazis wanted to manufacture efficient, clever, and brave soldiers and leaders of tomorrow’s Germany. Under the direction of Rosenberg, Hitler’s appointed supervisor of German educational activities, along with Bernhard Rust, the Reich Minister of Education, the Nazi educational system was inundated with Nietzschean literature. Parts from such works as â€Å"Thus Spoke Zarathustra,† â€Å"Beyond Good and Evil,† and â€Å"The Will to Power† were heavily integrated into the school system as required reading (Aschheim, 1992, p.245). Too much of Nietzschean strong, meaningful, encouraging phrases and slogans like â€Å"whatever does not kill me makes me stronger† or â€Å"I have a why of living and can put up with any how† were repeated continuously and drawn into the mainstream thought of Nazi youth. Besides the influence of Nietzschean doctrines in the education system, the jurisprudence and judgment system were inspired by Nietzsche’s philosophy, as well. Hans Frank, the Reich Commissioner for Justice, once commented, â€Å"Both personally and objectively, it is of importance to me that Nietzsche of all people has become the mentor of German jurisprudence† (as cited form Macintyre in Canada, 2001) As in the case of education, thoughts and writings of Nietzsche were altered and appropriated to the Nazi’s legal and judicial objectives. In terms of these, violent punishments of anti-Semites were understood as being advocated in the words of Nietzsche’s philosophy. For instance, having experienced life in the concentration camps of the Nazis, Dr. Victor Frankl asserted (as cited in Geib), â€Å"I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.† As it is clear in the preceding quotation, the educational system based on Nietzschean doctrines was inevitably one of the main points of argument for the reasons of genocide and other violent acts committed by Nazis. Without a question, Nietzsche was perceived by the Nazis as being the intellectual and spiritual pillar of their regime (Canada, 1997). Such a creative policy gave the Nazis an intellectual justification and respectability to their ideology, while being the source of legitimization to their actions as well. Perhaps the most telling explanation of Kohn (as cited in Canada, 1997) concerning the Nazis’ motivation for appropriating Nietzsche, was that the former were attempting to create a mythical continuity in German history that would serve as a means for legitimizing the Nazi Weltanschauung.. As a result, with the great desire of being the biggest power not only in Germany, but also in the rest of the world, the Nazis made use of everything that would serve their purposes. And building upon a philosophical basis of a very appropriable scheme of Nietzsche, Nazis managed to draw their political culture upon vital foundations of one of the turning points of German history.    Bibliography Aschheim, S. E. (1992). The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990. Berkeley: University of California Press. Canada, G. (2001). Nietzsche and the Third Reich. In Nietzsche [online]. Available: http://student.vwc.edu/~phialpha/%5CGreg.html (December 8. 2001). DeLong, J. B. (1998). William L. Shirer’s Take On The Relationship Between Friedrich Nietzsche and The Nazis. In Nietzsche and Hitler [online]. Available: http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Nietzsche.html (December 12, 2001) Geib, R. J. (2001) Frederick Nietzsche: Religion, Imagery and Politics [online]. Available: http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/nietzsche/nietzsche.html (December 1, 2001). Harms, W. (2001) Bernard Silberman. In University of Chicago Quantrell Award Winner Bernard Silberman [online]. Available: http://www-news.uchicago.edu/resources/quantrell/silberman.html (December 7, 2001). Krueger, D. (1997). A Review of Zacharias’s A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism. In That Colossal Wreck [online]. Available: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/doug_krueger/colossal.html (December 12, 2001). Nietzsche, F. W. (1967). Thus Spoke Zarathustra. New York: Heritage Press.

Symbols and Religion in African Art essays

Symbols and Religion in African Art essays "African art is rooted in religion. This does not mean that Africans would be so presumptuous as to make images of the great creator-god. It is rather the case that they try to put the divine power, the eternal vital force which suffuses creation, into a form that befits it, thereby ensuring its favorable disposition and enlisting its aid and protection. African works of art masks, sculptures and other ritual implements are nothing less than media designed for supernatural power. They have to be fashioned with such beauty and precision, with such appropriateness, that they please the spirit and persuade it to take up its abode in them. This it does in special ceremonies, which the priest combines with sacrifices and invocations; at the climax of the ritual the presence of the divine spirit makes itself felt to the worshipper with the greatest immediacy and intensity." From the above passage by Leuzinger, we can tell that the art of Africa has played and still does play a very important role in the everyday lives of African peoples. The Museum of Fine arts recently had a collection of African art on display. All of the art that was on display had a very specific purpose, whether it is as complex as a death mask or as simple as a container for jewelry or hairpins. This art was also used for ancestor worship or in yam purifying ceremonies and even in circumcision initiations. All of the artwork was handcrafted, and the observer can tell that the artisan went to great lengths to ensure that his mask or his cup would please the gods that he was making it for. It is clear that the African artisans believe that their ancestors will live on in the art that they create. The mask is a very important part of African life. Used in countless ceremonies, it might be the most important piece of artwork that one can make. Generally, the mask bears the features of the ancestor figure, which might explain the pronounced facial features tha...

The use of relaxation techniques to increase self-confidence and reduce performance anxiety in squash players The WritePass Journal

The use of relaxation techniques to increase self-confidence and reduce performance anxiety in squash players The use of relaxation techniques to increase self-confidence and reduce performance anxiety in squash players ) have also shown to produce positive results. The above research measures success mainly in terms of stress and objective distress reduction, it did not however aim to help athletes to reinterpret their stress. Also individual differences pose a serious risk in terms of confounding variables in such research. A very important study here is Eppley, Abrams and Shear (1989) who examined the effects of various forms of relaxation therapy against each other. The effect sizes of the reduction in trait anxiety were reported, making this piece of research particularly prominent since not every study will report this statistic. The authors found that most therapies had similar effect sizes, but transcendental meditation had a significantly larger effect size. At the least this has implications to inform the type of interventions which are most effective at reducing anxiety, and the authors even made efforts to control for confounding variables to strengthen their conclusions. However the justification for this research is in question (at least in a sporting context) because of other research to show that anxiety can be beneficial depending on how it is interpreted (Jones et al., 1994). This means that anxiety should not necessarily be seen solely as something to be eliminated; perhaps a better res earch question would examine the qualities which cause people to differ in their interpretation of their anxiety, and suggested coping strategies should focus more on appraisal than reduction of anxiety. Transcendental meditation therapy was therefore settled upon for use in this study because unlike other therapies of this kind it offers ample opportunity for reflection and direction of anxiety which is so often cited as important (Hanton, Cropley and Lee, 2009). The control model and the theory or Martens et al. (1990) provide the theoretical rationale for this investigation. Method Participants The participants in this study were two individuals; one male, one female recruited from the University squash club who frequently competed in highly competitive tournaments. These two individuals were specifically identified using a short questionnaire administered just before the start of the tournament to identify weaknesses in self-confidence regarding squash performance. Participants were both aged 18-20 and considered themselves to be playing at a non-professional club level in highly competitive tournaments. Participants were verbally advised on the nature of the experiment and their freedom to withdraw at any time. Instrumentation The dependent variable to measure is self-confidence. Competitive state anxiety was measured with the Revised Competitive State Anxiety-2 (Cox, Martens and Russell, 2003) but only the self-confidence sub-scale was used. The questionnaire is available in the appendix. Design and Procedure Participants were tested pre-intervention, at one week intervals during the intervention to monitor changes, and finally at post-intervention. Participants were not tested around the time of a tournament to avoid confounding effects of anxiety. After the intervention, semi-structured interviews were administered to both participants. A full transcript of these interviews is available in the appendix. The intervention consisted of three weeks of guided meditation, in which participants were encouraged to think deeply about meaningful things in their lives and to let their thoughts wander. They were encouraged also to think of themselves in relation to the world. This style of transcendental meditation involves little guidance and a quiet, supportive environment in which self-expression is encouraged. Sessions lasted one hour and took place 4 times a week. Results A one-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed for both participants. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the variables at each measurement period. As can be seen mean self-confidence ratings gradually increase with time during and after the intervention. The standard deviation also appears to increase however, showing more variability in ratings of self-confidence as therapy progresses. Table 1 Descriptive statistics for self-confidence ratings Interval Mean Standard Deviation Pre-test 18 3.2 Week 1 15 4.1 Week 2 24 5.7 Post-test 28 4.6 Table 2 displays the post hoc tests for the comparisons between the measurements at the four time intervals. The overall ANOVA showed a significant effect of the treatment (F(3, 3)=9.356, p.05). Table 2 shows where the differences occurred; self-confidence was significantly different between the pre-test and the post-test (p.05), week 1 and week 2 (p.05) and week 1 and the post-test p.01). This suggests that meditation therapy was effective at increasing self-confidence ratings but only substantial differences only emerged by the second week of therapy. Assumptions of repeated measures ANOVA were inviolate in all cases. Table 2 Inferential statistics for the comparisons of confidence ratings at different stages of meditation therapy Interval Comparison Mean Difference Standard Error Sig. Pre-test Week 1 3 4.4 .742 Week 2 -6 4.4 .486 Post-test -10 4.4 .030* Week 1 Pre-test -3 4.4 .742 Week 2 -9 4.4 .045* Post-test -13 4.4 .007** Week2 Pre-test 6 4.4 .486 Week 1 9 4.4 .045* Post-test -4 4.4 .689 Post-test Pre-test 10 4.4 .030* Week 1 13 4.4 .007** Week 2 4 4.4 .689 *p.05, **p.01 Discussion This study has brought to light issues pertaining to the implications of increasing self-confidence in sport and a means to increase this psychological construct practically. Increasing self-confidence is a key factor in facilitative appraisal of anxiety and in remaining in executive control of cognitive anxiety (Carver and Scheier, 1988; Jones, 1995), making it a prime factor to investigate when the aim is improving actual performance. This study revealed that transcendental meditation if effective in increasing self-confidence, making other relaxation therapies potential targets for future research as well. As for the two individuals concerned in this case, they both reported feeling more relaxed, less anxious and more ready for the next tournament. â€Å"I feel more in touch with myself and I haven’t had as many negative thoughts about the tournament as before.† – Participant 1 Statements like this back up the notion that relaxation therapies work not only by simply reducing anxiety, but also by enhancing executive control, managing cognitive intrusions and increasing self-confidence. This empowers athletes by giving them the confidence to interpret their anxiety in more facilitative ways (Jones and Hanton, 1996). This model is backed up by a theoretical framework and empirical support in the extant literature (Jones, Hanton and Swain, 1994; Jones, 1995). A direction for future research in this area would be to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relationship between meditation therapy and self-confidence. Discovering exactly what it was that caused participants self-confidence to increase would perhaps allow for improvements in the efficiency of such interventions. Some of this information was discerned from the brief interviews following the post-test. â€Å"I would think about why I was anxious. Just really think about what was stressing me out about a situation and I started gradually to realise that I didn’t have to let it stress me out.† – Participant 2 The relaxation technique employed may also have given the participants time to engage in reflective practice. Reflection allows athletes to learn from incidents, and put them into perspective (Hanton, Cropley and Lee, 2009) which allows for learning which becomes easier with greater experience. Perhaps the meditation ensured the athletes had moments in which they could properly constructively reflect on their recent performance. This notion is backed up by reports from the interviews. â€Å"When I was instructed to I would think about some recent things that happened [during play]†¦ I guess it just gave me time to think that the bad moments didn’t really matter as much as I thought†¦ and maybe that was distracting me while I was playing.† – Participant 1 â€Å"Sometimes I would think about the good moments [during play] because it was fun to†¦ but maybe I really did learn something from that†¦ it certainly made me feel good about myself.† – Participant 2 This suggests that the meditation helped participants to direct their anxiety into facilitative channels rather than managing or eliminating it, which is more consistent with the theory of Jones (1995) than Martens et al. (1990). Participants reported feeling anxiety but also reported that they were better able to direct their thoughts. Perhaps the therapy only became effective after 2 weeks because it took some time for participants to really commit to it and properly explore their thoughts. The limitations of the current study of course include the limitations of all single-subject designs. Martin, Thompson and Regehr (2004) note that findings drawn from case studies are not necessarily generally applicable because of a lack of ecological validity as well as issues with statistical power; though the error term can be reduced, the amendments to the degrees of freedom for the error term can negate the increase in power which would otherwise be achieved with a within-subjects design. Another big limitation is that anxiety measures were not included in the analysis, meaning that conclusions drawn about the mechanisms of the observed effect are purely speculative albeit backed up with qualitative data. The conclusion of the current research is that guided transcendental meditation increases self-confidence in a sporting context but only after 2 weeks. This delay could be due to the time it takes participants to commit to the treatment. Whether this effect is seen as a buffer against debilitating anxiety or a sort of harnessing of the power of anxiety depends on theoretical orientations. Either way, higher self-confidence is generally predictive of better performance, making it worthwhile of further investigation. References Cox, R. H., Martens, M. P., Russell, W. D. (2003). Measuring anxiety in athletics: The revised competitive state anxiety inventory-2.  Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,  25(4), 519-533. Eppley, K. R., Abrams, A. I., Shear, J. (1989). Differential effects of relaxation techniques on trait anxiety: A meta†analysis.  Journal of clinical psychology,  45(6), 957-974. Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory.  Emotion,  7(2), 336. Hanton, S., Jones, G. (1999). The effects of a multimodal intervention program on performers: II. Training the butterflies to fly in formation.  The Sport Psychologist, 13(1), 22-41 Hanton, S., Cropley, B., Lee, S. (2009). Reflective practice, experience, and the interpretation of anxiety symptoms.  Journal of sports sciences,  27(5), 517-533. Hardy, L. (1996). A test of catastrophe models of anxiety and sports performance against multidimensional anxiety theory models using the method of dynamic differences.  Anxiety, stress, and coping,  9(1), 69-86. Jones, G. (1995). More than just a game: Research developments and issues in competitive anxiety in sport.  British journal of psychology,  86(4), 449-478. Jones, G., Hanton, S. (1996). Interpretation of competitive anxiety symptoms and goal attainment expectancies.  Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology,18, 144-157. Jones, G., Hanton, S., Swain, A. (1994). Intensity and interpretation of anxiety symptoms in elite and non-elite sports performers.  Personality and Individual Differences,  17(5), 657-663. Jones, G., Swain, A., Hardy, L. (1993). Intensity and direction dimensions of competitive state anxiety and relationships with performance.  Journal of Sports Sciences,  11(6), 525-532. Jones, L., Stuth, G. (1997). The uses of mental imagery in athletics: An overview.  Applied and Preventive Psychology,  6(2), 101-115. Jooste, K., Khumalo, V. (2012). Sportsmens experience of the impact of massage by somatologists in enhancing aerobic performance: sport science. African Journal for Physical Health Education, Recreation and Dance,  18(3), 499-509. Mace, R., Carroll, D. (1986). Stress inoculation training to control anxiety in sport: two case studies in squash.  British journal of sports medicine,  20(3), 115-117. Martens, R., Burton, D., Vealey, R., Bump, L., Smith, D. (1990). Development of the CSAI-2.  Competitive anxiety in sport, 127-140.Hanton, S., Cropley, B., Lee, S. (2009). Reflective practice, experience, and the interpretation of anxiety symptoms.  Journal of sports sciences,  27(5), 517-533. Martin, G. L., Thompson, K., Regehr, K. (2004). Studies using single-subject designs in sport psychology: 30 years of research.  The Behavior Analyst,27(2), 263-280. OBrien, M., Hanton, S., Mellalieu, S. D. (2005). Intensity and direction of competitive anxiety as a function of goal attainment expectation and competition goal generation.  Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport,  8(4), 423-432. Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M. (2003). User Guide for the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS).  University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Toowoomba and University of Wolverhampton Press: Wolverhampton, UK.

Abraham Maslow Quotes About Psychology

Abraham Maslow Quotes About Psychology Abraham Maslow was a psychologist and the founder of the school of thought known as humanistic psychology. Perhaps best remembered for his famous needs hierarchy, he believed in the basic goodness of people and was interested in topics such as peak experiences, positivity, and human potential. In addition to his work as a teacher and researcher, Maslow also published several popular works including Toward a Psychology of Being and Motivation and Personality. The following are just a few selected quotations from his published works: On Human Nature When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem.(Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968)Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy, and suffering.(Motivation and Personality, 1954)It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.(Motivation and Personality, 1954)I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.(The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance, 1966) On Self-Actualization Self-actualizing people have a deep feeling of identification, sympathy, and affection for human beings in general. They feel kinship and connection as if all people were members of a single family.(Motivation and Personality, 1954)Self-actualizing persons contact with reality is simply more direct. And along with this unfiltered, unmediated directness of their contact with reality comes also a vastly heightened ability to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy, however, stale those experiences may have become for others.(Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968)Something of the sort has already been described for the self-actualizing person. Everything now comes of its own accord, pouring out, without will, effortlessly, purposelessly. He acts now totally and without deficiency, not homeostatically or need-reductively, not to avoid pain or displeasure or death, not for the sake of a goal further on in the futu re, not for any end other than itself. His behavior and experience become per se, and self-validating, end-behavior and end-experience, rather than means-behavior or means-experience.(Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968) Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are to be ultimately at peace with themselves. What human beings can be, they must be. They must be true to their own nature. This need we may call self-actualization.(Motivation and Personality, 1954) On Love I may say that (Being) love, in a profound but testable sense, creates the partner. it gives him a self-image, it gives him self-acceptance, a feeling of love-worthiness, all of which permit him to grow. It is a real question whether the full development of the human being is possible without it.(Toward a Psychology Being, 1968) On Peak Experiences The person in peak-experiences feels himself, more than other times, to be the responsible, active, creating center of his activities and of his perceptions. He feels more like a prime-mover, more self-determined (rather than caused, determined, helpless, dependent, passive, weak, bossed). He feels himself to be his own boss, fully responsible, fully volitional, with more free-will than at other times, master of his fate, an agent.(Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being.(Toward a Psychology of Being, 1968) You can learn more about Abraham Maslow by reading this brief biography of his life, further explore his hierarchy of needs  and his concept of self-actualization. Source: Maslow, A. Motivation and Personality. 1954.   Maslow, A. The Psychology of Renaissance. 1966.   Maslow, A. Towards a Psychology of Being. 1968.

Business-Level and Corporate-Level Strategies Essay

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Case Study No. 1, McDonalds Senior Restaurant (p. 648)

No. 1, McDonalds Senior Restaurant (p. 648) - Case Study Example of McDonald’s would not suffer as a result of this strategy since the senior citizens flock the restaurant in the morning when young customers do not usually come. Lisa should encourage senior citizens to come and enjoy their meals at McDonald’s. This is because the restaurant would not want to be famous for its discrimination against its customer based on their age. Also the senior customers usually leave before noon which is already a slow time for the restaurant. Lisa is getting a good opportunity for her slow time and should bank upon it. Since the senior customers spend as much as normal customers, she would not have to worry about generating profits and sales for the restaurant. Bingo games would be a suitable activity for senior citizens and would act as a promotional campaign to attract such customer (Clow and Baack, 2011). She could further use the idea of bingo game to her advantage. She could do this by allocating a special time for the bingo game, one when normal customers usually do not visit the restaurant. By doing this, Lisa would be ensuring that her senior customers prefer to come during this time and do not crowd the restaurant during the peak hours when young customers visit. Since young customers usually visit after noon, Lisa should not have to worry about crowding discouraging the young customers or that her restaurant would be labeled as ‘an old people’s

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Report on Marks and Spencer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Report on Marks and Spencer - Essay Example The current liabilities includes trade payables and other payables, borrowings and other financial liabilities, partnership liability to the pension scheme, derivative financial instruments, provisions and current tax liabilities. The company had Interest bearing debts from external sources of ?2,760.9 million and loans from partners to fund the pension scheme of ?71.9 million. Both consist of a mix of a long term portion and a short term portion which is due within the next 12 months. The table below provides that information for interest bearing or fixed interest debt.. Interest Bearing Debts Period Partnership loans ? Other Interest Bearing Loans ? Total Current 0 482.9 482.9 Non-current 71.9 2,278.0 2349.9 Total 71.9 2,760.9 2832.8 Marks and Spencer’s Financial Structure The following ratios in the table below will assist in the assessment of Marks and Spencer. Ratio Formulae 2010 2009 Debt Management Debt ratio (Total liabilities/Total assets) x 100% (4,967.3/7,153.2)x100 % = 69.4% (5,157.5/7,258.1) x 100 = 71% Gearing Ratio Interest Bearing Debts (IBD)/Equity + IBD 2,832.8/5,018.7 = 56.4% 3,200.6/5,301.2 = 60.38% Interest Cover Profit Before Interest and Tax (PBIT)/Interest Expense 852/162.2 = 5 times 870.7/214.5 = 4 times Liquidity Ratio Current ratio Current assets/current liabilities 0.80 0.60 Acid Test Ratio Current assets - inventory)/current liabilities 0.47 0.37 Debt Management The debt management ratios indicate how the company’s management has managed the debts of the company. According to Brigham (2005) the extent to which debt financing, which is also referred to as financial leverage is used by a firm has three implications. Firstly, financing the business using debt will allow share holders to maintain control of the company without increasing their investment in it. Secondly, shareholders returns can be substantially increased if the company earns more on investments that are financed with borrowed funds. However, financial risk increases as debt increases. Thirdly, creditors depend on shareholders to provide a margin of safety. Therefore the more funds supplied by shareholders the more comfortable they are in doing business with the company. Additionally, the interest expense which relates to interest charged on borrowed funds is allowable as a deduction for tax purposes. Dividend is not so allowed and is a distribution after tax is deducted. The Debt Ratio The debt ratio is the ratio of total liabilities to total assets and provides information on how much of the funds are provided by sources other than equity. The company’s debt ratio is 69.4% for the year ended April 3, 2010. Although this is an improvement over the previous year’s figure of 71%,. the guideline indicates that a percentage over 50% percent does not augur well. Marks and Spencer’s debt ratio is unfavourable and indicate problems with its financial structure. However, a comparison with the average in the industry in w hich Marks and Spencer operates is important. The gearing ratio below will provide additional information. The Gearing Ratio The gearing ratio is the portion of interest bearing debts to equity and interest bearing debt. The gearing ratio of 56% suggests that the company has a significant amount of interest bearing debt in its capital structure. The normal threshold of 50% has been exceeded. However, whether the ratio is favourable or not depends on the industry. The ratio for the year ende

Poland Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Poland - Essay Example The national language of Poland is Polish and its total covered area is around 312,685 sq Km. (Poland Introduction, 2001) Poland is known as the most religious country of Europe. About 90% of the total population is the Roman Catholic, while Protestants, Jehovah's witnesses, Polish Orthodox, Polish Catholics, Muslims and Jews are in minorities. The Eastern Orthodox are 1% of the total population while Protestants are 0.3% and others are 0.8%; according to an estimation made in 2002. The last pope of the Roman Catholic church Pope John Paul II also belongs from Poland - before the Pope Benedict. The Roman Catholic religion is dominated in the country and it is also a part of the curriculum - in the education sector. (Religion in Poland, 2008) Economically, Poland is a sound country and growing day by day. The Poland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased 6.1% in 2006. After the rejection of communism, Poland adopted the policy of liberalism which successfully worked and supported the economy to rise. The liberal laws helped in the development of the private sector and many medium and small industries were privatized. Several important sectors were also privatized including; steel, coal, railway and power generation. In the year 2000, the national telecom was also privatized and sold to France which is considered as the biggest privatization ever made, by the year 2007. Main Industries include; mining, textile, shipbuilding, glass and beverages. With the growing GDP rate since 1993, Poland has potential to become largest food producer among the European Union countries in agriculture sector. Various private farms are producing fruits, vegetables and specially potatoes. Poultry, eggs, and pork are also monitored by the s ame farms. The currency of Poland is called Zloty. Poland is continuously bringing reforms in its economic policies to fulfill the criteria of adopting euro (European single currency). It is said that by 2012, Poland will be able to adopt euro. In Poland, salaries are low and the ratio of unemployment is high, one of the reason is; the economic crises in the Soviet Union and Germany (the biggest trade partners of Poland). People have started to move to other European Union countries mostly to UK and Ireland. With the continuous reforms it is expected that soon this problem will also be overcome. (Diziadosiz and Stasiak, 2004) Role of Women During the era of 1970, the work force of Poland basically comprises of women. Poland government gave more opportunities to female in education and employment. In many major professions, the rate of women was higher than men. During 1980, most of the medical practitioners were women. On the other hand, women were kept completely at bay from the posts of power and authority. However, Poland elected its first Prime Minister, Hanna Suchocka in 1992, but the interesting fact is that there was not a single woman in her government. During the same year another woman, Eva lelowska became the head of the National Bank of Poland. Though, women played remarkable role on all the labor positions but male dominance always remain hurdle for them to reach and gain higher positions. State institutions helped many women to do two full time jobs due to the lack of their

Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street Essay Example for Free

Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street Essay In the short story The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros unfolds her childhood memories where she and her family struggled with poor living conditions on the way to their own house, and she seems to suffer from it more than anyone of the family. When one day they finally get the house of their own and her family seems to be ready to settle with it, she continues suffering because its not the house wed thought wed get (501), the one she imagined and built up in her dreams. At that point Cisneros obtains her dream to be fulfilled: she decides that whatever happens, she must have the house of her dream. This difference between her dream and reality is quite obvious and seems to upset her a lot; however, the impact of it is tremendous because it caused her to obtain the energy necessary for a dreams fulfillment. During the narration, Cisneros specifies the features of the house of her dream. It has to be not just her own place to live, but also a place that she could be proud of. She describes her dream house as one I could point to; inside it would have real stairs, not a hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the houses on TV (501); it would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. Even though these features are not necessities for living, the authors own dream becomes her necessity to be fulfilled. However, while living with her parents she understands that here her dream is not going to come true. The authors present house contrasts with the house of her dream: Its small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small youd think they are holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in.(Cisneros 502). And this evokes a feeling of shame for her house, which is familiar to her since the last place they lived at. This huge inequality between the authors dream and reality, just like a difference in potential generates a driving force, gives her energies to dream and to be sure that shell fulfill her wish. Sandra Cisneros experienced what not having her own place is like, moving all the time and being ashamed of her living conditions; that helped her to build a dream, to  know exactly what she wants from life, and gave a will to pursue her goal. She says, I knew then I had to have a house. A real house.(Cisneros 502). Our dreams are often formed by childhood experiences; once we collide with harsh reality, feel awkward or ashamed- we know for sure for ourselves: when I grow up, Ill do everything for this not to happen. And this gives us energy to achieve success. Works Cited: Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 40 Short Stories. Ed. Beverly Lawn. New York: Bedford, 2001

The merging of Colgate and Palmolive

The merging of Colgate and Palmolive COMPANY BACKGROUND Colgate-Palmolive Company CP is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes). Under its Hills brand, it is also a manufacturer of veterinary products. History In 1806, William Colgate, himself a soap and candle maker, opened up a starch, soap, and candle factory on Dutch Street in New York City under the name of William Colgate Company. In the 1840s, the firm began selling individual bars in uniform weights. In 1857, William Colgate died and the company was reorganized as Colgate Company under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son. In 1872, Colgate introduced Cashmere Bouquet, a perfumed soap. In 1873, the firm introduced its first toothpaste, aromatic toothpaste sold in jars. His company sold the first toothpaste in a tube, Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, in 1896. By 1908 they initiated mass selling of toothpaste in tubes. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the B.J. Johnson Company was making a soap entirely of palm and olive oil, the formula of which was developed by B.J. Johnson in 1898. The soap was popular enough to rename their company after it Palmolive. At the turn of the century Palmolive, which contained both palm and olive oils, was the worlds best-selling soap. A Kansas based soap manufacturer known as the Peet Brothers merged with Palmolive to become Palmolive-Peet. In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 Peet was dropped from the title, leaving only Colgate-Palmolive Company, the current name. Colgate-Palmolive has long been in fierce competition with Procter Gamble, the worlds largest soap and detergent maker. PG introduced its Tide laundry detergent shortly after World War II, and thousands of consumers turned from Colgates soaps to the new product. Colgate lost its number one place in the toothpaste market when PG started putting fluoride in its toothpaste. In the beginning of television, Colgate-Palmolive wished to compete with Procter Gamble as a sponsor of soap operas. Although the company sponsored many shows in part, they were most famous for being the full sponsor of the serial The Doctors. George Henry Lesch was president, CEO, and chairman of the board of Colgate-Palmolive in the 1960s and 1970s, and during that time transformed it into a modern company with major restructuring. In 2006, Colgate-Palmolive announced the intended acquisition of Toms of Maine, a leading maker of natural toothpaste, for US $100M. Toms of Maine was founded by Tom Chappell in 1970. Today, Colgate has numerous subsidiary organizations spanning 200 countries, but it is publicly listed in only two, the United States and India. In June 2007, phony Colgate toothpaste imported from China was found to be contaminated with diethylene glycol, and several people in eastern U.S. reported experiencing headaches and pain after using the product. The tainted products can be identified by the claim to be manufactured in South Africa by Colgate-Palmolive South Africa LTD, they are 5oz/100ml tubes (a size which Colgate does not sell in the United States) and the tubes/packaging contains numerous misspellings on their labels. Colgate-Palmolive claims that they do not import their products from South Africa into the United States or Canada and that DEG is never and was never used in any of their products anywhere in the world. The counterfeit products were found in smaller mom and pop stores, dollar stores and discount stores in at least four states. Colgate people around the world have built a reputation as a successful company with the highest ethical standards. Through living our values of Caring, Global Teamwork, and Continuous Improvement, and adhering to the highest principles of integrity, honor, and concern for the environment and others, we seek to: Provide safe and quality products of value to consumers Increase shareholder value Offer opportunities for personal and professional growth to all Colgate people Fulfill our corporate social responsibilities as a member of the global community Factors affecting the Business: Government Factors: Government does not have much influence on the FMCG industry in terms of regulations. There are consumer protection laws but they are not implemented as they should be. There are not much regulations involved in this industry. Only the companies which are listed on the stock exchange have to follow the regulations under the Companies Ordinance 1984. So the new entrants Political factors: Political factors are influencing this industry because the recent and order conditions have affected the whole economy which in turn affected the industry. Many of the factories of the big companies were burnt after the assassination of Benazir. Economic factors: The overall economy of the country is showing a stable growth. Therefore this industry is also showing a growth of 10%. But the inflation is growing rapidly which is not a good sign for the new entrants. Change in the interest rate also affects the industry. Hence the new entrants are also threatened by the increasing interest rates. Social trends: The social trends are in favor of this industry. Mass awareness is created through media. So people are shifting from their traditional methods of washing clothes, skin care etc to the modern methods. This is a good sign for the new entrants. People have become more educated and health conscious. High population growth is another opportunity for the new entrants. Technological change: The technology can support this industry well. If the whole system can be automated from the import of raw material to the finished goods then it would save time and money. This is a good sign for the new entrants. But in this industry technology does not play a major role because the traditional formulae of soap or toothpaste are not that much complicated INTRODUCTION Effective management is the key to the establishment and growth of the business. The key to successful management is to examine the marketplace environment and create employment and profit opportunities that provide the potential growth and financial viability of the business. Despite the importance of management, this area is often misunderstood and poorly implemented, primarily because people focus on the output rather than the process of management. Toward the end of the 1980s, business managers became absorbed in improving product quality, sometimes ignoring their role vis-a-vis personnel. The focus was on reducing costs and increasing output, while ignoring the long-term benefits of motivating personnel. This shortsighted view tended to increase profits in the short term, but created a dysfunctional long-term business environment. Simultaneously with the increase in concern about quality, entrepreneurship attracted the attention of business. A sudden wave of successful entrepreneurs seemed to render earlier management concepts obsolete. The popular press focused on the new cult heroes Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack (creators and developers of the Apple Computer) while ignoring the marketing and organizing talents of Mike Markula, the executive responsible for Apples business plan.* The story of two guys selling their Volkswagen bus to build the first Apple computer was more romantic than that of the organizational genius that enabled Apple to develop, market and ship its products while rapidly becoming a major corporation. In large businesses, planning is essential for developing a firms potential. However, many small businesses do not recognize the need for long-range plans, because the small number of people involved in operating the business implies equal responsibility in the planning and decision-making processes. Nevertheless, the need for planning is as important in a small business as it is in a large one. This publication focuses on the importance of good management practices. Specifically, it addresses the responsibilities of managing the external and internal environments. It can provide a basis for confronting the challenges of the 1990s. 3.0 Critical issue / problem for today business: Every new day bring the challenge for any business person, because to stay alive in the market you need to fight efficiently and smartly, as the world moving; complexity in every aspect of life is increase though technology has improved along but as much we belong to technology we get more depended. Following are the hot buttons for today business, and every business men more or less facing and struggling. Political instability and involvement: Every government is eager to impose taxes to earn more and more profit, due to recent shock of recession most of the industries are move toward bankruptcy or liquidate just because of high taxes and less benefit given by the government. It is common these day small business or large organization owners to be unaware of current legal issues that can hit them because continuous changes in the business policies and implication by the governments put them in trouble. The problem is that legal trouble can cost them. It can even cost you your business. After 9/11 money laundering and other compliance issues are more dealt in the organization standard operating procedure. Poverty and inequality of income: Due to high inflation and high unemployment rate continuously hitting the poverty level to increase, and that all because of inequality of income, contrary as the inflation increase the cost of business will also increase that thing put the pressure on the business man to reduce the prices because consumer start searching for alternative. Ethical issues in business: Ethics and moral compulsion are something that we all come across at one time or another. Contractual agreement not to exhibit unethical behavior. Releasing products with defects should be informed to the customers.   Even in a professional setting, all persons should act in a manner that would uphold the good of society. Every businesses have their own code of ethics and the individuals within that business have adhere the compliance of the code conduct most of the organization investing lot of resource in order to maintain the ethic and code of conduct within the organization, even though regulatory bodies also penalized the organization if in case of non compliance. Ethical behavior in business is consistent with the principles, norms, and standards of business practice that have been agreed upon by society. Constantly Changing Economic Environment: Dynamic economic environment is a night mare for the Contemporary business, because already exist giant in the market is a serious threat for them, because most of them have made cartel and create obstacle for the new business men to enter in the market or survival. Economical changes like inflation , Balance of payment, unemployment and poverty is also hindrance for the growth of business, for the fighting against all these indicators, entrepreneur need specific skill and knowledge, because without that he / she cannot be able to run the business smoothly. Risk Management: Every organization is susceptible to low probability events that could have a potentially catastrophic effect. A small or new business is no exception although it is easy to ignore the probability of such events under the pressures of developing and maintaining a business. Identifying and quickly dealing with such unlikely events is primarily the responsibility of management. Also only management has the ability to assess the full potential impact of these events on the overall organization. Some of the potentially disastrous events that may affect your business are listed below. Theft of property Breach of laws Computer crimes Fraud Weather related damage Determine how vulnerable your business is to these and other such risks by assessing their probability and impact. Consider actions that you can take to lower the probability of their occurring, i.e. ways to control your risk. Review the checklist each year to ensure the future of your firm is not imperiled through neglect. Developing and Mentoring Employees: Managing the employees / labor is the critical issue for the business men in these days because as the dynamic environment is coming around, for competing with that we need to keep our staff in the phase of learning, and continuous training is required to make them up to date. Even though you may discover that certain events are affecting your business, be careful not to change the organizational structure of your firm without discussing it with your management team. Employees generally can accomplish goals despite organizational structures imposed by management. Because restructuring involves spending a lot of time learning new rules and implementing a new organizational structure is costly. The actual problem comes when the employee / labor are unwilling to change and create hindrance in the way, so fighting with this problem is the main issue for the entrepreneurs. 5. Negotiating and Managing Critical Relationships with stake holders: Developing / maintaining the relationship with all the stake holders is the important thing for the entrepreneurs because each and every one has its own importance, and without making good relation with them survival is difficult, for all the building relationship entrepreneurs need to have the negotiation and communication skills. Every day we have noticed that lots of entrepreneurs were lost their businesses just because they are lack with these skills and for understanding the critical relation with the stakeholders we must need to understand the importance, if we neglect the customers, so we lose business, if we neglect the good supplier so we lose the quality, if we neglect the distributor so we lose the perfection is services, and finally if we neglect the Government so we have to ready for the sanctions and implication / charges / penalties / abandon of business Managing global operation: When organizations become global they often end up paying a heavy price in terms of managing complex managerial issues and challenges. Host country languages Host Country Norms and Customs. Workforce management Unfamiliar laws and regulations. Unexpected Cost mix. Globalization has affected most of country business tremendously. A number of Multi National Corporations are operating and functioning in most part of the world. It is important to spend some time in understanding how globalization makes it necessary and pertinent for a MNC to disperse and spread its scope and function of Operation. It would be more correct if try to understand the philosophy of MNCs not operating in certain regions or certain particular countries. The western worlds call these the disadvantages of Globalization, if an organization decides to pack up its business and leave a host company. The common disadvantages which lead to a MNC forgoing globalization includes. Handing over proprietary Technology to host countries. Political risks. Poor Employee (Managers and worker) skills. Slow customer response time. Effective communication between interfaces difficult Competition with others Organization: Businesses since the beginning of time have competed against each other. On the basis of competition, various types of market exist for nearly all lines of products and services. We already know that absolute monopoly and perfect competition type of markets are not that pervasive, yet businesses try to avoid perfect competition and strive to go for absolute monopoly so they can enjoy no competition and exploit the customer sentiments for buying. We can identify the following common and widespread ways in which organizations can compete against other organizations. 1. Price: In our day to day routine observations, we often see that a lower price would attract more customers provided the product or service fulfils its intended use. Lower price helps an organization to increase its customer base. 2. Quality: is an important dimension by which superior raw materials as well as high Skillman ship would ensure that product manufactured or service developed is offered to the customer with something extra. That something extra is nothing else but Quality is always offered free of cost, we will discuss this when we study in details Quality Management and Total Quality Management. 3. Product: Differentiation refers to special features that make the product or service look more suitable to the customers like an automobile manufacturer decides to provide GPS system to selected customer at an additional price etc. 4. Flexibility is the ability to respond to changes. It may refer to changes in target sales, product feature like adding GPS device to all automobiles 5. Time refers to the period required to provide a product or service to a customer from the moment the order is booked to the delivery, also time required to rectify a shortcoming or mistake Common reasons why organization Fail: We can identify certain familiar reasons why Organizations fail to achieve a competitive advantage and end up losing out to their competitors. These reasons are universal in nature and find the same footing in Pakistan as well as any other place in the world. 1. Too much emphasis on short-term financial performance. Quite often, cost cutting, profit maximizing at the cost of social responsibility or employee motivation is a failed strategy pursued by organizations, which just hastens their status to oblivion. 2. Failing to take advantage of strengths and opportunities. This is in reality failing to hold on to proven successful strategies or core competencies. Sometimes a change in leadership leads to change in strategy, where just for the sake of glory and high profits, organizations forget their core competence and opt for strategies and tactic which cause their downfall. 3. Failing to recognize competitive threats. This reason is the exact opposite of failure to make use of the organizations strengths. Quite often organizations decide to pursue status quo and ends up bringing no new product or service or even no innovation in its existing product or service line leading to lack of customer satisfaction, decline in profits and finally being declared a failure. 4. Neglecting operations strategy. This is definitely the most important reason of failure; organizations often end up employing non productive techniques which lead to inconsistent and failed operations. 5. Too much emphasis in product and service design and not enough on improvement. Differentiation in terms of service and product, American companies in 1980s did that they never introduced incremental refinements rather went for big changes and thus lost to Japanese competitors. 6. Neglecting investments in capital and human resources. A total disregard to use the best resource Capital and human resources in the long run make or break an organization. 4.0 Conclusion: Successful management is founded on the mastery of a myriad of details and the success of the business is depended on the efficient management of all the resources and to make decision for best optimal purpose. While management schools teach the importance of focusing attention on major issues affecting the business, practical managers realize the major issues are the variety of small aspects that form the business. The small mistake leas to the business in to unrecoverable losses or bankruptcy, In an increasingly structured society, inattention to even one minor detail can result in significant disruption of the business or even its failure.

Anne Hutchinson and the Consequences of Misreading :: Anne Hutchinson Essays

Anne Hutchinson and the Consequences of Misreading METHODOLOGY Literary historicism, in the context of this discussion, describes the interpretation of literary or historical texts with respect to the cultural and temporal conditions in which they were produced. This means that the text not only catalogues how individuals respond to their particular circumstances, but also chronicles the movements and inclinations of an age as expressed in the rhetorical devices of its literature. Evaluating the trial of Anne Hutchinson within such a theoretical framework means speculating on the genesis of her theological beliefs with recourse to prevailing theories of gender, class, and interpretation. Because texts are self-contained spheres of discourse, nuanced interpretations of them can be undertaken with greater assiduity than in the case of individuals whose private experiences remain largely concealed from the interpreter's knowledge. A historical analysis of Anne Hutchinson herself is hence, in the present discussion, secondary to the analysis of ho w she comes across in textual discourse as a palimpsest of seventeenth century gender controversy. According to David M. Carr, the history of Scriptural interpretation indicates that religious texts are popular candidates for reinterpretation and, as such, are spaces wherein the personal identity of the reader frequently inscribes itself at length: It is the reader and his or her interpretive community who attempts to impose a unified reading on a given text. Such readers may, and probably will, claim that the unity they find is in the text, but this claim is only a mask for the creative process actually going on. Even the most carefully designed text can not be unified; only the reader's attempted taming of it. Therefore, an attempt to use seams and shifts in the biblical text to discover its textual precursors is based on a fundamentally faulty assumption that one might recover a stage of the text that lacked such fractures (Carr 23-4). I do not so much wish to emphasize the deconstructive rhetoric of this approach as the fact that religious texts lend themselves to creative readings that originate in the reader's experiences or historical circumstances. In other words, the history of Scriptural interpretation exemplifies the text's role as a space where emerging ideologies may be refigured and incorporated into an authoritative cultural tradition. One may think of the genesis of such readings in terms of Harold Bloom's notion of literary succession as "an act of creative correction," the difference in this case being that Anne Hutchinson's creative act involves reviewing the Scripture itself and deriving spiritual knowledge from a finite textual canon (Bloom 30).

With specific reference to the EU’s doctrine of direct effect, critically assess the extent to which EU law concerning commercial activities are enforceable within member states.

Introduction The extent to which EU legal rules and principles, concerning commercial activities, are enforceable within member states will be critically assessed in this essay. This will be done by reviewing certain aspects of EU law and considering the extent to which EU law can be invoked under the principle of direct effect. It will be shown that whilst individuals and businesses will be capable of invoking EU law through national courts, this will always be subject to restrictions to ensure that the market is not being distorted in anyway. Main Body The ‘direct effect’ principle is used to confer rights or impose obligations upon individuals in accordance with European Union (EU) law. National courts are bound under this principle to recognise and enforce certain EU legal rules and principles (Dashwood, 2008: 229). If EU law is inconsistent with a law of a member state, the doctrine of supremacy seeks to ensure that EU law prevails. Direct effect was first established in Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen [1963] ECR 1 when it was held by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that individuals rights, as enshrined under the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, were capable of being invoked before the courts of EU member states. This case demonstrated how EC Treaty provisions were directly effective against members states, and was a welcoming development in ensuring that member states complied with their Treaty obligations. As a result of this doctrine, EU law is enfor ceable within all member states, which has an overall impact upon many commercial activities. This was recognised by Moens and Trone who pointed out that; â€Å"the importance of this unique feature lies in the fact that it is futile for business people to seek to invoke a legal act of an EU institution which could not be relied upon in a national court† (Moens and Trone, 2010: 367). Firstly, in order to be able to rely on a legal act of an EU institution, it is necessary to establish whether the act is directly effective. If the act is not directly effective, then its provisions cannot be relied upon in a national court (Moens and Trone, 2010: 367). The ECJ in Van Gend en Loos formulated a test to determine whether a treaty provision has direct effect. In doing so, it was noted that a treaty provision will be directly effective where â€Å"a) its text is clear and unambiguous; b) it imposes and unconditional prohibition; and c) its implementation does not depend upon any further legislative action by the Member States† (Moens and Trone, 2010: 367). It was made clear in Case 2/74, Defrenne v SABENA [1974] ECR 631 that there exists two different types of direct effect; vertical and horizontal. Vertical direct effect is the relation between individuals and the state, whereas horizontal direct effect is the relation between individuals (Kaczorowska, 2013: 264). The ECJ in Belgische Radio en Televisie v SV Saban (127/73) [1974] ECR 51 held that the competition rules enshrined in Arts 101 (1) and 102 (previously Arts 81 (1) and 82 EC Treaty (TEC)) â€Å"tend by their very nature to produce direct effects in relations between i ndividuals†. National courts consequently have a duty to ensure that the relations between individuals are being adequately safeguarded. Arguably, individuals can not only seek protection under EU law against the state, but they can also seek protection against private individuals. Horizontal direct effect is generally used as a way for individuals to invoke EU legal rules and principles in respect of commercial activities. An example of this can be seen in Walrave v Association Union Internationale (36/74) [1974] ECR 1405; [1975] 1 CMLR 320 where the Court found that a measure, which affects a relationship between individuals, may be directly effective. Here, the prohibition of discrimination on the ground of nationality was deemed to have horizontal direct effect in respect of a relationship between individuals (employer and potential employee). Since the principle of direct effect was first established, citizens and undertakings have benefited substantially because of the fact that individual rights have been conferred upon them which the national authorities and courts must safeguard under EU law (Europa, 2013: 1). For example, Arts 101 and 102 TFEU are designed to ensure that competition within the EU is not restricted or distorted. This protects businesses and consumers from unfair competition and commercial practices by producing direct effects in relations between individuals. Art 101 (1) prohibits agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings or concreted practices which may affect trade between EU member states and which have as their object or effect their prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the EU as identified in Case C-41/90 Hofner and Elser [1991] ECR I-1979. Art 101 thus protects competitors and customers against dishonest behaviour, which is imperative in en suring free competition within the EU. The application of Art 101 has been subject to much controversy on the basis that it has been applied to broadly, thereby catching agreements that were not actually detrimental to competition (Whish, 2012: 115). This rendered Art 101 exorbitant and demonstrated the need for courts to apply it more rigidly (Bright, 1996: 535). Three categories of exemptions now apply to Art 101, namely; 1) commercial activities that are beneficial to consumers; 2) agreements of minor importance, and 3) block exemptions for different types of contract, such as vertical agreements (Bright, 1996: 535). As a result of these exemptions, the extent to which Art 101 is enforceable within member states is unclear and it is likely that consumers and businesses will have difficulty demonstrating that certain commercial activities fall within the ambit of this Article and subsequently invoking EU law against a private individual. EU competition law does not intend to stand in the way of legitimate commercial activities, but to instead promote and maintain fair competition within nation states (Europa, 2013: 1). Whilst this is often deemed necessary to prevent unfairness and to regulate anti-competitive conduct, unnecessary restraints are capable of being placed upon commercial activities (Rodger, et al; 2009: 103). Arguably, it is imperative that some exemptions do exist so that the application of Article 101 is not exorbitant. This ensures that any positive benefits stemming from an agreement are balanced against the restrictions that apply to Art 101. Article 102 TFEU is primarily aimed at preventing those undertakings who hold a dominant position in the market. Through the principle of direct effect, individuals will be capable of invoking this Article by showing that an undertaking who holds a dominant position in the market has abused its position as highlighted in Case 27/76, United Brands Continental BV v Commission (1978) ECR 207. Such abuse may include; unfair purchase selling prices, unfair trading conditions, restricting production and applying different provisions to similar transactions (Kennedy, 2011: 237). A degree of uncertainty surrounds the scope of Art 102 because of how serious a finding of infringement would be, which renders the extent to which Art 102 is being enforced in member states unclear. For a firm to be dominant, it is not necessary for there to exist no competition at all and instead it merely needs to be shown, as identified in Case 85/76 Hoffman-La Roche v Commission [1979] ECR 461, that the firm has an â€Å"appreciable influence on the conditions under which the competition develops†. It is likely to be extremely difficult for a private individual to establish that a firm has an appreciable influence on the conditions under which the competition develops and as such it is again questionable how far Art 102 will go in protecting private individuals and businesses through the principle of direct effect. Regulations are also subject to direct effect, meaning that they will be directly applicable in all EU member states, as provided for by Art 288 (ex Art 247 T EC). This was illustrated in Case C-253/00 Munoz [2002] ECR I-7289 when it was stated that â€Å"regulations operate to confer rights on individuals which the national courts have a duty to protect†. EU decisions and Directives are also directly effective in member states, as signified in Foster v British Gas (1990) C-188/89. This case exemplified the courts willingness to confer horizontal direct effect upon individuals and signified how EU law concerning commercial activities are enforceable within member states. Conclusion Overall, whilst there are some restrictions in place to regulate the application of EU law, it is evident that many EU rules and regulations will be capable of being enforced within all member states. This is necessary when it comes to commercial activities as it is important that some form of protection exists to prevent the market from being abused. The extent to which EU law applies will always be subject to some controversy because of the fact that certain exceptions will apply. Though this is necessary in preventing abuse and ensuring that a balance is being maintained. The extent to which this balance is achieved is likely to be open to much debate though it is evident that member states have made some attempt to invoke EU law provisions concerning commercial activities. References Bright, C. (1996) ‘EU Competition Policy: Rules, Objectives and Deregulation’ Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Volume 16, Issue 4, 535-559. Dashwood, A. (2008) ‘The Principle of Direct Effect in European Community Law’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Volume 16, Issue 3, 229-245. Europa. (2013) ’50 Years of Direct Effect of EU Law Benefitting Citizens and Companies’ Press Release Database, [Online] Available: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_CJE-13-56_en.htm [27 August, 2014]. Rodger, B. MacCulloch, A. and Galloway, J. (2009) Cases and Materials on UK and EC Competition Law, Oxford University Press: Oxford. Kaczorowska, A. (2013) European Union Law, Routledge: London. Kennedy, T. P. (2011) European Law, Oxford University Press: Oxford. Moens, G. and Trone, J. (2010) Commercial Law of the European Union, Springer Science & Business Media: London. Whish, R. (2012) Competition Law, Oxford University Press: Oxford. Cases Belgische Radio en Televisie v SV Saban (127/73) [1974] ECR 51 Case 85/76 Hoffman-La Roche v Commission [1979] ECR 461 Case C-41/90 Hofner and Elser [1991] ECR I-1979 Case 27/76, United Brands Continental BV v Commission (1978) ECR 207 Defrenne v SABENA [1974] ECR 631 Foster v British Gas (1990) C-188/89 Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen Case 26/62, [1963] ECR 1 Walrave v Association Union Internationale (36/74) [1974] ECR 1405; [1975] 1 CMLR 320