Change & Continuity in Contemporary Business Essay

Change & Continuity in Contemporary Business - Essay Example It also enthused the workforce with renewed vision of the company and provided clarity to them with regard to their roles in the makeover of the organization. Yet, the transformation could be called only a part success since this transformation has not solved the company’s major problem of ageing median age of its customers. The company would be again forced to brainstorm in order to tackle this situation. In the hurry to tackle immediate crisis, it has not made any provision for future market changes. It is yet to act as per the perceived changes in the coming years. Eventually, the report recommends that Harley Davidson should seek its future in newer market segments with new products. Among its employees, it should train and guide a chosen set of people to catch the signs of advancing change in the market scenario and take steps to prepare accordingly. It also recommends the organization to diversify in other automobile segments such as cars and commercial vehicles. As evident from the time bar above, Harley Davidson saw lots of ups and downs before it entered the transformation phase. Harley Davidson, in its early days was the only motorcycle manufacturer in America and ruled the motorcycle market. However, it was caught unawares when foreign entrants flooded the market with innovative, quality and affordable products. The Japanese players catered to newer market segments untapped by Harley. The change in management of the company and the new management’s haste to catch up with the competitors added to the woes of the company which was already suffering from declined market share. The company slumped to its lowest in terms of market share i.e. 23%. It was at this point that few of its managers decided to take over the company. They tried to understand the strengths of the competitors and the weaknesses of their own organization and brought about a fresh insight into work. Under the able leadership

Military leaders role Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Military leaders role - Essay Example For Clausewitz, by the time he was writing his book "On War," his thoughts on war had evolved towards notions like "War is a continuation of politics with an admixture of other means" and that there could be different ways and means of warfare. Here the concern is particularly towards his views on the practical uses of military history to and his "critical analysis" where he distinguished carefully between the historian and the military critic, despite his admission that both roles were often complementary.According to Clausewitz for a military historian, there had to be a use of the critical analysis which would involve the tracing of effects back to their causes which would be essentially an investigation into what military steps were taken and whether they were effective at a tactical, operational, strategic and political level. Before I revisit Clausewitz on his notions of a military leader it would be fair to discuss what Machiavelli and Sun Tzu have to say about the military le ader's role in defining national interests and military objectives in war. Machiavelli Machiavelli is much known for his book "The Prince" in which he has described how a prince or in other terms a military leader can keep his control on his jurisdiction.For him, control is particularly a difficult matter for a new prince whose status is not established by lineage or popular consent amongst the masses. The new prince or military leader would have a hard time creating a stabilized framework of power. Many times the prince will have to do carry out unpleasant, perhaps evil things to carry out his task. Machiavelli has refrained from discussing the ideal price or leader.Instead, he gives examples as to which of the military leaders/princes were successful in establishing their rule and most of these examples are drawn from his own analysis of history. As a renaissance writer, he uses an amount of classical historical examples. At first sight, his ideas seem  to hard to swallow as he seems to endorse any evil act by such rulers to gain power and control. A more profound understanding of his views,  however, indicates that he has actually qualified such measures with restrictions like the  philosophical view that any evil action can be justified if it is done for a good purpose. The work faced much negative criticism even in its time and was banned by the Catholic church. For Machiavelli, a good military leader would know how to use good and evil as instruments of power. Essentially he was trying to promote a more practical approach lined with pragmatism. However, realism is a bitter medicine and many people including myself find the idea of an undemocratically elected military leader abhorrent and dysfunctional. Such a military leader would invariably not be able to strike any balance between good or evil and keep tilting towards evil whenever his survival is threatened. An example is the current military crisis in South Asia particularly Bangladesh and Paki stan.  

Biomechanical Principles In Basketball Essay Example for Free

Biomechanical Principles In Basketball Essay Basketball is a very competitive and popular sport in our society today. The NBA playoffs are going on right now and it has proved to be a very physical and intense post season. This sport takes an extreme amount of talent, coordination, and athletic ability to become a champion. There are a few biomechanical principles that are present during the game of basketball that help these athletes become great. The first biomechanical principle that is present in basketball is Newton’s Second Law of Motion. This law deal deals with acceleration in the sport. The law states, â€Å"The change in motion of an object is proportional to the force impressed; and is made in the direction of the straight line in which the force is impressed†. Newton’s Second Law is applied to the dunking aspect of basketball. When a player is about to dunk the basketball a certain amount of force must be produced to jump. Also a certain amount of acceleration must be produced to send the player upwards towards the rim. If this does not happen then the player is going to not be able to dunk the basketball. The weight of the athlete also plays a big role in this action as well. A player who is heavier is going to have a harder time jumping as high as a player with less mass. The next biomechanical principle I found that deals with basketball is another Newton law. Newton’s First Law deals with the law of inertia. This law is applied when a player is attempting a pass to his or her teammate. Newton’s First Law states that an object will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force. When a player is passing the ball to their teammate, the ball will stay in a straight line of motion unless a member of the opposing team attempts to steal the ball from its destination. Lastly frictional force is another biomechanical principle that I found present in the game of basketball. The friction between the athlete’s shoes and floor must be very high. Static friction is used when the player wants to push off from the floor to make an athletic move. The type of shoes that the athlete wears is also going to play a huge role in how affective the players’ moves are. Frictional for occurs when the player pushes down and backward on the floor. It is the force that acts forwards on the player and backwards on the floor. If it was not for frictional forces the athlete would not be able to start or stop his or her motion. In conclusion I found this biomechanical breakdown to be very interesting. Now that I have taken this course I look at sports from a greater biomechanical perspective. I feel that taking this course will really pay off as I become a professional in the field. Being able to break down sports into such a perspective is a great attribute to have as a future professional.

A Sense Of Urgency And John P Kotter Philosophy Essay

A Sense Of Urgency And John P Kotter Philosophy Essay John  P.  Kotter  is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. Kotter is an eminent and renowned author in the field of writing books regarding change in the organizations. John Kotter is internationally and extremely regarded as the speaker and a critical thinker on the topic of change and leadership. Kotter is also famous for his authentic opinions for bringing about change and has a distinguished place as an international business consultant. His latest book A Sense of Urgency in which he talked about eight steps to overcome and embrace change is a sequel of his previous work, Leading Change and Our Iceberg Is Melting The first step of the eight is a sense of urgency which is poorly handled by the most organization and consequently becomes the reason of organizational decline, so Kotter presents and suggests the gruesome guidelines to the organizations that how they would actually transform successfully. Kotters wide experience an d knowledge on affluent change have been proven time and again. The title of the book A Sense of Urgency is very appropriate with its subject matter. He discusses in his book the first step in bringing change in the organizations in detail. He identifies the single and enormous factor to a successful change, which also is regarded his number-one principle: creating a true sense of urgency. SUMMARY John Kotter in his book A Sense of Urgency tries to answer the most frequently asked question, What is the single biggest error people make when they try to change? In the course of his research and asking different managers about their experience, he landed on the finale, that at the groundwork of any effort to change you have to start with a sense of urgency. This can sometimes be mistaken for a false sense of urgency. Everyone looks like they are actively achieving the companys goal but really they are aggravated and forced. This can make it hard to keep your focus on the companys main objective. In this book, A Sense of Urgency the distinction between true urgency and false urgency will be discussed. To maintain urgency up, over a large period of time, urgency has to be re-created over and over again. Urgency basically always leads to triumph, which then leads to satisfaction. This satisfaction is for the most part obvious, after a company encounters a large grow and the captivating frame of mind is conspicuous. A triumph allows people to feel that the urgency is over and they become complacent with their work. But when a triumph has been made rejoice, it is hard to be provoked daily without ever feeling like you accomplished anything. Kotter stresses upon the fact of complacency in the organizations. In the beginning he somewhat accepts the reality that this complacency is actually a root cause of the downfall of any organization. As per his point of view, in this fast moving world everything is changing quickly and the people who do not want to cope with it, would soon tumble down. They have no perspectives of their own. Their sluggish behavior will soon hazardous for not only to them but their surroundings too. They always think that they are perfect and challenges are only being faced by others. It does not prove that the writer wants to implement a sudden change which would only occur in such a way that people make presentation on power point and lot of meetings being arranged and in the end no solution would be made. Kotter is not in the favor of false urgency. It usually brings frantic results which destructs the action of true urgency. The writer believes in a positive approach in life. He approves the time of all is well or everything is a mess has gone and the behavior to move forward and win is required. Political and social environment keeps on changing and what a single person can do is, to move ahead without having any repercussion of his past failures. Kotter presents different tactics by narrating anecdotal stories and detailed tool to make the book more pragmatic and useful. His tactics are: 1. Identification of the lack of right urgency. 2. Face the reality of change. 3. Patience in the crises. 4. being steadfast to overcome the ordeals in the way of change. Kotter deals with many problems and misunderstandings surrounding to the concept of urgency. In his opinion urgency itself is very necessary part to all businesses, not just who initiates to bring about change. Employees become oblivious to change possibilities, whether good or bad. He describes that every move towards urgency is not usually beneficial but only true urgency is productive in such cases. He uses times and again, a word right sense of urgency in his book. To maintain the right sense of urgency is a real job, not only to apply it and leave it without any endorsement. He promotes to work smartly not hastily; and the sense of profit and loss at the right time, because if the right decision is not taken at the right time, there is no use of such right decision. A real sense of urgency should amazingly be encouraging and spongy and does not mean to close the eyes when the trouble comes. It should be a stimulant which makes you ready to confront the projects and predicaments that would normally consume their work schedule. Only try to get away with complacency by saying, what we are doing is not longer what we will need in the future. Kotter refused to adopt the habit of complacency because in doing so organization becomes self centered and do not allow outer components of the business and this results in the downfall of the organization. Instead of suppressing the complacency, often a rapid and quick sense of urgency is seen which is also not in favor of organizational health. He further explains that whenever change occurs in any organization there is always a first group who do not accept crises pleasantly rather they are much concerned about the consequences of the change. On the other hand there is a second group whose attitude is rather supportive and encouraging to the management. They seem to avail every opportunity from the crises and try to reinvent the organization by making necessary changes in it. The idea of working well in the past hinders to bring about change. Urgency in this situation should be recreated over and over again. So to speak the truth, not only the employees of the organization but owners themselves are subject to the destruction of their businesses. The owners are sometimes obsessed with their continuous success and forget to see the new prospects. Consequently, it brings about catastrophic deterioration in the business from inside in the end. At this point Kotter seems confident enough to plead his case when he asserts on the managers and the employees to foresee the outcome beforehand. External aspects in the process of change are as important as internal issues, because management usually ignores the role of external pressure upon the internal environment of the organization. It is observed that whenever these external intrusions are not handled correctly the budget schedule of the organization get affected badly. So the act of complacency and false urgency are contradiction in terms of true urgency ANALYSIS Like any other book this book has both its strengths and weaknesses and each are intertwined with the other. In other words some of the books greatest strength can also be considered its greatest weakness. STRENGTHS The great organization of the book is flawless. The writing style is easy. He uses a very simple language which can be understood easily. He presents very significant issues to bring about change in an organization. The title page is extremely meaningful and appropriate to the subject matter. He spots the light over three main key issues to consider during organizational change initiatives i.e. urgency, complacency and false sense of urgency and describes them in detail. Kotter is a strong advocate of bringing change in an organizational culture because without being change, progress in this world is not feasible. He suggests that leaders should win the hearts and minds of their staff. To employ the right amount of urgency, one must presents a rational case for change as part of an overall approach to engage the hearts and emotions of the people within the organizations. Kotter seems to play with the words, for instance, the use of false urgency in the contrast of right urgency has made his work comprehensible, that even an ordinary reader can differentiate the distinction between the two. This book has made different managers able to know that urgency is that big of a problem in business who always thought of urgency in the sense of an emergency, not anything to do with business. This book really opened their eyes up to the notion of urgency in many ways. The people who strive to be the manager, that not only listens to their employees when they have suggestions, but actually takes them into consideration for further growth. All while paying close attention to the real anxieties and frustrations they have when rules and system just do not work for every position. Also, they will try to be that person that evokes a true sense of urgency everyday so that everyone around them feels that they have to spend their day getting as much productive work done as they possibly can. Each sub tactic contains a focused page and a half discussion of what they are and how leaders can implement the idea. This detail and its presentation is what really distinguishes the book and brings something new to discuss. Complacency is the crucial word he has used through and through in his book which means, A feeling of contentment and satisfaction, especially when coupled with an awareness of danger and trouble. It is not just a thought but a feeling. This feeling can bring catastrophic downfall in ones constant successful future. This feeling makes them lazy and lethargic and when they come to know about their decline, they hastily adopt the behavior of false urgency which is directly opposite to complacency, it turns over into arrogance. Consequently some radical steps should be taken. Kotter here tries to persuade his readers the significance of good communicative relationship between employer and employee. He thinks that a leader should play a role of a bridge between him and his workers. Meaningful communication with the employees and a critical feedback from the customers and their personal opinions should be welcomed WEAKNESSES The books main weak point is that it is not detailed in their examples. There are discussions of nondescript companies that reduce rather than support the messages. Most of the case stories do not have a conclusion the results companies were able to achieve. This makes the examples more fables that case studies. Initially the book does not distinguish that there are other approaches to change management and urgency. This discourages the reader the ability to place A Sense of Urgency in the background of the broader literature. This book does not recommend or provide any idea to its reader to enhance his knowledge regarding change. Secondly, there are less pragmatic solutions to be implemented in the organization for the desired change. Another aspect of the book that may fall prey to criticism in the area of tangible examples is once again modified to be used by the community of corporate organization and for businesses and not by other groups. Kotter provides various relevant tactics that can be broadly applied in the business organizations not in other educational institutes. Finally, there are some unexpected gaps in the book that by themselves do not weaken the book, but in total they certainly take away from its power. First the book does not recognize that there are other approaches to change management and urgency. This denies the reader the ability to put A Sense of Urgency in the context of the broader literature. This is really unfortunate as this book should replace some ideas and enhance others Kotter leaves that up to the reader rather than providing a recommendation. Second, the book has no index, which not only makes it tougher to use after the fact, but also is a silly omission. CONCLUSION This book is well worth reading if one has an interest in organizational change. This book would definitely motivate the team members of any organization and will instill a sense of urgency into their work to a certain degree. It is an easy read and full of helpful information. It is an excellent primer for anyone interested in learning how to encourage the proper sense of urgency by winning over the hearts and minds of their organization. With several tactical leadership approaches existing, leaders can properly create change and help their group feel at ease throughout their transform. By creating and maintaining a sense of urgency, communicating a clear path toward success, and integrating new patterns into the workers daily lives, leaders can efficiently bring about positive change. With the current economical crisis forcing firms and companies to either go down or up, the only way for these organizations to succeed is for leaders to hold change and become accustomed accordingly. People need to see leaders dealing with change so they can have someone to identify with. The book is especially relevant in the current recession. Now is the time to read the book and take action immediately while people still have a crisis that is disrupting the status quo. As an information-development organization, you may feel true urgency to improve the usability of you information or you may want to increase the efficiency of your operation to make you companys products more competitive. Be careful of complacently looking inward. The task is not to produce works of art but to support the companys products. Too often, writer become more interested in the technicalities of writing rather than focusing on customer needs so these are tools, not vain rights. More than ever, one must improve their good organization. Improvements that will be arranged now will be invaluable when the company is back to full steam ahead after the recession ends.

Controlling Chemical and Biological Weapons Essay -- Exploratory Essay

Controlling Chemical and Biological Weapons History and Introduction Chemical and biological weapons (CBWs) have been used over the ages as an effective means of warfare. The earliest incident of biological weapons (BWs) occurred in the third century B.C., when the Carthaginian leader Hannibal filled up pots with venomous snakes and threw them onto enemy ships. (Cirincione, 48) Since then, biological weapons have been used very infrequently. This is mainly due to enormous cost required to create and handle BW's (many of the groups who have attempted to create such weapons have ended up infecting themselves more often then their intended targets). (Henderson, 25) In contrast, chemical weapons have been used fairly frequently in warfare. The earliest example of chemical weapons comes from the Trojan War when the Greeks "mixed sulfur and pitch resin to engulf enemy troops in toxic fumes." (Cirincione, 51) More recently the Germans and the Allies of World War I utilized the capabilities of chlorine gas in order to asphyxiate their enemies.(Slotten, 478) T hese weapons are thought to have been employed more frequently because they are more "humane" than biological or traditional weapons of war. Explains Capt. Alfred T Mahan of the U.S. Army after the Germans deployed chlorine gas during WWI, "the use of gases might make war more humane, instead of dying an agonizing death from horrible wounds, soldiers might be incapacitated by gas and then be humanely carted off to prisoner of war camps where they could quickly recuperate with no ill effects."(Slotten, 478) Though Mahan's rationale may be a little naà ¯ve, one can see why after the war there were many advocates for chemical weapons. Since their application in WWI by both the... ... the intelligence of the authorities in developed nations, who in turn can put political pressure on the nations building CBWs. Intelligence is the key. The more we know, the easier it is to stop terrorist groups and nations from using these weapons of mass destruction. Sources: Cirincione, Joseph, with Jon B. Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, "Deadly Arsenals: Tracking Weapons of Mass Destruction." The Brooking Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 2002. Henderson, Harry, "Global Terrorism: The Complete Reference Guide." Checkmark Boook, 2001. New York, N.Y. Moodie, Michael."Agents of Death." Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, Spring 2000. v15 i1 p6. Slotten, Hugh R. "Humane Chemistry or Scientific Barbarism? American Responses to World War I Poison Gas, 1915-1930." The Journal of American History, Volume 77, Issue 2. September, 1990. p. 476-498.

The First Amendment Essay -- Bill Rights Constitution Government USA E

The First Amendment America was built on freedom. Freedom to speak, freedom to choose, freedom to worship, and freedom to do just about anything you want within the law. America’s law was designed to protect and preserve these freedoms. The reason the United States of America came to exist was because the colonists fled Great Britain to get back the freedoms that were taken away from them by the Monarchy. In countries where Monarchies and Dictatorships rule, there is little if any freedom to speak of. Citizens of these countries are persecuted or even killed if they attempt to exercise any of the basic freedoms. In these countries there is no free speech, no right to choose government, no right to express religion, no right to own property. This is why I believe the first amendment in the Bill of Rights under the Constitution is the most important amendment. The First Amendment clearly voices a great American respect toward the freedom of religion. It also prevents the government from "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Since the early history of our country, the protection of basic freedoms has been of the utmost importance to Americans. The American voice on freedom has been shaped throughout the course of history by the initial democratic notions of the immigrants to the same desire for greater freedom that we have today. Ever since colon...

Slave Trade

History Hon. Document Based Question Essay For years people have blamed Europeans of the Early Modern Period for slavery, when truly it was not. At the very beginning of it all, lies the African businessman of the Early Modern Period. He just wants to make money, even if that means selling his own kind. That is the part people in history today forget, that Africans were sold by their own blood. Europeans during this time we’re searching for wealth; gold, silver, cotton, tobacco, etc. What they lacked was the workforce to harvest all these items.The government or Gobroon Dynasty, our businessmen, seized the opportunity that was in front of them. Essentially, the Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa really boomed between 1650 and 1850 when the demand for slaves seemed to increase daily, according the Journal of African History. Acquiring slaves had gone from peaceful and civilized to aggressive and militarized. As stated in the Cambridge University press in 2000, society had f ound it acceptable to raid for supplies that could be used to buy slaves and slaves only.The blame for Slavery can be placed on the natural human desire for wealth and power, which is essentially greed. When a human has the desire for wealth, they will try to obtain it by any means necessary. Even if a human has to sell their own flesh and blood, the only thing that matters is wealth. The participation of Africans in slave trade was voluntary; Europeans could have gotten their slaves from China or India or Mexico or anywhere else with an abundant workforce. In compliance with the Cambridge University Press in 1992, Europeans did not force the African leaders to sell slaves; they made that choice on their own.The mainstream view of slavery is what went on in the plantations of southern America, what usually does not get as much attention is what the Africans went through before they set foot on the boat. More than often, the enslaved Africans would spend an average of 11 weeks aboard the ship before living the inhumane life of a slave for the rest of their existence, according to The Cost of Coercion: African Agency in the Pre-Modern Atlantic World written by Stephen D. Behrendt, David Eltis and David Richardson. That point of the process is crucial in determining how the slave would be treated during the trip and on the plantation.For example, if a slave was to lead a revolt while sailing aboard the ship, the slave trader could make sure that when the time comes to sell the leader of the revolt, he would be sold to a very cruel master. In accordance to recent articles, views of the Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa are starting to shift toward the very root of the industry. People are not so much looking at what happened in the United States of America but mostly at things up until that point. After reviewing all the articles, I can see how important what happened before the boat ride is important.