Thursday, September 19, 2019

A Comparison of Freedom in Beloved and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest :: comparison compare contrast essays

Theme of Freedom in Beloved and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest   Freedom as defined in Websterà ­s dictionary is liberation from the control of another person or arbitrary power, a being able to act or move without hindrance or restraint.   My definition of freedom is altered from this due to the various experiences I have had. These experiences affect my perception of life and influence how I define freedom, just as another person would view freedom differently than me.   Freedom, as I perceive it to be, is the ability to live a life without any restrictions or limitations imposed on you by others.   You must have complete control over every aspect in your life.   Most people think of freedom only in the realm of the physical, but I believe that freedom is emotional as well.   In order to be considered free, you must be separate from your past.   You need to acknowledge your past and realize what has happened, but at the same time you need to move on.   You cannot allow your life to be lived according to what has happened in your past, or a cycle will ensue.   This cycle comes from making choices while à ¬freeà ®.   During a life lived in freedom, inevitably a wrong decision will be made and you will be forced to deal with the repercussions.   Some people become slaves to these choices, which results in an emotional bind.   Therefore, from freedom comes entrapment and enslavement to the choices made while à ¬freeà ®.   People end up being extremely attached and emotionally affected by their past, such as the characters in Beloved and One Flew Over The Cuckooà ­s Nest, that they will never live a à ¬normalà ® life again.   The theme of freedom is evident in both Beloved and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.   Every character in both of these texts is affected by freedom in some way or another.   In Toni Morrisonà ­s Beloved, Schoolteacher acts as the catalyst who takes away his slaveà ­s freedom, where as in One Flew Over The Cuckooà ­s Nest, Nurse Ratchet plays this role by infringing upon all of her patientà ­s freedom.   Sethe, in Beloved, suffers from both kinds of freedom.   As a slave she has physical restraints placed on her as well as emotional ones.   All slaves are confined to the land of their owners, which is an obvious violation of a personà ­s freedom.   Sethe was unable to leave the plantation and go where she desired.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Comparison of Wendys International, Inc. and Starbucks Corporation Bas

Comparison of Wendy's International, Inc. and Starbucks Corporation Based on Finances Wendy's International, Inc., incorporated in 1969, is primarily engaged in the business of operating, developing and franchising a system of quick-service and fast-casual restaurants. As of December 28, 2003, there were 6,481 Wendy's restaurants (Wendy's) in operation in the United States and in 21 other countries and territories. Of these restaurants, 1,465 were operated by the Company and 5,016 by its franchisees. As of December 28, 2003, the Company and its franchisees operated 2,527 Tim Hortons (Hortons) restaurants with 2,343 restaurants in Canada and 184 restaurants in the United States ¡]Smart money, 2004. Starbucks Corporation purchases and roasts whole bean coffees and sells them. As of September 28, 2003 (fiscal year-end 2003), Starbucks operated a total of 4,546 retail stores. Starbucks sells coffee and tea products through other channels, and, through certain of its equity investees. The Company has two operating segments, United States and International, each of which include Company-operated retail stores and Specialty Operations. Starbucks opened 602 new Company-operated stores during fiscal 2003. As of fiscal year-end, Starbucks had 3,779 Company-operated stores in the United States, 373 in the United Kingdom, 316 in Canada, 40 in Australia and 38 in Thailand.  ¡]Smart money, 2004 ¡^ In this financial analysis report, I will compare and contrast these two companies ¡Ã‚ ¦ finance based on their annual report and related websites. There are four parts in this report. It includes Financial Ratios, WACC, Working Capital and Dividend policy. Part  ¢Ã‚ ¹Compare and Contrast of the Financial Ratios Profitability Ratios The Retails-Eating Places industry is a very competitive area for companies to survive. Both Starbucks and Wendy ¡Ã‚ ¦s are excellent companies to earn a lot of profit in this industry. Return on sales (ROS): Harrington (2004) said that  ¡Ã‚ §this ratio indicates that what percentage of each dollar of revenue is available for the owners after all the expenses are paid to other suppliers. This ratio is related to net income and net sales which I found from the income statements of both Starbucks and Wendy ¡Ã‚ ¦s in their annual reports. The return on sales is the key profitability ratio. This ratio tells the analyst what proportion of the revenues ... ...urchasing the company's own shares, acquiring new companies and profitable assets, and reinvesting in financial assets (McClure, 2004) . Bibliography Harrington, D. (2004) Corporate Financial Analysis. 7th ed. Ohio, South-Western. Hoover ¡Ã‚ ¦s Company Records (2004) database [Internet] Available from: < http://ezproxy.mala.bc.ca:2051/pqdweb?RQT=573&TS=1098648711&clientId=7024&LASTSRCHMODE=2> [Accessed 18 Oct 2004] Mergent Online (2004) database [Internet] Available from: < http://ezproxy.mala.bc.ca:2129/compsearch.asp> [Accessed 12 Oct 2004] Reuters website (2004) Investing [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 15 Oct 2004] Ross, S.A., Westerfield, R.W., Jaffe, J.F., & Roberts, G.S (2001) Corporate Finance. 3 th ed.Toronto, McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Seiler. M, (1996) Adverse selection in capital budgeting decision making. Management Research News, 19(8), pp.61-67 Smart Money website (2004) [Internet] Available from: < http://smartmoney.com/> [Accessed 15 Oct 2004] Wendy ¡Ã‚ ¦s International, Inc. website (2004) [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 13 Oct 2004] Yahoo Finance website (2004) [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 12 Oct 2004]

The Contributions of Blacks to the Arts :: essays papers

The Contributions of Blacks to the Arts The Contibutions of Black Americans to the Arts â€Å"†¦ Without a continuous bond uniting men, without a continuous current of shared thought, †¦ there could be no living worthy of being called human.† Richard Wright spoke these words in his autobiography Black Boy. He, as well as many other black Americans have displayed exmplemtory talent in the arts. As a matter of fact, blacks have contributed their talents to the arts, for many years, especially in the areas of painting, literature, and music. Many people are unaware of the contributions black people have made to the art of painting. Painters such as Benny Andrews and Jacob Lawerence have expressed the pain and joys share through their paintings. Jacob Lawerence, whose styles range from expressionism to cubism, is famous for the painting Grand Performance. The painting show blacks coming together in the performing arts. On the other hand, Benny Andrews is an artist that conveys his meaning through allegory. He is, however, known for his contribution to the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. He was one of the firsts to start this organization which protested against the underepresentation of black art. Another art that blacks influenced is literature. For example, Richard Wright was one of the first writers to address and protest against the racism problem in America. In his book, Native Son, he shows how a black boy is driven to kill a white woman. He also wrote essays for a book written by former communists who were displeased with the party. Most of his works show the struggles of black Americans. Likewise, novelist Toni Morrison writes about the struggles of black females. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and in the late 1980s, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her book Beloved. This book shows the effects of slavery on a former slave after the war. Morrison is not the only woman to receive awards for work. Maya Angelou given many awards, including Grammys in 1994 and 1996. She received the one for the recording of her poem â€Å"On the Pulse of Morning† recited at President Clinton’s inauguration and one for â€Å"Phenomenal Woman.† She along with many others has shown explemary talent in literature. Beginning as early as slavery, blacks have impacted music dearly. Jazz, a form of music stemming from gospel, is a form of expression. One famous jazz musician was the trumpet player Miles Davis.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Catholicism in Quebec and the Quiet Revolution Essay

Montreal is Quebec’s largest city, has always been renowned for its many churches and basilicas, earning it the nickname la ville aux cents clochers. Mark Twain once said â€Å"This is the first time I was ever in a city [Montreal] where you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window†. Today, it is better known for the diversity of its people and its culture painted streets, such as the Quartier Latin and the booming Quartier des spectacles. The city is home to over a hundred and twenty cultural communities and seventy-five languages; seemingly fitting since well over a quarter of the population was born abroad. In the June 2008 issue of Monocle, a London based magazine, Montreal was dubbed â€Å"Canada’s Culture Capital†. It seems hard to imagine that the Catholic Church had a monopoly over not only Montreal but the entire province of Quebec simply half a century ago. How did a land founded and built on Catholicism become a place renow ned for its cultural diversity? This essay will explore how the Catholic faith’s image developed in Quebec after the Second World War, touching the province’s strong religious foundation, the Church’s control of the education and medical systems, and how the Quiet revolution paved the way for the prosperity of the French language and the multicultural land we have today. Jacques Cartier officially claimed Quebec in the name of the King of France in 1534, bringing the first sign of Christianity by putting up a cross in Gaspà © that is still visible to this day. The farm, family, faith and language were until recently stereotypical symbols for the Quebecois, but gradually became symbols of French settlers instead. However, these hadn’t always been symbols of the colonists; farming and permanent families were not part of the mindset of the early colony. Samuel de Champlain first met with the Algonquin people on his exploration journey in 1603 and the two parties were quick to form an alliance. The French and Algonquin began trading firearms for furs to keep warm throughout the winter but were mainly sent to be sold in France. During the long alliance with the Algonquin people many Jesuits, members of the Society of Jesus, a Christian male religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, sought to evangelize and convert the aboriginal people. This created a bitter divide between the traditional practitioners of Midewiwin and the Catholic converts. Champlain returned in 1608 to create a settlement in what is now Quebec City, however at the time the French were interested in trading, fishing cod fish and later hunting beaver. This lifestyle made it difficult to attract potential colonists, and upon Champlain’s death in 1635 there were only 300 settlers in New France. King Louis XIV began encouraging members of his military to remai n and settle in New France after discharge, and also hiring young laborers to work in the colony then encouraging them to stay as well. The recruitment efforts of the King of France resulted in a 2:1 male to female ratio, thus he supported les filles du roi, a plan where poor women without a dowry migrated to New France to be married and bear children. By 1681, the marriages and families of these women grew the population to 10 000. These 10 000 French settlers would produce most of the francophone population of Canada (Phan, 292). Once King Louis XV signed the Treaty of Paris, handing over the French territories to the English, the French military, upper-class and business elite all returned to France. The abandoned settlers turned to the Roman Catholic Church as the clergy begun opening schools and hospitals. The French colony of Quebec wanted to avoid an American influenced political policy which stood for Protestantism, republicanism and war, as well as severing its ties with France following the Treaty of Paris and the French Revolution’s religious prosecutions. The colony then adapted policies of the Church, associating the land with the Vatican instead. The Church system worked well for the prosperity of the people at the time, but later Pope’s decisions would eventually lead to the downfall of faith in Quebec. The early 19th to mid-20th centuries saw the farm, family, faith and language become the sacramental lifestyle of the Quebecois. At the end of the 19th century in Rome, Pope Leo XIII called for a renewal of ecclesial studies to modernise the Church’s lessons to aid in the application against the challenges of the new world. Reform-minded scholars were thus encouraged to explore and revise the conventional positions of the church and were given much elbowroom until the Pope’s death in 1903. His successor, Pope Pius X, had a much different approach. In 1907 the Pope published Pascendi Dominici Gregis, a letter condemning modernism as the synthesis of all heresies (Jodock, 56). The Vatican began enforcing anti-modernism, which set the stage for what would later be the Quiet revolution. `The period leading up to the 1960s was one through which the province had long been undergoing a process of industrialization and urbanization that had dated back to the latter part of the nineteenth century. Various transformations had been taking place, making it no surprise that the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) was able to dethrone the Union Nationale (UN) as leaders of provincial government. During the 1940s and 1950s, the image most frequently associated with Quebec’s French-Canadian people was that of a church-ridden, agricultural society outside the mainstream of the urban-industrial North American way of life. Although the Catholic Church is credited for the preservation of the French language and culture, the Western world had moved its interest away from the large families and agriculture supported by the Church. This seemingly outdated view of Quebec as a society gave politicians a clear view on what to campaign for. Jean Lesage of the QLP was able to garner over 50% of the popular vote and gain 51 seats to defeat the UN, ending a 16 year run for that party in Quebec. The province was about to come out of the period known as â€Å"la grande noirceur†, due to the scandal and corruption that the Union Nationale leader used to remain in power, and to enter a new era that Quebec still finds itself in at this very moment. The Quebecois expected change and Lesage was to come through for them. As the former provincial government had been supported by the Catholic Church, he had started what seemed to be a secularization process that coincided with the status of religion in Quebec at that time. Between the years 1961 and 1971, religious practice in Montreal fell from 61 percent of the population to 30 percent, and only 14 percent among people aged 16-24. The low number of young Catholics raised many concerns for the Church as to wear they would find future replacements for its aging clergy (Gauvreau). The emergence of lay Quebec organizations that defined nationalism in terms of language and political independence instead of religion also hastened a loss of confidence in the church. Not the least of significant markers in the 1960s was the bishops’ decision to dismantle Catholic Action itself. The entire process resulted in a de-Christianization that most defined carefully as not the decline of private belief, but as the rapid loss of a Catholic public identity. Jean-Paul Desbiens wrote a letter under the name Brother Anonymous criticizing the education system, stating the importance of the involvement and control of the provincial government over such services. The characterization of Quebec citizens as a religious people was outdated and the following period gave birth to a new identity for the Quebecois to latch on to. The Premier began this procedure by having the province take control of education by first establishing the Department of Youth (which became the Ministry of Education in 1964) and provided free education up through high school. Lesage would then go on to make schooling up until the age of 16 mandatory with the belief that educating the youth would lead them to become the successful leaders of tomorrow, replacing the Anglophones who were in control of most of Quebec’s businesses at the time. Continuing the reform, he increased government control over the healthcare system, by implementing a hospital insurance plan in 1961 (a prequel to Quebec’s version of a universal healthcare plan in 1972). These two essential institutions, which had been the responsibility of the Catholic Church ever since the birth of New France, were now primarily in the hands of the provincial government, giving substantiation for the many that now believed Quebec was a secular society. In Conclusion, a land founded and built on Catholicism became a place renowned for its cultural diversity after the anti-modernisation of the Church forced the Quebecois to break free from its monopoly over the province. After exploring how the Catholic faith’s image developed in Quebec, it is made evident that the stereotypical symbols of the 19th century Quebecois had to be shaken in the 20th century in order for them to prosper in the 21st century. Works Cited: Tentler, Leslie W. and Kevin Christiano. The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholicism since 1950 in the United States, Ireland, and Quebec. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2007. Print. 19-90 Jodock, Darrell. Catholicism Contending with Modernity: Roman Catholic Modernism and Anti-modernism in Historical Context. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print. Van, Die Marguerite. Religion and Public Life in Canada: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2001. Print. Phan, Peter C. Ethnicity, Nationality and Religious Experience. Lanham, MD: University of America, 1995. Print. Gauvreau, Michael. The churches and social order in nineteeth- and twentieth-century Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006. Print. Baum, Gregory and Michael Gauvreau. The Catholic Origins of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, 1931-1970. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005. Print.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Flextronics Case Analysis

Flextronics Case Analysis Team Member: Kerry Cunningham, Feng Hu, Tian Tian, Shuo Zhang Nov. 5th 1. Cause of McCuster’s Dilemma Several organizational factors haves contributed to McCuster’s dilemma: First, the Flextronics’s decision makers failed to appropriately evaluate the ability and condition of the organization in bidding for Xbox project and assigning tasks. While it is enticing that this project would bring about good reputation as well as substantial financial gain, decision-makers should consider more than financial benefit1.Managers are paid to make good decisions not risky decisions or conservative decisions1: Flextronics decision makers was too optimistic about the project so that they promised Microsoft the IT solution Flextronics did not have yet despite the fact that it was Flextronics first global project and first foray into sophisticated software. This promise has put Flextronics in risks since now it has trouble coming up with the IT solution .Although group and external pressures (social, political, economic) impact the alternatives we select and biases we have in decision-making1, in Flextronics case, Flextronics could gain cutting edge and good fame from the succeed of the project, and many parties are closely watching this project, decision makers still needs to be objective when making decisions While Xbox project needs the two facilities designated to work closely, decision makers assigned the project to Mexico facility and Hungary facility, two groups that are both geographically and relationally distant.This decision has led to ineffective communication between the two facilities. Second, Flextronics’s CEO’s over stress on culture decentralization and the fact that Flextronics’s acquisition led to culture acquisition caused lack of communication1 and trust1 between facilities. Lack of Communication has led to different systems in two facilities. The two plants function separately and have the ir own respective cost control, this leading to conflict about which system to adopt.If the Hungary facility has communicated with the headquarter about which system to adopt in the first place, the headquarter would probably have suggested Hungary facility to adopt Datasweep like Mexico facility did, and Flextronics would not have this dilemma at all. Now that the facilities are having problem in switching system, they still refuse to trust each other’s system, they are even unwilling to communicate with each other about the system. This lack of trust and communication has worsened Flextronics’s situation. 2.Criteria in Decision Evaluation The most prior criterion in decision evaluation is whether the ultimate decision enables Flextronics to make profits in the long run. Since profit enables enterprises to survive and developlast. Profit is also the reason for the establish profit oriented enterprises. However, in individual tasks such as Xbox project, the priority ma y be developing cutting edge and enhance reputation rather than financial gain, but this project would be valueless if it cannot bring about financial benefit in the long run.The second most important criterion is customer satisfaction. In this case, customer satisfaction means whether Flextronics produces Xbox in good quality, right quantity, with reasonable price, and in timely manner. Flextronics also needs to meet Microsoft’s requirement in system adoption and production control. As Microsoft is an important customer and the project’s success could bring about substantial benefit for Flextronics, it is important to stick to the contract with Microsoft. Another important criterion would be whether the ultimate decision leads to good team work.Now that the Hungary facility and Mexico facility have inconsistency in production and refuse to compromise, decision makers need to come up with a solution to involve the two facilities in close cooperation, which is the key t o success in launching Xbox in two markets at the same time. As good teamwork in Xbox would lead to enhanced work efficiency and good example for future projects, it is important for decision makers to let the two facilities willingly reach an agreement. 3. Actions to Take In order to satisfy the criteria mentioned above, Mr. McCusker should take the following actions before he reaches a decision.First of all, in order to make sure the company can benefit from this project, he need make comprehensive analysis on every aspect including costs, potential profit, customer satisfaction and future influences on market share of all those three possible scenarios. The first decision alternative is putting Datasweep in both Mexico and Hungary. This fits to both the philosophy of Mark, the CEO of Flextronics and the requirement of Microsoft. Moreover, Datasweep is a scalable solution over Visual Factory, thus facilitating future projects on a global view.On the other hand, the cost is a big i ssue. Besides, the uncertainty to operate the new system may disorder the normal operation for Hungarian for a period of time. Well, decision-makers should consider more than financial benefit1. As this is a global project, McCusker should view it as a whole. If this solution does meet the criteria of the company, those two branches should share the total cost and profit. Furthermore, the Mexico factory should send some engineers who are familiar with Datasweep to Hungarian to make it operate well as soon as possible.Because the Xbox will be built first in Mexico, there is still some time for Hungary to adopt the new system. In this case, Flextronics will become more and more global-orientated and get ready for tremendous future projects. However, there is still some uncertainty exists, because the management team in Hungary is self-important. They are quite unwilling to switch and would only do so if the CEO commanded. They may have some psychological issues which will have bad eff ects on carrying on the project. The second one is to set up Visual Factory in Mexico.It will save a lot of money, which is a big issue in this industry. This system has been well self-customized by the Hungarian team and they believe that they have already discovered and fixed most of the bugs. But the fatal defect is that Visual Factory has no credibility outside of Hungary. It is extremely hard to convince Microsoft and the executives and IT team of Flextronics to trust this new system. Moreover, because of the build of Xbox starting from Mexico, time is another critical issue. The third option is allowing each branch uses their own software system. This will benefit both plants without any risk.Nevertheless, there is also a fatal drawback of this option that is it can hardly meet the basic requirement of Microsoft for a single software platform. What’s more, it lacks global synergies which will be a barrier for Flextronics to develop in the long run. The second action McC usker should take is talking to Michael Marks, the CEO of Flextronics, putting all three options and all the pros and cons of them according to the comprehensive analysis and asking for his advice and even help. In this case, this is indeed needed, though it is not recommended to refer to boss for help.Because this is a global project which need close cooperation of the big two branches, it’s hard for McCusker, the project manager, to deal with those senior executives. Furthermore, Humphrey Porter, president of Central Europe, and his team even claimed that they would switch to Datasweep only if Michael Marks ask to do so as an order. In this case, without the approval of Michael Marks, it’s useless for McCusker to reach any decision. The third one is to hold a conference with all the key people including Humphrey Porter, Matt Ryan, Jim McCusker, Mike Webb, Robert Dykes and Michael Marks.Because one of the biggest problems of Flextronics is lack of communication, this conference will help those key people in this project to know the situation better and build trust and familiarity among them1. After they consider and discuss all the pros and cons of every option face to face without any communication barrels, they stand a good chance to reach an optimal decision. A good teamwork among different branches would also benefit a lot for the future development of Flextronics as a global company.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Technology Life Cycle

All new technologies goes through a technology adoption life cycle in which certain market groups adopt the product before others are willing to do so. Here is each of the market groups: Innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Innovators in a general sense, is a person or an organization who is one of the first to introduce into reality something better than before. That often opens up a new area for others and achieves an innovation. They pursue new technology aggressively, learning about and evaluating new products in an effort to be first.They’re also relatively few in numbers—so for marketers, they represent a major key to the marketing campaign. Next down the list, early adopters are visionaries, not technologists. They are found at ease when imagining, understanding, and appreciating the advantage of new technology. When it comes to high-tech products, they’re looking for vital breakthroughs, not minor improvements. They rel y on their own intuition and vision to make their buying decisions, which make them the key to opening up a high-tech market group.Following, early majority customers are centered on the linking of practice and theory. The early majority know many of the upcoming inventions are just passing fads. They let the early adopters test the new technologies and post their experience with it to establish solid references. Approximately one-third of the adoption life cycle is early majority that is why this market group is the key to substantial profits and growth. Next, late majority adopters are conservative. They’re content to be followers, and often are not comfortable in their ability to handle new technology.They tend to wait until something has become standardized and seen a lot of support. Like the Early majority the late majority comprise about one-third of the entire buying population. This makes for high profitability, while its profits decrease as the produce matures, so do the selling costs, and virtually all the R&D costs have been amortized. Last of the cycle is laggards, this group are considered skeptics. They are very late adopters and in some cases they never adopt. If they do end up buying a new technology they tend to overlook it because it is a bi-product of another product.Realize that you’re not going to sell to this audience until very very late in your product life cycle, most likely when your product has become well accepted. In summary of the technology adoption life cycle, this cycle shows that technology is accepted in the community in stages which relates to the mental and collective understanding of the five groups that make up the community. The high-tech marketing model is a strategy that uses the technology adoption life cycle as the source to examine ways to market a product.It works by starting with the innovators by building a reputation and then moves to the next group, the early adopters, in hopes of the innovators c ompelling the early adopters to get on the â€Å"bandwagon†. The process continues all the way to laggards. The key to keep this process moving smoothly is to maintain a momentum, which makes it more natural for the next group to buy into the product. Another key is to keep up with the current technology by taking in the phrase â€Å"window of opportunity. † Competitors can easily overtake your market if the momentum is lost.The high-tech marketing model is a smooth transition that goes through stages of the technology adoption life cycle. If you can get there first, and establish a standard through the beginning of the cycle you gain a monopoly over the market in which you could gain high profits throughout the cycle and establish a sustained product. A good example of the previous concepts being used is the Lotus 1-2-3, which was the first spread sheet for IBM PC. The Innovators first started using lotus 1-2-3, stating that it was â€Å"slick† and â€Å"fastà ¢â‚¬ .Subsequently, the early adopters started using it because the new things they can do with it, such as the â€Å"what if† analysis. Next on the bandwagon, the early majority, they started using it because of its uses with common business operations. As it started to become standardized the late majority eventually fell into line. By the end of the 1980s it was pretty much the only standard program used for spreadsheets. There are several cracks in the technology adoption life cycle, from the innovators to the early adopters, from the early adopters to the early majority.But the latter happens to be the most challenging and an unrecognizable division chasm. The transition goes unnoticed because that in both groups the customer list and the size of the order can look relatively the same. The products that the early adopters buy, is some kind of change agent. Being the first in the industry gives a head start on the competition. When we move on to early majority they want to buy a productivity improvement for their current operations. Ultimately, they want evolution. This eventually leads to a catch-22.In a catch-22 situation the early adopters have already caught on and it has been publicized. In the end the product seems to never get past the early adopter group. When the promoters of high-tech products try to move on from their early adopters group, they leave the early majority without a reference and support. This chasm has made many marketers fail in the past. The early market is what the staff members interpret as sales of increasingly smooth curve, but in reality it is an initial blip and not an emerging mainstream market unfolding.Companies can fail when their managers don’t notice the transition from early adopters to early majority. This leads to high expectations and too much time spent on expansion rather than husbanding resources. This result in an illusion of high-tech marketing, which is the belief induced by the high-tech mark eting model that new markets unfold in a continuous and smooth way. While trying to avoid perils of the chasm, a new state needs to be established to examine and correct the flaws that are associated with the technology adoption life cycle. In turn, this provides a secure basis for marketing development with minimum problems.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

History of Cookies

The first cookies were created by accident Cooks used a small amount of cake batter to test their oven temperature betore baking a large cake, The earliest cookie-style cakes are thought to date back to seventh-century Persia. Persia was one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. The word cookie originally came from the Dutch keok]e, meaning â€Å"little cake†. Dutch first popularized cookies in the United States. The British incorporated them in the 19th century in their daily tea service and calling them biscuits or sweet buns, as they do in Scotland.Sometime in the 1930s, a Massachusetts Innkeeper ran out ot nuts vvhlle making cookies. she substltuted a bar of baking chocolate, breaking It Into pieces and adding the chunks of chocolate to the flour, butter, and brown sugar dough. The Toll House Cookie was then Invented and became a big hit. Ruth Wakefield was credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie, an American Classic. Cookies are made with sweet dough or bat ter, baked in single-sized servings and eaten out-of-hand. Perfect for snacking or as dessert, cookles are consumed In 95. ercent ot u. s. households. Americans alone consume over 2 billion cookies a year or 300 cookies for each person annually. cookies are most often classified by method of preparation – drop, molded, pressed, refrigerated, bar and rolled. Their dominant ingredient, such as nut cookies, fruit cookies or chocolate cookies, can also classify them. Whether gourmet, soft or bite-sized cookies, new categories are always cropping up as the American appetite for cookies contlnues to grow. A drop cookle Is made by dropplng spoontuls ot dough onto a baking sheet.Bar cookies are created when a batter or soft dough Is spooned Into a shallow pan, then baked, cooled and cut into bars. Hand-formed cookies are made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, crescents and other shapes. Pressed cookies are formed by pressing dough through a cookie press to form fancy s hapes and designs. Refrigerator cookies are made by shaping the dough into a log, which is retrigerated until firm, then sliced and baked. Rolled cookies begin by using a rolling pln to roll the dough out flat; then It Is cut Into decorative shapes with cookie cutters r d pointed knife.Other cookies, such as the German springerle, are formed by Imprinting designs on the dough, either by rolling a special decoratively carved rolling pin over it or by pressing the dough into a carved cookie mold. The Southern colonial housewife took great pride in her cookies, almost always called simply â€Å"tea cakes. † These were otten flavored with nothing more than the finest butter, sometimes with the addltlon of a few drops of rose water. In earlier American cookbooks, cookies were given no space of their own but were listed at the end of the cake chapter.