Strategic Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Strategic Management - Case Study Example Inaugurated in 1999, the company’s 16 years of existence has proved remarkably beneficial in the global energy mix, crafting ultra-modern ideas that have contributed to resolving present day energy needs such as supply reliability, fuel cost volatility and overall conserving the earths scarce natural resources and fossil fuels with its exclusive cadmium telluride (CdTe) film technology, successfully achieving the undermost leveled cost of electricity (LCOE) in the entire industry. They also extraordinarily lowered manufacturing costs to the bare minimum i.e. less than a dollar per watt, another record breaker, and a new goal limit set for capital efficiency. (Citation, year) This success, although seen to only further excel, faced new rivalries in 2011, hence leading to the gradual decline of their electric empire in the solar module industry. Specializing in the production of crystal silicon (c-Si), these emergent companies such as Trina, Yingli and Suntech raced to not only reach but overcome these newly set standards, rapidly reducing overall manufacturing costs and increasing output. In 2013, Suntech replaced First Solar acclaiming the number one position of modules worldwide. Several strategic issues had surfaced due to which First Solar led to its downfall. Of the two major reasons, the first is that these new entrants began selling crystalline-silicon solar panels for less than a dollar, creating a price clash. Secondly, the silicon solar panels proved more efficient than the thin-filmed cadmium-telluride solar panels hence consumers preferred the newer products over theirs as they were getting better quality and reliability for the same price. Although a major part of their profits were accumulated from their solar power plants and installation, these low budgeted and better quality Chinese panels forced

Sainsbury Resourcing strategy Literature review

Sainsbury Resourcing strategy - Literature review Example Out of these, 32% are on full-time, and 68% are part time. Additionally, 60% of its workers are women, indicating an impartiality of opportunity. Sainsbury’s values deliver the outline of how business is carried out in the organization. They direct all the activities the organization does from important corporate decisions to everyday activities. According to J Sainsbury’s Plc. (2015), the values of Sainsbury are aimed at making a difference to the society by improving its facilities. Secondly, Sainsbury makes sure that its activities respect every employee and individual within the organization. Thirdly, is sourcing with integrity, the company seeks to be honest in all its activities so that customers can have trust in them. Additionally, the company aims at providing healthy, tasty, fresh, and safe food to its consumers that will assist them to live a healthy life every day. Lastly is ensuring that their workplaces are a great place for employees to work so that they can be capable of offering efficient services to the consumers. Sainsbury has a long-term and clear strategy to deliver their vision of becoming the most trusted vendors where individuals love to shop and work. The business priorities of the organization are aimed at making Sainsbury better again, which is the main concern of the organization and emphasis of their business strategies. Sainsbury’s attempts to get feedback from colleagues and customers and then use the data to relate the products existing in the stores and recognize what is the method of delivery to consumers and what obstacles or issues must be fixed (Joseph 2012). Sainsbury is dedicated to dealing with the fundamentals that can aid to improve the services by becoming greater every day to accomplish the objectives. Their main agenda was to reconstructing universal consumer appeal by providing the customers with an enriched shopping experience. This means

Social Influences on the Individual

Social Influences on the Individual Explaining social influences on an individual, using sociological theories Albi is a 7 year old boy whom gradually developed genetic abnormality of deafness. When Albi could not hear completely, his behaviour have changed dramatically and doesnt want to interact with other childrens anymore. Albis family arent the riches, they could just afford their needs however it didnt affect Albi as much. The love he receives from his family was enough. In Ians note, structural theory suggest we are influenced in our behaviour and actions by society and adopt a macro approach. The macro level have an impact on the way Albi is treated by classmates or even when he is out for dinner with his family. Staff doesnt put in the effort to communicate with Albi and tends to ignore him which makes him feel like he does not exist. This have led to the conflict theory. Parents teaches their childrens of the norms however they can pick up bad habits while they are in school. He is being bullied because of his condition and he is isolated from other childrens as they see this as unn atural and abnormal. The troubling of it is that Albi is constantly in a fight which his parents are very worried. Due to the conflict between Albi and his classmates he feels unwanted and would rather stay at home. He has distanced himself from his friends which caused him not having any friends anymore. Another structural theory that is link to Albis change of behaviour is the symbolic theory. Childrens misuse of words such as deaf can you hear me or you cant hear, you must be stupid affects Albi emotionally, which he feels down and worthless. In Albis case this is very hard for him to cope as he is only a child, he wouldnt be able to understand the situation and his actions is uncontrollable. This can be difficult for his parents to manage as he might become disobedient. This can have an effect on him when he grows up, he will repeat these phrases to himself and can have a negative result later on his life. Once Albi starts attending the community centre for the deaf his private troubles will eventually improve. Everything will be new his life style will change and he will have to adjust, it may take a while for him to progress however he will get there in the end with the right kind of support from his loved ones. As human beings we strives to seek for new motivation therefor this will help him. Albi should be able to cope and learn quickly as his parents will be there to support him all the way through.ÂÂ   He will meet new people who has the same condition as him which will have a positive effect on him emotionally and make him realise that he is not alone in this battle. This will also help him to realise that being different from other childrens is ok. He will feel sense of belonging and understanding of his situation. He will feel wanted as he is in the same group of people and also because he will be part of the group activities or playing with someone without getting judge d. He will be trying to improve himself to fit back in with society with the support of staff, family and his new friends. This can improve the way he thinks of the world and his future. He is more likely to proceed in education which will have a good impact later on in his life. Albi is more likely to succeed in life and will be determined to success. The possibility of Albi not letting his condition get in the way of success is very high with the help from people who is important to him and the acceptance from others that he will receive as he grows older. To improve Albis life chances, the media could increase the advertisement about deafness. Making it clear to everyone that their situation is difficult and by saying or doing negative stuff towards them wont make things better. Perhaps making up a cartoon series about someone being deaf and treating them in the right manners could help children understand better. Making them feel that they belong with society can prevent horrible things that they can possible do to themselves. The schools can also help by teaching childrens that not everyone is born perfect and that they should still accept them for who they are. Schools can do group activities where they will get to experience how difficult it is not being able to hear so they will be able to understand and will unlikely treat their classmates in a disrespectful manner. Teachers can help by teaching the students to treat others the way they would like to be treated. In college we can create a power point all about deafness and how i t is important to respect them and that they should be treated the same. I could then present my presentation to different schools so they can have a better understanding of what deaf people have to go through each day as this can have a bad impact on themselves. For some they would like to end their life as people feeds them with negativity which does not help as they are already struggling and we are making no effort on how we could help rather us focus on how we can make them feel horrible about their self instead.

My First Memories - Original Writing :: Papers

My First Memories - Original Writing "Come on! Hurry up you're going to be on any minute!" She yelled as she belted down the corridor holding my hand and somebody else's. I remember being dragged along like a child's limp rag-doll, bounding side to side. I was ushered into the darkened, suffocating hall filled with row upon row of chairs, where all the people would come in and scrutinize every move I was about to make. And as I continued walking, it all struck me. I don't want to be in here! I didn't want to be in this dumb play. I never even wanted to be in the play in the first place! I wasn't given any choice as to whether I wanted to be in it. From the beginning it was just as if, "you're in the play whether you like it or not!" but was never asked. I was forced to go along with it. The costume I wore trailed along behind me. It was way too large for me but I still had to wear it. I had to now and again gather up the muddy coloured, threadbare costume so that I would not trip over it. I reluctantly approached the parting in the mass of chairs, which led up on to the stage. The slight murmur of people talking slowly turned into silence as everyone turned to look at me. I took a peak at them and momentarily froze but then was nudged along by my teacher, by now whom I hated. I nearly got to the stage without any glitches. I was just about there! I started to walk more briskly towards the stage. But then, just as my stage fright had disappeared, I forgot to gather up my costume! It gathered around my feet like a rope trying to trap me. I tumbled to the floor like a sack of potatoes, and worse still a sack of potatoes that was being watched by loads of people. I had to get up! I carried on walking. It felt as if everyone was in

Fashion theory -roland barth

Roland Farther and the End of the Nineteenth Century Roland Farther was a French philosopher, linguistic, critic and theorist. He was also the first begins systematically to think through the intellectual changes in the study of fashion and clothes. His fashion theory has a close relationship to his structuralism and linguistic knowledge, and defined fashion, clothes their origins and functions within the system. First of all, Farther saw fashion as a whole system. Based on the article, system has been defined as ‘a group or set of related materials or immaterial things forming a unity or complex whole.Fashion as a sort of system, has the features of that parts cannot be explained without interpreting the relationship to the whole system. Also, fashion is should be explained by other dimensions in the society too, such as social facts, and so on. So, he summarized the thoughts like fashion system is the totality of social relations and activities that are required for fashion t o come into existence'. He pointed out the systematic society relies on structured human activities, and human economic activities can be divided in three dimensions: Production, strutting and consumption.Respectively, he divided ‘garments' in three dimensions based on the theory: firstly, ‘real garments', which corresponds to the dimension of production; ‘represented garments', corresponds to the dimension of distribution; ‘used garments', relates to the dimension of consumption. So, fashionable garments are not belong to the real garments, instead they are representative garments since they are in the realm of distribution that producers want to ensure that the garments are satisfied the demand of consumers.Followed y the explanation, the chapter focused on the introduction of the three dimensions of garments. Real clothes, which arises to indicate the modality clothing assumes before it is translated into the garment of representation. They do not represen t anything, so Farther defined the real clothes as an object like a prototype. The represented garments can be separated into image clothing and written clothing, which belongs to two systems: system of image and the system of language. He took the example of a fashion magazine that uses each of the two systems to descriptor a cushion garment.He concluded that language is a more powerful system because it more readily renders the physical substance of the ‘real garment' into a set of common, abstract signifier. In addition, image and language has different functions. According to Farther, image clothing provides the potential users with a stencil of the real garment and inflects there traces of real garments in an aesthetic direction while language translated the garments into a system of abstract and intellective meaning and it is closer to the nature of true fashionable garments'.In the other word, loathes have more similarities with language than image, because they are two models of communication. His thoughts included a lot of philosophies from formal chapters, which discuss clothes through sociology and history. Farther admits that clothing is a social phenomenon and seen as a set of garments that have acquired their present for, because of their past. It is also notable that Farther not agreed with the idea that the origin of clothes is decoration. He thoughts this question should be explained from the aspects of systematic.Farther thoughts was highly structured eased on his field. Also, he emphasized the function of language probably because his study on linguistic. It is interesting that in this article I saw more about his structuralism theories from the example of clothing. Highlights of the Article Farther who first begins systematically to think through the intellectual changes that would eventually amount to a ‘paradigm change' in the study of clothes and fashion. Breather's reputation as a fashion thinker' rests mainly upon the docto rate that never was, The Fashion System.The books opening section titled ‘Introduction: Method' is a impressive and lucid demonstration of his methodological approach to the question What is fashion?. System, defined as ‘a group or set of related or associated material or immaterial things forming a unity or complex whole', lay at the heart of the revolution that swept through French intellectual life after the Second World War and one which has come to be known by the generic term ‘structuralism'. ‘System', ‘structure' and totality are all closely related terms intended to signify.They (structuralisms) insist that the whole and the parts can be properly explained only in arms of the relations that exist between the parts. The key assumption at work is the idea that any social fact', such as fashion, should not be regarded as something having a singular identity. The central thrust of the idea of ‘system' is to carefully sort out the differential components of fashion and then see how the complex network of relationships' can Join together these different dimensions into a dynamic whole. Systematic is the process of bringing together different elements into relationships of mutual dependency.The fashion system is the totality of social relations and activities that are required for fashion to come into existence. ‘System', therefore, is a way of conceiving of human existence as something in which a structured collective being precedes, and provides the foundation for, individual being, and this has steadily become a central organizing principle of Western thought. Human action is ‘structured' into patterned networks. In order that the necessities of life be secured and so ensure that social life and the life of the individual will continue, humans have to act in an organized, collective manner.Human economic activity came to be en as comprising of three dimensions. Production – what ensures that stuff gets made; Distribution – what ensures that what is made reaches the people who need it; Consumption – the ways in which what is made is used up. Farther saw the analytical possibilities of extending this model of production, distribution and consumption to social institutions other than economic ones, in particular to dimensions of social life such as art and culture. The first of these distinctions separates clothing into three garments'. These he calls the real garment', the represented garment' and the used garment'.The ‘real garment' corresponds to the dimension of production, the ‘represented garment' corresponds to the dimension of distribution, while the ‘used garment' corresponds to the dimension of consumption. The implication of this is that consumers never encounter the ‘real garment'. What they encounter is the fashionable garment, the garment that is already in the realm of representation. Breather's concept of the revised category of the real garment' arises to indicate the modality clothing assumes before it is translated into the garment of representation.The ‘real garment' is something like a ‘prototype' – that is, the object before it is named. The final distinction made by Farther is in the central category of ‘represented clothing, which he separates into ‘image-clothing and Written clothing. Language, on the other hand, Farther considers to be a ‘purer, more powerful code for the production of meaning because it more readily renders the physical substance of the ‘real garment' into a set of common, abstract signifier. It is clear that image-clothing and written clothing have different functions within representation.Image-clothing provides the potential user with a ‘stencil' of the real garment and, at the same time, inflects these traces of the real garment in an aesthetic direction. Material stuff is being turned into language. The garment is being transl ated into a system of abstract, intellective meanings and it is this final modality of the garment that Farther sees as the true fashionable garment'. In other words, clothing is a social phenomenon. By this he meaner the tendency among previous writers to regard not Just clothes, but social life in general, as a collection of individual traits', each with its own evolutionary pathway into the present.Clothing, in this model, is seen as a set of garments that have acquired their present form because of their past. Farther rejects the conclusion that it is decoration which is the chief motive for clothing. The tendency of all bodily covering to insert itself into an organized, formal and normative system, which is recognized by society. If we are set on explaining the origins of clothing, we have to include in that explanation an account of the coming into being of that aspect of the phenomenon that is collective, organized, formal and normative.Clothing seems to resemble language in a number of ways. Like language, clothing was pre-eminently a collective activity. His final move was of a more general nature and this was to categorize clothes as a mode of communication. Clothes are always a combination of a specific signifier and a general signified that is external to it (epoch, country, social class). The most influential of Brander's methodological advances is his separation of the historical time continuum into three distinct sorts of durations. Clothing does not ‘reflect' anything but it may react in its own way to an external disturbance.

Macbeth †The Central Themes of the Play Essay

The central themes of the play are highlighted by the sinister statement made by the witches at the very beginning of the play, â€Å"Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.† The whole tone for the play is set as it is a drama about contradictory forces and ideas: light and darkness; good and evil; holy and unholy; loyalty and disloyalty; trust and mistrust; what is natural and unnatural; honesty and deception. The witches mention of Macbeth is significant because he is immediately associated with evil. Duncan decides to appoint Macbeth as the next Thane of Cawdor as the previous one was a traitor, he says, † No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.† This is ironic as Macbeth has inherited the title of a traitor and the title leads to Duncans killing and ultimately Macbeths downfall. This is also a link to the fair is foul statement as Macbeth seems fair, noble and a good servant for the king but in the end he kills Duncan and is evil. Macbeth has the capacity to kill for both good and evil. Duncan realises that he can’t judge people by their appearances and that they can be deceptive, † There’s no art To find the minds construction in the face:† This is ironic as he about to make the same mistake with the next Thane of Cawdor, the fact that people can be deceptive is reflected by ‘fair is foul’ as people aren’t always what they seem. When Macbeth realises that one of the witches’ prophesies has come true Banquo says, † What! Can the devil speak true?† This is saying that the witches are the devil and evil but they have spoken the truth which is not expected, this mixes good and evil referring back to ‘fair is foul’ and one of the themes this statement explores. Macbeth is also immediately liked with evil as he echoes the witches, † So foul and fair a day I have not seen.† The witches have established their deliberate evil and their powerful presence in the play, Macbeth has become their victim, we can see this where he says † Upon the blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.† This shows that Macbeth is drawn into what they are saying and also indicates the witches power over him as they just vanish. Macbeths echo links him with the themes that these words explore, he uses ironic lines such as, â€Å"Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence.† Macbeth is now liked with the themes such as honesty, betrayal and loyalty all explored by the ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ statement, Macbeth is gradually being drawn more and more towards evil by his own weaknesses. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share a very close relationship which is based around trust and honesty. Macbeth is ambitious and Lady Macbeth is trying to help him achieve his ambition, † All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown’d withal.† This is ironic as although the wealth and power seems very attractive to them once they get it the trust, honesty and closeness they had is lost, this once links back to the ‘fair is foul’ theme. Lady Macbeth also tells Macbeth to be deceitful and disguise the truth, † Look at the time, bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your toungue: look like the innocent flower But be the serpent under’t.† This shows that Macbeth looks innocent and fair but inside he is evil and foul. Duncan ironically praises Macbeths castle as pleasant and welcoming, † This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.† This shows that ‘fair is foul’ as the castle looks pleasant from the outside but is evil within and is where Duncan is to be murdered. Duncan also praises Lady Macbeth as the noble, welcoming hostess; she is deceptive and puts on the false face of goodness to Duncan when really she is planning his murder, she says, † Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, and the late dignities heap’d up to them,† Macbeths ambition overpowers his conscience and morality with the help of Lady Macbeth and he commits the murder. Once they find out that Duncan has been murdered Macbeth again plays innocent and is not genuine, for example, † You are, and do not know’t: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d.† Macbeth conceals what he knows and pretends to be horrified by the murder in contrast to Macduff who is genuine, Macbeths language is over elaborate. The theme of natural and unnatural is created throughout the play, for example when the Old Man says, † T is unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed.† This means that nature has changed and become strange and unnatural and reflects the murder and unnaturalness of Duncans death. Macbeth holds a Banquet at which Banquo is supposed to be present but Macbeth has murdered him, this shows that ‘fair is foul’ as everything seems normal but it is not and the ghost of Banquo turns up to haunt Macbeth. When Macbeth goes to visit the witches again they are cunning and employ equivocation, juggling with words to disguise the truth and lull Macbeth into a false sense of security. This is shown where they say, † The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.† This is making Macbeth feel safe without them lying as Macduff was cut from his mother when she was dead, the witches are deceiving him showing that ‘foul is fair’. When Macduff goes to ask Malcom to raise an army to fight Macbeth and bring order back to Scotland Malcom accuses himself of being evil and foul. He is cautious to make sure Macduff is not trying to leur him back to Macbeth, he says, † To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.† Malcom is appearing foul but is fair in contrast to Macbeth, Malcom believes in Maduffs integrity and decided to help him. Malcom also says, † The night is long that never find the day.† This means that every black, evil night comes to a good day, ‘foul is fair’. The contrasts become moral contrasts and Macbeth has lost everything, eventually goodness overpowers evil.