Introduction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 13

Presentation - Essay Example cess just as to make unique commitment to writing, this paper talks about what standards a maturing cafés needs to meet so as to set its foot and grow in the exceptionally testing and serious contemporary food industry. This paper utilizes the Porter’s Five-Forces model to look at a restaurant’s serious condition. Taking McDonald’s as a contextual investigation, this paper examines the dangers and openings an extending eatery faces today and the points of interest and hindrances related with its vital moves. McDonald’s is one of the best inexpensive food chains ever. Having made such a sensational progress and development in a matter of significantly less than a century, McDonald’s has a ton to offer new and growing business visionaries as far as crucial, key dynamic, and approaches to make progress. The paper finishes up with a lot of proposals for McDonald’s that can assist it with night improve the pace of its prosperity and the nature of its items and

Skull Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Skull - Essay Example The prosthion is the lowermost point on the maxilla, between the two front incisors. The inion is the spot on the rear of the skull that is the meshes t good ways from the front of the skull. Files determined are the list of supraorbital tallness, file of nuchal zone stature and the list of condylar conditions. The file of supraorbital stature is the connection between the separation of the Frankfort plane to the most elevated purpose of the skull and the separation of the highest point of the eye circle to the highest point of the skull; a high number demonstrates a high brow or a tall head while a low number shows an inclined skull. The record of nuchal territory is the connection between the separation of the Frankfort plane to where the inion lies on the rear of the skull and the separation of the Frankfort to the most elevated point on the skull; a high number shows a short nuchal zone while a low number demonstrates a tall nuchal region. The list of the condylar position is the connection between the porion and the rear of the skull and porion and the front of the skull; a high number shows the foramen magnum is at the focal point of the skull while a low number demonstrates the foramen is nearer to the rear of the skull. The stamped areas were then associated with scarcely discernible differences utilizing a sharp pencil. A line was attracted to converge the porion and the absolute bottom on the lower edge of the eye circle. A line was additionally attracted to from the inion, opposite to the line drawn above (Frankfort Plane) and the purpose of convergence named as Y. A different line was drawn from the occipital condyles opposite to the Frankfurt Plane and the purpose of crossing point named X. A different line was drawn from the prosthion opposite to the Frankfort plane and the purpose of convergence named Z. A different line was drawn from the Frankfort plane to the most noteworthy purpose of the upper edge of the eye and the point named V and U. The lengths of the line were then estimated,

De Soto, Hernando

De Soto, Hernando De Soto, Hernando diso ´to, Span. ernän ´do da so ´to [key], c.1500â€"1542, Spanish explorer. After serving under Pedro Arias de Ávila in Central America and under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, the dashing young conquistador was made governor of Cuba by Emperor Charles V, with the right to conquer Florida (meaning the North American mainland). He led an expedition that left Spain in 1538 and landed on the Florida coast, probably near Tampa Bay, in 1539. That was the start of an adventure that took him and his band nearly halfway across the continent in search of gold, silver, and jewels, which they never found. After wintering near Tallahassee they went N through Georgia and the Carolinas into Tennessee, then turned S into Alabama, where De Soto was wounded in a battle with Native Americans. He was so determined to continue his treasure hunt that he refused to inform his men that Spanish vessels were off the coast. In the spring of 1541 they again set forth and were probably the first Europeans to see and cross the Mississippi. A journey up the Arkansas River and into Oklahoma disclosed no treasures, and, discouraged, they turned back to the banks of the Mississippi. There De Soto died; he was buried in the river, so that the Native Americans, whom he had intimidated and ill-used, would not learn of his death. His men went west again across the Red River into N Texas, then returned to the Mississippi and followed it to the sea. A remnant of the expedition made its way down the coast to arrive at Veracruz in 1543. The chief chronicle of the expedition is by a Portuguese called the Gentleman of Elvas. See biographies by R. B. C. Graham (1924), T. Maynard (1930, repr. 1969), B. Shipp (1831, repr. 1971), and M. Albornoz (1986); studies by R. F. Schell (1966) and P. Lily (1983). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies

Implications Of A Ban On Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems

Implications of a ban on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: A critical literature review Abstract The primary objective of this study is to summarise the findings of a review of recent literature on lethal autonomous weapon systems. This study seeks to address concerns articulated by some scholars on banning the autonomous weapons. This paper argues that such a ban might be challenging for several reasons and can hinder the future development of artificial intelligent systems. Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations on realising the benefits of autonomous weapons by employing regulatory frameworks without prohibiting the autonomous weapons and not compromising human rights. Keywords lethal decision-making; automation; killer robots; autonomous weapons; human rights, drones. Introduction Militaries around the world have been using technological weapons for hundreds of years and research indicates that in recent years, the usage of artificial intelligence in warfare has significantly increased with the advent of unmanned vehicles such as drones (Kanwar, 2011, p.616). Robotic science offers today’s world many unconventional weapons like autonomous weapons that can make lethal decisions without even involving human in the loop. Krishnan (2009) defines an autonomous weapon to be a computer-based system that can accomplish a mission by ascertaining and engaging targets without needing human intervention. These Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems are in short called LAWS andShow MoreRelatedTechnology Is The Weapon Of Choice2005 Words   |  9 Pagesimaginable reason. In 2700 BC Mesopotamia, the armies of Sumer and Elam went to war. During this first recorded conflict, the bow was the weapon of choice. 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International Business Machine s Ethical Problems

One of International Business Machine’s ethical problems was bribing a few government officials in a foreign country. This business was investigated over allegations made by South Korea and Chinese government officials. They received about two hundred thousand and seven hundred dollars in bribes from 1998 to 2003. In return, the Chinese and South Koreans hand over contracts for computer gear to International Business Machines. All though IBM did not admit to the allegations, they did paid the ten million dollar penalty that was set in the law suit. Because IBM bribed the foreign officials, the business violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. The International Business Machine’s code of ethics states no employee should get involved in any industry that seems like it is fraudulent or inaccurate. Any given person that works at IBM should be aware obey all laws that govern the gain of goods and services. This applies to all forms of trade, whether it is Federal, Local, or International. Always comply with all antitrust and competition laws and regulations. All employees must obey any and all, local and/ or foreign, anti-bribery laws. Do not give bribes to anyone, whether it is for from inside the company or outside the company. IBM broke their own code of ethics by bribing the government officials in foreign countries. An IBM reseller cannot fix or control prices for their companies technology, never boycott with either the suppliers or clients, should not divideShow MoreRelatedBenefits And Benefits Of Ultrasound Technology Essay1494 Words   |  6 Pagesuniversal necessity for imaging equipment among the country and borough population in India. The evidence shows why India s ultrasound market poses both a significant business and public health opportunity. 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Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business Free Essays

Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business Preamble During the late 80s and early 90s, much of the predominant management philosophy  involved directly applying classical military strategy to business. Sun Tsu  was regularly quoted at  Board meetings and  on Wall Street  and books like  On War  and  Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun  were among the most popular business books available. At the time, I wasn’t a big subscriber to the idea that lessons from military conquests and failures could be readily applied to making a business successful. We will write a custom essay sample on Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business or any similar topic only for you Order Now Perhaps it was that I couldn’t get my head around morphing one of Sun Tsu’s many principles of warfare into something that I could adopt as a leader or manager . . . â€Å"Camp in high places, facing the sun. Do not climb heights  in order to fight. So much for mountain warfare. † – Sun Tsu,  The Art of War Huh? Maybe it was that the black and white nature of warfare, with real life death and destruction that made it difficult for me to draw comparisons with the gray-ness of business strategy and  its inherently longer feedback loop. Or,  it could have been because  mapping strategy directly to success or failure discounts the value of the quality of implementation. As a strong believer in the power of strong management, I believe that top-notch execution often trumps good strategy. As I see it, a good strategy poorly implemented will lose to a lesser strategy that is well implemented (that ought to elicit some strong opinions . . . ). For whatever reasons I struggled with using centuries of military wisdom in conducting business in the past, my recent re-reading of excerpts from books by  a few  of the great military historians –  B. H. Liddel Hart,  Carl von Clausewitz  and, of course, Sun Tsu, among others, has got me re-thinking about the application of what armies and empires have learned about beating the crap out of the other guy. Of course, from the cheap seats, anyone  can read an excerpt from the writings by or about a great military strategist or tactician and come up with  their very own  way of applying it to their business. Napoleon’s  35th military  maxim  is: â€Å"Encampments of the same army should always be formed so as to protect each other. One might apply this maxim to business by translating it as: all of our products and services should be closely aligned and interconnected in some way, making it harder for our competition to pick off any one product or service. Sounds reasonable. Microsoft clearly does that with Office, an obviously successful implementation of this strategy. But what if I interpret this to mean that I should build walls around my current products o r services, focusing my energy on defending my current position instead of expanding aggressively? It’s easy to see how this interpretation of Napoleon’s maxim could open  me up to failure as it did when  DEC  refused to leave the  VAX  behind. Both interpretations are reasonable, but one leads to a high likelihood of success and the other to a reasonable possibility of failure. The problem, as I see it, is that even students of military history have difficulty determining what strategy or tactic to apply a priori in a military engagement, let alone while adapting it  to its business application. There are many examples in military history of a certain strategy being successful in one battle and failing miserably in another. Sure, it’s easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, but when the data is coming at you in real time, making the right call on what military strategy to use in your business is difficult and potentially dangerous. So with the caveat of interpretation stated above, I’d like to present  my summary of winning military strategies and tactics that businesses in today’s world of diminishing sustainable differentiation can use to help make them successful . . . †¢ Speed †¢ Focus †¢ Indirect Approaches †¢ Intelligence (knowledge of what’s going on) †¢ Deception Arguably, not nearly a complete list but, like I said earlier, it’s easy to map virtually any military strategy to any business strategy. My goal here is to present the most obvious ones (to me) and to use examples of the use of the particularly military strategy in  action and show how it applies to business. My plan is to do a separate post for each one of these strategic areas to avoid this post from becoming exceedingly long and, probably, way too boring. First up, Speed . . . Speed There are very few examples of successful military campaigns waged slowly. American Civil War General  Nathan Bedford Forrest,  one of the  first students of mobile warfare,  consistently defeated opposing Union generals even though he was almost always outnumbered and out-gunned. His strategy – speed. He is known for getting to battles days before the Union armies expected his arrival – driving men and horses virtually 24 hours a day in order to create a surprise attack. Forrest rarely lost in battle as a result of his use of speed. He called his strategy: â€Å"get there fustest [sic]  with the mostest. Roughly 75 years later, in 1939, the German Army started its sweep across Europe with its invasion of Poland. It moved so swiftly across the continent that it caught other countries ill-prepared and unable to mobilize forces or infrastructure to defend themselves. The Germans use of  blitzkrieg, orlightning war, allowed them to stay mobile and to avoid becoming entrenched in one place as all the armies in WWI had. This strategy a nd, of course, the preparations to implement a  strategy of speed,  made the German army vastly superior to the other armies of Europe and, ultimately, more successful in it’s initial engagements. Like armies, companies that stay flexible and move quickly hugely increase their likelihood of success. This is, of course, true in terms of markets – getting products and services that people really want or need to market first is almost always  a  winning strategy – but it may be even more important in terms of the culture it creates inside a company. When your employees are flexible and innovative, moving quickly to take on the next challenge, they will all be driving for success and well-prepared to quickly respond to  any surprises that arise from the competition. One of the reasons that speed works is that many companies are afraid of it and thus, don’t employ it as a strategy. It is, therefore,  likely that your competition is afraid of speed. Or, at least, more afraid of it than you are. It feels much safer to move slowly, after all. But it isn’t. Slow companies are exposed to attack from all directions and once attacked, often don’t have the ability to defend themselves, let alone go on the offensive. Road kill. In my experience, speed has also shown its value in another critical way – by minimizing the impact of execution errors. Any business is going to have some execution errors. If the business is plodding along, though, small mistakes in tactics can cause huge, unrecoverable problems. If the business is moving quickly, though, most execution errors become mere bumps in the road. The flexibility of the organization can absorb them and continue to move forward with small changes in strategy or tactics. This, in fact, may be the greatest advantage of employing speed as a strategy. For business, as with the military, speed is your friend – keep the pedal to the metal. Next up . . . focus. Focus During  Napoleon’s  early campaigns, virtually all of which were successful, he used a set of 78  Maxims  to guide him in battle (before he thought his armies were too big to be defeated). Maxim XXIX stated: â€Å"When you have resolved to fight a battle, collect your whole force. Dispense with nothing. A single battalion sometimes decides the day. † Napoleon believed that it was nearly impossible to  know what force, tactic or sub-strategy would determine the outcome of a specific battle. Therefore, he always focused all of his forces on the attainment of a single goal – on winning the battle at hand. The only time he split his forces was to use flanking maneuvers where part of his force would attack the enemy from another direction. Even when this tactic was used, though, all of his forces were engaged in  the  single battle at hand with the common goal of winning that particular contest. He didn’t hold men in reserve and he didn’t split his forces to fight in multiple, simultaneous engagements. The same cannot be said  for the British during the  African Campaign  in WWII   The British, who had recognized the strategic importance of Africa well ahead of the Germans, committed large forces and many tanks, guns  and planes to the region to make sure that it remained in their control. The Germans, although out-manned and out-gunned almost eradicated the British forces from Africa by taking advantage of a fundamental weakness in British military strategy – to hold some forces in reserve during a battle just in case they needed them later. This conservative British strategy of not committing all their energies to the task at hand  meant that  the Germans never had to engage the entire British force at any time and their inferiority of men and equipment didn’t come into play and thus, they almost wrested control of the continent from the British with many fewer resources. During the civil war,  George McClellan, first General in Chief of the Union Army, failed to convincingly defeat a much smaller and less-equipped Confederate force in many engagements. This included missing a huge opportunity to take the Confederate capital, Richmond, during the first year of the war and, therefore, passing up an opportunity to bring the war to a close early in its execution. McClellan almost never committed a large enough force to any engagement, choosing to leave behind many men to defend Washington (as commanded by Lincoln) and keeping  even more in reserve and disengaged from any particular battle. There are dozens of examples throughout history of armies being defeated because forces were split for one reason or another. Whether to fight a battle or war on too many fronts or  to hold forces in reserve, too little of the available resources were applied to ensure victory. Most often, it appears that the cause of these errors was ego and/or ignorance. But sometimes the error lay in simply underestimating the effort required to be successful in any one arena. With low barriers to entry in  so many market segments these days, many companies assume that they can create any new product or service without too much trouble or expense (let’s build our own web browser! ). Funny enough, this might be true. You may be able to address any new problem that you see potential customers having. The problem is that while you can do anything, you simply can’t do everything. Doing everything or, in fact, just doing multiple things, is the same as fighting a battle on multiple fronts – it’s not likely that you’ll succeed unless you have loads-o-resources. Most  small companies (or groups within larger ones)  don’t, of course, and end up struggling when they lose their focus  on their goal. Saying focused is particularly difficult for startups which, by their very nature, have little momentum behind what they’re doing and, thus, a lot of flexibility. Add to this the fact that the smart, hard-working people who found startups or join them near their inception are the kind of people that see opportunities all around them. A new, exciting market niche here; weak competition there; unfulfilled customer need somewhere else. It’s natural for this type of person in a startup environment to  have difficulty staying the course, wanting to jump at every opportunity they see. Focus not only involves trying not to bite off more than you can chew, but also not changing direction too frequently or haphazardly. In a startup, it’s especially easy to get pulled in new irections daily as sales people feed back what they’re hearing, customers demand new functionality and advisors express their beliefs about what is right and wrong. And, since many startupscan  actually turn on a dime, they often do just that. Turning on that dime may be the right thing to do. But companies or groups that do so frequently, are doomed to gett ing overrun by the competition. It’s hard to do things well if what your target is a moving one. This is not to say that  adjusting goals and direction should be avoided completely. It’s often necessary and smart to do so. Such changes have to be made thoughtfully and carefully, though. It  should  be difficult to change your focus at any time. If it were easy, you weren’t focused enough. If you choose to make a change, just make sure that everyone makes that change and is aligned with the same, unified goal. Don’t split your forces, it’ll end in your defeat. Why fight with one arm tied behind your back? Commit everyone and everything to your goal and try to minimize changes to that goal. Success is elusive enough, why compete with yourself by losing focus? Concentrate all you energy and time on your goal and, like any  consolidated, focused military effort,  you’ll optimize your chances for success. Disclaimer: I am not now nor have I ever been a military strategist. Additionally, although I’ve spent many years of my career creating, refining and attempting to lead others in the execution of business strategy, I’m sure that some (likely, those closest to me) would also question  my abilities as a business strategist. Indirect Approaches Classic, gentlemanly military strategy called for opposing forces to line up in a field opposite one another, all participants in plain site, and then to wreak havoc on each other. This type of  direct, frontal assault is rarely used any more unless one force has an overwhelming superiority over the other. Even then, it doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it’s not without many surprises and casualties. Military leaders that historically adopted  less directly confrontational strategies or even complete indirect strategies soon found great success even when they were confronted by an enemy with superior forces. So, what does it mean to have an  indirect  strategy? In military terms, indirect strategy involves attacking an enemy on his flanks (sides) or rear – basically, where he oesn’t expect it. Hannibal, the Carthaginian military commander  who marched his army over the Pyrenees and Alps to attack the Roman Empire, kept the Roman army at bay (and often in retreat) on their own soil for more than a decade using indirect strategies. Among Hannibal’s many successful military strategies, he became known  for e ngaging the enemy with weak troops in the center of his formation and two hidden sets of strong troops that wrapped around the sides of the opposing force (flanking them), squeezing them from the sides and, sometimes the rear. While the Romans   thought they were successfully attacking the weaker force in the center, they lost the battle as they were crushed from the sides. This indirect approach took the enemy by surprise and attacked it where it was weakest. Even the mighty Roman armies could not remove Hannibal from the Empire. That is, until they started using indirect approaches themselves. Like Hannibal did in so many major battles,  Douglas MacArthur  employed a master-stroke of indirect strategy to keep the UN Forces in South Korea from being pushed off the Korean peninsula at the beginning of the Korean War. A few months after the war started, the South Korean and UN forces had been pushed to the south-eastern end of the Korean peninsula at Pusan Province. MacArthur proposed and executed an indirect attack behind the lines of the North Koreans, far north of Pusan, on Korea’s western shore. The amphibious attack surprised the North Koreans and cut the North Korean Army south of Inchon off from supplies and personnel, ultimately causing the collapse of the North Korean forces in southern Korea. As with military strategy, direct, frontal attacks against other companies in business rarely succeed. Unless your company is by far the largest in its business or has a strongly dominant sales channel, any direct attack against your competition is likely to fail. The old adage is that you need a 10:1 superiority over your competition to beat them head-to-head. My view is that unless you’re a Microsoft (fill in your favorite large company in your favorite market here – it used to be IBM for all examples), and, in Microsoft’s case, really only in operating systems and Office-like applications, it’s probably best to focus on indirect approaches when taking on competition. So, rather than competing on features or performance, change the ground rules. Compete on price, distribution model, ease-of-use, accessibility, partnerships, integration, switching cost or similar. An example of this near and dear to my heart is the emergence of my first successful company, Viewlogic Systems (acquired by Synopsys, in 1997). One of  the co-founders  of Viewlogic was Sal Carcia, who initially led marketing and sales for the company. Sal was (and I’m sure still is) a brilliant marketing guy who had an innate sense for market dynamics and saw holes (read: opportunities)  in the market very clearly and accurately. In 1984, when we founded Viewlogic,  EDA tools (software tools for Electronic Design Automation – electronics CAD tools) were turnkey systems bundled with  big hardware. These systems were very expensive and most companies could only afford to buy one seat (one bundled unit) for every 10 to 20 engineers they employed. A ratio guaranteed to limit the productivity of the entire engineering group. Sal’s idea, which sounds so basic now, but keep in mind that PCs were new in 1981 and still pretty limited in 1984, was to bundle a complete  EDA system with a PC for $10,000 per seat. About one tenth of what a competitor’s system sold for. 10K wasn’t just a random, lower figure, it was what Sal saw as the maximum we could charge without requiring the engineering manager (the customer) to get sign-off from upper management for the purchase. So, as a result of Sal’s strategy, Viewlogic sold to the engineering manager who made more local and faster decisi ons while our competition was selling to big corporate organizations with long sales cycle. Also, at $10K/seat. Engineering managers could equip  each their of engineers with the  EDA  tools they needed, resulting in more productive groups that then promoted the tools to the rest of the organization. In the end, most of Viewlogic’s tools were not revolutionary (some features were, of course, and we figured out how to mash a whole lotta functionality into 640KB of memory), but the packaging was a breakthrough, helping us reach a market previously unserved. As an added bonus, because of the anchor of hardware that the competition hauled with it, it couldn’t come down to fight with us in our space until it rewrote most of its software to likewise run on a PC. So, in the end, Viewlogic never tried to win by bettering the competition at what they were good at. It took an indirect strategy of fighting the competition where it was weak and unprepared and unable to defend itself. This indirect approach was the key to Viewlogic’s initial success. Employing indirect strategies doesn’t mean that you need to change your end goal. It simply means that you need to change the way you approach the battle to achieve it. It’s much better to avoid being perceived as a threat to the big guys in the market or to  escape their attention all together than it is to pound your chest and take them on head-to-head. They’re bigger, stronger, have more resources and more customers. For the most part, they don’t need to be better than you to kick your ass. Let your ego go; be smart; attack at the intersection of where your competition is weak and customers perceive value. It’s not only about  having a better  product  or service, it’s about the whole package – support, customer satisfaction, distribution, PR . . . everything. Direct strategies usually fail in business as they do in their military application. Don’t become another bump in the road for your competition, use an indirect approach to catch them off-guard and unprepared to respond to your threat. Next up . . . Intelligence. Intelligence Among Webster’s definitions for intelligence, two primary ones directly apply to both military and business matters: 1) you need to be smart or, at least, be able to think and, 2)  you need to have  knowledge of what the enemy/competition knows and thinks. Main Entry:  inA ·telA ·liA ·gence Pronunciation: in-’te-l-jn(t)s Function:  noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latinintelligentia,  from  intelligent-, intelligens  intelligent †¢ The ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations;  also  :  the skilled use of reason. The ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria. †¢ Information concerning an enemy or possible enemy or an area;  also  :  an agency engaged in obtaining such information. In military engagements, intelligence is often more important than the size of the force, how well it’s armed and who it is led by. A perfect example of this is in the military strategies employed by  Mao Zedong  as he led the Red Army in its 20+ year rebellion against theKuomintang  government in China. After the start of the rebellion, the Red Army, for the most part, got it’s butt kicked whenever and where-ever it engaged the vastly superior government army forces. For the most part, the Red Army was out-manned, had many fewer weapons and was isolated into parts of the country that made it difficult to get tactical advantage in widespread warfare. Recognizing  his deficiencies, Mao turned to strategies that involved actively collecting intelligence about his opponent. He had spies throughout the government who gathered information about their plans and actions. Perhaps even more importantly, he designated soldiers dressed in civilian clothing to be stationed throughout the country to monitor the movement of the government’s troops and supplies. By gathering this information and extracting trends from it, he learned what his opponent was doing and, over time, understood what type of moves that they made in response to his own. Ultimately, having this knowledge, Mao was able to gain the upper hand and to ultimately defeat the government troops, exiling Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan in 1949. Prior to World War II, while most of the rest of the world was relatively ignorant to the value of keeping secrets, well . . . secret, the Germans invested heavily in cryptography. The efforts of the German government and military agencies to make sure that communications were secure resulted in the adoption of  the  Enigma Cipher machine  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ an electro-mechanical device that encoded and decoded messages. The German Navy, in particular, relied heavily on the secrecy of their communications and had the most complex Enigma machines and processes surrounding them. It took years for Germany’s enemies to break the Enigma. The huge value  in breaking the code was well understood, though, and a concerted effort was mounted to break  to do so  as part of the strategy to defeat the Germans. At first the Polish made headway, then the British took over the main effort. Through the work of a huge number of scientists and mathematicians, mostly stationed at the famous  Bletchley Park  in England, and a stolen Enigma machine here and there, the Allies were able to read many of the top-secret messages being sent by the Germans. Using this information, the Allies were able to change their tactics and even much of their strategy in the battle of the Atlantic. Each action took on more significance with less effort. The knowledge of  what the enemy was going to do  let the Allies stay one step ahead and to focus their efforts on the singular end goal of winning battles, without having to spread their forces out too far. Now, I’m not suggesting that you engage in any kind of industrial espionage. Merely that knowing what your competition is up to is critical to your business or, at he very least, critical to how you run your business. Spies aren’t required. You just need to be aware. Your sales channel will be able to tell what’s going on (if it’s not a completely automated channel) and anyone that engages with your customers will discover what the competition is doing if they listen well. If you’re among the group of people that claims to have no competition – WAKE UP! Every business has at least one competitor, even if it’s the choice your customer has to keep doing what they’re doing. The infinitely low barriers to entry in virtually all product or service areas these days also guarantees that you’ll have more competitors in the near future if your target market has any real value. There’s simply no excuse for not knowing what your current and emerging competition is up to. This knowledge not only helps you differentiate your product or service right out of the gate, but also helps you keep your costs lower because you waste less time with a more focused approach. Of course, no business that just focuses on what their competitors are doing is  going to be successful. True success can only come from using the other kind of intelligence – that which only comes  from using your head. In my experience (and I’m at least as guilty as anyone I’ve ever known) there are too-many knee-jerk reactions in business. Managers often make quick decisions  in a situation without extensive knowledge of what is really going on. In an environment where everything is moving fast, it’s a natural mistake to make. Additionally, the fear of the consequences of not answering a challenge or looking like one is in control often encourages half-baked reactions. Every manager needs to keep in mind the value of looking before they leap. Or, as I like to think about it – responding instead of reacting. The difference between responding and reacting is thinking – one involves it, the other doesn’t. I know, I know, this is where you’re saying to yourself: â€Å"I don’t have time for long, drawn-out planning sessions. My business is go, go, go and if I slow down, I’m dead. †Ã‚   In most cases, taking a step back, drawing some pictures on a white board, talking to a few people or getting together with your team to ponder the paths ahead only involves hours or perhaps a few days. Not  weeks and months. Of course, at times, it does take longer. In my experience, though, whatever it takes to make an informed (note that I say informed – not perfect or correct or even low-risk) decision on how to respond to the challenge that you face is worthwhile and will save you loads of time and energy later. Think about the situation, at least a little, then move. Don’t move slowly, but move deliberately. As with successful military campaigns, the more intelligence you have – both kinds – the more likely it is that you’ll set your  business on the best possible path to success. Increased knowledge of what  your competition is up to and, more importantly,  considered thought  put in to your overall strategy and to any  response  to  changes improves your likelihood of success while helping to reduce effort that might be wasted in areas unnecessary or even unrelated to the optimal path of the business Next up, the final installment in this series: Deception. Deception If you’re like me, you immediately question how  deception  can and should be applied to business. In a business context, the concept of deception seems almost immoral or, at least, against the rules – if not the legal ones, at least the ones understood as part of business decorum, civility or fair play. Who wants to win by cheating, after all? There is little concern for  such concepts in modern warfare (historically, much of warfare was conducted under a code of ethics – aside from the Geneva Convention rules, no such code exists today), however,  where the goal is most often the physical destruction of the enemy. In battle, a commander’s trickery and deception can easily represent the difference between victory and death. There are few better examples of this than the campaigns of Confederate General  Thomas Jonathan â€Å"Stonewall† Jackson  and his army during the Civil War in the US. Stonewall Jackson is widely considered as one most gifted tactical commanders in US history. His motto: â€Å"Mystify, mislead and Surprise. † Early in the Civil War, during the infamous  Valley Campaign, Jackson found his Army outmanned, outgunned and often, surrounded. After an initial tactical defeat in a relatively small battle, Jackson’s 17,000 troops soundly defeated the Union’s 60,000 man  Army of the Potomac. He accomplished this feat by constantly surprising the enemy, attacking its flanks, sneaking behind its lines and appearing like his forces were larger than they actually were. During the campaign, Jackson marched his troops almost 650 miles in 48 days to defeat and cause the retreat of a Union Army that outmanned him almost 4:1. Trickery and illusion were his key tactics in the Valley Campaign and he used them frequently in successive victories during the war and until his death in battle (from friendly fire) in 1863. Like Jackson before him,  Erwin Rommel  was a master of deception. Even though Rommel was primarily a tank commander – relatively easy to detect and slow-moving – he often got the upper hand on his enemies by sneaking his tanks through dense forests or via indirect routes. Rommel is  best known  for his success during WWII’s  North African Campaign  where he consistently defeated the better armed and staffed British Army. His understanding of how the British tank command worked led him to implement the most important tactic to his success during the campaign – making the British believe that his forces were much greater than they were. This, in turn, caused the  British  to split their forces, leaving many tanks in reserve (they conservatively never wanted to risk  all  their tanks in battle) and gave Rommel’s smaller force a far better chance at success. The  deception turned out to be the key that initiated his victories. Rommel implemented this by making his tanks appear to be in locations where they were not. He would frequently have trucks drive in circles throughout the day in one area. The clouds of dust they kicked up would be so extreme that the British assumed that there were huge tank convoys preparing to entrench themselves for battle at that location. In the mean time, Rommel, would move his active tank columns at night into flanking positions around the British. Rommel’s ability to deceive the British let his smaller and weaker force win battles for years in the desert. In a business world that thrives on communication and rewards the speed and quantity of information available, it’s difficult to see how deception might be used  in a strategy leading to success. After all, anything you do to mislead your competition might mislead your customer as well. There are  a few  uses of deception, however, that are commonly used and are valuable tools in the business strategy quiver: †¢ Press releases as a defensive tool:   Most often successfully employed by medium to large companies, a me-too press release announcing that your company has or will have some product, feature or service that your competitor just launched can effectively slow your competition’s sales process down until you actually have it. This is especially effective if you are already the perceived market leader in that particular segment. Switching costs are, generally, high and current customers want to believe that you’ll continue to deliver the best stuff. Of course, this won’t hold your competition off forever, but it will allow you a bit of time to catch up. †¢ Appearing bigger than you are as an offensive tool:   Larger companies often prefer to purchase from established vendors. Of course, this depends on what you are selling and how much it costs, but it is generally true for anything even remotely mission critical or costing a lot. Giving the world the impression that your company is larger or better established than you are can only help you in this environment. This can be done through advertising – small companies generally do little-to-none, big companies do a lot; large, highly visible  displays at trade shows; success stories from large customers; focusing on implementation instead of just functions or features; and so forth. †¢ Taking advantage of the reactionary nature of your competition:   Companies tend to react without thinking instead of responding in a thoughtful, considered way. You can take advantage of this by misleading your competition, when appropriate, in an effort to waste their time or defocus them. In the most basic case, you can entice them to spend energy in areas that are outside your main focus, giving you more lead time when you introduce your own new product or service. Keep in mind that when you implement strategies like this, you don’t get a bye on precise execution. You still have to execute well – if you can’t execute your company’s strategy better than your competition can execute on the same strategy, no amount of deception will help you. Certainly, deception in the form of outright lying and cheating is a dead-end strategy. It might work out in the short term, but it’s going to get you in trouble in the long term. Defined a bit softer, though, as a method for manipulating or spinning reality (I know, I’m cutting this a bit thin, but you get the idea), it is almost as powerful a tool in business as it is in warfare and is one that can be employed to increase your opportunities for success. How to cite Applying Military Strategy and Tactics to Business, Essay examples

Writing in the 21st Century

Introduction Academic writing requires students to have cute information on the various styles of writing based on the systems of writing advocated for by institutions of higher education. They need to follow and adhere to certain rules. Some of these procedures include, but not limited to, referencing or rather citation rules and the avoidance of committing academic crimes such as plagiarism.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Writing in the 21st Century specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In fact, many of the literatures that describe the procedures of writing in whatsoever style do not fail to mention these two requirements of any academic essay. Kate Turabian’s Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers is perhaps one of the scholarly works entirely done with the intention of describing the writing procedures of academic works. Though I agree with what Turabian claims, Farber and Tucker point out how c rucial it is, to incorporate the period within which her claims hold based on the evident changes that have taken place since the publishing of the fourth edition of Student’s Guide to Writing College Papers. This evident based on the various developments in writing contributed largely by the emergence of new technologies prompting new considerations in the writing styles. Introspection of Kate’s claims Any form of academic writing has some preset purpose. Consequently, in the evaluation process of the academic writings such as essays, one has to look at some preset rules to know whether the writers have followed them. With this in mind, Turabian’s suggestion that â€Å"Few students learn to write by memorizing formal rules before and after the writing-to talk hence need to learn about the written forms you expect them to produce, not as your personal quirky preference† (Turabian 5). Building on this line of view, the research process emerges as an experi ence dominated by loneliness. Many of the people who deploy their better time to research find themselves only having the various detractions of their computers or books as the only source of company. Turabian reckons, â€Å"everything we know about writing and thinking suggests that most of us work more slowly and less well when we work alone† (19). However, this claim is challengeable.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In fact, various researchers especially the ones who often use the norms of the research process have the capacity of performing exemplarily when they accomplish their tasks alone. The word loneliness means the state of lack of company during the research time since in actual sense one cannot regard experienced researchers as lonely since, while writing, they engage with their targeted audience. Experienced writers can evaluate what their target audience may unde rstand, as well as what they cannot understand. According to Turabian, â€Å"†¦There is nothing easy for new students† (20). In support of this claim, it sounds somewhat significant for teachers to guide students in the research process by ensuring that they can follow some preset rules and regulations in writing their academic essays. This way, they can encourage them to develop skills in rehearsing their works to suit certain audience tantamount to the expertise writers who the students seek to emulate. In this end, Turabian posits that â€Å"Most researchers rehearse their work all the time—for colleagues, friends, students, in seminars, at conferences, on e-mail lists, in grant proposals, and on and on† (20). Arguably, as a requirement, inexperienced students deserve to build a similar interaction. However, to achieve this, students should not make decisions alone on what suits a certain audience. Talk-talk attitude about what they are investigating in their research deserves to be inculcated in them. I immensely concur with Turabian on the significance of the talk-talk culture in helping students develop eloquent writing skills. â€Å"Orchestrate occasions and obligations for students to talk about what they are investigating, why it matters, what they are finding, what they still want to know, what parts are weak and need bolstering, and so on† (Turabian 21). Such an occasion is significant since, more often than not, academic writing demands the rising of subtle claims coupled with supporting them profoundly. Additionally, the value of the arguments depends on the capacity of the writer to consider the various alternative perspectives of view about the same argument and where necessary give sufficient information that confronts the various likely counter arguments if at all the argument needs remain relevant. Turabian also argues that many inexperienced writers also deploy their writing as an ample tool for thinking.Adve rtising We will write a custom essay sample on Writing in the 21st Century specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is perhaps after writing that one peruses through his or her work to establish the weaknesses of logic. Consistent with Turabian’s claims that â€Å"students tend to see writing and speaking as merely packaging of ideas, not as a way to discover and improve them† (21). This claim is, in fact, significant especially bearing in mind the necessity for ideas regeneration and re-evaluation during the writing process. What this means is that words need to follow ideas. However, upon accomplishing this, words need be re-evaluated to identify the likely eminent weakness in terms of delivering the intended meaning. What has changed since the Source was Published Even though Turabian’s ideas about academic writing are essential for persuasive writing, some criticisms about the same are still significant. Turab ian posits that â€Å"When assigning a paper, one should not just set a deadline but instead, create a series of due dates that stage students’ research and writing† (21). Considering the writing of the twentieth century, the issue of not fixing deadlines is somehow out of date. Twenty first century is characterized by times in which people must perform various tasks within fixed routines coupled to accomplishing the demands of these tasks within some fixed periods. Bearing in mind that students are trained for the purposes of later introducing them to the job market requiring compliance with demands of deadlines to execute various tasks, they need to have practiced this culture long time enough. Arguably, one of the ways of enhancing this is by ensuring and examining student’s performance based on his/her ability to present quality work within fixed periods. Turabian also claims that teachers also deserve to â€Å"Map out milestones that will force students 21 to practice the kind of processes outlined in â€Å"Writing Your Paper,† including those requiring them to share, talk about, or reflect on their written work as they go† (22). Unfortunately, this stages that Turabian talks of may by far end up impeding the thinking process of student while writing. On a different line of view, perhaps the modern technologies also call for a different consideration of writing techniques. The modern technologies pose a formidable threat to value and originality in writing.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In this context, Farber argues that â€Å"The new technologies lack a convenient way of writing-while-reading, enhance plagiarism, eliminate traditional archiving methods without offering a satisfactory new substitute (presently) and give rise to a call for a revised way of citation, together with new ways of archiving and storing† (226). Unfortunately, students have to deploy these techniques while writing. Computers, for instance, have come to enhance the writing in terms of the capacity to process word text for punctuations, spellings and correct usage of words. Modern technology, as opposed to Farber’s argument, helps to eliminate the challenges of plagiarism especially where various works that students use as reference material are available on the World Wide Web. Consequently, perhaps congruent with Henneberg argument â€Å"For people who make their living selling words to readers—and indeed for readers themselves—these are times of upheaval† (116). With the development of the word processors, compliance with certain writing rules becomes much easier to achieve. As a way example, referencing styles can be accustomed so that whenever an error occurs whether in the punctuation or format the writer can easily identify these errors. The twenty first century is a century of simplification of almost every task performed by humankind! Arguably, the advent of the information technology has the capacity to render textual contents explosion. The advantage of information technology in influencing the manner in which writing in the 21st century is accomplished is that â€Å"More people are engaging in more conversations, sharing more opinions, learning more, and learning faster than anyone could have imagined just a few decades ago† (Tucker 17). As a result, people are able to access scholarly works much faster and hence building on the ideas that one’s intends to incorporate in his or her written work becomes also ea sier. Any academic writing is driven by academic curiosity. The information revolution consequently serves to enhance ease of information access available to the immense number of sources while incurring minimal costs. As Tucker Reckons, incorporation of new technologies in the research process infers â€Å"opportunity to become a source, trustworthy or otherwise, and to share an opinion with the world the second the whim strikes to do so† (17). In this line of view, Farber’s accusation of the new technologies to influence writing negatively in the twenty first century as priory stipulated perhaps lacks substance. An essential guide that Turabian raises is perhaps the manner in which teachers should mark the papers of the students. Turabian advices, â€Å"The most efficient way to mark a paper is to analyze it before you read closely enough to mark it up† (22). This proposition is incredible especially by noting that more often than not, the ideas that are prese nted in the academic essay by students depends more on the validity of claims and the magnitude of support offered to the claims. As consequence, paying ample attention to the information contained in the introduction, conclusion and sections of paragraphs introducing topic sentences is essential. In this end, in case the ideas development in the essay follows the top-down approach, the very first sentences of every paragraph are essential and require thorough scrutiny. It is also essential to consider critically the last sentences of every paragraph in case one uses the down-top approach in the paragraph development. Fortunately, no matter the technology in use in writing, whether considering writing approaches in the twenty first century or at the time Turabian was writing Student’s Guide to Writing College, the concepts of the manner of developing the paragraphs still holds. Conclusion Teachers need to compel inexperienced writers to write according to some certain prescri bed rules to promote compliance to standardized writing practices including punctuation, citation, both in the texts and in references. Even though changes have emerged in relation to the manner in which information is availed to writers, with the twenty first century giving writers an ease of information access in terms of saving time and cost, the paper recognizes the relevance of the Turabian’s writing guides even in the modern writing world. Works Cited Farber, Miriam. How shall we write and read in twenty-first century academy? Notes on the margin of electronic publishing. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 5.2(2007): 226 – 234. Henneberg, Sylvia. Developing Age Studies through Literature. NWSA Journal 18.1 (2006): 106-126. Tucker, Patrick. The 21st writer. A Magazine of Forecasts, Trends and Ideas about Future 42.4(2008): 16-17. Turabian, Kate. Instructors Guide to Students Guide to Writing College Papers, 2011. Web. This essay on Writing in the 21st Century was written and submitted by user Abbey Ramsey to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.