Wild Swan Dies of Bird Flu in UK Essay Example for Free

Wild Swan Dies of Bird Flu in UK Essay On Thursday 6 April 2006 the tabloid newspaper the Sun and the broadsheet newspaper the Daily Telegraph both featured front page articles on the first wild bird dying from bird flu in the UK. On the following, day, Friday 7 April, both papers once again featured follow up articles on their front pages. On Thursday 6 April the Sun has a small story of the suspected bird flu in the bottom left corner of the page, while a story of Eminems impending divorce dominates nearly all of the bottom half of the page. The rest of the front page is taken up with a large colourful advert for holidays abroad from i 15, and a large photograph of a young lady with a caption Girls Alewd. The Suns masthead is in sans serif white lettering on a block of bright red which implies modern clean lines. The profusion of eye catching colour in the holiday advertisement with the offer of a cheap holiday would attract the young working class family and the main feature story on a popular rap singers divorce would appeal to the younger generation who seem to have a fascination with any news relating to celebrities. The image the Sun seems to portray, with its attention grapping headlines, is to provide an upbeat lively entertainment paper. The sixty word article on the Suns front page has the following headline underlined and in bold print, UK swan is hit by bird flu, with a small picture of two swans captioned with, Fear. swan is Britains first wild bird flu case. Instead of using the words, swan catches bird flu, the Sun chooses to create more of an impact by using the word, hit, which is associated with violence, and the word, Fear, in the caption evokes an element of alarm, perhaps implying the readers should now be fearful for their own health. The article mentions anonymous experts rushing to the scene to carry out tests, and this portrays a feeling of urgency. The article then directs the readers to page four for the full story. (Appendix 1) On page four of the Sun the bird flu article takes up nearly a third of the page, sharing the rest of the page with an advert for purchasing property overseas, another celebrity taking their clothes off, and a row over a wage dispute at a Butlins camp. The relationship between the overseas property and trouble at a Butlins camp with the report of bird flu in Britain is perhaps insinuating readers should consider a trip overseas, away from the bird flu. (Appendix 2) The headline, BIRD FLU ZONE IS SEALED OFF, is blazoned across the top of the page with a small picture to the left showing two swans standing next to a dead bird with the caption, Deadly bird flu killed this swan in Germany last month. The Suns deliberate use of the word, Deadly, and, killed, in the one caption is aimed specifically to add to the overall tone of creating fear and apprehension. The picture is from the archives and has not been taken in the UK, yet the Sun is anticipating its readers will make the association of similar events happening in the UK. The opening paragraph, in a bold font, tells us that, Experts have put a 3km protection zone around the site were a dead swan was found, yet we are not told who the experts are and the Sun has made a conscious choice not to inform the reader exactly where in Britain the protection zone is leading to speculation and apprehension that it could be near where they live. The readers are told, if the H5N1 virus is confirmed a massive public protection operation will, swing into action, and that, this could include people having to leave their homes and a restriction on where they can travel. At this stage no tests have confirmed it is the virus yet the Sun are already creating scenarios that strike at the heart of what its readers value, their homes and their freedom to travel, and reinforcing the intended tone of alarm and trepidation. The location of the dead swan, in a small coastal village in Fife, Scotland, was hidden well into the article in an attempt by the Sun to keep the reader speculating and adding to the mood of alarm. The rest of the article quotes unnamed officials all reciting various warnings to the public and reinforcing the Suns initial warning headlines of fear and death. The Daily Telegraphs front page for Thursday 6 April has three main stories, one on how Brown will backdate wealth tax, another with a large colour picture of the writer JK Rowling and her condemnation of thin models and the third covers the alert of bird flu in Scotland. Immediately underneath the Daily Telegraphs masthead are two colourful adverts, one advertising a free golf guide to the Masters 2006 and the other on an interview with Boris Johnson. (Appendix 3) The style of the Daily Telegraphs masthead is in a conservative black ornate font with serifs, in complete contrast to the Suns bright eye catching simple font. The Daily Telegraphs style suggests tradition and is likely to attract the more conservative reader who is looking for news that is factual without the drama and sensationalism that the red top tabloids seem to adhere to. The Daily Telegraph has retained its original broadsheet size, unlike its rival the Times, who downsized to the more seemingly popular tabloid size. The front page of the Daily Telegraph is quite colourful which suggests a move to a more modern approach and, the inclusion of the picture of JK Rowling, might appeal to a wider range of people, although the articles on wealth tax and the advert on the Masters golf guide certainly will narrow the interest down to a more middle class readership. There is also far less advertising in the Daily Telegraph and this is probably due to the price of 65p against the Suns price of 35p. So, although there is far less advertising in the Daily Telegraph the Suns cheaper price might attract those on lower incomes. In contrast to the Sun, the Daily Telegraph has placed the bird flu article on the left of the middle section of the page and its headline, Alert as wild swan dies of avian flu in Scotland, immediately tells the reader where the outbreak has occurred, unlike the Suns report. The Daily Telegraph quotes specific experts by their names and their professional position and this creates an impression of credibility. Where the Governments chief veterinary officer is quoted as saying, I have every confidence , or a professor of virology saying, still a big step away from a domestic chicken or even a human being infected, both quotes intending to create a feeling of security and confidence in the authorities to handle the outbreak. It also mentions, The H5N1 strain has killed more than 100 people, mostly Asian, since 2003, but then it balances this statement with, However, it has not mutated to be able to transfer between humans. The entire article is well balanced without emotive language and with a tone which is focused to create a feeling of reassurance to the reader by setting out the contingency plans. (Appendix 3) On the following day, 7 April, the Suns main story, which dominates two thirds of the front page, is of the murder of a nurse and the top part advertises a free sweepstake kit for the Grand National. The story of bird flu features again on the front page with the headline, Bird flu search widens, but it is only a small article of fifty words and placed once again in the bottom corner on the left of the page. Even in such a small article, the words, search widens, and deadly are used to capture the readers attention and direct them to read the, Full story pages 4 5. A small photograph at the top of the article shows a dead swan with the caption, Bug alert.. dead swan. and is probably aimed at eliciting feelings of both sadness for the dead swan, fear of more deaths and, plays on the fact that the British are a nation of animal lovers. (Appendix 4) In contrast to the small and quite subdued front page article both page four and five are dedicated entirely to the bird flu story with, FORBIDDEN ZONE in a 5cm font splashed across the centre of both pages with the word, ZONE in red. Across the top of both pages the headline announces, BIRD FLU BRITAIN: THE DAY WE ALL DREADED and both these headlines are shouting warnings and danger with the words, DREADED and FORBIDDEN, clearly set to elicit alarm. A large picture on page four shows two men in protective white suits handling, what we presume to be a dead swan, wearing protective suits, supporting the headlines with the fear of contamination. (Appendix 5) The main article begins in bold print and points out police road blocks being thrown into place, but no mention of where this is taking place, implying by its absence that its nationally. Throughout the article certain words are highlighted in bold print to create more emphasis and draw the readers eye to the negative aspects An example of this is, a SECOND observation zone, NOT been contaminated abroad, both of which create an impression that the contamination zone is larger than first reported and that the swan didnt catch the bird flu from abroad. An interesting aspect is the contrast from the Suns previous days article when it was reported that, experts rushed to the scene, to the article on the 7 April where the Sun reports DEFRA officials were, blasted, after it took them, EIGHT DAYS, to perform tests on the carcass and how it took, 16 hours, to collect the dead bird after it had been reported to them. The tone of the whole article has been written to create an impression of incompetence by the various agencies dealing with the bird flu outbreak and undermines their ability to manage it. Two thirds of page five is given over to three pictures, one is a map of Scotland pointing to where the dead swan was found, a policeman, On guard, at the harbour and, a picture of the dead bird with the caption, Still there. . Pictures intended to reinforce the incompetence of DEFRA and the implication of danger by the police guard. Unlike the Suns small front page article, the Daily Telegraph on 7 April has nearly half of its front page given over to a striking picture of Scotland with the large bold white headlines, BRITAINS FIRST BIRD FLU ZONE, on a black background. Two other main stories on the lower section, one covering the murder of a nurse and the other covering a religious document by Judas, seem less important as they are overwhelmed by the dramatic bird flu picture and accompanying article. It may be that the Daily Telegraph decided to use the bird flu as its main headline, unlike the other daily newspapers, to capture those readers more interested in the bird flu than a story of another murder. (Appendix 6) The front page article describes the current situation in a very clear and factual tone and this is carried over onto the lower part of page two and various named experts reassuring the public that the risk to public health is still very low. At the top of page two is the identical picture used in the Sun with the caption, Vets remove the carcasses of dead swans from a field in County Antrim. The second picture is a time line recording the number of bird flu cases and deaths over the last few years with a map of Europe showing where outbreaks have occurred. The centre of page two concentrates on the speculation of how the swan in Scotland could have caught the bird flu and the headline, Threat to public health is very low indeed, generates reassurance to the readers and this again is a balanced factual account with reassuring quotes from various named experts and with practical advice to the public if they find a dead bird. (Appendix 7) Most of page three covers the impact the finding of the dead swan has had on the village and the headlines, Seaside village weathers the media storm, proposes that its the media attention and, not the finding of a swan killed by bird flu, that is disrupting the village life. The article seek to reassure once again that if the residents of this village dont fear catching bird flu then the rest of the country should not be anxious. To contribute to this, the top third of page three has a colour picture of a resident walking his dog on the beach, a perfect picture of normality. (Appendix 8) The Daily Telegraph has designated an enormous amount of space to the bird flu and this clearly shows it isnt underplaying the seriousness of the situation. What it has done is to document all the available facts in a clear unemotional approach which suggests that by giving the readers all existing knowledge they will be intelligent enough to form their own opinions. The Sun on the other hand, talks of roadblocks, the impact it could have on domestic birds and the incompetence of the various agencies involved, all contributing to the inference that bird flu is going to have a major impact on the man in the street.

The Hierarchical Social Structure in Velasquezs The Water Seller, Picassos Acrobats Family with :: Seller Acrobat Family Gothic Third May Essays

The Hierarchical Social Structure in Velasquez's The Water Seller, Picasso's Acrobat's Family with a Monkey,Wood's American Gothic, and Goyez's The Third of May The pyramidal structures in Velasquez's The Water Seller, Picasso's Acrobat's Family with a Monkey, Wood's American Gothic, Goyez's The Third of May reflects the components of society. At the top of the pyramid is the single individual, as presented by Diego Velasquez in "The Waterseller of Seville," which portrays the three images of a boy and old man in the foreground and the shadowy figure in the background, whom stand in a circle. A clear cup filled with water, like the water of life that quenched the dying man’s thirst in a hot desert, is suspended in the center. The young boy, in his school uniform of a black jacket and white dress shirt, looks at the glass as would a child at a chocolate chip cookie, craving and yearning for that bit of sweet chocolate encased by a soft sugary dough. The old man on his right is wearing a very bright red cloak that reflects off onto his hands and face, giving them a red glow as well, while his other hand rests on a large water jug. Behind the two men is a more mysterious figure, like a spirit from the netherworld whose face is transparent. He, too, holds a glass in his hand, but unlike the other two, he is actually dri nking from it.The centralized cup and its movement a circular pattern represents the completion of a life cycle. It begins with the boy, who is transformed, by the knowledge gained in life that is symbolized by the water, to an older man before entering his final stage of death. The large water jug in the forefront, however, is a reminder that the amount of knowledge that can be found in life is infinitely larger than people can possibly consume in their lifetime. On the middle tier of the structure is the basic family unit that can be divided into the intermediate, as portrayed by Grant Wood's American Gothic, and the extended, as in Picasso's The Acrobat's Family with a Monkey. In the former, the immediate family is portrayed as the "old family", since the couple present in the picture are elderly. The old man, holding a pitch fork, and his sister, who stands behind him, share the same grave look as parents would give their children while scolding them.

What Make’s Up One’s Identity

There are a great deal of factors that altogether form one’s identity, the most relevant and main ones are culture, which includes nationality as well as religion, intellect, personality, and world exposure. I. Culture is a crucial factor when it comes to forming one’s identity. A. The characteristics of our country of origin. * The power that our nationality has on our person. * The language, our culinary traditions, clothing etc. B. Religion. * The values. * The traditions. II. Ways of interpreting situations and our personality, strongly mirror who we are.A. The elements that formed our intellect. * Education and upbringing. * Political views, as well as other ideas concerning society’s organization. B. The social attributes we gain. * The individuals in our surroundings. * The experiences we go through. III. The strong impact of travelling on our identity. A. Eye-openers that broaden our minds. * The new cultures we integrate. * The new people we meet and the ir influence on our personality. B. Developing a sense of belonging to more than one culture. * The process of becoming a â€Å"halfie†.Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines identity as â€Å"the distinguishing character or personality of an individual†, which is undoubtedly true. Firstly there is culture, in other words, the land we feel we belong in and the characteristics that come with belonging to this particular country. Seldom do people remember to include one’s personality in the definition of his or hers identity. However, it is extremely important because it is precisely what distinguishes us from our compatriots; otherwise our identity would not be uniquely ours, but the one of everyone from the same land.Moreover, it should not be forgotten that identity is permanently subject to change, whether it be through travelling or new experiences. The combination of all these factors are what forms one’s identity. Culture probably consist s of attributes that form more than half of our identity, and it is mainly formed of our nationality and our religion. It is essential, that one feels a strong bond between him and his country; this is the reason why nationality is so often spoken about, when the topic of identity is being discussed.An individual needs to feel as if he has a homeland, meaning a place where he can relate to others because they live in the same environment, have the same climate, the same state regulations, duties, as well benefit from the same rights. To that effect, one feels a sense of comradeship between him and his â€Å"soil†. This is why individuals sometimes voluntarily join the army, because they feel obliged to defend their country. And some soldiers today, in particular the ones of the American army, are sent all the way across the world to Iraq for the sole purpose of fighting for their state.Individuals feel a strong need to be patriotic, and some are willing to go to great lengths to show to others why they believe their country is â€Å"best†. A British character in Oliver Goldsmith’s text â€Å"National prejudice†, who is â€Å"cocking his hat, and assuming such an air of importance as if he had possessed all the merit of the English nation† (Goldsmith), clearly illustrates this point because he makes discriminatory statements in the name of his nation. All of the above goes to show the fundamental impact one’s nationality has on his or hers identity.Moreover, our country of origin also imparts to us certain characteristics related to it, mainly a language to communicate amongst each other, local food, outfits, dances etc. They are basically the elements we see displayed when establishments such as schools or universities, prepare â€Å"international days†, when individuals build stands showing the particularities of their country. They also contribute immensely to the formation of our identity, they add to the con cept of nationalism. Our language gives us a unique way we can use to communicate with our compatriots.Each and every country has its own language or dialect that makes up its people’s identities. Furthermore, there are local recipes that we learn which even as used as â€Å"comfort foods† to cure homesickness. There are traditional dances, for example the flamenco in Spain, the â€Å"dabke† in Lebanon or the French Can-Can, outfits and holidays the country celebrates, especially independence day. To sum up, all of these elements make up one’s nationality, which contributes to one’s culture. Culture is not only formed through one’s nationality, but also by his religion.Even though some individuals believe that religion is not really a very significant part in one’s identity, I believe that it is crucial and that it is present in most of our decisions. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or even Atheist, this is a major character istic of your identity. Religions first of all come with a set of values and rules we should follow. For example, a Muslim woman, should refrain from wearing revealing clothes, and preferably should wear an â€Å"abbaye† and headscarf, in order to respect her and others; she should not have sexual relations before marriage.Men or women are not allowed to be homosexual, which actually is a value for many religions, they should pray five times a day, go do a pilgrimage in Mecca once in their lifetime, Buddhist are to consider the cow as sacred etc. The values are, like many other religions; not to sin, to pray and be good to one another. On the other hand, religions also provides us with traditions to follow, for example the famous Christian holiday Christmas, or the Ramadan for Muslims, having Bat Mitzvah’s for Jews and Easter.Our religion really helps in terms of giving us a path to follow in our lives. The aim in our lives is to respect it as much as possible; therefo re it is part of our culture. The last elements discussed, refer solely to the parts of our identity that are formed and settled at birth, we should not forget the impact of how we develop as a person, in other terms, our family, our type of education, and the experiences we go through. A person’s education is an integral part of his identity, and education involves what one is taught in school, as well as at home.Family has an important role in making you a legitimate member of society, firstly they give you a name which identifies you, and afterwards, they provide you with a mandatory set of guidelines to follow throughout your childhood. These guidelines give you certain values and rules you should follow, just like religion does. Whether the individuals raising you are strict or lenient, they need to provide you with moral grounds in order for you to grow up to be a valuable citizen.Robert Coles in his text â€Å"I listen to my parents and wonder what they believe† , overviews this point concerning morals, he says that children are lost emotionally without the guidance of their parents. Moreover, he criticizes the latter for disregarding their children’s maturity and choose to turn a blind eye towards this issue; â€Å"this issue is not the moral capacity of children but the default of us parents who fail to respond to inquiries† (Coles).Therefore, we notice that the role of one’s parents is crucial in developing the kind of individual he will grow to be. Moreover, our parents decide to which type of school to send us, which is the other major part of our education. Depending on if they send you to a Catholic school, a boarding school, a French Lycee, a British or American high school, you will receive a specific kind of education. Henceforth, you will be raised with their particular values and probably base your future decisions on what they have taught you.In the end, these two major components of our education will form who we are as adults, in other words, our political and social views. For example, do we support the left or the right, the republicans or the democrats, the conservatists or liberalists etc.? These ideas place us in society. All of the above are the elements that form our intellect, which in itself is an important part of our personality. We simply cannot deny the impact that the people surrounding us throughout our life, have on our identities.How you behave strongly reflects who you are, and obviously, in order to integrate a community, it is mandatory to act like them, henceforth; you begin to acquire certain characteristics that are similar to the ones of others. Let’s say one is raised in a racist community, unfortunately, this individual will probably grow up to be a racist, because this is what the people around him told him was the right way to think. On top of that, another important factor in forming how we think, are our experiences through life. For example, in Edward T.Hall’s â€Å"The Arab World†, his particular meeting with an Arab gentleman, in which he was sitting on a couch in a hotel lobby and assumed this gentleman was invading his privacy, when the latter was simply being his normal self. He comes to certain conclusions about Arabic people, stating they have no respect for personal space or important moral values. This is an experience he went through, which forged the way he thinks, and forevermore, these ideas are part of who he is. The impact that travelling has on the formation of our identity is undeniable, it gives us priceless characteristics that make us better people in the end.The previous factors evokes, culture and personality, are bound to impact every single citizen of the world, however, unfortunately, we do not all have the luxury to travel, but those that do, are able to experience new cultures, and meet new people through living abroad. I personally, have lived in various countries, surrounded every time by three distinctly different cultures; I was born in London, I spent the first fifteen years of my life in Nigeria, afterwards I transferred to a boarding school in Switzerland, and at the moment I am finally living in my land of origin, which is Lebanon.And I can proudly confirm, that being exposed to all these cultures have made me the open-minded and well-rounded individual that I am today. Thanks to that, I no longer abide to prejudices, nor agree with stereotypes, because I have been lucky enough to be aware of the different types of people and be able to understand them. Therefore finally, it is this combination of changing where I lived and development of my personality that I believe forged my identity. Afterwards, your identity is subject to change, you begin to feel a sense of belonging to more than one culture.This is what Amin Maalouf illustrates in his story titled â€Å"Deadly Identities†. He says â€Å"I have been asked many times with the best intentio ns in the world, if I felt more French or more Lebanese. I always give the same answer â€Å"Both† † (Maalouf). Or even in Ethar El-Katatney’s article â€Å"Identity Crisis 101†, the young El-Gohary claims that â€Å"she is balanced in her love for both countries†(El-Katatney), and it is the same author that introduced this idea of being a â€Å"halfie†.Individuals are no longer able to consider themselves belonging to one culture more than the other. They do always feel a strong sense of attachements to their routes; however their true identity has altered, and therefore so will their state of mind. All of the above truly portrays the strong impact of traveling on one’s identity. To conclude, we notice that it is one’s cultural exposure, which lead to the elements contributing to the formation of his identity. We are not born with an unchangeable identity, actually quite the opposite, it never cesses to change.Individuals will always be exposed to new places, new people, new ways of thinking and these will transforms who they are. It all depends on culture and personality.Works Cited; â€Å"Identity†. Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online, 2008. Web. 14th Nov 2010. Coles, Robert. â€Å"I Listen to my Parents and I Wonder What they Believe†. The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. Gilbert H. Muller. Ed. McGraw Hill 8th edition Boston: 1982 El-Katatney, Ethar â€Å"Identity Crisis 101†. Egypt Today online. May 8th 2008. Egypttoday. com. Web. 3rd Nov 2010. Hall, Edward T. â€Å"The Arab World†. Shades of Gray: A reader for Academic Writing. Ed. Zane Sinno, Rima Rantisi, Ghassan Zeineddine, Natalie Honein, Jasmina Najjar. 2nd ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited, 2008. (pages 89 to 90). Print. Maalouf, Amin â€Å"Deadly Identities†. Shades of Gray: A reader for Academic Writing. Ed. Zane Sinno, Rima Rantisi, Ghassan Zeineddine, Nata lie Honein, Jasmina Najjar. 2nd ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited, 2008. (page 1) Print.

The Image of Women in Sports Today Essay - 1095 Words

The Image of Women in Sports Today We live in a world that changes quickly, so its no terrible surprise that the image of women in sports is changing quickly, as well. Relatively, it hasnt been that long since women were not even socially permitted to participate in sports or any kind of physical activity-- now, I dare say, its nearly expected. There are still remnants of past gender-types, but overall I think the image of women in sports has changed dramatically. It used to be that women were not allowed to participate in sports-- beyond just being seen as unbecoming and unfeminine, it was actually believed that physical activity would harm a womans reproductive system. Men did not think that women should or could do the same†¦show more content†¦Despite all the progress we have made, a woman still has to do more to get the same amount of respect that a man is given automatically. Another aspect that has remained part of the image of women in sports is the element of being... well, pretty. More than anything, I see this as a holdover from the days when women had to prove that they could play sports and still be feminine, to-- Im not sure what. Assuage fears that by playing sports, they were somehow going to be turned into men? At any rate, women werent allowed to be anything except perfect, even while playing sports. They had to not sweat, not get tired, and always still look fresh and beautiful. Even to this day, the female athletes who do best in the media are not necessarily the ones who actually play at the highest level, but the ones who look the best. This is true even outside of performance sports like ice-skating, where it is, to a certain degree, understandable that its important for the ice-skaters to be attractive. The same is true of male athletes-- ugly male athletes dont grace the front of a Kelloggs box-- but not nearly to the same extent. 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The United States Justice System - 1096 Words

The United States justice system has been around since the signing of the United States Constitution in 1787. It was created to protect its citizens and provide justice throughout the nation. The U.S. Justice system is broken down to three branches. These branches are Policing, Courts, and Corrections that create the justice system. Policing is the branch that enforces the law in the public. Courts is the decision to whether you are guilt, not guilty, or fined for the actions from the enforcements point of view. Corrections is the branch that carries out the sentence that are created by the courts and makes corrections to be able to be release back to society. The three branches provide equality, justice, and uphold the law from illegal†¦show more content†¦This escalated to question about the corruption in the Policing branch which is full of misconducts and excessive force. Following the Policing branch is the Courts which again decides the outcome of the conviction that you are convicted of. Courts are a more complex and even though it may seem there is nothing wrong with the branch but there is actually is. One of the bad thing that is going on in our system is something called plea bargain. It seems a bit the same as plea agreement like what Rafael Perez done but its more worst. Plea bargain is when you make a bargain with the prosecution. There is a major problem because we have convicted murders that could just create a plea bargain with the prosecution to avoid the hassle of going to trial and have a higher chance on getting out prison. In â€Å"The effects of likelihood of conviction, threatened punishment, and assumed†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ it states â€Å"he or she may be able to minimize the time that must be spent in prison.† (Effects 1). This creates criminals to get out earlier and are most likely to create a crime and probably create juveniles to create crimes also. Another problem with the Courts is that juveniles are being tried as a dults. Many people believe it’s not a bad thing but these juveniles are getting harsher sentences when tried as an adult. These sentences are harsher than an adult that has committed the same crime. In a film named Juvies, it showed twelve juveniles that most getShow MoreRelatedJustice System Of The United States Essay1674 Words   |  7 Pagesextremely excited to witness our justice system in action for the purpose of this paper. Through the first amendment of the Constitution, the public has a constitutional right of access to criminal proceedings; yet knowing this, I was immensely repentant that as a criminal justice student in hopes of attaining a career in law enforcement have never previously stepped foot in any courthouse. It is paramount that an individual learns how the justice system of the United States is conducted, whether you haveRead MoreJustice System And The United States1083 Words   |  5 Pagestimes the truth may be hard to find but when it is available, justice should be served. That is where the justice system comes in and their job is suppose to allow justice to be served. Over the years, the criminal justice system has lacked in that area according to almost half of the United States citizens. Many may ask the question, why?, but there is no definite answer for why the justice system has lacked in its area of justice. The real question is, how? How can this be changed? That isRead MoreThe United States Justice System1234 Words   |  5 Pagesthe practice of law enforcement officers to stop African American drivers without probable cause† (Weatherspoon, 2004). The United States Justice System is based upon a flawed designed through miseducation of students in the school system, maintaining of a slave mentally in the prison system, and the perceptions of African Americans in America. Currently, the Public School System is readying African American for a life in prison. Today, many schools have been issued metal detectors and excessive camerasRead MoreThe Justice System Of The United States1040 Words   |  5 PagesThe justice system here in the United States has been set up to provide justice through a due process system in our nation s courts. Our nation s due process is set up to ensure Constitutional Rights to all involved. The courts provide certain rights to both the victim and the defendant during all stages of the due process. The primary goal in all phases of the criminal justice system is to ensure the protection of rights and guarantee justice is served. To ensure citizens freedoms are protectedRead MoreThe United States And The Criminal Justice System Essay1662 Words   |  7 PagesThe United States considers itself to be the best country in the world. This sense of nationalism is present because of the country’s history of opportunities and t heir emphasis on the power of their people. Safety is a crucial aspect that peopleconsider when choosing where to live. The United States provides their citizenswith national safety throughthe enforcement of their criminal justice system.As a result of their intentions of maintaining a secure living environment, the United States has theRead MoreCriminal Justice System Of The United States1722 Words   |  7 Pages  Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts. Those accused of crime have protections against abuse of investigatory and prosecution powers. Goals In the United States, criminal justice policy has been guided by the 1967 President s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, which issuedRead MoreThe United States Criminal Justice System Essay1132 Words   |  5 Pagespunished for a crime. The film focuses on racism in the United States’ criminal justice system. According to DuVernay, the part of the 13th Amendment that says â€Å"unless you are being punished for a crime† is a loophole that has been used to allow slavery to continue in the early days during reconstruction and even now. This loophole coupled with the criminalization of the black man has led to mass incarceration of minorities. The United States which has only five percent of the world’s population butRead MoreThe Criminal Justice Systems And The United States1169 Words   |  5 PagesThe criminal justice systems in Bolivia and the United States have different structures with some similarities. I was born in La Paz Boliv ia and we will be taking a look into Bolivia and the U.S’s governmental and criminal justice systems. Bolivia is a republic with a democratic government. The U.S. also has a democratic government. The Napoleonic code (civil code) and Spanish law compose Bolivia’s legal system, whereas the US is based on common law. The U.S. and Bolivia may have their similaritiesRead MoreCriminal Justice System And The United States2244 Words   |  9 PagesAbstract The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many failed policies have led us to the issues we have today. Policies such as America’s â€Å"get tough on crime† failed us and put us into a bigger hole than we already were in. Our criminal justice system needs to be evaluated and failed policies and procedures must be thrown out. It is a time for a reform for our criminal justice system. However, we must first address these policies and procedures that led us to where weRead MoreThe United States Criminal Justice System1670 Words   |  7 PagesThe United States Criminal Justice System is an extremely complex, but yet extremely important part of the United States. The criminal justice system is defined as â€Å"the set of agencies and processes established by governments to control crime and impose penalties on those who violate laws). Although there are many different groups of people that make up the criminal justice system, the two main and mos t discussed the state division or the federal division. The state division of the criminal justice

Beauty Is a Reflection of Culture and Perception Essay

How beauty is perceived and what beauty is defined as is a very controversial topic. Beauty is a reflection of one’s culture and perceptions. However, one’s idea of beauty may become contorted. This results in a misperception of what beauty really is. Society makes it out to be a perfect model or celebrity that no one can compare to. In order to understand why beauty is not a universal idea, one must know what beauty is, what each culture perceives as beauty, and the misperception society gives people. One’s idea of beauty should be based on his or her own cultural perceptions, reminding one that society, media, or any other source cannot define a universal idea of the art of beauty. Humans all want to be noticed and admired by that†¦show more content†¦When a study was done to measure attractiveness, the results were that facial symmetry and smooth skin is related to good genes and a healthy immune system. Facial symmetry is the best indicator of what o ne sees as beautiful and healthy. This common connection between facial symmetry and beauty leads to the fact that no matter what race or culture someone is, they can point out what an attractive person would look like in a different culture. This is because of the use of the fusiform that can naturally detect a common attractive face. Factors like age, hormones, and potential for being a mate can change ones opinion on what is beautiful (Eden). The idea of beauty invites everyone to explore and interpret all of the possibilities. People argue, communicate, and share the idea of beauty on a daily basis. Everyone has different judgements on what is beautiful. When one argues about beauty he or she should take into account of the other persons’ experiences or taste; even if it is different from theirs. Crispin Sartwell stated that â€Å"a common issue in beauty is whether its subjective-’in the eye of the beholder’- or an objective feature of beautiful things.† He then used this information to connect the object and subject. Beauty appears in environments or situations where these two are connected. â€Å"Beauty is not primarily in the skull of the experiencer, but connects observers and objects.† Many attempts have been made throughout the years to try and differ the thoughts onShow MoreRelatedThe Mirror Like Reflection Of Art956 Words   |  4 Pages The mirror-like reflection Art can tell stories of the past events, which were significant to that culture or a person. Female images take a special place in the representation of the art. Women have always been used as a subject of art and displayed as ideal feminine figures and sexualized objects of desire. The notion of femininity, along with the idea of the female gender role, has substantially changed throughout the centuries. Through the several art pieces authors show how the social, politicalRead MoreSemiotics, The, And The Greatest Obsessions Of Beauty By Hayao Miyazaki1577 Words   |  7 Pagesobsessions of beauty by juxtaposing signs, symbols, denotation, connection and myth. My analysis is separated into 4 juxtapositions: war, pacifism, beauty, ugliness and consumerism; each identifying the signifies and signified, the model being exploited, what messages are being put across and the principle at work linking them all together. This is based on Robert M. Seiler’s â€Å"Guide To A Semiologi cal Analysis†. The symbolisation of beauty and ugliness depends on where you are from as â€Å"culture and societyRead MoreAutomatism In The Rite Of Spring By Viktor Sklovsky1089 Words   |  5 Pageshabituation of our perceptions and, thus, many aspects of our lives might go by unnoticed. Consequently, much of the beauty present in our lives might go overlooked. To combat habituation, Shklovsky believed art could restore our sensations and allow us to see this overlooked beauty. For art to restore our perceptions, however, it must make objects â€Å"unfamiliar† and difficult to perceive. Through this strategy, art will be removed from automatism and the length of our perceptions will be prolonged-Read MoreLinguistic Manipulation In Hilda Doolittles Helen1003 Words   |  5 PagesLinguistic Manipulation in Hilda Doolittle’s â€Å"Helen† The modernist movement’s portrayal of alternate perceptions of reality is a response to the violence that corrupts the twentieth century. The repercussions of several wars inspire citizens to rebel against traditional standards of morality, necessitating for artistic reformation. The movement includes diverse female writers who evaluate experiences with gender inequality to reinvent literature. Hilda Doolittle is the archetype of modern writers;Read MoreImpact Of Advertising On Female Identity Formation1592 Words   |  7 Pagesperfection. American culture is highly concerned with beauty. From magazine to television advertisements, women are bombarded with images of perfection—perfect figure, perfect hair, and perfect skin. Moreover, advertisements sell products that would help improve women’s appearance. The problem with these advertisements is the subjectivity of beauty as a whole. Every individual has his or her own preference and perspective on what it mea ns to be beautiful, but for advertisements beauty is obtaining perfectionRead MoreHow can Art be Defined1086 Words   |  5 PagesThe search for a definition of Art has been subject of a complex philosophical reflection incorporated; however, within different thematics because the very idea of Art is changeable as it relies on the culture and the tradition of a particular epoch. Etymologically, the word Aesthetics derives from the Greek à  isthesis, which means perception by the senses. It used to refer as the study of the world of perceptions as the doctrine aimed to discover the complexity of perceptive knowledge. In ancientRead MoreFashion ´s Effect on Society Essay1373 Words   |  6 Pagesfor frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons; however, people think more about how expensive it is to stand out. We expected apparel is an entertainment to release stress and depress, but fashion is a reflection of one’s inner self and not a reflection of every one’s expectation of what should be shown. With each generation of clothing becoming more exclusive, people tend to think of it as a tool of an individual appearance. Nonetheless, it is necessary to say that at the presentRead MoreThe Meaning Of Conceptualization Of Beauty1687 Words   |  7 PagesConceptualization of Beauty The term beautiful first appears in the English language around the 14th century with the use of the word â€Å"beaute† in Middle English, derived from the Anglo-French â€Å"beau† with roots in the Latin â€Å"bellus†. The common usage of the term connotes both â€Å"having qualities of beauty† and â€Å"exciting aesthetic pleasure† (Merriam-Webster, 2016). The semantic reference to aesthetics in the term highlights the Greek and Roman influence on art, literature, and philosophy in English culture historicallyRead MoreFahrenheit 4511651 Words   |  7 PagesTamika Adams Prof. Kordich English 68 10 June 2013 Dreams that Destroy Freedom American culture thrives on being ‘the land of the free’. The rags-to-riches story to the immigrant success story, seem to define the American Dream. We are told that these achievements can be done by adapting to America’s ideals and cultural norms. The ‘American Dream’ is attainable for those who fall in step with the majority. This conformity is illustrated in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. In the novel,Read MoreCharacters in The Odyssey and Ramayana Essay1101 Words   |  5 PagesIn The Odyssey and Ramayana, the authors depict the characters through the eyes of their culture and civilization. In both works, the representation of men and women reflects an ideal that was sought after at the time. Particularly, the texts focus on the relationships between the main characters and the religion, as well as the main character and their familial ties. In The Odyssey, there is Athena and Odysseus while in Ramayana, there is Rama and Sita. Both Athena and Sita represent the idealistic

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