Free Essays on Compare And Contrast

Comparing and Contrasting In Brother Grimm’s â€Å"Godfather Death,† and John Updike’s â€Å"A&P,† we see many similarities and many differences. Both authors know how to intrigue the mind of the reader by introducing different plots, setting, characters, theme, and points of views throughout the story. First I shall start off talking about the plots, characters, and setting of each story. There are multiple plots that take place in both stories. In â€Å"Godfather Death,† one of many plots that took place was when a poor man could not afford to raise his thirteenth child and therefore he looks for a godfather to take the responsibilities and finally selects Death because Death promises the poor man to make the child rich and famous. He chose death because, the poor man had to work day and night just to give them bread (Grimm’s 8). It was basically because of poverty that he had made the decision. He also chose Death because death treats everyone equally. He takes from the rich and the poor (Grimm’s 9). The next plot takes place when the child grows up, and Death shows him the secret of the herb. The godson indeed uses the herb to become a rich and famous doctor, but Death only allows the godson to use the herb with his permission. Death fulfilled his promi se to the poor man because he had already made the young man into a famous doctor. The next plot was when the king became ill. When Death gave his godson the herb, he quoted, â€Å" when you are called to a patient, I will always appear to you. If I stand next to the sick person’s head, you may speak boldly that you will make him healthy again... But beware of using the herb against my will, or it will turn out badly for you† (Grimm’s 9). Now when the king became ill, Death appeared at the sick man’s feet, which meant he had to die. The doctor thought to himself that since he is my godfather he would forgive me. The doctor therefore, turned the bed so that De... Free Essays on Compare And Contrast Free Essays on Compare And Contrast Comparing and Contrasting In Brother Grimm’s â€Å"Godfather Death,† and John Updike’s â€Å"A&P,† we see many similarities and many differences. Both authors know how to intrigue the mind of the reader by introducing different plots, setting, characters, theme, and points of views throughout the story. First I shall start off talking about the plots, characters, and setting of each story. There are multiple plots that take place in both stories. In â€Å"Godfather Death,† one of many plots that took place was when a poor man could not afford to raise his thirteenth child and therefore he looks for a godfather to take the responsibilities and finally selects Death because Death promises the poor man to make the child rich and famous. He chose death because, the poor man had to work day and night just to give them bread (Grimm’s 8). It was basically because of poverty that he had made the decision. He also chose Death because death treats everyone equally. He takes from the rich and the poor (Grimm’s 9). The next plot takes place when the child grows up, and Death shows him the secret of the herb. The godson indeed uses the herb to become a rich and famous doctor, but Death only allows the godson to use the herb with his permission. Death fulfilled his promi se to the poor man because he had already made the young man into a famous doctor. The next plot was when the king became ill. When Death gave his godson the herb, he quoted, â€Å" when you are called to a patient, I will always appear to you. If I stand next to the sick person’s head, you may speak boldly that you will make him healthy again... But beware of using the herb against my will, or it will turn out badly for you† (Grimm’s 9). Now when the king became ill, Death appeared at the sick man’s feet, which meant he had to die. The doctor thought to himself that since he is my godfather he would forgive me. The doctor therefore, turned the bed so that De...

Panera Bread Business

Panera Bread Business Company Background Founded in 1981 by Ron Shaich and Louis Kane, the famous Panera Bread Company started operating under the brand name Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. It first grew along the United States’ east coast before it was internationalized between early 1980’s to 1990’s. This immense growth had the implication of making the company a dominant business operator in the category of bakery-cafe. In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. bought St.Louis Bread Company. At the time of this acquiring, St.Louis Bread Company had 20 bakery cafes. In 1993 to 1997, the company recorded an increment of 75 percent in its mean unit volumes. This prompted the alteration of the brand name from Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. to Panera Bread Company. In 1997, the Panera Bread Company recognized its capacity for growth to become a leading bread maker in the United States. However, to achieve this noble potential, heavy investment of monetary resources was required.Advertising We will write a custo m case study sample on Panera Bread Business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Indeed, in 1999, the company completed a transaction involving a sale of the business units of Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. only remaining with those of the Panera Bread Company. With regard to Panera Bread, after the completion of this transaction, â€Å"the companys stock has grown thirteen-fold, and over $1 billion shareholder value has been created† (Para. 5). The company acquired the title of the best performer under the category of restaurants with 1, 5, and 10-year shareholders’ returns. Later, in 2007, Panera Bread Company also purchased paradise bakery and cafe. As Panera Bread points out, â€Å"in March 2012, the company announced that Bill Moreton and Ron Shaich would both assume the roles of chief executive officers† (Para. 2). Currently, Shaich acts as the co-CEO and the chairperson of the board of directors. On the other hand, Bill Moret on is the co-CEO and the president of Panera Bread Company. As at September 2012, the company had established business presence in 44 states where it operated 1,625 bakeries. SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis involves strategic planning approaches engineered to evaluate strengths, limitations, and opportunities without negating threats that businesses face in their operation environment. Strengths are the traits that make it possible for an organization to have an advantage in comparison to other organizations. For the case of Panera Bread Company, the strengths include appealing and attractive food menus that comprise a variety of products from which customers can choose. According to Panera Bread Company Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, these products include â€Å"fresh baked goods, made-to-order sandwiches on freshly baked breads, soups, salads, custom roasted coffees, and other complementary products† (10). Due to the company’s strong financial position, it has managed to invest in cozy cafes, which create a smoothing environment for the customers. This has the impact of making the company build a strong customers’ experience.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The strength is implied in the company’s statement of goals, missions, and aims in which it stipulates that the central goal is to ensure that Panera Bread Company is the first choice of all customers who crave for sandwiches, soup, and salads. In addition to these strengths, the company has an enormous distribution ability covering a large geographic area (44 states as of Septembers 2012). It has products having relatively better quality while compared to its competitors. It has differentiated its services with the rival companies besides accumulating customers’ beliefs that the company stocks fresh breads. Besides, it has developed a powerful and win ning business strategy. Amid the above-cited strengths, Panera Bread Company encounters some weaknesses. These include the traits of Panera Bread Company that place it at a disadvantage in comparison with rival companies operating in the same industry. One of the weaknesses is the heavy investments in bread centric line of business, which means that Panera Bread Company has a narrow product line. Other weaknesses are higher prices at the company-owned stores in comparison to the franchises, declining customer service, and customer preferences. In particular, alterations of preferences and customer tastes may make them consider opting for buying more nutritious food items in other restaurants. Contextualization of this weakness introduces some chances that the company may consider as existing external chances, which, while utilized, may make it improve its performance. They include international expansions and opening of new outlets to tap the growth potential within the suburban mar kets. The fact that the company has a weakness of narrow product line introduces an opportunity for introduction of new items in the product line. On the other hand, Panera Bread Company encounters external chances that impair its performance. These are threats to the operation of the company. They include lawsuits, government regulations, and competition from rival companies such as Sturbucks and Mc Donald among other local and international restaurants offering fast foods. In the context of lawsuits and drawing from Panera Bread Company Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the company admits that it is â€Å"subjected to other routine legal proceedings, claims, and litigations in the ordinary course of its business† (10).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Panera Bread Business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This requires heavy commitment of financial resources and management attention. Saturation of the mark et creates another incredible threat. The company would encounter challenges in getting strategic places for opening new outlets consistent with its strategic plan of enhancing profitability through rapid expansion. Strategies to attack major problems faced by Panera Bread Panera Bread Company encounters several problems in the derivation of its strategic plans to enhance a continuous growth in an environment that is saturated by a variety of companies offering similar or substitute products. One of the problems of the company is that it offers products in its company-owned stores at prices that are higher than the franchises. A significant reason for these differences is the need to gain higher profit margins to cater for the costs of running the business-associated issues that are extrinsic from the control of the company such as the cost of settlement of lawsuits filed against the company by past employees. For instance, in 2009, Nick Sotoudeh filed a case costing the company 5 m illion dollars in its settlement (Panera Bread Company Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q 2 4). In 2010, Corey Weiner, Caroll Ruiz, and Denarius Lewis filed another case against the company costing 1.5 million dollars in its resolution (Panera Bread Company Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q 2 4). To meet this cost to ensure that Panera Bread Company is able to offer bread at its own stores at competitive prices, it is crucial that the company results to intensive growth. On the positive side, growth is vital since it will provide the necessary economies of scale. This means that the company will remain profitable amid making small profit margins for every product sold. The negative side of this strategic move qualifies as a technique of enhancing growth such as forming joint ventures with other big competitors such as McDonald who will deprive the company of its executive control power. Panera Bread Company is likely to experience the problem of reduced profitability due to narrow product li nes. To resolve this problem, it is crucial that it focuses on widening its product lines. This strategic move will, on the positive side, help in drawing more customers to its stores. Hence, the revenue will also hike. On the other hand, the strategic move will increase the logistical costs and other costs associated with service delivery at the stores. Therefore, under certain circumstances, increment in revenues would be outweighed by the resulting additional costs.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Somewhat different from the above two strategic moves, to address the challenge of how to increase revenues, the company can resolve to recruit more franchises besides opening more stores that are company-owned. On the positive end, this would increase revenues. On the other hand, increasing the number of company-owned stores would truncate into recruiting more staff, a case that increases the risk of experiencing more employees’ filed lawsuits. Another strategy that has not perhaps been considered by the company is focusing on extending its services away from America and Canada to other continents of the world. On the positive side, this would increase the sales of the company since being global implies meeting new fresh markets in which the company can develop products consistent with the demand requirements. Unfortunately, the option would expose the company to different political, legal, and cultural environments. Consequently, Panera Bread Company would have to change so me of its practices to match the new demand. For instance, there might be a conflict between the accounting standards. The company deploys the U.S’ GAAP, which might contradict the national generally accepted accounting principles of the new nations in the global space. Strategy that works With the current financial and business environment of the Panera Bread, the best option for dealing with the challenge of the need to increase profitability of the company is via recruitment of more franchises besides opening company- owned stores within Canada and America. Hence, I would open 300 new company-owned stores and franchises at the first phase of expansion of Panera Bread Company. The rationale for this strategy is based on the argument that, as evidenced by the estimations of good will in its balance sheet, the company has an immense market value. Additionally, in comparison to potential competing companies, Panera Bread Company has an incredible market position by virtue of i ts strengths. However, as argued before, the market is highly saturated with restaurants. Hence, there is a dominant challenge of acquiring buildings in strategic places within many cities where the company may consider as having the requisite market segment it targets. Additionally, at the entry level, many of these competing restaurants have the will and ability to pose competitive challenges to the company at the new franchises and or company-owned stores since they will have secured their market share. However, given the brand image and the quality of products and services offered by Panera Bread, the company has probabilities of getting some of this market share to build the clientele level at the new stores and franchises. The claim holds especially when it invests to improve its service delivery experience to levels above those of the existing restaurants in the new markets. Utilizing the strategy of growth through recruitment of more franchises and company-owned stores is pa rticularly significant in enhancing Panera Bread Company’s competitive position since it will make it develop the capacity to take a full advantage of the economies of scale. At the current size of Panera Bread Company, attempts to exploit the markets of all continents of the world are found unworthy due to many standards and legal compliance issues, which go into adding the cost of running the company. Implementation of the strategy In the implementation of the strategy of recruiting more franchises and opening of new company-operated stores, several considerations are vital before the implementation process kicks off. In the first place, this strategy needs financing. It is thus vital to consider whether the financial position of the company and the anticipated incomes can support the strategy. If not, it is critical to consider whether there are alternative sources of finance. Fortunately, with regard to Panera Bread Annual Report on Form 10-K, the company charges a  "franchise fee of $35,000 per bakery-cafe (of which it generally receives $5,000 at the signing of the ADA and $30,000 at or before the bakery-cafe opening)† (4). By noting that Panera Bread Company does not support the construction of the franchises, the money raised through the fees is utilizable in opening of the additional company-owned stores. According to Panera Bread Annual Report on Form 10-K, the company also has accessibility to a loan facility of 250 million dollars as an additional source of capital (3). Similar to the old food dealers like Mc Donald, the implementation of the strategy proposed above means the focus would entail opening a store or franchise and then waiting for the customer to do the purchasing. Based on the experience he or she gains with the product, he or she becomes loyal and hence a regular customer. Therefore, the strategy is customer-centric. For the success of such a strategy, it is crucial that an organization possesses the capability to p enetrate new markets. It should develop services and products, which create an immense appeal to the customers besides possessing the capacity to offer outstanding customer services (Wheelen and Hunger 851). Fortunately, these are some of the strengths of Panera Bread Company. With these strengths, the challenges in the implementation process rests in the development of customer-centric growth strategies in the new company-owned stores and franchises. I would accomplish the implementation of the strategy from three customer-centric paradigms. These are identification of core business, creation of propositions that have high value and impacts, and focusing on businesses that are highly linked to the core business of the company. Determination of the core business of the new stores starts with the identification of the core business that will be conducted in the stores and the franchises. In other words, expansion through the opening of new stores and franchises is not done blindly bu t rather with considerations of geographic areas and channels that would help to generate the highest amount of revenues. Therefore, before the company’s financial resources are committed to opening and subsequent running of the stores, profitability benchmarking and evaluation of the reputation of the company within the new geographical areas are necessary. In this approach, the stakeholders of the company are fully involved in the implementation process. Some of the stakeholders that I would include are non-loyal and loyal customers of the existing stores. The views of the loyal customers on why they embrace the products of the company are critical success factors of the strategy implementation. They would help in incorporating the attributes of the company that attract them in the new stores and franchises. On the other hand, the views of the disloyal customers create opportunities of establishing new stores that have improved customer service experience. This would help t o avoid replication of the past mistakes in the new franchises and stores. Arguably, this step of implementation of the project involves planning and analysis stage. It would take six months and an estimated cost of $ 210, 000. The second implementation step is the creation of propositions that have high values and impacts on the sub-segments of the potential customers. Based on the results of the first step discussed above, sub-segmentation of the customers’ groups in the new franchises and stores based on the found needs and anticipated buying patterns coupled with the profit contributions of the forecasted sales are vital in setting of a mechanism of reaping most from the new markets. This mechanism encompasses creation and innovation of value propositions targeting the sub-segments that are likely to be most attractive. This step is followed by conducting a field test of the impacts of the propositions. Based on the results of the field tests, scaling up is done. This ste p of the implementation process of the strategy is the analysis phase of the project. It is anticipated to take about 3-31/2 months. Its budget is $1 million. Most of this money caters for the wage expenses of analysts and data collection staff. Lastly, there is a need to focus on businesses that are highly linked to the core business of the company. The need implies that, after conducting a number of field tests and analyzing the potential of the success of the growth strategy, the next course of action will be to channel the resources of the company to open stores and accept franchise requests in areas that are likely to have large clientele. The point here is that there is no need of investing in an area where no substantive sales can be made to make the stores break even in the shortest time possible. Thus, the idea is to open stores selectively depending on the competitiveness of the market segments and sub-segments. Conclusion/Evaluation of Strategy’s success Upon imple mentation of the growth strategy, it is crucial to evaluate its success capacity. In the context of the proposed strategy for solving the problems of the Panera Bread Company, success refers to the accomplishment of the predicted outcomes when the strategy is implemented. The desired outcome is the increment of the revenue levels of the new stores and franchises such that the stores would be able to break even in the shortest time possible. On the other hand, it is desired that the new franchises end up being profitable so that Panera Bread Company can get substantive royalties. Measuring success calls for the evaluation of the strategy on its capacity to realize the core objective of the company. Measuring success in the context of the strategy for growth of the Panera Bread Company takes six approaches. In the first place, the strategy is implemented within fixed timelines. Therefore, one of the measurable success factors is whether the various time schedules for the strategy impl ementation were accomplished within the set timeframes. The other success factor is the degree to which the scope of the growth strategy has been released. The original plan is to open 300 stores and franchises. Thus, success is measured in terms of the number of the new company-owned stores and franchises opened. Thirdly, the implementation of the strategy must be consistent with the set budget. Consequently, the degree of success of the strategy is measurable from the context of the degree to which the implemented strategy complies with the budget constraints. Fourthly, it was argued in the implementation section that the overall goal of the strategy is to focus on opening stores in regions that will attract large clientele only who would get loyalty based on the company’s products. Thus, success may be measured from the dimension of the degree of customers’ loyalty, which is measurable through customers’ satisfaction levels. Unfortunately, satisfaction is onl y measurable qualitatively (either happy or unhappy). A subtle strategy of organizational growth needs to reduce the weakness and threats of an organization within the new operational centers. For this purpose, SWOT analysis is vital in determining whether the threats and weaknesses of the old stores and franchises have been replicated in the new geographical locations of the Panera Bread company-owned stores and franchises. Lastly, the success of the strategy may be measured in terms of the improvements of service quality in the new company-owned stores and franchises. Therefore, the growth sort for Panera Bread Company is not only in terms of numbers of stores and franchises but also in terms of increased quality service delivery in every new company-owned store or franchise that opens. Measuring success this way is inspired by the argument that learning organizations stand better chances of success than those, which do not learn. Panera Bread Annual Report on Form 10-K. Annual R eport Pursuant To Section 13 Or 15(D) Of The Securities Exchange Act Of 1934 For The Fiscal Year Ended December 27, 2011. Web. Panera Bread Company Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Quarterly Report Pursuant To Section 13 Or 15(D) of the Securities Exchange Act Of 1934 For the quarterly period ended September 25, 2012. Web. Panera Bread. Company Overview. Web. Wheelen, Thomas, and David Hunger. Strategic Management and business policy. New Jersey, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

How To Create Effective Visual Content With Ashton Hauff from CoSchedule [AMP 032] - CoSchedule Blog

How To Create Effective Visual Content With Ashton Hauff from [AMP 032] Blog Have you ever said, â€Å"make it pop,† to your graphic designer? While you know what you mean, it’s likely that your graphic designer does not have the same mental image you do. Today’s episode is going to be about collaborating with your designer to make an amazing image that pops the way you want it to. It’s all about communication! How Ashton got into design and why she loves it. Why digital design is such an important part of the marketing process, as well as why some types of design just add visual clutter and are ineffective. How Ashton makes sure that her designs are intentional and relevant to the blog posts or projects she’s working on. She also talks about how she goes about storytelling through her designs. Tips on finding a theme and settling on colors for a particular project. Why communication is an integral part of the design process. Some of the problems that designers can encounter when they’re working with marketing teams. Why it’s so important that a marketing team trust the designer’s expertise. How marketers can work with designers when there’s something they don’t like in the image. Why simplicity matters for high-quality designs, as well as why simple designs can be challenging to create. Why agility is important, as well as how much Ashton creates over the course of a week. Examples of times when things just went wrong with Ashton’s design process, including what ended up being the problem and lessons she learned. Ashton’s vision of the future of design in marketing, as well as her advice for people just getting started in design. Links: Ashton’s archive on Latent Semantic Indexing blog post .com Lynda.com Canva.com If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Ashton: â€Å"Design is such a huge part of marketing because we’re such a visually led society.† â€Å"You have to know what story you’re telling before you jump into design.† â€Å"You have to trust that your designer knows what they’re doing. There are a lot of elements to design that the everyday person doesn’t notice. We see all of the different layers that make that piece what it is.† â€Å"Over-communicate early on. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.†

Reflecting on critique Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflecting on critique - Assignment Example We try to freeze the moment with the help of photography, capture the history that is why photography is something that shows us what happened and will never repeat again. That is why the art of photography as a genre is complicated in terms of time, authenticity, and artistic value. Photographic image is completely different from all the other types of images as it possesses great power and potency. It is capable of telling a story, serving as the evidence of the event or a person and at the same time retrieved from the context it can become a pure visual form. Traditionally photography served as a means of documentation of social and family life, and as soon as it appeared it became a privilege of certain classes. For a long time any portrait photography remained a luxury, an exclusive thing, a product that emphasized social status first of all and was affordable only to higher classes of society. Miniature or big family portraits adorned bedrooms of those who could afford going to salons to take a picture (Tagg, 1988, 53). In a broader sense documentary photography aimed to depict such events and circumstances that were inaccessible or not easily accessible. Documentary photography flourished during historically important events initially, such as American Civil War for instance, when whole photography archives were created. That type of photography was based on the principle of objectivity and trustfulness, and photography was and still remains a means of information transfer for a long time. With media empowering photojournalism became a separate type of documentation based on the capacity to demonstrate the information that is unknown or hidden (Stapp, 2007, 691). Later photography became a pure visual art in which depiction of reality and its documentation has lost its primary significance. Fashion, travelling magazines made artistic photography goods for selling. Photography has turned into a product as people learned how to evoke the

Plurilingualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Plurilingualism - Essay Example As per the council records, German Language is the most widely spoken mother tongue while English, French, and Italian follow in this order. English is the most spoken foreign language with French and German following it. About 56% of european union citizens can hold a conversation in one language apart from their mother tongue. (Eurobarometer 243) Since the setting up of EU, there has been more close relationships between member countries in all the spheres such a economic, trade, education etc. The different cultures and languages in different countries is causing problems in day-to-day routine functioning as people are unable to freely disuss issues. This has necessitated the need for people who are able to understand more than one language. Plurilingualism, therefore can also be defined as the wide range of attempts to stabilize multilingual societies by fostering high levels of individual plurilingual competence. This approach places focus on Language teaching and learning, This also encompasses all categories of linguistic rights, legislation, policies, that affect the relationships between different communities. In this context, the Council of Europe, which closely monitors the linguistic and cultural environment in the continent, is now focusing on the language teaching and learning process. It has decided to encourage the concept of plurilingualism such that people of European union are able to freely mingle with each other. This basically is not only the need to converse in more than one language but the need to understand and appreciate cultures or ideas different from one's own. It now becomes a much broader concept dealing with the understanding of different cultures and languages. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, drawn up by Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe is a document that sets out to popularize plurilingualism. (Council of Europe, 1996) The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, or CEFR, was put together by the Council of Europe as the main part of the project "Language Learning for European Citizenship" between 1989 and 1996. It is aimed to provide a method of assessing and teaching which applies to all languages in Europe. Thus because of plurilingualism, an individual person's experience of language in its cultural contexts expands and he builds up a communicative skill to which all knowledge and experience of language contributes. Thus a person can easily achieve effective communication with different people understanding different languages. This language policy fosters the capacity to coexist. The pluricultural education enables th e citizens to accept differences between different cultures, establish constructive relations with others, solve conflicts by nonviolent means, take on responsibilities, participate in decision-making and use mechanisms to protect people's rights. Since language is the most important social and cultural mark of identity, the education for plurilingualism and pluriculturalism promotes tolerance of other's viewpoint and remove the obstacles that hinder people's active participation in an increasingly globalized world. The knowledge and use of other languages other than one's mother tongue can be our safeguard in the fight

Prove the The Great Flood in the Holy Bible is the truth using science Research Paper

Prove the The Great Flood in the Holy Bible is the truth using science - Research Paper Example According to the Bible, Noah and his three sons survived the flood in a wooden ark, along with hundreds of animals representing every species on earth. All other living beings perished, and the ones surviving today are all descendants of the survivors of the Great flood. Described in great detail in the Book of Genesis (6-9), this event has witnessed ample speculation from all quarters of the world, and scientists and explorers have set out to unveil its mysteries. Through this paper, I intend to prove in light of sound scientific evidence, that the Great flood cited in the Bible is a real event that occurred thousands of years ago, and that Noah and his ark really existed. Keywords: Great flood, Noah's Ark, fossil graveyards, coal beds, Polystrate Fossils, Coconino Sandstones , Genetic pool, Mt Ararat The "Great Flood"- In Light of Scientific Evidence The Holy Bible states that God wished to wipe out all sin from the surface of the earth and that all humans were subjected to Godâ₠¬â„¢s wrath except a few who were righteous. A great flood destroyed every living being on earth, while Noah and his family survived in a huge wooden ark, which he built with God's guidance. A pair of every animal, male and female, was taken to safety in the Ark, while rain lashed on earth for a period of forty days and forty nights. â€Å"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights† (Gen. 7:11-12, New International Version). Noah's three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth, along with a few others, survived the flood, and mankind was repopulated from them. The Bible further cites that Noah's ark rested on Mount Ararat after the flood waters subsided. In view of this revelation, innumerable scientific expeditions have explored the Ararat mountain range in Asia Minor, in s earch of Noah's Ark. An object resembling a ship's bow has already been found, jutting out of mud and lava atop the mountains. The Turkish Air Force was the first to notice this object. Porcher Taylor, a professor at the University of Richmond confirmed its presence, after a long period of study through satellite imagery. Surprisingly, the dimensions of this object perfectly correlate to the dimensions of Noah's Ark described in the Bible. Following this discovery, many other expeditions have investigated the area, unearthing wood, anchors made from stone, and other remains of what might have been an ark. No matter how spell bounding such a discovery may seem, it is imperative to decipher the events of the great deluge in light of scientific evidence and data from recent expeditions. In order to prove that the great flood was an actual reality and not just a mythological event inscribed in ancient literature, I wish to put forth the following conditions, which if true, refute all po ssible arguments against the possibility of the great flood: 1. Fossil evidence suggesting fossilization under rapid conditions 2. Geological evidence of a global flood 3. Evidence of abundant water, enough to cover the surface of the Earth 4. Genetic dead-end due to lack of genetic

FedEx Strategy at the Business, Corporate, and Network Levels Term Paper

FedEx Strategy at the Business, Corporate, and Network Levels - Term Paper Example Federal Express' clients ranged from large scale business to individual customers that required a wide range of services. As such, Federal Express needed to find a way to meet the needs of the various groups of customers that it provided services to. By streamlining its operations and by integrating its various systems, the company was able to develop a customer logistics management segment of its business to cater especially to its large-scale business clients that required such service (Conley et al, 2000). This included providing warehousing and distribution services that cut the costs for its business customers. Such strategy demonstrates the company's way of dealing with the paradox of market adaptation and resource leveraging. Having identified the needs of its clientele, FedEx used the extensive resource base it had in order to meet these needs. Since the company had established a logistics infrastructure, it merely put to good use the resources it already had. Federal Express understood the value of information for all its clients. As such, it continuously searched for various ways to improve the transfer of information between itself and its customers. Even before the FedEx website was launched in 1994, the company had already developed a number of computer programs and systems that allowed customers to acquire the information they needed regarding shipments including ordering and tracking. This is another demonstration of the company's ability to use its resources in order to adapt to the demands in the market. Since the demand was for better information sources, FedEx used its IT expertise in order to come up with a system that meets such needs.The acquisition became the strategy to better meet the needs of Federal Express Customers. After officially acquiring Parts Bank in 1988, FedEx, later on, acquired Caliber Systems in 1998. This enabled FedEx to create a corporation which had the ability to meet most, if not all, of the logistics and transportation needs of companies. Furthermore, FedEx underwent a process of reorganization wherein certain subsidiaries were combined.