Aviva Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Aviva Case study - Essay Example t model proposed by Kurt Lewin can be considered as an important change management model that can help an organisation to address problems and challenges in its decision to adopting and implementing change in business operation process. This three phase change management model consists of three stages, such as unfreeze, movement and refreeze (Neelin, 2010, p.91). These three steps have been discussed with respect to the case study of Aviva. The management of Aviva should try to adopt and implement this change management process before implementation of the newly developed strategy of job cutting across its global business operation. Unfreeze is the first and more important stage of this change management model. It is clear from the news that the management of Aviva has decided to job-cutting across globe in order to reduce the overall business operation cost. This sudden decision and implementation of this decision can affect the business process of the organization as it can demoralise several effective employees to perform effectively. Most importantly, it can create fear among each and every employee that he or she may be axed. Therefore, Unfreezing can be considered as an important stage as in this stage the managers or leaders of the organization as it is their responsibility to inform the sub-ordinates and followers within an organisation to be ready for change. Therefore, it is important for the leaders to notif y the employees of the Aviva about newly decided change process way before implementation of this strategy (Liu, 2011, p.89). Aviva is one of the leading organisations around the globe. Therefore, it is highly important to attract the attention of the global employees regarding this decided change management process so that the management of the organisation can avoid the issues, such as workplace conflicts and inadequate business output (Marcus, 2010, p.12). Movement can be considered as another important step of this model. In this step the

Sports And Active Lifestyles Children And Young People Essay

Sports And Active Lifestyles Children And Young People Essay Unfortunately, youth sport has for a long time, and still is, being organised, run and taught by persons who draw on their personal philosophies in their approaches. i)Discuss the dangers of this. ii)Which are the main areas within youth sport which need to be considered to shape such philosophical standpoints of people working with youth in sport? Introduction In many aspects of our life we find people who, either directly or indirectly, influence the path we follow to achieve growth towards reaching our future goals. Such influencing people could be parents, teachers, mentors, coaches, nursery leaders, policy makers and any other role model position we may encounter. They do so in line with their philosophy on that particular aspect of life, for which they are responsible to guide us through the path of success. Their philosophy is built from the theoretical knowledge they acquired in their own educational phase of life as well as through their practical experience in the area they are assigned to lead. This applies in particular to people who are trusted to work with our children in various sports disciplines. Parents still insist that their children should engage in organized sport for several reasons. Since six decades ago, there has been a growing belief that leaving child activities under the informal control of children themselves may lead to antisocial behaviour when they grow up. (Coakley, 2009) argues that many adults believe that this lack of control is eliminated by organised sports through which they constructively control their childrens activities. However it is of utmost importance that those who work in youth sport and policymakers adopt the right philosophy that encourages sport participation of youths in the long term. Individuals who are involved into such youth programmes ought to be aware about researched material that may be used to adjust the programmes to better serve the child interest, even when this goes against their philosophy. Negative Outcomes Participation is unlikely to persist when stubbornly sticking to the point of view of the adult whose way of thinking may be in conflict with that of the youth. One has to keep in mind the interest of the child; the fun aspect of the sport itself. Children tend to stray away from adult invasion into their sport. They like to create their own games, their own worlds, therefore forcing them to participate into organised activities might lead them into a path they do not want. (Gill, 2007) mentions several arguments in favour of exposing our children to environments where a degree of risks is involved, as opposed to institutionalised sports. We actually do children a disservice by trying to eliminate risks from their lives as they grow up (Gill, 2012). When children are allowed to experience risky situations, they learn practical skills, such as swimming, cycling and road safety, that help them manage similar situations and protect themselves in the outside world. In addition, if not allowed to experience risks, children tend to seek out situations that may potentially be too dangerous. In other words, children like the challenges present in risky situations. Parents usually fear the fact that the environment outside of home has become such a dangerous place for children. They feel more security by trusting their children to coaching methods that are sometimes found to be counterproductive. This ideology may sometimes expose our children to occasional high injury rates from organised youth sport such as stress fractures and other injuries caused by overuse. (Micheli, 1990) suggests certification of coaches as a part of the solution. In a study on US youth sports, (Seefeldt Ewing, 1992) found that there was a drop from 25% to 3% in sport participation from the ages of 10 to 18 respectively. This huge withdrawal was attributed to the competitive nature of sports in males. (Biddle, et al., 2005) drew similar conclusions for females. (Cotà ¨ Wall, 2007) postulate that children who do not experience fun in sport at their early ages, tend to drop out from the activity because they lack the intrinsic motivation to keep on participating. This hinders the higher level skills they would have obtained later on in their sports career. (Abbott Collins, 2002) propose that if youths do not engage successfully into sport activities at the participative phase (up to eight years of age) they will most likely lack self-efficacy beliefs which are necessary to persist in being physically active through life. (Coakley, 2009) mentions ample literature from critics of adult-organised sports that argues on many shortcomings of this approach. The presence of parents watching their child playing an organised, competitive game that is customised for adults is counterproductive both mentally and physically to the child. Some children make it clear that they feel most parents come to see them playing just to criticise them both during and after a game, making them feel embarrassed. Even worse, this sends the wrong message to children that physical activity and sport is there only for the young, given that their parents are always sitting there as spectators. Children are not to be treated as miniature adults; some youth sports organisations expose children to too little practice and too many competitions when studies show it should be the other way round. Equipment and rules are sometimes not suitable to the age and ability levels of children. Main Areas to be Considered Up to the young age of two years, children look for pleasure from discovering and mastering attempts. Up to around six years of age children exhibit an egocentric character. Starting from the age of five youngsters enter the social comparison phase in which they start to compare what they have and what they do with their peers. This is usually interpreted as a sign of the childs interest in competition. This phase continues to strengthen until the age of twelve. Children younger than twelve may find it difficult to get the full understanding of their role in a competition. To encourage participation the rules of the game must be modified to suit their developmental capabilities (Richardson, 2007). It is also suggested that children in this age range are  exposed to a variety of sports as well as different positional variations in each sport. To be ready for competitive sports, young individuals need to fully develop their physical, cognitive and social abilities. Several studies suggest that children start to develop their cognitive and social abilities at around the age of eight and these abilities are expected to reach their required levels at the age of twelve (Coakley, 2009). In fact literature shows that the ideal age of introducing competitive strategies is at the ages of twelve to fifteen, also known as the transitional phase, and children under eight years of age should not be put into competitive roles. Research consistently shows the attraction of children to freedom in whatever they do (Gill, 2007). The traditional sports organised by adults tend to focus more on rules as opposed to informal sports that emphasise action, an approach that shows more positive outcomes (Coakley, 2009). One of the benefits of rules is to allow for safety. However, (Mullarkey) maintains that We must try to make life as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. Rules from organised games should be modified in such a way to allow for more action and personal involvement and to keep the difference in scores as low as possible. On the other hand, action must meet the requirements to strengthen personal involvement, excitement, decision making and interpersonal relationships between participants. When working with children one should not assume that the social and cognitive abilities are already fully developed in sports. (Bandura, 1997) stresses the importance of both perceived and actual competence in an individuals decision to both engage in and maintain involvement in an activity. Actual competence widens the choice of sport for the individual while perceived competence provides the drive to persist in the sport even when difficulties are met. Therefore, if a broad range of psychomotor skills have been successfully developed from a young age, the literature suggests these will act as a basis for subsequent involvement as well as equipping individuals with the ability to make appropriate participation choices. In informal sports, one must be careful not to allow any form of bullying, patronising of girls when playing with boys and exclusion. The role of the adults should be that of a guide who ensures safety, encourages participation, mediates disputes and not to impose organised sports rules. Sometimes informal games may require more play space, but this can be overcome by creativity from the coach. Creativity is also a quality that is strengthened on the child when exposed to an informal setup. Children get the message that in life they have make decisions and not always follow repetitive rules. Conclusion The above review suggests that in todays society, coaches, organisations and parents should be well aware of questions and issues which need to be addressed when involving themselves into organised youth sport programmes. People who work in youth sports must keep their mind open to new ideas and they should educate themselves to keep their knowledge up to date on the current studies in the field. To the contrary of adult sports, when dealing with youths, in particular at the participative level coaches need to emphasise less on structure and more on variety to keep motivation at high levels. Rather than early specialisation the ultimate goal is to make the child physically literate.

Pro Legalization of Marijuana Essay examples -- essays research papers

Cannabis has been illegal since the Marijuana Tax act of 1934. Yet out of a population of 284 million American citizens, 70 million Americans claim to have smoked cannabis at some point in their lives. Prohibition of cannabis is therefore apparently ineffective at changing the habits of a population, just as prohibition of alcohol was ineffective in 1919-1933. Making otherwise law-abiding citizens fugitives does nothing more than fill the prisons and alienate the populace from their government. In fact the total cost to taxpayers of solely marijuana-related incarceration (in local, state, and federal prisons and jails) of 15,400 people exceeds $1.2 million per year. There have been many studies performed to try to prove that the effects of marijuana are worse than other medications. Unfortunately, 9 out of 10 of the studies found that marijuana is in fact safer than many of our everyday prescription and over the counter drugs. Never in United States history has their been even one case of someone dieing or being injured from the use of marijuana an illegal drug. But every year many people die from use of Americas popular legal drugs. A combined 50,000 plus people die a year from use of over the counter drugs. 90 percent of these deaths are caused by aspirin and caffeine pills. 150,000 plus people die a year from over use of alcohol. Not including the fact that alcohol is the main reason for 50 percent of all motor vehicle accidents and the cause of 60 percent of all murders in the United States. Tobacco, another of Americas highly used legal drugs kills close to 500,000 people per year. If the government did legalize marijuana the National debt would be greatl... ...have found evidence that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and other cannabinoids have a direct effect on pain signals in the central nervous system, by tracing the biochemical pathway that pain signals follow from the site of an injury, through the spinal cord, to the brain. How can you ignore a drug that aids in the relief of these terminal diseases? Marijuana is more effective than conventional drugs in many instances. Denying cannabis treatment to the sick and dying is cruel and unnecessary. Marijuana has and will drastically help the people of our country in many ways. The terminally ill patients and anyone that uses marijuana does not pose a threat to the public in any way shape or form and there for, with all these facts stated the United States clearly needs to rethink there marijuana laws and legalize this drug of wonders for public use.

Cisco’s Strategy in Recessionary Times Essay

Executive Summary This report is an examination into the strategic management practices used by Cisco Systems, Inc., over the dot com bubble from 1997 to 2000 and an overview of Cisco as a company, and its acquisitions over the past 20 years. The report was created by Alex Quigley, Eoin McCrann and Daniel Ozac, as part of a continuous assessment deliverable as part of BSHCE3, Hons Degree in  computing at the National College of Ireland. It is supported by a PowerPoint presentation of the same name, in the attached appendix. Introduction The report will first review the literature used during the research of the topic and outline the types of information resources used during the reports generation and an overview of these findings. There is an attached overview of Cisco as a company (Appendix A) which outlines how it was founded, and its current market position, and a brief history. Next, we will take a high level overview of their strategy and then identify the key strategic tools used by the company and how they differed at the time from their competitors in this regard. Next we will look in detail at Cisco’s acquisitions over the past 20 years since the company formed, and how this particular strategy was affected by the crash. After this we will look at Cisco’s financials and how their strategy has enabled such large growth. The importance of their strategic choices in developing this financial growth, and finally some of the possible risks associated with the key strategic tools used by the company during this period. Finally, a conclusion and summary of our findings and an appendix for the resource references used during the research, and an appendix of financial information. Literature Review  From the outset the base for all our research started with the case study (Indu, 2010). This gave us a very good overview of the company and how it has, over the past 20 years, faced great triumph in the face of adversity, and bounced back, particularly after difficult times throughout the company’s history In particular during recessionary times such as the dot com crash and the recent global economic downturn. The course notes from BSHCE3 Strategic Management were used to identify the key strategic management tools. Wikipedia was also liberally used to identify and further expand on some of these tools, their founders and also  as a high level overview of Cisco as a company. Other online resources that proved very informative during research were CNN and in particular the money section of the website which maintains detailed information on a large number of companies, and the NASDAQ website which also maintains (as expected) detailed stock and financial information. It’s also worth mentioning that Cisco’s own website is very informative, with detailed financial and organizational structure. Strategic Overview From the case study delivered during class (Indu, 2010) it is clear that Cisco’s goal was to increase market share and maintain a sustained growth. Added to this continued improvement to customer and supplier relations. The company’s current mission statement states that; ‘Cisco’s mission is to shape the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors, and ecosystem partners.’ (Cisco.com) With a strong customer focus at the core of their business, another strategy employed by Cisco is to position themselves close to not only the customer but suppliers too. This closeness and strength of supplier relations allows Cisco to respond quickly to changing customer and in fact market demands and trends. One of the strategic applications to enable growth and innovation was the use of acquisitions. From 1993 to present day Cisco has acquired over 150 companies in a wide range of Information Technology and Networking sectors. This is facilitating gaining and maintaining competitive advantage. However, proving the strength of the management and effective adaptation, Cisco has been able to change their strategy when required and in 2000, after the dot com bubble burst, its highly successful strategy of procurement was abandoned and under the leadership of John Chambers, the  company was able to successfully tighten its purse string, downsize the business and successfully ride out the storm. This leads to another strategy employed by Cisco, and one that has not been helped employee relations, the choice to downsize during periods of economic or market downturn. This retrenchment again shows Cisco’s effective adaptation, but has led to issues with morale among employees. Ciscos core business is networks, communication and information technology. So it is no surprise that in parallel to providing companies with the tools and information systems seen as ‘strategically important’, they themselves view these systems as paramount to the company’s success. Examples of this are the ‘bug alert’ system implemented in 93 and even earlier, the FTP site a database to allow customers and developers improve existing components and systems. One defining factor in all Cisco’s strategic choices has been to stick to the knitting. As Peter Drucker stated; ‘Think through the overall mission of a business, and ask the question: What is our business?’ In Cisco’s case, their business through numerous acquisitions and strategic changes has essentially remained the same. Chambers believed that there are 4 key elements that a company needs in order to survive a recession; 1. Being realistic about the CAUSE of your challenges – don’t just blame a recession, focus internally as well, is there something you’re doing as well? 2. Try to determine the length and intensity of the downturn – then respond appropriately 3. Prepare for the upturn – Survive and thrive, gain market share 4. Expand customer relationships – customers can give insight into when the recession may end And this isn’t always the best strategy, as it does not allow for innovation internally within the organisation. The lack of intrapreneurship has led to poor company ratings in terms of ‘great place to work’ scores. In order for Cisco to get new products or enter into a new market, they generally have to purchase a new company rather than use organic growth or in-house smarts. Their competitors on the other hand employ strategies of organic growth and are less inclined to purchase companies in order to gain entry into different markets. However there have been some key acquisitions that allowed direct competition to Cisco, which will be discussed in more detail in the next section. Cisco through every recession have maintained large assets and cash. They saw it as vital in order to survive. This allowed them to make bold decisions when most companies are cutting back, and also respond immediately when the market begins to pick up again. Something competitors have had difficulty with. Acquisition Timeline As stated previously, Cisco’s core business has been a factor in the type of businesses acquired over the company’s history. From 1993 to 2000, there was a sustained level of acquisition, increasing year on year. During this time Cisco has acquired over 150 companies, most of which were US based. Figure [ 1 ]| However, it’s clear from ‘Figure 1’ above that after the crash in 2000, Cisco drastically decreased acquisitions with only one acquisition in 2001. In the two years previous to this Cisco had acquired an amazing total of 40 companies. And once again in 2008 the company slowed acquisitions to match the downturn in demand for their products. Although not as drastically as 2001. They used these times to focus on new emerging markets, and develop new technologies. Figure [ 2 ]| Most of these businesses were related to the area of Computer Networking, Lan Switching, Gateways and Routers. This is in keeping with Cisco’s strategy of ‘stick to the knitting’. Second to these is the VOIP technology sector. By 2004, Cisco had returned to its acquisition strategy and sustains this level for a number of years. What is interesting is if you map the NASDAQ composite index, which is heavily populated with IT related companies; it almost perfectly matches the acquisition timeline for Cisco, as can be seen  in ‘Figure 3’ below. Figure [ 3 ]| Cisco didn’t just acquire the companies and integrate the management of them into their own structure. For the most part these companies were allowed to continue as individual entities, and keep their existing structure and organisational managers. Competitors Acquisitions Hewlett Packard One of Cisco’s competitors is HP, the computer hardware and software giant. In 2008, HP acquired Colubris Networks. Colubris Networks provide organizations with advanced wireless networking solutions that unify and integrate with existing network infrastructures, as well as security and management systems. This was an attempt by HP to try and take market share of Cisco’s strong hold on network infrastructure, and in this case the wireless LAN market. In 2009, HP purchased 3COM, the digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network infrastructure products, for $2.7 billion. This was a huge strategic move from HP to strengthen their position in the market which Cisco has been controlling. HP realized there were large gaps in its product line, mainly network switching, which would take too long to fill organically and needed a quick-fix. HP wanted to take on Cisco in this sector, and 3Com wanted to expand outside of China. This acquisition meant the Introduction of low-cost switches, which was a competitive advantage that Cisco was unable to match. Juniper Networks Another of Cisco’s direct competitors, Juniper networks, a networking equipment manufacturer based in Sunnyvale, California. In contrast, Juniper had no acquisitions between 2006 and 2009, and instead focused all their efforts on internal innovation and organic growth. However in 2010 they acquired Ankeena Networks for $100 million. This was a  move to directly compete against CSICO’s video conferencing market position. Ankeena Networks deliver new media infrastructure technology, and their technology is designed to help service providers deliver a better video experience on both fixed and mobile devices. Also in 2010, Juniper purchased Blackwave Networks in order to support Ankeena networks. Blackwave networks key business is to provide video storage and delivery. Both of these purchases were seen as Juniper bulking-up its video delivery capabilities in order to take on Cisco in this area. Polycom As with Juniper acquisitions in 2010, Polycom’s core business is in the area of video conferencing and in particular Telepresence and supporting infrastructure equipment. Between 2008 and 2010 they did not acquire any companies. In 2011 they acquired HP Visual Collaboration, a network and video management company for $89m. This move was in response to Cisco’s hostile $3.3bln takeover of Tandberg. The purchase was to strengthen Polycom’s position and ensure that they are strong enough to compete with Cisco. Strategic Tools A number of tools exist to assist organisations in developing strategies and insight on what industries and areas their business should focus on. Some of these are outlined below. SWOT Analysis A planning method used to determine the internal factors: strengths, and weaknesses, as well as the external factors: opportunities and threats, facing a project or organisation. The SWOT analysis helps project managers or organisations with the decision-making process. It is especially useful when considering entry into a new market, or when releasing a new product. It can be used to develop a strategy to help distinguish your organisation from your competitors. Porter’s 5 Forces A technique used to determine the intensity of competition within your market. The five forces are: threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products, and bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers and the intensity of competitive rivalry. It is used to show the relative attractiveness of a particular market, and as such helps with the decision-making process for project managers and organisations. PEST Market Analysis Tool A tool used to help understand market growth or decline. PEST is an acronym for Political/Legal, Economic, Socio-Cultural, and Technological. Like SWOT and Porter’s 5 Forces, PEST is used to analyse or review a strategy or position at a given time and then help with the decision-making process. Other Other tools include Management by Objectives (MBO), TOWS Matrix, Internal Analysis, Value Chain and BCG Portfolio Model, but for this report we will focus on the three tools above, and how they relate to Ciscos management strategy. Strategic Tools on Cisco SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis outlines internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Strengths  In terms of internal strengths, Cisco is in a very good market position for its main core products (networking equipment) and is seen as the market leader in this area. Cisco has number of alliances with major players in the market, including Microsoft and IBM. Cisco also maintains a very strong balance sheet every year, ensuring a large supply of cash is available. Weaknesses Conversely, its main weakness is the high cost of its products, when compared to its competitors (e.g. HP and their low-cost range of network switches). This is not a major problem for Cisco however, as their focus is on reliability and customer satisfaction, not beating prices with competitors. Other weaknesses include the lack of a presence in the consumer market and the lack of innovation. Cisco’s growth and new product line comes from acquisitions rather than internal innovation and organic development. Opportunities Opportunities in the market include cloud computing, smart-grid technology, the home consumer market and the area of video conferencing thanks to its acquisition of Tandberg. Threats  The main external threat to Cisco is the unstable global economy. Chambers was initially very optimistic about the economic recovery; however he has recently toned-down his statements and has admitted that recovery may take longer than initially expected. Other threats include cheaper alternatives and their direct competitors: Hewlett-Packard, Juniper and IBM. Figure [ 4 ]| Porter’s 5 Forces Porter’s 5 Forces model helps to determine the level of a number of factors. Once established, this helps to determine the relative attractiveness of a particular market or sector. Threat of New Entrants: MEDIUM Large enterprises will generally only enter the market by acquiring specialist companies, and small companies will not really be able to compete due to the infrastructure and resources required. Any small, successful start-up will generally be acquisitioned by a larger one. Because of these factors the threat of new entrants into Cisco’s core market (design and manufacture of networking equipment) is medium. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: LOW Cisco generally uses short-term contracts with its suppliers. This allows them to easily adjust their output depending on supply and demand. Cisco also uses a multitude of different suppliers across the globe. Their main focus is on reliability and customer satisfaction rather than competing on price. For these reasons the suppliers have a low level of bargaining power. Bargaining Power of Buyers: HIGH In terms of networking equipment and video conferencing facilities, there are a wide range of suppliers for customers to choose from. These include Hewlett-Packard, Juniper, and Polycom. There are also cheaper alternatives in the market. This gives the customers much more bargaining power. Threat of Substitute Products: LOW Organisations rely on networking equipment such as hubs, switches and routers. They are vital to networks and will not be replaced by substitute products. Therefore the threat to Cisco is low. Intensity of Competitive Rivalry: HIGH The sector is very competitive with HP and Juniper seen as Cisco’s main rivals. Cisco’s entry into the videoconferencing and Telepresence market has increased this rivalry. Cisco is still seen as the market leader. PEST Market Analysis This market analysis used to help understand market growth or decline and help to influence the decision-making process. Political & Legal  Political and legal considerations for Cisco include regulations regarding customer and employee data privacy and security. Given the market they operate in, their products need to adhere to many different standards and certifications. These include ISO, IEEE, IETF, ITU and Wi-Fi Alliance. As Cisco is an international organisation operating in many different countries across the globe, they must be aware of differing national laws and regulations. A major strategy of theirs is the acquisition of other organisations. They must therefore be aware of the laws and regulations governing this process in different countries and continents, e.g. the acquisition of TV software developer NDS had to be approved by the European Commission. Economic The current economic outlook is poor, with low growth and uncertainty about when it will end. There are high unemployment rates across the globe, low inflation rates and increased labour costs. Current rates of interest are also important. These are all factors that Cisco will consider with any new  venture. Socio-Cultural Demographics, language, culture, customs and religion are not really a huge concern for Cisco. One socio-cultural issue that may relate to them is the current trend of technical people leaning more towards open-source software and hardware products. This may have a negative impact on some areas that Cisco operates in, as Cisco IOS is closed-source. However Cisco does work with over 40 open source software projects. Another area that Cisco will consider is the green and renewable energy sectors. Cisco’s recycling and emissions and energy consumption reduction programs have worked well and even resulted in them becoming certified. Cisco is also one of the driving forces behind making purchases from women, veteran and minority-owned companies. Technological Cisco spends nearly $5.3 billion on research and development per year, ensuring that they stay at the cutting-edge of technology. In terms of innovation Cisco generally â€Å"stick to the knitting†, i.e. they stick to their core competencies and acquisition other organisations when moving into new areas. Areas of technological growth include video and teleconferencing, telepresence, unified communication, big-data, cloud computing and smart grid (overlaying a digital network onto the existing electrical network). Figure [ 5 ]| Financial Overview Looking at Cisco’s finances provides and insight into invest psychology. Going back to 1993 (Figure 6) we can see that Cisco had strong earnings growth. Cisco really suffered during the recession in 2001 as they were unable to predict economic downturn and net sales fell by almost 30 per cent. Chambers was forced to write off inventory of $2.2 billion, and 8,500 people were made redundant. Figure [ 6 ]| Reorganisation The reorganisation of its operations after the crisis in 2001 was followed by  strong growth. By looking at the Cisco’s last year’s financial statements (Figure 7) we observe that their bottom line, in other words, Net Income was pretty stable and year over year, has known a continued growth from 2003 onwards, except the last couple of years, starting with 2008 when the net income declined to 2009 and got back pretty much as the same level in 2010 and once again declined from 2010 to 2011 but then increased from 2011 to 2012 exceeding this time the 2010 level. Figure 7| Technology Bubble The orange line on the graph represents earnings per share growth and as we can see since 1993, the average operating earnings growth rate has averaged 24.5% a year. The black line represents the monthly closing stock prices. As we can see at the beginning the earnings in price track each other very closely and then between 1997 and 2000 we observe that Cisco stocks became overpriced which matched the other trends in the technology market during the dotcom bubble. It climaxed on March 10, 2000, with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52 in intraday trading before closing at 5048.62. (Jesse Colombo, 2012). We can clearly see how during this period Cisco became disconnected from growth and earnings. The price collapsed as a consequence. However, since 2002 – 2003 Cisco stocks has traded more in line with its operating earnings growth (Appendix A, Earnings Growth). Price Earnings Ratio Although Cisco is trying to ensure a dominant position in all of its markets (and reflected in last quarterly results) their earnings were above expectations. This doesn’t give a clear picture of the potential for continued growth for investors. Price Earnings Ratio demonstrates investor psychology in the (Figure 7). It illustrates value in relation to the company’s earnings and is strictly related their yearly financial statements translated into net income. The higher the price earnings ratio the more the market is willing to pay for the company’s earnings. Conversely, a low P/E may indicate a â€Å"vote of no confidence† by the market or it could mean this is a sleeper that the market has overlooked. Known as value stocks, many investors made their fortunes spotting these â€Å"diamonds in the rough† before the rest of the market discovered their true worth. (Ken Little. 2012). Looking closer at earnings growth rate for the time frame 2003 – 2012, we observe that Cisco is averaging at almost 20 per cent stock growth a year (Figure 8) and since 2003 there was a time when the P/E ratio was much higher. Figure 8| By looking below at the P/E graph (Figure 9) we can see that by Fiscal Year End 2003 was nearly 40, by Fiscal Year End 2004 it dropped to 28 and then by Fiscal Year 2005 again to 21. We can see a continuous drop, in 2012 was just over 10 and currently the P/E ratio is around 12.0 based on the closing price of March 28th 2013. Figure 9| Finances over the Last Decade Looking at Cisco’s financial statements for 2003 – 2013 and the historical stock price trends, we can see that Cisco had an accelerated earnings growth. The graph below (Figure 10) outlines this cyclical nature. Figure 10| They had a growth rate of 89 per cent in 2003, 43 per cent in 2004 but by 2009 there was a 19 per cent decrease. This was during the global economic downturn and reflected in their financial statement. Despite that, it’s clear that the company was very profitable. Their earnings increased 24 per cent and are forecasted to reach 20 per cent by the end of the fiscal year 2013. Financial Observations Below are observations on Cisco’s last Financial Results for Q2 2013 released  February 13, 2013. Cisco reported so far a very strong FY 2013 earnings, maintaining their leadership positions in key areas of IT infrastructure such as Switches and Routers, while the firm’s financial strength in terms of cash flow allow them to catch up and surpass other companies in areas such as Wireless, where it wasn’t initially a market leader. Figure 11| The data above, (Figure 11) illustrates Q2 net sales of $12.098 billion, with an increase of 5% year over year. GAAP net income and GAAP earnings per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2013, included total tax benefits of approximately $926 million or $0.17 per share (Julie Bort, 2013). Product revenue grew 3% while services revenue grew an impressive 10%. Cash flow from operations was well over $3 billion and the company continues its prodigious free cash flow production, which according to Frank Calderoni the CFO, Cisco: â€Å"Cash is King. It enables us to make bold moves.† Gross margins have been very stable around 62% lately for Cisco, exhibiting the strength of the brand versus its competition. According to the analysts, Cisco’s Services business is a key differentiator between it and its competition, and because the margins are higher on Services than Products, the company’s total gross margin should continue to improve slightly (Tim Travis, 2013). According to John Chambers, Cisco chairman and chief executive officer: â€Å"Cisco delivered earnings per share this quarter and record revenue for the 8th quarter in a row in a challenging economic environment. We continue to drive the innovation, quality and leadership our customers expect, and we remain focused on consistent returns to our shareholders†. Strategic Risks Innovation Momentum According to Forbes magazine Cisco lost its â€Å"innovation momentum† and that’s because they relied more on external acquisitions for new product  development: the reliance on external rather than internal sources of innovation, e.g., the purchase of start-ups with promising products. The problem with this strategy, however, is that it is costly, destructive, and unsustainable. It is costly because the would-be acquirers end up buying start-ups that fail to produce any marketable products. It is destructive because it eventually distances would-be acquirers from their end customers. It is unsustainable because it often ends up fuelling bidding wars, as the owners of these smaller companies demand higher and higher premium to compensate them for the risks they assume. (Panos Mourdoukoutas, 2012) Acquisition Strategy Over the period 1993-2013, Cisco acquired one hundred and fifty six companies. Some of the latest acquisitions are Meraki (2012) operating in the Wired and Wireless Cloud networking market, SolveDirect (2013) operating in the Cloud Services market, Intucell (2013) operating in the Mobile Software market†¦etc. By relaying your company strategy only on acquisition you forget to cultivate innovation and creativity across your own organisation and we believe that Cisco strategy in the long run might bounce back as a failure and affect their core competencies. Core Competencies By definition the core competencies differentiate an organization from its competition. The Core Competencies create a company’s competitive advantage in the marketplace and typically, a core competency refers to a company’s set of skills or experience in some activity, rather than physical or financial assets. If we look at the case study (Indu, 2010) and where Cisco stands today within the IT market, we realise indeed that their resources in terms of reputation, brand, financial assets and products are still strong, but in terms of capabilities and talent which help to sustain innovation as a key differentiator between market leaders and their rivals, they have chosen the wrong path. New Markets There is no doubt that Chambers is a successful CEO. This can be seen in Cisco’s last year’s financial statements but since Cloud computing technology has gone mainstream and greater use of mobile telephony networks. Cisco has been unable to innovate, launch and grow new markets for services or applications. According to Forbes Magazine, Chambers has reorganized the company 3 times – but it has been much like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: â€Å"Lots of confusion, but no improvement in results† (Adam Hartung, 2012). Strategic Vision Another risk to be noted is the â€Å"Where to go vision† – distraction and lack of a long-term vision adopted by Cisco is a major risk for the company. In one of his statements, Chambers said: â€Å"I don’t make my decision on the next quarter or on the next year. I make my decision three or five years out so I do not adjust my strategy based on what’s the spending is going to be next quarter or three quarters.† With instability shown in the financial markets for the last couple of years and the prolonged economic recession along with low consumer confidence there is a disjoint with Chambers strategic statements. Consumer Market Penetration Cisco’s growth has been based on a strategy of acquisitions. The main reason behind this was the penetration or expansion of new market opportunities. Cisco have made several ambitious moves into the markets for enterprise tablets, video conferencing and consumer products. Some of these decisions have been ineffective in competing in these markets. In some cases, due to excessive prices and faster development and deployment cycles of competitors. In today’s competitive tech environment those who are slow in bringing innovation and new products to the market will fail to succeed. An example of reinventing the wheel could be Cisco’s Flip camcorder which they acquired in 2009 from Pure Digital. The product failed and the $590 million investment was lost. Customers’ needs are constantly changing and want their technology suppliers to offer those sophisticated services and equipment. Like other tech giants, Cisco is struggling to adapt to changing market conditions and demand in terms of technology and products. Building Revenue Erik Suppiger, an analyst with JMP Securities in San FranCisco, said Cisco â€Å"did a good job managing costs, and keeping their margins up, but there’s a lot of concern about what they can do to build revenue. Building a cloud and wireless business eats into your traditional product lines. If you have a wireless laptop, you don’t need a desktop computer connected to your office network† (Quentin Hardy, 2013). It seems that Chambers, who has led Cisco for 18 years, is well aware of this problem, in one of the latest interviews he said: â€Å"We’d gotten too fat. And when you get fat, you’re slow in decision-making. It had been so easy to say we’re the best in our industry, we don’t need to change, but that’s exactly how you disappear† (Charlie Rose, 2012). Although Cisco reported Q2 earnings more than Wall Street expected, Chambers warned of â€Å"a challenging economic environment.† Distinction Considering Cisco’s latest acquisitions (Intucell, Jan 2013; Solve Direct, March 2013) in mobile software and cloud services, there are signs of progress. However, it is unclear whether Cisco will succeed before Chambers retires in two to four years. His greatest achievement may be building software and services that are distinct from its existing core competencies and product line. Conclusion After in depth analysis of Cisco’s strategic management practices it is clear the company is not without its faults. People in the business community do not agree with some of the strategic decisions made by chambers and this has in some cases lead to a lack of confidence in the company’s progress. It’s also worth mentioning the workforce have ranked the company low in terms of ‘great place to work’ scores. Acquisitions prevent entrepreneurship, and  the lack of solid competition has meant that it is unclear whether Cisco would be able to cope with less of the market share if another big player offering cheaper products was to gain momentum. However, Cisco is a large company with a huge workforce, a substantial stockpile of cash and assets, strong share price and excellent revenue. So for the time being, Chambers and Cisco, have put their critics in their place. References Jim Duffy. (2009). HP’s 3Com acquisition: An inside look. Available: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/111309-hp-3com-haas.html?nwwpkg=hp. Last accessed March 2013. John Dix. (2009). HP puts the net pedal to the metal. Available: https://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/091409-haas.html. Last accessed March 2013. wikipedia. (2013). HP puts the net pedal to the metal. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Hewlett-Packard. Last accessed March 2013. wikipedia. (2013). Juniper Networks. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniper_Networks#Major_acquisitions. Last accessed March 2013. Colleen Nichols. (2013). JUNIPER NETWORKS ACQUIRES ADVANCED VIDEO DELIVERY TECHNOLOGY FROM BLACKWAVE. Available: http://juniper.mwnewsroom.com/manual-releases/2010/Juniper-Networks-Acquires-Advanced-Video-Delivery-. Last accessed March 2013. Burt, Jeffrey. (2013). Juniper Buys Ankeena to Help Compete with Cisco. Available: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/Juniper-Buys-Ankeena-to-Help-Compete-with-Cisco-161910/ Last accessed March 2013. wikipedia. (2013). Polycom. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycom#Acquisitions. Last accessed March 2013. Cisco. (2013). Business Designation. Available: http://www.Cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac142/docs/business_designation_us.pdf. Last accessed March 2013. Cisco. (2013). Health & Safety. Available: http://www.Cisco.com/web/about/ac50/ac142/docs/health_safety.pdf. Last accessed March 2013. Cisco. (2013). Opensource. Available: http://www.Cisco.com/web/about/doing_business/open_source/source/index.html. Last accessed March 2013 wikipedia. (2013). List of acquisitions by Cisco Systems. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Cisco_Systems. Last accessed March 2013. google. (2013). Finance. Available: https://www.google.com/finance. Last accessed March 2013. tradingeconomics.com. (2013). -. Available: http://www.tradingeconomics.com. Last accessed March 2013. Mourdoukoutas, Panos. (2013). Two strategy lessons for Cisco Systems. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2011/09/13/two-strategy-lessons-for-Cisco-systems/. Last accessed March 2013. Hartung, Adam. (2012 ). Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft). Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/05/12/oops-5-ceos-that-should-have-already-been-fired-Cisco-ge-walmart-sears-microsoft/. Last accessed 30th March 2013. Rose, Charlie. (2012). Charlie Rose Talks to Cisco’s John Chambers. Available: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-19/charlie-rose-talks-to-Ciscos-john-chambers. Last accessed 1st April 2013. Little, Ken. (2012). Understanding Price to Earnings Ratio. Available: http://stocks.about.com/od/evaluatingstocks/a/pe.htm. Last accessed 30th March 2013. Colombo, Jesse. (2012). The Dot-com Bubble. Available: http://www.stock-market-crash.net/dot-com-bubble/. Last accessed 30th March 2013. Bort, Julie. (2013). Cisco Beats On Earnings, Is Right In Line For Revenue. Available: http://www.businessinsider.com/Cisco-beats-on-earnings-is-right-in-line-for-revenue-2013-2. Last accessed 30th March 2013. Mourdoukoutas, Panos. (2012). Why Apple, Google, and Corning have an Innovation Edge over Cisco and Hewlett-Packard?. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2012/01/23/why-apple-google-and-corning-have-an-innovation-edge-over-Cisco-and-hewlett-packard/. Last accessed 31st March 2012. Travis, Tim. (2013). 12 Years After The Bubble Cisco Is Ripe For The Taking: Update. Available: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1183801-12-years-after-the-bubble-Cisco-is-ripe-for-the-taking-update. Last accessed 30th March 2013. Hardy, Quentin. (2013). Cisco Struggles to Adapt, Even as Profit Rises. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/business/Cisco-tops-expectations-with-rise-in-profit-of-44.html. Last accessed 1st April 2013. P, Indu . (2010). Cisco strategy in recessionary times. Under the direction of Vivek Gupta Cisco Overview Cisco Overview Appendix A In 1984, a small group of computer scientists, namely Leonard Bosack, Sandy Lerner and Richard Troiano, created an Internet Operating System in San Jose. This OS was loaded into a box for routing and facilitated the communication between two computers. It’s interesting to note that ‘In search of Excellence’ (1982, Peters and Waterman) states that one of the key themes for a successful company are to stick to the knitting. In other words stay with the core business. Cisco, since 1984 have done just that. Their popularity grew and they implemented an FTP site to allow customers and developers to access a DB of bug information. By 1990 the company had gone public and had sales in the region of $70m with a net income of almost $14m. They had massive amounts of support centre calls, and supplied routers to the biggest players in the telecom world at the time. By 1992, ‘Fortune’s second fastest growing company in the US, had achieved sales of almost $340m, and had branched out to Europe and beyond. In 1993 they again showed strong customer focus by creating bug tracking systems, to support large corporation who used their products. In 1993 the company completed their first large scale acquisition of Crescendo communications for $95m and the following year New Port solutions for $93m. These were the first in a long list of acquisitions for Cisco and by the mid 90’s the company had a strong brand signature, excellent customer focus and a global footprint. By 1999, the company had revenues of over $12bn. This surge continued and in 2000 market capitalization grossed over $450bn. The company acquired over 40 companies over these 2 years, and demand was so high the production of equipment could not meet the customer demands. Customers began to look elsewhere, and at the same time the cracks in the IT market began to show. Cisco began stock piling, which was not in keeping with their practices, and in the ensuing recession, the company were forced to downsize, with 8500 job losses, and reported loses of almost $2.7bn, a complete reversal of the growth and fortunes up to that time. Figure 12 Figure 12 With John Chambers at the helm, the company drastically slowed down acquisitions, reduced the number of suppliers and resellers and began to steadily grow the company once again, and by 2009 emerged as a pioneer in data management with 75% of the world’s data being managed in some form by the company. One of the few companies to successfully withstand economic slowdown, Cisco, at present sits at number 64 of the fortune 500 list, with total equity of $51bn and 73k+ employees worldwide. Appendix B Earnings Growth Earnings Growth Acquisitions

Drama Logbook Example Essay

Today before drama class started I was really tired and really couldn’t be bothered for class. I hope this didn’t affect what happened in class, I don’t think it had that much of an affect. Mr McPhee gave us a lot of talks today which provided us with less time to work in our groups. After Mr McPhee marked the roll he told us about the new school policy with mobile phones. Instead of only getting punished during school hours with a mobile phone, this policy now applies even if we are on the school campus. The next thing he talked about was a story about his flat mate long ago. His friend was Japanese and during the time where he was learning how to speak English, the teacher saw a spider and killed it. His friend was appalled and told him that spiders are man’s best friend because it kills insects for us and also it’s harmless to humans. Spider’s are entitled to as much life as we were. They are more scared of us then we are of them. When he finished telling us his story we finally were sent into our groups to work. Phillip and I just took a seat in front of Mr McPhee’s table to wait for the girls to get ready. They took a while to get started, but eventually they got there. He had to call her mum to get some money and Lisa and Amanda had to get changed into tights again for better working conditions. He turned on the air conditioning for us. Eventually they came and we got started. Lisa and Amanda got the blocks for us this lesson and put it on the floor. He told us that we should have done it, but we were tired. Lisa was really eager to just go through the whole thing first whereas the rest of the group wanted to talk about the start and how we could improve the start. Eventually we caved and decided to just go through what we had so far. We made our way through the work before He stopped our group and told us that we needed to make our starting thing more dynamic and powerful. He also stopped us at anot her point where he told us that the deliver of the words would be influenced by the character. We took his advice and built upon this. Phillip had to redo his line over again so many times, it was pretty funny. We also tried to work on the start but decided to work with it next lesson. Even though we knew what we were doing, we kept messing up and it took us a long time to get through what we had. We added some little details and refined what we had. It was more of a rehearsal then adding to it this lesson. Once we reached the end of what we had plan we all took a seat. The next thing we had to do was plan another persons segment. Phillip was suppose to be next but it was too hard so we decided to brainstorm Jeannette’s. It was still too hard so we just brainstormed in general. In the end we managed to sketch in simple terms what the foundations of each of their performances would be. Jeannette would be along the lines of each of Jeannette thinks that each of us are a fairytale character but the truth is she’s only seeing things and we are just ordinary people. Phillip’s one would be the one we decided before, Lisa didn’t like this idea for a reason but I liked it. Lisa’s one would be about her not fitting in to society so she tries to copy people to fit in with the rest of society and makes friends but she fails. At the end of the lesson, George’s group volunteered to go do their work in progress today. They wanted feedback and advice on how to improve and some negative and positive feedback from Mr Mcphee. Even though they didn’t have enough time to hear the feedback, they were able to perform most of their piece. From what I saw I noticed that their piece had a lot of exiting the stage which was bad. I liked the fact that they used their bodies to turn into machines and I liked the story of their idea ! Their story was basically a girl who is writing in her diary about the different dreams she wants to have and eventually she falls asleep and dreams about meeting all of them. Firstly she meets Harry Potter and then she runs into Alice from Wonderland and then it’s James Bond and lastly it’s Juliet. It was pretty well how they blended all the stories together. The bell rang and we were dismissed. The teacher said he would give them feedback next time.

Individual Journal Entry The WritePass Journal

Individual Journal Entry Introduction: Individual Journal Entry ). Hence, while both generic protection strategies and legal protection strategies provide cover for a firm who is aiming to keep an idea or concept within their own realm, they are not always reliable. While legal protection may be an automatic right or a paid right as in the form of a patent, it does no guarantee that imitation will be prevented. It only means that the legal right holder has the ability to press charges on a firm who violates their right. This, however, does not eliminate all the loss incurred to the firm because of the infringement. Hence, protecting intellectual property in the contemporary world is a rather difficult ordeal (Simcoe et al, 2009).   Lecture 6:   Innovation and Entrepreneurship Innovation and entrepreneurship are two connected concepts which survive with one another.   When an individual comes up with an innovative idea and seeks to find a market for it, the individual becomes an entrepreneur.   There are various reasons for an individual to choose to become an entrepreneur as there are several benefits of becoming an entrepreneur. However, there may also be numerous reasons an individual may not choose to be an entrepreneur. The role of an entrepreneur is not easy and is highly self-sufficient. Thus, everybody does not possess the characteristics necessary for this role (Wang et al, 2012). An entrepreneur is a person that comes up with an innovative idea and begins a business with it. The entrepreneur is the bearer of all risks and is the owner of the business. In many cases, the entrepreneur may also be the manager of the business or the sole person running the business. However, in many large organizations, entrepreneurs hire additional staff to help facilitate the working process. Nevertheless, there are certain skills required in an entrepreneur in order for the business to be successful. An entrepreneur must be decisive, creative, patient, possess managerial skills, coordinated, and analytical. Moreover, an entrepreneur must be able to face challenges and act quickly in critical situations. Thus, the role of an entrepreneur is highly important and carries high degrees of risk. Many people do not feel that they can deal with such high levels of risk and stress ( Guiso Shivardi, 2011). UK statistics show certain entrepreneurial trends which show that men are two times more likely to become entrepreneurs than women and people in the age range of 35-44 show the highest amounts of entrepreneurial activity. Moreover, the educated class or graduates are more likely to indulge in entrepreneurial activity rather than non-graduates. People who have previously been employed are more likely to indulge in such activity. Also, people who are in the top-third spectrum of the income distribution are three times more likely to begin a business rather than those in the bottom half of the income distribution chart (Sogner Fritsch, 2013). Such characteristics show that entrepreneurship is probably considered a rather intense ordeal as women do not indulge in such activity as much as men. It also shows that entrepreneurial activity requires experience as people in the older age brackets of 35-44 indulge in entrepreneurial activity more than other age groups. Moreover, knowledge and education also helps in entrepreneurial activity which may be a reason why more graduates choose to pursue it rather than non-graduates. Lastly, entrepreneurial activity requires investment and money which may be a reason people in the top spectrum of the income chart are more likely to indulge in entrepreneurial activity rather than lower income groups (Clerq et al, 2012). Thus, it is obvious that entrepreneurship requires a variety of skills and resources. However, there are five characteristics which may influence an individual’s decision to become an entrepreneur. The first characteristic is the need for achievement as engaging in entrepreneurial activity is highly rewarding if success is attained. The second characteristic is the locus of control as some individual’s may want to be in full control of their activity and may not want to share authority with anyone or give anyone authority on themselves. Thus, engaging in entrepreneurial activity enables them to maintain the locus of control (Magri, 2011). The third characteristic is the desire for autonomy as some individuals may prefer to be the sole decision makers and may not feel comfortable working in teams.   Hence, some individuals have the desire for autonomy and thus find entrepreneurial activity as the most suitable option. Some individuals prefer self-efficacy in which they prefer to rely on their own performance rather than the performance of any other person and choose to be self-reliant. Such individuals are also more likely to engage in entrepreneurial activity. The last characteristic is related to innovation as some individuals are highly innovative and prefer to reap profits from their innovative abilities rather than use their skills for another firm. The benefits of entrepreneurial activity include reaping all profits made and amounting to unlimited earnings if the business is a success. Examples such as Mark Zuckerburg, Michael Dell, and Bill Gates illustrate how unlimited profits can be made through innovative ideas. Moreover, entrepreneurial activity allows a person to be their own boss and explore their creative abilities. It also enables a person to design their own job description and pursue a path that is of interest to them. However, there are also certain aspects which cause an individual to choose not to be an entrepreneur (Banon et al, 2011). As entrepreneurs carry all the risk, there are high chances of losing investment and incurring losses. Moreover, it is difficult to attain such amounts of money and raising capital can be a highly time-consuming and stressful job. Entrepreneurs also go through a lot of stress and there is no guarantee of income. There may be times when no income is made. Hence, many people do not possess the characteristics to be able to handle this situation (Zheng et al, 2010). I would choose to be an entrepreneur because it would be a form of self-testing my abilities and being able to solely reap the profits of my success. Unlimited reward is an attractive feature of entrepreneurship, yet I would choose not to be an entrepreneur because of the high possibility of incurring losses as well. Moreover, the autonomy available to entrepreneurs is highly attractive, yet the stress of making wrong decisions can also prove to be highly hazardous. Thus, I would choose not to be an entrepreneur if the risk was high and the industry was highly competitive . Therefore, it is obvious that entrepreneurship is not adequate for everyone but is a highly attractive option for those that possess the required characteristics and have an innovative idea to market.   Hence, entrepreneurship carries its merits and de-merits and the success of the entrepreneur is not only dependent upon his/her own abilities but also depends upon the idea of the entrepreneur.   Choosing whether or not to become an entrepreneur can be a long drawn process in which several aspects are considered and is a personal choice which may vary from person to person. I personally would choose to be an entrepreneur if I had an innovative idea which I knew had high chances of success. Lecture 7: Innovation in Large Organizations Large organizations that attempt to innovate must have supporting organizational structures and organizational cultures that facilitate open communication, maximum interaction, and the exchange of ideas in order to continuously improve previous concepts. However, if the organizational culture and structure do not support innovation and are rather rigid, then it would be difficult for an organization to pursue such goals. Innovation requires brainstorming, open exchange of ideas, and a relaxed organizational culture which promotes the value of innovation. Hence, large organizations must ensure that their systems are designed in order to promote and pursue such values such as open communication, innovation, and a supportive organizational culture as some organizations may find it difficult to change their structure and culture further in their production processes (Zhang et al, 2010). The effectiveness of organizational structure is dependent upon a number of factors which includes the leadership style and philosophy, the organizational culture, internal and external relationships, and processes that facilitate information sharing and decision-making. Thus, these factors must support the notion of innovation within an organization. There are five different types of structures which include functional, multidivisional, matrix, project-based, and a corporate venture (Valencia et al, 2011). The functionalist structure connects the CEO to all departments, reduces complexity and simplifies control mechanisms, defines clear responsibilities, and there are specialists at senior and management levels. However, the functionalist structure reinforces hierarchical structure, causes an overburden to senior staff members,   may be a cause to neglect strategic issues, and makes it difficult to cope with geographical and product diversity. Hence, the functional structure is not highly supportive of innovation as it is no highly customer-oriented and does not facilitate maximum communication between departments. However, the multi-divisional structure is more customer-focused, flexible and alterable, is controllable by performance, and is specialized by competences.   Hence, as each department is highly competitive and focused upon customer needs, this type of organizational structure encourages and promotes innovation more than the functional structure. The matrix structure is another organizational structure which facilitates many departments and allows flexibility, minimizes resource requirements, is customer focused, and facilitates integrated knowledge. Although this structure increases the potential of conflict, ambiguity, and increases the time taken to make decisions, it does allow for cooperation between departments and minimizes costs. However, this may not be the ideal structure to promote innovation. The project-based structure focuses upon a single project per department and is very focused and specialized in its particular area of focus. However, this type of structure only l asts a limited amount of time and prevents interaction throughout the organization. Hence, this type of structure is also not ideally suitable for innovation. The corporate venture creates organizational entities that reside in or outside an existing corporation and infuse entrepreneurial activities in independent entrepreneurial firms. This enables motivation of employees, transparency in the system, and mobilization of the reputation of the brand or the company. This system promotes innovation as it promotes entrepreneurial activities (Valencia et al, 2011). Organizational culture consists of the assumptions, beliefs, and the values that are shared and practiced by all members of an organization. These assumptions, beliefs, and values define an organization and the environment it operates in. Organizational culture facilitates communication within and outside the organization and is very difficult to change once an organization establishes a certain organizational culture.   The organizational culture may include components of the societal or national culture an organization is physically situated in, the leadership and management style of the leader of the organization, and the nature of the business that the organization conducts (Menguc Auh, 2010). An organizational culture which promotes innovation has open communication between employees and managers and usually has a highly interactive and informal organizational culture. Participation in various activities and delegating authority to employees of lower ranks is highly encouraged as organizations must facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. Employees are openly allowed to make choices and decisions in order to devise new strategies and form new ideas for the benefit of the organization.   However, organizational culture is very hard to change once it is established in an organization. Attempts to transform organizational culture fail because as there are eight distinct phases of change, skipping a stage may lead to failure. Making critical mistakes in any stage may also lead to failure and even the most capable people tend to make errors. Changing organizational culture takes time and effort and it is not easy for managers to incorporate the new organizational cu lture within employees in a short period of time (Menguc Auh, 2010). Lacking a vision, improper planning, lack of communication, and not anchoring changes in the corporation’s culture are also causes to the failure of implementing a new organizational culture. Hence, it is highly essential for firms to implement an innovative organizational culture from the initial stages of being in business rather than attempting to change it at later stages (Fiedler Welp, 2010). Promoting innovative values within employees and encouraging or valuing their opinion can prove to be beneficial for a firm favoring innovation. Aiming to change organizational culture at later stages can prove to be hazardous and confusing for employees as they may lose their sense of direction. Thus, the firm may suffer in terms of employee performance and motivation levels may also fail as employees are forced to adopt a new way of behaving in an organization. Large organizations who wish to pursue innovation must ensure that they incorporate this value in their organizational st ructure from the beginning (Linnenleuke Griffiths, 2010). Hence, it is obvious that innovation is a value that needs to be incorporated and facilitated by a firm’s organizational culture and organizational structure. Open communication, exchange of ideas, and delegation of authority are characteristics which help promote innovation within organizations. An informal and interactive organizational culture and organizational structures such as the corporate venture, matrix organizational structure, and multi-divisional organizational structure support innovative activities. Hence, large organizations who wish to innovate must design their business environments accordingly (Mahmoudselahi et al, 2012). Conclusion: The discussion on lectures 5, 6, and 7 shows that there are various aspects for an entrepreneur to consider and each aspect has positive and negative consequences. If an organization has to protect their intellectual property, they can do so through application of generic or law protection while both may not be permanently effective. There are certain characteristics that are needed within an individual in order for the individual to become an entrepreneur, while others may not prefer to be an entrepreneur because of the high levels of risk involved. Organizational culture and structure are important concepts that must be embedded into an organization to promote the value of innovation, as they are very difficult to change at later stages.   References Banon, A., Sanchez, A. Vivaracho, P. (2011) â€Å"The decision to become an entrepreneur: a cognitive perspective. â€Å" A Shift to the Entrepreneurial Society : A Built Economy in Education. Edward Elgar Publishing. Branstetter, L., Fisman, R., Foley, C., Saggi, K. (2011) â€Å"Does Intellectual Property Rights Reform Spur Industrial Development†.   Journal of International Economics. Vol. 83:1 pp. 27-36 Clercq, D., Honig, B., Martin, B. (2012) â€Å"The roles of learning orientation and passion for work in the formation of entrepreneurial intention†. International Small Business Journal. Davis, TM. (2008) â€Å"International Intellectual Property Rights: Effectiveness of Incentives for Enforcement†. Ball State University Department of Physical Science. Dinopolous, E. Segerstorm, P. (2010) â€Å"Intellectual property rights, Multinational firms, and Economic Growth†. Journal of Development Economics. Vol. 92:1 pp. 13-27 Fiedler, M. Welp, I. (2010) â€Å" How do Organizations Remember? The Influence of Organizational Structure on Organizational Memory†. Organization Studies. Vol. 31:4 pp.381-407 Guiso, L. Schivardi, F. (2011) â€Å"What Determines Entrepreneurial Clusters?†. Journal of the European Economic Association. Vol. 9:1 pp. 61-86 Kim, Y., Lee, K., Park, W., Choo, K. (2012) â€Å"Appropriate Intellectual Property Protection and Economic Growth in Countries a Different levels of Development.† Research Policy. Vol. 41: 2 pp. 358-375 Klein, MW. (2010) â€Å"Ten Years After Managed Professionals : Who Owns Intellectual Property Now?†. Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy. Vol. 2:2 Linnenlueke, M. Griffiths, A. ( 2010) â€Å" Corporate Sustainability and Organizational Culture†. Journal of World Business. Vol. 45:4 pp. 357-366 Magri, S. ( 2011) â€Å" Household Wealth and Entrepreneurship: Is There a Link?† Midwest Finance Association 2012 Annual Meetings Paper. [online] Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1925361 Mahmoudsalehi, M., Moradkhannejad, R. Safari, K. (2012) â€Å"How Knowledge Management is Affected by organizational Structure†. Learning Organization. Vol. 19:6 pp.518-528 Menguc, B. Auh, S. (2010) â€Å"Development and Return on Execution of Product Innovation Capabiilities: The role of organizational structure†. Industrial Marketing Management. Vol. 39:5 pp. 820- 831 Simcoe, T., Graham, S., Feldman, M. (2009) â€Å"Competing on Standards: Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Platform Technologies.† Journal of Economics Management Strategy. Vol. 18:3 pp. 775-816 Sorgner, A. Fritsch, M. (2013) â€Å"Occupational Choice and Self-Employment-Are They Related?†. [online] Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2205034 Valencia, J., Jimenz, D., Valle, R. (2011) â€Å"Innovation or Imitation: The role of Organizational Culture.† Emerald, 49. Wang, C., Wang, N., Yang, J. (2012) â€Å"A Unified Model of Entrepreneurship Dynamics.† Journal   of Financial Economics.   Vol. 106:1 pp. 1-23 Zheng, W., Yang, B. McLean, B. (2010) â€Å"Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management†. Journal of Business Research. Vol. 63: 7 pp.763-771

Japanese Lessons

Japanese Lessons Following is the complete list of my free online Japanese lessons. If you are new to the language and dont know where to start learning, try my  Learn to Speak Japanese  page. If you would like to learn how to write, my  Japanese Writing for Beginners  is a good place to start learning hiragana, katakana and kanji. As for listening practice, try my Japanese Audio Files  page. You will also find many other tools on my site to help you learn. A great way to keep track of all the updates on my site is by signing up for my free language newsletters. The Word of the Day E-course will give you something new to study each day. The Weekly Newsletter will provide you with all the featured content that has appeared on my site. You can also see what other learners have asked in my Question of the Week link. In addition to the newsletters, my site also has Phrase of the Day Lessons. Phrase of the Day helps you to think in Japanese while you are doing common tasks throughout the day. It will help you get more into the Japanese mindset and grasp the structure of the language. You can also try out my Simple Japanese Phrases if you are more of a beginner. They are great to use if you happen to have a Japanese friend to practice with. Another great way to help you learn a language is to make it fun. Try out my Quizzes and Games link for lots of fun exercises that will make learning even more enjoyable. The more you keep something fun and fresh, the more youll want to keep doing it. Learning about culture is also an effective way to stimulate learning. The Japanese language is closely tied with its culture, so it is a fascinating and useful way to learn. It is really difficult to learn a language if you dont have a grasp of the culture. You can also try out my Reading Practice, which contains stories about culture and life, but are written in kanji, hiragana and katakana. Not to worry as they also contain an English translation and an easy to read romaji revision. Introduction to Japanese * Learn to Speak Japanese - Thinking of learning Japanese and want to know more, start here. * Introductory Lessons - If you are ready   to learn Japanese, start here. * Basic Lessons - Confident with the basic lessons or want to brush up, go here. * Grammar/Expressions - Verbs, adjectives, particles, pronouns, useful expressions and more. Japanese Writing * Japanese Writing for Beginners - Introduction to Japanese writing. * Kanji Lessons - Are you interested in kanji? Here you will find the most commonly used kanji characters.   * Hiragana Lessons - Here you will find all 46 hiragana and how to write them. * Learn Hiragana with Japanese Culture - Lessons to practice hiragana with Japanese cultural examples. * Katakana Lessons - Here you will find all 46 katakana and how to write them. Listening Comprehension and Pronunciation   * Japanese Audio Files - Use them on a regular basis to improve your speech. * Japanese Language Videos   - Free instructional videos to improve your comprehension. Japanese Vocabulary * Simple Japanese Phrases - Try these simple phrases whenever you have a chance. * Japanese Phrase of the Day - Think in Japanese when you do these daily actions. * Japanese Word of the Day - Learn a new Japanese word every day. Reading Practice * Japanese Reading Practice - Short Japanese essays about daily life and culture.   Other Japanese Lessons * Question of the Week - Useful questions about the Japanese language from viewers. * Japanese Quizzes and Games * Articles about Japanese Language and Culture Free Japanese Language Newsletters * Weekly Japanese Language Newsletter * Daily Japanese Word of the Day E-course

Best Character Analysis Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby

Best Character Analysis Jay Gatsby - The Great Gatsby SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The man, the myth, the legend, Jay Gatsby is the titular hero of The Great Gatsby. Nick first comes to know him as an incredibly wealthy, mysterious man who throws lavish parties, but we eventually learn his background: a boy from humble origins who is desperate to win back the love of a rich woman, Daisy, and loses everything in his last attempt to win her over. So where did Gatsby get his money? Does he actually love Daisy? And what’s so â€Å"great† about him anyway? This guide explains Gatsby’s rags-to-riches story, what he does in the novel, his most famous lines, and common essay topics. Read on for an in-depth guide to all things Jay Gatsby. Article Roadmap Gatsbyas a character Physical description Gatsby'sbackground Actions in the novel Character Analysis Quotes about and byGatsby Common discussion topics and essay ideas FAQ clarifyingconfusing points aboutGatsby Quick Note on Our Citations Our citation format in this guide is (chapter.paragraph). We're using this system since there are many editions of Gatsby, so using page numbers would only work for students with our copy of the book. To find a quotation we cite via chapter and paragraph in your book, you can either eyeball it (Paragraph 1-50: beginning of chapter; 50-100: middle of chapter; 100-on: end of chapter), or use the search function if you're using an online or eReader version of the text. Jay Gatsby's Physical Description We were sitting at a table with a man of about my age (3.60) He smiled understandinglymuch more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It facedor seemed to facethe whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated onyouwith an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey. Precisely at that point it vanishedand I was looking at an elegant young rough-neck, a year or two over thirty, whose elaborate formality of speech just missed being absurd. (3.76) His tanned skin was drawn attractively tight on his face and his short hair looked as though it were trimmed every day. (3.93) Gatsby’s very first appearance is a bit surprising and anti-climatic – he is presented as just another party-goer of Nick’s age before it’s revealed that he’s actually the famous Gatsby. That said, Nick’s description of Gatsby’s smile – â€Å"rare† and â€Å"full of eternal reassurances† that â€Å"understood you the way you wanted to be understood† – sets Gatsby apart as someone special and alluring. Gatsby has tan skin and short hair, but otherwise most of Gatsby’s characterization comes through his dialogue and actions – Nick doesn’t linger on his physical appearance the way he does with other characters (especially Tom and Myrtle). Perhaps Gatsby having more of a â€Å"blank slate† appearance allows the reader to more easily project his shifting characterization onto him (from mysterious party host to the military man madly in love with Daisy to the ambitious farmboy James Gatz), whereas characters like Tom Buchanan and Myrtle are more stiffly characterized. Jay Gatsby's Background Gatsby was born â€Å"James Gatz,† the son of poor farmers, in North Dakota. However, he was deeply ambitious and determined to be successful. He changed his name to â€Å"Jay Gatsby† and learned the manners of the rich on the yacht of Dan Cody, a wealthy man who he saved from a destructive storm and ended up being employed by. However, although Cody intended to leave his fortune to Gatsby, it ended up being taken by Cody’s ex-wife Ella Kaye, leaving Jaywith the knowledge and manners of the upper class, but no money to back them up. Gatsby ended up enlisting in the military during World War I. He met Daisy in Louisville before he was shipped out to Europe. In his uniform, there was no way for anyone to know he wasn’t wealthy, and Daisy assumed he was due to his manners. He kept up this lie to keep up their romance, and when he left she promised to wait for him. Gatsby fought in the War, gained a medal from Montenegro for valor, and was made an officer. After the war ended, he briefly attended Oxford University through a program for officers, but left after five months. By the time Gatsby returned to America, he learned that Daisy had married and became determined to win her back. Through Meyer Wolfshiem, Gatsby got into shady business (read: bootlegging, gambling) to get rich. It worked, and Gatsby accrued a huge sum of money in just 3 years. He moved to West Egg, bought an extravagant mansion and a Rolls Royce, and started throwing lavish parties and building up a reputation, all in the hopes of meeting Daisy again. Luckily, an aspiring bond salesman named Nick Carraway moves in next door just as the novel begins. Nick is Daisy’s second cousin, and through that connection he is able to reunite with Daisy during the novel. To see how Gatsby's life fits into the biographies of the novel's other characters, check out our timeline. What Jay Gatsby Does in the Novel Although Nick briefly glimpses Gatsby reaching out to Daisy’s green light at the end of Chapter 1, we don’t properly meet Gatsby until Chapter 3. Gatsby has been throwing lavish parties, and he invites Nick Carraway to one. They meet, and Gatsby takes a liking to Nick, inviting him out on his hydroplane the next day. He also speaks to Jordan Baker in private, and reveals his past history with Daisy Buchanan. In Chapter 4, he spends more time with Nick, telling him about his service in WWI as well as a made-up story about his past as the only surviving member of a wealthy family. Later, he has Jordan explain Gatsby and Daisy’s background in a bid to get Nick to help the pair reunite. Through Jordan and Nick, Gatsby is thus able to meet with Daisy again and begins an affair with her in Chapter 5. Throughout all of this Gatsby continues to do business with Meyer Wolfsheim and run his own bootlegging â€Å"business," mainly based on the mysterious phone calls he's always taking. Rumors begin to swirl about where he got his money. Tom Buchanan, in particular, is instantly suspicious of Gatsby when they meet in Chapter 6 and even more so after he and Daisy attend one of Gatsby’s parties. Daisy seems particularly unhappy and Gatsby frets. At the beginning of Chapter 7, he stops throwing the parties, fires his current staff, and hires Wolfshiem’s people instead, telling Nick he needs discreet people – this makes the affair easier, but also hints at Gatsby’s criminal doings.In the climactic Manhattan confrontation with Tom and Daisy later in Chapter 7, Gatsby tries to get Daisy to admit she never loved Tom, and to leave him, but she doesn’t. Later in the same chapter, he and Daisy leave together to drive back to West Egg in Gatsby’s distinctive yellow car. However, Daisy is driving and hits and kills Myrtle Wilson, who ran out into the road since she thought the car was Tom’s. Gatsby resolves to take the blame for the incident and still believes that Daisy will leave Tom for him. During Chapter 8, Gatsby confides in Nick about his past, the true story this time.At the end of Chapter 8, Gatsby is shot and killed by George Wilson, who believes Gatsby killed Myrtle and was the one sleeping with her. Meanwhile, Daisy and Tom have left town to avoid the repercussions of Myrtle’s death. In Chapter 9, Gatsby’s funeral is sparsely attended, despite Nick’s efforts to invite people. Gatsby’s father does make an appearance, sharing some details about young Jay’s early ambition and focus. Nick leaves New York shortly after, disenchanted with life on the east coast. Thus Gatsby's actual death has caused Nick's metaphorical death of leaving New York forever. Though real death is obviously much worse. Jay Gatsby Quotes Catchphrase: â€Å"old sport† Gatsby adopts this catchphrase, which was used among wealthy people in England and America at the time, to help build up his image as a man from old money, which is related to his frequent insistence he is â€Å"an Oxford man.† Note that both Jordan Baker and Tom Buchanan are immediately skeptical of both Gatsby’s â€Å"old sport† phrase and his claim to being an Oxford man, indicating that despite Gatsby’s efforts, it is incredibly difficult to pass yourself off as â€Å"old money† when you aren’t. He reached in his pocket and a piece of metal, slung on a ribbon, fell into my palm. "That's the one from Montenegro." To my astonishment, the thing had an authentic look. Orderi di Danilo, ran the circular legend, Montenegro, Nicolas Rex. "Turn it." Major Jay Gatsby, I read, For Valour Extraordinary. (4.34-39) In this moment, Nick begins to believe and appreciate Gatsby, and not just see him as a puffed-up fraud. The medal, to Nick, is hard proof that Gatsby did, in fact, have a successful career as an officer during the war and therefore that some of Gatsby’s other claims might be true. For the reader, the medal serves as questionable evidence that Gatsby really is an â€Å"extraordinary† man – isn’t it a strange that Gatsby has to produce physical evidence to get Nick to buy his story? (Imagine how strange it would be to carry around a physical token to show to strangers to prove your biggest achievement.) He had passed visibly through two states and was entering upon a third. After his embarrassment and his unreasoning joy he was consumed with wonder at her presence. He had been full of the idea so long, dreamed it right through to the end, waited with his teeth set, so to speak, at an inconceivable pitch of intensity. Now, in the reaction, he was running down like an overwound clock. (5.4) In Chapter 5, the dream Gatsby has been working towards for years – to meet and impress Daisy with his fabulous wealth – finally begins to come to fruition. And so, for the first time, we see Gatsby’s genuine emotions, rather than his carefully-constructed persona. Nick finds these emotions almost as beautiful and transformative as Gatsby’s smile, though there’s also the sense that this love could quickly veer off the rails: Gatsby is running down â€Å"like an overwound clock.† In that sense, this moment gently foreshadows the escalating tensions that lead to the novel's tragic climax. "I wouldn't ask too much of her," I ventured. "You can't repeat the past." "Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!" He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand. "I'm going to fix everything just the way it was before," he said, nodding determinedly. "She'll see." (6.128-131) This is probably Gatsby’s single most famous line. His insistence that he can repeat the past and recreate everything as it was in Louisville sums up his intense determination to win Daisy back at any cost. It also shows his naivetà © and optimism, even delusion, about what is possible in his life – an attitude which are increasingly at odds with the cynical portrait of the world painted by Nick Carraway. "Your wife doesn't love you," said Gatsby. "She's never loved you. She loves me." (7.238) This is the moment Gatsby lays his cards out on the table, so to speak – he risks everything to try and win over Daisy. His insistence that Daisy never loved Tom also reveals how Gatsby refuses to acknowledge Daisy could have changed or loved anyone else since they were together in Louisville. This declaration, along with his earlier insistence that he can â€Å"repeat the past,† creates an image of an overly optimistic, naà ¯ve person, despite his experiences in the war and as a bootlegger. Especially since Daisy can’t support this statement, saying that she loved both Tom and Gatsby, and Tom quickly seizes power over the situation by practically ordering Gatsby and Daisy to drive home together, Gatsby’s confident insistence that Daisy has only ever loved him feels desperate, even delusional. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no mattertomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. (9.153-154) One of the most famous ending lines in modern literature, this quote is Nick’s final analysis of Gatsby – someone who believed in â€Å"the green light, the orgastic future† that he could never really attain. Our last image of Gatsby is of a man who believed in a world (and a future) that was better than the one he found himself in – but you can read more about interpretations of the ending, both optimistic and pessimistic, in our guide to the end of the book. Jay Gatsby Character Analysis If you read The Great Gatsby, odds are you will have to write at least one paper that analyzes Gatsby as a character or connects him to a larger theme, like money, love, or the American Dream. To do this well, you should closely read Gatsby’s key scenes (meeting Daisy again in Chapter 5, the confrontation in the hotel in Chapter 7, his decision to take the blame in Chapter 8) along with his background, revealed over Chapters 6, 8, and 9. By understanding both Gatsby's past and his present in the novel, you can write about him confidently despite his many-layered personality. It can be helpful to compare Gatsby to other characters, because it can make it easier to understand his attitude and motivations. Nick’s cynical nature makes Gatsby’s naivetà © and optimism readily apparent, for example. You should also consider how Gatsby’s interaction with the book’s famous symbols (especially the green light) reveal aspects of his character. Remember that there are many valid ways to interpret Gatsby, as he is a very complex, mysterious character. As long as you back up your arguments with evidence from the book you can connect Gatsby to various big-picture themes and ideas. We will explore that in action below with some common essay topics about Gatsby. Gatsby is especially linked to the American Dream! What makes Gatsby so great? I think the best way to tackle this question is to ask â€Å"why is Gatsby called great† or â€Å"who thinks Gatsby is great?† That way you won’t get bogged down in an unoriginal argument like â€Å"well, he has a lot of money and throws amazing parties, and that’s pretty awesome, so†¦he’s pretty great I guess?† Remember that the book is narrated by Nick Carraway, and all of our impressions of the characters come from his point of view. So the real question is â€Å"why does Nick Carraway think Gatsby is great?† Or in other words, what is it about Gatsby that captures cynical Nick Carraway’s imagination? And the answer to that comes from Gatsby’s outlook and hope, not his money or extravagance, which are in fact everything that Nick claims to despise. Nick admires Gatsby due to his optimism, how he shapes his own life, and how doggedly he believes in his dream, despite the cruel realities of 1920s America. So Gatsby’s greatness comes from his outlook – even if, to many readers, Gatsby’s steadfast belief in Daisy’s love and his own almost god-like abilities come off as delusional. Why is Gatsby obsessed with repeating the past? Gatsby is not so much obsessed with repeating the past as reclaiming it. He wants to both return to that beautiful, perfect moment when he wedded all of his hopes and dreams to Daisy in Louisville, and also to make that past moment his present (and future!). It also means getting right what he couldn’t get right the first time by winning Daisy over. So Gatsby’s obsession with the past is about control – over his own life, over Daisy – as much as it is about love. This search for control could be a larger symptom of being born into a poor/working class family in America, without much control over the direction of his own life. Even after he’s managed to amass great wealth, Gatsby still searches for control over his life in other ways. Perhaps he fixates on the reclamation of that moment in his past because by winning over Daisy, he can finally achieve each of the dreams he imagined as a young man. How would the book be different if Gatsby â€Å"got the girl?† The Great Gatsby would probably be much less memorable, first of all! Sad endings tend to stick in your mind more stubbornly than happy ones. Furthermore, the novel would lose its power as a reflection on the American Dream if Gatsby ended up with Daisy, the book would be a straightforward rags-to-riches American Dream success story. In order to be critical of the American Dream, Gatsby has to lose everything he’s gained. The novel would also lose its power as an indictment of class in America, since if Daisy and Gatsby ended up together it would suggest walls coming down between old and new money, something that never happens in the book. Instead, the novel depicts class as a rigid and insurmountable barrier in 1920s America. A happy ending would also seem to reward both Gatsby’s bad behavior (including crime, dishonesty, and cheating) as well as Daisy’s (cheating, killing Myrtle). This would change the tone of the ending, since Gatsby's tragic death seems to outweigh any of his crimes in Nick's eyes. Also, Gatsby likely wouldn't have caught on as an American classic during the ultra-conservative 1950s had its ending appeared to endorse behavior like cheating, crime, and murder. In short, although on your first read of the novel you more than likely are hoping for Gatsby to succeed in winning over Daisy, the novel would be much less powerful with a stereotypically happy ending. How does Jay Gatsby represent the American Dream? Should we be hopeful or cynical about the status of the American Dream by the end of the novel? There is a bit of a progression in how the reader regards the American Dream in the course of the novel, which moves in roughly three stages and corresponds to what we know about Jay Gatsby. First, the novel expresses a cautious belief in the American Dream. Gatsby’s parties are lavish, Nick rides over the Queensboro bridge with optimism and the belief that anything can happen in New York (4.55-7), and we see some small but significant breaking of class conventions: Myrtle holding court at an apartment with Tom Buchanan (Chapter 2), the â€Å"modish† African Americans riding over the bridge with a white driver (4.56), old money and new money mingling at Gatsby’s party (Chapter 3). However, this optimism quickly gives way to skepticism. As you learn more about Gatsby’s background and likely criminal ties in the middle-to-late chapters (4-8), combined with how broken George seems in Chapter 7 upon learning of his wife’s affair, it seems like the lavish promises of the American Dream we saw in the earlier half of the book are turning out to be hollow, at best. This skepticism gives way to pessimism by the end of the novel. With Gatsby dead, along with George and Myrtle, and only the rich alive, the novel has progressed to a charged, emotional critique of the American Dream. After all, how can you believe in the American Dream in a world where the strivers end up dead and those born into money (literally) get away with murder? So by the end of the novel, the reader should be pretty pessimistic about the state of the American Dream, though there is a bit of hope to be found in the way Nick reflects on Gatsby’s outlook and extends Gatsby's hope to everyone in America. Is Gatsby a tragic hero? How you answer this prompt will depend on the definition you use of tragic hero. The most straightforward definition is pretty obvious: a tragic hero is the hero of a tragedy. (And to be precise, a tragedy is a dramatic play, or more recently any work of literature, that treats sorrowful events caused or witnessed by a great hero with dignity and seriousness.) If we consider The Great Gatsby a tragedy, that would certainly make Gatsby a tragic hero, since he’s the hero of the book! But in Aristotle’s (influential) and more specific definition, a tragic hero is a flawed individual who commits, without evil intentions, some wrong that leads to their misfortunate, usually followed by a realization of the true nature of events that led to his destiny. The tragic hero also has a reversal of fortune, often going from a high place (in terms of society, money, and status) to a ruined one. He also has a â€Å"tragic flaw,† a character weakness that leads to his demise. Using Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, Gatsby might not fit. There isn’t a sense that he commits some great wrong (unlike, say, the classic example of Oedipus Rex, who kills his own father and marries his mother) – rather, his downfall is perhaps the result of a few smaller wrongs: he commits crimes and puts too much faith in Daisy, who ends up being a killer. In that sense, Gatsby is more of a playful riff on the idea of a tragic hero, someone who is doomed from aiming too high and from trusting too much. Especially since a huge part of The Great Gatsby is a critique of the American Dream, and specifically the unjust American society that all of the characters have to live within, the idea of a tragic hero – a single person bringing about his own fate – doesn’t quite fit within the frame of the novel. Instead, Nick seems to indict the society around Gatsby for the tragedy, not Gatsby himself. Final Questions Does Gatsby really love Daisy? Does Daisy really love Gatsby? On the surface in Gatsby, we see a man doing whatever it takes to win over the woman he loves (Daisy). He even seems willing to sacrifice everything to protect her by taking the blame for Myrtle's death. However, he ends up killed for his involvement in the affair while Daisy skips town to avoid the aftermath. This can make it look like Gatsby loves Daisy truly while Daisy doesn't love him at all. However, the truth is much more complicated. Gatsby claims to love Daisy, but he rarely takes into account her own feelings or even the fact that five years have passed since their first romance and that she's changed. In fact, he's so determined to repeat the past that he is unable to see that Daisy is not devoted to him in the way he thinks she is. Furthermore, Gatsby seems to love Daisy more for what she represents money, status, beauty than as an actual, flawed human being. As for Daisy, it’s pretty clear she loved Gatsby up until she married Tom (see the bathtub scene as recounted by Jordan in Chapter 4), but whether she still loves him or is just eager to escape her marriage is harder to determine (you can read more in depth about Daisy right here). Either way, there are certainly strong feelings on both sides. I don't think you could argue Daisy never loved Gatsby or Gatsby never loved Daisy, but their relationship is complex and uneven enough that it can raise doubts. Read more about love and relationships in Gatsby for more analysis! What’s up with Nick and Gatsby’s friendship? Does Nick believe Gatsby? Why does Gatsby come to admire Nick? Nick, for his part, starts out suspicious of Gatsby but ends up truly admiring him, to the point that he tells Gatsby that he’s worth more than Daisy, Tom, and their ilk put together. But why does Gatsby come to rely on Nick so much? Part of the answer comes in Nick’s introduction, when he establishes himself as both part of a privileged group (his family is pretty wealthy and he’s a Yale graduate), but also someone who’s not as incredibly wealthy as the Buchanans – in short, Nick is the sort of person Gatsby wishes he was but not to the degree Gatsby would be jealous of him. Perhaps more importantly, Nick establishes himself as relatively grounded and a good listener, which is the type of person lacking in Gatsby’s high-flying circles (hundreds of people come to his parties but Nick seems to be the first real friend he makes). Both Nick and Gatsby seem to recognize each other as kindred spirits – people both â€Å"within and without† of New York society, rich but not old money aristocracy. The cherry on top of this is the fact Nick is related to Daisy, and is thus a link to her Gatsby can use. So Gatsby starts confiding in Nick to get closer to Daisy, but continues because he finds Nick to be a genuine friend – again, something he severely lacks, as his poor funeral attendance suggests. What’s up with the â€Å"Jay Gatsby is black† theory? Is there any chance it’s true? Recently, some scholars have argued that another possible layer of The Great Gatsby is that Gatsby is actually part black, but passing as white. This would make Tom’s racist statements much more charged and ironic, if it’s true his wife is cheating on him with a black man. It would also explain Gatsby’s desire to completely sever ties to his past and reinvent himself with an old money background. However, many Fitzgerald scholars point out that Fitzgerald’s conversations with his editor about the book are well documented, and they never had any discussions about Gatsby’s race. So basically, this theory is intriguing and can be argued for based on the text, but if you take a more historical/biographical approach it’s less likely to be true. You can read more about it here and decide for yourself if you believe it! There are also similar theories that argue that Gatsby is Jewish. You can read one such theory in depth here. Is Gatsby based on a real person? Is this a true story? Is there a Great Gatsby house I can go visit? The Great Gatsby is not based on a true story, and there wasn’t a specific person in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life who inspired the character of Jay Gatsby. However, F. Scott Fitzgerald did live briefly on Long Island (which is the inspiration for East Egg and West Egg) and spent time with New York celebrities. This was all during the 1920s, when bootlegging and organized crime were in their heyday. So he certainly could have been inspired by real life, newly-rich celebrities. (If you’re curious, the house Fitzgerald lived in is still standing on Long Island, but it’s not a tourist site like, say, Mark Twain’s house is.) Finally, and perhaps most potently, Fitzgerald himself went through a Gatsby-like heartbreak. Before he married Zelda Sayre, he was in love with a wealthy woman named Ginevra King. A dark-haired beauty, Ginevra went on to marry a wealthy man, leaving F. Scott Fitzgerald behind and heartbroken. Those experiences may have all combined to create the character of Jay Gatsby (as well as Daisy Buchanan), but Jay isn’t based on any one person. You can also read more about F. Scott Fitzgerald's life and the history of the novel's composition. What’s Next? Still confused about how the last few chapters play out? Catch up with our summaries of chapters 7, 8, and 9. Read more about Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship and how it stacks up to others in the novel over at our analysis of love, desire, and relationships in Gatsby. Still wondering about Gatsby’s legacy? Is he a man to be admired or a cautionary tale of someone who put too much stock in an old love? Read about different ways to interpret the novel’s ending. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: