Tomb of Shihuangdi

Tomb of Shihuangdi Professor Carney Hum 111 Joanna Davis January 23, 2012 Qin Shihuangdi, born Ying Zheng was one of the most influential rulers of all China. It is believed that Shihuangdi was father by one of two men, Zichu a son of the king of Qin at the time. Zichu was sent as a hostage to the state of Zhao during a dispute between the two kingdoms (Lindesay p. 4). Eventually Zichu was allowed to live freely in Zhao. There he became acquainted with a rich, but conniving merchant named Lu Buwei, who had a concubine. When Zichu became interested in the concubine, Lu Buwei stepped aside and eventually helped them escaped to Qin where Zichu shortly became king (Lindesay p. 4). Shortly after arriving in Qin, Ying Zheng (later to become Shihaungdi) was born. It was never revealed whether Zichu or Lu Buwei was his father. At only thirteen Shihuangdi took control of the Qin Dynasty, which was a start of a great rule for the young emperor. Many accomplishments were accredited to his rule, The Great Wall, a road system throught the kingdom, a written script that unified all of China, and of course his mystifying tomb that contain life-sized soldiers of the Terra Cotta Army. Many theories surround his tomb. Probably one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries was his tomb with over 6,000 life-size soldiers buried with the emperor. One theory that could be believable was that he feared death, therefore he was always in search of immortality. In seeking immortality Shihaungdi made at least three pilgrimages to Zhifu Island seeking immortality. In one case of he sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of men and women in search of the mystical Penglai mountain (Wintle p. 61, p. 71). Penglai mountain was said to be the home for the Eight immortals and the 1,000 year old magician Anqi Sheng who Shihaungdi supposedly met while traveling, invited him to seek him there (Pregadio p. 199). The people that was sent on the voyage never returned with any evidence of the immortal, or the magician, perhaps in fear of returning without any news they would be executed. Legend states they reached Japan and colonized it (Cavendish p. 17). Many of the Emperor’s best scholars were also executed for not being able to produce any evidence of supernatural powers. Since Shihaungdi was afraid of death he had workers build tunnels and passage ways to each of his palace, thinking this would protect him from the evil spirits, as he traveled unseen. Death In 211 BC a large meteor is said to have fallen in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. On it was the words inscribed â€Å"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided (Liang p. 5). When he heard of this, he sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. When no one would confess, everybody living nearby was put to death. On September 10, 210 BC (Julian Calendar),while on one of his tours to Eastern China the Emperor died. Reportedly, he died from ingesting mercury pills, made by his court scientists and doctors (Wright p. 49). Ironically Shihaungdi ingested the pills thinking they would make him immortal (Wright p. 49). Perhaps there maybe some truth to this theory surrounding his death due to the fact high levels of mercury was found in his tomb. References Cavendish, M. (2006). China Condensed: 5000 Years of History & Culture. Liang, Y. (2007). The Leitimation of New orders: Case Studies in World History. Chinese University Press. Lindesay, W. (2008). The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China. Airphoto International Ltd. Man, J. (2008). The Terra Cotta Army. Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA Wintle, J. (2002) China. Rough Guides Publishing. Wright, D. (2001). The History of China. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Fraud Case

THE NATION’S NEWSPAPER BS2003-01b Collegiate Case Study Adelphia founder, 2 sons, 2 others arrested in fraud By David Lieberman and Greg Farrell www. usatodaycollege. com Accounting fraud Part II: The results â€Å"Creative accounting† is not a new technique, but it can certainly be a costly one. Businesses feel the pressure to appear profitable in order to attract investors and resources, but deceptive or fraudulent accounting practices often lead to drastic consequences. Are these so-called creative practices always illegal or can they ever be justified? This case study will present examples of companies who have used inappropriate accounting practices, the results of their deceptions and the government's plan to avoid future incidents. WorldCom scandal brings subpoenas, condmnation By Andrew Backover and Thor Vladmanis Andersen’s partners chart firm’s future today By Greg Farrell Client-starved Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 jobs By Greg Farrell Dominoes hit WorldCom partners, clients By Michelle Kessler Adelphia plans to file Chapter 11 Cable firm expected to seek bankruptcy protection today NEW YORK — The waiting should be over today. Adelphia Communications plans to file for bankruptcy protection, nearly three months after the onceproud No. 6 cable operator first disclosed dealings with the family of founder John Rigas that turned it into a symbol of corporate scandal. The company is expected to announce that it has raised as much as $1. 5 billion from banks led by J. P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup to keep operating while a bankruptcy judge decides how creditors will be paid. A Chapter 11 filing — the biggest in cable history — could help efforts to find a buyer for some, or all, of Adelphia's systems, which serve 5. 7 million subscribers. The court can protect an acquirer from unexpected liabilities, including those stemming from several shareholder lawsuits and investigations into Adelphia's finances by two grand juries and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company could pay off its estimated $19 billion in debt if it can sell systems for $3,500 per subscriber, roughly the industr y norm. But stockholders could lose their entire investments. Adelphia shares closed Friday at 15 cents in over-the-counter trading. Case Study Expert: John D. Martin, Ph. D. Professor of Finance, Baylor University USA TODAY Snapshots ® Politicians role in monitoring business Opinion leaders1 say government should be more involved in oversight and regulation of private enterprise2: 52% 45% Agree Disagree Source: Edelman Public Relations Worldwide/ StrategyOne Research survey of 400 respondents. 1 – College educated 35- to 64-year-olds with household incomes of more than $100,000 2 – Does not add up to 100% due to rounding By Darryl Haralson Marcy E. E. Mullins, USA TODAY By Darryl Haralson andand Marcy Mullins, USA TODAY Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2002 And a sale may devastate Coudersport, Pa. , where Adelphia is headquartered. It's by far the largest employer in the rural, mountain town of 3,000. Meanwhile, Adelphia will tr y to reassure its subscribers. â€Å"Adelphia is committed to reversing its admittedly difficult present financial situation,† it wrote last week to 3,500 franchise officials. â€Å"Most importantly, there should be no change in service to Adelphia customers as a result of these developments. † Adelphia's downfall began on March 27, when it disclosed that a Rigas family partnership had borrowed $2. billion using company assets as collateral. The amount has since been raised to $3. 1 billion. That stunned analysts, who believed that the operator was already too deeply in debt. Barraged with questions, Adelphia put off release of its 2001 annual report. More questions were raised when it was confirmed that the SEC was investigating. As the stock plummeted, Nasdaq weighed delisting Adelphia shares. T hat took effect on June 3. After acknowledging that it would have to restate its earnings, Adelphia put several cable systems on the block. The company defaulted on bank loans and failed to make interest payments on bonds. And Rigas and sons Timothy, Michael and James were forced to relinquish their jobs and board seats. Then new interim CEO Erland Kailbourne stunned company watchers by disclosing a series of cases where the Rigas family allegedly used Adelphia for private gain. Among other things, the company paid for their apartments in New York, built a golf course on Rigas-owned land, helped the purchase of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team, created a Rigas-run investment firm and subsidized a documentary film. Cover story Adelphia founder, 2 sons, 2 others arrested in fraud Investigators say company was ‘personal piggy bank' By David Lieberman and Greg Farrell USA TODAY NEW YORK — For 50 years, John Rigas lived the American Dream. Half a century ago, the son of Greek immigrants left a job making TV picture tubes at Sylvania. The World War II veteran bought a small movie house and a newfangled business — a cable TV company — in the remote town of Coudersport, Pa. , and was on his way to making a fortune. But his oversized ambitions led him this week into an American Nightmare. Wednesday, Manhattan U. S. Attorney James Comey accused 77-year-old Rigas and two sons — Timothy and Michael — with â€Å"one of the largest and most egregious frauds ever perpetrated on investors and creditors. † Rigas attorneys were unavailable for comment. With TV cameras capturing the humiliating moment, the founder of Adelphia Communications, the No. 6 U. S. cable company, was led away in handcuffs here. He became the first CEO arrested in the latest wave of corporate accounting scandals and the most vivid symbol of whitecollar crime since Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky in the 1980s. Two other former Adelphia executives, James Brown and Michael Mulcahey, were picked up in Coudersport. Later in the day, Adelphia itself — which filed for bankruptcy-court protection last month — charged Rigas and his family with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, in a filing in Federal Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 2 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2002 Bankruptcy Court in New York. The Rigases could be forced to pay three times any damages the court finds. The lawsuit alleges about $1 billion in damages. Behind their â€Å"small-town facade,† the Adelphia lawsuit says, the Rigases â€Å"used their domination and control of Adelphia, and their isolation from the scrutiny of the outside world, to engage in one of the largest schemes of selfdealing and financial wrongdoing in American corporate history. † The Justice Department and the U. S. Postal Inspection Service charged the five executives with securities, wire and bank fraud, saying they â€Å"looted Adelphia on a massive scale† and used it as a â€Å"personal piggy bank. Rigas private funds sloshed with Adelphia's in the same cashmanagement system. A U. S. judge set bail for the Rigases at $10 million apiece, secured by cash and property. Allegations against the Rigases range from big schemes to hide financial problems at the cable company to relatively small-scale thievery. For example, Timothy was accused of using a company jet for an African safari vacation in 2000. Adelphia's lawsuit adds that John's daughter, Ellen, used company planes to bring guests to her wedding to Peter Venetis, who became an Adelphia board member. The couple's cozy position enabled them to save $150,000 since 1998: They lived rent-free in two Adelphia-owned apartments on Manhattan's swank Upper East Side, the lawsuit says. In less than four years, the Rigases â€Å"stole hundreds of millions of dollars, and through their fraud (and) caused losses to investors of more than $60 billion,† Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson says. The defendants could face jail time in the criminal case. By filing a complaint instead of a full-fledged indictment, the grand juries weighing evidence in the case can remain empaneled to approve charges against others. They have 10 days to indict those arrested, and 20 days to charge others. Also Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit in U. S. District Court that's similar to the criminal complaint, and includes a third Rigas son, James. The SEC would bar the defendants from serving any publicly owned company. It also wants them and Adelphia to pay restitution and fines. Adelphia said in a statement that the claim against it would â€Å"only have the effect of further penalizing the company's stakeholders who were the victims of the Rigas' improper conduct. The Adelphia cases are low-hanging fruit for prosecutors eager to show that they're getting tough on white-collar criminals. â€Å"This is an old fashioned hand-in-the-till case that's easier to prosecute than an esoteric fraud like Enron,† says Jack Coffee, who teaches securities law at Columbia University. â€Å"To prosecute Enron, you're going to have to teach the jury an intermediate college course i n accounting. † Jacob Frenkel of Smith Gambrell and Russell agrees. â€Å"This could be sexiest of all the cases,† he says. â€Å"Here, you're talking about corporate looting. Every guilty disposition arising out of this indictment should become a show-andtell in all business schools as the antithesis of public company management and stewardship. † Talking tough, getting tough The arrests came as House and Senate negotiators agreed on tough measures, including jail time, for executives convicted of fraud. And Wall Street was impressed after weeks of growing fearfulness about a possible tsunami of corporate scandals. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 489 points Wednesday. That's the second biggest one-day point gain ever. That contrasts with the 179-point drop on July 9, when President Bush called for a new era of corporate responsibility. The arrests aren't â€Å"about Democrats and Republicans,† says Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the SEC under President Clinton. â€Å"This is about investors, and they like what they're seeing now. † Even people who aren't obsessed with stocks seem to like the idea of big shots getting a comeuppance. â€Å"We are angry, and we have every right to be angry,† says futurist and consumer expert Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG Worldwide. There's a feeling that we need to kick out the evil-doers in the industry. † But some might recoil at the image of a dignified old man being led before the cameras in handcuffs. â€Å"They're actually going to look sympathetic,† says Robin Cohn, author of The PR Crisis Bible. â€Å"Why would you Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 3 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, JU LY 25, 2002 handcuff an old man? He's not a murderer and a rapist. That's not to say they aren't crooks. But I think the public would rather see somebody they know in handcuffs — like (former Enron CEO) Ken Lay. And the incident could make the government look somewhat silly, she says. â€Å"I can't imagine Saturday Night Live not doing anything with this. † Corporate crime is in the spotlight these days. Last month, federal prosecutors arrested former ImClone CEO Sam Waksal on charges of illegal trading on inside information and obstruction of justice. Their investigation has expanded to include friends and family of Waksal, who also might have illegally traded on inside information about ImClone last December. Investigators are trying to determine whether any inside information was passed to Waksal's friend Martha Stewart, who sold her ImClone stock just before a Food and Drug Administration announcement, denying an application to market a cancer-fighting drug, drove the stock price down. In coming months, the Justice Department is expected to charge top executives of Enron and WorldCom with fraud. The department's Enron Task Force won one court battle last month when a Houston jury found auditor Arthur Andersen criminally guilty of obstruction of justice. It appears, though, that officials wanted to start off with a bang as they arrested the Rigases. â€Å"What's unusual here is the level of detail included in the criminal complaint, and the number of defendants arrested simultaneously,† says former prosecutor Robert Mintz, now at McCarter & English. â€Å"Usually, the government builds a case slowly, with eventual defections among defendants. Here, it has leveled a wide range of allegations against upper management. That suggests that the government believes it has strong case and that they expect a rush to the prosecutor's door by defendants who will vie to strike deals. The cases build on information that began to come out in late March. Adelphia disclosed then that the Rigases had used assets of the already debt-heavy company to secure loans to private, family-run partnerships. That borrowing is now put at $3. 1 billion. Independent directors forced the Rigases out of their executive positions and board seats, installing f ormer banker Erland Kailbourne as interim CEO. When they investigated the company's condition, they found and disclosed case after case in which the Rigases made no distinction between their personal funds and businesses and Adelphia's. Bad news gets worse But Adelphia was already in a tailspin. Investors lost confidence. Auditors refused to certify the company's financial reports. And lenders cut it off, leading the company to miss interest and dividend payments. Among the charges leading to the Rigases' arrest: u That the family began using Adelphia as collateral for private loans in 1996, even though the company â€Å"was one of the largest junk bond issuers in the United States. † Investors weren't told. u That the Rigases secretly inflated Adelphia's cable TV subscription numbers to make investors think it was still growing at a healthy pace. In 2000 they began to count subscribers from systems in Brazil and Venezuela, where Adelphia owns a minority stake. In 2001, Adelphia began adding customers who just ordered high-speed Internet services from the Rigases' non-Adelphia systems. And earlier this year, they folded in people who ordered home security services from Adelphia. u That they used accounting legerdemain to disguise Adelphia's actual expenses for digital decoder boxes. In 2001 the company claimed that it sold 525,000 boxes for $101 million to an unaudited Rigas-owned company that has no cable systems. That, starting in 2000, Adelphia spent $13 million to build a golf club on land mostly owned by John Rigas. u That in 1999, they told analysts that Adelphia could provide two-way communications to 50% of its customers. The real number was 35%. u And that the Rigases took more than $252 million from Adelphia to pay for margin calls on their purchases as the company's stock price fell. Contributing: Michael McCarthy R eprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 4 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY NEWS SECTION, FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2002 WorldCom scandal brings subpoenas, condemnation Accounting rumors rattle Wall Street By Andrew Backover and Thor Valdmanis USA TODAY The accounting scandal that enveloped WorldCom reverberated through Wall Street and Washington on Thursday. u Congress subpoenaed top WorldCom executives. u President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill separately railed at corporate wrongdoers. u Unfounded rumors of accounting problems hit stocks of other companies. WorldCom on Tuesday revealed what could be one of the biggest accounting frauds ever. Company officials said $3. billion in expenses had been hidden in financial statements, inflating profits in 2001 and the first quarter of 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission has since charged WorldCom with fraud. Bush, at an economic summit in Canada, said he is concerned about the economic impact from â€Å"some corporate leaders who have not upheld their responsibility. † O'Neill, a former chief executive of Alcoa, said in an interv iew on ABC's Good Morning America that the people responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. WorldCom has raised fears and rumors about more business accounting scandals. Trading was halted for General Motors stock Thursday afternoon because of rumors of accounting irregularities. GM said they were untrue. Broadcast giant Clear Channel Communications denied it is under an SEC investigation, yet its stock fell almost 13%. The House Financial Services Committee set a July 8 hearing into the WorldCom case. Subpoenas went to: u Current WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore. u Former chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, who was fired this week. * Former WorldCom chief executive Bernie Ebbers, who was ousted in April and who owes WorldCom $408 million for personal loans. Salomon Smith Barney telecom analyst Jack Grubman. Once one of WorldCom's most bullish supporters on Wall Street, he has been criticized for possible conflicts of interest. His firm collected millions of dollars in fees as a WorldCom financial adviser. WorldCom spokesman Brad Burns declined comment on whether Sidgmore would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. Ebbers and Sullivan couldn 't be reached. Salomon says Grubman â€Å"will fully cooperate. † And there could be more investigations. The House Energy and Commerce Committee told WorldCom to turn over financial records by July 11. WorldCom, strained by $30 billion in debt, will cut 17,000 jobs, or 21% of its workers, starting today. Workers will get severance pay, Burns says. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 5 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2002 Andersen's partners chart firm's future today By Greg Farrell USA TODAY NEW YORK — Arthur Andersen's U. S. partners will huddle in a nationwide teleconference today to determine the firm's immediate future. At issue: who should lead the firm's U. S. operations on an interim basis, and what steps Andersen should take to remain in business. According to senior partners briefed on the meeting's agenda, Andersen's 1,700 U. S. par tners will decide whether to ask Paul Volcker to assume control of Andersen's domestic operations. In February, Andersen CEO Joseph Berardino asked the former Federal Reserve chairman to head an oversight board dedicated to fixing the firm. A month later, a federal grand jur y indicted Andersen on a charge of obstruction of justice for its role in shredding Enron documents last October. Friday, in a last-ditch effort to stanch client depar tures and restore confidence in Andersen, Volcker offered to lead Andersen if its top par tners asked him. On Tuesday, Berardino resigned. Managing partner C. E. Andrews will meet with Volcker today to discuss his takeover plan. While many obser vers think Volcker's arrival could persuade the J ustice Depar tment to drop the indictment, some Andersen partners are wary of being the subject of an idealistic experiment in transforming the accounting industry. The partners will also discuss, and probably adopt, a â€Å"Renaissance† program aimed at returning Andersen to its roots as a highly regarded auditing firm. This proposal, supported by Andrews, has gained support among older partners who want to stay and rebuild the firm. In other developments: u At federal cour t in Houston, Contributing: Thor Valdmanis J ustice Depar tment lawyers will respond to Andersen's motion to halt further grand jury testimony prior to a May 6 trial. If Judge Melinda Harmon sides with Andersen, it will make the government's obstruction of justice case against Andersen more difficult to win. u Andersen's top global partners will meet Tuesday in London to pick an interim CEO. Andersen's global operations continue to fragment. Its Japanese affiliate, Asahi & Co. , announced plans to merge this fall with rival KPMG. Andersen has also discussed selling affiliates to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Wednesday night, Deloitte spokesman Matthew Batters suggested the firm was only interested in hiring individual Andersen partners and picking up clients leaving the firm. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 6 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2002 Client-starved Arthur Andersen cuts 7,000 jobs Long expected, layoffs offer first tangible sign of firm's distress By Greg Farrell USA TODAY WorldCom has engaged in what could be one of the bArthur Andersen fired one partner in January for his role in shredding Enron documents. On Monday, the auditing firm announced it will lay off 7,000 of its 26,000 U. S. employees because of the consequences of that shredding. The job cuts at Andersen have been expected for weeks, ever since the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against the firm for its role in destroying its paperwork just as a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into Enron was about to begin. Since the indictment, unsealed on March 14, scores of clients have deserted Andersen. As Andersen partners leave the firm for opportunities at other Big Five rivals, more clients are expected to migrate. So far, Andersen has weathered the crisis without filing for bankruptcy protection. But the layoffs, announced Monday, are the first tangible sign of financial distress at the firm. Of the 7,000 employees being let go, the vast majority are auditing staffers and managers, as well as administrative personnel. A small number of Andersen's 1,700 U. S. partners are also being let go. According to managing partner Grover Wray, most partners are still needed to serve Andersen's remaining clients. Rather than hand out severance checks to laid-off employees, Wray says Andersen is implementing a program called â€Å"salary continuation. † nder this plan, laid-off workers will continue to be paid for a certain number of weeks, depending on how long they've been with the firm. During that period, these employees will keep their benefits and be free to use their office space to search for new jobs. We are trying to treat our people with a level of dignity,† Wray says. In addition to client defections, Andersen also faces major liabilities for the role it played in Enron's collapse into bankruptcy last fall. Plaintiffs lawyer Bill Lerach filed an expanded complaint Monday against Andersen and former Enron managers in federal court in Houston. But the expanded lawsuit, on behalf of a major Enron shareholder — the Unive rsity of California system — adds nine Wall Street investment banks and two law firms to the list of defendants. Representatives from the banks — JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, CS First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Lehman Bros. — either declined comment on Monday or denied the complaint's allegations of complicity in Enron's collapse. Notably, Lerach's complaint leaves out two key players in Enron's demise — Michael Kopper, who headed some of the special purpose entities that kept Enron liabilities off the company's balance sheet, and Ben Glisan, the former Enron treasurer accused of facilitating some of Enron's dubious accounting practices. Glisan is now believed to be cooperating with the Justice Department probe of Enron's activities. Lerach would not comment on whether the pair supplied his investigators with information. But Larry Finder, a former U. S. Attorney now in private practice in Houston, doubts either is helping Lerach. Finder says that if either of them is providing information, it would be to the Justice Department first, where they face criminal liability. And the Justice Department wouldn't necessarily welcome a decision by a witness to cooperate in civil litigation. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 7 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002 Dominoes hit WorldCom partners, clients Unpleasant ripple effect also spreads to vendors, charities, sponsored events By Michelle Kessler USA TODAY The WB television network, PGA Tour and Texas Parks and Wildlife service aren't in telecom, but they've already been hurt by the WorldCom scandal. That's because they all did business with WorldCom, as did thousands of other companies. Now they're all trying to figure out where they stand with the struggling giant — and coming up with backup plans. This is not going to be pleasant for a lot of companies,† says Kerry Adler, CEO of WorldCom customer Webhelp. Among those affected: u V e n d o r s . WorldCom repor ted that its capital expenditures dropped 42% to about $1. 3 billion in the first quarter from a year ago, yet it remained a big customer for many telecom equipment makers. While it's unclear how accurate WorldCom's numbers are becaus e of the accounting scandal, what is clear is that its spending has slowed. The hardest hit is Juniper Networks, says Banc of America Securities analyst Christopher Crespi. WorldCom provided about 10% of Juniper's annual revenue, including â€Å"less than $7 million† this quarter, Juniper says. If WorldCom stops buying, that could dampen Juniper's forecast for the year. â€Å"It could easily subtract $50 million or $60 million off their top line,† says Soundview Technology analyst Ryan Molloy. Customers Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks and Redback Networks could also get stung, but WorldCom accounts for just a small percentage of total sales, says U. S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Edward Jackson. All telecom equipment makers could be affected in coming months, even if they didn't do business directly with WorldCom, analysts say. WorldCom was known for buying the latest, most high-tech equipment, forcing competitors to do the same if they wanted to keep up. With WorldCom out of the picture, spending could lag. u Contractors. In 1999, when consulting firm EDS signed an 11-year, $6. 4 billion contract to provide technology services to WorldCom, telecom was a growing industry. EDS is stuck with the deal and a related pledge to buy $6 billion worth of telecom services during that period. Now, EDS says it no longer wants to spend that much with WorldCom. It's in talks to work out a deal. RMH Teleservices has a five-year contract to provide customer service for WorldCom's MCI division. That accounted for 19. 5% of RMH's revenue from October to March. â€Å"While we cannot predict the future . . . we expect to continue to provide these services for MCI,† RMH leader John Fellows said in a statement. u Business partners. Last year, WorldCom pledged to buy millions of dollars in advertising from AOL Time Warner over several years. The exact terms were not disclosed. Now, that deal could be off, meaning fewer ads for Time magazine, cable's TBS and the WB television network. WorldCom also provides service to the company's AOL Internet division. AOL says it has backup providers in case WorldCom service is disrupted. Satellite cable provider DirecTV is holding meetings to determine how to handle its 4-month-old partnership with WorldCom. WorldCom was to provide the underlying network for part of DirecTV's high-speed Internet access service. Similar questions are being asked at Internet Security Systems, a software company that agreed in May to provide security services to WorldCom customers. The value of the two deals was not disclosed. * Sponsored events. Last week's Fourth of July fireworks Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 8 AS SEEN IN USA TODAY MONEY SECTION, TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2002 celebration on the Mall in Washington was supposed to be paid for by WorldCom, which has sponsored part of the festivities for five years. But the company pulled out. The National Parks Foundation scrambled to find new funding from AT. Also in Washington, the MCI Center arena might soon be looking for a new sponsor and name. The WorldCom Classic, an annual PGA Tour stop in Hilton Head, S. C. , is in the same situation. u Charities. Each month, about 10,000 teachers receive free training in math, science and the arts from the MarcoPolo project, which is sponsored by WorldCom's charity arm. Now, program administrators and partners — including the National Geographic Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kennedy Center — are tr ying to make the proj ect independent of the struggling company. Last week, they pulled WorldCom's logos from the MarcoPolo Web site. They're applying to make it a â€Å"public charity,† says Caleb Schutz, president of WorldCom Foundation. There's a lot to lose if the company . . . pulled the plug. † For now, WorldCom still funds MarcoPolo. u Customers. The Texas Parks and Wildlife department spent last week printing temporary fishing and hunting licenses as a quick contingency plan. The department relies on a WorldCom computer network to transmit license information to 2,500 vendors. †Å"We certainly have to consider what might happen to our contract,† says Suzy Whittenton, a wildlife director. Webhelp, which outsources customer service for companies such as Microsoft, uses WorldCom to connect its overseas technology specialists with help-seekers in the USA. Because of a contract, Webhelp can't switch providers but was forced to get a backup provider in case WorldCom fails. That means twice the bills. â€Å"It's expensive, and at the end of the day, our clients pay for that,† says CEO Adler. Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved. Page 9 Behind the Story: A Reporter’s Notebook The collapse of Enron and WorldCom, precipitated by revelations that both companies had misrepresented how profitable they were, threatens the health of the the nation’s stock markets. If investors can’t believe earnings numbers issued by the biggest companies in the USA, they won’t put their money into the market. And when investors take their money out of the market, as they’ve been doing for more than two years, businesses suffer. They can’t invest, they can’t grow as quickly and they can’t afford to hire more people. Greg Farrell Money reporter USA TODAY As the Enron and WorldCom examples demonstrate, there’s no room in a public marketplace for â€Å"creative accounting. † Once a few cheaters are revealed, the integrity of the entire marketplace is open to question. Greg Farrell is a reporter in USA TODAY’s Money section. He writes about fraud and white collar crime. In the past year, he has been reporting on Enron, Arthur Andersen, Martha Stewart and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Page 10 For discussion ADELPHIA PLANS TO FILE CHAPTER 11; ADELPHIA FOUNDER, 2 SONS, 2 OTHERS ARRESTED IN FRAUD (LIEBERMAN AND FARRELL) 1. Adelphia Corporation was the sixth largest cable company at the time of its collapse. The company was accused of a number of fraudulent activities including the manipulation of its financial reports. Specifically, the firm was accused of misreporting its cable subscription numbers in order to give the impression that the firm was growing faster than it was. For example, they counted subscribers from systems in Brazil and Venezuela where the company owns a minority stake in the company’s total subscribers. They also counted customers who ordered high-speed Internet services from companies owned by the Rigas family and clients that ordered home security services from Adelphia. Why would Adelphia’s management engage in what appears to be blatant misrepresentation of their number of subscribers? 2. When CEO John Regas of Adelphia was led away in handcuffs on racketeering charges, some complained that the justice department was making too public a display of its tough stance on white-collar crime. This type of treatment is normally associated with murderers and rapists. How do you feel about the importance of making a public spectacle of white-collar criminals? 3. The Adelphia lawsuit stated that the Rigases â€Å"used their domination and control of Adelphia, and their isolation from the scrutiny of the outside world, to engage in one of the largest schemes of self-dealing and financial wrong doing in American corporate history. Financial economists refer to this type of behavior as an agency cost since corporate executives are the agents of the firm’s owners or principals. How can stockholders protect themselves from the potential for self-dealing by corporate executives? ANDERSEN’S PARTNERS CHART FIRM’S FUTURE TODAY (FARRELL) 1. Arthur Andersen was once the premier public accounting firm but a string of high profile financial reporting disasters that culminated with the failure of Enron caused the demise of the once proud firm. Andersen’s failure highlights the fact that the principal asset of a public accounting firm is the firm’s reputation. Once the firm’s â€Å"credibility† is challenged its clients are no longer willing to pay for its auditing services. What is it that a public accounting firm does that requires it to have a sterling reputation for honesty? 2. Anderson’s initial lay off was 7,000 of its 26,000 employees before the firm completely collapsed and all employees lost their jobs. However, all of Andersen’s clients still needed auditing services so in many instances the employees continued to audit the same firms they had audited for Andersen, just for another auditing firm. If the employees just moved from one firm to another, was there really a layoff? Did Andersen employees really suffer from the demise of Arthur Andersen? Isn’t this also true of the Adelphia, Enron, and WorldCom employees? For more information, log on to http://www. usatodaycollege. com Page 11 Future implications WORLDCOM SCANDAL BRINGS SUBPOENAS, CONDEMNATION (BACKOVER AND VALDMANIS); DOMINOS HIT WORLDCOM PARTNERS, CLIENTS (KESSLER) The financial press coverage of the failures of Adelphia, Enron, and WorldCom have focused principally on stockholders who have lost everything they invested and creditors who stand to lose a portion of what they have loaned the company. However, other important consequences of these high profile failures are often overlooked including: (1) the financial and emotional losses suffered by employees who lose their jobs and face the prospect of a lengthy period of unemployment and possibly the dislocation costs of moving to another community to find work, (2) the local community public services and school systems who lose valuable tax revenues, and (3) the budget crises created for local charities and the arts that depend on corporate contributions for their continued survival. Bankruptcy courts focus on the contractual obligations of the firm to creditors and suppliers. It has been argued that the corporation is a â€Å"guest† of the society and as such has obligations to the entire web of stakeholders that have a financial stake in the firm’s survival. Should the claims of these â€Å"silent stakeholders† also be considered when a firm fails? About The Expert John D. Martin,Ph. D. Professor of Finance Carr P. Collins Chair Hankamer School of Business Baylor University From 1980 until 1998 John Martin taught at the University of Texas at Austin where he was the Margaret and Eugene McDermott Centennial Professor of Finance. Currently holding the Carr P. Collins Chair in Finance at Baylor University in Waco, Dr. Martin teaches corporate finance and financial modeling. His research interests are in corporate governance, the evaluation of firm performance, and the design of incentive compensation programs. Dr. Martin publishes widely in both academic and professional journals. Included among his academic publications are papers in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Finance, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, and Management Science. Professional publications include papers in Directors and Boards, Financial Analysts' Journal, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Bank of America Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. u Dr. Martin co-authors several books including the following: u Financial Management, 9th edition (Prentice Hall Publishing Company) u Foundations of Finance, 4th Edition (Prentice Hall Publishing Company) u Financial Analysis (McGraw Hill Publishing Company) u The Theory of Finance (Dryden Press) Dr. Martin consults with a number of firms including Citgo, Hewlett Packard, Shell Chemical, Shell E, Texas Instruments and The Associates. Additional resources Working Paper Series — Financial Engineering, Corporate Governance, and the Collapse of Enron http://www. be. udel. edu/ccg/research_files/CCGWP2002-1. pdf For more information, log on to http://www. usatodaycollege. com Page 12

Healthy environment Essay

A healthy environment to me would be a community with low pollution, stable economical levels, clean water and communicates who communicate well with one another. The residents in this community would be happy, and would encourage others to come live in their community (Maurer & Smith, 2013). There would be quality health care services available and good schools for the children to promote knowledge. This would help provide education to promote successful lifestyles (Maurer & Smith, 2013). Nursing cares could be provided depending on what the needs were. Nurses could hold seminars to provide the community ways to better their health. They can provide teaching to assist with decreasing pollution in their communities. If there is a high amount of respiratory illness in that community, then minimizing the pollutants would be beneficial. They could start smoke-free areas, teach about decreasing litter to prevent pests, then the pollutant of exterminating gases would be decreased. Nursing could gather statistics about the community’s health to provide information to help promote good health. Maurer, F.A. & Smith, C.M. 2013. Community/Public Health Nursing Practice: Health for Families and Populations, 5th edition. Retrieved from: http//pagebursts.elsevier.com

Porters Strategy and the internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Porters Strategy and the internet - Essay Example Economic value is important because it influences consumer decision to buy a product even above its production cost. Secondly, potential profitability is higher if a company sets itself apart from other businesses as much as possible from the benefits it offers, to the conduct of its business and to the necessary trade-offs it decides to make. A company’s ability to set itself apart from the rest in the market is also reflected in the way it makes and adopts business choices and practices that are integrated into and interdependent with the rest of the system making itself virtually difficult to duplicate. All of the above, however, is only feasible if the company adopts and maintains a continuity of direction repudiating if need be, emerging business practices that tend to veer it away from its established reputation and practices. 2.0Criticisms of the Strategic Positioning View There are several perspectives that conflict with the strategic positioning view of Porter. Barney (1991), for example, although essentially echoing Porter’s six-point formula for strategic positioning especially with respect to good value, uniqueness and inimitability, leans towards resource-based perspective rather than the market-based perspective of Porter (1996) (1991 p 106). On the other hand, Prahalad (1990) subscribes to the idea that a company that can easily adapt itself to the changing market boundaries by an ability to invent or enter new markets or swing customer choices has the more competitive edge.... A company’s ability to set itself apart from the rest in the market is also reflected in the way it makes and adopts business choices and practices that are integrated into and interdependent with the rest of the system making itself virtually difficult to duplicate. All of the above, however, are only feasible if the company adopts and maintains a continuity of direction repudiating, if need be, emerging business practices that tend to veer it away from its established reputation and practices (Porter 2001 63-78; Porter 1996 61-78). 2.0 Criticisms of the Strategic Positioning View There are several perspectives that conflict with the strategic positioning view of Porter. Barney (1991), for example, although essentially echoing Porter’s six-point formula for strategic positioning especially with respect to good value, uniqueness and inimitability, leans towards resource-based perspective rather than the market-based perspective of Porter (1996) (1991 p 106). On the othe r hand, Prahalad (1990) subscribes to the idea that a company that can easily adapt itself to the changing market boundaries by an ability to invent or enter new markets or swing customer choices has more competitive edge. This dynamism essentially conflicts with Porter’s advocacy for strategic continuity to preserve firm identity and reputation. For Prahalad, core competencies or a firm’s collective learning is the heart of a company’s competitive advantage as opposed to Porter’s strategic positioning. Pitt (2001) likewise believes that changes that are now taking place are too fast and the best thing that companies can do is not to rely only on tangible assets but more on intangible assets such as

Economics case assignment module 01 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Economics case assignment module 01 - Essay Example This reflects the company’s high premium on supply and demand. It also values customers by giving many incentives that will attract new buyers and maintain old ones. To further the relationship between Wal Mart and Economics, the term Efficiency, Technology , and Price were chosen since these are actually some of the factors that have contributed to the growth of this business. The first term efficiency denotes achieving the maximum potential of an output ( products or services) that is brought by the resources and technology. An organization as big as Wal Mart would not be able to thrive in the market if it isn’t efficient. It’s expansion even to other countries benefits much from the ability of the organization to harness the potential of its resources. One of its focus is human resource management which equips its employees the skills that increase their efficiency in delivering services to the customers, thereby, producing favorable results as seen from their growth. Even having their own fleet of trucks dramatically increased their efficiency in supplying their stores. The term Technology complements the efficiency of Wal-Mart since this business has proven that one of the contributing factors for its efficiency is technology. A concrete example would be its direct access to P&G that enables it to replace its shelves four times faster than the competition; thus , approving that efficiency is highly correlated with technology. The third term price implies that sellers and buyers must agree on the exchange of products and services. In the same manner, Wal Mart has met the price that the consumers are willing to pay for since its prices are low. Interestingly, this is again a contribution of efficiency since the company keep the costs very minimal because of the logistics system that they have. Their efficiency in

EasyBuys' Mobile On-line Shopping Project Essay

EasyBuys' Mobile On-line Shopping Project - Essay Example However, no one in the company, IT department included, is familiar with the mobile application and the different platforms of mobile. Due to these facts, this report will help the EasyBuys’ management and the IT department as a guide through the MOSA project. EasyBuys’ management should pay keen attention on the agile approaches as will be illustrated in this report, which aims to analyze the approaches of agile, their strengths and weaknesses and recommendation for adoption. Agile approaches have emerged so as the changes needed for development may be adopted quickly and with ease. This is in contrary to the non agile approaches which are plan driven and traditional. The main idea behind the agile approaches is to release early the working software via responding quickly to the alterations in specifications through the use of code refactoring, collaborative techniques, customer involvement, and test driven development. There are various agile approaches that can be us ed by companies such as the EasyBuys, however the focus is the same as they all emphasize on efficiency and effectiveness, and therefore in this report, we will put emphasis on the Scrum agile approach (Glass, 2001). Scrum is a business oriented framework used for managing development of software process. This agile approach was created by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Scwaber. It is an iterative, incremental that uses using rolling wave planning in order to determine, identify and prioritize project requirements. The team, such as the IT department for this report, works on the requirements in a prioritized manner in order to deliver feature of the highest value as possible. Some of the areas that the Scrum approach puts emphasis during implementation include: customer collaboration when doing business, individual interactions when using tools and processes in the project, response to change over the abrupt need by the market, and the working software for reasons of comprehensive documen tation (Fowler, 2000). The Scrum agile approach has defined principles and values that the practitioners, the IT department, will have to follow during its implementation as a guide. The Scrum agile approach has various strengths and reasons that lead to great demand by other companies, EasyBuys’ management, included. Some of the strengths that the management are likely to derive from the agile approach include: better management of priorities of change, better business IT alignment, high acceleration of time to market, enhances quality of software, and increasing company productivity. These strengths give the Scrum agile approach an upper hand for adoption and implementation in the company. The approach however demands that, for successful implementation, the project for which the agile approach is being adopted must be planned and defined, executed as detailed in the plan, and the management of the project must monitor and control the results (Highsmith, 2000). For instance , during the adoption of this Scrum agile approach, the EasyBuys’ management and the IT department will, from the outset of the project, work closely with their customers in order to understand the vision for the project, how the newly updated systems will be used, and how the projects support the goals of the business. In addition, this agile approach demands that

Not sure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Not sure - Essay Example Buddhism has a significant following in China since its introduction in the first century from India (Adler, 2002). It is based on the teachings, beliefs and practices of its founder, Siddhartha Gautama, widely known as Buddha. From its inception, Buddhism has existed under two main categories – the Theravada and Mahayana – and each had followers in different parts of Asia. Initially, Buddhism teachings and beliefs met a stiff resistance from the Chinese society due to its concept of monasticism and repugnance to social affairs. This beliefs and practices went against the traditional Chinese norms and standards. Buddhism was seen as retrogressive and barbaric practice that was a threat to the state authority; and that Buddhist monasteries were of no value to the economy of the state. As a way of making it appeal to the Chinese society, Buddhism concepts were matched to Taoism by the first Indian translators (Adler, 2002). Subsequently, it started to appeal to the elites and intellectuals, and a new genre of Buddhism was formed as an alternative to Taoism and Confucianism. Taoism is a belief and philosophical tradition that is based in living in harmony with Tao. Tao is a principle of â€Å"path† or â€Å"way† and is also found among other Chinese traditional religions and philosophies (Adler, 2002). ... This different schools are not institutionalized and do not forbid their followers from believing and practicing multiplicity of school’s of beliefs and philosophies including, Confucianism and Chinese folk religion. Chinese folk religions comprise of traditional beliefs system based on mythology that practice the worship of deities – clan, cities, national and cultural deities - and demigods. Folk religion in china has been classified with Taoism since mainstream Taoism has been trying to assimilate customary religions. Confucianism is a belief system based on ethics and philosophical teachings of Confucius. Confucianism has been the official state ideology of the country since the fall of the Qin dynasty (Adler, 2002). Traditional Chinese religions have been largely an individual focused beliefs and philosophy that never demand exclusive adherence of followers. Existence of religion in China before the influence of the West Religion in China existed in the form a beli ef systems developed by philosophers and other idealist based on the traditional Chinese folk religion. These belief systems were never forced upon the people and were adhered in order to realize high moral and intellectual understanding of life. Buddhism for instance, was introduced to china from India along the Silk Road region and to make it appeal to the Chinese society and political class, it had to assimilate traditional, folk practices (Adler, 2002). Some of the beliefs of traditional Chinese society fit the description of religious rites such as veneration of ancestors. This practice is aimed at showing a deceased family member respect and cements the family ties between the dead and

HR and CSR connection (Project Proposal) Term Paper

HR and CSR connection (Project Proposal) - Term Paper Example The human resource departments within Qatar Shell are responsible for ensuring that their employee’s rights, development along with personal wants. This has brought about an increase in the moral responsibility in the corporation. The human resource department’s within Qatar Shell are credited with bringing success in the form of competitive advantages along with their international businesses (Linnenluecke &Griffiths, 2009). Qatar Shell’s CSR involves building the rights along with duties that exist between it and their neighboring families. The omission of observing corporate rules within Qatar Shell is not punishable by the law in the land but brings adverse effects to the organization. The responsibilities in Qatar Shell have had major impacts on areas such as the business missions, their operations, management along with marketing fields. In addition, Qatar Shell’s participation in corporate social responsibilities helps in making improvements in their corporate reputations (Jackson, 2011). The key to success in the implementation of an organizations corporate social responsibility is dependent on the policies along with practices that their human resource departments have adopted. The policies that the human resource departments within an organization which engage their CSR’s usually give positive impacts on the attitudes, their work performances along with behaviors. Such move s usually have positive impacts on an organizations performance (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2009). The human resource departments within Qatar Shell usually play an important part in improving the performance and image of an organization. The departments are responsible for deploying sufficient staff; participate in the planning along with the implementation of an organizations CSR policies and programs. The objectives of an organization’s CSR are aimed at addressing the

Identify the various forms of plagiarism Research Paper

Identify the various forms of plagiarism - Research Paper Example n a student takes another student’s work and presents them as his/her own, and when a student downloads from the internet work that had been done and presenting it as his/her own. It also involves having someone do an assignment for you and presenting their findings or work as if you are the one who did the assignment (Gaines, 2007). Other students and authors will however not present works taken from the other sources in its original written form – they will rephrase other people’s ideas, research, opinion and information to come up with new works. Though the work seems on the face value to be original, only the wordings have changed from the original author’s work but the ideas are borrowed. This is commonly referred to as manipulated plagiarism (Neville, 2007). Students and authors wanting to make their work juicy or more presentable may take parts of other people’s work and incorporate them with theirs to enrich their ideas. The additional pieces of work may be quotes, phrases from a paragraph or entire paragraphs. The use of these parts without acknowledging the source constitutes to partial or juice plagiarism (Gaines, 2007). People also have a tendency of presenting their works either as a whole or in parts in more than one occasion or for different assignments. When this is done without letting the people using the work for the subsequent times know when the original work was done, one is considered to be involved in self plagiarism. This is most common when one is required to handle an assignment with similar requirements as the one he/she had previously handled (Neville, 2007). It is important for people to avoid plagiarism as much as possible. The most important thing is for writers to know what constitutes plagiarism and the implications that one is likely to face if found guilty of plagiarism. Writers ought to know how to acknowledge sources of their work. They should know how to do referencing and citations properly using the different

The effects of cell phones in the busness workplace Research Paper - 1

The effects of cell phones in the busness workplace - Research Paper Example Not unusually for breakthrough technology, the cost of a Motorola DynaTac in 1983 was $3,995.00, which, in today’s terms and taking inflation into account, would be in the region of $8,500. (1) The cost of acquisition, however, was overall perceived to be outweighed by the benefits of the new technology and the status conferred on those who used it. The race to produce more affordable, smaller and more versatile handsets for a market that could only grow is till showing little sign of slowing. Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 17 Per Cent in First Quarter 2010. (2) Figures released in 2002 by the International Telecommunication Union (3) reveal that, in terms of units per person, Taiwan topped the list at 106.45 per 100, with Burma at the bottom. Weighted average was 59.3 per 100, with the United States at 48.81. The cost of initial models confined sales almost exclusively to the business sector, and indeed the benefits were immediate and enormous. On another level, the magical new device lent an aura of power to its owner; if you were in a position to purchase one of these vastly expensive, exotic devices, you clearly needed to communicate with other powerful, decision-making corporate warriors. Either that, or you were a very savvy criminal (3), which, to some sideline observers not yet equipped to enter the game, was also an exotic and enviable career. So we can safely say that the cell phone changed business for the better as soon as it became clear that to not have one was a disadvantage. Let us call this ‘Effect One’, the addition of a vital tool to the company toolbox, sometimes one you had to earn by distinction until the price enabled the purchase of a handset for personal use. It needed little to no effort to sell this new, potent symbol of progress and dynamism. It also introduced a set of changes

Madness in Love in William Shakespeare Essay Example for Free

Madness in Love in William Shakespeare Essay Madness in Love in William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Twelfth Night† There are many definitions for love, but there are also many definitions for madness. Both words, when joined together, create an endless possibility of emotions and actions one can bare to hold for the sake of another. Madness can be described as â€Å"senseless folly†. When a person is in love with another, they tend to define their feelings of passionate affection for this other person. Shakespeare’s concept was to involve some of his characters with this feeling. In Twelfth Night, madness is created by the misconception and misunderstanding due to love. Mainly, it is said that Love is one of the most significant types of madness. It leads to causes like confusion and chaos in mind, mentality, and behavior. In the Twelfth Night, the Duke Orsino falls madly in love with Olivia. Orsino describes his love towards Olivia deeper than he could imagine, â€Å"So full of shapes is fancy, that it alone is high fantastical†. Orsino loses his focus on reality as he says â€Å"For such as I am all true lovers are. Unstaid and skittish in all motions else, save in the constant image of the creature, that is beloved. †(P. 34) The only thing that is real for him at the moment is anything that has to do with his â€Å"beloved creature†, the beautiful Olivia. We also see Olivia’s senseless acts come to play as she finds herself smitten after her first encounter with Cesario: †I do I know not what, and fear to find. Mine eye too great a flatterer of my mind. [†¦]What is decreed must be – and be this so! †(P. 24) Olivia finds herself unable to think properly because she is so distracted and flustered by the attractive looks of Cesario. Another interpretation could be that Olivia’s affection has been taken and used up by Cesario due to the loss of her brother and she refuses to share her love with anyone else. Later on in the play Malvolio’s madness changes from the state of being madly in love and committing crazy acts of devotion to the state of being in madness or chaos because of the misunderstanding of the situation. He thinks it was Olivia who wrote the trick note when it was really Maria, Toby, and Andrew who tried to trick him. They created a letter, pretending to be Olivia, telling Malvolio what will make her happy. The letter did not even state that it was Olivia, but because Malvolio was excited to gain her favor he jumped to the conclusion that it was her. Malvolio’s infatuation for Olivia was so great it clouded his ability to think properly. â€Å"Daylight and champion discovers not more! †, is Malvolio’s first comment as he finished reading. He was so desperate to please Olivia and gain her love, he jumps straight to the conclusion that she wrote the letter for him. The little acts of devotion Maria mentioned in the letter were so absurd Malvolio was willingly ready to fulfill all of them: â€Å"I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me, for every reason excites to this, that my lady love me. I will be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, and cross-gartered, even with the swiftness of putting on. †(P. 44) Malvolio enters into a state of madness and confusion because he feels no one else knows what he is talking about. Whether madness was created due to acting foolishly because of an infatuated feeling or acting with intense emotion over someone you really care about, all these situations were because of love. In the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, â€Å"there is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness†. Shakespeare’s characters Orsino, Olivia, and Malvolio, all had a cause for their madness, and it was because of their love for somebody else. Sometimes it is a feeling that comes over you that you think is love but it doesn’t have to mean that it is simultaneously true.

Defining Marketing Essay Example for Free

Defining Marketing Essay To answer the premise of the paper, ‘Defining Marketing’ a definition of marketing is a proper beginning for consideration. My personal definition of marketing is the concept or premise of a function in which products, goods or services are transferred to a consumer or client by a producer or seller. Other definitions exist to describe marketing aside from the prior definition. Marketing has been described as, â€Å"A management process identifying, anticipating and supplying client or consumer requirements with efficiency and profitability. (Tutor2U, 2010) In that same article marketing is described as â€Å"human activities that are directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges. † (Tutor2U, 2010) This last expression or definition rings true, in that as a consumer I want appeal, product or name recognition, quality, and value for my money. The sellers or producers are engaged in making a profit and ensuring a positive client experience and consumers or clients who want products that are within their budget, durable and meets the expectations of the transaction; thus a deal can be made between the two entities. In the course text, Basic Marketing, by Perrault, Cannon and McCarthy, the term marketing is further defined as â€Å"performing activities seeking to accomplish an organizations’ objectives through the anticipation of customer needs and directing the flow of need satisfying goods and services from producer to client or customer. †(Basic Marketing, page 6, 2009) Marketing is important for organizational success along with companies having flexibility, exuding a transparent organizational culture and challenging employees to excel and remaining accountable for their actions. Many companies and organizations struggle to find the right balance in management to ensure the company growth and achieve profitability. Marketing can plan an important role in companies excelling with their corporate goals. The use of marketing is how companies conceive and promote corporate brand management and strategic positioning; but it also works toward a corporate strategy and allows for companies to be innovative and thrive in their industries. A company with a marketing business plan considers the key stakeholders, communication channels, the business environment and, core corporate competencies. Using the company brand is a leverage to be used to its full potential. Marketing can assist in developing new consumer channels, products or services that can grow the company or organization and make a sustainable difference in industry trends. The marketing business strategy should include ideas on obtaining new clients, retaining current clients or customers, brand management and tactical to promote sales of the company’s products and services. As a business tool or foundation, marketing uses strategic tactics designed to identify the appropriate market and time for implementation and will impact the organization success of a company. Verizon Communications is a favorite in the telecommunication industry and one of the most powerful national companies in the specialty. Verizon uses new technology recently developed and follows through by introducing the advances to a competing industry. Through research and marketing, Verizon has found what telecommunication technology works and has become very proud of starting a major transformation in the wireless world. As an innovator, Verizon is a industry leader in providing information technology and advanced communications to customers. Through a partnership with major computer companies, Hewlett Packard and Dell Computers, Verizon can produce technological products that are of high quality. The use of these practices helps the Verizon organizational structure through strategic business goals including employee development, diversity awareness, and recruitment. (Verizon, 2010) Another company that has demonstrated consistently to employees and stakeholders, honest and fair business practices resulting in significant organizational success is Dole Food Company. The Dole name is one often associated with high quality and nutrition for fresh cut flowers, vegetables and, fruit. Dole also markets a line of packaged and frozen foods and serves as a leader in the industry for nutrition education and research. (Murdock, 2008) Dole Foods underwent a two-year research and redevelopment program for the Dole Fresh Vegetable product line. (Dole, 2008) Dole’s willingness to share knowledge publicly, invest in new technology, fight food born disease, are all public benefits derived from their ethical leadership. Dole’s financial stewardship and social responsibility underscores the fact that the company is both ethical and profitable. In business, there is more to being successful and achieving organizational success than having products or services at reasonable prices. Many companies underuse marketing as one of their business functions. Alternatively there are many companies that have been successful because of the effective use of strategic marketing such as Microsoft, Sony, American Express, Disney and Wal-Mart, just to name a few.

The Strategic plan for Toyota Company

The Strategic plan for Toyota Company Executive Summary: The Strategic plan for Toyota is to serve as guideline for conducting and coordinating development, research, marketing ,and all other business activities across the motor industry and for increasing the development of new and exciting efforts based on identification of region in the motor invention opportunity and challenges. Then strategic plan shows a dynamic or changing planning process and brings multidirectional research and manufacturing agenda, together with an interlinked collection of goals and strategies for attaining those goals. Once the plan is setup, it is implemented in the reality for analysing and testing those formed strategies about its effectiveness and attractiveness. Toyota follow the concept of strategy can be updated and changed anytime whenever it is in need of that. Strategy is not any fixed rule that any origination when establishes it, can not change. That means Strategy can be modified anytime when needed. But unless it is updated or said to be changed, all the stakeholders have to follow that to achieve the collective goals of the origination. Some time there is strategy failure in the organisation. But Toyota has never experienced its strategy failure ever. There is constant monitoring of the implemented strategy in Toyota Company in Order To identify the effectiveness and efficiency of implemented strategy. As the Toyota has got distributed architecture of management, all its branch around the world can adopt and implement any separate strategy plan in order to balance the pressure of localization. Literature Review: Seen from the almost mid seventies, it can be noted that scholars can make big difference between big and small business in term of sophistication level, needs, and strategic planning. Pearson and Bracker(1986), Ibrahim and rue(1998), Perry(2001) and Wijewanrena Zoysa, Perera and Fonseka (2004) they all formulated the exact definition of strategic planning which take the distinct of small businesses in consideration and gives the chance that any small businesses cant make on management and resources in a way same as large businesses do. Then findings of piric shows that at correlation between performance and strategic planning. Nevertheless, those findings are mixed. The survey conducted on twenty-six different studies based on experiments Cardinal and Miller (1994) to find an appropriate positive connection between small business performance and strategic planning. In 1982, Robinson argued that very high level of profitability as well as growth in share value and sales return and quantity of employees, who are working fulltime, in a set of small businesses which has paid the consultants from out of the company for strategic planning purpose. Comparing with other business Pearson and Bracker (1986) discovered an appropriate growth in income and remuneration per entrepreneur in business activities that has prepared that strategic course of action to be followed. But not much increase observed in the expenditure (salary) divided on the sum total of sales. A significant differentiation in the rate of sales increase was found by Rue and Ibrahim (1998) in small businesses that incorporated written planning (basic or sophisticated), as opposed to other businesses. Perry (2001) detected a significant differentiation in the degree to which planning was conducted in small businesses that did not applied for bankruptcy as opposed to those that did. Wijewardena et al. (2004) define three levels of planning: no written planning; basic planning; and detailed planning. The findings indicate that the level of planning stands in direct proportion to the level of increase in sales. Yusuf and Saffu (2005) classify three levels of planning: low; moderate; and high. A connection was found between increase in sales and the low level of planning. No correlation was found between strategic planning and increases in market share or in profitability. Andrews (1998) argued that corporate strategy is decision pattern in any organisation that reveals and determines its goals and objectives, then helps to produce principal plans and policies for achieving formed goals, and also expresses the business range that company can pursuer. Strategy Reveals and identifies the companys purpose in terms of action program, long term goals and objectives and available resources allocation priorities: Finding the business in the organisation where it is in, or it is to be in. Helps to find out distinct task for managers at functional, business and corporate levels Is a unifying, coherent and integrative patterns of making decisions Is organisations strategic intoned expression process Is for nurturing and developing intend of the organisation. Part 2: Analysis Task 1 Construct a management strategy. A) Identify an organisation of your choice which you will discuss as an example in this assignment and give your reasons for choosing this organisation. The organisation I have chosen for this assignment is Toyota Motor Company. The company counts under worlds top ten largest companies and stands second in overall vehicles production worldwide. This organisation has always been of my interest and would like to see further to be a part of it. As the company is in the height of success, it has a very effective and successful strategy management. The company initiated on fourteenth February 1867 has now expanded into a massive motor production known worldwide. The success of any organisation depends on how it is structured, organised, managed and controlled, and in this company all of these important functions are well managed. While having a research on this company it was found very interesting on how the company strategy are set, measured and managed. Therefore i choose Toyota Company, as the best example for this assignment. B) Who are the major stakeholders of your organisation and what considerations should be made to ensure their (stakeholder) participation in developing management strategy? In this complex world, any corporate activities to remain sustainable must consider what society demands and how to work for the best interest of the organisations shareholder. Any person or group that are affected or can be affected by the organisation activities are stakeholders. There are numbers of stakeholders for Toyota Company (external and internal). Toyotas major stakeholders Internal stakeholders Owners/Shareholders of the organisation Employees Senior management team unions External stakeholders Customers Business partners/suppliers Local communities Government Debt holders Environmentalist For all these groups or individual it is important to understand their expectations in detail and how these might differ from each other and the extent to which they are likely to seek influence over an organisations purposes and strategies. These stakeholders have divergent interest therefore they create conflict of interest. Therefore management should set such a strategy that their personal goal leads toward the overall goal of the organisation. In order to achieve that target it is important to have their active participation in management strategy. Given below are some considerations to be made for large motor company like Toyota for active participation of its stakeholders. Shareholders participation: as they are the owner of the organisation, company should run on their best interest. Therefore before setting any strategy there should be the clear vision on what the shareholder wants and how are they going to measure it. After knowing on what direction they want to lead the company and what are their long terms and short term objectives strategy should me made accordingly. Participation of internal stakeholders: Employees or staffs plays a vital role to meet the target of the organisation, therefore it is important to know what kind of environment they want to work on, what kind of culture they are expecting and how can it be set. For instance in Toyota motor company, business is totally oriented on production staff and IT staff thus workable environment is most essential factor. Therefore during strategy formation needs and demands of employees should be considered. Dispute among management and employees can lead to a huge loss even company can collapse, for instance regular strike (recent postal strikes), staff absenteeism, staff turnover etc. Involvement of It department: In 21st century IT plays a vital role. In this competitive market company must have latest technology and infrastructures which can kill or can be killed. Thus IT departments involvement is must in formulating any strategy from the start. Meetings, decision making and reports: the success of company depends on how well the strategy of the company is set. Therefore during planning and formulating strategy all important stakeholders should be called for meeting for group decision. At least a member from external stakeholder should be given to attain the meeting. Experts views and senior management involvement is must in decision making process whose progress can be measured and analysed. Management style: Senior management, staffs, supplier, creditors and production department should interact with each other and deicide on what management technique they want to adopt say directing style, teamwork style, and participatory style and so on. C) What are the key criteria that should be considered when reviewing management strategies options? Following are the criteria for reviewing management strategy: 1. Countrys regulations and restriction: the countrys regulation and restriction has main impact. Strategy formed must be according to the countrys regulation and restriction when the business of Toyota is running 2. Flexibility: Ability of an organization to effect changes in the process components (activities, inputs, resources, information etc.) in a timely manner usually in response to changes in business environment and stakeholders needs. 3. Sustainability: has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy-a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies. 4. Resources: the availability of resources in the organisation. It also needs to be considered while reviewing potential options. 5. Alternative functions and strategy: while reviewing it is necessary to go and analysis all others alternatives too so that best alternative could be selected. 6. Overall planning and possible outcomes D) Describe a situation with your chosen organisation where a potential strategy might be developed to resolve an issue. Produce an appropriate strategy and indicate its resource requirements. Toyota is already very grown company and its all most all level of management is, I can say best. But still after going throw number of reading and analysis I can say that the Toyota can make more output than it is getting now. It has enough resources and infrastructures and capability to handle any kind of innovative development. But this could be more effective if the human resources could be used more effectively. Here is one hypothetical strategy example presented by me to explain how to create a good strategy Implement the Framework Agreement through the successful alignment of company and staff objectives in the management and treatment of staff. Implement new pay structures for all staff which guarantee equal pay for work of equal value and provide transparent mechanisms for both career and pay progression. Ensure that all managers have successfully realigned their approach to deliver the more effective performance management which should be one of the major outcomes of the implementation of the Framework Agreement. Execute a systematic, transparent and equitable job evaluation process which will be uniformly applied to all posts and informed by rigorous equal pay review. Achieve greater harmonization of staff pay and conditions. Pilot a new approach to the review of all staff which will promote their professional development and will facilitate the effective and equitable introduction of performance pay, with the least bureaucracy possible. Pursue fairness as a guiding principle in relation to all company behaviours Challenge current arrangements by which specific staff groups are excluded from particular activities and introduce new transparent policies, no longer based on unjustified notions of status or narrow expectations of contribution, which will increase morale and facilitate more productive networking between colleagues. Improve the way in which the Company recruits, employs, manages, develops and rewards its contract researchers by introducing improved arrangements upon the basis of a careful analysis of the overall impact of the Company almost exclusive, reliance on the use of fixed-term contracts in relation to these and other members of staff. ensuring that all staff receive equal opportunity and diversity training Improve the Companys performance by recruiting new staff of the highest quality and motivating existing Colleagues. Review Companys staffing strategies, in the light of the objectives, in terms of the age, gender, ethnicity and seniority of the staff to be recruited, the balance to be achieved between the numbers of academic and support posts to be filled and the precise competences to be sought with regard to all advertised positions. Assess, through appropriate benchmarking of the performance of other like companies, the effectiveness of current search procedures and induction arrangements. Ensure that the company response to the Framework Agreement motivates and assists the retention of those staff who make significant contributions to the companys success, utilizing a diversity of approaches to reward and a flexible approach to career development which allows advancement and lateral development of jobs Enhance the well-being of all colleagues as engaged members of a caring Company community. Encourage productive and open interaction about concerns and issues, by, for example, making improved use of the communication channel afforded by the Staff Survey. Ensure the provision by Human Resources of a service which is highly supportive and regarded as both accessible and effective. Preserve the privacy and security of all colleagues in a period in which Company is attracting much external interest Task 2: Develop Vision, Mission, Objectives and Measures. A) For your chosen organisation, list the down its ethical, cultural, environmental, social and business objectives. How are these influenced by the current business and economic climate? Toyotas objectives are discussed below: Business objectives: To maximize shareholders wealth and giving them returns on their capital invested. Effective working capital management Cost management Quality production Resources utilization (manpower, capital, assets and other) Public image in market (national and international) Overcome competition Ethical objectives: No compromise in ethics True and fair presentations, comply with law and standards (in United Stated list and tick basis whereas in The United Kingdom follow what standards say if not explain why?) Maintain highest level of honesty, integrity, professionalism and ethical behaviours. Cultural social and environmental objectives: See foreseeable future needs, companys responsibilities as a manufacturer company and always take proactive steps that benefits customers as well as society. Proper waste management as a corporate social responsibility Protect whistle blowers and have regular meetings and review on social, cultural and environmental issues. Guarantee safety, peace of mind and comfort to its valuable customers Quality production ( Toyota has commercialized vehicles such as the Prius hybrid vehicle that achieve superior driving performance, in addition to high fuel efficiency and low exhaust emissions, source www2.toyota.co.jp). Employment generation. In present, business market has been worse ever due to hard time of recession. Because of economic recession most industries are facing huge wealth loss. As a result Toyotas sales percentage has been effected and having hard time to meet its first and important objective. Company believes it will be better once the market revive. Due to current market situation people are forced to leave their job and are made redundant. However to meet its business objective company has adopted JUST IN TIME (JIT) principle. To make best use of the staff idle time the company staff has starting engaging themselves on activities like promoting green clean environment. Therefore, although the market and economic situation influence the objectives of the company but it depend on how can it be minimised and managed. B) Describe the role of vision and mission statement of chosen organisation. Mission Statement Toyota is a very successful manufacturing company with a mission to contribute to peoples lifestyles, society, and economy through automotive manufacturing. The company is to benefit people worldwide with an affordable automobile. Furthermore company wants customer satisfaction, safety, peace of mind and comfort which protects the goodwill and ultimately provides very attractive returns to its owners. Some of the corporate principles of Toyota are: Respect each trading countrys language and culture. Provide safe and clean product to enhance quality of life through the companys activities. Create new technologies to meet customers changing demand Foster corporate culture and built mutual respect and trust between labour and senior management. Work together with its partner to achieve mutual benefit together with long term growth. Vision statement Toyota aims to achieve long term, stable growth in harmony with the environment, the global economy, the local communities it serves, and its stakeholders. (Hiroshi Okuda, Chairman, July 2003) Company aims to continuously offer its customer combination of environment friendly, safe and comfortable quality automobile and continuously improve: Customer services Quality and design Economic and durable The details of companys mission and vision are stated above and below are the explanation of its role: Role of vision and mission statement Figure1.  Key Roles of Mission and Vision (Source: http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/pub/1.0/principles-management/29026 ) Mission and vision is all about organizations objectives and purpose. As in the figure above mission and vision statement helps to set companys strategy. Mission and vision statement acts as a stepping-stone for the employee for better understanding of companys strategy and its implementation. These statements helps to shape companys strategy and can helps in evaluating performance and achieving its targets. For instance, in this case of Toyota Company, it is moving forward vision urges management to find newer and environmentally friendly way of delighting the purchaser of their cars. Therefore the success of business depends upon how well its mission and vision statement are stated and to achieve those how well the strategy are planned and implemented. C) Indicate how it is possible for an organisation to evaluate the achievement of its objectives: There are three important parts for the evaluation process: By making the group of 4 to 5 stakeholders with experts objective achievement need to be evaluated which helps to measure the level objectives met against the objectives and plans set. Forming the group of leaders evaluation of achievement in percentage of their ideas and goals is measured. In fact this stage indicates the level of attainment of the strategic and significant goals proposed by leaders. Social evaluation: for evaluating quality, attitude, work efficiency, work effectiveness, justness and influences from customers and society. The primary phase of performance evaluation is conducted by a numbers of people (5 to 8) who can be from both internal as well as external of the organisation to examine accurately and correctly without biasing report in one direction i.e. independent of others. Second phase evaluation is done by senior leaders of the organisation and the social appraisal is carried out by group formed from representative of given social aspects above in chart. Therefore the evaluation process is 360 degree and it is the combination of both bottom-up and top-down approach. Phase Assessors Number of Assessor Objective Achievement Internal/external examiner including expert 3-5 Leaders evaluation Top level managements (directors, chairman, CEO, stakeholders, departments managers, etc.) All leaders almost Social Appraisal All person concerned with community and society like community members, environmentalist, government representative, citizen representative, employees or staffs themselves, human rights 360 social entities including customers (Source: Book on Corporate strategy 2001 written by: Mk Bhatt) Task 3 A) Discuss how a timetable for strategy implementation can be determined. Include a sample timetable, to include key milestones and their timings After overall planning and formation of organisations strategy it is important to bring it in practise with the obligation to finish by its deadline. Every project and plan has its life and for the given time table it is assumed that the first stage starts from first week of November with a deadline of October 2014.each activities are evaluated, analysed, reviewed and reported on yearly basis or half yearly if required. Implementing HRM Strategy The framework agreement implementation by staff and company corporate objectives in both the treatment as well as management of staff. All colleagues well-being enhancement for making employees engaged member for company caring. Motivating all staffs and recruiting new quality staffs to improve the performance and compete in the market Pursue true and fair guidance principle in relation to company behaviors Implementing Marketing Strategy Advertising, Join The Chamber of Commerce, Participation in Car Shows B) How might the dissemination process be used to help an organisation gain commitment to its strategy and the implementation of this? Monitory term is not always sufficient to bring commitment and motivate people to follow vision of the organisation. Positive outcomes and commitment from staff in the organisation can be obtained by practising 3 complementary and distinct leadership (Antonakis and House 2002; 2004). Among all the complementary and distinct leadership, successful cascading leadership takes place in 3 stages: Stage1: Creating vision stage, Stage2: Created vision and strategies distribution, and Stage3: Monitoring and controlling the effect of the stage 2. 1. Vision creation stage: For this propose, a team of stakeholders with experts come into play that go through number of analysis and deep understanding of different images of the company future. In order to make vision realistic, it must be formed in the form of pictures so that it can be easily felt, understand, and followed by followers and this will also implicate follower action (Den Hartog and Verburg 1997). All the team members must show their equal participation and contribution to the vision formation. At this stage need, importance of strategic initiatives must be articulated to gain the agreement from the all followers and make vision to happen. 2. Using Effective communication distributing the formed strategies and vision: To make mission, vision and strategies formed successful, it is necessary to share this information to all level of organisation ranging from higher level of management to lower level of management. Very effective channel for communication must be used to share and distribute this among the stockholders. Here, the formed vision is converted into concrete actions, and then the implementation plans and milestones are set. 3. Monitor the impact of stage 2: Regular monitoring is very important to know how effectively works are going on. It is necessary to share this information to all level of organisation ranging from higher level of management to lower level of management. Very effective channel for communication must be used to share and distribute this among the stockholders. Here, the formed vision is converted into concrete actions, and then the implementation plans and milestones are set to share this information to all level of organisation ranging from higher level of management to lower level of management. Very effective channel for communication must be used to share and distribute this among the stockholders. C) Describe the importance of monitoring and evaluation of new strategy. Outline how this might be achieved. Importance of Monitoring Monitoring of any new strategy from the time of implementation to its completion is very important in order to make comparison against plan developed and past strategies. The effectiveness or non-effectiveness of any strategy can be only determined by its monitoring after implementation. Therefore all the strategy, not only just new, must be monitor toed in the business process. It also helps to identify and establish what is happening now, what may happen in the future and then compare these trends against existing policies and targets to determine what needs to be done. Once the data or observation is made on the implemented new strategy we do evaluation of that to be sure about effectiveness and efficiency of that particular strategy. Once it is evaluated, it will be helpful for future level of effective strategy formation. Monitoring and evaluation process moves together and can be achieved in the following ways. Determine what to measure: Identify who will be involved in the design, implementation, and reporting. Engaging stakeholders helps ensure their perspectives are understood and feedback is incorporated. Clarify scope, purpose, intended use, audience, and budget for evaluation. Develop the questions to answer what you want to learn as a result of your work. Establish Predetermined Standards: Indicators are meant to provide a clear means of measuring achievement, to help assess the performance, or to reflect changes. They can be either quantitative and/or qualitative. A process indicator is information that focuses on how a program is implemented. Measure actual Performance: Determine the data collection methods like Examples of methods are: document reviews, questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. Analysis and evaluation: Review the information obtained to see if there are patterns or trends that emerge from the process. Evaluation and Control The process of analyzing data and understanding findings should provide you with recommendations about how to strengthen your work, as well as any mid-term adjustments you may need to make. Communicate your findings and insights to stakeholders and decide how to use the results to strengthen your organizations efforts. Monitoring and evaluation not only help organizations reflect and understand past performance, but serve as a guide for constructive changes during the period of implementation. Conclusion From my evaluation, I have realised that the measurement of the performance had been based on communication, human resources commitment, finance, cost and time. The overall result reveals that the strategy which was used by the company was successful as the added to the organisational core competencies shows that the company has the ability to face the future competitive factor that might be prevalent in the business environment in the nearest future. The company, by believing in the committed leadership could achieve its strategic because the company has lots of consistency in the commitment.

J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter Essay -- Rowling Harry Potter Essays

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Harry Potter is an orphaned boy whose parents were attacked and killed by the evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. The boy survived the horrible slaying, which left him with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He lives with his disagreeable uncle and aunt and unpleasantly selfish cousin during summer months. The boy attends the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he learns about potions, flying on a broomstick, and fighting off the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter is adored by children of all ages, along with adults, for his witty humor and fantasy adventures. Children crave his friendship and magic powers. The first three books were on the New York Times bestseller lists before New York Times decided to split up the list into children's and adults' books because of Harry Potter's popularity (Gray par. 2). Harry Potter won the Parenting Book of the Year Award in 1998, and the 1997 National Book Award (Ballard par. 6). Harry Potter has swept through the world causing controversy over the positive and negative impacts the books are having on children. Although some people claim that Harry Potter is Satanic, Harry Potter has had a positive influence on children's literature because children are learning good values, a positive role model, and are reading more. J.K. Rowling presented Harry Potter to children's literature in 1997. Seven years ago, Rowling was an unemployed single mother of a small daughter and was living in a two-room apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rowling began to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in a coffee shop while her daughter took naps Since then, she has written a total of four novels: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone written in... ...oshen College Good Library. 24 October 2001. Gray, Paul. "The Magic of Potter." Rev. Dec. 2000.17. Oct. 2001 http://www.time.com/time/pog2000/mag/rowling.html. Liungman, Carl G. "Dictionary of Symbols." Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1991. Radigan, Winifred M. "Connecting the Gernerations: Memory, Magic, and Harry Potter." Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 44.8 (2001):694. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 24 October 2001. "Why We Like Harry Potter." Christianity Today 10 Jan. 2000: 37. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 24 October 2001. Wyckoff, Malia McCawley. "Beyond Harry Potter: The books boys can't resist reading." Family Life Oct. 2000: 86. Academic Search Elite. Palni Site Search. Goshen College Good Library. 24 October 2001.