An Example of a Great Classification Essay

My iTunes Library and How It Defines Me â€Å"New York is more than a tan that you’ll never lose,† this quote is by Lady Gaga, who is one of my favorite singers. Quotes like these are unique. This quote shares uniqueness with the music I listen to, which defines me and my personality. I consider myself to be a very unusual and colorful character. Anyone who didn’t know me should be able to figure out my personality just from listening to the music I own. This is primarily because I listen to a variety of genres when it comes to music. The genres that dominate my â€Å"Top 25 Most Played† playlist are: pop, alternative, electronic, hip-hop, and jazz. Pop music for me isn’t just a genre, it’s a lifestyle. Pop is basically the soundtrack to my life. Whether it’s a night out on the town with my closest friends, recovering from a bad break-up, or needing some encouragement after a rough day; there’s a pop song to be played. And with my iTunes library, there’s never a shortage in pop music. Roughly 60 percent of the 1500 songs in my music library are all pop. The most popular artists I listen to in this genre are: Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Maroon 5, Lady GaGa and Ke$ha. Each of these artists has a different â€Å"persona† when it comes to pop music. Miley Cyrus is the rebellious teen who just wants to have a good time. Some of her songs feature heavy processed vocals, while in other ballads, she shows off those pipes that made her famous. Britney Spears is the pop queen of my generation. She shouldn’t necessarily be classified as a singer because she’s more of a performer. Britney plays the â€Å"Good Girl Gone Bad† role perfectly and she has let us know this since she sang her most infamous lyric â€Å"I’m not that innocent! † Demi and Selena are the pop princesses next door. They never sing anything too risque. Maroon 5 is more of pop-rock, and their music is for one of those rainy days when I’m sad. Ke$ha and Lady GaGa deserve their own branch of pop music because their songs are so exotic compared to other artists. Ke$ha is all about glitter, drugs, and partying. I’m certain every single one of her songs mentions glitter or alcohol. She also â€Å"wakes up in the morning feelin’ like P-Diddy† according to her hit single â€Å"Tik-Tok. † How a Caucasian female can wake up in the morning feeling like an African American male baffles me. Lady GaGa is probably the most talked about pop artist. She manages to out-weird herself at every award show. GaGa is all about accepting one’s self, and singing about topics one would not normally sing about. Topics such as but not limited to: sex, money, homosexuality, rebelliousness, colorful hair, religion, and alcohol have all made appearances in one of GaGa’s hit singles. These ladies are all unique in their own way and they make up the reasons why I love pop music. Alternative or â€Å"Indie† music is for the hipster inside of me. It’s music that can express feelings or emotions that I can’t quite explain. My all-time favorite alternative artist is Florence and The Machine. Her haunting voice looms over every track she sings and it’s truly mesmerizing. My favorite song by Florence is â€Å"What the Water Gave Me† from her latest album Ceremonials. Another band that I feel like belongs in this genre is Fleetwood Mac. Of course, anyone who is superior to me in age may question what I know about Fleetwood Mac. I consider Rumours one of my favorite albums of all time as well as one of the greatest albums ever. â€Å"I Don’t Wanna Know†, â€Å"Dreams†, â€Å"Go Your Own Way†, and â€Å"Songbird† are the standout tracks on this album. Alternative music takes up about 20 percent of my iTunes library. It’s definitely the genre I listen to when I feel like nothing else quite explains what I’m feeling. Electronic music really serves only one purpose in just about anyone’s life: to give them something to dance to. This particular genre of music is mastered by DJ’s who often remix pop or hip-hop songs to their tastes. My favorite DJ is the Frenchman David Guetta. He often produces music for several pop artists and releases the songs on his own compilation album. Electronic music also has a sub-genre that has gained notable fame as of late, Dub-step. Dub-step features heavy bass and synthesizers that make the listener want to contort their body in the strangest fashion. This genre came from Europe and was popularized by Britney Spears in America with her comeback single â€Å"Hold It Against Me. † Electronic and dub-step are also much more popular in Europe than they are in America. I feel like this adds charm to my strange library of music. A rather small amount of charm I might add. I’m rather finicky when it comes to this genre so I only have a few songs in this category. Hip-hop for many members in the local community is a lifestyle. For me, it’s something to listen to when I feel narcissistic. This genre takes up a smaller portion of my iTunes Library because I don’t agree with it all of the time. Hip-hops all about being better than everyone else; and by better I mean being hotter, richer, or more talented than the competition. Some notable artists in this genre that I like are: Mac Miller, Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, and Nicki Minaj. Mac Miller is a relatively new artist in this genre. His first studio album actually came out a week ago. However, his lyrics amuse me and he always has a rather swell beat. Beyonce and Kelly Rowland are the same type of artist. This should not come as a shock considering they both got their start in they girl group Destiny’s Child. They are both all about over-sexualizing one’s self and dancing around in skimpy outfits. Beyonce has branched away from that with her latest album 4 which has more of a soul vibe to it. Nicki Minaj is probably the Lady GaGa of hip-hop. She’s very strange. She raps amazingly fast and takes on several alter-egos as she performs. One of this alter-egos is â€Å"Roman. † Roman speaks in a very deep voice and yells profane things often. He can be heard on Nicki’s single â€Å"Roman’s Revenge. † Jazz music is literally music for the soul. It’s music that when you listen to it, you can feel the singers despair, ecstasy, or remorse. The genre takes its roots in the diverse city of New Orleans so it’s only fitting that I represent my home state with some jazz. The only artist that dominates my most played list in this genre is Amy Winehouse. She had a rather tragic life. Her career was often overshadowed by her troublesome addictions that she eventually succumbed to and ended up losing her life over. However, Amy’s talent shouldn’t be forgotten. She was a singer with remarkably talent. Whenever I listen to her smash record Back to Black I almost feel as if I’ve entered her world and can feel her sorrows. To me, that’s what jazz music is all about. The diverse range of music I listen to represents the unusual character that I am. Pop music represents the fun side to me; alternative music represents the more intelligent side of me; electronic music represents the inner party animal that dwells within; Hip-hop represents the part of me that doesn’t care about others opinions; while jazz represents that part of me that’s unpredictable. All of these genres reside in my iTunes library and that library paints the picture of me.

Recognition programs Essay

To measure constructs of employee engagement, benchmarks would be an above average response of high values. A successful research would develop an increase in value rating per employee per category. In essence, the purpose is to develop employee engagement in conjunction with the benchmarks and defined constructs according to the majority values of tenured employees. Benchmarks for evaluation of success can be defined by an organizational increase in retention of employees compared to past trends in the facility, with increase in employee engagement of facility compared to past trends. The recommendation is to focus on team and individual development to ensure that employees become fully engaged within their function and as team members. According to David Beswick of the University of Melbourne: Mangers generally, and anyone formally or informally responsible for oversight of others who are engaged in work or learning tasks, will be aware that some people are participating more out of interest in the task than others are. Others gain their satisfaction principally out the way in which their performance on the task leads to rewards like pay or status or good grades in a course. But typically there is a mixture of motives for which a range of different incentives is relevant. (www. beswick. info 2004) Any recognition program will reflect an organization’s culture and values. Increasingly, recognition programs are part of company’s total quality program. Recognition programs may take several forms, from highly formalized programs induced and implemented by management to informal, spontaneous â€Å"ceremonies† arising from fellow co-workers. Recognition and celebrations are a ways of reaffirming to people that they are an important part of something that matters. Conclusion Engaged employees receive training for necessary skills and are â€Å"on board† with the organization’s goals. Employees will be unable to perform if they lack the skills needed for their roles, so organizations need to identify employees with gaps in their training. Formal performance appraisal presents a good opportunity to do so. Research shows that organizations with good performance appraisal systems have significantly higher levels of employee engagement that those with a poor performance appraisal system. However, for performance appraisal to identify employees with specific needs, managers first need to have a good understanding of the performance appraisal system. Therefore, the training needs of managers should not be overlooked. Managers should be trained to identify performance weaknesses as well as how to effectively tie performance to recognition and rewards. Engaged employees receive training for necessary skills and are â€Å"on board† with the organization’s goals. Employees will be unable to perform if they lack the skills needed for their roles, so organizations need to identify employees with gaps in their training. Formal performance appraisal presents a good opportunity to do so. Research shows that organizations with good performance appraisal systems have significantly higher levels of employee engagement that those with a poor performance appraisal system. However, for performance appraisal to identify employees with specific needs, managers first need to have a good understanding of the performance appraisal system. Therefore, the training needs of managers should not be overlooked. Managers should be trained to identify performance weaknesses as well as how to effectively tie performance to recognition and rewards. ? References Answers Barclays Bank 2006 Barclays Bank Barclays plc Type Public Founded 1896 Location London , United Kingdom Key 2006 Answers Corporation . Retrieved September 15, 2007 from www. answers. com Barclays Bank PLC (2006) Barclays Newsroom. Registered in England. Registered No: 1026167. Registered Office: 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP. . Retrieved September 15, 2007 from www. barclays. com Barclays (2004) Annual Report 2004. Registered Office: 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP. Retrieved September 15, 2007 from www. investor. barclays. co. uk Beswick, David (2004) of the University of Melbourne. Copyright:  © David Beswick 1997-2004. Retrieved September 15, 2007 www. beswick. info Chowdhury, Mohammed S. (n. d. ) Relative Importance of Employee Values, Attitudes and Leadership Behaviors in Employee Motivation. Monroe College, Bronx, New York Retrieved September 15, 2007 from www. sba. muohio. edu Dreher & Dougherty. (2001). Human resource strategy: A behavioral perspective for the general manager. New York: McGraw-Hill Glasscock and Gram (1995) Secrets of a Successful Employee Recognition System. BT Bastford. LTD. 2000 Kenexa. com (2005) 650 East Swedesford Road 2nd Floor Wayne, PA 19087 Retrieved September 15, 2007 from www. kenexa. com Saunders, M. , Lewis, P. and Thornhill, D. (2003), Research Methods for Business Students, 3rd Edition, London: FT Prentice Hall.

Refugee health is a wicked problem Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Refugee health is a wicked problem - Article Example It means controlling the disease menace becomes a hard task due to a large number requiring immediate healthcare support. Alternatively, with a large number of refugee health problems, health practitioners equally get overstretched because of limited healthcare resources such as drugs and other medicine (Estrine et al, 2010). Overall, refugee health is a serious problem in any society particularly if the government refuses to participate in alleviating the situation. However, I don’t believe the health system should be responsible for all refugee policy. This is because the health system lacks the capacity and resources to manage the refugee menace that is considered a worldwide problem. Instead, the government should put it as a priority among its challenges. In that case, for example, the government deserves to provide health professionals and build facilities that cater for refugees (Ingleby, 2006). Similarly, in order to manage the refugee policy, the government should disburse funds that cater for registered refugees to enable them live healthy lives. The government is equally tasked with resettling refugees while according them longer health insurance that reflects their limited rights and liberties. Psychological counseling is another role that should be played by the government and not the health system (Toebes et al, 2012). It is because the government is endowed with both money and professionals to manage the refuge

Walmart - Good or bad for America Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Walmart - Good or bad for America - Assignment Example Even though this practice helps keep the prices at Wal-Mart low for the consumers, something Wal-Mart states as its primary purpose, on the other hand, such trade practices result in jobs being taken away from the Americans and being handed over to others like the Chinese, thus lowering the living standard of the average Americans. Without stable jobs, the average American consumer would not be able to buy most of the consumer products, even if they were to be offered at such low prices as Wal-Mart does. It is argued by some that American jobs are not lost – more are created in different spheres – as a consequence of this outsourcing. However, such jobs do not pay the some nor do they come with the same benefits as manufacturing jobs. This is what â€Å"Creative destruction† (pbs) is all about, I agree with the statement that, in essence, while Wal-Mart is doing its best to make products affordable for consumers, by doing so it is, simultaneously, destroying the local US manufacturing

Certificate 4 assessment and Training Assignment

Certificate 4 assessment and Training - Assignment Example units to be addressed include; approaches to risk management, challenges in risk management, administration of risk management, and countering challenges in risk management. In order to ensure success and efficiency in the learning process, one should be keen in addressing all key issues. The need for adopting the best performance criteria cannot be emphasized. In executing the learning processes, the delivery units should be efficiently sequenced, to ensure that learning is relevant, effective and logical. This should be efficiently administered in collaboration with the clients, so as to ensure match between the learning needs and the content being delivered. In order to ensure success in delivery of the units, the instructor is bound to keep in touch with the learner, so as to ensure relevance, effectiveness and logic of the units being delivered (Chan, 2009). Important to note is that the characteristics of the target group should be identified and considered in the delivery process, which will facilitate identification of the language, numeracy and literacy requirements of the program. By so doing, consistency and sequence will be maintained in the learning process, thus enhancing effectiveness. There will be every need to agree and clarify the purpose of the program, in order for the training program to meet the need of the different stakeholders. The key stakeholders of concern include the mentors/coaches, learners, work organizations, and facilitators/trainers. Consistency and logic in delivering the units will be attained by developing the appropriate skills for each specific group of learners. The mentors or facilitators will have to improve the numeracy and literacy skills of the learners (Chan, 2009). A key issue of concern in delivery of the units includes the breakdown of the learners’ needs. It will be mandatory to breakdown the jobs and roles into manageable component parts. Intensive job analysis will be undertaken, so as to identify the

ROOM by Emma Donoghue - socialization and affects on development Essay

ROOM by Emma Donoghue - socialization and affects on development - Essay Example Somehow, the developments witnessed by the protagonist, portrayed by Donoghue mirror the Freud’s Oedipus Complex theory, which claims to be child’s maintaining physical and sentimental attraction to the parent of his/her opposite gender. Recent studies endorse the very notion that psychodynamic and person-centered methodologies have obtained profound popularity during twentieth century onward with regards to personality development perspectives. One of the most important reasons behind applying these approaches includes the exploration of the factors playing vital role in the personality development and formation during the initial years of human life. Hence, the works created by the writers, poets, philosophers, painters and film directors etc are analyzed and investigated into by keeping in view the psychological approaches articulated by the theorists while determining the factors of cognitive and personality developmental processes. Famous early 20th century American psychologist has articulated his Hierarchy of Needs Theory, where he has discussed the nature of the basic human needs and essentiality of the fulfillment of these needs for the adequate growth of the individuals. Five motivational factors, according to Maslow, include physiological, safety, social, ego and self-actualization. Physiological needs are those, which come under the definition of basic necessities of life i.e. food, clothing, and shelter, all of which are the needs without which man is unable to survive even for long. The second motivational factor i.e. safety discusses the sense of protection man requires for his mental peace and physical well-being.

Reducing Incidences of Child Obesity Research Proposal

Reducing Incidences of Child Obesity - Research Proposal Example The imbalance leads to such weight differences and redefines the way children will develop later in life. Genetic factors also form a huge part of the obesity trends. Many children are seen to be susceptible to obesity-conducive genes, which makes it easier to develop such weight problems if the parents do not offer a chance to capitalize on retaining a healthy lifestyle always. Â  The important thing is to generate new understanding of what obesity is all about. The case involving the utility of the resources available for the sake of intervening in the very early years as a way of preventing the obesity from taking shape and allowing the society to move from a rational way of dealing with the issue to an emotional one. Many of the parents fear that keeping their children from the junk they are used to may be a way of keeping them away from themselves (Rippe, 2013). This means that they do not offer them any guidance that could provide them with a chance of dealing with the issue when it is still in its early stages (Gorard, 2013). Evidence from difference sources highlights the impact that lifestyle choices could have in tracking obesity and allowing adults to lose weight and keep fit, as well as allow the children to choose better lifestyles. The purpose of introducing the changes from a tender age is the fact that they are easily receptive at this age ( Rippe, 2013). Preventing its occurrence is essential as a way of managing the weight issues amongst the children. Â  Obesity amongst children has in many developed countries reached epidemic levels. This means that so many children are falling into this trap when they are much younger than they should be. At least 25% of the children in the US alone are in the overweight category with 11% of these falling into the obese category (Ahima, 2013).

Contract Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 8

Contract Law - Essay Example Moreover, section 29(5) of the SGA states that delivery should be made within a reasonable period of time, and that such reasonableness depends on the circumstances of each case. As such, a clear illustration of the principles on which damages are awarded for breach of contract was provided in Hadley v Baxendale. The court held that damages for breach of contract should be such that they had naturally followed from the breach, or which could reasonably be assumed to have been envisaged by the parties to the contract. If the contract had been formed under special circumstances that had been intimated by one party to the other, then the damages for contractual breach would be what these parties could have realistically expected from such breach3. As such, the rule in Hadley v Baxendale provides a rationale for restricting damages relating to infringement of contractual terms. In addition to being a tenet of remoteness, it also provides the dividing line of recovery4. Consequently, the NGC’s expression of inability to supply the ornamental plant pots to Gerda, within the time specified by her in the normal course of events. . Thus, the NGC is justified in demanding additional payment for speedy delivery. However, if the NGC fails to deliver the ornamental pots, within the stipulated time; Gerda can repudiate the contract or claim damages, under the provisions of the SGA 1979. The greenhouse delivered to Hari was too small, broken and not delivered on time. Under the provisions of the sale of goods act, a retailer cannot exclude statutory implied terms. Any such act would make him liable for criminal prosecution. In addition, a retailer cannot attempt to restrict liability for breach of statutory implied terms. In goods sold to a buyer, an implied term exists, which requires that these goods should be appropriate for any purpose that has been made known to the seller.5 Applicability extends to

Hybrid electric vehicle Essay Example for Free

Hybrid electric vehicle Essay BMS is a key component of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. To ensure safe and reliable operation of batteries, BMS needs to have various functions such as battery status monitoring and assessment, charging and discharging control, balancing and so forth. The fire accidents of electric vehicles (particularly pure electric vehicles) since 2013 result in consumers’ concerns about the safety of electric vehicles. Compared with HEV, PHEV and BEV have more complex battery system structure, which requires more excellent battery endurance and safety; therefore, PHEV and BEV need more mature and reliable BMS. The BMS industry will benefit from the expansion of the electric vehicle market. Throughout the global BMS market, traditional auto parts makers represented by Denso and Preh have seized opportunities by virtue of their important positions in the vehicle supply chain. As Toyota’s most important parts supplier, Denso has provided battery management modules for Prius, Camry Hybrid and other models. Preh mainly offers BMS for BMW I series pure electric vehicles. View Complete Report @ http://www. chinamarketresearchreports. com/114890. html . Meanwhile, the battery vendor LGC has established cooperative relationship with GM, Ford, Volvo and many other enterprises by providing power battery packs and related BMS to them. As for automobile companies, Tesla performs remarkably with advanced BMS technology. In contrast, professional BMS firms develop relatively slower due to technical and financial factors. In the first half of 2014, China produced 20,692 new energy vehicles and sold 20,477 ones, higher than the figures in 2013. In 2015, Chinese new energy vehicle market capacity will be quickly released, especially plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and mini pure electric vehicles will witness faster growth, which will drive the rapid development of the Chinese BMS market. In the Chinese BMS market, there are three types of enterprises: First, third-party BMS vendors, such as Epower Electronics, GuanTuo Power and LIGOO New Energy Technology. Among them, the products of Epower Electronics are used most widely and adopted by Changan, Dongfeng, BAIC, Foton, JAC, Zotye and so on. China Market Research Reports 1 Second, battery system packaging companies represented by Guoxuan High-tech and Winston Battery. Guoxuan High-tech serves JAC and Ankai Automobile with battery modules and BMS. Third, vehicle manufacturers, including BYD and BAIC BJEV. BYD integrates batteries and BMS with electric vehicle R D, and shows advantages in terms of cost and efficiency. Overall, China BMS industry still lags behind foreign countries in technical specifications and business models. To narrow the gap, some companies hope to make progress by mergers and acquisitions. For example, BAIC BJEV enhances battery system performance and technological strength via the cooperation with SK, Atieva and other enterprises; Zotye meets its demand for BMS by holding Jieneng; Desai masters some share of Epower Electronics in order to upgrade its technology from consumer electronics to electric vehicle BMS. Purchase a Copy of this Report @ http://www. chinamarketresearchreports. com/contacts/purchase. php? name=114890 . The report includes: †¢Overview of global and Chinese electric vehicle market (including overview, market size, output, sales volume, etc. ) †¢Overview of global and China BMS industry (embracing status quo, forecast, market size, BMS supporting, etc. ) †¢Major vendors in global BMS industry (involving revenue, revenue of subsidiaries, revenue structure, net income, R D, products, supporting for vehicle plants, latest developments, business in China, etc. ) †¢Major vendors in China BMS industry (comprising revenue, revenue of subsidiaries, revenue structure, net income, R D, products, supporting for vehicle plants, new projects, etc. ) †¢Main enterprises in BMS chip industry (including revenue, revenue structure, net income, BMS chip solutions, etc. ) Table of Contents 1 Overview of BMS 1. 1 Definition of Battery System 1. 2 Definition of BMS. 1. 2. 1 Definition 1. 2. 2 Classification 2 Overview of Global BMS Market 2. 1 Overview of Global Electric Vehicle Market 2. 2 Status Quo and Development Trend of Global BMS Market China Market Research Reports 2 3 Overview of Chinese BMS Market 3. 1 Production and Sales Volume of Chinese Electric Vehicle Market 3. 2 Chinese BMS Market Size 3. 3 Status Quo and Development Trend of Chinese BMS Market Explore All Market Intelligence Research Reports on Automotive Transportation For Further Information Contact [emailprotected] com . China Market Research Reports S.

The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn Essay Example for Free

The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn Essay The Prosecutors by Gary Delsohn, depicts American justice at its best and worst, It reveals the secrets of the current legal system with information that are more awful and realistic than any small screen show or any thriller. The Prosecutors gives an insight into the real-life lawful dramas that are seen daily in our courtrooms. It informs, alerts, amuses, and even makes us angry at times about the miscarriages of justice, but eventually shows in harsh detail the particulars that go into the working of our legal system. Gary Delsohn, was for the first time allowed access to spend a year in a metropolitan prosecutors office. The author presents a fascinating; secret look at how Americas more overstrained legal system really operates. Perceived by John OMara, a hard-hitting, cynical homicide chief, and Jan Scully, a proficient District Attorney, The Prosecutors’, illustrates these committed civic servants at work. The cases that these two people come across in this one-year are unforgettable, a simple robbery that goes bad breaks down a family forever, an acclaimed doctor is charged for the murder of his own daughter. A twenty-five-year-old bitter case blows up and brings terrible pressure and inquiry to the D.A.s office, which involves Patty Hearst and the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army). A top-ranking state prosecutor’s son faces a possible death sentence for abduct, rape, and slaughter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The most intriguing cases of all these were definitely the 1975 robbery and murder case at the Sacramento-area bank. It’s this SLA bank robbery case that clearly stands out in â€Å"The Prosecutors,† and understandably so. For almost twenty-five years, the family of the victim, a 42-year-old mother of four children, who was fired at and killed during the robbery, had tried hard to bring the killers to justice, the family members had always suspected the killers to be associates of some puzzled terrorists who abducted the newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. But Myrna Opsahl’s family members never got any respite from the case, because the office of the district attorney couldn’t get adequate proof to try the case, even after Hearst’s 1982 journal revealed, what had actually taken place at the Crocker National Bank in April 1975.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"For the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the Sacramento district attorney’s office, the Carmichael bank robbery is one of those hideous failures that just won’t seem to go away,† (Gary Delsohn).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For John O’Mara, the homicide chief in the district attorney’s office, the case is terrifying, with no proper proof and unsatisfied family members of the victim, particularly one of Myrna Opshal’s sons, Jon Opsahl.   He wouldn’t let the case pass on and frequently disapprove of the Sacramento prosecutors for messing up the case. O’Mara is one of the important and most vibrant character in the book, although in the beginning the book port ray’s him as a picture of a graying prosecutor. But Delsohn supports his portrayal of O’Mara, presenting why a person with so much knowledge was so apprehensive of taking the SLA robbery case. In the end, it’s Delsohn’s access to the district attorney’s office, which gives us much information about this case and how the law operated during that time. Taking the case of the Bread Store trial, a failed theft that twisted into a murder when the accused, Rick Brewer, an ex-convict who had formerly stalled the same setting, fired from a shotgun into the store’s manager Jason Frost, after finding out that the whole amount from the days proceeds had been put down in a floor safe. The Bread Store case is symbolic of the vulnerabilities that prosecutors must go through when they take the trial of murders anywhere in the country, considering this lawbreaking murder where the person who drives the car in which the accused escapes is as guilty as the person who committed the crime. Taking the case of Nikolay Soltys, the security guard who was an immigrant from Ukraine who stabbed six of his relatives to death, which included his three-year-old son and pregnant wife. Prosecutors had a tough time when Nikolay killed himself to avoid trial. An average day in a city District Attorney’s office is tough, where work can take its toll on the people who do it. Most of the cases coming into the DA’s office are slaughter; children inflicted to child abuse, rape, robberies, drug deals, and fake currency rackets. It is a never-ending process of new crimes coming in day to day. This type of work cannot even be taken home and shared with your family. The prosecutors think about crimes, while sitting, standing, eating and drinking, these people are not even spared during their lunchtime, passing on shocking snaps of the crime scene. A prosecutor’s job is a tough nut to crack, as their relationship with they families get soured, because of their spending long hours in the office almost on a daily basis. During the course of his stay at District Attorney’s office, Delsohn reminds us that trials have become very rare these days. More than eighty five percent of the 36,000 crimes and misbehaviors charged every year by the Sacramento DAs office ended up with a plea agreement before the trial, as settlement. In the DA’s office at Sacramento, it mostly differs depending on who the in charge people are, but sometimes there is a strong and rarely insignificant competition between the sheriff, the FBI, the local police and the district attorneys office. But comparing the state attorney general and U.S. Attorneys office, the enmities and self-esteem battles can be unpredictable. Particularly the district attorneys office should do proper investigation before impulsively accepting what the police and feds say, about who should be detained and charged. Prosecutors have to keep the police under control to see that the case is prosecutable and concrete. Bad things can happed if prosecutors lose their independence and doubts. Gary Delsohn feels that the most important part of being an insider in the DA’s office for a year was that, he had the advantage of seeing the prosecutors’ working procedures in a manner that the media and an average outsider could not. The District Attorney’s office has been a witness to innumerable heartbreaking stories over the years, but theres hardly anything to compare with the moving release that comes after a long, stress filled murder trial, when the murder victim’s family finally speaks. The DA’s office is always humming with people, people who are related to horrible crimes, people who are innocent, but mistakenly accused of crimes, real criminals and their families etc. Works Cited Gary Delsohn, Inside the DA’s Office, Jurist, 22 February 2007. http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forum/forumnew126.php.    Critic Reviews, Redding Book Club, 22 February 2007. http://bookclub.redding.com/reviews.cfm. The Prosecutor, Traveling Sounds.com, 22 February 2007. http://www.travelingsounds.com/Title.aspx?titleId=3212. Court tales make an arresting read, Rocky Mountain News, 22 February 2007. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/books/article/0,1299, DRMN_63_2164233,00.html.

Corporate Strategy for Iranian Car Industry

Corporate Strategy for Iranian Car Industry Abstract The purpose of this research is to come across an effective and implemental strategy for Iranian car industry to become an export player in the Middle-East region. With consideration the importance of market development for international auto makers, the Middle-East market is evaluated and Iran as a case study is looked over in terms of its potential automobile market and developing opportunities in Iranian car industry to become a manufacturing partner for international players. Through out a review of Iranian economy and the position of auto sector in Iran economy, the difficulties of growth and development, the role of government- as the regulator- are discussed briefly and the effect of international auto makers -in the past and future- is analyzed. On this basis, we point out the main troubles of the current auto industrys structure and the government dilemma to set its policies. At the end we suggest a reform in the structure and strategy of both assemblers and suppliers to ent er to the international markets. Keywords: Operation strategy; Iran auto industry; Globalization, Regionalization, Industry study Introduction Irans economic performance has begun to improve slowly after a decade of recession which was caused by the long and costly war with Iraq and fluctuations in oil prices. In the decade ending in 1998, GDPs growth per capitals started to rise, although the average was only 3 percent per year. (Economic reports, the World Bank Group) The automotive industry, as one of Irans most promising industries, was the countrys fastest growing industry with the average annual growth of 27.2% between 1995 and 2000 which was 5.5 times of the country average industrial growth. (Economic Focus, Iran Daily News). The domestic vehicle production is growing quickly but it is highly protected, and only in highly exceptional circumstances can Iranians import cars from abroad. Locally produced cars have a reputation for poor quality and have contributed to the dangerously high pollution levels. Also, Iranian firms were not able to satisfy the domestic market in terms of quantity. Demand for automobiles, particularly passenger vehicles, far exceeds the supply. In fact, more than 450,000 people pre-purchase automobiles every year and wait approximately two years to receive them. As a result the government, which wants to raise unit production and improve domestic industry in line with industrialization program, hopes to stimulate competition as part of the effect to make the economy less dependent on oil. In order to follow the market reform plans and provide better circumstances for the countrys main industries such as petrochemical industry, textile and etc, President Khatami (since August 1997- 2005) in 1999, announced an ambitious program to privatize several major industries which included auto industry as a part of total restructuring of Iranian economy. Currently 13 public and privately owned auto maker exist in Iran. The largest vehicle manufacturing company is Iran Khodro with an average share of 60.90% percent of domestic vehicle production, as the main government-controlled carmaker and Saipa is the second one with 32.70%. Subsequent to the development program, automakers have been encouraged to review the way in which their strategies will be developed in the future and to extend a range of strategy options that might enhance their position. Consequently, most Iranian auto makers have been encouraged to join ventures or any other strategic alliances with foreign auto manufacturers to meet the increasing demand (www.ikco.com). On the other hand, in looking at the automobile market generally, during the past few years, it might be observed that after a period of growth from 1997 to 2000 -resulting from the exceptional boom in US economy and the upturn in Europe-but the automobile market especially in North America and Europe has entered a consolidation phase because of overcapacity. The market is mature in developed countries such as those of Western European countries and US market where nearly 90% of sales of new vehicles are now accounted by replacement purchases. Also, in Far East-Japan and South Korea-, overcapacity is a highly sensitive problem (REINAUD, 2001), whereas in Middle-East region, vehicle out put is 6% of total global output in comparison with 29% in Europe and 30.2% in US (carmakers Annual report,*DRI). Thus, some auto manufacturers might be looking for new methods to penetrate the auto market in Middle-East in order to gain more market share over their competitors. If these companies do become partners, Iran will be an option to emerge as a major regional car manufacturer, serving the Middle East beside Other countries in the region, particularly Egypt and Turkey which have substantial car assembly arrangements. The following companies have signed cooperative agreements and their products are either already on the market or are to be introduced in the near future: Frances Peugeot with Iran Khodro. Koreas Kia Motors with Saipa. Frances Citroen with Saipa. Korean Daewoo and Kerman Motors. Optimus of the UK with Renus. Proton of Malaysia with Zagros According to the French automaker Peugeot, Iran has one car for every 21 people. Turkey has one for every 12, while Western European countries and Japan have nearly one car for every 2 people (www.peugeot.com). That indicates market growth potential, and the reason that foreign car manufacturer might be interested in the Iranian auto market. In this research the current auto industry situation in Iran will be analyzed and it will be evaluated in relation to its future strategy consequent upon growth in terms of output quality and ability to serve the domestic market, but also to play a major rule in region and become a truly international car manufacturer and exporter in Middle-East. To achieve a rich understanding of the current situation and examine the environmental position to meet the research objectives, other developing countries auto industry examples like China, India and Turkey will be investigated and analyzed as examples, while the regional circumstances, business environment and other specific characters of Irans economy e.g. the role of government , economic condition and Irans regulations will be considered to find out the most appropriate strategy for Iran car industry. The research question for the chosen topic is What would be the most effective strategy for Iranian car industry to become a major player in the Middle-East market? From this research question, the following objectives would be appropriate to evaluate: To evaluate existing methods of development strategy in the Iranian auto industry, To identify the best possible methods of development strategy for domestic and foreign companies, To recommend how such a strategy can be implemented. The background of the research is set with a brief discussion on the changes have happened in the world of auto industry, the consequent of globalization, the dynamic and diversity of demand in auto market and the auto makers difficulties to respond to new market characteristics while maintain the ability to make profit. Our goal in this paper is to propose an efficient strategy to . The paper has the following structure. Section 2 gives the brief literature review. Section 3 analyses the competitors in automobile Middle East market. Section 4 introduces the Iranian auto industry case. Section 5 presents the growth and development problems in Iranian auto industry. Finally, section 6 is devoted to conclusions and future works. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. Section 2 summarises the development of Iranian production and exports in the car industry compared to other major exporters in the world. It also explains why Iranian export growth has remained much below production growth. Section 3 develops the empirical export model and describes the variables and data. Then, the model is estimated in Section 4. Estimation results are analysed and a sensitivity analysis is proposed. Section 5 estimates the Iranian export potential with regard to the main foreign markets, while Section 6 concludes. Literature review History of globalization Humans have coined the word Globalization to describe widely traded activities that take place across the continents which are aided immensely by diminishing international trading regulations negotiated through the World Trade Organisation. Globalization is a combination of many -manufacturing, trade in services, supply chain management activities which have been affected positively by a fast technological development in few last decades. As Friedman (1999) argues, what is new today is the degree and intensity with which the word is being tied together in to a signal globalized market place and village. What is also new is the sheer number of people and countries able to partake of today globalized economy and information network, and to be affected by them this new era of globalization is turbocharged. As it can be observed, that this noticeable international integration is not just in economics, but in politics and cultures are as well. However, it needs to be recognised that the speed of these changes and growth of integration is different across the world. In some countries and regions the trend of globalization is rapidly increasing while in other parts the pace is much slower and globalisation is not welcomed at all. Nevertheless, regardless of the effects of globalisation no country can afford to ignore its impact on their political and economical circumstances. Likewise, the rate of change is different in various industries as is the strategic response of different business sectors to take advantages of exploiting new business opportunities. Although the merchandise trade, capital investment and labour migration started from 1850-1914, and the economy was more open than it is today in terms of the existing tariffs and trade barriers, but it was not globalized. Just the year following the Second World War and through reconstruction of war, the world has started to establish institutions to open up trades and ensure currency stability such as GATT and IMF, which caused massive increase in the economic growth level. According to Dicken (2003), world trade increased at an average annual rate of 6.7 per cent between 1948 and 1953. Between 1958 and 1963 the rate rose to 7.4 per cent and between 1963 and 1968 it accelerated further to 8.6 per cent. So people experienced a boom period up to 1970s when the first oil crisis has occurred. The United States, which suffered less during the Second World War, increased its foreign investment and after a while the US companies started to move into Western European countries and create interdependencies across world markets. Europe and Japan which mainly focused on rebuilding their economies after the war joined in this and also expanded their positions in the market place and on the economic map after the mid-1980s. (Hill, 2005) Also, because of the necessity of promoting global interdependencies, the United Nations was established to maintain world peace and security and so help the spread of industrialisation and world trade. The main drivers of globalization Apart from the history of globalization there were several main drive points that enhanced the process of globalisation. From the Johnson and Turners (2003) point of view one of the main globalization drivers was the changing economic paradigm. The new approach for managing economy was based on limitation the government role and neo-liberalism. Limiting the role of government provides the situations for businesses to progress and boom. As the Hill (2005) says, major changes occur as new economic and political institutions develop, with movement from traditional, non competitive institutions to competition-based capitalistic economies and democratic institution. So the market was relied on to force the pace of competition. Little by little the liberal economy became an external economic policy and the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trades (GATT) set up to support this philosophy. As a result of GATT and afterwards its successor organization- WTO-, there was a great reduction in tari ffs barriers and non-tariffs barriers for participating countries which help them established and spread their liberal economic policy. The second globalization driver is the spread of international governance and regulation. More international rules and policies developed for business environment, especially in regional level aimed at reducing the barriers in economic market among GATT contracting and WTO members. Also spreading e-commerce as a technological consequent has brought new issues in terms of traditional governance structure. Therefore, by passing the time and more international integration, the trade and market regulation were less under the national states control. According to Johnson and Turners (2003) argument finance and capital spread is another driver of globalization. Necessity of financial and capital movement following the market deregulation and economic liberalization has supported by national rules and has facilitated by technological development and ease the financial transactions. All might agree that the technological development, mainly in information technology and communication sector, has played an important role in globalization. However none of them is the cause of globalization, Dicken (2003) argued, without these technologies the current complex global economy system could not exist. Shrinking time and space by innovated technologies was a great opportunity to reorganization and redefinition the commercial and economical structure. Most of industrial sectors are affected by innovations and changes in technologies especially in manufacturing system with a high influence on value chain. Transportation technology has changed dramatically from 1840 to 1960 which was a development period from steam locomotives to high speed aircraft. Therefore, new transportation systems and their wide usage with cheaper prices have brought global shrinkage. Also in communication and its convergence with computer technology development has facilitated more effective networ ks within and between enterprises. All of these technological conveniences provide links across borders and spread globalization in economic term. Social and cultural convergence might be seen as a driver for globalization. The effect of mass media and usage of internet make the consumer preference more common in global market. As Johnson and Turner (2003) mentioned, similar taste of consumer in different parts of the market creates the opportunity to promote global product. So we can claim that the cultural and social similarities make the conditions available for globalization. Also transferring new technologies has brought about more products in greater varieties at lower costs and prices. Consequently standards of living and peoples expectations rise as well. Mode of entry and expansion methods In simple terms, globalization is an opportunity for companies to expand their market, their value chain and their business across borders. But the point is how effective can companies use these opportunities to make more profit and enjoy sustainable growth. What factors should they consider to make decision to choose an investment option to carry on their development strategy? Global supply chain and its dimensions Apart from different modes of entry available for firms to get advantages from globalization and to move across borders to expand their market, other advantages may be gained through developing global supply chains. The production of any good or service can be conceived as a production chain that is, as a transactionally linked sequence of functions in which each stage adds value to the process of production of goods and services. (Dicken, 2003) The firms try to differentiate their value chain in order to add more competences by using the advantages of each production chain requirement in different part of the world. However, build a global value chain might make it fragmented while the control and management of a global network is more difficult. From Dickens point of view there are three important dimensions in production networks: First is governance which means how they are coordinated and regulated. In the case which varying combinations and interrelationships of different kind of companies and firms might perform in a production network, As Dicken says, the market is the main organizer of external transactions, in contrast with the case which the entire network operated with a single firm and internal organizational structure governs transactions. (Dicken, 2003) The second important dimension in production network is spatiality and how they are conFigured geographically. By increasing the emergence of global production network, network organizing is changing from geographically concentrated to geographically dispersed. The third issue is territorial embeddedness the extent to which they are connected in to particular bounded political, institutional and social setting. (Dicken, 2003) information technology and other new technologies have made space and distances meaningless. Most types of capitals are mobile and all of them can easily move from one place to another. However transportation and communication technology has developed as well, capital does moves within spaceless world. Place is still an important issue, as firms are highly affected by the cultural, socio-political and institutional context of the territorial they are embedded. Therefore multinational firms try to take advantages of differences within regulations and socials in various places while, bringing different state with different regimes in count within a production network makes the situation more complex to control and to take benefits from. Since 1999 and strongly growth of globalization, the same as other important and effective phenomena, globalization has a positive view wave that strongly recommend it and a negative wave against it which moves from developing country to developed countries during these years. Arguments about globalization success or failures do not have any satisfactory result, while globalization can be observe and discussed to understand both negative and positive sides of it. Growth of regionalism Although the speed of globalization and integration in the world market has increased during past decades under the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and more recently by World Trade Organization (WTO), the regional agreement and the debate on the desirability of regionalism has grown as well. By the beginning of twentieth century most of the counties were part of a regional integration. However one might argue that the reason of regional integration is more political than economic explanation, it can not be ignored any more as almost 50 per cent of all world trade is within regional trade agreement. As a result of that, there is fear within WTO and other international institutions that regionalism takes the place of globalization and make a stumbling block toward further global trade integration. (Lung Van Tulder, 2004) Nevertheless there are different forms of regional integration and each of them affects global market more or less while the time of their integration pr ocess is various. The dynamics of automobile market Although some changes had happened in the composition and geography of automobile demand, the concentration of automobile industry in three major global regions face auto companies in these regions with the overcapacity problem. The highly market-oriented of automobile production caused its development be based on affluent consumer markets to achieve the economy of scale. But during the years, the automobile consumer markets in three developed region has developed as well. As Dicken argued in the Global Shift (2003), the changing demand for Automobiles has three major characteristics: It is highly cyclical. There are long term (secular) changes in demand. There are signs of increasing market segmentation and fragmentation. ( Dicken, 2003) The competitors Despite the fact that NAFTA, EU and Japan are the main developed region in both production and trade in auto industry sector, other countries have started restructuring this sector in line with their economic reform. The obvious example might be China and India which both are gaining a sustainable growth in the last decade. Also Turkey has emerged as a new automobile producer in line with other industrial changes aim to become qualified to join European Union. Turkish auto industry Turkey auto industry has been developing due to the well strategic planning applied by the Turkey government by the way in which they opened their country to the global world. They have started their industry as a montage (CKD or SKD) in 1960 and have turned it to manufacturing part after a few years in 1966 trough licensing agreement and dealer-assembler with American and European firms. Gradually the government attempted to adapt an export-oriented strategy; consequently it started to liberalize the importation of cars gradually and reducing the tariffs. Meanwhile it provided some financial supports for upgrading themselves to international acceptable condition. But the main change which caused a revolution in Turkey car industry was the customs unionization agreement in 1995 with European Union which followed by a new restructuring in their auto industry. To harmonization the administrative and regulatory structure of the industry, Turkish government has established an accreditation council to prepare the documents for new adaptation the issues and procedures of exporting in line with European countries. However the Turkey supposed to complete the adaptation and remove all tariffs by 2001, they have not completed it yet and it seems the Turkeys auto industry has not well prepared for full liberalization. Although adaptation a new regime from Turkey government which obligate importing vehicle companies to prepare service facility and aftermarket parts for customers within a country was a great opportunity for domestic firms to become involved with providing spare parts and services. Even though it was not a stable macro environment after 1997-1998 Russian and Asian crisis and again December 2000 crisis, the restructuring program caused some investment in car companies in Turkey in order to support economy of scale and encourage them to developed more update types of automobiles. Turkish manufacturers have operated in two car segment; low medium and medium models and the produced cars have already been phased out in their country of origin, added that these segments account for 90 per cent of the Turkish market. (Duruiz, 2004) Governmental financial supports and investment on auto sectors attracted many foreign investors from 1995 onward, especially with aim to develop new generation cars and modernization the industry. Most of foreign car firms have gained relatively high share of the auto industry after liberalization to use the resources in Turkey and export to European countries through Turkey. Table 1 shows the main auto manufactures in Turkey and their share. As the effect of custom utilization agreement, the automotive sector had the 5th place in Turkey exporting in 2000, but the main effect has happened in component sector and it has increased relatively higher then auto sector export. It was also easier for component producer to upgrade their standard of their firms to get a competitive position in EU base on their lower labour wages. (Duruiz, 2004) Nevertheless Turkey has accepted liberalization in their trade but as they have not done the full integration, their case has become special. Mostly the Turkeys future economy highly depends on the European Union decision to accept it or not as a member of European Union which lead to change their economic structure with the support from the IMF and European Union. Indian auto industry Emerging of India in the world economy has been started by implementing liberalization and opened up most of the economic sectors to the global world in 1992. Looking historically at Indian car industry, it can be divided in four phase from the view point of Kim (2004). The starting point was in 1920s with assembly which was established by foreign companies. (General motor and Ford) It took two decades up to 1952 that Indian build up their domestic production firm. The governmental policy in auto sector is known as the main reason of no progress in productivity and technology in this sector for long period. (Kim, 2004) The third phase was started, after three decades, by making a join venture of Maruti Udyog -became nationalized in 1980- with the Suzuki motor company. According to this agreement a revolution had happened in Indian car industry. Increase the volume and standard was not just in auto makers but the change was occurred in the components industry as well. (Venkataramani, 1990) The main and last phase was started by Indian economic reform after 1992 under the guidance of the IMF and World Bank. As it was anticipated, deregulation of auto industry in 1993 and the expectation of market growth in India according to the population have attracted international auto makers to invest in India. According to the foreign existence it was a dramatically fell of domestic firms share in India. Investment of foreign car makers, which were mainly in the form of joint venture with domestic firms, caused there-restructuring in the Indians motor industry. Apart from promotion of new models with more stylish design, significant changes have happened in auto financing as well. Also numbers of component manufacturers invested in local firms to supply their assemblers. So Indian witnessed a fundamental change in the technology, infrastructure and managerial systems. (Kim, 2004) Despite of all expectations and anticipations about the fast economical growth after regulations in India and a positive view of auto makers about Indian market because of the sizable population of middle-class, the estimates about rising in demand did not turn to reality. Apart from the problems which multinationals generally face in new emerging countries such as undeveloped supplier base, weak infrastructure and undeveloped regulations (Kim, 2001), Indian environment seems more complicated for them. Although the population was far enough to support ten auto makers, the companies face with overcapacity. The lack of demand in both domestic and regional market has become the major problem for multinationals auto makers in India. In terms of export from India to the neighbour countries also, the multinational car makers have not achieved any remarkable result. However the main reason might be the economic situation and poverty of South Asian countries which limit the demand for passenger car, we should not ignore the political and economical relation of India with its neighbour. Despite the hopes after the South Asian Association for Region Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985 and the South Asian Preferential Trading Agreement (SAPTA) in 1995, there was no significant growth observed in the South Asian trade relationship. Although the auto industry in India has not succeeded as it was anticipated, the auto component industry has occurred high progress in quality, technology and international standards. Now, in collaborate with foreign companies, they have become competitive in international markets and auto makers in India use their Indian suppliers to supply their other operation plant around the world. Moreover, Indian government regulations disable multinational to import completely build automobiles to India. However the Indian government did not define any limitation for on foreign ownership, instead 123 per cent tariff rates on import cars were forced multinationals to set up their assembly plant fully within India. And a high tariff on finished components also was another issue that multinationals prefer to find their supplier within domestic firms. (Kim, 2004) Despite of all mentioned problem in India, multinational car makers seems still have a positive view about the Indian market. The potential existing market is there, but the matter is that when it will become visible. Chinese auto industry Following the economical reform in China, the Chinese policy makers focused on auto industry as a symbolic sector which shows the industrial development within a country. The need for technology and knowledge caused them looking for foreign partner to provide the required technology by setting up assembly plant which also generate and improve numbers of domestic firms as the suppliers to support the main assembly plants. So, in the mid-1980 three main cities of China (Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai) established a joint-venture with foreign auto makers supported by central and local government. (Thun, 2004) Each local government aimed to improve the local supplier network by its JV, but the assembly plants were looking for the better quality and lower price. Therefore in contrast with the local government and despite of geographical advantages of supplying from local firms, assemblers were dependence on outside supplier and most of them imported 100 per cent of the components from outside unless they were forced by Chinese government to increase their required components from domestic firms. But even after the time assemblers shifted from outside supplier to domestic firms, the local government aim to improve their local network were failed as the JV sourced their parts from other regions. Therefore, as of 2003, just Shanghai could relay on their local auto sector and even though it did not meet the international standards, it became a dominant firm in Chinese auto market. (Thun, 2004) The Shanghai success was the result of well support and strategic plans of local government and Shanghai Automobile industry corporation (SAIC). In 1984, when the Shanghai established a joint-venture with Volkswagen (VW), non of local firms were able to supply the required component for the assembling plant and after two years their share increased by just 2.7 per cent. (Li, 1997) No significant achievement after two years caused Shanghai municipal government began to re-evaluate the problems within the sector and the capacity of individual firms to solve these problems. (Thun, 2004) Consequent of problem solving process, they discovered two necessity preconditions to facilitate improvement in domestic firms. The first one was a reorganization of the municipal bureaucracy responsible for auto sector oversight. They have set up an Automobile Industry Leading Small Group in order to control the local actors. (Li, 1997) The second precondition was the capital accumulation and investment. To solve this problem the local government defined a localization tax and set up the localization office which was responsible to carry out a straightforward import-substitution policy for the imports in auto sector even from other Chinese regions. Also, the localization office checked out the list of imported components and their domestic firms which are capable of produce them successfully, then it provided a suitable investment capital as well as managing the firms relationship with the main assembler plant. (Thun, 2004) Apart from the local government programs, SAIC had its own way to support the Shanghai auto sector, however in some areas their activities overlappe Corporate Strategy for Iranian Car Industry Corporate Strategy for Iranian Car Industry Abstract The purpose of this research is to come across an effective and implemental strategy for Iranian car industry to become an export player in the Middle-East region. With consideration the importance of market development for international auto makers, the Middle-East market is evaluated and Iran as a case study is looked over in terms of its potential automobile market and developing opportunities in Iranian car industry to become a manufacturing partner for international players. Through out a review of Iranian economy and the position of auto sector in Iran economy, the difficulties of growth and development, the role of government- as the regulator- are discussed briefly and the effect of international auto makers -in the past and future- is analyzed. On this basis, we point out the main troubles of the current auto industrys structure and the government dilemma to set its policies. At the end we suggest a reform in the structure and strategy of both assemblers and suppliers to ent er to the international markets. Keywords: Operation strategy; Iran auto industry; Globalization, Regionalization, Industry study Introduction Irans economic performance has begun to improve slowly after a decade of recession which was caused by the long and costly war with Iraq and fluctuations in oil prices. In the decade ending in 1998, GDPs growth per capitals started to rise, although the average was only 3 percent per year. (Economic reports, the World Bank Group) The automotive industry, as one of Irans most promising industries, was the countrys fastest growing industry with the average annual growth of 27.2% between 1995 and 2000 which was 5.5 times of the country average industrial growth. (Economic Focus, Iran Daily News). The domestic vehicle production is growing quickly but it is highly protected, and only in highly exceptional circumstances can Iranians import cars from abroad. Locally produced cars have a reputation for poor quality and have contributed to the dangerously high pollution levels. Also, Iranian firms were not able to satisfy the domestic market in terms of quantity. Demand for automobiles, particularly passenger vehicles, far exceeds the supply. In fact, more than 450,000 people pre-purchase automobiles every year and wait approximately two years to receive them. As a result the government, which wants to raise unit production and improve domestic industry in line with industrialization program, hopes to stimulate competition as part of the effect to make the economy less dependent on oil. In order to follow the market reform plans and provide better circumstances for the countrys main industries such as petrochemical industry, textile and etc, President Khatami (since August 1997- 2005) in 1999, announced an ambitious program to privatize several major industries which included auto industry as a part of total restructuring of Iranian economy. Currently 13 public and privately owned auto maker exist in Iran. The largest vehicle manufacturing company is Iran Khodro with an average share of 60.90% percent of domestic vehicle production, as the main government-controlled carmaker and Saipa is the second one with 32.70%. Subsequent to the development program, automakers have been encouraged to review the way in which their strategies will be developed in the future and to extend a range of strategy options that might enhance their position. Consequently, most Iranian auto makers have been encouraged to join ventures or any other strategic alliances with foreign auto manufacturers to meet the increasing demand (www.ikco.com). On the other hand, in looking at the automobile market generally, during the past few years, it might be observed that after a period of growth from 1997 to 2000 -resulting from the exceptional boom in US economy and the upturn in Europe-but the automobile market especially in North America and Europe has entered a consolidation phase because of overcapacity. The market is mature in developed countries such as those of Western European countries and US market where nearly 90% of sales of new vehicles are now accounted by replacement purchases. Also, in Far East-Japan and South Korea-, overcapacity is a highly sensitive problem (REINAUD, 2001), whereas in Middle-East region, vehicle out put is 6% of total global output in comparison with 29% in Europe and 30.2% in US (carmakers Annual report,*DRI). Thus, some auto manufacturers might be looking for new methods to penetrate the auto market in Middle-East in order to gain more market share over their competitors. If these companies do become partners, Iran will be an option to emerge as a major regional car manufacturer, serving the Middle East beside Other countries in the region, particularly Egypt and Turkey which have substantial car assembly arrangements. The following companies have signed cooperative agreements and their products are either already on the market or are to be introduced in the near future: Frances Peugeot with Iran Khodro. Koreas Kia Motors with Saipa. Frances Citroen with Saipa. Korean Daewoo and Kerman Motors. Optimus of the UK with Renus. Proton of Malaysia with Zagros According to the French automaker Peugeot, Iran has one car for every 21 people. Turkey has one for every 12, while Western European countries and Japan have nearly one car for every 2 people (www.peugeot.com). That indicates market growth potential, and the reason that foreign car manufacturer might be interested in the Iranian auto market. In this research the current auto industry situation in Iran will be analyzed and it will be evaluated in relation to its future strategy consequent upon growth in terms of output quality and ability to serve the domestic market, but also to play a major rule in region and become a truly international car manufacturer and exporter in Middle-East. To achieve a rich understanding of the current situation and examine the environmental position to meet the research objectives, other developing countries auto industry examples like China, India and Turkey will be investigated and analyzed as examples, while the regional circumstances, business environment and other specific characters of Irans economy e.g. the role of government , economic condition and Irans regulations will be considered to find out the most appropriate strategy for Iran car industry. The research question for the chosen topic is What would be the most effective strategy for Iranian car industry to become a major player in the Middle-East market? From this research question, the following objectives would be appropriate to evaluate: To evaluate existing methods of development strategy in the Iranian auto industry, To identify the best possible methods of development strategy for domestic and foreign companies, To recommend how such a strategy can be implemented. The background of the research is set with a brief discussion on the changes have happened in the world of auto industry, the consequent of globalization, the dynamic and diversity of demand in auto market and the auto makers difficulties to respond to new market characteristics while maintain the ability to make profit. Our goal in this paper is to propose an efficient strategy to . The paper has the following structure. Section 2 gives the brief literature review. Section 3 analyses the competitors in automobile Middle East market. Section 4 introduces the Iranian auto industry case. Section 5 presents the growth and development problems in Iranian auto industry. Finally, section 6 is devoted to conclusions and future works. The remainder of this paper is organised as follows. Section 2 summarises the development of Iranian production and exports in the car industry compared to other major exporters in the world. It also explains why Iranian export growth has remained much below production growth. Section 3 develops the empirical export model and describes the variables and data. Then, the model is estimated in Section 4. Estimation results are analysed and a sensitivity analysis is proposed. Section 5 estimates the Iranian export potential with regard to the main foreign markets, while Section 6 concludes. Literature review History of globalization Humans have coined the word Globalization to describe widely traded activities that take place across the continents which are aided immensely by diminishing international trading regulations negotiated through the World Trade Organisation. Globalization is a combination of many -manufacturing, trade in services, supply chain management activities which have been affected positively by a fast technological development in few last decades. As Friedman (1999) argues, what is new today is the degree and intensity with which the word is being tied together in to a signal globalized market place and village. What is also new is the sheer number of people and countries able to partake of today globalized economy and information network, and to be affected by them this new era of globalization is turbocharged. As it can be observed, that this noticeable international integration is not just in economics, but in politics and cultures are as well. However, it needs to be recognised that the speed of these changes and growth of integration is different across the world. In some countries and regions the trend of globalization is rapidly increasing while in other parts the pace is much slower and globalisation is not welcomed at all. Nevertheless, regardless of the effects of globalisation no country can afford to ignore its impact on their political and economical circumstances. Likewise, the rate of change is different in various industries as is the strategic response of different business sectors to take advantages of exploiting new business opportunities. Although the merchandise trade, capital investment and labour migration started from 1850-1914, and the economy was more open than it is today in terms of the existing tariffs and trade barriers, but it was not globalized. Just the year following the Second World War and through reconstruction of war, the world has started to establish institutions to open up trades and ensure currency stability such as GATT and IMF, which caused massive increase in the economic growth level. According to Dicken (2003), world trade increased at an average annual rate of 6.7 per cent between 1948 and 1953. Between 1958 and 1963 the rate rose to 7.4 per cent and between 1963 and 1968 it accelerated further to 8.6 per cent. So people experienced a boom period up to 1970s when the first oil crisis has occurred. The United States, which suffered less during the Second World War, increased its foreign investment and after a while the US companies started to move into Western European countries and create interdependencies across world markets. Europe and Japan which mainly focused on rebuilding their economies after the war joined in this and also expanded their positions in the market place and on the economic map after the mid-1980s. (Hill, 2005) Also, because of the necessity of promoting global interdependencies, the United Nations was established to maintain world peace and security and so help the spread of industrialisation and world trade. The main drivers of globalization Apart from the history of globalization there were several main drive points that enhanced the process of globalisation. From the Johnson and Turners (2003) point of view one of the main globalization drivers was the changing economic paradigm. The new approach for managing economy was based on limitation the government role and neo-liberalism. Limiting the role of government provides the situations for businesses to progress and boom. As the Hill (2005) says, major changes occur as new economic and political institutions develop, with movement from traditional, non competitive institutions to competition-based capitalistic economies and democratic institution. So the market was relied on to force the pace of competition. Little by little the liberal economy became an external economic policy and the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trades (GATT) set up to support this philosophy. As a result of GATT and afterwards its successor organization- WTO-, there was a great reduction in tari ffs barriers and non-tariffs barriers for participating countries which help them established and spread their liberal economic policy. The second globalization driver is the spread of international governance and regulation. More international rules and policies developed for business environment, especially in regional level aimed at reducing the barriers in economic market among GATT contracting and WTO members. Also spreading e-commerce as a technological consequent has brought new issues in terms of traditional governance structure. Therefore, by passing the time and more international integration, the trade and market regulation were less under the national states control. According to Johnson and Turners (2003) argument finance and capital spread is another driver of globalization. Necessity of financial and capital movement following the market deregulation and economic liberalization has supported by national rules and has facilitated by technological development and ease the financial transactions. All might agree that the technological development, mainly in information technology and communication sector, has played an important role in globalization. However none of them is the cause of globalization, Dicken (2003) argued, without these technologies the current complex global economy system could not exist. Shrinking time and space by innovated technologies was a great opportunity to reorganization and redefinition the commercial and economical structure. Most of industrial sectors are affected by innovations and changes in technologies especially in manufacturing system with a high influence on value chain. Transportation technology has changed dramatically from 1840 to 1960 which was a development period from steam locomotives to high speed aircraft. Therefore, new transportation systems and their wide usage with cheaper prices have brought global shrinkage. Also in communication and its convergence with computer technology development has facilitated more effective networ ks within and between enterprises. All of these technological conveniences provide links across borders and spread globalization in economic term. Social and cultural convergence might be seen as a driver for globalization. The effect of mass media and usage of internet make the consumer preference more common in global market. As Johnson and Turner (2003) mentioned, similar taste of consumer in different parts of the market creates the opportunity to promote global product. So we can claim that the cultural and social similarities make the conditions available for globalization. Also transferring new technologies has brought about more products in greater varieties at lower costs and prices. Consequently standards of living and peoples expectations rise as well. Mode of entry and expansion methods In simple terms, globalization is an opportunity for companies to expand their market, their value chain and their business across borders. But the point is how effective can companies use these opportunities to make more profit and enjoy sustainable growth. What factors should they consider to make decision to choose an investment option to carry on their development strategy? Global supply chain and its dimensions Apart from different modes of entry available for firms to get advantages from globalization and to move across borders to expand their market, other advantages may be gained through developing global supply chains. The production of any good or service can be conceived as a production chain that is, as a transactionally linked sequence of functions in which each stage adds value to the process of production of goods and services. (Dicken, 2003) The firms try to differentiate their value chain in order to add more competences by using the advantages of each production chain requirement in different part of the world. However, build a global value chain might make it fragmented while the control and management of a global network is more difficult. From Dickens point of view there are three important dimensions in production networks: First is governance which means how they are coordinated and regulated. In the case which varying combinations and interrelationships of different kind of companies and firms might perform in a production network, As Dicken says, the market is the main organizer of external transactions, in contrast with the case which the entire network operated with a single firm and internal organizational structure governs transactions. (Dicken, 2003) The second important dimension in production network is spatiality and how they are conFigured geographically. By increasing the emergence of global production network, network organizing is changing from geographically concentrated to geographically dispersed. The third issue is territorial embeddedness the extent to which they are connected in to particular bounded political, institutional and social setting. (Dicken, 2003) information technology and other new technologies have made space and distances meaningless. Most types of capitals are mobile and all of them can easily move from one place to another. However transportation and communication technology has developed as well, capital does moves within spaceless world. Place is still an important issue, as firms are highly affected by the cultural, socio-political and institutional context of the territorial they are embedded. Therefore multinational firms try to take advantages of differences within regulations and socials in various places while, bringing different state with different regimes in count within a production network makes the situation more complex to control and to take benefits from. Since 1999 and strongly growth of globalization, the same as other important and effective phenomena, globalization has a positive view wave that strongly recommend it and a negative wave against it which moves from developing country to developed countries during these years. Arguments about globalization success or failures do not have any satisfactory result, while globalization can be observe and discussed to understand both negative and positive sides of it. Growth of regionalism Although the speed of globalization and integration in the world market has increased during past decades under the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and more recently by World Trade Organization (WTO), the regional agreement and the debate on the desirability of regionalism has grown as well. By the beginning of twentieth century most of the counties were part of a regional integration. However one might argue that the reason of regional integration is more political than economic explanation, it can not be ignored any more as almost 50 per cent of all world trade is within regional trade agreement. As a result of that, there is fear within WTO and other international institutions that regionalism takes the place of globalization and make a stumbling block toward further global trade integration. (Lung Van Tulder, 2004) Nevertheless there are different forms of regional integration and each of them affects global market more or less while the time of their integration pr ocess is various. The dynamics of automobile market Although some changes had happened in the composition and geography of automobile demand, the concentration of automobile industry in three major global regions face auto companies in these regions with the overcapacity problem. The highly market-oriented of automobile production caused its development be based on affluent consumer markets to achieve the economy of scale. But during the years, the automobile consumer markets in three developed region has developed as well. As Dicken argued in the Global Shift (2003), the changing demand for Automobiles has three major characteristics: It is highly cyclical. There are long term (secular) changes in demand. There are signs of increasing market segmentation and fragmentation. ( Dicken, 2003) The competitors Despite the fact that NAFTA, EU and Japan are the main developed region in both production and trade in auto industry sector, other countries have started restructuring this sector in line with their economic reform. The obvious example might be China and India which both are gaining a sustainable growth in the last decade. Also Turkey has emerged as a new automobile producer in line with other industrial changes aim to become qualified to join European Union. Turkish auto industry Turkey auto industry has been developing due to the well strategic planning applied by the Turkey government by the way in which they opened their country to the global world. They have started their industry as a montage (CKD or SKD) in 1960 and have turned it to manufacturing part after a few years in 1966 trough licensing agreement and dealer-assembler with American and European firms. Gradually the government attempted to adapt an export-oriented strategy; consequently it started to liberalize the importation of cars gradually and reducing the tariffs. Meanwhile it provided some financial supports for upgrading themselves to international acceptable condition. But the main change which caused a revolution in Turkey car industry was the customs unionization agreement in 1995 with European Union which followed by a new restructuring in their auto industry. To harmonization the administrative and regulatory structure of the industry, Turkish government has established an accreditation council to prepare the documents for new adaptation the issues and procedures of exporting in line with European countries. However the Turkey supposed to complete the adaptation and remove all tariffs by 2001, they have not completed it yet and it seems the Turkeys auto industry has not well prepared for full liberalization. Although adaptation a new regime from Turkey government which obligate importing vehicle companies to prepare service facility and aftermarket parts for customers within a country was a great opportunity for domestic firms to become involved with providing spare parts and services. Even though it was not a stable macro environment after 1997-1998 Russian and Asian crisis and again December 2000 crisis, the restructuring program caused some investment in car companies in Turkey in order to support economy of scale and encourage them to developed more update types of automobiles. Turkish manufacturers have operated in two car segment; low medium and medium models and the produced cars have already been phased out in their country of origin, added that these segments account for 90 per cent of the Turkish market. (Duruiz, 2004) Governmental financial supports and investment on auto sectors attracted many foreign investors from 1995 onward, especially with aim to develop new generation cars and modernization the industry. Most of foreign car firms have gained relatively high share of the auto industry after liberalization to use the resources in Turkey and export to European countries through Turkey. Table 1 shows the main auto manufactures in Turkey and their share. As the effect of custom utilization agreement, the automotive sector had the 5th place in Turkey exporting in 2000, but the main effect has happened in component sector and it has increased relatively higher then auto sector export. It was also easier for component producer to upgrade their standard of their firms to get a competitive position in EU base on their lower labour wages. (Duruiz, 2004) Nevertheless Turkey has accepted liberalization in their trade but as they have not done the full integration, their case has become special. Mostly the Turkeys future economy highly depends on the European Union decision to accept it or not as a member of European Union which lead to change their economic structure with the support from the IMF and European Union. Indian auto industry Emerging of India in the world economy has been started by implementing liberalization and opened up most of the economic sectors to the global world in 1992. Looking historically at Indian car industry, it can be divided in four phase from the view point of Kim (2004). The starting point was in 1920s with assembly which was established by foreign companies. (General motor and Ford) It took two decades up to 1952 that Indian build up their domestic production firm. The governmental policy in auto sector is known as the main reason of no progress in productivity and technology in this sector for long period. (Kim, 2004) The third phase was started, after three decades, by making a join venture of Maruti Udyog -became nationalized in 1980- with the Suzuki motor company. According to this agreement a revolution had happened in Indian car industry. Increase the volume and standard was not just in auto makers but the change was occurred in the components industry as well. (Venkataramani, 1990) The main and last phase was started by Indian economic reform after 1992 under the guidance of the IMF and World Bank. As it was anticipated, deregulation of auto industry in 1993 and the expectation of market growth in India according to the population have attracted international auto makers to invest in India. According to the foreign existence it was a dramatically fell of domestic firms share in India. Investment of foreign car makers, which were mainly in the form of joint venture with domestic firms, caused there-restructuring in the Indians motor industry. Apart from promotion of new models with more stylish design, significant changes have happened in auto financing as well. Also numbers of component manufacturers invested in local firms to supply their assemblers. So Indian witnessed a fundamental change in the technology, infrastructure and managerial systems. (Kim, 2004) Despite of all expectations and anticipations about the fast economical growth after regulations in India and a positive view of auto makers about Indian market because of the sizable population of middle-class, the estimates about rising in demand did not turn to reality. Apart from the problems which multinationals generally face in new emerging countries such as undeveloped supplier base, weak infrastructure and undeveloped regulations (Kim, 2001), Indian environment seems more complicated for them. Although the population was far enough to support ten auto makers, the companies face with overcapacity. The lack of demand in both domestic and regional market has become the major problem for multinationals auto makers in India. In terms of export from India to the neighbour countries also, the multinational car makers have not achieved any remarkable result. However the main reason might be the economic situation and poverty of South Asian countries which limit the demand for passenger car, we should not ignore the political and economical relation of India with its neighbour. Despite the hopes after the South Asian Association for Region Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985 and the South Asian Preferential Trading Agreement (SAPTA) in 1995, there was no significant growth observed in the South Asian trade relationship. Although the auto industry in India has not succeeded as it was anticipated, the auto component industry has occurred high progress in quality, technology and international standards. Now, in collaborate with foreign companies, they have become competitive in international markets and auto makers in India use their Indian suppliers to supply their other operation plant around the world. Moreover, Indian government regulations disable multinational to import completely build automobiles to India. However the Indian government did not define any limitation for on foreign ownership, instead 123 per cent tariff rates on import cars were forced multinationals to set up their assembly plant fully within India. And a high tariff on finished components also was another issue that multinationals prefer to find their supplier within domestic firms. (Kim, 2004) Despite of all mentioned problem in India, multinational car makers seems still have a positive view about the Indian market. The potential existing market is there, but the matter is that when it will become visible. Chinese auto industry Following the economical reform in China, the Chinese policy makers focused on auto industry as a symbolic sector which shows the industrial development within a country. The need for technology and knowledge caused them looking for foreign partner to provide the required technology by setting up assembly plant which also generate and improve numbers of domestic firms as the suppliers to support the main assembly plants. So, in the mid-1980 three main cities of China (Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai) established a joint-venture with foreign auto makers supported by central and local government. (Thun, 2004) Each local government aimed to improve the local supplier network by its JV, but the assembly plants were looking for the better quality and lower price. Therefore in contrast with the local government and despite of geographical advantages of supplying from local firms, assemblers were dependence on outside supplier and most of them imported 100 per cent of the components from outside unless they were forced by Chinese government to increase their required components from domestic firms. But even after the time assemblers shifted from outside supplier to domestic firms, the local government aim to improve their local network were failed as the JV sourced their parts from other regions. Therefore, as of 2003, just Shanghai could relay on their local auto sector and even though it did not meet the international standards, it became a dominant firm in Chinese auto market. (Thun, 2004) The Shanghai success was the result of well support and strategic plans of local government and Shanghai Automobile industry corporation (SAIC). In 1984, when the Shanghai established a joint-venture with Volkswagen (VW), non of local firms were able to supply the required component for the assembling plant and after two years their share increased by just 2.7 per cent. (Li, 1997) No significant achievement after two years caused Shanghai municipal government began to re-evaluate the problems within the sector and the capacity of individual firms to solve these problems. (Thun, 2004) Consequent of problem solving process, they discovered two necessity preconditions to facilitate improvement in domestic firms. The first one was a reorganization of the municipal bureaucracy responsible for auto sector oversight. They have set up an Automobile Industry Leading Small Group in order to control the local actors. (Li, 1997) The second precondition was the capital accumulation and investment. To solve this problem the local government defined a localization tax and set up the localization office which was responsible to carry out a straightforward import-substitution policy for the imports in auto sector even from other Chinese regions. Also, the localization office checked out the list of imported components and their domestic firms which are capable of produce them successfully, then it provided a suitable investment capital as well as managing the firms relationship with the main assembler plant. (Thun, 2004) Apart from the local government programs, SAIC had its own way to support the Shanghai auto sector, however in some areas their activities overlappe

The Moor in the Works of William Shakespeare Essay -- Biography Biogra

The Sources and Representations of the Moor in the Works of Shakespeare      Ã‚  Ã‚   One theme consistently reemployed throughout Shakespeare's plays is that of the Other. The Other is usually characterized as a character that is somehow separated, stigmatized, or noted as being different from the mainstream ideal. For the Elizabethan England of Shakespeare's time, it may have been a self-defensive maneuver against the encroachment of something which threatened too close to home (Bartels 450). Bryant lists several methods used to employ this convention of the Other: race such as that of Shylock and Aaron, nationality as in Iachimo, bastardy such as the characters Don John and Edmund, social status such as that belonging to Iago, and deformity, for example, Richard III (35). Not every Other is characterized as evil, but nonetheless depicted as being somehow different or separated from society. Characters such as Malvolio, Faulconbridge, Macbeth, and Othello are of this subdivision.       One sect of Otherness is that of race. During this time, England seems at first glance to be separated culturally from any area of the Ottoman Empire. However, this assumption proves to be false. There are four characters in Shakespeare's plays, Caliban, Othello, the Prince of Morocco, and Aaron, who are of distinctly African, or Moorish heritage. Whether these persons were of Negro, Berber, Spanish, or Arab descent is definitely in question. The use of the term Moor also is of importance. This word is used to describe Aaron and Othello, but not to describe Caliban or the Prince of Morocco, both who come from areas classically referred to as being Moorish. The origin of the word Moor comes from the word mauri. Mauri refers to the Berbers w... ...ntic Review. 55.4 (1990): 1-17. Bryant, J.A. Jr. "Aaron and the Pattern of Shakespeare's Villains." Renaissance Papers. (1984): 29-36. Burshatin, Israel. "The Moor in Text: Metaphor, Emblem, and Silence." Critical Inquiry. 12.1 (1985): 98-118. D'Amico, Jack. The Moor in English Renaissance Drama. Tampa: University of South Florida Press, 1991. Everett, Barbara. " 'Spanish' Othello: The Making of Shakespeare's Moor." Shakespeare Survey. 35 (1982): 101-112. Jones, Eldred. The Elizabethan Image of Africa. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1971. Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Kenneth Myrick. New York: Signet, 1965. ---. Othello. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. ---. The Tempest. Ed. Charles W. Eliot. New York: P.F. Collier & Sons, 1969. ---. Titus Andronicus. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: Signet, 1964.