Self-Projection Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Self-Projection Project - Essay Example This has helped me explore a deeper side of myself that I never knew was possible. It has helped me see how others view myself, and that is one of the most valuable lessons that I take away from this. I tend to think that I know myself well. I have a very good sense of self. I know what I am good at and what needs improvement. I am constantly making self-improvements. To a certain extent, I really motivate others, and it has been shown through the interviews that I have garnered from friends, family, and colleagues, that I excel in almost anything I do. I guess one might say that I am a very high-strung (at times) individual, but that I make sure to keep all of my commitments. I have several hard and soft skills which I feel will serve me well in the future. One of my best assets is my leadership. I have good leadership skills which set me apart from the crowd. I also have amazing public speaking skills and can dazzle a crowd with my linguistic stylings. Really, it depends upon the p articular audience, but I know how to adapt myself to almost any setting and it shows. I am somewhat of an extroverted person; I enjoy making new friends and acquaintances, and am somewhat of a socially motivated person in that sense. I don’t pull any punches and am very honest with people about what I expect of them and how I expect to be treated in return. Another great feature I like about myself is that I have been able to use my outgoing nature to win friends, make money, and influence people. Meeting new people and seeing the world is part of what makes me who I am today. I have a real zest for life and believe you shouldn’t take life for granted. So, I eat life for breakfast, and I don’t mean the cereal! (Lol.) It is totally possible to learn something new from anyone that I meet and therefore, in business as well as in my leisure time, I always make sure to develop a solid list of contacts and social networks, since social networking is the wave of the f uture. I know that I can count on my friends and family to be there for me when things get difficult. Something else about me is that I am a very positive person. This has served me well in the past, as I definitely believe in karma and the phrase, â€Å"What goes around comes back around† (Janin, 2004, pp. 152). Like Anne Frank, I believe in the general goodness inherent in people. Everyone should be able to help everyone else out. Currently, one of the books I am reading is very inspiring. It’s called Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning. It talked about how Frankl survived Auschwitz, one of the worst concentration camps, by using logotherapy—also known as talk therapy. Frankl talks about the importance of prisoners to maintain their human dignity in the face of conditions that were worse than inhumane. I am the sort of person who likes solving problems, yet at the same time, I don’t have patience for things like crossword puzzles and so forth. I enjoy challenges, but sometimes I admit I can be a bit intellectually lazy, not fully taxing my mental capacities to their hilt because I am reserving brainpower for truly important and difficult tasks. I don’t like to use my energy unnecessarily; therefore, I keep a very tight rein on my time and how I control it. I always make sure that I know who I am going to be spending time with and what I should do to manage this time. My ability to tackle challenges, combined with the fact that I am a positive person, helps me to avoid bad situations and difficult people. This is part of what breeds success in my life and in my living environment. About me, I am definitely a team player, which has always been a strength of

Management accountiong Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Management accountiong - Essay Example asure of two projects, this project favors the project with which has a higher present value though its likely to have a higher initial capital outlay, its not dependable when projects have different capital outlays. It's difficult to calculate as well as to understand and use in comparison with the pay back method or even the returns on the capital employed. Advantages of internal rate of return It considers the time value of money. It takes into account the total cash flows and outflows. It's easy to understand It's consistent with the overall objective of maximizing the shareholders wealth. Limitation of the internal rate of return It involves tedious calculation. It produces multiple rates which can be confusing. 3. ACTIVITY BASED COSTING This is a controlling and a planning tool which allocates costs to products in value chain analysis. It enables the overhead costs to be allocated to the respective product which incurred it rather than using the traditional methods where by the overhead costs were allocated as a percentage of the total overhead costs. It enables the managers to identify the products which incur higher costs therefore to charge them at a higher price or look for means to control these costs. 4. PEST ANALYSIS Political environment: These affect the operations of the business in UK; these laws encourage the existence of free markets where the market forces set the equilibrium hence there is fair competition. This encourages the supermarket to compete at a fair ground with its competitors. Economic environment: this affects the consumer consumption depending with the disposable income; this affects the way in which the supermarket will stock its products. Corporate taxes will also determine the manner in which it will price its products. If the...It enables the overhead costs to be allocated to the respective product which incurred it rather than using the traditional methods where by the overhead costs were allocated as a percentage of the total overhead costs. It enables the managers to identify the products which incur higher costs therefore to charge them at a higher price or look for means to control these costs. Political environment: These affect the operations of the business in UK; these laws encourage the existence of free markets where the market forces set the equilibrium hence there is fair competition. This encourages the supermarket to compete at a fair ground with its competitors. Economic environment: this affects the consumer consumption depending with the disposable income; this affects the way in which the supermarket will stock its products. Corporate taxes will also determine the manner in which it will price its products. If the taxes are very high then this will be reflected in the prices. Technology: the level of technology used in production affects the prices of the products of the supermarket, if the competitors are well off with better technology then are likely to have higher returns if the market prices are equal. Performance related pay is known to improve manager's production due to the fact that they have a budget against which controls them in using the firm resources.

The New Chinese Woodcut Movement, revolutionizing art as a voice

The New Chinese Woodcut Movement, revolutionizing art as a voice Learning from the west: The New Chinese Woodcut Movement, revolutionizing art as a voice of the people At the turn of the twentieth century, voices supporting modernization were on the rise. Politically, although the Xinhai Revolution replaced the Qing monarchy, there was still no real democratic rule established. People still didnt have a voice and they were by no means free or having an improvement in life. Externally, China was under constant threat and aggressiveness of Japanese imperialism and internally, Chinas political condition is extremely unstable as its under absolute rule by ruthless warlords who fight with each other all the time. As an attempt of self-salvation, Chinese intellectuals and artists started the New Cultural Movement and various art reforms. Lu Xun started the New Chinese Woodcut Movement and looked into western art forms as models and inspirations as an attempt to save their culturally-deteriorated country, revive their weakened tradition and send modernization messages to the masses. This essay will focus on the woodcut print, To The Front!by Hu Yichuan, w hich is a part of the New Chinese Woodcut Movement and is a good example to illustrate the impact of the import of western prints technique and styles on Chinese woodcuts during the 1930 and how the production and purpose of art had been revolutionalized and publicized. At the time of chaos, Lu Xun and his colleagues saw the potentials of woodblock printing became a tool of enlightenment. Woodblock printing is by natural a low-cost art with high availability as the tools: knife, paper, ink and a piece of wood are materials that could be found almost anywhere. Moreover, it did not require machines or any mechanical processes that were only available in large cities and were most suitable for revolutionaries hiding from the authorities. Also of great importance, its ability to reproduce millions of copies was exactly what was needed for spreading quick and powerful revolutionary and modernization messages to the public, including those who were illiterate. The New, Creative Chinese Woodcut Movement got its name by its differentiation from the duplicating woodblock of traditional production by adopting western techniques and styles in woodblock printing. In order to send a powerful message and distinguish themselves from traditional woodcut prints (Figure 1 2) which appeared in Buddhist devotional arts, nianhuas and folk tales, young artists from the New Woodcut Movement learnt from western woodcut artists that they should work in the form of an individual artist and the artist should convey their ideas and attitudes find expression not only when he produces the original design but also in different types of marks he makes with his knife and chisel when he carves the block in contrast to the production of traditional print where engraving and printing were separate processes performed by different people and the creators of traditional prints were viewed as artisans, not artists.. In To The Front!(Figure 3) a woodcut of 1932, Hu made this woodcut to persuade his nation to fight against the Japanese. At the time, China was struggling under Japanese aggressions that started with the Manchurian Incident in 1931. Drawing on the emotional intensity and style of German Expressionist art, he produced a powerful image using the stark contrast of black and white and strong angular lines to depict realistic people under hardship. The main figure dominates almost  ¾ of the picture. His size added with his outstretch hands make him very powerful. His existence was depicted with broad slashes, which echoes the artists urgency in uniting the masses and fight against the Japanese. The mask-like figures in the background convey the power of the masses. This image was a call to a different life. During that period of time, artists only made woodcuts on people either going to the field or suffering hardship. They never use utopia images to persuade the people to fight as they were looking for powerful, dramatic images that could immediately bring out the urgency of needing to fight back. By learning the styles of leftist western woodcut artists and using powerful and realistic imageries to deliver messages to the masses and focusing on social ills of their time, young artists including Hu, see themselves as part of an international leftist arm community. And in To the Front!, we can see a big influence of Kathe Kollwitzs work, a woodcut artist from the German Expressionalism. Instead of finding beauty in physical attractiveness, what Kollwitz tried to reflect through the illustration in the human body is the physical reflection of the labors, the efforts, the cares and concerns, the loves, losses, and griefs that made up the lives of real and ordinary people. (Figure 4). It was from Kollwitz that artists realized the power of the physical actions of the human body. The strong, diagonal lines of the was echoing the main figures body and the movements of the peasants in Outbreak(Figure 5), The use of broad slashes and simplicity of the depiction of human figures is cha racteristic of the period and it was directly taken from the simplicity of human figure represented by Kollwitz in Memorial to Karl Liebknecht(Figure 6). In both Memorial to Karl Liebknecht and To The Front!, the artists used black to set the mood. In Memorial to Karl Liebknecht,the people were all bowing down to the dead body, conveying a sense of downward motion which signifies sadness and in To the Front The upward outstretch hand of the main figure and the diagonal walls at the back brings out the chaos that the Chinese people were facing at that time. Although To the Front! had taken much cues from German expressionist artists, the construction of the print which consists of a full frontal, dominating stong man leading the revolt was an original idea. Compared with Li Huas Arise!(Figure 7) which had patterned the style and content from Kollwitzs Outbreak, To the Front! bore more Chinese characteristics with the man wearing Chinese style clothing and looked Chinese. In Arise! The peasants and soldiers could be of any nationality and although it also had a strong message. To the Front! would be more associable to the Chinese people. As ONeil had stated in his book, it was ironic that Lu Xun and young artists like Hu Yichuan should turn first to European woodblock printing for inspiration on how to redevelop this ancient Chinese artistic and technological practice, which by that time, European artists had just started to make them an art form from its own right. It was more ironic in the sense that Chinese traditional woodprints were once a tool for Chinese propaganda against the west in the 1860s. In the Anti-Christian print (Figure 8), we can see a very traditional woodcut which had flat figures with simple outlines. The power of the use of black was not recognized and it was simply a substitute for colour. In terms of the usage of lines, Hu had used strong diagonal lines and upward lines to convey the urgency while the artist who made the Anti-Christian print didnt choose lines to convey a sense of motion. The construction of the two prints are also startling different. To the Front! was very dramatic, with a big figure dominating the painting while the construction of the Anti-Christian print was very simple and the people were drawn not in proportion. In terms of space, the dominating male acts as a leader walking in the front and the crowds which diminishes at the back persuasively suggests a depth of space. In the Anti-Christian print, the sense of space was very subtle and not persuasive as it was only signified by the diagonal lines of the table and that the little peo ple were placed. In terms of message, Hus woodcut could only be fully understood if viewers were aware of the context and history background of the time as the enemies of those people were not drawn. However, in the Anti-Christian Print, we know clearly who the enemy was as it was a rebus painting, pig meaning Jesus and sheep meaning westerners. The pig was hanged on the cross and shot with arrows and the sheep were tied to the ground and going to be killed. The westerners were depicted as bad and it seemed injustice to prosecute them. While Yu chose to used the black tone and the diagonal lines to represent the anger to the foreigners and urgency to fight back. He was trying to arouse their eagerness to fight by powerful images but not direct attack on the enemy. In other words, Anti-Christian Print was a message from the court transcended to the mass, feeding them hatred to the west, rather than appealing to their situation and suffering because of the enemies like Hu did and provoke their power to fight back from that. Besides the great difference in style, content and the way to arouse public consciousness that are evident, the most striking difference between To the Front! and Anti-Christian Print signifies the groundbreaking element in the New Chinese Woodcut Movement, revolutionizing art as a voice of the people. Traditionally, woodcut prints had not only been used for propaganda but also a tool for enlightenment and raising awareness. However, the traditional ways were using idealized examples to praise Confucius, governement approved virtues and feeding ideas of rigidity of social order in the form of illusionistic peace and happiness. For example, Five Sons Successful in Examinations(Figure 9) is propaganda for the old-fashioned and stubborn Chinese examinations. The artist twisted the idea and chose to focus on the glory of having five sons being successful in examinations. This way, people would tend to forget the rigidity of the examinations. The depiction of the characters in this image is highly unrealistic and the decorative, colourful imagery is in great contrast to Hus woodcuts. These people were very happy and like in tradition of Chinese nianhuas and no hardships or sufferings can be seen on their faces. The rigidity, the great time required to learn for the exam and the corruptn ess were never mentioned. The reason why Lu Xun and the artists of the New Chinese Woodblock Movement were called revolutionary was that they depicted social sufferings as it was and added an addition of critical consciousness to these educational art. As mentioned above, there seemed to be much irony as these young artists should lean from the west which were less experienced in woodcuts and were their enemies. However, it was precisely because they had been bullying and easily defeated them for so many times since the 1840s that open-minded Chinese intellectuals such as Lu Xun realized that in order to revive their dying country, the only way was to learn from the enemy and modernize. One way to do it was the redevelopment of woodprints and it proved to be successful. Though the masses might held hesitation in fully accepting these very foreign style of woodcuts, the messages that these prints sent were bright and clear. These woodprint artists were the first ones to represent the real people in these mass production prints. Across the country, a large number of woodcut societies united individual artists and formed important organizations that supported the production of exhibitions, publication and manifestos. They found their voice and the emotions aroused from being bullied by warlords and foreigners that they learnt to express through art signified dignity among the Chinese people and ignited the fire in the heart of Chinese people to fight against evil powers together as a nation.

The Future of Career Development. Essay -- Careers Workforce Job Essay

The Future of Career Development Trends in the changing workplace have created employment practices that have implications for career development. Company downsizing, early retirement buyouts, and the growing use of contingent employment has led some people to fear that full-time employment will not be available to them. However, new configurations of workers and alternative work arrangements do not necessarily signify lost employment opportunities. This Myths and Realities examines the differences between perception and practice as they relates to employment and career development. Loyalty and job security have disappeared The new "partnership" relationship between employer and employee, which is reportedly replacing the old "parent-child" relationship, emphasizes worker employability. In the "partnership" relationship, employers provide employees with opportunities for career and skill development, and employees take advantage of the opportunities they are given to enhance their skills, marketability, and potential for continued employment. Philosophically, this employer-employee trade off is equally beneficial. Employers invest time and money in their employees' growth, employees learn updated skills that are reflected in improved worker productivity and increased company profits, and employers realize a good "return on investment." In practice, however, the cycle is not always completed. Loyalty, which seems a natural outgrowth of the give and take process, may be too elusive to rely on chance. From the onset, organizations deciding to upgrade the skills and employability of their employees have been concerned that they could lose the workers they train to their competition. Filipczak (1995) countered this per... ...EL ADMINISTRATION 15, no. 2 (Spring 1995): 46-61. Filipczak, B. "You're on Your Own." TRAINING 32, no. 1 (January 1995): 29-36. Hetzer, B. "Beware the Ties that Bind." BUSINESS WEEK, March 17, 1997, pp. 120-121. Kane, A. "Older Workers Widen Role in Work Force." CAREER MAGAZINE <http://careermag.com/newsarts/special/1193.html> 1996 Kennedy, J. "Employment Agreements Becoming More Common." THE PLAIN DEALER, June 1, 1997, p. 5D. National Alliance of Business. "The Contingent' Workforce: Temporary Phenomenon or Permanent Fixture?" WORKFORCE ECONOMICS 2, no. 7 (June 1996): 7-11. (ED 398 424) Tarrant, J. PERKS AND PARACHUTES. New York: Random House, 1997. "Your Life." USA TODAY 125, no. 2622 (March 1997): 6. Vickers, M. "Quitting a New Job? You May Pay the Movers." NEW YORK TIMES, February 9, 1997, Section 3, p. 11.

Philips and Matsushita: A New Century, a New Round Essay

Prior to the beginning of the World War II, the Philips organization was in the infancy stages of initiating a movement of technological prowess within the industry’s culture. They assumed the position as number one in the industry, consistently developing new manufacturing plants to keep in stride with innovations in the development of light bulbs because the company only made light bulbs and was not interested in diversification like other industry competitors. Philips also was in the process of converting longstanding plants in order to keep step with production technology. Philips developed its product line in the 1930’s, going from producing light bulbs exclusively, to also producing vacuum tubes, radios and X-ray tubes. But Phillips wanted more; the company did not want to limit itself to Holland. Philips was looking for international expansion. During this time, Holland was a little market because of its lower population as compared to other competitor countries. Because of this, the company figured that exporting a considerable amount of its products in order to generate enough income to maintain the facility making method Philips is using. Philips was then converted into a â€Å"centralized company with decentralized sales and autonomous marketing in 17 countries†. So this now shows that even though Philips is a company domestic to Holland, the majority of its sales come from the exportation of its products to other countries. The marketing, advertising and promotions used for these products now depended on the country the product was being sold in. So their marketing campaign could not be universal. However, Phillips was due to encounter variables that altered the position of the company, said variables proving to be uncontrollable for the company. Political affairs were an integral part in transitioning the Philips into a â€Å"mutli-national† organization. During the Great Depression, many nations implemented trade barriers and tariffs in order to help the domestic  producers and economy. Phillips was able to work around these hindrances by developing and maintaining facility/facilities in the each of the nations/markets they sold their products. The Nazi invasion of 1939 and the ensuing exacting of World War II, assisted Philips in its conclusion to relocate its assets in Ally nations’ economies, specifically the US and England. R&D was moved to England, management to the USA. This caused Philips to rely on the independence and maintenance of the company to national organizations (NOs) since there was such growth in company resources in those area. This proved to be a positive development for Philips, allowing the company to respond to nation-specific situations faster than the competition. . Once the war ended, Philips reaped the benefits of NO operation. Philips could now identify potential threats in a specific country in regards to industry/market and respond via production. Philips was also utilizing there competitive advantage in regards to the NOs in their research departments and their heavy existence in the local markets until the conclusion of the 1960’s. After the 1960’s, Philips competitive advantage became a disadvantage. The NOs became a detriment in that Philips was having difficulty acting in one accord as a company. This lack of organizational harmony made it very hard for Philips to innovate new products, created a lack of economies of sales in regards to production, and hindering the growth of the organization. The NOs started to do things in the best interest of the NO and not in the interest of Philips as a whole organization. Executives were no longer able to govern over the company as a whole, which created a sort of organizational anarchy and order could not be keep for the international company. For instance, Philips was unable to standardize the V2000 videocassette due to organizational disaccord. One part of Philips wanted to utilize larger manufacturing facilities to produce the VHS feeling it to be the most efficient process. NOs, however, were did not want to do this because it would require local plant consolidation. Philips then implemented the Product Division (PDs) in order to rectify the problems the company was having with the NOs, but this was unsuccessful. The company then began to decline because of their inefficiency in providing the consumers with innovative products and the fact that their once competitive  advantage, the NOs, was now a disadvantage because of the lack of control Philips had over them. How did Matsushita succeed in displacing Philips as No. 1? What were its distinctive competencies and incompetencies? Prior to WWII, while Philips was in the process of developing its NOs, Matsushita was in the process of entering the scene. Philips focused solely on light bulbs; in contrast, Matsushita had a wide array of product offerings. With a parallel merger, Matsushita sold upwards to 5000 different products amongst 25000 retailers. These retail outlets furnished Matsushita the opportunity to connect the marketing scheme with the customer response to market trends. Even though Matsushita had a centralized R&D department, the bulk of products were made in PDs. Matsushita’s innovation was minimal, but where they lacked in innovation they made up for it in the expedience in which they got products out into the market. If a market became saturated at the local level, Matsushita strove to expand globally by using international maneuvers. That move proved successful when faced with an unstable and uncertain market. One of the better ideas the company had was to off-shore vital aspects of manufacturing and production to nations with poorer economies, but the higher end products remained domestically produced. To get past controversy from American and European government lobbyist, Matsushita put plants in those nations as well, but the company made sure they had a strong grasp of those plants which varied differently from the approach of competitor Philips. By doing this, the internationally unification of Matsushita remained constant. Subsidiaries were also under the scrutinizing eye of Matsushita. This was accomplished by having subsidiaries assimilate into the Matsushita corporate culture, doing so through training subsidiaries in their management style and networking. Communication was perpetual through the use of phone conversations and faxes; and GM outside of Japan would have to travel to HQ for training in order to ensure the assimilation method used was successful. By doing this, Matsushita was capable to garner cheaper prices for consumers in regards to their products. This helped give them a greater market share  than Philips in the industry. In regards to the color television, â€Å"trade liberalization and lower shipping (Bartlett p.9)†, this helped in the company being able to export abundantly. Another factor that helped Matsushita propel past Philips in the industry was the company’s getting headway in the color television market and its domination of the VCR market. Although Matsushita did not have a strong brand name being relatively new to the industry, it was able to maintain itself through by selling its products through discounters and mass merchandisers. In regards to the VCR market, Matsushita was able to gain full control. Initially the company had its own version of VHS, but in 1975/76 the company decided to give up their own version in order to compete with Sony’s â€Å"Betamax† and JVS’s competing VHS. This garnered in great results, the company manufacturing capacity being 6.8 million units at its peak, because Matsushita’s ability to produce at a greater and faster level than competitors caused them to be the industry leader, causing the competition to seek their VHS format. The downside of this situation was the fact that global control of this extent gives the impression that creativity was halted regarding Matsushita’s products. Operations offshore were not consistent concerning R&D, which showed it to be an addition to the domestic R&D not able to act of its own accord. This was due to the fact that Matsushita had too firm of a grasp over its global operations. American engineers were able to deal with the constraints of this Matsushita, feeling it stifling to their work and hindering their professional development. In an effort to circumvent this issue, Matsushita decided to outsources the company’s innovation, but this did not work. An environmental factor occurred, the collapse of the Japanese economy, which caused this strategy to be abandoned.â€Æ' What do you think of the change each company has made to date – the objectives, the implementation, and the impact? Why is the change so hard for both of them? Even though both companies, Matsushita and Philips, differed greatly in their tactics regarding organizational culture, they both were very conventional. And for a time, both methods were successfully. Initially Philips was industry leader, only to be later topped by Matsushita. Matsushita established a centralized organization domestically and controlled overseas operations and subsidiaries. Conversely, Philips decentralized its company globally and took a hands off approach to managing the NOs until organizational unification proved very hard to accomplish. Then Philips and Matsushita tried to flip management styles, taking notes from one another. Both companies wanted to take the best methods from each other and discard unsuccessful measures that were taken. Electronics covers a vast array of items within that industry, so the best way to handle that market would be a tough centralized organization that encourages innovation of new entrant products and is malleability allows the company to respond to the fluctuation of the demands of markets overseas. Philips went through many different CEO’s and in the 70’s tried to incorporate the top performing plants into the International Production Centers (IPCs), which was designed to supply the vast amount of NOs. This was an unsuccessful endeavor; because the company greatly miscalculated the strength of the NOs. With no clear course for the organization as an international structure, the NOs were still in charge. Going into the 80s, lowering performing plants were shut down by Philips, causing a division of two groups within the company, i.e. core and non-core. In order to rectify the situation, Philips tried to purchase North American Philips Corp, a subsidiary. In the beginning, this was a success. However, profligacy of company resources caused the R&D budget to be reduced by 50% which devastated the company. Products coming out of R&D were no longer good. The 90s saw even more budget reduction, which trickled down to R&D creating a lack of innovation and loss of revenue. If Philips had cut spending in other areas outside of R&D, the company could have been more competitive. This R&D reduction is due large and in part to the fact that the company was decentralized making it very hard to have corporate collaboration, even if by chance an innovative product was developed. Additionally, the changes that the various chairman in the Philips Company made were structural in nature and did not address the organizational process and culture which is at the root to an organizations success. Matsushita was on the opposite side of the spectrum. The organization now bequeathing more power to its overseas subsidiaries, but it didn’t work. The 80s brought about Matsushita’s â€Å"Operation Localization†, giving management in the local market the autonomy to elect which products they felt would do best in their area. Many of the headquarters changed location during this era as well. The 90s saw economic decline in the electronics industry in Japan, creating a vast amount of overhead. Since Matsushita did not have the choice of restricting, plants in Japan began to decline. To rectify this situation and increase sales, Matsushita alter their management style with one that has a little more of a laissez-faire overtone regarding foreign markets. That would help with their issues in innovation in those areas. What overall strategic recommendations would you make to Gerald Kleisterlee? To Eumio Ohtsubo? Gerald Kleisterlee should decentralize Philips as much as possible. The Headquarters in Holland should be relocated and to whichever market is the biggest. By doing this, Philips would be able to more efficiently service the consumer and do so faster. The company also needs to pull more resources to the R&D department. This would help Philips the opportunity to essentially have more innovative product line and to progress past the competition. Eumio Ohtsubo needs to revert back to tried and true methods. A centralized operation with strict control over overseas operation is best suited for Matsushita. Outsourcing R&D was a very good idea for the company and should continue to be explored. And having the ability to get products to the market quickly would enhance the progress of this company. Philips had a multi-domestic strategy. The flaw of this strategy was limited control over NOs and lack of organizational unity. Matsushita had a global strategy. The flaw of this strategy was that the control the company had on foreign operations stifled innovation. Both companies should move towards a transactional strategy. Doing so would overcome both the flaws of lack of  control over NOs and stifled innovation. Bibliography 1.Bartlett, Christopher A. â€Å"Philips versus Matsushita: The Competitive Battle Continues.† Harvard Business School Case 910-410, December 2009. 2.†Life, World, MBA and Universe!: Philips vs Matsushita.† Life, World, MBA and Universe!: Philips vs Matsushita. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013. 3.Tensa, Greg. â€Å"Phillips Vs Matsushita.† N.p., n.d. Web.

Sedimentary Rocks

Plate tectonics are responsible for many of Earth’s natural occurrences. From volcanoes to earthquakes plate tectonics play are large role. Another natural occurrence that is not is discussed as much as volcanoes and earthquakes is the formation of sedimentary rock. Plate tectonics also plays a major role in the formation of this type of rock. Plate tectonics is a term that is used to describe how the different plates that make up the Earth move and the reactions that occur as they are moving. Before explaining how plate tectonics are related the concept of sediments must be understood. Sediments are pieces of solid material are deposited on Earth’s surface by way of wind, water, ice, gravity or chemical precipitation. This occurs through weather and erosion (McClearly, 2005). As convergent plates move towards each other, one plate is subducted under the other plate and as this is occurring the plates are moving accumulated sediment and rocks with them. Divergent boundaries also have an effect on sedimentary rock. In divergent movement the plates are moving away from each other and the young sedimentary rock is pushed to the open boundary (Ryan, 2008). Sedimentary rock actually originates from the disposition of the sediments after they are moved by the movement of plates. The climate controls how sediments are moved and how the rock weather. After weathering and erosion has occurred the sediments stop moving and settle. Where they settle is known as their disposition. The origination of sedimentary work is a combination of natural processes that result in the disposition of sediment. The way the sediment is actually formed is a process known as Lithification. Lithification is physical and chemical processes which loose sediment is transformed into sedimentary rock. Lithification begins with compaction. The weight of sediments on top of other sediments forces the sediment grains closer together, which results in physical changes. The next process that occurs is through a chemical process known as cementation. Cementation occurs when mineral growth, in combination with high temperatures, cement sediment grains together into solid rock (McClearly, 2008). After sedimentary rock is formed then it is organized on the Earth’s surface. The pattern of organization is known as bedding. Bedding is the layered arrangement of strata in a group of sediment or sedimentary rock. Over time strata’s that are adjacent to each other may look different because the mineral composition of the sediments in a specific location may changes or the way the sediments are transported or deposited may be different. The bedding surface, which is the boundary between adjacent strata, is the indication that rock was once sediment. Once sediments have been formed they are classified into three different categories. The first is clastic sedimentary rock. These rocks are formed from the sediment and debris from weathering and erosion. There are four different types of clastic, conglomerate (gravel), sandstone (sand),siltstone (silt), and mudstone (mud) or shale. These four categories are characterized by the size of their particles. The next category of sedimentary rock is chemical sedimentary rock. These rocks are formed by precipitation of minerals dissolved in lakes, rivers or sea water. This precipitation can occur is two ways. The first is plants and animals living in water can alter the chemical balance of the water which has an effect on the sediments. The second way is the evaporation of fresh water because of warm dry climates, which leads to increased salinity, the salts become solid because they are not dissolving. The last category of sedimentary rock is biogenic sedimentary rock. These rocks are formed from sediments that are primarily composed of plant and animal remains. This can include the hard shells of animals as well as the bones and teeth. From plants this can include fragments of plant matter such as roots, wood and leaves (Murck, Skinner, Mackenzie, 2008). Since there are three categories of sedimentary rock differentiating in the three is important. One way to tell the difference in the rock is the physical characteristics or physical location. Clastic rock is in the form of gravel, sand, slit or mud, which are all easily recognizable. Chemical sedimentary rock will be located in areas with water such as seas and lakes, since the chemical process which creates these rocks are done inside of water. Biogenic sedimentary rock is easily recognizable because these rocks will have pieces of animal or plant matter in them. Fossils can be carved out of these types of sedimentary rock (McClearly, 2005). Sedimentary rock is one type of rock that is located all over the world. From mountains to oceans sedimentary rocks can be found. With the combination of plate tectonics, weather and erosion sedimentary rocks are formed. Clastic, chemical and biogenic rocks are all very different but together they make up the category of sedimentary rocks.