Captain Ahab and Moby Dick Essay -- essays research papers

Captain Ahab and Moby Dick: Literary critics point to a variety of themes and juxtapositions when analyzing Herman Melville's â€Å"Moby Dick†. Some see the land opposed to the sea or Fate opposed to free will. Most mention man versus nature or good versus evil. A perspective that seems overlooked though is the perspective of the self and the other. The self and other is when one discovers the other (something not us) within oneself, when one realizes that one is not a single being alien to anything that is not them. There are many such relationships throughout the book, such as that of Ishmael and Queequeg and Ahab and Starbuck. However, this paper will focus on the essential relationship, which is of Ahab and Moby-Dick. By recognizing the other within ourselves, we are saved from hating the other in itself. Captain Ahab struggled to see Moby-Dick within himself, in this began the book's main problem of the self and the other. Before I get to this problem lets track the character of Ahab’s development up to that point. Chapters early in the book describe Ahab as having lost his leg to Moby-Dick. This character development suggests that Ahab is the victim of an attack by a vicious animal. However, by chapter 36 â€Å"The Quarter Deck", Ahab is described as a man infatuated with destroying a great white whale, named Moby-Dick. By chapter 37 â€Å"Sunset", it is obvious that Ahab is mad and in chapter 44 â€Å"The Chart", the reader is made aware of Ahab's "monomaniac thought of his soul." He was so obsessed with Moby-Dick that he couldn’t sleep. Ahab must have had some cause for his feelings toward the whale. It seems that Ahab and many other sailors have been exposed to the story of Jonah, which may have established man and whale as enemies. Also, is chapter 54 â€Å"The Town-Ho's Story" Melville tells of an account of Moby-Dick's capabilities. In this story, Moby-Dick snatches Radney from his ship and takes him below the ocean’s surface. However, for some reason Ahab does not hear this story. Melville may be showing the reader that the whale can be violent, and by not allowing Ahab to hear this story he (or the reader) won’t be able to use this information as an excuse for Ahab’s madness. By telling only the reader of the Town Ho's story, both the characters of Ahab and Moby-Dick are developed further. The character of the whale is set up as a dan... ...k this way Ahab created himself. Just like a master and slave relationship the self and the other are linked. There can be no slave without a master and there can be no master without a slave. When a master defeats and creates a slave, the master creates a role as "master" for himself or herself as well. In Melville's book, Ahab played the role of hunter and Moby-Dick became the hunted. The self/other relationship can be far more complicated than what has been offered here. Many racists, sexists and those who cannot tolerate homosexuality do not always follow the standards. Ahab and Moby-Dick are a special case of the relationship, and they are one that deserves consideration. Once again when I say self/other I am referring to a type of linkage of two separate beings. It is when one (the self) discovers the other (something not us) within oneself, when one realizes that one is not a single being alien to anything that is not them. The main point of this paper is the main problem of the self and the other which is that Captain Ahab struggled to see Moby-Dick within himself. Since he could not see this he hated and became obsessed with Moby Dick and thus apart of himself.

Newell Company Corporate Strategy Essay

1. In assessing Newell Company’s corporate-level strategy and whether the company adds value to the businesses within its portfolio, it is necessary to identify its overarching strategy and then explain it with context to how it affects the various businesses within the larger corporate body. Newell Company’s main corporate-level strategy as defined by Dan Fergurson was â€Å"build on what we do best†. The company focused on growth through strategic acquisitions of firms that sold low cost and high volume products to large retailers, but that were underperforming due to high operating cost. After an acquisition, Newell would then change the existing operational systems of the firm to align it with its corporate structure. The aim was to increase operational efficiency and profitability and to focus it on a key product. In 1990, Newell also recognized the importance of internal growth and included it in its corporate-level strategy. Newell’s corporate-level strategy had a high level of positive impact because it was internally consistent. The corporate office maintained control over legal, administrative and financial functions while allowing individual divisions to control marketing, manufacturing and sales. It also retained strict control over each division’s product lines as it disallowed any deviation from the key product focus defined by Newell. This ensured that the decisions made by various divisions remained in line with the Newell corporate office strategies. Overarching company goals were also aligned with its business strategies and acquisitions, and this was beneficial for the various companies it acquired over time. One of Newell’s corporate strategies was selling products across different price points. This remained in accordance with its goal of being a provider of low cost and high volume goods to large retailers and helped to keep the company competitive against new entrants to the different price categories. This was advantageous to businesses under Newell as its respective product lines were able to retain important shelf space, ensuring better sales of products. Focused growth via streamlining strategic acquisitions was enabled by Newell’s appropriate use of available resources. One of Newell’s core competencies was its operational efficiency and its system of bringing acquired companies to its high standards of efficiency and profitability. Its success in the streamlining process can be seen from the rapidity with which changes were made and the results of the process. As stated in the case study,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Newellization† typically took â€Å"less than 6 months† to implement. After acquiring Anchor Hocking, the management from Newell achieved cost savings by letting go of unnecessary resources within the company such as its glass factory and its retail stores and introduced new systems which helped to bring about improved efficiency such as reducing its cust omer lead order period from â€Å"18 to 7 days†. While the businesses within Newell may have encountered issues due to the restrictions on innovative growth, they ultimately benefited from the focus on operational efficiency and cost savings resulting in higher operating margins. Newell’s corporate-level strategy was reasonably dynamic relative to the environment. While it maintained a strict focus on certain goals, the corporate strategy was also modified to include new ideas that would ensure sustainable growth. This can be seen from the case where Newell’s growth strategy was expanded to include the international market, widening their acquisition target field to include companies based overseas. This was due to the fact that Newell’s target market, retailers like Walmart, was expanding into foreign markets. In 1989, corporate management recognized the importance of internal growth within the respective divisions instead of simply focusing on each division generating higher levels of profit, and the growth of the company being driven by acquisitions. They reflected this change in attitude by changing the corporate bonus structure to encourage executives to pursue internal growth in addition to its existing goals. Newell’s corporate-level strategy was effective for many years as can be seen from the fact that it had higher returns to investors compared to the S&P 500. This was due to a number of factors such as maintaining internal consistency, efficient use of resources and keeping corporate strategy dynamic relative to the changing environment. Businesses acquired were in synergy and this was beneficial to individual businesses in ensuring less wastage and improved levels of service and efficacy. In addition, businesses were also able to take advantage of Newell’s economies of scale and economies of scope. However, despite its positive financial returns, as financial returns are indicative of past policies being effective, it would not be symptomatic of future success. Newell’s strict enforcement of focus on key product lines without allowing for more innovative expansion of those product lines could lead to much slower levels of growth after initial operational synergie s were realized.  This would in turn be detrimental in maintaining its competitive advantage in the long run. 4. While the acquisition of Calphalon could pose some problems in the integration process, it was aligned to Newell’s overall corporate strategy and would be beneficial to Newell in the long run if Calphalon was incorporated without eroding its premium product offering. Calphalon’s acquisition was beneficial to Newell in two ways. It allowed Newell to branch out into new markets that had not reached saturation without cannibalizing its existing product lines. While Newell focused on mass market retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot, Calphalon’s products were sold to high end retailers such as Williams Sonoma and Macy’s. Calphalon’s product offering and strong brand recognition would enable Newell to reach out to the premium market and diversify its product portfolio further. At the same time, Newell’s strong focus on customer relationships and Calphalon’s attitude of building partnerships with its retailers are similar and would eas e its assimilation into the firm. Calphalon’s pull strategies could also be leveraged by Newell to differentiate its product portfolio from other low cost competitors, enabling it to maintain its existing market share. Newell’s core competencies would be useful in reducing Calphalon’s rising costs while concentrating on its strength as a premium product. As can be seen from the financial statements, cost of goods sold increased significantly from 1996 to 1997 without a correspondingly large increase in revenue. The problems faced by Calphalon in terms of operations would be easily manageable for Newell given its strong background in operational efficiency and its experience with assimilating acquisitions to its corporate system. However, as Newell’s product offerings were primarily utilitarian while Calphalon’s products focused on an emotional connection between the product and the premium end user, Calphalon’s integration into Newell would be more delicate than other acquisi tions. As the â€Å"Newellization† process typically removes the acquired company’s systems to replace it with Newell’s system, its stringency could erode Calphalon’s brand equity as a premium cookware producer. While this would be difficult, it would still make sense in the long run given the potential benefits to Newell and the relatively low amount of risk present in the acquisition.  The acquisition of Rubbermaid would seem beneficial given the numerous advantages that Newell would gain, but the many complications associated with the process as well as the fundamental differences between Newell and Rubbermaid make the acquisition too risky to undertake, and thus strategically unsound. The advantages associated with the Rubbermaid acquisition are obvious. Rubbermaid fit into Newell’s criteria for acquisition. It sold targeted product lines to mass retailers, and had strong brand equity. It also suffered from troubled operations, which â€Å"Newelliza tion† would help to address. In addition, the purchase of Rubbermaid would enable Newell to â€Å"cross the $10 billion threshold† that would in turn lead to an increase in market power against retailers like Walmart who implemented harsh policies which were nonnegotiable. However, these advantages are offset by a number of issues. Newell and Rubbermaid, while pursuing the same product offerings, had fundamentally different bases for competitive advantages. While Newell focused on operational efficiency, Rubbermaid was known for its product innovation. This would mean that the processes that helped to streamline Newell-led companies would probably lead to the erosion Rubbermaid’s core competencies. At the time of the acquisition, Rubbermaid was only slightly smaller than Newell. The integration process would be more complicated and difficult due to the fact that Rubbermaid had many different product lines, all of which would have to changed to fit Newell’s corporate system. At the same time, Rubbermaid’s large size would mean that it would be more challenging for Newell to change corporate strategy without alienating the existing workforce. Both of the factors above combined would mean that in order to pursue the acquisition and realize all the benefits associated with it, it would be necessary for Newell to change its corporate strategy to address the differences between Newell and Rubbermaid. However, this was not mentioned in the case study. Thus, without implementing a large-scale change in Newell, it would be difficult to merge both companies to create synergy and value for the overall firm. The difficulties in integration, the high risks associated with the integration, and the lack of change in Newell’s corporate strategies translate to an illogical acquisition by Newell.

Strategic performance management makes connection between strategy and culture of organization - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 11 Words: 3240 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Cause and effect essay Did you like this example? Introduction Abemarle and Bond, a renowned pawn-broking firm in England is targeting toward expansion. With a figure like 1,100 shops, the boss does not seem to be looking at it with great hopes. Barry Stevenson strongly feels that there is definitely room for expansion. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Strategic performance management makes connection between strategy and culture of organization" essay for you Create order He affirms that there should be 3,000 pawnbrokers on high streets. With the strategy in mind, the firm is looking forward to open 25 stores this year in cities like Liverpool, Manchester, London as well as in other big cities thereby adding to the 139 it already has as goal. Above mentioned goals do need Strategic Performance Management. Strategic performance management is aligning company strategy to team and individual goals and rewards, and ensuring the whole organisation is pulling together in the right direction. Strategic performance management makes the connection between the hard the business goals, the strategy and the soft employee motivation and culture of performance management. It links the strategy and the culture of an organization and managers ability to improve employees performance. Strategic performance management makes the connection between the strategy and culture of an organization and its ability to manage employees performance to better impact on business performance. Is it Really Important? What happens at the organizations frontline is often not what the CEO intended when setting the business strategy.   This is because communications from the top are not always clearly understood further down the line, leading to a mismatch between corporate strategy and how it is translated into targets at a team or individual level. Employees want to do the right thing, but they can only do so if they know what the right things are and receive regular feedback about their work, and if their rewards are aligned and understand the impact on delivering the business strategy. By successfully connecting these three elements: people, strategy and culture, CEOs can improve their business results, enhance employee productivity and increase the likelihood of achieving their business objectives. In short, if the hard (the business goals and strategy) and the soft (employee motivation and culture) are not in harmony, results suffer.   Yet by implementing strategic performance management the connection between the hard and the soft can be made. The missing link is the strategic performance management model.   Executives must ask how they actually want to manage performance.   Long-term growth or short-term gains?   What targets must be met and by when? And how do you want managers and employees to work to achieve them? In fact, be it a business project or even a social work project, development of strategies and learning the trick of management forms a vital part in todays work culture. Looking at Abemarle and Bond, the same ideology can be vividly seen. The firm is following the strategy of expansion thereby, improve its business prospects. Bill is an integral part of the HR team at the company he is working with. In order to improve the quality of performance, the HR team is working on revising certain strategies. Revising on employees performance in the form of annual reports, maintaining latest updates through newsletters and news release have started shaping the HRD of the company, thereby influencing the progress of the company. Blue Flamingo, one of the leading retail stores has also started revising their business strategies. Focusing on customer needs, they are rethinking about the various departments in their store. In addition, they are also extending their services. For example, they are introducing online shopping facilities too. Responding to consumer needs and catering to them has been the most important motive for the retail store. Keeping the public demand in mind, the retail store has done a total renovation of the store, and also added to the services. Taking the shoppers drive into consideration, the store has included those items which are high in demand, in the online store facilities. With the growing awareness of globalization, industrialization as well as technologies, developing strategies and following them has been an integral part of work culture in the modern age. Requirements Strategic Performance Management is a dynamic process that requires information sharing, coordination and effective control and feedback mechanisms throughout the hierarchy of strategies and objectives to enable the organization to make its strategy work. Initiatives Strategic initiatives comprises any number of portfolios, programs and projects. Again note that strategic alignment is necessary among portfolios, programs and projects and that performance information feeds the decision-making process regarding which projects make up the programs and portfolios. Project strategy and objectives must be logically linked to the Strategic Performance Management framework and need to be taken into account when determining the capability of the organization during strategy formulation. Build Your Strategies A major share of an individuals daily schedule is of course devoted to office. Irrespective of whether you have your own business or associated with a typical 9-5 job or even if you are the Vice President of your organization, you have to accept the fact that a lions share of your day would be pre-occupied by your workplace. Sometimes, the higher rank you go to the more time you have to devote to your work. Besides, there are other factors to consider too. If you are in a leadership role, then its not just time that you have to consider. There are also other factors to take into account. You will have to shoulder more than one responsibility. Its not just the quality of work and the time you devote toward work that will determine your progress at workplace. Rather, you will be held responsible for other aspects like managing the team you are working with. In a way, you might also be playing the role of a psychologist. In fact, you would be working with an entire team, whereas your te am members would be performing on an individual basis. So, it is very important that you keep both your eyes and ears wide open to your team in respect to the members. To be more explicit, you would have to be responsive to their performance and at the same time assess each individuals performance separately. In order to ensure quality, you might also have to address their needs and certain issues they might feel necessary to raise. The truth is, since you would be spending almost half the day with your workplace, where the team members form a major part, you would have to be very thoughtful. It is this thoughtfulness that helps create a better workplace and eventually affect the progress of the organization to a great extent. The sky is the limit for people aiming to achieve success. In order to be successful, strategy is the word. The well-known story revolving around the hare and the tortoise might spread a message here. In other words, you have to be slow but steady in designing your strategies. Looking at the corporate sector, it can be seen that there are many companies which have reached to a significant level. However, looking at their history and source it can be seen that they have developed from a very grass-root level. Taking Mr. Bean for example, it has reached to a status of fully fledged brand from a mere TV program (www.bized.co.uk). An extensive mind process as well as professionalism has been the basic tools behind the prosperity of Mr. Bean. Mentioning worthwhile, it has been complex as well as demanded constant mind-work. Rowan Atkinson has been behind all the decision-making process. However, there are two other people who have influenced the decision-making process of Rowan Atkinson. Peter Bennett Jones, the Chairman of Tiger Aspect Productions, the company that is behind the production of the programs, and Katherine Senior, the Executive Producer are the two people who have influenced the decision-making process of the entire work-process. It is not just managing the program that is involved with the work. Rather, there are other duties and responsibilities too which are involved and eventually affect the reputation and growth of the company. In case of Mr. Bean also, the same rule applies. The responsibilities related to selling the program and merchandising and licensing rights to other businesses also have played a major role in shaping the company thereby elevating the level of Mr. Bean from a television program to a renowned brand. In order to develop a comprehensive idea and knowledge of what strategy they exactly follow, it would be helpful to look into what strategy they exactly follow. The producer of a program will go to a TV company, and then he is a ssigned with the responsibility of getting the program broadcasted. Now the deal works between the broadcaster and the producer. The two people associated with the entire project negotiate with the money required for the rights to show the program. The next factor comes with the audience and keeping their needs in mind. For the media world, the audience plays a major role which eventually determines the growth and development of a program. In other words, audience should form a significant part of the strategy. Mr. Bean has also followed the same strategy with keeping the audience in mind with special emphasis on the type of audience and their needs, as well as the effect it has on the market. The philosophy of responding to clients or the targeted audience and catering to their needs has also been an influential factor for some other organizations and companies. Larry Burton, President of Strang, a well known company, admits that it is not difficult to address to the clients and it is also essential to keep their needs in mind (https://www.strang-inc.com/mailing/2001/10_01.pdf). In fact, Burton has also accepted the responsibility of listening to the clients and addressing to the needs as a culture of the entire firm. Some Basic Key Points After a deep analysis of the importance of strategies, it would be helpful to take a close observation into what is the thumb rule for building and developing strategies. To speak from a laymans point of view, be it at the home front or at workplace, following strategies do bring a great change. After all, performance is the word that exists at every sphere of life. Even a student also would be assessed according to his performance in academics at the end of the year. To speak candidly, even if a student has substantial knowledge on a particular subject, yet his intelligence would be determined by the score obtained by him at the end of his academic year. Once again, if he follows a strategically designed method of study, he is certain to obtain the required score. Following strategies is essential to everyone. To speak of workplace, if one is in a leadership role working with a team of say 20 members, then he would have to consider various factors. First and foremost, human-being is not a machine. Just as one needs a healthy environment at the home front, so would he want to have a comfortable ambience in workplace too. The location of an organization definitely matters as also suggested by an online article (https://www.strang-inc.com/mailing/2001/10_01.pdf). The location of the company forms the physical environment which again determines the work performance and the quality of work. Keeping a balance of the two cs, concentration and collaboration, the physical environment should be planned. The next two primary factors included in the physical environment are mobility and flexibility. Primary Factors Primary Factors Other Factors Other Factors Flexibility (It is related to location and hence falls under the category of physical environment) Mobility (It is also related to location, and is a part of physical environment) Concentration (Although it is not exactly under physical environment, yet it influences and determines the physical environment) Collaboration (This factor is also not exactly under physical environment, but again influences the physical environment) Following these four basic factors, should the management team and the organization team plan for an office. In simple words, if a company is located in a place which does not provide flexibility or mobility, then it would be really difficult. A location at an outdated inflexible place might invite unwanted circumstances, which would eventually prevent the facility layout to carry on with the work process. This would also disturb the concentration which is the most significant part of any project. Team members would not be able to focus on work, thereby bring harmful circumstances to the progress of the company. Starting from Financing to Annual Reports Its All about Strategies Following strategies is helpful. However, it might demand you to be more deliberate and require a higher level of organization and management skills. Jurgen Daum, the Director of Program Management for mySap Financials, and a former CFO himself, affirms that its not just materials that play a role when it comes to something like supply chain management. Its also the cash flow, which should be taken into account. The flow of cash can be in any form even including payments. A huge working capital would definitely include billing, payment, collection and settlement processes as well as financial transactions. Even other areas like borrowing money from the bank would also be a major part of managing the financial part of the organization. Once again, the team as well as people in the lead roles who are also associated with the organization, should design well though out plans to manage this part which might be the be all and end all of an organization. It can not be denied that the evolu tion of technologies has brought an immense change in organizations with special regard to management. Machines hand in hand with technology have already started shouldering responsibilities on a great scale. Most of the organizations now prefer to rely on devices like computers and e-pads and also other useful machines in order to store and manage their database. Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) deserves special mention in this regard. Through this specially designed e-finance solution, the overhead associated with issuing invoices has been reduced to a significant lower level like 70%. Interestingly, records show that many large companies have been able to save millions of dollars annually. As goes a popular saying, There is always room for improvement, building up strategies and observing them religiously would always end up in landing you up in unknown truths. Such instances are not common when you work real hard, yet do not always get the desired result. The trick lies not in how hard you are working. Rather, its all about how strategically you are managing your work. A leadership role like that of a Vice-President or a CEO would definitely require you to focus on a wide variety of responsibilities. Professionalism to start with, you would also be heading an entire team which definitely calls for effective strategies. Among other factors, you should definitely consider maintaining annual reports, newsletters, organizing developmental opportunities for employees like professional workshops, time management, and last but not the least addressing employees needs and issues they might want to discuss with you. Sometimes an issue like setting up lights might also play a s ignificant role in the workplace. The team leader should always be responsive to these needs, which form a major part of strategically designed method of working. Integration Weve all challenged ourselves at some point in our lives, whether it was a 5K run, a weight loss program, a school project, and so on. The first thing we did when we decided to accept the challenge was to set personal goals. Those goals may have been to run the 5K in 20 minutes or to lose 20 pounds in 3 months, or to get an A on that project. Next, we developed a plan to reach those goals within the desired time frame. Lastly, we executed the plan. Now, if were really goal oriented, we set milestones and were constantly comparing our personal progress in relation to where we were in our plan. The same way we (hopefully) reached those goals is the same way an organization should integrate their strategic plan into a performance program. In the example above, integrating the plan into performance plan takes place during the goal setting phase, when we are deciding what we wanted to accomplish and how we would go to get there. This methodology takes us from developing objectives, to developing a plan, to integrating strategy into the performance management system. Below are 9 steps that will help ensure that organizational strategy is integrated with performance plan. Develop Mission, Vision and Core Value Statements Develop a Strategic Planning Process and Identify Organizational Objectives Conduct Stakeholder Identification Analysis and SWOT/SWOC Analysis Perform Gap Analysis Align Key Processes, Projects, Systems, Workforce and Budget to Strategic Goals Integrate Strategic Plan into Performance Management System Integrate the Strategic Plan to Results-Based Budgeting System Integrate Strategic Plan to Workforce Planning System Integrate All Activities Into a Performance Management System These are the high level steps to integrating corporate strategy into the performance management planning process. Acknowledgement When we claim value, we create value a win/win for the organization.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   There is great power in a group that notices its potential together and is committed to each others success.   When members of a team discover their sense of purpose, you dont have to ask them to do something; they call you to tell you what theyve done.   Goals are fueled by purpose.   In our work we use processes that invite team members to be conscious and present in each moment so that they can deal positively with difficult issues and work beyond them to form lasting and active partnerships, generating a culture of acknowledgement.   Lets take a look at what the Leader put into practice: She noticed how hard people were working She kept the vision in mind and took time to reflect on where it was aligned She led from a sense of purpose and shared that with others She was strategically encouraging, appreciative, and human in all interactions Benefits of creating an organizational culture of acknowledgement and achievement, ask?   A culture of acknowledgement notice an increased capacity for performance, a trust in collaboration, a consistent stream of referrals, a relaxation around each other, becoming ambassadors for their work places, and actively feed off of each others creativity and success.   Indeed, clients who have taken this philosophy home report an increase in harmony in their families.   Teams who are acknowledgement and achievement based choose to collaborate with potential rather than collude with issues.   Their performance management techniques turn to coaching a team approach, rather than being punitive.   They look for and acknowledge the behaviour they want and any need to regulate behaviour decreases.   Their staff becomes achievement oriented. Notice what someone is doing right and do it strategically with desired performance in mind.   A typical good job can work well now and again, however giving specific praise that cultivates desired behaviour is more beneficial. Use the followings: The professional tone of your email invites the professional in all. You followed your instincts to cut in and be in the right place to catch the pass. Having that report to me earlier allowed me to add my piece earlier and wow the client. You organized our meeting in a way that the whole team engaged easily. You asked the perfect extra questions in the interview process to reveal the perfect V.P.