Totalitarian Governments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Totalitarian Governments - Essay Example Totalitarianism is an "extreme form of oppressive government with limitless power that uses ruthless force to exert absolute control over all individuals within a society (Orwell 1)." Totalitarian government comes in many forms. However, these commonly come under pretext ideologies like "internal or external enmity, national security, mass fear and common good objective (Orwell 1)." The totalitarian government in Russia before the World War II can be characterized as a communist government which took root from Marxist Socialism. Before the formation of the Soviet Union, the region was dominated by monarchist forces. However, the dissatisfaction and discontent from monarchist government ensued to civil war. The Bolsheviks who were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin demanded a highly disciplined, centralized, and dedicated revolutionary elite rather than a mass party. Thus, the Bolsheviks had a long and bloody fight with the monarchist forces and became known as the Communist Party. This commenced the arrival of communism in Russia. The basic ideology behind communism was the establishment of a classless, stateless, and social organization which is based upon the common ownership of the means of production. This new ideology governing Russia before the World War II gave rise to new policies especially economic reforms.

Relationship Between Firm Resources And Performance Commerce Essay

Relationship Between Firm Resources And Performance Commerce Essay Many researchers have point out that the relationship between firms resources and performance are always the crucial area of interest in strategic management (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993; Wernerfelt, 1984). Resource-based view (RBV) highlights the internal environment of the firm in crafting strategy to accomplish a sustainable competitive advantage in it. Consequently, RBV can be consider as the best strategy route in the development of a firms strategy. However, the relationship among strategic resource and firm performance may be quite complex and need to be examine, there is also many different factors that can influence the relationship. In fact, there is no one best strategy that will suits all situation for a firm. Moreover, RBV also been compared to others strategy development methods like Porters industry analysis. Based on this assignment, we will be focus on the contention that RBV analysis has a strong relationship with firms performance especially in achieving a sustaina ble competitive advantage for certain industry only. Resource in RBV can be defined in an extremely board way. For instance, Wernerfelt (1984) comprises all strengths and weaknesses of a firm. Concepts like dynamic capabilities (Barney et al, 2001), entrepreneurship (Alvarez and Busenitz, 2001) and management (Barney, 1994; Mahoney, 1995) are usually regarded as strategic resources. Similarly, RBV also has been defined as stocks of available factors that are owned and controlled by the firm, these factors can be classified into physical, reputational, organizational, financial, human intellectual and technological, which are transformed into final products or services efficiently and effectively (Amit and Schoemaker, 1993; Capron and Hulland, 1999). As we know, resources are exploited by people, not by themselves. Human beings have differ considerably concerning to the sorts of skills they have, also their degree of skilfulness and their intelligence to view opportunities (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). According to Brown et al. (2001), in order to develop entrepreneurial performance within the firm, managers must inspire the coordination of key resources, allow flexibility, encourage members to search for opportunity and rewarding them for pursuing new opportunities in order for it to prosperous. Besides, RBV assists management to create a culture where there is valid and value for new knowledge by encouraging the perplex process of recombining existing knowledge with new knowledge (Prahalad, 1998; Shih-Wei, 2005; Montalvo, 2006). RBV can be treat as the best strategy route in the development of a firm strategy, because RBV analyze and explain resources of the firms to grasp how organizations accomplish sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, RBV centralize on the concept of hardly to imitate attributes as sources of higher performance and competitive advantage for the organization (Barney, 1986; Hamel and Prahalad, 1996). In the same manner, resources are hardly to be transferred and acquired, that need a lengthen learning curve or a major modify in the organization climate and culture, hence more difficult to duplicate by rivals because of a range of isolating mechanisms and very likely to be unique to the organization (Rumelt, 1984; Mahoney and Pandian, 1992; Peteraf, 1993; Hoopes et al., 2003). Based on Conner (1991), performance variation between organizations depends on its possession of unique inputs and capabilities. For example, Honda following RBV strategy, built its company strategy around t he firms strength, capability and expertise in building petrol based engines, at last the company utilize it unique resource and capabilities to build a world class petrol based engines and became the largest engine manufacturer in the world. Firm must possess valuable resources in order to build resource-based advantages. For the purpose to outperform with competitors, many RBV researchers assert that organizations must exploit the resources that they possess. An organizations succeed or fail in the marketplace is depend on the particular perspective on an inside-out view of firm from RBV (Dicksen, 1996). According to Barney (1986) valuable resource must enable a firm to function and behave in ways that lead to high sales, low costs, high margins, or in others ways add financial value to the firm. A firms ability to innovate successful is also a factor of unique capability which is sustainable and appropriable. For example, an innovative products such as Apples iTunes and iPod. The companys first class innovation in product design and practicality is proving not an easily act for rivals to copy. Apple avoid to sit back complacently, although the company maintain at the front position of the digital media with its iPod an d iTunes online stores. In 2007, Apple introduce of its iPhone and entered into the mobile phone market, this continuous innovation and product creation keeps rivals such as Sony, Samsung guessing about what products Apple will bring out in the future and provides a factor of outperform as rivals struggle to substitute their achievement. In other words, strategic resources are also concerns on non-monetary factors such as knowledge based, human resource management activities on their customer service department to result in a competitive advantage. . To obtain a competitive advantages over the others is easy, however to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage is rather hard. Way to maintain sustainable competitive advantages for sustained superior performance, firms must be unique and core competencies and resources that are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable (Barney, 1991) as well as visualize of value-creating ways to exploit them. Intangible resources such as intellectual, technological resources are more appropriate than tangible resources which are human, financial resources to generate competitive advantage (Hitt, Bierman, Shimizu and Kochhar, 2001). Particularly, intangible resources like knowledge allow firms to add up value to incoming sources of production (Hitt et al., 2001). It indicates firms achieve competitive advantage (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990; Collis and Montgomery,1995; Post,1997; Markides,1997; Bogner,Thomas and McGee,1999). Such resource is built over time and difficult to be imita ted and is valuable. For instance, Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda all compete in the same environment, yet Tesco is a superior performer. It is not the environment that distinguishes between them but their internal strategic capabilities. It is difficult for one organization to obtain or copy the capabilities of another. Like Sainsburys cannot readily obtain the whole Tescos retail sites its management or its experience. As a result, Tesco is achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. On the other hand, firm must develop one or two value creating activities to some extent that creates more general value than rivals do to attain competitive advantage. Porter (1985) point out two generic strategy, the first is lower cost strategy, to reduce activity cost by lowering the cost of the inputs than rivals, while retaining average quality and prices. Secondly is differentiation, to induce customers willingness to pay an above-average price, including value of the ancillary service or the im age of the product. Managers who carrying a general knowledge of their rivals activity sets can apply this information to analyze their position relative to its rivals (Ghemawat, 2006; Porter, 1985, 1991). Besides, Porter (1985) also identified the value chain framework to help managers in understanding, enhancing and executing a lower costs or differentiation strategy. The value chain can be defined as a general activity model that is used to decompose the firm into the single activities it manages to form value for the consumer. In conclusion, both activity-based and RBVs complement each other and share an objective of discovering and exploiting factors that lead to higher competitive performance Even though the RBVs principle for a firm is to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage by exploiting valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources is instinctive and theoretically satisfying, it is essential to recognize that value, rare, inimitability and non-substitutable are not completely invariables. In fact, facing of radical, volatile changes in the environment, value, rare, inimitability and non-substitutability are very considerably over time. In other words, RBV state have their fall like in the valuable attribute, the need for planning and investment to develop such resources are external factors, which means the RBV may overstate the profitability of firms by exploiting these resources, because the cost of acquisition and accumulation had been avoided. As a result, it is difficult for the RBV to tell why firms invest in such a valuable resource instead of in other type of resources. Moreover, if the organizations want to increase their profit from the re sources they possess, they have to think over the demand side attributes that effect on the final price of the product. Furthermore, in the concept of rareness resource, it does not essentially attain the competitive advantage of the firm, in spite of the resource produce a great rent due to its relative shortage. Rents can be defined as the prices of services yielded by resources (Lewin and Phelan, 2002). Regardless of the rents are rare or not, in this stage rent is nothing more than the rental price of the service of the resource. There are no any profit has been earn to the firm, after paying remuneration to all the factors of production (Demsetz, 1973; Barney, 1986a; Rumelt, 1987). However, the firm may grasps some part of the rent from the possessor of resources, if the firm is gaining any profit left from the resource. Member or staff who have capabilities such as knowledge based will have benefits of bargaining power, hence being able to appropriate extra rent. Barney (1991) point out that the strategic resource possess rareness, inimitable and non-substitutable criteria may be independent of the firm, but when the belief of the heterogeneous distribution of resources is taken into account it is not easily to visualize that the resource given by the value is similar for all firms. For instance, intangible resources such as innovative capability or diverse production capabilities have been recognized as essential strategic resources and are extremely dependent of other resources in order to act properly. On the other hand, some resources might prevent firms from operating higher performance. For example, a Formula One engineer might be a key resource for a sports car manufacturer due to his ability to built high-performance engines, while car companies with key resources in the aspects of an image for safety or high environmental standards might not be suitable to gain advantage from possessing such capabilities. These examples result the complication o f resource interactions (Smith et al., 1996) and also the value of resource is different among companies. Conclusion According to Barney (1991), Mahoney and Pandian (1992), Porter (1991), they agree that both internal and external factors must be taken into account when analyzing firm performance. For example, if a firm is able to acquire a key resource, it often require a diversification in the product market (Anderse ´n, 2007a). The result of such a diversification is to a great extent dependent on the organizations prior market experience or market that relevant to existing product lines (Pehrsson, 2004). In consequence, if a firm is not able to use its product effectively in the appropriate product market, the product will not benefit from these resources even though the company possess with superior production skills and great valuation. Therefore, firms can actually fail to attain higher performance while posses several strategic resources, if the marketing capability are poor. In conclusion, both internal and external environment are complement to each other in achieving a sustainable comp etitive advantage for a firm. (1863 words) Bibliography List Andersen, J. (2011) Strategic resources and firm performance Management Decision Journal. 49, 87-98. Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (ed.) (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. 8th ed. London: Prentice Hall. Newbert, S. L.,Gopalakrishnan, S., Kirchhoff, B. A. (2008) Looking beyond resources: Exploring the importance of entrepreneurship to firm-level competitive advantage in technologically intensive industries Technovation Journal. 28, 6-19. Oup.com (2011) The Internal Environment: A resource-Based View of Strategy http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199288304/henry_ch05.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. tamanpowell.com (2007) Resource Based View Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Strategic Management. http://tamanpowell.com/Writing/assets/Resource%20Based%20View.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. skynet.ie (2001) The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation http://www.skynet.ie/~karen/Articles/Grant1_NB.pdf [accessed 24 April 2011]. Halawi, L. A., Aronson, J. E. and McCarthy, R. V. (2005) Resource-Based View of Knowledge Management for Competitive Advantage The Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management. 3 (2)75-86. www.ejkm.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=55 [accessed 24 April 2011]. Madhani. P (2009) Resource based view (RBV) of Competitive Advantages: Importance, Issues and Implications Indian Management Research Journal. 1 (2)2-12. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1504379 [accessed 26 April 2011]. Tokuda Akio (2005) The Critical Assessment of the Resource-Based View of Strategic Management: The Source of Heterogeneity of the Firm Ritsumeikan International Affairs. 3, 125-150 http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/ras/04_publications/ria_en/03_8.pdf [accessed 27 April 2011]. Pertusa-Ortega, E. M., Molina-Azorin, J. F. and Claver-Cortes, E. (2010) Competitive Strategy, structure and firm performance: A comparison of the resource-based view and the contingency approach Management Decision Journal. 48, 1282-1303. Sheehan, N. T. and Foss, N. J. (2007) Section 4. Hierarchical Strategies and The Resource-Based View: Enhancing the prescriptiveness of the resource-based view through Porterian activity analysis Management Decision Journal. 45, 450-461. quickmba.com (2010) Competitive Advantage Strategic Management. http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/ [accessed 30 April 2011].

Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt Essay -- Papers History Compare Contra

Comparing Mesopotamia and Egypt Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery. Mesopotamian society was stratified into classes and social differences. It was composed of nobles, free clients of the nobility, commoners and slaves. Slave women participated in the textile industry. Free women did exist, however, men dominated the women in Mesopotamia. The nobles consisted of the king, his family, the chief priests, and high palace officials. The king was a war leader elected by the citizens. He established an army and led it into battle. Kingship was hereditary. Commoners were free citizens. The school system of the Sumerians set the educational standards for Mesopotamia culture and other cultures to follow. Their studies included mathematics, botany and linguistics. Some students tha... ...rule of Amenemhet. He was responsible for rebuilding democracy, staff of scribes and administrations. He used propaganda literature to reinforce his position as king. The Egyptians pictured him as a good shepherd opposed to inaccessible god. Ammon was given prominise over other gods. His kingdom became extremely powerful. He established trades with foreign land and formed a standing Army and built forts on the southern frontier. The Second Intermediate Period lasted 150 years. Hyksos from Palestine invaded it. The New Kingdom begins when Hyksos are driven out of Palestine. The New Kingdom was the 18th Dynasty. Ahmose I take over. He reunified the country. Women played in an important role in the New Kingdom. Hatshepsut was a powerful female. She was the wife of Thutmose II and mother of Thutmose III. The wars were fought in horse drawn carriages.

Negotiation Strategy Analysis: Vendor Negotiations

Most businesses incorporate strong negotiation skills, especially within the purchasing department. A company must be able to negotiate with vendors to ensure they receive the best price available on items both used and consumed by the business; this also includes hardware and software considerations. Regardless of the industry, building vendor relationships are necessary. The writer will look at vendor negotiations from two different perspectives with one common goal; negotiate the best contract for all parties. The writer will then compare and contrast the different negotiation strategies as they apply to the oil and gas industry. Vendor Negotiation Process The first article is about Mark Carbrey; Chief Information Officer (CIO) for a Massachusetts-based automotive service organization. His negotiation strategies allow up and coming team members to gain valuable experience with the negotiation process (Overby, 2010). He teaches his team to treat the vendors like a partner. He also teaches them to sort out what is important for the business, and to fact check with contacts that have similar contracts to ensure a fair market price from the vendor. Carbrey also stresses the importance of acquiring the support from the board of directors down (Overby, 2010). The second article takes a slightly different approach to vendor negotiations than the first article. Joe Auer, Founder, and president of International Computer Negotiations (ICN), has over 35 years experience helping technology users do better and safer deals with vendors (ICN, 2011). Auer believes that attitude toward contract negotiation is one of the most important issues the negotiator faces. Auer's article is a bulleted list of the â€Å"best practices† a negotiator should adhere to during the negotiation process. He uses the analogy of a pilot with 20 years experience still uses a checklist before take-off. So too should a negotiator. He reminds the negotiator that a supplier often places untimely stress on himself by telling his boss, â€Å"the deal is done† before he has confirmation from the negotiator. Negotiators must use this to their advantage. He also shows that wording is subjective such as using the word preferred instead of needed. Auer states the negotiation process begins the first time information transfers to a potential vendor. He also states the negotiator gains or loses power with every succeeding transaction (Auer, 2011). Application to Work Environment The oil and gas industry is very competitive. Entry into the market is easy but sustainability is difficult. The organization plagued by many of the same issues in information technology that most industries face. Using negotiating strategies is crucial to ensuring the best contract is both functional and valuable. The first article gave sound advice for setting the groundwork of negotiation strategy but did not explain the common pitfalls inexperienced negotiators face. The second article gave a clear checklist that a negotiator can refer to at any point during the negotiation process. Conclusion Negotiation skills are a necessary part of today's highly competitive marketplace. Building vendor relationships through the negotiation process is a delicate process. Although there is no one way to negotiate the best contract, one can incorporate the expertise of those with experience to develop the skills necessary to negotiate a fair market price with terms that meet the expectations of both parties. The two articles featured in this paper show very different perspectives with one common goal; to educate the reader with tools used in past negotiations. Reference http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/30/urnidgns002570f3005978d8852576ba00729ce-idUS345057569120100130?pageNumber=2

Term Paper on Imc Analysis of Robi

Term Paper[pic] on IMC Analysis of Robi April 26, 2010 Principal of IMC Analysis on Advertisement Principal of Marketing(MKT-101) Prepare For: Kashfia Ahamed Lecturer Department of Business Administration Prepared By: Faqurel Hasan 2009-1-10-299 Arifur Rahman Khan. 2009-1-10-145 Sifat Ahsan 2009-1-10-062 Md. Shariful Islam 2009-1-10-154 Fayaz 2009-1-10-150 Letter of transmitter April 29,2010 Ms. Kashfia Ahamed Lecturer Department of Business Administration East West University 43,Mohakhali C/A,Dhaka-1212. Subject: Submission of report on IMC on Robi.Dear Madam, It is of great honor and delight to us to present you our term paper, prepared as a part of MKT 101 . When I do this job I feel me as a marketer it is a new experience to me and this paper will help me and also Robi. We are grateful to you for giving us the basic knowledge to prepare this kind of hard work. We wish we will get always support from you and you will also get development from us. On the behalf of the group Arifur Rahman Khan†¦.. 2009-1-10-145 Acknowledgement: Firstly we would like to give thank to almighty allah.We believe that behind every success there is some inspiration and cop-operation of some special person who never appear in the picture but always provide support to make this term paper. secondly I would like to thank Ms kashfia Ahmed for giving us endless support . We work this promotional project in 5 ways ? Magazine ? Billboard ? Newspaper ? Radio ? Television Executive summery : Robi was Aktel and this company was started there journey on 1997. This is a 40:60 joint venture company . Bangladeshi TM and Singaporean telecom was the owner of this company.This company serve telecom services around Bangladesh . There technology is from Germany and there Cards are from China. This company holds the 235 of its telecom market of Bangladesh. Communication process for TV Advertisement: [pic] 1. Sender: Here Robi is giving the massage that they are changed as Aktel to Robi. 2. Encodin g: Robi is advertising them as a newer in market with latest tec 3. Message:This add provide the message that as sun is powerful we are also powerful with our technology. 4. Media: In this case robi is selecting this as a right media to reach them. 5.Decoding:Target consumer of this service will see this tv add and understand about this message. 6. Recever: All urban class people are our targeted customer who will understand this message. 7. Response:Targeted customer will understand that what we want to say to them. 8. Feedback:Finally when they show there responses to us and purchase this product then we will get our result. 9. Noise:Consumer may distract while watching this tv add. Communication process for Newspaper Advertisement: [pic] 1. Sender: Here Robi is giving the massage that they are changed as Aktel to Robi. . Encoding: Robi is advertising them as a newer in market with latest tec 3. Message:This add provide the message that as sun is powerful we are also powerful with our technology. 4. Media: In this case robi is selecting this as a right media to reach them. 5. Decoding:Target consumer of this service will see this Newspaper add and understand about this message. 6. Recever: All urban class people are our targeted customer who will understand this message. 7. Response:Targeted customer will understand that what we want to say to them. 8.Feedback:Finally when they show there responses to us and purchase this product then we will get our result. 9. Noise:Consumer may distract while watching this Newspaper add. Communication process for Magazine Advertisement: [pic] 1. Sender: Here Robi is giving the massage that they are changed as Aktel to Robi. 2. Encoding: Robi is advertising them as a newer in market . 3. Message:This add provide the message that as sun is powerful we are also powerful with our technology. 4. Media: In this case robi is selecting this as a right media to reach them. 5.Decoding:Target consumer of this service will see this Ma gazine add and understand about this message. 6. Recever: All urban class people are our targeted customer who will understand this message. 7. Response:Targeted customer will understand that what we want to say to them. 8. Feedback:Finally when they show there responses to us and purchase this product then we will get our result. 9. Noise:Consumer may distract while watching this Magazine add. Communication process for Billboard Advertisement: [pic] 1. Sender: Here Robi is giving the massage that they are changed as Aktel to Robi. . Encoding: Robi is advertising them as a newer in market . 3. Message:This add provide the message that as sun is powerful we are also powerful with our technology. 4. Media: In this case robi is selecting this as a right media to reach them. 5. Decoding:Target consumer of this service will see this Billboard add and understand about this message. 6. Recever: All urban class people are our targeted customer who will understand this message. 7. Response:T argeted customer will understand that what we want to say to them. 8.Feedback:Finally when they show there responses to us and purchase this product then we will get our result. 9. Noise:Consumer may distract while watching this Billboard add. Communication process for Radio Advertisement: [pic] 1. Sender: Here Robi is giving the massage that they are changed as Aktel to Robi. 2. Encoding: Robi is advertising them as a newer in market . 3. Message:This add provide the message that as sun is powerful we are also powerful with our technology. 4. Media: In this case robi is selecting this as a right media to reach them. . Decoding:Target consumer of this service will see this Radio add and understand about this message. 6. Recever: All urban class people are our targeted customer who will understand this message. 7. Response:Targeted customer will understand that what we want to say to them. 8. Feedback:Finally when they show there responses to us and purchase this product then we will get our result. 9. Noise:Consumer may distract while watching this Radio add. References: 1. MKT101 (Kotler). 2. Robi web sight. 3. Newspaper . 4. Magezine.