Saturday, September 7, 2019
The strategic plans of Procter and Gamble Essay Example for Free
The strategic plans of Procter and Gamble Essay INTRODUCTION     This study is being undertaken in order to review the strategic plans of Procter and Gamble. The Human Resource activities of the company will be identified including their estimated costs and benefits. Also, the study will identify the strategic activities and how it match the strategic goals of the company.     Finally, this study will formulate recommendations on how the organization might better match its human resource activities with its strategic benefits. COMPANY BACKGROUND     Procter and Gamble Company is a U. S. based global corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It manufactures a wide range of consumer goods. The company is the 25th largest U.S. company by revenue in 2007. It is the 18th largest by profit, and 10th in Fortune’s most admired companies list as of 2007.     The company was founded by William Procter, a candle maker, and James Gamble, a soap maker in 1837. These two men were immigrants from England and Ireland respectively. The company grew tremendously and throughout the twentieth century, it continued to prosper. The firm expanded into other countries and introduced Tide laundry detergent in 1946 and â€Å"Prell†shampoo in 1950. In 1955, the company began selling its first toothpaste to contain fluoride which is known as â€Å"Crest†(Dyer et al., 2004).     Currently, the company is ranked in the top ten by the Harris Interactive/Wall Street Journal list of companies with the world’s best reputation, the number one ranking in Fortune’s U.S. Household and Personal Products most admired list. It is ranked number two on the Hay Group list of Best Companies for Leaders, and the Market Sector Leader for Household Products in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (PG Annual Report, 2007).     PG ranks among the top companies for Executive Women (National Association for Female Executives), African Americans (Working Mother and Women of Color Magazines), Working Mothers (Working Mother Magazine), and Best Corporate Citizens (Business Ethics Magazine) (Ibid).     Supplier diversity is a fundamental business strategy of the company. In 2007, the firm spent over $1.9 billion with minority-and women-owned businesses. It is a member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, a forum of 14 corporations that spend more than $1 billion annually with diverse suppliers (Ibid). Overview of Operations     The business of Procter and Gamble is focused on providing branded consumer goods. The company’s goal is to provide products of superior quality and value to improve the lives of consumers around the world. The company believes that this will result in leadership sales, profits and value creation, allowing employees, shareholders and the communities in which the company operate to prosper (Ibid).     The firm’s products are sold in more than 180 countries mainly through mass merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores and drug stores. It is continuing to expand their presence in â€Å"high frequency stores,†the neighborhood stores which serve many customers in developing markets. The firm on-the-ground operations in over 80 countries. The market is highly competitive, with global, regional and local competitors. In most markets and industry segments wherein the company is selling their products, it compete against other branded products as well as retailers’ private-label brands. In addition, many of the product segments in which it compete are differentiated by price. Essentially, Procter and Gamble compete with premium and mid-tier products and are well positioned in the industry segments and markets in which it operates. It is most often holding a leadership or significant share position (Ibid). Organizational Structure     Currently, the organizational structure of the company was comprised of three Global Operations Units (GBUs) and a Global Operations group. The Global Operations group includes the Market Development Organization (MDO) and Global Business Services (GBS). The heads of the three GBUs and Global Operations each would report to the Chief Executive Officer (Ibid). Global Business Units     During 2007, the three GBUs were Beauty and Health, Household Care and Gillette GBU. The main responsibility of the GBUs is to develop the overall strategy of the brands. They identify the common needs of the consumer, develop product innovations, marketing and sales. In the United States, the business units comprising the GBUs are integrated into seven segments: Beauty; Health Care; Fabric Care and Home Care; Snacks, Coffee, and Pet Care; Blades and Razors; and Duracell and Braun (Ibid). Growth and Strategies     Procter and Gamble’s sales have grown from $39 billion to $76 billion in the past seven years. The firm have more than doubled the number of brands that generate $1 billion or more in sales each year, and now have 23 of these leading billion-dollar brands in its portfolio. The company also have more than quadrupled the number of brands that generate at least $500 million in sales, and today have 18 of these brands poised to be the next billion-dollar brands. The firm have nearly doubled the number of countries in which it generates a billion dollars or more in sales each year, and now have 12 billion-dollar countries (Ibid).     Procter and Gamble (PG) have more than a billion dollars in sales each year with seven retail customers, up from two in 2001. PG have generated more than $43 billion in net earnings and $50 billion in free cash flow. PG’s  market capitalization has increased more than $100 billion since 2001. Currently, the company is among the ten most valuable companies in the United States (Ibid).     Procter and Gamble designed a diversified business portfolio to grow consistently and reliably. It designed its core strengths to win in the industry. It designed strategic, operational, and financial processes that ensure discipline to deliver. It also designed a management team and organization to lead (Ibid). 2007 Results of Activities     The year 2007 brought results to the company’s strategic plan for growth. It was the most demanding year that the company faced since the beginning of the decade. As energy and commodity costs continued to rise, competitive pressure also intensified. Nevertheless, the company continued to grow well and attained its target growth range. The following were the highlights of its operations: Net sales increased 12% to $76 billion. Organic sales increased 5%. Diluted net earnings per share increased 15% to $3.04. Free cash flow from operating activities was $10.5 billion, or 101% of net earnings. Fabric and Home Care grew organic sales 8%, with double-digit growth in developing markets and mid-single-digit growth in developing regions. The key growth drivers included Tide Simple Pleasures, Gain Joyful Expressions, and Febreze Noticeables. Blades and Razors organic sales grew by 8%. Beauty organic sales increased 5%, led by strong growth in feminine care, prestige fragrances, and hair care. Billion-dollar brands Always, Olay, and Head Shoulders each grew sales double-digits for the year. Health Care organic sales incremented 6% which is driven by very strong growth in oral care. In the United States, Crest extended its category market leadership to 38% behind the success of the Pro-Health line. Baby and Family Care organic sales increased 4%. This growth was due to the continuing expansion into developing markets and robust results on Pampers Baby Stages of Development and Baby Dry Caterpillar Flex products in North America.     Growth across geographic regions was also broad-based. This was led by mid-single-digit organic volume growth in North America and double-digit organic growth in developing markets. Also, it made excellent progress on the integration of Gillette. This was the biggest acquisition in the consumer products industry and in the history of the company (Ibid). Growth Strategies, 2001-2007     The basic strategy is to grow from its core competence. This is done through maximizing on its leading brands, big markets, and top customers. Specifically, this strategies are as follows (Ibid): Volume up 7% on average, for PG ‘s 23 billion dollar brands; Volume up 8% on average, for PG’s top 16 countries; Volume up 8% on average, for PG’s top 10 retail customers. Develop faster-growing, higher-margin, more-asset efficient businesses and this is done specifically through: Beauty sales doubled to $23 billion profit more than doubled to $3.5 billion; Health Care sales more than doubled to $9 billion; profit increased 6-fold to $1.5 billion; Home Care sales up nearly 85% profit more than tripled.   Accelerate growth in developing markets and among low-income consumers as follows: Developing market sales up 18% per year; Over one-third of total company sales growth from developing markets; Developing market profit margins comparable to developed market margins. New Strategic Design     The first element of the company’s strategic design is a portfolio that balances growth and consistency.     In the 1990’s, two businesses accounted for 85% of all the value created by the firm through the decade. Today, the firm have a much stronger and more robust business portfolio. It is competing in 22 categories that include a balanced mix of faster growing, higher-margin asset-efficient businesses, such as beauty or home care, and large, foundation categories such as laundry, or baby care. PG also have an attractive geographic mix, with about half coming from the rest of the world. The firm is focusing on achieving disproportionate growth in fast-growing developing markets. These markets have contributed more than a third of the company’s top-line growth over the past five years, and their contribution has been accelerating. Nearly 40% of PG sales growth came from developing markets this past fiscal year, and it is expected that the contribution would be even greater in the year ahead. The company’s diversified portfolio reduces exposure to single and competitive events, and maximizes future growth opportunities. Traditional businesses, like fabric care and baby care, are strong and growing in their own right, and they create scale that makes PG’s beauty and health care businesses more competitive (Ibid).     Geographically, the firm’s North America home base is rock solid, with dependable growth that allows them to invest in developing markets. Also, the breadth and diversity of the firm’s businesses and the breadth and diversity of the technological expertise that supports these businesses enable the company to transfer technologies from one business to another. For example, Crest Whitestrips was created by combining bleach stabilization technology from laundry care with film technology from corporate Research and Development (RD) to provide in-home teeth whitening. The Swifter Wet Jet pad combines absorbent cores from feminine care with flexible surface lawyers from baby care. Olay Daily Facials combines structured paper from family care with skin conditioning and mild cleansing from beauty to provide a mini-facial in the home. The company’s ability to combine technologies from so many diverse businesses cannot be rivaled in the industry because no other consumer products company has the scope of science and technology found at PG. The firm’s business portfolio is not static. It uses the operating total shareholder return (TSR) delivered by each business to continuously ensure its portfolio is maximizing shareholder value. TSR is a cash flow return on investment (CFROI) model that measures sales growth, earnings growth and cash flow to determine the rate of return that each business earns (Ibid).     The firm’s researchers and entrepreneurs around the world working in areas that are relevant to their business. They are establishing the company as the preferred commercialization partner for these external innovators, and it is making a huge impact. The firm’s ability to innovate is most evident in the net present value of its innovation pipeline and the organic incremental sales growth generated by innovation. Innovation-driven value creation for shareholders and incremental sales growth from innovation have nearly doubled in this same time period (Ibid).     These are just two examples of how the company designed an institutional capability to grow. The firm’s core strengths create sustainable competitive advantages, and it is continuing to get stronger in every area.     The third element of the company’s design for growth is the disciplined way it managed its business. Discipline is part of the company’s culture and it is applied to every aspect of the business: strategic, operational, and financial. The company set and stick with clear strategies. It does its homework before going to market with new products and ideas (Ibid).     The second element of the firm’s design for growth is its combination of core strengths. Early in the decade, the firm determined that it did not have sufficient competitive advantage in the five areas that are critical to winning in consumer products: consumer understanding, brand building, innovation, go-to-market capability, and scale. It invested substantially in every area and it is paying off. For example, the company invested more than a billion dollars in consumer understanding since 2001. It transformed one of the industry’s more traditional market research organizations into a consumer understanding powerhouse. Its external benchmarking indicates that the company has the industry’s strongest suite of proprietary consumer research tools and methodologies. These tools make the firm learn faster and more effectively, and it helps discover the often unarticulated needs and aspirations that lead to breakthrough innovation (Ibid).     Innovation has always been the firm’s lifeblood, and it created significant advantage in this area. It has the best-in-class expertise in about a dozen technology areas that are the foundation for innovation in the industry, including enzymes, perfumes, and flavors, polymers, structured substrates, and surfactants. The firm multiplied this internal capability through an effort we call â€Å"connect + develop,†which is proving to be an enormous source of innovation and competitive advantage. It has about 8,500 researchers within the company and another 1.5 million outside the company (Ibid). Strategic Focus     The growth strategy of the company will exploit opportunities focusing on these areas: PG’s Core. The firm is widening its share advantages versus competition. For example, in fabric care, it is the number two player worldwide in the early 1990s. Today, the firm has a 34% share of the global fabric care market, almost double the next competitor, and its share has grown for six consecutive years. There are plenty of opportunities to keep growing all of the company’s billion dollar brands. It is proving in category after category that a leading share, even a relatively high share, is not a barrier to growth. The company aims to continue leverage its brand line-up and category-leading innovation to keep core businesses healthy and growing. Faster-Growing. Higher-Margin Businesses. The company has even greater upside in businesses such as beauty and health care. The beauty and health categories in which PG competes are a combined $360 billion market today, and are projected to grow 3% to 4% a year for the balance of the decade. The firm has almost doubled its share of beauty and health over the past decade although the firm’s share of this combined market is only about 10% globally. Developing Markets and Lower-Income Consumers. The firm can still grow significantly in developing markets by increasing household penetration and consumer usage frequency, and by entering categories where it has not yet competed. For example, the average U.S. householder buys five to ten times as much PG product per year as the average household in developing markets. In addition, there is a large number of households in developing regions that do not yet purchase any PG product. Closing this gap, the company is confident that it can do it over time. It will continue to drive strong growth for years to come. There are significant bottom-line growth opportunities as well. The firm will continue to leverage its economies of scale. It will reduce overhead costs by simplifying work and eliminating duplication between global business units and market development organizations. It will be more effective and efficient in how it will manage smaller country organizations and brands. It will continue to increase productivity in all of its businesses. It will continue to improve gross margins. The company’s current margin is about 52% (Ibid). Human Resource Management     Procter and Gamble have the most diverse and broadly experienced leadership team in its history. The top 45 leaders came from a dozen countries, and most of them have experience leading businesses in both developed and developing markets (PG Annual Report, 2007).     The firm is proud that they have recognized as one of the world’s best leadership development companies. PG have been ranked as one of the three best companies for leaders. Human Resources Executive magazine ranked PG as the best company among the Fortune Most Admired for â€Å"management quality†(Ibid).     The Human Resource department of PG have developed advanced leadership training or senior managers. The new General Manager College is targeted to the 135 general managers who run PG businesses globally. GM College focuses on Purpose and Value, leadership strategy, capabilities, systems, and culture. They have also designed a sequel to GM College which is called the Executive Leadership Program. This program is targeted to the most-senior managers in the company and focuses on agility and flexibility, embracing leading change, and sustaining growth (Ibid).     The firm is concerned with getting the right people into the right jobs at the right time is always a primary responsibility of management. Also, equally important and more difficult is the need to anticipate leadership capabilities that will be required in the future, and ensuring that managers get the experiences and coaching they need to be ready (Ibid).     One of the most visible example of the company’s ability to develop strong leaders is the number of former PG employees who are now CEOs of major companies. The president of PG himself is personally involved in succession planning for every organization in the company. They review succession plans and the progress of key leaders with the Board once a year, and with the senior management team three times a year (Ibid).     The human resource management values and culture of PG is reflected in their principles as follows (www.pg.com): We show respect for all individuals. We believe that all individuals can and want to contribute to their fullest potential. We value differences. We inspire and enable people to achieve high expectations, standards and challenging goals. We are honest with people about their performance.    The interests of the Company and the Individual are inseparable. We believe that doing what is right for the business with integrity will lead to mutual success for both the Company and the individual. Our quest for mutual success ties us together. We encourage stock ownership and ownership behavior.     We are Strategically Focused on Our Work. We operate against clearly articulated and aligned objectives and strategies. We only do work and only ask for work that adds value to the business. We simplify, standardize and streamline our current work whenever possible.     Innovation is the Cornerstone of Our Success. We place great value on big, new consumer innovations. We challenge convention and reinvent the way we do business to better win in the marketplace.    We are Externally Focused. We develop superior understanding of consumers and their needs. We create and deliver products, packaging and concepts that build winning brand equities. We develop close, mutually productive relationship with our customers and our suppliers. We are good corporate citizens. We incorporate sustainability into our products, packaging and operations.     We Value Personal Mastery. We believe it is the responsibility of all individuals to continually develop themselves and others. We encourage and expect outstanding technical mastery and executional excellence.     We Seek to be the Best. We strive to be the best in all areas of strategic importance to the Company. We benchmark our performance rigorously versus the very best internally and externally. We learn from both our successes and our failures.     Mutual Interdependency is a Way of Life. We work together with confidence and trust across business units, functions, categories and geographies. We take pride in results from reapplying others’ ideas. We build superior relationships with all the parties who contribute to fulfilling our Corporate Purpose, including our customers, suppliers, universities and governments.     As such, it is very clear in â€Å"Our Principles†of PG that they really value their human resources and that they value the individual, the team and their development to become leaders and their corresponding search towards excellence (www.pg.com). Employee Benefits    The company sponsor several post-employment benefits throughout the world. These include pension plans, both defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans, and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) plans, which is comprised mainly of health care and life insurance for retirees (PG Annual Report, 2007). Stock-Based Compensation     The company have a primary stock-based compensation plan under which stock options are granted every year to key managers and directors with exercise prices equal to market price of the underlying shares on the date of grant. A total of 229 million shares of common stock were authorized for issuance under plans approved by shareholders in 2001 and 2003, of which 73 million remain available for grant. An extra 20 million shares of common stock were authorized for issuance under a plan approved by Gillette shareowners in 2004 and assumed by the firm in conjunction with the acquisition of the Gillette Company in October 2005. A total of 14 million of the shares remain available for grant under this plan. There are also five million shares available for grant under this plan. There are also five million shares available for grant under Future Shares Plan approved by the Board of Directors in 1997. This plan will terminate in October 2007. Grants issued under the firm’s shareholder approved plans since September 2002 are vested after three years and have a 10-year life. Grants issued under these plans from July 1998 through August 2002 are vested after three years and have a 15-year life, while grants issued prior to July 1998 are vested after one year and have a 10-year life. In addition to the key manager and director grants, the company makes other minor stock option grants to employees for which vesting terms and options lives are not substantially different (Ibid).     Total stock-based compensation expense for stock option grants was $612 million, $526 million, and $459 million for 2007, 2006 and 2005, respectively. The total income tax benefit recognized in the income statement for these stock-based compensation arrangements was $163 million, $140 million and $125 million for 2007, 2006 and 2005, respectively. The company also makes minor grants of restricted stock, restricted stock units and other stock-based grants which are generally expensed at grant date was $56 million, $59 million and $65 million in 2007, 2006, and 2005 respectively (Ibid). Defined Contribution Retirement Plans     Procter and Gamble have defined contribution plans which cover the majority of U.S. employees as well as employees in other countries. These plans are fully funded. The firm generally make contributions to participants’ accounts based on individual base salaries and years of service. The main U.S. defined contribution plan comprises the majority of the balances and expense for the firm’s defined contribution plans. The contribution rate is set annually. Total contributions for this plan approximated 15% of total participants’ annual wages and salaries in 2007, 2006 and 2005. Procter and Gamble maintains the Profit Sharing Trust and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) to provide a portion of the funding for the D.C. plan in the United States as well as other retiree benefits. Total defined contribution expense was $273, $249 and $215 in 2007, 2006, and 2005, respectively. The accumulated benefit obligation for all defined benefit retirement pension plans was $ 8.6 billion and $8 billion at June 30, 2007, and June 20, 2006, respectively (Ibid). MATCHING OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITH STRATEGY     The development of key managers through the General Managers’ College of PG matched its strategy of growth and diversification as discussed above. The continuous growth of the company requires a constant supply of managerial talents. The employee benefits also matched the strategic goals of the company since these benefits are the motivators that will make the employees and managers work hard since the company spends a lot of money for their insurance, health care, pension plan, and stock-based compensation wherein the company spends billions of dollars.     Also, the â€Å" Our Principles†of the company as discussed above is also supportive of the strategy of the company wherein these principles promote a culture of independence and at the same time work as a team. It also encourages hard work and excellence for employees in their jobs. RECOMMENDATIONS    PG is an excellent company. Most of its strategic management practices are state of the art as well as its HRM practices. However, in order to match the strategic goals of the company, the human resources function should do the following: Conduct intensive training to all of its employees and not only their candidates for senior managers. These trainings should be in line with their respective functions of the employees in their respective divisions, and In order to motivate employees, the stock compensation option should be offered to everyone and not only for key managers.  PG’s infrastructure requirements consist of those functions and activities necessary for the effective management of a companys human resources. The major purposes of these activities traditionally have been to attract, retain, and motivate employees. We refer to them as human resource management (HRM) practices (Schuler, 1984), and the key HRM practices include: Human resource planning Staffing, including recruitment, selection, and socialization Appraising Compensation Training and development Union-management relationships    The result of effectively managing human resources is an enhanced ability to attract and retain qualified employees who are motivated to perform, and the results of having the right employees motivated to perform are numerous. They include greater profitability, low employee turnover, high product quality, lower production costs, and more rapid acceptance and implementation of corporate strategy. These results, particularly if coupled with competitors who do not have the right people motivated to perform, can create a number of competitive advantages through human resource management practices. CONCLUSION     Although there are many ways by which companies can gain a competitive advantage, as MacMillan (1983) has suggested, one way often overlooked is through their human resource management practices. HRM practices enable companies to gain a competitive advantage in two major ways: One is by helping themselves and the other is by helping others. So there appears to be a significant benefit from having HRM considerations represented in the strategy formulation stage rather than only in the implementation stage. Once the strategy is formulated and the appropriate HRM thrust identified, specific HRM practices need to be developed. These practices, such as staffing and compensation, are the ones that actually create the competitive advantage for the company. In addition, selection of the most appropriate practices should be appropriate to the strategy and lead to behaviors that are supportive of the strategy; for example, if cooperative behaviors are needed among employees, then group or organizational level compensation incentives should be provided rather than an individual-level incentive system. If product quality is critical, quality circles and union-management cooperation should be developed.     Once the strategy is formulated, the determination of the needed behaviors comes from job analysis. The HRM practices that stimulate those behaviors must be identified. They must be implemented so as to ensure consistency across HRM practices. It is this hard-won consistency which will help ensure that a competitive advantage through HRM practices is gained and sustained because of the barriers we have just discussed.     In addition to using their HRM practices on themselves, companies can also gain a competitive advantage through using their HRM practices on others. Specifically, companies can gain a competitive advantage by helping their suppliers, customers, or servicers/distributors with their practices    REFERENCES  ^ a b http://www.pginvestor.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=104574p=irol-fundSnapshot ^ CNN Fortune ranking ^ http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2007/top20/index.html ^ Dyer, Davis; Frederick Dalzell, Rowena Olegario (2004). Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter Gamble. Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1591391474. ^ Wherrity, Constance. Dial Agrees to Buy PG Deodorant Brands, Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York blog, 2006-02-21. Retrieved on 2006-09-06. ^ John G. Smale: He rebuilt PG and city, too, The Cincinnati Post, 11 October 2005. ^ 2007 Annual report, pg 71 ^ Reasons for Selection, 2007 Canadas Top 100 Employers. ^ Trademark of the Beast by David Emery, June 10, 1998 ^ Trademark of the Devil by Barbara Mikkelson, snopes ^ Mikkel MacMillan, I. C. Seizing Competitive Initiative. The Journal of Business Strategy, 1983, pp. 43-57. Peters, T. J., and Waterman, R. H. Jr. In Search of Excellence. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Schuler, R. S. Personnel and Human Resource Management (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1984. Skinner, W. Big Hat, No Cattle: Managing Human Resources. Harvard Business Review, September-October 1981, pp. 107-118. Schulerson, Barbara and David. 2005 December 31
Friday, September 6, 2019
African American Cinema Essay Example for Free
African American Cinema Essay The subject of African-Americans in Motion Pictures provides some of the most interesting studies along with the many controversial interpretations of the roles as actors they played on screen. As far back as the silent films era, African-Americans have been featured in motion pictures playing roles depicting some aspect of acting and being purveyors of a black image. The messages or themes of these movies have over the years presented a mixture of images based upon what was thought to please the viewers of each particular film. Unfortunately, many of those films showed black characters in negative stereotypical roles, which the average African-Americans would never truly identify as being like themselves. Since many of our American icons and heroes have come from our motion picture stars, we need to understand what this narrow view presented and compare it with what we presently see at our local cinema today. The movies Guess Whos Coming To Dinner (1967), Shaft (1971), Do The Right Thing (1989), Boys n the Hood (1991), and Menace to Society (1993) show a thematic style and stereotypes in the way that black films have progressed over the years. The motion picture industry was never too quick to change their approach in presenting African-Americans in realistic roles depicting social or civil conditions in an integrated context. Many of these roles required scenes showing African-Americans in positions of authority or relating to white Americans in a positive way. This Integration Period therefore brought together African-American actors with scenes along side white actors in roles showing both players dealing with racial conflict and resolution. Guess Whos Coming to Dinner was truly a unique film for its time in that Sidney Poitiers character breaks all the stereotypical views of blacks in American Cinema. In the early 1930s blacks were portrayed as lower class, slow-witted figures of entertainment, often showed in menstrual shows. Poitiers character broke all these stereotypes. 1971 brought to the big screen a successive series of superhero black or blaxploitation films. Shaft was released in 1971, and Richard Roundtree was the superman black hero detective. He was compared by many to the white James Bond. Related to Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, Shaft took it up a notch in showing a black man as a hero. Poitiers role was one to equalize whites and blacks in their roles in American cinema, but Shaft showed a black man who was an authoritative figure. Different themes can be mixed in between the two movies. They both show an intelligent black man that has a grip on reality. Both movies showed themes of how integration has struck America. They differ though on a level in that Shaft was a black dominant cast and Guess Whos Coming to Dinner was predominantly white. Do the Right Thing, Boyz n the Hood, and Menace to Society were all produced in a more modern era, hence the fact that they all have similar racial themes. The films all paint a picture of urban Black America in their time period. All three films are thought to be racially reactionary films aimed at the psyche of both black and white viewers. The movies were all a success due to the touched topics of racial situations, ethnic tensions, and human encounters of anger. The superb casts of both black and white actors made the motion picture industry aware of a newer avenue for films and race relations. African-Americans in motion pictures in todays expanding world of visual imagery can be seen on many expanding fronts. We see the making of motion pictures on subjects or themes which can be taken from history, life experiences, music, and unexplored events. Todays markets are open, and African-Americans are taking advantage of these open door opportunities. Actors and actresses are expanding their roles from stage acting to movies to TV miniseries to video cassettes or discs, and roles taken from books, plus movie soundtracks. In our world today African-American actors and actresses will always have a place in American Cinema and their future looks bright and promising.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
The Impact Of Globalisation On The Nation State Politics Essay
The Impact Of Globalisation On The Nation State Politics Essay Is the Nation State dead? It is one question among the profusion of apocalyptic predictions of the demise of the nation state caused mostly by the Globalisation. In the same way, the word globalisation seems nowadays to be used all the time on many occasions which thus does not give a clear meaning. We are going to try to define the term of globalisation in order to have a better analysis of our subject. The term refers more to a process which could be describe as the increased movement of people, knowledge and ideas, and goods and money across national borders which have create more interconnectedness among the world. For some it is just an economic phenomenon defined as the increasing worldwide integration of economies over recent decades and is associated with the triumph of liberal capitalism as the dominant economic mode (King and Kendall, p 142). But it really includes political and cultural areas as well. Then, why is it considered as a threat for the Nation State? The nation state is a political system invented in occidental Europe that took six century, while it had to co-exist with cities, Empire and papacy, to affirm itself. The Nation State triumphed as a political organisation as one goes along with the different acquisition of independence of countries. Decolonisation in the 1950s put the Nation state definitely as a model for the world political system. So whilst the Nation state remains the principal focus of political identification and the principal place to debate why does people enquiry about the death of the Nation State? The mainly dangers of the globalisation argued are the loss of the sovereignty and of autonomy of the Nation state. We can wonder, indeed, about the role of the nation state in a world where transnational and international activities are the new way. Some say that the later could hollow out the authority of the Nation State and preventing it to be the legitimate body. But before digging the grave of the Nation State, we should wonder about what impact has globalisation had on the Nation State? To answer this question we will first present the different principal perspectives about this supposed impact, according to the Hyperglobalist, the Sceptical and the Transformationalists. Then we will explain what new dimension has the globalisation brought to the Nation State. To do so, we will focus first on the economical scheme with the Multinational corporations and the idea of competiveness and secondly we will look into the new political dimension such the new actors on the international system as well as the boundaries. Different perspectives on the globalisations impact. Today, globalisations impact on states is a debatable argument; there is not really agreement on the subject. We are going to introduce the main theories about it. Hyperglobalists argue that the world had evolved these past years and that it is now more borderless, especially in the economic field. National economies are now part of a global economy where international financial markets and transnational dominate. They say there is a denationalization but that it is part of an economic logic in which national governments are just transmission belt for global capital (King and Kendall, p144). For them, the power of the Nation Sate has been supplanted by business activities (Ohmae, 1995). Today, it is more the global finance, rather than state, that has influence over the organisation, location and distribution of economic power and wealth. We are in a time of a borderless economy and where the state is territorially limited, global markets are free to escape political regulation. The role of the state is now to accommodate the structure of the domestic economy to the imperatives of international competitive. Furthermore, the current internationa l institutions in charge of the economy, such the IMF or World Bank help the formation of this global market. Because states can no longer modulate exchange and interest rates (King and Kendall, p144), they are becoming transitional modes of economic organization and regulation. Their conclusion is the demise of the Nation State but we can critic this theory by saying that they do no distinguish the quantity of influence and of power among countries. In the case of the countries of the European Union for example, we can see that their sovereign power has been given away or at least reduced (Europeans institutions) when it is not true for the United states which keep a state strength. Hyperglobalists see the globalisation as a good thing which would give opportunities to societies to develop. In contrast, Sceptics disagree with this thesis; they think that the world has not evolved much and that instead of being in a globalised world we are now in a more international world. Hirst and Thompson argued that whereas tendencies towards internationalisation can be accommodated within a modified view of the world economic system, that still gives the major role to national-level policies and economic actors; when firms, government and international agencies are being forced to behave differently, but in the main they can use existing institutions and practices to do so (Held and McGrew, chap 1). For the Sceptics, the State remains central in the business activities and even that it is the most powerful actor in domestic economy and in international agreement and regulations. Multinational corporations having headquartered in different countries can be described as national companies operating internationally and thus subject to the national regulation. Moreover, the Sate has st ill a crucial role in the scheme of governance and regulation and through elections it remains the critical agencies of the popular representation. And to conclude they state that the world is now divided into larger regional area rather that into one world. However, Transformationalists take a middle ground approach between the two previous extreme views of globalisation. They argue that globalisation is a multi-scalar process and do not believe in a single global society. The current global interconnections and interdependence will forge new networks and maybe dissolve some existing ones. As Held say relationships among nations and people will be reconfigured and power relationships restructured. It will not be the end of the Nation State, more a reconstruction of the Nation State. According to Held and McGrew, globalisation refers to a shift in the scale of human organisation that links distant communities. There will be a wider impact of power relations across the worlds regions and continents. But even through a reconfiguration, the state remains an important actor in global political economy. They also state the emergence of a new sovereignty regime, arguing that it is today less as a territorially defined barrier than a bargaining resource for a politics characterized by complex transnational networks (Held and McGrew). Among these different theories, the Transformationalists one seems to be the more accurate according to our second part. A new Economical dimension Globalisation becomes such a debatable process that we are going to show what economic impact it has made. Multinational corporations mobility is seen as an impact of the globalisation on the Nation State. As the hyperglobalists stated it, it is becoming the new primary object, but as the Transformationalists show it does not undermine the role of the Nation state. Indeed along all the way of the development of the globalisation and thus the global market, states have formed the regulation to maintain it. Global capital needs the states functions to be effective. As we saw before, Nation states are home base for multinational corporations and so subjected to the domestic policy of the State. While the company is working transnationally, headquarter is in a single nation. All the investment and benefit made are likely to be sent back in the country of origin. It is true that nation states can retain juridical and other restrains on their citizen which can hardly be matched with multinational companies but if high levels of social expenditure help improve or maintain a good productivity, th ere is no reason for them to leave or to object. Sometimes it can be benefit for multinational to offshore, but for some such agricultural or manufacturing it can be more difficult because of a lack of synergy or of application du to the geographical position. So the multinational corporations mobility can be disputable and may not be seen as a bad impact on the nation state. Analyses of foreign direct investment flows indicate that in high technology and knowledge-intensive sectors, multinational companies are attracted more by knowledge-intensive labour than by low cost employee (King and Kendall, p142). So offshore are not always a good deal and the primacy can be accorded on the Nation State. Moreover, a lot of trade still occur within national state and it is often more easier to remedies to the problems domestically than abroad. Thus Multinational Corporations are welcome to keep on the administrative and legal functions of nation states. On the other hand, it has been show that globalisation intensifies competition which in fact stimulates innovation. As Gibbons say globalisation puts firms and others organisations under competitive pressure to innovate (King and Kendall, p148), so it stimulates new research practices. Firms have now to innovate because if they dont their existence might be threatened by others who do innovate. Thus as the benefit mostly come back on the nation state of origins, globalisations impact can be well accepted. In conclusion, Multinational corporations depend on state structures to guarantee their rights and globalisation is a factor for competiveness and thus development. As Hirst and Thompson stated international business are still largely confined to their home country in terms of their overall activity. A new political dimension Globalisation is not, as we state earlier, an economical phenomena only. At the root of the globalisation there is an important technical revolution which is the abolition of the distance thanks to progress and communication. The authority of the nation station was mostly based on the distance because it gives a meaning of the territorial boundaries and a mediatory function of the State as soon as individual wanted to communicate between each other. But how deal with the amount of transnational activities between individuals beyond boundaries going round the state; it does not make sense today. With globalisation, borders are less significant and boundaries of decisions are much broader that the actual boundaries (Dahl). Before, these international institutions let a great part of independence and autonomy to national systems but not anymore, they penetrate deeply in the national system (ZÃ ¼rn). Hence the reorganization of the nation states functions insofar as for new political perspective to govern in a system where communication goes beyond it and where it has to ensure the regulation of this transnational activities boom. Sometimes international relations seems more important that nationalism; when the FMI was endorsing the idea of a common currency, countries such France or Germany known as a strong nationalism tendency, gave up without problem to their national currency. It is so a reconsideration of the state, it can not be identified by its currency or by the opening of its market anymore. Globalisation would sustain the demise of the nation state by reconsidering the general functions of the state and the dimension of the nation. State should be more modest and delegate part of its sovereign mission to other some forms of governance, local or global. Some new actors of course take advantage of the process of globalisation, such economic actors. But we can also observe alternative forms of transnational solidarity. With widening of the image, the information and the communication, individuals are being involved in domestic affairs of neighbouring states. Globalisation allow the emergence of an important amount of actors which are going to have their own international action, such the NGOs or will put pressure on state to make them intervene on the international scene, such the international public opinion. So we cannot speak of end of the state, it is more a transformation of the state which is now working with non state actors while losing much of its sovereignty principle. But the state stay the privileged actor, it is easier to negotiate with a state than with a transnational flux. The state is identified by the international rights and organisations. Furthermore, we can state that the population developed a strong nationhood o ver the past years and indeed would give its trust to the national parliaments more that in the European institutions for example. Conclusion Globalisation does not mean the end of the Nation State, not now anyway. It redefines it; some states functions can not have substitute. The state is yet competent and not really disputed in term of stability and domestic security. It is still a supplier of homogeneity and especially of social homogeneity. Moreover globalisation could be seen as a good effect on the national economies. Because some decisions are made on another level than the state (such in UE) the new challenge is to organise a new way for the citizenship, maybe a global citizenship.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
A Glorious Plan :: essays research papers fc
M@ Hix A Glorious Plan When Germany was under a monetary crisis after having to pay reparations for World War I, people had turned to Adolf Hitler. He made promises of restoring Germany to its original form and many people were willing to support him. However, the failure of the Munich Putsch in 1923 had failed and had led to his imprisonment. Here, Hitler wrote a book, Mein Kampf, where he introduced his ideology of Germany, his aims and ambitions. (Giblin, 156) In January 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor and soon became sole dictator of Germany. He then put his aims to action. Hitler had three main aims in preparing Germany for war. His first goal was to tear up the Treaty of Versailles, which brought an end to WWI. This treaty blamed Germany for starting the war; it took away large amounts of land, money and materials from her, and cut her armed forces down to a minimum. (Hitler, 135) Hitler’s second aim was to unite all Germans into one single country. As there was millions of Germans scattered in neighboring countries such as Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, these countries would have to be brought under his control. (Ibid, 302) His third aim was to provide Germany with what he called â€Å"lebenstraum†or living space. He said that Germany was overcrowded and did not have enough food or raw materials for her needs. All three of these aims could only be achieved if Germany rearmed, massively increasing her armed forces. (Ibid, 370) Hitler fulfilled these aims by rearming Germany. In 1934, only a year after Hitler had come to power, he gave out a top-secret order for the armed forces to expand. The number was to increase from 100,000 to 300,000 men. The navy was to build two pocket battleships and six submarines. (Bailey, 78) Goering was to create an air force and secretly train pilots in civilian flying clubs. These were all forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. (Kershaw, 147) In 1935, all was revealed when Hitler re-introduced conscription and that the army would be built up to 550,000 men. Three countries, Britain, France and Italy, signed an agreement condemning Hitler’s announcement. But no country took military action to stop this breach of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1936, Hitler ordered his army to march into the Rhineland. The Versailles treaty forbade the German army from going within 50 km of the River Rhine, so Hitler’s order was a deliberate challenge to this treaty.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Free Essay: The Three Ages in Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken :: Road Not Taken essays
The Three Different Ages in The Road Not Taken             William George, in â€Å"Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken,’†describes the way in which Frost depicts three different ages of the narrator of the poem. These three different speakers all have to make a decision, and they face it in different ways. The middle-aged self is the most objective speaker, and he mocks the younger and older selves as they â€Å"are given to emotion, self-deception, and self-congratulation†(230). While the middle-aged self is able to maintain his objectivity, the younger and older selves are given to delusion and cannot maintain any objectivity. The first part of the article describes the relation between the middle-aged self and the younger self. The younger self must make a decision about which path he will take. While the middle-aged self â€Å"stresses the similarity of the two roads,†the younger self lies to himself because he is â€Å"too dismayed with or too ‘sorry’ about the nature of choice to notice that ‘passing there / Had worn [the two roads] really about the same, / And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black’†(230). The younger self pretends that one path, the path he is going to take, is different, that it is less traveled. The second part of the article describes the relation between the middle-aged self and the older self. The older self must make a decision about whether or not he will tell the truth about his past. â€Å"In this ‘age’ of the persona, the choice will be either to tell the truth or to lie about the choice made ‘ages and ages’ before. . . . [But] the older self ignores what the middle-aged self had come to know about that first choice: that ‘both [roads] that morning equally lay.’ Only self-aggrandizing self-deception could cause the older self to ignore what the middle-aged self clearly knows†(231).
Monday, September 2, 2019
Analysis of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift :: essays research papers
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland. Jonathan Smith goes to extreme measures to explain his new plan to raise the economic wellbeing of his country. He explains what age is too young and what age is too old, in order to eat the tenants children when they are at their prime juiciness. He also gives a list of suggestions on how to cook them, ?A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.? All of this talk about eating children comes as a surprise because previous to this disturbing suggestion, Swift is ironically discussing the plight of starving beggars in Ireland. The reader is unprepared for the solution that he suggests. The idea of eating all the youth in the country is obviously self-defeating and is not being seriously suggested by the writer. He is simply trying to show how desperate the lower class is in Ireland. Swift introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting, taxing absentee landlords, of encouraging the domestic economy by buying Irish goods, of discouraging pride, vanity, idleness, by dismissing them in his essay by saying that they are impractical. However, these reforms greatly differ from his ?modest proposal? because instead of the poor sacrificing their children, it would involve the rich sacrificing some of their luxuries. He is trying to point out the fact that reforms that would be practical and beneficial to the people of Ireland are being overlooked for the convenience of the rich.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Meaning of Life Meaning †Religion Essay
We walk around in the world and we as human beings look to find fulfillment and happiness in many things such as sports, friends, and boy/girlfriends and as young people when we get rejected by these things we act like we can’t go on with life. . But i challenge you to think about the meaning of â€Å"LIFE†. Well Life is a Gift of God, Abundance of receiving things. . In John 4 its speaks on living water and how Jesus uses both the physical and spiritual meaning of water when he speaks to the Samaritan Woman, He refers to the spiritual side as living water. People in the world tend to you suicide or hurting themselves as a way out of situations but God gave us eternal life so that we may be humble servants unto him. . God never puts more on us than we can bear. . Life is important so we really need to know the meaning of it because it seems to be lost in today’s society. .I used to be bitter and sad before i had gotten saved. . I had a huge void that needed to be filled and nothing truly could fill it. . Except GOD.
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