A Developmental Study Of Alex In Kubricks A Clockwork Orange Essay

A Developmental Study of Alex in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange Synopsis of A Clockwork Orange In A Clockwork Orange, the main character is that of a mildly young child of 15 who, along with his fellow friends, or "Droogs", partake in evenings of Ultra-Violence. Ultra Violence consists of random beatings, theft, destruction, and rape. The main character, Alex, is the self-proclaimed leader of the pack, and makes judgment on their actions pending on his mood. His Droogs eventually find themselves under his direct rule, following his every word, and decide to challenge his authority. The three Droogs (Dim, Georgie, and Pete) join Alex on his romp to a local "fat farm" to pillage the goods therein. Inside, Alex stumbles upon the owner of the resort, and after a length scuffle with her, ends up giving her a blow to the head with a rather large, ceramic replica of an erect penis. When he leaves the outer gates of the complex, Dim surprises him by smacking a milk bottle against his face. His counterparts escape while little Alex is left bleeding and blinded to deal with the police. Upon interrogation of Alex, he discovers that the blow he delivered to the young lady was a fatal one. He is charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. While there, he befriends the resident minister and becomes a helper to his service. The minister, Alex soon discovers, is a part in a new form of treatment that is trying to be implemented prisons to help "cure" inmates from committing acts of violence. Through luck and discussion with the higher officials in the prison, Alex is chose to be a guinea pig for the experiment, and is sent to become "inoculated from violence". The treatment consisted of Alex being strapped down to a chair in front of a cinema screen, having electrodes attached to his head, and being kept focused by small pairs of clamps used to disable his ability to blink. This, along with the injection of an experimental serum, is monitored whilst he views movies of UltraViolence. The serum leaves him vulnerable to his surroundings, which are destructive films, and induces such feelings of helplessness, fear, and near-death paralysis, similar to that of drowning. Alex soon associates thi... ...sounds of Beethoven were not intentional, thus not needing reinforcement. However, Alex's trauma could also be referred to as a Skinner approach to treatment. Skinner's theory was that one could achieve a conditioned response by giving the subject positive or negative reinforcement. In his experiments, a mouse was put in a cage with nothing but a pressable button and a light. When the bar was depressed, the light flashed and food was delivered into the cage. If the mouse were dropped into a similar cage, it would be safe to assume that it would retain the reaction to hit a bar and receive food. The conditioned response was to hit the bar when hungry. The reinforcement was the food that was provided by completing the response. In Alex's case, the reinforcement would be the metal satisfaction of not going through with his violent needs when he is subjected to violent surroundings. In conclusion, the theories used as a basis behind Stanley Kubrik's A Clockwork Orange, resemble that of the theories that came from the greater thinkers of modern time. Alex, the guinea pig in this tale, is a classic example of many psychologist's case studies, and could be analyzed differently from each.

Service Package of Village Volvo

The Village Volvo service package is a quality repair service for out-of-warranty Volvos at a reasonable price and its operation is designed to be of a custom car care service. Specific times weekly are specifically set for drivers to who wants to have routine quick check-up services such as tune-ups and oil changes while clients are encouraged to have scheduled appointments for diagnosis and repair of specific problems. Mechanic will discuss problems that they have noticed in the clients’ car and occasionally take a short test drive with clients for better understanding of the area of concern. Village Volvo service package maintains a continuing file on each vehicles it services which provides a convenient record for any vehicle that is returned on warranty after service which also in a way reminds clients of the next scheduled appointment. Owners will be consulted before any work other than the agreed-job is done. Waiting rooms are also available with the comfort of a home, equipped with a television set, comfortable chairs, coffee, a soft-drinks vending machine, magazines and local newspapers for clients who come in during the ‘drop-in’ times. Repairs that have been done and other problems that might need attention are then discussed with the clients, whereby these notes are brought to attention of the clients during pickup times. Besides that, parts that have been replaced are set aside for the inspection of the clients. Apart from the usual car services, cleanliness of the vehicle is also ensured before pickup.

Notes on Different types of customers

Dealing with customer complaints why do customers complain? Customers complain mainly because of bad customer service The product they received is of bad quality not happy because of the staff Delayed flights not good service untidy accommodation product they received was not as it was descriptive. Not a not seats on the plane not getting what they want queues why do organizations need to know about customer complaints? To keep their reputation keep one customer happy expand business keep customers keep business to improve o fix one problem How to deal with customers?Offer a discount or a complimentary Item such as a drink. Food item etc. ) or a refund If they take It further ask If want to speak to the manager Reply a. s. A. P start by apologizing Don't interrupt whilst they are complaining Ask what's wrong face to face offer something else e-mail written communication make it formal be sympathetic make eye contact Listen suggest the course of action check the customer is happy with the solution and ask them if there is anything else you can do for them. Keep calm keep customer informed at all times Why is It Important to resolve a complaint? O keep the customers happy so you will get customer loyalty so you don't get a bad image/reputation of you or the organization To prevent it from happening again so I OFF quality of service they give how good their products are minimum standard of quality procedures they follow Equally With respect Fairly Friendly Welcomed well With a helpful manner NIce Politely Regardless of the customer type all customers have different needs. A hen party traveling to London for the weekend. Transfers Accommodation Group accommodation rah receptionInformation on local nightlife Different types of customers Mobility Pre-boarding Disable Access Guides Wider corridors Handrails Ramps Treated with respect and equally Special seating Bigger facilities Information about excursions suitable for their needs Special cabins/accommodation specifi cally for the disabled Lifts Visually impaired Braille White stick Career Guide dogs Assistance Be sensitive Hearing impaired Hearing aid Hearing loop Lip reader Sign language translator Speak loud and clearly Signs Devices to help them in case of an emergency el calling people, phone ringing, fire alarm going off Cultures/Countries Health documents Leaflets in their language Maps in their language Treat them equally and with respect Helpful staff Injection Visas/Passports Currency exchange Insurance Translator Elderly/Confused Treated with respect Show empathy Speak slowly and clearly Make sure they understand the information they were confused about Communication methods best suited to the customers needs. Hearing – Written, Face to face (For lip readers) Visual – Telephone, Verbally Elderly – Face to face, verbally Different language – Written – diagrams

Seiko Go Upmarket

Executive Summary Seiko Watch Corporation and its predecessor had always been innovative in watch technology development and brought many industry firsts to the watch market, and Seiko was very successful before the 1990s. With competitive environment change started in the 1990s, Seiko found it was not in the right segment of the market for growth, this segment is high end watch market. Seiko tried to break into the high end watch segment, but the attempts haven’t been proved successful.Based on detailed analysis of Seiko’s industry environment, competitive arena, and internal issues, conclusion was drawn that Seiko’s past vision, strategy and structure didn’t support its ambition to be an important player in the high end watch market. Countermeasures were then proposed: 1) have a clear and viable vision for future; 2) install a solid strategy of brands differentiation; and 3) match the strategy with organizational structure and resources. * IntroductionTh is case, â€Å"SEIKO WATCH CORPORATION: MOVING UPMARKET†, examined Japanese watch maker Seiko’s history, major technology developments, competitive environment, business expansion, and efforts and challenges to uplift brand image to compete in high end market segment. Seiko’s predecessor K. Hattori was established by 22-year-old founder Kintaro Hattori in 1881. The business was started with second-hand clocks sell and repair, and later on retailing and wholesaling of imported clocks.Hattori then established Seikosha (â€Å"Seiko† means exquisite and â€Å"sha† means house in Japanese) in 1892 to begin to produce wall clocks, launched the first wristwatch in Japan in 1913, and started to use Seiko brand on watches in 1923. Since then, Seiko had been enjoyed rapid growth in domestic market until 1950s when it accounted for 50% of total production in Japan, while Citizen and Orient shared the remaining 50%. Facing pressure from Swiss watch makers, Sei ko started to upgrade its technology to improve accuracy and add features, and managed to be comparable with Swiss products in terms of accuracy in the early 1960s.Around the same timeframe, after dominating the domestic competition in the late 1950s, Seiko started to go abroad. Through advertising initiatives such as being official time keeper of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and continued technology focus such as being the world’s first company to introduce quartz wristwatch in 1969, Seiko earned its place in international market: it had become the leading watch brand in most Asian countries and successfully built sales channels in US and European countries by 1970s.Though Seiko was historically accepted by domestic customers as luxury watches producer at top-end of the market in addition to mid-range watches, its several attempts to reposition itself to high-end segment in international watch market didn’t enjoy much success: in the late 1970s, Seiko bought Jean Lass ale, a Swill watch brand, to form a sub-brand â€Å"Seiko Lassale† to sell luxury quartz dress watches at higher price points in international markets, but this brand was not successful in the US and Europe markets and eventually discontinued; another sub-brand â€Å"Grand Seiko†, once alive in 1960s aiming at the high end of the domestic watch market, was re-launched in the late 1980s to flight with Swiss watch makers in the high end segment, this attempt didn’t meet its desired effect otherwise Seiko would have not taken the third try in 2000s to move upward of the market through the spring drive technology. In 2007, doubt about brand upgrade was casted on Seiko again. * Analysis of the issues The myriad of problems facing Seiko can be traced to below three causes. Industry environment – Strategic context change of the horological industryThe first phase – before the late 1950s / early 1960s, everybody in the watch industry had competed in a pret ty straight forward environment: watches were mainly used for chronometric purpose, watch’s core technology was homogenous (everybody in the horological industry used mechanical movements system), and main objectives for watch makers were to mass produce precise timepieces at competitive cost and sell to everybody needs a watch. Seiko did a nice job in this era. It occupied majority of Japanese domestic market share and caught Swiss rivals up in terms of production facility and product accuracy. The second phase – from the late 1950s / early 1960s through the 1970s and 1980s, technological revolution, mainly application of electronics and quartz technologies, reshaped the horological industry. Every watch shared certain common elements: a movement to measure the passage of time, any energy source, a display, a case, and a bracelet or strap.Electronics altered the stereotype of energy source and display, while more significantly, quartz timekeeping technology broke the tradition of mechanical movement to bring much more accuracy to watch benefiting from its properties of a quartz crystal oscillating at precise frequencies. Comparing to mechanical components, electronics and quartz components could be produced and assembled at more stable, economic, and fashionable way, Watches then could be offered to customers with unprecedented accuracy, lower cost, and fashion statement. To embrace the change or be changed, all players of the industry went through an era of uncertainty and innovation. Seiko was very creative in the time and pioneered many watch technologies to the market. Seiko started expanding overseas and its international brand image was formed during the period. In the meanwhile, Seiko began efforts to setup sub-brand to move up in market.People would not have known ramifications of what they were doing when in process of historical events, but looking back into history, we know today the seed of Seiko dilemma was planted in the 1970s and 1980s under the soil of its success. The third phase – the 1990s was a no name decade for Japanese watch makers including Seiko. Domestic economy was staggering. Watch technology was still in evolution, but there was no break-through invention like quartz could stir up the arena. Low cost economies such as China and Hongkong were arising to take over in mid-priced and low-end watch market. Swiss watch makers firmly seized hold of high-end watch market while fighting back in mid to low end market.Watch Competitors came out from outside of the chronological industry: pocketable digital device made watch no longer a functional necessity for timekeeping purpose. Seiko sales declined in the decade. The fourth phase – after the millennium, prevalence of cell phones further deteriorated watches’ position as personal primary timekeeping accessory. People bought watches not for time telling but for social status and prestige distinguishing. Global demand for luxury goods grew, and high-end segment of the watch market was emerging as the most profitable and the fastest growing sector. Seiko was adjusting itself to the new era, but its brand image had never been perceived as luxury.Competitive arena – Strong Swiss competitors in high end segment, fierce competition in mid and low end segments from LCE (low cost economy) watch makers, domestic rivals, and Swatch group In the high end segment, Swiss watch makers were lost in the 1970s when quartz technology was changing the game. Though painful, a number of Swiss watch companies such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Omega chose to stick to mechanical watch making, and they laughed at last. Below quotation could best describe the situation: We worked really hard in the 1980s where everybody was dead. The quartz movement came in the 1970s, so all the other watchmakers threw away everything, both their equipment and their movements. In the 1980s is when we started to redevelop all our complications.At the time, my father [Philippe Stern] had a vision that only one type of watch should remain – the one with a mechanical complication. He believed there would always be people who appreciate fine mechanisms, whether it's manual winding or automatic. And he was right. It's like a nice painting. It's something unique, rare and made with passion. * Thierry Stern, Patek Philippe President, interviewed by Timezone. com in Sep 2012 In the mid and low end segments, Seiko’s attacks were from all around as technologies were easy to duplicate and consumers really cared about money they were spent, thus if you could provide fair quality watches with lower cost, e. g.LCE watch manufacturers, you could win some share of the market segment; if you could provide good quality watches with comparable cost but more features and fashion styles, e. g. Japanese domestic competitors Citizen and Casio as well as Swatch group from Swiss, you could gain some other share of the segment of this market. Company vision, strategy and structure – Seiko had no clear vision and strategy for the era of watches as prestige symbol, its structure was prohibitive from effective decision making and resources utilization Vision – we know in the 1970s and 1980s, Seiko enjoyed much success and went global as an icon of precise and inexpensive quartz technology.Seiko didn’t foresee that the greater success it appreciated the stronger consumer would tie it to the quartz brand, and fine craftsmanship of mechanical watch making would override in the future. Seiko has always been innovative in technology development, but failed to grasp a watch’s implication to today’s consumer: time is timeless and invaluable; consumers would eventually wish their watches as seen carrier of time are timeless and invaluable as well. Quartz or electronics is perceived by consumers as ephemeral and cheap consumable stuff. Strategy – Seiko made mistakes in brand portfoli o strategy. It launched two sub-brands to go up of the market segment in the years.The â€Å"Seiko Lassale† equipped with quartz movement was launched in the late 1970s and discontinued when it turns out not welcomed in US and European markets. The â€Å"Grand Seiko† featuring mechanical movement was alive from 1960-1975 within Japan domestic market only, and had been stopped for more than a decade in the quartz era until re-launch in 1988 for global market featuring quartz movement, after another decade, the â€Å"Grand Seiko† sluggishly began to shift to high grade mechanical movement. Both the â€Å"Seiko Lassale† and the â€Å"Grand Seiko† were too close to Seiko name and technology of quartz to reverse the quartz image of usually non-luxury items. In addition, it seemed Seiko didn’t have a carefully planned long range brand strategy.High end sub-brands were created and abandoned. The recent example was that Spring Drive, Seiko’s latest breakthrough mechanical movement technology bared management hope to upgrade brand image, first debuted in lower â€Å"Seiko† product line rather than high end â€Å"Grand Seiko† line. Seiko’s another high end brand â€Å"Credor†, though had long history and good acceptance at home, had never been marketed in international markets. Structure – Seiko historically had too complicated structure arrangements: a sales company purchased Seiko watches from its parent company owned manufacturing arms, and the arms were competing with each other and developed into firms with watch as minor business.The good thing was Seiko management realized this point and reorganized the company in 2001 to streamline decision making and focus on branding. * Conclusion and Recommendation Seiko’s vision, strategy, and structure didn’t help the company to gain advantage over its rivals in the competitive environment in recent two decades. Recommendation for Seiko is to build prudent and viable company vision ;amp; strategy, link the vision and strategy together with organization structure and resources, and get the vision and strategy realized. Details are following: Seiko needs to re-think that who are Seiko’s intended, actual, potential, and future customers, and what do these customers value in a watch.Watch collectors and enthusiasts, successful executives, and younger generation of rich families should be target clients for top end watches. These people care about watches’ craftsmanship and uniqueness, aesthetic and intricate style, status and symbol indication, as well as investment and heritage value, much more than superior accuracy and function for daily use. Seiko should take care of the demands of these people. However, Seiko shouldn’t give up the mid to low end market. Consumers of this market segment need a quality watch for money, fashion, function features, and some kind of status symbol will be plus. Seiko needs to have a solid strategy of distinguishable brands to server different segment demands.Seiko can get best practice idea and lessons learned from companies in the watch industry, such as Swatch group, and in other industries, such as VW group in automotive industry and L’Oreal group in cosmetic industry. Though the basic inner technology and formula could be shared across different brands and models, the exterior and style must be different. Different brands should convey clear different messages to customers. It would take too many resources and too long time to move the current Seiko brand up. The â€Å"Grand Seiko† name is no significant different from â€Å"Seiko† name thus is not appropriate to be a top end brand, but could cover the segment in between.The brand â€Å"Credor† is suggested to carry over the high end segment responsibility and needs to expand globally under intensive and well-designed promotional campaign. Seiko made a positive move to centralize and streamline watch company organization; the next step would be to match brand differentiation needs with organizational structure and resources. The â€Å"Credor†, â€Å"Grand Seiko†, â€Å"Seiko†, and other brands could share R;amp;D, production facility, IT, finance, HR and administration. But segmental marketing and sales, brand management, and some other specialized tasks can’t be shared. Each brand should be led by experienced and proved executives and take its own profit and loss responsibility.

Supply Chain 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Supply Chain 2 - Essay Example Question 1 The product design for personal computers was mainly developed by way of analyzing the need for that particular product in the business market. Specifically, there were certain product design decisions that were made during the simulation. In this regard, the major decision was about determining the manufacture of products that are user led product decisions. It can be affirmed that these sorts of decisions have been made in order to serve the best interests of the consumers and comply with their requirements. Before making the product design, the requirement of personal computers was analyzed in an in-depth manner. Based on this analysis, it had been found that personal computers were in high demand given the IT industry booming at a significant level. It was thus decided to penetrate the market with a high amount of sales of personal computers by ABC Limited. In terms of product design decisions, it was determined to sell personal computers, laptops, desktops, and hard d rives as these products were in high demand, as revealed by the market analysis. It had been determined that in the past decade there has been a rapid development in demand of such products due to an increase in the number of information technology users such as students, office users and other general business users. Thus, it can be said that this product design decision influenced the branding as well because the company felt that the focus on such high demand products in terms of branding will certainly lead to high end business outcomes. Regarding the branding decision pertaining specifically to the developed computers, the company needs to taken into concern certain important factors. These factors comprise generating a loyal brand team, establishing the objectives relating to branding and advancing concept development among others. In the simulation, development of brand image was given significant priority as in the modern competitive world branding can create the ultimate di fferentiation and can render competitive advantage. As these products are high in demand, these have been selected while making the product design decisions. Also, the simulation method was used in making the product design and for adopting and executing appropriate marketing strategies. It can be affirmed that the above discussed analysis would broadly influence branding decisions such as standardization and customization of personal computers through determining the factors favoring customization along with standardization of the product. Specially mentioning, the decision of launching the concerned product was made after conducting a proper simulation analysis. Question 2 The decision pertaining to selection of target market would be considered by taking into concern the location of sales offices. The sales office location should represent the major cities along with towns in a particular country. In addition, if provided with the opportunity to repeat the simulation process, the decision of changing the target market i.e. the location of sales offices should not be made. This might be owing to the reason that the sales offices are strategically situated at the heart of the big towns along with cities in the nation proving much beneficial for the company to attract maximum number of customers and most vitally to enhance its overall productivity. It can further be reiterated that no changes in

Stock Options From an Accounting Point of View Essay - 1

Stock Options From an Accounting Point of View - Essay Example For the reason that most stock options had exercise prices at least equal to current market prices, no compensation expenditure was recognized. This approach ignored any possibility that the stock price would exceed the exercise price in the future. In June 1993, FASB attempted to be familiar with the reality of stock-option value by issuing proposed SFAS 123, which required measuring the option value based upon the scores of issue that reflect its underlying value. As a result, total compensation expenditure was to be based upon the fair value of the options expected to vest on the grant date. No adjustments would be completed following the grant date in response to subsequent changes in the stock price. Fair value was to be estimated using Black-Scholes or binomial option-pricing models. An upsurge of substantial opposition to this fair value technique resulted, led primarily by industries making significant use of stock options, particularly in the high-technology sector. Smaller high-tech corporations were very verbal, arguing that offering stock options was the barely way they could hire top professional management. Furthermore, they claimed that the losses that would result from forcing them to recognize stock options as compensation expenditure would impair their stock price and put them at a disadvantage compared to larger corporations better able to absorb the expenditure of stock options (Apostolou, 2005). Opponents to the expensing of stock options embodied many members of Congress. In 1993, Senator Joseph Lieberman introduced a bill that would have mandated the SEC to necessitate that no compensation expenditure be reported on the income statement for stock-option plans. This bill would have set a treacherous precedent for interfering in the operations of FASB. The puissant interests aligned against it forced FASB to compromise. In 1995, FASB decided to hearten, rather than

Global Warming Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global Warming - Research Paper Example Global Warming There are three main ways in which human activities lead to an escalation in the total amount of the greenhouse gases; burning of fossil fuel, deforestation, and agricultural as well as industrial activities. During the combustion of fossil fuels, large amounts of carbon dioxide are produced. Fossils get burnt in order to aid in production of energy that can help in transportation, cooling, heating, and electricity generation. 80% of the total carbon dioxide added in the atmosphere comes from burnt fossil fuels (Spellman & Whiting, 2006). In addition, land use change for example; clearing lands for ranching, agriculture or logging contributes positively in the increased levels of carbon dioxide. Plants contain carbon which gets emitted as carbon dioxide when plants decay or burn. In addition, ozone gas and chlorofluorocarbons results to an increase in the levels of green house gases in the atmosphere. Ozone gas is present in the troposphere, and it emerges from industries. Most of untreated industrial wastes contain methane. Chlorofluorocarbons found in refrigerators and air conditioners also deplete stratospheric ozone layer. However, there are some scientists who dismiss the fact that, global warming is as a result of human activities. Abdussamatov for instance, has come up with a theory that dismisses the idea of greenhouse gases as the leading cause of global warming. He argues that greenhouse gases have minimal influence on earth’s temperature (Pasachoff & Filippenko, 2007). ... During the  combustion  of fossil fuels, large amounts of carbon dioxide  are produced. Fossils get burnt in order to  aid  in production of energy that can help in transportation, cooling, heating, and electricity generation. 80% of the total carbon dioxide added in the atmosphere comes from burnt fossil fuels (Spellman & Whiting, 2006). In addition, land use change  for example; clearing lands for ranching, agriculture or logging contributes positively in the increased levels of carbon dioxide. Plants contain carbon which gets emitted as carbon dioxide when plants decay or burn. In addition, ozone gas and chlorofluorocarbons results to an increase in the levels of green house gases in the atmosphere. Ozone gas is present in the troposphere, and it emerges from industries. Most of untreated industrial wastes contain methane. Chlorofluorocarbons found in refrigerators and air conditioners also deplete stratospheric ozone layer. However, there are some scientists who dismi ss the fact that, global warming is as a result of human activities. Abdussamatov for instance, has come up with a theory that dismisses the idea of greenhouse gases as the leading cause of global warming. He argues that greenhouse gases have minimal influence on earth’s temperature (Pasachoff & Filippenko, 2007). Variation of temperature takes place mostly on Earth and Mars. He, therefore, believes that Carbon dioxide has no influence in Mars. Furthermore, he believes that, if greenhouse gases were to be absent, there would be no life on Earth. Instead, the whole planet would just be a ball of ice. He, however, says that the global warming is due to wobbles in Earth’s