Analyzing Search Engines :: essays research papers

<div style="sub-title">1. Formulate five criteria for the evaluation of search engines To effectively evaluate three different search engines from the perspective of an advanced web user, the following criteria were established: 1. Relevance and accuracy of search results 2. Search speed 3. Advanced search options 4. Other services 5. Site design and layout More information about these criteria and how they were used is available below. 2. Test three search engines against your criteria For this evaluation, the following three search engines were tested: 1. AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com/ 2. Google - http://www.google.com/ 3. DirectHit - http://www.directhit.com/ <div style="sub-title">3. Explain your methodology The criteria outlined in Part 1 were reached by considering the things that would be important to an advanced user. Of course, factors like Relevance and Speed are critical to such a user (particularly in a work environment). The search options criteria is particularly important to advanced users who are after a specific page and do not want to waste time 'wading' through results from a 'standard' search. The other criteria are important to most users and mean that the search engines are more usable and useful. The search results from the three test search engines (Part 2) were evaluate according the criteria, explained it more detail below. Criteria 1 - Relevance and Accuracy of Results This criterion was to evaluate the usefulness of a particular search engine according to the accuracy of its results. I defined the relevance, according to personal standards, after browsing the pages in the results, for three separate search terms. The Relevance Percentage is calculated by counting the number of relevant pages that appear in the first 20 search 'hits' and then multiplying by 20 (for a percentage). Criteria 2 - Search Speed This criterion was to evaluate which of the test search engines returns results quicker. However, it is important to note that the speed test is both a test of the Internet connection to the remote machine, as well as the time taken by the search engine to perform the search. Furthermore, tests of Internet speeds are very variable based on time of day, other internet traffic etc and are therefore of only limited accuracy. For this reason, no 'hard numbers' were calculated (ie timed searches). Instead, I rated each search engine based on 5 searches per engine at the same time, same day. The possible Speed Ratings are as follows: Excellent, Good, Poor Criteria 3 - Search Options This criteria was to evaluate the search engines advanced search options.

Ophelia Character Sketch

Hamlet is a very complex play based upon the relationships within the walls of Listener Castle in Denmark. Hamlet is the main character and the focus point in all the emotions and feelings in the play. Gertrude (Hamlet's mother), and Claudia (Hamlet's uncle and his mother's new husband and the new king of Denmark) all of these characters play major roles in the play.Aphelia is outside the family connections of these three characters but she still impacts the play with her bubble personality that she is force to do by her father and the manipulations and mistreatment of others. Hamlet has the first reason to be hurt by Aphelia because she follows her father's orders regarding Hamlet and his true intentions for their love. Polonium tells Aphelia that Hamlet will not do anything but be pimp with the girls since he is supposed to have an arranged marriage. After telling Aphelia this, Polonium and Claudia try to have Aphelia become bait to find out why Hamlet us acting crazy.Hamlet begin s with his overwhelming sarcasm toward Aphelia, â€Å"l humbly thank you, well, well, well,† he says to her regarding her initial pleasantries (3. 1. 91). Before this scene, he has heard the King and Polonium establishing a plan to deduce his unusual and grief-stricken behavior. Hamlet is well aware that this plan merely uses Aphelia as a tool, and as such, she does / piton 2 not have much option of refusing without angering not only her father but the conniving King Claudia as well.Hamlet constantly refuses that he cared for her. He tells her and all of his uninvited listeners, â€Å"No, not l, I never gave you aught† (Ham. 1. 94-95). Hamlet has a right to direct his anger to Aphelia because it was her that repelled against him. Her father forced her, and if she did try to disobey her father she could be disowned. Furthermore, Aphelia cannot know that Hamlet's attitude toward her reflects his disillusionment in his mother. Hamlet's inconstancy can only mean deceitfuln ess or madness.Hamlet puts Aphelia in a trap that has been laid by him in order for his revenge to continue, in part Aphelia love and idealize her lover, and her shock is genuine when Hamlet demands â€Å"get thee to a nunnery† (linemen). Hamlet says this to show that Aphelia can be easily controlled by others and not only throwing herself at Hamlet but also letting her father control Aphelia. Hamlet calls her a prostitute that can be easily be misled away by other's intentions.The melancholy, grief, and madness that Hamlet suffers from may well eve been the propelling force for all of his unfortunate action towards Aphelia in Shakespearean play. It is worth allowing that the first of the two are real; his melancholy and grief are not the same as Aphelion's. Aphelia is the more tragic of the two because her madness is not feigned. Furthermore, it is caused by the very love of her life is even more disastrous for her poor young life and possibly pregnancy. They are each malcon tents with no real happiness made available to them given their unfortunate circumstances.

Emergent Corporate Strategy Essay

CORPORATE STRATEGY is the direction an organization takes with the objective of achieving business success in the long term. Recent approaches have focused on the need for companies to adapt to and anticipate changes in the business environment. The development of a corporate strategy involves establishing the purpose and scope of the organization’s activities and the nature of the business it is in, taking the environment in which it operates, its position in the marketplace, and the competition it faces into consideration. Strategic management is a relatively young subject. It has its roots in the economic and social theories of the 1930s and 1940s – perhaps even earlier. It only really began to emerge as a separate topic in the 1960s and 1970s. Even today, there is only partial agreement on the fundamental principles of strategic management with many views, ideas and concepts. Among the numerous early contributors, the most influential were Alfred Chandler, Philip Se lznick, Igor Ansoff and Peter Drucker. Alfred Chandler recognized the importance of coordinating management activity under an all-encompassing strategy. Interactions between functions were typically handled by managers who relayed information back and forth between departments. Chandler stressed the importance of taking a long term perspective when looking to the future. In his 1962 ground breaking work Strategy and Structure, Chandler showed that a long-term coordinated strategy was necessary to give a company structure, direction and focus. He says it concisely, â€Å"structure follows strategy.† Times change and concepts evolve so by the 1980s one can choose between two pathways when developing a strategy for a corporation, non-profit organization or an institution: the prescriptive and the emergent approach. Deliberate strategy is goal-orientated. It asks: what do we want to achieve? Emergent strategy is means-orientated. It asks: what is possible, with the means we have at our disposal? Already in 1985 Mintzberg and Waters were publishing: Ë ®Of strategies, Deliberate and EmergentË ® were they stated that deliberate str ategy is realized as intended whereas emergent strategy are patterns of consistence realized despite, or in the absence, of intention. There are 8 different types of strategy between the two poles of deliberate and emergent strategy: planned, entrepreneurial, ideological, umbrella, process, unconnected, consensus, imposed. Many authors have defined the two approachments in different ways. In Linch’s view a prescriptive thinking is one whose objectives are defined in advance and whose main elements have been developed before the strategy commences. Such an approach usually begins with an analysis of the outside environment and the resources of the company. The objectives of the organization are then developed from this. There then follows the generation of strategic options to achieve the objectives, from which one (or more) may be chosen. The chosen option is then implemented. This full range of activities is called the prescriptive strategy process. Henry Mintzberg, in his work, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, was a critic of the analytical approach arguing that label strategic planning should be dr opped because strategic planning has impeded strategic thinking and also because unpredictable events, such as the introduction of new regulations or technologies, will regularly act to force the original strategy off its course. From a contrary point of view Ansoff shows that firms in fast-paced, competitive environments who use a systematic process for strategic planning very often go on to dominate their marketplace. Their logical, analytical approach allows them to devise predictive and pre-emptive strategies from which they can meet new opportunities head on. For instance, in 1995 EasyJet used incredible foresight to introduce low cost flights allowing it to take advantage of a more cost-conscious European Market. The prescriptive approach regards strategy development as a systematized and deterministic process where analysis of the organisation, its performance and external environment leads to the formation of a rational, long-term plan. Senior management is in charge of defining the final objectives and the plan is then put into action through the successive layers of the organization. Managers who use the analytical method are usually those with a low appetite for risk and activate in a slow changing market. On the other hand, the emergent strategy is a pattern of action that develops over time in an organization in the absence of a specific mission and goals, or despite a mission and goals. Emergent strategy is sometimes called realized strategy. Mintzberg argues that strategy emerges over time as intentions collide with and accommodate a changing reality. Emergent strategy is a set of actions, or behavior, consistent over time, â€Å"a realized pattern [that] was not expressly intended† in the original planning of the strategy. When a deliberate strategy is realized, the result matches the intended course of action. An emergent strategy develops when an organization takes a series of actions that with time turn into a consistent pattern of behavior, regardless of specific intentions. â€Å"Deliberate strategies provide the organization with a sense of purposeful direction.† Emergent strategy implies that an organization is learning what works in practice. Mixing the deliberate and the emergent strategies in some way will help the organization to control its course while encouraging the learning process. â€Å"Organizations †¦[may] pursue †¦ umbrella strategies: the broad outlines are deliberate while the details are allowed to emerge within them† (from Mintzberg, H. 1994, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning). Linch defines emergent strategy as one that does not have the same fixed objectives as the prescriptive approach. The whole process is more experimental with various possible outcomes depending on how matters develop. To quote, ‘An emergent strategy is one whose final objective is unclear and whose elements are developed during the course of its life, as the strategy proceeds.’ Thus the early stages of emergent strategy may be similar to prescriptive strategy – analysis of the environment and resources. But then the process becomes more circular, learning and experimental. Formulation of strategy runs parallel to implementation and managers at multiple organizational levels have a key input into the actual strategies pursued by the organization. This model’s emphasis on learning underlies more recent theories which focus on the value of knowledge as a core organizational competence for gaining competitive advantage. Despite heaving a good, solid, prescriptive strategy with their low cost flights, Easy Jet embraces with success also the emergent approach by launching allocated seats on all flights, in order to get competitive advantage. Budget airline says it will make more money from seat allocation than speedy boarding scheme preferred by rival Ryanair. EasyJet is ending the desperate rush for prime seats on low-cost flights by launching allocated seating across its network. Having been eschewed by budget carriers in the past for impeding fast turnaround times, the Luton-based airline said seat allocation did not appear to slow down journeys an d is more lucrative than speedy boarding schemes. It expects 1a and 6a to be the prime picks on flights following trials on 6,000 flights this season. Allocated seating was be rolled out across easyJet’s network from November, with all passengers allocated a seat. Those wishing to change their seat will be charged  £12 for front row and over-wing seats,  £8 for berths in the four rows behind the front row, and  £3 to reserve a seat anywhere else on the plane. Passengers who don’t pay for a particular spot will be randomly allocated a seat as well when they check in, free of charge, although the chances of getting a seat up front will be diminished. â€Å"The majority of people will not have to pay for their seat,† said an EasyJet spokesman, adding that the airline would attempt to seat families together even if they don’t pay for specific seats. EasyJet has mulled allocated seating trials in the past but Carolyn McCall, EasyJet chief executive, has decided to push ahead after a trial scheme showed encouraging results. The trials found that on short-haul flights such as London to Glasgow, the  £3 window seat 6a was the most popular, while on longer routes such as London to Sharm-el-Sheikh the  £12 1a berth is the most sought-after due to the more substantial legroom. Predictably, seats in the middle and near the back found the fewest takers, with 16b the least desired on short haul and passengers avoiding 19b on long haul. â€Å"This is an example of EasyJet trying to do all it can to make travel easy and affordable for our passengers,† said McCall. â€Å"Our customers asked us to trial allocated seating and we are really pleased with the positive passenger feedback during the trial. As importantly, we have shown that we can do so while delivering strong on-time performance – the most important driver of passenger satisfaction.† EasyJet said that more than seven out of 10 passengers on trial routes preferred the system to speedy boarding, where passengers pay around  £10. 50 to board a flight first – a service also offered by Ryanair. Low-cost airlines have been characterized by their strategy of charging for as many services as possible, from inflight food to checking bags into the hold. However, some notions such as allocated seating have been ruled out by the likes of Ryanair because of their potential to clutter up planes, which would prevent low-cost carriers from executing the 25-minute turnaround times – the gap between a plane arriving at its gate and pushing off again – that allow them to run the busiest possible timetable. Andrew Lobbenberg, an analyst at HSBC, said the move would benefit EasyJet because it gives the airline the opportunity to make money from all seats on a flight rather than the 30 berths set aside for speedy boarding. â€Å"We would expect sales of pre-allocated seat selection and premium seat allocation in the front of cabin and exit rows to certainly exceed speedy boarding revenues. Speedy boarding was limited to 30 passengers per flight, but we imagine a higher share of passengers will opt to secure their seats in advance of travel.† He added: â€Å"Moreover, we think the switch to allocated seating will make trave lling on EasyJet notably less stressful. It will be far better for families travelling together. It will also remove the hassle of boarding which we think has been a material deterrent for business travelers. It should also be helpful for relations with airports: as customers spend less time standing in queues for hours before the flight, they should be free to spend more time and money in airport stores.† An emergent approach leads to more creative and responsive strategy making which is well suited to the hyper-competitive and unpredictable environments of today. Interestingly, Hamel and Prahalad pointed out that the most successful firms in the world do not tie themselves down to mission, goals and objectives or the predetermined plan. One of these corporations is obviously Apple, which is in a never-ending development. Apple prides itself on its innovation. When reviewing the history of Apple, it is evident that this attitude permeated the company during its peaks of success. For instance, Apple pioneered the PDA market by introducing the Newton in 1993. Later, Apple introduced the easy-to-use iMac in 1998, and updates following 1998. It released a highly stable operating system in 1999, and updates following 1999. Apple had one of its critical points in history in 1999 when it introduced the iBook. This completed their â€Å"product matrix†, a simplified product mix strategy formulated by Jobs. This move allowed Apple to have a desktop and a portable computer in both the professional and the consumer segments. In 2001, Apple hit another important historical point by launching iTunes. This marked the beginning of Apple’s new strategy of making the Mac the hub for the â€Å"digital lifestyle†. Apple then opened its own stores, in spite of protests by independent Apple retailers voicing cannibalization concerns. Then Apple introduced the iPod, central to the â€Å"digital lifestyle† strategy. Philip W. Schiller, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple, stated, â€Å"iPod is going to change the way people listen to music.† He was right. Apple continued their innovative streak with advancements in flat-panel LCDs for desktops in 2002 and improved notebooks in 2003. In 2003, Apple released the iLife package, containing improved versions of iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes. In reference to Apple’s recent advancements, Jobs said, â€Å"We are going to do for digital creation what Microsoft did for the office suite productivity.† That is indeed a bold statement. Time will tell whether that happens. Apple continued its digital lifestyle strategy by launching iTunes Music Store online in 2003, obtaining cooperation from â€Å"The Big 5† Music companies—BMG, EMI, Sony Entertainment, Universal, Warner. This allowed iTunes Music Store online to offer over 200,000 songs at introduction. In 2003, Apple released the world’s fastest PC (Mac G5), which had dual 2.0GHz PowerPC G5 processors. Product differentiation is a viable strategy, especially if the company exploits the conceptual distinctions for product differentiation. Those that are relevant to Apple are product features, product mix, links with other firms, and reputation. Apple established a reputation as an innovator by offering an array of easy-to-use products that cover a broad range of segments. However, its links with other firms have been limited, as we will discuss in the next section on strategic alliances. There is economic value in product differentiation, especially in the case of monopolistic competition. The primary economic value of product differentiation comes from reducing environmental threats. The cost of product differentiation acts as a barrier to entry, thus reducing the threat of new entrants. Not only does a company have to bear the cost of standard business, it also must bear the costs associated with overcoming the differentiation inherent in the incumbent. Since companies pursue niche markets, there is a reduced threat of rivalry among industry competitors. A company’s differentiated product will appear more attractive relative to substitutes, thus reducing the threat of substitutes. If suppliers increase their prices, a company with a differentiated product can pass that cost to its customers, thus reducing the threat of suppliers. Since a company with a differentiated product competes as a quasi-monopoly in its market segment, there is a reduced threat of buyers. With all of Porter’s Five Forces lower, a company may see economic value from a product differentiation strategy. A company attempts to make its strategy a sustained competitive advantage. For this to occur, a product differentiation strategy that is economically valuable must also be rare, difficult to imitate, and the company must have the organization to exploit this. If there are fewer firms differentiating than the number required for perfect competition d ynamics, the strategy is rare. If there is no direct, easy duplication and there are no easy substitutes, the strategy is difficult to imitate. There are four primary organizing dilemmas when considering product differentiation as a strategy: inter-functional collaboration, connection to the past, commitment to market vision and institutional control. To resolve these dilemmas, there must be an appropriate organization structure. A U-Form organization resolves the inter-functional collaboration dilemma if there are product development and product management teams. Combining the old with the new resolves the connection to the past dilemma. Having a policy of experimentation and a tolerance for failure resolves the commitment to market vision dilemma. Managerial freedom within broad decision-making guidelines will resolve the institutional control dilemma. Five leadership roles will facilitate the innovation process: Institutional Leader, Critic, Entrepreneur, Sponsor, and Mentor. The institutional leader creates the organizational infrastructure necessary for innovation. This role also resolves disputes, particularly among the other leaders. The critic challenges investments, goals, and progress. The entrepreneur manages the innovative unit(s). The sponsor procures, advocates, and champions. The mentor coaches, counsels, and advises. Apple had issues within its organization. In 1997, when Apple was seeking a CEO acceptable to Jobs, Jean-Louis Gassà ©e (then-CEO of Be, ex-Products President at Apple) commented, â€Å"Right now the job is so difficult, it would require a bisexual, blond Japanese who is 25 years old and has 15 years’ experience!† Charles Haggerty, then-CEO of Western Digital, said, â€Å"Apple is a company that still has opportunity written all over it. But you’d need to recruit God to get it done.† Michael Murphy, then-editor of California Technology Stock Letter, stated, â€Å"Apple desperately needs a great day-to-day manager, visionary, leader and politician. The only person who’s qualified to ru n this company was crucified 2,000 years ago.† Since Jobs took over as CEO in 1997, Apple seems to have resolved the innovation dilemmas, evidenced by their numerous innovations. To continue a product differentiation strategy, Apple must continue its appropriate management of innovation dilemmas and maintain the five leadership roles that facilitate the innovation process. In a few words emergent strategy does not mean chaos, but unintended order instead; does not mean that management is out of control, only that it is open, flexible and responsive as well as willing to learn; ultimately it implies learning what works. The purely prescriptive approach, where realized strategy is formed exactly as intended, and purely emergent strategy- order (consistency in actions over time) in absence of intention about it do both not exist in real life. The purely prescriptive and purely emergent strategy are two poles of a continuum of observable strategies in practice. Within the framework of an environment which is by and large unpredictable, many organizations are forced to become more flexible and adaptive to change. This supports the adoption of an emergent approach to strategy development which invokes a more intelligent capacity to respond to new opportunities. Nonetheless, such a strategy can preclude control over actions and may risk a lack of direction. A greater use of strategic planning tools for internal and external analysis would certainly facilitate improved organizational learning and enhance strategic thinking even while following an emergent approach. This recognition that the prescriptive and emergent processes, rather than being mutually exclusive, can be complementary approaches that reinforce each other is being highlighted in more recent theories such as the Logical Incrementalism approach proposed by Quinn. Although many management writers seem to seek one ‘best way’ to conduct strategy, these approaches are not necessarily incompatible. Different approaches may be suitable at different times, depending on the context or situation, and an organization may pursue a combination of approaches. For example, an organization can have a clear direction and an overall plan – which it expects to have a amend or adapt as events unfold. It may also encourage small-scale strategic initiatives or projects throughout the organization. They help the organization to develop new skills and retain flexibility; they also have the potential of spreading if conditions are appropriate. All in all, most viable strategies in today’s business world should have customized elements of prescriptive and emergent characteristics in order to manage the complexities of their business and still triumph over changing circumstances. The final conclusion is that â€Å"Strategy formation walks on two feet, one deliberate and one emergent.† (Mintzberg & Waters)

The State Of Crappy Content (And How To Rise Above) With Barry Feldman

The State Of Crappy Content (And How To Rise Above) With Barry Feldman Does your blog stand out from your competition? Does it provide experiences that make prospects want to come back? If your blog is boring, what does that say about your products and services? But if your blog content is engaging, imagine what your target audience will think about them. Today, we’re talking to Barry Feldman, mastermind behind Feldman Creative. In this episode, Barry shares some tips on what to do and not do to create standout content, build an audience, and offer awesome experiences through your content marketing. Biggest impediment for content marketing success is tunnel vision, where companies focus explicitly on a blog but nothing more; expectations are unreal Think about the entire content marketing funnel capturing emails, building a community, and building a relationship; a blog is just a piece of that process Build an audience; create assets that excite people and don’t depend on one channel Barry’s experience with The Article Factory, a cheap content farm; you get what you pay for Barry’s price for articles is higher because he understands SEO, writing, positioning, and conversion; he can help you reach your objectives Blogs should be educational, entertaining, and inspiring; make customers the stars of your stories and showcase in-house/guest writers with opinions High-quality content is so exciting that you want more of it; the purpose of a blog content is to get someone to subscribe to your Website Invest more time and resources to create quality content; bigger is better Successful content marketers position themselves as experts in their field; communicate authority with your posts Content Marketing: Keep trying, roll with the changes, take it seriously; success isn’t instant and you don’t hit a homerun every time Links: Feldman Creative Books by Barry Feldman The Article Factory How Publishing Crappy Content Ruins Your Rankings The (Sarcastic) Guide to Publishing a Boring Blog Joe Pulizzi Write and send a review to receive a care package If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Barry Feldman â€Å"I think there’s a horrible amount of tunnel vision where (people and companies) focus explicitly on the blog and nothing more.† â€Å"You have to think about the entire funnel capturing emails, building a community, and building a relationships and a blog is just a piece of that.† â€Å"You can build an audience in a lot of ways. But if you’re depending entirely on any one channelyou may or may not build an audience.† â€Å"Content marketing succeeds when subject matter experts and talented creatorscome together.†

America First Hand Essays - Literature, United States, Free Essays

America First Hand Essays - Literature, United States, Free Essays America First Hand America First Hand. Robert D. Marcus and David Burner. Beacon Press, 1987, 223 pgs. The beginning of the colonial period was full of troubles. America First Hand, by Robert D. Marcus and David Burner is written in distinct detail about several accounts by American colonists that are written and relay what it was like in the colonies during the first couple decades. The accounts describe how teenagers, men, and women, all in their own way, questioned society, religion, and government in order to improve themselves and have their own effects on a changing county. Marcus and Burner compare and contrast religious, political, and social issues that were dealt with during the early 1800s. The authors examined the experiences of Hetty Shepard, Ben Franklin, and Eliza Pickeny. Three Americans from very different backgrounds who all had thoughts, actions, and ideas to better themselves and hopefully better their fellow man and society. They show that people should try to better themselves based on his or her own opinions and ideas rather than rely on those of others. Miss Hetty Shepard was a Puritan girl living in New England at the height of colonization and had trouble with the Indians. She recorded a diary to describe the days as they went by. Also along with her daily acknowledgements, Hetty reveals private thoughts and inquires that show her doubts and questions concerning her strict Puritan beliefs. Marcus and Burner show passages from a diary written by Hetty Shepard about what some may call the rebellious mind of young woman. Based on her writings, others may call her the beginning of the independent, or republican, women. Men of the colonial time period did not have it much easier than women. Inventor, philosopher, printer, and ladies man extraordinary Ben Franklin was also considered. He was a writer/printer from Philadelphia, and a person who was interested in the science of humanity. Franklin in the midst of the Age of Enlightenment, was a man concerned with his own personal perfection. Eliza Pinckney, A Republican Women, was an extraordinary woman of the colonial south. There were many photographs of Eliza Pinckney placed on pages 123-128. Throughout her life she knew how to fend for herself. She was educated and cultured; she took on the responsibilities of running several plantations, as well as the responsibility of raising two children on her own through long distance correspondence. She was in every meaning of the word, independent. All three of these people, Hetty Shepard, Ben Franklin, and Eliza Pinckney began their ways by suppressing their natural thoughts, impulses, and emotions in order to fulfill the requirement society expected of them. America First Hand teaches a lesson because eventually they all came to realize that the way to better them was to do what was best for them and their situation. These three people are examples of what makes America a great country of independence. They show that you dont have to believe what you are told, and that you should do what is best for you as you see it. They show that no matter your age, sex, background, or creed, you can think for yourself and help to mold our still and ever-changing country. The material that the authors present is well organized and easy to understand. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about how others viewed us becoming an independent nation during the 1800s.

A Study On Change Management Commerce Essay

A Study On Change Management Commerce Essay Accepting change is considered the biggest paranoia in todays world. Organizations – both business and non-business confront a challenging world. Some of the challenges that are faced by managers today include competition from other firms, globalization, and technological changes besides others. Let us consider a small example that can set the stage for discussing the effects of change. Daily life in a modern society is like a routine, where we wake up in the mornings, have breakfast, go for work, have lunch, come back from work, eat dinner and then sleep again. It has become a scheduled life, or so to say, we conform to structure in our lives. This structure provides us the necessary security. But, if we were to live in a world full of anxiety and unexpected mechanisms, it may leave us feeling uneasy and apprehensive. If this is the condition of individuals, a large-scale change in an organization can surely transform its people into anxiety, exasperation, frustration, depre ssion or even fatal incidents. To curb this, organizations practice what is to be referred to as Change Management. Change Management is a process whereby, the individual, team or the organization develops a planned approach towards any sort of an alteration. The objective is to capitalize the benefits for the people and lessen the risk of failure of implementation. Change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and most importantly, consultation with the people who are going to be involved in the process. This task studies how organizations have evolved to accept change. But let us first look at the drivers that affect organizational change: Ø Inadequate Financial Performance – the 2008 economic slowdown can be well quoted as an example for this. Companies failing to reach their financial benchmarks, have to undergo change. Competitive organizations can cannibalize their market share, provided they enter with cheaper labor or superior technolo gy. Failure to maintain the market share can force companies to rethink their opportunity cost and also the deployment of resources. Ø Changes in Strategic objectives – many companies shift their focus from being product-driven to being customer-driven or even process-driven. To enable this, restructuring and re-orientation of processes, people are required of in the organization. Ø New Technology – companies that neglect the new trends in the market are set to suffer a setback, and, therefore, should adapt to the changes in technology. Ø Mergers and Acquisitions – when companies merge and consolidate their operations, people and the culture, re-engineering takes place. The streamlining of the operations, infrastructure and the structure of the two organizations into one centralized theme is a huge part of the change management process. These, could be defined as the drivers of change that evolve businesses and markets. Organizations, today, have learn t to adapt to change. In this era of globalization, fast-moving lives and business-centered organizations, people and the processes have accepted the transformation. For instance, a lot of investment banks had to undergo transformation during the economic slowdown. Citigroup Inc. restructured its banks and other affiliates during the recessionary period, to acclimatize with the new environment. And it did happen. The management has to ensure that a smooth shift occurs, and for this it adopts a number of organizational theories as a basis for effective change management. Some of them are listed in the next few paragraphs.

Ylindrospermopsin Alkaloids Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ylindrospermopsin Alkaloids - Research Paper Example CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The description of cylindrospermopsin alkaloids is such that they consist of three soluble water toxins that comprise of cylindrospermopsin (CYN) (1), 7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (7-deoxy-CYN) (2) and also 7-epi-cylindrospermopsin (7-epi-CYN) (3). Researchers have signaled towards certain problems related to the toxicological characteristics of these natural compounds, their existence in water and which was followed by their removal. The structural features of these alkaloids are in fact extraordinary comprising of a sulfonated tricyclic guanidine linked to a uracil ring. The beginning of this analysis centers on the isolation of these innate products followed by the investigation into the environmental impact of cylindrospermopsin alkaloids contamination. (1) Figure 1. The cylindrospermopsin alkaloids of cylindrospermopsin (1),7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (2) and 7-epi-cylindrospermopsin (3). 1.1 ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION Credited to Moore and his team usin g a combination of NMR and mass spetroscopy, the extraction of Cylindrospermopsin (1) took place in 1992 from the cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii. While 7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (2) was discovered in 1999, owing to the purification of cylindrospermopsin which was performed on a regular basis. It was also concluded that the derivate of cylindrospermopsin could also exist in the form of a pair of tautomers because of the fact that the uracil ring’s vinylic proton was not identified during the application of the H NMR technique as shown in figure 2. However, as every sample of 7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (2) was observed the incidence of the uracil group (4) was confirmed by examining the absorbance maximum (?max). Even... Credited to Moore and his team using a combination of NMR and mass spetroscopy, the extraction of Cylindrospermopsin (1) took place in 1992 from the cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii. While 7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (2) was discovered in 1999, owing to the purification of cylindrospermopsin which was performed on a regular basis. It was also concluded that the derivate of cylindrospermopsin could also exist in the form of a pair of tautomers because of the fact that the uracil ring’s vinylic proton was not identified during the application of the H NMR technique as shown in figure 2. However, as every sample of 7-deoxy-cylindrospermopsin (2) was observed the incidence of the uracil group (4) was confirmed by examining the absorbance maximum (ÃŽ »max). Even though, the measurement of approximate quantity was not possible, it was evident that as a mixture of compounds the natural material indeed existed. The discovery of the 7-epi-cylindrospermopsin took place in 20 02 and it was originally established that it was synthesized with Aphanizomenon ovalisporum. The approximation of cylindrospermopsin’s relative stereochemistry was made by considering the unusualtautomer enol presence of the uracil D ring. To explain the concept, uracil D as described in structure 6 is a intramolecularly hydrogen linked to a nitrogen terminus of the guanidine group. The NMR evidence was made to be the basis of the product correlation which understandably led the research participants to conclude that structure 7 was the most appropriate and relevant description of cylindrospermopsin (1).