Fast Food Transforming American Society Essay

Fast food has grown to be a big part of American Society. According to Eric Schlosser, â€Å"Over the past few decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American Society† (3). In a sense, his statement about fast food is not too exaggerated. Today, we see fast food all over America, whether it is through television advertisements, billboards, and magazines. America has grown to be the number one fast food country in the world. The increase of fast food has resulted in good business for the fast food industry: â€Å"In 2000 Americans spent about $110 billion on fast food compared to $6 billion in 1970† (Schlosser). Why are Americans spending huge amounts of money on fast food? How has the fast food industry grown to become a huge influence on American society? Seyhan Sipahi states, â€Å"Recent global economical crisis†¦had a crippling effect on almost all financial sectors in many countries. Surprisingly, the fast food industry had not be adversely affected†¦Ã¢â‚¬  What is keeping the fast food industry alive? Could it be that more families are turning to fast food because recent economic crisis? The fast food industry has grown to be more efficient than when it first started. Making food selling more convenient, fast and for a cheap price has attracted customers. There are multiple ways the fast food industry has transformed American society and what it is to live in America. In this generation, more mothers are in the workforce than there were in the past. Since â€Å"Women’s labor force participation is significantly higher today than it was in the 1970s, particularly among women with children† (Labor Force Participation of Women and Mothers, 2008, The Editor’s Desk) ever since then the rate has been going up. Now that both parents are away from home working it makes it harder for them to make home cooked meals. Due to the lack of home cooked meals, many Americans families have turned to fast food. According to Schlosser, â€Å"three generations ago more money was being spent on food in the United States to make meals at home† (3). Fast food has taken over the diet of many American families. It is more convenient to buy something that is near by, prepared fast, and is reasonably priced for its proportion. Another reason why people choose fast food is because frankly it is delicious. Nothing that is made at home can compare to something made at a fast food restaurant. It is hard to get sick of fast food because there are so many restaurants to choose from that each have their own tastes in foods. The largest class in America is the middle class. Since middle class makes up the majority of the American population it is reasonable to say these families with lower income tend to buy fast food more often. Fast food restaurants have grown to be more efficient in the way that they produce their meals. On â€Å"Dec. 12, 1948, when Richard and Maurice transformed their barbecue joint into the first McDonalds restaurant, focusing on speed, value and high volume. † (Hill). This helped build a kind of assembly line of workers, each worker in charge of one job. For example, in order to make a hamburger, one would be in charge of getting the buns, another in charge of putting the patty, another in charge of putting the lettuce and tomato, and on. In doing this, production of the food becomes much faster. Food being frozen before preparing it is another way that fast food restaurants have grown more efficiently. Schlosser gives an example with guacamole that is made in Mexico, frozen, and shipped to the restaurant (40). Many fast food restaurants do this with the products they serve, although their advertisements may say fresh. Drive-throughs and computerized cash registers have also helped fast food restaurants speed up time for their consumers. An example of how drive throughs are so successful is Victoria’s experience: There’s just one place that Victoria Vollaire stops every day. It’s not the supermarket. It’s not the ATM. It’s the drive-thru. This costs her $400 a month right out the drive-thru window. â€Å"I don’t like getting out of the car,† explains Vollaire, who lives in Ontario, Calif. , and works as a hotel guest service aide. More than half the money spent on fast food rolls in through the drive-thru lane. (Horovitz) Drive-throughs give restaurants the ability to take multiple orders and give convenience for customers that are in a hurry. People like the conscience of not even having to get out of there cars to get their food. Computerized cash registers with buttons for every order possible help to make orders quick and precise. These days it is not surprising to see a fast food restaurant almost at every corner in America. A study was made on how fast food restaurants cluster around schools in America. Steven Gortmaker, in charge of this study, states, â€Å"78% of schools had at least one fast food restaurant within 800 meters. Fast food restaurants tend to cluster near schools and offices because it is more convenient, with the idea to gain more business. Many fast food restaurants are close to places where children and adolescent are close by. They do this because these two age groups are the most targeted by the fast food industry (Fast Food Targeted Marketing). Another study, on a high school that sold fast food products concludes that fast food is 70% of all food sold at the school (Calderon. ) As the expansion of fast food companies continues to increase, more restaurants are seen closer together. Before, companies use to stay away from competition, but now they are clustered all over the place. It seems as though fast food restaurant expansion has forced them to cluster even to the extent of having fast food shopping centers. Fast food has greatly transformed popular culture in America. By looking at McDonalds as an example, McDonalds has far surpassed any other fast food chain in America and possibly the world. McDonalds has grown very close to many children: â€Å"A survey for American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald† (Schlosser). What makes fast food so popular in America? Many people appraise fast food industries for their products because they are delicious and affordable. Did affordability of fast food make it so popular? Fast food transforms popular culture in America mainly through advertising. Whether it is on television, sponsoring professional athletes, or even promoting events like the Olympics or the World Cup. It is said that â€Å"In 2009, teens saw 5 fast food ads each day† (Fast Food Targeted Marketing). The majority of the commercial on TV are based on fast food companies. Fast food has become a trend in American society, eating it is in the norms of society today. Fast food advertisement has a monkey, see monkey do effect on people. If people see famous celebrities on TV eating or promoting the fast food company, it encourages them to go. The constant selling of fast food causes higher demands in agricultural resources. According to Schlosser, â€Å"The fast food chains now stand atop a huge food-industrial complex, taking control of American Agriculture† (59). It is getting harder for farmers outside of this â€Å"food industrial complex† to find business. Many times farmers and cattle ranchers become hired hands for the agribusiness giants† (Schlosser). Although the giant agriculture business may seem powerful, it is still on the bottom of the fast food companies because they are what make their business. â€Å"The fast-food industry changed the nation’s retail economy, eliminating small businesses, encouraging the spread of chains and uniformity, fast food has transformed American agriculture† (Schlosser). Apart from agriculture fast food, companies have also influenced how cattle should be raised, killed, and made into ground beef. The influence of the fast food companies on slaughterhouses has made the work environment a dangerous place. These slaughterhouses sound dangerous for the workers as well as for those consuming the meat. Meatpacking as grown to be one of the most dangerous jobs in America (Gardner). There is a lot of equipment that is dangerous and can cause severe injuries to workers. According to Gardner, â€Å"at least 29. 3% of meat workers suffered injury or illness compared to 9. 7% for the rest of manufacturing†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Working Conditions in American Slaughterhouses: Worse than You Thought). Carl Karcher started his fast food business by buying one hot dog cart and then from there he bought another three hot dog carts in Los Angeles. Not too much time past before Karcher had some competition. Recently moved from New Hampshire, the McDonald brothers came to California to find jobs. They opened up a hamburger shop and became famous for their delicious hamburgers. The brothers strived in coming up with new ways to make more money until finally one day they closed down their shop. A few months later the McDonald brothers reopened their shop, with a bigger grill, and a whole new process to make hamburgers. They would divide the food preparations into tasks. This is what started the whole assembly line style to preparing fast food and has been implemented by many fast food restaurants ever since. Two groups that fast food companies look to for hiring are teenagers and illegal immigrants. Having these two types of groups as a workforce allows fast food companies to spend less money on hired hands and more on advertising and expanding (Schlosser. ) Having workers that are not looking for a long-term job lets fast food companies have fewer benefits for their workers. The wages for fast food employees is far too little in ratio to the work that is expected. Fast food companies hire teenagers because they can survive with low pay and most are dependent on their parents. The statistics from the ages, 16-20, alone makes up 25% of the fast food workforce (Food Services and Drinking Places). Immigrants, on the other hand, cannot complain if they get paid so little because they are illegal and will work under most circumstances. The expansion of fast food companies has created many jobs over the years. Out of all food services and drinking places, fast food companies make up 47% (Food Services and Drinking Places). In the past few decades, food-related illness has increased (Schlosser). The way food is processed has affected its quality. Many of the livestock used to produce that typical hamburger patty are mistreated. The most common sickness that the livestock catch is E Coli. In December 2006 â€Å"71 people became sick with E. coli after eating at Taco Bell restaurants in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware† (O’Shea). It is hard to know for sure what is in fast food because most of the time this side of the story is covered up. Aside from meats getting pathogens, artificial flavoring is another key aspect of many fast food products. Many fast food companies injected their products with artificial flavoring. McDonalds for example â€Å"infuses its fries and chicken sandwiches with essences that mimic beef tallow† (Tamminen). Does the food taste that bad that places like McDonalds has turn to artificial flavoring? Can the chemicals being put in fast food be harmful to humans? Although there maybe some companies using artificial flavors, there many other companies that live up to natural flavors. What is the future of fast food industry in America? Will the fast food industry just keep growing until one day it not only becomes a big part of American life but also other places around the world? Fast food companies are expanding at an increasing rate causing high demands for more food. At this rate, could it be possible that someday the fast food industry will control all of the food distribution in America? They practically do already because they are the greatest contributors in meats, corn, potatoes and more. What will be the future for fast food in America? At its grown rate, the fast food industry seems to be taking over many Americans highways. Having many fast food chains by highways makes it all most impossible to not run into a fast food restaurant. Will the constant expansion of fast food restaurants bring down the big grocery stores and replace them? America has grown accustom to convenience when it comes to food. What do other countries think when they see America? Should America be proud because it is the number one fast food country in the world? It is hard to say where fast food will take America in the future, but one thing is certain: fast food and America can never be separated.

Tasha’s Case Write Up

Case 1: Tashas, Franchising the Boutique Cafe Experience 1. Why did Natasha Sideris succeed with her first â€Å"Tashas† cafe and with her initial expansion? I think the main reason behind her success is her passion for this job. She is clearly loving every moment of owning a restaurant. She was also able to communicate this passion to the customers as well as the staff. She was very focused on the service side of the business, and saw it as the main driver. The way she insists on customers’ not waiting more than 20 minutes for the food, which is cooked right after they ordered it. The location of the restaurant is another key driver of her success. Opening up a store in a very rich business district’s shopping center is a very good investment. And finally access to financing was very important as well. The initial expansion was a success because she was able to differentiate the new store from the first one. The new store was designed to cater the needs of the customers of that specific area. . Evaluate Sideris’ expansion plans. What advice would you give her at the time of the case? I personally believe that having 15-20 stores in the same country is not a good idea. It may be a financially viable idea, as it seems from the case, but there is a great risk of diluting the brand. Taking into consideration the population of South Africa as well as the number of people who actually have enough money to go to cafes and restaurants, having 20 Tashas Cafes doesn’t seem reasonable to me. Coming from Turkey, which is showing similar economic trends with South Africa for the recent years and facing similar income distribution problems, I have been observing boutique cafes and restaurants expand to never more than 10 restaurants nationwide. Sideris offers high-end products at high-end locations and her customer base is not very big. I think she has to be more conservative about her approach to expanding, and she should look into decreasing the risk of cannibalizing and diluting the brand.

War on Terror Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

War on Terror - Essay Example One of the most negative instances of the "War on Terror" occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, as the reader finds out in John Barry, Mark Hosenball and Babak Dehghanpisheh's "Abu Ghraib and Beyond;" many detainees, suspected terrorists, and Taliban fighters, were tortured by U.S. soldiers in an effort to extract information. The instances of torture were photographed and eventually made their way to the press and widespread viewing around the world. In the ensuing session of finger-pointing as to who was responsible, the soldiers who committed the acts claimed to have been told to do so by their superiors; their commanders denied having instructed them to humiliate the prisoners and torture them. The end result was that the soldiers were punished, Donald Rumsfeld's credibility was decimated, and the Islamic world became enraged at the American treatment of the prisoners. The names of the worst "interrogators" are given in the article, for they often stripped and tortured the inmates, rather than simply interrogating them. It is commendable that the article is not written in a way that condemns Lynndie England (one of the stars of the illicit torture photographs), but it points the blame higher to military officials, with being overt in doing so. Given the timing of the article (soon after the torture incidents, in the spring of 2004), the authors of the article show quite a bit of restraint in reporting the events at Abu Ghraib. Unlike most of today's reporting, the article is written in a matter of fact manner, without a lot of the leftist rhetoric found in today's reporting of the war (or anything having to do with George W. Bush). Additionally, it should be noted that in 2004, it was considered un-American to take the U.S. military to task on their behavior in the Middle East. This article shows a great deal of bravery by the authors, for the res ponse to the piece could have been quite negative.

Women of Troy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Women of Troy - Research Paper Example The tragedy experienced in this play is one of a kind and perfectly blended to break even the coldest of hearts and melt them as butter melts before a hot iron. Euripides takes time to curve out the tragedy from the mythical Greek legends and out of it comes a masterpiece that can only be compared with Homer’s Iliad, verses from Sophocles and also Aeschlylus. It has been a Greek thing to write beautiful stories of heroes and gods but nothing beats the Greeks at bringing out emotions in people as such with tragedies. In as much as most of the former plays of those times used unskilled performers and actors, the Grecian playwrights such as Homer still drove the point home by employing numerous theatrical techniques to keep their audience satisfied and entertained (Kirk, 20). At the onset of the events of that led to the Trojan War, Athena, Hera and Aphrodite are seen to fight over the rights of the fairest of them all. Zeus, the king of all gods, send the three goddesses to the Trojan prince Paris who then chooses Aphrodite and in return she makes Helen the fairest of women in Sparta winning the heart of Paris, and what follows next is one of the epic battles to ever go down in the Grecian history and history of the world. It is from this epic battle that we get to learn of the Trojan women and their plights before and after the war. Hecuba, the queen of Troy, wife to Priam and mother to Hector and Paris, is the first one to enter the stage full of grief and lamenting for the deaths of his two sons and husband and the fall of Troy. Later on, after the news from the Grecian herald of woe Talthybius, enters the cursed Cassandra with the ability to foresee the future but otherwise incapable of wooing her adversaries to believe her and she later ends up dyi ng in the house of her Greek Patron. Then enters Andromache full of tears for her dead husband Hector and soon after her son is killed by

Events, Hospitality and Tourism Dynamics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Events, Hospitality and Tourism Dynamics - Essay Example There should always a stable political environment in order for a country to develop and move forward economically. In order to achieve political stability, each country should achieve ideas of political stability. Ideas of political stability can be achieved through certain mechanisms. Achieving such ideas requires a good understanding of the factors that may affect political stability in general. There are various factors that are important considerations in achieving political stability. First, the entire society needs to be freed from any tendency of destabilization including political divisions, ethnicities, corruption, sectarian conflicts and major political disagreements. These factors cause lack of political stability; and yet political stability is necessary in organizing and hosting major events such as the Olympics and FIFA World Cup (Liubov 2010). This essays suggests that ideas in order to host events such as Olympics and FIFA World Cup, it is important to consider certain factors that help in achieving the ideas of political stability. The major factors that are important considerations in achieving ideas of political stability include: constitutionalism, respect for rights and freedom of people, democratic political system with free and fair elections, employment and improved living standards of people, transparency and accountability, food security, diplomatic relations with other countries, and good governance (Bhagwati 2002). Every politically stable society begins with a democratic political environment (Sawchuk et al 2013). Democracy involves governing through people by allowing the people or citizens to participate in forming the government. This is usually done through the elections. In democratic political system, citizens participate either directly or indirectly in the political system through elected representatives. The people in a democratic society may also be involved in

Nuclear Arms Race is better than Nuclear Arms Reduction for World Assignment

Nuclear Arms Race is better than Nuclear Arms Reduction for World Peace - Assignment Example The history reveals the fact that this race is not a contemporary theory or model and dates back to several years. â€Å"The nuclear arms and weapons race demonstrates and illustrates the fact that the nuclear arm came under design to create destruction and gain economic, political power over others, however, this theory has now eradicated, and a peace strategy comes under correlation to the nuclear arm race† (Gaddis, 2006). The pioneer countries of using the nuclear bombs and materialized into race were United States of America and the United Soviet States of Russia that eventually turned out in a Cold War, which lasted for couple of years. Although, the race carried on for few decades regardless of the fact and observation that the nuclear armaments are drastically and immensely costly in terms of research and development of the modern and innovative ones, yet they have been economical and low-cost than that of the traditional weaponries (Gaddis, 2006). Consequently, with th e technological boom taking over every facet of life, made a huge impact on the nuclear arms race as well due to the reason that the weapons also entailed the use of sophisticated technologies in the research and development of them (Hanhimaki  & Westad, 2004).

Microscope Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Microscope - Lab Report Example Bright field microscope is also called as student microscope. Bright field microscope can be used to study live micro organisms and pre- prepared slides. (Fixed stained smears). (Bain 2008). Bright Field Microscope: In this lab bright field microscope is used. The main parts of the microscope are lens system, revolving nose piece, stage, condenser and Iris diaphragm, light source, course focusing knob and fine focusing knob. The lens system consists of ocular and objectives. Ocular lens is the eye piece lens through which the specimen is viewed. Oculars have a magnifying power of 10 x in student microscope and the level of magnification is marked in the ocular. (Bisen and Sharma 2012). There are three objectives with different magnifying power. The scanning objective has the shortest magnifying power of 4x and it is the lowest magnifying power in a microscope. This lens is used to locate the specimen in the slide and to observe the large structures. The low power objective has the ma gnifying power of 10 x and used to observe the smaller structures at little detail. The high power objective of the student microscope has the longest objective and magnifying power of this objective is 40 x. fine details about the specimen are studied using this high power objective. (Bisen and Sharma 2012). The revolving nose piece has the objectives. The objectives with different magnifying power are chosen using this revolving nose piece. The stage is the flat surface on present below the objective on which the specimen is mounted. The centre of the stage has an opening through which the light passes on the specimen. (Bain 2008). The stage is mechanical and geared. The mechanical stage can be... In this lab bright field microscope is used. The main parts of the microscope are lens system, revolving nose piece, stage, condenser and Iris diaphragm, light source, course focusing knob and fine focusing knob. The lens system consists of ocular and objectives. Ocular lens is the eye piece lens through which the specimen is viewed. Oculars have a magnifying power of 10 x in student microscope and the level of magnification is marked in the ocular. (Bisen and Sharma 2012). There are three objectives with different magnifying power. The scanning objective has the shortest magnifying power of 4x and it is the lowest magnifying power in a microscope. This lens is used to locate the specimen in the slide and to observe the large structures.   The low power objective has the magnifying power of 10 x and used to observe the smaller structures at little detail. The high power objective of the student microscope has the longest objective and magnifying power of this objective is 40 x. fin e details about the specimen are studied using this high power objective.   The revolving nose piece has the objectives. The objectives with different magnifying power are chosen using this revolving nose piece. The stage is the flat surface on present below the objective on which the specimen is mounted. The centre of the stage has an opening through which the light passes on the specimen. (Bain 2008). The stage is mechanical and geared. The mechanical stage can be move to obtain the better resolution.

Managing Conflict In A Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managing Conflict In A Project - Research Paper Example Kerzner (2010), states that managers spend as much as 42% of their time resolving conflicts. It is therefore necessary that project management include effective study of conflicts and sound conflict resolution procedures. This paper will look into managing conflict in a project. Definition of a project. A project can be defined as a specific undertaking within a given timeframe aimed at producing a unique product or products, service or results. In science or marketing, a project may be defined as a corroborative undertaking between individuals or teams usually involving design or research that is carefully planned with the aim of achieving a particular objective (Kerzner, 2010). In carrying out a project, the aspect of project management involves harmonizing and organizing all the project activities with an aim to enable timely completion of the project and its success. In order to appreciate the reasons why conflicts may build up in course of the project development, it is importan t to discuss briefly the various stages of a project and the key role players in each stage. Stages of a Project. 1. Project Initiation. During this stage, the initial scope of the project is determined, estimates about cost and time of completion are done, the degree of complexity of the project is determined and material implications studied. A different aspect of initiation also involves building customer relationship, setting up the project team and establishes a project workbook (Ohlendorf, n.d.). 2. Project planning. During this phase, the project work is broken down into specific activities for specific role players. Material sourcing and supply is done, clear channels of communication between the various entities is done such as relationship between the project manger and the quality assurance team, or the flow of work procedures between the project engineers and the logistics teams(Ohlendorf, n.d.). Risk identification and evaluation is done at this stage. Conflict may aris e if any of the teams differ with another team, such as suppliers and quality assurances teams. 3. Project execution This is the most practical and most noticeable level of the project. It involves the actual processes of construction, supply of materials, evaluation of work procedures, management of changes to procedures and decisions, reporting of progress to stakeholders or sponsors as well as customers, and preparation of the project for the next phase (Ohlendorf, n.d.). 4. Project control This stage involves refining the aspects of the project that hinder proper realization of its goal. In this stage additional installation maybe done, specific installations removed, decisions changed or made and input from the end consumers or the stakeholders sought. The stage is characterized by radical decisions and is very vulnerable to conflicts (Ohlendorf, n.d.). 5. Project closing. This is the final stage. Here the project is put together and it should function. Evaluation of team membe rs, project review and consumer contact are usually done in this phase. Conflicts may still arise in this stage

Economic Releases and Resulting Market Reactions Research Paper

Economic Releases and Resulting Market Reactions - Research Paper Example The US Economy created 113,000 jobs with unemployment rate dipping to a low of 6.6%. Despite more people gaining employment, decline in hiring rates raised concerns of a slower growth. Rather than the economy taking off, it stumbled. Federal Reserve’s much-anticipated announcement a decision to start scaling back, the monthly asset purchases in January encountered a relatively mute market reaction not just in the US but across the globe. Although US equity markets at first fell on news, markets rallied strongly for remaining part of the month coupled with economic activity improvements as well as reassurance from central bank that its major interest rate would most likely remain near zero until after unemployment in the US fell below 6.5%.Hourly wages increased by 5 cents. As a result of the changes, job changes were recorded with job growth being constrained by sharp decline in public sector. Federal government shed off more than 12,000 jobs, while states and municipalities shed off 17,000 workers. Healthcare increased only 1500 jobs. Consumer spending: consumer spending declined for a 2nd straight month signaling a slowdown in the economy. Retail sales declined 0.4% in January marking the largest drop in the last ten months. The slowing economic fortunes are likely to see further reduction in consumer spending. The Manufacturing sector experienced expansion as shown in PMI, 51.3% although this was drop by 5.2% compared to seasonally adjusted rate of 56.5% in December. However, the reading being more than 50% indicates expansion of the manufacturing sector. The number of unemployed people (10.2 million) as well as the unemployment rate (6.6 %) recorded little change in January. This is a continuous trend from October which has seen joblessness rates reducing by 0.6%. Of the major work groups 20.7% of the unemployed are teenagers, 5.7% are whites, 6.2% are adult men, 12.1% are blacks, 5.9%

Assisted suicide Essay Example for Free

Assisted suicide Essay Assisted Suicide In the 1990s, ‘Doctor Death’ Jack Kevorkian invented the first assisted suicide machine  in the world. He was then thrown into prison for 7 years (Pickert). This caught people’s attention  and made them question whether it should be legal to request physician assisted suicide, which is  when someone asks a physician to help him or her terminate his or her life. This topic became  one of the most popular discussions in recent years, but the truth is that it has actually been a  centuries- old debate. For both logical and humanitarian reasons, assisted suicide is not right and  should not be legalize. Is it right for a nation founded on Christianity to allow citizens to choose assisted  suicide? Can a decision that is made by a mentally ill person be treated as a rational decision? Is  the prevention of pain an acceptable circumstance in which to end a life? People still do not have  a widely accepted answer. It is not clear whether physician assisted suicide  is right or wrong. Assisted suicide should not be viewed solely as affecting one life, but should be viewed as a  decision that affects many.  The declaration of independence states that everyone has the right to pursue happiness  In whatever way they choose. Many argue that a decision to kill oneself is a private choice, that  society should not be, and has no right to be concerned. America believes that with its freedom,  people can do almost everything based on their own choices. Physician assisted suicide is also  one of the choices that they can decide. The common argument is that these people are adults  who can make rational and reasonable choices, however many people who request physician  assisted suicide are mentally ill. Of those who attempt suicide but were unsuccessful, less than 4  percent go on to kill themselves in the future, which means that most people changed their mind  after a period of recovery. Psychological evidence shows that those who ask for physician   assisted suicide in order to avoid pain are normally ambivalent, and they  usually attempt to end  their life for other reasons than a settled desire to die. Since assisted suicide has already become  a popular way to end suffering and pain, people who were in the status might feel it is necessary  for them to kill themselves since they have in their mind become a burden to their family and  society. Some would say it is wrong for such an impression to have the power to persuade a  personto end their life due to their weakness and disability. As a Christian nation, America wants a positive and happy image for the country.  American people value the meaning of life, and According to what most of the Christians  believe, God is the one who created life. Then how can people have the right to end something  that they did not even create in the first place? American society does not think assisted suicide  is good as a whole, because assisted suicide is still a self-caused death, which is equal to suicide.  Although there is always a vague line drawn between assisted suicide and attempted  murder. Assisted suicide is the opposite of happiness because it demonstrates  utter depression. It  is clear that American society sees assisted suicide as wrong, because there is a suicide watch  team among the police and counselors at schools who are trained to help and avert suicide. Asking for assisted suicide as a form of pain relief and signing a release form is not acceptable  either. People cannot solve problems by trying to get rid of them. People who stand against  physician-assisted suicide believe that suffering is just a stage of life. And lots of people who  were prevented from assisted suicide will tell you that they all passed that stage successfully,  and they are appreciative that they were stopped from asking for physician-assisted suicide. Assisted suicide also hurts the people who care about those who were asking for a  physician assisted suicide. Patients might get relived from their long suffering and pain but their  family will be hurt from one’s immature decision. The person only thought of their own  feelings and never considered others who are around them and how they feel. Families and loved  ones will be upset about their decision to take their lives in a selfish act. Other evidence that  shows assisted suicide is wrong is the fact that there are always suicide prevention billboards in  communities. This should show the government that people do not want those around them to  commit suicide. People who fight for the right to have physician-assisted suicide argue that assisted  suicide can bring benefits to both patients and society. They believe that people who  choose assisted suicide will die with dignity rather than suffer the pain of illness( OSteen,  Burke). That they will not let their family and friends suffer anymore by showing their weakness  and sickness. By choosing assisted suicide, patients can also reduce a huge amount of medical  expenses that insurance does not cover. To benefit society, their organs can be donated to save  people’s lives (Humphrey). Doctors and nurses can spend more time on recovering patients  rather than waste time on patients who are assured death, and of course, they still think it is a part  of one’s freedom to be able to choose for himself whether to live or die. Whether it is one’s  rational decision to chose to end their life has always been the center of this debate. Because  without argu ing about one’s free right, those who favor assisted suicide will lose an important  statement. Although there is a ton of evidence showing that physician assisted suicide is not right,  it is a fact that so many people are still in favor to legalize assisted suicide. They believe that  rather than give people hope to live, telling them the truth and offering them an option is more  reasonable. They argued that in some ways, it is humane to give dying people assisted suicide;  society is okay with people helping a sick or dying animal yet people are not okay with letting a  sick and dying patient go. It was said that humans are too selfish to let their loved ones go, even  if death would be a comfort. People who think it is illegal for a physician to offer assisted suicide  are accused of wanting to control other people’s lives. People think that one has his/her own will  about their life that no one is suppose to tell them what they should do and should not do. Especially when their faith to live is completely gone. It was understood as a merciful behavior  for a physician to offer help to end one’s life. A new statement was also brought up to argue in  the favor of legalize assisted suicide. It is that if one can reject medical treatment to prolong life  then why cant one request treatment to end it? Many people found this statement be reasonable  and useful to support the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.  After centuries’ debating, there is still no certain answer for those questions that are  brought up by the topic of assisted suicide. Two sides are still debating about the benefits and  negative effects of assisted suicide. Still to this day no one is able to convince the either group to  change their views on this topic. In 2006, the US Supreme Court ruled that legalizing assisted  suicide is to be the responsibility of each state respectively. No one can yet predict how long this  topic wi ll still be an argumentative topic for debate, And no one can predict how this issue will  effect human life in the future. But overall, do people really possess the right to kill a life that  was not created by them? It is still a big question that no one has yet given an answer that can  satisfy everyone. Maybe one-day people will find out the right answer and that assisted suicide  will be a new thing that brings benefits to the world. Physician suicide should be banned due to  its negative cause and impaction to society. People who think assisted suicide should be  illegalized because of the value of life to a society is still the majority; ending a life is  not so simple that people should decide to do so on their own. Work cited Pickert, Kate. A brief history of assisted suicide. a brief history of assisted suicide. N.p., 3 Mar. 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. . Humphry, Derek. Liberty and Death: A manifesto concerning an individuals right to choose to die. Assisted Suicide Information on right-to-die and euthanasia laws and history. N.p., 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. Declaration of Independence Text Transcript. National Archives and Records Administration. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. OSteen, David N. , and Burke J. Balch. Why We Should Not Legalize Assisted Suicide | New York State Right to Life. Welcome | New York State Right to Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. Information on right-to-die and euthanasia laws and history. N.p., 24 Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Sept.2013. .

Accepting an Expert Claim

Accepting an Expert Claim Argument Experts are individuals or organizations proved to be quite knowledgeable and have authority in a particular field. Most organizations prefer hiring and consulting experts in different skills and service delivery. However, this does not guarantee a perfect result for the organization or the company, as many factors may affect the service delivery by the experts. In such cases, the experts are bound to perform against the expectations. Business organizations explore various methods of making decisions that implement business operations. In this work, an argument is based on the following. This paper presents an argument about the expert claim in making decisions. In particular, the paper seeks to explain the rationality of accepting an expert claim in an event that the expert turn out to be erroneous. It is unreasonable to accept the expert claims without evaluating and examining such claims. Although experts are believed to be more knowledgeable in their areas of specialization, any person assigning duties by the expert remains accountable for their actions. In business, leader plays a great role in making business decisions which are more effective. For a business to succeed, it relies upon the decisions made by its leaders. Attaining skills in making effective decisions requires intuition, education and experience. According to Reynolds (2011), effective decisions should be interpreted, explained, evaluated and analyzed before being executed. Before accepting a claim from the expert, the claim should also be examined, analyzed and evaluate properly. Without paying attention to the above process, there is a risk of one facing the consequences of claim taken. Nevertheless, decision making in business involves the following steps. First is the identification of the problem. A specific problem must be revealed before attending to it. Identifying a specific problem enables one to identify a way of solving it. Secondly, the possible solutions for the problem should be well analyzed. This gives a wider range of options that can be considered. In fulfilling this, the decision maker will be able to compare the risks and consider a solution with the lowest risk. Accepting the claims from the experts without considering the risks and the alternatives is unreasonable. The third step is evaluating the probabilities closer to achieving the goal. At this stage, the decision maker can evaluate if the possible solution selected will assist in achieving the right decision. The forth step is making the actual decision (Hew Cheung, 2014). The decision is therefore made having considered many factors; therefore, failure to follow this reasonable process in making business decisions, errors are prone to occur. Business decision making should be a collaborative function that needs the contribution of the concerned parties. Experts in a specific field are to be consulted on the best way of executing a function. However, some experts may not be experienced enough to fulfill the requirements of a given task. Upon involving the experts in decision making, proper evaluation, examination and analysis should be done before a solution is adopted. Furthermore, no matter the position in an organization, each person is accountable his or her decisions. Thinking is a skill that is not naturally endowed but needs to be practiced (Ennis, 2015), and it is the responsibility of everyone to train his/her mind to think critically, and make sound decisions. Reasoning describes ones capacity to think rationally, and making the right business decisions require rational thinking. It is unreasonable enough to take in the opinions from the experts without examining such opinions through rational and critical thinking. References Ennis, R. H. (2015). Critical thinking: A streamlined conception. In The Palgrave handbook of critical thinking in higher education (pp. 31-47). Palgrave Macmillan US. Hew, K. F., Cheung, W. S. (2014). Improving Social Studies Students Critical Thinking. In Using Blended Learning (pp. 59-78). Springer Singapore. Reynolds, Martin (2011). Critical thinking and systems were thinking: towards a critical literacy for systems thinking in practice. In: Horvath, Christopher P. and Forte, James M. eds. Critical Thinking. New York, USA: Nova Science Publishers, pp. 37-68.

Case Analysis: Land Rover North America Essay -- Business Case Study

1) Background Analysis: General Market Assessment: In the 90's, the SUV was looking to become a highly contentious market, however, with a new emphasis on the Leisure SUV. This was where LRNA will be able to maximize its market share, and perhaps grab a foothold on the market. Competition and behavior: The SUV industry in North America was becoming increasingly competitive, with "over 30 SUV models, their prices ranging from $10,000 to $60,000. Market leaders were Jeep and Ford, with Jeep having a strong heritage in the USA much in the same was as Land Rover did in the United Kingdom. Jeep itself had three lines; much in the way Land Rover was trying to carry various lines for different segments of the market. The international impact on the North American SUV sales was modest, and the luxury segment of the SUV class was about to become more competitive with new products from the likes of Mercedes and Lexus. Company Analysis: Land Rover started off in the UK and was able to market itself on its heritage. When it made the jump to North America, it had banked on this British heritage. Land Rover North America (LRNA) had initially started off in respectable terms as a somewhat boutique firm, with a staff of 15 and 60 dealers. Recently they have taken a decision to move from a niche player with unit sales of 5,000 to a bigger player in the US SUV market. One of the key areas that they are focusing on is the introduction of the Land Rover Discovery. Current: Currently, LRNA has switched from a corporate identity based solely on the Range Rover, to the overall umbrella brand of Land Rover, which it self has multiple sub brands (or vehicles) one of which is the Discovery. With the decision of branding and introducing the Discovery... ...(TV and Print Mix) Corporate Identity 4.5 million Discovery Identity 4.5 million Land Rover Defender 3 Million Range Rover 3 Million 15 Million Corp. Sponsorships Tread Lightly 25,000 Camel Trophy 240,000 General Fees 115,000 Mt Washington 20,000 400,00 Experienced Marketing Programs Website 150,000 Dealer Driving Experience 20,000* 300,000 * Promotions Treasure Hunt 5000 - 60000 60,000 Exhibit 3: Timeline Jan ‘ 94 Second Quarter Fourth Quarter Corporate Rebranding Ad and TV Marketing Tie in entire product line with Around Discovery Marketing Campaign showing the Land Rover Family ________________________________________ Feb ‘ 94 Introduction Third Quarter Of Discovery Introduction of Land Rover Centers and New Product Announcements

The Farm House Essay -- Personal Narrative Essays

Throw a dart at any year in the over-sized target that is the 1960s and you will hit on something big in American history. Nineteen sixty-three has the March on Washington, the publication of The Feminine Mystique, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Humanity was marching ever onward with ceaseless progress in science, medicine and engineering. The first ever telecast of a live murder by NBC as Jack Ruby assassinated Lee Harvey Oswald. With the U.S. on the eve of yet another war against communism as over one hundred fifty thousand military advisors are stationed in South Vietnam; the Cold War still creeping amidst the nightmares of millions fearing nuclear holocaust. However, for the Geis’ of Lexington, Kentucky, they will see a regression to a life much more arduous. My grandparents, along with my mother Betty and her sisters, were about to leave the easy living and conveniences of nineteen sixties metropolitan life behind. Howard and Regina Geis had a dream that lay well away from the city life. Well away indeed. This dream lied within the backwoods of Barren County down an old country road obscured by the forest itself. An old country road that ran for a good mile down into the hollow†¦ Forty-four acres of farmland that--building from memory and photographs--would eventually become the epitome of rustic charm. The old homestead was surrounded by the kind of eerie, primeval wilderness that can only be truly felt by the unfiltered imagination of youth. Never more truer than when the fog would roll out of the thicket, over the rise and fall of the hills and creep up to the doorsteps. Even though one could call upon memory to reconstruct the family farm and the subsistence farming lifestyle, to really tell this story... ...est daughter’s dairy farm. Before writing this I took the opportunity to venture back into those fabled woods, down that stretch of country gravel to see for myself what remained of the place where my mother grew up and so many fond memories were shared between my cousins and I. Suffice to say, no wild guess was needed to assume what to expect once the farmhouse was within view. I was not surprised when my eyes fell upon the solemn sight. That place which held a lifetime of memories shared by three generations was nothing more than a shadow left in shambles. The farm house had been swallowed up in the years passed as any sign of life and cultivation has been slowly returning to natural order. Gone away were the verdant fields, the shrill laughter of children, and the nostalgic smell of the seasons that always mingled with the aromas of Grannie Geis’ country cooking.

What Impressions of the Characters Relationship Are Conveyed by the Language They Use, and the Interaction Between Them

What impressions of the characters relationship are conveyed by the language they use, and the interaction between them? In this text, the opening scene of Ibsen’s Dolls House, the conversation between Helmer and Nora shows who acts as a more authoritative figure through imperatives, patronising lexis and explanative language. This is to show the relationship between the married couple regarding terms of how they address each other. I will also consider gender theories such as Debora Tennen’s gender theory of politeness and Zimmerman and West’s suggesting men are more dominating in conversation.The purpose of the text, A Dolls House, is to reveal information about the relationship between Nora and Helmer through the interactions of their conversation and their lexis. Nora speaks in a polite manor, ‘just this minute’ which could be interpreted through Trudgill’s gender theory suggesting women use precise pronunciation to aim to be viewed at a h igher class. The adjective, ‘just’ could imply Nora will act quickly in order to respond to her husband because he has a higher status and power over herself.However, her husbands language is very different, ‘been wasting money again? ’ this rhetorical question implies a threatening and dominant tone. This could be interpreted by kZimmerman and West’s gender theory which suggests men act more dominant in conversation in order to gain and keep power. The terms of address the couple use change in relation to the conversation topic. Nora addresses her husband by his second name, ‘As you please, Torvald’ which could imply their relationship is formal and she has little authority as he holds all the power.This could be interpreted by Debora Tennen who states that women use terms of address and politeness to form bonds. However, Helmer addresses Nora in two different approaches; whilst they are having a general conversation Nora is referred to as his possession, ‘My little skylark’ the adjective ‘little’ implying she is belittled as she has no authority. Also, the use of the pronoun, ‘my’ implies Nora belongs to Helmer and she has control over her hence the metaphor for her name.However, when Nora ‘misbehaves’ she is addressed with her name, ‘Nora, Nora! Just like a woman! ’ his use of explanative language portrays his loss of patience with her but also he is telling her off like Nora is a child in a patronising manor. The repetition of ‘Nora’ implies she has done wrong and he dismisses her to get her to behave like a father would to a child. This could be interpreted by Grice’s maxims of quantity as he speaks more than Nora implying he has a higher level of authority and power.

Ministry of Manpower, Singapore

Brief Description of Ministry of Manpower EE4041 E-learning week assignment by LIU TIANCHI Group Y15 As one of the Tripartite Partners in Singapore, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) plays the government role and aspires to develop a great workplace together with the other two partners, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) which represent the employees and employers separately.The mission of MOM is to achieve a globally competitive workforce and great workplace, for a cohesive society and a secure economic future for all Singaporeans. To break it down into two parts: MOM aims to empower Singaporeans so that they can realize their potential; MOM also deals with and regulates the workplace so as to achieve a cohesive society. In order to achieve the mission, MOM is structured with divisions and statutory boards, both of which have certain specific responsibility.For example, Labor Relations and Workplaces Division (LRWD) plays a cruc ial role in dispute settlement. Most of the time, the parties, unions and companies, can settle disputes between themselves, as they know the issues well and would be in a good position to find solutions. If this fails, then conciliation by LRWD would kick in at the request of either party. LRWD or MOM receive and settle an average of about 300 disputes from the unionized sector for conciliation every year. This is an important pillar in maintaining industrial stability in Singapore.One example of the statutory board is Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board, which administers the CPF well known as a compulsory and comprehensive social security savings plan. Besides the regulation and administration responsibilities, MOM also provides services. For example The Work Pass Division facilitates the employment of foreign nationals in Singapore with a convenient application process. The foreign employees can find all information that they need to know before coming to work in Singapore from M OM website.Most of the application processes also take place online, which is very efficient. MOM has won many awards because of its great contribution to the healthy tripartite relationship, which is the envy of many countries. It’s worth mentioning that MOM once won United Nations Public Service Awards, which is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. As can be seen, MOM has its unique and important role in maintaining the healthy and striving workplace in Singapore.

Round-Trip Copper Reactions Lab Report

AP Chemistry 12/13/11 Round-Trip Copper Reactions Lab The purpose of this lab was to evaluate our skills of decanting a supernatant liquid without losing the solid and successful completion of a series of reactions. This was done through five chemical reactions involving copper. In this lab, elemental copper was put through five different chemical reactions in order to convert it into different compounds. By the end of the fifth reaction, the copper was back to its elemental state. In the first reaction, 0. 95 g of pure copper was reacted with 4. 0 mL of concentrated nitric acid under the fume hood. The solution was swirled until all of the copper had dissolved. The balanced equation for this reaction is as follows: Cu (s) + 4HNO3 (aq) a Cu(NO3)2 (aq) + 2NO2 (g) + 2H2O (l) When the nitric acid came into contact with the solid copper, a brown gas was immediately released into the fume hood. This brown gas was nitrogen dioxide as the balanced equation above shows. As the copper dissolved, the solution slowly turned blue because of the copper ions. In the second reaction, distilled water was added to the copper (II) nitrate solution until the beaker was half full. Then, 30 mL of 3. M sodium hydroxide was added to the solution. The balanced equation for this reaction is as follows: Cu(NO3)2 (aq) + 2NaOH (aq) a Cu(OH)2 (s) + 2NaNO3 (aq) When sodium hydroxide was added to the copper (II) nitrate solution, a bright blue gel-like precipitate was formed instantly. This precipitate was copper (II) hydroxide. The precipitate was blue because of the copper ions. In the third reaction, the c opper (II) hydroxide solution was heated above a Bunsen burner. Continual stirring was required to reduce the â€Å"bumping†, or formation of bubbles that release gas very quickly that have the potential to cause injury. The balanced equation for this reaction is as follows: Cu(OH)2 (s) a CuO (s) + H2O (l) When the solution was heated, the bright blue precipitate slowly began to darken, at first by showing flakes of black, then eventually turning completely black. This is due to the copper reacting with oxygen, or oxidizing. The black precipitate was allowed to settle and then the supernatant, the clear liquid that lies above a precipitate, was decanted, or poured carefully off. Then, 200 mL of hot distilled water was added and the precipitate was allowed to settle to repeat the decanting process again. In the fourth reaction, 15 mL of 6. 0 M sulfuric acid was added to the copper (II) oxide while stirring. The balanced equation for this reaction is as follows: CuO (s) + H2SO4 (aq) a CuSO4 (aq) + H2O (l) + SO2 (g) When the sulfuric acid was added to copper (II) oxide, the solution turned blue. This was due to the formation of aqueous copper (II) sulfate, which produced the copper ions to change the color of the solution. In the fifth reaction, 2. 29 g of zinc was added to the copper (II) sulfate solution under the fume hood. The balanced equation for this reaction is written as followed: Zn (s) + CuSO4 (aq) a ZnSO4 (aq) + Cu (s) When the zinc was added to the copper (II) sulfate solution, the solution started to bubble. As the solution was stirred, it turned a cloudy blue. Small flecks of a brown solid were visible. As the solution became colorless, the brown solid settled to the bottom of the beaker. The solid formed was copper in its elemental state. The color faded from the solution as the copper ions slowly formed into solid copper. The copper was poured into a funnel with filter paper and washed three times with 25 mL of distilled water and ethanol. In order to dry the copper, it was placed on a watch glass weighing 29. 91 g over a beaker half full of water on a hot plate. One the copper appeared to be dry, the beaker was removed from the hot plate and allowed to cool. The copper was massed on the watch glass and was recorded as 30. 79 g. This was left to sit overnight and was massed again the next and recorded as 30. 77 g. By subtracting the mass of the watch glass from the final mass of the copper and watch glass, the mass of the copper was obtained and recorded as 0. 86 g. In conclusion, the percent yield of copper from the original copper was calculated to be 90. % by the formula: actual x 100 = percent yield theoretical 0. 86 g x 100 = 90. 5% 0. 95 g In theory, the amount of copper at the end of the lab should have been the same amount that was started out with. Due to decanting and changing containers, some of the mass was lost. The calculated percent yield above is fairly accurate considering that some of the mass was los t during decanting and transferring the copper from the filter paper onto the watch glass.

Marketing Strategy of Nokia Essay

INTRODUCTION The company I have chosen to analyze in my project is the Finnish mobile phone giant NOKIA. This project tells us briefly what Nokia actually is, it’s company structure and overall view on the size and sales of the company & also the Various Marketing Strategies followed by them. Nokia is a telecommunication company with headquarters in Espoo (Finland). It is best known as the world’s most famous mobile phone manufacturer, and it is, furthermore, the provider of consumer products such as set-top boxes, equipment for broadband Internet and IP and mobile networks. Nokia is also a supplier of the automotive industry and offers things like speakers for various car brands. 1.1 Purpose of the study Understanding the company as a whole. To know the facilities provided by the Company to its Customers. To know the Strategies adopted by NOKIA to re-establish itself in the cell-phones market after simultaneous decline of the company’s market share over the past few years due to competition from companies like APPLE and SAMSUNG. 1.2 Research Objectives of the Study:- To gather information about the company and its products. To study the threat, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths of the company. To make comparative analysis between top 5 phone vendors. To get the better view of Various Marketing Strategies adopted by NOKIA to reposition itself in the Smartphones’ market. 1.3 Research Methodology It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that our generally adopted by a researcher in studying his problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research methods or techniques but also the methodology. 1.3.1 Data Source The data can be collected from two sources i.e. Primary and Secondary .I have collected most of the data for this project on NOKIA from the secondary sources like websites, search engines, books and magazines. 1.3.2 Limitations of Study The data of the research was secondary in nature and access to primary data was limited. There was also a time constraint as much more time was required in order to research more deeply about the topic. The project restricted to only telecommunication sector of the company. ABOUT NOKIA HISTORY 1865 to 1967 The predecessors of the modern Nokia were the Nokia Company (Nokia Aktiebolag), Finnish Rubber Works Ltd (Suomen Gummitehdas Oy) and Finnish Cable Works Ltd (Suomen Kaapelitehdas Oy). Nokia’s history started in 1865 when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established aground wood pulp mill on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in the town of Tampere, in southwestern Finland in the Russian Empire and started manufacturing paper. In 1868, Idestam built a second mill near the town of Nokia, fifteen kilometers (nine miles) west of Tampere by the Nokianvirta river, which had better resources for hydropower production. In 1871, Idestam, with the help of his close friend statesman Leo Mechelin, renamed and transformed his firm into a share company, thereby founding the Nokia Company, the name it is still known by today. Toward the end of the 19th century, Mechelin’s wishes to expand into the electricity business were at first thwarted by Idestam’s opposition. However, Idestam’s retirement from the management of the company in 1896 allowed Mechelin to become the company’s chairman (from 1898 until 1914) and sell most shareholders on his plans, thus realizing his vision. In 1902, Nokia added electricity generation to its business activities. Industrial conglomerate In 1898, Eduard Polà ³n founded Finnish Rubber Works, manufacturer of galoshes and other rubber products, which later became Nokia’s rubber business. At the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish Rubber Works established its factories near the town of Nokia and they began using Nokia as its product brand. In 1912, Arvid Wickstrà ¶m founded Finnish Cable Works, producer of telephone, telegraph and electrical cables and the foundation of Nokia’s cable and electronics businesses. At the end of the 1910s, shortly after World War I, the Nokia Company was nearing bankruptcy. To ensure the continuation of electricity supply from Nokia’s generators, Finnish Rubber Works acquired the business of the insolvent company. In 1922, Finnish Rubber Works acquired Finnish Cable Works. In 1937, Verner Weckman, a sport wrestler and Finland’s first Olympic Gold medalist, became president of Finnish Cable Works, after 16 years as its technical director. After World War II, F innish Cable Works supplied cables to the Soviet Union as part of Finland’s war reparations. This gave the company a good foothold for later trade. The three companies, which had been jointly owned since 1922, were merged to form a new industrial conglomerate, Nokia Corporation in 1967 and paved the way for Nokia’s future as a global corporation. The new company was involved in many industries, producing at one time or another paper products, car and bicycle tires, footwear (including rubber boots), communications cables, televisions and other consumer electronics, personal  computers, electricity generation machinery, robotics, capacitors, military communications and equipment (such as the SANLA M/90 device and the M61 gas mask for the Finnish Army), plastics, aluminium and chemicals. Each business unit had its own director who reported to the first Nokia Corporation President, Bjà ¶rn Westerlund. As the president of the Finnish Cable Works, he had been responsible for setting up the company’s first electronics department in 1960, sowing the seeds of Nokia’s future in telecommunications. Eventually, the company decided to leave consumer electronics behind in the 1990s and focused solely on the fastest growing segments in telecommunications. Nokian Tyres, manufacturer of tires, split from Nokia Corporation to form its own company in 1988 and two years later Nokian Footwear, manufacturer of rubber boots, was founded. During the rest of the 1990s, Nokia divested itself of all of its non-telecommunications businesses. 1967 to 2000 The seeds of the current incarnation of Nokia were planted with the founding of the electronics section of the cable division in 1960 and the production of its first electronic device in 1962: a pulse analyzer designed for use in nuclear power plants. In the 1967 fusion, that section was separated into its own division, and began manufacturing telecommunications equipment. A key CEO and subsequent Chairman of the Board was vuorineuvos Bjà ¶rn â€Å"Nalle† Westerlund (1912–2009), who founded the electronics department and let it run at a loss for 15 years. First mobile phones The Mobira Cityman 150, Nokia’s NMT-900 mobile phone from 1989 (left), compared to the Nokia 1100 from 2003. The Mobira Cityman line was launched in 1987. The technologies that preceded modern cellular mobile telephony systems were the various â€Å"0G† pre-cellular mobile radio telephony standards. Nokia had been producing commercial and some military mobile radio communications technology since the 1960s, although this part of the company was sold some time before the later company rationalization. Since 1964, Nokia had developed VHF radio simultaneously with SaloraOy. In 1966, Nokia  and Salora started developing the ARP standard (which stands for Autoradiopuhelin, or car radio phone in English), a car-based mobile radio telephony system and the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland. It went online in 1971 and offered 100% coverage in 1978. In 1979, the merger of Nokia and Salora resulted in the establishment of Mobira Oy. Mobira began developing mobile phones for the NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) network standard, the first-generation, first fully automatic cellular phone system that went online in 1981. In 1982, Mobira introduced its first car phone, the Mobira Senator for NMT-450 networks. Nokia bought Salora Oy in 1984 and now owning 100% of the company, changed the company’s telecommunications branch name to Nokia-MobiraOy. The Mobira Talkman, launched in 1984, was one of the world’s first transportable phones. In 1987, Nokia introduced one of the world’s first handheld phones, the Mobira Cityman 900 for NMT-900 networks (which, compared to NMT-450, offered a better signal, yet a shorter roam). While the Mobira Senator of 1982 had weighed 9.8 kg (22 lb) and the Talkman just under 5 kg (11 lb), the Mobira Cityman weighed only 800 g (28 oz) with the battery and had a price tag of 24,000 Finnish marks (approximately â‚ ¬4,560). Despite the high price, the first phones were almost snatched from the sales assistants’ hands. Initially, the mobile phone was a â€Å"yuppie† product and a status symbol. Nokia’s mobile phones got a big publicity boost in 1987, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was pictured using a Mobira Cityman to make a call from Helsinki to his communications minister in Moscow. This led to the phone’s nickname of the â€Å"Gorba†. In 1988, Jorma Nieminen, resigning from the post of CEO of the mobile phone unit, along with two other employees from the unit, started a notable mobile phone company of their own, Benefon Oy (since renamed to GeoSentric). One year later, Nokia-Mobira Oy became Nokia Mobile Phones. Involvement in GSM Nokia was one of the key developers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the second-generation mobile technology which could carry data as well as voice traffic. NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony), the world’s first mobile telephony standard that enabled international roaming, provided valuable experience for Nokia for its close participation in developing GSM,  which was adopted in 1987 as the new European standard for digital mobile technology. Nokia delivered its first GSM network to the Finnish operator Radiolinja in 1989. The world’s first commercial GSM call was made on 1 July 1991 in Helsinki, Finland over a Nokia-supplied network, by then Prime Minister of Finland HarriHolkeri, using a prototype Nokia GSM phone. In 1992, the first GSM phone, the Nokia 1011, was launched. The model number refers to its launch date, 10 November. The Nokia 1011 did not yet employ Nokia’s characteristic ringtone, the Nokia tune. It was introduced as a ringtone in 19 94 with the Nokia 2100 series. GSM’s high-quality voice calls, easy international roaming and support for new services like text messaging (SMS) laid the foundations for a worldwide boom in mobile phone use. GSM came to dominate the world of mobile telephony in the 1990s, in mid-2008 accounting for about three billion mobile telephone subscribers in the world, with more than 700 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories. New connections are added at the rate of 15 per second, or 1.3 million per day. Challenges of growth The Nokia House, Nokia’s head office located by the Gulf of Finland in Keilaniemi,Espoo, was constructed between 1995 and 1997. It is the workplace of more than 1,000 Nokia employees. In the 1980s, during the era of its CEO Kari Kairamo, Nokia expanded into new fields, mostly by acquisitions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the corporation ran into serious financial problems, a major reason being its heavy losses by the television manufacturing division and businesses that were just too diverse. These problems, and a suspected totalburnout, probably contributed to Kairamo taking his own life in 1988. After Kairamo’s death, SimoVuorilehto became Nokia’s Chairman and CEO. In 1990–1993, Finland underwent severe economic depression, which also struck Nokia. Under Vuorilehto’s management, Nokia was severely overhauled. The company responded by streamlining its telecommunications divisions, and by divesting itself of the television and PC divisions. Pr obably the most important strategic change in Nokia’s history was made in 1992, however, when the new CEO JormaOllila made a crucial strategic decision to concentrate solely on  telecommunications. Thus, during the rest of the 1990s, the rubber, cable and consumer electronics divisions were gradually sold as Nokia continued to divest itself of all of its non-telecommunications businesses. As late as 1991, more than a quarter of Nokia’s turnover still came from sales in Finland. However, after the strategic change of 1992, Nokia saw a huge increase in sales to North America, South America and Asia. The exploding worldwide popularity of mobile telephones, beyond even Nokia’s most optimistic predictions, caused a logistics crisis in the mid-1990s. This prompted Nokia to overhaul its entire logistics operation. By 1998, Nokia’s focus on telecommunications and its early investment in GSM technologies had made the company the world’s largest mobile pho ne manufacturer, a position it would hold for the next 14 consecutive years until 2012. Between 1996 and 2001, Nokia’s turnover increased almost fivefold from 6.5 billion euros to 31 billion euros. Logistics continues to be one of Nokia’s major advantages over its rivals, along with greater economies of scale. 2000 to 2012 (October) Product releases Reduction in size of Nokia mobile phones Evolution of the Nokia Communicator. Models 9000, 9110, 9210, 9300 and 9500 shown. Nokia launched its Nokia 1100 handset in 2003, with over 200 million units shipped, was the best-selling mobile phone of all time and the world’s top-sellingconsumer electronics product.Nokia was one of the first players in the mobile space to recognize that there was a market opportunity in combining a game console and a mobile phone (both of which many gamers were carrying in 2003) into the N-Gage. The N-Gage was a mobile phone and game console meant to lure gamers away from the Game Boy Advance, though it cost twice as much. In May 2007, Nokia released its first touch screen phone, the Nokia 7710, which was also a huge success. In November 2007, Nokia announced and released the Nokia N82, its first Nseries phone withXenon flash. At the Nokia World conference in December 2007, Nokia announced their â€Å"Comes With Music† program: Nokia device buyers are to receive a year of complimenta ry access to music downloads. The service became commercially available in the  second half of 2008. Nokia Productions was the first ever mobile filmmaking project directed by Spike Lee. Work began in April 2008, and the film premiered in October 2008. In 2008, Nokia released the Nokia E71 which was marketed to directly compete with the other BlackBerry-type devices offering a full â€Å"qwerty† keyboard and cheaper prices. Nokia announced in August 2009 that they will be selling a high-end Windows-based mini laptop called the Nokia Booklet 3G. On 2 September 2009, Nokia launched two new music and social networking phones, the X6 and X3. The Nokia X6 features 32GB of on-board memory with a 3.2†³ finger touch interface and comes with a music playback time of 35 hours. The Nokia X3 is a first series 40 Ovi Store-enabled device. The X3 is a music device that comes with stereo speakers, built-in FM radio, and a 3.2 megapixel camera. On 10 September 2009, Nokia unveiled the 7705 Twist, a phone sporting a square shape that swivels open to reveal a full QWERTY keypad, featuring a 3 megapixel camera, web browsing, voice commands and weighting around 3.44 ounces (98 g). On 9 August 2012, Nokia launched for the Indian market two new Asha range of handsets equipped with cloud accelerated Nokia browser, helping users browse the Internet faster and lower their spend on data charges. Symbian The Nokia N8 smartphone is the worlds first Symbian^3device, and the first Nokia smartphone to feature a 12megapixel autofocus lens. Originally Nokia phones had a custom Nokia OS operating system developed specifically for Nokia mobile phones. The first Nseries device, the N90, utilised the older Symbian OS8.1 mobile operating system, as did the N70. Subsequently Nokia switched to using SymbianOS 9 for all later Nseries devices (except the N72, which was based on the N70). Newer Nseries devices incorporate newer revisions of Symbian OS 9 that include Feature Packs. The N800, N810, N900, N9 and N950 are as of April 2012 the only Nseries devices (therefore excluding Lumia devices) to not use Symbian OS. They use the Linux-based Maemo. Nokia stated that Maemo would be developed alongside Symbian. Maemo had since (Maemo â€Å"6† and beyond) merged with Intel’s Moblin, and became MeeGo. MeeGo was later canceled and a development is now continued under nameTizen. The Nokia N8 is the first device to function on the Symbian^3mobile operating system. Nokia revealed that the N8 will be the last device in its flagship N-series devices to ship with Symbian OS.  Instead, Nokia will use Microsoft Windows Phone for its high-end flagship Lumia devices, and revealed the Nokia N9 will function on the MeeGo mobile operating system. Alliance with Microsoft Market share of Symbian, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone 7 among US smartphone owners from Q1 2011 to Q2 2012 according to Nielsen Company. On 11 February 2011, Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop, a former head of Microsoft business division, unveiled a new strategic alliance with Microsoft, and announced it would replace Symbian and MeeGo with Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system except for mid-to-low-end devices, which would continue to run under Symbian. Nokia was also to invest into the Series 40 platform and release a single MeeGo product in 2011. As part of the restructuring plan, Nokia planned to reduce spending on research and development, instead customising and enhancing the software line for Windows Phone 7. Nokia’s â€Å"applications and content store† (Ovi) becomes integrated into the Windows Phone Store, and Nokia Maps is at the heart of Microsoft’s Bing and AdCenter. Microsoft provides developer tools to Nokia to replace the Qtframework, which is not supported by Windows Phone 7 devices. Symbian became described by Elop as a â€Å"franchise platform† with Nokia planning to sell 150 million Symbian devices after the alliance was set up. MeeGo emphasis was on longer-term exploration, with plans to ship â€Å"a MeeGo-related product† later in 2012. Microsoft’s search engine, Bing was to become the search engine for all Nokia phones. Nokia also intended to get some level of customization on WP7. After this announcement, Nokia’s share price fell about 14%, its biggest drop since July 2009. As Nokia was the largest mobile phone and smartphone manufacturer worldwide at the time, it was suggested the alliance would make Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 a stronger contender against Android and iOS. Because previously increasing sales of Symbian smartphones began to fall rapidly in the beginning of 2011, Nokia was overtaken by Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone maker by volume in Jun e 2011. In August 2011 Chris Weber, head of Nokia’s subsidiary in the U.S., stated â€Å"The reality is if we are not successful with Windows Phone, it doesn’t matter what we do (elsewhere).† He further added â€Å"North America is a  priority for Nokia (†¦) because it is a key market for Microsoft.† Nokia reported â€Å"well above 1 million† sales for its Lumia line up to 26 January 2012, 2 million sales for the first quarter of 2012, and 4 million for the second quarter of 2012. In this quarter, Nokia only sold 600000 smartphones (Symbian and Windows Phone 7) in North America. For comparison, Nokia sold more than 30 million Symbian devices world-wide still in Q4 2010 and the Nokia N8 alone sold almost 4 million in its first quarter of sale. In Q2 2012, 26 million iPhonesand 105 million Android phones have been shipped, but only 6.8 million devices with Symbian and 5.4 million with Windows Phone. While announcing an alliance with Groupon, E lop declared â€Å"The competition†¦ is not with other device manufacturers, it’s with Google.† European carriers have stated that Nokia Windows phones are not good enough to compete with Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy phones, that â€Å"they are overpriced for what is not an innovative product† and that â€Å"No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone†. In June 2012, Nokia chairman Risto Siilasmaa told journalists that Nokia had a back-up plan in the eventuality that Windows Phone failed to be sufficiently successful in the market. On October 29, 2012, Nokia said its high-end Lumia 820 and 920 phones, which will run on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 software, will reach first operators and retail outlets in some European markets including France and Britain and later in Russia and Germany as well as other select markets. Reorganizations Nokia opened its Komà ¡rom, Hungary mobile phone factory on 5 May 2000. In March 2007, Nokia signed a memorandum with Cluj County Council, Romania to open a new plant near the city in Jucu commune. Moving the production from the Bochum, Germany factory to a low wage country created an uproar in Germany. Nokia recently moved its North American Headquarters to Sunnyvale. In April 2003, the troubles of the networks equipment division caused the corporation to resort to similar streamlining practices on that side, including layoffs and organizational restructuring. This diminished Nokia’s public image in Finland, and produced a number of court cases and an episode of a documentary television show critical of Nokia. On February 2006, Nokia and Sanyo announced a memorandum of understanding to create a joint venture  addressing the CDMA handset business. But in June, they announced ending negotiations without agreement. Nokia also stated its decision to pull out of CDMA research a nd development, to continue CDMA business in selected markets. In June 2006, Jorma Ollila left his position as CEO to become the chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and to give way for Olli-PekkaKallasvuo. In May 2008, Nokia announced on their annual stockholder meeting that they want to shift to the Internet business as a whole. Nokia no longer wants to be seen as the telephone company. Google, Apple and Microsoft are not seen as natural competition for their new image but they are considered as major important players to deal with. In November 2008, Nokia announced it was ceasing mobile phone distribution in Japan. Following early December, distribution of Nokia E71 is cancelled, both from NTT docomo and Soft Bank Mobile. Nokia Japan retains global research & development programs, sourcing business, and an MVNO venture of Vertu luxury phones, using docomo’s telecommunications network. In February 2012, Nokia announced it was laying off 4000 employees to move manufacturing from Eu rope and Mexico to Asia. In March 2012, Nokia announced it was laying off 1000 employs from its Salo, Finland factory to focus on software. Acquisitions The Nokia E55 from the business segment of the Eseries range On 22 September 2003, Nokia acquired Sega.com, a branch of Sega which became the major basis to develop the Nokia N-Gage device. On 8 August 2006, Nokia and Loudeye Corp. announced that they had signed an agreement for Nokia to acquire online music distributor Loudeye Corporation for approximately US $60 million. The company has been developing this into an online music service in the hope of using it to generate handset sales. The service, launched on 29 August 2007, is aimed to rival iTunes. Nokia completed the acquisition on 16 October 2006. In July 2007, Nokia acquired all assets of Twango, the comprehensive media sharing solution for organizing and sharing photos, videos and other personal media. In September 2007, Nokia announced its intention to acquire Enpocket, a supplier of mobile advertising technology and services. In October 2007, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, Nokia bought Navteq, a U.S.-based su pplier of digital mapping data, for a  price of $8.1 billion. Nokia finalized the acquisition on 10 July 2008. In September 2008, Nokia acquired OZ Communications, a privately held company with approximately 220 employees headquartered in Montreal, Canada. On 24 July 2009, Nokia announced that it will acquire certain assets of cellity, a privately owned mobile software company which employs 14 people in Hamburg, Germany. The acquisition of cellity was completed on 5 August 2009. On 11 September 2009, Nokia announced the acquisition of â€Å"certain assets of Plum Ventures, Inc, a privately held company which employed approximately 10 people with main offices in Boston, Massachusetts. Plum will complement Nokia’s Social Location services†. On 28 March 2010, Nokia announced the acquisition of Novarra, the mobile web browser firm from Chicago. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Novarra is a privately held company based in Chicago, IL and provider of a mobile browser and service platform and has more than 100 employees. On 10 April 2010, Nokia announced its acquisition of MetaCarta, whose technology was planned to be used in the area of local search, particularly involving location and other services. Financial details of acquisition were not disclosed. Nokia has acquired Smarterphone in 2012. Also Nokia acquired Scalado in 2012. Financial difficulties and restructuring LAmid falling sales, Nokia posted a loss of 368 million euros for Q2 2011, while in Q2 2010 had still a profit of 227 million euros. On September 2011, Nokia has announced it will lose another 3,500 jobs worldwide, including the closure of its Cluj factory in Romania. On 8 February 2012 Nokia Corp. said to cut around 4,000 jobs at smartphone manufacturing plants in Europe by the end of 2012 to move assembly closer to component supplier in Asia. It plans to cut 2,300 of the 4,400 jobs in Hungary, 700 out of 1,000 jobs in Mexico, and 1,000 out of 1,700 factory jobs in Finland. On 14 June 2012, Nokia announced to cut 10,000 jobs globally by the end of 2013 and shut production and research sites in Finland, Germany and Canada inline with continues loss and the stock fell to the lowest since 1996. Today, Nokia’s market value is below $10 billion. In total, according to actualized and planned laid-offs Nokia will have laid off 24,500 employees by the end of 2013. Nokia has already l aid off 7,000 employees in the first stage: 4,000 staff and transferred also 3,000 to services firm Accenture. Nokia also closed its  factory in Cluj, Romania that decreased the workforce by 2,000 employees, and restructured the Location & Commerce business unit that decreased the workforce by 1,200 employees. In February 2012, Nokia unveiled a plan to cut 4,000 more jobs at its plants in Finland, Hungary and Mexico as it moves smartphone assembly work to Asia. The most recent plan is to cut further 10,000 jobs globally by the end of 2013. Nokia had 66,267 personnel in its Devices & Services, NAVTEQ and Corporate Common Functions units combined, this has been calculated by subtracting the personnel of Nokia Siemens Networks from the total personnel of Nokia Group based on the full year report of 2010. Therefore, the personnel would decrease by approximately 36 percent by the end of 2013 when compared to the end of 2010 that best depicts the lay-offs that have resulted from the str ategy change in February 2011 and competition in the central mobile phone business units recently. On 18 June 2012 Moody’s downgraded Nokia rating to junk. Nokia CEO admitted on 28 June 2012 that company’s inability to foresee rapid changes in mobile phone industry was one of the major reasons for the problems company was facing. On 4 May 2012, a group of Nokia investors filled a class action against the company as a result of disappointing sales of Nokia phones running on the Windows Phone platform. On 22 August 2012, it was reported that a group of Finnish Nokia investors were considering gathering signatures for the removal of Elop as CEO. Operations Nokia House, Nokia’s headquarters in Keilaniemi, Espoo, Finland In 2011 Nokia had 130,000 employees in 120 countries, sales in more than 150 countries, global annual revenue of over â‚ ¬38 billion, and operating loss of â‚ ¬1 billion.[1] It was the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones in 2011, with global device market share of 23% in the second quarter. The Nokia Research Center, founded in 1986, is Nokia’s industrial research unit consisting of about 500 researchers, engineers and scientists; it has sites in seven countries: Finland, China, India, Kenya,Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Besides its research centers, in 2001 Nokia founded (and owns) INdT – Nokia Institute of Technology, a R&D institute located in Brazil. Nokia operates a total of 9 manufacturing  facilities located at Salo, Finland; Manaus, Brazil; Cluj, Romania; Beijing and Dongguan, China;Komà ¡rom, Hungary; Chennai, India; Reynosa, Mexico; and Cha ngwon, South Korea. Nokia’s industrial design department is headquartered in Soho in London, UK with significant satellite offices in Helsinki, Finland and Calabasas, California in the US. Nokia is a public limited-liability company listed on the Helsinki, Frankfurt, and New York stock exchanges. Nokia plays a very large role in the economy of Finland. It is an important employer in Finland and several small companies have grown into large ones as its partners and subcontractors. In 2009 Nokia contributed 1.6% to Finland’s GDP, and accounted for about 16% of Finland’s exports in 2006. Divisions Since 1 July 2010, Nokia comprises three business groups: Mobile Solutions, Mobile Phones and Markets. The three units receive operational support from the Corporate Development Office, led by Kai Ãâ€"istà ¤mà ¶, which is also responsible for exploring corporate strategic and future growth opportunities. On 1 April 2007, Nokia’s Networks business group was combined with Siemens’s carrier-related operations for fixed and mobile networks to form Nokia Siemens Networks, jointly owned by Nokia and Siemens and consolidated by Nokia. Mobile Solutions The Nokia N900, a Maemo 5 Linux based mobile Internet device and touchscreen smartphone from Nokia’s Nseries portfolio. Mobile Solutions is responsible for Nokia’s portfolio ofsmartphones and mobile computers, including the more expensive multimedia and enterprise-class devices. The team is also responsible for a suite of internet services under the Ovi brand, with a strong focus on maps and navigation, music, messaging andmedia. This unit is led by AnssiVanjoki, along with TeroOjanperà ¤ (for Services) and Alberto Torres (forMeeGo Computers). Mobile Phones Mobile Phones is responsible for Nokia’s portfolio of affordable mobile phones, as well as a range of services that people can access with them, headed by Mary T. McDowell. This unit provides the general public with  mobile voice and data products across a range of devices, including high-volume, consumer oriented mobile phones. The devices are based on GSM/EDGE, 3G/W-CDMA andCDMA cellular technologies. At the end of the year 2007, Nokia managed to sell almost 440 million mobile phones which accounted for 40% of all global mobile phones sales. In 2011, Nokia’s market share in the mobile phone market had dropped to 27% (417 million phones). Anssi Vanjoki resigned a few days before Nokia World 2010 and under new leadership team Jo Harlow will look into the affairs of Smartphones portfolio. On 27 April 2011, The Register reported that Nokia was secretly developing a new operating system called Meltemi aiming at the low-end market. It was believed it would be replacing th e S30 and S40 operating systems. Due to low-end market customers’ demand of having smartphone features in their feature phone, the OS would have included some features exclusive to high-end smartphones. On 26 July 2012, it was announced that Nokia had abandoned the Meltemi project as a cost-cutting measure. Markets The flagship Nokia store in Sao Paulo, Brazil Markets is responsible for Nokia’s supply chains, sales channels, brand and marketing functions of the company, and is responsible for delivering mobile solutions and mobile phones to the market. The unit is headed by NiklasSavander. Subsidiaries Nokia has numerous subsidiaries. The largest in terms of revenues is Navteq, a Chicago, Illinois-based provider of digital map data and location-based content and services for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. Navteq was acquired by Nokia on 1 October 2007. Navteq’s map data is part of the Nokia Maps online service where users can download maps, use voice-guided navigation and other context-aware web services. Nokia Maps is part of the Ovi brand of Nokia’s Internet based online services. Other notable subsidiaries include, but are not limited to Vertu, a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury mobile phones; Qt Software, a Norwegian-based software company, and OZ Communications, a consumer e-mail and instant messaging provider. Until 2008 Nokia was the major shareholder  in Symbian Limited, a software development and licensing company that produced Symbian OS, a smartphone operating system used by Nokia and other manufacturers. In 2008 Nokia acquired Symbian Ltd and, along with a number of other companies, created the Symbian Foundation to distribute the Symbian platform royalty free and asopen source. Nokia Siemens Networks B.V. is a multinational data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland and a joint venture between Nokia (50.1%) and Siemens (49.9%). It is the world’s fourth-largest telecoms equipment manufacturer measured by 2011 revenues (after Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent). Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in around 150 countries. The creation of Nokia Siemens Networks was announced on 19 June 2006, when Nokia and Siemens announced that they would merge their mobile and fixed-line phone network equipment businesses. The Nokia Siemens Networks brand identity was subsequently launched at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February 2007. Nokia Siemens Networks provid es wireless and fixed network infrastructure, communications and networks service platforms, as well as professional services to operators and service providers. Nokia Siemens Networks focuses in GSM, EDGE, 3G/W-CDMA and WiMAX radio access networks; core networks with increasing IP and multiaccess capabilities; and services. Corporate affairs Corporate governance The control and management of Nokia is divided among the shareholders at a general meeting and the Nokia Leadership Team, under the direction of the Board of Directors. The Chairman and the rest of the Nokia Leadership Team members are appointed by the Board of Directors. Only the Chairman of the Nokia Leadership Team can belong to both, the Board of Directors and the Nokia Leadership Team. The Board of Directors’ committees consist of the Audit Committee, the Personnel Committee and the Corporate Governance and Nomination Committee. The operations of the company are managed within the framework set by the Finnish Companies Act, Nokia’s Articles of Association and Corporate Governance Guidelines, and related Board of Directors adopted charters. Stock Nokia is a public limited liability company and is the oldest company listed under the same name on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, having been listed since 1915. Nokia has had a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange since 1994. Nokia shares were delisted from the London Stock Exchange in 2003, the Paris Stock Exchange in 2004, the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2007 and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2012. In 2007, Nokia had a market capitalisation of â‚ ¬110 billion; by May 2012 this had fallen to â‚ ¬14.8 billion. Financial results For fiscal Q2 2011 ending in June 2011, Nokia reported a net loss of â‚ ¬492 million, despite a â‚ ¬430 million payment from Apple. Nokia cited decline in its mobile phone business as the primary cause of the loss. In Q1 2012 results were bleak. Nokia lost â‚ ¬1.34 billion. Revenue is down almost a third from a year ago. By May 2012, Nokia share price had fallen 37.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and was down 61 percent in the last year. Corporate culture Nokia’s official corporate culture manifesto, The Nokia Way, emphasises the speed and flexibility of decision-making in a flat, networked organization, although the corporation’s size necessarily imposes a certain amount of bureaucracy. The official business language of Nokia is English. All documentation is written in English, and is used in official intra-company spoken communication and e-mail. Until May 2007, the Nokia Values were Customer Satisfaction, Respect, Achievement, and Renewal. In May 2007, Nokia redefined its values after initiating a series of discussions worldwide as to what the new values of the company should be. Based on the employee suggestions, the new values were defined as: Engaging You, Achieving Together, Passion for Innovation and Very Human. Online services 1) .mobi and the Mobile Web Nokia was the first proponent of a Top Level Domain (TLD) specifically for the Mobile Web and, as a result, was instrumental in the launch of the .mobi domain name extension in September 2006 as an official  backer. Since then, Nokia has launched the largest mobile portal, Nokia.mobi, which receives over 100 million visits a month. It followed that with the launch of a mobile Ad Service to cater to the growing demand for mobile advertisement. 2) Ovi Nokia Ovi logo. Ovi, announced on 29 August 2007, is the name for Nokia’s â€Å"umbrella concept† Internet services. Centered on Ovi.com, it is marketed as a â€Å"personal dashboard† where users can share photos with friends, download music, maps and games directly to their phones and access third-party services like Yahoo’sFlickr photo site. It has some significance in that Nokia is moving deeper into the world of Internet services, where head-on competition with Microsoft, Google andApple is inevitable. The services offered through Ovi include the Ovi Store (Nokia’s application store), the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, Ovi Mail, the N-Gage mobile gaming platform available for several S60smartphones, Ovi Share, Ovi Files, and Contacts and Calendar. The Ovi Store, the Ovi application store was launched in May 2009. Prior to opening the Ovi Store, Nokia integrated its software Download! store, the stripped-down MOSH repository and the widget service WidSets into i t. On 23 March 2010, Nokia announced launch of its online magazine called the Nokia Ovi. The 44-page magazine contains articles on products by Nokia, what Ovi stands for, tips and tricks on the usage of Nokia mini laptop Booklet 3G, latest reviews of mobile applications, news about the mobile maker’s services and apps such as Ovi maps, files and mail. Users can download the magazine as a PDF or view it online from the Nokia website. 3) My Nokia Nokia offers a free personalized service to Nokia owners called My Nokia (located at my.nokia.com). Registered My Nokia users can get free services as follows: Tips & tricks alerts through web, e-mail and also mobile text message. My Nokia Backup: A free online backup service for mobile contacts, calendar logs and also various other files. This service needs GPRS connection. Ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers, games and other things can be downloaded free of cost. 4) Comes With Music In 2007 Nokia set up their â€Å"Nokia Comes With Music† service, in partnership with Universal Music Group International, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, and hundreds of independent labels and music aggregators, to allow 12, 18, or 24 months of unlimited free-of-charge music downloads with the purchase of a Nokia Comes With Music edition phone. Files could be downloaded on mobile devices or personal computers, and kept permanently. In January 2011 Nokia withdrew this program in 27 countries, due to its failure to gain traction with customers or mobile network operators; existing subscribers could continue to download until their contracts ended. The service continued to be offered in China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa where take-up had been better. 5) Nokia Messaging On 13 August 2008 Nokia launched a beta release of â€Å"Nokia Email service†, a push e-mail service, since incorporated into Nokia Messaging. Nokia Messaging operates as a centralised, hosted service that acts as a proxy between the Nokia Messaging client and the user’s e-mail server. The phone does not connect directly to the e-mail server, but instead sends e-mail credentials to Nokia’s servers. IMAP is used as the protocol to transfer emails between the client and the server. Logos Nokia Company logo. Founded in Tampere in 1865, incorporated in Nokia in 1871. The brand logo of Finnish Rubber Works, founded in Helsinki in 1898. Logo from 1965 to 1966. The Nokia Corporation â€Å"arrows† logo, used before the â€Å"Connecting People†logo. Used since 1967 until 1991. Nokia introduced its â€Å"Connecting People† advertising slogan, coined by Ove Strandberg and used since 1992. This earlier version of the slogan used Times Roman SC (Small Caps) font. Nokia’s current logo used since 2006, with the redesigned â€Å"Connecting People† slogan. This slogan originally used Nokia’s proprietary ‘Nokia Sans’  font, designed by Erik Spiekermann. This was replaced in 2011 with the ‘Nokia Pure’ font designed by Dalton Maag. Environmental record Electronic products such as cell phones impact the environment both during production and after their useful life when they are discarded and turned into electronic waste. Nokia is listed in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics that scores leading electronics manufacturers according to their policies on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are. In November 2011 Nokia ranked 3rd out of 15 listed electronics companies, falling two places due to its weaker performance on the Energy criteria and scoring 4.9/10. All of Nokia’s mobile phones are free of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) since the end of 2005 and all new models of mobile phones and accessories launched in 2010 are on track to be free of brominated compounds, chlorinated flame retardants and antimony trioxide. Nokia’s voluntary take-back programme to recycle old mobile phones spans 84 countries with almost 5,000 collection points. However, the recycling rate of Nokia phones w as only 3–5% in 2008, according to a global consumer survey released by Nokia. The majority of old mobile phones are simply lying in drawers at home and very few old devices, about 4%, are being thrown into landfill and not recycled. All of Nokia’s new models of chargers meet or exceed the Energy Star requirements. Nokia aims to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 18 percent in 2010 from a baseline year of 2006 and cover 50 percent of its energy needs through renewable energy sources. Greenpeace is challenging the company to use its influence at the political level as number 85 on the Fortune 500 to advocate for climate legislation and call for global greenhouse gas emissions to peak by 2015. Nokia is researching the use of recycled plastics in its products, which are currently used only in packaging but not yet in mobile phones. Since 2001, Nokia has provided eco declarations of all its products and since May 2010 provides Eco profiles for all its new prod ucts. In an effort to further reduce their environmental impact in the future, Nokia released a new phone concept, Remade, in February 2008. The phone has been constructed of solely recyclable materials. The outer part of the phone is made from recycled materials such as aluminium cans, plastic bottles, and used car tires. The  screen is constructed of recycled glass, and the hinges have been created from rubber tires. The interior of the phone is entirely constructed with refurbished phone parts, and there is a feature that encourages energy saving habits by reducing the backlight to the ideal level, which then allows the battery to last longer without frequent charges. Controversies NSN’s provision of intercept capability to Iran In 2008, Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia and Siemens AG, reportedly provided Iran’s monopoly telecom company with technology that allowed it to intercept the Internet communications of its citizens to an unprecedented degree. The technology reportedly allowed it to use deep packet inspection to read and even change the content of everything from â€Å"e-mails and Internet phone calls to images and messages on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter†. The technology â€Å"enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes,† expert insiders told The Wall Street Journal. During the post-election protests in Iran in June 2009, Iran’s Internet access was reported to have slowed to less than a tenth of its normal speeds, and experts suspected this was due to the use of the interception technology. The joint venture compan y, Nokia Siemens Networks, asserted in a press release that it provided Iran only with a ‘lawful intercept capability’ â€Å"solely for monitoring of local voice calls†. â€Å"Nokia Siemens Networks has not provided any deep packet inspection, web censorship or Internet filtering capability to Iran,† it said. In July 2009, Nokia began to experience a boycott of their products and services in Iran. The boycott was led by consumers sympathetic to the post-election protest movement and targeted at those companies deemed to be collaborating with the Islamic regime. Demand for handsets fell and users began shunning SMS messaging. Lex Nokia In 2009, Nokia heavily supported the passing of a law in Finland that allows companies to monitor their employees’ electronic communications in cases of suspected information leaking. Contrary to rumors, Nokia denied that the  company would have considered moving its head office out of Finland if laws on electronic surveillance were not changed. The law was enacted, but with strict requirements for implementation of its provisions. As of 2010, the law has become a dead letter; no corporation has implemented it. The Finnish media dubbed the name Lex Nokia for this law, named after the Finnish copyright law (the so-called Lex Karpela) a few years back. Nokia–Apple patent dispute In October 2009, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Delaware citing Apple infringed on 10 of its patents related to wireless communication including data transfer. Apple was quick to respond with a countersuit filed in December 2009 accusing Nokia of 11 patent infringements. Apple’s General Counsel, Bruce Sewell went a step further by stating, â€Å"Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.† This resulted in an ugly spat between the two telecom majors with Nokia filing another suit, this time with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging Apple of infringing its patents in â€Å"virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers.† Nokia went on to ask the court to bar all U.S. imports of the Apple products including the iPhone, Mac and the iPod. Apple countersued by filing a complaint with the ITC in January 2010, the details of whic h are yet to be confirmed. In June 2011, Apple settled with Nokia and agreed to an estimated one time payment of $600 million and royalties to Nokia. The two companies also agreed on a cross-licensing patents for some of their patented technologies. Research cooperation with universities Nokia is actively exploring and engaging in open innovation through selective research collaborations with major universities and institutions by sharing resources and leveraging ideas. Major research collaboration is with Tampere University of Technology based in Finland. Current collaborations include: Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Finland ÉcolePolytechniqueFà ©dà ©rale de Lausanne, Switzerland ETH Zurich, Switzerland Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States Stanford University, United States Tampere University of Technology, Finland Tsinghua University, China University of California, Berkeley, United States University of Cambridge, United Kingdom University of Southern California, United States Awards and recognition The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked Nokia in the 1st position among the brands in India. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS SWOT Analysis SWOT Analysis, is a Strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a Business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. SWOT analysis conducts an external and internal scan of nokia’s business environment; it is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths (S), or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). Such ananalysis of the strategic environment is referred to as a SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis provides information that is helpful in matching the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates. As such, it is instrumental in strategy formulation and sele ction. Strengths of Nokia: Great phone designing capability (Shining example N9 and lumia series) and great product quality reputation. Great price point coverage (Very low to Very High) Supply chain and distribution experience. Two very competitive in-house software platforms in Belle and Meego along with an alliance with Microsoft. Weaknesses of Nokia: Poor marketing skills (excluding few markets like India) Could not use its global presence to create a viable ecosystem. Not able to leverage production and software knowledge to create other product families (Camera and Tablets could have a natural choice) Windows operating system has marginally less number of applications as compared to that of Apple’s IOS and Google’s Android. Threats: Android ecosystem covers all the bases from low to high-end price points and has a booming ecosystem. Apple’s iphone is still a big threat in high-end market Very bad press coverage and poor image projection by tech media. Huge portion of market share already captured by Google’s Android (72.4 percent) and Apple’s IOS (13.9 percent). Opportunities: Nokia has a great market disruption with N9; Lumia and Asha series and it has a great chance of creating a unique winning product category. (Example is iphone’s own small but disruptive start). Symbian belle and upcoming versions of the OS. If nokia keeps the new product introduction fast paced, chances are that Symbian can make a turnaround. QT can help to create a unique app ecosystem for Nokia for Meego, Symbian, Meltemi (upcoming). Windows phone platform has already got all the ingredients for a powerful ecosystem. Major competitors The following cell phone companies holding major market share give tight competition to Nokia: 1. APPLE Inc. 2. Samsung 3. Sony 4. HTC 5. Research in Motion Black Berry 6. ZTE 7. LG According to IDC, July 26, 2012 – The worldwide mobile phone market grew 1%  year over year in the second quarter of 2012 (2Q12), as Samsung and Apple shipped almost half of the world’s smartphones. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 406.0 million units in 2Q12 compared to 401.8 million units in the second quarter of 2011. Samsung and Apple have more than doubled their combined market share over the past two years, which has created more distance between the companies and the competition. â€Å"Samsung and Apple have quickly become the global smartphone heavyweights though both employ somewhat different approaches to the market,† said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. â€Å"Samsung employs a ‘shotgun’ strategy wherein many models are created that cover a wide range of market segments. Apple, in contrast, off ers a small number of high-profile models. While both companies have expanded their geographic presence in pursuit of market share, the two companies will inevitably come into greater conflict as both try to generate additional gains.† Market share gains will be harder to generate, however, if the worldwide smartphone market grows at rates similar to the 42.1% year-over-year rate at which the market increased in 2Q12. This was the lowest growth rate since the fourth quarter of 2009. Vendors shipped 153.9 million smartphones in 2Q12 compared to 108.3 million units in 2Q11. The 42.1% year-over-year growth was one percentage point lower than IDC’s forecast of 43.1% for the quarter. The spectre of further economic woes puts growth prospects for the mobile phone market at risk. â€Å"With half of 2012 behind us, vendors are looking ahead to 2013 and how key markets – particularly Europe and emerging markets – will play out,† said Ramon Llamas, senior res earch analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team. â€Å"Despite recent maneuvers to shore up several countries within the Eurozone, the effectiveness of these efforts remains to be seen. Meanwhile, emerging markets will continue to be strong contributors due to their sheer size and growth trajectory, but how much they can offset potential declines in other countries is unclear.† Nonetheless, IDC expects long-term mobile phone and smartphone shipment demand to grow steadily in 2012 and through the years ahead due to the central role mobile phones play in people’s lives. â€Å"For many users, the mobile phone has become the essential communications link to others and to the world,† noted Llamas. Smartphone Vendor Highlights Samsung extended its lead over Apple during the second quarter, taking advantage of Apple’s release schedule and launching its flagship Galaxy S III. In addition, Samsung experienced continued success of its smartphone/tablet hybrid device, the Galaxy Note. As a result, Samsung topped the 50 million unit mark and reached a new quarterly smartphone shipment record in a single quarter. What remains to be seen is how the company’s smartphones will fare against Apple’s next-generation iPhone expected later this year. Apple posted an expected sequential decline last quarter, similar to years past. The quarter-over-quarter shipment decline came six months after it unveiled its latest iPhone. The decline is not unusual as iPhone shipment volume is highest in the first two quarters after its release. The company’s once-a-year release cycle usually results in two quarters of lower volumes leading up to the next-generation model introduction. Nonetheless, Apple made significant inroads into new markets and segments, including smaller regional carriers and prepaid service providers. Nokia smartphone business underwent another quarter of transition. Demand for Symbian and MeeGo units declined, reaching levels not seen since 2005 though the company almost doubled its Windows Phone shipments from the previous quarter. Nokia’s Lumia sales were not terribly affected by Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 announcement, which will prevent current Lumia owners from upgrading to the new mobile operating system. However, Lumia sales have remained steady and key enhancements available on the new platform will eventually become available to current Lumia owners. Nokia, however, has a long path to travel before it can reclaim previous volume levels and challenge Apple and Samsung for smartphone supremacy. HTC rebounded from its struggles in the two previous quarters to reclaim the number 4 spot in the smartphone vendor rankings. Its relatively strong performance in the Asia/Pacific region allowed it to climb back up the rank order as did the correction of its channel inventory issues. The company’s streamlined portfolio means future share gains will be predicated upon the success of its One products. ZTE climbed into the smartphone Top 5 for the first time thanks primarily to shipments of its lower-cost entry-level smartphones in China, where it’s based. However, the vendor has also grown  its international smartphone sales, particularly in the U.S. where its smartphones can be found under other brands. Latin America is another source of significant smartphone growth for the vendor. Despite impressive gains last quarter, brand equity may prove to be an issue for ZTE in future. Strong brand recognition is a necessity if high-growth smartphone sales abroad are a priority for the company. Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q2 2012 (Units in Millions) Vendor 2Q12 Unit Shipments 2Q12 Market Share 2Q11 Unit Shipments 2Q11 Market Share Year-over-year Change Samsung 50.2 32.6% 18.4 17.0% 172.8% Apple 26.0 16.9% 20.4 18.8% 27.5% Nokia 10.2 6.6% 16.7 15.4% -38.9% HTC 8.8 5.7% 11.6 10.7% -24.1% ZTE 8.0 5.2% 2.0 1.8% 300.0% Others 50.7 32.9% 39.2 36.2% 29.3% Total 153.9 100.0% 108.3 100.0% 42.1% Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, July 26, 2012 Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors. Top Five Total Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q2 2012 (Units in Millions) Vendor 2Q12 Unit Shipments 2Q12 Market Share 2Q11 Unit Shipments 2Q11 Market Share Year-over-year Change Samsung 97.8 24.1% 75.4 18.8% 29.7% Nokia 83.7 20.6% 88.5 22.0% -5.4% Apple 26.0 6.4% 20.4 5.1% 27.5% ZTE 17.7 4.4% 16.3 4.1% 8.6% LG Electronics 13.1 3.2% 24.8 6.2% -47.2% Others 167.7 41.3% 176.4 43.9% -4.9% Total 406.0 100.0% 401.8 100.0% 1.0% Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, July 26, 2012 Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors. Marketing strategy An organization’s strategy that combines all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan is known as marketing strategy. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the right product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit potential and sustain the business. The marketing strategy is the foundation of a marketing plan. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In order to diversify its business in to mobile network market, Nokia needs to make use of its leading mobile phones manufacturer image. As Nokia has build loyalty among its mobile phone users, it can use this for attracting customers towards its SIM cards and thereby gain market share. Also with its world class R & D department, it can offer many services to its customers which will help them to differentiate in their service offering from its competitors. For instance, video calling, free roaming, outgoing call restriction, etc. By focusing more on rural market which is untap to a certain extent, Nokia can satisfy its customers in rural areas which most of the existing players are not successful. Also by offering customize service plans to its customers such as offering SmS package, unlimited internet package, Free Hello tune, and so on with minimum price. Nokia can also make tie-ups with existing players such as Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel in order to gain larger market share. It can also offer better deals to customers who are buying Nokia handsets on its SIM cards which will increase its sales as well as customer base. This will help them to develop loyalty among its  customers. In order to diversify in to SIM cards segment, Nokia needs to use mass marketing by implementing various promotion strategies such as Advertisements, Hoardings, Sponsoring events, canopies outside colleges and so on. Nokia also needs to plan its distribution strategy in order to reach to maximum people. They can also use their ‘Connecting People’ tagline in its SIM card, thereby giving additional meaning to it. Thus, to diversify in to SIM card market is a better option for Nokia to increase its market share and revenue. Also this will help them to build larger customer base which will ultimately result in one of the leading brands in the telecommunications industry. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing-strategy.html http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=120850 http://mktg-plan.blogspot.in/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/11/technology/nokia_microsoft/index.htm http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/nokias-comeback-strategy-in-smartphones/ http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/brands/nokia/ http://iimtmarketing.blogspot.in/2012/03/marketing-mix-nokia.html