Nest Coffee Essay Example for Free

Nest Coffee Essay 1. Batch: 2011-2014 Course Code: 50121308Course Name: Marketing II Roll #601 Assignment #302 †¢ 2. Brand Name: Nescafe Parent Company: NestleYear of Establishment of Nestle: 1866 IntroductioNestle was established in Switzerland by Henri Nestle n Year of Entering the Indian Market: 1961 First Plant set up at Moga, Punjab Brief Overview: In 1930 the Brazilian governmentapproached Nestle to create a new instant coffee that would give the consumer another option and at the same time increase the dwindling coffee exports of Brazil. It took eight years but in 1938 Nestle introduced Nescafe. †¢ 3. Product Range (in India) †¢ 4. STP Analysis Targeting A target market is a set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve. Positioning. Position is the act of designing the company image to occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the target markets. A product position is the way the product is defined by consumer attributes Segmentation Market segmentation means dividing a market into smaller group with distinct needs, characteristics, or behaviour who might require separate products or marketing mixes. †¢ 5. Segmentatio n Geographical Segmentation Nescafe has divided the country into four segments i.e. Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western. The Southern Segment consumes the most amount of Coffee and prefers hard and roasted coffee. Where was in Northern region, Nescafe instant coffee is consumed in higher quantities. Demographical SegmentationNescafe has tried to segment every age group, families, region, gender and different socio-economic. †¢ 6. Segmentatio Past n Nescafe was targeted to morning people PresentNescafe is now targeting the Youth According to Andrew Ward, worldwide account director ofNescafe has launched a $30 millionglobal campaign, specifically aimed at 16-24 years old. Use of Youth Icons like Purab Kohli, Vir Das and Deepika Padukone as According to McCann-Erickson Brand Ambassadors World Group, coffee is the most popular drink among the youth. †¢ 7. Examples NESCAFE CAPPUCCINO Targeted to †¢ Premium urban consumers †¢ Core audience aged 17-30 †¢ Concentrates on the theme of â€Å"The magic world of endless pleasure†. NESCAFE CLASSIC Targeted to †¢ The urban professional †¢ Core audience aged 20-30†¢ Concentrates on the classic taste of coffee with the tagline â€Å"Coffee at its Best† †¢ 8. Positioning Nescafe’s positioning is â€Å"1 coffee cup, 1 good feeling † The TVCs and all Promotional Messages focus on passing love between two person. Sharing a cup of coffee is shown as a symbol of sharing happiness. The Red Nescafe mug is another popular symbol which associates the Brand Nescafe with the concept sharing happiness. Nescafe Classic is positioned as â€Å"100% Pure Instant Coffee† Nescafe Cappuccino is being positioned as â€Å"A true Cafe† †¢ 9. Tvc and Print Ads They all focus on positioning the brand as a symbol of shared happiness.

Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Example for Free

Improve Own Practice in Learning and Development Essay Why LD practitioners must engage in reflective practice and continue CPD. Analyse own values, beliefs and attitudes and the impact on their practice. Engaging in Reflective practice is associated with the improvement of the quality of care, stimulating personal, professional growth and the closing gap between theory between theory and practice. J Dewey was among the first to consider the questions of psychology and the theory of knowledge, I liked Brookfield (1998) as his concept explained discussing and talking and contemplating through the learner’s eyes. The appeal of the use of reflective practice is that as teaching and learning are complex, and there is not one right approach, reflecting on different versions of teaching, and reshaping past and current experiences will lead to improvement. Schà ¶n’s (1983) reflection–in-action assists practitioners in making the professional knowledge that they will gain from their experience in the classroom an explicit part of their decision-making. Research base practices strongly supports the importance of the teacher/ facilitator being a highly trained, reflective professional. The importance of reflecting on what you are doing, as part of the learning process, has also been empathised by many investigators, for example the second stage of Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle, reflective observation. Reflective observation can be an important tool in practice based professional learning settings where individuals learning from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, maybe the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. Another way to look at it is through Lewin/Kolb’s single-loop learning, and the Argyris and Schà ¶n concept double-loop learning which were mapped from the works of Ashby (1960) while working on cybernetics. Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot or too cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and take  corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when an error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives. Double loop learning uses feedback from past actions to question assumptions underlying current views. Davies (2012) explained the benefits to reflective practice Increased learning from an experience for situation Promotion of deep learning Identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement Identification of educational needs Acquisition of new knowledge and skills Further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values Encouragement of self-motivation and self-directed learning Could act as a source of feedback Possible improvements of personal and clinical confidence . There are a number of ways to monitor your performance regularly, capturing incidental/experienced learning by keeping a self-reflective journal, by reading it over and over again I can begin to analyse achievements however small they seem and develop a greater level of self-awareness. This is where I try to recognise the needs to enhance my own learning so that a bigger benefit for the learner to progress and achieve something in their future. Firstly I identified my own preferred learning style as everyone learns in different ways. There are many ways to establish your preferred way of learning and as supported by Reece and Walker (2009), â€Å"All students are individuals and no two students learn the same way†. To move forward in life, we all need to improve our ideas, broaden relevant knowledge and skills. Getting constructive feedback (for example, learners, peers, mentors and colleagues) are important aspects of reflection. Performance indicators of the organisation are identified, it shows whether I am current with the ways of facilitating and is it having an impact on learners. It will also show how I am performing, what is going well and where I need training or guidance i.e.  learning Microsoft office at college, enabling me to have computing vocational skills. Utilising the S.W.O.T analysis where I am able to identify my strengths: Supportive Judicious Communication skills Imaginative and observant I am able to identify my weaknesses: Inability to refrain from helping Being too talkative Too altruistic This ensures me I am performing to the best that I can and that I am meeting all the standards and expectations within the organisations policies and procedures. The guidance of a mentor is an advantage for they have had similar experiences and understanding of their issues with self-development. There will be times when I will need support and advice to move my career forward and achieve life goals, so it is best to have an effective relationship. Some factors that help to build an effective relationship; Mutual respect Honesty and direct communication Acceptance and flexibility Commitment Trust Some shared values Willingness, to work through obstacles â€Å"Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills,  improve their performance and become the person they want to be† (E Parsole, The oxford school of coaching mentoring) I believe that all individuals are created equally, thus all have the ability to learn equally. Resisting from a classroom culture of control, with the correct amount of care and tutoring, learners would be able to participate in classes with simplified understanding. Providing adequate feedback is an important aspect, I always try to rephrase a question with learners so not only do they understand and try to answer correctly, they feel great when they receive feedback which motivates them to learn. When I provide learners with time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student ownership increases. Research shows that metacognition can be taught (Visible Learning, 2009). Using reflective practice I am able to instil values that the learner can use in their life and work.

Field Programmable Gate Array based Digital Module

Field Programmable Gate Array based Digital Module Field Programmable Gate Array based Digital Module for Laser Frequency Stabilization A.Rastogi1, N. Batra, S.De2, S.Panja and A. Sen Gupta Introduction Frequency stabilized lasers are a crucial part in variety of atom-photon experiments such as atomic spectroscopy [1], laser cooling [2], probing the excited states of atoms [3] etc. Depending on the application, a stability in bandwidth from few MHz to sub Hz maybe required. It is therefore, essential to stabilize the frequency of a laser source to an absolute reference. Atoms or ultra stable fabry- perot cavities are used for this purpose [4]. Such stabilization schemes require electronic feedback / servo loops that allow for a correction in laser frequency deviation. At CSIR-NPL, we are developing the first optical frequency standard in India with a single trapped Ytterbium ion (171Yb+). The project aims at trapping a single Yb ion in a Paul trap, laser cooling the ion to about mK temperatures for a precise frequency measurement of the ultranarrow octupole transition at a wavelength of 467 nm. The 171Yb+ frequency standard will require a simultaneous operation of five lasers for photoionization (399 nm), cooling (369 nm), repumping (935 nm and 760 nm) and probing the clock transition (467 nm) [5]. All the laser lights for our experiment would be produced from extended cavity diode lasers (ECDL) which drift in their frequencies due to environmental factors as temperature fluctuations and mechanical vibrations. Such drifting renders them unstable and hence, incorporating frequency stabilization systems becomes an essential requirement for precise frequency standards. In general a frequency stabilization of a laser, as for example using saturated ab sorption spectroscopy [6], requires the use of a frequency synthesizer for scanning and modulation of the laser frequency , lock-in amplifier for phase sensitive detection, low / high pass filters, and servo electronics for feeding control signals to the piezo / current terminals of the laser. Instead of procuring these analog modules for each of the lasers used in our experiment, we have taken an effort of developing them indigenously with an all digital control using field programmable gate array technology(FPGA). Hence, the functionality of all the hardware components can be embedded inside a single chip. In this paper, we present an FPGA based laser frequency stabilization design and show some preliminary results of the performance of the FPGA design modules. An active laser feedback control loop mainly consists of a lock-in amplifier (providing phase sensitive detection) and a PID controller. As mentioned earlier, the controller generates correction signals that drive either a piezo attached to the laser cavity (as in case of ECDL lasers) or a current so as to adjust the laser frequency. Using FPGAs the entire functionality of a laser frequency locking system can be implemented in a single chip with an area of few mm2 . Moreover, the truly concurrent nature of FPGA processing algorithms results in the FPGA design modules behaving like dedicated hardware circuits. Minimal use of hardware leads to lesser probability of picking up noise from the surroundings and also reduces cost. The FPGAs could always be reprogrammed to incorporate extra adders, multipliers, filters i.e. they provide re-configurability. FPGAs are programmed using hardware description languages (HDL) such as Verilog-HDL or VHDL. We have implemented the laser frequency locking modules using VHDL. A schematic of various VHDL design modules implementing a laser frequency locking setup is shown in Fig.1. In our module, the FPGA chip (Xilinx Spartan 6 XCSLX16) receives an input signal either from an atomic spectroscopy or from a fabry-perot cavity[4] [6] .As shown in Fig.1, the acousto-optic modulator (AOM) does amplitude modulations of the laser signal resulting in variations in the intensity of light at the photodetector output. This modulated signal at the photodiode output is the derivative of the laser absorption signal i.e. proportional to the slope of a resonant feature. At a resonant frequency, the derivative signal is zero and on both sides of resonance, the derivative signal is 180 degrees in phase. This signal is the input to the FPGA systemwhich is then digitised using a 12-bit A/D converter (AD7476) and then passed through a high pass filter component. High pass filtering extracts the high frequency modulated features from the input signal. The filtered signal then goes to the input of the lock-in amplifier component (that implements phase sensitive detection). The reference signal for the lock-in amplifier comes from a VHDL component that implements a square DDS generator. A phase shifted version of this reference signal can be used by the AOM to amplitude modulate the laser signal. The lock-in amplifier component demodulates the modulated photodiode signal by multiplying it with the reference signal followed by low pass filtering thereby generating what is called an error signal. The error signal contains information as to which side of resonance, the laser frequency is. This signal is then processed by a PID controller component. The control signals generated by the PID component adjust the laser piezo and current signals in such a way so as to ensure that the error signal is always zero (which corresponds to a resonant frequency).Many a times, it is needed to just scan over the complete laser spectrum or to zoom in on a particular spectral feature. In this case, the PID action is disabled and a slow triangular scan signal (generated by a scan generator component) is fed to the laser piezo.All signals coming out of the FPGA are converted into the analog form via 12-bit DAC (DAC121S101). Moreover, to aid in the flexible tuning of locking parameters such as the lock-in gain, PID parameters, modulation frequency and phase, scan amplitude and frequency ; we are working on developing a graphical user interface (GUI) that would allow easy access to and modification of the parameters values inside the FPGA registers. Figure 1: A schematic of an FPGA based closed loop laser frequency locking system. The experiment (atomic spectroscopy setup) and the electronic feedback servo (implemented using FPGA) are shown separately. On the right is shown the image of our FPGA development board with the Xilinx based FPGA chip at the centre. All the feedback components have been implemented as programmable VHDL modules . Results of Some of the VHDL design modules Operation of the individual VHDL modules as well as of the entire system as shown in Fig.1.have been verified, as for example, by observing the physical signals generated from the software implementation of lock-in amplifier, high pass filter , square DDS , scan generator etc. Here we are showing some of these results from our prototype setup. Function Generation:We have implemented the functional behaviour of a square DDS generator and a triangular generatorby developing VHDL components for them. The output of the square DDS module is used as a reference signal for the lock-in detection stage and a phase shifted version of the reference signal is used in the amplitude modulation of the laser frequency by the AOM. The output of the triangular generator is used as a scan signal that drives the laser piezo for observing the laser absorption spectra over a wide range of frequencies. The signals generated from these VHDL components are shown in Fig.2 (a-b). Figure 2 : (a) Shows a square wave of 20 KHz. This would be used as a reference signal for lock-in detection and for modulation by the AOM. (b) Shows a triangular scan of 10 Hz. This would be given to the laser piezo for scanning over a huge range of laser spectrum. (c) A sine wave of 100 Hz (red) was distorted by a high frequency pseudo random sequence resulting in a distorted signal (blue). The high pass filter module filters out the low frequencies and only high frequencies remain (green). For the response shown, the cut-off frequency was kept at 1 KHz. High Pass Filter:Our high pass filter implements a first order IIR digital filter. As shown in Fig.1.the high pass filtering is needed to extract the high frequency amplitude modulations of the photodiode signal superimposed over the slowly scanned doppler absorption profile. As a way of verifying the functionality of this component, a low frequency sine way (100 Hz) was added to a pseudo-random number sequence (10-bit maximal sequence) which was generated at 1 MHz. The result is a highly distorted sine wave comprising high frequency fluctuations superimposed over a slowly varying sine wave. When such a signal is passed through the high pass filter component, the slow sinusoid is removed and only the fast fluctuations appear at the filter output. The cut-off frequency determines the signal at the output. The high pass filtering is shown in Fig.2 (c). Lock -In Amplifier(Phase Sensitive Detector):Software implementation of a lock-in amplifier constitutes developing a binary multiplier in conjunction with a low pass filter. The binary multiplier multiplies an input signal with a reference signal The product is then passed to the low pass filter of a suitable cut-off frequency such that only the portion of the input signal that occurs at the reference frequency remain while the rest are filtered out. Moreover, the output of the lock-in amplifier (i.e. the low pass filtered signal) is directly proportional to the amplitude of the input signal and inversely proportional to the relative phase difference between the input and reference signals. Hence, for a given phase relationship, theoutput increases with increase in input signal amplitude. Similarly, for a fixed amplitude of input signal, the output is maximum when the reference and input signals are in phase (0 degrees) ; minimum when the two are out of phase (180 degrees) and averag es to zero when they are 90 degrees phase separated. In Fig. 3, we demonstrate the amplitude and phase dependence of a lock-in amplifier circuit whose behaviour we have implemented in VHDL. The input signal to this component was an internally generated sine wave (5 KHz) and the reference signal was a square wave (5 KHz). From Fig.3 (a) , it is clear that as the amplitude of input signal (red) increases, the output signal (blue) shifts in the upward direction. For very small input signals (near to zero) , the output is also close to zero. From Fig.3(b), it is clear that the outputs of the lock-in amplifier are equal and opposite for phase separation of 0 (blue) and 180 degrees (red) between the input and reference signals. Moreover, the output signal averages to zero (green) when the corresponding phase difference is 90 degrees. Figure 3 : (a),(b) and (c)show the dependence of the lock-in amplifier output (blue) upon the input signal (red). As the input signal amplitude increases from (a) to (c), the output level also shifts up(d) The mean of the lock-in amplifier is minimum when the phase difference between the reference signal and input is 180 degrees (red), maximum when the two are in phase (blue) and lies in the middle of the two extremes when the phase difference is 90 degrees (green). Implementation of Frequency Locking Using Simulated Atomic Spectroscopy Reference frequency from the laser driven atomic spectroscopy is currently not available due to in- availability of the laser.Therefore, to overcome this practical situation and test the FPGA based frequency locking modules,we describe an elegent simulation scheme for testing the closed loop FPGA based frequency control by simulating the atomic spectroscopy experiment described in [6] inside the FPGA chip itself. Essentially, inside the FPGA chip , there would be two main modules : (1) An experiment module that simulates a saturated absorption spectroscopy setup and (2) A feedback module that implements lock-in detection and a PID control action. The experiment module would include three components : A laser piezo scan / control block that receives a voltage at its input and generates a frequency as a predetermined function of that voltage ; an atomic spectroscopy block which generates a derivative intensity profile as a function of the frequency from the piezo block . This in effect results in a derivative feature as a function of the input voltage to the piezo block. In addition , there is a modulation block that mimics an AOM driver. The block modulates the derivative signal in a certain algorithm such that the positive and negative cycles of the derivative signal are 180 degrees out of phase. The modulated signal then goes to the feedback block. The functions for voltage to frequency conversion and for frequency to derivative intensity conversion can be carefully chosen such that over one complete scan cycle , the derivative is zero at a particular voltage. The frequency corresponding to this voltage is the desired freque ncy and the feedback loop should effectively generate a voltage corresponding to this frequency by making the error signal zero. In this sense, the feedback module includes the basic components as high pass filter (for removing the slow doppler profile features from the modulated derivative signal) , lock-in amplifier (for phase sensitive demodulation of the derivative signal thereby giving an error signal) , a PID controller loop that fixes the error signal to zero and a scan generator that is used for observing the derivative over a complete scan range. Also, the reference signal for lock-in detection and the modulation signal from the AOM block are generated from a square DDS (implemented inside the feedback module). The output of the feedback module is either a scan voltage or a PID control voltage. In either case, the voltage signal goes to the piezo component of the experiment module. In this way, a closed feedback scheme is achieved as shown in Fig.4 At the time of writing th is paper, the experimental module has been successfully implemented and we are able to simulate both the scan and lock conditions. In the scan mode, PID loop is disabled and the error signal is observed over a defined sweep span. Under the locking condition, the PID loop is enabled which pins the error signal down to the zero value. In this way, the system gets locked to the frequency corresponding to zero error voltage. After the first order confirmation of frequency locking , we next plan to charcterise the lock quality , add facilities of scan offset and error signal offset to the existing simulation scheme as well as introduce noise into the system . Figure 4 :(Left) A closed loop scheme simulating an atomic spectroscopy experimental setup and a feedback system both implemented inside the FPGA chip. (Right) A falling edge of scan signal (blue) with an error signal (red) simulating a spectroscopic feature is shown. A mirror image of the feature is observed on the rising scan edge . When in lock mode, the error signal falls flat to zero voltage (green) demonstrating that the system gets locked to a particular frequency. Conclusion We have developed an all digital laser frequency stabilization module using field programmable gate array technology as against traditional bulky and expensive analog controllers. The VHDL design modules developed, imitate the functionality of typical hardware electronics used in a laser frequency locking system. The design modules were tested both individually as well as end to end through different testing methodologies. Some of the results were presented in this paper.Also, before incorporating the design modules into locking an actual laser, we have developed a scheme that simulates an entire atomic spectroscopy experiment with an electronic feedback system, both implemented inside the FPGA chip. We have successfully shown the frequency locking action of our feedback modules through this scheme and plan to test them more rigorously by making enhancements in the existing simulation scheme. Acknowledgement S. De acknowledges support from Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) for funding this project under the project code :34/14/19/2014-BRNS/0309. References [1] K.B. Mac Adam, A Steinbach and C. Wiemann, Am. J. Phys. 60 , 1098 (1992). [2] D. J. Wineland and H. Dehmelt,Bull. Am. Phys. Soc.20, 637 (1975). [3] Chien-Nan Liu, Toru Morishita and Shinichi Watanabe, 2009 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 194 032014. [4] W. Z. Zhao, J. E. Simsarian, L. A. Orozco, and G. D. Sprouse, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 69, 3737(1998). [5] S. De, N. Batra, S. Chakraborty, S. Panja, A. Sen Gupta, .Current Science 106, 1348 (2014). [6] Hall,J.L.;Hollberg,L.;Baer,T.;Robinson,H.G., ApPhL,39,680 (1981).

Kerensky handed over power to the Bolsheviks Essay -- Russia Bolshevik

"Kerensky handed power to the Bolsheviks" By October 1917 the Winter Palace of St Petersburg was overthrown by the Bolshevik party of Russia. Historians have deliberated for years on why this event occurred, one viewpoint taken is it was the fault of the detested Alexander Kerensky, prime-minister of Russia. Accusations that Kerensky handed power to the Bolsheviks are not unfounded, he conducted some disastrous policies, but was this Kerensky's fault, or was he being pressured by the unruly monarchists and rightists of Russia, did fear of a bloody cout d?ÃÆ'Â ©tat force him into passing measures such as the restoration of the death penalty? Was Kerensky's failure inevitable after the miserable spells of Lvov and Milyukov as leaders of the Provisional government? It is too easy to state that the revolution in Russia was one man's fault, despite Kerensky's perpetual mistakes there were a lot of other factors, such as the role of Trotsky and Lenin that must be taken into account. An indelible failure of Alexander Kerensky was his refusal to bring Russia out of the war. Kerensky had been hired as Lvov successor due to his belligerent and aggressive nature against the Bolsheviks so his continuation of the war was not unexpected (especially coming from the position Minister of War). However Kerensky was quite arrogant in thinking that a war that had brought down the Romanov dynasty of over 300 years and saw the dismissal of Milyukov and Guchov (after they embarrassingly promised to carry on with the war effort after telling the people they would not) would not hinder his leadership. The burden of the war on the people was devastating as resources were being sent to the front also troops at the rear were becoming increasingly frustrat... ...ro to solve them, the war was straining all their resources, the workers were in constant rebellion and the army were no longer under the Provisional Government?s control, also the polarisation of political Russia was worrying. Kerensky came to be a leader because he was a bridge between the right and left, but that bridge burned and Kerensky was left alone with no support. His handling of the Kornilov affair was his biggest downfall, personally I think he should have never appointed Kornilov as Command in Chief, he was reactionary and had a past record of disregarding rules, Brusilov was a better option because of his democratic appeal. When Kornilov came into the picture the left support of Kerensky disappeared as well as the right, at this moment the Provisional Government was over. Kerensky didn?t give the Bolsheviks power but made it exceedingly easy for them.

Adolf Hitler Essays -- Papers

Adolf Hitler When And Where He Was Born Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria, on April 20 1889. Adolf was the son of Klara and Alois Hitler. He was very hostile towards his father who was a minor customs officer on the Austro-German border, and deeply attached to his housewife mother. Adolf's father Alois used to beat on Adolf's half brother Alois Jr, but when Alois reached the age of 14 and had had enough of the beating, he ran away from home never to see his father again. This put Adolf next in line, and his discontent father then beat him. Hitler was a good student in the younger ranks of school gaining good grades with little effort. Eventually the time came when he had to take the next step up and choose which high school he wanted to attend. Hitler was very interested in art and so he wanted to go to a classical school. However, his father was eager for Adolf to follow in his footsteps as a civil servant and sent him to the Technical high school in the city of Linz in 1900. The city kids looked down upon Hitler, as he was only a country kid, Hitler's work began to slump due to his unhappiness. He did poorly in the first year getting kept back. Hitler hoped that if his father saw how little progress he was making at the technical school, that his father would allow him to go to a classical school, but this didn't work as the thought of Hitler becoming an artist in the eyes of his father were ridiculous. Hitler began his second year in high school as the oldest boy in his class as he was held back for the extra year. He had an advantage over the other boys and his grades did improve, but he still failed mathematics. Ge... ...rial for treason in a trial he had total advantage in. Hitler had the right to use the courtroom as a propaganda platform from which he could speak at any length on his own behalf, interrupt others at any time and even cross examine witnesses. Hitler admitted everything, however, put himself over as a German patriot wanting to take over Germany to do the right thing and not give in against the Treaty Of Versailles. Hitler accused the German politicians of being the guilty party because they where the people who stabbed the whole of Germany in the back by ending World War 1 and signing the Treaty Of Versailles. Hitlers tactics did and didn't work at the same time. He was found guilty however, where he could have had life imprisonment for what he did, he only got a 5 year sentence and was eligible for parole in 6 months.

Affirmative Action :: Quotas Race Minority Academics Essays

Affirmative Action In Texas, acceptance to public universities for high school students is now based on academic achievement - if a student is at the top ten percent of his or her class, he or she will be automatically accepted. This is a way to counter the unfairness of affirmative action causes because the admission has nothing to do with race or sex. Arguably, this policy is reasonable because students studying at the same high school receive equal opportunity to learn and educate themselves. This may seem fair, but the same problem still exists. If a student has to work part-time just to make a living because his or her family is unable to sustain financially, how is this student going to find time to study and be successful in school, and therefore, be in the top ten percent? In recent supreme court ruling, the point system that were using in admitting law students at the University of Michigan was ruled unconstitutional and therefore taken out. The university used a point system that quantified the qualification of the applicant's status. If a student's points exceed a certain number, he or she is admitted to the school. The university gives an extra twenty points to the minorities in terms of enforcing affirmative action and helping the disadvantaged. The six of the judges believe that the defined number system is in many ways similar as having a set quota in admitting minority students, which was banned in the case of University of California v. Bakke of 1978. The judges believe that having a rule in admitting students strictly by race is impersonal. In Bakke's case, the University defends itself for having such quota with the fact that admitting minority students into medical school can help improve social discrimination because the minority are less likely to have the education or the financial status to go to a medical school. As a result, being a doctor becomes majority profession. The judges at the time countered the university's statements by stating that the school is being unfair to the non-minority applicants, who are not directly responsible of the social discrimination. The Supreme Court ruled the University of Michigan's point system unconstitutional in the undergraduate level, but kept the same system for the Law school. They believe race should be taken into consideration, but should not quantify qualification. Although the judges opposing this ruling stated that "A fixed numerical score for racial minority status has the virtue of honesty.

Leadership Interview and Analysis Essay

I interviewed the owner of a mid-sized engineering firm from this point forward referred to as Jack. Jack has been in the engineering field over 30 years starting as a project engineer and has worked his way to owning his own company. He has no formal training or degree in management or leadership and is speaking from experience. For Jack the definition of leadership is to guide and direct. He compares a manager in business to a platoon leader who can lead a group of people in a productive manor to achieve a desired outcome. When guiding these employees or soldiers the use of direct consequence or praise is the best way to guide your followers to the desired goal. Jack believes that most employees need close watch and a tight leash as to not fall off task. When Jack was asked what characterizes a good leader he continued to refer to the military example, even though he has never served. He believes there are two main components of a strong leader, wisdom and people skills. With wisdo m you will have a strong knowledge of the tasks or products offered and are able to assist in problem solving. Along with wisdom Jack believes that you will be able to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the market. People skills are the second part of Jacks components for a strong leader. When a leader has strong people skills he can relay his wisdom in an effective manner to employees so they can complete the desired task. He also believes that strong problem solving skills come along with people skills; you should be able to mediate an issue between employees or a client in a way as to not effect production or lose a client. Jack believes that situation plays a role in leadership. This is what separates strong leaders from the average. A strong leader can be placed in most any situation and be successful. If a mediocre leader is put into a simple or familiar situation they could be interpreted as a strong leader but will fail when tested. He also states that there are a few situations where even the strongest most experienced leaders will fail. The example of a pilot, seconds from destruction, could direct and organize his crew to the best of anyone’s ability and yet still fatally crash. This relates to business during market downturns and changes in technology. If you have too much expense and debt during a downturn or your only product has just been rendered obsolete by a new technology, there is not much you can do. When asked about the followers he prefers to refer to them as â€Å"the team† and they need to work together if they are going to be lead well. Although when asked if a strong leader can take â€Å"bad† followers and still accomplish a common goal, he believes it can be done. Jack still refers back to the military, when grunts come in general infantry they are generally â€Å"bad† followers but a strong leader can bring them together, have them work as a group and agree to go to war together. In Jack’s career he has encountered good and bad followers, some needing a lot of structure and others which could be trusted to complete the work with minimal supervision. Jack has a very â€Å"laid back† style of leadership and with some employees this became an issue because they took advantage of the freedom. In Jacks experience leaders can be trained but there is a small group that will never be a good leader. In society he believes there is a very large â€Å"middle ground† of people who can be trained to accomplish anything they set their mind to. He thinks that some great leaders are born that way and it comes much more effortlessly than for others. That being said, if one of the â€Å"middle ground† individuals had the desire and training they too can rise to be a great leader and accomplish great things. In general Jack believes that great leaders can either be born or trained to achieve the highest level of leadership and that there is a small g roup of individuals that un-salvageable. After this interview I think Jack has a understanding of what makes a leader but still has leaning to do. First and foremost leadership is a process and not just a single tactic to achieve a single goal. It is the development of relationships between the leader and the followers along with the relationships between the followers themselves. Through these emotional connections a leader can work with a group of followers and accomplish great things even when situation may be very difficult. I found it very interesting when talking about the characteristics of a strong leader Jack’s first response is wisdom, which I believe he relates to intelligence. Intelligence is a very large factor in being a strong leader but being inspiring is just as important. Being a â€Å"people person† does not make you a good leader. An individual can be very kind and a good listener but unless they can inspire a group of people to work together for a common goal they will not be effective. Jack believes that leaders can be trained to accomplish a high level of success much like the ones that are natural leaders. This is idea is in line with academics that leadership can be classically trained and not only gained by experience. Another issue with Jacks interpretation of leadership is how a strong leader can improve an already good situation. He sees that strong leaders can handle most situations and accomplish necessary tasks but fails to acknowledge that the entire dynamic is related. His views seem negative towards a leader with a good group of followers and a positive situation, that with a strong or marginal leader you will have the same result. I disagree with this idea and believe with a strong leader you can have increased productivity and quality of product. It also seems that Jack thinks all managers are leaders which is not the case. Managers and leaders have many of the same characteristics but hold different roles within a company. Managers are there to provide guidance and accomplish a short term goal or task whereas a leader is there to inspire and create a challenging vision for the long term success of a company. True leaders will be introspective as they learn from experience. This is known as the action-observation-reflection model in which a leader will take an experience and give it additional attention to learn as much as possible. First you must review the action that caused the experience, then review the outcome of that action and finally determine how you feel about the outcome. When using this method reviewing a situation one can gain a great deal of knowledge to apply in the future. Jack also seems to have fundamental attribution error when reflecting on why he considers an employee to be bad. He has a bias that when an employee is not functioning at their full capacity it is only due to them taking advantage of him and his method of management. He fails to see if there could be any outside factors causing these behaviors; for example, if an employee is also a student who in enrolled in a very difficult course may appear to be leaving early and â€Å"taking advantage† when in fact they just have a class to attend. This could be easily remedied by offering a flexible schedule where the employee could begin their work day a little earlier. This also relates to the self serving bias where this employee could hold Jack responsible for not performing in class instead of realizing they didn’t dedicate enough time out of class for study. Jack also believes that to be a good leader you must be very proficient in the task at hand. The academics disagree with this idea and note that the higher level of management the less technical knowledge you must have. This is where vision and inspiration become extremely important to guide your followers to success. In conclusion Jack has learned well from his years of experience but there is still room for growth in his knowledge of leadership and management, especially the difference between the two. Something that would greatly help improve the quality of management and leadership within the company would be using some assessment the leaders. This could be accomplished by having a questionnaire rating the leader by the superiors and subordinates. This method would help understand the performance of the leader as assessed by the superior and the effectiveness as provided by the subordinate’s questionnaire.