Product and Evolutionary & Revolutionary Innovations Essay

Product and Evolutionary & Revolutionary Innovations - Essay Example They defined market orientation as the mix of customer orientation & competitor orientation. However Slater and Narver (1998. pp1000-1005) argued that customer orientation and market orientation should not be mixed. Customer orientation often results in short term myopic innovations whereby it is assumed that customers know very well what they want and hence following their wish list will automatically result in improved competitive advantages of the organizations. They further argued that customers grossly lack foresight of what they need and hence the organization will end up getting defocused from what they need and hence their products sell till the time the customers change their choices by realizing that this was not they needed. Market orientation appears similar to customer orientation but there is a fundamental difference - market orientation is focused on customer needs and not their desires. Market orientation needs serious inter-functional orientation because the market s tudy needs to be translated into long term goals and corresponding product innovations. An organization can get the best out of market orientation when they have sufficient skills to develop products that are not easy for competitors to imitate thus achieving an overall enhancements in competitive advantages. Olson & Walker et al. (1995. pp. ... on for new product innovations with help of market orientation - Bureaucratic Control, Individual Liaisons, Temporary Task Forces, Integrating Managers, Matrix Structures, Design Teams and Design Centers. On the other hand, innovations for customer orientation may not require such in-depth inter-functional coordination. Hence, the author concludes that both market orientation and inter-functional orientation of an organization are important and their effective integration results in newness of the products. "Evolutionary" and "Revolutionary" innovations Veryzer (1998. pp. 304-321) defined two fundamental types of innovations - evolutionary or continuous innovations and revolutionary or discontinuous innovations. The evolutionary innovations are targeted to evolve incremental innovations of the existing products thus allowing them to continue with improved features. The revolutionary innovations are radical in nature that takes the world by surprise through some kind of breakthrough that forces the corresponding existing products to obsolescence. The author observed that the definitions of the two types of innovations explained by the researchers are from the perspective of the innovators that are carrying out technological changes in the existing products. But these two aspects should also be seen from the perspective of end users as well. From an end user perspective, something is radical only when it completely changes the way they have been seeing the product. The author hereby presents an example of VCR versus CD/DVD players. Fr om the perspective of the innovators, both are completely different technologies and hence CD/DVD players are revolutionary innovations. But the end users may argue that their primary objective was to see video on their television sets

Plato's Republic and His Theories About Philosopher Rulers Essay

Plato's Republic and His Theories About Philosopher Rulers - Essay Example In this book, Plato claims that the best way to avoid abuses of power, and thereby avoid some of the worst problems of political life, is to concentrate power in the hands of the wise - philosopher-rulers. There are several reasons that make Plato think that concentrating power in the hands of philosopher-rulers will eliminate abuse of power. In this book, Plato ignores the power of justice and makes philosophy the subject of inquiry. He thinks that the power of a state should be concentrated on philosopher-rulers because of the nature of philosophers. He mentions the gifts of a true philosopher as courage, good memory and quickness. Such people have natural reasonableness or inherent goodness which other people can use to get good things even as they grow old (IDPH 354). According to Plato, the minds of philosophers always love the type of knowledge that reveals to them the external nature that does not differ from corruption and generation (IDPH344). This means philosopher-rulers a re in a position to make a quick detection of corrupt deals and corrupt individuals. Plato further explains that philosophers are lovers of all true being and therefore truthfulness is part of them. They are not willing to renounce others whether they are great or small, more honorable or less honorable. This means that philosopher-rulers stand for the truth in everything. This includes those issues that benefit them personally and those that may not benefit them directly or at all. This also includes truth in the smallest matters which many rulers tend to cover up. Even though such actions may not affect the citizens directly, the truth remains that it is abuse of power. They are therefore more likely to demand for openness and transparency in all actions that affect the larger population just to ensure that the highest levels of truth are maintained. Plato explains that because of their truthfulness, philosopher-rulers detest falsehood and will never receive in their mind falsehoo d intentionally. He goes further to describe truthfulness as the object of affection of philosophers. This is seen where he argues that truthfulness must be affirmed by philosophers. He says of them, â€Å"must be affirmed: for he whose nature is amorous of anything cannot help loving all that belongs or is akin to the object of his affections† (IDPH 344). To make it more convincing, Plato argues that there is nothing that is akin to wisdom as truth. His fellow philosopher Glaucon confirms the same as he states that someone cannot be a lover of wisdom and at the same time, a lover of falsehood. This is to say, wise people are lovers of truth and therefore, they are never lovers of falsehood. These are evident in philosopher-rulers. They would be the best watchdogs, condemners and stoppers of actions that that find their roots in falsehood like corruption and related actions like stealing. Plato ascribes the quality of being ambitious and loving ambitions to philosophers. Havi ng rulers who love ambition can mean nothing better than elimination of every action and person who kills fruits of ambition in the national. Generally, philosopher-rulers have zero tolerance to self-centered leaders who are after heaping part of the national resources for themselves. according to Plato, philosophers are lovers of learning. Plato explains that a true lover of learning must desire the truth right from their earliest youth (IDPH

Pink Flamingo Essay Example for Free

Pink Flamingo Essay In Jennifer Price’s essay entitled â€Å"The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History†, she uses rhetoric devices to convey her opinions of the emptiness of American culture. Price interprets the pink flamingos as a symbol of affluent American culture during the 1950’s. Price’s comparison of pink flamingos to American culture is demonstrated through the use of tone, satire, irony, comparison, and diction. Price varies her writing style as she varies the usage of rhetorical devices in this essay. She blatantly uses irony when she mentions that it is â€Å"a little ironic, since Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Lines 13-14)Price mentions this historical fact to criticize that Americans are using the image of a bird that they had themselves once killed with no serious thought behind it. She belittles Americans because Americans would only use the image of the bird without any interest in the actual bird itself. She compares pink flamingos to American culture in order to illustrate the flamboyant and affluent society that America now experiences like the color of the flaming after the gray days of The Great Depression. The author wants the readers to understand: Flamingos now serve as an icon, a symbol of the wealthy, affluent, and thriving American culture. Price sets the positive away from the noun that presents with dashes to accentuate the importance and the meaning of the word that it conveys. â€Å"Las Vegas: the flamboyant oasis of instant riches† gives more emphasis on the extravagance and the richness of the atmosphere of Las Vegas through the use of a positive saying. Price often uses periodic sentences in order to give more explanations on what she is trying to say. They are often used when she gives the historical information of the pink flamingos: â€Å"When the pink flamingo splashed into the fifties market, it staked two major claims to boldness. † But not only does it add the explanation, but also highlights the â€Å"claim† of the pink flamingos. What had once been only an option available for the wealthy high-class of America, vacations had started to open up to even people of the middle-class. The flamingo not only showed that there was a need for change in American lifestyle, but that a time for change in the way Americans behave is now. The flamingo was a motivator of behavior and cultural change in the U. S. , and even today it is still the symbol of the essential 1950’s lifestyle. Now is this Author really talking about â€Å"pink flamingos† or is she really saying something more? Almost like a hidden message, Price is telling just how we as Americans consume anything and everything we have access to. Price says â€Å"Americans had hunted flamingos to extinction,† can this bird be representing the power of Americans to us thing up as way to live? Jennifer Price is telling us something in her passage, and that is us consuming and diving out something to extinction. Americans as well as the rest of the world have been doing it for years and we will keeps doing it until the world is dried up. Therefore, until we find the next big break through everyone wonders what is going to be its future on us.

Essay --

Happiness is arguably the most sought after goal of the human condition, and time and money are possibly two of the most valuable resources any individual possesses. The article â€Å"Time, money and happiness: How does putting a price on time affect out ability to smell the roses?† by Sanford E. DeVoe and Julian House (2012), sets out to answer the question; what is the connection between time, money, and happiness? The hypothesis that DeVoe and House (2012) proposed was that there is a frustration caused when the goal of maximizing the economic value of time is obstructed and that this frustration can lessen other benefits of experiences, especially pleasure. This hypothesis requires that the individual think about time in relation to its monetary value and therefore whether or not time can be better spent doing something that brings in money. The researchers tested their hypothesis through a few experiments. The first experiment that DeVoe and House (2012) conducted was to directly test their hypothesis. The procedure of this experiment was to take 53 undergraduate students (32 femal...

Guide Question Dragon Soup Essay

For Case (A) 1. Using Excel sheet provided, and the recommended consequential disclosures as a basis for your analysis, what recommendations would you give Phillips on each of the items listed below? In each case, justify your recommendations and estimate how much the decision will change the true value of the company and its value in the eyes of an investor in a private company. a. The lease or buy decision, including whether to structure an operating lease. b. The regular price of the soup, whether or not to run an end-of year promotion or target end-of-year inventory level. c. Whether or not to ask Dunwood to guarantee accounts receivable. d. Whether or not to reduce the end-of-year provision for bad debts due to recent strong collection experience. e. Whether or not to sell different investments and, if the recommendation is not to sell the mortgage-backed securities, how to value them on the end-of-year balance sheet assuming market conditions do not change. Given your recommendations, how m uch do you think a potential buyer will offer based upon a valuation earnings multiple of ten times sustainable earnings, plus the value of cash and marketable investments on the balance sheet? 2. In the case, Phillips questioned how far he should push the envelope. Why should he be concerned if all the actions you recommend are legal? Do you think the associated disclosures satisfy the SEC requirement that a company provides a narrative explanation of its financial statements that enables investors to see the company through the eyes of the management? For Case (B) As stated in the case, Kerr had given the task of valuing Dragon’s equity for possible acquisition, assuming a valuation of ten times sustainable earnings, plus the value of cash and marketable investments on the balance sheet. He understood that most companies preparing for the sale would â€Å"window dress† their financial statements. However, he had no reason to believe Dunwoody  and Phillips would do anything deliberately dishonest. In any event, it was Kerr’s job to try to unwind any such behavior to establish Dragon’s true value. 3. Using the Excel spreadsheet provided and the footnote disclosures it contains as a basis for your analysis, estimate the true value of the company in the eyes of an investor in a private company. 4. Assuming Phillips had prepared the forecasts for you, would you want him to join your team? Please justify your decision. Assuming you want to hire him, would you offer a similar payment structure to the â€Å"Tomato Farm† deal? Please describe how you think such a transaction should be treated in accounting terms. 5. The footnote disclosures in Excel spreadsheet are designed to generally satisfy the SEC requirements to provide a narrative explanation of a company’s financial statements, which enables investors to see company the through the eyes of management. What additional information would you like to see in the so-called â€Å"standard† disclosures? As part of your submission, please provide an Excel spreadsheet that justifies your answers. To the extent that you change any assumptions from those contained in the Excel spreadsheet provided to your group, please provide a detailed explanation of the reasons for these changes and details of the magnitude of their impact on the valuation you propose. If your valuation includes information and/or calculations that cannot easily be incorporated into the spreadsheet provided, please provide additional explanations with your submission MW PETROLEUM (A) JETBLUE AIRWAYS IPO VALUATION KOHLER (A) CONSOLIDATED RAIL For Case (A) For Case (B)

The Elevated Levels Of Plasma Brain Derived Neurotrophic...

When you read about elevated levels of plasma brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in rapid cycling bipolar disorder patients, it could be quite a mouthful. One may wonder, what does this even mean? Well, in simple English, high concentrations of BDNF is something that has been seen in people who suffer from rapid cycling bipolar disorder when compared to healthy individuals. Rapid cycling is a random pattern of recurrent episodes which occurs in bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. Someone with this may suffer through four or more occurrences of mania, hypomania, euthymia or depression in a single year. This can happen any time during the disorder and can also keep happening longer than just a few days, weeks, or months,†¦show more content†¦It is diagnosed after multiple occurrences of hypomania, mania, euthymia, or depression are experienced, and when it happens more than four times in a year. Because of the frequent mood swings, affected anatomical pathways in rapid cycling are those in neural pathways that are thought to regulate human mood. In this study, a simple brain scan revealed the differences in structural volume when looking at a person with the disorder compared to a healthy individual. A patient with the bipolar disorder had an enlarged amygdala, which is responsible for emotions, memory and survival instincts. According to the researchers, there is a role of amygdala dysfunction in bipolar disorder. The way researchers have studied this problem so far is by comparing scanned MRIs of rapid cycling bipolar disorder patients with healthy people that are equivalent in age, gender, race, and education. Researchers have also been studying the peripheral and central nervous systems in rodents and pigs to observe the flow of BDNF and neurotrophin 3 (NT-3) through these systems, uncovering that both these neurotrophic factors have the ability to cross the blood brain barrier. The issue with rapid cycling bipolar disorder is that it can always be misdiagnosed as the standard bipolar disorder. Although both of these maladies are quite similar, the standard bipolar disorder is one in

Cross Cultural Training Is Important For Success - 1300 Words

In today’s international market, a business needs to stay competitive in order to succeed. To do this, businesses need to have access to as many markets as possible to sell their products and services. However, just as each nation has their own culture, so do their business markets. Cross-cultural training is important for success in the world of international business. As stated by Diemer (2010): â€Å"To act without awareness of differences among norms within a differing culture is to invite cross-cultural blunder.† This means that, if we do not take into account the differences between the two cultures and adjust yourself accordingly, it can lead to an incident that is difficult to recover from. In the business world, such an incident can kill a deal that took months or even years to cultivate. People are affected by their own culture whether they actively know it or not. Culture can include, but is not limited to, the language(s) they speak, the country they were raised in, how their home country has affected and been affected by the world, their religion, their gestures, and more. One thing to consider is that people tend to be more comfortable with languages and communication styles that they are used to. This is generally true in both the personal and business worlds. If we do not have an awareness and understanding of each other’s differences we can have a potentially fatal miscommunication. Adler (2008) stated that â€Å"culture is formed from a group’s values, attitudes, andShow MoreRelatedDeveloping A Cross Cultural Training Process1513 Words   |  7 Pageswhich most of the time is translated by early returns of expatriates due to a lack of adjustment or job performance and an important level of frustration, anxiety and concern. 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