Comparison Contrast of Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Ross

Sasha Schmidt Midterm Essay Question 4 Jeannine Russell 10/28/12 The True Criminal Being a salesman has always carried a negative stigma since the early 1900s. Being seen as pushy, high pressure, deceitful people; the dreaded activity of purchasing some car or new appliance has haunted everyone at some point or another. Many words have come to describe salesman such as â€Å"sharks†, â€Å"cons†, â€Å"thieves† etc. , and these words have stuck with the profession throughout the century. Two very realistic depictions of such phonies can be seen in Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet.They depict the styles of two salesmen who have very similar selling techniques, but at the same time can be contrastingly different. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, is often regarded as a tragic figure with whom the audience feels sympathetic. At the same time, his deceitful, dishonest, adulterous ways are despised. In addi tion to this, his over confident attitude seems supercilious and creates more of a disdain for the character as can be seen when he says â€Å"Goddammit, I could sell them! † (Miller 1071). The same can be said as Mamet’s character, Shelly Levene, starts declaring how great of a seller he was.Basking in his own light he boldly exclaims that his success as a salesman is due not to his luck but his skill†( Mamet 1419). Both characters often times talk about how back in the day they were great assets of the company â€Å"averaging a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions† (p. 1089) and â€Å"Cold calling. Nothing. Sixty-five, when we were there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mamet 1419). Both characters meet their tragic ends as they realize that their deceitful and deceptive nature, the facade of great selling they lived behind, is a shattered reality. All both of them want is a chance and to live like they did in the old days and both are denied the chance.Whil e their characters mimic each other, the selling techniques of these two are completely different. Willy’s approach is to go in making natural conversation and the client feel as if they are human. Much to his chagrin is the new reality he is facing, where â€Å"it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear†(Miller 1089). In contrast, Levene takes on the role of â€Å"cut and dried† sales techniques, often using his other associates as pretend clients in order to just make the sell, whether or not he’s tricking extorting money out of his clients.Right from the beginning, he is trying to con â€Å"leads† out of Williamson, his supervisor. â€Å"†¦ I need the leads†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , he boldly tells Williamson who reluctantly begins to make him a deal (Mamet 1418). Right from the get go, Leven is already using the manipulation techniques he uses day in and day out on his co-workers even. Loman pushes hi s honest, integrity, and personality traits as the key to selling success, though we see an obvious decline in his selling abilities compared to the others. That being said, both characters are still very flawed with illusions of owning their own companies and waiting for the right client to come along.They both still have some nasty personality traits and are still putting on a facade to trick people; however, Willy Loman is tricking his family while Shelly Levene is tricking his consumers. Hard selling is a selling technique in which the salesman manipulates the psychological state of the consumer in order to achieve a sale, whether or not the sale is good (Baron & Branscombe). There is little concern for the consumer at all, in fact, often times the seller knows that the consumer is going to be placed into a bad situation, but they specifically rely on the ego-depletion of these buyers.They use a variation of techniques such as door-in-the-face and foot-in-the door just to name a few (Baron & Branscombe). Miller and Mamet depict this from the salesman’s side. They place this psychologically demanding technique at fault of the company, who requires them to sell a goal amount or face termination from the job. Such fear could incite higher pressure selling techniques, which actually make the consumer and the seller feel uncomfortable.Mamet and Miller criticize such deceptive techniques through their plays, highlighting the negative effects (the destruction of the central unit) and exacerbating the flaws of the technique. The role of a salesman has been part of America since the very beginning. With its recent revolution in the 1900s, it has now been associated with a negative stereotype often depicted by movies, literature, and plays. While there might be individual differences in the selling techniques, sellers are all perceived the same: dishonest, deceitful, and as con artists.Such a stigma created by their lack of concern after the sell has been mad e often reconfirms this stereotype. These prejudices notwithstanding, society often places a high demand on consumerism to help the economy and pushing the achievement of the American dream. Miller and Mamet uncover the treacheries of the salesman industry leaving the question as to whom the true criminal is : society or the salesman. Works Cited Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print. Baron, Robert A. , and Nyla R. Branscombe. Social Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.

How to Be a Good Headhunter

As headhunter, I earn my living by finding and evaluating job candidates for the benefit of my clients. After more than 5 years experiences in this job, now I understand what a good headhunter is and how to be. A good headhunter should be building a business based on reputation, relationships and trust — and on making a contribution to our professional community. You are in less of a rush, are more willing to take time to establish long term relationships, and seek to establish your credibility as much as to earn a buck. In order to be a good headhunter, you should have four features — knowledgeable, trustworthy, conscientious and effective. Knowledge As a good headhunter, you should share lots of knowledge and in doing so give candidates enough information to help them make a decision about whether they want to pursue the job (or recommend someone else). You should ask HR tons of valuable information about the company, about the job, the manager and his team, about why the job is open, and about the technology (if applicable), then share to candidates. You also should be able to tell candidates about the interview itself: how the manager evaluates candidates, how his team will be involved and how the selection process will play out. Most important, the good headhunter will be able to coach candidate in a way that will maximize candidates’ chances of winning an offer. Integrity As a trustworthy headhunter, you should be proud of your business and glad to talk about it, more over, you will demonstrate that you have good clients who respect you, and that you know the in's and out's of the industry you recruit in. Your success depends on clients’ and candidates’ trust, which means you should also reveal your trustworthiness by keeping your promises. You do call client or candidate when you promise to call; you do shortlist to client when you promise to. Conscientiousness As a good headhunter, you should try to locate and separate out the best qualified talent for your client company. You should never just ask for candidates resume without doing research by taking the time to ask candidates the tough, detailed questions that will reveal whether candidate fit the company, the manager, the job and the technology or not. Then write some objectively comments on their resume and shortlist to client. Effectiveness As a good headhunter, you should find the right candidate and fill the job in the shortest time. That's your business. To accomplish this, you will gain the respect of the client and candidate. And talking to just anyone isn't your job. Searching out the right candidates and talk with them, that will save your time and make your job efficient. It is obvious that a good headhunter should know client, position and candidate well, and try your best to right person to fill the right position. Meanwhile, you should also give the market information to HR and career suggestion to candidate. If you always do your job like that, success is not far away from you.

Adidas vs Nike Case Study

Creating a powerful website wherein all products and services offered of the company are available and also a websites which interactive too. 5. Using woman athletes in their advertising tactics: commercials or models. SWOT Analysis Strengths †¢ In many invents  is the biggest sponsor †¢ Strong management team †¢ Brand recognition and reputation †¢ Diversity and variety in products offered on the web (footwear, apparel, sporting equipment, etc. ) †¢ Strong control over its own distribution channel †¢ No bad reputation like child labor or environment pollution †¢ In the Soccer industry, Adidas has a stronghold Weaknesses †¢ High prices in some products †¢ E-commerce is limited to USA †¢ Online customer service not helpful or NOT easy to find. Opportunities †¢ Increase female participation in athletics †¢ Collaborate with other online retailers to offer Adidas products †¢ Possibility of outsourcing the web development and e-commerce to a third party developer   Threats †¢ Nikes strong reputation in the footwear and apparel industry too †¢ Negative image created by the sponsored athletes (i. e. Kobe Bryant and his sexual assault case) †¢ Increase in the Price of Raw materials Continuing challenges in import/export duties Competitors Analysis Strengths: †¢ Nike uses a â€Å"Make to Stock† customer order which provides a fast service to customers from available stock. †¢ Nike operates Nike Town shoe and sportswear stores, Nike factory outlets and Nike Women shops. Nike sells its products throughout US and in more than 180 countries. †¢ Nike is strong at research and development, as is evidenced by its evolving and innovative product range. They then manufacture wherever they can produce high quality product at the lowest possible price. †¢ Nike Company is great at expanding their product. Competitors are developing alternative brands to take away Nike’s market share. Objectives of the Analysis 1. To help management understand their competitive advantages/disadvantages relative to competitors. 2. To generate understanding of competitors’ past, present (and most importantly) future strategies 3. To provide an informed basis to develop strategies to achieve competitive advantage in the future. 4. To help forecast the returns that may be made from future investments (e. g. how will competitors respond to a new product or pricing strategy? Strategies . Market Segmentation Most of the consumers of Nike’s products are mainly sportsmen. This is so because of the utility that comes with the products. An athlete is more likely to go a sports shoe designed and marketed by Nike more than a person who detests sporting and exercises. Nike targets these consumers by agreements between Nike and athletic teams, college’s athletic teams, etc. for product spo nsorship and eventual promotion to the members of these teams. In this way, Nike is able to reach a wide number of consumers and consumers who are more likely to buy. Even though others are likely to buy the products, Nike pays specific emphatic targeting to the athlete more than any group of individuals even though it also targets the youth who have embraced the hip hop culture 2. Targeting strategies Nike lays a number of strategies to target their immediate consumers; athletes and other sportsmen. The targeting strategies include among others the sponsorship of products by professional athletic teams, celebrity athletes and college athletic teams. This strategy is specifically successful because of its ability to reach a large number of athletes. If the athletic team manager prescribes a specific type of track shoes made by Nike, the trainees have no option other than to buy them. The teams can as well buy the track shoes in bulky and supply them to the team members. The second strategy that Nike applies is the designing of product destination. It does this by associating success with the product. For example, when a celebrity athlete sponsors a specific brand of athletic shoes, the brand will be associated with success. This psychological effect is reinforced with advertisements that affirm this position. Finally, Nike targets the consumers who are likely to develop product intimacy; those who care more about the utility and quality of the product than the price. In this way, the pricing is not affected too much in a bid to accommodate a large number of consumers. 3. Pricing Strategies Nike targets the consumers who embrace product intimacy and thus care less about the product. This has enables Nike to set relatively higher prices than its competitors. This is a strategy that calls for higher pricing points so as to push the perceived product value. It has been established that consumers who consider a product to be of high quality are likely to pay the high price more often and consistently. Once consumers develop product intimacy, they come to associate their person with the product and will pay whatever price quoted on the product provided it has the Nike logo on it. Another very important thing to note is the fact that Nike uses the vertical integration pricing strategy in which they take ownership of the participants at channel levels that differ and they also engage in multifarious channel level operations both in a bid to control costs and thus influence pricing function. . Distribution Strategies Distribution strategies embraced by an organization can either give them an edge in market or make them lag behind the winners in the market. The more efficient the product distribution is the more sales and thus more profits. The delivery of the right product and at the right time to the consumer not only effects utility but al so leads to high degree of consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Nike distributes its products on level basis. The high priced premium products are given to certain distributors while leaving the low priced to be sold at highly discounted prices at mega retail stores such as Wal-Mart. Whereas Reebok embraced a limited distribution strategy Nike ventured more into a global market capitalization. 5. Promotional and Communication Strategies Apart from Nike selling quality products which have lead to a high degree of customer loyalty, the promotional strategies that the company employs are simply superb. Nike has contracted a number of professional and celebrity athlete which have managed to draw a considerable attention to their products. Some of the sportsmen signed by Nike include soccer stars such as Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, Basketballers such as Jermaine ONeal and Lebron James2, tri-athlete Lance Armstrong and golf superstar Tiger Woods. This has created a relatively high degree of Nike products’ awareness. Besides the signing of celebrity sportsmen to promote their products, Nike has also employed a great deal of advertisements through the mass media. Nike employs a selective- demand advertisement focused on the high priced shoes used for traditional sports. Research and Development Plan Adidas policy is to control and monitor hazardous substance to protect human health and environment, one of those is to eliminate PVC making progress in finding substitutes like polyurethane, ethyl vinyl, silicones thermoplastic rubber. Adidas also  provide training sessions on employment standards and HR systems, health  and safety is important for the company. Establishing teams to manage and monitor SARS in Asia factory, washing stations, disinfectant  units. Adidas join into technology by make up the world’s first smart shoe, adding a microchip inside the shoe and wireless mp3 player. Also using hot melt system of the  production that is environmentally safe, using heat-activated adhesives. The  packaging that company use, are suitable for transportation over long distances humid conditions and extreme temperature changes and use recycled paper and other  environmentally-friendly packaging materials. Human Resource Plan The welfare of the employees is significant for Adidas family. Adidas identified that in order to achieving the goal to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry depends on the talents, enthusiasm and dedication of the employees. In order to success their satisfaction Adidas uses various methods. Some of these are: †¢ provide medical insurance for staff located in different cities †¢ improve the housing accumulation fund and social retirement fund coverage †¢ introduce flexible working hours †¢ provide annual performance bonus for eligible employees †¢ Make internal agreements on the use of internet, (mobile) phone and E-mail, on reintegration of employees coming back from parental leave, and on on-call service †¢ Support the existence of formal work council Adidas as a large international company occupies thousand of employees of different ethics, cultures, and race. Due to the existence of the HR department the potential  problems are eliminated. As Adidas has to cover many different job positions, the skills that are demanded are various. HR department recruits both low and high skilled employees depending on each job description. Diversity exists in all matters  because there are employees of different age, gender, race, nationality and religion. Alternative Plan and Recommendation In human resource we recommend a continuous training to their employees which are very important. Have a continuous organized and numerous seminars in all levels of employment. As it is mentioned  before, Adidas believes that employees and their talents are critical to the continuing commercial success. For this reason, we recommend Adidas to create a Global Salary Management System which responsibility is to motivate employees through different ways of remuneration and through offering various attractive  compensation systems that could be implemented globally. ADIDAS GROUP OF COMPANY 2012 BRYAN MAWAC RHIZA NEMES 10/11/2012 949 The foundation 18 August adidas is registered as a company, named after its founder: Adi from Adolf and Das from Dassler. 50s The Miracle of Bern 1954 The Miracle of Bern Germany battle Hungary with a competitive advantage. They are wearing adidas soccer boots which for the first time feature removable studs. 60s Higher Driven by a desire to help all athletes committed to performance, adidas manufactures equipment for what some consider fringe s ports. Unconventional high jumper Dick Fosbury launches himself up and over in adidas footwear. 0s The adidas team wins Crowning moment: Franz Beckenbauer, the Kaiser, raising the World Cup in victory salute. Germany had just beaten Holland 2-1 in the 1974 final. 80s The transition After Adi Dasslers death, Adis wife Kathe, his son Horst, and his daughters carry on the business. 90s With a new management Under the CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus, adidas is moving from being a manufacturing and sales based company to a marketing company. 1995 adidas goes public Flotation of the company on the Frankfurt and Paris Stock Exchange. 1996 A splendid year The three-stripes company equips 6,000 Olympic athletes from 33 countries. adidas athletes win 220 medals, including 70 gold. Apparel sales increase 50%. 1997 adidas-Salomon AG adidas AG acquires the Salomon Group with the brands Salomon, TaylorMade, Mavic and Bonfire in December 1997. The new company is named adidas-Salomon AG. 1999 The new brands The integration of the new brands is gaining momentum. The new TaylorMade FireSole clubs boost sales. Salomon in-line skates take off with high double-digit growth during the first half of 1999. 2000 – New management Following personnel changes, the new management initiates an ambitious Growth and Efficiency Program. Major sports events such as the European Soccer Championship EURO 2000â„ ¢ and the Olympic Summer Games, where swimmer Ian Thorpe takes three gold medals, contribute to the company’s success. 2005 Sale of Salomon The Salomon Group (including Salomon, Mavic, Bonfire, Cliche and Arc’Teryx) is being sold to Amer Sports in October 2005. The new adidas Group is focusing even more on its core strength in the athletic footwear and apparel market as well as the growing golf category. The legal name of the company will change to â€Å"adidas AG† in May/June 2006. 2006 adidas-Salomon AG acquires Reebok The closing of the Reebok transaction on January 31, 2006 marks a new chapter in the history of the adidas Group. By combining two of the most respected and well-known brands in the worldwide sporting goods industry, the new Group will benefit from a more competitive worldwide platform, well-defined and complementary brand identities, a wider range of products, and a stronger presence across teams, athletes, events and leagues. [pic] [pic] [pic] [pic]

Standard Deviation as a Risk Indicator for Investment Purposes Essay

Standard Deviation as a Risk Indicator for Investment Purposes - Essay Example 41, 2003). However, over the years, many experts and researchers have also tried to point fingers at this approach trying to highlight its serious shortcomings. This paper is an attempt to capture a glance of that debate and critically analyze the use of standard deviation as a risk indicator for investment purposes. Discussion Standard deviation, in finance, is one of the widely used indicators of risk associated with any given security such as bonds, stocks, properties, commodities and others. Standard deviation allows the investors to predict and anticipate the behaviour of the security in the near future (Bhansali, pp. 34-35, 2010). Simply, standard deviation, which is square of the variance, tells the investors that how much they can expect the price of the security to deviate from its mean returns (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Therefore, securities with high standard are more likely to show violate behaviour but the ones with low standard deviation are more likely to show c onsistent behaviour. Quite understandably, the former type of securities will have a great risk and later would be less risky (Wander & D'Vari, pp. 36, 2003). Investors are interested in the values of standard deviation because that helps greatly in the process of portfolio construction and management. A risk adverse investor will only select a handful of securities high standard deviation in terms of its returns and mix that up with securities having lower standard deviation in order to offset the impact of risk and enjoy stable returns (Gravetter & Wallnau, pp. 22, 2010). First, the biggest and the most important shortcoming of standard deviation as the measure of investment risk is rooted in the fact that it assumes normal distribution of values and they are poor measures of risk when it comes to asymmetric distribution. In normal distribution, the values are distributed equally to both sides of the graph; however, in any asymmetrical distribution one tail of the graph, either po sitive or negative side has greater concentration of values (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Therefore, standard deviation fails to give an exact picture of the possible variation in the values. Even the father of the concept of financial engineering, Harry Markowitz has admitted, â€Å"Downside variance is more accurate than standard deviation when it comes to financial risk analysis†. This is true because not only many investing portfolios have asymmetrical distribution but their distribution is skewed positively as well (Haslett, pp. 264, 2010; Connor, Goldberg & Korajczyk, pp. 88-89, 2010). Second, like many other statistical measures of risk computation in finance, standard deviation relies heavily on historical data and there is no guarantee that historical trends will continue in the future as well (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Furthermore, the period undertaken to calculate standard deviation is also of great importance. For example, the standard deviation of sto cks for the period of 2002-2006 may show lower standard deviations for most of the stocks, however, the standard deviation computed over the last five years will show higher standard deviation for many of the stocks (Gravetter & Wallnau, pp. 22, 2010; Brigham & Houston, pp. 74-75, 2009). Therefore, it

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Darwin's Dangerous Idea Discussion - Essay Example Darwin’s evolution theory paved way for the science technology to adopt new approaches to evaluate his ideas. The close match between the human DNA and the DNA of the chimps is a scientific finding that was originally approached as an idea by Darwin. In this sense, Darwin was ahead of his time. Nevertheless, I am skeptical of the idea that things really evolve into something different. I identify the change in the HUV gene with the introduction of medicine in the patient with adaptation rather than evolution since evolution has to induce permanent changes to differ from adaptation. Overall, the video was very informative and educative. I agree that survival in the ever changing environment necessitates evolution for things with DNA. Even human beings have seen this evolution in terms of the variety of races, and features. Likewise, different varieties of the same animal living in different conditions suggest that the bodies have evolved so as to adjust to their environments. For example, same animals in the colder regions are furry whereas those in the warmer areas are not. However, I differ with you on your consideration of the theories of Darwin about the relationship of all living this leading up to this breakthrough as original and unmatched; nearly 50 years before him, Jean-Baptist Lamarck who was a French naturalist had already proposed the idea of occurrence of evolution and had proceeded it according to the laws of nature. Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that his proposal of the natural selection’s idea as a means of working for the evolution was original. Yes, the scientists over the passage of time did feel empowered by Darwin’s theory since it suggested something so inherently attractive to science with complete obliviousness, if not refutation, to what is beyond the reach of the scientific eye. You have captured Darwin’s nervousness and the underlying reasons for it

Analyse the economic objectives of the United States government and Essay

Analyse the economic objectives of the United States government and the effectiveness of its macroeconoic policies over the las three years - Essay Example Stagflation was once witnessed in the economic turmoil of the 1970s due to which economic imbalance was experienced. However despite the economic consequences of policies, we explore in this paper to what extent macroeconomic policies have remained successful or unsuccessful over the last three years in the light of economic objectives to cover unemployment, inflation, expenditure and balance of economic growth. Unemployment is the foremost macroeconomic indicator that within any economy irrespective of per capita GDP is responsible for deriving income from labor market earnings. With falling living standards and rising unemployment, the macroeconomic policies have failed to lower down the rate of unemployment as the rate of unemployment in 2007 was 6 million which in 2008 has risen to 9 million and is still keep on increasing during this economic recession. Avila & Usabiaga (2007) points out that macroeconomic policies have permanent or long-lasting effects on the unemployment rates of various US states (Avila & Usabiaga, 2007). However the impact of such policies and their persistence to our economy indicates that a high degree rise in unemployment is due to the restrictive demand policies that have become permanent component of the economy, thus leading to a higher natural rate of unemployment. This way the macroeconomic results have suggested that the prevailing tendency of U.S. state unemployment rates to fall from the high level was only witnessed after the first oil shock which also gives an indication that labor market reforms and stabilization policies have been implemented in the right direction (ibid). Policies regarding public finance claims that only the most central, national government can successfully manage US economys macro-economic swings and the resulting unemployment of labour and economic resources. The macroeconomics in this case does not held itself responsible for the inability to

Assessment for Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assessment for Learning - Essay Example This essay will talk about the student-centred assessment process on vocational teaching and learning process. MCAST is offering a chance to several individuals to acquire effective knowledge and skills in order to make themselves more employable through the lifelong education and assessment process (MCAST, 2010, p.1). This study will discuss the student-centred assessment approach to MCAST Art & Design Institute’s Media Studies subject. In student-centred learning process, the students play an important part in the learning evaluation. In this process, the students can decide the demonstration of their learning process. The students should develop an assessment that supports motivation and learning which can be thought of to be an important criterion of student-centred approaches. Media studies generally deals with the history, effects and contents of several media. Media studies deal with traditions from the humanities and social sciences. Communication science, mass communi cation, communication studies and communication are the important ingredients of the media studies. MCAST Art & design institute incorporated these subject matters in Media studies. MCAST conducts assessments in the international and national context of higher education. The major aim of student-centred assessment strategy in MCAST is to develop skills, knowledge and competencies. The program learning outcomes are very much practical. These outcomes are focused to help the students to develop their skills, competencies and knowledge. This program has several clear and transparent program assessment strategies like assessment plans. The learning assessment strategies are very much student focused. Both the program teams and program board work together to develop the skills, competencies and knowledge of the students. In this process students are supported and encouraged to become significant independent learners. E-learning facility and advanced technology are implemented to assist t he students to achieve the learning outcomes. It is important that the teachers should help their students to make a positive approach to the subject matter. Student centred assessment strategy is important in the vocational institutions as it helps the students to provide the practical knowledge. It is important for the students to gain practical knowledge in the media studies. The institution focused on providing effective practical guide to the students. It is important to apply Student-centred assessment approach in media studies. It will help to fulfil the special needs of students. This educational approach of students has several propositions for the designing of the course content, curriculum, assessment of courses and evaluation process. Question 2 Formative, summative and portfolio assessment methods are three major assessment methods. Formative assessment takes place throughout the learning program. In MCAST, the learner is assessed and provided feedback during the learni ng process. It is known as the formative assessment. On the other hand, summative assignment helps to assess the students at predetermined points at the end of the learning process. Portfolio assessment can be described as the collection of activities that are linked with concepts which are required for the students to learn. Validity of an assessment method is the specific extent that helps to measure the suitability of the interpretation of outcomes. It is a matter of degree. There are four types of validity, such as content