Performing well academically and having a social life Essay

Performing well academically and having a social life - Essay Example â€Å"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.† Being a 16 years old sophomore I believe I have faced enough competition in the early academic years. Since my childhood, I’ve been a shy, reserved and quiet person. I don’t interact with people much due to my hesitation while talking to new people. I feel uncomfortable when I am surrounded by a group of individuals and I’ve always tried to stay out of group discussions. These natural personality constraints led me to the isolation from my social circle. I have had a few friends and even their knowledge was limited about my problems, likes, dislikes and issues. These personality traits seem normal and unproblematic to many people. However, I personally feel that these were the factors that affected my academic performance the most. I never wished to take a position in the class in order to avoid prominence and attention from others. I did not take part in class discussions as I felt awkward and uncomfortable speaking in front of all students and the teacher. I kept myself from asking question even if I had some confusion in my mind regarding the topic being taught by the teacher. When I was a kid, I used to avoid interactions with other kids. I kept myself isolated in the parks, play grounds and even in the school. I used to keep my feelings secret and ideas personal. All these traits resulted in inner conflicts arising in me. I felt irritated by the thought that people avoid talking to me. I felt aggressive and angry when people talked to each other and did not involve me in their conversations. Somehow these were the reactions of my responses to them when they started a conversation or tried talking to me which I avoided most of the times. My parents noticed these problems and were constantly making efforts to make me friendly, confident and sociable. At first I found the lectures of my parents and elder siblings completely meaningless. I was extremely disheartened by the way people ignored me while talking to each other. This was the most difficult phase of my life. I lost my hopes of getting good grades, having friends and making my way out of the isolation that I created in the past years. However, the constant struggles of my parents motivated me to talk to them about my issues. I started discussing my experiences, daily activities and secrets with them. Their friendliness, affection and loving nature made me confident enough to share everything with them. The main problem then, was to change myself in front of others. I felt comfortable with my parents but when it came to other people I still felt the same hesitation and shyness. I started motivating myself to take part in the conversations. I started writing a diary of my day to day activities in order to blow out the negative feelings. I used to feel relaxed after writing the diary. I made a plan to encourage myself on speaking in crowds. Firstly, I started asking questions during the class lectures when I found anything confusing. I started taking part in the classroom discussions and academic debates which greatly helped me to enhance my social skills. My class fellows started discussing their academic and other issues with me which again was considered as an encouraging gesture by me. The first effect of this step was a positive apparent impact on my

Charles Yale Harrison’s Generals Die in Bed vs Colin McDougall’s Execut

Charles Yale Harrison’s Generals Die in Bed vs Colin McDougall’s Execution As with any genre, all novels termed ‘war stories’ share certain elements in common. The place and time settings of the novels, obviously, take in at least some aspect of at least one war or conflict. The characters tend to either be soldiers or are at least immediately affected by the military. An ever present sense of doom with punctuated moments of peace is almost a standard of the war novel. Beyond the basic similarities, however, each of these battle books stands apart as an individual. Charles Yale Harrison’s World War I novel, Generals Die in Bed is, in essence, quite different than Colin McDougall’s Execution. Coming years earlier, Generals can almost be seen to hold the wisdom one would expect see in an older sibling, while Execution suffers the growing pains that the younger child inevitably feels. Most war novels center on themes of valor and heroism. Some concentrate on the opposites of these virtues in an attempt to display raw realism. Harrison, right from the beginning of his novel, shows us both. The narrator of this first-person narrative paints a picture of a totally un-heroic bunch of soldiers preparing for debarkation. The drinking and debauchery are followed the next morning by a parade that the suffering soldiers must march through, while the people watch their ‘heroes’ leaving to bravely fight the good fight. While this clearly demarcates the innocent civilians from the savvy soldiers, it also shows the reader that the narrator is going to try to tell the real story. Execution starts with what is seemingly a journal entry, implying that it will be a first person narrative much the same as Ge... ... enough contrasts between them that allow them to stand out as completely individual from one another. Each of these novels, then, is able to both expand upon the other, while being free in its own expression at the same time. Works Cited Harrison, Charles Yale. Generals Die in Bed. Waterdown: Potlatch Publications, 1999. Lenoski, Daniel S. â€Å"Morning Glory: Execution and Romance.† American Review of Canadian Studies. Volume 23 (1993): 387 – 406. Mason, Michael A. â€Å"Execution: Heroism in a Modern War-Novel.† English Studies in Canada. Volume 5 (1979): 94 - 104. McDougall, Colin. Execution. Toronto: Macmillan, 1958. Thompson, Eric. â€Å"Canadian Fiction of the Great War.† Canadian Literature. Volume 91 (1981): 81 – 96. Vance, Jonathan. Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997.

Air India 5

2012 Flying Too Low: Air India 2009 & Beyond External Environment Analysis Group 10 Strategy analysis begins with an analysis of the forces that shape the competition in the industry in which a company is based. An important factor of the analysis is External environment analysis. The essential purpose of this analysis is to identify the opportunities and threats in the organization operating environment that will affect how it pursues its mission. Analysis the industry environment requires an assessment of the competitive structure of the company’s industry. It also requires analysis of the nature, stage, dynamics and history of the industry. Here, while analyzing the external environment of Air India according to the information presented in the case, we will concentrate on Porter Five Forces Model, PEST Analysis of the Air India, opportunity and threats to Air India. Finally, we will quantify all our analysis factors to come to a conclusion. Porter’s 5 forces model: Porter's five forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis and business strategy development formed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An â€Å"unattractive† industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. Three of Porter's five forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainders are internal threats. Porter referred to these forces as the micro environment, to contrast it with the more general term macro environment. They consist of those forces close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A clear example of this is the airline industry. As an industry, profitability is low and yet individual companies, by applying unique business models, have been able to make a return in excess of the industry average. We will see how these five factors are working for Air India. I. Rivalry among existing competitors: 1. Competition in domestic and international routes * On domestic front, private airlines like Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines * On international front, major competition was from companies like Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airlines, Qatar Airlines and new entrants like JA 2. Better performance by competitors 3. Rapid increase in market share of competitors 4. Poaching of employees by competitors II. Threat of new entrants: 1. Possibility of liberalization of Aviation Industry will weaken the entry barriers and thereby will lead to increase in number of new entrants 2. Business was very lucrative to attract new entrants 3. Consistent and rapid growth of demand for airlines offering scope for profitable business and low cost carriers 4. Examples GoAIR, IndigoAir, Paramount Airways, SpiceJet III. Threat from substitution: Road and rail services posing a major threat by offering cheaper, reliable, convenient services. Travel. In case of higher Air ticket fares, Air India could lose potential customers to Rival airlines and Indian Railways. The possibility of loss of market share to Indian railways further increases by the fact that over a period of time the rail ticket fares have marginally varied compared to significant variation in air ticket fares. IV. Bargaining power of suppliers: 1. Slow nature of aircraft sales, because the high value order placed by the industry can take several years to be delivered. 2. Labour unions are suppliers who have significant power. The performance and flexibility of the entire industry depends heavily on labour unions. 3. Aviation fuel is a commodity and its prices are decided by market forces and existing geopolitical factors such as OPEC. At times, oil producing nations at the behest of OPEC manipulate oil production target in order to keep the prices of crude to suit their profit intentions. High cost of fuel accounts for about 35% of the total cost and increasing cost is a threat to the company’s profits. 4. Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) is a major cost component for the Airlines in India. It is about 40% of the operating cost of the domestic carriers V. Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of buyers refers to the amount of pressure customers can place on a business, thus, affecting its prices, volume and profit potential. Various airlines are competing for the same customer, which also results in strengthening the buyer power. Hence, the bargaining power of customers in the airline industry is very high since they are price sensitive and search for the best deals available. Customers are price sensitive. Many new players who are Low Cost Carriers attract these travelers by offering them low fares and those that are convenience oriented by providing them with frequent flights. While choosing which airline to fly with, customers enjoy switching costs through frequent flyer programs created by some airlines. PEST Analysis: PEST analysis stands for â€Å"Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis† and describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added Legal and Environmental and rearranged the mnemonic to PESTLE. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis and gives an overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. * Political factors are how and to what degree a government intervenes in the industry or firm. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy, labour law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, government policies and political stability. Economic factors include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how businesses operate and make decisions. * Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company's products and how that company operates. * Technological factors include technological aspects such as R;D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change. They can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Furthermore, technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation. In case of Air India, the analysis of external environment is as follows: Having done the required analysis, now let us quantify the opportunity and threats. 1| Poor control over decision making| T| 2| Drop in oil prices*| O| 3| heavy control and interference of government| O| 4| worsening service image| T| 5| Labour union| T| 6| inclination of society towards low cost travel| T| | global recession| T| 8| significant air traffic growth over a period of time| O| 9| restriction on FDI in Indian aviation industry| O| 10| Mergers among competitors| T| 11| possibility of opening of aviation market and privatization| T| 12| interest burden of new aircraft orders| T| 13| company's image perceived as public carrier| T| 14| near monopoly among Indian players in international routes| O| 15| over capaci ty of industry| T| 16| poaching of pilots from competitors| T| 17| declining debt equity ratio| T| 18| changes in ground handling policy| T| 19| agency problem| T| Here ‘T’ indicates Threat and ‘O’ indicates Opportunity Assigning the weightage to the important factors, in the sense of their importance in analyzing external environment and using rating scale of 1 to 5 where 3 indicates average favorableness of the external environment, we get- As the quantified average of all the external environment factors is coming slightly below average, we conclude that, the current external environment is not favorable to Air India but, it can work on its decision making process and improvement of service image as an immediate measure.

President Roosevelt and the New Deal - 1454 Words

In the coming of a new President in 1932, America was at its lowest point throughout its existence. The economy crashed and left the United States in a state of major depression, the Great Depression. FDR was elected for his ideas of change through the new deal, and the thought of hope had given to Americans. Roosevelt knew that a change was needed and was willing to go to tremendous measures to try to bring back the American economy, give jobs, and to keep democracy going on strong. In doing so I believe FDR had to compromise within all types of ideas and government parties to succeed and reach his goals of the three R’s, recovery, reform, and relief. The New Deal in order to be made and passed I believe had to be implemented by both radical and conservative ideas and beliefs in the making of policies. With change FDR knew he needed the support of all democrats, including the conservative ones in the south. He knew without the support from them that no New Deal reform would be able to pass. So when being asked if the New Deal is conservative, I would have to agree and say yes. In the coming act for the New Deal certain ideas that I believed to have conservative segregation beliefs all over it. Starting of with the work relief programs such as WPA. The WPA gave millions of jobs to the American people, but tended to be more helpful to the middle class white American. Leaving out domestic and non-unionized workers affected mainly women and African Americans. As most AfricanShow MoreRelatedPresident Roosevelt And The New Deal1356 Words   |  6 Pageswithout the development of the New Deal? The New Deal played an important role in the government and the American economy of the 1930’s. Do we still the effects today? Several major changes birthed out of the New Deal and it was these changes President Roosevelt and his term are credited for. 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The Great Depression caused a deafening blow in the economy of America as people raced to the banksRead MorePresident Franklin Delano Roosevelt And The New Deal2055 Words   |  9 Pages President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to address the issues of the Great Depression through his New Deal. The New Deal was a series of acts and programs passed in order to help the nation to recover from the economic downturn and prevent future economic problems. This series of policies can be broken down into three categories: relief, recovery, and reform. Relief was used initially to bring the population back to work and lower unemployment. Recovery was used later and was to dealRead MorePresident Franklin D. Roosevelt s New Deal1374 Words   |  6 PagesPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal did not solve the problems of the Great Depression and slowed economic recovery for America until World War II. The Great Depression brought about a high unemployment, and the New Deal did not deal with it successfully. The Democratic Party benefited from the New Deal’s social and work programs because it shifted the African American vote from Republican to Democrat. (Powell, 2003) Some of the programs from the New Deal that exist today are broken and manipulatedRead MorePresident Franklin D. Roosevelt s New Deal1279 Words   |  6 Pagesnation was in a state of crisis when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933. The Great Depression had caused severe unemployment (up to 90% in some cities!), business failures, and serious disruptions in international trade. It’s no understatement that Roosevelt had a lot of work to do to fix the nation and restore trust in the government! This is when FDR’s New Deal comes in. As an AP US History student, it is important for you to know what the New Deal is, but also why it is important. This APUSHRead MorePresident Franklin Delano Roosevelt s New Deal1364 Words   |  6 PagesWhen people think of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, they see a President that inherited a horrible economy and turned it around through his popular New Deal. He also led us through a World War. However, when different perspectives are taken into account, Roosevelt’s New Deal wasn’t the economic restorer that it is thought to be. The New Deal actually hindered the United States’ recovery. The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression because the New Deal inhibited the private sector, it droveRead MorePresident Franklin D. Roosevelt s New Deal1119 Words   |  5 PagesWhen President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, he took office in one of the worst economic crises in American history. The preceding three years were three years of significant hardship that took a toll on the nation’s morale. He won the presidency in a landslide vote over the fairly conservative incumbent Herbert Hoover showing the American people were desperate for changes that could restore the nation to economic prosperity seen in the 1920’s. Once he was inaugurated, he quickly jumpedRead MoreThe Great Depression And President Roosevelt s New Deal894 Words   |  4 Pagesremembered for the Great Depression and President Roosevelt’s New Deal, demonstrated a time of great racial tension and segregation in America. Slavery dissolved and the Ku Klux Klan became less popular; the struggle of African Americans, however, was not over. Racial segregation thrived with half of African Americans out of work, their jobs transfered to whites who were struggling from the Great Depression (â€Å"Race During the Great Depression†). The New Deal, created to promote equality and produce