Child Abuse Prevention And Treatment Act - 1159 Words

Child Abuse Crisis in America What is the difference between discipline and abuse? The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), (42 U.S.C.A.  §5106g), as amended and reauthorized by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, defines child abuse and neglect as, at minimum: â€Å"Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (What Is Child Abuse, U.S.).† When applied by legal and mental health professionals in real-world situations, however, the definition of abuse may vary according to the developmental age of the child victim, the frequency or†¦show more content†¦Physical neglect includes refusal of, or delay in, seeking health care, food, clothing, or shelter; abandonment; expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home; and inadequate supervision (Child Abuse, Primavera). Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child of mandatory school age in school, and failure to attend to special educational needs (Child Abuse, Primavera). Emotional neglect includes such actions as marked inattention to the child’s needs for affection; refusal of or failure to provide needed psychological care; spouse abuse in the child’s presence; and permission of drug or alcohol use by the child (Child Abuse, Primavera). Whether the caregiver is guilty of over-discipline or did not mean to intentionally cause harm to the child, abuse is abuse. With abuse, there is a sense of unpredictability, lashing out in anger, and the use of fear to control behavior (Child Abuse, Smith). Spankings are not considered abuse as long as the individual administering it does not leave bruises or marks of any kind on the child. The position or situation a family is a major factor of child abuse. Socioeconomic status should be considered in deeming what abuse is. A family’s socioeconomic status can is a powerful predictor of child abuse. Among low-income families, those with family exposure to substance use exhibit the highest rates of child abuse and

Composers use language to create images Free Essays

Composers use language to create images that communicate main ideas and add richness and depth to their texts BY Chrts961 Composers Wilfred Owen, writer of poems ‘Futility and ‘Exposure’, and Jessie Pope writer of Who’s for the game? use a diverse range of language techniques in their poems to create images to communicate main ideas . AII words in their poems are important because the way these poets use language is exactly in description which may be used to create tone, atmosphere or mood or simply to add richness and depth to their texts. Wilfred Owen’s ‘Futility is about the existence of mankind. We will write a custom essay sample on Composers use language to create images or any similar topic only for you Order Now From the beginning of Futility we feel a rather scarce sense of emotion and feeling, but towards the end of the poem as the narrator starts to question things we begin to feel how distressed he becomes – â€Å"full nerved – Still warm – Too hard to stir? Was it for this day grew tall? – O what made fatuous sunbeams toil to break Earth’s sleep at all? These rhetorical questions indicate to us the sense of urgency being felt for the soldier’s life. Ultimately, the composer uses rhetorical questions to communicate deeper emotions. In the second stanza of ‘Exposure’, Owen uses a clear description of he sound that the wind makes through the barbed wire – â€Å"like twitching agonies of men among its brambles†. The use of simile helps to create the extreme horror of no man’s land and connects with the idea of the title ‘Exposure’. Although Who’s for the game? Which is composed by Jessie Pope is about a serious topic, he helps us see the bright side to a war. This is done through rhyme. The use of rhyme gives a musical element in the poem and when combined with a serious topic it would feel as if the poem is trying to fire you up to go sign up and fight for your country in war. â€Å"Who’ll give his country a hand? And who wants a seat in the stand? † suggests exactly this. Where is the love? How to cite Composers use language to create images, Essays

Digital Divide in the World Today

Question: Discuss about theDigital Divide in the World Today. Answer: Introduction In the service provision and delivery sectors, there has developed a huge dent with the introduction of the new technology gadgets and services. For the services that can only be provided over the internet, those who cant access them or do not have the knowhow on how to access and use the internet are denied the services (Parks 2013). The services are only available and useful for those whose electronic gadgets have internet access capability and they themselves have the knowledge on how to access the services and use them effectively. Digital divide can be defined as the gap between those who have access to the new technology that is the devices and the services and those who do not have. It is used as the distinction between those who own computers, smartphones as well as other digital assistants and those who do not have (Evans 2010). In other words in can also be used to separate those who have unlimited knowledge on how to take advantage of the services the technology provides such as internet and those who have very limited cant access the same. With the introduction of the free WIFI in buses and other public avenues has a huge advantage to those elites who have the knowhow on how to access and use the internet and on the other hand a huge disadvantage to those who do not know how to use the internet. Some of the members of the public have electronic gadgets like phones which cannot allow them access the WIFI services like the rest and this goes all the way increasing the digital divide between the members of the society. References Evans, C. (2010). Internet issues. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Parks, P. (2013). The digital divide. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint Press.

Of Mice And Men By Steinbeck Report Essays - English-language Films

Of Mice And Men By Steinbeck Report The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is about two ranch hands, George and Lennie. George is a small, smart-witted man, while Lennie is a large, mentally- handicapped man. They are trying to raise enough money to buy their own ranch, by working as ranch hands. During the setting of the story, they are at a ranch whose owner's name is Curley. It is in this setting that the novel reveals that the main theme is death and loss. Lennie accidentally killing all of his pets establishes that the theme of this novel is death and loss. These pets consist of mice, dogs, kittens, etc. Lennie loves to feel and pet animals, but he does not know his own strength. He kills them without really noticing what he has done, until George tells him that he did something wrong. After being scolded, Lennie is very remorseful about what he did. Once, after being yelled at Lennie says, "I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead- because they were so little (13)." Lennie's remorse is probably more for upsetting George than it is for actually killing the animal. Another way that death and loss is evidenced by this novel is when Lennie killed Curley's wife. When Lennie is in the barn (after killing his new puppy) Curley's wife came into the barn and came on to Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley's wife became flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, "I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (121)." The final confirmation of the death and loss theme occurred to George, not Lennie. After going to the place where George had told him to go if anything went wrong, Lennie lays and waits in the brush for George to come get him. What Lennie wasn't expecting was George to come with a posse of ranch hands with him. The ranch hands were not quite there, when George shot Lennie in the back of the head to save him the pain the posse would do to him. After he shot him "the brush seemed filled with cries (140)", which symbolizes the loss of George after shooting Lennie. This was a truly great loss for him since Lennie was his best friend. Of Mice and Men is a very sad and depressing story that contains many deaths of many living creatures. Many people had a loss from these deaths, especially George. He had to shoot his best friend. This can possibly be the greatest loss of all, because without friends, where would we be?

3 Ways LinkedIn Times Are AChangin

3 Ways LinkedIn Times Are AChangin Vinyl is making a comeback, 40 is the new 30, and snail mail often makes a bigger impression than email. Indeed, as years go by, a lot of things are changing. And a lot of things are moving â€Å"backward† as they move forward. I’ve been hyper-aware of this phenomenon lately. But I have also been fascinated by how new technologies are replacing, or supplementing, the way things have been done in the past. I thought I’d share with you some of the interesting shifts happening in this regard in the world of LinkedIn. 1. Your LinkedIn profile is being used to evaluate your credit risk! Loan qualification isn’t just about credit scores anymore. Lenders now consult social media to gain a more comprehensive picture of loan applicants before shelling out dough. Lending Club and Prosper are two companies who use the information you share online (Facebook and LinkedIn updates, tweets, and blog posts) to evaluate your application. And DRB Student Loan has built a proprietary model that parses metadata from social media channels to build a reliability score that can supplement your FICO. If you as a borrower can show on social media that you are hard-working, dependable, and likely to honor financial commitments, perhaps you will pass the character test for getting a loan. See Could Your LinkedIn Profile Be Your New Credit Score? 2. LinkedIn could be the new U.S. News and World Report. For 30 years (and for as long as I can remember), U.S. News World Report has been the go-to publication for college rankings. I was not able to determine from Google research when they began publishing graduate school rankings as well, but I know that my first step in determining top schools has always been U.S. News World Report.Then, in early 2015, LinkedIn introduced its University Rankings and Graduate School Rankings based on how many successful professionals in various fields attended each university. This is a very limited criterion compared with the complex algorithm used by U.S. News World Report. However it could be quite useful! Here’s a sample of what you’ll find if you want to know the best schools to attend to be an accounting professional: 3. About.me is competing with LinkedIn for college students’ attention. As LinkedIn becomes more powerful, some platforms are going after its gaps and filling them. About.me, a personal homepage website, is launching a new Campus section that aims to help college students shine even if they don’t have enough work experience to create a robust LinkedIn profile. On about.me, a â€Å"Campus Faves† program has been created where students will be able to nominate themselves to be one of 15-20 students who are featured each week. Students can also be nominated by a professor or by their college’s career services department. If being chosen as a Campus Fave becomes a known indicator of extraordinary leadership qualities, then the status of being a Fave could make a difference in a student’s attractiveness as a job seeker! About.me will also be making strides in the area of matching students with internships. Important note: About.me will in no way replace LinkedIn, and in fact every about.me profile has a link available to the person’s LinkedIn profile. Have you noticed other surprising places where LinkedIn is becoming influential, or where other platforms are encroaching on what has seemed to be LinkedIn’s territory? Will LinkedIn buy about.me? What do you think? Please share your thoughts below! 🙂 Log in to Reply

Biography of Jorge Chavez

Jorge Chavez was thought to be the country I was born in Peru and was the first hero who tried to jump over the Alps. He crashed on his landing so he did not reach his goal, but his courage and courage was the crucial factor in his career success when he lived. Therefore, in this article we will investigate the performance in Wes' aviation industry and explain how he is fascinated by the aviation industry. Jorge Chavez was born in Paris, Jorge Chavez Dartnell was born in Paris, France on 13th June 1887. Cesar Chavez Cesar Chavez was born in a small town near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927. Cesar was born in a somewhat poor family. Cesar grew up in Arizona and lived with her parents at a small farm house (United Farm Workers 1). - Over the years, individuals have shown that they can make a difference. People dedicated to the cause are brought up with honor, integrity, and courage. Cesar Chavez is such a person. He represents people, transcends their own needs, and meets the needs of people. Cesar Chavez says the best free form has the highest discipline. He lives according to this standard and fights freedom with the highest dignity and character. He often finds himself on the wrong side of decision-making. A provocative new biography on 'Cesar Chavez Crusade' (Bloomsbury), Miriam Pavel Reevaluated with a Grunge Chavez's Legacy For many years, the basic discourse of Chavez's work has been deeply praised for this cause, deeply meditative It was a narration by writer Jack E. Levi. Former reporter Pawell of the Los Angeles Times fixed a project that studded stars. Her previous work, Alliance of their dreams (2009) explored co-farm workers by focusing on their incumbent orders. After talking to people who helped build the alliance, Pavel critically read many of Chavez's actions. Jorge Chavez was thought to be the country I was born in Peru and was the first hero who tried to jump over the Alps. He crashed on his landing so he did not reach his goal, but his courage and courage was the crucial factor in his career success when he lived. Therefore, in this article we will investigate the performance in Wes' aviation industry and explain how he is fascinated by the aviation industry. - Obertura Republicana of Carlos Chavez is the political motivation of the orchestra. This work is based on Mexican Indian tradition. This work includes arrangement of traditional military parade called Zacatecas, famous Sharon Waltz, Cape Verde Club and revolutionary work Laer derita. After listening several times, I must say that this is a loud, exaggerated, marching, Mexican style voice. For me it is no doubt that it is a country relationship.

Limitless by Neil Burger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Limitless by Neil Burger - Essay Example This anecdote connects the movie Limitless in a very crucial manner because the movie is essentially a sci-fi or psychological thriller that has taken over brain power and intelligence, making the audience around the world understand the ill effects of drugs through strong and strange visuals and graphics. Bradley Cooper is the main character in the movie Limitless, directed by Neil Burger, released on the 18th of March, 2011. The film is based on the novel ‘The Dark Fields’ written by author Alan Glynn, which speaks about a rather surreal trip taken by a man desperate to find new ways to living life, without any obstructions. The movie follows the life and times of Eddie, (played by Cooper), a struggling writer living in the dingy areas of New York City, trying to make a name for himself, but to no avail. However, one fine day, he chances upon some NZT pills, a drug he is told, which will increase human access to his brain by a 100% instead of the normal 20% that most h uman beings that was available to most human beings. Cooper begins to take the pills, feeling a drastic change in his everyday routine, as the pills sharpen his skills and make him feel more energised than ever before. They provide him with the opportunity to feel manic and think extremely fast, making him finish the first ninety pages of his book within an instant. He shows the book to his publisher, and to his surprise, the publisher loves it and accepts it; this makes Eddie think that the pills were effective and that taking them on a daily basis could indeed change his life. The film then follows the course of Eddie’s dosage as he has an encounter by Russian thugs and tries to restore his past by comprehending and fixing his relationship with his ex wife. Several murders and violent scenes take place as Eddie gets mixed with villains that are out to get him and his pills, and the film also goes through a series of medical complications because soon Eddie witnesses that al most every person who had ever taken those pills has either died or is seriously ill and in danger of passing away very soon. He too begins to undergo blackouts and fits and cannot understand what is wrong as he begins to see that everyone around him is dying. Furthermore, the addiction caused by the pills does not help him in trying to overcome what has become his deepest and darkest fear. Nonetheless, he tries to increase his dosage in order to get more and more clarity of thought on everything that has been happening around him and all these scenes have been captured with great skill by the director, as well as the cameras that have helped to portray them so wonderfully on screen. The film undergoes a whirlwind of emotions on part of Eddie who begins to experience a plethora of negative emotions ranging from afraid to angry and repenting. The morals within the movie are decidedly unconventional in nature because even though Eddie has become addicted to the drugs, he tries to free himself from their clutches, despite having constant revelations of the drugs doing him good instead of harm. The entire concept of the movie as well does not confuse the audience when it comes to intelligence vs. mental capacity. What the movie does ask the audience to understand is that even though the pills might have helped Eddie in tapping his potential as an author, how do they help his passion for living life after the book has already been turned in and made him famous? The film provides for some heavy scenes which may remind

Write about the reasons of the need of geometry who Descartes and Essay

Write about the reasons of the need of geometry who Descartes and Fermat contributed founding it. Also write about if there was a rivalry between them If there was, what caused it - Essay Example A theorem that is not simple to write more pithily in simple language called the four-line theorem. In addition, if two of the fixed lines correspond then the conduit of P is still a conic other than the predicament the three-line predicament is easier. Furthermore, Fermat presented his own resistant of the three-line theorem, as well as in doing so, he completed use of systematic technique determining position in a plane by two systematize presentation that if the coordinates are correlated by equations like 2x + 3y = 5, subsequently, the point lies on a instantly line along with rapidly. He also exerted out the equations of the curves identified as conic segment as well as he was moderately familiar with direct methods in three extents (Newman, pp. 49-54). Additional work of a comparable character by Fermat transmits to the problem of erect a tangent to a curve by means of infinitesimals. Moreover, he established a method of scheme that resolved a problem of locale. In addition, almost significant was his method of maxima and minima as well (Mahoney, pp.

Elections in Africa Essay Example for Free

Elections in Africa Essay The Aim of this essay is based on the clarity on the Elections in Africa if they are a good Measure of democracy. It basically analyses the advantages and disadvantages of elections (in an argument form). The issue of how citizens influence policymaker is central to an understanding of democratic political system. We normally agree that democracy should allow the people to participate in policy making. Hence elections are one of the ways to establish connections between citizens and policy makers and by elections citizens encourage the policymakers to pay attention to their interests. However there are some disagreements about whether and how elections serve to link citizens to policymakers; a number of schools put more emphasis upon accountability and others do on representativeness, even if there have been a lot of theoretical debates about this issue, we have few attempts to test the role of competitive election on popular attitudes towards the legislature. An election is a formal decision making process in which the population chooses an individual to hold a public office. Elections have been the mechanism by which modern representative democracy has been operated since 17TH century. According to Business Dictionary (BD), Election is the act of a party casting vote to choose an individual, for some type of position. It may involve a public or private vote depending on the position. Most positions in the local, state federal governments are voting on the same type of elections. According to (Abraham Lincoln), the word democracy means â€Å"the government of the people, by the people and for the people â€Å". Democracy is term that comes from a Greek and it is made up of two other words, demo which means people and kratain which means to govern or to rule. Democracy can then be literally translated by the following terms, Government of the people or government of the majority. Electoral systems are conventionally divided into two categories, majoritarian. And proportional representations, (Lijphart 1999). Majoritarian system usually employs exclusively single-seat distrust with plurality rule and tends to give greater representation to the two parties and that which receive the most votes. Proportional representation (P.R) System must employ multi-seat districts, usually with party lists, and typically produce parliamentary representation that largely mirrors the vote shares of multi-parties However elections be it Proportional Representation (PR), or Majoritarian type, are instruments of democracy to the degree that they give the people the  influence over policymaking,.(Powell 2000). One fundamental role of elections is the evaluation of the incumbents government. Citizens use elections to reward or punish the incumbents although on the other hand increasingly competitive elections raise the risk of increased election violence, this can be raised in two ways. Firstly, closer elections can increase tension throughout the electoral process; when the outcome of the election is in doubt, all stages of the process including the appointment of the members of the electoral management body, the registration of parties, candidates, and voters; campaigning; voting ;and vote counting and tabulation, becomes more heated. For example, Kenya erupted in chaos in 2007 when incumbent president Mwai kibaki was sworn in hours after being declared the winner in the country’s closest presidential elections ever; the ensuing violence left 1,500 dead and 300,000 displaced. Secondly, as long-term incumbents witness the growing strength of the opposition candidates, they may feel increasingly imperilled and crack down more fiercely on perceived threats, example, after losing the first round of Zimbabwe’s 2008 presidential elections and subsequently manipulating results to force run-off, president Robert Mugabe presided over a wave of widespread and brutal violence against supporters of Morgan Tsvangirai to ensure himself victory in the second round. While these above examples demonstrate the potential of elections to create conflict, elections are often used as a means to end conflict and solidify peace. For this reason, elections usually form a key part of the agreements ending civil wars or conflict. The basic principal behind these post conflict or transitional elections is that of Ballots over Bullets: citizens choosing their political leaders by voting rather than fighting, although in the 1992 Angola elections which was intended to end the c ivil war, this election instead reignited conflict for another ten (10) years. cases such as these have led many to argue that elections are not appropriate for post conflict environment. In majority, however, there is no viable alternative to post conflict elections as a means of achieving legitimate governance; a non elected government is far more susceptible to accusations of illegitimacy than the one chose by the people, and legitimate governance must be achieved as soon as possible following a conflict. Moreover, elections have the potential to create government broadly representative of all disputing political factions. Demonstratively, several  countries have recently held remarkably successful post-conflict elections. For example, Liberia’s elections in 2005 intended to over a decade of civil war were remarkably peaceful and hailed as generally free and fair. Another example is the DRC’s 2006 elections, the first multi-party election in 46 years, were also relatively successful, especially when considering the tremendous logistical challenges that had to be overcome. in these cases therefore, elections facilitated an ongoing transition from dev astating conflict toward greater stability and development. Based on a multi-level analysis of Afro barometer survey data from 17 sub-Saharan African countries, the study examines the influence of these two types of electoral systems; Majoritarian and Proportional Representations-on popular confidence in African parliaments. Controlling for a variety of individual and macro-level characteristics, it was found that citizen’s perceptions of Members of Parliament (MP’s) representations have a positive and significant effect on their trust in legislature. In addition the results suggest that the effect of political representations is mediated by electoral systems. Powell (2000), distinguishes between two versions of elections as instruments of democracy; accountability and representation. Accountability model tries to use elections to bring the power of the people directly to bear on policymakers. Elections offer citizens a periodic opportunity to change the policymakers. Citizens will have control because they will be able, at least occasionally to reject elected officials who are doing the wrong. Competitive elections create a pressure on all incumbents or rather the current policymakers to worry about the next elections and make policy with voters review in mind. On the other hand representation model emphasises citizens should be treated equally at the decisive stage of public policy making. Elections are instruments of citizen’s influence in policy making. Elections should create equitable reflection of all points of view into the legislature. They work as an instrument to choose representatives who can bargain for their voter’s interest in post-election policy making. Elections are not only integral to all these areas of democratic governance, but are also the most visible representations of democracy in action. They are also in most cases the most complicated and expensive single event a country will ever undertake. Good governance, upholding rule of law, and supporting civil society, this testimony examines  all these areas in the context of elections. International support to electoral processes is crucial if democracy is to continue developing on the African continent. Indeed the very purpose of elections is to achieve participatory governance without violence- through political rather than physical competition –and this has succeeded in a number of African countries. South-Africa and Botswana, for example have proven themselves among the continent’s most stable democracies, while Ghana, Mali, and Benin have emerged as democratic stronghold in West Africa. Moreover, countries such as Sierra Leone and Liberia, among the poorest in the world and only recently emerged from civil war, have demonstrated the power of elections to foster and solidify peace. In reality, then, Africa’s experience with the electoral democracy has been mixed; progress has been made but challenges remain. The various elections in past several years-from Kenya and Zimbabwe to Ghana and Sierra Leone- have become historical landmarks for different reasons, varying drastically in their conduct and outcome. This mix of electoral experience has generated considerable debate and passion on the subject of transparent, free and fair electoral process among election stakeholders, especially as democratic progress itself can come with further challenges; as more elections are held as these elections become increasingly competitive, one-party and military regimes face potentially destabilizing challenges that could increase the risk of fraud and violence. In conclusion; elections-especially free and fair, competitive and multi-party elections, are assumed to be a critical component of democratization in emerging democracies, while an election can intensify the polarization of a society along ethnic lines. Competitive elections can force political elites to legitimate their rule through the ballot box. However, we are still debating about how elections serve to link voters and elected Officials. While a group of scholars emphasise the directness and clarity of the connection between voters and policy-makers, others do the representation of all factions in society. Elections help voters to send Members of Parliament (MP’s) representing their interest to the parliament, to some extent elections constitutes a principal avenue of citizen’s involvement in political life. Understanding their effects on public attitudes towards the legislature and the role of the individual  therein has important implications for theories of democratic governance in emerging democracy. Therefore with this information, elections are a good measure of democracy in that they give citizens the participatory right in policy making through their elected representatives. Making it the government of the people by the people and for the people, that’s democracy according to Abraham Lincolnâ €™s definition. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Powell (2000), Elections as instrument of Democracy. 2. Easton David (1965), A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: john Wiley. 3. Norris, Pippa, Eds (1999), Critical Citizen: Global Support for Democratic Governance. New York oxford University press. 4. Lebas, Adrienne (2006), Comparative Politics 38; 419:438. 5. Margolis, M (1979), Viable Democracy. 6. Tordoff, W. Government and Politics in Africa. London McMillan (1993). 7. Rose, Richard, William Mishler, Christian Haerpfer (1998), Democracy and Its Alternatives. 8. Sisk, Timothy D, Andrew Reynolds, Eds (1998), Election and Conflict Management in Africa. Washington; United States Institute of Peace press. 9. Powell G. Bingham (1982), Contemporary Democracies; participation stability and violence. Cambridge University. 10. Almami l. Cyllah. Democracy and Elections in Africa.

The South Could Not Win the Civil War :: American America History

The South Could Not Win the Civil War "The South could never have won the Civil War," is a true statement, reflecting the various ways in which the Southern states attempted to fight a losing battle from the beginning. The economic dependency of the South on cotton on slavery was obvious, whereas the North had diversified and sufficiently. The advantage also lay with the North for reasons such as better communication and transportation, and even more soldiers. The leadership in the North under Abraham Lincoln was far superior to the less savvy Jefferson Davis. It is also a fair argument to say that the just cause always overcomes, and morally, slavery was not just at all. In the 1850's the North was more populous and urban, due to all the Irish and German immigrants that traveled to the states. By1860, 9 out of the 10 biggest cities were in the North. The North also had 70% of the railroads, and more telegraph lines to send messages instantly. The North had a lot more industry also, with its 10,000 factories that brought in $1.5 billion dollars in goods compared to the South's 20,000 that brought in $155 million.(Source 1) The South did, however, have more slaves and more cotton. This was not any sort of military advantage, and merely made it more obvious to the North how desperate the South was to keep its peculiar institution running. Additionally, the first attack at Fort Sumter was poorly organized and was expected by the North. Lincoln had wanted to attack, but waited so as to retain the sympathies of any Northern moderates. The South's attack played into what he wanted. Once the war began, the military expertise of Ulysses S. Grant for the North made it an uphill battle for the South. His military skill alone was enough to give Robert E. Lee's forces in the South serious problem, but the Union army also greatly outnumbered the South's troops. Though Lee would prove to be a worthy general, his strategic downfall at Gettysburg would begin the inevitable loss for the South. (Source 2) In conclusion, it was obvious from the beginning of the Civil War that the South would not win the war. This having been said, Robert E. Lee was a fine general, but was simply without enough soldiers to lead a successful uprising.

The Host Chapter 12: Failed

It's impossible! You've got it wrong! Out of order! That can't be it!† I stared into the distance, sick with disbelief that was turning quickly to horror. Yesterday morning I'd eaten the last mangled Twinkie for breakfast. Yesterday afternoon I'd found the double peak and turned east again. Melanie had given me what she promised was the last formation to find. The news had made me nearly hysterical with joy. Last night, I'd drunk the last of the water. That was day four. This morning was a hazy memory of blinding sun and desperate hope. Time was running out, and I'd searched the skyline for the last milestone with a growing sense of panic. I couldn't see any place where it could fit; the long, flat line of a mesa flanked by blunt peaks on either end, like sentinels. Such a thing would take space, and the mountains to the east and north were thick with toothy points. I couldn't see where the flat mesa could be hiding between them. Midmorning-the sun was still in the east, in my eyes-I'd stopped to rest. I'd felt so weak that it frightened me. Every muscle in my body had begun to ache, but it was not from all the walking. I could feel the ache of exertion and also the ache from sleeping on the ground, and these were different from the new ache. My body was drying out, and this ache was my muscles protesting the torture of it. I knew that I couldn't keep going much longer. I'd turned my back on the east to get the sun off my face for a moment. That's when I'd seen it. The long, flat line of the mesa, unmistakable with the bordering peaks. There it was, so far away in the distant west that it seemed to shimmer above a mirage, floating, hovering over the desert like a dark cloud. Every step we'd walked had been in the wrong direction. The last marker was farther to the west than we'd come in all our journeying. â€Å"Impossible,† I whispered again. Melanie was frozen in my head, unthinking, blank, trying desperately to reject this new comprehension. I waited for her, my eyes tracing the undeniably familiar shapes, until the sudden weight of her acceptance and grief knocked me to my knees. Her silent keen of defeat echoed in my head and added one more layer to the pain. My breathing turned ragged-a soundless, tearless sobbing. The sun crept up my back; its heat soaked deep into the darkness of my hair. My shadow was a small circle beneath me when I regained control. Painstakingly, I got back on my feet. Tiny sharp rocks were embedded in the skin on my legs. I didn't bother to brush these off. I stared at the floating mesa mocking me from the west for a long, hot time. And finally, not really sure why I did it, I started walking forward. I knew only this: that it was me who moved and no one else. Melanie was so small in my brain-a tiny capsule of pain wrapped tightly in on her herself. There was no help from her. My footsteps were a slow crunch, crunch across the brittle ground. â€Å"He was just a deluded old lunatic, after all,† I murmured to myself. A strange shudder rocked my chest, and a hoarse coughing ripped its way up my throat. The stream of gravelly coughs rattled on, but it wasn't until I felt my eyes pricking for tears that couldn't come that I realized I was laughing. â€Å"There was†¦ never†¦ ever†¦ anything out here!† I gasped between spasms of hysteria. I staggered forward as though I were drunk, my footprints trailing unevenly behind me. No. Melanie uncurled from her misery to defend the faith she still clung to. I got it wrong or something. My fault. I laughed at her now. The sound was sucked away by the scorching wind. Wait, wait, she thought, trying to pull my attention from the joke of it all. You don't think†¦ I mean, do you think that maybe they tried this? Her unexpected fear caught me midlaugh. I choked on the hot air, my chest throbbing from my fit of morbid hysteria. By the time I could breathe again, all trace of my black humor was gone. Instinctively, my eyes swept the desert void, looking for some evidence that I was not the first to waste my life this way. The plain was impossibly vast, but I couldn't halt my frantic search for†¦ remains. No, of course not. Melanie was already comforting herself. Jared's too smart. He would never come out here unprepared like we did. He'd never put Jamie in danger. I'm sure you're right, I told her, wanting to believe it as much as she did. I'm sure no one else in the whole universe could be this stupid. Besides, he probably never came to look. He probably never figured it out. Wish you hadn't. My feet kept moving. I was barely aware of the action. It meant so little in the face of the distance ahead. And even if we were magically transported to the very base of the mesa, what then? I was absolutely positive there was nothing there. No one waited at the mesa to save us. â€Å"We're going to die,† I said. I was surprised that there was no fear in my rasping voice. This was just a fact like any other. The sun is hot. The desert is dry. We are going to die. Yes. She was calm, too. This, death, was easier to accept than that our efforts had been guided by insanity. â€Å"That doesn't bother you?† She thought for a moment before answering. At least I died trying. And I won. I never gave them away. I never hurt them. I did my best to find them. I tried to keep my promise†¦ I die for them. I counted nineteen steps before I could respond. Nineteen sluggish, futile crunches across the sand. â€Å"Then what am I dying for?† I wondered, the pricking feeling returning in my desiccated tear ducts. â€Å"I guess it's because I lost, then, right? Is that why?† I counted thirty-four crunches before she had an answer to my question. No, she thought slowly. It doesn't feel that way to me. I think†¦ Well, I think that maybe†¦ you're dying to be human. There was almost a smile in her thought as she heard the silly double meaning to the phrase. After all the planets and all the hosts you've left behind, you've finally found the place and the body you'd die for. I think you've found your home, Wanderer. Ten crunches. I didn't have the energy to open my lips anymore. Too bad I didn't get to stay here longer, then. I wasn't sure about her answer. Maybe she was trying to make me feel better. A sop for dragging her out here to die. She had won; she had never disappeared. My steps began to falter. My muscles screamed out to me for mercy, as if I had any means to soothe them. I think I would have stopped right there, but Melanie was, as always, tougher than I. I could feel her now, not just in my head but in my limbs. My stride lengthened; the path I made was straighter. By sheer force of will, she dragged my half-dead carcass toward the impossible goal. There was an unexpected joy to the pointless struggle. Just as I could feel her, she could feel my body. Our body, now; my weakness ceded control to her. She gloried in the freedom of moving our arms and legs forward, no matter how useless such a motion was. It was bliss simply because she could again. Even the pain of the slow death we had begun dimmed in comparison. What do you think is out there? she asked me as we marched on toward the end. What will you see, after we're dead? Nothing. The word was empty and hard and sure. There's a reason we call it the final death. The souls have no belief in an afterlife? We have so many lives. Anything more would be†¦ too much to expect. We die a little death every time we leave a host. We live again in another. When I die here, that will be the end. There was a long pause while our feet moved more and more slowly. What about you? I finally asked. Do you still believe in something more, even after all of this? My thoughts raked over her memories of the end of the human world. It seems like there are some things that can't die. In our mind, their faces were close and clear. The love we felt for Jared and Jamie did feel very permanent. In that moment, I wondered if death was strong enough to dissolve something so vital and sharp. Perhaps this love would live on with her, in some fairytale place with pearly gates. Not with me. Would it be a relief to be free of it? I wasn't sure. It felt like it was part of who I was now. We only lasted a few hours. Even Melanie's tremendous strength of mind could ask no more than that of our failing body. We could barely see. We couldn't seem to find the oxygen in the dry air we sucked in and spit back out. The pain brought rough whimpers breaking through our lips. You've never had it this bad, I teased her feebly as we staggered toward a dried stick of a tree standing a few feet taller than the low brush. We wanted to get to the thin streaks of shade before we fell. No, she agreed. Never this bad. We attained our purpose. The dead tree threw its cobwebby shadow over us, and our legs fell out from under us. We sprawled forward, never wanting the sun on our face again. Our head turned to the side on its own, searching for the burning air. We stared at the dust inches from our nose and listened to the gasping of our breath. After a time, long or short we didn't know, we closed our eyes. Our lids were red and bright inside. We couldn't feel the faint web of shade; maybe it no longer touched us. How long? I asked her. I don't know, I've never died before. An hour? More? Your guess is as good as mine. Where's a coyote when you really need one? Maybe we'll get lucky†¦ escaped claw beast or something†¦ Her thought trailed off incoherently. That was our last conversation. It was too hard to concentrate enough to form words. There was more pain than we thought there should be. All the muscles in our body rioted, cramping and spasming as they fought death. We didn't fight. We drifted and waited, our thoughts dipping in and out of memories without a pattern. While we were still lucid, we hummed ourselves a lullaby in our head. It was the one we'd used to comfort Jamie when the ground was too hard, or the air was too cold, or the fear was too great to sleep. We felt his head press into the hollow just below our shoulder and the shape of his back under our arm. And then it seemed that it was our head cradled against a broader shoulder, and a new lullaby comforted us. Our lids turned black, but not with death. Night had fallen, and this made us sad. Without the heat of day, we would probably last longer. It was dark and silent for a timeless space. Then there was a sound. It barely roused us. We weren't sure if we imagined it. Maybe it was a coyote, after all. Did we want that? We didn't know. We lost our train of thought and forgot the sound. Something shook us, pulled our numb arms, dragged at them. We couldn't form the words to wish that it would be quick now, but that was our hope. We waited for the cut of teeth. Instead, the dragging turned to pushing, and we felt our face roll toward the sky. It poured over our face-wet, cool, and impossible. It dribbled over our eyes, washing the grit from them. Our eyes fluttered, blinking against the dripping. We did not care about the grit in our eyes. Our chin arched up, desperately searching, our mouth opening and closing with blind, pathetic weakness, like a newly hatched bird. We thought we heard a sigh. And then the water flowed into our mouth, and we gulped at it and choked on it. The water vanished while we choked, and our weak hands grasped out for it. A flat, heavy thumping pounded our back until we could breathe. Our hands kept clutching the air, looking for the water. We definitely heard a sigh this time. Something pressed to our cracked lips, and the water flowed again. We guzzled, careful not to inhale it this time. Not that we cared if we choked, but we did not want the water taken away again. We drank until our belly stretched and ached. The water trickled to a stop, and we cried out hoarsely in protest. Another rim was pressed to our lips, and we gulped frantically until it was empty, too. Our stomach would explode with another mouthful, yet we blinked and tried to focus, to see if we could find more. It was too dark; we could not see a single star. And then we blinked again and realized that the darkness was much closer than the sky. A figure hovered over us, blacker than the night. There was a low sound of fabric rubbing against itself and sand shifting under a heel. The figure leaned away, and we heard a sharp rip-the sound of a zipper, deafening in the absolute stillness of the night. Like a blade, light cut into our eyes. We moaned at the pain of it, and our hand flew up to cover our closed eyes. Even behind our lids, the light was too bright. The light disappeared, and we felt the breath of the next sigh hit our face. We opened our eyes carefully, more blind than before. Whoever faced us sat very still and said nothing. We began to feel the tension of the moment, but it felt far away, outside ourself. It was hard to care about anything but the water in our belly and where we could find more. We tried to concentrate, to see what had rescued us. The first thing we could make out, after minutes of blinking and squinting, was the thick whiteness that fell from the dark face, a million splinters of pale in the night. When we grasped that this was a beard-like Santa Claus, we thought chaotically-the other pieces of the face were supplied by our memory. Everything fit into place: the big cleft-tipped nose, the wide cheekbones, the thick white brows, the eyes set deep into the wrinkled fabric of skin. Though we could see only hints of each feature, we knew how light would expose them. â€Å"Uncle Jeb,† we croaked in surprise. â€Å"You found us.† Uncle Jeb, squatting next to us, rocked back on his heels when we said his name. â€Å"Well, now,† he said, and his gruff voice brought back a hundred memories. â€Å"Well, now, here's a pickle.†

To what extent is the true of Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy?

‘Sternly moral and strangely perverse' (Schoenbaum 1955:6), The Revenger's Tragedy explores the ethical complexities of the revenger figure, Vindice, through his determination to take vengeance upon the lecherous Duke. The very nature of revenge tragedy shows an inversion of the morality play, in which the protagonist would face a series of temptations and ultimately choose a virtuous life over one of evil. Revenge plays on the other hand invariably include; secret murders and plots, disguises, violence and catastrophe, all of which are presented in The Revenger's Tragedy, but also within the character of Vindice. He is not, however, the soul revenger in the play. Irving Ribner lists nine different situations which involve revenge (1962:80) and therefore it is not surprising that some critics argue that Middleton's1 work should be more accurately named ‘The Revengers' Tragedy' (Adams 1965:61). In order for Vindice, and the other malicious characters, to exact revenge, they must enter the world of their enemy, to achieve maximum devastation from the inside out; 'embracing evil in a vain attempt to destroy evil' (Ribner 1962:80). Is this, therefore, the real tragedy of the revenger, insofar as the revenger must debase himself to the level of his adversary, in order to punish him? In the opening scene of the play, Vindice holds his dead fiancie's skull in his hand and vows to get his revenge on the Duke who attempted to seduce her and subsequently poisoned her. In terms of a revenge plot, this appears very straightforward – an ‘eye for eye' (Exodus 21:24) vengeance, but this becomes more complex with the sacrifices that Vindice has to make. Initially, he must find an entrance into court which is achieved by becoming pander to the Duke's son, Lussurioso. Having previously left the court after his father's death, merely becoming involved in this society again is a compromise, exposing him to the corruption he so readily criticises. Perhaps the audience is supposed to be impressed at Vindice's restraint, being so close to an enemy and not striking immediately, though it is this determination which ultimately turns him villain from hero. As Bowers states, ‘only rather villainous revengers are presented as waiting such a period. †¦ ] No normal, sympathetic person by Elizabethan standards would harbour his wrath for such a time and withstand the promptings of religion for forgiveness' (1959:136n. ) Being under Lussurioso's command, Vindice's escape from the planned revenge is not so easy and it could be maintained that his fate is sealed from the start; not only must he kill the Duke, but his son as well. Under his guise as Piato, meaning â€Å"plated† (Neill 1996:404), Vindice sinks further into tyranny by accepting money from Lussurioso, and presumably also from the Duke, for his work. Perhaps he had no choice in this acceptance, and therefore again, Vindice's fate is marked. Neill notes the suitability of the name Piato and its associations with the repeated ‘coin' image throughout the play. As a man in disguise, Vindice is the embodiment of the ‘deceptive glitter of the whole court'; he has become the â€Å"blanched† coin, a ‘base metal plated over with silver to improve its appearance' (Neill 1996:404). In adopting this costume, Vindice becomes consumed by the traits he puts upon himself, and poisoning the Duke completes this conversion. Piato and Vindice become, characteristically as well as physically, the same person. Murray warns that ‘the name and the disguise are intended to fool Lussurioso, but we should not be fooled into seeing a contradiction of character where none in fact exists' (1964:214 original emphasis). ‘The crucial transformations in the play are effected by poisoning, figurative or literal' and the literal poisoning of the Duke is reflected in the figurative poisoning of Vindice's mind and character (Murray 1964:196). Although he has now completed his revenge plan, Vindice forgets his original purpose and not content with ‘the death of †¦ his logical victim, must scourge from court all his vicious progeny' (Bowers 1959:133). In losing focus of his initial goal, ‘Puh, 'tis but early yet†¦ ‘ (III. V. 171), Vindice aligns himself with the Duke, whose own aim had been to seduce Gloriana, but resulted in poisoning and ultimately murdering her. Murray argues that Vindice's ‘degeneration' can be followed through ‘subtle changes' in his attitude toward Gloriana and her skull (1965:124). After this episode, Gloriana is hardly mentioned and Vindice has reduced her to a similar level to himself; dressing up her skull, creating falseness, an ironic comparison with Vindice himself, as well the courtiers, having heavily painted or masked faces. This mask image is repeated with the masque at the close of the play, in which Vindice carries out his last gruesome acts in yet another disguise. The movement from simple costume to the masque brutality is a perfect example of the shift in Vindice's character. From this moment he is ‘never shown hesitating at the thought of violence' and as is noted by many critics, ‘no-one else in the major tragedies of the period goes to such extremes of takes such delight in the doing on violence on an enemy' – Vindice embodies the ‘spirit of violence' (McAlindon 1986:140). Through the enjoyment and pleasure of violence, Vindice loses all focus, control and rationality. Murray's argument that ‘[Vindice's] moral perception is blinded at the moment when disillusion cuts through to his sexual obsession, and he is driven to sadistic revenges' (1964:223) is another example of Vindice turning tyrant, by becoming the lecherous man he has despised for so many years. Vindice almost sexualises Gloriana's decorated skull, ‘†¦ methinks I could e'en chide myself / For doting on her beauty' (III. V. 68-9) and he revels in the ingenuity of his revenge on the Duke, though he does not realise that ‘it destroys the moral value of Gloriana's martyrdom, making a whore and a murderess of her' (Murray 1965:218). His lust even extends to his own sister and in trying to tempt her to court, Vindice has some of his most poetic and well-reasoned lines: ‘Why are there so few honest women but because 'tis the / poorer profession? ‘ (II. I. 225-6). McAlindon sees Vindice's plea to Castiza to prostitute herself, as the ‘depth of [his] self-deception' and although of course he is happy when she rejects his offers, the ‘image of a noble self we see in flashes is not restored in the end' (1986:146). The play's moral dilemma is of course that Gratiana and Castiza can enjoy the riches too, if they agree to become corrupted (Salinger 1982:242). In his discussions with Lussurioso, Vindice again displays this side of his personality. The audience cannot help but draw comparisons between Vindice, the Duke and also his lecherous son, in the manner that he describes lust and sexual depravity: ‘I have been witness / To the surrenders of a thousand virgins' (I. III. 49-50). Vindice's arguments seem to flow all too easily, ‘premeditated' (Ornstein 1954:85) perhaps and convince his mother within seventy lines. Nicholas Brooke argues that his decision to carry out this ‘project' has its ‘own perversity', as his rage turns to ‘excitement' and a ‘delight in the paradox' (1979:15) which leads him to a dangerous resolve, ‘to try the faith of both' (I. III. 177). Although his asides show some regret for his actions, ‘Not, I hope, already? ‘ and ‘I e'en quake to proceed' (II. I. 104, 109), Vindice appears to continue his persuasion with little further thought on the matter. Later, when he decides to punish, and almost take revenge, on his own mother for agreeing to Castiza's prostitution, Vindice exhibits some of his most morally disturbing behaviour by Elizabethan standards. Gibbons notes that ‘in a society where parental authority was so strong, a parent's submission to a child was a deep and disturbing breach of custom' (1992:88n) and the image of Hippolito and Vindice either side of their mother, presumably with weapons, is almost a direct parallel of the way in which the brothers handle the Duke: ‘Nail down his tongue, and mine shall keep possession / About his heart' (III. V. 193-4). This can be viewed symbolically where Vindice must, for his own satisfaction, kill the ‘heart' and perform psychological torment, by showing the Duke his wife and son together. It could be argued that it is this image that kills the Duke. As his next target, the murder of Lussurioso must, of course, out do the death of the Duke, despite his reasoning being less substantial. To get his change however, Vindice must now become himself and is hired to kill ‘Piato'. This symbolism releases Vindice of all mental guilt, as it allows him not only to re-enact his killing of the Duke, but also stabbing the image of himself pushes him further into the ‘manic glee' (Brooke 1979:25) of the revenger character. Neill sees this episode as if Vindice were ‘facing the image of his death' (1997:84), a form of premonition to his inevitable downfall and death at the end of the play. For the audience, this image of Vindice killing â€Å"himself† is ironic, and the idea of arranging the corpse in a lifelike way is a shocking mirror of the ‘bony lady' (III. V. 120) Gloriana. With this gesture intended to separate the characters of Piato and Vindice, this actually brings them together as one, though Vindice fails to see this, as does Hippolito who says ‘In thine own shape now I'll prefer thee to him' (IV. I. 60) Vindice constantly makes the distinction between the characters; ‘am I far enough from myself? ‘ (I. III. 1), he asks, when first dressing as Piato, and later he claims his alter ego to be ‘a witch' (V. III. 121). Although this is a popular argument, critics such as Heather Hirschfield disagree, stating that Vindice is enacting a quest for ‘self-disclosure' and is ‘less about obtaining an impossible justice and more about orchestrating scenes that allow him to proclaim his own sinfulness' (2005:113). She argues that by putting himself in situations which allow him to give rise to someone new and pure through self destruction, Vindice is actually not looking revenge at all, merely a passage to a better life. With his final confession, Vindice hopes to attain this cleansing, however this moment of self-revelation ‘shipwreck[s] him on the very sinful self that confession is meant to overcome', and perhaps this is a critique of ‘hollow' Catholic penitence (Hirschfield 2005:113). Irving Ribner agrees with this view, arguing that ‘Heaven is responsible for Vindice's fall, but heaven's instrument is time, which changes all, and reduces life to death' (1962:77-8). It could be said therefore, that the tragedy of the revenger, is not his debasement to the level of tyrant, but his impatience for exacting his revenge, and the ‘failure of his faith in heaven' (Ribner 1962:80). Vindice fails to recognise and embrace the ‘inevitability of divine retribution' and the ‘self-destructive quality of evil' and by believing that he fully understood and was in control of himself, ultimately lost grip on his moral identity (Ribner 1962:75). At times Vindice seems somewhat irrelevant to the plotline in having no ‘clear-cut opponent' and being out of control of the majority of the action. In the masque scene, for example, the deaths of Ambitioso, Supervacuo and Spurio have ‘no indication' that they were anything more than an ‘unexpected accident' (Bowers 1959: 136,7) in which Vindice was simply an innocent bystander. Vindice, however, is not the only revenger in the play and the most notable other is Lussurioso when trying to take revenge upon Piato. He mirrors, albeit unwittingly, the masking and lying that ‘Piato' had displayed, in being untruthful about the reasons he wants revenge. Lussurioso claims that Piato had disobeyed his commands and attempted to seduce Castiza for himself using jewels. Ironically, this is just what Vindice had done, on Lussurioso's behalf, yet he fails to see this paradox, and is simply angered at the falsehood. Supervacuo, Ambitioso and Spurio try to take revenge on each other, as well as their elder brother. Again, they lower themselves to each other's level, climbing over one another in an attempt to become the next Duke. It could also be argued that Antonio has the final revenge, on Vindice, by condemning him to death. Is, therefore, Antonio as guilty as Vindice? Throughout the play he is described as ‘discontented' (I. V. sd) at the death of his wife, rather than grieving, which is a term usually associated with the character of the malcontent; Lussurioso claims that ‘discontent and want / Is the best clay to mould a villain' (IV. I. 48-9) Antonio, like Vindice, is deaf to the truth, condemning Gentleman1 for allowing the Duke to leave the court alone. It is ironic, perhaps, that Antonio's sufferings are so alike to Vindice's yet h e condemns him still. The nature of the relationship between Vindice and Antonio is described by Machiavelli: †¦ hat whoever is responsible for another's becoming powerful ruins himself, because this power is brought into being either by ingenuity or force, and both of these are suspect to the one who has become powerful (1532:15) In punishing Vindice and Hippolito, Antonio protects himself. Again, conceivably Vindice's fate was sealed from the very beginning, in that by allowing Antonio to become Duke as a consequence, he became in danger. It is possible then, that the ‘blazing star' (V. III. sd) looming over the banquet and masque, marks Vindice's fate, rather than Lussurioso's. He knows it is useless to argue against Antonio, who is ‘tainted because he shares [the brothers'] guilt' (Murray 1964:228); ‘Vindice loathes vice, but he has no faith in virtue' (Ornstein 1954:86). Justice seems to be lacking at the end, just as at the beginning of the play and as a result, Vindice's work seems futile. In conclusion, it can strongly be argued that Vindice turns tyrant to punish tyranny and that from this guise he is not redeemable. However whether this is the tragedy of the revenger is still debateable. Perhaps rather, the tragedy is that Vindice could not keep up his performance, his act, long enough to succeed or even take the Duke's seat for himself. In playing himself rather than Piato, and in his confession in the final scene, Vindice metaphorically admits to being taken in by the court that is ‘so given up to evil' and despite an ‘intense awareness of his own sin', he cannot save himself (Murray 1964:192,215). By the close of the play, the audience come to the realisation that ‘those who seek justice are no less corrupted than those who seek sensual pleasure or power' (Murray 1964:228). It is impossible, however to align Vindice with the â€Å"tragic hero† character, as though despite his admittance, he fails to achieve ‘self-knowledge' and ‘he amuses himself and us so much †¦ he seems incapable of suffering and inner conflict' (Ribner 1986:151). Through the enjoyment and gratification in the deaths and violence, Vindice's confession comes to nothing. He does not argue for forgiveness or try and show his regret but merely accepts that †tis time to die when we ourselves are foes' (V. III. 112). Peter Murray argues that Vindice is one of the more ‘believable portraits of neurotic perversion in all of Jacobean drama' and therefore the ways in which he evolves as a character is truly accurate to reality (1964:247). Can therefore, turning tyrant really be Vindice's tragedy, if any other character would have come to the same fate? ‘It is worth remembering that death is what we commonly expect at the end of a revenge tragedy' and Middleton simply alters the normal style of the close of a revenge play. In showing Vindice's lack of self-recognition, the audience would leave the theatre with a ‘particular sense of imperfection' (Ribner 1962:86). The tragedy of the revenger then, is not that Vindice has turned tyrant, but that he represents everyman, and in allowing oneself to be consumed with rage, desire and lust, every one of us would come to the same fate. Vindice does not realise that he has become the butt of his own joke; Lussurioso sought to hire a villain, and he succeeded.

Research on Hero Honda Essays

Research on Hero Honda Essays Research on Hero Honda Essay Research on Hero Honda Essay MARKET analysis OF HERO HONDA MOTORS LIMITED. [pic] [pic] A Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Submitted by sUBMITTED TO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT A project cannot be said to be the work of an individual. A project is a combination of views and ides, suggestions and contributions of many people. I am extremely thankful to my project guide who gave me an opportunity to do this project report as a part of the curriculum. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Hero Honda Company Staff dealers whose valuable information throughout my project work. Also I wish to thank all the respondents who gave me some of their valuable time to fill up the questionnaires, without which the project study wouldn’t have been a success. TABLE OF CONTENTS OBJECTIVES SCOPE OF THE PROJECT grand success. Information regarding the market share, cost factors, the marketing and promotional strategies etc was collected from primary data sources. INTRODUCTION HISTORY ABOUT THE CHAIRMAN Brijmohan Lall Munjal – Seeding a Dream [pic] Dont dream if you cant fulfill your dreams Brijmohan Lall Munjal is often fond of saying. The founder and patriarch of the $ 2. 8 billion Hero Group is your classic first generation entrepreneur. He is a man who started small, dreamt big and used a combination of grit and perseverance to create one of the countrys largest corporate groups and the Worlds No. 1 Two Wheeler Company. Instinctive from a young age, Brijmohan Lall made a rather unusual start in life. Around the time when the freedom movement in India was taking shape in the late 1920s, he walked into a newly opened  Gurukul  (Indian heritage school) near his home in Kamalia (now in Pakistan). He was only six years old then. Thus began an extraordinary tale of courage and perseverance. Brijmohan began his business story after partition in 1947, when he and his brothers relocated to Ludhiana. The family set up a company that provided poor people with basic transport (cycles). Three decades later, as India evolved, he added a second crucial chapter which visualized affordable and technologically superior transport to millions of middle class Indians. The rest is history. Building Relationships When Brijmohan and his brothers started out, there was no concept of organized dealer networks. Companies just produced, and most dealers functioned like traders. Brijmohan changed the rules of the business by trusting his gut instincts; introducing business norms that were ahead of their time, and by investing in strategic relationships. Brijmohan built a series of bonds and networks with hundreds of family members, vendors, dealers and employees. Much like the Japanese keiretsu system, these networks are now the glue that holds the Hero Group together. Thanks to the relationships that we have nurtured so passionately in the Hero Family, the younger generations of some of our bicycle dealers have become dealers of Hero Honda. These relationships have survived through generations through bad times and good times the patriarch now reminiscences. Besides bonding with his vendors and dealers, Brijmohan has been personally responsible for kindling a spirit of entrepreneurship amongst his employees, and today, 40 of his former employees are successful entrepreneurs. Staying Ahead Though not technically qualified in the conventional sense, few of his contemporaries have understood the dynamics of technology better than Brijmohan Lall has. He could always visualize the applicability of technology before others could. For example, in the 1980s, when all two-wheeler companies in India opted for two-stroke engine technology, Brijmohan preferred a four-stoke engine a technology that dramatically increased fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance costs. This technology was one of the biggest reasons for Hero Hondas stupendous success. Time and again, Brijmohan managed to steal a march over his industry peers. For example, when Honda Motors of Japan was looking for a collaborator in the 1980s, the Hero Group was not high up the pecking order initially as there were other more eligible and established suitors. Yet it didnt take long for the astute Japanese to realize that the Hero Group and Honda had much more in common than earlier perceived; there a sharp focus on financial and raw material management, and employee turnover was low. Honda officials were also amazed to find that the Munjals were already practicing Just-in-time-inventory at the time (JIT). It turned out that Brijmohan Lalls aspiration to provide cheap transportation to Indias poor by default ensured lean and cost-effective operations. This in turn increased vendor efficiency and led to near-zero inventories. A Corporate Citizen A frugal upbringing and a value system modeled on the famous Gurukul system which stresses the sanctity of the teacher-pupil relationship imbibed in Brijmohan a strong sense of social commitment and responsibility. There is a special place in his heart for Ludhiana, the city where he took roots. Today, Ludhiana is a modern, bustling city, but Brijmohan has played no mean role in its evolution. Several schools and educational institutions in Ludhiana owe their existence to the Munjal family. The Ludhiana Stock Exchange owes its existence to Brijmohans vision as does the Ludhiana Flying Club. Hes also set up the not-for-profit Dayanand Medical College and Hospital-an institute now rated as one of the best medical colleges in India, in terms of infrastructure, quality of staff and alumni profile. In and around Dharuhera, near the first Hero Honda plant, Brijmohan and his family have left their stamp of philanthropy. The Raman Kant Munjal Foundation which Brijmohan set up in memory of his eldest son, today runs a higher secondary school and a very modern and well-equipped 100-bed hospital at Dharuhera. The group has also adopted numerous villages and provides education, vocational training, drinking water, roads, streetlights nd sewerage. AUTO INDUSTRY- A REVIEW INTRODUCTION The Rs. 5500 crore Indian two wheeler segment is the second largest market fin the world after China. India’s two wheeler production is the third largest in the world after Japan and China. India has a well- developed two wheeler market with around 25 million households owning two-wheeler. The I ndian two wheeler industry made a modest beginning in the early 1950 when Automobile Product of India ( API ) started manufacturing scooter in India. Until 1958. API and Enfield( motorcycle) were the only two in production. In 1948, Bajaj auto began trading in imported Vespa scooter and the three – wheeler- finally, in 1960’s. it set up shop to manufacturer them in technical collaboration with piggaio of Italy. The agreement expired in 1971. In the initial stages, the scooters segment was regulated regime, foreign company was not allowed to operate in India, and waiting time for getting Bajaj scooters was as high as 12 years. Java, and escort. While the Enfield bullet was a four strokes bike, the Java and Rajdoot were two-strokes bikes. The motorcycles industry was originally dominated by Enfield with 350 cc bikes. The motorcycles industry was cc segment. The two wheelers segment was opened up to foreign competition in the mid 1980’s which saw the entry of the Japanese manufactures into the country. Classification of the Industry The two-wheeler segment can be categorized into the scooter, mopeds, and motorcycles. Motorcycles: this segment has shown the best performance in the recent years. The market leaders in this section are Bajaj Auto. TVS, Mahindra, Hero Honda. [The splendor is the most popular segment among motorcycles. ] Two Wheeler Industry It wasn’t an easy year for the two wheeler industry. Rising interest rates and the economic slowdown resulted in delayed consumer decision making and a rise in loan defaults. Over the course of the year, banks withdrew financing facilities from satellite towns. The share of financing, which had increased rapidly to 50-60 per cent of the total retail sales by early 2007, has now come down to below 30 per cent. This came as a major setback for the two-wheeler industry. Ongoing government investments very clearly emphasis inclusive growth through improved connectivity, job-creation and improving quality of life. The rural road outlay has been upped by close to 60 per cent, the budget for the Urban Renewal Mission has been hiked by 87 per cent, and fund allocation to the ongoing National Highways program has been upped by 23 per cent. Importantly, India has added fresh impetus to its flagship job creation program for rural India: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. During 2008-09, this scheme, which provides 100 guaranteed days of work a day for the country’s rural poor, provided employment opportunities to more than 44 million households last year; a year ago, 33 million households were covered. During the year, there have been important developments in two-wheeler industry. The competition has strengthened though there are hardly any new entrants into the industry. There is an increasing emphasis on price and this has led to cost cutting efforts all across the industry, thereby, making the customer an ultimate beneficiary. The trend also saw introduction of new motorcycles with capacity ranging from 100 to 250cc bikes. We anticipate that many more new models will be launched during the year and provide customers plenty of choice at competitive prices. Businesses cannot consistently grow at 25-30 per cent. Each business has a tendency to taper and plateau after attaining a particular size. An annual growth rate of 10-12 per cent over a period of time is extremely healthy. The TCS study rankings are conducted at the motorcycle segment-level to provide comparisons among similar groups of motorcycles. Motorcycles ranking highest in their respective segments for TCS are: Hero Honda splendor plus (best standard motorcycle segment); Bajaj pulser (best executive motorcycle segment); Hero Honda karizma (best premium motorcycle segment); and Royal Enfield Bullet Electra (best cruiser motorcycle segment). The relatively low score for the executive segment indicates that most manufacturers have fallen short of meeting the high expectations of these buyers,. Production, sales growth of the industry The two-wheeler companies have been operating at high capacities due to high growth rates between 2009 and 2008. The growth is expected to lead to increase in the capacities from present 52 lakh units t o 65 lakhs per annum in the year 2009-10, whereas the actual production estimates by that period at an estimated growth rate of 18% is only 60 lakhs. Charts showing two-wheeler industry growth rates Demand In India the two-wheeler provide an easy and popular mode of personal transport for the middle classes. With public transportation system being inadequate and ineffective the demand for the two-wheeler is likely to rise. The two-wheeler sales are expected to touch the 5 million mark by the end of the decade as against the annual sales of 35,49,271 in 2008-09. Technology With liberalization and the increasing competition. The two- wheeler industry has witnessed technological changes. The four- stroke engine is being introduced in place of the traditional populations and fuel inefficient two stroke engine. The smaller capacity engine with the electronic fuel injection is also being used. Bajaj auto is now feeling the need to increase its technological competence. Wit the competition cashing in on the technological competence for their collaborators. Emphasizes being laid on lighter and fuel- efficient vehicles. A class of vehicle having fuel efficiency of a moped and sleekness and style of the motorcycles called scooterette is growing. The vehicles offer a fuel efficiency of 60-65 km p/h. They enter into new segment,Bajaj Auto has come out with TVS with Scooty pep and Hero Honda has come out with a Pleasure and upgraded version of sleek. Government policy The excise duty on two-wheeler , which has previous 10 percent to 30 percent according to the engine capacity, was rationalized is only two categories size. 15 percent for 75 cc engine capacity and 25 percent for above 75 cc engine capacity the excise duty structure has been left untouched since the 1993-94 budget. Marketing and The Distribution Like any other emerging country, India experienced the knock-on effects of the global crisis during the year in review. The effects were felt through the monetary, financial and real channels. Drying up of global finance impacted from the middle of the fiscal impacted domestic capital finance; and corporate earnings came off peaks. In April 2009, Reserve Bank of India predicted that the Indian economys growth for 2008-09 would slow to 6. 6 per cent, breaking an excellent five-year growth sequence. There were two dimensions to the economic slowdown. In the first half, inflation ran into double digits as a result of the global crude shock and the global food grain shortage. To control inflation, the RBI clamped down on money supply, and reduced liquidity in the economy. By the time inflation started coming under control, domestic interest rates started shooting up. Meanwhile, the global crisis erupted, putting further pressure on liquidity levels. By October 2008, slowdown was clearly apparent in export-intensive sectors, both in the manufacturing and service side. By December, the slowdown turned into de-growth. The cutback in demand from Europe and the US was so sharp that even a competitive rupee, which devalued by around 12 per cent during the year, couldnt act as a buffer. By December 2008, the growth momentum of the first six months was lost. Planned investment projects were shelved; live projects faced a shortage of funds as credit flows dried up. As money became dearer, pay packets became slimmer and risk aversion grew both from the demand and supply side. Compulsions of coalition politics at the Centre and the impending Lok Sabha elections didnt help either, and slowed down reforms and implementation of projects, particularly in critical sectors like roads, ports and power. The worst hit was the manufacturing sector. From the second half of the financial year, the index of industrial production contracted on three occasions, remained close to zero on two occasions, and was mildly positive only once. Two –Wheeler Financing Though two-wheeler are the most preferred from of transport in India,the fact remains that it is a lower end market product. Most two-wheeler manufacturer like Bajaj Auto and kinetic engineering have set up their own finance company since organized financiers do not think the returns are particularly attractive. The argument given by some financiers is that the price of a Yamaha or Hero Honda is so high that people prefer to buy a second hand car instead. This is particularly true of small town where people desire to own a car and they have the means the two wheeler is then only a second vehicle for the family. MARKET MECHANICS: Since 1985, when the first Hero Honda it has been and instant hit. A mileage miser with just about adequate performance further backed by image of Honda and Hero Cycles brand of aggressive marketing, it climbed up the sales chart outselling every other motorcycle by ten of thousands every year. Over the years, company has received its share of accolades, including the National Association of India Award against 200 contenders. SEGMENTATION, TARGETING POSITIONING From the current segmentation, targeting positioning and consumer surveys we found that our client has targeted the following segments: ? Congested areas of urban cities. Males/Females between the age group of 18-36 ? Middle class people , mostly officials executives The client analysis from our questionnaire it was found that our client has targeted the right segment HHML is overlooking one feature in bike which is its low maintenance cost and reliability (i. e. less chances of breakdown) which is absent in its competitors. Therefore, in order to meet the sales target, two option are ava ilable with the client, one is to redesign the bike and second is to reposition the bike as â€Å"Bike with one time investment†. Since redesigning of bike may involve a big task and huge investment therefore we recommended repositioning the bike. COMPANY PROFILE The Hero Honda story began with a simple vision – the vision of a mobile and an empowered India, powered by Hero Honda. This vision was driven by Hero Hondas commitment to customer, quality and excellence, and while doing so, maintain the highest standards of ethics and societal responsibilities. Twenty five years and 25 million two wheelers later, Hero Honda is closer to fulfilling this dream. This vision is the driving force behind everything that we do at Hero Honda. We understood that the fastest way to turn that dream into a reality is by remaining focused on that vision. There were many unknowns but we kept faith, and today, Hero Honda has been the largest two wheeler company in the world for eight consecutive years. Our growth has kept compounding. The company crossed the ten million unit milestone over a 19-year span. In the new millennium, Hero Honda has scaled this to 15 million units in just five years! In fact, during the year in review, Hero Honda sold more two wheelers than the second, third and fourth placed two-wheeler company put together. With Hero Honda, the domestic two wheeler market was able to show positive growth during the year in review. Without Hero Honda, the domestic market would have actually shrunk. Over the course of two and a half decades, and three successive joint venture agreements later, both partners have fine-tuned and perfected their roles as joint venture partners. What the two partners did was something quite basic. They simply stuck to their respective strengths. As one of the worlds technology leaders in the automotive sector, Honda has been able to consistently provide technical know-how, design specifications and R innovations. This has led to the development of world class, value for- money motorcycles and scooters for the Indian market. On its part, the Hero Group has taken on the singular and onerous responsibility of creating world-class manufacturing facilities with robust processes, building the supply chain, setting up an extensive distribution networks and providing insights into the mind of the Indian customer. Since both partners continue to focus on their respective strengths, they have been able to complement each other. In the process, Hero Honda is recognized today as one of the most successful joint ventures in the world. It is therefore no surprise that there are more Hero Honda bikes on this countrys roads than the total population of some European countries put together! The companys meteoric growth in the two-wheeler market in India stems from an intrinsic ability to reach out and come closer to its customers, with every passing year. Hero Hondas bikes are sold and serviced through a network of over 3500 customer touch points, comprising a mix of dealers, service centres and stockists located across rural and urban India. Hero Honda has built two world-class manufacturing facilities at Dharuhera and Gurgaon in Haryana, and its third and most sophisticated plant at Haridwar has just completed a full year of operations. It is difficult to imagine that all this has happened in the span of just two and a half decades! The best is yet to come. During the year in review, Hero Honda powered its way in a market that, for all practical purposes, was feeling the full effects of the economic slowdown in India. With an economic recovery now clearly on the cards, Hero Honda is all set to ride into another summit. As Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the Chairman, Hero Honda Motors succinctly puts it, We pioneered Indias two wheeler industry, weve steered it through difficult times; now it is our responsibility to set the pace again. . New Models The company has a large portfolio of brands, with the money-spinners being mainly Splendor Plus (the worlds largest selling bike) and Passion. However, the company claims it was the launch of the 150cc CBZ and 225cc KARIZMA which established Hero Honda as an inspirational brand. The launch of CBZ and KARIZMA got us into a different league altogether. Although the sales are just about 3,000 a month, it made us an overall bike company†, Hero Honda would launch a new model of the KARIZMA by the end of current year, the Managing Director, Mr. brijmohanlal Munjal, said. Meanwhile, the company is yet to decide on the location of its proposed Fourth manufacturing unit. The feasibility study is on, he said, adding that the new plant was likely to come up in the next 18 months. New launches are likely to help Hero Honda gain a market share in the coming quarters. Hero Honda Motors Ltd, has launched a new 100-cc four-stroke bike, CD deluxe and Dawn is likely to be phased out of the market once the new model sells 10,000 plus units per month. Sales Performance Hero Honda went against the grain and created a growth trajectory all of its own. Sales of the company grew by over 11 per cent in volume terms and in value terms; they grew by over 19 per cent. Effectively, this helped the company end the year with a market share of around 60 per cent. This robust performance helped the company increase earnings margin 120 basis points- a remarkable feat, considering that elsewhere in the world, the automobile industry went through its worst year in recent history. Hero Honda’s performance in its silver jubilee year helped it retain its position as the world’s largest two wheeler company for the eighth year in a row. It also helped the company cross the 25 million unit mark- becoming the first company in India to reach this milestone. Last year, two new models were launched, namely CBZ XTREME and HUNK to address super-style and economy segments. Passion pro has found its position firm amongst Indian models, only next to Splendor, the largest selling bike in the world in terms of sales performance. CBZ was re-launched as CBZ XTREME, in April 2007, with changes and value additions to cater to specific needs of the customers. Reportedly CBZ XTREME is doing well in its segments and has sold over 10,000 units in the initial months itself. Hero Honda has targeted a sale of over 3 million bikes for the year 2009-10. This effort is supplemented by a major launch this year, in October end; this bike will have some exclusive features and will be in the 200cc plus range. There are some ambitious programmes of launching a new range of bikes with technical support from Honda in the coming years. With a slew of such measures the capacity available at present locations can at best support two-million production target at the existing plants. The company, therefore, is looking at the possibility of setting up a third plant to meet the future demand and for which techno-economic study is in progress. New Initiatives Customer and customer satisfaction is the purpose of our being an entity. To increasingly understand him and make him part of our ongoing business. Customer related initiative has been the increase of warranty period to three years since July 2008. This has attracted a great deal of customer attention. During the year the company has added nearly a hundred dealerships and SSPs. In terms of sheer numbers, the network has grown by 16% during the year 2008-09. We would endeavor to increase our reach to every corner of this country. Plans for the future In the previous year, the domestic two-wheeler industry entered a period of de-growth. However, this was arrested in 2008-09, largely on the back of Hero Hondas performance. After the blip of last year, the two-wheeler industry went back to a growth phase, largely driven by Hero Honda and exports. The industry clocked total volumes of 8. 5 million during the year in review, a growth of 5 per cent compared to a fall of 5 per cent in the previous year. The pace of growth was lower in the domestic market, where the industry clocked sales of 7. 43 million, a rise of only 2. 60 per cent. This, however, was a significant improvement over previous year when the industry had shrunk by 8 per cent. Motorcycles continue to constitute the largest chunk of the two-wheeler industry, and during the year in review, accounted for four fifth of sales. Interestingly, for the second year in succession, scooters increased their share in the two-wheeler pie from 14 per cent to 16 per cent. This is clearly a trend reversal from the last 10 years, where the share of scooters in the two-wheeler pie had been shrinking. Changing lifestyles among women, and the introduction of feature-rich, high-quality scooters possibly has much to do with the revival in demand The entry segment – made up of basic 100 cc bikes -Had started slowing two years ago, and during the year in review, sales in this segment were down by more than 15 per cent. This could be attributed to the fact that deluxe segment bikes have become affordable on account of a 4 per cent excise cut, 1 per cent reduction in CST and the special package of reduction in excise duty in December, which most manufacturers passed on to the consumers. The deluxe segment-made up of value for money and feature-rich bikes in the 100-125 cc category-grew by 15. 2 per cent. The 125-250 cc category-grew at 8. 8 per cent. The pace of growth has fallen from last years levels. There is no doubt that the higher interest rates have brought down growth. Nevertheless, this segment was still able to clock a growth rate in high single digits mainly because of the excitement caused by a slew of new models that came into this segment during the year. The bigger story, of course, is that buyers in small-town India and rural India, as well as employees of the state and Central government, were relatively less affected by the slowdown, and this benefitted the two wheeler industry. VISION Hero Honda now the leader in the two wheeler industry. Leaders are not born, they evolve over time. It all started on the auspicious. â€Å"Baisakhi Day† the 13th of April 1984, when the Hero Honda Motor Company joined hands. On its journey to take on the No. 1 morale, Hero Honda created some prominent milestones†¦.. This leadership has been achieved only because of its philosophy to excel in all areas. In fact, passion to excel is a credo of the entire Hero Honda family and is a way of life in Hero Honda. The changing Scenario of increasing competition and the entry of new brands has made the credo even more relevant. It serves as a constant reminder to ensure excellence in providing service to the customer. They are providing outstanding customer service. It is in keeping with Hero Honda’s own passionate commitment to provide ultimate customer satisfaction. Today, they consistently meet and exceed all requirement on quality, cost and delivery. OBJECTIVES Hero Honda’s mission is to strive for synergy between technology, systems and human resources, to produce products and services that meet the quality, performance and price aspirations of its customers. At the same time maintain the highest standards of ethics and social responsibilities. This mission is what drives Hero Honda to new heights in excellence and helps the organization forge a unique and mutually beneficial relationship with all its stake holders. ACHIEVEMENTS AWARDS AND ACCOLADES |Year |Awards Recognitions | |2009 |ET Awards for Corporate Excellence   Hero Honda is the winner of the â€Å"Company of the Year award for 2008 09. | | | |2008 |NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008   Hero Honda Wins the Coveted NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008| | | | | |Top Gear Design Awards 2008   Hunk Bike of the Year Award | | | | | |NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards   NDTV â€Å"Viewers’ Choice Award† to Hunk in Bike category | | | | | |India Times Mindscape and Savile Row ( A Forbes Group Venture ) Loyalty Awards   â€Å"Customer and Brand Loyalty Award† | | |in Automobile (two-wheeler) sector | | | | | Asian Retail Congress A ward for Retail Excellence  (Strategies and Solutions of business innovation and | | |transformation) Best Customer Loyalty Program in Automobile category | | | | | |NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards   Bike Manufacturer of the year | | | | | |Overdrive Magazine   Bike Manufacturer of the year | | | | | |TNS Voice of the Customer Awards: | | | | | |No. 1 executive motorcycle Splendor NXG | | |No. 1 standard motorcycle CD Deluxe | | |No. remium motorcycle CBZ Xtreme | | | | |2007 |The NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards 2007 in the following category: | | | | | |Overall Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme | | |Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme (up to 150 cc category) | | |Bike Technology of the Year Glamour PGM FI | | | | | |Auto Tech of the Year Glamour PGM FI by Overdrive Magazine. | | | | | |Bike of the Year CBZ X-treme by Overdrive Magazine. | | | | | |Ranked CBZ X-treme Bike of the Year by B S Motoring Magazine   | | | | | |â€Å"Most Trusted Company† , by TNS Voice of the Customer Awards 2006. | | | | | |CD Deluxe rated as No 1 standard motorcycle by TNS Voice of the Customer Awards 2006. | |2006 |Adjudged 7th Top Indian Company by Wallstreet Journal Asia (Top Indian Two Wheeler Company). | | | | | |One of the 8 Indian companies to enter the Forbes top 200 list of world’s most reputed companies. | | | | | |No. 1 in automobile industry by TNS  Corporate Social Responsibility Award. | |Best in its class awards for each category by  TNS Total Customer Satisfaction Awards 2006: | | | | | |Splendor Plus (Executive) | | |CD Deluxe (Entry) | | |Pleasure (Gearless Scooters) | | | | | |Splendor Passion Top two models in two wheeler category by ET Brand Equity Survey 2006. | | | | | |Adjudged 7th Top Indian Company by Wallstreet Journal Asia (Top Indian Two Wheeler Company). | | | | |Top Indian company in the Automobile Two Wheeler sector by Dun Bradstreet   American Express Corporate Awards | | |2006. | | | | | |Her o Honda Splendor rated as Indias most preferred two-wheeler brand at the  Awaaz Consumer Awards 2006. | | | | | |Certificate of Export Excellence for outstanding export performance during 2003-04 for two-wheeler three- wheelers | | |- Complete (Non SSI) by Engineering Export Promotion Council. | |The NDTV Profit Car India Bike India Awards 2006 in the following category: | | | | | |Bike Maker of the Year | | |Bike of the Year Achiever | | |Bike of the Year Achiever (up to 150 cc category) | | |Bike of the Year Glamour (up to 125 cc category) | | |NDTV Viewers Choice Award to Glamour in the bike category | | | | |2005 |Awaaz Consumer Awards 2005 Indias most preferred two-wheeler brand by CNBC in the Automobiles category. | | |Bike Maker of the Year Award by Overdrive Magazine. | | |ICWAI National Award for Excellence (Second) in Cost Management 2004 in the private sector category by ICWAI. | | |10th Motilal Oswal Wealth Creator Award for as the most consistent wealth creato r for the period 1991-2005. | |2004 |Winner of the Review 200 Asias Leading Companies Award (3rd Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |GVC Level 1 (Highest Rating) by CRISIL for corporate Governance. | |Adjudged as the Best Value Creator Large Size Companies 2003-04 by The Outlook Money. | | |Corporate Excellence Award 2004 by Indian Institute of Materials Management. | | |Adjudged as the Organization with Innovative HR Practices by HT Power Jobs for HR Excellence. | | |ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2004 by The Institute of Company Secretaries of India. | |2003 |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (3rd Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |Most Respected Company in Automobile Sector by Business World. | | |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | |2002 |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (4th Rank amongst the top 10 Indian companies). | | |Company of the Year of ET Awards for Corporate Excellence. | | |Ranked 4th in Overall Best Managed Company category, ranked 3rd in Best Financial Management and Best | | |Operational Efficiency category, ranked 6th in Overall Best Investor Relations category, by Asiamoney. | | |Highest Wealth Creating Company of the Year Award by the Money. | | |GVC Level 1 (Highest Rating) by CRISIL for Corporate Governance. | |2001 |Bike Maker of the Year by Overdrive Magazine. | | |Winner of the Review 200 Asia s Leading Companies Award (9th Rank amongst the top 10 Indian Companies). | |Winner of Three Leaves Award for showing Corporate Environment Responsibility in the Automobile Sector by Centre for | | |Science Environment. | |1999 |National Productivity Award for the Best Productivity Award in the category of Automobile Tractor presented by Vice| | |President of India. | |1995 |The Analyst Award 1995 presented to Hero Honda Motors Ltd. on being ranked 9th amongst the most investor rew arding | | |companies in India. | |1995 |National Award for outstanding contribution to the Development of Indian Small Scale Industry (NSIC Award Presented| | |by President of India). | |1991 |Economic Times-Harvard Business School Award for Corporate Performance to Hero Honda Motors Ltd. | SALES [pic] MARKET SHARE METHODOLOGY The project involves the study of four- strokes bike segment in two wheeler industry sector, which involved: 1. Market survey/ Researches 2. Meeting the retailers and the customers 3. Desk Research RESEARCH APPROACH I did two types of surveys (Data source): PRIMARY SURVEY 1. P/S T1 was done visiting Hero Honda Motors Ltd. Corporate office, Basant Lok, Vasant Vihar regarding segmentation, targeting and positioning of their brands in the two wheeler sector. A lot of desk research was also done. 2. P/S T2 conducted by visiting Hero Honda Motors Ltd. And retailers of Hero Honda {Khanna Automobiles ESS AAY Agencies , auto needs(INDIA) Pvt. Ltd). Basic objective was to know their product price, distribution channel, their customers , their process of segmentation ,targeting and positioning in the problems faced by the customers and lastly their views about the model. 3. P/S T3 conducted by taking views of the customers using this model of Hero Honda i. e. Hero Honda splendor. Their view points About the model, their grievances/ complaints about it. Last but not the least their views about modification required in it. RESEARCH INSTRUMENT The research instrument used was a structural questionnaire. It was formulated after detailed discussion. SAMPLING PLAN a) sampling unit: The sampling unit constituted the people in the middle income going in for bikes. ) sampling size: the sample size consists of 45 customers, out of which 5 refused to fill the questionnaire and 5 forms were found incomplete. c) sampling procedure : Convenience sampling. B) SECONDARY SURVEY 1) S/S T1 was conducted gaining information from different magazines newspaper. And on company from their annual reports and balance sheets and their website. 2) Promotional strategies used at present like sponsoring programme and various event which have no direct bearing on the product. However the main focus is to influence youth- the largest group. e. g. Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. Review of Literature This chapter presents an exhaustive literature review of quality dimension in marketing strategies. The discussion in this chapter is centered on how more the quality dimension in marketing strategies understood as part of this research. Furthermore, this chapter explores the topic specific to the industries viz. Two Wheeler Industry. The term marketing strategies began to find its way into the academic marketing literature only in the late 1980’s. The first use of the term is attributable to Professor Leonard Berry of Texas A M University in an American Marketing Association presentation in 1983. The literature on marketing strategies in the early 1990’s for the most part did not approach the subject from the consumer’s perspective. There were of course notable exceptions. In 1990, John Czepiel, Professor of Marketing at the New York University observed that a marketplace based marketing strategies is â€Å"the mutual recognition of some special status between exchange partners. (Czepiel, 1990). Susan Fournier refers to what marketing is supposed to be â€Å"the epitome of customer orientation† (Fournier, 1999). The literature in services marketing, in recognition of such facts, defines marketing as the attraction, maintenance and enhancement of marketing strategies (Berry, 1997), or attracting, developing and retaining marketing strategies (Berry and Parasuraman, 1991). Traditional measures of service marketing strategies The primary outcome measures of marketing strategies, satisfaction and quality, have an extensive literature in both the product and service fields yet, particularly in the services literature, there are still some lack of conceptual distinction between the two constructs. Since it is reasonable to assume a high level of correlation between the two constructs, most studies adopt one or the other measure, often without any discussion of the justification for the choice. Satisfaction has proven to be an elusive construct to capture. Much of the literature on satisfaction focuses on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm as a means of identifying the process by which customers make satisfaction evaluations. Within this paradigm, satisfaction occurs when expectations are confirmed or positively disconfirmed. Measures generally focus on assessing disconfirmation at the attribute level although recent extensions of the model include affective dimensions and emotions (Oliver, 1991). Several alternatives to the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm have been proposed. Some suggest that values are better predictors of satisfaction because values are more enduring than pre-purchase expectations. Others question the expectancy-disconfirmation model as being overly dependent on situational induced factors. As an alternative they proposed the comparison level model, which suggests that consumers examine each product attribute against a reference set of attribute levels. Each of these theories has been supported in empirical studies. Yet none has been overwhelmingly accepted as an adequate explanation for consumer post-purchase evaluations. Perhaps this is because satisfaction with a product or service has traditionally been studied as a unidimensional construct. However, in many studies, researchers have found that satisfaction is not a unidimensional construct (Leigh 1987). In fact for many products and services the use of an overall, summary satisfaction measure may mask important diagnostic information about the nature of satisfaction, its determinants and consequences. Further, the nature of these dimensions may vary across services. Another explanation for the inadequacies of existing satisfaction measures may lie in questions raised in the consumer behaviour literature regarding the emphasis placed on satisfaction research as the main method of post-purchase evaluations. Woodruff and Gardial have suggested that while satisfaction describes the customers reaction to the value received from a particular offering, customer value describes the nature of the marketing strategies between user and product. With few exceptions (Gardial et al. , 1992; Woodruff and Gardial, 1996), studies of post-purchase evaluation do not address the possible marketing strategies between value and satisfaction / dissatisfaction. Yet, as discussed in Woodruff and Gardial (1996) the perception of receiving added value is critical to understanding the nature of the relationship. Relationships, which are not perceived as being mutually beneficial, are terminated. The importance of value to the service experience may explain the use of quality as another measure of service effectiveness as in econometric terms value equals quality divided by cost. Regardless of the paradigm, traditional measures of satisfaction used in the service sector operationalize the concept on a discrete transaction basis and generally assess the construct from only one partners point of view. Yet it is clear that service relationships are built upon repeated encounters and are dyadic. If the intention is to evaluate satisfaction with the relationship, current measures of satisfaction seem inadequate. Researchers often distinguish between satisfaction and quality based on a longitudinal dimension with satisfaction seen as a transaction specific evaluation while quality represents a long-run overall evaluation or attitude. However, the distinction between satisfaction and quality in service delivery has become blurred (Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991). In fact Zeithaml et al. , (1990) define quality as meeting or exceeding customer expectations, the traditional definition of satisfaction within an expectancy disconfirmation paradigm. One of the most prominent measures of service quality is the SERVQUAL measure based on Parasuraman et al. (1985) gap model. This model suggests that differences between consumers expectations about the performance of a general class of service providers and their assessment of the actual performance of a specific firm in that class drives perceptions of quality. The measurement of quality is functionally identical to satisfaction measures based on the expectancy-disconfirmation model. The distinction arises primarily from the nature of the items or attributes used. Another approach to SERVQUAL is simple performance measures. The marketing literature provides considerable evidence that this approach is superior to the expectations-performance gap model (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Woodruff, et al. , 1983). In a test of their performance-only (SERVPERF) model, Cronin and Taylor provide evidence that performance explains more of the variation in service quality than does SERVQUAL (Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Both SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are global measures of service quality. The use of a global measure in the evaluation of service relationships may, however, not be adequate. Particularly in service relationships relying on social and structural bonding mechanisms which have increasing levels of customization, a global measure may not provide the details necessary to fully assess the strengths/weaknesses of the relationship. Quality measures, like satisfaction measures have been criticized as being largely unidimensional (Zeithaml, 1988). Though SERVQUAL is an attempt to correct for this deficiency there are still other dimensions, which may lead to a purchase experience particularly as that occurs in a marketing strategies context. Zeithaml (1988) recognized these failings and proposed a model from an exploratory study utilizing a means-end hierarchy to investigate the marketing strategies between price, quality and value. The resulting model indicates that perceived quality is one of many concepts (i. e. , perceived sacrifice, high-level abstractions, intrinsic attributes) that result in perceived value which then leads to purchase. Obviously satisfaction and quality are important concepts in the evaluation of service relationships. Both are necessary but not sufficient to good relationships. However, much controversy surrounds these constructs and their marketing strategies (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Parasuraman et al. , 1994; Teas, 1993). Some literature suggests that satisfaction is an antecedent of service quality (e. g. , Bitner, 1990; Bolton and Drew, 1991) while Parasuraman et al. (1985) suggest that perceived service quality leads to satisfaction. Cronin and Taylor (1992) in their test of SERVPERF found evidence that the latter is in fact the correct causal order. Thus it appears that to adequately evaluate service relationships, both concepts must be measured to account for the ongoing nature of the relationship. Relationships are a multiplex phenomenon. The nature of the marketing strategies depends on the kinds of satisfaction desired by the parties involved; the clients may seek socio-emotional provisions and/or instrumental provisions, and may allow these concerns to determine their focus in the relationship. Thus their behavioral intentions may depend on the provision criterion. The relations also depend on whether the types of bonds are substantively grounded or emotionally based. This view reinforces the presence of such variables as trust, which are primarily socioemotional, and the more instrumental provisions such as legal, planning and technical bonds, which partly reflect the variable commitment. The conceptualization of such variables cannot be completely socioemotional or instrumental, and in the interests of clarity and functionality, the definitions of the antecedent states of loyalty in the marketing strategies are based on trust, intimacy, etc. But it reinforces the basic assumptions in the model. That the presence of attitudinal variables like trust also play a role and they determine the overall benefits (provisions) perceived even in a business relationship. Thus, it is not solely direct commercial value related considerations but also such attitudinal considerations, which go beyond the service interaction or episode, which determine loyalty. Marketing strategies strength can be seen as the resistance to disruption of the relationship. The marketing strategies are developed partly on a basis of evaluations made and partly as a result of bonding and commitment (Strobacka, Strandvik and Gronross, 1994). Thus the strength of marketing strategies can be derived only partly from behavioural variables since they only give an indication (Hoekstra, 1993) . In most studies when measuring marketing strategies strength one indicator at a time is used. Since a behavioural and a mental dimension can be distinguished in a marketing strategies (Poiesz and Van Raaji, 1993, Storm, 1991), the individual indicator can be behavioural (descriptive) or mental (attitudinal) in nature. From the behavioural point of view indicators like length of the relationship, recency, frequency, monetary value and regularity are used most often to get an idea of marketing strategies strength. Another behavioral indicator could be whether the customer simultaneously uses also competing companies or only uses company X (Liljander and Strandvik, 1994). From the mental viewpoint a variable like satisfaction, involvement, perceived switching costs, long-term expectations, trust and commitment has been used as an indicator of marketing strategies strength. Typically, commitment and trust are seen as central to the marketing strategies paradigm of relational partners, and are posited as key mediating variables (KMV) (Morgan and Hunt, 1994). Morgan and Hunts KMV model rests on the assumptions that these two are key because they encourage marketers to work at preserving the marketing strategies investments with partners/clients, resist short term gains which may be lesser than expected benefits of staying on in the relationship, and as they view potentially high risk actions as acceptable since they expect that partners will not act opportunistically. Further, both the key variables should be present for the existence of the loyal behaviour patterns indicated here. Satisfaction plays a major role here, and leads to trust when some other antecedent conditions are satisfied, like shared values and goals, dependence based on stable expectation/perception of performance, and perceived switching costs. The notion of sharing is central to the conveyance of meaning. People and entities to whom we feel closest and who mean the most to us are generally those with whom we have a great deal in common. They share the same values they demonstrate what Duck (1994) refers to as shared meaning. In the same way, it is proposed that commitment follows trust later on the ladder, and though some commitment elements start forming at this stage, the fuller commitment only follows when there is the antecedent of trust itself, which has led to the other more direct, definitive antecedents, like the various bonds and the positive attitude to interaction with each other. Commitment, defined as the attitude towards interacting with each other, coupled with the bonds of various types, is a determinant of marketing strategies strength (Liljander and Strandvik, 1995). Marketing strategies strength is closely related to loyalty, or behaviors, which reflect loyalty like recommendations, repurchase intentions and actual repurchase, etc. Storbacka, Strandvik and Gronroos, 1995). Marketing literature talks about four sources of consumer trust:- Generalized trust (derived from social norms) System trust (rule of law, regulations, contracts, bureaucracy professionals) Personality based trust (general tendency to trust/distrust determined by personality traits) Process based trust (developed through repeated interactions, firm/brand specific, interpersonal) A customer’s first encounter with a service firm is his or her first ‘moment of truth’ and is a potential first step on a road leading away from reliance on generalized, system and personality based trust towards a reliance on process based trust. Because system and generalized trust are held in common by members of society and are equally available to all firms, they offer less potential for competitive advantage. By building process based trust, however, service firms can encourage customer retention and gain competitive advantage (Barney and Hansen, 1994). Trust is a multidimensional construct with cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions and recent empirical investigations (Cummings and Bromiley, 1996) have supported this theorizing. In relationships, individuals trust cognitively based on their knowledge of their partner’s character, they trust affectively based on their emotion towards their partners and they trust behaviorally by taking actions that display trust in their partners. Previous conceptualization s of trust in marketing research has tended to emphasize the cognitive dimension. The affective dimension of trust has been largely ignored in the literature. However, more recently, marketing researchers have examined social support behaviour in service relationships (Adelman and Ahuvia, 1995; Adelman, Ahuvia and Goodwin, 1993), which engender affective trust. Trust is built up when there are assurances of higher and stable levels of satisfaction (the exceeding of expectations, every time, in the service quality approach), and there is lower risk perceived, security, a feeling of reliability about the supplier, and assistance. This level of service quality obviously builds trust, and can explain the threshold of satisfaction which precedes a change in loyalty behaviour, for some additional benefits are being offered, and the interactions assume a greater number of dimensions. Trust will lead to sharing of goals and values, as at this stage, assistance is expected and also given, in achieving goals that are perceived to be for the common good of both partners. Dwyer et al. (1987) marketing strategies development process model posits that with time, a marketing strategies moves along a continuum from awareness to commitment and the latter represents the highest stage of relational bonding. It must be acknowledged that the possibilities for creating and managing trust and commitment in relationships may be limited (Gronroos, 1994). A natural consequence of this may be the stage of opening up, giving more and accurate feedback by sharing more vital knowledge, which corresponds to intimacy. Marketing strategies literature also enriches the explanation of why there is sharing, and also why that sharing seems to provide a jump in the level of loyalty related behaviour. Intimacy talks of socioemotional benefits, which strengthen the relationship; and it implies a sharing of vital information, sharing socially and psychologically. In service quality terms, this would imply an increase in satisfaction due to more need areas being satisfied, as needs other than the usual instrumental provisions are being satisfied. Here the type of marketing strategies positive, cemented through socioemotional provisions including bonds such as social, planning, clubs, etc and a positive attitude towards interacting with each other. This directly impacts marketing strategies strength and hence loyalty. The difference between marketing strategies strength and customer loyalty is the difference between the object. The object of customer loyalty maybe either the service provider/firm or a particular service worker. The former is referred to as service loyalty, the latter as personal loyalty. High levels of customer trust towards the firm’s employees would be expected to translate into positive attitudes towards the firm and high levels of customer commitment to the firm ‘s employees would expect customer patronage of the firm. Therefore when a customer has a strong marketing strategies with multiple personnel from the firm, researchers suggest a direct path between marketing strategies strength and true customer loyalty to the service firm. Customer satisfaction with a company’s products or services is often seen as the key to a company’s success and long-term competitiveness. In the context of marketing strategies marketing, customer satisfaction is often viewed as a central determinant of customer retention. However there is a need to look beyond customer satisfaction as several studies have established that higher levels of customer satisfaction may not always result in higher levels of customer loyalty. A few empirical investigations in this area indicate that a direct marketing strategy between these constructs is weak or even non-existent. Some studies suggest satisfied customers may not be sufficient to create loyal customers (Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Fornell, 1992; Oliver, 2000). These studies tend to support Reichheld’s (1993) argument that customer satisfaction is not a surrogate for customer loyalty. In recent times, customer satisfaction has gained new attention within the context of the paradigm shift from transactional marketing to marketing strategies marketing (Gronroos, 1994; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994), which refers â€Å"to all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges (Morgan and Hunt 1994). In numerous publications, satisfaction has been treated as the necessary premise for the retention of customers and therefore has moved to the forefront of relational marketing approaches (Rust and Zahorik, 1993). Kotler sums this up when he states: â€Å"The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction† (Kotler, 1994). Consequently, customer satisfaction has developed extensively as a basic construct for monitoring and controlling activities in the marketing strategies marketing concept. There are obviously aspects of marketing strategies strength other than customer satisfaction. These include, for instance, the existence of bonds between the customer and the provider. These bonds function as switching barriers beside customer satisfaction. Another dimension relates to the customers (and the providers) commitment to the relationship. Commitment might be based on customers intentions and plans for the future. Within the interaction approach and network approach to industrial marketing six different types of bonds have been suggested (Dwyer et al. , 1987). These are social bonds, technological bonds, knowledge bonds, planning bonds, and legal/economic bonds. Although these six bonds can also be found in consumer markets, they are somewhat limited for this purpose. In addition to these bonds, Liljander and Strandvik (1995) have suggested that the consumer may also have geographical, cultural, ideological and psychological bonds to a service provider. They propose that ten different types of bond can be identified in the consumer market: legal, economic, technological, geographical, time, knowledge, social, cultural, ideological and psychological. Liljander and Strandvik (1995) argue that the first five bonds-legal, economic, technological, and geographical and time bonds constitute effective exit barriers for the consumer. They can be seen as contextual factors that cannot easily be influenced by the customer but can be observed and managed by the service firm. They are more likely to be perceived in a negative sense than the other five bonds. It is, for example, associated with high costs for the customer to switch banks if she is tied up with a mortgage in one bank. These bonds can prevent the customer from switching banks even when the service given is of low quality. The other five bonds- knowledge, social, cultural, ideological and psychological bonds, represent perceptual factors, which are difficult to measure and manage by the firm. For example the cultural, ideological and psychological are directly connected to the customers values and preferences. A psychological bond, where the customer is convinced of the superiority of a bank, is probably a very effective exit barrier. The consequence of bonds is that the customer might accept lower levels of service quality, compared with other service companies, without breaking the relationship. Quality dimension of marketing strategies: Studies specific to Two-wheeler Industry One of the ways in which companies have tried to establish bonds is through the loyalty programs. Loyalty programs recently gained considerable practical and academic attention in the context of marketing management. The fundamental managerial objective of these programs is to reward loyal customer behaviour with special services or rebates and thereby at the same time to promote this loyal behaviour in order to realize the economic benefit of long term business strategies (Reichheld 1993, Sharp and Sharp 2008). The extent to which loyalty program actually achieve this objective has become increasingly the subject of scientific study (Strauss et al. , 2002, Verhoef, 2007, Yi and Jeon, 2004, Noordhoff et al. , 2008). Usually, such studies have focused on the question of how strong the supposed connection between participation in a loyalty program and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty actually is. Marketing Research on loyalty programs has increased in the last years. The effect of loyalty programs on loyalty and their critical success factors were investigated in the context off various industry settings such as automotive industry (Stauss et al. , 2005), financial services (Bolton et al. , 2007), retail stores (Noordhoff et al. , 2008). The results of an empirical study of Stauss et al. (2002) indicate that the membership in an automotive customer club has a remarkable impact on the marketing strategies. Bolton et al. (2001) shows that participants of a loyalty program of a financial services provider actually tend to realize increased revenues and higher service usage levels and to overlook negative service experience. Noordhoff et al. (2008) is of the contention that a small number of alternative loyalty programs in a market and only little familiarity off customers with these programs positively affect the success of the program. This is in accordance with the results of the study of researchers who finds especially high levels of spurious loyalty among members of frequent flyer programs who are participating in several different programs. According to Stauss, Schmidt and Schoeler (2002), â€Å"More and more companies are implementing loyalty programs in order to enhance their knowledge of their customers, to identify their valuable customers, to differentiate and give personal attention to these valuable customers and especially to raise profits by increasing customer retention and by enabling a more efficient use of marketing goals†. They are of the opinion that few firms systematically verify whether the program they implemented actually achieve these goals. The consequences could be that the programs do not achieve the retention effect aimed at or even that the overall marketing strategies with the firm is weakened. Zins (2007) in his study of the commercial two wheeler industries opines that if loyal customer needs to be traced, three conceptual perspect