The Short Story The Necklace English Literature Essay

The Short Story The Necklace English Literature Essay Guy de Maupassants short story The Necklace was first published in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois on February 17, 1884, and he was successfully incorporated into Tales of Night, his 1885 collection of short stories. Like most Maupassant short fiction, it was an instantaneous achievement, and it has become his most widely read and anthologized story (Smith Christopher). The Necklace describes Madame Loisel as beautiful and born into an average family. She is unsatisfied with her impoverished life and decides to borrow a diamond necklace from a former rich friend to fulfill her happiness. Maupassant presents the theme that one should be true to ones self trough his use of situational irony by which he tells the story of Madame Loisel. Maupassant describes Mathildes external conflicts in the story The Necklace. Though she is pretty and charming(1), she does not appreciate anything in life. She feels her life should have been blessed with wealth. Although her husband works at a ministry of education as a minor clerk, the money he is bringing to his wife is not enough for the kind of life Mathilde has always dreamed of. For instance, her vision is to live in a mansion, dinning in famous restaurants, and dance among the riches (1). She is embarrassed of her poor lifestyle, and decides not to invite any of her former friends who become rich to her home. Therefore, she suffers enormously because her whole life has been based on deficiency of luxury. The love of her husband Charles and the efforts he makes to keep his family healthy is not enough to please Mathilde. However, she happens to be a self-centered person who cares only about her appearance, instead of being thankful for the love of her husband. The author anal yzes Mathildes internal conflicts in the story. She is unhappy and miserable. She is disappointed in herself because she thinks she deserves more than she has. Mathilde appears to be a round person; although she is attractive and pretty, she also seems depressed because of the lack of money. She is a dynamic person; she is not content with herself because her husband is not well off financially. Otherwise, she would be a cheerful person if her husband was wealthy. Guy de Maupassant describes the characters verbal irony in the story; Monsieur Loisel makes an effort to invite his wife to a ball dance because he thinks she would be pleased to get out of the house. However, Mathilde chooses to reject her husbands invitation by saying, Give your invitation to some colleague whose wife has a more suitable gown than I(2). She concerned more about her look and what others might think of her. Still, she convinces her husband to take money out of their life savings to buy a lovely dress for the occasion. Mathildes irony in the story is discontentment because she does not have anything to wear with the dress; she realizes she needs a jewel to look her best, so she will not appear as poor as she is among the women at the ministry. Furthermore, Mathilde goes to her former friend to borrow one of her diamond necklaces, which she loses unexpectedly. In the story The Necklace, the situational irony occurs when Mathilda sacrifices her life for years to work tw ice as hard to repay the loan they take to return the necklace. She loses her beauty; she looks older, and there are traces of gray in her hair(4). She ruins her husband and her life by not making a smart choice, and her selfishness causes her familys pain. Nevertheless, the dramatic irony happens when she comes to learn the diamond necklace she loses is an imitation. The resolution of the story reveals that Mathilde realizes she made a fool of herself for not telling her friend exactly what had happened to the necklace. Therefore, she wastes her husbands and her time for nothing to replace something that was not even real. The writer points out the theme of the story as Malthilde cares only about her appearance, and her greed puts her through so much suffering in life. She should appreciate the sacrifice that her husband makes for her to buy the dress. Her attention is to dance joyfully with everyone, intoxicates with pleasure, and to be on a cloud of happiness(3). She does not worry too much about her husbands feeling toward his happiness. However, she comes to discover the diamond necklace she borrows from Madame Forestier is missing, her husband Monsieur Loisel sympathetically helps her look for the necklace. Moreover, he sacrifices everything he can in his life to help his wife replace the necklace. She confidently lies to Madame Loisel about the necklace. Possibly, if she has told the truth, all the pain and misery could have been avoided. Besides all the pain she puts Monsieur Loisel through, Mathilde wishes she married a wealthy man, but she is a poor girl with no dowry to offer (2). Money and m aterial things have stopped her to improve the living she desires. As a result, she loses her beauty and works harder to replace a necklace that is fake. In simpler terms, Mathilde and her husbands lives were touch in a bad way. She only cares about her happiness and does not even think how is her decision is going to affect others and her life later. In order for her to attend the occasion with her husband, she makes Monsieur Loisel go out of his way to purchase a new dress for her. After all, she is not gratified with the effort; she comes to a conclusion to borrow a diamond necklace to fulfill her happiness. At the end, she loses her charm. Not only does she have to pay for it, her husbands life also comes to devastation. In life, she should always be happy with the little she has. Hopefully, Mathilde learns her lesson and recognizes the value of what she has

death penalty :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   DEATH PENALTY   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The death penalty is an ongoing controversy in the United States. There are people that are for it and those that oppose it. I am for it, but only for the horrendous crimes that are committed today in our society. In my personal opinion, I think priests that molest or â€Å"take advantage† of little boys deserve the death penalty. In today’s society, this is one of the most controversial debates whether capital punishment should be outlawed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capital punishment has two basic arguments within the debate to make: First is the question of whether capital punishment is moral, or simply put is it justified. The second is the question of whether capital punishment is constitutional. According to the constitution, everyone has a right to freedom, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are some disadvantages of capital punishment. Opponents have four basic arguments to make. The first is that there is a possibility of error, meaning that the person accused is not the real criminal. Although there is a slight chance of error, this is separate from the issue of the death penalty being justified. They would say that capital punishment should not be used when one is not one-hundred percent positive of the criminal’s guilt. Second argument they make is the execution process. One may be given â€Å"the chair,† lethal injection or gas. Third argument is a debate with the supporters that capital punishment may lower crime rates, but no studies show that it has any affect with capital punishment. Last argument an opponent would make is the time spent on death row.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is a problem with the death penalty. It is high-priced because a prisoner can be sent to death row, but he or she can have an appeal, awaiting a retrial due to new evidence, all which can be a slow, costly and lengthy process.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A prisoner convicted of a horrendous crime can get parole, which is unjust to the victim and/or the victim’s family. What makes the parole board think the prisoner has been â€Å"rehabilitated?† I believe that if you have committed the crime, you should not get paroled. If the crime was murder, is fair for the victim’s family to see this person out on the streets again and see if he â€Å"strikes again?

Responsibility Accounting

RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING Management Accounting – Responsibility Accounting Planning & control are essential for achieving good results in any business. Firstly, a budget is prepared and, secondly, actual results are compared with budgeted ones. Any difference is made responsibility of the key individuals who were involved in (i) setting standards, (ii) given necessary resources and (iii) powers to use them. In order to streamline the process, the entire organization is broken into various types of centers mainly cost centre, revenue centre, profit center and investment centre.The organizational budget is divided on these lines and passed on to the concerned managers. Actual results are collected and displayed in the same form for comparison. Difference, if any, are highlighted and brought to the notice of the management. This process is called Responsibility Accounting. RESPONSIBILITY CENTRE A FORMAL DEFINITION OF RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING Responsibility accounting involves t he creation of responsibility centres. A responsibility centre may be defined as an organization unit for whose performance a manager is held accountable.Responsibility accounting enables accountability for financial results and outcomes to be allocated to individuals throughout the organization. The objective is to measure the result of each responsibility center. It involves accumulating costs and revenues for each responsibility centre so that deviation from performance target (typically the budget) can be attributed to the individual who is accountable for the responsibility centre. (Colin Drury, Management and Cost Accounting, sixth edition) Chapter 12 I. CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTINGA. Definition. – an accounting system that collects, summarizes, and reports accounting data relating to the responsibilities of individual managers. – an accounting system which tracks and reports costs, expenses, revenues, and operational statistics by area of respons ibility or organizational unit. – the system provides information to evaluate each manager on revenue and expense items over which that manager has primary control (authority to influence). – some reports contain only those items that are controllable by the responsibility manager. some reports contain both controllable and uncontrollable items; – in this case, controllable and uncontrollable]e items should be clearly separated. – the identification of controllable items is a fundamental task in responsibility accounting and reporting. B. Some Basic Requirements. – to implement a responsibility accounting system, the business must be organized so that responsibility is assignable to individual managers. – the various managers and their lines of responsibility should be fully defined. – the organization chart is usually used as a basis for esponsibility reporting. – if clear lines of responsibility cannot be determined, it is ve ry doubtful that responsibility accounting can be implemented effectively. – while decision-making power may be delegated for many items, some decisions (related to particular revenues, expenses, costs or actions) may remain exclusively under the control of top management. 2 – several items will be directly traceable to a particular manager's area of responsibility but not actually becontrollable by that manager. (Items such as property taxes. – Note: the controllability criterion is crucial to the content of performance reports for each manager. II. THE CONCEPT OF CONTROL. A. Absolute Control. – theoretically, a manager should have absolute control over an item to be held responsible for it. – absolute controllability is rare. – frequently, external or internal factors beyond a manager's control may affect revenues or expenses under that manager's responsibility. – the theoretical requirement regarding absolute control must often be compromised, since some degree of noncontrollability usually exists. the manager is therefore usually held responsible for items over which that manager has relative control. B. Relative Control. – relative control means that the manager has control over most of the factors that influence a given budget item. – the use of relative control as a basis for evaluation may lead to some motivational problems, since managers may be evaluated on results that may not reflect the manager's efforts or decisions. – most budget plans assign control on a relative basis in order to develop and use segmental budgets. III. RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS. A.Basic Features. – a feature of a responsibility accounting system is the varying amount of detail included in the reports issued to different levels of management. – although the amount of detail varies, reports issued under a responsibility accounting system are interrelated. – totals from the report on one level of management are carried forward in the report to the management level immediately above. 3 – data is appropriately summarized, filtered, and/or condensed as information flows upward to higher levels of management. – encourages or allows â€Å"management by exception. – two basic methods are applied to present revenue and expense data: (1) only those items over which a manager has direct control are included in the responsibility report for that management level. – any revenue or expense that the manager cannot directly control are not included. (2) include all revenue and expense items that can be traced directly or allocated indirectly to a particular manager, whether or not they are controllable. – in this approach, care must taken to separate controllable from noncontrollable items in order to differentiate those tems for which a manager can and should be held responsible. B. Desired Features. 1. Timely 2. Issued Regularly 3. Format should b e relatively simple and easy to read. – confusing terminology should be avoided. – results should be expressed in physical terms where appropriate, since such figures may be more familiar and understandable to managers. – to assist management in quickly spotting budget variances, both budgeted and actual amounts should be reported. – a budget variance is the difference between the budgeted and actual amounts of an item. – because variances highlight areas which require nvestigation, they are helpful in applying the management by exception principle. – reports often include both current and year-to-date analyses. IV. RESPONSIBILITY REPORTS — SEE TEXT FOR AN ILLUSTRATION. V. RESPONSIBILITY CENTERS. 4 A. Basic Concepts. 1. A Segment. – is a fairly autonomous unit or division of a company defined according to function or product line. – function: marketing, production, finance, etc. – product line: shoe department, el ectrical products, food division. 2. A Responsibility Center. – is a segment of an organization for which a particular xecutive is responsible. – there are three types of responsibility centers: (1) expense (or cost) center. (2) profit center. (3) investment center. B. Expense (Cost) Centers. – a responsibility center incurring only expense (cost) items and producing no direct revenue from the sale of goods or services. – managers are held responsible only for specified expense items. – the appropriate goal of an expense center is the long-run minimization of expenses. – short-run minimization of expenses may not be appropriate. C. Revenue Centers – managers are held responsible for revenues (sales) only. managers of such centers also responsible for controlling expenses of unit as well. D. Profit Centers. – a responsibility center having both revenues and expenses. – the manager must be able to control both of these cat egories. 5 – controllable profits of a segment are shown when expenses under a manager's control are deducted from revenues under that manager's control. – an expense center can be converted into a profit center by the utilization of transfer prices. – i. e. , via the use of transfer prices, â€Å"artificial revenues† can be generated for an expense center as it harges other organizational units of the company for its services or product. E. Investment Centers. 1. Basic Characteristics. – a responsibility center having revenues, expenses, and an appropriate investment base. – the manager in charge of an investment center is responsible for and has sizable control over revenues, expenses, and the investment base. – the two most common ways for evaluating the performance of such a center are : (1) ROI (return on investment. ) (2) Residual Income. 2. Determining the Investment Base to be used in ROI calculations. – it is a tricky matter. two key issues which must be resolved in determining the value of the investment base are (1) which assets should be included, and – key question: are the included assets actual controlled by the division managers? (2) how those assets should be valued. – Major alternative: – Original Cost. – Book Value (original cost less accumulated depreciation to date. ) – Replacement Cost. 6 – Note: which ever choices are applied, managers will be motivated in some direction. – companies prefer to evaluate segments as investment centers because the ROI criterion facilitates performance comparisons between segments.

Book Report/Character Analysis on the Acts of King Arthur...

------------------------------------------------- The Acts of King Arthur and His ------------------------------------------------- Noble Knights ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- By John Steinbeck ------------------------------------------------- Part One: Plot The first section of the book is entitled Merlin. The story begins by telling how Arthur came to be born and then flows into the life of Arthur. When Arthur is in his earlier years, God brings about a sword driven into an anvil set in stone. The gold writing on the stone claims that only the person meant to be King of England by right of birth shall be able to pull it†¦show more content†¦Arthur refuses the request, thinking it atrocious. At this point Balin remembers that the Lady of the Lake killed his mother three years prior. Balin then makes his way over to the Lady of the Lake and cuts her head off with his sword. Arthur is disgusted with Balin’s rash act and banishes him from the court. Determined to prove himself, Balin sets off to kill Arthur’s enemy at the time, Lord Royns. Along the journey, Balin meets up with his brother, Balan. Together they are able to capture Lord Royns and send him back to Camelot as a prisoner. Along their journey Balin unintentionally causes the death of many, just as the damsel had foretold. The brothers eventually end up going separate ways and later reunite in a most unfortunate fashion. The two are forced to fight one another, although until they have both fatally wounded one another, neither one knew that they were brothers. They are considered two of the best knights in history. The third section of the book is entitled The Wedding of King Arthur. At this point in the story, Arthur gets married to a fine lady by the name of Guinevere. Merlin predicts Guinevere will be unfaithful to him with his dearest and most trusted friend. Arthur brushes off Merlin’s predictions, thinking them to surely be a mistake. Around the time of the wedding, Arthur comes to possess the Round Table, around which 150 of the world’s greatest knights shall someday sit. One hundred superb knights are given as a gift along

A Brief Note On Membrane Technologies And Its Effect On...

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT Membrane technologies usually play a big role in wastewater treatment processes. Recently, due to the stricter regulation for drinking water quality, improvements of membrane materials and modules, smaller footprint, relative simplicity of installation, membrane technologies have drawn an increasing attention in water treatment processes [1]. Recent years, population growth, urbanization and industrialization has rapidly increased the clean water demand, however, the anthropogenic activities brought by these development, such as wastewater discharge, waste disposal and fertilization, has endangered the water supply by polluting water resources. Especial for the drinking water supply,†¦show more content†¦Membrane technology was firstly used for desalting purpose. In order to improve drinking water supply, sea water desalination has been employed in many coastal areas as a supply of high-quality water, without impairing natural freshwater ecosystems [3]. Membrane technology desalination facilities, based on reverse osmosis technology, has been employed past two decade to replace early large-scale thermal desalination which results in a large emission of greenhouse gases. At present, reverse osmosis is the most energy-efficient technology for seawater desalination and is the benchmark for comparison for any new desalination technology [3]. As the developing of the technology and increasing high quality water supply, some other pressure-driven membrane technologies have been employed for multiple purposes in water treatment industry, including desalting, disinfection by-product (DBP) control, disinfection (pathogen removal), clarification, and removal of inorganic and synthetic organic chemicals[2]. Besides this, other related membrane technologies, such as MBR technology, also have been employed to upgrade the conventional water treatment facilities to meet the higher water quality requirement. 2. APPLICATION OF MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGIES IN DRINKING WATER TREATMENT PROCESS During last few years, membrane technology has been widely accepted as a means of producing high quality clean water from variety of water resources. In addition to

Loans with Interest in Early Christianity and Islam Essay

Rami Ibrahim 0641174 BADM 4370 – History of Business Instructor: Michael Morrone Individual Assignment Loans with Interest in Early Christianity and Islam February 7, 2012 When an individual thinks of religion, the first thing that comes to a believer’s mind is the nonnegotiable worship of a supreme being(s) as a source of tranquility whenever he/she is in distress. On the other hand, to a pro-secularization individual, religion only causes pricey conflicts between different cultures and is considered an outdated practice which should not have a place in today’s society. What people in general tend to forget about religion is that it their respective figures like Prophet Muhammad and Jesus wanted to promote a way of life that†¦show more content†¦Similarly the selling of barley for barley is Riba except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and dates for dates is usury except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount.† (Umar). From an economical perspective, what the Prophet of Islam is referring to here is the idea that only the actual value of dates should exist in any trade transaction. Fo r example, a bank giving out a loan for 100,000 dollars with an interest of 10% means that the 10,000 interest to be paid does not actually exist in the economy and hence to the prophet this is considered riba because the bank is gaining money out of nowhere. In the Sharia, the modern day solution to this banking issue is Islamic banking which offers; â€Å"..more just and equitable distribution of resources; more responsible and profitable lending due to the necessarily closer bank-client relationship; less volatile business cycles; and more stable banking systems.† (Evans, 1987) Similarly, early Christianity has the same general view of usury, â€Å"In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.† (Exekiel 22:12). However, Islam tends to be stricter about preserving authenticity of teachings of Allah or Prophet Muhammad because the teachings were meant to be implementedShow MoreRelatedEssay about Christian Teachings on Wealth and Poverty702 Words   |  3 Pages Christianity teaches us that wealth is not what you need to enter heaven. 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Internal and external analysis of Lenovo free essay sample

1. Introduction This report will analyze the business strategic management of Lenovo Company. Firstly, it briefly presents the business model of Lenovo. Secondly, the report will focus on internal and external environment of Lenovo, expounds business and operations strategy of Lenovo. Thirdly, it analyzes the strategic choice and strategy implementation. Then, it focuses on key features that how to choice strategic and factors to achieve successful implementation. Finally, it gives a brief summary of this report. 1. 1 Background of Lenovo Lenovo Group was established in 1984, today it has grown to become a large enterprise groups which has diversified development in the information industry (Chuan, 2007). Now Lenovo is consist of the original Lenovo Group and the former IBM PC Division. Lenovo uses innovation, high-efficiency and customer satisfaction as its business model, devotes itself to create excellent PC, as well as invests in emerging markets (Liua Trevor, 2009). As one of the leaders in the global PC market, Lenovo develops and produces computer, sell the most reliable, secure and easy-to-use technology products, provides professional services to help global customers and partners to succeed. Lenovo Group is headquartered in New York, USA, at the same time, it established two main operations center in Beijing, China and the North Carolina, Raleigh, United States, and it also established two major research centers in Japan and China (ibid). Currently Lenovo has more than 19,000 employees all over the world. Lenovo has worldwide selling network in PC market. In March 2004, it was ranking the second biggest PC companies in the world (ibid). 1. 2 Products of Lenovo Lenovo is becoming the second largest PC maker in the world after its acquisition of IBMs personal computer business in 2005 (Chuan, 2007). The main productions of Lenovo are the ThinkPad line and the IdeaPad line of notebook PCs and ThinkCentre line of desktops. Lenovo Group segments its market to retail consumers, medium size businesses and large enterprises. According to its distribution channels, it divided its market through online sales, company-owned stores, chain retailers, and major technology distributors and vendors (ibid). 1. 2. 1 ThinkPad The ThinkPad line was originally sold by IBM in early years. Since early 2005, Lenovo merger and acquisition IBMs personal computer business, therefore the brand was owned by Lenovo (ibid). The consumer group of ThinkPads is mostly businesses men, schools, and individual users. It is the unique laptop in the world which has been used on the International Space Station. 1. 2. 2 Lenovo IdeaPad The IdeaPad line was produced in January 2008. This product line is based on Lenovo’s own research and development. Unlike the ThinkPad line of notebooks, the IdeaPad has fashion appearance, its design is not for the commercial market, and it’s more suitable for the average consumers (Caulfield, 2012). The Ideapad has a glossy screen, smooth and responsive keyboard made the buttons have the sense of reality. 1. 2. 3 ThinkCentre In 2003, IBM produced the ThinkCentre line; in 2005, merged IBM’s personal computer business, and acquired five years’ usufruct of the IBM PC brand; but since 2008, the products of ThinkCentre and ThinkPad stopped using this brand (ibid). Now ThinkCentre has three types, A types(A55,A60)? E types and M types(M52,M55). 1. 3 Why do people buy Lenovo? Consumer needs means that consumers’ desire of purchasing a good or service. With the development and progress of society, high tech products gradually stepped into the life of normal people (Wei, 2004). Consumer needs is a concept and it can lead to consumer behaviors which make consumers to seek inexpensive products and get more tangible benefits. There are six main factors influencing consumer behaviors: attitudes, motivation, perceptions, personality, lifestyle, and knowledge (ibid). Lenovo has 3 major Competitive edges compared with other PC markers (ibid). 1) Ethnocentrism: The main market of Lenovo is china. It is a domestic brand of China, so Chinese people can easily accept this brand. 2) Price: Compared with other brands, the price of Lenovo’s products is lower with the same configuration, because the cost of products of Lenovo is lower, including labour cost, raw materials and so on. 3) After-sale service: In China, customer can immediately get feedback from customer service. There are about 1250 after-sale stores around China, 87 after-sale stores abroad. 1. 4 Lenovo’s Dual-mode business model Lenovo builds dual-model to sell its products. The dual-mode includes transaction client mode (referred to as the T-mode) and relationship-based customer model (referred to as R mode) (ibid). T-mode, also known as the product model , is the retail form of Lenovo products, consists of three processes, the products goes through the manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and then reach to consumers. Lenovos sale is not directly facing the market, but to face the channel system which has strong market coverage (Chuan, 2007). The core ideas of the T mode are Sell In, Sell Through In (STI) and Sell Out. Sell in Refers to sell Lenovo products to distributors, which means distributors purchase directly from Lenovo (ibid). STI Refers to Lenovo products sales to dealers from distribution store. This does not mean that Lenovo only need to transfer its products from Lenovo store to the distribution store, and it also needs to help distributors to transfer the products from the distribution stores to the stores of the dealer. Sell out refers to help the dealer sale products to consumers, reach the terminal sales. R model is a business model which Lenovo uses to sell its products to enterprises and other large customers on a wholesale basis (ibid). The concept of operation management is to divide different customer values accurately, in order to reduce the cost of selling. The major factors of R model are industry development, customer management, and daily operation administration. Industry development is to search for the customer groups; Lenovo has a clear division of the military, government, education, finance, telecommunications, energy, public utilities, transportation, manufacturing, distribution, media, service, and twelve other main industries, to develop a detailed development program with different industry (ibid). Customer management is using RAPD and RFM tools to have a refined management. Daily Operation Administration is used to enhance channel management, using some customers care activities to maintain good interaction between distributors and customers (ibid). 2. Internal and external analysis of Lenovo Lenovo hopes occupied the international market through global expansion in the nearly future. So, an exhaustive internal and external environment analysis can help Lenovo to understand the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. Enterprise business environment analysis can include an internal as competitive environment analysis and an external as macro economy analysis (Henry, 2008). In this report, we will use the Porter’s five forces model to analyse the internal business environment of Lenovo and analyse the external business environment of Lenovo through the PESTEL model. 2. 1 Porter’s five forces model for internal analysis 2. 1. 1 Bargaining power of suppliers According to the product and procurement requirements of Lenovo, there are two types of suppliers (Caulfield, 2012). Some suppliers have strong bargaining power in the core components of the computer procurement and there is no substitute for Lenovo. For example, Intel is the world’s largest computer CPU supplier, he can control the supply and price of the computer CPU (ibid). Because Intel has the most advanced technology and manufacturing processes. Moreover, AMD as another product lines rather than it as a substitute of Intel for the products of computer manufacturers (ibid). There are many suppliers also have the advantage, like WINDOWS, NVIDIA, AMD, ATI, Western Digital, etc. However, other suppliers are lack of the bargaining power. These suppliers provide some low-tech accessories, Such as computer case, keyboard, AC adapter, etc. (ibid). Lenovo has a great choice for such suppliers, and a huge purchasing volume. So, the competition between these common suppliers is fierce. 2. 1. 2 Bargaining power of customers There are mainly two categories in Lenovo’s customers. The one is organization procurement like corporate and government department (Quelch, 2006). Those customers usually have a lot of purchases and often have a standardized tendering procedure. Moreover, Lenovo needs these customers to promote the brand in the international market at this stage. Therefore, these customers have a strong bargaining power. However, although the average consumer is a very large consumer groups, but they are very disperse, coupled with Lenovo’s online sales model (ibid). In addition, Lenovo’s ThinkPad brand has great brand recognition, and has many loyal customers. So, the bargaining power of average consumer is low. 2. 1. 3 Threat of new entrants Computer manufacture is a kind of high capital investment industry, and it requires a lot of development and technical personnel (Biediger, etc, 2005). New entrants may be able to have a lot of capital, but it is difficult to get a lot of development and technical personnel in a short period of time. Moreover, according to those top computer manufacturers like HP, Lenovo, DELL, they are all operations as internationalization. Therefore, the role of brand and channel for the global management is very important. Lenovo spent $12. 5 billion to purchase the PC business of IBM in 2004, and spent seven years to integrate the brand and channel resources (ibid). This illustrates the establishment of a brand and channel is a long process. So, the threat of new entrant is low. 2. 1. 4 Threat of substitute products The mainly product of Lenovo is personal computer, its main function include internet, office and entertainment. The use of the computer is irreplaceable in the office area, because the high dependence of people on the computer and office, and no any substitutes can bring the convenience like computer in office areas so far. However, with the popularity of some new Internet access devices, such as ITV, Tablet and Mobile phone. These new internet devices were instead more and more proportion of the computer access to the internet. For example, the shipments of iPad were more than any one of the global PC manufacturers quarterly shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 (Caulfield, 2012). Because these new Internet devices more compact and convenient. For the entertainment, computer also has many threats from substitute products, like PS3, WILL and XBOX. These TV game consoles are powerful substitute for computer games. 2. 1. 5 Competitive rivalry within an industry The competition of computer manufacture includes business servers and consumer market. In the business servers market, HP and DELL are both strong competitors. In the consumer market, Lenovo has more competitors, such as HP, DELL, ASUSTEK, ACER, SONY, etc. These competitors have a different strategy and advantage, the high degree of competition in the computer industry has led to faster product replacement (Gonela, 2009). Competitors have to develop new products to provide newer and better products for consumers, on the other hand is also working to reduce costs in order to achieve the purpose of price cutting (Handley, 2011). Therefore, Lenovo is in a highly competitive industry. 2. 2 PESTEL model for external analysis 2. 2. 1 Political Because of the state-owned background, Lenovo get a lot of policy support in the local market. The Chinese government put forward the plan of the computer to the countryside in 2009 (Savitz, 2011). This is a key policy of expanding domestic demand, and Lenovo has quickly established sales channels and expand sales. In addition, Lenovo has the early advantage on government procurement in China. However, due to the variability of the international political factors, Lenovo needs to be more flexible in the face of a variety of situations in the international market. 2. 2. 2 Economic According to international economy 2012, Smick point out that Slowdown in world economic recovery and global economy will continue to slow growth in the 2012. Developed countries face the pressure of high rate of unemployment; domestic demand is also declining (ibid). This is a chain reaction of macro-economic. However, investments maintain high growth in the computer industry, because of the Pressure on the development and upgrade (Quelch, 2006). Moreover, due to the impact of the U. S. subprime mortgage crisis and the debt crisis in Europe, export-oriented emerging economies has been seriously affected (ibid). Then, the appreciation of the RMB has led to the rising cost of Lenovo exports. 2. 2. 3 Social Computer industry has a large customer base, especially the local market of Lenovo. The demand of computer is rapid increase in developing countries, such as the number of Internet users has reached 5. 13 billion in China (Caulfield, 2012). Then, the rapid development of network infrastructure in developing countries, and it greatly increases the scope of the use of computers. Moreover, education market, industrial users and rural market are the guarantee of sales. They have a larger demand for product updates (ibid). 2. 2. 4 Technological Electronic products updates very quickly, especially in the computer industry. Computer products need to be constantly developing new products improve product performance and optimize product design (Chuan, 2007). But for the computer manufacturer, some core technology is monopolized by a few companies, such as CPU and operating system (ibid). This led to the upgrade of computer manufacturers can only passively, technologies and products has been a lot of constraints. In addition, the battery is the largest Technological bottlenecks of mobile devices now (ibid). This has seriously affected the experience of the use of electronic devices, but still not a good solution. 2. 2. 5 Environment Recycling of electronic products has been a problem in various countries, because the materials of electronic products contain many toxic substances (Chuan, 2007). Therefore, more and more developed countries were pushing environmental protection standards for electronic products in recent years (ibid). Those environment protection standards will form powerful barriers to trade for Lenovo. 2. 2. 6 Legal The laws of the computer products is not very sound in the local market, Such as parallel computers, computer quality, battery safety, etc. However, in the international market, most developed countries have a strict law and consumer protection provisions for computer products. Such as Samsung and Apple, they launched a fierce competition on the shape of patent issues in Europe (Caulfield, 2012). The lawsuit brought serious losses to both sides. So, Lenovo need to pay attention to features of the product in different legal environment. 3 Strategic choice of Lenovo 3. 1 Definition of strategic Strategic refer to select some available and reasonable options for implementation. The strategic analysis and choice is the most significant part of the company (Henry, 2008). 3. 2 Structure for making strategic choice Identifying what options are available is the first step of generally process of strategic selection. The company should figure out the reasonable options. And the types of the options about products, markets, and services. All the situations which are for instance who should involved in the choice, when will take it to action, and the choice criteria assessment intent should be considered (James, 1986). 3. 3 Options for markets and products This chart shows that the present and new market geography. It is represents the relationship between market need and product in detail (Ansoff, 1965). The first main option is â€Å"do nothing†. It means that the company should stay the original strategy to make sure about their position in the market. For long term considering it is a good way for the company to compete with different kinds of competitors. (Ansoff, 1965). The options which are called product development and market development represent about create a new product or satisfy the market. These two are not difficult to understand in the basic level, but they should make specific plans in the practical operation. The other option is diversification. It divides to two types which called related or unrelated as well. Taking a new product into a new market is the object of diversification. People prefer this option because it is very attractive, at the same time it is also challenging and risky (ibid). Whether the new product adapt to the new market, the first situation must be considered is the manger should well know about the market and do lots of research. Then how long the product can keep and the profit of the product should be analyzed. In practical, the manger should according to the different situation select the options wisely. Moreover evaluate those different available options are necessary. 3. 4 The strategic choice of Lenovo The leader of Lenovo wants to solve the problems in 2001 are: how to maintain the high speed of the company’s turnover, in order to achieve the goal which is the turnover reach to 600 billion RMB in 2003; and how to gradually improve the marginal profit ratio and return on asset with the aim of have a better share price performance in capital market, then give the shareholders more payback (Biediger, etc, 2005). These two problems actually are the objects of the company. There are also restrictions between two aims: they not only could not expand aimless but also could not over conservation. The turnover of Lenovo group is 272billion HKD during 2000 and 2001 (ibid). Considering the digital china spin-off, deduct the turnover of digital china above 80 billion HDK, the turnover of Lenovo is 190billion HKD after adjustment during 2000 to 2001 after the regulation (ibid). It is far away from the object. The capital market put their focus on net profit than operating income. It is said that Dell’s gross profit rate higher than Lenovo’s 50% until the end of December in 2001 (ibid). The leader of Lenovo once clearly stated that they will try to keep or even increase the existing gross profit rate. And the truth is Lenovo cannot compete with international competitors in the area of marginal profit ratio and return on asset. The lowest share price of Lenovo in 2001 is 2. 5 HKD, and the highest is 6. 95 HKD. (ibid) But it is very satisfied that in the first quarter of 2002 the share price of Lenovo become 3. 3-3. 5 HKD 9ibid). The main reason of this situation is the depression of whole IT industry. Hence the turnover of the company decelerated growth and low gross profit. The main product of Lenovo is their private brand PC, while the circumstance of the PC industry is not so good. Especially in 2001 it all appear the trend of decelerated growth both domestic and external market (ibid). According to the report of Dataquest, the global pc shipment is decrease 4. 6% than previous year, American is worse to 11. 1%. If the forecast of IDC will be verified, the global shipment will drop to 1. 6%, it will be the first worldwide drop, and American which has the biggest PC market may drop to 13% as well (ibid). At that time most of the PC product of Lenovo will sale in domestic market. The sales growth of international PC market is far away from china, but has the same fierce competition; comparing with the international competitors, it has lots of disadvantages in the area of brand awareness, distribution channel. Not good at cost of manufacture as well. In addition the products going to the international market will investment a lot in the early days. Otherwise short term investment may affect the profit rate. On the other hand, the rates of gross profit of whole global PC manufacture are usually very low except Dell Company. Dell adopt driven by order production system and give up multilevel of agent distribution, pursue directly distribution. So that it is a good way to have a low inventory turnover. It is also a good way to face the market directly to avoid give more profit to agents. Lenovo adopt the way of build to order, inventory turnover days are 30, and also implement multilevel channels of agency distribution (ibid). This pattern impact on the capability of Lenovo improves the gross profit ratio; restrict the investment in large scale of price off promotions, market expansion, media and research development. In such circumstance, in order to realize the high growth object, Lenovo choose the option of diversification. From 2001, it established three professional work areas which are internet, cell phone and IT. Hopefully these three areas could support Lenovo’s prospect (ibid). 4 Strategy implementation of Lenovo Strategy implementation is the translation of chosen strategy into organizational action so as to achieve strategic goals and objectives. Strategy implementation is also defined as the manner in which an organization should develop, and amalgamate organizational structure, control systems, and culture to follow strategies that lead to competitive advantage and a better performance. Also, there are key supporting points to achieve successful implementation: Action planning (which means that a clearly schedule of each action steps of a company), organization structure (a company’s strategy must fit their current structure), human resources (managers should consider about their communication needs), the annual business plan (necessary financial commitment in the planning process), monitoring and control (for instance: changing the schedule, changing the action steps or the objectives) and finally, linkage (to make sure that all of the organizational activities are keep together) (birnhaum, 2009). Lenovo set the goal as the turnover reach to 600 billion RMB and gradually improve the marginal profit ratio and return on asset with the aim of have a better share price performance in capital market, but until 2004 they did not reach the goals because of lack of experience and clear market position (Xiao, 2009). Lenovo’s turnover is still around 200 billion RMB in 2004, they lost in every business except computer, and the loss of mobile phone even reached 62 million RMB (ibid). Lenovo think the main reason is that they have been excessive optimistic to the environment. They did not accurately predict the market change. The other reason that made Lenovo lost in the past three years is that they ignored an important competitor- Dell, when Dell first entered Chinese market, Lenovo keep been in the state of observe instead of take any action, so that Dell occupied domestic market and shake Lenovo’s position. Lenovo also lost because they did not have enough management ability of diversification business; they did not predict enough of the development to the diversification business strategy. Those reasons not only impacted on supply of new business development, but also impacted on the competitiveness of their core business. Lenovo draw up a new planning based on the failures before. The general aim of the new planning is to focus on current main business. There were three adjustments of this plan; one is that Lenovo should focus on the primary business. Primary business is also the same thing as core business, which means PC and relevant products for Lenovo, for example: laptop, server and external equipment, secondary business is about mobile communication equipment like mobile phone. They paid more attention on core business and key developing business; make sure that resource input is suitable for the importance of business. Old strategies in past two years like IT service and internet products have temporarily been to the third business (Deffree, 2007). The second plan adjustment is change the sale mode to against Dell. Lenovo decide not to keep the mode of distribute sales and introduce straight sales mode. Their new sales mode has been seen as complex marketing mode combine by straight sales and distribute sales. They implementing phone marketing and client marketing (which means straight sales) mode to important clients; enhance channel sales mode to retail clients and small and medium- sized enterprise clients. But channel distribute sales mode is still the most important sales mode of Lenovo’s IT products, 80% of sales is still based on channel sales mode (Kotler, 2003). Expect the adjustment and innovation of sales strategy, Lenovo also adjust their firm management framework more close to marketing and sales. Because PC is Lenovo’s main business and important supplier of profits, especially it is easier to entry to the industry now, Lenovo gain a lot of competitors such as IBM, Dell and TCL, which made them, know that they should make a change of their structure and marketing strategy on the PC products. The third adjustment is to be more internationally. Lenovo increase the development and integration of international business to against difficult income situation. Lenovo announced to sell their IT service to AsiaInfo which is a Chinese telecommunication software company. This deal is a stock rights replacement trade, so that Lenovo get 15% (which worth 3 billion RMB) stock rights of AsiaInfo. After this deal, Lenovo become the biggest shareholder of AsiaInfo. After this deal, AsiaInfo’s main business includes two parts: one is the original business, which communication software and professional service; the other one is based on IT service of Lenovo, plus the non telecommunication IT service of AsiaInfo (Lenovo, 2004). Lenovo’s new strategy adjustment is aim to strengthen its own advantages, in the meanwhile overcome threaten of environment. Competition of PC marketing is very fierce; rate of profit is low. But Lenovo has its own advantages like high brand awareness in domestic market, good clients’ relationship and management experience. Focus on the primary business not only makes Lenovo merger IBM’s PC department, but also brings Lenovo many benefits: firstly, makes Lenovo able to achieve a lot of technique of PC; secondly, perish a strong competitor and thirdly, they can develop international market quickly because of IBM (Spooner, 2004). The second adjustment of Lenovo is to change the sales mode, but Lenovo should consider clearly how to divide important clients and less important clients, how to coordinate the price difference between straight sales and distribute sales and also they should consider about implement possibility. Except these specific business strategies, Lenovo should also think about how to improve firm management ability, and gain innovation ability. Outstanding strategy and implementation are based on good management foundation. Although Lenovo can get technical patent by purchase IBM’s PC department, a company long-term development is on account of it innovation ability and it is just the weakness of Lenovo. 5 Conclusions To sum up, the internal and external analysis report of Lenovo. Firstly, Lenovo’s business model and background has been described. Though Porter five forces model and PESTEL model to analyze the company internal and external environment, and then several strategic choice have been given. Finally, according to all the information mention above to put forward implementations. Through this report, Lenovo strategy management in future has been clearly identified. But it may adjust based on marketing change. References