010 Intro to Report and Quoting Professor Ramos Blog

010 Intro to Report and Quoting Reflection Reflection Reflect on the writing process for your first essay. Answer these questions: What did you do well in your essay? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your essay? Where did you struggle, if at all? Intro to Report Reports are as diverse as all the classes you will take. You can write a report on a lab experiment, conduct interviews and assemble into a report, and even research a topic and publish it for the benefit of everyone. Reports are a genre that you may be familiar with but not know it. Reports are what we have done since elementary school. Reports are produced by government organizations, websites, companies, universities, and even individual students like yourselves. A report can answer a question, explore a topic, review what is already known about a subject, or report new knowledge, to name a few. There are a few qualities that a report usually has: Presents information Uses reliable sources Aims for objectivity Information is clear and well structured For this assignment, I want you to choose a topic that interests you and you want to learn more about. It can be related to your major, future or current career, something you are familiar with, or something you want to know more about. You can research a problem that you want to know more about. We will learn to research the library databases in order to find reliable sources of information. Subgenres of Report The report can be in any style or format that you think best suits it. If you choose to do a PowerPoint, that is your report. You do not need to write a separate report, the PowerPoint should have all the information on it. Here is a list of possible choices: Research Report –What it takes to be a teacher Visual Essay PowerPoint –  Mexican-American Report Wikipedia  style entry Featured Article  in Newspaper Infographic,  Torture,  Very Infographic Other, cleared by Professor The Conversation Review We spent the first couple of weeks talking about the conversation. What was the ongoing conversation?  How is it connected to a report? Brainstorming Let us brainstorm some ideas. We first need to choose a topic to write about. Build from lists Mapping ideas Freewriting Memory Prompts Search online for ideas Come up with at least two ideas that you want to write about. They can be general now, they will become more focused as you begin the research. Quick Write What two topics are you considering for your report? List the topics you came up with in class. The Art of Quoting Chapter 3, introduces us to the art of quoting. It warns that quoting too little or too much can hurt an argument. It is very important to frame all quotations. According to the book, what is the purpose of a citation? When is the use of a citation appropriate? The article warns about quoting too little or quoting too much. Do not assume the quotations speak for themselves. Two key ways to integrate quotations that you need to keep in mind. Choose quotations wisely Surround quotations in a frame, Quote Sanwich Quote Sandwich Introduce the quotation p. 46 Quote, relevant Explain Quotation p. 47 Claims China  is the largest nation in the world. A McDonald’s  Big Mac ®Ã‚  has 550 calories. Why do these need support? Where can you find it? Practice Use a quote from the article in a quotation sandwich.

Castle Garden Was Americas First Immigration Center

Castle Garden Was America's First Immigration Center Castle Clinton, also referred to as Castle Garden, is a fort and national monument located in Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. The structure has served as a fort, theater, opera house, national immigrant receiving station, and aquarium throughout its long history. Today, Castle Garden is called Castle Clinton National Monument and serves as the ticket center for ferries to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. History of Castle Garden Castle Clinton began its interesting life as a fort built to defend New York Harbor from the British during the War of 1812. Twelve years after the war it was ceded to New York City by the U.S. Army. The former fort reopened in 1824 as Castle Garden, a public cultural center and theatre. Following the passage of the Passenger Act of 3 March 1855, designed to safeguard the health and welfare of immigrant passengers to the U.S., New York passed its own legislation to establish a receiving station for immigrants. Castle Garden was chosen for the site, becoming Americas first immigrant receiving center and welcoming more than 8 million immigrants before it was closed on April 18, 1890. Castle Garden was succeeded by Ellis Island in 1892. In 1896 Castle Garden became the site of the New York City Aquarium, a capacity in which it served until 1946 when plans for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel called for its demolition. The public outcry at the loss of the popular and historic building saved it from destruction, but the aquarium was closed and Castle Garden stood vacant until it was reopened by the National Park Service in 1975. Castle Garden Immigration Station From August 1, 1855 through April 18, 1890, immigrants arriving in the state of New York came through Castle Garden. Americas first official immigrant examining and processing center, Castle Garden welcomed approximately 8Â  million immigrants - most from Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Russia, and Denmark. Castle Garden welcomed its last immigrant on April 18, 1890. After the closing of Castle Garden, immigrants were processed at an old barge office in Manhattan until the opening of the Ellis Island Immigration Center on 1 January 1892. More than one in six native-born Americans are descendants of the eight million immigrants who entered the United States through Castle Garden. Researching Castle Garden Immigrants The free CastleGarden.org database, provided online by the New York Battery Conservancy, allows you to search by name and time period for immigrants who arrived in Castle Garden between 1830 and 1890. Digital copies of many of the ship manifests can be accessed through a paid subscription to Ancestry.coms New York Passenger Lists, 1820–1957. Some images are also available for free on FamilySearch. Microfilms of the manifests can also be obtained through your local Family History Center or National Archives (NARA) branches. The CastleGarden database is down somewhat frequently. If you receive an error message, try the alternative search features from Steve Morses Searching the Castle Garden Passenger Lists in One Step. Visiting Castle Garden Located at the southern tip of Manhattan, convenient to NYC bus and subway routes, Castle Clinton National Monument is under the administration of the National Park service and serves as a visitor center for Manhattans national parks. The walls of the original fort remain intact, and park ranger-led and self-guided tours describe the history of Castle Clinton / Castle Garden. Open daily (except Christmas) from 8:00am to 5:00pm. Admission and tours are free.

Leadership and Power of Politics in Organizations Essay

Leadership and Power of Politics in Organizations - Essay Example The power of politics plays out in the organization and is often seen through the countless issues. These ranges from; struggle for control of information and resources, tactical influence, stature, and competition for power. This paper will examine how leadership and political actions work in organizations, and how these lessons can be applied in an organization. Top management in multinational corporations have a daunting task of ensuring that everything they carry out is for the organization’s interests. They have to ensure that the organization’s goals and objectives are laid out for everyone in the firm. This then guarantees workplace efficacy and understanding among all those working in that environment. Organizational politics ensures that employees are loyal to the organization’s cause. Leaders in the workplace often ensure that employees are willing to get involved in the growth and development of the organization. Leadership and the power of politics ensure that everything in the organization is running smoothly. This is from employee relations, to the decision-making process, which ensures that the organization has its priorities straight. In the provided cases, it is clear that power in the workplace is a tool that exists, but may not necessarily be used. Elizabeth Parker is promoted to a position of power after the resignation of a senior person in the organization (Skinner and Burst 1). To her, this new position is the backbone of the organization. She feels like it is her responsibility to ensure that the organization performs based on her department’s performance. She takes on the challenge trying to ensure that everything is done right and through proper means. However, as she is soon to find out, being in a position of power does not mean that everything will run smoothly. Her opposition and challenges come in the form of senior directors in the department through some of the operations

Elasticity of Demand and Price Sensitivity Essay

Elasticity of Demand and Price Sensitivity - Essay Example The table, formula or graph do not change when price changes. Demand for a product and the quantity demanded for the same product are two different terms. The former is a relationship and the latter is an amount. (Bromley, 2004). One way of maximisation of revenue is to increase the price of the product. But, in business, elasticity of demand has a major role to play. Increase in prices leads to a decrease in quantity demanded. This concept of sensitivity to price may be effectively put to use by cutting prices and inflating the quantity demanded. The cutting down of prices attracts even the uninterested public to become a part of the market and motivates them to become consumers of the product or service. Hence, the best way of revenue maximisation is price reduction. (Biz/Ed, 2005). Pricing strategies in any type of business is best decided when the owners have a good understanding of the market. They should have first hand information on the relationship between change in price and its consequent impact on the revenue. An analysis on the behaviour of markets will lead to a classification of different market structures. The number of participants in a particular market or industry and the extent to which they participate is the main criteria for classification of markets. (AmosWeb Encyclonimic Web*pedia, 2006). Perfect competition is achieved when there are large number of participants on both sides of the market (buyers and sellers) and no interference by any private or public firm. One of the basic market structures is monopoly which comes from the Greek word "monos" which means one and "polein" which means to sell. In this case, there is only a single seller. This is characterised by a lack of economic competition and lack of substitutes for the good or service provided by the monopolist. (AmosWeb Encyclonimic Webopedia, 2006). Monopolies may be artificially created by government involvement. Or there may be single entry to a resource. Economies of scale or one firm out-competing all other firms constantly are also some reasons for monopolies to exist. Monopolistic competition is the most common market form. Markets for books, clothing, films and service industries in large cities are often monopolies. Selling of bikes is considered as a monopolistic competition. This logic stands because of the presence of a large number of segments in motor bike industry despite the presence of a number of companies producing motor bikes. Each segment is viewed as a different product with each of the segment being lead by one or two major producers. Technology, efficiency and price are the three factors that decide the segment and its type. Hence if we look into the given scenario, we can see that VENOM developed Flexibikes at a much lower cost and were ultimately in a position to rule the new found segment. Bilateral monopoly exists when there is one seller and one buyer in the market. The labor market in such a case is well unionized. Another market structure is the oligopoly which is a market dominated by a small number of sellers called the oligopolist. The term oligopoly is taken from the Greek

Walt Disney Cartoons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Walt Disney Cartoons - Essay Example The heroines are empowered in their actions, and idealized beauty is affirmed by their dressing. In this light, the texts form part of the popular discourse of femininity which encourages women to internalize gendered body norms. Women want to expose themselves in order to achieve the feminine character contained in the movies. These body styles are privileged since they adhere to the contemporary norms of feminism contained in the films. The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast introduce oppressive power structures which produce the desires claimed in the movies. In The Little Mermaid, the girls are constantly posing and preening themselves, and their main function is to entertain the king. This can be considered an oppressive and objectifying presentation of women (Baker and Raney, 2007). The male characters are presented in a possessive form in these movies. In The Little Mermaid, King Triton is portrayed as portrayed as an authority figure that has to be entertained by the gir ls through song and dance. Ariel is chastised and forbidden to make outside contracts by the king. Triton acts as a patriarchic figure and has confined Ariel from her aspirations. Gaston tells Belle that women should be banned from reading or having ideas (Budd, 2005). Gaston consider Belle an accessory that he should have and does not chase her out of love. The heroines are dominated by the male figures portraying their qualities of authenticity and self-determination. The male characters have objectifying gazes of sexual desires towards the heroines. These characters portray female characters as dependent people dominated by the male figures in the society (Budd, 2005). Female figures in the cartoons such as Ariel pose with... Cartoons and animated movies have taken the center stage in the current entertainment industry. Children and teens spend much of their time watching these movies and are likely to develop negative traits and attitudes due to the message contained in them. Sexism is evident in the way women and girls are portrayed. Cartoon creators portray women as unhappy and have to seek the right man in order to find happiness. Their dressing is usually scanty exposing significant amount of skin. The homosexuals are secluded and experience violence and hostility from other characters. This has a negative impact on homosexuals in the society watching these cartoons and other children develop negative attitudes towards homosexuals. Walt Disney has existed in the entertainment industry since the 1930s and has produced several animated cartoon movies. These movies are based on the activities evident in the society. The female characters are presented as sexist by dressing them scantily in order to expose their bodies. They are given less important roles in the movies than their male counterparts. Their presentation in these movies portrays them as sexual objects that have to depend on men. Male characters are given administrative roles and work in the cities while women perform household duties. Whites are usually given good traits and are at the highest point in the social structure. Minorities such as African Americans and Arabs have negative traits and participate in activities that are cruel or inhuman. Homophobia exists where homosexual characters have negative roles and have leadership inabilities. Therefore, Disney cartoons can classified as racist, sexist and homophobic.

The Frugal Innovation In Africa Economics Essay

The Frugal Innovation In Africa Economics Essay Failure by conventional theories such as the product life cycle and closed innovation to explain recent trends in innovation, have laid a foundation for the emergence of different approaches to innovation management. One such approach is frugal innovation which has, in the recent past, been given recognition both by practitioners and academics. Frugal innovation aims at offering goods and services that are affordable, robust and of acceptable quality in a volume-driven market. So far academic attention on frugal innovation has been paid to countries outside Africa. The review of extant literature found only one academic paper on frugal innovation in Africa. This paper was based on a single case study and just focused on the service industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify examples of successful frugal innovation in Africa and categorize them based on local conditions. Using an analogical method, six successful cases of frugal innovation were identified in differ ent countries. Frugal innovations were categorized into basic needs and luxury frugal solutions respectively. Further from the six cases, five success factors were identified. These are; needs conceptualization, passion, local networks, investing in local RD and a flexible and well defined rolling out process. These cases suggest that companies wishing to develop frugal solutions aimed at specifically addressing the needs of customers in Africa must be receptive to the above factors. This study highlights the existence of frugal innovation in Africa and the critical factors vital for creating new, affordable and robust products and services for what we call unthawed markets in Africa. The study has also shown that despite frugal innovation attracting academic attention in the last decade, it has existed in Africa for a considerable period of time. For the future, studies should be focused on identifying more cases of frugal innovation in Africa. In addition, such cases should be sub jected to in-depth analysis. We also encourage comprehensive studies aimed at developing new theories and testing the proposed ones. Keywords: Frugal Innovation, Africa, product life cycle, unthawed markets, success factors 1. INTRODUCTION The ongoing shift in the global innovation landscape has presented numerous challenges (Magnusson 2000; Chesbrough 2003). These challenges have brought conventional theories such as the product life cycle and closed innovation into the spot light. As a result many countries and firms are developing new ways and means of conducting business. For example, multinationals from developed countries are increasingly globalizing their RD activities. Firms from emerging economies such as India and Brazil, which traditionally played a secondary role in global innovation, have now begun to catch up with developing their own innovative capabilities (Mathews, 2002). Some of these firms have emerged as major players in certain sectors like information technology and mobile communications. In this shift, particular attention has been paid to emerging concepts of innovation. Recent research has identified five distinctive but interrelated innovation concepts for the years ahead (Eagar et al., 2011). These concepts are: customer-based innovation; proactive business model innovation; integrated innovation; high speed/low risk innovation and frugal innovation. The literature on all the five concepts is scant because they are in their infancy phase. Frugal innovation also known as reverse innovation is about minimizing the use of material and financial resources in the complete value chain with the objective of reducing the cost of ownership while fulfilling even exceeding certain predefined criteria of acceptable quality standards (Tiwari and Herstatt, 2012). From the organizations point of view, a frugal solution is designed, produced, delivered and maintained to achieve the needs of underserved consumers in constrained environments (Bhatti, 2012). For the consumers, frugal products and services extend from simply costs to functioning with few resources, and lack of necessary infrastructure. Examples of successful frugal innovation include the Tata Nano car in India that costs less than US$3000, a low-cost battery powered refrigerator in India (called Chotukool) created by Godrej Company and a mini-handheld electrocardiogram (ECG) machine called Mac 400 created by GE at its Bangalore laboratory (Howard, 2011). Based on evidence from frugal solutions in and outside Asia, it is clear that frugal innovation is a cutting edge initiative that has challenged conventional ways of innovation management. It is destined to address the needs of both the lower and middle income groups all over the world. Despite these impressive strides, the initiative has received little academic attention particularly in Africa. Scholarly works that have attempted to deal with this subject have mainly concentrated on emerging economies in Asia (Tiwari and Herstatt 2011, 2012; SAGPA 2011; Tood and Lawson 2003; Fukuda and Watanabe 2011; Kohlbacher and Hang 2011; Pinelli 2011; Eagar et al., 2011). Africa is in desparate need of frugal innovation given the higher levels of poverty in comparison to other continents. For instance in 2011, 35 out of 45 nations identified as having Low Human Development on the United Nations Human Development Index were located in Africa (UNDP, 2011). The implications of these facts are tha t the gap between the rich and the poor in most African countries is quite high and the population of the lower and middle income groups is higher than those in the high income group. This means that there are fewer people who are able to enjoy certain things in life because of the low purchasing power. More often than note, people in the lower income group would like to enjoy the same goods and services as those at the top of the economic pyramid but are not able to. Therefore there is a seemingly dormant and non-consuming market for which frugal products can take advantage. We call this market unthawed market because it is not fully exploited and seems frozen. The limited research so far carried out on frugal innovation has not addressed emerging issues in this field in Africa. To our knowledge there has only been one study conducted on frugal innovation in Africa. It was a single case study that focused on service innovation in Kenya (Wooder and Baker, 2012). There is need to cas t the net wide and look at Africa as a whole in order to identify other cases of frugal innovation. This will give us a clearer picture of both product and service innovations for mass markets in Africa. As populations in Africa grow and demand for unique and reasonably cheap goods and services go up, frugal innovation is a must for this continent. Given the foregoing, it is imperative that a preliminary study to find examples of frugal innovation in Africa is conducted. Hence the purpose of this study is to address this gap. More specifically our study aims to identify cases of frugal innovation in African, categorize them and bring out success factors of such innovations. Identifying cases of frugal innovation will provide important insights that will stimulate further research not only in Africa but in other parts of the world. 2. FRUGAL INNOVATION: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this era that is increasingly being defined by the globalization of competition as well as major fiscal and demographic challenges, the task of managing innovation is vital for companies of every size in every industry (Tidd, 2006). Although innovation is a very difficult process to manage, it is critical in sustaining businesses and ensures competitive advantage. The way organizations bring out new ideas and take them to the market has undergone fundamental change. There is a paradigm shift in how companies commercialize industrial knowledge. In the following we have shown how two conventional theories of innovation and product development are no longer sustainable. Subsequently, frugal innovation is becoming relevant. 2.1 The Product Life Cycle cannot explain recent trends in innovation Historically there were attempts and initiatives to understand product and service innovation. One such initiative was the product life cycle (PLC) theory developed by Raymond Vernon. The PLC is an economic theory that attempted to explain the observed pattern of international trade. Vernon (1966) argued that many products experience cycles. The theoretical rationale behind the PLC theory emanates from the concepts of diffusion and adoption of innovations (Everett, 1962). Schematically, the PLC may be approximated by a bell-shaped curve that is divided into different stages (see Figure 1). Although the number of phases suggested by different scholars varies from four to six, for the purpose of this paper we have adopted a four-phase cycle as proposed by Polli and Cook (1969). The four-phase cycle is realistic. Some cycles, which include a saturation stage, have proved to be unrealistic and questionable. For example, a clear distinction could not be drawn between the mature and satura tion stage (Gardner, 1987). Pollit and Cook (1969) stated that sales follow a sequence of stages, starting with product introduction and proceeds with growth, through maturity and eventually decline. Figure 1. Product Life Cycle Source: Polli and Cook (1969) Below is the summary of the four stages in a products life cycle: Introduction New products are introduced to meet local and national needs. Profits are often low because customers are few. This stage is characterized by significant uncertainty regarding the market size, consumer tastes and technological constraints. Growth Products become more widely known and accepted. Profits begin to be earned as the image of the product is developed. Maturity Products may be extended by adding both width and depth. Sales are at their peak and profits are high. There is production of standard products through standardized production processes. Decline Sales fall very fast and profit go down. Prices are also likely to fall. Vernon (1966) posited that products are initially discovered and produced in developed countries (north) and exported to the less developed countries (south). The emphasis was on the role of innovation, scale ignorance and uncertainty. Vernon discarded the classical assumption that knowledge is a free good. He claimed that developed countries spend more on product development and innovation than developing countries. Hence they tend to develop high end products. Initially, the manufacture of a new product tends to be located in the country that developed it. This is largely on account of large markets in the developed nations therefore early stages of a products life production need to be located close to the market. Vernon further argued that when products become mature their degree of standardization and consequently of price elasticity of demand increases, cost considerations become more important and production will often move to less developed countries. Concerns about productio ns costs and possibilities of economies of scale results in shift of location of production from the north to the south. Hence the north produces only new goods while the south produces only old goods (Funk, 2004). The cycle arises because what is a new good in one period eventually becomes an old good in another period. The PLC theory is a conventional concept which has stood the test of time. It has represented central elements of innovation and marketing for four decades (Mercer, 1993). Following its development in the 1960s and subsequent popularization in the 1970s, the theory has remained a stable feature in international trade. A great deal has been written on the subject and several empirical studies have validated its existence (Polli Cook 1969; Meenaghan Turnbull 1978; Klepper 1992; Mercer 1993; Funk 2004). The PLC has been used for strategic planning, product development, financial management and has been considered to be an influential concept (Moon, 2005) and an enduring marketing framework (Golder Tellis 2004). The concept has been used for specific technologies (Abernathy and Utterback, 1978); for dominant designs (Tushman and Anderson, 1990), for customer adaptations of new technologies (Rodgers, 1962) and for specific industries and clusters (Audretsch and Feldman, 1996). Indeed the evidence supporting the PLC theory and the amount of attention bestowed upon the theory in the academic literature over the years have been impressive. However, in the recent past the PLC concept has begun to appear unsustainable. There is a serious deficiency in the assertion that new products and innovations happen in developed countries and later get adopted in developing nations. Recent scholarly work has brought out evidence showing an increasing trend of product development and innovations originating from developing nations such as India and China (Tiwari Herstatt 2012; Prahaland 2005; Economist 2010b). These countries are no longer just borrowing innovations from developed countries; but from time to time are contributing innovations to the rest of the world including advanced economies (Govindarajan Ramamurti, 2011). Recent research has suggested that enterprises are increasingly using fast-growing developing economies as lead markets for innovating specific pro ducts, services and technologies (Tiwari Herstatt, 2012). An example of such innovations is a washing machine called Mini Magical Child introduced by Haier, a Chinese home appliances firm. This washing machine is being sold in the US and Europe. These innovations have been termed frugal innovation because they meet the needs of low end customers at affordable prices and have acceptable quality (Zeschky et al. 2011). This trend cannot be sufficiently explained by the PLC theory and by factors such as degree of standardization and price elasticity of demand. To the contrary, the trend has challenged the core assumptions of the PLC theory and proves, in the interim, that innovation and new products can emerge from anywhere and not just in advanced countries. The assertion, by Vernon, that discarded the notion that knowledge in a free good therefore cannot stand. 2.2. The Closed Innovation approach has been eroded The old paradigm was called closed innovation which was based on the strict control of successful innovation (Chesbrough, 2003). Under this view, organizations generate their own ideas, develop them, finance them and support them on their own. In short, companies maintain complete control of all aspects of the innovation process and inventions are kept highly secretive. Traditionally many organizations followed this model and it worked well for most of the twentieth century (OVO, 2008). However, over the years a number of factors have led to the erosion of the closed innovation approach (Chesbrough, 2003). First, due to an increase in the mobility and availability of highly educated people, large amounts of knowledge leave the research laboratories of many companies. Second, the availability of venture capital has increased significantly in the recent past making it possible for promising ideas and technologies to be further developed outside the organization. Third, other firms in the supply chain began to play an increasingly pivotal role in the innovation process. Finally, today there is an abundance of knowledge in virtually every field. The proliferation of public scientific databases, online journals, low-cost internet access have given firms access to a wealth of knowledge that was far more expensive and time-consuming to reach as recently as the early 1990s. The above factors have rendered the closed innovation model unsustainable. Consequently, some mature firms got stuck in a narrow search for efficiency, displaying short sightedness and an inability to innovate to the extent needed to sustain their competitiveness (March, 1991; Dougherty and Hardy, 1996). Hence, many organizations started looking for other ways of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their innovation processes. On the other hand, these conditions have led to the globalization of innovation and emergence of what Chresbrough (2003) has called open innovation. Under this paradigm, firms can and should use both internal and external ideas to develop and commercialize products and services. Open innovation provides means to benefit from a much broader base of individuals and organizations. Ideas coming from customers and business partners may identify gaps and needs that internal team may have been ignoring or unable to identify. Firms are tapping into internal a nd external sources of knowledge to review development cycles, re-think development costs and develop products for particular markets with differing customer tastes, geographic conditions or regulatory requirements (Buse et al. 2010; Cantwell, 1995; OECD, 2008). Internationalization of RD which was thought to be phenomena of the developed countries such as Japan and Germany has now shifted to developing countries (Carlsson, 2006). There is a remarkable trend of multinational enterprises selecting locations in emerging economies such as India and China to conduct innovation activities (Tiwari, 2007; OECD; 2008). 2.3 The emergence of frugal innovation The open innovation approach and the failure by traditional theories such as the PLC to elucidate the current innovation trends, have laid a basis for the emergence of different approaches to innovation management. One such approach is frugal innovation which targets middle and lower-income customers in rapid growth markets (Pinelli, 2011). Frugal innovation is also called reverse innovation (Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011) constraint-based innovation, meaning sparse in the use of raw materials and their impact on the environment (Innovation Post, 2011). It is driven by resource constraints imposed by infrastructural and business environment (Sehgal et al. 2010). Practitioners have referred to frugal innovation as a holistic rethinking of products and services offered to the customers and underlying processes and business models so that companies can squeeze costs and expand the customer base, business and profit (Jagati, 2011). These customers are enjoying their first taste of mod ern prosperity and are buying for the basics not for fancy features (Prahalad, 2005). They have unique needs that are not usually addressed by mature market products, mainly due to prohibitive cost base of developed world products. To produce frugal goods, complex and concerted RD efforts are required (Jagati, 2011). In this regard, the field of engineering has also undergone some changes in order to face these challenges. In 2006, the Chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan Alliance, Carlos Ghosn came up with the term frugal engineering to describe the competency and aptness of Indian engineers in developing products like Tata Motors Nano. Frugal engineering is an overarching philosophy that enables a true clean sheet approach to product development (Sehgal et. al. 2010). It avoids needless costs and addresses millions of consumers at the bottom of the pyramid who are moving out of poverty in developing nations. Kumar and Puranam (2012) in their recent research identified the following underlying principles on which frugal engineering efforts seem to rest: Robustness The characteristic of being physically strong and inured to endurance. Most of the developing nations have harsh environments such as extreme temperatures. Portability Poor roads and transportation in the emerging economies call for the importance of goods that are easily portable. Small and lightweight products become highly desirable. Defeaturing This refers to feature rationalization. Usually features accumulate in products over time. Therefore there is need to remove some of them that do little to enhance the actual product. Leapfrog technology Leapfrogging is a process of making progress by large jumps as opposed to small increments. This may seem contradictory for developing nations. However, engineers in India and China have adopted technologies that make dependence on existing infrastructure irrelevant. Mega-scale production It is estimated that the middle class in Asia alone is 525 million people, greater than the entire population of the European Union (Pinelli, 2011). This massive population can help firms produce on a massive scale and drive costs down. Service Ecosystems By using efficient service ecosystems, firms utilizing frugal engineering have been selling large volumes to multiple segments, each with slightly different needs. With ecosystems low costs have been achieved. In India, frugal innovation is known as Jugaad innovation which means doing the best with what one possesses (Innovation Post 2011). Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi word which roughly translates as an innovative fix; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness (Radjou et. al., 2012). The term refers to a unique way of thinking and acting in response to challenges. Juggad is, quite simply, achieving more with less. India is becoming a leader in frugal innovation (Tiwari and Herstatt, 2012). In fact it is rapidly emerging as one of the hotspots for the development of innovations tailored to the needs of lower income groups (Kubzansky and Karamchandani, 2009). As mentioned earlier, the best known example of a frugal product is probably the Tata Nano car, which has become so popular in India and dubbed the peoples car (Howard, 2011). At the end of 2010, 70,000 units had been sold. Tatas aim was to develop and produce a car that would be much cheaper than any other car in the w orld. To achieve this, the company reengineered parts to save weight, reconfigured assembly methods and developed a complex network of third party suppliers to increase efficiency (Pinelli, 2011). In view of this ground breaking technology, some established car manufactures from advanced economies have seen a reduction in their sales. According to the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers, in 2011 Suzukis car sales in India dropped by 11.9 percent for the first time in 9 years (Nagata, 2012). Suzukis market share in India which was 50 percent in 2009 dropped to under 40 percent in 2011. Another example of frugal innovation is Indias technologically sophisticated solutions. The country is providing satellite launch services at the India Space Research Organization (ISRO). This organization is offering commercial services to space agencies and research institutions all over the world for costs that are significantly lower than those of its competitors in the developed world (Chand rashekar, 2011). In the medical field, a unique and interesting trend has emerged. Sometime back people seeking specialized medical treatment from developing nations would travel to developed nations for treatment. However, because of new and affordable medical services in India, patients from wealthy countries are going there for specialized treatment (Moriyasu, 2012). The comparably decent treatment is much cheaper and waiting time is short. For instance, the heart bypass surgery which costs US$144,000 in the US is available for US$8,600 in India (Moryyasu, 2012). In this regard, the number of medical tourists received by India has grown to 4.6 times the number received five years ago. At Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, patients from the US, the UK and the Persian Gulf States have been treated. Another country with successful cases of frugal innovation is China. For example, BYD in that country has developed a very low-cost method of producing lithium-ion batteries whose cost has been reduced from US$40 to less than US$5 per unit (Kharas, 2010). Other frugal products in China include a washing machine called Mini Magical Child developed by Haier, a home appliance company in 1996 (Hang et. al., 2010). The product was designed for small daily loads and offered an alternative to large expensive washing machines. These are all examples of good enough products designed to fulfill the basic needs at low cost thereby providing high value. From the scarce literature, three studies that attempted to address frugal innovation theoretical issues were identified. The first one proposed a frugal theoretical model on the basis of resource constraints, institutional innovation and social innovation (Bhatti, 2012). According to this model, the intersections among these three innovation streams present a fertile space where frugal innovation can be located. If each stream is taken separately, it cannot deal with the challenges of innovating for the underserved in emerging markets. The second study presented a conceptual framework for product innovation (Ray and Ray, 2011). As shown in Figure 2, they contended that to serve the markets at the bottom of the pyramid three concepts need to be harnessed; architectural innovation, modularity and collaborative partnerships. When performance of existing product technologies far exceeds what customers in mass markets are able to utilize or pay for; innovators need to develop simpler and cheaper products. They likened this to Christensens model of disruptive technologies. In this context, architectural innovation becomes the logical low cost choice, since it recombines existing component technologies in new ways, to create and alter price-performance packages without further investments in developing new core technologies. Modularity incorporated in such products enables firms to improve performance overtime to appeal to more discerning mainstream customers, eventually facilitating a technology to emerge. In short modularity is for customization and improvements. Furthermore, given that developing disruptive technologies is prone to high uncertainties and unforeseen costs, which maybe further exacerbated by institutional weaknesses in emerging economies, the authors drew on the concept of collaborative partnerships. Such firm practices will lower the costs and risks associated with innovation. The third study focused on frugal service innovation in Kenya, Africa. T he aim of the study was to explore how the MPESA solution (which will be discussed later in this paper) was conceived, designed and delivered to the customers (Wooder and Baker, 2012). The study proposed a service innovation framework comprising how to; create, deliver, capture, defend and sustain value. Unlike the model proposed by Bhatti, the last two conceptual frameworks have been subjected to some testing. While the three models are in tandem on affordability, resource constraints and internal capacities of firms, the Bhatti model appears complicated and difficult to implement. To test the intersection of social innovation, institutional innovation and resource constraints is such a mammoth task. BOP DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY simpler, cheaper than mainstream products Architectural Innovation Modularity Collaborative Partnerships Figure 2: A Conceptual Framework for product innovation for mass markets in emerging economies Source: Ray and Ray (2011) In order to understand how MNCs are organizing frugal innovation efforts in emerging markets, an in-depth study of five firms was carried out (Zeschky et al., 2011). Initially 13 firms, representing a variety of industries, were identified. The firms were sieved and eight dropped due to insufficient available data. The remaining five were found suitable case studies. Analysis was based on three criteria; product characteristics, motivation for developing products and implementation of product development. The study found that besides having similar structures regarding organization of RD, all of the five firms had a successful history of frugal innovation. Based on the above criteria it was established that successful frugal innovation: Should be grounded in the drive to meet the needs of resource-constrained customers at the lowest possible cost. Require local organizational structures and resources. Should result in products and services that are easy to use, robust and reliable. The above and other previous studies provide empirical evidence and a yardstick upon which future studies can be benchmarked. First, primary data was used; second the sample was reasonable and third firms represented different industries. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research focuses on identifying examples of frugal innovation in Africa. Being the first study of this kind in Africa, we used analogical thinking to identify of frugal innovation. The use of analogies in research involves the transfer of knowledge gained from one area (source domain) to another area or field (target domain) (Kalogerakis et al. 2010; Keane 1988). The knowledge and evidence of frugal innovation in some emerging economies (source domain) presented in this paper was used to identify examples of frugal innovation in Africa (target domain). As shown in this paper, there are successful examples of frugal innovation in India and China and these will be the yardstick against which cases in Africa will be identified.. Specifically the Zeschky et al. (2011) selection criterion was used to locate exceptional cases of frugal innovation in Africa. We scanned research databases and reviewed reports, articles and papers from previous studies and projects. Sources of such data included the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, reputable journals, African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD). This methodology was appropriate at this stage of the research. For the future, there will be need to carry out comprehensive in-depth case studies of the identified cases. Such studies will provide us with detailed insights of the firms design, and production processes and commercialization of products. 4. EXAMPLES OF FRUGAL INNOVATION IN AFRICA Drawing from the literature, we present six examples of successful frugal innovation in Africa. These cases are drawn from a range of broad areas ranging from housing construction to electronic money transfer technologies. 4.1 Moladi: Affordable houses in South Africa In many African countries, housing is one of the most sensitive issues affecting the lower income groups. In South Africa for example, close to 13% of the 14.3 million households are informal dwellings (Statistics South Africa, 2011). The term informal dwelling is often used in South Africa to designate shacks, corrugated-iron structures and other makeshift shelters. The above statistics represents about 1.8 million households (between 7.2 and 10.8 million people). Informal structures are often made of highly combustible materials such as wood and cardboard which pose serious safety and environmental concerns. The structures are easily damaged and exposed to the external elements meaning that people often live in damp, very hot or very cold conditions. The other concern is inadequate or lack of sanitation and running water which constitute a serious health hazard for the population. Similar conditions are present in many parts of Africa. In order to address this problem and as part of public policy, the South African government took a number of initiatives. It became one of the few countries in the world where the right to adequate housing of all citizens is enshrined in the constitution. According to section 26 of the constitution, the state has an obligation to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of this right [to housing]. (Republic of South Africa, 1996). In order to translate this commitment into results, the first fully democratic South African government, immediately upon taking office in 1994, embarked on a far-reaching economic policy framework called the Reconstruction and De

War as Transformation Essay -- Warfare Violence Essays

War as Transformation Many people look for reason in warfare. The reasons humans decide to kill each other are varied. Many wars start over land, difference of religion and culture, or economic stress. While there have been many wars over the years that man has inhabited this planet, World War I sticks out because of one incident that took place during the war. On December 25th, 1916 the Waring factions took essentially a "Christmas break" from their fighting, and went into enemy territory. They shared food and drink, and exchanged pictures of loved ones. They laughed and sang and tried to cross language barriers that the day before seemed insurmountable. The following day, they returned to their trenches, reinstated the boundaries of the war and began to fight anew. Even to this day, war is sometimes suspended for religious reasons, and no one finds this absurd or shocking. Recently, many Serbians were mad at President Clinton because he did not suspend bombing of Croatia during a holiday. As if war has a scheduled time and place. World War 1 was significant to this century because it was a war that involved peoples from practically every continent for the first time in history. It is ironic to think that the destructive force of war was something that , in a sense, brought many peoples of the world together for a common cause whether it w as the Allied cause, or the German or Russian cause. Looking at this war as an example of most wars, the causes of warfare stem from some sort of disagreement. Many of these disagreements derive from human insecurities about change. Fear of change drives people to hold tighter to their traditions and customs. When change is slow and progressive people may mutter under their breath, di... ...rks successfully. That is why people are so dependent on it. It is much easier to break someone's spirit with brute force than to use intellect and reason. War as a transformation process will continue unless people see that the same evolutionary processes of change in society can be implemented through negotiation. But these types of processes are slow and involve a willingness to be open to change. People have to get the idea in their head that change is inevitable, it is what life is based on. The status quo can not remain forever. It is only through this realization and openness to new ideas that war as a machine of progress can ever be stopped . Skilled leaders need to motivate people to negotiation, and to acting without aggression. To lose the 'us against them mentality' should be the ultimate goal of all societies and peoples. Every day should be Christmas.