Discussing conflict theory in sport Essay

Americas favorite pastime is sport. Millions and millions of dollars have been spent publicizing sport, and on the same token millions and millions of dollars have also been spent watching it. Children grow up idolizing sport. Parents have been obsessed with sport. In Texas football is valued very high- from high school football to the NFL there is an obsession with the sport. The Dark side of the Game discusses a conflict theory perspective on the high stakes that surround the players in the NFL. Fame and fortune can be short lived for some players who are pursuing that American dream, and may be forced into retirement with their bodies left mangled and used up. The NFL is seen as pristine with cutting edge competition. The fact beyond the fiction is that the common person in society looks at sport with rose- colored glasses. It is no lie that some athletes do live out the life that they have dreamed of, but many also suffer by compromising their beliefs and morals. The Dark Side of the Game starts with the beginning aspects of playing in the NFL. The Combines,or the process by which the players are medically examined and given an intelligence test is the gateway to the NFL. Your health is a determining factor in whether your stock in the upcoming draft will drop. Next comes training camp. Most fans look forward to training camp; it is the time to get pumped up about the upcoming football season and watch your favorite teams get prepared. To an NFL player training camp can be a month of hot torture. Days start at seven in the morning and can end at nine at night, leaving players weak and tired and with a loss of appetite. Training camp is especially hard on the rookies. They are not used to the difference between college football and the NFL because they are no longer in the spotlight. Training camp also takes a physical and mental toll on the athletes mind and bodies. Repeating the schedule day after day physically breaks down the body. The injuries can start to build up and take a toll on the body. Being deprived from family and friends takes a mental toll on the body as well.  Some players might even try to get out of training camp, but the two things that might get you out for a day or two would be- death or having a baby. When the season begins playing with pain is usually a norm. Players always know the difference between pain and discomfort. Discomfort is seen as a constant state for a player, something like a bruised toe. Pain, on the other hand, is â€Å"the physical damage that is so extreme that the jolting messages sent from the injured area to the brain are just too much to be ignored, even during a game when your entire focus is on doing your job and winning.†(Green). While no one knows exactly how much pain tolerance one man has, it is still true that players have played with pain at some time or another. When the end of their career finally rolls around most players don’t just retire, they are told they are a financial burden to justify anymore. It is hard for them to just walk away from the game they call their career. They are spoiled with special treatment, attention, fame and fortune. When the party is over know one wants to leave. After reading Tim Greens book I thought he generally took a very negative approach to describing the NFL. Although I could never know what the NFL is like, it seems like it should be more affirmative than that. He started out describing training camp as a living hell, all the way to the two deaths that a football player dies with- the end of his career being the first. In my opinion, I believe that there are probably several players who did not get such a negative outlook on it. I believe it is probably the expectations that you set for the game itself. Everyone expects a red carpet for a professional athlete because of the money and fame they receive for doing something they love. Being a professional athlete is probably an emotional struggle for players between expectations and reality. The truth is that their choice is to play, and not one of them would have it any other way. The book I read is a conflict theorist perspective. Green takes all of the negative aspects of life in the NFL and explains that the NFL does not serve as a function, but more or less a struggle. He does not believe that all functions in the NFL are good or productive, therefore he doesn’t believe that the NFL contributes to overall well being to the players. There are several examples of exploitation of players, such as the media and the broadcast booth. Green also goes on to say that the NFL meets the goals of the powerful by describing such things like the salary cap or the â€Å"uniform police†. Overall this book covers several negative aspects of football that the average fan would not think twice about. Millions of little boys dream about being a professional athlete, and a small percentage will become one. Despite the conflicts represented in this book, I believe that for a majority of people, life in the NFL is dream that few will ever know. Bibliography Green, Tim. The Dark Side Of The Game.

Brand Management Mid Term Study Guide

Biswas: Brand Management (MAR 6936; Spring 2013) MAR 6936: MIDTERM EXAM STUDY GUIDE Exam Format: The exam will have a mix of multiple-choice questions and short answers, with a higher total number of points for short answer questions. NOTE: Anything and everything covered in class (through lectures, discussion, articles, activities, etc. ) and/or posted on Blackboard, are potential exam material. The topics listed below can be used as a Study Guide.However, from an exam point of view, that does NOT preclude the other material covered in class. Introduction to Basic Issues: defining a brand; new challenges; the concept of brand equity; steps in the strategic brand management process. Branding Innovations and New Products: Issues in branding innovations; different options in naming a new product/innovation; becoming brand exemplars; first mover issues; reasons for new branding innovations to succeed versus fail; reasons for branding an innovation.Brands, Branding, and Meaning of Brands : Brands and competitive advantage; brand story/meaning; brands and competitive advantages; brands as signals of product quality; designing branding strategy. Brand Positioning: Defining comparative frames of reference; issues related to PoP and PoD; brand positioning; product category membership; challenges in positioning; core brand values; brand mantras. Brand Extensions and Brand Portfolios: When are brand extensions appropriate? When are they successful/unsuccessful?Advantages/disadvantages of brand extensions; key aspects of brand portfolios; criteria for cutting down brands and brand extensions from a portfolio. Managing Brands over Time: Long-term vs. short-term foci and the related strategies; revitalizing a fading brand; improving and reinforcing brand image over time. HBS Cases: You should be familiar with the concepts/principles that we discussed in class in the context of the HBS cases, such as traditional vs. non-traditional branding strategies and breakaway positionin g strategy.

Why Sony Failed?

Why Sony fail? When I read â€Å"Leading Change Why Transformation Efforts Fail†, I directly linked Sony with the transformation fail. Sony, the previous electrical giant, announced a record annual net loss of $6. 4 billion for fiscal year 2011 in May 22 2012. This marks the fourth consecutive year that Sony reported substantial losses. Transformation efforts couldn’t turnaround the bad situation of Sony due to the mistakes that made by Sony in those transformation.First, Sony did not establishing a great enough sense of urgency. Sony began its diversification strategy in 1980s. By 1990’s, Sony shaped game, electric, picture, and finance four main businesses. By that time, some potential crisis began to emerge. However, all of these risks were hidden by excellent annual reports. Even when Sony confronted â€Å"Sony Shock† in 2003, leaders of Sony couldn’t realize its development dilemma and prepare to transform.Until 2005, continued losses pushed So ny to review its strategy and re-appointed Sir Howard Stringer as CEO. Sony had lost a lot of opportunities, such as LCD TV. Post core business of Sony, electrical manufacture, Second, Sony lacked a clear version. As a high technological company, innovation decided the fate of Sony. However, Sony made a fetish of its brand recognition and marketing power, and ignored the importance of innovation. The last great innovation of Sony is CD, which was launched in 1982.Even when Sony reintroduced innovation as its basic strategy, there was no direct process to commit the strategy, and the strategy just became an empty slogan. Even today, Sony cannot have a leading technology in its areas. Now, Sony appointed a new CEO, who emphasized the importance of innovation for Sony. There isn’t enough time left to the new CEO, and maybe Sony will die in future several years. Hiroko Tabuchi First Published: Mon, Apr 16 2012. 06 26 PM IST How Sony failed to keep up with the tech revolution

Overview of the Solar Panel Industry

Global Business Operations Solar Panel Industry Student Name: student Number: Introduction The solar panel industry is a niche market dominated by a small number of large firms. Five out of the top ten biggest players In the Industry are Chinese firms. Solar panels capture sunlight and convert It Into electricity, In one of two forms; industry, due to the large market share dominated by a small number of players, furthermore, the solar panel industry not only cooperates with, but also competes with other industries such as power production and component manufacturing industries.The Solar Panel Industry The Shape of the Solar Panel Industry With five out of the biggest solar panel producers worldwide being Chinese, it is no surprise that 45% of solar panel production across the globe is by Chinese firms. The solar panel industry is the fastest growing power technology in the world, with reported yearly increases in capacity of 50%. Consisting of mainly 10 firms, the industry isn't lar ge in terms of suppliers, however, the combined revenues of these 10 firms account for $21. Ban, thus the industry is large in revenue as well as production. Growth & Global Presence The growth of the solar panel industry is fairly new, beginning in the early sass's, thus the industry is not only dominated by a few large players, but it is also maintaining its volume position as it is not going through consolidation and turning into a fragmented industry; the large firms are still growing. Competition within the industry is tight, especially since all major firms have a global presence.Any large firm involved in solar panel production without a global presence is sure to be overtaken by competitors. Product Variety & Core Business Solar panels are generally a very homogeneous product, all firms that produce them apply essentially the same product with minor variations, this makes it even more difficult to develop a true competitive advantage within the industry. The industry is main ly based on business-to-business sales; power production firms order solar panels from the producers.Other revenue streams come from foreign solar panel retailers purchasing small orders and distributing them to private buyers such as homes or offices. Innovation, R&D, and Demand conditions In order to develop and maintain a competitive advantage within the solar panel industry, it is paramount to invest in innovating and research & development. As it stands, the industry remains very linear in terms of product innovation; investments are heavy however no new technologies have yet been discovered or implemented.Since its inception, the technology implemented within solar panels has definitely increased, however there have been no significant breakthroughs that would fairly stable; prices have been more or less constant and competition tight but not extensive as the players aren't many. The industry took a blow in 2007 following the global crisis, however it recovered in 2010 and has been growing more than ever at an unprecedented pace.Vertical Integration & Production Process The Chinese firms mainly adopt vertical integration from the raw materials to the finished product, whereas USA and Japanese firms, which are the other big players, tend to outsource some production as well as import components from suppliers such as Busch. This difference arises due to the costs involved in producing and assembling solar panels; in China, availability of resources is very high, as well as cheap labor and land, thus incurring less costs, hence why Chinese firms prefer to vertically integrate their production process.Whereas for American and Japanese firms, cheap labor and production space is not available, thus it is more cost effective to outsource production and import components. Vertical integration itself is not a fully efficient way of production in the long run, as demonstrated by the automotive industry in the early 20th century. Ford adopted a full vertical integ ration production process, and while for years it remained the market leader in the USA, eventually Toyota adopted a Just-in-time production process and overtook Ford in USA market share.This is mainly due to the incurred sots of vertical integration; at an early stage of an industry as a whole, vertical integration is cheaper, however as an industry and its accompanying technologies advance, third-party firms enter niche markets of component production and it eventually becomes cheaper to outsource most of the production process. Economies of Scale The biggest advantages to the large solar panel producers arise due to their economies of scale. With a huge production capacity and an efficient supply chain, every step of the value chain from production to delivery becomes much cheaper per unit.Economies of scale acquired by solar panel producers are down to their rapid growth mainly due to their early entry into the market. There are no physical barriers to entering the solar panel i ndustry; governments actually subsidize firms who get involved in renewable energies through tax exemptions and monetary aid. However, the barriers to entry are known as ‘natural barriers', meaning that the barriers to entry that do exist are not due to regulation, but rather to the strength and size of the competitors, which in turn relates to their economies of scale which allow them to sustain production at such high capacity and cost efficiency.Value Chain Configuration Sunsets is Chinese solar panel producer, up to 2010 it was the world market leader in the solar panel industry, today it has gone down to be the 5th biggest firm. After a series of financial troubles related to defaulting on US government bonds in 2011, the firm has reported revenues of $3. 1 ban and net loss of $1 Ban (2011). Sunsets was founded in 2001 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005, share price dropped 40% following its first default on government bonds.The following diagram shows Sentence's value chain process, which will be explained in more detail underneath the diagram: The first segment of the value chain is inbound logistics, since Sunsets is a vertically integrated firm, it produces its own components which are later used in the production of solar panels. The next part of the value chain is operations; this part is the most important in Sentence's value chain as it is where production takes place. The core business of Sunsets is the production of solar panels, without an impeccable product they would quickly cease to be one of the market leaders.The third step shown in the diagram is outbound logistics, this involves Sunsets distributing the finished product to its customers. Supply chain management is very important, especially since Sunsets is vertically integrated, they have their own distribution channels rather than outsourcing them, thus their customers must receive their products on time and in good condition. Marketing and sales isn't such an integral part of the value chain, as the core revenue stream for solar panel producers is business-to-business sales rather than business-to-customer, thus jugular marketing methods are not as effective.The final step of the value chain is service, mainly involving post-sale service. Given the nature of the product, solar panels actually have an average life span of 25-30 years, thus minimal service is required, however, Sunsets focuses more on actually turning the service step into a long-term relationship with customers for repeat business and long-term contracts. Sunsets is present globally, with large volume sales to Australia, USA, China, Spain, AJAX, and Brazil, it is basically present in every continent. The main customers forSunsets and other solar panel producers are power plants and solar farms, who in turn sell on the electricity they produce with the solar panels. It is a large market with very few players as power production is one of the hardest markets to enter, with extensive barriers to entry. Sentence's overall performance is dubious. On the one hand, it lead the market for many years due to its excellent quality and reputation in production, and on the other hand, it crashed due to mismanagement of resources and financial troubles.In terms of cost efficiency, Sentence's vertical integration is seemingly flawless as the hole production process is streamlined and very well coordinated, thus the conclusion in terms of performance is that operationally Sunsets is performing exceptionally well, however administratively it is performing horribly and is definitely behind its competitors. Out of the top 10 dominating firms, only two firms are running at a loss, one of which is Sunsets. Recommendations The main issue for Sunsets is mismanagement of funds, thus the main recommendations would be to change the CEO, which has actually been done.

Periodontal Disease and Diabetes Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Periodontal Disease and Diabetes - Article Example Greater gingival bleeding has also been observed among patients whose diabetes is poorly controlled than among those with well-managed diabetic conditions. Failure to treat gingivitis, which is a milder form of periodontitis, causes it to advance to the fully blown periodontitis, which is characterized by an inflammation around teeth (Taylor, Preshaw & Lalla, 2013). Prevalence and vulnerability varies in people with different ages. Children suffering from type 1 diabetes are at higher risks (more than five times) than those without diabetes but with similar levels of plaque. In adults, type 2 diabetes increases the risk of periodontitis three times more than those without diabetes. Poor glycemic control is the key exposure to the disease among such adults. Studies found similar pathogens in periodontitis sites among adult patients with type 2 diabetes. Further, hyper-inflammatory immune cells in diabetic patients increases insulin resistance, complicating the inflammation caused by periodontitis even more (Taylor, Preshaw & Lalla, 2013). These findings influence the professional career in dental hygiene, and practitioners should discuss the relationship with their patients. They should advice patients to have healthy lifestyles and avoid diets that increase susceptibility to diabetes, which may ultimately affect their dental health. Taylor, J., Preshaw, P., & Lalla, E. (2013). A review of the evidence for pathogenic mechanisms that may link periodontitis and diabetes. Journal of Periodontology, 84(4), 113-134.

Advantage to the use of tasers by law enforcement officials Essay

Advantage to the use of tasers by law enforcement officials - Essay Example As Hemenway and Weil explain, â€Å"guns in the United States currently exact a terrible toll: over 1,500 accidental deaths per year, close to 12,000 homicides and more than 17,000 suicides† (94). In other words, apart from the deliberate use of guns in the commission of crimes, guns are responsible for thousands and thousands of preventable deaths per year. Despite this, however, the very notion of banning firearms is unrealistic. The American public believes that it has an inalienable right to bear arms for the purposes of self-defence and, given Constitutional provisions supporting this right, it is unrealistic to assume that any gun ban proposal will ever successfully pass into federal legislature and be effectively implemented (Hemenway and Weil, 94-96). Added to that, if law enforcement officials are to effectively fight the crime pandemic, they must be armed. The situation, as described, presents policy makers and law enforcement with a paradox. Our nation’s crime rates are soaring. A Department of Justice publication reports that almost 1,500,000 million violent crimes were committed in 2005 (FBI, 2006). Approximately one million and a half murders, rapes and armed robberies were committed across the United States in a single year. Not only does this figure evidence the extent to which crime has reached pandemic proportions in the country but underscores the nature of the on-the-job dangers which law enforcement officers confront every singe day. To confront the crime pandemic, law enforcement officers must

Galileo in Rome Book Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Galileo in Rome Book Report - Essay Example It deals with a series of events climaxing into Galileo’s trial by the Tribunal of the Inquisition charging him of heresy. The charge against him was brought regarding his publication, Dialogue of the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Through this publication Galileo expressed his views on certain fundamental scientific truth. The authors are, William R Shea, who held the chair of History of Science at the University of Padua at the time of writing this book, and Mariano Artigas, Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Navarra. They came by Galileo’s correspondence in the archive, which was the entire source on which this book is based. They actually speak of two Inquisitions, one in 1616 and the other in 1633. The trial is to be seen in the light of that age when science was just in an emerging state and people were not ready to part with the age-old traditional concepts and embrace challenges of scientific hypotheses. Galileo made his first trip to Rome as an unemployed youth in search of a university job. At this time he found favor with the leading Jesuit Mathematician Christopher Clavius, and perhaps met the future Cardinal Robert Bellarmine also who would play a significant role in Galileo’s future. His second trip to Rome was a glorious experience in his lifetime. He was already a famous professor. The celestial bodies observed through the telescope and their subsequent publication made him famous throughout the world of the intelligentsia. The Jesuit astronomers supported his discoveries, and Cardinal Bellarmine felicitated Galileo on his wonderful achievement. Galileo was granted a membership in the prestigious Accademia dei Lincei. Galileo’s third trip to Rome was clouded with antagonism against his active support for Copernicus and his heliocentric theory in his Letters to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The work on sunspots aggravated the suspicion. The authors narrate a series of events that sealed Galileo’s fate.