WEEK 3 DISCUSSION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

WEEK 3 DISCUSSION - Essay Example Porter is clear in explaining that because a company is profitable and effective at a given moment; that is not necessarily the benchmark of how a company will perform in the future. Like science’s description of life on Earth, the corporation must continually evolve and become more efficient as it maintains a keen eye on its competitors. Most economists like to use the Japanese as a business model when it comes to efficiency and profitability. True the country’s top businesses seized upon a time period where Western companies seemed to be asleep at the switch. Yet their competition has seized upon strategy and in a sense is beating the country’s businesses at their own game and it appears several decades later that the opposition is winning (Porter). In using the Japanese model, Harvard Business Review points out that in 1970 Komatsu was a tiny bulldozer company hardly known outside Japan and had a minute sales fraction of Caterpillar, the American giant in the industry. Fifteen years later, Komatsu had expanded to a $2.8 billion company with as many product lines as their mammoth opposition. As well, they had expanded into the emerging industrial robotics area (Hamel). Did Caterpillar concern themselves with Komatsu in 1970? It is doubtful but had they done a Strategic Intent analysis at the time, they may not have had such a tremendous slice of profit removed in 1985. In a sense, Albani Perfumes is the current Goliath in its market of Latin America. With current sales of $10 million, it is still a relatively small company but has managed to do well against its current competitors. Yet as discussed in Week 2, China is making headway into the market with knockoff perfumes. It could probably be argued that Albani would not win a trade war with the world’s fastest growing economy and this would be rated at zero, Strong Negative

Math Hero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Math Hero - Essay Example Math is not left to interpretation but rather is either right or wrong. Furthermore, it is often too easy to become confused by sequences of numbers which ultimately lead to an answer which is also merely a set or group of more numbers. When one who is truly gifted in the area of Mathematics as well as the area of teaching mathematics is able to take arbitrary numbers and problems and turn them into an applied question leading to a specific answer, one can truly be said to be a math hero. This is truly the key to bridging the gap between the vast abyss of numbers and formulas, and the rest of the world as well as the universe. One way in which a math hero may achieve creating an interesting way of making math comprehensive to their students, is through visual aids such as props which are tangible, (eg. A mini composite of our universe, quantities of small objects and so on). It is one thing to count on one’s hand or copy numbers on to a blackboard but it is altogether something else to illustrate to students in a very tangible manner, how numbers and mathematics work. All of the answers to the world in which we live as well as the infinite riddles of the universe, is found in math. As complicated as this sounds, it is still reassuring to know that virtually every answer that we may possibly seek, is available in the proper mathematical application or formula. A math hero may in fact utilize the very data of the universe to help students better understand how to arrive at a quantitative solution. A math hero will also bare in mind that by teaching mathematics effectively to students, they are provid ing those students with endless future possibilities. An example of this is perhaps a student struggling desperately with the concept of algebra. A math hero will take this into consideration by using multiple analogies to convey the concept of the unknown figure is simple the employment of all other information provided within the