Analysis Of The Poem Not Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell

Maira L. Herrera-Sanchez Professor Emily N. Bartz English 203 9 February 2015 Sex Over Time in Andrew Marvell’s, â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† Sex and lust have changed greatly over time, especially since the late 1600s. In the poem, â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell the relationship between sex and time is rather passionate, but shifts as Marvell metaphorically describes time. The horrifying tone put on the metaphors, allusions, and the hyperboles play an important role in the understanding of Marvell’s meaning on sex and lust of the speaker’s lady over time. The idea that each sex act shortened someone’s life has come a long way. On the other hand it is believed that the message Marvell was trying to address was how the cold lady threatened the speakers love for her. Another idea is that the poem is based on death, and how everything will one day die, rather than the passionate approach. I will prove how these 2 ideas are wrong. In lines Marvell introduces the relation between time and the lady at fault, the speaker wants to love her but it is difficult, Had we but world enough, and time, This Coyness, lady, were no crime (Mays 739). Marvell shows how if they had time she would not be at fault, more specifically their sexual acts, and lust for one another would be the opposite of sinful. Marvell introduces â€Å"the Ganges’ side† in line 5 to begin to show that idea of motion and time. Then he emphasizes the motion of time even further when Marvell uses theShow MoreRelatedPoem Analysis On His Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell1319 Words   |  6 Pages Andrew Marvell wrote a unique love poem in â€Å"To His Coy Mistress,† as this poem expresses far more than one might expect or even perceive upon the first reading. Enveloped in this ode to a cherished muse are expressions of the â€Å"carpe diem† philosophy, laments about the impending doom of death, and hopes to transcend contemporary abilities to live forever in the love of another. While Marvell’s primary purpose in writing this piece may have been to woo a young maiden, he made a far more significantRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poe m Of His Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell1975 Words   |  8 PagesRyan James Mrs. Dawson English II 21 September 2014 Seize the Day in â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† In the poem â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell, the poet suggests that time is a limited resource, and one must live life at the moment. In the first stanza, the speaker conveys flattery to his addressee (his mistress), revealing how he would endlessly admire her body if time weren’t an issue, and if she wasn’t so shy. Conveying this sense of flattery, he hopes it will convince her to have sexRead More Analysis of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Essay809 Words   |  4 PagesAnalysis of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Andrew Marvells elaborate sixteenth century carpe diem poem, To His Coy Mistress, not only speaks to his coy mistress, but also to the reader. Marvells suggests to his coy mistress that time is inevitably rapidly progressing and for this he wishes for her to reciprocate his desires and to initiate a sexual relationship. Marvell simultaneously suggests to the reader that he or she should act upon their desires as well, to hesitate no longerRead MoreA Literary Analysis On The Shall I Compare Thee? Essay784 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary Analysis on the â€Å"Shall I Compare Thee?† (Sonnet XVIII) by William Shakespeare and the â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† Poem by Andrew Marvell This article compares the poems â€Å"Shall I Compare Thee?† (Sonnet XVIII) with â€Å"To his Coy Mistress† and examines the purposes of the poems and their implemented poetry techniques to convey their poets ideas. On first look it seems both poems are sharing the common ideas of â€Å"Love† but by analyzing the poems, it becomes clear that the purposes of the two poems are notRead MoreGender Stereotypes And Expectations In Literature1724 Words   |  7 Pagesassumptions about gender shape how readers perceive sex in literature; men are typically considered lustful, whereas women are considered loving. However, the subjects of sex, love, and lust in literature, as demonstrated in poems written by Robert Burns and Andrew Marvell, become increasingly nuanced when gender stereotypes and expectations are questioned and removed. Gender roles, expectations, and stereotypes have shifted and become less clearly defined through time, but they still exist andRead MoreThe s Coy Mistress By Andrew Marvell And The Flea1919 Words   |  8 Pagesthroughout â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† by Andrew Marvell and â€Å"The Flea† by John Donne functions as a way to present, confirm and refute the traditional stereotypical view of carpe diem love poetry. The speakers within both poems aim to â€Å"seize the day† by wooing and taking advantage of women and their virginity and sexuality. They not only want to take advantage of the time they have but also make sure they do not regret not doing anything in the future. In specific, â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† presents the viewRead More To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Essay877 Words   |  4 PagesTo His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell Andrew Marvell is considered a cavalier poet. He writes seduction poems that represent characteristics of cavalier poets through use of clever, witty, and developed lyrics. Marvells To His Coy Mistress is a seduction poem that contains these elements along with the use of rhyme, meter, imagery, and tone. Marvell creates a seduction poem that argues the desire for sexual gratification with a distinct aggressive tone. To begin with the speaker in theRead MoreComparing Easy by Andrew Fusek Peters and Andrew Marvells To his Coy Mistress1736 Words   |  7 PagesComparing Easy by Andrew Fusek Peters and Andrew Marvells To his Coy Mistress After reading the two poems in detail and after doing group analysis the following points were brought up for a further evaluation. These were: theme, ideas, language, imagery and personal opinion. Both poems deal with seduction and relationships but vary of how it is done. In the poem Easy, SEX seemed to be the biggest issue. The relationship here was more of a one time fling or a oneRead MoreAnalysis of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Sonnet by Elizabeth B. Browning3354 Words   |  14 PagesAnalysis of To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Sonnet by Elizabeth B. Browning This assignment will examine two poems that were written before 1914. The two poems I will be focussing on are To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and Sonnet by Elizabeth B. Browning. In the essay I will be looking at how both poems emphasise love but yet have very different approaches as in the coy mistress the persona is trapping his mistress into falling in love with him and usesRead MoreThe Mythological/Archetypal Approach Reading of Andrew Marvell’s â€Å"to His Coy Mistress†1417 Words   |  6 PagesTo walk, and pass our long love’s day.† In these lines, we assume that time continues forever because the poem describes the leisurely pace of life spent in courtship of the beloved, silent mistress. â€Å"Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side , Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide†. In these lines the speaker embarks on some astonishing hyperbole to describe the praise he wants to give to his mistress. He selects two rivers, India’s Ganges, which is sacred to the Hindu religion and was believed to be the goddess

The Fast Food Restaurant Restaurants Essay - 1496 Words

c. KFC doesn’t have an English only policy. Like any other Fast food Restaurant KFC restaurants has also multicultural employees. Customers are also multicultural as well. Abu had employees from Mexico, Salvador Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, Egypt, Lebanon, White and Black. There were four different languages speakers: 1. English 2.Spanish, 3. Arabic and 4.Nepalese. February 2013 first time at Training Store #208.Bin Mahtab told me that told me that he is from Bangladesh and he does not want anyone speak to him in Bengali (Bangladeshi native language). From Original complain number 7. In the middle of April, about two weeks after Abu began to work there # 250 during a visit Bin Mahtab told Abu that, â€Å"I don’t like to work with Bengali (Bangladeshi) people because they always ask for favors and actually they are a bunch of Donkeys and I don’t even associate with them.† He also told Abu not to speak to him in Bengali with Mosammot Yeasmin (Bengali cashier) in the store at all not even on their meal break. In numerous occasions, he referred Abu as a Bengali donkey and reminded how he felt about Bangladeshis and speaking Bengali. He did mention that around other employees. Abu asked him about Hispanic employees speaks Spanish amongst each other and with Abu all day long, â€Å"can they do that†? He replied, â€Å"Yes, I have no problem, Spanish is a major Language. Abu is not fluent in Spanish but in order to communicate with some Spanish only employees and Customers he did that inShow MoreRelatedFast Casual Restaurant As A Fast Food Restaurant1697 Words   |  7 Pages Assignment 3 Fast-Casual Restaurants in Ukraine Student: Diana Hyrya Instructor: Raef Assaf, DBA BU 536 - Global Strategy and Management Newport Beach Winter – 2016 Many US consumers want their meals in a hurry, but with more service and higher quality food than in traditional fast food restaurant. The result has been the rise of fast-casual restaurant chains such as Daphne s Greek Cafe, Boston Market and Panera Bread. The intent of fast casual restaurants is to deliver a qualityRead MoreFast Foods : Fast Food Restaurants834 Words   |  4 PagesFast Foods in America Fast food restaurants have always been extremely successful and are experiencing an increase in popularity in America. The ongoing question all consumers have is which one is the best. Everyone has their opinion on which one they like best, but what about the actual quality and health of the foods served? When one is choosing to eat at one of these restaurants, they may just simply choose one without evaluating things such as food quality, prices, and service experience. TwoRead MoreFast Foods And Fast Food Restaurants1458 Words   |  6 Pagesdo not go a day without eating a fast food meal. There has been a significant rise in obesity rates in America as fast food restaurant establishments are becoming more and more popular. It’s no coincidence that as the fast food industry’s popularity is rising; the obesity rates of Americans are rising as well. The reason for the increase in popularity of fast food restaurants is simply because of convenience. Take McDonaldâ €™s for example: they offer consumers food that can ready to eat within aRead MoreThe Fast Food Restaurant Market1002 Words   |  5 PagesFoundational Markets Corporate – remaining markets and corporate activities In the Fast food restaurant market McDonalds can be found as the global leader due to its effectiveness responding to Porter’s five forces model inside its environment. This model is supposed to analyze the environment and identify the most relevant factors that could influence the firm’s performance, in this case the fast food restaurant industry. McDonald’s success reflects how effective the company is in overcoming issuesRead MoreThe Plague Of Fast Food Restaurants1283 Words   |  6 Pageswidespread affliction, calamity, disease or evil. Fast food has become this plague for America, outgrowing and overrunning the United States since the opening of Ray Kroc’s first McDonalds restaurant in 1955. According to Leslie Patton, reporter for Bloomberg Business, by 1983 6,000 McDonalds franchises covered the U.S. and for the next two decades the restaurant has opened about 360 outlets in the U.S. every year. (Patton, â€Å"Have We Reached Peak Burger?†) This fast and steady growth has encouraged rivals likeRead MoreThe Problem Of Fast Food Restaurant1309 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"It is true that fast food restaurant have a large contribution to America being ranked one of the most obese countries; however, we cannot blame every single fast food restaurant for this obesity.† This comes from the first assignment on â€Å"Do not blame the eater† As I wrote my first assignment which was a persuasive essay for English 1010 I had prior experience with this. This experience came from prepping for the ACT writing portion. I am able to properly make a stand point and argue. â€Å"AlternativesRead MoreThe Industry Of Western Fast Food Restaurants1395 Words   |  6 PagesIndustry Analysis Rivalry among Competing Sellers Now in the industry of western fast food restaurants, there are several strong competitors against Yum! Brands such as The McDonald s Corporation, Papa John s International, Inc., Domino’s Pizza Inc., Subway Inc, Wendy’s Company, Burger King Inc, and so on. These companies are competing with Yum! Brands both in the U.S. and internationally. As a result of the high level of competition within the industry, profit margins are low for most companiesRead MoreFeasibility Report for a Fast Food Restaurant2578 Words   |  11 PagesFEASIBILITY REPORT FOR A FAST FOOD RESTAURANT PREAMBLE: We have taken out time to write this report for several reasons among which are: [pic] This project serves as part of the private-sector participation initiative drive embarked by our company [pic] Our desire to make you reconsider your present stand about not wanting to invest in the Nigerian economy, for now [pic] Our belief that this report can form a base for an enlarged feasibility report, which we hope you, would commissionRead MoreIs the Job in Fast-Food Restaurant Exploitative?1480 Words   |  6 Pages4. Is the job in fast-food restaurant exploitative? It yes, in what sense it is exploitative? Please also take into consideration the implementation of minimum wage when illustrating your argument. Introduction Exploitation is a term to describe person that are being mistreated. Karl Marx used it to explain the relationship between the capitalists and workers. It is claim that the value of a product is depended by how much labor has paid on it such as time, energy or ideas. Therefore the priceRead MoreWhat Makes A Fast Food Restaurant?1045 Words   |  5 Pageswhere ready-to-eat food was served for travelers. Unfortunately, when the volcanoes erupted in Pompeii, the thermopoliums were destroyed. The thermopolium is often compared to the modern day fast food restaurant, due to the already prepared food and quick service. Everyone has eaten fast food in their life, but do they know the history and consequences of choosing the fast food life? White Castle, which opened in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921 is credited as the first fast food restaurant. White Castle’s

Demography free essay sample

Demography Demography is the statistical study of human populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space (see population dynamics). It encompasses the study of the size, structure and distribution of these populations, and spatial and/or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging and death. Map of countries by population Demographic analysis can be applied to whole societies or to groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion and ethnicity. Institutionally, emography is usually considered a field of sociology, though there are a number of independent demography departments. [l] Formal demography limits its object of study to the measurement of populations processes, while the more broad field of social demography population studies also analyze the relationships between economic, social, cultural and biological processes influencing a population. [2] The term demographics is often used erroneously for demography, but refers rather to selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research. We will write a custom essay sample on Demography or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Data and methods There are two methods of data collection: direct and indirect. Direct data come from vital statistics registries that track all births and deaths as well as certain changes in legal status such as marriage, divorce, and migration (registration of place of residence). In developed countries with good registration systems (such as the United States and much of Europe), registry statistics are the best method for estimating the number of births and deaths. Human population growth showing projections for later this century. (See also alternative view of chart). A census is the other common direct method of collecting demographic data. A census is usually conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate every person in a country. However, in contrast to vital statistics data, which are typically collected continuously and summarized on an annual basis, censuses typically occur only every 10 years or so, and thus are not usually the best source of data on births and deaths. Analyses are conducted after a census to estimate how much over or undercounting took place. Censuses do more than Just count people. ndividual characteristics as age, sex, marital status, literacy/education, employment status and occupation, and geographical location. They may also collect data on migration (or place of birth or of previous Demography residence), language, religion, nationality (or ethnicity or race), and citizenship. In countries in which the vital registration system may be incomplete, the censuses are also used as a direct source of informa tion about fertility and mortality; for example the censuses of the Peoples Republic of China gather information on births and deaths that occurred in the 18 months immediately preceding the census. Indirect methods of collecting data are required in countries where full data are not vailable, such as is the case in much of the developing world. One of these techniques is the sister method, where survey researchers ask women how many of their sisters have died or had children and at what age. With these surveys, researchers can then indirectly estimate birth or death rates for the entire population. Other indirect methods include asking people about siblings, parents, and children. There are a variety of demographic methods for modeling population processes.

Management Accounting in Company

Stakeholders A number of parties have stakes in this situation. The situation presents a financial decision which has a potential for causing a negative impact if it is known publicly and even if it is not known publicly, it may have financial consequences in the future.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Management Accounting in Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Top management: In particular, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the president are vulnerable to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and furthermore, there are increased penalties for financial misconduct (Weygandt, Kimmel, Kieso, 2009). The controller, Wayne Terrago, is also a stakeholder under this category. Financial Community: This is the group that relies on the financial statements released by the company. The decision made is meant to hide the attention of the financial community from this expense. The financial community has the stake of ensuring that a company’s financial position is presented in the right and accurate manner. In this category are the following parties: Creditors: The decision made in this situation is meant to make the financial position of the company appear calm such that the bond offering process will not be jeopardized. This is a manipulation of a situation to make it appealing to another party. The shareholders: Such practice as seen in this situation has the potential for negatively affecting the long term financial position of a company. Since the shareholders are the owners, the decision made in this situation may affect them in one or another way.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The others include the company employees, the company board of directors, government regulators, and company suppliers. Ethical Issues The ethical issues represented in this case study are as follows: Wrong application of General Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in reporting the advertising costs on goods which are not moving at the expected rate. The decision made in this situation is unethical as it leads to a creation of a misleading financial statement. This is done with an aim of ensuring that a forthcoming bond offering process is successful. This generally is unethical as it represents a favourable financial position of the company but which is not true. References Grahame, S. (2005). Management Accounting – Decision Management. Financial Management, 1(2), 41. Weygandt, J, Kimmel, P Kieso, D. (2009). Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making. Hoboken, NJ: John Willey Sons.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on Management Accounting in Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This article on Management Accounting in Company was written and submitted by user Tomas Robinson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Bound Morphemes Pg Essay Example

Bound Morphemes Pg Essay Notes from live broadcast 29/07/09 Mrs Masehela made a comment at the beginning of the session that because of a large amount of students receiving their study material late, she would focus only on what is relevant for the exam during this broadcast – I really hope this is the case. The chapters I refer to in these notes are from the prescribed book: Investigating English. Chapter One A system of signs for human communication †¢ there are different modes of linguistic communication- writing signs and oral. †¢ Language is a semiotic system. †¢ Semiotics: the study of signs and symbols and their meanings.Language is a system where the individual elements ‘signs’, take their overall meaning from HOW they are combined with other elements. Think of the English language spelling patterns and compare that with another language you know. Think of the road signs and their meanings or any other sign and its meaning. de Saussure theory of linguistic signs. pg 6 †¢ The signifier – the sequence of sounds (word), which makes up the sign e. g. w/a/t/e/r this is the symbol. †¢ The signified – the mental or physical reality of the sign e. g. water. The properties of language (unique) pg 9 Displacement – talk about things that are not in sight. †¢ Arbitrariness – no natural relationship between a word and it’s meaning. †¢ Discreetness – separate or distinct. Each sound functions as an individual. †¢ Duality – distinct sounds do not convey meaning but carry meaning when combined with other sounds. (ooo, eee, aaa by themselves no meaning). †¢ Productivity – speakers produce and interpret an infinite number of new signals, able to produce a sentence without memorising. †¢ Cultural transmission – language is passed on from one generation to the next (mother tongue).Chapter 4 Words and word formation (the structure of words) Morpheme – pg 63 â⠂¬ ¢ the smallest meaningful unit of a language. e. g. –ful, -er, un-, ive. Free morphemes – pg 65 †¢ independent words, simple can’t be broken down. car, sure, fine, chew, school, a, the, Two kinds – †¢ content/lexical morphemes Open group-new words can be added. They carry meaning – fine, chew. †¢ function/grammatical morphemes Closed group-new words hardly ever added. When attached, work together with content – but, if, this, and. Bound morphemes – pg 67 †¢ can not occur unattached. (not a word on its own) also called affixes. e. g. –ful, un-, -s, -er. †¢ the base or the stem is the morpheme to which prefixes and suffixes are attached. e. g. safe, drive, tangle. Inflectional morphemes- pg 68 †¢ do not change the grammatical status of a word. e. g school (noun), schools (noun), talk (verb), talked (verb) †¢ can change quantities, tenses, plurality. [pic] see page 69 as well. Derivational mor phemes – pg 69 †¢ these change the grammatical class of a word e. g. –ly slowly verb adjective adverb Chapter 7 Language and meanings. Nature of meaning. Language is a conduit/channel along which thoughts are transferred. †¢ Meaning can’t be separated from language. Lexemes. †¢ can have a variety of forms called variant forms. †¢ when change from one to another, meaning changes as well. [pic] Chapter 8 Language acquisition. Acquisition – what we are born with, learn as we grow up to about 13 years of age. Learning – what we are formally taught, from about 13 years. Different theories- †¢ Imitation – child imitates language they hear around them. †¢ Innateness – humans born with a capacity for a language development. Input motherese/caretaker speech, more time spent with. †¢ Cognitive – child develops a concept first, able to remember/make sense of words of language. Chapter 8 cont†¦ Lang uage acquisition – †¢ observe any child between the ages of 1m – 6y. †¢ study the section on stages of language acquisition pg 133-135 of textbook. this is my summary of this section – †¢ not possible to explain but is possible to observe, record and chart. †¢ proceed at own pace, reach different stages at different ages †¢ sequence of stages, generally the same Stage 1 |Stage 2 |Stage 3 |Stage 4 |Stage 5 |Stage 6 |Stage 7 | |Basic biological noises |Cooing |Babbling vocal |Melodic utterances |One word/ |Two word stage |Telegraphic stage | | | |play | |holophrastic | | | | | | | |stage | | | |First 8 weeks-mainly cries|2-3 months |5 -6months |1y – intonation |12-18months |2years – vocab of |2-3years | |to get |consonant followed |Sequences of sound |patterns and rhythms|Recognisable words –|about 50 words |String 3-4 words , | |attention/discomfort |by short vowel |longer then cooing |resembling speech – |rec ognisable objects|combine 2 |nouns- omit the | | | |– high to low |1st real signs | | |am,-ed –ing, | | | | |language development| | | | Chapter 9 English and education 1. What role should English play in your community/country? 2. What role is English playing in your community/country today? 3. The role and importance of the standard variety of English. 1. Unifying language, able to interact with business partners, economically possible to gain recognition and be understood. 2.Kind can come from/various – have varying linguistic backgrounds, multi/mono-lingual – some communities are flooded by people from other parts of the world; English has a role, as a unifier, business partner, feel accepted. Beyond border of country – what is the role there? 3. Is it really important to know standard variety of English or just â€Å"black† English, â€Å"Hispanic† English or must it be standard English. Please correct me here/add in or what ever – I seem to have missed the boat here; however I did write every thing she spoke about? I suspect we need to prepare this for a long question. Exam 2 hours. Ensure you write in paragraphs â€Å"give a critical.. † give own view on topic, -ve and +ve side substantiate. â€Å"discuss† write in paragraphs, your own view is not necessary here.

Community Problem essays

Community Problem essays Till recently, the community I live in was primarily a residential, middle class neighborhood that enjoyed a feeling of peace and security in what was seen as a safe district. Today, that same community is increasingly worried about a growing problem of juvenile delinquency caused by the commercial and low cost residential developments in next-door areas. While the community is concerned about juvenile delinquency leading to a higher crime rate, there is also worry over negative influences impacting younger members given the inevitable intermingling of children in schools The signs of juvenile delinquency first manifested itself in the appearance of graffiti in what was earlier a green, pristinely clean neighborhood; the seemingly aimless loitering of congregations of youth (youth gangs) at street corners, in malls and parks; and stray incidents of reported burglaries. At first, the tendency was to ignore the signs of change but when the frequency of such incidents began rising, disturbing the historically safe and peaceful pattern of community life, the community collectively began to perceive that it was faced with the problem of juvenile delinquency. In fact, it would be of interest to note that though there is no official definition, the situation nevertheless meets three out of the six criteria that are commonly used to identify a community problem: frequency; duration; scope or range; disruption of personal or community life; deprivation of legal and moral rights; and problem perception Having said that, while there was enough tangible evidence to define loss of safety as a community problem, there was reason to doubt the veracity of the worry over younger community members getting negatively impacted by the juvenile delinquents in district schools and surrounding ...

Determination of principle stress Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Determination of principle stress - Lab Report Example Likewise, the value of normal stress be maximum in another plane. This plane is known as the minimum principle plane or principal plane. The normal stress on the minimum principle plane is referred to as the principle stress (minimum principle stress). Mohr’s circle is graphical technique used to find principle strains and stresses in materials. It also indicates the orientations or principle angles of the principal stresses. This experiment focused on using Mohr’s strain circle to determine the principle directions, principle strains, and maximum strain. The wheat stone bridge for the different channels was set at zero. The torsion rig was loaded with different masses. The masses were used to record the gauge strain readings at different loading levels. The necessary measurements were taken and recorded. From the given experimental readings the Mohr’s circle was drawn and the principle strain, principal direction, and maximum strain determined. The corresponding principle stresses were calculated together with the maximum shear stress through the application of the generalized Hooke’s law. The torsion theory was used in determining the shear stress that acts at the outer radius of the principle stresses and the cross section. Provided the stress componentsï€  Ã¯  ³x, ï  ³y, and ï  ´xy, it was possible to determine the principle stressesï€  Ã¯  ³1, maximum shear stress ï  ´max, the principle angle ï  ±p, and angle ï  ±s. In this regard, the maximum normal stress was found to be 52.5 MPa, minimum normal stress was found to be -18.5 MPa, principle angle 34.2 degrees, Maximum shear stress was 35.5 MPa, Maximum shear angle 10.8 degrees, and angle was 79.2 degrees. The Obtained results show that the shear stress is positive and the normal stress is equally positive. This means that the normal stress is position outside the action plane and the shear stress is rotated clockwise in the point to be considered. Normal stress involves the stress that happens when axial

Mentorship and Competence Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mentorship and Competence Paper - Essay Example I believed that through the mentoring program, I would have access not only to information but also an update of my skills and a reinforcement of my confidence at work. As I began the mentorship program, I was delighted to find that the learning outcomes were explicitly laid out. It all complemented my own objectives and, in addition, it provided other important aspects especially in those areas that I was not able to identify. Efficacy I would like to say that the mentorship program I have just undertaken is learner-centred, which, in my opinion, was what made it effective. It included many activities and strategies that improved learning and enriched the experience. For instance, I found the incorporation of reflections on prior experience as extremely helpful. Based on this, I took the initiative to write my own journal to chronicle my thoughts and my progress during the entire program. This aspect in the mentoring course allowed me to identify critical incidents, progresses made, future learning needs and analyze them so that I am able to enrich and inform my interactions with my mentors. Interestingly, the whole exercise made me more involved. I think that it added to the motivating factors that diminished my reservations and anxiety about sharing personal thoughts and professional capacities as well as in dealing with getting reviewed by my peers. Through reflections, I was able to do some forward planning to meet the course outcomes. I discovered that I have this capability for self-direction as well. Then I would have to emphasize the importance of the course content. There are two pieces of literature that I have to cite here. The first the Standards to support learning and assessment in practice, a Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) standards for mentors, practice teachers and teachers. The second is Kathleen Duffy's Failing students: a qualitative study of factors that influence the decisions regarding assessment of students' competence in practic e. Both of these texts provided important insights on the mentorship experience and objectives. The first contextualized the entire program from the perspective of the mentors whereas Duffy's article explained the program's concern when it comes to the students, which is competence in practice. NMC and Regulations The NMC publication provides several important information. It explained the rationale behind the program by identifying the principles behind its mandate. There was a clear outline of the relationship between the course, the update of skills, best practices and the public good. It cited relevant statutes and regulations that are crucial in thoroughly understanding not just the program but the need for regulatory framework that encompasses it. These information contextualized the whole initiative according to my experience with respect to the community and environment where I would practice my profession. The main content of the NMC publication is the description of requir ements and rules that govern the learning and assessments of students as well as the nursing and midwifery practice. For example, there is the equality and diversity requirements, which promote equal opportunity. There are also those concerning post-qualifying programs such as the Specialist Practice (SPQ) and the Modernising Nursing Careers position paper. Collectively, these elements depict a coherent regulatory framew

Third assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Third assignment - Essay Example He does this through combining discussions of ape behavior, ethnographies, cognitive studies, mental research, hormonal and neurological studies. He clearly points out the difference between sexual love and nurturing love. To him these two have different evolutionary origins and creates opposite psychological demands. To Goldschmidt, affect hunger is a biological instrument for cultivation affection, for instance he explains that affect hunger make infants to comply with orders from their guardians so as to be taught their language and regulations. Goldschmidt goes ahead and states that much as affect hunger provides an incentive scheme for language learning and other institutions of culture it is a motivation for societal manners all through life of a human being in the society. Goldschmidt,( 2006:13), Abraham Maslow selected love and liking and belongingness desires less important only than continued existence and physiological requirements. With the significance of support to huma n endurance and wellbeing, Goldschmidt poses an argument that evolutionary push on human being is not mere cutthroat but human child need to encourage their mothers to care for them. According to research it is revealed that affect for hunger is evident in infants especially when infants have bodily contact and proximity to their mothers affects their sleep patterns and even in regulating their bodies through protection. Due to the need for contact human infants have sociophilic qualities that appear to have no other function but to encourage, make possible and reward social interaction such as laughing, smiling, imitating and facial expressions. Goldschmidt,(2005,29)these traits can be traced back to the neonatal trick and keep mothers’ attention to their infants. Goldschmidt provides a perfect weighted knowledge to understanding of the origins and importance of affect in human beings. For instance the focus on the mother-child links as the origin of human being socially, ap art from social interactions among grownups. This is the most interesting suggestions that Goldschmidt. More often than not evolution significance of social behaviors is premise on mating activities. This appears much less plausible since the two bonding between the male and the female is much less vital compared to the mother-infant bonding. Bonding pair in human beings is universal. For instance, it must be contended with the painful evidence experiences that human are not the best at making two bonding, Goldschmidt,( 2006:123). And that male does not stick around to assist in raising their young ones. He further outlines the cultural variations in child upbringing, processes of learning and evolution of culture. Goldschmidt discusses on affect of hunger and its significance on an account of evolution and the increase of altruism and social among others. To him pressures of natural selection can be favorable to a particular gene only if the gene displays an attribute that makes on es relatives more certain to exist since that relative has the tendency to carry several of the particular one gene. From this we suppose there is a mean selective way to altruism and this is an advantage simply because it creates that genes more likely to survive in those assist to survive even if their replica in our bodies reduce.. I this case therefore to ones advantage to be selfish on altruism.

Impact of Corporate Culture on IT Company Growth and Profits

Impact of Corporate Culture on IT Company Growth and Profits The Impact of Corporate Culture on the Growth and Profitability of IT Companies: The Case of Google Abstract In todays global economy, companies from different industries are trying to create a unique competitive advantage to stay in business and maximize their shareholders equity. In doing so, companies should analyze their largest expenses and try to minimize these costs while utilizing their resources in order to make the most from these expenditures. The largest operating expense in U.S. companies is salary. To maximize this expenditure, businesses should devise ways in which to motivate their employees to be more productive. Controlling employees to come to work is easy, but how can companies motivate their employees to work to their full capacity? One way in which this can be accomplished is by creating a suitable, attractive, and tension-free working environment for employees. In doing so, companies can create a strong corporate culture which could offer a competitive advantage. As an example, Google has become one of the largest IT companies in the world in fewer than two decades from its establishment. Not only has Google grown to be one of the largest IT company in the world, it has also developed unique and innovative products, a high job growth, and a secure position as one of the top five companies for which to work. Google has managed to achieve this not only by developing appropriate business strategy, but also creatin g a strong corporate culture that concentrates mainly on employees and customers. In this research, I will try to analyze Googles achievements. I will conduct a small survey to examine the adaptability of Googles flexible corporate culture in IT companies located in Utah. Introduction Statement of the Problem The old saying, â€Å"You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink† may hold true for employees as well; you can make employees come to work, but it is not easy to make them work to their full capacity. Companies may use different methods to control their employees to make them work to their fullest working capacity, but this does not always succeed. To understand employees work satisfaction and engagement in their work, it is useful to analyze a survey conducted by the Gallup Management Journal (GMJ) (Houser, 2009). The GMJ surveyed U.S. employees to understand how engaged they are in their work and their attitudes toward their managers. According to the study, there are three types of employees: 1. Engaged employees: Those who work with passion, motivation, and have deep feelings toward their company. These people are the ones who move the organization. 2. Not-engaged employees: Those who are physically present in the company but mentally absent. These employees are not motivated, and they dont care about their company. They come to work simply to put in hours. The survey refers to them as â€Å"walking through their workday.† 3. Actively disengaged employees: Those who are not only unhappy, but they express their unhappiness in different ways. They may undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. The study results showed that 26% of respondents are engaged in their work, 56% of the respondents are not engaged in their work, and 18% of the respondents are actively disengaged in their work. The following chart illustrates the finding of this study. The respondents of the survey were asked if they would fire their manager, given the opportunity. Respondents indicated that 24% would fire their manager if they were given the chance. Of this number, 6% of those respondents were engaged in their work, 23% of the number were not engaged in their work, and 51% of the respondents were actively disengaged in their work. Therefore, less engaged employees tend to dislike their managers, and would fire them, given the opportunity. According to the study, this lack of productivity costs companies billions of dollars. Approximately 24.7 million employees age 18 and over are actively disengaged; this represents 18% of the total workforce. From 2000 to 2007, actively disengaged employees in the U.S. cost the countrys economy from $334 to $431 billion every year in low productivity. The Cost Of Disengagement In this study, I will analyze the different reasons why employees are disengaged from their work, and I will suggest recommendations to solve this problem by taking as an example a successful company in the U.S. Purpose of the study Today, different companies are trying to find a unique competitive advantage. One competitive advantage that was overlooked for many years is an attractive organizational culture. Not only will a superior organizational culture help in attracting and retaining the best employees, it can also be used to create a loyal customer base. In this paper, I will investigate the organizational culture of Google, Inc. in the information technology (IT) industrial sector. I will analyze how Google has capitalized on its organizational culture to become one of the largest search engines and IT companies in the world. I will conduct a small survey on organizational culture on IT companies located in Salt Lake City, Utah to determine useful recommendations by analyzing the results of the survey and comparing these to Googles organizational culture. Before analyzing organizational cultures, it would be beneficial to answer some questions as to why this topic was selected as well as other related issues. Why I Focused on Organizational Culture Many companies have tried to come up with a competitive advantage to maximize the shareholders profits. For years, an attractive corporate culture was not considered as vital to the success of an organization. Unlike external factors of business, which are not directly controlled by organizations, corporate culture is an internal environmental force which can be manipulated by organizations in their favor. Why I Emphasized the Employees Employees are the executers of the plans and strategies of the organization. Most companies consider employees as their asset, but, in my opinion, employees are much more than this. According to a study conducted by the United States Census Bureau, companies largest operating expense is salary. (U.S.CensusBureau, 2000) (See charts below). By taking care of their employees, organizations can get the best results from them. The following charts show the breakdown of operating expense for different industries in 1997 as it was studied by the U.S. Census Bureau under the Economic and Statistics Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Even though, this study was conducted more than a decade ago, I have included it, because I believe it shows the general trend of the breakdown of operating expenses within U.S. industries. Merchant wholesale companies have five major operating costs. Of these, payroll was by far the largest operating expense. If payroll expense and fringe benefits, which are operating expenses toward employees, are combined, more than half of the total operating expenses go toward employee salaries. The breakdown of operating expenses of retail trade has the same tendency as that of the merchant wholesaler. In fact, the only difference is that the expenses for rent by retail trade businesses are a little bit higher than that of the merchant wholesaler. The breakdown of operating expense for business services, which include IT industries, shows a larger expense toward employees. Payroll, consisting of 51% of total operating expense, contract labor, consisting of 5% of total operating expense and fringe benefits, consisting of 8% of total operating expense makes up a total of 64% of the total operating expense. The breakdown of the operating expenses for legal services follows the same trend as for business services. The following chart compares payroll expenses of different sectors of business According to the above chart, business services, health services and legal services pay the highest portion of operating expenses to payroll. Clearly, if companies are paying the majority of their operating expense toward the salaries of their employees, they should try to get the most from their workforce. Another study conducted in 2007 by the AmericanTimeUseSurvey through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (AmericanTimeUseSurvey, 2007) showed that of the total working people in U.S., those who were between the ages of 25 to 54 living in households with children under the age of 18 spent most of their time either working or in work-related activities. The survey was provided from data taken on non-holiday weekdays. Out of the total 24 hours, those between the age of 25 to 54 living in households with children under the age of 18 spent 8.7 hours working or on work-related activities, 7.6 hours sleeping, 2.6 hours on leisure and sports, 1.2 hours caring for others, 1.1 hours on household activities, 1.1 hours in eating and drinking and the remaining 1.7 hours on other activities. The following chart illustrates these hours in percentiles. Based on this survey, people with children between the ages of 25 to 54, who were part of the labor force, spent the majority of their time at the workplace or doing work-related activities. If companies created a suitable and stable environment, this labor force would be motivated to work harder to help companies maximize their profits. This study will research and analyze how companies could create a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining the best employees through a superior corporate culture. Why I focused on IT IT, by any comparison, is the fastest growing industry in the world. Companies are spending billions of dollars every year, which has made the IT industry one of the most profitable industries in the world. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005 and published in 2007 (U.S.CensusBureau, Information and Communication Technology: 2005, April 2007), the information industry by itself contributes 52.4 billion dollars to the IT industry through purchases of hardware and software annually. The finance and insurance sectors spent $44.2 billion; the manufacturing, professional, scientific, and technical services sectors spent $32.5 billion; the health care sector spent $27 billion; and the social assistance business sector spent $19.9 billion on IT hardware and software components in 2005 alone. Based on this study, more than $200 billion was spent on IT hardware and software by different business sectors in 2005. According to this study, the noncapital and capital expenditures for computer software were higher compared to IT hardware. It is a general assumption that if companies are investing more on computer software, the software industry is generating a lot of money. In 2005 alone, the noncapital expenditure for computer software was $54.2 billion, whereas the capital expenditure for the same sector was $49.8 billion. Therefore, this research will focus on computer software companies. Why Focus on Google? Google is one of the fastest growing companies in the world. It has grown sevenfold over the last decade. According to Fortune, Google was listed as the fourth best company to work for in 2009 (100 Best Companies to Work for 2009: Google GOOG from Fortune, 2009). Even though Google was listed as the fourth best company to work for in 2009 by Fortune, it has the highest job growth rate when compared to the other companies listed in the top ten. While Google has a 40% job growth rate, NetApp, which was listed in first place, only has a 12% job growth rate. Edward Jones and Boston Consulting Group, listed second and third, have only a 9% and 10% job growth rate respectively (100 Best Companies to Work for 2009: Google GOOG from Fortune, 2009). Google has shown tremendous growth over the past few years. As the following chart indicates, from 2004 to 2008, the net income of the company increased tenfold. Even when the world economy was in a recession at the end of 2007 and 2008, Google managed to secure a high net income (GoogleInc, 2008). Google has an interesting workforce distribution. As of December 31, 2008, 40% of Googles total workforce was in sales and marketing, 36% in research and development, 15% in general and administrative positions, and the remaining 9% in operations (Google Inc., 2008). According to this data, Google places nearly as large an emphasis on research and development as it does for sales and marketing. Having a large staff in research and development will ensure a strong future market when it is supported with an appropriate corporate strategy. Even if it is difficult to conclude that Google will have a bright future based on the distribution of its workforce, it is certain that this strong contingency of Googles research and development team has proven to be valuable by developing new and exciting technologies, making it difficult for competitors to catch up. Literature Review In todays globalized and integrated world, change within industries and organizations occurs rapidly. Understanding the impact of an organizations environment could assist organizations in coping with this change. The organizational environment includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization (Daft, Organization Theory and Design, 8th ed., 2004). The organizational environment consists of the external environment and the internal environment. The external environment is made up of those forces that exist outside of the organizations boundaries and have an effect on the organization. The external environment is further divided into the general environment and the task environment. The general environment is the outer layer that is widely dispersed and affects organizations indirectly (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The general environment includes technological, socio-cultural, economic, legal/political, and international factors. On the other hand, the task environment is closer to the organization and includes the sectors that conduct day-to-day transactions with the organization and directly influence its basic operations and performance (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The task environment includes customers, labor market, suppliers and competitors. The internal environment includes the elements within the organizations boundaries (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). It includes employees, management and culture of the organization. In this paper the focus is on the culture of the organization and its affect on the performance of the organization. A corporate culture is defined as the set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization (Martin, 2002) (Kilmann, Ralph H.; Saxton, Mary J.; Serpa, Roy, 1986) (Smircich, 1983). It could also be defined as an â€Å"interdependent set of beliefs, values, ways of behaving, and tools for living that are so common in a community that they tend to perpetuate themselves, sometimes over long periods of time. This continuity is the product of a variety of social forces that are frequently subtle, bordering on invisible, through which people learn a groups norms and values, are rewarded when they accept them, and are ostracized when they do not† (Bemowski, 1995) (Wilhelm, 1992). Corporate culture is derived from both the management and the organization itself. The management, through its philosophy, values, actions and the organization through its roles, structure, systems and technology comprise the corporate culture. Feedback is received from the corporate culture to the management and organization. The following illustrates this process. Classification Schemes There are different classifications of corporate culture defined by different authors. The different views of four authors will be considered in the following: 1. Henry Migliore After studying 24 organizations, Henry Migliore included 20 cultural factors, which he referred to as the â€Å"Corporate Culture Index† (Migliore, Henry; R.T. Martin; Tim Baer; and Jeffrey L. Horvath, 1989). These factors include the following characteristics. * Member Identity: the degree to which employees identify with the organization as a whole in their type of job or field of professional expertise * Team Emphasis: the degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals * People Focus: the degree to which management empowers the employees within the organization * Autonomy: the degree to which departments within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated or interdependent manner * Control: the degree to which rules, regulations, and direct supervision and used to control employee behavior * Risk Tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative, and risk-seeking 2. Geert Hofstede Geert Hofstede believes the behavior of organizations is affected by a national and regional cultural grouping. To study this point, he looked for a national difference among over 100,000 of IBMs employees in different parts of the world. He came up with five dimensions of culture that influence national regional groupings (Hofstede, 1980). These are: * Power distance: the expectation of society on the levels of power an individual possess in the society. A high score of power distance reflects the expectation of the society that some individuals possess more power than others. A low score of power distance reflects the expectations of the society that all people have equal rights * Uncertainty avoidance: the degree to which a society accepts uncertainty and risk * Individualism vs. Collectivism: the degree to which people stand up for themselves or act as part of a group * Masculinity vs. Femininity: the degree to which the society gives value to the male or female * Long vs. Short-term Orientation: the degree to which a society values long term or short term orientation 3. Deal and Kennedy According to Deal and Kennedy, organizational culture is the way things get done in an organization (Deal Kennedy, 1982). They measured an organizations culture using different elements. These elements include: * Feedback: response from the organization * Risk: the degree of uncertainty in the organization Using these two elements, Deal and Kennedy suggested four classifications of corporate cultures (Deal Kennedy, 1982). These are: * The Tough-Guy Macho Culture: The feedback, which is the response from the organization, is quick and the reward is high. * The Work Hard/Play Hard Culture: Few risks are taken, but the feedback, which is the response from the organization, is rapid. * The Bet Your Company Culture: This involves high risk, but it may take a long time to know the outcome of the decision or action. * The Process Culture: This is associated with bureaucracy in the organization. It is common in organizations where there is little or no feedback. 4. Charles Handy Charles Handy developed Roger Harrisons work of 1972 which linked organizational structure to organizational culture (Handy, 1985). According to this idea, there are four types of culture. These are: * Power Culture: A few will rule the organization from the middle. * Role Culture: Employees have clearly delegated authority and the structure of the organization is highly defined. * Task Culture: Teams are formed to solve particular problems; this is a common organizational culture for a matrix structure. * Person Culture: Employees focus on individualism rather than team work. These organizations will face a hard time staying above water. A corporate culture has two levels, visible and invisible. The visible level of culture can be seen at the surface level. It includes symbols, stories, heroes, slogans and ceremonies. The invisible level is deeper values and shared understandings held by organization members who include expressed values, assumptions and deep beliefs. The following illustrates the levels of corporate culture. It is difficult to express the invisible level of corporate culture since it cannot be seen as compared to the visible level of corporate culture. The visible level of corporate culture has different entities. These include: * Symbols: an object, act, or event that conveys meaning to others. Symbols can be considered a rich, non-verbal language that vibrantly conveys the organizations important values concerning how people relate to one another and interact with the environment (Pratt Rafaeli, 2001). * Stories: narratives based on true events that are repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). * Heroes: s who exemplify the deeds, character, and attributes of a strong corporate culture (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). * Slogans: a phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). Companies use slogans to convey their core values and missions. Examples of slogans are Googles â€Å"Dont be evil,† and Microsofts â€Å"Our passion, your potential.† * Ceremonies: a planned activity that makes up a special event, and is conducted for the benefit of an audience (Trice Beyer, 1984). According to research conducted at Harvard on 207 U.S. firms (Kotter Heskett, 1992), corporate cultures can be divided into adaptive and unadaptive corporate cultures. The study found that a strong corporate culture by itself does not guarantee company success. However, when strong corporate culture adapts to the external environment, it will bring success to the companys business. In both adaptive and unadaptive corporate cultures, there are visible behaviors and expressed values. In the adaptive corporate culture, managers are concerned with their customers (external environment) and employees (internal environment). On the other hand, in an unadaptive corporate culture, managers are concerned only with themselves. Therefore, they dont want change or risks. A strong corporate culture should always be adapted to the external environment (Kotter Heskett, 1992). Table 1: Adaptive and Unadaptive Corporate Culture Adaptive Corporate Cultures Unadaptive Corporate Cultures Visible Behavior Managers pay close attention to all their constituencies, especially customers, and initiate change when needed to serve their legitimate interests, even if it entails taking some risks. Managers tend to behave somewhat insularly, politically, and bureaucratically. As a result, they do not change their strategies quickly to adjust to or take advantage of changes in their business environments. Expressed Values Managers care deeply about customers, stockholders, and employees. They also strongly value people and processes that can create useful change (e.g. leadership initiatives up and down the management hierarchy). Managers care mainly about themselves, their immediate work group, or some product (or technology) associated with that work group. They value the orderly and risk-reducing management process much more highly than leadership initiatives. Types of Cultures There are four types of corporate culture, which can be further classified into two matrixes. These are the needs of the environment, which could be flexible or stable, and the strategic focus, which can be external or internal. The four categories associated with this are adaptability, achievement, involvement, and consistency (McDonald Gandz, 1992) (Denison Mishra, 1995). The four types of corporate cultures are: 1. Adaptability culture: A culture characterized by values that support the companys ability to interpret and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses. It emerges in an environment that requires fast response and high-risk decision making. Managers encourage values that support the companys ability to rapidly detect, interpret, and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses. Employees have autonomy to make decisions and act freely to meet new needs, and responsiveness to customers is highly valued. Managers also actively create change by encouraging and rewarding creativity, experimentation, and risk taking (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). 2. The achievement culture: A results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, personal initiative, and achievement. It is suited to organizations that are concerned with serving specific customers in the external environment but without the intense need for flexibility and rapid change. This is a results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, aggressiveness, personal initiative, and willingness to work long and hard to achieve results (Hooijberg Petrock, 1993). 3. The involvement culture: A culture that places high value on meeting that needs of employees and values cooperation and equality. It has an internal focus on the involvement and participation of employees to rapidly meet changing needs from the environment. This culture places a high value on meeting the needs of employees, and the organization may be characterized by a caring, family-like atmosphere. Managers emphasize values such as cooperation, consideration of both employees and customers, and the avoidance of status differences (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). 4. Consistency culture: A culture that values and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things. It has an internal focus and a consistency orientation for a stable environment. Following the rules and being thrifty are valued, and the culture supports and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things, since there is no stable environment. It is rather difficult to have this kind of corporate culture (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The Start of Search Engines Most people agree that the first pre-web search engine was Archie created by Alan Emtage in 1990, while he was a student at McGill University. At that time, the Internet was used by learning institutions to store different kinds of documents on shared machines. Since there were no search engines at that time, if one did not know the exact machine address and file name, it would not be possible to find the document. Emtage created an interface for the search engine, calling it Archie, and used an indexed filing system. In order to use Archie, a user would log in to an Archie server via a command line interface and type in keywords that matched the file title being searched. The result from Archie would display the possible machine locations in which the file could be found. The user then had to log in to each machine and look for the individual file. Archie provided the machine name where the file could be found, but the user had to know a keyword in the title of the file being search ed. This may seem useless today, but it was the best technology available at the time. In 1993, students at the University of Nevada created another search engine similar to Archie, which they called Veronica. The main difference between Archie and Veronica was that Veronicas search results showed the possible document names. As the Internet started to grow larger, from 130 sites in 1993 to 600,000 in 1996, the glory of Archie and Veronica also faded. Matthew Gray, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, created a web based search engine known as WWW Wanderer. The Wanderer had a list of indexed sites at the back end and a search interface that allowed users to search the index at the front end. In 1994, Brian Pinkerton, a researcher from the University of Washington, developed a more powerful search engine by the name of WebCrawler. WebCrawler could index the full text of a web document it found and also use a linking of different web pages, just as Googles PageRanking algorithm does. Alta Vista was the next stronger search engine invention. Unlike other search engines, Alta Vista was created to test the performance of the superfast Alpha processor. After Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made a superfast Alpha processor, the company was looking for a way to test its performance. One of DECs researchers, Louis Monier, was working at Western Lab in Palo Alto, California, and came up with the idea of building a search engine that could load the entire Internet onto the Alpha computer to show the processors speed. Not only did Monier come up with the idea, he also built the search engine. However, the management of DEC did not realize the magnitude of this discovery. Some believe that the management could not understand the marketability of Alta Vista, because they considered DEC to be a hardware, not a software company. In January 1998, Compaq purchased DEC for $9.6 billion dollars. Compaq recognized the marketability of Alta Vista and started to invest more into it. Rod Schrock, a Compaq executive, was given the responsibility of Alta Vista, and developed the site to look like Yahoo. In June 1999, Compaq sold Alta Vista to CMGI, an Internet holding company, for $2.3 billion dollars, mostly in stock. CMGI could not hold on to Alta Vista for long since it lost 90 percent of its value. In 2003, CMGI was forced to sell Alta Vista to Overture Services, Inc. for $140 million. Yahoo acquired Overture Services, Inc., and Alta Vista became owed by Yahoo, its former fierce competitor. Yahoo had opened its doors two years prior in March 1995. Yahoo was started as a project to win a fantasy basketball league by two Stanford PhD candidate students, Jerry Yang and David Filo in the early 1990s. Both were studying electronic design automation, which was a popular field when they began studying but the subject got cold when these students reached their fourth year of their doctoral work. â€Å"The prospects of finishing and getting on with life were pretty grim. The real story is that we were bored with our PhDs and we did everything we could to avoid writing our thesis,† (Battelle, 2005) Yang recalls. To win a fantasy basketball league, Filo came up with an Internet crawler that collected data from basketball sites using protocol and compiled the data based on different categories like players performance, trade amount, history, etc. Yang and Filo won the fantasy basketball league using their project (Battelle, 2005). After the first browser was released in 1993, Yang started surfing the Web and maintaining a list of sites he was most interested in. Filo continued to develop software, and later wrote â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web,† which helped to automate the list of sites Yang was collecting. Yang created a home page for the software Filo developed and called it Akebono, named after a famous sumo wrestler (Battelle, 2005). â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web† became quickly famous, first among Stanford graduate students and then throughout the Web. In 1995, Yang and Filo realized the potential of â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web,† and decided to invest more time into it. First and foremost, they wanted to have a catchy name for the site. Both, Yang and Filo, were inspired by computer science acronyms that started with â€Å"YA† for â€Å"yet another.† They began to search the dictionary, and when they got to â€Å"Yahoo,† they knew they had a winner (Reid, 1997). The dictionary defined the term as â€Å"a rude, unsophisticated, uncouth person,† but the word also lent itself to reverse engineering by way of an acronym: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle (Battelle, 2005). Filo and Yang tried to sell their project, Yahoo, to different companies. However, they were unable to find Impact of Corporate Culture on IT Company Growth and Profits Impact of Corporate Culture on IT Company Growth and Profits The Impact of Corporate Culture on the Growth and Profitability of IT Companies: The Case of Google Abstract In todays global economy, companies from different industries are trying to create a unique competitive advantage to stay in business and maximize their shareholders equity. In doing so, companies should analyze their largest expenses and try to minimize these costs while utilizing their resources in order to make the most from these expenditures. The largest operating expense in U.S. companies is salary. To maximize this expenditure, businesses should devise ways in which to motivate their employees to be more productive. Controlling employees to come to work is easy, but how can companies motivate their employees to work to their full capacity? One way in which this can be accomplished is by creating a suitable, attractive, and tension-free working environment for employees. In doing so, companies can create a strong corporate culture which could offer a competitive advantage. As an example, Google has become one of the largest IT companies in the world in fewer than two decades from its establishment. Not only has Google grown to be one of the largest IT company in the world, it has also developed unique and innovative products, a high job growth, and a secure position as one of the top five companies for which to work. Google has managed to achieve this not only by developing appropriate business strategy, but also creatin g a strong corporate culture that concentrates mainly on employees and customers. In this research, I will try to analyze Googles achievements. I will conduct a small survey to examine the adaptability of Googles flexible corporate culture in IT companies located in Utah. Introduction Statement of the Problem The old saying, â€Å"You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink† may hold true for employees as well; you can make employees come to work, but it is not easy to make them work to their full capacity. Companies may use different methods to control their employees to make them work to their fullest working capacity, but this does not always succeed. To understand employees work satisfaction and engagement in their work, it is useful to analyze a survey conducted by the Gallup Management Journal (GMJ) (Houser, 2009). The GMJ surveyed U.S. employees to understand how engaged they are in their work and their attitudes toward their managers. According to the study, there are three types of employees: 1. Engaged employees: Those who work with passion, motivation, and have deep feelings toward their company. These people are the ones who move the organization. 2. Not-engaged employees: Those who are physically present in the company but mentally absent. These employees are not motivated, and they dont care about their company. They come to work simply to put in hours. The survey refers to them as â€Å"walking through their workday.† 3. Actively disengaged employees: Those who are not only unhappy, but they express their unhappiness in different ways. They may undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. The study results showed that 26% of respondents are engaged in their work, 56% of the respondents are not engaged in their work, and 18% of the respondents are actively disengaged in their work. The following chart illustrates the finding of this study. The respondents of the survey were asked if they would fire their manager, given the opportunity. Respondents indicated that 24% would fire their manager if they were given the chance. Of this number, 6% of those respondents were engaged in their work, 23% of the number were not engaged in their work, and 51% of the respondents were actively disengaged in their work. Therefore, less engaged employees tend to dislike their managers, and would fire them, given the opportunity. According to the study, this lack of productivity costs companies billions of dollars. Approximately 24.7 million employees age 18 and over are actively disengaged; this represents 18% of the total workforce. From 2000 to 2007, actively disengaged employees in the U.S. cost the countrys economy from $334 to $431 billion every year in low productivity. The Cost Of Disengagement In this study, I will analyze the different reasons why employees are disengaged from their work, and I will suggest recommendations to solve this problem by taking as an example a successful company in the U.S. Purpose of the study Today, different companies are trying to find a unique competitive advantage. One competitive advantage that was overlooked for many years is an attractive organizational culture. Not only will a superior organizational culture help in attracting and retaining the best employees, it can also be used to create a loyal customer base. In this paper, I will investigate the organizational culture of Google, Inc. in the information technology (IT) industrial sector. I will analyze how Google has capitalized on its organizational culture to become one of the largest search engines and IT companies in the world. I will conduct a small survey on organizational culture on IT companies located in Salt Lake City, Utah to determine useful recommendations by analyzing the results of the survey and comparing these to Googles organizational culture. Before analyzing organizational cultures, it would be beneficial to answer some questions as to why this topic was selected as well as other related issues. Why I Focused on Organizational Culture Many companies have tried to come up with a competitive advantage to maximize the shareholders profits. For years, an attractive corporate culture was not considered as vital to the success of an organization. Unlike external factors of business, which are not directly controlled by organizations, corporate culture is an internal environmental force which can be manipulated by organizations in their favor. Why I Emphasized the Employees Employees are the executers of the plans and strategies of the organization. Most companies consider employees as their asset, but, in my opinion, employees are much more than this. According to a study conducted by the United States Census Bureau, companies largest operating expense is salary. (U.S.CensusBureau, 2000) (See charts below). By taking care of their employees, organizations can get the best results from them. The following charts show the breakdown of operating expense for different industries in 1997 as it was studied by the U.S. Census Bureau under the Economic and Statistics Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce. Even though, this study was conducted more than a decade ago, I have included it, because I believe it shows the general trend of the breakdown of operating expenses within U.S. industries. Merchant wholesale companies have five major operating costs. Of these, payroll was by far the largest operating expense. If payroll expense and fringe benefits, which are operating expenses toward employees, are combined, more than half of the total operating expenses go toward employee salaries. The breakdown of operating expenses of retail trade has the same tendency as that of the merchant wholesaler. In fact, the only difference is that the expenses for rent by retail trade businesses are a little bit higher than that of the merchant wholesaler. The breakdown of operating expense for business services, which include IT industries, shows a larger expense toward employees. Payroll, consisting of 51% of total operating expense, contract labor, consisting of 5% of total operating expense and fringe benefits, consisting of 8% of total operating expense makes up a total of 64% of the total operating expense. The breakdown of the operating expenses for legal services follows the same trend as for business services. The following chart compares payroll expenses of different sectors of business According to the above chart, business services, health services and legal services pay the highest portion of operating expenses to payroll. Clearly, if companies are paying the majority of their operating expense toward the salaries of their employees, they should try to get the most from their workforce. Another study conducted in 2007 by the AmericanTimeUseSurvey through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (AmericanTimeUseSurvey, 2007) showed that of the total working people in U.S., those who were between the ages of 25 to 54 living in households with children under the age of 18 spent most of their time either working or in work-related activities. The survey was provided from data taken on non-holiday weekdays. Out of the total 24 hours, those between the age of 25 to 54 living in households with children under the age of 18 spent 8.7 hours working or on work-related activities, 7.6 hours sleeping, 2.6 hours on leisure and sports, 1.2 hours caring for others, 1.1 hours on household activities, 1.1 hours in eating and drinking and the remaining 1.7 hours on other activities. The following chart illustrates these hours in percentiles. Based on this survey, people with children between the ages of 25 to 54, who were part of the labor force, spent the majority of their time at the workplace or doing work-related activities. If companies created a suitable and stable environment, this labor force would be motivated to work harder to help companies maximize their profits. This study will research and analyze how companies could create a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining the best employees through a superior corporate culture. Why I focused on IT IT, by any comparison, is the fastest growing industry in the world. Companies are spending billions of dollars every year, which has made the IT industry one of the most profitable industries in the world. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005 and published in 2007 (U.S.CensusBureau, Information and Communication Technology: 2005, April 2007), the information industry by itself contributes 52.4 billion dollars to the IT industry through purchases of hardware and software annually. The finance and insurance sectors spent $44.2 billion; the manufacturing, professional, scientific, and technical services sectors spent $32.5 billion; the health care sector spent $27 billion; and the social assistance business sector spent $19.9 billion on IT hardware and software components in 2005 alone. Based on this study, more than $200 billion was spent on IT hardware and software by different business sectors in 2005. According to this study, the noncapital and capital expenditures for computer software were higher compared to IT hardware. It is a general assumption that if companies are investing more on computer software, the software industry is generating a lot of money. In 2005 alone, the noncapital expenditure for computer software was $54.2 billion, whereas the capital expenditure for the same sector was $49.8 billion. Therefore, this research will focus on computer software companies. Why Focus on Google? Google is one of the fastest growing companies in the world. It has grown sevenfold over the last decade. According to Fortune, Google was listed as the fourth best company to work for in 2009 (100 Best Companies to Work for 2009: Google GOOG from Fortune, 2009). Even though Google was listed as the fourth best company to work for in 2009 by Fortune, it has the highest job growth rate when compared to the other companies listed in the top ten. While Google has a 40% job growth rate, NetApp, which was listed in first place, only has a 12% job growth rate. Edward Jones and Boston Consulting Group, listed second and third, have only a 9% and 10% job growth rate respectively (100 Best Companies to Work for 2009: Google GOOG from Fortune, 2009). Google has shown tremendous growth over the past few years. As the following chart indicates, from 2004 to 2008, the net income of the company increased tenfold. Even when the world economy was in a recession at the end of 2007 and 2008, Google managed to secure a high net income (GoogleInc, 2008). Google has an interesting workforce distribution. As of December 31, 2008, 40% of Googles total workforce was in sales and marketing, 36% in research and development, 15% in general and administrative positions, and the remaining 9% in operations (Google Inc., 2008). According to this data, Google places nearly as large an emphasis on research and development as it does for sales and marketing. Having a large staff in research and development will ensure a strong future market when it is supported with an appropriate corporate strategy. Even if it is difficult to conclude that Google will have a bright future based on the distribution of its workforce, it is certain that this strong contingency of Googles research and development team has proven to be valuable by developing new and exciting technologies, making it difficult for competitors to catch up. Literature Review In todays globalized and integrated world, change within industries and organizations occurs rapidly. Understanding the impact of an organizations environment could assist organizations in coping with this change. The organizational environment includes all elements existing outside the boundary of the organization that have the potential to affect the organization (Daft, Organization Theory and Design, 8th ed., 2004). The organizational environment consists of the external environment and the internal environment. The external environment is made up of those forces that exist outside of the organizations boundaries and have an effect on the organization. The external environment is further divided into the general environment and the task environment. The general environment is the outer layer that is widely dispersed and affects organizations indirectly (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The general environment includes technological, socio-cultural, economic, legal/political, and international factors. On the other hand, the task environment is closer to the organization and includes the sectors that conduct day-to-day transactions with the organization and directly influence its basic operations and performance (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The task environment includes customers, labor market, suppliers and competitors. The internal environment includes the elements within the organizations boundaries (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). It includes employees, management and culture of the organization. In this paper the focus is on the culture of the organization and its affect on the performance of the organization. A corporate culture is defined as the set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms shared by members of an organization (Martin, 2002) (Kilmann, Ralph H.; Saxton, Mary J.; Serpa, Roy, 1986) (Smircich, 1983). It could also be defined as an â€Å"interdependent set of beliefs, values, ways of behaving, and tools for living that are so common in a community that they tend to perpetuate themselves, sometimes over long periods of time. This continuity is the product of a variety of social forces that are frequently subtle, bordering on invisible, through which people learn a groups norms and values, are rewarded when they accept them, and are ostracized when they do not† (Bemowski, 1995) (Wilhelm, 1992). Corporate culture is derived from both the management and the organization itself. The management, through its philosophy, values, actions and the organization through its roles, structure, systems and technology comprise the corporate culture. Feedback is received from the corporate culture to the management and organization. The following illustrates this process. Classification Schemes There are different classifications of corporate culture defined by different authors. The different views of four authors will be considered in the following: 1. Henry Migliore After studying 24 organizations, Henry Migliore included 20 cultural factors, which he referred to as the â€Å"Corporate Culture Index† (Migliore, Henry; R.T. Martin; Tim Baer; and Jeffrey L. Horvath, 1989). These factors include the following characteristics. * Member Identity: the degree to which employees identify with the organization as a whole in their type of job or field of professional expertise * Team Emphasis: the degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals * People Focus: the degree to which management empowers the employees within the organization * Autonomy: the degree to which departments within the organization are encouraged to operate in a coordinated or interdependent manner * Control: the degree to which rules, regulations, and direct supervision and used to control employee behavior * Risk Tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative, and risk-seeking 2. Geert Hofstede Geert Hofstede believes the behavior of organizations is affected by a national and regional cultural grouping. To study this point, he looked for a national difference among over 100,000 of IBMs employees in different parts of the world. He came up with five dimensions of culture that influence national regional groupings (Hofstede, 1980). These are: * Power distance: the expectation of society on the levels of power an individual possess in the society. A high score of power distance reflects the expectation of the society that some individuals possess more power than others. A low score of power distance reflects the expectations of the society that all people have equal rights * Uncertainty avoidance: the degree to which a society accepts uncertainty and risk * Individualism vs. Collectivism: the degree to which people stand up for themselves or act as part of a group * Masculinity vs. Femininity: the degree to which the society gives value to the male or female * Long vs. Short-term Orientation: the degree to which a society values long term or short term orientation 3. Deal and Kennedy According to Deal and Kennedy, organizational culture is the way things get done in an organization (Deal Kennedy, 1982). They measured an organizations culture using different elements. These elements include: * Feedback: response from the organization * Risk: the degree of uncertainty in the organization Using these two elements, Deal and Kennedy suggested four classifications of corporate cultures (Deal Kennedy, 1982). These are: * The Tough-Guy Macho Culture: The feedback, which is the response from the organization, is quick and the reward is high. * The Work Hard/Play Hard Culture: Few risks are taken, but the feedback, which is the response from the organization, is rapid. * The Bet Your Company Culture: This involves high risk, but it may take a long time to know the outcome of the decision or action. * The Process Culture: This is associated with bureaucracy in the organization. It is common in organizations where there is little or no feedback. 4. Charles Handy Charles Handy developed Roger Harrisons work of 1972 which linked organizational structure to organizational culture (Handy, 1985). According to this idea, there are four types of culture. These are: * Power Culture: A few will rule the organization from the middle. * Role Culture: Employees have clearly delegated authority and the structure of the organization is highly defined. * Task Culture: Teams are formed to solve particular problems; this is a common organizational culture for a matrix structure. * Person Culture: Employees focus on individualism rather than team work. These organizations will face a hard time staying above water. A corporate culture has two levels, visible and invisible. The visible level of culture can be seen at the surface level. It includes symbols, stories, heroes, slogans and ceremonies. The invisible level is deeper values and shared understandings held by organization members who include expressed values, assumptions and deep beliefs. The following illustrates the levels of corporate culture. It is difficult to express the invisible level of corporate culture since it cannot be seen as compared to the visible level of corporate culture. The visible level of corporate culture has different entities. These include: * Symbols: an object, act, or event that conveys meaning to others. Symbols can be considered a rich, non-verbal language that vibrantly conveys the organizations important values concerning how people relate to one another and interact with the environment (Pratt Rafaeli, 2001). * Stories: narratives based on true events that are repeated frequently and shared among organizational employees (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). * Heroes: s who exemplify the deeds, character, and attributes of a strong corporate culture (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). * Slogans: a phrase or sentence that succinctly expresses a key corporate value (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). Companies use slogans to convey their core values and missions. Examples of slogans are Googles â€Å"Dont be evil,† and Microsofts â€Å"Our passion, your potential.† * Ceremonies: a planned activity that makes up a special event, and is conducted for the benefit of an audience (Trice Beyer, 1984). According to research conducted at Harvard on 207 U.S. firms (Kotter Heskett, 1992), corporate cultures can be divided into adaptive and unadaptive corporate cultures. The study found that a strong corporate culture by itself does not guarantee company success. However, when strong corporate culture adapts to the external environment, it will bring success to the companys business. In both adaptive and unadaptive corporate cultures, there are visible behaviors and expressed values. In the adaptive corporate culture, managers are concerned with their customers (external environment) and employees (internal environment). On the other hand, in an unadaptive corporate culture, managers are concerned only with themselves. Therefore, they dont want change or risks. A strong corporate culture should always be adapted to the external environment (Kotter Heskett, 1992). Table 1: Adaptive and Unadaptive Corporate Culture Adaptive Corporate Cultures Unadaptive Corporate Cultures Visible Behavior Managers pay close attention to all their constituencies, especially customers, and initiate change when needed to serve their legitimate interests, even if it entails taking some risks. Managers tend to behave somewhat insularly, politically, and bureaucratically. As a result, they do not change their strategies quickly to adjust to or take advantage of changes in their business environments. Expressed Values Managers care deeply about customers, stockholders, and employees. They also strongly value people and processes that can create useful change (e.g. leadership initiatives up and down the management hierarchy). Managers care mainly about themselves, their immediate work group, or some product (or technology) associated with that work group. They value the orderly and risk-reducing management process much more highly than leadership initiatives. Types of Cultures There are four types of corporate culture, which can be further classified into two matrixes. These are the needs of the environment, which could be flexible or stable, and the strategic focus, which can be external or internal. The four categories associated with this are adaptability, achievement, involvement, and consistency (McDonald Gandz, 1992) (Denison Mishra, 1995). The four types of corporate cultures are: 1. Adaptability culture: A culture characterized by values that support the companys ability to interpret and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses. It emerges in an environment that requires fast response and high-risk decision making. Managers encourage values that support the companys ability to rapidly detect, interpret, and translate signals from the environment into new behavior responses. Employees have autonomy to make decisions and act freely to meet new needs, and responsiveness to customers is highly valued. Managers also actively create change by encouraging and rewarding creativity, experimentation, and risk taking (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). 2. The achievement culture: A results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, personal initiative, and achievement. It is suited to organizations that are concerned with serving specific customers in the external environment but without the intense need for flexibility and rapid change. This is a results-oriented culture that values competitiveness, aggressiveness, personal initiative, and willingness to work long and hard to achieve results (Hooijberg Petrock, 1993). 3. The involvement culture: A culture that places high value on meeting that needs of employees and values cooperation and equality. It has an internal focus on the involvement and participation of employees to rapidly meet changing needs from the environment. This culture places a high value on meeting the needs of employees, and the organization may be characterized by a caring, family-like atmosphere. Managers emphasize values such as cooperation, consideration of both employees and customers, and the avoidance of status differences (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). 4. Consistency culture: A culture that values and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things. It has an internal focus and a consistency orientation for a stable environment. Following the rules and being thrifty are valued, and the culture supports and rewards a methodical, rational, orderly way of doing things, since there is no stable environment. It is rather difficult to have this kind of corporate culture (Daft, Management, 7th ed., 2005). The Start of Search Engines Most people agree that the first pre-web search engine was Archie created by Alan Emtage in 1990, while he was a student at McGill University. At that time, the Internet was used by learning institutions to store different kinds of documents on shared machines. Since there were no search engines at that time, if one did not know the exact machine address and file name, it would not be possible to find the document. Emtage created an interface for the search engine, calling it Archie, and used an indexed filing system. In order to use Archie, a user would log in to an Archie server via a command line interface and type in keywords that matched the file title being searched. The result from Archie would display the possible machine locations in which the file could be found. The user then had to log in to each machine and look for the individual file. Archie provided the machine name where the file could be found, but the user had to know a keyword in the title of the file being search ed. This may seem useless today, but it was the best technology available at the time. In 1993, students at the University of Nevada created another search engine similar to Archie, which they called Veronica. The main difference between Archie and Veronica was that Veronicas search results showed the possible document names. As the Internet started to grow larger, from 130 sites in 1993 to 600,000 in 1996, the glory of Archie and Veronica also faded. Matthew Gray, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, created a web based search engine known as WWW Wanderer. The Wanderer had a list of indexed sites at the back end and a search interface that allowed users to search the index at the front end. In 1994, Brian Pinkerton, a researcher from the University of Washington, developed a more powerful search engine by the name of WebCrawler. WebCrawler could index the full text of a web document it found and also use a linking of different web pages, just as Googles PageRanking algorithm does. Alta Vista was the next stronger search engine invention. Unlike other search engines, Alta Vista was created to test the performance of the superfast Alpha processor. After Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made a superfast Alpha processor, the company was looking for a way to test its performance. One of DECs researchers, Louis Monier, was working at Western Lab in Palo Alto, California, and came up with the idea of building a search engine that could load the entire Internet onto the Alpha computer to show the processors speed. Not only did Monier come up with the idea, he also built the search engine. However, the management of DEC did not realize the magnitude of this discovery. Some believe that the management could not understand the marketability of Alta Vista, because they considered DEC to be a hardware, not a software company. In January 1998, Compaq purchased DEC for $9.6 billion dollars. Compaq recognized the marketability of Alta Vista and started to invest more into it. Rod Schrock, a Compaq executive, was given the responsibility of Alta Vista, and developed the site to look like Yahoo. In June 1999, Compaq sold Alta Vista to CMGI, an Internet holding company, for $2.3 billion dollars, mostly in stock. CMGI could not hold on to Alta Vista for long since it lost 90 percent of its value. In 2003, CMGI was forced to sell Alta Vista to Overture Services, Inc. for $140 million. Yahoo acquired Overture Services, Inc., and Alta Vista became owed by Yahoo, its former fierce competitor. Yahoo had opened its doors two years prior in March 1995. Yahoo was started as a project to win a fantasy basketball league by two Stanford PhD candidate students, Jerry Yang and David Filo in the early 1990s. Both were studying electronic design automation, which was a popular field when they began studying but the subject got cold when these students reached their fourth year of their doctoral work. â€Å"The prospects of finishing and getting on with life were pretty grim. The real story is that we were bored with our PhDs and we did everything we could to avoid writing our thesis,† (Battelle, 2005) Yang recalls. To win a fantasy basketball league, Filo came up with an Internet crawler that collected data from basketball sites using protocol and compiled the data based on different categories like players performance, trade amount, history, etc. Yang and Filo won the fantasy basketball league using their project (Battelle, 2005). After the first browser was released in 1993, Yang started surfing the Web and maintaining a list of sites he was most interested in. Filo continued to develop software, and later wrote â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web,† which helped to automate the list of sites Yang was collecting. Yang created a home page for the software Filo developed and called it Akebono, named after a famous sumo wrestler (Battelle, 2005). â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web† became quickly famous, first among Stanford graduate students and then throughout the Web. In 1995, Yang and Filo realized the potential of â€Å"Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web,† and decided to invest more time into it. First and foremost, they wanted to have a catchy name for the site. Both, Yang and Filo, were inspired by computer science acronyms that started with â€Å"YA† for â€Å"yet another.† They began to search the dictionary, and when they got to â€Å"Yahoo,† they knew they had a winner (Reid, 1997). The dictionary defined the term as â€Å"a rude, unsophisticated, uncouth person,† but the word also lent itself to reverse engineering by way of an acronym: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle (Battelle, 2005). Filo and Yang tried to sell their project, Yahoo, to different companies. However, they were unable to find