Electronic gadgets and items Essay Example for Free

Electronic gadgets and items Essay I have come to a point in life that many people have not. I have made a firm decision to recommit myself to pursuing my dreams. While there are those who believe that with an ounce of luck and a ton of persistence anything can be accomplished, I believe that there is no reason to expend so much energy and rely on luck. Life is simply too short and too precious to be left to luck alone. After serious investigation and reflection I am convinced my educational goals will be far better achieved at Cornell University. My passion for engineering began at a more advanced stage in my life. I remember how I fascinated I was by electronic gadgets and items when I was in high school. I used to marvel at systems exhibiting complex movements, without an idea of the complexities involved. The broad range of motions they performed under vastly different conditions in contrast to the ease of control exhibited by the operator amazed me. I knew this was all engineering, and I knew it interested me. My intuitive nature wanted me to explore more about this field even more. Soon, I found myself attending lectures, seminars, counseling sessions and even searching for videos about engineering and other things about it. It was probably this that gave me my first thoughts about electrical and computer engineering; I, however, could not fathom that my future was headed in this direction. As the world continues to progress and new innovations are introduced daily, the role that electrical and computer engineering grows as well. Intelligence in systems is no longer a bleeding-edge technology hyped by its proponents and mistrusted by the mainstream. More and more areas of technology education—from life sciences to engineering—are embracing the tenets of the new technology, making it an increasingly mainstream concept. Scope of creativity and the trajectory of the growth Electrical and computer engineering has, influenced me to build a broader knowledge base at undergraduate level on the subjects which I have always enjoyed, from the high school levels physics and mathematics. This is the reason why I feel, I stand a good chance of finding a match for my desire and natural talent in this field. It has been said, however, that desire and natural talent are nothing if they cannot be harnessed properly. In order to harness these talents, I firmly believe that taking my major at Cornell would be the best way to achieve this. One of the many wonderful concepts I have learned from my parents is to strive for academic excellence while balancing life with other activities and contributions. It is this fine balance that I feel will be provided if I am accepted in this major at the Cornell University. I strongly feel that in order to reach my full potential I need to be in an environment that best caters to my interests and goals. I have learned from my parents two â€Å"laws†: the law of learning and the law of giving. I believe the more you learn the more open you become for learning. I am convinced this University is a great fit for â€Å"the law of learning. That is why I believe that this move is a crucial step for me. My success and my accomplishments here will herald the beginning of the fulfillment of my personal and professional goals. It is said that the one thing that nobody can ever take away from you is your education and that is the one thing that I plan to not only gain for myself but for others as well. I have learned from my parents the critical importance of the law of giving, and I am both attracted and committed to this model of community service, particularly that â€Å"students apply skills to effect social change. † Though I got perfect grades, my natural Instinct is what I value the most. Looking at Cornells school of electrical and computer engineering, I sense that my interests and talents will be best realized and developed throughout the way. a good teacher is someone whos really gone out of the way to engage a student it is comments and reviews like such from Cornells prestigious alumni which makes me believe that everyone in such a learning environment would care so much about growth of a student. This is my reason for pursuing this opportunity to become part of the rich academic environment that Cornell University has to offer. As the world continues to change and the workplace becomes more and more challenging and competitive, it becomes imperative for anyone looking for a successful career to not only have the drive to succeed but also the training and expertise to do so. I am not saying that I do not have the training and expertise at the moment but I do believe that there is still room for more. The world is fast becoming a borderless place. Cultures, races, beliefs and ideologies are blend together and interact because of the growing advances in communications. In order to succeed in this world, one needs to be able to adapt to the various cultural differences as well as be able to maintain a certain sense of individual identity. My former school did not have the same diversity that I see environment where cultural diversity is promoted. This is why I believe that this educational environment is the perfect place for me. Not only does this University exceed my expectations but it is also enjoys a global reputation. While I personally believe that â€Å"there is no such thing as a free lunch† and that everything a person has in life must come from hard work and perseverance, I also believe in charity. I believe in helping others who do not have much in life. I believe in helping people regardless of their nation, race or creed. I believe in being a better person so I can best help myself and others around me. I believe that this academic environment is the best place for me to turn these beliefs into realities. I am fully aware of the significance of being considered for acceptance, and I am sincerely grateful for your time and consideration of my application.

Impact of Technology on Trade

Impact of Technology on Trade Technology plays a crucial role in the development of countries. It is very important both for developed countries and developing countries as technology progress will enable countries to be more competitive in the global market. Thus progress in technology helps countries to develop the economy and strengthens their trading positions in the competitive global market (Sabir, 2010). With the development of technology, high-tech products will become the major players in international trade. The traditional primary products and ordinary manufacturing goods will account for less in the international trade business than before. In order to illustrate the impact of technology on trade and development for the country, this essay will take South Korea, a developed country and the Samsung products as example to analyze the way the technology influences the countrys development and its trade. Technology development in South Korea The development of technology can decide the future of the country in terms of its economy growth and its position in the international community. South Korea, as all we know, is a lively example in the technology research and development. Forty years ago, South Korea was still a laggard agricultural country and was empty in science technology fields. However, during 40 years endeavor, South Korea has made outstanding performance and achievements in the technology development. Its innovation capability is improved a lot and the distance to developed countries regarding the technology aspect is becoming closer. Since 1970s and 1980s, the science technology policies of South Korea have been gradually shifted from introduction imitation model to self-development and innovation (Viotti, 2002). Therefore, since then, high-tech projects, such as sophisticated electronics, new materials, semiconductors, precision chemistry etc. have been developed rapidly in South Korea. That Semi-conduc tors enterprises, such as Samsung, can successfully compete in the international semiconductor market can not separate from the independent technological innovation. Thanks to the technology progress, South Korea has made great development in economy. As we know, economy and technology are two essentials which can not be separated from each other for the country. The progress of technology will promote the development of the countrys economy, meanwhile, economy growth will enable the country more capital to the technology research. From the experience of developed countries, their fast development in economy can not be separated from their progress in technology. Technology is becoming the core for the developed countries (Hausmann and Rodrik, 2003). Impact of technology on trade and economy growth Economic development of South Korea started in 1950s and achieved a take-off in economy growth in 1960s. In the initial stage, South Korea applied inward economy growth strategy; however, since 1962 the country began to implement an export-oriented economy development strategy. South Korea is severely dependent on the external markets since its internal market is very limited. The country is highly focused on the export business to create foreign exchange and import the scarce resources. With the development in high-technology fields, South Korea has realized to increase the exports of the high-tech products which have successfully contributed to a rapid economic growth for the country. South Korea has achieved a considerable growth in its GNP from 87 USD in 1962 to 10 936 USD in 2001. This is close to the highly-developed countries. Among the exporting volumes, the high-tech products are increasing year by year. In 1988, the high-tech products accounted for 15.97% of the total expor ting volume. In 1999, the high-tech products reached to 32.2% (Kwon, 2010). The progress in technology has greatly helped South Korea in achieving good result in the global trade market and resulted in a great growth in GDP and its overall economy. Samsung Electronic is a typical successful example in the research and development of technology for South Korea or even for the whole Asian countries. Many technological and electronic manufacturers in Asian countries are trying to learning from Samsung Company. Samsung Electronic Company has made great contribution to South Koreas economic development. Samsung has got its white goods and other products such as mobile phones famous in the global marketplace. In 2000, the export amount of Samsung Electronic has reached to 18.6 billion US dollars which accounted for 11 percent of the total exporting value. In 2004, Samsung has made a breakthrough of 50 billion US dollars of exporting value and accounted for 21% of the total export value in South Korea (Kang and Jin, 2006). The reason why Samsung products can take a great market share in the global trade market is highly dependent on the technology progress. Take Samsung mobile phone as example, with the continuous innovation and progr ess made in the technological field, Samsung mobile phone is now become one of the leading mobile brands in the world. It has already posed a threat to Nokia and Motorolas leading positions in the global mobile phone market (Uimonen, 2000). Facing the fierce competition environment in the global mobile phone market, Samsung mobile phone maintains its strategy to position high-end products for the people with certain consuming capability. High-end products need high-technology to support and continuous improvement in the technology innovation to maintain the high price. Therefore, Samsung never stops its technology research and contributes considerable amount of money into new technology research and innovation every year. Besides the mobile phone area, Samsung is also making efforts to expand its other electronic products with high technology, such as TV, LED, refrigerator, and other white goods in the global markets (Bonaglia, Goldstein and Mathews, 2007). Of course, China is its l argest trading partner and Samsung products have covered a relatively large market share in China. Conclusion In conclusion, technology progress is the major power and source to speed up the development of the social economy for a country. Nowadays, as peace and development are the major theme for the international communities, high-technology is attached great importance in boosting the economy growth for a country. At the same time, under the globalization trend, the development of technology will help the country to be more competitive in the global trade market thus to boost the countrys economy development.

American Secularism: Intent Analysis Essay -- Politics, The Separation

Dwight Eisenhower once wrote that, â€Å"Without God, there could be no American form of government† (Forbes, 2009: 1). Decades later, in a speech in Turkey, President Barack Obama claimed that America does not consider itself a Judeo-Christian nation. Modern arguments about the separation of church and state tend to seize upon such statements. But neither opinion can truly elucidate the true nature of American secularism (or lack thereof). Instead of criticizing Eisenhower for breaching that fabled wall of separation, or President Obama for conducting an arbitrary public opinion poll during a speech, focus must shift to the Founders. Specifically, the words of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, those men most widely documented on this issue, must be examined. From the synthesis of these men’s views, the documents they had a leading role in crafting, and historical perspective, a vision of American religious freedom is apparent. With the Constitution, the Framers inst ituted bold, practical boundaries for the interaction of organized religion and the federal government (Jefferson’s â€Å"wall†). But they did not envision the federally mandated â€Å"walls† that currently stand between the (local) public square and basic religious manifestations or practices. A narrower interpretation of the Establishment clause is closer to what was instituted by the Framers. This paper will argue that a wall of separation between church and (the federal) state was erected only insofar as the Constitution dictates it in the religion clauses. It will also posit that the present interpretation of that separation is a thoroughly modern construct built by modern society and actions of the federal government. This will focus around two main arguments: that federal... .... This divergence is the result of an effort to enlist the Framers in a defense of certain positions; positions based in legal frameworks never enacted by those men. If these arguments are accepted, a reevaluation of federal attitudes is in order. Rolling back a century of incorporation doctrine would be both impossible and foolish. But the executive can refrain from prosecuting states who institute laws that appear within the realm of state sovereignty in the area of secularism. Ultimately, of course, the decision will rest with the courts. If the arguments presented here (and similarly elsewhere) are accepted, an overhaul in judicial interpretation of the Establishment Clause should be undertaken by the judicial branch. Thus a legitimate debate over secularism can begin that does not inaccurately shroud modern constructs of secularism in the aura of the Framers.

The House on Mango Street :: House Mango Street

The House on Mango Street At the novel's end, Esperanza declares that she is too strong for Mango Street to keep her forever. What is the nature of her strength? How does Cisneros establish this characteristic elsewhere in the book? Esperanza feels she is too strong to live on Mango Street. She feels her life would be better if she lived somewhere else. She wants to leave Mango Street so that she can find herself. Esperanza knows that she is not like the others on Mango Street, and she wants to move to a place "with trees around it, a big yard and grass growing without a fence" (page 4). To leave, she must have strength. Where will she get it? I believe her strength comes from within. Esperanza builds her strength off the mishaps that occur while living on Mango Street. In the vignettes, Esperanza describes some very interesting things that take place on Mango Street. She recalls a time when Sally befriended her and told Esperanza to leave her alone with the boys. Esperanza felt out of place and was very uncomfortable and very ashamed to be in that situation. She wanted more from life than that, so she left the scene. There was another time when Esperanza wanted to eat lunch in the canteen at school. She was not allowed to eat at school, because she lived close enough to walk home for lunch. But, Esperanza wanted to feel special like the other kids, so she convinced her mother to write a note to the nun in charge giving her permission to eat in the school canteen. The mother wrote the note, but the nun was not convinced. So, she made Esperanza go to the window and point to her house. She was too ashamed to point to the old-run-down home where she lived. This was one of her most embarrassing moments. Not to be outdone, Esperanza said, "I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to" (page5). In "Four Skinny Trees," Esperanza compares herself to the four skinny trees outside her house. Like the trees, she too, has not found her place in the world.

Heart of Darkness versus Apocalypse Now Essay -- essays research paper

Books and movies present stories in different ways because the medias are incredibly different. In the story Heart of Darkness, the author takes the motif of the journey and presents it in the third person in a way that people could understand with the topic of the spread of culture in the â€Å"third world.† Apocalypse Now shows the journey in a completely different way. It is made into a first person narrative and is changed from colonization to the modern day equivalent of the Vietnam War. Both ways of showing the story keeps the main idea of the journey both inside and outside, but the way of presenting it is very different.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story Heart of Darkness is presented to us in the third person. From the beginning, the story is shown as someone telling a story about something that’s already happened and it goes back and forth between the â€Å"present† and several times which make up the past. The story starts with the narrator telling his fellow boat-mates about a man named Marlow and his adventure into the wild to find a man Kurtz. The whole time the story goes back and forth between the narrator and his telling the story and Marlow driving the action. This is an interesting way of narrating the story because we really do not hear much from the actual speaker but most of the action takes place through Marlow. In the movie Apocalypse Now, the entire story is presented to us from one persons point of view. The Marlow figure in the movie is Captain Willard...

Child Abuse Essay

â€Å"What is child abuse? The term â€Å"child abuse† can be defined as any behavior directed toward a child by a parent, guardian, caregiver, other family member, or other adult, that endangers or impairs a child’s physical or emotional health and development† (National 1). Factors which often contribute to child abuse are alcohol and substance abuse, lack of parenting skills, economic difficulties or poverty, domestic violence and previous victimization (National 1). The consequences of abuse may be mild or severe; disappear after a short period or last a lifetime; and affect the child physically, psychologically, behaviorally, or in some combination of all three ways (Gateway 1). Though all traumatic not all child abuse is the same, there are four different categories that child abuse is classified into, neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Though all are different they all share the dangerous possibilities of having the abused child or children become an abuser themselves in the future. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse, with 59% of the substantiated reports of maltreatment classified as neglect in 2007 (USDHHS 2009). Neglect is very common because it is the simplest form of child abuse, being defined as a pattern of failing to provide for a child’s basic needs, whether it be adequate food, clothing, hygiene, or supervision (Smith and Segal 1). There are many ways to spot neglect in a child like being poorly clothed, looking malnourished, lack of attendance in school, and having medical needs not met or up to date. With neglect being the most common form of abuse among children it is trailed fairly close with physical abuse which is also a highly common form of child abuse. Physical abuse is defined as follows: â€Å"Physical abuse involves physical harm or injury to the child. It may be the result of a deliberate attempt to hurt the child, but not always. It can also result from severe discipline, such as using a belt on a child, or physical punishment that is inappropriate to the child’s age or physical condition. Many physically abusive parents and caregivers insist that their actions are simply forms of discipline—ways to make children learn to behave. But there is a big difference between using physical punishment to discipline and physical abuse. The point of disciplining children is to teach them right from wrong, not to make them live in fear† (Smith and Segal 1). Then comes sexual abuse as yet another form of child abuse. â€Å"Every 2 minutes, someone in the U. S. is sexually assaulted† (RAINN 1). This statistic shows the prevalence in sexual abuse in the United States, though not as common in children as in adults, sexual abuse still affects 44 percent of people under the age of 18 (RAINN 1). This is still almost half of rapes accounted for by a group largely still considered children themselves. Sexual child abuse is defined as: â€Å"Incest, sexual molestation, rape, sodomy, child pornography, exhibitionism and exploitation are terms most often used when describing child sexual abuse. Sexual abuse can be physical — including genital or oral stimulation, fondling and intercourse; non-physical — including indecent exposure, obscene phone calls or â€Å"peeping toms†; and/ or violent — as in rape or other forms of sexually violent behavior† (National 1). Also another scary effect of being sexually abused is that a large percentage of those who sexually abuse children were themselves victims of sexual abuse as children (National 1). Meaning that being sexually abused as a child can possibly lead to future sexual abuse towards another child or children. The final form of child abuse is emotional abuse. This is the least common form of child abuse just because of the fact that it is so hard to prove even though it might be just as likely as the other three forms of abuse. Emotional abuse occurs when a child is verbally assaulted and the withheld of positive emotional support (National 1). Much thought has gone into the idea that â€Å"the abused become abusers† its only logical to think that abuse would be a continuing cycle. â€Å"Abusive parents often have experienced abuse during their own childhoods. It is estimated approximately one-third of abused and neglected children will eventually victimize their own children† (Gateway 1). A victim of abuse is likely to become an abuser due to biological factors, power struggles, and a need to heal. The biggest reason this takes place is because of biological means. This means that when abuse happens it changes something chemically in your body. This was shown when an experiment was done on monkeys who abuse their offspring: â€Å"In earlier research on abuse of infant monkeys, Maestripieri and his colleagues studied females that were switched at birth between abusive and non-abusive mothers. That research showed that the offspring of non-abusive mothers were likely to become abusive themselves if they were raised by abusive mothers† (Nauert 1). After this experiment was done a physical sample was taken from the monkey’s brain and the following results were yielded: â€Å"The team found that infants who became abusive as adults had about 10 to 20 percent less serotonin than did infants who did not become abusive as parents or infants who were not exposed to maternal abuse. The reduced level of serotonin remained constant into adulthood† (Nauert 1). The research also showed that abused females who became abusive mothers in adulthood had lower serotonin in their brains than abused females who did not become abusive parents (Neuert 1). With monkeys and humans having almost the exact same genetic makeup and brain structure it can be inferred that the results would be highly favorable to stay the same had the same test been done on a human being. Someone that was abused as a child might also seek power as It is a search for power and control by becoming an abuser, someone who has been abused can play the role of the more powerful person in the relationship, in an attempt to overcome the powerlessness they felt when they were being abused (Hartney 1). This power they seek gives them the false reality that once they attain it, they will compensate for the power they lost as a child when being abused. But when they find that it doesn’t fill the hole for them they will continue to be abusers themselves to try and compensate creating a never ending search for compensation thus continued abuse toward others. People who have been abused carry a lot of anger about what happened to them, and abusing others can be a way to express that anger (Hartney 1). This further shows an abused person’s need for an outlet for the anger cause by their abuse, usually ending with them continuing the cycle of abuse. It is an attempt to heal by becoming an abuser, a victim of childhood abuse can try to undo the abuse by taking the opposite, seemingly more powerful position. By engaging in a relationship with another abuser, they can try to re-live the relationship with their original abuser in the hope that they can get it right this time (Hartney 1). The abused person from the past can also take the approach of trying to relive the abuse they suffered as a child to try and heal themselves by re enacting the act possibly putting themselves in the position of control. â€Å"Immaturity, the absence of parenting preparation skills, and a lack of understanding of child development often result in the creation of unrealistic expectations for a child’s behavior. When the child fails to meet these expectations, frustration on the part of the parent may erupt in anger toward the child† (Hartney 1). hey can also try to heal themselves by seeking out abuse again because its the only way the know how to feel intimate. With the facts out there it can be reasonably assumed that it is highly likely for a previously abused person to have a high chance to become an abuser themselves, and this can be proven by biological means, taking back power, and trying to relive their abuse in an attempt to heal themselves.

Acquisitions: Motivations & Challenges Essay

a. Identify five main motivations (discussed in class) for acquiring a company. Provide a specific, real-world acquisition example for each motivation. b. Which three motivations are most relevant to Paragon Tool’s potential acquisition of MonitoRobotics in the Growing for Broke case? c. Identify the four main challenges (discussed in class) when executing a corporate acquisition. Provide a specific, real-world acquisition example for each challenge. 2. Blue Ocean Strategy a. Draw a strategy canvas for the Nintendo Wii and briefly describe what it says about why Nintendo has been successful in such a competitive industry. Include the Sony Playstation and the Microsoft Xbox on the canvas. b. Identify and briefly describe the six paths to finding Blue Oceans. Give a specific, real-world example of each path (other than the examples I gave in class). 3. Cisco Systems’ Acquisition Strategy a. Outcomes of nearly 75% of corporate acquisitions fail to meet managerial expectations. Identify 7 reasons why Cisco Systems has been more successful than most other companies in executing over 100 acquisitions (see the two attached articles). b. Identify 3 reasons why Cisco Systems began having trouble with its acquisition strategy. 4. Diversification at Starbucks a. Illustrate and concisely explain the Boston Consulting Group’s Growth-Share Matrix. Make sure you identify: i. the dimensions upon which the Matrix is based ii. each type of businesses embodied in the Matrix’s quadrants iii. the three functional assumptions of the model b. Specifically apply the model to Starbuck’s product diversification efforts since the 1990s (see the attached article). c. Concisely explain two reasons why BCG’s Growth-Share Matrix might not accurately reflect Starbucks’ historical development. 5. Google’s International Strategy a. Identify and briefly explain the three types of international strategy. b. Identify Google’s international strategy and explain why Google Finance would have only been possible under that strategy (see Tom Friedman’s â€Å"Outsourcing, Schmoutsourcing! Out Is Over† article below). c. Give a specific, real-world example of each of the other two types of international strategy. 6. Reconfiguration in the Personal  Computer (PC) Industry a. Identify and briefly explain six distinct methods that firms can use to acquire the resources and capabilities they need to develop new products and businesses. b. Drawing on our discussion of the strategic sourcing framework, briefly describe and/or illustrate the relative advantages and disadvantages of these methods. c. Both PC software and hardware manufacturers have been forced to adapt to the rapidly evolving industry in order to survive. Using the PC industry, provide a specific example of 5 of these 6 methods. d. Briefly explain why Xerox may be greatest success and the worst failure in the history of the PC industry. 7. Outsourcing at GM a. Concisely describe the Strategic Sourcing Framework. Be sure to identify the relevant costs/advantages associated with the make-or-buy decision. b. In February 2006, GM announced a â€Å"huge package of outsourcing contracts.† See the attached article. Using the Strategic Sourcing Framework and our class discussions of GM, explain why GM chose to do this. c. Concisely describe the disadvantages GM faced in choosing to outsource, like this. 8. In the early 2000s, Boeing began aggressively outsourcing the development and production of the 787 airplane design. By late 2008, Boeing managers admitted that they made some mistakes in pursuing the outsourcing strategy and that Boeing would significantly curtail outsourcing. List Boeing’s initial motivations for outsourcing and the reasons behind its subsequent change of heart. 9. Diversification a. Concisely describe and explain the relationship between diversification and corporate performance. b. Give one example each of companies with very low diversification, very high diversification, and moderate diversification. Make sure these examples accurately reflect the relationship you described in part a. c. In class, I argued that Tyco could be considered an exception to the generally understood relationship between diversification and performance. Explain why you think this is true or untrue. d. Regardless of how you answered part c, identify 4 or 5 ways that Tyco’s diversification strategy is different from typical corporations’ corporate strategy. 10. Hybrid Engine Technology & Industry Evolution a. Concisely explain what type of industry disruption best describes Toyota’s  introduction of the first hybrid engine car targeted for the United States mass market. c. Give a specific historical example (from any industry) of the other major type industry disruption. d. Using a technological S-curve graph (Walker Figure 4.5), illustrate the evolution of the automobile engine. In your illustration, make sure you capture the development of 1) hybrid, 2) hydrogen fuel cell, and 3) standard gas-powered combustion engine technologies. Also include in the illustration indicators of today’s date in addition to the dates at which each technology was (will be) introduced to the U.S. mass market. e. Concisely explain Utterback’s model of innovation (Walker Figure 4.4). f. Use Utterback’s model to specifically and concisely explain why hydrogen fuel cell engines might not be commercially viable for a very, very lo ng time. How Cisco Makes Takeovers Work With Rules, Focus On Client Needs By Mike Angell, Investor’s Business Daily Investor’s Business Daily Investing in technology is risky. Just ask Cisco Systems. In 1997, the networking leader bought Dagaz, a company that made gear for digital subscriber lines. Dagaz wasn’t solid, and Cisco had to buy another company to get the right product. â€Å"You have to be ready to take those risks,† said Ammar Hanafi, Cisco’s business development manager. He’s been involved in almost every Cisco takeover since 1998. But Dagaz was an exception among the 70 companies Cisco has bought in the last seven years. That makes Cisco an exception, too. According to a study by consultant A.T. Kearney, more than half of mergers don’t work out. Here are some of Cisco’s rules: Stay close to home – 73% of Cisco’s targets make network gear. Deals make geographic sense, too. They’re close to a Cisco unit or a key talent capital. Get early wins – targets have products customers want right now. Familiarity – Cisco has stakes in 15% of its targets. Think small – Cisco buys start-ups mostly Management stays – and quickly learns the Cisco way. Beyond those factors, Cisco looks at what the target firm wants to accomplish, the needs of Cisco’s customers and how targets fit. â€Å"Cisco is the best example of a company with a well-established acquisition and post merger strategy,† Kearney’s Max Schroeck said. Many failed mergers stem from companies trying to enter new markets or just cut  costs. Successful mergers are between companies in related lines, the stud y says. That means joining people who share knowledge and experience. Cisco stays close to network gear. It strays, but not far. Smaller forays have been in Net-based phone gear (3%), software for content delivery (15%) and wireless gear (8%). Customer Focus â€Å"We’re always focused on our customers’ wants and needs,† Hanafi said. â€Å"We’re always expanding the range of products we have as our customers’ own networks expand.† The best example may be Cisco’s first acquisition in 1993. CEO John Chambers, then Cisco’s top salesman, was negotiating an order. But the client leaned toward a rival. So Cisco bought the rival, Crescendo Communications, for $ 89 million. Crescendo’s product was no â€Å"killer,† Hanafi said. But by the third generation, it brought in almost half of Cisco’s sales. â€Å"The first generation should be good enough for a customer,† Hanafi said. â€Å"The second generation is usually a great product. By the third, it should be a market leader.â⠂¬  Buy Vs. Invest But how does Cisco know this will be the case? Homework. Thirty people screen companies, probe market potential and talk to likely targets. Its engineers study products, and it queries customers. In some cases, this leads to an investment – one that helps Cisco learn about new technologies. If it’s a new market and product line, Cisco will invest. If the technology isn’t ready but looks right, Cisco will invest as well. â€Å"We’re always looking to enter new parts of the network,† Hanafi said. â€Å"Sometimes there are companies that are not as strategic, but we’d like to know what they do.† Of the 20 companies Cisco bought this year, it had stakes in eight. Overall, it has stakes in about 15% of its possible targets. Sometimes investments prompt Cisco to go with a rival. Two years ago, Cisco bought a stake in a company called Tellium that made an optical switch. Following some changes at Tellium, and after learning about that market, Cisco bought Monterey Networks instead for $ 500 million. Cisco still has a â€Å"passive† investment in Tellium but may sell its stake when it can, Hanafi says. For the most part, Cisco targets start-ups. Chambers doesn’t believe mergers of equals can work. The Kearney study agrees. It  said nearly one-third of mergers of equals destroy shareholder value. Cisco’s 1996 buy of StrataCom makes the point. At $ 4 billion, StrataCom was Cisco’s largest takeover to date. StrataCom’s sales force tou ted one data standard, Cisco’s another. Users were confused. â€Å"Integrating the two sales forces was more difficult,† Hanafi said. Geography’s Role Cisco also has a rule that targets must be physically near one another. This year, Cisco added a fourth company to its Israeli portfolio. And it added its second Canadian company, a software firm called PixStream. These areas are promising new high-tech hubs, and Cisco needs to â€Å"go where the talent is.† â€Å"People asked us why buy PixStream? It’s in Waterloo, Canada,† Hanafi said. â€Å"It’s right next to the University of Waterloo, a good school for engineers.† Though it may take up to two years to identify a potential acquisition, Cisco doesn’t waste time closing the deal. Hanafi has seen some sealed in as few as 10 days. Ultimately, Cisco buys talent. It woos people by telling them Cisco will help make their product No. 1. Integration Teams â€Å"We’re saying to them, ‘Use our sales force, our manufacturing size,’ † Hanafi said. â€Å"Come in and we’ll help make you a leader.† That’s kept 75% of acquired companies’ CEOs at Cisco. Cisco sets up a chain of command, and the CEO of the acquired company stays in charge. Integration is easier. Cisco has made integrating companies a discipline. Hanafi has a team of 10 people who run this process. They send up to 65 others from sales, human resources, manufacturing and finance to meet with every worker to discuss salaries, benefits and roles. †The first question people ask after being acquired by Cisco is, ‘What’s going to happen to my dentist?’ † Hanafi said. Cisco Shopped till It Nearly Dropped By John A. Byrne and Ben Elgin in San Jose, Calif., BusinessWeek It was an all-too-typical deal for Cisco Systems Inc. Monterey Networks Inc., an opticalrouting startup in which Cisco held a minority stake, was a quarry with no revenue, no products, and no customers  Ã¢â‚¬â€ just millions in losses it had racked up since its founding in 1997. Despite those deficits, Cisco plunked down a half-billion dollars in stock to buy the rest of the company in 1999. But within days of closing the deal, all three of Monterey’s founders, including its engineering guru and chief systems architect, walked out the door, taking with them millions of dollars in gains from the sale. †I came to the realization I wasn’t going to have any meaningful impact on the product by staying,† says H. Michael Zadikian, a Monterey founder. Eighteen months later, Cisco shut down the business altogether, sacking the rest of the management team and taking a $ 108 million write-off. That dismal tale hardly jibes with Cisco’s widespread reputation as an acquisitions whiz. Not since the conglomerate era has a company relied so heavily on its ability to identify, acquire, and integrate other companies for growth. CEO John T. Chambers believed that if Cisco lacked the internal resources to develop new products in six months, it had to buy its way into the market or miss the window of opportunity. Some put a new name on it: acquisitions and development, a way for the company to shortcut the usual research cycle. Its belief in the strategy has led Cisco to gobble up more than 70 companies in the past eight years. Analysts and academics heaped praise on Cisco’s acquisitions prowess in articles, books, and business-school case studies. In the early days, some of this praise was deserved, as Cisco morphed from a router company to a networking powerhouse. Its first acquisition, Crescendo Communications Inc., guided Cisco into the switching business, which generated $ 10 billion in sales last year. All told, acquisitions have laid the foundation for about 50% of Cisco’s business. But in early 1999, with exuberant investors enticing a growing number of unproven companies to go public, Cisco suddenly had to acquire companies at a much earlier stage. Cisco had long claimed an unprecedented success rate of 80% with its acquisitions. Chambers now says it fell to something like 50% during the Internet craze — still above the industry average. †We bet on products 12 to 18 months out,† concedes Chambers. †We took dramatically higher risks.† Chambers often maintained that his acquisition strategy was aimed at acquiring brainpower more than products. But an analysis of the 18 acquisitions Cisco made in 1999 shows that Monterey was no fluke. Many of the most valuable employees, the highly driven founders and chief executives of these acquired companies, have since  bolted, taking with them a good deal of the expertise and experience for which Cisco paid top dollar. The two founders of StratumOne Communications Inc., a maker of optical  semiconductors purchased for $ 435 million, left Cisco. The chief exec of GeoTel Communications Corp., a call-routing outfit acquired for $ 2 billion, walked out after nine months. So did the CEOs or founders of Sentient Networks, MaxComm Technologies, WebLine Communications, Tasmania Network Systems, Aironet Wireless Communications, V-Bits, and Worldwide Data System s — all high-priced acquisitions in 1999. Some simply felt Cisco had become too big and too slow. †People who crave risk don’t do so well at Cisco,† says Narad Networks CEO Dev Gupta, who sold Dagaz and MaxComm Technologies Inc. to Cisco in 1997 and 1999, respectively. †Cisco focuses much more on immediate customer needs, less on high-wire technology development that customers may want two to three years out.† Chambers maintains that Cisco’s turnover rates are the best in high technology. †In our industry, 40% to 80% of the top management team and top engineers are gone within two years,† he says. †Our voluntary attrition rate is about 12% over two years.† Difficulty holding on to top talent was not the only flaw in the Cisco acquisition machine. Cisco often paid outrageous sums for these unprofitable startups — a total of $ 15 billion in 1999 alone. Even some of the deals that Cisco considers successful look pretty dreadful using simple math. Its 1999 acquisition of Cerent Corp., a maker of opticalnetworking gear, is a good example. Cisco paid $ 6.9 billion for the company, or $ 24 million for each of Cerent’s 285 employees, even though the company had never earned a penny of profit and had an accumulated deficit of $ 60 million. Even if earnings bounce back to 2000 levels of roughly $ 335 million, it would take Cisco about 20 years to recoup the purchase price. Of course, deals such as Cerent found their rationale in Wall Street math. If investors were willing to pay 100 times earnings for Cisco’s stock in 1999, then a Cerent profit of, say, $ 300 million could effectively increase the market cap of Cisco by some $ 30 billion. Call it bubble economics. Besides, many of these deals were done for highly inflated Cisco stock instead of  cash. Even so, that wampum could have been used to buy other assets that could have delivered greater returns. Only in the months since the bubble burst has it become evident just how muddled Cisco’s mergers-and-acquisitions strategy became. In its haste to do deals, Cisco often purchased companies it didn’t need or couldn’t use. In some cases, the buying spree led to overlapping, duplicative technologies, political infighting, and just plain wasted resources, as Monterey shows. †M&A works to some extent, but at Cisco, it got out of hand,† says Iqbal Husain, a former engineering executive at Cisco. After losing many of the leaders of these businesses, product delays and other mishaps were not uncommon. When Cisco closed down Monterey, for example, the company still hadn’t put a product out for testing, which alone would take as long as a full year. †By the time the product was there to test, the market wasn’t,† says Joseph Bass, former CEO of Monterey. Chambers says he has moved to correct the flaws. Its acquisition binge has slowed —  from 41 companies from 1999 through 2000 to just two purchases in 2001. While Chambers expects to do 8 to 12 acquisitions this year, he insists that market conditions will let Cisco wait at least until a target company has a proven product, customers, and management team before cutting a deal. †We’re making the decisions to acquire a company based on a later point in time, which dramatically lowers the risk,† Chambers says. Anything more ambitious, Cisco now knows, may be foolhardy. A Costly Acquisition Strategy Often lauded for its buyout successes, Cisco has purchased more than 70 companies in the past eight years. In 1999 alone, it paid $15 billion for 18 startups, many of which never delivered on their early promise. Here are the most noteworthy: COMPANY PRICE STATUS SKINNY CERENT $6.9 Alive and Although Cerent has generated $1 billion well billion in estimated sales for Cisco, two decades could be needed to recoup the steep price. PIRELLI $2.2 Alive but A disappointing attempt to bolster OPTICAL billion struggling Cisco’s long-haul optical networking. SYSTEMS But Pirelli’s technology still trails that of rivals. MONTEREY $500 Dumped This  upstart optical company never NETWORKS million in April produced a viable product, and Cisco cut its losses with a $108 million write-off in April. AMTEVA $170 Sold at a Lackluster revenue forced Cisco to million loss in July sell this unified-messaging business. MAXCOMM $143 Part of their Founders and key technologists walked TECHNOLOGIES million DSL strategy out soon after the deal closed. Data: BusinessWeek The Toronto Star April 28, 2006 Friday SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. F01 LENGTH: 631 words HEADLINE: Starbucks develops taste for independent films BYLINE: Sharda Prashad, Toronto Star BODY: First it was coffee, then CDs, now it’s movies. Today, the independent flick Akeelah and the Bee will make its debut in theatres, with a marketing boost from Starbucks. The java giant is advertising the Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. film about spelling bees, starring Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, by using promotional coffee sleeves, coasters and displays in stores. Neither party has disclosed the amount of cash that’s changing hands in this deal, other than divulging Starbucks will be receiving a cut of the film’s profits for its marketing efforts. And when the DVD goes on sale, it will get a share of those profits – the DVD, by the way, will be available at Starbucks. Akeelah’s soundtrack will also be flogged at the coffee house. â€Å"Our customer is the demographic that Hollywood needs as it is facing a double-digit decline in the box office and slowing DVD sales,† Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ chairman, told Business Week earlier this year. â€Å"We have a unique cross-section of assets – a foundation of trust and confidence in Starbucks – that can promote a move that our customers know is relevant.† But is the purveyor of java risking its strong brand appeal by moving away from its coffee core with this latest venture? Starbucks, named for a character in the literary classic Moby Dick, currently has 11,000 outlets in 37 countries and is planning to open 1,800 this year. Its long-term plan is to have 30,000 outlets around the world. â€Å"Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee, it sells a retail environment that’s chic, urban and  authentic,† says Jay Handelman, marketing professor at Queenà ¢â‚¬â„¢s University School of Business. â€Å"If they were just selling coffee, why would they (customers) pay $4?† Since Starbucks is in the business of selling an urban experience, the professor says, the foray into a movie such as Akeelah and the Bee is consistent with that brand since the film is an urban, intellectual tale. If the movies and coffee were selling different experiences, the brand strategy wouldn’t work since customers would be confused about what Starbucks stood for, adds Andrea Wojnicki, marketing professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Should the movie do poor box office sales, it won’t necessarily affect the Starbucks brand, she says. Starbucks is about connoisseurship, she argues. It introduced people to the subtleties of coffee and it’s attempting to do the same with its CDs, which it started selling in 1995. The CD venture has also involved an urban experience. In 2004, for example, it coproduced Ray Charles’ Genius Loves Company and last year it held exclusive distribution for Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill Acoustic. Should the movie become a box office flop, Starbucks isn’t necessarily in trouble, says Wojnicki. It could hold up its connoisseur flag and say its campaign is about appreciating art and not about flogging blockbusters. It could also be argued that Starbucks took a growth opportunity that has stretched its brand too far, argues Mary Crossan, business policy professor at the University of Western Ontario. â€Å"When they start to move into movies, they’re not leveraging their resources or capabilities (in coffee).† Starbucks has stated that it is not interested in producing movies, just promoting them, but Crossan warns that companies need be careful about taking focus away from the core business. And Starbucks has made some poor business choices. It has failed in previous ventures, including an attempt to get into the Internet business in the 1990s and an in-house magazine called Joe that folded after three issues. But Akeelah star Angela Bassett thinks the movie business is a good move for Starbucks. â€Å"Everybody’s got something to sell,† she told Newsweek. â€Å"You just have to be sure of what you’re trying to sell.† Copyright New York Times Company May 19, 2006 I was on my way from downtown Budapest to the airport the other day when my driver, Jozsef Bako, mentioned that if I had any friends who were planning to come to Hungary, they should just contact him through his Web site: www.fclimo.hu. He explained that he could show people online all the different cars he has to offer and they could choose what they wanted. †How much business do you get online?† I asked him. †About 20 to 25 percent,† the Communist-eraengineer-turned-limo-proprietor said. The former secretary of state James Baker III used to say that you know you’re out of office †when your limousine is yellow and your driver speaks Farsi.† I would say, †You know that the global economy is spinning off all kinds of new business models when your Hungarian driver has his own Web site in English, Magyar and German — with background music.† Jozsef’s online Hungarian limo company is one of many new business models I’ve come across lately that are clearly expanding the global economy in ways that are not visible to the naked eye. I was recently interviewing Ramalinga Raju, chairman of India’s Satyam Computer Services. Satyam is one of India’s top firms doing outsourced work from America, and Mr. Raju told me how Satyam had just started outsourcing some of its American work to Indian villages. The outsourcee has become the outsourcer. Mr. Raju said: †We told ourselves: if business process outsourcing can be done from cities in India to support cities in the developed world, why can’t it be done by villages in India to support cities in India. Things like processing employee records can be done from anywhere, so there is no reason it can’t be done from a village.† Satyam began with two villages a year ago and plans to scale up to 150. There is enough bandwidth now, even reaching big Indian villages, to parcel out this work, and the villagers are very eager. †The attrition level is low, and the commitment levels high,† Mr. Raju said. †It is a way of breathing economic life into villages.† It gives educated villagers a chance to stay on the land, he said, and not have to migrate to the cities. A short time later I was interviewing Katie Jacobs Stanton, a senior product  manager at Google, and Krishna Bharat, founder of Google’s India lab. They told me that Google had just launched Google Finance, but what was interesting was that Google Finance was entirely conceived by the Google team in India and then Google engineers from around the world fed into that team — rather than the project’s being driven by Google headquarters in Silicon Valley. It’s called †around sourcing† instead of outsourcing, because there is no more †out† anymore. Out is over. †We don’t have the idea of two kinds of engineers — ones who think of things and others who implement them,† Ms. Stanton said. †We just told the team in India to think big, and what they came back with was Google Finance.† Mr. Bharat added: †We have entered the generation of the virtual office. Product development happens across the global campus now.† Last story. I’m in gray Newark speaking to local businessmen. I meet Andy Astor, chief executive of EnterpriseDB, which provides special features for the open-source database called PostgreSQL. His primary development team, he tells me, consists of 60 Pakistani engineers in Islamabad, who interact with the New Jersey headquarters via Internet-based videoconferencing. †The New Jersey team — software architects, product managers and executives — comes to work a couple of hours early, while the Islamabad team comes in late, and we have at least five to six hours per day of overlap,† Mr. Astor said. †We therefore have multiple face-to-face meetings every day, which makes a huge difference for communication quality. We treat videoconference meetings as if we were all in the same room.† What all these stories tell me is that we are seeing the emergence of collaborative business models that were simply unimaginable a decade ago. Today, there are so many more tools, so many more ideas, so many more people able to put these ideas and tools together to discover new things, and so much better communications to disseminate these new ideas across the globe. If more countries can get just a few basic things right — enough telecom and bandwidth so their people can get connected; steadily improving education; decent, corruption-free economic governance; and the rule of law — and we can find more sources of clean energy, there is every reason for  optimism that we could see even faster global growth in this century, with many more people lifted out of poverty. GM’s Landmark in IT Outsourcing By Steve Hamm – BusinessWeek – 2/2/2006 A huge package of outsourcing contracts announced Feb. 2 by General Motors seems to signal shifting fortunes in the $600 billion-a-year information-technology services industry. EDS, GM’s longtime primary supplier, lost ground, while Hewlett-Packard’s sometimes-overlooked services unit got a big lift. The profile of India’s tech industry rose when GM named one of the country’s leading companies, Wipro, as a tier-one supplier. All told, about $7.5 billion in five-year contracts were awarded. Another $7.5 billion in contracts are expected to be parceled out as new projects come up over the next couple of years. EDS, which formerly had about two-thirds of GM’s outsourcing business, still has the biggest share. It got contracts worth $3.8 billion — or about half of the business. HP’s contracts totaled $700 million, and GM called it out as one of t he major gainers. IBM got $500 million in contracts. FINANCIAL SHADOW. The package is significant beyond its sheer size because it’s an indication of how GM Chief Information Officer Ralph Szygenda is reshaping the way the company handles tech outsourcing. He handed contracts in large chunks to companies that will handle them on a global basis rather than country by country. Also, GM and the tech suppliers worked together to create new standards for managing technology, which means all suppliers will do things in a uniform way. Szygenda says the new strategy will allow GM to improve global collaboration while assuring reliability of its computing systems and cutting costs. â€Å"It lets GM focus on innovation rather than spending a lot of time on managing its suppliers,† he said at a press conference. GM’s financial woes cast a shadow over the announcement, however. The carmaker reported a $4.8 billion quarterly loss on Jan. 26. While Szygenda said low prices were only a secondary impetus behind the way he structured the outsourcing contracts, some suppliers didn’t even participate in the bidding, most notably, Accenture. Others said they didn’t bid on all of the pieces because they were concerned they wouldn’t make enough money on them. â€Å"A BIG KICK.† Yet  those who did win contracts were jubilant. â€Å"HP selectively bid on areas where we know we can do a great job and where focus was on core areas of importance to HP and GM,† says Steve Smith, senior vice-president of HP Services. His business is often overshadowed by IBM and Accenture, but it has been gaining momentum lately. Its revenues grew 6% in HP’s fourth quarter, to $3.9 billion. Last quarter, IBM’s services revenues were in the doldrums, declining 5%, to $12 billion. Wipro had already been doing some work for GM, but the new package gives it a credibility lift. Its contracts were worth $300 million over five years. Wipro Executive Vice-President Girish Paranjpe says the company is delighted to be picked. â€Å"It’s a huge morale booster for us to be able to play with the big boys,† he says. â€Å"Also, because we’re the only tier-one player GM picked from India, it’s a big kick for us.† If GM’s new strategy for managing outsourcing works well, it could become a model for other large corporations. The package has five-year contracts instead of the more traditional 10-year pacts and splits the work up among several suppliers instead of relying predominantly on one. â€Å"This is a tipping point for IT,† says Robert McNeill, principal analyst at Forrester Research. â€Å"Organizations will have to add skills to their vendor management function and make transition management a key for success when moving to a more flexible services model.† Another lesson from the contract: Even financially troubled companies are spending big on IT. That’s great news for the tech titans that got a bigger piece of the GM pie. It should even provide solace to EDS, however diminished its share.