The Cola Wars Essay Example for Free

The Cola Wars Essay There are a few reasons why the soft drink industry has been historically profitable for so long. One such reason is that soft drinks have been seen as a great and delicious alternative to drinking just water. Though water is essential to life and its even a main ingredient in soft drinks, its naturally very bland in taste and unexciting to the consumer. Soft drinks however are funs, flavorful, and delicious to drink so they give the consumer something else to desire and are bought to break up the monotony of drinking just plain water. A second reason that the soft drink industry has been historically profitable would be because of the fact that soft drinks have been a cheap buy for the consumer in comparison to anything else on the market. Soft drinks have been sold for as little as a nickel per a drink for varying sizes and quantities of the beverage, while other non soft drink beverages have gone for rate that are much higher than this. Even in todays market a consumer can go out to a store and buy any kind of soft drink product off the shelf and it would cost the a great deal less than it would for a bottle of juice or even a case of the healthy option, water. With a low purchase cost they have been able to entice consumer to continue to buy their products. A third reason that soft drink industry has been has a strong history of being profitable would be that they have always had strong marketing campaigns that appeal to their consumer base and audience. With campaigns such as the Pepsi Generation which lasted for more than a decade to help them set target those who were young, or at least young at heart, and even had the catch phrase â€Å"For those who think young† at one point helped them capture and steal away from Cokes large market share, and even brought them to within a 2-1 sales gap, while Coca-Cola used it’s a Coca-Cola lifestyle to market its soft drinks, even going as far as being a sponsor of the U.S. armed services and offering soldiers a flat rate for their products during WWI. Marketing campaigns such as these help boost sales of soft drinks over several decades and gained them loyal customers who have stuck by and continued to purchase the product that they like to drink. This way of marketing has help create a type of lifestyle for the consumer, which can have a strong benefit for them in the next generation, because if the parent of children have a certain kind of drink that they get their children on , then they are helping create the next generation of consumers for a product.

Al Capone: One Of The Most Ruthless Men Of All Time Essay -- essays r

Al Capone: One of the Most Ruthless Men of All Time   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ultimate symbol of a gangster rule, is a guy by the name of Al Capone, who dominated the Chicago underworld by committing many crimes: such as illegal gambling, extortion, prostitution, and alcohol distribution during prohibition. Capone’s life of gang activity started at a very young age. He created a multi-million dollar empire of crime in Chicago. He has been referred to as one of the most ruthless men of all time (Stockdale 45). He was a smart businessman, good family man, and a generous person, that lived a life full of murders and other crimes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gabriele Capone was a barber that lived in Naples, Italy who decided to escape a bleak rural life in the promise of work and success in the New World. He was one of 43,000 Italians who arrived in the U.S. in 1894 (Stockdale 7-8). Gabriele was 30 years old and he brought his 27-year-old wife, Teresina and their three sons. He was planning to start a barbershop when he got to America. On January 17, 1899, Teresina gave birth to their fourth son named Alphonse Capone (Bardsley 2). The Capone family lived a very normal life with no problems or events that would explain why their sons chose a life of crime. In 1907, Gabriel moved his family into an apartment over his barbershop in an Italian district in south Brooklyn. This move exposed Alphonse to a different kind of life on the streets. He became a member of a junior gang called the Forty Thieves Juniors, which taught its members the art of petty vandalism. The gang taught him how to use violence to get what you want . When he was 14 years old, Al got expelled from school and never went back after he got mad at his teacher and hit her. By this time, Al Capone was destined to live a life of crime (Stockdale 9-11).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By the time Al was 14 years old, he was an experienced streetfighter and had learned how to use a knife and gun successfully. He became a good leader of the junior gang and was introduced to the Five Points Gang in Brooklyn by Frankie Yale and John Torrio. He began working for Frankie Yale who was an important figure in the adult gang in Brooklyn. Al was 16 years old and was helping control Yale’s prostitution, gambling, extortion, and protection rackets (Schoenberg 23-25). Al Capone worked at the Harvard Inn as ... ...). Capone never went back to doing any gang activity because of his illness. Then on January 21, 1948, Al Capone suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. Capone regained consciousness and was able to talk with his family. Then a few days later he caught pneumonia and died of a heart attack on January 25. His body was buried in Chicago on February 4. The site of his grave became a famous tourist attraction so they moved the body to an unpublicized spot in Mount Carmel Cemetery. His tombstone read, â€Å"My Jesus Mercy (Bergreen 605-609).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Public service is my motto. Ninety percent of the people in Chicago drink and gamble. I’ve tried to serve them decent liquor and square games. But I’m not appreciated. I’m known all over the world as a millionaire gorilla,† said Al Capone (Bergreen 16). Alphonse Capone redefined the concept of crime into an organized endeavor modeled on corporate enterprise (Stockdale 45). He dominated the Chicago underworld through illegal gambling, extortion, prostitution, and alcohol distribution. Capone eliminated all of his opponents and avoided prosecution for the crimes that he committed. He was the ultimate symbol of a gangster rule.

Corporate Governance – Role of Board of Directors

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE – ROLE OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS People often question whether corporate boards matter because their day-today impact is difficult to observe. But, when things go wrong, they can become the center of attention. Certainly this was true of the Enron, Worldcom, and Parmalat scandals. The directors of Enron and Worldcom, in particular, were held liable for the fraud that occurred: Enron directors had to pay $168 million to investor plaintiffs, of which $13 million was out of pocket (not covered by insurance); and Worldcom directors had to pay $36 million, of which $18 million was out of pocket.As a consequence of these scandals and ongoing concerns about corporate governance, boards have been at the center of the policy debate concerning governance reform and the focus of considerable academic research. Because of this renewed interest in boardsmuch of the research on boards ultimately touches on the question â€Å"what is the role of the board? † Possible answers range from boards’ being simply legal necessities, something akin to the wearing of wigs in English courts, to their playing an active part in the overall management and control of the corporation.No doubt the truth lies somewhere between these extremes; indeed, there are probably multiple truths when this question is asked of different firms, in different countries, or in different periods. So what is a Board of Director (BoD) and what do Directors actually do? â€Å"A Board of Directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors.It is often simply referred to as ‘the board’ †. A board's activities are determined by the powers, duties, and responsibilities delegated to it or conferred on it by an authority outside itself. These matters are typically detailed in the cou ntry’s company law, organization's bylaws and/or the Article of Association (AoA). The bylaws commonly also specify the number of members of the board, how they are to be chosen, and when they are to meet. To better understand corporate boards, one should begin with the question of what do directors do’? Over the years there has been several indepth studies conducted and research literature published by some of the most brilliant academics only to answer this very question e. g. Mace, 1971, Whisler, 1984, Lorsch and MacIver, 1989, Demb and Neubauer, 1992, and Bowen, 1994 and their conclusions are presented breifly: The principal conclusions of Mace were that â€Å"directors serve as a source of advice and counsel, serve as some sort of discipline, and act in crisis situations†.The nature of their â€Å"advice and counsel† is unclear but Mace suggests that a board serves largely as a sounding board for the CEO and top management, occasionally providing exp ertise when a firm faces an issue about which one or more board members are expert. Yet Demb and Neubauer’s survey results find that approximately two-thirds of directors agreed that â€Å"setting the strategic direction of the company† was one of the jobs they did. 80% of the directors also agreed that they were â€Å"involved in setting strategy for the company†. 5% of respondents to another of Demb and Neubauer’s questionnaires report that they â€Å"set strategy, corporate policies, overall direction, mission, vision†. Indeed far more respondents agreed with that description of their job than agreed with the statements that their job entailed â€Å"oversee[ing], monitor[ing] top management, CEO† (45%); â€Å"succession, hiring/firing CEO and top management† (26%); or serving as a â€Å"watchdog for shareholders, dividends† (23%). According to Epstein and Roy (2006), a high performance board must achieve three core objective s; in other words Epstein and Roy nail the core responsibilities of the board: . Provide superior strategic guidance to ensure the company's growth and prosperity by Setting of Strategy: 2. Ensure accountability of the company to its stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, regulators and community; 3. Ensure that a highly qualified executive team is managing the company by The Hiring, Firing and Assessment of Management. Apart from what has been stated above one very significant and active role played by the board is in terms of â€Å"the hiring, firing, and assessment of management†.This is one role that is typically ascribed to directors is control of the process by which top executives are hired, promoted, assessed, and, if necessary, dismissed. Assessment can be seen as having two components, one is monitoring of what top management does and the other is determining the intrinsic ability of top management. The monitoring of managerial action s can, in part, be seen as part of a board’s obligation to be vigilant against managerial malfeasance. It is essential that the role, duties and responsibilities of directors are clearly defined.The Combined Code (2006) states that â€Å"the board’s role is to provide entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls which enables risk to be assessed and managed†. According to UK Law, the directors should act in good faith in the interest of the company, and exercise care and skill in carrying out their duties. The Company Law Reform Bill (2005) defines, in section 154-161, the directors’ duties as follows: †¢ a duty to act within powers, that is, to act in accordance with the company’s constitution and only exercise powers for the purpose for which they are conferred; a duty to promote the success of the company, so a director must act in the way he considers, in good faith, would be most likely to promote success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole; †¢ a duty to exercise independent judgment; †¢ a duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence; †¢ a duty to avoid conflicts of interest; †¢ a duty not to accept benefits from third party †¢ a duty to declare an interest on proposed transactions or arrangements. But that does not quite answer our cardinal question as to ‘how the role the board plays is related to the overall corporate governance of the organization’.Nevertheless one thing is certain thus far is that the BoD lead and control a company and hence an effective board is fundamental to the success of the company. The board is the link between managers and the investors, and is essential to good corporate governance and investor relations. Since corporate governance represents the value framework, the ethical framework and the moral framework under which business decisions are taken; it therefore calls f or three factors: 1. Transparency in decision-making; 2. Accountability which follows from transparency because responsibilities could be fixed easily for actions taken or not taken, and; . The accountability is for the safeguarding the interests of the stakeholders and the investors in the organization. Decisions relating to board composition and structure will be of fundamental importance in determining whether, and to what extent, the board is effective and successful in achieving these objectives. A board will typically be composed of a Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Executive Directors, Non- Executive Director, Independent Director, Company Secretary and then there are committees made from among the board for specific purposes with a view to increased corporate governance and hence accountability.It is important that the board has a balanced composition both in terms of executive and non executive directors and also in terms of experience, qualities and skills that individu als bring to the table. The Institute of Directors (IoD) has published some useful guidance in this area in 2006 which is shared below: †¢ Consider the ratio and number of executive and non executive directors. †¢ Consider the energy, experience, knowledge, skill and personal attributes of current and prospective directors in relation to the future needs of the board as a whole, and develop specifications and processes for new appointments, as necessary. Consider the cohesion, dynamic tension and diversity of the board and its leadership by the chairman. †¢ Make and review succession plans for directors and the company secretary. †¢ Where necessary, remove incompetent or unsuitable directors of the company secretary, taking relevant legal, contractual, ethical and commercial matter into account. †¢ Agree proper procedures for electing a chairman and appointing the managing director and other directors. †¢ Identify potential candidates of the board, make selection and agree terms of appointment and remuneration.New appointments should be agreed by every board member. †¢ Provide new board members with a comprehensive induction to board process, and policies, inclusion to the company and to their new role. †¢ Monitor and appraise each individual’s performance, behavior, knowledge, effectiveness and values rigorously and regularly. †¢ Identify development needs and training opportunities for existing and potential directors and the company secretary. Roles of the board members 1. Chief Executive Officer and ChairmanThe CEO has the executive responsibility for running of the company’s business; on the other hand, the Chairman has responsibility for the running of the board. The two roles should not therefore be combined and carried out by one person Conclusions Corporate governance, and in particular the role of boards of directors, has been the topic of much attention lately. Although this attention is par ticularly topical due to well-publicized governance failures and subsequent regulatory changes, corporate governance is an area of longstanding interest in economics (dating back to at least Adam Smith, 1776).Because of corporations’ enormous share of economic activity in modern economies, the extent to which corporations deviate from value-maximization is extremely important. Consequently, corporate governance and the role of boards of directors is an issue of fundamental importance in economics. Understanding the role of boards is vital both for our understanding of corporate behavior and with respect to setting policy to regulate corporate activities.

A Comparison of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoons War...

A Comparison of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoons War Poetry Lieutenant Wilfred Edward Salter Owen M.C. of the second Battalion Manchester Regiment, was born March 18th 1893 in Oswestry, Shropshire. He was educated at the Birkenhead Institute and at Shrewsbury Technical school. Wilfred Owen was the eldest of four children and the son of a railway official. He was of welsh ancestry and was particularly close to his mother whose evangelical Christianity greatly influenced his poetry. Owen was in the Pyrenees at the time when war broke out he was tutoring to the Leger family. He became frustrated hearing about all the men dying in the battlefields of Belgium and France and wanted to make a†¦show more content†¦For these acts of bravery he was awarded the Military Cross. He was shot and killed on the 4th November 1918. Aged 25 years just seven days before the armistice. Siegfried Sassoon, C. B. E. M.C. of the Royal Welch Fusiliers was born 8th September 1886, in the family home of Weirleigh at Matfield, Kent. He was educated at Marlborough and then at Clare College, Cambridge. He studied both Law and History at Cambridge before leaving without taking a degree. After leaving Cambridge, Sassoon lived the life of a sportsman, hunting, riding point-to-point races and playing cricket until the outbreak of the War. Sassoon enlisted on 2 August 1914, two days before the British declaration of war, and initially joined as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. Between November 1915 and April 1917 he served as a second lieutenant in both the First and Second Battalions R.W.F. On November 1st 1915, Sassoon suffered his first personal loss of the War. His younger brother Hamo was buried at sea after being mortally wounded at Gallipoli. Sassoon subsequently commemorated this with a poem entitled To My Brother (published in the Saturday Review, February 26th 1916). Then on March 18, 1916 second lieutenant David C. Tommy Thomas (the Dick Tiltwood of Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man) was killed whilst out with a wiring party. He had been hit in the throat by a rifle bullet, and despite theShow MoreRelatedA Comparison Between Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ and Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Does It Matter?’ and ‘Suicide in the Trenches’1991 Words   |  8 PagesWilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ are both poems that protest against and depict the subject of war. They both follow Wilfred Owen’s angst against those who encourage war and the savagery of warfare that he experienced himself. His poetry was devised to strike at the conscience of England during the World War. Owen’s mother had encouraged him to write poetry from an early age and when he was old enough he travelled to France to teach English when the war brokeRead MoreEssay on A Comparison of World War I Poetry2088 Words   |  9 PagesLiterature and poetry are a reflection of society. The words are reflected in numerous feelings that we can almost touch and can be deeply felt in its reach. Most poets expressed their perception and emotion through their writings. Unfortunately the art and poetry describes one of the worst things that human can do to one another. The legalized murder called war. Hence, this type of self-reflection called poetry has help create new fundamental ideas and values towards our society. In this essayRead MoreWilfred Owen s A Soldier For The Allies1707 Words   |  7 Pagesdeaths in World War I was approximately sixteen million and the number of people injured is twenty million, resulting in a combined total of thirty-seven million affected by World War I. Wilfred Owen was a soldier for the allies, an alliance composed of the United States, England, France. He bravely gave his life to attempt to end the war. However, before he died, he wrote a number of poems based on the things he endured while fighting in the war. Wilfred Owen uses his experiences from war, such as aRead MoreThe Different Aspects of Conflict in a Selection of Four War Poems1217 Words   |  5 PagesThe Different Aspects of Conflict in a Selection of Four War Poems Many poems have been witnessed throughout history that show different views on war and the glory and sacrifices made. Everyone was affected, from the men in the front lines to women and children working back at home. Men involved in the war effort often wrote poems to record their thoughts and feelings, or simply to pass the time. Poetry was an outlet through which they could express great depthRead More How Poetry of the First World War Changed Essay3266 Words   |  14 PagesHow Poetry of the First World War Changed The First World War broke out on the 4th of august 1914. It was the first major war near bye Europe for hundreds of years. It sparked fantasies of becoming a war hero in young boys and mens minds and because the government had assured everyone that the war would be over by Christmas, those young boys and men decided to join up in an attempt not to miss the excitement of war. Little did they know that they were being led to an untimely death atRead MoreWorld War One Poetry Essay1411 Words   |  6 PagesWorld War One Poetry For this assignment I am going to give a detailed consideration of poems from World War 1. I will be looking at poems by Wilfred Owen, Jessie Pope, Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon. I intend to study the language, imagery and poetic techniques of the poems. I am going to begin with some of the earlier war poetry. These poems were written to encourage young men to join the army. They are patriotic, jingoistic and unrealistic. These were writtenRead MoreAnalysis of the Deserter by Winifred M. Letts4013 Words   |  17 PagesLines Poetry Anthology Section H 1914-18 War (ii) This revision guide is intended to support the work you have been doing in class on the following poems: Recruiting Joining the Colours The Target The Send-Off Spring Offensive The Bohemians Lamentations The Deserter The Hero Falling Leaves In Flander’s Fields The Seed-Merchant’s Son The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Spring in War-Time Perhaps- Reported Missing E.A. Mackintosh Katherine Tynan Hinkson Ivor Gurney Wilfred Owen Wilfred Owen