Porsche Changes Tack - 1008 Words

MINI-CASE 1 Porsche Changes Tack In pursuing the interests of Porsche’s controlling families different from maximizing the returns to its public share owners? Obviously, it is clearly to see that in pursuing the interests of Porsche’s controlling families different from maximizing the returns to its public share owners. Porsche had three major vehicle platforms: the 911, Boxster roadster and the Cayenne. Sales of these can help Growing portfolio, profitable and sustainable business. This is the mainly sources of Porsche’s controlling families ownership s interest , as well as public shareholders. Porsche’s profitability has been extremely impressive over the past decade – particularly for an automaker. Porsche has followed a†¦show more content†¦26). Congress did respond to Enron’s failures and those of other companies by passing SOX in 2002. SOX stands for Sarbanes-Oxley, which now required for key elements, which are paraphrased below: 1. CEO/CFO sign-off of financial statements 2. Audit/Compensation committees must be independent 3. No loans may be given to corporate officers (Tyco had this issue) 4. Proper controls to assess fraud must be in place Although SOX aimed to bring greater accountability to public corporations, it has been costly and not well-accepted globally. Some would believe that this was an isolated incident because the executive leadership not only was unethical in its business dealings but criminal in its operations, and they were able to convince their workers and business associatesto deceive and undermine the systems at play, actively practicing fraudulent transactions, meaning to disguise poor performance and deceive the investors and the public at large. The reality is that prior to this incident there wasnever a case of this magnitude, the perception held by most are that the governance systems then extend from thecorporate walls of companies to the electric barriers of the company’s regulators and the government itself, are full proof. The belief is that it is a near impossible occurrence and any occurrence is the exception.Although other companies fall into the same traps as Enron, these companies also have dishonest individualsrunning the enterprise: criminalShow MoreRelatedPorsche Changes Tack1930 Words   |  8 PagesPorsche Changes Tack â€Å"Yes, of course we have heard of shareholder value. But that does not change the fact that we put customers first, then workers, then business partners, suppliers and dealers, and then shareholders.† Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO, Porsche An Overview of Porsche AG, 2005 †¢ †¢ Porsche is a publicly traded family controlled company Porsche is a relatively simple company by product line, having three existing and one newly proposed products: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ 911 – the only model produced andRead MorePorsche Changes Tack7652 Words   |  31 PagesPorsche Changes Tack Yes, of course, we have heard of shareholder value. But that does not change the fact that we put customers first, then workers, then business partners, suppliers and dealers, and then shareholders. Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO, Porsche, Die Zeit, April 17, 2005. Porsche had always been different. Statements by Porsche leadership, like the one above, always made Veselina (Vesi) Dinova nervous about the company’s attitude about creating shareholder value. The company was aRead MoreLuxrious Cars Market Analysis in Bangladesh10008 Words   |  41 Pagesdevelopment. For the automobile industry car companies in Bangladesh go ahead with the speed of all time is used for all types of vehicles.   Basically; automotive technology refers to technology that is set up in popular models of cars. With the time change and increased competition, the emergence of sophisticated technologies to pave the way for a car more complex and more. An academic course of the study has a great value when it has practical application in real life situation. 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All Quite on the Western Front Free Essays

HIST 234 March 21 All Quiet on the Western Front All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated by Paul Baumer. Paul was only a nineteen year old fighting in the German army on the French front with some of his classmates: Albert Kropp, the clearest thinker among them; Muller, a physics-inclined academic; and Leer, who wears full beard and lusty nature for girls. Their friends include Tjaden, a skinny 19-year-old locksmith who love to eat; Haie Westhus a large peat-digger, also 19; Deterring, a married peasant; and Stannislaus Katczinsky their wise and crafty 40-year-old leader. We will write a custom essay sample on All Quite on the Western Front or any similar topic only for you Order Now Page 3 they all joined the army voluntarily after listening to the stirring patriotic speeches from their teacher, Kantorek. But after experiencing ten weeks of brutal training at the hands of the petty, cruel Corporal Himmelstoss and the unimaginable brutality of life on the front, Paul and his friends have realized that the ideals of nationalism and patriotism for which they enlisted are simply empty line. They no longer believe that war is glorious or honorable, because they live in constant physical terror. At the very beginning of the book Erich Maria Remarque says â€Å"This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. † Page 0 This novel does not focus on daring stories of bravery, but rather gives a view of the conditions in which the soldiers find themselves. According to the writer â€Å"no one has the vaguest idea what we are in for. The wisest were just poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune. † page 11 The monotony between battles, the constant threat of artillery fire and bombardments, the young soldiers struggle to find food and the lack of training of young recruits meaning lower chances of survival. In the novel the author writes â€Å"our early life is cut off from the moment we came here and that without our lifting a hand† page 19. The young soldiers would often look back and try to find explanation but never quite succeed, since they consider themselves young and extraordinary vague because they were in the 20’s they only had their parents and maybe a girl, hich was not consider too much influences. Whereas older men have a strong background that cannot be destroy, they linked to various life for example they had a family, wife, children, occupations, interest and a background which was strong, which means that war cannot destroy their memory of family. During the war soldiers spent their time on the front line, in an infantryman and in front line trenches. The working conditions became very predictable since it was spent mostly in the trenches. Soldiers recall the boredom of life in the dreary, lice-ridden, diseases spreading, muddy and dusty trenches. The writer describes the unsanitary conditions of life at the front as Tjaden, tired of killing lice one by one, scrapes them off his skin into a boot-polish tin. He kills them by heating the tin with a flame. Haie’s lice have red crosses on their heads, and he jokes that he got them at a hospital where they attended the surgeon general. Paul remembers he and his friends were embarrassed to use the general latrines when they were recruits but now they find them a luxury. With Behm’s death, Paul and his classmates lost their innocent trust in authority figures such as Kantorek. Kantorek writes a letter to them filled with the empty phrases of patriotic fervor, calling them â€Å"Iron Youth† and glorifying their heroism. The men reflect that they once idolized Kantorek but now despise him; they blame him for pushing them into the army and exposing them to the horror of war. They would wake up middle of the night by hearing loud booms. According to Paul he believed that they â€Å"have lost their senses of other consideration because they are artificial since only the facts are real and important to them. Page 21 As Paul sits with Kemmerich who knew his leg has been amputated, he tries to cheer him up, but Kemmerich is convinced he will die, Paul has seen friends die before, but growing up with Kemmerich makes life harder, the orderlies were not helpful, and when they return, Kemmerich has died. Paul collects his things and they remove the body to free up the bed for more wounded. As younger soldiers arrived, Paul and his friends feel like mature veterans. Paul believes every company has one or two resourceful people, but Kat, a cobbler by trade, is the smartest he knows. Page 37. Paul is glad to be his friend, and tells a story to illustrate his strength as a leader. For example Kat, bunking in a small, ravaged factory one night, Kat finding straw for the men to sleep on, and when they are hungry with no food, Kat goes off again and returns with bread and horse-flesh without providing an explanation. page 37 It was assumed that Kat’s sixth sense help locating food and his special talent. As men return from the fronts, they see the shells shattered and coffins pilled by the dozens, however they made jokes in order to distance themselves from the unpleasant knowledge that coffin are made for them. Their first front was completely demolished by a direct hit and the second only to discover it has been buried. Captured Russian soldiers, who are reduced to picking through the German soldiers’ garbage for food, which means there might not be any food in the garbage. Food is so scarce that everything is eaten. Looking at the Russian soldiers, Paul can scarcely believe that these men with honest peasant faces are the enemy. Since nothing about them suggests that he is fundamentally different from them or that he should have any reason to want to kill them. Many of the Russians are slowly starving, and they are stricken with dysentery in large numbers. But most people simply ignore the prisoners begging, and a few even kick them. When Paul returns to the front, he finds Kat, Muller, Tjaden, and Kropp still alive and uninjured. He shares his potato cakes with them. There is excitement among the ranks: the Kaiser, the emperor of Germany, is coming to see the army. In preparation for his visit, everything is cleaned thoroughly, and all the soldiers are given new clothes. But when the Kaiser arrives, Paul and the others are disappointed to see that he is not a very remarkable man. After he leaves, the new clothes are taken away. Paul and his friends muse that if a certain thirty people in the world had said â€Å"no† to the war, it would not have happened. They conclude that wars are useful only for leaders who want to be in history books. During the Great War millions men lost their lives in one of the greatest acts of barbarity the world has ever seen. The heroism and sacrifice of troops in the trenches is probably without parallel. The pretexts for execution for British soldiers had a common theme: many were suffering shell shock or now recognized as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Most of those men were young, defenseless and vulnerable teenagers who had volunteered for duty. Millions of men lost their lives fighting for war and millions of men came home without a leg, an arm, or blind, or deaf, or mentally broken due to the things they had to live through in the trenches. Others had their lives cut short through the effects of poison gas, and injuries due to blast, with collapsed lungs. While others came home whole in body, appearing normal, but with such serious nervous and mental conditions that they could not work, and were confined to mental hospitals for the rest of their lives. It should be noted that most, especially on the Allied side, later believed the war to have been worthless. Technological and military innovations such as poison gas, the machine gun, and trench warfare revolutionized combat during World War I, and Remarque effectively dramatizes how these innovations made the war bloodier, longer, and more costly. In almost every case, military innovations make the soldiers’ lives more dangerous, while medical innovations lag increasingly far behind. Kemmerich, for instance, dies from complications from a relatively light wound. Glory and patriotism cease to be rational ideals in the conflict because advanced technology limits the effect that an individual soldier can have on the conflict and alienates him from the consequences of his actions. Life and death thus become meaningless. How to cite All Quite on the Western Front, Papers

Frankfurt school on popular culture Essay Example For Students

Frankfurt school on popular culture Essay When people watched this film, little did they realise they were watching a modern day twist on a classic. More recently Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice was repackaged and adapted for the big screen. Classical music has been taken and remixed into modern day dance tracks. The dilution and mass production have even been extended to the realms of classical art. Painters such as Munch, Monet and even Van Gogh have been mass produced at all levels from expensive prints to i 3. 50 posters for a childs bedroom wall. All are available for the masses to enjoy at their leisure. Benjamin goes on to argue what whilst mass production can lead to consumerism, it can also be liberating for the lower classes to have access to specific items, previously only available to the ruling classes. According to Shills (1961) the growing volume of popular culture is more about ensuring that the cultural needs of the masses are adequately serviced; that there is something available for everyone in popular culture. It is not simply about providing more opportunities for exploitation of the masses as the thinkers of the Frankfurt School viewed it. Who is to say that the products or commodities being bought are not useful? The Frankfurt School frequently refer to false needs that are increasingly met through the participation in popular, mass produced culture, whereas the true needs of society are those that signify freedom from the oppression. There is a lack of clarity on two points here. Firstly, what is the difference between a true need and a false one? Secondly, how do we recognise what the true needs of society are? Strinati (2003) uses the analogy of a washing machine as an example. Since it is mass produced it must, by definition, be considered a false need. Washing machines, however, provide a very useful, time saving function. It can be said to be meeting a real or true need. Further, who is to say how we define or even recognise these needs? The Frankfurt School appear to be able to define societys needs based purely on their own ideological preferences (Strinati, op cit, pp 71). Further, cultural meanings are produced and managed at the point of consumption by people who are actively able to identify with and construct their own ideas and values associated with the product rather than being the passive, unthinking masses that Adorno and his cohorts suggest. People take from culture what they need through a level of participation of their own choosing. Fiske goes on to argue that whilst popular culture is produced by capitalist organisations, they have to work real hard at getting the masses to consume. Massive advertising campaigns do not automatically guarantee the success of a product. Ultimately it is the choice of the individual whether they participate or resist the advertising, they are far from being passive dopes (Fiske, cited in Barker, 2003). The Frankfurt School, whilst focusing on culture as a form of social control through which the working classes are blindly seduced into participating, by what Marx would call commodity fetishism; miss some very valid differences between the social groups they look down on. Differences between age, gender, and ethnicity add another important dimension to the culture debate. These differences will affect the extent of participation in a particular cultural product, the depth of meaning and value taken from it, and also the level of enjoyment gained. Society is diverse and the blinkered view of the Frankfurt School is somewhat limiting as an analysis of popular culture, as the internal meanings of cultural products are clearly not the same for everyone (Strinati op cit, pp 71). Antonio Gramsci, an Italian writer, politician and political theorist was the founding member of the Communist Party of Italy. His writings from a jail cell in Italy, having been imprisoned under Mussolinis fascist regime, were concerned with the analysis of culture within the Marxist tradition. Overpopulation EssayThey maintain that the revolutionary time that Marx so long hoped for has passed and that the only hope the lower classes have is to better themselves by tapping into the products and ideologies of their oppressors. Something that even Marx himself would have trouble digesting. Furthermore, the main thinkers of the School feel the need to define exactly what the needs of society are. The lower classes cannot think critically for themselves so must rely on the ruling elite to show them how to live their lives. Benjamin provides some light relief with his view that high culture is being mass produced for everyone, but this is still from an overly elitist position. Whilst Gramsci and, to a lesser extent, Althusser provide a slightly less elitist perspective, they still maintain through their concepts of hegemony and ideology respectively, that popular culture is a form of social control and a way for the dominant groups to maintain their status in a capitalist society. Both theorists wanted to eradicate economic determinism from Marxist theory that was still so apparent within the Frankfurt School of thought. Gramsci developed his theory of hegemony to stress the importance of struggle throughout human history and the role that popular culture played in the conflict. Hegemony describes the various modes of social control available to the ruling classes of which culture is but one strand (Ransome, 1992, cited in Strinati, 2003). Popular culture, as seen through the eyes of left-wing intellectuals, is inferior, negative and standardised. The people who consume it are uncritical, conformist and passive dopes. From such a narrow standpoint one can assume the Frankfurt School cannot see the other side of the culture debate. Perhaps if they had lowered their heads a little they would have seen the enjoyment, real satisfaction and usefulness that mass produced culture can bring to society. 2,394 words. REFERENCES Barker, C. (2003), Cultural Studies: Theory Practice. Second Edition. SAGE Publications Ltd. London. Storey, J (2006) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Third Rev Edition. Prentice Hall, London. Strinati, D. (2004), An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. Second Edition. Routledge. Oxon.