Business Strategy in a Global Environment

Business Strategy in a Global Environment Globalization is the eminent icon of the 1990s, and in the twenty first century. Globalization is absolutely soaring and gearing up dynamically competing lifes real scenes. Globalization refers to the growth and status of trade and investment, clustered by the growth in international business fields, and the integration of economies penetrating all corners of the world. Strategy Paradoxes and Debates The term strategy anchors its definition basically sprouting from military fields and origins and has been expanded into the business world and context where several authors and researchers have spread arguments and debates on strategy concerning both quantitative and qualitative manifestations and processes. Strategy in business is coined to survival; the battleground and arena during a match, or a game. Jarvis (2005) highlights the 5Ps concept of Mintzberg observing the term strategy which primarily means plan, ploy, pattern, position, and perspective. The Coca Cola Bottling Company has all these 5 Ps in particular and all companies in general. Strategy is a ploy which basically refers to any artifice, maneuver, trick, or game to outwit and defeat a competitor or rival raising an anticipation of what we are going to do to confuse, shake, deter, prompt or deceive competitor to perform a move or not to move at all. It articulates the necessary steps to be done like creating a pattern (as a post hoc application), reflecting on the done action with its pattern consistency whether or not its planned and intended. Seeing the pattern means its an intentional strategy showing the pattern stems from the plan. But theres no managing and supervising intentionality. So there are two types of strategy distinguishing such intention; namely, deliberate strategy and emergent strategy. Strategy as a position is pushed with the idea and analogy from the military view, Ill take care of the waves whilst, you take care of the ripples referring on the emphasis of tactics. Position strategy simply stares its focus on where you are standing or sitting for you to view your horizon and whole landscape in the world of business relating to the context or internal and external situation. Such position projects the relation and status within the competitive arena and the existing co-operative interrelations matching ones organization, team, or department against others and rivals and the lobbying environmental demands. Moreover, strategy-as-position situates different and several players not just one-to-one competition. A company that exposes itself to a market cubbyhole and tight competition is trying to position itself to secure, to brace sustainable competitive advantage. Strategy as perspective refers to the group of strategy creators or makers with their whims, views, retrospection, predilections, and preferences affecting the organization. Thus, strategy is a body of ideas, insights, anticipations and imperatives spoken and aired by a group of people articulated in different types of conversations and of distinct degrees of importance wherein ideas and propositions are scattered for a collective forum which is either imposed or consensus. Global Market Models and Concepts and Analysis Managers must be conscious that markets, supplies, investors, locations, partners, and competitors can be anywhere in the world. Successful businesses will take advantage of opportunities wherever they are and will be prepared for downfalls. Evidently, successful managers, in this environment, need to understand the similarities and differences across national boundaries, in order to utilize the opportunities and deal with the potential downfalls. In developing appropriate global strategies, managers need to take the benefits and drawbacks of globalization into account. A global strategy must be in the context of events around the globe, as well as those at home. International strategy is the continuous and comprehensive management technique designed to help companies operate and compete effectively across national boundaries. While companies top managers typically develop global strategies, they rely on all levels of management in order to implement these strategies successfully. Th e methods companies use to accomplish the goals of these strategies take a host of forms. For example, some companies form partnerships with companies in other countries, others acquire companies in other countries, others still develop products, services, and marketing campaigns designed to appeal to customers in other countries. Some rudimentary aspects of international strategies mirror domestic strategies in that companies must determine what products or services to sell, where and how to sell them, where and how they will produce or provide them, and how they will compete with other companies in the industry in accordance with company goals. The development of international strategies entails attention to other details that seldom, if ever, come into play in the domestic market. These other areas of concern stem from cultural, geographic, and political differences. Consequently, while a company only has to develop a strategy taking into account known governmental regulations, o ne language (generally), and one currency in a domestic market, it must consider and plan for different levels and kinds of governmental regulation, multiple currencies, and several languages in the global market (Heil 2010). Company Strategic Decisions for Sustainable Competitive Advantage Arie de Geus (1997) spelled out that a company with needs has the key characteristics he called a living company because it is helping itself. He stressed four key traits: (1) sensitivity to the business environment which reflects the ability and capability to learn and adjust; (2) cohesion and identity or the ability to create a community with vision, personality, and purpose; (3) tolerance and decentralization or the ability to build relationships; and, (4) conservative financing. Strategic Management is a constant object of curiosity among psychologists and thinkers. On several occasions, senior managers are asked how they come up with strategic decisions. They have one pattern of making these crucial and company-light decisions. One would suppose these to be mathematical, based on rigid rules of logic or statistical treatments. But heres the catch: The managers decisions were product of informal data gathering, intuition, innovation, and oral exchanges in 2-way communications. These managers have the feel of the whole situation besetting their companies and their impulse always has an accompanying relevance. Their minds transcend logical rules that are immutable and mechanical and perhaps by age and experience, they acquired an almost instantaneous and discrimination of what is effective and practical. They give a whole new meaning to the words feeling, judgment, common sense, proportion, balance, and appropriateness. They use these terms to effect viable ac tions that would sustain their companies in the tests of domestic or external competition, recession, changing market attitudes, inflation, to mention only the majors. These street-smart guys are not much into science when they make a decision. Instead, they stay at the helm of art which is a combination of wisdom, experience, common sense, and a lot of prudence and daring. Senior managers usually see problems of their companies as big opportunities in disguise. They remain flexible in finding ways but that does not mean foolish weighing the indefinite till the situation clears or worsens. They are flexible in making solutions to give provisions for modifications, adjustments, shifts, or even u-turn without compromising company principles. They are not namby-pambies who are easily swayed by fashion. They are as hard as nails on standards of excellence. Hence, they inspire, and prod those below them to follow suit and commit to live action. They are virtuosos in motivating people and so people tick to grow the limbs of their action plans and visions. It was noted in many studies conducted in most industrialized countries that executives are investing much of their time developing a circle of relationships. Thence, they gain insights and details to be applied in forming concrete strategic decisions. They have the inclination to use mental simulations and they display some gift of seeing with their minds. Intuition is the guiding light of the day and even after office hours, they would re-run what else can be done if strategy A should need a remedy. So before any pitfall or backsliding, there reserved a fallback program to reinforce the existing. Funny as it sounds but executives can sense first what they are going to do before they can explain why. No calculations but deep in their brain cells and feeling, this is the way to salvation and promised land. The way might not be a bay of plenty but they are sure when the dusts subside the rays of their strategy would save the organization. Information may change overnight and strategic planning is complex but they know how to combat challenges with concrete interventions. With the advent of technology, senior managers are more and more relieved of the so called strategic planning. Information Technology at last has created a great divide between senior managers and operational level managers. Through sophisticated programs on the computer, any manager can already function as an independent segment albeit following the general threads of the company culture. All that top brass management would do is to inspire, delegate, assess and appraise their subjects. They provide the vision, specify the substance, and direct the institutional goals. Their managers are expected to facilitate process, action plans, and fill out forms to make way for effective documentation, work accomplishment, accounting procedures, marketing, manpower accountability and networking. Executive leaders have followers, while managers have subordinates, according to an analyst. Managers are oftentimes blamed for the bankruptcy of businesses in America in the 1970s and 80s. Leaders make decisions while managers usually execute them. Leaders are careful to choose their managers because lack of leadership down the line can antagonize the growth of the whole organization. Normally, strategic decision-making takes place on two levels: aggregate and individual. Both of these are geared towards getting attention, storing information through encoding, retrieval thereof, strategic choosing, feedback and outcome. Aggregate and individual strategies are interdependent and they harmonize with each other in all stages of the organization. While it is true that aggregate is more supreme than the individual strategy, it is the individual that feeds to the strength of the aggregate. The aggregate can only sound strong on paper but without the individual strategy which is the action level that extends to clients, customers, consumers, financiers, lenders and debtors, it can just be a lameduck-a print of strong accent without teeth or bite because there is no execution by junior vice presidents, section managers, team leaders, and the rank and file. . Johnson, Scholes and Whittington in corporate strategy present a model in which strategic alternatives and options are evaluated against three key success criteria: suitability, feasibility, and acceptability. (1) Suitability. It gears to answer security questions such as Would it work?, Does it make sense to economy?, Would the organization obtain economies of scale, economies of scope, or experience economy? Would it be suitable in terms of environment and capabilities? Ranking strategic options and decision trees are the measuring tools to evaluate suitability. (2) Feasibility. Can it be made to work?. It is concern whether the resources required to carry the strategy are available and can be obtained and developed. Its resources include funding, people, time, and information. Consequently, cash flow analysis and forecasting, break-even analysis, and resource deployment analysis are the scaling tools for it. (3) Acceptability. Would this make sense among stakeholders? Would shareholders, company employees and customers respond with the targeted product or performance outcomes? What about returns? Will it yield the projected benefits by the stakeholders in terms of dollars or other essentials (financial and non-financial)? For instance, shareholders would anticipate the growth of their capital or wealth, employees would aim for the upliftment in their careers and customers would expect added value for money. When strategy fails, the probability of risks arisesfinancial or otherwise. These risks could be shareholders going against the issuing of new shares or employees and unions picketing against outsourcing for fear of losing their jobs. Most likely too, customers would have paranoia over a merger as regards quality and support. What-if analyses are tools employed to evaluate acceptability. Global Market Models and Concept Analysis In the midst of global market tight business competition models and concepts analysis is crucial and vital. Thus, any business manager must discern and decide whats the best move or course of action to be undertaken to outwit and win the market place and patrons. Several concept analysis are designed for managers to scrutinize business status to have an equilibrium and project sustainable competitive advantage among others in the field. One of these types is SWOT Analysis. A good look at the internal and external environment is an indispensable part of strategic planning. Environmental attributes internal to the firm usually can be classified as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W),while those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T). This analysis is referred to as SWOT analysis. This analysis provides insights that are keyl in matching the firms assets and capacities vis-Ã  -vis the competitive environment in which it exists. Therefore, it is crucial in strategy formulation and selection. What are strengths? The firms or companys strengths are its assets, resources and capabilities that can be utilized as the foundation for mapping out a competitive edge. Some of these are patents, reputed brand names, established repute among customers, cost advantages, exclusive access to precious natural resources and favorable access to marketing outlets. Weakness is of course the opposite of strengths like lack of patent protection, a so-so brand name, ill-repute among customers, high price structure, lack of access to the best raw materials or natural resources, and worst, lack of access to strong distribution channels. Take the case in which a firm has a large amount of manufacturing capacity. While this ability may be considered as a strength that competitors do not share, it also may be a considered as a weakness if the large investment in manufacturing capacity hinderss the firm from reacting quickly to shifts or fluctuations in the marketplace. Furthermore, opportunities may mean income and growth; like, a wanting in customer need, invention of new technologies, loosening of legal hindrances and lifting of international business hurdles. Moreover, threats are the present and intervening factors in the external environment; like changes in consumer tastes deviating from the firms product lines, introduction of rival products, new legalities and regulations, and further increase in trade barriers. Any company should not singly invest into very encouraging opportunities. Rather, it should have the caution and prescience to better understanding and analysis of a doable course of action to gain that competitive advantage by determining a blend between the companys strengths and upcoming opportunities. S-O strategies run after chances that are a good addition to the companys strengths. W-O strategies fiscalize weaknesses to run after opportunities. S-T strategies map out ways that the firm can use its strengths to minimize its exposure to external threats. W-T strategies create a defensive plan to protect the firms weak spots from making it highly exposed to outside threats. Another tool used to scan the environment in the business field is the PEST Analysis. This is a sophisticated external macro-environment probing that manifest how firm processing can be expressed in terms of the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors. Oftentimes, the acronym PEST (is made as STEP) is employed to describe a framework for the synthesis of macro-environmental factors. Political factors are government laws and legal issues and ascribe both formal and informal rules in which the firm must worklike tax policies, employment measures, environmental ordinances, trade barriers and taxes, and political instability. Economic factors include the purchasing power of prospective customers and the firms capitallike economic improvement, interest rates, exchange and inflation rates. Social factors involve the demographic and cultural facets of the outside macro-environment. These factors have direct effect on customer needs and the size of potential market bases like health consciousness, growth of population, age brackets, career paths, and consciousness on safety. Finally, technological factors can lower if not eliminate barriers to entry, cut the minimum efficient production stages, and highly affect outsourcing decisions; like, RD activity, automation schemes, technological incentives, and rate of technological change. In order to appraise, analyze and assess finished activities which will eventually create a companys competitive edge, a chain of value-creating activities must be in place. Michael Porter outlined a set of many generic activities common to a wide range of firms. Accordingly, the objective of such activities is to foster worth that exceeds the cost of providing the product or service. In consequence, this will generate profits as customers want worth congruent to costs. Everyone wants worth as tantamount to price so such value-creating activities is a very good psychology applied to business. If only all businesses employ this action plan, then what a better consumer base they create and a whole lot happier people they would account in their following. Another concern tackles inbound logistics which embraces the receipt, warehousing, and inventory of company input and output materials; operations are the value-creating tasks that transform the inputs into the finished product or outcome; outbound logistics are responsible for the finished product to reach the customer, including but not limited to warehousing, delivery and the like. Marketing sales are any effortstangible or not, direct or indirect, intentional or by chance-are those activities that have something to do with getting consumers to buy the product, channel selection, advertising, pricing, and much more. Service activities are those of maintenance and enhancing effect to the product value inclusive of customer support, repair services, etc. All of these vital activities are effective in developing companys competitive advantage. Logistics, as we all know, are crucial and vital for a contracting company to to distribute services, while service activities are the main focus for a company that offers on-site maintenance contracts for office supplies and machines. In addition, there are also at least four generic areas of support activities ensuring firm sustainability in the business shark-infested watersamong others, procurement, technology development, human resource management, and firm. Procurement entails the role of buying the raw materials and other essentials in the value-creating undertakings. Technology development includes studies and development, process machination, and other technology gadgets used to enhance the value-chain activities. Human Resource Management, are the tasks that include recruitement, enrichment, and just compensation of workers. Firm infrastructures are those activities of the finance, legal, quality, and management departments. Support activities are termed as overhead but some firms have sparingly used them to maintain a competitive advantage. For example, a company can do outreach works, medical missions, gift-giving to indigents, of renovation of a neglected public hospital. This can also take the forms of donating to a charity, to a depressed area because of typhoons, floods, or quake-shaken areas. These activities require definition, linkages, and coordination between and among partner companies, with the consent and knowledge of the customer base. Sufficient and effective media publishing through print, broadcast or satellite means can be employed to maximize efforts to establish such elusive state of companys competitive edge. It is a matter of concerted effort, a must-have if companies h ave to outlive and outdo competitors. A perfect grasp of interdependence and mutual benefit must be clear to make all strategies work for the betterment of the organization. If support is not totally ensured, then at least, majority of suppliers, advertisers, as well as the general public are involved. If response is not favorable, then executives have to do some side stepping, even taking back alleys so the companys goals will be served. If executives back out, then, what a pity to the organization. A company needs a sure-fire executive in the face of uncertainties. Hence, executives must see a rundown of these activities before implementation. That is why there is what we call value system. Great companies have very strong value systems that new hires would either subscribe to it or leave it. There is simply no half-way house in these great companies. In exchange, they offer palatable salaries, fringes, and other opportunities of growth-monetary, career or physical growth. In closing, strategies are useless unless acted upon, applied, or animated to make the company prosper side by side with competitive edge. With the fangs of globalization threatening to devour the weak and unprepared, executives of the 21st Century has many assignments to do. These begin from mapping out a vision, a mission, then the strategies needed to make these dreams come into fruition. Gone were the days when companies would only wait for customers to take their products because of limited choice or monopoly. Today, more than any era of the past, business is very precarious and risky. Hard earned capitals are washed away overnight once investment is not done with caution, sustainability and competitive edge. Only those who have the edge would survive. Application: The Coca Cola Bottling Company: Coca Cola soft drink was nothing but a local concoction in America. It was concocted by Dr. John S. Pemberta in Atlanta, Georgia. Frank Robinson, bookkeeper, suggested the name and crafted it in free hand script which stood the odds of changes till this very day. From a local drink, the founders of the company planned to market it on statewide scale. Their ploy is to give its package a handsome look so it would appeal to skeptical drinkers. The design of the brand name has been a consistent pattern to make sure the name will be associated with thirst quenching. Their marketers are very aggressive and effective that very soon after their debut in the drinking arena they salvaged the prime spot in the soft drink industry. They arrogate to themselves the saying, Get Ready for Tomorrow Today,-their corporate way of positioning. Their perspective to be global came into reality, riding in that slogan, Open Happiness! They convince people through ads that Coca Cola can refresh the world, can inspire to make people optimistic. In other words, they exist to make a difference. And then their advertisements are apt for specific seasons. During winter time, they show Santa Claus merrily dash through the skies as he drinks coca cola in his chariot on reindeers. During summertime, the theme, red hot summer is bannered on company sponsored parties. Before the competition could catch up, Coca Cola also introduces hundreds of other delights in its product line. But a wit may ask, how do they capitalize on their strengths, and address their weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, including antagonisms from politics, economy, society, and technology? They look ahead. They analyze trends that shape business in the future and adjust accordingly for whats to take place. Coca Cola was abreast with the Y2K scare along with giants in the business world. Hence, they won together with their bottling partners and financing allies. Concerning the current global crisis, the company is not at all hampered by leaps and bounds because it is consumer-based. The company applies core values on leadership (the resolve to create a better future), collaboration (collective ingenuity), integrity (being real), accountability (or responsibility), passion (heart-mind commitment), diversity (create more and more), and quality (doing well) as its anchor in its vision 2020. In addition, even their managers get out into the market and listen. They observe and learn. Coca Cola people possess a world view and they are curious to sift whats new. And lest we forget: They remain constructively discontent on their achievements, new markets and prospects. They are a cool bunch with a singular vision: To refresh the world. Sources: The Coca Cola Company 2009. Year in Review. Web. Retrieved 21 October 2010 from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/mission_vision_values.html Questions and Answers from Yahoo.com 2008 Web. Retrieved 21 October 2010 from http://www.righthealth.com/topic/Who_Invented_Coca_Cola Bradford, Robert W., Duncan, Peter J., Tarcy, Brian, Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast! Available from: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/. [10 October, 2010]. Heil, Karl 2010. Strategy in the Global Environment. Available from: . [10 October, 2010]. Geus, Arie de 1997. The Living Company. Available from: http://www.ariedegeus.com/ and [10 October, 2010]. Jarvis, Chris 2005. Business Open Learning Archive. Available from: . [10 October, 2010]. Quickmba.com 2010. Strategic Management. Available from: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/. [10 October, 2010]. Quickmba.com 2010. Strategic Management. Available from: . [10 October, 2010]. Wikipedia.org computer software 2009. Available from: [10 October, 2010].

Dijkstra Paper

(A Look Back at) Go To Statement Considered Harmful Edsger Dijkstra wrote a Letter to the Editor of Communications in 1968, criticizing the excessive use of the go to statement in programming languages. Instead, he encouraged his fellow computer scientists to consider structured programming. The letter, originally entitled â€Å"A Case Against the Goto Statement,† was published in the March 1968 issue under the headline â€Å"Go To Statement Considered Harmful. † It would become the most legendary CACM â€Å"Letter† of all time; â€Å"Considered Harmful† would develop into an iconic catch-all.Dijkstra’s comments sparked an editorial debate that spanned these pages for over 20 years. In honor of the occasion, we republish here the original letter that started it all. Editor: For a number of years I have been familiar with the observation that the quality of programmers is a decreasing function of the density of go to statements in the programs they p roduce. More recently I discovered why the use of the go to statement has such disastrous effects, and I became convinced that the go to statement should be abolished from all â€Å"higher level† programming languages (i. e. verything except, perhaps, plain machine code). At that time I did not attach too much importance to this discovery; I now submit my considerations for publication because in very recent discussions in which the subject turned up, I have been urged to do so. My first remark is that, although the programmer’s activity ends when he has constructed a correct program, the process taking place under control of his program is the true subject matter of his activity, for it is this process that has to accomplish the desired effect; it is this process that in its dynamic behavior has to satisfy the desired specifications.Yet, once the program has been made, the â€Å"making† of the corresponding process is delegated to the machine. My second remark is that our intellectual powers are rather geared to master static relations and that our powers to visualize processes evolving in time are relatively poorly developed. For that reason we should do (as wise programmers aware of our limitations) our utmost to shorten the conceptual gap between the static program and the dynamic process, to make the correspondence between the program (spread out in text space) and the process (spread out in time) as trivial as possible.Let us now consider how we can characterize the progress of a process. (You may think about this question in a very concrete manner: suppose that a process, considered as a time succession of actions, is stopped after an arbitrary action, what data do we have to fix in order that we can redo the process until the very same point? ) If the program text is a pure concatenation of, say, assignment statements (for the purpose of this discussion regarded as the descriptions of single actions) it is sufficient to point in th e program text to a point between two successive action descriptions. In the absence of go to statements I can permit myself the syntactic ambiguity in the last three words of the previous sentence: if we parse them as â€Å"successive (action descriptions) â€Å"we mean successive in text space; if we parse as â€Å"(successive action) descriptions† we mean successive in time. ) Let us 7 PAUL WATSON COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM January 2008/Vol. 51, No. 1 Forum call such a pointer to a suitable place in the text a â€Å"textual index. † When we include conditional clauses (if B then A), alternative clauses (if B then A1 else A2), choice clauses as introduced by C.A. R. Hoare (case[i] of (A1, A2, †¦ , An)), or conditional expressions as introduced by J. McCarthy (B1__ >E1, B2 __ E2, †¦ , Bn __ > > En), the fact remains that the progress of the process remains characterized by a single textual index. As soon as we include in our language procedures we must admi t that a single textual index is no longer sufficient. In the case that a textual index points to the interior of a procedure body the dynamic progress is only characterized when we also give to which call of the procedure we refer.With the inclusion of procedures we can characterize the progress of the process via a sequence of textual indices, the length of this sequence being equal to the dynamic depth of procedure calling. Let us now consider repetition clauses (like, while B repeat A or repeat A until B). Logically speaking, such clauses are now superfluous, because we can express repetition with the aid of recursive procedures. For reasons of realism I don’t wish to exclude them: on the one hand, repetition clauses can be implemented quite comfortably with present day finite equipment; on the other hand, the reasoning pattern known as â€Å"induction† makes us well quipped to retain our intellectual grasp on the processes generated by repetition clauses. With the inclusion of the repetition clauses 8 textual indices are no longer sufficient to describe the dynamic progress of the process. With each entry into a repetition clause, however, we can associate a socalled â€Å"dynamic index,† inexorably counting the ordinal number of the corresponding current repetition. As repetition clauses (just as procedure calls) may be applied nestedly, we find that now the progress of the process can always be uniquely characterized by a (mixed) sequence of textual and/or dynamic indices.The main point is that the values of these indices are outside programmer’s control; they are generated (either by the write-up of his program or by the dynamic evolution of the process) whether he wishes or not. They provide independent coordinates in which to describe the progress of the process. Why do we need such independent coordinates? The reason is—and this seems to be inherent to sequential processes—that we can interpret the value of a variable only with respect to the progress of the process.If we wish to count the number, n say, of people in an initially empty room, we can achieve this by increasing n by one whenever we see someone entering the room. In the inbetween moment that we have observed someone entering the room but have not yet performed the subsequent increase of n, its value equals the number of people in the room minus one! The unbridled use of the go to statement has an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe he process progress. Usually, people take into account as well the values of some well chosen variables, but this is out of the question because it is relative to the progress that the meaning of these values is to be understood! With the go to statement one can, of course, still describe the progress uniquely by a counter counting the number of actions performed since program start (viz. a kind of normalized clock). Th e difficulty is that such a coordinate, although unique, is utterly unhelpful.In such a coordinate system it becomes an extremely complicated affair to define all those points of progress where, say, n equals the number of persons in the room minus one! The go to statement as it stands is just too primitive; it is too much an invitation to make a mess of one’s program. One can regard and appreciate the clauses considered as bridling its use. I do not claim that the clauses mentioned are exhaustive in the sense that they will satisfy all needs, but whatever clauses are suggested (e. g. bortion clauses) they should satisfy the requirement that a programmer independent coordinate system can be maintained to describe the process in a helpful and manageable way. It is hard to end this with a fair acknowledgment. Am I to judge by whom my thinking has been influenced? It is fairly obvious that I am not uninfluenced by Peter Landin and Christopher Strachey. Finally I should like to r ecord (as I remember it quite distinctly) how Heinz Zemanek at the pre-ALGOL meeting in early 1959 in Copenhagen quite explic- January 2008/Vol. 1, No. 1 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM itly expressed his doubts whether the go to statement should be treated on equal syntactic footing with the assignment statement. To a modest extent I blame myself for not having then drawn the consequences of his remark. The remark about the undesirability of the go to statement is far from new. I remember having read the explicit recommendation to restrict the use of the go to statement to alarm exits, but I have not been able to trace it; presumably, it has been made by C. A. R. Hoare. In [1, Sec. 3. . 1. ] Wirth and Hoare together make a remark in the same direction in motivating the case construction: â€Å"Like the conditional, it mirrors the dynamic structure of a program more clearly than go to statements and switches, and it eliminates the need for introducing a large number of labels in the prog ram. † In [2] Guiseppe Jacopini seems to have proved the (logical) superfluousness of the go to statement. The exercise to translate an arbitrary flow diagram more or less mechanically into a jumpless one, however, is not to be recommended.Then the resulting flow diagram cannot be expected to be more transparent than the original one. REFERENCES 1. Wirth, Niklaus, and Hoare, C. A. R. A contribution to the development of ALGOL. Comm. ACM 9 (June 1966), 413–432. 2. Bohn, Corrado, and Jacopini, Guiseppe. Flow Diagrams, Turing machines and languages with only two formation rules. Comm. ACM 9 (May 1966) 366–371. Coming Next Month in COMMUNICATIONS Alternate Reality Gaming IT Diffusion in Developing Countries Are People Biased in their Use of Search Engines?The Factors that Affect Knowledge-Sharing Behavior Alternative Scenarios to the â€Å"Banner† Years Municipal Broadband Wireless Networks The Myths and Truths about Wireless Security Managing Large Collection s of Data Mining Models Women and Men in IT: Alike or Different? EDSGER W. DIJKSTRA Technological University Eindhoven, The Netherlands Communications of the ACM March 1968, Vol. 11, No. 3, pg 147 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM January 2008/Vol. 51, No. 1 9

Stalin And The Soviet Union - 1336 Words

Joseph Stalin the prominent leader of the Soviet Union had a vision to transform the Soviet Union into an industrialized economy. Through the works of Stalin he implemented â€Å"The Five Year Plan† which included methods and goals that were very important in the arrival of his goal. Though, hard labor, terror, struggle, and work was put on the peasants and kulak class that was key in Stalin’s plans to achieve a Communist society. Through the utilization of terror and repression, Stalin’s Five Year Plan transformed the Soviet Union from a peasant society into an industrialized superpower. Before Stalin’s rise to power, many people did not favor his beliefs but was able to claim his power and dominance. Stalin was involved in many events with the Bolshevik party for 12 year before the beginning of the Russian Revolution in 1917 which gained him military leadership roles in many wars like the Civil War and Soviet Polish War. He was given the role as the Bolsheviks Chief operatives and his relationship with Lenin grew very close, as Lenin admired Stalin as strong and loyal leader. Stalin played an important role in helping engineer the 1921 Red Army Invasion of Georgia. These connections gained him an important position as being a General Secretary on the new Soviet government. May of 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke during his recovery in surgery which led Stalin and Trotsky to worry about who would take over Lenin’s position. Trotsky and Lenin had more of a personal relationship,Show MoreRelatedStalin And The Soviet Union1700 Words   |  7 PagesWhen Josep h Stalin came into power the Soviet Union was a large and under developed country. Mostly agriculture, a high producer of grain but without industry. Only the capital Moscow had started to industrialize but in a very centralized area in small and slow steps. The Russian people had just been through World War 1, two revolutions in 1917, civil war and famine by the time Stalin took the reigns of the country. All which had massive impacts on the state of the economy. Stalin saw Russia as weakRead MoreStalin And The Soviet Union1796 Words   |  8 PagesJoseph Stalin (1878 – 1953) was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. In the eyes of many, Stalin’s rule was a time of terror and suffering. Stalin ruled by fear. Anybody that showed the slightest sign of objection or rebellion against Stalin could be sent away to the Gulags without ever returning. As leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin stopped at nothing to transform his country from a rural society that functioned with outdated and poor toolsRead MoreStalin And The Soviet Union872 Words   |  4 Pages(2)Stalin period was a significant period that his leadership had led the Soviet Union to develop in a very different way that contradicted to the thoughts of Lenin and Marx. Suny argued that Stalin constituted a â€Å"revolution from above,† which meant Stalin as a leader, led the people to make lots of changes by giving orders from the top of the hierarchy. The people were following him instead of initiating the changes and reforms. The industrialization, collectivization, and cultural conservatismRead MoreStalin And The Soviet Union1564 Words   |  7 PagesWith the arrival of the second half of the 20th century, came the death of Stalin and a new age for not only Russia but the entirety of the Eastern Block as well. Russia, as always, stood in the face of adversity and, instead of crumbling, began to develop and progress in leaps and bo unds. In the span of a mere 50 or so years Russia went from one political, social, and economic standing, (Stalinism) to its exact obverse. Despite the obvious changes a switch like this requires there are still someRead MoreStalin s The Soviet Union900 Words   |  4 Pages Stalin’s â€Å"revolution from above† reshaped the Soviet Union through his many policies including his Five Year Plans, industrialization and collectivization. The Soviet Union was transformed from technologically backward to industrialized. Carter’s view that history is driven from above or from below relates to Fitzpatrick and Bailes’ essays because they show that Stalin’s policies to create a new elite were prompted by the social mobility of the working class. The education of the working classRead MoreThe Soviet Union Under Stalin876 Words   |  4 Pagesfall of totalitarian regimes in the Caucasus countries. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) forms the basis of this analysis because the renowned Soviet Union under Stalin played a crucial role in coining the term â€Å"Caucasus states†. In essence, these were countries in between Europe and Asia that were more of colonized by the Russian Empire. Later, during the Communist era they paid extreme and mandatory allegiance to Stalin and other. In this regard, Stalinism became a movement to reckonRead MoreJoseph Stalin And The Soviet Union2106 Words   |  9 Pagesgreat ally leader of World War II, Joseph Stalin, had committed even greater atrocities than Hitler. Joseph Stalin was a ruthless and yet diligent dictator of the Soviet Union, whose rise to power influenced a multitude of major events in his country’s history. Due to Stalin’s impactful reign, he made the Soviet Union become a global superpower, underwent difficult hardships such as the Great Famine in the Soviet Union, and after his death, caused th e Soviet Union to go through a process known as de-StalinizationRead MoreStalin And Stalin s Theory Of The Soviet Union2062 Words   |  9 Pagesgrade academy 2015-2016 History introduction This essay is about hitler and stalin we make clear what they think of differents terms of ideas they had and make sure if they have the same answers or difference and then we compare what they think about they differents mains. Stalin and Hitler essay: Political ideology(2): Stalin s ideology is interesting and not as clear cut as many people think. In theory, Stalin was a communist, but he was not a communist along the same lines as Marx or LeninRead MoreJoseph Stalin : The Dictator Of The Soviet Union Essay1265 Words   |  6 PagesJoseph Stalin was a former general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. Stalin was the dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from 1929 to 1953. His Red Army helped defeat Nazi Germany during WWII. On December 18th, 1879, in the Russian peasant village of Gori, Georgia, Joseph Stalin was born. His full birthname was Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili. He died on March 5th, 1953 in Kuntsevo Dacha. Joseph was buried in the Kremlin Wall NecropolisRead MoreStalin s Leader Of The Soviet Union Essay843 Words   |  4 PagesJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was born 18 December 1878 in Gori, Georgia and died 5 March 1953. Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union for over two decades. He was trying to modernize Russia and help to defeat Nazism. Stalin ruled up until his own death in 1953. He was known as a brutal leader who was responsible for the deaths of over 20 million people. Stalin s parents were poor and he had a rough childhood. He later went to become a priest in a Georgian Orthodox Church, but, he was expelled

Reach School College Admissions Definition

A reach school is a college that you have a chance of getting into, but your test scores, class rank and/or high school grades are a bit on the low side when you look at the schools profile. This article helps you identify schools that qualify as a reach. As you apply to colleges, its important to not underestimate yourself and rule out good schools simply because you dont think you can get in. On the flip side, it can be a waste of time and resources if you apply to colleges and universities that will certainly reject your application. What Colleges Qualify as a Reach If the college requires standardized test scores, you should consider it a reach if your ACT or SAT scores fall below the middle 50% range presented in the college profile data.You should consider a school a reach if your GPA falls below the primary blue and green area in the ​admissions scattergram.You can get a good sense of your chance of admission by setting up a free account at Cappex.  You can sign up here: Calculate Your Chances of Getting In.You should always consider the  top U.S. colleges and top universities  to be reach schools. Most of these schools have such high admissions standards and low acceptance rates, that even top students with strong grades and standardized test scores are more likely to be rejected than admitted. How Many Reach Schools To Apply To This is a tough question. More important is to make sure you apply to at least a couple  match schools and safety schools. Failure to do so might mean that you end up with nothing but rejection letters. Because reach schools end up being a sort of long-shot lottery, it might be tempting to think that applying to lots of reach schools improves your chances of getting into one. On one level, this logic is sound. More lottery tickets greater chance of winning. That said, the lottery analogy isnt entirely apt. If you bang out twenty generic applications for twenty reach schools, your chances of getting in will be slim. Students who succeed at getting into reach schools put time and care into each individual application. Your supplemental essay needs to present a clear, thoughtful, and specific argument focused on the specific features of the school to which you are applying. If a supplemental essay for one school could just as easily be used for another, you have failed to demonstrate your interest and you wont convince the admissions folk of your sincere interest in the school.   Also, make sure your reach schools really are places that you would like to attend. Every year the news covers the story of some interesting high school prodigy who got into all eight of the Ivy League schools. As impressive as this accomplishment is, it is also absurd. Why would an applicant apply to all the Ivies? Someone who is happy in the rural setting of Cornell University would probably hate the urban bustle of Columbia University. Reach schools are often prestigious, but prestige doesnt mean a school is a good match for your personal, academic, and professional interests and goals.   In short, apply to as many reach schools as you want, but make sure they really are schools youd like to attend  and make sure you can give each application the time and attention it demands. Improving Your Chances at a Reach School Apply Early Action or Early Decision. Admit rates are often more than twice as high as they are with the regular applicant pool.If an option, write a supplemental essay or send supplemental materials that clearly articulate why the reach school is a great match for your personality, interests, and goals.If you have a special talent, make sure your skills come across clearly in your application. A stellar athlete, musician, or politician has a skill set that can help make up for less-than-ideal grades and/or test scores.If you have a compelling personal story, be sure to tell it. Some applicants have overcome challenges that put grades and test scores into context and cause the admissions committee to consider the applicants potential, not just his or her previous performance. A Final Note Be realistic when choosing a reach school. If you have a B- high school average, a 21 ACT composite, and very little on the extracurricular front, you are not going to get into Stanford or Harvard. Those universities are not reach schools; they are unrealistic fantasies. There are many excellent colleges and universities that will be a good match for you, but youd be wasting your time and application dollars by applying to schools that will certainly reject you.