Ericsson Headquarters in Cyberjaya: Architecture Theory

Ericsson Headquarters in Cyberjaya: Architecture Theory 1.0 INTRODUCTION Serina Hijjas is a wellknown Malaysian architect and also the director of the Hijjas Kasturi Associates Sdn. She had 20 over years experience in this architecture design field. Serina took over her dad interest in this architecture field as her dad is also an architect , Hijjas Kasturi, the founder of Hijjas Kasturi Associates Sdn. Serina graduated with a Diploma in Architecture in University of Sydney and Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Barlett School of Architecture in England. She was once an archietctural assistant with the Foster Associates, focuses on masterplan for King Cross for two years after her graduation. Later on, she decided to return to Malaysia and work for Hijjas Kasturi Associates focusing on conceptual design, contract management on retail, office building and commercial. She involved in Masterplan in Putrajaya. Serina Hijjas is the founding member of Malaysia’s Grren Building Index technical Committee, which she is very qualified with her experience and architectural background. The Committee acquires the professional membership of boards of Architects in Malaysia and it corporates with the member of PAM. One of Serina greatest achievement with her company was getting involved with the Putrajaya Masterplan design. Her company also work in many otehr plenty large scale projects such as the Masterplan Core Island Boulevard for Putrajaya and Putrajaya Convention Centre, Ericsson Malaysia at Cyberjaya, Telekom Malaysia Headquarters Building, ASEAN Instisture of Medicine, and much more. She has been very active in the area of Energy Efficiency and suatainability since her formative years of architecture practice in The Fosters, London. Besides getting involved in much of government projects, she has also gave much talk and be a good speaker in giving her speech and talks at various green architectural seminar. There are few awards that she had won during these 20 over years of experience which is the Asean Energy Efficiency Award for Securities Commission Headquarters, Bukit Kiara in 2001, Nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Telekom Malaysia Headquarters in 2004, Exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Show, Tower Category for Telekom Malaysia Headquarters, 2nd Place International, Dubai National Library Competition in 2005, Asean Energy Efficiency Award for Telekom Malaysia Headquarters in 2005 and being nominated for the Aga Khan Award for Putrajaya Convention Centre in year 2006. ii.Project description The aim of this project is to convey and understanding of architect’s architectural theory through a direct observation and analysis of his projects. Each of the architectural elements in the chosen building will be broken down and matches with the relevant architectural theories. Besides that, analysis of the relationship between architecture and its social, cultural and intellectual context will be conveyed through diagrams and essay. iii. Building Introduction In this essay, the chosen building to be analyzed is the Ericsson RD Building designed by Serina Hijjas, The client of this project is the Ericsson. This building is the headquarter of Ericsson in the Asia country. The budget of this project was RM110million and it completed in the year 2002. Its the home of the Swedish telecommunications giant, is located in the Multimedia Super Corridor, Cyberjaya. This unique building, with a total air-conditioning area of 300,000 sq ft, houses state-of-the-art facilities for RD inventions.The air-conditioning system utilizes the chilled water from the district cooling (primary circuit) and is circulated into the building (secondary circuit) through heat exchangers. The state-of-the-art air-conditioning system installed in this building incorporates the innovative concept of raised-floor technology and precision air-conditioning system. (Effective Cooling Technologies,2006). 2.0 EXTERNAL FACTOR 1- CLIMATE Ericsson Headquarters in Cyberjaya has large overhanging eaves roof to prevent excessive sunlight to enter the building and affect the comfort level of users. The orientation of the building in the site, where the East west part of the building, is covered with long overhang eaves, act as a shading devices. The large overhanging roof at the sides of the building, having like a perforated type of roof, letting the sunlight to penetrates in the external spaces forming an interesting shadows of spaces. Large overhanging roofs at the entrance with full curtain wall creates a grand entrance. There’s also a tree structure roof at the entrance to gives a feeling of welcoming to the users at the same time as a shading device, protecting the users from sun and rain. The interesting roof at the entrance, having the glass on the rooftop, letting light penetrationg and casting light giving a bright and interesting entrance. The central courtyard of the building emphasizes on the penetrating of natural daylight into the spaces whereby the both sides roof having alittle of overhang for shading purposes. Greens, plants and trees were planted on the surrounding of the building to provide good ventilation and comfortable space. Trees planted along the road before turning into the main entrance of the building. The trees provides shades from the hot climate in Malaysia and also function in being green into the building, provides a comfortable and relaxing feeling to the user and passbyer. For good ventilation, cross ventilation and stack ventilation are being used to attract wind into the building. External Wind goes through from the windows towards the stairs forming a stack ventilation, whereby cross ventilation were form when the opposite sides of the windows are also being open, letting through the wind to goes in and out to ventilate the building spaces. 2.1 EXTERNAL FACTOR 2: ARCHITECTURE THEORY CRITICAL REGIONALISM Being a hybrid of Modernism and Regionalism, it embraces yet distances itself from both, aiming to cultivate a resistant, identity giving culture while at the same time having discreet recourse to universal technique (Frampton, 1983, p.20). Critical Regionalists are â€Å"opposed to mindlessly adopting the narcissistic dogmas in the name of universality, leading to environments that are economically costly and ecologically destructive to the human community† (Tzonis, Lefaivre 2003, p.20). Glenn Murcutt-Magney House (1984) Magney House is an example of critical regionalism. The house was constructed the regrowth of vegetation site where it is relatively wild and undeveloped. It has an external room which supports outdoor living out of wind but relatively integrated with the sun and the view. The effect of this space on the plan is liberating-This space act as a overturns of a conventional model of domestic enclosure and posits a much more redefined and spatially diverse alternative.(Metcalf,2012) An influence architecture of this building is by the critical regionalism. For the Ericsson HQ, it adapts the greenary of the site and added more greens, using light material and a more humanic scale to blend with the site and nature, with the influence of climate in providing shadings and ventilation to the building, the Magney house also uses the material on steel and glass as the light structure for the house, integrating with the tropical location. Ericsson HQ integrates with the site where the orientation of the building at the site, having an easy and obvious access towards the building. This is because the location of the building are having the free access from the main entrance of highway. People can easily have a view access to the building from the highway. Easy access from main highway to the main entrance of the building. The site are surrounded by greenery, having a beautiful scene along the road to the entrance of the building. The approach of nature towards the building focuses on the entrance, having a beautiful and grand entrance, having the water features and beautiful plants and trees to show and let people know the entrance of the building. The approach of greens into the building intergrating with the site to express the tropical location. The site are mainly surrounded by greens, therefore,to match back with the site, trees are being planted at the surrounding where it not only function as aesthetic purpose,but also intergration towards the site, act as shading from the hot climate and heavy rain, and gives a nature and tropical feels to the users. The building height also provides a humanic scale and environment landscape design to the site. The design of height of the building doesnt gives a fear and oppress feeling towards the users but a humanic scale, because of less and average height level of building. The materials used are mostly metals and glass. It brings a light feeling as the construction and material used are light, providing a permeability feeling to the users. High glass curtain wall are being used, allowing the natural daylight to penetrates in the building, protraiting a good energy efficiency. Less artificail lighting is neede to enlight the space in the building thanks to the uses of glass. The design are effective in not just providing natural daylight, but also to prevent excessive daylight into the building, overhanging roofs and also metal cladding in the facade are being widely used. The facade having metal cladding that not only gives shades to the internal spaces but also act as a aesthetic value to the facade design that suits the environment. Metal material are a good material as it is suitable to use in Malaysia, where manufacturer of metal especially aluminium are widely found in Malaysia, and is is more environmental friendly material compared to concrete o r bricks. 2.2 EXTERNAL FACTOR 3: TECHNOLOGY AND MATERIAL The material used in the building are mainly glass and metal. It shows a light and modern architecture style through the design, material and technology used. The buidling are energy effiency through the technology used in the building such as the air condition energy sources. The air-conditioning system utilizes the chilled water from the district cooling (primary circuit) and is circulated into the building (secondary circuit) through heat exchangers. The state-of-the-art air-conditioning system installed in this building incorporates the innovative concept of raised-floor technology and precision air-conditioning system. Besides that, glass material used allows penetration of daylight into the building, providing free natural daylight, reduces the uses of artificial light thus cost reduces not only in lighting cost but also in air condition(ventilation) vice. Therefore, it is a good consideration of design and strategy in designing on efficiency of the building and environmental. Framing the view of internal and external. Metal truss roof are used in the building where the lattice truss can support wide cariety of roof system due to excellent strength to weight ratio. It can weigh till span of 40m without need for intermediate support column.It allows the designers to have a greater flexibility when working to optimise internal space. Metal truss roof provides light construction, durable, long lasting, prevent pesticides, and doesnt need finishes. The structure used in the main entrance as a shading devices are known as the trees structure as the structure of support branches out just like a tree. It is also known as umbrella like structure as it opens up like a umbrella. This structure are light and also mainly use as shading devices in Malaysia along the Jalan Bukit Bintang. The advantages of using metal and glass.Metal has a high strength and weight ratio. Thus steel are very suitable for long span building, having high ductility where it has the energy absorbing capacity and will not incur on sudden failure. Whereas glass allow natural light enter the space although it is enclosed. This very reason is the idea behind applying glass materials in wall construction. The energy usage is reduced. Besides that, air conditioning system does not have to function more in order to fully cool an area because glass is a bad conductor. Choosing this two material in the design, it helps to improve not only in the energy efficiency but also environmental friendly and also gives a modern style design. 3.0 CONCLUSION As nutshell, energy efficeincy and sustainable is being practices into the design where the daylight and climate factors are being considered, whereby the influence theory are the critical architecture that integrates and blends well with the location and teh site, and also the material and technology chosen is important. These 3 external factors is what that influences the design and the end product of the building. Where, this building really integrates and though well on. Ms Serina Hijjas has implied well her knowledge on the idea of how to gain a better energy efficciency to helps and improve to provides a better products, things to the client. The thought of using the the chilled water from the district cooling and incorporates the innovative concept of raised-floor technology and precision air-conditioning system is very well thought of. It leads us the younger generation to realize her efford in bringing her practice of sustainability to her design in reality is what we should learned from her. The critical regionalism is greatly transformed and applied into her design well with the site. From this whole assignment, i felt very grateful to have meet such a great and famous architect and learned many thing from her, thorugh this analysis where different types of approach can leads to many different things in a design, where thought of the site and location is very important to blends with the building. Business Plan for Car Kursaal | Entrepreneurship Assignment Business Plan for Car Kursaal | Entrepreneurship Assignment Entrepreneurship  Assignment-Business plan Xue Dong 1.0 Executive Summary Car Kursaal is a local company that will offer auto car wash services for car owners. It will be established in the Christchurch city which will be located on the Riccarton Road and near by Puriri Street. It will has 1500 square meters large which will include two sides of wash bays and four bays will be set up on each side. High quality services will be available to offer not only for location people, but also for travelers who are visiting around the city. The amount of this investment will up to 1 million dollars including rental for place and establishment of materials. Car Kursaal will offer different types of car wash services such as self-clean services, vacuum services, shampoo services and polish services (Midtdal, K., Jelle, B. P., 2013). Customers are able to choose any type they want even though just use one step of car wash (just use water). Car Kursaal has its special characteristic for service sales that customers can choose different models of services for their car wash according to their needs. Absolutely, different types of services have different cost for diverse income of people. Some studies indicate that no one car wash service offer different models of services for car users in Christchurch. There are 300 thousand residents in Christchurch (Love, T., 2011), in addition, there has many international students, workers and visitors in Christchurch. Almost everyone has a car in their daily life. Therefore, the market of this company has highly perspective profits. 1.1 Objectives The amount of sale reach 50 thousand dollars per month. Establish one new site after 1 year running of the first car wash shop. Establish to a concatenate car washing company in Canterbury region in 5 years after the first shop open. 1.2 Mission Car Kursaal is dedicated to providing customers the whole car-care experience and focusing on the different types of services to customers to satisfy all requirements from customers. In addition, it also to providing both of owners and employees a beautiful reward. 1.3 Key to success Car Kursaal will be located on the Riccarton Road which is near to the University of Canterbury, Christchurch Boys High School, Bush Inn Centre and Westfield Riccarton Mall. Although this district has more traffic flow than other districts of the city, this car washing site will has a notable denoter in front of the shop that will be convenient to help people to see the sign. In addition, Car Kursaal will use new equipments and systems to support the services such as staple open wash bay (the overhead design with no floor steel) and Smart 360 technology (providing option for flash dry service that takes no additional time for basic dry which is performed by a rinse and dry in one operation). However, some advertisements will be set up both on daily newspaper and road advertising board. The words â€Å"The home of your cars† will be used for advertisements. 2. Company Summary Car Kursaal is a dynamic company in Christchurch and it will provide different types of car wash services which include self-clean and other auto car wash services in Christchurch city. High quality services and new equipments and systems will be provided for customers. It will has eight car-wash bays to offer vacuum services and polishing services. It will also provide some drinks and food for customers. The owner has been a CEO of a car dealer company for around ten years. During those then years, the owner was running some other business such as night club. 3. Product Description Some different types of services will be provided for customers including Self-clean Car Wash, Shampoo Wash, and Polishing Wash. Self-clean Car Wash will be the simplest service among those services but the price will be the lowest that means customers just cost 8 dollars to wash their cars, but it will limit the wash time they use. It will provide 5 minutes to use the water facilities and 10 minutes to use the cleaning facilities. The second type of car washing ways is Shampoo Wash which is much easier than the first one, the cost of this service will be 12 dollars. Another one is Polishing Wash which will include special step to polish cars. It will be the highest level of those services and the cost will be 16 dollars. On the other hand, the last two ways of auto washing services will provide another option for car drying, just need cost one more dollar to save much time for drying step using flash dry smart system which will be convenient to both of customers and shop owners. 4.1 Market Segmentation This car washing shop will be established on Riccarton district which is near to the University of Canterbury, Christchurch Boys High School, Bush Inn Centre and Westfield Riccarton Mall. There are several different kinds of customers that will be involved in, that are, university students, high school students and their parents and visiting and shopping customers. The larger groups of the prospective customers that who will do the washing services will be shopping customers and university students. The smaller one should be high school students and their parents. Another prospective group of customers will be from car rental company and car deal company. There are many companies engaged in the hire of cars, car tental is generally for a period of days, and the customer has to fulfill certain formalities and sign forms (Hirshberg, I., 1994). They must keep those cars clean before they return them. 4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy Due to the location of this shop, three different markets will be considered by us. The first one is shopping and visiting customers who are shopping in the two malls which is described above. This market will be the most important one because they have finance capability to cost some money to wash their cars when they after their shopping. The second market will be the students from Canterbury University. This group has the largest proportion of all customers because the university has more than 20,000 students which include both of domestic students and international students and most of them may have some savings from part-time jobs or other ways which means they will have some finance support to do car maintain services which include car washing services, but they may not have enough finance to support their extra car expenses compare to shopping and visiting customers. The last market should be high school students and their parents. However, not many high school students have t heir own cars but the prospective customers should be their parents because they have more chances to go car washing shop when they meet their children in high school. For the customers of car rental company, because of the rules which is from car rental company that customers must keep the car clean, those customers have more chances to go a car washing shop to clean their rent cars. 4.3 Market needs The advantages of this business that others does not have are we have different types of car wash ways to offer different types of customers that means they can choose different levels of cost to finish car wash. It will be much convenient to the customers that they can spent less money if they are not in good finance conditions but they want to have this service. As we known, almost all auto car washing sites in Christchurch do not have variable choices for customers and the price are not flexible. That is the reason that Car Kursaal will have the most chances to get the prospective customers if we can offer them different prices because Car Kursaal will offer much cheaper prices for different washing ways. 5.0 Strategy and implementation summary Firstly, the investment will be recorded by management group. The money which is invested will be divided by three, the first part will be used for rental places and decoration, the second part will be used for buy some equipments and system installation, the last part will be used for labor spending. Budgets will be built before the shop establishment and we will prepare additional 10% extra budgets of all the cost in case some emergency during the establishment. Management team also will supervise the whole business when it is running (Yusuf, Y., Gunasekaran, A., Abthorpe, M. S., 2004). Three teams will charge different part of business operation. One is about daily operation, one for equipments maintain and one for finance supervision. Each group will has one team leader and several staff to charge different things and the team leader will in charge of their team and play a role to communicate the manger and other team leaders. One week team meeting will be hold by team leader an d one month management meeting will be hold by manger to track the establishment process. 5.1 Competitive Edge Some petrol station are the competitors such as BP, Mobile because they also offer auto car wash services for customers and they have opened for a long time that some customers are used to go there to wash their cars. Therefore, the price and the special services will be our unique characteristic which is distinctive from other car washing places. Another unique competitive edge is we also offer pick up and drop off service. We will use a systems for communicating information for both of customers and the shop. This system can provid a confirmation or temporary receipt for customers and also can memory for reference when the customer come to pick up (Danel, A. R., Lohrey, D. W., 1989). The most problem should be how to make a reputation. 5.2 Sales strategy A strong advertisement will be used at firstly stage of running this business such as TV advertisement, newspaper and other ways to let customers know what kind of services we can offer them and what are the advantages we have and how much money they will save if they choose go to our place. Also, we will make a cooperation with AA company to give some discount for AA members and to promote our reputation. For people who are not AA member, we will give another discount that provide 5% off per liter after they done 5 times of car wash services. Also, we will offer customers some long-term contracts that is more convenient for both of the company and customers. 6.0 Management summary Refer to 5.0, we can see three different team will in charge different kinds of works. Therefore, team leader of the groups will be the important role for the business. Each team leader will be selected by their working experience, education background. They should have at least college certificate and at least 3 years related working experience. Every prospective employee should submit their CV and give a oral representation for their working experience which include customer service skill, communication skill. Team leader will be paid for average salary plus some achievement awards each month that will depends on the amount of sales. 7.1 Projected profit and loss Thousands of cars are running through Riccarton Road. If 10% of those cars choose our car washing shop to do washing services, the profits will be approximate on 40 thousand to 50 thousand dollars per month. Equipments loss will be the most important one. Also, some long-term staff quit will be another loss for the business. 7.2 Projected cash flow 8.0 Conclusion Car Kursaal will be a modern company to provide modern ways of car wash services to people who are living in Christchurch and who are visiting and studying in Christchurch. 1 million New Zealand dollars will be invested in this project. This shop will take up 1500 square meters and will be located on the Riccarton Road of Christchurch City. This location is near by some education places and shopping malls which is convenient to customers who are living there and going there for shopping. New equipments and new technology will be used in this project. Some excellent people will participate in this management team. Some advertising and promotion will be used for boost this company reputation and the advantages of this company should be the cheaper price and diverse types of washing services. This business will have a brilliant profits in the future. References Danel, A. R., Lohrey, D. W. (1989).U.S. Patent No. 4,803,348. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Hirshberg, I. (1994).U.S. Patent No. 5,289,369. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Love, T. (2011). Population movement after natural disasters: a literature review and assessment of Christchurch data.Sapere Research Group. Midtdal, K., Jelle, B. P. (2013). Self-cleaning glazing products: A state-of-the-art review and future research pathways.Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells,109, 126-141. Yusuf, Y., Gunasekaran, A., Abthorpe, M. S. (2004). Enterprise information systems project implementation:: A case study of ERP in Rolls-Royce.International Journal of Production Economics,87(3), 251-266.

Evaluation of the strategy practices of Haier Group

Evaluation of the strategy practices of Haier Group This analysis report is prepared to evaluate the strategy practices adopted by Haier group in recent years. Qingdao Haier Group is a consumer electrical maker which transformed from a refrigerator factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China founded in 1984. In 1992, the company had simplified their company name from Qingdao Haier Group to its current name, Haier Group. A new director was appointed in 1984, who is Mr. Zhang Ruimin. Thus, a new management team was formed and leaded under Zhang, to solve companys problems, such as debts, lack of quality control and poor management. This report will be discussed under various collection of sources which found related to Haier group, which includes books, websites, media articles, journal articles, Haiers official website and Haiers yearly annual reports. All the sources will be using in the analysis to support and prove that the related theories have been applied into the companys strategies. 1.0 Introduction Strategic management can be described as the identification of the purpose of the organization and the plans and actions to achieve that purpose. Corporate level strategy means the strategic decisions that lead companies to diversify from one business areas. It also means the role of the corporate headquarters in directing and influencing strategy across a multi-product group of companies (Richard Lynch, 2009). In this strategic analysis, discussions will be focused into three main segments. A general Haiers company overview will be done in the first place to investigate the milestones they have been gone through in past decade. Analysis continues in analyze corporate internal and external environment, SWOT analysis and Haiers unique OEC Management will be criticized in details in this segment. Moreover, the next segment discusses how Haier strategically competes in the local and international markets by using Ansoff Matrix and The Strategic Clock theories. Haiers internalization strategies will be evaluated in the last segment that includes Joint Ventures and Acquisitions where the corporate adopts in the process of globalization. 2.0 Corporate Background Haier Group was founded in 1984 with headquarters in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. In 1984, Haier produced and selling only a single model of refrigerator, it shows that Haier Group has been gone through major developments in years. Today, they rank themselves as one of the worlds leading white goods home appliance manufacturers (Haier, 2008). In last few decades Haier has grown their group to become the 4th largest white goods manufacturer and one of Chinas Top 100 IT Companies guided by the business philosophy of CEO Zhang Ruimin. Mainly, they has experienced a strategy for growth which is mainly formed into three major development stages, known as Brand Building, Diversification and Globalization (Haier, 2008). According to Michael Kanellos, 2008 Haier is trying to expand its presence globally and go up market. The company has been selling air conditioners, fridges, and other household items in the U.S. since 2000. But in 2006, it began selling LCD televisions. In November, it began selling music players. They has never been satisfied to just become a national brand, in January 2005, Haiers refrigerators were selected as best sellers in the UK by Ethical Consumer (Haier Worldwide, 2008) Haier employ over 50, 000 workers throughout the world, it has 240 subordinate companies and 30 design centers, plants and also trade companies. Their product categories are range from refrigerators, refrigerating cabinets, washing machine, air conditioners, home theatre systems, televisions, mobile phones, water heaters, DVD players and integrated furniture. Haier broadly recognized as a world leader in the technology domains of networked home appliances, intelligent integrated home furniture, digitalization and large scale integrated circuits. Different with other corporations, Haier is a state-owed company leading among others Chinese companies along with its brand name. They have been well developed and consistent which has leaded them rapidly expansion into the international market after the successfulness in its local country, and it is continues to grow until today. 3.0 Discussions 3.1 Haiers Internal and External Strategic Environment 3.1.1 SWOT Analysis The central purpose of the SWOT analysis (see appendix ) is to identify strategies that align, fit or match a companys resources and capabilities to the demands of the environment in which the company operates (Gerry Johnson et al, 2008). Organizations have to critically evaluate all strategic alternatives by using SWOT analysis to achieve its major goals and targets. In other words, Haier practices SWOT as to build on strengths so as to utilize opportunities and counteract threats, and at the same time correct its weakness. Haier has strong technology strength, they are broadly well known by leading nine products in its domestic markets share and also the top three white goods brand in terms of three products (refrigerator, air-conditioner and washing machine) in global market. They are also a world-class group in the fields of household appliances, network appliances, digital and large range integrated circuits and new equipments. Beside that, Haier also has a long term fundamental drive, which is innovation force that applies in its producing and management. As a result, their innovation in providing after-sales service has brings significance response from its customers. New upgraded products like dual drive washing machine, safe care water heater, four temperatures zone refrigerator and smart air conditioner are all been created under Haiers innovation strengths in improving products. Although Haier has a world level of technologies, but they has low level of core technology as they deeply relies on few world well known companies who supply core accessories and core components for Haier. Like for example, Haier used chips which made from Philips in its television industry, also, they bought quality compressors from Mitsubishi in its air-conditioner production. This will be a major weakness for Haier in expanding globally. Haier also weak in channels, the do not have a complete one. They even unable to deliver products to retailers, cost has increased as they needs to rent warehouses for storage purpose. Global economic integration is an opportunity and also a challenge for Haier. Haier may obtain the best quality raw materials from the international markets, recruit the best talents from all over the world, and discover more international markets. Haier should catch this chance and make full use of it to help in its process of globalization. The most important market for Haier is still its domestic market, which is China. As Haier hold more than 26.2% of the overall home appliance market in China, and the household appliances market continues to growth more than 20% every year. Thus, in future, China is still the best market for Haier to earn although they have been entering into international markets. Haier faces tough competition since entering into international markets. In the same industry, there are others worldwide recognized brands such as Panasonic, Samsung, Philips, LG and many mores. Haier is still new in other nations besides China and Asia markets; it is hard to compete with those strong rivals exclusive marketing. As China has bad country image of producing low quality and cheap price products, it is a major problem of Haier which aims to offers premium range of products, they have to against with this threat in order to build its brand into other nation. 3.1.2 OEC Management in Haier OEC stands for Overall Every Control, it also can be indicates as overall everyday/ everyone/ everythings control and clear of every workers in Haier. The CEO of Haier, Zhang, has created the unique OEC management control system to aims at overall control of everything that every employee finishes on his or her job everyday with a 1% increase over what was done the previous day. The OEC management control system has three aspects: target setting, control, checking and clearance; and incentive mechanism. Workers of Haier are awarded based on the quality of their work; it is either red reward or yellow penalty cards will be given. Other than that, promotion is decided by using open biding system to ensure the fairness in the awarding process (Thomas W. Lin, 2005). OEM is a strategic process with all that this involves in terms of the human resources of the company, its change culture and leadership. Thomas W. Lin, 2005 stated that Haiers OEC management-control system and enterprise culture have the following characteristics: Focus on and understand customer value, product quality, operating efficiency, innovation, and speed to market. Commit top management and leadership to creating a new way of management and a performance culture. Involve management and employees in creating the OEC management-control system. Allow them to become familiar with OEC so they feel included and share in ownership of the system. Educate management and employees. Use seminars and weekly company newsletters to explain the firms strategy, customer value, OEC management, and the idea of every employee being a strategic business unit to enable them to understand the concepts and appreciate the benefits. Create desired incentives, and reassure employees that they will be evaluated properly in accordance with their performance. 3.2 Strategic achieves Competitive Advantages If an organization possesses superior knowledge to its competitors then this can deliver core competencies which, in turn, produce competitive advantage (David Campbell, 2007). This segment will be discusses on how Haier adopts Ansoff Matrix and The Strategic Clock to achieve create competitive advantages. 3.2.1 Ansoff Matrix The most commonly used model for anaylysing the possible strategic directions that an organization can follows is the Ansoff Matrix (see appendix ). There are four broad alternatives, which are market penetration, product development, market development and diversification (David Campbell, 2007). Product development involves developing new products for the same existing markets a company has. The ability to innovate is crucial in developing products for rapidly changing consumer markets (Anthony Henry, 2008). In other explanation, product development simply means a company offers or delivers modified or brand new products to the same targeted markets. In the beginning, Haier has only four types of main products, which are refrigerators, air-conditinors, washing machines, and freezers. But in year 1999, Haier had launched a brand new product, named All media, All-digital television. It was a successful launching that has widely attracting a big number of users. Besides that, Haier also developing varieties in the same product line, the modified new products was targeted in the original markets. For example, some new model has been modified in refrigerator line such as little prince series (see appendix ). Market development involves entering new markets with the firms existing products. This may be done by targeting new market segments and new geographical areas, or by devising new uses for its products (Anthony Henry, 2008). Another strategy which Haier adopts to grow is market development. As market development declares as expand existing products to new markets, so it is either through new segments, new users, new geographies, or all three at the same time. In the case of Haier, they overseas to integrates into the global big markets and economies together with their premium white goods. Haier develops in most of the Europe countries included United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Italy. Thus, they become an international corporation and involves in most of the household appliances manufacturing industry, and also entered cell phone manufacturing, insurance and finance. In the year 2001, they even involves in pharmaceutical industry. Diversification occurs when an organization moves away from a single product or dominant business area into other business areas, which may or may not be related to the original product. Although diversification is a solid strategy that defined as takes the company away from both its existing products and markets, but Gerry Johnson et al, 2008 suggests that a good deal of diversification in practice involves building on relationships with existing markets or products. Diversification is a matter of degree. Clearly Haier has almost perfectly practiced diversification by adopts both product development and market development. Moreover, diversifications have brought extra hidden competitive advantages towards the company. A very common justification of diversification is dispersion risk across a sort of businesses. Haier India has laughed Haier Mobile in year 2005, a whole new product created to entering into new markets. Haier Telecom India Pvt. Ltd. started operations in December 2005 to market Haier Mobiles (see appendix ). With the growing opportunities in India and around the world HTIL has marked its presence across four continents in the high growth centers of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe (Haier Mobiles, 2005). Diversification has been involves in Haier growth stage, besides improvement and growing on white goods industry, they also expanded into other industries that includes communication and IT products, Haier pharmacy, Haier Software and Haier real estate. Diversify from one product to a variety of products (in 1984, we had refrigerators only, and in 1998, we had dozens of products), from white goods to brown goods through capital operation in a way of activating shock fish. Tangible assets were activated using intangible assets and the business was expanded and strengthened at the minimum cost and in the shortest time (Haier, 2008). 3.2.2 The Strategic Clock Cliff Bowman and Richard DAveni emphasis that competitive advantage is achieved by providing customers with what they want, or need, better or more effectively than competitors. The strategy clock (see appendix ) represents different positions in a market where customers have different requirements in terms of money and value (Gerry Johnson et al, 2008). It is important for a firm to focuses on which markets customer they are targeting at, as different customer may have different perceptions on the same product. Most of the consumer have different needs and at the same time searching for different benefits and values. Like for example, for an air-conditioning user, they choose the product based on price or functionality? Haier using differentiation strategy on their new air-conditioning (see appendix ) which has added auto cleaning system. It not just keeps the room chill but at the same time has self-cleaning system works through its new created technology, there is a unique open and close feature adds on to the model. Haier is achieving competitive advantage because with the extra value added on the product yet it still charged at the same price, this shows that they had offers extra benefit that makes their product different from other competitors with a competitive price. 3.3 Strategic competes in International Markets Since 1998, Haier Group exported its outputs first to Germany, then to European countries. After years, they started to entry US markets, Middle Eastern countries, South-eastern countries, and India. According to Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007 companies need to consider carefully all the possible ways they can set up their operations to minimum risk. He also suggested Haier believes that globalization is not just export, but more crucially create the export license. In order to decrease the risk of entering a new market, they pursue strategic alliances to position its company into new areas, beside that; new plant will be set up (or acquisition decision will be made) only if there is a market and the plant must at least reach a breakeven point. 3.3.1 Strategic Alliances One of the most common ways to entry a new market with low risk is through strategic alliances (see appendix ), where a company can share and use the resources and capabilities held by its partner company. There are some reasons behind of why Haier choosing strategic alliances. First; they may feel that it can benefit from its local partners knowledge of a host nations competitive conditions, culture, language, political systems and business systems. Second, when the development costs and risks of opening up a foreign market are high, they may gain by sharing these costs and risks with its local partner. Third, political considerations in some nations make strategic the only feasible entry mode (Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007). A New York based import corporation named Welbilt Appliances which owed by Michael Jemal approached Haier to invites them to entry US market in 1994. In the same year, Welbilt Appliances bought 150,000 units consists of three models of compact refrigerators that met the safety and energy standards of US from Haier. All units were sold in a year under Welbilts name. Haier America was formed in 1999 after the successfulness of the mini-refrigerators line, a new office has located in Manhattan with 17 staffs, and for the first year of operations, they target to reach $50 million dollar of sales. After three years, they had reach a wonderful result that they had sold 80,000 full size refrigerators, approximately 2% of the US market. 3.3.2 Acquisition Acquisitions are often been use to enter a new market area for the company when they need other companys competencies to survive in the area. The benefits behind acquisitions are a company can purchase a market leader in a strong cash position overnight, rather than spend years building up market leadership through internal development (Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2007). A company choose to acquiring another company for certain reasons, and for Haier, it simply because they need to move fast in internalization. Charles W. L. Hill et al, 2008 argues that acquisitions are also perceived to be somewhat less risky than internal new ventures, primarily because they involve less certainty. Given the nature of internal new ventures, large uncertainties are associated with projecting future profitability, revenue and cash flow. In the year 2001, a refrigerator plant located in Padova, Italy (one of the most giant manufacturers which producing build-in appliances) has been chosen by Haier to acquire and invested $8 million dollar, the new plant is planned to manufacture build-in freezers and refrigerators for the fast growing build-in sector on that time in European market. Right in the next year, another new Italy-based organization named Haier A/C Trading has been formed and air-conditioners were began to been supplying in the local market. 4.0 Conclusion and Recommendation From the analysis, all the findings showed that today Haiers achievement are much related with the strategies they practised. Based on the SWOT analysis, there is evidences show that Haier has its strengths to competes in its targeted industry, the OEM Management system has even strengthen up its capability to overcome possible threats and help them to catch opportunities for now and future. By practising diversification and other related strategies under Ansoff Matrix, it has allowed Haier to gain competitive advantages in local and international market making them the well-known premium white goods brand in the world. Combination of all strategies has brought Haier to reach first-class performance, and also achieve the quality of service class in its industry, they are still the only Asian company awarded Five Star Diamond Award. Competitive-oriented overseas market entry and uses strategies in gaining competitive advantages are the major motive of Haier to compete with world giants in its internationalisation planning and will be continues reaching successfulness in the future.

Autobiography of Charlie Chaplin Essays -- essays research papers fc

I was born Charles Spencer Chaplin in Walworth, London on April 16, 1889. I have an older brother, Sydney, but he’s only my half brother- same mother, different father. I was named after my father, but he was a drunk. He died when he was thirty-seven. My mother, Hannah, was a music hall entertainer. Both her physical and mental health fluctuated during my youth. One night, when I was five years old, she became sick during a performance. I went out on stage and sang in her place. I knew then that I loved performing, and I loved it when the audience threw money at me. It was difficult for my mother to make enough money to support me, Syd, and herself. Syd and I had to share a single pair of shoes, taking turns going from place to place. My mother slipped into insanity. We were constantly made fun of and the authorities separated the three of us for a year. By the time I was fourteen, I was forced to have her committed to an institution. I don’t like to remember my childhood. When I was about seventeen, Syd introduced me to Fred Karno, who led a vaudeville troupe. I succeeded in impressing him, and I subsequently became a member of the troupe. It was during my time in this troupe that I fell in love with a dancer, named Hetty Kelly. I asked her to marry me, but she, being only sixteen, felt that she was too young. I then asked her to wait for me until I returned from the troupe’s planned trip to New York. While spending time in New York, I started to become fascinated with the movies. I got a telegram one day from Mack Sennett from Keystone Pictures, who offered me a job in California. He promised $150 per week. I was off to Hollywood within the next month. When we I met Sennett, he did not believe that I was Charlie Chaplin. He said that Charlie Chaplin did the best drunk he had ever seen and that I was too young to be him. I immediately went into my drunk routine, which convinced him. He took me and said, â€Å"Forget everything you ever learned, you’re not in the theater anymore.† At first I was terrified by the movies, but it soon became very natural to me. I walked into a room of costumes and tried many different things on. Sennett and the rest of the crew grew angry as they waited for me to get myself dressed. â€Å"I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat. Everything a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small... ...mas day, 1977. In all, I was in seventeen feature films, and over seventy short films. Works Cited _____. Biography for Charles Chaplin. Internet Movie Database Inc. Copyright  © 1990-2005. 11 January, 2005. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000122/bio. _____. Chaplin, Charlie. Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyrigt  © 2005. 11 January, 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/c/chaplin.asp. Chaplin, Charlie. â€Å"Rhythm: A Story of Men in Macabre Movement.† Script Magazine. January, 1938. Chaplin. DVD. Dir. Richard Attenborough. Perf. Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Hopkins, Dan Aykroyd, Diane Lane, Kevin Kline, Moira Kelly, James Wood. 1992. 144 min. Gerstein, David. Charlie Chaplin, A World Wide Web Celebration. 11 January, 2005. http://wso.williams.edu/~dgerstei/chaplin/intro.html. Haining, Peter. The Legend of Charlie Caplin. Book Sales Inc. 110 Enterprise Avenue, Secaucus, NJ. 1982. Lynn, Kenneth S. Charlie Chaplin and His Times. Simon & Schuster Rockefeller Center. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY. 1997 Raymond, Tom. Charlie Chaplin Biography. â€Å"Clown Ministry† Copyright  ©WebRing Inc. 28 January, 2005. http://www.clown-ministry.com/History/Charlie-Chaplin.html.

The War Of Religion And Science Due To Their Similarities And Diff :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The â€Å"War† of Religion and Science Due to Their Similarities and Differences Samantha Pavlakos Ms. Smith Period 6 English Term Paper March 13, 2000 Outline Thesis: In the book Phantoms, Dean Koontz relates the â€Å"war† between religion and science through the defeat of a supernatural being. I. Religion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A. Similarities to science from the theological view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B. Differences to science from the theological view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1. Why they are different from the theological   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. How to overcome there differences from a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   theological view II. Science   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A. Similarities to religion from a scientific view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B. Differences to religion from a scientific view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1. Why they are different from a scientific view   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2. How to overcome these differences from a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   scientific view III. Supernatural   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A. World view of the supernatural   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B. How the book uses the supernatural to show the â€Å"war† between religion and science.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For many years, there has been a so-called â€Å"war† between religion and science. religion is a powerful worldview as is science. Many people around the world believe in the existence of both religion and science. Unfortunately, the conflict between the two is partially due to the fact that they are so similar yet so different. Both religion and science expect a person to rely on information that is sometimes unexplainable. In the book , Phantoms, Dean Koontz relates this â€Å"war† between religion and science through the defeat of a supernatural being.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many different religions that fill this world. Religion requires a person to believe that some events are unexplainable, and that a person should just believe because God, or some other figure wanted life to be this way (Hall 26). A person is expected to believe without a foundation of reason. This relates to science because theories are reasons that have not yet been proven. A scientist expects for a person to believe a theory because it is a reasonable explanation, even if it is not a proven explanation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scientists have been accused of saying that religion is only a belief, and that there is a scientific explanation for everything, but if this is true, how come all things in life cannot be explained (Hall 27)? Hall says, â€Å"Science cannot explain how a man can survive something when it is impossible to survive.† But can religion explain this? According to a theologian, a person who studies religion, there is an explanation. Hall says, â€Å"God has a plan for everyone. It is almost like a outline of life. If you are expected to do something before you died, the nothing will stop you.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are also many things in religion that are unexplained. How can a man rise from the dead?

Globalization and the International Monetary Community Essay -- Econom

Executive Summary Our world is steadily shrinking. Technology is building bridges over the barriers of distance, language, and culture. It’s a process called globalization, and it is changing the way we live. Financial institutions haven’t been immune to the effects of this change. In fact, the international nature of financial institutions makes them particularly vulnerable to change. This paper addresses three issues caused by the globalization of the international monetary community. First this paper examines the success of the Euro, and the implications for the formation of a global currency. Then this paper looks at the issue of devaluation, and by comparing successful and unsuccessful devaluations tries to determine what factors make a devaluation work. Finally this paper will look at the trend toward dollarization, and whether or not dollarization is the best solution for struggling economies. This paper contends that the power of globalization is forcing the international monetary community to address these issues. The success of the Euro makes a global currency seem like a logical step in the evolution of currency, even though sentimental attachment to national currency would make a global currency unpopular. Devaluation of national currency is only effective for nation with substantial foreign investment and high technology exports. Dollarization solves many problems for struggling economies in the short term, but at some point these nations should consider joining a Multi-Lateral Monetary Union. These changes and more are reforming the way we think about money. While some of the solutions proposed here will only become feasible years in the future, some of the problems discussed affect us t... ...Peiers, Bettina. â€Å"Dollarization in Developing Countries: Rational Remedy or Domestic Dilemma?†. Contemporary Economic Policy. Jul96, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p30. Meyer, L.H. "The Euro in the International Financial System." Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Vol. 25-27, Issue 2, p58. O'Mara, Richard. â€Å"Argentina's deep, empty pockets†. Christian Science Monitor. 4/2/2002, Vol. 94 Issue 89, p9. â€Å"Ring in the New†. Economist. 1/5/2002 Vol. 362 Issue 8254, p22. Schulmeister, Stephan. â€Å"Globalization Without Global Money: The Double Role of the Dollar as National Currency and World Currency†. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Spring2000, Vol. 22 Issue 3, p365. â€Å"The Myth of Eurocreep†. Economist. 1/5/2002, Vol. 362 Issue 8254, p43. von Furstenberg, George. â€Å"A Case Against U.S. Dollarization.† Challenge. Jul/Aug2000, Vol. 43 Issue 4, p108.

T.V Soap Opera Analysis

Anna Shvets Jennifer Katman Tuesday Thursday T. V Class April 26,2010 T. V Soap Opera Analysis In the T. V series of â€Å"Will and Grace†, there is one gay male character named Will, one male character named Jack who acts feminine, a straight female character named Grace and heterosexual female named Karen which is Graces’ friend. Will and Grace who live together are both looking for love, but will never find it with each other because Will is gay and Grace is straight. All of these characters play and important role in this show either gay or straight. I can tell whether the characters are gay or straight by how they act towards each other or just in general. Will is a gay male who is very handsome and attractive, and works as a successful lawyer in Manhattan. When he attends work it is a total institution because there is authority over him and he has to follow certain kind of rules to not get fired. In the show, he doesn’t act gay to me because he lives with Grace and acts very high class. His gay side comes out when he goes on a date or to a gay bar. This is another total institution when he goes to gay bars because usually the gay people are in authority and pretty much there are rules! On the other hand, Jack who acts feminine who plays a really funny role can’t find a job so he is unemployed. His role as a male is hilarious because he totally acts like a girl but doesn’t hid on men even though, judging his outside I would think that he is the more gay one. Even though he is funny he is unstable because he has nothing to depend on for example a job to help him provide money. The portrayals of the gale males in this show are positive. Their roles are humorous throughout all the series. Jack is always acting feminine and Will is always acting more serious but that’s what makes him be more humorous. It is shown in a multidimensional way because it shows Will who acts as a more serious gay male and it shows Jack who acts more feminine but is still considered gay. I can tell that’s the portrayal is more positive because even though the T. V show has gay males, it doesn’t show them making out or being all touchy, it just shows an example of gay males who have a big sense of humor. On the other hand when you try to relate it back to the real world you can see that not all gay men are like that. There was one episode where Grace took Jack to her dinner party, and Jack couldn’t settle down until they got out of there because he was very suspicious what people would think of him. He was expecting to have all eyes one him, which would make him feel very uncomfortable and maybe even hearing some name calling. At the dinner party Jack gave compliments to everyone, and one of Graces coworkers really adored Jack because he was in love with her shoes and I don’t even think she noticed that he was gay. The image that this program portrays of gay men is both good and bad from different points of views. For example, I am against gays because that’s against my religion. Even though I don’t like homosexuality, that doesn’t mean that I hate every gay or lesbian person out there, it just means that I don’t like what they do or what they believe in. I have seen many gay males everywhere, at the mall, at salons and they seem to be the nicest people with great personalities but I just don’t like the whole gay part. To other people who are for gays, I think that this program shows them an even better side of gays because they are filled with humor. Some of the pictures that are shown with gay males holding hands or hugging do bother me because I don’t think that it’s right. There was a part where Grace said something like real intense but Jack didn’t get offended but if you look at it from a side you would say that it is ok to call people names. That is a negative effect on society because if you have a child and saw a lady on T. V calling a gay guy a faget, it would not be ok for her to call a gay guy she sees on the street a faget. The content of this program contributes to our socialization process because in sociology we learn to view things from other people’s perspectives and being gay or lesbian is what people choose to be even though some are against it. From society we learn that gay men can also reach a goal in life and have a high paying job or look handsome because they are also people that want a good future. From these T. V shows we can analyze a lot but we need to here every character before we make a decision whether we like the show or not. I do acknowledge that there are negative effects and there are positive ones. For example my mom told me that this show is a way of making people gay because it shows men happy and funny so men just try to be like them. She says that it is a negative effect on us and everyone who watches it. Opinion- In my opinion, I think that the TV’s powers of socialization is going a little bit out of control because everything is being shown on TV that was never shown before and its starting to become normal. I’m not saying if you watch it you’re going to want to be gay. I just don’t remember having so many shows with gay characters. Either was I thinking it is good that they have characters like that that way we don’t cut any kind of people off. Gay people are just like you and me! In this show there is one thing that I absolutely did not like. It was the fact that Grace and Will find love but at the same time there is always something wrong with it. When grace bring someone home Will like them at first and hates him after he uses Grace. This show is an on going conflicting story about these four characters that try to get love but somehow it fires back at them say there isn’t any true love out there. It’s a bumber to watch those kind of thing because when kids watch it they can have a negative effect on themselves saying that there’s no point looking for mr. write or for my princess. When having a negative affect from a show it makes you think about how you can change it.

Jane Eyre Essay

The novel Jane Eyre was originally published in London, England in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. The early editions of the novel were given the subtitle An Autobiography and named â€Å"Currer Bell† as the editor, not the author. The subtitle was dropped in subsequent editions of the novel. During the days when the novel was published, it was popularly believed that men and women had different duties and responsibilities. Women were encouraged to be devoted and submissive to their husbands. The ideal woman was passive, charming, self-sacrificing and pure. Jane Eyre and other works of the Charlotte and her sisters were centred around the lives of protagonists who did not conform to these societal ideals. Thus, in order to hide their true identities and genders, the three Bronte sisters published their works under pseudonyms. These were Acton Bell (Anne Bronte), Ellis Bell (Emily Bronte) and Currer Bell (Charlotte Bronte). Despite its immediate popularity, Jane Eyre was condemned by its earliest critics as anti-Christian. These negative reviews can be attributed to the generally rebellious tone of the novel. Through the description of the protagonist’s life, including those related to her social status and matters of the heart, the reader is presented with several social and political issues. The novel questions society’s view of women, the importance of the arts and the basis of a solid marriage. Based on the standards of the society in the days when the novel was first published, Jane Eyre as a character lead an immoral life. Jane fell in love and lusted after a married man, was proposed to by her cousin, and describes a clergymen as hypocritical and greedy. The novel is written in such a manner that the reader empathizes with Jane, and in doing so, leads the reader to question his or her beliefs. The novel is also explicitly anti-Christian in that Jane questions the existence and importance of God. During her days at Lowood, Jane’s close friend, Helen Burns contracts tuberculosis. On her deathbed, Helen calmly reassures Jane that by dying young, she is escaping great sufferings, and will go to God. Jane remains sceptical, and asks, â€Å"Where is God? What is God? † In the same conversation, Jane questions the existence of heaven and the ability of people to enter it. Using contemporary standards, these questions might be considered by some to be normal and even healthy. However, in the context of the society during the time when the novel was first published, such comments would have been considered as blasphemous and grossly immoral. Critics who believed that the novel was in fact an autobiography were correct. Although the life of the character Jane Eyre is not identical to that of the author Charlotte Bronte, there are obvious parallels. For example, while attending Lowood School, one of Jane’s closest friends dies of consumption. Similarly, while attending school at Cowan Bridge, Jane’s sisters died of the same illness. This coincidence drew comparisons between the fictional headmaster of Lowood whom Jane denounces as insincere and deceitful, and Charlotte’s own former headmaster who ran Cowan Bridge. Another parallel can be drawn between the character of John Reed and Charlotte’s brother Branwell, because both men suffered from alcoholism. Perhaps the most obvious similarity between the novel and the author’s life is the fact that both Jane and Charlotte were governesses. In accepting Jane Eyre as the true adventures of its heroine and by branding the novel as anti-Christian, early critics were correct. Due to similarities in the personal life of Charlotte Bronte and the experiences of Jane Eyre, it can be inferred that the novel is an autobiography. Based on the standards of society during the time it was first published, the rebellious tone and the manner in which the novel questioned respected social institutions, the novel can be considered as anti-Christian.