Why Did the Nationalists Win the Spanish Civil War?

Achilleas Sarantaris 2/10/11 | Republicans| Nationalists| Political Strengths/weaknesses| *Caballero’s rule weakened because Republicans were politically divided due to different ideologies; communists vs. socialists who believed revolution should be postponed, anarchists who believed war could only be won through revolutionary policies. *Terror tactics to control increasing population led to resistance*’May Days† street fighting: communists and socialists vs. narchists enhanced disunity| *main strength was their unity. Franco would assume political and military command because Nationalists wanted unified command. Falange Espaniola Tradicionalista, Franco’s new merged party, had 1,070,000 members. *Supported from the church which opposed the left*Franco gained power and authority from his victories in the battlefield| Military strengths/weaknesses| *Lacked strong military leadership, no unified command; anarchists and Basques refused to be led by a central command structure. Loyal army officers were not trusted by the Republic. Dependent on hazardous ineffective militia units, different fronts operated separately| *Even though initial disunity, Africanistas contained the best troops in the country thus they could cover other forces. *Key to success was unified command. Franco’s leadership was accepted by other right-wing parties, including Italians. *Sound communicators, military equipment and large amount of junior officers together with Franco’s ability as a military leader were decisive factors. | Economic advantages/disadvantages| *Under anarchist control utilities worked by workers’ committees, collective farms set up. However they could not supply the needs of the republic to fight the war. *Production in Catalan fell by 2/3 between 1936 and 1939. *Due to Non-Intervention Committee trade only with USSR, which led to the entire gold reserves of Spain being used up| *Backed by business community, hence they could buy war supplies. *Main industrial areas under their control. *Benefited from unrestricted international trade. USA gave $700 million in credit to the Nationalists. | Foreign Assistance| *Far more limited than that of the Nationalists; main ally USSR. *No Soviet troops send to fight, only 1000 aircrafts, 750 tanks and some advisers, which had to be aid for. *International Brigade sent 35. 000 foreign volunteers with limited impact. 1938 Soviets withdrew support and IB left. Francs initial aid ended when it joined Britain’s Non-Intervention| *Foreign aid was a crucial factor in the Nationalist’s victory. *Rebels benefited from more aid of better quality than that given to Repub licans. Franco’s army airlifted by German’s to mainland. *German condor legion; 10,000 troops, 800 aircraft, 200 tanks. Italians 75,000 troops, 750 planes and 150 tanks. Portuguese 20,000 troops. *Key factor not man power, but advanced technology and equipment they received. | p

Portfolio Models Essay

The use of portfolio models in marketing has been gaining increasing use since 1960s. The portfolio models were developed with the aim of helping in the development of market share and growth. These models have been used as strategic thinking model in the making of business decision. These models include BCG, General electric/shell, Hofner-Schendel, Experience Curve and Porters Competitive models. Each model has been criticized on the capabilities and according to its scope on market share. These models have been found to lead to the wrong decision in investment and other business processes. The portfolio models assume a causal relationship between the market share and the profitability of a product in the market. The common scope of portfolio models is the way it tries to ignores some of the most relevant strategic issues in business. Therefore, all models cannot be taken as an effective strategic decision making model. It should however be discarded or it should be used with caution. This paper does not recommend the use of portfolio models and an alternative way should be sought to replace this. Introduction Portfolio models can be defined as a method or strategy in which a new product will be introduced in the market and perform as it was expected. In the 1960s, there was growing assertion of the use of portfolio models in marketing. There was growing interest on the development of market share and growth strategy which later came to be known as marketing portfolio. The BCG matrix, Hofner-Schendel, Experience Curve and Porters Competitive models and GE/S were meant to achieve the marketing needs especially when introducing new products in the market. They were meant to stimulate strategic thinking especially among the senior marketing executives in the turbulent business environment. However, there has been dysfunction of these models in the way they are taught and the way they are applied in the market. This study will look into the applicability of portfolio models in strategic decision making in marketing. The study will evaluate the view from a number of literature to understand whether the model can really be applied to the decision making process or not. This paper therefore evaluates the available literature which has given an insight into this model to understand how it can be applied in strategic marketing decision. There are other methods that were introduced to give a product a distinctive market share especially when it’s introduced. There are four commonly used methods to approach this matter, the Boston consulting group (BCG), the General electric/shell (GE/S), Hofner-Schendel, Experience Curve and Porters Competitive models. Therefore to give the clear meaning of the portfolio model, there is a need to understand how the portfolio models work. The first step to be taken when using the above models is to understand the different business/ marketing strategies of the company. Portfolio models in marketing decisions Portfolio models management generally defines the way business comes up with strategic decision to venture into the market. In this definition, the strategic marketing decision is a method by which marketing ideas are made and implemented in order for a product to have stronger grounds in the market. At any one time, company will be coming up with new product which will need to be introduced to the market in the most successful way. Portfolio models therefore provide the business with important tools for analyzing of the strategic decision to determine their effectiveness in the market (Abell and Hammond, 1979, p. 42). Purpose of portfolio models in strategic decision making in marketing There are mainly four main purpose of using the portfolio models in the strategic marketing decisions which are pursued in portfolio management and must be achieved through any model that is used. These goals include the maximization of portfolio, seeking of the right balance of the available projects, aligning of the portfolio strategically, and aligning the projects to the available resource (Ansoff, 1984, p. 12). Smith and Swinyard (1999, p. 2) also show that portfolio marketing models are important for an organization to assess the overall success of a new product in the market before a lot of money is used in the development of the product. They both call for the use of multiple marketing models in order to achieve the overall success of introducing new products in the market. This will reduce the failure rate of the products and extend their life cycle in the market. (Thomas, 2002, p. 61) The models can also be used as important tools to forecast the level of competition and therefore draw upon effective way of beating this competition. They help to forecast the performance of a product in the market so as to draw up strategies to effectively introduce it in the market. Edgett, Cooper, and Kleinschmidt (2002, p. 2) showed that in order to achieve full development of a new product in the market, there has to be effective portfolio management. There are different types of portfolio models that include the BCG, GE/S, Hofner-Schendel, Experience Curve and Porters Competitive models. In his review of the portfolio models, Day (1977, p. 32) showed that the use of bubble diagrams had been gaining increasing use in business. Day shows that these models resemble the portfolio models with stars, cash cows, dogs, and others. He showed that these models could be used successfully to forecast the market in the future. Day therefore asserted the role of matrix like Boston matrix in marketing. The Boston matrix could be used to show four quadrants as has been shown by Day and corresponding strategies which could be used in each quadrant. However Day criticizes the matrix on the sense that it is too narrow on its scope. He asserts that the BCG matrix has a narrow focus on the market share of the product. On the other hand Morrison and Wensley (1991, p. 106) provided an insight into the portfolio planning models as used in making business decision. They asserted that the use of BCG matrix in portfolio management is inhibited by difficulties in measurement of the rate of market growth and the relative market share of the product. This is due to a number of reasons. They gave the most prominent reason being the fact that market boundaries are often very difficult to fix which meant the different matrix methods will give different recommendations for a given situation. Therefore they argue that the common scope of BCG matrix in a way ignores some of the most relevant strategic issues in business. Though these other models are not as famous as BCG, Day still argues that use of them could also lead to success in the market. Day advocated and recommended the use of Porters competitiveness that he viewed to have higher possibilities of success than other models if its well implemented. It is commonly used in an already operating business with other products in the market. The experience curve can only be help to the company that has been in the market for sometime with a different product. The experience that the company has gained in the given period will determine the strength of the company in the market. This has been used by several companies like coca-cola in the introduction their mineral water. It would be hard for a company that has not been doing well in the market to succeed with the new product. They showed that Boston matrix was a technique for one season and not for all the season. This is because its popularity and use increased in the 1960s and 1970s and then plummeted due to the challenges faced in the market. They showed that the single chart could be successfully used to determine the growth potential and the competitive strength of a product in the market but this has rapidly changed with time. Armstrong and Brodie (1994, p. 38) evaluation on the applicability of the Boston matrix concluded that the use of the matrix to guide investors often would result to wrong decision through the use of BCG. General Electric and Shell, Porters competitive models are designed for long term use in the market, once the product has been introduced in the market, the models techniques still continues to support the product through the entire life in the market. Whichever model is used, it has to be used for entire life of the company because no other model will fit without altering the companies business especially when the company is introducing new product in the market. Although they based their study on a small number of graduates in a class, they gave a further warning against the use of the matrix in a simple mind. Armstrong and Brodie (1994, p. 3) carried out a study on the effect of the portfolio planning methods on the overall decision making process. Their study pointed out the weakness in the use of BCG matrix in making strategic decision in an organization. Their study revealed that the use of BCG matrix in making investment decisions was highly likely to lead to unprofitable investment while Robert and Merton (1989, p. 210) advocates that the implementation of other models instead of matrix were intended for lifetime decision making. If not well implemented, there is a probability of causing life time losses and would be hard to recover unless the product is withdrawn from the market. Each model has some weaknesses bas they are exposed out in the way models assume a casual relationship between the market share and the profitability of a product in the market. Morison and Wesley (1991, p. 26) also pointed out lack of consistency in the use of the portfolio models in determining market growth and profits. These studies give varied views on the use of Boston matrix, GE/S, Hofner-Schendel, Experience Curve and Porters Competitive models in making marketing decision. They all seem to point out on the weaknesses of these models in light of their theory and application. There are other ways a business can prosper other than using portfolio models. The strategies used in introducing the product in the market is all that matters, portfolios are just to give the business a rough idea on how to approach the marketing matter but not to give a conclusive tread which the business should follow. Conclusion Portfolio models are applied in portfolio management. They are applied in management to make strategic marketing decision. Though they had gained increasing use in different times, they have some weaknesses that are fatal to the welfare of the business in future. On the other hand they may give a rough idea on how to approach the market issues and on how to introduce the new product in the market. In all portfolios, not is able to predict the growth and the profit margins or losses on the other hand for the product, thus making them less important tool for the marketing. However the use of models should be discarded and there be implemented new strategies that would be able to address the issues of the business on long term and in both growth and revenues that are likely to be gained by the introduced product. Recommendations: The use of portfolio models is not recommended and if they have to be used, they must be implemented with great caution. None of all models has proofed an effective strategic decision making in regard to the marketing issues. It should however be discarded or it should be used with caution. This paper does not recommend the use of portfolio models and an alternative way should be sought to replace this.

The significance of disillusionment in the two main characters Essay

The significance of disillusionment in the two main characters - Essay Example So, disillusionment prevailing inside an individual’s mind apart making their life a problematic or miserable one, will also create problems to theirs related and associated lives. His/her life will become a big complicated problem, which can be solved only by the person’s themselves, with some aid from others. This aspect of disillusionment has been visible in many fictional characters as well. That is, many fictional characters from different genres of work have faced disillusionment in course of the story. So, this paper will analyze the significance of disillusionment in the two fictional characters, Emma and the governess, who were featured in Jane Austen’s Emma and Henry James’s The Turn on the Screw, respectively. Emma, the female protagonist of the Jane Austin’s play, is the daughter of a wealthy gentleman, who is raised with a lot of comfort. Even though the character of Emma shows care toward others and is well intentioned, it borders on self-centrism with a dose of over-confidence and stubbornness. â€Å"†¦the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself† (Austin). Also, being from a wealthy household, Emma hasn’t faced many problematic and stressing issues in her life. But, these favorable times begins to change, when she faces certain problems in her personal life, with her self-centered attitude and stubbornness accentuating the situation. This is when, the disillusionment enters her mind, complicates her life and importantly ‘corrects’ her mindset in the final analysis. That is, the disillusionments, which were result of certain mistakes committed on her part, actually turned her into an emo tionally stronger person, and thus showed its significance. Emma commits the first mistake and gets little disillusioned, when she attempts to â€Å"match make† her teenage friend Harriet to the local vicar, Mr. Elton. And, when Mr. Elton rejects Emma attempts on the account of

Security Planning and Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Security Planning and Assessment - Essay Example One specific example of sustainable planning is the requirement that programs, policies, practices and processes are integrated across levels of authority-that is, everyone should know about it. According to EDAW (1999):   One of the lingering concerns of U.S. Department of Homeland Security is whether or not the department should assume protection duties for private-sector critical infrastructure facilities (which includes cargo terminals, utility plants, food stocks, and laboratories). The Department already has a plan on protecting even private infrastructure. According to the Homeland Security Website (n.d.): The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and supporting Sector-Specific Plans (SSPs) provide a coordinated approach to critical infrastructure and key resources (CI/KR) protection roles and responsibilities for federal, state, local, tribal, and private sector security partners. The NIPP sets national priorities, goals, and requirements for effective distribution of funding and resources which will help ensure that our government, economy, and public services continue in the event of a terrorist attack or other disaster. Risk management framework establishing processes for combining consequence, vulnerability, and threat information to produce a comprehensive, systematic, and rational assessment of national or sector risk. ( from the Homeland Security Website, n.d.). The government should indeed play a part in protecting even private-sector infrastructures, as long as it does not interfere with the internal system. I think that, as long as the principles of this branch of the government are in-line with the principles of the private sector, misunderstandings due to conflict of interests will not arise. We cannot ensure that the private security agencies can adequately meet the needs of the company, especially if most of its activities require public interaction-which is the concern of the Department of Homeland Security. The Department should indeed assume protection duties, as long as it does not impair the private sectors internal system.  If I am a security manager of a nuclear power plant, and I have observed that my security officers and planners have little regard for each other, I will address the matter immediately-so as not to risk the security of the power plant. Being a security manager, and having to re-conciliate different views an d opinions from security officers and security planners will not be easy.

Study Case of Goldman Sachs and the Real Estate Bubble

Of Goldman Sachs and the Real Estate Bubble - Case Study Example e an evaluation of what really happened, prescribe alternatives that ought to have been taken, give recommendations about how such a situation can be avoided and finally give a conclusion. Goldman Sachs is one of the biggest, and leading financial institutions in the world. Founded in the year 1869, it is an investment bank that is regarded the leading world investment bank. It is also involved in the management of investments and securities and also provides a variety of consultancy and other services across the world. The net revenue that Goldman Sachs raked in from its wide portfolio of services in the year 2011 was over 28 billion dollars (Konecny, 2012). It is also known for employing the top cream of the best universities who help propel it to such great heights, with top officials sitting at the treasury, such as the former secretary to the treasury, Henry Paulson, and other government financial institutions being past employees of Goldman Sachs. So what was the involvement of this giant company in the real estate bubble hit? Its involvement, both direct and indirect, can be simplified into three. Firstly, it sold securities which were mortgage- related and ove rpriced to investors without actually telling them the obvious risks that lay ahead. Secondly, Goldman Sachs, through its mortgage division’s Alternative Mortgage Products, made bets that the values of the securities would dip following a drop in the prices of houses in the United States. The third involvement of the investment bank in the housing bubble issue was its indirect connections with powerful government executives, who were actually former executives at Goldman. This made way for its receipt of bailout money from payments advanced to entities it had acquired such as AIG after the collapse of the bubble (Cohan, 2012). A number of reasons have been put forth in an attempt to explain the causes of the housing bubble. Such explanations include deregulation of financial institutions, misguided

Discuss the impact of raising minimum wages on minimum wage earners Essay

Discuss the impact of raising minimum wages on minimum wage earners and economy as a whole - Essay Example Increment of minimum wage has been a hotly debated issue not only by economists but also by the non-economist public (Neumark & Adams 6). On this issue, the non-economists have been largely pitted against the economists with the non-economists believing that raising minimum wage benefits employees and prevents employee exploitation by employers. On the other hand, economists are of the opinion that raising minimum wages actually hurt the very employees it is purported to help (Card & Krueger 20). This paper explores the effects of raising minimum wages for both the economy and minimum wage earners. Impacts of Raising Minimum Wages The first reason raising of minimum wages hurts the same people it is intended to help is that increasing these wages and creating laws that set them does not guarantee the public any more jobs. On the contrary, once minimum wages are increased, low-skilled workers are faced with the danger of being thrown out of the job market (Neumark & Adams 26). The rea son for this scenario is that employers will raise the skill requirements and the levels of competencies and experience and align them with the newly increased wages. In other words, employers are not willing to pay more for an employee if he or she does not increase or add value to a product in a manner commensurate with the wage increase (Card & Krueger 20). In the opinion of economists such as David Bradford of Princeton, raising minimum wages is tantamount to asking an employee to look for a job that would guarantee the said minimum wage (Neumark & Adams 15). Otherwise, such an employee may not find any job, depending on his level of skill. According to time-series data from decades of studies, it has been proved that raising minimum wages has the effect of reducing employment (American Enterprise Institute 3). This assertion is true if the rate of job losses in the current economy is anything to go by. According to current job estimates, a 10% increase in minimum wages could tr anslate into a decrease of between 1% and 2% in employment (American Enterprise Institute 4). Especially affected in this regard are young and unskilled workers, especially those from vulnerable and less academically and economically-endowed segments of the population. Besides increasing unemployment and job loss, minimum wage increment, especially the relevant laws, change workers’ systems of compensation. For instance, benefits such as free room and board, subsidized child care, on-the-job training, low-cost insurance, which are essential to low-waged and low-skilled worker compensations, are always negatively affected in cases of minimum wage increments. Employers have the tendency of controlling these benefits after minimum wage increments (American Enterprise Institute 4). In worse scenarios, when laws set minimum wages, some employers change full-time low-paying jobs into part-time high-paying jobs. Regrettably, there is rarely accompanying benefits such as reduced work ing hours. On-the-job training is the other aspect of low-wage employees that suffer reduction due to minimum wage increments (American Enterprise Institute 4). Hence, low-skilled workers lose their chance of improving their skills and opportunities to rise in rank. One benefit of reduced minimum wage, as opposed to increased minimum wage is that many employers prefer hiring unskilled workers and then

Steps to Ethical Decision Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Steps to Ethical Decision - Essay Example Three main assumptions that define how this issue could present an ethical challenge. The conflict involved is to what extent is the appreciation token genuine but not a bribe. More apparently, the winner of a tender out of good will decides to present appreciation to the entire panel openly inform of either cash, a party or any other form that may appear inducement. No doubt, many will find it within the sound business practice considering it happens publicly and more importantly out of the willingness of the rich supplier. Secondly, such offers are hard to be defined within the context of bribery because this is not done in secret, and everyone gets an entitlement to a fair share. Lastly, this occurs after the panel has established successfully that the supplier justly deserves the tender, however accepting gifts or goodies could jeopardize other potential competitors in future.Concisely, some parties may argue that it may be unethical to accept offers from business partners. Howev er, the manner at which this offer is given appears fair and not an inducement. When trapped in such a dilemma and case, the eight clearly outlined steps are fundamental in bringing the conflict to sanity. Basic Ethical Principles. Situation analysis of benefits versus burdens. While some decisions may appear ethical, it may bring huge burden to an organization. Loss of integrity and the perception of lack of fairness are two critical challenges that may accrue from a controversial ethical decision.

Unit 1 Lab Assignemnt Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Unit 1 Lab Assignemnt - Coursework Example Creating a scope sets a range of IP addresses that the DCHP leases to the clients (Bender 27). Creating an exclusion range of IP addresses, on the other hand, sets a range of IP addresses that one would not like to be offered to the DCHP clients. To enable a DHCP client to use an address permanently, one creates client reservations. Knowledge of the above concepts helps a networker prevent errors that may develop from improper configuration. DHCP uses options to pass additional IP setting to DHCP clients on a network. These options include DNS server, Domain name or the wins server. Configure server options applies the options to all scopes while configure scope options applies the options to a single scope (IT Essentials: Pc Hardware and Software Companion Guide 53). The design of DHCP options involves definition of parameters and settings to establish the boundaries of a given DHCP configuration. The options can be applied in a single scope or applied to all scopes defined in the server. Understanding the above concepts helps a networker efficiently make changes and debug errors to either one scope or all the scopes defined in the server. In addition to the DHCP configuration, there exist advanced settings for DHCP. One can enable the pool configuration, specify additional service availability settings and set up HA synchronization. Configuring a DHCP relay agent involves configuring the relay agent program on a computer (It Essentials: Pc Hardware and Software Companion Guide 76). Messages can be sent through different subnets only if a networker understands the concept of setting up a relay agent and sets up one. Setting up a relay agent on a computer on each subnet allows message traffic to be relayed to computers on different subnets (Bender 67). This knowledge helps a network developer a lot in minimizing the cost that would have been incurred in purchasing another DHCP server. Configuration Protocol for IPv6 can also be configured for DHCP.

Business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Business law - Essay Example gal act and quiet unethical as it manipulates the inventory so as to attract potential investors by adding the credit worthiness as well as increasing chances of being advanced a facility by a financial institution. It could also imply that increased inventory statements will equally reduce the cost of goods thus reduce the expense and subsequent reflection in high gross profit. Furthermore, overstatement of inventory statements leads to business overpaying tax since it increases the pre-tax net income. Basing on this, ABC Investments can therefore seek legal action for damages which can make them recover whatever they have lost which in this case amounts to $500,000 and any other damages. However, Zulu Computer Corporation can argue it as an innocent misrepresentation that leads to a rescission remedy which means that they assume the original status as though they had not signed the contract and will depend on the court whether the damages will be awarded depending on the nature of innocent misrepresentation and losses suffered. ABC Investments can use copies of the financial statements to file a petition of which individual responsibility or company responsibility will