State or Critique Todays charges against the MNCs Essay

State or Critique Todays charges against the MNCs - Essay Example The global liberalization has paved the way for fast expansion and growth of MNC’s. The value added of all foreign affiliates of MNC’s as a percentage of world GDP increased from about 5 percent in the beginning of the 1980’s to nearly 7 percent in 1990’s and to 15 percent in 2000’s. The dominance of MNC’s is very clear when the contribution towards a country is seen. The GDP of most of the nations is smaller than the value of the annual turnover of multinational giants like Ford and General Motors. This allows MNC’s to play a crucial role to shape national and economic policies to their benefits. This is not acceptable as MNC’s induce competition among the existing firms and it encourages free enterprise through technology transfers. They work to equalize the cost of factors of production around the world. Â  When the MNC’s enter the host country, the local enterprises imitate the new technology brought by the MNC’s to improve their production efficiency; this is the direct technology spillover effect. The market competition pressure force the local firms to adopt more advanced technologies, which push the technological progress. In some cases, countries rely on MNC’s for most of their projects. In this case, MNC’s will be a great boon to the Public Sector too. In the case of employee’s salaries, the private sector pays more compared to the public sector and the work practices in private sector are more innovative compared to the routine based work in most of the public sectors. In these ways, MNC’s enrich Private sector as entry barriers are minimal here and starve the public sector due to high political pressures. MNC’s are characterized by high levels of spending and mostly they are inefficient compare to the management of a small firm where each activity is accountable to the core and efficient methods are followed. MNC’s

Racial Profiling Essay Example for Free

Racial Profiling Essay Racial profiling is a big issue. Many people have been victimized because of cops and other high authorities’ senseless attitudes on how to handle the law. What people have to realize is that racial profiling does happen to innocent people who are mostly targeted or pursued because of their race or sometimes even because of their religion. These things can also cause citizens to become very angry and unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement. Racial profiling has been the cause of many outbreaks of riots. There has even been many riots because of innocent people being racial profiled against; causing citizens to become antagonistic, bitter, and hateful towards the law. This can be a problem because they even target good police. The cause of racial profiling can start not only hostile attitudes, but a shift in the views of how police treat citizens. Racial profiling is a method that police and other law enforcement agents use to catch someone who has committed a crime or is about to commit one. It is a controversial method. In fact, even the meaning of racial profiling is controversial† (Kops, Pg. 9). Racial profiling is a very controversial topic, because this topic makes people uneasy to talk about. It’s especially hard for victims who have been racial profiled against because of the memory of their terrible experience. â€Å"In 1942, over 120,000 American were stripped of their business and their homes and incarcerated for the duration of World War II. They had committed no offense. They were convicted of no crime. They were suspected, subjected to curfews, arrested, had their property confiscated, and finally imprisoned because of the color of their skin and their national origin or the national origin of their parents† (Meeks, Pg. ). Situations like this can cause a shift in the government where they have constant issues on how to approach citizens because of the fear of being accused of discriminating against people. This sometimes has citizens wondering is it okay for police to check you if they â€Å"think† you are committing a crime? Well there have been mixed answers when the law is confronted with this question. Also this can cause tension between cops and the law enforcement because of all the animosity and stress of being constantly accused of racial profiling. There have been retired cops who have written books talking about their experience as a cop. Some give details that outsiders wouldn’t know about the cop’s secret jobs. Is it possible that good police are afraid? This could be the reason why; they could also be afraid that if they tell too much they could possibly lose their job. But just as there are good cops, there are also bad cops. Like the ones who harass people for no reason; simply because of the physical features. â€Å"An officer’s daily duties require them to violate the rights of others, without question, on a repeated basis (see video – 2min in). Police routinely fine or jail, at taxpayer expense, people whose crimes lack an actual victim. Whether it is for driving without a license, disorderly conduct or illegal drugs, police are the ones enforcing such laws. More surprisingly is it seems they do so only because they are told to, and believe such violations are acceptable to keep others safe (this doesn’t even include officers who blatantly and knowingly abuse their power)† (Freeman). Is it a thing of giving law enforcement too much power? Many people have many complaints that the law has access to how they suspect if the person is in the wrong. This is a prime example of why there can be a separation between cops. However, often many good cops are targeted for a crooked cop’s bad deed. With this happening it scares away potential cops; who are afraid of this horrible thing happening to them, which has citizens and other authorities on edge. The lack of law enforcement would be a huge problem; without the law the crime rate could possibly reach an ultimate high. Law enforcement is supposed to be put in place as a security, and protection for citizens. But how can you trust them when they also commit crimes. It makes it even harder for citizens to report a crime because they are afraid of what might happen to them. Bad cops are considering somewhat professionals at pulling big schemes. They can pull off these schemes because of the connections they have with even high authorities. Some schemes could be tied to drug trafficking and many other things. But are once they are accused of such heinous crime, why are these issues sometimes forgotten about? It’s like the process of prosecuting these police are constantly kept quiet. Well it’s about time that it’s brought public. â€Å"Negative stereotypical biases of African-American males overshadow any appearances that they are law-abiding citizens. Indeed, in the eyes of many law enforcement officers, an African-American male driving a Mercedes-Benz projects the presumption of illegal activity, not the presumption of a hard working citizen† (Weatherspoon). Keeping these things private can cause more attention to what are they really doing. But no one is taking a stand and asking questions; simply because of fear of becoming a target of the police. â€Å"The term driving while black has been used to describe the practice of law enforcement officials to stop African-American drivers without probable cause. The practice particularly targets African-American males. African-American males are not only singled out while driving, but also while schooling, eating, running for political office, walking, banking, serving as a juror, getting a taxi, shopping, and just being black and a male. The mere fact of being black and male in America is sufficient cause for governmental and private law enforcement officials to abridge the rights of African-American males. This is not to suggest that law enforcement officers can never consider race when performing their job† (Weatherspoon). African American males are not the only people who are targeted. For example, during the Holocaust Jews were killed, beaten, starved, and a lot of other horrific things all because of their religion and race. â€Å"The European Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s, which cost millions of Jews (and other ethnic groups) their lives, led many Jews and non- Jews alike throughout the world to believe that a Jewish homeland was necessary. During and after World War II, many Jewish refugees found themselves without a nation and with nowhere to go† (Jones, Johnstone, Pg. 358). Racial profiling seems to never have an end. Many cases you hear about how racial profiling still exists ‘til this very day. The question that everyone should be asking is, â€Å"why should a person race, religion, or beliefs determine how they are judged? â€Å"Racial profiling is an abusive practice that targets innocent citizens solely because of the way that they look. It is not an effective law enforcement strategy. Research shows that racial profiling diverts officers attention from using actual, objective signs of suspicious behavior to effectively assess situations. Racial profiling erodes trust between law enforcement and its community. As a result, people are less likely to report a crime or work with the police to give information that could apprehend an actual criminal† (Elliot). This statement is true; racial profiling really is not a strategic method. Since this method has been put in place it has done nothing but cause an upset to the community. Communities have had negative feelings towards racial profiling. So why is this still a method? No one seems to ask this important question that could change the law enforcement system. Changing the system could make a better relationship between citizens and law enforcement. Because more citizens may be willing to open up more to the law, without feeling like they can’t trust police. Before this solution could be an option the law enforcement should make an extra effort with making sure that the community knows that they can trust they are truly secured. â€Å"While there have been attempts to end racial profiling in Congress, no bill has successfully been passed. Communities across the country have been subjected to this useless, degrading tactic for too long. Now is the time for Congress to reintroduce and pass comprehensive legislature to end racial profiling† (Elliot). Congress has yet to make any decisions about eliminating racial profiling. But that doesn’t mean that change won’t happen. Racial profiling as stated in within this research paper is a very controversial topic, but it also a sad topic. The way a person can be mistreated just because of the color of their skin. When reading the facts about racial profiling it is saddening to know that a person can be humiliated and tortured over nothing. Victims of racial profiling are caught off guard, because they have no clue of why they have become a target. Some people are targeted because of their religion; for example a Muslim lady could become a target of racial profiling because of her head wrapped. Muslims have became targets ever since the 9/11 incident. â€Å"Since September 11, 2001, members of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian communities have increasingly been searched, interrogated and detained in the name of national security, often times labeled terrorism suspects when in reality many were only charged with misdemeanors or minor immigration violations, if they were charged at all† (Racial Profiling: Face the Truth Campaign). African-American males are also targeted, because of how they present themselves. This can make some African- American males uneasy to go out in public, because of the fear of being watched and seen for the clothes they wear. â€Å"As a result, community members become less likely to assist with criminal investigations or seek protection from police when they themselves are victimized, which makes everyone less safe† (Racial Profiling: Face the Truth Campaign). Communities are now starting to stick together, by not helping the police. Some feel that they should not help the police when the police attack innocent people.

Architectural Realism Essay -- Urban Planning, Otto Wagner

As a proponent of Architectural Realism, Otto Wagner was interested in urban planning. Although Wagner began as a traditional architect, he promoted the transition from historicism to the idea of an architecture that spoke to its time. As an architect, Wagner began his career with buildings that were designed in the conventional Baroque and neo-classical styles. Wagner attempted to turn away from the accepted traditional forms of architecture by bringing together structural rationalism and technology. However, he retained a sense of historicism and eclecticism. (Wagner 21). Wagner’s architectural style embraced and clearly manifested a distinct change in traditional and the emergence of purpose built buildings. The church at Vienna’s Steinhoff sanitarium, the Postal savings Bank and several entrances for Vienna’s city railway are some of Wagner’s most memorable buildings. (100) . The belief of art having purpose was expressed when he stated, â€Å" The practical element in man, which is particularly pronounced, is evidently here to stay and every architect is going to have to come to grips with the postulate, a thing that is unpractical cannot be beautiful† (100). In the exploration of the idea of modernity in architecture, he used the designs of his own buildings, where he used new technology, materials and simpler ornamentation. The Postal Savings Bank is seen as an important early work of modern architecture. This represented Wagner’s move from Neoclassicism. The building was constructed using reinforced concrete. Square marble plates cover the faà §ade attached to the man brick structure with mortar and ornamented with iron bolts with aluminum caps. The picture below shows the exterior of the main faà §ade of the Postal Savings Ban... ...s considered modern at that time, it still contained references to Classicism and neo-Renaissance. This resulted in his modern architecture arguments not to be completely distinct and leave the traditional architecture of the past. John Ruskin decried the type of restorations employed by Viollet-le-Duc stating that it is â€Å"a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered, a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed† (Viollet-le-Duc 35). Because Viollet-le-Duc refuted the challenge of his own ideas, he continued to design buildings in eclectic styles. Both Wagner and Viollet-le-Duc did not succeed to completely avoid using traditional architecture as reference to modern architecture. The preservation movement widely rejected Viollet’s methods because it threatened the autonomy of the observed historical past.

In time of war, actions not morally acceptable become acceptable Essay

We live in an imperfect world where human interactions breeds frictions occasioned by participation of different individuals in matters of society, economics and even religious inclinations of the different masses. Human beings have voluntarily or involuntarily found themselves in different areas of life due to their races or ideologies and consequently have had to act in line with a certain set of belief. Therefore this has bred differences in how a different society approaches issues relating to both governance and interaction and lack of consensus among individuals and sometimes groups within and without have led to violence. This violence is sometimes political and involves a set of organized military groups fighting for a certain goal that is usually political in nature. War is rough on the participants and mostly on innocent civilians caught in the middle of the chaos. The questions that strongly begs a just answer is â€Å"can there be a just war. † Hedge (2002) claims that in essence there is not much difference between the U S government and Alqueda arguing that despite what motives drives them to violence both the outcome is death of innocent civilians. However there are those who feel that to agree with Hedge would be to deny that there cannot be moral reasons to go to war and that the presuppositions behind the just war theory are fallacious and misguiding. In this regard it would be equal to agreeing that no reason should drive a country to wage war on another or even that terror groups must be allowed to exploit the weakness of less able nations in order to bring terror to perceived enemies. In my opinion such a stand is untenable and unrealistic and a way to avoid taking responsibility in accordance to the natural laws of justice that guarantees freedom and rights of individuals (Zupan, 2004). It is therefore important to highlight that it is hypocritical to deny that a party might be justified to wage war to counter similar aggressiveness or as way of stopping gross violations against fellow human beings. All human beings have a right to life is a clearly accepted fact and anything that contravenes such a fact would ordinarily be considered immoral and against fundamental pillars of justice, rights and freedoms. However whereby a war has been taken as to being justified then a waiver is taken in order to grant the involved parties the right to take away the lives of those perceived to be the enemies. In addition the loss of civilian life in the course of such a war is simply taken to be the costs of bringing such changes as necessitate that war. Hedge actually accuses Washington of stooping so low as to use death as a means of expressing its dissatisfaction with certain issues (Hedge, 2002). In other wars certain groups of people who previously viewed as morally incorrect might receive a change of perceptions simply because they direct their atrocities to the perceived enemy. In this regard the common phrase that an enemy of my enemy is my enemy becomes true. There are those who would argue for the sovereignty of nations and that a state has a right from external interference. In ordinary times such a status applies and there are clear efforts to observe and even promote the status quo. However in times of war sovereign borders are breached and this usually leads to the removal of leadership or occupation of such state. Hedge (2002) however seeks to point out that while he is not a war supporter, that it is sometimes important to use force to counter a force that is much immoral as compared to the countering force. It is therefore important then that we must understand that we have a moral responsibility to take care not to ignore or indeed breach the fundamental rights of citizens as we engage in war. Hedges, C. (2002). War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. New York: Anchor books. Zupan, D. (2004). War, Morality and Autonomy. London: Ashgate publishings.

Recognition and Measurement of Intangibles Generally and of Brands in Particular Essay

Q: Discuss the difficulties relating to the recognition and measurement of intangibles generally and of brands in particular. Refer to the example in Enigma plc in your discussion. According to IAS 38, an intangible asset defines as â€Å"an identifiable, non-monetary asset without physical substance† including brand, computer software, patents and copyrights. As this typical asset has no physical substance, it is really difficult to recognize and measure it. This essay mainly aims to explain the difficulties to recognize and measure generally intangible assets especially the brand and some analyze refer to the Enigma example will be shown. An item cannot be an intangible asset unless it is an asset in the first place, that is to say the intangible assets should meet the definition of the asset based on IASB Conceptual Framework which contains three main criterions: control, future economic benefits and identifiable (Sacui and PrediÈ™can, 2011). Therefore, whether the item meets the three criterions are the first requirements and the difficulties to recognize an intangible asset. Firstly, the identifiable of an asset is that â€Å"it is capable of being separate or divided from the entity and sold, transferred, licensed, rented or exchanged† (IAS38). So as the intangible assets, it also should be separable from the entity or other rights and obligations. However, the intangible assets are lack of physical substance, the requirement of â€Å"identifiable† is one of the difficulties the entities will meet. Then the accountancy standards require that the company must be able to control the item’s future economic benefits. At last, there must be an expectation of future economics and the intangible assets should be capable of attributing directly or indirectly to future net cash flow (Sacui and PrediÈ™can, 2011). Without selling the intangible asset, it is nearly impossible to determine whether the future cash flow mainly due to the intangible assets or the operating activities. Furthermore, there are still some more requirements should be met when an item will be recognized as an intangible asset, such as without physical substance, be non-monetary and be able to be measured reliably. Considering the brand, it is protected by the trademark law and can only be recognized as intangible assets if they comply with the assets definition. If the brand is acquired in a separate transaction, just like the Enigma example, the Enigma Company spent 7million purchasing the Variations brand, the price that has been paid for the brand is one of the evidence that the brand can be controlled effectively and the future economic benefit will flow to the enterprise. In addition, the cost of the brand usually can be measured reliably and in this case it is 7million. So the brand which was purchased separately in this accounting period has met the recognition requirement and can be treated as an intangible asset. What is more, there is another way to purchase the brand though the business combination. Under this circumstance, the cost of brand is the fair value on the date of the acquisition (Melville, 2011). Furthermore, the fact price that has been paid for the brand is treated as a reflection that economic benefit is expected to flow to the entity in the future. To sum up, the brand acquired in a business combination satisfied the requirements and also can be classified as an intangible asset. However, it is really difficulty to decide whether the internally generated intangible assets meet the general requirement for recognition. Moreover, the IAS38 states that internally generated brand shall not be recognized as an asset. It is mainly because the expenditure on internally generated brands cannot be distinguished from the cost of developing the business as a whole and the problem of establishing whether the item is an identifiable asset which will generate future economic benefits (Melville, 2011). As in the Enigma example, the 3 million marketing expenditure on Enigma’s internally generated brand is recognized as an expense in the 2012 comprehensive income statement instead of an intangible asset which meets the requirement of prudence. After initial recognition, the IAS38 permits the entities to choose between the â€Å"cost model† and the â€Å"revaluation model† to measure the brand. In the cost model, the intangible assets are carried at cost less accumulated amortization and accumulated impairment losses (Austin, 2007). In this case, the company needs to decide the intangible asset’s useful life objectively and choose a proper method to amortize the intangible assets. While the revaluation model measure intangible assets at a revalued amount. According to IAS38, the fair value of intangible assets must be estimated by reference to an active market in that kind of assets. Therefore, if the brand doesn’t have an active market, the recent price cannot be treated as a fair value and the revaluation model should not be applied to it as well. Compared with the tangible market, such as houses, inventories and machines, the intangible market is imperfections (Alali and Cao, 2010). Therefore, it is difficult to get a fair market value for the enterprises to use or reference at any time they need, especially the brand. The brand is a typical intangible asset whose price will change dramatically when a small scandal occurs. So when using revaluation model to measure a brand, the market is particularly important. Before considering the subsequent measurement, the intangible assets should be determined the length of useful life. Intangible assets with finite useful life will be amortized in the following years; however, intangible assets with infinite useful life will not (Melville, 2011). In general, the IASC claims that the useful life of an intangible asset is not longer than twenty years. While if there is no foreseeable limit to the period over which the brand is expected to generate net cash flow for the enterprise, the useful life of brand can be treated as indefinite (Austin, 2007). That is to say, how to decide the useful life for a brand is another problem that a company will meet in the future. Thinking about the Enigma example again, as it says no depreciation has yet been charged on any non current asset for the 2012, we assume that the Enigma plc use the revalued model to measure the brand. Then the company should make the revaluation with sufficient regularity to ensure that the carrying amount of the brand does not differ materially from fair value. In addition, if the Enigma plc chooses the cost model, the useful life of the brand and the amortization policy should be determined by the managers and we may have an accumulative amortization in our statement of financial statement. To sum up, as a special kind of assets, the intangible assets have so many typical characters and difficulties to recognize and measure, such as lack of mature market for intangible assets, hard to decide its useful life and relevant expense. In this case, we should treat this kind of assets more carefully. Reference: 1. Sacui, V. and PrediÈ™can, M., 2011. The intangible assets investments characteristics and the accounting treatment. Annals of the University of Oradea, Economic Science Series. 2. Melville, A., 2011. International Financial Reporting, Third Edition, FT Prentice Hall. 3. Austin, L., 2007. Accounting for Intangible Assets, University of Auckland Business Review Autumn. 4. Alali, F. and Cao, L., 2010. International Financial Reporting Standards – Credible and Reliable, Advances in Accounting, Incorporating Advances in International Accounting 5. Austin, L., 2007. Accounting for Intangible Assets, University of Auckland Business Review Autumn.

Biography of Lugenia Burns Hope

Biography of Lugenia Burns Hope Social reformer and community activist Lugenia Burns Hope worked tirelessly to create change for African-Americans in the early twentieth century. As the wife of John Hope, an educator and president of Morehouse College, Hope could have lived a comfortable life and entertained other women of her social class. Instead, Hope galvanized women in her community to improve the living conditions of African-American communities throughout Atlanta. Hopes work as an activist influenced many grassroots workers during the Civil Rights Movement. Key Contributions 1898/9: Organizes with other women to establish daycare centers in the West Fair community. 1908: Establishes the Neighborhood Union, the first womens charity group in Atlanta. 1913: Elected chairwoman of Womens Civic and Social Improvement Committee, an organization that works to improve the education for African-American children in Atlanta. 1916: Assisted in the establishment of Atlantas National Association of Colored Womens Clubs. 1917: Becomes director of the Young Womens Christian Associations (YWCA) hostess house program for African American soldiers. 1927: Appointed member of President Herbert Hoovers Colored Commission. 1932: Elected First Vice President of the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Early Life and Education Hope was born in St. Louis, Missouri on February 19, 1871. Hope was the youngest of seven children born to Louisa M. Bertha and Ferdinand Burns. In the 1880s, Hopes family moved to Chicago, Illinois. Hope attended schools such as the Chicago Art Institute, the Chicago School of Design and Chicago Business College. However, while working for settlement houses such as Jane Adams Hull House Hope began her career as a social activist and community organizer. Marriage to John Hope In 1893, while attending the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago, she met John Hope. The couple married in 1897 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee where her husband taught at Roger Williams University. While living in Nashville, Hope renewed her interest in working with the community by teaching physical education and crafts through local organizations. Atlanta: Grassroots Community Leader For thirty years, Hope worked to improve the lives of African Americans in Atlanta, Georgia through her efforts as a social activist and community organizer. Arriving in Atlanta in 1898, Hope worked with a group of women to provide services to African-American children in the West Fair neighborhood. These services included free day care centers, community centers, and recreational facilities. Seeing the high need in many poor communities throughout Atlanta, Hope enlisted the help of Morehouse College students to interview community members concerning their needs. From these surveys, Hope realized that many African Americans not only suffered from societal racism but also a lack of medical and dental services, inadequate access to education and lived in unsanitary conditions. By 1908, Hope established the Neighborhood Union, an organization providing educational, employment, recreational and medical services to African Americans throughout Atlanta. Also, the Neighborhood Union worked to reduce crime in African American communities in Atlanta and also spoke out against racism and Jim Crow laws. Challenging Racism on the National Level Hope was appointed the Special War Secretary for the YWCAs War Work Council in 1917. In this role, Hope trained hostess-house workers for the return of African-American and Jewish soldiers. Through her involvement in the YWCA, Hope realized that African-American women were faced with significant discrimination within the organization. As a result, Hope fought for African-American leadership of branches services African-American communities in the southern states. In 1927, Hope was appointed to the Colored Advisory Commission. In this capacity, Hope worked with the American Red Cross and discovered that African-American victims of the Great Flood of 1927 were faced with racism and discrimination during the relief efforts. In 1932, Hope became the first vice president of the NAACPs Atlanta chapter. During her term, Hope managed the development of citizenship schools which introduced African-Americans to the importance of civic participation and the role of government. Mary McLeod Bethune, director of the Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration, recruited Hope to work as her assistant in 1937. Death On August 14, 1947, Hope died of heart failure in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Role of France in the American Revolutionary War

The Role of France in the American Revolutionary War After years of spiraling tensions in Britain’s American colonies, the American Revolutionary War began in 1775. The revolutionary colonists faced a war against one of the world’s major powers, one with an empire that spanned the globe. To help counter Britains formidable position, the Continental Congress created the Secret Committee of Correspondence to publicize the aims and actions of the rebels in Europe. They then drafted the Model Treaty to guide negotiations of alliance with foreign nations. Once the Congress had declared independence in 1776, it sent a party that included Benjamin Franklin to negotiate with Britain’s rival: France. Why France Was Interested France initially sent agents to observe the war, organized secret supplies, and began preparations for war against Britain in support of the rebels. France might seem an odd choice for the revolutionaries to work with. The nation was ruled by an absolutist monarch who was not sympathetic to the principle of no taxation without representation, even if the plight of the colonists and their perceived fight against a domineering empire excited idealistic Frenchmen like the Marquis de Lafayette. In addition, France was Catholic, and the colonies were Protestant, a difference that was a major and contentious issue at the time and that had colored several centuries of foreign relations. But French was a colonial rival of Britain. While it was arguably Europe’s most prestigious nation, France had suffered humiliating defeats to the British in the Seven Years War- especially its American theater, the French-Indian War- several years earlier. France was looking for any way to boost its own reputation while undermining Britains, and helping the colonists to independence looked like a perfect way of doing this. The fact that some of the revolutionaries had fought France in the French-Indian War was expediently overlooked. In fact, the French Duc de Choiseul had outlined how France would restore their prestige from the Seven Years War as early as 1765 by saying the colonists would soon throw the British out, and that France and Spain had to unite and fight Britain for naval dominance. Covert Assistance Franklin’s diplomatic overtures helped prompt a wave of sympathy across France for the revolutionary cause, and a fashion for all things American took hold. Franklin used this popular support to help in negotiations with French Foreign Minister Vergennes, who was initially keen on a full alliance, especially after the British were forced to abandon their base in Boston. Then news arrived of defeats suffered by Washington and his Continental Army in New York. With Britain seemingly on the rise, Vergennes wavered, hesitating over a full alliance, though he sent a secret loan and other aid anyway. Meanwhile, the French entered negotiations with the Spanish. Spain was also a threat to Britain, but it was worried about supporting colonial independence. Saratoga Leads to Full Alliance In December of 1777, news reached France of the British surrender at Saratoga, a victory that convinced the French to make a full alliance with the revolutionaries and to enter the war with troops. On February 6, 1778, Franklin and two other American commissioners signed the Treaty of Alliance and a Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France. This contained a clause banning both Congress and France from making a separate peace with Britain and a commitment to keep fighting until the independence of the United States was recognized. Spain entered the war on the revolutionary side later that year. The French Foreign Office had trouble pinning down â€Å"legitimate† reasons for France’s entry into the war; they found almost none. France couldn’t argue for the rights that the Americans claimed without damaging their own political system. Indeed, their report could only stress Frances disputes with Britain; it avoided discussion in favor of simply acting. Legitimate reasons were not terribly important in this epoch and the French joined the fight anyway. 1778 to 1783 Now fully committed to the war, France supplied arms, munitions, supplies, and uniforms. French troops and naval power were also sent to America, reinforcing and protecting Washington’s Continental Army. The decision to send troops was taken carefully, as France was not sure how the Americans would react to a foreign army. The number of soldiers was carefully chosen, striking a balance that allowed them to be effective, while not being so large as to anger the Americans. The commanders were also carefully selected- men who could work effectively with the other French commanders and the American commanders. The leader of the French army, Count Rochambeau, however, did not speak English. The troops sent to America were not, as has sometimes been reported, the very cream of the French army. They were, however, as one historian has commented, for 1780...probably the most sophisticated military instrument ever dispatched to the New World.† There were problems in working together at first, as American General Sullivan found at Newport when French ships pulled away from a siege to deal with British ships, before being damaged and having to retreat. But overall the American and French forces cooperated well, although they were often kept separate. The French and Americans certainly were quite effective when compared to the incessant problems experienced in the British high command. French forces attempted to buy everything from the locals that they couldn’t ship in, rather than requisition it. They spent an estimated $4 million worth of precious metal in doing so, further endearing themselves to the Americans. Arguably the key French contribution to the war came during the Yorktown campaign. French forces under Rochambeau landed at Rhode Island in 1780, which they fortified before linking up with Washington in 1781. Later that year the Franco-American army marched 700 miles south to besiege Cornwallis’ British army at Yorktown, while the French navy cut the British off from desperately needed naval supplies, reinforcements, and complete evacuation to New York. Cornwallis was forced to surrender to Washington and Rochambeau. This proved to be the last major engagement of the war, as Britain opened peace discussions soon after rather than continue a global war. The Global Threat From France America wasn’t the only theater in a war, which, with France’s entrance, had turned global. France threatened British shipping and territory around the globe, preventing their rival from focusing fully on the conflict in the Americas. Part of the impetus behind Britain’s surrender after Yorktown was the need to hold the remainder of their colonial empire from attack by other European nations, such as France. There were battles outside America in 1782 and 1783 as peace negotiations took place. Many in Britain felt that France was their primary enemy, and should be the focus; some even suggested pulling out of the American colonies entirely to focus on their neighbor. Peace Despite British attempts to divide France and Congress during peace negotiations, the allies remained firm- aided by a further French loan- and peace was reached in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 between Britain, France, and the United States. Britain had to sign further treaties with other European powers who had become involved. Consequences Britain quit the American Revolutionary War rather than fight another global war with France. This might seem like a triumph for France, but in truth, it was a disaster. The financial pressures France faced at the time were only made worse by the cost of aiding the Americans. These fiscal troubles soon spiraled out of control and played a large role in the start of the French Revolution in 1789. The French government thought it was harming Britain by acting in the New World, but, just a few years later, it was itself harmed by the financial costs of the war. Sources Kennett, Lee. The French Forces in America, 1780–1783. Greenwood Press, 1977.Mackesy, Piers. The War for America 1775–1783. Harvard University Press, 1964.

Marketing Change Management How to Influence It [Backed By Science]

Marketing Change Management How to Influence It [Backed By Science] Something is broken. Maybe its your workflow. Maybe its how you collaborate across multiple teams. Maybe its knowing how the content you produce influences ROI. At , we  know  youd like help to get organized and to do that, you might need to pitch to your boss  and to your team. ^^^ So whatever snag youre hitting as you manage your marketing team, chances are something needs to change before it will get better. And the best person to influence  that change for the better is you. So the question becomes how can you do it? It takes some finesse with office relationships, psychology behind change management, and perseverance. Lets explore how you can be the marketing change management mastermind. ;) How To Influence Marketing Change Management [Backed By Science]Get Your Marketing Change Management Timeline Template Use the free spreadsheet that complements this blog post to plan your marketing change management strategy. Youll put everything youll learn throughout this post into a plan you can execute. Youll also get a marketing change management template in Word to help you communicate effectively with your manager, team, and stakeholders. Go ahead. Download fo free now! Step 1: Create The Business Case For Change Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Ugh. But. Creating a doc to have one version of the truth- a reference point for questions- will help you convince your manager and team that change is needed. There are three key points to address in your change management business case doc: #1. Show There Is Need For A Change You feel when you need a change. There is disorganization. There are poor results. There are missing pieces. The best way to prove the need for change is with cold hard facts and brutal honesty. It's impossible to argue against factual information  that informs your stakeholders why the change is necessary. There are a few ways to do this: Data Is what you're doing producing the results you expect? For example, you may be spending a lot of time on trivial projects that don't actually produce repeatable, measurable results. You could measure the hours  you and your team spend on those projects in an average week. Then multiply the time by each employee's hourly wage to understand how much money the company literally spends on projects that do not actually add anything to your bottom line. If you add up those dollar values and multiply by 52, you literally know how much money goes down the drain in a year. You can ask your team to track their time over the course of an average week using a tool like Toggl. Then use the Time Tracking  tab in your change management template spreadsheet that complements this blog post to track the  time + spend on tasks: Think about how much time you spend: Switching in and out of tools not designed for the specific purpose you're using them for. Making edits to  content that won't actually make a difference in the end results it will produce (shooting for perfection is extremely expensive). Getting approval after you create content (then reworking nearly everything). With very simple math, you can demonstrate how expensive these activities are, thus showing the need for change. Pro Tip: You can also use this method to show what you could be doing with your time that would generate bigger results. So, let's say you find that  logging in and out of multiple tools + disorganization sucks up 4 hours of your week. Is that the same amount of time it would take you to write a blog post? There is proof: When we find a tool that is designed to help  my team be more productive, we will write more blog posts which are proven to help us grow the business. Another data example involves analyzing the success  of your best-performing content. What if you focused more time  shipping new projects that are similar to your existing top-performers? From experience, I can tell you that you don't need to publish more content,  but the same amount of the right content. And you could boost your results by 9,360%. No joke. Here is how to calculate this quickly, but read this for an exhaustive, in-depth guide: Set up goal tracking in Google Analytics and create a custom report to easily view the content that contributes to those goals. Here are in-depth instructions to help you do this in 5 minutes or less. Create a list of the last 30 pieces you published  that are at least 30 days old. Use the Content Grading tab in your change management template to do this. Write down the amount each piece has contributed to your goal by using the Google Analytics custom report. To make this an even fight for each piece, I like to collect data from the first 30 days after publish, so every piece has an equal amount of time to contribute to your goal. Sort your content  by your goal, peruse through those top-performing pieces, and write down the qualities you see repeated over and over. For example, at , the qualities we saw repeated over and over again were an interesting topic, well-researched and factual, comprehensive + actionable, keyword-driven, and optimized to convert traffic into email subscribers. Find the average goal contribution from every piece in your sample. If you continue status quo, this  is what you will continue to produce. Then  find the average contribution from your top 10 pieces. It's way higher, right!? Now you know if you publish the same amount of content, and simply match the qualities from your top-performers, you will boost your results. ^^^ And there you have it. Proof that you need to pivot to increase your team's performance. Examples where this method may work best for demonstrating the need for change: You don't currently have a way to measure how what you're doing is working. You  hypothesize  that doing more (or less) of something will produce better results. Bureaucracy has you doing the same old thing because... "We've always done it this way." You want to create new content initiatives and need to prove that they'd be well worth your time. Examples You might not have content that exists to help you prove you need to do more of what's already working. That's where examples come into play. Examples are also proof, or evidence, of a need for change. You can: Demonstrate a broken internal process by showing the inefficiencies of your current workflow. Again, inefficiency is expensive, and you could back this up with numbers using the process above. Examples: Workflows, approval processes, collaborating across multiple teams. Show an interesting use case with the new marketing idea from any other company. Then connect the dots to how you could do it for your business. Researching the data behind this makes your change management business case that much stronger. Example: You believe a blog would be great for your business, but you know there will be some resistance. Find examples of successful businesses that have built their credibility with a blog and are now multi-million dollar enterprises. Show how your competition is doing something amazing, but you don't have a presence in that area. This appeals to the fear of missing out, or FOMO. Example: You  know  your audience uses Instagram and would like to have a presence, but you're hitting some resistance. Find  examples of your competition engaging with your audience on that channel as proof that your audience indeed uses that network to communicate with brands they love. Industry Trends If there is one thing that's constant, it's change. Especially in the marketing industry: New technology, new channels, and new ideas are ever-evolving. This is similar to examples, but you can: Cite credible industry publications that cover new changes. Look for the why behind this: Why should you use the new tool, social media channel, or new content idea? Look for case studies that demonstrate the value of the trend. Has anyone (even outside of your niche) published a piece that shows percentage increases or demonstrates what you'll get out of the new idea? You'll note, I led this section with more  examples of finding your own real data to prove why you need to change. Using your data as much as possible builds the strongest case for the change you'd like to implement. It's hard to argue with your facts versus how others have been successful. #2.  Show How You Will Thrive After The Change You've  shown evidence that suggests change is necessary. Now it's time to demonstrate the benefits behind making the change. An easy way to think about this, is with a simple framework: When  we {do this}, we will {get this}. Note when there. When demonstrates an inevitability whereas if is only possible. Let's look at an example here, using examples and data to prove the need for change + backing up how implementing that change will help you produce bigger results. The example is a broken process. I hear from marketing supervisors all the time that disorganized process and "herding cats" sucks the most time away from their days, preventing them from focusing on the strategic work that would generate bigger results. To prove the need for change, you: Lay out the example of what the existing workflow looks like. Leave no stone unturned: Every step, every person involved, every tool, every point of communication, and especially the parts that are broken. For you, this could be writing a white paper. The workflow  involves: Email: Gather the idea from the sales manager. Email: Determine who the subject matter expert is with the sales manager. Meeting: Interview  with the sales team member who is a subject matter expert on the topic to gather the story. Email: Hound the sales team member to provide  stats + facts to support the claims you'll make in the white paper. Google Docs: Write the "What's in it for me?" and outline. Email: Peer review the outline with the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Write the first draft. Email: Gather feedback on the first draft from the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Implement the feedback from the subject matter expert into the white paper. Email: Gather further feedback from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Design the white paper. Email: Gather further feedback from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Implement changes from subject matter expert. Email: Get approval from the sales manager. InDesign: Implement changes from sales manager. Email: Get approval from your manager. InDesign: Implement changes from your manager. Email: Give final draft to sales manager and your manager to distribute to internal staff. ^^ If that even looks remotely like your workflow, there is definitely a better way. Recommended Reading: How to Boost a Marketing Workflow Process That Will Reduce Work By 30-50% By showing something like this, you demonstrate the problem. Now you can show off the solution. When we cut several unnecessary approval steps, we will save my team 5  hours of productivity time every week. That's the same amount of time it takes to write a brand new white paper, which is proven to generate 150 marketing qualified leads when we write it like our top-performing white papers. Therefore, when  we don't change, we are literally wasting time on a broken process rather than focusing our time on generating bigger results. Here's how. Weekly Meeting: Gather the story  from the sales manager and subject matter expert with clear action items for sales to provide stats on time saved from our solution + percentage increase on their desired goal by the end of the week. Google Docs (integrated into ): Write the "What's in it for me?" and outline. : Peer review the outline with the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Write the first draft. : Gather feedback on the first draft from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Design the white paper. : Get approval from the sales manager + your manager. InDesign: Implement changes from sales manager + your manager. : Give final draft to sales manager and your manager to distribute to internal staff. ^^^ You just literally cut the amount of work in half, not to mention eliminating endless email strings that are super easy to miss. Cut your work in half and eliminate endless email strings.Now you can track how long it would take for each step from the existing process and subtract the time saved from your new process. So all 18 tasks minus the 9 you removed would be the equivalent of 5 hours in this example. This doesn't even take into account the feeling of being organized, which everyone involved in the process will also love! #3. Show The Roadmap To Get There It's one thing to know what you need to do. Now you need to lay out the plan to implement the change. Humans are naturally adverse to change, so the odds are this will not happen over night. In fact, if you've been following an old process for a long period of time, it may take up to 21 days to help your team members build new  habits. Therefore, your roadmap to onboard your team members to learn this new behavior should span several weeks. In this time period, you will want to literally  lay out your game plan schedule of what you'll do to  make the change stick. Pre-rollout: Gather the data, examples, and industry trends demonstrating the need for change. Pre-rollout: Create your timeline for implementing the change. Pre-rollout: Script the questions, roadblocks, and objections that have potential to mitigate change. Pre-rollout: Discuss the forces driving change, timeline, and scripts with your manager. Day 1:  All hands kickoff meeting. Your itinerary should cover the three things you've been learning about: The problem (what's wrong), the solution  (why this change is necessary now), and the roadmap you're creating at this moment. You should also leave time for questions + answers (more on this to come). Day 2: Implement your team's initial feedback into the new solution. Day 3: Show  your team that you took their advice and enhanced the new solution. Day 4: Remind your team to use the new solution. Day 5: Retro and iterate. Weekend Day 8: Ask your team informally how things are going. Instant message could work well. This  reminds  everyone (especially your most quiet team members) that they have a voice in the change process. Day 9: Implement the feedback into your process, and remind the team to use it and not retrogress to old behavior. Day 10: Day 11: Day 12:  Retro and iterate. Weekend Day 15: Again, ask your team informally how things are going, and look for feedback. Day 16:  Implement the feedback into your process, and remind the team to use it and not retrogress to old behavior. Day 17: Day 18: Day 19:  Retro and iterate. Weekend You can map out your game plan in , too, using  a Marketing Project. When you decide to use , everyone will see everything you're working on in one place... so why not add this into , too? ;) Step 2: Be Prepared + Proactive For Any Situation Bill Walsh was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and helped turn a losing football team into one of the best, winning three Super Bowls. ^^ Talk about change management. Walsh is known for planning  his plays for every scenario. He carefully planned exactly what play would work for specific situations like being 30 yards from the end zone with only 5 seconds on the clock. He's known for having planned the first several  plays of the game whether the 49ers were kicking or receiving. In short, Bill Walsh  planned his work, then worked his plan. He called this practice scripting. And it's a great  framework you can apply to your change management, too: Scripting allowed me to take randomness and stress out of the decision-making process. The result is a very adaptable but intelligent  plan for the future. - Bill Walsh Anticipate Questions Uncertainty avoidance is the psychological term used to describe a specific society's tolerance for ambiguity. While this term is generally used to describe  larger cultures as a whole, your team and business have a culture within them, too. And the main idea here is that people like process, rules, and the same-old-same-old because it's familiar, easy to remember, and they already have habits that literally help them do the work with less thought and effort than taking on something new. Knowing this, you can plan on the questions your team will ask as you make the change. This is your script for an FAQ (or frequently asked questions) for your team. Simply take 30 minutes to brainstorm all of the questions your team may ask, then write down the answers: Why this change? Why now? What do you expect from me now? How will we collaborate now? What aren't we doing anymore? What new things are we doing? How should I voice my feedback? The point here is to think through the most common questions you can realistically expect your team and stakeholders to ask you, so you have all the answers prepared in advance. You can use the change management Word doc template that complements this blog post to help you get started. Recommended Reading: The Best 30 Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Anticipate Roadblocks Again, change is often difficult for people to accept. Most people are satisfied with status quo, in other words, doing exactly what they're doing now. Back in 1947, psychologist Kurt Lewin researched this phenomenon and came up with the force field analysis. Essentially, there are forces driving change while other forces restrain change, which makes it most comfortable for people to stay in the status quo. You are the force driving change within your organization. So you should prepare for how you'll address  the forces resisting change: How will you phase out old, outdated tools you no longer need to use? What does the timeline look like? How will you onboard your team members to use the new tools as you expect?  What does the timeline look like? How do you take into account everything else on your team's plate and the time it takes to learn new skills (100 hours per person)? What will you do if a team member does not adopt the new process from the get-go? What will you do if a team member tries the new process for a day, then regresses to their former behavior? How will you handle team members who actively fight against the new process and try to get other team members on their side? How will you agilely  learn from your success and mistakes as your team implements change? Like your FAQ, think through and script  the answers to these questions. When- or if- the situation arises, you've planned exactly how to get your change strategy back on track. Here's how to keep your #marketing change management strategy on track.Anticipate  Objections Your own team may fight for the status quo without really knowing why. This could be a force resisting change, or  once again, a few more scenarios to script for: I don't think this will work. I don't like the new process. This is taking even more time than before the change. We can't remove those steps from our workflow because of {insert excuse}. Change  is an emotional beast. The best thing to do, according to change management pros, is to address these concerns with factual evidence backing up the need for change. Step 3: Get Your Manager On Board Those same change management pros suggest change is best instituted from the top-down. Change is best instituted from the top-down.So once you have your game plan, it's probably time to loop in your manager to get her on the same page as you (and to have your back if the forces of resistance  get in the way of the forces driving change). Set up an hourlong meeting your manager with the following agenda: 10  minutes: Explain the existing problem. 10 minutes: Show the evidence that the problem is a big one. 10 minutes: Show the  roadmap  you'll use to implement the change. 10 minutes: Show your proactive planning to address the forces of resistance. 10 minutes: Chat through how you'll communicate the change with your team (and get their feedback), next steps, concerns, and when you will roll out the change. 10 minutes: Lay out your action items to work through after the meeting is over. ^^^ Those sections might feel  a little long, but the point is for this to be a working meeting. Let your manager ask questions throughout, and show up ready to take notes so you can improve your marketing change management strategy based on her feedback. What If Your Manager Doesn't Like The Suggested Change? This is where  you can use questions as a framework to understand how you can improve your pitch (or at least understand what the heck your manager is thinking): Why {do you believe that}? How {might you suggest I do that}? If you're way off, schedule a second meeting with your manager (with the same agenda) to show her how you  took her advice and will implement it in your strategy. Recommended Reading: 30 Marketing Plan Samples And Everything You Need to Include In Your Strategy Step 4: Involve The Team Early On No one really likes to be told what to do. On the other hand, involving your team members early and helping them help you make the change decisions makes them feel like they made them in the first place. In their book, Sprint: How To Solve Big Problems And Test New Ideas In Just Five Days, authors Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz suggest: By asking people for their input early in the process, you help them feel invested in the outcome. Later, when you begin executing your successful solutions, the experts you brought in will probably be among your biggest supporters. So... how can you involve  your team + stakeholders early on? Host A Process Change Kickoff Meeting With Everyone Involved In The Change You pretty much have the itinerary from the chat with your manager (but make a couple optimizations  here): 10  minutes: Explain the existing problem. 10 minutes: Show the evidence that the problem is a big one. 10 minutes: Show the  roadmap  you'll use to implement the change. 20 minutes:  Give your team the chance to provide feedback right now, but also give them some time afterward to let the ideas percolate. This gives your quiet folks the chance to digest the information and provide thoughtful insight afterward. Beware of the psychological principle of conformity (and keep your loud team members in check). 10 minutes: Lay out your action items to work through after the meeting is over. ^^^ You have all of that documented in your marketing change management template. Recommended Reading: 21+ Marketing Templates That Will Make You More Efficient And Organized Provide Time To Think Through Feedback Give your team a deadline to provide their feedback and provide the method to do it (email, instant message, etc.). You can plan this into your change management roadmap. If anything, this keeps the process moving forward (and on a schedule) so you can fix what's broken quickly. Incorporate Feedback Into Your Change Management Process When you ask for feedback, you take it. That said, not all feedback will improve the plan. The point is to literally help your team know and understand you are listening to them, that their thoughts are valuable, and you understand they will be the major players  implementing the change. So change the roadmap as needed and clearly communicate you heard every idea and implemented many, but it just wasn't possible to include everything they requested. Retro On What's Working, What's Not, And What You Could Improve I'm borrowing this from agile product management practices. Every Friday, the marketing team at retros on the week, asking three questions: What went well? What should we continue doing? What went wrong? What should we stop doing? What could we improve? Retros like this are great for gathering feedback from your team as you change their processes. I'd suggest hosting 15-minute retro meetings every week within your first 21 days specifically to discuss the change you're implementing to learn from your mistakes (and successes). As feedback rolls in, you can use all of the work you put into writing scripts to great use! Recommended Listening: How to Get Extremely Organized With Agile Marketing With Jeff Julian From Enterprise Marketer Step 5: Break Through The Resistance To Change Change of any kind requires breaking existing habits. And that is really difficult... because humans literally need habits to not think through the nitty-gritty details of everything in their lives (we would all go crazy). So, to influence the right behavior, the most important thing to do is to over-communicate with your team as they undergo change. As Bill Walsh said: We did the same drills over and over again; I said essentially the same thing over and over, discussed the same information, concepts, and principles over and over. Gradually, my teaching stuck. If it starts to become a joke that your team knows exactly what you're going to say next... you've done well. So plan your communication touch points in your change management timeline to remind yourself when to communicate. The point is: When your team starts to think like you, they'll start to act like you. ^^^ And that's exactly what you want. When your team thinks like you, they'll act like you.Which brings me to leading by example. Maintain zero tolerance for retrogressing behavior. If you see someone do something wrong, use your scripts to change the behavior and ask the following questions: What went wrong? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this situation back on track? The point of using questions like this as a framework is to literally let your team member answer them. They come up with their own solution for preventing unwanted behavior. And they know your thought process + expectations upfront. There is no room in change management for being wishy-washy. Finally, commitment and perseverance influence change. This process has potential to feel messy. Remember: You are the change management leader. You are responsible for planning your work, then working your plan. You are the one who will make this a reality. You just need to do it. Marketing Change Management How to Influence It [Backed By Science] Something is broken. Maybe its your workflow. Maybe its how you collaborate across multiple teams. Maybe its knowing how the content you produce influences ROI. At , we  know  youd like help to get organized and to do that, you might need to pitch to your boss  and to your team. ^^^ So whatever snag youre hitting as you manage your marketing team, chances are something needs to change before it will get better. And the best person to influence  that change for the better is you. So the question becomes how can you do it? It takes some finesse with office relationships, psychology behind change management, and perseverance. Lets explore how you can be the marketing change management mastermind. ;) How To Influence Marketing Change Management [Backed By Science]Get Your Marketing Change Management Timeline Template Use the free spreadsheet that complements this blog post to plan your marketing change management strategy. Youll put everything youll learn throughout this post into a plan you can execute. Youll also get a marketing change management template in Word to help you communicate effectively with your manager, team, and stakeholders. Go ahead. Download fo free now! Step 1: Create The Business Case For Change Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Ugh. But. Creating a doc to have one version of the truth- a reference point for questions- will help you convince your manager and team that change is needed. There are three key points to address in your change management business case doc: #1. Show There Is Need For A Change You feel when you need a change. There is disorganization. There are poor results. There are missing pieces. The best way to prove the need for change is with cold hard facts and brutal honesty. It's impossible to argue against factual information  that informs your stakeholders why the change is necessary. There are a few ways to do this: Data Is what you're doing producing the results you expect? For example, you may be spending a lot of time on trivial projects that don't actually produce repeatable, measurable results. You could measure the hours  you and your team spend on those projects in an average week. Then multiply the time by each employee's hourly wage to understand how much money the company literally spends on projects that do not actually add anything to your bottom line. If you add up those dollar values and multiply by 52, you literally know how much money goes down the drain in a year. You can ask your team to track their time over the course of an average week using a tool like Toggl. Then use the Time Tracking  tab in your change management template spreadsheet that complements this blog post to track the  time + spend on tasks: Think about how much time you spend: Switching in and out of tools not designed for the specific purpose you're using them for. Making edits to  content that won't actually make a difference in the end results it will produce (shooting for perfection is extremely expensive). Getting approval after you create content (then reworking nearly everything). With very simple math, you can demonstrate how expensive these activities are, thus showing the need for change. Pro Tip: You can also use this method to show what you could be doing with your time that would generate bigger results. So, let's say you find that  logging in and out of multiple tools + disorganization sucks up 4 hours of your week. Is that the same amount of time it would take you to write a blog post? There is proof: When we find a tool that is designed to help  my team be more productive, we will write more blog posts which are proven to help us grow the business. Another data example involves analyzing the success  of your best-performing content. What if you focused more time  shipping new projects that are similar to your existing top-performers? From experience, I can tell you that you don't need to publish more content,  but the same amount of the right content. And you could boost your results by 9,360%. No joke. Here is how to calculate this quickly, but read this for an exhaustive, in-depth guide: Set up goal tracking in Google Analytics and create a custom report to easily view the content that contributes to those goals. Here are in-depth instructions to help you do this in 5 minutes or less. Create a list of the last 30 pieces you published  that are at least 30 days old. Use the Content Grading tab in your change management template to do this. Write down the amount each piece has contributed to your goal by using the Google Analytics custom report. To make this an even fight for each piece, I like to collect data from the first 30 days after publish, so every piece has an equal amount of time to contribute to your goal. Sort your content  by your goal, peruse through those top-performing pieces, and write down the qualities you see repeated over and over. For example, at , the qualities we saw repeated over and over again were an interesting topic, well-researched and factual, comprehensive + actionable, keyword-driven, and optimized to convert traffic into email subscribers. Find the average goal contribution from every piece in your sample. If you continue status quo, this  is what you will continue to produce. Then  find the average contribution from your top 10 pieces. It's way higher, right!? Now you know if you publish the same amount of content, and simply match the qualities from your top-performers, you will boost your results. ^^^ And there you have it. Proof that you need to pivot to increase your team's performance. Examples where this method may work best for demonstrating the need for change: You don't currently have a way to measure how what you're doing is working. You  hypothesize  that doing more (or less) of something will produce better results. Bureaucracy has you doing the same old thing because... "We've always done it this way." You want to create new content initiatives and need to prove that they'd be well worth your time. Examples You might not have content that exists to help you prove you need to do more of what's already working. That's where examples come into play. Examples are also proof, or evidence, of a need for change. You can: Demonstrate a broken internal process by showing the inefficiencies of your current workflow. Again, inefficiency is expensive, and you could back this up with numbers using the process above. Examples: Workflows, approval processes, collaborating across multiple teams. Show an interesting use case with the new marketing idea from any other company. Then connect the dots to how you could do it for your business. Researching the data behind this makes your change management business case that much stronger. Example: You believe a blog would be great for your business, but you know there will be some resistance. Find examples of successful businesses that have built their credibility with a blog and are now multi-million dollar enterprises. Show how your competition is doing something amazing, but you don't have a presence in that area. This appeals to the fear of missing out, or FOMO. Example: You  know  your audience uses Instagram and would like to have a presence, but you're hitting some resistance. Find  examples of your competition engaging with your audience on that channel as proof that your audience indeed uses that network to communicate with brands they love. Industry Trends If there is one thing that's constant, it's change. Especially in the marketing industry: New technology, new channels, and new ideas are ever-evolving. This is similar to examples, but you can: Cite credible industry publications that cover new changes. Look for the why behind this: Why should you use the new tool, social media channel, or new content idea? Look for case studies that demonstrate the value of the trend. Has anyone (even outside of your niche) published a piece that shows percentage increases or demonstrates what you'll get out of the new idea? You'll note, I led this section with more  examples of finding your own real data to prove why you need to change. Using your data as much as possible builds the strongest case for the change you'd like to implement. It's hard to argue with your facts versus how others have been successful. #2.  Show How You Will Thrive After The Change You've  shown evidence that suggests change is necessary. Now it's time to demonstrate the benefits behind making the change. An easy way to think about this, is with a simple framework: When  we {do this}, we will {get this}. Note when there. When demonstrates an inevitability whereas if is only possible. Let's look at an example here, using examples and data to prove the need for change + backing up how implementing that change will help you produce bigger results. The example is a broken process. I hear from marketing supervisors all the time that disorganized process and "herding cats" sucks the most time away from their days, preventing them from focusing on the strategic work that would generate bigger results. To prove the need for change, you: Lay out the example of what the existing workflow looks like. Leave no stone unturned: Every step, every person involved, every tool, every point of communication, and especially the parts that are broken. For you, this could be writing a white paper. The workflow  involves: Email: Gather the idea from the sales manager. Email: Determine who the subject matter expert is with the sales manager. Meeting: Interview  with the sales team member who is a subject matter expert on the topic to gather the story. Email: Hound the sales team member to provide  stats + facts to support the claims you'll make in the white paper. Google Docs: Write the "What's in it for me?" and outline. Email: Peer review the outline with the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Write the first draft. Email: Gather feedback on the first draft from the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Implement the feedback from the subject matter expert into the white paper. Email: Gather further feedback from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Design the white paper. Email: Gather further feedback from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Implement changes from subject matter expert. Email: Get approval from the sales manager. InDesign: Implement changes from sales manager. Email: Get approval from your manager. InDesign: Implement changes from your manager. Email: Give final draft to sales manager and your manager to distribute to internal staff. ^^ If that even looks remotely like your workflow, there is definitely a better way. Recommended Reading: How to Boost a Marketing Workflow Process That Will Reduce Work By 30-50% By showing something like this, you demonstrate the problem. Now you can show off the solution. When we cut several unnecessary approval steps, we will save my team 5  hours of productivity time every week. That's the same amount of time it takes to write a brand new white paper, which is proven to generate 150 marketing qualified leads when we write it like our top-performing white papers. Therefore, when  we don't change, we are literally wasting time on a broken process rather than focusing our time on generating bigger results. Here's how. Weekly Meeting: Gather the story  from the sales manager and subject matter expert with clear action items for sales to provide stats on time saved from our solution + percentage increase on their desired goal by the end of the week. Google Docs (integrated into ): Write the "What's in it for me?" and outline. : Peer review the outline with the subject matter expert. Google Docs: Write the first draft. : Gather feedback on the first draft from the subject matter expert. InDesign: Design the white paper. : Get approval from the sales manager + your manager. InDesign: Implement changes from sales manager + your manager. : Give final draft to sales manager and your manager to distribute to internal staff. ^^^ You just literally cut the amount of work in half, not to mention eliminating endless email strings that are super easy to miss. Cut your work in half and eliminate endless email strings.Now you can track how long it would take for each step from the existing process and subtract the time saved from your new process. So all 18 tasks minus the 9 you removed would be the equivalent of 5 hours in this example. This doesn't even take into account the feeling of being organized, which everyone involved in the process will also love! #3. Show The Roadmap To Get There It's one thing to know what you need to do. Now you need to lay out the plan to implement the change. Humans are naturally adverse to change, so the odds are this will not happen over night. In fact, if you've been following an old process for a long period of time, it may take up to 21 days to help your team members build new  habits. Therefore, your roadmap to onboard your team members to learn this new behavior should span several weeks. In this time period, you will want to literally  lay out your game plan schedule of what you'll do to  make the change stick. Pre-rollout: Gather the data, examples, and industry trends demonstrating the need for change. Pre-rollout: Create your timeline for implementing the change. Pre-rollout: Script the questions, roadblocks, and objections that have potential to mitigate change. Pre-rollout: Discuss the forces driving change, timeline, and scripts with your manager. Day 1:  All hands kickoff meeting. Your itinerary should cover the three things you've been learning about: The problem (what's wrong), the solution  (why this change is necessary now), and the roadmap you're creating at this moment. You should also leave time for questions + answers (more on this to come). Day 2: Implement your team's initial feedback into the new solution. Day 3: Show  your team that you took their advice and enhanced the new solution. Day 4: Remind your team to use the new solution. Day 5: Retro and iterate. Weekend Day 8: Ask your team informally how things are going. Instant message could work well. This  reminds  everyone (especially your most quiet team members) that they have a voice in the change process. Day 9: Implement the feedback into your process, and remind the team to use it and not retrogress to old behavior. Day 10: Day 11: Day 12:  Retro and iterate. Weekend Day 15: Again, ask your team informally how things are going, and look for feedback. Day 16:  Implement the feedback into your process, and remind the team to use it and not retrogress to old behavior. Day 17: Day 18: Day 19:  Retro and iterate. Weekend You can map out your game plan in , too, using  a Marketing Project. When you decide to use , everyone will see everything you're working on in one place... so why not add this into , too? ;) Step 2: Be Prepared + Proactive For Any Situation Bill Walsh was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and helped turn a losing football team into one of the best, winning three Super Bowls. ^^ Talk about change management. Walsh is known for planning  his plays for every scenario. He carefully planned exactly what play would work for specific situations like being 30 yards from the end zone with only 5 seconds on the clock. He's known for having planned the first several  plays of the game whether the 49ers were kicking or receiving. In short, Bill Walsh  planned his work, then worked his plan. He called this practice scripting. And it's a great  framework you can apply to your change management, too: Scripting allowed me to take randomness and stress out of the decision-making process. The result is a very adaptable but intelligent  plan for the future. - Bill Walsh Anticipate Questions Uncertainty avoidance is the psychological term used to describe a specific society's tolerance for ambiguity. While this term is generally used to describe  larger cultures as a whole, your team and business have a culture within them, too. And the main idea here is that people like process, rules, and the same-old-same-old because it's familiar, easy to remember, and they already have habits that literally help them do the work with less thought and effort than taking on something new. Knowing this, you can plan on the questions your team will ask as you make the change. This is your script for an FAQ (or frequently asked questions) for your team. Simply take 30 minutes to brainstorm all of the questions your team may ask, then write down the answers: Why this change? Why now? What do you expect from me now? How will we collaborate now? What aren't we doing anymore? What new things are we doing? How should I voice my feedback? The point here is to think through the most common questions you can realistically expect your team and stakeholders to ask you, so you have all the answers prepared in advance. You can use the change management Word doc template that complements this blog post to help you get started. Recommended Reading: The Best 30 Minute Content Marketing Brainstorming Process Anticipate Roadblocks Again, change is often difficult for people to accept. Most people are satisfied with status quo, in other words, doing exactly what they're doing now. Back in 1947, psychologist Kurt Lewin researched this phenomenon and came up with the force field analysis. Essentially, there are forces driving change while other forces restrain change, which makes it most comfortable for people to stay in the status quo. You are the force driving change within your organization. So you should prepare for how you'll address  the forces resisting change: How will you phase out old, outdated tools you no longer need to use? What does the timeline look like? How will you onboard your team members to use the new tools as you expect?  What does the timeline look like? How do you take into account everything else on your team's plate and the time it takes to learn new skills (100 hours per person)? What will you do if a team member does not adopt the new process from the get-go? What will you do if a team member tries the new process for a day, then regresses to their former behavior? How will you handle team members who actively fight against the new process and try to get other team members on their side? How will you agilely  learn from your success and mistakes as your team implements change? Like your FAQ, think through and script  the answers to these questions. When- or if- the situation arises, you've planned exactly how to get your change strategy back on track. Here's how to keep your #marketing change management strategy on track.Anticipate  Objections Your own team may fight for the status quo without really knowing why. This could be a force resisting change, or  once again, a few more scenarios to script for: I don't think this will work. I don't like the new process. This is taking even more time than before the change. We can't remove those steps from our workflow because of {insert excuse}. Change  is an emotional beast. The best thing to do, according to change management pros, is to address these concerns with factual evidence backing up the need for change. Step 3: Get Your Manager On Board Those same change management pros suggest change is best instituted from the top-down. Change is best instituted from the top-down.So once you have your game plan, it's probably time to loop in your manager to get her on the same page as you (and to have your back if the forces of resistance  get in the way of the forces driving change). Set up an hourlong meeting your manager with the following agenda: 10  minutes: Explain the existing problem. 10 minutes: Show the evidence that the problem is a big one. 10 minutes: Show the  roadmap  you'll use to implement the change. 10 minutes: Show your proactive planning to address the forces of resistance. 10 minutes: Chat through how you'll communicate the change with your team (and get their feedback), next steps, concerns, and when you will roll out the change. 10 minutes: Lay out your action items to work through after the meeting is over. ^^^ Those sections might feel  a little long, but the point is for this to be a working meeting. Let your manager ask questions throughout, and show up ready to take notes so you can improve your marketing change management strategy based on her feedback. What If Your Manager Doesn't Like The Suggested Change? This is where  you can use questions as a framework to understand how you can improve your pitch (or at least understand what the heck your manager is thinking): Why {do you believe that}? How {might you suggest I do that}? If you're way off, schedule a second meeting with your manager (with the same agenda) to show her how you  took her advice and will implement it in your strategy. Recommended Reading: 30 Marketing Plan Samples And Everything You Need to Include In Your Strategy Step 4: Involve The Team Early On No one really likes to be told what to do. On the other hand, involving your team members early and helping them help you make the change decisions makes them feel like they made them in the first place. In their book, Sprint: How To Solve Big Problems And Test New Ideas In Just Five Days, authors Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz suggest: By asking people for their input early in the process, you help them feel invested in the outcome. Later, when you begin executing your successful solutions, the experts you brought in will probably be among your biggest supporters. So... how can you involve  your team + stakeholders early on? Host A Process Change Kickoff Meeting With Everyone Involved In The Change You pretty much have the itinerary from the chat with your manager (but make a couple optimizations  here): 10  minutes: Explain the existing problem. 10 minutes: Show the evidence that the problem is a big one. 10 minutes: Show the  roadmap  you'll use to implement the change. 20 minutes:  Give your team the chance to provide feedback right now, but also give them some time afterward to let the ideas percolate. This gives your quiet folks the chance to digest the information and provide thoughtful insight afterward. Beware of the psychological principle of conformity (and keep your loud team members in check). 10 minutes: Lay out your action items to work through after the meeting is over. ^^^ You have all of that documented in your marketing change management template. Recommended Reading: 21+ Marketing Templates That Will Make You More Efficient And Organized Provide Time To Think Through Feedback Give your team a deadline to provide their feedback and provide the method to do it (email, instant message, etc.). You can plan this into your change management roadmap. If anything, this keeps the process moving forward (and on a schedule) so you can fix what's broken quickly. Incorporate Feedback Into Your Change Management Process When you ask for feedback, you take it. That said, not all feedback will improve the plan. The point is to literally help your team know and understand you are listening to them, that their thoughts are valuable, and you understand they will be the major players  implementing the change. So change the roadmap as needed and clearly communicate you heard every idea and implemented many, but it just wasn't possible to include everything they requested. Retro On What's Working, What's Not, And What You Could Improve I'm borrowing this from agile product management practices. Every Friday, the marketing team at retros on the week, asking three questions: What went well? What should we continue doing? What went wrong? What should we stop doing? What could we improve? Retros like this are great for gathering feedback from your team as you change their processes. I'd suggest hosting 15-minute retro meetings every week within your first 21 days specifically to discuss the change you're implementing to learn from your mistakes (and successes). As feedback rolls in, you can use all of the work you put into writing scripts to great use! Recommended Listening: How to Get Extremely Organized With Agile Marketing With Jeff Julian From Enterprise Marketer Step 5: Break Through The Resistance To Change Change of any kind requires breaking existing habits. And that is really difficult... because humans literally need habits to not think through the nitty-gritty details of everything in their lives (we would all go crazy). So, to influence the right behavior, the most important thing to do is to over-communicate with your team as they undergo change. As Bill Walsh said: We did the same drills over and over again; I said essentially the same thing over and over, discussed the same information, concepts, and principles over and over. Gradually, my teaching stuck. If it starts to become a joke that your team knows exactly what you're going to say next... you've done well. So plan your communication touch points in your change management timeline to remind yourself when to communicate. The point is: When your team starts to think like you, they'll start to act like you. ^^^ And that's exactly what you want. When your team thinks like you, they'll act like you.Which brings me to leading by example. Maintain zero tolerance for retrogressing behavior. If you see someone do something wrong, use your scripts to change the behavior and ask the following questions: What went wrong? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this situation back on track? The point of using questions like this as a framework is to literally let your team member answer them. They come up with their own solution for preventing unwanted behavior. And they know your thought process + expectations upfront. There is no room in change management for being wishy-washy. Finally, commitment and perseverance influence change. This process has potential to feel messy. Remember: You are the change management leader. You are responsible for planning your work, then working your plan. You are the one who will make this a reality. You just need to do it.

Cultural Event Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 21

Cultural Event Report - Essay Example them before performing 13 enjoyable songs with slow tempo, the likes of â€Å"Love and Only Love.†This reminded us of his other songs like ‘Powder Finger’ whose performance was blazing and heartfelt as compared to other performances that had been done earlier (www.post-gazette.com). Neil also used this visit to launch his insightful new album, in an entertaining style. He struggled to introduce â€Å"Born in Ontario†, and then paused to bring in the world’s best garage crew. He did this by telling the audience that before he played that song, he had a desire for starting it together specifically for them (www.post-gazette.com). He then followed it by performing his song, â€Å"Walk like a giant†, which was his latest song that illustrated his failures and the continuing hopes for success. This was a presentation for incensed jams that lasted 20 minutes and ended so well with loud of applause (neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org). The rhythm produ ced by his guitar was nothing like anything ever on the musical scene; it is honestly hard to express. Young still continued by performing his lovely song â€Å"The Needle and the Damage Done† along with â€Å"Twisted Road†, a mark of respect to the joys of Dylan, the dead and the Roy. He also performed â€Å"Cinnamon girl† which was highly admired among by his die hard fans and the sweet harmony left Young shouting in joy. Before performing â€Å"Psychedelic Pill†, Young informed us that he would follow with a song that sounded exactly like all his other songs and that we would possibly feel like we heard it just a few minutes ago. This was a wonderful presentation done by the Crazy horse and the only one to my opinion, having been done with an extremely heavy riff (www.post-gazette.com). The concert then ended in style with the songs, â€Å"Hey Hey, My My† and an Anthem for Rock and Roll along with its fanatics. The concert finally ended with a thirteen minute â€Å"Like a hurricane† which was a rock and roll for years and to

Analysis of Eisenhower's farewell adress Term Paper

Analysis of Eisenhower's farewell adress - Term Paper Example In itself, it is a vision and a masterpiece addressing the need for balance in all aspects of our undertakings. Today, we are going to go on an odyssey, exploring in detail the constituents of the Farewell Address – the words and thoughts of Eisenhower. Why? - The theme in the address The farewell speech delivered by Eisenhower on the last night of his post as president was centered on subjects vital for citizens of any country aspiring towards progress and better quality of life. He reflected on important issues like time, defense, intricacies between military and industries, vigilance and use of wise judgments pertaining to the need of time. But what underlined each arena of the subject that he touched was the counseling for balance as a common denominator. He emphasized on the need to weigh each matter in the light of priorities, need, necessity, consequences and its implications. Hence, laying stress on the prominence and demand of balance in each context. In his speech hi s concern for the threat to American liberty at the hands of Communism and Soviet Union was clearly discernible. He made reference to the four wars that took place in the twentieth century three amongst which involved the United States of America. His point was not only to have the ability to encounter such danger but also to do so in a manner that did not put American liberty in jeopardy. He also feared that in accordance with the progress in the modern age perpetual expansion of the federal state would pose a threat to the ideals along which the American society had worked for ages. He repeatedly accentuated the need to hold the precarious line of balance in regard while taking decisions that would not only affect domestic but also foreign policies, and reminded the listeners that proposals must be considered in a broader prospect. Prospects that would take into account the consistency, maintenance, efficiency and balance between as well as within national programs. The reason beh ind stressing repeatedly on the need for balance was essentially made because of potential threats inherent in a big government. However that was definitely not all. Eisenhower identified in his speech several other foci that could culminate in imbalance. One of many was to condemn the use of material assets belonging to the future generations as mortgage and hence desecrate the valuable elements and symbols of political history and spiritual heritage. Amongst his greatest concerns was to not become enslaved in the web created by â€Å"scientific- technological elite†. He also referred in his speech to another potential source of imbalance, the attainment of uncalled for and undesirable influence of the military-industrial complex, cautioning here on the misplacement of power and its potential to weave disasters. What? – The type of document The farewell speech of Eisenhower was a piece that issued caution to the nature while addressing matters of grave concern that we re controversial but significant to touch at that point in time. His speech centered on his concern regarding dissemination of peace in the world and the need to develop friendly international ties and relations. Furthermore, his calling of attention towards the military and the domestic arms industry and the possibilities and implications associated with it along with the need for surveillance demonstrated the need for judicious decisions. His address was not only limited to that point in time but was a vision that

The use of Biometrics and Bio-information to Support New Systems Research Paper

The use of Biometrics and Bio-information to Support New Systems Integration - Research Paper Example metric traits (for example face, fingerprint and iris) are not able to be stolen, lost or simply forged; they are as well recognized as to be more and more constant and distinctive. Utilize of biometrics is not latest; fingerprints based reorganization have been effectively employed intended for over one hundred years in law and forensics enforcement agencies to recognize and arrest criminals. However, as biometrics infuses our society, this detection technology featuring novel challenges. Biometric is the mainly secure as well as suitable authentication system. It is not able to be stolen, borrowed or elapsed as well as falsify that is mainly impossible. Biometrics based detection and calculations are based on individuals exceptional behavioral or physical features to identify or validate their characteristics. General physical biometrics comprise hand, fingerprints or retina, palm geometry iris, plus facial features. Behavioral characters features comprise voice, signature, gait an d keystroke. Biometrics taken as an automatic detection of people foundational on their physiological or behavioral features. Uni-modal new technologies based biometric systems carry out person identification foundational on a single source of biometric data and are influenced through issues similar to non-universality, noisy sensor data plus lack of independence of the selection of the biometric attribute, lack of an invariant illustration for the biometric feature as well as vulnerability to circumvention. A number of these issues are able to be improved through making use of the state-of-the-art integrated biometric systems that combines confirmation as of numerous biometric sources. Combination of proofs acquired from numerous indication is a challenging aspect plus combining at the identical score level is the majority widespread method for the reason that it presents the most excellent trade-off among the information content as well as the easiness in integration. In this