How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate

SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION Spotlight ARTWORK Josef Schulz, Form #1, 2001 C-print, 120 x 160 cm How P&G Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate Inside the company’s new-growth factory by Bruce Brown and Scott D. Anthony 64 Harvard Business Review June 2011 HBR. ORG Bruce Brown is the chief technology o? cer of Procter & Gamble. Scott D. Anthony is the managing director of Innosight. June 2011 Harvard Business Review 65 B SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION 66 Harvard Business Review June 2011 BACK IN 2000 the prospects for Procter & Gamble’s Tide, the biggest brand in the company’s fabric and household care division, seemed limited.The laundry detergent had been around for more than 50 years and still dominated its core markets, but it was no longer growing fast enough to support P&G’s needs. A decade later Tide’s revenues have nearly doubled, helping push annual division revenues from $12 billion to almost $24 billion. The brand is surging in emerging markets, and its iconic bull’seye logo is turning up on an array of new products and even new businesses, from instant clothes fresheners to neighborhood dry cleaners. This isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a strategic effort by P&G over the past decade to systematize innovation and growth.To understand P&G’s strategy, we need to go back more than a century to the sources of its inspiration— Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In the 1870s Edison created the world’s first industrial research lab, Menlo Park, which gave rise to the technologies behind the modern electric-power and motion-picture industries. Under his inspired direction, the lab churned out ideas; Edison himself ultimately held more than 1,000 patents. Edison of course understood the importance of mass production, but it was his friend Henry Ford who, decades later, perfected it.In 1910 the Ford Motor Company shifted the production of its famous Model T from the Piquette Avenue P lant, in Detroit, to its new Highland Park complex nearby. Although the assembly line wasn’t a novel concept, Highland Park showed what it was capable of: In four years Ford slashed the time required to build a car from more than 12 hours to just 93 minutes. How could P&G marry the creativity of Edison’s lab with the speed and reliability of Ford’s factory? The answer its leaders devised, a â€Å"new-growth factory,† is still ramping up.But already it has helped the company strengthen both its core businesses and its ability to capture innovative new-growth opportunities. P&G’s efforts to systematize the serendipity that so often sparks new-business creation carry important lessons for leaders faced with shrinking product life cycles and increasing global competition. Laying the Foundation Innovation has long been the backbone of P&G’s growth. As chairman, president, and CEO Bob McDonald notes, â€Å"We know from our history that while prom otions may win quarters, innovation wins decades. The company spends nearly $2 billion annually on R&D—roughly 50% more than its closest competitor, and more than most other competitors combined. Each year it invests at least another $400 million in foundational consumer research to discover opportunities for innovation, conducting some 20,000 studies involving more than 5 million consumers in nearly 100 countries. Odds are that as you’re reading this, P&G researchers are in a store somewhere observing shoppers, or even in a consumer’s home.These investments are necessary but not sufficient to achieve P&G’s innovation goals. â€Å"People will innovate for financial gain or for competitive advantage, but this can be self-limiting,† McDonald says. â€Å"There needs to be an emotional component as well—a source of inspiration that motivates people. † At P&G that inspiration lies in a sense of purpose driven from the top down—the m essage that each innovation improves people’s lives. At the start of the 2000s only about 15% of P&G’s innovations were meeting revenue and profit targets.So the company launched its now well-known Connect + Develop program to bring in outside innovations and built a robust stage-gate process to help manage ideas from inception to launch. (For more on C+D, see Larry Huston and Nabil Sakkab, â€Å"Connect and Develop: Inside Procter & Gamble’s New Model for Innovation,† HBR March 2006. ) These actions showed early signs of raising innovation success rates, but it was clear that P&G needed more breakthrough innovations. And it had to come up with them as reliably as Ford’s factory had rolled out Model Ts.HOW P&G TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG Idea in Brief Procter & Gamble is a famous innovator. Nonetheless, in the early 2000s only 15% of its innovations were meeting their revenue and pro? t targets. To address this, the company set ab out building organizational structures to systematize innovation. The resulting new-growth factory includes large newbusiness creation groups, focused project teams, and entrepreneurial guides who help teams rapidly prototype and test new products and business models in the market.The teams follow a step-by-step business development manual and use specialized project and portfolio management tools. Innovation and strategy assessments, once separate, are now combined in revamped executive reviews. P&G’s experience suggests six lessons for leaders looking to build new-growth factories: Coordinate the factory with the company’s core businesses, be a vigilant portfolio manager, start small and grow carefully, create tools for gauging new businesses, make sure the right people are doing the right work, and nurture cross-pollination. ithout a further boost to its organic growth capabilities, the company would still have trouble hitting its targets. P&G’s leaders recog nized that the kind of growth the company was after couldn’t come from simply doing more of the same. It needed to come up with more breakthrough innovations—ones that could create completely new markets. And it needed to do this as reliably as Henry Ford’s Highland Park factory had rolled out Model Ts. In 2004 Gil Cloyd, then the chief technology officer, and A. G.Lafley, then the CEO, tasked two 30-year P&G veterans, John Leikhim and David Goulait, with designing a new-growth factory whose intellectual underpinnings would derive from the Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen’s disruptive-innovation theory. The basic concept of disruption—driving growth through new offerings that are simpler, more convenient, easier to access, or more affordable—was hardly foreign to P&G. Many of the company’s powerhouse brands, including Tide, Crest, Pampers, and Swiffer, had followed disruptive paths.Leikhim and Goulait, with suppor t from other managers, began by holding a two-day workshop for seven new-product-development teams, guided by facilitators from Innosight (a firm Christensen cofounded). The attendees explored how to shake up embedded ways of thinking that can inhibit disruptive approaches. They formulated creative ways to address critical commercial questions—for example, whether demand would be sufficient to warrant a new-product launch. Learning from the workshop helped spur the development of new products, such as the probiotic supplement Align, and also bolstered existing ones, such as Pampers.In the years that followed, Leikhim and Goulait shored up the factory’s foundation, working with Cloyd and other P&G leaders to: Teach senior management and project team members the mind-sets and behaviors that foster disruptive growth. The training, which has changed over time, initially ranged from short modules on topics such as assessing the demand for an early-stage idea to multiday cou rses in entrepreneurial thinking. Form a group of new-growth-business guides to help teams working on disruptive projects.These experts might, for instance, advise teams to remain small until their project’s key commercial questions, such as whether consumers would habitually use the new product, have been answered. The guides include several entrepreneurs who have succeeded—and, even more important, failed—in starting businesses. Develop organizational structures to drive new growth. For example, in a handful of business About the units the company created small groups focused Spotlight Artist Each month we illustrate primarily on new-growth initiatives.The groups our Spotlight package with (which, like the training, have evolved significantly) a series of works from an acaugmented an existing entity, FutureWorks, whose complished artist. We hope charter is to create new brands and business mod- that the lively and cerebral creations of these photograels. Dedic ated teams within the groups conducted phers, painters, and instalmarket research, developed technology, created lation artists will infuse our pages with additional energy business plans, and tested assumptions for specific and intelligence and amplify projects. hat are often complex and Produce a process manual—a step-by-step abstract concepts. This month’s artist is guide to creating new-growth businesses. The Josef Schulz, a German manual includes overarching principles as well as photographer who often detailed procedures and templates to help teams turns his lens on modern industrial constructs and describe opportunities, identify requirements for digitally strips away de? ning success, monitor progress, make go/no-go decisions, details to render moreand more. abstract, universally relRun demonstration projects to showcase the evant images. In the ? rst step I’m a photographer emerging factory’s work. One of these was a line of with his limitations, † he pocket-size products called Swash, which quickly once told an interviewer, refresh clothes: For example, someone who’s in a â€Å"and then an artist with his freedom of decisions. † hurry can give a not-quite-clean shirt a spray rather View more of the artist’s than putting it through the wash. work at josefschulz. de. June 2011 Harvard Business Review 67 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION Sustaining CommercialCommercial innovations use creative marketing, packaging, and promotional approaches to grow existing o? erings. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, P&G ran a series of ads celebrating mothers. The campaign covered 18 brands, was viewed repeatedly by hundreds of millions of consumers, and drove $100 million in revenues. P&G’s Four Types of Innovation Sustaining innovations bring incremental improvements to existing products: a little more cleaning power to a laundry detergent, a better ? avor to a toothpaste. These provide what P&G calls  "er† bene? s—better, easier, cheaper—that are important to sustaining share among current customers and getting new people to try a product. Sharpening the Focus By 2008 P&G had a working prototype of the factory, but the company’s innovation portfolio was weighed down by a proliferation of small projects. A. G. Lafley charged Bob McDonald (then the COO) and CTO Bruce Brown (a coauthor of this article) to dramatically increase innovation output by focusing the factory on fewer but bigger initiatives. McDonald and Brown’s team drove three critical improvements.First, rather than strictly separating innovations designed to bolster existing product lines from efforts to create new product lines or business models, P&G increased its emphasis on an intermediate category: transformational-sustaining innovations, which deliver major new benefits in existing product categories. Consider the Crest brand, the market leader until the late 1990s, when it was us urped by Colgate. Looking for a comeback, in 2000 P&G launched a disruptive innovation, Crest Whitestrips, that made teeth whitening at home affordable and easy.In 2006 it introduced Crest Pro-Health, which squeezes half a dozen benefits into one tube—the toothpaste fights cavities, plaque, tartar, stains, gingivitis, and bad breath. In 2010 it rolled out Crest 3D White, a line of advanced oral care products, including one that whitens teeth in two hours. Such efforts helped Crest retake the lead in many markets. Pro-Health and 3D White were both transformational-sustaining innovations, meant to appeal to current consumers while attracting new ones. These sorts of innovations share an mportant trait with market-creating disruptive innovations: They have a high degree of uncertainty—something the factory is specifically designed to manage. Second, P&G strengthened organizational supports for the formation of transformationalsustaining and disruptive businesses. It estab lished several new-business-creation groups, larger in size 68 Harvard Business Review June 2011 and scope than any previous growth-factory team, whose resources and management are kept carefully separate from the core business.These groups— dedicated teams led by a general manager—develop ideas that cut across multiple businesses, and also pursue entirely new business opportunities. One group covers all of P&G’s beauty and personal care businesses; another covers its household care business (the parent unit of the fabric-and-household and the family-and-baby-care divisions); a third, FutureWorks, focuses largely on enabling different business models (it helped guide P&G’s recent partnership with the Indian business Healthpoint Services).The new groups supplement (rather than replace) existing supports such as the Corporate Innovation Fund, which provides seed capital to ideas that might otherwise slip through the cracks. P&G also created a specialized te am called LearningWorks, which helps plan and execute in-market experiments to learn about purchase decisions and postpurchase use. Third, P&G revamped its strategy development and review process. Innovation and strategy assessments had historically been handled separately. Now the CEO, CTO, and CFO explicitly link company, business, and innovation strategies.This integration, coupled with new analyses of such issues as competitive factors that could threaten a given business, has surfaced more opportunities for innovation. The process has also prompted examinations of each unit’s â€Å"production schedule,† or pipeline of growth opportunities, to ensure that it’s robust enough to deliver against growth goals for the next seven to 10 years. Evaluations are made of individual business units (feminine care, for example) as well as broad sectors (household care).This revised approach calls for each business unit to determine the mix of innovation types it needs to deliver the required growth. HOW P&G TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG Transformational-Sustaining Transformational-sustaining innovations reframe existing categories. They typically bring order-of-magnitude improvements and fundamental changes to a business and often lead to breakthroughs in market share, pro? t levels, and consumer acceptance. In 2009 P&G introduced the wrinkle-reducing cream Olay Pro-X.Launching a $40-a-bottle product in the depths of a recession might seem a questionable strategy. But P&G went ahead because it considered the product a transformational-sustaining innovation—clinically proven to be as e? ective as its much more expensive prescription counterparts, and superior to the company’s other antiaging o? erings. The cream and related products generated ? rst-year sales of $50 million in U. S. food retailers and drugstores alone. Disruptive Disruptive innovations represent newto-the-world business opportunities.A company enters ent irely new businesses with radically new o? erings, as P&G did with Swi? er and Febreze. Running the Factory Let’s return now to Tide, whose dramatic growth highlights the potential of P&G’s approach. Over the past decade the brand has launched numerous products and product-line extensions, carved new paths in emerging markets, and tested a promising new business model. If you had looked for Tide in a U. S. supermarket 10 years ago, you would have found, for the most part, ordinary bottles and boxes of detergent.Now you’ll see the Tide name on dozens of products, all with different scents and capabilities. For example, in 2009 P&G introduced a line of laundry additives called Tide Stain Release. Within a year, building on 26 patents, it incorporated these additives into a sible to 70% of Indian consumers and has helped to significantly increase Tide’s share in India. More radically, Swash moved the Tide brand out of the laundry room. The line has clear dis ruptive characteristics: Swash products don’t clean as thoroughly as laundry detergents or remove wrinkles as effectively as professional pressing.But because they’re quick and easy to use, they offer â€Å"good enough† occasional alternatives between washes. Swash took an unconventional path to commercialization. When the products were first sold, in a store near P&G’s headquarters in Ohio, they carried a different brand name and had no apparent connection to Tide. After that experiment, P&G opened a â€Å"pop up† Swash store at The Ohio State University. Both Tide Dry Cleaners is a factory innovation that represents an entirely new business model. new detergent, Tide with Acti-Lift—the first major redesign of Tide’s liquid laundry detergent in a decade.The product’s launch drove immediate marketshare growth of the Tide brand in the United States. P&G has also customized formulations for emerging markets. Ethnographic research showed that about 80% of consumers in India wash their clothes by hand. They had to choose between detergents that were relatively gentle on the skin but not very good at actually cleaning clothes, and more-potent but harsher agents. With the problem clearly identified, in 2009 a team came up with Tide Naturals, which cleaned well without causing irritation.Mindful of the need in emerging markets to provide greater benefit at lower cost—â€Å"more for less†Ã¢â‚¬â€P&G priced Tide Naturals 30% below comparably effective but harsher products. This made the Tide brand accestests helped the company understand how consumers would buy and use the products, which P&G then began selling exclusively through Amazon and other online channels. In early 2011 the company ramped down its promotion of Swash, although learning from the effort will inform its work on other disruptive ideas in the clothes-refreshing space.Whereas Swash was a new product line, Tide Dry Cleaners represent s an entirely new business model. It started when a team began exploring ways to disrupt the dry-cleaning market, using proprietary technologies and a unique store design grounded in insights about consumers’ frustrations with existing options. Many cleaning establishments are dingy, unfriendly places. Customers have to park, walk, and wait. Often the cleaners’ hours are inconvenient. P&G’s alternative: bright, boldly colored cleaners June 2011 Harvard Business Review 69 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATIONThe Factory’s Consumer Research at Work In October 2010 P&G launched the Gillette Guard razor in India, a transformational-sustaining innovation whose strategic intent was simple: to provide a cheaper and e? ective alternative for the hundreds of millions of Indians who use double-edged razors. The company’s researchers spent thousands of hours in the market to understand these consumers’ needs. They gained important insights by observing men i n rural areas who, lacking indoor plumbing, typically shave outdoors using little or no water—and don’t shave every day.The single-blade Gillette Guard was thus designed to clean easily, with minimal water, and to manage longer stubble. The initial retail price was 15 rupees (33 cents), with re? ll cartridges for ? ve rupees (11 cents). Early tests showed that consumers preferred the new product to double-edged razors by a six-to-one margin. Its breakthrough performance and a? ordability position it for rapid growth. featuring specialized treatments, drive-through windows, and 24-hour storage lockers to facilitate after-hours drop-off and pickup.Using the new-growth factory’s process manual, the development team identified key assumptions about the proposed dry cleaners. For example, could the business model generate enough returns to attract store owners willing to pay up to $1 million for franchise rights? In 2009 P&G’s guides helped the team open three pilots in Kansas City to try to find out. That year P&G also formed Agile Pursuits Franchising, a subsidiary to oversee such efforts, and transferred ownership of the dry-cleaning venture to FutureWorks, whose main mission is to pursue new business models that lie outside P&G’s established systems.It remains to be seen how Tide Dry Cleaners will fare, but one promising sign came in 2010, when Andrew Cherng, the founder of the Panda Restaurant Group, announced plans to open 150 franchises in four years. He told BusinessWeek, â€Å"I wasn’t around when McDonald’s was taking franchisees, [but] I’m not going to miss this one. † To ensure strategic cohesion and smart resource allocation, Tide’s innovation efforts have been closely coordinated through regular dialogues among several leaders—CEO McDonald, CTO Brown, the vice-chair of the household business unit, and the president of the fabric care division.They’ve also been the focu s of discussions at Corporate Innovation Fund meetings and similar reviews. This isn’t just the methodical pursuit of a single innovation. It’s part of a steady stream of ideas in development—a factory humming with work. and learning, and personally engage. Our journey at P&G suggests six lessons for leaders looking to create new-growth factories. 1. Closely coordinate the factory and the core business. Leaders sometimes see efforts to foster new growth as completely distinct from efforts to bolster the core; indeed, many in the innovation community have argued as much for years.Our experience indicates the opposite. First, new-growth efforts depend on a healthy core business. A healthy core produces a cash flow that can be invested in new growth. And we’ve all known times when an ailing core has demanded management’s full attention; a healthy core frees leaders to think about more-expansive growth initiatives. Second, a core business is rich with capabilities that can support new-growth efforts. Consider P&G’s excellent relationships with major retailers. Those relationships are a powerful, hard-to-replicate asset that helps the factory expedite new-growth initiatives. Swiffer wouldn’t be Swiffer without them.Third, some of the tools for managing core efforts—particularly those that track a project’s progress—are also useful for managing new-growth efforts. And finally, the factory’s rapid-learning approach often yields insights that can strengthen existing product lines. One of the project teams at the 2004 workshop was seeking to spur conversion in emerging markets from cloth to disposable diapers. Subsequent in-market tests yielded a critical discovery: Babies who wore disposable diapers fell asleep 30% faster and slept 30 minutes longer than babies wearing cloth diapers—an obvious benefit for infants (and their parents).Advertising campaigns touting this advantage helped m ake Pampers the number one brand in several emerging markets. 2. Promote a portfolio mind-set. P&G communicates to both internal and external stakeholders that it is building a varied portfolio of innovation Lessons for Leaders Efforts to build a new-growth factory in any company will fail unless senior managers create the right organizational structures, provide the proper resources, allow sufficient time for experimentation 70 Harvard Business Review June 2011 HOW P&G TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG approaches, ranging from sustaining to disruptive ones. See the sidebar â€Å"P&G’s Four Types of Innovation. †) It uses a set of master-planning tools to match the pace of innovation to the overall needs of the business. It also deploys portfolio-optimization tools that help managers identify and kill the least-promising programs and nurture the best bets. These tools create projections for every active idea, including estimates of the financial potential a nd the human and capital investments that will be required. Some ideas are evaluated with classic net-present-value calculations, others with a risk-adjusted real-option approach, and still others with more-qualitative criteria.Although the tools assemble a rank-ordered list of projects, P&G’s portfolio management isn’t, at its core, a mechanical exercise; it’s a dialogue about resource allocation and business-growth building blocks. Numerical input informs but doesn’t dictate decisions. A portfolio approach has several benefits. First, it sets up the expectation that different projects will be managed, resourced, and measured in different ways, just as an investor would use different criteria to evaluate an equity investment and a real estate one.Second, because the portfolio consists largely of sustaining and transformational-sustaining efforts, seeing it as a whole highlights the critical importance of these activities, which protect and extend legitim ate disagreement about the best way to organize for new growth. Whereas we believe in a factory with relatively strong ties to the core, some advocate a â€Å"skunkworks† organization. Others argue for â€Å"distinct but linked† organizations under an â€Å"ambidextrous† leader; still others recommend mirroring the structure of a venture capital firm. (P&G’s factory uses several organizational approaches. Treating capability development itself as a new-growth innovation lets companies try different approaches and learn what works best for them. A staged approach serves another important purpose: It’s a built-in reminder that a new-growth factory is not a quick fix. The factory won’t provide a sudden boost to next quarter’s results, nor can it instantly rein in an out-of-control core business that’s veering from crisis to crisis. GILLETTE GUARD After thousands of hours of research in the ? eld, P&G learned that a single-blade ra zor was a cheaper and e? ective alternative to double-edged razors for many consumers in India. CREST 3D WHITEUsurped by Colgate in the late 1990s, Crest has regained the lead in many markets owing to its introduction of several innovative oral care products, including ones that make teeth whitening at home a? ordable and easy. 4. Create new tools for gauging new businesses. Anticipated and nascent markets are notoriously hard to analyze. Detailed follow-up with one of the project teams that attended the pilot workshop showed P&G that it needed new tools for this purpose. P&G now conducts â€Å"transaction learning experiments,† or TLEs, in which a team â€Å"makes a little and sells a little,† thus letting consumers vote with their wallets.Teams have sold small amounts of products online, at mall kiosks, in pop-up stores, and at amusement parks—even in the company store P&G now conducts â€Å"transaction learning experiments,† which let consumers vote wi th their wallets. core businesses. Finally, a portfolio approach helps reinforce the message that any project, particularly a disruptive one, may carry substantial risk and might not deliver commercial results—and that’s fine, as long as the portfolio accounts for the risk. 3. Start small and grow carefully. Remember how the new-growth factory began: with a simple two-day workshop.It then expanded to small-scale pilots in several business units before becoming a companywide initiative. Staged investment allows for early, rapid revision—before lines scribbled on a hypothetical organizational chart are engraved in stone. It also provides for targeted experimentation. For example, there is and outside company cafeterias. P&G devised a venture capital approach to testing the market for Align, its probiotic supplement, providing seed capital for a controlled pilot. The company has also tested entire business models—recall the Kansas City pilots of Tide Dry Cle aners. 5.Make sure you have the right people doing the right work. Building the factory forced P&G to change the way it staffed certain teams. At any given time the company has hundreds of teams working on various innovation efforts. In the past, most teams consisted mainly of part-time members—employees who had other responsibilities pulling at them. But disruptive and transformational-sustaining efforts June 2011 Harvard Business Review 71 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION HBR. ORG CONNECT WITH THE AUTHORS Do you have questions or comments about this article? The authors will respond to reader feedback at hbr. org. TIDE DRY CLEANERSStill in an early stage, this innovation arose in part from insights about consumers’ frustrations with the dinginess and inconvenience of most existing drycleaning establishments. require undivided attention. (As the old saying goes, nine women can’t make a baby in a month. ) There need to be people who wake up each day and go to sle ep each night obsessing about the new business. New-growth teams also need to be small and nimble, and they should include seasoned members. P&G found that big teams often bog down because they pursue too many ideas at once, whereas small teams are better able to quickly focus on the mostpromising initiatives.Having several members with substantial innovation experience helps teams confidently make sound judgment calls when data are inconclusive or absent. Finally, building a factory requires a substantial investment in widespread, ongoing training. Changing mind-sets begins, literally, with teaching a new language. Key terms such as â€Å"disruptive innovation,† â€Å"job to be done,† â€Å"business model,† and â€Å"critical assumptions† must be clearly and consistently defined. P&G reinforces key innovation concepts both at large meetings and at smaller, focused workshops, and in 2007 it established a â€Å"disruptive innovation college. People workin g on new-growth projects can choose from more than a dozen courses, ranging from basic innovation language to designing and executing a TLE, sketching out a business model, staffing a new-growth team, and identifying a job to be done. 6. Encourage intersections. Successful innovation requires rich cross-pollination both inside and outside the organization. P&G’s Connect + Develop program is part of a larger effort to intersect with other disciplines and gain new perspectives.Over the past few years P&G has: †¢ Shared people with noncompeting companies. In 2008 P&G and Google swapped two dozen employees for a few weeks. P&G wanted greater exposure to online models; Google was interested in learning more about how to build brands. †¢ Engaged even more outside innovators. In 2010 P&G refreshed its C+D goals. It aims to become the partner of choice for innovation collaboration, and to triple C+D’s contribution to P&G’s innovation development (which would m ean deriving $3 billion of the company’s annual sales growth from outside innovators).It has expanded the program to forge additional connections with government labs, universities, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, consortia, and venture capital firms. †¢ Brought in outside talent. P&G has traditionally promoted from within. But it recognized that total reliance on this approach could stunt its ability to create new-growth businesses. So it began bringing in high-level people to address needs beyond its core capabilities, as when it hired an outsider to run Agile Pursuits Franchising. In that one stroke, it acquired expertise in franchise-based business models that would have taken years to build organically.SOME THINK it’s foolish for large companies to even attempt to create innovative-growth businesses. They maintain that organizations should just outsource innovation, by acquiring promising start-ups. But P&G’s efforts appear to be working. Recall that in 2000 only 15% of its innovation efforts met profit and revenue targets. Today the figure is 50%. The past fiscal year was one of the most productive innovation years in the company’s history, and the company’s three- and five-year innovation portfolios are sufficient to deliver against their growth objectives.Projections suggest that the typical initiative in 2014 and 2015 will have nearly twice the revenue of today’s initiatives. That’s a sixfold increase in output without any significant increase in inputs. Our experience tells us that although individual creativity can be unpredictable and uncontrollable, collective creativity can be managed. Although the next Tide or Crest innovation might stumble, the factory’s methodical approach should bring many more innovations successfully to market. The factory process can create sustainable sources of revenue growth—no matter how big a company becomes.HBR Reprint R1106C At P&G’s â €Å"disruptive innovation college,† people working on new-growth projects can choose from more than a dozen courses. 72 Harvard Business Review June 2011 Harvard Business Review Notice of Use Restrictions, May 2009 Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business Publishing Newsletter content on EBSCOhost is licensed for the private individual use of authorized EBSCOhost users. It is not intended for use as assigned course material in academic institutions nor as corporate learning or training materials in businesses.Academic licensees may not use this content in electronic reserves, electronic course packs, persistent linking from syllabi or by any other means of incorporating the content into course resources. Business licensees may not host this content on learning management systems or use persistent linking or other means to incorporate the content into learning management systems. Harvard Business Publishing will be pleased to grant permission to make this content available through such means. For rates and permission, contact [email  protected] org.

Laboratory Protocol for Carbohydrates

For polysaccharide extract a. Repeat procedure A. 2a – A. 2d with 10 mL of the polysaccharide extract from Expt. 6 but use 10 drops conc. HCl. B. General Tests for Carbohydrates Test the ff. carbohydrate solutions: 1% glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, lactose, agar-agar, gum arabic, glycogen, cotton, starch, polysaccharide solution from clams, and all hydrolysates from Part A. 1. Molisch Test a. Add 2 drops Molisch reagent to 1 mL sugar solution. Mix thoroughly. b. Incline the tube and gently pour 3 mL conc H2SO4 down the side of the tube. c. Note the color at the interface of the 2 layers. 2. Benedicts's Test a.Add 1 ml of the solution to be tested to 5 ml of Benedict's solution, and shake each tube. b. Place the tube in a boiling water bath and heat for 3 minutes. c. Remove the tubes from the heat and allow them to cool. d. Note precipitation, if there is any, and the color of the precipitate formed. 3. Barfoed's Test a. Add 1 ml of the solution to be tested to 3 ml of fr eshly prepared Barfoed's reagent. b. Place test tubes into a boiling water bath and heat for 3 minutes. c. Remove the tubes from the bath and allow to cool. Do not heat the tubes longer than 3 minutes, as a positive test can be obtained with disaccharides if they are heated long enough. 4. Lasker and Enkelwitz Test a.Add 1 ml of the solution to be tested to 5 ml of Benedict's solution in a test tube and mix well. b. Heat the test tube in a 55 oC water bath for 20 minutes. c. Note changes after 10 mins and up to 20 mins. 5. Orcinol Test a. Add 1 ml of the solution to be tested to 3 ml of Orcinol reagent. b. Gently heat the tube to boiling. Allow the tube to cool. c. Note color of the solution or if there is any precipitate formed. 6. Mucic Acid Test a. Add 10 drops conc HNO3 to 3 ml of the solution to be tested and mix well. b. Heat on a boiling water bath until the volume of the solution is reduced to about 1 ml. c. Remove the mixture from the water bath and let it cool in an ice ba th. d. Note the formation of crystals, if any.Caution:Â   Perform the reaction under a fume hood. 7. Iodine Test for Starch and Glycogen a. Add 2 drops of Lugol's iodine solution to 10 drops of solution to be tested in a spot plate. b. Note color changes. Post-Lab Questions: 1. Correlate the results of the iodine test on the polysaccharides with their structures. 2. Correlate the results of the tests on cotton with the structure of cellulose. 3. Give the balanced chemical equation, the positive result and the product/s responsible for the positive result of each color reaction test. 4. Conclude on the type of carbohydrate in your polysaccharide extract based on the results of its color reactions.

Should the Constitution be amended to regulate the proportion of Research Paper

Should the Constitution be amended to regulate the proportion of representatives so that each would represent no more than 50,00 - Research Paper Example The Equal Protection clause in the U.S constitution requires that the House of Representatives apportionment scheme be based on population to ensure that the right of every citizen to equal representation and to have their votes weighed equally with those of all other citizens is enforced. (Anzalone, 2002) Limiting the maximum number of citizens a representative can represent can highly increase the effectiveness if equal and active representation. The individual citizen’s ability to exercise an effective voice is the only instrument of state government that exemplifies direct representation (Anzalone, 2002) The founding fathers of the United States of America intended that the population of each congressional district should not exceed 50,000 to uphold the spirit of equal representation. Today, the average population of a congressional district in USA is 700,000 people which is a very big number compared to the initial intended figure. The increase of congressional representa tion with the increase in population would ensure that the congressional districts would be equal across the nation as opposed to the situation today where some congressional districts have almost double the population of others to uphold the spirit of equality in representation. Smaller districts would enhance representation of the constituents in law making and voting of bills. It would also enhance monitoring and management of the constituents by their representatives. The legislators end up being less active on conditions that lead to individuals to rely on cognitive shortcuts of the complexity of the congressional district. Thus the amendment to expand the number of representatives should be passed to reduce the size of each congressional (Miler, 2010). The enactment of this amendment would also make campaigning more easy and less expensive since campaigning in a 50,000 people district is easier than campaigning in a 700,000 people district. The enormous districts are also enab ling re-election of representatives even if they are under performers and disadvantaging the minority groups in the current system. The enactment of this limit would ensure that the diversity of the American people is well represented in the House of Representatives. This would also have a positive implication in the reflection offered by the college vote that elects the president and the vice president. Most of the legislators and their staff are committed to representing their constituents but representing several thousand people is not easy. Due to the large number of population they are representing, they may fail to perfectly represent their constituents not because they are corrupt or privilege some constituents but because of the workload that they have (Miler, 2010). Increasing the number of representatives would thus allow full representation without favour’s in the constituents. On the other hand, if the law is amended so that each representative can represent not m ore than 50,000 constituents, the number of representatives would increase enormously. This would increase estimate to a staggering 6000 representatives. There was of course valid reasons why congress limited the number of representatives to 435 in an amendment in 1911. There were fears that with the growth of the

Strategic Management report on Prezzo which includes a strategic Essay

Strategic Management report on Prezzo which includes a strategic analysis and strategy formulation - Essay Example In 2011, the company’s chief executive was awarded the restaurateur of the year in the Caterer and Hotel Keeper Awards (Harden 2012). The restaurant has positioned itself as an eatery venue for a contemporary menu with an Italian cuisine touch. Vis a vis, its menu mainly includes pizzas, salads, pasta and grilled dishes. The restaurant expanded its service portfolio in 2013 by introducing Cleaver, additional venues that specifically offered American fare including chicken, ribs and burgers (Restaurant Portal, 2014). Currently, Prezza has a total of 3290 employees with revenue of  £ 179.19 million and an EPS growth rate of 10.07 % (Hardens, 2013). Prezzo is also a member of the sustainable restaurant association (SRA), therefore, highly committed to protecting and conserving the environment. External strategic analysis of Prezzo restaurant was conducted to evaluate the impact of the external environmental factors on the performance and growth of the restaurant in the UK market. Changes and trends of the UK restaurant industry were assessed using the Pestle strategic analysis tool. The government of UK highly regulates the food industry to manage the prevalence of lifestyle and food related chronic disease such as obesity. The government therefore interacts with Prezzo operations through health regulation, such as the policy on GM labelling for products containing genetically modified food, Good and Services tax on food prices and the issuance of licenses (Euro Monitor, 2014). However, Prezzo has managed to forge close relationships with governing authority through a mutual relationship, hence minimum interference with its operations There has been steady growth of the UK’s food industry for the last six years. According to a report by the Guardian (2014), the UK’s restaurant industry was experiencing a resurgence after the 2008 economic recessions. The market has been characterised by a rise in consumer expenditure and a forecast of UK

Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Entrepreneurship - Essay Example Palmer is found to treat the people recruited as general partners who would help him to manage the funds. In case he would have treated his partners as limited, the entire burden of fund management had fallen on him. Thus, he can be taken as an example of a true entrepreneur in promoting a good teamwork. The case study of Maclean Palmer can be regarded as an ideal model for business entrepreneurship in the Venture Capital market. Maclean Palmer by dearth in the field of private equity investment is found successful in identifying a business opportunity and working out a plan to explore the opportunity cited. His decision to design the 200 million US Dollars on Equity Investment came from his interest to work on the area of minority business development. To this end, Palmer is seen to invite suggestions from Wanda Felton of Credit Suisse First and David Mazza of Grove Street Advisors to gain business expertise. Palmer considers the combination of expertise of the scholar minds with his rich experience of the equity market as a successful option in business entrepreneurship. It is seen that most of the minority business managers recruited were from business schools like Wharton and Harvard. Moreover, with the recommendation of Felton senior business executives were also taken in. Felt on in this context observes the marriage of the young and scholar minds with experienced people will certainly pave the way to business success. Palmer is found to give more importance on his people rather than on the experience and qualification parameters. He is observed to give considerable stress to form an environment of spontaneous teamwork. In regards to the opportunity cited by Maclean Palmer, David Mazza of Grove Street Advisors states that the decision to move into non-traditional investment sources was a profitable business decision taken by Maclean Palmer. It is because as Mazza

Critical appraisal of article in operation management Essay

Critical appraisal of article in operation management - Essay Example It is due to this reason that the researchers and economist have carried out studies the study due to the significance and contribution of this industry in the country's annual GDP. Different theorist has described services in different ways which helps the management to understand the positioning and formulation of strategies to organize the resources. There conclusions can be used to get the wider view and all the dimensions of the various theorist, based on that the management can draw their own conclusions from their own understanding. These researchers covered different areas of the service industry but this paper specially discusses the implication of operation management in the Australian service industry. In order to understand the challenges faced by the management it is very important to understand the characteristics of the services. Operation management is a technique which can help to resolve the problems faced by the company. Before that there is an overview of the different researchers. Their work has helped to form the basis of understanding. Nie and Kellogg distinguished the services into some unique characteristics which makes services different from manufacturing. A service oriented business has more customer interaction due to which the entire process of delivering the service also becomes important. Services are intangible, there can be variations in the output, they are perishable, there production delivery and consumption all takes place at one time and they are more labor intensive. Schmenner has come up with one of the most useful topology of service industry which can be applied in all kinds of service oriented professions. He has defined these degrees in a simple matrix form which is indicating a high and low level of labor intensity and customer interaction. Such distinction can help the management in classifying each profession into a certain area like service factory professions have low labor intensity as well as customer interaction. Similarly professional services like doctors have high customer interaction as well as high labor intensity. Based on this the management can increase their focus and see which area needs more attention. Schmenner's theory can be connected to Wright and Mechling conclusion which explains that how these topologies can be used in the planning and controlling process. The key performance indicators are the managerial tools which help an organization in achieving its long term goals. Once the goals are set and strategies are implemented there has to be a way to measure the progress or success and KPI is one of the ways. These are measurable indicators. It can be one or many depending on the organization. For the service oriented businesses the key indicator can be the number of clients per month in an auditing firm. KPI is a useful management tool because when you know the strengths and weakness of your business and your goals are specific and clear to all then one can define a certain indicator to measure its evaluation and performance over the period of time. These can be applied in different service processes such as the framework of Armistead which had categories like delivery system and the volume of output. Such measures can be taken as as an indicator and can be used to upgrade the entire process. Service industries face many problems which can be resolved through the implication of the operational management tools. Operations

Description of My Being on the Wheelchair due to Walking Disability Essay - 6

Description of My Being on the Wheelchair due to Walking Disability Caused by the Accident - Essay Example Surprisingly, the two back-wheels consisted of two large wheels with two plastic and metal circles that approximately ten inches. I was privileged to have a friend who assisted in the pushing and from her point of view, the two push handles of the wheelchair augmented the pushing effectively. The two handles were effective as the tool required the human capability to move and the handles served that purpose. My friend assisted to control the turning and speed, thus, helped in stabilizing the chair and its wheels. Feeling my friend do the pushing was a remarkable experience as I learned that one requires pushing the handrims comprised of circular tubing attached to the wheels. My experience riding the chair was not easy as often, I felt discouraged pushing it, as it demanded a lot of attention. However, after spending some time pushing it, I learned that controlling the chair required one to move over the wheel for ease walking. As I was pushing the wheelchair, I could hear the gasping of the chair. This experience was so painful that it reminded me of my experience prior to the accident. Life was normal, I could go anywhere I wished to but after the accident life changed to the worse. Walking was enjoyable as compared to riding the wheelchair, which demanded much attention. Looking at the pair of the wheel of the chair, it reminded me of how the disable encounter challenges in their walking. I knew that one should be grateful while he is walking on his two feet for many would regard it but have no choice rather walk on the wheelchair. Being a beginner at pushing the wheelchair, at times I would lose control pushing it. I tried my best keeping it steady, grabbed handles hardly, and indeed made it to the end. It thought it to have been difficult, but I realized the need of thinking how a person pushes the wheelchair.

Muscle is highly plastic and many changes occur in muscle as a result Essay - 1

Muscle is highly plastic and many changes occur in muscle as a result of neurological disease. Critically evaluate this statement - Essay Example Notably, in MS disease, the muscles loses their elasticity, spasm and rigidity ensue (Nylander & Hafler, 2012). Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the conditions of neurons origin that causes extensive muscles involvement. After extensive research, it was established that the disorder was of one the muscles-involving disease that continue to impair muscles plasticity. Together with other diseases such as Myasthenia gravis, Parkinson, it has been established that muscular involvement in these diseases arises from the neuromuscular connection. Multiple sclerosis refers to a neuron disease that occurs when nerves undergo degeneration resulting in loss of functions. The exact cause of the disease is largely unknown. However, existing studies links it to an autoimmune disorder that cause destruction of nerves (Compston & Coles, 2002, 2008b). In other severe cases, loss of nerves functioning causes permanent disability since nerves cannot be regenerated. This focus will examine existing literature to provide an association of muscles properties and neurological involvement. Muscle is an integral part of the skeletal and even visceral parts of the human body. There are of either skeletal or visceral origin. Irrespective of their types, they are needed for normal body function. More specifically, skeletal muscles are necessary in support and movement and visceral muscles are primary parts of internal organs. Besides, they facilitate tissues and organ varied degree of changes including peristalsis. However, in MS, muscles are significantly impaired depending on their location and severity of the disease. To understand the basis of muscles involvement in MS, it is important to look at the Central Nervous System (CNS) and more specifically structural components of a nerve. One way to understand this is to consider myelin sheath autoimmune destruction. During MS, there is gradual attack of the myelin

Globlisation and forgen direct investment Essay

Globlisation and forgen direct investment - Essay Example According to Encyclopaedia Britannica globalization is the course through which the understanding of day to day life is becoming harmonized all over the globe. (King, 126) In economics, a wide description is that globalization is the union of prices, wages, products, profits and rates of interest in synchronization with developed nation norms. Globalization of the financial system depends on the position of international business, human migration, incorporation of pecuniary markets, and mobility of capital. The International Monetary Fund observes the increasing financial interdependence of countries all over the world through rising quantity and multiplicity of cross-border dealings, gratis international capital flow, and comparatively faster and extensive dissemination of technology. Theodore is more often than not attributed with globalization's initial utilization in an economic perspective. (Kar, 145) Globalization in the period from the time after World War II has been driven by improvement in technology which has declined the expenses of trade, and business arbitration rounds, initially under the sponsorship of GATT, which led to a succession of concords to do away with restrictions on gratis deals. Given that the end of World War II, after the arrival of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, there has been a sudden increase in the attainment and influence of Multinational corporations and the fast expansion of global civil society. (Border, 227-228) There are disagreements between media conglomerates, among various nations-states and speed and character of technical growth might facilitate in approaching one or another way out. While there is a measure of globalisation, its speed and direction is variably contested. The nation-state continues to keep hold of most of its authority, but it requires unfolding them and implementing them in innovative ways, if it d esires to fulfil defies of global forces and global actors. For instance in a global structure of governance the perception of sovereignty is becoming a much more expandable and absorbent one. Sovereignty requires be sharing, passing to global with local bodies. It is put into effect by states in combination with local and supranational bodies. (Fletcher, 188) This does not essentially signify that globalisation is deterioration the power of nation-states. However it does imply that this authority, in turn to be effectual, has to be transformed and reorganized. And this is to a degree already taking place. According to some, for instance, certain international institutions are in reality best implicit as a response to global forces or better as a reemphasize in a dynamic method of the authorities of nations. Thus for transformationalists the particular forms followed by globalisation are not predictable. (Lamb, 243-245) Detractors of the economic issues of globalization challenge that it is not an unalterable procedure which flows logically from the economic requirements of every person, as its supporters naturally argue. The opponents generally accentuate that globalization is a course that is arbitrated in accordance with the commercial benefits, and naturally elevate the prospect of

Analysis Cases In Arbitration Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Analysis Cases In Arbitration - Research Paper Example The U.S. Court of Appeals had declined to reassess the decision made by the en banc on February 1, 2012, in the case of Italian Colors Restaurant v. AET Related Services Co. Owing to this reason, the Supreme Court of the US is quite likely to be requested to revisit the issue related to class action waivers in the arbitration agreement by the US Court of Appeals. The dispute arose because of the fact that the Second Circuit denied offering an en banc rehearing. The chief judge, as well as four other judges, asserted that the case must be reheard which led to splits among the judges grounded on the protest that the Ninth Circuit was not being followed. In Italian Colors, it can be observed that the Second Circuit panel did not impose the class action waiver in relation to AE arbitration agreement considering that it would prevent the claimant from impeaching its federal antitrust claims. In the complaint, the Plaintiff claimed that the merchant contract disobeyed the SA. The merchant contract comprised of the arbitration provision that needed all claims that arose from agreement to be decided by means of arbitration. The SC on remand will face the concern of whether class-action waivers in case of arbitration agreements are unconscionable just because they prevent disputes from being resolved by ways of class proceedings. In an order list that was published within a week after the decision, it was found that the Supreme Court provided a writ of certiorari and thus evacuated and remanded the case of AE v. ICR.merican Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant. The court further ordered the Second Circuit to reassess its decision in relation to the unenforceability of class-action waiver in light of the Stolt-Nielsen opinion (Consumer Financial Service Group, â€Å"Second Circuit Splits with Ninth Circuit on Enforcement of Class Action

To What Extent Do You Think That Conditioning Essay Example for Free

To What Extent Do You Think That Conditioning Essay Both Pavlov and Skinner have proven that animals can be trained to expect a result coming from a type of condition due to past experiences. However, it may not be the same for human beings, as they have much more complex minds than any other species on Earth. Classical and Operant conditioning may work only on some humans but it may not work on some other humans. Operant conditioning is when a living being experiences punishment or any consequences when committing a particular act, it will often stop doing the same thing next time, as it doesnt want to experience the consequence again. However, some human beings are an exception to the laws of Operant conditioning. For instance, a teenager may continue stealing even though he/she has been caught and punished. The reason behind it is because it might be the only way to survive, or it could be a habit the teenager cannot get rid of, similar to smoking. In some more scarce occasions, the teenager might feel that it is right to steal, as if the world owes him/her, which motivates the teenager to continue committing his/her crime. Nonetheless, there are under some circumstances that fit into the criteria, such as if a person almost got crushed by a car when crossing a road, he/she would be much more careful in the future, as the person doesnt want to die. Classical conditioning is training a living being to respond to a specific stimulus, such as a dog salivating if a ringing bell is heard. This type of condition may work on more people than on Operant condition. The reason is because Classical conditioning is more on the persons advantage whereas Operant conditioning is mostly on consequences. Human beings tend to commit acts that at least benefit themselves before benefiting others; therefore Operant conditioning will sometimes not work because it might affect the persons benefit. It is only on some situations that Operant conditioning will work as it helps prevent consequences happening to the person again. Human nature is a very complex system that enables human beings to be different from the theories of response and stimulus. They will not just think if one thing happens, another result will follow. Some people will think of other possibilities, which makes the whole situation extremely complex. Classical and Operant conditioning may work on toddlers as they still have very simple thinking, but as humans grow older their minds will also become more advanced as well as complicated, making their thinking not as straightforward as the theories suggest. Classical and Operant conditioning may not be 100% efficient on analysing human behaviour, but if it is used on other animals or on human toddlers, it will be quite effective.

Effect of Smoking on Division of Attention

Effect of Smoking on Division of Attention ABSTRACT The basic objective of this study is to see whether smoking significantly affects the division of attention of an individual. Smoking can be defined as the process in which any substance, usually tobacco is rolled and burnt and the smoke that is released is inhaled. There is evidence that smoking is harmful to the brain at the functional and morphological level (Swan Lessov-Schlaggar, 2007). Division of attention can be defined as the person’s ability to attend to two or more tasks at a single time. Snowball Sampling was used to select 60 participants, 30 Smokers (N=30) and 30 Non-Smokers (N=30). A screener developed by Fagerstrom called the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (1978) was used to screen the participants after which the Division of Attention Experiment by Shailaja Bhagwat was administered. Results indicated that there was no significant difference in the division of attention between smokers and non-smokers (t=0.27, t=0.38, t=0.009, t=0.22). They both had n early the same divisions of attention between physical and mental tasks. INTRODUCTION Smoking: There are approximately about 2 billion smokers all over the world. (WHO, 2013) Smoking can be defined as the process in which any substance, usually tobacco is rolled and burnt, and the smoke that is released is inhaled. This practice was started as a recreational one in which an active substance like for example nicotine is made available to the blood stream through the lungs (Gatley Wilbert). The most common method of this practice of smoking is through cigarettes. There are other methods of this practice too like the use of bidis, bongs, cigars, hookah, pipes and vaporizers to name a few. A 2007 report states that, each year, about 4.9 million people worldwide die as a result of smoking. (West, Robert Shiffman, 2007.) Among the many substances used for smoking, tobacco is by far the most widely used substance which is addictive because of the nicotine content. The history of smoking can date back to as early as 5000 BC when it was used for religious ceremonies. The use of tobacco products is increasing globally, though in some higher and middle income countries its use is decreasing. The global prevalence is 48% for adult males and 12% for adult females. There are about 1/3 of the adults worldwide, who smoke, that is an approximate of about 2.0 billion smokers around the world including child smokers. (WHO 2013) A few reasons as to why people start smoking can be: having parents who smoke, siblings who smoke, friends who smoke, the freedom that they have to do what they want, peer pressure, low academic achievements, their daily surrounding, that is, having co-workers or people they are usually surrounded with being chain smokers, economic background or even life in the urban environment to an extent. An individual might just start smoking as a result of a social gathering or a party which becomes an addiction later on. Smoking is most prevalent in the age group of 18-25. It is stated that there are about 1000 smokers at the age of 18 and below who start smoking (WHO 2013). There are various reasons and causes for such a trend. This age group is the most prone to getting addicted to smoking as individuals in this age bracket are most easily swayed in their decisions and get addicted most easily. Once addicted to the use of any substance, tobacco generally, it gets very difficult for individuals to leave this habit. According to statistics by the World Health Organization we have more male smokers (35% developed 50% developing) than female smokers (22% developed 9% developing). These statistics show a rather large number of women smoking, especially in the developed countries we see that a lot of women smoking. Division of Attention: Division of attention (Multi-Tasking) is the process in which an individual’s attention is divided between two tasks. The talent of multitasking is when an individual knows how to juggle the time and attention spent between the two tasks well so as to give equal amount of attention to both so that it doesn’t look like there is any amount of partiality or preference given to a specific task on hand. One is said to be good at multi-tasking when one is able to perform both the tasks at the best of their abilities without being overworked or stressed. Since the 1990s experimental psychologists have tried to understand the nature and limits of human multitasking. In dichotic listening, subjects are apparently unable to attend simultaneously to two concurrent, auditory speech messages. However, in two experiments reported here, it is shown that people can attend to and repeat back continuous speech at the same time as taking in complex, unrelated visual scenes, or even while sight-readingpiano music. In both cases performance with dividedattentionwas very good, and in the case of sight-reading was as good as with undivided attention. There was little or no effect of the dual task on the accuracy of speech shadowing. (Allport, Antonis Reynold, 1971) Attention, it can be described as the process of focusing in ones field of awareness. Our attention can be commanded by a number of factors. Two of the main factors that can do so are: Objective factors such as intensity, size, movement, distinctiveness etc. Subjective factors such as, an individual’s needs, motives, interests, past experiences etc. The intensity of attention given to a specific stimulus is affected by the presence of another stimulus that is competing for one’s attention. This is known as shifting of attention. Shifting of attention is necessary for perception as it prevents negative adaptation. Another phenomenon which is related to attention is known as the distraction of attention. As we already know what is shifting of attention, distraction of attention is when the attention wavers and gets back to the previous stimuli. There are maximum numbers of stimuli that can be responded to in a particular period of attention. This maximum amount of attention that can be referred to in this particular period is called the span of attention. How a person can divide their attention has to do with that person’s intelligence (Sternberg Sternberg, 2012). Researchers Navon and Gopher (1979) theorized a modality model which explains the basics of attention mainly divided between various simple tasks and not between various complex tasks. There are various variables that play a role in our ability to pay attention or to concentrate on the many tasks that are to be performed at once. A few of those variables are anxiety, arousal, the difficulty of the tasks to be performed and the skills that an individual possesses. Relation between Smoking and Division of Attention: When we look back to studies done in the past on these two topics, we have many, but when it comes to a study involving both these topics we have hardly any studies. We have many researches on smoking and its effect on health, cognition, effect of nicotine on the brain activity during the performance of a task, impact of smoking on the performance of an individual, as well as studies on the effect of smoking during pregnancy on the performance of a child after its birth. An accumulation of evidence suggests that smoking may be reinforcing, in part, due to nicotines capacity to enhance the process of attention, but correspondingly, the stimulus-filter model of nicotine reinforcement asserts that nicotine increases cognitive performance by acting as a stimulus-barrier, thereby screening and preventing the irrelevant and annoying stimuli from the smokers awareness. (Kassel, 1997) Some studies that have been performed on smoking and the performance of an individual, either cognitive or social both say that smoking usually has a negative impact or rather they say that smoking reduces the cognitive and physical performance of an individual.It was found that while cigarette smoking had no negative effect upon performance for simple perceptual tasks, smoking was found to exert measurable negative effects upon performance for more complex information processing tasks (Spilich, June Renner, 1992). There is a scientific background for the decrease in the physical performance of an individual who smokes. Smoking reduces the capacity of an individual to do work as the oxygen available to the body is reduced. When we inhale smoke from a cigarette, we introduce the carbon monoxide into the blood. The carbon monoxide combines with the hemoglobin in the blood to form carboxy-hemoglobin which reduces the amount of oxygen that is carried in the blood. The lesser the available oxygen, the lesser the physical endurance, the lesser the endurance, the weaker the individual. Prolonged smoking causes irreversible lung damage. A study recently done in Kings College London tells us that smoking spoils the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning as well (Smoking Rots the Brain Lowers Cognitive Performance, November 2012). Smoking just a single cigarette can immediately affect physical capability in exercise when the inhaled carbon monoxide binds to red blood cells, displacing oxygen and preventing its delivery to muscle cells. In fact, a study at UCLA found that young adults experience a four percent decrease in oxygen uptake right after smoking. It has long been known that smokers tend to be less physically active than nonsmokers, and vice versa. For instance, a study in Public Health Reports found smokers are more likely to quit supervised exercise programs. Another study found that male high school students who were less physically active than their peers were twice as likely to smoke. There hasn’t been a specific study on the effect that smoking has on the division of attention. Generally the division of attention is usually different for different individuals. Smokers perform one physical and one mental task at a time. They are hence â€Å"multitasking† or rather dividing their attention in such a way that they are spending enough time performing both the tasks but to what level of their ability? Smokers are better at Division of Attention. The above mentioned hypothesis is one study or rather one topic that has not been widely studied under the vast topic of smoking especially in the Indian contest. There have been various studies on the effect of smoking on performance as well as the capacity of an individual to divide their attention between two tasks. Will the division of attention among non-smokers be greater than the division of attention among smokers? OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is a significant difference in the division of attention between smokers and non-smokers while performing two tasks simultaneously. HYPOTHESIS There is a significant difference between the division of attention of smokers and non-smokers while performing two tasks simultaneously. METHOD Participants: A sample size of 60 students (n=60) within the age group of 18-22 with all of them from a middle class background, studying in college and from the city of Hyderabad were selected on the basis of Random Sampling. They were divided into two groups of 30 each i.e. smoker and non-smokers. These two groups were further divided into 15 girls and 15 boys each. Before giving them the screener itself, the purpose of the study was explained and a signed informed consent was taken from the students. Participation inclusion criteria: Students between the ages of 18-22 Pursuing bachelor’s degree from any college Students who were smokers Participation exclusion criteria: Students above the age of 22 or below 18 Students working part time or full time Instruments: The Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence Scale (FTND) was used as a screener for the smokers. It is a 6 question scale which shows the levels of dependence on nicotine. Anybody who has moderate to high dependency (score of 5 or above) on this scale is considered a smoker. This scale was developed by Fagerstrom in 1978 titled Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire which was later called the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND: Heatherton et al., 1991). After this the Division of Attention (different variables) by Dr. (Smt.) Shailaja Bhagwat was given to the participants, which involved the performance of 4 tasks. Each task was to be performed only for two minutes, that too each task had 3 sub tasks. The students were explained what each and every task was very carefully and if they had any doubts, those doubts were cleared too. The 4 tasks in brief were: one Physical and one Mental Simple Tasks (separately as well as simultaneously) one Physical Simple Task and one Mental Complex Task (separately as well as simultaneously) one Physical Complex and one Mental Complex Task (separately as well as simultaneously) one Physical and Mental Complex Task (separately as well as simultaneously) ANALYSIS The statistics that were used on the raw data were: Mean Standard Deviation T-Test RESULTS The hypothesis states that there is a significant difference between the division of attention between smokers and non-smokers. The Statistics used were: Mean: The Mathematical Average of a set of numbers. Standard Deviation: Measures how spread out the data is. T-Test: Measures if there is a significant difference between two variables. The results got do not support the hypothesis which states that there is a significant difference in the division of attention between smokers and non-smokers. Table 1 shows the Mean (M) Standard Deviation (SD) and T-Value (t) between smokers and non-smokers. *N.S = Not Significant Table 1 shows that the t-values were not found to be significant. DISCUSSION When we attend two or more tasks at one time, it is mainly because of the division of attention of that person. The first scientist to study in the field of division of attention was Paulhan (1887) who found out that if the nature of both the jobs is simple, the outcome would be the least affected. A few other scientists who got the same results were Binet (1890), Jastraw and Cairnes (1892) and Fitts and Simon (1949). According to the table shown above, the hypothesis mentioned above has been proved right. There is no significant difference between the: Division of attention between smokers and non-smokers in performing two tasks simultaneously. These results could be due to various reasons. The lifestyle of both smokers and non-smokers is the same. Their surroundings, their routines everything is very similar. Although minor differences will be present in the results due to differing mental abilities, everything else is the same. Hence their results or rather the levels of division of attention between ideally should not differ to a great extent. When we look at the tables closely we observe that the performance of two simple tasks (one physical and one mental) the loss of efficiency in the performance of tasks in non-smokers is lesser than that of smokers, whereas in the performance of two difficult tasks (one mental and one physical) the opposite case happens. The loss of efficiency is lesser for smokers when compared to non-smokers. When we look at the results of the tasks of difficult physical- easy mental or difficult mental and easy physical, they depended completely on the mental abilities of that person. There was no pattern that was followed. The hypothesis may not have been proved right as the all the students have not been smoking regularly for long. The effects might be seen more clearly if they had been smoking for longer. The brain functioning might be something that would be impaired only after a while. The impairment is not going to be sudden. There could have also been many intervening variables such as the weather, the students mood the surroundings, the situations and even the noise levels. All these affect the performance of the subject while performing a task. This particular research in this field gives the psychologists a base to build up future researches and ones which can be conducted in more depth. The same study can be conducted on an older population and the results can be matched and seen. Then it can be proven if age plays a major role in this research. As the subjects are older it is but natural that they have smoked for longer in their life which has been proved to reduce brain functioning. This study shows that there is no significant difference between smokers and non-smokers as well as girls and boys when it comes to the division of attention. REFERENCE Anstyl, O’Kearney, Salim, Sanden. Smoking as a Risk Factor for Dementia and Cognitive Decline: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies (2007) West, Robert and Shiffman, Saul (2007).Fast Facts: Smoking Cessation. Health Press Ltd. p.28 Hirsch, GL, et al., â€Å"Immediate effects of smoking on cardiorespiratory response to exercise,† Journal of Applied Physiology 58:1975-81, June 1985 Blair, SN, et al., â€Å"Relationship Between Exercise or Physical Activity and Other Health Behaviors,† Public Health Reports 100(2):172-180, March-April 1985; Faulkner, RA, et al., â€Å"The Relationship of Physical Activity to Smoking Characteristics in Canadian Men and Women,† Canadian Journal of Public Health 78(3):155-60, May-June 1987; Lazarus, NB, et al., â€Å"Smoking and Body Mass in the Natural History of Physical Activity: Prospective Evidence from the Alameda County Study, 1965-1974,† American Journal of Preventive Medicine 5(3):127-35, May-June 1989 Dishman, RK, et al., â€Å"The Determinants of Physical Activity and Exercise,† Public Health Reports 100(2):158-71, March-April 1985 Winnail, SD, et al., â€Å"Relationship Between Physical Activity Level and Cigarette, Smokeless Tobacco, and Marijuana Use Among Public High School Adolescents,† Journal of School Health 65(10):438-442, December 1995 http://www.holah.karoo.net/sampling.htm The Effects of Tobacco Smoke and Nicotine on Cognition and the Brain, Gary E. Swan, Christina N. Lessov-Schlaggar On thedivisionofattention: A disproof of the single channel hypothesis, D. Alan Allporta,Barbara AntonisaPatricia Reynolds Smoking and attention: A review and reformulation of the stimulus-filter hypothesis, Jon D. Kassel Cigarette smoking and cognitive performance, George J. Spilich, Lorraine June, Judith Renner. Smoking Rots the Brain Lowers Cognitive Performance November 29, 2012 http://scitechdaily.com/smoking-rots-the-brain-lowers-cognitive-performance/ 1

Leadership Values To Individuals And Society General Studies Essay

Leadership Values To Individuals And Society General Studies Essay Leadership is the art of making people to do what you want them to do. It is a process of influencing others working for the common good and common goals while offering purpose and paths to achieve that. The army defines leadership as influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (Army Leadership, Personnel General, Army Regulation 600-100). There are different approaches to leadership as transactional leadership, transformational leadership, situational leadership, and contingency leadership. Even that all these leadership approaches have similarities and differences they have all incorporated into them fear and/or respect as a mean to achieve goals. Looking at the leaders side this is his/her personal behavior and the environment that they surrounded with or they faced at the beginning of the career what actually shape their future style of leading. If one leader dealt with fear and pressur e from his/her supervisors, it is very likely that they will also treat their subordinates the same way. In the other hand, if the leader was treated with respect and this was what build and shaped his or her base of leadership it is very likely that he will treat his/her subordinates the same way. Even that there are different theories in the practice there always has been in question whether it is better to be feared or respected. And both of these are used in military leadership and in leadership in non-military organizations. It is very apparent that to some leaders only fear exists as a driving force toward achieving goals. They do not prefer to use other means as motivation for pushing their subordinates. In the other hand, seems that subordinates do not prefer fear to be their driving force. Instead they would like to have such a relationship that would push them to work tirelessly to satisfy their leader, but not fear. In this paper I am going to explore what does it mean for a leader to be feared or respected and what effect has it in his/her subordinates in particular or to the society in general based on personal experience as a cadet and what I learned and read about leadership. This paper actually is going to come across military leadership and leadership in non-military organizations. Respect by definition is esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability (www.dictionary.com) respect is acknowledged to be a positive value that people posses. But people are not very conscious of what respect really means and of what significance it is. In most cases respect is perceived to as a judgment or opinion of someone not as a value. Based on my personal experience I can say that for respect to be durable it should be earned. It is important that a person should show respect to himself, to others (people that surround us), and try to earn the deserved respect. Since respect is viewed as a perspective for relationship, people decide whether it is achieved as a commitment for a successful relationship between people or whether it is part of our culture. For creating a world with collaboration and mutual respect we have to build a culture with worldwide respect and transmit our commitments toward others as respectable human beings. The basis for achieving respect in the leader-subordinate aspect is having satisfactory interactions with others. If there is a respectful environment there are possibilities for sharing vision, trust, mission, and there will be stronger teams within the organization to achieve common goals. A quote by Mark Clement says that leaders who win the respect of others are the ones who deliver more than they promise, not the ones who premise more that they can deliver. This shows that the influence of a leader is largely increased when he or she has the respect of the subordinates and through this they can achieve what is thought to be unachievable paving the road to success. But expecting to reach all the goals with only the respect of the subordinates might have shortcomings as well. Subordinates can be of a level not mature enough to understand what mutual respect means and this may turn against the leader. Also the leader might not make a realistic evaluation of the subordinates and as a result the reliance on the respect might end in catastrophe. Machiavelli in his book Prince gives several reasons why a leader should not rely on peoples respect because they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life and children. As is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you (Prince, 79). This actually tells that a leader must much more rely in his/her own forces and make a proper evaluation of the readiness of his/her subordinates in order to not have a catastrophic end. Among the very first things taught in military academies is respect. This is also taught to all soldiers. The very difference is that leaders have to know to win respect for themselves and for the others with whom they work and to create a respectful environment. Even that in militaries a straight chain of command exists there is an apparent need for respect. It is essential having respect for one another because that is actually what makes the military to operate. Having respect means also having trust between each other which essential for performing daily activities and during crisis. Without respect subordinates would always look for ways to escape from their leaders and things would hardly ever be done on time. There are several ways to earn respect in military. On and the most important one is by living with army values and becoming a role model for people that surround you. Moreover, the higher you go in ranks gives you a higher respect since earning higher ranks is not easily attained. In military when you have the respect of your subordinates it is much easier to empower them and delegate tasks without being reluctant that they will not perform well. Thus, it is worth quoting KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps) Officers Manual 103, which states that mutual respect will create a bond between officers and soldiers and it will always be there when tough times appear. There are certain ways to show that you respect someone. If you always tell the truth in good or bad times it is a sign of respect, if you make promises and keep them it is a sign of respect, and if you treat all your subordinates at the same level it is a sign of respect. There are many cases in which leaders were respected. This was actually the main driving force of peoples belief on their leaders and their decisions to be implied. Sir Winston Churchill was one of the most respected leaders in history. He led United Kingdom during the most difficult times. He had many cases when he had to make tough decisions that were not very popular but were very well accepted. These decisions were accepted only for a reason, the respect that people had for him. In the other hand, the other component of authority is fear. This derives mainly from the capacity of the leader to punish his/her subordinates. Some leaders have coercive power and use as the main tool in achieving their goals. These types of leaders tend to believe that through coercion you can achieve much more because you get the most from subordinate since they fear you. This derives from the belief that if someone fears you he or she will do anything just to not put into question your authority. Fearing the leader is a process that starts when subordinates come to contact for any sort information about this particular leader. They might hear that from the other fellow employees or other soldiers if military organization, that the leader is really a person who punishes in hardest way. In the book Prince, Machiavelli believes that it is impossible to achieve both respect and fear but when you have to choose between them fear is much more productive. He states that since you canno t trust people in tough times and it is better to be feared because fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails you (Prince, 80). The coercive power mentioned above is based on fear and is the ability to punish someone for any noncompliance. One way that leaders coerce their subordinates is by showing them that they are not complying with the process enforced by leader. However, also by fear and coercion can be achieved a lot of results. In the military fear of leader exists in all levels, from the newly recruits up to the senior officers. In the beginning of the military career soldiers fear from the leader because he can use his power and authority to punish them, which can have a negative result in their career. Interesting is the fact that these new soldiers have their utmost respect for their commander but yet fear has more influence than respect. This is much related to the stages of individual development and to the environment they perform in. There are a lot of cases that soldiers do things only regarding to the fear they have from their leader. There are also a lot of leaders that use fear upon their subordinates even that they complained when their former leaders used coercion on them. A good example of a leader who used fear could be Enver Hoxha, the communist leader of Albania. He was considered to be the best man to lead Albania after World War II. He had graduated from a prominent French University and fought heroically during the war. But Albanian people turned to be wrong. As he came to power he started eliminating his opponents and anyone who could come on his way. The most known eliminations were deportation, imprisonment, family punishments and not excluding killing people. These eliminations had a very high psychological effect on the population. During this time Albania became a country where the continuous repression had affected everyone. This paper has been an overview of two sides of conceptualization of leadership by subordinates, respect and fear. Fear has the tendency to make employees or soldiers perform better and achieve results but they feel unworthy as individuals. Respect is much more welcomed because it makes employees or soldiers to feel more confident and to feel themselves as part of team. At the military point of view much respect is assigned to certain positions and ranks but only the real respect is the everlasting one. In conclusion I think that in order to be a properly respected leader you must at first show respect. If you earn to the respect of the employees is much easier to accomplish goals, also the job performed by the subordinates will be of a higher level. The point is that if you earn the respect of the employees or the soldiers in a military organization, they will perform accordingly whatever the situation or when not under direct supervision. Promoting respect to any organization gives a dose of authority through influencing people. We should always try to make respect the core of our relationship with others. Having a mutual respect with subordinates only brings us success and continuous improvements. This kind of relationship will have sincerity at the top of it something that will create an everlasting desire and willingness to help each other. Only the true respect will inspire the subordinates to perform their best, and their best means the best for leader.

Presidential Candidate Profiles :: essays research papers

Candidate Profiles I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Al Gore   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore, was born on March 31, 1948 in Washington D.C.. His father Albert Gore Sr., a congressman from Tennessee, served in the House of Representatives and his mother Pauline La Fon was one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School. Gore, a Baptist, attended Harvard where he received a degree with high honors in government. Even though he was strongly opposed to the war in 1970 Al joined the army where he served his time in Vietnam as an army reporter. After attending Vanderbilt Law School Gore ran for and won Tennessee’s fourth district congressional seat where he served four terms, after which he ran for and won the Tennessee Senatorial Seat. Gore remained in senate until presidential nominee Bill Clinton Chose him as his running mate in 1992, they were elected into office that year and re-elected in 1996. While in office Gore expressed great concern for the envir onment and in 1992 wrote the book Earth in the Balance: Healing the Global Environment. Gore has been married to Tipper Aitcheson since 1969, together they have four children: Karenna, Kristin, Sarah, and Albert III. Al Gore’s running Mate for the 2000 election is Connecticut state Senator Joe Lieberman. As well as being the first Jewish-American ever in the U.S. Senate, Lieberman was the Connecticut state Attorney General and also practiced law in New Haven. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  George Bush   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Governor of Texas and Republican Presidential Nominee George W. Bush was born July 6, 1946 in New Haven , Connecticut. Bush, often referred to as simply W. is The eldest son of former President George Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush, his siblings include Jeb (Governor of Florida), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. Like his father, Bush attended the prestigious Philips Andover Academy in Massachusetts before going to Yale University where he graduated with a bachelors degree. Upon leaving Yale he went to Texas and joined the Air National Guard, Where he learned to fly fighter jets, he eventually became a lieutenant but was never called on to fight in Vietnam. In 1972 Bush entered Harvard Business School, earning his M.B.A. in 1975. In 1977 he married Laura Welch, a former teacher and librarian, and in 1980 she gave birth to their twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. Shortly after his 40th birthday in July ‘86 Bush reached a turning point in his pers onal and professional life.

TIME :: essays research papers

T I M E â€Å"Time, what time is it? Is it time for class already? No, we still have some time.† It is time that we have totally forgotten about, and have taken it for granted for so long. But does time really exist? Does the 24 Hours of the day mean anything? Or does 12 months? Time means different things to different people. According to â€Å"COLLINS COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary† ( ©HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.1996) time is defined as ‘the measurement we measure in minutes, hours, days, and years.’ Seems rediculously simple, but does it have more to it? ‘Time’ actually have a more scientific meaning, which will later be explained. The basic definition of time comes down to â€Å"1. What we measure in minutes, hours, days and years. 2. Time is what we use to specify a certain point in the day or refer to the period which something has been happenining.† (Stephen Bullon – TIME – Collins Cobuild Learner’s Dictionary – 1999 – Pg 1155) From that definition, how long is a day? It is the amount of time taken for the earth to rotate its axis once, containing two 12hour periods. Telling the difference between the two periods, the notations AM and PM are used (Ante and Post Meridiem). We cannot literally see or tuch time, but time seems to be all around us, from waking up with an alarm clock to watching your dinner eaten away. However, reversing this process can be another concept that raises many questions. As we all are living, we are also time travellers, since time goes by as we live our lives day by day. But since this topic seems to capture our vivid imaginations, it has also become the origin of many science fiction books, movies and even cartoons. The idea of time has been thought of for so long yet, but he first evidence of the existence of time appeared in Homer’s Iliad. In this historical Greek epic, Homer stated â€Å"Now Dawn the saffron-robed was spreading over the face of all the earth.† Homer mentioned the start of a new day allowing us to know that the idea of time has been around even before 700BC. In early years, people used to record the beginnings and ends of seasons and noticing that they do come in cycles. With the advancement of astronomy, Ancient Greek started to utilize heavens and stars for designing calendars.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Essay -- Narrative Life Fr

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Complete Title: An Exploration of the Relationship between Southern Christianity and Slaveholding as seen in the â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by Himself†    Dr. Pautreaux’s comments: What makes this paper memorable is the fact that this student is also a minister. Both his command of the language and his insight as a minister gave this paper a unique view of the narrative.    We can so easily deceive ourselves into believing that what is accepted by the general population as normal behavior is also justifiably correct. Rarely do we, as a society, question our customs as long as this behavior yields such commodities as convenience, profit or social benefit. If contested, our acts become well justified and defended. All components of our lifestyle are purposefully bent to fit around popular beliefs and anything, up to and including the Holy Bible, can be distorted to advance our position. A current example of this is today's Muslim terrorists who are using teachings in their Koran to justify their position saying that the Koran dictates that they must fight a holy war, killing as many Christians and Jews as possible, even going so far as to sacrifice their own lives in the process. This sort of religious distortion, used to justify man's self-serving will, is what writer and former slave, Frederick Douglass exposes in his story of his life which he wr ote in 1845. In his story, Douglass gives us a wealth of obvious incongruities of people professing Christianity while practicing slavery: "The man who robbed me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of ... ...lt of the Christian religion itself, perhaps the present religious conflict could be resolved. We, too, have the obligation to remember that the strain of Islam that has come to fore in these days of terrorist attacks, is but an extremist fanatical derivation or a religion that also has a pure and good basis. We should all make sure that religion is not a "mere covering for the most horrid crimes--a justifying of the most appalling barbarity...in which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds...find the strongest protection" (1059) as it was in the days of slavery in the southern U. S. and in the life of Frederick Douglass. Work Cited    Douglass, Frederick. '"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave." The Harper Single Volume American Literature. Ed. Donald McQuade, et.al. 3rd edition. New York: Longman, 1999. 1020-1081. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Essay -- Narrative Life Fr Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Complete Title: An Exploration of the Relationship between Southern Christianity and Slaveholding as seen in the â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by Himself†    Dr. Pautreaux’s comments: What makes this paper memorable is the fact that this student is also a minister. Both his command of the language and his insight as a minister gave this paper a unique view of the narrative.    We can so easily deceive ourselves into believing that what is accepted by the general population as normal behavior is also justifiably correct. Rarely do we, as a society, question our customs as long as this behavior yields such commodities as convenience, profit or social benefit. If contested, our acts become well justified and defended. All components of our lifestyle are purposefully bent to fit around popular beliefs and anything, up to and including the Holy Bible, can be distorted to advance our position. A current example of this is today's Muslim terrorists who are using teachings in their Koran to justify their position saying that the Koran dictates that they must fight a holy war, killing as many Christians and Jews as possible, even going so far as to sacrifice their own lives in the process. This sort of religious distortion, used to justify man's self-serving will, is what writer and former slave, Frederick Douglass exposes in his story of his life which he wr ote in 1845. In his story, Douglass gives us a wealth of obvious incongruities of people professing Christianity while practicing slavery: "The man who robbed me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of ... ...lt of the Christian religion itself, perhaps the present religious conflict could be resolved. We, too, have the obligation to remember that the strain of Islam that has come to fore in these days of terrorist attacks, is but an extremist fanatical derivation or a religion that also has a pure and good basis. We should all make sure that religion is not a "mere covering for the most horrid crimes--a justifying of the most appalling barbarity...in which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds...find the strongest protection" (1059) as it was in the days of slavery in the southern U. S. and in the life of Frederick Douglass. Work Cited    Douglass, Frederick. '"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave." The Harper Single Volume American Literature. Ed. Donald McQuade, et.al. 3rd edition. New York: Longman, 1999. 1020-1081.