Congressional Representation Richard F. Fenno Essay

In an era where strong partisan divisiveness continues to paralyze Congress, The Challenge of Congressional Representation offers a well-formulated, insightful study of the intricate relationship between Congress and their home constituencies. It invokes nostalgia for a time before the Tea Party insurgency and the dreadful Citizens United decision – a time when Congress members put â€Å"country before party†, by listening to the people they represent rather than their echo chamber and the unlimited fiscal influences of Political Action Committees. To be sure, author Richard F. Fenno presents this noble exploration as a follow up piece to his earlier study, Home Style, and maintains focus on the micro-analysis of Congress members and their relationships with their constituents (p. 1). Indeed, The Challenge of Congressional Representation seeks to fill the chasm of Congress personal narratives within their home constituencies through the innovative approach of person al observation and storytelling. However, the author’s transitions between first and third person can be dizzying at times. Nevertheless, the book is enjoyable and presents the reader with a captivating cast of characters and an inside glimpse of the painstaking process of casework while juggling family, hectic travel schedules, and legislative duties. Fenno’s Method With this in mind, Fenno embarks on a quest for pragmatic knowledge by examining five members of Congress who possess varying party affiliations,Show MoreRelated Race and Representation in Congress Essay5076 Words   |  21 PagesRace and Representation in Congress The topic of race, redistricting, and minority representation in Congress has emerged as one of the most salient issues in contemporary political thought. The creation of so#8209;called majority minority districts has been attacked as unfair and racially polarizing by some observers and ultimately struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The study of race in relation to American politics and institutions, and, in particular, to the institution

Concealed Handguns in College Campuses - 777 Words

Concealed Handgun Should college students be allowed to carry a concealed licensed handgun? Should students be permitted individual security on college campus? In 1791, our founding fathers established in the U.S Constitution the right that everybody has â€Å"the right to bear arms†. The right to bear arms in the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns and indicates that the government cannot restrict this right. Colleges do not allow individuals to carry these weapons on campus because most think it is too dangerous and can cause individuals to be in danger including the law enforcement, staff and other college students. Despite this right, weapons on college campuses lead to dangerous situations, violence, and even death. Point #1: More guns will lead to increased violence: Public and private colleges should prevent their students from carrying concealed handguns into campus because violence has increased more than ever in U.S history. According to an article on a student who carried a concealed handgun on campus, authors Ian Shapira and Tom Jackman spoke to increased violence which can be seen in the Virginia Tech Shooting where â€Å"Thirty-three people were killed Monday, April 17, 2007 on the campus of Virginia Tech in what appears to be the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, according to federal law enforcement officials. Many of the victims were students shot in a dorm and a classroom building.† When students have access to weapons,Show MoreRelatedConcealed Handgun Licenses On College Campuses1773 Words   |  8 Pagesfollow stated by the Texas Department of Public Safety surrounding concealed handguns licenses on college campuses says it â€Å"Authorizes a license holder t o carry a concealed handgun on their person while they are on the campus of an institution of higher education in this state. However as stated by the Department of Public Safety the institution establish rules, regulation, or other provisions concerning the storage of handguns in dormitories or other residential facilities that are operated byRead MoreShould Guns Be Allowed On College Campuses?948 Words   |  4 PagesComparison and Contrast Paper: Should Guns Be Allowed on College Campuses? Hi I am a college student at Palm Beach State College in Florida West Palm Beach. One time I went to a guns store in which you can also practice how to use a gun. I was fourteen years the first time that I used a gun. I went to the place with my sister, three cousins and my father. The truth is that it was fun to use a gun, although we all knew it was dangerous to use one if we had not have any experience with it beforehandRead MoreStop Shootings On College Campuses859 Words   |  4 PagesDue to the significant number of violent shootings on college campuses in the past recent years, many have argued that both students and teachers should be allowed to carry a concealed handgun on campus to defend themselves. They believe it will help stop shootings and make campuses safer, but will it? These people who are suggesting this are only thinking about their own safety and not thinking about the consequences that will flourish due to guns on campus. Guns on campus would not only lead toR ead MoreConcealed Carry On Campus : Promoting The Safety Of Students Essay1602 Words   |  7 PagesConcealed Carry on Campus: Promoting the Safety of Students Carrying a concealed weapon is the practice of carrying a concealed firearm on one s person in public (Concealed Weapons Law Legal Definition). There are several reasons why people feel the need to carry concealed weapons. Some feel wary of the environment in which they live, thanks in part to high crime rates. Some like the assurance that a weapon provides them in the event that a police officer is not available. Others simply likeRead MoreShould College Campuses Be Banned?1256 Words   |  6 Pageson the campuses of the schools. These crimes have taken place everywhere, from Columbine High School all the way to a classroom on the Virginia Tech campus. To be more specific the most devastating crime that can take place on a collegiate campus is a mass shooting. So, with more and more states beginning to allow those who possess a conceal carry permit, to carry at more places throughout the state. The question is asked, should college campuses allow students to carry a concealed ha ndgun, whileRead MoreThe True Nature Of School Shootings1066 Words   |  5 Pagesshooting. From the aftermath of these shootings, a solution was found to prevent such things from happening which is allow concealed-carry weapons on college campuses. It is said if there are more guns on campuses, the chances of a gun man taking out more innocent lives are less likely due to the amount of people with guns. Despite this sound solution of concealed carry on college campuses, the reality is that it causes more problems than it solves, and there are better solutions to this problem at handRead MoreShould Guns Be Permitted On College Campuses?930 Words   |  4 PagesShould guns be permitted on College Campuses? Across the country, there has been so much concern for the safety of college students and their well being that the use and carrying of guns has been brought into case with the introduction of bills. Allowing guns on college campuses would potentially be dangerous for everyone, including students and faculty members. A lot of damage and harm could occur. While some students might use them for protection, legalizing them would also increase the chancesRead MoreShould We Put Guns On Our Campuses?954 Words   |  4 Pagesresponsible for this massacre. This has every school in America asking the question, should we put guns on our campuses? No, you shouldn t though it sounds like a great idea now you must think about the future impact in would have on the student population. College campuses are having an especially hard with this considering the age group in which their student body lies. If this law was passed campuses around America would have to face the fact that student would be able to carry around dangerous weaponsRead MoreShould Weapons Carry A Concealed Weapon?928 Words   |  4 Pagesissues behind them. College students are already aroused and stressed to do extraordinary in their courses. Would consenting untrained students to carry concealed weapons around campus be such an enticing idea, when at any moment someone could lose their mind and go on a shooting rage? One may never know what kind of background that specific being that carries a concealed firearm has. In reality no one knows what kind of effect this would have towards universities or college campuses, but it could resultRead MoreConcealed Weapons and Campus Safety803 Words   |  4 PagesConcealed Weapons and Campus Safety Prepared For: Professor --- WRT202.101 York College of PA Prepared By: TygaStyle, Student WRT202.101 York College of PA 2 August 2012 Introduction On April 16, 2007, Seung Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA in two separate attacks about two hours apart (Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech, 2007; Worth, 2008). Those shots were heard around the

Strategic Management; McLaren group Free Essays

string(56) " act in the same way as organisms in their environment\." Executive Summary The McLaren Group was founded in 1963 and entered Formula One racing in 1966 achieving its first victory at the Belgium Grand prix in 1968. Today, after 181 Grand Prix victories, the group owns one of the world’s leading Formula One teams and has also expanded to include six separate companies in a variety of markets namely: McLaren Racing; McLaren Automotive; McLaren Electronics Systems (MES); McLaren Applied Technologies (MAT); McLaren Marketing and Absolute Taste. Based near Woking, McLaren opened the new ?40 million McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in November 2011 and expect annual production of the MP4-12C sports car to reach 4000 by 2015. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Management; McLaren group or any similar topic only for you Order Now McLaren has successfully averted the market entry barriers in entering its mass car industry. Moreover, McLaren Group has undergone various levels of diversification including horizontal, vertical, cross sector and un-related diversification to accomplish such as varied portfolio of companies. Its corporate diversification strategies correspond to the contemporary management views from a historical perspective. Introduction In the past few decades, there has a lot of debate regarding strategic management and its critical role in determining the success of a business in an increasingly complex and competitive business environment. According to Johnson, et al. (2008) â€Å"strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations.† Michael Porter (2001) mentions that â€Å"strategy is likely to concern itself with the survival of the business as the minimum objective and the creation of value-added as a maximum objective.† This essay focuses upon the strategic management issues surrounding McLaren. The conception of strategic management encapsulates numerous management themes and therefore, it is logical to narrow the focus this essay to a specific strategic management issue. This essay em phasizes upon the diversification strategies adopted by Mc over the years of its establishment. Within the broader realm of diversification, the essay will also analyze its market entry strategy in mass car market. Averting Market Entry Barrier in Mass Car Industry This part of the essay will briefly analyze the market entry barriers averted by McLaren in its bid to enter the mass car market. The analysis is based on Porter’s (1979) five forces framework. Suppliers Bargaining Power Suppliers bargaining power refers to their ability to influence the price of a product. A limited number of suppliers for key components of a product results in high suppliers bargaining power. In case of high-end automobile industry, where there are a notable few suppliers for high-performance engines and other high-tech components, bargaining power is very high. Most of the new entrants in the sports cars and high-end road cars industry usually procure engines from other specialized suppliers. The success of market entry therefore, depends upon successful partnerships with such specialized suppliers. McLaren averted the challenges posed by high suppliers bargaining power through its prolonged partnership with Mercedes which provides it with engines for both its formula one as well as road cars. Bargaining Power of Consumers It refers to the ability of customers to influence the price of a product or their influence on a production industry. In case of Mc, the buyers bargaining power is very low as its customers are fragmented i.e. they are different and have no influence over product or its price. Moreover, Mc road cars are high performance non-standardized cars making them unique. Most of its customers buy them for its symbolic value and therefore have less influence over its price or production. Threat of New Entrants The possibility that new firms may enter an industry also affects competition. Automobile industry is widely seen as confined from the threat of new entrants because of the large capital and resources required for car production and marketing and distribution. Large initial capital requirement implies high suck costs, which increases the risks of market entry in this industry. However, in case of McLaren, the company entered the road car industry through its diversification strategy as it was already involved in producing formula one racing cars and tailored customer cars for years, rather than as an entirely new incumbent. Mc already had a strong brand image, experience and technical expertise along with relevant infrastructure and production facilities to support its entry in the mass car market. Threat of Substitutes and Competitive Rivalry McLaren has a niche product market for its consumer cars as its produces highly specialized cars. Its cars are unique and non-standardized and usually produced in small numbers. For these reasons, its products face relative low threat of substitutes. It faces competitive rivalry from other high-end car producers; however, since it produces cars in a small quantity, these are highly sought after and are not threatened by substitutes. Defining the Level of Diversification Shown by the McLaren Group Growth Strategies Igor Ansoff (1957) quoted the Red Queen, a famous character of Lewis Carroll’s book ‘Through the Looking-Galss’ in his work ‘strategies of diversification’ wherein she says: â€Å"Now, here, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!† (Carroll, 1941) This contention put forth by the Red Queen led to the development of the Red Queen hypothesis (also referred to as Red Queen’s Race or Red Queen’s Effect) which emphasizes upon the need of an organism to constantly adapt, evolve and propagate not just to gain a reproductive advantage over other organisms but also to survive in a constantly changing and opposing environment (Van Valen, 1973). Van Valen (1973) elaborates this principle and asserts that in an evolutionary system, an organization needs continuous developments to sustain its fitness â€Å"relative to the system in which it co-evolves†. The red queen principle is widely applied in evolutionary sciences in the field of biology. Some economists also apply this phenomenon to the evolutionary process of economies, wherein business entities operating in the market act in the same way as organisms in their environment. You read "Strategic Management; McLaren group" in category "Essay examples" This implies that businesses need to grow continuously in order to survive in their respective markets and they need to grow twice as fast in order to get ahead of the competition (Ansoff, 1957). According to Ansoff (1957), a firm can adopt one or more of the four basic strategies for growth. These are market penetration, market development, product development and diversification. Contrary to the former three strategies which represent change in product/market structure, diversification involves a change in the characteristics of a firm’s product line and/or market. Diversification â€Å"calls for a simultaneous departure from the present product line and the present market structure† (Ansoff, 1957, p.114). Horizontal Diversification According to Charles et. al, (2010), there is two basic types of diversification namely related and unrelated diversification. These authors further divide related diversification into three categories as horizontal, vertical and cross-sector diversification. The distinctions between these strategies can be described in terms of the combination of industry similarity and value chain similarity (see fig 1.). Horizontal diversification occurs when a company enters in a new business which falls within the same industry and employs the exact same value chain as of its core business. McLaren has so far not diversified horizontally as it has neither acquired nor merged with any other formula one racing team, which is its core business. Fig.1 Vertical Diversification Vertical diversification occurs when a firm enters into a business which shares a common industry; however, the value chain differs (Charles et, al. 2010). McLaren underwent vertical diversification through the establishment of its automotive business. In its formative years, McLaren built several cars including formula two, hillclimbing, formula 5000 and sports cars that were sold to customers. McLaren contracted Trojan to built customer versions of several McLaren’s race cars. Finally in 1992, McLaren ventured into the mass car market by offering a slightly varied version of its formula one racing car called McLaren F1 supercar to the consumer market. Later it produced the iconic Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren in collaboration with Mercedes (William, 2009). The company has developed a high tech automotive production plant for manufacturing high end consumer cars. McLaren Automotive has established itself as a global brand and is currently pursuing the production of new MP4-12C ca r. Similarly, McLaren’s establishment of its electronic systems business, which produces high-end electronics control unit (ECU) for teams racing on the formula one circuit, also qualifies for vertical diversification. Through this business, McLaren creates advanced race telemetry and sensory devices for formula one racing team. This business operates within the same industry as McLaren core business, but it engages an entirely different production, distribution and customer network (McLaren, 2013). Cross Sector Diversification Cross sector diversification occurs when a firm enters into business within a different industry which has a similar value chain as of its core business (Charles et, al. 2010). McLaren also ventured into cross sector diversification by entering into a marketing and advertising business. Similarly, its venturing into the event management and hospitality industry also qualifies for cross sector diversification. Both these businesses share the same value chain as of McLaren’s core racing business to some extent in that they both cater the internal demands of McLaren Group and serve its own customers. McLaren marketing overlooks the group’s marketing activities apart from operating as a separate entity while Absolute Taste (McLaren’s hospitality and event management business) caters the Group’s customer at formula one event along with serving other high-end customers globally. Unrelated Diversification Unrelated diversification occurs when a firm enters into a new business in a different industry than that of its primary business through which it does not aim to achieve any value chain synergies (Charles et, al. 2010). McLaren, diversification into applied technologies can be categorized as unrelated diversification in that this business engages an entirely different value chain in terms of suppliers, production, and customers. This business involves developing groundbreaking technologies for the field of sport, medicine, biomechanics and entertainment (McLaren, 2013). It is worthy to note that this business does benefit from McLaren’s overall technical know-how in providing improved technological systems and solutions and therefore it cannot be definitely termed as unrelated diversification. Historical Perspective on Corporate Diversification From 1950s to 1970s There was an era when there were only a few companies selling similar products within a particular market, while the demands of the customers were relatively simple and less sophisticated. At that time, the phenomenon of strategic management was neither popular nor deemed a critical element for business success. This was the case throughout the first half of the 20th century (Orcullo, 2007). In the following two decades, there was an emphasis upon several principles of management, which were deemed equally applicable across various industries and businesses. Throughout 1960s and 1970s, the simple faith in general management skills justified virtuous circle of corporate growth and diversification. Robert Katz noted in that regard that: â€Å"We are all familiar with those ‘professional managers’ who are becoming the prototypes of our modern executive world. These men shift with great ease and with no apparent loss in effectiveness, from one industry to another. Their hum an and conceptual skills seem to make up for their unfamiliarity with the new job’s technical aspects.† (Goold and Luchs, 1993) Hence, during 1950s and 1960s, it was widely opined that any business with a relatively effective management could venture into any other related or un-related business solely based upon its managerial resources. Throughout this period, McLaren was simply focused upon its primary business of formula one racing. From 1970s to 1980s According to Orcullo (2007), the notion of strategic management only became popular and well known after the 1970s. Strategic positioning and market competition implied that firms were now under increasing pressure to grow and diversify in order to sustain and thrive in the changing business environment. Concurrently, there was a realization during 1970s and 1980s that different businesses had to be managed differently (Goold and Luchs, 1993). This view encouraged businesses to undergo main related-horizontal diversification so that a firm’s new undertakings may share the exact sources of synergies such as market, operational and management fit. At this time, McLaren strategized to expand into mass car market which closely shared the sources of synergies with McLaren’s racing team. 1990s and Onwards During the late 1980s and 1990s, management literature introduced new themes such as core competencies and management dominant logic view and business synergies. These themes further emphasized on achieving synergy through diversification and venturing into businesses which were directly or indirectly related to the core competencies and fell within the dominant management logic of the company (Goold and Luchs, 1993). Coinciding to these corresponding business views, McLaren was expanding in some of its current businesses during this time which are all either directly or indirectly related to its core competencies and create synergy for the McLaren Group. References Ansoff, I. (1957) Strategies for Diversification. Harvard Business Review. Vol. 35 Issue 5. Carroll, L. (1941). Through the Looking-Glass. The Heritage Press . New York, p. 41. Charles E., Bamford, G. and West, P (2010). Strategic Management. Cengage Learning. Goold, M. and Luchs, K. (1993) Why Diversify: Four Decades of Management Thinking. Academic of Management Executive. Vol. 7 No. 3 Johnson G. Scholes K. Whittingham W. 2008. Exploring Corporate Strategy. 8th edition. Prentice Hall McLaren (2013) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Available from http://www.mclaren.com/formula1/page/mclaren-group (cited on 8th, March, 2013) Orcullo, N. (2007) Fundamentals of Strategic Management. Rex Bookstore, Inc. Porter, M.E. (1979) How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy, Harvard Business Review, March/April 1979. Porter, M. E. (2001) Service Operations Strategy. Harvard Business School Porter. M.E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, January 2008, p.86-104. Van Valen, L. (1973) A New Evolutionary Law in Evolutionary Theory, p. 1-30. William, T. (2009). McLaren – The Cars 1964–2008. Coterie Press. How to cite Strategic Management; McLaren group, Essay examples