Othello/ Good vs Evil Essay

Life in general is often used as a system of ways to define what kind of person you are by its end. Shakespeare takes that theory into test upon his characters in his work of the famous play Othello. Through the verbal twists and turns along with the addition of color symbolisms, the personalities of Othello, Iago, Desdemona are revealed to their fullest extents, along with their own balance of good and evil within. When this is realized by this famous Shakespearian work, the judgment of good and evil is carried out, and as a result of mass purging of emotions, neither prevails in the resolution. Othello, due to his Moorish nature but at the same time morally white and untainted, can be considered grey with the opening of the play, but possesses the potential to become either the most brilliant white or the darkest black. From the way that he is described by Iago and sometimes Brabantio, he is a dark beast lurking in the shadows, but he is as white as he can be by the Duke. Grey is a color not quite white nor black, hesitation and confusion wavering behind his eyes. This confusion is caused by his naivete at trusting people too easily, and Iago eagerly takes this weakness to his advantage. So that when Iago manipulates Othello, Othello unknowingly gives in to the temptation, even going as far as telling Iago â€Å"I am bound to thee for ever† (III. iii. 242). Othello at this point is completely taken in with Iago’s mind poisoning and willingly submits to him, yielding to his trickeries. Inevitably with a little push from Iago, Othello slowly goes down the path of dark and pure blackness, with murder evident in mind. With Iago’s tampering of his inner moralities, Othello turns black like a speeding snowball, once Iago set him on the right path. Everything else Othello had done the damage himself; Iago only suggested the notion in the most subtle of ways. Thus he sometimes â€Å"breaks out to savage madness† as Iago put it, when being put under such pressure (IV. i. 65). He is so far gone that he even has epileptic fits hearing of Desdemona’s infidelity. Othello turned out to be evil when he became so mad that he extended his hands to Desdemona’s neck and smothered her to death with a pillow. Only after he kills her he realizes too late that Desdemona is innocent from the start, and has been shining ever since, and only the darkness has clouded his vision and perception of her tempting him to kill her. The fact that he has succumbed to that temptation shows how the good in him has lost its battle to the evil corruptions of Iago, even though he made some futile struggles against them. Othello has given in towards evil because of his weakness and his judgment is heightened by his murder of his wife Desdemona. Even though at the end he seems repentant towards the deeds that he has done, he still lost, and decides to end his sufferings by offering his final defeat — his life. Even so, evil has not truly prevailed by the end of the play, and is instead overcome by the good that is the Venetian society. Iago holds one true goal in his plotting — to corrupt Othello so that he will turn against the ones closest to him. But as the play progresses, there also seem to be a power struggle, whereas Iago is jealous of Othello’s position and empowering authority and wants Othello out of the way so that he can assume power. Iago is tired of acting like one â€Å"courteous and knee-crooking knave† like he always appears to be (I. i. 46). He does not the type of servant that is humble and waits for his master like an obedient mule, and only to be tossed out when he is all weathered and old. No, since Iago is unable to choose to be a master, he is the servant that feeds off the fame and â€Å"keep yet their hearts attending on themselves,† still showing his service to his master but instead is more self-preserving with no attachments at all towards the master (I. i. 52). Iago chooses to follow someone who is able to be manipulated, and declares upon the opening of the play that he is no loyal servant to Othello. He puts up a front of honesty and seeming whiteness, but inside he is just as black as he is white on the outside. In this way he goes to battle the good, the whiteness in Othello, and in turn making his defeat beneficial to his evil plans. It is very obvious that his challenge against good is a victory when Desdemona is murdered by Othello, but evil’s victory is short-lived. Almost immediately, Iago’s wife Emilia turns against him and uncovers the blackness that he truly is underneath his false honesty. Ulterior moves exposed, he is hunted down by the officials of Venice after killing Emilia and brought back to be tortured. His plans have failed, lost to the good and foiled by societies’ ironies, betrayed by his wife, after successfully making Othello kill Desdemona for doing the exact same thing. In this way, evil has not prevailed, and goal gone unaccomplished by good’s interruption. Evil may have won Othello and Desdemona’s soul, but in itself evil did not triumph over good, as Iago lost his power and discovered and punished accordingly. All in all, evil and good is expressed as a never-ending fight in Shakespeare’s tragedies. None overcomes the other, ending the play in a stalemate and effectively purges deep emotions within the audience. Also, the inevitable stalemate that leaves both sides wounded stirs some incomprehensible feelings as to why humans even bother fighting at all in the first place. It is not humans’ place to judge, but to act accordingly to the great director that is the world. World puts humans through excruciating hardships in order to define a person’s soul’s worth at the time of death. Life is the judgment for humans, as they, like Othello, contain both black and white and has the potential to turn either way down each individual life’s paths. Evil and Good is recognized as each quality manifests during a person’s lifetime, and only at the moment of death is he able to look back and see what he truly is without hindrance of the other.

Curriculum And Instruction

Answer the following questions in about 1500 words total. (i.e. each in 500 words) Q.1. Discuss the importance of curriculum evaluation. (250 words)SOLUTION : Keypoints : Definition of Curriculum Meaning of Curriculum Curriculum Evaluation Importance of Curriculum EvaluationDEFINITION OF CURRICULUMCurriculum is a set of planned and purposeful learning experiences, based on intended learning outcomes and organised around development levels of students.Some of the famous definitions are :â€Å"A curriculum is a structured series of intended learning outcomes† – Johnson, 1967â€Å"A curriculum is an attempt to communicate the essential principles and features of an educational concept in such a form that it is open to critical scrutiny and capable of effective translation into practice.† – Lawarence Stenhouse, 1975â€Å"A curriculum is an organised set of formal educational and/or training intentions.† – David hatt, 1980MEANING OF CURRICULUM :Cu rriculum has been defined in many ways by different learned people. It can be summed up as: A school’s written courses of study and other curriculum materials. The subject content taught to the students.The courses offered in a school, and The totality of planned learning experiences offered to students in a school.In other words we can also say : The curriculum is a list of planned learning experiences offered to the students under the direction of the school.CURRICULUM EVALUATION:Evaluation is to judge to what extent the objectives of the curriculum are achieved through implementation of curriculum. This process is undertaken in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an existing or an under construction curriculum so that improvements can be made in curriculum design.Evaluation means both; assessment of students to find how much of the intended curriculum has been transacted, and also what actually happens in a classroom as experienced by the students when they are involved in learning activities. These experiences of the student$ need not be confined to the four walls of a classroom and within the stipulated time frame of a tigid school schedule. These could also include activities which form part of hidden curriculum like wearing a school uniform, standing up when the teacher enters the class andIMPORTANCE OF CURRICULUM EVALUATIONCurriculum evaluation is very important in order to improve student learning and hence the quality of education. The following are the main purposes of curriculum evaluation.1. To develop a new curriculum: If we need to develop a new curriculum then it is very important that we evaluate an already existing curriculum and then change it to suit our requirement, as per the need of our system and organisation.2. To review a curriculum under implementation: It is very important after implementation of a curriculum to get regular feedbacks on it. If required amendments can be made to it for effective realisation of a ll the objectives related to it.3. To remove ‘dead wood’ and update an existing curriculum: It is essential to remove obsolete ideas and practices from curriculum and include current developments in the curriculum. In order to make objective decisions about inclusion or deletion of content or practices, curriculum evaluation will be very necessary.4. To find out the effectiveness of a curriculum: Curriculum evaluation is also necessary to know the effectiveness of a curriculum in terms of the achievement of its immediate as well as long term objectives.Thus, curriculum evaluation can help us take objective decisions on development and implementation of curriculum. Curriculum evaluation will let us know whether the goals and tasks that we have set are actually being achieved or not.

Business Communication Essay Example for Free (#11)

Business Communication Essay His vision to give young, fashion forward men and women a unique way to express their individuality through style resulted in millions of customers worldwide and propelled his designs to the forefront of the fashion industry. It all started in 1990, with a mere $1,100 in his bank account, Madden started crafting shoe designs from his Queens-based factory and the  Steve Madden  brand was born. With a lot of courage, years of experience in the footwear industry, and unique creative designs,  Steve Madden  formed his own successful enterprise. A year later, Madden introduced a redefined version of platform shoes, resulting in one of the most spectacular success stories in the early 1990’s. Inspired by his favorite rock and roll stars of the 1970s, the thick, chunky heel became  Steve Madden’s  signature and a phenomenon in women’s shoes. Madden’s footwear vision is continuously evolving. Steve once said, â€Å"What inspires me is what I see people wearing on the streets of the world from New York to London and beyond. I get my ideas and inspiration from pounding the pavement all over the world. Today, fashion is dictated by individual style. To me, the fashion of the future is anything that a young guy or girl feels good wearing as long as  it’s put together in the right way. † (www. stevemadden . com) Today, the  Steve Madden  brand represents a lifestyle. It is about embracing fashion while still maintaining that funky independence that first defined the brand 20 years ago. Expanding now into apparel and other accessories such as dresses, handbags, belts, sunwear, cold weather, outerwear and hosiery,  Steve Madden  is always looking toward to the future. As 2013 begins, more exciting opportunities are on the horizon including re-packaging, new store design rollout and expansion in global markets. The days when the future did not seem so bright In April 2002, Mr. Madden found that neither his investors nor federal judges take too kindly to stock manipulation and securities fraud. Steve Madden’s talents as a shoe designer helped him build a 240 million dollar empire in his own name. But by his own admission, that wasn’t enough — he was greedy for more. His greed cost him about eight million dollars and control of the very company that brought him such riches. Madden was sentenced in 2002 to 41 months in prison for his role in a stock swindle scheme coordinated by the now-closed brokerage, Stratton Oakmont. His wrongdoings include conspiring to manipulate the stock prices of more than 20 companies, including his own. And, he did it at the expense not only of the public but his own investors who lost more than 100 million. Besides paying restitution, Madden had to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd and leave the board of directors. He is also barred from holding a position as officer for seven years. However, he did retain a creative position until his prison sentence began that fall and will likely fill that capacity upon release later this spring. Meanwhile, those left to keep the company going in his absence quickly started their damage control efforts. A new board of directors was quickly assembled. Among those elected were Madden’s brother and a corporate accounting guru. Once their former leader began repaying his debt to society, company heads began cleaning Steve Madden Limited’s financial house; making sure stock prices accurately reflected the health of the business. The company fully cooperated with the SEC’s investigation and hired an independent auditing company to keep watch over the process. Those days and even today, the company’s financial practices are an open and well-kept book. Anyone could get the latest financial news from the same site by loging on to for the latest shoe designs. After heading off anymore potential legal woes, management began to focus on keeping the business itself walking tall. If the company’s sales reports were any indication, not having â€Å"Steve† hasn’t really hurt Steve Madden Limited. While the founder has been in a Florida prison, the company’s management built on his vision by expanding into other areas. â€Å"Steve† by Steve Madden moved the company from the trendy 16 to 24 year old demographic into upscale footwear for a more mature crowd. The company licensed Candie’s and Unionbay footwear for men. Rather than try and replace or substitute Madden’s design eye, they took what they had and introduced it to new markets. It worked. According to company reports, nearly all of the brands have increased profit margins and inventory levels. In a press release, management expressed hope that their profits would have increased in 2005 as compared 2004 (which actually happened). 2. Corporate Communication after the Bad Publicity But prison didn’t break Steve Madden—or his company. Like so many of today’s celebrity convicts, from Martha Stewart to Paris Hilton, Madden says he emerged a changed person. He served out his sentence, doing yardwork, teaching business classes to other inmates, reading four books a week (from â€Å"The Devil Wears Prada† to David McCullough’s â€Å"Truman†) and pumping iron obsessively. I used to wear this tank top in prison,† he says. â€Å"And I’d stare at myself and flex. I never did that before. † He even got married, to a Madden employee who came for regular visits. And when he was released in April 2005, Madden says, he was â€Å"stronger physically, mentally, spiritually† than he’d ever been. After the return of Ste ve Madden from prison, he decided not to shy away from the imminent release of its namesake founder from prison. The company was promoting the return of its creative leader in a series of eye-catching posters and print advertisements, and is having some fun with it in the process. While the ads do not say where Madden has been, one suggests, in a wink-wink kind of way, that Mr. Madden has not been on a sabbatical, a secret mission or up the  Amazon  collecting snakes: â€Å"A new meaning for the word spring time. Steve returns. Spring 2005. † The company had launched a rather interesting press campaign celebrating Steve Madden’s upcoming release from prison. One features a girl wearing an ankle bracelet and another features an empty pair of shoes with the words, â€Å"There’s one pair of shoes that’s been impossible to fill. Steve returns Spring 2005. Others allude to Madden getting â€Å"sprung† in Spring 2005. Financial Dynamics, the shoe retailer’s investor relations agency, says the campaign is a positive way of dealing with the prison sentence. It makes light of the company’s troubles, sending a message that the board is over it and customers should feel the same way. It’s also a sure fire way t o get people talking about the brand. When it comes to sales, the only bad publicity is no publicity. Once upon a time, a company, particularly one that sold products to the public, would shun publicity if it possibly could when a senior executive encountered legal woes. The idea that a company – especially one like Steve Madden, which sells shoes mostly to teenage girls and women in their 20’s – would actually run ads calling attention to its leader’s prison past would have flabbergasted experts in fields like brand identity, advertising and public relations. â€Å"I love controversy; I love pushing the envelope, but when you have a younger customer you have a responsibility to take the law and authority seriously,† said James LaForce, partner at LaForce & Stevens in New York, a marketing communications agency specializing in fashion and entertainment clients. That was of course before Martha Stewart, whose public image has, by initial measures, seemingly gained in stature after her release from federal prison. A colorful paper flap decorated with a photograph of her cradling a chicken, declaring â€Å"Welcome home, Martha,† was attached to the cover of April’s Martha Stewart Living magazine, published by  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Companies like Mr. Madden’s and Ms. Stewart’s may also be more likely to embrace their convicted executives, since those executives have plenty of influence in the boardroom. Reticence about an executive’s past also predates a world in which rappers can find the sales of their music increasing in seeming lock step with the severity of their scrapes with the law. â€Å"It’s in now to be out, out of prison, that is,† said Paul Cappelli, chief executive at the Ad Store in New York, an advertising agency that creates campaigns for brands like  JetBlue. â€Å"I could see myself suggesting something like this to a client,† Cappelli said, â€Å"that instead of ignoring the 5,000-pound elephant in the corner, you might as well bring it out into the open and make hay of it. Robert Passikoff, who has been tracking consumer response to the Martha Stewart brand as president of Brand Keys in New York, a brand and customer-loyalty consultant, said that his index of its value had recently risen. The index has climbed to 96, Mr. Passikoff said, compared with a bottom of 62 – â€Å"lower than  Enron,† he said – before she entered prison. (The peak was 122 in May 2002. ) Is the new badge of honor, I served my time? We are not sure it doesn’t ultimately hurt, even if the American public is largely forgiving when people serve their time. The campaign is trying to make him the face of the brand but who wants the face with numbers under it? † Steve Madden is different from Martha Stewart, because unlike her, he was never the brand. He was the label, so a lot of people don’t know who the guy was and didn’t know he went to jail. That has worked to Steve Madden’s advantage so far,, citing the history of the Madden brand index: It was 110 before Madden went to prison and fell only slightly, to 106. However, it is worth mentioning that consumers seem to be more forgiving about men than women. Brian Russak, a senior editor at Footwear News in New York who covers Madden, said: â€Å"It seems like an obvious play to Martha Stewart, but I have to wonder whether that resonates with Madden’s consumers. We often say here the target consumer doesn’t know there is a Steve Madden. † Trey Laird, president and executive creative director at Laird & Partners in New York, an advertising age ncy that creates campaigns for fashion and apparel brands like DKNY and Gap, also drew distinctions between Madden and Stewart. The Madden ads â€Å"are kind of cute and clever, but this is not a Martha Stewart situation, when the whole country is watching because she’s a cultural icon. † â€Å"I don’t feel most consumers know about† Steve Madden’s sentence, he added, â€Å"or if they knew, they forgot about it. † The Madden campaign can be perceived as a parody of Ms. Stewart’s story meant â€Å"to get people talking about the brand,† Laird said, particularly because â€Å"the Madden brand has never been a brand that has taken itself seriously. † For instance, a recent Madden campaign featured caricatures of its customers with comically oversized heads. A statement by Financial Dynamics read: â€Å"Steven Madden Ltd. looks forward to the much anticipated return of the unique talent and creative design expertise of Steve Madden in the spring of 2005. Further, the company believes the current advertising campaign embodies and enhances the Steve Madden brand. † If the rise in Martha Stewart stock is any indication, getting out of prison seems to be â€Å"in. † The publicity generated by Madden’s return could translate into increased exposure and, in turn, increase sales in the future. Plus, having him back at the head of the creative team will bring his company something it hasn’t had in a while†¦ his ability to give the millions of women who buy his shoes what they want. So, If there’s one thing Americans enjoy more than watching the mighty fall, it’s granting them forgiveness. â€Å"You have to go through a process. You made your mistake, you did your time,† Madden says. â€Å"You have to be a little contrite to get redemption. † To judge from the recent performance of his company, Madden’s been forgiven—at least by that segment of the population that favors shoes with animal prints, polka dots and four-inch heels. Sales were $475. 2 million in 2006, up from $375. 8 million the year he was released, while net income more than doubled to $46. 3 million. Madden is quick to admit that he’s made mistakes. But he says he wouldn’t change a thing about his life. â€Å"Everything I’ve done has gotten me to where I am today,† he says. His prison experience has clearly had an impact on his designs. The next offering from the prison groom: wedding shoes, called I Do. â€Å"It’s a huge market,† he says. â€Å"Marriage is sort of back on track. † And so is Steve Madden. . The Crisis 3. 1. Chain of events In summer 2004, Madden’s luck turned when he was indicted for stock fraud and money laundering in both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. According to the charges, Madden secretly purchased stock on behalf of the principals of two corrupt penny-stock brokerage firms — Stratton Oakmont Securities of Lake Success, Long Island, and Mon roe Parker, of Purchase, Westchester — helping them manipulate 29 initial public offerings, including that of his own company. That same day, the Securities and Exchange Commission came after him with a civil suit alleging Madden had employed â€Å"devices, schemes, and artifices to defraud. † If convicted in either of the criminal cases, Madden would face up to more than twenty years in prison and several million dollars in fines. If he were to lose the SEC case, which was put on hold until the criminal cases were completed, he could be forced to pay millions more. Even worse, he ran the risk of being barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company, including his own. On the day of his arrest, while Madden was busy pleading not guilty to all charges and pledging his East Hampton country house and the Long Island homes of two friends in order to make bail, shares of Steve Madden Limited fell almost 15 percent to $11. 85 before nasdaq halted trading. Two days later, when the stock (which trades under the ticker SHOO) reopened, it fell to $6. 88. Though the stock has traded up as high as $13. 88 due to a recent rally in the footwear sector, it has yet to regain its pre-indictment momentum. â€Å"The story’s sad. It’s a great story. It’s a real American story. My old friends took me public, they turned out to be crooks, and I’m innocent†, Madden has been quoted to say. While the indictment has severely damaged Steve Madden Limited’s standing on Wall Street – there was a consolidated class-action shareholder lawsuit pending against the company, and it has hired Bear Stearns to explore â€Å"all possible strategic options,† including an outright sale — it hasn’t tarnished Steve Madden’s reputation as a design and marketing genius. â€Å"He has some special knack at figuring out what teen girls want to wear,† says Sanford Bernstein analyst Faye Landes. According to teen-market consultant Irma Zandl, who ranks Madden with Nike and Adidas in the top five brands that girls favor, his shoes are popular because they are fabulously over-the-top. â€Å"Steve Maddens are not for the conservative girl,† she says. â€Å"If he’s going to add leopard skin, he’ll do it ten times more outrageously than anybody else. It’s for people who think less is less. † Every week following his indictment, Madden used to get more than a thousand e-mails from his customers, only a handful of which referred to his legal predicament. In fact, the company not only refused to retrench, instead it was aggressively expanding. At that year’s Grammy Awards, the company made a bid for high-profile customers by giving out fluffy leopard-print slippers to special guests. Three days later, at the Western Shoe Association show in Las Vegas, Madden introduced his newest product line at the time: Steve Madden Mens. 3. 2. The players While Madden was working his way up in the shoe industry, his best friend, Danny Porush, was stuck in a rut. After five years at Boston University, he left without getting a degree and bounced from job to job, working for, and starting up, a variety of small businesses, including an ambulance company called SureRide Ambulette. In 1988, while watching his son in the playground of his Bayside, Queens, apartment complex, he met an unlikely mentor: a dental-school dropout and former door-to-door meat and seafood salesman named Jordan Belfort. A short, brash, young Jewish guy, Belfort boasted he was making $50,000 a month selling penny stocks out of a boiler room in Great Neck. As Porush would later testify, Belfort confided the business was â€Å"half a scam,† but the chance to increase his income tenfold was a siren call Porush couldn’t resist. Two days after they met, he closed down SureRide and joined the firm. Using fanciful scripts, the brokers — Belfort’s childhood friends from Queens, Porush’s golf buddies, money-crazed kids recruited from Long Island college campuses — sold and manipulated tiny, high-risk IPOs, according to testimony, by grossly exaggerating their prospects, boasting that they had inside information, and generally saying whatever was necessary to make a sale. Their underwritings encompassed a vast array of low-rent businesses and all had the same trading pattern — the stocks would soar when they touted them but then come crashing down when the brokers unloaded their stakes. In 1992, Steve Madden made a decision that at the time seemed natural enough: He hired his best friend’s firm to be his banker. While Madden knew that the SEC had already accused Stratton of engaging in price manipulation and employing high-pressure sales tactics, he considered it a legitimate company. â€Å"They cleared through Bear Stearns,† Madden recalls, pointing out that Stratton’s link to the giant firm gave it an aura of respectability. Besides, Stratton was not only willing to raise capital for Steve Madden Limited in the private markets, it wanted to take the tiny, unproven company public. Like his friend Porush, Madden was going to enter the big leagues. On December 13, 1993, only seven months after the first (and, at that time, only) Steve Madden shoe store had opened on Broadway in SoHo, Stratton Oakmont took the company public at $4 a share. The most active stock on the nasdaq on the day of its offering, SHOO closed at $8 a share, a huge gain in the pre-Internet era. Just a few months later, it sunk to $3. With only $5. 3 million in sales, a net loss of $900,000, and a boom-bust trading history, the company simply seemed to be nother one of Stratton’s overhyped IPOs. But it wasn’t. In 1994, Madden surprised his critics. With hardly any advertising, Madden increased sales by almost 40 percent. The next year, sales tripled to $39 million, prompting Madden to hire Rhonda Brown, the former merchandise president of Macy’s East, to become his chief of operations. Soon, Madden had celebrity customers — Carmen Electra, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nev e Campbell, Alyssa Milano, Mary J. Blige. By 1997, the company was generating $59 million in total sales, operating seventeen stores, and introducing a clothing line designed for â€Å"a customer who doesn’t break the law — but does break the rules. † That spring, in a lengthy profile in  Footwear News,  Madden compared his company to â€Å"an underground rock-and-roll band that gets its first hit single. † Meanwhile, over in lake success, Porush and Belfort were struggling to stave off failure. While they were still raking in tens of millions a year from stock manipulations, regulators were working to put Stratton out of business. In March 1994, they nearly did: As part of a settlement with the SEC, Belfort was barred from the securities industry for life. But Porush managed to garner a lighter sanction, barred for just one year from supervising other brokers. In the wake of the ruling, Belfort continued to control the firm through Porush. Inevitably, though, the relationship between the partners soured. In January 1997, the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. By that time, Gregory Coleman, an agent in the FBI’s securities-fraud squad at 26 Federal Plaza, had been investigating Stratton for several years. In 1995, under instructions from federal prosecutors, Coleman sent out a flurry of subpoenas to some of Stratton’s clients, including Madden, in an effort to create a panic that would culminate in a race to the government’s door. One year later, U. S. Customs officers in Miami arrested a young French private banker who worked for Union Banquaire Privee in Switzerland. The arrest was made as part of an unrelated money-laundering sting operation, but hoping to win a lighter sentence, the banker began to talk. By sheer coincidence, he had two clients who were of particular interest to the government: Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. On September 2, 1998, just a few minutes after pulling out of the driveway of his Old Brookville mansion to take his 5-year-old daughter to the video store, 36-year-old Jordan Ross Belfort was arrested for conspiracy to commit money laundering and securities fraud. The next day, 41-year-old Daniel Mark Porush was nabbed down in Boca Raton. Faced with maximum sentences of twenty years in prison, both men came to the same conclusion: After only a week in jail, they decided to flip. â€Å"It was like taking down the heads of a major crime family,† says former assistant U. S. ttorney Joel Cohen, the prosecutor in the indictment. â€Å"But in this case, the organized crime was the brokerage business. † Porush and Belfort secretly wore wires to record their friends and dragged down dozens in their wake: lawyers and accountants, bankers and brokers. 3. 3. Effects For the government, Steve Madden was one of the biggest catches in the dragnet. The shoe mogul had been a focus of the investigation for some time; the SEC had cited his company’s IPO as one of those that had been manipulated, and believed that Madden was routinely getting, and flipping, stock in other Stratton deals. Although some of Stratton’s IPOs had grown into profitable businesses, only Madden’s company had become a significant success. But according to Belfort, the celebrity CEO was also a â€Å"rat hole,† a place to hide stock. Porush, his P. S. 1 buddy, didn’t hesitate to give him up either. Madden, as he recently testified at the trial of Stratton’s former auditor, was â€Å"deep into the fraud with us. † According to the Madden indictments, the designer’s personal connection to Stratton began in 1991, when Madden agreed to secretly buy and sell stock in Stratton deals on Porush’s behalf with â€Å"the understanding that he would incur no risk. (Porush, as a principal of the firm, was restricted in his ability to trade stock in these companies. ) The deal was that Madden would earn a â€Å"predetermined profit on each transaction,† then kick back to Porush a significant portion of the proceeds, either in cash or by purchasin g stock from Stratton that was deliberately overpriced. Once Belfort was barred from the securities industry in 1994, Madden allegedly entered a similar agreement with him regarding the Stratton spinoff Monroe Parker. But according to the SEC, Madden wasn’t only ripping off the general investing public, he was ripping off his own shareholders as well. In early 1993, the SEC alleges, Madden agreed that the IPO of his company would â€Å"be a manipulation similar to previous Stratton IPO manipulations . . . such as Master Glazier’s Karate International. † In exchange for his agreement to â€Å"follow Porush and Belfort’s instructions,† they allegedly promised â€Å"that even if SHOO . . . went bankrupt, Madden would make money on the SHOO IPO. † In addition, as Belfort recently testified at the Stratton auditor’s trial, Belfort â€Å"had a secret deal with Steve Madden to maintain control of his company after it went public. Because Belfort and his partners had financed Steve Madden Limited’s early development, they owned a majority stake in the company before it went public. But the National Association of Securities Dealers refused to list SHOO unless Belfort — then under investigation for securities fraud — dramatically reduced his stake. As Belfort testified, he agr eed to sell his shares to a corporation controlled by Madden to placate the NASD, but it was a bogus transaction. â€Å"Under the secret deal which we had written down and legally signed,† says Belfort, he was the true owner. Belfort exerted an extraordinary influence over the company. Stratton’s auditor, who was a friend of Belfort’s, also became Madden’s auditor. In 1994, after Belfort was kicked out of the securities industry, he even joined SHOO as a consultant. In addition, according to Porush’s testimony, key Madden employees were given stock in Stratton IPOs as part of their compensation. (A Madden spokesperson denies such an arrangement existed. ) As Porush explained, â€Å"Part of the package when we recruited people for Steve Madden was . . . because you’re in with us, you’ll make money on every new issue. In 1997, the Belfort-Madden friendship ended abruptly around the time Belfort asked Madden to sell some of the SHOO stock he secretly owned. Madden refused, and the dispute quickly turned into a bitter lawsuit, during which Belfort produced the deal they had signed. Madden admitted the signature was his but insisted he had been â€Å"manipulated† and â€Å"tricked† into signing by someone he had â€Å"trusted as my friend, business associate, underwriter, and confidant. † According to Madden, the demise of the friendship actually preceded the lawsuit, â€Å"when Belfort started showing up stoned for work. â€Å"I have no intention of allowing Jordan Belfort to ruin SML’s bright future by threatening me or by tarnishing the company’s reputation,† Madden vowed at the time. Ultimately, he settled the suit for $4. 3 million in cash, an outcome that favored his adversary. In the fall of 1999, around the time the government went public with the news that Porush and Belfort had been secretly cooperating, the U. S. Attorney’s Office approached Madden’s personal attorney, Joel Winograd, to discuss its case against his client. Soon, rumors that Madden might be indicted began wending their way around Wall Street. . Assessment As many people saw it, the fact that Madden had an account at Stratton doesn’t mean he knew what Porush and Belfort were doing, let alone that he was in any way involved. Madden â€Å"was buying stock and making money, buying stock and losing money. He made more than he lost, but he didn’t know what improprieties they were involved in. † As Madden himself put it in the course of his lawsuit with Jordan Belfort: â€Å"My strengths as a businessman lie in the design and sale of women’s shoes, and I have never been comfortable with complicated or technical legal or business documents . . . I have always relied on the people around me. † When asked why Madden employed Belfort as a consultant at Steve Madden Limited in 1994, after he was barred from the securities industry, his lawyer replies, â€Å"Steve Madden is a loyal friend and a devoted human being. He didn’t turn his back on Jordan Belfort in his time of need. † And what about the $80,000 cash kickback Madden allegedly gave to a Stratton golf buddy in the locker room of the Engineers Country Club in Roslyn, Long Island? â€Å"It’s totally ridiculous,† says Winograd. â€Å"Cash? The government can explain from here to kingdom come. There is no way Steve would have had that amount of cash, and he wouldn’t have had that in a bag walking around a country club. I think these fellows have watched too many spy thrillers. â€Å"Let’s say Steve was fooled,† Mr. Madden’s lawyer summarizes. â€Å"You can be savvy in business, but you may not be savvy in love and friendship. † In any case, â€Å"Steve will overcome,† he vows. â€Å"His company will continue to have record quarters of sales and earnings, and this will have a fairy-tale ending. † Perhaps. But even if Madden was acquitted in both of his criminal trials, he still lost the civil case and, control of his company. For Steve Madden Limited, such an outcome might be manageable. â€Å"Mr. Madden is extremely talented and a tremendous business partner, and he’s wonderful,† says the company’s president, Rhonda Brown. â€Å"But we could continue to grow our business profitably . . . whether he’s on the golf course, or whatever. † For Steve Madden the man, it could be devastating. â€Å"My life,† he says, â€Å"is my company. † 5. Conclusions Throughout the paper, we have researched and debated both sides of the issue and conversely presented both approaches by those involved or ever taking interest in the matter. Some say that the fashion mogul got what he deserved, bashing him for being a fraud under a publicly endearing persona, while others, close friends and devoted customers alike, stood behind him and helped if not the man, the company itself from disaster. Should a great visionary not content himself with being the image upfront and the genius behind the empire he built and instead take charge of other key areas that make a business successful rather than trusting others, trusted friends or proven experts with managing them? That may be true and perhaps this was where Mr. Madden made the biggest mistake of all. While the case was and still is controversial, the company succeeded in overcoming the crisis and continues to be among the most profitable and booming shoe fashion business in the States. Business Communication. (2018, Oct 18).

Supply Chain 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Supply Chain 2 - Essay Example Question 1 The product design for personal computers was mainly developed by way of analyzing the need for that particular product in the business market. Specifically, there were certain product design decisions that were made during the simulation. In this regard, the major decision was about determining the manufacture of products that are user led product decisions. It can be affirmed that these sorts of decisions have been made in order to serve the best interests of the consumers and comply with their requirements. Before making the product design, the requirement of personal computers was analyzed in an in-depth manner. Based on this analysis, it had been found that personal computers were in high demand given the IT industry booming at a significant level. It was thus decided to penetrate the market with a high amount of sales of personal computers by ABC Limited. In terms of product design decisions, it was determined to sell personal computers, laptops, desktops, and hard d rives as these products were in high demand, as revealed by the market analysis. It had been determined that in the past decade there has been a rapid development in demand of such products due to an increase in the number of information technology users such as students, office users and other general business users. Thus, it can be said that this product design decision influenced the branding as well because the company felt that the focus on such high demand products in terms of branding will certainly lead to high end business outcomes. Regarding the branding decision pertaining specifically to the developed computers, the company needs to taken into concern certain important factors. These factors comprise generating a loyal brand team, establishing the objectives relating to branding and advancing concept development among others. In the simulation, development of brand image was given significant priority as in the modern competitive world branding can create the ultimate di fferentiation and can render competitive advantage. As these products are high in demand, these have been selected while making the product design decisions. Also, the simulation method was used in making the product design and for adopting and executing appropriate marketing strategies. It can be affirmed that the above discussed analysis would broadly influence branding decisions such as standardization and customization of personal computers through determining the factors favoring customization along with standardization of the product. Specially mentioning, the decision of launching the concerned product was made after conducting a proper simulation analysis. Question 2 The decision pertaining to selection of target market would be considered by taking into concern the location of sales offices. The sales office location should represent the major cities along with towns in a particular country. In addition, if provided with the opportunity to repeat the simulation process, the decision of changing the target market i.e. the location of sales offices should not be made. This might be owing to the reason that the sales offices are strategically situated at the heart of the big towns along with cities in the nation proving much beneficial for the company to attract maximum number of customers and most vitally to enhance its overall productivity. It can further be reiterated that no changes in

Creative accounting practices and the unethical auditor Essay

Creative accounting practices and the unethical auditor - Essay Example The occurrence of creative accounting practices threatens society’s trust in the profession, and also means lack of the trust in the published financial data and the profession reports that, as a result, make the expectation gap wider between the profession and consumers and interested persons. The auditor’s mistakes in facing the risk of the creative accounting practices, such as discovering and reporting them, leads to very public prosecution, which reduces credibility even more. The auditor is responsible for the risk of the creative accounting practices of the financial data-discovering and reporting. It will be argued that the response to creative accounting cannot just come through increasing regulation and rules for the profession. That the obstacles and the challenges that led to the failure of the profession in reducing the risk of creative accounting practices demands increase in effectiveness of the professional individual. A greater part of the response should be through seeking ways to change the individual professional’s ethical and moral approach to auditing, before there can be any effective regulation. This way the credibility of accounting information can be increased and the expectations and credibility gap narrowed and trust in the profession can be strengthened. Unethical accounting or auditing can lead to destructive results for a Company. A horrible example of Enron’s fraud was a serious impact for employees of the company and shareholders. There were huge losses of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs were lost. Therefore, the US government made numerous attempts to prevent the occurrence of such cases. Corporate America should have changed something in their policies, otherwise failures are unavoidable. In the field of auditing it was relevant to avoid intentional preparation of the wrong financial documents. The companies very often do not pay a proper attention to ethical behaviour of their employees. Concerning

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - MMPI Essay

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - MMPI - Essay Example The MMPI has assessed in a variety of areas, such as: Criminal justice and corrections; evaluation of disorders; screen candidates for high safety positions; assess medical patients; evaluate participants in substance abuse programs; support college students and counseling; marriage and family counseling; and, screen international adoption parent. The MMPI is not sold and has been replaced by the MMPI-2 (Wikipedia, 2007). Scale 2 Depression, it identifies poor morale, the lack of hope in the future, and general dissatisfaction with ones own life. The high scores are identified as clinical depression and the low scores as unhappiness with life. Scale 5 Masculinity-Femininity was originally used to detect homosexuals but was not accurate. It is used to measure traditional masculine or feminine roles prior to 1960 and it is related to intelligence, education, and socioeconomic status. Scales 8 Schizophrenia assesses bizarre thought processes and peculiar perceptions, social alienation, poor familial relationships, difficulties in concentration and impulse control, lack of deep interests, disturbing questions of self-worth, and sexual difficulties. Hunt (2000) wanted to test that low iron status or other nutritional deficiencies are associated with symptoms of depression in premenopausal women of child bearing age. The author associated the blood indices of iron status to scores on the MMPI and responses to a mood adjective checklist. This took place during the women ´s menstrual cycle. There were 365 women who seemed healthy participants from Grand Forks, North Dakota. They found that the frequency of the elevated MMPI Depression scores did not relate to the frequency of low hemoglobin, transferrin saturation, or ferritin. The results did not support the hypothesis of low iron status contributing to symptoms of depression in women. According to Butcher et al. (ND) both the MMPI and

Film review the film is My Antonia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Film review the film is My Antonia - Essay Example Set in the late nineteenth century Nebraska, the story revolves around the travails of orphan Jimmy Burden, who moves into his grandparents’ (played by Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint) farm that is located nearby Black Hawk, Nebraska. Young Jimmy is immediately drawn to 15-year neighbor Antonia Shimerda (played by Elina Lowensohn) and they become close friends. Conflict arises when Antonia’s father wants Jimmy to teach her English, whereas Jimmy’s grandfather is concerned about his grandson’s own education. But soon the Shimerda family meets a tragedy and contact with the Burdens is severed as the latter move into town. As the ageing grandparents pool their resources into making their grandson a graduate, Antonia renews her contact with Jimmy as she also now lives in town. The subsequent narrative is about the evolution and endurance of their friendship, which lasts for many years, even as Jimmy takes further strides in his academic and professional life . The relationship between Jimmy and Antonia has a romantic basis to it, but neither of them expresses it in overt ways. The intrusion of the beautiful Lena also disrupts the harmony of their relationship. As Jimmy takes greater interest in Lena, he drifts further apart from Antonia. This element of the relationship adds suspense and intrigue to the narrative and keeps audience interest alive throughout. The adaptation to film comes off well, although some of the smaller characters in the novel do not find space in the shorter film format. Yet, the essence of the novel is fully captured through the strong impression that the character of Antonia makes on the audience. Even as the film moves toward the final denouement, the benevolence and kindness of Antonia lingers on the mind of the discerning viewer, standing as a testament to the film’s overall success. For example, even as she realizes that Jimmy is lost to her, Antonia does not cry foul and neglect her duties toward her family. She carries on bravely and reconstructs her life in a manner fitting the circumstances. When Jimmy eventually meets Antonia toward the end of the film, he finds her living a happy married with children. The film ends upon this note of implicit regard and goodwill for each other. As for the performance given by lead actors, excepting for Elina Lowensohn's stand-out central performance, none of the other actors evince much energy, especially Neil Patrick Harris in the lead role. Even accommodating for the fact that Jimmy Burden is a reserved character in the film, he nowhere nearly capture the emotional turmoil that Cather portrayed so eloquently. One of the larger themes covered by the movie is the disparate treatment meted out to immigrant communities. This is most evident in the ordeals of the Shimerda family in assimilating with the local community in Black Hawk, Nebraska. Willa Cather was a writer of great cultural and social sensitivity. And the film My Antonio successf ully captures the thrust and emphasis of her presentation of American social problems. For example, reviewer Tom Wiener correctly notes in his review article that â€Å"The strongest portrayal in the film is the plight of European immigrants and in particular the young women. As Antonia plaintively says, "Girls like me don't get chances," and although she almost blows what she thinks is her best shot, she does land on her feet--no thanks to the self-absorbed Jimmy. A longer film might

ETHICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

ETHICS - Essay Example This is because the patients have knowledge that their health professional will protect the information, which they disclose (Buppert, 2011). Full revelation of patients’ medical background and condition enables physicians to diagnose the ailments of their clients. In addition, the patients receive the correct treatment. However, dilemmas around confidentiality when it privacy conflicts with ethical principles such as avoiding danger to patients and public. Therefore, there are exceptions, which compels health professional to breach the confidentiality. To start with, a breach of confidentiality occurs when health professional feel that the actions of their patients can put the public at risk. Second, health professionals can release patients’ information if they think it can cause harm to their clients. It is possible for patients with severe medical condition such as HPV and HIV AIDS to contemplate committing suicide. Lastly, physicians can expose patient’s inf ormation when in order to get the right follow- up of their medical condition (Buppert, 2011). The breach of confidence has serious ethical implications. To begin with, breach of confidence stigmatizes patients. With knowledge that certain patients have a particular disease, the public is bound to segregate such a sick people. Segregation can direct patients to commit repugnant actions such as committing suicide. ... Second, revealing patients’ medical information fosters disrespect. The basis of relationship between patients and health professionals is respect and trust. The two virtues allow sick people to share their medical information freely with the health care providers. Therefore, when the medical professionals violate the confidentiality deal depicts disregard of patients’ autonomy (Guido and Watson, 2010). This can lead to mistrust of patients in health professionals. This is because patients feel that health care givers have broken the promise they had with them. Third, ethical matters may compel health professionals to disclose patients’ medication information. For instance, in cases of severe diseases such as HIV AIDS, physicians may make it public that a particular patient suffers from a deadly disease. This will enable the sex partners of such a patient to take actions to know their status and minimize the risks of infections. In addition, revelations of patien ts’ information deter affected patients form infecting future sexual partners. Weighing the ethical implication of the patients and the public, I believe that it is sometimes prudent to disclose patients, medical conditions. This is because of the dangers, which lack of disclosure may bring to the public. The action of breach of confidentiality borrows a lot from the theory of consequentialism. This theory considers the consequences of breaching and failure to breach confidentiality. In one hand, the contravening confidentiality may make patients lose trust in health professionals. This can limit patients’ freedom ton access health care in future. On the other hand, failure to disclose patients’ medical condition may deny parties important information that would have detrimental implications

Case Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Case Analysis - Essay Example One of the biggest quarrels was that Microsoft kept including a media player in their bundle package, despite the fact that they had been told not. RealNetworks, which produces a media player of its own, was not getting the business that it thought it deserved, due to being pushed out by a more well-known company. The greatest assumption made throughout the case is that the abusing of its terms that Microsoft does is the reason that the other companies are not getting customers. Microsoft is a more known name than the other companies, and people are more likely to go to what they are familiar with. The issues that the other companies are facing may have nothing to do with what Microsoft is doing – it may have to do with the fact that people and companies are already more comfortable with Microsoft. Microsoft, as a whole, offers more than a lot of the other companies. Part of the argument in the case is that the other platforms are being ignored because of the want for Microsoft. It can be assumed that people like the Microsoft bundles because they prefer just a single platform for everything on their computers. Other platforms have less to offer, but Microsoft has an entire bundle package that can benefit everyone that uses it, whether they need to make a simple word document, a spreadsheet, or an image presentation. Microsoft is also the most affordable, especially when it comes to the bundle packages that it offers. People can get more for less, instead of bouncing around with other companies. Microsoft itself should not be blamed if more people feel more trusting towards its services and offers. As it was stated in the article, â€Å"They argue that with the new Vista version of Windows and Office 2007, Microsoft is trying to extend its dominance into even more areas of the market—and threatening the open nature of the Internet.† Other companies might benefit