Question: Consider the events/reports from the WSJ articles provided below, and discuss any pros and/or cons which might affect businesses operating in the global economy.

Improving the Odds of Success for Corporate Transformations

My current views on strategy and innovation owe much to the powerful transformational forces that I saw buffeting the IT industry over much of my long career. It’s frankly sobering how many once powerful IT companies are no longer around or are shadows of their former selves. The carnage might be more pronounced in the fast-changing IT industry, but no industry has been immune. It’s all part of what Joseph Schumpeter 75 years ago called creative destruction, or “the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.”

For a startup a transformative innovation is all upside, an opportunity to take-on established companies with new products that offer significantly better capabilities and/or lower costs. Startups hope that their compelling new offerings will help them establish a foothold in the marketplace and, over time, become leaders in their industry.

But change is often difficult for established companies. Over the years, they’ve amassed a number of valuable assets and extensive organizations. Already consumed with managing their existing operations they may see a transformative innovation as more of a threat or distraction than an opportunity.

Darwinian principles seem to apply in business almost as much as in biology. The similarities between business and biological ecosystems was examined in The Biology of Corporate Survival, a 2016 paper published in the Harvard Business Review by Martin Reeves, Simon Levin, and Daichi Ueda.

After analyzing the longevity of more than 30,000 public US firms over a 50-year span, the authors found that companies are disappearing faster than ever before. “Public companies have a one in three chance of being delisted in the next five years, whether because of bankruptcy, liquidation, M&A, or other causes. That’s six times the delisting rate of companies 40 years ago.”

The paper noted that companies have shorter life spans “because they are failing to adapt to the growing complexity of their environment.”

Corporate mortality is further exacerbated by three broad trends: a more diverse, harsher and less predictable business environment; the faster pace of technological innovation; and the increasing integration of business ecosystems and global markets, which while good for economic vitality, adds to the risks of system-wide shocks.

The subject was further examined in The Truth About Corporate Transformation, published earlier this year in the MIT Sloan Management Review by Martin Reeves, Lars Fæste, Kevin Whitaker, and Fabien Hassan. The Authors developed methods for identifying companies with a demonstrated need for transformative programs, including the analysis of financial and non-financial data of all U.S. public companies with $10 billion or more market cap between 2004 and 2016.  

Patterns of Transformation

“Considering the increasing pace of technological change and volatility in many industries, the patterns suggest that the need for transformation is rising, while the chance of successfully achieving it is falling,” was the study’s overriding conclusion. But surprisingly given the stakes involved, there’s been little research on the design and execution of corporate transformations. Corporate transformation are often guided by anecdotal beliefs rather than by empirical evidence of what has and has not worked in the past. Other key findings include:

Leaders must be ready to transform their companies. At any given point during the 12-year study period, a third of large US companies were going through a severe deterioration in total shareholder value, the leading impetus for transformative projects.

Successful recovery is the exception, not the rule. Only about 25% of the companies in the study were able to arrest their decline by 2012 and outperform their industry average over the long run; 30% were able to do so in 2001.

Both the need for transformation and its associated risks were higher when digital disruption was involved. The need was strongest in the fast changing technology industry, with over 40% of companies suffering severe shareholder value deterioration. In addition, technology companies were among the least likely to succeed in their corporate transformation.

The more severe the downturn, the worse the results. Over 95% of the companies with the most severe downturns, defined as a decline of over 20% of shareholder value, became stuck at a lower level or continued to decline further. Leaders must recognize the performance deterioration in their companies and act before it’s too late.

Patterns of transformation differ across industries. Companies in industries going through rapid change (37%) were more likely to require corporate transformation than those in more stable competitive environments (30%). Their transformations were also more likely to fail.

Factors for Transformation Success

Based on the empirical evidence, the authors suggest several factors that will help companies improve the odds of succeeding in their transformation.

Costs cutting and positive investor expectations. To be successful, companies must regain the confidence of investors with credible operating plans.

Revenue growth . To be successful in the long run, a firm must articulate a new strategy for growth that challenges the previous business model that got the company in trouble.

A long term strategy supported by adequate R&D investments. Companies with an above-average long-term orientation in their strategic and R&D investments outperformed those with a below-average orientation by almost 5 percentage points.

New, external leadership. Almost 25% of the companies involved in a transformation program changed CEOs, compared with almost 19% of all companies in the study. New CEOs performed worse than incumbent CEOs in the first year of recovery. But over the long term, companies that changed CEOs outperformed those that didn’t, with external hires performing somewhat better.

Formalized transformation programs, but with sufficient scope and scale. In the short run, formalized transformation programs boosted investor confidence. In the long run they led to sustainable improvements in the business. The most successful programs were ambitious, with a scope of at least five years.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger worked at IBM for 37 years and has been a strategic advisor to Citigroup and to HBO. He is affiliated with MIT, NYU and Imperial College, and is a regular contributor to CIO Journal.

More Companies Are Selling Assets to Raise Cash for Growth

An increasing number of global companies plan to sell assets in the next two years as a way to narrow strategic focus and funnel funds to stronger areas of the business.

Executives at companies, including Siemens AG SIEGY 0.47% , General Electric Co. and Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp . IAC +0.84% , are scanning their portfolios to identify divisions that can be sold. Nearly nine out of 10 companies plan to divest assets in the next two years, up from roughly four out of 10 a year ago, according to a report by Ernst & Young LLC released late February.

Corporate decision makers point to shifts in global tax policy and industry trends, particularly those tied to new technologies, as amplifying the need to sell noncore units and reroute capital to other business areas. Almost three-quarters of the 900 senior corporate and 100 private-equity executives surveyed by E&Y for the report said changes in technology were driving their divestment plans.

Newsletter Sign-up

IAC last month hired an investment bank to explore the sale of Dictionary.com, after two parties separately expressed interest in the word-definition site. The move comes after two years of brisk deal making at the media and internet conglomerate during which IAC sold online retailer ShoeBuy.com Inc., British price comparison site PriceRunner International AB, social-networking site ASKfm Europe Ltd. and shed its stake in The Princeton Review.

“We’ve used divestitures as another form of capital allocation,” said Chief Financial Officer Glenn Schiffman. “The decision was made that some of these businesses don’t exactly fit in, some of these businesses aren’t core and we could redeploy some of that capital into other pursuits.”

The main beneficiaries, in this case, were IAC shareholders. The company spent $365 million on stock buybacks between February 2016 and February 2017, roughly half of which was funded through asset sales, Mr. Schiffman said.

Other companies are expected to follow as executives pick off nonessential business lines as companies integrate after three years of brisk deal activity. Global merger and acquisitions reached a record value of $11.34 trillion for the three years ended Dec. 31, 2017, according to Dealogic.

“Companies are seeing divestments much more now as part of their growth strategy and their transformation strategy,” said Paul Hammes, head of EY’s global divestment team. That is a break from the 2008 global financial crisis, when the sale of a business unit was viewed as an admission of failure, he added.

More from CFO Journal

European Companies Report Slower Earnings Growth May 16, 2018

Twitter CFO Ned Segal Says More Work Ahead to Improve Social Site May 14, 2018

Former CFO Centered Clorox’s Business on the Domestic Market May 7, 2018

German engineering company Siemens AG listed 15% of its health-care unit—called Siemens Healthineers —in early March for €4.2 billion ($5.2 billion), said finance chief Ralf Thomas.

Frequent portfolio reviews help Siemens adjust to changes in its core business areas, Mr. Thomas said in an email. “We assess whether there are paradigm shifts ahead we can capitalize on,” he said. “We need to ask ourselves whether Siemens is the best owner and whether there is material and sustainable synergy potential.”

But divestments aren’t always the best strategy. “What always needs to be taken into consideration is what you give up by [selling assets],” said Frank Witter, CFO at Volkswagen AG .

The German auto maker, for instance, wants to wring out more savings and synergies from its commercial-vehicle units, Mr. Witter said.

Some companies, however, miss out on getting a better sale price, or making a sale altogether because they aren’t flexible on the structure of the deal.

U.K. consumer company Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC ended talks to buy Pfizer Inc.’s consumer-health business, which could fetch more than $10 billion, after the U.S. company rejected Reckitt’s plan to buy only part of the assets, according to analysts.

Pfizer continues to evaluate alternatives for the unit, including a spinoff or sale. It could also retain the business, the company said in an email.

By contrast, GE is exploring several hybrid deals that would combine some of its assets with public companies to build bigger businesses that would be better positioned in their sectors. The U.S. industrial conglomerate followed this blueprint when it combined its oil-and-gas operations with oil-field services company Baker Hughes last summer.

GE continues to review its portfolio and is getting a lot of interest for several of the divisions it is trying to shed, said new CFO Jamie Miller. She declined to comment on the market or deal strategy, but said GE is open to all sort of structures including spinoffs, splits, IPOs and straight cash deals.

“The structure can depend on the counter party,” she said in a recent interview. “We are looking to do deals that are smart for the company.”

The first article is called the "The Truth of Black Lives Matter" by New York Times and the second article is called "New York Times Defends Folly of Black Lives Matter" by Jerome Hudson at breitbart.com. Please provide a half page summary for "The Truth of Black Lives Matter" and cite what the author is trying to argue. Also please provide a half page summary for "New York Times Defends Folly of Black Lives Matter" and cite what the author is trying to argue. I will provide the links to them down below just in case but I will put the articles here too. MLA format also please.

New York Times "The Truth of Black Lives Matter"

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD SEPT. 3, 2015

CreditAlex Nabaum

The Republican Party and its acolytes in the news media are trying to demonize the protest movement that has sprung up in response to the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The intent of the campaign — evident in comments by politicians like Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsinand Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky — is to cast the phrase “Black Lives Matter” as an inflammatory or even hateful anti-white expression that has no legitimate place in a civil rights campaign.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas crystallized this view when he said the other week that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., were he alive today, would be “appalled” by the movement’s focus on the skin color of the unarmed people who are disproportionately killed in encounters with the police. This argument betrays a disturbing indifference to or at best a profound ignorance of history in general and of the civil rights movement in particular. From the very beginning, the movement focused unapologetically on bringing an end to state-sanctioned violence against African-Americans and to acts of racial terror very much like the one that took nine lives at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., in June.

The civil rights movement was intended to make Congress and Americans confront the fact that African-Americans were being killed with impunity for offenses like trying to vote, and had the right to life and to equal protection under the law. The movement sought a cross-racial appeal, but at every step of the way used expressly racial terms to describe the death and destruction that was visited upon black people because they were black.

Even in the early 20th century, civil rights groups documented cases in which African-Americans died horrible deaths after being turned away from hospitals reserved for whites, or were lynched — which meant being hanged, burned or dismembered — in front of enormous crowds that had gathered to enjoy the sight.

The Charleston church massacre has eerie parallels to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. — the most heinous act of that period — which occurred at the height of the early civil rights movement. Four black girls were murdered that Sunday. When Dr. King eulogized them, he did not shy away from the fact that the dead had been killed because they were black, by monstrous men whose leaders fed them “the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.” He said that the dead “have something to say” to a complacent federal government that cut back-room deals with Southern Dixiecrats, as well as to “every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice.” Shock over the bombing pushed Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act the following year.

During this same period, freedom riders and voting rights activists led by the young John Lewis offered themselves up to be beaten nearly to death, week after week, day after day, in the South so that the country would witness Jim Crow brutality and meaningfully respond to it. This grisly method succeeded in Selma, Ala., in 1965 when scenes of troopers bludgeoning voting rights demonstrators compelled a previously hesitant Congress to acknowledge that black people deserved full citizenship, too, and to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Along the way, there was never a doubt as to what the struggle was about: securing citizenship rights for black people who had long been denied them.

The “Black Lives Matter” movement focuses on the fact that black citizens have long been far more likely than whites to die at the hands of the police, and is of a piece with this history. Demonstrators who chant the phrase are making the same declaration that voting rights and civil rights activists made a half-century ago. They are not asserting that black lives are more precious than white lives. They are underlining an indisputable fact — that the lives of black citizens in this country historically have not mattered, and have been discounted and devalued. People who are unacquainted with this history are understandably uncomfortable with the language of the movement. But politicians who know better and seek to strip this issue of its racial content and context are acting in bad faith. They are trying to cover up an unpleasant truth and asking the country to collude with them.

"New York Times Defends Folly of Black Lives Matter" by Jerome Hudson at breitbart.com

In a 743 word defense of Black Lives Matter, The New York Times editorial board couldn’t bring itself to sanction a single syllable shaming the grievance group for its growing number of transgressions.

“The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’ flat-out ignores that Black Lives Matter is based on a number of pernicious lies. Chief among them is that Michael Brown was executed by Officer Darren Wilson. If that were true, why did an Eric Holder-headed Justice Department investigation conclude that Michael Brown did not have his hands up when Officer Wilson fired the fatal shots? For this group, facts and truth don’t matter. Still, Black Lives Matter demands that Wilson be arrested.

The Times interweaves Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words and the purpose of the civil rights movement together in an effort to legitimize and beautify Black Lives Matter’s cause.

The truth, however, is much less romantic. Black Lives Matter is a disgrace to the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement. To compare them is to bastardize 100 years of American history–and the legitimate hard-fought gains the movement proudly claims.

Martin Luther King, Jr., didn’t mince words when he stated his dream was that his children live in a world where they were judged by their “character” and not their “skin.”

I challenge The New York Times, America’s sanctimonious overseers, to present a King quote anywhere near the morally deprived neighborhood of “pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon.”

Would Rosa Parks stand with Houston area Black Lives Matter supporter Monica Foy, who said slain Sheriff’s Deputy Darren Goforth had “creepy perv eyes” and deserved to be executed and shot 15 times?

How does The New York Times reconcile this incredible contradiction?

The admirable activists making the case for whatever problems of over-policing that do persist are at odds with a Black Lives Matter movement that is celebrated and seldom challenged for its habit of overindulging in generalities as it constantly convicts all of America as a devoutly racist place.

Another lie: the Times‘ assertion that unarmed black people “are disproportionately killed in encounters with the police” is simply not true and is not substantiated by facts.

It is “an indisputable fact–that the lives of black citizens in this country historically have not mattered,” the Times contends. Black Lives Matter, and the Times, for that matter, is tied to a tragic American past that no longer lends its evils to today.

In some sense, black lives do matter more than others. I am black. If I were unarmed and gunned down by police today, my story would warrant wall-to-wall press coverage. It’s hard to imagine the same outcome if I were white.

This is good and bad.

That America’s foremost news organs commit so much energy to covering every detail surrounding the death of black people–making them household names in the process–is evidence that we are far better off as a racially harmonized nation than we were 50 years ago. And that’s good. But this societal progress wasn’t achieved by decisive movements like Black Lives Matter.

It’s no accident then that 64 percent of black people prefer the phrase “all lives matter.”

Now for the bad. Such an intense focus on black lives has normalized a callous disassociation of a victim’s humanity if he happens to be white when killed by a cop. Or, as evidenced in Houston–if he happens to be a cop.

It’s as if we have all been shamed into nodding our heads in agreement that we must care less about police-involved shootings unless the victim is black.

The New York Times’ defense of Black Lives Matter also misses the point, and an opportunity. Their editorial came on the same day that slain Texas Deputy Sheriff Darren Goforth is being laid to rest. Their defensive editorial also coincided with this Chicago Tribune headline: “Chicago marks deadliest day by gunfire in more than a decade.” Yet neither far more relevant threats to black lives warranted a single mention in the Times’self-serving sermon.

The news stories on cities like Chicago, consumed by black-on-black carnage resemble Somalia more than America.

Yes, Social Justice Warriors. I just played the black-on-black crime card. Why? Because one can be both outraged and motivated to solve the vexing problem of black criminality while simultaneously acting to improve policing in one’s own community.

But Black Lives Matter wants fewer police in minority neighborhoods. Specifically, they want a “national policy specifically aimed at redressing the systemic pattern of anti-black law enforcement violence in the United States.”

This is just nonsense and borders satire.

The New York Times is concerned with parsing out the importance of recognizing the Black Lives Matter movement ahead of the fact that all lives matter–yet seem unwilling to recognize that one of the impacts of the movement has been to increase the threat against police officers. So if to just say, “All Lives Matters” is to “cover up an unpleasant truth” as the NYT claims, then you also have to admit that embracing Black Lives Matter with no acknowledgement of the associated violence against police is no less of an effort at concealment.

Neither The New York Times nor Black Lives Matter wants to broaden the parameters of the conversation about the vexing problems in black precincts. Both groups want a narrow conversation centered on inflated instances of racism.

If we talk about black poverty, should we also ask how 70 percent illegitimacy rates (90 percent in some inner cities) might contribute to our malaise? Or do we continue to pretend that the persistent problem of black poverty is the result of racism and discrimination alone?

Black Lives Matter is not a civil rights movement. When a Black Lives Matter spokesman says the phrase “All lives matter” is a “violent statement,” the group itself becomes an affront to our most sacred democratic principle: that all men are equal in the eyes of the law.

Thanks, but no thanks. I would rather not be lectured about the perils of civil rights suffrage and police oppression by an editorial board that’s whiter than a Coldplay concert.

What does it say about The New York Times‘ concern for black lives if they–in an editorial about how black lives matter–decided to completely ignore the countless communities suffocated by crime and a gang culture that sends infinitely more black bodies to the morgue than police?

Problems

Please write queries based on the following requirements using labdata.sql or premieresetupmysql.sql. For each question, you are required to submit 1) SQL query code; 2) a screen shot of your query result. You should copy and paste your SQL query code to the word document instead of taking a screenshot of your code. Missing either part for each question will result in 0 for this question.

1. List unique item classes stored in my database.
2. List the warehouse number and the number of different parts stored in each warehouse, only include those warehouse with more than 2 different parts.
3. List the warehouse number and the maximum number of units on hand for parts stored in each of the warehouse. Rename the new column Max_UOH.
4. List the part number, total dollar amount for each part stored, and the warehouse number for the part. Rename the calculated column TOTAL_AMOUNT. TOTAL_AMOUNT=Units_ON_HAND*UNIT_PRICE
5. List the class and total number of units on hand for each class. Rank your results in descending order on the total number of units on hand.
6. List stored information for all the orders placed between August 3^rd and August 6^th of 2013. (not including August 3^rd 2013 and August 6^th 2013).

Code needed: labdata

create table sales_rep (
slsrep_number number(5) constraint pk_sales_rep primary key,
srlast       varchar2(8),
srfirst       varchar2(7),
street       varchar2(13),
city       varchar2(7),
state       varchar2(2),
zip_code   number(5),
total_commission   number(7,2),
commission_rate       number(3,2));

insert into sales_rep values(3, 'Jones', 'Mary', '123 Main', 'Grant', 'MI', 42919, 2150, .05);
insert into sales_rep values(4, 'Morton', 'Tom', '300 College', 'Flint', 'MI', 49227, 2075, .06);
insert into sales_rep values(6, 'Smith', 'William', '102 Raymond', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 4912.5, .07);
insert into sales_rep values(12, 'Diaz', 'Miguel', '419 Harper', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 2150, .05);

create table customer
   (c_number number(3) not null,
   clast varchar2(8),
   cfirst varchar2(7),
   street varchar2(13),
   city varchar2(7),
   state varchar2(2),
   zip_code number(5),
   balance number(7,2),
   credit_limit number(4),
   slsrep_number number(3),
constraint customer_pk primary key (c_number),
constraint fk1_customer foreign key (slsrep_number) references sales_rep(slsrep_number));

insert into customer values
(124, 'Adams', 'Sally', '418 Oak', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 818.75, 1000, 3);

insert into customer values
(256, 'Samuels', 'Ann', '215 Pete', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 21.5, 1500, 6);

insert into customer values
(311, 'Charles', 'Don', '48 College', 'Ira', 'MI', 49034, 825.75, 1000, 12);

insert into customer values
(315, 'Daniels', 'Tom', '914 Cherry', 'Kent', 'MI', 48391, 770.75, 750, 6);

insert into customer values
(405, 'Williams', 'Al', '519 Watson', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 402.75, 1500, 12);

insert into customer values
(412, 'Adams', 'Sally', '16 Elm', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 1817.75, 2000, 3);

insert into customer (c_number, clast, cfirst, street, city, state, zip_code, balance, credit_limit) values
(522, 'Nelson', 'Mary', '108 Pine', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 98.75, 1500);

insert into customer values
(567, 'Dinh', 'Tran', '808 Ridge', 'Harper', 'MI', 48421, 402.40, 750, 6);

insert into customer values
(587, 'Galvez', 'Mara', '512 Pine', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 114.60, 1000, 6);

insert into customer values
(622, 'Martin', 'Dan', '419 Chip', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 1045.75, 1000, 3);

create table part (
part_number varchar2(5) constraint pk_part primary key,
part_description varchar2(12),
units_on_hand number,
item_class char(2),
warehouse_number number,
unit_price number(7,2));

insert into part
values ('AX12', 'Iron', 104, 'HW', 3, 24.95);

insert into part
values ('AZ52', 'Dartboard', 20, 'SG', 2, 12.95);

insert into part
values ('BA74', 'Basketball', 40, 'SG', 1, 29.95);

insert into part
values ('BH22', 'Cornpopper', 95, 'HW', 3, 24.95);

insert into part
values ('BT04', 'Gas Grill', 11, 'AP', 2, 149.99);

insert into part
values ('BZ66', 'Washer', 52, 'AP', 3, 399.99);

insert into part
values ('CA14', 'Griddle', 78, 'HW', 3, 39.99);

insert into part
values ('CB03', 'Bike', 44, 'SG', 1, 299.99);

insert into part
values ('CX11', 'Blender', 112, 'HW', 3, 22.95);

insert into part
values ('CZ81', 'Treadmill', 68, 'SG', 2, 349.95);

create table orders (
order_number number(5) constraint pk_orders primary key,
order_date date,
c_number number(3) constraint fk1_orders references customer(c_number));

insert into orders values (12489, '02-AUG-2013', 124);

insert into orders values (12491, '02-AUG-2013', 311);

insert into orders values (12494, '04-AUG-2013', 315);

insert into orders values (12495, '04-AUG-2013', 256);

insert into orders values (12498, '05-AUG-2013', 522);

insert into orders values (12500, '05-AUG-2013', 124);

insert into orders values (12504, '05-AUG-2013', 522);
create table order_line (
order_number number(5),
part_number varchar2(5),
number_ordered number,
quoted_price number(6,2),
constraint pk_order_line primary key (order_number, part_number),
constraint fk1_order_line foreign key (order_number) references orders(order_number),
constraint fk2_order_line foreign key (part_number) references part(part_number));

insert into order_line values (12489, 'AX12', 11, 21.95);
insert into order_line values (12491, 'BT04', 1, 149.99);
insert into order_line values (12491, 'BZ66', 1, 399.99);
insert into order_line values (12494, 'CB03', 4, 279.99);
insert into order_line values (12495, 'CX11', 2, 22.95);
insert into order_line values (12498, 'AZ52', 2, 12.95);
insert into order_line values (12498, 'BA74', 4, 24.95);
insert into order_line values (12500, 'BT04', 3, 149.99);
insert into order_line values (12504, 'CZ81', 2, 325.99);

.)premieresetup

create table sales_rep (
slsrep_number int(5) NOT NULL,
srlast varchar(8),
srfirst   varchar(7),
street   varchar(13),
city varchar(7),
state   varchar(2),
zip_code int(5),
total_commission decimal(7,2),
commission_rate   decimal(3,2),
constraint pk_sales_rep primary key (slsrep_number));

insert into sales_rep values(3, 'Jones', 'Mary', '123 Main', 'Grant', 'MI', 42919, 2150, .05);
insert into sales_rep values(4, 'Morton', 'Tom', '300 College', 'Flint', 'MI', 49227, 2075, .06);
insert into sales_rep values(6, 'Smith', 'William', '102 Raymond', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 4912.5, .07);
insert into sales_rep values(12, 'Diaz', 'Miguel', '419 Harper', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 2150, .05);

create table customer
   (c_number int(3) not null,
   clast varchar(8),
   cfirst varchar(7),
   street varchar(13),
   city varchar(7),
   state varchar(2),
   zip_code int(5),
   balance decimal(7,2),
   credit_limit int(4),
   slsrep_number int(3),
constraint customer_pk primary key (c_number),
constraint fk1_customer foreign key (slsrep_number) references sales_rep(slsrep_number));

insert into customer values
(124, 'Adams', 'Sally', '418 Oak', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 818.75, 1000, 3);

insert into customer values
(256, 'Samuels', 'Ann', '215 Pete', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 21.5, 1500, 6);

insert into customer values
(311, 'Charles', 'Don', '48 College', 'Ira', 'MI', 49034, 825.75, 1000, 12);

insert into customer values
(315, 'Daniels', 'Tom', '914 Cherry', 'Kent', 'MI', 48391, 770.75, 750, 6);

insert into customer values
(405, 'Williams', 'Al', '519 Watson', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 402.75, 1500, 12);

insert into customer values
(412, 'Adams', 'Sally', '16 Elm', 'Lansing', 'MI', 49224, 1817.75, 2000, 3);

insert into customer (c_number, clast, cfirst, street, city, state, zip_code, balance, credit_limit) values
(522, 'Nelson', 'Mary', '108 Pine', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 98.75, 1500);

insert into customer values
(567, 'Dinh', 'Tran', '808 Ridge', 'Harper', 'MI', 48421, 402.40, 750, 6);

insert into customer values
(587, 'Galvez', 'Mara', '512 Pine', 'Ada', 'MI', 49441, 114.60, 1000, 6);

insert into customer values
(622, 'Martin', 'Dan', '419 Chip', 'Grant', 'MI', 49219, 1045.75, 1000, 3);

create table part (
part_number varchar(5),
part_description varchar(12),
units_on_hand int,
item_class char(2),
warehouse_number int,
unit_price decimal(7,2),
constraint pk_part primary key(part_number));

insert into part
values ('AX12', 'Iron', 104, 'HW', 3, 24.95);

insert into part
values ('AZ52', 'Dartboard', 20, 'SG', 2, 12.95);

insert into part
values ('BA74', 'Basketball', 40, 'SG', 1, 29.95);

insert into part
values ('BH22', 'Cornpopper', 95, 'HW', 3, 24.95);

insert into part
values ('BT04', 'Gas Grill', 11, 'AP', 2, 149.99);

insert into part
values ('BZ66', 'Washer', 52, 'AP', 3, 399.99);

insert into part
values ('CA14', 'Griddle', 78, 'HW', 3, 39.99);

insert into part
values ('CB03', 'Bike', 44, 'SG', 1, 299.99);

insert into part
values ('CX11', 'Blender', 112, 'HW', 3, 22.95);

insert into part
values ('CZ81', 'Treadmill', 68, 'SG', 2, 349.95);

create table orders (
order_number int(5),
order_date date ,
c_number int(3),
constraint pk_orders primary key(order_number),
constraint fk1_orders foreign key ( c_number) references customer(c_number));

insert into orders values (12489, str_to_date('02-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 124);

insert into orders values (12491, str_to_date('02-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 311);

insert into orders values (12494, str_to_date('04-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 315);

insert into orders values (12495,str_to_date('04-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 256);

insert into orders values (12498, str_to_date('05-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 522);

insert into orders values (12500, str_to_date('05-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 124);

insert into orders values (12504, str_to_date('05-AUG-2013', '%d-%M-%Y'), 522);
create table order_line (
order_number int(5),
part_number varchar(5),
number_ordered int,
quoted_price decimal(6,2),
constraint pk_order_line primary key (order_number, part_number),
constraint fk1_order_line foreign key (order_number) references orders(order_number),
constraint fk2_order_line foreign key (part_number) references part(part_number));

insert into order_line values (12489, 'AX12', 11, 21.95);
insert into order_line values (12491, 'BT04', 1, 149.99);
insert into order_line values (12491, 'BZ66', 1, 399.99);
insert into order_line values (12494, 'CB03', 4, 279.99);
insert into order_line values (12495, 'CX11', 2, 22.95);
insert into order_line values (12498, 'AZ52', 2, 12.95);
insert into order_line values (12498, 'BA74', 4, 24.95);
insert into order_line values (12500, 'BT04', 3, 149.99);
insert into order_line values (12504, 'CZ81', 2, 325.99);

Discussion: (Do not attempt to solve if you can not answer all)

When educators attend conferences or workshops they are often inspired by the many new and exciting ideas they learn about and are prepared to put some of the newfound strategies into practice in the near future. Upon returning to the workplace, however, the computer or print file filled with handouts/notes is placed nearby on a shelf or in the corner of a desk. Then… reality sets in. The teacher reads the summary of the day(s) left by the substitute and determines what follow-up(s) must take place; she checks emails to see what immediate action must take place or which phone calls must be returned. The folder with all those exciting ideas sits lonely and neglected.When educators attend conferences or workshops they are often inspired by the many new and exciting ideas they learn about and are prepared to put some of the newfound strategies into practice in the near future. Upon returning to the workplace, however, the computer or print file filled with handouts/notes is placed nearby on a shelf or in the corner of a desk. Then… reality sets in. The teacher reads the summary of the day(s) left by the substitute and determines what follow-up(s) must take place; she checks emails to see what immediate action must take place or which phone calls must be returned. The folder with all those exciting ideas sits lonely and neglected.

We cannot be criticized for not implementing new ideas in a timely manner since our professional lives are filled with unexpected events and frequent interruptions. And let’s not forget… change is not easy.

On the other hand, it is important to remember that teaching is a profession, and in all professions, it is unrealistic to remain static and cling to ideas that may not be as effective in promoting student learning. We must be introducing new concepts/ideas into our repertoires. The file folder from the conference that holds new ways of thinking, deserves attention; thus, it is critical that we open that folder while the ideas are fresh in our minds. Remember, the ideas that were introduced in the workshop, regardless of how good they are, will have no impact on learning until we act on them. As a wise man once said, “It is not good enough to think outside the box, you must act outside the box as well.”

The Gap
The inability to put new ideas into practice is called the knowing-doing gap. It is a widely used moniker that is not unique to education; it is taught in college courses, a vital part of leadership training, and is a mainstay in the world of business. In the words of Dale Carnegie, “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”

The Wisdom
In a recent webinar, British researcher Dylan Wiliam provides a great deal of insight about how teachers can reduce or even eliminate the gap. The title of a recent blog by Dr. Wiliam says it all: “Changing What Teachers Do is More Important Than Changing What They Know.” The article focuses on the importance of teachers reducing the achievement gap by embedding formative assessment practices into their range of options. He states, “It’s not about a magical intervention to help the kids this year; it’s about helping teachers make decisions based on the level of understanding of all students. That’s how you close the achievement gap.”

The Strategies
Basing his conclusions on 35 years of experience in the field of education, Wiliam recently shared five strategies he believes are essential for the successful application of formative assessments into a teacher’s instructional delivery. He proposes the following practices:

Each and every student must understand what their learning experiences will entail and how success will be determined. Teachers must be specific and present practical examples that students will understand as they are explaining the lesson outcomes. When teachers clarify what success will look and sound like, students are much more likely to achieve it.

It is not good enough that students hear about the success criteria shared by their teacher; they must have the opportunity to participate in discussions with peers and share possible examples of success with one another. Thus, as a bi-product of the discussions, students will have a clear picture of success indicators.

Learning is being formed as students are engaged in specific activities to master the content. Simultaneously, the teacher can be observing and interacting with students to provide on-the-spot feedback in order to keep progress moving in the right direction. Remember… student engagement + feedback = success.

Students are often an excellent resource for one another as each individual works toward his “aha moment.” Discussions, critical thinking, and problem solving are all excellent sources of formative assessment data and they keep students actively involved in their learning process.

Teachers must repeatedly promote the understanding that all students are accountable for their individual learning. When students know, from the get-go, that they must take responsibility for their own learning, Wiliam has concluded that learning will dramatically increase.

The more options teachers have at their disposal, the deeper their discussions will be with their fellow teachers, and the stronger their use of formative assessment will become. Following Wiliam’s five steps will help to transfer educators more quickly and permanently from knowers to doers.

The Actions
In his writing, Dr. Wiliam offers further suggestions that will help teachers move into the action phase and move closer to reduce or even eliminate the gap. He believes that teachers must get into the “habit changing business.” He suggests the following practices:

Choice – Instead of having top-down requirements for all teachers, giving individuals a choice about a practice they wish to implement will increase the likelihood that the implementation will become a permanent fixture. Wiliam writes, “When teachers themselves make the decision about what it is they wish to prioritize for their own professional development, they are more likely to make it work.” When teachers have the power to choose, they increase their level of expertise and take more responsibility to apply a strategy again and again.

Flexibility – Teaching styles differ and the students who make up individual classes can vary greatly. For this reason, when teachers learn a new strategy, they do not have to implement it in a lock-step manner. Wiliam believes that what is important is that the instructor is moving to action. He cautions, however, that a teacher should not change the essence of the idea to the point where it becomes ineffective.

Small Steps – Research evidence shows that teachers in general are slow to change their practice primarily because change is “genuinely difficult” and “immensely challenging.” Most educators become accustomed to doing things a certain way and it supports their comfort level. In order for the change to occur, Wiliam recommends moving slowly. He writes, “Small steps grow new expertise which makes the new behaviors “hard wired,” and thus more lasting. He further advocates for having a checklist of specific actions with “Plan B options” so the idea is not seen as a failure. It can be an emotional letdown for a practitioner to have a new idea go poorly; thus, small, manageable steps may be the ticket.

Accountability – “All teachers need to improve their practice – not because they are not good enough, but because they can get better,” is a strong-held belief from Wiliam. He believes that it is appropriate for teachers to be accountable for their personal improvement. He endorses the idea of a teacher having an action plan with indicators showing how the new idea benefits students. The plans do not have to be long and complicated but should be in writing, contain a small number of changes that will take place, and include what the teacher will reduce or give up in order to make room for the new ideas.

Support – In his work, Wiliam has concluded that a support system along with a model for providing the support is essential. In Embedding Formative Assessment: A Two Year Professional Development Pack, he prescribes monthly meetings with peers in order to make the move from knowing to doing more permanent. He calls the gatherings Teacher Learning Communities (TLC); He has determined that when teachers have a consistent protocol, when they make a commitment to peers, when they receive support and feedback from other practitioners, when there is time set aside to introduce new ideas, and when each individual specifically states what she will do before the next meeting, it becomes a powerful mechanism for change. As Wiliam states, the model is “currently being used successfully by thousands of teachers in hundreds of schools all over the world.”

The Insights
Other writers have weighed in on the knowing-doing gap and offer advice that supports Wiliam’s thinking as well as providing additional helpful observations. In their book, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge Into Action, authors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton explain that some people are “drowning in a sea of good intentions” because they spend an inordinate amount of time talking about an idea (“word spinning”) instead of making any progress. They state that “the gap between knowing and doing is more important than between ignorance and knowing.” According to the authors, some people delude themselves into thinking they are making progress simply because they keep talking about the idea. In order to move a plan into the action stage, they caution that a plan may get derailed early on if there are too many details in the beginning. They further endorse the practice of celebrating “moments of excitement” as a plan unfolds. It is likewise important to not spend time focusing on snags that may occur and to focus on what worked instead.

Binghamton University (SUNY) Professor Surinder Kahai has added additional insights in his book, Closing the Knowing-Doing Gap in Leadership.” He writes about if and when the initial enthusiasm about a new idea wanes, we resort to old behaviors. He writes, “This relapse is often caused by time pressure, peer pressure, anxiety over one’s capabilities, and sometimes by joyful circumstances (e.g., feelings that things are going well already when, in reality, they are not as good as one might think. Kahai supports the idea of goal setting with specific steps:

Creating a list of desirable behaviors

Setting targets for achieving the behaviors

Monitoring progress as the behavior change

Making sure the behaviors are specific enough and not overly general

He also shares a rather unique idea when he suggests setting up an email alert system as reminders of when important goals should be achieved. He recommends the use of Google calendar for weekly or twice weekly reminders.

The literature on the knowing-doing gap reveals further food for thought including the following options:

When teachers’ work becomes more difficult, they often resort to “primal scripts” based on the way they were taught as students. These were not necessarily the best teaching and learning practices.

Making a commitment to action planning focuses the teacher on devising concrete steps and keeping a written record about how the steps worked.

Studies found that feedback from peer to peer is most effective when the feedback did not stop at telling the fellow teacher what to do but more specifically how to go about it.

As teachers roll out new learning approaches, an important point is that to maximize student learning the focus needs to be on individual growth rather than on a comparison with fellow students.

When a teacher realizes that a successful new idea or approach is counter to existing school policy, the teacher should share formative achievement data with school leaders so that the existing structure can change.

We all know that change is difficult. But we cannot remain stagnant in our instructional practices. The above information contains numerous ways that teachers can make specific moves to ensure that the knowing-doing gap ceases to exist. The ball is in your court.

Answer the following DISCUSSION questions:

1) Why do organizations have this problem?

2) Do individuals share the same problem?

3) What have you learned from Covey's book or other materials thus far in the course that can help BOTH individuals AND organizations overcome this problem effectively?

Using the techniques from the flowing topic notes develop plan for Marketing, General Management and Operations for the business concept for NIKE Company .

Business Planning: Marketing, General Management and Operations

Marketing is best presented through the Marketing Mix. The Marketing Mix is also called The 4-Ps of Marketing. The 4-Ps are product, price, place and promotion. Each “P” is identified separately, but they work together to promote the right product in the right place and at the right price.

Product

There is significant overlap in the product and concept. Where the concept focused on the big picture of your product and services, in the product section we will focus on more of the specifics.

Once you have the concept in mind, you should now think about the following:

1.       Is there a single product or does it have many separate categories? An example would be for a clothing store which sells men’s, women’s, and children’s clothes.

2.       Who will be supplying this product? Am I manufacturing the product from scratch, or am I buying from a supplier?

3.       If manufacturing the product, who is doing the engineering, beta testing, etc.? (You should have a separate section of your plan just for the manufacturing that answers these questions as well as covers your overall production facility, production lines, including plant and equipment, quality assurance etc.).

4.       If buying from a supplier, identify who these suppliers are, what the lead time is for orders, what the shipping cost is, etc.

5.       How will my office or store be presented to customers? Will it be a physical location or virtual space (web presence) or both?

6.       What will my sign look like? Will I have a logo? Who will be designing the logo and preparing the signs?

7.       What colors will I be using? Are these appropriate for my target audience?

8.       How will I present my product in an appealing way? (Consider everything from shelving to label and signs at this point.)

9.       Will there be music playing? If so, by what medium and what will be the cost on that?

10.     From the time the customers come to your store (or website), what will be the total experience? Consider everything from the welcome to the checkout process.

These are just a few of the things you need to consider regarding your product. Each product or product line is different and will need great consideration to ensure you are maximizing your potential success and profitability.

If your product is something others already sell, do some research by going to a competitor’s site or store and purchase something. Find out what they are doing right and wrong. How will you differentiate your product?

After considering all these questions and many more, revisit your product and make any changes. The time to change is in the planning process, not once your product is on the shelves.

Price

Pricing can be a very complex issue for most people. Pricing is one of the

most important decisions you will make as a new business owner. It needs to be taken seriously as will affect your business at every level. So, how do you price your product? Many times, pricing will be driven by your competition. You must

be careful, however, that you do not allow your competitions improper pricing make you unprofitable as well. You must take into account many variables, only one of which is competition. Other variables are your industry norms, information from your local business association, your fixed cost and your cost of materials and labor, just to name a few.

You need to determine your cost of labor and materials to make your product.

Once you are happy with the price, compare it to your competitors. Are you competitive? If your prices are too high, can you make this work? If your prices are too low, should you increase the cost, or are you trying to be the price leader to attract customers?

Place

Placement of your product or service is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the marketing plan for most businesses. You may have a great product with a great price, but you need to remember that stores are inundated with request to sell new products.

If selling through a retailer (in other words, someone else is selling the product you are producing), you need to consider the following:

1.       What stores or other outlets will be selling your product(s)?

2.       Have they agreed to sell your product? Do you have a contract or some other agreement?

3.       How will you distribute this product (delivery, shipping, etc.)?

4.       Will you need to pay a fee to put your product on the shelves?

5.       What will you be responsible for as far as shelving, displays, advertising/presentation, or anything else that could increase your overall cost?

6.       Are you responsible for promotions such as buy one get one or other promotional activities?

7.       Is your production capacity able to meet the estimated needs

If you are going to sell your product directly to the consumer in a retail style space, you should consider the following:

1.       How much space will you need for retail space and for storage?

2.       What system/software, etc. will you be using for cash registers?

3.       What will you need for displays (shelves, hangers, etc.)?

4.       How will you make the interior attractive and best display your products?

5.       How will you be drawing customers in? Signs, banners, etc.?

6.       How will you minimize theft/loss?

7.       What will be your initial and ongoing inventory needs?

If you are going to sell product via the web, the following should be considered:

1.       Who will build and host your site?

2.       How will you distribute/ship product?

3.       How much will shipping costs be?

4.       How will you attract people to your site?

5.       How much inventory will you need to have on hand at any given moment?

Regardless of the way you will be selling your product, you need to give significant consideration in making these more detailed decisions, as your success will depend largely on the decision you make early on in the process.

Promotion

There are myriad ways to promote your business. They may include advertising in your local newspaper to being on a lecture circuit or advertising in trade publications. Individual businesses need individualized promotional activities. If you are a mine equipment manufacturer, advertising in a large city’s newspaper is not likely your best avenue. However, for a local pet shop, it may be just the ticket. As stated earlier, this varies widely from business to business.

General Management and Operations

Management Theory:

- Contingency Theory

As the word Contingency indicates, this theory is based on the principle that managers will make decisions according to the situation they are dealing with at the time. This approach is commonly used in cultures, like the United States, that have high levels of independence. This approach leaves managers to determine the best approach for their particular group and is often appropriate for smaller organizations and some larger ones as well.

- Systems Theory

A Systems Theory approach to management is a much more regimented style of management and is often used in more autocratic organizations and cultures. Many large organizations use this style or management as it allows uniformity across many departments and/or divisions. This approach may be used for smaller organizations but may seem heavy-handed to employees who are used to a more casual, familial environment.

- Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory recognizes that organizations are ever-changing as they grow and face new opportunities and challenges. This theory works well with other theories and approaches as your organization evolves.

- Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y assumes that workers fall into one of two categories: either they are naturally lazy and lack ambition, or they are naturally driven and will take responsibility. In Theory X, workers are not encouraged to take any role or responsibility in management or leadership; instead, they are given structured assignments that are closely supervised. In Theory Y, workers are encouraged to participate in decisions and are more autonomous in work schedules, workloads, etc.

- Scientific Management Theory

Developed by Frederick Taylor around the turn of the 20th century, the Scientific Management Theory espoused measurement of all organizational tasks. Everything that could be standardized was, and workers were treated similar to school children as they received either reward or punishment for their activities. This was typically used (and sometimes still is) in assembly line or other manufacturing facilities.

- Bureaucratic Management Theory

In the 1930s and 1940s, Max Weber expanded on the scientific approach, adding hierarchies and strict lines of authority and control. Today we call this the Bureaucratic Management Theory. Weber espoused the belief in standard operation procedures throughout and organization.

Activities of managers:

Organization and Departmental Objectives

A much less stressful, but equally important role of the manager is to set organizational and departmental objectives. In order for employees to all be marching in the same direction, you, as a leader, must determine objectives that are understandable and achievable for the organization, departments, and individual employees. It is important that you involve all managers when setting your organization objectives. If your managers have “buy-in” to your objectives, they will most likely then become everyone’s objectives throughout the company, and they are more likely to succeed. Furthermore, if your managers are involved during

this process, they can assist you in heading off potential problem areas or give you a “check” if you are being too aggressive. However, it is also important to lead your managers in a balanced way that allows for feedback but does not deter you from achieving your ultimate goals.

Planning

Once objectives have been established, the planning process can begin. Essentially, the planning process takes the established objectives and puts into place a plan of action to achieve those goals. Planning is a more exhaustive and detailed process than the setting of objectives and may include such details as human resource requirements, budgeting, processes, and equipment needs, just to name a few.

According to the complexity of the plan, software may be needed to forecast and track the process over time. Many industries have specific software to assist in this process, but there are many programs already developed and readily available on the open market.

Directing

A large amount of your time as a manager will be spent directing subordinates in daily activities. This time can be mitigated by delegating some activities to your managers/supervisors, but ultimately you will be tasked with staff direction, either firstly or indirectly. Many days a manager may feel like a firefighter, putting out little fires all day long. Other days may be spent planning or talking to staff to ensure morale is high, but each day will be different, requiring agility and flexibility in your schedule.

Controlling

The old adage, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure,” is important to remember. It is impossible to determine how a particular objective is being met if there is no plan. Furthermore, if you cannot objectively measure the progress of a plan, how will you determine success and failure on a daily basis?

Reflection and Adjustment

It is important that you, as a manager, take time to reflect on your decisions and how your company is performing. It is easy to get caught up in the daily whirlwind of activities, leaving you exhausted at the end of each day with hardly a minute just to think. Take time, each day, to reflect on your work. Even if it is only a few minutes, write down your thoughts, how you can do better, and what your tasks are before the end of each day. As you come to work each morning, you can then look at your list and plan your day accordingly, being better prepared for whatever may come your way. Another way you should reflect is either as a group (all managers) or as an organization. Allowing employees to vent frustration is a great way for you t keep your hand on the pulse of your operation. It is also a great opportunity for you and others to assist one another in problem solving.

“It’s Collapsing Violently”: Coronavirus Is Creating a Fast Fashion Nightmare
Dana Thomas, the author of the fast fashion deconstruction ‘Fashionopolis,’ explains the severe impact of coronavirus on Bangladesh’s garment export industry.

By Rachel Tashjian
April 2, 2020

Could the coronavirus pandemic bring a reckoning to fast fashion? Many fashion industry insiders have posed the question over the last few weeks, imagining a silver lining to the industry’s forced pause. If fashion is forced to operate at a new, slower pace, even temporarily, might fast fashion, which epitomizes the industry’s obsession with speed and novelty, come to an end? Or at least...slow down a little?
But the reality of the virus’s impact on fast fashion is far from positive. Earlier this week, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), which represents factory owners, reported that $2.81 billion worth of work orders, made to 1,025 factories, had been canceled. And if fast fashion is facing a disaster, it is the workers in Bangladesh, which is the largest exporter of garments in the world after China, who are bearing the brunt of the crisis. A survey of factory owners by Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Global Workers’ Rights released last week stated that the canceled orders—which many Western companies are refusing to pay for—have left millions of workers, many of whom are women from rural areas, without wages owed or severance. Nearly all Western buyers have refused to contribute to worker wages, the survey found. “Our situation is apocalyptic,” Rubana Huq, president of the BGMEA, told the New York Times.
Fast fashion experts have seen this coming. Late last year, writer Dana Thomas released Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes. Thomas traveled to factories in Bangladesh to see the fast fashion factory system up close, and to measure its impact on human life, speaking to workers who survived the Rana Plaza factory collapse, which resulted in the deaths of 1,134 people, with more than 2,500 injured. If you read her book, you will never look at your closet the same way.

I can’t even imagine. I’ve been to Bangladesh. I saw how poor it was. I [went with people] and saw the shanties that were their homes; they aren’t even going to get their $95 a month now, which is half a living wage. [Note: economists calculate that the living wage, or the amount needed to cover essential needs such as housing, food, and clothing, is $214 per month in Bangladesh.] There’s just going to be no work for months. I just can’t begin to imagine the poverty, the illness, the malnutrition. It’s going to be so profound.
When I was there, I thought, This country is relying too much on one industry to support the entire economy. Eighty-four percent of its exports is garments, and it’s an export country. You have a new crew of young executives [at major fashion companies] who all just counted on the Chinese consumer for the luxury industry, and young consumers in the U.S. and Europe for the fast fashion industry, and it was just: volume, volume, volume, and pushing us to buy more and more and more, not ever thinking something could happen like 9/11, like SARS, like this, where boom—we just stopped shopping.
It never occurred to them because it hadn’t happened in a generation, and they’re getting clobbered with the way they set up the supply chain. Countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, were so dedicated to making all these clothes to fill that [demand for] volume. It’s a gigantic house of cards, and it’s so delicately balanced. One thing goes and it’s just all collapsing. And it’s collapsing violently.
But is this the end of fast fashion?
We may not see the end of fast fashion. I was reading this really interesting piece by David Chang, about the restaurant industry, and he said, What I think you’re going to see is that it’s the big chains that survive. I think H&M, LVMH [the luxury conglomerate, which does not operate fast fashion companies], and Zara—they’re going to be fine. It’s going to be smaller companies, or ones that were already teetering, that were putting into place turnaround plans…that won’t survive.
The incredibly inhuman and demanding structure of these factories suggests that even if they close because fast fashion brands stop placing orders, they can very quickly open up again and produce stuff as soon as a brand snaps their fingers.
All these brands have canceled their orders, [and] they’re going to have all this leftover inventory because no one’s buying anything. And when they finally run out of the inventory, they’re going to say [to factories], We need clothes fast. So they’re going to make everyone work. And the workers are just desperate for anything, any kind of work. They’ll come running back, and they’ll probably be paid less.
And they don’t have unemployment, and they don’t have health insurance, and they don’t have maternity leave, and they don’t have paid vacation.
The price of eggs, ground beef, gasoline, a house, the price of a car, the price of gasoline during the Depression: it’s all gone up since that. But the price of clothes is the same.
What happens a lot of the time, as you explain in your book, is that a big brand might have a contract with a factory, but that factory outsources some of the labor to a semi-legal factory or sweatshop, and the brand is totally unaware that their apparel is being made so unethically. We saw that in the recent New York Times exposé on Fashion Nova, for example, where the brand said they had no idea their clothes were being made [in Los Angeles] by underpaid workers.
I went to see those factories in LA with someone who said, ‘I come in here and I see Forever 21 [on a label],’ and then [the company will] say, ‘Well, we had no idea.’ It’s like, wait a minute. You lose track on the other side of the planet—I get that. You have your contractor, you trust your contractor, but he does things behind your back. But you are not in Dhaka—you’re an LA-based company, producing in LA. You can’t keep track of your supply chain, and they’re making things just around the corner from your headquarters.
It’s a shady thing that goes on because [brands] are trying to get the cheapest prices possible. Fast fashion is ridiculously, wrongly cheap. [If you look at] the price of eggs, ground beef, gasoline, a house, the price of a car, the price of gasoline during the Depression, it’s all gone up since that. But the price of clothes is the same. And that’s because [these brands] keep paying less and less and less. ‘Can you do this for 10 cents? We want it for eight.” And then the only way they can do it is to find somebody who’s off the books, who’s got illegal workers, who can do it for five cents a piece. So then the middleman makes three cents, and he’s delivering it at eight cents.
The pyramid that I was talking about is a very fragile pyramid: if Forever 21 stops calling the first guy, the rest of it falls apart.
So because of this very interdependent pyramid structure, this house of cards, that you’re talking about, what does reform of this system or radical change look like? Who could lead that?
I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about this since the book came out. I’ve been thinking about it since I went to Bangladesh and I was like, This is just so wrong.
First, it takes integrity, and courage, and conviction, and there isn’t a lot of that—not just in fashion, but in general, these days. Those things went to the wayside in the age of globalization. And that’s why we’re all being squeezed, and yet other people are getting really rich. We need a dash of Marxism, to be sure. I don’t think you need a complete Marxist revolution, but sort of like Tabasco—we could use a dash of it, right?
[Fast fashion] just needs to be regulated, seriously regulated. And then you go, well, who would regulate it? Would we have the equivalent of WHO [the World Health Organization], or the East European Commission in Brussels, or the FAA?
Maybe we need something that’s non-political, like the Federal Communications Commission, that establishes some basics in garment and apparel production, and also sets standards for imports, and then you have to meet the standards. And if you don’t meet the standards, your clothes can’t come in. But, I mean, there are always people who are going to find ways around it.
One can only hope for a huge Democratic sweep, but then everything’s going to be such a mess. The last thing you’re going to think about is the clothing industry, even though it’s so important to the economy.
I’m also curious about the creativity supply chain, as it were. You trace in one chapter how a dress is developed over a period of months by the designer Mary Kantrantzou, and how quickly—instantaneously—it is knocked off, because of social media at the shows and the speed with which factories can produce these clothes. What do you think happens to a fast fashion brand when fashion week is canceled? What do they have to copy?
We might just miss a whole season, and if we do, that’s okay. We have enough clothing out there that we don’t need to make any more clothes for decades and we’ll still have plenty to wear.
So what are H&M and Zara going to do? They’re going to just keep recycling stuff. They kind of tweak things all the time anyway. They have something in red? They make it in blue. And you know, what in the end do we mostly wear? T-shirts and jeans. At any given moment of the day, half the planet is wearing jeans. The first table you see when you walk into [Uniqlo or Zara] is jeans. That’s their bread and butter—it’s like when you walk into a luxury store and you see handbags. So they’ll just keep making jeans.
The way you lay out that production schedule makes me realize that there is a dystopian possibility that clothes we saw at the men’s shows in January, or the women’s in February and March, might exist as knockoffs in stores right now but the originals may never go into production.
Yes, absolutely. You could get things right now at H&M and Zara and Mango that were on the runways in February and March, that they banged out really fast, and the [originals] will never see the light of day. [Note: here’s a $190 jacket at Zara that appears to nod heavily at the sequin bomber shown on Celine’s fall runway in Paris in February.]
It’s weird and heartbreaking. As Rana Plaza went down, I realized that the clothes that those people were making, the day the building went down, when thousands of them were crushed in that building—those clothes still went to store floors, and people bought them.
Oh my god. That’s horrifying.
What’s most frustrating is that when I was working on the book, I was reading stuff from the early 19th century and except for the language, which was far more formal, it was the same story. Oliver Twist—it’s the same story. If you told Charles Dickens that in 2020 the sweatshop will still exist, but it will be in Southeast Asia, he’d say, You’re out of your mind. Surely we’ll have evolved more than that by then.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity

From the above article answer the question 1 and 2 in paragraph form and also with the graph

1. H & M, Primark, Zara and the like, are part of the ‘fast fashion’ industry. What industry structure do you think they operate in: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, or monopoly? Use the characteristics we have talked about: (# of firms, freedom of entry, differentiated products, shape of the demand curve, ability to earn a long-run economic profit) to support your assertion. One or two word answers will not do for example: Q. Number of firms? A. Lots. Use a little imagination in describing your reasoning. You could ever use a neat well organized table to help answer this.

2. In the short-run, what will these firms have to do to survive the Coronavirus disaster. Think in terms of Total Cost, Variable Cost, and Fixed Cost. The average cost structure of the firm may be helpful ATC, AVC, AFC
I would like you to do in approximately 250 words is to read the article and answer the above two questions. A graph is helpful.
What I am looking for is how you think and use the tools of economics to explain what will happen in this market keep your answer short and succinct.

For this week's Brief, read the attached article (below) from The Economist magazine and write a one page summary of it.

Bucks 114--Economist Article--VR.docx

Your objective is to produce an easy-to-read document that allows your reader to understand the article without having to read it in its entirety. There is no word count requirement for this assignment, but you must make sure that you include the vital information from the article (while necessarily eliminating noncritical information).

There are two specific formatting guidelines:

1. Your summary must fit on a single page

2. You must divide your summary into at least three sections, with an appropriate heading for each section

As other musicians were settling down on their sofas during lockdown, Travis Scott was seizing the virtual moment. On April 23rd the American hip-hop star staged a concert that was attended live online by more than 12m people within the three-dimensional world of “Fortnite”, a video game better known for its cartoonish violence. As the show began, the stage exploded and Mr Scott appeared as a giant, stomping across a surreal game landscape (pictured). He subsequently turned into a neon cyborg, and then a deep-sea diver, as the world filled with water and spectators swam around his giant figure. It was, in every sense, a truly immersive experience. Mr Scott’s performance took place in a world, of sorts—not merely on a screen.

Meanwhile, as other betrothed couples lamented the cancellation of their nuptials, Sharmin Asha and Nazmul Ahmed moved their wedding from a hip Brooklyn venue into the colourful world of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, a video game set on a tropical island in which people normally spend their time gardening or fishing. The couple, and a handful of friends, took part in a torchlit beachside ceremony. Mr Ahmed wore an in-game recreation of the suit he had bought for the wedding. Since then many other weddings, birthday parties and baby showers have been celebrated within the game.

Alternative venues for graduation ceremonies, many of which were cancelled this year amid the pandemic, have been the virtual worlds of “Roblox” and “Minecraft”, two popular games that are, in effect, digital construction sets. Students at the University of California, Berkeley, recreated their campus within the game to stage the event, which included speeches from the chancellor and vice-chancellor of the university, and ended with graduates tossing their virtual hats into the air.

People unversed in hip-hop or video games have been spending more time congregating in more minimal online environments, through endless work meetings on Zoom or family chats on FaceTime—ways of linking up people virtually that were unthinkable 25 years ago. These many not seem anything like virtual realities—but they are online spaces for interaction and the foundations around which more ambitious structures can be built. “Together” mode, an addition to Teams, Microsoft’s video-calling and collaboration system, displays all the participants in a call together in a virtual space, rather than the usual grid of boxes, changing the social dynamic by showing participants as members of a cohesive group. With virtual backgrounds, break-out rooms, collaboration tools and software that transforms how people look, video-calling platforms are becoming places to get things done.

Though all these technologies existed well before the pandemic, their widespread adoption has been “accelerated in a way that only a crisis could achieve,” says Matthew Ball, a Silicon Valley media analyst (and occasional contributor to The Economist). “You don’t go back from that.”

This is a remarkable shift. For decades, proponents of virtual reality (vr) have been experimenting with strange-looking, expensive headsets that fill the wearer’s field of view with computer-generated imagery. Access to virtual worlds via a headset has long been depicted in books, such as “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline and “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson, as well as in films. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, who spent more than $2bn to acquire Oculus, a vr startup, in 2014, has said that, as the technology gets cheaper and more capable, this will be “the next platform” for computing after the smartphone.

But the headset turns out to be optional. Computer-generated realities are already everywhere, not just in obvious places like video games or property websites that offer virtual tours to prospective buyers. They appear behind the scenes in television and film production, simulating detailed worlds for business and training purposes, and teaching autonomous cars how to drive. In sport the line between real and virtual worlds is blurring as graphics are super-imposed on television coverage of sporting events on the one hand, and professional athletes and drivers compete in virtual contests on the other. Virtual worlds have become part of people’s lives, whether they realise it or not.

This is not to say that headsets do not help. Put on one of the best and the immersive experience is extraordinary. Top-of-the-range headsets completely replace the wearer’s field of vision with a computer-generated world, using tiny screens in front of each eye. Sensors in the goggles detect head movements, and the imagery is adjusted accordingly, providing the illusion of being immersed in another world. More advanced systems can monitor the position of the headset, not just its orientation, within a small area. Such “room-scale vr” maintains the illusion even as the wearer moves or crouches down.

Tech firms large and small have also been working on “augmented reality” (ar) headsets that superimpose computer-generated imagery onto the real world—a more difficult trick than fully immersive vr, because it requires fancy optics in the headset to mix the real and the virtual. ar systems must also take into account the positions and shapes of objects in the real world, so that the resulting combination is convincing, and virtual objects sitting on surfaces, or floating in the air, stay put and do not jump around as the wearer moves. When virtual objects are able to interact with real environments, the result is sometimes known as mixed reality (xr).

Despite several false dawns, there are now signs that, for some industries, these technologies could at last be reaching the right price and capability to be useful. A report in 2019 by pwc, a consultancy, predicts that vr and ar have the potential to add $1.5trn to the world economy by 2030, by spurring productivity gains in areas including health care, engineering, product development, logistics, retail and entertainment.

Because the display of information is no longer confined by the size of a physical screen on a desktop or a mobile device, but can fill the entire field of vision, the use of vr and ar “creates a new and even more intuitive way to interact with a computer,” notes Goldman Sachs, a bank, which expects the market for such technology to be worth $95bn by 2025. And these predictions were made before the pandemic induced surge of interest in doing things in virtual environments.

Progress in developing virtual realities is being driven by hardware from the smartphone industry and software from the video-games industry. Modern smartphones, with their vivid colour screens and motion sensors, contain everything needed for vr: indeed, a phone slotted into a cardboard viewer with a couple of lenses can serve as a rudimentary vr headset. Dedicated systems use more advanced motion sensors, but can otherwise use many of the same components. Smartphones can also deliver a hand-held form of ar, overlaying graphics and virtual items on images from the phone’s camera.

The most famous example of this is “Pokémon Go”, a game that involves catching virtual monsters hidden around the real world. Other smartphone ar apps can identify passing aircraft by attaching labels to them, or provide walking directions by superimposing floating arrows on a street view. And ar “filters” that change the way people look, from adding make-up to more radical transformations, are popular on social-media platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram.

On the software front, vr has benefited from a change in the way video games are built. Games no longer involve pixelated monsters moving on two-dimensional grids, but are sophisticated simulations of the real world, or at least some version of it. Millions of lines of code turn the player’s button-presses into cinematic imagery on screen. The software that does this—known as a “game engine”—manages the rules and logic of the virtual world. It keeps characters from walking through walls or falling through floors, makes water flow in a natural way and ensures that interactions between objects occur realistically and according to the laws of physics. The game engine also renders the graphics, taking into account lighting, shadows, and the textures and reflectivity of different objects in the scene. And for multiplayer games, it handles interactions with other players around the world.

In the early days of the video-games industry, programmers would generally create a new engine every time they built a new game. That link was decisively broken in 1996 when id Software, based in Texas, released a first-person-shooter game called “Quake”. Set in a gothic, 3d world, it challenged players to navigate a maze-like environment while fighting monsters. Crucially, players could use the underlying Quake Engine to build new levels, weapons and challenges within the game to play with friends. The engine was also licensed to other developers, who used it to build entirely new games.

Using an existing game engine to handle the job of simulating a virtual world allowed game developers, large and small, to focus instead on the creative elements of game design, such as narrative, characters, assets and overall look. This is, of course, a familiar division of labour in other creative industries. Studios do not design their own cameras, lights or editing software when making their movies. They buy equipment and focus their energies instead on the creative side of their work: telling entertaining stories.

Once games and their engines had been separated, others beyond the gaming world realised that they, too, could use engines to build interactive 3d experiences. It was a perfect fit for those who wanted to build experiences in virtual or augmented reality. Game engines were “absolutely indispensable” to the growth of virtual worlds in other fields, says Bob Stone of the University of Birmingham in England. “The gaming community really changed the tide of fortune for the virtual-reality community.”

Two game engines in particular emerged as the dominant platforms: Unity, made by Unity Technologies, based in San Francisco, and Unreal Engine, made by Epic Games, based in Cary, North Carolina. Unity says its engine powers 60% of the world’s vr and ar experiences. Unreal Engine underpins games including “Gears of War”, “Mass Effect” and “BioShock”. Epic also uses it to make games of its own, most famously “Fortnite”, now one of the most popular and profitable games in the world, as well as the venue for elaborate online events like that staged in conjunction with Mr Scott.

Epic’s boss, Tim Sweeney, forecast in 2015 that there would be convergence between different creative fields as they all adopted similar tools. The ability to create photorealistic 3d objects in virtual worlds is not just attractive to game designers, but also to industrial designers, architects and film-makers, not to mention hip-hop stars. Game engines, Mr Sweeney predicted, would be the common language powering the graphics and simulations across all those previously separate professional and consumer worlds.

That is now happening, as the tools of virtual-world-building spread into many areas. This Technology Quarterly will explore where computer-generated realities are already starting to make an impact—work, entertainment and health are all seeing changes—and where the technology is heading.

Building a complex, immersive, virtual social space, like the “Metaverse” depicted in “Snow Crash” is the goal for many serious minds in technology today. Mr Sweeney sees the Metaverse, or something like it, as the next iteration of the web, where people can go to work, play games, shop or just pass the time.

Similarly, Mr Ball reckons game engines will become a base layer for digital 3d worlds, a standard upon which new industries will be built. Rather than predict specific future results of this standardisation, he cites the introduction of railways as a way to think about the many opportunities that lie ahead. “What happens when you layer the country with railroad infrastructure?” he asks. “What happens when you massively drop the friction to experimentation and creation?” When it comes to virtual worlds, that is now a very real question. ■

This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline "Reaching into other worlds"

As children are pushed to achieve academic goals at earlier and earlier ages, the incidence of learning disabilities is growing at an alarming (some say epidemic) rate. There may be a host of root causes, from immune response issues to dietary and familial problems, but one factor is susceptible to immediate control by parents who choose to homeschool and that is the age at which traditional academic work is introduced to their children. One hundred years ago, it was common for children to enter school at age 8 or even later. Two hundred years ago, children were not even accepted in most schools until they could read. Today, in contrast, the most arduous efforts of our public schools cannot produce high school graduates who can compare favorably in knowledge and skills with the 8th grade graduates of 1900. What on earth is going on? It is claimed by the education establishment that the fault lies variously with the children (learning disabled), their parents (incompetent and /or uninterested), or the government/tax payers (low funding), or all three. Educators seldom blame their own methods, materials, timetables, etc. Most people would agree that “one size fits all” items actually don’t fit most people very well, but when it comes to education, otherwise intelligent folks are inclined to bow to the “wisdom” of the established educational order in the matter of what a child should learn and when he should learn it. Homeschool parents come to me every day asking for “the list” of what their children should be learning at each grade level. Or, they come in very worried because Jr. is in third grade and doesn’t yet know his multiplication facts or parts of speech or the difference between a parallelogram and a trapezoid! Oh, my! As a former primary teacher, I can attest to the almost total incompetence of the school bureaucracy – from the teacher colleges to the state mandated textbooks. Even though the new emphasis on phonics is a promising sign, it appears that the manic insistence on developmentally inappropriate “academic” goals will insure a large number of educationally handicapped children for years to come, incidentally providing job security for legions of special education teachers. As principal of a large, private homeschool Independent Study Program (umbrella school for homeschoolers), I see children daily who have been battered by this insane and inhumane system. But, that is not the worst of it. The problem is compounded by the tyranny of “experts” who are determined to “help” homeschoolers by “diagnosing” and offering to “treat” all manner of suddenly discovered maladies from ODD (opposition/defiant disorder) to ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) to my favorite: Auditory Processing Disorder(APD), a wonderful catch-all for the late bloomer who hasn’t yet cracked the phonetic code of English. These “experts” would have us believe that otherwise normal children suddenly become “disordered” when they enter school or begin formal “homeschooling.” This is not to say that there are not children with very real medical and /or psychological problems, but the vast majority of children diagnosed with a “learning disability” are simply normal children with either a low tolerance for boredom (ADD), too much energy to sit still for long doing boring, repetitive work (ADHD), developmentally unready to absorb the material presented (LD, ADD,APD, Dyslexic, Dysgraphic, etc.) or possessed of a learning style which is incompatible with the curriculum in use(ADD, etc., etc.) The labels fly so rapidly and predictably to so many children that they have become virtually meaningless except to the professional “experts” whose livelihood depend on a full IN basket of educationally handicapped kids. Many distraught parents opt to homeschool after receiving one or more of these dred diagnoses for their children. They remove them from school in order to help them overcome their “disability” and “remediate” their “deficiencies.” Although they intuitively know that their children are bright and can learn, they cling to the standards and timelines of the system that condemned their children and in so doing, create unnecessary difficulty for themselves and their offspring. Often, parents come to me in search of a curriculum to help their children “catch up.” I have to ask, ”Catch up to what?” In trusting that the state and the state’s schools know the best way to educate a child, they are in danger of destroying their children’s best opportunity to learn in the home environment. By pushing children too hard too early, resistance, aversion and fear of failure create barriers to learning, only compounding the damage already done by the school system. Teaching and learning are neither difficult nor mysterious. It does not take a trained expert to teach the phonetic code to a child who is ready. READY is the operative word. As a former first grade teacher who learned to read in the first grade, I once thought that all children could and should learn to read at age six. It took a determined homeschooling neighbor, my own “late” reading daughters and the research of pioneering homeschool advocates, Raymond and Dorothy Moore to convince me otherwise. We were very excited about homeschooling and started right in with MCP Plaid Phonics when Tenaya was five years old. She learned the letter sounds quickly but could not put them together to make words. We were both frustrated while the neighbor boys, two years older than my girls, played happily and didn’t even attempt to read. Their mother, Susan, introduced me to the Moores’ books and philosophy. I was unconvinced but I had no choice. My very bright and eager daughter was not reading no matter what we did. Had she been in school, she would have been labeled dyslexic simply because she did not read. Her sister, however, would have earned a whole list of labels: ADHD (she bounced off the walls when she wasn’t climbing them), APD (she made no sound/symbol connections until she was about nine), dyslexic (she couldn’t read), dysgraphic (she couldn’t write) among others. Dr. and Mrs. Moore’s first book, School Can Wait and its twin for laymen, Better Late Than Early, introduced me to the facts about education and child development. The Moores collected early childhood research from medicine, ophthalmology, neurology, and psychology and came to the inescapable conclusion that for most children, the optimum age to begin formal academics is between the ages of eight and twelve! For those of us who are steeped in the culture of early academics, this is a strange pill to swallow. But the Moores didn’t stop with mere laboratory research; they studied homeschool families in the 70’s and 80’s to see what happened when children were free to learn at a more natural pace. The result was several more books, culminating with The Successful Family Homeschool Handbook. This volume elaborates on “The Moore Formula” which Dr. and Mrs. Moore developed over the years as they combined research with practical application. The “Moore Formula” includes three elements in approximately equal portions: study, work and service. They do not recommend formal academic studies before age 8 and in some cases, as late as 12. (My younger daughter fell into this older category.) This does not mean that the child does not learn anything until age 8+. Children are learning voraciously from birth and only the roadblock of clumsy “schooling” can retard or stop a child’s otherwise insatiable thirst for knowledge. Books are useful and important tools, but for a young child, the world is filled with much better learning opportunities than can be found on the printed page alone. When a child is allowed to explore and question and wonder, whole worlds of interest can open that might never be discovered otherwise. In this homeschooling style, a child might learn to read at five, at seven or at twelve, depending on the child. This more relaxed early learning/teaching style will incorporate important developmental areas often neglected or ignored by formal curricula: listening, hand-eye coordination, large motor skills, spatial relationships, personal relationships, knowledge about the physical environment, memory development, imagination, logic and many more. Because of the overwhelming presence of electronic media in our lives, children are often have difficulty using their own imagination or even listening to a story without pictures. They are so bombarded with constant sound from radio, TV, and electronic games that they can hardly think for themselves. Giving children time in the early years (hopefully with a minimum of TV, etc.) to develop physically, neurologically and emotionally allows them to move into formal academics with a maximum of preparedness and energy. Since we are on the topic of physical and academic readiness we should spend a few moments on learning styles. It is important to understand that each child has a unique learning style that might be different from yours or his siblings. Regardless of when you start teaching your children formally it is critically important to teach in a manner that best fits the child’s learning style. The absolute best publication we know of to assist you in determining and understanding your child’s learning style is Mariaemma Willis’ and Victoria Hodson’s book, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. The blending of this book with the works of the Moore’s will provide you the foundation of a highly successful homeschool experience. Delayed academics does not mandate delayed reading; it encourages parents to wait until their children are ready. Until that time, parents can read to their children, play games with letters and sounds, and watch for signs that their children are beginning to catch on to the code. Once that happens, you cannot stop a child from reading. Some will move quickly and others will make slower progress, but as long as the instruction is phonetic (this is vital), children will make gradual progress until they are reading at an adult level. The catch here is that although you can toss out the LD labels, you may not be able to use a packaged curriculum (Oh shucks!) One of my daughters learned to read (effortlessly) at age 8 and the other at 10 ½. One used Primary Phonics readers and the other preferred Dr. Seuss I Can Read primers. Once past the primers, they simply selected (with my guidance) books they enjoyed. Gradually, they moved to more and more difficult material. Both are college graduates with enjoyable careers. We used the Moore Formula instead of a formal curriculum. The girls worked at many jobs and invented as many businesses including one, Fun Ed, that is still thriving as part of Excellence In Education Resource Center. They were involved in numerous service projects culminating in overseas missions work. Most people would classify us as unschoolers and I would not argue except to qualify that label by saying we did use the Moore Formula to balance our lives. This happy ending would not have been possible without the concept of “delayed academics,” for our daughters would have been labeled early and often had we taken our little non-readers to the “experts.” Thankfully, we went instead to Dr. Raymond Moore and his wonderful wife Dorothy, who told us that as long as they were making progress, we should not worry. They were right! Modern schools were intended to do for education what Henry Ford did for auto manufacturing. In some ways they have succeeded, but remember that children aren’t molten blobs of metal that can be reshaped by any mold to fit in any space for any purpose. Children are unique and delicate human beings with special talents, strengths and weaknesses. Each has his own developmental schedule, which we ignore at our peril. As homeschoolers, we have rejected the “system” for a variety of reasons; we have stepped outside the box. Remember that the box includes much more than just the building. Stepping outside the box and giving our children the very best tailor made education includes questioning the school schedule and curriculum as well. Things that are mass-produced are never of the finest quality and the same goes for a copy of a mass- produced item. The best education for your child is one that is developed for his or her unique learning schedule and learning style. Only the parent can judge the appropriateness of the schedule by watching for things to “click,” but we can get quite a bit of guidance from Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s many books on homeschooling and Willis and Hodson’s Learning Style Profile found in Discover Your Child’s Learning Style. Trying to get a head start by pushing early academics can backfire, causing difficulties for years to come. Instead of worrying about a “learning disability” because your child does not fit the style and sequence of “in the box” schools, spend your energy on developing your child’s natural interests. You will be amazed at the results.

Question...

What factors would influence your decision? Were you surprised at the articles that question the value of early childhood education?

Summarize two topics you found to be most noteworthy in this reading. Must be in own word(200words).

Buffet Essays I. Preferred Stock

When Richard Branson, the wealthy owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, was asked how to become a millionaire, he had a quick answer: "There's really nothing to it. Start as a billionaire and then buy an airline." Unwilling to accept Branson's proposition on faith, your Chairman decided in 1989 to test it by investing $358 million in a 91/4% preferred stock of USAir. I liked and admired Ed Colodny, the company's then-CEO, and I still do. But my analysis of USAir's business was both superficial and wrong. I was so beguiled by the company's long history of profitable operations, and by the protection that ownership of a senior security seemingly offered me, that I overlooked the crucial point: USAir's revenues would increasingly feel the effects of an unregulated, fiercely competitive market whereas its cost structure was a holdover from the days when regulation protected profits. These costs, if left unchecked, portended disaster, however reassuring the airline's past record might be. ([Again, if] history supplied all of the answers, the Forbes 400 would consist of librarians.) To rationalize its costs, however, USAir needed major improvements in its labor contracts-and that's something most airlines have found it extraordinarily difficult to get, short of credibly threatening, or actually entering, bankruptcy. USAir was to be no exception. Immediately after we purchased our preferred stock, the imbalance between the company's costs and revenues began to grow explosively. In the 1990-1994 period, USAir lost an aggregate of $2.4 billion, a performance that totally wiped out the book equity of its common stock. For much of this period, the company paid us our preferred dividends, but in 1994 payment was suspended. A bit later, with the situation looking particularly gloomy, we wrote down our investment by 75%, to $89.5 million. Thereafter, during much of 1995, I offered to sell our shares at 50% of face value. Fortunately, I was unsuccessful. Mixed in with my many mistakes at USAir was one thing I got right: Making our investment, we wrote into the preferred contract a somewhat unusual provision stipulating that "penalty dividends"- to run five percentage points over the prime rate-would be accrued on any arrearages. This meant that when our 91/4% dividend was omitted for two years, the unpaid amounts compounded at rates ranging between 131/4% and 14%. Facing this penalty provision, USAir had every incentive to pay arrearages just as promptly as it could. And in the second half of 1996, when USAir turned profitable, it indeed began to pay, giving us $47.9 million. We owe Stephen Wolf, the company's CEO, a huge thank-you for extracting a performance from the airline that permitted this payment. Even so, USAir's performance has recently been helped significantly by an industry tailwind that may be cyclical in nature. The company still has basic cost problems that must be solved. In any event, the prices of USAir's publicly-traded securities tell us that our preferred stock is now probably worth its par value of $358 million, give or take a little. In addition, we have over the years collected an aggregate of $240.5 million in dividends (including $30 million received in 1997). Early in 1996, before any accrued dividends had been paid, I tried once more to unload our holdings-this time for about $335 million. You're lucky: I again failed in my attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. In another context, a friend once asked me: "If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?" After reviewing my sorry performance with USAir, you may conclude he had a point. We continue to hold the convertible preferred stocks described in earlier reports: $700 million of Salomon Inc., $600 million of The Gillette Company, $358 million of USAir Group, Inc., and $300 million of Champion International Corp. Our Gillette holdings will be converted into 12 million shares of common stock on April 1. Weighing interest rates, credit quality and prices of the related common stocks, we can assess our holdings in Salomon and Champion at yearend 1990 as worth about what we paid, Gillette as worth somewhat more, and USAir as worth substantially less. In making the USAir purchase, your Chairman displayed exquisite timing: I plunged into the business at almost the exact moment that it ran into severe problems. (No one pushed me; in tennis parlance, I committed an "unforced error.") The company's troubles were brought on both by industry conditions and by the post-merger difficulties it encountered in integrating Piedmont, an affliction I should have expected since almost all airline mergers have been followed by operational turmoil. In short order, Ed Colodny and Seth Schofield resolved the second problem: The airline now gets excellent marks for service. Industry-wide problems have proved to be far more serious. Since our purchase, the economics of the airline industry have deteriorated at an alarming pace, accelerated by the kamikaze pricing tactics of certain carriers. The trouble this pricing has produced for all carriers illustrates an important truth: In a business selling a commodity- type product, it's impossible to be a lot smarter than your dumbest competitor. However, unless the industry is decimated during the next few years, our USAir investment should work out all right. Ed and Seth decisively addressed the current turbulence by making major changes in operations. Even so, our investment is now less secure than at the time I made it. Our convertible preferred stocks are relatively simple securities, yet I should warn you that, if the past is any guide, you may from time to time read inaccurate or misleading statements about them. Last year, for example, several members of the press calculated the value of all our preferreds as equal to that of the common stock into which they are convertible. By their logic, that is, our Salomon preferred, convertible into common at $38, would be worth 60% of face value if Salomon common were selling at $22.80. But there is a small problem with this line of reasoning: Using it, one must conclude that all of a value of a convertible preferred resides in the conversion privilege and that value of a nonconvertible preferred of Salomon would be zero, no matter what its coupon or terms for redemption. The point you should keep in mind is that most of the value of our convertible preferreds is derived from their fixed-income characteristics. That means the securities cannot be worth less than the value they would possess as non-convertible preferreds and may be worth more because of their conversion options. Berkshire made five private purchases of convertible preferred stocks during the 1987-91 period and the time seems right to discuss their status. In each case we had the option of sticking with these preferreds as fixed-income securities or converting them into common stock. Initially, their value to us came primarily from their fixedincome characteristics. The option we had to convert was a kicker. Our $300 million private purchase of American Express "Peres" . . . was a modified form of common stock whose fixedincome characteristics contributed only a minor portion of its initial value. Three years after we bought them, the Peres automatically were converted to common stock. In contrast, [our other convertible preferred stocks] were set to become common stocks only if we wished them to-a crucial difference. When we purchased our convertible securities, I told you that we expected to earn after-tax returns from them that "moderately" exceeded what we could earn from the medium-term fixed-income securities they replaced. We beat this expectation-but only because of the performance of a single issue. I also told you that these securities, as a group, would "not produce the returns we can achieve when we find a business with wonderful economic prospects." Unfortunately, that prediction was fulfilled. Finally, I said that "under almost any conditions, we expect these preferreds to return us our money plus dividends." That's one I would like to have back. Winston Churchill once said that "eating my words has never given me indigestion." My assertion, however, that it was almost impossible for us to lose money on our preferreds has caused me some well-deserved heartburn. Our best holding has been Gillette, which we told you from the start was a superior business. Ironically, though, this is also the purchase in which I made my biggest mistake-of a kind, however, never recognized on financial statements. We paid $600 million in 1989 for Gillette preferred shares that were convertible into 48 million (split-adjusted) common shares. Taking an alternative route with the $600 million, I probably could have purchased 60 million shares of common from the company. The market on the common was then about $10.50, and given that this would have been a huge private placement carrying important restrictions, I probably could have bought the stock at a discount of at least 5%. I can't be sure about this, but it's likely that Gillette's management would have been just as happy to have Berkshire opt for common. But I was far too clever to do that. Instead, for less than two years, we received some extra dividend income (the difference between the preferred's yield and that of the common), at which point the company-quite properly-called the issue, moving to do that as quickly as was possible. If I had negotiated for common rather than preferred, we would have been better off at yearend 1995 by $625 million, minus the "excess" dividends of about $70 million. In the case of Champion, the ability of the company to call our preferred at 115% of cost forced a move out of us last August that we would rather have delayed. In this instance, we converted our shares just prior to the pending call and offered them to the company at a modest discount. Charlie and I have never had a conviction about the paper industry-actually, I can't remember ever owning the common stock of a paper producer in my 54 years of investing-so our choice in August was whether to sell in the market or to the company..., Our Champion capital gain was moderate-about 19% after tax from a six-year investment-but the preferred delivered us a good after-tax dividend yield throughout our holding period. (That said, many press accounts have overstated the after-tax yields earned by property-casualty insurance companies on dividends paid to them. What the press has failed to take into account is a change in the tax law that took effect in 1987 and that significantly reduced the dividends received credit applicable to insurers. For details, see [Part V.H.].) Our First Empire preferred [was to] be called on March 31, 1996, the earliest date allowable. We are comfortable owning stock in well-run banks, and we will convert and keep our First Empire common shares. Bob Wilmers, CEO of the company, is an outstanding banker, and we love being associated with him. Our other two preferreds have been disappointing, though the Salomon preferred has modestly outperformed the fixed-income securities for which it was a substitute. However, the amount of management time Charlie and I have devoted to this holding has been vastly greater than its economic significance to Berkshire. Certainly I never dreamed I would take a new job at age 60-Salomon interim chairman, that is-because of an earlier purchase of a fixed-income security. Soon after our purchase of the Salomon preferred in 1987, I wrote that I had "no special insights regarding the direction or future profitability of investment banking." Even the most charitable commentator would conclude that I have since proved my point. To date, our option to convert into Salomon common has not proven of value. Furthermore, the Dow Industrials have doubled since I committed to buy the preferred, and the brokerage group has performed equally as well. That means my decision to go with Salomon because I saw value in the conversion option must be graded as very poor. Even so, the preferred has continued under some trying conditions to deliver as a fixed-income security, and the 9% dividend is currently quite attractive. Unless the preferred is converted, its terms require redemption of 20% of the issue on October 31 of each year, 1995-99, and $140 million of our original $700 million was taken on schedule last year. (Some press reports labeled this a sale, but a senior security that matures is not "sold.") Though we did not elect to convert the preferred that matured last year, we have four more bites at the conversion apple, and I believe it quite likely that we will yet find value in our right to convert.