Growing Up Around, During, and After World War Ii

During and After World War II Around and during World War II there were many challenges and many exciting and terrifying events occur. Many things happen such as the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, C)-day, and Hiroshima. Billie Jean Ramsey-styles grew up during this time. Billie was born in Brownsville, Yankee County, North Carolina on December 30 1930. Her mother was a homemaker; her father was a brick mason.She lived in a five-room house that had electricity but did not have an indoor tearoom. She did household chores like washing laundry and, dishes, making beds, carrying in firewood and cleaning house (Styles). According too U. S. History teacher â€Å"The Great Depression was the period of time in which the stock market crashed, banks failed, and the U. S. Had an economic fallout† (Mueller). It was a point in time when people did not have much of anything and they had to work hard to afford what they did have. Many people could not afford toys for their children. The chi ldren from this time still found things to do such as: play kick the can, hide and eek and, they also cut out people from magazines and used them as paper dolls. The depression also affected school budgets. Schools could not afford sports uniforms or other sports equipment. Me and my cheerleaders team made our uniforms in Home CE. Many people lost their Jobs and had to work at Civilian Conservation Corps Camps. â€Å"The camps were similar to the military. People were in small groups and wore uniforms. They had to work and follow all rules, but in return they got three square meals a day and a Job.The ICC camp in Brownsville worked on the Blue Ridge Parkway' (Styles). According to an article called Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939 â€Å"The beginning of the war, on September 1st 1939 Poland was invaded by Germany. Germany defeated the Polish army within weeks and Britain and France declare war on Germany because Germany invaded Poland. Russia invaded eastern Poland on September 17thà ¢â‚¬  Billie Jean remembers this time Clearly â€Å"me and many other people were worried that Germany and Russia would invade the United States.I may have been worried but she felt safe in the mountains of North Carolina† (Styles). The U. S. Gets involved in the war. â€Å"On December 7th 1941 Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese† (Mueller). â€Å"The Japanese had planned to destroy the Pacific Fleet but failed because, all of the aircraft carriers were away on missions or training† (Pearl). â€Å"Billie remembers what she was doing when she heard the news about Pearl Harbor. She was working a Jigsaw puzzle while her father was on the couch listening to the radio- this was before the television.All of a sudden they heard We interrupt this program for a special announcement. Japan has bombed Pearl Harbor'. Billie and her family were sad for the families whose loved ones were injured or killed in the attack. They were also upset that the U. S. Had been attac ked. They continued to listen to the radio. Eventually, they heard â€Å"The U. S. Is now at war. † Since the U. S. Entered the war the government started to ration sugar and gas† (Billie). â€Å"The rationing of sugar and gas caused a rise in the black marker (Mueller).The Invasion to Normandy, â€Å"D-day, was on June 6 The plan was then to land and invade five beaches off the coast of France† (Mueller). Billie remembers what happened when the invasion was successful â€Å"The invasion was broadcast on the radio. I remember what happened when the invasion was successful. Everybody went to the town square to celebrate. The church bells were ringing, the fire whistle was going off and people were having fun. During this time period many stores shut down on Wednesday afternoons and people would get together and make victory gardens†.When asked what victory gardens were she replied Victory gardens were kitchen gardens planted during wartime to relieve food shortages† (Styles). â€Å"August 6th 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. This signaled the end of the war† (Mueller) Billie and her family were glad the war was over but sorrowful that so many people had to die to end it. They were also cared because such a destructive bomb had been developed (Styles). â€Å"After World War II everyone was rejoicing and relieved that the war was over.People were happy that the soldiers were returning home. Sugar and gas rations stopped; you could buy more at the grocery stores. After the war things died down and returned to normal† (Styles). Growing up around, during, and after World War II was an interesting time. There were many challenges and many exciting events, such as The Great Depression, D-day, Pearl Harbor, and Hiroshima. Billie Jean Styles and other people lived during this era. I chose Billie Jean Ramsey-styles as my interviewee cause she is my great, great grandmother, who is still alive.

HR Plan of Action for QV Solar LLC Essay

QV Solar LLC has experienced rapid growth that has seen an increase it its staff from 15 to 54 last year in spite of the global economic recession. In order to maintain the position and develop the company as a â€Å"green† company, the Company’s HR proposes a series of strategies that will encourage change and an increase in productivity. The policies will mainly focus primarily on improving the efficiency of the Company’s current workforce since hiring of new employees will not be an immediate viable scheme. The plan will target making the staff understand the company’s mission better by reevaluating their roles and understanding what is specifically expected of them for enhanced success of the company. In order to realize effective change among staff, the HR will target capacity building and teamwork as key concepts of management and ensure that adequate resources are provided to facilitate creation of an environment that favors much success. The HR will design a structure that facilitates constructive feedback from all departments in order to facilitate a systematic flow of information at various organization levels. The smooth flow of information will ultimately lead to the development of better opportunities for a more rapid growth of the company. QV Solar LLC’s HR Plan of Action will be based on Joel Ross and Michael Kami’s opinion that â€Å"managers should avoid organizational rigor mortis†¦ that change is inevitable, and the organization as well as its people must accommodate the change (McConnell 315). The plan of action will also embrace the fact that the only thing that lasts in organizations is change. That change is with organizations and keeps accelerating them. This change will not be produced by internal action only but will also be a factor of external actions- such as consideration of the value of customers to the company (McConnell 315). The HR will focus on changes in product innovation by ensuring that solar panels are tailored as per customer specifications. In order to achieve this, QV Solar LLC should focus on feedback from staff when they install solar panels for customers. Along this line, staff should be trained to facilitate better installation and human relation with customers. The training program will entail integration of staff and customer ideas to ensure that the solar panels are of the highest quality and thus promote QV Solar LLC as a â€Å"greener† company. The training program will be followed by a follow-up evaluation to monitor its effectiveness with a view that customers’ ideas are vital for the Company’s success. The Company’s objective to maintain a clean environment will be facilitated by incorporating customers in a program where they can return their panels to the company for recycling as a means of exercising corporate responsibility. This will also emphasize the fact that change is realized not only from within an organization but also from customers and the prevailing environment. In order to capture a larger share of the market, the HR will review staff performance from time to time and ensure that their skills are constantly ameliorated. This will be will be achieved by ensuring that the employees can work in various departments in different capacities in order to develop a multiplicity of skills that will enhance the company’s productivity without necessarily having to hire more staff. In summary, QV Solar LLC’s Plan of Action will entail strategies that aim at improving productivity by improving the efficiency of employees while recognizing the customer as the most important part of the organization.

A system change tutorial and proposal letter Research

A system change tutorial and letter - Research Proposal Example Keeping user ignorant of implementation details is an important requirement for any software development process. Especially, applications designed in the object oriented domain enforce this functionality through their built-in support for encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance. This language change proposal provide an overview of the present state of the system along with its technical aspects required to be changed for a better and improved version of the system which is technically sound and superior. The strategy adopted to bring about this change is simple and the objective is to familiarize the management about the major areas of the system that will undergo this changed. The Employees Management System (EMS) was developed in Java somewhere back in 2001 to manage the human resource sector of an enterprise level organization with a global presence. Purpose The proposed change in the system will allow a purely Object Oriented Application development in C++ instead of a mere support of objects through Java. As the system is redesigned to support global operations for the company, it is the best time to incorporate a fully object oriented design for the EMS. Background Theory In our case Java is the existing language for the Employees Management System (EMS) and we have proposed a purely object-oriented language and Java though supports OOP structures but does not provided many basic features of OOP. These features include the multiple inheritance, pointers arithmetic, difficult object assignment and absence of operator overloading. Because a major shift in EMS application is proposed in future, as it has to provide global interaction support a language change to C++ is hereby proposed. The front end of the system was developed in Java with a database in SQL server 2000. Java was also used to implement the business logic of the system. The system is used to digitize nearly all aspects of an employee record from his personal details to his postings, cours es, awards, professional assessments etc. EMS is being used by the organization for more than ten years and operators are satisfied with the performance of the system. The new application will be developed in dotNet technologies with Oracle being used as the data repository for the system. The front end will be developed using the ASP dotNet while the business logic will be implemented in C#. The proposed application will replace the existing system in three phases, the first phase the database migration to the Oracle will be completed. The second phase will accomplish a web interface of the proposed system and implementation of the system will be finalized in the last phase wherein the interface will be hooked up with the Oracle database. Scope of the Proposed System The proposed system will be a completely web enabled OOP application and it will introduce additional analytical and decision support features to ensure better human resources management. Special analytical tools will be added in the system to gauge the performance of an employee in order to help out managers in the decision support process at the highest level for placements, promotions and other considerations. Feasibility and the Benefits The proposed application will extend the present scope of the application and will provide the decision support capability along with a decentralize plan of real-time information collection. The dotNet technologi

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 98

Assignment Example It also helps you to mature as a person because of your experience. However the drawbacks may include certain challenges such as applying for visa or migration issues (Accounting Internships Abroad, 2014). I think I belong to the Generation Y as I am born in this century. If I want to start my own restaurant, I would market it to others in my generational group through the use of internet. I will market my restaurant on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as the people of my generation are usually active on these sites. I think that people of my generation would find fast food such as pizzas, burgers, French-fries, sandwiches, steaks, coffees, mock tails, etc. appealing, and therefore I would have such a menu that attracts the people of my generation. Baby Boomer Generation is the largest generation and contains about 80 million people. The people of this generation were born after the World War II, in between the period of 1946 to 1964. It is the oldest generation and its people are currently retired. As the people of this generation were born during the period of war they suffered a lot but due to advancement in technology, education and aid provided by the government, these people developed as a prosperous generation. The people of this generation were born in the period of 1960 to 1980 and contain about 46 million people. The children of this generation were the first ones to used Computers, Cell phones, Cable, Television, Fax machine, Videogames, etc. The people of this generation are focused on their goals and are independence of their families. They make their own decisions as they are often raised by divorced parents. With the advancement of media and journalism in this generation, they are taught to hold differences based on religion, race, caste and class. The people of this generation are born in the period of 1980 to 2000 and are

International businss Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

International businss - Case Study Example Global market entry strategy requires intensive branding and promotion that would meet the diverse needs of various communities (Donnellan, 2014, pg.150).Besides, sound product, pricing and distribution has been critical in elevating Tommy Hilfiger to status of international firm. In this respect, promotion through global personalities and licensing brand association with great companies does wonders. The greatest challenge most firms may face is standardization across diverse market niches. In this aspect, Tommy Hilfiger has differentiated its products to fit into the cultural differences that cut across its main markets in Europe, America and Asia. Besides, Pricing has to been discriminatory to yield desired goals. Critical assessment of the operation of Tommy Hilfiger portray branding and promotion as standardized across the globed. It is evident that Tommy Hilfiger uses international and local media to promote its brands that captures children and adults in their different gender. From the case study, the company has used global cartoon entity of Disney to promote children ware. This is a global approach since the program provides a common platform for target market in which children and parents are always trapped. Working with Disney artists also explores the strategy of working with other global companies which is viewed as positive Inter-industry Corporation with significant company image boost. Considering the adult wear, Tommy Hilfiger has used global leaders in politics like Clinton, Musicians like Snoop Dog, among other renowned personalities like Beyoncà ©. It is worth to note that the people noted in Hilfiger brands promotion command global acknowledgement in various spheres of lif e (Pride & Ferrell, 2010, pg.328). In that respect, this standardized approach has helped it to cut costs on operation with consequential gain in revenue and public image. In terms of price and product, Tommy Hilfiger took a strategic measure of setting up

Truama room nurse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Truama room nurse - Essay Example The trauma room nurse certification helps the nurses to acquire essential skills, such as ways to stop excessive blood loss, and methods of stabilizing a critically affected patient. Trauma room nurses should also be able to prevent secondary infections. In a health facility, there is a high likelihood for patients with life-threatening issues to contract other illness. Patients with open injuries and those with weakened immune systems should be monitored closely to prevent farther infections (Andreassi, 2006). Education and certification Dealing with trauma is a technical issue which requires authenticated certification. One is required to train and acquire the professional skills required to accomplish all the responsibilities. One of the important qualifications of a trauma nurse room is the nursing certification. This certification entails a wide range of skills that are crucial for a trauma nurse room. The certifications range from two years to ten years depending on the skills that one intends to acquire. I am experienced in surgical nursing for more than ten years majorly in neurosurgical and burn intensive care unit. In the nursing department, I have come to realize that most health care institutions offer a reasonable rate of salary to the nurses (Andreassi, 2006). Although salaries may vary from one institution to another, the rate seems to have a minimum range of between $20 and $24. This applies to those nurses who belong to the same category depending on their grades and personal experience. Employment The health care department has the most chances of employment opportunities across the world (Briere & Scott, 2006). There are a number of health institutions that one can get a job. For instance, after graduating from a nursing school in the US one can seek employment in the government institutions or privately owned institutions. The government owned health institutions include St Paul Medical Centre which is located at Minnesota in the US and West mead hospital (Andreassi, 2006). There are also open chances for one to get employment opportunities in a nongovernmental organization like AMREF, WHO, Red Cross and St Andrews ambulance among many others. These organizations assist patients in different ways. WHO as a non-governmental organization help in providing food to those people cannot meet their daily requirements as food (Andreassi, 2006). The Red Cross helps to provide humanitarian needs to people who are affected by natural calamities or other accidents. In this department, there are many possibilities for one to advance both academically and salary wise (Briere & Scott, 2006). The nursing certificate holders take the shortest time possible to complete their course. Because of the nature of the training, they are given the lowest salary followed by diploma holders and the degree holders in the same order (Follette & Ruzek, 2006). This indicates that professional experiences increase in the same line with the salary earne d. As one progress to gain higher knowledge, the salary also increases. The nursing schools have the capacity to train and offer advancement opportunities to all practitioners to enable them deal with patients efficiently. There are also workshops that help educate the nurses on the best scientific nursing practices. For instance, AMREF

Modern British politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Modern British politics - Essay Example The focus group is then asked questions to which it is to discuss and then to provide answers to the questions. More often than not these opinions are used simply to reassure the government, but more recently they have been used to form the new policies in areas that would have been otherwise neglected by the government. Those influencing the focus groups are usually influenced by their age, gender, and social class. Often times, these factors are represented in the focus groups that are found in the general areas of Britain. Individuals of different age groups are commonly looking for different things; the biggest division in the current economic situation is the fear of those ready to retire, and the fear of those that are just entering the job market. Therefore, focus groups have been influenced by these issues. Gender politics also comes into play, as many women are becoming more and more involved in politics and investing their voices in their political needs. Women are becoming more active in politics and the roles of political change. Some of this can be seen in the new laws revolving around divorce that have awarded women more monetary compensation, as in White vs. White. Women, because of their active status, are now winning around 50% of the assets in a marriage. Social class has always been an issue to consider as well, because social class has influenced the general needs of the various classes in Britain. The wealth of an individual can affect how he or she decides to vote, or what he or she decides to stand for. People who are in poverty will be more concerned about finding the various supports that they need, such as unemployment for those that have been recently laid off in the hard economic times. As far as age is concerned, older people tend to vote in the Labour part (around 60%) and younger individuals tend to vote for the Tories (around 65%). This can be seen from recent pollings. Since these age classes have distinct

Sacrifices that the Immigrant Parents Make by Coming to Live and to Essay

Sacrifices that the Immigrant Parents Make by Coming to Live and to Work in the United States - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that parents always find the â€Å"sacrifices† that they make for their families quite easy to bear. For instance, a mother can easily give up her career and become a house wife so as to make sure that her husband and her children have a comfortable daily life. A father can give up his dream job in order not to leave his wife and children in town. While every good parent has to make some sacrifices for the good of their families,   the immigrate parents sacrifice the most in order to give their children a better life. In order to effectively meet the financial and the economic needs of their families, the immigrant parents leave their homes or their hometowns in search of greener pasture abroad. The immigrant parents find it quite challenging to leave their hometowns with which they have already developed emotional attachments. Another major challenge that many immigrant parents face in foreign countries is the challenge of learnin g another new language. Despite these challenges that immigrant parents face in foreign countries, many people, however, especially in the United States have misconceptions or misunderstandings about immigrate parents. Many people in the United States think that the immigrant parents find it easy to stay in the United States; other people think that the main reason behind the immigrant parents coming to the United States is all about money

BIOTECHNOLOGY & GENETIC ANALYSIS PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT Essay

BIOTECHNOLOGY & GENETIC ANALYSIS PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT - Essay Example As most of these kind of catabolic genes found on plasmid observed bacterial population obtains from origin of river having very few plasmids. While in case of second sample which was obtained from nearby site of UWIC having large number of plasmid bearing bacteria. This is mainly attributed to accumulation of pollutant along the path of river and hence bacterial population need to evolved catabolic capability to survive and hence more plasmid bearing bacterial population were found in second sample. Similarly most of the plasmid was found to be in size range more than 35 KB clearly indicates most of them are Conjugative plasmids as this group of plasmid has more number of genes compared to non-conjugative plasmid to carryout conjugation process and hence larger the size. Re-suspension solution constitutes of glucose, EDTA and Tris each have its own role. Glucose provides osmotic stress and EDTA as chelating agents which binds to heavy metals and helps in disintegration of cell wall. Tris act as buffering agent and maintains pH of over all reactions to avoid any pH dependent side reaction. In this stage cells become highly fragile and some are break open. This solution is mixture of SDS and NaOH.

Genetically modified food Essay Example for Free

Genetically modified food Essay GMO foods are such an embedded part of our food system these days, but it’s not difficult to think back to a time when food was simpler and healthier. How did we get to the point that genetically modified organisms infiltrate so much of what we eat? Genetically modified foods (or GM foods) are foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. These techniques have allowed for the introduction of new crop traits as well as a far greater control over a foods genetic structure. The introduction of genetically modified food has created both benefits and conflicts among people. The idea of producing food with desirable qualities paved the way for the development of genetically modified food worldwide. Scientists were able to isolate genes with favourable traits and insert them in crops to produce food that can resist drought, insects, pesticides and even is more nutritious. It started by developing a tomato with a longer shelf life in 1994 called Flavr Savr. But then, it was found that consumption of this engineered tomato caused stomach lesions in rats, thus, raising issues about the safety of genetically modified food in general. Since then, the debate raise on the disadvantages of consumption of genetically modified food. Below are just some examples of the long list of disadvantages of such practice; 1. The safety of such products is not verified yet, in fact, we are the lab rats to test the safety of such technology. This is sad but true. In fact, genetically engineered food is being consumed daily with no thorough research of its potential threats on human health. 2. Genetically modified ingredients can cause cancer. A consultant histopathologest at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Dr Stanley Ewen, raised the concern that food and water contaminated with genetically engineered material could increase the growth of malignant tumours upon contact with humans. Later, other studies suggested a link between engineered food and cancer.

Development of Luxury Products: Montblanc

Development of Luxury Products: Montblanc Dissertation subject: a. Montblanc. Its development in the luxury industry OK b. The Montblancs brand extension in the luxury industry OK c. Montblanc brand: from a specialised luxury brand to a global luxury brand 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dissertation issue / key question: a. Did Montblanc, a specialised luxury brand in the writing instrument segment, extend its perception of luxury brand to its other product categories? OK b. Has Montblanc, a specialised luxury brand in the writing instrument segment, been successful in extending this perception to its other product categories? 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Literature review: a. Definition of luxury: * Different points of view * Key words/concepts (to be tested in the survey) b. Definition of luxury brand c. Concept of diversification strategy: * Objectives * Types * Drivers to be successful (consumer perception / reaction) * Performance (to which extent) * Montblanc:    strategic diagnosis (SBU) d. Brand extension    Luxury brand perception: * (How to measure it? Consumers reaction) 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research: a. Key question: can a specialised luxury brand extend its perception of luxury brand to other product categories? The case of the Montblanc brand.Today, is Montblanc a global luxury brand (not anymore a specialised luxury brand)? Therefore how was it possible? Well know reputation in its core business (for quality, design, social status) and the choice of neighbouring segments. b. Hypothesis: Montblanc is today an established global luxury brand. Montblanc is a clear example of a successful brand extension. How was it possible? (Reputation, tradition, quality, Montblanc extended its way of doing business based on quality and style next to its outstanding reputation in its historical core business) 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research: a. Objective: To prove that Montblanc has been able, in a relatively short time, to become a global luxury brand. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The research method: a. Which is the information to be collected in order to answer the issue discussed within our work and to verify the hypothesis?    the consumers perception of the Montblanc brand (the only boss) and the point of view of the Montblancs managers (figures on diversification mix, and resources allocated) b. How to collect the data (survey, interviews)? c. Which is the pitch of the research? Luxury sector, Montblanc and its major competitors in jewellery / watches / leather categories, luxury brand current and potential consumers. Becker, Howard S. (1998), Tricks of the trade, How to think about your research while youre doing it, The University of Chicago Press. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Analysis of the research findings: a. Analyse and understand the collected data    as usually it helps identify some factors that may answer our issue, although often these elements are not complete b. Criticise the research method and its limits (limited sample) 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusion: a. Buyers of Montblanc products (not only writing instruments): confirm the hypothesis b. Buyers of only Montblanc writing instruments    to gain tradition in watch and jewellery segments requires times although a good quality but not impossible c. Montblancs managers: good results so far. Recommendations: a. Montblanc has to go on investing in its diversification strategy because failing in doing so would be highly risky for its brand perception among the final consumers. Could Montblanc extend its perception to other product categories? Not right now: low resources and need to be definitively established as a luxury brand in key categories such as watches and jewellery. Write: * la probl ©matique involves the key question, the hypothesis of the research and the elements / factors which will help to develop the chosen subject.This first part includes the definition of the subject, the review of the literature (plus bibliography), the question, the hypothesis and the method of the research other than the action plan. * Final dissertation: develop the different topics without any linking parts, add these linking parts, further develop underestimated parts and cut what is useless. Add the table of contents, bibliography, appendix, etc. Executive Summary * The research and its Interest * The key question and the hypothesis * Research method * Major findings * Conclusion * Recommendations The purpose of this research paper is to investigate if and how a specialised luxury brand can extend its perception of luxury brand to other products categories. Being the luxury industry so wide of dimensions, the researcher decided to focus on one specific brand: Montblanc. This choice permitted to closer define the pitch of the analysis in order to carry out a reliable and feasible research that might prove the success of the diversification strategy pursued by the Montblanc brand. Montblanc represents, indeed, an interesting case study to show how the diversification strategy can be an effective tool to increase the luxury brand perception among the final customers. Montblanc, market leader for what concerns the writing instruments, has been striving during the last few years to definitively become a global luxury brand. To do so, Montblanc entered many different segments of the luxury world, such as leather, watches, fragrance and eyewear in the last â‚ ¬Ã‹Å"90s and the silver jewellery at the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, a couple of years ago, Montblanc stepped forward into the fine jewellery business which is seen as the critical step in its strategic development to attain the full status of global luxury brand. In order to verify how the Montblanc brand is viewed and perceived in its competitive environment, the researcher adopted both a quantitative and a qualitative research method. On one hand, a customer survey consisted of XXX questions was developed. This survey submitted to actual and potential customers had the objective to impartially investigate the customer perception of the Montblanc brand. On the other hand, in-depth interviews with some Montblancs managers were carried out. The interviewed, who represented different levels of the Montblancs management, allowed the researcher to gain a full picture of the Montblanc brand and its strategic movements. Moreover the direct comparison with the Montblancs management was important to identify on which resources and competences the final recommendations could be based. For practical purposes, this study can be divided in five major parts: 1. the first part outlines the theme and the key question of the research paper; 2. the second part concerns the review of the literature as regards the following points: the definition of luxury and of luxury brands, some approaches to measure the brand perception / the reasons why people buy luxury goods (status-laden or conspicuousness-laden), and the diversification strategy. This part will be concluded with an in-depth analysis of the Montblanc brand; 3. the third part gives a fulfilling view of the undertaken research with particular attention to the objective, the hypothesis and the research method; 4. the fourth part covers the relevant findings coming from the analysis of the research results; 5. the last part presents the conclusions of the study and the researchers final recommendations to the brand. The theme of the research paper Luxury and the Montblanc brand gives an important insight of the key constructs at the core of the work. In first position one finds the term luxury whose meaning and definition are almost fuzzy. It is the reason why, this work will examine some important findings coming up from the literature so wide in this respect, at the end of which some major traits of the definition of luxury will be underlined. Especially, the literature review will cover the evolution of the definition of luxury all along the recent history. To be noticed that, the construct of luxury will be also investigated in the survey submitted to the final customers and also in the interviews to the Montblancs management and other practitioners of the luxury industry. This research, carried out by exploring both the customers and the professionals point of view, enriches the research itself and helps to get a good understanding of the major characteristics emerging nowadays about this fascinating concept. To be clarified that this study, focusing on the Montblanc brand, is related to a part of the luxury market such as t he accessories, jewellery and watches segments. The second part of the theme of this study is represented by three words: the Montblanc brand. This recalls two topics. The first one refers to the term brand. By revising the literature, a definition of brand will be proposed. In this respect, there are not important doubts and we will briefly comment the definition of brand recently provided by Jevons (2007). Nevertheless, some issues may arise for the definition of luxury brand which is obviously related to the construct of luxury. The expression the Montblanc brand as a whole, moreover, puts the attention on the leader German brand whose unmistakable star logo is worldwide the icon of quality and excellence. As previously said, the researcher chose a specific brand to be able to concretely study the fundamental question of his research paper that will be clarified in the next lines. To be noticed that the two parts of the theme title luxury and the Montblanc brand are tied up by the conjunction and that underlines the strict link between luxury and the Montblanc brand. Nevertheless, this link requires a further consideration because it can be misleading if not misunderstood. Which is the real mean of this linkage? There are no doubts that Montblanc is a luxury brand; but is it a specialised luxury brand or a global luxury brand? This question is strictly connected to the core issue of this master thesis. More precisely, the driver question is if a specialised luxury brand can extend its perception of luxury brand to other product categories. In order to answer this key issue, the researcher chose to study a well-known brand which has been pursuing a diversification strategy to become a global luxury brand. The construct of diversification strategy will be explained from a literature point of view. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of the Montblanc brand and its strategic business areas will be undertaken by applying some tools learned during the studies at the ESCP Europe especially during the modules of strategy and of strategic diagnostic. This becomes fundamental to better understand in which kind of diversification strategy Montblanc is engaged and to give a wide knowledge to the reader about the brand itself. To conclude, herein the reasons why the student chose this theme for his master thesis. There are three major reasons bringing to this choice. The first one refers to the luxury world. The construct of luxury, albeit widely analysed in the literature, remains somehow mysterious. Today, the definition of luxury is strongly evolving mainly due to the economic uncertainty mostly caused by the financial crisis of 2008. Therefore, although the probability to uniquely define luxury is very low if not nil, the challenge to better understand what luxury is/means/represents/is perceived nowadays represents to the researcher a great topic of interest. His interest in luxury is also nourished by the will to work in this sector in the upcoming future. This surely stems from the professional experiences made by the student as part of his studies within companies (Montblanc and Concord) operating in the jewellery, watches and accessories segments. Indeed, during these experiences, the student was impressed by this world rather mysterious where the care of the smallest detail makes a huge difference. The second reason concerns the Montblanc brand. The researcher had the chance to work for five months at Montblanc International, at the Headquarter in Hamburg within the Jewellery Category Department, and for three months at Montblanc UK, in London within the Retail Department. During this extremely positive experience, the student discovered in-depth this fascinating brand, from its tradition to its vision, from a strategic and more operational point of view. Surely the experience personally gained at Montblanc became highly useful in the development of the research and mainly in the analysis of the brand and of its strategy. Moreover the ongoing meetings/interviews with the Montblancs management had a double advantage. On one hand, it enriched the content of the study and on the other hand helped the student maintain the contacts with a firm that is at the top of his personal ranking of his employment research. The third reason concerns the strategic aspect behind this theme. Indeed, the diversification strategy pursued by Montblanc offered to the student the possibility to develop this construct often used/abused by luxury brands to extend their perception of luxury and, as a consequence, to finally increase their revenues. The diversification strategy has often been the object of strong discussions, mainly for what regards the results of pursuing this strategy and the ways of implementing it. This work has got the objective to rationalise the different types of diversification strategy and to investigate this theoretical concept on a concrete case study, thanks to the study of the Montblanc brand. This research will focus on the key factors of success or failure standing from the analysis of the diversification strategy pursued by Montblanc. Did Montblanc, a specialised luxury brand in the writing instrument segment, extend its perception of luxury brand to its other product categories? This key question gives a stricter view on the content of this research paper. This study will focus on the strategic development of a specialised luxury brand as Montblanc was/is in the writing instrument segment since its origin. In detail, the research has got the purpose to investigate how the Montblanc brand is nowadays perceived from the final customers. The findings coming up from the customer survey will help the researcher evaluate if the Montblanc brand is still perceived as a specialised luxury brand or if its image has developed to the status of a global luxury brand. The customers responses represent indeed the most reliable feedback to assess the degree of success of the diversification strategy pursed by Montblanc in the last years which has brought the brand to operate in relevant luxury segments such as leather, watches, fragrance, eyewear and jewellery next to the historical business area of writing instruments. At a second stage, the customers responses will be compared with the Montblanc managements point of view in order to verify if some discrepancies exist. This step is important to get a full picture of the Montblanc brands standing. Then, after an accurate presentation of the research, the student will point out the major findings in order to draw his conclusions about his study. The conclusions will include the major factors of the diversification strategy pursed by Montblanc to extend its perception of luxury brand to other segments in the luxury industry, in addition to the fields of improvement coming out of the research. Finally this research paper will present the students recommendations which will take into account the strategic objectives standing out from the interviews with the Montblancs management and also the Montblanc brand perception outlined by the customer survey. In the next pages, the student will study, by starting from the literature review, some key concepts at the core of this research paper which include: * the definition of luxury and its evolution; * the definition of luxury goods; * the definition of brand and of luxury brands; * briefly the different approaches to measure the brand perception among the final customers.> the reasons why people buy luxury goods (status or conspicuousness); * and the presentation of the diversification strategy: the objectives, the different types, the advantages and the drawbacks, the risks, and the key success factors. The literature review, as said, will be completed by the contextualisation of these constructs to the Montblanc brand. At this stage the Montblanc brand will be studied in order to give all the required basics to launch the following research. In order to better define the constructs at the core of this research paper that will give the background of the following research, an in-depth literature review will be made. Four major concepts will be discussed thanks to the support of different literature material which includes insights from books, articles, management and fashion websites and personal references in terms of power point presentations, excel documents and excel files. The activity of research consisted mainly in going through the databases accessible from the Intranet at ESCP Europe in order to directly access to a wide range of reference material. The definition of luxury The first part of the literature review regards the construct of luxury. Luxury has always been a central field of research. Indeed its specific characteristics have attracted the interest of the researchers all along the history. However, albeit the meaning of luxury is widely discussed in the literature, researchers did not come up with a commonly accepted definition of this construct. For sure, it is not possible to uniquely define luxury. Simply, the words do not seem to be able to describe what luxury means. In this respect, the literature leaves this concept shrouded in mystery. This research paper will face the definition of luxury by going through different steps. At the beginning some different definitions of luxury will be put forward by touching its literal and economic meaning, and also by exploring some philosophical and social interpretations. Then, an interesting brief explanation of the etymology of the term luxury will be presented. Afterwards, the history of luxury will be outlined before entering in more detailed considerations regarding the notions of old and new luxury. At the end of this first part, the student will show the latest development of the luxury construct by getting important insights from the practitioners point of view founded in articles related to the luxury world. Literal definition of luxury Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913): Anything which pleases the senses, and is also costly, or difficult to obtain; an expensive rarity.'[1] [2] Economic definition of luxury Mason (81): Un produit est consid ©r © comme luxueux si l ©lasticit © de la demande par rapport au revenu est sup ©rieure    1. Philosophers definition of luxury Paul Iribe (1932): Luxe: besoin qui commence o ¹ finit la n ©cessit ©.'[3] Voltaire (1694-1778): Superflu chose tr ¨s n ©cessaire. Jaime le luxe et m ªme la mollesse. Rousseau: Le luxe doit  ªtre rejet © car il est contraire aux exigences de la nature. Sociology researchers definition of luxury Bourdieu (79,84): Comme tout acte de consommation, lachat dune marque de luxe est un moyen daffirmer sa position sociale, de faire croire    un changement de position ou prouver un changement de position sociale. Tout d ©pend du r ´le que lindividu joue ou pense jouer au sein de son groupe de r ©f ©rence. Baudrillard (68): Lacc ¨s au luxe est d ©termin © par une volont © sociale de se distinguer, de se d ©marquer ou bien encore de saffilier    un groupe. Suivant le groupe social auquel la personne se r ©f ¨re, le luxe aura une signification diff ©rente. Maffesoli (96): Lanalyse du luxe par le prisme des classes ne prend pas en compte le resserrement des individus autour de groupes restreints, de tribus. La consommation devient alors un plaisir personnel et intime, sans volont © ostentatoire. Management researchers definition of luxury Gutsatz M. (96): Le luxe comprend deux niveaux de repr ©sentation. Le premier niveau est mat ©riel, il comprend le produit et la marque (son histoire, son identit ©, son savoir faire unique, le talent). Le second niveau est psychologique. Il sagit de repr ©sentations qui nous sont propres, influenc ©s par notre milieu social et les valeurs de la marque. Roux E. (91): La marque de luxe se caract ©rise par une valeur ajout ©e symbolique, imaginaire ou sociale qui la diff ©rencie des autres. La marque de luxe correspond ainsi aux besoins symboliques que le consommateur peut ressentir (par opposition aux besoins fonctionnels ou de vari ©t ©). Laurent G., Dubois B. (95): Le luxe est subjectif, personnel et perceptuel. Si lon cherche    d ©terminer les attributs caract ©risant un produit de luxe, 6 dimensions apparaissent : Une qualit © sup ©rieure et per §ue, un prix  ©lev ©, une s ©lectivit © et une raret © des produits et de la distribution, un pouvoir attractif important un savoir faire certain et la non n ©cessit ©. Practitioners definition of luxury Coco Chanel: Le luxe est le contraire de la vulgarit ©. Boucheron A.: Le luxe est une  « mayonnaise  » constitu ©e de diff ©rents ingr ©dients. Si lun dentre-eux manque ou est mal dos ©, la mayonnaise tourne. Le luxe est un concept et non un produit.[4] Jean-Louis Dumas-Herm ¨s, historic Chairman and CEO of Herm ¨s: [5] Just by analysing these few definitions of luxury, one can notice the absolute subjectivity of this concept. It stands out that luxury has got a close linkage with pleasure, rarity, exclusivity, quality, high price tag. Economists define luxury as something which is unnecessary, statement which would be probably argued by some studies on the consumers reasons to buy luxury. For someone (Rousseau) luxury should even be avoided because it is not a primary need of the human being. Luxury is something that belongs to the inner part of each individual but it can be also highly other-oriented. By wearing or experiencing luxury items, an individual expresses his own personality and can show his social status and position in the community. The fact is that luxury is probably a bit of everything, a perfect trade off of opposite concepts. This makes luxury a kind of mystery. After this round-up, the study will briefly present the etymology of the term luxury before briefing touching the historical evolution of luxury. Etymology of word luxury According to Dubois, Czellar and Laurent (2005) the English term[6] luxury is derived from the Latin luxus, which, according to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, it signifies soft or extravagant living, (over-)indulgence and sumptuousness, luxuriousness, opulence; luxus also means sensuality, splendour and its derivative luxuria is extravagance, riot etc. Merriam-Websters Dictionary defines luxuriance as something characterized by richness and extravagance, often tending to excess. The word luxury is also often semantically associated with lux the Latin word for light; therefore, luxury carries connotations of brightness. It is glittering and, in addition, it is something visible. The evolution of luxury Until the Middle Ages the writings point out that luxury was the reflection of the religious mystery that drives the human being to go beyond himself driven by an offer or a sign. But the heyday of luxury is without any doubt the Renaissance (15th and 16th century), flourishing period for literature, art and science. This period reflects the explosion of luxury, vogue of the ostentatious architecture coming from Italy. At that time, luxuries are exclusive items belonging to the aristocracy and the court. During the Renaissance luxury becomes the prerogative of the bourgeoisie. During the 18th and 19th century luxury remains exclusive of the  ©lite. The 20th century signs an important step in the evolution of luxury. Mainly after the Second World War luxury becomes almost conformist, not extravagant or eccentric. In the â‚ ¬Ã‹Å"80s, the focus is on the luxury consumer; in this time, younger period discover luxury thanks to the accessories. At the end of this decade, there is the boom of luxury for what concerns the distribution channel development. The major players widen their reach by exploiting the markets where they are present and even by entering new markets. At the beginning of the â‚ ¬Ã‹Å"90s, the crisis that hit also the luxury industry, pushed to rethink the concept of luxury that gained a higher spiritual/moral meaning in addition to the impeccable quality.[7] Old-luxury vs New-luxury With the 21st century, new terms about luxury are emerging in the practitioners literature. For the purpose of this research paper, in the next few lines some considerations will be made on the expression of old luxury in opposition to new luxury in order to clarify their meaning. Some practitioners argue that old luxury is about the good itself and is defined by the company, in opposition to This seems to trace a clear line between the two concepts: old luxury is about the material thing, it is about stuff. Instead, new luxury is about experiencing. Nowadays, it seems evident that old luxury cannot anymore survive. The high quality of luxury products is assumed by consumers who are looking forward for something more. In our time, luxury is increasingly defined as those special qualities, features and attributes intrinsic to a product and that go beyond the item itself. According to Ms. Danziger (2008)[9], the product itself does not anymore create personal fulfilment. Today, luxury is in the eye of the beholder and the consumers perceptions are not anymore, exclusively depending on the exceptional quality of luxury products and on the high price tag. This does not mean that the materialism is not important but only that consumers are eager of experiences. Therefore, as a consequence, a shift from product-centric to consumer-centric point of view becomes inevitable to attract luxury consumers. The needed clarification of old luxury and new luxury concepts will become also useful when the study will discuss the definition of luxury brands and in the research of the consumers perception of the Montblanc brand which will lead to the students recommendations at the end of this research paper. At this point, it becomes interesting to see how the todays definition of luxury has evolved in the light of the recent events occurred in autumn 2008 which had an important impact on the entire economy and, therefore, also on the luxury industry. Todays definition of luxury ppt vale, crisis, bling bling, tradition, According to Yeoman and McMahon (2005), luxury is incredibly fluid, and changes dramatically across time and culture'[10]. This opinion becomes very much clear by thinking if the meaning of todays definition of luxury is the same definition of luxury of just eighteen months ago. Today it is even harder to give an accurate definition of luxury. After the financial crisis, culminated with the bankruptcy of some key players in the real estate and banking industry which caused a chain reaction hitting all the other sectors, the perception of luxury has surely changed, at least to a certain extent. This critical point merits further considerations and, therefore, it will be investigated in the following research at the core of this study. In the next lines some leaders opinions in luxury will be presented. Some of these thoughts were collected in a confidential in-depth research carried out at the beginning of 2009, supplied by Montblancs management. They will introduce the students point of view about the sharp evolution of luxury meaning in the last months. Herein, some comments about the change of luxury construct in the last year. S. Toledano, Dior: Compulsive shopping, its over. M. Nieto, Baume Mercier: Price sensitivity is coming back fiercely. C. Binkley, The Wall Street Journal: Its bling over J. Rupert, Richemont: During a recession, Im sure consumers will choose solid values. B. Pavlowski, Chanel: Dont neglect any aspect of the product quality. R. Palti, Le Nouvel Economiste: Many markets are saturated and there is an increasing number of offers proposing the same service. Finding what will best meet the clients expectations is no easy task. And yet, in these days of economic, financial ( lack of confidence) crisis, there is not a single company that can afford not to satisfy its clients, even just to sell. B. Arnault, LVMH[11]: post-recovery customers will not only place a particular emphasis on values like quality and craftsmanship, but also on exclusivity and commitment to social and environmental responsibility. D. Dion, Sorbonne University: Luxury has to return to its exclusive and extraordinary roots. B. Fornas, Cartier: We are witnessing a return to true luxury and high end luxury products, which Cartier symbolises. JC Biver, Hublot: When there is a crisis, it is necessary to get as close as possible to ones clients to better understand them, to reassure them and to make in due time the right decisions. S. Toledano, Dior: There should be both empathy and connivance between the brand and the client. A. Ahrendts, Burberry: Even though the overall market may become difficult, I think that retailers and customers are always open to a new innovative idea or a new exciting concept. Jeffry M. Aronsson, Donna Karan: luxury is attention to detail and quality backed by superior service.'[12] B. Pavlowski, Chanel: One should keep investing in creation. D. Peters, Jewelers of America: Selling in challenging times is not about product and its not about price. Rather, its about people and relationships, and the quality of the customer experience. J. Taylor, Harrison: The definition of living well is changing. There is a desire to not stand out. If youre laying people off, you dont want to buy a Ferrari. S. Geary, Mulberry: In the coming months, the mood will be against that â‚ ¬Ã‹Å"blind consumption. A. Arnault, LVMH: The collection focused on elegance and discretion and used materials that were noble but not too visibly noble. Giorgio Armani: Those who deliver what they promise to their customers, and bear their customers in mind, will survive the current economic climate. After this round-up, some further considerations have to be made. At our time, some relevant trends can be observed in luxury. These trends have an important impact on todays interpretation/ perception of luxury. Increasing of price sensitivity is one of them. In time of crisis, luxury sector is one of the most negatively affected due to the nature itself of luxury products. According to Maslows pyramid, luxury products do not belong to the first steps of the human beings needs (phy