Analysis of a Poem “We wear the mask”

Amber Davis Professor Quirk Literature 101 February 28, 2013 We Wear the Mask The lyric poem â€Å"We wear the mask† by Paul Laurence Dunbar is a poem about the African American race, and how they had to conceal their unhappiness and anger from whites. This poem was written in 1895, which is around the era when slavery was abolished. Dunbar, living in this time period, was able to experience the gruesome effects of racism, hatred and prejudice against blacks at its worst.Using literary techniques such as: alliteration, metaphor, persona, cacophony, apostrophe and paradox, Paul Dunbar’s poem suggests blacks of his time wore masks of smiling faces to hide their true feelings. In the first stanza, he starts off with the title of the poem stating, â€Å"we wear the mask that grins and lies† (1). In the first line he uses a metaphor to explain the â€Å"mask† that is put on to show grins. Of course there is no actual mask, but the mask can be a representation o f a fake personality that is happy or blissful.It could be said that the reason for this â€Å"mask† is to prevent their tormentors from starting any controversy. Dunbar also uses another metaphor, â€Å"This debt we pay to human guile†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (3). Obviously he does not mean that there is a debt to human guile that he is paying with money, but rather since blacks have always been seen as deceptive since slave times, they must forever live in it. Since slave times blacks have not been respected. Even after blacks received the right to vote and own land, the federal system still made it hard for blacks to make a breakthrough.The use of metaphor is used to describe the overwhelming struggles blacks had to go through in a white man’s world. Through the use of metaphors, Dunbar implies the feelings the blacks once had to fake in order to not get into any trouble. The second stanza, especially, emphasizes the poems paradox and alliteration. This stanza really goes int o the mind of the person speaking, and the outcome is a part of the reason why they wear â€Å"masks. † The poem reads, â€Å"Why should the world be over-wise,/ In counting all our tears and sighs? / Nay, let them only see s, while/ We wear our masks† (6-9). Essentially, the person of this poem is asking why should the world get the right to know why they are truly upset, and potentially use it against them; instead, have pride, hold your head up high, and put on your â€Å"mask. † In doing so, the literary term paradox comes into play. This poem is about the true feelings of blacks being hidden behind masks, when also the poem itself hides the fundamental issue of racism from even being mentioned – that alone is a paradox because the poem has a mask on as well.This poem can also be seen as a paradox because this so called â€Å"we† is supposed to be wearing a mask when in fact they are expressing their feelings and becoming vulnerable, aka â€⠀œ no more mask. Although each stanza has a bit of alliteration, the second stanza is the most dominant. Dunbar writes, â€Å"Why should the world be over-wise,/ In counting all our tears and sighs? / Nay, let them only see us, while/ We wear our masks† (6-9). The alliteration in this stanza is used heavily with the letter â€Å"w. With the use of this alliteration, it creates a sense of flow that helps the speaker get his point across more smoothly. Although the poem is more cacophonic, and harsh, rather than euphonic, and harmonious, the use of alliteration helps highlight the importance of this stanza’s sayings. The alliteration aspect of this stanza really helps reveal why the blacks continue to keep a mask up since they do not want others to know their weakness. The final stanza is a plea to God, or in other words an apostrophe.Dunbar writes, â€Å"We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/ To thee from tortured souls arise† (10-11). In writing this, Dunbar makes an apostrophe to the absent Christ since Christ is not currently present in the poem. This verse brings about an emotional side of the speaker that we have not seen in the play, which is the essential effect of apostrophe. In a sense, the speaker is able to take the focus from masks to addressing the fact that they are being tortured; the fact that they are being tortured is exactly why they wear the masks they do, to show they are not intimidated.Through the use of apostrophe, Dunbar is able to express the emotions of the reader, which ties into why masks need to be warn. Overall, the speaker’s awareness of putting on a fake facade to avoid trouble is apparent through literary devices such as alliteration, metaphors, and apostrophe. Author Dunbar creates a somewhat cacophonic feel to the poem to portray the hurt of these people who must wear masks. Dunbar also uses end rhyme in all of his ersus. The first and second, and also the third and fourth of each line use the long I sound for end rhyme except for the last lines of each stanza. Through the use of many literary devices Dunbar is able to capture the true meaning behind the mask, which is a disguise that camouflages the actual emotions of the mask wearer. Even though the mask is a grinning mask, the face under it is broken and frustrated, but the mask wearer will never show it.

Comparing Films of Macbeth Essay

Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth,’ was first performed before King James I at Hampton Court in 1606. Since then, Macbeth has gone on to be an ever-popular play, endlessly produced by a sea of directors. Having recently watched two of these productions, the first by the Polish director Roman Polanski and the other British director Gregory Doran’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is apparent that there are great differences in how the two directors chose to portray the characters in the play. One of the interperative differences is in the character of Lady Macbeth. In the Royal Shakespeare Company’s version we first meet Lady Macbeth in Act1 Scene5. She has black long hair, very pale skin, a slim figure and is dressed in black. Many critics have commented that her appearance is rather witch like and this is exactly what most people expect her to be. We witness her reading a letter when she suddenly looks up. This is of course the letter sent by her husband telling her of the witches’ prophecy of Kingship. She looks directly into the camera and although she maintains a blank expression we can sense from her piercing eyes that her mind is already over flown with ambition. As she folds the letter and looks up, evil intentions are in her eyes. The next shot we see is of her in the bath and although she does not show a lot of emotion her eyes reveal that she is still thinking deeply about the letter. She then begins to beg evil spirits to â€Å"Unsex me here† before ducking her head into the water. This is done through a narrative voice. We don’t actually see her lips move. In the Polanski version we meet Lady Macbeth in Act1 Scene5. The similarities end here. In Polanski’s version we see Lady Macbeth with long golden hair. This is often associated with innocence and femininity. But in Doran’s version she has black hair. This is generally associated with evil. It is also important to note that she is dressed in white. This is again associated with innocence and purity, which we know Lady Macbeth is not. Lady Macbeth is very calm and gentle in the way she talks. Once again this contrasts with Polanski’s version in which she speaks quite cunningly. In Polanski’s version you could almost say she looks lifeless in this scene. We see her stand upon the battlements without any compassion for what she is thinking. This is strikingly different from the way she is depicted in the RSC version. Lady Macbeth’s final scene is Act5 Scene1. This is of course inversion as the first scene we met her in was Act1 Scene5. Doran uses further inversion in this scene as the last time we met Lady Macbeth she was wearing black. She is now wearing white. Doran, deliberately wanted us to notice this as he uses a black background to emphasise what she was wearing. In this scene we see her as a completely different person. When we first met her she looked very powerful and in control of herself but here we see her as totally out of control and insane. We also see that she depends a lot on the candle she is holding. This is ironic as in the ‘Unsexing Scene’ she called on darkness to fall on her. We also see her rub her hands hysterically to get rid of the blood. This is also ironic as she earlier said, â€Å"A little water will clear us of this deed.† At the end of the scene she finally stops crying, looks up, and with a sense of realisation in her face, says her last words. â€Å"What is done, cannot be undone.† In Polanski’s Act5 Scene1 we see Lady Macbeth as she awakens. Looking down she screams as she sees blood on her hands. Terrified, she cries, â€Å"Gracious Duncan is dead.† We then witness her walk about her chamber naked. (Hugh Hefner’s promise of nudity has been realised.) We see her open a box and pull out a now well-worn letter and read it aloud. This provides a full-circle sense to the tragedy. It takes the viewer back to the beginning of the story and reiterates how the horrible chain of events was started. This was very clever of Polanski; through Lady Macbeth’s sobbing she reads it, in the raggedness of the letter implies many repeated readings, Polanski shows her as, not so much mad but consumed by remorse for what they have done. I believe the two versions are very different, mainly because of the media they have been designed for. When Hugh Hefner promised at the launch of the film, a movie full of sex and violence I don’t think it would have particularly appealed to Shakespeare lovers. Conversely the RSC production is unlikely to appeal to the stereotypical playboy reader. This is reflected in both films and as a result they were very different. The Polanski version, is very good in its own right but my personal favourite is Gregory Doran’s simply because it has a more typical approach and is a lot truer to the text.

How does Grace Nichols convey the life of the slave women in her poetry? Essay

One way Grace Nichols shows us how the slave women had to live is by saying what they had to do for their captors. In her poem ‘We the women’ Grace says ‘we the women who cutclearfetchdigsing’. The idea of not putting spaces between each work shows how hard they had to work without a break. Grace also says ‘we the women who toil’ which also shows how hard they had to work. The simile ‘whose deaths they sweep aside as easy as dead leaves’ shows how much they were hated and seen as pieces of rubbish. The use of the word ‘we’ in the poem shows just how many women had been captured and a gives a sense of empathy with the slave women. The sun in this poem is shown as a bad figure even though it gives life. To the slaves it is bad because it makes the labour they have to do even harder than it should be. The slaves tried to cheer themselves up by singing. The verb ‘sing’ in the poem has a religious connotation which shows their belief in God. However, this belief is doubted by the suffering they have to endure day after day and also because their prayers go unsung, as Grace says. We see with the used adjective ‘unadorned’ that the slaves were treated badly, misused and badly dressed because appearance did not matter to the captors only work. Grace Nichols uses repetition to convey the harshness of their lives as well. The words ‘old dry-headed women leaning on her hoe’ are repeated in the poem ‘Up my spine’ to show how bad their condition was and how mistreated they were. It also shows the amount of heat exhaustion they get and the lack of rest they have. Their heads are burnt by the sun and the skin is dry. Grace also says in that poem that they have to work even if they are injured and hurt. This shows how much they disliked slaves but had to use them for work to make money. The phrase ‘Way back time when she had a fall’ is used to show that there is no medical help for the workers so they work till they die. Grace uses the senses to convey how awful the slaves’ lives were in this poem as well. Two examples of this are ‘I see the pit of her eye’ and ‘I hear her rattle bone laugh’. This also conveys the physical state that the slaves were in and how they looked. However their captors did nothing to help as it did not matter to them what they were like as long as they worked. The second example gives a feeling of hatred to the poem as she thinks that the slaves would want revenge on the overseers for what they did to them. After all no-one would want to work all day for nothing. The simile ‘twist up and shaky like a crippled insect’ which also conveys their lives. In the poem ‘Water pot’ the workers are slaving away in a plantation centre. Grace says in it, ‘there’s a water pot growing from her head’. This is because the slave woman is carrying it on her head whenever they needed water which, in the heat, is often. It also shows how much work they had to do and for how long every day. Grace says in this poem as well that they are like cattle ‘always hurried’. This conveys how badly they were treated and actually what the captors saw them as. The words ‘tried to walk like a woman’ is used to show how injured they were because of work and the fact they could not walk properly. Grace implies that the slaves had to pull themselves erect to keep some self-esteem, to keep going and not give up, and to show the overseers they will survive whatever they throw at them. However a vast number of slaves died during the 18th century alone. ‘Ala’ is a poem about a woman killing her own child and then being punished for it. In the poem, the slave has given birth to a child which she does not wish to keep because of who the father is. In this instance the father is one of the overseers/captors who raped her. This poem also symbolizes the horror the slave women had to go through and the fact that the title is a religious word meaning ‘god’ their cry for help to their God. The woman who is being tortured is lying on a board with her arms and legs spread-eagled and staked to the ground. This is an implication of Jesus as he was crucified on a cross. The overseers see this woman as a ‘rebel’ and are making an example to the others by killing her publicly. She is the scapegoat. Grace uses repetition here to show to us what was in line for the other women if they did the same. She also says the slave has sent the new-born soul winging its way back to Africa. This implies that the baby is an angel as it has not been forced to work or put through any physical labour. Grace says the soul has gone to Africa because it is where most of the slaves originated from and it is then free. This woman is being eaten alive by red ants as a form of capital punishment for her actions. The personification in the line ‘and the sun blind her with his fury’ adds to the cruelty. The sun is a male figure and so takes the side of the men. The other slaves then pray to God for the deceased woman to be accepted in the pocket of his womb. This is a link up with the baby who was also killed. They are asking for the both of them to be free. Another poem Grace uses to convey the lives of the slave women is ‘In My Name’. This poem goes on about the horror the slave women had to go through. In this instance the baby is not killed therefore it is the opposite of ‘Ala’. The slave is in labour, giving birth to her ‘curled bean’ as Grace describes it. The woman’s belly is an arc of black moon. This shows how unwanted the babies are and that the fathers are the overseers. The colour ‘black’ is evil and we get the impression of what birth is like the way she squats over the dry plantain leaves and commands the earth to receive you. The baby is being dropped here onto the ground because there are no medical facilities available. Grace says the baby is ‘my tainted, perfect child’. This is an oxymoron because she is saying two virtual opposites together. The hatred towards the overseers raping them is shown in the words, ‘my bastard fruit’ and ‘my strange mulatto’. The second example shows that the baby’s father’s parents are mixed race and the mother does not like this. It will always remind her of the slave drivers or her captors if she ever escapes from their grasp. Where as the first shows how appreciative the overseers are of the baby but not the mother. She wishes it wasn’t born so it did not have to become a slave. Grace uses the words ‘my sea grape’ to show how far they have had to travel before arriving at their work place or deathbeds in many instances. At the end she says ‘now my sweet one it is for you to swim’ showing that the baby should make its own decisions on its life and to begin its journey. Overall Grace Nichols poems show her hatred towards what happened to her ancestor’s long time ago and what is still happening today in some places. She believes ruling on it should be stricter and so there will be no slaves left.

Procedural justice versus substantive justice Research Paper

Procedural justice versus substantive justice - Research Paper Example Substantive justice follows laws that define, regulate and create the obligations of certain parties, which should be carried or no carried out towards others meaning that this form of justice falls under the cause of action, but not proactive. This is such that individuals bring forth their issues to the bodies charged with the responsibility to safeguard and ensure that the obligations set for the people are followed. As such, substantive justice ensures and creates opportunities for people whose rights have been violated to present their grievances, but not to prevent this violation. Thus, it serves as a form of punitive measure to see to it that those who fail to honor their part of the bargain in relation to following a defined code and obligation face justice (Sandefur, n.d). Substantive justice applies mainly in the issue of rights, where there remains controversy as to how one can define rights under a justice system, since its origin lies in the term â€Å"due process of th e law.† Following this development in substantive justice, it is applied in the issue of rights, as a distinct characteristic in rights does not appear in other forms of law or justice. In rights, they are defined and one is obliged to pay attention to them lest they end up violating their own rights or even those of others. Substantive justice, therefore, sets guidelines within which one conducts oneself and binds one actions to the consequences. Based on the history of substantive justice as the due process of the law, guidelines ensure that there exists a definition of terms or procedures through which one must go through in order for certain events to take place. Substantive justice also sets the circumstances under which things are done and failure to which certain consequences are issued, as it provides a diverse framework, which creates the conditions that people relate to each other and how people relate with the government. It also sets out how an individual is respon sible for everything that he or she engages in, as substantive justice offers definitions , regulations and obligations to govern the above said relationships. To build more on the relationships between people and the government, it is important to look into the role of substantive justice in seeing to it that the government carries out its responsibilities or obligations. Concerning this, substantive justice creates a clear distinction between valid laws and invalid ones, which acts as a means of discerning, that which is rights and that which is wrong according to the actions of the government towards its people. Substantive justice calls for a clear definition of these standards, where those charged with the responsibility of justice are bound to come up with standards of generality, regularity, fairness, rationality and public orientation. The above is meant to apply to the activities of the people towards each other and the government towards its people, as well as the people t owards governance, which is a form of prohibition of abuse of power against the people by the government and the people towards the government (Sandefur, n.d). This is due to the high possibility of using public interests for personal gain or ends, which is common in an arbitral nature of the law, and that explains the role of substantive justice. One of the benefits of this law is its definitive nature, where it sets clear stipulations against

Police Misconduct Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Police Misconduct - Research Paper Example guilty men to walk the street and innocent men to sit in jail, governments should have appropriate measures in place to protect the public from police misconduct. 1) Carnell, Yvette. "Dont Shoot! A Case for Reigning in Rogue Cops." The Atlanta Post. 3 May 2011. Web. 27 May 2011. . 4) "Indian Diplomats Daughter, 18, Sues for $1.5m over police Cells Toilet Humiliation | Mail Online." Mail Online. 25 May 2011. Web. 27 May 2011. . 5) Kaariainen, Juha, Tomi Lintonen, Ahti Laitinen, and Joycelyn Pollock. "The Code of Silence: Are Self-Report Surveys a Viable Means for Studying Police Misconducts?" Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention 9.2 (2008): 86-96. Print. 6) "Man Shot 6 times by Billings Police Officer Sues for Excessive Force." The Republic. 20 May 2011. Web. 27 May 2011. . 7) Miller, Joel, and Robert C. Davis. "Unpacking Public Attitudes to the Police: Contrasting Perceptions of Misconduct with Traditional Measures of Satisfaction." International Journal of Police Science and Management 10.1 (2008): 9-22.

Mod Culture and Fashion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Mod Culture and Fashion - Research Paper Example The paper "Mod Culture and Fashion" concerns the connection between Mod fashion and designs. The leaders of mid 1960s style were the British. As the Mods strongly influenced the fashion in London, 1960s fashion in general set the mode for the rest of the century as it became marketed to young people, who, at the time, were gaining tremendous influence in affecting everything from clothes to the media, particularly the lifestyle of Mods as popularly reflected in their music and fashions. British rock bands such as â€Å"The Who,† children of the working class, gave up their nine to five jobs to become icons in the rock music world. It was not until 1964 when the Modernists were truly recognized by the public that women really were accepted into the group. Girls had short, clean haircuts and often dressed in similar styles to the male Mods—a trend which initiated UniSex design. As opposed to the 50s grease look, Mod style was classy, mimicking the clothing and hairstyles of continental Europe with tight-fitting suits and a more suave dressed appearance. They were the working classes with a sophisticated city look-- the clothing of a new forward-thinking generation. Mod from the longer version of Modern developed as a subculture from the original beatnik culture born in the coffee houses of the 1950s, where disenchanted young intellectuals met to enjoy the new modern jazz, read poetry and share political views. The new Mod culture that eventually evolved from it, however, was less intellectual.

About the book The New Jim Crow Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

About the book The New Jim Crow - Essay Example This new approach towards racial control is more dangerous as it does not rely on obvious racism, but rather resorts to a very tacit and sophisticated sort of racism. To many readers the theory enumerated by Michelle Alexander regarding the new approach towards racial control may seem more of a rhetorical propaganda, but if one considers the available facts and data, the point made by Alexander comes out to be valid and true. The assertions made by writer Michelle Alexander regarding the dynamics of race in the contemporary American society are indeed valid and do deserve a serious consideration. The apparent racism of the past has reinvented itself to appear as being more unbiased, while it systematically goes on to target the racial minorities. The claim made by Alexander that a professedly color neutral justice system is more poised to target the African Americans and the colored people, does seem valid in the light of the research conducted by varied other experts. As per Walker, Spohn and DeLone, the law enforcement and justice system in the US is more biased towards the African Americans and other racial minorities (493). Even a cursory historical perusal of the race related issues in any print publication does testify to the fact that though the criminal justice system in the US may not exactly come out as being hostile towards the racial minorities, yet, it is a fact that in some stages, the criminal justice system happens to be biased towards the racial minorities. For instance many aspects of the criminal justice system like the selection of the jury do come out as being balanced and color neutral, there are varied other stages of the criminal justice system like seeking a harsher penalty or sentence, which are mor e biased towards the African Americans and the other colored people in the US. Hence, the claim extended by Alexander that the criminal justice

Marketing management - Emirates Airlines Assignment

Marketing management - Emirates Airlines - Assignment Example Emirates Airlines is one of the profitable airlines in the world. It is the world’s second most profitable airlines (Graham, Papatheodorou and Forsyth 157). However, it is vital to practice a proper marketing strategy for the sustainable position. The 7 Ps of marketing mix and the PLC is very much important. The CRM must be maintained, the loyal customers are the real buyers of the products in the long term basis. The airline industry is basically the hospitality industry and in this particular industry the customer relation is the most important marketing communication key. The traditional marketing mixes are very much important in most of cases and they are product, price, place and promotion. However, in case of service based industries the four Ps of traditional marketing Mixes are not enough. There are three more entities which are very much important and they are people, physical evidence and process. Among these people and process are the communicating entities which ar e very important for doing business. However the physical evidence is the most important for the product as the physical evidence give out the most important significance for the sales of the product. The emirates airline is among the top service providers in the airlines industry. The company is pretty much up market with the expected demand of the consumers. The hospitality industry is a very fragile industry. One mistake can create a lifelong bad impression for a particular product. So, in case of service oriented industry the customer relation management and the post sales services are pretty much important for a long term business relation with the existing customers. Marketing is the

Business law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business law - Research Paper Example California State, the major employment legal tussles the business organizations are facing is the definition of workers and validity of non-competition agreement. The labor law of California has two definitions of workers as either independent contractor or employee under labor code 2750.5 (Californi Law, 2013). Similarly, labor laws define the circumstances under which a business organization can draw a non-competition agreement under labor code 16601 of the California labor law. Cases One of the cases filed by involves how workers are classified as independent contractors or employees (Narayan v. EGL, Inc., 2007). EGL which is a transportation company has been sued by three of it truck drivers for failing to offer employees benefits as required by the California labor code. The truck drivers had signed an agreement with the company to indicate that they are independent contractors. Despite this agreement, they sued EGL for failing to offer them benefits enjoyed by employees under l abor code 2802(a) (California Law, 2013). The appeal court of California held that there were facts to show the truck drivers were employees rather than independent contractors as EGL firm claimed. Consequently, the drivers were entitled to employees benefits provided under the California labor code. ... Creteguard, Inc, 2010). Silguero as a sales representative of Floor Seal Technology (FST) agreed to undertake a non-compete agreement for fear of been sacked by the employer. However, FST terminated his work after two months that forced him to seek employment in Creteguard firm. Consequently, Creteguard terminated his job after it was informed by FST of the existence of non-compete agreement with Silguero. Accordingly, the California court of appeal dismissed the validity of non-compete agreement under the California labor law. Rationale The findings of the two courts are informed by various critical reasons on the liberties of the employees as provided under the labor laws of California. In Narayan vs. EGL Company, the judges evaluated the supervision level the truck drivers were receiving from the company in undertaking their duties. To the extent that the drivers were distributing the firm’s products under the direction and supervision of the firm’s management, it wa s a clear indication they were under the employment supervision like other ordinary employees of the firm. The denial by the firm to grant them full autonomy in scheduling their distribution routes and strategies negated the very requirement of an independent agreement. Consequently, the truck drivers are entitled to receive with full employment benefits provided under labor code 2802(a) of the California labor laws. Similarly, the judgment the judges of appeal court of California made on Silguero vs. Creteguard firm is informed by legal observation. Even though the California business and profession code under section 16601 provides for non-compete agreements, it can only apply in owners of a partnership, limited companies and corporations. Indeed, the

How the SEC has played an important role in accounting standards Essay

How the SEC has played an important role in accounting standards - Essay Example Due to this, the task of protecting investors assumes paramount importance for the government (Sec.gov). The primary concept influencing and controlling the securities industry in the United States is that every investor, whether an individual or institution, should be able to ‘recognize’ the investment properly. This involves having free access to the main features and conditions surrounding the investment, not only before investors spend money in it, but also as long as they continue to retain their money in it. In compliance with this vital concept, the SEC makes it mandatory for public organizations to ‘disclose’ significant financial and other information about itself to the general public. Such disclosures form an accumulation of information that can be accessed by any investor while deciding to purchase, sell or retain a security (Sec.gov). The accumulation of information should be regularly updated with precise and timely inputs to facilitate sound investment decisions from the investing public. The SEC makes sure this objective is achieved by interacting with all players in the securities industry such as private organizations, securities exchanges, securities brokers, securities dealers, investment counselors and mutual funds to ensure they disclose meaningful information, conduct dealings in a fair and proper manner and safeguard against fraud. Realizing that its stature and effectiveness should always be on the highest levels, the SEC makes maximum use of its enforcement authority. The SEC feeds on many sources of information {the most significant being individual investors}, to instigate hundreds of legal cases each year against securities law infractions such as insider trading, supplying untrue or deluding information or fraudulent practices carried out by provide individuals or business organizations (Sec.gov) . In addition to its primary role as guardian of the

Atomic force microscopy Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Atomic force microscopy - Lab Report Example The material to be scanned is placed below the tip, as the tip moves across the surface it is attracted or repelled by different forces, the atomic deflection from rest is recorded and an imaging software is used to process the results. The results normally appears as a topographical image of the surface imaged2. Different imaging techniques are used to picture the surface or for different surface analysis, they include the contact mode, non-contact mode and tapping mode. With assistance from specialized software, Atomic Force Microscope can be used to measure characteristics of material surface that other types of microscope cannot image. This method is whereby the tip gets into contact with the surface being scanned, it is the most common mode used in atomic force scanning. The tip have a repulsive force coefficient of 9N. As the tip moves over the surface, the deflection of the cantilever generated is fed to a DC amplifier system, which verifies it and tries to much it with the desired. If the magnitude of deflections is different from the required one, the feedback amplifier system increases the voltage supply to the piezoelectric positioning system to raise or lower the material surface relative to the tip until the desired voltage is achieved3. The measure of voltage supplied to the piezoelectric positioning system gives the degree of roughness and surface features of the material. This is displayed laterally to the position of the sample. The main problem with the contact mode is the application disproportionate force to the sample by the probe leading destruction of the sample surface; this can be minimized by reducing the amount of force applied by the probe. However, there are limits to the minimum force that the operator can apply during scanning in ambient conditions. Ambient conditions possess some challenges to AFS since a thin layer of about 30 monolayers made up of

Political Theory Essay Example for Free

Political Theory Essay Introduction While approaching the writings of major philosophical figures in the 16th century and the 17th century there emerges several weaknesses in addition to their political thought in their time. In his work, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, Quentin Skinner’s emphasises the ‘textualist’ approach by the ones writing within the genre of political theory and further claim that they â€Å"rarely supplies us with genuine histories†. 1 Skinner seems to engage in a ‘historical’ approach to the writings of political thought, which goes hand in hand with the social and political context of the period the major works were composed. Indeed, this proves fruitful for this analysis, and therefore it will be provided a narrow historical review of the period the works were written, in order to present the remarkable similarity between the causes of political thought. Accordingly, there will be implemented a comparison of the philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Jean Bodin, focusing primarily of their concept of the state and the church and the differences between the two models of political thought. In terms of the state, the focus will lie on the citizens and the sovereign rule; in terms of the church, an analysis of its place within the governmental framework will be provided. The primary sources used as a basis for this analysis is the work of Jean Bodin Six Books of the Commonwealth, translated by M. J. Tooley, and Hobbes On the Citizen, edited by Richard Tuck Michael Silverthorne. In grasping the political works of Thomas Hobbes and Jean Bodin it is important to remember that their perception of the state was born in an age of crisis. As central themes of his political thought Hobbes was concerned with peace, security and order; however, religion was omnipresent throughout his experience of life and through his works. For Hobbes the only valid proposition of a natural religion was that something must have created the world, but who or what is not for certain. 2 Most important he also believed that religious division was a significant factor for the origins of war. The basics of Hobbes theory was to add the will to avoid religious conflict and restore peace into one or a group of biological people that was to further secure the will of the state. Like Hobbes, Bodin was concerned with preserving order and his relation to religion is said to be complex. Although he was less familiar with the New political from his religious thought. ’3 However, entering deeper into the religious life of Bodin it is palpable that he never adhered to one true theological standpoint throughout his lifetime. 4 Another factor of correlation between the two political thinkers is their personal historical background containing the experience of war, which largely contributed as one of their causes for writing. Most known for his work and best-seller, Leviathan, the Englishman Thomas Hobbes was to be acknowledged as an important contribution to the philosophical field in his lifetime and all the way to the 21th century. Hobbes was born in 1588 in Westport raised by his non-wealthy family, fortunately being paid for by his uncle to get an education when the time was right. 5 Entering the field of the enlightened, Hobbes at an age of 54 later produced his first claim to fame, De Cive (On the Citizen), published in Latin edition in 1642 which is characterised as one of the forerunners to his major work Leviathan. Here, it is important reconsider what is omnipresent throughout both, De Cive and Leviathan, namely fear: in order to understand his political thought. Some tend to regard Hobbes as a synonym to the concept of fear even though this impossibly cannot be so, however it does not reject King’s argument that Hobbes had experienced disorder in society and therefore feared political chaos. 6 England during the 17th century can in be referred to as a period of transformation both in terms of politics and religion. Historically, throughout Hobbes lifetime (1588 – 1679) the political circumstances in the years of 1642 to 1651 prove to stand out painted in the colour of red. The Reformation left deep traces and was not yet to relinquish as its religious struggles was to turn into a fight of power between the King and the Parliament. 7 The English Civil war provided an environment such as extreme disorder and civil insecurity to be explanatory for the horrors it brought the 6? 78? 9 # $? *: )? : ;0?. / 1 1? ! / 1? =? ? :?! ( 4 ?!! /? $ @ ( 5 JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES,? ? = ? 1? *9/? ;6-. A=? B ;- HTTP://WWW. JSTOR. ORG/STABLE/3745504 0 , $ *3 @ 3 9 )? +? 2 ;A1. / =0 A? 8? ? 9? C D7 @ % $E $ * F;0.? //? F B -1 G/? HH222I H! H 6;0-6 3 13 Political Theory country8. In a chaotic England, Hobbes had to face his own opponents after he had written the first outline of the philosophy of the state, Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, which created an unstable environment for him to live. Indeed, adversity was for Hobbes the reason he decided to flee and choose the life in exile crossing the national boarders to France. 9 When the Civil War was over, he returned home to the end of his life, still absorbed in scientific activity. A lesser-known philosopher yet one of the most ambitious and prolific French scholars, Jean Bodin, was born in 1529 or 30 in the French area of Angers. Although living in separate time periods Bodin is born three years after Machiavelli’s death (1469 – 1527) and died when Thomas Hobbes was eight years of age and therefore spans precisely between these two. 10 Throughout his lifetime he was, in resemblance to Hobbes, to experience war that provoked his political thinking which prospered into what was to be known as The Six Books of the Commonwealth (1955). Bodin was an admirable scholar and by the time he had to face his mortal destiny he made contributions to the area of science stretching from historiography to political economy. 11 Noticeable that he was among the more enlightened characters of his time, Bodin went to Paris in his youth for educational matters studying humanities. Further curious about the juridical nature of society he went to study civil law until the 1560s, and after he turned to a political career becoming a king’s advocate in Paris. A decade later he became a counsellor of the Duke of Alencon which secured him a seat at the table of the royal family, which ceased before 1576. He then further joined the Catholic League (sometimes referred to as the Holy League) which played a major part in the French Wars of Religion (1562–98) eradicating the Protestants also called the Huguenots. 12 Primarily, The Wars involved the Catholic crown attempting to impose religious uniformity upon the large F? What further divided the citizens in contemporary France was their support for various versions of the Christian faith that created a warfare of self-righteousness, which for Bodin, was an erroneous societal condition. What Bodin’s beliefs could be said to represent at the time is further dubiously, but as Summerfield argues, Bodin might have believed that â€Å"Catholicism was the best ‘civil religion’ for his countrymen†. 13 Further, Bodin supported religious diversity in that Catholics should have the opportunity to embrace their faith just the Huguenots without having intolerance towards each other. By offering a narrow description of the historical period relevant to both Hobbes and Bodin and further suggest a biographical outlook of both philosophers, the main focus have been on the facts of importance for further analysis. Main section As discussed to some extent in Bodin’s case, it is applicable to both philosophers that they were living in a time where religion was inseparable from their political thinking. Today it may seem strange that politics of much importance was molded around religious beliefs, because we live in a time where each person is free to decide what to believe and which religion to adhere to. During the period of discussion, the church and the state had too many common interests that a division between them seemed unthinkable. For Bodin, his thought behind his Republic was the hope to restore the splendour and serve the interest of the French Monarchy, which functioned as a cornerstone in his description of the commonwealth. 14 In accordance to Hobbes, much like in the case of Bodin, his impetus of his work De Cive lie primarily in providing a solution to the religious moral conflict prevailing in 16th, 17th century England. Bodin and the family In this section, the discussion will point to Jean Bodin’s concept of the state at a micro level. In Book I, chapter I of the Republic the first sentence acknowledge what Bodin understands to be the nature of the Commonwealth, namely its internal structure being organised around the ?6? ! F1 ?1? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A. / ## 5 13 Political Theory concept of the family (or household), ruled by a sovereign power. 15 The main premise behind. Bodin’s concept of the family has its origins from the alteration of legislation in contemporary France creating a decrease of the â€Å"paternal authority† resulting in a â€Å"decay of family discipline†. 16 For Bodin this was not the ideal familial situation. In Rebublic, the household is portrayed as the essential unit of political organisation within the state and possess the same bilateral structure that there is to find in his ordering of the Commonwealth. Principally, the family consist of a man, which have the centralised authority within the household, a wife and children with the possibility for additional members like freedmen and slaves. 17 To illustrate; the authority of the father extends to a decision of life and death over his children; however, it is not as clear to why he should have this right. For Bodin, the family is vital for preserving the organization within the Commonwealth, he even describe its function using terms as â€Å"true image† of the Commonwealth and â€Å"model of right order† when writing of the household in the Commonwealth. 18 According to Bodin, the father like the sovereign, hold the absolute power within their sphere of influence: the father over the family, the sovereign over the families within the state. He was also convinced that, â€Å"Il est impossible que la Republique vaille rien si les familles, qui sont les piliers d’icelle, sont mal fondees† (husk a kildefore sitater), which reveals Bodin’s obsession with order in that the commonwealth cannot be totally organized if it is not rightly constituted and thus not performing its proper function: this can also be related to the sovereign in that his guidance is useless if he cannot unite all of his members. 19 For Bodin the family is an irreducible unit of the state, for Hobbes the matter is of a different character. Hobbes and the individual The foregoing discussion support the underlying argument in favour of the plurality needed to form the family into a harmonious and organized entity which Bodin find crucial for the ?=? ! / ?0? 78? 9 # $? *: )? : ;0?.? / 1-; ?A? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A.? / A? ?F? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A. / 0 MA ?;? 78? 9 # $? *: )? : ;0?. / 1-; 6 13 Political Theory establishment of the state, according to Hobbes there is no compelling reason to argue that such is the case. In De Cive, the family is not given a pivotal place rather he pursue a more individualistic approach in accordance to Bodin’s idea of the family. However, Hobbes thoughts of the family depends much upon the entity being in an external or internal position relative to the commonwealth and if the family is being ruled by a foreign power or not. 20 As. King argues, Hobbes is in a lesser degree concerned with the family’s position within the Commonwealth, in any case it is the process that one is being born as individuals connected to others by force and fear, or for Bodin which emphasise individuals being born into families, that is the central feature. 21 In addition, they differ in that Bodin think of the ascendancy of the sovereign as originated solely coming from the families but for Hobbes it is originated from individuals as a whole. The literature gathered in this study suggests that both Hobbes and Bodin agrees that the state must exist in order to prevent war. The Hobbesian view of the state is founded in his definition of the natural state. The state of nature is for Hobbes a state of anarchy, where egocentric individuals fight for their right of self-preservation creating chaotic circumstances and where mutual fear is their leading motivation. Hobbes believed that the mankind maintain a will of doing harm to others, and that this derives from the need to defend their own property and liberty against others in a state of anarchistic rule. The moral dilemma that occur in the state of nature has for Hobbes only one escape route, and that is the presence of a sovereign power, either in singular or plural form chosen by the objective will of the people due to pull them out societal chaos and secure for them peace and order. Indeed, for Hobbes the sovereign is of crucial importance: â€Å"For if this power is abolished, the commonwealth is abolished with it, and universial confusion returns. †22 For Bodin the goal of peace and order is much in line with Hobbes’ but it does not involve a social contract as such but it thus involve a conception of fear. In Book 4, ch. 1 he describes ?- ?!! ! # $ ?!! % ? (? ) *+ , ! + $ . / -A? M 1 , $ *3 @ 3 9 )? +? 2 ;A1. / F1 ?!! ! # $ ?!! % ? (? ) *+ , ! + $ . / F? 7 13 Political Theory the rise and fall of the commonwealth where he acknowledges that â€Å"the commonwealth can be founded either in violence or in consent. †23 As much as this resembles Hobbes in that disorder is the catalyst for the development state, Allen provide us with a more applicable explanation. He argues that since the interdependent relationship between the sovereign and the state is present, the realization of the sovereign may be impelled by fear, which therefore result in a state being established by force. 24 On the other side, what seem to resemble the two is the necessity of a sovereign to guide the people. On these grounds, it is clear that Hobbes and Bodin follow a hierarchical structure in terms of the relationship between the superior and the inferior and that â€Å"command and obedience† is the central feature. On one side the similarity between them lie in their use of fear and consent as essential factors for the rising of the Commonwealth. Here, Professor Dunning offers an interesting claim placing emphasis on the contract idea that Hobbes present. He suggest that in contemporary France the social contract was for Bodin more a weapon of his opponents, which in its turn inclined him to focus on the state as a model evolving out of the inherent characteristics of the man and his surroundings. 25 On the other side the philosophers tend to differ in that Bodin support the idea that the sovereign should rule over the families and Hobbes believed in the individualistic characterisation of the social contract. Moreover, who are the ones (person or group) that should rule over the families featuring Bodin and the individual’s characteristic of Hobbes? The sovereign To portray the issue of the nature of sovereignty, Hobbes like Bodin believed, that in order to prevent war absolute power placed in single or plural entity was necessary. Within the sphere of political theory, The Republic could be said to contain the first fully developed theory of sovereignty, however one could argue that Marsiglio of Padua was the one close enough to find all the elements of the subject but where there occurred gaps, Bodin was to fulfil these perfectly. 26 In case of his descendant, it would be absurd to assert that Hobbes followed his forerunner slavishly. ?6? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A.? / -; ?1? 78? 9 # $? *: )? : ;0?.? / 1 ?=? 8? ? 9? C D7 @ % $E $ * F;0. //? F B -1 G/? HH222I H! H 6;0-6 8 13 Political Theory Bodin’s theory of a â€Å"commonwealth is normally taken as the starting point of modern times† and this because of its clear composed nature of the rights and power of the sovereign. 27 His definition of sovereignty in the Republic was written as an entity holding â€Å"absolute and perpetual power vested in a commonwealth†. 28 Here the power is not only absolute, but perpetual at the same time, nonetheless he is careful not to use this definition outside its theoretical field of use, he further states; â€Å"For if one confines to that which has no termination whatever, then sovereignty cannot subsist save in aristocracies and popular states, which never die. †29 The central point here is that Bodin agrees to an unlimited and despotic government but without taking the concept of perpetuity too far. His theory of sovereignty is based on the nature of absolutism and it is clear that he was a champion of monarchic absolutism and preferred that it should be invested in a single prince; whereas Hobbes share his concern but differ in that he was inclined to apply this to a collective group of people. For Hobbes the King and commonwealth is intertwined, in that one cannot talk about the one of them from the other. He comprehend the sovereign as withholding the will of the citizens consisting of absolute power; â€Å"the greatest power that men can confer, greater than any power than an individual power can have over himself. †30 In accordance to the legislation within the Commonwealth both Hobbes’ and Bodin’s sovereign is able to make his own laws, which also extended to the fact that he is not subject to it. For Hobbes the thought of the King to be subject to the Commonwealth and law would be irrational, the Sovereign is the embodiment of the Commonwealth. The sovereign is therefore not bound by obligations towards his citizens and if the sovereign is to act immoral, that is a matter between himself and God. As it has been important to discuss citizens role within the state and their relationship to the sovereign making it easier to fully understand the means of absolute power, it is also ?0? 7+:? 2 7 @ N O: $N POLI? CAL STUDIES 0 //? -0M ?A? 7? : ( $? ) $ *L? 2? P ( @ )? / $ ;.? / A ?F? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A.? / =? ?;? ! / 0 6- ?!! ! # $ ?!! % ? (? ) *+ , ! + $ .? / F? 9 13 Political Theory important to take this with us when we shall now discuss the church and how the state is related to it. The church An interesting question arise when one should determine, in a time where religion was almost too present, where the authority of the church lay within the spheres of the absolute rule. Religious upheaval in France and England in the 16th, 17th century had its origins from the breakup of the mediaeval church that destroyed the framework of older forms of political thinking. As long as there was a universally recognized Church the possibility to practice a unilateral faith was possible, but to place this authority under the prince may have been an impracticable demand. When there later came a time of religious uncertainty and the development of a new faith, people was faced with the opportunity to choose which in its turn lead to confusion. The hierarchy of the Catholic church and the Church of England and France had both claimed that their authority comes directly from God and that they was set out to practice the faith of the nation: as a rebuttal to this point, it might be argued that the political thought of both Bodin and Hobbes was not to find a fertile ground in this statement. Chapter XVII of De Cive constitutes the argument of the relationship between the sovereign and the Church stating that any authority given from God has its place within the sphere of sovereign power. For Hobbes absolute ecclesiastical power was vested in the sovereign, which included the right to interpret the Holy Scriptures. 31 One could argue that Hobbes needed an absolute sovereign as the solution to the problem of war: if the sovereign had the absolute authority of the Church and over the citizens, war would have been unproductive because no one can challenge the ruler, achieve results and further depose him. If the church would go against the sovereign it would go against the religious power of the state which would seem illogical, and in case of the citizens they do not have any authority to bring down the King because he is appointed upon a social contract representing the will of the people. On logical grounds there seem a compelling reason to argue that the law of God has a fundamental place within the political thought of Bodin. He does not tend enlarge upon the place of religion within the sphere of politics within the Republic in contrast to Hobbes who 6 ! / ;; 10 13 Political Theory has a whole section devoted to the concept of religion, however it is clear that he never meant that the state was forced to establish a form of religious and demand conformity to it. 32 Rather he meant that the state must create the soil from with religion could grow, therefore it is safe to say that the Church had a place within the state and that with this it followed religious duties. Hobbes had a different view on the ecclesiastical power of the state than Bodin; â€Å"the Commonwealth and the Church (are) of the same Christian men† and â€Å"exactly the same thing under two names. †33 Further Hobbes says that this synonymity rest upon the common feature between the two, the Christian people, and that the two instances is the only one to gather them. Personally, Hobbes was an erastian; he believed that the state should rule the Church. For Bodin. Religion created obedience that form the basis of his version of the commonwealth. The sovereign is the voice of the Church, but his determination of practicing the religious faith is relative and rest upon his will to make it flourish or not. Indeed, in the Rebublic the word of the sovereign â€Å"should be as sacred as a divine pronouncement. † 34 Conclusion Throughout this analysis the attempt to create a fertile discussion of the nature of the state and its place in relation to the church have been central, which have been built upon the effort to create a narrow historical review in the wide field of history. There have also been provided an discussion of the similarities and differences between Thomas Hobbes and Jean Bodin within the selected themes of this assignment. What is clear is that one cannot simply divide 6? 7 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A.? / ## 66 ?!! ! # $ ?!! % ? (? ) *+ , ! + $ .? / 617 @ #? @ ( 2 7 $? *3 @ @ @ (2 )? G : ;0A.? / 6-? 11 13 Political Theory politics from religion in a time where they were inseparable, like one cannot divide Bodin’s idea of the family and Hobbes’ concept of the individual without removing the cornerstone of their theories. Both philosophers tried to provide the best solution to their contemporary struggles in France and England, and in case of their theory of absolute sovereignty it can be said their impetus was to lead the way out of the labyrinth of war with peace as their rewarding result. Both theories have portrayed a hierarchy of power, where God has the solemn authority and the earthly sovereign is positioned as subject to him but holds the right to interpreter of the faith of the state making him more or less the mouthpiece of God. Built upon this statement the Church has a duty within the state: it is just reliant on the degree of initiative practised by the sovereign in Bodin case and for Hobbes it is more a matter absolute affiliation to the religious role that the sovereign holds. To conclude, even though Bodin and Hobbes had different starting points, went by different routes they more or less reached the same goal placing the political and religious within the hands of the absolute sovereign List of references Allen, J. W. Political Thought of the Sixteenth Century. London: Methuen Co Ltd, 1961.Franklin, Julian, H. International Library of Essays in the History of Social and Political Thought: Jean Bodin. England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006 12 13 Political Theory King, Preston. The ideology of order. Great Britain: George Allen Unwin, 1974 Laski, Harold J. The Foundation of Sovereignty and other writings. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921 Lewis, J. U. , â€Å"Jean Bodin’s ‘Logic of Sovereignty’†, Political Studies 16 (1968): pp. 206 – 222 Lubienski. Z. â€Å"Hobbes Philosophy and Its Historical Background†, Journal of Philosophical Studies vol. 5, no. 4 (Apr.1930): 175 – 190, http://www. jstor. org/stable/3745504 Skinner, Quentin. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume 1, The Renaissance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 Summerfield, Baldwin, Jean Bodin and the League, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Jul. , 1937), pp. 160-184 Tooley, M. J, trans. Jean Bodin: Six Books of the Commonwealth. Great Britain: Basil Blackwell Mott, Ltd, 1967 Tuck, Richard Silverthorne, Michael, ed. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought: Thomas Hobbes On the Citizen. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2000 ?

Acoustic Cryptanalysis of RSA and Its Counter Measure

Acoustic Cryptanalysis of RSA and Its Counter Measure Prof. J P Agrawal Saurabh Sharma Siddharth Gupta ABSTRACT Acoustics has come up as a new vulnerability in the field of information security. The RSA encryption algorithm, although h very hard to break mathematically, has been broken recently by using acoustics and power analysis of emanations. Acoustic Cryptanalysis is the side-channel attack which targets implementations of cryptographic algorithms. The cryptographic algorithms are quite secure at the mathematical level, but inadvertently leak secret information through signatures in power consumption, electromagnetic emanations, timing variations, and acoustical emanations. This paper presents a software based countermeasure which is based on application of specific mitigation techniques to ensure that even if there is leakage of information it would bear minimal useful information. INTRODUCTION Acoustic cryptanalysis is a form of side channel attack that aims at deriving the private key in a public key cryptography system using acoustical vibrations of a laptop. A side channel attack is basically an attack that gives attacker an additional channel of information about the system, the noise generated by computers is one such potential channel other channels include keystroke acoustic emanations, acoustic emanations from printers, power analysis via the USB port and timing attacks. Side channel attacks can only be performed on public key cryptography system because the encrypted text i.e. ciphers text depends upon the text that is encrypted. So while decryption the cipher text produces a unique acoustic spectrum which helps the attacker to extract the key. In this case we put our emphasis on a different source of computer noise i.e. vibration of electronic components like capacitors and transistors in the circuit of the CPU. These acoustic vibrations are related to the system activity since the amount of power drawn from the CPU depends upon the operation which is performed. As a study case, we will focus on the GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard), a cross-platform, open-source implementation of the OpenPGP Standard. We will demonstrate a key extraction attack that can extract 4096-bit RSA secret keys when used by GnuPG running on a laptop computer by analyzing the vibrations generated by the computer during decryption of chosen cipher texts. RELATED WORK Analysis of acoustical vibrations is relatively a newer practice commonly used in military context such as identification of vehicles through the sound signature of their engine. Similarly computer programmers monitor the functioning of their systems by listening to sound generated by mechanical components. Some of the successfully implemented experiments involving side channel attacks include : à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Electromechanical ciphers. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Keyboard acoustic emanations. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Acoustic emanations from printers. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Power analysis. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Power analysis via the USB port. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Timing attacks. THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP (A) laptop on which the decryption is being performed (B) Brà ¼elKjà ¦r 4190 microphone capsule mounted on a Brà ¼elKjà ¦r 2669 preamplifier held by a flexible arm. (C) Brà ¼elKjà ¦r 5935 microphone power supply and amplifier, (D) National Instruments MyDAQ device with a 10 kHz RC low-pass filter cascaded with a 150 kHz RC high-pass filter on its A2D input (E) laptop computer performing the attack. Here, the microphone power, amplification and some filtering are done by an integrated, battery operated Brà ¼elKjà ¦r 5935 microphone power supply. After a self-built 10 kHz RC low-pass filter cascaded with a 150 kHz RC high-pass using capacitors and resistors, A2D conversion is done by the compact, USB-operated National Instruments MyDAQ device. The MyDAQ device captures at 200 K sample/sec. The Brà ¼elKjà ¦r 5935 amplifier is limited to a frequency of 100 kHz. OBSERVING THE ACOUSTIC LEAKAGE 1. Distinguishing various CPU operations We can distinguish between various operations performed by CPU by analyzing the low bandwidth leakage of acoustical emanations. Our analysis begins by taking into account simple operations like: HLT (CPU sleep), MUL (integer multiplication), FMUL (floating-point multiplication), main memory access (forcing L1 and L2 cache misses), and REP NOP (short-term idle). We concluded that these operations exhibit a unique frequency spectrum on execution. 2. Distinguishing various code lengths These acoustical emanations can also determine the length of loop being executed. For example the leakage produced by a code executing 10000 ADD instructions in an infinite loop will have a different acoustic spectrum than a program executing 20000 ADD instructions in an infinite loop. 3. Leakage source The observed acoustical emanations are not caused by the rotation of the fan, hard seeks or audio speakers as it is verified by disabling these components. Rather it is caused by the capacitors and resistors in the power regulation circuit of the CPU. The precise source of the emanations is difficult to characterize, since it is different in every machine and it is typically located in hard to reach places. Acoustic localization is also difficult due to mechanical coupling of capacitors and resistors and because of acoustic reflections due to other components. PERFORMING THE ATTACK The attacker sends an encrypted email to the target machine. This email when received by the target machine undergoes the process of decryption so as to extract the data that has been sent. The email which is sent involves sending a chosen ciphertext, it cannot have any random data in it. The data which is sent via the email has to be a specially crafted ciphertext. Through this attack we try to get the ‘q’ i.e. one of the prime factor of the key ‘n’. Enigmail provides an integrated graphical user interface and handles e-mail encoding and user interaction; the actual cryptography is done by an external GnuPG executable. Received e-mail messages are decrypted upon the user’s request. In addition and by default, Enigmail automatically decrypts incoming e-mail messages. Thus, an attacker can send a suitably-crafted e-mail message to the victim, containing a chosen ciphertext. When this e-mail message is fetched by the target computer, the attacker observes the acoustic emanations during decryption, and obtains a bit of the secret key. The attacker then sends additional e-mail messages, until all key bits are recovered. If the messages are backdated or made to look like spam messages, they may even go unnoticed. But this doesn’t affects our attack as it will still be decrypted by the email client. Choosing the ciphertext q is a 2048 bit number q2048 q2047 q2046 q2045†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ q2 q1 GnuPG always generates RSA keys in which the most significant bit of q is set, i.e., q2048 = 1. Considering we know the first i-1 bits of q e.g. i=4 , we know q2048 q2047 q2046 =110 Now we need to find the next bit of q , which can be 0 or 1 So , we create a ciphertext with first i-1 bits equal to that of first i-1 bits of q, the next bit 0 and the remaining bits to be 1 q2048 q2047 q2046 0 111111†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.11111 Recording the emmisions We use our experimental setup to record the acoustic emissions that are created during the decryption. Placing the microphone with respect to the laptop body has a large influence on the obtained signal. Laptops have cooling system for heat dissipation. It has a fan that requires large intake of air and some exhaust holes. Also, there are other holes and gaps for ports such as USB, Express Card slot, SD card reader, and Ethernet port. Any of these ports can be used as a position for the microphone. Typically, the best microphone placement is near the Ethernet port or the fan exhaust vent. We record the sound using the LABVIEW software. We compute the sliding-window Fourier transform of the trace, yielding a sequence of spectra, and then aggregate these spectra by taking the median value of each bin. (The use of median effectively rejects temporally-local outliers, such as transient spikes.) The spectrum is truncate to the frequency range of interest (determined manually). Extracting the key The most significant bit of a prime number is always 1. Using this fact we create a desired ciphertext and obtain the power frequency templates for 0 and 1. Thus, if the attacker were to have two spectrum templates describing the leakage of zero and one bits, he could classify an unknown signal by checking the similarity between it and the templates he has. Concretely, in our case a template is a vector of real numbers describing the signal power at each frequency bin. The classification is based on computing the correlation of the Fourier spectrum of the leakage with the two templates. Recall that q is chosen to be a prime such that its most significant bit is always set to one. Moreover, this information is known to an attacker. Thus, obtaining an example of a leakage of a one bit can be done by measuring the leakage resulting from the decryption of g2048;1. Obtaining an example of a leakage of a zero bit is more tricky. This is because the attacker does not know in advance the location of the first zero bit in q. However, this problem can be easily avoided. Consider any number l such that q 2048 1). Notice that the reduction of l modulo q is equivalent to computing l q and will cause the bits of the result to be random thus achieving a similar spectrum as the sound of zero bits of q at the beginning of the attack. After this we compare the data acquired with the templates of 0 and 1 and the output of the comparison gives one bit of the q. Then this attack has to repeated 2048 times to get all the bits of q. These templates are updated dynamically in the matter of 20 bits. After receiving the acoustic spectrum of every attack bit we try to match the frequencies with the ones in the predefined templates. Whenever we get a matching frequency we check it’s corresponding value for power if this value is in range according the given threshold of the template we classify the bit as 0 or 1. By repeating this same procedure to attack every bit we obtain all the 2048 bits of prime q and in turn find the key. COUNTER MEASURE Cipher text randomization : One countermeasure that is effective in stopping our attack ciphertext randomization. If we have a cipher text c, instead of decrypting c immediately what we can generate a 4096 bit random value r, compute re and then decrypt re* c and multiply the result by r^-1. Since ed = 1 mod (n) It does not stop the attacker from extracting the key but it masks the original key so that even if the attacker is able to extract the key he doesn’t has the correct key. In implementation we have used the random library of python. Using this library random.randint(range) generates a random integer which can be multiplied to the value of cipher text and it changes the acoustic spectrum of the ciphertext which masquerades the original key. Why software based countermeasures are better than hardware based countermeasures? Enforce a proper layering can seem to be an effective countermeasure. Unfortunately, such low-level physical leakage prevention, is most of the times, impractical due to the significantly bad cost vs. security tradeoff because of the following reasons : (1) Suitable manipulation at the higher levels can amplify any leakage remnants, similar to what we do in our chosen-ciphertext attack (2) Low-level mechanisms try to protect all computation, even though most of it is insensitive or does not induce easily-exploitable leakage (3) Essential performance-enhancing mechanisms produce leakage as an inevitable side effect. REFRENCES [1] M. Hanspach and J. Keller, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢In guards we trust: Security and privacy in operating systems revisited,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Proc. 5th ASE/IEEE International Conference on Information Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust, Washington D.C., USA: IEEE, Sept 2013. [2] M. Hanspach and M.Goetz, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢On Covert acoustical mesh network in air, revisited,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- in Journal of Communications Vol. 8, No. 11, November 2013. [3] R. Otnes, A. Asterjadhi, P. Casari, M. Goetz, T. Husà ¸y, I. Nissen, et al., Underwater Acoustic Networking Techniques, ser. Springer Briefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Springer, 2012. [4] R. Frankland, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Side channels, compromising emanations and surveillance: Current and future technologies,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Department of Mathematics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, England, Tech. Rep., Mar. 2011. [5] Daniel Genkin, Adi Shamir, Eran Tromer, RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic Cryptanalysis December 18, 2013. [6]Nikita Borisov, Ian Goldberg, and David Wagner. Intercepting mobile communications: the insecurity of 802.11 [7] H. E. Bass and Roy G. Keeton. Ultrasonic absorption in air at elevated temperatures. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. [8]Taher ElGamal. A public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on discrete logarithms.IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 31(4):469–472, 1985. 1

Coca Cola Performance Appraisal System Management Essay

Coca Cola Performance Appraisal System Management Essay The Coca-Cola Company is the worlds largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, KO sells concentrated forms of its beverages to bottlers, which produce, package, and sell the finished products to retailers. The Coca-Cola Company operates in over 200 countries and sells over 400 different products, including the world-famous Coca-Cola and Sprite lines of soft drinks. KO faces several challenges today. An increased consumer preference for healthier drinks has resulted in slowing growth rates for sales of carbonated soft drinks (abbreviated as CSD), which constitutes 74% of KOs sales. KOs profits are also vulnerable to the rising costs for the raw materials used to make drinks such as the corn syrup used as a sweetener, the aluminum used in cans, and the plastic used in bottles. Additionally, as food retailers continue consolidating, theyre gaining more power to negotiate for lower prices, decreasing KOs price flexibility. Despite these challenges, Coca-Cola has remained highly profitable. Though the non-CSD market is growing quickly, the traditional CSD market is still much larger in terms of both revenues and volume. The size and variety of KOs offerings in the CSD category, coupled with the unparalleled brand equity of the Coca-Cola trademark, has allowed KO to maintain its share of the large, high-margin CSD market. At the same time, KO has responded to consumers changing tastes and begun launching new, non-CSD alternatives. The Coca-Cola Company engages in the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups worldwide. It principally offers sparkling and still beverages. The companys sparkling beverages include nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages with carbonation, such as energy drinks, and carbonated waters and flavored waters. Its still beverages consist of nonalcoholic beverages without carbonation, including non-carbonated waters, flavored waters and enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, and sports drinks. The Coca-Cola Company also offers fountain syrups, syrups, and concentrates, such as flavoring ingredients and sweeteners. The company markets its nonalcoholic beverages under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite brand names. The Coca-Cola Company also owns mineral water brands Kinley. The Coca-Cola Company, nourishing the global community with the worlds largest selling soft drink since 1886, returned to India in 1993 after a ga p of 16 years giving a new thumbs-up to the Indian Soft Drink Market. In the same year, the Company took over ownership of the nations top soft-drink brands and bottling network. No wonder, their brands have assumed an iconic status in the minds of the consumers. Coca-Cola serves in India some of the most recalled brands across the world including names such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Thumps Up, Limca, Maaza and Kinley (packaged drinking water). INTRODUCTION Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. It is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. Objectives for performance appraisal policy can best be understood in terms of potential benefits Increase motivation to perform effectively. Increase staff self-esteem. Gain new insight into staff and supervisors. Better clarify and define job functions and responsibilities. Develop valuable communication among appraisal participants. Encourage increased self-understanding among staff as well as insight into the kind of development activities that are of value. Distribute rewards on a fair and credible basis. Clarify organizational goals so they can be more readily accepted. Improve institutional/departmental manpower planning, test validation, and development of training programs. Performance appraisal may be defined as a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor, that usually takes the form of a periodic interview (annual or semi-annual), in which the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development. In many organizations but not all appraisal results are used, either directly or indirectly, to help determine reward outcomes. That is, the appraisal results are used to identify the better performing employees who should get the majority of available merit pay increases, bonuses, and promotions. By the same token, appraisal results are used to identify the poorer performers who may require some form of counseling, or in extreme cases, demotion, dismissal or decreases in pay. (Organizations need to be aware of laws in their country that might restrict their capacity to dismiss employees or decrease pay). The Performance Appraisal System (PAS) is designed to improve overall organizational performance by encouraging a higher level of involvement and motivation and increased staff participation in the planning, delivery and evaluation of work. The system establishes a process for achieving responsibility and accountability in the execution of programmes approved by the General Assembly. It is based on linking individual work plans with those of departments and offices and entails setting goals, planning work in advance and providing ongoing feedback. An important function of the PAS is to promote communication between staff members and supervisors on the goals to be achieved and the basis on which individual performance will be assessed, encouraging teamwork in the process. OBJECTIVES To get familiar with cooperate world environment and culture. To learn how appraisals of a employee in the company is decide by managers. To learn the parameters seniors look while doing the appraisals. To see what are the factors, which decide how much appraisals, a particular should get. Who are the Peoples involved in appraisals system and who takes which decision? To understand the appraisals system and methodology for appraisals in Coca-Cola India. To get familiar with the work and duties of a Human Resource (HR) Manager. INDUSTRY PROFILE REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON THE INDUSTRY An industry analysis through Porters Five Forces reveals that market forces are favorable for profitability. Defining the industry Both concentrate producers (CP) and bottlers are profitable. These two parts of the industry are extremely interdependent, sharing costs in procurement, production, marketing and distribution. Many of their functions overlap; for instance, CPs do some bottling, and bottlers conduct many promotional activities. The industry is already vertically integrated to some extent. They also deal with similar suppliers and buyers. Entry into the industry would involve developing operations in either or both disciplines. Beverage substitutes would threaten both CPs and their associated bottlers. Because of operational overlap and similarities in their market environment, we can include both CPs and bottlers in our definition of the soft drink industry. In 1993, CPs earned 29% pretax profits on their sales, while bottlers earned 9% profits on their sales, for a total industry profitability of 14% (Exhibit 1). This industry as a whole generates positive economic profits. Rivalry Revenues are extremely concentrated in this industry, with Coke and Pepsi, together with their associated bottlers, commanding 73% of the case market in 1994. Adding in the next tier of soft drink companies, the top six controlled 89% of the market. In fact, one could characterize the soft drink market as an oligopoly, or even a duopoly between Coke and Pepsi, resulting in positive economic profits. To be sure, there was tough competition between Coke and Pepsi for market share, and this occasionally hampered profitability. For example, price wars resulted in weak brand loyalty and eroded margins for both companies in the 1980s. The Pepsi Challenge, meanwhile, affected market share without hampering per case profitability, as Pepsi was able to compete on attributes other than price. Substitutes: Through the early 1960s, soft drinks were synonymous with â€Å"colas† in the mind of consumers. Over time, however, other beverages, from bottled water to teas, became more popular, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Coke and Pepsi responded by expanding their offerings, through alliances (e.g. Coke and Nestea), acquisitions (e.g. Coke and Minute Maid), and internal product innovation (e.g. Pepsi creating Orange Slice), capturing the value of increasingly popular substitutes internally. Proliferation in the number of brands did threaten the profitability of bottlers through 1986, as they more frequent line set-ups, increased capital investment, and development of special management skills for more complex manufacturing operations and distribution. Bottlers were able to overcome these operational challenges through consolidation to achieve economies of scale. Overall, because of the CPs efforts in diversification, however, substitutes became less of a threat. Power of Suppliers The inputs for Coke and Pepsis products were primarily sugar and packaging. Sugar could be purchased from many sources on the open market, and if sugar became too expensive, the firms could easily switch to corn syrup, as they did in the early 1980s. So suppliers of nutritive sweeteners did not have much bargaining power against Coke, Pepsi, or their bottlers. NutraSweet, meanwhile, had recently come off patent in 1992, and the soft drink industry gained another supplier, Holland Sweetener, which reduced Searles bargaining power and lowering the price of aspartame. With an abundant supply of inexpensive aluminum in the early 1990s and several can companies competing for contracts with bottlers, can suppliers had very little supplier power. Furthermore, Coke and Pepsi effectively further reduced the supplier of can makers by negotiating on behalf of their bottlers, thereby reducing the number of major contracts available to two. With more than two companies vying for these contracts, Coke and Pepsi were able to negotiate extremely favorable agreements. In the plastic bottle business, again there were more suppliers than major contracts, so direct negotiation by the CPs was again effective at reducing supplier power. Power of buyers The soft drink industry sold to consumers through five principal channels: food stores, convenience and gas, fountain, vending, and mass merchandisers Supermarkets, the principal customer for soft drink makers, were a highly fragmented industry. The stores counted on soft drinks to generate consumer traffic, so they needed Coke and Pepsi products. But due to their tremendous degree of fragmentation (the biggest chain made up 6% of food retail sales, and the largest chains controlled up to 25% of a region), these stores did not have much bargaining power. Their only power was control over premium shelf space, which could be allocated to Coke or Pepsi products. This power did give them some control over soft drink profitability. Furthermore, consumers expected to pay less through this channel, so prices were lower, resulting in somewhat lower profitability. National mass merchandising chains such as Wal-Mart, on the other hand, had much more bargaining power. While these stores did car ry both Coke and Pepsi products, they could negotiate more effectively due to their scale and the magnitude of their contracts. For this reason, the mass merchandiser channel was relatively less profitable for soft drink makers. The least profitable channel for soft drinks, however, was fountain sales. Profitability at these locations was so abysmal for Coke and Pepsi that they considered this channel â€Å"paid sampling.† This was because buyers at major fast food chains only needed to stock the products of one manufacturer, so they could negotiate for optimal pricing. Coke and Pepsi found these channels important, however, as an avenue to build brand recognition and loyalty, so they invested in the fountain equipment and cups that were used to serve their products at these outlets. As a result, while Coke and Pepsi gained only 5% margins, fast food chains made 75% gross margin on fountain drinks. Vending, meanwhile, was the most profitable channel for the soft drink industry. Essentially there were no buyers to bargain with at these locations, where Coke and Pepsi bottlers could sell directly to consumers through machines owned by bottlers. Property owners were paid a sales commission on Coke and Pepsi products sold through machines on their property, so their incentives were properly aligned with those of the soft drink makers, and prices remained high. The customer in this case was the consumer, who was generally limited on thirst quenching alternatives. The final channel to consider is convenience stores and gas stations. If Mobil or Seven-Eleven were to negotiate on behalf of its stations, it would be able to exert significant buyer power in transactions with Coke and Pepsi. Apparently, though, this was not the nature of the relationship between soft drink producers and this channel, where bottlers profits were relatively high, at $0.40 per case, in 1993. With this high profitability, it seems likely that Coke and Pepsi bottlers negotiated directly with convenience store and gas station owners. So the only buyers with dominant power were fast food outlets. Although these outlets captured most of the soft drink profitability in their channel, they accounted for less than 20% of total soft drink sales. Through other markets, however, the industry enjoyed substantial profitability because of limited buyer power. Barriers to Entry It would be nearly impossible for either a new CP or a new bottler to enter the industry. New CPs would need to overcome the tremendous marketing muscle and market presence of Coke, Pepsi, and a few others, who had established brand names that were as much as a century old. Through their DSD practices, these companies had intimate relationships with their retail channels and would be able to defend their positions effectively through discounting or other tactics. So, although the CP industry is not very capital intensive, other barriers would prevent entry. Entering bottling, meanwhile, would require substantial capital investment, which would deter entry. Further complicating entry into this market, existing bottlers had exclusive territories in which to distribute their products. Regulatory approval of intrabrand exclusive territories, via the Soft Drink Interbrand Competition Act of 1980, ratified this strategy, making it impossible for new bottlers to get started in any region wh ere an existing bottler operated, which included every significant market in the US. In conclusion, an industry analysis by Porters Five Forces reveals that the soft drink industry in 1994 was favorable for positive economic profitability, as evidenced in companies financial outcomes. MAJOR COMPANIES In India there are only two major companies Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Ltd. Pepsi Co. Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Private Ltd. The Coca-Cola Company engages in the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups worldwide. It principally offers sparkling and still beverages. The companys sparkling beverages include nonalcoholic ready-to-drink beverages with carbonation, such as energy drinks, and carbonated waters and flavored waters. Its still beverages consist of nonalcoholic beverages without carbonation, including non-carbonated waters, flavored waters and enhanced waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, and sports drinks. The Coca-Cola Company also offers fountain syrups, syrups, and concentrates, such as flavoring ingredients and sweeteners. The company markets its nonalcoholic beverages under the Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite brand names. The Coca-Cola Company also owns mineral water brands Kinley. The Coca-Cola Company, nourishing the global community with the worlds largest selling soft drink since 1886, returned to India in 1993 after a ga p of 16 years giving a new thumbs-up to the Indian Soft Drink Market. In the same year, the Company took over ownership of the nations top soft-drink brands and bottling network. No wonder, their brands have assumed an iconic status in the minds of the consumers. Coca-Cola serves in India some of the most recalled brands across the world including names such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Thumps Up, Limca, Maaza and Kinley (packaged drinking water). PEPSI Co. PepsiCo is a world leader in convenience foods and beverages, with 2007 revenues of more than $39 billion and more than 185,000 employees across the world. Its world renowned brands are available in nearly 200 countries and territories. PepsiCo entered India in 1989 and has grown to become the countrys largest selling food and beverage companies. One of the largest multinational investors in the country, PepsiCo has established a business which aims to serve the long term dynamic needs of consumers in India. PepsiCo India and its partners have invested more than U.S.$700 million since the company was established in the country in 1989. In India, PepsiCo provides direct employment to 4,000 people and indirect employment to 60,000 people including suppliers and distributors. PepsiCo Indias expansive portfolio includes iconic refreshment beverages Pepsi, 7 UP, Mirinda and Mountain Dew, in addition to low calorie options- Diet Pepsi and 7Up Light; hydrating and nutritional beverages such as Aquafina drinking water, isotonic sports drinks Gatorade, and 100% natural fruit juices and juice based drinks Tropicana, Tropicana Twister and Slice. Our local brands Lehar Evervess Soda, Dukes Lemonade and Mangola complete our diverse spectrum of brands. PepsiCos snack food company, Frito-Lay, is the leader in the branded potato chip market and was amongst the first companies to eliminate the use of trans fats and MSG in its products. It manufactures Lays Potato Chips; Cheetos extruded snacks, Uncle Chipps and traditional namkeen snacks under the Kurkure and Lehar brands. The companys high fibre breakfast cereal, Quaker Oats, along with Lehar Lites, low fat and roasted snack options enhance the choices available to the growing health and wellness needs of our consu mers. Frito Lays core products, Lays, Kurkure, Uncle Chipps and Cheetos are cooked in Rice Bran Oil to significantly reduce saturated fats and all of its products contain voluntary nutritional labeling on their packets. The group has built an expansive beverage, snack food and exports business and to support the operations are the groups 43 bottling plants in India, of which 15 are company owned and 28 are franchisee owned. In addition to this, PepsiCos Frito Lay snack division has 3 state of the art plants. PepsiCos business is based on its sustainability vision of making tomorrow better than today. Our commitment to living by this vision every day is visible in our contribution to our country, consumers, farmers and our people. SWOT ANALYSIS Coca Cola Co. Pepsi Co. Strengths Established Market Share Well Established Network Parle brands acting as Substitutes Regional Presence of some Brands Strengths Market presence felt by customers. Increasing influence and identification. Strong promotional Campaign In touch with customer Weakness Alienation of Bottlers Not in touch with Customers Weakness Smaller Market Share Other brands are not very popular (except Pepsi and Mirinda) Opportunities Regaining Previous Market Share by promoting parle brands Opportunities Can gain a large Share in Existing Market while Coca Cola consolidates its position. Threats Pepsi co, the biggest competitor Pepsi cos ability to judge the market mood accurately. Threats Coca Colas change in strategy which will be taking away the advantage. Coca cola ability to bring about price war. SWOT ANALYSIS FOR THE INDUSTRY SWOT stands for Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats SWOT analysis is a technique much used in many general management as well as marketing scenarios. SWOT consists of examining the current activities of the organization- its Strengths and Weakness- and then using this and external research data to set out the Opportunities and Threats that exist. Strengths: Strong and well differentiated brands with leading share positions. Brand portfolio includes both global Unilever brands and local brands of specific relevance to India. Consumer understanding and systems for building consumer insight. Strong RD capability well linked with business. Integrated supply chain and well spread manufacturing units. Distribution structure with wide reach, high quality coverage and ability to leverage scale. Access to Unilever global technology capability and sharing of best practices from other Unilever companies. High quality manpower resources. Weaknesses: Limited success in changing drinking habits of people. Complex supply chain configuration, unwieldy number of SKUs with dispersed manufacturing locations. Price positioning in some categories allows for low price competition. Threats: Low priced competition now present in all categories. Changes in fiscal benefits. Unfavorable raw material prices in sugar, aluminum, commodity etc. Opportunities: Market and brand growth through increased penetration especially in rural areas. Brand growth through increased consumption depth and frequency of usage across all categories. Upgrading consumers through innovation to new levels of quality. Leveraging the latest IT technology. COCA-COLA PROFILE REVIEW OF LITERATURE The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the worlds largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, KO sells concentrated forms of its beverages to bottlers, which produce, package, and sell the finished products to retailers. The Coca-Cola Company operates in over 200 countries and sells over 400 different products, including the world-famous Coca-Cola and Sprite lines of soft drinks. KO faces several challenges today. An increased consumer preference for healthier drinks has resulted in slowing growth rates for sales of carbonated soft drinks (abbreviated as CSD), which constitutes 74% of KOs sales. KOs profits are also vulnerable to the rising costs for the raw materials used to make drinks such as the corn syrup used as a sweetener, the aluminum used in cans, and the plastic used in bottles. Additionally, as food retailers continue consolidating, theyre gaining more power to negotiate for lower prices, decreasing KOs price flexibility. Despite these challenges, Coca-Cola has remained highly profitable. Though the non-CSD market is growing quickly, the traditional CSD market is still much larger in terms of both revenues and volume. The size and variety of KOs offerings in the CSD category, coupled with the unparalleled brand equity of the Coca-Cola trademark, has allowed KO to maintain its share of the large, high-margin CSD market. At the same time, KO has responded to consumers changing tastes and begun launching new, non-CSD alternatives. History and Corporate Overview The Coca-Cola Company traces its origin to 1884, when an entrepreneur named John Stith Pemberton concocted a cocaine-infused wine for sale in the U.S. A non-alcoholic version, called Coca-Cola, was introduced in the following year in response to new laws prohibiting alcoholic beverages, and the company was officially incorporated in 1888 in Atlanta, Georgia. The entire Coca-Cola system is divided into two parts: the Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers. KO manufactures concentrates and syrups for its beverages, which it then sells to bottlers for packaging and distribution. KO owns all the rights for its brands, which include some of the worlds most popular non-alcoholic beverages, though it does grant bottlers some rights as part of its bottling agreements. In addition to manufacturing the concentrates, KO is also primarily responsible for marketing its brands, which includes running advertising and promotional campaigns. Bottling companies are generally independent of the Coca-Cola Company, though some are either partially or completely owned by KO. KO is now one of the largest corporations in the world, with a global workforce of over 90,000 and revenues of $28.8 billion in revenues in 2007. Over the years, the brand equity of the Coca-Cola trademark, as well as that of other KO-produced brands, has established KO as a prominent figure in the non-alcoholic beverage industry and allowed the company to keep both revenues and profits high. Sales and income data, in millions 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Net sales $20,857 $21,742 $23,104 $24,088 $28,857 Net income (profits) $4,347 $4,847 $4,872 $5,080 $5,981 Units sold, in billions 19.4 19.8 20.6 21.4 22.7 Bottlers Coca-Cola holds controlling and noncontrolling interest in 64% of its worldwide bottlers Coca-Cola holds controlling and non controlling interest in 64% of its worldwide bottlers. Bottling and canning companies are typically separate from the Coca-Cola Companys main concentrate manufacturing business. However, KO does maintain ownership interests in many of its bottlers, ensuring that the relationship between the two parts of the Coca-Cola system remains close. Some of the Coca-Cola Companys principal bottlers are: Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) (NYSE: CCE), which is the largest member of the Coca-Cola bottling network by volume. CCE accounts for 80% of all domestic Coca-Cola sales and 18% of all sales worldwide. KO retains a 35% share of CCE stock, as well as two of its thirteen board seats. Coca Cola Femsa S.A.B. de C.V. (KOF) (NYSE: KOF), the second-largest bottler in the Coke system, produced 2 billion unit cases of beverages in 2007. KO owns 32% of Coca Cola Femsa S.A.B. de C.V. (KOF), which has a strong presence in Central and South America. COCA COLA HELLENIC BOTTLING CO (CCH) S.A. (NYSE: CCH) is KOs fourth-largest bottling company, selling 1.81 billion cases in 2007. CCH has a large market presence in Europe, Asia, and Africa with its operations spread among 26 different countries. KO currently owns 23% of CCHs stock. Products The Coca-Cola Company produces over 400 brands of non-alcoholic beverages, including carbonated and non-carbonated beverages, such as ready-to-drink juices, coffee drinks, tea and bottled water. Of these over 400 brands, there are more than 2,600 different varieties. Most of KOs beverage portfolio is composed of CSD, though the company has been expanding into the non_CSD category in response to a shift in consumer demand and a greater emphasis on healthy options. Carbonated Soft Drinks Carbonated soft drinks are the single largest component in the Coca-Cola Companys collection of beverages, accounting for around 74% of total volume sold in 2006. Within the CSD category, KO offers other sugared drinks and diet drinks. Of all CSD sales, beverages bearing the Coca-Cola or Coke trademark make up 55% of total volumes. Some of the Coca-Cola Companys major CSD offerings include: Coca-Cola Diet Coca-Cola Sprite Fanta Barqs Root Beer Coke Zero Introduced in 2005, Coke Zero is the most significant of KOs new innovations. This beverage is marketed as a calorie-free version of Coca-Cola Classic, omitting the diet label in an attempt to appeal to new demographics. This brand alone accounted for nearly on third of all 2006 growth for beverages bearing the Coca-Cola trademark. Most of KOs carbonated soft drinks come in several varieties with different flavors, caloric values, etc. KO also offers energy drinks such as TaB and Full Throttle, which are carbonated but are aimed at different demographics, putting them in a special category of their own. Non-carbonated Soft Drinks The remaining 26% of KOs total volume is composed of non-carbonated soft drinks, which include a variety of beverages such a fruit juices, waters, sports drinks, and teas. This non-CSD segment has been showing higher growth rates than the CSD category, resulting from higher demand for healthy alternatives to traditional CSD. Among KOs significant non-CSD beverages are: Dasani bottled water Glaceau Vitamin Water POWERade sports drinks Minute Maid and Minute Maid To Go juices Nestea Fuze Healthy Infuzions Odwalla Juice drinks Within the non-CSD category, bottled waters like Dasani and Spring! by Dannon are showing the highest rates