Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Strategic Management Essay Example for Free

Strategic Management Essay Toyota Motor Corporation is a famous Japanese multinational corporation, and is considered the world’s second largest automaker of automobiles, trucks, buses, robots, and providing financial services. When Toyota and other Japanese carmakers entered the American market, they were not considered as a threat to the American auto industry because it was believed their cars had no appeal to American consumers However, in the 1970s, due to several problems like environmental regulations, and quality control issues with American cars, a good number of American car owners began searching for alternatives to poorly made American cars. In response to these changes, Toyota and other Japanese carmakers aggressively marketed their cars to Americans as being fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly, and having better build quality than American cars. In addition, Toyota marketed their cars with commercials involving young Toyota drivers jumping in the air. As a result, the Japanese’s marketing campaign along with continuing problems from the Big Three auto manufacturers, allowed import cars to make up about 20 percent of the US car market by 1980. Stage1. General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler focused in the late 1990s on mergers and acquisitions for improving their business positions to meet future challenges. Toyota, meanwhile, centered its business strategy on technological innovation and persistent environmental product development. The price of oil was not especially high during the 1990s when Toyota started its hybrid car program. Oil prices were below US $20 barrel in 1994 and were to fall to a 50-year low around 1997 when the Toyota Prius was first sold in Japan. Clearly something else was driving Toyota and other Japanese companies to invest so heavily in hybrid car development. There are three probable reasons: 1 . High petrol taxes in Japan, due to the Japanese government wanting to reduce the dependence of Japan on imported oil. While this would have certainly driven the Japanese development of hybrid cars, petrol was cheap in the key US market at this time. 2) The potential to gain a market advantage by developing the key technologies required to successfully commercialize hybrid cars, and then owning these developments via patents. 3) The expectation that ownership of these key fuel savings technologies would become very valuable when world oil prices rise from the lows of the mid-1990s, which was a fair long-term assumption to make during this period. Stage2: Decision Making Process: In 1994, the executive team acknowledged the potential threat of depleting oil reserves and climate change and change their strategy or products to meet the needs of future customers. Course of Action: Toyota set up a group tasked with meeting the challenge of creating a vehicle for the 21st century, which would work within the parameters of natural resource constraints and environmental issues. Commitment to course of action: Toyota pioneered the concept of Hybrid (petrol/electric) technology to mass produce the world’s first eco-efficient vehicle, the Toyota Prius. Evaluation of decision/re-engineering: The first prototype of the car had even faced starting problem. It took almost six months to roll the car. Finally, when the car started, it moved for a few yards only. It was hard to imagine that Toyota, which was known for its efficient production systems, was facing such trouble. Initially it felt that ‘Prius’ was a case of technological problems, impossible demands and multiple miscalculations. It proved how a great company could overcome obstacles and turn a dream into reality. Though ‘Prius’ represented only a small fraction of the nine million cars and trucks that the Japanese company planned to produce in 2006, it would be the first vehicle to provide a serious alternative to internal combustion engines, designed for a world of scarce oil and was branded as ‘The car for the future’. Stage3: Toyota carefully studied the US market and sees there is a growing oil crisis and foresees a need for change in the structure for cars, converting their needs to oil saving cars. While American car manufactures lacked producing such cars, then Toyota caught that opportunity and tried to occupy this niche market. By 2002, it was being sold in North America, Japan, Europe, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. Analysts opined that the demand for hybrid cars would rise because of the unstable oil prices and the growing need for environment friendly products. Post Evaluation By examining the external environment and acknowledging the potential threats of depleting resources and increased concern over environmental issues, Toyota have turned a threat into a business opportunity, boosting their reputation both as an environmentally conscious and as technological innovators and established themselves as leaders in this growing market. The car industry faces many complex issues, but the introduction of the Prius provided Toyota with a competitive advantage. RoadMap to the development Process of Toyota Prius. Stage1| Stage2| Stage3| Executive level| 1 Expressed concern about the future of the automobile2. Embarked a new project called G21 to the team3. Communicated the vision and priorities to the team| 1. The executive team acknowledged the potential threat of depleting oil2. Challenged the team for the innovation of new model using new technology| 1. Toyota unveiled the Prius in Japan in October 1997, two months ahead of schedule. 2. Made strategy plans for introducing cars to US and other prospective continents| Management and Team level| 1. Engaged in improving the existing internal combustion engine technology2. Started making refinements to the existing technology | 1. Team committed to the course of action using hybrid technology. 2. Came up with around 80 alternatives. 3. Identified numerous problems heat, reliability, noise, and cost. 4. Narrowed the list to four models. 5. After endless fussing and tweaking, the team finally reached 66 miles per gallon the 100% mileage improvement. | 1. Team has started putting efforts towards with second and third generation Prius. 2. Redesigned the model for making it more appealing to the consumers. | Marketing /Sales Team| 1. Identification of the growing oil prices. 2. Identification of Growing middle class around the world. | 1. Raised the concern that Premium price for the hybrid would make it impossible to sell. 2. Challenged with building consumer technology awareness. | 1. Devised new marketing ways to cut down dealership costs in US. 2. Devised new ways to boost the sales through internet, relied on grass-roots marketing, and public relations events|.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Essay --

Slaves wanted freedom. They wanted to get away from their malicious and abusive owners, reunite with their families, and have a chance at a new life. The Underground Railroad gave them that chance. Before the Underground Railroad, slaveholders became accustomed to the use of this cruel system in which they called slavery, where slaves were often treated worse than farm animals. Slaves were forced to live in terrible conditions, where they were crowded into poorly built huts, exposed to both the freezing cold and extreme heat, worked from sun up until sun down, and were malnourished. Slaves could also be subjected to torturous punishments at the will of his or her master or overseer. As a southern judge once decreed, â€Å"The power of the master must be absolute.† Slaveholders would even aim to break up slave families just so that their absolute control would never waver. (Landau) It is believed that the system of the Underground Railroad began in 1787 when a Quaker named Isaac T. Hopper started to organize a system for hiding and aiding fugitive slaves. The Underground Railroad was a vast, loosely organized network of people who helped aid fugitive slaves in their escape to the North and Canada. It operated mostly at night and consisted of many whites, but predominately blacks. While the Underground Railroad had unofficially existed before it, a cause for its expansion was the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act allowed for runaway slaves to be captured and returned within the territory of the United States and added further provisions regarding the runaways and imposed even harsher chastisements for interfering in their capture (A&E). The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was a major cause of the development o... ...d and inspired blacks to do something about the situation that they were being given, and so they did. Blacks and whites came together to fight on the same side, to fight for the abolishment of slavery. This coming together is what caused the Underground Railroad to expand and evolve, but none of it would have ever happened, or at least not as fast as it did, without the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act which brought blacks and whites together. In this way the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act was a major cause of the development of the Underground Railroad because it caused people to realize just how cruel slavery was, which invoked an increase in the support and aid of the strong, free, black population, who were a crucial component to the Underground Railroad, as well as abolitionist and anti-slavery white, resulting in the expansion of the Underground Railroad.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Preparation of Cyclohexanol

Introduction: Cyclohexanol is mainly used in the production of caprolactam and adipic acid that is a raw material of nylon 6 (Zhang, et al, 2002). Cyclohexanol can be produce through several methods, which include the oxidation of cyclohexane, the hydration of cyclohexene, or the hydrogenation of phenol (Zhang, et al, 2002). Problem with oxidation of cyclohexene is poor selectivity, extremely large recycles and explosion hazards. (Suresh, Sridhar, Potter, 1988). The purpose of this experiment was to synthesis cyclohexanol by hydration of cyclohexene using concentrated sulphuric acid as an acidic catalyst.In hydration reaction, C=C B bond is replaced by hydroxyl group (Hornback, 2006). Overall reaction: (McFadden, 2012) In the first step, the mixture of water, concentrated sulphuric acid, and cyclohexene was shaken vigorously until it became a homogenous solution. Followed by, the addition of water, and the distillation process lead to the hydrolysis of the alkene. Finally, addition o f diethyl ether to the mixture then distillation took place to be purified and to obtain the final product, cyclohexanol (McFadden, 2012).Diethyl ether was used to extract alcohol from salt-water mixture because diethyl ethers solubility in water is lower than cyclohexanol which helps remove alcohol from the salt-water mixture (Merzougui, A, et al. , 2011). (McFadden, 2012) Cyclohexene is added to water-acid solution, which formed two liquid phases were due to insolubility of cyclohexene in water-acid solution. It is very important that mixture is mixed well to make a homogeneous solution and allow reaction to complete. Cyclohexene was reacted with water and with sulfuric acid to form protonated cyclohexanol and cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate.Protonated cyclohexanol and cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate are soluble in water-acid solution (McFadden, 2012). When this mixture is heated, cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate converts to protonated cyclohexanol which is equilibrium with cyclohexanol (McFad den, 2012). Moreover, distillation technique is used to separate components of a liquid mixture, where liquid is boiled to vaporize and then condensed back into liquid called distillate. Distillate components are collected with a lowest-boiling point to highest-boiling point.In this experiment, distillation is used to separate the organic compound from sulphuric acid solution; azeotrope of cyclohexanol and water is formed as distillate, it also contains some cyclohexene components. Azeotrope has a fix boiling point like a pure compound. Cyclohexanol is considerably soluble in water, so poor yield is expected (McFadden, 2012). Addition of sodium chloride to distillate solution improves the final product yield because it reduces the solubility of organic compound, and extracts cyclohexanol from aqueous phase. It is due to salt’s higher solubility than organic compound.Also, anhydrous potassium carbonate is used to absorb water and to neutralize any trace of acid. During distill ation of pure cyclohexanol, most of the product should be collected as temperature reaches 161? C (Weast, 1988). This experiment also introduces determination of the refractive index; it is one of the most convenient methods used to determine purity of liquid. It is a ratio of the sine of the angle formed when light ray is bent when passing from an air medium into a liquid medium; in other words it is a ratios of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the liquid medium.Refrective index (n) = C_vaccume/V_medium (McFadden, 2012). At 20Â °C, the expected refractive index of cyclohexanol is 1. 4641 (Weast, 1988). Procedure: The experiment was done in two parts. Part-A was hydration of the alkene, and Part-B was isolation and purification of the cyclohexanol. To perform hydration of alkene, 7. 0mL of water and then 14mL of concentrated sulphuric acid were added to a 125mL Erlenmeyer flask. After that, flask was placed in ice-bath until it was cold to touch. 16. 4g of cy clohexene was added to weighed 250mL round-bottom flask.In the same round-bottom flask, the chilled water-acid mixture was added. In order to mix the solution, the flask was vigorously shaken for 20 minutes. While shaking, regularly stopper was released to prevent any build-up of vapour pressure. After flask was vented and allowed it to stand without disturbing for about 5 minutes. Because two distinct layers appeared, continued shaking for extra 10 minutes until solution was homogeneous. Next, an additional 120mL of distilled water were added in homogeneous solution with addition of 3 boiling chips.The same round-bottom flask was then set onto a distillation apparatus, and started distillation. Distillate was collected into an 125mL Erlenmeyer flask, and boiling point range of azeotrope was noted. Subsequently, 25g NaCl was dissolved to the distillate, but not all salt was dissolved. After that, flask was covered with parafilm (McFadden, 2012). In the next lab, distillate mixture w as transferred to a separatory funnel. Distillation receiver flask was washed by 20mL diethyl ether, that diethyl ether was then transferred into the separatory funnel.Mixture was allowed to delayer for 3 minutes. Afterwards, bottom aqueous layer was drained into a aqueous waste beaker; and top ether layer was transferred in an another 50mL Erlenmeyer flask which contained 3g of anhydrous potassium carbonate, swirled and allowed the mixture to stand for 15 minutes. Next, no potassium carbonate but only liquid mixture was transferred to round-bottom flask for the distillation. Diethyl ether and cyclohexene were distilled and collected into a flask until it reached 120Â °C, and later discarded in an organic waste.As temperature reached 120Â °C, a clean, dry and pre-weighed flask was replaced to collect final product, cyclohexanol. As soon as flask was replaced, cold water was turned-off and hot water was turned on. Continued to distil until there was no liquid in the distillation fl ask, and boiling chips started to change colour. Small amount of residue was kept in distillation flask to prevent it from breaking. Finally, cyclohexanol was weighted and from small sample the refractive index was determined (McFadden, 2012). Result: Amount of cyclohexene used = 16. 40g = 16. 40g of C_6 H_10? 1/(82. 143 g/mol)=0. 9965=0. 1997mol of C_6 H_10 Limiting reagent is: Cyclohexene Bp range of azeotrope mixture: 85-95. 4Â °C Literature bp range of azeotrope mixture: 97. 8Â °C; edition: 53rd; page: D-16 Bp range of diethyl ether: 34. 6-41. 6Â °CLiterature bp range of diethyl ether: 34. 51Â °C; edition: 53rd; page: Bp range of cyclohexene: 82. 8-90Â °C Literature bp range of cyclohexene: 82-98Â °C; edition: 53rd; page: C-259 Bp range of pure cyclohexanol: 157-161. 0Â °C Literature bp range of cyclohexanol: 161. 1Â °C; edition: 53rd; page: C-257 Weight of pure cyclohexanol = 7. 1g Percent yield = (actual yield (g))/(theoretical yield (g))? 00%=7. 1g/20. 00g? 100%=35. 5 % Theoretical yield= (0. 1997mol of C_6 H_10)/? (1 mol of C_6 H_12 O)/(1 mol of C_6 H_10 )? (100. 158 g)/(1 mol of C_6 H_12 O)=20. 00g Refrective index of pure cyclohexanol: raw 1. 4643 at 21. 2Â °C Corrected 1. 4658 at 20Â °C Correcting refractive index: n_D^20=n_D^21+[0. 00045Â °C^(-1)? (21. 2-20Â °C)] =n_D^21+[0. 00045Â °C^(-1)? (1. 2Â °C) =1. 4643+[0. 00054] =1. 46484=1. 4648 Refractive Percent yield error: ((1. 4648-1. 4641))/1. 4641? 100%=0. 05% Literature refrective index of cyclohexanol: 1. 4641 at 20Â °C Edition of CRC: 53rd; page: C-257 Discussion:Before reaching a concrete conclusion, it is very important to interpret the result that was obtained in this experiment. In this experiment, cyclohexene was hydrated to produce cyclohexanol; because the direct hydration of cyclohexene is very slow, concentrated sulphuric acid as an acidic catalyst is used to speed up the reaction (McFadden, 2012). When cyclohexene was reacted with water and concentrated sulphuric acid, da rk homogenous solution was formed from colourless heterogeneous mixture. The reaction was cyclohexene ? protonated cyclohexanol + cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate. Both of hese products were soluble in water-acid solution, therefore reaction could go to completion (McFadden, 2012). Moreover, azeotrope of cyclohexanol and water was a positive azeotrope which means boiling point of azeotrope was less than the boiling point of cyclohexanol and water. Moreover, distillation process can prevent side reactions and by removing the products it shifts equilibrium on right hand side to increase percent yield; however, it is not enough to improve percent yield. Cyclohexanol is soluble in water; so addition of NaCl forces cyclohexanol to leave aqueous phase into organic phase.By reducing its solubility in water, NaCl molecules were holding water molecules. It is due to NaCl’s stronger attraction to water than cyclohexanol; solubility of NaCl in water is 360g/L, and solubility of cyclohexanol in water is 36. 0g/L (Weast, 1988). It is a great way to separate azeotrope into different components. However, enough salt is necessary to make solution saturated to separate all cyclohexanol from aqueous solution; for example, 45. 72g of NaCl is needed to make solution saturated in 127mL of water. Required salt can be calculated by multiplying solubility of salt in water with given volume.In part B, there was cyclohexanol found in the condenser because temperature of water running in the condenser was low compare to melting point of cyclohexanol, which is 24Â °C; so some of the cyclohexanol was stuck on the inner-surface of the condenser. Cold-water was turned off, and hot-water turned on when cyclohexanol was collecting during distillation process to remove the cyclohexanol from the surface of condenser and used in the final product. The result shows that the percent yield is 35. 5%. As expected percent yield is low because the strong acidic conditions and solubility of cyclohex anol in water (Hornback, 2006).Observed reflective index is very close to literature value of reflective index of cyclohexanol, which tells that product is pure but there is still some impurities. The result is also due to inefficient experiment procedures. This experiment required precise measurements of data in order to obtain accurate results. But, there are many possible sources of experimental error when performing this experiment. Firstly, if water-acid solution was not cooled enough to add cyclohexene, then some of the cyclohexene have evaporated.Cyclohexene is a limiting reagent meaning it will affect the overall weight of cyclohexanol by reducing the amount. Secondly, not using properly clean and dried equipments may affect on reactants’ activities, such as a flask, beaker, graduated cylinders. Thirdly, solution was not homogeneous; in other words, failing to mix properly for the reaction to go to completion. It was hard to judge due to very dark colour of the soluti on. If reaction was not fully reacted means not all cyclohexene were reacted to form protonated cyclohexanol and cyclohexyl hydrogen sulfate.Fourthly, some potassium carbonate may have entered in distillation flask which resulted in reverse reaction causing to lose more cyclohexanol. Fifthly, a small amount of product might be lost when transferring from one container to another. Sixthly, some cyclohexanol was left in round-bottom flask in order to prevent the round-bottom flask from breaking due to over-drying or over-heating. There are a few methods that would improve the accuracy of the experiments, if considered and followed with care. While recording the volume from the graduated cylinder the goal is to look for at the curve on the top of a standing body of liquid.Before experiment takes place make sure to clean all equipments that are going to be used throughout experiment to avoid any beside reactions in the experiment that may affect the final result. When transferring from one flask to other, sometimes filter paper would be a better solution to prevent unwanted product from entering into a reaction flask, and to prevent any reverse reaction to occur, such as potassium carbonate. Conclusion: In this paper, distillation process for the indirect hydration of cyclohexene to cyclohexanol using sulphuric acid as an acidic catalyst is demonstrated.In the hydration process, double bond of cyclohexene is replaced by the hydroxyl group to form alcohol. Obtain reflective index of cyclohexanol is 1. 4648, and the literature value of reflective index of cyclohexanol is 1. 4641at 20Â °C; which shows that final product was very pure. The result also showed that the percent yield is only 35. 5%, it is due to the strongly acidic conditions and solubility of cyclohexanol.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Impact Of Cell Phones On Society - 1509 Words

Impacts of Cellphones use in Society Advancements in technology have resulted in the invention of devices and machines that increase the efficiency and quality of life. Notably, the design of the cellphone and the internet highlights the latest technology that captivates both young and old. Mobile phones have become an integral part of our society. Primarily, the development of cellphones which combine different sophisticated features has made the device one of the necessities of life. So far, statistics indicate that the number of cell phones in the world supersedes the total population of people. Most people consider cell phones beneficial because of the level of interconnectedness it creates between people around the world. Arguably,†¦show more content†¦Another element to note is the effect of cell phone use on face-to-face contact. According to Ictech Bradley (2014, 22), face-to-face communication takes place in each other’s presence and allows individuals to share a joint focus of attention on the flow of conversation. As a result, this increases the capacity to indicate the course of each other’s physical action thereby maintain an intimate and collaborative act of communication. Furthermore, face-to-face contact permits individuals to make perceptions of each other’s behaviors. However, the introduction of cellphones has significantly undermined the ability of humans to hold meaningful face to face communication. Drago, (2015, 1) reveals that cellphones use has affected the ability of couples to spend quality time together. Most couples prefer to spend their moments on their cell phones at the expense of interacting with each other. Consequently, many relationships have been impaired because of this (Drago, 2015, 2). Addiction One of the adverse effects of over-using cell-phones is that it leads to addiction. Dependence is observed in classes with students who are unable to concentrate on their studies because they are engrossed in their phones. Because of this, the capacity of learning is affected. Identical to this is a study conducted by Roberts, Yaya Manolis (2014, para 3), on cell phone addiction among college students. College students view cell phones as anShow MoreRelatedCell Phones And Its Impact On Society929 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction Cell phones play an important role in the exchange of information throughout the world today. The impact of this technological revolution across the globe has demonstrated a drastic change in which humans interact by carrying out real-time communication using cell phones. 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