English in Pakistan

English in Pakistan THE AUDIENCE OF THE ANALYSIS The audience of this analysis is all primary school as the writing will focus on the existing teaching techniques at this level and will concentrate on the anomalies in this methodology. The revised 2006 English Teaching curriculum is completely based on the ongoing teaching technique. The revised curriculum 2006 for the first time introduced English at the level of grade 1 which used to be introduced to students at 6 grade before 2006. This is a milestone in the history of Pakistan that students of government run schools could start learning English from the very first year of school. The government new education policy unveiled on 12 March 2009 with a hope to reduce the illiteracy to a great level. The policy will be implemented at the expiry of National Education Policy 2008-2010 next year. But revised English curriculum and the new national policy does not draw attention to the mammoth problem of obsolete teaching techniques especially English curriculum at all levels. To overcom e these issues we will deeply look into the Communicative Language Teaching techniques which will resolve the long standing issues of the country and put the teaching techniques on the right track. POLICY ANALYSIS TIME AND PROCESS SPENT ON THE POLICY DEVELOPMENT It is arduous to forecast the exact time the Ministry of Education (MoE) undertook the task of coming up with a revised curriculum for English in 2006. As the national education policy 1998-2010 introduced in 1998 was heavily criticised for being inadequate to cater the needs of the country in twenty first century and very soon MoE realised the gravity of the mistakes when the new education policy was heading towards complete collapse. To save its face the MoE came up with a new idea to revise some of the most defective policies. INTENDED AUDIENCE The analysis is going to focus on the problems of teachers, students and the curriculum. The analysis is restricted to the primary system of education in the biggest province of Punjab. FUNCTION AND PURPOSE OF THE ANALSYIS The main function and purpose of the policy analysis is to focus on the drawbacks in the teaching methodology and the proposed curriculum introduced at the primary level. How these problems are adversely affecting the people involved with education sector, especially the students who are at the receiving end. TYPE OF KNOWLEDGE The analysis is both non-interpretative and interpretative. NATURE OF POLICY The analysis is non-perspective as it will have a wide approach towards the existing policy. â€Å"A non-perspective policy text†¦ is construed so that the reader is allowed a great deal of latitude as to how they interpret its message(s)† (Scott, 2000, pp 18). Scott adds â€Å"if the text is non-perspective, the reader is not asked to behave or think in a certain way but is offered a number of possibilities which they can then choose from† (ibid, pp 18-19). The writing will be based on the views, analysis and research of different educationists, analysts and opinion. It will focus on both the traditionalist approach and CLT approach and how it works out for a country like Pakistan. The topic is wide focus on the English teaching techniques at primary level in Pakistan and how this is effecting the students in term of their progress. The CLT will be dealt with in depth to address the issue the English teaching as a second/foreign language. While talking about the new approach we will keep our focus on Pakistan’s primary level language teaching techniques. One figure is used but graphics and statistics have not been employed as the topic under discussion is of generic nature and involves opinion and research of different researchers and educationists. PAKISTAN AND ENGLISH Worldwide the significance of English as a language of communication cannot be overlooked. As communication is the most fundamental aspect of human life (Thompson 2003:1) and a language works as a key mean of communication for humans (Clark et. al. 1994:1). The communication process starts first at communal level but this circle widens up when people from different communities and societies interacts with one another. As the world has become a global village the English rightly fulfils the need for a common lingua franca to bridge the widening gap between world communities. Nowadays English is widely considered as a global language and according to Brutt-Griffler (mentioned in Mackay 2002:12) due to its some of the most appealing features it holds this position. The popularity of English these days could be judged from the fact more than 85 percent international organisations worldwide employ English as the main language, for instance in Asia and the Pacific ninety percent of the org anisations officially use English (MacKay 2002:17). The national language of Pakistan is Urdu but English has been the official language for communication over the last six decade since its independence. The Kachru’s concentric model describes Pakistan’ position in a very well manner as it falls in the outer-circle of the model. This circle includes the earlier period of the extension of English in non-native countries where it has become a part of a countrys chief institutions, and plays an important second language role in a multilingual setting and includes 50 other territories. Fig. 1 The University Grants Commission of Pakistan (1982) in a â€Å"Report on the Teaching of Language† deemed the English as the language of knowledge, technology, and international communication, as an important second language’. Furthermore the report adds regarding the future of English in Pakistan that it would be employed in the near future as the language of technology and for international communication and soon English is going to hold the position of global lingua franca and ignoring language would be detrimental for any country especially for a country like Pakistan which is already having advantages in the form of past knowledge of English (UGC 1982:14). This statement reveals the significance of English for a third world state like Pakistan and recently the government decided to introduce English at all Government Schools from the year one (MoE 2007) and shun the existing policy of teaching English at grade 6 (i.e. sixth year of schooling). EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTRY First of all it is vital to comprehend the structure of education system in Pakistan in order to focus in better manner on the topic under discussion. For a long time English has been an integral component of the syllabus. The education in Pakistan can be dissected into five main levels but we will discuss only two main categories at school level: Primary Level: The primary level comprises of 1-5 grades and students of age 3-11. At this level the medium of instructions at government schools is Urdu while schools under provincial governments use local/regional languages as the medium. As mentioned above now the government is planning to introduce English at this level both at federal and provincial schools. Secondary Level: This level can be further segmented into two main stages: Middle school, which includes pupil of grade 6-8, and Higher school consisting of grade 9-10 students. The age group for this level varies between 11-18 years and is of great significance because at this stage of education the syllabus commences towards specialisation in a specific field or disciple and decides towards the future of a student. For instance at this stage a student decides whether he intends to pursue science subjects or arts subjects, the two most common choices available for students at higher school (9-10 grades). Ironically, the medium of instructions at this stage depends on the kind of institution, for example, in private schools the ‘O Levels’ system or ‘Senior Cambridge’ system of education are in vogue and therefore English is the primary source of instruction. While in government schools, also called the ‘Urdu Medium Schools’, the local curriculum of English is taught as the name suggests the medium of instruction is in Urdu. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Since independence of Pakistan in 1947 all successive governments have been aiming at introducing new and robust education policy to ameliorate the obsolete education system left by the British Empire. But most of these efforts have gone down the drain due to insincere, apathetic and sloppy policies of the government and one can judge the failure of these policies from the fact that in the last 62 years Pakistan introduced 11 education policies (1947, 1951, 1959, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1992, 1998, 2010) without any beneficial outcome. As educational analysts rightly infer that the number of education policies does not mean we are over-concerned about poor education standard or under-performance of these policies but it means precisely the opposite. For instance in 1998 the education policy 1998-2010 was introduced but within a couple of years of its launch it led to the complete collapse of the education system and to shroud this downfall the Ministry of Education rushed to in troduce a new revised curriculum in 2006 (MoE 2007 available at http://www.moe.gov.pk/). This reveals the pathetic situation of crumbling educational system of the country. Now the government has announced initial National Education Policy 2009 which will be enforced from 2010. We will focus on the obsolete English teaching methodology in practice and unfortunately like in the past the Ministry of Education’s revised curriculum for ‘English Language 2006’ totally avoids this issue (ibid). Curriculum planning can be seen as the systematic attempt by educationalists and teachers to specify and study planned intervention into the educational enterprise (Nunan 1988: 1). But in Pakistan the government has never thought on this line and the existing situation has gone from bad to worse where English language teaching is considered as being dissatisfactory, non-conducive and counter-productive for learning the language in Pakistan (Warsi 2004). The educationists summari se the English language teaching techniques in vogue at different levels of education in the following context: Teaching methodology is scant of deep approaches to learning or in other words lack of connection to personal, experience of the learner, conceptualisation and integration. For language learning it has the implication of memorizing facts about language and lack of contextualized, authentic use of the target language with a focus on meaning. Curriculum based teaching and learning. An emphasis on rote memorisation. More focus and emphasis on transfer and assessment of factual knowledge rather than assessment of critical thinking and analytical skills (Rehmani 2003:3) The above features indicate the traditional approach to teaching of English language. Nunan further elaborates the main elements of this traditionalist approach: Area Model View of learning Transmission of knowledge Power relation Emphasis on teacher’s authority Teacher’s role Providing frontal instruction Learner’s role Passive / individual work View of knowledge Presented as ‘certain’ View of curriculum Static; predefined content and product Learning experience Knowledge of facts, concepts skills; focus on content and product Control of process Teacher structured learning Motivation Extrinsic Evaluation Product oriented: achievement testing; criterion referencing (Nunan 1999:7) Nunan correctly draws the traditional methodology in English teaching in the country where the traditionalists view and focus on the language as a structured system of grammatical patterns, with a higher focus of such techniques on formal and bookish language. Such approach aims to have pupils producing formally correct sentences and in terms of skills, an emphasis on reading and writing (Nunan 1988:26-27). Globally there has been a greater tendency towards research and development in the field of language teaching techniques and approaches but haplessly Pakistan education system is oblivious of such developments in the world. Warsi laments â€Å"the obsolete [grammar] translation method is still being adopted by most language programmes† (Warsi 2004) and the facets of language teaching programmes are irrelevant to the most fundamental requirements of students (ibid). Since 1960s, there is an ambition to formulate language teaching more responsive to the needs of the student a nd this has been a consistent feature of both writing and practical experimentation in language teaching (Tudor 1996:66). Tudor further advocates such approach and opines that it permits students to ‘play a fuller, more active and participatory role in their language study’ (ibid). And it develops language teaching more effective as the teaching process is highly helpful to the needs, characteristics and expectations of learners. Tudor insists that immense need for different kind of language skills within a swiftly evolving social and economic context made it indispensable for â€Å"a language teaching profession to develop appropriate tools for identifying learner’s communicative needs and for translating them into coherent course structures† (Tudor 1996:8). Tudor’s argument truly reflects the need of development skills in the education sector of Pakistan to foster the needs of a strong and well-educated society and a robust education system for th e present and the future. COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT) Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) emerged in 60s as an approach towards the teaching of language which lay emphasis on interaction as a source of learning a foreign language. The approach in CLT is totally different from the traditionalist approach as it is a wider approach which is based on a list of common principles and characteristics. As CLT can be well defined by Nunan’s five points: An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also on the Learning Management process. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom. (Nunan 1991, 279) The main aim of CLT is to make a student capable of achieving communicative competence in the foreign language so that he can utilize the language for doing the similar tasks which it undertakes in day to day life. In other words its application should be reflective of the circumstances or events surrounding and should not be based on imaginative or unrealistic ideas. Until 1970s teaching and learning system was deemed as system of rules and the learners were assumed to internalize such rules (Nunan 1999:9). The approach was contradictory to CLT because it focus on set rules of teaching and a set path which could never be breached or in other words simply the teaching of fundamental like grammar of a language while there is no emphasis on its application and usage in the language. As Richard contends that language ability cannot be restricted to just grammar and it involves more than merely memorizing grammar and the grammar and other features of a language should be applied properly and purposefully for different communicative purpose and therefore the focus of learning and teaching need to be directed towards the use of language and not just the knowledge of language (Richards 2007:9). ENGLISH CURRICULUM AND TEACHING TECHNIQUES IN PAKISTAN In third world countries like Pakistan, the teaching curriculum, especially English curriculum, has been the centre of criticism over the last couple of decades. The English curriculum is obsolete and outdated which has been in practice since colonial rule over the sub-continent. Before 2006 to the worse of students at government owned schools important subject like English was introduced at the secondary level or 6th grade and at this stage the students started learning the ABC of English. The revised 2006 English curriculum for the first time introduced English at 1st grade. The new revised English curriculum only focuses on outlining the policy but does not focus on the problems at the heart of the system. The organisation of the curriculum framework reveals that students of primary level have been divided into two categories of I-II and III-V with the aim to develop a solid base for the tender age students in order to develop them into autonomous learners and to develop skills an d understanding to build a foundation for later studies. This policy guideline for the English curriculum also sets different benchmark for different groups of students. For instance the benchmark summarised in table 2.3 at page 11 for grade III-V reveals that the planner of the policy has concentrated more on the grammar. The government while introducing such syllabus overlooks the capabilities of the government schools to enforce such policy. One can understand the level of competency the curriculum plans to achieve for the students for instance one of the competency objective for grade one student is to learn how a student will hold a book, open a book and turn pages of a book correctly (Revised Curriculum, section 3, page 22). The other competency objective for the same group is tantamount to spoon feeding where a student is supposed to tell what comes before and after an alphabet (ibid, page 25). Furthermore on the page 26 of the curriculum the grade-I students are supposed to learn the poem by heart which will help them in developing reading and thinking skills (ibid, page 26). The big question mark is how a student is supposed to memorise something which is new for him without knowing or understanding the meaning and what is the main purpose of that exercise which a grade-I student is going to adopt and does it help towards the aim of developing a student reading and thinking sills. The writing skills of the curricul um (page 27) focuses on how a student will hold a pencil correctly, draw different lines, draw within the lines, trace and copy small and capital letters, write number from 1 to 10, write date, name, phone number etc. The ‘formal and lexical aspect of language’ again diverts the student from English towards local languages which defocus them from their main objective (page 33). These are some of the aspects of the revised English curriculum which reflects the insincerity and lack of dedication to introduce new English teaching techniques and a fresh syllabus based on modern knowledge. The curriculum is seen by most of the critics as a repetitive and ineffective guideline for the teachers and students which will hardly benefit any of the two. The teaching guideline is more inclined towards the traditionalist approach and there is no room for any reform towards adaptation of new techniques being practiced worldwide for teaching English. The curriculum does not work to ame nd the existing practice of teaching where the students are the biggest losers. The curriculum restricts to develop and promote the internal abilities of the student by binding them to follow, adopt and think within limited parameters without any concession to go out of those limits and this in turn leads to lost of confidence and self-learning capabilities. I put the question regarding the new English curriculum to a former senior Professor of English, Mr. Safdar Rana, (at Islamabad Model College for Boys, F-8/4, Islamabad, Pakistan) who is associated with teaching profession for over 30 years, he ridiculed the syllabus and said: â€Å"the syllabus is the same obsolete which I started teaching at primary level in 1967, it is 100 percent the same. The same syllabus includes topic like write the story of ‘greedy dog’, ‘union is strength’, ‘write a letter to father thanking him for buying a pen’, essay of ‘Journey by Bus’ etc is going on and Ministry of education is happy that they are promoting education and in their mind this system is the best in the third world. But actually the current English teaching techniques and the curriculum are not student-friendly and their learning process has stopped as they do not use their abilities and skills but heavily dependent on rote memorisation.† To another question regarding the improvement in English teaching standard, expressing his sorrow, he replied: â€Å"how one can expect improvement in education when not a single government tried to change the system, the teachers are under-educated and ill-equipped to teach the students because they are adopting the old techniques of teaching and an obsolete syllabus left by British before independence; these techniques and syllabus has been rejected by the rest of the world as counter-productive and inefficient but still this is in practice over here. Second how a teacher can teach a crowded class of 80 students, you cannot introduce new system in such circumstances. The government is heedless to the student-teacher problems and this sector has been completely ignored by all political and military government came to power.† To a question that teacher are against new techniques like CLT, he opined: â€Å"as far as I am concerned I will welcome any such change. But the government has never introduced any such scheme or system in the past and it will be wrong to say that teachers are against any such techniques. But it is an upheaval task as it needs long term massive investment in term of finance and human resources and serious and consistent efforts are needed on the part of current and any future governments to train, monitor and supervise up to half million teachers where 70 percent of government schools are located in rural and far flung areas of the country.† As Hindal furthers the argument that the techniques of teaching and learning are fully relied upon the well-organised and effective memorisation of information and procedures, which is part of the text books or lecture notes, and its later recollection in exams (2007). This pattern of teaching and learning techniques is common at all levels of education (Hindal 2007). In this setup the student and teachers are very rarely rewarded for their comprehension and the rewards in exams are completely based on retention and memory (ibid). The main trend in such system is that how much a student is capable of memorising and recalling and the learning or success is not based on learning, understanding or using its capabilities. It is a common concept that those teachers in Pakistan have been successful in a system which rewards accurate recall because comprehension is not valued highly for learners at all level. Reid in 1979 gave this idea that for a change of an approach, new information needs to interact with the long-term existing memory. Reid contends that there is no possibility of change in attitude if there is failure to establish mental relationship. Reid identifies specific kind of circumstances where there is higher probability of interaction and this will include learning situations which are active or in other words the student should be involved with the new material, feelings or experiences. This theory rightly suggests that the English text books and curriculum in Pakistan have failed to develop positive attitudes among learners and teachers towards English language. In third world countries like Pakistan the teacher is deemed as the ‘fount of knowledge’ and not as a facilitator (Liu1998:5). Liu emphasise the needs and significance of a proper teaching methodology in accordance with the cultures of these countries instead of completely depending on the western researchers and approaches for their need as some western techniques are not going to work out for a poor country (Liu1998:4). CONCLUSION The education standard at primary level cannot be improved without complete overhaul and innovation of the existing teaching techniques and curriculum which merely promotes the traditionalist approach sans any hope of development. The traditionalist approach to teaching could be replaced with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which is the best alternative to the existing system of education, especially for teaching English as a second language. The introduction of new curriculum is not up to the standard to assist the pupils to engage their natural abilities and skills but it discourage them to be innovative, constructive and confident. The successful student in such system is that who blindly adopts and follows the current education system. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has been following a vicious circle of education policies and strategies for a very long time with this hope that this path will lead to success but by end of day the MoE comes to the same point from where they started in 1947.

Skywest Cas

eSkyWest, Inc. case Analysis Written Case Analysis Table of Contents 1. Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg. 2 2. External Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg. 3-10 3. Internal Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg. 10-14 4. Key Decisions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 14- 15 5. Alternatives†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg. 15 6. Recommended Decisions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ pg. 16 7. Appendices†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. pg. 17-19 1-SkyWest Airline IntroductionSkyWest, Inc. was found in 1972 by Raplph Atkins in St. George, Utah. Initially this was only a charter type of flight and was mostly used by businessman travelling between Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah. But with business partnerships and merging with companies like Western Airlines and later with Delta airlines partnerships the network of SkyWest airlines were much broad. Later in near future with more partnerships with United Airlines and Midwest Airlines helped the company to grow rapidly and in 2005 SkyWest acquired Atlantic Southeast Airlines.Currently SkyWest is operating in overseas too for instance Canada meanwhile it runs its operations in 34 states and nearly in 158 cities. Sky West case analysis report will help the reader to understand especially about the SkyWest Inc. and the general economic conditions of the reg ional airline industry of US at a micro environmental level along with some introductions of market size and market growth of the airline industry. The report is organized under the following main topics as follows.External analysis, internal analysis, Key decisions, alternatives and recommended decisions along with some charts and tables that helps the arguments for better understanding. Moving on when we consider the industry as a whole it had a decline due to the economic recession in 2009 that affected the growth rate of the airline industry and in terms of market size the revenue from passenger per mile decreased in 2008 compared to 2007 and this is an early effect of the economic recession, we shall discuss the threats and alternatives as we go along.In five year period from 2004 to 2008 the industry’s combined revenue has increased almost with a double effect from $4. 7 billion to $8. 4 billion (Please refer the epilogue table # 1). As part of the introduction let†™s identify the vision statement and the company strategy. Company strategy is low-cist strategy and its competitive advantage is achieved by lower cost than its competitors. Vision statement is â€Å"Atlantic Southeast Airlines is committed to connecting more people, more often; to the places they love, by becoming the world's first super regional airline. Moving on we would concentrate on the external analysis of this company. 2-External Analysis Economic Factors The external analysis assess the company’s external environment by looking at its Marco-environmental factors including the size of the market in terms of unit sale and sales volume as well as the market growth. It also examines the number and size of buyers and sellers in the environment, the pace of technological change or innovation, the economies of scale, geographic boundaries, the market supply and demand conditions, learning curve effects of the market and the differential products available.We will now e valuate SkyWest’s external environment by first looking at its economic factors. Size and Market Growth rate: The first economic factor addressed is the size of the company and its growth rate. SkyWest is the largest independently owned regional airline that is partnered with two of the major airlines; United and Delta. Alone SkyWest has more than 11,000 people representing their company none of which are unionized. Through the partnership with United and Delta, SkyWest was imited to the size of the aircraft through scope clauses limiting seating of 76 with Delta and 70 with United. This would limit the amount of business they could capture from their partners. In order to take advantages of their efficiencies SkyWest could have purchased larger aircraft to expand its business had there been no limitations. Throughout the five years SkyWest contracted to Delta and United ending in December of 2008, their annual growth rate had increased to a compounded 29. 6% with the number of flights increasing from 1,500 to 2,300.The size of the market in terms of unit sale and sales volume will be discussed in the next paragraph defining its size of buyers and sellers. Number and Size of buyers and sellers: The number of buyers in the company can be defined by the number of customers the company serves per year. SkyWest has the ability to serve over 100,000 customers per year due to the contract with Delta and United. The number of sellers in the company can be defined as the partnering airlines using their regional services to operate their connecting flights for a fixed cost.SkyWest is a regional airline that operates the connecting flights of its major partners Delta and United. The regional flight as well as the connecting flights through Delta and United has them serving 158 cities in 42 states and five Canadian provinces and Mexico. Their Hubs are located in Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Portland, Denver and Salt Lake City. In o rder to maintain these airlines they have maintenance based in Atlanta, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fresno, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Palm Springs, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Tucson.Through their contract with Delta they have increased their customer base by operating about 430 connecting flights per day between Salt Lake City and designated outlaying destination which is about 59. 9% of the company’s capacity. The other 40. 10% of capacity goes to their contract with United that has them operating about 900 scheduled departures per day. In January of 2008 SkyWest took over Midwest allowing them to service 70 and 90 seating customers per flight.When they partnered with these major airlines there were a lot of changes that took place including technical changes. We will now discuss the pace of these technical changes and innovation. Pace of technological change or innovation: Most of the technological changes happened after the 9/11 attack on the World Tr ade Center and the Pentagon. One of the changes SkyWest had implemented was the Stetson Quality Suite. The Stetson Quality Suite is a mobile data collection and reporting software SkyWest used to ensure they were meeting or exceeding their safety quality standards.SkyWest used this particular software to keep up with the Safety and maintenance standards for the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration. Now that we have discussed the pace of technological changes or innovation we will now go on to discuss the economies of scale. Economies of Scale: The economies of scale are the cost advantages company’s can obtain due to size, with cost per unit of output decreasing with increasing scale as fixed costs are spread out over more units of output.SkyWest was able to capitalize on the economies of scale when it partnered with Delta and United which helped reduce the cost of providing the service over what others could do. Through these partnerships SkyW est was able to gain access to an established customer base that would help increase their business in size and also lower the costs through the contracts where the major airlines were responsible for all their jet fuel, ground handling and aircraft maintenance and ownership. Given the gained access to customers through the partnership made SkyWest heavily dependent on Delta and United.With the current recession causing a dramatic downfall in the economic condition put all airlines including the major ones like Delta and United at risk to airlines losses, bankruptcies and consolidations due to the decrease in operating revenues by 87% with a 64% drop in income, 77% drop in revenues and a 60% drop in operating income. Now that we have discussed the economies of scale in the industry we will go on to discuss the geographic boundaries. Geographic Boundaries: The geographic boundaries of an industry refer to the geographic boundary lines that are drawn whether they are local, regional, national or global.SkyWest’s geographic boundaries are regional representing only small cities and also servicing major airlines through connecting flights. The partnerships with Delta and United had allowed expansion to current and new routes as well and additional departures. SkyWest was looking to expand more and through the acquisition with ASA they were allowed to expand geographically allowing them access to the East Coast markets and comprehensive national coverage that greatly expanded their scope of operations by adding regional jets to their fleets and a $1 billion to operations.We will now move on to discuss the market supply and demand conditions. Market Supply/Demand Conditions: The market supply and demand conditions changed greatly with the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The 9/11 attack prevented people from flying due to the fear of crashing which translated into huge losses in the major airlines. People feared the larger airlines more than the smaller regional jets due to the fact that they felt the larger planes to be more susceptible to terrorist attacks.They assumed that smaller regional airlines would not be a target for terrorism but still saw them to be less safe than the larger airplanes. The second condition affecting the market demand was the recession starting in late 2007 that continued throughout 2009. The beginning of the recession had negative effects on participant’s income statements and balance sheets resulting in airlines losses, bankruptcies and consolidations. The recession continued into 2008 and 2009 causing a dramatic downturn in the company’s financial performance.This economic downfall of 2008 and 2009 caused a decrease in the number of scheduled flights, and passenger traffics by 3%, with cargo revenues dropping as well. The airline industry is highly sensitive to fluctuations in the economy because of the significant portion of business and leisure travelers . The recession had lowered the overall demand for airline services not only to the regional but all airlines in the United States. The most recent recession in 2009 had a strong impact on the credit markets preventing airlines from getting the needed credit to acquire new aircraft.Other things affecting the market supply/demand conditions were the seasonal fluctuations that increased travel during summer months and decreased travel during the winter due to flight cancelations and delays due to inclement weather. The weather related flight cancellations represented a loss to 2,850 of its flights with a decrease in pretax income of about $5. 2 million. Next we will discuss the learning curve effects in the industry. Learning/experience curve effects:The learning curve effects of the industry were outlined in the training offered to help pilots and maintenance personnel keep up to date on the new safety and maintenance regulations as well as their skills. The vast majority of training was at training facilities for both the company pilots and maintenance personnel through a six-week program. The six-week training program proved to be very comprehensive and respected that it attracted tuition paying Federal Aviation Administration personnel. Next we will discuss their differential products. Differential Products:The differential products discussed in this case were the Bombardier Regional Jets and the Embraer and ATR Turboprops. The Bombardier region jets were the main regional gets used in the industry. These were larger commercial jets used to service longer-haul flights to the destinations up to 1,200 miles away, which allowed regional carriers to operate new longer routes and run shorter routes more efficiently. The other product discussed was the Embraer and ATR Turboprop which seats 30 passengers. This jet was used for short- to medium-haul flights and was able to land on shorter runways.Several travelers were unsure of riding on the turboprops due to the p erception of them being loud and uncomfortable. To accommodate travelers that wanted to ride a smaller jet with a more comfortable ride they created the Bombardier Q series turboprop that was equipped with noise and vibration reduction devices to help reduce the noise and vibration levels to those of a regional jet. In the next section we will define the driving forces for change in the industry. Driving Forces The driving forces are the factors that are driving the industry to make changes.These changes within the industry will have impacts on globalization, product and marketing innovation, technological change, changes in long-term growth rates and new government regulations. To start off we will discuss the impact on globalization. Globalization: SkyWest decided to go international with their business and started working with regional carriers in Europe, Latin America and China. The push to go global was due to the increased interest in airline business from people in Brazil and China. The people from these two geographic areas had pursued SkyWest to help them build their own airline within their geographic region.SkyWest agreed to help them train people, and organize from a 10- to 20 aircraft operation to a major regional carrier in countries that really needed a major regional carrier. Through globalizing their company SkyWest would be able to increase their purchasing power and help buys things at a lower rate. However, through the limitations the foreign governments would place on U. S. carriers, the opportunities by the international joint ventures would be limited. Now that we discussed the globalization driving factor we will go on to discuss the product and marketing innovation. Product and marketing innovation:The first product and marketing innovation is the Bombardier Regional Jets. The Bombardier regional jets originally serviced flights with destinations of up to 1,200 miles away. The new innovated Bombardier Jet has the quietest commercial je t available with a range of up to 1,600 miles. This larger regional jet offers many amenities including flight attendant service, stand-up cabin, overhead and under-seat storage, lavatories, and in-flight snack and beverage service. These jets were able to operate at lower costs then a 120-seat or larger jet aircraft due to its smaller size and efficient design.The other product and marketing innovation is the Embraer and ATR Turboprop, many travelers were not very interested in these smaller jets due to their noise level and uncomfortable seating. The new Embraer and ATR Turboprop has a 30 seat 120 turboprop and a 74 seat ATR 72 turboprops that are able to operate more economically over short-haul routes than the larger jet aircrafts. These smaller jets had comfort features such as stand-up headroom, a lavatory, overhead baggage compartments and flight attendant services.The smaller jets were more economically feasible making it possible to provide high frequency service in markets with relatively low volumes of passenger traffic. We will now go on to discuss the technological changes. Technological Changes: The technological changes taking place are the implementation of Stetson Quality Suite for Safety used to ensure their standards were meeting or exceeding their safety quality standards. The changes to the Bombardier and Embraer Jet to increase the overall quality and service of the jets in reference to their range of flight and the services offered to the staff and the customers boarding the flight.Other technological changes taking place are the new ways of communicating creating less need for travel. With the economy still being in a vulnerable position people are very sensitive to the price of a flight and try to find other means of commuting to their destination or communicating to that particular party. These technological changes have caused a decrease in the airline market due to price sensitivity that even business travelers are looking to save m oney. Next we will discuss the changes in the long-term growth rate. Changes in the long-term growth rate:The changes in the long-term growth rate started to increase when SkyWest partnered with Delta and United Express. The partnership had increased their annual growth rate to a compounded 29. 6%. This partnership had increased the number of flights from 1,500 to 2,300, and increased their departures to 2,400 to 208 cities per day by adding connection flight through their major airlines that serviced the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. With the increased flights there were new government regulations that were applied. In the next paragraph we will discuss those regulations. New Government regulations:New Government regulations were in effect immediately after the 9/11 attack to ensure safety to the passengers by increasing the security regulations. The increased security also increased operational costs to the airline carriers due to the increased safety regulation s. The last increase that took place was the increased jet fuel cost, due to the economic recession in mid-2008. All these changes lead to a decrease in ticket sales due to fear of flying post 9/11 attack, and the incurred costs of flying in response to the threat of rising fuel costs. The next section will talk about the industry’s key success factors.Key Success factors: The key success factors are the competitive factors that most affect industry members’ ability to prosper in the marketplace. Different types of key success factors can be technology related, manufacturing related, distribution related, marketing related and skills and capability related. Technology related: The technology related key success factors that the SkyWest Inc. was defined by how they were able to acquire new aircraft. Regional airlines were required to find the needed capital and financing to increase the size of their fleets to service the longer routes being outsourced by the major airl ines.This had to be done without compromising their scope contracts with labor. SkyWest was able to overcome that by joining with ASA to acquire new aircraft. The next factors to success being discussed are the Manufacturing and Distribution related key success factors. Manufacturing/Distribution related: SkyWest’s manufacturing and or distribution related key success factors are defined by the ability to get their passengers to their destination on time. SkyWest was able to maximize their on-time arrivals by successfully getting all of their flyers to their sites on-time and making sure they did not miss their connecting flights as well.This gave them a good reputation with their customers in increasing satisfaction, naming them one of the highest rated regional carriers for on-time arrivals. Marketing-related The regional airline industry related its marketing key success factors to how they were able to maintain a strong safety image. In order to keep up with images of fly ing SkyWest increased safety standards and regulations to develop a much more safer image for those that were skeptical about flying smaller flights especially after the 9/11 attack.Passengers were unsure of the safety of the smaller jets preventing them from flying with the regional airlines, but after more safety had been implemented and other procedures had taken place to ensure everything was up to code they were able to maintain this strong image to passengers to ensure their safety when flying. Skills and capability-related SkyWest’s skills and capabilities were expressed in how they were able to maintain high levels of customer service. Typically regional airlines were not known for their customer service due to a large number of mishandled uggage that happened when transferring luggage from one plane to the next and an increased number of cancelled flights due to inclement weather. Most of these issues were not directly related to the regional due to their partnership s that handed all of their scheduling and majors taking priority in runways. SkyWest was able to maintain an average number of mishandled baggage, the second lowest number of involuntary denied boarding’s and the fourth in number of complaints per 100,00o passengers.This put them at the top to be named the Regional Airline Company of the Year for on-time arrivals by the Department of Transportation multiple times. Five Forces Model of Competition The five forces model evaluates the industries competition based on their level of Rivalry, threat of new entry, substitutes, bargaining power of buyers and bargaining power of suppliers to be either strong, moderate or weak. We will first discuss the first and most powerful of the five forces of competition; rivalry. Rivalry: Competition in the U. S. irline industry is very strong with their being a large number of competitors in the regional airlines. The success of low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue has incre ased the pressure on airlines to compete on price to attract sufficient numbers of passengers to keep flights full. In some regards, major airlines use contracts with regional carriers to keep costs and airfares low. Therefore, contracts for regional service are awarded by major carriers are to those having the lowest prices and reliable service. The overall rivalry in the airline industry is strong.Threat of new entry: The Threat of entry into the regional airline is define by the barriers to entry that include costs of acquiring a fleet of aircraft, acquiring contracts with major airline partners, and low industry profitability. Although the capital required to start up a modestly-sized small regional airline is fairly small, entering at a scale large enough to create a competitive threat requires substantial resources. The major threat of entry comes from major carriers which have the resources to start up their own regional airline. This threat is only moderate because the trend is for ajors airlines to sell off their regional airline operations and contract out service to regional carriers. Substitutes: Since regional airlines service short routes, passengers have more alternatives such as bus, automobile, or train travel than they do for long distance travel. This is particularly true when passengers are traveling only a few hundred miles. However, for major carriers that utilize regional carriers to execute hub and spoke strategies, there are few alternatives that they can use other than operating their own regional carrier.Substitutes are a weak to moderate force in the industry. Bargaining Power of Buyers: In the airline industry there are two types of customers; Leisure and business travelers. The business travelers tend to make up most of the market because they used the regional airlines to commute to and from locations that were considered too far to drive. They were also the most profitable because the larger customers purchased flights that were bought at a premium due to their short-notice or unexpected plan for flight.The Second type of buyers in the market were the leisure travelers that was a much smaller group of buyers because they traveled less often and were more price sensitive to the ticket sales. With their being several airline businesses in the industry all offering the same service, switching costs for tickets from airline to another tend to be very high. Airline industries have a fixed price on airline tickets preventing from buyers being able to bargain a lower price. Since most if not all customers search airline tickets based on price this makes the bargaining powers of buyers in the industry to be weak to moderate.Bargaining Power of Suppliers: In the regional airline industry there are two main types of suppliers Brazil’s Empresa Brasilerira de Aeronautica SA and Bombardier. With their only being two different types of suppliers in the regional airline industry that have two differentiated produc ts, makes the demand for them to be very high. Since these are the only two for the regional airlines it makes the bargaining power of suppliers to be very strong allowing them to change higher prices without losing their service to another manufacturer. 3-Internal AnalysisSWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis is an incredibly useful tool that helps review and analyzes the company’s current strategy. The SWOT analysis also identifies a potentially new direction for the company’s strategy to go. SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Strength and weaknesses generally relate to factors that are internal to the organization, while opportunities and weakness in contrast often relates to factors that are external to the organization. We will now analyze SkyWest, Inc. using the SWOT analysis. Strengths:A company’s strength is something that the company is good at doing, or an attribute that enhances its competitiveness in the marketplace. SkyWest le ads the industry in safety and maintenance by being a pillar in the industry for seeking safety prevention, and leading by example and getting involved to help the community overall be safer. SkyWest also has good statistics for safety and for on-time arrivals along with other factors that affect customer satisfaction. For years 2004 through 2009 SkyWest had the highest percentage for scheduled flights arriving on time.They also were second for the least amount of involuntary denied boarding’s. SkyWest also has a high level of employee satisfaction due to its workforce being nonunion. SkyWest owns jets like the Bombardier regional jet or the Embraer and ATR turboprops that are more economical and cost-efficient but also have speed that is comparable to those of larger jets; and they even have many of the same features that larger jets offer. A significant strength is that SkyWest has experienced a compounded annual growth rate of 29. 6 percent from 2003 to 2008.A key strength for SkyWest’s success is its ability to secure partnerships that expand its geographic and customer base. Now that we have completed analyzing SkyWest’s strengths we can take move on to analyzing their weaknesses. Weaknesses: A weakness is something a company lacks or does poorly; in comparison to competitors or a condition that puts the company at a competitive disadvantage. One weakness is SkyWest’s poor relationship with Delta Airlines which was caused by their disagreement over their contract and whether or not Delta owed SkyWest $25 million dollars.This inhibits SkyWest’s ability to fully function within that partnership, and of course being short changed $25 million dollars is also a significant loss. Another factor that contributes to SkyWest’s weaknesses was once considered a strength; SkyWest’s partnership with Midwest. After partnering together for two years Midwest filed for bankruptcy leaving a messy wind-down process for both c ompanies, which undoubtedly will take a toll on SkyWest’s competitive advantage. Unfortunately that’s not where the mess ends; in 2009, Midwest was purchased by Republic, a larger company that is considered a direct competitor of SkyWest.Another strategic issue for SkyWest is the fact that because they partner with larger airlines and even though their own statistics for safety and for on-time arrivals along with other factors that affect customer satisfaction are either average or above average, from the customer’s point of view they are connected with the major carriers. Therefore the larger airlines statistics are intertwined with their own; which, results in customers perceiving a poor reputation for customer service; mishandling baggage, canceling flights, delayed flights for both carriers.Another weakness caused by customer’s perceptions is that customers typically perceive that the planes regional carriers use are small, uncomfortable, noisy, and a lso unsafe. Now that we have finished evaluating SkyWest’s weakness, we can now move on to analyze opportunities. Finally the last weakness we will go over is the scope clauses with United ; Delta Airlines. In the labor contracts with their pilots union it is spelled out the maximum size of airplane that an outside partner can operate. This limits the size of aircrafts to 70-seat and 76-seat aircrafts.This translates into a limited amount of ticket sales which means its limiting profits and market share and the number of flights a company could support. Now that we have evaluated the different factors that put SkyWest at a disadvantage we will take a look at the external factors; starting with opportunities. Opportunities: Opportunities are found within the external environment and arise when a company can take advantage of current circumstances or changes in the environment to gain a competitive advantage and become more profitable. Generally the best opportunities are the o nes that match with your company’s strategic goals.One opportunity for SkyWest is with more and more major carriers that start outsourcing a portion of their routes to regional airlines this creates an opportunity for SkyWest to build those relationships and eventually become partners with those major airlines, giving SkyWest a chance to expand and grab more market share. Another opportunity for SkyWest to expand its market share is with United ; Delta Airlines filing for chapter 11 this creates a short window of opportunity for SkyWest to serve those customers and to do it with great service and low prices building an expanded loyal customer base.Another opportunity that SkyWest needs to watch the horizon for is if the scope cause liberation were to be approved it would create an opportunity for SkyWest to increase the number of routes flown in contract with other airlines and the seat capacity of those routes. It would be a wise decision to spend time making plans that coul d be quickly executed should the scope cause liberation get approved. It’s important to keep an eye on the horizon watching for changing technology, government policies, or social trends that way the company can respond quickly and seize the opportunity to gain the competitive advantage.A changing external environment doesn’t only mean possible opportunities it also means possible threats. We will now examine SkyWest’s possible threats. Threats: Threats are factors in a company’s external environment that pose a threat to the company’s profitability and competitive well-being. The 2007 economic recession is an example of a threat that many people did not see, because of this many industries including the airline industry suffered.Some people believe that we still have not fully felt the aftershocks of the recession and because the airline Industry is highly sensitive to the economy as a significant portion of travel; both leisure and business trave lers, are discretionary, it is still a potential threat. Another threat to the airline industry is the increasing costs for jet fuel and its general availability. This can have a crippling effect on a company’s profitability and threatens their overall business operations. Fuel expenses already account for 35-50 percent of an airlines operation cost in 2009.Another external threat is if either new or changes are made to the ASA Regulation for either weather related factors or safety inspections. Both would increase costs and could threaten the success and the competitive advantage of SkyWest, which in turn could lead to decreased customer satisfaction and fewer sales. Since SkyWest is a regional carrier they need to keep a careful watch not only on how they are performing but also how their major carriers whom they have partnerships with are performing.If a major carrier were to file for bankruptcy it would most certainly threaten SkyWest with loss of customers and profits an d could lead them to follow suit and file for bankruptcy as well. Another threat that could affect regional carriers in the industry is if two major carriers merge the result would most likely be consolidating of routes and possibly completely shutting down smaller hubs, which as we have explained would also affect their regional partners. Financial assessment Ratios: Financial data is important to analyze as it provides the concrete results as for how the company’s strategy is performing.Ratio analysis is often used to determine a company’s financial position. Ratio analysis breaks down into 5 key subgroups; profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, leverage ratios, activity ratios, and finally share-holder ratios. We will break down each one of these types of ratios starting with profit ratio. It should be noted that analyzing the individual companies financial performance alone, is not a complete analysis. To have a complete analysis, the ratios should be compared aga inst the industry’s average; however, we will not be covering that in our assessment with SkyWest. Profitability ratios:Profitability ratios generally tell us how well the company is using their resources efficiently. One of the several profitability ratios is the Operating profit margin. This ratio tells us how much profit is earned on each dollar of sales before paying interest charges and income taxes. | 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| 2008| Operating Income| 144776| 220408| 339160| 344524| 255231| Total Operating Revenue| 1156044| 1964048| 3114656| 3374332| 3496249| Operating Profit Margin| 0. 1252| 0. 1122| 0. 1089| 0. 1021| 0. 0730| Here we see that the operating profit margin has been declining, while the total operating revenue is increasing.This can be interpreted as less money is being made on each dollar of sale. When looking at the operating profit margin ratio higher is better and you want to see an upward trend, since we don’t see that it is cause for concern and should be looked into. Liquidity ratios: Now let’s look into the liquidity ratios. Liquidity ratios measure a company’s ability to pay off short-term obligations by using their liquid assets, one of these ratios is the current ratio. The current ratio tells us how much of the company’s short-term obligation can be covered by using and converting their liquid assets. 12/31/2008| 12/31/2007| Current Assets| 125,892| 122,802| Current Liabilities| 129,783| 118,202| Current Ratio:| 0. 9700| 1. 0389| SkyWest’s current ratio had a small decrease from 2007 to 2008. For 2007 their ratio was 1. 04, and for 2008 it decreased to . 97. The ratio should be higher than 1, however what an acceptable ratio is depends on the type of industry as it varies. The fact that their ratio is decreasing could suggest impending insolvency. However to accurately analyze we would need to compare the current ratio to other companies in the airline industry. Leverage ratios:Next we wil l move on to analyze leverage ratios. Leverage ratios are concerned with the balance between debt and equity. One of the leverage ratios is the debt-to asset ratio. The debt-to asset ratio measure the extent to which borrowed funds have been used to finance the firm’s operations and investments. | 2007| 2008| Total Debt| 3990525| 4014291| Total Assests| 3990525| 4014291| Debt-to assets ratio| 1| 1| Here we see that for both 2007 and 2008 the debt-to asset ratio equals 1; however this is a cause for concern. It would be better if the debt-to assets ratio were a low fraction.A low fraction would indicate that the firm less debt then assets and therefor does not have a high risk of bankruptcy occurring. Activity Ratios: Another area to analyze is how effectively a company is managing its assets this group is called activity ratios. An example of an activity ratio is the inventory turnover ratio; which takes the cost of goods sold divided by the inventory to determine the number of times the inventory is turned over and whether they are carrying excess stock. One example of an activity ratio is the average collection ratio. | 2007| 2008| Accounts receivables| 81216| 55458|Total Sales (Total Revenue)| 3374332| 3496249| Average collection period| 8. 7851| 5. 7897| This measurement indicates the average length of time it takes SkyWest to receive a cash payment after making the sale. The shorter amount of time is optimal. From 2007 to 2008 SkyWest shortened the amount of time by almost 3 days, bringing it to roughly 6 days. Other important measures of financial performance: The last category is kind of a miscellaneous category; however this category is sometimes referred to as the shareholder-return ratio because many of the ratios measure the return earned by shareholders from holding stock in the company.There are other measures as well like the internal cash flow measurement. This measures how much cash a company’s business is generating after paying operating expenses, interest, and taxes (often referred to as NIAT). Years| 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| 2008| Net income| $81,952 | $112,267 | $145,806 | $159,192 | $112,929 | Depreciation| $76,817 | $115,275 | $189,885 | $208,944 | $220,195 | NIAT| $158,769 | $227,542 | $335,691 | $368,136 | $333,124 | – Key Decisions 1. One of the main points the case covers is the state of the global and national economy. As previously discussed the airline industry and its success is highly correlated with the state of the economy. 2. Another main point that SkyWest should be concerned with is their ability to attract and retain partnerships. Its already been established that SkyWest’s relationship with Delta has been changed to â€Å"it’s complicated† over the disagreement of 25 million dollars unpaid and not going after Delta in a lawsuit for the unpaid money for fear of losing their partnership and connected business.As Delta Airlines contributed 59. 9% of SkyWest†™s customer capacity. Also their previous partnership with Midwest Airlines which then filed for bankrupt and later was purchased by a direct competitor, which could become larger and more capable; threatening SkyWest’s future. 3. Another issue plaguing SkyWest is the impact of high fuel prices. It is estimated that 30-50% of total costs are from the costs of fuel. This in conjunction with the scope clauses that limit the size of planes SkyWest can operate increases the costs and amount of fuel needed. . The Last problem the case covers is the issue of government legislation and regulations and the effect it has on the airline industry. Safety regulations and labor contracts that limit the number of passenger’s pilots can fly. Along with the issue of planes being grounded to perform safety inspections or the proposals of new legislation like the regulation that was going to require they provide oxygen for passengers that would have added a significant amount of addit ional costs. 5- Alternatives 1.Economy: Clearly one cannot control the state of the economy, but if SkyWest continues to take advantage of their strengths and repair weakness that are due to partner companies’ poor customer service, human resources and low profits they are likely to be successful when the economy is doing better. While the economic recession continues SkyWest should attempt to renegotiate their agreements with their major carrier partners and cancel flights, when capacity is low, in order to reduce their costs.They need to make sure they maintain competitive prices and not just meet customer’s expectations but also exceed them, this will lead to a stronger customer loyalty hopefully keeping SkyWest out of the red. 2. Partnerships: SkyWest needs to continue to develop their partnerships with major carriers to further diversify the amount of major partners, which would ultimately reduce the risk of being dependent on Delta and United. Also combining effo rts would reduce the companies overhead. . Fuel costs: The rising costs and fluctuations in fuel price pose a significant risk as they are the largest chunk of operation costs for the airline industry. SkyWest should plan their routes to maximize their fuel efficiency along with again trying to renegotiate their agreements with their major carrier partners to permit flying larger size planes with more seating capacity; which would therefor create larger economies of scale. 4.Regulations: SkyWest needs to continue to pay close attention to union activity within the ASA Corporation and also continue to avoid labor unions and instead focus on employees through effective benefit packages and employee engagement. 6- Recommended Decisions 1. SkyWest airlines considerably has cash in had it could make a risky move by starting to serve in new countries since they are already exposed to some of the foreign destinations it would not be a bad idea but they must be prepared to face new competit ors.This would help the company to offer more international connecting flights and strengthen the operations that already exists for instance in Canada. 2. As we discussed before as a whole the industry is enjoying an accumulated revenue, so at this point making new partnerships may increase the revenue share of SkyWest Airlines and this would help the company to face the unknown future challenges and lessen its affect to SkyWest airlines since the economy is not steady. . Even though SkyWest is well known for being the best at safety of the services rendered it should invest more on researches with the other industry competitors so they could split the cost and enjoy the benefits (joint research agreements). This would help the SkyWest to keep up to the new regulations that is set by FAA, TSA and DOT. 4. In the first quarter of 2009 they had a SkyWest had a revenue loss of $7. million which was merely by ASA because of poor maintains and inefficiency of the flights. Management shou ld take initiatives to reduce these types of inefficiency and integrate a successful system for sustainable growth of the company. 5. SkyWest Inc. should be concerned with the route maps and they should look for opportunities that could potentially help them to expand route coverage with the existing partnerships or to get into new business agreements with new partners. . Management should work closely with the finance department to cut down fuel and maintains cost to earn more revenues in the volatile economy. For instance management should be working together with finance department on hedging for fuel, and they could get into partnerships with smaller companies in the industry to share maintains cost rather than a large air carrier where SkyWest’s needs wouldn’t be considered upon a larger company.

The Critical Issues of Malaysian Education System

Education in Malaysia is overseen by two government ministries, The Ministry of Education (Kementerian Pelajaran in Malay) which handles matters pertaining to pre-school, primary school, secondary school and post-secondary school. Matters regarding tertiary education are dealt with by the Ministry of Higher Education (Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi in Malay) which formed at year 2004 with the intention to provide a better supervision on tertiary education issues. Each state has an Education Department to coordinate educational matters in its territory despite the fact that education is the responsibility of federal government. The main legislation governing education is the Education Act of 1996. Before the introduction of the†¦show more content†¦A branch campus can be seen as an ‘offshore campus’ of the foreign university, which offers the same courses and awards as the main campus. Both local and international students can acquire these identical foreign qualif ications in Malaysia at a lower fee. The foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia are: * Monash University Malaysia Campus * Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Campus * Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus * University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. The net outflow of academics from Malaysia led to a brain gain scheme by then (1995) Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed. The scheme set a target of attracting 5,000 talents annually. In 2004, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Datuk Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis in a parliamentary reply stated that the scheme attracted 94 scientists (24 Malaysians) in pharmacology, medicine, semi-conductor technology and engineering from abroad between 1995 and 2000. At the time of his reply, only one was remaining in Malaysia. Postgraduate programmes Postgraduate degrees such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) are becoming popular and are offered by both the public universities and the private colleges. All public and most private universities in Malaysia offer Master of Science degrees either through coursework or research and Doctor of Philosophy degrees through research. Vocational programmesShow MoreRelatedPossible Topics for Marketing Paper1682 Words   |  7 Pagesa marketing paper is not relevant to such classes as â€Å"International Marketing† or â€Å"Marketing Management†. Therefore, when choosing among possible topics for your marketing paper, one should consider its relevancy to the course title and marketing issues covered in class. | | | A List of Topics for Marketing Papers | | | | * E-commerce and internet marketing * What is customer opinion good for? * Economics crisis and inflation * How to improve brand recognition in TV ads * TheRead MoreMalaysia Economic Analysis1404 Words   |  6 Pagesto its various strengths in its economy, healthcare, abundance of natural resources and literacy. Malaysian economic strength is due to various factors including strong trading partners, controlled inflation, and positive balance of trade. Malaysia has the best facilities in healthcare. The government spends a lot on subsidizing infant industries, social security and education. Although the Malaysian government promotes privatization and market economy, the economy is to some extent regulated by theRead MoreCrime : Safety And Security1749 Words   |  7 Pagesexpatriates, as reported by the Royal Malaysia Police in a recent crime victimization survey (OSAC, 2014). Where to Turn to for Assistance if you Become a Victim of Crime Victims of crimes should call the national emergency telephone number: 999 (the Malaysian equivalent of 911). In tourist areas, the RMP have established small â€Å"Tourist Police† stations to assist tourists in case of an emergency (OSAC, 2014). Best Situational Awareness Practices To avoid becoming the victim of a purse snatching, be alertRead MoreNational Unity3474 Words   |  14 Pagesmuch room for Malaysians to understand one another and to see each other as equal parts of an indivisible nation. National unity is a key target of government policy; the Department of National Unity is tasked with promoting greater integration amongst the country’s various communities. However, numerous government policies and laws differentiate between Malaysians on the basis of ethnic background, to the point that many feel they have been the target of discrimination. Overall Malaysians are pleasedRead MoreHealthcare System in Malaysia2782 Words   |  12 PagesQUESTION 1: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the healthcare system in Malaysia. What changes can the government make to suit 1MALAYSIA concept? Introduction to the Health care system in Malaysia What is health care? Healthcare is defined as in the oxford dictionary as maintaining and improving the physical and mental health of someone through the provision of medical services. It is also defined in the Merriam Webster as restoring the health of someone and preventing the spread ofRead MoreImplementation of Student Loan Asset-Backed Securitization in Malaysian Higher Education2318 Words   |  10 PagesSECURITIZATION IN MALAYSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION. (A STUDY CONDUCTED AT MALAYSIAN ECONOMY IN THE ASIA) Paper no.60 ABSTRACT The research is to investigate the alternative financing in Malaysian Higher Education by introducing student loan securities as a type of asset-backed securitization. It will analyse and consider possible effects in order to relieve the pressure currently imposed on the Government Budget. The aim of this research is to identify the outstanding systems financed by capitalRead MoreA Research On Self Directed Learning6402 Words   |  26 Pagesseparate but closely linked parts. It begins with a detailed account of the Malaysian context in which the current study was conducted, and particular attention is paid to the Malaysian Higher Education framework and the impact of three key pieces of government documents and reports - the National Philosophy of Education (Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013 - 2025 2013), the nationalization of public universities policy (Education Act 1996), and the University and University College Act of 1971 (UUCARead More1 Malaysia5616 Words   |  23 Pag esapproach and implementation according to the ever-changing times and generations. (1Malaysia Booklet, 2009) In other words, 1Malaysia is a concept to foster unity amongst the multi-ethnic people of Malaysia, substantiated by key values that every Malaysian should observe. The approach is not independent of the Government’s policies thus far; instead it complements them to further reinforce our solidarity in order to guarantee stability towards achieving higher growth and development for Malaysia andRead MoreReview Of Procurement Services Of Higher Education995 Words   |  4 PagesAssessing Information Technology (IT)-Business Alignment in Procurement Services of Higher Education Adonis Bwashi Dr. Margaret Reid Human Behavior in Complex Organizations â€Æ' Introduction Strategic alignment occurs when the Information Technology (IT) and business strategies are in dynamic symmetry with the structures that support strategy execution, which include; organization framework and Information systems (Lapiedra, Alegre, and Chiva, 2006). Therefore, when this alignment exists IT can predictRead MoreEssay on EDU701 COURSE1519 Words   |  7 PagesEDU701 Education and Human Development Semester: Sep 2013 Year: 2013 Phone: 03-55227401 Core Person /Instructor: Associate Prof. Dr. Ros Aizan Yahaya Email: dr.rosyahaya@gmail.com Office Hours By Appointment Texts Fagerlind, Ingemar and Saha, Lawrence, J. (1986). Education and National Development: A Comparative Perspective, New York: Pergamon Press. Ohmahe, Kenichi (1991), Beyond National Borders, Tokyo: Bantam Books. Olson, David, R. (Ed) Torrance, N. (Ed) (1999). Handbook of Education and

Information Technology Management transformation Free Essay Example, 1000 words

The fourth one was the infrastructure planning group which consisted of 16 resources. It was mainly involved in the improvement of technological infrastructure and technical designing of architecture for new applications. Finally the model also consisted of a group that dealt with the infrastructure shared services. It had 40 resources and was responsible for coordinating the common infrastructure components like e-mail, global network, and data processing centers. The group also provided collaboration tools and workstation support. The IT management model also experienced some challenges. It had a culture of decentralization where the responsibility of IT had always been shared by various business groups. Each business group was independent with its own IT infrastructure choices, strategic plan, applications and services. They also had their own IT organization meant to pursue objectives based on the group’s orientation and needs. This culture, therefore, made it difficult for the IT people involved in the management model, to cooperate or agree with each other. The Mandate of the groups had always been to their own needs. However, utilization and management of Alcan’s information technologies was extremely complex. We will write a custom essay sample on Information Technology Management transformation or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Over the last five years, Alcan’s multiple acquisitions had established a diversified and fragmented IT environment. The environment had a negative impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. As a CIO in IT management of Alcan Company, I have proposed a new IT governance framework that will be an implementation of the old management model used by the company in 2006. The New IT management model will locate all decision making accountabilities according to intended archetypes. However, the model will have various decision making mechanism. The first one will be business monarchy decision-making mechanism. This mechanism will assist the company’s senior management in establishing strategic direction and elaborating operation model. The second one will be federal decision making mechanism which overtly works in balancing the company’s unit priorities. The third one will be duopoly decision making mechanism whi ch will help in clarification of business objectives and incorporation of IT competence into strategy formulation. The forth one will be IT monarchy decision mechanism which will be responsible of making the world’s infrastructure and IT architecture decisions. Finally, we will have the architecture committee mechanism which will be responsible of defining grant exceptions and standards.

Analysis Of Paul Mccartney s The Abbey Road Picture

Dakota Pierce Mr. Bergmann Senior English P2 1 April 2015 Paul is Dead A very famous conspiracy that many perceive to be true is that Paul McCartney is and has been dead since 1966. It is believed that the band’s manager and crew replaced him with a look alike that also sounds like him. The conspiracy’s believers say that there are plenty of clues within the songs and the album art, and they even believe the Abbey Road picture has clues. This paper will cover why the conspiracy may be true, why it may be fake, and at the end there will be an unbiased opinion on the famous Beatle â€Å"death†. How can this conspiracy be perceived as true? The conspirators make plenty of good points, like how his car was in an accident on November 9, 1966. This is perceived to be the date of his death and the conspirators believe you can see the date if you put a mirror halfway (horizontally) between the letters in the bass drum for Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. If you set the mirror halfway like you’re su pposed to, you see 1 ONE IX HE DIE, the 1 ONE being 11, which is November, and the IX being the 9th, when his car was involved in the accident. Also on that album cover, Paul is seen raising his right hand, which in Eastern countries represents death. The Lonely Hearts Club album cover is seen as a landmine of clues. The Beatles are seen in band uniforms around the drum with cut out people all around them and flowers in the front. People say they can see the flowers spellShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of the Music Industry30024 Words   |  121 Pagesjazz and world music). In mainstream music, recording and marketing are now dominated by just four `majors worldwide, one of which is the UK s own giant record company, EMI Group PLC. The other majors are Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, based in the US, and Sony BMG, a Japanese/German joint venture only created in 2004. One of EMI s major strengths is its historic catalogue of recordings — and copyrights — which includes The Beatles and many other enduring acts of the last century

Energy Conservation Mitigation Plan Free Essays

Energy is one of the world’s greatest inventions of all time. We use energy on a daily basis for just about everything. Our way of life is based upon energy and how we use it. We will write a custom essay sample on Energy Conservation Mitigation Plan or any similar topic only for you Order Now We use large amounts of energy for transportation and electricity. Due to the limited supply of resources available to us we need to make sure that we conserve them wisely so that these resources will be around for future generations. It is imperative that consumer start to take responsibility for their actions. There are two ways to conserve energy; one is by using energy efficient technologies and the other is by changing our habits. Individual efforts combined with governmental support will assist in decreasing energy usage which will in turn create a better environment for everyone. According to the EIA, the U. S energy consumption is 100 quadrillion btu/year and is projected to rise by 37 percent within the next 20 years. The U. S is also currently building 151 coal-fired electrical generating plants in order to keep up with the current demand (Holness, 2008). In 2003, 422 quads of energy were used in the world and 92 quads within the U. S alone. According to the report â€Å"Cutting Global Energy Demand Growth,† it is predicted that in the year 2020, the world will be at 613 quads. This report also states that by becoming energy efficient we can reduce this number to 478 quads in 2020 (Schirber, 2008). Some non living factors that contribute to energy consumption are the sun and the earth’s atmosphere. The sun produces large amounts of heat which creates heat. Humans tend to elude the heat by turning up their air conditioners. This increases energy use. Energy emissions that are released into the earth’s atmosphere can cause major health problem to humans and are very harmful to animals and plants. Living factors that contribute to energy consumption are plants and animals. If plants are affected by high energy consumption, than it will create a problem for the animals, which will than create a problem for the humans. The whole food chain could be distorted. Humans are the main living factor that contributes to energy consumption. We are dependent upon certain items such as fossil fuels for heat and energy. This is affecting our atmosphere causing problems for all types of living organisms. The greatest positive impact that energy conservation has is that natural resources will still be around for future generations if we start conserving now. Energy conservation will also have positive effects on our environment. It will also prevent health problems associated with burning fossil fuels and coal needed for energy. Humans also have a negative impact on energy usage. Most people do not realize the amount of energy they waste in any given day. Simple steps such as fixing lighting structures, planting trees around your house, and by driving less will help curve the energy abuse. All of these are very important steps in energy conservation. Leaving lights on when not in use is a negative impact on energy consumption. According to Laird (2009), people from all different occupations have been trying to find a way to better use our resources. For 20 years, our nation has been trying to come up with a plan to reach sustainability. The government is only a part of the equation. Everyone including innovators, government, firms, and nonprofit organizations need to come together. Simply put, they are not doing enough to make sure that energy sustainability is feasible for average consumers. Laird states that they need to create policies that are flexible and create institutions that can learn and change from mistakes. According to Laird (2009), â€Å"The level of funding, public and private, for renewable energy RD is abysmally low, when seen in the context of the size of the energy market. † One of the most recent programs, Cash for Clunkers, was initiated by the government to assist individuals in buying more energy efficient vehicles. According to CARS (2009) over 700,000 clunkers were traded in for more fuel efficient vehicles in less than 30 days. My sustainability plan will primarily focus on citizens and what they can do to help conserve energy. I believe that in order to reduce energy consumption, we first need to start at the bottom which is in your homes. My plan will include researching the affects of energy abuse, educating citizens on how to conserve energy, plan meetings to distribute literature, and last but not least, showing citizens how they can help our environment and save them money as well. The first step in my sustainability plan is to do research to find out what basic steps can be taken at the consumer level to conserve energy. In the first two months I will gather all of the data necessary to present to citizens on how to conserve energy. In month two I will do informational surveys to see how many citizens are aware of the energy problem. This survey will also help me see how many people already are conserving energy in particular areas so that I can focus on areas that need more assistance. In month 3, I will than present the information to the citizens at a meeting. I will show them the following chart so that they can see how energy is consumed in the typical household. This chart will also assist me in showing residents where they can start making a difference at. This will show them areas they need to concentrate on in order to conserve energy and save them money. EIA. (2005). U. S household electricity report. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from www. eia. doe. gov I would make it imperative to the citizens to follow some basic guidelines in order to conserve energy. Some examples would be to use less wattage bulbs or even switch to fluorescent light bulbs that last ten times longer than other bulbs. Make sure you turn off lights when leaving a room. To cut energy on heating, residents can close curtains, lower thermostats, and seal out drafts. Some ways to conserve in the kitchen is to use adequate size pots and pans and turn down the flame if it is visible. Try not to preheat and use microwaves when feasible. If you have older appliances, replace them with newer, energy efficient appliances. Hang dry clothes when the weather permits. Other areas that you can improve energy consumption in are by lowering air conditioner temperatures. If you plant trees outside your home, it will create shade, making the temperature in your house cooler. I would end this meeting letting citizens know that they can always call their utility companies to come and do a home audit to show you how you can conserve energy. My final part of my plan would be to assist anyone who needed personal assistance with energy saving techniques. In this last month I would go to homes to see that they are doing their part in making sure they are conserving energy. If they needed help or additional information I would make that available to them. The biggest challenge in my plan is to show how purchasing these energy saving technologies is cost efficient to the buyers. Some people look at the initial cost and think that it is too high and don’t want to do anything about it. I would have to argue that some of the techniques are free and only require determination. Another challenge is gaining interest. I have to make sure that I get everyone involved. My goal would be to get one community started and then work on another community. I would need advocates to speak on behalf of energy conservation. The more people involved and committed to the plan, the better it will work. Benefits of my plan are obvious. We will not only be saving ourselves some money in the long run, but we will also be helping the environment out in a major way. We need to save our resources so that we have enough to last us a life time. Not to mention, we will be cutting down on pollution which is another environmental problem. In order to make a difference in our communities, we need support from not only the residents, but from the government as well. The government needs to step up and start mandating that certain codes are in effect on buildings. One successful program available to consumers and business is the ENERGY STAR Program. This program enables Americans to purchase products that saves them money and helps the environment. â€Å" In 2008, Americans with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved enough energy in 2008 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 29 million cars — all while saving $19 billion on their utility bills† (ENERGY STAR, n. d. ). ENERGY STAR is a program of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U. S. Department of Energy. Their mission is to help us all save money and protect the environment by offering energy efficient products. More programs such as this need to be implemented in order to achieve our goal. We need to conserve energy to save money, especially in a struggling economy. The best part about doing this is that we are also doing something for our environment. Implementing plans to lower energy consumption is a difficult task, but not a task that is unachievable. Our nation cannot afford to waste natural resources that are rapidly diminishing. We need to change our way of life to conserve what the Earth has given us. Our Earth can no longer tolerate the misuse of energy if we want it to be around for many generations to come. Energy conservation is essential due to the limited supply of natural resources. Jenny Powers of NRDC states â€Å"The cheapest, cleanest energy is the energy you don’t use. † Let’s help break the cycle. As citizens we need to do our part by embracing an energy efficient lifestyle and slow down our demand for more electricity. References CARS. (2009). Cars allowance rebate system. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from www. cars. gov ENERGY STAR. (n. d. ). About ENERGY STAR. Retrieved November 3, 20009, from www. energystar. gov Holness, Gordon V. (2008). Improving Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings. ASHRAE Journal, 50(1), 12-14, 17-18, 20, 23-24, 26. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1415301201). Laird, F. (2009) A Full-Court Press for Renewable Energy, Issues in science and Technology, 25 (2), 53-56. Retrieved October 30, 2009, from MasterFILE Premier Database. EBSCO Schirber, Michael. (2008). Whatever happened to energy conservation? Live Science. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from www. livescience. com How to cite Energy Conservation Mitigation Plan, Papers

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the Story of an Hour free essay sample

Jurrell D. Harrison The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Story of an Hour Introduction to Literature Professor Daw Monday 12th December 2011 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, written by James Thurber (1939) and the Story of an Hour written by Chopin (1894) are the two literary works that will be compared and contrasted in this paper. Both these pieces depict some of the trials and tribulations of a union in marriage, such as the want of independence and excitement; experiences that a marriage can inadvertently inhibit. Not only do both these stories illustrate some of the wants or needs that arise out of marriage, but they both also show how at times; the only means by which desire or necessity can be satisfied or experienced, is within the confines of one’s mind. Additionally, both works illustrate a sense of confinement that can arise out of marriage. Mitty’s confinement is illustrated trough is daydreams, where as Mrs. We will write a custom essay sample on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the Story of an Hour or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mallard’s is illustrated through her emotions and reactions. The themes of these two pieces, restriction and excitement, or lack there of will be compared and contrasted in the following paragraphs. Also, the structure, style and literary elements of both works will be analyzed and discussed. Thurber’s protagonist, Walter Mitty, who will be referred to, as Mitty hereafter, is an ordinary man whom frequently daydreams of being extraordinary. This daydreaming explicitly illustrates Mitty’s want for excitement, excitement that has been inhibited by his wife. Similarly, Mrs. Mallard, the main character in Chopin’s work, is a woman whose devotion to her husband is limitless. However it would seem as though this devotion is not genuine, Chopin alludes that Mrs. Mallard says with her husband because she has grown accustomed to him, and remains with him out of tradition and comfort. Thus, it becomes apparent that Mrs. Mallard, like Mitty, is dissatisfied with her life. It is interesting to note that both their dissatisfaction arises from marriage. In the onset of Thurber’s short story, Mitty’s wife is having a row because Mitty exceed the driving speed she is comfortable with, by just a mere five miles per hour faster. And almost exactly after, his wife said what she had to say, Mitty’s mind goes right back into its own world. This transition between reality, and the intimate airway of [the] mind, as Thurber described it, is just one illustration keeping within the theme of confinement. Chopin’s work is almost very similar in theme. To Mrs. Mallard, independence is a forbidden pleasure. She is restricted in several ways. At the beginning of the story for example, the author introduces the fact that Mrs. Mallard has a â€Å"bad heart†. This symbolizes an arrest of the freedom to explore, to adventure, in all actuality, Mrs. Mallard may very well have had a considerable lack of physical activity. (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute). It is interesting to note that this heart problem not only symbolizes Mrs. Mallard’s restriction, but it also represents her ambivalence toward her marriage. That is although she is faithful and devout toward her husband, she desperately wishes to experience freedom outside of her marriage, most likely not in a promiscuous manner, but, to experience the freedom from not being obligated nor obliged. These two very different settings, and two very different characters play a very similar role in their own stories. They both feel restricted by their better halves – Mitty by his wife, Mrs. Mallard by her husband. Thus in analyzing the theme of these two stories respectively, it is clear that both authors wish to portray that a certain sense of freedom is stripped from the characters, a consequential result of marriage. Although the theme of both stories are similar, the writing style has considerable differences. Consider the following, â€Å"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, theme aside, it about a playful imagination. There are several symbols, imagery and allegories that affect Walter Mitty, and send him into his imaginative daisy. It is very clear then, that Thurber’s writing style has an imaginative influence. For example, look back to the beginning part of the piece again and not how Thurber describes the rainy weather as: a terrible storm raging. † By using this metaphor, Thurber clearly engages the readers mind in an imaginative way. Another example is when Mitty describes sound of the hotel lobby doors as faintly derisive whistling, it is clear therefore to see that there is a playfulness, and a great detail of description through imagery in Thurber’s writing. Unlike Thurber however, Chopin’s piece is a lot darker – It isn’t as playful as Thurber’s.