The City Both Offers and Restricts Possibility Essay - 1

The City Both Offers and Restricts Possibility - Essay Example In the first, part of The City, in Literature, the author links various aspects of life to the growing city. The residents have to deal with and understand the western idea of the growing city. The author uses philosophy, literature, and urban history to untangle the contradictory images and meanings of the urban experience. The growth of the city led to considerable rural to urban migration. Most people expected to lead a better life in the city. In the minds of these people, the introduction of the city gave them a picture of the western-like city forgetting the aspect of growth and time. Every idea and places starts from the first steps and should be given time, and enough resources to grow before we can start utilizing. The western idea of a city is what the characters in the book have in mind in relation to the city. The author traces the connection between creative writing and the city from the early novel in England to the apocalyptic cityscapes of Thomas Pychon. This relation ship aims at bringing out the understanding of the people of the city. Along the way, Lehan collects a prosperous backup of prop up, which includes Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, James Joyce, and even Theodore Dreiser. The European city in the literature has several shortfalls, and this is what the author emphasizes in his works. Notable in the literature is the turn down of feudalism while, at the same time there is the rise of the realm and dictatorship. The author relates the American city against the observable fact of the wilderness, the cutting edge, and the augment of the megalopolis. However, this is not the picture of what the residents of the city have, and this is only present in the available literature. From the above description, the statement; the city both offers and restricts possibility comes to light. In this notion, possibility could be in terms of the people’s ability to change and reform their lives to suit that of the American city. The statement means that the magnitude of change lies in the people’s ideology of the city. The presence of the city acts as a bridge to their achievement of the various things they need. For instance, in the event people want to have a better life economically, socially, and legally, then they have the city as their gate pass. On the other hand, the city acts as a limitation to the achievements of these dreams because of the existing restrictions. These restrictions are in terms of leadership, which is not so liberal hence, limiting the city’s residents in their ideologies of life. The City in Literature presents sharply imprinted portrayals of the correspondence between rationalism and entrepreneurship (Lehan, 1998, p.246). In as much as this information is only present in literature, the people have the capacity to changing this in to a real life practice. The resources and infrastructure, which can make this possible, is present in the city. However, the leadership in the city, which is mostly dictatorship, limits the occurrence of this development. The literature further explores the rise of the city, the demure of the landed estate, and the development of genres. The detective narrative, the gothic, and fantasy literature enable the author to explain the meaning of the city both offers and restricts possibility. Urban life is a process and requires exploration in all

Strategic Management - Staples Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategic Management - Staples - Essay Example The company’s financials of 2010 reveal a disappointing result with only about 1.1% increase and sales accounting to $24.55billions. Stock prices of Staples fell by 7% in 2010. Staples end its financial year in January like most retailers and it was revealed that its quarterly net income for 2011 dropped by 28% and revenues slipped to 3.8%. Further, office supplies tend to represents about 50% of its revenue and business machines represent next 30% while the remaining revenues are derived from office furniture and computers. Going back to its history, Staples was founded in 1985 by Thomas G. Stemberg and Leo Kahn and a year later they opened its first store. The original mission of Staples was to slash the costs, eliminate hassles of running an office and to make it easy for the customers to buy office products. In a way Staples was counted among the top office product companies (Grewal, 2008, p.459). SWOT Analysis Strength: Staples is considered to be the largest office Suppl ies Company Practices world class supply chain activities, extensive network of its retail stores along with strong relationship with its customers Strong marketing exposures leading the company to successfully create and embed into popular culture such as â€Å"Yeah, we’ve got that† and many more. ... opportunity which Staples should utilize and apply to its business model in order to stay ahead of its competitors and create a stable market share Strategic acquisitions will help the company in boosting its sales and enhancing its brand value Threats Intense competition from other brands which have created a brand name and image and provides Staples with tough competition Economic slowdown can also be treated as a threat as it might lead to low sales and revenue for the company New entrants into the sector pose a threat for Staples New Vision & Mission The new vision for the company will be to provide its customers with best experience both in offline and online modes of shopping and thus create a benchmark for itself, to help the company grow in the long run with clear, easy to follow, secure payment methods along with quick and fast delivery. This vision would be appropriate in the current situation because Staples is expanding its business into the online sector and deriving a v ision statement which showcases that it is into online retailing, will further enhance the brand value and also put a list of its goals in the statement. The new vision states that the company not only wants to become the best online site, but also offer a list suggesting ways in which they would operate. The current mission statement for Staples will be to work for the betterment of the people and the society and create a global presence. External Assessments Economic forces In general, the demand for office products is highly correlated with measures such as white collar employment, national GDP, spending of small sized businesses. In the sluggish economy, businesses and consumers tend to cut back on spending in order to save money and purchase few suppliers affecting the sale of Staples