Amazon-Pestel -swot -porter 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Amazon-Pestel -swot -porter 5 - Essay Example An analysis of the macro-environment using PESTEL indicates that there are major threats and opportunities in the environment. However, it is the company’s ability to utilise these opportunities and by using its strengths to minimise the effects of these threats that will be of importance. In the political environment the company’s sales are subject to both economic and political considerations (AnnualReport.com 2011). There may be restrictions and foreign ownership. In order to meet local ownership and regulatory licensing requirements the company’s Joyo Amazon business is operated by Chinese companies. The economic environment in which the company operates is affected by fluctuations in exchange rates and changes in interest rates. Approximately 45% of the company’s revenues are associated with its international business (AnnualReport.com 2011). If there is a major interruption in telecommunications the company could losing a significant amount of business. The company faces inventory risk if it over stocks as it may be left with goods that are not returnable. On the other hand if it runs out of stock it will lose business. The company only deals with a few shippers any unforeseen circumstances which affect the shipment of Amazon’s products and will have negative implications for the company’s business. The company’s business is seasonal with between 35% and 39% of its annual sales taking place in the last quarter in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (AnnualReport.com 2011). The company faces competition for qualified employees including computer scientist and softwa re engineers. This means that it has to compete on price with companies like Apple in the digital media device arena. In terms of the company’s social environment the employees are motivated by being compensated with shares. This means that they are not just employees but also owners of the company (AnnualReport.com 2011). It is therefore likely that they

When writing and reading Children's literature, can it be just for Essay

When writing and reading Children's literature, can it be just for pleasure or does the text have to have a teaching element - Essay Example Yet a good piece of literature will have universal themes that will appeal to children and adults, and will teach more than just developmental skills. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a premier example of this principle. It is a piece of literature that is children's literature in that it is accessible to young children but not in the sense that it is exclusively for young children, it teaches not only vocabulary but also mythology and ethics, and it is excellently written. Jon Sciezska, author of stories like The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, argues that many of the approaches of educators in the West has been misleading or wrong (Zastrow, 2008). â€Å"I would say just to let kids play around, and let them play around with reading† (Zastrow, 2008). Everything that a child interacts with is educational: Every experience, every tree, every song, every book, will have indelible impacts that may resonate for their whole lives in ways no adult can predict. â€Å"Edu cational† children's literature, then, isn't different because it teaches something; rather, it's different because it teaches particular things and sets out to teach those things, like civics, morals, values, good social behavior, math, grammar, colors, shapes, etc. There is nothing wrong with this kind of literature. But it's not the only kind of literature children should read, any more than adults should only read newspapers and journal articles. Sciezska recommends that â€Å"Reading shouldn't be a bitter pill† and that children should have choices in what they read (Zastrow, 2008). There are few choices more apt for children than Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The book is not an educational book: It is magical fantasy, pure and simple. It begins with a Cinderella dream: Child growing up among cruel step-parents with arbitrary step-siblings is revealed to have a special destiny. But the book actually is filled with all sorts of educational elements nonet heless. By not being specifically â€Å"educational†, it is actually able to have fully-fledged themes and elements that lead children away from the simple grammar school progression and towards advanced life skills that will pay off for the months, years and decades to come. The composition of Rowling's work is itself highly educational. Children learn all sorts of vocabulary from the book, and not just vocabulary of magical phenomena but of a far broader nature. But it's not just vocabulary: Children pick that up constantly, from the telly to conversations to the schoolyard. What the book teaches is how to write. Children reading Harry Potter learn accessible techniques of description, sentence construction, suspense, comparing and contrasting, etc. It is true that children could also learn how to write from Mark Twain or Plato, but Harry Potter uses modern elements, modern themes and appeals to modern needs. It uses contemporary language that British, Scottish, Welsh, Iris h and Yank children can understand. This paper focuses on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone because, being the first book, it has the least adult themes, is the least likely to scare children (though the image of Voldemort growing out of the back of Quirrel is fairly grotesque) and has the simplest plot and language, but all the books are quite valuable for young readers. In particular, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as well as the other books in the series teach good narrative structure. The books have an element of the mystery novel to them: The reader is told clues that allow them to piece things together. In fact, fans accurately guessed