(Can the writer help me decide) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

(Can the writer help me decide) - Essay Example ls of counterinsurgency in two articles, â€Å"The New (and Old) Classics of Counterinsurgency† and â€Å"Scholar, Pope, Soldier, Spy.† She depicts the idea of counterinsurgency that militarizes â€Å"social work† in other countries. Counterinsurgency is â€Å"armed social work† that merges military and media-rich storytelling that can undermine nationalist endeavors and control women and other local sectors through specific social and economic programs and projects and America-as-savior media narrative. Counterinsurgency is â€Å"armed social work† because it has the usual armed component that employs brutal strategies and tactics against local guerillas (Khalili â€Å"The New†16). Khalili narrates that counterinsurgency has its roots in colonization. She explains that many people naturally oppose foreign forces that intend to control their local political, social, and economic systems, and when this happens, one of the past counterinsurgent strategy is â€Å"butcher-and-bolt† (Khalili â€Å"Scholar† 427). It pertains to the swift and violent destroying of villages, crops, and livestock for the â€Å"infractions† of the locals, such as leading revolts or supporting insurgents (Khalili â€Å"Scholar† 427). Though not directly illustrated, this strategy is common in the counterinsurgency against Native Americans, whose lands were burned and whose people were nearly decimated. The â€Å"race† factor is clear because those who were not w hites were easily slaughtered, while their lands and remaining human and natural resources were taken away. Counterinsurgency, nevertheless, is more â€Å"social work† than armed warfare because the military and related personnel are trained to influence the hearts and minds of the local people, especially women and other marginalized sectors, through social programs and the media. By social work, this includes outright colonial administration. General David Petraeus acted as a colonial administrator in Mosul, Iraq, where he rebuilt some of the

Analyzing Advertisements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Analyzing Advertisements - Essay Example Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? by Marciano are two high-end clothing lines that use a strong image and theme to sell their brands, both of them memorable, but both completely different from one another. In this way, both Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? become strongly associated with their respective themes, which creates their image and brands as distinctive and compelling. The first ad campaign is for Tommy Hilfiger. One campaign is a commercial for the 2011 spring line (tommyhilfiger). The other campaign that will be analyzed for Hilfiger is his ad campaign for the fall of 2010 (AndreDouglasFanClub). The Tommy Hilfiger ad for his spring 2011 line features a fake family of Hilfigers. Each member of the family identifies themselves by name, and, after they each introduce themselves, there is a little girl who says â€Å"and we are the Hilfigers.† The â€Å"family† features two black men, a dark man who appear Hispanic or Italian, several WASPY women, two men with longish hair who look like 1970s throwbacks, and two children – a boy with crazy curly hair, and a young girl dressed in a coat. The ad unmistakably attempts to tie these people together as a family, and a wealthy family at that. The cast of characters are seen throughout the ad, in different, stylish clothing that usually marries something super casual, like a striped gol f shirt, under something more formal, like a blazer. They are unmistakably at a country club, as they are playing games like ping pong and tennis. Meanwhile, there are bikinied women around playing the games with the Hilfigers. There is also another man, unidentified, who has a high afro and is joining in the fun. There are even two dogs, two basset hounds, presumably the family dogs. Throughout the commercial, new people are introduced, and they all have the same look - casual, mixed with formal elements, usually wearing sunglasses. Blazers with with a crisp white shirt mixed

Thatcherism vs New Labour Party

Thatcherism vs New Labour Party The British political system went through various and complex changes over time, starting from the post-war consensus, going through Thatcherism and other parties policies activities and ending with the current government led by David Cameron. This research paper will mainly focus on the policies and the ideologies of both Margret Thatcher and the New Labor party and how they affected the British political life so far that is by its role definitely affected in the formation of the economic shape and clarified the peaks and troughs that represented a wide variety of aspects of life in the United Kingdom. Thatcherism is the political policies and way of government of Margaret Thatcher, which include privatisation, monetarism and lack of support for trade unions. Margret Thatcher was the prime minister of the United Kingdom during the period (1979-1990) and her nickname was the Iron Lady Her policies marked a special era for Britain at that time. The New Labour party is the alternative new branding name for the Labour party. This name was introduced by Tony Blair in a conference about a new life for Britain in 1994 and was put into action after the Labour party won the 1997 elections and stayed still till 2010. So whose policies were better? How were they perceived by the public? How did they manage to practice dominance over the British politics? The answers to these questions will be listed when we go through Thatcherism and New Labour policies, ideologies, activities and effects over the political and economic aspects in the United Kingdom and figure out their similarities and differences. Literature Review There is a book that described Margret Thatcher as the most exceptional woman in the history of politics in the United Kingdom. It talked about her achievements, early career and how she acquired power. It also focused on explaining how the Conservative party at that time, led my Thatcher, was able to defeat the Labour party in 4 consecutive general elections.  [1]   Another paper presented the challenges that shaped the policies of both Margret Thatcher and Tony Blair. It elaborated on the main issues that Margret Thatcher focused on like privatization and lack of support for trade unions. On the other hand, it mentioned the Manifesto on which the New Labour party fought on the 1997 elections pledged not to increase rates of income tax, and to hold public spending totals for the first two years in office to those planned by its predecessor  [2]   In another book, there was a clear explanation of how the New Labour party attempted to gain back power and confidence in voters relying on and adhering to some Thatcherism policies.  [3]   Another book elaborated mainly on how the Labour party recovered from the 4 major defeats on the hands of the Conservative one and what changes they introduced in their policies to help them achieve the new outcomes of regaining power to the Labour party.  [4]   One more book described the era of Margret Thatcher and illustrated what were the successes and failures during her period in office and how she was able to confront the uprising economic and social challenges at that time.  [5]   Now we should go deep into the main ideas, policies, ideologies and features of both Thatcherism and New Labour. The Ideological Orientation of Thatcherism New Labour Thatcherism was built upon: Classical Liberalism, which is concerned about the importance of individual freedom, and Conservatism, which is an advocate for the notions of national sovereignty, the traditional morals and the laissez-faire principles Thatcher developed her policies over time with her first government focusing on the reform of trade unions and monetary control (monetarism), the second focusing on privatisation and housing and the third focusing on the restoration of the welfare state in the UK.  [6]  . Considering the New Labour ideology, Blair made a decisive break away from Old Labours traditional political stance and he called it as the party of New Labour after becoming leader of the party in 1994. In policy terms, New Labour acted like the mediator between Old Labour, who was statist socialism (they believe to be too radical), and Thatcherism, which was strongly concerned by the principle of laissez-faire and individualism as stated above. So Blair accepted many of his predecessors ideas about: free trade, the retrieval of a successful and elastic labour market through capitalism and more individual self-help, etc.  [7]   There were some obvious similarities between Thatcherism and New Labour, which were even more important than the differences between both of them. The New Labour party adopted many key elements of the Conservative policies in order to overcome its harsh defeat and decline that was very sharp especially and directly after the winter of discontent. The Labour party in the 20th century didnt lose because of Thatcherism strength or popularity but because There was no great endorsement of Thatcherism in 1979. As late as October 1978, Labour was still ahead in some opinion polls, but the Winter of Discontent turned the public against Labour and the unions. The election was more of a rejection of Labour than an endorsement of Thatcherism  [8]   Similarities in The Policies Thatcher focused greatly on the economic reforming issue. She went through 4 main aspects and issues which are: the privatisation of the British Industrial methods, the narrowing of the union power and lack of support for it, the reduction of public spending in order to allow cuts in taxation and controlling the prices inflations. The New Labour was able to move away from the past when it declared the refusal and denial of the Clause IV from its constitution, which had become a keystone in the philosophy of the left. Commitment to public ownership was replaced by the view that the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition are joined with the forces of partnership and co-operation to produce the wealth the nation needs and the opportunity for all to work and prosper. This marked the clear refusal by the New Labour for Socialism and marked its clear movement towards Thatcherism.  [9]   Considering the issue of taxation for instance, Gordon Brown made a clear and public commitment to remain within the Conservatives spending plans for the first two years of a new Parliament and not to increase the basic rate of income tax, showing again the adoption by New Labour of a key element of Conservative policy and also that was the Manifesto on which the New Labour party fought the 1997 elections.  [10]   It seems that New Labours economic policy is built upon a similar or a close one to that of Thatcher economic policy, where there is close-working relationship between the government and employers and trade union power was reduced and lacked significantly. It is also built upon the explicit endorsement of the importance of market competition and the desirability of private enterprise which is very close to the privatization policy by Thatcher. This policy shift is thought by many to represent a considerable acceptance of the broad legacy of the Thatcher years by Blair. Therefore it is evident that on these key issues, New Labour seemed to want to stay with the Thatcherism policies already put in place.  [11]   Differences in The Policies Government Intervention in the Market There were also clear differences in the economic policies of both Thatcherism and New Labour. For instance, New Labour refused Thatchers principle of Laissez-faire principle where the role of government and its intervention hardly featured. In accordance with this principle, Gordon Brown claimed that the government intervention is a must to provide more public services which will be more beneficial than cutting taxes for few people only. The New Labour party believed that its the duty of the government to interfere to prevent the under-investment of education and training that may take place in case of they relied only on the market forces alone. So they sustained investment in skills, science, research and development, and public infrastructure encouraged strong performance in high-value manufacturing sectors far removed from financial markets in the UK  [12]   Taxation Policy The difference between Thatcherism and New Labour can also be seen when we look at the taxation policy. Thatcher believed in the motivation for low rates of direct taxation and she regarded this as a key part of her strategy of increasing competitiveness. Thatcherism also believed that direct cuts in taxations will help set the values of equality and the individual freedom in order to reach the welfare state. However, the New Labour was obliged to work according to 1997 elections manifesto where the government should not increase its public spending for the first two years of its formation. This manifesto briefly stated that the officials in Blairs government should be Wise spenders, not big spenders Blair always believed that its not wise or rational to increase taxations because it will dangerously harm the economic situation and because the New Labour was more concerned with the likely vote-losing consequences of high taxation. However there were two contradicting opinions about t he tax increase issue, one suggest by Blair and the other by Brown. Brown believed that Labour should retain the power to raise the top rate however, Blair and his advocates argued that increasing taxation rates is not the best guaranteed method to gain revenues: to put up rates would not automatically achieve the desired result as evasion will increase  [13]   The Social Welfare Equality Social welfare policy marked an obvious difference point between Thatcherism and the New Labour. New Labour believed in communitarianism which is the existence of society with networks of social relations. New Labour used the term Positivity of Freedom where people can get their chance to do things they need to do which are available for them through various resources, and the government intervention to provide these resources. New Labour didnt ignore the socially excluded persons, it helped them empower and fill the lack of positive freedom and it made sure that everybody came out beneficial from economic growths.  [14]   The New Labour also marked unemployment as the biggest brick that forms inequality between people and according to Blair, the best guarantee to earn a decent wage was employability The New Labour believed in the importance of coping with the world changing process towards information age and in order to develop more and more, they sought a society full of employed, skilled and trained workers so they tended to provide resources for people in order to achieve that development and progress goal.  [15]   On the other side, Thatcherism advocated for individualism and individual responsibility in place of collective provision and availability as stated in the ideologies part above ( The individual is the one who is responsible for welfare, not the society) resulting in limiting the role of the welfare state and New Labour refused this vision because they believed it would increase the internal divisions of the society and weaken the bonds between people although Blair was adhered to Thatcherism one of whose aims was to shift responsibility for welfare from state to individual at the beginning considering the issue of equality.  [16]   Dealing with the Electorate and the Voting Class Another obvious and big difference between Thatcherism and New Labour is about how both of them dealt with the electorate. Margaret Thatcher preferred to convince the electorate to support her ideas and far sighting (to persuade them to accept her vision as it is) while New Labour tended to adapt their policies and regulations according to the voters visions and ideas, not the party itself and that is because the continuous processes of social change were tending to reduce the numbers of voters who favoured the government interventionist policies where the working labour class was gradually shrinking and getting oppressed while the middle classes who get paid for their work were expanding.  [17]   So its clear that the New Labour party introduced vast modifications to their policies considering the electorate issue and they adopted Thatchers method in order to win back the votes of people who lost confidence in them after the winter of discontent and to appeal to their new electoral target of middle income, middle Britain. So its pretty obvious that, although similarities of ideas and policies towards many political issues are crystal-clear between New Labour and the Thatcherism, these similarities acted as the outcome of New Labour belief in the importance of getting confidence and trust back towards the voting class. Then it could be said that the differences are actually more important than the similarities as they reflect the true nature of the ideologies of the parties and how they acted to achieve their main purposes and goals. Conclusion Its visibly noticeable about what we have been through along this study that The New Labour party has rose up at the ruins of Thatcherism, or in other terms, The New Labour has picked up where Thatcherism fell off. No one can deny that the New Labour did really benefit from Thatcherism dominance from 1979 to 1997. Margret Thatcher was able to lead its party to three decisive consecutive victories in general elections followed by the fourth success led by Major. The reasons of Thatcherism dominance over the British political life didnt rise up from nothing. They rose up thanks to Thatchers policies and regulations. The people admired what Thatcher did considering the hindering of government intervention in the stock market, privatizing British factories and companies, direct cuts in taxations and much more. Also, Thatchers economic policies played a leading role in getting favour and support from the electorate and the voters, some statistics about the effects of these economic policies, like a 32% increase in the number of workers in manufacturing, a 40% increase in household incomes, could prove that clear.  [18]   Nothing is perfect. Although Britain was a richer country under the Conservative government rule by Thatcher and there was surely an increase in the productivity (that was negative because more goods were produced by fewer workers rather than increased capital investment), inequality also spread into Britain. Unemployment for example had hit more than 4.5 million Britons and 1 million out of those 4.5 was never involved in any paid employment. One in six Britons were on social assistance, the highest proportion in the EU and three times the rate found in Germany  [19]   In overall, the majority of British people benefited from Thatcherism than suffered. Thatcher was able to create a country that was never formed under any Labour government rule before and this was successful mainly because of, as we mentioned before, Thatcherism policies especially the ones regarding economic issues. Thats what pushed the Labour party autonomously to follow the same footsteps left clearly by the Conservative one and they did that in order to win peoples confidence back into their party, attract the voters and to gain power again over the British political arena and that reason was like the green light to the birth of the New Labour party which had SIMILIARITIES along with Thatcherism (which prove that New Labour really picked up where Thatcherism fell off) and had DIFFERENCES (Which prove that the New Labour party is ideologically different from Thatcherism and it didnt copy or remake the latter steps, it did only follow the Conservatives in some specific points abo ut which they were pretty sure that it will get their glory and shine back again into Britain political field).

Free Siddhartha Essays: Significance of the River :: Hesse Siddhartha Essays

The Significance of the River in Siddhartha In the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse the significance of the river is displayed throughout the experiences that Siddhartha has next to the river and the things that by listening to the sound he comes to understand. Siddhartha is learning something from the moment he rides the ferry to the time when Govinda lays on the ground with tears flowing uncontrollably. Siddhartha admits to having no money to pay for the voyage, but the Ferryman says that friendship is payment enough, and takes him into town. After leaving town, Siddhartha returns to the river where had met the Ferryman earlier. Intrigued by the river's beauty and silent wisdom, Siddhartha decides to stay by the river. Siddhartha soon meets the Ferryman Vasuveda, the same man who took him across the river earlier. Siddhartha offers to be Vasuveda's apprentice, an offer that the Ferryman graciously accepts. The two grow together as Siddhartha begins to learn the river's wisdom, and soon Siddhartha begins to emulate Vasuveda's demeanor, expressing a contented peace in the routine of daily life. Years pass. One day, the two Ferrymen hear that the Buddha is dying. Kamala, on hearing the news as well, travels with her son to be near Goatama. As she passes near the river, she is bitten by a snake and dies, but not before Vasuveda takes her to Siddhartha. After Kamala dies, Siddhartha keeps his son with him by the river. The boy, though, refuses to accept Siddhartha as his father and consequently does nothing he is told. Many months pass, but the boy remains intransigent. Eventually the boy runs away. Vasuveda tells Siddhartha to let him go, but Siddhartha follows him. Upon reaching the town, Siddhartha recalls his own experiences there and admits to himself what he knew all along, that he could not help the boy. Siddhartha feels a great sorrow at this loss, and the happiness he had known as a Ferryman leaves him. Vasuveda soon arrives and leads the despondent Siddhartha to back to the river. The pain of losing his son was long lasting for Siddhartha. It enabled him, however, to identify with ordinary people more than ever before. Though Siddhartha was beginning to understand what wisdom really is, the thought of son did not leave him. One day he sets off in search of his son, but stops as he heard the river laughing at him. Free Siddhartha Essays: Significance of the River :: Hesse Siddhartha Essays The Significance of the River in Siddhartha In the book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse the significance of the river is displayed throughout the experiences that Siddhartha has next to the river and the things that by listening to the sound he comes to understand. Siddhartha is learning something from the moment he rides the ferry to the time when Govinda lays on the ground with tears flowing uncontrollably. Siddhartha admits to having no money to pay for the voyage, but the Ferryman says that friendship is payment enough, and takes him into town. After leaving town, Siddhartha returns to the river where had met the Ferryman earlier. Intrigued by the river's beauty and silent wisdom, Siddhartha decides to stay by the river. Siddhartha soon meets the Ferryman Vasuveda, the same man who took him across the river earlier. Siddhartha offers to be Vasuveda's apprentice, an offer that the Ferryman graciously accepts. The two grow together as Siddhartha begins to learn the river's wisdom, and soon Siddhartha begins to emulate Vasuveda's demeanor, expressing a contented peace in the routine of daily life. Years pass. One day, the two Ferrymen hear that the Buddha is dying. Kamala, on hearing the news as well, travels with her son to be near Goatama. As she passes near the river, she is bitten by a snake and dies, but not before Vasuveda takes her to Siddhartha. After Kamala dies, Siddhartha keeps his son with him by the river. The boy, though, refuses to accept Siddhartha as his father and consequently does nothing he is told. Many months pass, but the boy remains intransigent. Eventually the boy runs away. Vasuveda tells Siddhartha to let him go, but Siddhartha follows him. Upon reaching the town, Siddhartha recalls his own experiences there and admits to himself what he knew all along, that he could not help the boy. Siddhartha feels a great sorrow at this loss, and the happiness he had known as a Ferryman leaves him. Vasuveda soon arrives and leads the despondent Siddhartha to back to the river. The pain of losing his son was long lasting for Siddhartha. It enabled him, however, to identify with ordinary people more than ever before. Though Siddhartha was beginning to understand what wisdom really is, the thought of son did not leave him. One day he sets off in search of his son, but stops as he heard the river laughing at him.

Corruption in the Indian Judiciary

Judiciary is in some way at a higher pedestal amongst these three organs because it is the only mechanism to keep the executive and legislature within their jurisdictions by confining them not to abuse or misuse their powers. It controls, corrects or quashes the executive, however high it is, and even sets aside acts of the legislature if it acts contra-constitutionally. Judiciary is the guardian and final interpreter of the Constitution.It is a place of utmost trust as it is last resort for the people. It is not negated that corruption is non-existent in certain judicial systems rather it would be fair to say that in some countries corruption is nominal, infrequent and the result of individual, unethical behaviour. It is also evident from the words of the former Chief Justice of India S. P. Bharucha, when he grieved over the rampant corruption in the higher judiciary and brought to notice that around 20 percent judges of the higher judiciary are corrupt. Now the question remains; ca n the judicial accountability be trusted upon any more?Does the judiciary hold the same value, as it had earlier? Is the judiciary abusing its freedom? Can judges be permitted to do anything in the guise of ‘independence’? These are the questions which still remained unanswered. Judicial Corruption Corruption is the misuse of entrusted power for personal gain. In the context of judicial corruption, it relates to acts or omissions that constitute the use (or it is better to say ‘misuse’) of public authority for the private benefit of court personnel, and results in the improper and unfair delivery of judicial decisions.In corrupt judiciaries, citizens are not afforded their democratic right of equal access to the courts, nor do the courts treat them equally. The merits of the case and applicable law are not paramount in corrupt judiciaries, but rather the status of the parties and the benefit judges and court personnel derive from their decisions. In corrupt judiciaries, rich and well-connected citizens triumph over ordinary citizens, and governmental entities and business enterprises prevail over citizens. No civilised society can command the people’s confidence if the judicature’s verdict is privately purchased at a competitive price.Corruption and Indian judiciary A judicial scandal has always been regarded as far more deplorable than a scandal involving either the executive or a member of the legislature. The slightest hint of irregularity or impropriety in the court is a cause for great anxiety and alarm. In last one decade, there are a number of instances where a judge is found to be involved in corrupt practices. This demands a close look in these scandals because if judiciary itself gets corrupted who will judge others. Before taking these scandals we should know the current legal position on corruption as applicable on judges laid down in Veeraswami case.Veeraswami Case This case is important in many ways. This w as the first case where corruption charges were alleged against a judge of higher judiciary. This case dealt with many issues viz. whether judge of a high court or Supreme Court is a ‘public servant’ or not; who is the sanctioning authority for prosecuting a judge of a high court or Supreme Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947; whether Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred as Act) is applicable on judges or not etc. Before taking these issues in detail, let us know background of the case.The appellant had committed offence under section 5(2) read with clauses (b), (d) and (e) of section 5 (1) of the Act. On perusal of the charge sheet the special judge issued process for appearance of the appellant. The appellant thereupon filed a petition under section 482 of Cr. P. C. before the Madras High Court for quashing the prosecution. The Full Bench of the high court by a majority view has dismissed his case. However, in the view that the const itutional question involved in the case the high court granted certificate for appeal to the Supreme Court.A five judge Bench of the Supreme Court heard the matter and four judgments were delivered. Shetty J. authored the leading judgment, with Venkatachaliah J. , signing with him. B. C. Ray J. wrote a separate but concurring judgment. L. M. Sharma agreed to dismiss the appeal but differ on some issues. Verma J. dissented. RECENT EPISODES In the last one decade, a number of instances unveiled by media and other active organizations where judges were involved in corrupt practices, which show that how corruption has crippled Indian judiciary. Some of them are discussed hereafter;Justice Soumitra Sen’s Issue In an unprecedented move by the CJI, wrote a letter to the prime minister, recommending that the proceedings contemplated by article 217(1) read with article 124(4) of the Constitution be initiated for removal of Justice Soumitra Sen, Judge, Calcutta High Court. 25 This reco mmendation was made on the basis of suggestions made by an In-House Committee, in a report submitted to the CJI that Justice Sen be removed from the office. The Committee has in its report accused Justice Sen of breach of trust and misappropriation of Reciever’s funds for personal gain.The in-house committee found that Soumitra Sen did not have honest intention, since he mixed the money received as Receiver and his personal money and converted the Receiver’s money to his own use. The motion for his removal is not yet initiated. It is expected that the history will not be repeated. If it is repeated it would be a dishonor upon the Indian judiciary and its accountability. Cash-for-Judge Scam CJI Balakrishnan is the first Chief Justice of India who has granted permission to an investigating agency to register of a criminal case against judges of Punjab & Haryana High Court.This is for the first time that power conferred by Veeraswami case is exercised by any CJI. He allow ed the CBI to interrogate two judges of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, Nirmaljit Kaur and Nirmal Yadav, in connection with the cash for- judge scam. A law officer sent Rs. 15 lakh to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur’s official residence and later claimed that it was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav and had been delivered to Justice Kaur by mistake. Apart from these episodes there are few more instances where judiciary got shammed.Like, Justice Jagdish Bhalla, Chief Justice Himanchal Pradesh High Court was also traced in dealing with such mal-practices when he got a plot on nominal price by a land mafia, who was one of the parties to a case before him. In all above stated instances the judges, being a public servant, were alleged to be involved in corrupt practices even though the recourse of the Act was not taken. There is no justification as to why judiciary did not take recourse of the Act and went for process of removal under article 124, which is next to impossible. *** RTI solutio n has not been edited in keeping with the view of other legal essays.

Herman Miller Inc Essay

From the headquarters of Herman Miller Inc. , Curt Pullen talks amid the unmistakable pounding sounds and commotion associated with a construction work site about his company’s plan to rebound from the recession. Pullen, the firm’s executive vice president and president of North America, says the workers are installing new lower-height Herman Miller workstations designed to accommodate a growing trend in offices toward more open, collaborative environments. The new product, called Canvas, is part of the company’s market-shift strategy after the demand for office furniture fell hard during the economic downturn. The plan also involves diversifying into the health care and academic furniture markets and more emphasis on emerging economies. The plan appears to be paying off. For the first time in nearly four years the company reported two consecutive quarters of double-digit percentage sales growth after releasing its second-quarter earnings statement on Dec 15th. Orders in the second quarter rose 34% to $462 million. CEO Brian Walker noted the company’s expanded market reach as a contributing factor to growth. Significant increases occurred in international markets where sales rose 33%. In 2010 the company acquired UK-based ergonomic workstation manufacturer Colebrook Bosson Saunders and purchased assets from Australian furniture maker Living Edge Group. In 2008, the company announced a partnership with China’s Posh Office Systems Ltd. to expand in the Asia-Pacific region. The company attributed a year-end surge to gains in its international, health care, learning and retail vertical markets. The expanding health care industry has become one of the company’s key growth targets. One of the more recent expansions into the health care field came on Jan. 31 when Herman Miller completed its acquisition of health care furniture manufacturer Nemschoff Chairs LLC based in Sheboygan, Wis. Herman Miller designed the Canvas workstation at a lower height than traditional workstations to facilitate a workplace trend toward more collaborative environments. The design also allows more light into work areas and saves space, the company says. Including sinks and headwalls, to be reconfigured to meet patient needs. 2. Business Strategy: Broad Differentiation Strategies This strategy pursues the buyer’s needs and preference to make them satisfied with the product. And to be different from other rivals, the product must have unique product attributes that a wide range of buyers find appealing and worth paying for. The strategy achieves its aim when an attractively large numbers of buyers find the customer buyer value proposition. Herman miller is pursuing this strategy as we refer to the case study that their products are based on the design which is designed according to the people who use the furniture. Like the president of Herman Miller said: ‘people are important not the furniture. Furniture should be useful’. Besides, this company emphasizes on product design and environmental friendly, these are two basic things that they have been practicing for many decades. Furthermore, they also invest more in research and development for product innovation. Take an example of office design product, Herman Miller’s Insight and Exploration team observed various workplaces to analyze how people collaborate and the ways in which their interactions vary over the course of a day, and throughout the life of a project by differentiating the subtleties of how, when, where, and why people connect independent of content or industry. Senior Researcher Shilpi Kumar notes that, â€Å"outlining these collaborative work behaviors will empower designers and decision makers with a greater understanding for how people really work, and will enable more informed choices in regards to office spaces. Herman Miller takes advantage of the growing desire for green products to create a better world and increase ergonomic furniture, because the consumers are willing to pay a premium for such quality and social responsible product. Since the designer of Herman Miller emphasized quality, excellence, and the continual improvement of their products, obviously one of their product which is designed by Charles and Ray Eames since its launch in 1950 had developed from plastic chair to wood chair in 2000. She also confirmed that this wood chair is 100 times recyclable since Herman Miller is concerned about environmental friendly, and Eames Molded Wood Side Chair earns â€Å"Gold† award at NeoCon 2013 in the Guest Seating category. 3. Functional strategy: Research and Development (R&D) This category focuses on strategy that is concerned with the actions in managing particular functions within a business especially in R&D. In terms of Herman Miller R&D, they invested in research and development (R&D) financially. Although there was downturn in financial, Herman Miller still invested tens of millions of dollars in R&D. The investment in R&D was code named Purple. A result of investment in R&D was an outgrowth of project Purple. The goal of this project was to spread beyond the boundaries of normal business. Herman miller created a special team called the accessories team in which the team-identified a potential growth area. This team is made to recruit people with different disciplines needed to support that goal. In addition, this team focuses on contributing ideas to the success of the team from all resources and also to develop a particular product as it goes through that piece of work. This project is in line with functional strategy of R&D in which a company’s product development represents the plan for keeping the company’s product in accordance with what buyers are looking for (Thompson et al, 2014). In the case of Herman Miller Inc, they began with research in every real design solution in which the exploitation and insights of the best research leads to human-centered design and problem solving. Herman Miller Inc is doing many things for R&D in the case of education, sustainability, performance, healthcare, manufacturing, architectures design and ergonomics. Herman Miller Inc has its major R&D activities and projects, i. e. its way to support and develop a company’s product. According to Herman Miller’s financial statement for fiscal years 2006-2011, there was a decline in design and research in 2009 due to the ongoing economic downturn. Figure 1. 1: Spending on Design and research So far, they have done some research projects regarding education such as; student’s research work behaviors behind innovation spaces. In the fall 2012, there was a project Herman Miller funded as a way of investing in the next generation of workers by giving students the chance to apply what hey learn in a real-world setting. Herman Miller wanted them to look at the business objective of the company. Besides Herman Miller providing the funds, the employees of the company also participated in the project. After the field research, the goal of this project was that the students shared what they had learned from going to the company for a workshop. The company also wanted to discover more about places that encourage creativity and the places of creative people. Besides Herman Miller providing the funds, the employee of the company also participated in the project. In regarding with the research in technology, the research starts by understanding which technological trends are creating new behaviors in the workplace. So from that, they can produce new design solution. Over the last three years, a group of designers, engineers, and researchers, the Insight Herman Miller and Exploration Team (I & E) has focused on emerging technologies and how they alter social behavior in the workplace. Herman Miller’s goal is to identify the technology trends that are relevant to the office and also understanding new behaviors that allow the designers, architects and manufacturers to bring new workplace design. For healthcare, Herman Miller Healthcare saw the opportunity to study and analyze by doing the research from the discussion of Bluewater health in which prior to design development and also the satisfaction and safety of patients and staff members. Herman Miller Healthcare is sponsoring a research project that will explore how changes in the built environment have affected staff in three important areas: Ambulatory Care, Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department. 3 4. Functional Strategies: Marketing Marketing is one of the strategies used under functional strategy. First and foremost, Herman Miller products were sold internationally through wholly owned subsidiaries in countries including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, China, India, and the Netherlands. Hence, they use the international strategy to compete its products in each country. In other words, they use the foreign subsidiary strategies because it seemed that they prefer to have a direct control over all aspects of operating in a foreign country that is the reason why they established wholly owned subsidiaries. As a result, this strategy was successful as their brand was recognized by customers and increased customer base spreading over 100 countries. Moreover, they used green marketing strategy to sell their products. This is because they mainly focus on environmental friendly such as Mirra chair, one of their products which was made of 45 percent recycled materials, and 96 percent of its material were recyclable. Therefore, the chairs used 100 percent renewable energy. Due to this strategy used, Mirra chair was recorded as one of the Top 10 Green Products by Architectural Record and Environmental Building News. Hence, this can indicate the success of using this strategy. In addition, Herman Miller engaged in cooperating advertising with strategic partners. As the example of Hilton Garden Inns which they equipped the Mirra chair in some room and on the desk in the room, was a card that explain how to adjust the chair while also providing the advertisement of Herman Miller’s website, how to purchase the products. Likewise, this is one of the advertising used to promote their products by using the strategic partner. As a result, they can reduce the advertising cost and gain more brand awareness. . Operating Strategy: Lean Production Initially, at Spring Lake, Herman Miller had invested in a giant robot assembly that welded supports inside file cabinet housings, including a tractor-trailer-length automated welding line with 1,000 sensors to drive labor completely out of the process. Unfortunately, big customers like Hewlett-Packard and AT&T were pulling their orders of 100 instead of 500 and some wanted file cabinets in two weeks instead of six with much higher quality. The Spring Lake plant could not deliver, and certainly not for the lower prices customers demanded. 995, they adapted Toyota’s leading-edge formula for plant-floor management into an approach they called the Herman Miller Performance System (Booz&co. , 2010, para 20). Based on the above quote, it depicted that Herman Miller’s decision to employ Herman Miller Performance System (HMPS); lean production, was to maintain efficiencies and cost savings by minimizing the amount of inventory on hand through a just-in-time process. To ensure a fluid flow on the order – driven production, Herman Miller collaborated with reliable and strategic suppliers. HMPS created competitive advantage through large assembly – manufacturing based. For example, direct materials and components purchased as needed to meet the demand and some suppliers delivered parts to Herman Miller production facilities five or six times per day. This resulted in a standard lead time of 10 to 20 days for majority of the products and low inventories on hand. Interestingly, HMPS managed to increase the variable costs rather than fixed costs while retaining proprietary control over manufacturing process. It was reported that â€Å"the plant managers across Herman Miller have learned that the best-run plants rely on people, not machines. Only people can solve problems to make assembly lines go faster, run cheaper, and deliver higher quality† (Booz&co. , 2010, para 25). Therefore, it can be concluded that labor intensive approach tend to outperform machine intensive approach especially when the products demand further customization with limited time and the majority of industry products are built to each customer’s unique order. Question 2: Culture at HMI: healthy and largely supportive of good strategy execution. Herman Miller had codified its long-practiced organizational values, intended as a basic for uniting all employees, building relationship, and contributing to society. Herman Miller started in 1905 with the Star Furniture Company and created the Herman Miller furniture company with his son in law named Dirk Jan De Pree. From the beginning, De Pree committed himself to treating all workers as individuals with specials talents and potential. This was part of Herman Miller’s corporate culture which continued to generate respect for all employees and take advantage of the diversity of skills possessed by all. This is one of the functional strategies in corporate culture in Herman Miller Inc in which included the company’s approach to people management, procedures and operating practices that provide the guidelines for the behavior of the company. The impact of this culture became one of the competitive advantages that make strong management and employee satisfaction in the company. The business principles and ethical standard of Herman Miller are the management practices as the key of company’s culture. Herman Miller was one of the furniture company named to Fast Company’s â€Å"Most Innovative Companies† in both 2008 and 2010. Herman Miller had pursued a path of reinvention and renewal. Herman Miller has many ways to develop their products and its culture is also unique. Through the growing of the company, Herman Miller maintains the relationship with the employees. Herman Miller’s commitment to innovation included sharing ideas and opinions from the employees. On January 1979, Herman Miller established new organization structures that included all employees were to be given the opportunity to discuss new plan in small group settings. In addition, Herman Miller also established a plan in which all employees became shareholders. Herman Miller Inc. also focuses on more efficient and environmentally friendly by taking a major initiative in 1981. It is in line with a better world value which is pursuing sustainability and environmental policy. They established environmental quality action team whose goal was to coordinate environmental programs worldwide that involves many employees. A Herman Miller’s culture is grounded in and resides to certain core value and some sets for ethical behavior. Herman Miller had long practiced organizational values that were still used in 2012. The values are as basis for uniting all employees, building relationship, adapt the implied attitude, behaviors and work practices. The company adopted inclusiveness which means they include all the expressions of human talent and potential that society offers. As mentioned before, Herman Miller corporate culture continued to create respect to all employees and looking for and utilizing the skills possessed by anyone. The second value is design in which it is important to Herman Miller Inc. in order to make innovative products. It is the way for them for looking at the world and how it can work. The results of this value are Herman Miller established many innovative products and designs. In 1971 and 1984, they introduced products based on ergonomics principles such as the Ergon chair and Equa chair. For another groundbreaking design, it introduced the Aeron chair which was almost added to New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent design collection in 1990. Other important values are based on Herman Miller’s best performance that focuses on enriching the lives of employees, customers and create value for the shareholders. The result of this value has made Herman Miller share the gains and pains with the employees especially about the compensation. All employees received a base pay and they also participated in a profit sharing program where they received stock in accordance to the company’s financial performance. The company also offered to the employees the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), retirement income plan, offered annual bonus to all employees based on company’s performance, and in regard to profit sharing both the employees and executives have same calculation of bonus potential. High performance culture In Herman Miller Inc. there is a strong sense of involvement on the part of company personnel and emphasis on individual initiative and creativity. Two of the greatest strengths lie behind our heritage of research-driven design. Respecting and encouraging risks, exploring new ideas and freedom of speech. Owners actively committed to the life of the community called Herman Miller, pride in doing things right, sharing in its success and risks. The strengths and payoff really comes in when engaging in people’s own problems, solutions and behavior. Performance is required at the highest level possible. Herman Miller enriches employees’ lives, delight its customers, and create value for its shareholders. Herman Miller includes all the express human talent and potential, everyone should have a chance to realize his or her potential regardless of color, gender, age, sexual orientation. It believes that skill; different educational background could bring the company uniqueness. Adaptive Culture Herman Miller always keep innovating its products to serve their customers better. Herman Miller’s corporate culture, which continued to generate respect for all employees, had fueled the quest to tap the diversity of gifts and skill held by all. The company designs products according to what people want the most, and it is a way of looking at the world and how it works or does not. To design a solution, rather than simply devising one, required research, thought sometime starting over, listening and humility. Manager and employees support each other in dealing with working environment. Herman Miller designed the Canvas workstation, at a lower height than traditional workstations to facilitate a workplace trend toward more collaborative environments. The design also allows more light into work areas and saves space, the company says. Additionally, the company also keeps changing its production designs from time to time according to the needs of the people and follow ergonomic system. Herman Miller hired much expertise to design its furniture, and it is costly to spend on R;D but company the company was willing to take risks on new innovation. Financial performance Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 Revenue ($ millions) $ 2,012. 1 $1,630. 0 $1,318. 8 $1,649. 2 R;D to Sales Ratio R;D/Sale 51. 2 / 2,012. 1 = 2. 5 % 45. 7 / 1,630. 0 = 2. 8 % 40. 5 / 1,318. 8 = 3. 1 % 45. 8 / 1,649. 2 = 2. 8 % Table 2. : HMI’s Revenues and R;D to Sales ratio from 2008 to 2011 Figure 2. 1: Research and development (R;D) to Sales ratio from 2008 to 2011 The above graph shows the trend of R;D sales ratio which increases from year 2008 until 2010. However, it decreased slightly in 2011 due to low R;D investment because of recession. However, it is not clear whether measuring the R;D ratio is a good metric to represent its efficiency towards a company. This is because it takes into consideration the R;D expenses rather than R;D investment thus it is easy to manipulate the number by lowering the R;D expenditure. Even, in the balance sheet of Herman Miller, the R;D investment is not disclosed under assets. If R;D is capitalized as asset, then it depicts the efficiency of R;D towards business revenues. In brief, due to that constraint, we assume that at least the R;D sales ratio increases and contributes positively towards Herman Miller’s business structure as Herman Miller invests heavily in R;D to create the furniture. Figure 2. 2: HMI’s Revenues from 2008 to 2011 The above graph illustrates that the trend of sales revenue decreases from year 2008 until 2010. However, it started to increase in year 2011. Thus, in brief, Herman Miller is improving in their sales through investment in Research and Development and produces competitive design. Question 3: HMI’s Financial situation: prior years and its competitors 1. HMI’s financial situation In order to measure the financial performance of Herman Miller Inc, we have used different ratios, such as liquidity, profitability, leverage and activity ratios. Besides, we also compare the financial performance of HMI in relation to its competitors – HNI and Steelcase Inc from 2008 until 2012 based on the above mention ratios. For our case, we have used the current ratio to measure the extent to which the three companies (HMI, HNI and Steelcase) can meet their short term obligations as shown in the figure below. Figure 3. 1: HMI’s current ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the current ratios for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , their current ratio showed some slight increase of about 1 percent from 2008 to 2009. However, a drop of about 21 percent was xperienced in 2010 but they were still able to maintain a current ratio of greater than 1. In the year 2011 and 2012, there had been a tremendous increase in their current ratio to 1. 76 and 1. 81 respectively. This current ratio of greater than 1 provides additional cushion against unforeseeable contingencies that may arise in the short term. In the case of HNI, their current ratio showed a moderate increase of about 7 percen t from 2008 to 2009. However, for the subsequent years, HNI experienced a decrease in their current ratio of approximately 10 percent from 2010 all the way to 2012. Nonetheless, they were able to maintain a current ratio of at least 1 to ensure that the value of their current assets covers at least the amount of their short term obligations. As for Steelcase, their current ratio showed a moderate increase of about 8 percent from 2008 to 2010. On the other hand, the company experienced a decrease of roughly 8 percent in the year 2011 but they were still able to maintain a current ratio of greater than 1. However, Steelcase managed to have an increase in their current ratio from 1. 37 in 2011 to 1. 52 in 2012. Overall, Herman Miller Inc. as shown a significant increasing trend in their current ratio as compared to the other two companies. This may suggest improved liquidity of the company or a more conservative approach to working capital management. ii. Profitability ratios: Profitability ratios measure management’s overall effectiveness as shown by the returns generated on sales and investment. There are a number of ratios under profitability but for our case, we have used the Return on Assets (ROA) to measure the after-tax profits per dollar of assets and Gross Profit Margin which measures the total margin available to cover operating expenses and yield a profit. These two ratios have been used to evaluate the three companies (HMI, HNI and Steelcase). Figure 3. 2. 1: HMI’s return on asset ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the Return on Assets for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , there has been a decreasing trend of ROA in the year 2008 to 2010 from 19 percent to 4 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is deteriorating. Nevertheless, rom the year 2010 to the year 2012, the company has shown some slight increasing trend of ROA from 4 percent to 9 percent respectively. This indicates that the company’s profitability is quite improving over the years. When it comes to HNI, it has also shown a high decreasing trend of ROA in the year 2008 to 2011 from 5 percent to -0. 6 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is extremely deteriorating. However , in the year 2012, there was an increase of about 4 percent as compared to the previous year. The company was able to move from -0. 6 percent to 3. 8 percent. This signifies that the company’s profitability is slightly improving. Lastly for Steelcase, there has also been a high decreasing trend of ROA from the year 2008 to 2010 with about 6 percent and -0. 8 percent respectively. This shows that the profitability of the company is extremely deteriorating. However, there was a slight increasing trend of ROA in 2011 and 2012 of 1. 02 percent and 3. 33 percent respectively. This means that the company’s profitability is somewhat improving. Overall, Herman Miller Inc. has shown a considerable increasing trend in their ROA over the years as compared to the other two companies. This may imply effective use of assets and creation of high margins by the company as well as gauging how well the company uses its financing from borrowing and bonds. Figure 3. 2. 2: HMI’s gross profit ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The figure above shows the Gross Profit Margin for the three manufacturers’ of office furniture and equipment for five consecutive years. In the case of Herman Miller Inc. , there has been a slight decrease of the Gross Profit Margin in the year 2008 to 2009 from 34. 72 percent to 32. 37 percent respectively. However, from the year 2010 to the year 2012, the company has shown some slight increase in their Gross Profit Margin from 32. 49 percent to 34. 26 percent respectively. This indicates that the company can make a reasonable profit. For HNI, there has been an increasing trend of the Gross Profit Margin from the year 2008 to 2011 with about 33. 66 percent and 34. 6 percent respectively. However, in the year 2012, there was a slight decrease of about 1. 3 percent as compared to the previous year. The company’s Gross Profit Margin moved from 34. 86 percent to 34. 39 percent. This also signifies that the company can make a reasonable profit. Lastly for Steelcase, it has shown a slight decreasing trend of Gross Profit Margin from the year 2008 to 2010 with 32. 12 percent and 28. 35 percent respectively. However, there was a slight increasing trend of Gross Profit Margin in the subsequent years amounting to 29. 5 percent in 2012. This means that the company can still make a reasonable profit. Overall, HNI has shown a steady increasing trend in their Gross Profit Margin over the years as compared to the other two companies. This may indicate how efficiently the company is using its materials and labor in the production process and gives an indication of the pricing, cost structure, and production efficiency of the company. iii. Leverage ratios This ratio is used to determine the companies’ financing methods, or the ability to meet the obligations. There are many ratios to calculate leverage but the important factors include debt, interest expenses, equity and assets. In this section, we will examine two ratios which are debt to assets and debt to equity ratios. Figure 3. 3. 1: HMI’s debt to asset ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The debt to asset ratio gives us a quick measure of the amount of debt that the company has on its balance sheets compared to its assets. In general, the debt to asset ratio for Herman Miller fluctuated over the years as compared to its competitors – HNI and Steel case. In 2008, the debt to equity ratio for Herman Miller was above 80 percent and rose approximately to 100 percent in 2009, whereas this ratio was just about 61 percent and 57 percent for HNI and Steel case respectively in 2008; and about 58 percent in 2009 for both competitors. This indicated that almost 100 percent of Herman Miller’s assets were financed by debt or creditors which implied that the Company has high level of leverage and risk, while its competitors had roughly 50 percent of their assets financed by the owners. However, Herman Miller’s ratio significantly dropped in 2010 to about 40 percent which was below its competitors who almost maintained their position over the years. In 2012, 70 percent of Herman Miller’s assets were financed by debt. In general, although the company debt to assets ratio is still high in relation to its competitors, the financial performance of the company is improving after the financial crisis. However, the Company needs to further reduce the amount of debt resulting to the reduction of risk; this is because it may affect the company’s survival in the long-run. Figure 3. 3. 2: HMI’s debt to equity ratio versus its competitors’ ratio A debt-to-equity ratio measures the amount of debt a company uses to fund its business for every dollar of equity it has. In other words, it is a measure of a company’s ability to repay its obligations. Generally companies with less debt equity ratio are less risky than the companies with high ratios. As we can see from the graphs, Herman Miller Inc. has the highest ratio over the year in relation to the other companies. For instance, its ratio fluctuated significantly over the years which were at 32. 7 and 94. 91 in 2008 and 2009 respectively. This might be due to the effect of the financial crisis, which caused the company to increase its debt financing heavily. Also, this indicates that the company had substantial high amount of debt as compared to equity which can endanger the long term survival of the firm since the company may not be able to generate enough cash to satisfy its debt obl igations. Meanwhile, debt to equity ratio for HNI and Steel case was roughly lower than 2, which was acceptable for large public companies. For Herman Miller, however, this ratio sharply dropped over the next years to just about 8. 62 in 2010 and 2. 37 in 2012. In contrast, its competitors still can maintain their ratio below two over the next years. In order to improve this ratio, Herman Miller had sold its common stock and tried to lower the mount debt financing, this can be seen by the amount of long-term debt decreasing. This implies that the company’s financial performance has been improving after the financial crisis. In terms of leverage, overall, it can be said that the performance of the company has been improving over the years and regaining its position in the furniture market after the economic downturn. Although it may not do well as compared to its competitors in terms of financing the debt and equity, there is a sign of improvement and effort in positioning its self in the market industry in U. S. iv. Activity Ratios Figure 3. 4. 1: HMI’s Inventory turnover ratio versus its competitors’ ratio The inventory turnover is commonly used to measure the operational efficiency in managing its assets. Based on the figure 4. 1 illustrated above, in 2009, Herman Miller Inc. has the highest ratio compared to other years. This high ratio could indicate two conditions, such as; whether the company has strong sales during the year or it has an ineffective buying activity. However, it is perceived that the company did have strong sales proven from the lowest level of inventory and high sales revenue which are seen in the annual report during the year. While in 2010, Herman Miller Inc. ’s turnover ratio drops significantly compared to the other years. Its cost of sales for the year has the lowest and showed a decrement of 24% from previous year which simultaneously contribute to low ratio as well as indicating the lack of effectiveness particularly in turning its inventory into sales. One of the reasons is that it could be due to the recession which highly affected the company, and hence making them to reduce the cost of sales. However, Herman Miller Inc is getting better in turning its inventory into sales proven from the increment of its ratio by year. Additionally, compared to competitors, the position of the ratio shown for Herman Miller Inc. is located somewhat in the middle. Steelcase is somewhat faster in turning their inventory into sales compared to others. In contrast, HNI has the lowest rate. This proves that Steelcase is more effective in managing its operational assets. Figure 3. 4. 2: HMI’s Average collection period versus its competitors’ ratio Average collection period is the number of days it takes a company to collect its account receivables. As illustrated from the figure 4. 2 above, Herman Miller is getting better in obtaining its receivables shown by the average days taken which was from 58 days in 2008 and 34 days in 2012. This demonstrates that Herman miller Inc. onstantly improve its credit policy effectiveness confirmed by a dramatic slump by years. Comparing to other competitors, originally HNI was the most effective company in managing its credit term policy, as the company only took 38 days in collecting its account receivables compared to Steelcase or Herman Miller. However, the company ended up to be the highest rate at 2012 showing that it is not effective in evaluating company’s credit policy. As a result, when a company possesses a lower average collection period, it is seen as optimal as it indicates that the company does not take very long to turn its receivables into cash. . HMI’s current strategies: an issues of need to change its strategies during poor economic conditions The current Herman Miller strategy which focuses on growth strategy, through innovative products and related diversification made the company to survive the Great Depression early in its history, multiple recessions in 20th century and in early 21st century the company recovered from the dot-com bust and was able to continue expanding overseas. The furniture industry is an economically volatile industry. The office furniture segment of the industry was hit hard by the recession. Industry sales decreased 26. 5 percent during the 2009 economic downturn. However, because of the innovative and diversification, Herman Miller was able to outperform its competitors in terms of sales and profitability, during that time Herman Mill’s sales dropped by 19% which is relatively low in comparison with its competitors HNI Corporation and Steelcase which had dropped by 33 percent and 28% respectively. The furniture industry is at its maturity stage, thus Innovation is crucial to the company’s survival. If Herman Miller continues to successfully innovate, it will enable them to compete in the market strongly. The industry had been negatively impacted telecommunication which had reduced the need office furniture. Yet, more employees were spending more hours in front of the computer screens than ever before. Because of Herman Miller’s effective innovation, they were able to respond to the need of ergonomically correct office furniture that had helped to decrease fatigue and injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome. In summary, the company does not need to radically alter its main strategy which focuses more on innovation and diversification as it’s the reason they were not dramatically hit by recessions and competitions among the rivals. 3. Recommendation: i. Reduced current benefit and incentive schemes There are several incentives that had been eliminated by Herman Miller’s management due to the economic downturn in 2009. The suspend of 401(k) contribution plans (saving contribution plan), cut-off 15 percent of current workforce and 10 percent reduction in salary for remaining workforce had been implemented during the crisis. However the pay cuts was discontinued because of Herman Miller’s quick turnaround. The company was stable starting the year 2011, but the selling, general, and administrative were the highest contribution of the operating expenses. Specifically, â€Å"†¦$3. million and $16. 6 million of additional operating expenses during fiscal 2011 due to the reinstatement of all of our employee benefits and employee incentive expenses† (Herman Miller’s Annual Report, 2011). The company believed that the large benefit and incentives had created motivated and skilful employees which are the key of its competitive advantage. Even though the company has increased in sales as compared to the year 2010, it is important to cut the costs by eliminating some of the less important incentives schemes and benefits such as $100 rebate on a bike purchase, concierge services and one-site services to name a few. Previously, the company had eliminated the 401(k) contribution plan so that they could stop providing some percentage on the employees’ contribution. It is crucial since it could allow the company to save a significant amount of money in the long run (Richardson, 2009). It can be done by communicating the problems and issues which need to be addressed to the staff before they get out of hand. Address the problems proportionately and regular communication could make the staff be aware on their role to support the company throughout the economy downturn. By having it, the staff might accept the decision positively and provide effort to help the company to fully recover after the recession (‘Recession Business Cost Cutting†, 2013). ii. Reduction in company’s cost of sales According to Herman Miller’s Annual Report (2011), the increase in cost of sales for the year 2011 was due to the increase in sales volume that was driven primarily by cost leverage on higher production, which was partially offset by deeper discounting, higher employee benefit and incentive costs, and higher costs of key direct materials, most notably steel and steel components. Besides that, the cost of direct material increased as compared to previous years which there was increase in the cost of commodities and the increase in discounting, which has the effect of reducing net sales The costs of certain manufacturing materials used in producing finished products are sensitive to the volatility of commodity market price. The cost of direct labor and overhead were increased due to increase in product volume while the cost of freight expenses had increased during the year because of increase in product volume as well as increase in fuel costs in 2011. First recommendation to cut the cost of sales in terms of direct material is substituting lower cost material where possible to replace the expensive one and each angle should be considered for better decision. For example, the substitution of carbon steel to replace expensive stainless steel could reduce the cost but the corrosion protection might not last longer. This method should be applied if only the benefit from the substitution is higher than the cost of reduction in quality (Lewis, n. d. ). Second recommendation is by eliminating unnecessary product features to reduce cost. The company should produce a product that really suits customers’ preferences in buying their products. For example, the company should identify whether customers are purchasing its products because of their unique looks, lower price or high quality. If customers buy the products because of their lower price, unique features may not be needed (Lewis, n. d. ). Third recommendation which is the most effective one is by hedging the price of the steel through futures contract. According to Herman Miller’s Annual Report (2011): The company believes market prices for commodities in the near term may move higher and acknowledges that over time increases on its key direct materials and assembly components are likely. Consequently, it views the prospect of such increases as an outlook risk to the business† (p. 34). By locking the price in the contract, it could eliminate any risk of price volatility (â€Å"Hedging in Practice†, 2013). For example, if there is a huge possibility that the price of steel will increase in a certain period of time. Due to that, the company will engage in future contract and lock-in the price for a specific period in the future. Regardless of increase in steel price, the company is eligible to buy the commodity at a lower lock-in price as stated in the agreed future contract. Conclusion Herman Miller Inc. has implemented different strategies in order to improve its performance and expand its self in furniture market, such as diversified strategy, broad differentiation strategy, green marketing, product development and innovation. In addition, besides focusing on those strategies to achieve the business goals, the company also concerns about how it communicates and treat its employees. â€Å"All workers as individuals ith special talents and potential† can be considered as one of the healthy culture at Herman Miller since 1927 and the Company continued to generate respect for all employees and fueled the quest to tap diversity of gifts and skills held by all. According to one of the verse in chapter 42 of the Qur’an: â€Å"Those who hearken to their Lord, and establish regular Prayer; who (cond uct) their affairs by mutual Consultation; who spend out of what We bestow on them for Sustenance† (Quran 42:38) The verse above explains the importance of mutual consent in making a decision. Islam encourages Muslims to decide their affairs by consulting with those who will be affected by the decision. Thus, in the case of Herman Miller, it empowers its employees and nurture participative decision making so that the employees feel as part of the company. Surviving in matured furniture industry and the economic volatility such as recession, demand full cooperation from the whole organization. It is not easy to integrate the diverse nature of employees with different backgrounds and behaviors to achieve goal congruence. Thus, Herman Miller’s healthy culture leads to its employee’s readiness to accept any relevant decision by Herman Miller such as cutting their salaries as the employees work with Herman Miller and not just work for it. Furthermore, in term of design value, the designer team of Herman Miller always emphasized on quality, excellence, and the continual improvement of their products. â€Å"At Herman Miller the products we made decade ago are still sold after today, and products we make today we will do for a decade to come. † All in all, Herman Miller should pursue its current strategies and continue to expand those strategies such as product innovation, diversification and so on. We believe that these strategies have made and will make Herman Miller one of an outstanding and award winning Company. They will continue to provide the Company with the ability to renew and reinvent itself in the furniture market and outperform its rivals in the future. From the explanation above, it gives us a broad view of how the company’s long-term strategy and objective affects all their business: from product design to decision-making process to the culture of the Company.