An Air Of Controversy Regarding Laws Promoting Personal...

There is an air of controversy concerning laws promoting personal and social responsibility and individual freedom. After all, there is a dire need for social change in a society that is becoming ever more self-centered and materialistic. This social change might come from laws that encourage some sort of responsibility. For example, in Texas, a future policy for social responsibility could be a ban on texting and driving. Personal responsibility policies could be limits on welfare benefits and childhood immunization requirements. While a welfare reform would ease the burden of taxpayers and bans on texting and driving and requirements of immunization would protect society from harm, these policies encourage quite a bit of debate. Basically, it is difficult to enact laws that are for the benefit of society as a whole without interfering or restricting individual freedoms, and vice versa. In the modern day and age, there are many groups who either demand to keep their rights protected , like minority groups, or emerging groups that want legislation passed to protect their rights, like the homosexual community. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these rights, after all, the basic foundation of democracy guarantees equality. However, the problem arises, as Lloyd put it, when society becomes â€Å"selfish† and â€Å"materialistic†- focusing only on â€Å"lack of rights† and creating a moral dilemma that is slowly ruining society. Haskins broadens this by defining personal responsibility asShow MoreRelatedBusiness Law Essay1983 Words   |  8 PagesIndividual Role and Functions of Law Paper | Resource: Case Brief Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., et al. in Ch. 2, section 2-6, â€Å"Commerce Powers,† of the textWrite a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you define the functions and role of law in business and society. Discuss the functions and role of law in your past or present job or industry. Properly cite at least two references fr om your reading. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. | Role and Function of Law Laws are asRead MoreIndian Social Structure and Values Ethics in Business13564 Words   |  55 PagesINDIAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND VALUES ETHICS IN BUSINESS : NATURE AND TYPES OF INDIAN SOCIETY : 1) Tribal Society : The tribals are economically, educationally and politically backward as compared to the non-tribals. One scholar has called tribal people â€Å"Backward Hindus†. However there is a sizable number of Tribals who are Christian. The tribes of India before independence were considered animistic by the by religion Census authorities. 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Sunshine Chapter 9 Free Essays

string(93) " early experiments with what turned out to be the ancestors of Bitter Chocolate Death et al\." I nodded. I picked up my jackknife and put it back in my pocket. I looked at Jesse. We will write a custom essay sample on Sunshine Chapter 9 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then I looked at the blood-smeared table knife lying on his desk, and he watched me looking. â€Å"That’s the next thing, isn’t it?† he said. â€Å"Okay – you have some kind of line on worked metal. Some pretty astonishing line, it must be. But that doesn’t explain†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The phone rang. He picked it up. â€Å"Ah. Well, better send him up then.† We all looked hard at Pat. He wasn’t blue at all. Theo unlocked the door. Mel came through it about ten seconds later, looking fit to murder battalions of SOFs with nothing more than a table knife. â€Å"What the dharmic hell do you red-eyed boys think you are up to, keeping a law-abiding member of the human public incommunicado for over an hour?† I managed to keep a straight face. â€Å"Red-eyed boy† (or girl) is an accusation of Other blood: just the sort of thing a pissed-off civilian would say to a SOF. They all looked perfectly blank. â€Å"Sorry,† said Jesse. â€Å"We didn’t mean to keep her incommunicado. We were getting her out of a bad situation as fast as possible – brought her in the back way, of course. The media jokers can’t get to her here. But we forgot to send word to the front desk that we weren’t – er – holding her.† Sure you forgot, I thought. Mel, still quivering with fury, and equally aware Jesse was lying, turned to me. â€Å"I’m okay,† I said. â€Å"I was a bit – hysterical. They let me have a shower,† I added inconsequentially. I’d had a rough night, and it was getting harder and harder to remember what I’d told whom and why. â€Å"A shower?† said Mel, taking in my fuzzy-bunny clothing – probably the first time he’d ever seen me in anything that didn’t involve red or pink or orange or yellow or at least peacock blue or fluorescent purple – and I realized he didn’t know what had happened. He wouldn’t, would he? You don’t destroy vampires by rushing up to them and sticking them with table knives. The only sure thing about the night’s events was that there’d been some kind of fracas – some messy kind of fracas – and I’d disappeared with some SOFs. There were probably half a dozen incompatible versions of what had happened out there by now. No wonder Mel was feeling a little wild. â€Å"It’s sort of a long story,† I said. â€Å"May I leave now, please?† Before you start asking me about tonight, I thought. â€Å"That’s what I’m here for,† said Mel, throwing another good glare around. â€Å"See you tomorrow,† said Jesse. â€Å"What?† said Mel. â€Å"I’ll tell you on the way out,† I said. â€Å"Sleep well,† said Pat. â€Å"You too,† I said. They gave me my soggy clothes in a plastic Mega Food bag and I managed to jam my feet into the clammy, curled-up sneakers so I could walk. Jesse offered to call a taxi, but I wanted some outdoor air. Even midtown civic center outdoor air. We had to go back to the coffeehouse: the Wreck was there. Mel had walked over. Well, I don’t know about walked. He had come over without vehicular assistance anyway. He was still putting out major anger vibes, even after a successful rescue of the damsel from the dragon-encircled tower. The dragon had been blue, and essentially friendly. The real problem was about the damsel†¦I had never wanted someone to talk to so badly, never been so unable to say what I wanted to talk about. And if I managed to tell him, what was he going to say? â€Å"I’ll start ringing up residential homes for the lethally loony tomorrow, see where the nearest openings are†? â€Å"Don’t even try to tell me what happened till you’ve had some sleep,† said Mel. â€Å"The goddam nerve of those guys†¦I thought Pat and Jesse were okay.† â€Å"I think they are okay,† I said, regretfully. In some ways it would have been easier if they weren’t. â€Å"Jesse and Theo did get me out of there – um – and they couldn’t help being, you know, professionally interested.† Mel snorted. â€Å"If you say so. Listen, the whole neighborhood is talking about it. Whatever it is. The official SOF report – what they’ve already fed to the media goons – is that you were an innocent bystander. None of us is going to say anything, but there were a lot of people in that alley by the time Jesse and Theo got you away, and it’s unanimous that you were†¦Ã¢â‚¬  There was a pause. I didn’t say anything. He added, â€Å"Charlie seemed to think Jesse was doing you a favor. That SOF could protect you better than we could.† Yeah. Further destruction of personal world view optional. Mel sighed. â€Å"So we hung around the phone at the coffeehouse, waiting – Charlie and me. We sent everybody else home – including Kenny, sworn on pain of having his liver on tomorrow’s menu not to tell your mother anything. The phone didn’t ring. So then we rang SOF and got yanked around by some little sheepwit on the switchboard, and that’s when I came over†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I’m sorry,† I said. The coffeehouse was dark and the square silent and empty, although there was some kind of distantly audible fuss going on somewhere it was easy enough to guess was a block or two over and down a recently defiled alley. We went round the side of the coffeehouse and I could see a light on in the office. Charlie, drinking coffee and pacing. He had his arms wrapped around me so tight I couldn’t breathe almost before I was inside. Charlie is such a mild little guy, most of the time. â€Å"I’m okay,† I said. Charlie gave a deep, shuddering sigh, and I remembered him backing me up with Mr. Responsible Media. I also remembered all the time he’d spent in years past, encouraging my mundane interest in learning to make a mayonnaise that didn’t crack, how much garlic went into Charlie’s famous hash, my early experiments with what turned out to be the ancestors of Bitter Chocolate Death et al. You read "Sunshine Chapter 9" in category "Essay examples" There was no magic about Charlie. Nor about most restaurants, come to that. Human customers tend to be a little twitchy about anything more magical than a waitress who could keep coffee hot. I wondered about my mother’s motive in applying for a job as a waitress all those years ago: I was already making peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies while we were still living with my dad (if there was a grown-up to turn the oven on for me), and if she was looking for nice safe outletsâ⠂¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Tonight. It’s – it’s connected with what happened – when I was gone those two days.† â€Å"I was afraid of that,† said Charlie. â€Å"Jesse wants me to try to find the place it all happened. Out at the lake. They’re taking me out there tomorrow.† â€Å"Oh bloody hell,† said Mel. â€Å"It’s been two months. They don’t have to go tomorrow.† I shrugged. â€Å"Might as well. I have the afternoon off.† â€Å"The lake,† said Charlie thoughtfully. I’d told everyone I’d driven out to the lake. I hadn’t said that what happened afterward also happened at the lake. Till tonight my official memory had ended sitting on the porch of the old cabin. â€Å"Yes. I was – er – held – at a house on the lake. They want me to try to find it.† Either Mel or Charlie could have said, when did you remember this? What else do you remember? Why did you tell SOF when you haven’t told us? Neither of them did. Mel put his arm around me. â€Å"Oh, gods and frigging angels,† he said. â€Å"Be careful,† said Charlie. One of the (few) advantages to getting to work at four-thirty a.m. is that you can be pretty sure of finding a parking space. When I come in later I’m not always so lucky. I’d had to park the Wreck in a garage lot that evening, and it was locked at eleven. Mel took me home. When we got there and he turned the bike off the silence pressed against me. The sudden quiet is almost always loud when you’ve been on a motorcycle and got somewhere and stopped and turned it off, but this was different. Mel didn’t say any more about the night’s events. He didn’t say any more about SOF taking me out to the lake the next day. I could see him wanting to†¦but as I’ve said before, one of the reasons Mel and I were still seeing each other after four years was because we could not talk about things sometimes. This included that we both knew when to shut up. It was blissful, spending time with someone who would leave you alone. I loved him for it. And I was happy to repay in kind. It had never occurred to me that leaving someone alone could harden into a habit that could become a barrier. It had never occurred to me before now. I had to repress the desire that he not shut up this time. I had to repress the desire to ask him if I could talk to him. But what could I have said? We stood there in the darkness for a minute or two. He was rubbing another of his tattoos, the sand wheel, on the back of his left hand. Then he came with me to check that I still had Kenny’s bicycle and the tires weren’t flat. Then he kissed me and left. â€Å"See you tomorrow,† is all he said. I reached over my head to touch the wards strung along the edge of the porch roof on my way indoors. These were all Yolande’s. Her wards were especially good and I’d often thought of asking her where she got them, but you didn’t really ask Yolande questions. I had noticed that her niece, when she was visiting, didn’t seem to ask questions either, beyond, â€Å"I’m taking the girls downtown, can I bring you anything?† And the answer would probably be â€Å"No, thank you, dear.† I wiggled my fingers down the edges of my pots of pansies on the porch steps, to check that the wards I’d buried there were still there, and that a ping against my fingers meant they were still working. I straightened the medallion over my downstairs door and lifted the â€Å"go away† mat in front of the one at the top of the stairs to check that the warding built into the lay of the planks of the floor hadn’t been hacked out by creature or creatures unknown. I fluttered the charm paper that was wound round the railing of my balcony to make sure it was still live, blew on the frames of my windows for the faint ripple of response. I didn’t like charms, but I wasn’t naive enough not to have good basic wards, and I’d been a little more meticulous about upkeep in the last two months. Then I made myself a cup of chamomile tea to damp down the scotch and the cheese. I took off the bunny pajamas and put on one of my own nightgowns. The toilet paper had held; there wasn’t any blood on the SOF thing. I put my still-wet clothes in a sinkful of more soap and water. Tomorrow I would put them through a washing machine. I might throw them out anyway, or burn them. (I still hadn’t burned the cranberry-red dress. It lived at the back of my closet. I think I knew I wasn’t going to burn it after the night I dreamed that it was made of blood, not cloth, and I’d pulled it out of the closet that night, in the dark, and stroked and stroked the dry, silky, shining fabric, which was nothing like blood. Nothing like blood.) My sneakers would live. I had dozens of T-shirts and jeans if I decided I wanted to burn something but I wasn’t going to sacrifice a good pair of sneakers if I could help it. I pushed open the French doors and went out and sat on my little balcony. It was a clear, quiet night with a bright quarter moon. When Yolande had had mice in her kitchen I had set take-’em-alive traps and driven the results twenty miles away and released them in empty farmland. (Wards against wildlife are notoriously bad: hence the electric peanut-butter fence to keep the deer from eating Yo-lande’s roses. And a house ward successful against mice and squirrels would be almost the money-spinner that a charm to let suckers walk around in daylight would be.) I couldn’t kill anything larger than a housefly. I’d stopped putting spiders outdoors after I read somewhere that house spiders won’t survive. When I dusted, I left occupied cobwebs alone. I hadn’t drawn blood in anger since the seventh-grade playground wars. I don’t eat meat. I’m too squeamish. It all looks like dead animals to me. On the days I cover in the main kitchen, the only hot food is vegetarian. Maybe my mother had successfully coerced and brainwashed her daughter into being a nice, human wimp. But I’d blown it. I’d blown it when I’d turned my knife into a key, because it was the only way to stay alive. Because – maybe only because I didn’t know any better – I wanted to stay alive. I looked down at my arms, at my hands cupping the tea mug, as if I would start growing scales or fur or warts – or turning blue – immediately. Most demon blood doesn’t make you big or strong or blue though, whether it comes with magic ability or not. A lot of it makes you weaker or stupider. Or crazier. I’d been doing okay as my mother’s daughter. My life wasn’t perfect, but whose was? Yes, I’d always despised myself for being a coward. A wuss. So? There are worse things. And then I had to drive out to the lake one night. They’d started it. And I may be a wuss, but I’ve never liked bullies. Maybe, if it was all about to go horribly wrong, I could at least go out with a bang. How cute and sweet and winsome and philosophically high-minded, that I didn’t like bullies, that I wanted to go out with a bang. I was still a coward, I had a master vampire and his gang on my tail, I was all alone, and I was way out of my league. â€Å"Oh, Constantine,† I whispered into the darkness. â€Å"What do I do now?† I slept the moment my head touched the pillow, in spite of everything that had happened. It was very late for me though, and I’d had two generous shots of scotch. The alarm went off about three hours later. I woke strangely easily and peacefully. I can get by on six and a half hours, just, and only if I’m feeling lively generally, which I hadn’t been lately. Three hours’ sleep doesn’t cut it under any conditions. But I sat up and stretched and didn’t feel too bad. And I had the oddest sensation†¦as if someone had been in my bedroom with me. Given the events of the night before, this should have been panic stations, but it wasn’t. It was a reassuring feeling, as if someone had been guarding me in my sleep. Get a grip, Sunshine. I had to get moving quickly however I was feeling, because it took so much longer to bicycle than to drive into town. But as it turned out, it didn’t. When I went round to the shed to fetch Kenny’s bike there was a car parked at the edge of the road, engine off, but SOF spotlight on, illuminating the SOF insignia on the door, and the face of the man leaning against the hood. Pat. † ‘Morning,† he said. â€Å"We are not going to the lake at this hour,† I said, half scandalized and half disbelieving. â€Å"I am going to make cinnamon rolls and oatmeal bread and brownies and Butter Bombs, and you can call out the cavalry at about ten.† â€Å"Sheer. I know you’re going in to make cinnamon rolls. You want to be setting some aside to bring with you later on. The only good Monday is a holiday Monday when Charlie’s is open. But we figured that Mel would bring you home last night which would leave you with only two unmotorized wheels this morning. And we don’t want you tired this afternoon.† Tired but alive would do, I thought. Dawn isn’t for another hour and a half, and if I’m the first person to stake a sucker with a table knife I could be the first person to get plucked off a bicycle†¦I had been thinking about this as I walked downstairs in the dark. Living alone has its advantages in terms of warding: your wards don’t get confused, nor do they blunt as fast as they will if there are several of you. A big family with a lot of friends will go through wards like the Seddons through popcorn on Monday nights. And unless you are so fabulously wealthy that you can spend millions on made-to-order wards, there are always going to be some holes in the barrier. Someone living alone who isn’t constantly having different people over can probably build up a pretty good, solid, home ward system. That’s probably. But wards are unstable at best, and they tend to blow up or fall over or go rogue or get their attributes crossed and morph into something else, almost certainly something you don’t want, pretty easily, and generally speaking the more powerful they are the more likely they are to go nuts. And wards are the sober end of the charm family. Most of the rest of them are a lot worse. One of the most dependable ways to make a ward kali on you is to expect it to travel. All charms, including wards, that you wear next to your skin, are different – hence the perennial, if problematic, popularity of tattoos – but wards you hang at a distance have to stay put. Consequently the eternally vexed question of warding your means of transportation. And while it’s true that the chauffeur-driven limos of the global council are almost more ward than limo, it’s also true that no council member travels anywhere without a human bodyguard stiff with technology, including to the corner store for a newspaper. If there are any global council members that live in neighborhoods with corner stores, which there probably aren’t. The irony is that the best transport ward for us ordinary schlemiels remains the confusing fact of motion itself. (There’s a crucial maintenance speed of a little under ten mph. This is a brisk pedal on your bicycle and sensible joggers, if this isn’t a contradiction in terms, get their exercise during the day. In the horse era a harness or riding horse that couldn’t maintain a nine-mph clip for a useful distance was shot. This made horses short-lived and expensive and most people stayed at home after dark: but at least travel was possible.) The protection of movement is nothing like perfect, which is why they keep trying to create transport wards, but it exists – and thank the gods and angels for it, since without it I don’t think there would be many sane humans left. There’s only so much constant relentless constrictive dread you can live with. Anyway I knew to be grateful for it, but it had never made much sense, at least not till a vampir e had told me it is not the distance that is crucial, but the uniformity and given me an inkling. But what kind of homogeneity is it, about sucker senses? Had the goblin giggler’s last sight of the human who offed him been transmitted anywhere? I’d felt relatively safe inside my apartment. I had good wards, and you can kind of feel the presence of the screen they put up, that it’s there, and there aren’t any big drafts coming through it. And you feel it when you come out from behind it too. But I’d never been able to bear a charm against my skin. They make me a total space cadet. I’d agreed to the key ring loop to make Mom feel good, and that was pushing it. Poor thing. It had probably been grateful to be drowned in the shower, last night, if it had survived the little incident shortly before. I said to Pat unkindly, â€Å"You might have thought of that last night.† He grinned, and opened the passenger door. I got in. â€Å"Why did you draw the short straw?† † ‘Cause I’m best at going without sleep. My demon blood has its uses.† There were at least two classes of demons who didn’t sleep at all. My favorite is the Hildy demon, who gets all the sleep it needs during the blinking of its eyes. You’d think this would seriously interrupt any train of thought that takes longer to pursue than the time between one eye blink and another, but not to a Hildy. (They’re called Hildies after Brunhilde, who slept for a very long time surrounded by fire. Hildies also breathe fire when they’re peeved, although they’re even-tempered as demons go.) Hildies aren’t blue though. I certainly couldn’t get all the sleep I needed by blinking my eyes. I stayed in the bakery all morning. Charlie and Mel kept everyone who didn’t belong behind the counter on the far side, Mom answered more phone calls than usual and said â€Å"she has nothing to say† a lot. With the bakery door open I could sometimes hear conversations in the office. Mom is good at hanging up on people. It’s one of her great assets as a small-business manager. (She and Consuela had lately been working up a good cop/bad cop routine that was a joy to eavesdrop on.) I had no idea what Charlie had told her about the events of the night before. I didn’t want to know. But he must have told her something. Miraculously, she left me alone, although a particularly lurid new charm was waiting for me on my apron hook that morning. I left it there, glowering to itself. I like orange, but not in over-decorated feather whammies. It wasn’t as bad as it might have been by a long shot. I felt some grudging admiration for SOF. Nobody tried to follow me when I left the coffeehouse at ten, or at least nobody but some of the overweight so-called wildlife that hangs around the pedestrian precinct and tries to cadge handouts from the weak-willed. They know a white bakery bag when they see one, and I was carrying a dozen cinnamon rolls. I swear some of our sparrows are too fat to fly, but the feral cats are too fat to catch them. And the squirrels should have had teeny-weeny skateboards to keep their bellies off the ground. One of the recent rumors about Mrs. Bialosky’s neighborhood activities was that she ran a commando unit that protected us from some of Old Town’s larger, more threatening wildlife, the rats and foxes and mutant deer that never shed their short but pointy horns. If Charlie’s had had to keep all of that lot too fat to intimidate anybody we’d have gone out of business. It was just Jesse and Pat today. They put me in the front seat – of an unmarked car – with Pat alone in the back. Jesse ate four cinnamon rolls and Pat ate five. I didn’t think this was humanly possible – but then maybe it wasn’t. I ate one. I’d had breakfast already. Twice. Ten o’clock is a long time from four in the morning. We drove first to the old cabin. I was still clinging to that mysterious sense of someone keeping a protective eye on me, but I was beginning to feel a little rocky nonetheless. Maybe I should have brought the feather whammy instead of hiding it under my apron when I left. As the weed-pocked gravel of what had once been a driveway crunched under my feet, I put my hand in my pocket and closed it round my little knife. I had been not remembering what had happened two months ago so emphatically that the edges of my real memory had become a little indistinct. Standing on the ground where it had begun brought it horribly back. I looked at the porch, where I hadn’t heard them coming from. I looked at the place where my car had no longer been, two days later. I went down to the marshy reach near the shore, where the stream had run fifteen years ago. It didn’t look like anybody had been there playing in the mud recently. I went back to the cabin. â€Å"Yeah,† Pat was saying. â€Å"But it’s been a long time, and they haven’t been back,† said Jesse. They were just standing there, no gizmos in sight, no headsets, no wires, no portable com screens with flashing lights making beeping noises. I guessed it wasn’t technology that was helping them draw their conclusions. What a good thing Pat hadn’t walked on my porch this morning, and up my stairs and knocked on my door and, maybe, walked into the front room where the same, if savagely stain-removed, sofa still stood, and the little square of carpet beside it, and maybe even the handle of the fridge door, the same handle that had been there ready to expose a carton of milk behind it if someone pulled on it, two months ago. What a good thing that good manners dictate that you don’t idly cross people’s probable outer ward circle and knock on their doors unless invited. Carthaginian hell. We got back in the car and drove on the way we’d been going, north. There was a bad spot almost at once. I picked it up first, or anyway I was the one who said, â€Å"Hey. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go any farther this way.† â€Å"Roll up your windows,† said Jesse. He hit a couple of buttons on the very peculiar dashboard I was only now noticing and suddenly there was something like heavy body armor enclosing me, oppressive as chain mail and breastplate and a full-face helm, plume and lady’s silk favor optional. I could almost smell the metal polish. â€Å"Ugh,† I said. â€Å"Don’t knock it, it works,† said Jesse. Our voices echoed peculiarly. We drove very slowly for about a minute and then a red light on the dashboard blinked and there was a manic chirping like a parakeet on speed. â€Å"Right. We’re clear.† He hit the same buttons. The invisible armor went away. â€Å"Spartan, isn’t it?† said Pat. â€Å"No,† I said. We drove through two more bad spots like that and I hated the body armor program worse each time. It made me feel trapped. It made me feel as if when I woke up again I’d be sitting at the edge of a bonfire with a lot of vampires on the other side. It was a long drive. Thirty miles or so. I remembered. Then we reached a really bad spot. Jesse hit his buttons again but this time it really was like being trapped – held down while Things slid through the intangible gaps between the incorporeal links, reached out long taloned fingers and grabbed me†¦ Big. Huge space. Indoors; ceiling up there somewhere. Old factory. Scaffolding where the workers had once tended the machines. No windows. Enormous square ventilator shafts, vast parasitic humps of silent machinery, contortions of piping like the Worm Ouroboros in its death throes†¦ And eyes. Eyes. Staring. Their gaze like flung acid. No color. What color is evil?†¦ When I came to, I was screaming. I stopped. Even the guys looked shaken. I could see the scuff marks in the road ahead of us, where Jesse had slammed us into reverse. Good thing the driver hadn’t gone under. I put my hands over my mouth. â€Å"Sorry,† I said. â€Å"Nah,† said Pat. â€Å"If you hadn’t been screaming, I’d’ve had to do it.† â€Å"What now?† said Jesse. They both looked at me. â€Å"Maybe this is the really big bad spot behind the house,† I said. â€Å"I told you there was one. We’re pretty well north of the lake now, aren’t we? Seems like we’ve come far enough, but I keep losing the lake behind the trees.† â€Å"Yeah,† said Jesse. â€Å"The road’s well back here, because this is where the big estates are. Were.† â€Å"Okay,† I said. â€Å"So we walk.† I opened the car door and clambered stiffly out. This was harder than it would have been if I hadn’t been squashed by SOF technology four times, especially the last time when it didn’t work. I patted my stomach as if checking to make sure I was still there. I seemed to be. The cut on my breast was itching like crazy: the sort of variable itch that reinforces its performance by regular nerve-fraying jabs of pain. How to cite Sunshine Chapter 9, Essay examples

Supply Chain Management Strategy Of Zara †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Supply Chain Management Strategy Of Zara. Answer: Introduction Supply chain management is associated with three aspects including operational, tactical and management leaves an overall impact on the business strategy (Dedhia 2017). Product development, customers management, logistic and vendor management are also parts of the supply chain management. Any company can select the strategic global suppliers by leveraging the entire purchases of an organization. This current study deals with the supply chain management in the context of Zara and UNIQLO. These two organizations are very popular in the international fashion industry. However, the blend technology of Zara allows them to be a major outsource manufacturer in the low-cost countries. On the other hand, UNIQLO has developed a positive impact on the inexpensive clothing market. This study will give a brief overview of the supply chain management strategy of such two organizations and their operation process in the global market. Case study of Zara Zara is a well-known fashion industry in the global market. Hence the blend technology is one of the vital strategies of Zara makes a good record for Zara in the fashion industry. This organization is a major player in the outsourced manufacturing in the low-cost countries. Zara keeps huge swaths in their in-house production process. Between the year 1996 to 2000, this firm becomes tripled in size and gained a huge profitability (Zhelyazkov 2011). However, due to the poor strategic decision of the competitors, Zara is going to be one of the fastest global fashion industries in the international market. On the other hand, the profitability regarding the supply chain management is high in Zara among the fashion retailers. Over the period of time, Zara becomes the devastating and innovative retailer in the fashion market. In order to manage the problems related to the outsourcing, Zara has been started to lower their price to enhance their profitability and sales revenue generation. How ever, to reduce the labor cost many fashion retailers have used the children as a worker that leads them to face ethical issues in the lower cost countries. Hence, for the fashion marketers, it is important to not only think about the ethical practices for their own firm but also for their partners and the suppliers. However, by using vertical integration and the technology coordination this organization is able to improve their manufacturing process and logistics management (Gallaugher.com 2017). Zara is mainly popular for their unique design in the fashion market. This organization prefers to develop the design based on the customer demand rather than exhibiting their innovation through the catwalk fashion show. Data regarding what has been sold and what are the customer expectations go to The Cube in La Coruna. There is a team including 300 fashion designers involved in developing 2000-4000 items. However, the designers of Zara are mostly young and they are able to take feedbacks from the customers. Zara establishes a plan to make a contract to the manufacturer and tool up the production. After that, they ship the items to their wear house and from there the products are transferred to the retail stores. This firm is able to make 40 percent of its own fabrics and they purchase their dyes from their own subsidiary. Zara has approx 565 stores in 33 countries, however; their main concentration is on Spain (Dedhia 2017). From the extensive market research, it has been found tha t Zara has a good target market with sufficient size. Zara aims to establish their stores in the prestigious locations and high traffic location. These retail locations are very expensive and most of the selling places of Zara are seemed to be empty in order to make a good selling environment for the customers. Hence, the customers can walk and browse in such locations. People find something new in Zara's store and this firm offers products with a unique design with low cost. Hence, this low inventory policy is followed by Zara, as a result, their stocks become empty at the end of the day and they are able to gather new products in their inventory (Lu 2014). Case study of UNIQLO UNIQLO is casual wear designer, established in Japan and operates in the global fashion market (Usui et al. 2017). This organization is popular for the manufacturing and retailing of the clothing products. UNIQLO has 300 stores in Japan. In the UK Uniqlo has 23 stores and the first store is opened in London. Providing high-quality products at a reasonable price for a vast target audience is the prime motto of Uniqlo. The Yanai the founder of Uniqlo has considered Uniqlo as the technology company rather than the fashion organization. This organization aims to bring innovation in their product design and manufacturing process to fulfill the customers need. Uniqlo follows three stages for their product innovation. One is HEATTECH stage that focuses the manufacturing of the inner wears with hollow fibers inside the cloth that allow the air to pass inside the clothes. The second stage is flagship products with AIRism line and associated with the manufacturing of the undergarments. This de sign keeps the body cool by releasing the moisture. Therefore, the dry stretch pant is the third stage of their innovation (Fetcher.tufts.edu 2017). Low pricing strategy is a vital part of the supply chain management of Uniqlo. The authority of this organization thinks that price and the quality of the product are the two basic elements that influence the purchasing behavior of the customers. It is important for the fashion industry to identify the factors properly that is associated with the needs of the current market to maximize their business performance (Christopher 2000). This is the first company of Japan that has adopted Specialty store retailer of private label apparel or SPA model. Stages regarding the pre and post productions can be controlled by this model. However, this model allows the organization to make a flexible production structure and cost saving process. Uniqlo adopted the production process that is reduced the production cost. Rising price of the raw materials increases the production cost in the business that brings a big threat for the fashion retailers (Usui et al. 2017). For this reason, Uniqlo has developed three major ways to minimize their production. Inventory control, production and quality control and research and design are the vital three ways that keep the sustainable production in the context of Uniqlo. In the year 2005 Uniqlo entered into the US market and started to differentiate products to gain the concentration of the target market. They established flagship stores at the high profile streets of US to enhance their sale. Their main goal is to become number one apparel in the international fashion market by 2020. Uniqlo has been facing challenges to achieve their future goal, however, the performance of such organization in North American market and US market is crucial to meet their objectives. Such markets will bring major challenges for such organization with which this organization ha s to deal in near future (Chen and Fan 2017). Analysis of the critical success factors in context of Zara Zara is one of the popular retailers that is crushing sales in the challenging retail environment in the global market. This fashion retailer is known as the giant retailer in the global world. Implementation of the Omni channel experience and vertically integrated strategy enable such organization to alter their products (Sziva 2017). However, unique product design and low inventory strategy are one of the vital factors of Zara that lead them to achieve the success in their supply chain management. Zara focuses on the manufacturing of the products in their company owned factories. This factor enables Zara to gain competitive advantages in their supply chain management. This also allows Zara to supply the specific items to the consumers that they want. However, by providing seasonal clothing Zara is able to increase their consumers numbers (Kim 2013). Development of the Omni channel business is another success factor of Zara. This channel highlights on utilizing the supply chain of Zara to distribute a great customer experience. A comparison can be made between the Omni channel business strategy and multi channel supply chain management strategy, which focuses on the ways through the customers pay for a product. Zara aims to adopt the latest trend in the fashion market for this reason they focus on the elements associated with new trend rather than the cost. Implementation of the Omni channel Zara will be able to introduce their new products at the right place and right time. This Omni channel allows Zara to develop a synergy between the operation and business strategy (Yamaguchi and Yoshida 2011). On the other hand, based on the nature and size of the business Zara uses omni-channel supply chain strategy. Integration of the operation and business strategy allows Zara to take control over their supply chain management (Gomes et al. 2017). Their supply chain is vertically integrated that ensure their ownership of the supply chain. However, through the application of vertically integrated strategy, Zara is able to reduce their cost as minimizing the outsourcing to various suppliers. Zara opens location in the central business districts that mitigate the issue regarding their delivery of clothes to different stores. Manufacturing and distribution of the products in small batches enable Zara to get full control over the wear housing, logistic function, and distribution. Zara innovates new features in their product continues to meet the demand of the target market as well as the success in their supply chain management. They deploy new design rapidly in the global market to attract the customers and to fulfill their demand. Zara launches 12000 new designs in every year that focus on their success in the business (Viardot and Nylund 2017). Analysis of the critical success factors in context of Uniqlo Production capacity is one of the most important factors of Uniqlo to lead them towards the success. However, Uniqlo reduces speculative production capacity and maximizes the reactive production capacity. However, reactive production capacity lowers the operation cost and need little maintenance in the manufacturing. Uniqlo gives value to their customers and offer products that are associated with the daily life of the customers (Park and Kim 2017). Reactive production strategy of Uniqlo made them fast in the international market. Technology is another vital factor of Uniqlo that lead them to achieve success in their business. Use of modern technology in the product development opens a new door for the Uniqlo to expand their sales as well as the number of customers. However, by utilizing the new technology in the product manufacturing makes Uniqlo one of the growing fashion retailers in the international market (Anwar 2017). The product innovation technique of Uniqlo is unique as they follow three steps to complete their innovation. HEATTECH line is one of the greatest strategies of their innovation that produce jeans, leggings and inner wear with curated hollow fiber that allows the air to pass through this cloth. Hence, the second step highlights on the flagship product that is AIRism line includes undergarments. The third step focuses that this organization uses an advanced type of fabric, which is known as Cupro. Use of this fabric in the clothes reduces the moisture and makes the customer comfortable whil e using these clothes. However, such innovation by utilizing the technology is a big factor that allows Uniqlo to achieve success in their supply chain management (Paik et al. 2017). Uniqlo conducts a regular meeting to their merchandise regarding the development of the marketing and materials. They developed a new design before 1 year of their product launching this enables them to get sufficient time to source the materials cheaply and manufacture their clothes in a low-cost manner. They give the large order to the vendors to achieve the low cost per unit. This provides assurance about the high-quality product at low price. Therefore, the expert engineers of Uniqlo give assurance about their product quality and show a quick response to the operational process (Huang et al. 2017). Analysis of the performance of the two firms Three decision phases in the supply chain management of Zara Supply chain strategy, supply chain planning, and supply chain operation are the three decision phases of the supply chain management. In the supply chain strategy phase, the decision is taken by the management (Ren et al. 2016). In the context of Zara, they consider the quality of the product while developing any strategy. Low inventory strategy is taken by Zara to increase the sale as retention of the old product in an inventory for a long time affects the business growth. Planning of the supply chain is done based on the demand. Hence, Zara gives their concern to the design which includes the evidence of customer demand rather that catwalk fashion show. This enables such organization to make a connection between the customers expectation and the goods that are sold. Therefore, from the manufacturing house, entire products of Zara are shipped back to Spain that is the central location of this business. From there products are distributed to different countries and stores based on t he individuals demand. Zara establishes their stores at the high traffic areas to gain customer attention as this is the part of supply chain operation. Therefore, the inventory optimization model is used by Zara to identify which items in which size are delivered in a store in every week. Three decision phases of supply chain management in context of Uniqlo Uniqlo uses low pricing strategy to enhance their sale. However, offering a high-quality product with low price is a good supply chain strategy to enhance the profitability in the global market (Truong 2016). Uniqlo mainly operates in the inexpensive market to meet the demand of their target customers. In order to establish a good supply chain planning, Uniqlo has started negotiation with the manufacturer. This enables them to produce top quality products in a high volume and low cost. Uniqlo has adopted new technologies to improve their innovation process. In order to carry out the supply chain management operation, Uniqlo uses advanced dying technology to improve their product manufacturing. Push or pull view in the supply chain management Zara follows small batch production in order to cut the cost of transportation and finished goods. Hence, a high cost of the raw material, transportation, and finished products act as the push factor in the context of Zara that leads them to adopt low inventory strategy. This push factor allows Zara to explore the new design and to identify the acceptance rate of the new products in the market (Khurana and Ricchetti 2016). Risk regarding the production of large quantities products that are not preferred by the consumers can be reduced by this push factor. Zara follows a pull model to manage their supply chain and inventory. By following such model Zara evaluates the customer spending in their store and identify the current demand based on which they develop their design. High demand of the consumers leads Uniqlo to produce a large number of products. Hence, consumer demand is the main push factor of Uniqlo to manage large inventory and offer a high-quality product at low price. They developed earlier supply chain planning in order to buy raw materials with low cost. Hence, to get high-quality raw materials with low cost from the supplier is another push factor of Uniqlo that enable them to manage the supply chain properly (Sorescu 2017). Supply chain capabilities, scope of strategic fit and implied demand uncertainty in context of Zara and Uniqlo Zara controls its supply chain properly, however, 50% of its total production comes from Spain that is the central business area of Zara and 25% comes from Europe. Then the whole production is warehoused in Spain and distribution is started from there to various stores. New models come into the inventory twice in a week and European stores receive their deliveries within 24 hours while American stores receive within 40 hours. Vertical integration strategy of Zara allows them to establish the strong merchandising strategy. Through this strategy, Zara can develop an environment of opportunity. The high rate of innovation and the product variety often lead Zara to face implied demand uncertainty (Sorescu 2017). Uniqlo manages a large inventory hence, 50% of the total production comes from Japan. Then the entire products warehoused. However, the third party is involved in the transpiration process of the product of Uniqlo. Uniqlo focuses on producing a high quality product that is affordable to all. They produce high volume product with low cost while dealing with the suppliers and they use simple and cheaper process to manage their inventory. High customer service and the variety of distribution channel lead Uniqlo to face implied demand uncertainty (Lorenzoni 2016). Use of various supply chain drivers in context of Uniqlo and Zara Zara has an effective team of young designers that enable this organization to make an innovative design. However, they use low inventory strategy to understand the market demand and to reduce the risk of huge products in their inventory that can be rejected by the customers. Zara uses quick transportation network that enables them to distribute merchandise within 1 to 2 weeks. They give fast delivery and quick response to the supply chain. Zara uses PDAs or personal digital assistants to accumulate their customer's information. Barcelona and Hong Kong serve as the source of Zara for the fabric materials to manufacture their products. Zara follows cost leadership strategy to offer the product at low price (Khurana and Ricchetti 2016). Uniqlo has a strong team of the design executives called Takumi team that provide them facilities to innovate new features in their product. However, inventory is the second driver of supply chain management hence; Uniqlo has a large inventory with the variety of products. The third party is involved in the transpiration of the products from ware house to stores in context of Uniqlo. However, Uniqlo is technologically advanced in comparison to other fashion industries. Takumi system is used by them to gather customer data. Maximum raw materials for the manufacturing come from China in context of Uniqlo. Apart from this, the pricing strategy is another driver of supply chain hence, Uniqlo follows low pricing strategy to increase their sale (Anwar 2017). Conclusion The sale of a business depends on the management of the supply chain. Manufacturing decision focuses on the technology and the infrastructure of the manufacturing as found in the case studies from Zara and Uniqlo. According to the high forecasting process and estimation of sales organization takes their strategic decision regarding the manufacturing of the products. Strategic supply chain management requires strategic policies to manage the suppliers in context of both Uniqlo and Zara. However, product variation is the main aim of Zara while a high quality product with low price is the prior area of Uniqlo. Moreover, Zara focuses on low inventory strategy while Uniqlo possesses the large volume of products. References Anwar, S.T., 2017. 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Competitive priorities and supply chain strategy in the fashion industry.Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal,16(2), pp.214-242. Lorenzoni, G., 2016, June. The Fast Fashion Business Model. InInternational Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering(pp. 65-71). Springer International Publishing. Lu, C. 2014, Zara supply chain analysis - the secret behind Zara's retail success, pp.23-67. Paik, Y., Kwon, J.W. and Chen, D., 2017.Global Business: Connecting Theory to Reality. Taylor Francis. Ren, S., Chan, H.L. and Ram, P., 2016. A Comparative Study on Fashion Demand Forecasting Models with Multiple Sources of Uncertainty.Annals of Operations Research, pp.1-21. Sorescu, A., 2017. Data?Driven Business Model Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), pp.691-696. Sziva, I., 2017. Smart destinations for smart Generation?The requirements of Generation Y in the area of innovative communication. Truong, N.V., 2016.Fashion Supply Chain Management: Strategies for Lead Time Reduction and Environmental Sustainability: Case Studies from Zara and Everlane(Doctoral dissertation). Usui, T., Kotabe, M. and Murray, J.Y., 2017. A Dynamic Process of Building Global Supply Chain Competence by New Ventures: The Case of Uniqlo.Journal of International Marketing. Viardot, E. and Nylund, P.A., 2017. Conquering the Digital Customer: How Zara Is Confronting the.Socio-Economic Perspectives on Consumer Engagement and Buying Behavior, p.334. Yamaguchi, T. and Yoshida, H., 2011. Fast retailing: an analysis of FDI and supply chain management in fashion retailing.Bachelor thesis, Henley University of Reading. Zhelyazkov, G., 2011. Agile Supply Chain: Zara's case study analysis. Design, Manufacture Engineering Management, Strathclyde University Glasgow, Velika Britanija, pp.2-11.