Toyota Motor Company Essay Example for Free

Toyota Motor Company Essay In the worldwide automotive industry, Toyota Motor Corporation is the leading player in terms of revenue, profit and net worth as of April this year (Associated Press).   The Aichi Prefecture, Japan-based automaker reported in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission consolidated earnings of 1.6 trillion yen or about $14.3 billion for the year ended Mar. 31, 2007. To have reached its current leadership position in the market, Toyota Motor follows a business strategy that focuses on safety, reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of its products.    The company was able to capitalize on its smaller but more fuel-efficient models to increasingly gain bigger shares in different markets worldwide. The companys key market areas are: China, Japan, North America, and Europe.   Toyota’s corporate goal is to hold on to its position as a market leader, while continuing its growth.   In order to achieve this, the automaker believes in the importance of advances in technology, production and marketing, quality control, and strengthening of its cost-efficiency model. Specifically, Toyotas strategies are focused on: a) offering of full product lineup and distinguish products through hybrid technology that includes: expansion of distribution reach for its Lexus model to reach the most number of countries, manufacturing global brands that would meet regional characteristics while  utilizing the same designs and core components. b) localization of global operations with targeted regional strategies: the company understands that having a local manufacturing, marketing, and sales offices will help it maximize that markets potential while saving on cost of shipping vehicles and parts.   The localization wil lalso protect it from currency fluctuations and help it respond better to local preferences and tastes. Toyotas biggest strength is its ability to provide markets with good alternatives to bigger and more expensive vehicles.   Its product lines are attractive and are designed to make them affordable for consumers to buy, while keeping maintenance costs minimal. I dont consider Toyota to have a weak point, but rather, I consider it to be facing challenges.   The carmakers biggest challenge, for me, is to stay competitive, not only with the American and European carmakers, but with other Asian car manufacturers that also offer quality cars at affordable costs. BIBLIOGRAPHY TOYOTA. Home Page. http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/index.html (7 November 2007) Toyota overtakes GM in global vehicle sales, The Associated Press, 24 April 2007. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18286221/ (7 November 2007) Toyota Motor Corp. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-   Ã‚   edgar?action=getcompanyCIK=0001094517owner=includecount=40 (7 November 2007)

The Internet Does Not Equal Isolation Essay -- Internet

The Internet Does Not Equal Isolation The computer has become a centerpiece for almost everyone’s lives. Teachers require homework to be typed, and students go through an Internet search tutorial at the beginning of every year. Communication online plays a role for many people with the introduction of instant messaging, message boards and chat rooms. Even businesses run their companies on computers and sell online. This can bring up controversy. Some believe that the Internet isolates people and takes away face-to-face interaction. Some studies have been done to see if the Internet causes loneliness. Does this mean that all Internet activity does harm to the world? No, in fact, it can do quite the opposite when actual contact is impossible. Internet has the potential to save lives, connect families and friends, and give ill patients a support system. Internet provides exceptional resources for health information, in particular transplants and organ donations. The web provides a great opportunity to share a wealth of information, and informing people about diseases and providing resources helps a lot in patients’ understanding. For example, TransWeb (www.transweb.org) provides a great amount of information on organ transplants and donations. On this site, the latest news, stories and conference information can be found. Another excellent website is the page for the United Network for Organ Sharing (www.unos.org). Under contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this nonprofit organization makes sure that â€Å"News, patient information, statistics, data requests, Internet links, and more are available at this site, as well as the bylaws and regulations that govern tissue allocation† (Sjogren). Dan Sjogren also... ...E-mail eases trauma.† Nationwide News 7 Dec. 2003: 34. Lexis-Nexis. Rodney A. Briggs Lib., Morris, MN. 7 Dec. 2003. â€Å"Internet use may benefit survival of minority/ethnic patients.† Cancer Weekly 18 March 2003: 24. Expanded Acadamic ASAP. InfoTrac. Rodney A. Briggs Lib., Morris, MN. 7 Dec. 2003. Minerd, Jeff. â€Å"The decline of conversation: with everybody wired, we are starved for face-to-face conversation.† The Futurist Feb. 1999: 18. Expanded Acadamic ASAP. InfoTrac. Rodney A. Briggs Lib., Morris, MN. 7 Dec. 2003. â€Å"Peer-to-Peer Computing Can Help Speed Pace of AIDS Drug Research.† AIDS Weekly 16 Oct. 2000. Expanded Acadamic ASAP. InfoTrac. Rodney A. Briggs Lib., Morris, MN. 7 Dec. 2003. Sjogren, Dan. â€Å"Transplant information on the World Wide Web.† AORN Journal 68 (1998): 1035. Expanded Acadamic ASAP. InfoTrac. Rodney A. Briggs Lib., Morris, MN. 7 Dec. 2003.

Analyzing Legal Alien Essay

For many years now people have judged one another based on characteristics and family background. Some judge based on skin color, race, where your family has come from, and how you came about. â€Å"Legal Alien/ Extranjera Legal† by Pat Mora gives a very realistic message of how it can feel to be a mexican american and to be seen as a ‘legal alien’. To feel not wanted by either side, and to be judged based on the origins of your ancestors and your race. â€Å"viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,/ perhaps inferior, definitely different,/ viewed by mexicans as alien. This here, is a perfect example of the way Mora feels about being judged and seen as an alien and her interesting use of diction, metaphors and similes. I think the tone Mora has is one of somebody who feels like an outsider, due to being judge by the people who surround her daily. Moras choice of diction in the first four lines is very interesting and has continued to interest me throughout the poem. Diction is a writer or speakers choice of words. Mora’s diction lets you know a lot about the poems meaning and also about the speaker or the character right away. Mora chooses to tell it back and forth, from one side to another, but mainly from two different points of view. Being seen as an american and also being seen as a mexican. I believe Mora is telling this poem in her own point of view, as if she is the character. Mora starts by off saying â€Å"bi-lingual, bi-cultural† line one. That alone can be interpreted as the speaker or the character is able to speak and understand two languages. It also means she can participate in both of their cultures as well. Mora follows the first line up by enforcing her meaning with â€Å" able to slip from ‘how’s life? to ‘ me’stan volviendo loca. †( this means they’re driving me crazy in spanish. ) Lines two and three. Moras choice of diction here is interesting because she makes it sound like she lives two completely separate lifes as if they could not be mixed together. Mora writes â€Å"able to sit in a paneled office/ drafting memos in smooth english/ able to order in fluent spanish/ at a mexican restaurant† Lines five through seven, really show how she lives both sides and experiences them both separately from one another. It also shows that she fits in and seems as if she really isn’t different from any of the others. In lines eight through ten Mora uses more of her interesting diction. â€Å"american but hyphenated/ viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,/ perhaps inferior, definitely different. † ‘American but hyphenated’ highlights the point that although she is part american, she is still different because she is not a full american. There is more than that though, and thats exactly why she is seen differently from both sides. Either way she is more than that so she is seen different and that is Moras overall message. â€Å"viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic,/ perhaps inferior, definitely different. † supports that she is viewed as an outsider from both sides. Mora also uses inferior. Which has a strong meaning to it. Inferior means: lower in rank, status, or quality. Mora uses the word exotic which also sends a very clear message of how she is viewed. Exotic means to originate in or characteristic of a distant foreign country, so her choice of words completely supports her overall message of what it can feel like to be judged based on the origins of your ancestors and your race. Mora even uses a very simple but clear simile. â€Å"viewed by mexicans as an alien. † She states that the mexicans, the other half of her ancestors race, also see her as an alien, as an outsider. Different from them because she has american blood to even though the rest of her blood is made up of that of the same as theirs. She still is not the same in there eyes. They refer to her as an alien because they believe that. â€Å"(their eyes say, ‘you may speak/ spanish but you’re not like me’)† lines twelve and thirteen, support the fact that all though she is similar, she is not seen like them. Moras choice of diction is interesting here because she is writing what she knows they want to say but won’t always will but also what some do imply using different words. There eyes make her feel different like an outcast not wanted by anybody. The way they find hers and judge her so quickly, so harshly. Mora again supports that she is viewed as an outsider, a ‘legal alien’ by following that up with lines fourteenth and fifteenth. â€Å"an american to mexicans/ A mexican to americans. † These two lines have a strong meaning, and also supports the way she feels, nobody wanted her. She did not belong to either because they judged her based on the other half of her race. the other half of who she is. When in all reality race should not matter, should not affect one’s judgement. Somebodys race makes them no better nor no worse than the next person. Moras next two lines sixteen and seventeen, have a strong meaning and the use of a metaphor. â€Å"a handy token/ sliding back and forth. † She is referring to herself or her character as a ‘hand token’, which I would assume is a metaphor that symbolizes that she slides back and forth between what feels like two completely different worlds just trying to fit in. To be seen for who she truly is. â€Å"between the fringes of both worlds. † Mora now very matter of factly states that to her or her character those lives are two different worlds completely. It also supports that she does not mix them together very much. In the next line Mora chooses to show an emotion in a way. I believe Mora chooses to wait so long before putting a real emotion into her character so you and I, as the readers could really understand what it is like to be mexican american and judged constantly and in general. â€Å"by smiling† line nineteen. Mora follows up the short but to the point line nineteen, with using very strong diction. â€Å"by masking the discomfort† (line twenty) is a strong phrase alone and already says a lot. ‘Masking discomfort’ means that the speaker or character masks how discomfortable being judged can be. How hard it can be to cope with and that says the speaker or the character is very strong, to hide something like that simply by smiling when it has most likely gone on for years. But also a devastating effect. â€Å"of being pre-judged/ bi-laterally. † line twenty. Mora ends her poem with one, very strong meaningful word. Bi-laterally means by both sides. Mora is saying ‘being pre-judged by both sides’. Both races that make her up as a whole, pre-judging her before they got the chance to know her. People judge one another all the time based off their clothes, and much much more. But to judge somebody due to their race or heritage, things they have no control over, thats not right. Its one thing to judge based on how they project themselves but it is not right to judge based on something out of their control either. I think that Moras choice of diction, metaphors, and similes really support her feelings of being judged and seen as a ‘legal alien’. â€Å"Legal Alien’/Extranjera Legal† gives a very realistic and strong message of how it can feel to be viewed as an alien by the people that surround you and are in your life like the people you work with. Mora’s character knows how it feels to be not wanted nor accepted by either side, and to be judged on the origins of her ancestors and her race. Mora uses strong diction throughout this poem with her interesting choice of how she uses her words. â€Å"perhaps exotic, perhaps inferior, definitely different,† Her choice of diction has a strong effect on the message itself. Moras use of similes is interesting to because she says â€Å"viewed by mexicans as alien†, she very clearly says they compare her to an alien and that as a very great impact to. Mora also uses metaphors in her writing in an interesting way, she refers to herself as ‘a handy token/ sliding back and forth’, to symbolize how it feels to not be accepted and to be judged. Many people could relate to this poem whether they are judged on their race, on their upbringing, on their clothes, and many more factors. Being pre-judged is a major problem in society today and is all around us constantly. Some are not lucky enough to escape it, but are capable of understanding the bigger picture in the message behind this poem.

The Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Essay - 913 Words

The Joy Luck Club is the first novel by Amy Tan, published in 1989. The Joy Luck Club is about a group of Chinese women that share family stories while they play Mahjong. When the founder of the club, Suyuan Woo, died, her daughter June replaced her place in the meetings. In her first meeting, she finds out that her lost twin sisters were alive in China. Before the death of Suyuan, the other members of the club located the address of June’s half-sisters. After that, they send June to tell her half-sisters about her mother’s life. In our lives there are events, and situations that mark our existence and somehow determine our life. In this novel, it shows how four mothers and their daughters were impacted by their tradition and beliefs. In the traditional Asian family, parents define the law and the children are expected to follow their requests and demands; respect for one’s parents and elders is critically important. Traditions are very important because they al low us to remember the beliefs that marked a whole culture. Marriage arrangement is one of the Chinese traditions that we learn during the course of the movie. Lindo Woo said: I will meet my husband for the first time, the one that will control my destiny, decide whether I was happy or not. (The Joy Luck Club). Lindo was forced to have an arranged marriage unable to make her own decisions. It’s very cruel that that you don’t have an opinion or a decision, and that you always have to depend from someone. Lindo knewShow MoreRelatedThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan1192 Words   |  5 Pages(H) The life of women has drastically changed throughout the ages. (CIS) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan portrays life in America and in China in the 1930’s for women. (GS1) When stories are true, there is more power behind them. (GS2) Novels need accuracy for the book to have feeling. (GS3) A rave-worthy novel needs truth to really draw the reader in. (thesis) Author Amy Tan accurately portrays life for Chinese women in the 1930’s and it enhances the power of the novel because the stories have trueRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan963 Words   |  4 PagesThe novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan shows the past and present experiences of several women including An-mei Hsu, the mother of Rose Hsu Jordan. Beginning at a young age, An-mei has to endure many situations. Her grandmother tells her that her mother is a ghost but she comes back to take care of her grandmother when she is ill. Due to the absence of her mother during her childhood years, she tries to be there for Rose as much as possible but is pushed away. An-mei believes she has nengkin, theRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan2055 Words   |  9 Pagesopinion. This is the case within the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, as the American daughters of the China-born mothers grow up in perpetual disconnect because of their cultural differences. Consequently, the daughters’ view of their mother’s love is distorted. Without a clear comprehens ion of their mother’s love, which is shown in forms of her words and actions, the daughters are constantly haunted by life’s difficulties. Thus, The Joy Luck Club emphasizes that a bond between a mother and daughterRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Essay2289 Words   |  10 Pagesarticle was written by Amy Tan, who is an English major and an author. Tan originally spoke about this topic at a group discussion about her book, The Joy Luck Club and later turned it into an essay for The Threepenny Review. She wrote this article to explain to writers everywhere that there are many different styles of English and that even someone who has majored in English and has published works can speak unconventional English. In â€Å"Mother Tongue† from The WakeTech Reader, Amy Tan (1989) examines theRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan841 Words   |  3 PagesIn the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tells stories of four Chinese mothers and four Chinese-American daughters and th eir mother-daughter relationship. The four mothers met in a San Francisco church in 1949. Suyuan Woo, founder of the Joy Luck Club, convinced the other mothers An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Yingying St. Clair to join the club. The club would meet every week at one of the mother’s house where they eat food, play mahjong, and brag about their daughters. The Chinese-American daughters tellRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan930 Words   |  4 PagesMerriam Webster’s dictionary defines sacrifice as â€Å"the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone†. In Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, a central theme present throughout is sacrifice. This novel depicts the sacrifices made by a group of immigrant mothers in order for their daughters to have a better life in America. Although the daughters do not realize the reasons behind their mothers motives until their stories and personalRead Mo reThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan Essay1377 Words   |  6 PagesThe Joy Luck Club is a novel by Amy Tan which tells the individual, cohesive stories of Chinese American daughters and their Chinese mothers. In each story, the cultural differences between mother and daughter acts as a wedge between them. The conflicting cultures of descent and consent causes a conflict between mother and daughter; although they ultimately want to have a relationship with each other, the differences in values make coming together harder. For the mothers, their expectations for theirRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan1459 Words   |  6 Pages 12/1/15 JLC FLE First Draft English 8-6 Clear Reflection, of Personality The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan follows multiple Chinese-American women who struggle with their self-identity and creating a balance between American and Chinese culture. Because of their immigration and many hardships in life, many of the women feel like they cannot trulyRead MoreThe Joy Luck Club By Amy Tan1164 Words   |  5 PagesThe Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is about four Chinese immigrant mothers and their four daughters, who were born and raised in America. The mothers, through their experiences in China, have attained vast knowledge that they now wish to pass on to their daughters. One mother, An-mei Hsu, wants to pass on her knowledge to her daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan. Rose is worried about her inevitable divorce with her husband, which was caused by her indecisiveness. An-mei hopes that by giving Rose advice, she canRead MoreAmy Tan s The Joy Luck Club1097 Words   |  5 PagesCulture defines humanity. Culture makes humans different than any other living organism ever kno wn. Culture is what makes humans unique, and yet culture is easily the most misunderstood characteristic of individuals. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan develops the theme of incomplete cultural understanding leads to an inability to communicate one’s true intentions through juxtaposition and conflict between mothers and daughters and their cultures. The conflicting Chinese culture of the mothers’