Strategic Planning: Sony Corporation

Strategic Planning: Sony Corporation Strategy planning concern the future it is the process of obtaining the goals set by the management for the company in for the future and how they can be achieve. Strategic planning process its a wide process which looks at the wider picture and usually its flexible when it comes to achievement of goals for the organization the process developed some goals for middle level and lover level management to achieved and works on the strategic plans for the future based on the achievement of the goals set for the middle and lover management in short it can be say that strategic planning is the planning of the future for the company. Based on the above definition the company of Sony will be look with regards to its strategic planning in the past, current and future. Sony:- Sony its a Japanese company which has its headquarter based in Minato. It is one of the largest electronic product manufacturers in the world. The company Sony has many products in the market from electronic appliances for home to mobile phones and play stations which is used by many people around the world, the company has established itself in the markets of all continents whether is America or Asia, Sonys products are used by many consumers with a confidence in them. For the purpose of this assignment the strategies of Sony will be discussed which were used by the company in the past and with regards to that the current strategies will be look and based on the analysis of past and current strategies the future strategies will be identified. 1990 to 2000:- Sony always tries to differentiate its products from the competitors and provide its customers with latest technology from CD players to mobile phones the strategy at this stage of Sony was to provide its customers with over the top technologies . The company use many strategies to make success some of them were successful and some were not the company was also subject to some restructuring as a part of its strategy by looking at the company restructuring processes over the years in this period it can be seen that the company Sony was not to the mark when choosing its strategies the company has to change the strategies quite number of times at the time in 90s the strategy of Sony seems like working with different strategies and see which one is working for them. In 1993 Sony introduced its customers with Mini Disc format which was an alternative to Philips Digital Compact Cassette after this introduction the company adopt the strategy to promote its own audio compression technologies under the brand name of ATRAC it was an attempt to go against the widely used format of MP3 at that time and beside that Sony also try to challenge the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with its newer and more advance sound format called SDDS (Sony Dynamite Digital Sound) while the Dolby Digital was proving six audio channels at that time Sony Dynamite Digital Sound provide its customers with 8 channels of audio. This new format of Sony also had the feature of providing the users of the system a backup system using having mirrors arrays of bit on both side of the film which provide reliability to the users if the film get damage on one side it became an instant hit among the customers but after a few years it was not in that much demand due to being overshadowed by the home theatre system of Dolby Digital 5.1 system which reduces the sale of Sony systems but at that time Sony did nothing to compete with the system with its own home theatre system which was design to sale in the motion picture industry. In 1998 Sony introduce its memory stick format flesh memory cards to be use in Sonys digital cameras and portable music players which was on the format on SD card format which was adopt many competitors in the industry, it provide the users an opportunity to save their data on those memory sticks and can save up to 1000 pictures and songs on that small device it grow popular among the people at that time and its still widely used in many products this was the result of Sony strategic planning which always focuses on providing the customers latest technologies so the customers preferred the company more than the competitors, Sony also work with other manufacturer such as Philips in developing or working on new products and by doing this the company was able to grow in the industry. Despite the success in Sony planning the company was subject to many restructuring due to change in policy and some of the strategies not working and resulting in a loss the problem can be seen that at that time the planning of Sony was very aggressive and the company was trying to grow its market share fast which result in some plan getting failed inconsistency can be another reason in the planning of Sony because the world of music and electronics devices change rapidly everyday and every other month new products come into the market making the old one unwanted, while the competitors were developing new technologies whether its in MPÂ £ player or home theatre systems Sony did not tried to compete with them with updating their current product at that time. 2000 to 2010:- Over the years from 2000 to 2010 Sony developed many products which can be widely seen in the market and most of them are dominating the market now some of the products are Blue Ray Discs:- The blue ray discs by Sony are a popular product and it is now widely used by many people whether it is in movies or games the introduction of blue ray DVDS allowed the users to enjoyed the movies in better qualities and it has more data storage capacity than normal DVDs . The introduction of blue ray discs help Sony to captured the market from Toshiba HD TVS and due to that the company Sony was able to have increased its market share compare to the competitor Toshiba. Sony Vaio:- Sony introduces its range of laptops under the name of Sony Vaio which is a stylish laptop and come under many colours, Sony spend lots of its money on the marketing of the laptop which like all the other products of Sony became an instant hit and even today many people like to prefer Sony Vaio over the laptops of its competitors such as Toshiba and Acer due to the features it provides and also due to its stylish looks. In August 2006 Sony and Dell had to recall many batteries due to being sued by a couple in April over exploding laptop batteries which were result to overheating and overpower. Sony admitted the batteries had some flaws which could result in batteries overheating and catching fire it affected the reputation of Sony badly and many of the other laptop manufacturers such as Acer and Toshiba had to send back the batteries they bought from Sony and also considered to ask for compensation as it was also claimed by a Japanese newspaper that Sony was aware of the flaw in battery and did not do anything to prevent it or to study the problem fully. Play Station:- The first play station was release by Sony in 1994 to compete against other gaming console in the market and it provide the gamers an opportunity to enjoy the games at better quality and better sound and the gamer enjoyed it. In 2006 Sony release play station 2 which was more updated and has many better feature than play station 1 it was an attempt to compete with other competitors in the market which were Microsofts Xbox live and Nintendos WII later on the Sony introduced play station 3 with much more graphics and better gaming experience for the gamers Sony also has developed the play station 3 can be used to access internet and to play blue ray movies and just like Nintendo WII it provide the gamers an interactive experience when playing the games and this has been a huge part of the console success. Mobile Phones:- Sony also has its own brand of mobile phones which were used widely mainly in Asia and the company also introduced the first mobile phone with 12 mega pixel camera in it beside that Sony also introduce one of its famous walkman mobile phone lines which were W11i and W880i in 2007 and 2008 and they had a music system build in it and were also provide the customers a chance to connect to the internet while listening to their favourite music the product was an instant hit and Sony also spend well plan time on its marketing campaign and use celebrities in their adverts which attract many customers and the Sony Ericson phones were used by many music lovers. Current Strategies Of Sony:- After discussing the past strategies of Sony it can be seen that the company emphasis on providing the customers with best technologies and marketing its products efficiently but they did had some fail strategy in the past as well it effects its reputation. Besides, in order to regain Sonys competitive advantages, they appoint the first foreign chairman, Howard Stringer to head the company with the aim to secure Sonys main ground and hope that an outsider will assist Sony to think outside the box. As Hamel Prahalad (1994) suggest, intellectual leadership are essential to develop industry foresight, anticipating which trends are likely to emerge, so it is important to build Sonys new core competence to shape the industry. However, Priem and Butler (2001) have shown that the Resources Based View, as currently constituted, contains a theory of sustainability but not a theory of competitive advantage (i.e., value creation).They argue that simply advising practitioners to obtain rare and valuable resources in order to achieve competitive advantages and, further that those resources should be hard to imitate and non-substitutable is not very helpful in providing practical help (Johnson et al, 2005: p155). After all the fail strategies and their affects on Sonys reputation the company now working on developing the reputation for that purpose Sony employed chairman from their own country Japan and also a foreigner chairman to make their strategies work. In the current weaknesses of Sony it can be seen that they had problems with their management and leadership styles which were more concern about getting the tasks done instead of defining the ways for the teams to how to obtain the tasks and what resources should be used. In order to understand the current business strategy of Sony it will be wise to look at their corporate statement which state Our companies are known for creating products that enrich peoples lives. Through Sony Corporation of America and its operating companies Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment we are also dedicated to improving peoples lives. Our commitment extends to helping local communities, fostering better educational systems, funding research to cure devastating diseases, supporting the arts and culture, helping disadvantaged youth, protecting and improving the environment and actively encouraging employee volunteerism.(http://www.sony.com/SCA/philanthropy.shtml) After looking at the statement it can be seen that Sony Current strategies are not only based on providing the customers with best products but also it include building the reputation back which was affected in the past due to the poor strategic choices made by them. Sony is also working on working on the green environment and providing the customers not only equipments which provide them best musical or gaming experience but also which are environmental friendly to play it part in making the world a green world and being giving the customers the image of the social responsibility of the company and building its reputation back which has been damage due to all the bad strategic choices made by the company management in the past. Sony Future Strategies:- Upon looking at the past of Sony it can be seen that the reason of the failure of strategies was that they were not properly planned and implement the resources were not fully utilized by Sony up to their full capacity as for any company it is very important for its efficiency that the resources should be utlizied up to maximum capacity as Priem and Butler (2001) have shown that the Resources Based View, as currently constituted, contains a theory of sustainability but not a theory of competitive advantage (i.e., value creation).They argue that simply advising practitioners to obtain rare and valuable resources in order to achieve competitive advantages and, further that those resources should be hard to imitate and non-substitutable is not very helpful in providing practical help (Johnson et al, 2005: p155). The strategies that should be utilized in the future by Sony should be of following: Competitive Positioning:- Sony has a establish brand name in the market which cannot be denied and everyone knows about the brand and products of Sony but the company did not utilized their brand name fully due to miss planning for example when the home theatre system was introduce and became popular many people were using Sonys products but they switch to the new system because Sony did not do anything to develop their own home theatre system for their customers which lead the customers to switch to another company therefore the main priority involve is to update their systems and products up to the expectations of the customers and they should work on the strategy to develop the products with competitive advantage in their mind the product should be of the nature that provide better features to the customers than the competitors just like Sony did with their mobile phones when Samsung introduce a 8 mega pixel camera Sony Ericson introduce a mobile phone with 12 mega pixel camera and also it has introduce sm art phones for the customers as well which are widely used all over the world this strategy should be continued by Sony. Build Better Market:- Sony needs to understand that it has to not only maintain its current position in the market but also expand its share in the market as Finlay (2000; p11) suggest that organization alter itself and the products and services it offers in order to match the needs of customers in its chosen marketplace which is a market-based approach, so called because the organization looks to the marketplace to see how it should act and how it should evolve. Besides, based on the environmental factors, Mintzberg et al (1998) developed the environmental school which argue people in strategic management must consider the range of decisional powers available, given the forces and demands of the external context. Sony insufficient in responding to the external market had caused them to lost ground in key growing areas and their strategy must be able to cope with the external environment. SWOT Analysis:- Swot analysis provide and wider picture to the company about its current strengths and weakness which relates to the internal environment of the company and give a better understanding that what is required to be done and with the analysis of the external environment of the company it helps in indentify what are the opportunities and threats available to the company and how they can be use for the betterment of the company. By using swot analysis the following have been identified. Strengths:- Sony has the following strengths, Sony has a strong brand name which is globally recognisable. Sony develop the products which are future base which attract more customers to buy the products thus increase in sale. Sony has strong customers based who use Sonys products all the time from music systems to mobile phones. They have top level management and expert chairman now which can guide the company towards success in the future. Sony has always been consider the leader in technology and present the products in the past which have attract many customers to the company. They have motivated staff which works for them all the time to develop new products and improve the current one the company is offering. Weaknesses:- Just like the strengths Sony has the following weaknesses which needs to be overcome to made the company more profitable, Sony has shown in the past the company is inconsistent in its planning and do not do anything to tackle the competitors products. The company has been subject to many capitals structuring in the past. The industry is rapid in nature and can change at any moment. The management has been inconsistent as well. Opportunities:- Its a rapidly growing industry which means Sony has changes to grow much further in the industry. Sony has the team to develop new products and update their existing ones as well to capture more share of the market. They have a strong customer based all over the world which means Sony can increase it sell in all over the world if they overcome their weaknesses. Threats:- Just like Sony the competitors in the market are also well establish and have strong customer based in order to get the customers from them Sony has to improve its product much more. With the losses the company suffer for the last few years may cause the investors think twice before investing into Sonys new projects. The world of technology is always changing which means Sony has to work on developing futuristic products and keep on updating the old one to meet the customers demand and to survive in the market. Recommendations for Sony:- As it can be seen from the past and present of Sonys that the company emphasis more on developing the products and not on going head to head with the competition which result in the competition getting the most of the market while Sony has the technology the company lack of strategic planning and more over lack of control over the activities result in the company losing its customers due to the controversies from the sue on batteries to customers blaming Sony to promoting spam mails using the play station website. All this effected the reputation of the company now Sony needs to rebuild the reputation by not only doing what they do best which is providing the customers the best products in term of technology but also they need to build a strategic plan to overcome all the obstacles the company face in the past. Sony now needs to employ a team of managers who can look after their business well and also needs to monitor and control their performances as it was the bad management decision which affected the company and the company should made all their plan with keeping the future in mind in short the company needs to work with consistency in their operation and should also need to have a backup plan just in case the first plan fail for example when the company was sued for the batteries fault Sony should have tested the batteries fully and as it was reported that the company was aware of the fault in batteries than Sony should have tested the batteries properly and should have look for ways to overcome that fault same goes with the home theatre system Sony should have come up with a way to compete with it instead of just leaving the way it was, this were the faults or mistake which result in Sonys strategic failure and in order to build the company position more strong this faults should not be repeated and all the plan should be made after going through with every details about them and any fault should be identified and ratify at the initial stage and in the same manner every move of the competitors should be though about and a counter plan should be ready for it by doing this Sony can not only captured more market but can also be the market leader. Sources:- Bowman, C. Asch, D. (1996), Managing Strategy, MacMillan. Â · DeWit, B. Meyer, R. (2004), Strategy: Process, Content, Context,3rd Edition, Thomson International Business Press. Â · Finlay, P. (2000), Strategic Management: An introduction to business and corporate strategy, Prentice Hall. Â · Hamel, G. Prahalad, C.K. (1994), Competing for future, Harvard Business School Press. Barney, J. B. (1991), Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, Journal of Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, p99-120. Â · Barney, J. B. (2001), Is the resource-based view a useful perspective for strategic management research? Yes, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 26, No. 1, p41-56. Â · Hamel, G. Prahalad, C.K. (1990), Capabilities-Based Competition, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 70, No. 3. Â · Hamel, G. Prahalad, C.K. (1990), The core competence of the corporation, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, p79-91. Â · Hodgson, G.M. (1998), Evolutionary and competence-based theories of the firm, Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 25, No, 1, p25-56. Â · Markides, C. (2004), What is strategy and how do you know if you have one?, Business Strategy Review, Vol. 15, No. 2, p5-12.

Is There Sufficient Evidence in Sources D-I to Explain Why the Troubles Broke Out in 1969? Essay

Introduction Throughout history England has ruled Ireland. For Over 300 years there has been conflict between Catholics and Protestants. The whole conflicts was rooted in religion, but within the last centaury the troubles have escalated to include political and economical issues for example; in 1921 Protestants set down things like the penal laws in the 17th centaury, Catholics were excluded from politics; they were treated as if they were below Protestants. Problems like this have led Catholics fighting for what they believe is right and for their equality, they have shown this in non-violent and violent forms one example is bloody Sunday in 1969. In 1918 Ireland was partitioned into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. Ireland was split into three separate parties; Nationalists were home rule and to be part of the British Empire, Unionists were to be completely ruled by Britain, Sinn Fein were to be entirely independent with their own government and rules. In the following essay I am going to describe and evaluate sources D-I in telling us why violence erupted in 1969. I will be exploring the sources reliability, accuracy, whether it is fact, whether it is biased and basically discussing whether they are reliable evidence to show us exactly why the trouble did brake out in 1969. Source D Source D is an adaptation written by a Catholic civil rights spokes person named B Devlin in 1969. B Devlin based this piece of writing on how a young Roman Catholic school girl described her days. Source D tells the reader about how the vice principle of St Patrick’s Academy, Mother Benignus felt towards the English and protestants, as well as how she gave her opinion to the students of her school. Mother Benignus’s opinion was that protestants may have been powerful but they certainly were not Irish. This woman was brainwashing her students into learning about the ‘greatness’ of Catholics and Ireland and the ‘wonderful’ history behind it, making them believe that protestants and the English are horrible. Does Source D Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? Source D is biased therefore comes across as ‘anti-protestant’, there are no other point of views about protestants in this source. Because of this we can not trust B Devlin’s adaptation, it is not reliable; containing more of someone’s opinions rather than factual dates, times or places. The source does tell us that B Devlin adapted this source giving us evidence that she may have taken this source from a school girl but then possibly changed the source to create an even more anti-protestant view therefore making it biased. We know this could be true because B Devlin was a Catholics Civil Rights spokes person. This source shows no violence, however because the students were being brought up with an anti-protestant attitude this could lead to a future violent scene. My opinion is that this source is unreliable there are no dates apart from when it was written, and the source contains no factual proof. Source E Source E is a nineteenth century protestant cartoon. It was drawn by a protestant artist. The cartoon shows Erin, the lady of Ireland dressed in rags; she holds her head down as if she is ashamed and also looks upset. Erin has been tied up in rope by the Catholic priest; she is being punished. The Catholic priest is dressed smartly, he looks angry and in control of the situation. This source symbolizes the religious tension between Catholics and Protestants during that time period, giving the effect that Catholics have taken charge of all the churches. Does Source E Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? This source is biased towards the protestant point of view. The cartoon shows a protestant’s view on how the Catholics treated them, how they took control of all Protestants. They achieve this by giving the effect that protestants are innocent, also that Catholics are rich, evil people who try to make protestant’s lives a misery. During the time this source was drawn, Catholics were against Protestants and were ruling Ireland. This source does not contain violence however it could lead to violence because Catholics would want revenge for the ‘image’ they are known as. I would not trust this source considering that it was drawn by a protestant and effectively tells us that all Catholics are out to get Protestants. Source F Source F is a map showing the Gerrymander in 1966. A Gerrymander is to divide an area into election districts in such a way, as to give one political party an electoral advantage. The map tells us that in 1966 the population of Derry was 30376 people; it goes on to tell the reader that 20102 were Catholics and only 10274 were Protestants, telling us that during 1966 Derry was a catholic dominated area. Does Source F Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? Source F is a reliable piece of information because it is a map. From this we know that all the data that is written, is known as fact. The source uses accurate pieces of data involving numbers of the population and dates, as well as giving us a clear view certain roads in Derry; this includes Strabene Road, Irish Street and Urrivady Road. Although this map does not show any signs of violence, it is because of sources like this that we understand why there were Catholic protests in 1969, two years after this source was created. The map contains some writing telling us that more Protestants than Catholics became boundary commissioners because most Catholics refused. A piece of the paragraph then says, ‘The boundaries of the constituencies favored Protestants’ this tells us that the Protestants have Gerrymandered the Catholics. I believe because the catholics refused to become boundary commissionaires, this meant that the Protestants took over their jobs making them more powerful. Because of this, Catholics lost the right to vote, be represented or even buy a house. By 1969 Catholics were tired of Protestants having all the power so they wanted Civil Rights. They showed this by violent and non-violent protests. Concluding my theory this is a truthful source that could lead to violence. Source G Source G is a protestant’s view of Catholics attacking Protestants from 1641. The image shows Catholics dressed in clothes carrying swards forcefully pushing the shamed Protestants that have been stripped of all clothing. The scene shows violence, as there are bodies lying on the floor looking as though they are either in great pain or dead. There are some strong words above the picture; The Catholics are forcing the English Protestants to be Irish ‘turned into the mountains,’ ‘whereof many hundreds are perished,’ The Catholics are testing the Protestants, to analyze whether they are strong enough to become Irish. It goes on to say ‘Now you are wild Irish men as we’ this tells us that the writer believes that Catholics feel so strongly towards their religion that they will do anything for it. Does Source G Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? This source is unreliable because it is a drawn picture that only shows a biased point of view. However this does give us a possibly exaggerated image of how the Protestants were treated by Catholics. Source G shows violence drawn 330 years before the troubles of 1969. This source could lead to violence because the Protestants may want revenge, and considering that there were many pictures like this one drawn in the 1600’s we have to understand that these images could have been used as propaganda against the Catholics. It is small things like this that helped toward the outbreak in 1969. Source H Source H is a photograph of Royal Ulster Constabulary offices trying to take charge of an out of control civil rights march on the 5th of October 1968, in Derry. The photo shows a couple of Catholics so they may have been the hard to deal with trouble makers who took it too far, but they are shielding their heads and trying to run away whilst the RUC (Protestants) are in charge. From the source we know that the Protestants used violence to stop this march. But were they forced into using violence? Was it the only way they could get to the Catholic protesters? However from the source we are led to understand that the Catholics are weaponless, and that they are not fighting back. The Catholics have obviously started this march because they are unhappy about the way that they are treated. Does Source H Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? Because source H is a photograph we know that it is a fact. However from it, like any photos, we have a ‘snapshot’ from only a few seconds of the whole civil rights march we do not know what happened before or after this photograph was taken. Because of this we can only guess why the RUC had to lead to violence. No one is going to understand who started the fight from this source, or why it lead to what looks like horrific violence. From what we know source H contains violence and as it was taken in 1968 just one year before the outbreak in 1969 this source could of definitely lead to violence. I would say that this source is accurate to some extent but because it is just a few moments worth it is still fairly unreliable. In comparison this photograph is pure fact no matter how much information it can give us. Source I This source is a photograph of a peaceful civil rights march in 1968. underneath the source it tells us the economic demands of the protestors ‘One house, one man, one job’. By this time period all Catholics wanted an equal, civilized society. The picture shows police standing calmly as it seems that there is no trouble to be expected. From the source we can see that the march is a well organized non-violent protest. Does Source I Show Why Violence Broke Out in 1969? Because this is a photo we know that it is a fact, however this photo contains the very opposite to source H. Although the scene looks like a peaceful civil rights protest it could have stormed into violence at any minute, therefore I cannot trust this source. If this protest was created after the march in source H the conditions would have improved; but personally I believe that Source I was taken before source H. I feel this way because after the Catholics had tried to protest in a peaceful manner they were still not listened to, so they would have got impatient and therefore turned to violence to show that they are serious. My theory would also explain why this source the could of led to the trouble in 1969. This source is accurate yet unreliable because we do not have enough data. Conclusion I believe that although not all the sources were entirely reliable, they would all be somewhat useful towards why the troubles broke out in 1969. The only source that I found entirely reliable was source F because it gives us stated facts containing accurate data. Sources H and I are both photographs and although they are both also facts, they contain image proof and dates and to me they show the clearest ideas as to what happened, they are however fairly unreliable because as I mentioned earlier we do not know what happened before or after the photo was taken. Sources D, E and G are all biased, therefore they are not bound to be truthful and are exaggerated facts. Although because of these sources we now know how people were made to think about Protestants and Catholics. We understand that biased points of views were spread about the two different religions as if it were propaganda, this could have also led to some of the violence in 1969. Personally I feel that sources D, E and G show how people have spread thoughts and feelings and brainwashed the rest of the country into civil war, as well as clearly showing the religious tensions that has lead to riots, bombing terrorism and violence. Overall on their own these sources did not give sufficient evidence to tell us why the trouble broke out in 1969, we needed more evidence about why the Easter Rising corrupted. In comparison I feel that when combined the sources are rather reliable.

My Home Purchase Plan

Under this Plan, the Government will provide land for the HKHS (Hong Kong Housing Society) to build â€Å"no-frills† small and medium flats for lease to eligible applicants at prevailing market rent. The tenancy period will be up to five years, within which the rent will not be adjusted. Within a specified time frame, tenants of the Plan may purchase the flat they rent or another flat under the Plan at prevailing market price, or a flat in the private market. They will receive a subsidy equivalent to half of the net rental they have paid during the tenancy period, and use it for part of the down payment. The Government has already earmarked sites in Tsing Yi, Diamond Hill, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Tuen Mun and other areas for a total of some 5000 flats to be built under the Plan. The first project will provide about 1000 flats in Tsing Yi by 2014. In the point of view of the Government, they would like to wisely spending the money of helping the sandwich class with flexibility in their home purchase plan, including the choice of opting to purchase the flat they rent, another flat under the plan, or a flat in the private market; which also want to help on slowing down the raising on both rental and purchasing prices currently in the market. The Government thinks that the current price in the market has been raised too fast and too high which is not a health saturation and start forming up an â€Å"Economic Bomb†. As the â€Å"Property Market† is one of the main factors with Hong Kong’s economic environment, if the â€Å"Bomb† pops, Hong Kong’s economic will be affected badly. But in the other hand, the Government does not want to affect the growth of the real estate too much and too fast, therefore the Government implies with this soft plan in order to balance with the situations. For the tax payers, they are mainly separated in to 2 groups: the group which cannot enjoy with the plan and the qualified applicants. For those who do not have the right to enjoy with the benefits are mainly the people who are either already owning a flat, or those people who are not qualified due to higher incomes. These people might not feel happy with the Government’s actions. For those who have already owned their own place, when the Government supporting plan comes, that means there will be more people able to buy their own place. In the last few years, the economic situation of Hong Kong was not good and people were very careful on using their money, which made the banks dropped their interest rate of borrowing in order to attract people to borrow money either on buying flats or other usages. With the needs on mortgaging is rising due to this program, the interest rate will then have the potential on rising. This will affect to those people who already own their own place for living have to pay more on the mortgage pay back or need to extend the time of pay back as the raising of the interest. The Government has setup very tight rules on the incomes and assets on qualifying the applicants for the supporting program in order to make sure all the qualified applicants are the users of the properties. Those people who do not qualify for the program due to higher income might be the most unhappy group as they would think the Government does not take care of them. Since the property prices have been increased so much in the last 5 years, although they have higher incomes, they still cannot afford the down payment on purchasing a place. For the group of people who are the qualified applicants, of course they will be very concerned for this supporting program. However, they have to wait until the second half of 2014 for the building completion and there will be only 5000 units, which is really â€Å"Too Little Too Late! † Another problem is that, the Government now estimating that the price of a 500 feet unit is 3 million, which would only apply to those flats in the remote areas. The prices for the urban residents are already far outstripped with it. Who can predict and guarantee how would the real estate pricing will be after 7 years of time (The planned building will be completed after 4 years, the applicants have to rent and live there for 3 years before they can own)? In case of the property prices continue rising, those 300 thousand which is going to be rebate from the Government still not enough to pay for the down payment. If the property prices rapidly decline, those applicants will be falling into a dilemma situation. Overall, to solve the housing difficulties of Hong Kong there are many ways, how the â€Å"My Home Purchase Plan â€Å"may receive with the desired results really depends on the future development of the real estate market trends. However, the â€Å"My Home Purchase Plan† does not really may not really be able to help on the current unhealthy situation on the property market. In my opinion, I would suggested the Government should plan on some relaxation on the income limit for public housing and pay more attention on taking care of the middle and lower class families. In fact, the magnitude of increase in property prices and rents, is seriously out of the line with the general public’s income, which directly affecting the quality of life. The Government should pay more attention on how to plan on the public housing supply and how to make better use of resources balance.

African American History Is A Vital Part Of The United States

All histories are an important subject to teach in every academic levels; however, African American history is a vital part of the United States. America would not be the country she is today without the accomplishments of the slaves and founding African American scholars. Slavery brought about incredible trials and established perseverance with the African American population that future generations need to know about and learn from. History teaches us our errors and our successes; furthermore, it helps us determine our future directions. Throughout history there were countless African American leaders, Godly examples and heroes. It is the duty of all generations to teach about these men and women. There is a wealth of knowledge that all people, in all walks of life, and at all ages needs to learn. No matter what race a child is today, they need to know and understand what their ancestors went through, how they lived, more importantly what they did to not only survive but to thrive (Holt Brown, 2000). Some would say society around the world as a whole has evolved into a self-serving society. Through teaching the historical events of the ancestors this may help curtail the negative attitude that is running rampant today. It is vitality important that we have scholars who will continue researching and documenting history. 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