The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Being a parent is not only about providing a roof over ones head, clothes on their back or food in the belly, it is about responsibility and lessons learned. Huck had never had an adult male to talk to; Jim was a very smart black man and Huck realized he could learn a lot from him. Huck finally had someone he could look up to. â€Å"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didnt ever feel like talking loud, and it warnt often that we laughed—only a little kind of a low chuckle. We had mighty good weather as a general thing, and nothing ever happened to us at all—that night, nor the next, nor the next† (Twain 12). As Mark Twain’s character Jim shows us in â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn†, being a parent is about being there during good and bad times throughout life’s adventures. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain identified several major flaws in Southern culture, including the â€Å"culture of decadence,† the gullibility of people and the treatment of slaves. Through the experiences of Huck Finn he was able to provide the reader with a â€Å"panorama of American life (Microsoft Encarta 2000) before the Civil War. † The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is told in the first person perspective; the story has 43 chapters. In the first section, the main character â€Å"Huck† lets you know who he is and how he feels about his adventures from beginning to end. During the second section Huck meets Jim and starts down the river and lands on Uncle Silas’ farm. The third and final section takes place at the farm and continues to the end of the book (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). Huck introduces you to several characters early on such as The Widow Douglas and Judge Thatcher. Both of these characters appear to have Huck’s best interest at heart, but do not go about things the right way. For example Huck tells us â€Å"The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn’t do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up (Twain). † The widow was determined to bring Huck up to society standards, to be respectful and have manners. The Widow’s sister Miss Watson was an old maid who was set on teaching Huck about religion. She simply could not understand why anyone would want to go anywhere but the â€Å"good place†. â€Å"Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome (Twain). † The Widow Douglas had enrolled Huck into school; â€Å"At first I hated the school, but by and by I got so I could stand it (Twain). † School had become easier for Huck as time went by and he was finding the Widow less annoying as well. Judge Thatcher was determined to look after Huck’s money. Huck tried to give him all of the money, but the Judge set it up in a fund for him and made certain it went into the bank for safe keeping. However, after discovering Huck’s father was still alive, he mistakenly thought it would be good for Huck and his father to make amends. Huck soon knew the real reason his father reappeared into his life and that was simply for his new found money. Huck’s father referred to in the story as Pap is a harsh character. He had been very abusive to Huck in the past and Huck feared the future with him would not be any better. Unfortunately for Huck he was correct. Pap was not happy when he found Huck living a better life with the widow. He thought Huck was putting on airs and that did not please him. He ordered Huck to quit school as he did not want Huck to become smarter than he was. Pap was extremely jealous of Huck’s good fortune; a nice bed, carpeted floor and roof over his head. Although the Judge and widow tried to end Pap’s parental rights the courts would not agree, they did not believe in separating families. The new judge tried to civilize Pap, but Pap just went back to getting drunk around town and stirring up all kinds of problems. Pap was a racist, alcoholic who was only after one thing and that was money. After a while Pap decided to steal Huck away from the widow. The next character we are introduced to is Miss Watson’s slave Jim. Once Jim discovered that Miss Watson was going to sell him, further separating him from his family, he decides to run for his freedom. After Huck decides he can no longer take the abuse from his father, he fakes his own death and he and Jim end up traveling down the Mississippi River together. Jim was a large well spoken black man whom Huck enjoyed listening too. Upon Jim’s departure from Miss Watson, he is immediately sought on suspicion of Huck’s murder. Jim just wanted to get away, earn some money and come back to buy his family’s freedom. It was during this time period that slavery was being abolished in the northern states. While hiding on Jackson’s Island, Huck and Jim meet up with each other. Huck faces moral conflict as he decides whether or not to turn Jim over to the law. Since society at that time dictates that black people are supposed to be slaves and cannot run free, Huck is concerned about helping Jim to escape. However, they set out together towards the Ohio River on a raft that they built together. â€Å"Before they leave Jackson’s Island, they find a dead man – but Jim won’t let Huck look at the guy’s face on account of it being â€Å"too gashly† (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Summary). † This is the first time Jim shields Huck from the identity of the man in the shack; it is Huck’s father. Jim’s gesture is that of a man trying to protect Huck from seeing his dead father. He is the first person in the story to show a real interest in what is best for Huck. As Jim and Huck’s adventure continues they meet up with three robbers while climbing around on a wrecked steamship. Two of the robbers are trying to kill the third robber and Huck wants to get help, eventually all three of the robbers die and Huck and Jim get away. This is Huck’s first real experience with murder. After traveling south on the Mississippi River, Huck goes ashore to find out where they are. It is now that he realizes that he could be suspected of stealing Miss Watson’s property. â€Å"Huck discovers he just can’t â€Å"harden himself† against Jim to turn him in and so concludes he’ll just â€Å"go to hell and take up wickedness again† by keeping his friend liberated. Huck’s moral tension seems to be between his head and his heart. He knows what is right what the law says but can’t bring himself to do it (Marklerch). † When he returns to where Jim is, Huck must let him know they missed Cairo; their exit that they were looking for. At this point they are nearly ran over by a steam ship and both thrown from the raft. â€Å"Huck’s decision to rescure Jim is expedient and humane simultaneously (Blair and Fischer). † At one point in the story Huck feels ashamed for lying to Jim in the name of a joke. Huck finally begins to realize Jim is a real person just like himself. He had always been told that Blacks were not people, just animals to be used as whites see fit. Huck is then taken in by a wealthy family called the Grangerfords. The Granergfords are fighting with their neighbors the Shepherdsons. The Grangerford’s son is named Buck, he is around the same age as Huck. During the fighting with the Shepherdsons Buck is shot. Huck finds this behavior ridiculous and leaves as quickly as possible. Here again is another lesson about people and society that shows Huck bad behavior. The next criminals that Huck befriends are referred to as â€Å"The King and the Duke† (Humanities UCI). Niether of the men previously knew each other prior to this chance encounter, but immediately start plotting their new con. This is where Huck learns the meaning of gullible; many townspeople give the two con artists money for a play that is performed badly. The townspeople are trusting and of religious nature and the two men make off with almost ninety dollars. When the two cons attempt to scam three ladies out of their inheritance by pretending to be the Uncle’s brothers, Huck gets to feeling guilty and tries to think of a way to give the money back. He manages to steal the money back and hides it in the casket of the ladies uncle. After the uncle is buried he lets the ladies know where the money is and manages to flea before the real brothers’ show up. Unfortunately the two con men are still with Huck and Jim. Once the two cons realize they have no money they steal and sell Jim. Huck is determined to get Jim back and luckily runs into his old buddy Tom Sawyer who is glad to help. During the escape attempt and Tom’s silly hi-jinks; Tom ends up being shot in the calf of his leg. Once back at the raft Jim hides in the bushes and Huck goes to find a doctor. Jim is re-captured and the doctor stands up for Jim saying that he assisted with Tom’s care, so instead of killing Jim they decide to enslave him once again. Upon Tom’s recovery he informs those holding Jim that upon Miss Watson’s death she set Jim free in her will, so they no longer can hold Jim as a slave. Jim is set free and finally admits to Huck that the man in the shack was his father, Pap and he no longer needs to worry about him. Instead of going back to the widow’s, Huck decides to set out west so he can have more adventures. Huck’s character was made to witness a large amount of cruelty. â€Å"Huck perceives that â€Å"human beings can be awful cruel to one another† (262). Huck has seen the worst conceivable forms of behavior. But his awareness means that, no matter how much cruelty he witnesses or who perpetrates it, he will remain compassionate towards all human beings (Burg). † Like the Huck Finn character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain faced emotional growth during his writings. As he experienced life, Twain reminisced in his books by focusing on his hometown and era in which he grew up. â€Å"Although Adventures of Huckleberry Finn contains some very poignant critiques of slavery, discrimination, and society in general, it is also important as the story of Huck’s journey from boyhood to manhood (History of Hannibal, Missouri, Back to Marion County). †As an impressionable boy growing up in Hannibal, MO Twain had many of the same types of experiences has Huck. There was swimming, fishing, climbing and cave exploration. He spent much of his time watching the steam ships sail on the river carrying their wares. In Hannibal there were also murders, slaves being whipped and gangs who preyed on river towns (Twains Aurthor Series – Chapter Display). â€Å"Mark Twain â€Å"agreed with Huck that environment determines morality. † All morality is merely relative. Mark Twain wrote in the margin of his copy of Lecky, â€Å"All moral perceptions are acquired by the influences around us; these influences begin in infancy; we never get a chance to find out whether we have any that are innate or not (Blair and Fischer). † Twain shows us through Huck’s adventure that he has grown up on the inside to appreciate his freedom and the people around him. Huck has learned to see all people as human and no longer just by their skin tone, black or white. â€Å"I knowed he was white inside (Twain)†. This statement clearly shows that Huck views Jim as a close and personal friend and confidant. Throughout the story you see the influence Jim has on Huck. â€Å"Jim becomes a father figure –the first Huck ever had in his life. Jim teaches Huck right and wrong, and an emotional bond develops through the course of their journey down the river. By the last segment of the novel, Huck has learned to think like a man instead of a boy (about). † As Mark Twain’s character Jim shows us in â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn†, being a parent is about being there during good and bad times throughout life’s adventures. Citations 2011 http://classiclit. about. com/od/adventuresofhuckleberry/fr/aa_huckfinn. htm. Blair, Walter and Victor Fischer. March 1990. 22 January 2011 http://www. jstor. org/stable/2926787. Burg, David F. December 1974. 17 January 2011 http://www. jstor. org/stable/2933172. History of Hannibal, Missouri, Back to Marion County. 20 January 2011 http://www. rootsweb. ancestry. com/~marion/hannhist. htm. Humanities UCI. 2005. 20 January 2011 http://www. humanities. uci. edu/mclark/HumCore/CoreF2005/WebCoreF05/F)5TTwa.

Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2004 Essay -- Investment Investor Sarbanes Oxley

Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2004 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was signed into law on July 30, 2002 by President Bush. The new law came after major corporate scandals involving Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom. Its goals are to protect investors by improving accuracy of and reliability of corporate disclosures and to restore investor confidence. The law is considered the most important change in securities and corporate law since the New Deal. The act is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Representative Michael Oxley of Ohio (Wikipedia Online).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sarbanes-Oxley consisted of 11 different titles or sections. Title I is Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It created a five member panel known as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, overseen and appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (Sarbanes-Oxley). The Board is to consist of two CPAs and three people that are not CPAs, but the chairman must be a CPA. The Board is to provide oversight of auditing of public companies while establishing auditing, quality control, independence, ethical standards (Arens 32-33). Public accounting firms that work on audits must register with the Board and pay a fee. Title I also included new auditing rules. Auditors must now retain paper work for seven years, have a second partner review and approval of audit reports, evaluate whether internal controls accurately show transactions as well as sales of assets, and describe any weaknesses or noncompliant internal controls. Public accou nting firms that issue auditing reports for more than 100 companies are to be inspected every year. Accounting firms that issue audit reports for less than 100 companies must be inspected very three years. The Board can discipline or sanction accounting firms for what it deems to be negligent conduct (Conference of State Bankers Online).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Title II of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is Auditor Independence. It creates new rules that auditors must abide by in order to keep their objectivity and accuracy. Auditors are now banned from performing most non-audit related services like bookkeeping, actuary services, and management consulting. An auditor may no longer be the lead auditor of a firm for more than five consecutive years. Auditors are now required to report all significant accounting policies and practices used in the audit, any different trea... ... GE has said that new compliance costs are about $30 million. AIG has said that Sarbanes-Oxley is costing the company $300 million. Many European companies have also complained because they are forced to comply because they are on American stock exchanges. Surveys have also found that many companies are even thinking about going private to avoid compliance Sarbanes-Oxley (Bartlett 1-3). Works Cited Arens, Alvin, Randal Elder and Mark Beasley. Auditing and Assurance Services: An Integrated Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Bartlett, Bruce. â€Å"The Crimes of Sarbanes-Oxley.† National Review 25 May 2004.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200405250811.asp Conference of State Bankers Online. Executive Summary of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 10 February 2005. http://www.csbs.org/government/legislative/misc/2002_sarbanes-oxley_summary.htm Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. 107 Cong., 2nd sess. 2004.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_ bills&docid=f:h3763enr.tst.pdf. Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Wikipedia Online. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes- Oxley_Act.

Barriers To Supply Chain Management

Becoming an integrated value partner requires tight integration between the supply chain and customer relationship activities. There are many visible and invisible barriers that check smooth supply chain management. To illustrate, a company that customizes its offerings to delight a customer with high potential lifetime value must also ensure that its supply chain management processes seamlessly feed into its CRM process for that customer.This forms the basis of an integrated demand and supply chain management system free from any kind of barriers.Research proves that companies that do integrate demand and supply chain management systems are more successful than their counterparts. Those that have successfully integrated their CRM and SCM activities tend to perform better than their competitors. Specifically, these companies gain a competitive advantage by (1) collaborating both internally and externally with supply chain partners, such as suppliers, distributors/retailers, and custo mers having no or less barriers, and (2) measuring and exceeding their goals for customer loyalty and retention for each customer and segment.They often are aided by new Internet technologies, which help them, improve supply chain collaboration and build relationships across a network of suppliers and customers. This, in turn, allows them to differentiate the way they create value for every customer and segment. With these emerging e-business technologies that can seamlessly link manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and customers, companies, in theory, can swiftly orchestrate resources to respond to each customer's needs. But in reality, this is virtually impossible to do.Companies simply do not have the resources to simultaneously respond in real time, reduce manufacturing costs, keep zero inventories, and provide excellent service for each and every customer. So instead of trying to satisfy every customer perfectly, they need to learn how to dynamically balance customer value a nd supply chain costs to build the right customer relationships. Companies can achieve this balance by leveraging Internet technologies to create digitally integrated demand and supply systems in which there is no chance of any barrier.Such systems would provide real-time, differentiated responses to customers according to their loyalty, lifetime value, requirements, and servicing costs. By focusing on maximizing the entire value creation process, rather than on just specific CRM or SCM activities, companies will begin to reap the real benefits of the new digital economy. Heineken and Cisco Systems are examples of companies that are leveraging the Internet to enhance collaboration with customers, distributors, and suppliers and hence an effective tool to remove various barriers of supply chain management.Heineken has focused on CRM, while Cisco has emphasized SCM. Heineken has developed a Web-based system to share information with distributors on forecasts, marketing and promotions, and order fulfillment. The system has doubled Heineken's customer satisfaction ratings. Cisco, a leader in networking equipment for telecommunications and the Internet, has created electronic links with key suppliers across its entire product line to give it unprecedented supply chain flexibility. The links enable suppliers to ship more than 65 percent of Cisco's orders directly to the final customer without physical intervention from Cisco.The result is a significant reduction in the time it takes to ramp up production of new products. Although both of these companies are innovators, neither one has developed a truly integrated demand-supply chain that depends on simultaneous excellence in both SCM and CRM. Other leaders are leveraging the Web in different ways. Companies like Herman Miller and Dell Computer, for example, have discovered that excellence in products, service, and production alone is not enough to compete in the future.They recognize that they must become integrated value providers and they also leant that this is only possible by removing visible and invisible barriers from supply chain management. Herman Miller, a leading furniture manufacturer, is creating tailored Web pages that will not only streamline manufacturing, inventory, and order information flows to and from its 500-plus suppliers around the world but also sell to and service its most important customers. Leveraging the Internet in this way will help Herman Miller differentiate products, service, and delivery for customers according to the value they bring to the company.(Siems, 2005) Similarly, Dell continually resegments its customer base and measures the lifetime value of customers. The computer maker then manages its interaction with customers through tailored Web pages that offer each customer the most profitable customer service level. Dell also has an online supplier portal that handles 90 percent of purchases from the 33 most important suppliers. This feature helps Dell a nd its suppliers share key data and measurements on shipment accuracy, quality, and demand forecasts.As companies like Dell succeed in integrating customer and supply chain systems, they can further reduce inventories; improve customer responsiveness, decrease barriers and increase customer loyalty and shareholder value. Just by taking the early steps toward achieving excellence in CRM and SCM, companies can begin to boost their business performance while erecting formidable barriers to the competition. Competitors will find it increasingly difficult to mimic the value offered by these â€Å"integrated value providers.† (Shankar, 2004) Creating new value propositions is the second approach to integrating demand and supply. This entails modifying the demand-supply chain design to create a mutually beneficial supply chain system for both the company and the customer and it also helps in removing various barriers in the way of supply chain management. To do this, companies must change the point in the supply chain at which they allocate goods while simultaneously altering the point at which they fulfill demand.The idea that suppliers should work much more closely with customers to give them better value is not new as far as the removal of barriers is concerned. Yet close partnerships are still not common largely because, until recently, integrating the information systems of two or more companies was a lengthy, expensive, and technically difficult process. The recent widespread adoption of Web-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the rise of the Internet, however, have made it much easier and cheaper for customers and suppliers to integrate and exchange data.(Holmstrom, 2001) And yet, disconnects still occur. In reality, most of the changes that suppliers implement do not add much value from the customer's point of view and this also proves to be a barrier. A supplier, for example, might typically cut its inventory by reducing product varie ty–which is not very helpful for the customer or for the customer's customer. By tweaking the demand-supply chain, however, suppliers can design mutually beneficial supply chain systems for particular customers.These systems will offer customers completely new value propositions while improving the supplier's own operations. To affect a mutually beneficial supply chain design, companies must focus on the customer's demand chain, which transfers demand from the market to the supplier. A retailer's demand chain, for example, would consist of assortment planning, inventory management, and procurement. This demand chain joins with the supply chain to form the demand-supply chain. The chains link together in two places–the supply-fulfillment point (SFP) and the demand-offering point (DOP).Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is an approach to avert barriers in supply chain management which originated in the US and gained support from major European retailers. It is a manageria l approach that starts with consumer demand and then gears the whole of the supply chain to responding to that demand. It is a customer-driven, demand-pull product management system: a seamless interface from consumer purchase to manufacturing schedules; it is different to a supply-push or buying-led approach, which is based on the principles of sales forecasting, with products supplied in preparation for estimated demand.References Holmstrom, J. , W. E. Hoover Jr. , P. Louhiluoto, and A. Vasara. â€Å"The Other End of the Supply Chain,† The McKinsey Quarterly, 2001, 1, 62-71. Shankar, V. â€Å"e-Marketplaces: Evolution and Future,† Working Paper, University of Maryland, 2004. Siems, Thomas F. 2005. â€Å"Supply Chain Management: The Science of Better, Faster, Cheaper. † Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Southwest Economy. Issue 2, March/April, pp. 1, 7-12.

Market Saturation - China Mobile Phone Industry - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2137 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? China is the largest national market for mobile phones and is a great source of revenues for companies. But as China’s economic rise and growth, its mobile phone market has grown and gone extremely fast, as possessing a smartphone has become a part of what Chinese people need to show their success and their money and as technology quickly gets upgraded. What could a market saturation mean and imply for phone manufacturing companies? A saturation of the Chinese mobile phones market underlines that people won’t be buying as much products as they used to during the last few years, and that there are enough brands constituting the national offer. And there are phones for all tastes, premiums (Samsung, Apple), low-cost (Xiaomi) or â€Å"improved† knock-offs. A new brand which would want to enter the Chinese market would have some difficulties to meet success, unless it benefits from a good reputation from the rest of the world –in the cas e of a foreign company. But the recent example of Xiaomi possibly shows that the best strategy to set is to rely on an effective differentiation. High screen resolution phones, customizable phones, â€Å"lifeproof† phones, â€Å"phablet† phones, game-oriented phones are some of the various potential differentiations for new brands that could succeed in the Chinese market. The last part of the article reads about the wants of China as far as mobile phones are concerned. It seems that most Chinese people now have higher expectations for their smartphones – China is not an under-developed country anymore and has to be considered as a market with elaborated and evolved needs. As their level of life increases and there are more and more rich people in China, the customers start to â€Å"Westernize† their expectations, and companies have to take that into account in order not to undergo too many problems facing the market saturation. Mobile phones now have t o be cool, connected, fast, and multi-tasking – as the Western standards. Here is a significant topic: the labor issues in China. Foreign companies tend to benefit from the very lax Chinese legislation on work conditions. The articles even reads about deaths caused by overwork. Is the issue that serious in China? It is widely known that Chinese people are considered good workers and that China is very interesting for foreign companies that wants to reduce their costs by having a hardworking though cheap workforce to assemble their products. Many firms benefit from the Chinese labor conditions in China, which have even been part of the economic rise of the Asian country for 30 years. The first big reveal of such practice was the Nike case, the company being accused of using sweatshops with intolerable work conditions in China in the 1990’s. Nowadays, it is Apple which is under the observation of many organizations and Westerners – mainly because of its huge success in the whole world, I think; smaller companies with less cultural impact may have the same HR issues but they’re not important enough to be at the center of a controversy. Contrary to what many would think, there are labor laws in China, applicable to all companies, whether local or foreign, as the article emphasizes. Workers at Apple factories are dedicated to their job: there are dorms, they work all day long, they are underpaid, whatever the law says. Apple do not respect legal work conditions, but what could anyone do? Who is to blame for? Apple is an American-based company and Foxconn is owned but a Taiwanese multinational – that is a major problem. Furthermore, both companies are extremely successful and prolific so why would they change their practices whereas it works extremely well like this? The many suicides and deaths that happened in Foxconn factories could be a red signal, but Apple always finds explanations to take the blames off itself. S uch problem is then, to me, relatively difficult to overcome, whatever the efforts of the Chinese government or external organizations. Foreign capitalist companies have always seemed to be taking advantage of China and Chinese workers that way, it will be complicated to make them understand that they should act differently. This article focuses on Chinese innovation concerning the mobile phone industry – which means phones as well as applications. Strong brands such as Xiaomi or WeChat participate in the apparent mobile innovation in China. But are all those brands really creative and original? Can we say that China is a major country in mobile innovation? Didi seems to be just a copy of Uber created in the US, WeChat a knock-off of WhatsApp and Weibo the Chinese Facebook and Twitter – both being forbidden in China. But looking deeper, it is easy to see that those smartphone applications stand out compared to their Western equivalents, as the article points out. As well, Xiaomi is a low cost mobile phone company that offers products much more evolved than the low cost brands the US or Europe have – and the success of the brand goes now even beyond the Chinese boundaries. In that sense, it could be said that Chinese companies really are innovative but even more we can say that they actually improve what Westerners do – that is where their innovation spirit stands. Indeed, China uses what the rest of the world creates to adapt it to its local market and making it even better. That is how I see innovation in China: the Chinese do not really create from nothing, they are great observers as well as replicators and invent upgraded and evolved versions of Western ideas. Besides, I would add that this is a patriotic behavior, as I see it: China culturally rejects foreign brands and act against them and sometimes above them by â€Å"nationalizing† their ideas and making them even better – the well-known counterfeiting ta lent of China is one example. Therefore, I agree with the author’s opinion, calling China a new leader in the mobile phone market. As for the government helping and supporting innovation, it is something that I could easily believe, as China started a great innovation plan from 2006. This could enable more and more entrepreneurs-to-be (or foreign talents) to create their companies and start to innovate. Because of its History and culture, China has long been a non-innovating country – a consequence of Maoism and forced egalitarianism with all sign of capitalism and enrichment eliminated – and now it appears to change. I believe it will intensify in the future thanks to government policies and its will to fight IP thefts and to highlight innovation: this is just what China needs to support its economic growth and to be considered as a true leader – and to frighten the rest of the world. The article sets an overview of what the mobile phone retail mar ket looks like now and what it should be like in the future. Phone makers companies have to be aware of its evolution in order to best sell their products, in a very fragmented and coming-to-saturation market. Given the facts in the article, what issues for mobile phones companies can be brought out? E-commerce is about to grow subsequently in the next few years. It is a logical evolution, as China has been used for a long time – earlier than the West, actually – to online shopping and delivery, for whatever type of products, with successful websites such as Taobao or Alibaba. E-commerce sites are big competitors and threats to phone stores, and local as well as foreign understood it and now manage to adapt to the Chinese’s wants: Apple is, for example, extremely present online in China. What I learn from this article is that the Chinese change their habits. While the mobile phone market is hitting saturation (see first article), not only manufacturer comp anies but also retailers have to innovate and differentiate from their competitors in order to stay relevant and effective. China is a fast-moving country and then trends are always moving and are pretty unpredictable – and this has been that way for 30 years. Companies and retailers have to be aware of that. Local brands, as they know their market and are easily adaptable, would have less worries than foreign brands which have to build a strong understanding of China and its people – very hard job. Such polemic does not give a good image of Chinese products – if it could get even worse. Westerners (maybe only French people actually, but I think it is a general trend in the West) are paranoid concerning made-in-China products – and even more when they are from Chinese brands! They are always suspicious about that country and whatever comes from it – prejudice of bad quality, no security. So I can understand how the West has reacted when they hea rd that a Chinese brand could have been involved in political matters and spying activities against the US and Australia. China is the villain and a dangerous nation (eventhough the US themselves spied the whole world with their NSA, for different matters)!! Huawei has since then – whether the security issue and other suspicions have been actually proved or not – become a â€Å"threat to national security†. This is bad advertisement for the company that is already reputed for selling bad mobile phones and it could cause problems concerning their international expansion. Following this affair, Huawei could lose market shares in the West, people’s trust in Chinese products – or even more in China in itself – getting even more damaged. After that security issue, Huawei has been blamed for many other things such as financing Iran or the Taliban from Afghanistan. I think – whether it is true or not – it is mainly a way to crea te bad feelings from the world against China, as it was the case against Japan during the protectionist times of the US Japan-bashing. An anti-Chinese sentiment would be good as the country becomes more and more powerful economically – partly thanks to the West – and could threaten other economies. This could also easily be seen as a form of xenophobia, a fear of China, in the sense that the Western world cannot really do anything to stop or prevent the expansion of China globally or in their own country. If it works, Chinese brands and especially Huawei could have a lot of trouble entering foreign markets. China is very well known in the Western world for being a big place in terms of counterfeited items and knock-offs of everything, from products to entire brands and services. And, of course, mobile phones are no exception. Why do the Chinese counterfeit so much? What are the benefits of it for them? Counterfeiting seems to be an entire part of Chinese culture, which even has a name – Shanzhai. For the few weeks I have spent in Beijing, I have seen many knock-offs of brands such as Louis Vuitton, Apple or KFC. It is noticeable anywhere, thus Shanzhai appears to be a really well spread practice in China and something that seems to be accepted and natural. Concerning mobile phones, Apple and Samsung knock-offs can be found anywhere, in â€Å"fake† stores or in markets. What the article suggests is that it stands as a solution to employment and as a support of economic development. I can see the employment point – copying every possible brand multiply the job offer in China, whose unemployment rate appears to be 4.10% – but as far as economic development is concerned, I personally see the Shanzhai culture more as a threat than as a support. Indeed, relationships with foreign companies and investment might be damaged by such practices and so much counterfeiting could be seen as a lack of Chinese innovation (or, on the contrary, as another form of innovation? Adapting foreign products to the wants of the Chinese market? I don’t really think so). It appears as a problem, as well as IP rights unrespect in the country show, and as an unfair competition for brands who sell the original products. Shanzhai hurts growth, in the sense that it reduces China’s competitiveness and this is not good for business in the country. This practice thus has a big impact in the Chinese world. It seems to be really inherent to China, loyal to Asian and Confucian values (collectivism, â€Å"we† stronger than â€Å"I†, fear of failure, importance of money for success, rejection of Western brands and beliefs†¦). But can the Chinese change? Actually, the government is trying to make things change by reinforcing IP laws for example, and I think it is a good way to end the â€Å"copy and don’t innovate† state of mind that Chinese people have and have had for long. But there still isn’t a sign of change because the problem is now in people’s behaviors and beliefs, and that is not easy to modify. The government’s leap forward is a good thing to reassure foreign companies and investors. Don’t waste time! 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