Strategies And Evaluation Of Nissan Management Essay

Strategies And Evaluation Of Nissan Management Essay In 1999 Nissan had been facing great losses for seven of the past eight years which were now resulting in debts. This was mainly caused by the Japanese business custom of keiretsu investments which left little capital for other investments, like innovations in product designs. This lack of design innovation furthermore caused the Nissan brand to weaken as competitors were producing vehicles more stylish and up to date, reflecting customer demands. To foster a turnaround the Nissan president and CEO Yoshikazu Hanawa formed a mutual beneficial strategic alliance (Global Alliance Agreement) with Renault, allowing both companies to expand in new desirable geographic areas. With his experience in turnarounds Carlos Ghosn seemed to be the obvious choice to lead the Nissan turnaround from both the Renault and Nissan point of view. Evaluation The approach was an overall success in meeting the specific and measurable goal of turning the losses into profits not only on time but 6 month prior to the deadline. The Nissan Revival Plan was achieved one year ahead of schedule and succeeded in reducing their purchasing costs by 20 % which meant that they approximately reached the level of Renault. The large emphasis Ghosn placed on the execution also gave him an edge as this phase is much more demanding in terms of communication, meeting objectives on time and budget, potential conflicts with power resources and resistance to change. The respect Ghosn showed for the Japanese culture was vital for the initiatives to succeed, even though I believe it was a mistake for him not to learn about Japan before coming there as it is very easy unintended to insult people from other cultures if you are not familiar with their specific customs, but it also gave him an edge in being open-minded in perceiving the Japanese and Nissan culture. Coming to Japan he only brought three principles of management with him were to be well received and understood by employees: transparency, execution vs. strategy; improving quality and customer satisfaction and reducing costs. Not just anybody could have managed the Nissan turnaround as well as Ghosn did. For instance, A COO from Japan would not have been able to cut back on keiretsu investments. Because of the Japanese business culture to make these kinds of investments and the Japanese emphasis on cooperation and loyalty, it would have been considered to be a sort of betrayal and ultimately would 3 have harmed the Nissan brand even more. Only an outsider with different cultural background could legitimize such a change. The resistance Ghosn eventually faced when ignoring the almost sacred tradition of promoting by education, age and time within the company would likewise have been much more pronounced if the initiative came from a Japanese COO. Resistance to change Ultimately some sort of resistance was inevitable because of the major structural and cultural changes Nissan was facing with Ghosn as COO. People generally do not resist change, per se. but some underlying causes, like lack of understanding, fear of the unknown or fear of an outcome worse than the present situation.1 In this specific case Ghosn went a long way implementing many changes before meeting actual resistance in form of lack of cooperation among employees caused by the elimination of the old promotion system, allowing younger, less experienced employees to be promoted based on their skills and achievements. This resistance was clearly caused by fear of the unknown and fear of loosing/not gaining status by promotions. Resistance is generally a very important form of feedback and Ghosn chose to view the resistance as an opportunity for experience rather than a limitation.2 1 Dent, E. B. and Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Page 26 2 Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). Page 101 3 Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003). Page 45 4 Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). Page 100 Ghosn has overcome the actual resistance and prevented potential resistance to the cultural and structural changes in large by clearly communicating all initiatives and objectives to all Nissan employees. Communication had previously been a problem within the company but by creating a matrix structure (combining efficiency and effectiveness) and through consistency between his own actions, thoughts and communication Ghosn was making sure that transparency as well as communication within the organization was improved and afterwards maintained, keeping focus on the strategy.3 Likewise by creating the Cross-Functional Teams, he sought to build engagement and participation and made sure that the employees would have a sense of ownership over the Nissan Revival Plan and motivate communication across departments, stimulate future risk-taking and responsibility as well as regaining confidence in the companys future. Mitigating resistance by involvement and communication are generally very e ffective and will increase employee commitment to execution.4 4 The former lack of accountability and acceptance of responsibility among employees was eliminated by directly assigning responsibility and accountability and encourage people to take risks. This was accomplished in part by monetary rewards and stock options whenever the actions led to increase in operating profits or revenues.5 The previous consensus mentality at Nissan seems to have been: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢If everyone one is responsible then no one is accountable, and nobody gets punished,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- which was affecting risk-taking and slowing decision-making processes across the company. 5 Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. page C553 Organizational culture As mentioned above, the understanding and respect Ghosn expressed for the Japanese Nissan culture and the fact that he communicated his wish to work through this culture were vital for his acceptance within the organization. He made it clear from the very beginning that he too had a personal stake in the outcome and thereby created a sense of cohesion with the employees. His visibility in the organization from day one and the consistency between his communications and actions was a new but welcome change that made him human in the eyes of the employees. This transparency and consistency together with his explicit promise to respect the culture also helped building a sense trust and thereby employee support for most of Ghosns change initiatives. The Nissan president and CEO, Yoshikazu Hanawa, had a positive attitude towards Ghosn and his experience and abilities in turnarounds, since he explicitly asked Renault to send Ghosn to Nissan to lead the changes. But because Ghosn was a foreigner and not accustomed to the Japanese way of doing business, several industrial business analytics expressed scepticism and concern for this arrangement. It is likely that middle-managers and higher-level-managers have been influenced by these critics and therefore had a negative attitude towards Ghosn as COO, but if they did, they did not make much fuss about it. 5 National culture When you consider the differences between Ghosns leadership style and the Japanese (Nissan) way of doing business, it is actually a bit of an achievement that resistance did not arise earlier and more pronounced than it did. The cultural differences between Ghosn, with his experience in working in organizations with strong corporate cultures, and the Nissan organization, with its weak culture traits, were very pronounced and had great potential to cause some trouble along the way, but it takes two to tango, and one of them has to lead. The initiative of putting together Cross-Functional Teams had great potential for meeting resistance in part because of the Japanese tradition of reaching consensus when making decisions. In addition, if every member of a Cross-Functional Team had to make sure, that their respective departments were supporting every suggestion, then the decision-making process would not only have been slowed severely but would have staled. It is also very likely that the employees at Nissan would have resisted the Cross-Functional Team initiatives because of the Japanese culture of loyalty and cooperation within departments but not necessarily across departments (especially not in troubled times) caused by the weak organizational culture. Early on Ghosn became aware that in order to turn Nissan around, he would have to address some of these cultural issues in order to get to root of the problems and meet the overall goal of creating profits. First and foremost, he would have to communicate and make understood the importance of meeting customer wants and needs (included a radical change in the decision-making processe).6 The management would have to create a shared vision (or long-term plan as opposed to their usual sort-term). Management at Nissan was displaying tunnel vision and was focusing on regaining market share instead of increasing margins and product innovation to meet customer demands.7 The emphasis placed on informal contacts and information, complicated knowledge sharing across the organization, as nothing was written or formally communicated, which also slowed decision-making processes. He would have to overcome these cultural obstacles (underlying problems) before addressing the real problems at Nissan. 6 Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003). Page 46-47 7 Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. page C549 6 Luck and timing The timing for these changes was absolutely perfect. Had Ghosn and his Cross-Functional Teams tried to implement the same changes a few years earlier, they would most likely have met great resistance and possible failure. But because of the resent bankruptcy of the major financial house, Yamaichi, and the lack of bailout by the Japanese government, the employees at Nissan began to take their situation seriously and this imposed a sense of urgency among the employees. This sense of urgency helped push changes by making the employees more willing to cooperate and implement the proposed changes as well as taking more risks in order to turn the company around. This willingness for taking risks decreased the previous fear of making decisions (especially faulty decisions) which decreased the need for consensus decision-making , which again increased the speed with which decisions was able to be made. This further fostered motivation for innovative proposals for the product line, which had a positive effect on the Nissan competiveness and on consumer satisfaction. In short, the bankruptcy of Yamaichi was a stroke of luck at the exact right time to help kick-start the major changes at Nissan, especially in the minds of the employees. Looking forward In the next few years (2005) Ghosn will have to return to Renault to take over as CEO (his lifelong dream). The right replacement for his job must ensure continuous growth and success, keeping focus on customer needs and increases in profit as well as to nurture the newly accomplished sense of urgency to keep driving employees towards continuous improvements (Nissan 180). A successor should, besides the above mentioned, be able to create a balance between long-term and short-term objectives to ensure that employees do not fall back into old habits.8 Constantly setting short-term objectives, aligning them with long-term objectives will enhance motivation among Nissan employees as they will see their effort and hard work paying of. 8 Griswold, H. M. and Prenovitz, S. C.(1993). Page 5 9 Krackhardt, D. and Hanson, J. R.(1993). I would recommend Ghosn to use the network analysis9 as a tool for helping him making the best possible decision, ensuring that the person he will choose is trustworthy among employees, accountable and responsible, has influential power. The friendship network is always a good place to start, but he should be sure to mad both the communication network and advice network as well. Perhaps there will be an obvious overlap between the three. 7 Conclusion The Nissan turnaround was a great success in that it met measurable objectives and accomplished to overall strategic goal of increasing profits within the schedule. By approaching the Japanese and corporate Nissan culture with an open mind, Ghosn was able to gain the employees trust. His approach to the cultural differences combined with a great stroke of luck, turned the challenge into and opportunity and he was thereby able to meet the overall goal. In facing the fundamental problems within the organization; lack of clear profit orientation, insufficient focus on customers and too much on competitors, lack of a sense of urgency, no shared vision or common long-term plan, lack of cross-functional, cross-border, cross-cultural lines of work, he had to bend the rules of engagement by changing large parts of the Nissan culture. More specifically, based on the recommendations from the Cross-Functional Teams, he implemented some rather radical changes on the Japanese traditions of doing business, in order to help Nissan get back on track. Even though he was hereby violating his prior commitment to be sensitive to the Nissan culture, he did not experience serious resistance in doing so, because it was ultimately Nissan employees suggesting these changes, he was just executing them. In choosing his Successor Ghosn should map the informal networks within the organization, emphasising on trust, accountability and power to create change. 8 List of literature  · Dent, E. B. and Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Challenging resistance to change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35(1), 25-41.  · Ford, J. D. and Ford, L. W. (2009). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Decoding resistance to change.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, 87(4), 99-103.  · Fu, Dean and Millikin, john P. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢The Global Leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Thunderbird The American Graduate School of International Management, C546 C556  · Griswold, H. M. and Prenovitz, S. C.(1993).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢How to translate strategy into operational results.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Business Forum, 18(3), 5-9.  · Krackhardt, D. and Hanson, J. R.(1993).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Informal networks: the company behind the chart.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, July/August, 104-111.  · Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B.(2003).à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢What really works.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- Harvard Business Review, 81(7), 42-52.

Winter Dreams :: essays research papers

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, â€Å"Winter Dreams† Fitzgerald creates a character, Dexter Green, a fourteen year old boy who is confident in his â€Å"winter dreams† of extraordinary success, wealth and social status in his â€Å"golden future†. Over the course of the story Dexter paved his way to an ambitious future of economic wealth. At fourteen Dexter was described as the best caddie worker in the club, making thirty dollars a month, which for the summer was not able to be me made anywhere else on the lake. Dexter was also a smart boy, who knew how to barter, asking Mr. Jones for a raise making it â€Å"worth his while† since he was the best caddie. This shows that Dexter is not the type that will just settle. He is a very determined ambitious character.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After college Dexter becomes successful in the business world, opening a chain of laundries. He moves his way up the economic ladder with all of his laundries being flourishing. This shows that he is a hard working ambitious character because he is slowly becoming successful in the business world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Judy terminated the engagement, Dexter went out east with the intention of selling out his laundries—but when the war came to America he handed over the business for his partner to run, so he could fight in the war. This shows that Dexter was ambitious because he went off to fight for his country and he left everything he had behind, risking everything that he had.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the end of the story, Dexter learns from a business man that Judy had gotten married to an alcoholic husband. He says, he can not care anymore, nor will he ever. Ultimately, Dexter realizes that his desire for ambition in the business world will overpower his desire for love with Judy, or any woman for that matter.

Impact of Marketization on Higher Education in the UK

Abstract Marketization is an increasing phenomenon within the current environment. Every sector of the economy continues to adopt the concept of marketization in a bid to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness of the affected sectors. One of the main sectors identified in the current literature review is higher education. The paper below provides a critical literature review on the basis of theoretical and empirical reviews. The theoretical review identifies and explains the theory of marketization whereas the empirical review evaluates the varied findings and views of the scholars and researchers on the impact of marketization on higher education. The results of the review state that there are both negative and positive impacts of marketization on higher education in respect to UK. Key words: Marketization, higher education, theoretical, empirical Introduction The following is a review of literature on the impact of marketization on higher education in the UK. Evidently, marketization, which involves the restructuring, remodelling, and transformation of publicly-owned enterprises or organisations into market-based entities, continues to be a common phenomenon especially in the current century. Through marketization, majority of the higher learning institutions in the UK have been transformed from being owned by the government to market-oriented institutions to enhance quality and operations. A number of researchers and scholars have conducted an evaluation and analysis on the impact of the concept on higher education in the UK. Therefore, the current paper aims at reviewing some of the literatures explaining the impact of marketization on higher education. In accomplishing this objective, the current literature review is performed on the basis of theoretical and empirical reviews. The review ends with a concluding remark that summarises th e main points whilst stating the stand of the analysis. Theoretical Review Marketization theory describes the functionality of marketization. According to Raffe and Croxford (2013), the theory of marketization provides a good foundation to nations in introducing the aspects of choices, competition, and public accountability, which are essential in enhancing the quality of products or services under production. Evidently, the theory of marketization helps in eliminating different economic problems and concepts such as unfavourable market competition, inefficiencies in markets, and the lack of players and market forces that are likely to influence the production process. Based on the theory of marketization argues it is important to transform an entire economy by getting rid of the planned economic system and allowing market-based scenario to prevail in the economy in question (Quinlan, 2014). Amongst the aspects discussed within the theory of marketization include liberalisation, contracting reforms, stimulating of competition, incentive creation, and outsou rcing reforms that will help in transforming the higher education sector. Other aspects explained within the theory of marketization include the reduction of regulation, opening market-oriented systems, and effective allocation of resources (Xue-chao, 2012). From such perceptions, it is arguably important to note that the theory of marketization explains the fact that through the concept of liberalising an economy all the trade barriers and price controls are significantly removed, which provide space to the various stakeholders to actively engage in ensuring that there is high quality production process. From the perspective of the marketization theory, a number of economies across the globe are calling upon for the deregulation of institutions of higher learning with the aim of making them more competitive within the global market. The 2013 year has been a year of marketization of the higher education system in the UK (Raffe & Croxford, 2013). Throughout the 2013, UK developed policies and strategies towards attaining a fully marketised system especially for the higher education sector. Since 2013 UK has developed numerous and possibly effective policies that are aimed at encouraging the expansion of higher education. Expansion of higher education as anticipated by the UK government through development of various policies has the sole objective of increasing participation of all the stakeholders in education (McNeill, 2012). Increased participation of all involved stakeholders in the higher education courtesy of marketization concept results into a more educated workforce, which has actually enabled the UK to experience a growth in its economy. Indeed, marketization of the higher education in UK has offered a perfect ground-breaking insight on how the government policies can be employed towards altering the structures and operations of different institutions for higher learning especially universities and technical colleges (Xue-chao, 2012). The following section provides an empirical review of the previous studies and views of the scholars on the impact of the marketization on higher education with special focus to the UK. Empirical Review Different scholars and researchers have performed evaluation, analysis, and studies on the impact of marketization on higher education in the UK. Brown (2013) conducted a study that aimed at describing the concept of market-based policies with regards to higher education in the UK. In addition, Brown (2013) also aimed at assessing the historical background regarding the current reforms within higher education in UK especially in respect to marketization. The study by Brown (2013) established that there has been an improvement in higher education as seen within the idea of competition, efficiency, responsiveness, as well as innovation courtesy of marketization. From the perspective of the theory of marketization, Brown (2013) argued that marketization has provided the opportunity for different stakeholders other than government to also engage in providing services of education and learning in higher institutions of learning. Therefore, from the study of Brown it is evident that market ization has positive impact on higher education within UK. The other study was performed by Hommel and King (2013) who sought to find out the financial dimension of specific reforms by the government especially in respect to developing an educational sector that is risk-based. From the corporate risk management literature, Hommel and King (2013) found out that business schools, which continues to adopt the risk-based regulations and reforms to meet their objectives and targets with respect to learning process, face a lot of challenges especially in line with managing risks. In this respect, Hommel and King (2013) established the fact that business schools especially within the ranks of universities and other institutions of higher learning should be careful about their financial solvency through effective and efficient maintenance of functioning risks. Hence, on the perspective of the study conducted by Hommel and King (2013), it is evident that in as much as marketization provides some positive impacts there are negative impacts that accrue due to the concept for instance the increase exposure to various financial risks. Natale and Doran (2012) also performed a study on the marketization of education in a bid to identify the ethical dilemma that exists in the same. From the study, it is clear that the marketing of education continues to be epidemic, which calls for the suffusion of both practices and principles of business in the management of higher education. However, Natale and Doran (2012) established in their study that in as much as the higher education is becoming more advanced, efficient, effective, and very competitive, the idea of exposing higher education to marker-based systems has resulted into increased costs of education. As a result, there is a growing ethical concern, that is, even though on one side the higher education sector is becoming more efficient, effective, and competitive, the cost of accessing such higher education has become higher and unattainable since the pricing has been left on market forces. Such views have also been put forward by Tapper (2013), who argue that desp ite positive impacts of marketization on higher education, the market-based systems have exposed the pricing of higher education to market forces, which makes the entire cost expensive. Hence, there is need to identify whether to enhance efficiency at the expense of the cost of providing education. The other study was conducted by Holmwood (2012) with an aim of analysing markets and publics as the new battlegrounds for the sector of higher education across many economies. Holmwood (2012) evaluated the recent policy changes especially started by the British Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. The policy by the coalition government is a preferred paradigm shift with respect to restructuring and remodelling of the higher education sector. The findings from the study showed that there has been radical and neo-liberal approach towards transforming the higher education sector. So far, the policies developed by the government have been very successful in enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness of higher education. However, Holmwood (2012) stated in the study that the only problem with transforming higher education sector into a market-based system is the fact that monocultural perspectives are likely to result into value of what is lost. Despite th e problem of monoculture as created by the market-based systems, Holmwood (2012) strongly believe that marketization is indeed a good concept; a view that has also been supported by Nickola et al (2012). Consequently, marketization continues to be a good foundation for changing higher education in the UK. Conclusion The above is a literature review explaining the impacts of marketization on higher education with special focus to the UK. The review contains two main sections, namely, the theoretical review and the empirical review. On the basis of the theoretical review, it is evident that the theory of marketization calls for the removal of the public or government dominance in the running and management of institutions of higher learning. What’s more, the theory of marketization explains that through changing the higher education sector to market-based system, the private sector is highly involved, which results into enhanced efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness of the higher institutions of learning. On a different perspective, the empirical review provides an analysis and evaluation of the various findings by different researchers and scholars on the impact of marketization on higher education. From the empirical review, it is clear that whereas there are numerous positive im pacts of marketization on higher education, the concept also has negative impacts on the same sector. List of References Brown, R. 2013, â€Å"Access to Higher Education: The Shift towards Market-Based Policies in the UK†, DICE Report, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 23-27. Holmwood, J. 2012, â€Å"Markets versus Publics: The New Battleground of Higher Education†, Harvard International Review, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 12-15. Hommel, U. & King, R. 2013, â€Å"The emergence of risk-based regulation in higher education†, The Journal of Management Development, vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 537-547. McNeill, T., 2012, ‘‘Don’t affect the share price’’: social media policy in higher education as reputation management. Research in Learning Technology, vol. 20. Natale, S.M. & Doran, C. 2012, â€Å"Marketization of Education: An Ethical Dilemma†, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 105, no. 2, pp. 187-196. Nickolai, D. H., Hoffman, S. G., & Trautner, M. N., 2012, Can a knowledge sanctuary also be an economic engineThe marketization of higher education as institutional boundary work. Sociology Compass, vol. 6, no. 3; Pp. 205-218. Quinlan, K. M., 2014, Everything for saleThe marketisation of UK higher education. By Roger Brown with Helen Carasso. British Journal of Educational Studies, (ahead-of-print), 1-3. Raffe, D., & Croxford, L., 2013, How stable is the stratification of higher education in England and Scotland?. British Journal of Sociology of Education, (ahead-of-print), 1-23. Tapper, T., 2013, Roger Brown and H. Carasso: Everything for saleThe marketisation of UK higher education. Higher Education, vol. 66, no. 5; Pp. 641-643. Xue-chao, Y. H. J. M., 2012, Marketization of Higher Education in the UK: The Perspective of Financing [J]. Tsinghua Journal of Education, vol. 3, no. 015.

Basic Economic Concepts - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 834 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/09/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Topics: Concept Essay Did you like this example? Basic Economic Concepts Basic Indicators The following basic economic indicators are important to understand: * Gross Domestic Product (GDP)   is the total amount of all goods and services produced in the country. This includes consumer spending, government spending and business inventories. Real GDP is a variant that takes out the impact of inflation, so that GDP can be compared over time. Real GDP is the basic measure of business activity and tracks the business cycle. Consumer Price Index (CPI)  -is a measure of the price of a basket of goods and services; increases to this index indicate an increase in inflation. * Producer Price Index (PPI)  -is a measure of the price of commercial items, such as farm products and industrial commodities. PPI indicates the cost to produce items and is the leading indicator of inflation. * Trade deficit   resultswhen a countrys imports exceed its exports. The  United Statesusually has a trade deficit. * Trade surplus   resultsw hen a countrys exports exceed its imports. Balance of payments (BOP)  Ã‚  is  the amount of foreign currency taken in minus the amount of domestic currency paid out; the  United States  usually has a balance of payments deficit. * Unemployment rate  Ã‚  the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases employment numbers each month that note the number of employed and unemployed people in the United States, as well as the percentage of unemployed. Increases in the unemployment rate tend to occur when the economy declines and vice versa. Swami and Friends| | Swami and Friends is the first of a trilogy of novels written by RK Narayan, a celebrated English novelist from India. The novel, which is also Narayans first, is set in pre-independence days in India, in a fictional town Malgudi, which has almost become a real place in India today, due to the wide recognition and popularity of Narayans many novels. His novels are known for their deftly etched characters, his uniquely stylize d language and his wry sense of humor. Swami and Friends is the story of a 10-year-old boy, growing up during this particular time, his innocence, wonder, mischief and growing pains. He is a student at Albert Mission School, a school established by the British which gives importance to Christianity, English literature and education. His life is dramatically changed when Rajam a symbol of colonial super power joins the school and he and Rajam become friends. About the Author RK Narayan started his prolific writing career with this novel Swami and Friends written in 1935. It is full of humor and irony. Narayan started writing this novel with the words It was Monday morning†¦ to the auspicious time his grandmother chose for him. Like many of his fictional grandmothers, he was close to his grandmother who was well versed with astrology. Despite this it took time for the budding writer to be acknowledged as an author. Fortunately for him, he had helped from many quarters, su ch as the well-established author British author Graham Green. He called Swami and Friends a work of remarkable maturity, and of the finest promise†¦and is the boldest gamble a novelist can take. If he allows himself to take sides, moralise, propaganda, he can easily achieve an extra-literary interest, but if he follows Mr. Narayans method, he stakes all on his creative power. Notes The novel, first intended for a very young audience, later expanded into a universal one, for its simple narrative and depiction of colonial India. Today in India it is recommended as a textbook or a reference book. One of the most glaring facts about the novel is the similarity of children through out the world, and how they have not changed since the time the novel was written. Children are all mischievous, impulsive and innocent like Swami. They all play and enjoy just like Swami, and try to circumvent doing homework by ingenious excuses and methods. Like Swami most children even today- a ttend schools that do not nourish their heritage and culture, throughout the world including the US. The criticism of the educational system and the lack of faith in it is a common theme of Narayan. It runs throughout this trilogy Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. Narayans own father who was a principal did not think much of the system as Narayan and his many fictional characters, such as Swami, Chandran, Krishna, Sriram and a host of others. But the educational system comes under grave criticism in this trilogy, and discussed at length in The English Teacher. (Read The English Teacher web page in this site. ) It is not that Narayan thought that education was useless, but rather that the school and education system founded by the British was irrelevant. He was maybe among the second generation of persons who received a formal education in India during the time, and saw how his grandparents and many other of his countrymen surviving, thriving and liv ing as good human beings, perhaps even better than the educated folk, without any education. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Basic Economic Concepts" essay for you Create order