Relationship Between Catholicism and Islam in Nigeria - 1650 Words

The Contested Relationship Between Catholicism and Islam in Nigeria (Essay Sample) Content: Name:Professor:Course:Date:The contested relationship between Catholicism and Islam in NigeriaNigeria is Africas largest country and the only country with an almost equal population of Christians and Muslims. The Muslims population dominates the northern side of Nigeria while the Christian Population occupies the Southern part of Nigeria. The Christian population represents 48% while the Muslims Population is 50% of the Nations population. The Christian population has grown tremendously over the years. As at independence, the Christian population was only 23%, and this number has increased to the current 48%. This increase is linked to the increased evangelism among the Christian community. The Muslim community, which has dominated the north, has also increased though not as much as the Christian community. By 1960, none of the religious communities had surpassed the 30% mark (Iwuchukwu and Marinus, 79).Islam in NigeriaIslamic religion in Nigeria represents the larges t Muslim population in Africa and also in the country. The Muslim community comprises the Sunni, Shafi Madhhab as well as Shia, which is a minority community in Nigeria (Tajudeen et. Al, 49). Due to the Muslim domination in the Northern Nigeria, some of the states have introduced Sharia law into their legal systems. This has caused controversy, and most Christian clerics are against this. This is a source of conflict among the Muslim and Christians in Nigeria since the Christians are against Muslim controlled constitutions since they have different beliefs and practices.Christians in NigeriaThe Christian population in Nigeria is experiencing tremendous growth since independence. The Christian population comprises the Protestants, Catholics and those still embodied in traditional Christian beliefs. They dominate the Southern part of Nigeria. This is because the Catholic missionaries who visited the country at the time of colonization concentrated on the south (Nyamnjoh and Francis, 2 35). The found Muslim colonizers had already dominated the northern part.The Catholics represent a big portion of the Christian population in Nigeria. The Catholic faith has also experienced a fast growth rate in Nigeria as well as in other African countries. Statistics shows that Africa has 16% of Worlds Catholic population. The Catholic population experienced tremendous growth of approximately 21% between 2005 and 2010. This increase in Catholic population has left many people speculating that the next people to succeed Pope Benedict XVI will come from Africa. Nigeria, Ghana and Congo lead in the number of Catholic population in Africa (Nyamnjoh and Francis, 235).Conflict between the Catholics and Muslims in NigeriaDue to the large size of the country, there are many people living in the country whom the Catholic and Muslim clerics complete winning. The vibrant Catholic movements competing with Muslims has escalated the level of conflict to higher levels, as both religions compete to win souls to their sides (Okoro, 104). This conflict has made the Vatican worried as extremists from both sides emerge.The rapid increase of Muslims and Christians since independence has brought tension between the two religions. This has seen both sides rising against each other as they complete over who is superior to the other (Nyamnjoh and Francis, 235). According the Nigerian government, religious intolerance has claimed over 50, 000 deaths since the early 1990s (Iwuchukwu and Marinus, 79). This was through religious uprisings with each religion having its share of extremists.Despite the current conflicts, the West African country was initially formed based on interreligious cooperation. At the time of Independence, the North and South regions of Nigeria were united for a common good. The Leaders from both religious sides played an instrumental role information of the largest country in Africa (Iwuchukwu and Marinus, 79). However, with intensified religious activities to wi n over more souls, this unity is currently hanging in the balance.The contented relationship between Islam and Christianity, particularly catholicism, has also played a role in the countys leadership. The politicians have split the Nigerian population on the basis of religion and not tribal basis. The choice of who becomes the president is between the Muslims and Christian communities. In the Past national elections, the race was between a Muslim president and a Christian president. The 2007 elections attracted Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, and Umaru Yar Adua, a Muslim (Tajudeen et. Al, 49). The recent 2015 elections saw the Presidential race being completed by Jonathan Good luck, a Christian (Catholic), against Buhari, a Muslim.The distinct geographical location of Muslims and Catholics has made the conflict even worse. The religious extremists born out of this conflict have been responsible for thousands of deaths in the country. The latest extremist group Boko Haram allied to t he Islamic sides has carried out multiple attacks in the country. The group is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Christians in Nigeria (Okoro, 104).The Islamic Extremist group is one of the many uprisings in the world mostly targeting the Christian populations. They carry attacks in Christian dominated areas including churches where women, children, and men are murdered by bombing, using grenades or even mass shooting. This attacks against Christians have caused division among the residents as well as the ruling class.There are various attacks that have happened in Nigeria in recent years. In 2000, there were riots by Christians when the Muslims northerners changed their legal systems to sharia law. The changes in legal systems introduced punishments against wrongdoers in Islamic states. Such punishments included Amputations as well as death by stoning for those who went against what the Sharia law demands. The anti-religious riots claimed the lives of over 100 people. In 2 002, there were other anti-religious riots where the Muslim community was against the holding of Miss World competition in their country. The claimed that such a function is what the Quran teaches. This riot claimed the lived of over 200 people.In recent years, there have been reports of alliances being formed by Islamic leaders. The Nigerian media alleged that the Islamic leaders were preparing a jihad. The Islamic leaders were against what they alleged as mistreatment of Muslims against a Christian President (Nathaniel and Abubakar,64). They complained that a Christian president had ruled for a long time, and the Muslim community had suffered victimization and mistreatment in the regime of a Christian ruler.The continued intolerance prompted the former Head of Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II to appoint a powerful cleric to intervene on behalf of Catholics and Christians as a whole. Cardinal Francis Arinze was appointed to lead the Catholic Church in Nigeria as well to change ho w different religions viewed each other. The cardinal intervened by addressing issues that were a common problem with all religions. Catholics and Muslims are against sexual permissiveness as well as contraception (Nyamnjoh and Francis, 235). He focused on these issues as a way of uniting the antagonizing religion groupings. He achieved this by addressing crowds of people comprising both Christians and Muslims.Authentic dialog demands that Muslims and Christians accept one another with all their similarities. Muslim-Christian relations are challenged and obstructed by religious fanaticism or extremism. Despite the intervention of Religious leaders, extremism is on the rise and each side confront the other for enhancing their religion. Different countries are facing the problems of extremists. This is caused by by the fear of their religion being encroached by the clerics of the sides (Nyamnjoh and Francis, 235).. Some of the Muslim clerics have protested when evangelical chur ches hold mass gatherings to preach and teach about Christianity. They are against what they term as too much evangelization . They feel that their Christian counterparts are on a mission to win converts to join their religion.Furthermore, the Catholics are also worried about the rapid spread of Islam in Nigeria. They are also worried by the rapid expansion of religious boundaries towards the south. The south in dominated by Christians and this expansion of boundaries shows that Christians are leaving their religion and joining Islam. This is a factor that has motivated the formation of extremist groups to fight against each other (Nathaniel and Abubakar,64).Conflict in Catholic and Muslim beliefsThe conflict between the Catholics and Islam is due to the different beliefs and practices. One of this beliefs is on the issue of polygamy. According to the Islamic religion, men are allowed to marry up to three wives. This practice is usually contested by the Catholics. According to th e Catholic practices, men are only allowed to marry one wife. Catholics who go contrary to this doctrine are usually expelled from the church since it is against their teachings. There is also a content in beliefs on whether clerics or religion leaders should marry (Nathaniel and Abubakar,64). According to the Vatican rules, Cardinals and other Catholic Priests are not supposed to get married nor get involved in sexual relations with women. However, some priests have gone against this rule, and this has resulted in their expulsion from the Catholic Church. Muslim clerics are allowed to marry up to three wives, u...

System Tray Delphi Application

Take a look at your Task Bar. See the area where the time is located? Are there any other icons there? The place is called the Windows System Tray. Would you like to place your Delphi applications icon there? Would you like that icon to be animated - or reflect the state of your application? This would be useful for programs that are left running for long periods of time with no user interaction (background tasks you typically keep running on your PC all day long). What you can do is to make your Delphi applications look as if they are minimizing to the Tray (instead of to the Task Bar, right to the Win Start button) by placing an icon in the tray and simultaneously making your form(s) invisible. Lets Tray It Fortunately, creating an application that runs in the system tray is pretty easy - only one (API) function, Shell_NotifyIcon, is needed to accomplish the task. The function is defined in the ShellAPI unit and requires two parameters. The first is a flag indicating whether the icon is being added, modified, or removed, and the second is a pointer to a TNotifyIconData structure holding the information about the icon. That includes the handle of the icon to show, the text to show as  a tool tip when the mouse is over the icon, the handle of the window that will receive the messages of the icon and the message type the icon will send to this window. First, in your main forms Private section put the line:TrayIconData: TNotifyIconData; type TMainForm class(TForm) procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject); private TrayIconData: TNotifyIconData; { Private declarations }public{ Public declarations }end; Then, in your main forms OnCreate method, initialize the TrayIconData data structure and call the Shell_NotifyIcon function: with TrayIconData dobegin cbSize : SizeOf(TrayIconData); Wnd : Handle; uID : 0; uFlags : NIF_MESSAGE NIF_ICON NIF_TIP; uCallbackMessage : WM_ICONTRAY; hIcon : Application.Icon.Handle; StrPCopy(szTip, Application.Title); end; Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_ADD, TrayIconData); The Wnd parameter of the TrayIconData structure points to the window that receives notification messages associated with an icon.   The hIcon points to the icon we want to add to the Tray - in this case, Applications main icon is used.The szTip holds the Tooltip text to display for the icon - in our case the title of the application. The szTip can hold up to 64 characters.The uFlags parameter is set to tell the icon to process application messages, use the applications icon and its tip. The uCallbackMessage points to the application-defined message identifier. The system uses the specified identifier for notification messages that it sends to the window identified by Wnd whenever a mouse event occurs in the bounding rectangle of the icon. This parameter is set to WM_ICONTRAY constant defined in the interface section of the forms unit and equals: WM_USER 1; You add the icon to the Tray by calling the Shell_NotifyIcon API function. The first parameter NIM_ADD adds an icon to the Tray area. The other two possible values, NIM_DELETE and NIM_MODIFY are used to delete or modify an icon in the Tray - well see how later in this article. The second parameter we send to the Shell_NotifyIcon is the initialized TrayIconData structure. Take One If you RUN your project now youll see an icon near the Clock in the Tray. Note three things.   1) First, nothing happens when you click (or do anything else with the mouse) on the icon placed in the Tray - we havent created a procedure (message handler), yet.2) Second, there is a button on the Task Bar (we obviously dont want it there).3) Third, when you close your application, the icon remains in the Tray. Take Two Lets solve this backward. To have the icon removed from the Tray when you exit the application, you have to call the Shell_NotifyIcon again, but with the NIM_DELETE as the first parameter. You do this in the OnDestroy event handler for the Main form. procedure TMainForm.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);begin Shell_NotifyIcon(NIM_DELETE, TrayIconData);end; To hide the application (applications button) from the Task Bar well use a simple trick. In the Projects source code add the following line: Application.ShowMainForm : False; before the Application.CreateForm(TMainForm, MainForm); E.g let it look like: ...begin Application.Initialize; Application.ShowMainForm : False; Application.CreateForm(TMainForm, MainForm); Application.Run;end. And finally, to have our Tray icon respond to mouse events, we need to create a message handling procedure. First, we declare a message handling procedure in the public part of the form declaration: procedure TrayMessage(var Msg: TMessage); message WM_ICONTRAY; Second, the definition of this procedure looks like: procedure TMainForm.TrayMessage(var Msg: TMessage);begincase Msg.lParam of WM_LBUTTONDOWN: begin ShowMessage(Left button clicked - lets SHOW the Form!); MainForm.Show; end; WM_RBUTTONDOWN: begin ShowMessage(Right button clicked - lets HIDE the Form!); MainForm.Hide; end; end;end; This procedure is designed to handle only our message, the WM_ICONTRAY. It takes the LParam value from the message structure which can give us the state of the mouse upon the activation of the procedure. For the sake of simplicity well handle only left mouse down (WM_LBUTTONDOWN) and right mouse down (WM_RBUTTONDOWN). When the left mouse button is down on the icon we show the main form, when the right button is pressed we hide it. Of course, there are other mouse input messages you can handle in the procedure, like, button up, button double click etc. Thats it. Quick and easy. Next,  youll see how to animate the icon in the Tray and how to have that icon reflect the state of your application. Even more, youll see how to display a pop-up menu near the icon.

Modern Technology And Its Impact On Society - 1684 Words

The increase in modern technology has greatly impacted society, as it is a major cause of distraction within people’s lives. Cell phones, tablets and laptops have become everyday necessities to many people. Although these technologies are built to assist individuals with tasks and give them easy access to information, they also have many detrimental impacts. Individuals need to understand that preventative measures must be taken and become more knowledgeable of the possible threats that are associated with the use of technology. Everyone around us seems to be absorbed by a â€Å"technologically mediated† world (Aagaard,â€Å"What drives technology† 223). Modern day technologies result in the loss of focus and causes harmful impacts on the road, in academics, in various social interactions, in people’s perception of reality and external surroundings. Technology-based distractions continue to increase, and as a result, society faces many harmful repercussion s due to the rise. Cell phones are known to be the number one common distraction for drivers. Drivers become more engaged into their own cell-phone than concentrating on the road and surroundings while driving. In the years of 2009 and 2010, a survey was conducted on technology based driver distraction engagement in an Accident Analysis and Prevention article. Drivers were questioned on certain distracted driving habits. The majority of people who were studied knew of the harms caused in using technology while driving however,Show MoreRelatedModern Technology And Its Impact On Modern Society Essay1960 Words   |  8 Pages Modern technology has undoubtedly had a profound impact on contemporary society. However, critics of modern technology emphasize that modern technology has had deleterious effects on young Americans. In The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future: Or, Don t Trust Anyone under 30, Mark Bauerlein attempts to argu e that the young Americans of contemporary society are increasingly unintelligent as a result of modern technology, but fails to elaborateRead MoreThe Impact Of Technology On Modern Society Essay1457 Words   |  6 PagesOur world is constantly changing. One aspect that seems to change the most rapidly and frequently is technology. Technology impacts every aspect of modern society. All industries rely on technology in one way or another, however, the impact of technology is more apparent in the field of healthcare and medicine. In relevance to pharmacy, modern technology has changed the structure and organization of the entire medical field (Banova, 2013). In the field of pharmacy, there are a multitude of differentRead MoreModern Technology And Its Impact On Society903 Words   |  4 PagesBefore modern technology, men would band together for the protection of their families. History has proven people group together for survival, whether that be warmth, food, or protection. The idea was that a group is stronger and more profitable than one person acting alone. Each tribe or gathering of individuals working together is considered a society. A society is nothing more than a group of people living together for a common purpose, or simply because it is more convenient. But, if all societiesRead MoreTechnology And Its Impact On Modern Society2188 Words   |  9 Pages In the past century, society has seen great leaps in technology that has connected people together more than ever, it has saved lives and continues to make day to day life simply easier to navigate. However, there are consequences to these advances. With people clamoring every year to get their hands on the newest iteration of their electronic devices, whether it be the latest iPhone, a more advanced computer or a high-definition television society must confront the problems it has created by itsRead MoreThe Impact Of Modern Day Technology On Modern Society1790 Words   |  8 PagesToday in our modern society, technology has become such an important part of our lives, that it has even become part of our language, as certain aspects of modern day technology are being used as adjectives and verbs. One example is ‘Googling’, or when was the last time you ‘Googled’ some information. In our modern society, trends and technology become such a large part of every day life that people start to use them as verbs and adjectives. For example, when s the last time you Googled somethingRead MoreThe Impact Of Modern Technology On Us And Our Society Essay1704 Words   |  7 PagesThe Impact of the Modern Technology on us and our society. Today it is hard to imagine what our lives would look like without the technology that surrounds us, it is even harder to imagine what our lives would be with the technological advancements that begun to take shape during the industrial revolution that, begun in England during the 18th century. The industrial revolution brought on many changes into humans everyday lives, allowing us as mankind to increasingly become smarter, faster andRead MoreInformation Technology And Its Impact On Modern Society1952 Words   |  8 PagesInformation technology touches almost every aspect of modern human life. It can help with diverse industries such as healthcare, petroleum and energy, finance etc. Information technology enables seamless integration and communication between businesses all over the world. To keep IT systems running smoothly, a large workforce is required to maintain networks, information security and software. With the constant innovation in IT, there is a plethora of varied jo bs in this industry. The profiles rangesRead MoreTechnology And Its Impact On Society1198 Words   |  5 PagesTechnology is used on a daily basis to accomplish specific tasks or interests. Modern technology increases human capabilities and this technology has evolved with years. Technology simplifies life in so many ways and everyone defines technology in their own way. They’re new types of technology on the market, this technology simplifies our daily lives. They’re endless demands as consumers of technology, people use technology to accomplish simple tasks every day. Technology’s used in business, educationRead MoreModern Technology Is Simply An Advancement Of Old Technology,1231 Words   |  5 PagesModern technology is simply an advancement of old technology, the impact of technology in modern life is unmeasurable, we use technology in different ways and sometimes the way we implement various technologies ends up harming our lives or the society we leave in. What we call modern technology is technically not so new in most cases. For example, mobile phone technology has evolved with years, nowadays we use smartphones which have been an advancement of an ordinary mobile phone. Technology is appliedRead MoreResults of Advancements in Technology Essay811 Words   |  4 PagesIn today’s society, modern technology is evidently developing rapidly and it is portrayed as a negative impact. It can be seen that technology is a substitution of all characteristics of life. The purpose of every technological invention is to benefit the lives of mankind; thus re-enforcing the positive connotation of technology. However, in long term it may not be beneficial; such as, education, work and leisure are all becoming dependent on technology; cyberspace is dangerous and child obesity

Diversification and Excellence in Corporate Strategy †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Diversification and Excellence in Corporate Strategy. Answer: Introduction This assignment is based on the organization Google and its operational activities. The sarcasm lies in the fact that if someone is asked the definition of Google then he will have to take the help of Google only. If the Google search engine is used for its definition then the probable answers can be, a widely used search engine that uses certain methods and techniques to find out the results relevant to the searches made by the user (Brett et al., 2017). Google has transformed itself gradually from the searches of the primary words to widely known words. The webpage of the Google is set as the standard benchmark for the assessment of most of the internet companies. The success that has been achieved by Google has become possible as it has utilized its competencies to face the challenges strategically in order to be the leading technological innovators globally. This can be considered as a remarkable achievement if the present global crisis in the economy is paid attention. It also p uts emphasis on the interdependent relationship between globalization and technology. If the financial report of the competitors of Google can be reviewed then it can be seen that Google had not only taken care of its own progress but also led the market in sharing data and growth categories. It has achieved the second position in the all round category of profitability. The previous figures and numbers of Google have given the competitors a tough competition in the run for finance and market share. In order to analyze the competitive industries that the company Google operates in cannot be specified using a fixed code (Cordray et al, 2015). It has a diversified portfolio which is spread in the vast arena of products and services which have evolved around the opportunities that are brought in by the internet. So it can be an extremely ineffective discussion about the aspects of the strategies of Google which are associated with the two most outstanding offerings of web search and advertising. For the reasons that are mentioned above, an overview of the external environment of Google industry can be well attained by the main competitors such as Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft that are faced by the company in its offerings arena. The competitive environment of Google is complex as different markets and industries are involved with their separate set of challenges and competitors (Cusumano, 2016). To analyze the external environment of the organization, PESTLE can be used which takes into consideration the political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental perspective. Political factors- it is a widespread statement that Google follows monopoly. This system has led to mistrust of action and it had been called for changing the way in which it carries out the operational activities. Criticism has also given rise to the fact that Google has tried to control their power over the flow of information. So the technical experts have observed the fact that the search results provided by Google can influence the outcome of election. Economic factors- By accumulating a lot of finance, there lay a risk of inflation for Google. If there is a chance of drop in the currency value, then it would immediately affect the organizational value. The cash accumulated by the company can be threatening for the currency market and the exchange rates (Edelman Geradin, 2016). Social factors- With the decrease in the use of primitive computers or laptops, the company value will be affected. It has been reported that the increase in the use of social media applications such as Face book and Whatsapp for those activities which were previously done on the internet including video streaming, search, online shopping and money transfer. Technological factors- The technological factors that have affected the business of Google include the increase in the use of mobile devices for connecting to the internet. The popular competitors of Google who have introduced search algorithms include Microsoft and Amazon. With the increasing affinity for the social media solutions and instant messaging services have changed the way in which Google used to conduct its business (Encheva Pedersen, 2014). Legal factors- Google have already penetrated the highly regulated fields such as insurance, finance, automobiles and communications. This system is responsible for putting up severe limitations on its operational activities. The cost of liabilities might increase with Googles entry in the field of insurance and the experiments done with the delivery services. Environmental factors- The business model of Google is totally reliable on the data centers and the other infrastructure of internet which consumes a lot of electricity. Therefore the efforts put for controlling global warming is to encourage the use of expensive sources of green energy for producing electricity to increase the operating cost of Google. The BCG matrix can also be used as one of the strategies for analyzing the external environment of the Google organization. The BCG or the Boston Consulting Group analysis is a portfolio diagram which includes cash cows, dogs, question marks and stars. The cash cows are considered when the company has high market share in a slow industry. The dogs refer to a low market share in a slow but developed industry. The question marks consider those businesses which are functioning with a low market share in the high growth market. Finally, stars are those units with a high market share in the fast industry (Erhemjamts, Li Venkateswaran, 2013). The cash cows in the matrix are the search engine of Google is widely used and a reliable source since its inception. The product has been responsible for bringing in constant revenue. The stars in the matrix include the applications such as Gmail, Blogger, Google maps, and Google docs, Android, Advertising and YouTube. The question marks represent the Chrome book which refers to the new product and the uncertainty of its success or failure that is attached to it. The dog in the analysis signifies Google Mar and Google TV which were unable to reach the expectation of the market share (Gamble Thompson, 2014). Internal Environment The internal environment involves those events and styles inside the organization which has an impact on the management, employees and the culture of the organization. The statement that is provided by Google about organizing the world to make universal and useful information globally accessible, throws light on the fact that the organization is less interested in maximizing its profit and at the same time works hard to meet up to the expectations of the customers by providing a high quality product. That is why, Google delivers high value product which meets the consumer needs with a quick and efficient action. According to the organization, the place where they are placed currently has been possible for their customers (Taufick, 2015). They have gained this position because of their strategy to hire smart and confident people who might not be experienced but able enough. The employees of the organization might share a common goal and objective although they belong to different cult ural background, speak a variety of languages and come from different parts of the world. They put maximum effort to maintain the organizational culture keeping in mind the different race and background of the employees which provides an effective internal environment to work for. The strategic analysis of Google serves at a direction which is different from the external forces applied in the industry environment. Therefore, Porters five forces are used for clarifying the direction strategically. After it was established in 1998, Google has attained a prestigious position in the industry for instance, online advertising market. Being such a large enterprise Google has around 57000 employees in various locations all around the globe. When the five forces model of Porter is used for analyzing the current business scenario of Google, the characteristics of the companys industry environment can be easily determined. The consistent success of the organization lies on the basis of the organizations ability to consider the internal factors (Team, 2014). The five forces analysis of the internal environment of Google involves- strong competitive rivalry from the competitors; weak bargaining from the side of the buyers; weak bargaining power of the suppliers; moderate threat of substitutes and moderate threats of the new entrants. On the basis of Porters five forces analysis, the competition from the rivals of the company is considered as a strong factor for the company. The factors of the threats of substitution along with the threat of new entrants are considered as moderate factors in the internal environment of the Google industry. The bargaining power from the buyers and the suppliers are considered as the least significant factors of the industry environment. Competitive rivalry is the strong force faced by the Google organization. Under the analysis by Porters five forces, the competition from the rival companies have restricted the growth and development of the firm. The factors that are a part of strong competitive rivalry are- large number of firms, large diversity of firms and low costs for switching. The bargaining powers of the buyers are poor in encouraging the business of Google (Stevenson, 2014). In the particular analysis model, a weak external force has minimum consideration while making strategic decisions. The small size of the buyers is considered as weak force; high and increasing expectation and demand from the buyers are also considered as weak force; the moderate quality of information refers to the moderate force of the analysis. Every individual buyer only makes a little contribution in the revenue gaining of Google, thus applies only a weak force on the company. The moderate quality of information actually implies the limited knowledge of the customers. For instance, the advertisers might access the analytics but those data will be limited to inform the advertisers regarding the dynamics and complexity of the environment of online advertising (Team, 2014). Bargaining power of suppliers is weak when it comes to the organization, Google. In the given analysis of Porters five forces, it is seen that when there comes a method of selection among the suppliers, then the bargaining power is weak. The weak effect of force is applied on the organization due to high availability of supply and large population of suppliers. The large availability of the supply mixed with the wide population of suppliers reduces the effect of the bargaining power of an individual supplier in the business plan of Google (Steiber Alnge, 2013). Moderate threats of substitution are experienced by Google that involves advertising channels for instance radio, TV and print media. The factors that are considered by Google in this respect are low switching costs and moderate to high availability of substitutes both of which are considered as the moderate force in the organization. The low switching costs is easy for the customers to shift from the Googles advertising services towards the substitute services. In this model of porters five forces, a moderate force is exerted on the business of Google (Shaw Graham, 2017). Therefore the all round effect of the factors provides moderate threat of substitution against the products and services of Google. Threats of new entry have moderate effect on the business model of Google. The new entrants can come in the form of new ventures and investments of huge technology companies and also the start- up companies which deliver the similar products as that of Google. In this five forces model of Porter, the factors that contribute to the moderate threat of new entrants include moderate cost of conducting the business. The weak force is exerted on the high cost of brand development whereas strong force is applicable on the regulatory requirements which can be easily fulfilled. The moderate cost of conducting a business refers to the fact that a certain number of start- up companies and some other firms can penetrate the market to come in competition with Google. Moreover, it is easy to fulfill the regulatory requirements thus, providing an easy way for the new entrants to get connected and compete with Google (Shaughnessy, 2014). But due to the high cost of brand development, it might be dif ficult for some start- up companies and the other firms to sustain a long- term operation and also because Google has already become one of the leading and popular brands in the world. Business- level strategy At present, Google has been pursuing the generic level strategy of differentiation in the business by providing different products and services which are unique in their own way and appealing to the customers. The web search engine of Google is the most famous service offered by it which helps the user to get hold of a reliable way for searching. The biggest advantage of the differentiation business strategy of Google is the establishment of the loyalty of the customers. The current figure of Googles web search engine is 66% with respect to the worldwide internet searches. The customers are consistently using the Google search engine for the ease and reliability of the search results (Schmidt Rosenberg, 2014). Google has launched its new service Google Instant which decreases the required time of search and provide the customers with more predictions and better dynamic results. This service was actually provided by Bing and Google has won over the competitive advantage because the time required in searching in Google is much less compared to Bing. Also, the instant effect on the cost of paid searches in the search engines was used to be higher than the competitors. But then recently the pricing strategy has been revised by Google and has become moderate as compared to its competitors which have given the company with competitive advantage. The prevalent market of the Google search has continued to observe modification in trends and styles because of the expansion in the market of internet user and their diversified needs. The strategic direction has been considered as product development and market penetration along with diversification in the market (Rushdi Kamal, 2014). Corporate- level strategy Googles functionality of web search is the vital feature of internet which is crucial for their business. The programmers and engineers employed in the company contribute most of their time to make relevant page rankings and search results. They follow the four prime types of corporate strategies which include stability, growth, retrenchment and combination strategies. Google uses stability approach to make a steady position for them (Perlin et al., 2017). They are able to focus on their resources and develop a competitive advantage in the market by using this approach. They have also used the sustainable growth strategy which will help them to remain in the market for a long time. The retrenchment strategies involve different stages such as turnover, disinvestment and liquidation strategy. This approach is used when the companys survival is at risk, so this is not applicable in the case of Google. Combination strategies are the integration of all the three approaches of stability, retrenchment and growth in a simultaneous or sequential way. Google has strictly adhered to these corporate level strategies to cope up with the vibrant and constantly changing environment. They have used the strategy of innovation which has developed their brand loyalty by making modifications and at the same time making way for an open- source environment. They have in creased their total corporate value by implementing the aforesaid corporate strategies. The strategies can be termed ass corporate strategic planning because it engages strategic planning at a corporate level. Google has been able to win over the competitors such as Microsoft, Yahoo and other search engines because of the four elements of speed, relevance, user experience and comprehensiveness (Pamuk, 2016). Google has succeeded in gaining momentum because of their innovations such as PageRank Technology and Hypertext- Matching Analysis. Therefore, Google has been able to stick to its position since its establishment because they have always depended upon their innovation and focused on improving their new competitive advantages. Merger and Acquisition Strategies Google is technically the most creative acquirers of in the technology space. They have spent a lot of money, around 10 billion dollars to acquire 180 companies. But the fact is that the existence of a constant Google merger and acquisition strategies seemed to be impossible (Ludolph, Allam Schulz, 2016). They focus on three elements in their merger and acquisition strategy, people, businesses which are associated with the main search of Google and the strategic investments for the future of technology. As per an article published in Time regarding the acquisition strategy of the company, it had hired 221 fresh founders in 8 years of acquisition. They have always looked for talent while implementing the acquisition strategy. Their previous records showed that they have always acquired great people who are expert in their own domain. These people have been responsible for delivering a unique product which offers a strong value proposition. The fact is that Google will influence the potential of their brand as well as their steady management team for acquiring start ups and take an advanced step in their mission. Their insatiable hunger have them one of the most aggressive tech giant when it comes to using of merger and acquisition strategies for growth and development. Google had started merger and acquisitions from 2010 and had spent around $28 billion on it (Lin Yazdanifard, 2014). Out of the 187 mergers, those that became the turning point in the business model of Google are as follows. When Android merged with Google it became one of their best deals. Their open source operating system was worked upon for improvisation and involved in the competitive run with the iOS. The motive behind this was not only to make Android a Operating system but a software ecosystem totally independent from hardware and freely accessible to the developers. Similarly, the acquisition with YouTube, Where 2 Technologies, Applied Semantic s and Waze proved to be extremely beneficial for the company. Cooperative Strategies Google, the internet monster, has created a record of $22.9 billion by means of their advertising revenue and thus became the indubitable leader in the market of Internet search (Levinson Salinger, 2014). Their market share had suggested a terrible increase of more $1000 per share. Their share had increased by 1200% in less than 10 years. Their strategy is to arrange the global information and make it accessible world- wide. Their primary mission has always been to enable a successful search technology which has expanded their product and services much beyond internet search. Their cooperative strategies are remarkable and an achievement which is worthy of imitation by the competitors. The operation of Google takes place in a competitive environment. With their wide range of products and services they face stiff competition from organizations of various industries. Their sustainable competitive advantage is obvious in certain ways, especially in their superior infrastructure. In the earliest forms, the search engine of Google had received critical commendation being in the list of top 100 websites and search engines in the year 1998 (Kunz, 2016). The number of searches increased from the following years which increased from 10000 to 500000 on a daily basis. Google started to refine their search engines from and improvised their new and innovative features. In a single year, they had 516 improvements such as Instant search which gives effective results. Without any doubt, it can be regarded as the best search engine which gives tough competition to the competitors such as Microsofts Bing and Yahoo Search. They have to control more than 3 billion daily searches which account for 67% market share. On the other hand, Bing and Yahoo account for 16% and 13% market share respectively. They follow the strategy of expanding their range of services and tools which will enable sustainable competitive advantage (Johnson et al., 2016). They also follow the strategy of resource based view with the intention of gaining sustainable advantage by fulfilling the criteria of being valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable and non- substitutable (VRIN). Their cooperative strategies and use of resources have helped them to attain sustainable competitive advantage. International Strategies Google is one of the widely used search engine which is spread in around 144 countries. They have a market share of 60% in the world requests of search engines. As it was originated in the United States, therefore it has a 10% higher market share in Europe than in the US. They have around 20 US based offices, 13 in Asia- Pacific, 26 in Europe, 3 in Canada and Latin America each and 5 offices in the Middle East. Google has also planned to rapidly expand their broad area of new markets. They can easily do so because there lays simplicity in their user interface and assessment of their back- office operations have enabled them to increase quickly. They have become a popular global brand with their 70 offices located in US few years back (Geradin Edelman, 2016). In duration of 10 years, Google has developed their international structure of marketing to build its presence in more than 144 countries. The presence ranged from simple representational offices to complicated partnerships with the competitors in foreign countries. Their mission arranging the worldly information and the accessibility to one and all has enabled them to be a brand which is not only identified in the English speaking countries but on the worldly basis. There is a long list of language specific Google applications and the length at which they deliver the culturally relevant applications shows their excellence in international marketing. They have understood the requirement for an international internet media provider and have taken over approximately 50 companies for expanding their services. This in turn will be transformed for their internally acclaimed exportable business. Although all the internet media applications of Google are not available in all the countries, but the extent to which the English speaking users dominate the internet can be easily understood. The company has an intention to continue their spread in the foreign countries for offering a satisfactory internet experience all over the world (George, 2014). Conclusion Therefore it can be concluded from the assignment that the company Google has experienced a long journey from its simple business to business giant in the internet sector. It has to face tough competition in almost all the industries that is under its control, but the main trans- industry challenge has come from the icons of digital age such as Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo. Although Google has an excellent position in terms of technology, finance and culture, they still have to cross a lot of barriers. Such barriers take the shape of growth for their movable platform, a consistently weakening situation in China and the increasing action on the user privacy that are unaddressed, could be threatening for the status of Google. 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