Assembler, compiler and interpreter

Assembler, compiler and interpreter Assembler 1. An assembler is not equivalent to an interpreter, or compiler, assembly language is a low level language. 2. An assembler is one form of program translation. This is one relationship between assembler, compiler and interpreter. Each assembly language statement directly corresponds to one machine instruction. 3. The Assembler changes Assembly instructions into machine language, whereas a Compiler runs a higher level programming language instructions into Assembly instructions and then those are converted into executable machine language. 4. Accumulated programming languages normally generate lots of lines of Assembly instructions for each program report. 5. An assembler creates object code by changing symbols or substitute names into machine code.One could conclude that Assembly language is not a programming language at all, just guilty by association. Assembly language is nothing more than a shorthand system of writing, machine language, programs using symbols that friendless personality lacking, knuckle dragging WOW players, otherwise known as programmers, can understand. Compiler 1. A compiler converts an entire program written in source code and translates it into object code. 2. A second relationship is that the compiler and interpreter both process source code. 3. A compiler translates source code from a high-level programming language to assembly language/ machine code. A compiler works with what is called higher-levellanguages3rd generation languages, such as Java and C. Typically a person writes source code using an editor in a language such as C, Pascal or C++. The programmer then selects the appropriate compiler for the source code. Interpreter 1. Another relationship is that the interpreter is the step by step version of a compiler. Obviously this takes a lot of time and resources compared to previously compiled program. 2. An interpreter doesnt have to examine the entire program before it can begin executing code. 3. An interpreter is a computer program that takes source code and processes one line at a time. Interpreters translate code one line at time, executing each line as it is translated, Interpreters do generate binary code, but that code is never compiled into one program. Instead, the binary code is interpreted every time the program executes. Nonprocedural Language or Declarative language 1. Non procedural languages say what conditions the answer should match but not how to satisfy them. 2. With nonprocedural language you are stuck with whatever options the program allows 3. A Nonprocedural language example is Excels style of programming. Considered a 4th generation language also called declarative language. Structured Software 1. Structured software is for the most part fitting for applications that have many independent functions that do not correlate to a great extent. 2. This technique is not very fitting where data is going to change as opposed to the function 3. Structured programming is primarily a way of breaking a problem into routines. It gives emphasis to functionality without stressing the data. The most likely application is for problems where significant functionality is probably going to change rather than the data. At the point at which you have recognized the object boundary and you start writing the code to support them within the sections; it is common to change to a structured design. Structured software may fail on projects with 100,000 lines of source code or more. Object-Oriented Software 1. Object-oriented software makes it easier to develop, debug, reuse, and maintain software than is possible with other programming languages. 2. Object orientation takes the concepts of structured programming and puts it in 4-wheel drive. Object oriented software is equivalent to combining the usability of the fork and the food moving abilities of the spoon and comes up with a Spork. 3. object-oriented software is a computer program using object-oriented programming that revolves around the concept of an object. Object-oriented languages make it easier to reuse, and maintain software than is possible with other languages. Now, instead of data structures and separate program structures, both data and program elements are combined into one structure called an object. The object data essentials are called attributes, while the object program essentials are called methods. Together, attributes and methods are called the objects members. Usually, an objects methods are the only programs able to operate on the objects attributes. The easiest way to understand this is an analogy. Pretend you are building a house. With earlier generation programming, each and every component was written and designed for an exact function or result. This would be the same as making kitchen cabinets out of the lumber at the house piece by piece. Every house you built would require making cabinets at the location, out of the lumber that was supplied for the house. The sanity saving technique of object-oriented programming follows the logic of making a kitchen cabinet as a module. In programming terms, these cabinet modules are objects. This type of programming makes the effort much more efficient by allowing instructions from one program to be integrated into another. If for example a circle needs drawn on the screen you can use a circle object from another program. If the circle needs to be modified then a small amount of programming may be needed, but you no longer have to build it from scratch.

The Crying of Lot 49 – the Mystery of Trystero

Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 is his second novel, and its his shortest novel, and many even consider it more of an experimantal novel. This novel is about a woman named Oedipa Maas and her quest for the secret behind a hidden and a shadowy organization known as Trystero ( it is also sometimes spelled as Tristero ). This novel was written in 1960s which was a very turbulent time in the history of the United States. Many things happened during this period, many of them had a dramatic influencce on the lives of the ordinary people. During this period, the world witnessed the assassination of J. F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, there was also the rise in the rights women and Civil Rights movement. This was also a time of the so called drug culture, for the abuse of drugs was very common. The novel shows us this world as a world that is constantly high, constantly on drugs and drunk, filled with secrets, information from questionable sources and secret identites. The subject of this paper is the secret society and an organization known as Trystero and their secret underground war against United States government and the official state postal system. Before we move on to the story of the novel, we must first remind ourselves of the postmodern novel and what constitutes a postmodern literature. Postmodern literature, as postmodernism as a whole, is very hard to define for there are no standards for it nor are there any founding fathers, writers who set the standards for it. We could say that postmodern literature is a continuation of the experimantation started by the modernist writers and authors and their usage of fragmentation, paradox, questionable authors, etc and it is also a reaction against the enlighment ideas set by modernist literature. As it was mentioned, postmodern literature is very hard to define and many even say that is no longer exists, also hard to determine. However, many authors and literary critics agree on common themes that occur in postmodern literature, themese that are almost always present in these works and that are always grouped together in order to create irony, humour or to parody something. These themes are however not always used all the postmodern authors, so they can not be called standard postmodern themes, but they occcur most commonly. Thomas Pynchon and his novel The Crying of Lot 49 are an example of postmodern writing, for Pynchon always uses parody, paranoia, playfulness and black humour in his works, and this work is also filled with these themes. Postmodern authors, Pynchon among them, usually treat serious themes and subjects in a humorous and funny manner. Pynchon does that in this novel. In The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon deals with a serious topic about lives of people in a modern consumer America, about secrets and mysterious organizations, secret identities and also how information can influence our thoughts and even confuse and disturb us, but he approached all of that in a humorous and a funny way. This novel is a sort of a parody of a detective novel. This is because in real detective novels, the hero starts to solve the mystery starting from various and numerous clues, from a, we could say, chaos of information and draws a conclusion which leads to the truth behind the mystery and reveals the bad guy. In this novel however, we have Oedipa who opens a mailbox to get the letter and discovers that she has a job to do, pretty simple really, but as the novel progresses, her life and task become more complicated and complicated, she learns about the Trystero and her ex-boyfriend’s job and business undertakings but instead of making things clear, instead of solving the mystery of the Trystero, she became even more confused than she was when she first found out about them, so much confused that she almost lost her mind and started to think if it all was nothing more than a joke, created by her deceased ex-boyfriend or even maybe this was all just the work of her own imagination. This novel also has paranoia present in itself, Oedipa becomes paranoid about the world and the people around herself, but she is not the only one really. Almost all characters are paranoid, and the existence of the Trystero is more than enough to create a paranoid world. What also makes this novel postmodern is the usage of wordplay. Pynchon plays with words, names of the people, like Pierce Inverarity, Mike Fallopian, Stanley koteks, Oedipa Maas, with the names of the towns like San Narciso and we also have the wordplay with words like waste which is turned here in this novel into an acronym W. A. S. T. E. and KCUF radio station. What also makes this novel postmodern is that we have unreliable narrator. Oedipa Maas is the main protagonist of this story, but we see the action of the novel only as she does and we know what we know, no more no less, and she is almost always drunk or on drugs, just like all other characters that appear in the novel. We can say that this novel also combines elements of both modern and postmodern novels, because the relation between these two genres is often connected because they share both similarities and differences. Oedipa Maas is the heroine, a modernist heroine who is trapped in a postmodern world. Her quest is not only to discover the death of Mr Inverarity and of the Tristero, but also to discover her inner self and her inner soul. She meets people who can be considered as lost causes, but Pynchon sees them as someone really worth fighting for as they have shown the real self-discovery. We could say that this is the novel of the character development, a bildungs roman, for Oedipa develops her character, no matter how confused she is in the end, she becomes stronger and more determined to discover the real truth, no matter how weird and confusing that truth really is. She continues and carries on even though her quest is a lost cause. However, Pynchon also uses his postmodern novel in order to criticize the modernist vision of the world by showing us a society that filled with discarded objects and discarded people. The most obvious example of this is the acronym WASTE, which becomes a central theme in the novel, but will talk about it later in the paper. There are also discarded people who formed secret underground groups and societies as a response to various forms of rejection by their society. For example we have IA group, created by a man who swore off love after his wife cheated on him, The Alameda County Death Club and the Peter Pinguids, a group of people who are against industrial capitalism etc. As it was stated in the beginning, the subject of this paper is the mysterious Trystero organization. This novel is a bout a world, a world that seems to be constantly on drugs or drunk. We could think that this is the world that many people try to get away from, trying to vanish from it, for in this novel Oedipa meets various people who just want to be left alone, forgotten perhaps. We see people who have not rebelled against the government and they are not the deserters, they have just chose to leave, to hide and stay hidden. Oedipa sees this as their first real independent choice, a choice they have all made away from the press, the government and its institutions. They don’t use official state institutions, in this case the official postal system of the United States. This is the world of secrets and hidden identities, and of course secret societies, underground organizations, like Trystero is. What is this Trystero? Who are they? What is their goal? Their mission and agenda? Oedipa wants to find out just that, who they are and what they want, but unfortunately all she accomplishes is to end up completely baffled by everything and everyone she meets. As it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, she does not give up and is determined to continue with her search. Trystero represents this main aspect of underground and of hiding away from the government and the world. We as readers of this novel know about Trystero as much as Oedipa does and we also in the end, as she does, end up confused and baffled if all of this was actually real or was it all just her imagination or a bad joke. The bulk of the book is spent following Oedipa as she tries to track down what exactly the Trystero is. She stumbles upon this one night when she and Metzger are at The Scope, a club frequented by Yoyodyne employees, a huge defense contractor for the military in the area. While in the ladies’ room Oedipa notices the following written near a drawing of a muted horn: â€Å"Interested in sophisticated fun? You, hubby, girl friends. The more the merrier. Get in touch with Kirby, through WASTE only, Box 7391, L. A. †1 The book then follows a play-within-a-play format when Oedipa watches a play called The Courier’s Tragedy which puts into some context the history between Tristero and Thurn And Taxis, the latter being a real mail distribution company throughout Europe for many centuries. It is from this play that Oedipa learns about the history of Trystero. According to the story, Trystero was defeated by Thurn and Taxis in the 1700. and since then it has been hiding and went underground. This Trystero now exists, or at least it appears to exist, or maybe not, as a secret society that is completely separated from the United States government and the official postal service. Oedipa even believes that Trystero battled with Pony Express and United States Postal Service over the control of information flow. However, this battle seems to go on, between Tristero and US Postal Service. Tristero is the symbol of the underground here in the novel and they are present as an invisible force with a hidden agenda and goals. Their symbol is a muted post horn which is the first thing Oedipa sees of the Tristero in a club mentioned early and their way of communicating and transfering of information is through the WASTE system which uses clever disguises – their way of transferring information, a kind of parody to the official postal service, is by using waste-bins as their post-boxes. Thomas Pynchon does a very good job in making us believe that this society indeed really exists, but he also confuses by putting various names, most of them of people who are actually not so important for the story of the novel, but he does manage to create and illusion of a conspiracy. The most important part of the novel is the reproduction of the fictional Jacobean Drama known as The Courier’s Tragedy. This play is where Oedipa first hear the name Tristero and of their struggle with Thurn and Taxis. This play provides us with the first account of the Tristero, but it is their symbol that really draws our attention. We will now discuss the symbols of Tristero, for they are the key to understanding it, or at least trying ot understand the story behind them. These include the muted post horn and WASTE system. We will begin with the first symbol that Oedipa comes in contact with and tha th is the muted post horn. Oedipa first sees this symbol in the bathroom of a club The Scope, as a part of a small message, more like an add. Fro mthat moment she will see this symbol everywhere she goes. Genghis Cohen will show her the post horn tha ris hidden in a certain stamp collection that was I nthe possession of her late ex-boyfriend, mr Inverarity. Later she will see the same symbol being scribbled on paper by a technician in Yoyodine building, Stanley Koteks. Oedipa even sees it when children draw it in the park and play a game in which they mention Tristero. This post horn, as Oedipa finds out from Cohen, was a symbol of Thurn and Taxis. Their symbol is a post horn, while Tristero uses a muted post horn, probably as a way to mock them. Tristero, as it is given, fought against Thurn and Taxis and lost the battle. Tristero went into the hiding and managed t oreach United States somewhere arund 1853. nd fought the Pony Express and Wells, Fargo, and their agents were always either dressed as outlaws in black or as indians, Oedipa manages to recover a ring fro man old man, Mr. Thoth, who lives in a retirement home bulit by Pierce Inverarity. He tells her that this ring, which ha s the muted post horn engraved on it, was given to him by his grandfather who got it from an indian he killed. However, at one time, Oedipa met a man who wore a pin with the muted post horn: â€Å"What if I told you, â€Å" she adressed the owner of the pin, â€Å"that I was an agent of Thurn and Taxis? † â€Å"What, â€Å" he answered, â€Å" some theatrical agency? †2 Here we have a different story about the origin of the muted post horn. According to his story, this is a symbol of Inamorati Anonymus, a group of people who forsook love, which they see as the worst addiction of all. The creator of the organziation and of the symbol was a Yoyodine executive, who found the Inamorati Anonymus after finding out that his wife was cheating on him. This leads us back to point when Oedipa saw for the first time the muted post horn as a part of the advertisement for this organization, which makes us believe if Tristero really is real or just an organization of people who have forsook love and make sure that no one else ever falls in love are using secretive methods to communicate with each other. Another characteristic of this novel, and another symbol of the Trystero, is the so called WASTE. This can stand as an acronym which means We Await Silent Trystero Empire, which is always written on regular waste bins. This can also stand for a secret undergrounf information network that is used by people who forsook their own lives and chosen t olive I nsecrecy and away form the government. There are even corporations who refuse to use the official postal system, like Yoyodine, and there is also an organization known as Peter Penguid Society, of which Mike Fallopian is the member, who oppose the monopoly of the US Postal Service and are using their own private system. This is a system of information transfer that is used by those who want to remain hidden, secret, and there are signs that Tristero is the runner of it. They use waste bins and their postman, or couriers,are bums and other social missfits. Inamorati Anonymus is the organiztion that openly uses the WASTE system for their communication. These two symbols, the muted post horn and the WASTE system, give us and Oedipa clues about Tristero but the lalso confuse us, brcause as we learn about their connectionwith Tristero, we also learn their other meanings and that they are being used by some other ynderground isoalted groups and organizations. After all this confusion, Oedipa returns to the Jacobean Drama, where she first heard the word Tristero. She comes in contact with Emory Bortz, a proffesor at San Narciso College, for the information about the play itself, especially the Tristero version of the play. Unfortunately, the only person who knew the real story about the play was Driblette, who directed the play Oedipa saw, and he commited a suicide. As we draw near to the end of the novel, we see that Oedipa discovers a great deal of historical Tristero, about its origins. She discovers that it was created around 1577, I nthe Netherlands. After William of Orange achieved independence from Spain and the Holy Roman empire, he replaced the people who were in control of the Thurn and Taxis and Leopold I’s rule, and in their place put a man named Jan Hinckard. However, Hinckard was challenged by his cousin Hernando Joaquin de Tristero y Calavera. Tristero fought a guerilla war against Hinckard from 1578. until 1583. Tristero gives up the fighting and sets up a covert system. However, Oedipa finds out that during 17th Century, Thurn and Taxis struggle to maintain their system ,and this may mena that Tristero was very effective during that time and period. Tristero’s presence as the black coated bandits was confirmed by Proffesor Bortz wh ogave her a book An Account of the Singular Peregrinations of Dr. Diocletian Blobb. Dr. Blobb survived one of their attacks with him being captured by them and sent back to England in order t otell everyone of the power of Tristero. Oedipa in the end managed t odiscover a great deal of historical information about the Tristero, but this did not satisfy her because she still did not know why Driblette mentioned the Tristero in his work, when in the original work there is no mentioning of them at all. Wheteher this is true or not, Oedipa tells everything to Mike Fallopian back at the Scope, where she first saw the muted post horn. Fallopian, after hearing her story and her findings, asks Oedipa if she ever considered the possibility that this may all had been a joke orchestrated by Pierce Inverarity. She did consider this, but refuses to think like that anymore. Later she goes back and again searches through all of the Pierce’s possesions and finds out that Pierce had presence in all the places and had inlfuence on all the people she met. He owned Zapf’s Used Bookstore, where she bought her copy of the Jacobean drama, he also owned the Tank Theater, where she saw Driblette’s production of â€Å"The Courier’s Tragedy†. Proffesor Bortz works at San Narciso College, which was founded by Pierce himself, and even blobb’s Peregrinations were bought at Zapf’s Used Bookstore. Thisl eads her to believe that Fallopian may be right, that all of this was nothing more than joke, a gag produced by Pierce himself. The ending of the novel also does not help us, for it is open ended. Oedipa goes to an auction of Peirce’s stamp collection, which is under the name Lot 49, but that is where it all ends. In a conclusion, we are left confused whether this was all real. Pynchon did a great job of providing the information about the historical founding of the Tristero, but he also filled his novel with other information, all of it made up, even the historical. Instead of finding answers, we find more and more questions. The Crying of Lot 49 shows a fragmented world in which there are always more alternatives, in this world information leads to more information which create more questions and answers. This leads people, like Oedipa in this case, to create various alternate interpretations just in order to create some sort of the bigger picture onto which they will hold to. This entire Tristero conspiracy may have been a joke or a paranoid creation by Oedipa herself, or maybe there is truth behind it all. We will never know. We do know, that there are secret organizations who uses secret and undercover means of communicating, there are people who have secret identities, who seek truth somewhere else. We all live in the world filled with information and symbols and who knows, maybe there is a secret undercover conspiracy by a secret postal system who wants t obring down the monopol of the government’s postal system. Personally, I find this novel to be very interesting because it deals with a mystery and search for the truth. When I read it, I found it hard t ounderstand it in the end, whether this is all true, if there really is Tristero, or maybe this was all just a paranoid dream by Oedipa or maybe even a possibilty that this was all a bad joke by Pierce with Oedipa as its target. Whatever the truth is, we will never really know, for the novel has the open ending, but all quests, all attempts to find some sort of truth end up like that – with more questions than answers and with multiple interpretations of evidence and information. End Notes 1. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986. Pg. 52 2. ibid. , Pg. 111 Bibliography www. wikipedia. org www. sparknotes. com http://www. examiner. com/x-13462-West-Palm-Beach-Literature-Examiner~y2009m7d19-Modernism-v-Postmodernism-part-one-The-Crying-of-Lot-49 http://cl49. pynchonwiki. com/wiki/index. php? title=The_Crying_of_Lot_49 Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, First perennial fiction library edition, 1986

Alarming Details About Samples of Writing an Essay and 5th Grade Unveiled

Alarming Details About Samples of Writing an Essay and 5th Grade Unveiled What Does Samples of Writing an Essay and 5th Grade Mean? Naturally, essays play a big part in the college application procedure, too. First, the essay will talk about the value of parental involvement during childhood and second, the essay will appear at the value of experiencing a part-time job during childhood. In conclusion, it looks like assignment essays continue to get a prominent part in tertiary education as an assessment tool. A travel essay in addition provides a glimpse of the culture of a certain place. After writing your plan conduct supplementary reading and develop your plan and cause it to be more detailed. Questions to ask about your degree of critical writing may be helpful. Be aware that what constitutes a superb introduction can fluctuate widely based on the type of paper you're writing and the academic discipline in which you're writing it. Students want to understand how to compos e persuasive essaysthis skill is critical as it's often tested. Before you even sit down to compose your essay introduction, make certain your ideas are totally formed, then have a look at some essay introduction examples to obtain a concept of what makes an excellent essay introduction. To compose a great essay introduction quickly takes a good number of mental rumination. Essentially, you would start your essay introducing the book. A very good reflective essay may be a terrific reflective essay with the appropriate planning. Read your essay to see whether it flows well. Every essay followed the exact standard structure. Travel essays could be written for different factors. How to compose an expository essay. Education proved to be a significant force for social change with respect to slavery. Fifth grade students utilize every phase of the writing procedure and continue to construct their understanding of writing conventions. You see, the conventions of English essays are somewhat more formulaic than you may think and, in various ways, it can be as easy as counting to five. If you're to really gain from model essays, you will need to understand how to read the techniques of the writer'. You may believe that you've got to compose your introduction first, but this isn't necessarily true, and it isn't always the best way to craft a great introduction. All writing is persuasive, and should you write with your audience in mind, it is likely to make your argument considerably more persuasive to that sp ecific audience. Also, as soon as you are grading, you are able to quickly scan the paragraphs and essays. Anytime you need to compose a timed essay, you should start out with a frame depending on the parts below. The middle region of the essay must fulfil the promises made in your introduction, and have to support your last conclusions. In many instances, essays must adhere to certain guidelines. You may use the samples as a foundation for working out how to write in the suitable style. Write a story about something fun which you did with friends and family during the summertime. On occasion a very good illustration of what you're attempting to achieve is well worth a 1000 words of advice! Imagine your elderly neighbor is out at 3 a.m. each night, digging inside her flower garden. Understanding Samples of Writing an Essay and 5th Grade If, for example, you're writing an essay on training a dog in 5 steps, do not incorporate the initial 3 steps in one paragraph and your ow n personal expertise in the conclusion. The absolute most important issue to comprehend about the write essay task is the fact that it has to be done according to a PTE-specific format. In the same way, a structure of some kind is most likely crucial for every single essay, however revolutionary. The main intention of a debatable writing is to create people take the exact same position regarding a particular topic. If you're still unsure about your introduction, our essay editors would like to provide you with some feedback. Since essays are written to be read, you need to make certain you engage your audience right from the beginning. The evidence that a few of the essays include are exactly what I want to see you include from both resources we've read. Move on to understand how to compose a persuasive essay in details. The directives in essay questions are often quite specific and need you to handle the question in a special way. Before writing an essay, it's wise to assemble all your information and make a guideline or outline. To be able to accomplish this, you have to produce a good Essay Introduction. An introduction usually makes up 510% of your entire essay, although there's no absolute rule. You're telling the reader what you think are the main points which must be addressed in your essay. Consider what readers will need to know to comprehend the focus of your paper. An essay doesn't have to be this simple, but it's a good starting point. You've probably read a travel essay before.

World Class Organization - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2343 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2017/09/13 Category Advertising Essay Did you like this example? To achieve world-class status, an organization must stimulate creative thinking, encourage dialogue and introspection and promote understanding and new actions. Most important, it must give people inside and outside the organization something to care about. When people think of world-class organizations, chances are widely admired companies such as General Electric, Microsoft, British Airways, Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola and Disney spring to mind. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "World Class Organization" essay for you Create order Yet what elevates these and other companies from merely successful to the more desired status of world-class? A closer look at the best of the best reveals several shared characteristics. Besides being the premier organization in their industries, world-class companies have talented people, the latest technology, the best products and services, consistent high-quality, a high stock price, and a truckload of awards and accolades acknowledging their greatness. Dig deeper and youll also find that communication is practiced as a strategic process within these companies thats woven into their business planning, decision-making and organization-wide priorities. It defines their cultures by encouraging dialogue, feedback, interpretation and understanding. The Secret Behind World Class Something else also distinguishes world-class companies from all the others. World-class companies give people their customers, employees, suppliers, even the people in the communities in which they operate something to care about. While it may sound simple, a closer look at some of the worlds most respected and most successful companies indicates its true. Look at Disney, for example. Beginning with CEO Michael Eisner, everyone at Disney gives people a reason to care about the company because everyone there takes great pains to make their guests believe in make-believe. All new hires at Disney experience a multi-step training program where they quickly learn the language: Employees are cast members, customers are guests, a crowd is an audience, a work shift is a performance, a job is a part, a job description is a script, a uniform is a costume, the personnel department is casting, being on duty is being on stage, and being off duty is backstage. The special anguage along with the complete immersion into the companys history and mythology, reinforces the Disney frame of mind, starting with its new employees. All this acts to strengthen the sense of purpose and cult-like unity, ultimately intensifying the underlying ideology: To make people happy. These things, including unity of purpose and preservation of image and ideology, work together to make Disney world-cl ass. GE is another example of a world-class company that goes to great lengths to make people care by manufacturing high-performance products that consumers dont need to worry about. GE has invested millions of dollars in turning customer responses into business opportunities. The companys Answer Center, located in Louisville, Ky. , receives customer inquiries 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and handles 15,000 calls a day from people considering the purchase of a GE product. Their computerized database contains more than 650,000 responses to a variety of inquiries, which allows customer representatives to provide knowledgeable answers at the touch of a button. GE sees its investment in managing customer inquiries as just as important as investments in production capacity, technology and personnel. From a communication standpoint, Jack Welch challenges managers to turn complex business initiatives into simple concepts so employees and customers can understand and contribute to their successful implementation. Finally, theres FedEx. CEO Fred Smith gave people a reason to care about FedEx because it took the unusual step of providing a guarantee in an uncertain world. FedEx has become synonymous with overnight delivery, much like Xerox is for copiers and Kleenex is for tissues. The company is built around a reputation to not only deliver packages worldwide, but also to deliver excellent customer service. Customers trust that when the FedEx guy comes to pick up their package, hes personally taking it to the plane that flies to the truck that drives to the van that delivers the package. With more than 2. 8 million packages going to 212 countries every day, FedEx can still guarantee overnight delivery (now even on Sundays) while offering time and cost savings and customized logistics solutions to its customers. World Class During Good Times and Bad While many world-class companies often serve as role models for their industries, its important to note that their track records arent always perfect. Their ability to handle adversity, however, is another characteristic of their world-class status. Take Coca-Cola, for example. Robert Goizueta, the late chairman of CocaCola, went to great lengths to make people care about Coca-Cola to the point where the product transcended our thirst and became a part of our everyday lives. Yet the company made the fateful error of underestimating the power of the brand when it introduced a new formula New Coke in the mid-1980s. The debacle convinced the company that Coke wasnt just a drink, but a part of life that shouldnt be tampered with. Today, everyone at Coca-Cola is focused on one thing ensuring their products are available to thirsty consumers, wherever they are. To that end, communication plays an integral role. Cokes public relations people are business-oriented counselors who act as enablers and supporters of corporate strategy and initiatives. And, as is the case with other world-class organizations, Coca-Cola makes sure its communication philosophy is understood by all employees through constant reinforcement, dialogue and involvement. Working to Stay World Class Its interesting to note that world-class organizations are not built overnight, yet by most peoples definition, world-class companies are enduring. They are able to withstand and even capitalize on the vagaries of the marketplace and the whims of consumers. Theyve made an impact on the world we live in, and theyve withstood multiple product or service life cycles. An underlying spirit in everything they say and do conveys their world-class status. It is this quality that separates them from the pack of successful companies and catapults them into the company of the best of the best. But what happens when a company that is widely perceived as world class falters? Several noteworthy examples of companies were considered to be world-class organizations, yet for one reason or another, took their eyes off the ball, lost their focus, and forgot to give people something to care about. Their fall from world class was both quick and shocking. Consider McDonalds, for example. The company forgot that people cared about them because they provided consistent-tasting food hot, quick and cheap. Or Apple. They forgot people cared about them because they took chances and gave them new and different products for their changing lifestyle. And Kodak forgot people cared about them because they gave people a simple way to capture their lives. These companies are not alone. In their relentless pursuit of growth, many companies forget to give their own employees something to care about. Even more tragic, many forget how employees are the only difference between success and failure. Once companies forget about why people care about them, the dangerous downward spiral continues, as everyone from the CEO to the receptionist loses sight of what they were doing to make the company respected, successful and enduring. Building a World-Class Organization through World-Class Communication The ability to define and articulate what it is that makes people care about you is critical for any company striving to become a world-class organization. The challenge for leaders, managers and communicators is defining that quality, consistently delivering on it, communicating it in all you say and do, and then, never losing sight of it. Here are some suggestions to get communicators and managers started: For Those in Management Start by answering the question, why should someone care about your company? Should people care about you because you make the best-tasting, safest, fastest or least expensive product? Should they care about you because you make them feel good when they use your product or service? Should people care about you because you stand for the same things they stand for: quality, safety or value? Whatever you decide, let it overwhelm the company. From the vision and values of the organization to how you set high standards of performance not just in public relations but throughout the company from the receptionist answering the phone to the sales force selling your product. Let this desire to become world class drive you to be more visible to employees, customers, suppliers and influences. Let it remind you to repeat as often as possible the key messages for your business. For Those in Public Relations Management Look yourself in the eye, and tell yourself one thing: I am not in the job I started in when I joined this company whether you joined yesterday, last year or 10 years ago. Having acknowledged that, have the courage to relearn your profession, relearn your business, relearn what employees think, relearn what customers want, and relearn what the CEO needs to accomplish. Let it force you to remove performance barriers for you and your staff. Push your staff for new ideas and new suggestions. Make sure what youre doing is giving people something to care about. Invest in research to find the facts before you act; Ask for different information on the company and read different things. Ask the right questions. When confronted with a manager or marketing person, try to determine their objectives instead of trying to teach them PR. For anyone in communication, try coming to work on a Monday morning and for that week, ask yourself one question before and after you complete a task: Who cares? Make sure that whatever you are doing keeps people focused on what matters. Put yourself in someone elses shoes; then, take that insight and use it to ensure that managers, employees, customers, media, have a deep understanding of your business and your company, including its vision, mission and values. Practicing World-Class Communication At the best companies, communication is an interactive process, led by the CEO. The corporate culture is based on respect for the individual and an egalitarian, non-hierarchical management model. Communicators are counselors and managers are seen as key communicators. Experience proves that strategic communication is critical to any organization striving for world-class status. based on our work with many world-class companies, Boxenbaum Grates, Inc. has identified the key characteristics found in world-class communication: * The CEO drives the effort; communication supports the CEOs priorities. World-class communication cannot exist in an organization without the involvement, commitment and support of the CEO and senior management team. The CEO needs to take the role as lead communicator, driving the process and establishing high expectations for the function. This means that communicators are responsible for everything from implementing corporate strategy, differentiating products and services in the marketplace and protecting the organizations reputation, to motivating employees and building relationships. * Managers are credible and reliable sources of information. Another crucial characteristic of world-class communication is that managers and supervisors are key communicators. Recognizing and employing them as such reinforces a strong focus on the importance of interactive communication at the employee level. * PR managers have a comprehensive understanding of the company, its employees, customers, business, industry and regulatory environment. In world-class communication, communication managers are expert in providing counsel to the CEO and senior management team on a range of issues affecting the company. At FedEx, for example, the vision of corporate communication is to serve as a strategic partner in the company, providing communication expertise to key decision-makers. PR professionals are more business-oriented, which translates into a more strategic approach to communication. The management at one Fortune 500 company, for example, looks for new PR people, primarily from outside the organization, who have global business experience. Some organizations such as those in the automobile industry may look for people with a mix of journalism, agency and a utomotive backgrounds. As one executive put it, you can teach anyone communication, the challenge is understanding the business and industry. PR professionals practice PR. Public relations practitioners are engaged in establishing relationships with the media/press, understanding their angles, information requirements, deadlines, and involving the appropriate managers and other company personnel in being readily available to work with the media. This expertise is essential in keeping the information flow to and from the organization open and respected. * Communication is measurable. In world-class communication, measurement is integrated into the communication function. It goes beyond content analysis, opinion polls and general surveys, and focuses on its bottom-line effect. * PR professionals are first-hand witnesses. PR professionals are actually talking with customers, employees and the media. They are involved in the companys business on a real-time basis. They establish contact with the media and understand how different groups interpret their business and help the organization learn from it. * Management model dictates communication importance. Communication is a philosophy within the world-class organization. It is woven into strategic business planning and organization-wide priorities. It permeates and defines the culture by encouraging dialogue, feedback, interpretation and understanding. A team concept is a good method of how an organizational structure can promote teamwork, dialogue and trust. Similarly, a culture and work environment should be based on a respect for the individual and an egalitarian, non-hierarchical management model. Considerations: Does the management infrastructure encourage communication? Is communication a one-way street or is it interactive? Is it the right management model for the changes the company is making to become more competitive? Raising the Bar To be sure, examples of world-class communication vary from company to company. To some companies, communication is considered world class when their factory workers start asking detailed questions about the business. Others think world-class communication means having customers and prospects understand the companys positioning and purpose. The bottom line for any organization is that world-class communication is synonymous with a learning culture, where employees are motivated, enabled and empowered. As we look to the business world of the future, the challenge is on for all communicators to create world-class communication processes, functions and professionals, which, depending on the circumstances, act as enablers, drivers and supporters of corporate strategy and initiatives. The result is building a world-class organization. Gary F. Grates is CEO, Boxenbaum Grates, New York City.