Analysis of Snow by Charles Baxter

Charles Baxters Snow is a coming-of-age story about Russell, a bored 12-year-old who apprentices himself to his older brother, Ben, as Ben dangerously attempts to dazzle his girlfriend on a frozen lake. Russell narrates the story as an adult looking back on events many years after theyve taken place. Snow originally appeared in The New Yorker in December of 1988 and is available to subscribers on The New Yorkers website. The story later appeared in Baxters 1990 collection, Relative Stranger, and also in his 2011 collection, Gryphon. Boredom A sense of boredom pervades the story right from the opening line: Twelve years old, and I was so bored I was combing my hair just for the hell of it. The hair-combing experiment — like many things in the story — is partly an attempt to grow up. Russell is playing Top 40 hits on the radio and trying to make his hair look casual and sharp and perfect, but when his older brother sees the result, he just says, Holy smoke [†¦] What did you do to your hair? Russell is caught between childhood and adulthood, yearning to grow up but not quite ready for it. When Ben tells him his hair makes him look like [t]hat Harvey guy, he probably means the movie star, Laurence Harvey. But Russell, still a child, innocently asks, Jimmy Stewart? Interestingly, Russell seems perfectly aware of his own naivete. When Ben chastises him for telling an unconvincing lie to their parents, Russell understands that  [m]y unworldliness amused him; it gave him a chance to lecture me. Later, when Bens girlfriend, Stephanie, persuades Russell to feed her a piece of gum, she and Ben burst out laughing at the sensuality of what shes put him through. The narrator tells us, I knew that what had happened hinged on my ignorance, but that I wasnt exactly the butt of the joke and could laugh, too. So, he doesnt understand exactly what has happened, yet he recognizes how it registers with the teenagers. He is on the cusp of something, bored but feeling that something exciting might be around the corner: snow, growing up, some kind of thrill. Thrills Early in the story, Ben informs Russell that Stephanie will be impressed when he shows her the car submerged under the ice. Later, when the three of them start walking across the frozen lake, Stephanie says, This is exciting, and Ben gives Russell a knowing look. Ben intensifies the thrill hes giving Stephanie by refusing to confirm what he knows -- that the driver escaped safely and no one was killed. When she asks if anyone was hurt, Russell, the child, immediately tells her the truth: No. But Ben instantly counters with, Maybe, offering that there might be a dead body in the backseat or the trunk. Later, when she demands to know why he misled her, he says, I just wanted to give you a thrill. The thrills continue when  Ben gets his car and starts spinning it on the ice on his way to pick up Stephanie. As the narrator says: He was having a thrill and soon would give Stephanie another thrill by driving her home across ice that might break at any time. Thrills did it, whatever it was. Thrills led to other thrills. The numbing repetition of the word thrill in this passage emphasizes Russells alienation from — and ignorance of — the thrills Ben and Stephanie are seeking. The phrase whatever it was creates a sense that Russell is giving up hope of ever understanding why the teenagers are behaving as  they are.   Even though Stephanies taking off her shoes was Russells idea, he is only an observer, just as he is an observer of adulthood — getting close, definitely curious, but not participating. He is moved by the sight: Bare feet with painted toenails on the ice — this was a desperate and beautiful sight, and I shivered and felt my fingers curling inside my gloves. Yet his status as an observer rather than a participant is confirmed in Stephanies answer when he asks her how it feels: Youll know, she said. Youll know in a few years. Her comment implies so many of the things hell know: the desperation of unrequited affection, the relentless impulse to seek new thrills, and the bad judgment of teenagers, which seems to be a powerful antidote to boredom.   When Russell goes home and sticks his arm in the snowbank, wanting to feel cold so cold the cold itself became permanently interesting, he keeps his arm there as long as he can stand it, pushing himself to the edge of thrills and adolescence. But in the end, hes still a child and not ready, and he retreats into the safety of  the bright heat of the front hallway. Snow Job In this story, snow, lies, adulthood, and thrills are all closely intertwined. The lack of snowfall in this drought winter, symbolizes Russells boredom — his lack of thrills. And in fact, as the three characters approach the submerged car, just before Stephanie announces that [t]his is exciting, snow finally begins to fall. In addition to the physical snow in (or absent from) the story, snow is also used colloquially to mean to deceive or to impress through flattery. Russell explains that Ben brings girls to visit their old, large house so [t]heyd be snowed. He continues, Snowing girls was something I knew better than to ask my brother about. And Ben spends most of the story snowing Stephanie, trying to give her a thrill. Notice that Russell, still a child, is a lousy liar. He cant snow anyone. He tells his parents an unconvincing lie about where he and Ben are going, and of course, he refuses to lie to Stephanie about whether anyone was hurt when the car sank. All of these associations with snow — lying, adulthood, thrills — come together in one of the most perplexing passages of the story. As Ben and Stephanie are whispering to each other, the narrator says: Lights were beginning to go on, and, as if that werent enough, it was snowing. As far as I was concerned, all those houses were guilty, both the houses and the people in them. The whole state of Michigan was guilty — all the adults, anyway — and I wanted to see them locked up. It is clear that Russell feels left out. He notes that Stephanie whispers in Bens ear for about fifteen seconds, which is a long time if youre watching. He can see adulthood — hes getting close — but he cant hear the whispering and probably wouldnt understand it, anyway. But why should that result in a guilty verdict for the entire state of Michigan? I think there are numerous possible answers, but here are some that come to mind. First, the lights coming on could symbolize some of Russells dawning awareness. Hes aware of the way hes been left out, hes aware that teenagers dont seem to be able to resist their own bad judgment, and hes aware of all the lies that seem to be inextricable from adulthood (even his parents, when he lies about where he and Ben are going, engage in the usual pantomime of skepticism but dont stop them, as if lying is just a part of life). The fact that its snowing — which Russell  somehow takes as an insult — could symbolize the snow job that he feels adults perpetrate on children. Hes been longing for snow, but it arrives just as hes starting to think it might not be so fabulous after all. When Stephanie says, Youll know in a few years, it sounds like a promise, but its also a prophecy, underscoring the  inevitability of Russells  eventual understanding.  After all, he has no choice but to become a teenager, and its a transition he isnt quite ready for.

A Successful Business Leadership Style - 2658 Words

The ultimate aim of this research is to highlight a successful business leadership style. The intention is to research business leadership in the developing countries, and devise a new framework or strategy that can be used by businesses and education systems within developing countries and possibly other Asian countries. This framework would identify the qualities necessary to develop an appropriate leadership style to be an effective leader in organisations operating. This will be achieved by investigating the social and cultural environment and look at how these forces affect the business environment, and in particular the qualities of a good leader within the organisation. The research aims to fill a gap in the existing body of knowledge to do with leadership and management in different regions of the world. LITERATURE REVIEW Background Broadly speaking, â€Å"leadership† can be defined as a process in which an individual influences a group of individuals to work towards the achievement of a common goal or vision (Lussier, 1996; Northouse, 2001; Stogdill, 1974). Moreover, Bush and Coleman (2000) note that since most of what has been written about leadership draws upon western cultural models, it should be borne in mind that leadership might well be viewed differently in different cultures. The difference between leadership and management is vividly encapsulated in Bass s model of transformational and transactional leadership styles. Transformational leadersShow MoreRelatedDonald Trump s Leadership Style1132 Words   |  5 PagesLeadership traits have been studied to determine what makes certain people great leaders. There is no right way to be a great leader, there are many ways to be a good leader however, studies have shown that all good leaders have similar characteristics. 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Emirates NBD bank history

Question: ExplainEmirates NBD bank history. Answer: Emirates NBD is one of the largest banking groups in the Middle East. The financial service sector was formed in the year 2007. The formation of the bank was a result of merger between Emirates Bank International (EBI) and the National Bank of Dubai (NBD). This merged financial corporate body became a regional blueprint in the banking and financial sector because it was formed by the combination of second and fourth largest banks in UAE. Emirates NBD has turned out to be the market leader and operates in country as well as overseas (Acharya). The bank operates in UAE, Egypt, Singapore, UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discussion is based on the eminent Emirates NBD banking groups of Arab. An analysis of the business process that the commercial unit follows will be done. The bank has a total asset of AED 388.1 billion. The Bank has more than 220 branches with over 900 ATMs and CDMs. The merged financial group is one of the fastest growing Islamic banking affiliated corporate bo dies. NBD has well positioned in the contemporary market and is delivering outstanding values to its customers, shareholders and employees as well. Currently more than 9,000 people are employed in this banking service sector that has made it one of the largest employers in UAE (Chris). Management of the bank focuses greatly on customer satisfaction and comes up with better and innovative ideas to reach the level of customers satisfaction. Millennium partners overview H.H. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum is the Chairman of the bank. Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim is the Vice Chairman. Buti Obaid Buti Al Mulla, Khalid Juma Al Majid, Ali Humaid Ali Al Owais, Hussain Hassan Mirza Al Sayegh, Mohamed Hadi Ahmad Al Hussaini, Shoaib Mir Hashem Khoory and Mohamed Hamad Obaid Al Shehi are the Company Directors. Shayne Nelson is the Group CEO, Abdulla Qassem is the Group Chief Operating Officer and Surya Subramanian is the Group Chief Financial Officer. AAzar Khwaja is the General Manager Global Markets and Treasury and Giel-Jan Van Der Tol is the CEO of Emirates NBD Egypt. There are other important members as well (Emirates NBD). The company was formed by the joint venture of two major banks and no such partnership or bonding is seen among the members of the bank. The members at the higher designation have been selected for their ability and their qualification (Dr.K.Vanitha). The Boards of directors meet on a monthly basis and talks about the development pla ns of the company. All types of reports such as financial report, Annual report and others are approved by the members of board of directors in such meetings. Business model and customer customization Dedication of Emirates NBD in this competitive market to make an efficient and streamlined organization has lead to incorporate some innovative and planned initiatives to focus on the needs of the customers. Some of these business development programs can be mentioned here: Business strategy: Customers experience always remains the core strategy for any decision-making process. Delivering an excellent customer experience remained the primary business strategy. Among the recent development, the management of the bank has focused on positioning the bank on digital platform and as one of the leaders in multi-channel banking that supports both online and mobile banking (Bueschken and Joachim). Drive a core business to run an efficient organization and expand geographically by building a high performing organization falls under the business strategies of the bank. Direct engagement of customers: The financial service company has made initiatives to focus on improving customer engagement in the financial operations of the bank. Using technology as a tool for improvement, the company has been able to deliver the service through a streamline digital process (Dalla). This initiative was undertaken by the management to gain a long-term benefit in the banking sector. Use of social media for marketing: The bank has also selected the digit media as a platform for their marketing. The Company has been continuously expanding its presence in the social media. The bank has its own Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and has huge number of followers. With this step, the bank has been able to connect with large number of customers and increased their presence both in Arab countries and overseas as well. Business innovations: Last couple of years it has been a remarkable year of innovation for the bank. The bank has focused greatly on internet banking that has provided a new browsing experience to the existing customers. The customer-connect program for Priority, Busin ess and Personal Banking is also an important factor in the business innovation technique. All these factors are adding to the growth of the company. Different transaction facilities: Starting from personal banking to other facilities such as priority banking or the availability of plastic money like credit cards or debit cards have been provided by the bank to their customers. Corporate banking and institutional banking is also increasing from time to time. Human Resource at Emirates NBD bank Effort made by the Human Resource team of the bank in the recent years of business was mainly engaged to build a service culture, to enhance employee engagement and to develop talent for the future. If taken into consideration, employee engagement score has been improved from 55% in 2014 to 63% in 2015. This improvement has been able to achieve due to leadership quality of the HR department. There has been impactful action on the key drivers issues related to employee communication, recognition and career development (Felix and Kombo). The company remains committed to the professional development of their employees and staffs. Focus has been made to improve the performance of the employees by greater engagement of the employees and leadership program. In their nationalization program, effort has been made to develop local leadership talent of the regions of operation. Continuous focus has been made to optimize the leadership commitment and impactful action plan. Training program at Emirates NBD bank The bank has launched certain learning programs in partnership with other business leaders with the intension of enhancing the customer experience in all points of business. The training program was focused on capability development and team building interventions that were the fundamental elements for delivering customer experience (Hempell). In order to motivate the employees, the management introduced relevant reward and recognition programs as well to gain excellent service from the employees. The National Leadership Program that was launched by the end of 2014 was fully executed by development plans for 20 senior nationals who were later designated as senior leaders (Chris). All these training and development initiatives were driven in partnership with other businesses that was executed to achieve a high performance within the organization. Training has been given to top Managers of the bank by Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Cases Unit of the Central Bank of UAE. In fact, the employees and managers have been given online training as well. They are provided with a training module and a training session is conducted among the members. All these things add to the success of the bank and the same is reflected in the growth of the numbers of customers for the bank. Customer service The Chairman of the bank understands the uncertainty of the world market and the declining price of oil and market volatility. However, the Chairman has the opinion that there are plenty of reasons for business optimism in United Arabs. Despite such challenging situations, the balance sheet of the banks remains quiet strong due to their credit quality, structural quality and robust capital ratios (Toolsema). Some of the steps taken by the committee of the bank to improve customer satisfaction can be stated here:The services are consistent and reliableEvery member is committed as a teamCustomers are provided with simple conveniences to access banking Listening to the customers and resolving any issue or complaint timely is the main focus of the human resource management team of the Bank (Verner, Dorte and Mette)Banker for a day is a special day that gives opportunity to the students to gain experience by working in the bank for a single daySome other benefits enjoyed by the customers of Emirates NBD Bank can be listed below:Customers can transfer money from one account to anotherThe Bank offers payment option for over 28 different payment partners (Bueschken)Availability of a new credit card to the existing customersEnabling or disabling any kind of service just by submitting a request Adding beneficiary account easilyGet history of all transfers at any moment of timeApart from these, the bank has been focusing on corporate social responsibilities as well. The management team of the bank understands the importance of playing a positive role in the society at large. They believe that a responsible bank cannot be only concerned about making profit and that they must focus on social activities as well. The bank focuses on social investment and enhances the welfare of the people (Koetter, Michael and Felix). The bank shows major concerns towards the persons with major disabilities and has been raising financial level to help to build empowerment for the disables and improve health and wellness. Awards The success of the company has been recognized by many prestigious awards. Names of a few awards received by the company can be mentioned here:MRM Business Excellence award 2015Dubai Quality award 2015Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2016Effies award 2016Dubai Lynx award 2016 (Emirates NBD Scoops Three Awards)Midas Award 2015Global Cristals 2012Financial Brand ranking Emirates NBD 22nd globally 2015Euromoney Awards for Excellence in 2016Asian Bankers Best Mobile Payment of the year 2015HRD awards in banking and financial sector 2016Advertiser of the year award 2016 A memorable visit care for Emirates NBD bank customers The mission of the company is to get globally recognized as the most valued financial service provider in the Middle East. Their main focus is to make customers lives simple by providing better solutions to fulfill their financial aspirations (Ramaj, Aurela and Raman). Emirates NBD came up with the idea of Awesome Travelling Machine (ATM). This ATM is not a usual one but it was designed with the concept that the machine will follow the user. In a mall in Dubai, this ATM made everyone astonished with their innovative technology. It was seen that the ATM machine started following the users. It was an automated machine that made it memorable for every single person present there. This attempt can be considered as one of the initiatives taken by the bank to make it a memorable one. It was a completely new approach that has been made by any bank or any other commercial organization for the sake of publicity and public attention. With vivid kinds of expressions on the face of the visitors, it could have been easily assumed that the visit was indeed memorable (Awesome Traveling Machine). All such activities help in creating a positive image for the company and attracting more customers to be a part of their commercial unit. End note It is one of the largest groups of banks and has been utilizing the strong franchise and the power of capital for further growth in the market. The CEO is confident enough about the prudent business model and shall continue delivering opportunities of growth in the recent market scenario. In terms of customer service, the company has been focusing on creating better services to customers so that they can hold the loyalty of the customer base and make their visit to the bank memorable as well. Customers expectations are increasing and thus the management of the bank has to think of various ways to keep pace with their expectations. Reference list: "Awesome Traveling Machine". YouTube. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 July 2016.Acharya, Viral V. "Competition Among Banks, Capital Requirements And International Spillovers".Economic Notes 30.3 (2012): 337-358. Web.Bueschken, Joachim. "Does Improving Customer Satisfaction Really Increase The Market Value Of Equity? - Revisiting The ACSI Customer Satisfaction Data". (2012) SSRN Electronic Journal Web.Chris Adalikwu,. "Customer Relationship Management and Customer Satisfaction". Afr. J. Bus. Manage. 6.22 (2012): Web.Dalla Pozza, Ilaria. "Customer Experiences As Drivers Of Customer Satisfaction". Gestion 2000 31.3 (2014): 115. Web.Dr.K.Vanitha. "Customer Relationship Management On Customer Satisfaction".IJSR 3.4 (2012): 1-3. Web."Emirates NBD Scoops Three Awards; Named Best Consumer Digital Bank In UAE For Second Year Running". Al Bawaba. N.p., 2015. Web. 12 July 2016.Felix, Kombo. "Factors For Customer Satisfaction And Customer Dissatisfaction In Commercial Banks". MJSS (2015): Web.Hempell, Hanna h S. "Testing For Competition Among German Banks". (2013) SSRN Electronic Journal Web.Koetter, Michael and Felix Noth. "Did tarp distort competition among sound unsupported banks?". Econ Inq 54.2 (2015): 994-1020. Web.Ramaj, Aurela and Raman Ismaili. "Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty". AJIS (2015): Web.Toolsema, Linda A. "Reserve Requirements And Double Bertrand Competition Among Banks".Applied Economics Letters 8.5 (2013): 291-293. Web.Verner, Dorte and Mette Verner. Economic Impacts Of Professional Training In The Informal Sector. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, Social Development Family, (2015). Print.