Strategic Goals Within The Automobile Industry Management Essay

Strategic Goals Within The Automobile Industry Management Essay This Report looks the performance of Firm C against strategic goals within the automobile industry. We will be looking on how Firm C has used the strategic principles and theories in order to compete with other six automobile firms in same industry. Basing on the areas of study we can see how Firm C has managed to utilize the resources. Using simulation technology over a number of weeks the company used market information to inform strategy and monitor performance. In retrospect, as this report concludes, much more informed decision-making processes and governance would have assisted in ensuring the performance of the company and achievement of the mission of Firm C. However through this simulation game, individuals have managed to relate the theory they have learnt in class and apply them in the really field. A companys strategy is managements game plan for growing the business, staking out a market position, attracting and pleasing customers, competing successfully, conducting operations, and achieving targeted objectives. (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble 2005, p 3) As described Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2005) who explained that for a company to have a sustainable competitive advantages, needs to have a differentiated products with features such as added performance , high quality and wider product choices. This is what Firm C tried to achieve by reducing cost of production so that the price of cars should go down, the reasons for this is to get to a wide range of customers. Therefore, the firm concentrate on the price sensitive category, value seekers, customers with more disposable income and fairly price sensitive customers. Strategy Thinking One of Firm Cs strategies was to have a first mover advantage. This can be defined as: an organisation that moves down the experience curve by getting into a market first should be able to reduce its cost because of the accumulated experience it builds up over its rivals by being first. (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble 2005) Firm C has done this by being one of the first firms to produce a new concept car and by being the only firm to focus more on quality and safety. Adopting the Boston Matrix, Kotler and Keller (2006), the company used market feedback to place products in the market into the appropriate categories and used this to inform investment decisions. Using market data (consumer and external trading conditions) the company contextualised their strategic decisions by understanding customer needs, available market spend and trends linked to the overall economy, such as affordability and luxury. One key strand to ensuring high performance was focusing the models produced on a core market, but to provide a number of models. This approach allowed a diversification of products without overstretching the companys range of products. This, in turn, would allow for marketing to focus on the core offerings of the products. Through focusing on the core market, and limited development of new products, whilst maximizing plant capacity and marketing, it was considered to be part of the long term strategy to offer a return to investors and increase the value of the company without compromising customer perceived valued of the products and brand. Short-Term versus Long Term Considerations All decision -taken on these six periods was to ensure the company is doing well in car manufacturing industry and keeps on meeting customers expectations. This would give a company to have efficient production and hence result to profit maximization. The Short-term investment in product development allowed minor upgrades to come to market quicker in response to customer demands for safety and quality above luxury. No long-term decisions were taken at the immediate outturn whilst the company assessed the long-term prospects. The long term was taken when there was a necessary change in what customers prefer and in order to go together with the technology changes. Firm C has one of the highest technology capabilities in terms of interior, quality and styling with the highest technology capability than any other firm in the StratSim world to produce safe cars. This is one reason that has made Firm C to have competitive advantage over other firms in StratSim world which has set our cars to be safest over all cars. Mission Vision Mission and vision can be defined as: A mission is a general expression of the overall purpose of the organisation, which ideally, is in line with the values and expectations of major stakeholders and concerned with the scope and boundaries of the organisation. (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2005, p 13) The firms mission is to deliver a long-term high return for investors over the lifetime of products Vision is an integral part of strategic management and adds value to the process by integrating the products of strategic planning into a coherent and meaningful whole. (Wilson 2003, p 65) The firms vision is to produce the safest cars for people who want to travel safely. External Environment Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (2005) explain that the growth rate in an industry may affect the degree of competitive rivalry in an industry. For example, in situations of growth an organisation might expect to achieve its own growth through the growth in the market place whereas when markets are mature this has to be achieved by taking market share from competitors. Another example is high exit barriers; high investment in non transferable fixed assets may also increase competition because there is likely to be the persistence of excess capacity. Within this exercise, Firm C benefited from the lower performance of rival companies in the earlier stages. This ensured that the market place was one where companies could grow a significant market share in the early periods. Following major production years (period 4 and beyond), the market became more competitive with other company output increasing at a time when Firm C were decreasing output and incurring additional costs through utilizing a lower percentage of production capacity without the associated decision to reduce manufacturing capacity. Other factors included general population wealth and market factors (GDP) and the sensitivity of oil prices, focusing consumers to look not just at the short term purchasing price of vehicles, but the longer-term running costs. This explains the greater interest in hybrid models as the exercise progressed. Low-end market for gas vehicles remained robust for those with purely a purchase price consideration; this benefited Firm G in the short term, although longer term investments and a reduction in dealerships as well as manufacturing capacity hindered the companys ability to meet market demand related to external factors. Internal Environment The internal environment within the company is much easier to maintain a longer-term strategy, as well as making short-term adjustments to meat company objectives. However, it is the control of the internal factors that proved to be the single weakness in the deliver of the company strategy. Thorpe and Homan (2000) suggest that cost efficiency is determined by a number of cost drivers: for example, economies of scale. This was a key consideration in reaching the top performing market share as low-cost production created value for consumers and permitted a higher volume of unit production sales. In periods 2 4, the company strategy appeared to be paying dividends. Stock value price was attractive to investors in the early stages due to a large dividend pay out and strong sales / production outputs, promising even greater returns as a result of a longer-term strategy and the companys market position. In many of the key indicators set out in the appendices, Firm C was indeed the market leader. This led the company to believe that the existing strategy was correct and to maintain investment in the key areas that were driving performance. However, a number of internal factors were changed that hindered the product lifecycle, including decreasing the number of dealerships that then prevent the sales of our star products. Additionally, an overproduction of a vehicle coupled with a move towards producing a new type of hybrid vehicle distracted from the core performance resulting in poor sales across the board. As a result of the poor sales, reactive marketing spend was increased to try to attract a formerly strong consumer based. This reduced the investment in research and development and plant capacity, in turn hitting the bottom line of the company. In effect, it was a rapid downward spiral of performance. This poor performance, slow sales, inefficient manufacturing, loss of market share (through dealership reduction) reduced the overall market value of the company and therefore the attractiveness to shareholders. Irrespective of the strength of the core product, the company allowed itself to become distracted from what was going well, onto a short-term reactive stance without out any return. One area not monitored was the percentage return on sales. This would have been a better indictor of the overall health of the company as opposed to market share or sales totals. By periods 5 onward, the company failed to take any meaningful decisions related to market intelligence, and was starting a rapid decline in all key indicators. By period 7, the decline of the company had seen it outperforming rivals to rival companies taking the market share and sales off Firm G, whilst the stock price collapsed. The inactivity, rather than the activity, in decision making was the most significant cause of the companys failure in these periods. Internal considerations and decision-making chronology are set out in appendix 4. Personal learning The textbook did provide many very useful theories which made decision making more measurable, for example, the strengths and weaknesses of the SWOT theory. This did not however take out the uncertainty of decisions such as which car will be the best option to produce first, one learned that this can be reconciled by playing it safe as to not produce the Hybrid car first which the firm thought everybody will see as a new opportunity and instead focused on a different car design and see what the strategic moves of the competitors will be and then react to that with a better version car. The purpose and the priorities of the firm was not clearly established from the beginning of the StratSim exercise, this made it difficult to set the firms objectives and developing steps to achieve objectives in the long term and short term. In retrospect, the corporate governance of the firm was not planned very well. The company should have worked out a corporate governance method by splitting the responsibility of decisions between the team members. For example team member 1 was responsible for the inventory of the firm and team member 2 responsible for the marketing and so forth. This way, a more in depth understanding of the StratSim world would have been the result. In contrast, the time management of the firm was in the beginning stages more managed, but towards the end of the StratSim exercise the cooperation of the firm disappeared, a personal lesson learned was to for future references, to agree on set times when decisions needs to be made. More research should have been done on how the StratSim world works and what requirements were necessary to perform well. For example, the firm did not plan the firm inventory very well, resulting in too little or too many cars being produced. Furthermore, plant capacity was in the beginning stages below 100,000: this increased the unit cost and decreased profits. Conclusion This report has set out the strategic goals and rationale for Firm C; this was explained by giving an explanation for the short and long-term goals and decisions that was taken to gain a share in the vehicle manufacturing industry. The performance of Firm C started out healthy but because of poor informed decision-making processes and governance, the performance of Firm C radically declined and resulted in the failure of the firm to realise their mission which was to become one of the biggest car manufacturing firms in the StratSim world. The decisions the firm took reflected a reactive management style as opposed to a proactive one, for example with the inaccurate inventory control which saw the firm producing too little or too many cars and reacting to competitors decisions as appose to developing steps to become the market leaders. Strategic Models that were available for example, the Boston matrix, the product lifecycle and Value chain were never completely integrated into the companys decision-making which resulted in uninformed decisions been made, with consequences that resulted in shareholders loosing an interest in the firm and sales spiralling downwards. Reference Arthur, A., Thompson, Jr., Strickland, A. J. and Gamble, J.E. (2005) Crafting and Executing Strategy, 14th Edition, New York, McGraw-Hill Irwin Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2005) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Text and Cases, 7th Edition, Essex, Prentice Hall Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2006) Marketing Management, 12th Edition, New Jersey, Prentice Hall Stacey, RD. (2000) Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics, 3rd Edition, Essex, Prentice Hall Segal-Horne, S. (2001) The Strategy Reader, Oxford, Blackwell Business Thorpe R. and Homan G. (2000) Strategic Reward Systems, Essex, Prentice Hall Wilson, I. (2003) The Subtle Art of Strategy, London, Praeger Appendix Final Results Decision Summary: Firm C, for Period 6 Technology Capabilities Interior Styling Safety Quality Curr. Expenditure (mill.) $240 $330 $399 $412 Product Development Dev Ctr Project Class Status Size HP Int Sty Saf Qua Curr Exp 1 Cameo Economy upgr: launch Per. 7 22 135 5 5 5 6 $129 2 Cafav Family upgr: launch Per. 7 28 155 4 3 5 4 $124 3 Crash Truck upgr: launch Per. 7 77 230 3 6 5 4 $124 Total (mill.) $376 Consumer Marketing Budget (mill.)   Regional Corp. Adv. $40 Direct Mail $3 Public Relations $8   Ã‚  Total $51 Direct Mail Targets:  Value Seekers(1), Families(2), Singles(3), High Income(4) Product Marketing Vehicle Platform MSRP   Dealer Disc.  Ã‚   Adv.   (mill.) Adv. Theme Promo. (mill.)  Ã‚   Cafav No Change $20,350 15.0% $70 Safety $60 Cameo No Change $13,500 18.0% $70 Styling $55 Crash No Change $21,598 16.0% $65 Interior $50 Total $205 $165 Plant Capacity Current Capacity (000s) 3,050 Capacity Change (000s) 0 Vehicle Production Vehicle Previous Sales  Ã‚   (000s)   Current   Inventory (000s)   Scheduled Production (000s)  Ã‚   Flexible Production Retooling Costs  Ã‚   (mill.)  Ã‚   Cafav 660 0 660 X $0 Cameo 605 0 605 X $0 Crash 442 8 450 X $0 Total 1,707 8 1,715 $0 Dealerships North South East West Total Dealer Inc./Dec. 0 0 0 0 0 Training and Support (mill.) $3 Financing Amount ($ mill.) Bonds Issued $60 Stock Repurchase $50 Dividends Paid $100 Bonds Issued Issued Amount (mill.)   Rate  Ã‚   Status Period 4 $10 8.5% callable in 1 year Period 5 $60 9.0% callable in 2 years StratSim Ind:ind1 Firm:c Period 5 User gre9313

God and Dignity Essay

The researchers would like to dedicate this research paper to those people who have lost their ways and wander in darkness. We hope that even just a little bit, we are able to open your minds and touch your hearts. Always remember that no matter what happens, we will always be there for you and accept you. Acknowledgements The researchers would like to thank and acknowledge these guys and things for helping us in making us finish our research paper. Without these guys, we could have done nothing. Eljays would like to thank the following: Adobe, Google and Acer Laptops. Special thanks to my family and friends for the continuous support you had given to me. Hagi – chan would like to thank the following: Her Values Education book. Who would have even thought that you could be that helpful. My sister’s Val. Ed book and to my over we anime husbands for making me inspired. Title: Dignity: It’s Value Thesis Statement: â€Å"Dignity of a person doesn’t really matter due to temptations like money and lust but still, some people value it.† I. Introduction A. General Background What is dignity? We sometimes encounter this word, some might be familiar. But what is it? Can it be given importance? Can it be forgotten? Well those questions will depend on you, your actions and the way you bring yourself. Dignity means being respected for who you are and what you believe in. That’s something that can be done in both big and little ways. Like saying please or lending a helping hand are ways of showing dignity. Sharing your toys with others or making a donation to a charity are ways of showing dignity too. Just by being kind to others no matter who they are, what they look like and where they come from is a way to show dignity too. (Just by) Well, there are so many ways to show it like a cancer patient fighting against his illness to his death. Now, here’s the word â€Å"death†. Don’t you know dignity can be showed in death? Yes it is, it’s called Death With Dignity. In death with dignity, we all have experiences to share. There are our constituent’s personal stories of courage, pain, joy, fear, sadness and hope. Also, dignity is in women. Ah, yes. The dignity of a woman. Her most important thing that once take away, it will never com back. Just like all things that are lost will never return. It’s just that the â€Å"thing† in woman is just like time, gold and important. This thing is called virginity. Now, I’m very much sure that this word is very familiar to us, especially teenagers. With all the teenage pregnancy, sex trafficking and the porns how come that we wont know that dignity is lost in this field! Were not implying that once you’re not virgin, you don’t have your dignity. This case is totally not the concern for married women, engaged ladies and widows. But what about the girls, teenage girls. They’re young and fresh, so easy to be tempted. That’s why it’s important to know dignity, give its importance and value it for us to lea rn more and watch out. This is what our study’s all about. B. Statement of the problem The researchers would like to seek answers to the following questions: A. What are the possible ways to bring back the lost dignity? B. What are the effects/ impact if the person wreck his/her dignity? C. What’s in dignity that a person or every person should have? D. How can you convince others especially to those who doesn’t value their dignity to give importance to it? E. Which is far more better to die with dignity or to live without dignity? C. Significance of Study As we all know dignity is important as a person with feeling that can feel shame, guilt pain and anger. Our study mainly focuses on two things: death with dignity and living without dignity. Which is more better, which is preferred by others. This study is to wake up those youngsters out there to the things that they are doing which is not right. To right them from their wrongs, to bring light in their minds and to lead them to the right way. As a fellow teenager, we are the ones who can understand them better. Why! We talk the same way, dress the same way and behave the same way. So it’ll be much more better if were the ones to help them too. To let them understand things and no matter what happens, they’re always accepted. II. Body Every human being has the right to be treated with dignity. Dignity is the quality of being worth of respect. This means all of us, regarding of who we are or what we might have done, should be treated with respect. Its because of dignity that we are able to stand up and get to our feet. It’s the reason we feel good about ourselves and that we thought that others should respect us. Dignity comes from the Latin adjective (which means) â€Å"dignees† which means â€Å"worthy†. You see, our dignity makes us worthy for others. That’s why the higher, the more dignity a person has, the more likely he or she is respected and has great esteem to others. The dignity given to the human person allows him or her to manifest his or her worth, specifically, inner worth. God design for the human person is to posses and inherit self-worth and to be worthy of respect because he or she is a creation of God. By elevating his or her intellect to God and by fulfilling the precepts contained in the moral law through the exercise of his or her will, the human person earns greater worth and dignity. But no matter how hard a person tries to keep his or her dignity here are temptations all over us. Those things to keep his or her dignity, there are temptations all over us. Those things leads us to do evil. They tempted us and once we had done it, it’s hard to stop. And sometimes the evil we do can result in scandal. Scandal comes from the Latin word â€Å"scandalum† meaning a stone that causes people to trip over. If the sin you committed caused others to follow your example, then you are also guilty for their sins because you brought it about. God created the human person in his image and likeness. As the divine image the human person possesses intrinsic dignity. When the human person inherited the sin from Adam and Eve, sin also become part of human life. Doing wrong or cooperating in evil diminishes the dignity of the human person. It is like the thing that the bible stated at Genesis 2:16 – 17, â€Å"And the Lord God commanded to man, saying, ‘from any tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die’†. Ever since that we humans are capable of doing evil. Evil destroys dignity and there are bout hundreds of things to do it. No, probably thousands. Even a regular high school student can destroy his or her dignity. Fro example, a student rather an honor student was caught cheating on a major examination. What do you thing are the possible things that have happened to him or her? The teachers won’t believe in him or her anymore, people will start rumors and worst he or she might get detention or be expelled. Another example is that teenage girls being pregnant. Now that is a very big issue. Normally, people will look down on her and all her life will be covered in regret and shame but that depends on the person. It depends if she is a strong one or a weakling. Yes, we are created by God but we have different thoughts and personalities as well. We are unique in her own ways. Now, are these ways to bring back the lost dignity? Of Course not, just like things that are lost it will never turn. But, you can always have and make a new one. Something much more better than the previous one. But its not easy making new ones proving others that they are wrong and not every body is perfect. You feel regret and a little bit down. It’s like you wanna cry your whole life but every time you see your inspiration, that feeling disappears. It’s the reason why others still fights and currently living. They have that motivation to start a new life and set things right and currently living. They have that motivation to start a new life and set things right. Just believe in God above anything else. He writes the story of your life and he’s the one capable of ending it but then along the way he prepared trials and good things for you. As the saying goes at Philippians 4:13 â€Å"I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me.† But then again, not all people have the guts to change things. Some preferred to stay in the darkness and lurk in the shadows. There are lots of effects if a person wreck his/ her dignity. One of these things is being a suicidal freak. They intend to end their life/ lives because they can’t endure no longer the pain, shame, guilt, anger and hatred. But what’s to get in killing yourself? What about those people who was always there for you and that you didnâ⠂¬â„¢t just realize? Won’t you feel sorry for them? Of course, there are lots of negative rumors about you. More people looking down and bullying you but then why don’t you speak up? Ignore those rumors for they’ll drag you down to despair. Let them talk all they want, stand up for yourself and let them see that even though something terrible has happened to you, you can still walk with your head held up high. People are so conscious about dignity especially the old ones. What’s in dignity really that every person should have? Simple, dignity is the source of you respect. If you want to be respected then protect your dignity. If you want to be respected, you have to give it in order to have it. It’s just like giving and receiving something much better in return. That’s how it goes. Remember the past where I stated that some people refuse to fight back and hide themselves in the shadows? Those people whose thoughts are field with negative effects, or things and that they might do more evil acts. They are one of those people who are spreading evil in this world. Examples of those people are drug addicts, sex addicts and so on. But then there are ways to convince those people. To snap out of them and make them realize that they are wrong. Most of theses people are teens, isn’t it a pity if we are not able to help them? We can still convince them from stopping them from doing evil things that can wreck their dignity. The best way, let them hear the world of the Lord our God. Just by hearing those words, they can realize and make things right once and for all. Their ill manners will change into good ones and they’ll be better persons. Lastly, if there is death in dignity, and there is living without dignity; which is more better, to die with dignity or to live without dignity? This question is bugging us for quite a while. Most of us, fear death that’s why we choose to live even under any circumstances. But what is living without dignity? Isn’t that hard? Those things depends in each one of us. It will be our decision in which will we choose. We are given the freedom to dot the things which we thought it’ll be best for us. But do remember, decide for the better outcome and don’t regret it later. There is nothing you can get for blaming yourself. III. Conclusion A. Summary In our body there are several important things that we have stated. The meaning of dignity, the effect of losing it and many more. There are so many temptations in this world like money, seduction and lust. Most that are tempted are the teenagers. Teenagers are young and they have much to learn. They believe in what they see and stand for it. Teenagers are young and they have much to learn. They believe in what they see and stand for it. Teenagers are like white cloth, it can be dyed with either good and evil. Those dyes are stains, hard to remove, hard to erase and even if it can be removed there are still marks left from it. Those marks can be a threat to our dignity by the greater threat is the dye. Whether you do the actual evil things or just cooperate with any of those acts, you still brought about the spread of evil in this world. You have not helped in making this world a better place to live in. Therefore, protect your dignity, value it, give importance to it. For your whole well being lies on it. B. Recommendation We recommend for you those elders to guide the young ones to the right path. To lead them to a brighter future. And for those who have lost their ways help them to get back and find the good tracks. Even if we lost once, it doesn’t mean we lost forever, let us fight back. We mustn’t stop nor step backwards instead we move forwards. People around you are there for you. Let’s help one another, don’t discourage instead give courage. Respect others, it builds foundation towards relationship. And ask God for help for he knows what to do.

Up in Arms About Ielts Essay Samples Task 2?

Up in Arms About Ielts Essay Samples Task 2? This is essential information since you may lose an entire band score should you not write enough words. By way of example, people are able to use exactly the same glass mug for their morning coffee in lieu of a plastic or paper cup they throw away each moment. Again, you might lose an entire band score. For instance, it is valid to argue that lots of young men and women are working to emulate the fashion styles of their idols. Who Else Wants to Learn About Ielts Essay Samples Task 2? If you copy another essay you've written on the exact same topic, you will get rid of a good deal of marks. When they aren't paid for this work, they can't generate science. Studying hard is fantastic, but don't neglect to study smart. Essays, however, may need a little more courage at the start, but as you're already here hunting for information, why not to begin with practice also. It wasn't easy for all of us to get started with writing essays. Writing essays become easier and you are going to be a great deal quicker too. A well-structured essay has a great introduction, body paragraphs that are simple to follow and connect with each other, and a great conclusion. The Good, the Bad and Ielts Essay Samples Task 2 If you do so, you might secure half way through the writing and realise you are unable to finish it. Thus don't get intimidated if you believe you can't write such essays. You ought to use words that aren't typical in an everyday conversation. It's essential that you have some excellent examples so that you are able to compare your writing and see whether you're on the right path. You are going to be marked down if you place all your ideas in just one body paragraph. Examples of superior collocation include prejudices a good trial and tackle the difficulties. The body paragraphs are the chief portion of your essay. Either 2 or 3 body paragraphs is sufficient to produce ideas and show your capacity to organise paragraphs. You merely should fully handle all sections of the undertaking. If you neglect to answer all pieces of the question, you will receive a penalty. Your guilt dart cannot penetrate. The New Angle On Ielts Essay Samples Task 2 Just Released So, by creating a plan be sure to answer all the questions! There are 4 issues to consider. These structures supply you with a sentence-by-sentence structure for all of the main Task 2 question types, producing your job much simpler on exam day. Find somebody who will supply you with accurate and useful feedback on your work. To start with, teaching children at home is more efficient with respect to academic performance. Folks need to be careful to underestimate the worth and power of knowledge. Some people think that teaching children at home is ideal for a child's development even though others believe that it's very important to children to go to school. As a consequence, school students learn a wide selection of social and academic skills which will be crucial for their upcoming improvement. There are several smart scientists who don't have the funds to acquire important info to finish their research. There are an enormous number of internet resources, often with conflicting and inadequate excellent info, so locating a dependable supply of information is crucial. If you like you may look online and find one that you like. Thus, it's the very best choice to purchase from the stores immediately. What to Expect From Ielts Essay Samples Task 2? Ielts writing task two sample band 8 the writing part of your ielts exam is an amazing place to score some additional points particularly if you are seeking to score within band 8. There's also a hyperlink below to my Advanced Writing Task 2 Lessons that may be obtained for people who want to learn in greater depth and achieve a greater score. Knowing the common topics are able to help you get ready for the test better. Practice alone isn't likely to assist you. The examiner is simply interested in the degree of your English. It is very important to be aware that it doesn't make a difference what your opinion is! Now you have given your opinion, you must back this up.

The Handmaid s Tale By Margaret Atwood - 1744 Words

Procreation is a driving force that manifests itself differently within the numerous characters in Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s tale. Social classes are structured on the basis of child rearing, and sexuality is used as a tool to control the lives of citizens living within Gileadean society. People of different classes experience different motivating forces in relation to the goal of procreation rather than simply continuing the civilization. The whole class system is also based entirely off of fertility, although in private the separation of the classes may become less defined. This system is reinforced through many control tactics which affects those of a lower class in a negative manner. This is evident in many areas of the†¦show more content†¦She experiences a push factor to conceive, with consequences as severe as death if she can not. â€Å"He could fake the tests, report me for cancer, for infertility, have me shipped off to the Colonies, wit h the Unwomen† (Atwood, 76). This quote demonstrates the extent to which she would be punished if she could not conceive. The Colonies are a place where people are sent as punishment to clean up radioactive waste which lowers their life expectancies drastically. Serena Joy will be used as a symbol for all women of higher class. She, unlike Offred, experiences a pull factor. Having a baby is an attractive thought to her, but if she is not able to have one through a handmaid there are no consequences. For her, she wishes for the sympathy and attention of others. We see this when another Wife has a baby which she later loses named Angela, when this is said about the Wives’ behaviour: â€Å"On these days the Wives hang around for hours, helping to open the presents, gossiping, getting drunk. Something has to be done to dispel their envy† (Atwood, 170) . This demonstrates the reason for which these women want children. The Wives live in their own bubble, where theyâ⠂¬â„¢re infatuated with each other and keep to themselves. They all want to be the reason for each other’s envy. The commander, like the rest of Gileadean society, is very political in his wishes. Just as his Wife wishes for the status that comes with having a child, so does he. As a supporter of