The Netflix Approach to Compensation. Case Study Analysis from a Essay

The Netflix Approach to Compensation. Case Study Analysis from a managing people for competitive advantage perspective - Essay Example The Netflix employed compensation programs that enable them to retain employees. The founder of the organization, Reed Hastings discovered that compensation program is one of the significant management practices that will enable them to retain their employees. Thus, he introduced compensation programs of paying workers cash salaries. This was a significant idea behind the successful organizational performance. Thus, Hastings introduced varied compensation programs with different main components as indicated below; The Netflix compensation policy allowed employees to make their own decisions on compensation system in every year. This system allowed employees to allocate and divide their basic salary with the total compensation as they wished. For instance, an employee earning 200 000 dollars was allowed to divide the salary; thus taking some cash amount and leaving others as a remaining stock. This compensation policy offered employees opportunities for altering their allocation for every year. Therefore, by the year 2009, about 500 employees have already joined the program and non- exempt employees working in the shipping centers were too paid in cash basis per hourly manner. The company makes option grants in a monthly basis with one-twelfth of the total annual allocation, which are granted and priced in the first day of every month. For instance, an employee who earns 24,000 dollars receives a total cash of 2000 dollars in the first day of every month. The company employs the formula of calculating the monthly allocation. This is through dividing the monthly allocation with the stock price. This is through multiplying by 25 percent to get the total number of shares. The aim of using this formula is to offer employees a generous pricing of 50% discount. This will enable the expected value of employees to increase by a certain amount of value. For instance, an

Mars and Wrigley Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mars and Wrigley - Essay Example Barr, A. (n.d.) â€Å"Buffett gets closer to Mars through Wrigley deal† Available at (Accessed: June 9, 2010). 5 Thelwell, E. (April 28, 2008) â€Å"Mars snaps up Wrigley for $23bn with help from Buffett†. Available at (Accessed: June 9, 2010). 5 Mars and Wrigley had individually been playing in the food sector of United States until the former acquired the latter during the second half of 2008 in lieu of US$23 million. Since then, the merged company had been enjoying a significant part in the food market of USA, with an increased support from the investors. This favor has been reflected in the form of an appreciated P/E ratio of 27.8 for the company, compared to that of the market which is floating at 15. The relevance of this statistic is that investors are ready to pay 27.8 times the amount they expect to earn from Mars-Wrigley shares. In contrast, the average market statistic is 15 times the amount that investors are willing to pay for earning 1 unit. Clearly, the shares of the merged company have been selling at a market premium, which could easily be concluded as a consequence of a positive anticipation from the mass. There might be a few reasons behind such an optimistic approach though. Firstly, after acquisition, the position of the merged company rose to those of peers of high-end players like Cadbury and Nestle. In other words, Mars-Wrigley since 2008, started to be known as competitors for the two giants. Secondly, the merged company has expanded its productive capabilities and range of goods which it produces, since 2008. Previously, Cadbury had been the only player in the US food sector which had

The Netflix Approach to Compensation. Case Study Analysis from a Essay

The Netflix Approach to Compensation. Case Study Analysis from a managing people for competitive advantage perspective - Essay Example The Netflix employed compensation programs that enable them to retain employees. The founder of the organization, Reed Hastings discovered that compensation program is one of the significant management practices that will enable them to retain their employees. Thus, he introduced compensation programs of paying workers cash salaries. This was a significant idea behind the successful organizational performance. Thus, Hastings introduced varied compensation programs with different main components as indicated below; The Netflix compensation policy allowed employees to make their own decisions on compensation system in every year. This system allowed employees to allocate and divide their basic salary with the total compensation as they wished. For instance, an employee earning 200 000 dollars was allowed to divide the salary; thus taking some cash amount and leaving others as a remaining stock. This compensation policy offered employees opportunities for altering their allocation for every year. Therefore, by the year 2009, about 500 employees have already joined the program and non- exempt employees working in the shipping centers were too paid in cash basis per hourly manner. The company makes option grants in a monthly basis with one-twelfth of the total annual allocation, which are granted and priced in the first day of every month. For instance, an employee who earns 24,000 dollars receives a total cash of 2000 dollars in the first day of every month. The company employs the formula of calculating the monthly allocation. This is through dividing the monthly allocation with the stock price. This is through multiplying by 25 percent to get the total number of shares. The aim of using this formula is to offer employees a generous pricing of 50% discount. This will enable the expected value of employees to increase by a certain amount of value. For instance, an

International Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 6

International Management - Essay Example in the standardization and adaptation process include the legal-political climate, social-cultural make-up of the target market technological, economic and demographic factors, etc. (Doyle and Stern P. 35). During a product’s launch into a new international market, multi-national firms can decide to either use their standardized marketing mix or adapt the mix to suit the market. In my study I am going to discuss the different standardization and adaptation strategies employed by different multi corporations like; Pepsi, Mc Donald’s and Toyota motors in the international business market. In several instances, a multi-national firm is forced to adapt its products and services marketing mix strategies to meet the local consumer needs. Also, the company is influenced to apply marketing mix techniques to deal with wants that can’t be altered due to factors such as culture, belief, economic conditions among others. McDonalds is a global producer of fast foods but their burgers, and other foodstuffs are adapted to local needs alongside tastes and preferences. In the Indian market where a cow is a venerated animal, their fast foods contain other meat products in place of beef. In South America McDonalds’ burgers come highly chilled due to the natives love for excessively chilled foods (Learn marketing, Para.2). In the Middle East where Pepsi is the leading soft drinks producer, it’s less sweet as compared to Africa where sweetness is preferred. The locals have a culture of growing sugar cane which tends to affect their consumption tastes and preferences (Learn marketing, para.2). Toyota Motors Corporation is the leading producer of automotive in the world. Its headquarters are situated in Japan decided. The company decided to use its standard production techniques for all its companies in the World with minimal changes to adapt it to the local environment. Over the years, Toyota enjoyed monopoly in terms of cheaper and fuel economic consumption. However, in

River ching sports centre Essay Example for Free

River ching sports centre Essay The main type of storage used in the ICT department is The Hard Disk, which is the main internal backing store. They are a common form of data storage which are usually found inside computers. , which can b used on both, stand-alone and networked computers. Each hard disk which is used in the ICT dept contains a lot of concentric tracks, where these tracks are divided into sectors. The data is then stored into those sectors. Moving directly to data on a disk drive is called random access, which might occur at times. Most disks will be able to store data on both sides. The main benefit of the hard drives for the ICT department is that they have a pretty large capacity, and is now common in a desktop. Another type of storage that the ICT department uses is The floppy disks, which are a common external backing storage. They are very useful for transferring data between computers and for keeping a back up of work files. They help the ICT department, as they are very protective, as they can read/write heads access the disk through holes in the protective sleeves, furthermore they are disk read-only which helps to reduce the chances of data being accidentally overwritten and lost. They are small and portable, where data can be transferred between different computers. For the ICT department, they need a drive, which can read data from a disk. The ICT department uses floppy disks and CD-ROMS as thy have a longer access times than hard disks. Additionally, Compact disks are also used, as they hold large quantities of data in the form of text, sound, still pictures or even video clips. CDS can be now available in three forms; 1) CD-ROMS 2) CD-R 3)-CD-RW The ICT department use the CD-ROMS, as it is a read only memory. In other words, you can only read from the disc, not write or store data onto it. This type is the most common sort of CD available and is the way most software programs are sold. It is a memory storage device but which would not be considered as a backing-store as the user cannot write to the disk. A network is a two or more computer connected together. Computers in a network can communicate with each other. The computer needs a network interface card to connect to a network. The ICT department are a part of the LAN network (local area network), which is a network that you see in most offices and schools. LANs are small, local networks. They usually need the following hardware in order to operate; . A network file server, which is a dedicated computer, that runs the software needed by the network and stores the files that users have created. . Terminals are individual workstations that give access to the network. Using a terminal gives access to the networks software and files. . Print server, this is when a group of terminals share use of a printer then the system needs a print server. For the network to operate, data needs to be sent to and from all parts of the network. This can be done using wire cables or fibre optic cables, or via radio signals. The ICT department also uses the STAR NETWORK, which gives access to a central computer. Star networks are used when a large number of workstations need to be connected to a central computer such as the mainframe. Each workstation is connected directly to the central computer. There are few advantages, such as performance in one part of the network is unaffected by events elsewhere, also cable failure is less of a problem which doesnt affect other users. The department includes; . A Video Digitiser is another input device, which enables video signals from a standard camcorder to be displayed in a window on the computer screen. . A Network Cards are another use of input device where in order to connect to a local area network the computer must have a network card fitted. These cards slot into the main circuit board at the back of the computer enabling data to pass between the computers a network cables. These types of networks and cards are very helpful towards the Riverching sports centre, as they include many functions and allow many jobs to be taken place very easily and efficiently. And lastly it makes working much more faster, and complex r so that the work can be done to a greater standard and of higher quality. The ICT DEPARTMENT, use colour laser printers. . Colour Laser Printers are called page printers, because the data to be printed is sent to the printer in complete pages-one page at a time. They work on the same principle as photocopiers. Lasers are very quite printers and give high quality print, which is also an advantage in the marketing department. The majority of laser printers are sold black and white, however colour laser printers are falling in price and becoming much more popular. This type of Printer helps the RiverChing Sports centre to communicate and function properly as it enables you to print out work of colour for better perceptive, or even just for simple reasons. SOFTWARE; The ICT department has all softwares that all other departments include, such as . Desktop Publishing Software package (DTP) . Word-processing Software Package Graphics Software Package . Browser Software Package . Web Authoring Software Package . Spreadsheets . Database Publishing They all operate utilities, such as print manager, and virus-scanning software. (3) Finance Department This is the department where it uses ICT, for buying equipment, and sorting out wages, and receipts. Hardware; The hardware department only has one computer, which deals with all financial issues. Input; An input device is any hardware, which is used to enter data into the computer system. An input device would include devices such as the Keyboard, which is the most common way of entering data into a computer. Another input device would include the Mouse, scanners, an OCR, OMR, Video Digitiser, Speech or voice input, MIDI, and lastly LDRs. A storage device retains its contents when the computer is switched off and is used to hold programs and data. All computers have some form of hard storage. The Finance department uses the b storage (also known as the secondary storage), which is any data-storage area outside the CPU. Administration This is the department where it uses ICT, for the Receptionist, also dealing with photocopying and even filing. Human Resource This is the department where it uses ICT for personal recruitment and training , health and safety and lastly pensions.

Zappos Organizational Structure Chart Marketing Essay

Zappos Organizational Structure Chart Marketing Essay All the organizations which meets up with there goals and reach greater heights are because they make there costumers satisfied and do not hang back to fulfill the needs of the costumers. Zappos is one of the upcoming e-commerce web site, which is reaching to greater heights of the success very quickly. It is one of the co-operations that deal in shoes and now expanding towards electronics, fashion and many more products. This company start up was in 1999 and less than 10 years it became a billon dollar co-operation. The question which arises here is that how does Zappos manage to hold their clients for a long run. The trust, honesty and clientage, which Zappos develop in a costumer, is the reason for the same. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT History, origins, structure, activities (Anna Levina) The history of founding company Zappos began in 1999 with Nick Swinmurn who was working at that time as a Webmaster for Silicon Graphics. Nick was walking around a mall in San- Francisco. He wanted to buy a special pair of shoes with a special colour, style, brand and size. After long searching he was not able to find a pair of specific shoes and came back to home. At home he tried to find online a nice pair of boot, but again he was unsuccessful. At that time there were online stores with selling shoes, but there was no online retailer who focused primarily on selling shoes. He thought why not to be first online shoes retailer. With $150,000, Swinmurn started his online shop Shoesite.com in June of 1999 in San Francisco. Later on Shoesite.com has been renamed to Zappos.com (the name came from Spanish word zapatos which means shoes). In 2000 Tony Hsieh (24) jointed to Zappos.com. At the beginning to fulfil orders that were placed online Zappos redirected orders to major shoes distributors to deliver shoes to customers. In 2000 company already had 30 employees and gross sales of $1.6 million. As Zappos rapidly grew, order fulfilment became a challenge. Zappos could not always guarantee the timeliness of supplier drop shipments to individual customers. To meet the expectations of its online retail customers, Zappos acquired its own warehouse and fulfilment centre in Kentucky. In 2003 gross sales of Zappos rose to $70 million. In 2004 they moved head office from San- Francisco to Las Vegas (Nevada). In the end of 2005 the annual revenue at Zappos.com reached $370 million. By 2006, Zappos.com revenue was $597 million. Since 2007 Zappos extended its product categories with including eyewear, handbags, clothing, watches and kids goods. Ebags.coms footwear and accessories e-tailer 6pm.com is acquired by Zappos.Gross sales at Zappos hit $840 million. Online shop had over 1200 brands and 200,000 different styles (P. Robbins, 2009). In 2008 Zappos Insights is launched to help leaders, managers, and employees from other businesses to learn success of Zappos. Gross sales at Zappos hit $1 billion. In 2009 Amazon purchases Zappos.com for $1.2 billion (Zappos Tony Hsieh Delivers Happiness Through Service and Innovation, 2011, para 17). In 2009 Zappos.com was ranked # 23 Fortunes Top 100 Companies to Work For, 2010- # 15, 2011- # 6, 2012- went down # 11. (100 Best Companies To Work For, 2011-2012) The company has an informal organisation structure. The company represents 10 departments, which include; Zappos.com, Inc. implies Facilities- including the responsibilities of food and vending for Zappos and also shipping and receiving, office supplies and equipment, maintenance, cleaning in Las-Vegas, Henderson. Finance  Treasury And Accounting Help Desk- includes scheduling, travel, shuttle services and the last one organizing events. Human Resources- members contacts, benefits, recruiting. IT- it can help a company to keep systems up and working efficiently. Legal- legal requirements to safe and prevent risks for Zappos Family of Companies. Pipeline Team- The aim is to support growth and learning which involves all system of training (4 week), where teachers teach new workers about Zappos Family Culture and how to amaze customers. As well as they teach management classes like Microsoft Office. Zappos IP, Inc. which is included; Development (Software) Project Management Team Zappos Development, Inc. Content Team- these team are responsible for writing the product descriptions Creative Services drafting WEB design CS creates the look and feel of the site Marketing. The User Experience Humans- Their aim is to always improve the quality of online website with utilization of interface, organization of figures, interactive design, where clients could find everything what they need. Zappos Merchandising, Inc. is included developing relation with vendors and purchasing the products. Zappos Fulfilment Centres, Inc. contains storeroom, logistics and delivery of the products. Warehouse around 80,000 sq.m Conveyors length -280m Zappos CLT, Inc. calls, live chats and emails. Online shop customer service works 24 hours, seven day per week. Zappos Insights, Inc. Culture Training, Customer Service Training. Zappos Gift Cards, Inc. They only can sell gift cards. Zappos Retail, Inc. online store on Zappos.com 6pm.com, LLC -online seller on 6pm.com Unlike other shoe companies, Zappos.com became the first company in the world by free shipping on the next day and return the product 365 days per year (The Zappos phenomenon, 2012). ZAPPOS Organizational Structure Chart Customer Customer Focused Team Customer Focused Team Customer Focused Team Customer Focused Team Professional services Marketing QA / Support System OPS Sales Finance Admin HR Product Chief Operating Officer VP Operations Chief Financial Officer Chief Executive Officer Culture of the company (Paula Prieto Cisneros) That sounds like a Cinderella story and from afar one could see it that way. But there were no guarantees it would work and Zappos could have crashed and burned a few times. Tony summed up the company perfectly when he said Back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that offered great service. Today, we really think of the Zappos brand as about great service and we just happen to sell shoes. (A Lesson from Zappos , 2011) Zappos as an individual company has their own unique culture, which is based in the Zappos Family Core Values. Zappos has grown a lot as a company and it became more important expressing the essential values from which Zappos development three of their most important things inside of the company: culture, product and industry strategies. Zappos company has ten values but the ones that are related to the employees and the actions that happen inside if the company are: Pursue Growth and Learning, which means that employees need to grow in two areas: personality and professionally. Yet no matter how much better we get, well always have hard work to do, well never be done, and well never get it right. (Zappos.com) Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit. This is one of the most important aspects of their culture inasmuch as they place a lot of emphasis on it. Zappos family believes in while employees work well in their own, they need to be able to work better with people from the company and also with each other outside the office atmosphere. Be humble: as the word humble says, Zappos are always concerned that doesnt matter if they have grown quickly and with success, they will always have challenges to overcome. Furthermore, they have a sentence that says that no matter what kind of challenges they have because they need to be considerate with their co-workers. Another of their values in their inimitable culture is what they call do more with less. This means that their tasks are never complete or fixed and employees need to do as much as they can with big labours. Furthermore, those operations have to be done seriously. And while the company tries to become the best company worldwide, they want their employees to be the best. The last value that affect the internal environment of the company is what they call be passionate and determined, which means that workers need to be positive and optimistic in order to become a better company. This is reflected in the position of Zappos corporation. EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Paula Prieto Cisneros: Historical and social perspective of Zappos Zappos website had made a huge progress in the past few weeks- Nick said. Zappos was getting $2000 worth of orders a week and the number of clients was growing. First of all, Zappos was not making money because when a command was ordered, the owner ran to the resident shoe shop, purchase the product and then transport it to the costumer. After that, the owner (Nick) decided to start a website to demonstrate that costumers would be enthusiastic to buy their shoes on the Internet, therefore Zappos corporation would take commands from clients online, then transfer the order to the creator of the different brands and styles, which would send the product directly to the clients of Zappos. This was what they called drop ship relationship, which existed in many businesses dedicated to other fields. However, they were the first shoe company. Furthermore, drop shipping was one of the most important causes that made costumers buy Zappos products. (Hsieh, 2010) According to the social perspective of Zappos, the owner of the company wanted employees to use the social networking sites and the internet to create a real relation with costumers in order to overcome one their core values, which is called build open and honest relationships with communication. Hence, Zappos employees Hence, Zappos workers have presence in different social sites such as: The first one is Twitter, as we know nowadays Twitter is the second social networking site worldwide, after Facebook. Zappos corporation has its own Twitter account with five hundred worker recorded. Furthermore, the owner of the company is one of the most followed people on Twitter, with 1.85 million of followers. The aim of this, apart of creating relation with costumers, is the employees to use their accounts in order to have a spontaneous communication instead of the classic communication such as promotions or advertisings. (Kelly, 2011) Another social site that Zappos use is YouTube. As a modern company, it has subjects in it, which complements their other nets. In their YouTube account, Zappos can post videos, which show their culture, family and the company itself. Furthermore, they also post clips, employees interests, experiences, etc. Zappos has an account in the first social networking site worldwide called Facebook. They use it, apart of promote their business, to discuss with costumers about the outcomes of their corporation, in an effectively and realistic manner. The last social site that Zappos use are blogs. Nowadays, many companies use them in order to have a closer relation with the clients. Zappos use them to discuss with their costumers about different topics. Some examples of Zappos blogs are: CEO blog, Fashion Culture, etc. Cultural, geographical and financial perspectives (Sajal Garg) What is culture? Cultural in a business considering external environment can be defined as the relationship between the consumer and the service provider. Zappos has a great relation with their customers. They provide a WOW service to them, which is entirely a different way, which can even, be beyond ones imagination. The service department works on innovative and unconventional ideas for the same. The current director of the company also mentioned that WOW service is something, which is not related to the money directly. This kind of service is good for the companys status and customers attraction for the long run. All the customers are treated in the same way and in a better way. There are 24*7 hot line services, which provide one to one live chat service. Zappos build a strong, positive and honest relation with the customers, which normally lacks in many of the service providers working in the same field. This is one of the reasons why Zappos is growing on a faster pace. They want every customer to be emotionally attached to them and provide the kind-hearted, welcoming, loyal treatment. This accomplishes the hardest task of the company, which is to build trust between the consumer and Zappos. The communication between the buyer and the seller should be true and Zappos follow the same policy and is honest with their customers which is effective and open too. Good communication always reaches a mile more than a normal communication. (Zappos Family Core Values, 2010) Geographic or location is one of the key factors of any organization. Zappos has a number of corporate offices, workshops and head quarters all over the world. But the most recent and fascinating on is in Las Vegas, Nevada USA. Which is recently built on a large track of land, approximately consisting of more than 150,000 sq. ft. The developer of Las Vegas, Mr. Liberman supports and explains how has the city grown in past few years. When Zappos wanted to shift the headquarters to Las Vegas the council of the city asked the company to make use of the City Hall Building which is the part of the governing body. After spending the amount of $65 million finishes the renovation, the company will hire 1200 new employees and provide them accommodation to almost 2000 employees. (Dodds, 2011) Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has a sharp brain of marketing. He started sponsoring events like start up businesses, first Friday, etc. The repositioning of Zappos headquarter will generate an atmosphere for more people to set up business and will also give motivation to people to life in the city. Zappos employees are happy working in that company and the prove of the same is when a survey tell that Zappos stand at fourth position amongst top 100 best companies to work for. The improvement in the building is not cheap; the expense for the same is $40 million. And during this recreation of the building there will be more than 100 construction job done. This is not finished yet, the businesses which will gain profit because of Zappos plan of shifting the headquarter are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Food services and drinking places à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Real estate establishments à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Physicians, dentists and other health care providers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Employment services à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Couriers and messengers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Private hospitals à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Private household operations à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Retail Stores Food and beverage à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Ã‚  Retail Stores General merchandise (Riggleman, 2012) The tense attention to the costumer and then type of honest service provided to the costumers have helped Zappos to reach to a level of being a billion dollar company per year in less than a span of 10 years. Being the sole proprietor of making and selling a million pair of shoes, not the company is moving to words making more products like electronic products, fashion products and many more. Hsieh also adds that he would enhance the customer experience as it generates customer repetition. Zappos will also spend a small amount of money in advertising as they did last year, which was $18 million. The reputation build of this company is because of the services like free delivery overseas, promotional upgrades, 365 days exchange policy and most importantly 24*7-customer care service. (Borden, 2012) Conclusion Concluding this whole report about Zappos, we can say that Zappos is a company that came up to the greater heights in the shoe market and enhanced their financial and economical position really well in a short span of time. According to the history of the company, Zappos started up the business in 1999 and from 2000 to 2003 the company touched the greater heights of sky and success, which is an impressive progress for a company as in order to grow, expand and be a billion dollar company in a short period of time. Furthermore, the culture followed by Zappos makes it unique, as they always targeted to have a big family (inside of the company with more employees) while having the best communication with the costumers, according to the 10 core values. The most exclusive and matchless service provided by Zappos to their costumers is the WOW service, in which the costumer is being satisfied beyond his or her imagination. Moreover, the owner and the CEO of the company have incredible power of judging a business outcomes and new areas where he could put his feet in, which is seen through the accomplishment of it. In addition to this, the company has a very optimistic, hospitable and a true relation with the cli ents, which makes the working scenario creative, attractive and open to any ideas of suggestions from employees and clients. Adding to Zappos never advertised before but started it few years before and spent a small amount of money ($18 million) on the same in 2010. According to the activities that Zappos perform, the main part is to manufacture and do the marketing for shoes but from 2007 they started mounting their business into fashion industry making different types of products such as bags, sunglasses, clothing, electronic products, etc. One the most important actions that made costumers buy Zappos products was the drop ship, which was a totally new strategy never done before. Furthermore, serving the costumers by 24*7 through a service hotline and live chats, which builds honest relation between clients and Zappos family. We think that this type of service is lacking in most of the companies who are dealing in this business environment. As Zappos decided to shift the headquart er to Las Vegas, promising the government to give employment and use the RGS building, which will benefit the government through taxes and revenues. In contrast to this, businesses like food services, real estate, health care centres, private house holdings, retail stores and many more businesses, were benefited in a positive manner. As this is not the end of Zappos history until now and we live in a modern world, which has a lot of resources and opportunities, Zappos company will keep growing and expanding their business to different countries, and maybe to other continents.

Not Looking at Pictures - Not Reading Texts :: Reading Art Writing Theory

Not Looking at Pictures - Not Reading Texts Here are two persons in an open, empty space. Bound by walls, they are its contents. Now they exit, walking down corridor after corridor, filling and emptying rooms as they go. Four feet strike the floor in steps: two beat regularly, forming measures, and two more land off the beat, sounding irregularly, introducing syncopation; but when the steps intersect-as they now do-there is diaphony, which displaces our memory of the sounds that preceded it. A difficult rest follows, only to be broken by the falling of an uncertain limb, which thuds and drags, thuds then drags . . . . The music stops; we hear silence and presume stillness. The sound of laughter forces our eyes open. We see that two men stand side by side, facing a common wall. Standing behind them, we ourselves behold their object, a painting, and our eyes enter its frame. Here a knight has plunged a spear, a foreign object, into a small dragon's neck, as a fair woman looks on. The faces of the knight and the woman make no cle ar expression, but the dragon bears its fangs. One among the three has been invaded, and only one has sensed the invasion; only the dragon opens its jaw and, at this frozen moment, one sound alone is signified. Our eyes exit the frame and return to the room, where two men still stand. We walk around them to see their eyes and find both sets in motion, yet they move differently. While two paired eyes seem to move easily across the canvas, the other pair struggle-these eyes dart, they dash; and now the eyes appear to relax on a plane beyond the painting, beyond the wall on which it hangs. "Pictures," writes E.M. Forster, bringing us into "Not Looking at Pictures," "are not easy to look at" (130). Standing in the gallery, we are inclined to believe him, having seen St. George and the Dragon as colorless subjects and objects intermediated by verbs; here no paint has dried. Yet there must be some paint in Forster's essay, and we would sooner see it than watch his walls go bare, for ours would go bare, too. Where Forster imagines that the dragon utters some silly things, we too have brought imagination to bear on the picture; where Forster's vision of the picture had amazed Roger Fry "that anyone could go so completely off the lines" (131), the play of our eyes in space might have troubled the critic no less.